Week One (August 27 - September 4)

This is going to be a more diary-type entry, which might be more boring than the last two (or not), but you'll finally know what I've been doing since I left home!  Hopefully I don't repeat anything that I said in the last two posts.

August 27/28
My flight to Atlanta was mostly uneventful.  I sat in the window seat in the last row, and no one sat by me.  I read in the magazine that the Atlanta airport was the busiest in the world, and there was a short interview with Andrew Zimmern in which he said that his favorite place to eat in Atlanta was the Chick-fil-a, so that's where I ate when I got there.  There was also a short article about Quidditch, which I thought was funny.  We flew over a Target on the way in (and I now know that there is a Target painted on the roof of Target stores).
After I ate dinner, I had to wait a few hours in the airport, which I mostly spent on my computer (internet at the Atlanta airport is NOT free, though).  I did have a seatmate on this flight, a British girl about my age who had been in Canada for the past month.  When I told her that I was studying abroad, she recommended a few places to see, none of which I'd heard of, and I was really tired so I don't remember what she said!  She also seemed surprised that no one was meeting me at the airport, but I assured her that I knew it took an hour to get to central London on the Tube, and I would be alright.
Going through border control was pretty uneventful.  I just showed the guy my letter from Hendrix explaining what I was doing, he asked me what I studied at home, then he told me to have a nice time while I was here.  I did think it was funny that there are signs telling people with UK or EU passports where to go, then there is a sign that says something like "All Other Passports, Including US."  So either Americans are too dumb to determine that they're not UK or EU, or we think they should have a specific area for us?
Once I got my luggage and followed the signs down to the Tube, I bought an Oyster card and went to wait for the train with everyone else.  An older man saw that I was by myself and started talking to me about how he never pays for the Tube and never gets caught, and I was just kind of smiling and nodding at him.  Then he stopped and laughed at me and showed me a card from his wallet.  "You think I'm crazy?  No, I have a freedom pass!"  If you're retired (I think there are other qualifications, too), you can ride the Tube for free.
When I stopped off at Russell Square, there were about 20 steps, so I prepared myself to lift my two very heavy suitcases and just go up as quickly as possible.  A man with two young children offered to carry one for me, even though I told him I could do it myself.  I think he was surprised by just how heavy it was!  After that, taking the elevator up to street level and walking to the flat was easy.  I stopped at the Acorn office (they're the people that own our building), where the lady explained how to open the door and told me that I was the last one of the Hendrix group to arrive.
I took my suitcases down the stairs to our flat and unpacked a few things, then hung around for a while wondering when I would see my roommates.  Eventually I decided to go out to buy a cellphone, at a place I had looked up on Google Maps before I left.  It wasn't hard to find and the people at the store were actually more helpful than people at the AT&T store at home sometimes are!  Once I had the phone, I walked back to Bloomsbury Square, which is a park at the south end of our street, and called home to let them know I'd gotten to London alright.  When I got back to the flat, I noticed that my roommates had been there and gone again, so this time I decided to stay there until I saw them.  They came in an hour or so later, we talked a while, then they went out again (I think to get food).  I had packed food with me so I didn't need to find a place as soon as I got there.  Then I unpacked everything, and when my roommates came back, we went to sleep.

August 29
I got up around 9:30 and walked to the street our classroom is on, so I would know where it was later, and then stopped to eat and use the wifi at a cafe.  I called home again, forgetting that it was Saturday and so my family was unlikely to be awake at 6:00, oops!  Then I went out to buy groceries at Sainsbury's, which was actually cheaper than I had expected.  They don't have much of a freezer section, because most of the foods we keep frozen at home are just refrigerated here, because they're fresher.  However, this means that you're expected to use them sooner, so you have to think more about whether you'll use everything before it goes bad.
On the way back from Sainsbury's, I finally met the other girls in our group, who were on their way to get groceries and phones.  They're two doors down from us, but I wasn't sure before then where they were because I was the only one who had a phone.
After putting my groceries away, Kemper (one of my roommates) and I went out to get her a phone, and on the way back she got groceries as well.  When we got back to the flat, I tried one of the more interesting things I bought, which was Quorn turkey slices.  They're made from mycoprotein, which is somehow related to mushrooms, and though it tasted good it didn't really taste like turkey.
We went over to the boys' flat for a while so Kemper could use their internet (since ours didn't work at the time), then Kemper and I just walked around the neighborhood for a while.  I showed her where our classroom was, and then we went to McDonald's because she was really craving french fries (even though everywhere else calls them chips, they're still "fries" in McDonald's) and we couldn't find anything else that was open.  When we finished eating, we walked back to the flat and went to bed.

