Update! To procastinate, really.

Hey, folks.

I've got a paper I SHOULD be working on, but obviously this, and probably getting a ticket to go visit Dublin, Ireland for a bit are more pressing matters than the "definition of development."  I mean, please, right?

While I've been complaining a whole lot recently about the amount of work I have to do, I do heartily understand that I really did bring it on myself, and I'm sort of glad I do have quite a lot of work to do.  Of course, when I looked at schools, I looked at the name of the school, "University College London," and I just figured that I really wanted to go there, much like I did with Ohio State.  It was just like "Oh, I really want to go to Ohio State," and "Oh, I really want to go to University College London."  Only after applying did I look it up and find that, oh dear, University College London was 9th in the world in terms of universities (it has since moved up to no. 4, behind Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale...thus ahead of Oxford, people).

So I know I'm getting a damn good education, which was kind of the point, right?  Of course, I'm getting to go to London, where I've always really wanted to go to, and I get to go to tons of places in Europe, which is also awesome, but I'm still a student, so, well, I should do work.  This touches upon my second point.  I was talking to some other students studying abroad here, and they nonchalantly talked about "Oh, yeah, we just go out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday" and I was just sort of baffled that, well, at the no. 4 school in the world, you spend the majority of the time going out instead of doing homework.  (Granted, my grades are transferring back for actual credit, so I have to try to do really well while some people only need to pass).  But then she went further and said that some of her British friends apparently went out and got drunk every day of the week.  Like, really?

Some of you know my stance towards drinking, at least on my personal level, but if not, here it is: I drink because I like the taste of beer.  I don't need to drink more than, like, five beers (US terms) in a night (and usually never even close to five, more like one or two), nor am I actually drunk after a maximum of five beers.  There's a natural limit to how much people can drink, and it's there for a reason.  Your body is, well, a fragile vessel, so don't screw it up.  Of course, I'm in the minority when it comes to this, but honestly, if you need to black out or get drunk off your bum to have a good time, I feel like your approach to "having a good time" may not be a very smart or correct approach.

In this sense, I'm glad I have a lot of work, because while I certainly know that if I had a lot more time on my hands I wouldn't be going blackout drunk or anything all the time (not that I have, ever), but because I know I'm being busy and not, well, bored.  There's plenty to do, and there's not necessarily a terrible rush to get it all done within the first couple of weeks (what else can you do after that?), so putting them off to later (also, when it's warmer) is not a bad decision.  So the first few days were super boring with little to do.  But with work (and the procrastination that inevitably accompanies it), it's less boring.

/end rant

But this weekend was fun.  We visited the Tower of London, which has loads of stuff going on.  I like this "before entering" picture:

Much of the tour was the guide, a "beefeater," talking about various dignitaries that were held there and/or executed there, such as couple of Henry VIII's wives like Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, among others, like two child Princes whose murderers are still unknown to this day.  One thing I didn't know was apparently they raise official ravens of the Royal House there.  Yep, the Royal House of London raise ravens.  I'm going to assume that they used to be effective carriers of notes in the pre-iPhone age, hah.  But yes.

The Crown Jewels were shown there too, but, um, taking pictures of them amounts to treason, apparently.  I mean, it was a really tough call between pictures of the craziest headdresses and silverware known to man and being sentenced to death, so it really came down to a coin toss.

There were other exhibits, like the ones geared towards kids (about weaponry and being a knight back then) which I found incredibly amusing and enthralling.  Being kind of a weapon nut (from all sorts of video games in my youth), it was pretty sweet.

You can find photos on my Facebook or on my Flickr if you want to see more, but I do particularly like this photo of the Tower of London at dark the best:

After that we all went and got some food, wherein I had my first round of traditional British staple of "fish & chips," wherein there were fish bones when I certainly did not expect them.  I probably ate a couple of fish bones.

That was essentially my weekend, and classes have been keeping me busy otherwise, as in, I should really get back to work.

Cheers (this is apparently a commonplace British phrase),

-e.

NP: Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

The Next Thing They Charged Me For?

"I've come to the conclusion that they generally charge for almost everything over here.  Charged me for internet at the hotel, charged me for condiments...I wonder what's next."

