31 Jan

Laundry was a snap and I got ready quickly and surprisingly efficiently after that. I was a little surprised to hear Lainey’s door unlock for the first time at 8:40 (we had to catch the 9:24 train for our 10:00 class) but didn’t think much of it until both Gregg and Lainey managed to beat me out of the door, even though I know I got up at least 20 minutes earlier than either of them. Sigh. The train was delayed nearly 10 minutes so we ended up getting to our class a bit later than usual, but still in plenty of time.

About 20 minutes in, we all wished we had just skipped it altogether. The professor is pretty dull and not very engaging usually, but today was exceptionally boring. It’s rather annoying too when a professor will spend ten minutes explaining a point nearly everyone seems to understand in a minute. The remaining hour and 25 minutes were excruciating and we were all relieved when it was time to go and grab some lunch. I had an hour to kill until seminar at 1 so we just hung out at the Terrazza for a while, chatting with some other JYAs. Seminar was nearly as boring as lecture, though I actually contributed a bit, mostly in defense of America. It dawned on me today that every Brit in that class is a first-year student and when they try to sound intellectual and academic, they are either showing off or just being arrogantly pompous. I appreciate how some of them are really trying, but some of their comments are just agonizing. It’s funny how the American JYAs are all older and much more experienced in political science. I wish I knew more so I could talk intelligently, but for now I’m happy to let my compatriots put the more arrogant and anti-American Brits in their place.

After seminar, I realized how exhausted I was from not sleeping well last night, so I just caught the first bus home. The weather was exceptionally cold and the sky exceptionally gray so I really had no motivation to stay in town. I did a bit of reading and such back in the dorm, and then went to dinner with the gang. My dish was Quorn & Mushrooms and while I’m not exactly sure what the first one was, it tasted surprisingly familiar and quite good. After dinner we went to the local theater and watched Spielberg’s “Munich” with a whole crowd of Brits (we comfortably filled the middle section of three rows). The movie was pretty good and quite intense. Not my favorite Spielberg flick but certainly worth watching.

When we got back to the dorm, Gregg invited Liane and me for some drinks and I accepted. They had gone to Sainsbury’s the day before with Micah and stocked up on some wine and cheese. The wine was much better than any I’ve tried so far and the cheese was double Gloucester = yummy. Tom stopped by after a bit and joined us, and then Lainey did too after a while. We just hung out in Gregg’s roomed and talked politics and movies until a quarter to two. Gregg and Liane decided to stay up for the State of the Union address while Lainey and I decided to go to bed. I had class at 10 and a pretty busy day so I didn’t want to stay up too late. Cheers!

30 Jan

Day started out uneventful as usual, though it was nice that I was accompanied to King’s by Margaret who had seminar at 11. As we were walking to campus, we talked about what to do for Kate’s birthday (mentioned later). Margaret was wondering if Sainsbury’s had birthday cakes and when I answered in the affirmative, she said, “They do celebrate birthdays here, don’t they?” I laughed and said definitely yes. It was pretty funny. While she went off to class I went in search of some money since I spent my last tenner on dinner (I think I already mentioned this).

Southall today! Gregg was kind enough to agree to come along and keep me company. I met him at King’s around 11 but we couldn’t leave for about 45 minutes since poor guy, he lost his student Oyster card! And this was when he still had three works left on it! Getting a card isn’t a terrible hassle; it just involves getting a form from one place, the money for it from another, and then finally mailing it off. The trip to Southall went okay, it was mostly a long ride on the Tube; King’s is in Zone 1 and Ealing Broadway, the last Tube stop, is in Zone 3. London is made of 6 zones and the 6^th contains Heathrow and Gatwick airports. At the Ealing Broadway station, we saw signs for the trains that didn’t involve ticketing out of the Tube first. So, in London, you must insert your ticket/have your Oyster card read upon entering the Tube system and then upon leaving (i.e. don’t lose your ticket during your journey, you need it to get out). Anyway, we never “ticketed out” from the Ealing Broadway Tube stop so as far as they knew, we never left the Tube. Because of that, we also didn’t have to pay the extra money for going into Zone 3 (our travelcards only cover Zones 1 and 2). We also didn’t find a ticket station near the platform for the train tickets to Southall, so we never bought one. On the train, we heard an announcement saying the ticket checker would be coming by soon. Gregg and I were like, “oh crap.” The guy read our Oyster cards and informed us we were only good for Zones 1 and 2, which of course we knew. The good Americans we are, we feigned a bit of ignorance and he showed us mercy by letting us buy our tickets right then instead of fining us for not having a proper pass (those fines are at least £20 per violation). The fare ended up being £2.50 round trip which isn’t bad at all. They didn’t even check on the way back; funny how that works.

Just like the NY Times article said, I could smell spices almost the moment I got off the train at Southall. We followed the crowd heading into town and I noticed a car dealership on the right whose sign was both in English and an Indian language. The first place we came upon was a pub called Glassy Junction which was the first pub in the UK to accept rupees as currency. This is the real Little India. We took a left after the bridge and headed deeper into town. I loved being surrounded by Indians, many of them in traditional garb. Bollywood music poured out of buildings and the scent of spices filled the air. We passed shops with windows filled with colorful saris and other traditional clothing. There’s a clothing store there (Aarti Sarees) that sells a pure silk sari decked with Swarovski crystals for….about £700! Mom, can I get that for my wedding? Haha. Many signs were written in Indian script (I couldn’t tell if it was Hindi or Punjabi), some store signs only in such script.

After walking for a bit down the main street, Gregg and I stopped to eat lunch at a place called Mirch Masala. I thought it sounded familiar from the NY Times article, and when I checked it later it turned out I was right. We had to wait a little while for the wait staff to notice us which was pretty sad since there were about 10 people total in the good sized restaurant. The food came surprisingly fast though, and Gregg and I were quite pleased with the turnout. We ordered our dishes medium (mild, medium, and hot) which was a good choice since they were spicy enough to be enjoyable yet not too spicy to be difficult to swallow. I had mutter paneer while Gregg had chicken korma (he basically picked at random from the menu). I think I was just so happy to be eating Indian food again that anything would have tasted wonderful, but this food really was good. Maybe not Royal India good, but it definitely held its own. Naan was also much cheaper here than what I saw on Brick Lane; 90p for a plate sized piece (maybe 6 in. diameter?) as opposed to £1.75. Ah, what a good meal; definitely the best I’ve had since coming here.

After lunch we stopped at a place called Jalebi Junction for some dessert that was another place I remembered from the Times article. The jalebi was selling for 50p a piece, which was a little steep but they were big and very sweet. We ate them on the long Tube ride back into town. Instead of going all the way back to Temple, which is near King’s, we got off at Victoria instead and caught a train back to Denmark Hill. The clouds cleared just as we were leaving town after hovering around us all day. All in all, it was a trip well worth the time and money.

Today is Kate Longstreet’s 21^st birthday so we celebrated it college fashion. Lainey and some other girls bought her a cake from Sainsbury’s which they presented to her after dinner while we were still at the dining hall. The cafeteria staff were rather amused and we definitely got their attention. It turns out that one of the staff members also had his birthday today so Kate, the sweet girl she is, gave him the first piece of cake she cut. All the JYAs there sang her happy birthday and several of the other King’s students joined in on the singing and clapping. Kate blushed a bit but seemed quite pleased with the whole display. Happy birthday!

