Not England pics, but Italy and Greece pics. So Melissa, I hope that’s okay. But if anybody wants to wish they were somewhere else, click on my flickr link on the blogroll. Lovely pictures that make me miss that trip. But I’m looking forward to more travels with Melissa and this time with Christi too. We’re going to have so much fun, and more pictures to look at when we miss it later.
You know, those people who work out every day and feel guilty if they don’t. Yesterday, our erg got cancelled, but I felt like I should still get some form of exercise, besides regular walking, which I get every day here. So I did an erg on my own, not that I pushed myself too hard, but I did the rowing machine for 10 minutes, pretty hard for probably 8 of those 10 minutes. Then today, our outing got cancelled, which half the crew didn’t hear about. Jennifer, Becky, Emma, and I were sitting by the river until 1:30 when we finally got word that the outing that was supposed to start at 1 had gotten cancelled. Which wasn’t too big a deal, but how hard would it have been to send a quick e-mail to everyone? So Jennifer and I came back to my room and made a good lunch of my new pasta recipe (pasta, butter, milk, garlic and herb cream cheese, almost like alfredo, but much cheaper than any white sauce they have over here), some scrambled eggs, and pita bread. With cookies and tea for dessert. Then I did some reading and decided even though I had walked quite a bit today, I should get some real exercise. So I went and rode the stationary bike for a 5 minute warm-up, did a 2k erg with warm-up and cool-down so on the machine for a little over 10 minutes. And then rode the bike for another couple minutes to cool down, after which I did 15 push-ups, crunches, side-crunches, and sit-ups. And stretching, of course, the one thing I actually feel satisfaction from, when I touch my head to knees quite easily.
I still hate exercise, especially ergs, but for some reason, I feel the need to do it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe after we have our regatta, I won’t have the goal of staying in the boat for rowing and I’ll let up. But it’s really not like me to be like this. I’ve exercised every day since I moved back to Sarah’s, except for one day for a break one weekend and one day last week because of essay crisis. I mean it’s only like 20 minutes of cardio and then 30 minutes of stretching, but it’s definitely more than I expected myself to do this term. Maybe it’s because both my brothers are getting in shape, so I feel like I should get healthy too. Anyway, it’s just weird.
So yesterday, of my whole list of things to do, I did my erg. And I did laundry. And I went and ate Mexican (which was wonderful). Other than that, a completely unproductive day. So I should probably try to do some more today. I have read some econ already, but I’ve decided I’m going to limit my reading time from now one, read for a day, maybe a day and a half, and then start writing my essay. So then I can get it done in plenty of time and maybe even revise it and make sure I understand everything so if I have to present, I don’t embarrass myself. Otherwise, when I have extra time, I end up just reading more and still cramming to get my essay done on time. And I need to work ahead some this term so I won’t be too busy when people are visiting me. And I thought since I was having two econ tutorials I would only have 8 essays total. All my other econ tuts have had 4 essays and 4 question weeks. But not international econ, apparently. Which has 8 essays as far as I can tell. Even politics, at most, I’ve had 6 essays since I have two tutorials in the term, so I have a bit of a break at some point during the term. So I will have 12 essays instead, which I am not happy about. But I guess I just have to get it done. Which means I should go to work now. So I will.
So I have a new look for my blog after Brendan had to switch some stuff up. It was either this or a pink one that I liked too. But this one seems more travel-esque, so I chose it, since it’s an “England” blog. I guess I haven’t written in a while. I got through my two tutorials, barely finishing my essays on time. My first one went pretty well, and the second one started off rough, but then it was okay. I don’t really want to think about them, so I’m not going to write much about them. This week, I’m going to start fresh, so I will hopefully get everything done in time and will be more prepared and not as stressed. I also got my IR collection back, which I wasn’t expecting, but I got a 62!! Which is really good, or at least I’m happy about it. Last term, I got a 54 on politics and 57.5 on econ. So 62 is much better, and 70 is the best you can get. So it’s a low 2:1, but at least it’s a 2:1 and not a 2:2. So that made me happy.
