28 Feb

I can’t believe February’s nearly done
When it just feels as though this month’s just begun
Eleven syllables are hard to write in
So I will switch to eight and once more begin

“Causes” seminar was quite good
Gregg answered most questions about
Nuke subs as I was sure he would
Leaving some Brits a bit put out

After class we went home by train
Suddenly, it started snowing!
Had we been sent to a whole new plane
Or perhaps we were in Des Moines?

(That’s Kevin’s suggestion, not mine;
I would never write such a line)

The evening was uneventful
And passed me by rather quickly
Until I sought some nice restful
Sleep that eluded me cruelly

Insomnia is new for me
I usually sleep very well
Thus ended this February
I hope that March will be as swell

~Sapana Vora, 2006

27 Feb

Monday, Monday (faintly: Monday, Monday). You know the song. Short-entry fans, you’ll love this: I really didn’t do much today. I woke up late, read and did some work for class, ate dinner with friends, read some more for class and talked to the family a bit, then went to bed. Hoo-rah. Cheers!

26 Feb

Perhaps once more I’ll attempt a lyric
And I beg you be not a harsh critic
As I recount to you my day’s events
In a rhyme that hopefully makes some sense

The Torino Games ended at long last
I enjoyed watching recounts of the past
Fortnight that has given me such pleasure
And all the events viewed at my leisure

I spoke to Gregg about his Dover trip
An event that I sadly chose to skip
Because of my fondness for warm weather
And refusal to travel in other

After dinner I chatted with neighbors
Until they returned to their class labors
Around 1 I finally went to bed
And with sleep rested my tired, weary head

~Sapana Vora, 2006

25 Feb

Due to my extraordinarily late night the other day, it wasn’t until 14:15 that I finally rose from my slumber and “started” my day. It was so late that I only ate a light meal and just waited to really eat until dinner. I did some reading for class and puttered around until Lainey called me for dinner around 6. The food was decent and I was sad that I might be missing the last of the Torino games. Turns out I didn’t miss much and I came back to the dorm well in time to watch the final bobsled runs and speed skating races.

I was happy to see Apolo Ohno finally get his gold and to see the US speed skaters claim the bronze in the relay. Speed skating is definitely one of my favorite events. The BBC did a good job of ending the games with their day-by-day recaps. They also showed a short segment of an interview with Katarina Witt, the amazing two-time gold winning figure skater. At one point during the interview, she just started dancing “to a music all her own” as the BBC newsperson said, much to the surprise of the people interviewing her. They weren’t sure what to do and sort of started sort of dancing along with her. I found that hilarious. Witt recently wrote an editorial in the times saying that while she felt the new judging and scoring system is more fair to the skaters, it really takes some of the magic out of the event. I’d definitely have to agree with her on that one.

With the Games finally over, I lost a great reason to slack. What a pity. I’m glad I got to see so many events this year; it was wonderful to watch so many races and such live and to see such a variety as well. I watched everything from curling (a greatly misunderstood sport in the US, except maybe in Minnesota where the US men’s team is from) to cross-country skiing, bobsled to biathlon, and Super-G to snowboard-cross. It’s certainly been a fun fortnight.

I read for a little while before going to bed after my “exhausting” day. Cheers!

24 Feb

Only one more month of classes! I can’t believe it. Hooray! Our housekeeper came by a little later than usual, so I got to sleep in a bit more before she came. After calmly eating lunch and reading the news, I left for my linguistics seminar. The class was fun, though the weather outside was nasty enough to make me go right back to the dorm afterwards. I hung out there reading and such until dinner.

Right before we went downstairs, I read my e-mail from the housing director at UNC. To my shock and great sadness, I learned that one UNC student died and another was in critical condition after falling through a third floor window in Stacy Hall. I did not know the students personally but it was still a horrible thing to contemplate. If anyone knew Keith Shawn Smith personally, I am deeply sorry for your loss.

I watched Olympics and read some time after dinner. The “incident at Stacy Hall” as the resident director called it stayed on my mind all day and it was kind of hard to really enjoy the ice skating exhibition or the final hockey match. Liane came over around 9 to talk about the play “Resurrection Blues” by Arthur Miller that is playing at the Old Vic theater (where I saw IAN McKELLEN). Gregg came by too and we made plans to watch it next Wednesday after class. It’s one of Miller’s last plays and will star Neve Campbell of “Scream” fame. All the big names come to London (after they’ve been to New York). They stayed over to watch the Olympics with me and after making fun of the announcer for the Russia vs. Finland bronze medal match, we just talked for a long while.

Tom stopped by around 24:00 to talk too and then left around 1 to watch Gregg’s copy of the extended edition of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Gregg, Liane, and I talked more until Tom stopped by again around 2:30 and asked if the movie really was so long that he was only halfway through. I told him that the second half was the best part and he decided to stick with it and watch it. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie so I said I’d watch it with him. My computer refuses to play DVDs and Tom’s screen sucks, so Gregg was kind enough to let us borrow his laptop while he went to bed. Liane had been yawning for some time and also called it a night. She and Gregg are going to Dover tomorrow to see a castle and the famous white cliffs.

I had to try my best not to keep making comments on the film and tell Tom a lot of the “behind the scenes” trivia I’ve picked up by watching the DVD extras. He’d never seen the film before so it was also hard not to ruin it for him. Once you’ve watched a movie like that so many times with people you know well, you get used to talking a lot while watching it. I hate it when people talk during new movies or films I’ve never seen so I did my best to keep my mouth shut and only talk when he asked a question. The movie was over around 4:15 and after Tom left I packed up the computer and returned it to Gregg’s room. I got ready for bed and managed to fall asleep around 5. What a night! Cheers!

23 Feb

I didn’t get to see the NC State vs. UNC basketball game last night because I had class today at 11. I was very pleased to see the ESPN headline “UNC Tramples NC State.” YES!! UNC all the way. I knew it was going to be cold today, but it was still surprising to see SNOW outside! Granted, it wasn’t heavy snow or even very distinguishable from sleet, but it definitely had snow elements.

