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!