The Days are Brightoning Up

Before I begin, I'd like to apologise for the delay in updates since my last post almost a month ago. Life has been very full, in a good way!

Sadly, not all of the members of the Corridor of Love
are in this photo, but at least there are a few!

First off, I've now made lots of friends and so spend way more time with them than I do writing blog posts. In another block of my residence, there's a corridor of girls and the corridor below them is a corridor of boys. Two of the boys go up to the girls' corridor and I come over as well, and collectively we are known (though really only to ourselves) as the Corridor of Love. We sit on the floor and chat. Yeah, that's right. You're jealous. The other night, we entered a pub quiz, which basically means you go to the pub in teams, each pay one pound, and the winning three teams split the total. There were eleven teams total, but the Corridor of Love pretty much owned and we won twenty-six pounds to split amongst seven of us - which basically means it's enough to buy almost two rounds of shots. So, sure enough, to celebrate our victory, we trekked over from 8Bar9 to the Monkey's Forehead, about a twenty minute walk away...and then the sambuca started flowing. It was a great night, and really nice to just take a break and let our hair down a bit.

I've also had the good fortune of finding a yarn store in London. Needless to say, I've been knitting almost nonstop for about a week and a half now. I designed and knit a LOST-themed laptop sleeve for my friend Sam, knit a hat from a knitting magazine my Aunt Mary sent me in the post, and am now working on a gift for my friend's birthday.Woohoo!

The LOST-themed laptop sleeve. What a win.

Another thing I've been doing an awful lot of is watching LOST with Sam. Two weeks ago, we got chatting about something (I honestly can't even remember what it was) but got onto the topic of LOST. I mentioned that I had seen only seasons one and two, plus the series finale...and wouldn't you know it, but he just happened to have all six seasons on DVD in his room. So basically what we do is watch LOST and surface every once in a while for food. We're just about to start season six - (sob) the last one! - and then our epic journey will be at its end. :( I'm going to cry.

The other day, though, might have been one of the best days I've had so far. Sam, Lauren, Rose, Georgina, and I decided to spend the day in Brighton, which is about an hour and a half on the train from Egham. We had the most gorgeous weather we could have asked for: blue sky and sun, with just a short burst of rain that we managed to avoid by going into Shakeaway, which is a milkshake shop that will put anything - and I mean anything - into a milkshake. Mine had Maltesers and daim bar in it. SO GOOD. We also went into Choccywoccydoodah, a chocolate shop that makes what can best be described as chocolate art. And then, of course, we went to the Brighton pier, where there are plenty of rides to go on. The pier also offers a really nice view of the stretch of Brighton that runs along the coast. Let me tell you, it's a very beautiful place, full of old buildings. There were also really big crashing waves down on the beach below us. It has such a fabulous vibe to it. In fact, I sort of feel like if London were the Vancouver of England, Brighton would be its Victoria. But the nice part of Victoria, not the ugly part. After the pier, we met Sam's mom and her partner for fish and chips, and after that, went on a whim to see Paranormal Activity 2. Oh man. What a laugh.

A view of Brighton from the pier.

Rowing has also been really awesome. I absolutely love it, and I'm so glad I joined. Every week, we row on the water four times and hit the gym twice. It takes a bit of time up, but it's so worth it and I've met some really fabulous people. Last weekend, we went into London to see our coach, Simon, compete in a race. All I have to say is, I love men in Lycra.

Emily and I think proper men in Lyrca are awesome. Because they are.

There was something else I was going to write about...now I've forgotten. Oh yeah! School...you know, the reason I came here at all. Well, I kind of hate it. I can't say I'm remarkably fond of what I'm studying and I really dislike the teaching style. There are some classes where your professor might not be there. Class isn't canceled - you just do it yourself. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that if you're going to call a class a lecture, you should have a lecturer...Oh well. I guess I don't hate it, but I do miss uni back home. If Augustana could magically be uprooted to England, that would be very lovely.

Please leave a comment if you read this! I miss all of you (unless you happen to be one of my Royal Holloway friends reading this, in which case I don't miss you because there's a very high chance that I'm actually sitting in your room at this very moment).