Much Baking is Afoot

I have just discovered a recipe for "Anarchist Oatmeal Cookies". They sound easy to make and delicious...and also apparently punk rock. It shall be my next project.

In the meantime, I had a piano lesson with Georgia last week! It went quite well--we worked on the Rachmaninov Etude-Tableaux, which is coming along nicely, and I think I'm going to try to learn another short piece to make a set of three with the etude and the prelude that I learned aeons ago. I'm also going to start more serious work on bringing back the Ravel Sonatine, which up until now I've only been sort of tinkering with. So, it looks like I'll have a more consistent and hopefully productive schedule on the music front this semester.

I also have a new flat mate! Yetande was only doing one term here, apparently, and Federica is here for a three month research project of some kind, so much rotating is going around. As her name somewhat implies, Federica is Italian, and may in fact galvanize us all into acting like an actual flat--at her suggestion, we're having a nice dinner night this Friday. The three Chinese girls are making various traditional dishes, Federica is making pasta, and I am, very predictably, making pie. I'm realizing that apple pie is the only quintessentially 'American' thing I know how to do well anyway--everything else is vaguely Italian or otherwise! So that should be fun. Lots of accents and language barriers to deal with, but we probably should have done this ages ago, so I'm glad for the prompting of a more extroverted personality.

Classes start tomorrow, which should be fun--I shall start with my Nation and Empire seminar, which will probably introduce me to lots of new people, given that the subject falls more in the Romantic period than the Victorian. So all in all, good times!

In which I clearly need to read information on websites more carefully.

Leeds was full of lies! My PhD applications are due way later than I thought! My world is full of sunshine and rainbows!

Ahem.

So yeah, I'm beginning my applications process. Mostly just registering accounts with the universities and entering in all the basic information. It's a start. I feel fairly organized, despite clearly being clueless about dates the first time around. Anyway, I've also sent off an email to one of the English professors who offered help on getting this stuff together, so hopefully he will write back and I can have a chat with him so I'm not making random stabs in the dark.

Classes don't start until February, so I'm mostly just trying to refill my refrigerator with healthy food and waiting for people to finish with their exams so that we can hang out. I also have a piano lesson next week, which should be fun! I've been able to get into the building a few times this week to practice, so it won't be a disaster. I'm slowly getting the hang of the Rachmaninov Etude-Tableaux.

In other news, I have great luck with weather around here. I know it was apparently crappy a few days before I arrived, and now it's comfortably in the upper 30s, low 40s, and not particularly dark or gloomy. So I'm pleased.

Adventures in International Travel!

I am returned!

The trip was split down the center awesome and then grueling. I had no security fails, for once (i.e. leaving forgotten corkscrews or Swiss army knives and other sketchy paraphernalia in my carry-on bags), and then there was free WiFi in Logan, so I was able to amuse myself without spending money on perfume or something. Then, to top it off, the flight was extremely under-booked, so I and a number of other passengers had two seats to ourselves. Consider it the one positive thing to come out of terrorism scares. I could actually nap in a semi-horizontal position, and I had twice the number of blankets and pillows to cocoon myself in. It was practically luxurious.

The fog over London was quite dramatic, by the by--pea soup all the way up to 1000 meters. It looked as though we were descending into an alien world; specifically, one made of glowing marshmallows. Quite fun to watch.

Then, second half of the trip was just really, really cold. Firstly though, I knew it was going to be a problem that they didn't properly check my visa at Leeds Bradford in September! I go up to the customs desk and the guy is like, "So wait, you're a first time student at Leeds?" And I have to clarify that technically yes, but I've already been studying there since September, and this is a return trip to finish, and then he gets extremely confused because apparently I was supposed to get my first entry stamped as well as all my returns. So now, every time I re-enter the country I have to bring my visa letter from Leeds with me, because otherwise customs will be all, "Rar! Where is your first stamp??" And I will be all, "It's not my fault don't kick me out of your country!" So yeah, fail, Leeds Bradford Airport. Big fail.

But anyway, after that it was really cold. Not in the New England sense of below freezing, but just that I had to stay in the bus station for a couple of hours because despite visa difficulties I severely overestimated the time it would take me to get through customs, and then the bus I took from London to Leeds did not have adequate heating at all. So I basically was sitting in freezing weather for five or six hours. It wasn't even like there were any hitches in travel plans or anything, it was just really cold for an extended period of time. Oh well.

So now I am off to grab supplies from the convenience store, and then I'm going to settle in with a giant pot of tea and not move until my body temperature has officially returned to its correct degree. Woo travel adventures.