3 Feb

Since cleaning usually arrives around 10, I set my alarm to 9:40. After a brief five minute snooze, I heard the sound of the cleaning equipment being dragged to our side of the corridor at 9:46. Talk about timing. I showered while they cleaned and I came back to a nicely smelling room. I made some PB+jam sandwiches for lunch, and when I was done with those I packed up my things and headed to the train station. I like not having class until 13:00; makes for a very relaxing morning.

Sociolinguistics was as entertaining as ever. I talked with Karma about where I’ve been around the city and when I mentioned Southall, she said she was glad that I made it out there. After going through some case studies and field research methods for most of the class, we discussed our mid-semester coursework. One option is to ask people from different regions what slang words they use for certain items. I think it’d be neat to interview Brits and Americans and see what we have in common and vice versa. I certainly have enough Americans around to interview, though it’s too bad most are from the Midwest or East Coast, but then I’ll just leave it at a country divide.

Laura Cook and I exchanged e-mails this past week and we finally agreed to meet up today at 2:30 on the south side of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square (my idea since I’m such a dork and, to my credit, it’s an easy spot to find). After talking in the cold for a bit by the column and helping some tourists take a picture, we walked back towards King’s to find a coffee shop to chill in. We picked the Coffee Republic and ordered tall hot chocolates that really were tall and worth the £1.80. For the next nearly three hours we just chatted about our experience to date in London. She’s living in a flat with three other girls from her program near Regent Park and having a pretty good time so far. I admire her preferred choice of transportation; she walks nearly everywhere including an hour each way to work! I would love to be able to walk to King’s, except four miles each way, some of it in fairly dodgy areas, doesn’t sound too appealing.

Around 5:45 we parted ways and I shivered horribly on my way to the bus station near King’s. The weather was literally freezing outside and sitting in a warm shop for hours didn’t help matters much. I felt unexplainably on the ride home and came close to dozing off several times. It was weird. I wasn’t feeling too hungry so I ate a light dinner in my room instead of going down to the dining hall. I read for much of the night, chatted with my neighbors for a bit, then went to sleep around 1.

P.S. If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear some comments!