...isn't, after all, such a long time between posts. Right?
Aaaaaanyway. Semester's about over- just finishing up Dead Week, then finals start Monday. Things are tight, but slotting together reasonably well; I have stats on Monday, geography and linear algebra on Tuesday, partials either Wednesday or Friday, whenever I want to take it, and then my medieval philosophy final is an online take-home that's already open for me to work on whenever, due next Friday.
The philosophy take home is kinda unfortunate, because it gave the professor leeway to assign a rather longer, harder, more intense final than would have been at all reasonable for us to do had we actually gone to the class and sat the final properly. Oh well. 9-10 pages of philosophical analysis can't be that bad. Right?
It hasn't been a bad semester. The math's been harder than I was really hoping, though stats has been easy. I don't regret taking philosophy as an elective- it's been interesting and fun, without demanding too much more time than I'm comfortable devoting to it. Geography of Disasters has been depressingly miserable, (We spent the last two class periods watching Demi Moore's The Seventh Sign. Please, if you have any respect for your time, don't watch this movie. Go... do something off this list instead. Or stare at blank walls. I swear it'll be more enjoyable, and certainly more self-enriching.) but it's over now. Gah. So much potential, and just an awful class. Sigh.
Partials has been the real disappointment this semester- I feel like I should understand it better than I do not only because I suspect it'll come back to bite me if/when I don't, but also because it shouldn't be this hard. Mostly it's just bad because the professor is head of the department and so has no time. Which is unfortunate, and makes things difficult. Things are starting to come together a little bit, though, which is good- we are just about to take the final, it'd better happen now. Here're some pics of our work on the latest hw assignment.
Had a good time down south for birthday/Thanksgiving, though. Disneyland was really neat; here's me as our friend Indie:
Right then. Time for a bit of sleep, I think. Busy days ahead. I was kinda hoping to get a little holiday baking done this weekend, but not I don't know if that's going to happen. I'd certainly like it to. We'll see.
Snagged from mom; here's the fifth sentence on page 161 of the book nearest to me:
"Evaluate the determinants of the following matrices (i) using the first row (ii) using the "diagonals" method."
Hmm, not very interesting. Ah well. Would that linear algebra was that easy these days.
This week was kinda unpleasant academically, but really good otherwise. Had tests/quizzes in all my classes except philosophy, and had a writing assignment thing on Aristotle's De Anima due in that. Today was an exam in stats and a quiz in partials; both of which I think went well, but it's hard to tell until I get them back Monday. I'm quite sure I didn't butcher either of them, though, so that's nice.
There was a test in my Geography of Disasters class that just doesn't bear mentioning; if the sort of stuff on the test was really what he considers important about the material we've covered, then I absolutely don't feel bad about working on other homework through those class periods. It was just...wow. He had had us all (as an assignment) email him five possible test questions, and their answers. He then compiled the test using almost entirely these questions, and believe me when I tell you it showed. That was on Tuesday, and I was absurdly glad that that class was furloughed Thursday. Gah. What's incredibly depressing about whole thing is it's such an awesome idea for a class, and I really want to know about it. Grr...
Oh, and I (along with everyone else I know) failed our second linear algebra quiz. So there's that.
Soooo, it wasn't a great week as far as school went. But! All was not lost. The bf and I were able to hang out a lot, which was marvelous. Thursday was particularly fun, since I had 2/3 classes furloughed. I know on an intellectual level that furloughs are bad things that are stunting an important time in my education, but seriously? It's really hard to be disdainful of extra time to get some done. But yeah. Hanging out this week was fun, and we're headed to Spaghetti Factory tomorrow for a bit of a break. Exciting! So it's been a happy week there :)
That's pretty much all that's going on here. The AC is broken in the big room where we have our step class, which is...unfortunate. I've been spending a lot of time up in the math tutor lab, doing work, killing time, and helping out when they're busy. I got to teach a CE major IBP the other day- that was really rewarding. It's supposed to be 100F again this week up here, which, like the room's AC being broken, seems to be lacking in a certain amount of good fortune. I like grocery shopping with company. We had the first math club pizza night of the semester on Monday, and it went really well (I may mainly think so because I got to cuddle a baby during it). I made tortilla chips this evening, and had them for dinner. I'm looking forward to House starting on Monday.
Aaaand, I'm quite tired (long week!) so off to bed with me. Everyone have a good weekend!
