Thinking back

I’ve been back for 6 months. The half a year I lived in England, the 6 months I was gone, is now the same amount of time that I have been a returned traveler living in the US. It’s also weird to think that this time last year, I had a month left to prep for my departure on the adventure of a lifetime, and now I’m just… back.

Each day is a mix of nostalgia, frustration, and gratefulness because I went on this trip. And it’s just really odd to think of that huge, life-changing chunk of time being the same  as being…here. I can’t get my mind around it quite yet. I don’t really know what else I wanted to say, other than trying to express the confusion of this situation.Forgive my ramblings I suppose.

Just some thoughts

• Already my room seems barer. As I take things down and organize my clothing, the usual anxieties about space constraints are here, but I’m also conscious of the melancholy strangeness of packing up my life here.
• I think I might just halfway  live out of my suitcase so I won’t have to keep unpacking and rearranging things.
• My essay is really boring to write, and I picked the most interesting topic. The fact that I was even given a choice of topics is odd. 
• My bread went moldy.
• There’s a chance I won’t have to pay excess baggage charges for my other bag. Also, I’m packing my life into two bags. What. 
• I still really love skype. 
• My big suitcase was dusty when I opened it back up today. 
• Perhaps I need a haircut. It is rather long. Longest it’s been in quite a few years actually. 
• My iPod battery dies so quickly now. At least it still works!
• There are so many fewer voices in the corridor now that people have gone home. It’s starting to feel lonely. 
• Back to essay writing interspersed with packing. 
• Playlist for this post: Up in Flames by Coldplay

The Final Lap

I’ll be on a plane back home to L.A. in 9 days. 9. That’s it. I can’t wait to see my family again, waiting for me to get out of customs, and hug my dog again, and feel constant sunshine on my skin, go to the beach and Disneyland and eat Mexican food and Goldfish crackers. All of these things are exciting to me, but I have to leave to do them. I realized that it’s so hard to leave because it isn’t just a vacation spot, a brief blip on my radar where I happened to be in York, but this is my life now. I have people here I care about, and routines, and things to look forward to, and I’ve just managed to figure it all out. So leaving feels…weird, to say the least. It is still a bit unreal to even think that I’ve been here long enough to have to say my goodbyes now. But this last week has been amazing so that makes it worth it. Time to update you all and I think I’ll try to go in chronological order!

• Last weekend, my friends and I went shopping for Ascot and bought our hats finally! (more on those later) and went to the York Dungeons as a big group. I thought it was going to be terrifying but it was just a sort of  fun scary thing. Since we were such a big group of giggling, screaming students we got picked on a lot by the people working there and many of us got to “volunteer” and go up to participate in some way, like screaming or being killed or executed or put on trial. It was silly and I’m actually really glad we went.
•  Then this past Monday I went to the X-Factor auditions in Newcastle. We had to wait outside in the queue area for a really long time, but once we got inside it was really fun. Most of the audition performances were actually good, so it felt more like a fun concert rather than a painful talent show.
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• The day after, the Olympic Torch came through York! It was super exciting; the streets were full of people, festive decorations were up, and people were just excited to see the torch bearers bring the torch through York. 
• Such a fun day!
• Then, on Wednesday, the event I’ve been waiting for all term finally came! ROYAL ASCOT! The Royal Ascot horse races happen every year outside of London and everyone gets dressed and has picnics and drinks and bets on the horses and well, it was wonderful. It was such a uniquely British experience, and one I don’t think I’ll be lucky enough to experience again. The day was just lovely, and the weather was spectacular too. Here’s some of my favorite pictures from the day:
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• My betting slips and a glass of Pimm’s!
• I love my hat so much. We saw the Queen! So exciting! (that’s her in the pink, sorry for the blurriness)
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• Also, on the journey back up to York we had a few hours to kill in King’s Cross Station so…this happened! I got to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter and fulfill another childhood dream. Gahh so lucky. It was a pretty amazing day, with such an amazing feel to the entire experience. It’s things like this are so worth being over here.
• I’m working on writing an essay that will be the last academic thing before I leave. But my marks in my other courses were all really good so I feel good about it.
• I eat mayo a lot more than I did before. With french fries I like mostly ketchup with a bit of mayo as well, and sandwiches taste better with it now. I don’t know who I am.
• Our oven is broken again so that means a depleted amount of foods that can be eaten warm.
• I have to start taking everything off of my walls and pretty much start packing which is bizarre.
• Everyone should watch The Legend of Korra. It’s wonderful.
• I’m kind of excited for my flight because it’s just exciting to travel.
• Saying goodbye is only getting harder. Two of my flatmates left uni yesterday and saying goodbye brought me to tears. I’m just going to miss them all so much.
• There’s some sort of surprise planned for me this weekend. I think I’m excited. hahaha
• When I think back on my Europe trip it almost doesn’t seem real, which is incredibly odd.
• I’m so excited for mine and my family’s various birthday plans this summer.
• I’m reading the first part of A Dance with Dragons, the latest book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series, and I still absolutely love these characters. The books are just so rich and wonderful that I love being in their world.
• Is it bad that I’m excited to sleep on the plane back?
• Headaches are so annoying.
• I honestly love food so much. I can’t wait to properly cook again.
• I’m suddenly rather exhausted so I think I’ll read a bit more then go to sleep.
• Playlist for this post: The Weeknd