In other exciting news, we had an erg session planned for this morning, and it got cancelled. Now I’m thinking I should still exercise in some way, but I’m sitting in front of my computer instead. I’m telling myself I’ll go after this and either ride the stationary bike or do a relaxed erg. We’ve been out on the river quite a bit, and though it’s rained some, it hasn’t rained too much and not really at all during outings. I’m sitting at 6 at the moment in the boat, which is a good place. This confirms my thoughts that I do much better when I’m actually in the boat than when I’m on an erg. That’s why I’m scared to do ergs because I have no idea how I’ll do, and I might be moved in the boat again. But as long as I’m in the boat, I’m okay. I had a weird dream about all the girls on the rowing team living in the same house, and Emily Glotzbach was on the team as well, living in England with me. And my mom was there making us dinner. Strange.
And my last bit of exciting news. I have sprouts!! I planted my herbs last week, and my basil is sprouting. The chives don’t have anything yet, but they were supposed to be planted deeper, so hopefully they will sprout soon. It’s a beautiful day out, so I have my cups sitting out on my window ledge to get sun and fresh air. They make me very happy. See mom, I’m being much more positive and my herbs are helping. Plants just make things brighter, even if they’re still really small. Oh, I’ll take a picture of them.
Today, I’m going to convince myself to exercise, and then I’m going to take it easy. I might do some Flickr pictures, read through some stuff for my thesis, maybe start reading for my next essays, and maybe look at some train times for my Europe trip this summer. Then this evening, Kristie and Jennifer are coming here and we’re going to Brad’s for the MCR Mexican Feast! Which is so exciting. Mexican food in England, the highlight of my term. Well besides all my friends coming over to see me. Anyway, that’s my life right now, with a sunny disposition.
I finally have my schedule for this term. I have tutorials on Thursdays and Fridays. Of course, back-to-back days, but I didn’t really expect anything else. At least they’re at the end of the week, so I can have my weekends. But this week is going to be stressful, most likely. I just got my assignment for my first Thursday tutorial yesterday evening, and I have to turn it in Wednesday evening. So doing everything in two days is going to be fun. But I’ll get it done, and then hopefully from now on, things will go more smoothly. So now this morning, I’ve read and am going to the library to get more books.
I’ve also ridden the stationary bike this morning, and last night. I’ve definitely decided that since all the girls besides me ride bikes, they are much stronger than me in the legs. I think the stationary bikes at G-town had less resistance. I feel really weak and out of shape when I ride, but hopefully that will just keep me motivated. Looking at my schedule, I realized that after 5th week, I’m going to be a lot more free. After that, Amanda and Rita will have come and gone. I only have 2 lectures a week from then on, and the regatta is done, so we probably won’t be rowing as much, although there is another little race that we’re going to do. And most of my friends will be studying for their prelims, so I won’t have much social stuff to do either. Of course, then I can be getting excited about Europe.
Yesterday, I didn’t do any work again. I was tired, but I didn’t want to let myself take a nap, so I straightened my room and decorated and planted my herbs. I put up pictures and wrote everything down on my calendar. I decided to be creative and make my room more cheerful and homey this term. Well I better head to the library. And start the hard work, and stop the procrastinating.
One of the reasons I haven’t written lately is that nothing has happened because I’ve been sleeping. I’m not one to take naps, or I used to not be. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I’d get bored lying there and get up and do something. But apparently that has changed, or I’m just exhausted for some strange reason. Well maybe from rowing every day and studying a lot for collections. Sunday, I slept all day. I went to church and ate lunch with Celia and then went back to bed, got up for dinner and watched some stuff on my computer and then went back to bed. Crazy stuff. But now it’s Monday, and I have to start work. And lectures start today, but at least it’s not as many as the past two terms. Just one today. Which I need to leave for here in a few minutes. But just wanted to write something, may write some more details later. But I’m alive, made it through my collections, writing more than last time so hopefully that’s a good thing, and I’m still rowing, not an alternate anymore, yet. So I’m trying to start the term off positively. Positive thinking, that’s what my mom tells me it’s all about.
