Tuesday, October 30, 2007
random mumblings
It seems that everything with my card will work out, I've got some money, have cancelled the card, and am now just waiting for a new one to arrive and for the paperwork concerning the false charges to be processed so I can (hopefully) get my money back. What a mess though, must have been sort of stressed out because I got a headache yesterday evening. At the moment I'm at the library in between my cultures of childhood seminar and my shakespeare seminar which is from 2:30 - 4:30, the nice thing is it never feels like it is two hours long, they tend to go by quickly. At the moment we're reading Hamlet though I'm a tad behind, I'm still on Richard III, shakespeare is slow reading but it's worth it to read it and actually understand what is happening (which I can only do if I read it slowly). On friday I'm jetting off to Galway, Ireland to go visit Megan for awhile (until wednesday!). Traveling alone so it should be a good experience for me, involves a train to the airport, and then a plane, and then a bus from the airport to Galway (since I'm not flying directly into Galway). Yesterday I switched my dollars over to euros at the post office to be able to have some euros to use in Ireland because without a debit card I have no access to their form of money. Tonight is a "do lots of homework and reading until I fall asleep" kind of night, filled with several cups of tea I'd imagine (or hot chocolate!). Yesterday I went to poundland to get some hot chocolate since it's cheap there, only a pound! There was a young man asking how much a toy was and it took a lot of effort to keep from cracking up, he was in poundland for goodness sakes. Jessica and I used to think it was hilarious to go to the dollar store and go around asking how much everything was, looking back probably more annoying than funny. Well, no, it's still pretty amusing. Today I really need to go to the grocery store because I've run out of milk and it would be good to have some more for my tea, rather than stealing my housemates (well, more like borrowing, we share milk if we run out because it's one of those things thats cheap here and goes bad fairly quickly so you might not run out without sharing). We have had some issues with food stealing though, it's just been one housemate and he sort of has a blatant disregard for the fact that not all the food in the house is for his use, people purchase their own food to eat themselves not to just have laying around for everyone to use. I mean, if you run out and ask someone to borrow some pasta, or whatnot, and promise to replace it, that's one thing, but just taking things without asking isn't so nice. We're also a pretty messy house which doesn't bother me, makes me feel at home actually haha, but theres alllways dirty dishes and the rubbish is usually pretty full and you know, stuff like that, it's always a big deal if someone does all the washing. I've been cleaning up right after eating just because it easier to clean then, nothings stuck to anything, and that way I avoid having the messy reptuation in the house. Though, sometimes I leave a mug, or a spoon or something to clean the next day. Hmm well the time sort of flew between classes, I've got to go do a small assignment sort of thing and then head off to class, and then go pick up my photos I developed yesterday to maybe enter into a photo competition they have here, they're not very artistic but just photos I really enjoyed and thought maybe someone else might too. We'll see how they came out. Also have to run over to the train station and purchase train tickets for friday to get to the airport. So, all in all a busy day. Hopefully a productive and busy day. More soon...
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Well, i thought my day was bad when I stepped in dog poop while I was running. But no, of course that wouldn't be the worst. Someone has somehow gotten access to my debit card numbers, even though I physically have the card and it's never left my body except when I've bought things. So now I get to go through the whole process of cancelling my card and getting a new one, except I get to do it overseas. Fun times. Well I'm off to go to find an atm somewhere in York and then cancel this...hope you're all having better days than me.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
red sox!
So last night was game one of the world series and though I'm not a big baseball fan, when the Sox get to this point I'd hate to miss the games. Yet...with the 5 hour time difference...the games do not start until, oh, one o'clock in the morning. At first I didn't even think there was a chance I'd even be able to watch them but lo and behold our TV now shows 5 channels instead of just one, and on one of the channels they show major league baseball really late at night, what are the chances? Even after my housemate Will informed me he can hear everything we say in the kitchen with the door open, I still screamed when I turned the TV on and saw Boston! Long story short, didn't go to sleep until maybe 5:30 this morning but so worth it (don't worry, I didn't have class until 1 pm so it was fine). Also, it's about 9:05 and the library staff are already telling us to move downstairs, the library does not close up here until 9:30, it's rather annoying to have them rushing you out and stuff especially when I have no intention of moving downstairs I'm leaving to go back home once the upstairs closes. Anyways, just thought I'd let everyone know my excitement about being able to watch the Sox games. One more small note, tonight I cooked up some chili and some rice and it was really delicious and there's so much leftover I might not have to really cook until who knows when, awhile from now.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Pictures - Megan's visit, hanging out with my housemates, my kitty friend, package from randel, funny cards! :)
Monk Bar - one of the entrances to city walls, and also how I get into town! :)
Mmm cider with black, aka, blackcurrent, a sweet berry juice thing. Makes it pink. Pretty much the best tasting thing ever, even Megan likes it. This is sunday night after picking megan up, again. hahaha.
