"DENNIS QUAID IS HERE!"

Short but sweet i'm afraid because a) I have so much work to do and b) nothing much has happened!

Finally got back to Santa Cruz from Sacramento after a bit of a car accident on the way! Everyone was a bit shaken but we carried on while blasting Adele as the two other passengers had only ever heard Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You which I thought was an outrage and immediately plugged in my ipod.

The week of presentations and spanish exams and papers was hell but it went pretty quickly so i'm grateful for that. Only one more week to go and then I will be in Disneyland! YAY! I cannot wait to hug Mickey Mouse.
I just want to take a moment and recognise just how painful and awkward it is to watch someone crash and burn while giving a presentation to the class. It is like watching the early X Factor auditions but you can't turn them off, or leave the room! There was only really 1 or 2 people that this happened to but those 7 minutes were the longest 7 minutes ever. I could feel myself going red for them! It is almost as bad as the video of the new TLC programme (that a group of us are going to attempt to watch tonight) 'The Virgin Diaries' where a couple share their first kiss EVER on their wedding day. Not kiss, face sucking/tongue ingesting more like. I urge you to go watch it on youtube, but not while eating. I'm not sure how much we will be able to watch tonight!

Took me ages to find a chocolate advent calendar in Santa Cruz. They just don't seem to be the thing to do round here at Christmas. I was getting so desperate that I even begged a shop owner to re-open so that I could buy one! She did as well! It isn't dairy milk chocolate, but it isn't bad. It's not Hershey's! Staying on the Christmas theme, check out the gingerbread house we made while listening to Christmas music. Well not made, constructed from a box!

Apart from that, have just been working and revising etc:( Oh and re-watching all of Ellen's pranks on youtube. It's amazing what you can find to do when there is plenty of other things to be doing! May not be blogging next Sunday, but I will tell you all my tales from SoCal soon.
I leave you with a picture of a friendly neighbourhood raccoon who likes to sit on the fence or in the garbage bins just outside our apartment.

"This is no ordinary apple. It is a wishing apple"

Rain, rain, rain...reminds me of home. It has not stopped in almost 24 hours. The sound is peaceful but the gloominess is a bit depressing. I have all the lights on and it is 11.30am!

Another busy week or work; it's never ending. Well there is an end in sight...18 days and counting until my final exam and then off to LA and then Seattle:D I can't wait to see my sister and brother-in-law. I will miss the cosy, english village Christmas but I am excited to spend the holidays in snowy Seattle even if it is going to be fffrreeezzzziinnnngggg. I have also spent quite a bit of time on the Disneyland website in preparation for my visit to SoCal! I feel like a little kid who can't wait to hug Mickey Mouse and all his friends! Oh and points to whoever gets the reference from this blog title;)

Speaking of Disney, I have chosen my modules for next quarter. After having such stressful, deep classes this quarter I have decided to take a more laid back approach to my American academic life. Ready for it? My modules include: Spanish 3 (ok so still stressful but I want to be able to at least say a sentence in Spanish by the time I return!), TV and the Nation (looking at the role of TV and broadcasting in shaping America since WW2) aaannnnddd WALT DISNEY! Yes, I will spending 4 hours a week analysing Disney and his movies and the franchise! At first I felt guilty for signing up for this class, I am constantly reminded how much I am spending on my degree but when else will I ever be able to learn this?! Not in Warwick that is for sure! So I am taking full advantage of the sheer range of classes they offer. There are some PE classes slipped into my schedule as well, I have to have some motivation for working off the Thanksgiving pies and the Christmas stuffing!

Went 'downtown' (yes I know there will be certain people laughing at this word) a few nights ago to celebrate a friends birthday. The way she phrased the invitation to me was "you wanna coming dancing? We are going to this club called Motive". I was taken a back by the word 'dancing'. I took it to mean 'clubbing'. So there I was getting ready as I would at home, downing the wine in preparation, but once down there realised she did actually mean dancing. We got into the club, expected to go straight to the bar, but no, we just went and danced. For ages. With no alcohol. Everyone was completley sober! This is not something I was used to! I think in the space of 3 hours, around 4 alcoholic drinks were consumed out of a group of 8! At 2am they even got in their cars and DROVE HOME! From a night out! I have to admit, it was a really really good night once I had got over the initial awkward, uncomfortableness of it all. Why is it that the Brits need to be completely wasted to do anything? It seems in America that when you go to house parties, that is the place to get smashed, but when you go out to clubs it is more just to dance. At least that has been my experience of it all. Will have to wait and see!

Cake has also featured prominently this week. A friend brought over the nicest banana loaf I have ever had ever, a chocolate cake was made a few nights ago, and then yesterday my roommate came back from picking around 100 apples to make apple crisp. Seriously, the apartment is covered in Apples! I can't believe it is thanksgiving on Thursday! I'm supposed to be saving myself for then! But how can you resist when the whole place smells of sweet, delicious desserts? Perhaps I need to face the rain and go to the gym. Actually that isn't even a perhaps it is an I WILL. Oh wait, is that another apple crisp I see?