The Ideas of a Furbie

10:10pm: 4 years.
I just realized I've had my livejournal for over 4 years. That's a long time. I've probably made like 50 posts or something, but still 4 years.

9:59pm: Some early observations
1. Sao Paulo is LOUD...very very loud. Louder than I thought a place could be. And I don't mean individual sounds, I just mean an overall loudness.

2. The water tastes like dirt. I don't mean that it tastes bad really, but simply that it tastes like dirt, like soil.. (on the upside, Del's aunt says that it is because of the chemical they put in it to make it safe to drink. Nevertheless, we are on the way to the store and we are going to buy bottled water.

3. Favelas are CRAZY. Like, you cannot imagine. I cannot beleive that people live like that. You know that they do because you have seen it on TV, but you cannot really know until you see it. There is a favela (I'm told it's a nice "up-scale" one, but I cannot tell that by looking at it, it looks horrible to me!), but anyway. There is a favela right outside our window and I could look at it all day. It's like a bee hive Constant activity and movement, all night. It's really fascinating and sad.

4. The people here drive crazy! Del doesn't actually, he's been going really slow, but the others are nuts! The pavement is so horrible though, so half of the time it is not the drivers fault that they are swivering all over the road.

5. THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE...MORE PEOPLE THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. NOT MORE IN LONDON, NOR MORE IN NEW YORK.

6. The city goes on forever...and I haven't even been to the center yet.

10:58pm: 12 days until I'm in Brazil!
yeah

4:45pm: hello world
I don't really have anything to say except hello.

I just saw that I haven't posted anything since April so I figured I should at least write something. I've been living in Italy for 3.5 months now. It's kinda nice but mostly boring. The TV is in Italian, obviously, which is annoying because that means Wendel and I don't even have TV to entertain us! So basically we study English (for him, not me....although I'm sure I could do with some lessons as well!) for about 2 hours a day and then we move onto Portuguese for about 2 hours (this time for me, not him). And the only people here that we know are Wendel's cousins which all only speak Italian and Portuguese so when I talk to them which is everyday, I have to speak in Portuguese so that's even more practice. I'm still waiting on my passport. Kinda annoying situation. I'm the first American to come to Italy to apply for my Italian citizenship (so that is kinda cool). But because I'm the first one to come here to do this, the people here don't really know what to do with me. They keep making me follow the same rules as the Brazilians coming here to apply, BUT the process is different for Americans. So then they call the Miami Italian consulate to try to make them help me but the Miami consulate doesn't know what to do either! Italy wants me to do one thing and Miami wants me to do another, and I'm stuck in the middle. Finally, the woman in charge here said that she was going to talk to her boss and see if she could convince him that the process is different for Americans and that I do not in fact need this random peice of paper that Maimi is refusing to give to me. So, I'll find out on Saturday. If her boss says yes, I will have my Italian citizenship and EU ID card on Saturday, if he says no, then I have to keep bitching at Miami to give me this fucking peice of paper! Just one piece of paper with one sentence...that's all I need. Fucking Miami Italians.

Other than that, Wendel and I go the beach every other day. Which is nice, it's really fun, but even going to the beach can get old. And books in English are really really expensive here so when I do buy a new book I just buy the biggest one that the bookstore has. Which means, I'm reading "Gone With the Wind". And it's really really good by the way...and you should read it. Especially if you are from the South because it's interesting and I always hated Civil War History, but Gone with the Wind makes it really interesting, even though it's sometimes wrong and totally biased. But one thing that the beach has given me is an amazing tan. And yes, I know, impossible for Marina to have a tan right? WRONG! I do and it's amazing and I love and you will all have to see my tan lines when I come back and be impressed.

In short, the only thing that Italy has given me thus far is boredom everyday, a good tan, and the ability to now speak in Portuguese. Really, I can.

So todays lesson is, come to Italy if you want to learn Portuguese.

Love love

1:25am: Funny thing of the day:

Man walking down crowed London sidewalk spits on the sidewalk...
Woman walking behind him screams at the top of her scary fat lungs "HAVE SOME RESPECT YOU FUCKING CUNT!!!!!"

Hehehe....so logical.

2:03pm: Happy Valentines Day, everyone.

Nothing new here. I'm not super sick anymore, but only because I sucked it up and went to the doctor and was put on antibiotics. I had a lung infection apparently...not the flu. Yeah, so that sucked...but I'm much better now.

I went back to work yesterday after missing 5 days. And I'm not looking forward to work tonight. We can easily do 600 people in the restaurant in one night, but usually those 600 are in groups of 4-40 people. But, tonight everyone will be 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, etc. WE JUST DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TABLES FOR THAT. This happened last V-day too. We booked in too many people because reservations is stupid and had no where to put them. So, people were INCHES away from the couple sitting next to them...no joke. What a nice romantic valentines date, huh?

Wendel and I aren't doing anything really...we're both working. I made an extra special breakfast this morning, but other than that, nothing is planned. Valentines day is mostly a made up holiday for the sake of commercialism if you ask me anyway. Although, I wont say I wouldn't enjoy getting flowers! ;) I did tell him that when he got back from the gym that I woudln't be here because I wanted to go shopping before work to get some earrings -which is true and I do intend to do this. But I'm leaving extra early because I'm going to go to the model toy store as well and hopefully find a model car that will rock his boat. He starts work at 5 and I start at 6 so then I'm going to wrap it, and put it in the backpack so he wont find it until he gets off work tonight. And, he gets off at 11 and I get off at 3...so it will be a surprise. So, nothing special...just a little something.

I had this grand idea that I was going to to go Anne Summers (this lingerie shop) and buy this super hot corset thing I saw the other day and CROUCHLESS panties (cool, huh?!) and then I was going to buy a card and write in it that I had a special surprise for him under my clothes. I'd give it to him while he was working behind the bar of course and then he'd have to work with me all night long wondering/fantasizing about what I was wearing under my uniform....but then I remembered that I get off at 3 and he gets off at 11...so it doesn't really work. Alas, maybe I'll do that another time. And maybe just do it on some random day and then it will be even more of a surprise. hmmm... any thoughts?