August 30
We had a meeting with Dr. King (the professor who came with us from Hendrix) at 9:00 to talk about what he expected of us while we're here.  He mostly just told us that we do have to go to group events and not get in trouble.  Kemper and I went to McDonald's again to use their free wifi.  I looked up the word "sultanas" because the cereal I bought had them in it and I didn't realize that that basically means raisins.  I generally don't like raisin bran but this kind is much better because the raisins (or sultanas) aren't covered in sugar.  Then I looked up where I could buy a hairdryer (Boots, which is similar to Walgreen's).  I didn't bring one with me because I reasoned that it would be much simpler to buy one here than to have to mess with convertors/adaptors (which is true).
After dropping off the hairdryer at the flat, we walked to King's Cross because I had read that you could get a bus route map there.  It was hard to find, but we worked it out eventually (though the map itself is hard to interpret).  We decided to go to the Notting Hill Carnival, so we took the Tube there.  We got there a bit early, so we decided to walk through Kensington Gardens first.  We watched some guys play cricket for a while with a plastic cricket set; most of them weren't very good, and they hit the ball into the pond once and had to use a life preserver to get it back.
Then we went to Carnival, but there were so many people that it was a bit hard to get around.  We did see some interesting costumes, but I think we never found the main parade.  I got some chicken tikka, so I was happy, haha.  We walked to a farther Tube stop in hopes that it would be less crowded than the one we used before.  When we got back to the flat I made stir fry for dinner, and Kemper went out to McDonald's again to use their wifi.  I called Jillian since I hadn't talked to her yet, and then I went to bed.

August 31
This was the first day we had class, because Monday was a bank holiday.  On Tuesdays we have British Life and Culture with Susie (the teachers here want us to call them by their first names).  After going over what we were going to do in her class this semester, we walked through Tavistock Square, then went to the British Library.  We only had time to go through one section, and she asked us to pick one thing we would take home with us if we could.  I chose Scott's diary; he's the guy who was almost the first one to reach the South Pole but was beaten by the Russians, and his whole team died on the way back.  The last sentence in his diary reads, "  ."
After class we had three different orientations.  The first was with Acorn, where the guy told us the rules of the flats, which were basically not to be too loud or messy, and what days the trash and recycling is picked up.  He also told us that the washing machines here will probably be one of the most difficult cultural experiences, but I'm not really sure what he was talking about.  Other than having to use powdered detergent instead of liquid, they're not really any different from other front-loading washers I've used.  It takes 40 minutes for a cycle, and the dryer takes an hour and a half (which is only because I run it on medium heat, since some of my t-shirts have designs that aren't good with high heat).
Our next orientation was at the Senate House library.  We learned where everything is, which is important to know since there are so many floors, and how to use the printers.  We didn't have time to get our cards, though, because we had to go to our final orientation, which was at ULU (the University of London Union).  We got our ULU ID cards and heard a little about the different clubs and sports they have, but since the semester doesn't start for them until the end of September, they don't have anything going on until the beginning of October.
Next we had a "meet and greet" with all of our professors at a bar called Truckles of Pied Bull Yard.  Jean (our Shakespeare teacher), who sat near me, was particularly funny because she'd already had some wine before we got there and had a lot more while we were there.  She told us that our group seemed to be socializing better together than the group last year, but right after that she said she needed to stop drinking because she was being indiscreet, haha.  We already knew that there was some kind of problem with last year's group because they added a whole slide about group dynamics to the powerpoint at the study abroad info meeting (for everyone going abroad in any program), and they told us it was because of last year's Hendrix-in-London group.
We only had snack food at the bar, so after we were done there we had dinner and then went out to another bar together, the Shakespeare's Head, which is really close to us.  Someone had left a newspaper there that had an article talking about the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and they called him BoJo, which I'd never heard before (it made me laugh).  Afterwards we went to Sainsbury's for some people to get more groceries (I just got chocolate), and went back to the flat.