Court Cultures was fun as usual and it was unfortunate that our seminar was interrupted by yet another fire alarm. I swear, I seems like we have one almost every week at this school! After class I decided to be adventurous and crossed Waterloo Bridge on the way to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. Professor Zim told us in class that while she was crossing this bridge the other day, she was afraid of being blown off of it1 She’s a tiny British woman and considering the kind of wind I faced while crossing, I can well imagine her concern. It was dreadfully windy and rather painful for the face. It reminded me of what we went through at the Outer Banks a couple of years ago.

With modern art, either you get it or you don’t. I really doubt there’s a halfway point here. Me, I don’t. There were a couple of exhibits that were kind of neat, especially the white blocks one. The rest of it baffled, bored, or frustrated me so I finally left after just half an hour. I walked across Millennium Bridge to get back to the north bank and it was a decent view if rather windy and a bit foggy. This bridge was completed in 2000 to commemorate, obviously, the millennium. I walked for a while to get to Blackfriar’s station then caught the Tube back to Temple. I didn’t have to wait too long for a bus near King’s and I made it back to the dorm just before 16:00.

More Olympics were on so I watched that while I thawed. Dinner followed shortly afterwards and the conversation was quite pleasant. After dinner, I watched more Olympics before some of my friends came over to talk for a while. We watched some Games and talked until 12:30. After they left, I did some more reading for class before going to bed. Cheers!

22 Feb

All right, no more lyrics. 1^st WW Lit bored me to tears again, but linguistics made up for it as usual. 1^st WW seminar wasn’t much better than lecture, and with great relief the clock turned to 13:00 and I was free.

My ling project was due today and so with a bit of trouble I found the room my paper said I was supposed to go to. No one was in there. A little puzzled, I decided to go to the English common room. On the way up there I ran into another person from my class and we both headed for that room to find it full of students frantically filing out coversheets and signing plagiarism forms. My two copies were all ready to go so I quickly signed them in and left.

I was feeling hungry and so I grabbed a sandwich before catching the bus home. The weather was blustery and nasty so I didn’t feel like staying out much. At the dorm, I did some reading for class and watched Olympics until dinner. I still had some reading to finish for my Court Cultures class so I did that for a while before going to bed.

I also found out that the United States men’s curling team beat the Great Britain team for the bronze medal. We beat the Brits at their own game! Three cheers huzzah for the USA!! Cheers!

21 Feb

Since my last poem was such a hit
Showing off my so wonderful wit
I’ll try and give it another go
And once more my wittiness to show

Monday morning no ‘Causes of War’
I skip the class for it’s such a bore
Seminar was rather interesting
Because we tried out a whole new thing

Two classes combined into one mess
A fake crisis we had to address
Our Prime Minister was a great chap
Conflict resolved with little mishap

From there I went to the library
The wind was blowing quite a fury
I returned my book then headed back
To the dorm on a familiar track

For dinner I chose to eat in house
Than eat food at which I often grouse
My project was done and so I read
Some linguistics for the day ahead

As the day finally closed I tried
Hard to sleep but was cruelly denied
Until two I laid awake in bed
At last I rested my weary head

~Sapana Vora, 2006

20 Feb

Little verses short and sweet
Like cupcakes are good to eat
Simple phrases soft and meet
For the eye a tasty treat

Prose written long and boring
Will meet with much ignoring
Eagerness turns to snoring
Instead of praise adoring

So I leave you with a rhyme
That won't take much of your time
To endure such is no crime
A poem small and sublime

~Sapana Vora, 2006

19 Feb

I woke up around noon and went to Sainsbury’s for my weekly grocery trip before lunch. I listened to my iPod this time while shopping and it really did make the trip more enjoyable, like Lainey said it would. I sorted my groceries in the room and then ate a quick lunch before settling down to more work and Olympics. I heard on the daily recap that the American’s men’s curling team defeated the British! Who would have expected that?! And, no surprise here, most of the American curlers are from Minnesota. The Brits will still compete in a medal-match though, so all is well. Go Team USA!!

My project is going somewhat smoothly and I’ve certainly done all the research I need to in order to make some intelligent comments in the paper. Gregg came back around 3 from Portsmouth. Portsmouth is on the southern coast of England and either used to be or still is a major commercial and naval port. The HMS Victory is there (i.e. the ship Lord Nelson fought and died on) along with other British naval historic artifacts. He went with Micah, another JYA who has a room at KCH but is almost never here because he spends most of his time at the Stamford Street apartments with his girlfriend (he’s definitely winning on location, I can tell you that; Stamford Street is about a five minute walk from Waterloo Bridge). They left on Friday and by Gregg’s account, it sounds like they had a good time. I’ll make it a point to visit the place in warmer weather. Lainey also returned from her weekend trip with Sarah and Kelsey (a friend from high school who’s studying at Westminster this spring) to Amsterdam. They went on the “Heineken Experience” at the brewery and apparently had a great time. They came back with matching Heineken jackets that are pretty funny.

Dinner was pretty decent and the stories the weekend travelers told made up for anything lacking in the meal. After dinner I continued to work on my project and watched more Olympics (broken record, I know). I chatted with the folks at home for a bit and kept track of the UNC vs. Wake Forest game. We won, of course, which made my evening sweet. I spent the rest of the night working on my project and miscellany before going to bed around 1.

18 Feb

Woke up latish today and after eating a light lunch, I proceeded to work more on linguistics and watch the Olympics. Seriously, that’s what I’ve mostly been doing this week. The day started out a little gray but turned rainy towards late afternoon; a bit of a bummer for those attending the “Bad Taste” party at KCH tonight. That party started promptly at 8 p.m. and the music continued to pound energetically until just past 1 in the morning. My impeccable taste prevented me from attending and I happily watched the speed skating 1000m and 1500m instead.

Yang Yang (A) of China didn’t make it to the women’s finals which made me sad. At the Salt Lake games, she was the first Chinese woman ever to medal (or was it win gold?) in speed skating and she ended up skating off with two gold at those games. The Korean men and women dominated today with gold and silver in both men’s and women’s 1000m. Poor Apolo Ohno finished in bronze, but at least this race was much cleaner than what happened last time when that spectacular crash let the Aussie win.