Me and Josie at keystones!
Me and Meg...do i even need to say where we are?
Me and Rosie and Megan, obviously I was not so ready for this picture
Yum Yum candy!
Megan with her cute little half pint that she so nicely covered for the picture
Cruse house number 3's version of a mattress run, or, mattress slide...so fun!
Leatitia (going to butcher the spelling everytime...) and I at keystones :)
me, megan, maggie, and karen at keystones
rosie, me, megan and maggie
megan at my school!
the quad, well, one part of it
student union bar on campus
with our vouchers! we're superheroes :)
view of the minster from city walls, meg and i realized we bought postcards with this exact view.
wheel of York, or York eye, whatever you want to call it. immitation of London Eye is my name
York Minster
wedding at the York Minster, took the picture just in time to see the bride light up...awesome
part of city walls
more city walls - you know, they're pretty big :) well, only 1.9 miles i guess? but still
the two bumps are our heads! me and megans heads to be exact
the rainbow scarf i bought in scotland....so soft, and rainbowy :)
From Jess, on the inside it says "but you still have to find someone to drive you home, funny how that works"...hahaha
card from Mic!
Beautiful arrangement of flowers that shall never die from Randel - came with mac and cheese and chocolates too! mmm
my kitty friend that i've made, except she only recongizes me at this fence, otherwise she gets too nervous
Lat.'s boyfriend and Stephane (boyfriend = Nikola)
jenny and josie, my two female housemates :)
Dan, Adam and Tom
Matt, Adam, and Jenny, at keystones of course!
It's freezing out today! Really didn't want to get out from under my nice and warm covers at...well, let's be honest, it was 11. My schedule here lets me get lots of sleep which I'm not going to complain about. Megan came to visit over the weekend and we had so much fun, she got here on thursday night and we got some take-out (a cheeseburger that we split) and just talked until 5:30 in the morning. Saturday we slept in and I made us some lunch (chicken and cheese toastie mmm). Took her into town to show he
r the marketplace, which was huge! It was great, there was a whole place with a ton of pastries, and a ton of different food options, and a toffee/candy section, lots of flowers, and wooden carved knick-knacks, etc. etc. Showed her the shambles which is this little windy road that doesn't allow cars to go down in but has a lot of cute shops, such as Mr. £andwich (all the sandwiches are a pound), the earl gray tea rooms, a few souvenir shops, and just other little places too. Since we got a late start we didn't have that much time downtown and we had to go to the grocery store on the way back to pick up a few things for dinner. That night Stephane and Leatitia +her boyfriend (the two students I've met who are from france...sweetest people ever) came over and we made pasta with tomato sauce and sausages, homeade garlic bread, and stephane brought over mini apple pies mmm. it was a really yummy meal, what was funny though was that the boys wouldn't come in the kitch
en because they thought the women should do the cooking (?!) but they did the dishes afterwards so that was okay with me! then we headed off to campus and went to see the movie, which was a documentary called "This is England" which was very depressing but at the same time pulled me in so I just had to keep watching til the end. It was about this maybe 12 or 13 year old boy Sean who lost his father in the war, which apparently was the Falklands war (thanks imdb.com). He is bullied at school and on his way home one day he meets a group of skinheads who try to cheer him up and eventually befriend him so he joins in their "gang". This gang is essentially upset because the English have to work for lower wages/find it hard to find jobs due to the imigrant workers who work for almost no money/steal all their potential jobs, and they want to drive them out of the country to sort of 
preserve the English-ness of England. Their tactics for this really aren't good and the group is so small it's not making a difference, they just go into stores with Pakistani clerks and sort of terrorize them and steal from them, and write graffiti all over the walls. The film mostly focuses on the changes in Sean throughout the movie and how being in this gang opens his eyes to a lot of the bad parts of the world. It's a good movie to watch (if it's even available in America?) i'd highly reccomend it. After the movie Meg and I went to a pub with my housemates and hung out there for awhile with some of the students from union, until we got tired and decided to head back to have some cookies and go to sleep. On saturday we slept in again (of course) and went into town and walked some of the city walls which