Have been making food the last couple of days. It was starting to get necessary- I really don't feel like cooking, most of the time when I get home from classes, and it's easy to just be able to yank something out of the fridge or freezer and shove it in the microwave. That said, I'm not yet ready to utilize Spencer's method, which is to just buy hot pockets en masse and live off those for weeks at a time. So! Chilli beans and rice it is.
I actually already had a bit of leftover rice, so I made the beans last night and ate them to today after step with the last of that rice. Then made new rice while I ate my dinner!
Food! So now I have about half of each in the fridge and freezer, respectively. That should keep me going for a while. Also, I'm almost halfway done with my 25 lb bag of rice. (I typed bog rice there first. That's not what I meant.)
So there's that. Other than cooking, it's mostly just been classes and homework out here, with some fun game nights with friends in between to break it up. Beer pong ftw!Munchkin, Settlersof Catan, and San Juan have all been introduced to me in the last couple of weeks, and there is the possibility of D&D this weekend. We will see. As I wrote to a friend of mine earlier, "I think when peoples' four-day-weekend plans involve a Risk marathon, there's really no j/k needed when referring to them no lives." And it's true.
We had a linear quiz on Tuesday that I thought went better than it actually did. That said, I did better than the four people that sit around me, and there are only 11 of us in the class. And while that's nice and all, it doesn't really do much for my 13/20. Sigh. Well, I think he drops our lowest quiz grade, so this'll just have to be my one fail!grade for the semester, y/y?
And at any rate, he only assigned us 13 more proofs to do over the long weekend. Le sigh. Also, while I'm complaining about him, he let us out ten minutes late today. So there.
As for soul statuses, ( I always think that 'status' should have a better plural form. Stati?) medieval philosophy was really cool today. Not that it isn't usually, because it is. Pretty much made of awesome. And there's no one thing about it that makes it great, just the overall effect- enthusiastic professor, challenging subject matter, educated/intelligent classmates that care about this stuff and really want to understand everything about it, an atmosphere where questions and comments are encouraged.
And the fact that the material is cool is just icing. We spent our 75 minutes today studying a brief bit out of Plato's dialogue Phaedo. I'd read the assigned bit beforehand, so I was able to follow along without having to scramble for notes. So. Much. Fun. As we went through the arguments presented, we got to pick at them and discuss them, and argue about their soundness and which conclusions Plato might have been assuming. (Bad!Plato!)
Aaaaanyway. Take home message? Linear algebra bad, philosophy good, food good, college furloughs technically bad but really? Good. Non-slanty bathtubs bad, geeky world domination games good.
I really love muscle memory. I haven't taken step in almost a year now, but I didn't even have to think today before my body fell back into the patterns we were doing. Which, okay yeah, were the most basic intro patterns. But! It required very little attention and went well. Unlike the abs part of the class, which was a sharp reminder of just how little ab work I've done in the last six months.
But anyway. Muscle memory is fun. Math classes not so much. No, I lie. The classes are kinda fun. Even abstract linear algebra, which is a TTR long class, is interesting and fun to be in. It's just, you know, the mass quantities of homework (Proofs! Many of them!) and the frighteningly impending tests/quizzes that aren't cool. For example, here are some of my recent notes:
Linear notes. It should be taken into accountthat we're all learning the really weird notationas he's scrawling it across the board.
Diff notes. Partial differentials this semester! More difficult than I was anticipating, to be honest. Stats notes. Very easy class, conceptually. And the math isn't tricky either. Just a lot of homework on with which to be getting.
Why my life has to be consumed with things like that, rather than things like like this:
It's beyond my understanding. Truly.
But mostly, I'm just complaining. After all, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it (Fred). I asked a girlfriend to day, as we sat pounding our heads against a linear proof, whay we chose to be math majors, again? After all, there are apparently majors where you can graduate in four years with your bachelors, and still go out and like, party every night. I have heard stories of such things. It makes me think I'm doing something wrong here. (Not the not partying, which I'm happy with. But I bet these drunken, hypothetical (business!) students have time for adequate sleep too. Jerks.)
At any rate, she told me we were math majors because we're crazy. So at least there's (an explicitly defined) madness to the madness.