I ate an orange for a late night snack and then read more LLL before going to bed around 2. Cheers! (So you like these shorter posts, eh? I’ll try to continue them, but sometimes I just have so much to say, so much to say, so much to say, so much to say…)

17 Feb

Fridays…I was feeling sleepy this morning so I decided to just take the trash out and not have my room cleaned. I heard Lainey and Gregg leave while getting ready and waiting to take a shower. This place will be rather quiet without them this weekend. Boohoo. It’s fine though, I certainly have more than enough work to keep me busy. I worked for a while, ate a light lunch, took a little break to watch the Olympics, and then continued working. I kept up this pattern of lightly eating, working, and breaking for most of the day.

I decided I’d gone long enough without doing laundry so after scoping out the laundry room and fortunately finding it free, I washed my clothes. Washing is a simple matter of waiting about 50 minutes. Drying the clothes ended up taking most of the evening. I feel that my clothes don’t dry as quickly here as they do at home, even though UNC uses the same washers and dryers, is because my loads are so extraordinarily large because I’m cheap. A £1.20 per wash and 20p for every 16 minutes of drying is no small amount, so I have to cram all my clothes into one wash and only dry them for 32 minutes (of they’d be really wet). Fortunately, the radiator was on full blast and by hanging stuff on it and around the room, I managed to dry everything to my satisfaction. While I waited for all the stuff to dry, I worked more on linguistics and watched more Olympics. Curling was on!

Curling is a sport that you just have to know the rules to in order to appreciate it. It’s not like hockey where it’s fast, full of action, and obvious what the objective is. Curling is a bit more complex; the BBC commentators and players of the game call it “chess on ice,” and it certainly requires many of the skills used in chess. It was nice to listen to the BBC commentators explain the game and after looking up some curling websites, I learned the lingo and could follow along as various strategies were discussed. Great Britain was playing Switzerland so of course the BBC folk were interested in the outcome of the game. They did well to keep the bias out and made some funny comments on the “brotherhood” of the game and how disputes would often be “settled out in the bar afterward.” Not surprisingly, curling is a Scottish sport and as one BBC woman said, “they had to do something on those long, cold nights.” The Scots started sliding big rocks across ice and before the world knew it, curling was born.

Once all my clothes dried, I put them away before reading a bit more Shakespeare then calling it a night. Cheers!

16 Feb

Since this week is reading week, I’ve been staying in instead of hitting the town like I would if I had class. It’s kind of nice to be around the dorm in the sense that my clothes stay cleaner longer and I’m saving a good bit of money. Today, however, I broke my routine by heading into town for a short while. I needed to find a couple of books for my 1^st WW Lit class and headed to the Borders on Charing Cross Road in search of those articles. I found one but it proved too pricey to warrant the expense, and since it was getting cold and rainy, I decided to just head back to the dorm.

Apparently, I missed a mini hail storm that some of the other JYAs had to endure for a while. Funny, for it to hail in February. Well, London is a strange place. After dinner with the gang, I headed back to my room to do some more work and catch some Olympics. Speed skating! Certainly one of the more dramatic events full of changing lanes, crashes, and close finishes. Gregg heard the Olympics on in my room and stopped by. We watched for a bit, then Liane came by because she was bored.

Somehow, my room has turned into the hangout place for talking about random stuff. It is somewhat centrally located (at least for our little end of the corridor) and certainly the warmest of all our rooms since I keep my window closed and the radiator on all the time. We talked about Olympics and then Lainey stopped by. We ended talking about books we’ve read as children and I was happy to hear that the others are also fans of Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising” series. I’ve been meaning to buy the paperback collection from Amazon for, I can’t exactly remember, about twenty dollars. I love that series.

Gregg and Lainey were leaving for Portsmouth and Amsterdam, respectively, the next day so they all left around 12:30. I stayed up for a bit reading some Shakespeare for a class before going to bed. Cheers!

15 Feb

Last night was so windy that I lost my cheese again. What was worse, I even lost the box of juice I had sitting on the ledge. The wind must have been rather considerable considering that 1 L box was still half full! I had a bag of Babybel cheese (Saket and Sachi know what I’m talking about) that I was cooling on the ledge. I managed to clamp the end between the windowpane and the frame in order to prevent another cheese disaster. Foolishly, while trying to adjust said cheese, I failed to hold onto the end of the bag in my room and no sooner did I open the window that I saw the bag whisked away by the wind. It too was mostly full and must have weighed about as much as a medium set of keys. Bottom line: it was very windy.

Later that night, as I was working on linguistics, Lainey stopped by with a question about the internships she was applying for. Cable networks do a terrible job of writing instructions for summer internships. While we were checking out the CBS one, we saw a bit on 60 Minutes and something to do with Andy Rooney. The guy is hilarious, and we ended up reading some of his commentary and pieces starting with his brief lesson educating the American public about the Middle East. Just go to this site: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/09/60minutes/rooney/main1301116.shtml...it’s funny stuff. After reading some more Andy and watching a clip of his “average day at work,” we watched a bit of Daily Show.

Jon Stewart had a serious windfall with the accidental shooting of Harry Whittington by Vice President Dick Cheney during a quail-hunting trip. It’s hard to find the event really funny since, after all, a 78-year old man was shot in the face and ended up having a mild heart attack due to pellets lodged in his heart. There’s nothing terribly funny about the event, but the fact that it was DICK CHENEY somehow seems so fitting. It was also extremely upsetting how light the White House treated the incident. Jon Stewart has a right to joke about it; Scott McClellan does not. I mean, if the man dies it won’t be funny for anyone! I also find it aggravating how slow and reluctant this administration is to communicate with the public. I believe that there are better stories to report on than this one, but for the VP to wait days to address the press? It only makes the event even more of a public relations disaster and shows how simply unwilling this administration is to admit mistakes. 2008 cannot come fast enough….

Anyway, after some Daily Show Lainey went to sleep since she was feeling unusually tired all evening and had a lot of paper writing to finish before going to Amsterdam this weekend. I did some more work and reading after she left before going to bed. Cheers!

14 Feb

Happy belated birthday to Naman!! I’m sad that I have to be all the way over here while everyone back home is turning 21. Not that we’d go crazy or anything, but it would have been nice to buy them drinks and such. Alas, I guess I’ll have to wait until June. Nothing exciting happened today. Lainey and Sarah went for a ride on the London Eye tonight which should have been fun (haven’t talked to them about it yet), and since there was a clear night today the view should have been spectacular.

