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.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, January 23, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
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).
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).
Friday, January 16, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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."
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."
Monday, January 12, 2009
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 :-)
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 :-)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
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. :-)
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. :-)
In two times at once.
Jan. 10
I discovered that I can take notes on my camera today. As in, I can take a few pictures, pull up the "drawing pad" and jot down what the names of the places were, and save that. This will hopefully help improve my recall for what, exactly, I was taking pictures of, though not in the frequent case where I take a picture because I think it's pretty or artsy.
I got to get up very early and meet up with some of the BC girls who are here at Queen Mary, and then we met up with the Minters and some other BC students out front of Parliament. Since it was frigid, they paid for us all to get coffee (I decided on extra chocolatey hot cocoa plus espresso) before we got on the boat to cruise down the Thames to Greenwich.
I had the best, most alliterative burger of my life there... the Bishops Beefburger with bacon, bluecheese and chips. It was good. Wow, just thinking about it is making me hungry again. After lunch, we split into two groups, so I ended up with QM girls, Liz and a kid at UCL with her, Paul and a girl at King's with him. Norman, our tour guide, gave us the brisk walking tour (since it was frigid out) with the longest amount of time indoors we could spend. The Royal Seamen's Hospital is huge, and gorgeous. From there, we went up to the Royal Observatory, which was really cool (we got to straddle the Greenwich Mean Time Line).
Not as cool but still entertaining were the two guys who went to the top of the hill, one with a unicycle and one with one of those hardcore rugged terrain skateboards, and took turns taking the skateboard down the massive hill, wiping out, and limping after the board since it skittered well past where they'd fallen off.
I lost the QM girls halfway through the museum, so Paul, Liz and I meandered through the city to find a way to get back into London, and finally Paul and I made it to the Natural History Museum and took the most roundabout route possible to get to the mammals area to meet up with my friends. I was a super creeper and just sort've shoved in with them and followed along a couple of cases without saying anything, until finally Vanessa noticed that I was the obnoxious person who'd invaded her space. Caitlin and UF Kevin still almost missed out on it despite the laughter. We moved on to the invertebrates area, where we started choosing our "favorite of the case." I almost lost twelve more cool points for saying "Oh, that'll be so hard, I really like mollusks!" when asked to choose my favorite mollusk. Somehow I did not, though. (I still can't fully remember what I've lost cool points for thus far.)
We grabbed some very yummy dinner at Cafe something down the street from the Natural History Museum (pretty close to Harrods), walked back to the NHM to get on the tube, all of the entrances were closed, walked all the way back past Harrods again (freezing the entire way) and finally got on the stop there. Kevin, Caitlin, Vanessa and I stopped at Budgens and bought some cake on the way back once we got off, and USC Kevin and Hilary came over to help us eat it; we spent a long time drawing "bull" puns (you draw a bull in some context, and it'll be things like "able," "integrable," etc) and then watched Men in Tights.
It was a fun, cold day.
I discovered that I can take notes on my camera today. As in, I can take a few pictures, pull up the "drawing pad" and jot down what the names of the places were, and save that. This will hopefully help improve my recall for what, exactly, I was taking pictures of, though not in the frequent case where I take a picture because I think it's pretty or artsy.
I got to get up very early and meet up with some of the BC girls who are here at Queen Mary, and then we met up with the Minters and some other BC students out front of Parliament. Since it was frigid, they paid for us all to get coffee (I decided on extra chocolatey hot cocoa plus espresso) before we got on the boat to cruise down the Thames to Greenwich.
I had the best, most alliterative burger of my life there... the Bishops Beefburger with bacon, bluecheese and chips. It was good. Wow, just thinking about it is making me hungry again. After lunch, we split into two groups, so I ended up with QM girls, Liz and a kid at UCL with her, Paul and a girl at King's with him. Norman, our tour guide, gave us the brisk walking tour (since it was frigid out) with the longest amount of time indoors we could spend. The Royal Seamen's Hospital is huge, and gorgeous. From there, we went up to the Royal Observatory, which was really cool (we got to straddle the Greenwich Mean Time Line).
