Dear Kitty,
Dan arrived on Friday afternoon. I only had one lecture on Friday, and I'd woken up so early that I'd got everything done before my class, so I spent the afternoon studying. His train got in at ten to four, and I arrived ten minutes early (with my Japanese flashcards to practise while I waited). I was so nervous before I saw him that I was shaking, and I suddenly had loads of irrational thoughts - things like 'what if he doesn't like me anymore/what if he's not how I remember him/what if he looks completely different to what I think and is actually a girl called Alice'. I saw him get off the train, though, and we both grinned and ran towards each other along the platform. We didn't even say hello - just hugged for about two minutes, and then he pulled away and held my face in his hands, gazing at me in the same way he always does. We went back to mine for a bit and just sat around and talked, and then we went to go and see Cecily. When we got back, we had tea, and then watched Doctor Who and The Boat That Rocked (I cried at the end of Doctor Who).
I woke up next to him on Saturday morning, and we didn't get up for a long time - we just lay in bed and cuddled. I made him a cup of coffee and we had breakfast, and then we went to the museum of Science and Industry. It's a fantastic museum - lots of interactive bits, and it has a steam train (which we had to go on). There's a whole building about steam engines and trains, and another part in one building which has rooms from the 1950s and 30s! I got very excited about those, which Dan found very funny. We had tea when we got back to mine, and then I got changed and we went to Odders to meet up with Matt and Craig. From Odders, we went to Sound System and The Thirsty Scholar - which was playing lots of music from the sixties, and Dan and I danced a lot. We played 'Never Have I Ever' - Matt and Craig had already been drinking that day, so we all ended up pretty drunk. Craig met a random Austrian in a bar, who saw us looking for a table and simply said 'you speak German?'. We answered in German, which pleased him no end, and then Craig and I spoke to him for a while (we had a multilingual evening - Craig and I decided to tease Dan and Matt by speaking French on the way back to the pub). Dan and I went out for a cigarette at about one, and then did lots of drunk talking, and then he took me home.
There was more cuddling on Sunday morning, and then we finally got up to go to the Manchester Museum. They had a Turing exhibition on, and there's also a bit which has live animals in it! There are also lots of stuffed animals, and we decided that, instead of buying a car, we should just train a polar bear and ride around on that. There are also dinosaur fossils and lots of prehistoric things, which I found really interesting and made me miss Etienne a lot. We went and sat in Cornerhouse for a while after that, and played the Yellow Car Game (which became increasingly violent and very funny). I had a rehearsal afterwards, and we had a quick look around the city centre before I went. We did the Ayleward responses (hurrah!), 'Lift Up Your Heads' (can't remember the composer) and a Mag. and Nunc. in A minor, which wasn't brilliant but could have been worse. Dan had never been to an ordinary church service before, and found the whole thing very odd. We went back to Odders after that, and then went back to mine to play Phase 10 and Never Have I Ever. We had vodka and diet Red Bull - which was a bad idea, but brilliant fun.
I woke up at around seven this morning, and we headed to the station at half eight. I was late for my first lecture - saying goodbye was horrible, and I felt terribly empty all the way back to the Sam. Alex. building. I haven't had too much time to think about how much I miss him since, because I've either had a lecture, a test, or I've been giggling with Saule and Jarka. Six of us went to Chinatown for lunch, and it was one of the funniest experiences of my life - Michael is hilarious! Saule and I haven't stopped laughing since our first kanji lesson - we were given a sheet about how to sit and hold your pen properly when writing (made for Japanese children), and one of the pictures was a very angry looking man with a pen in his mouth and the caption 'it is best to hold the pen in your hand when writing'. I always forget how well I get along with some of the girls in my class.
This weekend has been magic, Kitty. I'm sitting in my room and listening to Andrew's arrangement of 'My Way' now, trying not to think about Dan too much, but it's very hard. I'll have to do some studying instead. Studying is the only thing that I can really concentrate on, because it's so absorbing and I'm working so hard at getting ahead in Japanese that I can carry on for hours and time seems to pass more quickly. I'm going home in nineteen days, and that's when I'll next see Dan. In the meantime, all I can do is distract myself and ensure that I don't have enough free time to mope. The plus side of being so busy is that I don't have enough time to worry about most of the things that would be upsetting me otherwise, which is a real blessing.