September 1
For our first Art & Architecture class, Barnaby (our teacher) just went over the syllabus and had us watch some short films that had to do with what British art is (general answer: it's hard to say).  After class I looked in the "free books" box on the first floor of the building and found a copy of the book we had to read for Susie's class, Mrs. Dalloway!  One less book I have to buy, at least!  Our Shakespeare class is on Wednesday afternoons and is taught by Jean.  She emphasized the fact that plays are written to be heard, not read, so we will only be studying plays that we can go to.
After her class I went to the post office to buy stamps and discovered when I tried to go back to the flat that our door-sensor does not work when it gets too hot...  Luckily I've only had a problem with that twice because the weather has gotten cooler.  When I finally got in, I put my stuff away and went out to get fish and chips for dinner (which were very good).

September 2
We walked to Holborn to take the Tube to Marylebone station, where we got on a train to Stratford-upon-Avon.  As soon as we got there we left our bags at the B&Bs we were staying at (3 different ones since we had 16 people).  The one I stayed at was called Linhill, and it was very nice (and the lady there had a dog).  The first thing we saw in Stratford was Shakespeare's grave, in Trinity Church.  It was kind of cool to be there, but...  No matter how close you are to him, he's still dead, I guess?
On the way to the theatre to pick up our tickets we passed a couple eating lunch on the bank of the river.  The guy yelled, "Genuine British people, £5 a picture!"  I couldn't tell if the other people in our group heard him, but I laughed.  After picking up the tickets, we went to New Place, which is a house Shakespeare once lived in.  They were doing an archaeological dig in the garden, which was interesting but they were only finding things like buttons and nails.  Then we went to eat dinner at the Rose & Crown, which was pretty good (and the fish and chip portions were HUGE).  Afterward I sat in the park to read and watch the people walking past.  There seemed to be a lot of Asian tourists.
Our seats for the play were kind of weird because we were at the very top, leaning over the rail, so at times it felt like we might fall onto the people just below us.  The play we saw was A Winter's Tale, which I'd never heard of before.  Most of the first act was a little hard to follow but the end of the act was very dramatic, with a huge bear puppet (the kind that someone wears) that looked like it was made out of paper, and huge bookshelves fell down and books went all over the place.  Here's a picture that someone else took:

In general I thought it was well-acted, but Jean is a strong believer that Shakespeare's plays shouldn't have complicated sets, so she didn't like it very much (although she did think that a couple people did very well).  After the play we made our way back to the B&B and watched some TV before bed.

September 3
The lady at the B&B cooked us an "English breakfast", which included very thick bacon, eggs that were kind of sunny-side-up but a bit runnier, and toast with marmalade.  We walked along a neat path through a field and behind people's houses to was Anne Hathaway's cottage, which had very nice gardens, and then we went to Shakespeare's birthplace.  I've been there before, in 2008, but I'm pretty sure that the video you watch before you go into the house was new.  It included a clip from the Doctor Who episode with Shakespeare in it.
We had just enough time for lunch before we got back on the train to London.  I went back to the flat to drop off my things, then walked to Foyles, the bookstore, to use their wifi.

September 4
I slept late, ate breakfast, and went over to the Acorn office to ask them to fix our internet, which they finally did!  I spent a long time checking emails and things, so I didn't do much else, besides read for class.  I cooked a quiche for dinner, and Kemper brought me Aero chocolate, because I had told her that I was looking for it and couldn't find it anywhere (except the mint kind, which I'm not really a fan of).

Some links you might find interesting:
Into the Bowels of the British Library

Info about the tour of Aldwych Station that I went on (which I will talk about in a later post)

Observations, part two

It wasn't even sprinkling anymore when I left, so I didn't have to worry about my groceries getting wet! It's supposed to rain a lot this week, though (including when we're at the Globe, so if it rains then, I'll definitely get wet). It's raining again now, actually.
If you haven't read any of my posts yet, you should begin at the beginning, which is actually at the bottom of the page (or maybe on the next page, depending on how many posts I've made).

