KK’s Blog

I think its time my blog at least changes names. I thought about retiring it altogether, but it will still be here, though I doubt I will write in it as much. Usually I wrote in my blog when I was upset, stressed, or less often, exciting about something. Now my life has been full of change, but nothing that different from what everyone else goes through. And I don’t have to depend on the internet to complain about my life or tell my stories. And I don’t have to wait for everyone else gets up because of time differences. Now I have a cell phone to call people and most of the people I talk to are in the same time zone as me. I live a five-minute walk away from Kyle, and I can see my mom within a couple hours if I want. But I have found I’m not nearly as dependent on my computer as I was in England, so I tend to look at my blog less, not that I wrote it in too much even when I was in England.

As a last update on Oxford, here’s a breakdown of my results:
British Politics and Government 61
Microeconomics 68
International Relations 67
Macroeconomics 68.5
Economics of Industry 66
International Economics 63
International Relations in the Cold War 64
Thesis 67.5

(average 65.625)

Above 70 is a first, from 60 to 69 is a 2:1, so I got a solid 2:1. (Of course, my highest mark was in Macroeconomics, the one I liked least.) I ranked 30th in the 2:1s, which I think had 193 students out of 256 PPEists total, though I don’t know how many of those got firsts. So I didn’t do the best, but I did pretty well. And I passed, so I have an Oxford degree, which I’ll officially get in November. Still don’t know if I’m going back for my graduation, depends on money, but we’ll see.

I move the rest of my stuff (big furniture) July 18 and 19, not June 18 and 19. So next weekend. I would love any help I can get.

But I got a 2:1 overall on my exams. Sarah wrote me and told me. It’s the second highest mark. Would have rather had a first, but that’s okay.

The evening of Friday, June 18, and the morning of Saturday, June 19, my friend Alice will be bringing her brother’s big truck with some of my big furniture that she’s been keeping for me. It’s not a lot of stuff, just pretty big and sometimes heavy, and we don’t have a lot of manpower as of now. If you might be able to help, I’ll buy you pizza. E-mail me at caitlan.adkins@gmail.com.

This morning I called my new landlady, Susan, and told her I wanted to rent from her. I talked her down a little bit as long as we take care of the backyard, which is small and fenced-in. At least, I think we take care of the yard. But she did drop down. It’s with all utilities, including cable but not internet.

It’s on 6th Street, backs up to the alley that St. James backs up to. So we’re close to Kyle and close to Central Park, with tennis courts and Shakespeare in the Park in summer. In the back, there’s a garage with a small garage door at the alley. Susan said we can use the garage for storage, but the door is small so we might want to park on the street. And Susan is really cool. She lives in the house, which will be good in case anything goes wrong. She’s really nice. And she loves me. It’s a second-floor apartment, with a separate side entrance for us. It has a big kitchen, which is painted yellow and red. She said she would repaint it if we wanted, but I sort of like it, so I think I’ll tell her to keep it. We don’t have a dishwasher, but we do have washer and dryer hook-ups. I’m working on getting us an old washer and dryer. If anyone knows of one I can get for free, let me know. It’s 1.5 bathrooms. One shower in a big bathroom, and then a toilet and sink in the room with the washer and dryer. The bedrooms are a little small and don’t have closets, but there’s a walk-in closet next to the bathroom that Christi and I will share. It’s hardwood floors everywhere. The living room has an old fireplace that doesn’t work anymore, so it’s just decoration. And the two bedrooms have a connecting door, so we can barge into each other’s rooms without even having to go into the hallway.

So that’s the layout. About the house in general, which was built in the 1800s. It supposedly used to be haunted. Last year it was on the Old Louisville ghost walk, and it’s in Kyle’s Ghosts of Old Louisville book. In the 1920s, a little girl who was living there ran out into the road and got hit by a car, and people said they had seen a little girl in a white dress standing on the stairs in the main part of the house (we’re not in that part, we’re in the back). And there were other little weird things, like things disappearing, but Susan said all of it has stopped since they had a bunch of construction done on it. So shouldn’t be any weird stuff, but we can still brag about it.

I’m going to start moving in this weekend hopefully. My mom and I went and saw it and dropped off a check and got keys. Yay!! I’m really excited!

I got offered a position as energy market analyst at E.ON US on Monday. I accepted it on Tuesday. I filled out paperwork and took a drug test on Wednesday, and I assume I passed the test. I start my job on July 14. So now I’m looking for an apartment in Louisville. They said they’ll help with relocation costs, and they’ll pay 100% for riding public transport in Louisville. So that’s pretty good. I will have money soon. Now I just have to last another three weeks before my first paycheck. But I’m very excited to get started and very excited that I got the job.

In case you didn’t know, I made it back to the US safely with my blade in tow. Both my flights were delayed so I got in later than planned, but that’s okay. The bus from Oxford to the airport and my plane allowed me to bring my huge oar without charging my extra. Sarah and I wrapped it in many layers of bubble wrap the night before I left. Total it is about 13 feet, I think. It was cut in half, with the slightly larger half right at 80 inches. So I thought I would get charged quite a bit for checking it as luggage, but they allowed it as special baggage, so yay.

I was home for four days, with a third interview with E.ON the morning after I got in. And now I’m in Hawaii, which is 11 hours different from England time. So my body clock is completely off. But we’re having fun with Ian. Went snorkeling yesterday in Kona and then made it back to Ian’s place in Hilo. Not sure what’s on for today, but I’m sure it will be great. Soon I’ll be home for good rather than just a couple days. And hopefully then I’ll get to see people more often rather than mainly communicating by blog.

