Holy crap. So this second essay I'm writing... I did a lot of research on it and I just started writing it about 2 hours ago...but I'm a little bit concerned because I am on a SERIOUS roll and I have WAY TOO MUCH to say. I'm at the halfway point and I'm not even close to finishing talking about Picasso (I haven't started talking about Guernica yet) and then I STILL have to go talk about Magritte! And I have just as much to say about Magritte as I do Picasso.

I need to slow down and rethink this because I can't go over my word limit (and I don't really want to do the extra work anyway!).

Fffft!

This is way better than being stumped and having nothing to write at least!

So I just learned that next semester there will be 23 new incoming exchange students from the various UC's. Man, that's crazy. D: There will be a dinner sometime in January and I'll try to meet and befriend them, but I hope it doesn't infringe upon the EAP family that we've already got going. Maybe it'll just make it bigger and it'll be great! :D

So five days until I see Anastasia! It's going to be awesome. I went ahead and made a list of what I want/need to do before that reunion, and it's a lot but I feel confident.

Now to get to work!

I was speaking to Dad on the phone today. :D

I was telling him how angry I was with my advisor (I recently emailed him telling him about my coarse load and how happy I was here, to which he responded, well just because you "read everything" doesn't mean it'll transfer over and you'll have to write an additional paper for each class. Srsly? What an asshole.), and my dad said, "you know Alix, I've never seen you this happy before. And you were so miserable at Cal...maybe you should stay in England?"

Ha ha ha...I don't know. My first reaction was hell no! I love Cali! But it's been sitting in my head for a few hours now. I don't think I'd be able to handle the weather for years at a time though.

I was watching the videos LK had recently posted and saw a link to TeamFourStar and I thought I'd check it out. I'm not a fan of abridged series that aren't YGO because, well, they just aren't funny or witty (I've seen Avatar and Naruto Abridged and both just aren't even on the same level). But I thought, hey, I'll give DBZ abridged a try. It made me laugh out loud many, many times, which was more than I was expecting. Nappa is such an idiot. XD

It also revived a long lost DBZ craving. I fell out of my DBZ obsession in 8th grade (after like three consecutive years of intense obsession) so it's been...um, six or seven years since I watched it? Wow it's been so long! Anyway, after watching the abridged version, I fell in love with Vegeta allllll over again.

...I need to go watch some Vegeta DBZ episodes. RIGHT. NOW. OMG.

Vegeta! Eeee!

I stayed with my flatmate at her home in Leicester for the weekend. We saw a rugby game, shopped, and relaxed. I got to see an English home! And drink lots of tea and eat good Indian food. I got to see the Springboks live and I generally had a good time.

British commercials and TV amuse me so much. Mmm, that's it for now.

I had a lovely bonfire night. We went to the park where there was a huge bonfire and there were dozens of fireworks directly over our heads. And then we crossed the street to a fair! I bought a chocolate apple and went on a spinny ride. It was great fun. And my first Guy Fawkes Day! Happy!

Yah, so I just got back; it's been a crazy three days. I'd say the two highlights were my wanderings as Maleficent with the crew while doing stupid things, and camping out at the airport all night into the morning where we met these three other guys and just had an amazing 4 hour long discussion about philosophy, literature, and tv shows. There were other topics covered too, but my favorite was the geeking out of LoTR (and personal bashing of Harry Potter). I also got Elsy interested in reading Princess Bride and Last Unicorn, but I only have a copy of the former.

Dublin wasn't really what I expected...it was just kind of a city like any other city. So I had a fun time doing whatever, but there wasn't anything unique about Dublin that particularly filled me with glee.

And there's the abridged version without the play by play! I now need to contemplate sleep (since I haven't slept in 25 hrs now) or staying up till my class at 2. Hmmm...

So yesterday I went to a "Geek Off." It was basically a battle of the geek societies (sci fi, anime, and comic) in an epic quiz at the pub.

( Geeking Off! )

So I went to another life drawing session. I posted the stuff on DA and to FB, so if you want to take a gander go ahead.

( Why I love the world. )

So last night the EAP crew had a joint birthday party bash for October and November birthdays! There were five of us and it was quite fun. We all bought snacks, pizza, and ice cream at the grocery store and then I symbolically bought some vodka (to humor me, the cashier even carded me, haha). We went to Sabrina's house for the party, since her kitchen is large and has couches in it; there we proceeded to make food and snack up until people started showing up.

( The party briefing. )

They are also warm and toasty. ...I'm also talking to Iris! :D She's on skype and is sending me Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep songs. I love her.

I am making calendars!

Also, what a surprise, I waited too long and I don't really want to write every detail of my trip to London (I had, however, thought up a long response to nearly every piece of artwork I encountered, which, frankly, is a lot and I think none of you would read it or comment on it so it isn't worth it really. Anyway, I called up my mom and told her my thoughts; I miss traveling with her). London was, however, amazing.

I went to the Tate Britain (Pre-Raphaelites, Turner, Whistler, general Victorian art, etc), the V&A museum (fashion, textiles, jewelry, metal work, Islamic art, Chinese art, Japanese art, etc), the National Gallery (everything from early Byzantine to Flemish painting to Victorian to the Impressionists, etc), the Royal Academy (which had only a few Victorian pieces and a huge exhibition by some contemporary artist I didn't care for), and a Dali exhibit at the Eye of London.

I also saw Avenue Q again, visited the New Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament), went to the London China town, and explored Green and Hyde park. The hostel was very, very nice. I spent Friday with the crew (Raechel, Janey, Karm, and Kayla), Saturday with Karm, and Sunday on my own. I kind of wanted to go to the museums at my own pace anyways and I had tons of fun. I found ways to get cheaper London tickets so I'll try and go there more frequently. I really want to draw more foundation work and do some studies. I kind of need it!

...I had a presentation today that I kind of bombed but I feel better now at least. T_T

And just when I thought the plot of Naruto couldn't get worse. It's soooo far-fetched. WHY. I recommend everyone read it because IT IS SO SAD.

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/naruto/v49/c467/2.html


...I'll be uploading a super long about London later.

Finally got some alone time with my flute. I was very rusty, but I plowed through it and felt very energized afterward. The private music room is awesome! It's actually a very tiny house with two music rooms and if you explore up the stairs there's a dining room and kitchen (lol?).

( I also went to the Anime Soc today. )

...I read one of Little Kuriboh's posts and he's in a play in Scunthorpe which is a short train ride away from Leeds (I think; it looks it on the map anyway). I could...technically...go see his show. O: But I'm already going to London this weekend and Dublin at the end of the month. It might be a lot? Plus I don't know anyone who'd go with me.

Anyway, my horrible cold is gone except for some sniffles. I just got back from an LGBT gay-club tour night...thing. So we just hit gay bars and ended at a club with gay-themed monday nights. It was cool because as part of the club I got in free! The gay boys were pretty adorable. I kind of just hung out with Karm and Jason for most of it though...I didn't really branch out and talk to anyone. Next time I'll try better.

Walking home kind of sucked though...it's 3.5 miles away, and I didn't have cash for a cab, nor did I want to pay even if I had one. So the three of us walked along the road together and each got off at his stop but I was the last one, so I walked the last 20 minutes by myself at 2:30am. It wasn't too bad... I was just kind of tired.

Now that I'm healthy again I can finally resume flute playing! I'm excited to play tomorrow. Today, I mean.

So yesterday, Karm and I were chilling at Parkinson steps waiting for Lynn when this guy approached us and asked if we knew where the "subculture" club was. We, of course, had no idea, but after a bit of conversing we learned they were playing alternative rock and this guy had no one to go with so we agreed to meet him there.

(Then Karm and I went to an LGBT meeting; I met this guy Jason who is a very sweet guy from Missouri. Then we went grocery shopping and generally hung out in Karm's kitchen, where I saw her Canadian roommate who is drop dead smoking hot. OMG. NAUGHTY THOUGHTS MAYBE A LITTLE BIT.)

Anyway, the three of us met up with Elsy, went to the club, and then hung out with this guy, Ben. I had assumed that when he approached us at the steps it was because Karm is such an outgoing, interesting character that he wanted to talk to her, which you know I was cool with. But then he asked me about my drawings, and I realized he had seen me drawing comics at the steps a few minutes before I met up with Karm. He must have seen me talking to another person and then thought it easier to approach me when I was with multiple people (Ryan and Justin happened to be there too). So yeah, I was rather surprised. He also called me today to see if we were still on to going to the falconry thing I had mentioned at the club. Surprising indeed.

Now the big tragedy I have for today is that I completely and utterly lost my voice. I also woke up with conjunctivitis in my right eye and had to go the clinic (they call it the surgery here). So I went to the clinic and had no idea I lost my voice until I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out except weak coarse-sounding breath. By the time the emergency nurse called me, I could make words though. Apparently getting pink-eye eye drops is over the counter here so I didn't really need to go to the clinic.

Also the tragedy gets a bit worse. I put in my eye drops and I cocked my head back for good few seconds to make sure it stayed in my eye, but I'm pretty sure it dribbled through the back of my eye, through the tear ducts in my nose, and then to the back of my throat, because I could taste the eye medicine in my throat. The second time I put the drops in it happened again and it kind of made me gag and throw up...at the bus stop. It was rather vile.

Though I did watch Pride and Prejudice with Elsy tonight. I rather liked it.

I've been craving James Bond like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway, today I bought three posters for 10 quid. One was "The Tree of Life" by Gustav Klimt. One was this adorable picture of a baby African elephant. And the other was Daniel Craig. Mmmhmmmm.

So! There were two pictures to choose from...either this big picture of him in Quantum of Solace holding that giant gun looking smoking hot, or this other poster with him in four different poses (it also said Casino Royale on it). While the QoS was pretty awesome, there were FOUR Craig's in the other poster so I thought I'd get more for my money.

Yup. So now, I have FOUR Daniel Craig's on my wall. It's fantastic.

I'm going to a falconry demonstration tomorrow. I love it here. It's kind of amazing.

I stopped by a club fair today (though there will be themed club fairs each day of the week next week) and signed up for the Veggie Club (I get discounts at food stores!) and the Comic Club (they were very excited when they found out I draw; the guy who spoke to me was also very hot). I also grabbed flyers for various things. I think I'll join LGBT too. Lynn and Karm wanted to join with me, so that's nice.

Anyway, I'm meeting with Sabrina, Nick, Raechel, Kayla, Karm, and Elsy tonight to go to the "Fruity Disco" which apparently isn't a gay disco. Fruity doesn't mean gay here. Puff means gay; isn't that just hilarious? ...Anyway, I think afterwards Elsy and I were going to watch Project Runway. Yaaaay!

Even if I can't get my comics up for Paperlinks, at least I'll be doing the cover for this month. I'll need to do that sometime tomorrow or Sunday before everything gets too nuts.

I'm secure in my own room too. I haven't unpacked or anything, though. I spent last night running around town looking for a place that might be selling sheets. D: I did find sheets but no blankets. I piled on my coats and all my clothes onto the sheets and then slept under them. At least it was warm. I also kind of clogged my toilet. DX They didn't give me a plunger or anything! How am I supposed to fix it? I'm too afraid to ask because then the first impression I give will be that of a "stupid American." It's not my fault if the toilets are super weak here, right? ...I also can't make the shower get hot water. -_-

But I do have good feelings about today. I have orientation in an hour or so, and then I'll go buy blankets, towels, tampons (wtf Alix), hangers, pots/pans, and food. I'm not sure how I'll get this stuff to my dorm though. I'm kind of in the mountains...3 miles away from the university.

I also keep trying to log on to aim at various times of day but no one seems to be online. What time do I need to frikkin' log on to talk to you people! It's frikkin' 11pm over there right now! Come ooooon!

Things are happening faster than I can draw them, but I've already drawn 7 pages worth of adventures. The real issue is that I don't have a scanner and I discovered yesterday that my camera broke somewhere during travel. So I'm facing a bit of a conundrum when it comes to how I'm going to upload the suckers.

Regardless, I am having a pretty damn good time. The majority of EAP students going to Leeds are studying some form of art: from fashion to graphic design to studio art to film to photography. There are actually very few students studying something other than art. I'm really grateful! I think I'm the only comic geek, however. One of them has gone to comic con, so there's hope. Regardless, everyone is really fun, and I'm holding my own better than I thought I would. I'm still pretty anxious and shy, given my social inadequacies but I'm dong pretty well.

There was a Spanish exhibit here, so I got to see some Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, Zurburan, and Picasso. I was really looking forward to the Goya paintings, but they didn't have the stuff I was hoping for. The etchings were pretty fantastic though! XD

Edinburgh is a gorgeous town and I hope Leeds is just as gorgeous.

I also have bought a local phone. :D I still need to set-up a bank account, register with the police, and sign up for a doctor, but I'm confident I can handle it.

That's it for now.

So I'm paying 6.50 quid for an hour of internet. Totally unreasonable.

BUT WHO CARES. I'M IN FRIKKIN' SCOTLAND, BITCHES!

My taxi driver sounded like Scotty from Star Trek. Lolololol.

Oh snap, and my computer didn't update the time! It's like 4:30pm over here but my computer says 8:30am.

I'm sorry I'm very hyper right now because I've been running on no sleep and ABSOLUTE ECSTASY.

I don't want to describe every detail of my trip so far, because I'll be updating my travel stories via comics in a few days. I'm waiting to get settled into my dorm room at Leeds first (where internet is probably cheaper).

Orientation is tomorrow, then I retrace my steps back south to Leeds, then more orientation, then school starts. School. In. England! Hahahahahahahahahaha. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I didn't realize how excited I was until I actually got here. Anyway, I just wanted to post and let everyone know I arrived here safely.

(They had a Beatles exhibit at the British Library but it was closed when I got there so I didn't get to see it. D:).

...SQUEE!!!