Oh man. I ate a prawn (actually, three).

Yeah, I know. I've had this crazy craving for dumplings over the last few days, so I finally wandered down to Chinatown to find some. I went to this place where the minimum charge had to be $10 (well, pounds, but you get it), so I ordered the dumplings and wonton soup. Unbeknownst to dumb old me, the wontons are almost always prawn-filled here. So I blame the hunger, because after I bit into the first one and was like "oh. ewwwwww," I just pretty much chomped the other two wontons down as fast as I could because I was starving.

I am SO exciting.

In other news, I only have one final left, and it's one that I toooooooootally don't care about! Yay! The one today wasn't as frightening as I thought it was going to be initially, but that's probably due in part to the fact that I'd looked over the practice questions (she gave us earlier this semester) *right* before the final, and they were quite similar. Yeehaw.

Surprisingly (ha), I went shopping after the final. And the wontons of unfortunate filling. I have to say, I don't know what crack the designers are smoking this season, but I am so completely over all the damn ruffles and lazy, free-flowing fabrics that are used to make BUBBLE SKIRTS THAT ENHANCE THE ASS that I just can't get over it. I had to go to Gap and buy a nice, structured denim skirt so that I could keep my wits about me. It was some kind of awful, let me tell you.

So that's it until Friday - I'll be reading the little EU Law book and printing out notes in between rounds of laundry and attempts at packing, because we fly to Bratislava on Saturday morning! At 6:20. A.M. That'll be a delight and a half, whee!

Help me help ... me, I guess

So the program officially ends on May 10. That's delightful in and of itself, but I'm not booked to fly back to Chicago until the 25th, and therein lies the problem: just where do I go during that intoxicating chunk of free time???

There are clearly WAY too many options - this is why I like people to make decisions for me. I could go to Scotland with my friend Liz and her other friend, but a) I've been there, and b) it'd be SO nice to go somewhere all hot and nice before going back to ... lovely Milwaukee. Scotland isn't so much with the hot weather, I'm thinking. However, I could do that and then hop down to Barcelona for a few days, since the Scotland trip won't take the entire time. Hmm...

OR, I could just go to Spain for that week, and then spend the last few days exploring London some more before coming home. See, I need my own personal travel agent who tells me where to go and what to do. This is just - gah. Originally I was thinking I could fly to Lisbon and then slowly work my way up to Barcelona, where I'd fly back to London in time to catch my flight home. However, we may be doing a long weekend in Lisbon, and not that I wouldn't want to return, but I'd be more eager to go somewhere I haven't been entirely.

This is much too complicated for my teeny little brain to wrap itself around right now. And yes, I'm aware that this entry is pretty much making me look like the most privileged bitch in the universe, but it won't be that way when I'm driving a Hyundai because I still owe my parents from this ONE TRIP and all you bitches have your lovely Mercedes, BMW, what have you. Heh.

So yes - ideas are welcome! Co-travellers are also welcome, if that's your thing!

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, weatherman. You WIN.

The weather is turning delicious. It really is. I came out of the gym tonight and was bracing myself for the tortuous winds that we've had, but all I was met with was a kind of half-assed "pffffft" of air. It was so great. It's definitely not tropical by any means, but the air has that kind of smell in it that tells you warmth is coming, and it will be fantastic. Even when it is windy now, it's got no bite at all. The interesting thing is how there's absolutely nothing to melt around here, so there's not a real springish smell to the air at all. It's like fall, weirdly, except it doesn't fill me with dread for any upcoming months of dark and snow. It's lovely. Add to that the incense I smelled and it basically threw me back to being little in Tosa and smelling the church incense. And then I remembered what a horrible, horrible person I am and how I haven't set foot in a church to actually worship in years, and that memory kind of took off. Sprinting.

Since I've written a whole paragraph about the weather, you think I'm avoiding studying for this Comparative Constitutions test. You are quite correct. I really have nothing of substance to say at all, sadly.

Seriously?! SERIOUSLY.

