Foyle'd again!

Ha! You know I'm hilarious...

On Friday I had my first Fiction class, which was good except for 2 things. One, it's 3 hours long... that's a pretty long class. Two, our professor told us the entire plot and ending of "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad... which none of us had read yet! Oh well. I'm about 50 pages in now and it's still good. As far as I can tell it's about the law, anarchy and madness.

After class I went to Foyle's to buy my books. Foyle's is the largest bookstore in the world and it is awesome! It's at least 5 stories with a cafe which I didn't get to go in but really want to. It opened in 1903. Apparently the daughter of the original owners hated "newfangled technology" so up until 1999, there weren't even cash registers, just calculators and hand-written receipts! Also, books were organized by publisher, not author, making everything impossible to find. But now that there are new owners it's really simple.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you a...

Grandparents' Update

Grandma & Grandpa Ogle- Just thought you'd be interested to know that I've been taking a women's multivitamin every day!

G & G Julian- I've been using my Starbucks card from Christmas a lot! There are about as many Starbucks in London as there are at home, if not more.

G & G Abney- There is definitely a big Islamic/Muslim population here, but I've actually heard more people complain about the Chinese/Japanese/Asian influx. It's hard to say because it depends on what area of the city you're in.

Cheerio, ol' chaps!
Rebecca

You know you're (an American) in London when...

1. You haven't seen the sun since you stepped off the plane. Sounds cliche, but it's true!
2. A group of men (often Irish) are so drunk they're singing in the streets... at 5 pm on a Tuesday.
3. Security guards tell you to unzip your bag, then don't even look inside it (hooray for less paranoia about terrorism!)
4. Your co-workers ask "Are you all right?" instead of "How are you?" It always throws me off... I think I must look a mess or something.
5. Restaraunts and cafes provide free, trashy tabloids! Awesome.
6. Bathrooms are up or down a flight of stairs.
7. You can't understand a word they're saying over the PA on the tube, then realize whatever they said wasn't important at all.
8. Your bedroom is the size of your closet in the U.S.
9. No one understands what you mean when you ask to "split a check," yet somehow, they always end up doing it...
10. Children are even cuter simply because they say "mummy."
11. The tube is packed but completely silent... except for 2 tourists barking loudly. Usually, you're one of them.
12. No one moves out of the way when walking down the sidewalk, even if they're three centimeters from bumping into you.
13. You couldn't believe how cheap something was, then realized you'd forgotten it's pounds, not dollars.
14. Starbucks tastes twice as good. Kit Kat bars taste like Godiva.
15. You're offered so much tea so often, you spend half the workday in the "loo."
16. Tea has milk in it?
17. You've eaten more Indian food than traditional British food.
18. Everything in the grocery store is tiny! 1 jar of peanut butter lasted me exactly 5 sandwiches.
19. Everyone around you knows more about American politics than you do. Sad.
20. You've actually lost a few pounds simply because you walk 3 times as much as you did in the States.

So I didn't go to the Tower of London today because they don't have the tickets yet. I'm gonna go with Emily on Saturday. Since I had Monday off anyway, I went to the Natural History Museum. It was okay. I mostly looked at the dinosaurs.

Cheers, mates!
Rebecca

Crazy busy

I may not be blogging as frequently as I have been. All of a sudden, I got super busy. Here is my life in a nutshell:

Wednesday: Class in the morning. Internship 1 pm-9:30 pm. Didn't get home until 11 because of the tube. Talked to Mom and Rach on Skype.
Thursday: Class in the morning. Internship 1 pm-9:30 pm. Didn't get home until 11:30 because stopped to get chicken nuggets.
Friday: Toured Stonehenge and Bath from 7 am-7 pm (amazing!!). Then went out for a pint with Sean and Emily.
Saturday (Today): Victoria & Albert museum. We had to go to the Theatre exhibit for my class and write 2 pages on it for Tuesday. Meeting Don at Piccadilly Circus tonight.
Tomorrow: LAUNDRY.
Monday: Tour of the Tower of London... which I still don't have times/places/any info about...

Well, you get the idea.

The craziest part of the whole thing is that life is anything but fast-paced for native Brits. The professor of every class I've been to so far has been at least 10 minutes late. My internship is relaxed--we take lunch breaks whenever and for however long we want to. The people running my study abroad program take days to respond to e-mails. I've been trying to slow down and adapt to their system, but to be honest, it's driving me CRAZY!!! I guess I'm just having a little culture shock.

Cheers,
Rebecca

Nerding Out (as we English majors sometimes do...)

Today I went to the British Library. I walked around a temporary historical photography exhibit, but the main thing I went for were the treasures in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. The most famous of the treasures is the Magna Carta (although it's actually 1 of 4 original
copies). It was a little like seeing the Mona Lisa--smaller and less impressive than you'd imagine, but still worth doing just to say you'd seen it.

Other noteworty stuff I saw:
-A page of "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf in her own handwriting
-A handwritten, early draft of the poem "Insomniac" by Sylvia Plath
-Handwritten drafts of the Beatles' songs "Help" and "Yesterday,"
among other songs
-A page believed to be written by Shakespeare
-A very early version of "Romeo and Juliet"

Yesterday was my internship interview. When I showed up, another girl from Capa was there. We chatted and had a cup of tea, and then they brought us in to be interviewed together. I was extremely nervous because I didn't really know what they were going to ask me, or, for that matter, whether I would be working with the preschoolers, teenagers (or "young people" as they call them), or senior citizens (but I must have ticked a box at some point because they assumed I was going to be working with the yp). As one could imagine, I did very poorly on the interview, but luckily, they still put me right to work in the office. All in all, my co-workers were nice and I think it's a great place for me. If I want to teach high school, it will be good to have experience with that age group, especially inner city kids. But I'm also a little nervous, since both my boss and several of my co-workers warned me that the yp were "a challenge." Even if it turns out to be absolutely horrible, at least I will have found out before having to apply for jobs and such.

Cheers!
Rebecca

Strange Strangers

I was warned by friends, family and even my program's orientation that the British are stuck-up or reserved. In general, I have found that to be completely untrue. I've had to ask quite a few native Londoners for directions, and nearly all of them have been friendly and very helpful. At the same time, they've nearly all been real characters. So here, for your enjoyment, are the top 5 most entertaining strangers I've met (so far).

1. Jon: Jon sat down next to me on the bus the other day. He looked to be about 15 years old. I knew immediately he was thoroughly British because he didn't have any front teeth. I asked him for directions, and soon found out that he was actually 20 years old and studying at a local university... I'm still not sure I believe him. Regardless, he was kind enough to help me figure out which bus to take home.
2. Escape Guy: Donnie and I met this guy while at the club Escape near Piccadilly Circus. Unfortunately I forget his name, even though we ended up hanging out with him and his two friends for several hours. The Escape Guy was originally from Bolivia but has lived in London for about a year. He is fluent in 7 languages and could do great impressions of accents. He's also a very enthusiastic dancer, particularly when Lady Gaga comes on. We had so much fun hanging out with him and his friends.
3. Guy on the Tube: Yesterday afternoon when I got on the tube, a guy sat down next to me. He asked me for directions, but had a very thick accent (possibly South African) and I couldn't understand where he wanted to go. When he found out I was from America, he asked if I was a born-again Christian, explaining that there are many born-again Christians in the U.S. He rattled off some Bible verses for a while, but finally asked if he was making me uncomfortable. I said yes. I don't know what was more awkward... his rant, or having to sit next to him for four completely silent stops.
4. Cute couple: I was walking back to a tour bus from Buckingham Palace when out of nowhere, a man in his late 20's/early 30's whipped around and asked if I wanted a "sweetie." Because of his very thick British accent, I had to ask him what he said about 3 times before I saw him holding a bag of assorted brown jellybeans. I said, "I'm not supposed to take candy from strangers!" Then he told me that it was his girlfriend's birthday and that it was both their first time in London. I just thought they were cute.
5. Moon dude: I had literally just stepped off the bus at Trafalgar Square when a guy in a fur hat said I looked lost. He helped me find the next bus to get home and told me to call him if I needed more help. None of that was terribly peculiar... but his business card was. It had a name, an e-mail address, and a large picture of the moon, with absolutely no explanation of what his job was or anything. Needless to say, I didn't call him.

Yesterday I went on a 3-hour bus tour of London with some other students from my program (that's when the photo by the Tower Bridge was taken). Today, I wandered around Camden Market, which is HUGE and awesome, with Emily and Sean, who are also both doing home stays in my program. And tomorrow, I have my internship interview! Wish me luck!

Maths...

You know, the past couple of days has made me wonder why I slept or panicked my way through every math class I've ever taken. I haven't even thought about the metric system since 4th grade. The other day when Vera said her son lost 29 kilos, I nodded and smiled because I had no idea if that was a lot or a little (turns out, it's about 64 pounds... a lot!). There's also the temperature conversion, although since it's been about 30 degrees F every day, that's been easy.

I also realized that while I know the exchange rate is about 1 pound to every $1.60 (thanks, Dad, for quizzing me on that every day before I left), I have no idea how much each coin is worth. I almost tipped a cashier in a cafe $2 yesterday, and then he told me how much it was worth, so then I had to tip him the money for being so nice about the whole thing.

Perhaps most bothersome of all is the change to military time. I understand why it seems logical, but what about the small fact that NO ONE says it's fourteen o'clock, ever? Really, I'm just bitter because it takes me an embarrassing amount of time to subtract 12 from anything. I changed my alarm clock in my bedroom to military time, for practice. Mr. Enz (ok, and every other math teacher in the entire world) was right: I do need to know how to do math in the real world, as much as I hate to admit it.

Anyhow, as for life updates, my internship is fine. I e-mailed the internship lady and it turned out that everything was just a big misunderstanding because I went to the wrong meeting... durr. Today is jam-packed with more meetings, and tomorrow I'm going on a tour of London with the other Capa kids! More photos to be posted soon.

Finally here!

My flight got in yesterday at noon, and it could not have gone more smoothly. Not only were my flights not delayed, they were early. I even slept on the plane! Well, until they turned the lights on to serve breakfast... not cool.

I. love. my homestay. My host mom is named Vera and she's really funny. She's definitely a mom all right! Every time I come downstairs she makes me put on her Crocs because she says the floor is too cold. Also living in the house are 3 boys from China, Norway, and somewhere else that I forget, and 2 Italian girls, Carolina and Amalia. They're so sweet and are already getting excited to take me out on the town. They're in London to learn English. Carolina says if I help her learn English she'll teach me some Italian. Unfortunately the only word I've learned so far is "shit" and I even forgot that... it's "stravon" or something.

Here are some pictures of my room!



























Today I finally get to see London! I'm going with Carolina and Amalia to school, since their school is in South Kensigton, too. I'll be a couple of hours early, but I figure I can wander around and get to know the area better before orientation starts.

Sending you lots of love from across the pond,
Rebecca