Fog and Tea Time

Sorry I haven't written in awhile! This week has been a total blur!

We finally started our classes on Monday and they are so intense! They're all in two hour and a half segments; a lecture and then a seminar with class groups, so bascially I have 4 3-hour classes a week!

The classes are really self directed though, there's definitely not going to be any hand holding besides deciding on final papers/projects (one of my final papers for my Political Area Development class needs to be no less than 3,500 words! jeeez...) But one of the really awsome aspects of my courses so far is that the lecturers have real world experience which makes class interesting in order to gain perspective on the subject. I have two lectures tomorrow, International Security Studies and Third World Politics so I'll see how they go, but they should be amazing given the topipcs. Also, most, if not all the readings for classes can be found at the main campus's library
so best case scenario, I won't have to spend money on books this semester!

The weather hasn't been to bad. Random rain showers every once in awhile so I always have to have my umbrella on me just in case! Other than that its usually between 40 and 50 degrees with a little wind and yes, it is usually foggy although today there was some blue sky! It is definitely still boot, scarf, and jacket season though!

On Tuesday, me and two other girls in my dorm, Caitlin and Sara went to the Natioal Gallery. Annie Liebovitz has a photography exhibit open until next month so we went and it was so amazing! I have always loved her work so seeing it blown up in a huge gallery was an awsome experience. The exhibit cost about 9 Pounds for students but the actual museum itself is free (like many of the museums in London) and we went to the Tudor gallery which shows a huge amount of artwork from the Elizabethan Era. I had seen these works so many times in books but to actually be standing in front of the real thing was so thrilling! We went to see another huge gallery that coverd the Stuart period which came after Elizabeth I's death in 1603 when James I was named her successor which brought an end to the enture Tudor period itself. We didn't see the entire museum because it would definitely have taken the whole day! I got some really great shots of the exterior of the museum including one of Big Ben and the fountains outside the museum. Afterwards we got tea and went for a walk and by the time I got back to the dorm I was exausted.

But of course about an hour after I got back Inaguration parties were going on in the halls and two of my neighboors, Federico and Kate invited me out with a bunch of other people who live in our dorm. A few people were attempting to play beer pong with very cheap white wine and small cups so it was a definite let-down for the Americans...the Brits who live with us loved it however and just started drinking the cups instead of even trying to shoot the pong ball...haha.

Around 9 a huge group of us headed to this bar near us called The Wrestler and hung out there for awhile before heading back to the Sports Cafe in Piccadilly Circus. It was insanely crowded because of the inaguration (which we all watched in the common room before going anywhere that night) and all night whenever someone heard our accents they would always ask us how excited we were..so it was a really fun night....lots of dancing!

Today I got up around 8 for my lecture at 10. Around 1 class let out and me and another girl in my class, Helen, went for tea. She's from a suburban area just outside London.

Also, I finally got my UK phone! It's the tiniest, cheapest thing but I'm only here for a few months so buying an expensive phone is definitely not worth it...need that extra money for my travelcard and other things :).

I'm still a little homesick sadly. Going out and meeting people is always a blast, but I wish people back home could be here sometimes, a part of this feels like freshman year all over again with meeting people but it's completly nornal to have culture shock for the first few weeks. There are so many things that are different here but thats part of the experience itself!

Anyway, its almost midnight here and I have to be up early yet again for class tomorrow. Who knows what the weekend will bring! Especially since I don't have class Fridays! (yay!)

love,
al