I go umbrella under my arm into the green of the radar

And in the blink of an eye another week has gone by. On Wednesday I will pass the half-way point of my stay in London! I can barely believe that. This is proving to be one of the best experiences of my life so far. The vast majority of people who I've heard talk about their study abroad experiences have said basically the same and I believed them, but now I'm finding that first hand and will be one of those people encouraging everyone with a slight inclination to take a step out of their comfort zone and the familiarity of home for a few months.

I am so grateful for this experience. It's given me a much greater confidence in my ability to function as an independent person. If I can live alone, do everything for myself, in a foreign country what can't I do when I get home? I have plans to move out soon after I get home. Last year I would've been a bit apprehensive about this simply because living with my parents in the house that I grew up in is easy. It's familiar and safe. I don't have to do everything for myself. I don't have to pay for all my own things. Now it's like, 'what was I thinking?' living with one of my best friends in the city I love so well a few miles from my childhood home will be (mostly) a breeze and so much fun. AND on top of independence, I've met some truly lovely people who have become wonderful friends that I am having great times with. I don't think I could or would want to ask for much more than that.

This Winter I want to drive and use the bus as little as possible. I want to bike. It's better for the environment, it's great exercise, and I miss Alfred. Alfred is my bicycle, I'd just watched 'The Dark Knight' (and I have a tendency to anthropomorphize a lot of my inanimate possessions) and he didn't look like a 'Batman', hence the name. We'll see. I'm writing about this here largely so that if I try to change my mind you'll hold me to it, 'Tianna, remember how much you wanted to do this in the beginning of November' when the degrees were positive and your eyelashes weren't frozen together? 

Last weekend it was Jo's birthday so;

We made her a cake

She ate her name!

We made peanut butter cookies & Jess made a smiling star.

Jess & Emmett are clearly satisfied with their respective cake and cookies.

I'm just happy about everything.

And then Emmett and Stevie switched trousers, as you do.

A really lovely evening. Following the cake eating, Stevie, Jo, & I watched 'Stranger Than Fiction'. What a great film. As much as I enjoy Will Ferrell the characters he plays are generally silly and/or obnoxious. Harold Crick is sweet, endearing, and real. Also, I want to own a bakery like Maggie Gyllenhaal. We had good talks and they introduced me to this song.

Did you know that British people refer to '.' as a full stop and not a period? I didn't until a few days ago. 

On Wednesday I have 'Architexts' and this week we moved from Marx to Nietzsche. He has this idea of living your life with the realization that all of your actions are your responsibility. People spend too much time agonizing over the end of their lives that they're not present in the moments that they're living. Basically, I like the idea of taking responsibility for your life and really living every moment to the fullest because we're all here, now and we should be conscious of that. This is your life; do what you want, be who you are, be aware of others thoughts and feelings, love, and understand that all of these things are okay because you're calling the shots in your life. I think that's what I mean, maybe that's not quite what Nietzsche said or meant, but his ideas factor in.

After class I met with Aysha to work on our reviews of 'The Tempest'. We decided to have lunch first and a short lunch turned into a few hours of conversation with Kelsey and Jackson, as it will. We did actually get some work done once we moved to the library.

We watched 'Hard Candy' on Wednesday, which is pretty much solely Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson being amazing. After the film, Alex told a story about how someone he knows (that didn't have English as a first language) thought that a swimming suit was called a 'swimming tux' which we all found incredibly hilarious. So much so that we felt the need to put Stevie's swimming tux on over our clothes. I really love moments like that, just being silly. Life is way too serious most of the time. When I got back to my room I did a quick facebook check, stepped away for a second and when I turned back & had a message from Lizzie! This message turned into a solid conversation. That was really nice. I miss her. She informed me that I was sent a letter from my friends at Pizza Biga a couple weeks ago. I still haven't received it! I miss that place and those people, to hear from all of them together would be great. I hope it's not lost in the mail forever. Sometimes international mail takes forever, right?

On Friday Jess, Stevie, and I were eating dinner in Stevie's kitchen and one of her roommates was cooking. The smell from whatever it was might be the single worst aroma I've ever had the displeasure of smelling. Yikes. We were just innocently trying to eat our pizza when our noses were accosted by this awful stench. So, we moved to Stevie's room and had a small Skype session with Addie. Two worlds collided! My British pals kept commenting on how alike we sounded. I love that and I suppose you can't really escape similar speech patterns when you've been best friends for so many years.

