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 "The Wedding Cake"
a.k.a. The Victory Monument at sunset

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I'm not only becoming a more complex thinker, I'm becoming a more complex knitter! 

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The 12 Homeward

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This Week's Goal: 

Make it Through Thanksgiving Leftovers Before They Go Bad.

Chances of Success: Doubtful

Attitude: Hopeful

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The Commons

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Cutting the Turkey

(I finally figured it out after making the first bits look like meat cubes)

Thanksgiving

"'Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.'
'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.'"
From Charlotte's Web By E.B. White

Thanksgiving. Only in America (well, North America, you gotta count Canada) would we have a holiday which we give thanks for the ability to overeat. Yet unlike so many American holidays Thanksgiving has retained most of its original intent: coming together and giving thanks for the bounty God has given us.
I have spend several Thanksgivings away from home. This year was my second Thanksgiving in the UK. Last time I only celebrated with my flatmates. This time I wanted to do it up right. With that thought in mind I went all out in an attempt to create a true American Thanksgiving.

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A Shelter From the Storms

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On the Street Where I Live

A Day Trip? To London?

"'I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit, thank you, ma'am,' said Anne gravely. Then aside to Marilla in an audible whisper, 'There wasn't anything startling in that, was there, Marilla?'"
From Anne of Green Gables By L.M. Montgomery

Overall I've been amazed this year with the number of people from home who are study or visiting Europe while I'm over here - completely unrelated to my presence in the UK. Some I'll see, other I won't. When given the chance I plan on seeing as many of them as I can.

This week I got the opportunity to see a friend from home. Katie, a student who graduated from the school I worked at in Minnesota, is studying in Jerusalem and decided to come to the UK as part of her study break. She was one of my favorite students and I was excited to get an opportunity to see her. To do so, however, I needed to travel down to London for a day. After frantic Facebook messaging, with a sporadic internet connection on her end, we finally set a place and time for our meeting. I booked a bus ticket. People looked at me like I was crazy. They couldn't believe I would take a three hour bus ride to go to London for a day. It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. If I wanted to see Katie I could either take the train or the bus. Considering that round trip the bus cost £14 and the train cost £75 - I was taking the bus!

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I spent my Thanksgiving wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music.

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Studying in the Bus Station

(got home at 1:30 this morning!)

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With Katie at Westminster

(So great to see a friend from home)

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Lunch with some of my Writing for YA peeps before class!

(Lorna, Jenny, Shadia, Amelia, Katherine, Emily, & Victor)

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Grilled Cheese Sandwich - Grown-up Style

I found an amazing recipe that called for brie and cranberry sauce - delicious! 

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My philosophical thought of the week: I'm living in a Platonic Cave...

(bonus points if you figure out what mumbo-jumbo I'm spouting)

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Ordered my Thanksgiving turkey today!

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Beautiful yarn makes beautiful Christmas presents...

Doors

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”
From The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

My housing situation is better than I expected. I don't have any partying flatmates and everyone is extremely considerate of each other and our shared space. Some of us have even gone out and done things together. Overall, I'm very blessed. We are all so busy. There are days when I don't see a soul.
Yet, I know they are there because of the doors.

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First Sporting Event Attended this Year

I'm official a Uni student

One of Anni's flatmates was on the team (not pictured)

Warwick lost :-(

Book Review: Stoneheart

“Everything is funny from some angle, I assure you it is. It's just a matter of where you're standing.”

From Stoneheart By Charlie Fletcher

Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher

Course: Writing for Children and Young People

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Laundry Day!

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Bonfire Night

“'I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.'
'I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!'”

From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

If you know anything about British history you are probably aware of a holiday in November called Guy Fawkes Day (aka Bonfire Night) - "Remember, remember the 5th of November" - ? Sound familiar? If not I'll give you the Reading Rainbow version of the plot (minus the 'read it to find out the ending' part). in 1605 Protestants had pretty much reached dominance over Catholics in the aftermath of the Tudor bloodbath (you know, Bloody Mary and Queen Elizabeth? If you don't know about this than you need to pick up a history book and refresh your memory, this is not a 'history for dummies' blog). However, there were still come Catholics that weren't happy about the situation. Soooo, they decided to blow up the English Parliament building! To accomplish this the rebels put a bunch of gunpowder kegs under the House of Lords. Before the plot was enacted the government was warned and they stormed the cellar where they found Guy Fawkes with the kegs. Fawkes was killed and ever since that day the Brits have lit bonfires, burned effigies of Guy Fawkes, and held 4th of July style fireworks displays in commemoration.
Everyone (that might be hyperbole) in Great Britain celebrates Bonfire night, though I think it has less to do with a Patriotic feeling than with liking to set things on fire. My friends and I decided that we wanted to make an event of it and bought tickets to see the fireworks at Kenilworth Castle.

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Coventry Train Station

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Allison & I went shopping in Birmingham at the

Bullring Shopping Centre...strange looking, right?
(Mom, I thought you'd enjoy this building, strangest mall I've ever seen!)

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Lunch with Leena, Katherine, & Shadia after a stressful week

My friend Shadia was missing home (Bahrain, it's ok if you don't know where that is, I didn't even know it was a country before I met her) so we went to Habibi, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Coventry, and had a lovely meal in the Bedouin tent in the back garden. 

It was a bit on the cold side but we enjoyed ourselves.

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Interesting it's called Humanities when we often feel that they things they make us do is inhumane...

You're welcome for the deep thought of the day.

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Favorite thing about these cookies is that when your friend asks you if you want one you can say,

"Hit Me."

(I might be a little delirious from my week...and yes, I know it's only Wednesday and I have to survive two more days until the week is over)

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Untitled #2 (Campus)

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Untitled #1 (Campus)

Halloween?

Queen.

"There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
Therewith fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down the weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with her drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious buy
To muddy death."

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Before I go into detail regarding my Halloween at Warwick let me just say that normally I don't do the whole Halloween thing. Like many kids I enjoyed trick-o-treating and going to "Harvest Parties" and the like, but for a variety of reasons I've never really done much with the holiday. In part it's relates to the fact that I usually work as well as the fact that I lived in a neighborhood that wasn't conducive for treat-o-treaters. That being said, being back in Uni made me want to have fun with a holiday that is pathetically American and has been transplanted into England only as an excuse for people to drink and party while wearing as little clothing as possible (and that is not a cynical view, just a honest one). That being said, I had a very strange combination of experiences for my Halloween this year.
My fore-planning skills for a costume were extremely limited. Thursday I realized that I had no idea what I was going to dress-up as on Saturday; all I knew was that I didn't want to be a witch, a vampire, or a zombie. This limited my options to an extreme degree.
I lassos-ed Allison to come with me into Coventry after classes to find a costume. I was thinking "butterfly" or "bat". You know, buy some wings and be done with it!
A few issues showed themselves when we arrive into Coventry City Centre:

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Research: Stage One

Not Shown: Twenty-one Journals Articles on my Nook

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Bonfire Night! 

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Aren't they beautiful! 

I'm such a book nerd.
And yes, I am spending my Friday evening in the Library...so's the life of a PostGrad!

(Side note - why don't they make such lovely looking books like this anymore?)

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First "really cold" day here - out came the fuzzy socks!

Book Review: Skellig

"'Sometimes we just have to accept there are things we can’t know. Why is your sister ill? Why did my father die?…Sometimes we think we should be able to know everything. But we can’t. we have to allow ourselves to see what there is to see, and we have to imagine.'"

From Skellig By David Almond

Skellig by David Almond

Course: Writing for Children and Young People