I haven’t done anything dreadfully exciting recently, or at least I haven’t done anything that seems as exciting as it might have been the first couple weeks I was here. I’ve settled in and this is starting to feel normal. It baffles me that being in England no longer baffles me. I did take a trip to Scotland last week, which was nice. I don’t think I enjoyed myself as much as I did in Ireland, for whatever reason. I felt like I didn’t stay long enough, or that I didn’t have enough exciting experiences there, or maybe I just got used to traveling. Yeah, I’m a world traveler. Scotland. *sniff* Whatever. I will say, though, there are a surprisingly large number of Australians in Scotland, and no one has been able to give me a definite reason besides, ‘They both hate the English.’

Picture with Nessie next to Loch Ness

This weekend has been wonderful, though. I spent most of last week sitting in my room watching TV. All of my classes were canceled for Reading Week, or'”Catch-Up Week’ but I didn’t really do much catching up. I’m not friends with many people in my building, KF; rather, most of my friends here are two buildings down, in ER. I caught wind of a Disney movie marathon happening on Friday, for all the other people who had nothing to do, and I ended up in the ER common room watching Disney movies all day. It was great, because there were a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

Saturday night I decided to be productive and go to the library to work on a 1500-word paper due on Monday. I got some good work done and afterward ran into a couple girls on their way to ER to play a game. I went along and we ended up playing cards and movie trivia for the rest of the night. And of course, tonight, I came back to the ER common room to finish my paper, and I’ve got a couple people convinced that I actually live here.

Trip to Lake Windermere

Basically, I’ve been missing out on socialization for a couple weeks. I never thought I wouldn’t enjoy having my own room, but after a couple weeks in a single room in a different country, I got a bit lonely. And I just found an environment where I can get work done and also talk to people. It’s great. And it probably all sounds really cheesy, but I feel like I’m getting to a comfortable spot in my social life. It’s kind of awkward because I don’t actually live here but I know people here. So I think it’s okay.

I still have classes, by the way. I haven’t had much homework for the last six weeks, but I think this next week at least is going to feel like school. Lots of assessments coming up.

I probably won’t do a lot more traveling, at least outside of England. I’ve still got a bit of England to see, including London (but I’m not the only one who hasn’t been yet so that should work out) and Blackpool, where I’ve heard tell there is a Doctor Who museum. I also haven’t actually been out of the UK yet, I realized, but I’m  not sure where outside of the UK I’d like to go. Honestly, I wouldn’t be too upset if I didn’t make it out. But if I got the chance Rome would be cool. Maybe Greece. Maybe Spain. But again, my priorities were Ireland and Scotland. If you think I may be forgetting a place, let me know.