The party continued to the fuBar at 7:30 where most people bought drinks as a pre-party before heading to the Waterfront Bar at the Strand campus (yes, the campus has its own bar and nightclub). Apparently, the Brits have a tradition where the birthday person is “ginned” or must drink eight shots of gin (which is equivalent to four American shots). Kate protested at first but eventually she and Elicia drank some. Kate ended up downing a lot of gin in a very small amount of time to cheers and chants from the crowd. It was pretty amazing. After the mini party at the fuBar, nearly everyone went out to Waterfront while Liane, Micah, and I stayed back. I’ve already spent a lot of money in two days and I’m not much of the “going out” type anyway. I just did some work and planning the rest of the night. Laundry day is tomorrow so I need to make sure I take my sheets and such down in time. Hooray. Cheers!

29 Jan

Chinese New Year’s! I met the other kids for lunch at 12:30 (since lunch at 13:00 was found to be too late for some people) and then just chilled out for some time later. We met at Checkpoint Charlie around 5:45 and it wasn’t until we were on the street that I realized I didn’t have the camera with me. Gasp! It was the first time I’d gone into the city without it, and on a day of celebration at that. Lainey and some other people did bring theirs so I’ll have to mooch pictures off of them. We were meeting some of Lainey’s friends from Wellesley and elsewhere at 6:45 at a Starbucks in Leicester Square, but they were unfortunately running late so after standing in the cold for about 15 minutes, we just decided to head over to the restaurant.

As expected, the lines outside Chinese restaurants were really long tonight but we were fine since we had a reservation. The name of the place was, Saket’s going to love this, Golden Dragon! I laughed when I saw the name but didn’t bother explaining my laugh to anyone else since they wouldn’t have found it half as funny. I brought some toothpicks back as souvenirs (and proof). My dish was “bean curd with green seasonal vegetables” which was basically just tofu with long green veggies that looked like spinach but were something else. I was proud of myself in that I managed to eat the whole meal using only chopsticks. Hooray for me. Ross McCarroll the Irishman was my dinner buddy and I must have bugged him to death with all kinds of questions about Ireland and stuff. He’s a really nice guy and patiently and cheerfully answered all my questions. Our group was large enough to split into two tables. The funny thing was, though, is that my table finished dinner and even paid before the other even got their main course! We had gone with individual dishes while they were sharing, and they ordered appetizers and soup too, but still, it was funny.

Instead of just waiting around in the restaurant, we decided to head out. Ross really wanted to go to a pub near the square called The Porcupine (his favorite around here) but Sarah and Jan (her Slovakian friend from home) wanted to go back to the dorm and I spent my last tenner on dinner and didn’t feel like spending more money (dinner was £12!!). Besides, I would have made a terrible drinking buddy. Ross told me that he left home to “get away from the drinking culture’” that’s how much they drink in Ireland! This guy can easily put away eight pints during a long meal! I felt bad about making him go back home (‘cause he didn’t really want to drink alone) but really, I’m not the person to go drinking with.

Ross and I talked about Indian food on the way home. He told me about a time when he went out with a bunch of military guys for some curry and he ordered a “five spice” dish. The mildest dish was a “one spice” while the spiciest was a five. The poor guy practically had tears streaming from his eyes while eating, but he was tough and with the help of some pints, definitely finished his plate. It took him a couple of months to find some curry he liked around here and he said his favorite place was over in Brick Lane. I really to try the food over there sometime, but I’m going to Southall (known as the real Little India around here) first. Ross also said that you should always go drinking before eating Indian food and not after because if you eat first, you’ll be too full to want to drink. Ah, you gotta love the Irish.

Back in the dorm I just relaxed and did some reading for class. Lainey stopped by about an hour later to ask if I enjoyed myself and if dinner was good. She’s so sweet. Before going to bed, I used the trip planner to find the best route to Southall. It’s pretty far from where I’ll be; about an hour’s journey total, but hey, I’m sure it’ll be worth it. Cheers!

28 Jan

Woke up past 12 this morning and met some other kids for lunch at KCH at 1. I was running low on bread and other groceries, so I headed down to Sainsbury’s for a while to pick up some much needed food. Upon entering the store, I quickly realized that today was sad day for smoothie lovers. Innocent^® smoothies were no longer on sale! I couldn’t see them anywhere! Like I mentioned long ago, these guys make the best bottled smoothies I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve been buying cartons of it rather regularly here (only 5 L total; it’s not like I’m getting tons). They’ve been on a 50% sale since I got here and now, alas, they are selling for a reduced price no longer. I must have spent nearly half an hour there just wandering around and some time waiting in line.

After unpacking my groceries at the dorm, I just messed around for a while on the computer before joining the kids for dinner. Dinner was vegetable lasagna with peas and chips and actually good. Lainey and Kate were at the Imperial War Museum and they came in just 10 minutes after the lunch line closed. They ended up ordering pizza take-away instead that was decent, but they discovered a “large” British pizza is not nearly as large as what we’re used to. Oh well.

Gregg, Liane, and I didn’t have any plans for the night and since I was still itching to play some pool (and not snooker), Liane checked to see if the table was taken. For once, it was not so we hurried down to Checkpoint Charlie (also known as reception or the porter’s lodge) and were finally able to check out the pool set. The table was definitely not regulation size; it reminded me more of one of those 3-in-1 tables that you can place hockey, pool, and table tennis on when you’re six. Also, instead of the standard numbers and colors for the balls, they only have red and yellow and even those and significantly smaller than regulation pool balls. Gregg and I played a game of “reds and yellows” instead of, you know, “solids and stripes” which I almost won except that I scratched while going for the eight ball (at least they have that ball). After that game we played a few rounds of straight pool. Gregg won the first while I won the last two. Liane is improving a bit on her game (she’s hardly ever played before). I mentioned my desire to visit Stockholm and both said they would be willing to accompany me there. I think we’ll go sometime in May before finals, especially since it looks like we’ll be pretty much done with classes by then. If my exam schedule works out just right, I could be done with everything by the second week of May ( I think). My flight doesn’t leave until the 11^th of June.

After pool, Gregg, Liane, and I just chilled out in my room talking again. Gregg and Liane shared a couple bottles of wine while we discussed politics and travel for a while. Tom stopped by after a bit and he chatted with us. They’re good people. Apparently, this counted as a “party” in my room since the hall’s definition of a party is “four people in a room at the same time.” It was certainly the most low-key party I’ve ever been too. Lainey stopped by as well and told us about her experience at the Imperial War Museum. Apparently, she had quite a time pretending she was ten and climbing through the submarine exhibit. She also bought this great postcard which I’ll have to pick up the next time I’m there. Everyone left around 1:30 and then I talked with my parents on Skype and discussed our Spain trip and other stuff until about 2:20. I went to bed rather exhausted at 2:30.

P.S. Happy birthday to Sarah McLachlan!

27 Jan

Ah, cleaning day! Fridays are the days on which the cleaning staff at KCH sweep my floor, clean my sink, and empty my trash. How sweet of them! The only problem is (for me) that they come around 10 (10:25 today, to be precise) and so even though I don’t have class until 1, I still have to wake up about an hour before I normally would. Boohoo. They don’t take long though, so I took a shower while they worked. Lainey, Gregg, and Katie also had class at 1 and Margaret was meeting Elicia (written as Aleesha in previous posts ‘cause I’m dumb) in town so we all caught the 12:24 train to Blackfriars. I talked with Katie on the way into town about what she’d been up to since we hadn’t spoken in a while and what her plans were for the day. She was going ice-skating at Somerset House with a friend and was asking a bunch of people if they wanted to come along. I said I’d think about it, but paying £12 just to skate seemed like a bit much to me.

