all swallowed in their coats

Good morning, world! I am getting ready to walk 10 minutes to my office.

POP QUIZ: how many layers am I wearing here?
a. 3
b. 3/4 of a sheep
c. NOT ENOUGH
d. all of the above

(No, I am not going to shut up about being cold.) I feel like I have American Nesting Syndrome, where I try to put on as many layers as possible all the time. You could probably reassemble the sheep all my wool things have come from.

And you guys, this is DECEMBER. It's going to get colder. I have a couple of American friends, one of whom is from Virginia; she's been wearing two (wool) coats already. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO IN FEBRUARY

keep calm & carry on: it's a thing

When Americans talk about stereotypes they often forget about themselves - how are we seen by the rest of the world? (I have many feelings about this, of course.) More often than not, I've discovered that Americans are viewed as industrious people. (Or, at least, I am seen as such a person.)

Things will frequently go awry and nobody seems to notice. Well, not even awry, that makes it sound like something terrible has happened. But "Keep calm and carry on"? That's not a joke. That's a real mantra here. Well, they might not say it, but it's been totally internalized.

Little things will happen in our flat- like the lightbulb that burned out in our hallway over a month ago - and nobody seems to mind the inconvenience of not having a lightbulb there. All we have to do is go down to the accommodation office and ask for a new one, but everyone seems to be okay with not having light there. This is fairly minor - the second week that we were here, we didn't have running water when we woke up one morning. No running water meant no shower AND no coffee (and no tea), and my three flatmates sort of thought about it and decided well, it wasn't the best of situations but surely we will manage. I got dressed to go find someone to fix this situation immediately, because water is one of those important things that people need to have.

But it's not just my in my apartment. The other week, we blew a fuse in the department's kitchenette. While this remained unfixed, the tea drinkers were all busy running around chasing/hoarding the kettle across the department. Meanwhile, the coffee drinkers would be herded to move the giant industrial coffeemaker to the next nearest office, sit and wait for the coffeemaker to do its thing, and then move it all back into the kitchen in case whoever's office it wasn't around or was busy when the next coffee round happened. This was fixed pretty quickly, lest the department fall apart from lack of tea. Meanwhile, the door handle of the ladies room fell off and nobody seems to be especially concerned. We might get trapped in the toilet for a while if we're not careful - but no bother! Nobody (besides me) seems to be overly concerned about these things. In fact, I would maybe venture to guess that nobody is worried about anything here.

Similarly and/or tangentially, nobody seems to be especially upset over not having internet. In fact, I know a lot of people who don't have internet in their flat. Not only does this seem to be an extraordinarily normal thing, nobody seems to be particularly bothered by it. (In contrast, I get stressed out if I'm going to be at Glasgow University library for more than 2 hours, because I will not be able to get online without a Glasgow university username to check my email.) I guess it is the same sort of idea of just keeping calm and carrying on.

This boggles my mind, but I am slooooowly getting used to it. I'm quickly learning that if something happens it could take a few days to get fixed. A printer jam in the States will be fixed in about 5 minutes, but here we might be printerless for a week or so, but we'll manage somehow. We always do.

a brief treatise on plugs OR, heather is a stupid american

[editor's note 1: once upon a time, specifically in 2008, i went to Cambridge University for a six-week study abroad program through the unh english department. today's post is edited and reblogged from my blog about that trip. if you are the curious type, you can read my old blog here.

editor's note 2: some friends of mine from college - wow that is weird to say - and i have just started a music blog, where we post playlists. check that out if you want some free music from us.]

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Did you know that plugs are different abroad? I didn't until I was preparing to go to the UK the for the first time. I think it would be great if someone designed some sort of universal plug for every major part of the world; it would certainly make things easier.

I'm assuming we are all familiar with the American system of plugs: some have two prongs and others have three prongs. This (I think) has something to do with voltage; the three-prong plugs presumably use more volts than their two-pronged cousins. This system is also used in Canada.

However, the rest of the world uses different plug shapes. You can buy extensive kits! It's sort of exciting. To quote a plug-adapter seller,
"If you are planning to use electrical appliances in another country, you need to know which type of electrical voltage is used in that specific country and which type of plugs and outlets are using there. If the voltage is the same or you’re using a universal power supply, all you need is a plug adapter converter to change line voltage from one to another amount. Please note there are different types of adapters for the specific countries, please select the right one when you’re traveling (otherwise, the adapter will not work because this is not specific design for that country)."

Furthermore, "a 120-volt electrical appliance designed for use in North America or Japan will provide a nice fireworks display - complete with sparks and smoke - if plugged into a European socket."





Up there are a bunch of illustrations showing a variety of different plug types worldwide. The UK uses plug style H. The internet tells me so, and the internet is always right... I have a bunch of these adapters sitting around; I hope they work and don't make things go kaboom. [ed.: they were great. nothing blew up. always a plus in my book. they are coming back with me for round two.]

This whole system strikes me as vastly unproductive, or perhaps very lucrative, I'm not sure which. Either way, I think someone should get their act together and figure out a way to keep voltages pretty much equal or create some sort of consistent plug shape. I'm not saying everyone should adapt to American standards, but surely we can figure out how to consolidate electricity into one standard form. This system strikes me as being wildly ineffective.

Cat Power

In addition to job hunting, writing my columns, avoiding our new Guard-Toad (seriously; he sits on the handle of our fence gate and keeps an eye on things) and my latest keep-myself-occupied project, I have also been cat-sitting for the past few days. I have seen only two out of the three of them, because the third is both epileptic and apparently very shy. As you can imagine, this is totally not a scary thought at all. No way. I am most definitely not worried about the third cat.

I've never had any pets, but I like cats. (My feelings about dogs can be summed up by this. Sorry dog lovers.) What's great about cat-sitting is that you can just show up and hang out for a while with them, and they quietly appreciate the attention. I've been going over there to watch TV with them.

This one is Vache, which means "cow" in French. I hope this was on purpose. Vache is also one of the strangest cats I have ever encountered. His favorite toy is his fur brush, and he likes to walk directly into door frames and fall over. Nevertheless, he is the Cat In Charge. This is his favorite door frame. Sampson, pictured below, is very good despite looking perpetually sad. He likes to sit in this little cardboard magazine box. Zorra is the mysterious one, and therefore I do not have a picture of her.

You know how some people want to come off as normal? This lady was not very good at that. I should point out that I had not met her until a few days ago - she knows my dad, they're friends (this might explain a lot). Either way, she introduced herself with "Now, I'm not a cat lady, don't get me wrong, but THESE ARE MY BABIES." Yes ma'am. She also almost forgot to give me a key to her house; she had to go get a copy made and by 7:30 the night before her trip - wherein her plane was leaving at 8 AM for London - I still didn't have a key. Luckily she dropped one off that night. The crazy factor is definitely there, but the cats are definitely cute.

there is life after college!

I wish I had some exciting unemployment stories for you, but for the most part I have been sitting around watching episodes of 30 Rock for hours on end, reading a lot, conducting important research on pop songs featuring Ludacris (he's the best part of every single one of them, and believe me, he's featured in a lot of songs) and watching Trending Twitter Topics for new words (did you know that this whole Boston water crisis is called the 'aqua apocalypse'?). Oh, and I've been chased around my house by the most terrifying ants of all time - these fuckers are about 1/3 of an inch long and do not die.

As you can tell, it has been an exciting week and a half of unemployment. But now, through some miracle, I have a job offer!

As I have said before, I have a tendency to have very interesting summers, though entirely by accident. This summer I have an offer to be employed by the Budweiser Corporation, a part of the Anheuser-Busch Companies, as a receptionist in Medford, MA. Yes! You read that correctly: BEER SUMMER.

And it would be fun.

But there is a problem: I got this job through Craigslist, without an interview. They want me to fill out a credit report to prove that I am who I claim to be. This screams SKETCHY! I'm hoping to actually go to Medford and meet these people before I agree to anything. I have 36 hours left on my offer; I hope they get back to me!

exercise science

wish you were here!
It is monsooning here in Southern MA which means that the basement of my parents' house is flooding. We live on top of a very large hill, which means we almost never lose power, but we are prone to flooding; I have lost power more often in college than I ever have at home. Carpeting was probably a poor choice.

FUN FACTS ABOUT SIX GALLONS OF WATER
1 gallon of water is about 8.35 lbs
6 gallons of water is about 50 lbs
It takes about 5 minutes to get 6 gallons of water into our wet/dry vac
which means that if i vacuum for 30 minutes i have effectively lifted 300 lbs of water.

Who needs weightlifting when you can wet vac!