You should be writing.... oh wait, that's me

A week seems like a reasonable period to be blogging about, its also more interesting that working on my dissertation.  It's really hard to write with everything broken up into chunks like this but at the same time its not really feasible to do my usual writing strategy of sitting down close to the deadline and writing straight through - 8,000 word minimum sorta eliminates that option.

Happy belated thanksgiving to everyone!  The actual day was fairly uneventful here.  We did a holiday meal with the other people on the floor last weekend with turkey and all the fixins so there wasn't much enthusiasm or need to do it all over again on Thursday.  I however was bummed that cranberry sauce appeared to be nowhere to be found.  A tip from a co-worker had me back at the grocery store on thanksgiving through, turns out it comes in a jar vs a tin here, and is with the mustard and tarter sauce in the store.  Eventually I found it and that, along with some apples in cinnamon&sugar provided enough Thanksgiving for me.  Even so, it was definitely weird to not be with family this week.

Work continues per usual, little of interest there.  It is slightly shocking to realize that there are only 6 days left in my internship though.  The time is flow by and I haven't quite had time to figure out how I feel about it all coming to an end.  School is also winding down in terms of how many classes we have left.  Yet this means it's picking up in terms of other work.  Finals are fast approaching and with it the due date for the dissertation.   The amount of time spent on schoolwork has increased accordingly to essentially all the time one is not sleeping or at work.  It is a tad frustrating because I'd really like to be out enjoying London and the people here in the little time I have left and yet I'm constantly trying to write.  Also, for me this counts not only as a 'real' class when I get back to NU, but it goes towards my GPA.  This is not the case for everyone, some people need only complete the assignment to get a pass that doesn't count towards their GPA, and the levels of work to fun correspond accordingly.  That's it for now, although I'm sure I forgot some along the way, perhaps I'll be back later as another form of procrastination but if not, have a good week everyone!

I was blogging?

Hey folks!

Its been a month since I last wrote, for which there are no excuses but hopefully you'll all forgive me, or stop reading, your choice.  Anyway, it has been busy busy busy here in London with no signs of slowing down.  Here are some of the highlights.

Work continues to be something I generally look forward too, I'm learning a lot and enjoy where I'm working.  I feel like my opinions, views, and research is taken into serious account and is actually valued which is, aside from cool, rewarding.

As a program, we took a day trip to Oxford which was a cute uni-town not too far from London but I think I definitely prefer London.  In other school related news, work on dissertations is in full swing and although I don't see eye to eye with my adviser on much (read: anything) something that may resemble progress is being made.  Good thing too! it's due in less than a month!

I've continued to spend at least part of each weekend doing some sort of touristy thing.  Some times I just end up going on a walk through different parts of London but I love just exploring.  I spent a whole day wandering around the river and St. Paul's and the bridges and couldn't have been happier.  I've also been to 221b Baker Street and have resolved to re-read my Holmes over break.  Some friends and I took a day trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath.  An awesome day and worth the early wake up call.  Stonehenge is beautiful even without the mystery.  Salisbury has a Magna Carta! they wouldn't let me take pictures but it was amazing to see a document that so shaped history (wiki it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta).

In frisbee news, I still go play every Saturday morning and almost always head home feeling tired but refreshed.  I got to play in a weekend tournament which was tons of fun (usually they play Wed. afternoons, when I work) and we even did reasonably well for never playing indoors before.  I'm still working on getting the hang of handling as some of you may have heard, but some days are better than other.  Sounds silly but the fact that I can usually see where the pass should go or know why something was a poor decision is a big step - now if only I could execute the throws.... The last bit of frisbee news is that I had my first callahan the other day (A defensive player intercepts a pass from an offensive player, in the endzone for a score) and then played with a stupidly large grin for a few points :)  Generally, I'm really glad to be playing because its helped me stay sane and take a break and meet some great people here in London, outside the program.

Alright, that's it for now and it's back to writing for me.  I promise it won't be another month until I write but I seriously doubt I'll go back to once a day or even once every other day simply because much of what happens these days is routine.  Regardless, talk at you later!