Misadventures of...wait, WHAT?!?!

BERRY AND PEAR ARE IN LOVE????????????

The hearts, the smiles, the dotted line connecting them...how did I not see this before?? The adventures they take together, their sheer obliviousness to the evil right under their noses...It all makes so much sense now.

Why would they ever question an evil looking Evil Strawberry giving them a frightened looking drink when they are lost amidst clouds of hearts and love? Love conquers all. It conquers sleeping potions, and poison, and drugged drinks, and all sorts of nastiness Evil S could have easily slipped into that cup...

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

If you thought Evil Strawberry and Evil Pear could get no eviler, you were WRONG. So very, very wrong. Because that table was actually a secret air conditioner that was actually a secret candy maker.

Moral of the story: don't take drinks from strange fruit, no matter how in love you are.

in other news...

Lots more flowers since the last time I took a picture. Pretty, right?

Today my bag broke, and it was both sad and embarrassing. I was at the library and overestimated the amount of books my bag could carry. I had the bag only on that one shoulder walking down the stairs when it was suddenly on the floor, strap ripped free. Lauren's reaction, however, involved, "I watched this happen to Veronique's bag too!" What person witnesses two separate backpack straps break in a matter of weeks? But I have grown to love this bag so this is quite sad. I'm hoping somehow it can be fixed...

This is the entrance of St. Gabriel's. I've mentioned the unfortunate placement of my window, so here is photographic proof. That's my window at the foot of the stairs. The room above me is some sort of office where people drop seemingly large, heavy objects on the floor at random times.

Yes, I took a picture of the lock on the door. This is mostly to illustrate the immense effort it takes to get into the building. This door is easy.

There is also a second door, and a second lock! One must punch the correct code into the pad, and simultaneously turn the knob and the key. It makes entering the building with a hot drink from Caffe Nero quite difficult.

And there you go. The entrance from the inside. As you can see, you also have to turn two handles to open the door from the inside as well.

And here is the rest of the lobby. These couches are so comfortable. My friends and I often wait for each other here. This room is also always unusually hot and there are a variety of British magazines chilling on the tables. And yes, you're right, that is Saint Gabriel watching out for us up there on the pedestal.

TSWIZZLE

Last night Lauren and I saw Taylor Swift in concert thanks to a Christmas present from my parents. And it was amazing! That girl had all kinds of attitude, put on a great show, and sang really well! Based on previous award show performances, I did not have high expectations for T-Swift's live-singing abilities, but she thoroughly impressed me.

Luckily the arena was in the area behind the mall, so it was easy to get to. And we passed the Cathedral and I had my camera! Success!

Also note the time in this picture is about 6:45 pm, and it is not even close to being dark out. It's light here past 8 now. It's lovely.

We made it to the arena during the first act, who we did not know. Martin and James, some Scottish guys who I could not for the life of me find on Google because I thought their names were Matthew and James. If you couldn't tell, we didn't really care about them. They sounded pretty good but were literally just two guys standing in the same spot for 30 minutes singing songs that sounded the same, probably because we didn't know them.

Meanwhile, Lauren and I were sitting in the two empty seats next to us, because as the next picture shows, our seats actually had a gap between them, thanks to the rows changing angles. We weren't sure if we could pull off tricking the two late people into sitting in those seats, since it was so dark you couldn't read the numbers. Well literally 30 seconds after Martin and the other guy who's name starts with a J or something were done this father and daughter show up, and like we expected, saw the only two empty seats in the row and excused their way past us. The daughter was the one to spot the seat numbers, and innocently Lauren and I apologized for our mistake and moved to the gap seats. Oh well. It really wasn't so bad, as you can see, Lauren is even smiling next to the gap:

And then Taylor came out and I proceeded to go deaf. But it was worth it.

T-Swift and her onstage 'tude.

Taylor Swift and a ukulele = happiness so immense that for one moment tiny babies and puppies ceased to exist.

