#and even then. i already HAD mexican gothic from when i bought it for a class

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

the absolute Experience of hearing booktok describe one book as THE best five star read you've ever seen that you'll wanna read over and over and over again and then actually trying it and realizing you'd literally eat glass if it meant you got back everything you wasted on it

[by-speaker]

Haunted Hose (ENG. VER.)

Prompts by @raven-cincaide-words

Missa and Philza had moved into their dream house, a beautiful Victorian gothic mansion. It was old, it was mossy on the outside, the door was falling off its hinges, and it was missing a couple of panes of glass in the windows, but it was all theirs. 

‘Are you excited?’ asked Phil to his boyfriend, parking his big torino in the driveway, ’It needs a couple of repairs, but it's all ours.’ 

‘It's literally my dream house,’ Missa said with a big smile, ’I really can't believe we were able to buy it.’ 

Phil laughed and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, ‘It looks like it's haunted.’ He said laughing. 

Missa punched him in the arm, ‘don't say that shit.’ The Mexican shrieked. 

Philza rubbed his arm, ‘Alright, alright, no more haunted house jokes.’ He said with a laugh 

‘Come on, let's get in.’ 

They both got out of the car, and headed for the entrance, the door was sealed with some boards, but there was a piece of wood missing from underneath.  

‘We have to replace the door,’ Philza said after pushing it open. 

Missa laughed, but ran into the hallway, the inside of the house was not dilapidated, in fact the inside was in almost perfect condition, the house had belonged to an old woman who had made sure her house didn't fall apart, but because of her age she couldn't do much about the outside. 

‘Well, it could be worse.’ Missa said. 

‘Yes, you're right.’ Said Phil, ‘it could be haunted’ he said, making ghost sounds.

‘Don't joke about that any more,’ the Mexican shrieked again, ’you respect the dead.’ 

‘Sorry, sorry,’ said Phil giving him a resounding kiss on the cheek, ’Now what? Shall we clean up or eat first?’ 

‘Mhmmm, let's clean up, I'm going to order for lunch, Chinese, or pizza?’ 

‘Pizza is a good idea,’ said Phil, ’I'll start with the kitchen, you clean up the living room and the 2 of us do the bedroom?’

‘Yeah, that’s alright,’ said Missa giving his boyfriend a quick kiss and going to clean the living room. 

So they both started cleaning, Missa had made sure to check every nook and cranny of the old living room and had even lit a summary, to make sure there were no evil spirits or bad energies in the house. What looked a little out of place were the toys and clothes that were drying, plus the fireplace looked like it had been used recently.  

Strange, very strange.

‘Phil?’ he shouted to get his boyfriend's attention, ’Did you see this when you came to see the house?’ 

Philza walked into the living room, he was wearing that green scarf he used in his hair when he cleaned, ‘Oh, yes, those things were here, apparently the lady looked after the orphans that fell into the lake near here.’ 

‘Oh,’ said Missa sighing, ’I thought… don't forget it.’ 

‘Ghosts?’ said Phil with an evil grin on his face. 

Missa frowned, ‘Don't joke about that.’ He said, taking the broom and finishing sweeping, ‘Are you done with the kitchen?’ 

‘Almost done.’

The sound of a boat whistle startled them both, ‘I think it's the pizza.’ 

They both laughed, Philza went to get the pizza while he moved the coffee table closer to the couch. Missa smiled as her boyfriend came dancing in with two boxes of pizza and a bottle of ice-cold glass coke in his hands. 

‘Dinner’ said Phil, in the same tone as Maui sings it in the Moana movie.  

‘Thank you’ said Missa receiving one of the boxes. 

‘You're welcome’ said Phil with a smile, plopping down on the couch. 

Missa sat next to Phil on the couch, both eagerly opening their pizza boxes.

‘Mmm, smells delicious,’ Missa said, taking a slice. ‘Nothing like pizza after a day of cleaning.’

Phil nodded, his mouth already full of pizza. He swallowed and said, ‘Definitely. Hey, what do you say we start unpacking the boxes tomorrow? We could start giving this place a more personal touch.’

‘Sounds perfect to me,’ Missa replied. ‘I've got lots of ideas for decorating. Remember those pictures we bought at the flea market?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Phil said, taking a sip of coke. ‘They're going to look great in the living room.’

As they ate and chatted, a subtle noise came from the back of the house. It sounded like someone had tripped over something.

Missa stopped mid-bite. ‘Did you hear that?’

Phil cocked his head, listening. ‘Probably some animal outside. Maybe a raccoon or something.’

‘I guess,’ Missa said, not entirely convinced. ‘Tomorrow we should check to see if there are any entrances we need to seal.’

‘Good idea,’ agreed Phil. ’We don't want any unexpected visitors.’

They continued their dinner, discussing plans for the house and sharing anecdotes. From time to time, Missa glanced toward the hallway leading to the back of the house, as if expecting to see something. But everything seemed normal.

As they picked up the leftovers from dinner, Missa kept looking down the hallway. 

‘Everything all right, darling?’ asked Phil giving Missa a hug from behind, ’you look, scared.’  

‘Yes, everything's fine, querido,’ Missa said giving him a kiss on the cheek, ’Shall we go to bed?’ 

