T.G.I.F

It was one of those Fridays that you are just immensely happy that the weekend is almost here! I have to say this week FLEW by! Actually I am now halfway done with the term as of 4pm today. It has been 5 weeks already which is crazy! I am 1/6th of the way through the course. Time is flying by in a sense, but on the other hand I feel like I have been here forever! I am settled int my flat now and it feels like home. The pictures on the wall help and I am just feeling settled and not like a nomad anymore which is really nice!

Another thing I love about Fridays is that I feel like I actually have time to write my blog and not just go through my day linearly, but add some stuff about my life here in general. It is so therapeutic! I sit in pj pants, eat McVities Digestive Cookies, drink tea, usually listen to James Morrison and unwind! Yup those are my Friday nights! Exciting! :)

So first my day, and then random thoughts! I got out of bed ten minutes late this morning which was bad! I didnt seem to care though as I moved like molasses and didnt get out the door until 9:05. I ended reaching the bus stop just as the 266 was getting there so I decided to hop on and I ended up reaching the tube station at 9:10 which is my normal time! I love the bus! I read again on my tube ride in just so I could feel cool! Once I got to school I ate my cheerios and read Emma. (This book really needs to get better. Especially since I have a Phillip Gregory book that is calling me to read!) I have a potential date on Sunday night that I am really excited about! Freya asked if I wanted to watch football with her at a pub on Sunday night! (American football... as in the Bills!) So Im really excited to have a friend date and to watch the Bills considering that I only watched one game before I left for London. If they lose on Sunday you can go ahead and blame me. Apparently I am a curse because I have been watching them suck for 22 years and when I leave the country they are amazing and beat the Patriots. Anyways I hope that it works out and Freya ends up going so I can. (She and I both need to get our project done and if she isnt far enough she wont go to the game and it would just be way more fun with someone!)

Lecture was torture. It was Way of Living: Renassiance Silver. It sounds really cool, but Andrew has too broad of topics for me to get much out of it. Maybe Im just used to really specific lectures at HWS because we have a semester for a narrow topic, and these are more survey. I dont know, but I barely sat still through it.

After I ate quickly so I could get a computer in the lab. (Fridays are the hardest days!) I surfed the web which was so nice. I miss it! Then it was off to my favorite class.... Issues and Context. GAH! We discussed Hegel and Foucaunt (probably spelled his name wrong) Basically I should now be certified by New York State to teach History. We discussed the methods of looking at history and therefore teaching it. Oh my goodness my brain hurt. Basically its linear or 3-D. Everyone teaches it linearly and we should take a more 3-D model approach. If you think about it everyone is taught history mainly by memorizing dates and its important because it is and you move on. (At least that is how I learned it, but then again I went to PCS) its good to have a strong footing in the basics of dates, but you should have a lot more. Ok Im not going to go into it, but history is important, we suck at teaching it and we need to look at history discontinuities to really learn. Thats what I learned in two hours.

Yeah my mind was blown and I had a headache before the course, and had a really bad headache after! I headed home (reading the newspaper on the tube!) Oh the Evening Standard.. its a free newspaper that is like the USA Today and I know about London than I do about the States, and I know more about the States by living in London then I ever do at home. Free quality newspapers... the best idea ever. It really makes the Post-Journal look pathetic... sorry PJ!

I have decided in the last month and some weeks that I have been here that if I ever lived here permanently I would not have children, or if I did it would never leave the house until it could walk. I watch women battle the tubes and subways with strollers. It must be horrible. Oh and moms walking with strollers.... such a pain. i dont understand. They walk (actually they stroll) down the middle of the sidewalk with their "prams". Yup called prams which is awesome! But shouldnt they be in a hurry with tons of errands or something. Why do they walk so SLOW. They clog sidewalks, tubes, and buses. It doesnt help that the prams are literally huge. They are the Cadillacs of strollers. Its almost like they are a status symbol. I have seen some AWESOME prams. Legit ones that look like they were handmade in Sweden or Switzerland... some country with cool, modern design. The baby is just chilling in ultimate comfort. My favorite is when the mom has the stroller packed with shopping bags and the kids is being dragged around and forced to walk. The entire thing just looks like a hassle.

Not living with the Dragon gives me SO many freedoms, one of them being cooking without being criticized. Its nice not to dread dinner time. Cooking though is interesting! I havent made anything unedible (yet... it is bound to happen. Im a college kid) I realized that when I was abroad I had a cookbook (thanks to my sister!) Well I forgot it... so I make stuff up. I also have no means of measuring anything. I always think back to my Curious Cook class (For those of you who dont know.. I took this class to cover my chemistry requirement thinking that the chemistry of cooking would be easy. Yeah.. not so much!)Professor Forbes (the scariest woman on this planet. Anyone seen the Rescuers or something like that? When Penny has get rescued from the cave and the evil lady. Forbes looked like the emancipated lady) always said that measuring was the WORST thing you can do. You must follow your instincts. Ok that may work for seasoned cooks, not college kids. Anyways I am making things up without measuring cups. Every night is a new adventure. Everything so far has been good but I am waiting for that one night that I invent something repulsive! No worries you all will hear about it when it happens! Maybe when I get the internet in my flat I can look recipes up! Tonight its a bunch of random leftovers of meatballs, rice and mushrooms! Oh and Im used to having a microwave... I only have an oven now! Im telling you.. its an adventure!

We signed up for the tours that we are going to take when we go to Oxford at the end of the term. I got the good ones! I got to the board quickly after lecture and still barely got Furniture and Silver with Andrew, and Christ Church Painting with Rebecca. Im excited and it is still a ways off! This Wednesday is Hampton Court! I have heard a rumor that we have to get there by ourselves which Im hoping isnt true because we have to catch a train from Waterloo and I have a feeling that will cost money! Its too far out for my oyster card to get me there for free! We shall see.

That’s it for the night! Off to read and go to bed! (yup Im skipping the shower. They are overrated.)