Alfalfa Martini's Journal

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Can someone give me a job? please?

I'm just about out of money, and will have to figure out how to pay for an apartment, health insurance, tuition and books in the next two months. And I owe my mom $900.

Just a little income....all I'm asking for...

On my last day in Aberystwyth, I should have done something grand and exciting and memorable. Nope. On my last day in Wales, my home away from home for the last four and a half months, I did laundry, got photos printed, and made s'mores in the microwave. I really know how to live it up.

This time tomorrow I will be in London, navigating my way to my hostel. All my luggage will make it a challenge, but at least it will still be daylight. Hopefully my five or six hours on the train will give me a chance to plan my next week and a half, 'cause so far I've done shit's worth of planning.

Subtitle Phenomenon
I've been noticing that when you watch something with subtitles, you can't help but read the subtitles. If the film is in a foreign language, you do have to read the English subtitles, but now I've found that I also can't help but reading the foreign subtitles for films in English. Since I don't have a television here in Aberystwyth, I've been watching a lot of stuff from foreign youtube knockoff sites. The shows are broadcast in English, but are then subtitled in Chinese or French, or whatever, and I just find myself reading (or trying to read) the Chinese or the French, even though I can quite well understand the actual audio and can in very little capacity understand the subtitles. But they're there, and I HAVE to read them!

Maybe it's just me.

Carolyn is intoxicated, and would have left this as a facebook status update, but she has facebook friends who shouldn't know she is drunk.

Loose lips sink ships.

Countdown
Oh LJ, how I neglect you so...

My time is now getting short here in the UK. I have one more exam tomorrow, and I am officially done with school. I'm not leaving Aberystwyth until the 6th, so I'll have to find something to do for a week (although it might take me a week to pack). Then I'm off to London for ten days. Save for a brief romp through the Underground on my way to Norwich, I haven't spent any time in London yet. I've got my hostel booked, and my train ticket purchased. I'm excited to be heading to London, but it only means that I'm that much closer to leaving the UK.

I will miss British junk food. Probably Hobnobs most of all, but there will always be a little place in my heart for Jaffa Cakes. And chips. I could probably try to douse my french fries in vinegar when I get home, but it won't quite be the same. Of all the junk food I'm leaving behind, though, I'll be happy to get back to a civilazation that has root beer.

I'm not sure how I'll get everything packed. When I came, I had two suitcases, a carry-on, and my backpack. That was too much, really. It was only mildly annoying to try to get it all on the train from Birmingham to Aberystwyth, and then really annoying to ferry it all over Aberystwyth as my accommodations kept changing. It's going to be even more difficult when I have to take it all on the Underground. So I was hoping that I could consolidate down to one suitcase, a carry-on, and my backpack. I've already shipped one box of stuff home, and I have another waiting to be closed up and addressed, but I've accumulated so much stuff since I've gotten here that my attempts might be in vain. I've bought quite a few books here, some clothes, some shoes, a penguin.... Where's it all going to go?

I've decided that digital photography is a blessing and a curse. I love being able to take pictures with abandon as it helps me remember what it was that I was actually doing. I'm not a consistant journalor, so being able to look at all my photos takes the place of my written word. But, since I am no longer hindered by the task of purchasing rolls of film, I take far too many pictures. If I were to print all the photos that I've taken since I've been in Aberystwyth, I would spend hundreds of dollars. Taking a look at the photo count on my flickr page, I currently have almost 3000! Forgetting the cost, where would I put 3000 photos?

If you want to look at 3000 photos, you can check it out: My flickr page

I usually do a photo dump after each of my major excursions, and it's not a problem when my computer is connected to the school internet. But when I was off cavorting on Spring Break, all I had was crappy wi-fi connections that could not handle my massive photo transfers. It was very frustrating. So, when I'm in London, I may or may not be uploading photos, depending on the internet connection of my hostel.

It looks like it's a gorgeous day outside today. I should go out, but I don't know what I'd do. My friends scarpered off to Ireland because they were done with exams, but I still have one so I couldn't go, and now I'm stuck here without guinea pigs. I should also probably study for that last exam...

I seem to have been recruited by Death
In the last couple of weeks, I've been finding a lot of dead animals. Dead cat in Norwich, dead goose or swan in York, dead mouse somewhere I can't remember, and now a school of dead sharks here in Aberystwyth. There were 5 or 6 of them, and it made me think of the scene from the movie The Craft where all the sea animals were beached, but it was nowhere near as majestic. These sharks were only about 2 feet long (I think they were dogfish) and didn't seem to infuse me with any magical powers.

Am I going to keep finding dead things? Or are the dead things finding me?