The Countdown has begun.

A month from now it will be the 4th of July, and I will be home. Not one of the many places I’ve called home over the last few years, but back to my house with my family. That just feels crazy and almost nonsensical.

In unrelated news, it’s the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations the past few days. They’ve been rather fun and it’s cool to see the patriotism of my adopted country.  The River Pageant yesterday was a huge parade of boats down the Thames, and right now I’m listening to the eclectic mix of musicians performing for the Jubilee Concert on BBC radio. Pretty cool to be here for such an historic event.

Now for some updates!

• I’ve not been sleeping well and as such I feel run down and tired a lot. My usual headaches are worse too since I’m not properly rested. Hopefully this will pass soon though.
• In doing my reading for one of my presentations, I’ve come across some really interesting findings related to book covers. It’s nice to find my research interesting.
• There are actually so many hours of sunlight now. The sun rises really early and sets incredibly late as well.
• I’m trying to figure out the cheapest way to ship some of my stuff home ahead of me so I’ll have less to deal with when flying back.
• Skype is honestly the most amazing thing ever.
• I can’t wait for Ascot.
• There are so many things I have to look forward to this summer(birthdays, Disneyland, the beach, friends, family) that it almost makes leaving bearable.
• I really don’t have much else to report, and sorry there aren’t any pictures for this one. 😦
• Playlist for this post: Diamond Jubilee Concert on BBC Radio

An English Summer

As I’m writing this, it is a delightful 72°F outside. The sun is shining, there’s a breeze, the sky is so blue, and people keep walking by in shorts eating ice cream and popsicles. It’s fantastic. I couldn’t ask for better weather anywhere, much less the North of England.