I spent the day working on my Linguistics project by sending out more surveys and tabulating those I’ve already collected. The data is rather interesting so far, so the paper should be fun to write. All in all, the day was rather dull.

13 Feb

No class today so, as expected, I slept in a bit and took it easy. I did some more work for my linguistics project and some serious tidying up of my room (my desk was a mess). I rather piddled about until dinner at 6. The mushroom stroganoff wasn’t terribly thrilling but company as usual rescued the meal. After dinner I found out from Gregg that the BBC has live streaming video of the Olympics, so I proceeded to watch pairs figure skating and women’s snowboarding for, I’ll admit it, the next three hours. I can’t help it; I just the Olympics and always have.

The Chinese pairs team that won the silver had perhaps the best display of sportsmanship and athleticism I’ve seen in a while. The woman goes into an awful looking splits and crash into the boards after a botched toss that was aiming for a quadruple jump. Quads are near impossible for women to begin with, and off a toss it’s incredibly risky. The pair managed to pull one off in the short program or during practice and figured they could do it again. After the fall, the woman couldn’t even propel herself off the ice. She rested for a few minutes and, much to the surprise of the BBC announcers, came back out onto the ice with her partner and they continued their program from where they left off (you’re allowed to do this). She landed perfectly all of her jumps and technically they were amazing enough to warrant the silver medal. They were the last act of the night for skating and it was incredible.

This is why I love the Olympics.

Snowboarding came on after that and, as expected, the American women dominated the top while a Norwegian managed just to squeeze into third place. Still a good show even though the outcome was more predictable than most (except maybe the constant German domination in luge). I talked to my folks for a bit, and then did some more note-taking for my war studies essay before going to bed. Cheers!

12 Feb

Ah, another lazy Sunday. I slept in through lunch and, feeling hungry and being out of bread, made a trip to Sainsbury’s to stock up for the week. I did really well on food last week so I might get to splurge sometime and maybe get some good Indian grub. We’ll see. After coming back from Sainsbury’s, I did some reading in my room and more sending out of surveys. Before I knew it dinner time had come, but since I had just started talking with my parents and really didn’t feel like grabbing dining hall food, I decided to eat in (turns out that was for the better). After dinner I did more reading and some messing around with Oregon Trail. The UNC vs. Miami game was going to come on at 1 a.m. so I decided to kill time until then by reading Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” again since I need to do that for class next week. It worked, and despite feeling a little bogged down by the language (just like the first time), I was ready on the computer, Skyped and everything, by 1.

College basketball is not nearly as much to listen to as to watch. It’s kind of hard to do other things while listening ‘cause you really have to pay attention. I’m glad we won, but the whole 2-hour long games early in the morning might get to be a bit much. At least the Duke game will be on a Saturday so I should have no problem watching that. Hooray! The game was over at 3 and I promptly went to sleep. Cheers!

11 Feb

I had lunch with most of the gang around 12:30. Brian Emery (he goes to Sarah-Lawrence back home and is a Film History major) came just as everyone else was ready to leave so I decided to stay back and keep him company. We talked about our plans after college (he wants to become a screenwriter/director) and our internship(s) over the past years. After lunch I read for class until I got bored. I decided to skip dinner because I wanted to finish off the bread and fruit in my room before it went bad. Gregg told me later that I was wise to skip dinner since the vegetarian option didn’t look too appetizing (though the curry this afternoon was pretty good). After dinner Liane and Gregg stopped by and asked if I wanted to play pool. The night was still young and since I have all of next week to work (reading week = no class except one War Studies seminar) I decided to join them.

I’ve decided that the English have very strange taste in billiards games. Snooker=bizarre and overly complicated, and their regulation size pool table is much smaller than ours; it feels like one of those toys you play on as a kid that can convert from a hockey-table to a pool table and such. You know the kind I mean? Also, instead of having different colors of balls either solid or striped and all numbered, they have seven red and seven yellow balls and the usual eight ball. The balls are also much smaller than the kind we use and the cue ball is tiny! Funny thing though, is that the cue sticks are the same size that we use. Weird. Gregg won the first couple of rounds while I soundly defeated them both in the last round. Mwahaha. Three rounds was enough in that cold room so we turned the set back in and headed back to our rooms.

After pool I decided to be really productive and read a good bit more on Queen Elizabeth. We received our essay options for the class on Thursday, and I’ve decided to discuss “How far do the politics of the Elizabethan court either illuminate or compromise your reading of any works on this course?” Should be a fun essay to research, if not actually to write (yes, they do exist). After that I just updated my blog before going to sleep. Cheers!

10 Feb

9:30, on the dot, I hear Elaine, our housekeeper, come by our end of the corridor. I quickly straighten the room and get ready for a shower before making room for her to clean. I like coming back from a clean shower to a clean room. There’s something so right about that. I enjoyed a leisurely lunch since I didn’t have to leave until 12:10 to catch the 12:24 train.

I arrived at the station in plenty of time for a badly delayed train to Blackfriars that looked as though it would only get worse. There was a train for London Bridge that was my back-up, and though it takes about 10 minutes longer, it looked like the right choice for this morning. About two stops after I got on board, my coach was assailed by a troop of schoolchildren just bounding with energy on this Friday afternoon. Naturally, three of them sat around me and I could hear them quite clearly despite the music in my ears. They were a funny lot and got so excited by every stop we passed by, especially as we got near London Bridge. You can see Tower Bridge shortly before and they simply lost it. Many thought it was the actual Tower of London before realizing it was the bridge of the same name. I guess it’s true that visitors often know more about London than the residents themselves.

I guess I had forgotten how much larger London Bridge station is than Blackfriars, and it took an alarmingly long amount of time to reach the Tube platform. Looking at my watch, I noticed that I had just over 15 minutes to get to class. I caught the Northern line to Bank (the Bank of England where you can still get shillings and such outdated currency) and then had to go through the maze that is that station before reaching my desired Circle line platform. I reached the platform just as a train departed, much to my displeasure. When the next train arrived, I only had 10 minutes until 13:00. I was four stops away and still needed time to walk to campus and then get to my room. I was a little worried to say the least.

