I made it back, alive even!

The tricky part about being away for 10 days is not being able to write about my travels during that time. As such, I'm very behind in my blogs which are going to be much more detailed than normal due to the extremely amazing nature of its content. Therefore I'm going to be writing 2 sets of blogs at the same time: my usual day-to-day (or every few days) blog of what's been going on since I've been back, and several days of my Northwest trip each day. Once every Northwest trip day has been accounted for, I'll make my blog more tidy. What you should do is make sure you aren't missing any of my posts posted from today (Monday the 15th) forward because I'll be posting 2 different posts a day (my first Northwest trip is below). Don't worry, like I said, it'll all be peachy in a few days time (but it might take up to a week!).

So I got back on Sunday at 1:30. After hastily unloading the bags from the caravan, I said a quick goodbye to my favorite tour guides, Barry and Craig, before rushing off to my flat to unload my bags and do my laundry. Even though I was quick about it, I almost missed an open laundry machine... got the last one. Apparently the new student village is having problems with their washers so a few of ours were taken I think in order to compensate their need. I was glad to get my laundry out of the way though.

Once I got onto my computer I immediately felt overwhelmed with everything. I had so many emails and things to do I didn't know where to begin. It felt really weird typing and using my computer again. 10 days of not using it made it feel alien to me. It was a cool experience. After getting a few things done, getting unpacked and my room cleaned, I went for a run. I went at about 5:30 which was a mistake because it was still quite hot out. I only went for a quick run because I was tired and I'm still getting back into running shape. Because I was going for a shorter run, I ran with a much greater intensity and kicked my ass because I wanted to beat 8 minutes a mile for my run. I ended up running 7'40" a mile which is great for me at this stage, especially in this heat. I'll run later today (Monday) and hope to beat the heat.

After showering and eating a pathetic dinner of old leftovers, I went down and hung out with Greg and Connor and their neighbors/flatmates for a while which was great because I hadn't seen them in so long. But I was so exhausted I didn't stay for long. I didn't stay up too late because I was so tired, but I had to wait around for Alicia to get on so I could talk to her. Ended up not being a colorful conversation because I was extremely out of it.

I woke up at 7:45 which felt like sleeping in, but I didn't feel refreshed at all. I spent all morning and early afternoon feeling like absolute crap. I hope I feel better Tuesday. I didn't get any work done Monday morning before class which is really sad. Additionally, my breakfast of 6 scrambled eggs was very boring and not filling without any toast. Needless to say, my morning sucked especially since I felt crappy about getting no work done.

I went by Paul's office really quick and had an unsatisfactory visit because I was already grumpy, but was tickled to hear Paul use the phrase "manscaping" referring to shaving his face (he's growing out a mustache for charity or something). To me and my American friends, manscaping refers to the act of shaving and trimming a man's pubic area. Yup.

I went to the Guild Shop and bought some post card stamps :-) before going off to my (2 hour) Pollutants class. Boy does that professor make me laugh and smile. He's ridiculous. After that, Sarin (who has that class with me) and I went food shopping with my friend Brittany (who is from Wisc. Eau Claire and went on the trip with me) and her flatmate. I got some white wine from the packy and a restocking effort of groceries. I felt very successful for the amount of money I spent. I bought about a pound of 'roo meat. Yes. Meat. If I can cook it well enough, I'm going to start eating a bit of a eat week. Why? Because one, it's one of the best meats out there because it's wild. Two, there are too many kangaroos out there. Essentially, roo meat is very environmentally friendly and I'm eating hunted meat. Roo meat gets around most of my problems with eating meat, and because I miss eating meat, I'm going to give it a go.

I worked on a paper for a little bit before starting my large amount of blogging for the day. It's going to be hard to write so much in addition to all my studying. Oh boy. Off to run in a little bit, hopefully with Brittany. However, I made two really awesome playlists to run to. I joined and mixed several tracks by A Skylit Drive such that they are continuous tracks and flow really well. I made 40 and 25 minute (for long and short runs) mixes. I like this because of the fluid flow of the music and I can easily tell how long I've been running for because it's only one track long essentially. I made one of these tracks last fall with trance music and that works even better because it's like one 32 minute song. It's really cool.

Yup, off for now. Cheers!

Sunday the 14th: 7
Monday: 7