They both went to sleep. The next day, they both went downstairs for breakfast for reheated pizza and a cup of coffee, but their pizza was gone, and their living room was a mess. 

They attributed it to the raccoons, until it happened again the next day, and the next, and the next. 

On the fifth day, Missa and Phil looked at each other with concern as they observed their living room once again in disarray.

‘This can't be raccoons any more,’ Missa said, picking up a cushion from the floor. ‘Raccoons don't open refrigerators or leave biscuit crumbs everywhere.’

Phil nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. ‘You're right. This is…weird.’

‘Do you think someone is breaking into the house?’ Missa asked, her voice tinged with concern.

‘It's possible,’ Phil replied. ’But I don't see any signs of forced entry. Besides, why would someone break in just to make a mess and eat our food?’

Missa shuddered. ‘I don't know, but it's creeping me out.’

Phil hugged him. ‘Don't worry. We'll figure this out. What do you say we set up some security cameras? Then we'll know what's really going on.’

So they did, they bought cameras and installed them, it turned out their house wasn't haunted or infested with raccoons, there were kids in their house, their house was invaded by two little kids at night. 

[ladyloveandjustice]

Doing this for last year

How many books did you read this year? 36 novels, 78 manga and graphic novels. I'll skip talk

Did you reread anything? What?I've been rereading (actually listening with audiobooks) the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. Last year I reread Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum, Mort, Soul Music and Hogfather. I also reread (listened) American Gods.

What were your top five books of the year? Our Wives Under the Sea, In the Dream House, Otherside Picnic Volume 8: Accomplices No More, Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emporer and Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality. You can see more in-depth looks at my favorite in this post here.

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? I'm interested in checking out more of Julia Armfield and Carmen Maria Machado. And Chuck Tingle, but I already knew about him lmao. (Manga and GN wise, Uta Iskaki, Tatsuki Fujimoto, Mark Russell and Mokumokuren. See my full list of new favorite manga here!)

What genre did you read the most of? Besides manga, according to storygraph, fantasy (actually LGBT comes in second but I don't really consider that a genre).

What was your average Goodreads rating? 4.3. I do tend to be overly generous with my ratings because I'm an author and I know how hard it is, plus I like to err on the side of kindess, but yeah, probably essentially accurate! Might be closer to a 4.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to? Oh, a lot. Godkiller, Delilah Green Doesn't Care and The Spirit Bares it's Teeth stand out.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? I always set the low goal of 25 books, so yeah. On Storygraph I surpassed 100 counting manga.

Did you get into any new genres? No? I read a surprising amount of horror last year though.

Favorite new release? Camp Damascus or Night's Edge. If you count "released in English" It's definitely Otherside Picnic Vol 8.

Favorite book that been out for a while? In the Dream House and Our Wives Under the Sea

Any books that disappointed you? I found Mexican Gothic too slow paced and had to DNF it. The Old Woman with the Knife was such a cool idea but the writing was dull, so another DNF. For ones I did finish, Piranesi also didn't hit the way I wanted. I really struggled though She is a Haunting, which sucks because I actually bought that one on a whim.

Least favorite books? Oh boy, though I technically didn't read the whole thing, it was definitely Medusa's Sisters. As I said on here "I have to say, "Athena cursed Medusa and her sisters because she's a mean lesbian who's afraid of Zeus's homophobia, so she punishes her gf for being raped by making it so she turns in men to stone, classic manhating lesbian move" sure is a way to add extra layers of ick to Ovid's version of the Medusa myth, and i didn't know it was even possible to make that worse!' I also skimmed the end to see if it got worse or had any satisfying conclusion, and yeah it sure did get even worse, it included a character sleeping with her sister's rapist and hashtagtotalgirlboss telling him to go away as her big empowering moment, while also mentioning he gave her a baby which gave meaning to her life. All of the characters were awful but not in a fun way, and probably the funniest moment was when a character acted like it was SO shocking to see an older man getting sexual favors from a pretty young man in a brothel..IN ANCIENT GREECE.

whoops took too long answering this, invalid now.

books that won awards? I have no idea.

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? Probably Piranesi? Based on how people were talking about it I expected a lot...I kept waiting for a cool twist that never came.

Did any books surprise you with how good they were? I mean I expected In the Dream House and Our Wives Under the Sea to be good, but they blew me away, and I wasn't sure I'd enjoy a middle-grade book but I loved Zachary Ying.

How many books did you buy? 16. Minus all the Pratchett audiobooks, it's 8. (you don't want to know the answer for manga)

Did you use your library? Yes, a ton.

Most anticipated release? I don't really anticipate releases all that much, I mostly hear about books after they've released.

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama? Well, I follow withcindy on youtube so I watched a lot through her. I also saw the Cait Corrain thing going down on twitter. God help me if I ever participate in book drama, though.

Longest book? American Gods for sure.

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book? Guesswork here, since I don't want to check them all, but probably Magirevo 3 since it was so repetitive I could skim most of it. Qualia the Purple was likely the second fastest at 5 days.

Did you DNF anything? Yeah, 11 books according to Storygraph. Last year I struggled through a few books so this year i decided to drop books as soon as they were boring to me or I realized I wasn't feeling it/in the mood. I'll probably return to some! Medusa's Sisters was the only one I dropped because I was angry.

