Sitting my OWL in Diff Eq

My midterm this morning was SO Harry Potter. USC Kevin and I ran into each other in the hallway outside, and as we stepped in, we realized the room is actually called the Great Hall. And the desks were all set up just like they would be for an OWL or a NEWT, with a table for the examiners up on the stage. We decided Diff Eq would be an OWL- which it certainly was, the exam was so easy and I needn't have worried about not having sufficient time to study.

I went back to my room after my exam and called British Dell Tech Support; we tried some stuff, then he told me to fiddle around with the memory and try running more tests with the memory in certain spots. I had to go to computing services and ask for two screw drivers, and the woman there proceeded to look at me like I was a crazy person, since I completely took my computer apart and put it back together to do everything I had to.

Since I had some time to kill before Dell called back, I went to the library to start on a paper (which I'm still not remotely done with- I'm at 1200 words out of 1000, which is a huge problem, especially since I haven't actually done any writing). I ran into my friend Adib, which was nice, because we haven't talked much lately. When I came back after establishing with Dell that they are going to send me memory and a motherboard tomorrow, I was able to ask him whether Times New Roman or this other random font was standard, and where I could go in the morning to get my data backed up.

As a reward for outlining, I watched some awesome hockey fights, and discovered the fabulousness of hockeyfightsdotcom on youtube. I'm so happy.

I posted about Venice (as I'm sure you can see), and I'll write up my Switzerland travellog in the next day or two. There were no updates while I was travelling since I successfully packed in a single backpack (go me! I'm notoriously an overpacker).

Time to go edit up my paper a bit so I can go to bed soon!

Viva Venezia!

Sunday, 15 February
It is ridiculous to get to the different gates at Stansted- it took like five minutes of mostly jogging to get to our gate, just to have to wait a while.

We flew over the Alps on the airplane, and it was gorgeous. I took several photos out the window, then Vanessa and I listened to my Lord of the Dance music and pretended to Irish jig in our seats.

Customs at the airport was fantastic- the signs for 'things to claim' and 'nothing to claim' pointed through the same door... the exit. I had a realization that made me very excited, and that realization's name is GELATO.

We got off of the bus from the airport and stepped into a sea of masks and costumes, and stands selling 'helLOVEnezia' teeshirts and Carnival masks. Also, Haider got really excited about the sun, and started rummaging in his bag for a mysterious something. We were guessing sunglasses/sunscreen/hats, etc, but what he finally pulled out was... a meter to measure the wattage of the sun.

Hilary and Caitlin ended up catching up with us while we were waiting for the bus to get to the hostel, which worked out well. We found the area pretty easily, but had some issues with finding the check-in area. First, Haider talked to a German kid (who for some reason said 'cheers!' as he was walking off, so I think he was just messing with everyone). We also had this beautifully executed moment when we were looking for the entrance, and two of us went to the left of this large dome on the ground, and two to the right, and one stayed behind, and then from there we went in different directions each. It was cool, okay? After that we were yelling, 'scusi!' down the small dome (there was like a walkway under the sidewalk, I don't know) but the guy down there was doing construction so that didn't work.

There were two dogs (or "PUUUUUUUUUUUPPIES!" as Kevin would say) in the small place near our hostel we ate dinner. Quotes of the meal: Kevin- 'Your ears are so soft, I want to cut them off and take them with me!'
Haider- 'Coca s'il vous plait!'

I quickly became obsessed with Carnival masks when we went back in to the city, the displays on the carts and in the stores were so pretty! I got two scoops of gelato (yuuuuum) and some tiramisu while we wandered around. We were trying to find the places where music would be playing; the first square was supposedly jazz music, which is apparently messed up techno? Not quite what I wanted, man. We decided to try to find the other location, but got lost down some back alleyways, which was actually really fun and a good way to get a feel for Venezia. I also loved how we would turn a corner and be like 'woah!' since we'd suddenly be in a plaza with some random, huge, gorgeous buildings. It was fabulous.

So was the guy peeing in the canal. I felt bad, but it made me laugh when Vanessa was talking about some housing trouble she's having back at USC.

We got unlost really quickly, and hopped on the 12/ instead of the 12, so we didn't know that it ended at a slightly different place and didn't quite go to our hostel.

Monday, 16 February
The hostel was really nice, albeit really cold at night- we had three double rooms, each with its own toilet and shower, and a shared kitchen (with pots, pans, and whatnot included). That worked out well so that we could get up early Monday morning and go buy eggs and breakfast things, and also cold cuts and snacks for lunch. It worked out to be eight euros each for breakfast and lunch for two days, which meant more money for gelato!!

We took a gondola ride in the morning- since it wasn't busy, we bartered them down to ten euros each, rather than fourteen. It was so cool, and fun! Our gondolier didn't sing, but he was pretty chatty and seemed to enjoy the questions asked. It was a really nice, sunny morning, so it worked out really well for our gondola-ing.

After the gondola, we meandered down to San Marco, mask shopping. We all succesfully found masks that suited us very well- mine had bells on it and was sort've like a jester's hat, which served well to alert my friends to when I would be making a break to the gelato stand. It was called 'Emily's gelato jingle,' since my sashaying to the stand had a distinct frolicksome tone to it.

When we sat down to lunch, we started talking to a nice couple on the bench across from us, thanks to Haider's sun meter. When they asked what Italian we knew, Kevin responded, 'buon giorno, Principessa!' which made the woman laugh. Apparently she also likes the movie Life is Beautiful. I also enjoyed watching the pigeons- one of the males was unsuccessfully trying to woo a female; he was all fluffed up and chasing her around.

San Marco was fantastic. The area is gorgeous and busy to look at in general, but the plaza was packed, with people in fabulous costumes all over. We hit it up a few hours before sunset, so there were lots of gorgeous views with the late afternoon light over the water and cathedral. Also, there were these really cool silvery gray raptors (well, men on stilts, really) wandering around to sort've primitive music, pretending to eat people (apparently Kevin got attacked). It was such a surreal moment, especially when I snapped a picture of one of them right in front of St Mark's. I literally was speechless. That's saying something. We chased them down to get some video, which I'll be posting up on facebook once my laptop is working again.

While near St Mark's, I bought two bags of confetti for a euro. We determined that whenever we threw some, we had to shout 'Viva Venezia!' It was really fun, especially targeting small children and tour groups, who seemed (aside from my friends of course) to get the most joy out of it.

The inside of St Mark's was pretty gorgeous, and I snuck some photos on Vanessa's camera (my battery had died :-( ). We're going to maybe incorporate one or two into our papers on Westminster Cathedral, since Bentley spent a lot of time at St Mark's when he was getting ideas to design it.

We wandered over to the Ponto Rialto and had some fun taking sunset and confetti pictures there. After gazing at the sun setting over the Grand Canal, we slipped into a pizza and gelato shop to warm up and use the bathrooms and snack. After that, we went and met Keener back in San Marco... I wanted to sneak up on him, but he was up a little high so he could have a clear view and saw us coming, and was able to recognize me even with my mask on (hey, I wore it for two days solid).

After introductions, we went and checked out the tango exhibition on the other side of the plaza, then traipsed over to the Rialto again to find some food. There were some very Brick Lane moments there- Haider was literally restraining himself from haggling by using me as a shield whilst doormen offered us extra wine to eat there. We found a place (I don't know the name, sadly), toasted Venezia with vino, and ate yummy Italian food (lasagne and fish, yesplease). While we were waiting for the bill, Vanessa and I were cracking up at the juxtaposition of the cross conversations happening down the table a bit- Kev and Caitlin were discussing which movies had won Oscars in which years, and Hilary and Haider were talking about Pokemon.

After paying, we meandered a bit mroe and got gelato, and then Keener had to leave us to get back to his dorm. He never did get to see Haider's face... at any rate, my friends really liked Keens, and Keens seemed to enjoy them as well, so that was really fun.

Hilary fell asleep on her computer cord when Vanessa was using it, then half woke up a little while later and happily said she didn't want to put it away when I asked, so then I just straight-up told her mostly asleep self to do it. It was pretty funny.

Tuesday, 17 February
We were able to check our bags at the train station, which was really good (we got nervous when the lockers were out of order, but there was an alternative place). After booking our trains for later that day, we headed back to San Marco (just stopping at an artist's stand on the way), and went up the campanile. We'd been nervous there wouldn't be enough time, but luckily there was, since it was a gorgeous, panoramic view of Venice. Then we got pizza on the way back to the train station (and gelato, of course) to supplement our sandwiches so we could stretch out our packed lunches to cover dinner as well.

I really want to go back to Venice someday for Carnival, and dress up in some of those gorgeous costumes.
Also, 'Il maximus de circo ha rubato Hilary!' Haider put that in our Italian language packets, so we started saying it to Hilary without telling her what it meant (she and Caitling left before getting the phrase packs he made up). She appreciated it a lot more when she discovered it meant 'The Circus Maximus has kidnapped Hilary!' She might not have enjoyed the, 'eh, that's a shame,' response Kevin and I decided on, though.

I limited myself to thirteen scoops of gelato my entire thirty-six-ish hours in Venice.

Skating, revisited

Operation: get recommendations for OL application was a success. I also did laundry. And printed off lots of stuff to study for my midterm while I'm on trains and planes. All in between classes! What a productive day.

I went ice skating again this evening, which was fun. The rink was a small circle though, which started to get obnoxious when I wanted to work on skating backwards or powering forward. It was still really nice to go skating again- I miss Reilly and my skates though.

Kev, Vanessa and Haider came over, and Haider had printed off a list of Italian phrases for us- including such "likely phrases" as, "Haider, stop looking like a terrorist!" "Caitlin, we love you. Please make some more brownies," "The Circus Maximus has kidnapped Hilary," Vanessa, stop dancing, the ice on this lake is thin," "Kevin, those are not thermals, that is a mime costume!" and "Emily, what is the name of the biker on your bunkbed?" It was pretty fantastic. Kevin was fabulous and figured out most of our train schedule for us, which was nice, and we have two potential options to make sure no money is lost on the hostels in Luzern, which is encouraging.