Upon reaching Temple I bolted out of the train and booked it to the Strand. My leather coat and gloves were off though it was quite cold outside (I freak out about being late to class to easily). Checking my watch every 30 seconds, I manage to reach my seminar room just seconds past 13:00 to find….the room nearly empty and only six students in there. I had time to settle in and get my materials out before the professor showed up. I just laughed to myself and thanked my luck that it wasn’t a normal day on which I would have been sorely embarrassed. When your class has only a dozen students (and you’re the only American), there is no place to hide.

My group had apparently not done the reading so it was my job to explain to them. They said I did a good job of it which only adds to my conviction that I really must go into teaching at some point in my life. Certainly not yet because I don’t know anything, but definitely at some point in the future (once I learn to get organized). The class went well and since the subjects studied were from the Detroit area for one of the case studies we looked at, I was called upon a few times to offer my expertise on American high school culture (Jocks and Burnouts, anyone?) It was fun.

I wanted to get back to my dorm after class because I was hungry and felt bad that Lainey was all by herself, still sick. She’s getting slightly better, but still not over it yet. Dinner was blah so I made up for it by eating an orange later I love oranges, though I’m sad that I can’t peel the big ones as nicely as I can the clementines. It also doesn’t help that I just trimmed by claws so I can’t just rip whatever I please anymore. Pity.

Raj, a Brit of Indian descent who lives at KCH, was at our table and we got to talking with him during dinner. The kid is hilarious. He really knows his hip-hop and other forms of music and was impressed that the artist Common came to UNC last year for Homecoming. He was a little disappointed that I didn’t go, but I said I would have been happy to trade places with him so he could go. Also, this kid has the sharpest wit of any Brit I’ve met so far. In response to being threatened with a “smart bomb,” he replied: “A smart bomb? What is that? A bomb that challenges me to a game of chess and if I lose, kills me? That’s a pretty smart bomb!” Lainey also claimed to secretly be a ninja at one point after he said he would train his second child to be one, and he just had a lot of fun with that idea. He totally made up for the rather (but not completely mum) blah food.

Lainey seemed in need of more social interaction after dinner so I offered that we play cards to kill time until the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. A lot of people were going pub crawling for one of the barkeep’s birthday and though she wished she could join them, it would have been a terrible idea to do so. Instead, she, Gregg, and I played Hearts. I beat them soundly, though I managed to shoot the moon on the last round that simultaneously busted them both quite by accident. I wasn’t even paying attention and I got all the points. The first time I did it was completely on purpose, much to Gregg’s chagrin. Poor Lainey had never played before, so here Gregg and I are trying to teach her while she’s still drugged up and a little out of it from being cooped up all day and writing papers.

Tom stopped by near the end of the game and offered us some pomegranate juice. I’m a fan of the fruit and the juice sounded good so we all tried some. It was delicious, though it must take a lot of pomegranates to make just one liter of juice. After our juice, we left for the TV rooms with the idea that surely the Olympics would be on. Instead, we find two people who had reserved the room watching AMERICAN IDOL. I felt incredibly disappointed. We tried the common room after that but no dice. To assuage our disappointment, we decided to watch “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.” A classic movie that only improves with repeated viewings. Also, it’s always fun to watch your favorite movies with new people who also love the movie. We had some great commentary going for a while, and we agreed that the Nazi monkey was still pretty cute though evil.

After the flick I worked on my blog for a while before calling it a night. Lots of writing and reading to do this weekend1 Cheers!

9 Feb

Ah, Thursdays. One of my favorite days of the week. I was a good girl today and packed my lunch before going to class at 11. Court Cultures was nice as usual, though unfortunately Matt, one of the other JYAs in the class, made a fool of himself during his seminar presentation. It was unfortunate that his presentation partner chose to be absent today, which seemed to have unnerved him a bit. Regardless, it is inexcusable to allow your cell phone to ring twice, loudly at that, during your presentation. Apparently it was his mummy calling from home, having “just got up” since it was 12:30 GMT and thus 7:30 EST. A minute later, the phone rings again. Some people never learn. The class and Prof. Zim were quite amused, though I think Zim would have preferred not to have the interruption. I felt bad for Matt until the ringing. Oh well.

After class I bee-lined it (funny word that, because bees seldom fly in straight line, so I really did “beeline” it) to the library in search of more books for class. My search was in vain as all my desired texts were taken. Instead, I surreptitiously ate my lunch while reading Old Arcadia. The chair was rather uncomfortable so as soon as I finished I packed my things and left. I also realized that I had not brought the book that was due with me. Fortunately, no one had requested it and I was able to renew it just fine. The day was growing rather gloomy out so I headed straight home.

Upon reaching home I read for a while and worked on my linguistics project. Dinner was surprisingly delicious: vegetable kiev. It was vegetables slightly fried and lightly breaded with some creamy sauce inside. It made me happy. After dinner I did a great deal of work on my linguistics survey by sending it out to a bunch of people who kindly and obligingly filled it out. Thank you all! My aim in my project is to look at the differences and similarities between the slang used by British and American university students. I am also going to take into account the gender, age, and region of origin of the students to see if those affect lexical choice. Should prove to be quite interesting and I’ve gotten a few great responses.

So Gregg brought a lot of movies with him but though I tried to watch “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” alas, my disc drive refuses to recognize the disc. Instead, after finishing a good bit of work, I played the Oregon Trail again, this time as a farmer to really challenge myself. Definitely placed 2^nd in the Top Ten list. Hoorah.

Cheers!

8 Feb

Yesterday night was so windy that I lost some cheese I had sitting on my window sill/fridge. The wind was howling through the night and sprinkled a little rain on us for extra effect. I wasn’t too amused, and neither was my cheese (it’s a two storey drop, after all). I did find it later in the day, but didn’t trust the grass to preserve it well so regretfully I had to toss it.

Early start this morning to a slightly more exciting 1^st WW Lit class than normal because we had a guest lecturer. He informed us that our normal professor, Max Saunders, is considered one of the world’s leading experts on Ford Madox Ford, an author we will be reading shortly. Pretty impressive, I just wish he was more of an engaging lecturer (like Armitage) and could really impart his obvious enthusiasm for the material onto his students.