Not as cool but still entertaining were the two guys who went to the top of the hill, one with a unicycle and one with one of those hardcore rugged terrain skateboards, and took turns taking the skateboard down the massive hill, wiping out, and limping after the board since it skittered well past where they'd fallen off.
I lost the QM girls halfway through the museum, so Paul, Liz and I meandered through the city to find a way to get back into London, and finally Paul and I made it to the Natural History Museum and took the most roundabout route possible to get to the mammals area to meet up with my friends. I was a super creeper and just sort've shoved in with them and followed along a couple of cases without saying anything, until finally Vanessa noticed that I was the obnoxious person who'd invaded her space. Caitlin and UF Kevin still almost missed out on it despite the laughter. We moved on to the invertebrates area, where we started choosing our "favorite of the case." I almost lost twelve more cool points for saying "Oh, that'll be so hard, I really like mollusks!" when asked to choose my favorite mollusk. Somehow I did not, though. (I still can't fully remember what I've lost cool points for thus far.)
We grabbed some very yummy dinner at Cafe something down the street from the Natural History Museum (pretty close to Harrods), walked back to the NHM to get on the tube, all of the entrances were closed, walked all the way back past Harrods again (freezing the entire way) and finally got on the stop there. Kevin, Caitlin, Vanessa and I stopped at Budgens and bought some cake on the way back once we got off, and USC Kevin and Hilary came over to help us eat it; we spent a long time drawing "bull" puns (you draw a bull in some context, and it'll be things like "able," "integrable," etc) and then watched Men in Tights.
It was a fun, cold day.
Bereavement Room
Jan. 9
It's almost 11 on a Friday night and I'm getting ready for bed. I'm exhausted.
My Grand Tours class will be pretty interesting, we're reading Pinocchio and Huck Finn and 20000 Leagues Under the Sea and some others, and watching their films. The Professor is a sweetheart, and I met a very nice girl in class named Shrina.
Differential Equations lessons of the day: Guess and check. If you have a derivative in the form of a single variable, integrate.
This is starting to feel like high school again... I'm sort've okay with that.
Actuarial Mathematics... let's just say, this one was held in the Royal London Hospital today. It was a good half hour hike from campus, and then you just go in with the patients and stretchers and meander through the hospital until you find a lecture hall. To get to said lecture hall, you pass the bereavement room and the radiology department. Again felt very intelligent when the two British students next to me started asking really obvious questions. I have a sneaking suspicion that soon, I will find things difficult and they'll think I'm being stupid. For now, I'm enjoying feeling a bit ahead of the curve. Upon leaving the lecture, three medics were rushing a stretcher with a little girl on it through the mass of students exiting the lecture hall.
After speedwalking back home, I met up with a bunch of the other girls from BC so we could all go in to our dinner with all the BC students studying in London; I was the navigator, though BC Caitlin had a very good idea of where we're going. I split from them to sit with Liz and Paul, though, and had a nice time catching up a bit with them and meeting a couple other UCL and Kings' College kids. The food was delicious (I got lentil soup and steak and creme brulee, though I liked the cheesecake better... oh well).
Then I came back to campus, couldn't get a hold of most of my friends, felt tired, considered going out with some of the BC girls, crashed, and decided to write this and then go to bed instead.
It's almost 11 on a Friday night and I'm getting ready for bed. I'm exhausted.
My Grand Tours class will be pretty interesting, we're reading Pinocchio and Huck Finn and 20000 Leagues Under the Sea and some others, and watching their films. The Professor is a sweetheart, and I met a very nice girl in class named Shrina.
Differential Equations lessons of the day: Guess and check. If you have a derivative in the form of a single variable, integrate.
This is starting to feel like high school again... I'm sort've okay with that.
