I know I haven't written in a week and there is a bunch of stuff I should write about but for now: a rundown of my past Sunday.
Left my house at 10 to noon and got a bus from by my house to the tube station. Then took the tube from Hendon Central Station down the northern line, switched to the district line and arrived at Victoria station at 1:20 to then go up top and catch the overground train at 1:38 to the Wandsworth Chapel where we were having Stake Conference. Got off the train and walked a few blocks and found the chapel. Got seated at 1:55, five minutes to spare before it started. I remember the days not so distant when I could sleep through my alarm and roll out of bed at 10 to 9am and still make it to church at 9. The good old days when it didn't take 2 hours to get to church. After conference got out at 4, it took us 2 hours to get to the Bishop's house where a bunch of us newbies to the ward had dinner. Awesome family. He's from Provo, she's from India, they have three very fun kids. They made us Mexican food! Yay! I wasn't sure I'd have that anytime soon. Then I left at 8:30 and got home at 10. What a long day. Going to church used to be so much easier. Especially when I had my own car. Though I would be crazy to try and drive in London.
Other things I will try to post about the next few times:
~Nan, or the mother of the couple I am staying with needing her mental illness medication adjusted, hopefully this will stop the fits of shouting or her referring to me as 'that girl' when she doesn't think I can hear. Hopefully I will be moving out real soon.
~List of books I've had to read for my course. Many of them are weird.
~Pictures. I really should post some. Though most are of the dog Sqweaky.
~Fish pie
~and other assorted British food I've eaten. Really the fish pie was quite tasty; don't judge it by its name.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Oops
Okay. Can we talk American for a minute? Because when you said, with your lisp and lovely British accent, 19,000 words, and I repeated back to you with a question mark 19,000? in my American accent to your hearing aid and you then repeated back to me 19,000 with a serious nod, I wondered why everyone suddenly felt the need to go to the pub after class and drink their stress away. In my mind I rounded it up to 20,000 and thought I could write that in a couple of weeks while still doing the rest of my work for school and working on my novel on the side. Piece of cake.
My cake has suddenly gone dry and stale as I realized last night my teacher had said 90,000 words. I have to write 90,000 words before January. That is, to put it mildly, not the same thing as 19,000. I heard 90,000 this time and thought, maybe I should have gone to the pub with the other students. I could pick up drinking; I may need to. 90,000 words is about 300 pages of a published novel. It is basically a full novel, albeit a bit short for the fantasy genre. When am I going to have time to finish the novel I am currently working on? But I am on track. I have already written over 7,000 words in the last week. I can totally do this! Bring it on!
BRING IT! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?
My cake has suddenly gone dry and stale as I realized last night my teacher had said 90,000 words. I have to write 90,000 words before January. That is, to put it mildly, not the same thing as 19,000. I heard 90,000 this time and thought, maybe I should have gone to the pub with the other students. I could pick up drinking; I may need to. 90,000 words is about 300 pages of a published novel. It is basically a full novel, albeit a bit short for the fantasy genre. When am I going to have time to finish the novel I am currently working on? But I am on track. I have already written over 7,000 words in the last week. I can totally do this! Bring it on!
BRING IT! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?
Monday, October 17, 2011
My First Voice Assignment
“You’s crazy, that’s what you is,” Sneaks repeated. “He don’t take our kind. What’s more, you gonna break up this band, and we need you. How you gonna feel knowing little Runt here is crying after you when you leave? You brought us him, trained him up and now you gonna abandon him? All of us? You’s our Lucks, see?”
“I gotta try, Sneaks. They say he’ll train anybody.” Lucks opened his fist and the air around his fingers gathered into a miniature whirlwind.
Sneaks jerked Lucks’ hand down, extinguishing the magic. “Thems that say so don’t think you or me as anybody. Our kind,” he emphasized again, “says he gots a temper and will sooner play with his food before he kills it. We’ll be eating your leftovers soon enough in the streets. ‘He was our Lucks, see, before he gone crazy. Taste good, yeah?’ That’s what we’ll say, all while little Runt is a crying.”
Lucks peered over the stone wall that encircled the citadel and gazed up at the stark white stone stretching skyward. “What else they say?”
Sensing the hesitation, Sneaks pounced. “He knows your head, yeah, know you’s lying. Make you clean up. Disgusting that is.”
“Water don’t scare me.”
“Water and you is all right. But it don’t take to me.”
