The End

Sadly, my happy summer at Cambridge has come to an end. I am now back in the USA. This grand adventure as been the most rewarding experience of my life. It has opened new perspectives and ideas and freshened my academic curiosity. I have met so many wonderful people from all corners of the globe and I cannot yet fully express what this experience has meant to me. (Of course it doesn't help that it's 1:45AM in London and I'm jet lagged). It went by, as I knew that it would, much, much too quickly. I have had an amazing time.

I am off to Delaware now - well tomorrow I have to pack and get to Newark, DE by orientation on the 21st. There is a lot of tough work ahead of me, but I have new avenues of learning and understanding to explore. I have new motivations and a renewed drive to be successful, intellectual, travel and meet new people. I've met people over these last two weeks in ISS at Cambridge involved in politics in Washington DC and people who are involved in business. Both have provided examples of a different track my life could take after my PhD. My first task will be to do well in my course work, but I will have to set the task now of determining a path for my next 5 years. Public vs. Private sector? Research? Business/Entrepreneurship? Government? I can see opportunities that I didn't see before I flew to London in January - I was so single minded about research. I have much more confidence to consider opportunities I once thought beyond my reach.

To all whom I owe this experience - advisors, program directors and the fellowship committee etc...

Thank You

Cambridge Days

I don't have internet access in my room so I haven't really been online at all. It's strange and wonderful to spend days and days without even checking my e-mail or facebook once. Rather liberating! My mind has been focused onto my studies and my tangent interests and not mindless internet surfing, chatting or snooping in the case of facebook. 

I've been reading Thomas Hobbs "The Leviathan" and a couple other books from the reading list. Also I've been enjoying not only my classes but the plenary lectures and evening lectures here at Cambridge. This is the most exciting academic environment I've ever been exposed to. The professors are brilliant and renowned, the talks are stimulating and eye opening. I'll go into more detail later, but it's been the most incredible experience to be here. 

I've made a lot of new friends who I'm dearly going to miss. I've connected with people here, I think more than I did in London. It's a very international bunch - with people from Switzerland, USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Mexico, Hungary, Russia...I don't even remember them all but I know that I have good friends here and now all over the world.  I have just three more weeks of classes and while I am ready to come home...I'm not quite ready to come home, and almost wish I could just stay here in Cambridge forever. 

Cambridge

I have arrived and settled into Cambridge and I love it! I didn't get the classes that I had wanted or hoped for - I ended up with British Political Thought which so far has been a lecture on British history, Origins of Modern Science which so far has been an over view of Aristotle and Plato and is taking the perspective of purely historical, and Democracy and Dictatorships in the Third World (I think this was my third choice for my C group but it is interesting though not the literature class I had wanted). The second term starts at the end of July and I think I got a better selection of courses for that one - fewer people stay on for the second term. We have plenary lectures in the morning after A course lecture and evening lectures that all students in the summer programs are invited to which include a diverse breadth of the topics. The topics for the plenary lecture this morning and the evening seminar were about how the University of Cambridge works - the college system, some of the history and how it has become so prominent in the world. 

I am so excited to be here. You can feel how proud the faculty are of their university and rightly. The town is beautiful with all the old architecture, and cute little shops. I am staying in Newnham College in Sidgwick. My room overlooks this lovely little garden with a fountain and besides the weather Cambridge is just the most perfect place! The food is wonderful - full English breakfast and dinner was a lot of quality choices as well. None of the book stores have the required reading books which seems (I'm sorry to say) typical of professors everywhere. I'm afraid even a few I've had at UM request out-of-print textbooks written by their best friends or photocopied versions of a book that has yet to be published properly. Oh well... I'm going to the bookstore this afternoon to pick of a few of the supplementary reading - more common things like Hobbs and Locke (for British Political Thought) and Plato and Aristotle (for origins of modern science). The professors seems apathetic about whether we must complete the readings as long as we attend class and are attentive they are fine. The classes are lecture heavy and less participatory than the classes I've taken in the USA and even a bit less than Westminster, likely because of the time constraints. 

Classes are held every day which is a huge change. It's more like high school and I'm glad for the four hour block in the afternoon after C course before dinner and the evening seminars to unwind, read, study and socialize. It does feel more productive though and I wonder how much more we would be able to cover in University if we had class every day like high school. Probably not practical for scheduling though. Cambridge definitely FEELS more academic than Westminster, it's more like Michigan actually. I like being back in a rigorous environment, even though high standards are not burdening my learning (i.e. my degree isn't riding on my performance). Having the rigorous environment but no actual grades is ridiculously enjoyable. I feel like I am just soaking up knowledge and integrating in more readily into my world view and making it relevant - rather than worrying about which facts I need to memorize for the examination or what will be required for the essay. While perhaps not practical for regular school, it's perfect for the summer program and just the last few days I've been here - I've vowed to myself more than once that I simply must come back. Later in life I will come back - to London, to Cambridge. There are adults in the program as well doing continuing learning and I hope that I can come back and continue learning and studying through out my life. 

I alternatively never want to leave and cannot wait to get back to the States. More accurately I want to transport Cambridge across the pond and go to grad school. I am anxious to start my own studies listening to the faculty discussing so passionately their own work. I am also anxious to move into my own place! I'm getting excited about that for sure! For example the wifi here is only in the Buttery (which at the moment is pretty cold) and the showers are on a timer and you have to push the button ever minute and a half to keep it going. On the flip side the food is great and prepared for me and they give us fresh towels every day, sheets once a week and coffee and tea to make in the room with milk and sugar (it's like an academic hotel). Anyway I am off to explore - I am going to look for this science museum the plenary lecturer spoke of the Whipple I think it's called. 

