17 Jan

Laundry day! I woke up at 7:54 and got dressed enough as to not look shabby before grabbing all my linens, folding them neatly (of course) and taking them downstairs to be changed. I like how they clean our bed linens for us. My dad will be happy too since he’s always insisted that we should wash them every two weeks. Happy birthday dad. I promised Lainey and Gregg last night that I would wake them up in time for laundry and so like a good neighbor I knocked on their doors around 8:10. After making up my bed, I promptly went back to sleep and did not reawaken until about 11.

We’re all enrolled in the same War Studies class, The Causes of War, and since we all needed to get into a seminar (like a recitation) for it, we all needed to be on campus by 1. Accordingly, we planned on making the 12:20 train from Denmark Hill. We cut it a little too close by leaving just after 12:10 and so we had to hoof it down to the station. Not ten seconds after we reached the platform our train arrived, two minutes early. The train is nicer than the bus because its so much faster, but it leaves less room for error since they only run to our ideal destinations every half hour. We made it to campus in plenty of time and met up with Micah in the foyer. We killed a bit of time by walking next door over to Somerset House and watching the few ice skaters skate on the rink and a couple of people practice on the rapidly melting ice wall. I got to wear my sunglasses for two glorious minutes but then sadly had to doff them. Back in the Strand, we waited outside our seminar room and discovered several other JYA students who had the same idea. Our TA came by five minutes late and informed us soon after we entered that we needed to write the professor or the head of the department to get into the seminar, but that we were free to stick around if we wanted to. His lack of a British accent caught me a little off guard and as he conducted the lecture, he proved to be an American through and through (he used classic American idioms and no British ones). I sat there furiously writing notes since a lot of the material was new to me. He talked about realism and liberalism/idealism as schools of political thought. He seemed like a very competent teacher who seldom stumbled over words, transitioned well between thoughts, and was quite attentive to the class. I’m going to try to stay in his seminar (which also meets earlier in the day than the other one) if I can. Most of the other JYAs had some background in the topic and were quite bored. Gregg answered several questions just to keep from growing crazy with boredom. When the seminar was over, we split up. Gregg, Micah, and I headed for the Temple Tube station while Lainey and some other JYAs headed for Tate Modern.

Micah hadn’t bought his Oyster yet so he decided to hang around campus for a while before burning money on a ticket. Gregg and I headed for South Kensington. He was bound for the Natural History and Victoria and Albert Museums while I was bound for Harrods. We parted ways at the station and I didn’t see him again until dinner.

Knightsbridge was the stop I wanted, not South Kensington as I found out after leaving the station. The stop wasn’t all a waste since I got to peer through the windows of a Lamborghini store (hot hot hot!) and spotted a Rolls Royce by the curb. I took a couple of pictures of it before it drove off.

Harrods…it’s hard to describe this place with mere words. You can spend hours walking around it and still not see everything. It has a reputation for being the one store where you can buy virtually anything (someone once bought an elephant from them!) and after you visit the place, you’ll believe them. I entered in on the perfume/cosmetics side and just moments after walking in my nose was assailed by a myriad of scents ranging from the everyday to the exotic. From there I browsed through the food halls were you can buy fruits from Morocco to New Zealand and sweets made of all kinds of nuts and varieties of chocolate. I felt a lot like Charlie Bucket; smelling the wonderful smells and longing to taste, but too poor to afford any of it and too meek to ask for a sample. Besides, I doubt a classy place like that would even give out samples. Saket and Sachi: think Dallmayr but even bigger…they had a full out sushi bar with women dressed in kimonos and slippers serving customers as well as a gelato stand where £2.75 would get you just one scoop! A mini pizzeria sold margherita pizzas for £13.95 (individual sized!) and a coffee bar sold cappuccinos and other drinks for insane prices. I pulled away from the foods and headed for an elevator.

The person who got on the lift right after me immediately pushed the button for floor 4 and since I didn’t know any better, I just went along. This floor was the baby/children’s section of clothing and accessories and also had a toy section just for the kiddies. I breezed past those and briefly checked the ladies shoes before finding an escalator. Top floor was the floor for sports and you could sporting equipment here for bowling, tennis, polo, golf, football, and all kinds of fitness equipment. One machine was selling for over six thousand pounds! I browsed through the football jerseys in search of a good find, but all the premiership jerseys were just too expensive. I saw some authentic Wimbledon merchandise too but it too was a tad pricey for my tastes. Down the escalator to the third floor.

