Cue the Pulse to Begin

I've been somewhat lazy the past couple days, so sorry for the delay in updating for all my avid readers (all 2 of you?).
Classes are sort of SOS at this point. I mean 16 hours a week in the same room with the same professor means obvious monotony. We did hand in our paper proposals, which means I've got to get crackin' on that. I still feel like I'm learning a lot, and the professor is really good, but also a bit repetetive. Also, he has this habit of asking us questions that we as Americans wouldn't know, and he lets like 10 people try to answer the question before he just tells us. He always says "no, much simpler" or "you're not thinking British/French/whatever enough." An example of this is when he was asking us why we thought the people of Kent were opposed to the Channel Tunnel before it was built. A bunch of people put in their two cents (overcrowding, destruction of neighbourhoods, too many foreigners about, etc). The answer : butterflies. Ok, I get the idea, the Brits care a lot about their wildlife, but c'mon, just tell us.

Mom and Pop have been off on their Pacific Adventure since last Saturday and I have to admit it is weird. Up until they called on Friday, it had been the longest I had ever gone without talking to them on the phone. There were 10 days in Japan where I had no contact with them, but certainly this will be longer. Not only that, but the situation just feels more odd because Japan was a sort of vacation, while here, this is my day to day life and normally, they're a part of that. I feel cut off from the States without them there. I'm not sure why as I can email anyone and talk on instant messenger. Maybe more specifically I feel very cut off from home. Dexter is not as good at the emailing as I had thought. I'm sure you're thinking I feel homesick. Well, I wouldn't exactly say that. Things are still new and exciting, and I do miss things in America (As everyone predicted, mostly food things and of course mom and dad), but I'm not homesick. Maybe in due time that will happen. For now, having a routine of class and the same friends as BU is helping the situation. I will say that I never could have imagined doing this without today's technology. Although, I can't imagine walking down the street without today's technology.

Let's see, in the past few days I've done some touristy and local things, done some nightlife, done some day life. On Sunday Jon and I went down to Madame Toussauds (famous wax museum, there are 5 or so all over the world.... really life like figures of famous people). It was a good time. We got our pictures taken with a bunch of different people (most importantly, I got my picture taken with Winston) and went through a live horror show (which perhaps pathetically scared the crap out of both of us) and even saw a short animated film. It would have been worth the money had it not been for the insane throngs of people that were there. It's interesting living somewhere and going to all the tourist attractions. You're a tourist, I guess (OK, more so than not), but at the same time you know the ropes and aren't moving at a completely leisurely pace (and most importantly for London, you speak English).
Tourists here (much like in America) are kind of out of it. They don't pay attention to their surroundings, step in front of pictures a lot, are kind of pushy, and are just otherwise somewhat dazed. But more than that, Europeans seem to just not be aware of the people around them. I've mentioned it before about the general inability to walk down streets in an orderly way, but it goes beyond that. When I was at the advert museum the other day, the general set up was this winding hallway with display cases on either side. I was standing infront of one looking at it and reading stuff, in a mostly empty hallway and a British man comes up next to me and stands so close to me, his bag is pushing me out of the way. I tried to stand my ground on reasons of principle, but he kept leaning over trying to see things and further removing me from my original standing. I gave up and walked away. In general, they just seem to stand in the very middle of a place meant for 2 people (like the sidewalk, or other display cases and they even drive down the middle of every empty road, literally). I know they don't like it, but I'm going to have to clump Britons in with the rest of Europe on this one. In fairness, I don't go to a whole lot of tourist things in the US anymore, so it may be exactly the same way. It does not make it any less annoying though.

Anyway, Madame Toussauds was cool, if not a little campy. Next was the London Eye. The biggest ferris wheel in Europe I think (maybe the world?). It was definitely neat and it was a beautiful day so we got a great view of the city, but unfortunately it was too sunny to take many great pictures. It was an experience though and I can check both things off my non-existant list of things to do in London.
We have a field trip tomorrow to Westminster (I think the houses of Parlaiment, although I'm not sure if we're going in or just around them) and will probably go to Westminster Abbey beforehand and even maybe the Cabinet War Rooms which are around the area, depending on how motivated I'm feeling.

I did do my laundry on Sunday, also. It was exorbitantly expensive, but folded quite nicely. I think next time, though, I will do it myself and make sure it smells like how I want and all that good stuff. I really don't understand why laundry all over London is so expensive. Maybe I should head to the East End to try and find something a little less pricey. Then again, maybe not.

On Monday night, Steve convinced me to go to a gay club with him. Because Gays are some of the world's more clever people, it was called G-A-Y. For those of you who have seen Queer as Folk, it was essentially a smaller Babylon with an accent. It was free admission with a coupon though and cheap-ish drinks, so it was OK. Also, being a straight girl and the last thing they care about there, I could dance my heart out and not have to worry about looking hot doing it. :-P And, bonus, the bathrooms were fairly empty and quite clean.
But my Gay night was to be cut short (which unfortunatelymeant that I missed the amateur strip show slated for 1 am) as I was fervently summoned to meet someone at another club nearby (predominantly straight). So, I left Steve to his own devices and headed over. We were going to go to this club called Metra and I was allowed in but the boys were not. Based on their sneakers. The odd thing about this I guess was that I, too, was wearing sneakers. Sneakers nicer than one guy but not the other's. When I brought this up to the bouncer, he pointed out that I was a girl, and better dressed in general. Holla. So we went across the street to another place called Zoo Bar where ladies got in for half the price of guys. I'm not sure why it's called Zoo Bar, but it was a fitting name. I don't think I will ever head back there.