Actuarial Mathematics... let's just say, this one was held in the Royal London Hospital today. It was a good half hour hike from campus, and then you just go in with the patients and stretchers and meander through the hospital until you find a lecture hall. To get to said lecture hall, you pass the bereavement room and the radiology department. Again felt very intelligent when the two British students next to me started asking really obvious questions. I have a sneaking suspicion that soon, I will find things difficult and they'll think I'm being stupid. For now, I'm enjoying feeling a bit ahead of the curve. Upon leaving the lecture, three medics were rushing a stretcher with a little girl on it through the mass of students exiting the lecture hall.
After speedwalking back home, I met up with a bunch of the other girls from BC so we could all go in to our dinner with all the BC students studying in London; I was the navigator, though BC Caitlin had a very good idea of where we're going. I split from them to sit with Liz and Paul, though, and had a nice time catching up a bit with them and meeting a couple other UCL and Kings' College kids. The food was delicious (I got lentil soup and steak and creme brulee, though I liked the cheesecake better... oh well).
Then I came back to campus, couldn't get a hold of most of my friends, felt tired, considered going out with some of the BC girls, crashed, and decided to write this and then go to bed instead.
Iron Lotus
Jan. 8
1) The Brits behind me in Actuarial Mathematics today made me feel really intelligent. Let's just say, they didn't know what "accrued" meant.
2) The Freshers' Fair was a letdown. QM does not have very many activities or groups that interest me, and their theater table was unmanned for more than half of it. Caitlin, UF Kevin and I even went to Drapers and talked for an hour and a half, and went back, and still no one was there. Bummer.
3) Fish and chips at the little shop across from the Tower of London = fantastic.
4) Rating Disney rides, and having World vs. Land arguments in the Hung, Drawn and Quartered for two hours = fantastic.
5) Ice skating at 9PM on an outdoor rink at the Tower of London with a stereotypical heavy London fog = priceless. Even if the skates were wicked low quality. It was sooo much fun! We might've spent more time taking pictures than skating, though. But I'm still okay with that. And no, we did not attempt the Iron Lotus from Blades of Glory. Little known fact: that was the preferred method of beheading during Henry VIII's reign.
6) Talking Vanessa's computer through its system restore with her was also interesting. And ultimately a fail, which is really unfortunate. She doesn't even have a phone yet, so is mildly freaking out about how to find out what people are doing and where and when to meet... we looked up the library hours for her on my computer though, so she can at least use that at those points in time.
I feel like I had more deep thoughts or anecdotes to tell, but I'm exhausted so I can't even think of them at the moment.
1) The Brits behind me in Actuarial Mathematics today made me feel really intelligent. Let's just say, they didn't know what "accrued" meant.
2) The Freshers' Fair was a letdown. QM does not have very many activities or groups that interest me, and their theater table was unmanned for more than half of it. Caitlin, UF Kevin and I even went to Drapers and talked for an hour and a half, and went back, and still no one was there. Bummer.
3) Fish and chips at the little shop across from the Tower of London = fantastic.
4) Rating Disney rides, and having World vs. Land arguments in the Hung, Drawn and Quartered for two hours = fantastic.
5) Ice skating at 9PM on an outdoor rink at the Tower of London with a stereotypical heavy London fog = priceless. Even if the skates were wicked low quality. It was sooo much fun! We might've spent more time taking pictures than skating, though. But I'm still okay with that. And no, we did not attempt the Iron Lotus from Blades of Glory. Little known fact: that was the preferred method of beheading during Henry VIII's reign.
6) Talking Vanessa's computer through its system restore with her was also interesting. And ultimately a fail, which is really unfortunate. She doesn't even have a phone yet, so is mildly freaking out about how to find out what people are doing and where and when to meet... we looked up the library hours for her on my computer though, so she can at least use that at those points in time.
I feel like I had more deep thoughts or anecdotes to tell, but I'm exhausted so I can't even think of them at the moment.