Her and the band singing "Long Live." The song just won't be the same without thousands of people actually screaming when she sings, "Tell them how the crowds went wild."

And of course a lovely night shot of the Manchester Wheel all lit up. Can you spot the car with its lights out? Also, is car the right term? A ferris wheel car? Bucket? Enclosed seating area?

All in all, the night was very fun, even on the bus, when a girl seated in front of me decided to quickly spritz her pits with deodorant, spraying me right in the face. Lauren was in tears trying to hold in her laughter. Sorry T-Swift, you were good and all, but that was probably the best moment of the night.

Why?

Turns out I do have a picture to share! It is part of my desk and all I want to know is what is the point? Where did the middle go? This is useless to me.

"No tomatoes, please."

Another Monday done. Three more lectures out of the way. Although lectures are the best part of the school week because I'd much rather just take notes than have to participate. And my seminars Tuesday and Wednesday are all about participation.

My least favorite class (the dreaded WIN) started out with the worst seminar. For some reason my professor forced me and Lori (from Wellesley) to speak on the "American perspective," of which there was little to say considering we were reading Irish literature... But that seminar has become more of a discussion in small groups, and I have come to appreciate the two girls in my group, one of whom I've even had a nice conversation with outside of class.

At the beginning of my religion seminar, I was somehow taken over by some outside force that actually enabled me to speak voluntarily. In fact, the first couple weeks, out of the 8 or 9 of us in the group, I was one of maybe 3 or 4 who spoke up. I have since then regressed into silence. I probably impressed my socially awkward professor only to let him down. But it's all his fault. He allows the awkward silence to descend over the class with his awkward ways. And then the really smart boy finally can't take it anymore and he speaks up. We all wait for this. It never fails.

And finally there is my American Studies seminar. Where I try desperately to blend into the table and speak as little as possible, in fear that I will fail my country. Although one could argue that my silence is its own kind of failure. Especially when the silence follows a question about some American thing that I should probably know. But this professor does not stand for awkward silence, and is not above calling out a name when the silence lasts too long. And my seat is directly across from him (we sit in a square). It's unfortunate because after 8 weeks everyone sits in the same seat. To move would be mutiny. So I try not to make eye contact. When I do I am surely called on. And then I stutter out some short response and the class goes on. It's sad that of all the classes, the American Studies one is the only one in which I have not made a friend. Maybe I scare them away with my scary American accent. Or maybe they all just think I'm an idiot. In any case, we've finally covered a good amount of court cases and AP US History is flooding back. And by flooding I mean it's kind of trickling into my consciousness. I at least recognize stuff.

And somehow I've let the weekend slip by without so much as cracking open the WIN book I should have been reading. I have a lot of catching up to do tonight. And a lot of planning ahead. Because tomorrow night is Taylor Swift's concert! And I finally have someone to go with (Lauren), now that the misunderstanding that I actually have two tickets is out of the way (she thought she had to buy her own).

I will also try to include some pictures next time. I just haven't taken any lately. But I swear there will be pretty things to look at again soon. Lauren and I happened upon the Manchester Cathedral yesterday (we thought it was much further away from the mall than it actually was), and of course I did not have a camera. But it was very pretty, so I will hopefully venture back there soon!

And before I go, Lauren and I had lunch at the Student Union for the first time in over a week, and we both got the usual cheese, tomato and pesto panini, only Lauren gets hers without tomatoes. And despite not having done this for our first several weeks here, the workers now go back to the kitchen to ask if this "without tomatoes" can be done. It always can be. It's a waste of time. But today the kid came back and said, "Do you usually order that? Because they seemed to recognize the order." And we just giggled like little girls. I hope they miss us when we leave.

memories...

Today I know that many people I went to Oakmont with are coming back together in memory of David, and it makes me wish I wasn't so far away. I haven't been able to say the words out loud to anyone here, but of course it's always at the back of my mind.