Traveling with Mom

So on 13 June I moved out of my Old Street flat, dropped my bags off at the self storage by Paddington and hit the road with my mom. We flew to Heraklion Crete where we stayed with George, a friend of the family who was the most excellent host. Beyond providing us a place to stay on his beautiful island he drove us all over - we got to see the Samaria Gorge and walked about 4km up to the narrowest, most picturesque point. We took a ferry and we spent some time in the village where George and his family live when they are not in Heraklion. He took us out to eat at all the best restaurants and I was very impressed with our time there. In my opinion it was much too short. The beaches were fantastic!

From Crete we flew to Rome and spent a quick and disappointing day there before traveling by train to Innsbruck Austria. Innsbruck was as fantastic as Rome was disappointing. Our hotel was lovely - I had booked on hostel world and didn't expect much for the price. The room was three times the size of our pension in Rome for the same price and the restaurant served a proper breakfast included (the breakfast in Rome was only sugary croissants!). One benefit of traveling with my mother is her willingness to pay for things and her sudden whims - like deciding I needed some jewelry from the Swarovsky Crystal Gallery. I got a necklace and a pair of earings and feel like a princess in them. They are special because the Swarovsky Crystal Factory, were all Swarovsky crystals are produced in Austria was just 15 km down the road from the shop. If we had had more time I would have wanted to visit it! We DID visit the Grassmayer Bell Foundry and Museum however which was very interesting! I got bells for my friends as souvenirs and read all about the different kinds of bells that were made in Europe and all over the world during the last thousand years. Very intersting from a materials perspective and gave me an increased appreciation for metallurgy which I've always been somewhat uninterested in compared to most topics in my field. In Innsbruck we also took the Funicular up to the top of the largest mountain and had a hearty lunch. I would love to come back to ski here in the winter sometime.

Next we went to Interlaken, Switzerland which was equally stunning for the natural beauty, though the cold and the rain were less than welcome on my 20km hike up the mountain. Along my hike I passed a brewery and a small castle, as well as some cute farm animals and of all things a few fascinating snails. After about 15 minutes of taking pictures of the snails and staring at them I began to wonder if I should have been a naturalist instead of an engineer!

From Interlaken we took the train to Paris and again I was impressed by the quality of the hotel for the cost. We paid the same for the hotel in Paris (pristinely clean, with AC, wifi, CNN world and an en suite toilet/shower) for our postage stamp sized, sharded bathrood, dirty hostel in London. After a few snapshots of the Tower and the Arch we had a nice little dinner and the following day we spent in the Louvre before catching the train to London (where we got the sad little over priced hostel).

This morning from London we caught an EasyJet flight to Edinburg for a few quid and have checked into a nice room at the Argyle Hostel. Not as standardly hotel-y, more hostelish, it is overwhelmingly friendly and comfortable feeling. The room is large enough to move around and light is streaming in through the windows. It's a relief to be here today after the stress of the airport. I forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack and checked it onto the flight. The entire flight the image of my lovely MacBook with huge ugly cracks zig-zagging the LCD display and clunking noised coming from the HDD circled like bees in my head. Thankfully, no damage done. We also almost missed the flight because my mom had gotten a letter opener in the vatican in Rome for my uncle and forgot to check it in here bag. Obviously security would not let her leave it in her carry on though my mom looks very motherly and hardly a terror suspect. She tried to check her carry on but was running out of time so she ended up giving away the letter opener - we'll find a gift for her brother in Scotland she cheerfully said as my heart is racing looking at the red "Final Call" on the departures board next to our flight which is scheduled to take off in 15 minutes. Oi!

All this traveling, while fantastic, is wearing me out. I really really just want to get to Cambridge and have a normal schedule and a routine and classes. Can it be that I actually REALLY miss classes!? Astonishing! I now know that it takes me two months of utter uselessness, two months of no class and no work, before I go absolutely bonkers with boredom. Even reading, wandering though parks and London and exploring got a little boring. I've finish Henry James (Daisy Miller and Other Stories) and "The Cannon" about basics in science (cute but nothing I didn't already know) and am now in the process of reading "Great Expectations" which I adore right now. Something about the writing style is easy to understand and the character is symapthetic and I just have to know what happens to him. Speaking of which - I am off to keep reading until mom feels like heading out to see Edinburg. In a few days we're off to Galway, Ireland.

Gloomy

It was a chill and gloomy day in England today and as I huddled in my dreary flat, watching the rain and drizzle weep from the dull gray clouds, I read Frankenstein. I was about one third of the way through when I found myself caught up in the rush of the story today. I finished the rest of it just now as it nears evening. The short stories of Henry James await me tonight.

Another Quiet Day

I had a headache the other day and just stayed in. What did I do just staying in? I read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo straight through. It was an easy read. More modern than the older novels we read during my literature class because of it's fast paced action, romantic themes and complex plot. Like many of the novels I've read it attempts to teach a lesson - redemption, forgiveness, good vs. evil. I liked all the twists and turns.

I've started on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, which promises to be a good read - it's very intriguing so far. In the mean time I'm trying to pack up my room for storage during my trip to Greece.

Another TED Talk

This one is one of my favorites! Not only is it very cute, it teaches a really good lesson. Let's just say my spending five years is graduate school is my equivalent of not eating the marshmallow yet.

Musing

I've been watching a lot of TED talks recently and having been thinking about how I can make a difference in the world. Today I watched a talk given by Liz Coleman, president of Bennington Collage. In her talk she discussed the need for a liberal education and I am once again grateful to be expanding my education beyond engineering. One quote struck me as particularly powerful:
"The is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators." Perhaps this is what I enjoy most about the area in which I have sought to become and "expert." Materials science is hugely multidisciplinary. It touches every field of engineering and cannot be confined within the borders of it's own discipline.

Coleman also said that we have made even literature arcane, a fact I can attest to in the various English and Literature classes I've taken both here and at University of Michigan. The idea of literary theory while a useful tool for approaching and understanding literature, in my opinion takes away from the awe and the beauty of great works. While it is helpful to understand the author's background in order to comprehend the setting and references within the book I think that it can be just as rewarding to read a book cold and get your own impression of it outside a theoretical framework. This is why I am relishing the time I have to digest great works outside of a formal classroom setting for these weeks between my programs.