Reading goal for this year? The usual 25 books.

end-of-year book ask

How many books did you read this year?

Did you reread anything? What?

What were your top five books of the year?

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

What genre did you read the most of?

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Did you get into any new genres?

What was your favorite new release of the year?

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Any books that disappointed you?

What were your least favorite books of the year?

What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

How many books did you buy?

Did you use your library?

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

What’s the longest book you read?

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Did you DNF anything? Why?

What reading goals do you have for next year?

[seventhstar]

End of Year Reading Tag, which I am doing because I feel like it. You know how people will say "consider yourself tagged if you see this?" @why-the-heck-not I am taking you up on your offer.

did you reach your reading goal for the year (if you had one)?

I did! Actually I met my goal multiple times. I started with a goal of 50, hit it well before 2021 was over, and raised it a couple more times. My final goal was 85, and I ended up reading 88 books!

what are your top 3 books you read this year?

Oof, that is a hard question, because I already put out my top ten list this year and even with counting series I read as one book, I struggled hard to cut it down to ten. I'll give it a shot...

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

what’s a book that you didn’t expect to enjoy quite so much going in?

Hmm. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, for the simple reason that I don't usually read horror. I picked this up on a whim and enjoyed it a lot, to the point where I'm going to try to be more open-minded about horror as a genre in the future.

were there any books that didn’t live up to your expectations?

My biggest disappointments this year were Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan and Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. These were both YA novels--actually, a lot of books I didn't like this year were YA, which makes me think I need to read fewer YA novels--that didn't work for me and overall didn't live up to the massive hype surrounding them.

did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favourite?

I reread shockingly few books this year! But I would have to go with Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, which I reread every December, and which is one of my favorite books ever. It is full of moments that have lingered in my brain since I read them, like smoke in a candle if you smother it by putting on a lid.

did you dnf any books?

Three! The Duke's Wager by Edith Layton, because both the love interests were loathsome and I did not like either of them enough to continue; Daring and the Duke, because I didn't like the first couple chapters; and Freed by E.L. James, because after reading the first five 50sog books, my friends finally convinced me to love myself and stop.

did you read any books outside your usual preferred genre(s)?

This year actually marked my return to my preferred genres, fantasy and science fiction. Though I did read a lot more adult SF/F compared to YA. I did read more contemporary romances, which was a change--I usually only read historical romances and usually only ones set in regency England.

what was your predominant format this year?

43/88 books I read were e-books, the remaining 45 were physical. I read a lot of library books in the first half of the year and then switched to e-books once I was traveling.

what’s the longest book you read this year?

Probably the fan translation of Heaven Official's Blessing, which is fiendishly long.

what are your top 3 anticipated 2022 releases?

Okay, I'm going to cheat and do three new releases and three sequels to books I've already read.

New releases: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

Sequels: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

what books from your tbr did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?

Well, I'd like to finish the two series I started in 2022 that I didn't finish. So Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert and The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite.

In addition: The Lady or the Lion by Aamna Qureshi (Pakistani-inspired fantasy!!!) The Councillor by E.J. Beaton (I bought two copies of this one and didn't get around to it!!!) The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (I wanted to read it but couldn't bring myself to buy it, but then it went on sale recently so now I have it!)

[1998tales]

3 JULY 2020

11:02AM

I hate how I keep impulse buying. I signed back up for Book of the Month even though I’ve yet to complete any of the ten+ books I bought from that monthly service. I saw something called Mexican Gothic and wanted to get it. I know that if I don’t like a book next month, I can skip it and won’t be charged every month. Or maybe I’ll just cancel again. I need to be more responsible. I’ve read three books this year. Three! What’s sad is that for a moment, I forgot which books I had read as well. This is horrible. For the rest of month, I’m not buying anything online unless it’s an essential item (or a birthday gift). I feel terrible.

I think about all the things that I need to pay back like student loans or services How did I become this person who squanders her money? I’ve been afraid of going to get health and dental checks for a long time. So, instead of putting money aside for it, I’ll buy a book or a makeup item. I was unemployed for so long that my student loan debt went up 8K dollars. I will never pay it off because of how little money I make. What’s sad is that if I had had some control when I got my job 5 years ago, I could have at least made the debt down by 10K or so. 

Now, I’m at an age where I should have a mortgage and be trying to pay off a house, but I don’t think I’ll ever get there. I have too much already on my plate. I just feel so hopeless, so I excuse these expenses. Books stack up unread. My makeup gets used, most of the time, because it’s the only means I have for feeling feminine and for feeling better looking. But I don’t take care of my health at all. I wear the same clothes every week to work with little variation. They are clean, but at my weight, I can’t find much else to wear. I look like a slob.

When I’m not using online ordering to feel better, it’s unhealthy food. When I started my job 5 years ago, a co-worker joked that this place only hired fat short people. I was 30 lbs overweight at the time. Now, I’m 87 lbs overweight. I’ve never felt worse in my life. 

Aside from that, I still have transportation issues. I’m afraid of driving. I have the money in the bank for driving school, but I haven’t even called about enrolling in classes. I’m just so afraid of getting behind the wheel. I’m not sure how I’m going to overcome this fear. I know that it is something that needs to happen this year because I won’t have someone to take me to work at some point.

