i belong anywhere but in between
i'm back from london now -- back in belgium, that is. i had a good trip, though i wish i'd had more time in england. i arrived at my
hostel at about 5:30 on wednesday, and i felt pretty sick, so all i did wednesday night was sleep, take a shower, have some good tofu ramen, and sleep some more. i had crazy fever-dreams, too. i'm glad i didn't get any sicker than i did, but i think it was from the very small amount of salmon i ate at the rotary meeting (it was either that or have only a half-cup of lettuce and a chunk of melon, and then explain to forty old, possibly lecherous, and quickly-becoming-drunk men why i wasn't eating anything, who would be offended and confused anyway. i didn't eat the pâté, though, or the ham, or the weird unidentifiable brown stringy thing. but anyway, the fish wasn't as good as i had remembered it, and plus i've been sick for 5 days now, so i guess that ends my cravings. end tangent.)
thursday morning i got up pretty early and went directly to the
hostel i was staying in that night, which was WAY nicer than the one i'd been in the night before, except that the shower wasn't nearly as nice. while there, i got a ticket for one of those
bus tours that goes around to the major sights that people want to see, and then you can just get off for however long you want, and get back on when one comes around. it worked out well 'cos i was able to go to the
coach station to get my tickets to see
olly the next day. then i got back on the bus and rode it around and looked at stuff. there was
the tower of london,
st. paul's cathedral,
westminster abbey,
big ben and
the houses of parliament,
a very famous palace, and all the other things one is supposed to see when one goes to london. having been to most of them before, i didn't go in anywhere -- the only place i wouldn't gone in is the tower, i think, 'cos it's pretty cool, but it's expensive, and i didn't have a whole lot of time. and anyway, the main place i was interested in going was to the
tate modern, to see the
matisse & picasso exhibit, which i enjoyed
very much. unfortunately, i didn't get as much time there as i wanted, either . . . oh well, i guess i'll have to go back someday, that's all!
then the next day i went to see olly in his hometown, which was very nice, prettier than i expected, somehow. it was all green and cool, and there was a beach and stuff. we walked around some, and then went to his house, which is really cool, and where i met his nice fat calico kitty, and his parents, who were also nice, but neither fat nor calico. i made it back to the hostel before too late; that was good 'cos i had to get up early to make my 11:00
flight back to brussels. the flight was delayed, but everything worked out, and here i am again.
tonight i'm going to a japanese restaurant with
simon, helen, and her boyfriend sebastien. i'm looking forward to it. today i did laundry, and i'm busy getting ready to go to angers tomorrow. yay! once i get there, i will have to pay for internet, but i'll still post, and certainly will still check email!! i will have a school email address which i'll post here, but will still use gladstone also. i'm going to try to set it up to bounce over to my school address, which will be easier for me to check, i guess. but i'll post again soon.
this post should make
bill happy; it has lots of links so he can waste all his time at work clicking them!
and i could shake this static every time i try to sleep
i thought i was over my jet lag, but i still can't get to sleep before 3 or 4 in the morning, and then i get super tired in the afternoon. it's pretty annoying. i try to keep myself from sleeping in the afternoon, so i can sleep at night, but the past few days there has been nothing else to do but sleep, anyway.
saturday i went into town with nelly, my host mom. at the end of june they do a street faire-ish kind of thing where they close down a lot of the streets, and the stores have booths and stuff out in the streets. there wasn't anything very interesting though. we also went to a fabulous fruit-and-veggie store. i was so happy. then saturday night i went out with
simon and his pals. they have this thing that they drink called
mazout which is half coke and half beer . . . i was wary but i tried it, and it was ok. i also found a nice brown beer, which was very good. the beer here is mostly light, but even the light beer is pretty good, and i don't usually like it light at all. on sunday we sat around and did nothing. simon had some friends over for lunch, 'cos his parents were gone all day; they ordered pizza and we thought it all had meat on it so they only got one for 3 people, not for 4, 'cos i wasn't going to have any . . . then 20 minutes later one of the guys noticed the one they ordered was not a meat one at all! it was cheese, cheese, cheese, and potatoes. (???) so i had a small piece. it was pretty good, even though it had potatoes on it, which i find incredibly strange.
simon's pals are nice but kind of strange. one of them talks WAAAYY too fast, and a couple hardly talk at all. one, jean-paul, was being a dork on saturday night -- he showed up late, was introduced to me, and then talked to the guys for a long time, then at a pause in the conversation said "so, where are you from?" when i said "uh . . . the US" (no one knows where oregon is), he said "OH, really??" and came and sat next to me and started being totally flirty. it was pretty funny, but mostly for the amusement of the other guys. and myself, too, i guess. it was entertaining.
