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I am staying at Les and Annette's gorgeous two story house. It's all dark wood, and glass... very classy. Mum and Erin arrive from the States, and go upstairs with Les and Annette, and they give Erin a day long roller skating lesson. While they are all upstairs, they have me house-sit their puppy, Sassy. I go upstairs to my bedroom to go to the bathroom, but when I enter my room, Mike and Sean are there, going through my jewelry. They keep picking up necklaces and holding them against my throat. You guys were apparently looking for the 'best' necklace. I go back downstairs and sit on the front porch with Sassy. A while later, I hear the upstairs door open, and Les, Annette, Mum, and Erin all come back downstairs and everyone is excited because now Erin knows how to roller skate. Les starts to make dinner, and Mum goes to help him.
Fast forward to next scene. The house is the same, but now it is owned by Ron's mum, Margaret. There is no sign of Mum, Annette, Les, or Erin, but Margaret still has Sassy. I have just arrived at the house from overseas, but for whatever reason, I'm not allowed to stay in the house. There is a tool shed like thing out back, and that is where I put my bags and papers and stuff. I house sit again, while Margaret is upstairs. She is gone for the whole day, and then it becomes night. I go out to the shed to get some homework and bring it back to the house, and while I'm gone, I leave the back door open. I'm only gone a couple minutes, but while I'm gone, 4 feral cats get into the house. Sassy starts to bark ridiculously, and that triggers the return of Margaret. She comes down the stairs, and Sassy is still barking, and we scare the cats back outside. She starts screaming at me, cause apparently, the cats come in with a really stinky armadillo/skunk like thing, and now it's in the house, and if it sprays the house will be ruined. Enter a man I assume is Margaret's husband. He goes to the kitchen and finds the creature in the cupboard, and turns to Margaret and I, standing in the doorway. He tells us that yes, there is a creature, yes, it already sprayed, and it's also the worst smelling kind. Margaret is livid. She screams at me, asks me how I'm going to fix this, how much money do I have, how am I going to make reparation? She tells me to get out. Margaret's husband gets me a bag, and tells me to pack whatever can fit in the bag. I go to my shed, and pack my homework, some blankets, and some food. The husband comes outside and hands me a passport and a map. I put them on the top of the bag. I leave the house via a field out back, and start walking along the side of the shed. A little 12 year old girl, who looks kind of like Natalie Portman, comes running out of the bush wearing a red dress. She looks at me, then runs away again. I follow her.
Hand over hand. Watching your feet. Tight shirt. Numb toes. White flakes floating all around, settling in your hair, in your eyelashes, down your throat. Going higher, getting farther away from everything. A moment's irritation, aimed at the rope between you and the wall. Sweaty palms, slick hands. Your breath starts to hitch. Your muscles start to tighten and cramp at inopportune moments. Your foot slips and your rhythm goes. Catch yourself. Your body screams. Hair in your face. Look up. How far? A moment, to regain desire, edge, drive.
Go.
Wow. Two days into classes, and I'm ready for a weekend. In a nutshell:
9 am - Brain, Behaviour, and Evolution
9 am - General Relativity and Cosmology
9 am - Other Worlds
10 am - Barbarian Europe and Byzantium
10-12 - Ecology and Evolution
11 am - Microbiology
11 am - Ciceronian Rome
1 pm - Archaeology and Society
1 pm - Other Worlds Practical
2-6 - Molecular Biotechnology
2 pm - Advanced Astronomy
4-6 - Arabic II
6-9 - Ancient Egyptian Religion
This was my schedule for today (Tuesday). Monday was just as bad, but subjects were things like Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, International Trade and Finance, and Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
Obviously, since I don't have a time-turner, I had to pick which ones to go to. This means that all the ones I couldn't go to I was trying to find the prof. for, to talk to him/her and pick up a syllabus.
Won't give you a blow-by-blow, but some things to note throughout the day:
--Physics profs are crazy whether you're at Mines or in Australia. My general rel prof told us how some guy got drunk, his friends threw him into a train carriage, he woke up the next morning and felt like playing a game of pool.
--The prof for con and evo genetics can read lips. I was talking to a girl asking her when the class technically started, and the prof came over from the other side of the room and answered me. He's a goofball, but I like him.
--The Hieroglyphs prof vaguely resembles a door post in speech and mannerisms. Except he's German. You guys remember Uwe Greife's accent? German, and then he tried to learn American English? Imagine someone with the same German accent, but now with an Australian accent. OMG.
--I got to hold up a rubber ball representing Jupiter for while. This poor rubber ball seriously needs to be retired. It has done its job.
--In micro, there were about 10 of us sitting in a room until 20 after the hour (class was supposed to start on the hour). I finally asked the room at large if anyone had a computer and we could look up the prof's number and call her to see if she'd forgotten about us. One of the girls in the class mentioned she had heard about another section of micro in another building. So all 10 of us unanimously decided to up and herd ourselves across campus. We found our class, but missed the majority of the lecture. Apparently, we were in the room we're going to be in the rest of the semester. But the first day we were meeting in this other room. No one knows why the 10 of us missed this information. Shrug.
--I wear my Mines sweatshirt in some odd defiance/unwillingness to conform thing on my new campus. People look at me and wonder...
--I have finally met two people that are potential hang-out buddies. One of them, Emily, is in my micro class, and was one of the lost 10. She also does the outdoors-y thing, which is exciting. The other, also Emily, I met because I was carrying too much stuff around and I threw paper on her.
I'm going to stop typing now, because I hurt and want to go to bed.
Oh! Mum and Erin just arrived in Oregon. They got there safely, and are in the new house tonight. Things are busy. Sadly, I cannot perform my daughterly duty and call to check in on her. Yet another drawback to being halfway around the world... But I thought I would let people know she got there, and life is moving on.
Love to everyone.
And fond thoughts.
And quirked eyebrows.
Me
