Reading Week Over!

Back to classes I'm sad to say. Bad attitude but its come to this.

I did hand in my assignment, on time, and complete which has lifted a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Even though it wasn't worth ANYTHING I went out of my way and that lecturer should be darn pleased. I can't believe I wrote an assignment about Bulimia... that's so random for my degree - though having said that I can now talk about my therapy class! Random things always happen...

Everyone was actually on time today. Mind boggling believe me. The Brits are not the most punctual people - well the student part of this group certainly aren't. We all filed into class and started talking about the next piece of assessment. We have to do a seminar, in pairs, to the rest of class and I'm doing - guess what? - BULIMIA. YAY. The fun never ends. We lit our little candle and did some various exercises so the lecturer could demonstrate what you might do were you dealing with less able bodied people or people with schizophrenia and so on. The first group got up and then they all blew up balloons! Now if you didn't know - and I can't believe I'm telling the world this - but I'm quite afraid of balloons. It's a really stupid fear and I can't help it but yeah, I really really REALLY dislike balloons. After the exercise was over (I had my fingers in my ears the entire time) the lecturer asked what everyone thought. Whilst this was going on there were balloons bouncing around me, being jiggles by every group member and I thought I might scream so I opened up and said "Okay it was kind of difficult for me because I really hate balloons. They freak me right out". And, typically, I got a bit teary about it. Everyone quickly put the balloons away and I instantly felt like the biggest loser and weirdo on the earth. Why, oh, why must the British keep finding out about my stupid ways? Oh dear I'm doomed to a life of lameness regardless of my global positioning.

After this I was in a group and we had a big map of the world on the floor (imagined) and we had to stand where we felt home was. So whilst everyone was on the other side of the room in "England" I was on the other side in "Australia". Very lonely. It was nice though because the lecturer then asked us to move to somewhere we would really like to go and a lot of the girls came over to Australia. Meanwhile, I bolted to China. Tee hee. We then made a freezeframe of ourselves as, like, clothes people with coats draped over ourselves and then it was the end of the session. You don't need details - trust me I am as confused as you are. Because we were ending the session the Guardian of the Candle had to decide how to blow it out. Now I don't know if if shared with you the hilarious sarcasm Tamsin and I have for this ritual but we often make up different hilarious ways of "putting out the candle". One is "I would like to put the candle out by drop-kicking it into your face". And so on. Naturally, as the "ceremony" is going on Tamsin and I are stifling giggles. It's all good fun!

That day was Pancake Day on campus. The weird thing is on Pancake Day they serve pancakes at two hour intervals throughout the day - but not at breakfast. They just don't do pancakes as a breakfast - it's a dessert - weird. So for dessert I had pancakes which I asked for with maple syrup but got berries instead. I guess people here think "maple syrup" sounds like "berries". They're not pancakes either - they're crepes.

Now onto Wednesday - Yay! Miranda and I went into Staines today to do some shopping and so I could pick up some mail. I need to take a breath because the debacle of me getting my package is long and very frustrating. So mum sent me my snow jacket to wear while I'm here - two weeks ago (typical it's warming up). I was getting concerned as everyday I checked the mail I got more and more confused. Finally on Monday I got a slip from Staines Royal Mail saying that for some unknown reason I had to go to this mysterious post office and pay 14.71 to get my package! It said there was a customs reason - who knows what this means. So I go all the way to Staines thinking, you know it's the main mail delivery area it'll be on the high street. Into the post office on High Street I go and, no, that's NOT where my parcel is. The lady blinks at me and says "you have to pay this money" and I go "okay sure but why?". Blink blink. "Umm you pay. See?" pointing at the slip. Then another useless employee comes out and says "you see, you need to pay this money to get the package". Great. "Is my package here?" I ask. "No. It's at this address". Which is the address of this main post office which is NOT on the main street - once again WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. Somehow remaining calm I ask "Do you know how I can get to this address?" "No." I turn to Blinky "Do you?" "No." The first one then interjects with "we don't know where it is because we are not from here we are from London" Like that's an excuse. That's when Miranda comes in with "well I'm from America!". Take that stupid folk! That was then the REALLY WEIRD thing happened. The boy in line behind me cut in with "it's just down the road near Sainsbury's. I have my car. I can drive you there if you want". Having had the messages of "Stranger Danger" drilled into me as a child we laughingly declined. Taking my slip and shuffling out Miranda and I were joking that they didn't then say "you know it's blue?" (You would get that reference if you were an avid Phoebe blog reader which I hope you all are!) Grumble grumble. To cut a long long long long long long story short after asking about seven different people where this office was - many not knowing, many not even living in the area - Does anyone in Staines LIVE in Staines? Apart from Ali G of course. Many eons later Miranda and I FOUND THE STREET THAT IT WAS ON! Looking at the photo you can tell I was so happy. I got my package after paying the money - I was just so glad I had it - we walked all the way back to the high street. You're probably wondering why I had to pay that money. Well at least this man was very nice and explained to me why it was very confusing and I was very tired but the gist is that because Mum wrote that she declared the package Britain then figured they'd better do something with it - mostly charge me. So 6 pounds was for that and the other, like, 8 pounds was so that lovely considerate mail land would keep it in Staines and not make me go to London to get it. Once more everybody together now "WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!"

Phoebe now had her coat. Phoebe is happy. Phoebe has gone made because of the coat journey and is now referring to herself in the third person.

Went back to uni and met up with my group for the seminar presentation we have to give tomorrow. All this work and effort it's clear that reading week is over.

But who cares because I'm going to Glasgow tomorrow! Which means - my blogs will be more interesting then! Yay!