Knackered and Ready for DC

I'm knackered, as the Brits say. Knackered from work and knackered from nothing. It's strange how within a week, I've gone from feeling like my time in London is too short to feeling like I desperately want to be back in Georgetown. My change of mood happens to coincide with the nearing of my first exam, which obviously has influenced my feelings. Also, the weather has returned to normal: overcast and 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which is fine, except when I know there's something better (SUMMER) awaiting me an ocean away.

This was my second to last weekend working at EB. Work is a good distraction and it's a nice time to chat with people, but it definitely tired me out. A 7:45AM wakeup is not how I prefer to start my Saturday mornings... so I rewarded myself with Starbucks. Vanilla latte... mmm. I can't remember the last time I had one.

After standing for 8 hours at work on Saturday, I went to stand for another 2 hours at a Kaki King concert at the University of London Union. You can read my little review here at the Touch My Clickwheel blog. I felt a little sentimental about the United States while watching Kaki perform, because I remembered seeing her live for the first time a year and half ago at the State Theater in Falls Church, VA. It's not so far in the past, yet I know I've changed a lot since then. Not for better, not for worse; I'm just different. I had some of those "surreal" concert moments that I like to have at concerts where I feel a song is really applicable to life or where I feel a little moved. What can I say? I'm a sap underneath it all. Kaki King was probably my favorite show of London and funny enough, the last song she played was "Jessica."

So... this entry was a little more of the sap of earlier this year. Bear with me. I'll probably be on a roller coaster of emotions in this last stretch to the last exam.

Here's one of my favorite Kaki King songs. Check it out if you're curious what she's like.

Ice Climbing!

London weather continues to be beautiful and almost too hot. And to think, a few weeks ago, I was thinking that it was a waste that I brought my flip flops here. Unfortunately, with better weather comes final exams and by final, I mean the only exams I will have had all year. My countdown to exams in my planner informs me that I only have 10 days to my first final. Bollocks, as they say. Studying has not been coming along so well, but with a new venue, the King's College Library, I think I should be making some hefty progress in the next week.

Enough of that "school" business. Let's get to the real interesting part which is ice climbing. As I've mentioned before, I work at a store which has an 8-meter indoor ice wall. Today, I finally got around to climbing it. As a rock climber (or someone that attempts to rock climb), I wondered if I'd have any advantage over a pure climbing novice. The answer is... probably not. Climbing ice like rock is not the best way as I learned in my first ascent of the wall. I chopped away at the ice, used crap footholds, and dangled from the rope while Francy told me to stop climbing it like rock.

The second climb, I redeemed myself somewhat. I made it up while only losing hold of the wall once or twice, and it probably took me half the time as well. My hands were so tired though that I almost dropped one of my axes; luckily, I caught it as it was falling and didn't kill Francy, my trusty belayer.

Ice climbing in London? Who woulda thunk? My elbow/forearm is a little busted from climbing last week and ice climbing didn't help it, but carpe diem right? Taking Jared and Stefan climbing with me was really fun, the most fun I've had at The Castle in a long time. But the competitive spirit in me, awoken by Jared, pushes me to climb harder and in some cases, past my limits. After not climbing for over 3 weeks, my muscles were a bit weak and so here I am, with a touchy joint but with more 5a's under my belt. To be old and rickety, ha. Anyways. Social obligations call.

Check out more ice climbing photos here or click on the picture above.