After we had some ice cream, I went to meet Carly at the Tube station (since she was phoneless and couldn't call me when she got off). While I was waiting (she had some delays), this trio of Asians stumbled towards the handicapped exit- one girl freaking out, and one guy attempting to drag a girl who is passed out drunk. As he tried to pick her back up off the floor, he explained to a tube worker that her boyfriend had dumped her. Another Tube worker was trying to show them how to use a fireman's hold to carry her better, but the girl had called some friends to come help carry her home. By the time Carly got here, the three of them were sitting against a wall- actually, the drunk girl was passed out on the floor- and the Tube worker and I were making eye contact and laughing.

Free stuff and lots of work

Whoopsies, someone was a little overtired the last couple days and fell asleep before remembering to update. Fortunately only a couple exciting things happened, so you all didn't miss much in my life ;-)

On Wednesday, I mostly did a lot of work. I also went to this small group meeting to discuss Provide, and what's good about the club and what could use some improvement. I really like their system on this campus- there are only two groups, Provide and RAG (Raise and Give); Provide does volunteer work, and RAG is fundraising. For both clubs, if you want to get involved, you're able to get almost any placement you want. There are a lot of opportunities and minimal conflicting interests. I often wish BC was more like that- having just one place to go to if you want to volunteer, and none of this arduous application process and competitive selection. If someone wants to volunteer, then let them volunteer. When I mentioned how I thought it was great that Provide has a lot of options and opportunities, and that it was so easy to get involved, and explained why, the other students were horrified by what one often has to do at BC to be involved.

That aside, I got another mug and a comfy hoodie, so that was fun.

Later that night, when I was getting papered out (I still haven't even started the writing portion, I'm still gathering facts and quotes), I gathered Caitlin and Vanessa and we went on a chocolate-finding adventure, which resulted in delicious Budgens chocolate cake, as well as some cookies and muffins for a later date, and milk to drink with everything. Operation: Get Emily Chocolate was a huge success, and there was much happiness in the land.

I really need to go grocery shopping, but I want to wait until I'm back from my trip. As of this morning, the study abroad advisor still hadn't received a definitive answer about whether I could take my midterm at a different time, so I'm glad that I just decided to suck it up and come back Wednesday night instead of Saturday. It also relieved a lot of paper stress, since I will have almost all day Thursday, and all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday that I can write said papers. I'll be spending Sunday early afternoon into sometime on Tuesday in Venice, and then will go up to Luzern with everyone and spend the night and the next day, and head to the airport early Wednesday evening. I'm really sad that I won't get to go skiing in the Alps (how fabulous would that have been??), but at the same time I'll be saving a lot of money... and won't have to buy snow pants and ski gloves and goggles, which would've been hard for me seeing as how I already own all of those, they're just in Maine and I'm a little bit far away.

Yes, I know that I am totally rationalizing my disappointment. But it's helping.

Yesterday was pretty fun- Actuarial and tutorial for that, then a couple hours to do a bit more work, and then the 1950 version of King Solomon's Mines. I find it intriguing that the romantic plotline in the book involves a white British man and a "Native," but the movie cuts that out entirely and instead introduces a white British woman. I'm thinking about writing on that for my second paper for this class, and maybe watching a couple other versions of the film.

Vanessa and I then decided to go to Westfield Shopping Centre, since I've been looking for a new pair of sneakers and she needed to find rainboots and a present. We are now very mad at Haider for telling us of the existance of this magical place... it was HUGE (over 250 stores I've heard), and had these interactive directories that gave you directions to various stores. There was a string quartet chilling and playing in one of the atriums. And the stores were fantastic. Highlight of the evening, though, had to be Crepe Affaire. A Thai chicken crepe for dinner and a nutella crepe for dessert? Sooooooooooooo good. We didn't talk at all while we were eating, since we were pretty much in heaven.

We got home pretty late, and I realized I had to fill out my Orientation Leader application since that's due the day I'm getting back from my trip; Hopefully Howard and Chambers will fill out the forms for me, I shot off some emails last night and hope to forward them the forms before I leave for Venice Sunday morning.

I also had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night, so kept getting out of bed and watching weird Youtube videos. Probably not the best way to get drowsy, but it was at least entertaining.

I was going to go to the gym today, but I realized that it's an off day since I successfully went two days in a row! And now my muscles hate me a bit. But that's okay, they'll man up soon enough.

Bra-sil *clapclapclap*

Vanessa and I went to Westminster Cathedral today; it was pretty cool, actually. I personally think the outside of the building is rather ugly, but the inside is really pretty- I liked Bentley's marble halfway up, mosaics the rest of the way up, motif that he stole from Italy. We paid the extra two-fifty to take the lift up the tower, which had a fantastic view of Buckingham Palace, Parliament, the Gherkin- pretty much all of the really big, London-y things. I took many a picture, though a lot of them are for me to reference when I'm trying to write my Architecture paper.

I'm starting to get a decent amount of my reading done for my papers. Since I still haven't heard back from Harry (the study abroad adviser here) about what the registrar's office said regarding my midterm, I decided to assume there was no way around it, so am starting to make my plans to get back to London Wednesday night instead of Saturday. Plus side: I'll have almost all day next Thursday, and all day Fri-Sun, to work on my papers. Also, I get to sleep in as much as I want. And I'll be saving a decent chunk of money. Minus side: I don't get to go skiing in the Alps because I have a FORTY-MINUTE midterm scheduled for a week when nothing is supposed to be scheduled.

I actually think that the plus side outweighs the minus, at least.

USC Kevin, Vanessa and I went to the Brazil v. Italy game at Emirates tonight. The ride there was INSANE- the Tube was absolutely packed with people flocking to the game, and when it pulled in at Arsenal (the station) we could see a huge bottleneck at the exit... when the doors opened, you could hear the bedlam, fans for both teams were doing chants and singing songs and waving flags, it was spectacular. The Italian supporters were particularly prone to bursting out into song (so I guess I know where I got that from, eh? The Irish are singers as well, I suppose). When we finally got out into the street, it was still packed, and I just wanted out of the crowd a bit since I was getting claustrophobic... until Vanessa and I noticed the Brasil v. Italy scarves they were selling. We each bought one since it was getting cold and they were way adorable.

The Arsenal stadium was HUGE, and very cool and modern looking. Our seats were pretty high up, but we still had a good view (of a game that I understood very little of), and the atmosphere was just very fun. It looked awesome when the wave started going around. Brasil ended up winning two-nil, both the goals were down our end. The first time it was a very standard run-the-ball-down-the-field, beat-the-keeper type of shot, and then the second time was really exciting since it was more of the type where you think they've gone too far past the net and have a bad angle and there's no way they're going to be able to make it in, but they somehow miraculously sink it in the opposite corner.

We decided to catch a bus back to campus- good call, much less crowded- and it let us off right in front of Milano's Pizza. So of course we ate there. I also ran to a store really quickly to grab more cough medicine, since I sound like a dying penguin. I want this cough to just go away, kaythanks.

Wipeout!

In Diff Eq this morning we learned about complex numbers and some identities involving those (all of which I fortunately know thanks to Complex Variables; probably the most difficult elective I've ever taken, but the most useful).

I went adventuring after that- and by adventuring, I meant I went to Russell Square to find the Senate House Library at University of London. When I got off the Tube and started walking through the park, I had severe deja-vu, and realized that I had passed said park several times four years ago, since it was quite close to where Erin lived whilst in London, and also near the hotel we stayed in. Despite the rain, I took my time walking through said park and orienting myself.

Then I got to do several figure eights around a large section of buildings on the Uni of London campus, trying to find the hidden secret entrance (not even joking here) to the Senate House Library. I also had to sign up for a card, which they felt compelled to take my picture to put on (seriously, must everything here have my picture on it? It's worse than getting your license, since it's just like, "surprise! you look like a drowned rat, smile!"). After writing down the codes for the books I needed, I went to find them, and the most adorable old man librarian came up to me and asked if I needed help, so I decided to let him help me find my books. He suddenly went from being rather quiet and slow to spritely, running shelf to shelf and finding all of the books he possibly could on Bentley and Westminster Cathedral (way more than my list had) and talking to me about it. "Are you Roman Catholic? I am, I've been to Westminster Cathedral a few times, if you go to such-and-such a place they're exactly the same, Byzantine style..." It was really fun. I ended up having to power-read one of the shorter books while I was there (since I could only take eight out and also had a few on Pinocchio to read) and then having to buy a Senate House Library tote to get all of the books back through the rain and the Tube.

When I switched at Holborn to get back on the Central line, this man in a business suit, trench and briefcase had an epic, Indiana Jones-esque moment where he sprinted and threw himself through the narrow crack of the closing doors to land, miraculously (and briefcase still in hand) on the train. The moment was ruined a little bit by him wiping out, though. He seemed to just have a bit of injured pride in the end.

I made a massive bowl of "smashed" (ie mashed potatoes) for lunch, then met up with USC Kevin and Hilary for our field trip. We met the class in Trafalgar Square and walked to Buckingham Palace; afterwards, Kevin decided to lead us through the park to Green Park station. It was all mud, and I wasn't wearing my rainboots. The puddles would've been great fun if I had been, though.

After Actuarial, we tried to go to an acrobatics gym, but there weren't any adult classes tonight; it just ended up being a fun bus ride instead. At Hayfields, I almost beat Caitlin at Mario Kart (almost) and Caitlin and I beat Damien and James at pool (ha!). I had some spectacular shots- there was one that was legitimately epic, I dug a ball out of the middle of some others and got it to ricochet into a random pocket (kaping!)

Harrods

I had the most expensive milkshake of my life today. But it was SO good.

Caitlin, Vanessa, her friend Trisha and I went to Harrods today. Caitlin and I meandered through the shoes and evening wear sections first (sticker shock anyone?) and decided to go upstairs... to the toy department! We were in grave danger of never emerging again from THAT one, they had fantastic stuffed animals, and really cool rocking horses, and giant beautiful doll houses, and the snazziest whirly flashy things ever (like a helicopter that really flies and light up wheels to attach to your sneakers). I want to be an employee there, they get to play with everything (like said helicopter and wheels, and also two guys had to stand there and throw boomerangs at each other, and one guy was doing magic tricks). It's magical. Luckily, Vanessa and Trisha showed up before we got too sucked into that vortex (though I almost bought many of their awesome board games).