I was charged 20p to use a public bathroom.  I mean, WHAT?  You're making me pay so I don't relieve myself in public and violate a ton of laws?  I should be PAID FOR THAT.

Oh well, I picked up some nifty Arsenal gear and some postcards while out shopping today, so maybe expect one.  Maybe, haha.

NP: Carole King - Tapestry

The Scientific Explanation for Tides Changing

...in relation to Saturday's post.

The way it works here is that you have your Spring Term AND your Summer Term treated as one US semester.  Spring Term, you get all your classes out of the way and in the Summer Term, you take the tests for them.

Spring Term ends late March, which is followed by an absurdly long break of one month.  Summer Term lasts for about a month, and them BOOM, done.  Since Spring Term ends March, it's about, hey, ten weeks long, so really I never left the quarter system, it just means that I get to test later than I thought I would.  So the same generous amount of coursework I have to complete is STILL there, required to be done in the SAME amount of time as it used to be.  Not exactly the change of pace I was aiming for, no?

But this week, once again, I have had Tuesday and Wednesday off (it's early Wednesday morning...well, 10AM).  Tuesday was spent slogging through homework, a bit of reading and a whole lot of staring at a terrible statistical program and trying to get it to behave.  I did get to walk around a bit which was great, but nowhere "new" per sé as I really only went out to try to find something to eat...which took a lot longer than it should.  I settled on some "halal" place halfway between my abode and the university, and, um, I got a burger.  It was pretty good.  But they charged me for condiments!  Just a little thing of BBQ, man, it costs you a dollar for the whole 100000pc box, just give me my condiments!

I've come to the conclusion that they generally charge for almost everything over here.  Charged me for internet at the hotel, charged me for condiments...I wonder what's next.

To make up for my lack of being able to do tourist stuff recently, today I'll be going onto a Duck tour (those amphibious vehicles from, like, WWII) with a bunch of other Affiliate Economics students (and by Affiliate Economics students it also basically means "all American students abroad studying Economics").  I'll have pictures up soon.

But my sly parenthetical brings up something interesting that I've come across.  UCL is 30% international students.  But it seems, still, every single person I've ever met is, well, American.  Perhaps it's because the number of courses offered to Affiliates are limited, so it's overloaded with Affiliates (probably mostly American, likely because it's really, really expensive to study over here).  Perhaps British people don't like the courses offered to Affiliates, or maybe I'm just not in the right set of classes.  Whatever it is, it's slightly a bummer 'cause my goal of really getting to know some British kids is not really, ya know, getting off to a great start.

Well, I gotta go, I have to go back to the damn statistical program and see if it will behave for me this time.  I'll update with Duck Tour stuff soon.

-e.

NP: Eluvium - Life Through Bombardment

Basically a comp of all Eluvium has done so far.  Ambient music, so put it on in the back while work gets done!

O, how the tides have changed!

From:

"Hey, this is going to be awesome, no work, no classes!"

to

"Hey, I'm pretty much fucked."

in the span of two days.

Let me explain.  Thursday, History class.  I go in, and I'm actually jumping in to the second half of a year-long course.  Teacher tells me it'd probably be good to at least be familiar with the first half.  This means, hey, 250 or so pages of reading.  AWESOME.  This is in addition to all the stuff I gotta do for the class on a normal basis.

Then Friday, Economic Development, I've already got a problem set due next Thursday, and I gotta use a stats program I've never heard of before.  JOLLY GOOD.  And then, I still gotta do readings too.  Yikes.

But in other events not related to me suddenly being swamped with work before I even go to my fourth class (didn't meet last week), Tuesday I walked around Regent's Park.  Here's my favorite photo:

That rock with the inscription was strange to me, so I took a photo of it!  The snow was still around as you can figure out, which made for a not-as-fulfilling walking trip, but I was really bored enough to walk 40 minutes to a park.

But this past week has largely been nothing.  Without my other classes starting (those Thursday and Friday ones) I was left without much to do.  And I didn't really spend it outside of my dorm.  This is explainable through the handy-dandy Study Abroad guide that OIA gave me awhiles back, and it's a phenomena known as homesickness.  I think it's great here (outside of the poopy weather and dark-by-4-to-5 dealio), but man, it's weird to not really be able to talk to all my friends on a consistent basis, and my family a little less so (talk to them almost daily in some capacity).

Of course, yesterday I went out though, because as I reasoned to myself, I would be extremelyyyy lame if it was a Friday spent inside, largely.  So we went out to this nice bar/pub place known as the Rocket.  Not too bad.  I tried a Guinness Red, which I really didn't like.  Should always stick with the regular Guinness.  Lesson learned, I suppose.

This week was fairly boring, so not a lot.  I'll update you all soon.

-e.

NP: Alex Cline - Continuation

 

A really good jazz record.  Alex Cline is Nels Cline's twin brother, which guarantees goodness as they both have beyond crazy loads of talent.

Ah, the meaningless first day of classes...

So meaningless.  But I also love it.  One class of mine didn't even meet today and so doesn't meet until next week.  The other class, the lecturer was super disorganized.  He was also Argentinian, which made for some funny moments.

The best part about today was probably the 99 Pence store.  Everything in the store is 99p.  So I picked up hangers that I had sorely been lacking for the last week, basically.  Now, everything is organized, which is most excellent.

Class registration is a peculiar beast here in the UK, as registration for classes opened, well, three days ago and closes basically in four days.  So it's a bit of a hassle and a major inconvenience to organize the schedule, but luckily for me it's gone rather swimmingly.  My class today was ECON3004, which is regarding International Trade.  It doesn't seem to be a terribly difficult class in the least, which is quite a relief.

But given that school has now started, fun things must be curtailed a bit as school takes over.  The difference here is that given minimal lecturing (1-2hrs a week), the student is burdened with keeping up with the reading, unlike the US where most of it is simply taught in lectures (i.e. the UK courses merely fill holes or expand on core material).  So, falling behind in the UK is suicide, basically...which must be avoided.  Given my natural tendency to procrastinate a whole bunch, this will be a particularly interesting challenge.

My apartment-style living is probably most comparable to the Worthington apartment complex on OSU campus.  I've got a bedroom to myself, though, and the kitchen is a separate room unlike at OSU.  The spaces are not as large, which was expected given that space is scarce in London (and likely overall in Britain).  It's been a gift since I have my own room, and I can finally cook since I have time on my hands, which saves me money, which will also be a scarcity here in London (EXPENSIVE!!!!!).  The proof is in the pudding: my first set of groceries costed £50 about, which amounts to about $80.  Yeah.  But I don't think it will be that much down the road, as the first set is always the most expensive.

Rewind a bit, and go to yesterday.  Yesterday I went to Camden Market with some friends and visited the open-air markets there.  They're loaded with stuff.  The one I spent the most time at had a bunch of vinyl which I thumbed through.  Stocked there were ORIGINAL BEATLES VINYLS, which totally geeked me out, and I wanted to get one really bad.  They all started from £25 and went up to £40 for an original pressing of Revolver, which made it not really worth it (I don't think original pressings of Revolver go for over $60).  I did, however, settle quite nicely with what looks to be an original pressing of David Bowie's Low record which I love to death (and waxed eloquent on in my sister blog), and it was only £10, which is a deal I can go for.

Back to other stuff, I do wish that all the doors in our apartment complex thing didn't slam shut all the time.  Apparently (and it's fair, I suppose) fires are a major hazard around here, so all the doors swing shut to obviously prevent fires from spreading.  But it prevents people from going around and meeting each other, which was one of the things I expected from living in this manner.  I have resorted to propping my door open with a chair (it used to be my luggage until I organized everything today).  But obviously this only really applies to my flat-mates, as no one can get in the flat to begin with.  It would have been really nice had a sense of awesome friendliness.  Alas, I can't have everything...

See you all soon.

NP: Ringo Starr - Ringo

 

Super massive update for all the days I didn't have internet.

Update!  Awesome, right?

As for the last week or so (sans internet, whoa!), here’s how it’s boiled down.  Pretty much I sat down and wrote a bit each night, which makes for fun:

2010.01.02

I spent the Saturday with members of Tzu Chi in London.  The family that hosted the event (who also essentially entertained me for the day) for the day were really kind, and it was an all-around good day.  Food, some Scrabble, and getting to know people.  Granted, I don’t think actively participating in Tzu Chi is in my plans for my time in London, but it was nice to see how they operated in comparison to the branch that I was previously involved in back in Ohio, which is very active (and much larger, in fact).

