Playing Tourist for a Day and Other Adventures

Hello again!

So let's see, what have I done since I last updated...

For one thing, I've now had all of my classes. My Crusades class will probably be the most work as the professor expects us to do a lot of outside reading on our own, above and beyond the typical British expectations. My Old English professor seems like the ever-entertaining flustered professor, who is clearly a genius but could perhaps use a professional organizer. The class doesn't sound like it will be a ton of work/too hard (I've already almost finished the reading for the week and this class, thankfully, actually has specific reading assignments), but it definitely sounds interesting. I've enjoyed the reading thus far - the grammar and its influences on modern English are quite fascinating. Next is my Virginia Woolf class. I'm actually quite excited for that one. I read her essay "A Mark on the Wall" for the first day of class along with a critical essay on Modernism - the critical essay was fascinating and Woolf's writing is truly beautiful. I've started reading "Voyage Out" (we're going through the course in chronological order) and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's much more engaging than I anticipated. The professor seems really knowledgeable (and organized!) for that class and we get to take two field-trips for the class, which I'm really excited about. On the first one we'll go to Bloomsbury, where Woolf lived for a while with the Bloomsbury group. The second one will be a day trip to Sussex where we'll see Woolf's country home and (creepily enough) where she ended her life. At the very least I'll get to see a little bit more of the English countryside than I would have otherwise. Lastly is my Gladstone and Ireland course, which I'm really excited about. The reading load, while very Britishly vague, seems much more managable and one of my American friends is in the class. The professor is great - he took the time to get to know everyone in seminar (there are always two sessions of a course here - lecture and seminar, where seminar is usually half or less of the whole class that attends lecture). He also seems brilliant - I'm really quite impressed so far with the calibar of the professors here - just like at Trinity!

Also, update on my flatmates. I've now met all but one of them (9 of us live in our flat, each with single rooms but we share the common kitchen). There's Mark the German Medical student (I don't always understand him, but he's very nice), Jon the British Medical student (the only British student, who's very nice and also has a very nice girlfriend), Vid who is from Indian and I don't know what he's studying yet (I only met him briefly), another Indian guy who I haven't met yet, Maya who is Polish and studying film (very nice - we bonded over our laziness in cooking and thus our love of cooking pasta), Brittany, an American engineering student (never see her, can't for the life of me remember where specifically she's from), and Cassie, who's an American English student and is in my Old English class (very nice, from Ohio). That's pretty much everything I know on my flatmates... I don't see them alot, but I'm gradually getting to know them better.

So yesterday after my class I went with three of my American friends to play tourist for a day - Jillian (English major from Fordham University, lives in Norwalk Connecticut where Catherine lives!! though they don't know eachother) and two of Jillian's friends who are also from Fordham, Brian and Conner. I really like all of them and Jillian and I went out exploring in Mile End the other afternoon, which I'll explain in a minute. On our tourist expedition we went to Westminster Abbey which was absolutely amazing. I can't even begin to describe how grand it was - it really sinks in after a while just how old the building here are in comparison to America - we really are such a young nation. I think my favorite part of Westminster was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After World War I they weren't able to identify one of the soliders that they brought back, so they created a beautiful engraved stone in the foreground of the Nave of Westminster Abbey to honor him. The enscription is truly touching - check it out online. Sadly I couldn't take pictures inside the Abbey.

Next we had some Chinese food for lunch in a tiny little restaurant, and then we walked to Piccadilly Circus. The walk was gorgeous and we all really enjoyed getting a tast of London - we stopped in a cute little market on our way there. Piccadilly Circus was much like Time Square - lots of lights, very busy. Then we went to Trafalgar Square - I have some really cool pictures of the water in the fountains all iced over, which will show you just how cold it is here right now. I saw a bunch of museums along the way that Jillian and I plan to go back to - we both are quite excited by the prospect of free museums! Then we rode the Underground back to campus.

Tuesday afternoon (this is a little out of order, but oh well), Jillian and I went out to explore Mile End with the intent of finding a Starbucks (there was supposed to be one nearby, but it turned out that there wasn't), but we had a blast anyways. There were all kinds of stands with EVERYTHING you could imagine for sale. You could really feel the Indian influence with all of the saris and Indian music - I was in heaven with all of the amazing sights and wonderful smells of Indian and Bangledeshi food. We got hungry and stopped for very cheap Indian food (I have no idea what I ate but it was AMAZING). Then we also stopped at a coffee place that wasn't Starbucks but was definitely very cute and had a nice atmosphere - I might go study there if I get tired of the library here (which is very nice, on a side note).

I've also joined the newspaper here and am on their list to be assigned stories. The News editor was very nice. They only publish every other week and only have News and Sports sections (VERY different from the Tripod), but it'll be a nice way to emerse myself in the campus culture while I'm here. In other journalistic news I've found out that I got the internship that I really wanted for next Fall in Hartford with the Hog River Journal. It's a Connecticut magazine that covers Connecticut history - it sounds perfect and the internship itself is exactly what I was looking for. Plus it encorporates two of my passions - writing and history!

Other than that I've been going to the gym, reading, and enjoying new friends. I will be posting my photos also via a google method on Picasa. The link for my albums is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Jordyn.Sims
There are some other random albums on there if you get bored and want to look through those as well.

Almost forgot! Steve, my friend from Trinity who is traveling around Europe and South America this semester, is coming to London tomorrow! It'll be great to have a familiar face around and he'll be very fun to go explore London with - he's quite the food expert so I'm sure we'll have some very yummy (but budget friendly) meals while he's here. I've been keeping very close track of my budget so that I'll be able to afford to visit Europe!

Alright, that's all for now. I hope you're all doing well and feel free to skype me at jordyn.sims though I frequently forget and leave it on... so sorry in advance if I don't respond right away!