A rare midweek post

People have been asking me about Halloween in England, but as usual, the NYTimes says it better than I can.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/world/europe/31halloween.html?hp&ex=1162357200&en=1fe41c213a03d87d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I want to go to Bonfire Night!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Week Five: 4 nights out.

This week was filled with going out, showing London how we work it, new friends and gypsy costumes. But I’m already off track.

After last weekend’s misadventures, I was determined to make a better week of it. I met with my seminar group on Monday. Kris (Norwegian) and Jennifer (American) proved to be enthusiastic, smart and fun group members, which was fabulous. I came home form the meeting energized and absolutely starving. After eating a spaghetti/cheese/pesto concoction, Will (my flatmate) mentioned a place he knew of with really good live music… where he hadn’t been for a year. So, we took the 73 bus (known as the seventy-free bus to some) down to Tottenham Court Road. Unsuprisingly, the venue was closed. However, undissuaded, we took the seventy-free back up to Islington to a pub called the Salmon and Compass, where the SOAS Law Society was having some sort of social event. By social event, I mean a bunch of skinny Asian guys not wearing shirts, and a few people dressed up and dancing around by themselves on the dance floor. We quickly drank the free Stella Artois on offer, and headed back to good ole Dinwiddy, where we drank some more and played lots of card games. All in all, good fun.

Wednesday was the day of speed dating. I had convinced Vicki to go on the basis of it being a laugh. It was on one of the boats on the Thames, and I was positive I knew where it was. Turns out I didn’t know where it was, and we walked up and down the Thames for a mile or two before we finally found it. Then we waited outside (and it was cold, mind you!) for a good 45 minutes, hungry and with a Thai restaurant in sight. It was torture, I tell you. However, we met some nice girls also waiting (they kept the boys and girls separate), and one girl who I really wanted to kick in the face. Of course, Girl-I-Wanted-To-Kick-In-The-Face ended up sitting next to me. Of course. Anyway, I got a sticker that named me “Girl 11” and as soon as we got on the boat, we went looking for our free drink.

Turned out “free drink” meant “all the free drink coupons that you find, borrow or steal”, so that part of the night went really well. The speed dating was not nearly as humorous as I expected it to be. The guys were on the whole, really nice, not socially awkward, good looking and um, normal. We were supposed to rate people as “Would like to date”, “would like to be friends”, “not sure yet”, and “complete turn off”. The last one’s a bit mean, I know. What I will make fun of about speed dating was that the conversation you cancome up with in 4 minutes is not very original. A typical speed dating exchange:

“Hi, I’m Shannon.”
“Hi, I’m (insert boy name). Ooh, so where are you from?”
“I’m from Long Island, outside of New York.”
“Ooh, how do you find London?”
“Oh, um, it’s a lot like New York, with better accents.”
“Oh right, so what do you do in London?”
…

Now imagine this exchange over 14 times. I ended up getting a bit bored with it and spicing it up:
“Hi, I’m Shannon.”
“Hi, I’m :random boy name:.”
“So how many people have you rated complete turn off?”
Since the music after the speed-dating wasn’t that great, Vicki and I stumbled over to Soho, found pizza at about 1am, took a bus going the wrong way from Trafalgar Square, got on a bus going the right way, and got home at 3am. Good night overall, anyway.

Thursday I had to work, as per usual. Instead of someone asking me inappropriate and weird questions though, this week an old toothless black man took a fancy to me.
“You’re pretty,” said old toothless black man.
I hemmed and hawed, blushed a little.
“You have a pretty smile. You should be here more often!” said man who will henceforth be referred to as sweet old man.
Well, I thought it was cute. It was better than the random British guy who groped me my first week in London and when I got offended told me, “I couldn’t help myself, you’re just so attractive!” Flattery will not get you out of that one, buddy.

Again, I met with my seminar group, walking past some Bangladeshi karaoke at SOAS. Best part: Bangladeshi karaoke is not nearly the random event you might assume.

Friday we presented in my seminar, then I slept most of the afternoon, then went to the Arabic party at the International Student House. We were promised belly dancing and shisha and live music. There was all of these things, but the live music was highly politicized and um, not very good. To counter this, we decided to drink tequila. The night picked up after tequila, and we ended up getting to see belly dancing after all and to dance our little feet off. When we got back to Dinwiddy, my friend Leah made us grilled cheese, a tasty treat apparently unknown to British people, and we stayed up and talked til 5am.