Romans and Normans and Vikings, oh my!
I'm home (well, Aberystwyth home) from my whirlwind tour of Great Britain. Just about all my pictures are up at www.flickr.com/photos/audushey, and I have to apologize for the cut and paste descriptions, but I was trying to get everything up in a semi-timely manner. I also have to sincerely apologize for all of the Highlands tour out-of-focus-taken-out-of-the-window-of-a-moving-bus photos. We only had a few actual stops along the way to take pictures, but of course there was lot of scenery along the way.

We sailed on Loch Ness for almost an hour, up to Inverness. I found Nessie! She's an attendant at a filling station in Inverness!

I really wish I could have spent more time in Edinburgh, but there was just so much I wanted to see and the end of the holiday was looming. Maybe I'll go back in June, since I didn't even get to visit the palace. I also didn't get to take the ghost tour, that goes underneath the streets. I should start making more plans...

I visited a lot of castles and cathedrals in the last couple of weeks, and they're all so different its hard to compare them. In terms of location, my favorite castle would be Urquhart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness. In terms of completeness, Edinburgh Castle is complete and still in use, although lots of parts have been rebuilt. After I visited this castle, though, I guess I realized my fascination with castles really lies in the ruins. Edinburgh Castle was quite impressive, but there was little mystery to it. I prefer the piles of stones and fallen towers that make me wonder what a castle used to be and what became of it...

For the cathedrals, York Minster was by far the most regal (and so it should be, being the second most important one in the UK). Lots of shiny things to see, lots of stained glass and sculptures, a nice big tower you can climb to the top of (for an extra fee, of course), and constant refurbishment to give it that new minster smell. A lot of the cathedrals were indistinguishable from the next, save for details here and there. My favorite cathedral, because it had so many of those different details, was Carlisle Cathedral. Built with red sandstone, it has quite a unique color and texture, and some of the interior designs I hadn't seen before. The barrel ceiling of the nave is painted like a starry night sky, and the organ pipes are not just the usual static bronze fixtures, but are also decorated with a tapestry design. The cathedral has also undergone reconstruction at various points, so there is somewhat of a cobbled appearance in places. Carlisle might not be at the top of the tourist destination list, but it's definitely worth a look (the castle is red too!)

</tourismpitch>

If you ever visit the UK with plans to go visiting castles, I would suggest getting an English Heritage membership. I didn't know about it and only found out about it after visiting the majority of my castles, but a membership is good for a year and gets you into English Heritage sites for free, and half-price to Welsh and Scottish castles. I think you can buy a membership at any of the Heritage sites.

Now I suppose I have to get back into lecture mode. I've probably forgotten most of what I learned already.

Leaving Norwich
Today is my last day in Norwich. I came to do some genealogy research, and research I did. Unfortunately, there's never an end to this sort of research, so I don't feel all that accomplished. I don't know that I found much new information, but just clarified what we have. I also have some visuals that some of the family might get a kick out of.

Today I intended to rent a car and drive around to two locations that are outside of the the city centre area, but I didn't pre-book a car and thus there were none available for me. So I saved 50 pounds and figured out the bus routes to get me where I had to go. Public transportation and footpower. Gotta love it.

My first destination today was the parish church in Postwick (pronounced Pozzick). A cemetery survey I found in the records office showed me where the grave markers of my great great grandparents was, so I had to go take a look and get a picture. I was going to go even before I read the survey, but it saved me from wandering around in frustration. I found the grave, but I had to brush away a lot of cut grass and weeds in order to read the inscription. In doing so, I angered some ants and I got three bites on my thumb. At least they weren't fire ants.

My second destination was a street sign. In my internet research, I discovered that there is a street here in Norwich called "Attoe Walk", Attoe being the famiy name I'm researching. There's not much historical value to it, as it's a recent residential development, but I thought it might be a fun photo for the family reunion. I really was planning on visiting the city planning office to see why the street might have been named that way, but I didn't get around to it. I'm beginning to think my two weeks in London at the end of the semester might include a couple more days in Norwich...

So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'm off to York. There wasn't anything immediately exciting that drew me to York, just that it was halfway between Norwich and Edinburgh. Much as I love travelling by train, I don't want my whole day to be consumed by it. But, after looking through my Great Britain guide book, I think there will be enough to entertain me. There's a minster, the remnants of a castle, a reconstructed viking settlement, and some dungeons. There's also a Citysightseeing bus tour. I'm becoming a Citysightseeing regular; I've taken it in Cardiff, Norwich, and probably will in York. The bus tours might be nerdy, but they're a great way to get your bearings in a new town.

And, in another classic case of a day late and a dollar short, today I overheard one of the barristas at Starbucks while I was waiting for my grande mocha Frappaccino saying that tomorrow Craig Charles and Robert Llewelyn from Red Dwarf would be coming to Norwich. Grrr. I leave at 6:52 am, well before any celebrity in their right mind would make an appearance.

Maybe they'll follow me to York.