I remember this one time that Randi was telling me a story about having told a story about me. I have absolutely no idea what it was about, but I just remember her telling me Dave's reaction was simply, "I love Jess!" And even though I never actually heard him say it, I can still imagine him saying it, or the way he would have. Although I remember zero context of this story, the fact that I remember this part and that feeling of being special even just for that one moment seems significant to me. It's such a tiny memory, but somehow it's stayed with me. On the same note, I will always remember Dave calling me "Jess the Reb." Gotta love Feinsilver's class, right? Why did she even call me that?

It's been almost three years since we graduated high school. Three years of going separate ways. But high school still feels like yesterday. And facebook has managed to keep that gap of time small, with those little updates that remind you that once you had a connection to so many people you never see anymore. I read a quote in an article recently of someone mentioning Dave biking all the way to Hampton Beach, and immediately thought, "I remember seeing that on facebook. Crazy kid."

Strangest of all though, in the past month, I'd actually been getting spam emails from Dave's email address, which obviously had been affected by a virus. Since I simply had no idea how to block them, I'd just delete them or send them to my junk folder, thinking, how weird would Dave think I was if I sent him a message about this? To think if I had. Life is strange.

Misadventures of Pear and Berry, the saga continues

And it continues at a paper mill. These things get more and more ridiculous, I swear.

They're so happy they can't even hear a chainsaw.

An unfortunate turn of events.

I hate when I get stuck to trees.

I'm not sure how they got tossed into that box, though it seems to be from the force of the tree hitting the box, but in any case, Strawberry and Pear make one yummy snack.

And in case you were curious (you know you are), I found this little gem online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMlmYlSWuwM&feature=related

All I know now is I have to find the orange flavor!!!

Matt Damon defies God

Last night my friends and I rose one step above lame and actually went out on a Friday night. I say only one step because we just went to the movies. And our movie choices were limited, since all the movies seemed awful. We ended up flipping a coin between Hall Pass and The Adjustment Bureau. The Adjustment Bureau won. The theater was actually just an AMC, so nothing out of the ordinary, though the place was huge. And they had these big famous movie quotes painted on the walls, which was kind of cool. There were also escalators. The kind that have clear bottoms so you can see the conveyor belt mechanism. Unfortunately for Matt Damon and Emily Blunt I was more impressed by the super cool escalator than their movie. It wasn't very exciting. And it was less believable. Plus the ending was a total cop out. After all the trouble Matt Damon took to try to defy his life's "plan," a plan set by "the chairmen" who was quite obviously God, there was really no brilliant resolution. The writers were probably like, "Okay it's been an hour and forty five minutes. How do we end this thing? Oh, just let them decide their own destiny. The whole point of the movie doesn't really matter, does it? No one will mind having watched suited guys in bowler caps literally chasing our characters down to stop them from ruining 'the plan' to only let them write their own plan in the end." We minded, writers. We minded.

Other than the bland movie, it was an enjoyable experience. In fits of excitement we got British versions of Icees, which look similar (even down to the blue and red options), but use Fanta flavors. And Lauren and I split a popcorn, which wasn't that great because it had been sitting in a bag instead of GC style in a bin. (GC style is always the best style). But the theater was easily accessible and surprisingly affordable so I'm sure we'll be back.

Today Lauren and I dined at McDonald's. Classy, I'm aware, especially since I ate it on Wednesday. I swear this is only the second time I've had it since the beginning of February. Anyway we also went to the library, and being on the ground floor literally makes my stomach feel sick or nervous or something upsetting because of Wednesday. I still can't believe it. And living on one of the busiest bus routes in Europe does not help make me feel better.

Lauren also had a group project meeting today, and since we had an hour to kill, we found the study room she had to be at and sat there playing with the huge TV screen computer. Mostly Lauren tried to fix the awful Powerpoint one kid made. And of course that one kid showed up first, and after looking at me and going, "Who are you?" he took one look at the computer screen and asked, "Why is that different?" Well I peaced out of there fast and left Lauren to try to find the words to nicely say, "This powerpoint sucks."