Saturday was a wash after that, anyway. I woke up to a text from (Rochester) Leah at 10:30, layed about in bed and read until 2:30, and went back to sleep til 5. An entire waste of a day. I was supposed to meet Leah and Vanessa at 8;15 in Brixton, so I pulled together a gypsy costume, and got on the Tube, realized I needed to top up my Oyster Card, ended up running 10 minutes late anyway. The party was in the basement of a church which was a pretty cool spot, and our only encounter with the fabled Brixton scariness was when a very large, very crazy man came up behind us mumbling. The three of us looked at each other, and simultaneously picked up the pace to the bar. The very large, very crazy man quickly gave up.

Sunday as usual has been lazy. Just went food shopping, bought cake for my French flatmate who finally turned 18, ate homemade cookies, and went to the pub with Trevor and Vicki. Week Five. I can hardly believe it.

Week 4 in London... can it be?

It's true! I celebrated my one month anniversary with London this weekend.

However, the last week was filled with all sorts of odd happenings, some of which might be interested to the people who are reading this blog, and so, I will recount them for you. Sit down, faithful reader, for the stories you are about to hear...

Well they're not that good actually. But I'm not terribly concise, so you might as well take a load off.

Monday was unremarkable. I went for a run down by Old Street, dodging pedestrians, sprinting across crosswalks, and running up two of the biggest hills I've ever ran. My Arabic teacher said I spoke Arabic like I was from Northern Oregon. Hmph. I'm trying. He also had a minor meltdown, slightly terrifying the whole class and subduing us to good behavior for the rest of the hour.

Tuesday, I went to yoga, which I was quite excited for because it was free and because I miss yoga. As soon as we entered the room, we noticed an odd smell in the room. We tried to open the window, and the teacher entered and successfully yanked it open. He was American, slightly spacey, had studied medicine at "the Western university" and then studied Ayuverdic medicine at an Indian university. Among the useful notions he had learned there was that you wake up and you're tired due to calcium gathering in your throat. Really now? Oh, and also, he smelled. When I say smelled, it was RANK. It was similar to what I imagine you'd smell like after practicing yoga 4 hours a day, everyday, for a week, without showering or changing clothes. As he urged us to breathe through our noses, I fought the urge to throw up on the yoga mat. If there's one thing you learn at SOAS, it's that there's ALWAYS a smelly guy. Always.

Wednesday, I worked at the bar for 5.5 hours. This would have been just another shift, had it not been for the philosophical British postgrads who talked to me for the best part of a half hour. At first, we talked a little politics, and about recent books that had come out, very standard stuff. Then, out of the blue, one of them asked me, "Are you ginger all over?" I, aghast, and believing this was the sort of line that people joked about saying, but didn't actually say, sputtered, "You're very rude!' and busied myself putting away glasses for the rest of the shift. The most interesting part of this is the reaction from friends. My male friends say, "AHAHA that's awesome!" And my female friends are as taken aback as me. In hindsight, I guess it is kind of funny. Even in my shock, I thought it was kind of funny though. College has desensitized me, I suppose.

Thursday, I went to a different yoga class, which was really good, but too beginner for me.

Friday, I met my partners for my seminar group, and went for a walk in Regent's Park because it was beautiful. I also walked past the London Central Mosque and heard the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, and then singing inside. I then walked through Marylebone, went to a pastry shop to get a jam cookie, then promptly managed to get powdered sugar all over my black shirt whilst smiling at a cute British guy. I then looked down, noticed the white sugar absolutely covering me, realized why he was looking at me, and scooted across the crosswalk. Typical.

That night, London kicked us in the rear as we attempted to go out. I think the way I described it to Rori captures it best:
"All we wanted to do was go out and drink, and everywhere wanted ridiculous covers, or the people we were with wanted to go to gay bars, or the people we were with were lame and wanted to go get ice cream, or they were lame and wanted to drink straight gin down by the river."

On the plus side, I got carded for being 18 on Saturday. Being carded for 18 - what a laugh!

Sunday, I finally went grocery shopping after the German girls looked at my kitchen cabinet and said I wasn't allowed to live on whole wheat pasta alone. And so, another week in London comes to an end. May the next weekend go better!