All for now. Off to iron.
xx Happy Love to you! xx

1:07am: I have the flu. It sucks. I have a fever and my whole body is aching. I missed 17 hours of work this week because I have the flu. Arg. But I did get to talk to my mom on the phone for like 2 hours...which was nice, even though I was coughing the whole time.

That's it for now...back to coughing!

xx

12:03pm: life
1. An American customer who has the opportunity to move to London asked me the other day what I do when I'm not working. "Sleep", I replied. He didn't believe me and asked me again what I do when I'm not working. "No seriously, I sleep".
1a. I work from about 5pm-4am almost every day (2 days off a week usually), get home at like 4:30, take a shower and get something to eat, talk to Wendel for a while (as we are both on roughly the same schedule at work) and go to sleep, usually actually closing my eyes around 5:30-6am. Then I get up at 2-3pm and have to leave for work again at 4.
1b. As you can see...really....all I do is sleep, eat, work, shower, eat, sleep, repeat.

2. I actually don't really have a problem with this schedule as long as Wendel and I get to spend time together (ie, not at work and not sleeping) SOMETIMES.
2a. Tiger is being REALLY really amazing and making his and my schedules fit each other nicely.
2b. They are doing it on purpose too because our new managers are AMAZING...so that's great.

3. I LOVE TIGER TIGER! I mean fuck, we all knew this...but now the managers are great and it's amazing and even though it's stressful and crazy, I love that fucking place.
3a. I've made at least $50 EVERY single shift I've worked since I got back (knock on wood).
3b. On Friday I made $180 -in....9 hours.
3c. We're having a competition to see who can sell the most cocktails/side orders. And whoever wins gets 100 pounds ($200) automatically, every week.
3d. This week, the first week we've done this, I won! Go me and another $200 in my pocket.
3e. Needless to say, the money is flowing and it's good.

4. I'm a bit confused right now. Wendel went in at midnight to work last night to help them sand down all of the floors in Tiger and then re-polish them. He left at 9am this morning (only getting away by telling them he had to go to college...he's a liar ;)). But anyway, I thought he'd be home around 4am so I stayed up and then found out he wouldn't be home until 9. So, at 5am I started to go to bed but I'm so sick and can't stop coughing -plus I'm not used to sleeping on my own anymore and his warm body next to me apparently does wonders for my lungs (I just have a chest cold, nothing serious, but keeping my chest really hot helps me sleep). Anyway, I couldn't fall asleep until 6:30am. Then he came in this morning at 10am. I woke up when he came in and attempted to fall back to sleep. But then I heard the mailman so I got up to see what he got (praying it wasn't another bill). But when I walked in front of our door (in my socks) I noticed that the floor was SOAKING wet...then I looked outside and our wall onto the sidewalk was dripping with water! Then I went into the toilet and the floor was wet in there too...but not from the toilet, from the floor! So, I had to call the guy that installed the boiler/pump thing and tell him what was happening and he said "I'll be there in 30 minutes". So then I had to stay awake! He JUST left...and now I'm at a loss of what to do. I got 4 hours of sleep last night and I have to leave to go to work in 4 hours, plus shower. It's noon now. Should I sleep for a while or -as I'm not really feeling tired- should I stay awake?? I should probably stay awake because when I get up in 2 hours -assuming I can fall asleep- I will be tired. But I bet I'll be really tired tonight at work if I don't sleep now. Actually, I"ll probably be really tired tonight at work anyway. Oh I don't know. I guess I don't have anything else to do other than sleep. Wendel is asleep which means I can't be too lound in our room -I'm in the kitchen now. Too much rambling, I guess I'm going to sleep for an hour or two.

5. Things with Wendel and I are really good. After seeing Barbara (I'm not sure if I have written about this or not) he decided that he wanted to really try things with me. He and Barbara have not completly stopped contact, but mostly...just emails/sms messages like every couple days or so...and I've seen them and they are harmless (simply, hope your week is going well) or something on those lines. Which really I'm okay with because I know I always wanted at least something like that with Dave and Abram. Even know Dave and I still talk every once in a while...he messaged me the other day actually.
5a. Anyway, yeah, things with us are really good. He says that he loves me quite a lot now even...which even though he probably always did, he wasn't saying before. He still doesn't say it all the time -which I'm happy about, I think...but somethings happens at least once a day and he does say it.
5b. We seem to be building back up to a proper relationship now. There was an insident in a club last Sunday night which helped a think. As horrible as it was at the time, I think it did wonders for me! ;) A guy we work with who knows perfectly well about me and Wendel tried to kiss me while we were all at the club (we all as in the workers of Tiger Tiger, but Wendel was at work). Wendel came to the club after work (about an hour after the attempted kiss...which did make contact with my lips). I mentioned something about it to Wendel and then another one of our friends told Wendel about it. So, wendel freaked out and started screaming at the guy. It was horrible. I was really angry at him for causing such a scene!!!! When we got home I got a lesson on Brasilian culture, needless to say. He wasn't mad at me and he never screamed at me...but there is a way about things in Brasil apparently. Whatever. Both Wendel and the guy that tried to kiss me are Brasilian so the whole mess was done in portugues in the club anyway....which suits me fine. My girlfriends (who are also Brasilian) observed the whole thing and couldn't at all understand why I was so pissed off at Wendel. They were surprised that Wendel only screamed at the guy and didn't do anything else and said that if he was acting like a proper brasilian would then he would have done more! I don't know...I guess the culture is just different. Which I'm okay with and I accept...but it was very strange for me. It's not okay in the European culture to kiss your friends girlfriend either (even if you are really drunk) but a lot of european guys I know wouldn't have flipped like Wendel did in the club. Then again, a lot of them would as well! ;) Whatever...enough about that....it wasn't that big of a deal really...it was just stressful at the time. I've since seen the guy at work and things seem to be okay. hehe.

