7 Feb

I woke up a wee bit later than planned and thus had to catch a slightly later train than I would have preferred. Oh well, I was skipping my useless class anyway so it didn’t matter. I was heading into town a little earlier than I needed to in order to buy our Spanish rail tickets. Waking up late wasn’t the only slightly jarring part of the morning.

Upon reaching the platform at Blackfriars, I hear a message over the PA that forces me to take off my headphones and keep them off. “Customer information,” it began, “Due to a person under a train, there will be no service in either direction on the District line from Edgeware Road to Earl’s Court.” A pause. Then, “Customer information: Due to a person under a train, there will be no service on the Circle line.” There was a slight murmur in the crowd around me and the next several minutes until the first District line train arrived felt very surreal. A person under the train? Fortunately, I did not need the Circle line that day, and nor was I traveling very far on the District line. I wondered what happened the whole way to the rail office and then for the rest of the day until I got home. Just the sound of it felt very disturbing.

The tickets purchasing went just fine, as did seminar. The seminar instructor is a young American who really knows his stuff and knows how to conduct a class, unlike the professor. Feeling tired of the snide and snobby British kids (especially the appropriately named Richard [think Richard III] from Ireland) in the seminar, I decided to really speak up and voice my American opinion of the democratic peace theory. I probably sounded kind of good but didn’t say anything brilliant, as expected. Eh.

I went to the library after class in search of some books for my Court Cultures class and was fortunately successful. I debated on waiting for a computer to check out the news about what I heard this morning but decided the queue was too long and left for home instead.

Upon reaching home, I immediately checked BBC and other news services. Nothing! I asked Lainey and Gregg about it when they got back and Lainey informed me that when she got to the station around 12, about an hour after I did, there were no delays or incidents being reported. I imagine only something like what happened 7 July 05 could really hamper the London Underground, but I still thought it strange that no one was talking about it.

Anyway, that’s kind of depressing so I’ll move on to other events. I found out a couple days ago that the UNC vs. Duke game would commence at 2 a.m. my time and thus was way too late to stay up for (I have class the next day at 10). Alas, but at least I’ll get to see some games. Poor Lainey is sick and thus didn’t make it to class today. It looks pretty bad and I hate to see someone who’s usually so vibrant and cheery talking in a weak whisper and nearly choking when trying to laugh (which happens often enough at dinner to warrant concern). Poor thing.

I didn’t do a lot at night; just read a lot for my linguistics class before calling it a night. Cheers!

P.S. During dinner the conversation somehow strayed to elementary school pastimes and when someone mentioned Oregon Trail, Lainey announced that she had the game on her computer at that very moment. Naturally, the rest of us wanted to know how and she said just two magic words: Apple emulator. Being the nostalgic geek I am, the first thing I do upon returning to my room is download an Apple emulator and the game to boot. I played all the way through (in under an hour) and successfully forded the river to reach Oregon. I lost Sachi, mom, and dad on the way (Saket and I were apparently made of hardier stuff). It was amazing.