2010.01.03

This day was reserved for wandering around Westminster.  It was awesome.  Got off the Tube at Green Park and wandered down through St. James’s Park and around Buckingham Palace.  It’s a huge area, and it’s quite breathtaking.  From the Buckingham Palace stuff, this picture of the gold angel on the very top of the fountain (if I remember correctly) was really neat looking:

Afterwards, I essentially wandered around the park to arrive in Westminster.  Unfortunately, my camera batteries were suffering greatly at this point and therefore there are pictures few and far between at this point.  But walking around, this ivy-covered wall was especially interesting:

In attempting to alleviate the “dead camera batteries” problem, I ventured around Westminster itself to see if I could pick them up for cheap.  The answer is no, not at all.  £6.00 around for a set of four AA batteries.  A total rip off.  I went into one store and asked their price.  I was told around £6.00.  I looked unconvinced.  And then he pressed and said another cheap set was £6.00 for eight.  Still, that’s ridiculously expensive.  Still looking unconvinced, the clerk pressed me and said, “Well, what are you buying?” and to fend him off I just said, “I’m just looking, thanks,” and left.  So a mental note: convenience store clerks will aggressively get you to cave in and spend loads of money on cheap stuff.  DON’T DO IT.  Do not become Andy Bernard selling his Xterra to Dwight for $1500 (or whatever it was...grossly undervalued).  I figure that these clerks or whatnot know a tourist and try to pick on them, so do not do that.

Also, I picked up a cell phone.  It’s a ridiculously cheap and poopy £5 phone.  In the interest of maintaining phone privacy on a very public internet, I can give it to you if you so desire.  It’s free for me to receive calls, so call!  Or something like that.

Somehow I was extremely tired at about 2pm, and after a quick lunch I called it a day and returned to the hotel.  That itself was an absurdly long journey, lasting two hours just to return.

But this day was significant in one respect.  For those of you who know me, I loves me some Wilco.  But recently I had not really ever pulled out any of their records and listened to it coming out totally enraptured by the experience.  That changed today when I put on A Ghost Is Born and walked around Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Palace.  I was just pretty blown away by the combination of both the music and the view.  And yea, it verily came to pass that I am back in cahoots with Wilco.

2010.01.04

Finally, this day I got to meet Arcadia people.  It’s been a strange experience, I suppose.  Not in the sense that the people are terrible, but the realization is that if I’m by myself, I better be making friends, and historically that has never been easy for me.  But in some sense most people are in a similar boat as mine, so it’s gone over well.  This day mostly consisted of wandering around the area around the hotel (before and after the initial Arcadia meeting) and going to a pub for the first time.  Well, for me, I went twice, once for lunch and once after dinner (for a beer).  You really can’t go wrong with a Guinness...let’s be perfectly honest.  Just a sort of relaxing night.  Given that nighttime comes early, though, that also means the nights end early.  Like, let’s say, before 9pm on the whole.

2010.01.05

This day was more of the bread and butter regarding orientation.  There was a general culture orientation.  Here’s the crazy thing:

Milky Way bars as we know them in the States are Mars bars here in the UK.  Three Musketeers bars as we know them in the States are Milky Way bars in the UK.  Why?  Because the Brits hate the French.  That’s it.  A “Three Musketeers” bar would apparently never sell well here in the UK.  It’s just weird.  I feel as if the US doesn’t really hate the French.  The US just feels like the French are a load of pansies.  There’s no real hatred there in actuality, though.

After that, everyone broke for lunch.  After a quick lunch, me among a group of people went and stopped by the Natural History museum they have.  If you thought the Natural History museum in the US was legit, wait until you see England’s.  It blows it out of the water, and that’s only after seeing a couple of the exhibits.  More specimens, more species, more everything.  It’s just that impressive.  Also, the other thing: except for the odd museum, they’re all FREE.  So, totally awesome, a great free way to kill an afternoon.  With regards to the Natural History museum, I think that taking a week to knock it all off is not really out of the question.

