Episode Seventy Seven – Even More on Writing

I’ve been quite quiet lately because I’ve been “busy”. For me, that means oscillating between periods of utter apathy, Words with Friends and alarming quantities of snacking; and moments where all the important things I must achieve put so much pressure on me that I work frantically on one whilst feeling guilty that I’m not doing the others. If you look over my shoulder and observe me typing up an email to a translator, politely asking how one enters into the specialty of translating cookbooks (my current life goal), you can be sure your nose is brushing the angel that sits there screaming in my ear, ‘you have two essays to write this month what use is it knowing how to get a job if you fail your degree because you were too busy jobhunting to study you imbecile‘. Yet, when I am studying, the angel decides this would be the perfect time to take the entrance exam for the internship I applied for last week, and criticises me for being too much on-paper and not enough on-the-ball.

Episode Fifty Nine – Ancient Rome

Hi everybody! I know… This story really is ancient history now. It was my mum’s visit and then the end of term and then exam season and between all that my blogging mojo never emerged at the surface, so the thought of putting together a post worth reading was not exactly a realistic goal. And I’d much rather leave you all hanging than waste your time on a post not worth reading. But here I am, ready to keep ploughing through my Italy narration and onwards to Grant’s visit too… eventually.

This is what I have in store for you today: a gorgeous day in Pope-ville!

Episode Thirty – No Way, San José

If you’ll allow me to backtrack a little, I’ll share with you one of very few photographs I’ve taken from aeroplanes. I took this six months ago (okay, backtrack a lot), when my Christmas return flight ascended over New York City at night.

Do you see why I don't take a lot of aeroplane pictures?

Episode Sixteen – Ancient History 101

[FYI, these first few paragraphs were written quite some time ago, between my visits in October and December, as you’ll be able to tell from the confusing discrepancies in dates etc. I know – I was not made to be a blogger].

So I’m embarking upon my final journey home before Christmas, to wish my family season’s greetings and to relax a little before my exam on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been home, and I’m anticipating luxurious relaxation, silver spoon service and generally a pleasant change of scenery. At the moment, I’m in Palmyra Pizza with a cup of coffee and a clean plate (which used to house a £3.20 hummus falafel, but I made short work of that), and waiting for my bus. I missed the one I intended to get but I’m actually happy with how it turned out – I was hungry, in need of a cup of coffee, and I could’ve done with some time to work on my blog anyway.

Episode Seven – The Beginning of the End

Ok, so I am now more than a week behind in my account of my time here in the States. My return from Chicago was last Sunday, and it is now Tuesday, so I’ll probably be spending a large portion of the long journey home catching up in documenting my experiences here, even though I won’t be able to actually post it until later because Grandma doesn’t have Internet access. Wut.

A lot of the time since Chicago has actually been spent doing very little. When we’ve done things, we’ve done them in short bursts, and lazed around in between, so my usual “On Monday we… On Tuesday we…” style – which, let’s face it, was getting old anyway – won’t work for this entry. I saw a few more of the things Zanesville has to offer – Grant’s aunt Susan showed me around her studio downtown, which was really interesting, and then she took us to lunch and showed us around a small art centre-type thing, and the Zanesville Art Museum. They had a giant carved wooden turtle. It was badass. We also went to Tom’s for ice cream, where I probably broke the record for percentage of body mass consumed in dairy produce. Grant took me to Dillon Dam, and Toy Story 3 (epic), and the mall. Blake had his 13th birthday party at the Country Club pool, which was pretty fab. We visited the amusement park near Cincinnati, King’s Island, with Grant’s sister Kara and cousin James. That was super-fun – and I have the photograph to show it. I don’t think I’m a particularly gullible customer in terms of buying those stupid roller-coaster photographs, but in this case, I just couldn’t pass it up. It was worth every cent of the $15 I paid for it.

Episode Six – More from the Windy City

Comparatively, Sunday was much more low-key than Saturday had been. We slept in, took our time getting ready, and dawdled downtown with Elizabeth to the Art Institute. They had a Matisse exhibition going on, which I really enjoyed, and a lot of other cool stuff which I loved at the time but really don’t remember much about… I was comforted by how often I managed to identify the artist of paintings I didn’t recognise, though! I didn’t realise I knew so much about art. We’d also booked an architectural tour of Chicago at 3:30 though, so we legged it out of the Art Institute and had a quick lunch (chicken pot pie, nom nom nom) before heading down to the river for our boat tour.