Semester's End

Last day of school today. I just finished my last final. I have one paper I need to write tonight and email to my teacher tomorrow, but otherwise I'm done with this semester. The end-of-term tea party and the paper, and then I'm free...

Anyway, playing catch-up again.

Sarah and I slept in in Olso and didn't leave the hostel until nearly 11, but after spending the night before in the airport, we rather needed the sleep. I had my leftover pizza for lunch, and then we headed back to City Hall and the fjord, because we wanted to take a ferry over to the Norwegian Folk Museum. We were supposed to buy our tickets on the ferry, but we accidentally avoided paying by sitting on the deck outside. We didn't realize until the way back that the guy checking/selling tickets only did it inside, because we sat inside the way back. Except at that point we didn't have enough cash for a ticket, of any denomination (they would have accepted Euros or pounds), we just had credit cards. And the ferry people ran the ferry continuously and couldn't wait for us to go find an ATM, so...we used the ferry for free. We would have been willing to pay, but you know, I can't say I'm sorry we ended up not having to.

The Folk Museum was pretty cool (and paying for a ticket in was where I used the last of my cash). It was an open-air museum, with Norwegian buildings ranging from several decades old to about eight hundred years, the church. In one of the houses they were making traditional lefse, which is a sort of slightly sweet flatbread. Sarah told me I had to try it, so I did, and it was really good. Sarah also told me that around the end of November/beginning of December, PLU (her school, and also in Tacoma) hosts this kind of fair thing and people come who make traditional lefse, so I think when that comes around I'm going to go to PLU and get some.

Sarah has a Norwegian friend named Even who came to Oslo at two to spend time with her and show us around. He took us to the opera house, which I wouldn't have thought of going to, but it was really interesting. Not a traditional building at all -- it sort of reminds me of the Scottish Parliament, but mostly in the sense that what seems like it should be an old traditional building is instead really interesting modern architecture. The roof of the opera house in Oslo was this long slope, so we just walked up the roof to the top and looked out on the fjord again, which was quite cool.

After that we took a tram to the sculpture park, which was...interesting. It was very pretty scenery, and a beautiful day, but all the statues were of people, and all of them were naked, and not even in sculpture sections of museums have I been surrounded by that many fake naked people. For the most part they did not come across as sexual despite the nudity, but I really don't think I have any way of describing them without it sounding sexual, so I think I'll refrain and just show the pictures I took.

That was really about all we could think of to do for Oslo, so it's a good thing we were only there for two days. The three of us just ended up going back to the main shopping street of Karl Johans Gate and finding a nice spot by one of the fountains to sit around and chat. I ate the last of the food I brought, and then we took the bus back to the airport of Rygge, where we spent the next ten hours.

I got even less sleep on Saturday night than I did Thursday, though we got to the airport in enough time for me to have gotten more. It just took me a long time to get so tired that I could fall asleep even there. Also, around two in the morning this girl and her friend from Turkey came in, and we just started chatting about being students traveling. I enjoyed that, even if it meant even less sleep.

I was up at five, which was not fun, and on the plane not long after six. What was nice, though, was that all the scheduled passangers got on quickly and so we were able to leave early, and get back into London half an hour before scheduled. We were then able to catch an earlier bus back to Baker Street, and therefore I managed to get home by ten, rather than eleven. I started laundry, and then I took a nap.

The election here has finally resolved itself. David Cameron of the Conservatives as new Prime Minister, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats as Deputy Prime Minister, with a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the first coalition in decades. It's too bad I'm about to leave, because this would be fascinating to watch play out first hand -- men of two different parties as PM and Deputy PM! Especially considering they're the right-wing and the further-left-wing parties! I'm going to have to keep up with what's going on when I go home, because this is just too interesting. I got to watch Gordon Brown give his resignation speech live, and go to see the Queen and recommend she ask David Cameron to form a government, and dude this was just so cool.