So "officially spring" here equals 30-degree temperatures. I totally called that it would be colder than usual, and I was right - coldest March in Britain since 1987. There are flowers coming up, though, and it's supposed to get somewhat warmer this weekend. Thank the sweet lord.

We had our first final today. I'm a bit worried - not that much bullshitting was necessary, and now I'm thinking that I didn't throw in enough analysis where it could have been used, but we shall see. Basically I just need to stop caring and it'll all work out, but that's a difficult proposition when I have another craptacular final on Friday and two next week (one of which will require actual preparation, thought and organization - ew).

I heard from Liz that we may have an apartment for next year. I hate to write about stuff like that because I'm always afraid of jinxing it, but it would just be so great if this all worked out. As I was telling Susan, that means I can have actual, real dinner parties. This is fascinating and somewhat frightening to me at the same time, but I'll be damned if I don't have at least several next year. Um, in between study sessions, of course. Because school is teh best.

But yeah - a big part of being here means that I'm more or less stuck in the dorm-style living situation, which also means that it's more or less the "boil water and pop something in the microwave" culinary school. I know I'm all busy and stuff with law school when I'm at home, but seriously? I keep thinking of better ways to make the risotto that I attempted before we went on our family vacation. That, my friends, is proof that I'm ready to actually attempt something involving time, effort, and a bit of brain power. Unlike several of my classes here.

I did manage to send in my summer registration sheets for MULS, along with the internship/clinical application. Hopefully I'll be all signed up for Law Governing Lawyers and Administrative Law - that is excitement, people. Add in an internship and some menial, coffee-pushing job and it's fun all! Summer! LONG! Woo.

Oooh, the BBC weatherman just said it'll be mild by weekend. If he's wrong, I'm going to kick someone.

I should totally be studying.

So tomorrow begins the fun that is "camping out at the ONE Starbucks that's open until midnight, maybe, and is always totally packed, but I really really REALLY need to get some studying done." I really can't wait.

Also, note to Ronan O'Gara - I want to marry you and have adorable little Irish butterball children. Wow. You are the rugby of my heart. (I don't know what that means either.)

AND, England is now deeply involved in the Commonwealth Games, which are basically Olympics Junior. They're happening in Melbourne this year (it's an every-four-years thing), and again - waaaaaay too excited about their sports here. The broadcast team is pretty much exactly the same as it was for the Olympics, except now we're dealing with summer sports. It's pretty much making me as bitter as possible that it's still cold out, and it should realistically be at least in the 50s and it SO IS NOT RIGHT NOW. Argh.

So yes - first final is on Wednesday, and it's International Human Rights - shouldn't be bad, in reality, since I can write about that stuff for days, but I don't know how organized the whole mess will be, since my brain has not exactly been all nice and orderly as of late. I did, however, get a mad rush to clean my room last night, which was "fun." This reinforces the notion that I am my mother's daughter, though, because I am just so incredibly pleased that everything is all organized and somewhat pretty. It's the little things that help me to avoid studying that really make me the happiest right now, heh.

Mmmm, delicious internet

I think I have to worship our International Commercial Transactions professor - she forwarded a link to an on-demand site that lets us watch the first three rounds of the NCAA tourney for free. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet (especially since two of my teams are already out and it's highly likely that UWM won't make it past the third, if it even wins its second round game).

Other than that, this weekend has been surprisingly lax. I say surprisingly because I really need to get on with the studying; I'm sure I'll do it tomorrow, but I'm definitely trapped in that revving-up period. Ugh. It's also freakishly chilly here right now; even the weatherpeople on BBC have been bitching/"commenting" on it, so at least I know I'm not the only one who's displeased. It's especially bothersome because I'm not sure what I'll have to pack for the grand spring break excursion - I'd love to think I won't need to make room for my coat, but that's just a damn lie. I did, however, buy a brand spanking new backpack so that I look all official as a student tourist; I'm a bit worried that it'll be too small, but if I can compare it with the other girls' bags and reassure myself that it's the same size, I'll be able to deal.

On account of the chilly weather, I let myself get some curry tonight - be proud, Rebekah! That's ... really all I have to say, sadly. I'm fun. It had better be damn warm over spring break in the countries I'm actually visiting, that's all I have to say. Almost spring, my ass.