So, I’ve decided that after my birthday, that I’m going to make 2020 a better year. Another plan. How many have I had this year? I can’t even look at my resolutions list from January.

I’ve been thinking lately since I ditched social media that I should just take an internet break. No more reading reddit. No more reading news sites. Or anything else really. I’m no longer watching certain booktubers who demand compelled speech nor beautubers who do the same as well.

I’ll keep my video streaming services, because I have things that I want to watch, but I don’t want to interact with people much anymore. I don’t want to make youtube videos anymore. I don’t care about cancel culture. I’m tired of the negativity. I’m tired of being told that only certain voices should be heard. There is no room for white people, especially white people who are Christian and pro-life. Call that “white woman tears” all you want, but excluding someone on the basis of their race and/or religion is discriminatory. 

What can I accomplish even in a week if I block myself from reading negativity and watching negative videos? We shall see.

I’m still going to write on this tumblr though. It’s the only thing I’ve managed to stick to this year. 

8:13PM

I’ve read cantos 5 and 6 of Dante’s Inferno. The gluttony one hit me hard. I wouldn’t like to be in the cold, icy rain and disgusting muck rolling around. No thank you.

I’ve listened to Dream Wife’s new album. I liked the song Temporary a lot. It deals with supporting your friend through her miscarriage. That isn’t talked about a lot. I like RH, RN which is Right Here, Right Now which talks about living in the present.

[ericacheeks-blog1]

Mind the Gap

This weekend was one for the girls. Nicole, Jackie, and I decided to explore London and Munich all in three and a half days. Our flight to London was in Terminal 1 this time since we were flying to a country outside of the Schengen Area. The terminal was set up a little differently than Terminal 2 and really every other airport I’ve been to; instead of one big security check in which all passengers, no matter what gate they’re assigned, go through, there were mini security checks located in front of each gate. We weren’t a fan of this system, because we had to empty out our water bottles from dinner in the airport before getting to our gate. 

Like always, I knocked out for the entire flight. Once there we felt like we had things under control with transportation to the hostel, but our train got cancelled last minute. The strange part was that nothing was announced in the station so we were extremely confused and had to ask around. It felt nice being able to ask the locals for help in English.   On our way to the hostel, Nicole spotted a Five Guys and was jumping up and down from excitement. As you can imagine, we were all feeling a little homesick for “American” food. We decided to figure out dinner after dropping our bags off, but once at the hostel there was no one at the reception for a good 20 minutes. A pretty bad first impression of Clink261.   We made our way back to the Five Guys that was only a three minute walk away. Once there, Nicole tugged on the door and it wouldn’t open… It was closed. I still can’t imagine the disappointment Nicole must’ve felt. We were starving at that point and decided to find something nearby. We walked across the street and found a little Mexican grill called Burrito Café. Its concept was very similar to Chipotle’s. Jackie got nachos and I ended up with a burrito bowl that was a bit spicier than I expected. Back at the hostel, the lights were out and everyone in our room was asleep. Jackie, Nicole, and I struggled to make our beds and get ready for bed in the dark, but we all fell asleep pretty quickly. We made a “brunch” reservation at Sketch, which was recommended by my friend back from UT, Nadia. She visited London just the weekend before and gave us some good recommendations. Anyway, I put brunch in quotes because the only available time was at 8 in the morning. Unfortunately we got ready by 8 AM and the trip to Sketch would’ve taken another 15-20 minutes. As a group we decided to leisurely enjoy the complimentary breakfast at the hostel instead. To start off the jam-packed day, we went to King’s Cross station on the hunt for Platform 9 ¾. I think we spent a good half hour taking pictures and browsing the gift shop.

Next on our itinerary was Buckingham Palace, but on the way there we diverged into a London souvenir shop. I bought some great postcards; my favorites being cutouts of Queen Elizabeth’s face and a plate of fish ‘n chips. Jackie forgot to pack underwear so being the good friends we are, Nicole and I pressured her into getting a set of three thongs with the British flag printed on them.

We finally got to Buckingham Palace and the area was extremely crowded because of the changing of the guards. We decided it wasn’t worth the time to stick around for the ceremony and wandered around the area, taking pictures instead. On our way past the main gates, we spotted an Erasmus friend back from Prague, Big Mike. We weren’t absolutely sure it was him, but decided to shout his name, hoping for the best. He turned around and gave all of us hugs. What a small, small world!

Luck was on our side that morning. As we were crossing the street, getting further away from the Palace, a set of guards on horses walked right by us. It was as if we got front row seats! We continued our stroll to Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate got married. The gothic church was absolutely stunning. Soon enough we spotted both Big Ben and the London Eye. 

After taking our solo shots, selfies, and group pictures, we all got hungry and took the tube to get some fish ‘n chips (veggie burger ‘n chips for Jackie) at The Laughing Halibut. They had an assortment of sauces to pair with the meal – ketchup, mayo, tartar sauce, and two different brown sauces. One tasted similar to A1 sauce and the other was vinegary. Right outside the restaurant there was a street filled with mini food venders. The delicious smells wafted towards us and we were tempted to get a second or third meal. Before falling into the trap, we routed the GPS to Camden Market. I’m glad we made time to visit the market. The area was filled with colorful shops and stalls, selling clothes, accessories, paintings, candles, etc.