I am also thinking about the ways I can expand my own "liberal arts" education. Which direction to I want to go? I want to learn and solidify my knowledge of a second language. My time traveling in Europe has fired my desire to improve my Spanish and learn German. I want to continue to read the classics, and I think I need to develop a better knowledge of ancient mythology. I would like to write more and improve my communication skill. I would also like to learn more about history, in particular the history of the last 300 years or so - the events that shape politics and policy today, throughout the world. I have basic knowledge from high school but that is all. When I return to Delaware I will be taking public policy, environmental and sustainable systems courses as a part of my IGERT award and this will also contribute to my fully well rounded education - I hope I can fit in a foreign language course or two. Recent events have also piqued my curiosity about economics. I also want to explore ways in which we can understand the validity of the information we recieve. Information is everywhere? How do you decide what is true? How do you know who is being neutral and who is biased and who is flat out lying? This is not a simple question and I don't believe anyone has a good answer to it, but I feel that it is incredibly important in this modern society.

Kickin it in London

I'm still just hanging out in London. A couple of days ago Melissa and I took a little day trip to Brighton which was simply lovely. The weather was perfect - sunshine and big puffy clouds. The train ride was cheap and short and we ate deliciously sinful fried food - including those doughnuts that they make in an automatic machine as you wait...so fresh...so greasy...so good. The ocean was perfectly blue and smelled salty and sharp.

My trip to Crete with my mom is planned and set. We'll be staying with George, a family friend and local professor in mechanical engineering. It will be a wonderful way to spend the rest of my time between programs.

I am starting to look forward to Cambridge. I found out one of my sorority sisters from Phi Sigma Rho will be studying through the same program, though I haven't found out if she is taking the same classes as I am.

Organizing the trips that I have taken, getting my self from place to place and figuring out where to stay, how to use public transport in a dozen countries in languages I generally don't understand has given me an immense sense of both confidence and humility. I have faith that I can get around on my own. I don't need a trip planner, and organizer or a tour guide. (Just need the internet! Thank God for Google!) I am also humbled. The generosity of the people I have met and the complexity of the world have left me in awe. The world is a very complicated place, yet we all somehow get by. People design public transport to be intuitive - just the fact that it was just as easy to take the Metro in Paris as it was in Barcelona as it was in London - despite the language barrier - speaks to the robust, thoughtful, design of the the system.

The same is true of the rail networks between the countries. I am even more awed that my Eurail guide - presumably printed at the start of 2009 - contains 99% accurate information for hundreds of train routes down to the very minute for trains that run 7 days a week all year round for 21 countries speaking a dozen languages. Hail Technology!

Long time no post!

I haven't posted in quite a while, mostly because I've been traveling. After my exam, my friend Melissa and I flew to Cairo, Egypt (see picture!), then Istanbul Turkey, Paris, France and then I took the train to Nice and Barcelona. 17days in all. I was quite exhausted after all of it and needed pretty much a full week to decompress and process the experience. I can't say I have fully processed the amazing journey yet. Things went wrong (food poisoning, missed trains and lost luggage) but that is all part of the experience I guess! I read "Antony and Cleopatra" a bit trite to read in Egypt perhaps but a classic. I also read "The Alchemist," "Dreams from my Father" and started "Hard Times" by Dickens. I wrote in my journals and took loads of pictures. Melissa and I had a good time until Istanbul when she got sick. I saw the Blue Mosque though, the Aya Sophia and the Topkapi Palace, but Melissa stayed in bed. I checked on her between each. I went on to Paris alone and met up with Jennifer Wilcox, a friend of mine from UM who is studying French there. In Nice I met two really cool girls Lauren and Katie who were staying at the same Hostel. We had the best day just hanging out on the beach and ate some great French food with wine that evening. Then I went on to Barcelona and met just loads of fun people - a group of girls from University of Chicago and Steve from London and Trever the Wolverine Fan from Tennessee . Steve and Trever wandered Barcelona with me on my last day, though we were slow and tired from the infamous Spanish night life that we all partook in the night before- tapas and dancing!

The Blue Mosque - Istanbul, Turkey

Paris, France

Nice, France

Chocolate con Churros - Barcelona, Spain

Back in London and I'm starting to miss science. I've been reading and visiting galleries (I've been to the National Gallery at three times since I got back on the 14th.) seeing shows (Thriller Live with the API group) and watching the BBC (there is quite a scandal over here involving a bunch of MP's claiming expenses that they shouldn't have - it's been going on for a while but has reached boiling point). This is all well and good, but I find myself watching TED talks and reading journal articles...yes reading journal articles in my free time...for fun! I had forgotten that I loved science so much. In engineering at Michigan there was always so much to learn so quickly. It was all so serious and important and stressful. Now, given so much time to just relax and unwind, exams and papers finished, I find myself drawn back to my research and what I plan on studying when I get home. I am grateful for this down time. With nothing to do I have re-centered myself and found myself again. I know what I want to do and why. Truly, I have remembered that I am going to graduate school because I love what I do. I don't love the stress, exams, homework assignments, but I love the science.

At the same time I have on my book shelf: "Hard Times" by Dickens, "The Man Who Would Be King" Rudyard Kipling, "Daisy Miller and Other Stories" by Henry James. I also try to go to one gallery or museum in London every other day (I tried everyothere day but it was too much). The National Gallery is my favorite and I like the Impressionist wing. Today my "assignment" is to find an Opera for my friend Margaret and I to see, and plan the trip for when my mom comes. Melissa and I have also been talking about taking the train to Brighton for a day - sometime before I leave London. Life in London is this wonderful woven tapestry of new and old, beautiful and ugly, serious and sill and I feel like I am a thread being stitched into it, and it is being stitched into me.