Ever since I got to Regent’s, I’ve been very tired. Last night I stayed up until 11, but I wanted to go to bed at 9. Then this morning, I had planned on getting up at 7, but I didn’t get out of bed until a little before 8. Then after lunch and a little bit of work for my IR collection, I decided to take a nap. I forced myself to get up and do some work on econ, but I don’t know any of the answers to that exam. On the theoretical part, I’m okay, but on the applied things, I don’t feel like we addressed any of that in the tutorial or readings. It’s all about UK economics, which I know nothing about. Why does the UK have low unemployment, or low inflation, or low investment? I don’t know, and worse, I don’t care. When I go home, I don’t think the UK’s economic state is going to matter to me much, so it’s really hard to try to understand now. So politics, I feel fine about and economics, I’m completely lost in. Reverse of last time.
And now I’m to the point where I’m thinking, what good is it going to do for me to study? I can’t get it all in because I’ve procrastinated, or slept, so why not just do nothing instead. Good strategy, huh? I know it doesn’t make sense, but that seems to be how my brain works now. But I made a timeline (I know there’s another word for that) for tomorrow, what I’m doing each hour and hopefully by the end of the day, I’ll have at least 6 timed essays written. I’ve done outlines and introductions today, so it’s just putting the pen to paper. And maybe it’s still expecting too much out of myself, but I’m doing IR first and that collection is Friday, so if I don’t have time to finish all the macro, I’ve got Friday to finish that up because that collection isn’t until Saturday.
Of course, we have been doing a lot of rowing stuff as well, so maybe that’s why I’m so tired. But I really can’t afford to give up extra time for rowing and then have to sleep more for it. It’s supposed to get me energized, isn’t it? We went and played in the park today for exercise. We did a few things: threw a ball around for a while for a game called fireball and then realized we were getting no exercise, played Chinese freeze tag, but they called it something else, kicked the soccer/football around, then played a game of soccer/football. Ray and I were the only ones who had played before, so it wasn’t too competitive, and I actually looked like I knew what I was doing. I had forgotten how much I used to fall in soccer, though. I have quite a few bruises and some grass stains on skin and clothing. And no Shout to get it out, so these sweatpants are officially my soccer-playing sweatpants if we ever play it again. Ok, now time to get my shoes on and head down to the river for our actual outing today.
I’ll write more later, but I just wanted to say yay because Brendan is flying down to Italy with me and then we’re going to Austria to meet Melissa and Christi so I don’t have to go alone. So yay!!
I went into town today. I had to for church. It was sort of weird to be in the city center of Oxford again. I know I’ve been in Oxford for the past week, but it’s been enjoyable, not stressful, getting to spend time with friends, making new friends, and even watch American tv shows. I’m not looking forward to the stress of term time. I move back onto college tomorrow, and rowing camp starts. And then collections at the end of the week and tutorials next week. I’ll miss just hanging out at Sarah’s. Last night, we watched NCIS, CSI: New York, and Law & Order. That’s the Saturday night line-up on 5. I did my FAFSA yesterday and didn’t get much econ done after we went shopping. We went to this cool place called The Pier, which seems like it would be related to Pier 1 Imports. And we went to this little farm place and had ice cream, and then went and bought groceries. It was nice to get out of the house and see a side of Oxford I haven’t seen. I never really think about how the city isn’t just a circle with a 2 mile diameter.
So yesterday wasn’t too productive and neither was today. I really don’t want to read my econ essays. I have everything else done. So instead, I read two articles on China and e-mailed my potential thesis supervisor. Then I e-mailed my advisor again asking if she knew who my tutors are for this term. I’d really like to know considering term starts in a week. But oh well. I’ve got a headache, and Kyle just called, so I’m going to stop writing now. Not much has happened, except lots of procrastination, but I thought I’d update anyway.