Dancing on the Thames
Jan.7
1) I have a crush on my Architecture in London professor (but not really). He's a portly, jolly type, who told us that we could go and look at the shocking number of pubs that are done in the gothic style. "Only don't actually. But actually do, just don't tell anyone I told you to." Every other week in that class is a field trip, which will be great. I sort've wish I were in that class with my friends, though, they're all in the Wednesday section. Actually Hilary is in Monday, and the Kevin from USC we met tonight might join the Monday section, which would be cool.
2) Party boats on the Thames = FANTASTIC. I had a lot of coke (as in the soda) so I was pretty wired. Vanessa is a ridiculously good party dancer. I am not. That's okay. We had a fun moment when we decided to go out on the deck to take pictures and the four of us girls out there started dancing like tools around the bench to stay warm.
3) Milano Pizza is my favorite pizza ever. We were going to go back and get some cake from there, too, but then USC Kevin's flatmates came in with their friend Lewis who lives upstairs.
4) Lewis = British Comedian? Maybe. He's got a strange mind (re: his retelling of a bedtime story he once told his friend, featuring Billy the Bear who was going to work in a sweatshop manned by bears). He also just stood in the kitchen declaiming about various things ("middle aged women are just like that, they're scary," "by the laws of you being bigger than me, I don't try to fight you," "I hate when they interview criminals on the telly and when they ask them why they did it, they respond, 'because I could.' Honestly, just have a proper response, such as, 'I felt like it.'" ...). USC Kevin, Vanessa, Caitlin and I were just sitting there laughing ourselves hoarse, I think Vanessa was crying a bit.
Yeah, that was a good night.
1) I have a crush on my Architecture in London professor (but not really). He's a portly, jolly type, who told us that we could go and look at the shocking number of pubs that are done in the gothic style. "Only don't actually. But actually do, just don't tell anyone I told you to." Every other week in that class is a field trip, which will be great. I sort've wish I were in that class with my friends, though, they're all in the Wednesday section. Actually Hilary is in Monday, and the Kevin from USC we met tonight might join the Monday section, which would be cool.
2) Party boats on the Thames = FANTASTIC. I had a lot of coke (as in the soda) so I was pretty wired. Vanessa is a ridiculously good party dancer. I am not. That's okay. We had a fun moment when we decided to go out on the deck to take pictures and the four of us girls out there started dancing like tools around the bench to stay warm.
3) Milano Pizza is my favorite pizza ever. We were going to go back and get some cake from there, too, but then USC Kevin's flatmates came in with their friend Lewis who lives upstairs.
4) Lewis = British Comedian? Maybe. He's got a strange mind (re: his retelling of a bedtime story he once told his friend, featuring Billy the Bear who was going to work in a sweatshop manned by bears). He also just stood in the kitchen declaiming about various things ("middle aged women are just like that, they're scary," "by the laws of you being bigger than me, I don't try to fight you," "I hate when they interview criminals on the telly and when they ask them why they did it, they respond, 'because I could.' Honestly, just have a proper response, such as, 'I felt like it.'" ...). USC Kevin, Vanessa, Caitlin and I were just sitting there laughing ourselves hoarse, I think Vanessa was crying a bit.
Yeah, that was a good night.
Shopping is much easier with a car.
Jan. 6
So we went to Argos last night. COOLEST PLACE EVER. You flip through catalogs and there are places to check if they have things in stock, then you write down the numbers and go pay at the counter and they bring you your stuff. If they don't have it, they'll get it from another store and you just go pick it up later. <3 I got a colorful comforter and pillowcase set, and another pillow, and also some dishes and flatware.
We stopped at Sainsburys after to do some grocery shopping. Walking home was very difficult. We were all dying, carrying way too much and freezing. But it was totally worth it, since now my room feels more like a home than a hospital, and I have food!!
Today was pretty fun, I slept way in, and met up with two other math majors from BC on the way into Diff Eq. Where our professor slowly went through the chain rule and integration by parts. Yay easy class!! Both exams are open notes/books/whatever, too, and I sent Conor the sample final that was online and he said it was essentially the same as what he did. I found a kiosk to top up my phone, so I can use that now. My friends are finally starting to get cell phones, too, so the days of waiting outside in the cold and only being able to make plans by randomly bumping into each other are drawing to a close!
Since the girls all had USC-y things to do, Kevin and I decided to go get cheap tickets for Billy Elliot. Totally worth it. So the musical is based on the movie based on the play about a boy who decides to forgo his boxing lessons and take ballet instead, which meant that I was super surprised (in a fantastic way, of course) by the fact that there was a TON of tap dancing in it. My favorite character was Billy's friend Michael. What a fantastic kid, and the little boy who played him was a total ham. Why is it adorable when little kids are hams onstage, but annoying when they're precocious off stage, and then you just downright dislike them when they grow up into cocky adults??
At any rate, we were starving after, but everything closes pretty early (especially on weekdays) so we found a nice greasy fastfood place two doors down from campus where I got a coke and way more chicken and fries than I could eat for three pounds. This will be my British version of latenite. I'll have to buy some ice cream for my freezer, too.
So we went to Argos last night. COOLEST PLACE EVER. You flip through catalogs and there are places to check if they have things in stock, then you write down the numbers and go pay at the counter and they bring you your stuff. If they don't have it, they'll get it from another store and you just go pick it up later. <3 I got a colorful comforter and pillowcase set, and another pillow, and also some dishes and flatware.
We stopped at Sainsburys after to do some grocery shopping. Walking home was very difficult. We were all dying, carrying way too much and freezing. But it was totally worth it, since now my room feels more like a home than a hospital, and I have food!!
Today was pretty fun, I slept way in, and met up with two other math majors from BC on the way into Diff Eq. Where our professor slowly went through the chain rule and integration by parts. Yay easy class!! Both exams are open notes/books/whatever, too, and I sent Conor the sample final that was online and he said it was essentially the same as what he did. I found a kiosk to top up my phone, so I can use that now. My friends are finally starting to get cell phones, too, so the days of waiting outside in the cold and only being able to make plans by randomly bumping into each other are drawing to a close!
Since the girls all had USC-y things to do, Kevin and I decided to go get cheap tickets for Billy Elliot. Totally worth it. So the musical is based on the movie based on the play about a boy who decides to forgo his boxing lessons and take ballet instead, which meant that I was super surprised (in a fantastic way, of course) by the fact that there was a TON of tap dancing in it. My favorite character was Billy's friend Michael. What a fantastic kid, and the little boy who played him was a total ham. Why is it adorable when little kids are hams onstage, but annoying when they're precocious off stage, and then you just downright dislike them when they grow up into cocky adults??
At any rate, we were starving after, but everything closes pretty early (especially on weekdays) so we found a nice greasy fastfood place two doors down from campus where I got a coke and way more chicken and fries than I could eat for three pounds. This will be my British version of latenite. I'll have to buy some ice cream for my freezer, too.
Hm, didn't think about this one...
Jan. 5
So I was thinking Actuarial Mathematics would be a cinch...
I'm going to have to be careful if I talk in class, though, because I sort've forgot how they have different money over here.
Also, seriously? I thought London was supposed to be warmer than home, right now it only has four degrees on SoPo. Not okay.
So I was thinking Actuarial Mathematics would be a cinch...
I'm going to have to be careful if I talk in class, though, because I sort've forgot how they have different money over here.
Also, seriously? I thought London was supposed to be warmer than home, right now it only has four degrees on SoPo. Not okay.
Talking About Hitting the Ground Running...
Jan. 5
Well, I am here. And my internet is working, which is a plus.
