Visitors all over the place

I have been a busy girl lately and it is in no small part due to all the visitors I have been having. My parents were here last week and I spent some time with them, although I didn't get to do as many fun things with them as I would have liked. My coursework is due the end of this month and I have been trying to balance getting work done and goofing off. (this counts as goofing off) Then Genie, my old flat mate from SF came for a visit and left on Monday. It was so good to see her! Having her here really made me want to move home. I have been thinking about staying for a little while longer but then she reminded me about all the fun people who are at home




Anywho, having Genie here was great for lots of reasons but one is that she has been here before so we got to do some of the more obscure things in London. Like our trip to Highgate, a famous cemetery in North London. The only really famous person buried there is Karl Marx, which I suppose is a big one, but his monument is so cheese that I feel kind of embarrassed for him. You think they could have done better. Genie and I both began to rethink our love of walking around old cemeteries when encountering two rather strange women who asked us if we had come across anyone famous. One of them began telling us about some Arab people who were buried somewhere near by but I seriously had no idea what she was talking about. We began to worry this might be us in a few years.

We also went to Greenwich which was really great. The weather has been super nice and trip down there was a perfect idea. Tons of markets to run around in and beer gardens all over the place. It is also where "time was invented". Before Genie left we also made it down to Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens is really really nice but also really expensive to get into. With the exchange rate being officially 2:1 we debated on if it was worth the 25 US dollars but since we had gone all the way down there we figured might as well. The place is huge and of course beautiful. I can't say that I would be inspired to spend that much money to go again as there are numerous free big parks around but I am glad I went once. Thanks for coming to see me Genie and it was great seeing you Mom and Dad!

It's Sunny! (I think)

I am pretty sure the sky is blue right now but it is hard to be sure. It looks kind of gray but I think that is smog. It is really strange living some place again with smog. San Francisco may have been foggy most of the time but at least when it was clear it was crystal clear. This smog stuff is no good.

I am suppose to be working on my class work now as I have 6 papers due at the end of April but I thought I would procrastinate a bit and update my blog. Hmmmm. Well, my trip to Turkey is off. I couldn't decide how long to go for and once I decided the tour I wanted was booked. I am pretty bummed about it. Especially since I e-mailed them and asked how far ahead I should book and theoretically still had plenty of time. Oh well. Now instead I am going to Sri Lanka. A place I have heard of before but didn't really know where it was. It is near India on the Indian Ocean. It is dirt cheap to go, cheaper than Turkey, and I will be going with a friend from school so at least I won't be alone. I am still going to Turkey though. Dammit. We are going to Sri Lanka at the end of the monsoon season (depending on which source you ask that is. Some claim it is the middle of the monsoon season) so we run the risk of being rained out but we are going to risk it. It all feels very exotic.

Have I mentioned my new love for fennel? I got one in my vegi box and not knowing what to do with it my sister passed on a recipe for lentils with fennel and it was so good I made myself sick cause I couldn't stop eating it. I am getting some more in my box next week and I can hardly contain my excitement. Hee hee.

Alright, back to work. Sigh...