I'd be broke if I still had to buy rolls of film
My Easter Holiday thus far, including parts of Cardiff and parts of Norwich:

The photo summary (beware, there is a ton of photos): www.flickr.com/photos/audushey

The long winded summary: ( Read about it here. )

Photocide
I think I figured out why I'm missing photos that I know I took. When my kodak camera broke, I bought another kodak to replace it, and they both save photos with the name 100_xxxx.jpg. The Easyshare software that I've been using (that comes with the camera) detects duplicates when you're transferring photos and doesn't transfer them, and I wasn't aware it was doing this and I was just deleting them off my camera after transferring. So, if I took a picture on the new camera with the name 100_0725, and I had taken one with my old camera with the same name, the new photo wouldn't transfer and would be deleted. I figured that it was just my memory being swiss cheese about taking the pics, or my ineptitude like I hadn't actually pushed the shutter button all the way down, or I accidentally deleted it or something. *sigh*

So now that I think I know what the problem is, I tried to adjust Easyshare or my camera to deal with it. Either change the camera so it saves pictures with a different name format, or make Easyshare allow duplicates. I couldn't find a way to do either of those.

So now I have Picasa. It lets me allow duplicates so hopefully I'll be getting all my pictures off my camera. I've lost so many cool pics :(

Makes me sad.

First I broke my camera, and then my photos start eating each other....

Who's that Doctor?
I didn't think it was possible--alright, I did know it was possible, but it wasn't crossing my mind while it was cloudy and raining--but I got sunburned in the UK. I guess three days of trekking around outside in Cardiff, whether it was sunny or cloudy or raining, would do it. Wouldn't it be funny if I came home from Great Britain with a tan?

As you may or may not know, I'm now on my Easter holiday, and I kicked off the tour with Cardiff. My first day here I went and watched some Doctor Who filming! Woo! Unfortunately, there was no Doctor and no TARDIS... They were there on Monday when I wasn't. *sigh* So close... oh well. To protect viewers from spoilers, I'll hide the recounting behind a cut. ( This one. )

I'm currently uploading photos to flickr, and they're taking awhile, so they might not be up right away. There are non-Doctor Who pics in there, but the Doctor Who ones are spoilery. View at your own risk. www.flickr.com/photos/audushey

Today and yesterday I did a lot of walking. Back and forth to and from the Bay, walking around all the various shopping arcades and Queen Street, and doing some shopping. Also did a lot of walking looking for public toilets. It's funny how Cardiff doesn't seem to have as many public toilets as Aberystwyth does... Yesterday I went on one of the open top bus tours around the city. That was interesting, despite being cold and rainy. I found out that one of the hotels in Cardiff, The Big Sleep, has John Malkovich as a partner, and that Cardiff is named after the river Taff that runs through it, and that the river does not run its original course. And some other tidbits I can't remember right now.

Tonight I'm at the Days Inn. I missed the bus out here by about two minutes, so I had to wait an hour for the next one. When I got here, I tried to connect my computer to the WiFi, but it just doesn't want to connect to anything. I couldn't get it connected at the hostel either. I took it with me down to the restaurant to see if being closer could get me some WiFi action, but no. After dinner I got it figured out (or, rather my computer figured it out for me) and now I can do all my internet stuff.

Alrighty, I'm tired, my photos are uploaded, and my laptop battery is just about drained. Good point to stop typing.

I love rollercoasters, but....
Superman: The Ride! Batman: The Ride!

and now....

Saw: The Ride!

There's an amusement park here in the UK that has opened Saw: The Ride this spring. I only saw the first Saw (hah!) but I'm curious about the ride. A horror movie roller coaster?

www.sawtheride.com

Maybe when I'm in London at the end of the semester I'll take a day out to check it out.

Getting so close to my 3 week holiday. I just have to get a paper and a half written by Tuesday and then I can relax the rest of the week (mostly) before the vacation starts.

I still haven't planned out exactly what I'm doing all that time. I need to go to Norwich to do some genealogy stuff, but beyond that I don't know. I'm just planning on bumming around the UK, but I need to devise some sort of schedule. I'd like to get up to Scotland at some point, and hang around Cardiff too, to see if I can sneak in any Doctor Who filming. Most of London I'll probably save till June, when I have 2 weeks before my plane leaves.

Whatever I do, I have to make sure I'm back by April 27th when lectures start back up.

I have one messed up foot.
Since I got to Wales, of course I've been doing a lot of walking. In all this walking, every now and then I would realize that my right heel hurt. Not a lot, so I just pushed it off as having done too much walking the previous day. I've been here two months now, and my heel still hurts. As is my custom, I took to the internet to self diagnose, but I can't really find an answer that satisfies me. My first thought was a stress fracture. My second thought was plantar fasciitis. I'm not convinced of either of those, because the pain is in a weird place for both options. Today I took my shoes and socks off to actually look at my feet side by side (it's funny how your feet are always there, but you never look at them), mainly to see where exactly it was on my heel that was hurting. While I was looking at my heel, I discovered that I have what looks like a big ol' cyst under my ankle. I don't know if the two problems are connected, or they just have the privilege of affecting the same foot. Now I'm not sure if I should get this looked at while I'm here, and try to navigate the NHS as a non-NHS user, or if it's safe to wait until I get home.

