Accidental Politician

So I somehow managed to accidently get myself involved in archaeology department politics. THIS is what happens when you volunteer to help out! I decided to run for a position within the department, thinking that no one else would want the job. That, of course, turned out to be the case with every other position except for the one I volunteered for. So now there is an election, which I just extremely dislike being a part of. I don't think I have ever participated in an election before, and now I remember why. It just feels all fake and phony, and rationally speaking, I couldn't care less who wins. Deep down, however, I am a bit too competitive to say I truly don't care...

A Great Day

Today Colby came to visit and I had a great time showing her around. She is always a blast to be around and it was so good to see her again! We decided to be uber-tourists, and so we did the traditional Cambridge routine of King's Chapel, lunch at the Eagle, window-shopping in the market, punting along the Cam and warming up afterwards in a coffee shop. It was a great day.

Plus, my first new credit card came today! Yay! This is such a relief, as I literally had no food left. I can put off buying most things, but food? Not so much.

Above all, I think this whole experience has been life's little way of reminding me to be thankful of what I have. It becomes all together too easy to not realize how much you value something until it is gone. I lost my money and security for two weeks, and that is not an experience I ever care to repeat! However, it also served as a reminder of how blessed I am with family and friends. Their offerings of support were very touching, and I don't know what I would have done without them!

Now I am off to dinner at the college and to go see Harry Potter! Yay!

PICTURES!!

I know I am terribly delayed in making these available for you all to see- Sorry! It turns out that this blog site is not very mac-compatible, and so I have had to use another site to upload pics. Please go to the following site, and click on View More Pics.

http://www.myspace.com/lauraatcambridge

There you can see where I am living, photos of the city, my halloween costume, where I have gone, etc.

I do what I can to help you all kill time :)

Colby is Coming to Visit!

yup. My first visitor!

Too Cold to Beg on the Streets!

The weather over the past few days has turned absolutely frigid, promting me to ask myself, where is England in relation to the Arctc Circle again? Is it possible that plate techtonics have shifted the landmass north and it is only a matter of time before we collide with Greenland? This is the kind of cold where people (and by this I mean me) hunker down inside and refuse to go outdoors. This is a good strategy for me at this point because I have an insane amount of reading to do. However, weather this cold also makes me want to burrow under the covers and take a nap. Guess which activity has largely won out over the past few days. Yup. Thats right. If I wasn't positively certain that no tsetse fly could possibly survive this climate I would begin to wonder if I had developed African Sleeping Sickness.

I am flying home to NJ on December 7th - yay! I talked to my sister for the first time last night since her surgery. She is out of the hospital now and slowly getting better. It looks like she will definitely be home until after the Christmas Break.

I still have no credit cards or ATM cards, meaning that I am living a truly penniless existence at this point. I have ordered new cards and all, but mail takes a while to get here from the states. Last night I got down to my last pound, literally. Today, thankfully, a card arrived from my dad with money in it. I went to exchange the money and was reminded how truly pathetic the exchange rate is right now. $40 became 20 pounds, which nontheless spends like $20 here. Everything costs in pounds what it should cost in dollars. Needless to say, I am waiting until I get home to do my Christmas shopping.

I really hope the guy who stole my wallet gets run down by a pyscho-bicyclist, which is not an altogether improbable fantasy in this town.

Reality Check

Somehow, once again, life has a way of reminding me of what is really important. I spent the day stressing about a stolen wallet, and a few minutes ago I found out that my sister had to have emergency surgery today. I feel so helpless and removed from what is happening, not to mention completely blindsided by the news.

My mom just called to tell me what had happened, even though she didn't even really know. She and Lou were on vacation in New Hampshire, and apparently my sister got really sick and had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Mom and Lou got the news at 1:00 this morning, and left New Hampshire to drive down to Maryland a few hours later. They were still on the road when I talked to them, having driven straight through eight states at that point. They truly truly are jixed.

So, anyway, I don't know much more than that she apparently had some kind of stomach injury or ulcer. I can't imagine what this all must be like for her. I know she was terrified, and I hate the thought of such fear and pain. My mom told me that her sorority sisters have formed a rotating schedule to be with her, so she has not been alone at all. This is very comforting, and I am thankful that she has good friends to be there when family can not.

Thats all the news for now. If bad news comes in threes than I am bracing myself for whatever comes next.

Day After Regrets

About what I was saying yesterday about appreciating the little things... how many of you all said to yourselves today, "geez, I sure am thankful I have a wallet and money and identification"? Yeah, I don't say that on a daily basis either. But after today, maybe I will.

Sometime between last night at around 7pm and this morning at about 7am I lost my wallet. I don't know if it was lost or stolen, but the last time I saw it I was in a slightly shady pub. I went there with some friends after class (including an adorable Classics PhD student who I had just met, which might explain why I was not as attentive to my surroundings as I should have been) I don't see how the wallet could have accidently fallen out of my bag, but who knows at this point. Anyways, without my wallet I have no money, no credit cards, no identification, all of the essentials necessary for modern existence.

Thankfully, I had a small amount of money squirreled away in my room, thanks to the small bills my dad sometimes sticks in the cards he sends me. I was saving the money for a nice dinner when he comes to visit, but now it will have to be what I live on for the next week or so! I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have that extra money!

So today I called all of my credit card companies and cancelled my cards. In addition to learning how not-fun this all is, I learned that the people that work for credit card customer service lines are hilarious! One woman had a super thick inner-city accent and asked me how to spell "University". Another guy was the slowest talker I have ever heard before, who also had a surprisingly comprehensive plan for what he thought should be done with people who steal wallets. I was like, this call is costing me 15 cents a minute, can we hurry up here?

So here is a lesson for all you kids out there: when in Britain do not go into a dodgy pub with a cute guy you just met. And be nice to customer-service telephone operators, god only knows what it is like to be them!

Settling Into Normality

Hey everyone, sorry for not being more reliable with this whole blog-writing thing. My life has settled into something resembling normality, and so I don't always think to write. Back when I first got here everything was new and exciting, and this blog was a way of sharing what I was experiencing with you all, the people I care about. I am still enjoying being here a lot, but I need to work on maintaining that excitement and appreciation for every moment I have here. So perhaps this blog can help in that respect.

To catch you all up on my PhD indecision... I decided. And my decision is to apply for all the scholarships and fellowships I can, and if one of them works out, then I will stay. If none of the fellowships come through, then I will interpret that as a big ole sign from God to get a friggin job!

So, this past weekend I sat down in front of my laptop and worked on writing the necessary personal statement summing up my entire life and future ambitions in 2 pages or less. I look at these essays as the written equivalent to really foul tasting medicine: not so fun going down, but beneficial in the end. Anyone who has even a small sampling of the application experience knows what I am talking about. Each time I go through this, I swear it will be the last time.