10 Jan

So, I planned on waking up this morning at 7:45 but didn’t actually wake up until around…10:15. It’s kind of hard to get motivated when you don’t have any class or meetings or the sun doesn’t even really rise. I left the dorm around 11:20 and caught a bus for the Strand campus. I wandered around for a bit before I made it to the student union where I filled out a form for a student Oyster card. Oyster cards are amazing. For a flat fare you pay up front, you get unlimited travel on bus, train, and Tube for up to a month at a time. Students get a 30% discount if they fill out the appropriate paperwork. The process was a little intricate in that I couldn’t pay with cash or credit card and thus had to get a postal order from the nearby post office. It was around lunchtime when I got there so naturally the line was really long. The post people were pretty nice and when I finished my business there I went in search of food since I’d skipped breakfast. I bought a cheddar ploughman (lettuce, cheddar, chutney/pickle, mayo, and tomato on whole-wheat bread) sandwich and ate it in a tiny park overlooking the Thames. A couple of pigeons came near me looking for crumbs but I didn’t leave many since I was aiming to get my £1.80’s worth out of my sandwich. When I was done eating I took the Tube way up north in search of an IKEA store I’d heard was up there. Instead of doing the simple thing and buying a Zone 3 ticket for the final couple of stops at the Tube station, I decided to try my luck with buses. Bad idea. I think I went in circles for nearly and hour and half. Every time I thought I got close I ended up even further away than before. Thankfully I had my iPod with me and music sustained me. I gave up around 4 and just decided to head back into familiar territory. I know what to do next time and will be fine then. If anything, I got to see a part of town I never would have otherwise visited, so it wasn’t like I really wasted any time (well, sort of). I wanted to see some of the city that day so instead of riding the Tube to the closest stop to my campus, I decided to get off at Charing Cross by Trafalgar Square and just walk the rest of the way to campus. The square and the Strand are pretty and night and if it wasn’t for a light drizzle that was starting to fall, I probably would have stayed out a bit longer.

I made it back to the dorm around 5:30 where I met up with Lainey, Alesha, Margaret, and Tom who had just returned as well. Soon after we entered the KCH compound we were joined by Katie, Gregg, and Liane. Everyone was hungry for dinner and after a quick stop in my room to drop by things off, we headed down for some food. The vegetarian choice tonight was cannoli which was pretty good. I had some obligatory chips with it but there wasn’t much ketchup left which was a pity. Dinner was over just after six and since Liane wanted to put off her homework for a bit, I suggested we play some pool to kill time. The pool table was already taken so Gregg, Liane, and I ended up playing some snooker. I had seen the game played but didn’t exactly know the rules and neither of them had ever played before. Fortunately, the snooker room had a copy of the rules which I found after I tried a fumbling explanation. We set up the table properly and began playing. We were terrible. In case you don’t know, a snooker table is much longer than a regular pool table and rather trick to play on if you’re pretty short. About halfway into the game, Gregg found an enormous cue stick and bridge which only he was able to use successfully for two crucial shots. I was the only one who managed to get a colored ball in and cover it, but I ended up losing because Gregg hit nearly all the other colored balls in for major points. He was the better player anyway so he deserved to win. Liane was unspeakably bad but she’s only played pool twice and wasn’t very good at it. We ended up playing for nearly two hours before we finally cleared the table. When we were done Liane decided she had to get some homework done and Gregg wanted a drink at fuBar. I chose to head back to the dorm for some Clementine oranges and more blog updating! Hooray!

22:15. Yes! I’m finally caught up with everything! This is finally real-time blogging! Thank you for bearing patiently my rambling. Please, feel free to leave comments. I know several of you went traveling over break and I want to hear all about it. Pictures would be great too, if you have them. I’m still working on getting my posted (WS_FTP is not working for me right now, so it may be a while). Until then, just check Saket’s blog for some amazing pictures. I think I’m just to going to putter around here for a while and get some sleep. I actually have somewhere to be tomorrow (library tour at 10:30 and then departmental meeting at 12) so I promise to get an early start. AIM is not working right now but Gregg knows how to make it work so I should be on AIM within the next couple of days. I know, you’re waiting with bated breath. Well, don’t. I think school is starting soon for most of you, so good luck! Mine doesn’t until next Wednesday (the 18^th!!) Well, I must go now. Cheers!