Sociolinguistics was quite entertaining though the best part of class was talking with a Londoner named Karma (forgive the spelling, but her name is pronounced the same way). She speaks fluent Urdu, she’s never been to India, and seems like a really nice person. We started talking outside the seminar room and she asked me basic stuff on how I liked my studies here and when I would be leaving and such. I explained that I was only at King’s for a semester and that I’d be getting my degrees back at home. She thought it really nice that I was taking both English and War Studies classes here too. Study abroad is a relatively unknown thing at universities here, as is taking classes in multiple departments. If you’re an English major, you take only English classes for three years, and likewise for the other subjects (at least in humanities). That helps make sense of the fact that they can get college degrees in only three years. We also talked about life in London compared with the US and I said that I found London really amazing largely because I come from a relatively small town (Greater London has a population of over 12 million people, after all) and am not used to big cities. She’s lived in London all her life and said that I probably know more about the city than she does since I want to take it all in during the short time I’m here. When the transport system was bombed last July and was consequently shut down, she said she had to buy an A-Z (“A-Zed,” a really cheap and detailed map of every London street) to find her way to class. She’s also in my 1^st WW Lit class so that’s pretty nice too. Class was fun; the professor decided to do a “historical reconstruction” of language shifts including Grimm’s Law and the Great Vowel Shift of the 15^th century. It may not sound very exciting, but I got to see how the German “acht” for the number 8 became “eight” in English and why the English “mother” and “father” are “mater” and “pater,” respectively, in Latin (that was part of Grimm’s Law, and yes, the same Grimm as the brothers who were linguists before they were fairy-tale writers/transcribers). It was surprisingly entertaining.

After class I ate lunch at Trafalgar Square (I really love being able to say that; I already know that’s something I’m going to miss when I go back home) and then caught the Tube to the East End and Brick Lane. Well, I rode a bus for a while and got off a stop early before I finally made it to Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a street covered with Indian (specifically Bengali) restaurants and shops. The names of the streets are even written in Bengali as you can see:

I stopped by several Indian restaurants to check out the menus and compare prices. I could get a decent vegetable dish for £4.95 and paratha at £1.45 (I couldn’t find naan for less than £1.75!). I saw a store selling sweets that I briefly walked in to. The guy manning the counter asked me something that I made him repeat three times before he tried a different phrase: “Are you feeling well?” I answered in the affirmative and he told me he asked because I looked kind of down or sick because I had a worried look on my face. I explained that I was from America and this was my first time on Brick Lane so I was feeling a little lost. He told me that this place was where a lot of Bengalis live and opened shop and I told him that I came here because I heard just such a thing. The jaleebi looked really good, but when he said 50p each, I decided that I’d come back at some later time. He said goodbye with, of course, “Cheers!”

Walking further down the street, I spied a “Taj Market” grocery store that I absolutely had to stop at. I just wandered the cramped aisles a bit inhaling the smells. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to walk through an Indian grocery store in my life. I didn’t buy anything, but just smelling those spices and familiar scents again made me happy. Soon after that I encountered a clothing shop with punjabis hanging in the store window and just had to check it out. Indian music was playing and I walked through it a bit, admiring the colors and checking the prices. The place even had one of those red carpet stands for sari displaying (you know what I’m talking about; where the guy sits and unfolds the sari for you?) which made me very happy. I was a little disconcerted by one of the employees who shadowed me around the store and didn’t say anything, but I soon left. £10 for a cotton/polyester punjabi. Is that reasonable?

It was getting near 4 and a little on the dark side so I hurried to the end of Brick Lane where I was glad to find a Tube station. I simply caught the Tube back to Temple and for once, I really mean the first time so far, I caught the first 68 bus at the Strand campus without having to wait or run or anything. It was amazing. I saw raindrops on the bus windows a little ways into the ride and felt glad that I had decided to head back to KCH a little earlier than planned.

Dinner was a veggie burger and peas that were quite good. After dinner I wanted to play pool and as usual the set was checked out. So instead of playing snooker like we would have done had someone not lost the key (which is rather hard, since you cannot get your room keys back from reception until you return the key to the game room…), Liane, Gregg, and I ended up talking and sharing pictures in my room for the next 6 hours. We covered lots of topics from politics to religion to travel and such. It was a really nice conversation (I’ve been lucky the last couple of nights, what?). Lainey came back from her night out around 1:30, right about the time that Liane left (she lives on the floor below us and at the complete opposite end), and Gregg went back to his room next door. Lainey briefed us on her night and Gregg summed ours up with, “We just sat around and talked.” Succinct and perfectly accurate and so very military.

I worked on my blog until about 2:30 before finally turning in for some very welcome sleep. Cheers!

P.S. Lainey gave us a fun fact about the Chinese military: they used to equip monkeys with firecrackers and send them aboard British vessels during naval battles. Now how funny is that? Lainey said it made her very proud to be Chinese. Also, the Chinese New Year is on Sunday so we’re all going out to a restaurant in Little China to celebrate. Should be interesting…

26 Jan

I had class at 11 today which meant I woke up around the time everyone left for their classes. Today was “Court Cultures” which is quickly becoming one of my favorite classes here. We talked about Philip Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella” which is a long sonnet sequence (108 sonnets and eight songs) about a man named Astrophil who is madly in love with a beautiful woman named Stella. Professor Zim was humorous and witty in her explanation of and commentary on the poem and I found myself furiously writing notes for the first hour of class. The tutor before us ran his class about 5-7 minutes late which didn’t please Prof. Zim in the least. I would hate to get on that woman’s bad side.

We took a five minute break between lecture and seminar and since I was sitting right at Prof. Zim’s right hand, she almost immediately turned to me and asked me how I was settling in. I responded “Very well, thank you,” and said that I found London simply wonderful. She inquired as to my hall mates and I said they were friendly and really nice. She told me that sometimes she walks out to Waterloo Bridge during breaks to “clear the cobwebs out” and sort of reaffirm where she is. I told her that I loved being here in central London to which she added, “The center of the world!” and to which I quickly rejoined, “Well, it used to be.” She’s such a sweet lady and funny as all get out. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m really going to like this class.

After class I went to the Maughan Library to check out next week’s reading and eat some lunch in the café downstairs. I left there around 3 and would have liked to stay in town a bit longer but because it was just so bitterly cold I decided to head back to KCH instead. I just relaxed and killed time in the dorm before joining Gregg and Lainey for dinner. Dinner was a mushroom and potato bake + vegetables + chips that were decent. The conversation was pretty funny, especially when a bunch of us JYAs explained to the Brit with us that we all didn’t like our president very much (if at all) and that most of the Americans who piss off the rest of the world don’t leave the country. I think he seemed a little surprised by that, but he’s a math major, so who knows…J

After dinner I did some planning for Spain and actually looked at the essay topics for my Causes of War class and narrowed down my prospective ones. Around 10 I went next door to ask Gregg if he’d picked one (we both didn’t have class until 1 the next day so I knew he wouldn’t be too busy) and we ended up talking about all kinds of random stuff until 12 when Lainey came back. It was a very pleasant conversation in which I learned that Gregg’s quite the daredevil (he street luged for a while…) and nearly died while biking to a midterm at Georgetown. It was dark, neither he nor the car driver saw each other, there was a flash of headlights, and before Gregg knew it he was flat on his back on the ground. He wasn’t sure if he flipped once or twice. He turned out just fine except for a couple of scratches, and the poor old Chinese lady driving the car totally freaked out. He barely made it to his midterm on time after booking it on foot. Ah, the stories people tell.