We proceeded downstairs to the food court, which was another vortex in and of itself. THE CHOCOLATE ROOM. Really, I can't say much else. It was gorgeous. I wanted to keep it. I need that room in my house. No, I really don't. (But I do). The chocolate was so pretty and yummy looking and it just smelled fantastic. And then the other room was awesome- their Chinese food looked so good, and they had a sushi bar... and then we went back upstairs (and through the sparkly pretty glassware room) and to the Harrods Chocolate Bar. I wanted the entire menu. I settled for my overpriced shake, but it was the chocolatiest best one I've had in a while.

We took a couple minutes back at campus after, so Van and Trisha could eat their cheesecake and I could do some reading, and then we went to East End Thrift (to recover from sticker shock). It was definitely a very ecclectic store, but had fantastic deals. I again exercised great restraint.

The rest of my day wasn't that exciting- I read. A lot. And I also looked up and found a bunch of books to use for my papers at the Senate House Library, which is kinda far away, but the books are at least there (contrast with the on-campus library where there is a waiting list of a million people since everyone in my classes need the same books). I'll be hitting that up tomorrow so I can get some serious work done on these papers.

Simon Cowell

A bunch of us went for a really nice walk today. It was pretty sunny out, and not ridiculously windy. We started at the Houses of Parliament and looped our way around, and were going to go into Westminster Abbey but they were having a mass soon so weren't letting people in, and we didn't feel like going to church. I ran into Carrie who had come into town for today, which was really nice, so we chatted for a few before she and Mark went in to the Abbey (they decided to go to mass) and my friends and I moved on down the street towards Trafalgar Square.

We stopped along the way to watch and see who was going to come out to a black Bentley... it ended up being Simon Cowell, which was really cool, followed by Ant and Dec. I guess we accidentally stumbled upon an audition site for "Britain's Got Talent." It was pretty exciting, actually. We waved to his car when it U-turned and drove by our side of the road. Yes, I know I'm a tool.

I climbed on a lion in Trafalgar Square. It was a project- we made Kevin jump up on the base of Nelson's column to help pull us shorties up, and then he had to give all of us a leg up onto the lion itself, but it was SO WORTH IT. I felt SO COOL. Seriously. It was way fun, and I want to do it again someday!

We walked from there across the Thames and down along the other side, past a lot of cool street performers (their three/four person bands sound like a lot more performers than that, they're crazy good! And the living statues were pretty fun, I got a photo of a really funny one). They also had a crazyawesome book market.

We crossed the Thames again via the Jubilee walkway, and went up to St. Paul's (gorgeous in the sunset, by-the-by), and went in a little bit, but a lot was closed off due to mass. We're going to go back again sometime soon when we haven't been out walking all day, and go up all the way to the top of the dome. It's going to be killer. (Seriously, though. It's going to burn.)

Since I was starving, we went to this place called Byrons, which had good burgers and shakes (little too pricey for my liking, but I was hungry and it was yummy). After that, Vanessa, Caitlin, and Trisha (Vanessa's friend) and I went to see Revolutionary Road. It was good, but definitely quite depressing and frustrating (which I guess was the point). I still think my favorite character was the old deaf dude, especially for the scene at the end.

The ride home was fun- we got to ride at the front on the top level of the double-decker bus.

We were going to play cards with USC Kevin and his flatmate Dave (we'd knocked on their window to invite them along to the movie, and they told us to stop by after), but were all too tired (slash I can't stop coughing). We knocked to tell them we weren't coming in, and Dave answered the window with a bathrobe tie around his head (a white one with purple and pink stars on it) and told us that everyone was ninjas in there, and we had to get our own ninja head cloth things (too tired to think of the name) if we wanted to come in. He also told us that every man has a pink and purple star bathrobe.

Needless to say, entertaining day.

Maths drama

My adventure stories class was really fun today, since we were talking about Huck Finn (and the plot of Tom Sawyer). I again had fun listening to Brits trying to read out of the book; my professor was going to have me read a chunk but we ran out of time since we got sidetracked with other conversations. It was still really interesting to hear the British take on a novel I've read at least twice for school already, and also interesting to hear their take on the language used (I assured them that being American did not make it much easier to understand it the first time I read it).

I managed to get to the gym for a little bit today, as I felt a bit healthier. I'm worried that this cough isn't going to go away for a long time, though, since that happens to me sometimes.

I chatted a bit with a girl named Millie in Actuarial today, since she came in a minute or two late and asked to look at my notes to catch up. It was a good day to have someone to talk to, two guys got into a fight on the other side of the room (I don't know what one was doing, but the other finally yelled at him to "stop messing around," and our professor threw him out; the guy who got thrown out promised repeatedly that he would be waiting outside for the one who'd been antagonizing him). It was quite shocking.

We went to Brick Lane again, since we were all craving curry and nan, and Kevin and Vanessa's friends from home were intrigued to see the haggling and try the food. Caitlin ended up getting us a good deal at Chutneys, but I felt like a star- Haider vetoed this one place since he didn't like it's atmosphere, but I got us two rounds of drinks, starters, main, nan AND rice, for eight pounds a head. We ended up with nine pounds a head and only one round of drinks at Chutneys, which did feel a bit nicer, but the guy down the street tried to steal me into the restaurant as we walked away. I don't think he understood that kidnapping people is not a good way to get business.

We went to Vanessa's for a little while to have brownies (since I made some mint ones last night) and hot cocoa. Some of her flatmates were talking about how Dixie Chicken and a brownie ended up being their tea (having gotten out of bed at three, it was, of course, tea time) and a healthier tea there had never been.

Curve of Deaths

I drank another litre of OJ in one sitting today. No good, man, no good, now I'm all out! I also had to get more medicine. This cold needs to just go away.

I was working on my Actuarial Maths homework, and I got to do a life table about rats, and write about how all of the beetles will be dead in four years. We also discussed "curve of deaths" in class this morning, which was really funny. I went to USC Kevin's Diff Eq tutorial today, since I skipped mine yesterday to get some sleep and be healthier (minor fail there), and we actually finished pretty quickly which was good.

From there I went straight to the Grand Tours screening of Huck Finn. Can we have a brief pause and discuss how even in 1993, Elijah Wood's eyes were STILL ridiculously intense? And I like that the movie made Jim out to be a lot smarter than the book gave him credit for.

Also, British people trying to read out loud Huck's narration and Jim's dialogue = fantastic. I laughed a lot, they just still sounded so very... British. After watching the movie, one of the kids in my class and I were walking in the same direction, so he was asking lots of questions about where Huck Finn starts (Missouri) and how that's a bit further north than Mississippi, and how he thought it took place in Mississippi because it was on the river, etcetc, and then had me explain where my home is ("the most northeast state, just below Canada and a bit above Boston" is my usual response). It was a nice chat, and I started laughing again when he was trying the southern accent again.

I fell asleep trying to do some more work; I guess that happens when you're sick, eh? And then our friend Damien made a bunch of us "spagbol," only it wasn't spaghetti, just some other pasta, which Haider was giving him crap about. It was really good, though, and then Caitlin and I ended up getting brownie stuff- Caitlin to make some Cadbury chocolate ones for tonight, me to make some mint ones to eat tomorrow. We all played a few card games- the Brits were laughing at Egyptian Rat Screw, and then we taught them BS (they were both horrible at it), and they "taught" us Pass the Ace (Old Maid) and a version of UNO you play with regular playing cards. I had also brought over my Would You Rather book, so we had some good laughs and conversations over that (there's still a unanimous pull for getting drunk dialed by Ghandi rather than MLK).

Let me see your bungalow, let me see your bungalow.

Today was my last day with the Magic Me! project. It's really weird for a few different reasons... one is that I am sad I won't be seeing the other girls from QM that I worked with. They were all fantastic- Shidvash, Arrka, Amanda and Lauren, and of course Sarah and Catherine- and it will be weird not seeing them every Wednesday from now on. It's also very strange that I only got to talk to Elsie twice; she was great today, she kept falling asleep but was very chatty and actually answered the questions Sameera and I asked her, which was fantastic. I'm very sad to have only been able to see Sameera and the other children only twice, as well.

Our project today was pretty fun, Elsie doesn't like miming things so she didn't do much to act out our "picnic scene." But once we got going with making our flowers and putting five facts about each of us, and then five things the three of us have in common, she was superb. I was very impressed with Sameera, too- she was very good about repeating a question a few times, and acknowledging that sometimes Elsie didn't remember the answer, and either finding it out a different way (for example, when Elsie couldn't remember her age, Sameera asked what her birthday and year were) or just choosing a different question. These are some of the facts we came up with (I can't remember them all):

Elsie- Born in London, October 9, 1940, her favorite colour is black since it goes with everything, she likes sitting out in the sun in the garden, likes musicals
Sameera- Born in London, but her mother is from Somalia, birthday is May 27, 1999, her favorite colour is blue, she loves playing football
Me- Born in America, May 27, 1988 (I made Sameera work this out since she also likes maths; I told her I am exactly eleven years older than her), my favorite food is mashed potatoes, and I do ballet and tap
All three- like to sing, like necklaces, love chocolate, like watching TV (Elsie likes gameshows and Sameera loves the Disney channel- especially Suite Life on Board and HSM3), and like playing in the snow (it used to snow more often when Elsie was younger, and this last time was the most snow Sameera has ever seen; she really wants to go ice skating)

I guess that was a bit more for me than anyone else, sorry. When we were leaving, Elsie told us she hoped we'd visit again, and Sameera gave me a big hug and ordered me to come see her again.

The other thing that is really weird about the program being done is that it means I've already been here over a month- a bit over five weeks, actually. It's strange to think about as it doesn't really seem like it's been that long, but we're already coming up on our midterm reading week in a week and a half.

