So day five of illness. Ick.

I had to miss my trip to East sussex yesterday because my head felt like it would explode if I moved around too much. I have medicine though in liquid form, no pills this time (although I hate medicine period). There is just something about taking these external substances that really weirds me out. I feel like i'm betraying my body sometimes- ya know because for stuff like this cold- my body should be (and I'm sure is) capable of fighting it off without any help. But we take medicine to make the symptoms go away, when the symptoms are just signs that our body is doing what it's supposed to. However uncomfortable it may be to just live with the symptoms still feels better than that sense of betrayal and lack of trust in my own body. Next time I get sick I think i'll just let my body do it's work. Be a little patient.

hrm. Today I have been feeling much better. Celeste, Kim, Sevy, Angela (the minnesotan) and I went out to Sunday Roast. Apparently every sunday here a bunch of pubs have a roast (you can have chicken, beef, lamb, or vegetarian). It was great. I had chicken and lots of vegetables (some of them completely unknown to me). Right now I'm really full and am starting to believe that myth about English food being really horrible is just that, a myth.

Yesterday while I was practicing my skills of lying motionless for hours on end I read more in my book on India. I found a couple of places in Delhi I really want to go to- like the Mahatma Gandhi Museum. I've also been reading the Tibetan book of living and dying. It's the second time I've read it, but I went through it too quickly last time to really retain anything. It's much more vivid and thought provoking this time around and is suplemented well by the book on india.

pictures picture pictures. So before I got here I decided that I didn't want any pictures of things, or if I did have pictures of things that they would also have people in them. So i've taken about 0 pictures in Brighton, but I will get on it soon. The only problem is I don't have my digital camera with me, so when I develope film I will have to develope it onto a cd. and did i mention that each pound sterling is worth $1.70. This creates a bit of a problem with the pictures cause I'm enormously cheap. I promise to put some up, soon but don't expect me to stop complaining about the cost.

I must tell you all about my flatmates downstairs (where I hope to move...maybe). One of the very first nights we all went out we went to a pub called the Lectern. It was a pretty nice pub with an enormous big screen television on the wall. When we arrived a football match was on (football being soccer- for those of you who don't know), but following that there was a program on David and Victoria Beckham. For those of you who don't know who David Beckham is, well, you're probably very smart people. He WAS an english football player (and one of the best) until he traded teams (he now plays for Real MADRID). Anyway he's married to Posh spice they have two kids Brooklyn and Romeo......



I know. I thought I'd give you guys a little space for laughter. Anyway we were all watching this program and they showed a close up picture of David and Oli said "He has a very symmetrical face". After we all finished laughing, we came to the conclusion that we should all be obsessed with david beckham (and some of us authentically are...sevy). So the joke had lasted for a while, we even hinted at the prospect of stealing a cardboard cut out of Becks (as he is affectionately known now) from Borders, but it was when Sevy started looking up pictures of him in magazines that it really grew out of proportion.

Now with those pictures she found she made photo copies, and she cut them out and pasted them on the wall of the downstairs common room. Then other people joined in and found a calendar- adding to the pictures on the wall. Sevy found more pictures and now everyone downstairs has a picture of becks on their door (oli got two). Sevy also found this article in a magazing about how to make squirrels out of loo rolls (toilet paper rolls) and cardboard. Now the downstairs common room is known as Beckingham Palace, complete with several little loo roll squirrels guarding the "Becks Shrine" contribution box where all are invited to contribute their tupances (two pence coins) to the cause. We're still working on a costume for two of the squirrels that will make them look like Buckingham palace guards.

I really love these people.

Strangeness is just so much more fun than normalcy. Oh and I forgot to mention that two rooms downstairs are still empty- so two (most likely british students) will have to acquiesce to their strangely obsessive, mostly american flatmates.

it's good stuff, I tell you.

just another silly story for your entertainment. Yesterday on the East Sussex trip everybody got to go to Battle- the place where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066- The last time England was invaded. Sevy, being the clever girl that she is, found herself a most appropriate costume for halloween. When they arrived home, and I met up with them I found sevy fully decked out in fake chainmail and shirt with the cross on it, just like a british knight circa 1066. To add to the hillarity of this situation we all realized that we will be in Paris during Halloween (the french were those last people to invade) and that several of us were planning to get coconuts to beat together and follow sevy around singing the fanfare from Monty Python and the holy grail.

silly people we are. Laughter is the best medicine.

OOh my classes have worked out. I'm taking Contemporary British Poetry, Advanced Creative Writing (travel writing) and Explorations in literature. The professor who's teaching the Explorations class also taught a day in our British Culture Module and he seems very interesting. I recommended he read "the Culture of Make Believe" by Derrick Jensen- (I recommend all of you do the same) a book I thought he'd be interested in. I hope this semester is as exciting as I keep imagining it to be. I still might have one addition class that I can take, but I might just stick to three ( those five day weekends... ).

Oh and I hope to get a job as soon as school starts. I think perhaps I'll work in the computer lab (they pay better) but if that doesn't work out I'll work in the Student Union, either at the desk, the shop, or the bar. Yes yes, there's a bar on campus! woo.

anyway I've rambled enough for today. I hope everyone is doing well.

peace.
shavawn