Day...4?

Wow. I'm starting to forget how many days I've been on this program already. That was fast.

But moderately good news everyone! I found out today in class that we need to keep a daily journal of everything that happens as a part of my class and a requirement LC puts on study abroad students apparently. Blogs count! So I'll be updating this blog every single day with random bits and stuff/thoughts about the day! Probably an information overload for most of you, but also a good way to procrastinate those homework assignments and readings when school starts up again.

So! Exciting things first. IAN MCKELLEN AND KEIRA KNIGHTLEY ARE IN TWO SHOWS PERFORMING IN LONDON IN MARCH. Sir Ian McKellen is being his beautifully amazing and fantastical self in freaking Waiting for Godot (YEAH, I know Elfray, I know. Flippin. Sweet.) Now if we could just somehow throw in Natalie Portman and/or the entire cast of Harry Potter filming near me...ugh. So. Freaking. Cool.

Not so exciting thing from today: phones. Phones, phone plans, phone providers, and phoning issues SUCK. T-Mobile will allow me to get a plan where I get a "free" or $10-$20 SIM card, but then it'll cost somewhere between 3p and 25p per minute to talk or text (6cents-50cents roughly.) Skype phones sounded alright in that the rates first say it'll cost somewhere between 2 cents and $3.35 per minute, but probably closer to 2-3 cents per minute. The $3.35 surprisingly is for some premium band deal in London, and the 2 cents is to call Hawaii. Weird, right? But I dunno. I think the T-Mobile SIM might be simpler, even if it is more expensive and a general pain. But eh. Oh well.

On to my day- today I got up waaaaaaaay too early to go to class, which was still good because then I got to talk to my mom and Alison Lentface and Louface and eat a Hot Cross Bun for breakfast (I can't say/read/write that without hearing the song in my brain) and discover that it was snowing! I then went to class at 8:30am (while it was snowing) only to have David tell us that he was spontaneously switching the class out for our weekly meeting so he could let us know about some stuff. The main points from the discussion seemed to be that:

a) he has the ability to switch stuff around at any time without much warning when he needs to, which he thinks is awesome.
b) he has spent his entire life using a Mac and chalkboard, and thus he knows nothing about PCs or SMARTboards (a super high-tech type of white board that hooks to a computer via projector and turns the board into a touch-screen for your computer. It's weird, its neat, it works. My high school had them.) I found this hilarious and somewhat painful because I grew up basically the opposite. Oh well. If he needs help I'll help him, otherwise it's kind of fun to watch him get excited as he figures out new stuff.
c) we need to turn in record cards for the oyster card passes which let us use the tube and coaches whenever we want so that if they get lost, we're not completely charred toast.

After the meeting we got left to our own devices until 2pm. On a whim, I decided to go a block past where we live and visit the Natural History Museum. It's a very big and beautiful building, which is quite intimidating until you focus only on the lower portion of the doors of the place. Then I walked inside to be greeted by a grinning stegosaurus (at least I think it was a stego). Some kind of small-y large long-necked small-brained whiplike tail dinosaur skeleton with a teethy grin, anyway. I know it wasn't a stego, but it was close enough for me.

Along the walls are lots of skeletons of animals, and I went upstairs to check out the human evolution, primates, and giant sequoia cross-section exhibits. It was during those exhibits that I re-discovered why I don't go to museums much. Going on my own, where it's silent, nobody's around, and only dead things, stuffed things, and statues are staring back at you is freaky as hell. I was just waiting for something to move. Luckily, after a few minutes a loud group of what seemed to be british high school/junior high school students came noisily through the exhibits, and I was able to follow them, another man, an old couple, another man, and a staff worker through subsequent exhibits that I saw today. I also went to see the reptiles, fishes, and mammals exhibit. The dinosaur one surprised me too badly to walk inside. Maybe next time. I mean, it's free, across the street, and I'm here for a couple months. Not a big deal.

It then took me approx. 45 minutes to find my way back to the flat. Queen's Gate, Queen's Gate Mews, Queen's Gate Gardens, Queen's Gate Place, Queen's Gate Terrace...so many rediculously close names, all following the other, parallel to another, rows and rows and crossing rows...hoo boy. Eventually though, I found the right SW7 and and the right numbers, and everything was okie doke. At least I wasn't like the two guys I saw between the Thai and Bangladesh embassies attempting to unfold a map while knocking over their bikes.

Eventually I went back to my room and attempted to cook a hamburger. It turned out pretty well, but seriously needed a few slices of onion, some ketchup, and some lettuce. Good part: I cooked the meat to the way I wanted it. Bad part: I expressly bought jack cheese in pre-cut slices so it would be easier to manage. As soon as I went to peel a slice up and put it on my h burger though, it crumbled in my fingertips :(
I also had a mini apple and one of Petra's carrots. Currently I am waiting for soup from Kat for dinner, because potatoes, more carrots, and warm soup sound fantastic. Even if there will be no meat with the meal (I know, weird for me, but that's ok.)

At about 1 Kat Rachel and I headed out for the tube station so we could get to the Museum of London for our next 'class.' It really wasn't much of a class, more like a "check in at 2pm with me, then walk through the galleries on your own and then go do what you want." Strange, but seems to be how the program will go rather often. It was also sort of a letdown when Dave (program leader: I call him either Dave/David. He also doubles as the prof for our music course) walked past us and was like "huh. so that's all they have open? they only go up to 1660. Well that's disappointing. I'm really sorry guys."

It was basically the history from prehistoric times leading into the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Medieval London. I really liked the prehistoric exhibit, with all the fossils and bones and such they found in the Thames. They also had a little box that would shift between a model of Caesar's war encampment/village and what stands in that area today- Heathrow Airport. They were definitely built models and there was a mirror involved, but where the models were housed continues to baffle me. I also really liked the roman village exhibit, mostly for the audio track combined with the small recreations of village life; scales on a shop table with grain sacks to balance them, an iron grate and small roman locks, the tools of a glass blower and how they made walls of homes, all with the sounds of people moving on the street with birds chirping and sounding like a glorious day with capable foley artists. That black plague exhibit though...no good. It was a small dark room painted red, with projectors doing words and images on the walls and terrifying voices reciting a dialogue. It was creeeepy! I didn't like it, and thus didn't stay in that room very long.

I kind of hung out for awhile since I didn't want to go back alone, and browsed the souvenir shop with Jackie and Courtney. My favorite was all the cockney slang items,especially those involving 'mince pies' and 'fag packets.

After that museum Rachel, Kat, Anna, and I went wandering the streets for two hours while waiting for Evensong to begin at 5. We wandered all up and down the Eastside until we finally took a few tube stops to Westminster (which was beautiful) ...only to go to a regular, (if incredibly short) evening church event tthat lasted maybe a half hour, but there was no music.

Anyway, sorry for the cop-out ending, but I am surprisingly tired. Until tomorrow.