Someone (I don't remember who now) asked if I experienced any jet lag. I don't think so? It seems like jet lag would be one of those things that you would know you had, if you did have it. I did make a point to set my watch to London time as soon as I got on the plane, get out in the sunlight as soon as possible, and keep a normal sleep schedule (which I've kept doing since I've been here). So, there are my tips for jet lag, I guess?
One of the stereotypes for British people, and Londoners in particular, is that they are rude/standoffish/etc.  I haven't seen that, actually!  When I took the Tube from Heathrow to my flat, there was a small flight of stairs between the tube stop and the street.  I was prepared to just lift my bags and go as quickly as I could (read: very slowly), but a man with two small children offered to carry one for me.  I told him it was very heavy, so he didn't have to, but he did!  I have also had someone pick up a coin I dropped and give it back to me with a smile, and shared laughs with people next to me about other people that were acting strangely (tourists, and one guy at the Skyride who didn't seem to know how to control a bike).  No one has been rude to me, but granted, I'm not starting conversations with anyone (except a shopkeeper in Stratford-upon-Avon).  I don't think I'd ever want to, though; I'm content to sit/stand in silence on the Tube.

The only thing I can see that might put some people off is how frustrated people get if you are blocking the sidewalk/escalator, but I think it's understandable!  It's not hard to move to one side (there are even signs on the Tube telling you to stand to the right).  On that note: I love being able to walk everywhere!  Walking gives you a different perspective of a city.  One thing I noticed at first was that I seemed to be seeing more pregnant and older people than at home (two different categories, not pregnant elderly people), but I think that's just because I didn't really see many people at ALL at home.  When you have such a small sample size, you don't get much variety, and there's plenty of variety here.  London is a very multicultural city.  Even when you hear a British accent, that person still might not be a local.  I've been asked directions three times (I guess I look knowledgeable?), the first two times by someone with a British accent (those were early on, when I didn't know my way around well and couldn't answer), and the third time by someone who sounded German (when I finally COULD answer).
It was kind of hard to go without consistent internet access for most of the first week, but I think it was actually a good thing because it made me walk around looking for places that had wifi!  (Pret a Manger and Foyles are my favorites, if you're interested.)  :)  I found other interesting things on the way there from my flat.  However, I don't think I would have figured out any bus routes without internet.  I did get a route map from the Tourist Information Centre at King's Cross, but it's so confusing!  The Tube map is much simpler.

The only other comments I have are on our classes here and how everything is set up.
We are taking four classes, one taught by Dr. King who came with us from Hendrix, and the other three by professors here.  The others asked us to call them by their first names (Susie, Barnaby, and Jean), which is normal here, but still hard for us to get used to.  Susie teaches British Life and Culture, which I think will meet at our classroom most of the time, but also involves walking around London for most class sessions.  Barnaby teaches British Art and Architecture, and we will only be in the classroom for the first class (which we already had), and the last one.  For the next session we are meeting at the British Museum.  Jean teaches Shakespeare, and I am not actually sure if many of her classes will be outside the classroom (as she didn't give us a syllabus yet), but I don't think so because she made sure to tell us that every class will have have a "tea break" halfway through.  This is fine with all of us, as our classes are 3 hours long.  Of course, with the Shakespeare class, we are going to see every play we read performed live (in class, she talked about the importance of "hearing" plays rather than reading them).  Dr. King teaches a Politics and British Literature class (not sure of the exact title of the class, actually).  I'm not sure yet whether there will be more politics or literature in the class, because he is a politics teacher at Hendrix, but he has said that he knows most of us are not politics majors and might be more interested in the literature aspect (though I am at least somewhat interested in both).
There are 14 students, including me (9 girls and 5 boys).  I knew 3 of them before I came here, though not well, but of course just the fact that we all go to Hendrix means that all of us have something in common.  However, a major difference between being in a class of 14 here vs. being in a class of 14 at Hendrix (which I have done before), is that when you're studying "alone" in the SLTC, you are surrounded by people who are part of the same group as you.  Here, you're...  More alone?  That sounds silly, but I don't know how else to put it.  If you spend all day studying in a cafe or restaurant or bookstore or park or whatever, unless you're really close to the flat, you probably won't see anyone you know, and the people around you will probably never have even been to Arkansas.  I really like this, and it makes people watching a lot more interesting, but I think it also makes me enjoy being part of the group more, when we're together.

It's always weird to look at the time and then think about what time it is at home.  ("That early, really?")  It's particularly hard when I see something I'd like to tell someone at home about, then realize that they're not even awake yet!  I also didn't realize that it was Labor Day at home until my mom mentioned it.  We had our own bank holiday the first Monday we were here, but since we hadn't started class yet it just felt like summer still.

