aye, welcome back to glasgae!

Getting back to Glasgow was only 7000% easier than trying to get from the UK to the US a few weeks ago, despite the 2+feet of snow we had in the Northeast the day before I was flying, so we'll skip over that, as it's pretty boring ("Sitting on a plane!" "This plane is leaving the airport!" "We are landing!" "Welcome back to Heathrow DID YOU MISS US" "Scotland!"). I am still super-jet lagged and that's going to be ongoing for a while, unfortunately -I went out for pints earlier and nearly fell asleep on the table, came home, slept for an hour and a half, woke up panicked, and now can't get back to sleep...

But anyway.

You know what? Scotland's a ridiculous country. Like, I legitimately have no idea how this place manages to function, but I did miss it in it's own little way. While I was home I found myself longing for kettles (how do we live without these?), pub life, how small things are "wee", the ridiculous unpreparedness for any weather event that is not rain, mayo or butter in everything, severe Scottish liberalism about everything ever... even not entirely understanding anything anyone says to me again is kind of fun! (I admit I did not miss having everything close at 7 pm.)

And, you know, coming back and having friends who are excited to see you is nice too - it makes it a lot less scary than the first time I landed, knowing nothing about the city (and only one person on the continent!). This semester a bunch of people I know from UNH are doing study-abroads in the UK, so I think that this will prove to be a little less alienating. It's nice to know other people in the same time zone as you.

I think I've been doing really well at assimilating to Scottish/British culture. Glasgow's a mad city, as the Brits would say, but it's almost starting to make sense.

journey home ii OR : can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are shooting stars, i could really use a wish right now, wish right now

Liveish blog: PART TWO

6:00 am wake up! WE MIGHT BE GETTING ON A PLANE TODAY
7:45 am well my flight is still happening, says BAA & Delta.com. SO NERVOUS!
8:15 am my cabdriver is hitting on me. i don't have the emotional capacity for this
8:44 am WELCOME BACK TO HEATHROW HELL, there are people still sleeping here
9:15 am Heathrow terminal 4 why are you complicated? This has been way more difficult to handle than it could have been
9:45 am hello, security // the feeling of being the whitest person in the airport today
10:00 am i don't have a gate until 11:20. This is the face of apprehension re: getting back to the us

10:08 am FLIGHT STATUS CHECK

10:20 am amazing things in the duty-free shop
10:38 am i am sitting at a starbucks drinking a (festive) peppermint mocha, because i am going back to America, and god dammit it's christmas.
11:30 am We still don't have a gate assigned yet. Going to all the duty-free shops and start getting free samples of baileys = coping mechanism
12:05 pm Called to the desk at the gate. Mystified; given a new ticket. But I already have one...
12:40 pm Boarding! OH LOOK I'VE BEEN UPGRADED TO BUSINESS ELITE. Have a glass of champagne, it's complimentary.
1:00 pm TAKE OFF / THIS PLANE IS ACTUALLY GOING SOMEWHERE
2:00 pm The on-flight lunch is a proper UK Christmas dinner- turkey and potatoes and a little thing of cranberry sauce.
2:15 pm While we serve christmas dinner, please turn your attentions to the tvs, where we are now showing How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966, boris karloff)
2:45 pm HAVE MORE WINE it's still complimentary, up here in business elite class
3:30 pm and now for a nap
4:45 pm things to watch: 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Big Bang Theory, Inception ...
Sometime between 6:45-7:45pm TIME CHANGE
3:15 pm we are landing! an hour early! HELLO NYC

4:30 pm FAMILY MEMBER ROULETTE, who is meeting me here? The last i heard was "somebody will meet you there"
4:45 pm It's my uncle! off to his house in CT, where I will meet my parents for dinner there, then back home
7:30pm WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT MIDNIGHT
9:30pm home! alive! inform everyone! go to sleep!

I am now back in new england, where a full-on blizzard, featuring upwards of 2+ feet of snow, is hitting us. My dad told me this morning that the equivalent of my flight from London to NYC today was canceled. Christ on a bicycle, I am glad to be home.

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.]

---
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.

The Dog Days Are Over

1. Happy September, blogotron readers! I am leaving for Scotland in two weeks. This is exciting! And terrifying! etc! I originally started this blog to write about grad school and my experiences living abroad and we are FINALLY GETTING THERE. In the meantime there are lots of feelings to process and many, many things to do. Soon there will be lots to blog about and probably not enough time to talk about it all. Thanks for sticking around even when things were boring. If you're new, welcome and thanks for dropping by!

2. I feel like I should mention this somewhere, but I can't figure out where else to put it. So - I guess I am putting it here. I have been to Scotland before, exactly once. In the summer of 2008, I went on a study abroad program through UNH at Cambridge University. It was a lot of fun, and one of the trips we could go on would bring us to Edinburgh for a weekend. While we were there, almost the entire group - myself included - had food poisoning, putting a bit of a damper on the whole experience. I distinctly remember feeling like hell but dragging myself down the Royal Mile, through a theatre festival, through The Scotch Whiskey Experience where we were given shots, through the Museum of Childhood, and trying to sleep on every available flat surface. (It was a strange time.) That was Day 1. (For the record, night #1 - prior to Day 1 - involved accidentally wandering into a Scottish punk club. It was awesome.)

By Day 2 I was feeling 100% better, and finally got to see the city - perhaps not in its entirety but significant portions of it. And I fell in love with Scotland. I felt like I was the only one who had fun, and I had completely forgotten about that until I revisited my diary from that trip. "You know how people talk about how they fall in love with a place the second they set foot there? That pretty accurately summarizes my feelings about Scotland. It was all so beautiful and so perfect; I could spend the rest of my life there. I was so immediately comfortable in a way I hadn't expected. I hope one day I get to go back."

GUESS WHAT, FORMER SELF. YOU ARE GOING BACK. Bet you didn't see that coming. This is going to be awesome.

at the end of days

I haven't been doing much as of late. It's nice, actually; now that (nearly) everything is done, I can take a weeklong vacation from doing things. I am mostly spending this time attending assorted Recognitions. Next week I am attending a Senior Celebration for my minor and a reception for people who did undergraduate research. I was also invited to an Affirmative Action reception before graduation to get a stole from the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Please note that my actual majors - my actual academic concentrations - are not doing anything.

I essentially was awarded for being gay the other day through OMSA's graduation reception- really though. I understand what the motivation behind this was, and I appreciate it, but in reality I was awarded for being gay. I don't do anything, so this is overwhelmingly unnecessary. (Really. Mostly I just sit around and write papers.)

But, at the same time I can't resist anything free... which might make me an immoral person, but to be honest we are inching dangerously close to All-Chicken-Meals at the dining hall, and that is not cool, UNH dining. And many of these receptions are catered.

a time line

Presumably if you've been following my blog lately this post is a little bit unnecessary. But, whatever:


a month ago, I restarted my thesis from word one, page one.
three weeks ago, I started writing thesis 2.0
last week, I had a 17-page first draft
As of Monday afternoon, I sent my URC poster to print
As of yesterday morning, I had a URC poster
Tomorrow I'm presenting my research not once but twice!
and as of this weekend I will have a second draft.

even though the last few weeks have felt like this:

(you probably saw me wandering around campus looking like this)
I am pretty damn proud of myself for accomplishing so much in such a short period of time.

& a month from today i'll be graduating.
how does this happen!?

I have blogged about cars way more than I ever anticipated

I drive a 2009 Toyota Corolla named Franz. Needless to say I have not felt very safe lately.

In case you have not been keeping up, Toyota has been going through a whole bunch of recalls on assorted parts in their 2009 and 2010 sedans, including a floor mat which was prone to getting stuck underneath the accelerator pedal, sticking accelerators, and the possibility of increased stopping distances in cold weather because the brake vacuum port could freeze. To translate: Your car could speed out of control... and then possibly not stop! And now there are reports of steering columns locking up! This is certainly safe.

I got Franz in late May. I had been driving him from my apartment to campus and back (plus around the greater Seacoast area) all summer when the floor mat recall occured. I had a new accelerator pedal by Thanksgiving. Shortly after returning to school - which I would like to note is in New Hampshire, a cold place - in January, all these other recall notifications started to come out.

I had noticed that Franz's brakes were prone to occasionally cutting out for seconds at a time. This is a scary thing, but I am also prone to stomping on my brakes (just like Dad!) and sort of assumed that this was a byproduct of stomping on my brakes... until Mom called me in a panic over the brake/accelerator recall. Explains everything! At least I didn't have accelerator problems, that would have been infinitely worse.

But today Franz is getting his brakes and second accelerator fixed. And ironically enough, 2010 Toyota Corolla and Scion xB Earn Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 'Top Safety Pick' Award. Awesome.

Once upon a time,

I decided I was interesting enough to have a blog.

We'll see if this is true.