Fall Break

So far, fall break has been great - Alongside the obligatory chopping of wood, moving of hay, cleaning and moving of horse tanks and the such like (which I really enjoy), I've been able to get a good deal of homework done and yesterday me, Aub and Aub's mum, Elizabeth, went for an afternoon out; we went to a teeny tiny state park called 'Mushroom Rock State Park' and then went bowling, which was a lot of fun.
Today I only had time for an hour or so of work before we all piled into the car and headed off for Tevin's (Aub's younger brother) football game, which was great as I got to go further west than I had been previously (due to 'The Gladiators' playing away) and see some brand new vast openness, which was nice! Plus we came home to steaks, which is never, ever a bad thing!
Joy of joys ... PICTURES!


Aub and I at one of the interestingly shaped rockes at Mushroom Rock State Park


The view of the road leading out of the park


Another of the naturally mushroom-shaped rocks


Me on top of one of the other big rocks, holding Ruby's lead


Two abandoned old cars in sepia tone (between the park and Ellsworth) (one of my personal favourites)

And more pictures! This time of Emporia and the area close to where I actually live:


The street on which I live; State Street


An artistically placed trunk of a long-dead tree


One of the main streets running through Emporia; 6th Avenue

That's all for now - thanks for taking a look!

I've been busy. No really, I've been freakin' busy!

So, maybe I was a bit presumptuous when I professed to have turned over a new leaf - finding the time to write on this thing isn't easy. I started writing a journal about all my experiences to do with America at the end of April this year - by the time I actually got here, I had filled up a good third of it. I have written in it ONCE since I got here, and I wrote in that thing pretty much every day back home.
When I say I'm busy, I'm not whinging (even if it sounds like I am), because I thrive when I'm busy, but it is rather tricky trying to find time for things that you could very easily put off, even if you enjoy them (like writing on a blog, for example!), when you have 2 jobs and many many hours of classes to do each and every week.
I would like to be able to devote more time to it over the weekends, but the weekends I spend in Emporia consist of homework and the weekends I spend in Ellsworth consist of manual labour AND homework.
So there's my two-cents (or pence, should I say) on the subject - the best I can realistically offer is to write when I can find the time (being harassed helps though ... naming no names ... NAOMI ... ...)
As to what I've actually been doing with my time, I have been splitting it between working in the ID office, doing PR work for the Theatre, cooking, working out, putting in hours in the scene shop, sleeping (not enough), going on the occasional walk, listening to good music and battling to try and find my place in this crazy country.
I think the novelty of my English-ness is starting to ware off, which is quite nice, in a way, because it means that I can start to truly get to know the people here without having to "say it in British" for them - which I don't really mind (hey, who MINDS being seen as something a bit special?), but it does somewhat get in the way of real conversation.
So far as what I'm going to be doing in the near future is concerned, I have one exam at the end of this week and another at the beginning of next week, so I'm going to be revising pretty solidly until next week, then I have other assignments and a lot of reading to get done. Next weekend, however, I get 4 days off - and I can't wait. I'm going to take photos, chop wood, sleep and do all the other things I haven't had time for over the past few weeks.
No photos this time as, shock horror, I haven't had time to take any new ones for your viewing pleasure.
Thanks for checking in.