Cheers!
-S

More photos

Little Venice



London at night



Me and Leah on a night out



A rare sunny London day



Roses in Regent's Park



John Lennon allusion, perhaps?

15/10/06

A big week in London!
Monday passed uneventfully. But, on Tuesday, I got a phone call from the Institute of Education bar manager, asking if I was still interested in working. Yes, yes I was! My first day was Thursday, from 3:30 to 7pm.

Wednesday I woke up bright and early to "model" for Toni and Guy Salons - aka get a free haircut. It took hours. The girl who did my hair has been a stylist with Toni and Guy for 2.5 years. So basically, I got a professional haircut for free. Hearing all of the technical terms about cutting hair was definitely an eye-opener. I didn't know that there was a whole vocabulary connected with it. Despite it taking 3 hours (!), in the end it was one of the best haircuts I've gotten, even if the guy examining the girl who cut my hair was quite harsh.

Wednesday night I was supposed to go to Yo! Sushi with some friends from Dinwiddy and meet up with my Irish friend Des around 9. However, like typical university students, we didn't get our act together in time, so I ditched the dinner plans and headed down to Chinatown to meet up with Des and a friend of his at O'Neill's. O'Neill's is a fake Irish pub that plays lots of cheesy '80's music and has cheap drinks. Luckily I arrived at the end of the football game they were watching. After a slightly unnerving encounter with an overly friendly bouncer named Luka, I found Des and his friend Declan, and we passed a fun few hours reminiscing, talking about London, what we've been up to for the past few years, etc. Funny moment of the night:
Me: I like living in Dinwiddy but once in a while I get sick of the 18 year olds.
Des: You know 18 year olds?!
Me: I live with a 17 year old!
Des: Can you introduce us?
(joking, I am choosing to believe.). In any case, we got home late and poor Des had a hard day at work the next morning.

However, I had nothing to do on Thursday until 3:30, so I laid about and tidied up, then went to the bar at 3:30 for training. It was overwhelming at first but I quickly caught on, and by the end of the shift Claudia, the manager, was quite impressed. I really like the pace of bartending - there's always something to do, and it's fun talking to the different customers. For instance, someone ordered a drink and making fun of his friend for not ordering a proper drink or something, mentioned Jesus. So, of course, I ask him why he's bringing Jesus into it. He then proceeds to say, "Ah, you must not be one of those Bible Belt Americans. You must be from one of those godless places, like New York!" Dead on, cheers, sir. Anyway, turned out the non-drinker was going to NYC that weekend, so I gave him some recommendations of where to go.

When I got back that evening my French flatmate had made delicious quiche, and my flatmate Will and his friends Fasir and Ousman had made spontaneous plans to go to Brighton, which was quite exciting, except that they accidently booked the biggest gay hotel in Brighton, and there were three of them staying in one room. I'm still waiting to hear the aftermath of that adventure.

Friday was class, and I went to Hyde Park with Leah to walk around and see the Serpentine. Hyde Park is beautiful, and I should have taken pictures. Alas, I did not, but I'm sure I'll go back. That night was bartending again, and there was a party going on with a good band and a pretty awesome DJ, until he stopped spinning because apparently, he was drunk. Haha. Came back from bartending to talk to Vicky, because she had a cold, then reading more of "We wish to inform you..." and went to sleep.

Saturday, I was out literally ALL day! I went to Camden Market with my extremely gay friend Trevor, and it was wild. So many tattooing and piercing shops, and rows upon rows of vendors selling clothes, food, shoes, etc. It was really cool. I'm going to go back during the week when it will be less crowded to look for boots. Then immediately after I got back from the market, I ran out again to meet Leah and Vanessa for drinks and dinner. I ate very delicious ginger chicken udon noodles. Then we went to Kings Road, which is in the Chelsea and Kensington area (very posh). We did a bit of a pub crawl, including a bar on a boat. Then Vanessa left and we went to Collideascope, a sort of indie music club, which was really fun. When I got back I ran into a drunk Sunniva (my French flatmate). I got back at 2:30, saw Trevor do a cartwheel, and fell asleep by 3.

