To the people who I met in that wonderful year of 2007, to the people who became my second family and the land that became the place I will one day call home - HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!
After twenty six hours of travelling from Heathrow thanks to a delayed flight and then missing the connecting flight in Miami I finally arrived back at Baton Rouge at 2am Monday morning. My first class was on Tuesday at 12 so I had the joys of going to class with jetlag and sleep deprivation, fun times(!) But it’s good to be back and work is already due in the first week!
A lot happened in the news though over the five weeks since I left:
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown survived a political coup in which two Labour MP’s tried to get him kicked out of office (it’s a shame they failed)
- Someone tried to blow up a plane on Xmas Day meaning security at airports is now heightened (I was given a full pat down at Heathrow before I could go to the gate)
- It was the coldest winter in England in 30 years
- Leeds United beat Manchester United 1-0 in football (soccer) for the first time in 29 years
- Cadbury’s sold out to the American company Krafts
- Borders Book stores in England closed down for good (meaning I now no longer have a favourite book store in England)
- Stephen Fry won a special recognition award at the National Television awards
- Haiti suffered a horrendous earthquake
Here’s hoping 2010 brings some happier news both on a personal and larger scale.
The time has almost come to take to the skies again. The horrible task of packing has begun, working out what to take and what to leave behind, what will I need for four months in Louisiana and what can I do without. Safe to say my suitcase is a mixture of clothes, only three books this time and a few essentials (including a stash of British candy).
I head down to London on Saturday and stay overnight with family before jetting to Miami from Heathrow on Sunday morning where I get a connecting flight to New Orleans. I’m hoping beyond hope that the flight is better than last time where I was horrendously ill, the doctor has prescribed stronger medication than what I had so my fingers and toes are crossed that it’ll work.
I’ve also started to apply for work for the summer and already have a job offer for a position in Montana!
It’ll be good to go back and hopefully not be as confused as I was last semester but this break back home has made me realise that I do actually like England, despite the fact that it hasn’t stopped snowing for a whole month!
What a way to start 2010, Leeds United have just beaten Man Utd 1-0 in the FA Cup and are looking like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes. Lets hope they keep it up and can get back into the Premiership for next season. I’ve never been much of a footy fanatic but I watched the match and by the end was holding my breath like everyone else.
2010 kicked off in a quiet way, watched fireworks in Sydney via Skype with the group of people who I have come to call family despite the lack of blood relation. The last few hours were spent watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which I think is my favourite film out of all of them, a good mixture of humour and dark drama and the acting is thankfully improving as well as it can do.
Also getting back into the swing of writing and am composing a piece of prose where the words just seem to flow, current word count is standing at 13,000 and still going strong.
I’ve also started to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini, I’m hoping to read more fiction books this year as I’ve got a small stack on my reading list that keeps growing.
But for my new years resolution, I wanted something that I’ll actually stick to, so ended up settling for making this decade the best I can and for having as much fun in 2010 as possible and study as hard as I can at uni and continue to get good grades
It’s odd to think that the decade will soon be ending and it’ll be January again, I’ve realised time seems to disappear with age and it doesn’t seem to want to slow down. The Christmas break has been going well though, been busy with lots of travelling to see family and friends whilst successfully managing to not fall over in the snow (first time that’s ever happened!). Will be heading back to the US January 11th and am not looking forward to the journey, I don’t fly well and there’s a lot more security on flights to the US now after a failed bomb plot on Christmas day so that’ll no doubt be fun(!)
The good thing though is that I’ve started writing again, it’s a piece that I started when I was backpacking round Queensland, Australia but I stopped writing when I came back to Leeds and have only gotten back into it. So far it’s only 8,000 words long but the words seem to be flowing easily so hopefully I’ll get more done this semester in between all the extra work that will no doubt be given.
It’s strange to think that I’m now half way through a degree and there’s only three semesters left. Third year is looming in an unhappy way, the prospect of writing a 10-11,000 word dissertation (research paper) doesn’t fill me with much joy but hopefully living situations will be better than first year was and it’ll generally be a happier time.
There’s not much planned for NYE, I was originally going to be in Sydney watching the fireworks on Harbour Bridge but now I think it’s going to be a quiet celebration. So until next year, I’m out!
England went to sleep with the first flurries of snow falling on the ground, this morning it woke up to a winter wonderland.
Usually when the weather changes drastically in England people react drastically and with snow it’s no different. Schools have been shut, there’s been crashes on the motorways, planes have been delayed or cancelled, even mine and my brother’s trip to Durham has been postponed because my aunt and uncle are unable to get their cars out of the small village they live in.
I ventured to the end of the driveway only to turn back round as under the snow is a lot of ice and I’m already bad with gravity so whenever ice is involved it just gets worse!
According to BBC Weather at some point this week there’s going to be a glorious high of -1c (30F)and during the night it’s falling to -5c (23F)! The only time I remember it snowing before Christmas was on either my 7th or 8th birthday and a friend had to arrive via sledge!
But the indoorsy weather means I can happily curl up on my bed, write fiction and read the books that have been ignored all semester. Oh, and chat to the friends in Australia who are enjoying 29c (84F) heat and sunbathing at Bondi!
It was the worst journey I’ve ever taken but I made it back to England on Saturday. My flight from Chicago was delayed by 2.5 hours and I was sick for the whole seven hours and am now terrified of getting back on another plane which isn’t helpful as I have to go back to the States in January.
It has been nice being home though, I went through to UCLan on Monday and am visiting family over the weekend and catching up with friends in Leeds next week, so it’s a busy time but nothing beats being home.
And, it’s just started to snow in Leeds so it could be a white Christmas afterall!
I don’t know if it’s the exhaustion from studying, or the fear of taking tomorrow’s History exam or if this is actually really funny but I think the phrase “Only in America” suits this video rather well:
Also, I’m amused that Britney Spears was mentioned in my text book! I wonder if she’ll be on the exam…
The last two weeks seemed to have been about things ending. A relationship came to it’s natural end after three years of fighting to be together, classes at LSU are now finished and we’re entering finals week and soon I’ll be flying back to the UK for birthday (Dec 13th) and Christmas celebrations.
It’s weird to think that this time next week I’ll be back at home, no doubt curled up on the couch, surrounded by friends and family, instead of studying for exams. It’s been a good experience at LSU but nothing beats home comforts and being with people who you’ve known for most of your life, but I’m looking forward to coming back in January, hopefully getting some travel in and staying in the US for the summer.
In happier news, I was in the campus newspaper (online article can be found here, FYI: Manchester is nowhere near Ireland!) and I saw snow last night for the first time in another country
Today is Thanksgiving Day in America. A time where I imagine families sit round a huge dining table, eating good food and having good conversation. That’s the strange thing about being a Brit in America, I wasn’t sure what to do for today. I’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving before, yet I didn’t feel I should because I’m not an American. In the end, I was happy with the conclusion that today is for families and as I have none in America I was content to spend the day by myself and ended up studying and tweaking web code, which lead to this site being relaunched.
I’ve had this domain since I was 17 and it’s always been more of a playground for me to learn web code with. Now though I’m taking a step back from web design to concentrate on other things but I wasn’t ready to walk away completely.
So for now, this little space on the web is a portfolio for whatever creations I come up with and whatever ramblings I feel the need to share