Then there was a meeting with two MPs (members of Parliament): one from the House of Commons and one from the House of Lords.  Both of them were, to compare them to here, left of center.  The House of Commons representative was from the Labour Party, so that approximates to a Democrat.  The House of Lords representative was from the Liberal Democrats Party, which approximates to slightly right of left, but reasonably close to the center.  The Conservative Party, which is exactly what it sounds like, conspicuously did not have a representative of this session.  The meeting was altogether nifty, the system differences are quite great (the UK does not have a written Constitution, though some call for it).  And there’s a watershed election coming up, apparently.  The Labour Party may become the minority party to the Conservatives.  There do exist more than two parties in the UK, which is significantly different from the US.

After that was a walk around a bit of Westminster which led us to the Globe Theatre.  The older versions of it hosted Shakespeare’s plays before facing the wrath of higher powers and burning down.  The new one, which is a hardcore recreation of the oldest one, is cool, and to see a Shakespeare play there (the current one does mostly Shakespeare) would be awesome.  There would have been a great amount of picture-taking, but I was not aware of the sightseeing and did not have it handy, so I suppose I must come back some other time.

After a traditional English dinner where I had sausages and mash (“Oh, I forgot, in the colonies you call it a ‘sausage in the mouth’”), me and some other abroad students going to UCL went wandering around for a bit.  We walked across the Millennium Bridge which was awesome (if you don’t know what it is, just think of the sixth Harry Potter movie where in the beginning the Death Eaters destroy a bridge.  It’s that one, I’m almost certain).  We ended up around St. Paul’s Cathedral, but obviously being late we did not observe.  Around there is a financial district.  The goal was to find a ratty and mangy pub, but being in a business district is not quite conducive.  We did find a quaint, small pub known as Nicholson’s, where I tried some ale known as Mandle, if I remember correctly.  It was not bad at all.  It was about equivalent to Blue Moon, so in the “ale” category of beers.

Of course, we were back by 9 o’clock or so, since still no one’s body clock is currently matched up in the least.  So that was that day.

2010.01.06

More Arcadia meetings.  Apparently professors don’t command the same respect in the classroom in the UK than in the US.  In the UK, kids blab on all day, text all day, and all sorts of shenanigans rather than listening to lecturers.  That’s totally weird.  Also, less time spent in class.  This is exciting, but it also implies that procrastinating will get me killed much, much worse here than back home.

And then I moved in to my real location.  For those of you with my address, it turns out a room number is NOT necessary (mail is sorted by last name), the address given is good enough, so mail me something awesome.  Or not.  I’ve been put up into a flat, which is basically a hallway with adjoining rooms and then a kitchen and a couple of bathrooms coming off of it.  The bedrooms are rather small, but I should not have expected anything less.  I need to organize it, though.  Like, I need to be very womanly and get containers to organize my clothes because I wasn’t given a dresser.  There’s not enough room for one, really, so I’ve got to improvise.  But here’s my room:

Not a whole lot going on.  The rest of the night consisted of going around to the local supermarket and picking up some necessary stuff.  Still...not done yet.  Watching my wallet get lighter will not be a particularly pleasant experience.

Tomorrow, UCL orientation starts!  Cool, ya know.

2010.01.07

Alright.  So while it’s still fresh in my head, here’s how today boiled down to...

Orientation started at 1330 but I arrived at 1230 to wander around a bit and see if I could use the library computers and get internet as a guest.  The answer is no, sadly.  Of course, at Thompson Library, I would have been able to access internet as a guest, but alas, not meant to be.

But orientation for international students happened, and it was a whole lot of talking, but it definitely appears like there are a whole lot of opportunities that I can take advantage of to make my time here as awesome as it will ever be.  Like, uh, Harry Potter tours and the ilk.

After orientation was an orientation reception at the Phineas Bar, which is in UCLU (UCL Union).  Here’s what I’ve learned about the whole thing, as it sounds incredibly strange:

Quite obviously, you only need to be 18 to buy alcohol in the UK.
The campus bars are subsidized by taxpayers in the UK.