After Magic Me, I pulled a pizza out of the oven and threw it back in the freezer when Kevin suggested Spoons with his friend Katie who was visiting, and Vanessa also came along; it was delicious, and then we watched Love, Actually, and I started falling asleep which I suppose signals an early bedtime for me this evening.

It was the storm of the century....

The housecleaner woke me up today, and I just asked her if she could possibly clean the room while I stayed in bed, because I felt so crappy. It was no problem for her, so long as she could have a light... so I might do that from now on.

We had another snow day, not because it snowed but because the city is still incapacitated due to yesterday's snow. I'm not complaining at all, two days where I get to rest and not miss class? Okay.

I went to the apothecary today, and gave the woman my symptoms and she handed me a medicine- which reminds me, I get to take more right now! Huzzah! This stuff is more tolerable than the lemsip, since it's nasty in the form of a shot rather than a mug of hot lemon grossness.

I finally got to the library today to get some books for my Architecture paper; when I was checking one out, the girl at the desk asked if I was from Boston (due to my BC hat and hoodie I opted in to today). It turns out she got accepted to Northeastern's law school and is trying to decide if she wants to go, so we chatted for a minute about Boston and some pros and cons of going. It was cool.

Aside from that, I put in Ever After and fell asleep, and then did some more stuff about Er's bachelorette party. We still haven't come to any solid decisions, but it's getting there, which is good!
I'm now debating between getting some more work done or going to bed, but bed is slowly but surely winning this round...

Snow day!

Apparently three to six inches of snow is enough to close the uni, and warrants headlines such as, "BLIZZARD HITS LONDON!" I am not complaining about the canceled classes- I liked my extra sleep- but honestly, just because it's more snow than you're used to does not make it a blizzard.

I went to go to my nine am, but there was a sign on the door of the building saying that "THE 9AM LECTURE IS CANCELED." THE 9AM? As in yours? Or mine? Or all of them? I was confused, so I asked someone nearby, and he said they were all canceled. I turned around, pumped my fists and said "back to bed!" Then I realized I should turn in my problem set for Diff Eq, so trekked across campus to do that. I ran into USC Kevin, who had just done the same, and convinced him to walk back (he was like ten feet away from the building) with me to drop off my set, so then we could go all the way back across campus again. On our way across the quad, we passed a professor who told us a tale of free coffee in the Curve, so we went to invetigate. Alas, after telling us there was going to be free coffee, and waiting twenty minutes, we discovered we had been deceived, and that the free coffee was indeed just a tale. Also, the snowmen from last night were long gone.

I went back to bed for a couple hours, my friends kept texting to see if I was going to go sledding with them. I really wanted to, but I stuck to my guns and got some much-needed rest, but invited them over for hot cocoa after. Some hot cocoa and brownies later, it was decided we'd go to Westminster and take snowy photos... so much fun! There were snowmen everywhere, some set up for convenient photographs with Parliament in the background, and people were having snowball fights all over. Actually, campus was even crazier- it looked like gang wars, I was watching out my window as EVERYONE wandered around with snowballs in hand, just in case, and then people would sporadically break out into mad chases. Vanessa and Caitlin had to dodge out of the way of two dozen people chasing a solitary other, pelting the unfortunate soul with snowballs all the way. Open windows were also a favoured target.

At any rate, there were huge delays heading back to campus; one train was supposed to terminate at Tower Hill, but then it decided to take us to Aldgate East, but then the buses weren't running and the Tube wasn't going to get us any further since the snow broke it hardcore; so we ended up walking a good long while in the cold (another three stops on the Tube, really) and on the packed down snow. My throat was not happy with me by the time we got back to campus, and I was sad that the Maths building was locked so I couldn't turn my Actuarial problem set in (which I had finished in the Tube on the way to Westminster).

Now I've chugged an entire litre of OJ and still feel pretty crappy, so I'm thinking I'm going to go to bed, and hope that the rumors of uni being closed tomorrow as well prove to be true!

Playing in the snow

On Saturday I woke up wicked early- my alarm was set for six something- showered, packed and met up with the other BC girls at QM to go to Waterloo station. I met up with Liz and Paul, and re-met Anne. Everyone got their own seats on the bus, which was sweet; much sleeping ensued.

We stopped at Lewes and did a walking tour. Our tour guide knew a lot about Thomas Paine, which was very interesting, but it was cold and windy and we were all exhausted. We went to the "Anne of Cleaves" house. What a misnomer, she never even went there, it was a wedding gift that she didn't use. But it was very cute, the garden would be gorgeous in the spring. I guess lots of people get married there. Highlight? The dress-up room. Pictures on facebook. I really liked the bit when we were passing a bowling green, and there were a bunch of old men out bowling, and our tour guide goes, "Oh, those are friends of mine, let's go have a jeer at them!" And she called them over and talked for a moment. It was very cute.

At lunch, my fish still had scales, a tail, and a face. Eyes and jaw included. It was kinda gross, so I cut off the head and tail and put it on Paul's plate, since he'd already finished eating.

We also stopped at the Royal Pavilion, the party palace of George the fourth (I think), who was very fat and loved eating. The outside is India-inspired, the inside China-inspired. I really want the gorgeous dragon chandelier. I'm probably going to google pictures since we couldn't photograph the interior.

There was a mess up with our hostel in Brighton, so eight of us girls that were supposed to be in one room got split into fours. The first four got sent up four stories, and then the rest of us had to wait a little while... then they found us a room to go to, which had two other boarders we didn't know. Neither one was around, but there was a stuffed penguin on one bed, and the other was of course the bottom bunk by the window.

We had a really good dinner, and after, Anne, Paul, Liz and I went to the pier, and Liz and I got ice cream cones. It was an interesting flavour- sort've more the cream that the Brits like to put on everything than vanilla.

Pretty much everyone met up after that to go to a club- since that's the thing to do in Brighton- and we wandered along the waterfront. The place that was recommended to us was closed, so we were having a huge (loud) discussion on the beach when two police officers came by and told us to move it along. Some people decided it was a good idea to ask for the cops' opinions on clubs around, but the woman kindly told us, "It's Brighton. You have the beach, (gestures), and bars (gestures)." It was really funny. We finally got into this place called TRU for free, danced until the music style changed and everyone cleared into a different room, and then Liz and I called it an early night since we were exhausted and I've had a cold.

The room was really hot and I kept waking up every time someone came in. There was already a girl asleep in the bed by the window, and evetually the other two BC girls came in; really, really late, the door opened again... and it was this giant, bearded man in black leather, combat boots, and tattoos. He crawled into the bed with the stuffed penguin.

We got woken up the next morning to his ringtone- "Where are all your friends? ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!" He sort've was chipping in to the conversation the four of us were having, but not really being audible at all; he finally stumbled down to breakfast, limping a bit and still drunk, now wearing flame pajamas. It was so weird. AND HE SLEPT WITH A PENGUIN.

We had a walking tour of Brighton this morning, which was even colder than the one yesterday, but also pretty interesting. Though when our guide was talking about the Mods versus the Rockers and describing their clothing, I couldn't help but add on in a whisper to Liz after the "wear black leather and ride motorcycles" that the Rockers also "really like penguins."

After lunch, Liz, Paul, Anne and I decided to just go get hot cocoa and stay warm until it was time to catch the bus.

I met up with USC Kevin to finish our Diff Eq homework, and left straight from there to see Slumdog Millionaire with Vanessa, Caitlin and Haider. It should NOT be called the "feel-good movie of the year," but it was definitely really good.

After that we stopped at Haider's and had hot cocoa, since it was snowing rather a lot (it's accumulated a couple inches, I'm impressed!) and on the way back to our rooms, some of Haider's friends bombarded him. Us girls decided to go get slightly more appropriately dressed and joined in the MASSIVE snowball fight that was happening (they don't really get snow in London, so it was really exciting for everyone). I decided running around in the cold wasn't the best idea, so I started a snowman. The girls stopped their snowball fights and started trying to help, and I eventually got them going with a good method. The British guys were trying to outdo us by simply mounding up snow, but I showed them the error of their ways, and got them rolling huge snowballs as well. Other British people kept coming over to have their pictures taken with us and our massive amounts of snow, it was really funny. The boys ended up with a MASSIVE snowman (I taught them well), and I think our snowwoman was still a bit taller than me. I really hope they're still there tomorrow for everyone to admire!! We got a couple pictures of those as well, unfortunately not on my camera.

Pretty much I stayed out in the cold snow WAY too late for someone with an awful cold, but it was so fun.

Last Friday

My presentation in Grand Tours went pretty well today; I was able to successfully answer a question that involved text from outside of the reading the girl I was working with and I were supposed to have done, and the professor nodded in a pleased manner. Too bad it's not graded!

I was going to do work or go to the gym after, but I'm sick, so instead I came to my room, napped, dragged myself to Diff Eq, and then went and printed some stuff at the library before Actuarial Maths. At the start of that one, we watched a clip of Matt Damon making a fool of himself talking about how the potential for Palin to become president would be one in three if McCain wins (filmed before the election, obviously) because of the "actuary tables." More interesting than his lack of knowledge was definitely seeing how the Brits reacted to the clip.

We had an "Americana" party tonight, with burgers and dogs and music by only American artists; I also enjoyed when Vanessa, Caitlin and I were playing with a balloon for a full fifteen minutes, keeping it off the ground.

When I made a face at one of my friends, he told me I looked like Voldemort.

Kevin and I disappeared for a while upon an argument about upstate New York, and then got sidetracked GoogleEarthing our houses; Vanessa came to find us and got sucked into the Vortex, and then Haider and Hilary joined. It was pretty fun, we were seeing how far houses were chimney to chimney.

Now it's time for early bed, since I have to be up at six tomorrow to go to Brighton for the day and night with BC people.

No Maids

I woke up and felt yucky, not good. BUT, I felt smart again in tutorial this time! The girls next to me were asking for me to explain some things to them since it was so crowded, and they couldn't get any of the tutors over. Woot!

