Back to school

Wow.

This week is flying by.

I arrived back in the UK on Monday and it is already Friday. Wow. Here's the rundown of what happened this week:

Monday: Arrived at Heathrow at about 9:00 a.m. It was FIFTY DEGREES WARMER than at home. I was sweating. Felt sick as hell, wondered how I was going to make it to the bus. I did, though. After a plane, a bus and then a taxi, I was back in the college by about 11:30. I lugged all my heavy-@$$ stuff to my room, took a nap, did a bit of shopping and came back and slept more. A very bad way to get over jet lag, but what the hell.

Tuesday: Woke up with every intention of going to 2 lectures and 2 seminars. I ended up making it to exactly 0 of those lectures and 1 of those seminars - the literary theory one. (Well, to be fair, the 5-7 Spanish research seminar was cancelled, so that doesn't count.) Jenni and I went to dinner at Pizza Express, which was fun.

Wednesday: Met with Colin, corrected papers. Ended the day with a horrible headache.

Thursday: Sure as hell didn't make it to the 9 a.m. lecture. Made it to the 10 a.m. (Intertextuality in Golden Age Spain) and noon (more Literary Theory) lectures, though. Enjoyed lunch in the Covered Market - the usual pasty and tea. Very nice. Came home, tried to photocopy my special subject papers in the library, but the copier kept eating the pages, so I rushed to the local copy shop and got copies made just in time. Whew. Finished grading all those #$$*%$&@ quizzes and calculated grades.

Today: Delivered my special subject papers to the Modern Language office. Paid my accommodation bill and ordered more dinner points. Bought a wrap to wear to tonight's guest dinner. Submitted my grades. Ate lunch in my room, took a nap, went to guest dinner. Left a bit early, came back to my room to relax and now enjoy the weekend.

Did I mention that I got a new camera for Christmas? It is awesome. It takes wonderful clear photos! I will post them soon, after I charge the battery.

Going to watch a movie now then get to bed. G'night!
Kaitlin

Damn.

Eye masks are my new favorite.

Every time I fly on Virgin Atlantic I get this cool amenity pack with stuff like pens, earplugs, toothbrush, socks, eye mask, etc. The first two times I left it on the plane, but this time I took it with me (no socks with this one, unfortunately). I've never used an eye mask for sleeping before, but I did this past time on the plane, and it was unbelievable. I've never slept so well in my life. I took it to the college and used it for my jetlag catching-up nap, and I slept amazingly.

Last night I went to bed, thinking about how well I was going to sleep, when it happened:

the eye mask broke.

The strap just snapped off.

Damn damn damn damn damn.

I guess I'll have to buy another one when I go out...or go on another Virgin Atlantic flight...

Blog plugging

I'm back in the UK. Details to follow later today.

But I couldn't go any longer without plugging a new blog: Brilliant Busted Thoughts. This blog belongs to Elizabeth, who is a Spanish and Chemistry major at the University of Hartford and a very good friend of mine. Check out her blog and let her know what you think about her poetry.

This one is my personal favorite.

Enjoy!

Hello out there!

Greetings and salutations!

It's National De-Lurking Week, so if you've been lurking around my blog for a while, why not come out of the shadows and say hello? I promise to do the same, and to try to catch up with the people who have linked to my blog but I have neglected to link back yet.

Looking forward to hearing from you, especially since Oxford-related posts will be coming back soon...
Cheers,
Kaitlin

Meet the Parents...and the Siblings too

I talk about 'em all the time, but I wanted to take a minute to introduce y'all (especially the Oxford folks) to mi familia. This is the first family portrait we've had in many years, and we took it in our new Christmas sleigh. We have, from left to right:

*Kevin, age 17
*Travis, age 16 (friend of Kevin's who lives with us)
*Kelly, age 24
*Maggie, age 11 (will be 12 in 4 days)
*Jim, better known as "Dad"
*Kathy, better known as "Mom"
*Yours truly, age 25
*and Preston James (P.J.), age 12, sitting in the front.

If I tried to tell you something about each person, I'd be here all night. So I guess I will save that for future posts. Friday Family Blogging, anyone?

Tomorrow is day 1 of teaching. Wish me luck!
Kaitlin

P.S. - Click on the photo to view full-size!