We both went to bed soon after Lainey got back and I was asleep shortly after 1.

For Those of You Just Tuning In...

I understand that reading a daily blog can be rather challenging, and that if you're just tuning in now you've missed a lot. So, for your benefit, I've decided to do a little identification:

JYA = Junior Year Abroad; King's College term for exchange students from America
King's College= part of the University of London system and where I'm studying English and War Studies this semester
KCH= King's College Hall, my hall of residence (aka, dorm)
Danehurst= my building (one of three) at KCH
Camberwell Green= little shopping area close to KCH
Lainey= JYA from Wellesley and one of my corridor-mates, she's studying War Studies here and is a Political Science and Economics double major at home
Gregg= JYA from Georgetown and one of my corridor-mates who's studying Science, Technology, and International Affairs back home and War Studies here
Tom= JYA from Tufts who is another one of my corridor-mates; he was in Egypt last semester
Liane= JYA from Washington and Lee who lives in Danehurst; she's studying Religious Studies both here and at home
Kate= JYA from University of Michigan who also lives at KCH and is taking English and Film classes here
Margaret= JYA from University of Michigan who lives at KCH and is taking War Studies at King's
Katie= JYA from Washington University in St. Louis who is a corridor-mate; she's the one who told me about Ian McKellen
Micah= JYA from Haverford who is studying War Studies here (see a trend?)
fuBar= KCH in-residence bar; very popular with the students
The Fox= pub down the street from KCH
68= Bus route that takes me from my dorm to the Strand campus
176= another bus route that runs from my dorm to the Strand
Strand = main campus of King's College; all my classes are here
Waterloo Bridge= bridge right next to the Strand Campus; has an excellent view of central London (I take lots of pictures from here; if it's from a bridge it's probably from this one)
London= big city in southwestern England; they speak funny here
England= that country across the Atlantic that, uh, used to control us, but uh, they no longer do...
hahaha, I'm so witty. It must be this glorious English air. well, that should catch you up somewhat, so cheers!

25 Jan

Class at 10 this morning, so woke up around 8:15 as usual. Breakfast was two croissants washed down with orange juice which is all I really need in the morning (until I get hungry around 12, of course). Wednesday’s are my heaviest days where I have class from 10-13:00 straight. I really don’t like missing my lunch hour, but I couldn’t do anything about this schedule. Oh well. The day started out very British: foggy, misty, a little moist, and oh yeah, no sun. Surprise, surprise.

1^st World War Lit was boring me to tears until I heard a sound I usually associate with discomfort and a bad memory…the fire alarm. It didn’t appear to be sounding in our building because the sound was rather muffled yet distinct. Considering how big these people are on fire doors and such, I was surprised at the extremely mild reaction of my professor. He just paused for a moment, said “I don’t think that’s us,” and proceeded to continue lecturing. After a few moments we saw students filing out of the building near us and up the stairs (my class is in the first of three basements and is in the Strand/Main building; there are two other buildings adjoining that make up the Strand Campus). More and more of the class was getting distracted until finally my professor let us out. We had only been in class for about half an hour.

Outside, I saw lots of King’s students but not as many as I thought I’d see. Then I remembered that it was only 10:30 and since it appears that classes don’t begin here until 10 (shocking I know; it’s a wonder these people learn anything…), that the college wouldn’t be terribly busy at this hour. I had the camera with me (there was no way I was leaving that in the building) and surreptitiously took some pictures of Somerset House skaters (blissfully unaware or unperturbed by the alarm and sudden mass of students gathered near them) and King’s students. We were outside for only about 5-7 minutes before returning indoors. I found it refreshing to be out of the classroom for a while and glad to have to listen to five fewer minutes of my professor (he seems like a well-read guy, but he’s just really, really boring). Finally, class ended a few minutes to 11 and I caught an elevator up three floors to my Sociolinguistics class, which I made just on time.

I’m really liking this class. The teacher is passionate about her subject and an entertaining lecturer (not that I think she really means to be, she just makes funny comments sometimes). You also know you’re in a fun class where the class spends five minutes talking about the different words people use for the game known by most of you as “tag.” Some call it tig, had, it, catch, and other terms. That’s what makes linguistic classes so interesting; everyone comes from a different linguistic background and in a class where you have people from different parts of England and the United States, you’re bound to get a good deal of variety. Class was almost over before I realized it and I dreaded heading downstairs again to my 1^st WW Lit seminar. Ugh.

The seminar was slightly more interesting than lecture only because students got to offer their own input. I was one of two people without the Penguin book (the required text, ~£9) though I was sitting pretty much out of the professor’s sight so it was fine. I had also done all the reading the night before so the poetry was still fairly fresh in my mind. The class gave some interesting comments but just not enough to hold my attention; I found myself dozing several times though I never actually fell asleep or anything: that would be in bad taste. I was relieved when class finally ended at 1 and since I was still feeling rather sleepy I just grabbed a sandwich and drink at Tesco’s, then walked across Waterloo in the now brilliant though slightly cloudy sunshine and caught the next bus home.

I took it easy back in the dorm while checking mail and eating lunch. I had a little bit of reading to finish for my class the next day so I worked on that until dinner. On the way to the dining hall, Lainey informed me that she had “stalked my profile” and read some of my blog. She said it was “a really good blog” and that she was a little surprised to see her laundry pictures posted on it. She didn’t mind at all; she thought they were hilarious too. Dinner was Chinese stir-fry that was a nice change and gave me a good and much-needed dose of veggies. After dinner, I finished my reading for class and prepared for my seminar. I talked with Mom, Saket, and Sachi for a while on Skype. That was really nice. Our talk over, I just chilled for the rest of the night before going to bed soon after midnight.

Pics from 24 Jan Riverwalk IV

Westminster Abbey with Parliament behind it

Parliament, guards with awesome hats, and double decker tour bus

East meets West: London Eye and Sphinx by Cleopatra's Obelisk

London Eye and Millennium Bridge

the LONDON EYE

Pics from 24 Jan Riverwalk III

Thames Path looking west; I'm not the only photo-happy tourist!

More Thames Path (so well paved)

Random batteries by (I think) Queensbridge

Thames Path looking east (can you see Tower Bridge?)

London Bridge from the side (not as pretty as Tower Bridge, innit?)

Pics from 24 Jan Riverwalk II

St. Paul's Cathedral sandwiched between another building (all perspective, of course)

Near "Britain at War" museum...wonder if he lived through those times?

Ah, more Tower Bridge (hey, it's that pretty)

Looking north on London Bridge (can't you just see the heads on pikes?)

Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast as seen facing east on London Bridge

Pics from 24 Jan Riverwalk

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge looking up

ok, so you have to turn your head. but it's pretty (Tower Bridge)

the Tower of London (used to be a castle before it became a prison)

HMS Belfast, once the largest ship in the Royal Navy (as seen from Tower Bridge)

24 Jan

Woke up 20 minutes later than I planned to this morning so I had to rush a bit to get ready. Ate breakfast with some Americans and Brits before heading to the train station with them. The ride to campus was uneventful but afforded a pretty view of London in the morning sun (yes, the sun was back out again). Our class this morning was “Causes of War.” It’s a freshmen/first year class which means it covers basics topics that the other JYAs with me who are polisci or history majors all already know. Poor guys, they were bored to death while I was actually learning something. We got to talking about relative power of countries and then of militaries and at one point a Brit decided to make an unrelated and snide remark of the state of the Iraqi army. We were discussing whether or not the United States was the world’s only major power and if so, how that status was achieved/ being maintained. I understand that many people are highly dissatisfied with the way the war in Iraq is going, myself included, but that guy really pissed me off. His comment was both uncalled for and juvenile and added absolutely nothing to the discussion. I hope he’s in my seminar. I only wish I knew more about this stuff so I could actually speak up and talk intelligently about it. I’m afraid to betray my ignorance if I speak out in class. Gregg was also a little pissed (and terribly bored) so I can count on him to start a good and intelligent argument.

After class Gregg, Micah, and some other JYAs who later joined us ate lunch at the Terrazza. The sun was shining wonderfully outside and I decided not to miss this great opportunity for some sightseeing. Gregg headed over to Tate Britain while I caught the Tube for Tower Hill. After spending a few minutes near the Tower (I wasn’t going to pay the £8 entry fee until the weather was more favorable) I walked down to the river and Tower Bridge. It was fun seeing the real tourists there with their cameras out and often confused looks on their faces.

Tower Bridge is gorgeous! It’s a suspension bridge that was built later than most people might think; work started in 1884 and it was finally completed in 1896. I took tons of pictures of it while walking along and it and then several shots from other bridges. After crossing the bridge I walked along the south bank of the Thames until I reached London Bridge. Because it was such a pretty day (though freezing!) and I was feeling rather adventurous, I crossed the river again across London’s most famous bridge (at least in stories) and admired the view the whole way. When I reached the other side, I noticed a sign for the “Thames Path” which is a very pleasant walk by the bank of the river. I decided to follow it and continued to do so past Southwark, Blackfriar’s, Queens, Millennium, and a couple of other bridges. I took lots of shots along the way because it was just such a day to do so. I stuck by the river walking almost continuously until I reached Parliament and Big Ben. It’s a long walk…I was at Tower Bridge around 13:30 and heard Ben chime out the hours for 15:00.

I still had 30 pictures-worth left of memory in the camera so I decided to stroll around Parliament and Westminster Abbey for a bit before heading back home. I walked along a street called Great College Street which it a stone’s throw from Parliament but nearly deserted when compared to the busy area between Parliament, the river, and Westminster Abbey. After circling Parliament I caught the Tube back to Temple and walked out across Waterloo Bridge (only because I missed my bus on the Strand even after running for it a bit). I saw another bus on WB but missed that one too (again, despite some frantic running). For once I was leaving before sunset but events seemed to conspire to convince me to wait for the sunset anyway. I would have loved to, since the sun was being wonderful all day, but I was tired and had only one shot left in the camera by the time I reached the bridge. It was time to go home. In the course of just over ~2 hours, I had taken over 200 pictures. I've been averaging ~20 pictures a day since I've been here...

I ended up getting home close to 17:00 and just relaxed for a while before dinner. Spicy vegetable pizza…mmmm except for the fact that it wasn’t spicy and barely recognizable as pizza (not too shabby though). They served corn too which was nice.

When I got back to the room after dinner, I realized I had a ton of reading to catch up on for tomorrow’s classes and proceeded to work on those until midnight! Yeah, lots of poetry and dialectology…fun fun. After reading, just a bit of blogging and picture downloading then sleep! Cheers!

23 Jan

I know this sounds like a broken record, but what else do you do when you have no class and nothing really pertinent to work on? I slept in incredibly late. While putting on my contacts, something completely unexpected and startling happened: I broke one. It was stuck to the lid and as I tried to pry it out, I suddenly heard a crack, a sound that was slight yet sickening. I have broken a contact lens only once before and that was on purpose; I wanted to see how hard it would be and from that experience I learned that it wasn’t easy to break a gas permeable lens. Apparently, I was wrong on London has been very cruel to my lenses (though I can’t imagine how). Anyway, I had fortunately packed a spare pair and promptly put those on. My lost lens definitely put a damper on my day. I sort of wiled the day away doing some reading for class, talking with my mom, and just messing around. Dinner was nothing exciting and after dinner I did more of what I had done before. All in all, a low-key and somewhat tragic day. Boohoo.

22 Jan

Another lazy Sunday. At first I woke up around 10 to see sunlight streaming in through my window, but I was still feeling pretty tired so I went back to sleep until 12:30. Last night, I ended up staying awake until about 3:30. The party was still going on outside so I figured I might as well read until it quieted down a bit. While I’m sitting quietly in bed reading around 3, I hear the handle of my door turn suddenly and see the shadow of a person outside who clearly did not expect to find the door locked. After one failed try, they walked away and back down the corridor. I just stared at the door for a minute and felt grateful that I had locked it (like I always do) and that I was still awake. I think that would have startled me quite a bit had I been asleep. I don’t blame the person for mistaking my door for his/hers or anybody else for that matter. All the doors here are painted in one of four colors and aside for my name in magazine cutout letters and the room number on a small plaque, my door looks like any other yellow door. I’m also positive the person was quite drunk and simply did not realize he/she was at the wrong room. It was a fairly wild night last night. That was pretty much all the excitement of the night after I left the party.

Anyway, I woke up around 12:30 this afternoon and slowly and lazily got ready. I ate a late lunch and proceeded to actually do some work by hunting for the poetry for my 1^st World War Literature class. Since I’m too cheap right now to buy the book, I looked up the table of contents on Amazon.com (you can look at the first and last several pages from all kinds of books) and typed up all the authors and their works. Now all I have to do is find online transcriptions of the poems and anthologize them and bam! £9 saved. I usually buy literature for my English classes, especially anthologies or great novels (such as Middlemarch) but at this poetry I drew the line. It’s not that I really don’t like it or anything, it’s just that I like other work better and don’t want to spend the £9 unless I absolutely have to. Then I just did some reading for class and some for pleasure, and basically wiled away my time until dinner.

The dining hall had already closed so we walked out to Camberwell Green in search of some food. We finally picked a place called Nandos that is best known for their chicken. The atmosphere was kind of funky though the lighting was rather annoying. I ordered a veggie burger with a “hot” sauce and it actually turned out to be almost more than I could handle. The choices were lemon herb (mildest), medium, hot, and very hot. Maybe my taste buds have been dulled by this British food or something, but I couldn’t finish my burger by the end. Towards the end of dinner, Lainey got a text message from a Brit saying a bunch of them were going down to The Fox for chocolate fudge cake and that we were welcome to join them. We did go to The Fox but most of us ordered banana splits (I did because the cake was £2.79! and my burger was £3.95). Mine was really good and a cool counterpart to my spicy burger.

I love just listening to the Brits talk with each other. One of them, Ross, is Irish and proudly so. The others, especially those in the English OTC, would make fun of him by imitating his accent and saying “Those damned English, they’re oppressing us!” It was funny. After talking for a bit and enjoying our splits, we headed back to KCH. A lot of them were still tired from the wild party last night and so we all turned in kind of early.

21 Jan

Day started out fairly low-key; I was woken up around 9:30 by a fire alarm, though this time it was ringing in the dorm next door. I could see sunlight through the curtains and despite my grogginess I managed to pull them open a bit to confirm my fire alarm theory. Sure enough, I saw a crowd of students standing around the dining hall. I tried to go back to sleep but could not until the stupid bell stopped going off. I didn’t wake up again until nearly 12:30 and to my surprise the sun was still shining as strongly as it did hours earlier. To my even greater surprise it continued more or less like that the whole day! This was the first time I got to enjoy a blue sky in my dorm. Yes, that’s how bad it’s been. I’m taking pictures every day from my window and when I finally get those posted you’ll be able to see the comparison.