I then proceeded to watch old episodes of Glee on my computer before Lauren, Veronique and I made our way over to Chinatown to find something new to have for dinner. The food was pretty good, but the restaurant experience was less than satisfactory. Oh well. Guess it's back to the pub tomorrow night.

WIN Fail.

My paper is complete. Soon I will hand it in and feel infinitely lighter. However I must first trek to the library, print it, and then go to the department office, fill in a form, and attach said form to my paper before handing it in. I also must hand in my census form today to avoid a 1000 pound fine, but that is a separate mission.

It has never taken me so long to complete a paper, and I'm not sure of the reasons, but they may or may not be inclusive of:

- a very difficult essay question

- an overwhelming amount of source material to sift through

- the fact that the novel is 500 pages long

- the fact that I didn't like the novel

- unrelated emotional heartache

- my inability to avoid distraction

- facebook

- other homework

- skype

- a pesky desire for cleanliness resulting in long showers

In any case, I did learn some interesting things. For example, I discovered that birds begin chirping at about 3:30 AM. Who knew, right? I didn't. I also discovered that magically wishing for the paper to be done does not work. Neither does staring intensely at the computer screen or slamming your forehead onto the keyboard in hopes that your brain will literally just do the typing for you. Bouncing on the bed also does nothing in terms of finishing a paper, but it does make you slightly giddy. It also puts your head in dangerous proximity to a very comfortable pillow.

I also took no pleasure in the irony that thanks to the course name - Writing, Identity, and Nation - I called my word document "WIN Essay" and proceeded to epically fail in its writing. Eventually I think I just ran out of words in my head, and went to sleep. I have never stayed up so long writing a paper, and I look forward to never doing it ever again.

sometimes...

...it's the little things in life that make you happy.

just find the horizon, I promise you it's not as far as you think

In the midst of sad times and that constant feeling of being tired, as well as an unwritten essay looming over my head, the bright moments should be recognized. Although it seems slightly ironic, there is no getting past the undeniably good feeling of blue skies and the warmth of the sun. I don't want to jinx it, but the weather here has been absolutely beautiful. Yesterday, after leaving the library, I sat on a bench waiting for Lauren and Veronique. Unfortunately messages were mixed up and they forgot the meeting place, and while I sat outside one building, they were around the corner sitting on the steps of a completely different building. By the time I wandered around the corner to check if they were in the wrong place, they'd already left. 45 minutes later I found myself at McDonald's, inadvertently meeting another friend, Emma, and we sat in McDonald's talking for over an hour. It was well worth the mix up. I also made a little baby smile in line. Baby smiles are the best! Thank you, little baby.

Lauren and I recently got back from Caffe Nero, where we ate paninis for lunch. Caffe Nero also has delicious tea. And the woman working there knew Lauren's latte order. Our next goal is to learn the workers' names. There aren't that many of them. And I'll be back soon, since my drink punch card is full and I get a free drink. The question now is what to get. Should I try a Chai Latte because its expensive? Perhaps a white chocolate mocha? Or maybe just a really large hot chocolate. Either way, it will be delicious because it will be free. I only had to buy nine drinks to get to this point.

And as nice as it is to stay in the ungraded world of blogger, that paper needs to be written. But stay tuned for a new episode of the Pear and Berry Misadventures. And also, feel free to congratulate me on fixing the time for this thing. Blogger apparently thought I was residing in the central time zone of the US or something similarly ridiculous. Now when I discuss returning from lunch, the timing of my posts will not claim it is morning.

