hiya hiya!
sorry it's been so long.. i just have not had the motivation to write in this recently.

ok so i think i vaguely remember where i left off..
well apart from my social life, on monday the 19th of january i actually started classes here. haha after a full week of them i think it might be an alright semester -- the way education is structured in the UK vastly differs from that of the US. in most of my classes, which are 3 second-year levels and 1 third-year level, out of a 3 year program instead of 4 like America, i only have one essay or one presentation and the final. most of the assessment is like 50% essay, 50% final. that does not leave much room for error, and i don't think it's that conducive to actually improving one's writing. i mean, in America, granted they definitely hold your hand a lot more than they do here, but the purpose of having multiple essays and tests is to make sure that you can bring up poor grades, improve throughout the semester, and ultimately witness how much your academic pursuit has grown and been challenged etc. but here, it's like you read the book or books assigned for a class on your own, the class meets only once a week for two hours, and you only have one essay to prove/show/demonstrate what you have learned or thought about the texts and processed from the very limited discussion. i just fail to see the logic in the process of that, especially in comparison to any American university. it's so strange. but then again, i am glad of that, because it means i can really slack off. and after all, i'm more here to experience london than to do my work. so perhaps that's the general thought. it's just a bit difficult because everyone is still expected to be standout students, which is hard to do with everything riding on an essay and exam. but i digress from what interests you all i guess.

i don't really remember what i did day by day, but i'll include some highlights.
on tuesday i went to the imperial war museum, because it is free, and i thought it was quite interesting. i took some pictures inside the place, here is one of the front of it which struck me odd because there are palm trees of some variation in front of the sign. how the hell could they withstand the temps here? so weird.



i also took a picture of the inside of the place because all the planes were really cool. it was cool to see the artillery used in world war two, kind of odd actually but interesting nonetheless.

the museum also had a really good holocaust exhibit that i enjoyed. it was stirring, a bit disturbing, but extensive and good. after we left the museum we went to a pub for Obama's inauguration, and to come from such a solemn situation to such a happy one was a bit weird. but the inauguration was cool, i went the American bar that shows football games usually.. it was fun but expensive.

on thursday night i went to the pub that is right outside my dorm, which was really fun. since my dorm is located in such a residential area, the pub was pretty local. it was a nice place. on friday i went to notting hill because my friend lisa wanted to go and it was her birthday (as well as tanya's!) so we went. notting hill was really cool! i enjoyed the open-air market a lot and the entire feel of the place. i passed george orwell's house on the way to portobello road, so of course i had to stop and take a pic:

the blue plaque there in the middle explains that orwell lived here.

ha. that night, we went out to this salsa bar called guanabara. it was brazilian i think and the music was traditional salsa music mixed with whatever club music they played. lisa wanted to go there because live music always beats out techno in our book. that place was really expensive and a bit overrated, but i had fun. i met some of her other friends both in our dorm and out of it, so it was all-in-all a good night. here is a picture of the girls i went with in the lobby of our dorm:from left: caitlin, megan, claire, me, lisa being the sassy b-day girl, and flo. this is not my picture, it's actually claire's, but i think it came out better than mine.

on saturday i basically scoured the city looking for this random samuel beckett book called "the trilogy" of three basically short stories, because i had to read one for postmodernism that monday. i didn't realize how difficult such a task would be, and i got lost on the way home from some bookstores because i walked a bit too far. but i did manage to get some good pictures of big ben:

and westminster abbey:it was so nice out that day! unfortunately the sun was setting.. so half of the buildings are somewhat in shadow..

which are landmarks to me showing the way home because my dorm is only about a seven minute walk down victoria st. from those big sights.

that night, we went to aaron's dorm because there is a pub in it and the dorm was throwing a party for all the russian kids in the school. it was so weird because these russian people were like going crazy and essentially living up to every stereotype you might have seen, read, or experienced about russians. it was pretty intense. haha i wanted to leave that because it was too much for me, so we went to a pub down the road afterwards and hung out which is much more to everyone's liking.

sunday and sunday night i had to catch up on all the reading i had been putting off, including three chapters in joyce's ulysses and that samuel beckett book i was talking about earlier. it was almost unbearable to read 400 pages of straight stream-of-consciousness literature, but such is life. i also had to read dracula, but clearly didn't have the time or will to, so i read the sparknotes and then skimmed it between classes on monday. it was fine that i didn't do the reading - not at all the same consequences of when i don't do the reading in AZ. monday, yesterday, i went to class then walked home with claire instead of taking the tube because it was quite nice outside. then her and lisa and i went to leicester's square to try and get tickets to see a show, forgetting that everything for that closes around 5. but luckily it was chinese new year, so we went to a pub and had some fun there. we came back early though, which all in all i think is a good thing.

the beginning of china town

today i went to camden town with claire and megan and her friend katie, who is from texas but here on a work visa and actually getting married on valentine's day, so that was really cool. camden market was by far the coolest place i have been to in london, it's like a bigger and better china town. there are a ton of little boutiques, vintage stores, shops like in china town, and then a huge presence of rave-wear and that type of lifestyle as well because i guess camden itself is pretty wild. after hearing so much about it, i was quite excited to go. unfortunately that meant i didn't do my laundry or read the book i have to, but everything seemed validated when i found acceptable mexican food at the market. and as it's only 6:30 pm here, i still have time to do my work.

until next time!

--my love--