Wednesday

I did not sleep well last night. I was still awake at 2:30 and when I finally fell asleep I woke up several times. I'm not sure why but it was annoying.

I had to get up at 8:30 (on a day I usually sleep in) because I had to meet with my advisor at 10. It was a good meeting. We talked about school and classes and LSE. My advisor is Ursula Henz who is also my Research Methods professor. She is very nice and was really helpful. It was a good meeting.

Then I decided that since I was up anyway I should run some errands that I've been needing to do for awhile.

First, Boots. I love Boots. It's basically a pharmacy/Walgreens/Rite Aid but SO MUCH BETTER. It's almost as if you took the health and beauty section of Target and made its own store. It has everything. I had to get a few things there-including an umbrella. It rained all morning. Then I bought my umbrella and it stopped raining! Anyway this is Boots:

Then I went to John Lewis:

It's a big department store. I had to get some yarn because I am making a scarf for a new friend here. Except I bought the wrong kind!!! So i have to go back again, and it's not very convenient to get to. So i have to go back at some point, probably this week, and exchange what I bought for something else.

Ellen-I don't know if you tell Elena a lot of what I am doing here in London but I have a feeling she would be very excited about where I had lunch. It's an entire restaurant devoted to hummus!

Of course I had to go as soon as I found out this place existed. They have falafel and chicken and beef and you can add carrot sticks, or other things to your meal but I just got a small hummus with guacamole and jalapenos and a pita. It was really good.

That's my day so far. The rest of the day is going to be spent reading. I have several things to read for tomorrow and for Friday so that will definitely be keeping me busy.

OH and mom-I finally got your card today! Thank you!!! The stamp on it says it was sent on 2 October, so it only took 19 days! lol I have no idea if that is normal or not but it seems like a long time.

One Month

Today marked my first full month in London. A month ago yesterday I was landing at Heathrow with my mom. We had so much fun that first week sight seeing and hanging out. Then the apartment search. Ugh glad that is over. Here are some pictures that I've taken recently. They might not show up really well because i took them on my cell phone but I like them.

A couple things I see on my way to school. St Pauls and the Millenium Bridge

Walking home at sunset

I found cake mix Aunt Ellen!

But I don't think the cake mixes are sold below the mincemeat at home!

Also I bought toilet paper. They sell different colors in toilet paper. This is "natural". They also have white, aqua, and pink. why pink? why aqua!?

the Tabard Gardens that are down the street from my dorm. So pretty!

It's been fun being here so far. I went to church today which is always so much fun. This week will be busy with reading and classes. I like getting into a routine here. Hopefully I can go to a museum or two this week as well.

This Week

This week hasn't been very exciting. I had class Tuesday, Wednesday and today. Although I'm not going to keep going to the Wednesday class. I like the other 2 better. So I'm sticking with Contemporary Social Thought and Gender & Societies as my electives. Plus Research Methods.

Tonight was a Sociology get together at the George IV pub on campus. It has cheap drinks and was really fun. I'm not a beer fan but I had cider which is really good. It was fun to get to know people more outside of a classroom setting and everyone had a really good time.

Taking the bus home I noticed a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car aka the American side. It kind of threw me. I'm so used to seeing things the British way already. At least they were on the right side of the road (which is the left).

Sunday

I love Sunday. I love going to Hillsong London. It is a great church. This week was even better than the previous ones because I actually met people! I had been in contact with someone from Hillsong for the last week and she is so sweet, her name is Grace! She and I, along with another girl (who lives in Sidney Webb and goes to LSE!) sat together during the service. It was good. Then we met up with a bunch of other people to go to a restaurant called the Spice of Life that is near the church. It was really good. And I like the atmosphere that pubs have. I met a bunch of people that are new to London and we had fun. Hopefully this will be a weekly activity. :)

After that I went to a department store called John Lewis to pick up a few things and was amazed. I think it's the single biggest department store I have been in. It is huge! After I got what I needed I (OF COURSE) stopped by the Christmas Shop on the 3rd floor which is always so much fun. I love how into Christmas London gets. Even now, on 11 October there are signs everywhere to make reservations for Christmas at various restaurants. And adverts for plays, markets, and celebrations around Christmas. I'm planning on doing a lot of Christmas-y things while I am here, they all sound like so much fun! My theory is that Londoners get started on Christmas early because they only have 1 holiday left until Christmas, even though it is still 2 months away. Halloween is a big deal here but just like Thanksgiving in the States, everyone's mind turns to Christmas. We have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas so we still have some time before our thoughts turn fully to Christmas. Although before I left I did sees Christmas trees for sale at Costco.

