Say What?

There's nothing quite like IMing your parents when you're completely annihilated on Strongbow and cheap chardonnay.

That's all I have to say. Because, obviously, I'm completely annihilated on Strongbow and cheap chardonnay, and I don't want to incriminate myself any more than I already have.

It's...it's like being back in America!

Yesterday, I heard that Woolworth's had been put into receivership. Not cool - where else am I supposed to get cheap stuff? So, this afternoon after my Egyptology class, I headed down to the one on the high street. I needed cheap bed linens for when my family comes for Christmas (my parents are staying in a hotel room that I booked for them, but I have to keep David in my dorm room) and I wanted to try Pic 'n' Mix, since it's supposed to be the highlight of British Woolworth's.

I got to the high street, and discovered that it was completely blocked off. Apparently, there was some sort of bomb scare - I heard that there was a briefcase left unattended, but I'm not really clear on the details. Apparently, they were taking this very seriously - they had cordoned off the part of the high street that I needed to go through. (To be fair, the city did have an actual bombing earlier this year. My mom does not know this, and no one should tell her.) I stood around for a while and watched, as most people do. The bomb scare was very American, but the scene itself was so overwhelmingly British that I was fascinated.

Everyone just stood. They talked quietly among themselves and occasionally craned their necks over the barrier. No one shouted or pushed. Eventually, they got bored and walked away, and other people took their place. Some kids accidentally snapped the barrier tape ("Oh, my God, it was you, Sam!" "No it weren't!") and no one proceeded forward through it. The police wandered around but didn't make any loudspeaker announcements, and everyone behaved themselves. It was the weirdest thing I've seen so far.

I took pictures, but sadly I cannot post them, because there's a very distinctive piece of public art on that section of the high street.

Eventually, I, too, got bored and wandered on to Woolworths, using side streets. I got my sheets, some tinsel garlands and LED Christmas lights, and some Pic 'n' Mix. (Pic 'n' Mix is amazing. I'm sorry I'm only discovering it now. I will have to make as many trips as I possibly can before a Tesco replaces the Woolworth's.) Then, I went home. I haven't heard any explosions, so I assume the high street is safe.

Whine

My mouth is improved. Which is good, because I had the following conversation with a British friend:

Me: So, how hard is it to find a dentist around here?
Brit: *politely attempts to stifle incredulous laughter*
Me: I thought so.

So I have not been to see a dentist. My mouth issue has cleared up somewhat, which means that I was probably right and it's just some localized gingivitis or something, but now I'm worried that the gum is going to slough off or do something equally disgusting.

All of my midterms are in. Unfortunately, I volunteered to do the final presentation for one of my classes early, on Monday (I always do this). And now I don't wanna. It's for the class in which I learn how to beg for grant money, which means they don't care what I say, but they do care if I say "um" too many times or my Powerpoint looks terrible. It will not surprise you to learn that I'm a godawful public speaker, and I've accepted that I'm not going to do well. I've come to terms with it. I care about my grades (um, obviously) but the best I can hope for in this class is a pass. But, it was recently brought to my attention that the British find American accents even more amusing than we find theirs. I don't want to stand up there and give a long presentation in my funny accent!

My hair is thinning. It has actually been thinning since this summer, so this has been going on for quite some time now. It's beginning to get on my nerves, though. It's not even so much that my braids keep getting thinner and thinner and I keep having to readjust my updos for thinner hair. I don't think it is a health issue - a lot of people go through a shed in their early twenties, and I think this might be mine. (I'm in my mid-twenties, but whatever.) And my hair has merely go from "thick" to "average", so it's not like I'm dealing with bald patches or anything. But my god, the shedding! I have to pull clumps of hair out of the rug every week. It's disgusting. I'd like for it to stop. There's also the fact that, if it starts to grow back in, I will be right back to having a tapering braid. I just got done with that last year! Argh! I'd probably have to cut it up to shoulderlength and start all over again, and then I would be cranky and miserable because I'm vain about my hair. It's not the end of the world. But it is pretty damn annoying.

Teeth, Part 2

I'm many, many miles away from my dentist, so of course I'm having a mouth issue. Anywhere thousands of miles away from your dentist is apparently the prime location for developing mouth issues. I remember, with a distinct lack of fondness, getting my wisdom teeth taken out over winter break during my junior year, recovering wonderfully for a week, and then getting on the plane to go back to school and promptly getting dry socket infections. Stunning.