Rest in peace Dave

Today in the library I opened facebook to discover the shocking, devastating news. Dave Plamondon, I will never forget you, and I'm so sad to know you are gone. You truly made high school and middle school a better place, and I know we have you to thank for much of our laughter. I'll never forget our long instant message conversations...especially the ones where I gave you advice on asking Gabby out while I liked you myself. (Of course). And I can think back on the awkward middle school days when I danced with you at school dances, a stiff arms length away, thinking it was all together the coolest and most embarrassing thing. You were one of the funniest, nicest guys I've known, and I know I will never think of you without a smile. How truly sad it is that your life has been cut so short. May you rest in peace.

GLEEks Unite

Absolutely beautiful day today. Right now my Mac says it's 59 degrees out. Blue sky, sun, people outside, birds chirping...I think I made a mistake buying a weekly bus pass the other day, because so far I've been walking. I only had two seminars today, which went pretty well. I spent ten minutes before my religion class talking to two British girls about Glee, which they both love. One is smart enough to watch online, the other wants to retain her ritual of Monday night watching, when it's on. But she said one of the more recent episodes was the Christmas episode, and as that aired in early December in the US, I'd say she's a little behind. We also spent a few minutes attempting to explain the appeal of the show to our socially awkward professor. I'm not sure we succeeded. But out of disjointed exclamations between me and the girl who watches online ("The song!" "So good!" "They KISSED!" "Blaine!"), I have come to the conclusion that basically everyone in the world had a heart attack of happiness when Kurt and Blaine kissed. Well, if they didn't, THEY SHOULD HAVE!
Then I spent the first ten minutes of my next class listening to and joining complaints for our upcoming paper. Meh. But the lovely weather has got me motivated. Plus I am drinking Powerade. And listening to "Loser like Me" by the Glee cast. So I'm ready for anything!

The Mall

Yesterday I gave myself a day off from work and escaped from my room. I'd been in there a long time. But in between watching Harry Potter weekend on slingbox I did manage to finish all the homework due this week, minus the essay. Also, I woke up that morning and discovered the toilet seat had somehow detached from the toilet. And I discovered this the hard way. I'm just happy I didn't end up on the floor or in the water.

So I ventured over to the city center and walked around the mall. It was enjoyable. I mostly just ate food. Though I had to wander a while to find the bagel place I wanted...The mall was not only super crowded but it is also laid out in a very strange circular shape that I have not yet conquered. I still haven't figured out if there are more than one H&M stores or if I just walked by the same one several times. But I finally found the bagel place and got this deliciousness for lunch:

Although the cream cheese was slightly strange - it might be the texture - it was still a superb bagel. Just look at the delicious toasting job. Yum.

There are also two - TWO - bookstores in the mall, so I wandered around them both because I'm a nerd. But I found The Hunger Games and definitely like the American covers better.

And here are some lovely pictures of Piccadilly Gardens, the City Center area where the mall is:

There were lights on the trees! Pretty.

Pigeon lady.

Trees lights and Primark. Kind of like Macy's.

Spot the public urinals? Yeah, it's gross.

The bus stop place where all the buses go and people wait for buses.

I also bought a cupcake at the mall at a cupcake cart. Look how yummy! Scabbers was very interested.

The mall also had its fair share of interesting people. After seeing that one girl with pink dreads, I didn't think anyone could top it. Well I have not only seen a second, completely different girl with pink dreads, but also a guy with a dreadlock mullet. Business in the front, dreads in the back.

At least five girls of varying ages also sported I <3 Justin Bieber tees.

It's really not so different across the pond.

Misadventures of Pear and Berry

Here we go again.

Although Evil Strawberry looks, well, evil - just check the brows - she (is that a sports bra?) seems to be brainwashing the happy little fruits with song, so I don't blame them all too much for listening to the music. Just look how happy it makes them. It almost makes me want to stop reading the comic and just pretend it has a happy ending...

...but the truth hurts people! And so does being smushed into a blob of fruity matter between a pair of headphones. I have to say though, I am genuinely impressed at Evil Pear's technological skillz. I never knew you could download things into an MP3 via the headphone.

The music of full-bellied champions.

fly tipping and other such nonsense

I saw some interesting things today walking to and from the library.

One guy rode by on what looked like a small trick bike. Either that or a bike he stole from a 9 year old. In any case it looked slightly ridiculous.

A kid also ran by carrying a large stick. I ran with a stick once. It resulted in a bloody, scraped up chin.

And then I saw a girl with neon pink dreadlocks! It was incredible. Women here, no matter what age, dye their hair all sorts of colors. Every other girl I see has some shade of red or super bleached or the occasional blue/green combo that always looks bad. But the bright pink dreads are so far the most outrageous.

One man also ripped the wrapper off a candy bar with his teeth, spit it out and took a bite. It was disgusting, and also frustrating. One of the complaints Lauren and I have here is Manchester's "fly tipping"/littering problem. Frankly, the streets can be pretty disgusting, mostly around the few trash cans and numerous bus stops. What with cigarette butts (everyone smokes), smashed beer bottles and glass, and just bits of litter, the ground can look pretty gross. I've seen a teenage girl grab her soda cup by the straw and let the cup just fall to the ground (although slightly stranger was that she kept the straw...). And one guy threw something on the ground...right next to the trash can. What is even the point of that?

In other news I had some delicious tea and a [lemon poppyseed!!!] muffin in Caffe Nero this morning and read one of the many articles that make up my homework. (In total, I've read 140 pages of articles, poems, and documents for next week. So far my highlighters are still going strong.) Anyway, although I know that Caffe Nero is actually "Italian," the banners of mob-esque men playing cards confuse me. Julie, please use your design class skills to explain this to me. Thank you.

I also discovered a new ridiculously awesome Fruit Winders cartoon, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Let's just say it involves an MP3 player and some seriously evil headphones.

The Adventures of Strawberry, Pear, Evil Strawberry, and Evil Pear

Happy Friday!

Not too much to report besides my laziness. Got up this morning because the fire alarm was set off at 10. But I have a buttload of reading to accomplish. Plus another paper due next Friday. But in three weeks I will be home!

So before I head off to read myself back to sleep, I think these pictures sum up my last few days pretty well. The weather has been relatively nice and there are flowers! Yay springtime! I think the first day of spring is in a few days and these flowers made me happy.

Other than admiring nature (yesterday someone was actually mowing the grass at the University and it smelled sooo lovely), I have also been eating snacks. Specifically my Fruit Winders, which are legitimately just Fruit by the Foots, only I have to put them in the fridge in order to peel them off the paper without an ensuing sticky, mushy mess. I'm glad I figured this out because I threw away the first one in a fit of frustration and failure. But now I get to enjoy them and more importantly, enjoy the cartoon that comes with each roll, called "Double Trouble." Apparently Strawberry and Pear are not very clever friends who find themselves foiled by what looks like evil versions of Strawberry and Pear. (These are the flavors of the snack). It took me a while and several fruit snacks to fully understand these complex cartoons.

The first cartoon, and the only picture of the Title square, so enjoy it while it lasts. Clearly Strawberry and Pear are enjoying a lovely stroll across a wooden bridge on a jungle trail, when OH NO!!!!

The bridge collapses and they fall straight into...the mouth of a hippo!!!!

But before the hippo can swallow the deliciously stupid fruits, Evil Strawberry forces the chewed up fruit wad directly into Evil Pear's jet boat contraption, which magically transforms the poor, poor Strawberry and Pear wad into a scrumptious roll of fruity goodness.

In the next cartoon, we find Strawberry and Pear beside an empty suitcase. Why they were traveling so lightly, I cannot say. But what follows is a very disturbing act of violence. If you are squeamish or have a very strong love of fruit, please skip ahead two pictures...

Evil Pear taking the suitcase and throwing it...directly into the airplane fan.

Resulting in a rather disturbing yet still delicious fruit snack.

And the third and final cartoon I have encountered involves tech savvy Evil fruits. Don't ask why Pear and Strawberry even bothered going into this Free Web shop after all Evil Strawberry has done to them.