Last night we had planned on pumpkin carving. We didn't want to go to Sainsbury's because it's farther away. We walked to the closer Tesco and stopped at a few other places on the way, no dice. Hopefully, we'll be successful tonight. Instead of pumpkin carving we watched & had a great sing-along to Sweeney Todd.

Today we're going to see some live music, and then having a scary/awesome movie marathon complete with; Ghostbusters and The Exorcist at The Genesis Cinema, followed by The Strangers and pumpkin carving. I'm way too jazzed about already.

Ralph Fiennes spit on my face.

I'm baffled by the fact that somehow it's been almost a week since last I recounted the tale of my time. Can you believe how quickly time is racing? It's already Halloween next Monday! Time is apparently a leitmotif in the narrative of my life. I just can't stop bringing it up, but that's only because it's a concept that I think I might never fully grasp.

This week I've finally started to feel more like I'm actually in school. The reading is accumulating and due dates are looming closer. I think I've mostly got it under control though and am finding a decent rhythm in which to work. Hopefully this feeling continues. Sometimes I'm not the best at time management, but I'm really working on it. You'd think that my time fixation would make me great at it, unfortunately that's not the case.

Monday was spent primarily in front of books. Usually I'd be totally cool with spending most of a day like this, but one of the books (that's taking me forever to get through!) is an eighteenth century 500 page epistolary tale of morality. So it was quite a relief when Lexa knocked on my door and we went out for a drink and solid conversation. I really enjoy going to the pub. Don't take that the wrong way. What I mean is, I enjoy a relaxed, cozy environment that fosters fun & interesting conversation while drinking a tasty beverage (or not). It's a bit irritating that from December to practically June I won't be able to do this.

Tuesday Stevie, Jess, Emmett & I decided to walk down the Canal the other way. Prior to that I had only gone along the side that follows campus and beyond. I didn't even know that it continued across Mile End Road in the other direction, toward Canary Wharf. The walk was nice. I think I like our side of the Canal better. Maybe it's just because I'm more used to it. There was an abundance of cool graffiti on this side too. I appreciate that. Even though it's been more than a month now it keeps hitting me that I'm actually in London. Every time I see something famous or iconic it's like, 'Oh yeah, I'm actually here, aren't I?' Because London is a really amazing city, but it is just another place too. It's nice to be able to experience it like that; an iconic, famous, landmark-ridden place & just another spot to rest your bones. It makes it more manageable. If I was always shocked and amazed by everything I'd never be comfortable.

Wednesday was movie night. We watched a documentary called 'We Live in Public'. In the 90s this guy, Josh Harris, started a website that he looked at like a tv channel. He also put together a project where a large group of people lived together and were constantly filmed, a precursor to shows like 'Big Brother' & 'The Real World'. They couldn't leave and I think this was much more real than 'The Real World' has ever been. I don't want to give too much of it away, so I'll say it's a really interesting look at humanity and how being watched effects behavior.

On top of reading and wandering around the neighborhood, it seems there's been a lot of movie/show watching this week. On Thursday I got solid doses of Planet Earth & Daria. If you haven't seen Planet Earth do your eyes a favor and watch it. Each episode is about a different sort of environment. For example, we watched 'Ocean Deep'. On top of being incredibly beautiful, it's also quite informative and David Attenborough's narration is top notch. Daria is just great. Hilarious, sarcastic, awesomeness. Friday, there was a screening of Transamerica. Quite a film. Definitely made me cry a few times.

After the film our crew attempted to go to Wetherspoons, but for some reason Jess's ID wasn't acceptable so we went to a bar a just a little closer to home. It was lovely. Cozy, not very crowded, and we got student discounts! It was a nice relaxed evening of snacks, drinks, and chats. That's what I'm all about. I called it an early night because I had an early morning meeting on Saturday. Unfortunately my responsibility was rewarded with a 4AM fire alarm. So annoying. By the time we were allowed back in it was closer to 4:30 and my alarm was set for 6. Yay.

