The whole world is blazing, we need water

~The Who

Today is World Water Day. A day very near and dear to my heart. But that goes without saying. It kind of brings in the whole reason for why I'm here. While I could sit here and give you all the statistics...I'd rather just send you to find things out on your own. Because we all have a purpose, and all have something we're passionate about. And if your passion lies in water for developing countries, please check out these organizations or get in touch with me. If not, I hope you are putting your passion to good use. These are in no particular order...and not an exhaustive list. These are just the organizations that I regularly follow.


Nuru International

Wine to Water

Medecins Sans Frontieres

Engineers without Borders

Water for People

And this walk that we shared together

~Dashboard Confessional

Today is absolutely gorgeous here in England. In fact, it's been a few days of quite beautiful weather. It's great to walk around outside without freezing and to sit in my apartment with the windows open. Can't beat a few days like that.

This week has been an interesting one. Most of my coursemates are finished with lectures. There were 6 of us that chose to take Water Treatment, which is taught through the undergraduate department, so we still have 2 more lectures. Granted, we only have lectures 1 afternoon a week for that class, so it's not so bad. This week was the official start to our thesis projects though. Everyone seemed pretty rushed to turn in a proposal, or at least a title by Tuesday afternoon. Since then we've all been anxiously awaiting our project advisers and approval. In the meantime, it's been a week of little productivity and little motivation. Maybe it's just the anticipation of Easter break in 1 week. Maybe it's that we're all going home, or at least traveling in 1 week and just are burnt out on all the lectures. Or maybe it's that we're all freaking out about our projects. Whatever it is, I don't think anyone has been that productive. Well, I did manage to catch up on most of the reading I missed while I was back in the States. So, that counts for something right?

Yesterday the twins and I decided to get outside and enjoy the weather. We went over to the park in town, had some ice cream and coffee (well, the did anyway), and just walked around. It was a bit chilly but still beautiful. The trip actually inspired me to take my camera out today, which I did. After a short stroll through the park I went through the market that we have in town every Thursday and Saturday. I stopped by my normal vegetable stand to buy some oranges (he has the best oranges I've ever had) and decided to pick up some flowers because they were just to pretty to pass up. Maybe tomorrow if it's nice I'll head down to the river for some more pictures.

I think I have officially broken my camera though, which means I may be shelling out some money soon to buy a new one. I used to only get 1, maybe 2 error messages when I'd turn the camera on. Today I got 4. That's probably not good. But maybe it can wait until I've graduated and have a real job, with real money, and less debt. Maybe?

So many bright lights that cast a shadow

~My Chemical Romance

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things around here. I refuse to believe I'm still jet lagged, but I'm not sleeping well. Last night was interesting though. I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that my mom and my grandma and I were out shopping and I found a business suit. Cause we all know how important that is when you're in grad school...maybe that's telling me to get one to start job hunting???!!

Anyway...because no clothes actually fit me without needing some tailoring, the dream went on to me trying on the suit at a tailors. At which point an argument ensued between my mom and me about how slow I was being and how I kept complaining about the suit. All I really remember is that my grandma was sitting in the corner just laughing at us. Which seemed to be just what would happen in real life. I really miss her.

In happier news, one of my photos was published in an online travel guide. You should check it out. The more interesting thing is that this guide is published locally to where I used to live prior to moving to the UK. But hey, someone chose a photo I took to share with the world. Awesome!

I only have 2 more lectures in my grad school career here in the UK. Easter break is only 1 more week away, then I have a 3 week group project, followed by my summer long thesis. I'm a bit nervous about the thesis. I'm already doubting my project choice but I'm sure once I actually get some work done on it I'll feel a bit better. At least I hope I will.

We're breathing the breath that you gave us to breathe

~Matt Redman

It's 6AM in England, 1AM here in North Carolina. I've been in the US since Wednesday but can't seem to figure out what time it really is. Granted, the past 2 days have been pretty, well, they've made it impossible for my body to know where it is or what time it is. Why am I even blogging at this hour?! I should be asleep. Tomorrow will be a day full of planning, and phone calls, and just plain being overwhelmed.

My grandmother went to be with my granddad and my uncle...with Christ tonight. And while I should be sleeping I can't. No matter how exhausted I am, I can't shut my eyes. And I can't wrap my head around it all and how I'm supposed to go back to England on Sunday.

'Cause we've forgotten what it's like to eat what's rotten

~Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

I was walking home from uni today and thinking about how I hadn't posted in a while. It's just so crazy right now. I had actually planned out in my head, like all you other bloggers do, what I'd post about but that it'd honestly have to wait until after Friday. This class I'm in right now is crazy! But I love it!

So while I'm home tonight knee deep in this...

I get to tell you about this surprise in the mail...

So, as much as I'd rather keep working...I just had to share. Thanks so much for my package! It's definitely making tonight go easier!!!

And since I don't have much more time to waste before actually doing work...I'll leave the rest of you with some pictures from the past 2 weeks. We had much more snow and I had a sushi night with the twins...homemade sushi that is!

Walking in a winter wonderland

It's snowing in England!! Finally! Right now most of the UK is under a severe weather warning, with snowfall forecast through Wednesday. London itself is almost totally shut down in areas. It's awesome! And now, I have my "when I was your age I walked 2 miles in the snow, uphill just to get to school." It's awesome!

It's also great getting to experience this snow with my classmates from Africa, who are experiencing their first snow ever. We properly initiated them with a snowball fight for our half hour break during class today. I feel like a kid again!!

Lift me up above it all...

~Building 429

Freedom!!!!!!!!! I feel a little like William Wallace today. Actually, that feeling all started yesterday around 11:30 when the exam was completed and handed in. The best part is that I really think I did well on it. Then again, I've been rather consistent with my grades over here and much better off than my grades back home, which only really means, I'm making more A's than B's. At any rate, it's a free weekend!!!! No coursework, no lecture notes to read, no studying.

So, what does the weekend entail? Well, first due to the recent (yesterday) passing of the wind tunnel in my kitchen, I'm going to the store and buying all kinds of food and stocking my brand new, very pretty, refrigerator. Yes, after months of limping along with a fridge that didn't keep anything frozen, and kept most things lukewarm, I finally have a brand new one that doesn't sound like a wind tunnel!

Besides that, a few friends of mine are talking about seeing the movie Slum Dog Millionaire (kinda keeping us in the frame of mind of our course), and I'm searching for a new church. I'm also going to do the productive task of cleaning my place, cause for me it's just gross. For normal people, it's probably quite clean. And I'm going to enjoy doing some research and reading on Native Americans so I can come up with the most brilliant thesis project possible, for me at least. So, busy weekend, but it's all about having fun and enjoying what I'm doing. And for me, after this last week, it couldn't be more brilliant timing! But first, back to bed to finish catching up on sleep!!!