Today was another successful crepe tuesday. I figured out that mixing olive oil into the batter helps make them better.
I went to talk to IT before my noon class (the only one for tuesdays) and was told that my issues with receiving emails were pretty much a mystery. Sigh. I was more successful at the payments desk, where I picked up my stipend cheque to be cashed at one Barclays Bank. Then I went to class, and took some notes before class started. I'll probably sound pretentious. Don't say I didn't warn you.
HIS114, which turned into my first module at the University of Sunderland: So far, really warm and probably full of freshmen. Smelly ones. Although, that might just be the room.
All the british students are up in arms about the heat. It's supposed to get up to 25 ºC (which is around 77 ºF). That's a rather warm room temperature.
I had a strange conversation about study abroad, modules, and the weather with an irate southerner (I suspect London, but I'm not sure). He insisted on calling me "Raeanna".
The classroom was really warm, and no one on the windows would open one. Regarding the outside temperature, I heard someone with a british accent trying to explain the term "Indian Summer" to a german international, so I guess it's one of those terms that forgoes rational cultural identification.
I need to come up with better reasons for going on this trip. "Because I've always wanted to see England" doesn't sound that great, and "I've always wanted to study abroad, and I don't speak any other language fluently" sounds worse. Any thoughts, please let me know.
I was pleased when I didn't end up in the 09:00 seminar group, but then I realised that I wasn't registered for the class and so hadn't been placed in a group. Bummer. I ended up in the 10:00 group.
The first lecture was an overview, and I didn't know most of it. I did know that the world wars aren't in the early modern period, which stretches from approximately 1500 (1453 and the fall of Constantinople and 1492 and Columbus sailing the ocean blue are two academic contenders in the great debate) to 1750 (I don't know why). That made me feel better, because I'm slightly less unknowledgeable than the person behind me. It looks like the class will be over the social events of the period and how they are intertwined with the political and religious events of the period. I'm pretty satisfied with this, since I know a little bit about the religious events as taught in Core 150 (who knew it would be so useful?) and I have a vague impression of English history for that period.
After class, I hunted for Barclays. I was not very successful. I got directions, all conflicting, from three different people. The last one finally landed me at the "fruit and veg stand" across from the bank, but only after I walked all the way up and down three streets and ended up covering the same ground two or three times.
I bought some strawberries, peaches, and pears with some of my £520 in cash that I need to hide around my room in £38 aliquots. On the first day of orientation, Emma told us about a kid who lost £6,000 that he was carrying around in a brown envelope. Stay with me, it's related. When I got my cash, they gave it to me in a brown envelope. I went home pretty quickly, with a tight grip on my bag.
I foolishly didn't buy a pair of slippers at a random shoe store, so I was incredibly footsore with very little to show for it by the time I got home. I heated up a cheese and onion pasty (remind me to look up and test a recipe before I head home), then put on Pride and Prejudice. I updated yesterday's blog, then fell asleep for about five hours, I would say.
When I went downstairs around 20:30, everyone was just getting ready to watch Sherlock Holmes (with Robert Downey, Jr.), so I had a snack and hung around. "Everyone" here means Jessi, Conor, Josie, James, and Adam, since Micha doesn't hang out with us much and Flo was on a date (tikka chicken chom chom). We had a fun time switching around the seating arrangements every time someone got up, too. Adam's computer doesn't have a very wide angle of viewing, so the people on one end of the "couch" got the slightly inverted colour scheme.
After the movie, I set about arranging a skype date with my family for tomorrow. Now it's time to sleep, which will be aided by some mint tea.
Showing posts with label paranoia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paranoia. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Friday, 25 March 2011
Passports
Everything you need to know about US passports (not really)!
I'm going to detail the US passport application process, and I'll see if I can include instructions for making foil covers to keep the RFID from setting off bombs in my vicinity.
So, you want to go to a foreign country? First, you need a passport.
This can be obtained by jumping through a series of hoops that are perpetually increasing in difficulty. Because my last passport was issued when I was fourteen and a minor, I had to reapply in person. I got to fill out my application online, but I had to print it off and take it to the courthouse in downtown Pasco. I also had to get my picture taken, which a friend was gracious enough to do for me in the Warren 3rd South hallway.
