Happiness in a Nutshell

• My daddy's been in Budapest since Sunday, which has been amazing. He, unfortunately, had to go home today. However, we had a wonderful time full of thermal baths, fabulous food, a beautiful trip to the Opera, and time to just spend together. I love having my parents come out and visit me and experience the wonders of this awesome world. I just wish they could come more! I love my family.

• The weather this past week has been amazing. With a forecast for rain, dad and I were certain that umbrellas would be a staple of our wardrobe. Mother Nature, thankfully, decided that what we needed was a week full of beautiful autumn days.
• Dad being here has also meant that I got a ton of my favorite foods from home. Hello giant jar of peanut butter, Flipz, Cheeze-Its, Starbucks VIA, and Sleepytime tea! And other awesome things made their way across the pond as well: My LLBean Wellies, a wall decoration of the NYC skyline from Target, and some leg warmers.

• School is back in full swing. I think I'm already tired of writing papers and reading scholarly articles. Can I go back to camp now, please?
• This also means that I am again addicted to coffee. Thanks Coffee guy for making my morning cup look pretty before I devour it.

• Now that it's finally fall, all my favorite TV shows are back on and I need to get caught up with them already! Sheesh, being in Europe apparently means not being able to appropriately keep up with them
• Dear Vampire Diaries, You gave me a heart attack from moment one. Thanks for keeping it real. Love, Courtney // Dear CSI, Don't you dare kill anyone this season. Love, Courtney // Dear Private Practice, I had forgotten you killed off my Dell last season. Thanks for reopening that wound. I'm still mad at you. Love, Courtney // [I'm sure there will be many more...]

• Have I mentioned I love autumn? Now, let's just see how long we can keep winter at bay...

Hello World [Lady Antebellum]

Okay, yes, my last entry was pretty depressing (to which my dad commented: "do you need me to send you some valium?" see, the hilarity runs in the family.). But it was depressing here! I wasn't kidding when I suggested I'm part plant: the sun and me, we're just made for each other!

Take this past weekend for example.

I slept in Saturday until about noon (yes noon! I've still got it!). After stretching and taking my sweet time getting out of bed I shuffled to the window and drew back the curtains. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was wishing to be met with a sunny blue sky. However, I was met face to face with a sheet of white. An honest-to-goodness white-out in the back streets of Budapest.

And it was amazing.

Why, you may ask? Because white was not grey. Because white was just like home (actually, NC - my home away from home - got a good half foot of snow the same day. The northerner in me giggled as the state shut down - it was like the Apocalypse came early down there!). Because white brought with it the promise that the grey would end.

So Sunday morning the same thing happened - woke up around noon and was welcomed by some freshly falling snow. Ah the beauty of a blank slate poured down over a dreary city (to use an overused cliche). It was just perfect. It's still just perfect. It may be cold, but it is dang

beautiful out there.

But today. Today was perfect. The sun was out and burning so bright I had to bring my sunglasses to school with me. The wind may have been blowing, and I may have been freezing, but I soaked up that sunshine for all it was worth. See, part plant.

Saturday night was fun too - the Student Union hosted a party at a bar called Mumus (translation: Monster). I was there to help collect money for a fundraiser I have been heading to collect money to send to Haiti. It's been pretty successful so far - we've raised about 600 Euros. Which, for a school of about 1,000 students, is pretty good I think. But the party was fun - it was nice to get out of the dorm and out into the city. Granted the space was small and the DJ was pretty bad. But it was fun, and fun was something I've been needing.

Other than that I got a bunch of work done - some readings, a powerpoint about snakes and their (mis)representation in North America (yeah, I'll let you know when I figure out what the heck that has to do with Medieval Studies) which I have named the file as "Snakes on a PowerPoint." Seriously. You have to get your kicks somewhere, right?

I also have a slight confession - I've started watching Vampire Diaries since I've run out of my other shows to catch up on. I use TV shows to reward myself for getting things accomplished. Finished the readings for one class? Sure, watch the new Bones! Finished the powerpoint? Sure, watch Numb3rs! Cleaned my room? Sure, watch Grey's! But this Vampire Diaries (granted, by "started watching" I mean I've watched the first episode), I'm not so sure about it. It's cheesy, but it's cheesy in a catchy way. Though, I don't know what high school those kids are going to - but we never had parties like that when I was in high school (and that was only 6 years ago!). I don't know if I'm more jealous of those, or that I never had cute vampires following me around.

And just to summarize this really really random post, I've finished two books (for fun) since I've been back: The Road [Cormick McCarthy] & Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment [James Patterson]. As soon as I finish the book I'm reading now (What The Dickens [Gregory Maguire]) I'll write up a book review post. Sound good?

XOXO