"Oh, I've lost me thread!"

Today was my second day of classes. I had both British Art and Architecture and Shakespeare. I think I'll start off today with our walk to the school building this morning.

Yesterday Dr. King walked with us to the building even though we didn't have his class. This morning we had to figure out how to get to the building by ourselves. I've taken a real liking to my flatmate Claire. She and I have seemed to click so far and we seem to be on the same sort of schedule. She's also incredibly sweet and great to talk to.

The class building is a ten minute walk away - but Dr. King has given us a stern discussion about how we can't be late. So...everyone decided that we would leave at nine:fifteen. Well I got up at eight because there are six girls sharing two bathrooms with a shower and one without a shower. Luckily, I shower at night so I don't have to battle for the bathroom. But, sometimes I might want to brush my teeth and wash my face before class.

Well, I was all ready and looking so fly with my black skirt and patterned tights and boots and sweater and scarf...not going to lie...I sort of looked London-esk. I'm sure I would have needed a different scarf though to be legitimate. Anywho, everyone was leaving but Claire was still in the bathroom. I didn't want to leave her there all alone to find the classroom by herself so I waited. We left about five minutes behind everyone else.

We managed between the two of us to get to the building by ourselves. We were on time and everything was great. We didn't want to be the first ones to be late. Also, we were kind of glad not to be crammed on a skinny sidewalk with fourteen obvious looking Americans trying to find our way around.

We sat through our Art and Architecture with our professor Barnaby. He seems really straight forward and nice, and we watched three documentaries. Luckily, his class will be one of the classes in which we only have two classes in an actual classroom. We also don't have too much on the homework scale - just two big presentations and a final.

We got out really early and Claire and I found a free books box in the bottom of the flat where we have class. We perused through it and I picked up a London A-Z from a year ago. :) This is good news.

When we got outside I really wanted some coffee and we happened upon a Cafe Nero. I've seen a lot of them around town and it looks like, from the storefront a nicer and yet quainter starbucks. Unfortunately there are starbucks everywhere - of course - and I want to make it my business to not frequent one during my stay. Claire and I went into the coffee shop and were amazed at their prices. The coffee was very reasonable, so even though it was eleven o'clock, I got a lovely macchiato.

The only problem was that the barista was one of those real Londoners with a heavy, heavy accent. I froze when he asked me a question because I didn't hear the price of my drink in his slew of words. He repeated himself in a not harsh way, and smiled at me. I finally did enough brain activity to realize that he was asking me if I wanted to "drink it here or do take away." Luckily, I happen to know what take-away is so I got my coffee to-go.

We checked the hours on the cafe and we think that perhaps this will be a nice place to study during the week after class or in the afternoon. I am glad that we may have found a coffee shop of our own. It kind of reminds me of Something's Brewing - but a little more posh. It definitely has a nice homey feeling even though it's one the corner of a busy street.

Let's see, I made a sandwich for lunch and started reading my Virginia Woolf novel for my British Life and Culture class during my break. I also wanted to go get my oyster card but by the time I finished my dishes, I had lolly-gagged around enough so that I needed to truck it to class. I got there in time, luckily, and our Shakespeare teacher wasn't in the class yet.

Jean is our Shakespeare prof's name and she. is. crazy. I absolutely love here - at least, I do right now. She may possibly be a really tough grader. She was supposedly going to discuss the syllabus with us but went off on a rant about the Globe Theatre and Shakespeare. She then said, "Oh, I've lost me thread" because she plum forgot what she was talking about.

She then asked all of us what our majors were and how much Shakespeare we've read. I mean, tomorrow we go see "A Winter's Tale" at Stratford. Holy Smakeral! I'm excited.

Also - Claire and I must look British - twice we have been asked for direction by British middle-aged women who looked lost. We just had to smile and say, "sorry we happen to be new here." Haha. Maybe that means that I happen to look London-y?


After class Kemper and I looked through time-out London for some local British bands that are playing this weekend. We found a pretty cool sounding guy - a little mellow - Mr. Fogg - that is playing about five blocks away for free! We are hoping to grab a couple more girls like Claire and Erin and venture out to that show Friday night. I'm pretty excited about that - the venue reminds me of Juanita's and doesn't seem to be huge. Hopefully it's mellow though - and don't worry - it's not in a club. A club is something that I am NOT interested in.

After our perusal through the time out London website I asked one of the guys if I could go running with him. He has been running regularly by himself and has a route planned and everything - and I promised Mom I wouldn't go by myself. Also - he's the only other runner on the trip. His name is Nick and he's an English major and pretty quiet. I told him when I asked him that my pace would be horrible compared to his but said it was fine.

So we ran from Bloomsbury Square to Big Ben and the river Thames. That was a mile and half. We then rain up and down the river around Big Ben and Parliament, which was two miles. We then ran the mile and a half back to the flat. So that's basically a five mile run down to Big Ben and back, no big deal. London was gorgeous while we were running and it took us fifty three minutes. We also had to stop for me a couple of times (haha - not so perfect I suppose) and the traffic lights.

I loved running in the city. I think maybe that is one of it's saving graces. I got to know some of the street names and I got to see some of the most beautiful architecture in the world like it was no big deal. I'm in love with Big Ben. :)

After that I showered and made dinner and had some *gulp* cookies. Haha. I guess I just can't help but feel like I'm allowed to reward myself after I go running. Now I'm chilling with my lady flatmates in the kitchen/t.v. room and I think we're all in for a calm evening. I'm going to do some more reading for my Brit L&C (life and culture) class.

Then I am on the way to pack my bag for Stratford and off to bed because we have to be at Stratford tomorrow at ten thirty and Claire and I are going to walk to familiarize ourselves with the neighborhood. It's a forty-five minute walk - we could take the tube. But...you all know how I feel about the tube. And I'm too lazy right now to go buy my oyster card and it's really stupid to pay for public transportation when walking is free.

I miss you guys. Hope all is well in the States. I'm off to battle my stream-of-consciousness book for now.

Hopefully I'll get to talk to my cutie tonight.

Love you!