I'm Home! Wait, No...I'm Back!

---

Well, I know I'm back at AC, as no one is speaking English in the entire computer lab. I thought it would take me a little while longer to settle in, but I arrived at the airport and it was as if I'd never left! I was so jet lagged and exhausted (I thought it was just a cliche, but no...I had the classic crying baby two rows in front of me on my 7-hour, overnight flight) that I basically crumpled to the floor just after Xavier ran all the way across Arrivals Hall 3 to grab my waist and throw me in the air - luckily he did not make me do a backflip, a neat trick we had debuted at the dance after the Christmas party. Of course, the crumpling may have had something to do with the fact that I had just dragged my 35-pound accordion all the way across Heathrow; it seemed brilliant to me, as I was packing all of my shirts in the case, that I had found a way to get around the one carry-on bag requirement on British Airways by bringing a musical instrument. Now, I understand that border control officers, security agents, and Terminal Three Express Tram Security Inspectors do not have occupations that are exactly enviable, I'm sure their days are quite dull and repetitive, and I'm sure they watch all of the people confidently striding through London Heathrow airport with melancholy and longing, wishing that they too were going somewhere eventful and exciting instead of pretending to be important in big crown-emblazoned badges, funny hats and oddly shiny leather belts. But does all this really mean that I had to open the case (which admittedly was big and black and to an overprepared, underworked security agent must have simply screamed "BOMB!!!!!!!!THREAT!!!!!!!!TERRORIST!!!!!!"), take out ALL of the shirts, and PLAY the accordion, for all of them? I keep wondering what would have happened if I'd made any mistakes on the Riski Ritaan Polka...would I be writing this from the blank white pressurised room reserved for international security threats? It sounds like quite an adventure actually, but don't worry. I can, in fact, make my own excitement. After an entire term of living with me, no one is really surprised by my random flurries of obsession with home - make that DORM - improvement. It started last night, when I got bored of unpacking and installed my new, still-white clothesline, tying the line to a stick and throwing the stick up to Rosh waiting at my open window until she caught it after about ten minutes; based on my aim, I'm really, REALLY glad now that we decided not to use the brick. This afternoon, I stood on top of a scarily wobbly chair on top of my scarily soft bed screwing fabric into the wall with a screwdriver/hammer set I borrowed from Eli and screws I got from out houseparent, who got her camera and took a picture of my beautiful new bed canopy after I was done, even though the health and safety regulations are a little vague about actually allowing loose fabric in the room. But hey, if I can get around airline baggage requirements, I'm sure I can find loopholes in this one too...i mean, all they really have to do is see it, and they've got to allow it! It actually turned out to be a lot more stunningly brilliant than I expected (I'm in the first flush of pride...after all it was only finished three hours ago). With only two corners screwed to the wall, it draped over my bed in a strange-looking, desperately-seeking-privacy sort of way, so I looked outside and drew inspiration from the huge logpile left over from when they trimmed the trees out back. Naturally, I nailed the fourth corner of the fabric into the long, gnarled branch I brought into the room (Lydia's contribution to my home-improvement non-fiasco was a mat which she placed outside the door so I wouldn't track any more mud in), which turned out to be the perfect height AND fit flush against the edge of my bed if I tied it there with a bit of my IMMENSELY handy extra clothesline, not to mention the little knobs where they cut smaller branches off where I'm hanging all my bracelets. A little privacy is no longer completely impossible if I roll down the curtain; unfortunately, everyone else thinks it's so cool that it hasn't been vacant for the past three hours. Maybe it will inspire me to study Physics, which I got my first term exam back for today. I got one point higher than I expected, but that's ALL I'm saying. My Politics and English exams were both 7s, which is comforting because I felt I worked really hard on them. And I just - as in just this second - opened an email from my other music teacher asking if I wanted to sing a jazz and show tune concert for open day, when the prospective students arrive! So, as usual, I'm being gloriously overwhelmed, as I tend to be when life goes on normally here. I didn't think it could happen this quickly, but even on the plane I felt as if I was flying from home, to go home. Wow, was that really only yesterday?

---