Liked by Everyone, Favorite to No One

So just thought i'd give a little update of what i have been up to since my final exam.

I finnished my algeria exam on tuesday morning (Tues May 24th) and went out to a pub in town called "Ye Olde John O'Gaunt" for an authentic english pub lunch and a couple of pints. Later, After a mid-afternoon kip i met up with my friends again and we went out to the Water Witch, one of Britain's top 10 pubs; where it ranks amoung the top 10 i don't know but it is up there. After a few pints at the Water Witch, we moved on to Revolution, stayed there for a bit, then went to a club called Hustle. Hustle was having a 70's night so we went back to Rev's to end the evening. Was a great night.

Wednesday, i just recooperated from a nasty hang-over. thats the price you pay when you are drinking pints, and spirits together. later that evening i went over to a friends place to watch a boot-legged copy of Sin City. It was an awesome movie. A bit gory and insane in parts, but the comic book feel mixed with black and white really made it stand out.

Thursday i met up with my friends again this time we has a low key evening. we went out for a few drinks, at Rev's to celebrate two other friends finnishing their exams. we headed back to theirs and rented a film, Gothika and only watched 1/2 of it before we all crashed. i opted to crash at their house as no buses were opterating that late at night and it is a 2 mile walk back to uni in the dark.

Friday everyone in Westgreaves went to sort some things out on campus so I caught a ride with them back home. That evening we all went out for a meal, and some drinks again to celebrate the whole group finnishing their exams. Andy was the last one to finish his exams and we all went to Crows resturant for a huge meal and then back to Rev's for a night of drunken debauthcery.

Saturday morning, i made my way back to Campus to get some washing done. That evening Ben and I, the only ones who hadn't left to go home, the only two left in Lancaster (except Andy who was visiting with some friends from work), went to go see Star Wars III. Ben stoped by the university, picked me up and then we hung out at his for a while and then went to catch the film. It ended at 11:30pm and this night i decided to actually sleep in my own bed for a change, not their couch, so i caught the bus back to uni and jsut hung out with the guys on the corridor for the remainder for the evening.

Sunday was uneventful. I got my life back in order, cleaned up my room, etc. that evening Laurie, Dave and I went up to Williamson's park to have an evening picknick with some of Laurie's friends. We sat on this huge sundial and watched the sun set on the city and Morecambe Bay.

Monday was a lazy day. it was a bank holiday monday so everything was closed. no job hunting for me that day. I met up with Bryony, she had been in Belgium for the weekend attending her cousin's wedding, for coffee. We sat in the sun and enjoyed our milkshakes. the weather has been absoultly beautiful here. sunny, blue skies and warm temperatures. it was a sad meeting however as she has left with Ben, and Andy for spain and wont be returning to Lancaster unil the 15th of June. If i can get a good job, i might not be here when they get back. so we said out goodbye's, but i know i'll see her again. I know i'll see them all again.

Finally Tuesday, today. i have been doing a bit of research into possible employment. but have also been facing reality a bit. this working abroad thingy is going to be a lot harder than i thought. but we'll see what happens.

Tomorrow i'm going to be meeting with Uncle John and Aunt Juanita for the first time ever. I hope the meeting goes well and that we get along. i'm a bit nervous, i've never met my uncle before, what am i going to talk to him about?

now that i have updated this thing, i'm going to get back to the job research.

British friends

British friends
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

All good things must come to an end. I have a few days shy of a month left here at Lancaster, and already i am experiencing the separation anxiety that comes with participating in an exchange like this one. I finnished my exams last Tuesday and have been celebrating with my friends ever since. Now that all the beer has been drunk, the laughs have been laughed, and the good times shared, things are comming to an end. They've all gone home for a short while and will be back in Lancaster intermittenly, yet i have this feeling that this last week was the last time we are all here in this place together at the same time.

My summer plans are uncertain, i could obtain my goal of working in France, or end up on a plane back to Canada. They're all moving out of their house on the 26th of June. I could be gone by then. They have a grad ball sometime in July which i hope i will be able to afford to go to, but alas at this point in the trip, it really depends on whether or not i am able to find employment.

I guess i am writing this in a way to thank them for the good times and to help myself adapt to the changes that i am going to experiencing in the next month. Change is neither good nor bad, just different. This is something that i will have to accept and know when to say good-bye when the time comes. Though it will be hard.

Lancaster feels a bit empty now that WestGreaves is empty for the week. is all.

(from front two, Kara, and Andy. Behind them, Ben, Myself, Bryony, Alex (behind my shoulder), Chris. And Caddy (the blonde to my left)

Drunk

So this is the post message of me from after my exam. i've been celebrating all evening long and am now quite ineubriated.
just got back from the bar and have been having a great time with my corridor mates and some of my friends who are now done their degrees! i'm so jealous i still have one more year to go.
anyways off to bed now before i make an even bigger fool of myself.
fuck!

