I'm not getting any thesis work done this month

During the whole of August, I will be a hermit, strapped to my desk (which I need to buy first) crying over 36 pages of hell, but not this month. There's too much traveling going on. But it doesn't seem like anyone is taking the full summer to do this, anyway. Some people (lots, probably) are barely getting deep into it now, while one of my friends is aiming to finish by the end of this month. I've been working since a week after exams, which was mid May. I have another month and a half after July. Sounds good. I'll finish up the reasearch, do the outline, and maybe even the source overview. I can't believe there are people who are only starting now.

I've got enough destinations book to last me four years. I keep thinking that people who live here have no problem going to different countries for much less money than us across the Atlantic because there are so many so close. Just get on the train and go! Trains are awesome, by the way. And Airports are evil. Avoid at all costs. FYI: When booking hotels, check as many websites as you can. I went from feeling resigned about paying $80 to bouncing over $35.

Speaking of traveling, question for visiblemarket. I'm going to be taking an out of London tour at least one of the days that you're here. Wondering if you'd be interested. I warn you, though, seeing as how they leave from gloriously expensive London, they're hardly what you call cheap.

ETA: Like probably every single person I know has been telling me to do, I am going to take the train that goes under the English Channel. But I'm not going to Paris (I'm headed for Brussels, the city, not the vegetable of icky reputation). I shall doubtless encounter confounded looks everywhere.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!

I saw her. The Mary Rose. I just saw the Mary freaking Rose! I can't believe this. I had no idea they'd recovered her. None. It must have been in the historic dockyard website somewhere, but I completely missed it. And I was thinking about her, too. *bounces around the room* I've been squealing and giggling and almost crying with joy the whole day.

And you probably have no idea what 'm talking about. She's a tall ship, Henry VIII's favourite man-o-war, which was sunk, but I don't remember by who.. The ship isn't complete anymore. How could it be? It'd been lying on the sea bed for 400 years. But the whole starboard side is there! And they have guns! And bows! and pots! And odd, little things no one can decipher! I can't believe I just saw the Mary Rose. And I went down to see the HMS Victory. And that was amazing, too, and I almost cried again, but I almost cry a lot these days, but then I saw the Mary Rose and that just completely blew it out of the ballpark. The Mary Rose. Eeee!

I noticed they had a Mary Rose Museum and something called the Mary Rose Hall, but I thought it was just a name. Then I went into the hall to see what there was, grabbed an audio guide, and passed through the plastic sealed doors. The first thing I saw was glass, clouded up with some watery substance, but it wasn't clear like pure water would be. The glass stretched out in a long corridor lined with people. I raised the guide to my ear and began to detect a fuzzy shape in the background. I don’t remember which happened first: me distinguishing the hull or the guide telling me that it was the Mary Rose. The whole thing took a few minutes to sink in.

Yes, I'm a maritime geek. A big one. As you can probably tell.

Now I'm going to try to reply to some comments before collapsing into bed. It got two hours of sleep last night. This new dorm bed is Satan.