The pictures turned out a little blue, but I hoped that they would be satisfactory because my face was clearly shown in the middle of the photo without shadow and the background was free of shadows. I printed off two sets, one on matte cardstock and one on shiny photo paper.
Over Jan Term break, I went to the courthouse and hoped that they would accept my debit card. My dad came, too, with $25 cash and a checkbook, just in case.
I had my driver's license, photocopies of the license, my old passport, and my completed application with two sets of photos.
They told me I was supposed to have my birth certificate, too. The website and the application just said that I needed two or more of the following: driver's license, social security card, most recent passport, birth certificate.
I had to have my birth certificate for my first passport, which I took; why they needed my birth certificate again when the documented proof of my existence was sitting there in the form of a little blue book was beyond me. The lady told me I would probably get a packet in the mail demanding my birth certificate and possibly new pictures, but that was preferable to having to go back home to get the bloody thing and end up driving an extra hour when I'd probably have to get new pictures anyway.
The lady took both sets of photos, just in case; my dad paid the $135 dollars ($25 in cash, $110 as a check, because apparently that's how things are done), and then we left.
When I got back to school, I waited for the packet to come in the mail for my birth certificate and new photos. However, the first packet I got from the federal government actually contained my old passport, the extraneous set of photos (the matte cardstock ones), and a slip announcing that I had been approved for a US passport!
I was pleased, although not by the fact that my new passport was God only knew where.
It was in the mail, actually, and came a week later as a package.
I promised you foil passport cover instructions, and here they are. Rather, they're at Contactless, a paranoid blog concerning identity theft in its various forms. I am making one out of yarn. Maybe I'll post how I did it later.
Enjoy the paranoia you will feel after reading Contactless.
I'm going to detail the US passport application process, and I'll see if I can include instructions for making foil covers to keep the RFID from setting off bombs in my vicinity.
So, you want to go to a foreign country? First, you need a passport.
This can be obtained by jumping through a series of hoops that are perpetually increasing in difficulty. Because my last passport was issued when I was fourteen and a minor, I had to reapply in person. I got to fill out my application online, but I had to print it off and take it to the courthouse in downtown Pasco. I also had to get my picture taken, which a friend was gracious enough to do for me in the Warren 3rd South hallway.
The pictures turned out a little blue, but I hoped that they would be satisfactory because my face was clearly shown in the middle of the photo without shadow and the background was free of shadows. I printed off two sets, one on matte cardstock and one on shiny photo paper.
Over Jan Term break, I went to the courthouse and hoped that they would accept my debit card. My dad came, too, with $25 cash and a checkbook, just in case.
I had my driver's license, photocopies of the license, my old passport, and my completed application with two sets of photos.
They told me I was supposed to have my birth certificate, too. The website and the application just said that I needed two or more of the following: driver's license, social security card, most recent passport, birth certificate.
I had to have my birth certificate for my first passport, which I took; why they needed my birth certificate again when the documented proof of my existence was sitting there in the form of a little blue book was beyond me. The lady told me I would probably get a packet in the mail demanding my birth certificate and possibly new pictures, but that was preferable to having to go back home to get the bloody thing and end up driving an extra hour when I'd probably have to get new pictures anyway.
The lady took both sets of photos, just in case; my dad paid the $135 dollars ($25 in cash, $110 as a check, because apparently that's how things are done), and then we left.
When I got back to school, I waited for the packet to come in the mail for my birth certificate and new photos. However, the first packet I got from the federal government actually contained my old passport, the extraneous set of photos (the matte cardstock ones), and a slip announcing that I had been approved for a US passport!
I was pleased, although not by the fact that my new passport was God only knew where.
It was in the mail, actually, and came a week later as a package.
I promised you foil passport cover instructions, and here they are. Rather, they're at Contactless, a paranoid blog concerning identity theft in its various forms. I am making one out of yarn. Maybe I'll post how I did it later.
Enjoy the paranoia you will feel after reading Contactless.
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