I think I could happily have majored in linguistics.

Great Australian slang from Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue":
"slygrogging" = sneaking a drink
"bonzer" = excellent
"technicolour yawn" = throwing up
"scarce as rocking-horse manure" = pretty self-explanatory....
"rattle your dags" = get a move on

I have been in a much better mood the last day or so, as I've been spending more time with the other exchange students, meeting some new ones, and starting to plan my month-long vacation in March and April. Ryanair is offering 5 pound fares to various cities across Europe. Germa has agreed to be my travel buddy for at least the first couple of weeks of the break, and we might be able to spend a week at an extravagant high-class resort in Malta for an attractively small sum of money. Then we will go to France, Spain, and Italy and thoroughly abuse some EurRail passes. (It's actually cheaper to have EurRail passes shipped for free to the US and then passed on to the UK by one's parents....)

I am really enjoying most of my classes, except for the one about Elizabethan literature, which is all right, although I'm not really that interested in "the body" as a concept. But it meets the "genre studies / advanced theory" requirement so I guess I'll stay in it and be able to sign up for more fun classes when I get back next spring.

I have almost finished making my first mitten. It is lovely. I think the pattern just needs a button for some final decoration. You'll probably be forced to look at a picture of it when I'm done whether you care or not.

Tomorrow we (myself, Saudya, Lori, and Falcon [yes, that is his name - he is Chinese and picked that English name for himself in first grade or something]) are going to Liverpool, so you will get to enjoy pictures of that soon. I might also go to Langdale, in the Lake District, on Sunday, on the off chance that 3 people signed up for the trip decide to drop out of it. Definitely going to Tyndrum, Scotland the weekend after, where I will be adventurous and camp in the UK's frigid January weather. I assume I'll come back a) deeply miserable and in need of a long hot shower or b) addicted (albeit irrationally) to winter hiking expeditions. Or some combination of the two. I will be sure to let you know.

Now I will go attempt to make scrambled eggs for lunch.
Much love,
Julia