Then Vanessa and I went and picked up our Brazil/Italy tickets, and also talked to the abroad advisors for a few minutes. Apparently it is REALLY bad to call housekeeping "maids," since that has connotations to do with butlers and maids being servants, and is really insulting. "If you call her a maid, she has every right to kill you." So I won't be making that mistake again.

I had to make some notes for a "presentation" I have to give in class tomorrow about Pinocchio- what is taught and how it's taught and who teaches the lesson in the chapters when he turns into a donkey. Since I had to split it in half with another girl (there are too many students for everyone to be able to have their own presentation), I was scared I wouldn't have as much to say, but I have five minutes of stuff (which was the requested time). So that's cool. Collodi is a pretty funny guy, underneath the trippy story.

When I went to the fantastic screening room to watch Pinocchio, there was just one other girl and the professor there, so we chatted for a few minutes while it went through the previews (mostly about if Will Smith would make a good Captain Nemo in 20000 Leagues. We decided not so much.), and then I curled up on the loveseat again, and the other girl commented, "Getting comfy there, eh?" I just explained that I was in love with the room and wanted one in my house.

We tried to go see Oliver! tonight, but it was sold out, so we ended up at Chicago instead. I looooooove it! And apparently I once did the exact dance for All That Jazz, since I knew THE ENTIRE thing. Not even chunks, or the main chorus. The full dance. It was also really entertaining to see the actors trying to attempt American accents. Most went through Southern and Jersey and a little bit of the "nonaccent" type, though one guy who had a line apparently sounded very Irish (I thought it was a bit Australian, but I mean, he wasn't aiming for either...) and Mama was like Jamaican Gangster, which was interesting. Also, Velma couldn't dance. But Roxie was really good. And I enjoyed how a guy would dance (well, go through a series of dancey poses, really) at the bottom of ladders when girls had songs up on them, it was a very interesting way to incorporate spotters into the number. It also threw me off that Velma was blond and Roxie was brunette.

Magic Me

Magic Me was so much fun today! We went to John Scurr, a primary school, and played with some Year 5 students today (they're all nine). They were so much fun! Abid was a riot, when they were practising how to get an elderly person's attention, he went up and stuck his hand in Priti's face and goes, "You alright?" Which really, is like the equivalent of saying, "Sup dawg?" as a way of introduction. When asked to be more polite and speak a bit clearer, he said, "Are... you... all... right?" and sort've agressively, we were all trying not to laugh too much. We also played this game where we were each paired off with a child, and each person had to spend three minutes asking questions. I was put with Sameera, who is adorable by the way, and is essentially a mini me. When I told her I was studying maths, she said that was her favorite subject. And we have the same birthday. And when I asked her what her favorite food was, she said cheeseburger, fries, with (of course!) a chocolate shake. Girl after my own heart, right there. It's sort've unfortunate she can't have her picture taken (her parents didn't give permission for some reason or another), but it would be great to be able to work with her again. Plus I feel like she'd be pretty good with Elsie, who is pretty deaf, blind and very distractable, and has a poor memory, so asking questions is difficult, but I think Sameera could handle it.

Vanessa came over and we made quesadillas again, which was quite the endeavor with two of my flatmates and one of their friends trying to cook at the same time, and my other flatmate using the microwave. Then we were hanging out for a bit to see when we'd be meeting to finish booking stuff for reading week, since Hilary had to run an errand and Kevin had some meeting to go to. Haider ended up coming over and we were hanging out for a while, then finally called the others to see where they were. We couldn't get a hold of Hilary, and Kevin was still busy, so we told him to call when he was done to meet up and go over what we were booking, and then dragged Caitlin over.

Enter into a couple hours of hardcore hostel price and location checking, with lots and lots of background noise. I had to raise my hand to get everyone's attention to ask opinions about things, since just talking wasn't enough. We finally booked the ones for Venice and Geneva, and have a good one lines up for Luzern if a potential lodge that Haider's friend might know of is too expensive/out of the way.

Mind the Gap

Monday: I successfully went to the gym and did work and ate after my nine am, rather than napping. Yay me! We had an architecture field trip, which was really really interesting, but then I got back and it was 5:25, so I missed Actuarial Maths. Oh well, now I might have to meet someone to get the notes. Or I could be antisocial and see if they're online. I might write more about Monday later, I'm tired and can't think of the funny stories I had from that day.

Today was pretty good... the maid woke me up at ten (I don't have class until three!) instead of coming in at noon as is usual, so I threw on some clothes and went to the Curve and read a bunch of Pinocchio. This book is seriously messed up. I also did laundry today. It only took me putting my clothes through the drier three times to get them to be dry! Amazing, I know.

Vanessa and I went to this store called Primark- I'm a little bit in love. It's like Forever 21, only British. I restricted my purchases to within reason, however. It helped that I didn't know my size in their clothes so I didn't take too much to try on- just enough to get a better gauge for next time I go shopping. We stopped at a Souvenir Shop as well, and Vanessa could not get over the Tube-related underwear.

Caitlin, Kevin, Vanessa, Hilary and I congregated and started booking some stuff for reading week. At the moment, we have plane tickets to Venice to enjoy a bit of Carnival, and then tomorrow (we all started falling asleep, me especially) we're going to figure out our trains and whatnot to go to Lucerne and Geneva in Switzerland, and then get back to London. It should be really fun, we might splurge a bit and go skiing in the Alps! We'll see what kind of deals we can get, though.

Where's the village, then?

I woke up at quarter of seven. That is really, really early for me. I showered and made scrambled eggs- those took a long long time, our hobs are not high quality. I then met up with Vanessa and got on a zebra bus. Hilary showed up too, which was cool. We slept on the bus for an hour until we got to a rest stop, where I had extra chocolate hot chocolate and a double chocolate muffin.

I see the judgment in your eyes. Stop it, it was darn delicious!

We got off the M4 another hour later, and the driver was following the GPS system's directions. It said "turn left and end at your destination." The bus turns left, and there is a dirt path and a school. We stop for a minute while the driver (Gerry with a G, he's a Gerald) stares perplexedly at our surroundings.

He then drives the bus down the dirt path. Obviously the logical choice. After driving down the dirt path for five minutes, we pass a biker. Gerry stops the bus and leans his head out and yells, "Where's the village, then??"

The biker gives us directions, which include turning around. So we roll backwards down the hill a bit to a littler offshot of our dirt road to turn around. We then overtake the biker and follow behind him for a few minutes until he angrily pulls off to the side to let us pass, flipping us off. He was very friendly and logical, obviously it makes sense to make the bus follow behind the biker.

Finally we get to a parking area, and get out and start walking down this little road... and into the cutest village ever! They told us Castle Combe is supposedly the most beautiful village in England, but it was seriously way more adorable than I'd anticipated, plus the rain cleared up and the sun came out a bit for when we got there. It's a historical site, so even the new buildings have to be styled exactly the same as the other cottages and use the same stones and everything, it's so cool. Vanessa and I almost got hit by a car when we were looking at a gate, which apparently opens automatically. That was fun, and unexpected in such a cute old cottagey village.

From there we found our way to Bath, where we walked through the central part of the city (we saw Putleny Bridge or something along those lines, which was a bridge built with shops on both sides, and the Abbey, and the Baths, and the Crescent, and some museums and the big shopping street).

We walked around the Abbey (tombstone of the Abbey: "Manley Power") and then grabbed some very yummy pasties and went to the Jane Austen Centre, and took photos with the model of Jane Austen out front, and spent a long time in the bookshop and successfully avoided purchasing anything, and then went and did a tour of the Roman Baths. There was a guy in a toga that was making "incantations" or something along those lines to Soulis, due to the hail that was coming down. He was making fun of this kid named Jed's scarf while Jed took a picture of me and Vanessa with the toga dude, it was funny. We had some of the spa water to drink, it was warm but otherwise good (I think it was legitimately flowing to the Pump Room restaurant from whatever its original source was, which is cool).

My flatmates decorated our flat and were making dumplings, since it's the Chinese New Year tomorrow. And apparently, on New Year's Eve, you make dumplings.

Flowers or shoes?

Caitlin, Kevin and I went to the National Gallery today. We had fun wandering around Trafalgar Square, taking pictures of pigeons on top of statues heads, rasta children playing instruments, and people doing sidewalk chalk. We then met up with Paul and went into the Gallery. I got a little sick of the section we started in, since three quarters of the paintings were the Virgin and Child, but I got a good laugh when we went into another room and there was one where she was launching milk into his mouth. I don't think that's quite how it works, but whatever makes the painter happy, I suppose.

I found a "fish of the painting" in one of the really big ones by someone representing the four elements, and my favorite painting was in a sort've little room- it was a French family having hot chocolate in a really pretty garden. I also liked Casanova's lover that decided to marry a really rich, much older guy instead.

I was sort've done looking at paintings after an hour and a half, and the other three hit a wall about a half hour later, so we literally walked into the last five rooms we wanted to do, glanced at the walls, and left again.

When we left, we noticed tons of police around Trafalgar Square, and some barricades and whatnot, so we went up to one of the armored trucks blocking traffic and asked the head of a riot squad what was happening. There was going to be a march and a protest about Gaza in a little bit. We ducked into an "American style diner" and got some pizza and milkshakes, finished pretty quickly and sort've wanted to get going, since our abroad advisors all warn us not to get caught up in protests. I finally had to go ask for the bill so we could pay and get moving, but we still had to walk through the edge of the crowd that was starting to gather.

Best sentence I heard on our way by?? "Now look at what happened to Bush; President Obama has to ask himself, 'Do I want flowers thrown at me for bringing justice to the Palestinians, or shoes?'"

Now I'm about to go make some cheese puffs I got at Budgens and just watch a movie on my own and go to bed early, since I am very overtired.

Haggling on Brick Lane

I eat way, way too much. I got out of my adventure stories class (some girls stopped me and were asking where in America was from, and said that my saying "Maine, the top-rightest one" was much more helpful than people using their hand as a map and pointing out their states), went to the gym, came home, and ate a huge serving of mashed potatoes and some fishsticks. I sustained another burn on my hand while flipping said fishsticks. (I also have one on a knuckle from flipping cheese puffs that Shidvash and I made the other day, and another one from oil spitting at me while Vanessa and I were making quesidillas Monday night. It's the week of the burns for me...). I then ate ice cream until it was time for class again. After my last class, I made a pizza and Vanessa came over so we could figure out what we wanted to do that evening, and when I was halfway through my pizza I heard her saying on the phone, "Oh, I don't know if we can go out to eat, my friend is having dinner right now."