No post tonight, but soon, to wrap up the trip. Tomorrow, with lots of pics. But it's now 23:52 here, and I require sleepage before the major goings-on of tomorrow. Sufficed to say that much fun has been had the past few days, and it will be recounted. Here is a sneak preview:
It should preliminarily be noted that I'm running on three hours of sleep- mosquito bites made me too crazy to fall asleep last night until about 3 this morning, and then I got up again at six. Don't ask why, I've no idea. At any rate, I'm starting to get a bit sleepy now, so I thought I'd blog before I tottered off to bed.
A bed all to myself, since I'm at Oma's tonight and most of tomorrow, spending time with her and working on her computer. Norton is installed and is now running a nice full system scan, then there are major Windows service pack downloads to do tomorrow. Still haven't figured out why her hard drive thinks it's full, though...
Yesterday was fun and exciting in a shopping kinda way- we were originally going to go to the mall, but time got away from us a bit and we ended up going to Plato's Closet and Savers instead. I'd never heard of either of them, but J knew of Savers, and was blown away by Plato's. I admit, it was pretty fun. Jay got a long sweater top thing ($10), and a pink homecoming/prom dress ($8) that she bought herself, and I snagged two pretty new t-shirts ($3 & $6). So that was fun. I didn't find anything that particularly stuck my fancy at Savers, but J got another couple of tops there, I think. Bad memory is what I get for blogging late :)
Also, I keep reading "savers" as "slayers". Too much Buffy.
Girls before leaving for the shopping expedition.
J in her $8 dress. It's even nicer in person.
Then we had barbecued burgers and chicken for dinner; Oma and AK come out, and it was a very pleasant evening. Cooking for big groups is fun, especially when lots of people are working together.
Sadly, it was our last time with UD- he left this morning to go back to out of town work. I missed him by just a couple of hours, since I was up so late futzing with Norton. Oh yeah, that was the other thing I did yesterday, was fought with Norton and Windows Updates to get the second vista service pack so that stuff would run right. Anyway. That finally sorted itself out around nine last night, and I was up many hours later to watch it complete its first full system scan :)
So it was just me and AJ for quite a few hours this morning after I got up around 6. I showed her around norton and some of her new stuff I'd downloaded last night, and then we went to work ripping her music and syncing her iPod. So much tech, so little time!
While the girls were still abed, we went out to Walmart to pick up some meat for our grand afternoon meal with cousin Mike and his girlfriend. It was the girlfriend's birthday, so J and Sylvie decorated the living room and we got a very attractive meal together:
Isn't it pretty! So summery, which is what I loved. Corn, little bowls of fruit, shredded meat, buns, and coleslaw (not pictured). And nametags on the place settings!
The nice meat mix: boneless pork, zucchini, bouillon, wine, and some other stuff I'm forgetting. It was absolutely delicious.
The Decorator and The Chef! (Timelord Names?)
The visit was a lot of fun; after lunch and birthday cake we sat outside on the back porch for hours, just enjoying the day and learning about the restaurant industry. Fun stuff.
But now AK is at AJ's, since there's airport travelling to be done by AK in the morning before AJ goes to work. Aaaaaand, we're back at the beginning of the post! Still waiting for the scan to finish; contemplating just slapping on some hydrocortisone, leaving the scan to finish itself up on its own, and heading to bed.
Aaaanyway. Yesterday (day four) was just so marvelous that it required more blogging than yesterday's entry gave it. So, Oma and AK showed up and stayed the afternoon. I had spent the morning fighting with the printer:
It's an extremely attractive printer, except when it's refusing to print anything black, or giving me messages like this:
UD was finally the one who figured out how to lift up the right bits of plastic to yank out the wedged piece of mangled test paper. It should be noted that this miraculous (embarrassing) discovery came after AJ and I had poked and prodded and tweezered at the thing for literally hours. Ahem. But never mind! So now there is a functioning printer.
The girls went out after lunch, where they went kayaking:
After that, it was water-skiing and tubing off the back of the boat, which UD drove. (Do you drive a boat? Steer it? Helm it? Also, the conjugations of "to ski" are weird.) Here they are getting the boat down into the water:
The fun activities didn't start until after the boat stopped looking like this, though:
Meanwhile, the sensible people were up on the back porch, watching from comfy deck chairs:
And Oma graciously posed for a pic for her entry in my phonebook:
After dinner (meatloaf with rice and salsa!) everyone either went home (Oma and AK) or out to see Angels and Demons (everyone else but me). I antisocially elected to remain at la casa and fiddle with the printer some more. I didn't get the wireless printing working (it required a disc I did not possess) but I did get to curl up with a couple eps of NCIS, and scurry around with the dog in tow closing the windows when another storm rolled in.
