Days 17-23: Making Friends Wherever I Go

So, we’re going to regress a bit into last semester’s blogging tactics as this week I have limited updates of extraordinary significance or awesomeness. Switzerland and getting accepted into the summer programs are still kind of dominating my life, although I am looking forward to my group trip to Egypt! We leave next Monday- how exciting is that? Seriously, I got my itinerary and there will be camel riding and donkey riding and giant pyramids and so much ancientness that I can’t help but believe it will be an awing and unbelievable experience.

Anyhow, more to come on that after I actually go to Egypt. Man, I am excited!

Update: Obviously that section of the blog was written earlier in the week. Egypt was cancelled. Kind of a downer.

So, a weekly update:

Monday: It proceeded like most Mondays here. An 8am class that really was way too early, followed by the gym, then another class, a small break, then another class, and then group dinner at this delicious little French restaurant. I did manage to fix my skype (it was having strange issues), but at the cost of my computer deleting half of my photos. Thank goodness for facebook, but when I was able to retrieve the photos, they were all mixed up and no longer organized. So I’ve got 1400 photos to go through and categorize. Awesome. I’m really looking forward to that one.

Tuesday: I was able to sleep in a bit this day, then headed off to the gym to do some last minute studying for my midterm in History, which went quite well. 2 essays, American history- I’m feeling fairly confident in my ability to write, so that’s good. Of course, we’ll see when I get the papers back. This was followed by a group “Taco Night” in the house in which our house family made huge amounts of delicious Mexican food upon which I gorged. Yeah, no restraint when it came to dinner on Tuesday night, but that’s ok considering the insane workouts I’ve been doing and will continue to do this week. I finished up the night by hanging out a bit and then devising two query letters (letters that I will be sending to potential literary agents when I try and publish again in a few months) before going to bed, so that was lovely and productive. Now I just need to get working on my novels again!

Wednesday: I got to sleep in a bit again, before heading off to the gym for my daily workout. This was followed by a cancelled class, so I had absolutely no class. So? I watched a movie, relaxed a bit, then got ready for group dinner at Wagamama’s and then headed back to the house, where I attended small group and then hung out in the lounge and watched a movie with a group of kids in the house. It was fun, just chilling and laughing and hanging out with everyone.

Thursday: So, I thought I was going to get to sleep in today, but unfortunately there had to be a random fire alarm, and can I please tell you how absolutely heinous-sounding that damn fire alarm is? Seriously, I’ve never been more scared while waking up in my life. I literally jumped out of sleep and then realized what was going on. Ugh. Anyhow, after dealing with that false alarm, I managed to get about 20 more minutes of sleep before my actual alarm went off and I decided to hit the gym. Legs = sore. Oh well. It’s a healthy soreness, I guess. Anyhow, this was followed by a museum visit to the National Gallery for one of my classes, and then we came back and watched The Patriot for another one of my classes. Thursday night meant no group dinner, so I made myself a little bit of leftover friend rice and then hung out for a bit before retiring to my room and watching a movie. Around 9:30 we all hit the kitchen for the results of our in-house bake-off an enjoyed a huge assortment of desserts. Yum. This was followed by an extremely late night- I got pulled into writing again and didn’t even realize that it was 3 am until I took a break. Sad thing was, my roomie was still awake, too. Darn weird weekend hours here.

Friday: I did get to sleep in today. Well, I mean, I woke up when my roomie got up, but then I rolled back over and fell back asleep, refusing to get out of bed til noon. It was wonderful. This was followed by actual productivity! Woohoo! I wrote my two “evaluation papers” for my British Music class, then did my laundry like the hygienic person I am. Then I checked my email and got awful news- our Cairo trip was cancelled. We’re still going to Luxor, but because of the riots Cairo is too dangerous, yadda yadda. Seriously? I wanted to ride camels and see the pyramids. The whole house is completely bummed out over this, since our trip is being cut in half. I mean, it makes sense that they’re keeping us safe, but it still is such an absolutely hugely crushing realization that we don’t get to see the pyramids while in Egypt. Yeah… Oh, and then, just to include you in the drama- the entire trip was cancelled. Of course, I understand this, considering the violence and revolution and the fact that the airport was closed. It’s just a major bummer. However, hopefully we’ll get another trip in. We’ve been talking Italy or Istanbul, both of which would be brilliant!  Anyhow, I fixed this depression with a little writing, toast-eating, and workout until we hit up Freud’s, one of our bars, and then made it back to the house where I was randomly drawn in to watching some Bear Gryll’s episode with Will Ferrell. Oh, and I made a new friend on the tube from Northern England whose name was Simon. We had a great discussion about cold Londoners and legitimate Mexican food. Quality conversation right there. After that? Well, it was 2:30am. I crashed out. Sleep is lovely.

Saturday: I woke up to my roomie’s alarm today… and then fell back asleep because going to bed at 2 am merits a little bit of sleeping in. When it was almost noon I kind of came to the realization that I needed to get out of bed and actually do something with my life. So…. I did 1000 sit-ups and then got into a new show and watched that for a couple hours.  (It’s out of control over her, isn’t it? Haha, oh laziness). Then I finally got enough inspiration to actually get out of my comfy bed and go to the gym, which was weird and muggy and somewhat painful, although I was proud of myself for going. Woohoo? Yeah. After that I made myself a little dinner, and then Nick was experimenting in the kitchen again so naturally I had to have a second dinner and sample his delicious food. This was followed by a trek to “Trafalgar” our typical bar, where I met a new bartender (“Seth”) and had a good time chatting with my friends. And then I made friends with the bartender, who gave me free drinks and told me that I should come back. Yes? I think so. He was nice and I like free drinks. What a fantastic combo! This was followed by a quick walk to a club, which turned out to be closed… bummer. And it was cold. So we walked back to our house, considering it was already quite late, and then relished in the beautiful warmth of our house in comparison to the nasty cold outdoors. We hit up the kitchen, reheated some amazing pasta, enjoyed the food, and then crashed out after a little bit of socializing. All in all? A very, very good day. I’m glad we’ve picked up on this whole going out thing again!

Sunday: I slept in again and it was fantastic. This was followed by actual productivity and a slight depression over the fact that we have class tomorrow and are not flying to Egypt. But, considering all the deaths and the craziness that’s been on the news, it’s probably best. Especially considering they closed the airport and all… Yeah. Anyhow, got in my sit-ups (1000 a day for the past week. Oh yeah abs, c’mon!), a paper written, a gym visit in, a run around the park to change up my exercising a bit (it was COLD out there tonight), dinner with some friends and a bunch of socializing, before returning to my room for a tv show, a little writing, and a pretty chill Sunday evening.