6. Wendel is now the bartender for the restaurant...which is nice because it means that we get to hang out while we are working too.

7. I think I will sleep.

8. Damn, my posts are always so long.

Okay...sleep, shower, eat, work, sleep, repeat.....again.

2:33am: day of truth
Hey again...

So I had my trail at the Cinnamon Club today. It was okay. I think I'd work there if I didn't know that Sugar Reef will be amazing times better. Apparently the managers from Novos Leisure (that's the company that owns Tiger and Sugar Reef and like 50 other bar/restaurants in London) are fighting over me. When I was talking to Sugar Reef today the manager got 2 calls from other managers asking if they could have me instead!! The manager at Sugar Reef was like, NO! I HAVE MARINA! lol....kinda nice I guess!

So anyway, I told Sugar Reef I was looking at other places too, but that I thought I wanted to work there. They want me to do nights there and lunch mon-fri at Digress City (another one of the bars). So that sounds good to me I think. So I'll do like 3-4 nights a week at Sugar Reef and mon-fri lunches at Digress City. But, I'm still going for that trial on Monday morning at the really nice hotel restaurant that serves whale! But the trail today was okay. I didn't think I was going to like it much, but I figured I might as well go as I had nothing else to do and I would at least make some tips (you don't get paid for the trail unless you accept the job). I made 12 pounds anyway....for $24 for 6 hours. Actually that's pretty shit money, but like I said, I had nothing else to do and it WAS a trial. I didn't really like the place because it was too posh for my liking and not busy enough.

So, I'm working at Sugar Reef tomorrow night (where I will get paid wages anyway, as well as tips and service charge!) so that will be nice. I'm looking forward to it, espeically since 3 of my really good friends work there and the managers are wicked (and also my friends).

But...Wendel is seeing Barbara tomorrow. I noticed just now that he changed his facebook mood to "depressed...in morning, DEATH!"hehe...so dramatic. I left for work at 5 and he didn't have to leave for work until like 8, so he did that while I was already gone. At first I was a bit upset by the whole 'depressed'thing...but it's not so bad I guess. I mean, either way...something is going down tomorrow. He's either completly completly dropping Barbara or not...and either way...that puts us at a new place. I don't want to rush him into doing anything really...because I suppose I understand more than most of you think I should -probably. But really...come on. This might some crazy...but I feel really bad for Barbara. To be honest (and maybe I'll be eating these words later) but I'm almost positive that he's going to tell her he can't see her anymore and that he's going to try with me. Eitehr that or he'll tell her nothing and come home like nothing happened and we'll be theoretically right where we are now. But yeah...I feel bad for her. I think she really loves him and it sucks. I mean it sucks enough for me to know that he's going to see her for a couple hours tomorrow....can you imagine how it must be for her knowing that I've moved back in with him!!! She's only messaged him once (while we've been together...who knows if he's recieved messages while he's been at work or something). I mean I assume that MUST have talked sometime as they must have figured out what time and stuff they are meeting tomorrow. I don't know. Like I said yesterday, I haven't brought it up. And neither did he until today. I was saying that my neck hurt and he was saying that he was hurting too and we both deduced it was from sleeping on a tiny twin bed together. So, he suggested that maybe we sleep in seperate beds simply to have more room and no backaches! I said I didn't want to do that and that we should move the two twins together...to which we decided we would on Sunday when we're both off. But anyway, after that he looked at me and was like...but you know I'm going tomorrow. And I said, I know...but that doesn't mean we have to sleep in seperate beds!!! And he was like, no of course not!! So yeah...that's literally ALL we've said about it since I got here. I'll ask him when he gets home from work in like an hour what time he's meeting her. If it's before 2 I'm going to be PISSED. First of all, that's hardly any sleep for him. Secondly, he doesn't have to be at work until 10...so even if he sees her at 3 that's still like 6 hours...and thirdly, I don't have to leave for work until 2. Arg, I don't know. I'm going to pissed anyway. I think I'll just say, you know I love you, and please please be smart and think about what you are doing, how it affects me, how it affects Barbara and how it is going to affect you. And I'll leave it at that.

Also like I said, I think he'll tell me what happens. I know he will...that's how we roll. Plus, I know how many condoms he has in his bag...so I can always count them when he gets back ;) hehehe....stalker-ish maybe...but really mr.-not-so-single shouldn't be carrying around condoms anyway! But I can't take them out because if he does do something I want him to have them! Arg...I'm retarded. hehe. Seriously. And when I got home from work at 12 I was so fucking tired and I still am (at 2:50) but he'll be home in like an hour (or less maybe) so is there a point in going to bed now anyway....he'll just wake me up when he walks in anyway!

Oh well....damn...this is long again. And I didn't intend it to be! Oh well....sorry.

I'll let you know what happens.

Beijos (kisses!) xx

7:03pm: So now that I'm back in London maybe I'll start posting again
I just realised that I haven't posed on livejournal since July 21st, which was like 1 month before I left London last time...and now I'm back again.

I suppose I have so much to occupy myself in the US that I forget about livejournal and last semester I didn't even read other peoples livejournals!! --well, except when jayna would mention something which would innately make me curious about what the hell she was talking about!!