Let's back it up to the traveling thing. First off, by the time I got to Heathrow, I was starving. Most of the food places in Logan were closed, nothing was open in Rejyavik, and they didn't feed me on the airplanes. Plus I felt gross, due to the hours of voyaging and napping uncomfortably. Why uncomfortably? Because of the foot space Nazis that were seated next to me for both my flights. Just because my legs are shorter than yours does not mean that you can help yourself to my personal space, okay? We all paid the same amount. Pay extra and get bigger seating if you want.
Anyways, check in was quick and the study abroad advisor here helped me carry my bags up to my room, where I started to unpack, changed my mind, started to eat, changed my mind, started to make my bed, changed my mind, and finally decided on showering first. That was an adventure in cramped spaces, let me tell you! But I felt a lot better, and was able to unpack most of my stuff before dinner, then came back and finished organizing everything and hung up some pictures and made my bed before I completely crashed. The bedding we bought is sterile, hospital white, so I'm going to go pick up something a bit more colorful- and a less flat pillow- at Argos tonight.
Sunday was pretty decent, we had a free breakfast, then a couple hour orientation that wasn't too painful and told us how to do a lot of stuff, then a free lunch. I went on the bus tour they offered, and the four people I've been hanging out with went too, which was cool, so we all decided to get dinner and try to go grocery shopping or something after. We ended up eating at this pretty nice Chinese restaurant, and our dining was accompanied by Chinese pop music and a Chinese version of Silent Night, I think. I was kinda tired so I don't fully remember. After eating, Sainsburys, a big grocery store, was closed, and we just missed Argos by about twenty minutes (they sell sheets and couches and electronics and kitchen stuff and pretty much everything, only it's all in catalogues and they have some stuff in stock, which is cool) so we ended up at Tesco Express where I bought some food to get me through today and a little beyond. When we got back, Hilary and Kevin went off to do their own thing, but I talked to Mom a bit on the phone and then went over to Caitlin's room to use her internet, since mine was not working. I brought my laptop and Vanessa came over as well, so we watched Mamma Mia while I did a little bit of stuff online.
I think I've already adjusted to the time difference, since I was not happy with life when my alarm went off at eight. Today was ridiculous.
I had to go to the history department at nine to sign up for Architecture in London. The security guard in the building was angry with me since I didn't have an ID card yet, so when I went to the Language, Linguistics and Film department to try to get into a class and they were closed for another half hour, I had to just awkwardly sit in the hallway and read so I didn't leave and come back to get yelled at again. When they finally opened the office, the Fairy Tales course was closed, so I ended up signing up for one about nineteenth-century adventure stories and their more modern film versions, so that should be pretty interesting.
After that I booked it all the way across campus to the Maths building (I'll link you all up to a map later) to find out where my Differential Equations and Actuarial Mathematics courses would be held. What is it with college campuses and having sketchy, decrepit buildings for their math department?? This one had the weirdest layout of any building I've been in, felt a bit like a dungeon, and I had to wander around for fifteen minutes before I finally found an office with a professor in it. I decided to just ask him how I could find out where my courses would be, and he brought me to some other professor who tried to tell me to come back at three when it was her office hours, but I had to explain how I was supposed to have a class at 11. She ended up looking it up online for me (something I couldn't do since my internet isn't working), and I had the joyous surprise of finding out that Diff Eq had a time change, so I'd missed the nine am meeting this morning. Whatever.
After all that I decided to go nap during what would've been my Diff Eq time, and then I had to go enroll in the college (I forgot they were taking pictures for our ID cards, so mine's not the greatest. Again, whatever) and get my username and stuff from computing services. I asked about the internet thing, and she told me to bring my laptop back, so I did, and someone played with the settings and told me if that didn't work, it was the ethernet cord they gave me. Of course, it didn't work, so I had to go out again and trade my ethernet cord, and finally my internet works!! Though I'm sort've frustrated that that was all I needed to do, if the people in reception had been more helpful they could've told me they HAD extra ethernet cords on Saturday when I first told them about my problem. Oh well, it's fixed now! PS, all of that took place during my Architecture in London course, so I have to go to the other section on Wednesday to make up for it.
