Well this is just ridiculous. Didn't I just get off a plane at Heathrow? Wasn't I just at orientation and (stupidly) excited about buying a school planner? And now I'm starting to research for my essays and taking out 6-10 books from the library. When did that happen? Just to add to the end of semester excitement, I have come down with a nice stomach bug. (Is it bad I'm mostly upset because I was so looking forward to the pizza I was hoarding for dinner tonight? I might still go for it.) So with the combination of four essays plus an annoying bug, I foresee only leggings and two ill-fitting sweaters on rotation for the next month while I recover and write until my eyeballs fall out. RIP showering/makeup/actual clothes. For anyone who meets me in the next four weeks, I sincerely apologize:

The following is an actual email conversation with my father. Even though we now know the outcome (SPOILER ALERT: we lost), I still love the fact that this is the kind of email I get from my dad. Notes are in italics: Dad:    Cardinal Bertone is 5 to 1 odds to become Pope. If you lay down 20 pounds , you will win 100        pounds! And you can keep it!!  Xxxooo Dad -------- Me  (two days later, since I chose to ignore it the first time I read it) :  Are you being serious?? I don't even know how to "lay down" 20 pounds. More importantly, will I be arrested? --------- Dad:  No it's all legal! You go into one of the betting parlors and make a bet of 20 pounds and place it on “Bertone” for Pope. When he is elected  (note the confidence) , you go back to the place with the ticket and collect your money based on the odds (5 to 1, 6 to 1, etc) Very simple! xo Dad --------- Me :  Should I do it today?  Just so you know, this is probably the most ridicul

After an extremely successful Skype session with my parents, my mother has come up with the perfect name for my Benedict Cumberbatch mission, referenced in this  previous blog post . It shall henceforth (turning British) be known as: CUMBERWATCH 2013 Speaking of mothers, it is actually Mother's Day here in the UK. (It's actually called Mothering Sunday which is so wonderfully specific). So Happy UK Mother's Day to my lovely Ma and all the other mothers out there! Thanks for always taking my panicked phone calls when I'm having a quarter life crisis and/or can't find any peanut butter. And for, of course, supporting my obsession with an actor. You're just the best.

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It's one of my main goals to see Benedict Cumberbatch while in London (along with you know, completing my Masters). For those of you who are unfamiliar, he is most known in the States as playing Sherlock Holmes in the awesome BBC/PBS version (which is honestly very very good, if you haven't seen. Go watch it tonight. And no it's not that show on CBS called  Elementary. Or the movie with Robert Downey Jr. Just go  here . Geez). He's also going to be in the upcoming Star Trek and Hobbit films, for those of you who like that sort of thing. I might become a Trekkie just to see him and Chris Pine in the same film frame. ANYHOO, he's actually been in a ton of other films as well, but it's one of those things where you only realize it about five years after the fact when you're randomly watching The Other Boleyn Girl on the airplane and see his face. (Don't lie, you know you'd choose that movie too if it was just between that and the/any Katherine He

In case you were curious, this is what happens at a German beer hall in London on a Saturday night. Gute Nacht!