Eric, Oxford, and Misery

WELP. I have bed bugs. This has been the worst week of my life. I am scared of very few things more than I am scared of bugs. Especially ones that feed on my blood while I sleep. Which sounds like a horror film, but it's actually my life. The hall managers have been incredibly incompetent. They ignored my problem and tried to bum it off on each other for DAYS while I continued to get bit all over. And then when they finally got around to dealing with the problem, they only treated the bed area. Once. So I'm so not safe. I have washed everything I own in hot water multiple times (which has gotten expensive). I've been bathing in Benadryl. I've been begging people to let me crash on their floors. I've been eating A LOT of chocolate in an attempt to deal with my anxiety. Ugh. I did not sign up for this.

View from the Eye

If we go backwards a little in time, I am a very happy camper because Eric came to visit! We had an awesome time doing all the touristy stuff that you have to see when you come to London. Such as: Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye. Which we decided to do at night. I highly recommend it--so beautiful! Went out to dinner and ordered a bottle of wine legally. So awesome. We saw Billy Elliot, which was hilarious and had some wonderful dancing. We walked across Abbey Road and did sort of a Beatles walk through London. Also did the Tower of London! And watched a little girl puke her brains out, getting ZERO help from her entirely incompetent parents. That was less fun. But all in all, it was very busy and awesome. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to, despite drinking about 5 cups of coffee a day, but hey. We're human. Eric is home safely. Which is good, but saaaad.

Cotswolds

Last weekend, we did a day trip to the Cotswolds and Oxford. Unfortunately, we only got to spend about an hour in a little village in the Cotswolds, but it was absolutely stunning. The main green was surrounded by old, stone buildings, and was cut through by a little brook all crossed over by little bridges. The locals were very friendly and sweet. And, they make wonderful banana bread. I am a bit of a banana bread connoisseur, and let me tell you--they know how to do it. We just sort of wandered around, got a present for momma, and climbed back on the bus.

Oxford Broad Stret

Oxford was SO coooool. I get why thousands of people try to go there. It's very hip and cool combined with all these old, regal buildings. I was actually so entranced with the place that I briefly looked into grad programs there...before remembering that I really don't want to go to grad school. Nevertheless, I completely understand the appeal. It has such good vibes; lots of tradition, but lots of innovation. And OH MY GOODESS it looked like Harry Potter. I thought I was at Hogwarts. Apparently both Rowling and the movie directors based a lot of the location designs on Christ Church College at Oxford, and I could tooootally tell. I took about a million pictures and was excited out of my mind, as you might imagine.

So...things have been good up until about Sunday, when my saga began. And it's probably going to be a struggle indefinitely. I'll keep you updated with any news, good or bad.

The Great Hall

On the bright side (I'm really digging for them),  it's almost Halloween. Also, I've been keeping on top of my work. Also, I'm running uncontested (awesome) for the Director of Finance position in Alpha Phi. Also, we got our pre-reg materials, and if I get the schedule I want (which I should) I won't have class on Fridays next semester! Woo!


There are some things to be happy about. Mum's care package of food that is bad for me is keeping me going.

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!
xox

So....

Turns out, I'm an awesome cook. Not really.

It's been a while! Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy! But I should really try not to neglect this.

The past few weeks have sort of flown - I don't know where all my time went, though I feel like I've barely been in class. I mostly remember being in transit a lot of the time. Walking somewhere, being on a bus, trying to catch the tube. Running late. City life, I suppose! It always takes at least a half hour to get anywhere. And! The transit system is not quite as reliable as I initially thought. There's a different underground line down every single day, making travel unpredictable at best. My big red bus got hit by a car the other day (I'm fine). They often kick everybody off stops before the final destination, causing me to argue with the next bus driver that I've actually already paid for the entire journey and really won't be doing it again. Sigh. Struggles.

Caerphilly Castle

Classes are going fine! We show up to class, talk about what we've read, and leave. Very simple, and quite similar to the US in that way. However, here you don't raise your hand to speak, and you only attend each class once or twice a week. Scariest, though, is that I have only one big paper due for each class at the end of the semester. This one big paper will determine my grade for the course. Wish me luck. Anyways, I'll probably get serious about writing those sometime in November. Ha! The module that goes along with the internship is pretty dumb, but it means I get to do an internship. We talk about knowing our weaknesses in the work place and making ourselves more "employable." Fun.

Tintern Abbey

The internship itself is going really really well. I have actual responsibility. I read through the "slush" pile of unsolicited manuscripts and basically decide if each is worth anything. If not, rejection letter and send right back. If so, write up a reader's report and hand over to my supervisor. I also process royalty statements, I do research, input rights contracts into the database. Simple, administrative stuff, but I'm getting really familiar with the more technical side of getting a book to market. The money involved, the lawyers involved, etc. The agency I work for represents a few local authors, but mostly sells rights to UK publishers on behalf of hundreds of authors in the US - Neil Gaiman included. Swoon. I have seen his signature.

Two weekends ago, Dee came up to visit from Bath! Wooo! We went shopping in Camden and had a lovely time and I miss her very much. I will go see her in Bath mid-November.

Grace and I in Swansea

Last weekend was my first trip as part of the "Social Program" which takes us round to a bunch of places for one flat fee we paid in August. We went to Wales! And it was amazing and beautiful and old. We went to a castle, an abbey, some Roman ruins, and a bridge built in the 12th century. Very cool. We spent the night in Swansea which was really fun and had surprisingly awesome nightlife. It may have had something to do with the fact that the Welsh rugby team had won a match and was continuing on in the championship. Very friendly, happy people.

On Monday night, I went to a concert with my freshman year roommate from home! She is studying about 40 minutes south of London and came up to meet me. We got dinner and saw Iron & Wine for pretty cheap in a cute little theater. The show was amazing. I'll definitely try to see him live again.

I spent most of this week wishing it would go by faster because Eric is visiting TODAY! I'm leaving to pick him up from the airport as soon as I post this and I really can't wait. Yay!

Iron & Wine

As far as travels go, I've booked a trip to Ireland with some friends. As visit to Amsterdam is in the works, and I definitely want to get up to Scotland to see Cassie. Melanie, I wish Barcelona was closer!! I miss my roommates a lot. Clearly. They're the best.

I'm much more settled than I was a few weeks ago. Learning not to stress too much about money or class. Learning to remind myself that this one semester is all I've got, and I'd better make it incredible.

MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!
xox