Random London

I took my last Westminster Exam today - The Rise of the Novel. It went alright. I won't say great because I had no idea how to prepare or what is expected. At Michigan I'd say I would expect an A- or a B+ but we'll see how they grade here. On my way to the exam, and on my way home I got a reminder of the wonderful randomness of London. Expect the unexpected.

I was heading up the stairs at Oxford Circus on my way to the exam and over my rock music that I'm jammin to I heard some other music coming from outside. I look up and take my headphones out and am confronted with the most random sight - African tribal dancers in red cloth and face paint singing about Jesus right outside the tube station. My face split into a smile and the mood hasn't broken all day. There were photographers, gawkers and a film crew. I still have no idea why they were there but it made my day!

On my way home from Uni after a good workout at the gym I am walking home to Shoreditch and a big white van drives by on Old Street. Suddenly the driver sticks his head out the window and howls...yes...howls. But the driver was wearing this wolf/wolverine/monster mask. This silliness just made me laugh out loud and shake my head. Oh randomness.

It occurs to me that my recent bad mood (evidence by my lack of blogging) has to do with not having a purpose. Going to class has been my purpose since I was 5 and during summers there was work. I don't have an organized schedule purpose since classes ended and I got back from traveling over Easter holiday. Once my paper was done my only task was theoretically to study for this exam and I didn't really know what to do. I've kept up with the reading so I didn't have to read anything. I reviewed the plots, themes, characters of the novels I was intending to write on and skimmed some critical reviews but other than that I didn't really know what else to do. I'll go into the relative merits of the UK education system (as I've experineced) later.

My point is that I never realized how cranky I get when I don't have anything to do! With most of my friends preparing for their finals or preparing to go home I've been at loose ends. With an unexpected amount of "free time" I am going to have to give myself something to do and be productive towards my own personal goals, instead of organized academic goals that have always provided me with a value system with goals to reach for me. That is my task for this afternoon while I do laundry. I will post my reading list and sylabus shortly.

Berlin

It's Eater Holiday and I'm in Berlin with JoAnne, Hope and Beth! It's been a great two days and we're heading to Warsaw Poland tomorrow. We went on a few tours which were really good and we saw quite a few memorials and places related to Nazi Germany as well as the Soviet occupation of Berlin. I saw the Berlin Wall which was a really cool experience having learned about it in school and understanding how much the history here has completely changed the world. 

It stuck me that this city is like the buds on all the tree right now. The twentieth century has been a long cold winter for Germany and Berlin and now the weather is warmer, the flowers are starting to bloom and the first buds are springing from the ruin of extreme political domination. The brand new modern buildings were striking. Berlin as a city is much older than anything in the United States, yet a majority of the city was leveled during WW2 and the new buildings were built in the modern style. 

I'm quite tired and don't have the energy to keep writing - we've seen most of Berlin in just two days! Tomorrow we catch a lunch time train to Warsaw Poland!

University of Delaware

I have formally accepted the offer from University of Delaware. I was accepted into the IGERT program which will provide extra funding and some really interesting opportunities. I also want to work with the IEC and study solar cells there. I'm not crazy about Newark, DE but I'll only be there for five years and I feel like they have some excellent opportunities. As long as I work smart, I will graduate around May 2014 at age 28. That is not too old, my goal is to graduate before I turn 30 so as long as research and coursework goes well I'll reach my goal. In addition I will get some great experience and connections and have some world class facilities at my disposal. I'm so relieved to have made this desicion!

Quite Evening

I'm just enjoying a quite night in right now. I worked on my coursework all afternoon and did some laundry. The weather has been so LOVELY in London. I almost didn't know sunshine could exist in this rainy bit of the world! The breeze is blowing in, cool, but not chilly, from my open window and I've got some Andy McKee guitar playing on my laptop. When I stopped at Summerfield's to pick up laundry detergent I got one of those rotisserie chickens (wonderful that they have those in the UK too and it fits perfectly in my largest tupperware), some salad greens, pre-made mash and a bottle of Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon from the Bordeaux region (haha 3£)! An amazingly simple yet comforting and delicious meal. I think it cost me 10£ and will make at least three meals! Plus I didn't have to cook it, just heated it up in the microwave after my laundry was done.

As I fold my laundry, I am separating out clothes to take on Easter Holiday. I'm going to Germany and Poland with Beth. With the lovely weather I almost don't want to leave London! My mood is contemplative and sitting in Trefalgar Square, just watching people sounds like the best thing to do in the world (which I would have done this bright shiny afternoon except for my three course works due this coming Wednesday and not nearly enough progress on them!). However, Europe calls, and besides I found out the due date for my art history paper is April 16, so I'll be cutting my travels short and returning to London to spend some time in the Library and the National Gallery. Oh, such misery my life is - studying the great artists and genres in the greatest city on earth, eating roasted chicken and drinking wine, feeling at home. I love being here.

It occured to me that nothing makes you feel like your home than the little routines. Making dinner. Doing laundry. Cleaning house. I've already put down my roots here. I was home three weeks after I arrived. I miss London and I haven't even left. I suppose I'm nostolgic because before April 1st I have to decide where my next home will be - Atlanta GA or Newark DE. I don't want to go back and start another home. I can't imagine any place holding my heart like this one, besides Traverse City, Mi. In college, at Michigan, it was the PEOPLE that hold my love for the place. Now that many of my closest friends (aside from Kate) have graduated and moved on, I don't feel much about Ann Arbor, besides Michigan Pride and loyalty. Austin, TX was amazing but I think a lot of it was also the people. I've made some friends here but not super close friends like in Austin, Ann Arbor or Traverse City. The people I'm with are all just so different from me - different interests and studies - and we all know that there's not time to really bond, so friendships are looser. The only explaination for my attactment to London then is that I truely love the PLACE itself.