Prague-tastic!

Ah, the narrative. The story began last Thursday, when I took the Stansted Express out to the airport. I was a bit nervous, as security was packed, but I made it through, milled about, and headed over to the gate. I kept texting back and forth with Jeanyne, who was stuck in traffic but made it about 20 minutes before boarding. Lucky me, the crazy group of Indian guys who were waaaaaaaaaay too into clubbing thought I looked cute and decided to try and get me to agree to go to some club in Prague. Thank God they were on the easyjet flight and not our Czech Air flight, because that would have gotten OLD, damn.

Where was Liz?

It turns out that while being a good student and not skipping her class may have helped her grade, it didn't so much help her make the flight. Her journey on the Stansted Express turned out to be more like a trip on the two-mile-an-hour train to nowhere, and she missed both our flight and the flight from Heathrow that Wynnie, Annette and Justin took. Luckily, she made it the next day, but it definitely sucked that she missed the fun of finding our way around on that first night.

So we got to Prague and immediately tried to figure out how to get to our hotel. In a lovely twist of "not so coolness," the moment that we walked up to the bus ticket booth was the moment the ticket guy decided that it was closing time. We did, however, manage to find the outside ticket machine, where we bought our 20 crown tickets into the city (basically the equivalent of an 80-cent trip to the center of town - awesome). So we made it to the hotel and were happily surprised to find that there actually WERE three beds in the triple room, and they were lovely! We jumped around and acted like dorks for a few hours (it involved me declaring that I felt like I was taking crazy pills (relative to a situation, not in general - though it's not out of the question)), and were eagerly awaiting the latter group's arrival (and, at the time, were hoping that Liz would have caught up with them). Thanks to Prague's proximity to Germany, we caught Law & Order in German, then some Family Guy and Golden Girls. It's always better when you can't really understand the words but you totally know what's happening in the show.

The next morning, we met up with the other three at the buffet breakfast (and by the way, Justin was totally not in the origina plans to come, but the first night I had been thinking "wow, it would be extra fun if he was here, because he has the same idiot sense of humor that we do!" And then I turned around at breakfast and nearly ran into him, and it was one of those really strange moments, but just for me. Heh). Yay buffet; we didn't have to eat until 3 in the afternoon! We walked to the center of town and wandered around Old Town Square and (what we later found out was) the Jewish Quarter, both of which were lovely. We managed to get ahold of Liz, who made it into town by noon, and we all agreed to meet at one of the eight MILLION McDonald's in the center of town. While we were killing time, we managed to make it to H&M, an open-air market that sold oplotky (holy-looking wafers which have hastened my descent into hell, because they're just so fun to play with!), the Church of St. Giles, case the town for absinthe (which, apparently, you can't get the real stuff unless you go to Turkey), make fun of street signs that were FAR too descriptive, and walk by the Parliament House, where I swear to God, Tony Blair was walking out of when we were there. It was quite odd. After, Jeanyne bought a marionette that creeped me out a little, so it's damn good that she didn't decide to prop it up next to me while I was sleeping or something.

*Important to people from TASA - in the tourist shop next to the marionette store, we were examining the touristy paraphernalia they were selling. I was kind of bouncing along to the music, when I realized I knew the words! And they went something like "you're my heart, you're my soul..." At that moment, I knew Prague was the best city ever, because they were TOTALLY playing some badass Modern Talking, and the guys in the store were singing ALONG to the music! I mean, so was I, but it was completely meant to be ironic. They? Loved it. Ah, falsetto music, it was so fabulous! And yes, I felt kind of like an idiot for recognizing it in about .2862 seconds, but what are you gonna do.

So we met Liz and went to a Czech pub/restaurant/microbrewery. The food? Filling as hell, and damn tasty too. I have to say, this was the only vacation I've ever gone on where my stomach hurt after every meal, simply because they were that surprisingly filling. But oh, schnitzel, my love. It was so tasty.

