Preparations.

In EXACTLY 17 days I will be leaving on my adventures, so naturally, being a boy scout, I shall be prepared for all eventualities. In this vein I have been typhoid proofed, I have anti-malarials, I have a bikini, I have factor 50 suncream and I have ear plugs. I can't really see what more I could possibly ever need.

In more home based adventures I have been hanging out with my wonderfully fantastic friends, and I have been trying to learn how to use my camera properly (pictures to follow) by taking photographs of the Surrey flora and fauna (i.e. the deer in the garden and the Royal Horticultural gardens at Wisley.) So far I have discovered that my camera can do all sorts of magical manual focusing and such like, but that I basically take better pictures when I leave it in automatic. 

Also you guys, I bought shampoo in bar form! Like a bar of soap, but it's shampoo. I'm sure this is infinitely less exciting for everyone else than it is for me, but it's teeny tiny and won't explode in my bag. Which makes me happy.

The thing with deer is that they hide behind plants and move around.

And scratch their noses

And won't let me come near them....

Benches on the other hand are great at staying still

Testing

Oh hey I can post to my blog without having to actually go to the website, i.e. I can post on the road!

(Just to explain this, I have an email address that I can email posts to and then they upload to the blog automatically, which is good because it means I can use my (mother's) Kindle to blog with, once I get to Vietnam!)

You know what you're doing once you get there, right?

Sure. I know exactly what I'm doing once I get there. I'm checking into my pre-booked hotel, following which I have a day to explore Hanoi before I go on my perfectly organised tour of Vietnam. I'm going to Sapa and Halong Bay, before returning to Hanoi, following which I'm going to Hue, then Hoi An. Then I'm flying to Ho Chi Minh City, where I'm doing a cyclo tour (no, I don't know either) before going to the Mekong Delta. From whence I return to Saigon. Along the way I'm hiking, canoeing, making a lantern, going to various museums, learning to cook, and even staying overnight with a Vietnamese family. It is very adventurous and I am excited! 

After that the plan gets a little less plan-like and a little more vague, but basically I hope to meet up with a friend from my adventures in the land of the Hamburgers and stay with her while she teaches people English. I have been promised that there is a good lake, and that I will be able to eat frogs legs. Other than that I'm not too sure there is really a plan, other than to avoid decapitation. Still, this being spontaneous and off the beaten track, shall be all the more adventurous and I get to hang out at a Vietnamese University, which should be exciting!

So you see! I have very precise and detailed plans! Aren't you excited to read all about my adventures? I know I don't have a good track record of actually blogging when life gets adventurous, but I promise you, I have good intentions! 

Counting down to my next adventure!

You guys, it's 30 days until I fly to Vietnam! I put a fancy little countdown widget over in the side bar so you can count down with me! I have been doing research into serious travelling blogs, and I believe at this stage it is customary to write a blog stating exactly what you are going to pack. I will not being doing this, partially because I'm sure you have no interest in exactly how many pairs of socks I will be taking, and partially because I honestly don't have a clue. However my research has revealed that there are three golden rules when packing:

1. Three pairs of underwear will suffice. I don't think I will be keeping to this rule; no matter how many times I read about the "Four days, Four ways" theory of underwear, it becomes no more appealing. I will wear my underwear the standard way. Not back-to-front, not inside-out, not back-to-front and inside-out. This is my final decision. I will also bring a sufficiency such that I do not spend my entire holiday washing my knickers. And before anyone even thinks of mentioning paper pants, I'd like to point out that this is so far outside the realms of things that are likely to ever happen that there's no point me shooting it down.
2. Absolutely no denim ever. I'm going to break this one too. Possibly twice; once in full length and once in short version. The only way I know to dress myself involves denim and hoodies. I don't think I can be deprived of these items for a whole month. I tried in South Africa and wound up buying myself a pair. I don't care if they dry slower than Christmas. They're coming. And besides, I am going to go live with a friend, who has a real person job. So I have to look like a real person, and preferably like I'm not going to smell like I'm on day 3 of the 4 day underwear cycle.
3. Don't bring bedding, it will be provided. Again, this one is looking like it's going to be broken... Anyone who has seen me at camp will know of my deep devotion to my silk sleeping bag liner, and the separation anxiety which occurs when I am bereft of it. I'm pretty sure it can protect me from bed bugs, knife wielding rapists, and the yeti, all at the same time. And I might bring my baby pillow too, because I love it, and it's been to South Africa, Nepal, and America three times and will get sad if it gets left behind.

