lots of walking, lots of cold weather, lots of strange food: the first week & a half.

so i've been in london for a week & a half now. i finished the first week of classes (it'll probably be official once i have the required issues in contemporary british politics & culture class tomorrow night). i think now it's starting to hit me that this isn't just a VACATION, which sucks. of course, i have tons of reading to do now. fail.

thursday, i had my modern drama in performance class, which'll be hard as a semi-english major not in the english-major section of this class. being an english education major apparently doesn't count (which is silly because if i have to teach theatrical works as part of the curriculum, i need to approach it from an expert view instead of an amateur). but the class looks great anyway! we'll get to see every good boy deserves favour by tom stoppard, which is going to be BRILLIANT considering the full orchestral accompaniment. and we're also going to see arthur miller's a view from the bridge.

friday, we went on a day trip to greenwich (home of the royal observatory & the prime meridian). i got to be in two places at once, kind of like in "a walk to remember." but it was SO COLD and there was SO MUCH WALKING. and i ate a cheeseburger with mayonnaise, which was really awkward.

i look positively ridiculous in this photo, i know. it's cold! and i am not photogenic obvs.

left foot in the western hemisphere, right foot in the eastern hemisphere.

here's the royal observatory. the ball dropped at 1PM exactly. it's how people told time here. the ceremony of the bal drop was significantly less exciting than, say, new year's. no suspense or anything. just... BAM! drop.

the foot tunnel you take from one side of the river to the other, to reach the light rail. too hilarious.

they have such strange food here. i mean, besides the bangers & mash, the toad in the hole, the steak & kidney pie & the cornish pasties. haha. but the worst, most offensive foods:

canned hot dogs? that is positively horrifying.

prawn cocktail pringles? really? that's disgusting.

riley, jessica & i went to the student union for some two-for-one drink night friday night and met some british and irish guys who gave us a little bit of a tour around the city while trying to find someplace else to hang out that was open past 130AM. that's the thing about london: most of it closes really early. but most of the weekend has been spent in the dorm room.

the rest of the weekend has been superlow-key. i saw the reader last night, and am watching revolutionary road right now. kate winslet is so incredible, it's insane. now, i have to do some more food shopping & reading for my east european gov&pol class. sometime this week, i'm making plans to visit kelsey in madrid over valentine's day weekend, and then we'll start planning for spring break. while i'm thoroughly excited about traveling around europe, i kind of want a roundtrip ticket to new york for the second week of break. too bad that's expensive and silly of me. but i miss america!!

still tired, still in london.

since my last post, i started classes! and went food shopping! and toured the city! and almost passed out from exhaustion (not in the medical sense, but in the completely exaggerative sense). three-hour classes are going to kill me. i can tell because today was the first day i've actually had a full-length class, as my politics professors THANKFULLY didn't believe in having a full-length class the first day, but my english professor was less forgiving. i am so done for the day. but i'm trying to stay awake so that i can get to be at a normal time.

so what happened in the course of almost five days since the last time i wrote a post? well...

saturday night: bar outing with the NYU kids. people were dancing (it was awk). they served finger foods (let me tell you: sausages? not good. canapes with tomato, mozzarella & eggplant? alright. spring rolls & spicy sauce? the best). seriously eclectic music choices by the DJ as well. i mean, lady gaga is wonderful, of course, but at some point, they played nickelback's "rockstars" and i tuned out. sat with my roommate jessica & our mutual friend riley. spoke to ross at some point, spoke to my other friend alex at some point, saw maggie (who i met hours before our flight at JFK) and waved hello.

got mcdonald's afterward. quarter-pounders abroad are horrible.

sunday: lazy day with the exception of the LONDON COACH TOUR, featuring the most adorable little tour guide ever. i swear she was obsessed with all things princess diana. it got a bit boring towards the end, thanks to all of the traffic on the way home. will have to post pictures in another post, as this one is getitng a bit too long.

monday: i rolled out of bed at 8AM for my 10AM class on east european government & politics. excellent, right? on the plus side, i managed to not nod off during class, so hopefully, that's a good sign that i'll really enjoy it. there are eight girls in the class, though. that's intense. after class, i came home and... you guessed it, NAPPED. jessica came back while i was sleeping and fell asleep herself. we're sleepy people. but we had to wake up, because it was imperative that we go FOOD SHOPPING. at tesco.

