10 Feb

9:30, on the dot, I hear Elaine, our housekeeper, come by our end of the corridor. I quickly straighten the room and get ready for a shower before making room for her to clean. I like coming back from a clean shower to a clean room. There’s something so right about that. I enjoyed a leisurely lunch since I didn’t have to leave until 12:10 to catch the 12:24 train.

I arrived at the station in plenty of time for a badly delayed train to Blackfriars that looked as though it would only get worse. There was a train for London Bridge that was my back-up, and though it takes about 10 minutes longer, it looked like the right choice for this morning. About two stops after I got on board, my coach was assailed by a troop of schoolchildren just bounding with energy on this Friday afternoon. Naturally, three of them sat around me and I could hear them quite clearly despite the music in my ears. They were a funny lot and got so excited by every stop we passed by, especially as we got near London Bridge. You can see Tower Bridge shortly before and they simply lost it. Many thought it was the actual Tower of London before realizing it was the bridge of the same name. I guess it’s true that visitors often know more about London than the residents themselves.

I guess I had forgotten how much larger London Bridge station is than Blackfriars, and it took an alarmingly long amount of time to reach the Tube platform. Looking at my watch, I noticed that I had just over 15 minutes to get to class. I caught the Northern line to Bank (the Bank of England where you can still get shillings and such outdated currency) and then had to go through the maze that is that station before reaching my desired Circle line platform. I reached the platform just as a train departed, much to my displeasure. When the next train arrived, I only had 10 minutes until 13:00. I was four stops away and still needed time to walk to campus and then get to my room. I was a little worried to say the least.

Upon reaching Temple I bolted out of the train and booked it to the Strand. My leather coat and gloves were off though it was quite cold outside (I freak out about being late to class to easily). Checking my watch every 30 seconds, I manage to reach my seminar room just seconds past 13:00 to find….the room nearly empty and only six students in there. I had time to settle in and get my materials out before the professor showed up. I just laughed to myself and thanked my luck that it wasn’t a normal day on which I would have been sorely embarrassed. When your class has only a dozen students (and you’re the only American), there is no place to hide.

My group had apparently not done the reading so it was my job to explain to them. They said I did a good job of it which only adds to my conviction that I really must go into teaching at some point in my life. Certainly not yet because I don’t know anything, but definitely at some point in the future (once I learn to get organized). The class went well and since the subjects studied were from the Detroit area for one of the case studies we looked at, I was called upon a few times to offer my expertise on American high school culture (Jocks and Burnouts, anyone?) It was fun.

I wanted to get back to my dorm after class because I was hungry and felt bad that Lainey was all by herself, still sick. She’s getting slightly better, but still not over it yet. Dinner was blah so I made up for it by eating an orange later I love oranges, though I’m sad that I can’t peel the big ones as nicely as I can the clementines. It also doesn’t help that I just trimmed by claws so I can’t just rip whatever I please anymore. Pity.

Raj, a Brit of Indian descent who lives at KCH, was at our table and we got to talking with him during dinner. The kid is hilarious. He really knows his hip-hop and other forms of music and was impressed that the artist Common came to UNC last year for Homecoming. He was a little disappointed that I didn’t go, but I said I would have been happy to trade places with him so he could go. Also, this kid has the sharpest wit of any Brit I’ve met so far. In response to being threatened with a “smart bomb,” he replied: “A smart bomb? What is that? A bomb that challenges me to a game of chess and if I lose, kills me? That’s a pretty smart bomb!” Lainey also claimed to secretly be a ninja at one point after he said he would train his second child to be one, and he just had a lot of fun with that idea. He totally made up for the rather (but not completely mum) blah food.

Lainey seemed in need of more social interaction after dinner so I offered that we play cards to kill time until the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. A lot of people were going pub crawling for one of the barkeep’s birthday and though she wished she could join them, it would have been a terrible idea to do so. Instead, she, Gregg, and I played Hearts. I beat them soundly, though I managed to shoot the moon on the last round that simultaneously busted them both quite by accident. I wasn’t even paying attention and I got all the points. The first time I did it was completely on purpose, much to Gregg’s chagrin. Poor Lainey had never played before, so here Gregg and I are trying to teach her while she’s still drugged up and a little out of it from being cooped up all day and writing papers.

Tom stopped by near the end of the game and offered us some pomegranate juice. I’m a fan of the fruit and the juice sounded good so we all tried some. It was delicious, though it must take a lot of pomegranates to make just one liter of juice. After our juice, we left for the TV rooms with the idea that surely the Olympics would be on. Instead, we find two people who had reserved the room watching AMERICAN IDOL. I felt incredibly disappointed. We tried the common room after that but no dice. To assuage our disappointment, we decided to watch “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.” A classic movie that only improves with repeated viewings. Also, it’s always fun to watch your favorite movies with new people who also love the movie. We had some great commentary going for a while, and we agreed that the Nazi monkey was still pretty cute though evil.

After the flick I worked on my blog for a while before calling it a night. Lots of writing and reading to do this weekend1 Cheers!