Tonight is my first night since I got back that I haven't been cuddled up with Wendel constantly. -He's at work. For those of you that do not know, and really you should know I suppose if you are reading my livejournal, but to be honest I don't even remember who I'm friends with on here! Anyway, after living in London for almost 2 years I moved back to the US and did one semester at Agnes -I still have one semester to graduate. However, after that one semester (or really after about 3 weeks of it) I decided that I coudln't possibly finish right now and I needed to be back in London -with Wendel, with the city that I love, with the culture, with the life, and with the place that I really feel comfortable. So I decided to finish my semester at Agnes and move back to London and somehow -yes somehow- finish my degree here. Basically, my time in the US SUCKED. Let me just give you a rundown: on the way home from the airport after being gone for almost 2 years, some punk kids threw a rock into the window of our van (while we were driving) and not only was I actually hit by the rock (and have a nice scar on my arm to prove it) but the window completly shattered and covered me and my brother with tiny tiny shards of glass (I'm talking everywhere, in our ears, mouths, underwear, etc). Then 3 days later, my gradfather died. 2 days after that, Wendel (who days before had been vowing to marry me) decides he's confused and doesn't know what he wants to do...does he love me or his ex-girlfriend Barbara?? This is like mid September now. Then at the end of September I find out that my HPV has not gone away. Mid November, I find out my HPV is quite bad. Late November, opps...the doctors messed, I actually don't have HPV anymore...I have cancer. Yes, I have cervical cancer (sorry if this is now coming as a surprise to you, I didn't tell everyone). December 5, I have surgery to attempt to get rid of my cancer. Mid December, I find out that opps again, maybe I never had cancer, but simply very very very late pre-cancer!!! (that's the latest update on the cancer front, I go in for check ups in April). Anyway, throughout this time, Wendel's still confused and we decide that we'll just see what happens when I come back to London. So yeah, that was my time in the US. Fun, right? Grandfather died, man I love maybe doesn't love me back, and I have cancer -at 22. Yes, my life is awesome.

So, yeah, anyway, I'm back in London and the horrors that I faced in the US seem far away. Wendel and I still don't really know what we're going to do and he still thinks he might love both me and Barbara (which I do think is possible) but we'll see. Things with me and him are good. I got here on Tuesday and we went out to my favourite restaurant in the whole world -Toca, a locally owned portugues restaurant where they don't speak English at all. The yesterday we went shopping during the day (I bought a new jumper (sweater) and we went out to eat for 50% off at Sugar Reef -a really really nice restaurant owned by the same company as Tiger. Since we know all of the managers we walked in and were given the best table and before we knew it we had complimentary glasses of champainge on our table! It was really great. Today we slept late, he went to the gym while I applied for 7 jobs online, and then he went to work...which is where we are now. Even though there are 2 single beds in our room (the same room we lived in before), we have been sleeping in the same bed. We aren't technically boyfriend/girlfriend now...but we don't know what we are. Barbara is coming to London for about 12 hours on Saturday and he has to see her to cancel and renew a contract on the house (complicated, but basically he really does have to see her). So, in a way that sucks, but in a way I'm kinda happy that he's going to see her. While I was in the US he saw her about once a month for 1 day at a time. When they saw eachother they of course did what girls and boys do...I don't know, it's a really strange situation, but besides obviously wishing he loved me and me alone, I"m actually okay with the whole thing. We've talked about everything a lot in the past couple days and he's mentioned lots of things that he didn't tell me before -about how he feels. I honestly think that he loves both of us, but that he knows that things wouldn't work out with Barbara (just like they didn't last time). And even though Wendel is a "bad boy" I cannot see him waking up with me on Saturday morning and ending up in bed with her in the possibly 8 hours he'll see her on Saturday! But, we'll see.

I've decided to take the route of not saying anything to him about it until after he sees her. I don't want to push him to promise me anything. If he is really honestly willing to see her and 'be' with her while he knows we live together and are at least a psedo-couple, then I need to know that...and making him give me hallow promising before he goes wont help anyone. So, we'll see what happens. He will tell me the truth, that I know. So, if he's with Barbara and then comes home to me like it was nothing, that's vital information and THEN we can have our showdown about what the fuck is going on! Maybe I sound crazy to a lot of you, but I don't care. Also, maybe if I post more often my posts wont be so long. Someone needs to teach me how to make links in entries -that way I can say click here to read about Wendel- and if you are sick of me talking about that, then you can skip it ;)

On the job front, I asked at Sugar Reef last night if they were hiring. I know all of the managers and the working as all my friends. They are a very busy restaurant and I think I could make a lot of money there. The only problem is that they are not open for lunch...and my friend that works there suggested that I find a day job as well (part time) so that I could make the money that I want to make. So anyway, I figure I can work there while I am looking for another job or something. So anyway, I'm going into Sugar Reef tomorrow at 3 to talk to the manager and discuss details. Then, like I said, I sent my CV to 7 places online today. So far I've gotten 2 calls -and that was only like 3 hours ago!!! Anyway, I have another interview tomorrow at 4:30 at a really nice and fancy Indian restaurant in Westmister called the Cinnamon Club (which is a restaurant and bar, like Tiger). And then on Monday at 11:30 I have a trial shift at a 5 star (50 pound per person/dinner) hotel restaurant! Like, I don't think I'm fancy enough for them!!! But they want day time shifts so I could work with them like 5 days a week and then work at Sugar Reef on Thurs, Fri, Sat nights or something. Anyway, this place is like proper nice. It's called the Goring Hotel and it's in Victoria! They serve Beluga Whale (which is 400 pounds by the way)!!! Okay, kinda morbid and gross, but point being, that's fucking expensive and crazy so you know the restaurant must be like fucking super nice! I have to make sure I am proper and composed or something. I don't know if I can do that! ;) I'll go to the trial shift and see how it is, but I think I'd be much more comfortable in a more relaxed bar type environment. I applied at a couple more bars and we'll see. So far I have 1 interview, 1 trail shift, and a mock interveiw but basically a promose of a job at Sugar Reef since I know the managers love me! I'm quite busy already!!!

I think I'll be in London until at least April. Wendel and I might move to Italy to get our Italian passports which we are both in the process of applying for and it looks like we might get at the same time. He wants to move from the house we are in now, but there is no point in moving if we're leaving in April. So, there are lots of decisions to be made coming up...and most of them depend on him.