So I have three flatmates. There's one that I haven't met, but the other two seem very nice- Tian and SiSi (I'm not sure how she spells her name, to be honest). They're both fulltime students here, but from China. Sisi has already told me I talk way too fast for her. Whoops.
I'd say that I should probably go get ready for Actuarial Mathematics. I've already missed two classes today, no need to make it three!
Well, I am here. And my internet is working, which is a plus.
Let's back it up to the traveling thing. First off, by the time I got to Heathrow, I was starving. Most of the food places in Logan were closed, nothing was open in Rejyavik, and they didn't feed me on the airplanes. Plus I felt gross, due to the hours of voyaging and napping uncomfortably. Why uncomfortably? Because of the foot space Nazis that were seated next to me for both my flights. Just because my legs are shorter than yours does not mean that you can help yourself to my personal space, okay? We all paid the same amount. Pay extra and get bigger seating if you want.
Anyways, check in was quick and the study abroad advisor here helped me carry my bags up to my room, where I started to unpack, changed my mind, started to eat, changed my mind, started to make my bed, changed my mind, and finally decided on showering first. That was an adventure in cramped spaces, let me tell you! But I felt a lot better, and was able to unpack most of my stuff before dinner, then came back and finished organizing everything and hung up some pictures and made my bed before I completely crashed. The bedding we bought is sterile, hospital white, so I'm going to go pick up something a bit more colorful- and a less flat pillow- at Argos tonight.
Sunday was pretty decent, we had a free breakfast, then a couple hour orientation that wasn't too painful and told us how to do a lot of stuff, then a free lunch. I went on the bus tour they offered, and the four people I've been hanging out with went too, which was cool, so we all decided to get dinner and try to go grocery shopping or something after. We ended up eating at this pretty nice Chinese restaurant, and our dining was accompanied by Chinese pop music and a Chinese version of Silent Night, I think. I was kinda tired so I don't fully remember. After eating, Sainsburys, a big grocery store, was closed, and we just missed Argos by about twenty minutes (they sell sheets and couches and electronics and kitchen stuff and pretty much everything, only it's all in catalogues and they have some stuff in stock, which is cool) so we ended up at Tesco Express where I bought some food to get me through today and a little beyond. When we got back, Hilary and Kevin went off to do their own thing, but I talked to Mom a bit on the phone and then went over to Caitlin's room to use her internet, since mine was not working. I brought my laptop and Vanessa came over as well, so we watched Mamma Mia while I did a little bit of stuff online.
I think I've already adjusted to the time difference, since I was not happy with life when my alarm went off at eight. Today was ridiculous.
I had to go to the history department at nine to sign up for Architecture in London. The security guard in the building was angry with me since I didn't have an ID card yet, so when I went to the Language, Linguistics and Film department to try to get into a class and they were closed for another half hour, I had to just awkwardly sit in the hallway and read so I didn't leave and come back to get yelled at again. When they finally opened the office, the Fairy Tales course was closed, so I ended up signing up for one about nineteenth-century adventure stories and their more modern film versions, so that should be pretty interesting.
After that I booked it all the way across campus to the Maths building (I'll link you all up to a map later) to find out where my Differential Equations and Actuarial Mathematics courses would be held. What is it with college campuses and having sketchy, decrepit buildings for their math department?? This one had the weirdest layout of any building I've been in, felt a bit like a dungeon, and I had to wander around for fifteen minutes before I finally found an office with a professor in it. I decided to just ask him how I could find out where my courses would be, and he brought me to some other professor who tried to tell me to come back at three when it was her office hours, but I had to explain how I was supposed to have a class at 11. She ended up looking it up online for me (something I couldn't do since my internet isn't working), and I had the joyous surprise of finding out that Diff Eq had a time change, so I'd missed the nine am meeting this morning. Whatever.
