concluded

The blog ends here.

Well, quite.

After 10 months away - I'm finally home for good. And its everything I wanted it to be - I'm definitely making up for missing 10 months of American meals. :)

That said, I will miss England dearly, despite my year-long complaints. I had a wonderful farewell to it though. We saw the boat races (although even after rowing for 8 weeks, I'm not sure I understand how the bumps work ...). We had tea with gin and tonics with delicious scones and not so delicious fruit cake. We enjoyed ourselves to a great (too great?) degree at the Union party and met some wonderful people (only to leave them a day later - so sad). And I got some quality time with my high quality English friends, who I will miss dearly. Badminton will never be the same, you know.

So all in all - the year was a great success. Despite all the bad food, the homesickness, and the crap weather, my year in England and at Cambridge will be something I miss terribly. However, such is life - things always come to an end.

So here - THIS is the end of this blog.
Much love, dear friends.

See you soon, dear friends.

Exactly one week from right now, I will be on a plane, heading home.

But until then, I have a lot of England is soak up.

My last session of badminton was wonderful on Saturday, even though I lost 3 games out of 5. I'm still not a pro, but I've improved drastically, and I'll really miss playing on a real court, with real rules. St. Louis has a badminton league, but their website is quite intimidating (well, as intimidating as badminton websites can be . . . ), so I'm still not sure if my skills and Euro-racket will venture past the rec set in the backyard when I get home.

I have two more papers, to match two last supervisions, and a Shakespeare movie night with my Shakespeare supervision group. And once all the work is over, May Week erupts.

Cambridge is known for its May Balls (Wikipedia it - apparently the ball at Trinity was named one of the best parties of the year by Time), but the 60 - 150 pound tickets are out of my budget after Spring Break Epic Adventure. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to miss the ambiance of May Week (at least, I'll enjoy its first 4 days, and then its off to home). The Boat Races start Friday, Saturday afternoon John and I are planning to have "a most unusual tea" at Browns (tea, scones, cake, and gin and tonics), before we head off to the Union Garden Party (famous for its abundance of strawberries, cream, and Pimms and lemonade), before our final farewell - Suicide Sunday, when all the grounds are open and students drink champagne on the formerly-forbidden lawns all afternoon.

A good ending, I think.

Europe Photo: Prague, break time, trying to figure out where we are time.

All the Jewellites are gone, except me and John. The hall is a bit weird, being so quiet, and as most of the campus is done with exams, I'm reading to be heading westward - its hard to be motivated to finish work (2 more papers!) when everyone is outside playing, and the crowd is slim inside to distract you.

The up side? Garner, Emily, Anna, Trisha, and Lea left ALL of their leftovers . . . I'm wondering if I can live on Cup O Soups until June 16th (and I'm sure gonna try!). Add to that pile of goods an almost full box of Earl Gray, and I'm 100% back into my tea habit (I fell out of it a while ago when I got sick of PG Tips - I didn't think it would happen, but it doesn't look like I'm going to finish my economy size box of Tips after all . . . ).

TV update: Add to the list of completed TV seasons - One Tree Hill (so bad its good, I know, I'm a little ashamed) and I'm slowly working on How I Met Your Mother.

I'm home June 16, and I'll be in KC at the end of July for some days. So, we should hang out, friends.

From the photo files of John Moore . . . that's me in Budapest, Hungary.

Guess what?
After 9 months abroad . . .

I come home 2 weeks from Monday!

That's all. :)