Last Assignment and London

This week was crazy and fun. On Monday I handed in my last assignment for my classes. Now all I have left is my thesis. Of course, because it was Monday that didn't go smoothly for me. I logged in to a computer at the lab and opened my paper only to find it all in bold print. I tried to change it and it would not. So I started to panic, but someone suggested that I try a different computer. I did and that solved the problem, thank god. Then the paper decided that it would include a blank page in the middle and no matter what I did I couldn't get rid of it, so I had to print out each page individually. Then of course there was no stapler to be found anywhere on campus so I couldn't staple it all together. Luckily I had a closable folder to put it in so it was ok. Then me and Stine, in matching outfits oddly enough, went shopping in Bournemouth. On the way down the street we saw a sign for smoothies and juice so we went in. Stine got a juice and when I tried to order a strawberry banana smoothie I was told they had no strawberries or bananas. So I asked about peach and he said he didn't know how to make that one. So I said fine, never mind and he was like no, I can make you something else. He then suggested the triple berry smoothie. So I asked what berries were in it and he said strawberries...but we don't have those...So I said no thanks and we left. So disappointing as I had really been wanted a smoothie.

We shopped for awhile and ended up in a coffee gift shop thing. And I found caramel coffee syrup! I was so excited. Glad to know where to find it now. We continued down the street and then stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe. I didn't know what I wanted so defaulted to fish and chips. The girl came back after taking our order and told me that they didn't have any fish and chips...So I ended up with chicken strips and chips instead. They were good, but jeez! No fish in England in a seaside town?!?! After lunch we headed to one last store and I found some awesome new flip flops. So yay for that at least.

Then Monday night Melissa and I went shopping for the BBQ that we were having on Tuesday. We got burgers and stuff for s'mores. They don't have graham crackers here though so we had to make do with some plain-ish cookies. They also don't have hershey's chocolate so we had to just get milk chocolate.

Tuesday it was suppose to rain, but it didn't so we got to have our BBQ! It was a bit windy and cool though so we ended up rushing it a bit, but it was delicious. A bunch of the people had never had s'mores before so that was fun. They weren't totally convinced and now know why Americans are so fat, but it was a good time.

Wednesday I went to campus to try to get some dissertation work done. I didn't do a whole lot and realized how much harder my project is going to be than I thought. I figured finding the dates and size of the sites within a site report would be pretty easy, but it isn't. I don't know why, but most authors don't write it or have hidden it somewhere. I just got more and more frustrated.

Thursday I went to school again. I got through a couple of books and then borrowed a few more from my adviser so that I don't have to try to find them in the library and can keep them as long as I want. For dinner I went to Stine's for tacos. It was her last night in Poole so I had to say bye :(

Friday morning I got up at 5am to catch my 5:45 coach into London to meet Aunt Ginny. I slept a bit on the coach and then it got into town early! So I made it to here hotel by about 9:30. We chatted for awhile and then headed to Kew Gardens, which is a bit outside London but you can take the tube there. We had to upgrade our tickets to go that far, but it was a very nice place. You had to pay to get in, but it was over 300 acres of grass and flowers so it was worth it. There was a giant metal and glass greenhouse right where you go in that was amazing. There were huge trees in there that reach all the way to the top. They must cut them periodically because they were brushing the top of the structure. While in there we lost Ginny's friend Lynn. Me and Ginny had gone up the spiral staircase to see the view from the balcony and when we came down she was gone. We spent quite awhile looking for her and finally found her walking. I guess she had gone off to look at other things, but we didn't know where she had gone and spent a long time looking for her. Then we walked with her looking for bluebells. We had to walk a really long way and they were already started to die, but they were kind of cool. And the walk took us past Queen Charlotte's cottage which was pretty cool. On the walk back to the entrance we went by the Japanese pagoda which apparently was used to test bombs during WWII. We couldn't go in, but I guess they drilled holes through all the floors so they could see how bombs would fall.

We headed back to the hotel after the gardens. I went and checked into the hotel that I was staying in and took a nap. Then I met Ginny and Lynn again around 6:30 and we went to dinner. We thought about Greek, but ended up at Rodizio Rico the Brazilian BBQ. Lynn thought it was great and the food was awesome again. After dinner Lynn wanted to go to some bar in Covent Garden that someone had told them about the day before. I didn't really know what it was but said I would go. Turns out they had a live band playing that night. Lynn had fun, but I don't think Aunt Ginny had a great time. We stayed a couple hours and then headed out. I was beat from getting up so early and fell asleep immediately when I got home.

Saturday I met Ginny and Lynn around 9:30 and we headed to the Portobello Road market. It was really fun. Not how it looked in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but still cool. I ended up with a cool ring and Ginny and Lynn bought all kinds of stuff. I don't know how they are going to get all of their purchases home. After the market I headed back to Poole as they were going to see a show that evening. I got home around 9 after an hour's bus delay at the station. I don't know what happened, but the 5 and 6 o'clock buses both showed up at 6. But I made it back.

Today I have to get some groceries and try to get some dissertation stuff done. Then I have dinner at Melissa's at 7. This week I have to get a ton of work done because on the 8th I'm going to Paris for two days and won't get anything done there. So here are the pics for this week. Talk to you later.

Party Week

Sorry I'm getting this up late, I had a long night, but we'll get to that at the end. This week started with nothing too exciting going on. I have my last paper of my last class to turn in on Monday so I worked a bit on that. Tuesday I had a meeting with my advisor about my dissertation. Turns out I may have to go to Southampton to go to their library because it's bigger and better stocked than the one here. But that should only take a day or two so it might be fun. I also might be able to arrange to go to some museums and see the bones if I can find a collection of them that is easily accessable. So I have to buckle down this week and get this thing started. Then later on Tuesday was cocktail night at Kukui, a new Hawaiian themed cocktail bar in Bournemouth. They have big sharing cocktails there so we wanted to try it out. We got dressed up to go, so that was fun as well. And the drinks were really tasty. We ended up spending about 4 hours there and there was hardly anyone else in the place so we could just sit and chat.

Wednesday was more paper work and some shopping for costume stuff. Thursday was pretty much the same, but for lunch I got a banana split with Melissa. The pub we always go to is having an 80's themed month and for whatever reason they think banana splits are 80s. They don't really know how to make a banana split here though as there was only chocolate syrup on it and no nuts. Oh well, it was pretty tasty still. I also got the black wig for my goth costume for the party I was throwing on Saturday, so it was a pretty good day until I got home and started to get a migraine. I went to be really early and it was gone by the time I woke up, but it still kind of ruined my night.

Friday I finished my paper. I just have to do a bit more editing and it will be ready for submission tomorrow. After I finished I came home and started dinner. I was making beef stroganoff and because I make it on the stove instead of a slow cooker I have to let it simmer for about 3 hours to get the meat really soft. It was worth it though because it was really good. I also baked a butternut squash as I was having Melissa over for dinner and wanted to have something to go with the stroganoff. Both things turned out good and it was a fun, relaxing night. We also planned a bbq for next week, so that should be fun as well.

Saturday I went to the gym in the morning and then cleaned my kitchen for the goth/emo/Stine's going away party. My friend Stine is going to Norway for 8 weeks to work on an excavation there and is leaving next week so we wanted to have a going away party. We had also been talking about having a goth/emo party for months but no one ever planned it so we decided to combine the two. Getting ready was ridiculously fun because the makeup was so intense. I've never colored my eyebrows in before and doing it in black was crazy. Then putting on the wig I barely recognized myself. We took a ton of photos so you can see what I mean. The whole outfit was crazy and even fake corsets are really hard to breathe in. We went to a rock club in Bournemouth where pretty much everyone was dressed like us. It was really fun, but by the end of the night my feet were killing me. As was my knee because I had fallen off the bus when we got to Bournemouth. But I guess it will match the other knee now from when I fell carrying scuba equipment. Oh well, I'll live.

Well, I suppose that's all. The pictures speak for themselves really. Enjoy and I'll talk to you later.

Late

I may be late getting this up tomorrow as tonight is the Emo/Goth party. So here is a link to the pics from cocktail night and I'll get the goth pics and the blog entry up as soon as I can. Later! Link

Planning week

Well, this was a very exciting week for me, but won't make for a very exciting blog entry, really. On Monday I handed in my second to last assignment for the taught part of my course. It was one of the hardest ever to write papers, but it's done now, so I don't care. Now I just have my assemblage report to write and I will be done! Just the dissertation to work on. After the hand-in Stine, Melissa and I went to a coffee/juice bar called The Dancing Goat to get juice. We'd found the place a long time ago, but hadn't had time to get back there to actually buy anything. The juice was really good and the mini blueberry muffin was also delicious. We walked home from the juice bar and then I went shopping with my flatmate, Baitalikee, because we needed pizza making ingredients. Monday was her birthday and she wanted to make home-made pizzas. Later that afternoon I made her chocolate muffins with peanut butter cups in them for her cake. Then around 7 we started the pizza. Gareth, my other flatmate, got really into it and tried throwing the crust. He wasn't very good at it though. B really liked making the pizza dough, but wasn't such a fan of rolling it out, so I ended up doing a lot of rolling. But they turned out pretty good and I think she had a nice birthday.

Tuesday I didn't do a whole lot. I did plan a goth/emo going away party for Stine, who is going to Norway to excavate for 2 months. That is happening next Saturday and should be very fun. I also hosted Taco Tuesday because I really wanted Mexican food. The taco seasoning here isn't quite right, but it was better than nothing.

Then on Wednesday night I got a text from Sara saying that she had bought her ticket to London for our trip to Italy in July. So that was super exciting!!

Thursday I bought the tickets from Bournemouth to Pisa so our trip is a go! I'm so excited! Then after lunch I went to Bournemouth with Stine to go to the costume shop to look for costumes for the party. I got a red corset with black lace. It is amazingly hard to breathe in, but Stine assures me it will get easier if I wear it around my room a few times before the part to get used to it. We'll see. If I pass out at the party, we'll know that didn't work :) Then Thursday late afternoon I went to the train station with Danielle to book our train tickets to Cardiff, Wales. We're going in early July for a few days while her friend from Canada is here. After we got the tickets we came back and booked the hotel. Then we looked at train tickets to Paris and found a good deal, so we booked those as well. We'll book the hotel next week. So that was really exciting. I'm going to Italy, France and Wales!

Friday I went to school to attempt to get some work done. I did get some done and have a much better idea of what I'm suppose to do for this assignment. So that's good. I just need to make a lot of tables so that I can do the comparisons and get the writing done. It shouldn't be too bad and I can hopefully get it done by Friday so that I don't have to worry about it over the weekend.

Saturday I went to the gym in the morning and then went to another grocery store looking for coffee flavouring syrup. They didn't have it, but another store had a really cute pair of shoes that I got. Then I came home and got a bit of dissertation preliminary work done for my meeting with Mark on Tuesday.

This morning I had an email from Mom that she and Dad got their tickets to come and visit last night, so they'll be coming at the end of July. So all in all it was a very exciting week for me, but the weeks that I actually take these trips will be much more exciting blog entries. Well, take care and I hope to hear from you soon.

Park and Food Fest

Hello! Well, this week was a bit more interesting than last. I have some fun pictures, anyway. I have a paper due on Monday so I was pretending to work on that for most of the week, but Monday was a bank holiday here. I'm not exactly sure what bank holidays are, but most people get the day off and banks and lots of stores are closed. So me and a few friends decided to go down to Bournemouth to hang out. We had originally planned on going to the beach, but it was cold and windy so we couldn't do that :( We did walk down by the beach though to get lunch. On our way we went through the park where we got to take some cool pictures. Then we ate at a restaurant with a beach view, so that was nice. After lunch we wandered down along the beach and then Melissa made us stand in the sand to take a picture. I didn't want to because I don't like having sand in my shoes, but then I caved. Then when we were just sitting along the edge of the sidewalk by the beach Sytske decided to be mean and put sand on me, which then fell down into my shoe. I was very upset, but she got herself back by throwing sand in the air and having it blow back into her hair. When we turned around from the beach we saw a dark black cloud coming in so we decided to head away from the beach. We didn't make it all the way to the store we were heading for when it started raining, so we ducked into a pub for some coffee. I got a mug with the queen on it!

It stopped raining after about a half hour or so so we headed for the square. They were having a bazaar of some sort and were selling crepes, so we had to get some. They sell them at every festival here. These were especially good ones as the actual crepe had vanilla or almond or something in it. Then it was filled with banana and chocolate. Mmmmm.... When we were finished we went to a store to look at jewelry as they were having a sale. Nothing caught our fancy, but there was a really cool pair of shoes that I loved. I tried them on and had to take off my sandy socks to do so, so I'm sure I left sand in the shoes... I wasn't sure when I would ever wear them though, so I didn't get them. After shopping we walked around in another smaller park and then headed home as it was looking like it might rain again.

Tuesday I didn't do much, but Wednesday I went to the Slug and Lettuce to study with Stine. They have an 80s menu on because they are celebrating their 25th anniversary. So we got club sandwiches for lunch. They didn't come with fries so we ordered those as well. When we got the sandwich we realized why it didn't come with fries. It was HUGE! Chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and tons of mayo between 3 layers of toasted white bread. And coleslaw on the side. It was delicious though. They also have banana splits on the menu, so I'll be going back for one of those.

Thursday and Friday I spent reading for and writing my paper. Then yesterday I went to an International Food Festival in Christchurch. Danielle and I took the train to Christchurch and then just wandered through the stalls all afternoon. We got some Spanish food and then Italian stuff. Then we saw a beer festival at a pub so we stopped in there for awhile. After that we got pork sandwiches from a hog roast booth. They were amazing.

Then that evening I had people over to my flat just to hang out. We just chatted and caught up since we don't see each other as often anymore now that we don't have classes. Monday is my flatmate's birthday, so I have to go and find a present for her today. Then I'm making her chocolate muffins for a cake, as that is what she requested. Well, here are the pics from the week. They are at the end of the album. I also ran out of bbq sauce this week, so if anyone felt the need to send me some (the Aldi's kind) I would love them forever ;)

Boring

Hello!! I'm sorry to say that this week's post is going to be quite boring. And all the more so because last week's was so long and picture filled. So I apologize in advance.

This week we had to do a full week of 9-5 lab analysis. We had assessed our faunal (animal bone) assemblage early this term and now we had to do a full analysis of it. That meant going through every bag of bone and identifying what bone it was and what animal it came from. This wasn't so bad for the cows, sheep, and pigs, but when it came to birds it was pretty bad. I put birds off until Thursday, but they still took their toll. They are very small with very tiny differences that mean the difference between one species and another. I hated this because I already hate birds and it turns out I'm really bad at telling the difference between their bones. But I finally finished after about 6 or 7 hours work. Then it was back to normal animals again. But I managed to finish by about 2:30 on Friday, which was awesome because I figured I'd be there all night.

Anyway, this whole experience just showed me that I don't want to have a job. I would leave my flat at 8 in the morning and not get back until about 6:30 or 7 and everything would be closed so I'd make myself some dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. What a boring life :(

On Thursday night we decided we should treat ourselves to dinner and a movie. We went to Wagamama, a Japanese noodle bar. When we ordered the waiter told us that they serve the dishes as soon as they are done so they don't always come out at the same time. Stine's dish came first and she started eating it. About 10 minutes later I still didn't have mine but wasn't sure how long it would take to cook or anything. Finally the waiter came over and said that he had forgotten to send my order in so he had talked to the chef and he was going to cook it really quickly. By the time I got it Stine was finished so then she had to watch me eat. It was a very bizarre experience and the food wasn't all that good. We did wonder later how long we would have sat there before asking about my food. They just really threw us with the pointing out that they didn't come at the same time. Weird. So then we headed over to the movie theater. I got a giant Ben and Jerry's sundae. It was delicious. And we saw Iron Man 2, which was pretty good.

Friday I finished early and came home and did nothing. I went for a walk with my flatmate and was asleep by about 10 :( Then Saturday I went to Bournemouth to meet my friend after work. We went shopping and I got the most awesome dress ever. It's white with black polka dots and is 50s inspired. So cute. Then we went to dinner and got mac and cheese. It was really delicious.

Today we were suppose to go to the beach, but it is rainy and cold so we're postponing. I may make paella tonight. I'm making it with a friend though, so we have to see what's going on with both of us. Otherwise we'll do it tomorrow. But we bought all the ingredients this morning, so I'm excited for it.

Well, sorry that this was such a boring post. Hopefully next week will be better. If it's nice we plan to do a lot of outdoor activities so that should be fun. Have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon.