Thursday, August 31, 2006

In which I reveal about half of my personal flaws

I realized this morning, while groggily pulling clumps of mascara from those tricky lower lashes, that today, two weeks before departure, is the day I had arbitrarily decided to begin packing. And yet somehow, when I set out to do it after supper, I had -- get this -- absolutely no desire to drag out suitcases and put things in them! Is the world imploding?? Has George W. Bush just ministered a gay wedding? Am I no longer interested in hopelessly boring things (reading, loafing, blogging, aspiring to become a librarian)? I suspect I am not suddenly much more interesting but rather just lazy. When anal-retentiveness jousts with sloth, you know the nap is going to win out.

My sister, meanwhile, is packing to leave for her first year of college, though I don't remember this being a hand-holding sort of process, nor am I aware of a divine entity having presented me with prophet status and a set of stone tablets outlining The Unbreakable Rules of Packing for College. But due to the as-yet-undiagnosed OCD, I have a four-page packing checklist that has accidentally convinced my sister that I am the Patron Saint of Putting Crap in Boxes. This is a title I would gladly accept if it were not for the Endless Questions of Dubious Answerability, the first and best being, "Um, how do I pack?"

She has also decided that she actually owns most of my belongings and has expressed an interest in the following items: my floor lamp, my straightening iron, my CD tower, my refrigerator, my whiteboard and my down comforter (apparently hers doesn't match). Granted, most of these things I'm not taking with me, and it's not like I'm going to need a blanket in the sunny, tropical British Isles. Duh.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Things I think I know

24 days till departure. It's still far too early to pack, so I get my kicks from obsessive travel research. I've loaded up on minute details of British culture, but I haven't experienced any of it firsthand, so I'm feeling kind of like a virgin sex columnist lately. Here are some tidbits I've picked up, though to what extent they are true, I won't know till I get there:

1) The vast majority of Britons hate peanut butter, because somehow their peanut butter is nearly inedible while peanut butter in the US is regarded as a veritable food of the gods. I am warned not to even buy things that are labeled "American Peanut Butter" if I would like to live to see the sun rise again. This is the reason that I am setting aside 1 pound of my 100-pound luggage allotment for a jar of my hippy-dippy all-natural peanut butter.

2) It rains. A lot.

3) It gets cold. Though as a hardened New Englander, I'm fairly certain that I can take anything they throw at me. Ice storm of 1998, anyone?

4) I received a piece of literature in my study abroad packet that gave a brief history of the UK, climate information, geography, etc. In so many words it also said that the British people are a rather private sort and you should not do things like touch them or talk about personal things like politics or religion or bowel movements. I'm okay on the personal space requirements, but I'm going to have to control my verbal diarrhea (ha!) when it comes to TMI.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

If Heaven were a website

This is quite possibly the best thing ever. At the very least, it's up there with grilled cheese sandwiches and Eddie Izzard.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Adventures in Airport Frustration, Part 1 of 57

The study abroad program director just emailed us with information on the new "tweaked" security measures, and praise Zeus for tweaking because I was certainly not going to bring all my business in a clear plastic bag. I mean, it's a given that people traveling to the UK will have a passport or other theft-prone items, but I'd rather not put it out there as "I AM DISTRACTED AT THE TICKET COUNTER, SO PLEASE NOTICE MY AMERICAN PASSPORT, £50.12 IN CASH AND SUPER-ABSORBENCY TAMPON!"

So because I must feed my inner researchasaurus, I immediately googled "carry-on baggage US UK" and found that although I can now bring solid lip balm, I will have to remove the gel inserts from the boots I bring on board. Also, all water bottles must be empty, but it would kill me to waste all that empty space in my luggage with my giant nalgene, so I'll probably stuff it with things like hankies or underpants or something. Although now that I think of it, I don't have a good reason for packing ahead of time if I'm not going to be able to avoid having my life spread out in front of a few dozen co-travelers and a couple of armed security personnel. I should just haul all my stuff to the airport in a crate and pack in the terminal.

This is too much! As it is, I am just coming to terms with the thought of spending a year without my mattress topper. Oh, the horror! (We're going to overlook the fact that I just googled "UK university mattresses" in a hopeful attempt to find the blog of a prior traveler announcing the superiority of British dormitory bedding to American.)

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Reasons I am going to London

1. Cute boys with cute accents

2. I conveniently have a handle on all the national languages

3. To develop a sense of style by osmosis

4. To explore the British countryside, pretending I am a country vet in the 1930s, without the inconvenience of having to violate cows with bowel problems on wintry nights

5. To meet the following people: any member of the royal family, Ewan McGregor, Paul McCartney, any man who has played the role of Mr. Darcy

6. Learning stuff, I guess (that's what I tell my university)

7. To unwittingly suspend my accent between Bostonian and British so that Brits still know I am American, but my family will think I am just being pretentious and inform me that they have had quite enough with the affected accent, thank you