I went to Italy last Sunday to see Melissa while she’s studying in Florence. I got back Thursday to a rainy England, although it actually rained quite a bit in Italy, at least in the afternoon. I managed to get some sun though, actually more than Melissa because she has classes every morning when the sun is out, and in the afternoon, it starts to rain. So anyway, we met up in Pisa on Sunday and climbed the Leaning Tower. Then we were both pretty tired, neither of us having gotten much sleep the night before for various reasons, so we went back to Florence and had a lazy evening in.

Monday, I walked with Melissa to her classes and then sat outside and read “Under the Tuscan Sun” under the Tuscan sun. Haha. This old Italian man came and sat down next to me at one point. And he kept trying to talk to me, while I was reading, even though he spoke no English and I spoke no Italian. I told him I didn’t understand, but he kept trying. Finally, I got up and left. Then on Wednesday, he found me again, but this time, it wasn’t too long before Melissa got out of class, so he didn’t have much chance to talk to me. I didn’t look up when he sat down to ignore him. There was another old man who stopped and tried to talk to me in Italian on Tuesday, but he didn’t sit down, only said I was getting “bronze” from the sun. So for some reason, I attract old Italian men, but it wasn’t too bad.

Monday afternoon we went to a couple parks, and after we got comfortable at this one, lying in the shade reading, it started to rain. The sun was still out, and we were still in the shade, but it started pouring. We tried to wait it out under a tree, and eventually headed back to Melissa’s apartment, huddled under her little umbrella. We had Chinese that night, and then got some pineapple gelatto, which was amazing.

Tuesday we went to a little old town called San Gimignano. We still don’t know how to pronounce it, but they call it “Medieval Manhattan” because it has a bunch of towers. We climbed up one to some amazing views. There were some complications getting there and getting back (at one point being told that the “fat man” was not good, but then not knowing which bus was his). But we made it, and we had a good time. And made it back to Florence in time to get some coffee gelatto (I had chocolate with mine too). Then we watched “Roman Holiday” on my computer, which seemed fitting even though we weren’t in Rome.

Wednesday I went to the Academia Galleria where Michaelangelo’s David is. It was amazing to see in person, as were some of his other sculptures. Sculptures just amaze me. I can’t imagine ever being able to do something like that, and it’s so beautiful. When Melissa got out of class, we went to the Duomo and climbed up to the top to look out on some amazing views of Florence. One girl said any city looks pretty from this high up, but Melissa and I disagreed. We’ve seen quite a few cities from that high up that weren’t as pretty (Athens, for example). The church was huge, and climbing up to the top took some energy, but we powered through our fourth (had to climb up in the Boboli Gardens Monday to see another view of Florence) and final climbing trip in as many days. Our legs got a workout this trip. We had planned on doing the Uffezi that day too, but I ended up wimping out because the line was really long, and I didn’t think it would be worth it to wait and then only have a little bit of time to spend in there. So instead we went to the Ponte Vecchio, got some good pizza, and went to the grocery so I could get my last thing of Paprika Pringles (though Melissa and I might petition the company to sell them in the US).

It was a good, busy trip, with many more stories that I have left out and will have to tell people later when I’m reminded of them. Unfortunately since I will soon have to work at a job and pay back my student loans, it will probably be my last fun trip to Europe for a long time. Ciao, Italia.

But I have finished all the exams. On Tuesday morning, it was raining really hard. By the afternoon, it wasn’t coming down as hard, but I still carried an umbrella. After my exam, the rain had stopped, so I said the weather was nice, but I guess it’s in relative terms (still gray and cool and wet, just not raining). My exam went pretty well, I think. I had trouble deciding which questions to answer, and I probably spent too much time debating, but I got them all done. Then I had to walk all around the perimeter of exam schools to get to this tent where I had to leave my umbrella. And then follow the signs to get out the back of the building where all the finishers go. I came out and was nervous I wouldn’t be able to find my friends, but there they were, right in front waiting for me. They said they were there 15 minutes early and were the first ones there. Aren’t they great?

Jeanne, Allison, and Sam (all Georgetowners) as well as Sarah and Ula (Celia’s been sick) were all there to greet me. Jeanne and Allison brought me pink flowers and balloons and a tiara. Ula brought me a yellow lei and sprinkled glitter on me, and Sarah brought me yellow roses. So I didn’t get trashed, except with glitter (which I told them they would trash me with perfume (almost like flowers) and glitter, so I was pretty much right). So after that, we went to the Turf (the pub supposedly where Bill Clinton did not inhale), and I had a drink, which is tradition. I had a pint of pear cider, which I drank all by myself, though much more slowly than anyone else.

Then we took the bus back to Sarah’s house, and they had decorated and made dinner for me with a Congratulations Caitlan sign. It was so pretty and so nice. Dinner was wonderful - lamb, which I normally don’t like, but I always like the way Sarah makes it, so she made it just for me. And then they brought out chocolate cake with a sparkler for a candle, and sang “For she’s a jolly good fellow.” After dinner, exhaustion had set in, so we had tea and watched a movie rather than playing a game. We watched Lethal Weapon, nice and girly for us. Then Tim drove us back to Regent’s. It was so nice and the perfect way to celebrate and end my educational career at Oxford. I have such great friends here.

That night, I stayed up late because I could. I tried to sleep in the next morning, though I was still up by 8:30. Then I came out of my room in jeans and a tank top because I was meeting Jeanne to go shopping, and Elsa and Emmeline were in the hall. They said they were just talking about me, and asked how it felt to be done. And Elsa said she thought that was the first time she had seen me not in sweats in a long time, which was funny to me. I’m still in sweats a lot, but not as much now that I can go out and not study constantly. Then I had leftover chocolate cake for breakfast because I don’t need to eat healthy brain food anymore. So now I’m doing fun things just because I can. No commitments. It’s wonderful!