I'm also feeling contemplative, about the future and the past and the present because I found an old friend on Facebook today while I was doing my laundry. She never really updates her profile, so when I saw the new pictures - baby pictures (!) - I had to check it out. Ally and I were friends in High School. We weren't super close but I would count her among my good friends and was invited to her wedding, as she will be to mine if I have one. We've drifted apart since she got married (at age 20) and we were both off at different universities. This January she had a son. I found her blog on a link to her profile and am reading about her trip to Isreal with her husband who is a seminary student.

Just thinking about it. Having a baby! She's young but not terribly. It makes me think about my future and my plans for my life. It makes me savour this time here, drinking it like this wine. I am my own person. I am alone here. But alone in an indepentend way. I know that if I am in trouble there are a dozen people to call. I am alone the way you are alone when you sit out by the dock on the lake and look up at the stars. It's strange and amazing to think that with the millions of people in this city - the sirens, the car alarms, the motor bikes, the traffic, the congestion on the tube - that I can feel like I do when I'm at the lake. Alone and content.

Someday there will be no alone time. Nothing will be private and there will be a husband and a child. At least that's on the goal list. Alone time will have to be portioned out like I portion out chocolate. I am glad that I have learned to enjoy it, and treasure it now. I am glad I can travel the world on my whims and not be constantly comprimising and catering to other people. I am choosing to see Eastern Europe with Beth. If she and her friends drive me nuts then I can go off on my own without much concern. I am so completely blessed to be here, to have this opportunity and to have these experiences. A tight group of friends would be great but I think I'm doing more growing this way.

So in addition to finding out my Art and Society paper is due April 16 (it's our LAST essay) I found out my Rise of the Novel exam is April 24th. My courseworks for Writing London and Theater are due Wednesday and that's the end of the course. The exam period extends well into May and I'd assumed I would have more class. I cannot believe how short the semester was! Truly this is not what I was expecting, though it's a pleasant surprise. Essentially I have April 25th until July 6th that I have no classes! Again, not in the plan. Though traveling was in the plan so I'll get another Eurorail pass, hurang Melissa into traveling with me, and see where we end up.

I haven't forgotten why I am here however! To learn literature was one of the goals of the Fellowship, and since I just devoured "Northanger Abbey" (what can I say I am smitten with Jane Austin) I am in the mood for more literature. The bad thing about train travel is the long streches of traveling through the countryside - the wonderful thing about train travel is the long strechtes of traveling through the countryside. I picked up Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein, Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" and Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" at the discout book shop today for my train trips. These are three books that I feel you cannot be well read, without having read and which I have felt downright illiterate having not yet read. The list of such books is long (including quite a bit of Shakespear that I'm saving for my weekend jaunts around the UK when I'm at Cambridge), but these three will be a good start on my 7 hour train ride from Brussels to Berlin, and the 6 hour ride from Berlin to Krakow. I'd like to pick up a book or two on the Holocost and World War II because we will be visiting some of the most historic sights of that era on Easter Holiday and I know I would enjoy it more if I could at least refresh the details in my mind. I must be careful however, my backpack will get quite heavy if I take too many books!

Newark, Delaware

I was back in the States, this past weekend, visiting the University of Delaware. It was extremely considerate of them to pay for my flight all the way back to the USA and I really liked the department. MSE has a brand new beautiful building and lots of new equipment to use - everything I can imagine that I would need. The students and Professors were friendly and the research was really interesting. I was also very impressed by the IEC. My only wish is that I could have more information about Georgia Tech. I've e-mailed a few professors, but I just don't get a good sense of what the school is all about. I like that Delaware is a small, newer department. At Michigan I often felt like a small fish in a big pond - at the same time gold fish grow to fill their containers, whenever I visited a little pond, having grown up at UM, I felt like a big fish.

It wasn't until my visit this weekend that I noticed some of the differences between the US and UK. The first thing I noticed was how much more friendly people are in the US. It could be a big city thing in London, but ten minutes after getting off of the plane several people had stuck up small talk with me. An astronomer from CalTech reminded me to grill the graduate students when the professor wasn't around, and the ladies at the hotel were adorable! The hotels in the states are also much much nicer. So are ladies rooms in restaurants and cafes. Most cafes in London don't even have them and if they do they are cold, lack toilet paper and are rather less than clean. There is better public transport in London and everything doesn't look the same like it does in the states. Diet cokes tastes better in America but chocolate is better in the UK. I almost had reverse culture shock being back "home" for a few days. I am quite glad to be back in London.

This last trip I took got up my courage to finally plan my journey for spring break. I will be traveling with a class mate Beth to Germany and Poland. I got the global train pass and will take a detour back to London through Austria, France and possibly the Czech republic. Beth is flying straight back from Berlin, but I'm going to head out on my own for about a week. I've got a friend in Paris I think I'm going to visit also, but I haven't made plans other than to work out the first week and get my train ticket. If I end up going back early I can use the days on my train pass for up to two months. I've been traveling a lot but I'm getting used to finding my way around and making due.

Speaking of DUE I have a few assignments whose due dates are loomin gso I will be off to finish those!

Back to Work

Back in London and back to normal. All the guests have left and I am blissfully solitary. I love my friends but I also like a bit of time alone. Plus I have reading and course work to catch up on! Acting as tour guide was like a full time job and I went from being one and a half novels ahead of the class to one novel behind! Yikes! I have to get started on my essay also which is due at the end of the month and my presentation for theater class is due around that time also. For The Rise of the Novel I would like to write on the topic of either how the novels deal with women and marriage (the professor hinted that this was not going to be on the exam and would be a good topic to cover in the essay because we're not allowed to overlap material from the essay in the exam). I am also interested in the question that deals with how the novels are particularly English - though I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk about how "English" the novels are I'm interested in the qualities that make something "particularly English" and I feel it's part of the cultural and social experience I am trying to learn about here and would be beneficial if I explored the topic in context of the novels.

