Interesting Stories from Various Locations

Monday, September 27, 2010

Ups and Downs and Unfinished Laundry

This morning I went out with the intent to buy laundry detergent, milk, and something for a newly acquired wart on the bottom of my foot.  I managed to buy the wart remover and the laundry detergent, but the mini market didn't have the kind of milk I like.  I saw Oscar on my way to the mini market this morning.  He was late to class so he couldn't stop to talk for long.

My clothes were not even halfway through the drying cycle when I realized that I wouldn't have enough time to completely dry them, put them back to my room, and make it to class on the faraway Harrow campus.  So I stopped mid-cycle and they were damp but it wasn't too bad I guess.  Once in my room, I hung up my sweaters and flung the tee shirts on any free and flat surface I could find.  I hoped they would dry in time.

I balk at the price of laundry here, but mostly because you have to pay to dry your clothes.  This might just take some getting used to because drying is free in Madison. 

Anyway, I do manage to make it to class on time even with getting lost within Harrow finding the correct lecture theater.  As it turns out, I was an hour early.  Thus making my laundry rush and damp clothes around my room futile. 

The good news is, I met new people at class.  Chloe is from California and quite a few of her friends are in my hall.  She'll probably come visit me when she visits them.  She's studying graphic design and staying the entire year.  Devon is from Texas and she lives in Marlyeborn hall and majors in film.  Vicky is from South Hampton in the UK and she's a TV/Film Production major, second-year.  She has an apartment with her boyfriend.  Another thing about Vicky, she loves Americans.  She was in the class that got out before my class.  Chloe and I went up to double-check something with the professor there ("Does the next class really start at 4p?"  "Yes, it does.")  and Vicky must have heard our accents because she lingered behind and started talking to us right away.  Devon sort of drifted in while we were talking with the previous class's professor.  And that's how I met the group from Harrow.

We ate a small lunch before the next class and talked about boys and where we're from and all that.  Then we went to class where we sat through This Is What The Class Entails and then What Makes A Story before watching the movie Breaking Away from the 1970's.  It was a good movie, I liked it at least.  And then the four of us went to the Students' Union bar on the Harrow campus.  Vicky and I played some pool and I only had one drink.  Devon and I went home around 9p because we both had class in the morning.  Well, our own reasons, really.  She wasn't feeling very well and the Guiness didn't help.  As for me, I wanted to get home to check my laundry, check my wart, talk with Mom and Smoky, update the blog, maybe hang out with someone else or two. Return to my comfort zone, basically, and still get to bed at a reasonable hour because I have a class at 10a the next day.

I am not a party girl.  I should throw that out there.  I know I hail from UW-Madison: the capitol party town of the world, and I know I should be experienced in this kind of thing, but I'm not.  Getting piss drunk and puking all over the place does not sound fun at all.  However, I will make an effort to be more outgoing towards strangers. 

So I get home and I check my laundry and what do I find?  Damp clothes.

Something in me thought "Screw it, I'll pay the damn pound again."  So I gathered up the clothes, marched downstairs, threw them in the open dryer, and marched back up again.  I say 'marched' lightly here because it's not like you can throw a tantrum in a lift and get away with it.

At the moment I'm hating that my clothes weren't dry, that I don't have a cuddle buddy, that going out isn't exactly in my comfort zone, that I rushed to the tube for nothing, and, I hate to say it, that I'm not in Madison where people actually LIVE where I live and where I can sit in silence with someone else in the room.  Not so much on that last bit, but more along the lines of the first three.  Also, my watch battery is still dying.  It's so annoying.

I also have a wart on my foot that's slowly going away with the help of duct tape and not much else.  Which means that that 6 quid wart remover stuff was for nothing and I don't even know if they believe in returning stuff here.  I don't think I even got a receipt for it either -- I paid in cash.

Things will get better.  They have to, right?  I mean, today was mostly a good day.  It's just that the one bad thing that happened now has me in tears.  I have only been here a week and it does feel like a lot longer.  And the first few weeks are supposedly the roughest.  There are ups and there are downs, but I'm focused on the downs because that's my current focus as I blog.

Things'll get better.  I know they will.  It just takes some time to adjust to everything.

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