I don't know if anyone still reads this anymore. I realize that I have indeed dropped off the face of the earth.

I am a very bad blogger. I was also incredibly busy this summer, with an internship at my public library.

And now I'm back at my college, for my senior year. It's only two weeks in and already I am swamped.

Posts in the future? Debatable.

No, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth.

Yes, I AM back home. Have been since May 31st but there was a flooded basement (and hence, a flooded room that I normally-when-I'm-not-in-England live in) and there's an internship that I'm doing and another paper I have to write for the internship seminar/workshop/class/thingie that I have to take for my school to credit the internship (can't graduate from Alverno without an internship).

Yes I DID go to Ireland before coming home. Eventually I will link to pictures of Ireland, and of course, of my destroyed basement.

Various reasons and circumstances have made me unable to sleep in my actual bed (well, futon) yet. And it's been slightly over three weeks. Tonight will be the first night in six months and one week that I will be able to sleep in my futon (but not in my actual room because well ... my actual room has gone to my sister who moved back home, and I've taken over my younger brother's room and wow, it's complicated).

My bookshelves also broke, due to the flood and then the careless moving of the bookshelves by people who were not me. Eventually there will also be pictures of my MOUNTAIN (and also cliffs, sort of, next to said mountain) OF BOOKS. No, I don't want to get rid of them.

My birthday is coming up in a few weeks. What I really want is to finally feel like I am at home.

Leaving England was harder than I thought it would be. (My parents were also an hour late picking me up, but that's to be expected with them.)

Sometimes I wish I was still there/had never left.

Pictures!!!

Stonehenge!
Stonehenge 2
London 1
London 2
London 3

The London albums also include pics from Salisbury and Oxford. I just couldn't be arsed enough to separate them.

So I pretty much had the most AMAZING weekend ever. It started with a train to London on Thursday, staying at the Hilton, and going to the Skatalites concert. The girl that I went to London with, Cynthia, used to work for them so we had dinner with them, got into the concert for free, and then they signed a tshirt for me.

Then Friday morning, we woke up at 4:45 am because we were going to STONEHENGE. We paid for a special access tour where we could touch the stones. We arrived at Stonehenge around 8 am, had the tour and stayed inside the stones until 9 am. I stole some pebbles from the ground because I am a REBEL. We also went to Salisbury for a bit after an "English breakfast" and checked out the Cathedral. Very pretty. Then we had a tea with scones and clotted cream.

Friday night? STEVE CARLSON concert. Amazing. Got the new cd, and Cynthia got it autographed for me - she went up to him after the concert and asked, because I was too shy. I recorded a lot of the concert, so I'll put videos up in a bit. Then it was back to the Skatalites - they had another gig that night, and we were invited to the after party. It wasn't the whole band, but it was pretty awesome.

Saturday we went to Oxford with the Skatalites. They had a gig there that evening, and were willing to take Cynthia and I along on the tour bus because we wanted to check out Oxford. We got to Oxford, had lunch at a place called Nandos, and then we had an hour before we had to get to the train station ... Cynthia had another concert to go to, whereas I was going to find my way on the tube to our host for the night, Venusia. We didn't get to see much of the University, but I still liked the town. We got back into London, and I figured out how to take the tube by myself. It was actually pretty easy, though it took about an hour to get to Venusia's. She invited me to go out dancing with some friends but I was so exhausted that I just decided to go to bed early, since it was already 11 p.m.

Sunday we headed to Camden for the market, and I bought some awesome souvenirs for family and for myself. Then we had a picnic in Hyde park, and I booked it over to the British Museum afterwards. I was the only one who wanted to go, so once again I took the tube by myself. I got there just in time to see the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon exhibit which were the things I cared about the most anyway. Did a little shopping in the gift store, then headed back to Hyde park. We had dinner, then Cynthia had to split for a meeting (about a internship, she got it) and Venusia and I met up with some French friends of hers and we went to a pub. I had some Strongbow cider, I liked it very much. I also had a lovely conversation with an older gent about differences between America and England.