yesterday (monday) i went to the beach with him, simon, and the one who talks too fast, and his girlfriend. we went first to de panne, and there weren't very many people there, but they really wanted to go to
oostende for some reason, which is further north, i think, so we drove around for a while until we found oostende, where there were a LOT of people. then we laid on the beach and got sunburned. i didn't get burned too badly, though, 'cos i'm a good girl. just on my feet and my legs a little. the water was a lot warmer than on the oregon coast, surprisingly. it's about the same latitude, so i thought i'd be about the same temperature, too. it was nice, though. i fell asleep on the beach and in the car on the way home. that's why i couldn't stay awake -- there was nothing else to do but sleep!
i wanted to go to
gent or
brugge or something with simon today but he wants to sit outside and tan. ever since he went to mexico he's obsessed with being tan. i told him he's going to get skin cancer, but he said that since his skin is used to tanning, he won't. pfft. but tomorrow i'm going to fly to
london -- yes, really! it's only 20 euros (about $20) on
ryan air, which i think is fabulous! i'll be in london till friday, and then i'll go down to
poole, where
olly is from, 'cos he'll be there. i was going to take the ferry back from poole, but it's cheaper, i think, to go to back to london and fly back to brussels from there on saturday. then on monday, i leave for
angers for school. woo!
other than that . . . uh . . . i don't know. not much is going on. i sit around and read and write in my journal and check my email and wait for
brian or
shelby to come online on icq. and i think about what colors i should paint my apartment. i'm so excited about my apartment!! i'm also excited about having a room at angers. being at home with parents is hard for me, regardless of whose home and whose parents. but i'm so glad to have this place to stay, and it's really great to see nelly & pierre & helen & simon again. tonight i have to go to rotary, where i will get to see my third host parents, too! yay! i'm worried about seeing people there that i have no desire to see ever again as long as i live, but i'll just . . . deal, i guess. it'll be fine.
keep emailing me! i'm bored!!
you can never escape, you can only move south down the coast
i hope that the lyric is untrue, and that moving south down the coast can help you escape. or at least help.
i'm in belgium!! at
simon's house! well, i guess it's nelly & pierre's house, really, but in any case, here i am. i got in this morning about 24 hours (near as i can figure with all the time changes) after leaving my house in portland. that means 24 hours of nothing but airports and airplanes. woo. the in-flight movie was "the shipping news," and i really wanted to watch it, but the sound didn't work on my side of the plane so i couldn't. i slept instead, and that was ok.
everyone drives very fast and scarily here. but that's ok -- that's why i'm going to take the train! today i got my tickets to take the
tgv from lille, close to where i am now, to angers, where i will be going to school. i still don't have an address down there, though. i don't know what the plan is. i guess i'll show up and i'll get a dorm assignment.
i'm still recovering from the last two weeks' stress. i had finals due all week finals week, right up to friday, when my parents arrived for graduation. plus, i found out on thursday that
brian was planning to move to california the next monday, so my friday final suffered just a little. then i had to pack up my own stuff and get it moved out (jen and matt and chris wells saved my life!!) and clean up the house, since all the other girls were already gone. moving is so stressful in and of itself -- it's exponentially worse when added to finals and huge amounts of family members and boys who leave. oh well, it's over now, and i'm here. and anyway, i got two As and a B, though, so it turned out ok, in that respect.
simon wants to go to bed so i'm getting kicked off the computer (which is in his room). i'm still using gladstone email -- lmanes@gladstone.uoregon.edu. email me!!
i'm not talking about your pigtails, but i'm talking 'bout your sex appeal
once again am at work and procrastinating. this week we have some more kyoto dialect, southern paiute, and selkup, which is ostyak-samoyed, apparently. and then for the other class i have to write about relative clauses in manipuri. yippee. i think i have to write a paper about some dystopias, too. i would prefer to write it on
a handmaid's tale, which everyone in the world should read, but i can't think of a topic . . . blar. oh well, i like
fahrenheit 451 and
brave new world too.
yesterday we went to
the aquarium in newport. it was fun! my favorites were the jellyfish, especially the tiny ones that look like they sparkle when they wiggle their cilia, and the curly pink sea star!! that was so cool. i liked the passages of the deep part, too, except the part where there was nothing under my feet (well, except glass) and i thought i was going to fall. there was a little shark that swam over the top and we could see a perfect half-circle bite mark on its underside. poor shark!
i have been looking at apartments, too. gr. stressful.
shelby might be staying after all . . . so basically i don't know what's going on.
i leave in NINETEEN DAYS!!!
