I am getting to be a bad blogger/I do it for my own sake

   It's been a rough week or so...been feeling sick which hasn't been fun and is the reason for non-activity. But the weather this week has been beautiful, so I've fought my way through feeling ucky to walk around London. It's been in the 50s and sunny so I took advantage of that the other day. Sat at a bench on the embankment for quite a long while on Tuesday afternoon and then had this really freaky moment of total disconnection from London. The Eye was there, the Thames, and I didn't feel it. It was quite disorienting. Also, there are daffodils everywhere in this city.
   I saw Submarine last night. It is Richard Ayoade's first movie that he directed, and it has been likened to Wes Anderson. While I liked it overall, I did feel like it was trying a bit hard by doing a LOT--the breaking up into parts, the music, the colors. Overall nice though.
   I have been tearing up/almost crying a lot lately. Niko is leaving in less than two weeks now and it's really hitting me. He, Michelle and I were in Pret the other night and the music they were playing was just right on our situation: "I wanna go to my hometown..." and "I don't wanna say goodbye" So I cried in Pret because I'm not ready. We're going to have a sleepover next weekend though. And today Charli invited me back home with her anytime in April...so sweet.
   Otherwise I have essays. Counting history essay to be handed in next week (and I'm going to pull a Robyn here): 15,000 words. And I have no idea what I'm writing about for Psychoanalysis, barely an idea for Shakespeare, but finally had inklings for Creative Writing today...although I have to listen to an audio reading of a book and read another book still for that class. So the stress is setting in, it's 5 1/2 weeks til T visits, friends are going home, I cry thinking about going home and adjusting to that, I am a mess. I find solace in holing up in my room watching the Big Bang Theory because I have finally come around to it and it fits right now and makes me laugh out loud. I am bony. I made a killer pot of chili last night. I went to bed at 2am and am tired.

Shit is getting real.

   This morning was a really good morning. I was productive as hell and played lots of Patrick Wolf happiness to the sunshine.

   I have realized that I must strike a balance in the way I participate in class. I say one or two small but on-the-right-track things in class then I get all excited that I'm doing well and then I talked TOO much and say something stupid. But I'm appreciating the fact that I'm getting more comfortable with my peers and with MYSELF.

   Annnnnd, we workshopped my piece (anonymously) in class today. It was kind of scary as hell, especially when people kind of hated on the names I chose for my characters AND THEN SOPHIE SAID THAT IT STRUCK HER MORE AS AMERICAN. There are like two Americans in that class and I am the only one who talks!!!! I like could NOT look up cus I would have cried and/or turned beet red. Anyway, realized my story isn't a story because it actually happened and I told it kind of verbatim...boring. But I appreciated Sophie's comments a lot. And I just spent an hour reading most of this history article and I don't really care and I'm getting stressed cus time is running out and I have essays that I don't even know what I'm writing about!!! This weekend I will organize my life.

It's been a day, guys...

   So I've not been feeling well due to hormones today and a bit of yesterday, but I got home today and I was like, "Wow, I need to cry...a little alarmingly/overwhelmingly so." I talked to T for like ten minutes and that was good and I cried a little and felt immediately better. I will regale you with tales of my life

   I got coffee with Nina and Argula on Saturday and Nina made me a burnt CD with freaking decal letters spelling out my name! And she got me three giant tubes of love hearts from fucking Switzerland! So I'm currently on tube 2 and they have phrases in England, French, Swiss-German...I just ate one that said, "Sage ja" lollll. I think that right there made my day a little better. Also, Devin just IMed me with this little comic which you all should look at because it made me laugh out loud quite forcefully: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh9fgn3nXW1qfl9wuo1_500.png

   I wore a skirt today. And mascara. Cus Nina and I were going to a makeup launch party...which didn't happen while I was around. OH, but first...I had the most interesting busride I've had since being here. Going up Waterloo Road there was a man pissing against a fence in the middle of central London with plenty of people walking by. I did a triple take. And then I nearly suffocated because the guy in front of me was wearing enough cologne to kill a small room of people with allergies. He was like a living embodiment of an A&F store because I could hear his pounding club music coming through his earbuds. Anyway, I digress.

   So I met Nina at school and we took a bus to Regent Street and I saw Carnaby Street (famous shopping area) for the first time. We went to this cute little shopping center and to this tea room where she got me a chai latte, which, looking back, almost makes me want to cry cus it was just unexpected and nice. The tea room was so cute--I want to go back! We went to the makeup store and it was deeeead so we awkwardly went around and I saw MD and then we left and wandered and then I got the bus back to school.

   I got home and was productive and talked to Charli and then just had all the little good things happen and I came out of the shower and let my hair down and it was vavavoomy and then I had to answer the flat door in a towel and it was the guy who returned our mop late last night asking if he could borrow our mop again. I've decided it's a tech night so I've put up more pictures in this album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=340954&id=552508884&saved#!/album.php?fbid=10150149531853885&id=552508884&aid=340954

So you should enjoy that and keep being my friend because I love you.