So right now it's looking like I'm going to be taking everything, including the kitchen sink, I've never really been any good at packing light...

New Look Blog

Something happened to the host of my blog layout, which is sad, so I'm playing with a new one, I don't really do colours and that, as you all probably know, so if it's not working for you, it clashes, gives you a headache or whatever, let me know and I shall be changing things!

The great catch up Blog Post

Apparently I'm just going to blog every 3 months and try to fit everything in.
So here goes....
Since I last blogged I did a little of this :

I danced like this:

and this:

and this :

Maybe I shouldn't dance so much...

Anyway... I also dressed up like this:

          And like this:

In short, Mount Holyoke ate what little was left of my dignity. 

I also hung out with some fabulous people, including this wonderful lot:

All of which excitement culminated in marching in a parade dressed like this :

And the following day I went and got me one of these:

(In case you're wondering, "one of these" is a certificate saying I'd survived a year at Mount Holyoke College and a hug from the President, while wearing a ridiculous black robe and an even more ridiculous, poorly-fitting hat.)

Following which Half-Pint packed up my room while I wept into a box of Kleenex, then she drove me home to Plymouth. Where I ate and slept and read and got to see some of my amazing camp friends. The following day Half-Pint and I went shopping and hung out, and then her mum drove me to the airport. I bought and read the new book in the Hunger Games series, and then flew on my merry way home, in a fabulous seat with plenty of leg room!

And thus endeth the adventure in the Land of the Free.

Onwards to new things!

Oh hello there!

I'm terrible at blogging, so I am going to summarise the last couple of months in pictures and captions:

Firstly, it was my birthday, on my birthday I did not leave my building, because there was an ice storm, and the first snow day at Mount Holyoke for approximately 800 years. So instead I made my friends come to me. There are no nice pictures of this, however a couple of days later, when the weather had sufficiently calmed down to venture into the big bad world, I had a party of sorts and it was lovely. Here is a pictorial representation of this gathering:

We played taboo and I wore a hat shaped like a birthday cake :

Then I joined Frisbee. This was fun because I got to run around a lot and be part of a team. Shortly after joining Frisbee I played in a tournament, this resulted in a trip to a real life American ER. I felt like I might be on an episode of Grey's anatomy. Here is a picture of the out come of this adventure:

Also in February it was Valentines day, I got a whole bunch of Valentines, and this excited me, as I had never received one before. Here is a picture of some of them:

Another thing that happened was the Drag Ball, which supports people whose parents cut them off financially when they find out they're gay, we all dressed up in Drag. Here is a picture of my friends and I dressed as men:

Over Spring break, the Frisbee team went to Georgia, we drove all the way there. It took us 17 hours. I was not built to be in a car for 17 hours. We stopped off in DC. Here is a picture of me and my car-mates by the Lincoln memorial:

While we were in Georgia we played some Frisbee. This is the only evidence I have of ever having set foot on a Frisbee field. I am the one on the far right looking the wrong way. Excellent.

Here is a picture of our entire Frisbee team, or at least, those of us who went to Georgia, as you can tell, Georgia was pretty and sunny and we had the most excellent time ever.

Since Spring Break I have been hard at work doing academic type things. Part of this process is Study Parties. This is a strange Mount Holyoke thing I think. At study parties one hardly ever actually studies. Instead one gets conned into climbing into (and subsequently being locked into) cupboards under sinks:

And drawing pictures of the study party-ers on the black board in the room in which said study party is being held:

So that, in brief, is what I have been up to. Hopefully now I am up to date, I will keep up to date. That is, as always, the plan!