I got my final papers done in enough time for me to spend two evenings this week seeing shows. Last night I saw Avenue Q, which was awesome. Absolutely hilarious. I think it was pretty obvious who the Americans in the audience were, though, because there were some things we laughed at that most of the people there didn't. In the final song, they started listing things that were "only for now", and I was amused when one of the things they listed was Gordon Brown. This was the first show where that was not applicable, because it was last night that he resigned. Still, I very much enjoyed the show, even if it was in London and not New York. I just hope it's not too prophetic, because this time next year I'll have a BA in English...

My finals are done, now, though, and almost all of my preparations for Europe. I have booked all of my hostels, and have also added up how much all of the hostels will cost me. What's left over in my bank account will be used on food, inner city transport, and seat reservations on trains (I may not have to pay for a ticket, but I still will need reservations for many trains, but plain reservations are a lot cheaper than tickets), and of course souvenirs. I've got one suitcase packed, then tonight I'll pack up a box to send home, probably by sea because that's cheaper and I don't really need it to get there sooner than the three weeks or so it'll probably take. Then I can do the last packing, because on Saturday I leave with friends for Cardiff, and only on Monday will I leave the UK.

I...don't want to think about it right now. I've been making all these plans for Europe, but trying not to think about the reality of actually being there. I mean, I'm looking forward to it, but it means the end of my big semester abroad. I'll confront the reality later. For now I still want to pretend I don't have to leave in just a few days. Sigh.

I love living in London and I think the tube is marvelously convenient most of the time, but gah it's awful on weekends.  Weekends are when they do engineering work, and of course I understand why they do weekends -- it'd be even more disruptive during the work week -- but doing anything on weekends can be a real hassle.  There was my Easter adventure, and this weekend is another Bank Holiday (for May Day), and there are closures on almost all the lines in my area.  I'm going to Brighton tomorrow and figuring out rail replacement buses and what exactly are the lines I can use is being a bit of a headache.

Anyway!  The semester is winding down, and all of my assignments but the final papers/final exams are done.  I have two weeks left in London.  Two weeks!  How did that happen?  I can't believe how quickly this semester has gone by.

So I'm trying to finish up the touristy stuff I want to do.  Yesterday morning we went to the Imperial War Museum for a class, and after that I had about four hours of free time before my next class so I went to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery.  I went to art museums of my own free will!  Honestly, it was mostly because I thought I should, but I did see some Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Monet, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh (for people I've actually heard of), and some of those famous paintings of Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII and Queen Victoria and so on, so that was pretty cool.  Next week, probably Tuesday, I'm going to watch the changing of the guard, and I think Thursday will be the Natural History Museum.

On Tuesday my history class went to do a tour of Lord's Cricket Grounds and to see part of a cricket match.  So now I know a bit of the history of the game, and I got to see the Ashes, and I watched some cricket, but I still don't understand it very well.  Pretty much the entire time we were watching the game, we had to ask our teacher what was going on.  Now there are a few things I can get by myself, but for the most part I still need an interpreter.

My plans for this weekend had originally been Dover and Canterbury today, Brighton tomorrow, and Oxford again on Sunday.  But then the friend I'd been going to Oxford with couldn't go anymore, and other people said they were going to Oxford today, so I decided to skip Dover and Canterbury and do Oxford today and have Sunday free.  Though it's just as well, because Sunday will be not so much free as spent getting some final essays out of the way so I don't have to worry about them during the week or when I'm in Norway.

I very much enjoyed Oxford, especially because I got to do what I wanted to do, rather than what had been scheduled as a school trip.  I caved in and bought an Oxford sweatshirt, and we went back to lunch at the Eagle and Child, and we went to Blackwell's Bookshop, which sold a lot of rare books I could not afford no matter how much I wanted some of them (1851 Emma for two hundred pounds!).

Part of my reason for going back to Oxford was because I really wanted to take a boat on the river, and happily the friends I was with also wanted it.  Originally we got a punt, because it seems like punting in Oxford is rather traditional, but, um, we failed.  Well, mostly I failed.  I volunteered to actually punt the boat, but wow is it harder than it seemed.  I just couldn't figure out how to get the boat to move forward.  And then we couldn't really try to change punters because we thought all that moving around would make at least one of us fall out.  I did get a picture of me attempting to punt, though.