Nicole found a crepe stand and we couldn’t resist. The crepe was a little more pancakey than we were expecting, but it was a great pick-me-up to get us excited for Abbey Road. Once there though, I remember feeling a bit underwhelmed. It was just a typical two-way street, but with tourists (like ourselves) posing for pictures and almost getting run over by the angry drivers.

Next on our to-do list was Tower Bridge. However, when asking for directions, we ended up asking for London Bridge, which was a big mistake. The difference between the bridges is pretty drastic. Luckily, the older gentleman helping us out told us that we’d be disappointed and bored with the London Bridge within 20 seconds and directed us to the Tower Bridge instead. The teal detailing was a sight to see, but by this point in the day I was losing steam.

We went back to the hostel and sat around the lobby for an hour or so since we already checked out. We were all drained and so were our phone batteries. Eventually we changed into more suitable clothes for the pub-crawl and headed out for dinner. We wanted to give Five Guys another try, but realized there was a Nando’s nearby. Even Nicole was swayed and we all got our fix of chicken and creamy mash. We were on a time crunch for the initial meet up at Piccadilly Circus for the pub-crawl and had to take our dinner to-go. We ate at the train station and of course, I didn’t finish my meal until we were actually on the tube. 

Although we were cutting it close on time, we finally spotted a telephone booth that wasn’t 1) actually being used or 2) obstructed by gates, and we had to snap a few pictures. After all, did you actually go to London if you didn’t take a picture in the red, iconic booths?

The pub-crawl we booked was called the Banana Pub Crawl. They instructed us to look for the guys in banana suits and once we found them, we got our wristbands and welcome drink coupons and headed into the first pub. We met up with our friend from back home, Brittany Thum, and her friends who are all studying in Bath. Nicole, Jackie, and I left the pub-crawl pretty early in order to sneak back into the hostel and get one last shower before heading off to the airport. Our flight to Munich was at 6 in the morning so we decided to sleep in the airport that night. When planning the trip, Nicole and I thought that was such a great idea – you get to skip out on paying for a hostel and you don’t have to travel to the airport super early in the morning! Let me just say that we’re never doing that again… We ended up sleeping on the floor because the airport we were at was really small and all the chairs/benches were taken. There was a chilly draft that kept hitting us, making it even harder to fall asleep. I think we ended up getting a total of 2-3 hours between the three of us… Do not recommend.

To summarize London, I think the team did a fantastic job with the limited time we had, but I’ll have to go back to get the real experience (if anything, for the London Transport Museum haha). Hostel wasn’t the best, but we definitely got our money’s worth by sneaking in that last shower. The food surprised me since I had such low expectations. We are now huge fans of the tube (probably my favorite thing the city has to offer). We hate the Luton airport.

[fardell24b]

Quinn’s Code - The Esteemsters Code - Part 3

History Class

Daria came into the classroom.

“Class, we have we have a new student joining us today. Please welcome Daria Morgendorffer. Daria, raise your hand, please,” Mr. Anthony DeMartino said.

Daria raised her hand.

“Well, Daria! As long as you have your hand raised... “ Mr. DeMartino chuckled. “Last week we began a unit on westward expansion. Perhaps you feel it's unfair to be asked a question on your first day of class.”

“Excuse Me?” Daria asked, nonplussed.

“Daria, can you concisely and unemotionally sum up for us the doctrine of Manifest Destiny?”

“Manifest Destiny was a slogan popular in the 1840s. It was used by people who claimed it was God's will for the U.S. to expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean. These people did not include many Mexicans.” Daria said, concisely and unemotionally, albeit with rather thick sarcasm.

'Wow, that is concise,' Jennifer thought.

Mr. DeMartino was surprised “Very good, Daria. Almost... suspiciously good. All right, class. Who can tell me which war Manifest Destiny was used to justify?” He looked to someone in the class whom was wearing a football outfit. “Kevin! How about you?”

“The Vietnam War?” Kevin Thompson asked.

“That came a little later, Kevin... a hundred years later. A lot of good men died in that conflict, Kevin. I believe we owe it to them to at least get the century right! “ Mr DeMartino said, (more than) annoyed at Kevin's stupidity.

“Uh... Operation Watergate?” Kevin asked.

Mr. DeMartino was even more annoyed.

End of Flashback

“Interesting, but that Kevin sounds rather stupid!” Quinn said.

“Oh, Stupid does not begin to describe it. He doesn't get it through his thick head that I don't like being called Mack-Daddy!” Mack said.

“You know him?” Quinn asked. 'of course he does,' she thought.

“Unfortunately, yes. It's also unfortunate that he's the junior-varsity Quarterback,” Mack said. Jennifer left the kitchen (unnoticed by Quinn and Mack, but not by Kristen)

“So are you on the team?” Quinn asked.

“As a running back,” Mack said.

“Ok,” Quinn said. She noticed that Jennifer was gone. “Where's Jennifer?”

Jennifer entered her bedroom and opened a drawer immediately to the left of the door. She grabbed one of the Computer Club membership applications and then went back downstairs.

“Here is the membership form,” she said, handing it to Quinn.

“Thanks!” Quinn said. She began to fill it out.

Twenty minutes later, Quinn had finished filling out the form. She handed it back to Jennifer.

Jennifer read over the form and then placed it in her backpack. “I will show it to the office in the morning, but as far as I am concerned you are now a member of the Lawndale High Computer Club,” Jennifer said.

“Yes!” Quinn squealed. “When's the next meeting?”

“Wednesday at Lunch, it will be in the main computer lab,” Jennifer said.

“Cool,” Quinn said.

The Valiant pulled up in front of a two story house larger than Jennifer's but smaller than Jodie's. Quinn got out of the car and immediately thought that it looked rather foreboding. She could see black curtains in two of the upstairs windows, to the right of the front door.

“So why did Cindy not want to come here again?” she asked Kristen.

“Andrea creeps her out,” Kristen said.

“Now her house is giving me the creeps,” Quinn said. “Like an icky feeling that I can't describe.”

“You and me, both,” Mack said as he got out the car.

“Let's get this over with,” Quinn said as she walked towards the front door.

Quinn rang the door bell. About ten seconds later the door was opened by a Goth chick whom looked more Gothic than Kristen did. Quinn could see why she would creep Cindy out.

“Who are you?” she asked, looking at Quinn.

“Andrea, this is Quinn Morgendorffer,” Mack said.

“I would like to join the Programming Club,” Quinn said.

“Oh, come right in,” Andrea said, without preamble.

The living room was sparsely decorated, with throw rugs on the floor and paintings on the wall. The stairs to the second level were at the back of the room, adjacent to the door to the kitchen. On the TV was a paused scene of blood being splattered. Quinn saw the TV and fought back nausea. “Eeewww! What is that?” she asked.

“American Psycho, I recently bought the tape,” Andrea said.

“Yuck!” Mack mumbled.

“Ick, Andrea!” Kristen said.

“Fine, I'll change to a channel!” Andrea said, getting the hints from her guests. She then picked up the TV remote and changed the TV input from the VCR channel to a broadcast channel. Then she used the stereo system remote to start a previously paused CD. “Hip, Hip to be a square...” It was Huey Lewis and the News' Hip to be Square.

Andrea danced to the beat for a short while before pausing the CD again.

“Come on, the stuff is in my room,” Andrea said.

“Okay...” Quinn said, as Andrea started going up the stairs.

The upstairs corridor was dark, with the only light coming up the stairs, from a window at one end of the hallway and a slightly open doorway opposite the stairwell. The sound of dripping water could be heard from the bathroom, making the place seem even more eerie.

“That faucet needs to be repaired,” Andrea said. “Only one of many things wrong with this house,” she added, as she lead her guests towards her bedroom.

“There isn't a ghost, is there?” Quinn asked.

Andrea simply unlocked her bedroom door (marked Andrea's Lair Enter at Own Risk) and opened it.

Andrea's room was all black. Black curtains, black walls, black carpet, black ceiling, black bed covers. Just about the only things that weren't black were the power outlets and various other items, including some decorations. There was a heavy smell of incense and red candles burned in various locations around the room, including around Andrea's computer set-up.

“Are those cases custom made?” Quinn asked.

“Yes. Cost my parents a bundle too. They are now making noises about me needing to get a job. Like, I don't have enough to deal with already,” Andrea said.

She opened a drawer below one of the computers and took out a Programming Club membership application form. She gave it to Quinn.

“Thanks!” Quinn said.

She sat at the computer desk, and began to fill it out, whilst Andrea opened her bar fridge (hidden next to the computer desk) and took out four sodas.

“List the the Programming Languages that you have any level of skill in,” Quinn read. 'Ok,' she thought as she started writing down the languages that came off the top of her head.

BASIC

C++

VBScript

…

Quinn completed the form and handed it to Andrea. Andrea read it and signed it. “You are now a probationary member of the Programming Club,” she said.

“Probationary?” Quinn asked.

“I will test you on your proficiency in the languages that you listed prior to giving you full membership,” Andrea said.

“Ok,” Quinn said. 'That's not so bad,' she thought.

“You can come over tomorrow and I'll start by testing you on BASIC,” Andrea said.

“That will be OK,” Quinn said warily. 'Best to get it over with as quickly as possible,' she thought.

“Good, I'll see you here, tomorrow before 4:00,” Andrea said. It wasn't a question.

“I will be here,” Quinn said. Being in the Programming Club was worth being in the Hecuba's creepy house many times a week.

[misguidedleopard]

Dear all,

Hello to everyone from France, and a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Bloody Holidays to all you slackers! I hope you enjoy your holidays, your sunshine and your beach. I will enjoy my non-holidays, my dismal grey sky and rain and zero degrees and my non-beach. Have I mentioned that it’s cold?! Well, here’s the next chapter of the France saga, it’s a longun, I’ve been having fun, very sorry.

Possibly the worst photo of me in the history of all photos of me. But I still wear my Noel a Strasbourg christmas hat every year :)

So anyways, I don’t even know where to start to tell you all about my Christmas, Strasbourg and what my New Year’s Eve will be! It’s been such a fantastic week, I can’t imagine going back to school on January 2nd! That’s not even enough time to recover from New Year’s Eve!

