"Sun on my shoulders and the wind at my back
Bound and determined to get back on track
To where the heart is
Where its been all along
Sometimes you dont know what youve got til its gone

And I've been out there searching
For a place where I belong
And on my way I heard my song
Let it sing me home"
-Tim McGraw, "Sing Me Home"

So lately I've been thinking, there's no place like home. Alex and I had a conversation the other day about how we always thought Europe had it right. We thought they weren't so work-obsessed and spent more time enjoying life. Well, to me it just seems as though many people here are lazy and unintelligent. Their graduate students MAYBE do as much work as we do in our undergrad programs in the US. I don't really admire any of my professors because I feel like i could do better research than they could. The other day one of my professors used the word "fasterly" instead of "faster." I wanted to just get up and leave right then. And in my neurobiology lecture, we spent an entire lecture on homeostasis, a term that I understood back in ninth grade! My presentation group for cognitive psychology is frustrating the hell out of me because both girls decided that printing out an article from google (not even a real scientifc journal) that they don't understand qualifies as "research," while I spent hours looking through databases of journal articles, finally picked out four really good ones, and took notes on them. And our presentation is in a week! I don't care if I am a work-obsessed perfectionist American, at least I'm smart, dedicated, and hard-working. Betsy told me what she is doing back home - 12 credits, a CNA class, working, volunteering, training for a marathon, not to mention dealing with Leah - and I feel so completely and utterly useless, a blob on the face of the Earth. And my American friends that I've been hanging out with are actually starting to get on my nerves. I am SICK of doing the same things every night (aka going to the same bar and just standing around with a drink). There is so much more to do in London! Besides, I don't FEEL like going to a bar five times a week. I would like to STAY IN five times a week and WORK like a normal person. And I am spending money up the yin yang because it's so expensive here, and I am worried about running out of money. When we do go the bars, I have one drink or just tap water, and it's really not that cool. I could have a glass of tap water in my room. I miss my friends. I commented to Alex the other day that we surround ourselves we people who have the same values that we do. I feel that all my friends are smart and hard-working and extremely caring people. I don't feel that the friends I made here can live up to that. They are nice and fun, but they don't care about the same things I do, like working hard in school, or working hard at life in general. I could never talk to them about how I feel about anything, or have them sit in my room and talk about life. Most of them are so star-struck by London, and while I think it's fun here, I am constantly thinking of how much I like America better. I want to make Valentine's Day cookies and talk about life with my friends. The other day I talked to Trevor over the webcam, and I missed home so much. I can't wait to start traveling because I need to do something for fun besides go to the same bar all the time. I feel bad because I've been hanging out with Alex a lot more lately because I'm getting bored of doing the same things with the girls, but I have so much more fun with him! And it's not just because it's Alex, it's because of the things we do. Like we fed the birds in the park on Saturday and had a picnic. Maybe if I asked the girls to do that they would, but I don't know if it would be the same with them. I'm glad that deadlines are coming up for classes because I have an excuse to not go to the bars - I have to write an essay, work on a presentation. I wish it was some genuine WORK though, like at home. Maybe I just need to find another group of friends to do things with on other nights. I probably won't though, seeing as I'll have to stay in some nights now to study, and then Alex and I will be travelling on the weekends soon, so maybe I'll want to go to the bars with them a couple nights a week and stay busy the rest.
So this was a long ramble, but I needed to get that out. Brief synopsis of the past week:

Wednesday - Pretty much hung around at Alex's place all day since I don't have class on Wednesday.
Thursday - This was the day I got SICK!! (Also Valentine's Day.) I nearly passed out at the tube stop, and had to have a policeman escort me to the bathroom. He got me in for free because I had no 20p coins, and I sat on the toilet for like a half hour. The attendant in the bathroom checked on me like every five minutes, which was sweet but got old fast. I managed to leave, still felt kind of sick and weak, and got lost walking home. I had been grocery shopping, so I was carrying a couple heavy bags, and by the time I got home I was covered in cold sweat and white as a sheet because I had a fever. Alex came over because I was supposed to take him out for Valentine's Day (we were going to go have a picnic in the park with champagne and feed the birds), but obviously I couldn't go out. So we borrowed a movie from a friend and relaxed. I'm pretty sure I had food poisoning from my seafood dinner on Tuesday night :(
Friday - I did homework and slept most of the day because I still felt sick.
Saturday - I felt better! Alex and I went to the park and had our Valentine's Day date a bit late. We had a whole botle of champagne between us, and got a bit tipsy before feeding the birds. We mostly fed the white swans because all the other birds on the lake were afraid of them, even the black swan, and let them eat everything. Then we took some pictures at Trafalgar Square, which is really close to the park we were at (St. James).
That night we went to the usual bar with the girls, but it wasn't much fun because Alex and I didn't feel like drinking. Our usual friends left us to either flirt with boys or talk to friends that Alex and I don't know (that was Liz), and so Alex and I were left to talk with a couple girls that we didn't know as well. They were nice, and we stayed for maybe an hour and half. Pubs/drinking are overrated.
Sunday - Relaxing day. Hardly did anything. Hung out with Alex and planned our spring break trip. We were going to buy a train pass for 21 days, but we found an even better deal - bus pass for a month for 175 pounds (way better than the $600+ train pass!) for unlimited travel between 40 cities. And the best part is most of the trips are at night, which means you don't have to waste time travelling during the day or waste money on hostels. So here is the order of cities we are visiting:
Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Prague (Czech Republic), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Lyon (France), Zurich (Switzerland), Milan (Italy), Marseilles (France), Venice, Florence, Rome, and Athens. It's going to be so fun! So besides our spring break trip, Alex is going to take me to Paris for my birthday, and we'll maybe visit Alex's friend in Oslo, Norway, and take a trip up to Northern Britain/Ireland for a weekend.
Monday - Class, work out, meet with Cognitive Psych presentation group, class, go home, eat, pass out in bed.
Tuesday - Met with my Social Psych presentation group (who are much more competent seeing as the entire group is not British, how sad), worked out, and did homework all day. Probably going to visit Alex now.