Lots of walking, walking, walking

   Sooo starting with last Saturday--went to Hampstead Heath. Well, first I wandered around the area and was struck with how it reminded me of home a bit because there were like two random shops that made me think of downtown Kalamazoo with their designer knick-knacks. I was really tempted to buy temporary tattoos and/or face crayons...but I held back and just bought a little something for my mumsy. Then I went to the Heath, up to Parliament Hill, which is northwest London and literally looks out over the whole city. It was awesome. I could see the gherkin and other buildings, even the black and white building all the way in Elephant and Castle which is like ten minutes from my flat and you can see it from our kitchen. The lawns were nice and there was one that reminded me of the tennis courts at Western. Walked around a little more before going up and down Hampstead High Street and then walked all the way to Camden from there. What a walk, but it was nice. Ate at the Blues Kitchen and then caught a bus home.

   Michelle came over and we chit-chatted until Niko called under false premises (we did have plans to hang) and we discovered what an incredibly awful liar he is. Long story short, we saved his ass with a phone call about another toilet bowl cracking...and then we hung out until like two in the morning, just talking and stuff. Ate the leftover homemade sausage gravy at like midnight and I burnt the roof of my my mouth so hard. Said something that upset Niko at like quarter to two so I left in a huff and it was a little awks but eventually things straightened themselves out. Sunday was totally blah in comparison, just homework and skyping.

   On Monday I had class and then Michelle and I went to the library. It's been quite sunny here this week, which has been nice, so we were strolling and then she got sausage rolls (YUM) and let me have two bites. Then I went home and did hw until she texted me to do laundry so we did that. Niko texted and wanted to hang, so we arranged that. I tried to get an article for school and was generally super stressed. My laundry was hung around my room on every available surface because even though we split up our stuff in three dryers for 50 min each, everything but jeans were basically damp as hell. Niko was almost an hour late, but that's when we both apologized and everything was good. I ate my dinner then we went to Michelle's and they ate. Basically I had intended to only hang out for like two hours, but of course we ended up being in Michelle's til midnight. And I didn't shower at night again, feeling nast.

   Tues I went to Senate House and was productive, doing some research on Cheapside for my presentation on Friday. (Cheapside is an area in London, a street now, but back in Shakespeare's time it was THE marketplace and being so open, was the stage to coronation processions and other spectacles like pageants and public punishments.) Then I had class and came home to do more hw and was in the kitchen talking to Charli and stuff. Hadn't talked to T in like a week so I caught up with him. My nights have been quite blah.

   Yesterday I went shopping at Big Tesco and then successfully texted with one hand while holding my like 20lb shopping in the other and walking. Took the tube to Westminster and walked around St. James Park. The sun kept coming and going. Every time it's sunny here it's always windy as hell to take away the warmer temperature. Meant to walk up Whitehall, cus we also covered that in Shakespeare, but got lost and ended up in Trafalgar Square for a bit, then ate at Wagamama in Covent Garden before stopping at Waterstone's and oooing over sudoku books and cookbooks. Then did walk down Whitehall...quite anticlimactic after what we learned in class. Came up to Westminster then walked along the Embankment until hit Waterloo Bridge and crossed that then walked along the Thames diversion pathway all the way home. If you don't called that traversing half of London I don't know what is. I was basically dead once I got home and finally sat down. Did my Cheapside research and then watched Waterloo Road with the flat. SO MUCH SHIT HAPPENS ON THAT SHOW IT'S RIDIC. I nearly fell asleep during it. Also, I bought so many dark chocolate digestives I ate like seven and then around 11 when I went to the kitchen to fill my water bottle, Alison had made pancakes cus yesterday was Pancake Day (Fat Tuesday). So I had three crepes. Whenever I eat that late at night I always end up waking up in the wee hours hungry. Weird and not ok. So I was up, tossing and turning from 4:15-6:15, when I got out of bed and ate a small bowl of cereal so I could sleep again. I feel not rested and self-conscious. All my pants are too big for me. Some shirts are too short, some stained before I am messy. I feel hairy and everything is chapped because of the dryness? My hands are digusting, so I had to buy hand balm/extreme lotion to soothe them. My nails keeps cracking. We'll see.

Time for the uber post

   So guys, been MIA for a bit, sorry about that. Let's get caught up. Last weekend was my first free weekend!!! I spent it watching Misfits and then got a computer virus...so I had some cocktails with Winnie, which was nice. Learned from her as usual. Freaked out about computer. Soooo on Sunday I did hw and then ran the computer to James in Piccadilly Circus because he fixed it for free. Later that night was dinner with Niko and Michelle. We made gyros and Niko brought over some half-baked ice cream and we ate all of it after DERICIOUS (yes, that just happened) lamb and feta ness. We played uno and ended up talking about our bathroom habits in my room until midnight.

   Waking up on Monday was killer. I don't even remember quite what I did but I know that I didn't feel well after so little sleep and two cups of coffee. I made it to the public library around the corner, where I've managed to rack up almost ten pounds in fines. But, knowing me and my intense love of public libraries, I left with a stack of books, including Sh*t My Dad Says, which I read that evening.