I'll keep you updated, but I'm sure you are totally tired of reading by now...so let me end it here.

Lets all just pray that my time in London is not quite so eventful as my time in the US.
Love to all, xx

1:09am: I absolute 100% promise I am coming back to the USA
but not until the very last minute. So, I called expedia today to change my flight. And, even though they told me on Monday that soooo many were available for only 35 pounds extra, there were none available. So, I promptly freaked the fuck out. I cannot leave England in 15 days. No fucking way. No way. No way. No way. So, I asked them to check the entire month just to see what they came up with. August 27th is the only available day, they said. The ONLY one. And there is only a couple places on this flight. "Do you want it?"....ummmmmmmmm...... So, at 6AM ATL time I called my mom and dad (freaking them out as I'm crying and calling at 6AM) and begged that it be okay with them. I didn't need their permission, but really...I needed to hear them say they understood. They said it was okay. So, I called expedia back and changed my flight to August 27th.

So, I'll arrive in ATL at about 10:30pm on the 27th and I'll move into Agnes on the evening of the 28th. But, I just checked my facebook and I have a message from one of my housemates saying that registration is on the 27th and that move in is as well! I checked online and it said that classes start on the 28th and that registration for other students is on the 26th...but it never said anything about old students! WTF? Am I going to miss registration now?? Fuck fuck fuck. Also, when is the official move in??? I heard the 27th, but I thought before it was the 28th. ARG!

Someone please inform me about what is going on and who I need to contact about 'missing' registration!

Love to all...sorry to some for not coming home
Marina

8:34pm: I found the baby....my eyes suck

8:00pm: I'm a bad mother...
So one of our babies died. :( And I'm an even worse mother because I can't remember her name. All the girls look the same so it's either Kelly, Brittany, or Semone. I think it might be Brittany.... As I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about, about 3 weeks ago Wendel and I bought fish. We have (had) 5 guppies. I went to Germany for 4 days and when I got home Wendel told me that either Brittany was really sick and dying or pregnant. She's been sitting at the bottom of the tank looking quite sick for the past 3 days. She didn't even move to get food and she was SO FAT and couldn't move. Then last night we realised that we had a baby fish! So we just assumed that she was pregnant and not sick. But she continued to stay at the bottom of the tank and I couldn't find any eggs or anything in the tank...just one lone baby fish. So cute by the way. Well she was still there and our baby fish was still alive about 2 hours ago, but I just checked and Brittany is definitely now dead and I can't find out baby fish anywhere!

So, basically in the last 2 hours our daughter has died and one of our other children has eaten our first born grandchild! How horrible! We've been trying to keep our fishes fed well since we found our baby to try to persuade them not to eat Baby, but apparently it didn't work. Either that or I just can't find it. Wendel is at work, but I just messaged him to tell him he has to get her out when he gets home. There is no way I'm sticking my hand in there and getting her out. I thought dead fish were supposed to float to the top? She definitely isn't floating...rather she is laying on the bottom. I guess that means she's dead...she's not moving at all and her gills don't seem to be moving...so I'd say she's dead. Maybe after a couple hours she's start floating.

Anyway, enough about my dead baby. Is everyone else super excited that the new Harry Potter movie came out today?? Or, well, maybe it only came out here in England? Did it come out weeks ago in the US? I also just preordered the new book from Amazon today and it will supposedly be delivered to my door on July 21...yay!

Hmm...I actually can't think of anything else to say. Minus telling you all (again I think) that I am so unbelievably happy. Like really, I couldn't be happier and I hate the fact that I have to leave all of this... Fucking Agnes. I love London, I love Wendel, I love myself with Wendel, I love my life, and I hate Agnes Fucking Scott.

Anyone else feel the same about Agnes?

I thought so....

All for now!

3:57pm: Eeeeks...someone tried to blow me up!

Tiger Tiger is open and running again...but it was a nice day off. I'm just glad we're all in one peice.

It's so easy to feel like this happened somewhere other than where I'm standing...but it didn't. It happened about 5 feet from where I am sitting right now....weird.

Oh well...thank goodness for the paramedics!

12:42am: 107 days now...
I totally had this great thing to post about and now I can't remember what it was. Damnit...anyway, this calls for a list of things that are cool.

#1: Tomorrow if my first day off in 17 days! woooooohoooooo!! I'm going to do homework for most of the day and I'm really excited.
#2: I asked Abram if I could send him a wedding invitation and he said, "I suppose". That means YES! But then he logged off when I asked him for an address...but he still said yes! AND, I mentioned that he had been a huge part of my life and that he had a special place in my thoughts, and he said "same here"....so double woooohooo for that too!
#3: I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. The payroll manager at Tiger Tiger is also in beauty school and she is trimming my hair tomorrow so that it will be the perfect length for the wedding. She is also going to show me all of her ideas for what I should do with my hair on the wedding day. We're going to try them all out and take pictures. That's really exciting.
#4: She has already decided -with my suggestion of lightening/changing my hair- that I should get golden highlights for the wedding (she thinks blond would be too much and that red wouldn't go with me...but strawberry blond/gold would look good). I think I agree with her and I'm excited....but she also says that highlights just don't look the same the second time around, so she thinks I should wait until right before I leave the UK for her to do them.
#5: My mom is going to be here in just over a month
#6: I'm also off Sunday...which means that Dave and I will get to spend an entire day together, which on Sunday, will have been 22 days since the previous one! Wow, had not calculated that yet! CRAZY!
#7: I'm totally running out of stuff, but I really wanted to make it to 10. Okay, #7, I am going to get a wedding band and I'm really happy about this cause previously we had said we weren't going to do that...but I realised I really want to do that. So, Dave still isn't, but I am and I'm happy and everyone is going to know I'm married.
#8: We are invited Mr. and Mrs. David Iliff to our wedding...and this is exciting, cause that's us! But it's not really us, it's Dave's aunt and uncle. Also, our invites are NOT going to be to Mr. and Mrs. David Iliff, cause that's silly. We are NOT Mr. and Mrs. David Iliff, we are (going to be) Mr. David and Marina Iliff -or Mr. David and Mrs. Marina Iliff or whatever, but I'm not MR. DAVID...I'm Marina! Don't ya'll agree??
#9: I made a TON of money last week! Working so much does that I suppose.
#10: woohoo, I made it to 10! I'm getting married in 107 days. Wedding plans are coming along and I'm really tired so it's bed time now.