We ended up using the paddle to get back to the dock, after only twenty minutes of our allotted hour.  We didn't want to waste our money, though (since we paid for the hour), and we still wanted to go on the river, so we used a paddle boat instead.  Much easier.  One friend steered while the other friend and I paddled, and I think we got our money's worth there.  Great scenery, a boat we were actually able to handle, and a good time all around.  And when we got back to the dock, the boat handler told us we hadn't failed with the punt as badly as some other people have -- we at least managed to get ourselves back to dock, rather than him having to go rescue us.  So despite the blip at the beginning, I had a good time in a boat on the Cherwell, and I am pleased.

After that we went to see Magdalen College, which is where C.S. Lewis taught, and we were supposed to pay three pound fifty but we actually only paid one pound because it was a rainy day and the porter gave us a discount for weather, which was really nice of him.  Then we went to Merton College, which is one of the colleges where Tolkien taught, and we were supposed to pay two pounds but the porter there said we could just go in.  Right after lunch I'd gone to see St. John's College, because it was free to visitors, so I got to see three of Oxford's colleges for only a pound, which was awesome.

There were no specifically Tolkien-related things for us to see at Merton, but it was still pretty awesome to walk the same ground he walked, and though it was very rainy, it was also very pretty.  We also saw some students playing croquet, so that was pretty cool.  I don't think I've ever seen people actually playing croquet before.

My friends had to get back for dinner with their host family, so we left after Merton.  I loved Oxford, though.  Beautiful sights, and such history -- it would have been so cool to have gone to school at Oxford.  Maybe if I decide to continue my education later I'll try for a doctorate or something at Oxford.  Heh.  We'll see how that goes. :p

Brighton tomorrow!  It's supposed to rain even worse than it did today, but there's going to be a festival and parade for May Day, so I'm still really looking forward to it!

I've been having a good but busy week so far.  On Saturday I was feeling sick so I did nothing, but on Sunday, London was having its St. Patrick's Day celebrations, so I went into town for that.  There was a parade at Piccadilly Circus, and I enjoyed most of it, though I think I had a better time last year, when I was in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Spokane, as part of the Young Democrats delegation.  It's a lot more of a thrill being in a parade rather than just watching one, even if London is inherently more exciting than Spokane. XD

There were also performances going on in Trafalgar Square, so after the parade was over I walked over there.  It was absolutely packed.  Trafalgar Square is pretty big, but it was seriously packed, so it just looked like a sea of people.  I did manage to get a spot where I could sit at a good, fairly close angle to the stage.  I didn't watch everything, because I was still feeling sorta sick, but I listened to a couple different guys singing old Irish songs in both English and Irish.  A school orchestra played some traditional Irish music, and a dance school did some Irish dancing.  Pretty cool.

On Monday my 19th and 20th Century British Novels teacher took us out on a Dickens Walk -- she showed us places like the church where Dickens' parents were married, some places he lived, and several of the places mentioned in Great Expectations.  That was really cool.  When we were in the Temple area, she took us to Middle Temple Hall as well, where Twelfth Night had been performed in Shakespeare's day.

Our walking tour ended pretty close to St. Paul's Cathedral, which I very much appreciated, because Monday was when Maddy arrived and she was staying near St. Paul's.  I haven't seen Maddy since this summer, when I went to Davis to visit her after the Green Day concert in Sacramento.  I took her to Soho for dinner -- we had Indian, and it was actually really good.  I've had better naan, but I got this dish called honey chicken, and it was so good.  Anyway, after dinner I did a bit of playing tour guide, showing her Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, and then we went to this pub I like for pear cider and to sit and chat for a while.

Yesterday morning I met her at Leicester Square again, because she wanted to see Billy Elliot while she was here, and I was completely fine with seeing it again, even just a few days after the first time.  After that I did more of the tour guide thing, since from there we walked to Trafalgar Square and then to Westminster Abbey.  I pointed out the theatre where I saw The Caretaker a couple weeks ago, and where St. James's Park was, and Downing Street, and the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Westminster Square, and felt sort of weird for even beginning to know this city.

