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.