surround the city of york, we also went to see the York Minster, where there seemed to be a pretty official looking wedding! there was a huge crowd gathered so we stopped and took some photos and watched the bride walk out and everything, so neat! we just spent the day wandering about york until we had to head back for...fajitas! we had a union girls dinner basiclaly in one of my friends flats, they made the fajitas and we gave them some money haha. mmm, they were so yummy, and spicy, i think my mouth was on fire. that night we went to the student union bar where drinks were pound a pint (great deal!) and the rugby game between england and south africa had just ended and they had lost and a bunch of drunk college boys were singing Josh Grobans you raise me up, seriously a hilarious experience, i took some pictures of them just becau
se it was so funny to see. then, we went to keystones where meg and I got vouchers for a free shot, all around a night filled with good deals! the union girls wanted to go to a club but megan and I said no thanks and headed back to my house and made some tea (and had more cookies, duh) and fell asleep. now...is where the real adventure begins. so we have plans to go get a sunday roast and then sort of chill out until they need to leave for their train but uh, meg checks her plane ticket, and she realizes she's bought one for monday night rather than sunday night which means....she's not going home today with everyone else. but, we try to figure out how to you know, change the ticket or buy a new one but no such luck, you can't do it on the day of online and the phones are closed on the weekends...so meg basically has to get to the airport as soon as possible to try to fix this. so after our sunday roast (of course we didn't miss that) we ran to the train and she caught the one that was leaving in 10 mins (impressive, really) and so then later on i get a phone call from her asking me what to do, it would be 200-250 pounds to fly back to ireland tonight, so i tell her going to class really isn't worth 400-500 dollars, and she says thanks i just needed someone else to tell me how ridiculous it was, so she hops on a train and comes back to york! in the meantime i've been at the library for awhile and was watching dirty dancing (for the first time) with leatitia and my housemates but had to leave before it was over to pick meg up, so i pick her up at like 10pm and we go to the student union bar to
get a drink because, why not? haha. then we head back to my house and we cook up some of dads fried chicken mmm and mashed potatoes and have ourselves a nice meal at 12:30 and then do some reading and relaxing and head to be around 3 or so. On mondays I only have an hour of class so that was nice, Meg and I finished up the rest of the chicken and mashed potatoes and then headed into town to go to the post office to mail some of the post cards we had written out this weekend, and then I made her get a milkshake at the 150 flavors milkshake place yummm i tried the reese's peanut butter cups and she had toll house cookie, but, chocolate peanut butter is still definitely my favorite. so, meg gets back to the train station and then heads back to ireland on monday night and she's made it back safely now so, all is well. what a crazy weekend! but it was so much fun to have megan here and be able to show her all the things i've been doing here, i'll be going to visit her next weekend 
and staying from friday until wednesday in galway which should be a lot of fun!
one other crazy adventure was getting my class schedule all figured out, but, it's perfect now, and by perfect I mean I'm in all the classes I really wanted and I couldn't be happier about it! it took a bunch of effort because I guess some of my requests weren't processed correctly and they also didn't know my preference order for biology courses so they gave me my last pick without knowing it...it's kind of annoying to do this all overseas. anyways, so I'm taking organic chemistry, neural circuits and behavior, and general endocrinology, so I have class tues/thurs from 9am til 3:40 with a break for lun
ch, a 4 hour lab either wednesday or friday afternoon, and an hour of class on friday before lunch as well. can anyone say....4 day weekends? it's nice that with 3 science classes i only have one with a lab, and chris is in my endocrinology class so that will be nice too, we can study together :) so this is the first term I'll actually have all relevant classes not some random class that has nothing to do with what i want to learn. so exciting!! :) well ive got to head downtown and add some minutes to my phone and get some more shampoo so that i have it for when i run out (which might be kind of soon). i'd post pictures but I don't have my laptop with me at the moment, but i'll maybe be able to add some later. hope you're all having a nice day!
