Week 11

So we have been here for nearly twelve and a half weeks, which gives us five more to go. I remember when we'd been here two weeks and it felt both like we'd been here forever and that there was forever left to go! Christmas shopping soon, which is exciting, and tons of end-of-semester exams and papers and stuff, which is less exciting. That said, three of my four final exams are not actually going to be exams (two take-home-papers and one group presentation). Tom is not going to be so lucky, just one paper and three actual exams.

I have had another bad day, academically, by which I mean that I threw another partly-irrational temper tantrum at how hard I work and how little everyone else works. Long story, but neither of us can wait to get back to the rigours of Essex! I have been doing more work and research on two of my research papers today. They are basically mini-dissertations, although I suspect that I may be doing way more work on them than is expected, because that's just a running theme by now. We both have these long papers for almost every course, and they can be on anything we want. Mine are on power relationships in Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, the portrayal of women in various tellings of the story of the Loudun possessions (nuns! Witches! Burnings! Most exciting things ever!), and how journalism about Iran reflects and affected the course of the Islamic revolution. All things that interest me. Tom's are about how motions are processed from public to policy, annnnd... he's not sure yet. But I'm sure they will also be fascinating.

Recently we have been chatting to my family on Skype, which has been fun and, of course, interesting. The dog is huge. My dad taunted me with a glass of Prosecco last week (I declined, I can't really drink before class). Tom has been making lots of cookies and shortbread, and I have been eating them. We've been swimming quite a few times, which is something that's kind of tapered off recently as we've realized the effect that persistent exposure to salt water has on our skin(s). I've given up on suncream as I truly believe that tanned people - and I am now one of those people, for the first time ever! - don't get burnt. They're ALREADY TANNED. Duh. Anyway, it's worked so far.

On Saturday we woke up to the sound of heavy rain, which lasted for an hour! It was like being back home. Seriously weird. We cancelled our plans to go to a botanical garden in an old (extinct... I presume) volcanic crater and went to the Military Museum round the corner - I only agreed to go in because it was free, so we wouldn't be funding the army in any way! For a free exhibition it was amazingly thorough, and at points accidentally funny. The building, Fort DeRussy, was scheduled for demolition as it was an eyesore (it IS right on the beach), but of course it had been built to withstand bombs and stuff, so the wrecking ball barely dented it! Plans then had to be rethought. There was also a section where they played American cartoons from World War II: in one of them, Donald Duck was being tempted to spend his money by a Pimp Duck, and to save by a Scottish Duck, and suddenly Pimp Duck was Adolf Hitler! Apparently not paying your taxes is spending for the Axis.

That evening I whined until Tom was persuaded to take the bus to the dodgy end of Waikiki with me, to go and get pasta breadbowls from Domino's. Wow, they were good. So we got there, ordered our breadbowls (Italian Sausage for Tom, Macaroni-three-cheese for me), went back to the bus stop, and waited for a bus. And waited. And waited. After fifty minutes we walked down the road to the next bus stop, which more buses would pick us up from, and after another ten minutes FINALLY got a bus home. (Ironically, the exact one we'd been waiting for at the other stop.) When we got back Tom checked the schedule and there should have been a bus at LEAST every five minutes during that hour-long waiting period, which was a BLATANT LIE, Google Transit! Also the breadbowls were cold by then so Tom put them in the oven and set the boxes on fire. Yup, both of them. They were still great. I would do it again. (Don't tell Tom that though. I might have to brainwash him before he lets me go to Domino's again. Even though he really enjoyed the food.)

For the past couple of hours I have been promising Tom and myself that I will wash up. Right after I do this outline. And that bibliography. Right after I play one more game of Solitaire. And go to the loo. And finish my drink. And finish this journal entry. I wonder what else I can do after this.

Eliza and I spent a reeeeeally long time at Victoria's Secret last week, with tons of coupons that she'd printed off. I spent $15 on $40 worth of stuff! Tom nearly had a heart attack when I told him, because he was only listening to the expensive half of the sentence, haha. It was cool, we had a really nice time, AND we brought back take-away from the food court at Ala Moana. Tom and I had 'curry', by which I mean dishes that were kind of like curry wurst sauce with rice and chicken. They were good though. That was the first of our two take-aways last week, unless you count the pizzas we bought from Safeway last Monday and had at Will & Eliza's. This week we are being better - I made spaghetti carbonara in the afternoon, before we went to our evening class, and Tom made roasted game hen salad tonight (the supermarket had run out of chicken).

Again, sorry for the food thing.

I am a pathetic loser who is sick in Hawai'i. Yeah, I have a cold. I got the flu jab so I wouldn't GET sick, and now I have a horrid head cold and I can't hear properly. Grrrr. I know, I'll finish up with a funny story: for the past two days, a 70 foot yacht has been stuck on its side just off the shore at Waikiki Beach. And the name of the yacht was... ? Momentum!