Sorry there's been so long between updates, I've been swamped. Just trying to get access to my clothes for classes (I needed my heavier sweaters) was a whole day ordeal of reorganizing the room like a sliding puzzle to get to things. It's great to at least be like 1/3 of the way there with the room.
I've been in orientation with the other international students all day friday, then all this week, my department is doing an orientation/intro lectures for all the new students. It's been loooooong days, with lots of mostly boring lectures about the university, the structure of the program, rules about grading and assignments, etc etc. But the reception last night was at the Great North Museum, which was gorgeous! I loved the exhibits and it was small, but so well done, and we all had it to ourselves for the night.
I got home around 9, and was so completely exhausted, I pretty much just passed out. It was freezing and raining hard all day for monday and tuesday, but even the locals say this is freakishly wild weather for Newcastle this time of year, so at least it's not like this allll the time.
Today I actually managed to make the bedroom a bit more useable, but it's still like a minefield of junk, really.
And I made bentos for myself and for Michael, since I was making one for myself. I have a field trip tomorrow. Have to meet at the bus stop at the museum at 930, we drive, I think about an hour, to the Beamish Outdoor Museum in Durham, and then spend the whole day, outside there, and then back on a bus and back to campus for "5ish". I don't mind that, really, except that it's been SO rainy for so long, parts of the city are flooded and it's almost certain that the exhibit will be at best very muddy. I really reaaaallly wish I had packed my wellies, but they were too bulky. I might try to find some cheap ones, but of course by the time I get them the floods will probably have stopped. :P
Anyway, this museum trip should be pretty cool, I like the historically accurate recreations, but I'm trying to layer as many clothes on as possible, in defense for like 9 hours outside in the very very cold. xP
I've talked to a few of classmates some, and they seem really nice. I think there are 4 other Americans on the course. I think about half the class is international, though, from all over.
We've already got some work we have to take home, and we're expected to be doing reading for the course. I think I'm going to try to find a book or two that I think will be really useful for me from the reading list (they're like suggested reading lists, not required books like back home) and try to find them for the kindle. I looked before, spent hours looking while we were in Northern Ireland, but not a lot were on kindle, because they're mostly so obscure and niche specific. But I figure I can at least try to start reading on the kindle until I can use the library, otherwise this reading list would be exceedingly expensive.
Although it even seems difficult to find some of them in the library, but some of the classes have a hundred or more books listed for the recommended reading, and it's not in any order, so really I just want to look something that seems like it would fill some gap in my knowledge. Or at least be interesting. :) I want to start that reading asap.
Oh and I've unpacked 2 of the 4 suitcases! I actually feel accomplished, because we've basically got no more space left, and I still have 2 suitcases to unpack, although one is a lot of winter hats, scarves, gloves, coat liners, thermals, etc, so I don't know, maybe I can just keep that in that and live out of it for the coldest months.
I've been notified that my loan has gone through, by the way, and I'm trying to find a checkbook company to ship to the UK. The phone is working, by the way. It's 07717577262. Although, I haven't really mastered using the phone yet. And it's Michael's old phone because I couldn't get mine unlocked.
This week is absolutely packed, and with the terrible weather, and trying to make the room liveable and trying to sort of finances, and visa stuff, looking for jobs, academic advising, etc, etc, etc. It just never ends. Plus of course the required welcome/intro/rules/etc lectures every day, except tomorrow, with the field trip.
It seems like the classes are going to be pretty intense, too, but at least some look interesting and they all definitely seem useful. I like the professors so far, no one's too hard to understand. And the director of the program is American! Which is cool, she's been really helpful with academic advising about my degree and with general like questions about some differences between lecture set up here and back home. So, that's good.
:P And I'm super excited about getting my robe finally, because we're trying not to use the heat and it's SO cold. I'm wearing it over jeans, wool socks, 2 shirts and a sweater, and I'm finally feeling warm, except my face. My nose is approximately -2 degrees. xP
Sorry all that was jumbled, but I'm about to go to sleep. I've got to get up extremely early tomorrow. Lots of love! <3

So... more updates, sooner, I promise!

quickie FYI: I have a SIM card for my phone, but naturally, it now won't unlock. I've got the code and everything from the company, but it's not working. I've contacted the company and they've taken my issue to some specialist team or something, but goodness knows. It's driving me NUTS to not have a phone or any way to text/whatsapp/heywire/aaanything at all, but  hopefully it'll be sorted out soon. And if worst comes to worst, I can use Michael's old phone, which he already has unlocked. But it's back in Newcastle, so that would mean, still no phone until the 20th.
We're in Northern Ireland til the 20th, but I'll post properly before we get home again. Love to everyone! <3

So, we are not yet in Northern Ireland. Had a few delays. :( So I missed Ash's bridesmaids get together. We're booking our tickets ASAP, though. Parents: I'll let you know, of course. :) Also, I'm sorry I still don't have a phone, I'm working on it. <3

Not much exciting, really. Michael requested that I make southern barbeque, so I made pulled pork with home made sauce. He loved it, and it looks like now we might be hosting a southern-food style party sometime soon. At least it's good weather for barbequeing now- just warm enough and sunny enough to want to be outside, and cool enough to be comfortable around the grill. ... Except we'd need a grill. xP I made the pulled pork in the slow cooker.

We went to a lovely little show last night, at a cafe called "Butterfly Cabinet." Three live acts, but I thought the best by far was a group of 4 women called Bridie Jackson. I might have actually bought a CD if we'd had the money. But, it was really nice and very chill, so it was the perfect way to get acclimated to the social scene over here. I need to warm up before we try anything with loud music and heavy drinking, or, god forbid, dubstep. :P

I'd best get to sleep here, it's 1 am. Good night! <3 xoxo

Just a quick update, mostly on food, because I'm kind of proud of my little bentos.
Anyway, :) it's been gorgeous weather here, I think it's rained once. A bit chilly, but I'm adjusting. I'm still working from one end of the house to the other cleaning. I've done the bathroom and the kitchen, but of course they just get dirty again, so I'm resisting the urge to eat out just so my lovely shiny kitchen can last one more day. We're even starting to decorate. I've got the bathroom mostly decorated, but I've still got to do the wall vinyls over the patterned tiles. And we even hung a poster! :P And I've started on the back area, sweeping up trash long accumulated. It'll always be moss and old bricks, so we're working with what we've got. I do have a few projects for out there, but that's way less necessary. It was just so nice I couldn't resist finding a legitimate reason to wander outside. Oh, and the landlord thinks he can find some extra storage furniture for us, so that might actually allow me to unpack my suitcases. The really nice thing is, so far, it's actually been cheaper to fit out the house with the little things, and get cleaning supplies, cooking implements, etc, than I budgeted for. That's a nice trend to start *crossing my fingers*.
So that's the house stuff...
Not much else is going for us, besides coordinating our cleaning efforts in the house, shopping for necessities. Trying to get things at the best value is time consuming. When we have the time we'll be going to 4 different stores regularly, and one of those is the huge open market "Grainger Market." But it does seem to be worth it. Especially since we have the time right now.

The only remotely interest things I've done today have been with cooking. Michael suggested I try lamb's heart last time we were at the butcher. He convinced me to let him buy is and we cooked it up tonight. I'll just say I'm willing to give it another go, but only because it really is very cheap and very lean. Next time we slow cook it. This time it was like exceedingly MEATYmeat with the texture of worn out car tire. But, oh well, I feel brave for trying it. I couldn't watch Michael cutting it up, it was soooo bloody and ....heart-like.
But after dinner, which was more experimental than I could quite handle, I made us both healthy bento lunches for tomorrow!

Mine: 2 small tupperware

:P I made a shooting star out of light chili cheese and a cucumber

  Michael's: One large tupperware

Got heart and the tiny shaped silicon containers 4 and 6 for a pound at poundland. Brilliant store.


Anway, that' my big accomplishment of the last few days. None of the rooms are completely done, so I can't unveil them yet. :P


***so previous post didn't post yesterday, I fell asleep before I actually submitted it, whoops***

Only new thing today is that our crockpot works well, I'm making eggplant, mushroom and lean beef bolognese sauce in it, although, we REALLY have to leave it running ages, it doesn't seem very powerful.
Oh and to my great pleasure the bentos were lovely! Needed a bit more seasoning maybe, but that can wait til we have some watertight very small containers. They make little plastic bottles for bentos, I might order them. And Michael even liked the cucumbers with black pepper cheese! He's been refusing to eat cucumber unless it's buried in lots of other ingredients. Everything was fine overnight in the fridge, veggies were even crisp. :)

Oh and apparently I may have to out to a club soon. :P I'm bracing myself for the night club scene again. It's such a shock to the system. I mostly like my staying-at-home-knitting lifestyle. But, it'll be fun, the rifle club are going out somewhere as a pre-uni get together. It was always entertaining with them last year. Going to be interesting to get ready out of 4 different suitcases. xP

Anyway I should really be doing other work. The kitchen's a never ending mess as you keep having to do messy stuff in it. But, I cut my finger cooking (first time I've cut myself in ages! It would happen while I'm super busy) so getting soap or chemicals on my skin hurts. But I've really got more than enough jobs to do tomorrow, I can't use it as an excuse to get out of working more. :P

Good night y'all! xoxo

<3 xoxo 

New Doctor Who

Last night was the season premier of Doctor Who! It was great! A couple friends came over to chat and watch the show with us. Mostly I'm just still trying to sort out my bank account, cell phone, bills, and flat stuff right now. Spent most of yesterday shopping in town, and cleaning. But, I did get to make sushi again, and much better this time! The rice was tooooo sticky, I couldn't get it thin enough on the nori, so it's much too rice heavy, but it was cool to be able to eat my own sushi roll. :P

All the cleaning is paying off! The living room is mostly cleaned, the kitchen just needs to be swept, and then we can dive into the absolute clothes-ridden hell that is the bedroom. Living out of suitcases long term is soo messy. I've been hunting for warm sweaters and jackets and knee socks and leggings. It's actually lovely! But the house is even colder than the outside most of the day! But, we're not using the heating until we're really desperate, so I've got fuzzy socks and sweatshirts and sweaters in the house. 

I can't wait for my house stuff to come from amazon (and to get my bags at least partly unpacked). Then I can throw myself into decorating the flat. I'm really hoping I can get it totally cleaned and get all the really un-fun stuff totally done before classes start. Start at zero so we only have to upkeep on the cleaning.

Anyway, I should probably get back to that cleaning. Post soon,

xoxo <3