leave the world a better place.

my sister just stole ALL of my Halloween candy.
I COULD KILL HER. She took it all up to Davis and my parents just let her go with it because they "didn't want it in the house". So, apparently if I want anything delicious I have to lock it up or superglue myself to it.
*is pissed* >:(
and I had had such a good day at church too.

I would like a job now please.
thank you.
best regards,
me.

job hunt is going poorly... and Yucaipa is still a rank pit.

Got back to Newcastle late last night. I broke my personal record for longest travel time from LA to anywhere in Europe. 34.5 hours total travel time. Disgusting, I know. Painful? Oh, very. But being home was great and I feel pretty good about the next few months, so it was very very much worth it.
Now if only I could wake myself up enough to go get some food that isn't stale Lucky Charms, I'd be great.

Classes have ENDED!!!!!!!!!!!! I officially have NO MORE grad school class to go to. Scary right? Yeah. it is. I have an optional professional development week that I'll go to starting Monday, but after that... no more. Just the internship and massive dissertation. YAY!!!!!!!

BUT even more exciting news! I am putting together an 80 mile hike across all of Northern England, following Hadrain's Wall! We leave on the 13th and it should take about 4-5 days to do it. I'm terrified and ridiculously excited because its such a hugely awesome thing to do, but the physical effort to backpack all that way is enormous and I hope we can do it without too much pain.
After that I spend a week in Paris with my sister (!!!!!!!!!!!), oh yes, we're going to Euro Disney, and then I GO HOME!!! For two glorious weeks of family, my dogs, real American food, tv, my car, sunshine, and a super comfortable couch.
Yes my friends. Life is pretty damn good right now.
:)

I just bought a ticket home for March 30th- April 15th.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no one gets to call me chicken shit because its freaking hard being over here and I'm really looking forward to a nice break and some sunshine :)

its snowing sideways :/
not the nice snow like before. this is like an angry kind of snowing where mother nature is punishing Newcastle for just existing.
actually... this might actually make the geordie girls put on some pants instead of just stockings and a long shirt.

in other news... I'm coming home in June, probably around the 30th after Kathryn and I finish with our Italy trip. Mostly because I'm sick to death of England, the cold, the people, the dorms, the food, and really everything else but the medieval buildings. But writing my dissertation back home will mean more space for me to do it, I'll be happier, more comfortable, and be able to focus on getting it done.
Clarissa and I are going to Paris next month (YAY!!!!!!!!) for about a week though, so that's for sure something to look forward to.

Today has been pretty unusually amazing. I got an excellent mark on my report, that I thought for sure I would fail. I got an great internship, and TWO packages in the mail one from home :)

I'll be doing my internship with the learning team at Arbeia, a Roman fort here in the city.
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia/

I wonder if I'll get to dress up as a Roman! But I for sure get to play with little kids, so I'm happy :)

so, as part of our course we can do an elective 4 day trip to Tuscany (at our own extra cost) BUT I just recieved an email that said that cost would be increased to pay for the staff.
WTF.
no. I'm sorry, I wasn't planning on going anyway (planned trip to Italy Kathryn this summer), but I won't be caught dead letting these people take even more money from me so they can point me in the direction of a museum.
buy a MAP people. They're wonderful, beautiful things.

Side note, I'm totally going to France this spring! I'm really really excited! I got a guide book today! Now I just need to figure out how to make a budget since I FAIL at all things math related.

Despite that today was kind of crappy, the weather is horrible and last night was wretched (despite a lovely phone conversation to CA at 1am). Hoping the weather clears up soon.

I also had to buy 3 text books today because 2 giant jerks went to the library and checked out all the books we need to do the next assignment. We don't have regular text books, they just keep a couple copies in the library and hope we share. I could recall them, but I wouldn't get them until 2 days before the assignment is due. Useless by that time. I ended up pay over 60 pounds total, so its not as bad as it could have been, but still. grrr.

today was epically crappy.
I got a really really terrible grade on my first paper and all the confidence I had at being here has totally evaporated. doesn't help that the woman who graded it is a wench anyway and because I wrote on her favorite subject I definitely think she was overly harsh. oh, and I've discovered some big differences between American writing and British writing. too bad I didn't have that information *before* turning in my second assignment.