The sun was almost above the top which meant time was running out. He crouched down again and gripped Sneaks on the shoulder.
“Take care of him, yeah? He’ll sort out right. I gotta off. If’n I don’t make out, I’ll find you.”
Sneaks spit in the dirt. “I’ll not know you after this. You’s gonna be dead or proper and I don’t take to either.”
#
At the opposite end an old man sat in the throne, robbed in white, with long hair and a beard.
“I’s Lucks. Here to be trained up.”
“Demonstrate your magic . . . Lucks.”
He dropped to one knee and extended his arms outward to either side of his body. Air rushed from his hands until the ends of the tapestries brushing the floor shot away from the wall and floated in the air. That was enough for now. Lucks let the cloth drop and stood again. He’d keep some surprises for later.
“You are gifted.” The Scholar stood from his throne and descended to stand in front of Lucks. “If you agree to my rules, you are welcome to train here, Terian.”
Lucks gasped. “Ain’t been called that since I come heres.”
“It is not a matter of what you are called but of what you are.”
“Right, I’s lucky.”
“From now on you will rely on your skill, your training, not your luck. You will be Terian, the master of air and of your other ability, water.”
Lucks gaped.
“Very little gets past me. You will have to accustom yourself to not lying anymore, at least not to me.”
“Is that one of them rules you’s talking about?” Lucks sighed at the Scholar’s nod. “Let’s hear them.”
“I gotta try, Sneaks. They say he’ll train anybody.” Lucks opened his fist and the air around his fingers gathered into a miniature whirlwind.
Sneaks jerked Lucks’ hand down, extinguishing the magic. “Thems that say so don’t think you or me as anybody. Our kind,” he emphasized again, “says he gots a temper and will sooner play with his food before he kills it. We’ll be eating your leftovers soon enough in the streets. ‘He was our Lucks, see, before he gone crazy. Taste good, yeah?’ That’s what we’ll say, all while little Runt is a crying.”
Lucks peered over the stone wall that encircled the citadel and gazed up at the stark white stone stretching skyward. “What else they say?”
Sensing the hesitation, Sneaks pounced. “He knows your head, yeah, know you’s lying. Make you clean up. Disgusting that is.”
“Water don’t scare me.”
“Water and you is all right. But it don’t take to me.”
The sun was almost above the top which meant time was running out. He crouched down again and gripped Sneaks on the shoulder.
“Take care of him, yeah? He’ll sort out right. I gotta off. If’n I don’t make out, I’ll find you.”
Sneaks spit in the dirt. “I’ll not know you after this. You’s gonna be dead or proper and I don’t take to either.”
#
At the opposite end an old man sat in the throne, robbed in white, with long hair and a beard.
“I’s Lucks. Here to be trained up.”
“Demonstrate your magic . . . Lucks.”
He dropped to one knee and extended his arms outward to either side of his body. Air rushed from his hands until the ends of the tapestries brushing the floor shot away from the wall and floated in the air. That was enough for now. Lucks let the cloth drop and stood again. He’d keep some surprises for later.
“You are gifted.” The Scholar stood from his throne and descended to stand in front of Lucks. “If you agree to my rules, you are welcome to train here, Terian.”
Lucks gasped. “Ain’t been called that since I come heres.”
“It is not a matter of what you are called but of what you are.”
“Right, I’s lucky.”
“From now on you will rely on your skill, your training, not your luck. You will be Terian, the master of air and of your other ability, water.”
Lucks gaped.
“Very little gets past me. You will have to accustom yourself to not lying anymore, at least not to me.”
“Is that one of them rules you’s talking about?” Lucks sighed at the Scholar’s nod. “Let’s hear them.”
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Middlesex
No, I am not confused about my sexual orientation. I am not wavering in between two choices. That is the name of my uni (university) here in London, technically Hendon. I first saw my campus the day after I arrived in London, which was Wednesday, Sept. 28th. Matt, the son of the people I am staying with, took me to campus to show me around.
Speaking of which, I know I have told this story to a bunch of people already, but I don't remember who has and has not heard it and it is worth telling, so funny story:
I wasn't sure where exactly we were going when we were walking on campus and he was on my left and moved right and I was not paying attention and moved left so I totally rubbed my leg up against his. He then said something like (and in a fantastic British accent) "I just barely met you and you're trying to rub legs with me." I immediately thought in my head, "I think I might bump into you" from the Holiday when Jude Law shows up drunk and I started to say it and then remembered that I always quote it in a British accent, of course, and then I thought I would just sound like an idiot trying to speak in an accent so I had to say something and finished lamely. But it was hilarious!