One thing I've thought about, if I could address any topic on the novels, and not just the ones assigned would be how London is portrayed in the novels. A few of the novels don't deal with London at all, or rather mention it in passing, but Moll Flanders and Fanny Hill take place exclusively in London. I'm fascinated at how differently London is portrayed and yet how similarly. In Fanny Hill the "inside" is shown - the inside of brothels, the activities that take place behind the curtain. Fanny is only twice described outside of a house or inn or brothel or shop. Moll Flanders is a woman out on the town. She's described seeking her fortune just about everywhere in London. At the same time, London is a place of sin and crime and low morals. It's a place that corrupts. I could definitely write an essay on this, if only it were one of the approved topics!

I've finished a rough draft of my creative writing drama piece, which I'm writing about the kids that stole the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. For creative writing I just have to edit the drafts of the first prose piece and polish up the drama. My writing log is pretty much finished and it's supposed to be informal anyway. I'm surprised at how short the semester is. We've just a few more weeks of class before Easter holiday and after that is examinations!

I fly to University of Delaware on Thursday after class. I went to an earlier session of my Friday Rise of the Novel class that I will be missing today. I've been accepted to UD, Georgia Tech and the master's program at Cornell. Given that I have two schools willing to pay for me to go there I think I'm going to turn down Cornell. Especially since Georgia Tech is just as good for Materials Science. I haven't heard from Washington or MIT, though I don't expect to get into MIT, I'm emailing Washington to find out when I can expect an answer. I have to decide by April 1st. I have no idea what to choose. Geogia Tech is a more established prestigious program, but UD is up and coming. They have a lot of new funding for alternative engery research and an NSF Fellowship program that allows students to take classes in public policy, economics and alternative engery technologies which also provides an extra 15k/yr on top of the graduate student stipend. I feel like I could stand out more at UD, be a big fish in a little pond. However, I don't know that for sure and even if I'm a littel fish at Georgia it's going to stand out on my resume that I went to Georgia Tech. They have more professors to work for and more resources. Being more established means I wouldn't be starting a project from scratch. There would be people there who had the experience and the equipment to work on what I was interested in and there are connections with solar industries and start ups in Atlanta. Minor considerations are the warm weather and my friend Sejal is working for Manhattan Asc. in Atlanta, while UD is close to Philidelphia, New York and Washington D.C. My mom's routing for UD but I'm not really sure why. Oh well, have to get back to reading.

Rome!

Last weekend was Dublin, this weekend is Rome!
Summery: Greg, a friend of mine from the States flew to London for UM Spring Break to visit me. My other friend Kate also flew in Friday and she and I flew to Rome on Sunday, at the same time Greg was flying back to Ann Arbor.

In Dublin Greg and I saw Trinity College and the Book of Kells, which was extraordinary. We went on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse and learned about brewing Guinness and beer in general (which Greg already knows quite a bit about as he brews his own beer). We walked all around Dublin and saw churches, ate good hearty Irish food (and even some Thia AMAZING food! I highlly recommend the restaurant MAO! in Dublin) and saw the Irish National Museum and Gallery. I liked the archeological pieces at the museum and learning about the various influences, Viking, Roman, Christian etc on Irish culture and history. There were some beautifuly worked gold bracelets, torchs and dress fasiners of all things as well as weapons and wooden ships to keep Greg interested. I had wanted to visit Galway by train but as it was Greg's spring break and my Edinbourgh trip was rather exhausting we were a bit too lesuirly in the morning and didn't catch the train in time. Over all it was a great experience though I'd like to go back to Dublin or Ireland in general when the weather gets warmer and I have a little more time to sit around under a tree in the green fields and write poetry.

On Friday night we went out to see La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse theater and had some pretty delicious pizza and wine afterwards. La Cage was one of the shows I had to see for my London Theater and Performance class and I found it hilarious and amazing.

I finally finished reading Fanny Hill and have started on Joseph Andrews. Fanny Hill was...interesting. Explicit in the extreme, though in a quaint, eighteenth century way, it was still rather repetive and hard to sit still though. I don't consider myself a naive girl, but Fanny Hill was down right shocking. I've never read cheesy romance novels but from what I've heard I imagine they are similar to this rediculous book. I'm glad to have moved on. At least Joseph Andrews is being satirical with his cheesyness.

I know are papers are coming due soon so I have to start working on a topic for The Rise of the Novel. For Art and Society I'm writing about a series of paintings about Pamela and discussing how the eighteenth century saw the rise to prominance of the middle class in art, trade, economic power and social influcences and how their values of hard work and virtue translated both into the novel and the artwork.

I turned in the draft of my short story for Writing London and it was very well received by the professor. I have a few changes to make but she actually likes my style of writing and complimented my mechanics so I am pleased. I also have an idea for the short drama that we have to write. When we were in Edinbourgh we heard the story of the stone of destiny - part of the Scotish crown jewels it was used to crown many of the Scotish kings before it was stolen by the English and kept in Westminster abby under the throne on which the English kings were crowned. In the 1950's a group of university students from Scotland managed to steal back the stone from Westminster Abbey and their escapades sound like a great thing to write a drama about.

I am in Rome today with Kate. We walked pretty much around the whole city and I am surprised at how small it is! We traversed pretty much the whole city without the aid of bus or train or tube, which it pretty impossible in London! We saw the Parthenon and ate roasted chestnuts and saw about a dozen piazzas, palazzos, monuments and ruins. Too many to remember or name, though tomorrow, when everything is finally open we are going to go to a few of the sights we'd like to see in more detail. I'll be uploading pictures to Piccassa soon!

