14 Mar

Sheets today! I woke up early to exchange my sheets for clean new ones, and instead of climbing right back into bed after remaking it, as I usually do on these days, I decided to be productive and stayed awake instead. I’m not sure if you could call the morning productive, but I did manage to set a good plan for the day and even found some books at the library that I’ll need for my linguistics paper.

We had our last Causes of War seminar and it was rather fun. The topic was terrorism and we discussed various current terrorist groups (most of them relatively small) and how the affected governments were dealing with them. Justin told us that if we were interested in visiting Oxford to let him know so that he could give us some tips. I’ve definitely made it a plan to go there and so I asked him how I should go about it. He told me to try punting (riding on the river in a tiny boat styled rather like those used in Venice) if I was feeling intrepid, and to see some of the colleges, Christ Church in particular (the largest and finest, and the one Sir Christopher Wren did some work on). He even said that if I let him know when I’ll be coming, he and his wife would host me, and that we could meet for a drink or something. I just might take him up on his offer; he’s a cool guy.

After class, I decided to get some business done so I went to the Novello Theater and bought our AYLI tickets. I was still keen on seeing Ian McKellen again so I wandered around Covent Garden looking for the theater but was unsuccessful. Not to be foiled, I went back to the Strand and looked up the directions again. Turns out I was close but just missed the right street. Hungry, I bought some lunch before heading back to Covent Garden. I found the theater with little ado and inquired about tickets. I was informed that the shows were all but sold out for the rest of its run in London. Oh no! The ticketman also told me that they release 10 “day tickets” on the day of the performance starting at 10:30, and that standing room tickets become available after all of those have been sold. I resolved to come back there the next day as soon as I could to try to get either a day ticket or a standing one.

On my way back, I wandered through the main little shopping center in Covent Garden and found this store selling lots of random things at discounted prices. Always eager for a bargain, I walked in. I saw sports jerseys, nice wool coats, scarves, toys, board games, crystal ornaments, paintings, pocket watches (£5 a piece!), hats, gloves, bags, luggage, and more. I found this really sweet sports zip-up jacket (not quite a sweatshirt but not a normal nylon jacket either) that I think I’ll come back for. Checking my watch, I realized it was getting late and my hands were freezing (in a rare oversight, I had forgotten to bring my gloves along with me). I headed back to the Strand and caught the first bus home. The rest of the evening passed fairly uneventfully, and I went to bed early because I had class early the next day. Cheers!