12.26.2002

Christmas to all . . .
Here's a bit of Christmas trivia for you all: What is the last line in the staple of all Christmas books, The Night Before Christmas? The answer will be at the end of this post.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. Mine was great, very relaxing and some good time spent with the family. Ally's big present was being told that Mom and Dad are taking her to New York City this summer. Mom said that I don't get to go since I'll be in Columbia for the summer. But I figure that it would be a missed occupational opportunity, since NYC is one of the major magazine centers of the world. So I have to figure out a way to convince her that I need to come out for a few days at least. I'm sure that I could pick up a few hours of someone else's shift at whatever job I get and missing one or two classes wouldn't hurt me...right? I think I need to go. It definitely has so much that I want to experience: magazines galore, wonderful dance (one of my ballet teachers danced with Alvin Ailey out there for a while!), amazing theatre (hello, Broadway). NYC is number two on my list of cities I need to visit before I graduate. Number one is Chicago, and I'm going to be able to cross that one off my list in 13 days.

the countdown
13 days! I'll be there for about a day and a half with my friend (and tour guide) Erin Patterson. I'm so excited to get to spend some time in Chicago. I don't know why, but I feel a certain affinity toward the city. While New York is appealing and I'll deffinitely apply for jobs/internships there, I could only see myself there for a little bit. Chicago, though, I feel like I could live there for a while. I really don't know what it would be like living in a big metropolis (while hometown Manhattan, KS bears the name of the Big Apple, that's about where the similarities end) and NY seems more intimidating than Chicago for some reason. I'm excited to live in London for a semester. I look forward to getting accustomed to city life with the safety net of the Missouri-London Program set to help me. Only 15 days until I'm there!

you idiom!
According to my British phrasebook, Shakespeare alone is credited with adding 2000 words to the English language, in addition to hundreds of everyday idioms such as: poisonded chalice, one fell swoop, foul play, in my mind's eye, cold comfort, and cruel to be kind.

. . . and to all a good night!
The Night Before Christmas ends with this line, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!" What happened to "merry"?

12.20.2002

now entering nostalgiaville
So to keep my train of thought somewhat clear at the end of a week that has been lacking much sleep, I'm creating a list of the top ten things I'll miss about Mizzou while being gone. The ten, in no particular order:
*The Artisan, where I spent many a night studying and many a day catching up with friends over coffee.
*Random trips to Shakey's with the FARC guys.
*IM-ing Ashlyn or Becky even though they live right down the hall.
*Going off on the Missourian, guys, faith and many other topics with Pat and/or Sarah
*The Missourian...did I actually say that?! I will most deffinitely miss the people at the Missourian.
*Jack, my Macintosh.
*Randomly running into people all over campus whom I haven't seen in so long.
*Rolling with laughter on the floor of the boys' appartment.
*Charlie, my Honda Accord
*"Friends" in the AX t.v. room.

british phraseology 101
"ta" means "thanks" Didn't know that, did you?

12.18.2002

a few goodbyes . . .
Ooh. That's scary. Monday night I went to Scott's and Rob's for a festive Christmas gathering and when Scott said he was glad I came to the party, I said, "Yeah, me too. This might be the last time I ever see you again." And then I about started to cry when I realized what I said. There are a lot of people who will be gone and graduated after next semester, people that I've known since I stepped onto campus, like Scott and J-Dub. And then there are people that I've just started to know, like Erin and Tim. I mean, I know I'll be back in time to say my real good-byes before graduation, but it's still sad, you know?

a few good meals . . .
I went out to dinner with Jenn, my pledge mom from AX tonight. It was so good to catch up. Jenn, I love being able to sit and have real conversations and know that we're coming from the same place. We have a similar outlook on so many things and I love to be able to share my thoughts with you. You're the best!
Today I had lunch with Ellen, one of my roommies for London. We're going to have a blast! We talked about how hard it's going to be packing only two suitcases for an entire semester and where all in Europe we want to visit. Luxembourg, here we come! The big dilemma we're wondering about is storage. We've heard that the flats are very, very small. Once we get all our stuff there, where are we going to keep it!?!
Last night I had dinner with Andy and Emily. It's always fun to catch up with them. And it was great to help make a wonderful, real, home-cooked meal...one that's not prepared for 30-40 other girls.

a few good men . . .
No. I only wish :)

and the packing begins
Emily (roommate Em) left last night, and I'm all lonely in this big empty room. I helped her pack up last night. So now I'm in the packing mood and I've decided to try my hand to packing light. The goal is to pack everything that I have in my room here in CoMo as if I were leaving for London. Ha. Megan (and the other four) are letting me store some stuff at their house since I'll be subleasing there this summer, so I won't take that home with me. It's so nice of them. But two suitcases?!?! A whole semester in two suitcases?!?! I'll keep you updated about how I survive. ;)

an excerpt from the wise british phrasebook
It's always acceptable to open a conversation - even with a stranger - about the weather. The main thing is to complain that it's too hot or cold or wet or whatever. When confronted with an incontestably beautiful day, the correct phraseology is, "Lovely day, isn't it? Can't last though."

12.14.2002

british slang
All of these words mean "a snack" in Great Britain:
baggings, bait, beaver, bite, biting-on, clocking, crib, crust, dew-bit, docky, dowen, drum-up, forenoon-drinking, jower, lowance, minning-on, nammet, nammick, nummet, nunch(eon), progger, snap, snapping, tenner, tenses, tommy.
Who knew that you were going to learn so much from my blog!?!
everso studious . . .
My first final was today at 10:30 . . . I started studying for last night at 2 in the morning. I hadn't really been out since Thanksgiving and Patrick Rollins was having a Christmas party, so I had to go. The plan was to be in bed by midnight and get up at 6:30 to start studying. I ran into Laine when I was out and so that got me thinking about London. I deffinitely got back to the house at 1 a.m. When I got home, I just couldn't stop thinking: London, my big final design project that is looming over my head, this test I was going to have to get up and study for in four hours. My mind wouldn't shut up. So I studied. The test was a cinch. One down, two to go.

presently at a stand still
I've been working on my design project at this computer for the past 4 hours and my creative juices have been drained. Last night at 2 in the morning, every layout idea that came into my head seemed brilliant and now it just looks like crap. Actually, I take that back. I have one layout that I really like right now. It's funny how I came up with an idea that I thought was so great, slaved away on it for two hours and just couldn't make it really work. Then something hits me and I complete a totally different layout which I love in less than 20 minutes.

ahhh . . . the reunions
I'm trying to get together with everyone I can this next week because I know that I won't see anyone for a whole semester. Here I've been a social recluse for a while and now all of a sudden I have nearly every meal marked in my planner and coffee dates just about every day. There are so many people that I haven't seen all semester and I don't want to leave the country without saying good-bye. So, who's up for a Shakey's run say, Wednesday night?

12.12.2002

"you can solve your problem if you exert yourself"
The "fortune" under my Jones soda bottle cap from the Artisan earlier this week. I exerted myself for this big Buddhism research paper and that problem is sovled. Yes! Score one more for me. And yet the "Erica's Mega To-Do List" that towers above my desk is still incredibly daunting. I just don't feel like exerting myself anymore. Especially when so many people at the house are celebrating the end of classes. uggh . . .

british phrase of the day
If you tease or humiliate someone in the UK, you "take the Mickey out of them."

12.11.2002

i feel like a technological wizard.
Blogging=cool. Much thanks goes out to Dan who helped me figure out the commenting feature and how to add links on the side of my blog. I think I'm figuring out the quirks here, bit by bit. Who knows, maybe after getting infected by the tech bug, I'll get so inspired and finally set up my own website. Ooh...now that's getting a little crazy.

the countdown
30 days. In one month, my physical body will be in London. Crazy. My mind is there right now . . . as you can tell by the procrastination I am currently exhibiting. My roommate and I exchanged Christmas gifts last night. She got me a British phrasebook. It's so cool. Since we're both giong to London next semester, we've been amusing ourselves trying to talk like a Brit. Watch out...I'll be able to speak fluent English here pretty soon. Did you know that to "chat up" someone is to hit on them? I'll be chatting up ol' Prince William . . . just wait for that post! Alright, enough. Onward productiveness now!

12.06.2002

confused
This whole blogging thing is foreign to me and you know, I have no clue if the whole thing that I just wrote is actually going to be posted. It's not there right now . . .
hmmmm . . . maybe it takes a while . . .
I have succumbed to the peer pressure (sorry Mom) and have set up my very own blog. We'll see how this works. The main purpose of this website is so that I can easily communicate with my dearest friends, family, and complete strangers while I am across a little pond known as the Atlantic Ocean. To tell you the truth though, I admit that I will be keeping this site a bit secret for a while...simply so I can work out kinks and make this thing presentable.

I guess I should explain some of the phrases I've used here. First, the website should read "eversoE.blogspot" but I'm not sure if the E will appear capitalized or not. That is in tribute to the wonderful Ryan McAdoo, who everso appropriately dubbed me Easy E back in high school. "Everso easy, everso E," he used to say. Thanks, Smacadoo.

Second, the title of my blog holds a reference to Harry Potter . . . of course. How could I have a blog about London and not have a reference to my favorite Brit? The Leaky Cauldron is a pub in London, accessible only to magic folk. It has a way of being hidden to Muggles. So, pick up a pint of butterbeer here and read what's going on in the UK.

And third, about Kansas . . . I am obviously going to be quite far away from the Little Apple. :)

That's about it for now I guess. We'll see how well this blog thing works.