I managed to drag myself out of bed when my alarm went off to meet Aysha at Piccadilly Circus at 7. Our first assignment for my Shakespeare class is to write a theater review. Earlier in the week Aysha had asked if I was interested in going to The Tempest. She informed me that this would involve getting up early and waiting for rush tickets. This is exactly what we did. We waited for 3 hours for the box office to open at 10. This may seem extreme, but it was lucky we got there when we did because by 8 a decent line was developing. We got tickets for £15 that are normally much more expensive, literally in the front row!

We had 4 hours until the play actually started so we got some coffee, traipsed around Piccadilly Circus and ended up at a bookstore. We wandered around the fiction section discussing our favorites and having an altogether lovely literary conversation. That spent most of our waiting time. We agreed that we could both be happy in a bookstore for days. English majors (or lovers of words) unite!

We got back to the theater and took our front row, center stage seats (!) and took out our notebooks. I felt a bit obnoxious taking notes the entire time, but assignments must be done. Before I knew what was happening Ralph Fiennes, playing Prospero, (!!!) was literally kneeling in front of my face. Mere inches from me. At one point in a particularly impassioned speech, while standing at the edge of the stage some of his spit literally landed on my face. Pretty gross, but also a bit epic. The play was very good. Very stripped down and all about the wordplay. Ralph Fiennes was wonderful and I tried not to be too distracted by the fact that he's him the whole time. When the curtain call was happening he was bowing pretty much in my face, we caught eyes for a second, I was smiling and he smiled back at me. I appreciated that little acknowledgement.

When I got back to Queen Mary I saw a group assembled in front of Varey House. I wondered why that could be and was quickly alerted to another fire alarm! Seriously? The cause of this one was apparently known to just about everyone though. Somehow someone accidentally poured cooking oil on a hot burner and the smoke alarm went off. I'm not quite sure how you accidentally do that.

Other than the fire alarms, it was a really great day and a really nice week on top of that.

Light up, light up, as if you have a choice

For as long as I can remember people have tried to teach me to blow bubbles. My dad would give me a piece of gum, he'd blow a bubble and I'd say, ' I wish I could do that'. He'd say, 'it's easy' and offer his particular technique, but I could never quite make it work. I think part of this was always from fear of being unsuccessful and just blowing a raspberry all over the bus. Because, inevitably, that's where the impromptu lessons would occur.

My dad is certainly not the only one  that's tried. Many friends, neighbors, coworkers, what seems like everyone I know, has tried to get me to get my mouth conditioned in just the right way to finally make it happen. No dice.

Eventually, I just resigned myself to the fact that my mouth wasn't cut out for making bubbles out of gum. And hey, that's okay. That's not an essential skill. I was sure there were millions of people that couldn't blow bubbles. But, my façade of indifference was just that, a façade. I wanted to have the silly satisfaction of a pop in my face and gum all over my nose. I wanted to be like everybody else. And finally last night, I did it.

Earlier this week we were hanging out around the kitchen table. I got out a piece of gum and thought I'd offer to everyone else (because I know how much I always want to ask when someone else gets out gum, but never feel like I should). Everyone accepted and within a few minutes, bubbles were being blown all over the place. 'I can't blow a bubble,' I said. My friends were baffled, not in a mean way, they just wanted me to be able to experience this simple pleasure. So they tried to teach me. But it didn't work.

They all signed the packaging.

And then last night Jess, Emmett, Stevie, Jo, and I were sitting around the table tasting teas when Stevie & Jo made a sweets run. They came back with a bunch of delectable treats and Bubblilcious bubblegum. I was going to do this. I tried and I tried and this time I wouldn't give up. I was determined. I stood in front of the door to the balcony looking at my mouth to make sure I was moving my lips in the right way. Then a flash of light and someone was setting of fire crackers on the Canal and we all went out on the balcony and watched. As the fireworks rained on I continued to attempt and finally, finally it happened! I squealed and everyone turned to face me and we were all so obnoxiously happy for my small victory that we all squealed with joy. What an innocently, joyful, wonderful moment. It's seriously the small things in life.