And another year bites the dust

Had my last exam today. I think i did rather well on this one.
Tis the end of my duties as a student at Lancaster University, and is the end of my 3rd year of uni.
so...three down, one more to go!




Beer? Yes please!

Update

It has been a very busy and somewhat stressful week. I thought i'd sum it up here as an excuse to not study for my last final.
Last weekend i was busy revising for my final exams, it was French 236: Written discourse and french culture, one of the most boring and monotonous courses i have ever taken! It has a cool title but the content and the Professor are a bit dry.
Had that exam on monday, it went well, yet i think i totally blew the first question. Got all of the literary devices mixed up. But it is now over and done with and i don't have to worry about it ever again!
the following two days were filled with revision and reading journal articles for my next exam Geographies of health. I had that exam last thursday. On Wednesday i met up with some girls frommy class and we did a few questions from a practice exam. I left that study session feeling rather confident. I spent the remainder of Wednesday reading more journal articles and looking over notes trying to remember as much as possible.
Thursday was the exam. I don't think i did all that well in that exam either. I managed to answer the two essay questions, however i don't feel as if i had drwan on as many of the readings that i should have and as a result my answers aret as good as they coould be.
But after that exam i decided to take a break and go out and have some fun. So some of the guys and myself went out to the sugarhouse for a night out. It was a great night. though i had a horrible hang over and got sick in my sink at about 7 in the morning.
Then on friday I took Dave out to see the new Star Wars movie. It was his birthday present from me. It was a wicked movie. I really enjoyed it. I should have gotten to my studying for my last exam after the film, but i didn't. We just hung out and veged all evening.
Which leads me to today, it is 1/4 to 2 and i still haven't started in on my revision. I got up at 11:30am and have been farting around in my room, i've cleaned it up a bit and now in a further attempt to avoid work i'm writing in my blog.
but I am now done so i think i will try to get to work.
my exam, French 324: War, Politics and Writing in Algeria, is on tuesday, so hopefully 3 days is ample time to learn enought to write two fairly decent essays then.
Later.

Culture, Place and Health

Due to the stress from my exams, I have developed a nervous twitch in my right eye.



That is all.

Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Had my first exam this morning. It went alright. We were asked to define various literary definitions, none of the ones i had studied were asked, and i only managed to answer 2 of the 5 correctly. So failed that part, but I think did better on the written portion of the exam. I managed to write a discourse on the text as part of my revision, so it all boils down to how well i understood the text.
anyways i'm now going to destress, and then get back to revision, it is my geography exam that is next and i only have 3 days to read a bizillion journal articles! and each article takes me at least an hour to fully read and understand because they are so long and verbose!
I am not happy.

Sick, Sad Little World

Feeling a bit lonely right now, exam stress is getting me down. I have one more day before my first exam, and i think i will do alright, but i'm still slowly sliding into panic mode. I've been concentraiting fully on my exam for Monday and haven't spent anytime preparing for my exam on Thursday which, in my opinion, is probably the harder of the two. Luckily for my third and final exam all of my friends are taking the Algeria course as well and we'll be able to study for that a bit together, so i'm not too worried about that one.
Anyways, I'd better stop whining about not studying for my exams and actually get studying eh?
Wish me luck!

Rob and Notre Dame

Rob and Notre Dame
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

This is me at Nore Dame. Just another shot of me, in Paris.

Dinner

Family Portrate
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

There was only one night where all four of us (Maritn, Alex, Will and I) were in Paris. This was the dinnere we had before heading out to go see the Eiffle tour light up at night.

Alex, Will, and Rob

Alex, Will, and Rob
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

JUst some photos from my trip to Paris. This is Alex, Will and Myself at night with the Eiffle Tour in the back ground, and we're in ascending height order, just kind of happened that way...or did it?

Paris

Last week i was in Paris, seeing the sights and visiting with my brother (Will), sister (Alex) and her Fiancé (Martin).

This trip has been in the planning for quite a while. It all began with Alex and Martin planning a trip to the UK to visit me while on my exchange. It was a good excuse to go, plus Alex had a few friends who were also living in England. This, coupled with all the relatives that we have over here, made for excellent conditions for a trip to the UK. In the planning stages things got shifted around and we had decided to meet up in Paris instead of her spending a few days of her vacation staying in the cell-like rooms of Grizedale College in Lancaster University. Will, who also decided to travel to the Uk, for similar reasons as Alex and Maritn, was flying into Paris on the 6th. This was the reason why we all decided to meet up in Paris instead of meeting at different times in the UK.

