Just My Luck

Hello all!

So I've had an eventful week, if you didn't see it all on Facebook. That roof leak that came back? Well since it's going through my lighting and the all powerful bucket trick didn't work, I had to move out of Havenstoke and into a temporary room. No word yet on how long it will take to fix the damn leak either so who knows how long I will be here for. Worst case scenario is that I will be here until Christmas. Not. Pleased. At least the people here in Springfield 5 are a lovely bunch. I do miss having immediate access to an oven though. If I want to use an oven I have to go up to Havenstoke because the Springfield blocks are catered residence and don't have a "full" kitchen. I'm self catered so it really eats into what I'm able to make for dinner. I'm eating a lot of stir fry. Not that that's a bad thing really.

Alright, enough of my tales of woe. On Saturday I FINALLY made my way up to London! I met up with a friend of mine, Jane, who I had worked with back at Chapters. She moved back to England in May so I haven't seen her in ages.

The lovely Jane!

So Jane was awesome and showed me around the touristy bits of London. We did Buckingham Palace (which is somehow even bigger in person), the British Museum (SO MUCH COOL STUFF) and then made our way over to Parliament and Big Ben. The following are pictures of that lovely sequence of events.

They make you pay to use the bathrooms at the train

station!

Near Buckingham was this gorgeous park with PELICANS!

Traditional tourist picture with a phone booth.

Only picture I took inside the British Museum:

David Tennant on money in honour of Doctor Who.

Another traditional tourist shot! Yay Big Ben!

Two in one! The Thames AND the London Eye. 

I also made my way into the Apple store on Regent street (the BIG Apple store) so I could finally get myself a working laptop. I'm happy to inform everyone that my Macbook Air works wonderfully and I've already made good headway on assignments now that I have a working and reliable computer to do so! 

That's all for this week guys! Have a very Happy Halloween!

Someone Out There Hates Havenstoke

Hello!

In case you missed my saga of misfortune, here is a recap. Last Wednesday the internet decided it wasn't going to work for more than ten minutes. Annoying, as I need the internet to do things like a.) update this blog and b.) do my class readings. I tried all morning to get stuff done but 11:30am rolled around and I had to head out into the torrential rain to get my rear to class. I got soaked on the walk and had to sit through two hours of lecture in soggy jeans. Ick. After class I made my way back home only to find out the roof is leaking into my bedroom through my overhead light. That's a lovely safety hazard to come home to. I called Accommodation and was told they'd send someone "as soon as they could". Maintenance turned up about 15 minutes later, removed my light fixture and basically told me there's nothing they can do until the leak dries out. So I put a bucket down on my floor to catch the drips and hunkered in for a rather dark night. The internet came back for a few minutes and I was able to bang out a fast (and very short) post but that was about it. The following is the thanksgiving picture that I wasn't able to upload!

Starting Left: Ellie, Zoe, Evie, Nikki,

Hayley, Harriet. 

Back to my tale of Wednesday. I posted my blog entry just as the internet kicked out, and started to read my book. Five minutes later I hear a rattling on the bathroom door. Our bathroom door lock is notorious for sticking so I ignored it until the tenth, rather frantic rattle. A second after that I heard poor Harriet bang on the door. Yup. Harriet was locked in the bathroom. So I had to call Accommodation for the second time. I will admit, I laughed pretty hard over the whole thing. (Sorry Harriet!) Maintenance came about 10 minutes after my giggly call for help and Harriet was set free. We were told not to lock the bathroom door and they'd get us a replacement lock the next day, presumably when they came to fix my leaky light/ceiling. 

Think we were in the clear after all of that nonsense? Oh no. At about 8pm, Evie flicks on her bedroom light and shorts out all the lights on the ground floor. Poor Harriet was trying to cook dinner at this point and had to finish making her ratatouille in the dark because Accommodation is closed. I think Karma felt bad for us because thirty minutes after the lights go out, Harriet spotted one of the main Accommodation desk people having a smoke near the path to the Uni. She ran over to ask for some assistance before we were hooped for the night. His response to our third report of the evening? "What are you doing to that house!?" 

The rest of the week passed much more uneventfully than that day. Monday night Ellie, Harriet and I all headed to the Sloe Fair which was happening in a parking lot right near us. It was quite expensive (three pound a ride) but we still had a great time. We capped off the night with fresh spun cotton candy (or candy floss) and headed home. I found it hilarious that the candy floss started melting a bit because of the moisture in the air. It was a sticky walk back to the house. 

This ride spun us so fast my neck still hurts a bit. 

Harriet and Ellie!

Harriet and I.

Ellie and I.

Stacy, whom I have a ball with in English. We bumped

into each other at the fair. She was quite proud of

winning that dog!

Fresh cotton candy anyone?