This weekend was really really good, even better than blowing your first bubble. I feel like I've finally gotten used to being here, settled into the routine, fully accepted that for the next two months, this is my life. And I've more than accepted it. I'm so lucky and so thankful to be able to be having this amazing experience. Before I left, the way I thought about this time was very much like, "okay I'll be here for three months, I'll have a great time, be in school, meet cool people etc.". But, now that I'm here actually having a great time, getting to know amazingly wonderful people who I know will be life long friends, the prospect of a contained three months is not possible. Not that I really ever thought that it was. And I'm really glad that it isn't. Feeling this way is really all that I could ask for out of this experience though (and it's given me so much more already), to be so happy and content here that I will miss this place and these people really a lot when I leave. A bittersweet ending; so happy to be going home to the place and the people I've loved for a long time & sad to be leaving this amazing new city and these beautiful new friends. Not trying to get ahead of myself here, just a reminder to me and to you to savor every moment because life moves way too quickly.

On Saturday Jess, Aniela, Alice, Alex, Stevie, Jo, Emmett, and I went to Camden. It was a beautiful day. 

I really wanted one of these watches.

This is Regent's Canal! I didn't know it made it all the way to Camden.

Sometimes you have to do the robot.

Sometimes you have to get your lip pierced.

We ate tasty Indian food by the canal.

And here we all are minus Alice & Jo.

There was so much to see and to buy in Camden. I feel like I have to go back and wander through more slowly to really appreciate everything it has to offer.

Saturday night I had a ticket to see Demitri Martin at Leicester Square Theatre. I bought this ticket in August and it was the first thing I knew with a hundred percent certainty that I would be doing in London. So, it was exciting that it was happening. Plus, Demitri Martin is hilarious. The show was wonderful. He was so funny. The venue was also really great and I was in the second row. After his set which was about an hour and a half, he waited around and signed things and took pictures. I had him sign my ticket and he was so pleasant and kind and clearly wanted to just meet the people that had spent their time and money on his comedy. Good taste.

I just made the last Eastbound train from Holburn to Mile End station, a bit stressful, but I made it back safe and sound to skype with Addie, Jessica, and Peter. It was nice to see them all together. It's been awhile and I miss those kids.

On Sunday I didn't wake up until 10:30! When we were in Camden I mentioned to the group that I wanted to go to Wales. Stevie & Jo said if you want somewhere beautiful like that you should just go to Edinburgh, which I thought sounded like a great idea. And yesterday we made the plans! Stevie, Jess, Alex, Emmett, Jo, and I are going to Edinburgh the fifth through seventh of november. So excited! And we got the train and the hostel for super cheap.

And! Emma and I bought our train tickets and made a hotel reservation for our weekend in Paris! So excited for this too!

After making all these plans Jo and Stevie taught me about tea, while Emmett, Jess and I sampled various varieties. I found out that I like tea a million times better with milk. And I blew a bubble as recounted earlier. Jess and Emmett went to bed and I planned to follow suit. But one thing lead to another and Stevie, Jo, and I ended up talking about basically everything until 3AM. The whole day (and most of the night) was spent bonding and getting to know my new friends better, realizing just how wonderful and what amazing people they truly are. I'm so glad I didn't go to bed early.

warm house, cold hands

You know that infuriating feeling of waking up from a dream where you're right on the cusp of discovering what it all had meant? You're so close and then it just slips away, your vision fades to black, and your eyes open. How irritating.

But I will leave my complaining to a minimum because I just pulled back the curtain and it's an absolutely gorgeous day that I will be spending out and about with my friends and seeing Demitri Martin! The conclusion of that dream didn't hold the answer to life's big mysteries anyway.

The last few days have been lovely. On Thursday we had a movie night and watched Mean Girls. What a classic film. That movie is so nostalgic. Not because my high school was particularly like that, thank goodness. More so because it came out when I was like 14 and it's been there to quote and to laugh at with a bunch of different people for years. And now I can add my new friends to the nostalgic magic of Mean Girls.

Also on Thursday, I presented in my Shakespeare class! Basically our instructor said that each week two of us would be introducing the text, instead of him. He said it's totally informal and can take whatever direction we want it to. That class is intimidating. I really like it, but he knows everything about Shakespeare, which makes for great discussion but also makes me feel like I should. And he's not the only one! This class is very small, 12 students at most. A good number of them are doing their dissertations on Shakespeare, so clearly they know a ton as well. BUT, I presented part of the introduction and I feel like it went really well, it fostered good discussion and I hit on points that are coming up later in the semester (which is always a good thing in my mind). So that was a relief. 


