School stuff

I got my story finished on Saturday thanks to Gabe. ^-^ All I need to create masterpieces (okay, so it’s not a masterpiece really, but it’s an interesting story anyway) is some constructive criticism. Just simple things like what wasn’t clear/needs more explaining, a certain sentence sounds funny, etc. So thank you Gabe! *huggle* Now I just have to go make a gazillion copies for everyone in my class. Okay, so it’s just 15 copies, but that’s fifteen times ten pages with a page being five cents. Why can’t we just e-mail them to each other?

I just got back from ice skating with Mark. It was a load of fun. But boy am I going to feel that hour’s worth of skating tomorrow in my legs. I can’t wait to go again. It’s so affordable too. Just $1.00 for the rental and $2.00 for admission. Cheap stuff!

I want to continue making my mom’s Christmas present. But I’m out of space! *sobs* And the stuff I’m using is so soft too. I’m so jealous, I want it for myself. But I’ll be good and give it to her for Christmas because she was the one I had in mind when I picked out the yarn. And no one tell her that I’m making her something!! So anyway, yes, I’m out of space. Which means that I’ve begun crocheting. That’s something I practically never do! Maybe I’ve just had a bad experience when I was younger. It’s actually quite fun. The result isn’t as soft as knitting, in my opinion, but it does look pretty nice. Plus, it’s a throw that I’m making (most likely for lil ole me) so it’s allowed to be a bit stiff at first because it’s so thick. Oh, and I finished knitting the UM colored blanket. It’s all pretty and maroon and grey with white. Taking it with me to Saturday’s football game. Hopefully Michelle can get a ticket for herself and we’ll go dressed in our Griz sweats. We just happened to buy the exact same outfits. As did Alysha. Good taste, perhaps? Well, if she can’t go, it’s no biggie. Emily has already invited me to go with her. :) And we’re going bowling on Friday! o/

Okay, must go back to reading Shakespeare. Act IV of As You Like It awaits.

… I was told that once I get to uni in Montana, I’d get hammered. Well, my dearest roomie Michelle has brought back some Bailey’s and Malibu from home and today we went and bought some milk… yeah, we’re drinking. But since this technically isn’t a party, I’m still keeping to my word of saying that I’m not much of a party person. XD She is sooooooo hammered right now. Talking to her crush, being very hyper. It’s pretty amusing. She’s trying to get me to feel the buzz too. So I’m on my second drink which happens to be stronger than the first. I really hope I won’t get a hangover tomorrow. The good thing is that we’re both 21 and as long as we keep the door shut and keep it to ourselves (as in be QUIET!), we’re allowed to drink in our room. So that’s what we’re doing.

I soooooo should be writing the story that’s due on Tuesday. I still need about two more pages. I know how it’ll end. I’ve got the beginning. I’ve got most of the middle. Now I just need to flesh it out a bit. Maybe I’ll get some weird spark of inspiration tonight while I’m drinking. *keeping fingers crossed*

I’m teaching Alysha and Michelle how to knit. Alysha really wants to have kids, so now that her sister’s pregnant, she’s going to knit a baby blanket and get some practice. Michelle just wants to join in on our mini knitting club. She’s also making a blanket, but it’s for herself. I’m almost done with mine, just need one more square of grey (after the one I’m almost done making) and then to piece it all together. Then I can start on my mom’s Christmas present. Not saying what it is, but it’ll be knit. :) I hope she’ll like it.

I’m so tired… They give us loads of work over here. I mean, I’m used to having the amount of lectures/seminars that I have over here, but they just give you so much work to do. And I have a quiz once a week on Shakespeare. >_< Well, the good thing is that I don’t have an exam on Shakespeare, just two essays to write. Fun stuff. And over here they give you the number of pages they expect, not the word count. It’s a bit strange, but I guess I’ll get used to it eventually.

I’ve been pretty lucky with who I got as my roommate. Michelle and I have a similar taste in music, we like doing the same type of things, we don’t annoy each other. I’ve heard some stories about roommates just being awful to each other. We’ve also met this girl Alysha who lives on the same floor as us. She’s really nice. The three of us have started to hang out together practically everyday. We go eat together at least once a day. And like Thursday night we just went out for smoothies and hung out together. Yay, I’ve got friends over here! o/

There’s so much to do around here. Like Tuesday and Wednesday nights there were free performances on the Oval (this huge empty spot in the middle of the campus) of Shakespeare’s plays. Then Thursday night there was a comedian and a movie. Friday they there was the Welcome Feast which meant a free lunch. ^-^

Someone keeps wheeling their bicycle in the hall…

Well, I’m going to try to climb up to the M tomorrow. My second attempt. I don’t think I’ll make it, but I want to see if I can get up higher than last week. I might try to do it again on Monday (seeing as it’s Labor Day which means no classes!) but I might not wake up in time to try it. Plus I’ve got a load of stuff to do.

Ooh, there is one really awesome thing about this building anyway. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it already in a previous post or something, but the laundry facilities are free (plus there’s a huge TV in the lounge)! And so I did some laundry on Thursday and the stuff I got from Target is soooooo nice. It’s vanilla and lavender scented. ^-^ After I’d gotten all of my clothes from the dryer and dumped them onto my bed for sorting, I just lay on top of them for a while. Warm, smelled nice… Bliss. For some reason it just made me really happy. I might be nuts, but I like doing domestic stuff. Cleaning, laundry, cooking.. it makes me happy. And that’s what counts, right? Other stuff makes me happy as well, like knitting and reading and a good cup of hot chocolate or tea, so it’s not just contained to 1950’s housewifery (is that an actual word?).

My question to you all is this: What makes you happy? Is the little things in life, like a cup of tea in the afternoon or the leaves changing color in the autumn, or is it something bigger, like acheiving something huge at work?

I have a theory on why the pressure is set to hard in the showers. Because there are so many girls on the floor that have to share the same four showers, someone must’ve thought: Hmm.. didn’t draw up enough shower space. How do I fix that? ….. Hey! Let’s make it painful for them so they won’t spend ages in the shower. That way lines won’t form! and continued on with the drawing of blueprints.

Well, I’ve managed to register for two classes. Two more have to be overridden on Monday before they show up on my schedule. Registration is such a pain. >_< And why on earth would a Shakespeare class take place in a gym?? I mean, really. A gym??

I’ve been sooooooo busy the past week. First there was the flurry of activity when my sister moved house (just down the road, not far at all but still) while we were still staying at their place. That was on Thursday. Then I flew out here to Montana on Saturday. That was a long day. But I did get to talk to some interesting people while I was waiting in the airport. I’ve actually got a videoclip of this group of Canadian Italians singing while we were waiting for our plane to arrive (it was an hour and a half late). I’ll put it up later when I can actually be bothered to upload pics and stuff. I do have those, I just have to resize and crop quite a few of them. Back to the hectic-ness of my days here in the States. Sunday I spent all day unpacking and trying to get my computer hooked up to the internet. That didn’t happen until yesterday because they were being really slow over at the office that sets up the connections. Monday and Tuesday were all day of Foreign Student Orientation. They gave me a shot! *sniffle* It actually hurt more than when I go donate blood and that’s when they drain me! Hmm…

Anyway. Now I’ve got a bank account open, I’ve been to Target to buy another (thicker) pillow and a mattress pad. For some reason the mattresses over here in Miller Hall ridiculously hard. So after sleeping on a hard mattress for four nights, I decided it was time to get something to soften it up, even if it is just a little bit. I miss my own bed back in Belgium. That mattress is sooooo nice and it’s at the perfect height too. The beds over here are really high up too. I’m not used to it. But it’s still an easy climb into bed, so I should be okay. I just have to remember in the mornings that I’m not as close to the floor as I used to be.

I’ve finished reading Necroscope 2. I would like to start the third one straight away, but the silly thing is, my mom packed the fifth one and left the third and fourth over in Chicago. So I’ll get them at the latest during Thanksgiving. Which means that my choice was between The Last of the Mohicans and Labyrinth. I went eeny-meeny-miney-mo and wound up with Mr. Cooper’s story. So far it’s good.

I’ve met a bunch of people over here. Mostly other international students, but a few Americans too. There are quite a few Japanese and Chinese students here. The two Japanese girls that I can recognize and have talked to for a bit are Emi and Miyuki/Mi-han. She hasn’t quite decided which one she wants us to call her. There’s a German and two English girls in the same building as me. On my floor I’ve met Amanda, Christy (the RA) and Michelle, my roommate. Michelle came to drop off some of her stuff today. She won’t actually move in here properly until Sunday. She seems really nice. Apparently our birthdays are only two days apart. Two Cancers living together. I wonder how moody it’ll get in here…

I’ve signed up for two programs over here. They’re the Missoula International Friendship Program (MIFP) and the Peer Assistant (PA) program. In MIFP, there’s like this “host” family that’ll want to do things with new students to show them what it’s like living in the States and stuff. The PA program is similar with the students being paired up with other UM students. I’ll be fairly busy this year, unlike last year. This way I’ll know which one is a better fit for me next year back at Aber. :)

I just remembered that I have to meet up with my advisor tomorrow, but I won’t meet them until after the departmental meeting. Which means I should go to bed. It’s early in the morning… Oh the joys of being a student. At least I won’t necessarily have classes every day. ^-^

Oh and if someone wants my phone number or address while I’m here, just leave a comment or e-mail me. :)

I’ve got my results. 67.33% for the whole year. Which makes it a solid 2.1. ^_^ My modules were: Study of English: 63 Writer’s Art 1: 68 Basic French: 90 Aspects of Genre: 62 Contemporary Writing: 58 Writer’s Art 2: 63

So all in all, I’m happy. Of course I wish that CW would’ve been just a little bit higher so that everything would be at least a 2.1. And the French did skew my results just a bit. If it isn’t included, then my average is 62.8%. Still a 2.1, so yay. o/

Meeting Tian-Le today. I was actually supposed to see her 15 mins ago, but she overslept and missed her train. So I’ll see her in 45 mins. :) Don’t know what we’ll do today, probably just hang around Brussels for a bit before coming home. And I’m buying my Eurostar tickets. Jaz and I are going to Sheffield for the weekend. :D Oh! And my pictures have been developed! I just have to go pick them up today. ^-^

And since my mom is being annoying about cleaning my room and making sure the living room is perfect, I gotta go. Oh the joys of cleaning & straightening up when others tell you to. I don’t mind doing it when I feel like it, but it’s not fun when someone orders you to clean up. >_<

P.S. I love the treadmill! Such a great feeling after using it for an hour.

Went shopping on Saturday. I wasn’t actually thinking of buying anything, but I came across “Wide Open Spaces” and “Fly” by the Dixie Chicks and I knew I just had to have them. Just listening to them confirms it, money well spent. And they were only £16. ^_^

So now Oliver’s parents have met mine. They did make an effort to talk to each other. Mainly just my dad talking to his. It was actually a bit entertaining. They think they’re talking about the same thing but they’re not. Then when they don’t understand what the other is saying, they just nod and then keep going on about what they were saying before. *shakes head* That’s what you get for having a bf from a different country. Especially one who’s from Yorkshire.

My exams are finally over. I dunno how they went. Okay I guess. One of my answers in my second exam was a bit out there. I began comparing the novel “The Beach” to the events of 9/11 and afterwards. It just suddenly popped into my head that there are some similarities, since I was making the point that the community is a modern western society in miniature. We’ll see… XD Then after my exam, I met up with Gabe again. He showed me the National Library of Wales and then we went to Somerfield’s to buy American style cookies for my parents to take back home with them. In the grocery store, we ran into this one lecturer from Germany. He is so cute! Max 30 yrs old. Anyway, I recognized him and gave him a smile. He recognized me and smiled back! :-D I’ve talked to him before. I went up to him after one lecture and told him that he’s got a great accent. For some reason he thought I was from Luxembourg. o.O Anyway.. cute! In a way I’m hoping that I get him as a tutor in my third year, but I know that if I do, I’ll have major problems concentrating in his class. All I’ll do is just listen to his voice and not actually hear what he’s saying. XD Ah well, maybe by the time I get back from Montana I’ll have gotten over him. It’s fun having crushes. :D

My embassy appointment is next week. And I still haven’t heard from Carol about the payment slip. I need to pay the visa application fee before my appointment and they send this slip you take to Barclay’s. But because Carol’s been sick, I haven’t gotten the slip from her (it was sent to her office). So I don’t know what to do. o_o;;

Hmm, I probably should go to bed now. But I figured that I should update to let people know that I haven’t disappeared off of the face of the earth. Oliver just didn’t have a working computer while I was over there.

89 spam comments. Ridiculous, I tell you. *shakes head*

Well, I got back to Aber today. I was supposed to take the 8:53 train from Sheffield, but I missed it because of a truck or something had turned over on the parkway and there was loads of traffic on the alternative route we chose and yada yada yada. So basically I spent an hour and a half at Birmingham and didn’t get in until 3:20. Two hours later than planned.

And I’m still sick. :( Oliver gave me a cold and I spent the whole of last week going through tissues. By Saturday I thought I’d gotten over it, but on Monday I got the sore throat back. Still have it and I’m not done with the tissues yet. So I’m going to the doctor’s tomorrow. Just in case. I want to be healthy when I take my exams. If I get to take them that is. This strike action is annoying. I want to know what I got for my essays and portfolio! Grades are important to me.

And I got a letter from my bank saying that they have to send papers and stuff to my permanent address instead of sending it here when online banking is concerned. Which means they want to send it to Finland. I don’t live in Finland! Another thing to clear up tomorrow… urgh.

But, on a brighter note, I’ve made plans to see movies with Gabe. Yay. Get to see “Wilde”, something Oliver didn’t want to see with me. A nice change from Stargate. And now that I’m back in Aber, I can watch Desperate Housewives and Friends again too. ^_^

I feel so satisfied. I’ve finished off my essay and just finished writing my portfolio. Now all I need to do is print them out! o/ Plus, I had a lot of fun writing my portfolio. The only thing that’s not so nice about writing for portfolios is the word limit. I really don’t like the word limit they’ve set. It’s not enough!

And all of this means that I can go over to Oliver’s tomorrow. ^_^

The visa application process to go to Montana next year is a real pain in the neck. I’ve booked my appointment at the embassy, reviewed all the application forms but haven’t filled them all in because that has to be done online and print out papers which means I have to go to the library to do it.

Had a fire drill this morning. A lovely way to wake up. >_< At least it’s the last one this year. Now I gotta hope that no one sets it off during the exams…