School?

Sorry about not posting for awhile, we've been busy. Oh, and the internet is hard to find for cheap. For some reason I'm opposed to paying £4/hour for internet, which is what some of these places charge. So instead I've scouted out Central to find places with free wireless. In all of Central London (which is big) I've only found three. It's irritating to say the least. But now that school's started, we have access to the school's computers, but I can't hook-up with my laptop because it's taking FOREVER for my computer to be registered with the network. Which means that you're getting a blog post, but still no pictures. Deal with it, lovelies.

Thursday and Friday we took two days off from life. I was still feeling really not good, so I bought some immunodefense multivitamins and Vita-bombed (thanks, Niki) myself while also getting lots and lots of sleep. Stacy apparently worked on some cardboard art project to make her room pretty (don't ask her if she's finished it yet). It was good. I felt TONS better after those days of rest. I'm practically healed now.

Saturday we went to Camden Market, which was pretty freakin awesome. It's basically this huge street market in these old vaults and catacombs which actually used to be a cattle market, so the old stables are now shops. We were there nearly the entire day, and spent very little (mostly because: 1) We're terrified of using our American credit cards because people look at us funny because we don't us the same kinds of cards as the Brits, and 2) We refused to bring cash with us), which was good, since we're poor. The market was a lovely little adventure. We ate at the food stalls, where Stacy got salmon shish and I got an intense veggie burger. Then we went back down to Shepherd's Bush (that's the neighborhood where we live, in case you forgot) and went to the Post Office, where Chaya (our Indian London mom) had a bag FULL OF INDIAN FOOD for us! Pretty amazing.

We wandered down to SoHo with Andrew that night, but I went home early to make sure to get lots of rest (and continue to get better) before school started.

Sunday was orientation for school. Orientation itself was pretty boring and generally useless, but Stacy and I stumbled upon some of the best people in the world there. We've already started our own little clique, and we call ourselves the Clever Clique, which is a much improved version of the Smart Kids, which was my idea, by Kiki (or Kristine, whichever you prefer). In our little clique we have Stacy and I, obviously. Then there's Katie Lee, or Katilee, a demure and chic indie girl from Chicago, and Kiki, or Kristine, a short and spunky Detroitian (I have no idea if that's what we're calling residents of Detroit). There's also Sarah, from Albany, NY (and who goes to SUNY Oneonta, which those of you who know about an incident I had at the National Poetry Slam will realize that I freaked out when I found out which school she goes to), who is quiet and confident, and another shy but hilarious girl named Alli from somewhere in Michigan. We hung out most of the day and through the night, and ended up at the OhBar, which is one of the places where Stacy and I had tried to find an open mic, so we already knew where it was. Along the way we absorbed Joe from Chicago, a fashion design major with a penchant for hoodies. There were a bunch of kids from school at the OhBar, and we got to know a couple of them. Stacy and I ended up taking an hour an a half to get home on the bus that night, because we made a tragic error in getting on the wrong bus (I know, I know). But thankfully, on the right bus (which we found eventually) we met a sweet guy named Jay who talked to us most of the way.

Monday there was a Freshers thing, and we ended up at the Marylebone Tup (which is one of the places with internet, so Stacy and I had been there numerous times before). There we ended up hanging out with the four guys who go to our school (I'm almost serious), and then we went home.

Tuesday was the first day of classes, and before class our little group hung out at the lounge in the main building, and that's where we unofficially absorbed the guys into our group. So there's Kurt, who is tall and lanky and is almost as much of a know-it-all as I am, and then there's Alaska Joe, or Joe Foxley, buff and blonde and a super nice guy, and then Dave from Wisconsin, who is a complete smartass and sarcastic dick, which makes him my favorite. We were talking about bands coming to London that we wanted to see, and Dave mentioned The Decemberists were coming on the 21st. I asked him to go check the net to see where it was, and he was too lazy, so I went to check. Turns out, it wasn't the 21st, but it was that very night. Luckily, I checked. We surveyed the table and turns out only Dave, Sarah, and I were interested enough to pay £20 to go, so we bought tickets.

Kurt, Stacy, Joe Foxley, and I are all in Literary London, so we trekked off to class. The professor is an odd little duck with eccentric stories and an easily distractable personality. Apparently we aren't going to need to buy any books, we're only going to partially read the books she provides (most of which are already public domain because they're old), and one class per week (out of two) will involve us going to museums and other locations of literary interest in London ...score. Sounds like a tough class, right?

After class I dashed home to shower and then dashed to Waterloo to get to the concert hall. However, the stupid tube line was delayed because of signalling problems, so I got there late. Thankfully, we just missed the opening act, and didn't even remotely miss the Decemberists. We got pretty fantastic seats at the Royal Festival Hall, and it was a GREAT show. Well worth the 20 quid.

Afterward, the three of us wandered around the Thames and Parliament Square, seeing the London Millenium Eye, Parliament (and Big Ben), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and Trafalgar Square at night. It was sweet. Wait till you see pictures. And... then we went home.


Which means, we're doing well. I'm feeling a LOT better, mostly because I've been sleeping my butt off and bombing my body with vitamins. Stacy's been doing well too, I guess. Meeting new friends has been good for us. Especially the cool kids. Yes, there are TONS of stupid fashion design (no offense kids) kids here, but we met the smart kids.

Okay, more later!

Cheers!