My Mind is Playing Tricks...

I've never considered myself an insomniac. I love sleep, no, I crave sleep. At least usually. But since Exams are looming ever closer, I have unintentionally done something monumentally stupid. I've somehow reversed my sleeping schedule. One night I couldn't sleep and stayed awake the entire night and then went to bed at 9 am. Woke up at 5 pm and since then I can't get back to a regular sleep schedule. It's as though my body has decided it's fed-up with this European crap schedule, went on strike and my internal clock is back to West Coast US time.

However I have to say, nighttime is much quieter and more conducive to studying. For about a week I had a neighbor blast his music and bass vibrated my room from two doors down. Impressive, right? At least I know he won't do that at 3 am.

Now it's my goal today to stay awake till 7 or 8 pm. If I can make it to 8, I know I'll be fine for exams. The only thing is, when I get that tired, staying awake longer than 24 hours, my mind starts to play tricks on me and I get really shaky. For example, I tried this last night, and I could have sworn my next door neighbor had a cat in his room. Usually all I hear is random Arabic, sometimes a group of them and his bed squeaks every time he sits on it or turns over in his sleep. I'm hoping it was the squeaking I heard, and not an actual cat.

I'm going to go grocery shopping at 3 pm. Hopefully the cold snap in Nottingham will wake me up. And I need food for exam week. I don't want to have to worry about food shopping between exams.

I've emailed a few of my friends in my classes and from what I hear I'm ahead of the curve on the studying and papers. Especially the papers, since I'm done with one, halfway through another and should be done by the end of next week. After that I have ten days to complete two critique papers that are simply giving the pros and cons of two studies' scientific method. My friends tell me they haven't even started to write the papers. That gives them TEN DAYS to write FOUR papers. I do not envy them. Although one, I did in one sitting. It was a personal development paper, so there was no wrong answer, since it's just my account of where I want to be and how to get there in 5, 15, 25 years. Easy.

I say good luck to them, and wish good luck to me. I may just need it. For my exams and so I don't lose my mind from lack of sleep.

TOP 10 MOST RIDICULOUS BRITISH LAWS

Hello!!
I found this list and thought I'd quickly share them with all of you.

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down.

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store.

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day.

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter.

6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet.

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen.

8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing.

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour.

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.


Now, I'm back to studying...

Why Did the Deer Cross the Road?

Merry Christmas Everyone! And a Happy New Year! I hope everyone had fun stuffing themselves with homemade baked goods, ripping open brightly colored packages, and maybe getting a little tipsy. While this is all well and good for you, I decided to forgo all of that and come up with something a little different this year.

Nearby, just a 5 minute walk from my building is a park, Wollaton Park, that is populated by rich people who love to golf in funny outfits, ducks, coy fish, old palace-looking mansions and strangely enough, deer. I know what your thinking, besides where I'm going with this blog. "Deer, is that legal?" Apparently, here in England, it is. Not really knowing what deer eat, but figuring they had about the same digestive system as horses, I brought some carrots. Specifically two bags full of carrots. Why, you may ask? Because I had nothing else to do on Christmas, since everything else was closed. Plus, carrots are much cheaper than apples (which I know for a fact they eat).

So after wandering around, seeing these strangely haunted-looking buildings:


I spotted a group of male deer that resembled reindeer. If you look closely the two on the far right have their antlers interlocked. A few times they would half-heartedly charge and fight with their antlers. I don't know why, since mating season is supposed to be over.

Then I saw that the leader of their group was eyeing me rather strangely, so I threw a carrot in the grass to entice him to cross the road to investigate.

What was strange to me is that the deer suddenly got in a line to cross the road. this is particularly funny if you have ever been to England, because the people here are weirdly obsessed with lining up or "queuing" for everything and get rather grumbly if you cut to the front of the "Que". To see the English deer do this was understandably weird.

Once the Alpha crossed, then the herd followed:



He sniffed at my offering, found it lacking and moved on. Really exciting! Not really, unless you consider how close I got to the animals while taking the photos. You could stand mere feet away from them before they shied away. Amazing!

Then I went back to my room, ate lunch with a chocolate dessert and took a nap. When I woke up around 9 pm I waited around by reading my romance book until 4 am to call my mom and the family. And then promptly went back to sleep.