Well, I guess let’s start with Strasbourg :) Last Tuesday I got up nice and early at 6 am to get to the train station, to change the tickets because the ticket man had gotten them wrong, to get on the train at 8 am. Two hours to Paris (Gare d’Austerlitz), change train stations via the metro (I love the Parisian metro!) to Gare de l’Est (the Eastern Train Station). Jump on the train very quickly and try and find our seats. I assured my companion that they were in car number 111, but no: “That’s first class it can’t be there!” So after two or three tours of the entire train looking for our American friend who was already on the train I began to think perhaps we were on the WRONG train, which wouldn’t really be a problem until the ticket collector came (never mind that we could be heading to a completely different destination…) (See how blasé I was by this point! I think this was truly the time I really started to settle into France. There’s a point when you tip over from translating your thoughts from English to French, to just thinking in French in the first place. It took a few months, but I was definitely thinking in French by Christmas. The next turning point is dreaming in French. By then, you’re practically a native. It’s a remarkable experience!).  Eventually we found our American companion in car 111, and voila, we were at least on the right train! (Tip 11: Your seat on the train becomes fair game if you don’t take it. Seating on a train is kind of like seating in a cinema – if you don’t get into your seat quickly enough, someone else will take it because somebody else has already taken their seats too. And so it goes.). We arrived in Strasbourg at about 3pm, and walked directly to the hostel to drop off our heavy bags. When we saw the hostel we were amazed. I knew that it would be 20.50 euros a night and thought that the place might be a bit of a dump because for that price that’s about what you normally get – and a lot of hostels aren’t exactly comfortable. But the place was spotless, new, with brilliant facilities – a bar, a restaurant, downstairs there was a baggage room and tv room, there was an elevator (essential since we were on the third floor and we all had luggage) and our room was bright, open, spacious and clean! Needless to say we were incredibly impressed. The price of the room also included breakfast – which we were only up early enough for one morning!

So we had just left the hostel to see the sights when we got a call from another American assistant from Paris. He is a friend of a Mexican assistant in Châteauroux with us. She has gone to Spain and Morocco for the holidays, but her friends were going to be in Strasbourg at about the same time we were, so she had told them to look us up. So we arranged for them to find a café while we looked around the Christmas market (Kristkindelmarik), just a wander through them really to see what it was about. When we got directions to the café it was already about 6 o’clock. So we gets to the café and there’s not one, but four young gentlemen waiting for us – three Americans and a Mexican.

One of the many stalls at one of the many Christmas Markets in Strasbourg

So, Strasbourg was a blast: the party scene was cool and the company was just superb – we couldn’t have asked to meet anyone better! After meeting the boys on Monday at the café, we bought some alcohol and snacks, found their car after a long walk in the opposite direction, crammed all seven of us into the very small 1989 volkswagon, and found the hostel on the other side of town without getting pulled over by the police. So then we took all four guys up to our room, brought out the snacks and alcohol and got down to the business of just sitting around chatting, drinking and eating until midnight when the wine and whisky had run out. At that stage we decided that it was imperative to go out to a bar or buy some more alcohol – OR, a much more enticing option: go to GERMANY. That, though, would require the car and since we had all been drinking, we decided that seven in the car was not a very good idea for crossing the border. You can just imagine the German police pulling over this pissy little volkswagon loaded to the teeth with drunken, foreign 20 somethings! Well… one thing led to another, and five of us ended up loading into the car and skipping across the border!!! I’VE BEEN TO GERMANY!!! We crossed the bridge and went to the first bar we saw – a pokey little one-roomer with the bar itself and about five tables, which was practically empty except for us. We had such an amazing time, the boys were those ‘matey, blokey, funny’ type of guys, with TERRIBLE French accents insistent on speaking drunken French (in Germany). Crawled into bed at 2am.

I should point out that the boys were staying in a dorm room for one person – it was the ‘uni hall’ type room of a friend who had vacated it for the holidays, so one boy had the bed each night while the others had a piece of cold, hard concrete floor each night. So… one of the guys may have stayed over in our room… and the staff said nothing.

Wednesday night the boys got back into Strasbourg late, nearly midnight. They had gone to a roman bath in Germany and were supposed to spend the night at a friend’s but it had snowed the night before, the roads were iced over, they were in the mountains – you can guess what happened: they hit a patch of ice and ended up in the wall. Luckily there were no injuries. By then they had already taken several wrong turns anyway, and they decided to call it a day and come back to Strasbourg to spend the night with ‘les filles’, after stopping to buy alcohol in Germany because nothing’s open in France. At 2am several of us ducked out once again to find a bar in the freezing night on the other side of town – walking of course. We eventually found a nice bar, with a cute barman (2 cute barmen in fact). Michel was my favourite. Samuel liked the American among us. Anyways, we left when they closed at 4 am, with the promise of coming back Thursday night, which we did. That night, two of the gentlemen stayed over, and once again the staff said nothing. We love that hostel and those staff!

I did see things in Strasbourg, I promise! Here’s the vieux Strasbourg with the quaint timber-clad houses backing straight onto the canals.

