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Published: September 3rd 2008
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Wagamama's
Lauren and I with our Noodles I hate waiting more than a day to write because then I have so much to cover, so many pictures to upload. Reading back some of my entries I realize I have a lot of grammar mistakes, so I'll apologize for that now, I don't really like to proofread, but you all are smart and I think you get the hint.
Yesterday was my second day of classes so I began at 9 am with Math for Liberal Arts. I hope that remains as easy as it is now. But my professor Dr. Burrows I think his name was cutest old British man I have seen yet. He walked in wearing a white tuxedo shirt and jacket with a red cravat tucked into his shirt but was easly visible through his white shirt. He also had on a pair of cream coloured suspenders and some green rain pants. He is a little soft spoken but he is really enthusiastic about the fact that we paid for this class and it should be catered to us. He understands that this a required class and that none of us are there because we want to be there. Right now we are just
Horse Guards
On the stretch to Buckingham doing the set, subset, element of, null set, stuff that is so easy it's almost ridiculous. I hope it stays that way for the rest of forever.
I had quite a long break between that and my next class so I started on my homework, reading the FYE text book and Mid Summer Nights Dream which we are going to see at the Globe on Monday. My Theatre class was next and that started at 1:30, yet again another completely insane (in a good way) professor. Ruth, as she insists we call her. Is this little old Irish woman that I think is incapable of holding one stream of consciousness. She must have so much going on in her brain because I really don't understand how she wanders from such random topics to the next. But that class is going to be amazing, we are going to a play every Tuesday night for the semester. They are plays, not musicals so I am very excited about that. But what is even more amazing is that we are seeing Oedipus starring Ralph Fiennes (played Voldemort in Harry Potter) and a Chekov play starring Kenneth Brannaugh! I'm going to die when
St. James Park
Jsut outside Buckingham I see Kenny.
My third and final class of the day is in the same exact room as the other two, at the very top of the main building and it is World Religions. I can tell you right now that this is going to be my most difficult class. This man is the British equivalent of Mr. Hammond. But although he is very tough he seems like a real professor to me. I felt like this was my first college class. He opened right off with a discussion, took me off guard when he asked me to define the difference between a religion and an ideology. I began with "It's just..." and he said that is his least favourite american saying, that "nothing is JUST something." With my face bright read I went ahead and answered his question anyway, even using humanism as an example for an ideology (thanks Mr. Woods!) and he seem satisfied so my heart rate went down a bit. This guy is so unpredictable though, a girl's phone went off in class and I was pretty sure he would embarrass her in some why, but he laughed and said "what, you're not going to
Westminster Abbey
Probably my favourite place in the city. take the call?" So when I say he is tough, he isn't mean, just intimidating. But I think I got lucky by having all British professors (one Irish), because there are some American ones here. No luck on picking up an accent, I am surrounded by too many Americans!
Last night we went to a noodle place for dinner called Wagamama's because we had 2 for 1 coupons, So I ended up paying £3 for a full meal, you have no idea how great of a deal that is. So I took way more of those coupons, noodles are going to become a fast favourite of mine. After dinner a few other people came up to our flat and we just hung out for a little while. We got a pack of expired mini doughnuts for £1.69 and made a party out of it.
This morning, even though there were no classes, I got up around 9 and Jess and I went for a trek around the city. We started in Trafalgar square and found a post office to mail my postcards, round 2 coming soon. From there we walked to Buckingham palace, which took way longer
than I anticipated. I bought a ticket for a tour inside tomorrow, because one of classes got canceled so I have a 5 hour gap in the middle of the day with nothing to do. Everyone else has other classes but because mine are the earliest and latest classes I am the only one that gets this break, so yes I will be going by myself but maybe that is a good thing, I can nerd out for a while. Next time you hear from me I will have stepped both my feet into Buckingham Palace. Instead of going the predictable way and walking back to the flats, we went in another direction completely and ended up in some business district. We grabbed some cheap sandwiches and sat in a park for a little while, until Jess was stupid and threw a crumb at one of the pigeons. Pretty soon we were swarmed and we had to leave, an army of pigeons following us, almost out into the cross walk! After a while we stumbled upon Westminster Abbey, we didn't go in because there is a charge and that is an excursion we will be taking later on in the
semester. But we did go inside St. Margaret's, the chapel next door where Winston Churchill was married. It is right across the street from Parliament so I got some better pictures of Big Ben.
Last time I was in London there were tents camped across the road from Parliament that had anti-war signs everywhere and I was amazed to see that they were still there. They had a large, graphic, display and a man wearing a helmet covered in buttons. No one walks on that side of the road but they really mind their own business. I decided I wanted to see what they had to say so I walked over to have a look. I talked to this small old man named Bunny, who gave me fliers and told me all about their cause, he said that the man with the helmet had been there since 2001! When I tried to talk to him he didn't return the favour, so I just spoke with Bunny for a while. He was excited to hear that I was a communications major, thought that I could some how spread the word because of this. He gave me this website if you
Parliament
Dark and scary, Bum Bum Bum are interested: www.parliament-square.org.uk Bunny said he spends about 4 hours a day there to help and give the message to Parliament. He said he hopes to see me out there again, I probably will go one day that he is there. If it was just me and Mr.Helmet that might get kind of uncomfortable.
Because we had no idea how to get back we took the tube, this was my first tube ride since my arrival. I'd been walking everywhere before. I love the tube! So organized, it makes my virgo happy. Much much much better than stupid New York Metro. Thats where I should stand outside and protest. Better public transportation for New York!
But what do I care, I found my city.
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Mama
non-member comment
I hope this does not mean that you are not coming back!! Love you, miss you!!!!!!!!!!!! Mama