Still alive. Just BORED TO TEARS.

So, as it turns out, although I passed my Master's and I'm getting a degree in January (not that anyone but me was actually concerned, but I'm tired of apologizing for my neuroses) the university cannot release a letter to this effect until December 7th, and without this letter I cannot send out my visa application. Why can't they release this letter, even though I have passed and been approved by their committee and everything? I have absolutely no idea. England is full of random insanity like this. Unfortunately, I still have no job and am now even less likely to get one as my student visa is expiring in January, and that just doesn't look good on applications. I am bored to the point where I am considering doing things like crouching on top of the wardrobe and gnawing on my toenails. I don't think being out of school agrees with me. Also, I am broke and cannot entertain myself very well without classes to study for, although I do get free books and sometimes I break down and buy cheap DVDs.

Once I beat my way through the last of the arbitrary roadblocks and send off this damn application (I'm guessing that at some point it will become necessary for me to grab someone by the collar and scream directly into their face, as politeness is clearly not getting me far) it will be 6-10 weeks to process, rather than the 3 I was told before. This means I will not be going home for Christmas, as the government will have my passport. I am less than broken up about this. I fully expect my mother to contact me soon and try to coax a tearful admission that I wish I were going home for Christmas out of me, but I won't be able to oblige. I'm afraid the best I will be able to do is a sarcastic "Oh, yes, I'm so upset. You know how I hate the quiet and how terribly homesick I've been over the past 15 months, and how I've missed the US and its inferior chocolate." There will be a brief discussion about my teeth, and that will be the end of it. I did consider using "But I'm going to be all alone in a creepy house in a foreign country for Christmas!" on the university's registry department in an attempt to get my paperwork faster, because boredom and frustration have made me into a terrible person, but I refrained.

So, that's it. I would like to update more often, but there is NOTHING HAPPENING and it's making me INSANE.

Progress is made

Well, today that place I interviewed at actually called me back (FINALLY) and said they had hired someone who had actually done that exact job before, so at least I feel less like I totally blew my interview or something.

Also, my parents and NephthysWrath both said that, given that I was told I would have my official results by late October or early November, it was time to storm the castle, so I went up to the university and ran around demanding an explanation from people. But, apparently, if I come back next Friday they should be out, and I can get a printed copy rather than waiting for them to be mailed to me, so I can maybe, hopefully, if things actually go my way, have my visa application out by next Saturday. I am not at all sure I used enough commas in this paragraph, so here is another one.

I would also like to say that the boiler in the house just went out, so there is no heat or hot water, and it is freezing and pouring rain and the wind is actually howling, so this is all splendid. And of course I discovered this when I went to take my shower, and the water wouldn't heat up, so I'm sitting around in a bathrobe waiting for the landlady to get here and do something. (What she will do, I'm not sure, but I will be extremely agitated if I have to go to bed without a shower.) I guess at least the boiler went out before I managed to get in the shower at all, so at least I am not freezing and covered in soap.

Boredom

So, I'm still unemployed. I actually managed to get an interview with one place, but I was obligated to make my immigration situation clear to them (the amount of work I can do on my current visa is restricted), and you could see it not going over well, and it's been nearly a week and they haven't called me back (which kind of makes them assholes, actually) so I'm pretty sure that was a complete waste of my time. I submitted a bunch of applications for Christmas temp work, and no one's contacted me about that, either, which I think is because of both the visa thing and the fact that I have no retail experience. (Actually, it was also brought to my attention partway through the process that the master's degree is probably causing problems as well, but if I don't put that down they tend to wonder what my silly accent and I are doing here.) It's starting to really scare me, though, because I'll probably be okay until January or February with no income, embarrassing as it is to be mooching off my parents at the age of 25, but after that I'd better find someplace to hire me quick or I may have to give up and leave England, and no one wants that. I'm hoping I'll have a better time once I have the non-restricted visa and can apply for real jobs I actually qualify for, and after Christmas, because around this time of year no one wants to do any hiring except for retail jobs.

It also sucks because if I do manage to get a retail job, I will not be going home for Christmas (and getting my teeth cleaned, because my mother is obsessed), but if I don't get one, my parents might insist I come home this year, and it would be nice to be able to start planning now-ish. Oh well.

Speaking of the non-restricted visa. I submitted my dissertation TWO MONTHS AGO. WHERE ARE MY OFFICIAL RESULTS? Why are you people so slow? I need them to apply for my non-restricted visa, and I need that soon, dammit!

I hate sitting here in limbo.

Because I am so eyeball-clawingly bored, I spend a lot of time at the used bookstore, and that is also bad. I think I have only once managed to leave that place without another book, and when you're beginning to be afraid that you're going to have to leave the country shortly, more possessions are the last thing you need. But they have expensive archaeology textbooks! And that book I loved when I was 10 and had totally forgotten about, and all those books I had to leave at home when I came here, and miss terribly! (Those are actually okay, though, since if I do have to leave in January, I can just donate them back and go home to my original copies.) And so I keep dragging them home and stacking them up against the wall of my bedroom, and there are lots of them now.

I'm also learning to cook for myself. My mother says cooking is men's work, but since I don't date, I unfortunately have to learn to do these things myself. I used to do some when I was living in the apartment in LA, but most of that came from cans, and I'm trying to do more complicated things now. It's actually not that bad - everything I've made so far has at least been edible, and some of it was really good. Earlier this week I made up my own recipe for seafood paella, and was extremely proud of myself. No one actually taught me how to cook, but I know most of the basics because I used to hang around in the kitchen annoying my dad when he was trying to make dinner, so I picked up most of the basics that way. But I can't say I particularly enjoy it, so I do things like make a huge batch of pad thai and then microwave portions of it for the next three nights.

But I believe my point was that I am bored, so bored I would even be almost happy to work retail, so you know it must be bad. Also, I hate not being in school And I really, really hope my search for museum jobs I qualify for goes better than my search for retail jobs that are totally beneath me.