Life is a Cabaret

i. Spending the night in an airport is extremely uncomfortable, especially when one has no better blanket than a coat. At least I had a real pillow.

ii. Looks like there's a hung parliament with a Tory plurality. It'll be interesting to see what happens from here, though I'll only be in Britain for the next week of it.

iii. One more week in Britain! WTF? Where did the time go?

iv. In Oslo right now. Very cool. Am definitely enjoying it so far.

v. Am quite tired. *snoozes*

Watching the leaders' debate live. It's pretty cool to be watching British politics from the outside. It's interesting, but I'm not so invested, which is nice. And I like Nick Clegg. :p

Tomorrow is Shakespeare's birthday, and I will be in Stratford-Upon-Avon for it! And I'll get to see King Lear! This is going to be so awesome.

Back from Scotland. It was very much cold and wet (it rained pretty much the entire time we were there, except when it was snowing), but I still really enjoyed it. I managed to forget my camera, but people said they'd email me pictures.

I went to Edinburgh Castle, the National Gallery, the High Kirk of St. Giles, the Museum of Scotland, Linlithgow Palace, Carlton Hill, and the Parliament. I think my favorite was Linlithgow. It was just a lot of fun, exploring castle ruins.

It's now been three weeks since I got here, which means this is the longest I've ever been out of the US in one trip. It doesn't feel like it's been three weeks, though--the time's gone by really quickly. Then I think about it and realize that I've only got two and a half months left here, and it feels like such a short time. There's so much I want to do.

OMG. Am in London.

*flails*

Am in London! For the next three months! Where people drive on the wrong side of the road and the intersections are funny and it's eight hours later than it should be and and and!

The flight sucked. Really, really sucked. It was turbulent all across the Atlantic and I couldn't sleep more than at most two hours out of an eleven hour flight and when we got to Heathrow we had to stay in a holding pattern for fifteen minutes when all I wanted was to GET OFF THE PLANE and then we had to wait another fifteen minutes for our gate when I just wanted OFF THE DAMN PLANE. Flying never agrees with me, but through most of the flight I felt like I had a hangover without having had the fun of drinking first.

My host mom is in Australia until Wednesday, but her son is here and he's pretty cool. I like my housemate from the program (especially since we have our own rooms. The easiest way to start to dislike an acquaintance is to share a room with them, I've found), and I am very relieved the house has wireless.

Now I need to unpack. And figure out where to buy plug adaptors because I forgot about those and I need them since I don't want my computer to die on me.

Then a nap. *firm nod*

OMG IN LONDON!

I posted exactly once in August. Damn, that's a new low. But things have happened now! Lots of things!

i. Vegas trip was fun. Not quite as fun as last time because there were a few immature guys staying with us, but still fun.

ii. Green Day concert was AWESOME. So totally awesome. It was also nice spending time with my aunt and uncle, and also having lunch with heart_of_man.

iii. Back at school now. I'm happy enough, but I'm going to miss the very little lazing around I managed this summer. XD

iv. I have a new job! One of my teachers from last semester got injured and needed an assistant for a class now, so I applied, and I got hired. It's only like five hours a week (if that), but it's about ten bucks an hour, so I'm making decent money for how much I'm working. Especially since it's a really easy job -- writing on the board, running errands, filing, that kind of thing.

v. I applied to graduate. Eep! I'm not graduating until next fall, but everyone who intends to graduate in 2010 has to apply these first few weeks of school. So I did. Graduation. From college. How did that happen?

vi. Last, but most definitely not least... I got accepted into the study abroad program I wanted.

I AM GOING TO ENGLAND FOR FOUR MONTHS. NEXT SEMESTER WILL BE SPENT IN LONDON.

OMG I AM GOING TO ENGLAND.

Things to do this weekend:
-Betaing
-Answering comments
-4-5 page paper
-Write Support Stacie fic

Well, the fic writing I might not get to this weekend, but the others I am determined to do. The paper at least needs to be done before Tuesday, so the deadline there is less self-imposed than real. Urgh.

Though on the other hand, this is one of the last three papers I have to do this semester. Today I turned in my last American Lit paper, so there's a good month left until the final where I don't really have to do anything for that class. When I turn in the paper due this week, all that's left in that class is also the final. Then for one class I have a long paper and no final, and for the other, a long paper and a final. *sigh* Well, at least I'm getting close to being done.

I am also totally getting my act together for study abroad next spring! I need a faculty recommendation for the application, so today I went to my adviser and asked her. I don't actually need it until September (when the application's due), though I told her it'd be nice to have it at the end of this semester (which is still a month away, so plenty of notice). But then she emailed me this afternoon, only a few hours after our meeting, and said that she'd finished the recommendation. I hope the speediness of my academic adviser bodes well for how likely I am to get accepted.

So basically, if all goes well and according to plan, next spring I am going to be IN LONDON FOR FOUR MONTHS.

Though note to self: I do need to have a good GPA for this, so must do all my bloody papers. Yes. *firm nod*

And for some other minor happiness, I think I got flirted with today. Flirting I did not initiate! Yes, this is rare enough to merit a mention. XD It went nowhere because I am so out of practice that it took me forever to recognize flirting, and okay, maybe he was just being friendly, but I prefer to think of it as someone wanted to flirt with me. And I will probably never talk to him again so he can't tell me different. :p

I hate how I can go to bed a full nine hours before I have to get up and still not get enough sleep. THANK GOD it's the weekend and I can sleep in.

Then tonight heart_of_man came over and we watched Silence in the Library through Journey's End. What are probably the three most difficult episodes for me to watch in the entire show, and I watched them all tonight. That was...an experience. Mostly fun, but wow I'm tired, I think almost as much from emotion as from my recent difficulty sleeping.

It's funny. On the one hand I think it's sort of sad that a TV show can evoke this depth of emotion in me--still, more than six months and more than one viewing after these episodes have aired. But on the other hand, I think it's brilliant that a TV show can evoke this depth of emotion in me. Even with me being a fangirl of various things (and all that being a fangirl entails), part of the reason I love Doctor Who is that I can love it so deeply. It's an endless cycle! *g*

And I was GOOD. For SitL/FotD, I mean, in terms of keeping quiet. I did keep talking all the way through Journey's End about various shippy things because of course I just had to make sure that heart_of_man was aware of all the implications (XD), but I shut up during SitL/FotD! I was determined not to prejudice her against them, because just because I hate them doesn't mean she has to, and I guess I succeeded, because she said she didn't think they were that bad. But she is also willing to read my posts on the episodes, and shinyopals's Moffat essay...

In terms of other things today, that essay I was whining about yesterday? I am completely astounded at the response I got from my professor.

Because, seriously? I only read about a third of the book I was writing the paper on. I skimmed the rest of the book as I was writing the paper, and I thought my argument made sense, but I figured I'd get to class and the comments on my paper would be along the lines of "did you understand the point the book was trying to make? What about a, b, c, d, etc.?"

Except then I get to class, and my professor calls my draft substantive and accurate and a good resource for the rest of the class. This was just...wow. Completely awesome, but totally unexpected. I managed to understand a complicated book just by skimming it? Dude. Well, the in-class discussion also helped, but I talked about things in my paper that we didn't talk about in class.

That was just...a bit surreal.

Though there was a comment my professor made that totally amused me. He critiqued my grammar (which normally would not amuse me, considering I tend to pride myself on my grammar, at least when I'm not completely zonked (like I am now) and am thinking even marginally about what I'm saying or writing), but the critique was about my use of "which" when I could have used "that".

He said it was a British thing to do.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh internet, I have gotten far too used to writing as British as possible in most of my recent fic. Apparently I succeeded enough that I subconsciously use British grammar! And I need to try to remember my American grammar better!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!