Yesterday I went with a big crew of friends to a café called 'First Out'. The food was  quite good and the selection for vegetarians was huge. That's a really nice thing about London and I think England in general, they specify on literally all of their products if they're 'suitable for vegetarians'. Get on top of this FDA. Seriously. We roamed the streets for awhile until we eventually decided to go back to Alex's. Where we proceeded to talk and laugh for hours and hours. When we finally made our way back to the dorms at around 2 it was with aching cheeks and happy hearts. 

Love this place.

the ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in

Tonight the moon is full and that fills my heart with happiness. I love that solitary rock up there in the sky. It's so bright and beautiful. And it leads my mind to so many memories, so many meaningful, marvelous nights that it has made even more beautiful.

I just got back from the pub. There was some sort of English outing this evening and a bunch of that crew ended up there, so I knew or knew someone that knew a decent selection of the crowd. It's a really nice feeling to look around and see familiar friendly faces. I will probably mention this every time I talk about being here, but I can't even believe that I've been here for almost a month! Can you? It's Thursday tomorrow which means the Farmer's Market, which I quite enjoy. But, it's shocking to me that I've been here long enough to expect things like Farmer's Market Thursdays.

Forget about a month for a second, let's talk about years. Fifteen of them. My best friend of the last fifteen years is turning twenty-one tomorrow and I can hardly believe it; how fast the time has gone, the fact that I won't be there to celebrate with her, and just how much fun we've had. Addie Royce is truly one of the best friends I've ever had. I feel like I would be a completely different person if she hadn't been a part of my life and I am so thankful for her constant presence. Addie is someone that knows me, that I don't have to explain myself to, that I have a dialect of inside jokes and special moments with. Either of us can say one word in a certain tone and we just know. She gets me, she accepts who I am, she will be my best friend always no matter what and vice versa. I don't think I could ask for anything more than that. Happy 21st best friend!

Life has been relaxed lately. This past weekend my evenings were spent around campus and kitchen tables filled with friends, laughter, wonderfully awful '90s music, and ice cream. Just to list a few of the highlights. Let me just say that Sunday was 'Sundae Sunday'. Awesome. Emmett supplied the ice cream and the space and we all brought the toppings. 

On Monday I had an advising appointment with my U of M advisor via Skype. I found out that, following this semester, I have four English classes left to complete and 6 or 7 miscellaneous credits to fulfill. What?! That means I'm graduating from college next Winter. It almost feels like I just finished high school. Time strikes again. I think I'll get three of the four English classes done next semester and then another easy class, I'm thinking bowling or self-defense. And then next Fall I'll take my Senior Seminar where I have to write a 15-20 page paper and anything I want (!) at any level (!) to take care of the remaining miscellaneous credits. I guess I didn't realize I was so close or that my final semester would be such a mix of intensity and ease. 

I'm enjoying getting deeper into my classes and making friends there. Yesterday while talking with these new friends I found out that they had heard of AND like Jeremy Messersmith! He's just such a Minneapolis staple, but not so much an international icon (yet). It was great to be able to relate over something that's so close to home for me and to share my Minneapolis love.

I also found a post office much closer to campus than the only other one that I was aware of. It gives me no excuse not to be totally on top of my correspondence. I sent some letters today, more to follow soon. 

I don't wanna be here in your London dungeon

Contrary to what Glenn Danzig sings about I do want to be in the London Dungeon. Its seems really interesting. But his circumstances and mine were probably incredibly different, not least of which; I'm not in a rockin' punk band.

Remember how there's a weekly test of the fire alarm? Yeah I didn't either. Yikes. That's certainly one way to get my blood pumping.

The last few days have been good, despite the rapid removal of sunshine and clouds rolling in. On Wednesday I had Architexts and realized how much I'm really going to like that class. The instructor is awesome. She's funny and just a no nonsense, real talk person, which I appreciate thoroughly.

After class I went to the Senate House Library (close to the British Museum) with my friends Jess, Alex, and Stevie to get library cards. Apparently Queen Mary's library leaves a little something to be desired. We got to the library and marveled at the beauty of the building. After getting our cards, and not having to take silly id photos (like we thought would be the case), sat down at the café and talked and laughed for a few hours. We decided that each Monday will be 'Movie Monday' and there will also be Tourist Thursdays where we go places that real British people would go whether touristy or not.

As we were leaving we saw a sign that said 'King's Cross Station 1/2 mile'. Everyone supported my touristy inclinations and love of Harry Potter need to go there. I stood close to platforms 9 and 10 and was not transported to a magical world, but it felt good and geeky to be there nonetheless. The station is partially under construction so everything looked roughly how I imagined it would plus scaffolding and large tarps.

After this Jess and I went on a Jack the Ripper walk led by Andrew O'Neill. He's a stand-up comic who apparently did a set about Winston Churchill being Jack the Ripper. In researching the show he realized how fascinating the whole caper of those murders is and eventually turned his interest into an informative & funny walk around east London. We went to each of the sites of the murders (about two thirds of the way through stopped to have a drink at the pub). When the tour was over Andrew, Jess, some other guy (? didn't really get his name), and I went to another pub and had a chat. I really didn't expect that that would happen. It was really enjoyable, although 'other guy' didn't seem to have any interest in speaking with Jess or I. But what can you do? There are a ton of Ripper walks and although this is the only one I've been on, I would heartily recommend it. It only cost £6.

Here's something that I love and then something that is incredibly irritating;

1. I love letters. They're wonderful. They're so personal. They take time and effort and thought to produce. They make me feel more connected to whoever it was that sent them than any facebook message or email could (not that these aren't very appreciated as well!). But, actually receiving the pieces of paper that the sender wrote on makes them seem closer somehow. And it's the same with sending them. I love it. I think I will continue it when I get home.

2. This is stupid and doesn't really need to be addressed, but I'm going to vent about it anyway; our fridge is not at all big enough. First of all, apparently it's the same size as other flats that have one less person than we do. Second, less than half of it is actually devoted to fridge space and the rest is a freezer. The freezer does not need to be that big! Ugh. I have hardly anything in the fridge right now because I've basically exhausted my food supplies but once I go shopping there will probably be nowhere to put the things I purchase. Our toilets also don't flush all the time. And we have a hook on our kitchen windowsill for no apparent reason. I'm feeling the love for flat 53.

Everything is really fine, just small annoyances. I also have the slightest sore throat, so let's hope that doesn't turn into anything. Everyone in the flat has been sick though...think positive.

Yesterday passed relatively uneventfully, but that's okay I was able to get some reading done. I am actually here for school. It doesn't feel like it. It feels like I'm on a vacation and since I only have class two hours day four days a week, school just feels like something I'm doing while I'm in London. Not quite the usual intense stressfest that midterms usually bring. Check back in a few weeks when my first papers are due and I'm sure I'll be closer to that and be feeling right at home here in my cozy English dormitory.

Here's hoping you're swell!

Do you want to work in Debenham's, because that's what they expect

You guys! I got a poster today at the poster sale! And I'm really jazzed about it. It says "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world".

I'm a fan of both knowledge and imagination, but also just a fan of pictures of space. They're so captivating and beautiful.

As lovely as the poster is, it's not the only excitement of the last few days. Last time I updated I was on my way out to St. Paul's and the Tate Modern. That afternoon was absolutely beautiful. When I got off the tube at St. Paul's it was up the stairs and out into a gorgeous, warm, cloudless afternoon. The cathedral was basically right outside the tube. I took some pictures of the outside and sat on the lawn for awhile just appreciating the sun and warmth and watching the other people that walked by. Then I went in and found out that it was £14.50 to take a tour! No thanks. I don't understand how all the museums are free, but the churches, the places that allegedly everyone is welcome should cost a decent chunk of money to get into. Fortunately, there are a few spots that you can go inside that you don't have to pay for, so I did that.

Sightseeing in London, especially when you're going to very popular places is, thankfully, a really easy process (mostly). There are numerous maps and signposts directing you to the sites. From St. Paul's to the Tate was a very simple journey. As I walked toward the Thames and finally made it to the bank I just had to stay there for a little while before crossing to do some more people and nature watching. I think we all just feel compelled to appreciate the 80 degree October weather as much as we can before it goes away for what feels like forever.

While crossing the Millennium Bridge I saw a woman that looked exactly like my friend Laura except she was French and playing an accordion. I hope I find more doppelgangers. I miss my Minneapolis crew. I also thought about the fact that that bridge is in the sixth Harry Potter film and if you know me at all you know how about Harry Potter I am.

The museum was great! It just felt good to be there. I definitely enjoy seeing the sites with others, but sometimes it's nice to go to a museum alone. You can go at your own pace, wonder through the gift shop as slowly and as disorganized as you want, and be so enamored by certain pieces that you don't walk away for twenty minutes.

It was really just one of those days that you realize how amazing it is that you're even alive, that you're here and get to see all this beauty. That this world has so many amazing things to offer and that no matter how long you live there will always be more than your eyes can see, more than your ears can hear, more than you could ever possibly imagine. But, that's wonderful because no matter how mundane or spectacular, you will never run out of life to live. Walking out of the museum, standing on that bridge and realizing all this, I had a feeling of such obnoxious contentment I could hardly believe it. That was nice. Not even waiting through five too-full trains could change my mind.

This weekend Jess invited me to her house in Essex. I had a lovely weekend. On Saturday we went to Battlesbridge and walked around some antique and vintage stores. I even made a few purchases! The first things I bought are gifts for friends, so I'll keep the surprise to myself ; ) I will tell you about the spectacular dress that I got; vintage '60s backless black dress. Gorgeous. Apparently they'd only gotten it that morning, lucky I got there when I did. We went to two different pubs because I'm trying to go to a bunch. At the first, I had a (half) pint of Guinness, because it seemed obligatory. And then I just couldn't finish. At the second, I had a tasty meal of falafel and pita.

On Sunday we went to Southend. To see the sea and the longest pier in the world! Again, the weather was crazy good. 80 degrees and sun. The beach was so packed you could hardly see the sand. The view from everywhere was gorgeous. On top of the simple beauty of the sea there was a theme park 'Adventure Island', complete with the sixth steepest rollercoaster in the world! We rode the rollercoaster and that was exhilarating, except it jostled my neck all over the place. Sometimes life is hard as a taller individual. We made it back here by around nine Sunday night and I started re-reading one of my favorite books (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), the perfect end to a great weekend. OH and I learned that Rastamouse is a thing, a children's show actually. Too good.

Yesterday I was on a mission to find tapes. I thought to myself, 'how hard can it be, I'm sure there are loads of places in London where you can buy tapes'. That might be the case, but finding them is not as easy as one might think. Unfortunately, there's no Cheapo: London Chapter. What a great store. Plan; I'm going to Cheapo the day after I get home. Shockingly, Googling various combinations of the words 'buy' 'cassettes' 'tapes' and 'London' did not achieve the massive list I was hoping for. I did find one place though. I bussed over to a part of town that seemed a bit sketchier than I'd anticipated and walked in the store only to find a tiny bin of 75% classical music cassettes. Not that there's anything wrong with classical I love a little Beethoven, some Brahms, but a bit of a wider selection would be nice, especially when your website advertises the 'wide variety' that you have. Long story long, I didn't find anything worth buying. BUT I've been asking around and I got a decent lead today, so I'll give that a shot and report back.

Today I bought that awesome poster and made friends with a girl in my Modernism class. She introduced me to a few of her friends and we just sat and talked. It's definitely fun and exciting to meet new people, but it makes me miss my well-established easy friendships too. It's strange to have hardly any history with anyone here. It's like how every other country has got hundreds or thousands of years of history on America. We just can't compete with that. The takeaway here is that I love making new friends, but the act of forging new connections makes me miss the ones I've already made.

I just got back from the Queen Mary theatre club's improv night which happens every Tuesday. It was a good time. There were scads of people there and we played fun games with each other. I'm all about that playing aspect of improv. You get older and you forget the effortless ease that you played with when you were young. It feels good to just let it happen and forget about being an adult. I miss HUGE Theater. If you're unaware of HUGE do yourself a favor and go see a show any night they have them seven days a week!

And now, having brought you up to speed on my life I will talk your ear off no longer and wish you all a glorious evening. I hear it's over 80 at home.