This Saturday I am FINALLY making my way up to London! I'll be meeting up with my friend Jane who is going to show me around. I will also finally be getting my replacement computer. I will miss this one but the darn thing isn't reliable anymore. 

Cheers guys!

Thanksgiving In Two Parts

Hi!

So the Internet has been cutting in and out for the past two days so this is going to be a short entry!

This name of the game this past week had been THANKSGIVING! Yes, I had thanksgiving over here. In fact I had two. The international girls decided to throw one on Sunday and then I had one with my roommates on Monday. The Sunday meal I just paid into and showed up for because the girls in the housing where we got together had it all covered. The food was good and it was nice to catch how with be people I don't see every day. Monday was my favorite though. Hayley, Harriet and I did the majority of the cooking and it all turned out really well! We invited a few friends from the other Havenstoke houses to join us so it was a big group. I wish I could post photos but I'm posting from my iPod and it's not going to happen.

I'll conclude this very short entry with what I'm thankful for this past year.

I'm thankful for my parents who support me.
I'm thankful for my friends back home who send me nice messages and support.
I'm thankful for the emails my grandma sends me every week, because I miss her all he time.
I'm thankful for my roommates, who are a nice group of girls.
I'm thankful for my chance to be here in England and to see what I'm seeing here.

Cheers guys!

One Month Down!

Hello!

So I have survived my first month of study abroad! Excuse me while I throw myself a little party!

Okay, I'm good now. Honestly while the first month sucked I'm really enjoying myself! It doesn't seem like it, I'm sure but now that I know the general layout of where to go things have been a lot smoother. I've also been changing my running route to go through the residential areas near my housing so I'll get to know those areas too. The houses around here are gorgeous and rich. You can actually tell that this city has money based off the houses. I suppose you can do that in Canada too, but this is more of a "this is an estate passed down through generations from the first great Earl of Sussex" kind of money. Old money. 

As far as everyday life goes, it's been quite boring. I'm playing catch up with reading for all of my classes, especially the literature ones because students were given reading lists to complete over the summer and I didn't have those lists. I was placed into classes the day after I got here, and classes commenced two days later so I didn't have time to read the novels associated with each class. As a result, my time is spent in class, sleeping or reading. Add in the occasional shopping trip for necessities like food and sunlight and you have life in a nutshell. Not too different than it was back home! 

The only thing that has really bothered me in the past week was missing my Dad's birthday on October 4th. I was able to catch him on Facetime for an hour before he left for work (yay eight hour time differences) but it's still not quite the same as being there. I know I shouldn't complain, Facetime is the next best thing to being there and it's not like 50 years ago when all correspondence would have been letters. I am quite lucky that video chat is so easy and available to everyone. But I did miss his birthday and I feel bad about it. Sorry Dad!

Well I better wrap this up. Sorry if this entry has been a bit odd, I've just spent the last two hours discussing surrealism in literature and a normal world view hasn't quite set in yet. I think I need a cup of tea. That'll restore some normality.

Cheers guys!

The Road So Far

Hello again!

So this past week has been rather quiet as far as news goes. The roommates survived their first week and much of their second so kudos to them! As a sort of celebration/I need to bake something moment, I made a chocolate cake of special magnificence on Sunday night that was devoured rather quickly and enjoyed quite a lot. I'm quite proud of that cake. Of course since I needed to buy baking ingredients my grocery shop was painfully expensive. At least I have baking basics now! I think I'm going to make muffins next.

From left: Hayley, Evie, 

Myself (and the cake), Harriet

As far as class goes, my first year history module should be interesting. It'll basically be a class about films showing the cultural identity of France and America. An excuse to watch movies? Yes please! The creative writing class will be annoying at best. It's poetry and I really don't like writing (or analyzing) poetry. One of the major poems we have to work on all semester is called "The Year I Was Born". I'm sorry but 1993 was a bit of a boring year for the world. If anyone has any interesting info about 1993, please let me know either by email or in the comment section below.

All in all, I made it through the hardest part I think. September was tough but it's done and October is underway. I'm starting to know where to go and what to do to get stuff done, and my routine is pretty much down. I'm also in a solid running schedule and I actually look forward to my runs around Graylingwell Park. It's hard to get out of bed for it but once I'm out it's a good time to shut off my brain and just move. I need to find a good stretch for my hip though, it's been a bit sore for the past few days. 

Friday is my Dad's birthday and it's the first one I'm going to miss celebrating! Quite sad about that. I do plan on Facetiming in the morning so I can say a quick Happy Birthday before he heads to work but still, I wish I could be there to make a cake (or trifle, or pie) and celebrate properly. It'll have to wait until Christmas. 

As a last note, I am sending out another round of post cards soon but I have yet to track down the right cards for the right people. Maybe this weekend I can do a good hunt in town and find something good!

Much love to all of you!