An interesting thing about hanging out with British people though. When we went in, they had to pay 10 pounds, I had to pay 5. I'm not at all happy about paying 5 pounds to get into a club (just to get in, not even to drink, etc). I complained about this, but they didn't really understand why it was a big deal. "it's just 5 pounds" Nay, it's 10 dollars. Damn weak currency. The British spend their money like any 21 year old would, I guess. I have to spend my money like a very very frugal 20 year old and we still break out even in terms of total lost. *Sigh* Luckily he payed for coat check and drinks. I can't stop but translating everything in my head. 5 pounds is not 5 pounds, it's 10 dollars. 50p is 1 dollar. I catch myself doing it all the time. I see a price, especially at the grocery store and think "oh, that's such a good deal" then I translate it and suddenly it's only average. I realize I need to stop this and it doesn't make much difference if something is 75p or $1.50, especially if it makes a good meal, but I can't help it. I would say, in general, most things here are priced as they would be in America, but ₤ with in front of something as opposed to $. This essentially makes everything twice as much. As you can imagine, this makes shopping of any sort depressing, tourist attractions insanely expensive, and drinks not even close to worth it. It's tough, but I don't really have much choice but to deal with it, and keep hoping that England plunges into economic chaos (along with the rest of Europe while we're at it).
We met up with Steve later on (much later on) and got home at a wholly unacceptable hour for a Monday night (any night really). It was a pretty good night, though. Not entirely sure I would do it again, but I probably won't anyway. [Excuse the cryptic-ness, I don't usually like explaining things that are up in the air, but needed to somewhat for the money thing]

After having gone out here a few times with Americans, I have noticed something peculiar about our behaviour. During the day, as we're moving about the city doing our thing, if we're alone, we talk in an English accent. It has come up in conversation that most people here, without really conferring upon it, have just decided to blend in as much as possible in day to day life. If you bump into someone on the street, you say pardon or excuse me with an English accent. You speak to the woman at the till of the grocery store with an accent in as few words as possible. Why we do this, I'm not sure. We just don't want to be singled out as Americans that easily, I guess.
What's even more interesting about this is that when alcohol comes into the mix, the result is quite the opposite. Everyone is suddenly very proud to be American and will tout their American-ness to anyone willing to pay attention. Suddenly, WWI and II were won by Americans, solely. Bush's policies don't look quite as terrible. And yes, we have guns, lots of people die, but it's in our constitution dammit! It's an interesting phenomena, and it's not really surprising that Americans would get more obnoxious when drunk, but the contrast is still worth noting.

Last night was Tuesday, which of course means quiz night. I had to go a little bit late because I was in the middle of planning spring break when it started. I was pleasantly surpised to note when I got there that our British partners were actually pleased to see me. I believe they said, "oh good, kate's here, she'll know some of this stuff." The sentiment was further reinforced when I went to the bathroom and they asked a question while I was gone and when I got back they were mulling it over and as I approached, Tom nodded at me and said "she'll know this one." I did, indeed, know it (Manchurian Candidate). Just, you know, example 546 about how I'm kind of a big deal. We still didn't win, and our team name was even more stupid this week, but it was a good night and there's always next week.

This weekend, I will be travelling with the illustrious Ms. Bedford (Emma) to Barcelona. Apparently everyone and their mother will be this weekend due to Carnival (which I don't really know anything about, but will let you know as soon as I figure it out) and we were kind of hoping to go somewhere else along the coast, but Barcelona was the cheapest destination by far. I'm sure I will see many BU people there (I think essentially my whole floor is going). We were able to do it fairly cheaply, so I'm quite excited about that. It'll be a great girls' weekend out.

As I mentioned, we finally booked Spring Break. It was probably the biggest pain in the ass you ever could have imagined. Flight prices change by the minute here. It became nearly impossible to get the same itinerary we had planned earlier in the day and it ended up being about 100 + dollars more expensive than we thought it would be when all was said and done. We are going to Munich and Prague for 7 day, 6 nights (3 nights each). I'm really excited about this. I've been to Munich before, but I'm so excited to go back knowing much more now about Germany and having a far deeper appreciation of Bavarian soft pretzels and eating red meat this time around. Prague will be interesting. The language thing will be much more difficult there as well as figuring things out, but it's supposed to be insanely beautiful and hopefully really cheap (although flights there certainly weren't). More on this trip as it gets closer (it's actually in less than a month) and I find out more. I'm going with Steve and Liane, and it should definitely be an adventure.

I guess that about brings me up to date here. I always think of things to write about while I'm out and about walking around and then always forget them when I sit down to write this. I'll remember it as soon as I publish this post.

-Kate