Far from the madding crowd

Haven't had a proper relaxing summer for years now. The last one was probably my graduation trip to Phuket, where it was basically 5 days of sunbathing, drinking happy hour cocktails, and eating potato salad every day. And treating sunburns the size of the Sahara with copious amounts of blessed aloe vera.

This summer has probably the closest I've come to it, with about a month's worth of chilling in Hong Kong, punctuated with the bouts of community service and followed by xuexi hanyu. And now it's gone. And what looms ahead is a semester of what may be many sleepless nights. Noses against the grindstone now!

Coast hopping

So I'm in the 2nd to last week of this internship and while I can't wait to get back to LA, move in, see everyone again, get all my stuff unpacked and get ready for band camp (woo?/!), I'm gonna miss the time in DC. It wasn't one of those self-discovery journeys that inspire Oscar-winning films, but it gave me the chance to do things I wouldn't normally do elsewhere. Like get up at the crack of dawn to go to Gettysburg. Or camp out at 5pm to watch 9pm fireworks while being serenaded by the US Army band. Other things:

I still can't answer where exactly I come from (up to 3 different answers now), my hair is now a strange shade of brown/burgundy/orange, and I think my accent has taken on tones of the Mason-Dixon states as well as picking up certain military/nautical terms. I survived 2 months without murdering (or getting murdered by) the Notre Dame tuba or the UCLA alum officer. (Should I have? Most likely yes. But I'd rather not get in trouble with the US Navy, thank you very much.) I avoided getting questioned by the NCIS over classification issues. On a whim, I took the 6 hour Amtrak up to Providence, bruised my arse and killed my lower back on an hour of polo, watched a polo game, stayed up till 5 to go and have breakfast at a diner, and loved every moment because I did it with a friend. LA transportation seems even crappier than before after the lovely DC metro (minus the Red line crash). Shellbacking makes frat initiations seem like a welcome tea party. It's way easier to travel on the East coast than I realised. Thanks to the good ol' grid layout of DC, I visited most of the Smithsonian museums in a week by walking. There are people whom I would never have hung out with had we not ended up in the same internship, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss them. And while the reference letter is nice, I'm just glad I got to work with the people in the archives and hope I will see at least some of them again after all this.

Not a bad summer, by all accounts.

Spring Break

I feel sooo fat. Fat as that last Peking Duck we had.

And tired.

And happy.

That pretty much sums up Spring Break back in Hong Kong.

Though I do wish my friends had been back as well, but nooooo UK doesn't start break till this week.

That said, I'm definitely missing the food and shopping already. And legal boozing, hah.

And I don't want to do any work.

Time to finish unpacking.

Cardiff-Lake District-Scotland

Hello from the freezing (except for those in the Midwest I presume) cold part of the world. I spent a nice Christmas down in Wales, then headed up to the Lakes for a couple of nights and now I'm in Scotland and will be for New Years. I spend most of my days eating and the rest of the time in a post-food coma, hence a vicious cycle of getting progressively fat.

Between Birmingham and now, I realised one thing that I had completely forgotten during my end-of-semester reminiscing and should have figured out after this summer in Colorado: being the only person under 50 for the better part of a 2.5 week holiday can really, really, epically, suck.

Much as I love my family and family friends, between the several maternal (and the odd paternal) figures discussing and advising about life, love, marriage, and looking after your parents when you and they get older, I'm starting to go batshit insane. Taking any advice from the parents has also become several degrees more difficult with each year; yes I know I can put on my hat if my ears are cold, yes I do have a hat, no I don't think I need it right now, yes I will eventually give you pocket money, but not until I can look after MYSELF first. Of course I'm the good daughter, mainly because I don't cause trouble, because I just shut up and sit there awkwardly instead of snapping back and then feeling guilty afterwards.
(I'm fairly sure my parents aren't as overbearing as most, I just have a pretty short fuse sometimes.)

Sigh. Filial piety clashing with desire for more independence.

Scarborough Fair

Actually the weather's pretty shitty right now and all the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme have turned into mud or are going to be used in the Christmas dinner.

I'll only stay a night here before picking up a friend from Durham and then heading back to Birmingham. Then on to Wales for Christmas!

I am still severely jetlagged, which really really sucks, and the tendency to sleep in moving cars is not helping either.

London

I hopefully will post entries during these next couple of weeks wherever I can get Internet.

Right now I'm in London, and will be heading up to Birmingham in the afternoon to stay with friends. All I can say is that I am super happy that finals are OVER and I can get around to eating and enjoying Christmas. Also, the parents got here this morning so that's even better.

I can also stop worrying about band now that I won't be going back for the Rose Bowl. I will however send the obligatory game day text/call if I can, and if I can't catch it on TV (they don't seem to have ESPN much) I'll track it online or something.

It turns out finals and papers stressed me out so much I forgot to pay my last phone bill (and I'm usually pretty diligent even without auto-pay) . And today I made up for it by double-paying by mistake. =P

Time to go get pub grub.

Back to old Blighty and the Land of Leeks

Yes, here's the treat: 2 posts in 1 day after not posting for a couple of weeks.

I might as well say it right here: I'm still on the fence about coming back for the Rose Bowl. This is mainly due to whatever flight's available and what exactly is going on in the first couple of days.

But there's also another factor: I'm going back to England/Wales for Christmas for the first time in 15 years. That's a hell of a long time for anyone, even more so when you're 19.

I can't wait to have a white Christmas again. Though I'm sure after spending a few days in soggy slushy London I'm going to be hating the snow as I stumble along in probably poorly inadequate clothing.

I can't wait to see my newest cousin.

I miss my grandad a lot. Nuff said.

I don't know when I'm seeing my parents again.

We're roadtripping around the country so I get to see some of my friends studying/living in England. It's been a while since I got to hang out with the girls I call sisters from pre-birth.

So in all fairness, if I can't make it back for Pasadena, I'm not going to be that sorry.

November Project

So I returned triumphantly from Palo Alto with the spoils of war: a sore throat, a cough, and hilarious memories of rollerbus that involved losing my contacts and being bodily lifted into the air.

And I realised I hadn't blogged for nearly a month, so here's to make up for that.

It really goes without saying that a shitload has happened since my last blog (end of October)....America has its new president (yay!), gay marriage is now illegal in California (sucks), and somewhere out there up north, a pathetic excuse of a "tree" is wilting to the funeral dirge of its "band" (oh yay!)

But yeah, now is the season of chronic sickness and tedious research. (and no shaving for the lads that are up for the challenge.)

I honestly hope that the slaving away for sources to meet a deadline won't kill my genuine curiosity for Walt Whitman, the Civil War, or the Irish-British animosity.

I've stopped speculating about the BCS....like Obama said, get a playoff system already! That aside, it's pretty much guaranteed that I won't be spending New Years in Wales, although I am excited to be spending Christmas in there. It's been 14 years since I was in the UK in frigging winter.

And on that note, I need to get my arse to bed so this cough can get better soon. Stay tuned for a post about insecurities regarding the future.