OK. Campus is tiny. I am used to huge BYU campus and most of all enormous library. I miss that library. But Middlesex actually has several campuses spread around London and students go to a specific one based on what they are studying. I have classes on Monday and Tuesday nights from 6-9. I don't remember if I mentioned this before but my teacher for Monday nights has Harry Potter classes and a really fun personality. It is a class about voice, not only the voice the character will have in a book, but the voice of the narrator and what purpose the author will have in choosing that particular way of speaking or saying something. yay!
Tuesday nights is my class on Character. I was nervous about how this teacher would be since she assigned a lot of reading to get done even before class started and the books were not all easy to find and my uni doesn't have a bookstore on campus. I had to order all of my books thru amazon.com.uk And I did not like several of the books. Anyway. This lady is short with red hair, a slight lisp, a hearing aid, and she has an awesome personality. I liked her immediately. Whew.
Though for a moment I liked her a little less when she told all of us doing novel writing for fantasy and sci fi that she wanted us to write 20,000 words of a new novel we haven't previously worked on and to have that done by January when we start the novel writing class. This means I will end up writing close to 40,000 words before January probably. The shock only lasted for a moment and then I liked her again when I remembered that in Brandon Sanderson's class I think we wrote 10,000 words a week which means once I get back into the habit, 40,000 words will be a piece of cake to do in over 2 months! Whew again. Granted I have I think 15 books to read in just this month alone, but I can manage to do it all!
After class on Tuesday I went home and plotted what I was going to write for my 20,000 words and between yesterday and today and all my homework I wrote 1,500 words.
Speaking of which, I know I have told this story to a bunch of people already, but I don't remember who has and has not heard it and it is worth telling, so funny story:
I wasn't sure where exactly we were going when we were walking on campus and he was on my left and moved right and I was not paying attention and moved left so I totally rubbed my leg up against his. He then said something like (and in a fantastic British accent) "I just barely met you and you're trying to rub legs with me." I immediately thought in my head, "I think I might bump into you" from the Holiday when Jude Law shows up drunk and I started to say it and then remembered that I always quote it in a British accent, of course, and then I thought I would just sound like an idiot trying to speak in an accent so I had to say something and finished lamely. But it was hilarious!
OK. Campus is tiny. I am used to huge BYU campus and most of all enormous library. I miss that library. But Middlesex actually has several campuses spread around London and students go to a specific one based on what they are studying. I have classes on Monday and Tuesday nights from 6-9. I don't remember if I mentioned this before but my teacher for Monday nights has Harry Potter classes and a really fun personality. It is a class about voice, not only the voice the character will have in a book, but the voice of the narrator and what purpose the author will have in choosing that particular way of speaking or saying something. yay!
Tuesday nights is my class on Character. I was nervous about how this teacher would be since she assigned a lot of reading to get done even before class started and the books were not all easy to find and my uni doesn't have a bookstore on campus. I had to order all of my books thru amazon.com.uk And I did not like several of the books. Anyway. This lady is short with red hair, a slight lisp, a hearing aid, and she has an awesome personality. I liked her immediately. Whew.
Though for a moment I liked her a little less when she told all of us doing novel writing for fantasy and sci fi that she wanted us to write 20,000 words of a new novel we haven't previously worked on and to have that done by January when we start the novel writing class. This means I will end up writing close to 40,000 words before January probably. The shock only lasted for a moment and then I liked her again when I remembered that in Brandon Sanderson's class I think we wrote 10,000 words a week which means once I get back into the habit, 40,000 words will be a piece of cake to do in over 2 months! Whew again. Granted I have I think 15 books to read in just this month alone, but I can manage to do it all!
After class on Tuesday I went home and plotted what I was going to write for my 20,000 words and between yesterday and today and all my homework I wrote 1,500 words.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Housing
I can't believe I have been in London for almost 2 weeks! Time has flown by. Things have not turned out the way I'd planned or even hoped they'd turn out. I got in on Sept. 27th and had scheduled to look at 4 potential places to live during the week. The plan was then changed to looking at places on Saturday. Before Saturday 2 of my options had disappeared b/c of last minute family issues, no fault of the people who'd offered me a place to live, but I was suddenly down 2 options. That was okay though, because on Saturday I had two more places to look at.
Matt, the son of the people I am staying with, took me to the places on Saturday, Oct. 1st. I arrived at the first place and the lady told me she decided to raise the price by 100 pounds. Immediately I think anyone who does that in the last minute is lame. Then she showed me the room: a closet with no windows and room only for a bed and then a slice of space to walk out of the room. As much as I love Harry Potter, I do not wish to live in his cupboard! Especially since I know there is no Hagrid coming along to give me a wand and an invite to a school of magic. What she was offering was ridiculous for the price. But most importantly, I am a writer, I came here to write. I need space for a desk and to be able to write since I will be doing that more than anything else.
Went to the last option and as we sat there talking, the lady gave excuse after excuse for why her room would not work for me on a permanent basis. Hmm. Too bad, I loved her personality: beautiful, loud Kenya woman. She would have been fun to live with, but I could tell she was rethinking her offer. Since 3 people backed out and I don't feel a cupboard is a valid offer, I suddenly went from 4 options to no options! Matt drove away from the house with me in the passenger side fighting the panicking feeling that gripped my heart and ability to breathe.
Matt took me to lunch and the lovely, greasy Chinese food helped settle my stomach a bit. Then he took me miniature golfing, or "crazy golf" as he called it. That was fun and took my mind off of my homelessness completely. I relaxed, forgot about the housing issue and was more myself, loud, competitive me. I beat Matt by one point, though I wonder if he 'flubbed' as he called it, one of the holes for my benefit. But I did get several spectacular holes in one.
This past week has been stressful, with me worrying about where to live. The people I am staying with said it would be no problem for me to stay for a few weeks while I figure out my life: that was on the Sunday after I lost all of my options. Then this past week they told me they had decided to move and thought they could get a two bedroom house and I could share with them since, Gloria, the mum, is also going to my uni! Ta da! I'm back in the game! I have options again. I love it. Gloria and David are amazing and fun and I am very comfortable with them. I would love living with them.
I shall see what will happen, but for now I am not on the streets, I have a room with a desk and a window (I never realized how much I took for granted having a window!) and I get to start my classes tonight. I am so happy to be in London. I swear I walk around grinning like an idiot-though part of that is listening to the wonderful accents around me.
Matt, the son of the people I am staying with, took me to the places on Saturday, Oct. 1st. I arrived at the first place and the lady told me she decided to raise the price by 100 pounds. Immediately I think anyone who does that in the last minute is lame. Then she showed me the room: a closet with no windows and room only for a bed and then a slice of space to walk out of the room. As much as I love Harry Potter, I do not wish to live in his cupboard! Especially since I know there is no Hagrid coming along to give me a wand and an invite to a school of magic. What she was offering was ridiculous for the price. But most importantly, I am a writer, I came here to write. I need space for a desk and to be able to write since I will be doing that more than anything else.
Went to the last option and as we sat there talking, the lady gave excuse after excuse for why her room would not work for me on a permanent basis. Hmm. Too bad, I loved her personality: beautiful, loud Kenya woman. She would have been fun to live with, but I could tell she was rethinking her offer. Since 3 people backed out and I don't feel a cupboard is a valid offer, I suddenly went from 4 options to no options! Matt drove away from the house with me in the passenger side fighting the panicking feeling that gripped my heart and ability to breathe.
Matt took me to lunch and the lovely, greasy Chinese food helped settle my stomach a bit. Then he took me miniature golfing, or "crazy golf" as he called it. That was fun and took my mind off of my homelessness completely. I relaxed, forgot about the housing issue and was more myself, loud, competitive me. I beat Matt by one point, though I wonder if he 'flubbed' as he called it, one of the holes for my benefit. But I did get several spectacular holes in one.
This past week has been stressful, with me worrying about where to live. The people I am staying with said it would be no problem for me to stay for a few weeks while I figure out my life: that was on the Sunday after I lost all of my options. Then this past week they told me they had decided to move and thought they could get a two bedroom house and I could share with them since, Gloria, the mum, is also going to my uni! Ta da! I'm back in the game! I have options again. I love it. Gloria and David are amazing and fun and I am very comfortable with them. I would love living with them.
I shall see what will happen, but for now I am not on the streets, I have a room with a desk and a window (I never realized how much I took for granted having a window!) and I get to start my classes tonight. I am so happy to be in London. I swear I walk around grinning like an idiot-though part of that is listening to the wonderful accents around me.
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