Of course I said I still wanted to.

Luckily we decided to get a late dinner, and a few of us and Haider (Vanessa's friend) met up and hung out at Haider's flat for a bit, and talked with him, a flatmate and her boyfriend. James, the boyfriend, actually worked at a summer camp in Massachusetts over the summer, so he really enjoyed talking about Boston, and Rii kept trying to get us to talk about stereotypes of British people, which I couldn't really come up with since I was pressed. After hanging out a bit longer we caught a bus and went to Brick Lane.

Brick Lane is FANTASTIC. It's a bunch of curry places, which all have exactly the same menus, and workers have to stand in the doorway and make you deals to come inside, and what you're supposed to do is ask them for their absolute best offer, and say that so-and-so down the road was offering more percent off and free drinks, etc etc. It was so much fun! Haider was trying to get us to haggle in a British accent, but I opted out of that... I still got us a deal for ten pounds a head- two free rounds of drink, a starter, a main course, and then rice or nan- but we decided to go to the place that had won an award for best curry the last three years (recommended and haggled for by a Perfect Fried Chicken worker on that road, actually- so I guess I indirectly got us that deal as well, since I made us stop so I could go to the bathroom). We only had one free round of drinks at Papadoms, but that was plenty, and I left and was finally legitimately full! It was delicious. I'm totally just going to go haggling on Brick Lane when I get bored.

Whale of a Tale

I actually had fun in Actuarial Maths tutorial today, I'm back into the swing of algebraic manipulations to solve problems, and I did really well on my last homework sheet. Plus I had the first tutor thus far who actually over-explains, which is awesome. Usually they half-answer a question and rush off.

We watched Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for my adventure stories class today, and boy do I have a whale of a tale to tell ya. The room we were in was innocuously named Arts G19, but it's actually "The Alfred Hitchcock Studio." It looks like a mini old-fashioned movie theater- carpeted, a couple rows of stadium seating with large, red plush movie theater-style seats (but way more comfortable and with padded arms), and a red curtain that pulls back from in front of the projector screen. I personally enjoyed the classy love seats set up in front of the chairs, and enjoyed my movie viewing curled up on one of those. I'm seriously taking pictures sometime, it was really really nice.

I met up with Vanessa after that, and we went to a Chinese food buffet with a friend (Hassan, I think) who's been helping her with her computer. While we were there, four of his friends came in and sat down with us, and we ended up staying and talking for three hours. It was really fun; a lot of the guys were slightly disgusted by my idea of microwaving a bit of Nutella to function as hot fudge to put on ice cream, but Damien thought it sounded like a good idea. Granted, this is the kid who established a four-plate minimum for the buffet. I also really enjoyed how they were planning to put a whoopie cushion on a professor's chair, thinking it seemed like the greated prank of all time. Maybe it's only overdone in the US?

I'm finally almost done with my reading for tomorrow- just one more chapter!- and have actually finished all of my maths homework that's due Monday. Vanessa and Caitlin came over and we all talked for a while, and I helped Vanessa with her probability homework a bit; I also finished making my mint brownies, so those are in the fridge ready to go for tomorrow!

You've done too much math iff...

I felt really, really stupid in Diff Eq this morning. I don’t really remember trig tricks- so substituting in the derivative of theta for 1/q^2 + 1 dq just doesn’t occur to me any more, and I feel like the tutors are getting sick of talking me through it. Though my crowning glory was “wait, how do I integrate z(x)dz?” “The same way you integrate xdx… (*funny look*)”
It’s sort’ve depressing that I’ve transcended normal math so far as to fail that epically at regular calculus things. At least Alycia was having the same problem. Give us a proof involving rings and groups and we’re golden, but semi-tricky integration and substitution? Not so much.
Napping ensued, of course.
After that we had Magic Me, which is the volunteer thing I’m doing. We talked a bit on campus before we left, and then went to the nursing home. I got paired with a lovely woman named Elsie, who pretended she was more deaf than she was and teased me (I loved when she called me a show off for sitting with my legs tucked underneath me), but legitimately had a poor memory. I wished that Catherine, the coordinator, had mentioned how she jokes BEFORE we went, since I didn’t quite know how to react when she said, “I’m not important,” on numerous occasions. Apparently that is also a joke, and I should have laughed. Which I did a bit, since that’s who I am, but if I’d known better I would’ve been able to laugh more. But she seemed a bit sad to see me go, which was very nice.
I talked to some of the other girls a bit on the way back to campus, and then I went over to Shidvash’s flat; she made us pizza and these yummy cheese balls from Budgens (I am SO buying some) and then we watched Bride Wars on a website… said site is going to be the cause of my failing out of school, incidentally. Being able to watch any movie I want for free? Okay.
I went back to my room and Caitlin came over; we almost did a photo-scavenger hunt through ISH, but when we were trying to solve the last four clues we were having no luck at all, so we decided to quit, and went to Drapers with UF Kevin instead. Vanessa and Hilary met up with us there, and we ran into Phil and Adib and their friend Greg. We talked for a while (including sharing jokes about physics vs. math people, and a rather deep discussion about the concept of "zero"), and then danced around a bit (they started playing eighties music, how could I resist?) and one of my friends’ friends was teaching me how to salsa, which was a lot of fun.

Americans Go Free!

So today started out spectacularly well; I dragged myself out of bed early and met up with Vanessa at nine. Today at Madame Tussaud's, in honor of Obama's inauguration, Americans got in free (with passport proof). On the register, it said "DISCOUNT: AMERICANS GO FREE," which made us laugh.

I'm so glad we went early, it was really fun to be able to take our time to go through and do the place right. We took a bunch of pictures of us chumming with celebrities on the red carpet (both of us felt very underdressed for the occasion, however) and then proceeded to... the High School Musical room!! Okay, you're judging me. But I don't care, we got a fun picture of us with Zac Efron, and encountered a guy dressed in a male cheerleader outfit who was almost too enthusiastic about getting people to "shake a pom-pom with Zac!" He made us jump for a professional photo and shout "WILDCATS!" and told me that he really liked my shirt ("Make cupcakes, not war"). When we were leaving, he was explaining to the next group of people that "you all get to jump, the next group in has to do the splits." (Note: when Velossa and I were waiting in line to take our Obama picture, we looked at the screen that showed the professional ones... said cheerleading guy was doing a full front split in one of them. He was crazy! I want to be his friend.)

After that we got to movie characters and directors, and we again had a fun time posing with those. I was disappointed we could get closer to the Indiana Jones one, but I was very happy with the picture I did get. We proceeded from there to the sports hall- again, some very fun pictures- and then to the royal family. I thought the picture frames around Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth were a bit awkward, but we dealt with those, and the line for the pictures with the Queen made it really awkward to get Princess Diana pictures, but we dealt with that as well. The famous painters, writers, and thinkers of the past were entertaining to tool around with as well (you really should just check out the photo albums on facebook at this point in time if you haven't yet). The musicians were also cool- though we almost missed Justin Timberlake (I have no idea how). Also, I wish that there was space to sit on the couch with the Beatles, that setup was a bit awkward.

Waiting in line to get Obama pictures was totally worth it, and I had fun with the other important leaders of the past and present (Napoleon, Tony Blair, making fun of Hitler...). The Chamber of Horrors was sort've weird, and we went through this "ride" called "SCREAM!" It was neither scary nor a ride nor very interesting to look at... though it might've been scarier if the actors didn't jump out at the people in front of us, which sort've softened the jumpiness factor.

We hit one more room of celebs and then, tucked away in corners of the gift shop, were Charlie Chapman and Mr. T. Why were they hiding? The world may never know.

Diff Eq is such a random class... the examples are so easy, I do them in like two seconds in class and then space out while he does them out, but then the homework problems are a lot harder.

After Diff Eq Caitlin, Vanessa, UF Kevin and I met up and went to Drapers, where we watched the inauguration. I enjoyed the typos on the BBC's close captioning (some examples, though there were many that were much better in Obama's speech: "could survive" became "could-sur-viv" and "true to God" became "true to the O'God." Apparently God became Irish??) Also, I was sort've annoyed with the BBC newscasters, since they were talking over the instrumental to tell us that President Obama wouldn't die of pneumonia in a month (coughHarrisoncough). I felt that that was a bit unnecessary. Also, when Biden was getting sworn in, they were talking about something along the lines of how they hoped that he wouldn't need to take another set of oaths any time soon. Jeez, trying to jinx us much?

Major props to Aretha for calling out Georgia during My Country Tis. I sort've wish she'd gone on to name the rest of the states, too.

After that, the four of us went to The Half Moon for dinner. Yummy food, and pretty cheap, too- they have some good deals there and a nice, varied menu. And awesome desserts!

After attempting chunks of my maths homeworks (Why maths? Because it's mathematics, which is plural, so maths has to be plural, too. At least that's what I've been told...) it is time to go to bed, though.

Let me leave lecture, please.

Rolled out of bed fifteen minutes before Diff Eq started, yawned my way through class, fixed a homework problem and turned in my assignments (the layout of the maths building makes NO SENSE), decided to just do weights at the gym and not cardio so I could go back to bed.

My day, take two: Architecture was really interesting. My professor was making fun of Ruskin (a critic) who "never used one sentence when he could use twelve." When I got back to my room after, my books for my Adventure Stories class had arrived, so I read two pages of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and read some funny lists on cracked.com.

In Actuarial, everyone talked incessantly (as per usual). Now one would think, since they get to class a bit late and talk the whole time, that they don't really WANT to be in class. So how come it takes ten minutes to get out of the room at the end? And being stuck in the middle of the row, I have to wait for everyone to clear out so I can get out of the lecture hall. I sat quietly, so I want to get the heck out, thankyouverymuch. It might be in my best interests to start showing up a bit early so I can get a seat near the exit in the future, which I guess will require me to leave my room more than three minutes before class starts.