Feeling hungry, I decided on some PB+jam sandwiches (I’d missed lunch) but found to my regret that my bread had molded. Boo hoo. I was planning on going to the grocery store anyway, this just prompted me to go earlier than expected. After my little shopping trip I tidied my room a bit, chatted with the neighbors, and basically puttered around reading and such until dinner. Dinner was an amorphous blob called “vegetable curry and rice” that I just couldn’t finish. It’s not that it was terrible, maybe too much chili powder and little else, I just wasn’t that hungry (I had a late lunch around 14:30). The Bond (of the James variety) Party is tonight and pretty much all of us are going. I unfortunately left all my cocktail dresses and home and the guys surprisingly failed to bring along their tuxedos. Can you believe it? So I’m not dressing up or anything though Lainey and some of the other American girls are doing something great. Instead of being the traditional Bond girls and wearing something fabulous and sexy, they’re going to be morning-after Bond girls still in bed, complete with tousled hair, bed sheets, and perhaps a bottle of wine. I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I can’t wait to see how it’ll play out. Well, it’s off to the Bond Party! 20:23

24:50: I came back to the room just after midnight. The party was quite an experience; I don’t believe I’ve ever been around so many drunk people at once. The amount these people drink is quite prodigious as well; I saw people with two or even three bottles in their hands after the bar closed. KCH had hired some dealers and real gambling people to set up a roulette table and a blackjack table. I paid my 50p for £100 pounds worth of chips (just 10 of them) and entered the game of blackjack. At first my play was dismal and for a while I hovered at the edge of losing. My luck turned after what felt like an eternity and I ended up finishing with £680. Not too shabby, though I only ended up in 3^rd place. Yvonne won. The play rather frustrated me because it seemed like all the drunken people had all the luck. They would get blackjacks and it took them a while to even realize it! But I know it’s really all in the cards. The party was held in the bar and common room and after the gambling closed, I wandered around the room for a bit watching people and shooting a bit of video. Drunk people are interesting to watch. Most of the guys were predictably in black suits and white shirts with a few variations. Some guys wore camo which was also pretty neat (several are enlisted in the British equivalent of ROTC called just OTC). The American girls looked amazing:

From left to right: Kate, Sarah (another JYA), Margaret, and Lainey. They definitely drank all the wine in those bottles (though they didn’t smoke; that was just for looks). Before the party got in full swing, Colin (one of the OTC guys and a Brit I met soon after arriving here) informed us of a side room where an N64 was set up with, naturally, Goldeneye. I challenged Gregg, Lou (an American from New Jersey who’s actually getting his undergraduate degree in classical archaeology from King’s), and Colin to a match. Colin was a little surprised at my familiarity with the game which wasn’t too surprising. He had to leave shortly after we started so it was just me, Gregg, and Lou. We played Stack with Automatics and set the kill count to 20. I soundly beat them both: 20 (me)- 13 (Gregg)- 9 (Lou). Lou tried the excuse that he’d had too much to drink before we started but I didn’t let that fly. Gregg’s excuse was more valid; he wasn’t wearing his glasses because his character (the Man with the Golden Gun) didn’t wear glasses. For the occasion, Gregg slicked back his hair and made a golden (orange really) gun out of paper and cardboard. He was proud of his gun:

All in all the party was fairly amusing. At one point I made it over to the balcony that looks out onto the courtyard of KCH. The sky had remained clear for the whole day and I was thrilled to see my first starry night in London. Orion (my favorite) was shining brilliantly in the cold night and it made me happy.

I’m a little tired now (not really sure why; I did wake up quite late after all) so I think I’ll go to bed soon after chatting with the family for a bit. Cheers!

20 Jan

Ugh, waking up at 7:45 is painful, especially when you open the curtains onto a miserable looking day. I got dressed quickly enough and made it down to the train station as I had planned and caught an 8:54 train for London Bridge. It was a rather miserable wait on the platform since the wind had not made up its mind as to in which direction to blow and thus chose all four simultaneously and rather emphatically. The rain, feeling a little put out by all the attention the wind was getting, decided to chime in with a light mist that was light enough to not warrant an umbrella but heavy enough to make you wish you had brought one. Fortunately, my wait was rather short so I did not have to endure the elements for very long.

Although I did not have seminar until 13.00, I needed to get to the Strand around 9:30. Why, you might ask? Because I’m neurotic about being prepared for class. I found out last night that I was “required” to read four chapters for my Sociolinguistics seminar and since all copies were checked out at the library, it was either buy one or not do the reading. Knowing me, I chose to shell out the £20.99 and do the reading. The book seems pretty nice and I’m interested in the topic anyway so it was money well spent. I just wish that expenditure did not have the accompanying psychosis.

As I was waiting for the Tube at London Bridge for Westminster, an announcement came over the PA announcing unusual and serious delays on the Jubilee line. The man spoke calmly and clearly stated that he had no idea when to expect the next train. It’s funny how they console you here so politely. He repeatedly made the suggestion to take an alternative route if you were in a hurry which after some deliberation I decided to do. I was thankful I was not in a rush for class that morning, unless some people around me who were evidently in a hurry and not at all pleased by the delay. I was a little early as it is so I made to the bookshop not ten minutes after it opened and quickly found my book. It was the last copy on the shelf.

I took it up to the Terazza (café) in the Union and found a little perch on a couch where I could read in peace since it was nearly deserted. After about twenty minutes of reading, I felt something curious at my back and noticed something odd on my page. Sunlight! I turned around to see the sun bursting from the clouds and showing no trace that it had played 8^th fiddle to its competitors, the wind and rain, this morning. An involuntary smile broke out on my face and one of the gentlemen near me, also one of the employees at the café, said “Ah f***! The sun’s out!” Gotta love the British. Even they are pleased when they finally see the sun in the morning.

I spent the next hour and half slowly sipping my Diet Coke (hey, I was tired) and basking in the sunlight. The reading was a little dense but rather interesting and I like the range of topics the book promises to cover. I got hungry around 11:45 and grabbed a sandwich and a muffin which I enjoyed sitting in more direct sunlight. After I finished reading for class, I found a Catholic Herald newspaper near me and read through it a bit for fun. Interesting material, that.

With the warmth of the sun still lingering on my shoulders, I headed back to the Main building and found my way to my classroom. It was the tiny seminar room in which my Court Cultures class is also held and I soon discovered that I was the only American, and non-British person for that matter, in the room. If I was only sort of the token American in lecture, I was definitely the token American in seminar. The professor gave us handouts and of course, there was no discussion of the reading since a couple of people had missed lecture that week and the reading was more background anyway. Of course. In small groups we discussed some phrases she had given us and judged them based on their grammatical correctness, level of stigmatization, etc. One was, “She looks like her mum, innit?” I was immediately reminded up “Bend it Like Beckham” where the Indians in that film constantly say that word. The British people in my group were astounded to hear me say that I had never heard anyone back home use that word. Apparently, it’s a very London and particularly South Asian/East End population thing to say. The second half involved the professor playing a tape of some southern California skateboarders and our analysis of their speech patterns and such. Like, it was pretty interestin’ to like, hear what the Brits had to say about them. This is gonna be fun.