I just know I have a lot more walking to do.

Procrastination
I title myself the queen of procrastination. I put everything off till the last possible moment to do it. I don't do it intentionally, I'm just really lazy. Luckily (so far) I seem to work all right with a looming deadline. Right now I have several academic deadlines, and more social deadlines to meet.

My academic deadline is March 31st. Or, to be more accurate, 31 March. I have two Welsh history essays due on this day. It's a Tuesday, and depending on how I schedule my next week and a half, it might be the longest Tuesday ever. I'm hoping to have one done by mid-week next week, and squish the other one in after that. Problem is, the 28th and 29th we're going to Cardiff to watch Wales football at the Millennium Stadium. Prime essay-writing weekend will be spent on trains and stadium seating. Maaaybe I can get some writing done on the train. And maybe some more in the hotel Saturday night.

My social deadlines are rolling ones. Really, they're dates that I should have had letters and emails written by, or photos uploaded by, or LJ posts written by... I set out on my journey to Wales thinking that I'd send a fairly regular email to friends and family who don't hang out on LJ or facebook to keep them up on my whereabouts and adventures. I sent the first one a week after I arrived, and the next one a week or two after that. And then...well, I kept *thinking* about writing another email, but never got to it. Two weeks ago I started the next email while I was waiting for one of my practicals to start, and then it started. Saved the draft and went away. My half-finished draft is still sitting in my Yahoo mailbox, waiting for me to complete it.

I also need to write an actual letter to my uncle. He doesn't have a computer, so I need to write a letter and send some pictures to let him know I'm thinking of him. In his words, he'd be "tickled pink" if I sent him a letter from Wales. I can't dissappoint him now, can I? I bought the paper, I bought the photo envelope, I got real photos printed....and I can't seem to bring myself to write anything.

I hope this monumental writer's block isn't going to keep me from actually writing my essays. They're very strict about deadlines here. I've never missed a deadline (except for one by a couple minutes; my printer stopped working and I was late to the class I needed to turn it in to), and I don't want my experience in Wales to be the turning point.

All that being said, I should really get back to working on my essay.

That being said, I'll probably upload photos instead.

Bored
I don't know what's sadder: the fact that I'm scrolling through the archives of fanfiction.net, or the fact that there is Golden Girls fanfiction.

It's really a toss-up.

I love mint!
I just found out that the British Royal Mint is here in Wales. Shortly after that, I found out that the mint no longer gives tours. Bah.

abducted by aliens
I just walked back into my room and saw that it was 10:20 pm. Last I knew, it was about 6 o'clock. 4 hours, gone.

It would be cool to say this was an X-files sort of phenomenon, but, alas, I was just carried away with things. I was proofing my Belgian flatmate's presentation for English-ness, and then we ate a talked quite awhile, and then I cleaned up, and BAM! Well after 10 o'clock.

And now I've been talking with my mom, and it's well after 11. I need to elaborate on my weekend in Cardiff, but it will have to wait till tomorrow, because today's time has been lost to the aether. Also, I'm tired.

But, I can post the ever-present link to my pictures (beware, somehow I took even more pictures in Cardiff than I took in Stonehenge and Bath): www.flickr.com/photos/audushey

*not* pregnant
One of the medications I take depletes the folate in my system, therefore I need to take a folic acid supplement. When I'm in the US, I get folic acid by prescription in a higher dosage than what you get over the counter in single vitamins or multivitamins. The recommended daily value that is printed on all the vitamin bottles is 400 mcg, which is .4 mg. My prescription dosage for folic acid was 3 mg a day.

After getting all the math out of the way, I decided not to renew the prescription to make things easier for me for traveling. Because I knew that I could get folic acid as a vitamin supplement over the counter, I didn't want to add it to the list of prescriptions I absolutely needed to have in mass quantities for 5 months (those prescriptions took 2 months to get ironed out). I would have to take 7 or 8 of the 400 mcg tablets a day to make up for my 3 1mg tablet prescriptions, but I could deal with that.

( Read more... )

Star Wars
Right now I have the urge to watch The Phantom Menace. I've been been reading Darths and Droids because Shamus told me to. Even though I didn't really like the Star Wars prequels, the comics have been making me slightly nostalgic, even for Jar Jar. Actually, I quite liked Jar Jar.

*watches warily for objects thrown at head*

C'mon, how could you not love a Gungan?