Linguistics followed shortly after and was incredibly amusing. At one point Matt, the other JYA and only other American in the class, and I were called upon to say “cot” and “caught” again to the class. We were discussing how regional pronunciations can merge or divide due to social factors such as stigmatization and mobility. She then put up a transparency of the US with colored lines dividing the country into zones which distinguish between the pronunciation and those that do not. North Carolina and most of the east does, while I do not, and Texas is about split and in fact going through a “transition.” When I explained that I grew up in Texas but live in North Carolina, she said that she’ll put me in Texas because it fits better with our observation. I found this quite funny because it sounded so arbitrary although in fact it is the appropriate action since I believe I speak more like someone from central Texas than from Piedmont North Carolina. I know, I find the strangest things funny. I’m such a dork, I’ll admit it. J

I went to the library again after class in search of useful books but came up empty. Instead I covertly ate my lunch at one of the desks (I’m pretty sure they don’t allow food near the books) while reading Old Arcadia by Philip Sidney. Poetically = complex and interesting; subject-wise = just another set of love songs (like Astrophil and Stella). From there I caught (cot?) a bus home and got to the dorm around 3.

I read more in OA and messed around on the computer a bit before dinner. After dinner, I joined Liane and Gregg in Gregg’s room for a glass of wine and some random conversation. I’ slowly getting used to the taste of it, but I still can’t stomach more than a glass at a time (while they can easily polish off most of a bottle). Besides, I feel bad about drinking other people’s alcohol and not being able to treat them immediately back. Though the conversation was interesting, I really had to pull away to finish my reading and prepare for class the next day. It’s my favorite one so I had better be on top of things. I literally read OA for the rest of the night before updating my blog after midnight and then finally going to bed. Cheers!

7 Feb

I woke up a wee bit later than planned and thus had to catch a slightly later train than I would have preferred. Oh well, I was skipping my useless class anyway so it didn’t matter. I was heading into town a little earlier than I needed to in order to buy our Spanish rail tickets. Waking up late wasn’t the only slightly jarring part of the morning.

Upon reaching the platform at Blackfriars, I hear a message over the PA that forces me to take off my headphones and keep them off. “Customer information,” it began, “Due to a person under a train, there will be no service in either direction on the District line from Edgeware Road to Earl’s Court.” A pause. Then, “Customer information: Due to a person under a train, there will be no service on the Circle line.” There was a slight murmur in the crowd around me and the next several minutes until the first District line train arrived felt very surreal. A person under the train? Fortunately, I did not need the Circle line that day, and nor was I traveling very far on the District line. I wondered what happened the whole way to the rail office and then for the rest of the day until I got home. Just the sound of it felt very disturbing.

The tickets purchasing went just fine, as did seminar. The seminar instructor is a young American who really knows his stuff and knows how to conduct a class, unlike the professor. Feeling tired of the snide and snobby British kids (especially the appropriately named Richard [think Richard III] from Ireland) in the seminar, I decided to really speak up and voice my American opinion of the democratic peace theory. I probably sounded kind of good but didn’t say anything brilliant, as expected. Eh.

I went to the library after class in search of some books for my Court Cultures class and was fortunately successful. I debated on waiting for a computer to check out the news about what I heard this morning but decided the queue was too long and left for home instead.

Upon reaching home, I immediately checked BBC and other news services. Nothing! I asked Lainey and Gregg about it when they got back and Lainey informed me that when she got to the station around 12, about an hour after I did, there were no delays or incidents being reported. I imagine only something like what happened 7 July 05 could really hamper the London Underground, but I still thought it strange that no one was talking about it.

Anyway, that’s kind of depressing so I’ll move on to other events. I found out a couple days ago that the UNC vs. Duke game would commence at 2 a.m. my time and thus was way too late to stay up for (I have class the next day at 10). Alas, but at least I’ll get to see some games. Poor Lainey is sick and thus didn’t make it to class today. It looks pretty bad and I hate to see someone who’s usually so vibrant and cheery talking in a weak whisper and nearly choking when trying to laugh (which happens often enough at dinner to warrant concern). Poor thing.

I didn’t do a lot at night; just read a lot for my linguistics class before calling it a night. Cheers!

P.S. During dinner the conversation somehow strayed to elementary school pastimes and when someone mentioned Oregon Trail, Lainey announced that she had the game on her computer at that very moment. Naturally, the rest of us wanted to know how and she said just two magic words: Apple emulator. Being the nostalgic geek I am, the first thing I do upon returning to my room is download an Apple emulator and the game to boot. I played all the way through (in under an hour) and successfully forded the river to reach Oregon. I lost Sachi, mom, and dad on the way (Saket and I were apparently made of hardier stuff). It was amazing.

6 Feb

I got an early start as planned and managed to make it to 79 Baker Street (221B will have to wait) right on time at 11. The Tube took forever since I was going nearly to the other side of the main part of town. It took me a few minutes to find the correct room, but once I did it was smooth sailing from there. The woman, Reyes, was extremely helpful and we managed to find good timings for all the trains we wanted. I was only there for about 40 minutes but managed to get pretty much all the information I needed. I didn’t book anything then ‘cause I wanted to clear the times and conditions with my parents first before dropping all that money.

I skipped breakfast so by the time I left I was very hungry. I grabbed a sandwich and some juice at a local Tesco and planned on eating said lunch on the Tube. The Circle line (the favorite line of tourists, since it literally goes in a circle and hits about 98% of major tourist destinations including Westminster, Victoria, Tower Hill, etc) was heavily delayed, much to my chagrin. An Indian-looking woman asked me on the platform how often the Circle line runs to this station and I replied every few minutes, which it normally does. Today was an exception however, and the delay allowed us to exchange some information about each other (a rare thing for British strangers to do). Apparently she lives about 20 minutes from Windsor (of the castle fame) and hasn’t been to central London in ages (she forgot the color of the Circle line which every Londoner knows by heart). She was going to a meeting at a hospital near South Kensington and works for Novartis. I told her that I interned with Glaxo over the summer and she said Glaxo was on a slightly larger scale than Novartis. She also kind of freaked out about mobile phone reception and didn’t like the “limited service” message she was getting. At one point on the ride she pulled out her laptop and with combination rolling briefcase and cell phone, she looked like a typical businessperson, which the people sitting across from us noticed and apparently didn’t like by the look on their faces.

