31 Jan

Laundry was a snap and I got ready quickly and surprisingly efficiently after that. I was a little surprised to hear Lainey’s door unlock for the first time at 8:40 (we had to catch the 9:24 train for our 10:00 class) but didn’t think much of it until both Gregg and Lainey managed to beat me out of the door, even though I know I got up at least 20 minutes earlier than either of them. Sigh. The train was delayed nearly 10 minutes so we ended up getting to our class a bit later than usual, but still in plenty of time.

About 20 minutes in, we all wished we had just skipped it altogether. The professor is pretty dull and not very engaging usually, but today was exceptionally boring. It’s rather annoying too when a professor will spend ten minutes explaining a point nearly everyone seems to understand in a minute. The remaining hour and 25 minutes were excruciating and we were all relieved when it was time to go and grab some lunch. I had an hour to kill until seminar at 1 so we just hung out at the Terrazza for a while, chatting with some other JYAs. Seminar was nearly as boring as lecture, though I actually contributed a bit, mostly in defense of America. It dawned on me today that every Brit in that class is a first-year student and when they try to sound intellectual and academic, they are either showing off or just being arrogantly pompous. I appreciate how some of them are really trying, but some of their comments are just agonizing. It’s funny how the American JYAs are all older and much more experienced in political science. I wish I knew more so I could talk intelligently, but for now I’m happy to let my compatriots put the more arrogant and anti-American Brits in their place.

After seminar, I realized how exhausted I was from not sleeping well last night, so I just caught the first bus home. The weather was exceptionally cold and the sky exceptionally gray so I really had no motivation to stay in town. I did a bit of reading and such back in the dorm, and then went to dinner with the gang. My dish was Quorn & Mushrooms and while I’m not exactly sure what the first one was, it tasted surprisingly familiar and quite good. After dinner we went to the local theater and watched Spielberg’s “Munich” with a whole crowd of Brits (we comfortably filled the middle section of three rows). The movie was pretty good and quite intense. Not my favorite Spielberg flick but certainly worth watching.

When we got back to the dorm, Gregg invited Liane and me for some drinks and I accepted. They had gone to Sainsbury’s the day before with Micah and stocked up on some wine and cheese. The wine was much better than any I’ve tried so far and the cheese was double Gloucester = yummy. Tom stopped by after a bit and joined us, and then Lainey did too after a while. We just hung out in Gregg’s roomed and talked politics and movies until a quarter to two. Gregg and Liane decided to stay up for the State of the Union address while Lainey and I decided to go to bed. I had class at 10 and a pretty busy day so I didn’t want to stay up too late. Cheers!