PS. We haven't gotten guestbook comments on our wedding website since my birthday, which is November 18th! Come on guys, where is the love???
------------edit-------------------
www.mywedding.com/davidandmarinailiff

12:37pm: It's weird....I'm going to be Mrs. Marina Iliff in 124 days. Isn't that really weird, but also really really exciting? At the point in time that Dave and I get married, our lives are going to be so different to how they are now. Personally, I don't think the getting married bit will be that different, but everything that comes along with that is scary and so different to how things are now. The wedding itself doesn't imply that much change in my opinion, but we're leaving England. That is going to be so weird. For the record, I do realise how many times I've used the word weird in this post. I find myself loathing the American accent when I hear it on the street. I don't think it's cause I hate Americans -I don't, I swear- but I hate the idea of having to go back home and hearing their perfectly pronounced/loud words reminds me that that time is coming all too fast. I want to see my family and friends (Jessie, jayna, and Megan in particular) but I don't think I'm ready to end the life I've made here. I have lots of friends here and it's going to be really sad to leave all of it. I have a great job (not a career! but a great job). I am totally imersed in lots of cultures. For instance, I live with 4 Australians (not including Dave), 1 Pakistani, 1 Thai, 1 French-Canadian, 1 Argentinian, 1 English person, 1 -damn country is failing to come to me, but it is Asian and starts with an S. So yeah...lots of variety. My best friends from work consist of: 1 Albanian, 1 Italian, 2 Swedes, 1 Estonian, 2 Hungarians, 2 Croatians, 2 English people, 1 French person, 1 Canadian, 2 Brazilians, 1 Portuguese person, 2 Algerians, and 2 Australians (this is only counting those that I actually really hang out with and not all of the other countless people that work on the bars and I hardly ever see/talk to). Anyway, I should leave it at this and do some work on my internet classes -while I fret more over why Dave hasn't called me back yet. I need to tell him something important about our married visa stuff! Arg. I shall leave this post with a list.

Things (in order) I am most looking forward to about coming home:
1) DRIVING! OMG, seriously, I cannot wait to drive. I've been here for 10 months now and I miss driving. Dave and I will most definitely be fighting over who gets to drive everywhere we go for the first 4 months of being home. I just want to get in a car and go anywhere.
2) Ru sans -oh how I miss thee!
3) Late night decisions to go to Krispy Kream, Taco Mac, etc -first of all, England has NO hot wings (WTF!?) and there is only one real Krispy Kream for me and that lives in ATL.
4) hmmm....I totally had visions about this list being like 10 things long, but does it say something about how much I don't really want to go home that I can only come up with 3 things (minus people! I decided not to include people on my list cause that's a whole different ballgame).
5) I was going to put having a TV here or something along those lines...but I really don't miss TV in the slighest.
6) Okay, I finally thought of one: Georgia Weather. I miss real blue skies...I mean really! Who ever heard of a sunny day with gray skies!
7) I am looking forward to people saying the letter H how we say it in America and not HHHHHHHHach. Really, you don't say PPPPPPPeeee, you say P; you don't say MMMMMMmmmmmm, you say M. However, I am also very disturbed that I myself have began to pronouce that letter as HHHHach, and it greatly distresses me.
8) Damn, I really don't want to go home. This list proves it. While trying to be positive and thinking of reasons I want to go home I've only been able to come up with reasons I want to stay.
9) Okay, another good one, kinda. I wanna be Mrs. Iliff. I can't do that till I go home, so that's a reason I want to get home, right?
10) Check out our wedding website, www.mywedding.com/davidandmarinailiff and particularly the section on our Marriage Visa Progress. This item is allowed to be #10 cause once we get home, THAT will be over.....for the time being, until we have to do it again to go to Australia.

The End. Maybe next time I'll enlighten you with a list of why I want to stay here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: The country of my housemate is Singapore!

4:25pm: I suppose I'm a good guesser of 'prison slang', whatever that means...

Your Slanguage Profile

British Slang: 50% Prison Slang: 50% Aussie Slang: 25% Canadian Slang: 25% New England Slang: 25% Victorian Slang: 25%

Awww....Nikki!

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

4:27pm: hehe...thought this was interesting!
Marina Edwards


Marina Iliff

6:08pm: Well it's that time again.

Posting everywhere and reading all sorts of random things online cause I can't bring myself to actually do my homework. Even though, for the first time ever, I think I might actually not get it done. I always say, what if I fail? And what if I don't finish all of this? But everyone knows I'm joking cause we all know I'll get it done, as Jessie said -with just a little time left- and that it won't be crap, my teachers will like it and I'll move on and pass another year. But this is different. This country is fucking hardcore. Do you realise that I have to write 10,000 words by Dec 15th?? That's only 16 days from now, 10,000 words and I swear that I am not exagerating by a single word here. And on top of that, by Dec 24th I have to write 5,000 more words. So 9 days after I have to write the 10,000 words, I have to write 5,000 more. That's 15,000 words in 25 days. 600 words a day. It doesn't sound so bad like that, but considering I haven't started reading for the majority of those 7 papers -two of which are in history!, 4 in anthropology, and 1 in archaeology, that's a hell of a lot of work to do.