So far, this problem is not quite as bad. But the gum over my right top canine has been a little sore for a week or so. I barely noticed until this morning, when I looked in the mirror and noticed that my gum is receding from my tooth. This is a Bad Sign of epic proportions. First, because I am prone to periodontal disease (thanks, Mom) that probably means the bone is dissolving away as I sit here typing, and second, because I do not have a dentist here in England. I have free health care. But, from what I understand, most dentists have completely full practices and are not accepting new patients, so to get seen I would have to join a private practice, one I am not covered for, which is obscenely, ruinously expensive on my current budget (think something along the lines of $700 for a visit, roughly converted.) Dude, that is a month's worth of food and supplies and miscellaneous expenses and probably some of my housing, right there.

Of course, I told my parents about this, and both of them freaked out. My mother was rather hysterical, actually. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the money, even though I kept bringing that up over and over again. I mentioned in my last Teeth entry that they have huge obsessions with teeth, right? Yeah. They have good reason to have them. You see, my dad has the normal amount of cavities for someone who grew up before fluoride treatments, but my mother has probably the worst teeth in the western world, and periodontal disease along with them. You can't tell from looking at her, because if there's one thing my parents will spend money on it's teeth, but she has lovely porcelain crowns and has had several root canals and has sand packed into the dissolved bone under her gums from advanced periodontal disease. I have already been to the periodontist several times because my orthodontist thought I was having an issue with bone dissolving as my teeth moved, and my dentist keeps up a morbid and rather excruciating examination of the bone between my back molars every time I come in.

Anyway. They freaked the hell out. I mean, I know gums receding are a very, very bad thing, especially on someone like me, but by golly I must go to the health center TOMORROW and if they can't help I must get to a private practice dentist the VERY NEXT DAY and in the meantime I must rinse with Listerine every thirty seconds and possibly dance and chant and burn incense as a preventative measure, too. Because they know from painful experience that if I have a minor infection and they have to give me $700 to get some antibiotics to fix it, they are getting off cheap and easy compared to what it will turn into if I don't fix it right now. Dental problems never go away, they just get worse until you give in and pay to fix them, the problem area falls right out of your head, or the resulting abscesses eat through your skull and kill you (have a look at a paleopathology textbook sometime.)

So, to sum up: My gum is receding. I have to get it looked at, and I don't know where to go to do that. I am not going to have a fun week. And I love my parents.

Things That Have Made Me Happy Lately

Terry's chocolate oranges
The Illusionist
Having three of my midterms turned in ahead of schedule
Gone With the Wind (I do actually have a short list of romantic books that don't make me ill or homicidal. Connie Willis wrote most of the others.)
This. I laughed and laughed and wheezed and then laughed some more.
Tesco's diet lemonade
My sketchbook (for some reason, all the best art is done when you're supposed to be doing something else; I should have left art school earlier.)
Discovering that England still sells my favorite old-formula Herbal Essences
Primark (socks! I found socks!)
Navel oranges
Melatonin and earplugs (dorms suck)
My tiny DVD player and the stash of X-Files I brought along
The tiny fish-shaped bottles of soy sauce that came with my sushi (the sushi itself was the most awful thing I've experienced so far this month)
Blackthorn cider
The weather (rain makes me happy. Don't ask me.)

killed off my evening with the Dacians and ancient Britons, and...

Remember how, in high school, once a year or so you would get assigned a 10-page research paper? In English class? Or sometimes social studies? And it would be a huge giant deal, and you would get a week of class time in the library to do it, and the whole thing took a month? And, during freshman and sophomore year, it was assigned in stages so your teacher could check up on it?

These days, 10 page research papers take me three days, research and everything. I weep for my youth.

What election?

The British people I know are really concerned about this election. It was exhausting to talk to them today, and as a result I have really had enough and am going to try not to think about it anymore (yeah, I'll still end checking the coverage every fifteen minutes though.) I voted several weeks ago by absentee ballot - and if you haven't voted yet, oh my goodness, what are you doing sitting there?

Totally unrelated - did you know Pandora is blocked in the UK? You can't listen to it here. (Okay, you can. Nothing is impossible on the internet. But you have to do some things of questionable legality.) Instead, you can listen to Musicovery. Personally, I like it better than Pandora and will probably stick with it if I do end up leaving here at the end of a year (more about that later.) Maybe you'll like it better than Pandora too! Try it.