I thought London would have Internet....

...but often, in my dorm at least, no such luck. it just goes out sometimes, and seemingly only if i am trying to have a conversation on skype. sometimes it comes back, sometimes not. teaches patience. reminds of modern dependence on technology. but mostly, is annoying.

this, of course, is not an excuse for the fact that i haven't updated in here in approximately 783924 years. or, to be more accurate, since 15 february. which is just silly.

much has happened. lets see... I went on a weekend of adventures in wales, courtesy of my study abroad group, attempting desperately to show the city kids that there's more than just the city. i went mountain biking and hiking and meandering around. mostly meandering. i found a castle, and an old barracks of some sort on the top of a mountain. and sheep. SO many sheep. as you see above, i took pictures (hopefully, soon to become paintings of some sort. i would have tried to do it there, but the constant rainy, 40-degree, windy, cloudy weather was a bit of a deterrent).

and then sean arrived, after a very involved hiding-keys-behind-planters-and-camouflaging-it-with-foliage-for-sean-to-find-3-days-later process that, thankfully, did not end disastrously, since he was getting into town before my return from wales. and it was a week to be remembered. sunny the whole time. nothing less for the californian.

in the midst of all of this, i was having my last few weeks of classes, which officially ended today. for the rest of my time here, i will be technically on break until 27 april, and then in our mysterious third term dedicated (i think) solely to exam-taking and performance-giving. very bizarre, if you ask me. but i'll take it. time to make use of those £20 tickets to rome and paris and budapest i see in ads all over the place...

my grandmother, and her long-time friend from switzerland, also paid a visit, just in time for our orchestra concert in st. johns cathedral in the middle of the city this past monday. it was an enormously fun, exciting concert and, as most concerts do, it reminded me how much i love being able to play for people in situations like that. i'm always going to, in some respect... if nothing else, being here this semester has made me realize that. but anyway, grandma's stay was very busy and much fun. spending real time with older people--be them family members or not--really does give perspective one loses when only hanging out with college kids. which i appreciate greatly.

since this is already a very long post, i suppose I'll sign out for now. coming up soon is an even more crazy CrazyTime, involving having to write 293847 million pages in the span of a week or two, exploring switzerland and germany with heather (!!!), and getting a week with Caroline, my best friend from high school! it will be very interesting, as that due-date-of-everything-ever will surely approach more quickly than i would like, and i'm embarrassingly enthusiastic about all of my classes/papers and want to do them well.

as always, i hope all is well and know that i miss you. stay in touch.