•  I only have like 6 weeks left! It seems like a lot but nothing at all when I think about it.
• I watched the Eurovision Song Competition last night with half of my hall, and it was so fun. If you’ve never really heard of Eurovision or don’t know much about it, I recommend looking into it. It’s hilarious. The basic premise is that European countries pick a group or person to sing a song, sometimes in English other times in their native language, in hopes of receiving enough votes from the panel and phone-in votes to win. It’s actually really political in the voting, and the performances are cheesy fantastic. Just a lot of fun.
• My love for ice cream and fruit and salad has been rekindled by this warm weather. Yummmmm
• I finished “A Feast for Crows” in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, the books by George R. R. Martin that the TV show Game of Thrones is based on. The books are so detailed and crazy and I love them.
• I’m fairly certain I’m going to spontaneously combust when I touch down at LAX.
• My dreams came true this week when I visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour outside of London. It was incredible. I cried twice because it was so cool and I became overwhelmed with happiness (yea, it happens ok?). We were in the tour for over 4 hours, saw EVERYTHING, met the carpenter from the films who happens to still work there, accidentally got a free private tour from two of the Interactors that worked there for half of the tour, and were the last ones to leave for the day. It was just special and an experience I’ll definitely never forget.
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• This picture is actually from my friend Sahana, since at the moment he opened the Great Hall doors I started to flail around a little and tear up. It was so insane to walk in there after so  long picturing what it would be like.
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• Me with my hand in the hand print Daniel Radcliffe left. We’ve held hands now, no big deal.
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• In the Gyffindor common room, where I belong. Wish it wasn’t so blurry though.
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• Just some of the amazing props they had inside and at the Backlot. So cool.
• We also tried butterbeer, bought souvenirs, made friends with some security guards and all in all had an absolutely amazing time. So worth it
• I’m feeling a little ehhh about the presentations that are the final grade for this term in English. I hate doing group presentations because they’re stressful and awkward but my group mates are alright so far and we have some pretty cool ideas so now it’s just a matter of making it work.
• I cleaned my room and washed some clothes and made my bed today. Go me.
• I am very close to being broke. Very close. It’s a little scary but I’m sure somehow it will work out. After all, I still have just over 6 weeks left in England.
• My hair is SO LONG. Probably going to end up cutting it soon because it will start bugging me.
• I did not bring nearly enough warm weather clothing. I was so focused on not being cold that I never stopped to consider that it might get warm. Awkward.
• I think I don’t have anything else to say.
• Playlist for this post: Sigur Ros

Just a quick update!

Being home in N Block  is still pretty much the best thing ever. I knew I would become friends with these people, but boy am I going to miss them. They are such an integral part of my experience here and I am so thankful every day that I fit right into the group, just as they have fit into my heart. And before I get too mushy and sentimental, let’s move on!

• The last two weeks my flatmates and I have taken to having Sunday brunch at the Charles, a pub really close to campus. The food is cheap and tastes good, and the atmosphere of the place is pretty perfect. 
•  Being silly before my food got to me
• After one of our brunches, we wandered over to the extra wooded areas of campus including The Quiet Place. 
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•  On my way to Narnia! At least, that’s what it looks like. 
• I’m finally making my way down to London for real next week! I have plans to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour with friends from UCR studying near London and stay with them for a while, then head over to my flatmate’s house to stay with her and her family for a few nights and let her show me the city. I’m so excited!
• My last day of instruction for my topic modules was today, then I just have to work on presentations for those classes. My other class will still be meeting on Monday’s, but it’s not very interesting or challenging which is no fun. 
• I’ve been doing yoga and sets of crunches in an attempt to get back into shape. So far so good.
• I miss macarons,
• My hair is obscenely long. I think I’ll cut it when I go back. 
• I seriously hate acne. So unnecessary. 
• I think I’ve budgeted enough money to last so I should be good. 
• I am too emotionally invested in my favorite TV shows. Each season finale is more and more painful, probably because people keep dying and I can’t stop crying. It’s too much I tell you.
• It’s starting to be a little warmer here. And by that I mean nearly 60 during the day and some sunshine. WOO HOO!
• I feel as though that may be all I have to report. If I think of more I can always write again!
• Playlist for this post: Sigur Ros

Decompressing

Well Europe Trip 2012 is a wrap everyone. I can’t believe I actually traveled all around Europe and saw so many incredible places. Parts of it don’t seem real, and I can’t wrap my mind around how much ground I traveled in a few weeks time. It also hasn’t really sunk in that I won’t have to pack up and move tomorrow and continue exploring. Which is good and bad, because that means the trip is over. Just craziness that all of it even happened in the first place and that it’s now over.

Settling back into life here at York has been really wonderful. It has truly become my home and flying back into England just affirmed that for me. On the plane I felt so at peace knowing I was going home, to my own little room in N Block surrounded by the ridiculous, adorable, fantastic people who have welcomed me. Being back has just felt good, despite the less than ideal rainy and gloomy weather. However, I still have much to recap from my whirlwind tour of Europe! So onwards to bulleted highlight blurbs!