So we went to Westminster Abbey, and wow, I really wished we were allowed to take photographs.  Especially of the graves of Mary Tudor, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, and especially of the poets' corner.  Unsurprisingly, the poets' corner was my favorite part.

When we were done at the Abbey, Maddy wanted to see Westminster Bridge, so we walked by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and I told her some of the things I've been learning about the British political system.  She got some pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye (which we've decided we're going on tomorrow, whoo!), and then we walked back to Trafalgar Square, where we split up, because she wanted to go to the National Gallery and I had to get to class.

We met up again for dinner, and then we saw Billy Elliot.  This time we were seated upstairs, but I enjoyed it just as much as I did on Friday.  It was interesting to see it from a slightly different perspective, because this time I could see their feet, and now I'm even more impressed with these kids' tap skills than I was before.  There were also a few things I noticed this time that I hadn't last time, so I guess it's true that every time you see a show you get something new out of it.  Anyway, I still loved it, it was completely worthwhile, and this time I bought a program as a souvenir.

Maddy and I did not meet up today because she was going to spend it with her cousin, but I had plenty to occupy myself with.  Our class schedule was rearranged a bit, and one of my classes canceled, because Martin wanted us to see the London Mayor's Question Time today.  We went to City Hall, which is across the Thames from the Tower of London in an extremely interesting juxtaposition of ancient castle and modern glass building, and listened as the Mayor answered questions put to him by his assembly of concerns brought to them by their constituents.

I found it really interesting, if very different from American politics, because it seems to me that American politicians try to be somewhat more diplomatic than British ones.    American politicians will be insulting, but indirectly so.  British politicians will just insult you to your face.  It was actually rather hilarious.  Some of my classmates wrote down their favorite insults, but I didn't have the foresight, and so I don't remember the best ones now.

It was still just plain interesting to watch, though.  I was sitting next to someone who is a PoliSci major, so we were taking notes and having a conversation through our notes on our thoughts on what was going on.  We did decide that the Mayor is not a very good debater because he spent his time interrupting people (even those from his own party), and most of the time when he responded to questions from the Opposition, he'd do it through straw man and ad hominem arguments.  I wasn't very impressed with him, though I did enjoy the session in general.

I only had one class this afternoon, thanks to the canceled class, which meant that I was done at 2:30, which is the earliest I've every been done.  I put my time to good use, however, and am now almost done with all the preparation for Ireland.  I have my transportation from London to Dublin and back, from Dublin to Belfast and back, my hostels in Dublin, and my tour.  The only things I have left to do are book my hostel for Belfast, but Maddy was just there and was going to give me information for the hostel where she stayed, and figure out how to get to the Giant's Causeway.  I think I saw that I can take a bus from Belfast, but I'm going to have to double check that.

Today I also got my ticket for Star Wars in Concert, for the day after I get back from Ireland, which happens to be Easter Sunday.  I'm going with another girl from the program, and she got our tickets so I'm going to have to pay her back, but I am so excited for this.  We got the cheapest tickets so pretty far seats, but I'll still be able to hear the music and see what's on the screen, and it's Star Wars in Concert in the O2 Arena.  This is going to be so awesome.

I just came home after I finished booking Ireland stuff, so I'm not going out on St. Patrick's Day, but I'm fine with that.  It's nice to have some downtime in the middle of a busy week.  Tomorrow Maddy and I are doing the London Eye and the Imperial War Museum, then I have class, and then a show.  Then on Friday we're going to Bath and Stonehenge.  Saturday and Sunday are also going to be busy, if in a different way, because I have three papers due next week and I'm going to try and get them all done this weekend so I can get some feedback from my teachers before they're properly due.

The week after next is midterm break.  I'm almost halfway done.  How did that happen?

Finally, the Tower

I finally made it to the Tower of London! I went with Sarah (who I had the pear cider with in Edinburgh), and we spent a good three hours there just wandering all over. The first hour was a guided tour by a Yeoman Warder who kept asking the group trivia questions relating to various things about the Tower, some of them rather tangential. What is funny is that most of the group seemed to be British (when other countries came up he asked for people from there to raise their hands), and though Sarah and I are American, we answered more of the trivia questions (and correctly) than the other people did.

I did not once find a bench and take out a book, nor did I even want to, so go me. I don't know what I was thinking ten years ago, because this really was very interesting stuff. We saw the Crown Jewels, and the Royal Apartments, and the White Tower (the first, central tower), and the Bloody Tower (where Richard III's nephews were), and that bit of Roman wall that's left, and the ravens. I got a lot of pictures of the ravens, because I find the raven legend very interesting.

We stayed almost until closing, which was at 5:30, and decided to go find dinner after that. We'd been talking about Whitechapel and finding a Jack the Ripper tour earlier that day, so we decided to just go to Whitechapel and check things out. Right out of the tube station was a street market, where some of the stalls had some...very strange things, like a crotchless fishnet bodysuit. We were somewhat disturbed by that.

We walked around a bit, looking for a pub, but there weren't that many that sold food and weren't really crowded. We also got the idea that Whitechapel is still not the best of areas in London, and it was starting to get dark, so we decided to look elsewhere for our meal. Today I looked up Jack the Ripper tours and I found a good one with reserved spots for £7, so I'll talk to Sarah and see if she wants to do that at some point with me.

We ended up eating in an Irish pub just down the road from King's Cross, and it had very good food and cider. Mmmm. Definitely remembering that place. While we were there, Sarah got a call from one of her friends in another program who invited us to see a band in a bar by Old Street, so we went there. The band was pretty good. Not my favorite kind of music, but still stuff I'll listen to.

I went home earlier than Sarah did, because they were willing to go on the last tube and bus home, and I didn't want to risk it. I got home just fine, though, and I was very happy to get into the warm. It's been getting colder again, and I wish it would stop that. I am definitely enjoying being here, but I could do with it being a bit warmer.

Yesterday...might well have been the easiest school day I've ever had.  I only have one class on Thursdays, and it's only an hour, and the last class of the day.  I had a bunch of free time before 4:30, so I decided to go to Chinatown.

I love Chinese food.  Mmmm.  I had lunch there, and it was very good.  I also walked around Chinatown a bit, and felt somewhat out of place, though thankfully I was not the only white person there.  I haven't been to any other Chinatown (not even San Francisco's, really), so what I was most reminded of was Bangkok.  Lots of people selling things (especially food) on the streets, lots of kitschy souvenir shops along with things like Chinese Herbal Medicine, lots of people in general.  Very interesting place.  I'll definitely be gooing back there, if only for the food.  Mmm, Chinese food.

I had class at 4:30, and this is my 19th and 20th century novels class, and we'd been intending to go to the Charles Dickens museum on Doughty Street (which is just two streets over from AHA).  Unfortunately, the museum is closed this month, so my teacher wanted us to watch a documentary on Charlotte Bronte, since we just finished Jane Eyre.  However, she couldn't get the TV to work.

So instead, she...treated us to a round of drinks at a nearby pub.  We did do some literary discussion while in the pub, but mostly not.  So that was basically my day.  Chinatown, and then a pub.

Today we went on an excursion to Birmingham, which is about two hours away from London by train.  When we got there we spent about an hour at the Birmingham Art Gallery, but the main point of the excursion was to go to Bournville, and Cadbury World.

It was actually rather hilarious, how excited most of the group was about going to Cadbury World.  I was less than enthusiastic about all the chocolate everyone else was in raptures over, but I was highly amused at just how bouncy everyone was.  There were some school groups of younger kids also doing tours, but people in my group kept joking that our group was so much more excited than the little kids, which from what I observed is actually a fairly accurate statement.

I was far more interested in the history of Bournville and the factory than in the free or otherwise very cheap chocolate, and the history was really why we were even there.  The Cadbury family seems to have been pretty awesome, very much ahead of their time with their treatment of their workforce and wanting to make sure the workers are taken care of even to the extent of building a nice village for them to live in.  I could have done without all the chocolate, but I did enjoy the history lesson.

