Germany Christmas Markets

The weekend before Christmas, Gloria and I headed out to Germany for the Christmas Markets. We arrived in Koblenz and boarded a river cruise ship that took off up the Rhine the next morning. We saw castles and lovely old buildings as we went along. Saw the Lorelei rock and statue though I didn't get pictures.








We arrived in Rudesheim and headed off to the drosselgasse and wandered around the markets and shops.




We had tasty treats and decided to take a gondola lift up the hill.





Once we got to the top we wandered around and had races.







On the way down we saw Santa.



And then the market with lights.





The next day we spent in Cologne. Saw the Cathedral first.





Then the markets.




It was a very relaxing and fun weekend.

Novels I Read for My MA

In no particular order:
The Owl Service
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
I am Legend
World War Z
Clockwork Orange
Virgin Suicides
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Wicked
Moll Flanders
Going Postal
The High Way Men
New Moon's Arms
A Pack of Liars
The Warden

This list does not include all the short stories and the non-novel books I had to read (Or the ones I will still have to read-that were on the list for supplemental reading and will be good for my thesis but I never got around to reading this term.)

My favorites were:
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
A Pack of Liars
High Way Men

And I actually liked I am Legend better than the movie. It was slow in the middle but the ending is loads better than the movie. It was surprising that I liked it better. I also liked New Moon's Arms for the most part. There were just a few bits that were hard to handle: the main character's homophobic tendencies which were a reaction to being rejected by her gay best friend who she was totally in love with. I had to set the book down and walk away during those moments when she was flipping out and saying horrible things.

But classes ended Tuesday night and I don't have to go back to Uni until Jan. 9th! Yay! I am heading to Germany this weekend for the Christmas Markets then I am coming back here to spend Christmas with the Lloyds and will post more then!

Sqweaky

Freedom!

I have moved out of the crazy lady's house! I am in a wonderful bungalow in a nice big room with lots of space and which I hope to soon decorate! I still live with David and Gloria and Sqweaky so good times there. The only bad thing is there is a problem with setting up the internet which means I am at uni right now doing homework and I thought I would quickly post an update. I probably won't have internet for another week or two but I hope to come into uni and do more detailed posts now that things are settling down.

For those who want my address:
171 Station Road
Lower Stondon
Henlow
Beds SG16 6JQ
UK

Mail is always fun if anyone wants to send me letters. Or A&W rootbeer. That would be nice too. Though I am not sure how that works or if it would burst in the mail? Hmmm.

Anyway. I am celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday with David, Gloria, and Sqweaky, and D and G's son Matt, who will be up for the weekend. We always have fun joking around so that will be nice and then we are going to set up the Christmas tree. Yay!

Sorry for the lame update but I need to get back to homework.

Thwarted

My plans for posting more often have been thwarted by one of the topics I wanted to post about, listed in my last entry. No, not fish pie, and not Sqweaky. Nan, the once-upon-a-time-sweet-grandmothery lady who'd welcomed me into her home who is now the wolf-in-grandmother's-nightgown. She has succumbed to the madness, going from calling me by name to 'that girl' to 'that woman' to now 'the lodger'. She used to have a gambling problem years ago but has been good. Unfortunately her eldest daughter took her a few weeks ago and it has been a downward spiral since. She has lost close to 3,000 pounds in 3 weeks which is close to $4,500. She will be sweet one moment and then the next she is screaming about anything and everything. One of her favorite topics is now me: the lodger who is using her bathroom, using up her electricity. She "don't want no lodgers in my house. It's disgusting. I won't have it." Then she will go to her room and watch telly and cackle hysterical laughter for hours. I am hoping the new medication will stabilize her soon. I am also hoping that my housing options will stop falling through. I was all packed up to move out on Saturday and then my option fell through, and then my backup fell through. Then David and Gloria had another idea of where I could go and that fell through. For some strange and odd reason I don't think I am supposed to move out yet. Actually the situation with Nan is similar to what I went through when I lived with my grandparents for 2 years when I was 11 and 12 so I have had some good advice for David and Gloria that they say have helped them get through this. But I think we are ready to be done getting through it, we want to be on the other side of it. Not really helpful to go through when both Gloria and I are trying to do our Masters right now.

Taken for Granted

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.

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?