Home!

-It's lovely to be home. As much as I love England, and as much as I think I could have taken my vacation there and been alright, I feel so burned-out and apathetic towards academics that I think it's healthy to physically remove myself from the institution for awhile. However, seeing my hometown through the eyes of another person makes me realize that it's a bit...boring, but I've never had a problem with boring.

-I went to an American doctor about my foot, and they seem almost as confused as the English doctors about the problem. The difference was that they were willing to give me an X-ray and MRI (that's happening Friday) to get closer to an answer, so there's that. I still like socialized healthcare, so don't think I'm losing my faith. However, we're back on the idea that it's a stress fracture--frankly, it makes sense, symptom-wise. Whatever it is: IT'S NOT GOUT.

-I have missed the cold so much that I purposely left my jacket in the car today when it was 31 degrees. It even snowed a bit last night, but the real irony is that according to Obama-Weather, it is now just as cold and wintery in Norwich as it is here, and it looks like they might even get some (slushy) snow this week. FIGURES.

-Sometimes I wonder why I dislike flying so much: my flight was easy and uneventful, and it even came in early. I've never had a bad experience with it besides the routine delays and lost baggage, but I think it's just the idea of flying that puts me off: I don't think I fully trust physics to keep the plane in the air, and I get paranoid about technical faults and bad weather. I stress myself out so much about it that I make myself physically sick every time I have to fly (at least, I think that must be the cause of my gastro-intestinal nightmare every time I travel overseas or back), which I'm just coming out of now. I suppose I'm not a stressed-out or paranoid person in general (contrary to popular belief, perhaps), so I guess it's alright to have that one ridiculous thing, but still, I can't just chill out about it.

-There is something wrong with my hair. I don't know if it's the water here, or if it's the fact I'm going back to using my old line of Pantene shampoo or what, but...it's actually behaving. I don't need to straighten it, really, it's almost completely devoid of frizz, and it's not making its usual crazy turns and curls and wiry bits. I'm so suspicious and confused I can barely enjoy it. I also don't trust it to last.

-I got the worst grade I've ever received for anything on an end-of-term project. Granted, I didn't spend a lot of time on the project, and it was for my Dickinson class, so the grade doesn't really matter, but it still makes me feel a bit funny. I hate that no matter how burned-out and apathetic I get, I still feel the need to overachieve deep down somewhere. I hate university and I always have (I like UEA as an institution, for the record, but that doesn't mean I want to be in any institution at all), but I still work very hard most of the time, and when I don't, I still feel guilty and disappointed. I guess my apathy has limits.

-On a related note, I got official word from Dickinson requiring me to complete Humanities 310. I have no idea why this is the case: all they should honestly care about is the money, which they're still getting. Shouldn't they be happy to use the resources on one less kid? Well, I'd still live in my flat and still receive my weekly food stipend, so it's not like I'm totally off the books money-wise, and I understand that they're trying to put academics before money, but in this particular case, completing Humanities 310 HARMS my education overall, since it spreads me too thin and prevents me from putting all of my time and energy into my UEA classes, which are the ones that actually matter now. I wasn't going to be bitter towards Dickinson until now. I think I need to be angry at them for a semester, a semester which will totally bite the big one, and then later I can say that I officially don't harbor any resentment towards Dickinson as an institution, despite all the times they've screwed me over.