June 2009

Well, about June. On the 4th I took the dreaded exam that I had been studying for over the last two months. I needed a 50% to pass, so on each question, I simply looked at the requirements and thought, "Can I get 50% of these points?". I haven't had the results yet as they said it would take 10 weeks to get them back, but if I pass it will be a close one. Suffice it to say that working full time and studying in all the other hours is not the easiest thing in the world, so we'll see. Either way, I couldn't have been happier when that test was finished! I felt free to only have work to worry about.

Also in June my flatmate and I, the girl who I had been getting along quite well with, had a major falling out. Basically she was quite rude about my friends from KC who were visiting, and my boyfriend. I haven't spoken to her since. I think what it all boils down to is that she doesn't like to have anyone in the flat other than the three who are paying to live there, and she refuses to talk to me about it until she blows up and makes a mess of everything (these are things our other flatmate, Andrea, had to tell me b/c she wouldn't). I had even given her a wide open chance to say something, when she and I went to a pub one night during the time when we still liked each other, and whilst there I asked if there was something bothering her about James (b/c she had always been a bit of a bitch to him). She just blew the whole thing off and kept telling me it was just bad timing when she was around him. Anyway the way she treated him made me feel like I had to choose between the two of them, and seeing as how I had only known her a whole two months longer and she was turning out to be quite a different person than I had thought, it was him. She treated my friends that came to visit the same way that she did James, just shutting herself in her room and refusing to make an effort. The whole thing culminated in a text message that was addressed to Andrea and mysteriously came to my phone instead. She was downright rude and calling my friends names and being equally nasty about James. She tried to apologise in another text, but it was completely qualified and just made excuses for herself. So that was that, and it is rather uncomfortable in my flat now. Andrea has tried to get us all together for a chat, but it just hasn't happened. We'll see where it all goes.

So that was a bad bit about June, but it was really a spectacular month b/c my grandma came to visit (the same one who was with me the first two weeks after moving) with a friend of hers! They were in Europe for a total of two weeks and did London, Ireland, and Paris. While they were in London we went to a church down the road from me which is a proper Church of England denomination (think catholic), but afterward they had a little picnic and it ended up being so fun! I met loads of people from my neighborhood, and there was so much good food and wine. The only downside was that most of the people were quite a bit older than me. I went back to the church though a couple of Sundays later and didn't see any of the people that I had met, so it was a bit disappointing. I also decided that the service was much too formal for my taste, having grown up in much more laid-back churches. So the search for a good church continues. During grandma's visit I took off a Friday and Monday and went to meet them in Paris for a long girls weekend. It was fantastic but fairly tiring, as I was the one who had been to Paris before I was kind of responsible for getting us around the city, and kind of planning a lot of the trip. But it was still great fun and nice to get away from work for a few days. While in London they of course met James for the first time, and grandma really liked him! She kept asking what he was doing everyday, and if he could come meet us.

One weekend in June when grandma wasn't here, James took me to Greenwich to meet up with some of his good friends. Greenwich is kind of a suburb of London, accessible on the tube but fairly far out. It's right on the river though so quite nice. And also the place where the Greenwich meridian is, although we didn't go to see it. There is a Saturday market there which has loads of good food and about anything else you could want. It was father's day and one of my brother's birthdays at the end of June, so I got a few cool London-y t-shirts for my brother and a puzzle of the Thames river for dad. Apparently my brother loves the shirts, he always asks my mom if she's done the laundry when they're dirty so that he can have them back to wear - result! Before the market we met one of James's friends for a curry buffet, and ate entirely too much. But we didn't stop there - we then made our way to a milkshake shop before heading to the market. After the market we went to Greenwich park and just hung out for a few hours in the rare British sunshine. It was sooo relaxing - I even fell asleep on James's lap for a while! We then headed to a pub, and then another all-you-can-eat buffet, this time Chinese, for another friend's birthday. I think I ate about a week's worth of calories in that one day... We went dancing for a bit to finish off the day, so kind of made up for it, right?

Hmm think that's about it for June, nearly caught up now! Oh also, the reason that I haven't been giving more "translations" is b/c I think I've done them all...I can't decide whether I've done them all or that I'm becoming so acclimatised to the British way of speaking that I can't think of the differences anymore! Need a holiday in America! :)

Cheers, miss you all everyday,
Heather xoxo