Finals Week Arrives

Snow Day!

It snowed on and off throughout most of the first of this month and on Thursday December 2nd we had a snow day. On the fourth Rez held her birthday party with a bunch of her friends. Unfortunately I've been rather forgetful with my camera so I don't have any pictures although a couple hundred from that night found their way onto facebook so I'll be able to show you some when I get back. We went out to eat at wagamama and after some seating difficulties (party of 13) we had a very nice meal. Then at the tube station on our way to Hyde Park for the circus we were split into two groups because some of the younger girls didn't have travel money on their cards and Rez needed to get there ASAP to pick up the tickets. Most people went on ahead with her but Arami and I stayed back to help the girls top up their cards and look after them on the journey to meet up with the others. We both felt like parents trying to keep track of their kids.

Most of the Birthday crew. (Photo stolen from Catherine's facebook)

We made it to the circus a few minutes late but they still let us in and found an empty upper corner to seat us in. The show was very fun and we got to see quite a few amazing stunts. My favorite involved the 'wheel of death.' After the circus we walked around Winter Wonderland as it was closing (the parenting thing kicked in again and I was constantly checking to make sure we hadn't lost anyone) and took the younger girls home.
Most of the week passed by normally and despite a credit card issue I was able to have everything completely booked for Rez's birthday (the 10th) by last Monday.

Globe Restaurant. (found this image online)

On Friday night I took Rez to the Globe Restaurant which sits on the top level of a hotel. The restaurant was gorgeous and decorated for Christmas. When we got there only one other table was taken and we were seated right next to the window so we had a great view of the city. We probably took too long deciding on what to get so when we got our main courses we had to rush a bit. It was very good though! We rushed off to the Old Vic but again were a bit late. We didn't miss very much and were seated in some empty end seats near the back until the intermission where we moved up to our actual seats in the center of the second row. The play was pretty good and quite funny although I think I might still prefer a comedy at the Old Log. To cap off the evening we went for hot chocolate and a chocolate cupcake and Rez opened her gifts.

A Flea In Her Ear poster. Unfortunately I
didn't have my camera on me last night.

Now it's really crunch time for me, I have final tests on Monday and Thursday, two very difficult essays due on Wednesday, one essay due on Thursday and one experiential essay that is due by the 31st but since I'm going traveling I need to have it in on the 19th. Also a number of students from other study abroad programs have been turning up here which is very poor timing because now I can't use the common room in the middle of the night due to people sleeping in there. I try to avoid it during the day because it's impossible to work in there with all the constant noise from other students.

November Summary

Oxford Street in mid November.

It's been way too long since I updated this. I meant to do it after I transfered more pictures to my computer but that seemed like too much effort for a while so it didn't happen until now. I have some schoolwork to finish up tonight so I'll just try and cover the highlights of the last 3 weeks.

The London Eye.

On the 15th Rez and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary (although the actual date is the 16th). We went on the London Eye which takes roughly a half hour to go around once. It provides a wonderful view of the city and we were lucky that our 'pod' wasn't very full seeing as we went at night. We also went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant which was very nice. On a side note I was a bit tired that day from staying up the entire night before writing an essay for my British Life and Culture class. I got that back yesterday and got an A on it.

Zahra and Rez on a carousel.

On the following Saturday (the 20th) I went to the Science Museum and Natural History Museum with Rez and her 5 year old cousin Zahra. We had a lot of fun together. At the start of the day Zahra was shy and hid behind Rezzy (even though she'd met me twice before) but by halfway through the day she was holding my hand and asking for piggy back rides.

Rez reaching into a T-Rex's mouth! Oh no!!!

Zahra with the remains of a 'Feathered, Flightless Giant'

For Thanksgiving our study abroad group met at a pub in Fulham and we were given a special Thanksgiving dinner. We were allowed to bring guests so naturally I invited Rez. Some students' parents showed up and a girl on the trip's boyfriend from St. John's (not in the SA group) even came. All in all maybe about 40 people were there. The food was really late and there wasn't really enough for everyone. They pub's kitchen had some complications because the chef's father had died the day before. The dinner was quite fun but went much later than we thought it would so Rez and I had to postpone booking our European travels.

Students at the table before Thanksgiving dinner.

This last Sunday night after Rez got off of work we came back to South Ken and after visiting with Mutian for a hour we booked our European Trip. We'll be sending a detailed itinerary home soon. The trip will go as follows: London -> Amsterdam -> Berlin -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Barcelona -> Paris -> London. Obviously covering this many places in only 12 days won't allow us to see everything but we'll do our best to make the most of the time we have in each city.

Snow!

Today I got my wish and it snowed in London which is exceedingly rare here especially for this time of year. Seeing it outside the window when I woke up helped me start the day off in a good mood. It's still going now (some 16 hours later) although it has slowed down quite a bit. No snow really built up during the day since it would melt as soon as it landed on anything but late in the evening it built up enough on the ground for me to make a snowball to throw at Rez.

Midweek Update

Christmas is upon us.

On Monday I met up with Rezzy after our classes. We met at her doctor's office which was near impossible to find since she had an appointment for after her classes. She was pretty sick last week and she had a terrible cough but she's gotten much better. We went to see Due Date which was pretty funny and before the movie we had dinner in Greenwich.
On Tuesday I felt pretty miserable for most of the day while at my internship. I think Rez passed whatever she had onto me since I had a really bad case of the sniffles and went through quite a few tissues.

Statue of St. Paul on a pillar near the cathedral.

Today I felt better than yesterday but still not great. I'll be quite happy when I no longer have to get up at 7:30 three days a week for my internship. I met up with Rez at a station halfway between South Ken and her school and we ended up walking to St. Paul's Cathedral. We had lunch at Nando's (chicken place) where we got half of a chicken for free through Rez's loyalty card. Afterwards I dropped her off at work and we bumped into her friend Susan on the way there.

Audi R8 - A common sight outside our flat these days.

Some aspects of living in the student housing here are really starting to frustrate me. Each flat has about 6 rooms, a common room with a kitchen, and about 15 students or so. Of these students only about 10 do their dishes so every couple days a huge pile accumulates in the sink. Pretty much all of the students are extremely messy too, so the table and cooking surfaces have crumbs or mystery sticky spots everywhere. Also quite a few of them feel that if something is in the fridge then it belongs to them. Nevermind the fact that my name is clearly written on the top and side of the container. About 1/3rd of my butter has gone missing, over half of my cream cheese was stolen and my box of beef stock tablets has disappeared entirely.

Remember Remember...

London Eye, Parliament Building and Big Ben.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the Remembrance Day fireworks to post here but I do have a few videos that are entirely too large to upload. After my internship on Friday Rez and I met up at South Kensington Station and headed down to Clapham Common for the fireworks display. Despite being a Friday night the fireworks started at 7:30pm so I didn't even have time to drop off my backpack at the flat. The fireworks were fun though the planning could have been a bit better since we were all stuck staring through trees. The tube was completely packed on the way to the fireworks so we took a bus on our way back.

A fox in south east London.

The next day Rez and I met at Waterloo to go to a festival but we met up rather late in the afternoon and the festival was pretty much over so we walked along the riverside and had dinner in West End.
Today I took a tour of the Houses of Parliament but unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside so I have none to share. The building is very beautiful on the inside and out. I was a bit surprised at how small the actual rooms are where the Houses of Commons and Lords meet.
Even before Halloween I'd started seeing Christmas decorations popping up around the city. It seems like they jump the gun even worse than we do. =P

London MCM Expo

Me with a fully functional R2D2.

Rez and I went to the London MCM Expo today. We thought some of her friends from 6th form would meet up with us but it ended up being just the 2 of us. There were tons and tons of small shops set up in a manner similar to a market, though like most markets I've been too they pretty much all sold the same things. It was really fun shopping, Rez got about 5 DVDs or so and I ended up buying a couple daggers and a pocket knife. ^^;

Bananas in Pajamas!

There were a bunch of really good cosplays but for every good one there were about 5 bad ones. During lunch we even made a list of the ones that annoyed us most. Speaking of food, I found Astronaut Ice Cream (freeze-dried ice cream) at the convention! I bought 3 bags of it for £5 which was quite a bit cheaper than I was expecting. I also bought Rez her first Barq's root beer from the "American Food" stand which sold candy and soda.

Random booth at the Expo.

All the walking and standing in lines today has left my legs rather sore but it was definitely worth it. I got to meet some of Rez's university's anime club members since we bumped into them as we were leaving. We had some yummy dinner near her house and she took me back to 'Iceland' so I finally got my bag of chicken kiev! Overall it was a wonderful day and I'm really glad we went. Now I get to look forward to Favre giving away another Vikings game. 

Half-Term Break

Yummy Steak Dinner For Two.
For some reason on chrome the image doesn't appear correctly
when the large size is selected so this one is medium.

We've had all of this week off from school which has been really nice. I've stayed with Rez for a few days since she had her aunt's flat to herself. Her friends Hannah and Arami stayed over for a couple days as well. We did a lot of movie watching (Hannah and Arami went through countless episodes of The Wire) and cooked some yummy meals like the one pictured above. We went to this really good and cheap grocery store called Iceland that I've been trying to get Rez to take me back to.
Today I went in to the FIE foundation house and sorted out my transport situation. I'm getting my oyster replaced for free and the £2.80 I had on the card at the time is even being put on the replacement card. This is better than I ever could have imagined so I'm exceedingly happy about it. I should get it in 3-5 days. Until then I'll do pay-as-you go but the fees for that are nothing in comparison to what I would have had to pay if I had to buy my own travel passes for the next 2 months.
Hannah is throwing a Halloween party, so I've been trying to scrape some costume ideas that are also cheap but I'm not coming up with too much. I would have liked to have gone shopping tonight with Rez but she's busy with coursework. Also I finally got my phone topped up after going about 2 weeks with no credit on it (Rez had my top up card from when I went to Istanbul) so now I can finally make calls again.

