So today was a day of firsts. My first meal on my own, my first cider (provided by some very awkward males). But let us start at the beginning, shall we? Let's shall! (Pajama Sam, anyone??)
This morning I woke up to have my Creative Writing diagnostic test, which was awesome. We had three different choices to write about: a fictionalized story about our childhood, an excerpt from a poem called "The Man with the Blue Guitar" by Wallace Stevens that goes, "The man bent over his guitar, / a shearsman of sorts. The day was green. / They said, "You have a blue guitar, / You do not play things as they are." / The Man said, "Things as they are / are changed on the blue guitar." And there was another one, but I don't remember. So obviously, I wrote about the blue guitar, about this little girl named Lucy whose mother had just punished her because she had been making a fuss about practicing the piano. So when she was walking home from school all angry-like, she heard a man playing guitar. He invited her to come and listen to some music to cheer her up, and she ran up to him. He told her he would only play with her if she played on the blue piano he had hidden in the corner. She said no at first, she hated the piano, but he said something like, "Ah, but you've only played music you don't know. Now, we'll just play by heart." So she agreed. Mostly because the piano was blue. She just placed her fingers on the keys, willing them to know what they were doing. But when the man with the blue guitar started playing again, the light started to sway, the birds seemed to sing along, and the song sounded bright blue. It was a while before she realized that her fingers were dancing across the keys as if she had been playing her whole life. The minute she realized this, however, she couldn't continue. She stopped and spun around at the man. "Wha--How'd I do that?" She asked him. He sat back in his chair and tuned his guitar, as if this were the most normal thing in the world. "You were playing by heart." He told her. She was looking at her fingers, half expecting magic sparks to fly out of them. "But I don't know anything! I haven't memorized anything!" she said. "Ah," he replied, "but is that the same?" She eyed him suspiciously, but then she thought of the light, leaves, and birds moving with the sound of his guitar, and the color of his music. "You have a blue guitar," she said, "but, you don't play things as they are." The man just smiled, and went back to tuning his guitar. "Thank you." Said Lucy, as she ran down the steps. "Anytime little darlin'," he said. Lucy never saw him again, and although she still did not especially enjoy practicing the piano, she wanted more than anything to play by heart, just like the man with the blue guitar.
Obviously that's not exactly what I wrote, but you get the gist.
After this, we had time to get lunch, so I walked to get some school supplies and a spinach and feta pasty. It was actually quite good, though I cannot seem to eat as much food as I did in the states. Maybe it's because of my sickness, but who knows? Maybe this is a nice new feature of my life where I'm not hungry anymore. Then we had our last test, which, I will be honest, was God awful. I could not concentrate on Jane Austen long enough to write a coherent essay. It was all jumbly and about maybe ten different things. Whoops. But whatever, c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas? Oui.
Then after this, Taylor, Elizabeth, Martha and I all walked around the world. Well, at least to the fertile crescent. I really need to make myself a mental note to not wear my high heeled boots when we go walking like this, because my feet hurt like the dickens afterward. And during. BUT we stopped at this store called "Octopus" and there was this AWESOME ring there that looked like a baby's doll eye. It was so fabulously creeptastic I cannot even stand it. Then we went to this little chocolate shop for tea and chocolates. I even tried some lemon turkish delight. Like Edmund had in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was not very good. I did not enjoy it. But I did enjoy the salty caramel... yum....
In other news, I made myself dinner tonight! Mother, you would be proud. I made couscous stirfry, with chicken and broccoli and peppers and some asian sauce. It was quite delicious, even if the chicken was a bit tough. Then, after sitting around our big dining room table for a while, we all went out on our first excursion to the Huntsman. It's quite lovely in there. I had a Blackthorn Cider. And, after we had been sitting there for about fifteen minutes, these two older guys came up and gave us TWO WHOLE TRAYS of cider and said something like, "I don't know why we're doing this, but enjoy!" And then ran away. So then we were all naturally very confused, because what? They gave us drinks, mumbled, and then left. So, we (well, four of us) went over to say cheers, and chat with them for a bit. They talked with us for about a minute, but then ended up just talking to each other again, while we were still standing there. So it was all rather awkward, and they were making fun of this one guy, calling him a hobbit cause he was quite short (which I actually thought was pretty funny).
So to sum up: we were bought drinks by really awkward men! Huzzah! That's that, nothing more to report. Love you all, have a great night, talk to you soon.
Someone build an igloo in the morning!
-L Pro
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