Okay, end of this post, finally!  It's late now, so the "what I've actually been DOING" posts will have to wait until tomorrow!
I think I will end all of my posts with links to interesting London things that I have found over the past day/days/week.  Some will be current events, some will be historical events, some are just things around/near London.  They're mostly from London-based Twitter accounts that I follow, but some are from other places.  I hope that at least some of them will interest you, but I'm sure there will be days that none of them do.  Feel free to click on any, all, or none. 

Previously unseen colour footage of London during the Blitz has been discovered after lying in an attic for almost 70 years.

London Underground workers begin 24-hour strike

Tony Blair cancels book signing amid protest fears

Act now Barclays, or the Boris Bike is here to stay

Britain could face conker shortage   (and background on that one)

First, some observations.

It is now Monday, September 6th, which means I have been in London for 9 days. A lot has happened between the 28th of August and today, but I'll get to the actual "what I've been doing" in the next post (edit: not really). After that one (or two; I might split it), posts will be more linear, but for this post I've decided to just talk about some things that I've noticed since I've been here, and talk about what this blog is going to be.

The last travel blog I read was from Kevin, who studied abroad in China last semester. I included the link in case you're interested, but he's home now so I don't suppose he'll be posting there anymore. (But if you read this, Kevin - it ended rather abruptly!) He's the only person I know personally who actually kept up with a blog while they were away. My dad also keeps us up to date when he's in South Korea, but in a different format; he sends one page of a Word document at a time, and includes the title of his next update at the bottom. I'm not quite sure yet how structured this blog will be or how often I will update (once a week at the least, though). I am pretty much incapable of writing completely freeform, and as I said in my last post I have been making outlines since I've been here so I don't forget what I've been doing before I had a chance to write about it.
I will try not to ramble too much, but I can tell you now that you should expect some long posts. Hopefully this doesn't mean I will lose your interest, but that might end up happening. To be honest, just the act of writing this is more important to me than having an audience (though of course, that's always nice). When I am really interested in something, I try to say everything at once, both in speech and in writing. When I speak, this means I have to stop, think about what I'm trying to say, and try again more slowly. When I write, it either means I spend a long time re-arranging paragraphs, or that things don't always seem to be in the right order (or a mix of both, if I start re-arranging and then decide to just leave the rest as it is). Also, I was diagnosed with ADD this summer (I haven't shared that with anyone yet, so feel privileged if you're reading this, haha), which is helpful in that I finally understand the problems I've had with school for most of my life, and hopefully explains any odd transitions I might make (though usually, as I said, I go back and edit everything before I post it). If you haven't noticed yet, I also use a lot of parentheses.

Sometimes I might talk about what I've been doing in emails, facebook posts, or on twitter before I post about it here, but I know that not everyone follows me everywhere (which would be creepy, actually), so I will try to assume that when you're reading this blog, you don't know anything about what I've been doing. However, there might be times that I assume you know about/understand something when you actually don't. If this happens, feel free to ask in the comments. If you'd rather ask/comment on twitter/facebook/email, go ahead. If you know me but don't have my email/twitter username, let me know. I actually have three emails, which I use for different things (family/school/everything else), so which one I give you depends on who you are. Saying it like that makes it sound like one group is better than the others, but it just makes it simpler if I keep things organized! If you happened on this blog by chance, the comments are the only means of communication you have with me, sorry! I don't usually give out my email/twitter/facebook unless I know you.

Alright, that's housekeeping done. I think I'm going to go to Sainsbury's (grocery store) after I finish this post, and go ahead and share the link before I write the next posts. Do remember that new posts show up on the top of the page, and you might have to click "older posts" on the bottom of the page to see the first ones I wrote (which were in 2009).
The post I meant to write last semester was going to be about expectations, so I'll go ahead and talk about that here. First off is this post from a study abroad website, titled, "Is Britain Broad Enough?" It's worth reading the whole thing, but I just want to share a bit of it here:

Britain is not presented or understood as a foreign society; rather, it is a precursor, an extension, a cousin. ... The U.S. is culturally a lot more like Australia (which has nonetheless plenty of cultural surprises) than it is like the U.K. There are obvious historical as well as geographical reasons for this, but in both cases the same problem arises: the presence of English soothes the outsider into believing that differences are not significant. You understand what people say, and you think you understand what they mean. But that’s not necessarily so. ...upon arrival, the thing to do is to become an ethnographer. A lot can be accomplished by noticing things, by writing them down, and by discussing them with people.

That's what I hope to do with this blog: notice things, write them down, and discuss them. I hope that I will have an actual discussion here, with other people, but if it ends up just being me talking to myself, that's okay, too. I do plan on reading the blogs of the other people in the group and commenting there. (aside: it's raining, for only the second time since I've been here!)
Just before I left home, I read Travels, by Michael Crichton. This was actually a father's day present for my dad (sorry again for moving it so much!). It's a really good book, and I recommend it; the part I'm quoting here is from the preface.

Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of you clothes -- with all of this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.
I eventually realized that direct experience is the most valuable experience I can have. Western man is so surrounded by ideas, so bombarded with opinions, concepts, and information structures of all sorts, that it becomes difficult to experience anything without the intervening filter of these structures. And the natural world -- our traditional source of direct insights -- is rapidly disappearing. Modern city-dwellers cannot even see the stars at night. This humbling reminder of man's place in the greater scheme of things, which human beings formerly saw once every twenty-four hours, is denied them. It's no wonder that people lose their bearings, that they lose track of who they really are, and what their lives are really about.
So travel has helped me to have direct experiences. And to know more about myself.

That's a little more dramatic than I'm going for, I think, but I'm thinking along the same lines. I'm in a different place, with people I don't really know (though they're from the same college), and most of the familiar brands of food I eat at home aren't sold here (though I brought a big jar of Jif peanut butter with me). Obviously I'm in a city, not out in a rural area like in most of the stories in Travels.
But there's another thing; there are so many parks here! Forgetting the complications about being employed here, at the moment London is topping my list of places I'd most like to live. There's the convenience of being able to walk to just about everything you need or want, with public transportation to take you farther, and though you wouldn't have much of a yard here (if you have one at all) there are green spaces all over the place. There are even deer in some of them (in Richmond Park I know for sure). The street I'm on has parks at both ends of it, though they're very small, and I walk past another of similar size on the way to our classroom. ...I guess that was all the commentary I had on Crichton's quote, other than to say again that you should read the book.

So, I'm here, in a different culture. What better time to discuss culture shock? Well, since I'm only going to be here for a bit over three months, which according to the internet is around when the "honeymoon phase" usually ends, it's hard to tell if I'll experience it. On the other hand, I sort of feel like, when it comes to British culture, I've been in that phase for half of my life. Since the end of last semester, I did make an effort to seek out things like this post on Fandom Secrets: picture , then discussion. Be forewarned that the discussion (not the picture) includes cursing, so if you'd rather not read that, I'll summarize here for you: people in the England (and everywhere else for that matter) are just people. However magical the literary, film, and television output is, you have to remember that that is all just fiction! You can't come here expecting to find Hogwarts or Narnia or the Doctor around the corner. If you do, you'll be disappointed. However cliche the phrase has become, it's also important to "imagine people complexly." (For those who haven't heard that before, it's from John Green's book Paper Towns.) The point is, I feel like I can avoid culture shock, but I did just knock on wood. :P
The best way I can describe London in comparison with places I've already been is as a mix of Chicago and Eureka Springs (Arkansas). It's a big city, and there are lots of tourists here, and when you're in central London, as I am, sort of near the business district, you also see people just going about their jobs. The Eureka Springs bit is for the quirkiness of some of the shops and the general way you just feel "different" than the people who live here. I think the comparison makes more sense in my head. Oh, well.

Along that line: things here are mostly not better or worse than at home, just different. For example, the grocery store. There isn't much of a frozen food section, but there are all kinds of prepared meals, either refrigerated or not. This means, I assume, that everything is more fresh than at home, but you also have to eat it more quickly so it doesn't go bad. The food packaging/labeling is different, as well. It is very common to see something marked "suitable for vegetarians/vegans", and just about everything is recyclable (or clearly states that it is not). The nutrition facts are a bit harder for me to understand, but I think this is mainly because we use different units of measure. They do include interesting information that food at home doesn't have (though I can't think of specific examples at the moment). I have been able to find just about everything I eat at home, though not the same brand, which is fine. There are also things I've never had before, like my Quorn mycoprotein "turkey" slices which I ate on a sandwich today with cheddar cheese (the first tastes good, but doesn't taste like turkey, and the cheese is a kind of cream color instead of the fluorescent orange of American cheddar). Some funny things I've seen are the (amusingly stereotypical) commercials for the "deep south" KFC sandwich, and while we're on the subject of commercials, the Foot Locker one that uses an instrumental Peter Fox song (it's here, if you're interested). I only know who Peter Fox is because my sister (Jillian) listened to his music while she was in Germany during spring break of her senior year; her tour guide really liked him, and Jillian bought the CD when she came back and shared it with me! It's all in German, but very catchy.

