Day #49

So much midterm to be done! I spent about 5 hours in the library today, but it is coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Here's what happened:

My midterm is supposed to be 2,500 words long. Those 2,500 words include my creative piece and a critical introduction of at least 750 words. I typed up the parts of the story I've written so far... 2,257 words. Wowza. Many more than I thought. But the good news is I got it down to 1,957 (anyone keeping track of the math here?), so if I add nothing to the creative piece and keep my critical introduction at almost exactly 750 words, my final midterm will be about 2,750 words. Oof. I know all these numbers are riveting, so don't worry, I'll keep you posted! In the meantime, Beyoncé is helping me get through all this work.

I was able to skype with a few of my friends from UMass today, and it was so nice to see their familiar faces! 

The other important part of my day was finishing off the cheese I bought from the Fone Cheese Company in Bath. Oh cheese, you will be missed. 

Day #48

I branched out today and tried a new study coffee shop. This one was called Costa, and alfhough still a British chain like Caffé Nero, the chains here are exceedingly adorable. Just look at this apple spiced drink!

Yes, viewers, that's a spice shaped like a flower in my drink. It warmed my soul.

I know my blog has been lacking in food info for the last one or two days, but it was probably just in preparation for today. My friends and I decided to try a local Mexican restaurant called Café des Amis. A French name for Mexican food in England? We were confused too. But it was nom-tastic. Like fantastic, but specifically for food. Also it played wonderful throwback American oldies, very Stevie Wonder style. 6 out of 5 stars. Just look at this plate...

I did not know love till I looked upon this plate. I think Shakespeare said that once. If he didn't, he definitely meant to.

Since lots of other languages have masculine or feminine nouns, my friend played a fun game called "I'll say an English word and you guess if it's male or female in French." I wasn't very good. But I did learn that computer is masculine, but door is feminine. You're welcome, people reading this, you just learned something today! (Unless you already know French, in which case you should disregard my previous comment.)

Look, proof that I have friends! Even if two of them look like ghosts in the back because they timed their jumps poorly!

Day #47

Today, As Told By Gifs from "The Office" 

(because we watched an episode today and I'm going to be honest, these posts have gotten a little bland as of late)

I was feeling pretty good this morning- sent a lot of e-mails, looked up some important information, productivity and whatnot.

But then it was laundry time. Why is laundry never simple?

I lugged basically all of the clothing I own down to the laundromat in the rain (I waited until the hail subsided), only to find it roped off with caution tape. There were a few policemen and fire fighters standing around, so I asked what was going on. Apparently, the laundromat had caught on fire. The policeman used the word "explosion".

Thankfully no one was hurt, but they gave me directions to another laundromat, which was far away. Where I had to lug my clothes. In the rain. 

After I loaded in my clothes and detergent, I found out that it only accepts 2 kinds of coins because the machines are partially broken. Guess which coins I didn't have?

I walked back to my house to get the right change (don't forget the rain), and eventually the washing machine worked. My clothes are now clean and hanging all over my room, as per usual.

Then it was time to work on that psycho-thriller/horror piece of creative writing I'm doing for my midterm. Although it's coming along, all the research I'm doing to make it realistic is very depressing, so the progress I made was a double edged sword. I'm writing (what I hope is) a pretty good story, but sometimes at the expense of my happiness. And sanity.

BUT IT'S ALL OKAY because I got an email back saying that the final step of my application process to Heidelberg is going to be A LOT easier than I thought! 

We ended the day by watching, you guessed it, an episode of The Office. After that, your day can't really be anything but a success, can it?

Goodnight, beautiful people of the world.

Day #46

Homeworkhomeworkhomeworkhomeworkhomeworkheworkhomeworkhomeworkhomeworkhomework

But in the category of interesting, I made sweet potato casserole as part of our joint Canadian-American thanksgiving celebration tonight! It was a big hit, even though I forgot to take the skin off the sweet potatoes before I mashed them, then had to dig around for the skin to get it all out... Oops. One day I will complete a recipe to the exact specifications without altering or messing anything up. But today is not that day. (Thankfully, though, all my accidents are almost always still edible and yummy *knocks furiously on wood so as not to jinx it* and that's really what matters, right?)

We also had mashed potatoes that were frozen in tubes. Oh Tescos, you don't have instant mashed potatoes, but you do have them in tubes. How silly.

