It's like a heat wave

~Linda Ronstadt

I have a new appreciation for air conditioning. Really. When it's 80 degrees with over 30% humidity and there's no a/c, it's rather miserable. But since I'm from the south and supposed to be used to this kind of weather, or worse, I try really hard not to complain around those that aren't used to the weather...ie. the English. But man, they do love to complain about the weather here!

It's been a great couple of weeks, despite the weather. The boy took me to his hometown to visit the zoo and castle (which is a part of the zoo grounds). It was a lot of fun, even if we spent more time looking at empty cages. We did manage to find very playful meerkats, sea lions, and the giraffes.

This past week was extremely productive for my thesis. I finally got a chapter written and feel pretty good about my time management so far. I do have to check my schedule and make sure I can finish a couple more chapters before I head to Spain in a couple of weeks. Must stay on top of things.

Saturday, we took the train to Stratford-upon-Avon. It's Shakespeare's birth place. That was a lot of fun and I loved the scenery. I like the tudor style house anyway, so being in a town with all of that was wonderful. It ended up being a beautiful weekend for weather too.

From here on I'll probably be posting less and less, except pictures. Mostly because everything in my head is centered around the thesis and more time must be spent typing that than updating the blog. But fear not, I'll share photos as much as possible.

Aliens and Rainbows

~Ferras

It's been a great couple of weeks around here. Great in the sense that I don't have any more classes or homework or exams...beautiful weather on the weekends...and lots of productivity on the thesis. However, working on my thesis means weekdays where I don't leave my room...which is starting to get to me.

This weekend was a blast. I headed out for dinner on Friday with the twins and one of the other Americans from class. The twins left Saturday for 2 weeks to work on their projects back in Sweden. It feels strange not having them around to waste time with. But they'll be back soon. It was so nice, we really should have eaten out in the Beer Garden at the pub, but because nice weather doesn't happen around here very often, it was too crowded.

Saturday I got to spend walking around town with rem. We looked at the random merchants in the market, took a walk through the park, and then tried to make a decision about watching a movie. We ended up not watching a movie and I headed home to relax.

Sunday he decided to take me for a drive around the area. We had the intention of finding a random village pub to go sit outside and enjoy the weather...but an hour and a half later we still hadn't found a place. It was fun just getting out of town though and seeing the villages in the area. Eventually we found a little pub that he passes on his way home. It was fun minus all the green flies. After beating flies off us for about 45 minutes, we decided mother nature had won and we headed back to town. Then we hit up one of the local pubs and enjoyed the fly free sunny weather of their beer garden. Great fun!

Today was very very productive and I now have a much better feeling about my thesis. I just hope the rest of the week is just as productive. The highlight though was the awesome thunderstorm tonight. I haven't seen lightning at all since I moved to this country. I was very excited by it and stood at the door watching the lightning and downpour. When I got back to my room I saw the most amazing rainbow over the countryside and along with my neighbor, went to capture the beauty of it. I really miss home, but I'm glad I get little reminders every now and then.

Before colors broke into shades

~Josh Groban

Days are long here, nights are way too short. It's strange how different things are when you don't realize just how much farther north you are from what you're always used it. It's been quite a week for weather. I really think I'm just getting spoiled. It's been sunny and in the 70's. Beautiful weather for having the windows open and having the shades open. But it doesn't make it very difficult to focus on the task at hand. Somehow I am managing though.

Strangest thing by far has been the sun not setting until about 9:45 PM. (Note that it's 9:36 PM right now and the sun is still setting). And the sun rises around 4:00 AM. This fact was discovered this weekend when I had to get up to investigate a strange noise in the night. Granted, seeing the sun rise that early was really rather cool. I hope there are more days like these this summer.

Good times never seemed so good

James Taylor

This past weekend I traveled down south of uni to visit Birmingham and Dudley.