No Place Like Home

Wow, what a weird and wonderful weekend! I went to Scotland with Dan and Melissa! It was a ton of fun and I took close to 400 pictures! Dan and I took a bus trip up from Edinburgh to Loch Ness which was cool if a bit touristy. We climbed up Aurthur's Seat, this big mountain, hill thing in the middle of Edinburgh. Scotland it truly a very beautiful place. I got quite a bit or reading done on Gulliver's Travels for my rise of the novel class and wrote some of my prose piece for creative writing on the four hour train ride there and back. We also went to one of the art museums in Edinburgh, mustly just to use the loo after our walking tour but we took some time to walk around and see the art on the first floor. I wrote in my journal during Art and Society last week about artists during the 18th century using ultramarine blue in their work, especially relating to the Virgin Mary. Ultramarine blue was a color made out of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, which was incredibly expensive, it was worth more than it's weight in gold. Artists who used a lot of ultramarine blue in their work were sending a message that they were successful enough, and a great enough artist to have attracted a wealthy patron who would pay for ultramarine blue paint. In the museum in Scotland I noticed all of the portraits of Mary, all of the ultramarine blue, and I thought about all of the wealthy patrons, all the artists using that paint. It was a pretty cool connection to my coursework and I think I'd like to write about the use of that paint for my essay. I'd like to learn more of the history, what are some of the most famous paintings and artists to use it and what was the significance.

Today in creative writing we're going to the Tate Modern. I'm kind of curious how our tutor's going to tie this into creative writing, but I'm excited to go and see the museum. I've been wanting to visit on one of my free days but I decided not to, since it's been on our syllabus and I wanted to save the visit for class. Though now I'm wishing I'd gone to see it on my own first to see it with fresh eyes before I see it with academic commentary.

On a brighter note, I got an admissions letter from Georgia Tech yesterday!!!

Best Day Ever

So yesterday was absolutely the best day ever! I woke up at 7, did my morning thing: shower, eggs, toast and coffee, catch the tube to Oxford Circus and went to creative writing class. During class we discussed London specific articles to exemplify setting and I got an idea for my prose piece. Suddenly, the ideas were just flowing and I had the whole story, or most of it in my head! I can't wait to get started on it this afternoon. I had lunch at Pret A Manger because I forgot my sandwich at home and went to theater class. We discussed A Midsummer Night's Dream and afterward I was chatting with Dan and Melissa, two of my classmates whom I'm planning on traveling with. The idea of Paris on Valentines day weekend came up and we're checking out prices on trains, flights and hostels! I'm really excited! Looking forward to pastries and crepes!

While we were chatting after class, Dan and Melissa kept going on and on about the different shows that they want to see. I don't have a list, but I want to see as many shows as possible. So right there in the lobby of the Uni at 5:30 we decided to go see Phantom. Not this weekend, not today, right then, that day. We walked down the the theater, bought tickets for the evening show that night - 40 pound seats for 20 pounds - thank you standby and student discounts! We went to the Texas Embassy, the only place for Tex-Mex food in London, for dinner before the show. We caught Phantom at 7:30 and the 10:45 Tube home to Old Street. I love London. You can choose on a whim, any day of the week to see a West-End Show, or live music, or a film, or a museum, or a gallery or anything!

What makes the day really wonderful though, is the e-mail I got when I got home. I was intending to write this post last night but I was distracted. In my inbox was my first acceptance letter to graduate school tuition and stipend included. (I say first in the meager hope that it's not the last acceptance I'll get!) University of Deleware: bottom of my list but still a good school. Along with the acceptance there was an e-mail about a program they have through NSF about a sustainable energy corriculm they're introducing. I could take classes on economics and policy, solar energy systems, hydrogen solar systems, fuel cells....It looks really interesting! If I get in nowhere else I will be happy to go to Deleware for my PhD. I have a list on my tack board. It has the names of the six schools I applied to and the bottom there's a question: No?! and below it a list of companies to try and beg a job from. I can cross that out now and but a YES next to one school.

I was screaming and dancing around the flat and I ran down to the corner shop and bought a bottle of the first Chardonnay I put my hands on (not the best ever but it would do). I shared the wine with my flatmates, called my mom and dad and talked to some friends from home. I couldn't sleep. I stayed up until 6AM talking with people. I totally lost track of time! I never do that when sleep is involved. My body just forgot to tell me to go to sleep. I love London, I love being here and now I can really relax and live it up. There is an end game. There's life after London and I don't have to obsess over the mystery of what it will be. I don't have to tell people I'm PLANNING on graduate school or I HOPE to go to graduate school when I get back. I AM a graduate student now. I will have a place to live, money to live on and a purpose, once this is over. A weight off my shoulders to KNOW what is going to happen.

Of course my friends thought that it is ridiculous that I was so worried. They said, well of course you got in, but I've never been sure of my own abilities. I'm glad that my first letter was an acceptance. That way when the news comes in from Stanford and MIT I don't have to be concerned that I won't get in anywhere. I already have.

Oh and to top off the best day ever, I got the post and my Student Oyster Card (long story of tedius detail about trying to replace a lost card and my silliness and confusion) finally came! No more using the last cash in my wallet to top up my pay as you go just before I try to catch the last train back to Old Street after an evening movie. (I REALLY wish the tubes ran all night long!) In short, between my story idea, good coffee and good friends, Paris in February, Phantom of the Opera, my Oyster card and my graduate school acceptance letter, yesterday was the best day ever!

Snow!

The latest adventure from London is the "snow storm" that "hit" yesterday. The snow started Sunday when I was on my was back from Camden Market (which was really cool by the way). It continued through the night and by Monday morning the whole city was at a standstill. Most of the tubes were shut down and the ones that weren't were running on severe delays. All classes were canceled at the Uni and half the shops in London were closed! I don't have class on Monday and had attempted to make it to this hair salon to make an appointment to get a cut but it I ended up walking most of the way because of the tube congestion and when I got there it was closed!

Really, it was only about 8inches of snow over the twenty four hour period. The kind of snow that Ann Arbor, and especially Traverse City gets hit with many times a year. Not in the four and a half years I went to the University of Michigan did I have a snow day and I've had class canceled maybe once or twice, usually because a professor went to a conference. Businesses back home RARELY close due to weather!

However, I completely understand. Having to slog through the unplowed sidewalks and streets to get to Baker Street because the Jubilee Line was completely shut down made me realize that everyone here relies so heavily on public transportation that a serious interruption, like we had yesterday from the snow storm, makes it nearly impossible for people to make it into town. With the congestion taxes on driving in the city people just don't own cars and if you're coming in from Zone 3 or farther, it's just about impossible to make it into the city at all, let alone on time.