EDIT 11:33
day just gets better and better. He Who Will Not Be Named just sent me an email trying to weasel his way into my life again. after 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to delete it before opening, I opened, read, and deleted. It wasn't ugly or mean. but very much unwanted and not something I wanted to see in my inbox, especially today.

some good news though, I'm not dangerously underweight anymore. go me. :/

and now. bed. tomorrow should be better, I have an RCIA class.

...I wish my upstairs neighbor would learn to have quieter sex. its late. I'm ill. and I have to wake up in 6 hours.

:(

does it make anyone else irrationally angry when you're talking to some random store person because you need help and they are clearly not listening to you? Like today, I needed change to do my laundry so I went down to the metro station, and asked for change. the guy said I had to buy something. fair enough. so I got a bag of chips. he hands me a 5 and a few pound coins, less than what I had asked for in change. He stubbornly refused to give me any more change and insisted that 4 coins was enough to get anywhere on the metro. *completely* ignoring my protests that I did not want to go on the metro, only to have clean clothes. so I ended up with chips I didn't want and still not enough money to do laundry. ass. fortunately there was a cafe near by that was open and I bought apple juice (which I actual wanted) and now have enough to do laundry.

yup. livin on the edge over here...

oh, side note. my next assignment is due Monday :( its a huge report in a style that I'm totally unfamiliar with, so I'm kind of freaking out about it. doesn't help that the only other assignment we've done will be given back to us the day this one is due.

and now I go do battle with the laundry room and stinky clothes.

today was the first snow of the year :)
most of it is all gone because its sunny today, but still kind of cool.

I'm moving!!!!
University housing is crap, so after 6 long weeks I'm finally throwing in the towel. I should get my rent back when the university finds someone else to live in my room. Even if it takes awhile, its worth the loss of money to get out of here. Seriously. I found a room in a house for just 150 pounds/month, which is amazing. I haven't seen it yet, but anything would be better than this place. Plus is newly decorated and furnished :) I'm going to see it on Tuesday, and will be moving in on Wednesday.

Now I just need to suck it up and write my stupid essay. Which I procrastinated on for about... a month. yeah. I have a feeling I'm going to have a long few nights next week. However, my class at the moment is going very well. I've discovered I'm really good at project planning and problem solving. Probably because of 7 years Rainbow. huh. That'll probably help when I go to do my presentation in December too.

Tomorrow I'm going to a few museums with my class, which should be cool. One of them is an outdoor museum dedicated to Bede, so I'm pretty excited about that. As far as Halloween plans go? Once again I'm being lame and not doing anything. I'm kind of ok with that though, I do wish I had some of those caramel apple pops. and candy corn would have been good.

oh, and it is really freaking cold here. -4C yesterday and it felt the same today, if not worse. It actually snowed in Wales, in October! And now its raining, so I'm expecting either ice or snow soon. we'll see.

I applied for a job at the library a few days ago. I should here back from them by Nov.10th to see if I made the 'short list' and will be interviewed. Its more of a scholarship because I get about $7,000 for 100 hours of work over the course of a year. Its in Special Collections, and while that job at UCD ended horribly and I hated it pretty much the whole time, it would be good to have a job again, meet some more people, get some more job experience, and make a lot of money.

Ireland in 2 weeks! yay!!!! Then I have Christmas in Germany to look forward to :D

I want to move. right now.
this morning I got woken very early by a super loud fire alarm, and, that was kind of ok because someone set a potato on fire a few weeks ago and we had to evacuate. But it turns out it was just a drill. Several people didn't bother to show up until almost 20 minutes after the alarm had started ringing, which means we have to do it again another time. In my opinion you ignore the fire alarm at your own risk and leave the rest to Darwin and survival. But worse, one girl has been keeping her boyfriend here for the past 5 weeks so now our 'guest privileges' have been completely revoked! Apparently someone is going to be coming around to do random checks every few days for the rest of the year just to make sure. oh yes, I hate them. so. so. much.

maybe I'll get a flat for the summer.

I'm still alive here, although not much has changed other than classes have started and I find them somewhat not at all challenging. I do have money though, and now food. Food used to be a low priority for me, but since going hungry for over a week it has moved up to 'toilets', 'bed' and 'shower' priorities. I am of course homesick, I think the things besides family, friends, and pets that I miss most are:
-normal food (the English have a poor sense of taste, but Indian food is now the best thing ever)
-sunshine (makes having S.A.D unpleasantly emotional sometimes. Like pms except when its really overcast and rainy)
-my car
-clean toilets/kitchen
-activity things, like biking, tennis, the pool, etc.
-tv. I have no idea what's going on in any of my favorite shows, seems small in comparison to starting graduate school on the other side of the world... but still.

things that I love so far about this place:
-very easy access to historical sites and museums
-Indian food
-school

I'm lucky in that my friends skype me pretty regularly which helps with the missing them part of life here. I'm trying to be cool with going places alone, but sometimes it sucks because I see something awesome and I immediately want to tell someone about it or talk about it and I have to wait for email or a call home. Making friends is still proving difficult, I don't seem to fit in well with the majority of people because I don't enjoy parties with a bunch of drunk strangers (or drunk people), I'm not interested in sleeping with anyone (or really even dating right now- its more trouble than its worth), and things like that. So, we'll see what happens. I'm now able to post pics to facebook, and I put up a few this morning if you want to have a look :)

I don't mean to sound big-headed or anything but I am awesome academically. Today after discussion, this girl came up to me and said I was really an incredibly intelligent person and that she was very impressed. I felt really really good about the discussion before she said anything because I was debating with people about different museum ideas and practices, but its so so so nice to hear someone thinks you're smart :) Even better than when someone says you're pretty.

yeah. good day :)

oh! and I'm flying off to Ireland in November to stay with Stephen! Yay! I've never actually met him, but Kathy has and we talk everyday anyway so he's certainly a friend.

Leaving for England tomorrow. Trying pack all my stuff right now, seems like procrastinating to unpack everything a few days before and then re-pack the night before. But what can I say? I'm very very anxious.

Yesterday I went to Disneyland for 15 hours with Emily, AJ, and Brendan. They all stayed at my house for 2 nights, which was pretty cool. Disneyland itself was awesome, you really can't put a price on days like that- even though we got to go for free because my parents/sister are awesome.

ok, back to packing. If you know of any cure for a panic attack, please call me. I can't breath right and I feel sick.

well, summer is sooo close to being over (YES!) and thus far I haven't really done much to speak of. I'm extremely excited/terrified about moving to England in a mere 2ish weeks, and I currently have a bad cold. Well, not so much a cold as a thing that makes it hurt to talk and breath. whatever that is.

This past weekend I spent 2 days in Disneyland/California Adventure Land, which was amazing. I actually liked California Adventure Land WAY more than Disneyland. I got drawing lessons from a Disney artist, did cool rides, got to look around at everything a lot. We went to the little place that had like an animation studio where you could draw a cartoon and voice over a Disney movie, which is always fun.

This Saturday I'm driving 12 hours to New Mexico for some good times with my Oma and Opa. Clarissa and I will also be spending some time exploring caves in Carlsbad which I'm REALLY excited about.

I guess that's it. Newcastle is really the big thing.

GAH!!!! MY STUDENT VISA TO THE UK WAS OFFICIAL APPROVED AND ISSUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



what a great day :D

I just got my room assignment for next year! woo hoo! I'm in a 6 bedroom flat so I'll have a few room mates I guess, which will be nice :)

YAY ENGLAND!