   Tuesday just kind of illustrated my growing dependence (although we've deemed it still healthy) on Michelle, and I guess Nik Nik. I spent almost three hours in the computer lab finishing up litpsych reading and then Michelle was feeling badly so I offered to make her grilled cheese for lunch. We hung out for an hour and a half, me not feeling well from another lack of sleep night. It was stressing ME out hearing about money issues with Katie coming, and all the shit that needed to be done, etc. and then in the middle of all of it Michelle was like, "I wanna go home." I nearly started a panic and crying, but I was like, "Ahhh you can't do this to me!" and then it was ok. I had a brief coffee with Greg before lit psych lecture, which was fine and then I hopped on the HYDROGEN BUS (RV1--it kept shutting down though lol) to get to the Tower area. I WAS going to a publication launch to see what it was like and to get free shit, but Niko was like 15 minutes late. Example of dependence: Michelle had texted me fml and stuff so I called and half a ten min conversation with her like we hadn't seen each other in days while I waited for Niko. When he finally emerged, trying to scare the shit out of me by talking to me on the phone and edging up next to me, we decided to scrap going to the party in favor of just going back to gdsa, making dinner, and hanging out.

   He bought more ice cream for us, one pint specifically for Michelle's cramps, and she made homemade mac and cheese. We all about died from the itis. That night was pretty crazy. I was hyped and stuff and Arif and Arun were in the kitchen hanging out. Arif had just received the news that he had to move out and I could tell he was a bit shell shocked. There was a vibrating phone incident that kind of made me pee my pants a little bit, as well as Niko throwing rice at me, it landing in the crease of my neck and lots of spasms. After the itis went down, we went to Michelle's room to watch some stand-up before Michelle had to go pick up Katie.

   Wednesday was amazing. I did a lot of shopping and then Cathy came over and I made her American comfort food. I got to hear her speak Spanish for the first time which was soooo awesome. We chatted for most of the afternoon before making my second trip to Sainsbury's in the day to buy James gingerbread cookies as payment for my computer. We met him outside Borough station and for realz, I really like those two. They're so cute and such good people and I'm really happy to know them. I was also ecstatic about having my compy back. So I went on it for half an hour before heading up to Oxford St area to meet Katie and Michelle at a Salvation Army. I bought a dress and a shirt for 6 pounds. We made a stop at Primark and I bought three shirts for 6 pounds. We spent forever in the shoe section and then we were dying so we stopped at Starbucks so Michelle could be and sweated our way home.

   I caught up with some people on skype and Charli came in my room and chatted to me. Then our whole flat congregated because of Arif moving out. Basically, he had applied for early termination because gdsa is too expensive so once they found someone to take his contract he had to move out. They gave him two days notice. Everyone made their prospective dinners while we watched East Enders and Shubha had done some emergency baking. Arif bought beer. We all had the cake together and broke open some beers before deciding what the night had in store. Majority felt like just a movie in the flat with drinking game, so we all clamored into our shoes for a crazy alcohol run. We went to the little shop across the street where we got a big ass bottle of cherry Lambrini and some vodka. Then we went to Costcutter where Shubha bought peach schnabbs and a cheap copy of 300. We had a toast to Arif in the flat and made it through maybe 20 min of 300 before we were too crazed about sex and other things. There were flat confessions and we played a drinking game to Roxanna before the movie and during the move we drank to lady nipples, any mention of Sparta/Spartans, and general punching. Then we ran to Shubha's room and Jaimini was embarrassed so we all ran to her room and were hanging out in there. People were yelling that we had to hang out in each person's room so we went to Arun's and then back to Jaimini's when someone had the idea to curl Arun's hair and put makeup on him. I finally had to leave around midnight to talk to Theo and my body was considering being sick of me but it wasn't, thank god. 45 min later I got a knock on the door, the makeup was done and it was amazing, so they all came in and said hey to T over skype, which was funny. I didn't go to bed until 2 and it was rough.

   I woke up around 10:30 and was busy all morning trying to get shit done before class. Went there, actually talked to one of the smart kids from Irish last semester that made me feel stupid but he's really nice. At the break I talked to Robyn as usual, who had cupcakes (going to get so fat). Creative Writing was good, though I was so tired by that point that I was having trouble paying attention. I got home and ate dinner with some flatmates before uploading all the pics of the past two months (not a lot, I can tell you). Then Niko came with ICE CREAM AGAIN although he was mean about it. We met Argula at a pub and I don't like Guinness. We taught Niko how to play euchre and they left at nearly 1 and I am so tired. We had a moot debate in Shakespeare which scared the shit out of me. This one girl in my group was annoying cus she did one of my pet peeves--where people like explain something, but after they've said like five words I get what they're saying but they continue saying it in like three or four sentences. I really wanted to stop her and say, "I get it, you can stop talking." But I'm nice. Anyway, I went to superdrug and came home and saw some fam and now I'm just chilling. Going to catch up on Graham like whoa. Going to Hampstead Heath tomorrow I think and then maybe movie night with the reggies. I love Nik Nik and MiShayShay. They my peeps.

Here are stupid pictures from January-present: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=340954&id=552508884

Here are the pics of the flat's night of drunken debauchery (not really): http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?fbid=10150149540583885&id=552508884&aid=340956