Monday was just the Tower of London, resting in a park in SoHo, and then a train ride back to the dorm. Because it was something called 'Bank Holiday' the regular trains weren't going, so instead of taking a direct route from London to Liverpool, we had to take London to Sheffield, Sheffield to Liverpool, and then I took Liverpool to Chester. I got home around 10 pm, exhausted and worn out. And I think I came down with a fever, but I'm taking medicine and drinking plenty of tea for my sore throat.

BEST WEEKEND EVER.

HAPPY MAY!!!

30 days until I'm home. (The countdown doesn't mean that I'm unhappy for coming to England. Sometimes I just like countdowns.)

One day until I'm at Stonehenge, and seeing Steve Carlson.

I am a very happy Monica right now.

Steve Carlson just added new music to his website. I am so incredibly thrilled that I will be seeing him live this Friday, in London. There is a squeal of joy coming from England, and it's ALL ME.

As promised, Chester pictures. See if you can notice a theme or two in them.

More Chester
More Chester 2
More Chester 3
More Chester 4

I get that it's kind of weird to take pictures of a graveyard, but they just seemed so interesting to me. And no, I did not plan on it. I was wandering around a part of town that I've never been in before and just stumbled upon it. I thought it was a park. Anyway I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

And no, I don't have a thing for the river. I don't know what you're talking about. Ssshh.

Also as promised, the new[er] computer:



I'm pretty happy with it. I do wish it had a larger hard drive (only about 40 GB, whereas my old one had 140 or more and I had only used half of it) but eh. I've got an external hard drive and I'm keeping my music on there. I just plug in the hard drive and play the music from there, so it's working out well.

Now to convince myself that yes, I have to finish my internship application, I need to proofread my younger brother's paper, and yes I really should be working on my project instead of reading a Terry Pratchett novel. I know what you're thinking ... he IS a good author, and really no one could blame me if I just read a little bit more.

RIGHT? (Seriously, check him out. Library's exist for a reason, ya know.)

I have a new (used) computer. It's a long story, but it ended up being that the store I was entrusting to fix my computer was planning on receiving a shipment of used Dells and it was either send in my computer for £155 or buy a used (but shiny!) computer for £189. As you can see, this computer is clearly British because I can make a £ sign. My plan is basically that when I get home, I'll send the old computer out to Best Buy because I have a service warranty through them, and it won't cost me to get the computer fixed there.

The whole thing has been an ordeal though, as not only did I have to wait awhile for the new computers to get in (Anyone who's met me for more than a day can tell you that I'm rather impatient), but then there was a read error and I had to take the computer back. The store owner just traded me another Dell that they bought (same kind and everything) but that one had a problem with the fan. I took it back and it seemed like it was fixed in the shop, but when I got back to my room it and turned it on it started making a horrible noise again. So basically what he did was switch the hard drives of the two computers, so that this one doesn't have a read error and the fan works perfectly (so far).

I've decided that I'm a jinx when it comes to electronic gadgets.

I'm in the middle of uploading some more pictures of Chester, I'll post them in a bit when I'm done.

I'm still trying to get used to having a computer that is made for the UK. the " and the @ symbols are switched, and the # sign is also in a different place. It's kinda cool.

I'm going to London and Stonehenge next week. Might also go to Windsor and Oxford. I'm going with the friend who let me stay with her in Liverpool, and we're staying with one of the girls that she hosted during my first stay. May 2nd is going to be a BIG day - We've booked a special tour in which we can actually TOUCH Stonehenge (they don't allow you to go near the stones on a normal basis because people are MORONS and try to flick bits off to take home), and we'll see a bit of Salisbury as well. Then we'll get back to London around 3-4 p.m. and probably hit up the British Museum and then we've got a concert at 8:00 p.m. EEEEE, I'm seeing Steve Carlson :o)

Okay now that the computer thing is settled, I really have to clean my room, iron my laundry, and start doing some more work on my project. Cheers.