I have to say, besides the main town and its environs, we really didn't do anything spectacularly touristy. Saturday also included more walking around Old Town, but that was after we visited Prague Castle. It was gigantic, and as we were entering, the President was leaving. We have a thing about politicians, I guess.

The tour was nice; it was interesting to see a castle that managed to survive for so long. Of course, the moment we left and started walking across Charles Bridge, the sky opened up in some sort of sleety wonderfulness. Ick. That only made us walk faster to another restaurant that Wynnie had picked out of her "Let's Go," and I have to say, the book did not let us down. We made it out to a bar after that, where we met a Czech guy and his friend, an American who was teaching English in Prague for the semester (or so; his plans sounded kind of vague). They had fun attempting to teach me how to say numbers in Czech (and "three" is SO hard to pronounce. I suck). They hung around for a while, and after they left we were having fun enjoying the Bjork that was on continuous play and just drinking the hideously cheap beer.

We left the bar and immediately noticed that it had snowed about two inches since we'd been in the bar. Thinking that it might snow a lot more, and that I was already kind of drunk, we decided to make the general decision that we would not, unfortunately, be making the trip to Kutna Hora to see the Ossuary (google it, it's pretty cool). Our prediction was correct, though - the next morning, there were at least six inches of powder covering anything, which gave us a fabulous excuse to sleep in and be lazy.

Once we did venture out, the snow seemed to make everything a bit calmer and more peaceful. We met up with everyone at the same McDonalds (I think they knew our faces by the end of the weekend) and hustled over to the Museum of Communism, which was very much worth the entry fee. I only regret that the gift shop didn't have a copy of the poster that was advertising the museum, because I enjoyed it far too much.

The day concluded with some shopping, wandering, and dinner at an Italian-Czech place (yeah, I don't know) that seemed much more authentic and frequented by the locals than the other places had. Of course we couldn't go the whole trip without some crazy, and that was the cue for some weird Australian guy to ask Wynnie, Annette and Justin whether they were Japanese or Korean (answer: none of the above); after basically getting iced out of the conversation, he came back as we were being served our meals to ask Wynnie what state she was from (again, barking up the wrong tree. Good thing she's Canadian); after that, it was his third swing and a miss as he finally found out she's engaged. He tried to get it going with me by asking who else at the table was taken when I was the only other girl sitting there, but Justin became my knight in a shining "I Love the Phillippines" t-shirt when he said that we were engaged. Heh. You probably have to know him and experience the Justin to see why it's so funny, but it totally WAS, and we totally fooled the guy. Awesome.

We made it back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for the early rise tomorrow morning, which we managed to do while watching sumo wrestling. Again, I don't know. We did, magically, somehow all get moving by 5am the next morning, in time for Jeanyne, Liz and I to start praying furiously in our taxi that we wouldn't die. Dude was driving FAST. Of course we survived, made it to the airport, checked in, and sat for a half hour before finding out that the flight was delayed until 8:30. The others were worried about missing class; I was pissed that we could have so clearly slept for at least another hour.

Finally, FINALLY we made it on the plane. The takeoff was ... different, but the flight was generally fine until landing time came. It was one of those moments where I was thinking "I don't know WHY we're still going left to right, but we are. A LOT. And the runway is RIGHT FUCKING THERE." Sooooo, yeah - it was not the best landing ever, but we're here. And Jeanyne made me feel more sane when she was like "yeah, I don't normally get nervous, but that was different." She also informed me that it was a good thing I wasn't looking out the window during takeoff, as we were apparently inches away from the grass. Lovely.

But yes - it was a fantastic trip, lovely weather at the beginning, entertaining weather at the end, and enough cheap beer to keep me happy for a while!

And again with the free beer, oh my

So free alcohol is still bad. I need to remember that.

Still don't have the coherency/awakeness to outline the entire Prague trip, but I'll write about it soon - hopefully before I forget it all. Needless to say, it involved snow and me being a dork, so it's pretty much the same old thing.