Yours,
Chessie
Dan arrived on Friday afternoon. I only had one lecture on Friday, and I'd woken up so early that I'd got everything done before my class, so I spent the afternoon studying. His train got in at ten to four, and I arrived ten minutes early (with my Japanese flashcards to practise while I waited). I was so nervous before I saw him that I was shaking, and I suddenly had loads of irrational thoughts - things like 'what if he doesn't like me anymore/what if he's not how I remember him/what if he looks completely different to what I think and is actually a girl called Alice'. I saw him get off the train, though, and we both grinned and ran towards each other along the platform. We didn't even say hello - just hugged for about two minutes, and then he pulled away and held my face in his hands, gazing at me in the same way he always does. We went back to mine for a bit and just sat around and talked, and then we went to go and see Cecily. When we got back, we had tea, and then watched Doctor Who and The Boat That Rocked (I cried at the end of Doctor Who).
I woke up next to him on Saturday morning, and we didn't get up for a long time - we just lay in bed and cuddled. I made him a cup of coffee and we had breakfast, and then we went to the museum of Science and Industry. It's a fantastic museum - lots of interactive bits, and it has a steam train (which we had to go on). There's a whole building about steam engines and trains, and another part in one building which has rooms from the 1950s and 30s! I got very excited about those, which Dan found very funny. We had tea when we got back to mine, and then I got changed and we went to Odders to meet up with Matt and Craig. From Odders, we went to Sound System and The Thirsty Scholar - which was playing lots of music from the sixties, and Dan and I danced a lot. We played 'Never Have I Ever' - Matt and Craig had already been drinking that day, so we all ended up pretty drunk. Craig met a random Austrian in a bar, who saw us looking for a table and simply said 'you speak German?'. We answered in German, which pleased him no end, and then Craig and I spoke to him for a while (we had a multilingual evening - Craig and I decided to tease Dan and Matt by speaking French on the way back to the pub). Dan and I went out for a cigarette at about one, and then did lots of drunk talking, and then he took me home.
There was more cuddling on Sunday morning, and then we finally got up to go to the Manchester Museum. They had a Turing exhibition on, and there's also a bit which has live animals in it! There are also lots of stuffed animals, and we decided that, instead of buying a car, we should just train a polar bear and ride around on that. There are also dinosaur fossils and lots of prehistoric things, which I found really interesting and made me miss Etienne a lot. We went and sat in Cornerhouse for a while after that, and played the Yellow Car Game (which became increasingly violent and very funny). I had a rehearsal afterwards, and we had a quick look around the city centre before I went. We did the Ayleward responses (hurrah!), 'Lift Up Your Heads' (can't remember the composer) and a Mag. and Nunc. in A minor, which wasn't brilliant but could have been worse. Dan had never been to an ordinary church service before, and found the whole thing very odd. We went back to Odders after that, and then went back to mine to play Phase 10 and Never Have I Ever. We had vodka and diet Red Bull - which was a bad idea, but brilliant fun.
I woke up at around seven this morning, and we headed to the station at half eight. I was late for my first lecture - saying goodbye was horrible, and I felt terribly empty all the way back to the Sam. Alex. building. I haven't had too much time to think about how much I miss him since, because I've either had a lecture, a test, or I've been giggling with Saule and Jarka. Six of us went to Chinatown for lunch, and it was one of the funniest experiences of my life - Michael is hilarious! Saule and I haven't stopped laughing since our first kanji lesson - we were given a sheet about how to sit and hold your pen properly when writing (made for Japanese children), and one of the pictures was a very angry looking man with a pen in his mouth and the caption 'it is best to hold the pen in your hand when writing'. I always forget how well I get along with some of the girls in my class.
This weekend has been magic, Kitty. I'm sitting in my room and listening to Andrew's arrangement of 'My Way' now, trying not to think about Dan too much, but it's very hard. I'll have to do some studying instead. Studying is the only thing that I can really concentrate on, because it's so absorbing and I'm working so hard at getting ahead in Japanese that I can carry on for hours and time seems to pass more quickly. I'm going home in nineteen days, and that's when I'll next see Dan. In the meantime, all I can do is distract myself and ensure that I don't have enough free time to mope. The plus side of being so busy is that I don't have enough time to worry about most of the things that would be upsetting me otherwise, which is a real blessing.
Yours,
Chessie
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