When did society decide that we had to change And wash a tee shirt after every individual use: If it's not dirty, I'm gonna wear it.

Well, let’s just say it was an interesting weekend. Saturday was fairly lazy. Bree and I stayed around the flat and cleaned and did homework. We successfully figured out our oven (a mystery to most of the other flats) and fixed frozen pizza. We had planned to ride the London Eye at night to see the city all lit up but when it started raining, we decided risking the 16 pound ticket wasn’t such a great idea. Instead we decided to go out and see (some of) the bridges of London. We came out of the tube station only to find more rain but as it cleared, two rainbows appeared from behind the ugly clouds. We got some really amazing photos of the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge with the rainbow in the background. It was REALLY surreal to walk along the cobblestone street next to the Tower of London or to see the Tower Bridge from river level, especially with the rainbow in the background. We walked across Tower Bridge and made our way to Millennium Bridge, the same one that the Death Eaters destroyed in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (or Oder of the Phoenix, I don’t remember). It was absolutely gorgeous to see the sun set reflect on the buildings down town, not to mention the span of the bridges across the Thames. Directly on the other side of the bridge (across the river) was St. Paul’s cathedral, the same one we saw on the tour but it was especially gorgeous in the evening light. Let’s just say, I have a lot of awesome pictures from Saturday night.

Yesterday was day one of two of the Notting Hill Carnival, the UK’s largest carnival. It celebrates the African, Bohemian, and Indian cultures in the area but mostly it reminded me of a mix of Mardi Gras and Marley Fest. They crammed hundreds of thousands of people into a small London neighborhood, filled it with music and overpriced but amazing food, and topped it off with a parade of half-naked girls. Actually, it was pretty fun, just wild.

Today was an adventure and I didn’t even leave the flat (except to go to the store…). It’s actually a Bank Holiday which means that everything in London is shut down for the day except for the Carnival which I just didn’t feel like going to again. I got a lot of work done while Bree was at class and was generally very productive. But the real adventure was learning how to do laundry in this machine. It’s a machine just a bit smaller than a mini fridge that supposedly both washes AND dries. You can only do two pairs of jeans or four shirts at a time and the wash cycle by itself takes at minimum two hours. The dryer cycle tends to take longer so at this point, saving energy and starting a new wash load is probably more productive. I’ve taken to hanging my wet clothes on racks and furniture around the flat, leaving my socks and underwear on display for anyone who comes to visit. It’s a bit awkward but it’s getting done. I get the feeling the laundry process will take some adjusting to, especially considering that I HATE the feeling of air-dried blue jeans. Oh well, that’s life in the UK.

Tomorrow is class and a tour of one of the oldest amphitheaters around and on Friday we have our day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. I get the feeling this will be another busy week but an exciting one at that!

I'm a peacock, you've gotta let me FLY!

Well, I made it through my first week! I think I’m officially on the correct sleeping schedule and I’m slowly learning to be prepared for every kind of weather that London can throw at me. In the seven days that I’ve been here, I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced every kind of weather London has except for snow, which they only get occasionally. I’ll have to figure it out as I go, I suppose.

After I wrote yesterday, I went with Bree and our friend Thomas to the UK’s largest Comic Book store which was actually really interesting. I wish I had brought my camera with me. It was in the Covent Garden area, a part of town into which I had yet to venture. It’s absolutely gorgeous over there. Most streets are blocked off for pedestrians and it’s just a major shopping, eating, and more shopping area. I’m sure I’ll be back in that part of town again soon though so I’m not too worried about not having my camera that day (Wednesday). Later that day, we went grocery shopping again since we got our 60 pound food stipend and ended up stocking up on some great food deals. Let’s just say that Poundland is my new favorite store. Everything’s a pound and you can find your basic food staples (not to mention special deals on Dr. Pepper) for a pound. I think YES.