PS: frozen food is not meant to look fancy by any means. the brits, it seems, do not understand that fact. frozen entrees looked like legitimate food, with their silver labels and nice fonts. i bought too much and actually didn't really buy anything at all, now that i think about it. i've barely attempted to make a real dinner. i bought bread for 79 pence, strawberry jam, bagels, cream cheese,r egular cheese, ham... and a bunch of other stuff that i can't really eat for dinner. hm.

tuesday: INAUGURATION DAY! i didn't have class until 2, so i woke up around 10AM, checked MSNBC (i love my liberal gotcha media, dont'cha know), showerd, threw on my beautiful blue moveon.org OBAMA shirt and headed to british politics, a class of soewhere around 26 people. we had an introductory lecture, but because class is normally from 2-5PM and the inaugural address was meant to be broadcast here at 5, he let us out early.

i met up with jessica & we walked all the way to leicester square (and even a little further) until we got to the texas embassy cantina. major fail. it was packed. and not just with americans, but with londoners too, which bothered me because I VOTED FOR THIS MAN, HE IS MY PRESIDENT, AND I COULDN'T WATCH HIM TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE TO OFFICIALLY BECOME ME PRESIDENT. whatever. we hustled to find the nearest pub that was showing it, found some americans at the imperial pub just up the road, and watched the address. i cried, not gonna lie. there were americans in the pub who cheered too, some englishmen who looked at me funny because i was on the verge of tears, and a group of asians in the back talking very loudly. i was sincerely bothered. but we have a new president! so that's exciting. we toasted with some beer (only a half-pint, though, because a pint of beer is a LOT). will also post pictures, but there aren't many. i also have pictures of me with prawn-cocktail-flavored pringles. ew.

today (wednesday): didn't have class until 2 again. today was writing london. the profesor is absurdly lovely and really interested in what she studies (she primarily focuses upon literature in the 18th and 19th centuries, plus literature that's set in london). i do always have a bond with engish teachers, though. it's to be expected. but it was the first full-length class i've had! so exhausting. we read several poems or extracts of poems by wordsworth and guilpin, plus an excerpt from michel de certeau's book, the practice of everyday life. i sat near some really funny girls, including one from UVA, who i think is a sorority with someone i know from high school but not very well (i only "know" this thanks to some epic facebook-stalking. creepy? you betcha). and now i'm sitting here, contemplating whether or not i'll be making a semi-legitimate dinner this evening.

i miss new york. i went on a skyping spree last night with elanna, tiffany & marlee, then i called my dad, who i haven't spoken to in more than a week. it's ridiculous. i wish everyone back home had skype so that i could interact & see their bright, shining faces. if you have skype, SKYPE ME PLEASE & THANK YOU. i'm brianasantiago. obvs.

still adjusting.

adjustment #1: i woke up at 12PM local time today. my body's still confused about when it's time to sleep. i'm usually not tired until 3AM here. and even then, i sleep for nine hours!

adjustment #2: the shower. i don't know how to get it lower than scalding hot. at this point, i'm forced to stand in the corner of an already-very-small shower to make sure i don't burn myself. plus, i'm making a v. big mess because of the curtain. shame on me.

adjustment #3: eating pizza with a fork and knife is not in my dining experience. i know plenty of people who do it, but i grew up eating pizza folded and wonderful. yes, marlee did warn me. but it's not like i'm used to having to get used to cultural differences, considering how little i've traveled. all i wanted to do was pick up my self-cut slices of chicken & pepperoni pizza at pizza express. is that so much to ask? apparently.

adjustment #4: having to find alternative sources to stream my shows from home. having to watch "the office" on supernovatube.