I may never be hungry again (until tomorrow, of course, when I get to eat some leftovers), but I will definitely sleep soundly tonight. Very tired. Much sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

(I promise things will get more interesting when I'm done with midterms)

Day #45

Well, folks, the days of homework and midterms are upon us. Although I'm only taking two classes, I'm trying to tackle both of my midterms simultaneously (while also filling out the rest of my Heidelberg application; I've been accepted through UMass which means I'm guaranteed a spot, but still need to apply directly to Heidelberg University itself) because once it hits next week, I'm pretty much booked solid until December, give or take one or two days in a row. Maximum. I'm very excited to have all these trips planned, though that does mean much more time with my disturbing story for English. Yay.......?

Aside from all that school stuff, my Canadian friends plus my American friend and I are celebrating our first of three (that's right, THREE) Thanksgivings tomorrow! Since Canadian Thanksgiving is so early, we're celebrating with them between the two. Kent is also hosting a Thanksgiving for American students on the 26th, and my other American friends and I (along with some other students who are just really excited about food; I can't say I blame them) are going to celebrate together on the actual Thanksgiving Day. I'll have a lot to be thankful for, what with all the food. And also studying abroad and friends and family and all that other stuff I guess too.

Speaking of food (which I always am), I discovered the Food Network's Facebook page today. Yum me out the door.

Because I haven't really said anything interesting yet (and because these posts look a lot more inviting with a picture), I dug up the oldest picture I have saved that is easily accessible: the ID photo on my Kent OneCard. The story is thus: Apparently I don't like to take pictures a) alone, or b) with a normal face, and I had to find a picture with a white background for my Kent ID. So, this is a picture of me being very excited about a Zamboni. If there's one thing I love just as much as free food, it's a Zamboni. This is not a joke. They are majestic. Also I had to crop it to weird dimensions and my face had to be stretched a lot. But nonetheless, I hope your day was improved by seeing my excitement about Zambonis. Which is now the face anyone who ever looks me up at Kent will see.

Day #44

Today was a homework day. My friend and I walked down to town, and sat in a coffee shop for roughly 4 hours, and were actually very productive. I learned a lot about budget cuts for high school arts programs in England over the last 5 years (for my theater class) and made the plot outline and back-story for what turned out to be an extremely creepy and slightly disturbing piece of creative writing for my English midterm. We're talking seriously scary. Like psychological thriller slash horror genre. Where did this come from? I promise I have literally the most white-bread life in the entire world. I've decided I will not work on writing this at night, or probably any time after dark for that matter. I end up scaring myself too much. But on the plus side, it has lots of wonderfully insightful symbolism and (hopefully) answers the very vague prompt!

We returned and were tired and wet from the rain, but content with how much work we got done. And also tired. Did I mention tired?

We remedied that by attempting to watch tv and eventually settling on Avatar and I about died because we were on my favorite episode, THE CAVE OF TWO LOVERS! Also Zuko finally cut his hair.

Seriously, thank goodness. It was time. It was way past time. So symbolism. 

Day #43

MY DAD IS COMING TO VISIT ME YAYAYAY I AM SO EXCITED WE WILL EXPLORE LONDON AND OTHER BRITISH PLACES TOGETHER AND YES THIS IS GOOD TWO THUMBS WAY UP ENGLAND GET READY FOR MIKE BROWN'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN. LIKE RETURN OF THE JEDI. BECAUSE MY DAD IS COOL LIKE A JEDI. THIS IS A LOT OF CAPS LOCK. BECAUSE EXCITEMENT. 

Also I saw a fox today. It hastened majestically across my path in the moonlight and probably winked at me because I feel like if I were in a fairy tale that's what a fox would do.

Speaking of fairy tales, my entire midterm assignment for my English class is to write a creative story with a critical introduction. The entire thing has to be about 8-10 pages. That's it. Those are the only rules. So far it's been a very daunting task because structure is my friend. Maybe I'll include the fox in my story to give it a more authentic feeling by drawing upon real-life experiences.

I've been trying to think of interesting things I did today, but mostly my day involved going to the library on a Saturday night. It's hard to bounce back from that staggering amount of cool. The phrase "swimming pools full of swag" has been known to apply to me. I'm definitely maybe almost 50% sure it wasn't sarcastic.

Okay, it's time for bed. I hope you made it home safe, majestic fox.