I had class again yesterday (Thursday) and it wasn’t nearly as disappointing as class on Tuesday. At eleven was Music, Culture, and Identity taught by the same professor as my Performing Culture class. This wasn’t nearly as disappointing as Performing Culture (PC) had been (maybe because I lowered my expectations) but still not what it should be. He had no outings planned for us and we basically spent the entire 2.5 hour class going over the syllabus. All of the major assignments are due the same week as the major assignments for Performing Culture. He more or less copy-and-pasted all the due dates from the PC syllabus onto this one and has no intention of changing that. I figure I just have to get through a semester of him and then I can leave the country and be far, far away from him and his disappointing teaching.

After class a few of us decided to get tickets to see Legally Blonde the Musical that night so we ventured out to the box office at Leicester Square, forgetting that Thursday-Saturday are the busiest theater days/nights of the week. Prices were incredibly high so I think we’ll try again Sunday or Monday. But it would have been nice to see a show. Even though I’ve already seen Legally Blonde in the states, I still want to experience hearing British actors pretend to be American!

Next was my British Life and Culture Class in which I met the British version of my Public Speaking Professor/Academic Advisor/Generally Awesome Guy, Dr. Olson. His name is Mike Fosdal and he truly is the QUINTASCENTIAL British man. He was absolutely hilarious and incredibly smart. He basically gave us a small introduction of the city from different perspectives and went over the rubric (which only has three or four assignments on it!). But we’ll be going on excursions or walks almost every week of the semester, including a day trip to the coast at Brighton! (Katherine Anne- I would like a detailed description of what happens at Brighton in Pride and Prejudice, please.) His will definitely be my favorite class of the semester which is probably a good thing since his is the class I really came to learn from.

Today (Friday) we went on a field trip to Kew Gardens out in west London. It was a rainy, dreary day (again) but the gardens were absolutely stunning. I’m not sure that I could even compare them with the ones that I saw in Paris because they were so typically British, which is a term that I’m finding difficult to explain. (I’ve posted pictures here but there are more on my Facebook page if you have access to it.) The most exciting point of that trip was definitely finding a peacock. Yes, you read that right, Bree and I found a peacock. I’m pretty sure it was female but it was absolutely the most beautiful animal I’ve ever seen. (In my whole entire life). After a few minutes of following it around and taking pictures he/she started to puff up so we decided we better leave it alone but it was still incredible to see a random peacock when we least expected it!

As for the rest of the day, we’ve been editing pictures, doing homework, and watching British game shows (which by the way, are absolutely the funniest thing on TV). I think Bree is joining the rest of the group for a pub-hopping night later on and I’ll probably stay in and do some writing…maybe talk to that guy I like. I made it through the week with almost 1300 internet minutes left so I have a lot to burn before midnight tonight when they get reset!

Hope everyone’s doing well!

First day of school! Wake up! Come on. First day of school.

The first day of classes was, at very least, interesting. It started with my Performing Culture class at eleven. The professor was really nice and very British but he’s a doctor of fine arts and art is basically his specialty. This would be great if Performing Culture was an art class. Unfortunately, though, Performing Culture (when taught at Southwestern) is about performing identities, the masks people wear, etc., the things I was REALLY good at in my Intro to Communications class. I’m not quite sure what I want to do with that class. On one hand, the syllabus is extremely easy so I think I could make a decent grade. But on the other hand, Performing Culture is a core Communication Studies class and I might actually need the information that would normally be taught later on. But then taking that class at SU would be significantly more difficult. I don’t know…I’ll talk to some Comm people about it.

On the other side of the spectrum, my theater class was pretty interesting. The professor is most definitely a non-Christian, overweight version of my high school theater teacher, Mrs. Danyla. (Think a cross between Cibby and Mrs. Darbus from High School Musical). Like Cibbs did, she calls everyone dahling but with an awesome accent and she definitely has a similar big personality. I was a little disappointed when I saw the list of shows though. Unlike Cibby, this professor HATES musicals. We’re mostly seeing lots of British stage dramas. I’m sure they’re all amazing but definitely not what I’m used to. She did, however, give us hints as to where we could find really cheap tickets for any show in London. (Cheap being 10-15 quid for day-of student tickets). Guess I know what I’ll be spending my money on this semester!