Your probably thinking, "No presents! That's a crime." Not really since I bought myself a Hoyt bow a week earlier and my mom sent me Sourpatch Kids candies and socks. The former my favorite comfort candy and the latter, because my mom is such a "mom". But I love them just the same because they are knee high and warm.

For the next few weeks I am going to disappear again because I have more studying to do that is conceivably possible. But I'm going to make the effort to tackle all of it. Well, most of it.

So if I don't blog until February, just know it's not because I am spurning my readers, it's because my lecturers and tutors have a sadistic twist of mind.

So, I shall blog in the next year and stay safe and study hard.

Busy Week...

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, life has been a little hectic. First I have to mention the archery fun shoot, where everyone got to shoot at random stuff. The Voltaire book was my favorite, and as you can see it was also the compound bows fav as well.




I went to Victoria Centre (a shopping mall-like place) to do some Christmas shopping and I stopped at a place called Costas, essentially Starbuck's rival. I know! Your asking yourself, Why??? You're form Seattle, show some pride. However if you got this lay out...



for just a cup of tea for 4 pounds, you now understand my lack of loyalty. I would never get the same deal at Starbucks here. A venti chi tea cost me 4.50 pound at Starbucks. In my opinion, they need to step up their game. It's no wonder their stock sank over 90% in the last quarter.

The Archery club also went out for a Christmas dinner at an Italian place called Zizzi's. It included a three course meal and I had the Penne Della Casa (smoked pancetta bacon, roasted chicken, creamy mushroom sauce and baby spinach finished with grated grana padano cheese, baked al forno) This was the best dish of food I've ate since being here. It was like heaven had entered my mouth. And yes, I "borrowed" the Christmas menu, but it's going back, I swear!



Here's a few pictures of the people at my table. Do not be scared, they're nicer than they look.


Josh (American from Connecticut) and Joe (experienced archer and coach to us dumb novices).



Joe showing off his huge pizza and Josh a little drunk and annoying and Hannah sitting between them.



Here's something I didn't know! If you drop a pence (penny) into someones drink they have to down the whole thing to "save the queen" and everyone at the table sings "God Save the Queen". Poor Alex, the queen was dropped into his wine twice.

Today was a busy day too!
For the last four days I didn't come out of my room and disappeared to write a paper due today. So once I turned that in, a couple guys from archery came to pick me up because a group of us were meeting at an archery shop. While there I gave myself an early Christmas present! A Hoyt bow! Most of you won't know what that means, just know it's pretty, very accurate and fun to play with. I have no pictures yet. I tried to take some in my room, but the lighting is really bad and a picture cannot convey what a beauty it is.

Well I'm exhausted and I still have one last review class tomorrow. On Friday I may go see Mama Mia! where the theater is playing it and everyone in the audience is supposed to sing a long. Sounds fun. I just hope I can get tickets.

Night!

Foot in Mouth...

This just happened and I can't resist writing about it. I laughed so hard my eyes teared. I had just come from the Medical Library to get some counselling books and I was standing at the bus stop to go back to my room. There was a guy and a girl at the bus stop too. The guy was Indian and the girl English, and they were obviously flirting and having a grand time. He then began to tease her about her major, American Studies.

"But most Americans cannot even find their own country on a map!" He exclaimed loudly.

Up until this moment I had been standing quietly off to the side, not saying a word, completely ignored. But this was too good an opportunity for me to pass up. It was like the moment was handed to me on a golden platter.

I abruptly turned to him and said calmly with my obvious American accent, "Actually, most of us can." And I smiled.

The girl made a loud noise of embarrassment, something near a scream, but not quite and the guy had a stupid, dumbfounded look on his face. She then started to smack his chest and exclaim, "You are not allowed to say anything offensive again!"

I couldn't stop laughing, as the kid tried to apologize profusely, but the look on his face was priceless.

When I got on the bus I learned the girl was in her last year completing her undergraduate and wanted to go to Milwaukee to get her masters. Then she wanted to eventually get her PhD and move to Utah where her relatives live. She talked with me mostly because she really likes America. The Indian guy sat a few rows back in the crowded bus, and when we all got off he apologized again. I said I took no offense, but I hope he learned his lesson. Making broad statements about another culture and place just illustrates to others how ignorant and narrow-minded you are. And you may never know whose standing next to you when you say something stupid.