But on the bright side, Dave and I mailed off our I-129F K-1 Petition today (eg. the first step in us getting a visa to get married). It took us 3 weeks to compile the 100 pages of evidence and forms and photo copies showing/proving that we're an authentic relationship. But seriously, we're already non-legally married. We had to sign a document stating that we wanted to live together in a state of matrimony for 'as long as we both shall live'. Is that not marriage?

Seriously, I have to finish reading this article on migratory fishers in ghana.

Love to all!


EDIT:

Just wanted to add. Dave and I have BARLEY started this marriage visa process and we've already spent $230.00. NEVER MARRY A FOREIGNER!

1:47pm: In case you missed it
It's cold...and...

www.mywedding.com/davidandmarinailiff

11:28pm: So I sitting in the office of Tiger Tiger all alone...with lots and lots and money around me. I'm not sure if I'm really allowed to be here alone...but the manager told me to type up something and said he'd be back. He hasn't come back. It's been like 15 minutes. The document I was typing was like 2 sentences! Anyway, yeah. So I'm sitting here and I think I'M going to go get himin a minute. Arg...it's almost midnight! I wanna go home! Silly work and silly headache. I need to go home and cuddle with dave!
anyway, i'm going to go find himnow. love to all

9:38am: It's so bloody cold, in my house, in the library, in the outside
It's cold. :( Although I really can't complain cause I'm just checked the weather for GA and you guys are only like a couple degrees warmer...so it's just as cold there. And poor Melbournians! It's FREEZING THERE! So yeah, I hate winter. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate. I like spring time and summer. Hate winter and autumn. yuck!

Glad to hear that Black Cat was a success though. Did we come in second?????? I hope so.... :S

Classes are going okay here. They just started last Monday (something I don't understand at all!), so I can't say whether I really like them or not yet, but I think I do. But yeah, our classes started last Monday and we still get out BEFORE Agnes! WTF!!??? That scares the shit out of me. I'm supposed to learn the same amount of stuff -actually more- in under half the time. Also, they do things weird here. Like in the states you'll have books to buy for a class and the teacher will say 'read chapter 4 for next time' or whatever. But here, that's not the case. Here you get a reading list for each lecture that consists of like 20 books. Some of the books are specific pages or chapter and some are just whole books -whichever is relevent to the course. If the whole book is relevent, then you better believe the whole book is on the reading list. The teachers don't actually expect you to read all 25 books for EACH LECTURE, but they do expect you to read some of it. What is the right amount? Do they honestly think I'm going to read the whole book? I suppose I should spend about 10 hours reading per week per class...that's what the lecturer man in my archaeology class said. So I suppose even if I only read one thing for that class, if it takes me 10 hours to read it that's okay. Honestly, this reading list stuff seems like a really good idea if you really want to learn a lot. I'm learning a ton...it's just scary.

So this is what I'm taking if you're intersted....:
1) Population Studies (anthropology)
2) Fishers and Fisheries (anthropology) -and yeah, sounds weird and boring, but it's really cool
3) Early Hominid Societies (archaeology) -like super crazy super in depth version of human origins
4) Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 40-100 -basically right after ther Roman Republic fell

So I'm just realised my next move would be the send a list of these classes to my advisor....sound like a good plan? Fuckhead better give me credit. Anyyway, I'm still cold, but I need to go read Cod now.

10:06am: Regardless of the fact that we missed the Big Brother finale -Pete won by the way!!!! yay!!!!!! -Munich was amazing. Everyone everyone everyone should travel to munich. I LOOOVED it. It really reminded me of all of the traveling I did after high school. I look on that time as being one of the best times that I've had and this trip just reminded me why. I love to travel...and I really loved Munich. We flew from London to Munich last week. Naturally, we were a bit worried that security was going to take forever and that they would be really strict with what we brought on the plane. We could each have one small carryon (no bigger than a small backpack) and absolutely no liquids. They were really adament about the no liquid things. So they asked us at secuirty if we had any liquids, we said no (cause we really thought we didn't) and we went though. While we were waiting for the plane to take off we got some food and realised we had a yoghurt in our bag. Yoghurt is definitely a liquid by their standands. Then we realised that hanging on the OUTSIDE of our carryon was a bottle of hand sanitizer! They said no liquids and no gels...this is a gel, hanging on the OUTSIDE of our bag! They didn't even look at our bag enough (and it did go through xray) to see that we had a significant amount of gel hanging ont he outside of our bag! I didn't really feel unsafe just cause I didn't think we had anything to worry about anyway, but geez! If they are going to go through all these measures, then at least try to do it right. I know it's hard and we were only going to germany and not the US, but I really feel like they should have caught to gel we were displaying on the outside of our bag. Although, I'm really glad they didn't take it cause I used it.

Our hostel in Munich was really nice -for a hostel- and we just spent most of our first day walking around and seeing lots of the old beautiful churches and getting to know the city. Then that night we went to the Hafbrahaus! This was really a lot of fun. The Hafbrahaus is one of the most famous beer halls in Germany. It's also the exact point where Hitler started the Nazi party -but that has nothing to do with it now. You might think people would visit for that reason alone, but they don't. It was simply a great beer hall then and it's a great beer hall now. They have like 4 stories of inside and outside tables just put anywhere on the floor they could put them. You just walk in, find a seat and sit down. The tables are really long and everyone sits together and mingles. The beer is giant as well. Everyone drinks 1 litre beers or more! We each got a 1 litre -which took us like 4 hours to drink!- and food. The food was very resonably priced and actually really good! We spent 4 hours there just eating, drinking, and talking to the people at our table. It was a tour group of young people (18-30s) from Aus, NZ, GB, US, and Canada. They were really fun and I had a reallllly good time there!

