London

I have been leading quite the boring life here in London. If I am not at school I am doing work for school. This does not leave much time for fun exploration of London. I have a long list of things I want to do but I'm sure they will have to wait for term break because the next few weeks are going to be very busy with school work.

I do have some pictures-but they are from my first trip to London. I thought they would work here since it's been rainy and I haven't been doing much touristy stuff.

CCTV. is. everywhere. I think I heard that if you live in London you are being watched 95% of the time. I found this "hidden" camera in a lamp post near the Tower of London.


Tower Bridge. I think I've put up pictures before, but the bridge is so pretty! Also, if you head south on this bridge for about 4 blocks, turn right on Great Dover Street, and walk about a block you get to my dorm!


Pretty nighttime picture of Big Ben and an Underground sign.



Over the weekend I went to a potluck dinner with some people in my program and we had yummy Mexican food and margaritas. It was a fun break from school. And Tuesday was my friend Paige's birthday so we went out to celebrate then too. My dissertation abstract is due Friday and in the next few weeks I have interviews for Methods, lots of articles to read, and more homework I can't think of right now. So busy. The most touristy thing I have done lately is ride a double decker bus which isn't actually that exciting because after the novelty wears off it's just another crowded city bus. :)

I saw the coolest sign today while walking to the grocery store (south on Old Kent Road, I might add). I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't have my camera and it was on the other side of the road. It's probably only cool because I am a nerd and I love London. I will try to recreate it here:

Channel Tunnel 62km
Dover 74 km


Ok. I think that's pretty cool. That from my little street in London I know how far it is to the channel. and to Dover. I wish I had a car so I could drive that short distance. That would be awesome. I really want to see more of the countryside-hopefully with a few day trips in the next couple of months.

It's a good thing that I did not make a New Year's Resolution to blog more. Because I would be failing epically.

Honestly, my life here in London is pretty boring. After essays, jet lag and pure laziness I now have a cold and have not been out and about to take pictures of anything exciting. It has been: get up, go to school, come home, read for school, go to bed.

I promise to do something exciting soon. For my sake and yours.

Gah! More than a week! I apologise. I am still readjusting to life here in London. Last week is a total blur of paper writing and not sleeping so blogging was more or less out of the question-except as a distraction from work.

Now I have no excuse. Except this week has gone by fast! It's been pretty uneventful-getting back to classes and reading for classes. And in a weird twist of events I think my jet lag skipped a week. I am definitely experiencing it now-weird sleeping times, length, and lack of sleep. I think the hectic first week back caused the jet lag to be delayed. Oh well, I think things are getting back to normal here.

I like my classes this term. I'm taking Qualitative Research Methods (which I like sooo much better than quantitative). The prof is Irish (great accent) and actually attempts humour at times which makes class more enjoyable. Although the reading is still a bit bland. We are going to be conducting interviews on campus though which should be interesting.

I'm also taking Families and the Life Course. It's taught by my advisor and last term prof Ursula Henz, which has actually been good because this is what she enjoys teaching and I think I will really like it. It's a small group and we have a lot of freedom with discussion and our upcoming presentations.

And, I'm still in Contemporary Social Thought which I still only sort of like. I'm glad I took it because it's a full year course which means only 1 other exam besides Methods but with the variety of profs it's hard to get involved with the sections and sometimes the subjects just don't interest me.

Other than that I have enjoyed seeing my London friends and Parliament/London Eye every morning on the bus-although the weather has been chilly and damp which makes for cold mornings but really awesome foggy bluish sunsets.

I will try to post more frequently, and include some pictures if I can escape the massive amount of reading I have this weekend.

Cheerio! (Side Note: I have yet to hear an actual English person say Cheerio but I felt it was appropriate here. Bye!)

What's for dinner:

How about 4 felafel with fresh houmous dip?

This is just one example of the British English language infiltrating and demolishing my command of the American English language.

I foresee this to be problematic.

I will keep you posted.

I took this photo when I was on VESPA but I was reminiscing earlier (instead of working on my paper) and wanted to upload it because I liked it. It's fun to be back in London, although I think I will enjoy it more once it is the weekend and I have put these evil papers behind me. Granted, one is totally done, one is 1,000 planned words away from being done, and one isn't even started. I can see the light at the end of this tunnel (or rather, I can see the Cider & Black at the end of this Friday) but I still have much work to do.

The internet is too darn distracting. I should be researching domestic violence and its links to Socialist Feminism and patriarchy but instead I am looking at flights to NYC, and stalking people on facebook, and blogging. Oh well, enjoy the pretty picture!

Back in London

Home in London. Home in my flat. It was quite a journey. My flight from LA was delayed 3 hours because of the weather here in London so we left around 12:40am Friday morning. We flew all night-and I got some sleep! yay. It was one of the smoothest flights I have ever been on, only a bit a turbulence around Greenland but the landing was great too. It was one of the best flights I have been on.

I landed at Heathrow and customs was easy, made it to baggage, and onto the tube without issue. Went to Piccadilly Circus and grabbed a cab to my flat. It was super easy and I got to my flat without having to walk from the tube.

Stayed up way too late London time because of the blasted jet lag and woke up around 2pm here. Been getting settled, organized again and trying to find motivation to get these stupid papers finished!!!

Also, here is the lovely view out of my window into the courtyard of the snow that has been falling off and on all day.

London is eerie at night with the old brick buildings, bare trees, and white snow. I love it! I will hopefully be getting some more snow pictures in the next couple of days. It's so pretty but around 30 degrees Fahrenheit! brrr!!