I flew into Paris on the 4th and met up with Alex and Martin at the Aloha Hostel. Though in my personal opinion they should change the name to Canada Hostel, as many of the guests who were staying there were Canadian. If i had to hazard a guess, i'd say that well over 60% of the people who i met while staying there were Canadian. It was a welcome suprise as they were the first Canadians that i have actually met in the whole time that I have been in Europe. I do not joke.

After a long day of travelling, i arrived in Paris, at the hostel at 11:30pm. So i just chatted with Alex and Martin for an hour and then we decided to go to bed and get a good nights sleep so that we could tackle all the tourist sights the following day.

If some one were to ask me what paris is like, i'd have to honestly say its one big flight of stairs! the four of us, at various stages of our week in Paris must have climbed up every single monument in that huge city! the Eiffle Tour, l'Arc de Triomph, La grande arch de la defence, la bassillica de sacré coeur in Montmarte, not to mention the Louvre has about a bizillion different stair cases that warrented climbing. All the carbs ingested via baguettes were definitly exercised off!

May 5th we walked to the top of the Eiffle Tour, then marched back and forth through the Camps de Mars (the gardens leading up to the Tour) and ended the day at the Cathedral de Notre Dame. Very good day, very sore feet by the end of it!

May 6th we went to the Moulin Rouge (during the day when it was less impressive than it wouldhave been at night) but didn't catch a show. Cheap seats begin at 89 Euros and require fincay dress, something that backpackers don't exactly have. Luckily sacré coeur was just 5 blocks away, so we headed in that direction and walked to the top of this huge church situated on a hill. It provided some great views of one of the cities most visually pleasing neighbourhoods.
After sacré coeur we headed back to the hostel to wait for Will who was expected to arrive that afternoon. However after much waiting we finally called home to ask about Will's flight info. Turns out that he wasn't arriving until 7pm that night. So back to sight seeing we went!

L'Arc de Triomphe was next on the agenda. we climbed to the top, and were simply taking in the city from yet another birds-eye vantage point when these fighter jets flew over head trailing the Olympic colours behind them. It was an attempt by the French Gov. to gather support, from the public, for the 2012 Summber Olympic Games bid. Managed to get a few good shots both from the top of the Arc and the bottom!
Will arrived later that evening and we all went out for a meal and a walk to the Eiffle Tour to see it light up at night. quite impressive!

The following day Martin left us to return to Montreal. Alex, Will, and I were all left to our own devices. So we spent the first part of the day at the Louvre, getting cultured and... shit. We did the main touristy sights, the Mona Lisa, and Venus de Milo, but we also strayed off the beaten path and got to enjoy some other paintings and sculptures. One that i really enjoyed was one of Hermies, the Greek Mesenger God.
That afternoon we just wandered around aimlessly looking for a tourist shop so we could try to plan a day trip to Belgium, however trains were too expensive and we decided to stay in Paris for another night, and then part ways on the 9th. We also tried to go to the Catacombes, a place where thousands of dead parisians were burried when the plague hit France, but it was closed until June, so no skulls for us that day.

The following day we went to Napoleon's Tomb, the armoury museum, the Sewers of Paris, and Jim Morrison's Grave. If we couldn't see thousands of dead parisians one day we were at least going to see the grave of a famous dead guy!

Then on the 9th we all parted ways. Alex and Will headed off to Belgium, I stayed in Paris for one more day, just because it was cheaper to do so, but mentally and physically I was ready to go back home (Lancaster) by this point. so i decided to hop the Metro and go see the grad arch de la defence. after going to the top of that monument (it had an elevator thank God!) i decided that it would be interesting to walk all the way from the grande arch to the arc de triomphe and then to the small arc de triomphe in front of the louvre. It was a very long way but i did it. after that, i took the metro to the hostel and went to sleep. that night i just hung out at the hostel, had a mellow evening, and then made my way back to Lancaster on the 10th.

I am now desperately trying to study for my exams. i have my first one on Monday. not looking forward to it! but it has to be done, so best just buckle down and get it over with i guess.
So that is my trip to Paris. I'll be uploading photos later, on one of my other breaks.
A plus tard mes amies!

When I Grow Up

La Louvre!
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

I was listening to "When I Grow Up" by Garbage, and realized that i still use the phrase "When I Grow Up..." it is crazy to think that in a year, i will be "Grown up"! I'll have my degree and i'll have to start looking for a real job to pay off my debts.
But that is a year away, until then Hurray for Immaturity!

Au revoir!

Well i'm about an hour away from catching my bus from the university to the train station where i will head to an airport and then fly away to Paris! Sure i probably should be studying for my exams, but i'll have a whole week to do that when i get back. Besides, french is my minor, ergo by going to Paris i am parcticing my french and therefore am studying. so it is not a vacation, i'm just going on an extended studying session.
being able to justify anything is a beautiful thing!
Later!