adjustment #5: sleeping under a duvet with a cover instead of a comforter. i definitely woke up with half my body inside the cover like a sleeping bag.

adjustment #6: being away from home, yet trying to stay up late enough to talk to friends over yonder in america. maybe that's why my sleep schedule's so screwed up.

i bought books for classes yesterday.
- my modern drama in performance class doesn't have a complete list of the shows we'll be seeing yet, and i'm sure we have to read the text before watching, so i didn't buy any books for that class.
- too many books for writing london. some robert louis stevenson, zadie smith, charles dickens, virginia woolf... AND A BOOK ON HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS. yes. it's like i didn't take two semesters of expository writing program classes and was contemplating trying for "a spectrum of essays" next spring. i had nat bennett. for two semesters. and didn't complain (much). and did well! i think i know how to write an essay.
- east european gov't & politics has recommended-but-not-required texts so i picked up the more interesting-looking (and cheaper) of the two.
- british politics had two required books that are massive.

look at me, all excited about academia & whatnot. how adorable.

off for some food shopping @ tesco. i'll try not to sing lily allen's "LDN" on the way there. that would be v. embarrassing.

oh, speaking of lily, my "for british eyes only" playlist had every english musical artist i have in my iTunes library, auntie lil. the kooks, lily allen, the clash, amy winehouse, mark ronson, the beatles (obv.), kate nash, british sea power, radiohead, bloc party, and adele. the usual fare.

just touched down in london town (and i need a nap)

i'm finally here & settled into the new place. it's slightly hilarious-looking because they gave us all bed-sheets, and they MATCH. so now, my roommate jessica & i have matching beds. and it's great fun. we're guessing that everyone else has the exact same bedspreads and everything.

the plane was delayed for fifty extra minutes last night. and i ran into ross in the british airways waiting area. this is how i knew i was crazy early. his flight was at 830 or something. and mine was 1030 (delayed until 1120). preposterous. i legitimately sat at the airport, paid for wifi & sat on the internet for three hours. oh, and i called some of you to chat.

the plane ride itself was fantastic, except for the part where i barely slept because the guy sitting diagonally to my left SNORED. i'm in desperate need of upgrading my seat whenever i'm on british airways, because their plane set-up is insane. i watched my favorite episode of "flight of the conchords" - the one where bret has a bad body image - and listened to the iPod and watched kate winslet on oprah. they served white wine with dinner (chicken w/pasta, salad w/bleu cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, and cranberries, an awkward roll, and apple pie with ice cream). i thought i was going to fall asleep so easily after that. but i didn't. i slept for maybe an hour, and woke up an hour before we landed.

then, it took forever to get money exchanges and to get downstairs to the shuttle. and then we waited for the shuttle. and then the shuttle ride in itself was excessively long (and more coincidences: jessica, the roommate, is my friend riley's friend. and we sat in the same row on the shuttle. but didn't speak until, well, now).

and so now i'm settled in and ready to go. here are some pictures of the room:

notice that even abroad, i am a hot mess. we'll try to work on that later. take note of the gorgeous green bedspread. it reminds me a bit of IKEA.

the most incredible view! (i mean, if you look to the left or right of this hunk of nonsense, it's actually not half bad.)

my desk. i don't know why there's a microwave there when there are two in the communal kitchen. nor do i know why there's a water kettle. but i have Internet & that's all that really matters. oh, & mrs. fields cookies.

the exhaustion is killing me. i need a nap. laterrrr.

testing the waters & counting down.

it's 10:45PM in new york (3:45AM in london time on the 11th), and i've decided to succumb to technological advances & start my travel blog.

if i were marlee busching and needed to test anti-malaria medication for my trip to africa, i'd have started this several months ago. i, however, am only traveling to another metropolitan area where malaria isn't a threat. what a shame.

in three days, i'll be fifteen minutes into my seven-hour flight to london! a transatlantic flight! spent listening to my "for british eyes only" playlist! reading the suggested (required?) reading for the program... looking forward to it.