I ran for the fifth day today. I think tomorrow I’m going to give my legs a break. Often, I end up pushing myself too hard and pull a muscle and then I end up stopping working out all together. So tomorrow I’m going to go shopping with Tim and Sarah in the morning. And then I’ll run to church on Sunday, and maybe even run back. Then Monday, rowing camp starts. We have a meeting at 5:30 in the evening and then an erg session that night at 7. I’m going to go to Regent’s that day and pick up my key and stuff, and then Tim said he could drive me and my stuff back late that night, so I don’t have to drag it all to the bus stop and get it there that way. So that will be nice. Then Tuesday, we actually go out on the river. Yay!! And circuit training that night, which is no fun, but I think I’ll do a little better this time. Hopefully my running will help with that. Then back to the river on Wednesday and Thursday. We got the schedule for Summer Eights, too, which is the regatta in May. Rowing on is happening when Rita will be in England, so maybe she can come watch me, but she leaves before the actual races. But Amanda might be here by then. So that would be cool.
I’ve also done 5 days of studying. I’m hoping to finish reading all my tutorial stuff for econ today. I didn’t really realize how much it was. We have presentations, notes from my tutor, and we all got each other’s essays, so a total of 12 essays to read, though only 5 or 6 different topics. I’ve gotten through most of the presentations. I slept in this morning because I stayed up late looking for trains from Turin to Austria for this summer, and it’s complicating things. I hope I can get it to all work out. I assumed trains in Europe would be as easy as trains in England, but it doesn’t seem it will be that way. I also assumed the Eurorail pass would be the same as a Britrail pass, but I’m not completely sure that’s the case either. Oh well, we’ll figure it out. As long as Melissa, and Christi, and I can meet up, then we can get by easily after that I think. It’s just a matter of making sure we meet up. Okay, well I’m going to go have some lunch now. Take a short break, and then back to econ.
Sarah asked me that this morning after I came back from running and stretching. I said no, we try to be, but most of the time we aren’t. We have our spurts. At the moment, it actually seems as though we are pretty fit, or getting there. Brendan’s been running since he got to London. Ian’s running to get in shape for Hawaii. And I’m running to get in shape for rowing, though I’m only on my fourth day, so my brothers are doing better than me. And my mom’s been walking since she got back from England. Even though it’s only been four days, I do feel like I’m getting a little more in shape. I wasn’t quite as out of breath as I have been after my run today. And my stretching is going well, reaching my feet and the floor, stretching further each day. And I’ve put in push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches. I still don’t like it though. It makes me feel good that I’m doing something, but it takes a lot of time and I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who just enjoys exercise or feels weird if they don’t exercise every day.
So anyway, I spent all day yesterday writing 11 pages of world events that have happened since 1990. I had planned on doing some outlines for old exam questions, but I was too tired. Today, I switched from IR to Econ. I’m reading through all my lecture handouts and notes, then tomorrow, I’ll read through my essays and maybe make a list of the people who tested hypotheses and models and their results. Examples and names are what they want here. They say they want original ideas, but I don’t know if that’s really the case. Maybe I’m being too cynical. But it seems like if you come up with your own idea, they just tell you it’s wrong. Of course, sometimes you state what an “expert” says and they still tell you it’s wrong. But I think it’s back to memorization for me, if I can remember how to do that. And keep it in my head for another year when I take the exams that actually mean something. That paragraph sounds like I’m in a bad mood. I’m really not. I’m getting stuff done, slowly, but surely, and I’ve already done more in preparation for these collections than I did last term, so I hope I’ll do better.
Then when my tutors finally contact me, it’s back to essay writing. My thesis proposal has to have some work done on it before I move back in too. And I can’t forget the FAFSA. And even though my exercise cuts into the little time I have, I’m determined to keep it up. Maybe I’ll be fit one day.