I did, however, get some chocolate, because it really was very cheap.  I'm not sure whether I should mail them soon, or wait to give them out until I get back home.  I got different kinds, and I'm not sure what people would prefer.  Well, I actually only got four bars, two of milk chocolate, one of dark, and one that is chocolate-covered Turkish Delight.  But I got them for you people at home, and I'm not sure the best way to get them to you fairly.  I'll decide later.

Tomorrow there is once again A Plan to go to the Tower of London.  We'll see how that works out this time. :p

I'm having issues with the pictures.  I did finally get some of them uploaded (God, the school computers were going so slow...), but when I looked at them today, they were too huge to even fit the screen, and I don't know how to make them smaller. *sigh*  So until that happens, probably no pictures.

I decided I'm not going to York this weekend.  I made tentative plans for Tower of London tomorrow with Evanie (she also goes to UPS, has been in a couple of my classes before), but I'm waiting for her to text me back.  I would like to see the Tower of London -- properly this time.  One of my clearest memories of England from the first time I was here was getting bored at the Tower and sitting on a bench to read early on while my family looked around.  This memory is probably so clear because when I remember it I think about what an idiot I was for wanting to read a book I could read at home rather than seeing something as interesting as the Tower of London.  Well, at least I'm not going to make that mistake again.

Last night I looked up the weather and saw today was supposed to be pretty clear, so I decided to go to St. James's Park, though unfortunately I forgot my camera.  I grabbed some lunch and ate it there, and I fed the ducks, and I walked around the whole park a couple of times.  I ended up walking out by the Horse Guards and wandered around the area a bit.  Which was awesome.

I saw 10 Downing Street!  Some cars were leaving just as I got there so the gate was open for a bit, but I couldn't really see much besides a street.  Still, it was 10 Downing Street!  I'd seen Buckingham Palace from St. James's Park, but I hadn't gotten that close.  I also saw the Houses of Parliament, since they were right there, and I got quite close to Big Ben, which was very cool.  It's very pretty when you're looking at it close up in the sun.

I wandered over to Westminster Abbey, but I didn't go inside because it was twelve pounds and I'd only gotten there about an hour before closing so I didn't think I'd get my money's worth if I went in then, especially without my camera.  I'll be going on an excursion there with one of my classes anyway later, so it's not like that was my only chance to see Westminster Abbey.  I did go into St. Margaret's Cathedral, though, which is apparently where Members of Parliament traditionally go to worship.  It had a lot of memorials on the walls, including apparently Sir Walter Raleigh, but I must have missed his because the only person I recognized was Olaudah Equiano.

From there I went back to St. James's Park, and on the way passed a statue of...Abraham Lincoln.  I was walking up to it and thinking "That guy looks familiar -- a lot like Lincoln, in fact," and then I looked at the inscription and it was.  It surprised me because I was not expecting a statue of an American president in the middle of London.  I think on Tuesday I'll ask my history teacher if Lincoln had any special significance to the British, because now I'm really curious why he was there.

A few days ago I told one of my online British friends how I was missing goldfish crackers, and she told me I should try an international food store.  I looked one up and decided to try it, but when I found it, it was very small and didn't have much of anything, very little seeming particularly international.  I was disappointed, but I suppose I can do without goldfish a while longer. :p  I did stop at Tescos, though, to get some things to make for lunch.  My first Tescos! XD

Today was a really nice day, if chilly, and Sunday is supposed to also be a nice day, so maybe I'll go to Hyde Park then, or some other park.  It's been very rainy recently.  People always warned me about how rainy Washington would be when I went to college, but when I got there I found the amount of rain was exaggerated.  Well, it doesn't seem to be exaggerated here, because it has been raining, a lot.  I do wish I'd gotten a jacket with a hood, but at least I have an umbrella!

I forgot to bring my flash drive today, so no pictures yet again! Wednesday is my busiest day with three classes, but those are spread out beginning at 9:30am and ending at 5:30pm. Time enough to go on the internet, but not to go home and get my flash drive.