• Of all of these places I visited, Prague and Florence were my favorite cities, followed by Madrid and Paris. I liked something about all the places I visited to be sure, but these ones felt comforting and surprising at the same time. There was something magical and intoxicating about them, which made me want to spend more time in their lovely streets.
• Me in Florence, on top of the Duomo
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• Me in front of the Prague Castle
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• Me in the Louvre Museum in Paris
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• At the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium in front of the Walt Disney nature statues, celebrating Walt’s love of nature. Or I think that’s what it was for.
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• It’s been raining off and on since I’ve come back and even though campus is starting to get a little flooded in places, I still feel like I can’t really complain. It hasn’t legitimately rained very much so I suppose some spring rains are to be expected.
• My body could not handle the stress of all of that traveling very well. I got sick 3 times on the whole trip, and each time I felt ridiculous. Luckily I didn’t miss much by taking time to recover but it was still frustrating to feel run down and not be able to push through it. Guess my body can’t handle 4 weeks of nonstop traveling. Or maybe it just isn’t used to it yet!
• Wearing the same clothes over and over again for 4 weeks somehow made me want to buy a bunch of new clothes but at the same time continue to be creative with the clothes I did have.
• This big trip definitely gave me the travel bug, more so than I already did. I want to see as much of the world as I can. African savannas, ancient ruins, trees, people, lakes, the rest of the States, glaciers, food I want it all. I want to be greedy with my life experiences, I want to soak them all in.
• American music is everywhere. Does no other country have enough popular music to play?
• I’ve been reading for my classes and listening to music and the rain all day and it’s been so lovely.
• I bought nail polish on a whim in Barcelona for a Euro. Turns out in glows in the dark! So cool!
• I seriously need to do laundry but with the rain and my general laziness, I have yet to actually do it. Soon…
• When we were in Paris we visited the Orangerie Gallery, home to Monet’s ‘Les Nympheas’ or Waterlilies paintings. We couldn’t take pictures, but the gallery was stunningly lovely. (Here’s a video someone took even though we were discouraged from that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw03m1DGkmg to get a taste of it). His paintings are just so pretty and I bought a ton of postcards to function as art.
• I have my window open to listen to the rain better but it might be time to close it soon since the Thursday night party crowd has begun making noise.
• I have begun looking for my flight home, which is bizarre. It’s weird to even think about leaving, I’m not ready to even plan for it.
• My flatmates and I went proper grocery shopping last weekend and I have so much yummy, healthy, filling food now. Wonderful
• In all of my pictures from the trip, my flannel shirt is the most photographed thing. It’s ridiculous.
• To highlight some more delicious food;
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• My rather delicious salad from the cafe in the Louvre
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• Trois fromages sandwich. Simple and delicious.
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• Patatas bravas as a part of my tapas meal one night in Barcelona
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• Scrumptious falafel pita pocket. Probably the best falafel I’ve ever had
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• LADUREE. MACARONS. I have dreamed of tasting these little things and they were SO GOOD. Little bits of happiness. Ugh now I want some again.
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• Crema Catalana from the sweet shop inside San Miguel Mercado in Madrid.
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• Paella and sangria on our last night in Spain, inside the Mercado again. Yum yum yum.
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• Eating chocolate con churros at the world famous San Gines Chocolateria in Madrid. So delicious.
• And finally, the greatest meal I’ve ever eaten. No joke. Our first night in Paris we stopped at a little restaurant up near Sacre Ceour Cathedral that to us looked quintessentially French and also boasted a 3-course meal deal for 18 euro. And then the food was just delicious. My pictures don’t do it justice at all, but ohmygod incredible food. I repeat, best meal I’ve ever had. To put it in perspective, I ate green beans and I loathe green beans. I think they’re vile and smell weird. But I ate them because with the sauce and the fish… ohwow just so good I want to fly back to Paris and eat the whole meal again. 
• First course: tiny homemade cheese ravioli in a simple cheese and herb sauce.
• Second course: the food of angels. ohman this picture does nothing for this food. I was actually overwhelmed by how good it was. Fish on a bed of green beans in a beurre blanc sauce and just omg I want to eat it. 
• And creme brulee to finish it off. Just a fantastic meal.
• I’m too distracted by memories of that epic meal to write much else, so that might have to be it for now.
• Playlist for this post: Ingrid Michaelson’s newest album “Human Again”

More random thoughts

All bulleted highlight blurbs today folks.

• I’m in Paris, and the first meal I had was bread, cheese and wine, naturally. I had a sandwich of perfectly crusty French bread (but like real French bread ya know?) and Cantal cheese, with a small glass of Bordeaux. Perfection honestly.
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• To follow that up, we each bought massive macarons. Like huge.  It was so good. I got the salted caramel flavor and it was scrumptiously gooey and crumbly. 
• Afterthoughts on Berlin: not my favorite. I don’t know what it was. I liked it well enough, but it didn’t feel as… magical? Maybe it’s the buildings too, a lot of the architecture is sort of blocky and standardized making the city feel sort of dull. I don’t know. I feel like that’s somehow bad to not like any of these amazing places, and it’s that I didn’t like it, just not… in love with it. It just didn’t grab hold of me like some other places have.
• However our tour from New Sandeman’s was once again fantastic. We took a tour from this company in Prague too, and they’re wonderful. All of the major tourist essentials on a long walking tour with history and anecdotes along the way. Oh and it’s free. You tip at the end depending which is dependent on how much you felt it was worth so I suppose you could not pay at all, but  I would honestly pay ehh €10 or so for one of them. So worth it. 
• This hostel smells of fresh paint. Odd. But I really like it so far
• Prague Castle was actually more of a bunch of government buildings and lodging and presedential stuff and cathedrals on a hill. Not one castle. Which was confusing. But beautiful nonetheless!
• Prague was magical. It honestly felt like a fairy tale land come to life. The buildings, the windy streets, the terribly uneven cobblestones, everything. So lovely. 
• I need to drink more water
• My rolling duffle bag made it through it’s first big trip! Yay!
• My money’s low again, and since Paris is just plain expensive I’ll have to budget wisely!
• I become more and more convinced that I want to be a flight attendant everyday. I have to be able to see the rest of this world and bring other people with me. 
• While I’m still disappointed I didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel while in Rome (we went on a Sunday forgetting it was Sunday and that of course it would be closed) but being able to attend mass in St. Peter’s Basilica was unreal. I had tears running down my face nearly the whole time I was inside because it was that overwhelming and awesome.  
• I think we’re taking a bus tour of Paris tonight to get the lay of the land and it will hopefully be beautiful.
• Sometimes I wish we had planned out every day of this trip more.
• I’m slowly turning into my aunts as this trip goes on. I love wine now, with food, on its own, trying new kinds. ohmygod. It makes me laugh every time I remember some random tidbit of wine info said in passing by one of them. 
• Now to get cleaned up and go do some exploring! and eating, of course. 
• Playlist for this post: the random selection of music playing in the hostel kitchen, including acoustic James Blunt, random R&B, and other assorted music. 

Still trekking

I keep trying to find the time to update this, but wandering Europe is more time consuming than I thought. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing at all and I’m Definitely not complaining, but it does make it hard to blog. But now to recap I suppose! I’ll try and hit some main points but its hard now because everything is sort of a blur of constant motion and dream-like places. I can’t really believe in the last few weeks I went from living in England to staying in Rome, then Florence, Pula in Croatia, Prague, and now my last night in Berlin. It’s unreal. And there’s still more to come. Tomorrow I’m waking up at the crack of dawn for us to take the barely comprehensible S-Bahn system to fly to Paris. PARIS. Insanity. Now onwards to the bulleted highlight blurbs!