Sunday is your typical clean-up day and attempt to catch up on schoolwork, while simulaneously typing a very long blog in the pursuit of procrastination! Cheers til next time. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Week 2 (written 7/10/06)

Cheers again. I’m currently sitting in a lounge halfway through an experiment to make some pounds. Horray, pounds! Being a labrat isn’t much fun though. I’d much rather work in a coffee shop, but since that’s looking unlikelier by the day, ‘tis labratting for me. In this one, I had to give up some blood (just a little though), take 78 amino acid pills (a la astronaut style, and they were horse pills too, I should mention), and submit to a pain threshold test (aka, they shock me and wait for me to say ow. I played it up as quite the wuss when it comes to pain, but hey. I’m all for advancing science, but I’m not going to play into these people’s sadomasochism.) Later on, they will give me food (yay!) and I’ll get an MRI scan. Later, I’ll get pictures of my brain! How cool is that.

This weekend was quite exciting. On Friday, I had my first lecture for “Modern Trends in Islam”, which was a really great class, and it’s master’s level, so I felt a lot more comfortable there than I have in my classes with first years. The professor is a really gifted lecturer, and her discussion of the qualities of the Qu’ran was fabulous. I’m so glad I campaigned to get into the class and I didn’t give up on it.

Then, Friday night I went to see Spam-a-lot with Leah. It was interesting seeing some of the parts of Spam-a-lot interpreted into musical theater. I was disappointed that they didn’t do the witch scene though, and they didn’t do the thing with the questions that’s at the end of “Holy Grail.” However, it was good, and we only paid 17.50 pounds, that is for the tickets. The funniest moment might have been when we were going to find our seats. After being offered some “Spaaaahm sandwiches”, we walked up a flight of stairs, where the usher sent us on the next flight of stairs. Then the next. Then the next. Once we made it to the balcony, we found our row. Which was literally the backmost row in the theater. It was hilarious. We couldn’t see the front of the stage. By the time the show started though, we realized the advantage to being in the back row – we could sit up on the top of our seats without pissing off people behind us, and therefore we didn’t miss a moment of the show. The nosebleed seats triumph!

After that, Leah and I went to a cool open air bar in Covent Garden, and then out to a very sketchy club. I got home quite late. Saturday, Vicky, Clare, Nathan and I went to see “In Extremis” at the Globe Theater. It was a rare and beautiful London day – sunny, blue skies overhead and a perfect day to stand and watch a play in the replica of Shakespeare’s theater. The actors were incredible and the story was also captivating. It was a love story that combined a lot of philosophical ideas and religion, specifically the debate over applying dialectics to religion. Very interesting stuff.

Then, I met up with Leah for dinner, and spent the night reading, relaxing, and looking for black boots online. I really need boots to keep my feet dry, but the average price of boots here seems to be 200 pounds, and I’m really looking to spend under 50. I could find beautiful boots in the US for 80 dollars, but apparently the UK doesn’t roll with reasonably priced footwear. I’m going to look in Camden Market this week and see what I can find.

I have more pictures to post, and I’ll do so later. In the meantime, cheers & mushy peas, til next time.

A few pictures.

My new school



A shot of the girls at the Golden Lion (the pub around the corner from Dinwiddy) Ignore how uncomfortable I look - L-R: Me, Vicki (British), Sarah (American), Laura, my flatmate (German), Silvie (German)



Aunt Sheila and Mary, cooking



Another Golden Lion shot



Me and Aunt Sheila

Two facebook groups

These two groups on facebook tell you all you need to know about SOAS:

1. I'm from SOAS but I'm not a socialist!

2. SOAS Students: Hate Capitalism, but Love Their Little White Headphones.

"People get REALLY upset when you steal their bathroom door."

Last night, we went to hear jazz at the SOAS student union. The jazz sounded pretty cool, but I don't know much about jazz to be honest. Mostly we sat in the bar downstairs, discussing ridiculous schemes for making money. I think the best idea was cage dancing while playing the digereedoo (sp?) and the bango. Picture it, you'll giggle, I promise.

After feeling kind of tired and sick yesterday, I woke up feeling much, much better today. Slept for a solid 10 hours. For some reason I sleep so much here. I guess because I don't have anything to do in the morning, so I have nothing to wake up for, specifically. I like sleeping late though. I should run or something in the morning, but I think it would be tough to run around here. Hmm.