Thursday night was supposed to be an early night, since we had to leave the room by 9 am the next morning. The boys had left early on Thursday morning after two hours sleep, so us girls returned to our bar and had a bit of a more quiet night (3.30am that is). We had to be up at 7.30am to leave the room and have breakfast! Needless to say we were exhausted Friday when we had to wait for the train with our bags!

The intrepid travellers who made my trip to Strasbourg so memorable :) Love them to bits :)

So, moving on from our party life… The huge ttraction for us in Strasbourg was the huge Christmas market. We quickly found out that it’s not so much one huge market, but like five or six little markets in little places, or squares as we Aussies would say. The Christmas markets are made up of little villages of wooden ‘houses’, all selling from their open fronts little figures of Père Noël (Father Christmas), nativity scenes, animals, the usual trinkets, candles, toys, Christmas hats (bonnets de noel), waffles, crepes, chichis and the Strasbourgian favourite: spiced hot wine (vin chaud). This was my first taste of heated spiced wine and it basically lived up to its name – it’s hot, it’s wine and it’s spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and other Christmasy stuff like that. It takes your breathe away even before you drink it. It’s got a super-sweet smell, and it really warms you up on a freezing cold day. It wasn’t disgusting, not at all, but just far too rich and sweet for me.

  The little village underneath the biggest sapin de Noel (Christmas Tree) you could ever imagine. 

I absolutely loved the Christmas markets, tinsel and decorations and hanging ornaments and Father Christmases everywhere, every sort of Christmas tree decoration and every set of lights you can imagine – so many beautiful, sparkling sights to see.

  And outside of the markets themselves, an enormous Christmas tree that blots out the sky, and each restaurant, shop, house, museum, and other sort of building that exists is brilliantly decorated, giving the entire city a glittering festive look even though it’s one degree in the middle of the day! The enormous cathedral towers over the city, an enormous grey gothic mass of towers and statues – you have to look straight up from the base of it and you still can’t fit all of it in the photo!

The gros sapin de noel at night

Le cathédrale énorme

The front of the cathedral, with the Christmas Market at its base

We took a tour of the Kronenbourg brewery while we were there – it’s amazing what you can learn about beer from something like that! Did you know there are three types of beer – white, amber and brown. And they come from different types of wheat or mead or even corn! And did you know that Kronenbourg is now owned by a Scottish company which also owns Foster’s which would be why I can find Foster’s over here, but not decent Australian beer. We got two free drinks as well, which was really cool.

We also took a boat tour of the river for an hour. It was picturesque and extremely interesting. It seems that Strasbourg is the capital of the world. La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France, was written by a soldier in Strasbourg; the Gutenberg Press was invented in Strasbourg; the European Union Constitution was written, signed and ratified, or whatever, in Strasbourg; the headquarters of the European Commission are located in Strasbourg… If I could live anywhere in France, Strasbourg would be the city to choose, for sure.

Donc, restez assuré que je me suis bien amusée à Strasbourg, et que j’adore cette ville! Je voudrais bien y retourner un jour, et si je pouvais faire une année en plus comme assistante de langue, je choisirais fortement Strasbourg comme ville, c’est une ville merveilleuse ! Pour finir, sachez que je suis absolument fou de Strasbourg et aussi de France, je m’amuse bien ici et je pouvais rester ici pendant longtemps, tres contentement.

  For Christmas itself, rest assured that I wasn’t alone. I invited the remaining two assistants in Châteauroux (my South African bestie, and the same young Mexican lady I toured Strasbourg with) chez moi for Christmas dinner, on Christmas Eve. In France Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. It was a fantastic multi-cultural affair. I made my family’s famous potato bake as well as coq au vin (a traditional Alsacian dish of chicken breasts in a mushroom and white wine sauce). The Mexican assistant made spaghetti with a light tomato and basil dressing. The South African looked after the fruit salad and ice cream. That girl knows how to choose ice cream! We ate and drank and danced around and looked at some photos and started watching a movie but were so exhausted that we all fell asleep just after it started! Christmas Day was a day of much the same as Christmas Eve with the South African, relaxing, eating, drinking, dancing, watching movies, and not at all lonely or sad.

Anyways, since I don’t know what I’m doing for New Year’s Eve and I have to prepare classes for next term and all of that boring stuff – the work that gets in the way of life – I should keep going and let you all keep going on your holidays.

So here is the end of this heavy tome, cheers to all and enjoy your holidays and your summer and your sunshine.

My footprints in the snow

A lovely light white blanket greeted me the next morning

PS: I’m adding this note onto this letter on Wednesday 28th because I have some incredibly, fantastical, superbly, marvellously, magnificently, fabulously, trop cool news for you! IT’S SNOWING!!! I’ve already been outside, taken photo after photo after photo, made snowballs, but there’s no one to have a snowball fight with! It’s so beautiful, it’s really light, it’s like powdered ice, tiny little square flakes of thin, frosty ice, it’s so beautiful! I love snow! It’s all white and fun and it’s really really cool! TROP COOL!

Love to all, cheers,

Karen.

Letters from France: Chapter 11 (Christmas in Strasbourg) Dear all, Hello to everyone from France, and a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Bloody Holidays to all you slackers!