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. :)

NHS

No, that doesn't stand for National Honors Society.
Rather, National Health Service!!

After almost three months of general ickness, I decided to try out the National Health Service. As an international student enrolled at Cambridge, I am entitled to full health benefits, just like a normal English citizen. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about the NHS - some great (Free! How can you beat free?)and some skeptical (the doctors are not so good).

However, I have no complaints. I never had to wait very long, and my doctor was super helpful. The downside is that you HAVE to book your appointment either that day, or 4 weeks in advance. So there were a lot of early-morning alarm clocks that woke me up to call right when the office opened. And they are closed on bank holidays (which seems strange to me - the whole thing was closed, although, of course, the hospital is open, so if its serious enough . . . ). Best part, at the end of the visit, I just left. No need to pay anything - even when they took some tests!

Yes, those tests. Apparently, my body and gluten have had a falling out, and are no longer friends. My English doctor suggested I see a gastro and dietitian when I get back in the States, and that I might want to try gluten free in the meantime. No more blueberry muffins, I guess. But, thank God! Diet Coke is gluten free.

past week

Thought I'd let you know what's new here, in case we haven't chatted in a while . . .

Poor luck had me writing two papers this week (which includes piles of books), so the week in total is a bit blurry. Thursday night saw me working until 1 AM, only to wake back up at 5 AM to finish up that last paper. Ironically, because it was in late, my prof didn't have time to read it. So I read it to him, and noticed billizons of typos - I guess that's what happens when you get up with the sun to discuss Thomas Hardy. It probably wouldn't have been an issue, since it was orally delivered, until he decided he wanted to read it himself to "mark it properly". Whoops!

Wednesday was All You Can Eat Ben and Jerrys at the Union, so I trekked down (not really, we took the bus! we didn't want to risk an ice-cream cramp on the way back) with my friend Emma and Anna to sugar-load. Emma (we play badminton together) is a genius - she insisted we re-line once we got our ice cream, so we ate while we waited to eat some more! It was amazing. My new favorite is the Mango Berry Swirl Sorbet.I had two cups of it (about 6 scoops). :)

Actually, in retrospect, I'm loading in the social hours this week. Last weekend I went to Oxford to Jake's birthday, and got to stay with Janeane, which is always super. And I experienced my first Sunday Roast at a pub - more tasty than I anticipated. Morgan Romine and Gentzler are in from USA/Oxford, so there's been some activity there. And tonight I'm going to my first Eurovision party - basically its American Idol, but all the constants represent members of Europe, and its supposed to be cheese-tastic. AND next week I'm attending my first formal swap with another college - a lecture buddy invited me to an "English major swap". Busy busy.

I'm home three weeks from Tuesday. See you soon, friends.

One month from today I will be heading home. Flight gets in at 6 PM STL time, and I already have my first few meals planned : dinner at IHOP, lunch at Chipotle, dinner at El Maguey, lunch at That's a Nica Pizza - for their yummy roast beef sandwhiches, dinner at Cecil Whit's. I. can't. wait.

Also, in other exciting news - Hermonie Granger (Emma Watson from the HP movies) is coming to Homerton next year. How crazy is that?! Def. wouldn't happen at Billy Jewell!