(8:55 pm GMT)  i took some finals today, seven essays in three and a half hours.  i am drained, mostly, and ready to see my friends and go to the harp and sit on my couch, eating macaroni and cheese and watching the simpsons.

debra says hello, and that she is ready for free refills.

(9:45 pm GMT)  today, in rochester cathedral:
dr freed:  see those flying buttresses over there?
us:  yeah.
dr freed:  those are early flying buttresses.  if you went to notre dame you’ll-
me:  so, the late flying buttresses aren’t here yet?
dr freed:  oh, shut up.

rochester is where charles dickens lived for awhile, and after visiting the charles dickens centre, our class walked around town a bit.  matt and i were noticing the dickens-themed shops along the streets, and we decided that rochester is a lot like stratford-on-avon, where the town clings desperately to one tiny thread of connection between it and someone famous.  after we saw a restaurant called a taste of two cities, it was all over from there.  we came up with the oliver twists pretzel shop, the great expectorant pharmacy, the david coppersmith jewellers, and my own personal pride, the pickwick tapers candle store.  a little victorian humor for you, there.

then it was raining, and canterbury, and three girls in a phonebooth, crying, and three girls sharing two umbrellas and soaking wet on a cold train to paddington.  everything changes in seconds

also: cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt.

(9:57 pm GMT)  today i made a map of the holborn tube stop.  diane and holly and i wandered up and down stairs and escalators and across platforms, pens and paper in hand as we drew lines, crossed them out, turned, looked, drew again.  an underground employee stopped to ask us if we were okay.  i can only imagine what we must have looked like: obsessive tourists really intent on finding the exact way round.  funny.

now i’m going to go back to the dorms, finalize the map, put laundry in the dryer, and write six short journal entries for class tomorrow.  do i have any free time?  not so much.  tomorrow evening i’m going to take the train to oxford to see my best friend from when i was five.  i haven’t seen her since then, so we’ll have to find each other on the train platform somehow, and then catch up on the last fifteen years.  how am i supposed to summarize fifteen years?  junior high high school college waitress waitress college web design college college internet london.  it doesn’t make any sense at all.

oh, and look!  it’s us in the park, and me in mark’s sunglasses!  as mark said, we kicked life in the ass.  i may not have much free time, but i’ll definitely see mark again before i leave next week.  next week!  jesus.