r the marketplace, which was huge! It was great, there was a whole place with a ton of pastries, and a ton of different food options, and a toffee/candy section, lots of flowers, and wooden carved knick-knacks, etc. etc. Showed her the shambles which is this little windy road that doesn't allow cars to go down in but has a lot of cute shops, such as Mr. £andwich (all the sandwiches are a pound), the earl gray tea rooms, a few souvenir shops, and just other little places too. Since we got a late start we didn't have that much time downtown and we had to go to the grocery store on the way back to pick up a few things for dinner. That night Stephane and Leatitia +her boyfriend (the two students I've met who are from france...sweetest people ever) came over and we made pasta with tomato sauce and sausages, homeade garlic bread, and stephane brought over mini apple pies mmm. it was a really yummy meal, what was funny though was that the boys wouldn't come in the kitch
en because they thought the women should do the cooking (?!) but they did the dishes afterwards so that was okay with me! then we headed off to campus and went to see the movie, which was a documentary called "This is England" which was very depressing but at the same time pulled me in so I just had to keep watching til the end. It was about this maybe 12 or 13 year old boy Sean who lost his father in the war, which apparently was the Falklands war (thanks imdb.com). He is bullied at school and on his way home one day he meets a group of skinheads who try to cheer him up and eventually befriend him so he joins in their "gang". This gang is essentially upset because the English have to work for lower wages/find it hard to find jobs due to the imigrant workers who work for almost no money/steal all their potential jobs, and they want to drive them out of the country to sort of 
preserve the English-ness of England. Their tactics for this really aren't good and the group is so small it's not making a difference, they just go into stores with Pakistani clerks and sort of terrorize them and steal from them, and write graffiti all over the walls. The film mostly focuses on the changes in Sean throughout the movie and how being in this gang opens his eyes to a lot of the bad parts of the world. It's a good movie to watch (if it's even available in America?) i'd highly reccomend it. After the movie Meg and I went to a pub with my housemates and hung out there for awhile with some of the students from union, until we got tired and decided to head back to have some cookies and go to sleep. On saturday we slept in again (of course) and went into town and walked some of the city walls which
surround the city of york, we also went to see the York Minster, where there seemed to be a pretty official looking wedding! there was a huge crowd gathered so we stopped and took some photos and watched the bride walk out and everything, so neat! we just spent the day wandering about york until we had to head back for...fajitas! we had a union girls dinner basiclaly in one of my friends flats, they made the fajitas and we gave them some money haha. mmm, they were so yummy, and spicy, i think my mouth was on fire. that night we went to the student union bar where drinks were pound a pint (great deal!) and the rugby game between england and south africa had just ended and they had lost and a bunch of drunk college boys were singing Josh Grobans you raise me up, seriously a hilarious experience, i took some pictures of them just becau
se it was so funny to see. then, we went to keystones where meg and I got vouchers for a free shot, all around a night filled with good deals! the union girls wanted to go to a club but megan and I said no thanks and headed back to my house and made some tea (and had more cookies, duh) and fell asleep. now...is where the real adventure begins. so we have plans to go get a sunday roast and then sort of chill out until they need to leave for their train but uh, meg checks her plane ticket, and she realizes she's bought one for monday night rather than sunday night which means....she's not going home today with everyone else. but, we try to figure out how to you know, change the ticket or buy a new one but no such luck, you can't do it on the day of online and the phones are closed on the weekends...so meg basically has to get to the airport as soon as possible to try to fix this. so after our sunday roast (of course we didn't miss that) we ran to the train and she caught the one that was leaving in 10 mins (impressive, really) and so then later on i get a phone call from her asking me what to do, it would be 200-250 pounds to fly back to ireland tonight, so i tell her going to class really isn't worth 400-500 dollars, and she says thanks i just needed someone else to tell me how ridiculous it was, so she hops on a train and comes back to york! in the meantime i've been at the library for awhile and was watching dirty dancing (for the first time) with leatitia and my housemates but had to leave before it was over to pick meg up, so i pick her up at like 10pm and we go to the student union bar to
get a drink because, why not? haha. then we head back to my house and we cook up some of dads fried chicken mmm and mashed potatoes and have ourselves a nice meal at 12:30 and then do some reading and relaxing and head to be around 3 or so. On mondays I only have an hour of class so that was nice, Meg and I finished up the rest of the chicken and mashed potatoes and then headed into town to go to the post office to mail some of the post cards we had written out this weekend, and then I made her get a milkshake at the 150 flavors milkshake place yummm i tried the reese's peanut butter cups and she had toll house cookie, but, chocolate peanut butter is still definitely my favorite. so, meg gets back to the train station and then heads back to ireland on monday night and she's made it back safely now so, all is well. what a crazy weekend! but it was so much fun to have megan here and be able to show her all the things i've been doing here, i'll be going to visit her next weekend 
and staying from friday until wednesday in galway which should be a lot of fun!one other crazy adventure was getting my class schedule all figured out, but, it's perfect now, and by perfect I mean I'm in all the classes I really wanted and I couldn't be happier about it! it took a bunch of effort because I guess some of my requests weren't processed correctly and they also didn't know my preference order for biology courses so they gave me my last pick without knowing it...it's kind of annoying to do this all overseas. anyways, so I'm taking organic chemistry, neural circuits and behavior, and general endocrinology, so I have class tues/thurs from 9am til 3:40 with a break for lun
ch, a 4 hour lab either wednesday or friday afternoon, and an hour of class on friday before lunch as well. can anyone say....4 day weekends? it's nice that with 3 science classes i only have one with a lab, and chris is in my endocrinology class so that will be nice too, we can study together :) so this is the first term I'll actually have all relevant classes not some random class that has nothing to do with what i want to learn. so exciting!! :) well ive got to head downtown and add some minutes to my phone and get some more shampoo so that i have it for when i run out (which might be kind of soon). i'd post pictures but I don't have my laptop with me at the moment, but i'll maybe be able to add some later. hope you're all having a nice day!
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