The storm receded mostly by the time we went to bed, but cackled wildly back to life around 1:00 this morning; I was just going to sleep, and there were pretty awesome, sky-brightening flashes of lightening out my window. Not, you know, directly out it or anything. Certainly farther away than the cracks of thunder and lightening that woke up (except UD) everyone in the house around 2:00 or so. Tremendously, unbelievably loud. Very awesome.
And now, I would tell you all about the fun we had today (shopping and burgers and Norton, oh my!) but it's 23:10 here and I'm pretty much toast. Sleep now. More blogging and pics tomorrow.
AK, sewing up the wrists of one of J's new (goodwill!) hoodies.
So! Day three come and gone. We went to Sylvie's concerts in the morning and early afternoon- there were individual instrument ensembles first, most of which were really neat to watch, and then the full orchestra concert after lunch at Subway. It was really imprerssive and fun to listen to.
Came back to the house after the concerts, and hung out with Thor for a while (funfunfun!) until we both had to leave for evening activities.
Then off to the VFW for a fish fry dinner. First haddock in 4 years! It was very exciting. And delicious! With hot chocolate once we got home, it was quite a splendid day.
Which leads us into today. Got up at 8:30 CT, ate some cereal, then set to work on setting up the printer/scanner/copier/fax machine/teleportation device. UD finally managed to get off the right panel to remove the crumpled piece of paper stuck inside, and we've been in business since then. Now Oma and AK are over here and we're having meatloaf for lunch; it's all very nice. J and Sylvie are ou for a movie tonight, I think, and I may fiddle with the printer some more.
Ooh, and there was a big thunderstorm last night. Very exciting, except for the bit where we kinda dozed through it. Never mind, it'll be better next time.
Above are jut a few of the results of yesterday's great shopping expedition. We tried Kohl's first, but Jay didn't see anything that called to her, so we hit up the large Goodwill next door. Together, we got a coat, a jersey (Packers, of course), a skirt, a homecoming dress, a top, a pair of shorts, and three hoodies. Lots of win.
Then Applebees for lunch, where is took us all a really exceptional amount of time to figure out what to order. Not that we're indecisive! There was just... a lot of stuff on the menu.
I spent a good bit of the afternoon hanging out with Oma; we took a walk through Riverside Cemetery, and I fought with her computer for a while. I think I'm going to install norton on it this afternoon, see if I can't get that to sort it out.
Had nice chilli for dinner, watched the Daily Show, chatted with Gina. Suffered through J's late-night "relationship discussions" with her (ex?)boyfriend.
Dunno quite what the plan is for today. AJ and Sylvie are off doing work/school things right now, but likely we'll see Oma and AK this afternoon. Weather here is lovely. Lake flies, not so much.
Also, time here is now 11:40. Blogger seems quite determined to keep me on Pacific Time.
Morning all! Jay and I are safely stowed away in the Grand Old Cheese State (GOCS?). We got up around 6:00 CT (4:00 PT), stumbled downstairs, had breakfast with AJ (and Lulu, peripherally) and are now showered and ready to head out and start the day. Have to drop Sylvie off at her camp, and then We're seeing Oma at some point. There are plans!
Airport pic 2
Flight yesterday went well- it was only 3.5 hours, nicely on time, and with no luggage (of ours) lost. They even gave us pretzels and soda! Not, you know, a can of soda or anything, but cherry coke is cherry coke. Jay dozed a lot of the flight, at least after we'd done some calculus together. Differential-equations fun for the whole family! I got a lot of sudoku puzzles done, and tested my phone's music-playing ability out to the utmost. Fun, quick, direct little flight. With pretzels!
Right, off to do...things. Bed is comfy. Dog is kept shut out of our room. Pretty red barns are rustic and kinda red. Lake is nice.
Oh! And speaking of the lake. Jay and Sylvie took a late night (22:00?) dip out in it last night. Jay: "Warm, but the air was cold. [Bugs] weren't actually on the lake, they were just everywhere on the dock."
So there's that.
edit- It is actually 7:44 here. The computer/internet is confused. Poor thing.
...it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Just got back home after spending the day with Nina. She came over and hung out for most of the afternoon, during which we watched Studio 60 and ate the chili I'd just made. Played Star Wars Monopoly. Drank a 2-litre thing of black cherry soda.
Then went to the fund raiser that her mom's non-profit was putting on at Cal Skate. It should at this point be noted that I haven't skated since I was seven years old, and so it's fairly impressive that I only fell once. Sadly, this once slammed the side of my head down into the floor. Kinda hurts still when poked, but didn't break the skin. I didn't go back out onto the rink after that, but Nina and I both won things in the raffle- she got four free passes to the miniature golfing on site there, I I got two free meals at Denny's. We decided to really make an evening out of it, and used them both. Fortunately, I redeemed myself at the golfing. So there was that. Something nice about living in Chico is that we could be out golfing at 9:30pm in shorts and still be comfortable.
In fact, it didn't get cold at all except for when we were in Denny's where they had the AC cranked. Was fun ordering full meals there, though, and they put up absolutely no fuss about just taking the vouchers (which were just handwritten on the back of a couple of business cards) and letting us go. So that was nice.
Might possibly be trying to bike to Butte College tomorrow. It'd be nice not to have to worry about missing the bus, and it's not like it gets dark at any time that I'd have to worry about biking in the dark. So we'll see.
So, the padded feet at the front-underneath of my comp's keyboard have lost a lot of the stickiness that keeps them adhered to the keyboard. They fall off when I shove it around too fast, and I have to turn it over and carefully stick them back in place. But this afternoon I was hurrying to get out the door to go to dance, and didn't have time to hunt down the pad when it fell off.
So now, 6 hours later, I'm getting ready for bed, taking off my trainers. And what falls out, but the little pad. I have absolutely no idea how it could have gotten in my shoe. It was a bit...bemusing.
I've never found a piece of a computer keyboard in my shoe before. Perhaps I haven't been watching closely enough.
Speaking of keyboards, though, I'd quite like this one.
Though this one would be all right also. It's ergonomic!
Miracle people with marvelous hair And a knack to do anything better than anyone I got a home with electrical air And I live in a world Smaller than anyone
Two years today since we moved back to the States. March 3oth, got up at around 4am for the taxi from the BnB we were staying at to the airport.
Breakfast at the BnB. Tea! And toast in proper toast racks!
I got a line on a new frontier I got a line on a new America All of the people are vanishing here I could be huge, If I could just get home
It doesn't actually seem like two years: rather longer, actually. Probably because I've done an awful lot in that time; three-and-a-half semesters of college, meeting so many new people, living in two cities and three residences (some, admittedly, longer than others). It doesn't seem...reasonable that all of that's happened in only a two year span.
I got a friend from the new frontier And Galen, she says, this is not America You need a girl with electrical hair And the words that you wanted was al-u-min-i-um
Revising. Bin. Ground floor. Pants. Holiday. Layby. Sweets. All are differently nuanaced or used in ways I still have to think about. not that big a deal, and amusing more often than annoying. The funniest ones will trip you up, though. My English teacher staring at me when I referenced revising for math. Cilantro/coriander.
I'm entirely in favour of the English practice of saying "sorry" to someone who runs into you, no matter who's fault it is. Automatic apology is totally the way to progress as a culture.
Then there are the things you just can't find. Last caramel slice eaten, March 20th, 2007.
I was in bed with The girl at the end of the world She says I'm goin' home. And you should come home too
Would I move back to Britain right now? No. I love Chico: the weather, my school, my friends, the professors, the atmosphere, my apartment. I like being close to my family, and especially getting to know some of them for the first time. I like being with people who are closer to being my peers than many 20-somethings in Britain would be right now. I'm very happy here
Would I move back to Britain once I've graduated, to work and/or raise a family? Yes. I miss the culture and the attitudes and the way of life. I miss the food, the sense of humor, the people. The tea. The much smaller number of people-with-guns. Agas. The lower bread prices. The more sane news coverage. The public transportation. The BBC. The proximity to Europe.
There are also heaps of US things I'm sure I would miss if I moved back. Goodness knows I love being near family and being able to get a good hamburger. But net, I think Britain wins. I like the culture more there; I think it feels more like home.
Last couple of days in Britain: out to dinner at a pub with good friends.
I'm at the end of a new frontier Here at the edge of the flat earth ending I'm getting off to get lost in the air At the end of the world where the light is bending
