It's the little things

"Open by Hand" ... As opposed to?...

As the title of this post suggests, nothing really new and exciting to report on.  Just the little stuff that I'm experiencing as a post-grad (I still can't get over that.  It still doesn't feel right on my tongue.)

Evenings are a strange time around here.  Some nights are perfect and silent and I sleep basically through the night.  Then there are occurrences like 4 AM Sunday morning.  Incessant banging on the door and ringing of the bell - three drunk guys insisting that they used to live here and they left their bacon in the fridge.  I was so happy that Alex got to the door before me.  He was actually really nice and diplomatic about slamming the door in their faces.  A few nights before the bacon incident, I could have sworn that the music that comes out of the JUMANJI board was playing outside.  Part of me wanted to run out to the non-river and find it.  Part of me remembered the freaking giant bugs that came out of that game.  Part of me reminded me that I'm ridiculous, so I went back to sleep.

I think I jinxed myself with that last post.  I was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside and then the next two days were pretty crap.  Nothing terrible happened, I was just a little homesick and feeling off.  Eh, I guess it happens, right?

My Tesco card came in the mail today, which is actually really exciting.  Why is it exciting?  I'm not exactly sure.  Because now every cashier can stop asking me if I have a Clubcard?  Maybe.  Because now I can start saving 1 pound 50 for every 150 points I earn?  Maybe.

I also received my two new t shirts in the mail.  There are no words for how excited I am about these shirts.  One is a joke map of Australia.  The other is a sloth hanging off the Empire State Building like King Kong.  Yeah, I know that I'm not the most normal person out there...

So happy to finally have these in my possession - You can't tell me they aren't great.
I wouldn't believe you if you tried.

Progress in befriending my flatmates has come as far as I think it's going to.  It's not that anyone is implicitly unfriendly, it's just that the girl who lives next to me and the guy from Nigeria are the only two who really talk to me.  The rest of the people never speak English around me - Even when I try to talk to them.  And they ALWAYS seem to be having some type of dining extravaganza.  There are always random people in the kitchen having big...well, feasts for lack of a better term.  I'd get sick of cooking so much and socializing so much.  It's like every night!  I didn't eat dinner until almost 10:00 tonight because there were too many people in the kitchen all night.

Speaking of the kitchen, I've finally christened it as my own.  Two days I shattered my mug when it fell out of my cabinet.  Then tonight I accidentally exploded some peas in the microwave.  So, the kitchen is officially ready for me to use now, right?

I've mostly taken to eating in my room.  I'll eat in the kitchen if no one is there, or the people who are there will talk to me.  Most of the time, that isn't the case.  The kitchen table isn't that big and I discovered that it's extremely strange to sit and eat cereal while three people at the table continue on with their conversation in another language.  So I don't really care if it makes me look like a hermit.  I make my food and then go back to my room.

I think that two of the people in my flat might be dating.  They are always together and it seems like they yell at each other a lot.  (But you know, since they aren't speaking English they could be yelling "GOSH DARN IT JOHNLOCK IS A THING YOU STUPID GIT!!!!"  I doubt it, but you never know.)

The non-river went and changed times on me.  All of a sudden last week it started not being there around 3 PM when it usually is.  It's there right now, after 10 at night, and there is some water there in the morning when I wake up.  It's all very strange.  Also, I think people live in the one boat out there.  I've seen people walking around the deck a few times and didn't think much of it until tonight when I looked out the window and saw the glow of a TV.  It's really a strange world that my window looks out towards.

I'm almost finished reading The Hobbit.  It's actually really good and I didn't have any problems getting into it like I did with Lord of the Rings.  It also helps that I can only picture Martin Freeman as Bilbo.  Freaking adorable little hedgehog Martin Sassypants.

The rest of this week are booked for homework and then private (haha - just me) birthday celebrations on Friday and then more homework and then STONEHENGE on Sunday.  More on that after I've actually experienced it in all of its glory.

-RJ