Last Time Again

I couldn't think of a better title than that because I am feeling a lot of the same feelings right now as I did almost four months ago when I was getting ready to go to London. The fear and anxiety combined with the excitement and happiness was in both. Also, what I wrote about doing things for the last time definitely applies to today. Like when I was showering this morning. "I am showering for the last time here." was a thought that went through my head. Or when I walked to Our Lady of Victories for the last time today. Or when...

I decided to go to mass one last time because I really liked the church and just because I felt like it. The woman who has always sat in the pew in front of me and to the left was there again. The priest talked soooo sssllloooww. I didn't really mind but it was noticeable. The mass was fine although I missed the singing. After the mass, that woman came up to me and said how nice it was to see me at mass all the time. I broke the bad news to her that it was my last time. She said that it might not be and that I should come back sometime. It turns out her name is Susan. Haha, I saw her basically every Sunday for 4 months and I did not know her name until today. That's the life goes sometimes. She said, "All joy and happiness to you," as we parted ways. I said "Likewise". I am so poetic sometimes. I walked over to Kensington Library (not the last time, I am going to have to go there before I come back to drop off a book). I dropped off a bunch of books and just looked to see if they had any books that I wanted to take with me (library picture 1). Nope. I left and walked over to Foundation House where my classes were held. I took a picture of the classroom where I had Sociology and Senior Sem (picture 2). Fancy, no? . I bought a couple snacks/breakfast for the plane ride tomorrow morning. I also bought some sunscreen (I'm optimistic about my travels being sunny) and a little bottle to hold some laundry detergent. I made lunch. My last PBJ here in London. Pretty depressing (who am I kidding? SWEET!)

I came back to the flat and packed. It didn't take that long because I knew what I wanted to bring and what I wanted to leave. I did the post about yesterday and then walked over to Safe Storage to put my bags in. That was a little bit of an adventure because I walked with the little roller suitcase and a bag full of stuff. The bag ripped and a lady walking by gave me a new one. I like people sometimes. I dropped my stuff off and then walked back. Since then, I have been looking up and booking a couple hostels. I am only booking ones that look really good and are what I want, I am still without a place to stay for most of the trip. I plan to find stuff as I go. I've got some travel books so I will be fine. I also looked up ferry schedules and checked to make sure they were all hunky doory. I made dinner. I had tortellini and sauce. Yum. I took some pictures of Metrogate so I can remember it. That includes the laundry "room" (it's smaller than a closet), my bedroom (picture 3), my bathroom, and the kitchen (picture 4). I don't care what anyone else says, I didn't mind it here at all. In fact, I kind of liked it. It was centrally located and it fit my needs just fine.

I forgot to mention that yesterday I talked to my boss at Champlin Public Works. He "interviewed" me. By that I mean, he asked when I wanted to start. Haha, so that's really, really good news. I have a job this summer. Yay!

I was out when Mo left so I didn't get to say goodbye. That's too bad. It's weird being one of the only people left. The computer lab has been empty all day.

I am about to go to lay down for a few hours. I might sleep, I might not, but I need to do it so I can be alert when I land in Istanbul in about 12 hours (woah). I will probably add a little bit more before I leave.

I didn't sleep at all. I ended up watching some tv. I will update as much and as often as I can on the blog so check back often! Love everyone and um, see you all soon!

So Much Work

I walked into my flat at exactly 7 am after taking the bus from Victoria Coach Station. I debated in my head about sleeping for a while (I was exhausted from the overnight coach ride) or stay up and work on one of my papers and catch up online. I decided to go sleeping route. I laid down and pretty much immediately fell asleep. It felt wonderful to lay in my bed. I set an alarm to wake me up at 9:30 so I could get dressed and go to church. The alarm did not wake me up. I ended up waking up at 10:30 which was a major bummer. For a split second I thought about not going but that immediately went out of my mind. I threw on a nice shirt and almost ran over to church. I caught the tail end of it and was able to get communion. It was still worth it. I stood over to the side of the pew I always sit in. Rachelle, Katherine, and Phil were there as were all the regular people I always sit by. It was interesting to take a sort of back seat view and watch it all unfold. I was really sad to leave. The four of us stood outside for a while and chatted. Then Rachelle and I walked back to Metrogate.

I ate some lunch and then went to the grocery store to buy a little bit more food to get me through to Saturday. After procrastinating long enough I started working on my Sociology paper. I wrote about the Diversity in London. I talked about how London has been a city of immigrants and locals since it was founded by the Romans. I also talked about how the best evidence of the diversity is simply walking around any neighborhood and seeing the restaurants and people. Then I threw in some stats to back up my claim of it being a multi-ethnic city. I worked on and off all afternoon and evening. One object of my procrastination was calling my mom, dad and brother. I finished the paper at around 10 I think. Then I started working on the post about my first day in Paris. I finished it up pretty late and then went to bed.

See ya!

A Rainy Day in London Town

Don't think I forgot to do a blog entry for today. I realize how late it is. But I got sucked into looking up travel information. I know it seems like that's all I do (you are probably right) but it's not all I do. Today I did some other things too I promise. By the way, it rained all day today and was incredibly windy. Pretty crappy really.

First off, I went to class. In Sociology of the City, we discussed the Kray Twins some more. It was more about gangsters and the fascination that people have for them though. Then we learned about the paper we have to write. It involves observing some people doing something and then writing about it. Like people in a park or restaurant or on the Tube, the list could go on. I don't know what I want to do yet. The last part of the class was spent talking about multiculturalism in London. In Senior Sem, Phil read some excerpts of more of the War Poets and talked about Benjamin Britten some more. On Wednesday, we are going to listen to the whole piece The War Requiem which is going to be a complete 2 hour affair. That should be interesting.

The most exciting news of the day was certainly the fact that I got my debit card and it works. YAY!!!! I was so happy. I felt completely hopeless and alone without any source of money (other than Vanessa) so it's nice to be a little independent again. After class, I went to the library and got some more books. I think a got a nice variety of stuff like usual. Over the weekend, I read a couple books. One was A Teacher's War which was a memoir about a British woman who taught English in what is now Tanzania and then later in Turkey during WWII. Quite a bit of the book is telling stories of things that happened on the trains while she traveled. It was a really good read and I loved her descriptions. She did some paintings of where she lived and people she met which were in the book. I loved them a lot. It made me excited about all the sweet places I am going to go (granted I am not going to Turkey or Tanzania). I also read The Conscience of the King which was a historical fiction novel about the first King of Wessex. It takes place in 450-500 and is about this Saxon guy taking over the area that is now southwest of London. It was pretty good and filled me in on a big part of British History I was missing (the Saxon Invasion).

Tonight, I called my mom on Skype and we made more plans for when she comes to visit. We are going to go to the Andalusia region which is in southern Spain. I am incredibly excited about it. It should be a lot of fun. That area of Spain used to be the center of the Western Islamic World so there are a lot of mosques and churches and just lots of stuff.

The other part of exciting travel news is that my best friend from SJU, Garrett, is going to be in Sweden at the end of May so I am trying to figure that into my travel plans. I hope I can get up and see him and Sweden. That would be really cool. Because of the rain, I spent most of my day researching and thinking about my travel plans (with my mom, the free weekends in April, and after the program). I am getting a lot more of it settled down in my mind. By that I mean, narrowing down the places I want to go and figuring out how to get there and all that stuff. It is really exciting and I love thinking and reading about all the places.

Well that's all for today. Sorry about not doing the update of my weekend. I just never found the time for it. By Wednesday, I will though.

Bye!

Technology Wonders

First off, I had a lot of fun over the weekend at my host stay but it feels good to be back in London and able to speak indirectly to everyone back home. Secondly, I hate to disappoint people but I won't be able to give the recap of my weekend right now. I was busy this evening with other things (I will get to that in a moment) so I just don't/didn't have time to talk about what happened. All you need to know for right now is that I ate well and I had a lot of fun.

I will start my recap of today though from when I got back to London. I rode the coach bus back and I was debating whether I should walk from Victoria Coach Station back to my flat or take a bus or take the tube. I ended up taking the Tube. I wanted to stop at a grocery store and buy some food for dinner and I wanted to get back as soon as possible. I wanted to get back really quickly because I had my fantasy baseball draft tonight. I got back with about a half hour to spare and got online. John and I are co-managing a team this season because I will be away for quite a bit of April and May and he will be away for all of June, July, and part of August. That way we have the whole season covered by one of us. Anyway, during the draft, we discussed strategy and stuff by im-ing (instant messaging) each other. My internet stinks here when a lot of people are on (and that was the case) so John did all the drafting which was fine. I am quite happy with our team. After the draft, I called my mom on Skype and we talked about what we were going to do when she is here. While I was talking to her, Greg came down and said hi. Then my grandma and sister came down and said hi. All the while, I was looking at my fantasy baseball team and still im-ing John. Amazing!! I love technology!

I eventually pried myself away from the computer and made dinner (that didn't happen till around 10:30). Then I came back down here, had my tea, and added some pictures to Facebook (check them out if you can). And now I am here on my blog. So it was an exciting night (draft and travel plans with mom) and hopefully classes tomorrow won't be too bad. I will update about my weekend adventures as soon as I can. I hope everyone had a good weekend and I will talk to you again soon!

Happy Baron Bliss Day to those of you from Belize! (look it up on Wikipedia if you want)

P.S. Now that its Daylight Savings Time, I am only 5 hours behind MN time. Now I don't have to stay up as late to call people. Yay!