Okay, er... This is gone on way longer than I was planning, so I'm going to go ahead and stop here and make this a post in two parts!
Off to Sainsbury's for now!

note: I'm a bit confused about the time zone settings here. I thought I fixed it but now it's changed the time for all my previous posts and still has this one wrong.
edit: I think I figured it out now.

It's been a while.

Obviously I didn't make the next post when I said I was going to, but I did spend most of my summer making plans for this semester (and also this blog, sort of). I still don't have internet in my flat, so I'm only online for about 30 minutes at a time. At the moment I'm in Foyles, which closes in half an hour, so I still don't have time to make a post! Rest assured that I will very soon, though, as I have lots of free time tomorrow that I plan to use to update this blog. (I don't think I've given anyone the link to the blog yet, so by the time anyone reads this, I will probably have already made the next post.) The only people whose blogs I've found so far are Laura, Becca, Erin, and Kate, who seem to be the only ones who have posted the links on their Facebooks. I haven't read them yet because I want to give my perspective of my experiences before I read theirs, but you might find them interesting! I've been taking notes that I've made into outlines of blog posts (probably just one blog post, but we'll see), because otherwise I would have forgotten the details. I don't like writing full posts before I can actually publish them, though, because I'm tempted to edit them later when I do.
Okay, wellllll... Next post by Monday, seriously this time!

Nearing the end...

...of the semester, of my sanity, but not quite the end of waiting for London.
I have been having anxiety issues with my classes this semester, which have been both helped and hurt by the knowledge that I'll be in London in the fall. It's good to have something else to think about when a class isn't going so well, but it's also a source of procrastination, since I sometimes daydream about it. I'm hoping that the fact that we'll all be taking the same classes together will discourage procrastination when I'm actually there, since everyone will know when I should be working on something. :)

I was going to write a longer post today, but I just looked at the time and decided to save it for tomorrow. Here's a teaser: general study abroad meeting today, London meeting next week, things I need to get, plans for the summer, expectations for the fall.

Anticipation

Since my last post, I've turned in my $300 deposit, which basically just tells Hendrix that I really am serious about this. I've also gotten an email about our first info meeting, which will mostly be about Dr. King's course. Three courses are taught by professors at the university we'll be at, and the fourth will be taught by Dr. King (the fourth class is the only one that changes year to year). So far he's said that he wants to teach a politics course that somehow incorporates British literature; the meeting is to get our feedback. It'll also be my first time to meet most of the people who'll be going with me. If everyone that received the email does actually go, there will be 12 of us total, 3 of whom I already know (Kate, Laura, and Hillary), but not that well. It looks like the guy:girl ratio is 4:8, not that this is of any importance other than for housing (which we'll find out more about later this semester).

My file of stuff to do in London (places to go to, events, and lots of links) has reached 750 words so far. I know I won't be able to do everything, but I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun trying!

Dreams

I'm starting to have really odd dreams about London. The only one I can remember clearly involved me being roommates with the girl who plays Draco in A Very Potter Musical, and for some reason we both worked at Quizno's. I don't even know if they have Quizno's in London.

Well aaaaanyway, that ties into my next point - I realized last week that the Deathly Hallows premiere will be happening while I'm in London! I found the page where all Leicester Square events are posted (here), so maybe I'll go camp out for a few hours just to say I did. Actual tickets appear to start around £200, unfortunately.

I find it odd that there has never been any mention of the name of the university/college I'll be studying at. The Hendrix-in-London info page includes a link to the University of London union, but that seems to be the name for a large group of colleges. I don't suppose it really matters since we're all going to (technically) be enrolled at Hendrix, but it seems like something they'd have told us! I'm sure this will be cleared up next semester, along with the other things I'm wondering about (particularly cellphones and bank accounts, at the moment).