• Rome was crazy. I’d love to go back, because I feel like it’s a city that you need time for. It’s hard to see and do it all in such an old, rich city in just a few short days. At times I felt overwhelmed by the sheer old-ness of everything around me. I mean, Roman ruins are something else. And they’re everywhere. Just sort of scattered throughout the newer parts of the city that sprung up around them before they were discovered and preserved. See? Just stuck in the middle of other stuff! The Colosseum was not disappointing in the least. It was incredible, so huge and to think that people built it thousands of years ago with simple tools and sweat boggles my mind. Me in the Colosseum. So cool. I mean seriously. 
• Italian men are creepy. Wolf whistles, kissy noises, various phrases shouted out, and general staring were the norm for me and my three girl friends. But even worse are the Indian men selling things on the streets. They’re so pushy and basically verbally accost you in some way to try to get you to buy their crap. I’m still baffled as to why anyone thought that would be a good way to do business. No, I Don’t want to buy your wares now that you have succeeded in skeeving me out. Personal favorite quotes from men: “BOOM SHAKA LAKA! wanna buy a rose?!”; ” ey sexies I take your picture?”; “i’ll give you the ex-wife discount!”; “which one of you will be my wife? ahh you will be my wife!”. These are actual things people said to us in hopes that we would then buy something from them. I don’t understand. 
• Florence was so beautiful. There was something about it that I instantly fell in love with. I think it’s because it was the perfect sized city, and still so beautiful and with so much history and gahh I just really fell in love with that city. From the first sunset on Ponte Vecchio                                        to all of the amazing gelato                                              to the fantastic museums where I saw amazing paintings and Michelangelo’s David (which is HUGE by the way. totally not expecting it to be that towering) to the lovely Boboli Gardens (Tracy, Adrianna, Me, and Julia!), everything about Florence was fantastic. I would honestly move there in a heartbeat. 
• The common room that has the only wifi just started playing incredibly loud, bad music. This post may not be as long as originally intended. 
• I’ve realized how much of my father’s daughter I am. I can’t read a map very well because I never orient it right, but once I pass something or take a certain route I remember how to do it again. My hyper-observance and sense of direction of become more heightened on this trip, because I am always somewhere utterly foreign, often with a foreign language all around me. It’s nice to have a sense of where I am in the world. 
• My duffle bag’s shoulder strap broke, probably because my bag is too damn heavy to carry, so today I bought a rolling duffle bag for the second half of the trip. I’m so happy. 
• I really want to go see the Hunger Games but not only will it have subtitles but that seems wrong somehow to waste time watching a movie in any of these amazing cities. 
• British accents remind me of home now. It’s weird. 
• I miss my flatmates from York a lot. They’re so crazy and loveable and I miss being around them!
• I’ve been sick twice on this trip. I know, I’m amazing. Last week on our day of traveling from Florence to Pula I woke up with some sort of 24 hour flu or food poisoning or something, so I spent the excruciatingly long day traveling through various forms of transportation vomiting. Needless to say it was awesome. I spent the next day recovering in our lovely apartment in Pula and luckily felt better and could enjoy the rest of the trip. Then this past Friday I felt like I was getting a cold and after getting caught in the pouring rain in Berlin on Saturday I definitely had one. I spent Sunday reading in bed getting rid of my fever and then bundled up against the cold air after that. I still feel it a little bit but I think that day of rest was infinitely helpful. 
• My camera battery dies a lot. But it’s an old camera so I guess that’s to be expected. Ah well!
• I love buying souvenirs. For myself, for other people, or if I’m unsure if I’ll keep something or end up giving it to someone. So fun!
• Me, Tracy, and Adriana made friends with two guys staying in our hostel here in Berlin and we all went out for drinks at some bars here in Berlin last night. Seriously awesome. One’s from England the other Finland, so it was a lot of fun for all of us to chat and laugh over drinks. Oh and having it all occur at a bar in Berlin? Unreal. 
• I seriously love food. Like omg I love it so much. I want to eat constantly, and I rarely regret spending money on food, especially when its phenomenal. I’m going to post pictures of some standout meals I’ve had, although I have yet to have an actually bad meal. Gnochhi quattro formaggi in Florence.       Me with my smoked salmon ravioli in Rome a few blocks from the Trevi fountain. One of the greatest things I’ve ever eaten. Freaking delicious                        .A deliciously gooey chocolate pastry in Florence. It was like chocolate pudding between layers of puff pastry. YummmmHomemade meal our last night in Pula. Oven grilled fish (fresh fish! that we bought at a Croatian fish market! that Julia beheaded and that I cooked!), mashed potatoes, salad, and roasted garlic for spreading on bread. Spätzle in Prague!         And that’s just my favorites. So much delicious food has been eaten on this trip.
• Well I’m tired and I want to write more but I still have to pack and sleep to wake up and fly to Paris tomorrow. Wish I could write more!
• Playlist for this post: The Weeknd, with general background noise from the people and music in the cafe.