Had the weirdest incident in EU law today - a friend and I were laughing at another guy's laptop photo, and the professor asked us if we were okay. We responded yes, and she basically was like "well, I think I'll leave" and just packed the hell up. It may have seriously been the most awkward one minute of my life. Of course she ran to the woman in charge of the program - she seems to have been thinking that we were laughing at her. Way to grow a backbone, wow.

And yes. We have a final group dinner coming up on Thursday night, then the "hiliarity" of St. Patrick's Day will ensue. Maybe. I have to figure out how I'm going to manage to get to Brussels this weekend, as my friend Erin is in Amsterdam and I'm trying to see her (but honestly, it would be SO COOL if she made it here! Yay extra study time!). And oh yes - our finals start next week. I'd tell you to pity me, but I already have my flights in to Bratislava the day after they end and out of Rome on the 12th all booked up. :)

They do enjoy their Bjork in Prague...

... since we heard it in several different clubs/restaurants over the days we were there. There's entirely too tired to write it all up now, but photos should be uploaded shortly, and it was generally a great time. A much more attractive (and attentive) male population than I had guessed was there, so it made me feel like less of a dork than I normally do.

Also, had a near-freak-out-on-the-plane incident when the landing was quite seriously terror-inducing. I felt like I was kind of overreacting until my friend was like "hey, no, I'm not normally nervous, but DAMN." So THAT was fun!

Anyhow, more to write later.

Oh, and Rebekah? Two words: Modern Talking.

Exciiiiiiiiiiiited!

Damnit - I keep forgetting to update my photos. Apologies; I'll get to that soon (I mean, there are like FIVE, but still).

Not much new, but I have my spring break trip semi-planned, and that makes me happy! Liz, Jeanyne and I are flying into Bratislava on April 1 (way too early, too, but you do what you gotta do), and then heading to Budapest. After that, we're kind of flexible, but are planning on hitting Vienna, Zurich, and Venice before I head to Rome on the 9th to run into random people and hopefully some I know, too. The flight out of Rome happens on the 12th, at which point I return here to do laundry and pack like craaazaaay so that I can head to Munich on the 14th with Michael. Fabulously, we're staying in a "luxury" hotel there, and I managed to finagle him a very decent place to stay once we're back in London - I may have to crash there, seeing as how it will completely be better than this place is.

So, yay!!!

Also, it's FINALLY supposed to start getting a bit warmer here - has been windy for the past week, and started raining yesterday, which totally and completely sucks ass. Of course, the warmth is happening right as I'm about to leave for Prague (mmm, Czech ... stuff) and the land of snow and actual winter, but I'm cool with that, because Prague! yay!

As you can tell, I've had some caffeine today. It was in the form of a very unfortunate new kind of diet coke they came out with here - Diet Coke with Cherry. Oh, I know - we've had it for a while. They, unfortunately, have not, and it clearly comes through in the taste. Blech. Not that I won't drink the rest of what I have, because I must not waste the Diet Coke. But still. Eww.

Stonehenge ROCKS! (Oh wow, so lame)

Not a bad weekend so far, but it started off with the best thing EVER on Thursday evening - excellent shoes! (Yeah, not so much with the boots I started off attempting to get. Or the shoes that would be acceptable for work in an office. These would be acceptable for work, but possibly only if I was a cocktail waitress in the Riviera. Or a professional skank with excellent fashion sense.)

I wore those to the Courts of Justice on Friday, where we got to hear some interesting cases. Needless to say, the barrister wigs are a HUGE distraction to those of us sitting behind the barriesters. Also, they need to learn how to pull up their robes - come on, people. The tour lasted for probably far too long, because once we were done we were pretty much itching to get out of there. Luckily, there was a Twinings store across the street where most of us bought entirely too much tea and shortbread.

After that some of us walked (WALKED! in the SHOES!) back to Bloomsbury, where it was our mission to find this Korean place that Wynnie had eaten at before. We wandered around a few wrong streets before we finally made it. What looked to be a sketch Korean grocery store with two options for actual meals for eating (in the basement of the store) turned out to kind of be that, actually; it was really tasty, though. Liz and I went to buy our tickets for the Saturday Stonehenge/Salisbury tour, and I crawled home. Made it to the gym, which proves that I am crazy obsessive, and got home perfectly in time to get a call from Matt, who was looking to kill an hour. We made it to a street packed with Indian restaurants, where we were able to choose just one and I finally had my first Indian meal of food since I've been in London. Not too shabby, I must say!

