Here and There

I apologize for going so long in between posts, but I will make up for it with some pictures ;)

It is funny, even though I am getting much more used to the way of life here, by the end of each night I am still exhausted, in a good way though.

This past Thursday CIEE had arranged for the group to go see a concert. I had never heard of the band, Wolfmother, but that's no reason to turn down a free concert right?? Well, turns out they were kind of a 70s inspired rock band. This wouldn't have been so bad, but our group ( 5 guys, 2 girls) were about 6 people from the front of the stage (standing room only concert) and we were unknowingly right in center of the mosh pit area. As soon as the band began the people around us went CRAZY. Luckily I am strong enough that I could push the flailing men away from me, but none-the-less Cassaundra and I retreated further back A.S.A.P.! Because of the utter madness I was only able to get one picture, before the show started. In the end Cassaundra and I decided to file the concert into our interesting but once in a lifetime experinces.




I took this picture thinking it was funny that a venue would have a labeled First Aid room, now I understand....






Other than that it was a fairly uneventful week. I took a bus ride (all by myself for the first time!) to the next town, Lewisham, where they have a shopping mall and a busy street market. It was a very typical mall, and the town was a lot like New Cross. It did have some fun features though:

London's version of a dollar Store!



This is a very old church just standing in the middle of the shopping streets.






One of the funniest things here is the fast food restaurants. They are all very fancy! This is the McDonald's in Lewisham, it is one of the nicest dinning places in the area.





I have mostly spent this weekend catching up on sleep and doing homework, but I did go out to get a coffee and get out of the dorms for a bit. This was a good chance to snap a picture of something I get to see everyday.

Our dorms are right next to a small private nursery and elementary school. This is the church they are affiliated with, which is at the end of our street. I don't know how much it gets used for services anymore, it stays pretty quiet there. But even so, It is very pretty and stands out against the university.





Well, I have put my homework off for a little bit, but I had best get back to it!

<3

Tuesday is Poetry Day!

Besides studying and my poetry class, today was a fairly uneventful day. However, today was one of those lucky days that I really enjoyed class.

We were discussing imagery and metaphors, and looked very thoroughly at a poem called A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, by John Donne.

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run.
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.

In short, the poem really has nothing to do with death or dying. It is really about one lover having to leave the other for a time, but how they have this spectacular love and could never truly be separated. Interesting right? Well, maybe only to me, but either way it was a fun class and that is what really matters :)

Tomorrow should be a fun filled day, but now I need to go to bed!

<3

Monday Monday

I think the comment issue has been resolved, woo! The set up is not ideal but it is better than nothing.

Today was Monday #2 here and it was a pretty good day. I had class in the morning then took a wander around campus. I stumbled upon a room full of the student societies here on campus recruiting members. I visited their Women's Society and they were having their first meeting tonight. I was really excited because as far as I know CMU doesn't have a women's group and it is something that interests me a lot. So I went to that meeting with a girl from my floor and it was really interesting. I am going to be part of a group starting some sort of women's news/issues publication on campus.

Other than that the day was full of errand running and homework. I also had a chance to take a few more pictures!



Sainsbury's has been god-send for us international students. It is just a grocery store but unlike most of the markets here it has food that is pretty familiar. Since fridges here are usually the size of a fridge a kid would use in a dorm room we end up going to Sainsbury's almost every day.







This is the Hobgoblin, a pub right next to campus. It is very popular and serves good Thai food and cheap drinks.





This is the view right out my window. It isn't too exciting but at least it doesn't face the pub like some of the rooms. That can be pretty noisy I hear!


Here is the view looking just to the right out my window.







This is the train that runs behind the dorms about 50 times a day. Luckily it isn't too loud, being a passenger train not a freight train, and I have already gotten used to it for the most part.





Right now I am reading An Apology for Raymond Sebond, a philosophical essay by Montaigne for my philosophy class. I have about 120 pages to go before Wednesday so I had better get back to it!

Much love!

Sunday Night Update

As you can see, there has been a sudden layout change to my blog. For some reason people have been unable to leave comments here and that is no good! I had changed some settings around but it didn't seem to help. My only other guess to why it may be happening is that I had used a template that was from an independent creator and not one from Blogspot.

So, I have switched to one of their templates in hopes that that will fix the problem!


Happy commenting! *fingerscrossed*

Some Pictures

Whew! One week of classes and a Saturday down, and boy am I exhausted. I have been doing tons of walking around, but the weather hasn't been very good i.e. not great for picture taking. However, I have taken a few just because I know a lot of you are eagerly awaiting!

This is the school bookstore. Yep, that's it in its entirety!








This is "the main building" on campus, The Richard Hoggart Building. It is where lots of the lectures and seminars are held and also has a small cafe in it.