Long Overdue Post

These satyrs were said to have been the inspiration for
Mr. Tumnus in 'The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe'

I’m sorry for not updating this is a while, I’ve been pretty busy and tired lately. I’ll give a brief description of as many days as I can remember since I’ve been back from Istanbul. I think I’ve been a bit too thorough so updating the blog with every single day’s events has become a bit of a chore for me. So from now on I’ll just be covering the more interesting or important days and events.

~Bowling with Rez~

On the first Tuesday (5^th) since I’ve been back Rez and I met in Chinatown after my internship and then went bowling. We got 3 games for the price of 2 so that was a good deal but by the end of the third game both of our hands were sore, but we had a good time. I made up for missing my internship on the previous Friday by going in on Wednesday since my class was cancelled. I ended up going in 4 days in a row (and needing to be up at 7:30 each day) so by the end of the week I was very tired. I did 28 hours at my internship instead of my normal 20 during that week. I didn’t get to see too much of Rez on the first week back but on that Thursday (7^th) I had a fun conversation with Rez and her little 5 year old cousin Zahra on the phone.

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

On Saturday the 9^th we got up bright and early to go to Oxford. We were given a while to just roam around the town and get some lunch. Then at 1pm we all gathered together, split into 2 groups and took a tour of the town and many of the colleges. I don’t remember the specific college but one was holding fresher’s week events and a couple of us got bubbles and ‘fun snaps’ for free. We had a fun time playing with the bubbles. (Also I noticed that Oxford students are quite heavy drinkers, some of the people who were working at the events had already downed 2-3 drinks and it wasn’t even 2pm yet). After the tour I headed back to London and the station the train came in at was really close to Rezzy’s work and she was working an odd Saturday so I popped in to buy a few things from her.

Panlogic's office.

The following day was my first chance to sleep in all month so I took full advantage of that and didn’t get up until afternoon. Rez and I went to see the movie ‘Life As We Know It.’ We also saw a fox! I was a bit surprised to see one in the middle of London and tried to get a picture but it was too dark. I missed the last tube back and had to take buses so I didn’t get back until around 2am or so.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

Instead of having class on Monday the 11^th we went to the Globe Theater for a tour instead. This Monday was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. The day started off by waking up to Mustakrakish, and reading the paper on the way to the Globe. The weather was just gorgeous on this day too, it was sunny but still a bit brisk. We took our tour and we were free to go around 11:30am. Mutian and I went to get some sandwiches for ‘brunch’ and then did some grocery shopping before going back to the flat. Later on when cooking lunch (a mix of veggies and beef) Mutian added some Korean BBQ sauce to my dish and it was delicious so when I met up with Rez that evening we went to Chinatown to pick some of that up (she was a copycat and got some too) and do some other shopping as well. We also got some chicken buns and a strangle waffle-like treat that I can’t remember the name of. I napped a bit and woke up at 2am for the Vikings Monday night game at the Jets.

A view of St. Paul's Cathedral from across the Thames. (Just outside the Globe)

The rest of the week was fairly normal, except on Tuesday Rez surprised me and came to meet me after my internship in Richmond. I cooked her dinner at the flat that night. Late Saturday (16^th) afternoon I met Rez at Canada Water station and we went to a sporting goods store. We didn’t buy anything but we had a lot of fun just playing with the equipment there. I got her to try skateboarding and these odd skateboard-like things with only one wheel on each end. We also did some rollerblading, putting, cricket batting, and ping pong. Afterwards we saw Despicable Me in 3-D at the IMAX. It was a really cute film.

Greenwich Park behind the National Maritime Museum.

On Sunday Will, AJ, and I all overslept and missed the boat to Greenwich (note: we’re all roommates). Steven had even come into our room but didn’t bother waking any of us. So we took the tube and DLR to Greenwich a bit late and ate at a subpar restaurant before going to the National Maritime Museum where we were able to check in with Arnott. After the museum and Greenwich park we headed back. Monday after class I went shopping for a scarf for Rez since she was bummed that she lost hers last week. 

A silly sculpture at Oxford.

On Wednesday I met up with Rez for a little while after our classes and before she had to work. We went to Kensington Gardens for a while then to her work. After she started working I did some shopping there and at a tea store before going to head back home but when I got to Bayswater Station I couldn't find my oyster card. I went back to everywhere I'd been since the last time I'd used it and asked employees at all the stores but it never turned up. My FIE ID is in the case with it, so if a good person found it they would have no trouble contacting FIE and returning it, however I doubt that I'll ever see it again. I have a 1 week oyster right now and will likely spend over $200 for the remaining 2 months of travel.