3^rd floor has furniture and home decorations and accessories as well as books and music from Waterstones and HMV, respectively. I looked through Waterstones for a bit before remembering why I bought my books from Charing Cross and Borders instead; this place was just too expensive. Since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get any furniture for my dorm, I left this floor rather quickly and headed downstairs.

Ah, the second floor. Now this was more my area. I was greeted at the entrance with masses of beautiful crystal glasses. I’m a sucker for crystal and pretty much anything shiny (yes, I’m the land version of a barracuda). Swarovski was prominent here along with Baccarat, Waterford, and other famous names in crystal. I spied a sign for Wedgwood and headed over there in search of some specific items. A nice saleswoman patiently showed me the parts of the collection that were in my meager price range. I have a better picture now of what I want to get, I just need to make a few more comparisons before taking the plunge. My head was a spinning a bit and so I went down yet one more floor to the first floor (different from the ground floor at which I entered).

The first floor is a haven for women’s fashion lovers everywhere. Row after row of famous names from Armani to Karen Millen and on and on. I looked at just a few price tags before moving on. Designer shoes were also here but I didn’t both with those because after seeing the displays outside, I knew what to expect.

A little overwhelmed by the sheer effulgence of the place, I left Harrods for the refreshing chill of a late London afternoon. Fashion baffles me; I don’t understand why people go to such great lengths for mere articles of clothing. I understand the desire for good quality clothing; that’s just common sense. 100% cotton is 100% cotton whether it has Armani or Hanes stamped on it, as far as I’m concerned. After leaving Harrods I caught the Tube for Leicester Square because I wanted to see that place lit up in the late afternoon and stop by Trafalgar Square for the same reason. Trafalgar looked amazing with some beautiful orangey-red clouds hovering just over the tops of the buildings and near the base of Nelson’s column. I snapped several shots from the steps of St. Martin’s before realizing that I was probably missing an even better show by the river. I hurried as fast as my little legs would carry me (and gracefully too, I wasn’t about to go running madly along the crowded Strand) to Waterloo Bridge. “Get to the bridge” was the predominant thought in my head along with “don’t get hit by any cars.”

I made it to the Bridge around 4:40 and after ogling the scene for a minute or so, I began shooting. Everywhere I turned, there was something beautiful but the west bank and side was especially enchanting. Today I saw my first proper sunset since coming to London and I planned on making the most of it. See above for examples. I’ll post the rest of the pictures when I get a chance, but as usual, they do not do the real thing any justice. The view from the bridge was the perfect end to my afternoon. Minutes later, and happily content, I caught the 68 back to KCH.

I made it back to my room at 5:30 and chatted with Gregg for a bit before unloading my camera and checking my mail. We rounded up some other Americans for dinner at 6 and joined some more when we got to the dining hall. Broccoli and cauliflower in a potato bake was on the menu and it was surprisingly good. I also picked up what looked like a piece of cake. I haven’t tried too many of the desserts here ‘cause they usually look kind of sketchy and I shouldn’t be eating many of them anyway. Gregg picked up something rather amorphous and covered with sprinkles that turned out to taste like…nothing and something at the same time. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Our dinner conversation was pretty fun as we swapped stories of home and shopping with and for our parents. On the way back to the room after dinner, I noticed the washer was not taken and decided to take care of my laundry right then.

It took a little while to gather all my clothes and find some clean ones to put on, and after a few minutes I hauled my things though eight, count them eight, fire doors before reaching the room. I dropped in what was probably too much detergent (I’m too cheap to buy a measuring cup) and after depositing a lovely £1.20 into the machine, the washing was on. I messed around on the computer while it was running and picked it up just a few minutes late. I found a girl in there who had taken the liberty of depositing all of my clothes on top of the dryer. Well, it saved me one step I guess. I set the dryer for 45 minutes but when I picked them up later, I found most of them still quite damp. I should have just saved the 20p and just gone for 30 minutes. I’m sure the result would have been the same. Surprisingly, my jeans were the driest articles out of everything I threw in there. Upon reaching my room, I proceeded to decorate it with my clothes, especially the chair and radiator. Here the radiator comes in handy since it’s a lovely little drying rack that does a pretty fair job. It gets out the wrinkles in my shirts just fine.

I’m writing this while my clothes are drying and I think I’ll be heading to bed soon since I have class at 10.00 tomorrow. 10-11, 11-12, then 12-1…oh what fun! I am eager to see what my classes will be like though, so I really can’t complain. Besides, my week ends at 14.00 on Friday and doesn’t start up again until 10.00 on Tuesday so really, I’m doing pretty well. Well, that’s it for tonight. Cheers!

P.S. leave comments! Give me some feedback!