After all that I decided to go nap during what would've been my Diff Eq time, and then I had to go enroll in the college (I forgot they were taking pictures for our ID cards, so mine's not the greatest. Again, whatever) and get my username and stuff from computing services. I asked about the internet thing, and she told me to bring my laptop back, so I did, and someone played with the settings and told me if that didn't work, it was the ethernet cord they gave me. Of course, it didn't work, so I had to go out again and trade my ethernet cord, and finally my internet works!! Though I'm sort've frustrated that that was all I needed to do, if the people in reception had been more helpful they could've told me they HAD extra ethernet cords on Saturday when I first told them about my problem. Oh well, it's fixed now! PS, all of that took place during my Architecture in London course, so I have to go to the other section on Wednesday to make up for it.
So I have three flatmates. There's one that I haven't met, but the other two seem very nice- Tian and SiSi (I'm not sure how she spells her name, to be honest). They're both fulltime students here, but from China. Sisi has already told me I talk way too fast for her. Whoops.
I'd say that I should probably go get ready for Actuarial Mathematics. I've already missed two classes today, no need to make it three!
The Final Countdown
Dec. 31
Soooooo, I'm leaving in two days for London. I think I'm mostly excited now, which is good :-) It's sort've bittersweet, as I know I'll have a fantastic time (okay, I mean that I SHOULD), meet some decent people, maybe come back with a British accent (here's hoping!). At the same time, I'm going to miss everyone a lot. I just have to keep telling myself that I'll be back before I know it, and that everyone will keep in touch with me (you hear that, kids? You'd better, you bet.)
Anywho, I'm almost all packed- I just have to throw some things in that I use on a daily basis. Like my laptop. My flight is confirmed, my place on the shuttle to get me to the school from Heathrow is booked, and I'm pre-registered for two courses. Oh wait, THAT'S no good. So I'm mildly stressing about courses, I don't like not knowing which ones I can take and I'm afraid of ending up in some I really don't want to take. I printed off a list of ones that sound promising (some examples, renamed par moi: Sightseeing for Credit, Watching Disney Movies and Ballets, Learn How to be a Code Breaker, Now We'll Tell You What an Actuary Is, and I'm in London So Maybe I'll Learn German), so hopefully I'll get four of those. I also might need to rethink my travel plans. I have a few too many places I want to go.
I'll try to be good about posting blog posts here on a fairly regular basis- we'll see how successful I am- but please also IM me or Skype me or Facebook me and whatnot, I'm going to miss everyone a bunch and want to know what's going on back stateside!
<3 Em
Soooooo, I'm leaving in two days for London. I think I'm mostly excited now, which is good :-) It's sort've bittersweet, as I know I'll have a fantastic time (okay, I mean that I SHOULD), meet some decent people, maybe come back with a British accent (here's hoping!). At the same time, I'm going to miss everyone a lot. I just have to keep telling myself that I'll be back before I know it, and that everyone will keep in touch with me (you hear that, kids? You'd better, you bet.)
Anywho, I'm almost all packed- I just have to throw some things in that I use on a daily basis. Like my laptop. My flight is confirmed, my place on the shuttle to get me to the school from Heathrow is booked, and I'm pre-registered for two courses. Oh wait, THAT'S no good. So I'm mildly stressing about courses, I don't like not knowing which ones I can take and I'm afraid of ending up in some I really don't want to take. I printed off a list of ones that sound promising (some examples, renamed par moi: Sightseeing for Credit, Watching Disney Movies and Ballets, Learn How to be a Code Breaker, Now We'll Tell You What an Actuary Is, and I'm in London So Maybe I'll Learn German), so hopefully I'll get four of those. I also might need to rethink my travel plans. I have a few too many places I want to go.
I'll try to be good about posting blog posts here on a fairly regular basis- we'll see how successful I am- but please also IM me or Skype me or Facebook me and whatnot, I'm going to miss everyone a bunch and want to know what's going on back stateside!
<3 Em
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