After shopping I went back to Hillsong for another service. Today the services were divided so the 4pm service was different than the 10:30. I can't remember who spoke but he is an American pastor and he did a really good job. But the worship was sooooo good. Israel Houghton led worship, because he was in town for the Hillsong London Conference that happened last weekend (that I will hopefully go to next year) and it was amazing! He has an incredible voice and I really like the lyrics to his music, so simple yet moving.

Ok well it's almost 7pm and I'm tired. It's been a long day. Time to relax in my room with a book and some tea.

4 days til class again

Today I had class. It was Gender & Societies. It is AMAZING! The professor is from England and she is funny and interesting and the class felt like it lasted 10 minutes but it had been 2 hours. She teaches a course in the next term too and I might take it. We talked a lot about ideas of gender and how much impact culture and society has on a person. Then we looked through a magazine and talked about the different representations of gender, and especially toward women. It was really good.

I walked TO and FROM school today which was fun. Except it rained this afternoon. Which was not fun. I also had lunch with a new friend, Paige, who is an Msc Sociology student too. She is really nice and we had fun hanging out and getting to know each other.

I also joined a Society. There are like 100 Socieities (clubs) on campus and they are quite varied and all sound interesting. I went to the Feminist Society today :) I'm thinking about joining a few others. I had so much fun at this one.

For those of you that know me pretty well, you know that I have weird dreams sometimes. And sometimes those dreams can be about things that actually happen in the future. Now, they aren't great elaborate dreams about my future, or someone else's future, or to give me some great spiritual wisdom (although that would be nice), but they are usually about a place or a person or some flash of scenery or something. And usually after I wake up, I forget about them and don't go back to them. And then there are those occasions when they come up again. Except not in a dream, in real life. I actually stand in the place where I saw that dream take place however long ago it was. This happened several times on VESPA. At first it's a deja vu feeling, like I have been there before. But it's more than deja vu, it's from my dreams. This happened today. I was in the LSE Garrick, which is this cafe on campus, and I was having tea with Paige and as we were leaving to go to our Feminist Sociology meeting I was walking toward the door and it hit me. That I had been here before, but in a dream. I disctinctly remember the long metal cabinets, the wooden tables and chairs, and the light green decorations that accent the walls, leading toward the metal double doors and onto Houghton Street. It was EXACTLY from my dream. These moments are not exactly rare for me but they definitely still throw me for a loop. Because I KNOW I have never been in the Garrick before (just like all of the other times) and yet I had. It's funny because it never really freaks me out, it almost calms me. A few times that it happened on VESPA it had happened after I had been really feeling homesick or stressed and that would happen and it was a kind of feeling like, "oh, i'm supposed to be here right now. This is what I wanted. This is what I need to keep doing." It's almost reassuring in it's presence. And today it was like that again. I felt comforted knowing that even though this was unfamiliar territory for me, I had somehow been there before. And that I am supposed to be here, because this is what I want and need to keep doing.

Today I had the required course: Social Research Methods. It seems pretty standard, a lot like the Methods course I had at Vanguard. Except this one lasts a whole year! It's taught by 2 different professors though and this term covers Qualitative Methods, next term Quantitiative. It will be interesting. I like that everyone from my program is in the course, so we can all meet up after for lunch or just hang out and get to know each other better.

I walked home from school today. I would walk in the morning too if I could get up earlier :) But it's nice to walk in the afternoon and today was much better than yesterday. Today it was sunny and even kind of warm (not really warm, just pleasant enough to walk). I don't know how long the nice weather will last but I hope it sticks around for awhile.

Tomorrow I am going to another course called Gender & Societies, this is the one I really want to take. The professor is also involved with the Gender Institute here and I've talked to some of the people in my program about creating a Sociology off-shoot group of the Gender Institute that's geared toward our program which could be really interesting. We would get together and talk about what's going on in the Gender Institute and work on our dissertations and ideas, and basically work together on common issues. It sounds like it would be a fun time.

Not a lot of plans for the weekend. I need to get a cell phone, I'm thinking of getting a pay as you go plan since it's cheaper and I don't have the same obligations that I would with a contract. Also, I have some reading to do as the term really is getting started now!

First Day Of Class

So today was the first day of classes for me. I went to Contemporary Social Thought. It was really good. What I like about LSE is that you can kind of "shop" around for your classes. I don't actually have to have a finalized schedule until October 19. So I have 2 weeks to go to as many different classes as I want to figure out which ones I really want to take. I'm going to a couple this week that I probably won't take but I just want to see what they are about and meet the professors. I really liked today's class though. The professor is a Foucault expert and had some really good and interesting things to say.