Here is a shot of the road that campus runs on. It is very hard to get a good picture because there is always a ton of traffic on it. Most of the businesses that are located here are small exotic restaurants, grocery stores or random shops. They aren't kidding when they say this is a very multicultural area!

This is the entrance gate
to the international student halls,

And this is my hall!









It's my room! This is the view from the door, it's no grand quarters but it works for me.






Here is a shot of my bathroom, it is about as small as it could be as well, but again- it gets the job done!





And this, this is me sitting on my toilet leaning on the shower nozzle....if a person had the desire it is way more than possible to take a shower while on the can :p




Today I also went with Cassandra to see a moderized version of The Misanthrope, starring Keira Knightly and Damian Lewis. I have to say, I give Keira credit for going on stage but she wasn't that great at it. Overall it was a fun show though and it's London Theater, how can you really go wrong??

More pictures to come, tonight I am just taking it easy getting ready for studying tomorrow and then off to another week of who knows what kind of adventures!

<3!>

Classes

It is halfway through the first week of classes and I am surviving!

My schedule this semester includes: Early Modern European Philosophy, Shakespeare's London, Engaging Poetry, and UK & European Comparative Governance & Politics.

This is definitely a group of classes that is very far from my usual Real Estate & Finance classes. It has been a challenging week for that reason, along with the fact that it seems that we (the visiting students) are coming into classes that had already been together last year. The course structure is also very much different here than in the states.

At home a person may be in 4-6 classes that meet twice a week, with one professor, for and hourish, and have 2 or so exams/papers as well as a few assignments during the semester. Here, I am in four classes, but I only have one a day, so each class only happens once a week. During this time we have one session with an lecturer that simply talks at us for an hour. This lecture is followed by seminars. Seminars are lead by a different instructor and are attended by only 5-15 students for another hour. THEN, three times a semester we meet one-on-one with a tutor.

Another difference is the assignments. We have weekly readings that are expected to be done before the seminar, but besides discussions there is almost no assessment during the semester. At the end of the semester, each regularly enrolled student has to write one essay and sit one exam. Because I am a visiting international student I am only required to write one essay for each class and I don't have to sit any exams. Although this may sound painfully easy (and I hope it is!) it will be interesting to see how I will have understood and retained the information after 10 weeks of nothing but readings and discussions.

Something that I didn't realize, and the orientation staff warned us about was how resident students feel about tuition (or fees as it is called here). Up until about five years ago students didn't have to pay to go to University, and the government even gave them money for food, housing, etc.. That couldn't be sustained anymore and now students have to pay to attend school. I do not know for a fact, but one of the coordinators said that it is only a few thousand dollars, but because this is new to students here they tend to complain about it. If only they knew what we had to pay back in America! Anyway, like I said, interesting tidbit.

Tomorrow I don't have class, so my goal is to find the laundry facilities and start taking some pictures!

Until then! :)

I Have Arrived!

Well, I am officially in London and all I can say is 'Wow'.

I got here at 9am (4am home-time) last Wednesday but today is the first I have had internet so I am obviously way behind on my blogging! There have been a million things happening so I will try and keep focused on just a few for now. I sadly haven't had a chance to take many pictures yet, because I have been too busy trying to find my way around to stop and take photos, but trust me, they will come!

The burrow I am living in, New Cross, is quite a hopping place. It just southeast of the center of the city and although it doesn't have the glitz of Central London, there are a ton of odd shops and local pubs. It is known for its up-and-coming art scene, and has a very diverse mix of people. There is a tube station across the street from my dorm and I am starting to get a hang of the system.

Unfortunately my luggage was lost and didn't arrive until yesterday, so that provided it's own set of hurdles. Luckily I had packed a few things in my carry on, and the girls I have met have been wonderful. They kept me supplied with pajamas and shampoo and anything else I needed.

I have met a girl named Cassandra through the CIEE program (they are a company that works with Central and other schools to get students here) who is really great. We have lots in common and make a good team when we get turned around in the underground!

CIEE is hosting a small group of students here this semester and they have already provided us with great outings into the city. We have eaten at a few restaurants and pubs, and have even been to the theater!

We saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which stars James Earl Jones and the mother from the Cosby Show. We also went to The Comedy Store, which is a comedy club that has been around since the late 70s and on Wednesdays and Sundays they have a Whose Line is it Anyway? improve group come in (including some comedians featured on the show). This is the performance we went to and it was fantastic, we laughed our heads off.

As of today, classes officially started. There was a mix up with the schedule, or "timetable" as it is called here, and I ended up missing my class, but made it to the seminar discussion that followed. There is lots to tell about how differently the University's work here, but I think I will leave that for another time, right now it is just about my bedtime!

Cheers for now! ;)