My schedule looks like this:
Monday (11-1, arabic lecture. I'm not technically signed up for this class, but I think I might sit in on it a few times a week to keep up with my arabic)
2-3 Colloquial Arabic

Tuesday: 2-3 The Making of the Modern Middle East (history)
3-5 Introduction to Arabic Culture

Wednesday: 1-3 Colloquial Arabic

Thursday: (1-3 Arabic lecture)
A tutorial for Making of the Modern ME

Friday: 11-1 Modern Trends in Islam
1-3 Modern Trends tutorial
1-3 Arabic lecture

So, yeah, my schedule is pretty sweet. I'm thinking I probably will join a gym for a month and see how it goes. The ULU gym is nice, but pretty small for the amount of students that could potentially use it. We shall see.

1 October, 2006

It's pouring right now. In London, it seems to rarely pour and often mist. I'm staring out my window watching it come down. I won't be surprised if the sun is shining in a half hour.

When I tried to shower this morning the water was cold. Very uncool.

I solved my Arabic problem. Not sure if I wrote about it, but I miserably failed my placement exam for Arabic and so I was going to have to go into beginner Arabic. Didn't really want to do that, as beginner Arabic is at 9 in the morning. However, I found a colloquial Arabic class that should substitute quite nicely.

Anyway, I went to St. Albans Cathedral today with my aunt and her girlfriend. They are probably one of the loveliest couples I've ever been around. They took me out for a pint and a half (I was kind of drunk at 3:30, haha), cooked me a huge Sunday feast, drove me back to London, invited me to take trips with them, and gave me money besides. They are truly generous and wonderful people and I really enjoyed spending the day with them. I also got to talk to my grams.

I've gotten my dad a present from one of the many Socialist groups on campus. They asked me to donate in exchange for the present, which seemed ironic to me since they're Socialists.

Anyway, my contacts are burning and it's most certainly time to tuck in.

from 28-9-06

Jeez, applying for an NI number seems like a big hassle. I might be better off looking for something that's paid off the books. Um, don't report me.

Anyway. Today is the Societies' Fayre (the equivalent of an Activities Fair back at home, it seems). I'm going to look into the Yoga club and theres a few other things that look pretty interesting - a Politics, Port and Stilton Club, anyone?

Seeing my aunt tomorrow too. Meeting her girlfriend. Home cooked food!

later.....

There's a belly dance group! There's (several) yoga groups! There's also "Politics, Port and Stilton Society" *mmm politics + cheese, delish*, The Society for the Appreciation of Fine Ales, and the Islamic Society.

I am way excited.

I went to Yo! Sushi today and ate off brightly colored plates that rode around on conveyer belts at Harvey Nicks.

I also heard some really excellent music at the Student Union.

I swear, I think I love London more every day.

I start too many sentences with myself :).

from 27-9-06

Yesterday was really good. Went to a cool bar with some friends, had an incredible conversation about spirituality, religion and modern life, went to sleep late and woke up exactly 8 hours later, ate a substantial breakfast and a delicious peach, and showered and got dressed in my cherry dress, which makes me happy. Now, to finish getting ready, and start getting my classes sorted out.

from 26-9-06

I'm living in between Islington and Camden in Dinwiddy House. It sounds very Harry Potter-ish to me.

Islington is a really cool area. I've been up to Chapel Market and the N1 center quite a bit.

"Enrolled" and got my student id today. Classes start on Monday.

Tonight: Possibly going to Covent Garden with some new friends, or there's going to be some sort of bar thing at Chapel Market. Fun stuff either way.

Now though: MUST EAT. I ate a huge bowl of granola for breakfast at 10, but i haven't eaten a thing since!

from 22-9-06

It's official, I'm in London.

I've experienced both London in the heat, and London in the pouring rain. I've done the mini-cab thang, moved about 80 pounds of luggage from Heathrow to Russell Square all by myself, spent 50£ on I'm not sure what, and ate Thai food on a boat on the Thames River. Raaaandom.

However, I'm having a good time. In my flat so far there is a Scottish boy named WIlliam, a German girl named Laura and supposedly there's a girl from Zambia, but I haven't met her yet. My room is bigger than the singles in Towers (for Rochester people) and very new. And i have my own bathroom! It's the little things, ya know.

I still have to figure out the Oyster card thing, and I still don't have a pillow, or Internet in my room, or power adapters so I can't plug in anything besides my UK cell phone. But the Tube is easy, I'm slowly learning my way around the city, and hopefully the soreness from lugging my bags around will dissipate in a day or two.

Please e-mail me, I miss everyone very much, but you're probably all on my wall in picture form.

love!