After class I rode down to Victoria Station and booked a room at a bed and breakfast hotel for my parents. At Temple Station I bought a month-long travelcard for my Student Oyster and saved over $50 for the month! That made me very happy. I walked over to Waterloo Bridge and since it was around 16.00, I just waited on the bridge for the sun to set, which it did so magnificently. I saw so much blue sky that day that it astounded me. I couldn’t stop looking up. The sun was glorious too around sunset and I snapped several shots with my hair flying in every direction (the wind was very indecisive and emphatically so that whole day) and feeling fairly chilled at the same time. Somehow, though, I managed to miss all news of the miraculous northern bottlenose whale that had sailed up the Thames all the way to the Houses of Parliament. I saw some notice of it on some Evening Standard placards but didn’t take much notice of it. I swear, news travels faster to Hong Kong than it does around London. Poor whale; the Thames is fairly pretty but no place for such a large (and apparently deep-diving) mammal.

Content at another marvelous sunset, I caught the 68 home. Managing to find a seat in the front on the top deck and taking advantage of the miraculously blue and clear sky above me, I decided to shoot some pictures of my journey home. The women who sat down next to me after a few stops moved to the seat across the aisle as soon as it became emptied. Maybe I freaked her out or something, I don’t know. I mean, I was just taking pictures of the street, gosh. You can see those pictures on the “On the Road Home” entry. More will come.

Back at the dorm I just puttered around for a bit and then joined Gregg, Lainey, and other people for dinner around 6. Vegetable lasagna was on the menu along with peas and chips and on the whole, it was a satisfying dinner. The peas provided some much-needed green and they were pretty good. My day after dinner was fairly low-key. I talked with home for a bit about Spain plans and got to chat with Naman, the sibs, and Naman’s father much later that night since they’d come over to our house for dinner. It was nice to hear them having fun. Before calling them, I finally figured out how to transfer pictures to my iPod. I managed to get over 4100 full resolutions pictures on to it in under 2 hours. I felt proud of myself and my computer. I made a slideshow of the Hawaiian pictures and dreamily watched those for a bit. I have found a new source of entertainment for those long bus rides home. I also found I could transfer over 40 songs onto the Pod in about 30 seconds. That made me very happy.

20 Jan was the date I had set in my mind when everything would be settled and I would finally feel at home here. Fortunately, that day came sometime last week. My American comrades here have kind and friendly and the local Brits have been overall good at making us feel welcome. There are still many on my hall that I’ve either never seen or spoken to but hopefully that will change. I’ve very nearly mastered the public transportation system here and have become good friends with the grocery store down the hill. I feel as though I’m developing a real fondness for this place and that if it wasn’t for the often insanely high-cost of living and ever-tenuous appearance of the sun, I would seriously consider living here at some point.

Not much else exciting tonight. I went to bed around 3. Cheers!

On the Road Home: Parts VI-X

VI- near rush hour traffic

VII- near Elephant and Castle station

VIII- a nearby shopping street

IX- O those petrol prices these days!

X- Camberwell Green (major area near my dorm)

On the Road Home: Parts I-V

I- near Waterloo Station

II- The Old Vic (where I saw Sir Ian McKellen)
III- Aladdin, the pantomime, at The Old Vic
IV- top of the bus (can you see me?)

V- all those buses!

20 Jan Pictures

blue sky and pretty clouds..what more could I want?

Lord Nelson...on top of a building

more blue sky!

sunset

clouds meet buildings meet sun

19 Jan

I planned on waking up around 8 this morning so I could join the others for breakfast (they had class at 10 while mine wasn’t until 11) but laziness won me over and I woke up at 9:15 instead. I needed to leave the dorm as close to 10 as possible so it wasn’t terribly smart to wake up so late but oh well. I’ll do better next time. I ended up getting ready faster than I thought I would and made it to the train station just as the train for my stop was pulling out of the station. It was 10:04. I didn’t know there was a train then and I had planned on taking the 10:24 one anyway. Cursing myself for just missing the train, I stood around the station for 20 minutes listening to my increasingly precious iPod. Good songs = good wait. Train ride was uneventful as normal and I was sad that the day was exceptionally overcast because I wouldn’t get a good view of the river. Poor me.

My class today was “Court Cultures in the Age of Elizabeth” and it looks like it’ll be my best one. The professor turned out to be exactly what I thought she’d be: funny, extremely well read, and kind yet direct. Out of 16 people enrolled, 4 are JYAs. She apparently “hand-picked” us for the class, so I imagine she must have some high expectations of us. We looked at some letters from the Queen’s favorites to her and they made me really wish I was well versed in rhetoric. Prof. Zim’s dissection of the material was witty and funny and I felt myself smiling or on the verge of smiling nearly the whole time. I couldn’t tell if anyone else was enjoying themselves as much as I was (even though we were seated around a big oval table) because I was too busy furiously writing down notes as Zim spoke rather quickly and fluently. (fluent and fluidity share a root for a reason; so does that mean that if you’re affluent money just flows from you? = random thought). I found out that we’ll be giving short 10-minute presentations during our seminars that immediately follow lecture in the same room with the same people (and a ~7-min break in between). My topic will be the complex interaction of the Queen’s status as a woman and monarch as expressed through her letters and such. I find the Queen fascinating and I’m really looking forward to learning more about her (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned already).

After class I headed over to the library and ran into some other JYAs on the way. They were headed to banks or destinations of wander and we didn’t meet up again until later in the afternoon back at KCH. The library looks big and impressive from the outside:

But is unfortunately a little difficult to navigate once you’re in there. After a bit of hunting and elevator riding I found my book section and was thrilled to discover all the relevant texts for my English classes were located in the same little area. Hooray for simple joys. I made an attempt to start reading in the little carousel but decided it was too uncomfortable and cold and that I’d be able to borrow the book for a week anyway. I went downstairs to check out the café and found it to be equivalent to the one at the Union, only less busy. I had a cheddar+coleslaw sandwich that was surprisingly good and one of their awesome muffins. Checkout took some time because I wasn’t in the system yet, but after a few minutes that got sorted out and I was back in the gloomy day. The weather was just too depressing to warrant a longer stay and I was feeling a little tired too so I just caught a bus from Chancery Lane for a few minutes ride to the Strand Campus. I happened to alight on one of the old classic double-deckers on which a conductor rides who calls out the stops and comes around to each person to check tickets or Oyster cards. You could tell the bus was quite old and only had one opening. These buses only run on the north bank and even then for limited runs around the most touristy areas. They want to both protect and show off these old classics. I’ll get a picture the next time I’m by one. From the Strand it was a simple matter of catching the 68 for home.

Back in the dorm I was surprised to find that Lainey and Gregg had already returned. We chatted for a bit about our classes and how funny their “Experiences of War” class was. Lainey informed she actually learned something for once which is always a positive thing. We went down to dinner at 6. They were serving vegetable curry which was just chili powder spiced boiled vegetables, but at least I got some veggies. I chatted with Liane about my family travels and such and she told me that her sister was getting married in September in Hawai’i and we talked about how cool that place would be for a wedding.