Vanessa came over to Skype her mom, and then we ended up watching "Can I have yo numbah?" and other online video classics; we made dinner together (Mander would be so proud! I recreated a mini-Mexican Fiesta Feast). I am proud to say that I can now make very delicious cheese and chicken quesidillas from scratch (well, I mean, I bought the tortillas and the chicken and the cheese, it's not like I grew the wheat and plucked the chickens and what have you). Also, I only sustained one small burn on my arm! There might be another on my collarbone actually, come to think of it... at any rate, the oil did not spit at me tootoo much. We talked for a while more after cleaning up (with our very satisfied tummies from the quesidillas and refried beans) and made some tentative plans for later in the week. I was also trying to remember how to find the probability of a monkey randomly typing the word "hamlet" on a typewriter to help her with her homework, hopefully I did it right.

Perfecting Grocery Shopping

I set my alarm to go to the gym today. True to form, I turned it off and went back to sleep.

Next time it went off, I got up to meet with Vanessa and Caitlin to go to Sainsburys for groceries. We smartened up this time and took the bus from campus to the store. While in the store, rather than writing off everything I couldn't find as a lost cause, I asked where it was, meaning I finally found q-tips (ie, cotton buds- I had to ask for and describe them to three people before we figured out where they were) and all of the stuff to make my chocolate mint brownies (very excited about that!). We took the bus back- the right one this time- and there was much happiness. Huzzah! There were a couple British men who seemed quite happy to be on the bus, too, considering they burst out into some very British song (I can't remember what it was, but I'm pretty sure it's from a musical). Their friend shooed them off the bus pretty quickly, though.

I video-Skyped home today, it was really entertaining. Mum picked up Lilo and had me say her name, and unsurprisingly all she did was move to a different couch and go back to sleep. When she picked up Nemo, though, he cocked his head towards the computer screen, so I said his name again; he set about trying to free me from the computer, so then Er had to come free the computer from him.

After having a quick snack, I finally went to the gym (go me!) and then went over USC Kevin's flat to work on Diff Eq homework, which was very productive. Dinner and finishing both my problem sets later, we walked down Mile End and then into this sort've sketchy neighborhood to Adib and Phil's apartment (the British people I met Wednesday) and played Supersmash for a while.

I was going to go to bed early, but I got caught up in IMing and Skyping various friends, which was really nice; Keens and I have a very vague "Italian travel" plan now, so we'll probably call again soon and figure out exactly where we want to go. I'm so pumped for that!

Oooo shiny.

I slept in a bit today, huzzah! Then a few of us met up and went to the V&A- Victoria and Albert. They had a lot of cool rooms, I got through almost all of Asia, and then the fashion room (with items ranging from Princess Diana's pearl-covered dress, to garments from the 1700's and 1800's, to a Juicy sweatsuit, to Calvin Klein boxer briefs awkwardly stuffed. There was also an excellent 80's-tastic orange fur sweater). We also went through the wrought-iron hallway (soooo cool, I want one!) and the musical instruments room (which was really nifty, I liked the Roman clock) and then, finally, the jewelry collection. When Caitlin and I were going to head over, we called to Hilary to see if she wanted to come with us; her face completely lit up as she said, "yesssss," and walked almost trance-like away from the case she was at. The man standing behind her had to fight very hard to not laugh too hard. All of the jewelry was very sparkly, though they seem to have stolen a few of my tiaras. Hilary and I were trying to get a picture where it looked like she was wearing one, but security yelled at us so we had to give up. It was sad :-( Though we did continue to take pictures afterwards, we were just stealthy.

Waiting for the tube, we noticed a scarecrow. It was designed to look like tube security. Picture pending.

When we got back, I went on Skype with Mum for a bit, with the webcam. She brought the dogs over, and Lilo couldn't have cared less, but when I called Nemo's name, he cocked his head at the computer and then started trying to free me from inside it. Erin had to come free the computer from his efforts.

UF Kevin, Caitlin and Vanessa all came over and we made Cadbury chocolate chunk brownies. If those sound fantastic, imagine how they actually tasted. Yuuuuum. We then watched Clue, since Caitlin and Velossa had never seen it, and then talked for a while. Overall it was a pretty good day, cheap and chill (just the way I like it).

I'm not even kidding.

So I got out of bed when my alarm went off this morning, and realized I was up with a full forty minutes to spare. I figured that meant I had plenty of time to eat breakfast.

I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up almost late for class.

Adventure stories was pretty good today, I contributed a bit. I think my shining moment was when I brought Dinosaurs into the conversation, since we were talking about how the humor in the version of the Odyssey that the guy from Blackadder wrote wouldn't be appreciated by children. I mentioned Dinosaurs as a prime example of something that children can enjoy watching and not really understand, and as you grow up you get the satires and are able to enjoy watching it with your children; someone else then tied in Shrek, and our professor said we were talking about something she'd hoped we would hit on. HA. It was fun.

I then killed off two hours reading about the ten worst foreign remakes of American films and things like that, then had Diff Eq, killed off a bit more time, and had Actuarial Maths. Class 4-5 on a Friday is going to get really, really rough. Especially if the people who sit behind me continue to be tipsy.

My friends and I went to the Banana Cabaret, which was a comedy club. It was loads of fun! The performers of the evening were Rich Wilson, Miles Jupp, Steve Weiner and Al Cruttenden. They were all fantastically funny; Al's was really interesting because he started by ragging on the US a bit, and then went on to do a lot of Australia bashing, which surprised us (we anticipated at least one comic saying something about the inauguration and the recession). I don't even remember what bit he was running, but I was almost crying I was laughing so hard towards the end. Maybe it was when he was talking about the obesity epidemic, and how he wished it was a disease so he could go breathe on skinny people and run off shouting, "haha! Now you're infected!" I think it was Steve who had a bit about a supermarket, and got onto this thing about mothers who keep their kids on leashes, and then threatening them by invoking the father, the son, and the archangel next door that "I'm going to smack your face off, I'm not even kidding." "Boy, I'd hate to see her jokes... 'knock knock.' 'Who's there?' 'I'm going to smack your face off.'"

I love being around comedians. I need to go to comedy clubs every couple weeks, I think, or I'll suffer from withdrawals (between the CCE and the Comedy Connection, I was well covered for about a year solid).

I'm going grocery shopping again sometime this weekend, which is good. I don't know why, but my bananas are funny colored. They're half brown, half green. They sort've felt like skipping the ripened stage, I think, and it's very sad.

Also, I have Sprite in my fridge now thanks to UF Kevin, and it's making me very happy. Yuuuuum.

The Phantom of the Opera Is There...

So I successfully hit snooze for forty minutes this morning, still managed to eat a quick breakfast and take a shower and get to class on time.

I got the majority of my actuarial maths homework done, so I headed back to my room, cooked up a nice lunch, and debated taking a nap. I successfully overcame that urge and went to the gym instead (yay willpower!) and then helped Velossa with her probability homework, and went over our architecture notes a little bit.

Caitlin, Vanessa and I ended up getting tickets for The Phantom of the Opera... and tee-shirts, which are really really cool. It was a fantastic show (I almost put "phantastic" to be a tool), I'm so glad I finally got to see it. Although I thought Raoul was a little too old and aggressive and that Christine probably should've had a little more dance training. But the costumes were insane (especially the ones for Masquerade, which is one of my faaaaavorite numbers) and the set was ridiculous. The scenes where they're on the boat were very well done, and the phantom had lots of cool places to appear out of. I think that I liked how Andre was portrayed the most, very goofy and awkward.

Getting the tube back was sort've crazy, it was jam-packed full of people and I almost had to get off a stop before ours, but it luckily cleared out. (If you didn't know, I'm a bit claustrophobic, and when there are big, tight crowds I start to feel like I can't breathe any more since I'm short and tend to not have open air around my head). We were going to make brownies, but decided we were tired and might do that tomorrow instead.

Some random thoughts of the day, since today's entry is pathetically short (or normal length, depends on how you look at it...):

Munchies look like a fantastic candy. Each one has a different phrase written on it, such as, "munch me," "nibble me," "fancy me," "scuff me," etc. Caitlin had to come back and drag me and Vanessa out of the store since we were looking at them all.

Oranges are almost more effort than they're worth. Almost. But they keep me from purely eating nutella when I'm in my room. And smell nice. I like orange tictacs, I haven't had those in a very long time. I used to eat them incessantly, but then they got more expensive which was a sad, sad day :-(

The British version of Jerry Springer probably would've been more entertaining if I'd plugged the headphones in. I might've stayed on the treadmill a bit longer.

Oh, fire alarms.

A story I forgot about from yesterday:
We were waiting at the tube station for our train, and this guy was not looking too hot- eyes really blood shot and eating a bag of crisps and sort've glaring evilly and standing awkwardly close to us on a very empty platform. All us girls pulled our bags in closer and the guys tried to shift round a bit to be closer to him. He gets on the train and again stays awkwardly close to our group, and when he finishes his crisps, pulls out some charcoal and writes "NO SURRENDER UVF 1690." I guess UVF is some sort of Irish terrorist group? He got off at the next station anyways, and that was the end of that sketchy encounter.

So last night this British girl was having a meltdown for about three hours outside my window, so I fell asleep well after three AM, with my alarm set for nine. Let's just say I was not a happy camper when we had a fire DRILL at eight AM. Yeah, not even someone accidentally setting off the alarm, it was a drill. And they were trying to lecture us on fire safety and we're all out in our pajamas in the cold glaring blankly, if you can do that. I guess it was still better than the time they forgot the key to turn off the alarm in Edmond's so it went off for an hour and a half.

I ended up getting up at 9:50 for my 10AM class. I was somehow still the first one there. Though it was weird, I guess tutorials in the maths department are more like the math lab, there were four tutors there and you work on problems and they come help you do them if you need it. Pretty nice, actually, though I'm probably going to start going to the Thursday one next week so I have Wednesday mornings off.

I went back and took a two hour nap, ate and worked on my homework more... class makes me feel smart and the homework makes me feel dumb. How on Earth do the others manage?

I had my first meeting for my volunteer group today, there were two British people- Ray and Erica- an Albanian girl who's lived in like fifty countries (Lauren), a Canadian (Amanda) and a girl from Iran (Shidvash). The two coordinators of the program were very nice as well, it seems like it'll be fun. Next week we get to meet with the people from the nursing home who are participating, and ask them about themselves and whatnot.

After that I went to buy my books for Grand Tours, so I took the tube to the DLR (it's the "light railway," an above-ground train) and found a Waterstones at Canary Warf. No luck. So I went to the other Waterstones- again no luck. So I had to go back home and will now order my books online. That was a waste of a good few pounds of tube fare. ...not a complete waste, actually, I did get a British copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard.

I took another nap after since I was arbitrarily exhausted, and worked on some more homework, and then Vanessa, Caitlin, Hilary and I went to Drapers since it was free admission before ten. We decided to go ask to sit at a table with these two guys watching a football match, and talked for a couple hours. We're going to all get in touch again, so huzzah! I might've made British friends.

So Drapers is a really cool club on our campus. They have some big screen tvs in the walls and a huge bar and some pooltables and fun lights, and then you go down this little hallway and there's a huge dance floor with a mini bar area and a comfy bench seating all along the wall, it was really fun! They played a ton of techno, though. We missed the Jackson 5 song they played, which was unfortunate.

Forces of darkness

I got a bit overcharged for my gym membership, which is sad. Fortunately, it's only ten pounds, but I was still pretty angry about it.
Also, I had to change my gym orientation time due to a walking tour we were doing that evening, but it turns out the stupid blond had signed me up for a nonexistent orientation time anyways. So I got one that actually works- and exists- and headed off.

Otherwise it was a decent day... I slept way in, got up to try to sneak in to use the gym before my orientation and wimped out, came home and showered (though I accidentally rushed the maids... I spent a half hour in the Curve drinking hot cocoa and watching Dr Horrible on my iPod to give them time, but they still hadn't finished my room. I need to remember to take the toilet paper out next time, too, she soaked through a quarter of a roll which is a bit unfortunate). I made a pizza for lunch and did some Diff Eq homework, went to Diff Eq where USC Kevin made fun of me for having done some homework, went and did a bit more work, and then met up with my friends. We went and did this "Ghost Tour" of London, which had a lot more history than ghost stories, though the ghost stories were still pretty fun and cool. I really liked the story of Scratchy Fanny of Cock Lane- turns out the whole thing was a hoax and the couple kept ripping people off by advertising the hauntings. We also saw where John Smith was buried, which is kind of cool. And Fred the Poltergeist's abode- the Viaduct Tavern. He rings the bell if he doesn't like his clientele, and switches out the beer and the soda.

I had a delicious ham and cheese pasty I bought in the tube station after the tour since I was starving (I was sort've upset around dinner time and that always makes me lose my appetite) and then we went to a restaurant called something about a cow, I don't quite remember, and I had fantastic cake, and then came back to my room where I was going to do work but got distracted.

I am pretty excited for this volunteer program I'm doing, it's called Magic Me. Tomorrow, seven other students and I are meeting to plan out what we're doing, exactly, then the next Wednesday we're going to an old folks home and doing arts and crafts with them, and then the next week we're going to a grammar school and doing something similar, and then the fourth week we walk the kids over to the old folks home and arts and crafts all together, "challenging age stereotypes." I'll keep ya'll up on how that's going.

Here's a snippet of an email from our study abroad advisor here, it was hysterical:
"Promotion/relegation operates between the various leagues. London has five clubs in the Premiership:
NORTH
Arsenal (hooray)
Tottenham (booooooo - forces of darkness)
WEST
Chelsea (ha ha)
Fulham
EAST
West Ham (your local team)

Pick a club to follow and learn the names of five players. Any conversation with a Brit that exceeds five minutes will turn to football so be
prepared.
For Premiership tickets , please visit the club's respective websites (just type their name into google) for details. You do not have a hope of getting an Arsenal ticket (except if you are willing to pay big bucks to a scalper at the ground).
Those of you who have no soul and want to watch a Chelsea match should have no difficulty getting a ticket."

And the naps begin.

I rolled out of bed at twenty of nine for my Differential Equations class. I was back in my bed by 10:05 after said class. Far too early on a Monday.

I bought my gym membership on the way to Westminster, so now I will be healthy! I figure, spending that much money will be great incentive to go regularly. I got to Westminster far too early for my field trip, so I bought a delicious hot cocoa in Cafe Nero and read a book for a half hour. Went over and met up with my class, and we walked around talking in detail about the architecture of the Houses of Parliament and the Foreign Offices. Our Professor had a blast making fun of Clive, who went to India and killed many, as well as a water fountain done in the "eccentric gothic" style. He's a riot, I already love this course.

On the way back to campus, I discussed at great length with a fellow US student what he described as "those spandex pants...? ... girls wear." I'm glad that guys disapprove of the "leggings=pants" mindset some girls seem to have.

I again felt very smart in Actuarial Maths, as I figured out a proof before our professor was halfway through it, and other students were very confused. I do like that British students aren't afraid to shout out a question if they're feeling lost. It must help them a bit more in the long run, really.

Vanessa, Hilary and I went over to Caitlin's room to try to plan out some of the stuff we want to do and make a bucket list. We spent almost three hours talking and looking things up online and in various guidebooks, it was fun and productive... neither of the Kevins made it, so we figured we'd catch them up later. I'm signing up for a couple day/weekend trips around Britain that should be fun (Liverpool with the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour?? Okay.) and we also settled on some free-to-cheap things to do in the near future, which is also pretty clutch.

After we left, Vanessa and I decided to go to Budgens, bought a bag of chocolate chip cookies, and came back to my room and talked for a long time whilst eating cookies (talk included necessity of gym membership at rate we were going, as well as good paying job this summer, again at the rate we were going).

After she left I applied for a volunteer position... it was described as, "8 volunteers to get involved in a 4 week arts project with year 5 pupils from John Scurr Primary School, and older people from Pat Shaw Residential Home, both in Stepney, challenging stereotypes of young people and older people through arts based activities." It sounds really cool, so hopefully I'll get chosen. It'd start this Wednesday and run the next three afternoons after that. I also applied for my Oyster Photocard and did some Bridal Shower-y things.

You all lucked out that I'm fully exhausted now, it saved you from anything terribly rambling :-)

Adventures in cooking.

Jan. 11
I was really smart when I went grocery shopping this time, and only took one of the baskets instead of a shopping cart, and also invested in some Sainsburys heavy-duty bags with good handles. They were out of Sprite and only had Sprite Zero, which was a huge bummer.

So we decided to take the bus back this time instead of walking with all our stuff; the nearest bus stop didn't look like it took us back to campus, but Hilary asked just to be sure and the driver assured us that his bus took us to Queen Mary. So we hop on, he has us pay, and then he starts driving. After a few stops Hilary goes to check and see if we've missed our stop since the area doesn't look familiar. The drivers' response? "I don't know where that is. It's not on my route."

'Scuse me?? You told us it goes to QM. Why did you say yes if it doesn't??

We all pile off, lug our stuff back two bus stops to a tube station, and take the tube to Mile End and get back to school. He made me very angry, though, that was a waste of a pound or so.

I went to the library to print off my Diff Eq problem sheets and Odyssey readings for Grand Tour, and then Vanessa and I discovered two good trips- one's a daytrip through QM to Bath and Cotswolds, the other is an overnight through ISH (the Internation Student House) to Liverpool (including the Beatles Magical Mystery tour) that we're signing up for. I also stopped by the bookstore and got my QM hoodie, and then came back to my room. I got my reading done while I let Caitlin use my computer to try to fix hers, since hers is all virused and messed up; I also did laundry and cooked dinner, which was very productive.

Let's talk about cooking dinner. First off, we have minimal pots and pans. That's okay, I found ways around that- making my peas in the microwave, for instance. Cooking my chicken was difficult, though. As in, I have no idea how the oven works. I got the temperature bit, but the knob to turn it on made no sense... there was a lightbulb, what looked like a jar with a line at the bottom, then a jar with a line at the bottom and the top, and then a jar with stalactites (the rocks that hang from the top). I put on the lightbulb one. Which was apparently wrong, since my chicken remained frozen. So THEN I put on my stalactite setting, which was also wrong, as my chicken started bubbling and smoking and steaming, which made me think that my fire alarm would go off, which would be awful. The alarms are really sensitive, and it's a 200 pound fine if your alarm goes off unnecessarily. Plus just embarrassing. I turned the oven off, and when Vanessa came over this evening we puzzled out what we THINK the right settings are. My chicken ended up cooked enough, so it was okay in the end.

My mashed potatoes were equally fun. Let me grab the container they came in... okay. So for one serving, you mix 30g of the flakes and 150mL of boiling water and fluff with a fork. Ummm. How much is 30g? And 150mL? Plus we have no measuring cups. WTF??? I decided to just boil some water and pour some flakes in a bowl and keep adding water until they looked right. My water wouldn't boil.

Oh, hi stove, I'm glad that you decided to have your dials mislabeled!! That's very helpful.

Yeah so the wrong burner was on. Figured that out, put the water on the burner that was on, it boiled almost instantly, and figured out my mashed potatoes.

This is going to be a ridiculous semester if I have to guesstimate everything, the only thing I don't follow a recipe for is my mint brownies. Maybe I'll buy some measuring cups when I'm out. But then again, I don't want to spend the money. I'll let you know when I've got a system worked out.

Now let's talk about how I got locked out of the laundry room for a good half hour after my clothes were done in the drier, since the cleaning lady apparently needed it absolutely empty to wipe down the table in the corner. I had to go up and down my stairs three times unsuccessfully before she finally had moved the trash can from in front of the door so that I could rescue my stuff before someone came and moved it out of the drier.

On the bright side, Cadbury chocolate in my refridgerator is very yummy. And I have bananas and oranges for breakfast for tomorrow. :-)