The boy showed me around his hometown and I realized how much bigger "small towns" in England are from small towns back home (like where I'm from). I can't tell you much of the history of the area, but it was very pretty. We headed out to see the Priory ruins. That was interesting but I forgot to get the camera out to take any pictures. Then we headed out to Himley Hall. It's built on the Earl of Dudley's land where his home used to be. It's a medieval manor house. Very pretty...After Himley Hall we headed over to the Crooked House. It really is crooked. Basically, it's an old house that started subsiding (lots of limestone caverns under Dudley) so they built some supports on one side, made the floors even, and turned it into a pub/restaurant. Pretty neat...but it makes you feel a bit dizzy when walking inside. Plus the doors either have to be pushed or pulled upwards to get them to open.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend. While everyone around me kept complaining about the heat (it was maybe 70 degrees!!!) I reminded them that it's much hotter than that back home. So, another quality weekend spent seeing new parts of this country. Hopefully more of those will come.

When the cream and the crop are the same

~Andrew Bird

"Summer" has officially begun. Well, our first bbq of the summer anyway, so that makes it summer right? Yesterday a bunch of us from class got together to have a cookout. It was quite an interesting affair, which surprised us all with the end result.

We had no proper grill on which to cook the most amazing pork burgers I have ever tasted. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had pork burgers. But man, they were amazing. They were freshly made by a local butcher. So good....




It took a good 20 minutes to get the charcoal to light and stay lit. But then mother nature tried to ruin it all with a nice little shower. However, 4 of us sacrificed our dry backs to keep the rain off our tiny little "grill". We regretted that later in the evening when it began to get chilly.

It was a nice break from the frustration of the thesis project. I have narrowed down my topic and the group I'm actually going to focus on. So, if anyone knows anything about Native Americans and their water rights, please get in touch with me.

In other news, the weather here is crazy. I think I've finally discovered the truth about English weather. It tricks the newcomers into believing that it doesn't always rain, and then bam! everyday it rains. Although it does remind me of a Florida summer. You know, where it's sunny, then rain, then 30 minutes later you'd never know it had rained. But, and this is a big one, it's no where near that warm, it doesn't thunder, and it's more like 10 minutes of sun, 1 hour of rain, 10 minutes of sun, well...you get the picture.

Winding in and winding out, the shine of it has caught my eye

~Dashboard Confessional

My days of attending lectures has come to an end. As has my days of doing homework. It's really a rather bittersweet feeling right now. I mean, I'm so exhausted I can't figure out what day or time it is, and I honestly feel like I could sleep for 24 hours straight. But it also means that all of this will end soon. The friendships I've made will change, the work I do will be different, and my time in England will end. Even if that's all still 3 months away.

Today I officially started on my thesis project. Really that's all that's left (besides one exam) before I can officially say I have a masters degree. I've already decided that after September I'm finished. I only have 3 classes left to get another masters back at State, but honestly, what's the use. I mean, it'd look great on a resume I'm sure, but I'm tired and I'm really just looking forward to working a job and going home and spending time with my friends, family, dog, and whoever else that might include. Plus the last 3 classes I have to take to get that other degree are classes I don't want to take anyway. So, what's the point?

Yeah, thesis. I'm really torn and confused right now. I'm not totally sure what my project is, how to go about figuring that out, and what to do once I do have it all figured out. And I have 90 days until I have to turn in 60-120 pages. Any suggestions? I know I want to do something with water rights (as in who gets what water and how much) in America. But I'm really second guessing everything right now. That's this week's goal, get the project decided, write the aims, objectives, and scope, and figure out how I'm going to spend my time this summer. Help!

Take a deep breath, let it all in

~Legally Blonde - The Musical

I finally have a few minutes to sit back and relax. Albeit, I still have one major assignment left to finish...but right now, I'm catching up on the blog that several people have told me to write more on. So, here you go.

The past 3 weeks have been crazy! We were starting and completing our group project. It was by far the most stressful group project I've ever participated in. But it's over now and I'm really happy with the final result so let's just hope the grade reflects that. But anyway...here's been my last month or so.

Paris, London, new friends, group projects, and less sleep than ever. But it was all worth it and I'd do every bit of it again.

Sorry, I'm at a loss for words. Somehow 75 page reports, followed by another 30 page assignment, and 4 pages of reflection on my part of the project have left me not knowing what to say. So, here are some pictures. Enjoy!