15 Jan

Ah, a truly lazy Sunday. Woke up just past 12, slowly got ready and made some more sandwiches for lunch. Andy was online so I chatted with him for a bit while I did some surfing for Spain stuff (where to go, where to say, etc). I went down to Sainsbury around 3 for some groceries and ran into Lainey on her way up. She was in Scotland for the weekend and had just come back. Sounds like she had a wonderful time but didn’t get a lot of sleep (talk about contrasting weekends!) Sainsbury was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it, but when I realized that it was Sunday afternoon, the crowd made sense. I bought even more Innocent^® smoothie (I really wish they sold it in the States or where we are; the stuff is amazing). Made it back to the dorm around a quarter to four and just chatted with Lainey and Gregg for a bit. We’ll probably go to The Fox or something for dinner, since Lainey heard that the hall serves the worst food on Sunday evenings. She also thought it would be fun to make Sunday evenings our “Fox nights” where we become regular customers. Not a bad idea since the food is pretty good, close, and reasonably cheap. If anything, it’s a nice break from PB+jam and dining hall food. More to come later…

Before going to dinner, Gregg and I copied a great idea of Lainey’s. Desperate for some decoration on her door and in her room, she bought a Vogue magazine and cut out letters for her name to paste on the door. I thought this was a brilliant idea and promptly asked to borrow the magazine when she was done. I found enough good letters for my name and decided to spell it phonetically instead of accurately on the door to help people with the pronunciation. It’s a devil of a name, I know, though it really is quite dreamy. Gregg is from Dallas though he attends Georgetown in D.C. and so he had the great idea of drawing and coloring in a Texas flag for his door. Unfortunately, he only had a blue marker and a red pen so Lainey and I heard him scratching away for several minutes before he finished. It looks really good (I’ll take pictures). I would draw a NC flag but no one would get it, and I don’t want to draw and American flag because a) it’s too hard, and b) I don’t want to seem overtly patriotic because that might give the wrong impression. It’s already obvious I’m an American; they know it hear from the moment you open your mouth (though apparently we’ve also been mistaken for Australians!). I’ll work some more on the door and room and send pictures when they finally look pretty.

We did in fact go to The Fox and I had a delicious (if rather small) bowl of Mediterranean pasta filled with crunchy and much-needed veggies. Lainey, Gregg, and Tom experimented with the mysterious “brown sauce” that they found in the condiment jars. Apparently, it’s a slightly acidic version of barbeque sauce. We just found the name incredibly dull and so vague as to be a little disconcerting to the unsuspecting taster. Lainey also had fun telling the difference between “French mustard” and “English mustard” and found the odd brown color of the French one too gross to warrant further inspection. It’s the small things, remember, the small things. As we were finishing up I spotted the moon through the window and was thrilled upon leaving the pub to find a mostly clear sky with a bright, nearly full moon shining in it. Clear skies at any time of day are rarities these days so it’s nice to celebrate when you can. After I got back to the dorm I just chilled for a while on the computer and read for a bit. I wanted a semi-early start the next day so I went to bed around 1 (I know this part is sounding like a broken record, but is there a more creative way of succinctly stating it?). Cheers!