When her stop finally came she said “See you!” as a farewell (which is such an Indian thing to say) while I responded with the very British “Cheers!” with a decent accent, and by that I mean replacing the “r” with an “h” and going light on the e’s. I felt quite British for a while, and by that I mean two seconds.

I managed the impossible at King’s and actually waited no more than two minutes at the bus station before my favorite, the 68, drove up. The bus was actually empty for a change and I took the opportunity to sit on the bottom deck instead of the top deck. The view is quite different from there and the ride more enjoyable. When I got back to the dorm I ate my lunch and reported in to my mom on my dealings with the Spanish Rail Service. We talked for a while hashing out details before she signed off for tea and I went back to work.

Dinner was nothing exciting and then it was back to the dorm for some more reading and such. Micah told me about this “Five Guys in a Limo” video in which the five most famous TV announcers or voice-over “artists” ride in limo to an awards ceremony. It’s quite funny. Don la Fontaine (i.e. The Voice of God) is by far the best of them all. That guy really has an amazing voice. Lainey and Sarah tried to get some pre-made cookie dough at Sainsbury’s ‘cause they wanted to bake cookies, but would you believe it? The British don’t have it! These uncivilized folk only have pre-made mixes that you still have to add water to. Seriously. I lent them a tiny pot I brought to *cook* meals in and in return they gave me two of the eight cookies they made. It made my evening. I did some work and some research for Spain for the rest of the night before calling it a night around 12. Cheers!

5 Feb

Superbowl day! Not that anyone really cares about it here, but they still watch it. We met for lunch around 12:30 and I gave my prediction that the Steelers would win 34-20. I completely made up those numbers, but I still had the Steelers winning. At first we thought the game wouldn’t come on here until 2 a.m. which made us quite sad (since many had class at 10 the next morning) until we heard that Sky Sports would be airing the game live at 23:30. Ah, what relief. I spent my afternoon before the game doing more reading/research for class and getting organized. I think I napped a little bit too. We had dinner around 6 as usual and I started having misgivings about watching the whole game. I needed to visit the Spanish Rail Office in the morning to book/find out about tickets and I didn’t want to stay up too late and then not get an early start.

When 23:00 finally rolled around Gregg and I headed over to the Sky TV room. We were surprised to see it deserted and it turned out that they did manage to get Sky TV in the Common Room (which we heard only got regular channels and thus the game at 2 a.m.) and so most people watched it there. We just assumed they went out to a sports bar or something. Anyway, some other Brits in there got the special card for the TV and turned on the game. It was weird to watch/hear British announcers for football and especially to watch them try to talk intelligently about the game with American former players and sportscasters. They even left out the commercials which are really the best part of the show. We saw ads for Peugeot and Enterprise instead. Yeehaw. So, the game started out pretty pathetically and by halftime Gregg and I had had enough. The prospect of the Rolling Stones performing during halftime wasn’t enough to keep us watching, and the fact that it was already past 1 meant the game would last until 3.

So instead of watching the Superbowl, I read some more Oscar Wilde and called it a night around 2.

4 Feb

Today was a fairly lazy day. I woke up late and after getting dressed, I had a light lunch in my room. I spent most of the afternoon looking up journal articles for my first Causes of War paper and getting organized. I also finished my book on Queen Elizabeth. The more I read about her, the more I adore her. It’s a pity our president (or lack thereof) couldn’t be more like her (except for the favoritism part, and perhaps the beheadings as well). I proceeded to kill time before dinner by dozing briefly on my bed. Dinner was okay but the company made it better. After dinner, I did some reading for my class and Gregg was getting bored with his essay so he came over and we talked for a long while. After he left I chatted with my dad on Skype for a bit. Before going to bed I started reading “Lady Windermere’s Fan” by Oscar Wilde. He’s a funny man. I recognized famous quote after famous quote. A little tired, I went to bed around 2.

3 Feb

Since cleaning usually arrives around 10, I set my alarm to 9:40. After a brief five minute snooze, I heard the sound of the cleaning equipment being dragged to our side of the corridor at 9:46. Talk about timing. I showered while they cleaned and I came back to a nicely smelling room. I made some PB+jam sandwiches for lunch, and when I was done with those I packed up my things and headed to the train station. I like not having class until 13:00; makes for a very relaxing morning.

Sociolinguistics was as entertaining as ever. I talked with Karma about where I’ve been around the city and when I mentioned Southall, she said she was glad that I made it out there. After going through some case studies and field research methods for most of the class, we discussed our mid-semester coursework. One option is to ask people from different regions what slang words they use for certain items. I think it’d be neat to interview Brits and Americans and see what we have in common and vice versa. I certainly have enough Americans around to interview, though it’s too bad most are from the Midwest or East Coast, but then I’ll just leave it at a country divide.

Laura Cook and I exchanged e-mails this past week and we finally agreed to meet up today at 2:30 on the south side of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square (my idea since I’m such a dork and, to my credit, it’s an easy spot to find). After talking in the cold for a bit by the column and helping some tourists take a picture, we walked back towards King’s to find a coffee shop to chill in. We picked the Coffee Republic and ordered tall hot chocolates that really were tall and worth the £1.80. For the next nearly three hours we just chatted about our experience to date in London. She’s living in a flat with three other girls from her program near Regent Park and having a pretty good time so far. I admire her preferred choice of transportation; she walks nearly everywhere including an hour each way to work! I would love to be able to walk to King’s, except four miles each way, some of it in fairly dodgy areas, doesn’t sound too appealing.

Around 5:45 we parted ways and I shivered horribly on my way to the bus station near King’s. The weather was literally freezing outside and sitting in a warm shop for hours didn’t help matters much. I felt unexplainably on the ride home and came close to dozing off several times. It was weird. I wasn’t feeling too hungry so I ate a light dinner in my room instead of going down to the dining hall. I read for much of the night, chatted with my neighbors for a bit, then went to sleep around 1.

P.S. If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear some comments!

2 Feb

I was a little slow in leaving the dorm today so I had to book it to get to the train station in time. I arrived there a few minutes before the train which is usually pretty good, but that was only because I hurried most of the way. Had I walked at a normal pace I probably would have just missed it. That was pretty much the only adventure for the morning. Court Cultures was as entertaining as ever; it’s definitely my favorite class here. My professor said that she saw snow by King’s Cross station on her way to the college. She made it a point to inform us “visiting students” that it rarely ever snows in central London and that if it did (we could just look out the window) we would simply have to go outside and frolic in it. I believe the whole class found that idea rather agreeable, though unfortunately such an event never came to pass.