As well as roaming around and climbing towers and getting good views of the city, the next day we went to the English Gardens. Again, AMAZING! Seriously, the best outside space in the world! -meaning, best outside space that's also in the city, I'm not claiming this is better than the wilderness or anything. But it comes pretty close! It has the best of everything. A really nice river straight from the Alps runs through it, it's got forrest, big fields, beer gardens, everything! They have this part of the river where under the water they keep this thing that makes a wave. It's like the water is made into one neverending wave -only in this particular spot of course. Anyway, everyone brings their surfing stuff and one at a time take turns surfing on this never ending wave. Granted this has got to be the only wave for hundreds of miles, so it's really neat that thye do it. And it's free and looked really fun! And if you fall, who cares!? After watching that for a while we went to one of the beer gardens for lunch. We shared one of the 1 litre beers this time! But we each had huge sausages and HUGE helpings of saurkraut which I LOVE and it was reallllly good food. The Germans sure know how to make a sausage! Seriously. Then we went and sat by the river for like 2 hours. We didn't go as the locals to -au natural- but we enjoyed just watching the people, naked or not. It's really really cool cause we were sitting less than a half mile from the bustling city of Munich and here we were sitting in a pubic park surrounded by naked people! A lot of them were old, but there were people from alll ages! I'm talking like 13 year old girls and boys as well. I think that every age almost would have had a representative there. It wasn't weird at all for the people or even for the girls and boys at that time in their lives where things start changing, it was just natural and fun to go to the river and swim, why bring a bathing suit! Mothers and daughters would through balls and frisbees on the bank and fathers would push their daughters and sons into the FREEZING cold water....no one even thought about how they were naked. It was really awesome. There were still probably more clothed people there than not, but an extraordinary amount of naked people too. Dave got a picture of the scene (he was really careful of people though, like making sure he got a picture of the river and all the people around it and not get a picture of the people!). The picture turned out amazing and it's sooo funny! There were naked people everywhere right, but we zoomed in the picture to see if we could see anything and everyone was in the perfect place! A leg raised here, someones had here, completely out of focus here, someones hand in their lap there -not a single dirty part seen! So the picture is good and I'll put it online soon. I just thought the whole concept was really cool and I wish I didn't live in crappy america -or UK. :P

The next day we went to the Dachau Concentation Camp Memorial Site. They said there that it is really important to call it a memorial site cause it will never ever be a concentration camp again. It was really interesting. What was particularly important about this camp is that it was the very first one made and it is the only camp that lasted from the beginning (1933) to the end (1945). This camp was mostly for political prisoners. Up until the very end of the war it was used only for men. It was liberated by the American soldiers in 1945. It was free to get in but dave and I paid for a guided tour which lasted 3 hours. It was really interesting. Dave has been to and toured Austwitz so it wasn't so new to him, but this was the first time I'd seen a concentration camp. The camp was originally made to house 6,000 people at one time but by the end of the war there was over 30,000 people there! Throughout the 12 years it was in operation 206,000 poeple were there...many of them were released, many moved to other camps, and many died). Each bunker (where the people lived) was made to house 200 people and there were 2,000 in each one when it was liberated! Dachau wasn't an execusion camp, although many many died there of course. But it was never used as a real execusion camp in the same sense of Austwitz -mass murder. Apparently most of the execusion camps were in the east (like poland or something). They did have a gas champer that could hold 150 people at the time, but it was only ever used for 1 or 2 people at a time...no one knows why. Or even why they built it if they weren't going to use it. They had a HUGE museam that was in the building they used for numerous things -like registration, baths, stuff like htat. We saw the bunkers and barracks, crematorium. It did kinda look like what I'd expect it to look like. It was really interesting to see though. After that we got back on the plane and now we're in London!

Dave started his new job on Monday, working for Sony. Sony is the company that is coming out with the playstation 3 in a couple months so he gets to do some stuff with that. And he has to work some weekends. Which kinda sucks, but at the same time the more he works the more money. I also now have a visa to work, so next week I'm going to try to find a job. We also moved to a new house this weekend! I  really like it and planned on writing stuff about it, but I fear that if I make this post anylonger than no one will read it! Plus we need to make another load from teh old house to the new. So I'll take a raincheck and tell you about it later. Hopefully most people read this even though it's long (but I never post, right!?). But seriously, go to Munich, it's amazing. Talk to you later!

2:32am: bloody fucking munich
I'm absolutely gutted!!!!!!!! So here we are, sitting in bed at 2:30 AM watching Big Brother Live. We're talking about the Big Brother final, which is this coming up friday. I'm super excited and I want Pete to win. I think I'm in love. Then Dave says moving to a totally differnt topic, it's weird to think that 5 days from now we'll be in Munich. *Jaw Drop* *hand moves to cover open mouth*. Dave looks at my completly mortified look and says "What???.........ohhhhhhhhh!!" WE'RE GOING TO BE IN FUCKING MUNICH FOR THE BIG BROTHER FINAL! Gutted! Gutted! Gutted!

He's trying to convince we that we can download it and you better believe we will...but it wont be the same. :( Friday nights are my favourite night of the week! Homemade pizza and big brother eviction starting at 8:30-11. And this week is the final from 8-12! Oh how I've been looking forward to extra long BB night and pizza and popcorn and beer! :( It's why I live! It's why I look forward to the week going by! If only we'd noticed before we booked it was the same night, we'd have postponed the trip a week. I know that might sound crazy, but read the whole post. We really honestly would have postponed it. Which is kinda crazy, but I'm in love you see.

We've been watching BB for 3 months now! 3 months, everyday for AT LEAST 2 hours every single day for 3 months (minus a night here and there and when we went to the mainland). Firday night was supposed to be the end of this wonderful time (and yeah, I'm really really realy disappointed it's ending). Anyway, friday was supposed to be the end and we have to go to freaken germany. geez...could life get any more unfair!? hehe...okay, so that's a bit of an over reaction. But just know...I'M ABSOLUTELY GUTTED!

12:56pm: http://www.pbase.com/diliff/wedding_things

You should check it out.

Dave and I are going to Munich next weekend! (well, not this coming up, but the next one). YAY!