Two months

I can’t believe it. I’ve actually been away for two whole months. It seems crazy that I’ve been here for so long, since it really hasn’t seemed like very long at all. I’ve been keeping myself busy recently, with school work, hanging out with my American friends, and staying in and enjoying the company of my hall. It’s nice to finally feel at home here, like I have a place where I fit in and I know how things work. Not that things have become dull, just that I feel comfortable here. It’s just nice to have people to spend time with.

I don’t have any large, main stories that warrant dominating this post so I suppose we’ll move on to the bulleted highlight blurbs yes?

• My hall mates and I finished watching the extended edition versions of the LOTR trilogy last night. It was quite the undertaking but so worth it.
• I will be flying to Italy in less than two weeks to start my whirlwind spring break tour. I seriously can’t believe it.
• I’m starting work on my final essays for my classes since one is due in week 10 and the other once I come back from break. But since I won’t really be essay writing then I’m starting that one now too.
• The parentals put my paycheck into my bank account for me. Yay for my money!
• It’s been unseasonably warm recently, like 55 during the day. That’s not even unbearable anymore which is somewhat impressive but also makes my California soul cry a little bit.
• The girls in my hall and I went out this week and had a ton of fun bar hopping and just being gossipy and silly all night. So fun.
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• I am officially all caught up on Supernatural. It’s a big deal get excited people.
• My friend and I took a day trip over to Leeds last weekend. We got a bit lost on the way there, but exploring a new city and doing some shopping once we got there was super fun. We plan to go back and check out the nightlife with a bigger group of people.
•  Me and Julia on our way!
•  The inside of Leeds railway station.
•  One of the beautiful arcades; indoor shopping centers in town. So gorgeous.
• I started to think about what to pack for the trip and then it seemed too unreal to do that so I stopped.
• I might need to buy new sheets because the ones that the school gave me are pilling oddly and retain scent really weirdly. So maybe time for another set.
• I love shoes. I think since I came here with so few pairs, my addiction and appreciation for shoes has become ridiculous. At least I can contain myself most of the time, and only spend very small amounts of money on shoes. But oh how I love them.
• There’s a bruise underneath one of my toe nails. SO PAINFUL
• I bought a bag of spinach, rocket, and watercress salad at M&S (a grocery store that’s also a department store). It’s delicious
• My sleeping habits are a bit better, but it’s still very hit or miss. Some nights are good others aren’t.
• Being away makes me realize exactly who is important in my life. Some people I miss a lot, others I don’t particularly care that I’m out of their presence. It’s a nice sort of re-evaluation of my relationships.
• I haven’t had a bowl of cereal in forever. That sounds really good all of a sudden.
• My Kindle continues to be one of the coolest things ever.
• The Hunger Games is going to premiere while I’m in Croatia. Huh.
• A few of my hall mates and I made tentative plans to go to the Royal Ascot horse races in June. It looks fantastic and I hope we actually go.
• Playlist for this post: Judas by Lady Gaga (on repeat)