After class, CAPA planned a picnic and show for us. Unfortunately, it had rained all day so we ate inside the building and ventured out to Regent’s Park to see Crazy for You! in the open air amphitheater for free. It was a very typical musical (all about dancing, the main characters fall in love at first sight, very predictable, etc.) but there were some really clever lines and to be honest, the dancing was better than I was expecting. We sat in the front row and at one point, the male lead was supposed to stumble backwards but he was a little too close to the edge of the stage this time and almost fell into my lap. It was a little awkward but he broke the fourth wall and quietly apologized and winked.

It’s sunny today to make up for the dreary nastiness that hung over London yesterday. Since I don’t have anything planned for today, I think I’ll go get some work done at the park down the street. Not that I have much to do, but I’ve been dying to just go chill in a park somewhere. Tomorrow is my “Friday” for the week. I only have Music, Culture, and Identity (taught by the same professor that did Performing Culture so I REALLY hope he actually teaches Comm material in this class) and British Life and Culture. Think I got enough culture packed in?

Until next time! Ciao, Bella!

I'm Julia Child. Bon appetit!

Well today was my last day of summer! Most people’s classes started today but since I only have Tuesday/Thursday classes, I got to do whatever I wanted today which was nice because yesterday sort of got wasted. I ended up staying up to my normal Texas bedtime (1:30) on Saturday night but apparently I was more tired than I thought. I didn’t wake up until 2:30 yesterday afternoon. Bree and I ended up lounging around the flat and watching movies and crappy British TV. For the record, British game shoes are absolutely hilarious!

Since Bree had two classes today, I decided I’d go with her up to the CAPA center to practice getting there. I spent most of the time enjoying the free wifi and reading the orientation packet they gave us. After her first class, she had a three hour break so we went out to High Street Kensington and got our cell phones. It was 15 pounds for the phone and 15 pounds for unlimited calls and texts to other people with the same plan (which is everyone else in the group). The minutes roll over from month to month so it’s a fairly good deal. We asked the guy who was helping us where to go for lunch and he told us to head over to Notting Hill. After some puzzled looks at the map, we caught a bus and adventured through new territory. It’s a REALLY pretty area, actually. It’s filled with antique stores, book shops, and little vintage shops that line the streets in between some of the cutest flats I’ve seen here. We found a local chain restaurant (EAT.) that sells deli food and coffee and the guy that served us was from Dallas. He actually saw my Dr. Pepper shirt and asked if we were here studying from Baylor. He was really nice and he gave us his business card and said if we wanted any advice on cheap things to do, places to eat, etc, we could stop by and find him. We’re just making friends all over the place!

After Bree’s second class, we dropped our stuff off at the flat and headed down to the street to the King’s Mall, and indoor/outdoor shopping center. We found a bunch of really neat cheap vintage shops, along with my favorite find yet: Poundland! And they had amazing deals going on, too! We got two bags of penne pasta for a pound and (surprisingly enough) THREE CANS OF DR. PEPPER FOR A POUND! Yes, yes I did just type that. There is, in fact, Dr. Pepper in the UK.

Another thing that might surprise you: I fixed dinner tonight! I made spaghetti but unfortunately when I went to the store the first time on Friday, I didn’t think to buy salt, pepper, or butter so the actual dish was pretty plain. But it’s food, and cheap food at that.

I’m actually really excited about classes tomorrow. I’m taking Performing Culture and Theater Arts in London on Tuesdays. I’m a bit worried about my Performing Culture because I don’t quite know what to expect from it but I’m absolutely thrilled about my theater class. The events calendar in the CAPA orientation books says that the Theater class goes to a show every Tuesday night…That’s a lot of shows!! Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get a list of everything that we’re seeing so I can buy tickets to shows that aren’t on the list. I was surprised on the tour on Saturday when the guide mentioned that London has a bigger Theater scene than New York. But driving around and seeing all the different theaters scattered around the city really proved him right. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see all the big shows around before I leave. Not gunna lie, an eighth Wicked playbill would just be awesome!

That’s all for now! Till Next Time!