Oh. My.

I know it's been a while since I last posted, so I'm going to fix that now. I had a bit of a dramatic return so I'll just clump everything into little chapters to keep it organized.

Clump 1: The heater.
Our flat is heated by the good old hot-water-running-through-a-twisty-black-thing-on-the-wall method which is normally pretty nice. Before you jump in the shower, you throw your pjs on it and get back to nice warm snuggly fleece pj pants. It's not nice, however, when you get back from Christmas break after 10 hours of flight time and a 3 hour drive to discover....your water heater has exploded. There is water all over the carpet....I mean, seriously, whole room. And...the carpet is rotting, which produces a not-so-great smell, which gets worse by the minute. The windows have to all be open (despite the fact that it's cold. Okay, not Indiana cold, but when you're heater isn't working and there's water all over the floor and the windows are open to un-stink the room, it gets cold. Plus the electrical sockets (you guessed it! On the floor) aren't working, the same as your hairdryer and curling iron which you also left...on the floor. So...5 days later the heater's been replaced (3 day process in which I couldn't be in my room- ugh) the carpet's been cleaned (not well, still Febreezing every time I walk in the room and I still have my windows open) and as soon as this all is nearly fixed, the light goes out. It's not as easy of a fix as it should be, and it goes out at midnight when I'm trying to get my reading done. Since we have one big light overhead and can't replace it by ourselves, we have to wait for maintenance who were already sick and tired of me and my rotted carpet room (you can't fathom the smell- it was something like...let's see, mildew, cat pee, vomit and stale Indian food all rolled into one...I get chills thinking about it) but yes...light is finally fixed. The stink is nearly gone, and I have a working heater. Things are...better.

Clump 2:Jetlag
Since I travel more than the average 20 year old and sleep more than a bear in hibernation, I normally have no problem at all getting over a little jetlag. Not this time. I always have a bit of a hard time sleeping here since the only time it's actually quiet enough to sleep is between 10 am and 4 pm, when people are in class. This is worsened significantly by having 2 people who have gone completely nocturnal on either side of my room. Crossdressing-asshole-who-we-all-know-as- Luke is working on his dissertation, and he strongly believes that this can't be done unless it's past 4 am. He listens to Metallica and slams doors until 7. Ass. Joe, on the other side of me isn't as bad, but is still nocturnal, as he stays up all night playing World of Warcraft with people in America who as we know, is a very different timezone. So great. Since I'm one of the few people in the flat who still actually goes to classes, I miss out on that only time of day where it's quiet enough to sleep. As a result, I lay in bed for approximately 10 hours a day, and sleep for maybe 2 of them. I'm not so thrilled about that. I really don't want to buy sleeping pills, but I can't start sleeping through my classes because the people around me are on a very backwards sleep cycle.

Clump 3: Knitting
I haven't been knitting very much, as my waking hours are mostly spent wishing I could sleep. I'm still working on the yoke of the crazy stripey hoodie, which has been changed from "Alcide" to "Joey Ramone" but I may have to change it again since I got super sparkly buttons for it, which is not very "Joey Ramone". I'll take pictures eventually- I swear! I also started a scarf the night before I flew back. It's in Southwest Trading Company Bamboo, which used to be a tank top, and it's going really well. It's such a beautiful scarf. My completion anxiety is kicking in though (or maybe it's the not touching my knitting since Tuesday) and I just need to put in another hour or two on it and then it will be done. So yeah, no progress on that front.

Clump 4: Yesterday
On Friday my Romanian friend, Simona told me that she wanted to knit a scarf. Okay...so we went to town to get needles and yarn. She also had a whole shopping list that we wanted me to help with, since her English is limited. Since I've been a tired grumpybutt since I got back to England, I wasn't so thrilled about that, but I pressed on. First stop, electronics shop. She flagged down a guy working there (who was kinda cute..not going to lie. I was thinking about things other than electronics for a while) and stammered for about 15 minutes on what she wanted (an Mp3 player) but when she found that they were more than 10 pounds, she changed her mind. I said sorry to cute electronics guy and we were on our way to stop at every clothing shop in Colchester (not really my idea of a fun day...I'm anti-clothes shopping unless of course it's shoes) and then finally got to the yarn store. On the way to the yarn store she had been explaining that she saw a scarf she liked but didn't want to pay 7 pounds for it. I told her that it would cost at least twice that to make it- it's not cheaper to make your own clothes anymore when you can get them for a few pounds at Tesco. She blocked this part out. 3 stores with yarn later (there are no knitting shops in Colchester, but there are 3 stores that carry yarn) she finally decided on some. (Thank God...I wanted to go to back to the flat and go to sleep) and she just went on and on about how expensive it was...yes. I told...numerous times. Sometimes us knitters DO know what we're talking about...
So I finally ducked out and crashed face-down in my bed. I woke up at 8ish when Alex (guitar-guy) banged on the door and asked if I wanted to play with him (I brought my electric violin back and we're going to do a few songs together on Jam night for the rest of the term) and that was worth getting up for. We sounded terrible but it was a good time...lots of much-needed laughing. He then asked if I wanted to head down to the pub to meet his fellow indie-musician buddies and I said I'd meet him there since I was wearing a pirate shirt and torn jeans and not looking very girly. I did a quick turnaround and head down to the pub. After being back in the US and not being able to go down to the pub whenever I felt like it, I practically sprinted. I spotted Alex and his musician-doods, and headed to the bar to grab a snakebite. I turned to my left and lo and behold! Cute electronics guy was in line next to me. Since I was looking a little more girly than I had been at the store, it took him a second to register who I was. We did a little more chatting in line and then he grabbed his pint and headed back to his table and said he'd see me later. Cool. Got my snakebite and sat down next to Alex, looked across the table and what? ! Cute electronics guy?! Yup. We did a little more flirting/chatting and it was all good. Then they all headed to a party at some girl's house- I didn't go since I didn't actually know the girl throwing that party. Anyhoo, before I got to the pub Alex had told his friends that he now had an electric violinist and that she was awesome...so it was cool sitting down and the head of the Indie-music society introducing himself saying, "You must be the violinist. I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys on Wednesday." Score! I was feeling pretty invincible at that point and have held on to that feeling all day today (not an amazing feat considering I've been up for all of 2 hours, but still a good feeling nonetheless.) I should probably work on that pile of reading that needs to get done over the next few days, so I will talk to you later! Peace!