This means cheaper beer, and hopefully providing a safe environment for alcohol consumption.  Of course, given Americans and the need to “rebel” or just get supremely hammered, this isn’t necessarily the case.

I did, however, meet a ton of people.  Granted, I hardly remember any their names, but my guess is that is really the pub or bar atmosphere.  You kind of drink a bit, meet loads of people, but contact is never really on a substantive level, really.  There was free wine at the orientation reception, which could explain the particularly cheery atmosphere.

After that, a whole bunch of people (myself included) went to a bar and/or pub place, whose name I never really learned, though it is on the corner of Tottenham Ct. and University St., which is about as good as I can give you.  It was cool, meeting a ton of other international students, in addition to a few locals and getting to chat with them.  With British people, it’s quite interesting as many of them enjoy meeting Americans and learning about them and the culture.  As an American, I’m slightly surprised by this turn of events as American culture is sort of like a cesspool at the moment (at least in my opinion, though there are many bright spots).

But after that, it was done.  It’s currently 2345 as I finish this day’s entry.  I didn’t drink a whole lot tonight, my estimation is two pints of Guinness plus some free wine, which put me in a perfect state with which to not be totally sober and curmudgeonly, but not enough to be drunk in the least and embarrassing then.  Tomorrow is the day that my internet problems are resolved, so there will not be such mega-entries like this one.

See you soon (contact me!).

NP: Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Finally there.

Yep.  Some things of note:

1. Coca-Cola is NOT the same in the UK as it is in the US...at least at McDonald's.
2. McDonald's in the UK are much classier than US McDonald's.
3. The Tube is awesome.
4. There is a whole lot of public transportation: Tube, HOPPA, buses...almost too many, at least for me.

The plane rides there went fine.  I went all artsy and decided to take in-flight pictures, but this one, on the way to London Heathrow from Dulles Int'l, is my favorite:

This is actually sunset.  The way the light hits the wing is cool, with how it colors the wing.  And the bright spot on the horizon makes a nice effect.  I don't call myself artsy in the photo category, but I like this photo a lot.

I was super worried about immigration, but that went rather swimmingly.  A few questions and I was on my way.

Everything is sort of strange in the UK.  Obviously everything goes the opposite way, like on the streets.  I suppose the UK realized that with everyone else going the "right" way, there would be mas chaos, so they accounted for this by inscribing "LOOK LEFT" or "LOOK RIGHT" at every crosswalk.  Actually quite funny, in my opinion.

I got in a little before midnight, given a whole load of delays.  New Year's was more or less celebrated by bugging the hell out of reception to figure out why my room phone wasn't dialing.  This was to call home and tell them I got there safely.  Sort of important.  Eventually I got it to work.  Not the most exciting New Year's, but whatever.

The first day (today!) was rather humorous.  I sort of expected my hotel to be around some landmarks, so I took off on foot from my hotel onto Bath Rd.  I walked for 30 minutes in one direction, and the only non-hotel landmarks were...a Texaco gas station and a McDonald's.  Given the lack of landmarks, I returned dismayed.

But I ended up traveling into the inner city via the Tube.  It's quite a sophisticated system, and a pleasurable ride.  Going from Zone 6 to Zone 1 is quite a long trip, approximately 45 minutes, and even on the first ride I saw a whole lot.  Residential areas were the great majority of it, and I even spotted some shanties, as in the whole bit, constructed from spare blocks of wood and aluminum and everything.  Quite sad to see it, really, as you never wish that on anyone.

Regardless, my order of business today was to scope out my soon-to-be area of residence in the St. Pancras neighborhood, which meant me getting off at King's Cross-St. Pancras.  Given a handy mapbook, I found my way pretty quickly to where I was to be, which is behind a set of gardens.  It wasn't so much a nice garden as grass with few patches of poorly maintained shrubbery, but I get the feeling much of the UK might be like that.  I did find this striking image, however:

I then made my way back to King's Cross and located the requisite Platform 9.75:

And then I made my way back.  I notice that in writing this entry my style has altered significantly, and perhaps I will blame this on jetlag, which I can feel right now...as I feel like I'm sitting on a plane.  So you have basically been divulged my first day in London, and I will update once again when I can locate some internet.

Was listening to:

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain