Keeping in Touch

So much for updates. Sorry about that one, life has been a little busy lately. I leave in 12 days for Europe. The first 5 days are spent traveling throughout France. Then from there I go straight to London and start school the next day! My Christmas consisted of mainly warm clothes, gift cards, and luggage.
As far as keeping in touch the plan is to keep blogging as often as I can. I know I have internet at the actual school, but that is only until 5:30pm on weekdays, so somewhat limited. As far as other places to access it I'll figure out more once I get there. I would also really like to do some kind of picture a day thing. Which is probably unlikely... but maybe I can post a few pictures once a week or something. I need to look into getting a .mac account which could make that kind of stuff easier.
I won't have my cell phone while I'm over there, but I do plan to get a cheap cell phone that you just pay for and then buy a calling card to use it. My MAIN form of keeping in touch though will be email, or myspace if you have an account :) If I don't have your email address you should send it to me so I can add it to my list!
I'm not expecting any cards or letters or anything... but I DO have a mailing address if you'd like to send me something while I'm in London. It's:

Laura Benson
AIFS Student Centre
Dilke House
Malet Street
London
WC1E7JN
England

And I think that's about all for that type of stuff! I figured I'd post this now even though I still have a few days before I leave since I don't know when I'll get another chance. The exact dates I'll be gone is January 7 - April 29.
I'll miss you guys! Keep reading to see what's going on with me while I'm in London!

Hey...

I'm home. As in back in Long Beach. Been a little busy but I have tons to write about when I finally get a second. So... stay tuned I guess?

How Could I NOT Love These Guys?

"Dear Laura,

I'm so sad that you're heading abroad the next semester. I'm going to miss you so much! I can't wait til you get back to tell us about everything that you did. Anyways, I hope you have a great time, (and get a good grade) while you're in England! Good Tidings for Christmas and a happy new year! I'll miss you! Don't forget to have a happy holiday and a merry Christmas.

Club 56er,
Elizabeth

p.s. I hope you enjoy yourself and I'll be praying for you. I hope you'll do also for me!"

I'm Done!

Yah! My semester is officially over. I've spent the last 2 days just celebrating being done with finals and hanging out with friends. I am so excited to go to London. But I'm also pretty sad to be leaving friends. Wednesday was my last day with Club 56. Yesterday was my last day working at the bookstore after 2.5 years. All of my managers were so cute giving me hugs and saying goodbye. One was even slightly teary eyed, aww. I totally missed saying goodbye to Corrie sinc she left right after finals. Amy left this morning for home. I drove Jackie to the airport this afternoon. Jenn already left. Umm I don't remember if I mentioned it yet but Jenn (old room mate) decided to actually move back home. As in she's not coming back to San Diego. So I PROBABLY won't even ever see her again. At least Cerise is here for a few days still. My mom is coming on Monday to help me pack and we are driving back home Tuesday morningish.

Wednesday night for our last Club 56 before Christmas, Amy and I planned a fun night instead of doing a lesson. Mainly because we didn't have the time since we were both stressed out with finals. Since we were going through the movie Elf we got all of the food for when he makes his own breakfast: Spaghetti with pop tarts and cereal and sugar and syrup, and let the kids make whatever they wanted with it. It was pretty funny. And then we had them go on teams and compete to make the best human Christmas present and human Christmas tree. And then sent them home ridiculously hyped up on sugar. Haha I'm sure the parents LOVED us after that. I'm working on making a movie/slideshow thing from that night. But it's definitely the first time I've worked with imovie so it's taking a little while :)

Well...

Just one more final! Yah!!!

p.s. I'm EXHAUSTED.

From the movie "Elf". I was bored. Do you know what it says??

And then I the of the past the of . And then I went the .

I hate studying

4 hours in the library so far. I know... not really that much. But I spent about 4 last night and will probably be here for at least 6 more. If I can handle it that is. I tend to get antsy.

:(

Hey but only 30 more days! until LONDON!!

Cold Chinese Food

Cold orange chicken is pretty good... Chow mein on the other hand... not so much.

So I'm officially done with classes for this semester. Yah! I have 5 finals next week. I'm pretty nervous. Plus I can't seem to get myself in a studying mood. I'm going into the finals with 3 80%'s and 2 C's. Hmm... Definitely not my best semester.

Here's what finals I have to look forward to:

- Monday 7-9pm: Philosophy of Law (cumulative: 6 short answer questions, 4 page long answer questions, 1 long essay)
- Tuesday 10:30-12:30: Ethics (cumulative: 2 essays)
- Tuesday 1-3: Accounting (cumulative since midterm, 9 questions each worth 4% of our total grade, no partial credit)
- Wednesday 1-3: Micro-Economics (cumulative... I don't even know)
- Thursday 1-3: Business Law (cumulative 170 multiple choice, 30 fill in)

Ah!

Good-ish News

The family stuff that we were going through was my mom getting tested for Breast Cancer. After a mammogram the doctor found an abnormal spot and after other testing they had decided to do a biopsy of the cells because they were afraid that it was cancer. We found out Monday that it's not breast cancer, thank God. But the doctor still wants my mom to have surgery to remove the cells because they are still abnormal and they aren't sure whether the cells are benign or malignant.
So good news in the fact that my mom doesn't have breast cancer, but it still could be something else. Hopefully it's not and her having the surgery to remove them will be all that is necessary for her to be ok. We'll find out.

Almost Done!

So one more week of classes and then a week of finals. I'm pretty nervous. I have ALOT of studying to do before next week. Then I get to cram 5 finals into 4 days. Sweet. I'm not doing buy back this semester. Which means I'm giving up alot of extra money and hours, but I decided it was more necessary to have the study time for my finals.

I'm going through a bit of scary family stuff right now. Hopefully everything turns out alright. I'll find out for sure Monday. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to bring something up if it turns out to be nothing. For now there's nothing that can be done except to pray...