This is a notice on the door to my bathroom. I'd hate to be the person that set it off by taking a hot shower. In a towel, outside in the cold? No thanks. Today was a drill, so that meant we had to listen to a half hour lecture outside in the cold (I was smart and grabbed a coat and fuzzy slippers as I went out the door). Needless to say, that drained all of the time I leave to ignore my alarm and get that extra half an hour of sleep (that's the best part... you appreciate the sleep more). So with that gone, I had to hurry to get to class at 9. Boo.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the semester in my Global Development class and my EU Integration class. I've got to say, the Politics lecturers here are really great so far. Econ... not so much. But oh well, Architecture is looking to be a fun "class" (I say that because every other lecture we have a field trip, hooray!).
Last Saturday marked my first week in London, so I decided to commemorate that occasion by going SHOPPING. Hooray! I didn't buy much (mostly because I'm cheap), but it was fun walking around Oxford Circus for a bit. I think the trip can best be showcased by this picture.
That's it, guys. I don't have to take any more pictures while I'm here because I can't get any more touristy than that (haha, that's a lie -- I love taking pictures too much to ever stop).
My friend and I got back from shopping and decided to spend a few hours going over guidebooks to see where we wanted to go in London while we're here. So we stopped by an inviting pub near campus, ordered a drink, and got to work on our guidebooks (and if you don't think it's work, I still have over a hundred pages more to go through on one of the books). Anyway, some nice old Scottish man took an interest in us, bought us two rounds of drinks each, and told us to stay away from the other "pricks" at the bar and to keep out of trouble. Although we appreciated the sentiment, we left - drunk - in a hurry before he could buy us another round (it was only 7 by that time). All in all, a great (and cheap!) first pub experience.
Sunday's big adventure was grocery shopping at Sainsbury's (riveting, I know). But it taught me never to trust bus drivers. We walked the mile there to save money and decided to take the bus back to campus with our armloads of groceries.
"Excuse me, do you stop at Queen Mary?"
"Yes."
"Thanks!" All of us pile in. A few minutes later we couldn't recognize anything, so I went to the front of the bus.
"Sorry, but have we passed the Queen Mary?"
"Where is that?"
(insert blank, appalled look). "It's on Mile End."
"Oh, then it's not on my route. Also, you and your friends need to pay for the bus fare. I enjoy preying on associate students laden with groceries because I know they're desperate for a bus and will believe me if I say I'm headed their direction."
All of that conversation is accurate, save the last two sentences. That's my bit of poetic license. But we did have to pay the fare, walk to the nearest tube station (that's all we trusted at that point), and make our way slowly back to campus, at which point I made a delicious salmon dinner, had some ice cream, and felt better about life.
Mondays will consistently be boring, as I have class all day. So nothing to note there besides the fact that I actually made it to my classes this week (yay?).
Yesterday I had my first orchestra practice. One of the guys let me borrow his cornet and ended up directing the band (the conductor was out), so I was the only trumpet. The band is small and... well, horrible. But at least my chops won't wither away and die! And I'll get to play lead, which is a better setup than concert band back home. Also, it's not stuffy and serious (which is just annoying) because there's no music school at QMUL and the people in orchestra are just goofing around.
Last night a bunch of us took a Ghost Tour of London, centered around St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a pretty interesting tour, lots of stories about executions, prisons, unfaithful husbands and wives, people who were hung drawn and quartered, and (usually) friendly poltergeists. My favorite was an old priest who would make a racket when he didn't enjoy the choice of music (or the performance).
Which brings us back to the present. I've got one more class today, an architecture field trip to the House of Parliament, and a tour of the Cabinet War Room with friends afterwards.
... cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment