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.