Hello. Remember me?

Here's where it stands--

Dublin last weekend, which was a riot. I stayed with my friend from school who's studying there, and we had a really good time. It was cold, rainy, and grey for most of the time. One of the days, however, it was sunny and warm (ish), so we went hiking. I know! Me! Hiking!

The city seems really nice and charming-- I can confidently say that the bar scene is excellent. The people are extremely nice. Like, sometimes too nice. I would have women talking to me while I queued for the bathroom, which is a strange experience if you live in a big city like London. My friend's friends are all super nice and we had a big party weekend, so I was pleased.

Then this weekend, I was in Amsterdam. The place is gorgeous and I loved it. The flight over was a bit bumpy and I had the pleasure of watching it all from a window seat. For a few minutes, I was fairly sure we were going down into some fields. The girls next to me thought so, too.

I rented bikes with my friends and we ruled the roads (::cough::), clanking our bells at people that got in our way and eating Dutch pancakes until we couldn't move. I was really shocked by the Red Light District-- the first time we walked down the canal, I wasn't really prepared. A lot of the "ladies" in the windows are really beautiful and fit, and it's a strange thing to see men walking straight into their bedrooms and curtains being closed. There was also a fair amount of sex shops, which was fun to poke inside-- you become completely desensitized.

Weather was great, tulips were lovely, and shopping was done. The flight home was a minor disaster, however. BA overbooked the flight (going to London on a Sunday night? Really?), and of course I didn't get a seat. I hung around and annoyed everyone until they got me on a plane to Heathrow leaving 30 minutes later. My friend gave up her original seat to come with me, and I think she was probably glad she did. We got upgraded to business class (window seat for me!), refunded 125 euros (did I mention the flight was 85 pounds round trip? Hello, free flight and then some!), and sent home in a minivan with 3 other disgruntled BA customers after waiting around for an hour. Safe to say, I will not be flying with them again anytime soon. Unless it's cheap. T5 lived up to expectations, read into that what you will.

Yesterday, my final portfolio was due for school. Of course, thanks to leaving work at my usual time (6:30), plus the commute and no stationary stores being open*, I got there almost 40 minutes late.

*Side note: I have not felt like I was in a third world country for a while (ahem, FRANCE. Why oh why are your stores closed on Sundays?), but yesterday was definitely one of those times. Why does EVERY store on the High Street but M&S close at 7 PM on a Monday? Why don't ANY other stores, including computer, book, corner, and card stores, sell binders?? WHY??

Once at school, I eventually talked my way into the library to turn in my paper. They had locked the door and weren't prepared to let me in, as though I had just printed it out 10 minutes ago and waltzed in drunk. Obviously this is an important paper, and it's important to me. I explained to the woman that I work in Shoreditch, and had done my best to get there.

I left out how I couldn't find a binder and had to buy a pink ribbon to thread through the hole-punched pages to keep it together. The nice guy working at the card shop had palmed me an extra plastic document cover from his stock folder, so at least I had something to put the damn thing in. I also didn't mention how I decided against running the 20 minutes to school, instead springing for a cab. And of course the cab got stuck in traffic.

Definitely my bad for not doing it earlier, but a couple of things ended up adding together into a big mess. HOWEVER. Paper got turned in, I'm done with that nonsense, and now I can look forward to seeing my mom and aunt tomorrow.