On Sunday I actually got sick. Just a cold, which is really going around our group of students (it's easier to point out those who don't have it than those who do), but I didn't really want to do anything then either. It was a bit better on Monday and Tuesday, and I'm almost over it now, so hopefully this weekend I will be doing something. Apparently there's a Viking festival in York, so I might see about getting a student rail card (makes rail tickets a third cheaper!) and going to York. I heard some people talk about going on Saturday, so I might see about going with them.

Next week we'll be going to Scotland for three days -- Wednesday through Friday. I think we'll be the entire time in Edinburgh, and I'm warned that it's very cold, so I'm going to have to remember to bring my sweaters and dress very warmly. Here it's been alternately very cold and not as cold as I was expecting, but I'm not sure if that's the weather or just something weird my body is doing, because everyone else seems to think it's just plain cold.

Last night was our first theatre show, the play Enron, about the rise and fall of the company Enron. It was sort of strange, being there as an American -- it seemed like such an American show, but it was written by a Brit and is performed by Brits in Britain. My theatre teacher explained today that Britain's economy is so tied to America's that something like Enron would still have been very significant here, which makes sense, but it still feels a bit strange.

I did get dressed up. I knew I wouldn't have time to go back home and change between my last class and the show, so I wore tights under my jeans and brought a skirt and my nice shoes, and changed into them after class. No one else got dressed up. It was also raining, so though I did bring my umbrella, it was not so much fun wearing tights and open-toed shoes in the rain on uneven cobblestones while hurrying and often running to get to the theatre on time. Especially since I saw very few people dressed as nicely as I was. Liz explained later that people are going to theatre more casually now, especially in London, which I'm definitely going to remember because jeans would have been much more comfortable throughout the whole adventure.

I enjoyed Enron. The play actually explained financial matters so I understood them, which I felt was quite the feat. It was also something of a musical -- there were musical numbers and interludes, including songs both written by the playwright and inserted by her to appropriate places -- I especially enjoyed Guns N' Roses's Welcome to the Jungle as particularly apt for the corporation stage. There were a lot of pop culture references to things like Jurassic Park and Star Wars, which I also enjoyed.

Our next play is Dunsanine in about two weeks, which is apparently a sequel to Macbeth written last year or thereabouts. I think that'll be interesting. I'm looking forward to it!

Week's End

So, thus ends my first week in London.

And this is my first post, mostly because I've had a fuzzy internet connection. When I first open up my laptop, I get good reception, but after a few minutes it peters out and is gone until I close the laptop, wait a few minutes, and open it again. I don't know what's up with that, but I'm either going to have to live with spotty internet and get steady online time at the school computers, or pay 99 pounds to have the Apple people look at it and figure out what's wrong. I'm more inclined to the spotty internet -- for now, at least.

This post will have no pictures, since I haven't really had good internet long enough to upload them. Thankfully I brought my flash drive, so I can put the pictures on there and then upload them from a school computer, but I'm only at school Monday-Thursday. I did get some pretty nice pictures, too!

Anyway.

The flight from LA was...horrible. I hate flying at the best of times, but with this particular flight I only managed to get at most two hours of sleep, I was always uncomfortable, and it was bumpy all across the Atlantic. My stomach hated it, and all I wanted was to go to sleep and not feel it, but alas! no good. Then when we got to Heathrow, we had to stay in a holding pattern for at least fifteen minutes when all I wanted was to get off the damn plane, but then when we finally land, we had to wait another fifteen minutes for our gate to be free, and I just wanted OFF THE DAMN PLANE. All told there ended up being a delay of almost an hour. Gah. I hate flying.

I met my roommate Liz, who is nice, and we got to the house just fine. My host mum Suzy was in Australia until Wednesday, but her son Tarik was there with his fiancee Francesca and they were both nice and helpful so we were fine. I was so tired I took a nap for a few hours, but I still managed to get a good eight hours of sleep that night.

