It's been a while since my last update, so I'll run through some stuff quickly! I've been working hard on my dissertation, and I think I'm finally happy with my outline. One would think that the outline would be the FIRST thing to decide on, and indeed, I had one as early as February, but once I started writing the less sense it made. I've been scrambling around trying to figure out what order I want my dissertation in for about two weeks now, and I finally figured it out. 12 days left until the turn-in! Scary stuff. I have about 63 pages all in all, although some of them are weird title pages and lists of figures and random stuff that UCL makes you put in. Still, I enjoy the amount of time it takes to open up in a Word document. :)
About a week ago I found some waterguns in the grocery store for 60p and I bought 14 of them. Why so many? Why, so I could raise an army, of course! We started a second assassins game on Friday, this time with long range weapons and a few more rules for beyond-the-grave revenge, etc, and battles have been waging pretty much each night for the past few days now. I survived two days before my next door neighbour knocked me out in a Mexican standoff type situation. I managed to kill at least one person though, so I don't feel too bad about being dead. I've also been working as an informant to make the game more interesting. Lots of blood on my hands. Or water.
I am nearly healthy again. Since going to Cambridge, I've had the Cambridge Cough, which turned into the Cambridge Flu, which turned back into the Cough and finally ended with the Cambridge Sinus Infection. One month later, my eyes finally don't feel goggly anymore and I sleep without fear of waking up to cracked ribs, so I'm glad that's over with!
I've gotten turned down for a few jobs already. One of them, for a digitisation assistant in historical houses in Maine, apparently got 300 applicants! Cripes.
I haven't been able to go out much since the dissertation deadline is approaching, but when Mexico's football team won gold, I went with everybody to Trafalgar Square for the festivities. I was wearing bright yellow like Brazil, due to bad planning, but nobody bothered me so that was good! There were so many drunk people that the police weren't trying to stop people from climbing on stuff, so a couple of us climbed up on the lions in Trafalgar Square. Mariana hasn't sent me her photos yet, but I'll put them online once she does so you can see my hooliganism in action.
The below are the photos of the light show at the Houses of Parliament!
I was trying to find some photos of Westminster, because about eight of us trooped down there one night to see a service and hear the bells. I liked the Abbey, it's very cosy, as far as big cathedral type places go. Afterwards, we met the Dean as he was shaking people's hands and things, and he asked us where we were from. The girl from Mexico introduced herself first and the rest of us were ready to jump in too, but he fixated on the Mexico thing. "Oh, I studied in Colombia for a few years," he said in Spanish, then turned to the girls from India. "What are you doing in London? Are you enjoying your time? Blah blah blah" he started prattling in Spanish while they just looked at him with big eyes. He talked to us all for about five minutes without ever realising that, in fact, only one person was from Mexico, the rest being from Romania, India, etc, haha. He was very friendly, we just thought he was funny.
I guess I went to Islington for a free burrito one day. That was fun. Giant burritos, mariachi band, etc. 9/10 would do again.
The weather has been pretty warm here, lately. I don't know what the temps are in F, but in Celsius it's been up to 34, so I think 90s? There is no air conditioning, so we've all been leaving our doors open to try to get some air flowing, otherwise we overheat in our rooms.
One of the new people (hate to blame them, but we didn't have this problem before the summer room turnover) is a thief. A lot of people's plates, silverware, and stuff from the kitchens is going missing and not finding its way back, like it normally does. On the 3rd floor, food is being taken out of the freezers, like pizzas and ice cream and whatnot. Even Mariana's homemade brownies that she froze to save were devoured by the mystery person. My kitchen is on a very sleepy little floor, so we've had no such problems, thankfully. My suggestion at the moment is to make some more brownies but with powerful laxatives. I feel like even if it didn't solve the problem, it would at least be a mean natured little surprise. It might be illegal to do that though. Probably now that I've written it down I could get pegged for premeditation of poisoning or something, haha. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just occasionally, but apparently it is quite a bit of food going missing and the upper floors are getting really upset.
I got free lunch from the hari krishnas today! They have a stand in front of the School of Oriental and African Studies (part of the University of London, but with an uncomfortably old fashioned name) where they give out free food, but I had never managed to figure out where they were before. Pep and I went and they gave us so much food! I donated a bit that I had with me, but I felt bad because they were feeding like 300 people, easily, with two and three plates of curry, potato, rice, fresh fruit, and bread per person without asking for anything. I feel a little sleepy now, because even though I only had one plate, it was ridiculously massive.
Anyway, back to the old grind!