We talked about John Lyly (pronounced “lily”) and his play “Endymion” today. It’s a rather funny and enjoyable play and I highly recommend it to anyway interested in a short and sweet Elizabethan drama. His work precedes Shakespeare but after reading Shakespeare I could see how heavily Lyly’s work influenced his early plays (especially Love’s Labour Lost). I realized after class that I would not be able to buy our train tickets for Spain because I would be trying to reserve them 61 days in advance instead of the maximum of 60. I guess I’ll just have to go tomorrow (I’m not going to make a trip all the way out there just for inquiries; I want to get tickets too). The weather was literally freezing for most of the day, and since it didn’t look like it would get any better, I decided just to go home.

As usual, I relaxed for a bit before dinner at 6. I had a “Mediterranean pasta bake” which was quite good; personally, I think the vegetarian food here is much better than the other stuff. Lainey and Gregg watched the movie “Waterloo” in their Experiences of War class and apparently this movie stars the actor who plays Captain von Trapp of the Sound of Music as the Duke of Wellington. Lainey did and impromptu rendition of “Edelweiss” with a Waterloo theme that was hilarious. I then had the song stuck in my head for a while.

After dinner I did the reading for my linguistics and Court Cultures class. I found a couple of books at the library about Queen Elizabeth’s reign and how she struck a balance between being a woman and a monarch in a time when a female queen was hardly desired and even less accepted by a majority of Europe. I also found out in class today that Elizabeth I loved to wear just black and white to aid in her symbolic role as the chaste moon goddess, Cynthia (or Diana or Belphebe). Emulating her would certainly a) make my wardrobe even simpler than it already is and b) turn me into a huge dork. I’m already pretty much the second so I really don’t have anything to lose. She’s certainly my favorite queen and I can’t wait to learn more about her (that, and I really need to see the movie “Elizabeth” with Cate Blanchett; I’ve heard it’s amazing).

While I was reading, Lainey came over because she was simply not getting anywhere on her paper outline for one of her classes. We started chatting about schoolwork and then Gregg decided he’d rather talk than work so he came by too. We ended up just chatting about random things from food back home to Trivial Pursuit to our classes here. Tom stopped by for a little while around 1. Lainey left at 1:30 to call her parents and Gregg left soon after. I have great neighbors. I still had some reading to finish so I worked on that until about 2:45. At precisely 2:30 I heard a fire alarm go off in one of the nearby buildings. Within moments I heard the shouts of disgruntled students in the courtyard. Poor guys, I’d be fairly upset if that was our dorm. Around 3 I finally fell asleep.

1 Feb

Ugh, I really don’t like getting fewer than six hours of sleep, but alas. I did have some hot chocolate at breakfast though which was pretty good and warmed me up nicely. I finally decided to cave and just buy the text for my 1^st WW Lit class because I was having trouble finding all the poetry online. It took me a while to find the book and I just made it to class on time.

The lecture was quite boring though I managed to take some good notes. From there it was straight to Sociolinguistics, which is probably my most fun class. The professor is just so funny. We talked about social variation today and how in order to define the dialect of an area you have to look at many factors and look at people beyond the traditional NORM = Non-mobile, older, rural male. At one point we talked about glottal stops and how different pronounce the word “got.” We Americans don’t use the glottal stop (which is kind of like a silent “t,” it’s like saying “got” but dropping the “t”) while nearly all the Brits do. There are only two Americans and one other non-Brit in the class, so we become the exception to the rule. There was a bit where we briefly looked at other phonological differences like the pronunciation of “cot” and “caught.” I pronounce both the same way, while the other American who is from New York (not the city though, that would be fun) distinguishes between the two. This difference seemed to please the professor quite a bit and I’m glad that we’re from different parts of the States for the sake of this class. We also got our mid-semester assignments today and it looks fairly straightforward. That’s right: mid-semester. I’m technically 1/3 the way through with my classes and it’s only the first week of February! Hooray! It’s a little hard to believe that my classes will only meet about 7 more times this semester…

After class I grabbed a sandwich for lunch and headed north to Baker Street in search of a Spanish Rail office. The office was a little baffling with no sign and a locked door, so I left that place in search of the official Spanish Tourism Office. My luck was much better there. I had to first contact them through intercom and though I didn’t have the requisite appointment, they let me in anyway. The door was still code-locked and when my repeated attempts at opening it didn’t work, a well-dressed guy standing nearby took pity on me and let me in. I met a couple of older men who spoke good English though one sounded kind of Spanish on the way up the elevator. Turns out they were also going to the office though they had an appointment with one of the officials there. I was helped there by a friendly man who gave me tons of brochures and maps on the cities we’ll be visiting. He was immensely helpful, answered all my questions patiently and thoroughly, and gave me some tips on visiting certain sites. I needed a bag to carry all my goodies home.

At the bus stop, I saw a gentleman with an elaborately curled moustache that you just don’t see anymore. You know what I’m talking about; they curl out several centimeters away from the mouth. I thought it was great and just so traditionally British. What was weird though is I caught a bus before he did, and after some time on the bus, I briefly thought back on how he looked when suddenly I saw him outside the window! It was a strange coincidence. I got home around 4:15 and just relaxed until dinner.

Dinner was entertaining as always and the food was pretty good. The first thing I did after getting back to the dorm after dinner was collect my laundry and take care of it. I figure I can do two loads a month which will cost me about £3.20 total. It’s far more than I’d like to pay, but I’d rather wear clean clothes, you know? Drying them was a bit of an adventure since they were all damp coming out of the dryer (it was a huge load and I only had it drying for 32 minutes because I’m cheap). I hung clothes all around my room and rotated them on the radiator for hours which worked really well, except my window started fogging up with all the moisture so I had to crack it open a bit. My room smelled a little like a laundromat for the rest of the night. It was a little painstaking but pretty funny. After and rather during laundry I really didn’t do much; I read a lot for my Court Cultures class, then talked online with my parents for a bit before going to sleep.