Monday 24 May 2010

Today was a really fun day. First, the weather. This is according to my borough on bbc.co.uk:



yes, 30. for the record that is 86 degrees!!! It was absolutely gorgeous although bordering on too hot. But the sun felt so nice and there was a cool breeze. lovely.

I met Paige at Piccadilly Circus to eat at Maoz Vegetarian.



We had yummy falafel with hummus. So good. I've had Maoz before when I was in Barcelona and I was excited to find a location in London. The food was really good.

Paige and I walked around Soho and talked about school, life in London, and just hung out. We decided to get something sweet and remembered a frozen yogurt place not far. Called Snog. Awesome right?




This is what I got. Chocolate frozen yogurt with strawberries. It was so good. We ate our frozen yogurt while walking toward campus.

We popped into NAB on campus to head up to the balcony on the 8th floor for a lovely view of London and a cool breeze. This isn't the exact picture from the balcony (I didn't bring my camera) but this is a pretty good idea of the view we had. The balcony went almost all the way around the building and so we got a great view of London (for free!).




It was fun to hang out in the sunshine and eat yummy food with good company. It's been so fun living in London and I'm beginning to feel sad about leaving this city and the friends I have made here.

Tonight is studying and prepping for a study group Wednesday and my dissertation meeting with my advisor. I've been procrastinating a bit too much lately and have since made a schedule of what I need to accomplish to feel prepared for the exams. I feel like if I stick to the schedule I will do well and so that is my goal. Although it is hard with this lovely weather!

5 weeks

5 weeks from today I will be leaving for Heathrow. I will have taken 2 3-hour exams, cleaned out my room, packed up my stuff, said my good byes to London and to my friends here and will be on my way to LA. It is so crazy to think about how fast time has gone while I have been in London. I am both sad about my few weeks left and excited to be back in California with friends and family. I will miss this city and the friends I have made here-I will not miss being in graduate school (although there is still the matter of the dissertation which I am not thinking about right now). The next 5 weeks are going to go by so quickly. 35 days!

Regent's Park

Today I met Paige and Sarah at Regent's Park for a nice afternoon in the sunshine. It was 76 degrees today and sunny! We found a lovely spot in the grass and had a picnic and laid in the sun, talking and people watching. It was so nice. I didn't take any pictures but I found some on google so you can see how lovely the park is:




The fountain. We moved to the shade after a few hours and were near the fountain. We had a good time talking and enjoying the beautiful weather. I love London when the weather is nice!


Another part of the park has a boating lake with pretty trees and bridges.


The weather is supposed to be around 78 degrees ALL WEEKEND. I can't believe how nice it is going to be. Unfortunately I have to do some studying-my first exam is 2 weeks from today which is stressful and scary but I also plan to get out in the sunshine and enjoy the lovely London weather.

A moment of silence please for my beloved mug...




Cleaning my room today I accidentally knocked it off my desk. And it broke into 4 pieces. My lovely IKEA mug that I've had for about 3 years. I love it. It has been a good mug but I had a feeling it was on its way out-there have been a few close calls lately. And I will miss it. Especially because I don't have a good replacement. I am very sad it is broken. I will have to go buy another mug for tea but it just won't be the same.

Wednesday

Why yes I am revising for my exams and no they are not causing me to panic and stress. And neither is the thought of figuring out/outlining and researching/writing my dissertation.

Today I met up with my friend Paige. We always have fun when we hang out. We grabbed sandwiches at a small shop on Neal Street in Covent Garden and then went to...



THE CINEMA!!! It was so fun to see a film! I haven't seen a film here yet in the UK and the last time I saw a film at home was Where the Wild Things are at the dollar theater in Irvine in January. And before that... probably this last summer before I left for London. That's only 2 movies this year. I have been wanting to go to the cinema FOREVER and found the perfect chance-my mobile phone provider Orange has 2 for 1 tickets on Wednesdays. AWESOME. So Paige and I both saw the film for £6.50 total. sweeeet.

We saw Four Lions. It is impossible to convey how freaking awesome this movie was. It is seriously one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Case in point this picture:




It is completely taken out of context and will not make any sense but just looking at this picture again makes me laugh so hard. It might seen incredibly strange but the movie is about a terrorist cell in Sheffield, England. And basically their interactions with the town, each other, Pakistan, and their desire to be suicide bombers. I know some people might not be entertained by this humour BUT it is billed as a comedy and trust me, it is sooo funny. The director did a fantastic job and it's getting amazing reviews here. I don't think there are plans to release it in the US yet (I honestly don't know if it would be as popular at home) but I think they should. It was a great pick after months of not seeing a film at the cinema. I loved it!

Vote! (If only I could)

Just a quick update. Nothing too exciting going on here. After turning in essays I've been in revision sessions for the exams this week. I only have 52 days left which is totally surreal to me!

Today is the General Election. It's pretty cool to be here during an election season. I sat with a group of UK friends at lunch on Tuesday and got to learn all about the intricacies of the election process and who they were going to vote for. It was very fun to talk about politics and differences between the UK and the US. The campaign itself was so short! Our campaigns go on for almost a year (in which a ridiculous amount of money is spent) and it seems so long and drawn out-but here it's just been over a month, with it really only a big issue the last 3 weeks. It was exciting for the debates to happen too, I guess that's a new thing here. Politics isn't as polarized here as it is at home. At home, people are very passionate about one side or the other and it's basically a fight to the death but here there are more parties represented and they have only slightly different takes on various issues. Of course there are the crazies (ie BNP) and the ones I want to win (Go Labour!) but it's nothing like the issues or drama Democrats/Republicans have. It's been really fun to watch and listen and it's cool to see how another country handles changes in leadership.

After 3 hours of Methods revision I got lunch with Paige and we sat in Lincoln's Inn Fields and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather. It felt like a spring day in California. The trees are blooming and there was a cool breeze. The sun was shining with blue sky. We sat for almost 2 hours and ate, and people watched, and talked... about everything. It was just a nice relaxing afternoon.

Pretty low key evening, no stress about revisions yet-I do have nearly a month before my first exam!. I have another class tomorrow and then hopefully a nice relaxing weekend with some sight seeing and lovely London weather. And hopefully pictures soon too!