Soooo...

I didn't die on the plane... I have just been rather busy since I got home. I was a bit jetlagged for the first few days and then I was all manner of busy with work and stuff. My cousin and her fiance came over last weekend... more busy! lots of fun tho. Also last weekend was Knowlton Riverfest (a REALLY great music festival in our town every summer) and we had a booth this year selling beaver stuff. Nifty. Bought lots of crap; ate lots of crap; heard some really awesome bands; got a hug from the lead singer of Brother (bought a cd and got it signed too!) and nearly won a diggeridoo (damn! only 12 numbers off!). This week I have been stressing about my spastic cell phone, and going back to college, and my suddenly stalling car that needs an inspection, and the upcoming insane weekend, and my mum's un-serious surgery just before it so that she cant work... feh! (I think she scheduled it so she would have the weekend off!). Yeah... so I have been rather busy. Also I am slowly adjusting back to crappy dialup. It is sad and upsetting to have to call the internet every time you want to check your email... that is also non functional... at least the school email is. Feh on them too.

I will try to post more often. I came back home to find that my parents have been printing this and posting it in the office for all of our campers to see.... GAHHH! Feh on them too. I can't even go to the supermarket without hearing about it.. Riverfest was great except for the local people coming up and saying how much they heard about me from my parents... maybe this blog thing was not such a great idea... It isn't that bad... I guess I didnt realize how many locals know who I am.

Feh... I think that word pretty much sums up this past week and a half. I wish I had stayed in Oxford.

Last night in england... I have been sporadic with my posts lately, mostly because I have been so busy packing. Les Miserables was wonderful even though our seats were on beyond the nosebleed seats. I bought the soundtrack and the programme and I now know nearly the entire score and definitely enough that the music gets stuck in my head. Today I watched Pirates again, just as spiffy this time except I stayed to watch the bit after the credits... I am not going to say anything about that because I dont want to spoil it for everyone... just watch the credits. I will say one word about it: "MONKEY!" In a few hours I will be on the bus to Heathrow, I am utterly packed save for my pjs and my laptop which should take me all of five minutes to pack up. I am sad that I can't squeeze in the clock radio that I bought here. I would like to have it just in case I ever make it back to the UK. I really wish that I didn't have to leave and I definitely want to come back as soon as i can afford it. I love it here. Well mostly. I could do with out the lamb and some of the other strange things these people eat. But it is such a fun and interesting place to be. I wish I could bring my family back with me, especially Josh. I think it would be a blast to go to Wales with Josh; so many castles and cool stuff there. I think my whole family would love to come here. Unfortunately it is unlikely that they will come until they build the bridge over the Atlantic which I don't think is going to happen anytime soon. I can't wait for our promised family vaccation this winter! I am so excited... I miss our vaccations so much... especially after our Wales trip! It was so much like our trip to Gettysburg nearly ten years ago: as much information as can be packed into a few days with lots of drive by touring inbetween.

Anyway... I am soon to be leaving this wonderful place called the United Kingdom. There are lots of things that I have seen but there is so much more that I haven't and would like to. I want to come back and have time to tour Europe and Ireland too! You can't always get what you want but I hope that this wish isn't too far out of my reach. I am starting to make less and less sense and I think that means that I should go to sleep. I will be home in aproximately 17 hours or so and I still feel like I should be here for a few more weeks. These past six weeks have gone by so quickly! and I should go to sleep.

I dont want to go home! I am all packed (save for some books I have to ship home) and I want to stay longer. I just saw Pirates of the Caribbean(sp) and It Was Fabulous... many very very pretty people telling bad bad jokes. also spiffy swordfights with skeletons :P I wish I could stay here and tour a bit more but it would be nice to go back to a place that has airconditioning. and ice. Ice would be nice. English ice doesnt make things cold... it makes the warm soda somewhat cooler but not cold. I am eternally grateful for the American style coffee shops that have frozen fruit and coffee drinks. they are wonderful... and unfortunately starting a special this week and not six weeks ago... blast! Sleep now... pub tour in the am followed by a church tour (maybe it is the other way round) and then dinner at the hard rock cafe and off to Les Mis. Party in london tomorrow night! and all for 17 pounds and 50 pence! hooray for www.lastminute.com!

Scotland

Scotland was Awesome!

Got back from Glasgow last night. I had such a great time, but the beginning of the trip was rather stressful. The train ride was six hours so I got there at like one. The guy that sat next to me on the first train was really amusing. He was in his late 50s business executive or something and he was reading a sci fi book that I had with me on the train! We both were reading Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin! Totally random and really amusing to see a guy in a business suit reading a somewhat dog-eared copy of a sci-fi novel published in 1971. When I switched trains, I sat next to a guy who was asleep and then got off two stops along the way, so I sat alone for most of the trip. Yay! Later, this guy who was sitting across from me somehow discovered I was American and tried to have a political discussion with me. I avoided making a fool of myself but only just.

When I got off the train, I realized what an idiot I was for coming here with no idea what I was going to do or where I was going to stay. I found the first hostel on my list which was right next to the train station according to the little map I bought in the station. They had no rooms but they gave me the numbers of the other hostels in the area which reminded me that I had copied them all down earlier. The third place I called was the Blue Sky Hostel and it was awesome, tho I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get there and went up some really steep and completely unnecessary hills in the process. The people there were so nice and we had lots of fun.

I toured all saturday and saw all sorts of awesome Charles Rennie Macintosh stuff which I absolutely adore. If I ever have enough money to have my own place and decorate it, I want it decorated in that style. It is just amazing. I had tea and lunch in the Willow Tea Room which was just beautiful. I spent a lot of money on post cards. I went back to Blue Sky Hostel after a very busy day and joined two of the other guests on a walk to find the botanical gardens. We walked right off of my map, found some very pretty gardens, got a bit wet in the rain, got a bit lost, got some guy's mobile number and an invitation to a flat warming party (we didn't go), got back eventually and discovered that those gardens were not the ones we set out to see. We then went out to a couple of clubs and had a bunch of fun.

Sunday I did some shopping (bought a skein of yarn and a crochet needle) and had tea at the Willow Tea Room again. I very reluctantly got on the train at four and began my journey home... I made half of a scarf on the way though. I wish I could have spent three more days there! There were still lots of things I hadn't seen (or bought).

Today I am doing laundry so that I dont have to pack dirty clothes and so that I will have clothes to wear since they are pretty much all dirty. Fun Fun Fun!

going to scotland... not the tour tho.
I think I am just going to go to glasgow but I may take a day trip to edinbourgh. I have no idea where I am going to stay but I am going. Have a list of hostels and addresses and am willing to pay more money than I should for any kind of room. This is going to be a bit of an adventure. Will try to stop at internet cafes to post some more.

Long time no Blog

It has been a bit of time since I posted and I have been rather busy. Mostly working on papers and such. I still am working on papers and such but I will finish that today. I didnt go to the concert because I was working on my paper... I should have. I also did the normal monday night formal dinner... this time I was seated at Head Table tho. That was fun. Tuesday was Jess's birthday and we took her out for a night on the town. I am sorry but I must not discuss the amusing events that followed, they are best left unpublished. We had a lot of fun and we were all awake before ten am the next day. Wednesday we went to Stratford upon Avon again and spent the whole day there. Prior to that I went to the market and did some serious impulse buying. I dont regret my purchases, and indeed wore the skirt to stratford. The play was Richard III and it was pretty good. The theatre was so incredibly hot that I kind of was distracted through some of it. Today i am finishing everything up and calling about possible weekend plans. I will try to post more often but it has just been a crazy week. Only one more week left to go. The past six weeks have flown!

at least it isnt as hot today!

I just came back from the Opium Den where we had some fairly good but somewhat expensive Chinese food. No dinner at St. Peters tonight because the Damned High School Kids are leaving today! Yay! The business people left yesterday so now it is just us and the Intellectual Property people who are really cool anyway. No more waiting hours for the washing machine. No more loud kids on OUR steps at two am. Whoo Hoo! They were all in "formal" dress tonight and I wanted to alternately ask them where they bought their clothes and stab out my eyes. Such a medley of taste and trash! Most of it was WAAAYYY too revealing for high school sophmores and Juniors to be wearing too. They make me feel really old!

I suppose I should work on my paper some more. It just doesn't seem to want to be written.

I have posted some of the Wales trip pictures... basically day 1 and day 2. I will post the other ones soon; I have to write some paper things this weekend so I shouldn't be mucking about on the computer. Feh!

I havent done much since wednesday night... Thursday we went on a trip to the Cotswalds and saw some medieval architecture... and some more sheep. Today I went to the library and (finally) bought an umbrella. I almost bought a pair of shoes and a dress but I didn't. I may go back for them. That is the extent of my week. My weekend will be spent writing papers and on Sunday night I will go and listen to Jack Gibbons play Chopin in Paris. I am going to buy his Cd and get him to sign it and bring my camera this time so that I can blog his pic. That is about it.