Monday was our first day of orientation. The commute was about an hour and a half, with one bus ride, three different tube lines, and a ten minute walk on either end. I've since managed to condense that commute to about an hour, but that's with cooperative buses and tube lines.

There are twenty-nine people in my program, three of which are guys. We listened to some orientation stuff, and then Martin, the program director and one of our teachers, took us for a short walk around the neighborhood. Mom -- Dorothy L. Sayers lived just down the street from my school building! Literally down the street -- I walk for about a minute and get to a placard saying "Dorothy L. Sayers lived here".

Tuesday our teachers gave brief explanations of their classes. I'd been intending to take Britain Today (mandatory class), a history of the Empire class, a theater class, and a Shakespeare class, but now I've decided to take a 19th and 20th century novels class instead of the Shakespeare class. About half the reason I wanted Shakespeare was to see some of his plays, but I can see some of the plays without taking the class, and with the novels class we're supposed to go out and explore the London described in those novels, which sounded more interesting to me.

Tuesday afternoon was spent going to Greenwich. We took a boat ride down the Thames, and I got lots of pictures of things like the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, and so on. We had to climb up an awful hill to get to the Royal Observatory, which is where the meridian line is. It also had a pretty awesome view, so I took some pictures.

Wednesday was first day of actual classes, but it was mostly just introductory stuff. I was amused, however, when my history teacher started mocking the French. I'd thought it was just a stereotype that the British and the French like making fun of each other, but I guess not, if my history teacher does it at basically the first opportunity.

Also on Wednesday, Martin took us to the British Museum for about an hour. The British Museum is only about a ten-minute walk away from school, which is nice. Evanie and I went to see the Sutton Hoo helmet, which our History of the English Language professor last semester told us about and showed us pictures, so we got a couple pictures of us in front of it. When I can upload my pictures to the internet, I'm going to send those to him.

On Thursday I didn't have class until 4:30, so I wanted to take my computer to an Apple store to see if there was something they could do about the internet. I went to the one on Regent Street, so I could also explore Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus a bit. I'll definitely be going back there when I have more time. The Apple store, on the other hand, was not helpful except in telling me I'll need to pay 99 pounds for them to take my computer for a week or two and figure out what's wrong. I don't think I'm in such dire straits that I need that yet.

Friday was the first day of the weekend, since we always get three-day weekends. Liz and I and some of Liz's friends went to Highgate to have tea in a tea shop where Francesca works, and we felt very British about having tea in a tea shop. XD We were somewhat less British by taking loads of pictures to commemorate it. We then walked to the Highgate Cemetary because we wanted to see Karl Marx's grave, but you actually have to pay three pounds to get into the cemetary, so, after a few comments about how Karl Marx would be rolling in his grave at a cemetary practicing such capitalism, we left.

We spent a bit of time at the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street -- or, more accurately, the gift shop. At some point I'll definitely go see the museum itself, but the gift shop was interesting enough, for awhile. Then we came back to Harrow (that's where the homestays are) and had our first meal in a pub. Liz and her friends are all 19/20, so they were very excited to be legally buying drinks. I was very amused. They all ordered different things and kept tasting each other's drinks to see what each was like, but I didn't bother because I've already tried all the things they'd had. I was somewhat disturbed to feel a bit old. XD

Now it's Saturday, and I've had a lazy day, only going to the Harrow Town Centre to get a quick lunch and buy some groceries. I feel a bit odd for just hanging around all day, like I should be going out and doing stuff, but I think that's mostly an external thing -- like other people would be telling me I need to go out and do stuff. Trust me, I am not intending to spend my days here like I do in America, staying home most of the time, but I do need some down time, some just-for-me time. It refreshes me. If I spend every day going out and doing touristy stuff, I'll get burned out on the touristy stuff and just want to sit down and read a book. So to avoid that, I'm going to try and take a day every week or so just for me to relax.

Fourteen weeks is both a long time, and no time at all. I do have plenty of time to be a tourist, but also to pace myself. It doesn't feel like it's all that long until I'm done with my program, but I'm sure I can fit in what I most want to do and still keep myself from getting burned out.