But clearly these computers are so amazingly evil, that a simple upload will suck you right in. And again, Pear and Strawberry have become nothing more than a blob of stupidity.

One print job later and voila! Evil Strawberry and Evil Pear celebrating over a cool snack.

It's the strangest thing I've ever encountered on the leftover trash of my food, but it has caused me immense entertainment. Thanks, little fruit guys!

Wherefore art thou Wally?

Discovered this in the bookstore yesterday, and after a moment of panic in which I believed that Waldo was for the first time legitimately missing and that his British evil twin named Wally had taken over...I decided to do a little research on the seemingly unnecessary name change. So here is a little segment I'd like to call "Wherefore art thou Wally?" (cause I'm an English major and I can.)

According to Wikipedia, the most smartest website ever, Wally actually came first. Here is where I should apologize to the British public for changing Wally to Waldo on every book and piece of merchandise in the greater Manchester area...in permanent marker. Whoops.

However, because the "Where's Waldo" franchise in North America far surpassed the Wally of England, even Martin Handford now mostly refers to the little striped dude as Waldo, according to some source that I don't feel like citing.

Some other fun facts: Waldo was not the only name change, and in Germany he was the more sophistocated Walter, Valli in Iceland, Willy in Norway (which just makes me giggle), Holger in Denmark, Hetti in Sri Lanka, Effy in Israel (what?), and my personal favorite, Charlie in France. I know nothing of the cultures of the other countries, and so cannot comment on their weird names (Effy???), but I can confidently say that Charlie is a completely normal [English] name that has absolutely no resemblance to Wally or Waldo, making it my favorite. And I thought America was rebellious (soccer, anyone?).

Now that I think about it, ¿Donde esta Wally? has a very familiar ring to it. I quite possibly discovered this name change 3 years ago in Spain...

In any case, Waldo/Wally/Walter/Valli/Willy/Holger/Hetti/Effy/Charlie must have a serious case of identity crisis. No wonder he tries to run away.

"Fruit by the Meter!"

So another Monday and Tuesday have come and gone, and I await only one more hour of seminar (American studies) before my very brief school week is over. And hopefully this seminar goes better than last week's, when my professor asked us to name a certain political figure from the 60s who has also recently run for the Presidency, and in the awkward silence that followed, looked AND pointed at me with a "you should know this!" And as heads turned in my direction I panicked and said "Al Gore?" which was horrendously wrong but thankfully my professor supplied the right answer and I could sink invisibly into my chair as the class wondered how I could even pass as an American. In my defense, the question related to environmentalism. I had also just admitted to this professor in his office hours that I was extremely politically challenged. So if this was a test, I failed miserably. And he'd better believe me now. Or maybe it was very delayed payback for when I critiqued his work in my reading response the very first week of class, before I realized that the editor of our text book did not just coincidentally have the same name as my professor.

In any case, the class itself is great, just consistently makes me feel inadequate as an American.

In other news, I stopped at a store yesterday (there are three small convenient/market stores just on the block around the corner) and got some snacks, including these great finds! Kit Kat Pop Choc and Fruit Winders. I never thought I'd see the Kit Kat bites ever again, the candy that we used to have at the theater but which was discontinued. So thank you, England. And Fruit Winders are clearly a British version of Fruit by the Foot or Fruit Roll Ups. After I stopped laughing at Amanda and my mom last night for pronouncing "winders" like an uneducated person trying to say "windows," we questioned the name change for two seconds before Amanda said, "Because they don't have feet!" and my mom added, "Fruit by the meter!! ...Yeah it doesn't sound as good." =P

Also, the real subject of the above photo is actually the Pringles face in the background.

Last week I also took some updated photos of my room with things on the wall. So enjoy. I also finally opened my curtains, something I rarely do because of my unfortunate position beneath the main entrance of the building. But opening the curtains does tend to make my basement room seem slightly less like a prison cell with no window.