Hey ho, the wind and the rain...

Fun fact: 


Did you know that "trivia" is a latin word that literally means "three roads"? It encapsulates the idea that in a place where three roads meet, people often get together and talk...mostly about meaningless or pointless things, like gossip and...TRIVIA. Yes, yes, it's all very exciting.


So, I have some housekeeping items to get out of the way before I deliver a proper post.  


One is that I'm currently in a 100-year war with iPhoto and it's fancy-pants internet photo publisher doohickey that allows me to easily and quickly publish my photos to facebook and flikr.  Rather, it's supposed to allow me to do so easily and quickly, but my current struggle with it is that it's doing this rather clumsily and slowly and jumbling everything up like a big jigsaw puzzle, evidently just for kicks.  Please bear with me as I attempt to fix this.


Another thing is that I'm going to try to make a schedule for my snidgets so that I stop doing them just because I'm bored or procrastinating.  I'm thinking once a week, generally on Fridays.  Does anyone have any better ideas?  Are Fridays too weekendy for anyone?  My other thought was Wednesdays...  


I also think I'm going to try to update this blog once a week now, definitely on Fridays, because I have this huge awkward break between my two courses on Fridays around this time, and I'd like to fill it with something less scholarly than Boudica.  But there might be weeks when I don't post at all due to the need to do actual work (because Dreaming the Serpent Spear isn't going to read itself).  


No one ever really comments on what I say here, except to say, "Good job," or "Sweet photos," or "I liek ur stuphh, plzz chexzors out mi hott pixx at www.nakeyLOLcatzz.com!" so I don't know if asking for you to comment will ever really work...


Not that I don't appreciate the comments I do get!  I love knowing that people actually read this.  It's always a surprise and a joy, and you're all so supportive.  So thanks.  


...or should I say...Cheers!


No.  I don't think I should say that.


< / housekeeping >


< real post >


This week went much more quickly than the last, and it was both more satisfying and less.  It was more satisfying because I feel far less cripplingly homesick now, and I'm actually beginning to really enjoy the prospect of being here for four months, and I'm even getting the (sadistically excellent) sinking feeling that four months is actually too short a time to spend in this amazing country and on this amazing continent.  I'm definitely going to have to plan an extended stay in Europe after I graduate college, or between my senior and super senior years.  There's just so much to see and do here, and so little time right now in which to see and do it.


It was less satisfying because the stabilization of a routine has allowed me to settle into my good old self; content to be alone, happy to stay in my room all night, and shoving homework and exciting prospects of England off to the side.  In my heart of hearts, I really want to go out into the city and explore what life is really like here, but I'm really comfortable and really enjoying not doing so.  


In order to counterbalance my natural tendencies (which I'm not spurning, just pushing aside for now), my goals for the coming week are as follows:

1. Do at least 80% of the homework assigned to me.
2. Get to know some of the other people from Calvin and go out with them for an evening
3. Leave open the door to my room to better facilitate conversations with my flatmates
4. Buy fricking A4 folders in order to get my life organized

So, with you, Internet, as my witness, I swear to do these.  After all, there is no try.


I and a few of my Calvin-based friends went together to Manchester on Monday, since none of us have class then.  Manchester was an exciting city, much bigger than York.  It felt to be just a bit smaller than Chicago, but not quite so squished together with the buildings.  It was incredibly windy; Ae Hee, the smallest among us, almost got blown away.


We went to the Manchester Museum, got lost a bunch of times, attempted to use the free shuttle-bus system and failed miserably, and brunch and dinner, went on the Wheel of Manchester, and visited the John Rylands Library, which was a fantastic and nerdy experience, at least for me.


The rest of the week was pretty mellow.  My flatmates had a bit of a raucus party on Tuesday evening that went until Wednesday morning at around 8:30...which wasn't my favorite.  But they did apologize about it later, and I didn't feel terribly tired Wednesday, so it was generally not a terrible experience.


Wednesday we went as a class to the Yorkshire museum which had a ton of exhibits that told about the Roman history we're actually studying, so that's cool.  It's nice to be able to put faces (albeit without noses in most cases) to the names and eras we're learning about.


It's been very hard this week being away from my friends and family in America, though not because of homesickness so much as just feeling useless over here.  I want to be doing life with them--celebrating the good times and consoling in the bad--which is actually kind of ironic, considering I was never very good about doing that when I was with them, and I'm not really trying to do that with the people I'm with now.  But this distance has made me realize how little I involve myself in others' lives, and how much I owe to those people who have involved themselves in mine.


For those of you struggling this week/month/year with various world-suck, and for those of you enjoying this week/month/year of excitements and treasures, I hope you know I wish I could be there with you.  It probably doesn't mean very much, considering I'm going to post this and then go off to do my own thing, but we cannot always be torn in two.  We must be one and whole.


But know that I am praying for you.  That is one thing I've actually accomplished over here, as far as life-goals go.  I've finally started really praying, especially for the people I can't see daily.


I must be off now.  Ta!


<3 spadeALLcross