Good Evening All!

I am so reliable. Updating once every month, like clockwork really, ha.

Anyway, what's been up with me? Um, been busy with class, though admittedly not as busy as I should be with it, shh, don't tell. I have four day weekends this term, which is fantastic, though I manage to get even less done in them, ha! I have been hanging out a lot more with people. I actually have friends, so that's been fun and distracting!

Currently though I am a nervous wreck waiting to hear about my results for next year. I had to reapply to take the second portion of this course next year and have another 6 days to wait and hear if I made it in! As everyone knows, I'm a massive worrier, and this is way too much stress for me. I think my interview went alright, but it was very short, only about 20 minutes when they were supposed to be 45! The practical part of my interview is on Friday, and, knock on wood, it should be much easier than the spoken portion. I'm just such a wreck, I signed onto this program to do all three years, I don't have the option to not go on! So keep your fingers crossed for me!

Typical tourist sight seeing is down this term though. I think that means I'm becoming a bit more of a local! Well, maybe not, but I don't stick out as much as a tourist anyway. I did go to Temple a couple weeks ago. It's the hub for all of the barristers and the like, and is usually (at least partially) closed off to the public. But, they had a really big anniversary last month so they completely opened it up. It was sooo cool. It was like stepping back into the 1800s, old buildings, cobblestone roads (that hurt like the dickens to walk on in flats!), wrought iron lamp posts, the works. I took quite a few pictures (which I intend to upload to my flickr account eventually haha). We got to go into the Templar church (they filmed a bit of The Da Vinci Code in it), it was a really cool building. It was just neat seeing some of the actual Templar graves/ tombs/ whatever you want to call it. There were also some really great molded heads all along the walls inside. Another building we got to explore was the Middle Temple (picture), which was sooo familiar to me while we were there and I couldn't figure out why. Well, I watched the second Bridget Jones movie last weekend and the ending bit was filmed there, and that explained that! Haha.

I've been doing a ton of walking lately. Well, I was up until a week or so ago when I got ill, blech. Anyway, I have managed to explore and/ or visit Notting Hill, Bayswater, Belsize Park, Hampstead, a bit of Hampstead Heath (pic on the right is the view of the city skyline from Parliament Hill), Regent's Park, Primrose Hill, Golders Green, seen a bit more of Hyde Park, etc. There are some really beautiful areas around here that I would have never though to visit as a tourist and that are just great to walk around and take in. And since we have been having pretty consistent sunny weather in the mid-50s (mwahaha, sorry about the snow guys! :P) I've just been walking about everywhere. Doesn't hurt to get the exercise either!

So, I guess I do have a bit of news. I am moving in like two and a half weeks! I am kind of nervous, more nervous than when I moved to another country, yeah, I'm quite odd. A friend of mine lives in an attic room in a house in Hampstead Garden Suburb and recently another room in the house became available, so I jumped on it. It's cheaper than here and it'll be great to live with a friend right there. The room is also quite a bit bigger, I think the walk in closet I'll have is the size of my cell now! I'll also have a bathtub which my neck and back have been aching for for months. There will be my own fridge (no more jerks stealing my orange juice!), microwave, and cooker/hob combo. I admit I absolutely love my location now, I am smack dab in the center of London. Hyde Park is a block away, the tube, the grocery store, everything, is just around the corner, there are tall buildings, it's the city city- and I'm about to move to a suburb. It's a bit further out (though the same travel time to campus basically), but it's an insanely nice area. I mean, it's a suburb in London. There are trees, and kitties(!), and people own cars, and my room overlooks a back yard garden. It was built at turn of the century 1900s, and hasn't really been touched since due to conservation laws. I'm scared that if I open my mouth when I walk down the street people are going to realize I don't belong and kick me out. And while I won't be near Hyde Park anymore, I'm only a block north of Hampstead Heath, which as far as I am concerned, is far awesomer (yes, it is a word:), especially since I have yet to have any scary encounters with strangers at the Heath, and considering the area, I'm far less likely to. Anyway, I'm excited, and as much as moving is going to suck, a lot of the girls in the program have already been really nice and offered to help me! If anyone is interested, a guy on flickr has taken tons of really great pictures of the Suburb which can be seen here.

But yeah, that's it for me, exciting as always! Anyway, I miss everyone back home and hope the weather gets pretty soon :) Take care!

Excessively long update :)

Wow, so I just realized when the last time was that I updated this thing. I'm apparently rubbish at keeping a blog! Anyway, it's a new term, so maybe I'll try this again!

Part of the reason I became so rotten at updating was because the end of last term was insanity. I had five papers and a poster project due before I could go home, and being the procrastinator that I am, they end up piling up rather quickly! But I made it out alive. I just keep telling myself that the first semester has to be the hardest and it'll get better from here.

The flight home was a nightmare. Actually I lie, the first half was quite nice. I found out another girl in my program was on the same flight to Chicago so a lady at the airport set it up so we could sit next to each other. So that 8 hours went by way faster than it could have. It was once we got to Chicago that things fell apart.

My plane got canceled due to weather and I was told the next flight wouldn't leave for another twelve hours. I wish I could say I handled this stoically- but after being awake for nearly 19 hours already, having no way to contact my family, and being told they wouldn't put me up but just let me sleep on a cot in the lobby, well, there may have been tears. Thanks to a series of nice strangers who let me use their cell phones I was able to call home and give them a head's up I would be late, then I went to work finding a flight on another airline. After waiting in line at the customer service desk for an hour I was put on another flight, that was in another terminal, and I had ten minutes to get there before it took off. So, I ran across the freaking Chicago airport (and I am sure it was quite amusing to those monitoring the security cams), only to get to my gate and be told the plane wasn't even here yet. It got there about three hours later and I was on my way home. The flight itself was terrifying, I have never experienced that much turbulence on a plane before, and I have been on a lot of planes. In the end I made it, landed in Lexington at about 2AM and my mom and step dad gave up their sleep to come get me.

It was great being home, but it went by too fast. Three weeks sounds like a long time, until it's during the busy holiday season, the first week is spent partially recovering from jet lag, and there are so many people you want to see, and so much you want to do before you go back, oh, and when there's a paper due the day you get back looming over your head you haven't even started on. I did get to see almost everyone I wanted to and spend a good time with a lot. It was wonderful spending the holidays with my family and I don't think I would have made it much longer without seeing my mom. My cat and I were also inseparable nearly the whole time, he was my shadow.

The date of my departure came up way too fast. I spent the last several days scrambling to get some kind of paper written and pack, yet again, procrastinating is my pastime. Sunday I managed to get myself ready to go, but I just didn't feel ready. Just as well since my flight was canceled, again. So I got another day with my family, and had some extra time to polish up my paper, though now it was late.

The flight home wasn't too bad at all. Went much quicker and I managed to sleep. I got to London at 10AM, stopped by my dorm to drop my stuff, then had to run to campus and turn in my paper. The next morning I had a 9 AM class, and I hardly remember it haha. I had a 9 AM the morning after that too. I was a zombie for those two days. Anyway, from what I remember, I like my classes a bit more this semester than last. I am taking Understanding Objects, which means we actually deal with concrete objects now, YAY :) I am also taking preventive conservation which I think will be interesting, I really like the prof. And we write reports instead of essays, which will be a nice change. My option course is Antiquities and Law which is fascinating so far, and really good at getting me enraged haha. I'm also just sitting in on the second half of the archaeometallurgy course, just for the knowledge, we'll see how long that motivation holds up! I also get four day weekends this term which is just brilliant. Watch me still not get things done haha.

Thursday night I did my first celeb stalking since I've been in London. Most people who know me know that I am a huge Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and Alan Rickman fan, and I had seen Sweeney Todd twice while home for the break. Well, two days after I got back to London was the Sweeney Todd premiere in Leicester Square, so a friend of mine and I went after class. We got there hours before it started and the mass of people that had already gathered was insane. We were rained on the entire time until people started showing up, then it was kind enough to stop. Anyway, I managed to get some autographs and some pictures (though most didn't turn out because my camera is on its last legs, also check out my mad Paint skillz). I would go into more detail, but I sound enough like a crazy fangirl as it is haha. Just email me if you really care :)

The day after that I went out to dinner with a girl in my program and then a group of us went to the Uni bar for drinks. It was a lot of fun. We were able to just talk about the program and how it was going this semester, and just hang out in general and talk. It was really nice. I took off about 9:30 to head back to my dorm and ran into one of my profs at the tube station. And while I had only had two pints of cider the whole time I was at the bar, when that was combined with my massive jet lag, I'm fairly sure I sounded like an idiot when she stopped me to chat, though I can't really remember haha. Oh well!

So far this semester is off to a much better start than last! With the exception of some nasty neck issues I've had since flying back, everything has been going pretty well. I'm a bit homesick, of course though. I miss everyone, especially my mom, I just had enough time to get used to being back before I had to leave again. Thank goodness I have some friends here now or it would be just dreadful! Anyway, that's it for me for now. I am going to attempt to read for class or something. Bye for now!