Today was Salisbury and Stonehenge. I swear that when the alarm went off at 7:30, I almost started crying. Then I started trying to come up with excuses that sounded good so that I could sleep in and not appear to be a complete wuss to my friends.

I did not succeed.

The tour was actually pretty well-organized; we got to Stonehenge when it was still sunny and gorgeous out. And let me tell you, while we couldn't do the Spinal Tap dance around the rocks because nobody really remembered the song, we COULD make fun of the "loser" stones that weren't in the ring of cool stones. I was totally not the only one to come up with and/or enjoy that idea, by the way, so quiet, you. After we took some creative photos and weren't successful in our abilities to jump the barrier and frolic with sheep, we ended up windburnt and frozen.

Then we headed to Salisbury - cute as I remember it, but a hell of a lot more crowded. Also, there was a sketch market, but there was a candy stall there where each and every one of us immediately morphed into a 12-year-old with money burning a hole in his or her pocket. I restrained myself, but it was like gummy-bear-fest 2006, and it was spectacular.

We finally made it back to London and traversed our respective ways through the tube station. I went to buy some DVDs before I went home completely, because I knew I'd be waaaaaaay too tired/resistant to the cold to go outside again once I made it in. And there is where my weekend, as of now, ends.

I totally have to do real work tomorrow, including making some damn Munich hotel reservations and reading an actual case! Who knew! Thankfully I've discovered the ONE Starbucks that's open until 11 in this entire city. Honestly. It's not even the only Starbucks, it's the only coffee shop with those hours. Kill me (or send me chai).

I seriously am amazed every time I remember it's already March

I guess I'm easily entertained, but what else is new, really. There were about twenty stupid random little things that I wanted to write here, but I cannot remember a single one. I am quite acutely aware of the fact that it is ENTIRELY too cold here as of late - it was snowing for a bit yesterday and this afternoon, but it's totally not normal snow. Ohhhhhhh nooooooooo. First of all, it's always at least bright, or partially cloudy, or even sunny out. Today it was sunny with some random clouds carrying their evil guerilla snow. Second, it's like clumpy snow - I was looking at it yesterday and it was pretty much little balls of what us Wisconsinites know as normal, "pretty and not hazardous" flakes. Except in clumps. England weather is weird.

I officially got my Prague ticket, which means I'll have to yet again pull that delicate act of not going over my credit card limit. Really, I'm 24 - you'd think I'd have charged enough shit by now to qualify for the "irrational law student" credit, but I guess not. Which reminds me, I have to ask my parents for yet more grocery money, heh.

DON'T JUDGE. FOOD IS EXPENSIVE HERE.

Aaaaand, not much else. We had to do some dinky reports on aspects of the Canadian Constitution yesterday and today, which is not exactly mind-boggling, but did take some of the tedium out of our normal classes. Too bad tomorrow morning's class is the worst ever dumbhead EU law class that I just really need to end very quickly, like, yesterday. Jesus. That class is giving my Snood skills the most run for their money. At least I got my internship assignment, so that's definitely good! It's with a barrister, which means I have to dress nicely and act grown-up all the time, so this could be very interesting indeed. (And yes, there shall be wigs. Ohhh, the wigs.)

Oh - weirdness of the day included the locker rooms at the gym being switched (meaning that the former male one is now the female one). Compounding my confusion was the fact that I saw a male employee leave the now-female locker room as soon as I got there, and it just kind of snowballed into me staring at the sign on the door for probably a good thirty seconds or so. After the run, of course, I went to shower (as you do), and pretty much had a rage incident going on in my brain when the hot water failed to work for a few minutes. It was almost tantrum time, people.

In totally unrelated conclusion, if anyone randomly knows a store in central/west end London that sells reasonably-priced boots that don't completely suck ass, let me know!!