I'm beginning to get to know the people in my program better too which is good. I talked with this girl Ilaria for a long time. She is so sweet. We had a lot of fun talking today. And we went to the Garrick, which is one of the cafes on campus and had tea. We sat with a bunch of other Sociology students and just talked about classes, professors, and life in general. It was really fun. Everyone seems so nice.

I decided that I didn't want to take the bus or tube home tonight and so I walked! It was a perfect evening for walking, it was kind of cold with a bit of a breeze,but not too cold. And no rain, which is good. It's been raining on and off the last couple of days. It's exactly 2 miles home and it took me like 50 minutes, mostly because I walked slowly through some parts of town just looking around. I mean, I walked past The Royal Courts of Justice, St Pauls' Cathedral, over the Millenium Bridge, Globe Theatre and caught glimpses of the Eye and Tower Bridge. I couldn't walk fast! It was really good though I think I might do it more often than I take transportation. Although knowing me I will have to take the bus or tube in the morning because I will be runnig late. :) But maybe on the way home every day.

Tomorrow I am going to a class called Cultural Theory. I'm not sure I will take it but I want to see what it is about, it sounds really interesting. I might end up switching, who knows. Also, I need to keep working on that to-do list. There are just so many things I need to do to get settled here. I'm planning on getting a cell phone tomorrow and printing off my Enrollment Verification so I can get a bunch of things done. It's so time consuming! I did get an email from someone from Hillsong London which is exciting and hopefully I can get into a Connect Group in the next couple of weeks.

Also, the internet is out in my room again. I hope they get it fixed soon. I hate that it comes and goes. I want to be able to video chat with people soon. I will keep you all posted.

It's almost midnight. I should probably go to bed. Night!

Sunday

Today I went to church. I love my church! Hillsong London is so great. If you're ever in London-go to this church!

After church I went to the British Museum for a couple of hours. It's such a great museum and literally right around the corner from church.

I also got to talk to almost my entire family tonight which was so fun! I video Skype-d LA to see Elena, Rachel, Grandma, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Rich, Jamal and Jacob. I miss all of them! It was great to see everyone. And Rachel smiled! What a cutie! I also talked to Ben, my mom, and dad on the phone which was good. I love catching up with family.

Tomorrow I am running boring errands. I have to print Enrollment Verifications, get them stamped, go open a bank account, apply for a student oyster card, get a pay as you go cell phone, set up the phone in my room, pay rent, and register with the NHS...

...probably that won't all happen tomorrow but it all needs to get done soon.

AND classes start this week! I have class Tuesday (Contemporary Social Thought), Thursday (Research Methods), and Friday (Gender & Socities).

Saturday

Still no internet in my room which is very frustrating but at least there is a computer lab I can use. I'm hoping it's back up before Sunday so I can Skype!!! Also, I'm going to set up the phone in my room so I can make calls. I'm not sure the rates yet though.

Today I went to Tate Modern, which is always interesting. I especially liked the giant table and chairs that were so tall you could walk under them. I don't really get modern art but it can be interesting. Then I walked through Borough Market which is this huge weekend outdoor market with lots of food and craft stalls. It was fun to see all of the different venders but it was realllly crowded.

Tomorrow I'm going to church and then the British Museum (hopefully). I changed my schedule a bit (I think it's final, but I have until next Friday to decide which is kind of weird). So i dont' have class until Tuesday. I think I told people I was taking Sociology of Employment but I am going to take Contemporary Social Thought instead. It covers a lot more topics that look really interesting and the professor is someone I definitely want to take a class with while I am here, so I am doing it now. I am excited for my classes to start.

Also, the rain has finally come to London. It's sprinkling outside. It's been super windy and cold all day so I figured it would be about time for rain. Who knows how long it's going to last or if it will get better or worse. I will definitely have to get used to it again. What's funny is that in Seattle (for the most part) people don't use umbrellas, they just kind of tough it out. But in London EVERYONE has an umbrella, locals and tourists.

It is cold!

The weather has definitely taken a turn today. No rain but it is windy!

I pretty much didn't do anything the last 2 days because I have been sick. I drank a lot of tea and slept a lot and I feel much better.

The internet is out in my room again. I'm writing from the computer lab. Hopefully it is fixed by Sunday so I can chat with everyone in LA. I will let you know, we might have to reschedule :(

Talk to you all soon!