After dinner I just chilled in the dorm and talked with my mom about our upcoming Spain trip. A lot of the other JYAs left for the bar at 8 to pre-party before heading out to a club in Chelsea. I have a busy day tomorrow so I declined to go. Besides, my (oh so precious) leather jacket still smells a little of smoke from the last club (on 6 Jan!) and I’m not in any hurry to get any of my other clothes similarly infused with that poisonous gas. Our little chat over, I blogged and did some reading (gasp!) for class. Then a bit of messing around, planning the next day, and, of course, sleep…

18 Jan

Rolled out of bed oh so reluctantly at 8 this morning and proceeded to get ready surprisingly quickly. Finding out you’re about 10 minutes late helps speed the process. Liane joined me at breakfast and afterwards she headed to the bus station while I walked over to the train station. The trains spoil me; I can get to the Strand Campus in just over 15 minutes versus at least 25 on the bus. I’m paranoid about making trains on time so I was there much earlier than necessary. A bunch of other JYAs showed up minutes later including Katie, Gregg, Tom, and Margaret. Katie had a Jewish class at Guy’s so she left us at Elephant and Castle (I love the name of that stop) while the rest of us continued across the bridge to London Blackfriars. The view from our bridge is not as impressive as the one from Waterloo, though you can see Tower Bridge quite clearly (though today the air was rather misty). A short hop on the Tube later we were at our campus. I went to my first 1^st World War Literature class.

I found out Brooke, another JYA at KCH, was in my class and chatted with her for a bit before we got started. The professor was rather dull and though he seems to know his material quite well, he’s anything but an inspiring lecturer. I also didn’t like how though he introduced the course, he didn’t introduce himself. I wish professors would make it a point to introduce themselves to their students. Anyway, the remaining minutes of the hour passed slowly and finally it was time to go to Sociolinguistics.

Through some scheduling fluke, we were assigned the wrong room and thus arrived nearly 7 minutes late to the class after stumbling about the building for a bit and popping into a couple of wrong classrooms. The professor’s name is Devyani Sharma and though clearly Indian, her accent is mostly British (though not as British as some of the other Indian’s I’ve heard). She seems pretty nice and pretty found of handouts as well. I felt grateful that I’d taken an introductory linguistics class before this because she jumped right in with some of the terminology we learned. The course today was mostly an overview of what we’ll be covering in the term (like my first class) and it looks like it’ll be fun.

She asked at one point if any of us were not from London or the UK and several of us raised our hands. By chance I ended up near the front of the classroom so she called on me to tell the class where I was from. I just said America, and more specifically North Carolina. She said, “Oh good, from the South,” and I thought great, she’ll expect a southern accent when I clearly don’t have one. At one point she talked about which regions of England pronounce the “r” in words like “far” and “cart” and she asked me to say it. I said it with the “r” although I’m not sure if everyone in the South does. She showed us a map of England that delineated which regions kept the “r” and which parts dropped it. Apparently, the dropped “r” is a newer form of pronunciation than keeping it, also known as the rhotic “r” which I thought was interesting. I’m sure Armitage would just see that as confirmation that the English are just lazy when it comes to speaking English. The class went by rather quickly since she’s a fast talker and we covered quite a bit for just 40 minutes. I think the some of the phonetics of the class might drive me crazy like they did in Ling 30A, but overall I think the class will be fun. At the very least, I know I’ll be learning something which is more than I can say for several of the other JYAs I’ve talked to. I guess that too many of them signed up for introductory classes, which are equivalent to our sophomore level classes. Oh well, too bad for them.

After Sociolinguistics it was back downstairs for another hour of 1^st WW lit, this time in seminar form. The professor was almost equally dull in seminar though it looks like there are some competent English scholars in the class, so the discussions should get fairly interesting.

After the seminar, I grabbed lunch at the Terazza where I ran into a bunch of JYAs on their way out. They finished with class at 12 while I finished at 1 so it looks like lunch will be a little tough to coordinate on Wednesdays. Eh, that’s fine.

From lunch I walked up to Covent Garden (I love how it’s not even a ten minute walk from my campus!) and looked around for a Dr. Martin’s store. After some wandering around I found one and while they had a pair of neat looking shoes for £50, I could not bring myself to buy them because a) I doubt they had them in my size and b) they were made of cloth and not leather. A pair of Dr. Martin’s boots must be made of leather to be authentic. I was pleased to see that the prices at least were fairly reasonable, if the selection was less than exemplary. I’m looking for some really funky designs since I already have a pair of black ones, so if anyone spies something cool (please, not pink or red or yellow) and shiny, please let me know. After that I wandered around Covent Garden some more until I stumbled upon a mini mall in the middle of it. On the ground floor I spied this little café stand that was selling stuff like smoothies, coffee, tea, all fair trade and organic stuff. My lunch was a pathetic little sandwich so I was hunkering for something more. When I saw how much they were promoting Innocent^® smoothies, I just had to buy something from them (besides, they’re totally fair trade, so I know I’m contributing to something good). I caved in and bought a £2.50 chocolate milkshake that was really good; not terribly sweet but chocolaty and quite refreshing. I also saw a poster in which Colin Firth allowed (fair trade) coffee to be poured all over him. It was funny.

With my delicious (and absurdly expensive, I know) drink in hand, I walked back out onto the streets and just wandered some more before heading to the Tube station and catching a train to Piccadilly, from which I connected to Elephant and Castle. At that station, it was a simple matter of waiting some minutes for a bus, and by 16.00 I was home. I considered hanging around for a bit to wait for sunset, but the sky was too overcast to hope for a good show. I checked mail when I got back and discovered a letter with a “Royal Mail” stamp and my name on it. Hooray! I had sent off for my student Oyster photocard about a week back and it had finally arrived. This little card means I can get a 30% discount on Oyster travelcards which, to put it mildly, is simply brilliant. The other JYAs came back about 10 minutes later and we made plans for dinner at six. As I was checking my bank account statement, I noticed a second deposit had been made yesterday in the amount of $500 from UNC. I was puzzled at this development since I had already received my refund check and wasn’t expecting anything else. Apparently, I had miscalculated how much I’d be getting back, so this deposit was legitimate. Student Oyster+ “And then I found FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS” really made my afternoon swell.

Dinner, however, was not as amusing: mushroom stroganoff? I don’t know what a stroganoff is! It was probably the worst vegetarian dish they’ve served so far so I contented myself with some bread, pasta, and a banana. The banana was good.

Post-dinner: Lainey decided that she simply had to take care of her laundry before going out to Sainsbury’s, so sure enough she packed all of her clothes into her bright red carry-on suitcase and prepared to haul it down the corridors to the laundry room. She had forgotten to bring a laundry bag (I fortunately remembered mine) and the thoughtof her dragging her bag down was just too funny to Gregg and I so I told her I would be taking pictures. Gregg and I waited outside our doors, cameras poised. I showed off Saket’s camera and in the zoom contest it beat his. His is smaller and easier to carry around, but I still think Saket’s camera is far superior. Lainey finally showed, luggage in hand, and we immediately started snapping pictures. Deciding to make the most of the scene, Lainey kindly posed for us:

She’s such a good sport.

That was pretty much the sum of the excitement for the evening (at least for me; I was still feeling a little sick so I declined an invitation by Kate to go to the bar). Yes, it’s the little things that really matter. I just kind of puttered around the room for the rest of the evening and turned in around 1.

Some More Pictures

Ed Palmer manning the fuBar at King's College Hall

From left to right: Gregg, Tom, Lainey, random Brits

Those shoes better be diamond studded...

Pretty clouds

Gregg, Micah, and Lainey at Somerset House

Some Picture Highlights

My dorm facing away from the window.

Famous metope of Lapith killing Centaur on Parthenon

Three goddesses of a Parthenon pediment

Skylight of the British Museum in the afternoon

The Rosetta Stone