In other news, I'm a few pages away from finishing Moll Flanders, though I haven't decided what I'm going to write my essay on yet. Tomorrow my Theater class is discussing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and going to see it performed. Next week is a tour of the Rose and the Globe theaters. Right now I'm about to sit down and start outlining the characters and setting (somewhere in London) for the prose piece that I am due to have a draft of at the end of the month for Creative Writing. If there were some great job that required an English degree, or creative writing, or theaters studies or whatever I would so be there. This is really fun. My homework is reading and writing. To think! I will say I can feel my mind becoming less organized everyday. Engineering forced rational thinking and organization. Without the pressure my mind is slipping back into its natural scattered state - like a garden grown wild without the tenders to weed it. Weekends have been particularly disorganized. I have been doing a lot of wandering around the city, which I love doing, and I am starting to gain a familiarity of places which will help when friends and family come to visit. I think the thing there is to do most in London is shopping. Sure there are a lot of museums and galleries but there are even more shops and markets and places to buy stuff. I'm trying to save though for trips.

Today was another of those wandering days, though it started with a definite goal. I finally found that hair salon, or rather the Clynol Academy, which is a training salon for some of the best stylists in the UK. I can get cut, color, style, everything for 5 pounds! There's quite a wait list to get in and because it's trainees who will be working with my hair it could take up to 3 hours! If I'm in a hurry I found another salon called City Cut and Color that has some of the cheapest prices in London without being one of those SuperCuts type salons. There's also this little student Salon for manicures, messages and waxing right around the corner from the Regent Street camups that I'm going to go to for a pedi (only 8 pounds!). Usually I handle things like foot care myself but with all the walking around that is required in a place like London, after a month my feet need professional help! I was thinking of inviting the girls and making it a Valentines day spa day.

Dan didn't manage to get football tickets (there's a Chelsea game this weekend we were hoping to go to) but I'm looking forward to planning some trips with Dan and Melissa - they have the same travel interests as I do. A lot of the students I've met are really into just partying and drinking and the British students don't really care about Europe (been there done that I guess). Dan and Melissa want to see the sights, museums, gallerys, are and architecture of the places. They'll be the best to travel with I think. We'll be planning stuff later this week I hope.

My first week (or rather three days of classes) were wonderful. I love the material that I'm going to be learning in my classes and I am enjoying the city. For my Art and Society class we went to The Banqueting House and learned about Charles I - and the whole messy monarchic history leading up to the English Civil War - the king who commissioned and about Rubens the artist. One of the things I found most interesting was the paintings on the ceiling, which we learned are painted on canvas and hung from the ceiling rather than painted frescos into the plaster on the ceiling itself. In fact, Rubens himself didn't even paint all of the ceiling, only the "important bits." Artists during that time (1600's) had workshops and their assistants painted most of the works and the master would paint only a fraction of it and then put his name on it. There would be a guy who painted the flowers, a guy who painted clothing, a guy who painted furniture, a guy who painted hands. If it was a portrait Rubens would have painted the face, especially if it were of a monarch or an important person. It's really a brilliant idea I think. Like an art factory churning out masterpieces, for really there is no way Rubens could have painted as many works as he did all on his own, especially because he was designing buildings and acting as a dipolmat also. Instead, many apprentices learn the trade, and speicialize, becoming absolutely perfect at certain features of painting, creating more art and in general probably better art. On the other side of the coin however, all of those faceless assistants do most of the work and get none of the recognition. It's an interesting concept and something that I had no idea about until this past thursday.

Speaking of beautiful art, the API group went to Windsor Castle on Saturday. It was absolutely fabulous! It is probably the biggest, most sprawling building I've ever seen. As far as spectacular architecture goes I'm most used to sky scrapers - this place is more like a small town than a single castle. I wish we were allowed to take photographs of the interior because the decor, the carvings, the artwork, the exquistly crafted furniture, was incredible. I've taken some nice pictures of the outside of the building but it looks very similar, at least in style, to the tower of London - the same type of stone work and that. I am working out how to use Picasa on my mac and organizing the photos into an online album. I'll try to find a scanner and scan in the post cards I bought that have the images of the inside on them.

That evening I went out to see Slumdog Millionaire with Jon from my Creative Writing class. It was a very good movie. Thought provoking, excellant musical score, and still a happy ending. The next day Mable and I went to the market on Bricklane which was so cool! There were all sorts of hand-made craft items, bags, watches, jewelry, clothing, and vintage clothes and coats and all kinds of amazing food! Sushi and tandoori, scones and crepes! Yum! We didn't eat at the market however, we found this Indian restuarant that our director Rachel had told us was really good. It was probably the best food for the best PRICE that I've found in London. For less than 10l I got a starter, Dahl soup, a main, Chicken Curry, and a coffee and a diet coke.

Okay, and they say Americans are loud! This student cafe on the Uni's campus just became screaming loud! I'm going to go find a quieter place to work on the rest of my homework and reading.

So much to do!

If I had a hundred years in London I wouldn't have time to do everything! West End shows, East End Fringe shows, pubs and clubs and dancing. Books and writing and museums! It's all sinking in as I start to plot out the next weeks and months of my time in London. I had my first classes today and I am thrilled! I've about a dozen new friends, requirements to see seven shows, and three short creative pieces worked on as an exercise in my Writing London class. I am absolutely fantastically excited to do everything! I've got a journal now to put all my creative writing and random thoughts in and our first assignment in Theater class, besides seeing The Woman in Black is to buy "Time Out" the nightlife magazine for London. Fantastic! I'm flipping through it and I'm astonished at the sheer number of things there are to do here. I'm interested in checking out this little fringe theater in Hackney, right around the corner from where I live called Arcola. We are supposed to see "Victory: Choices in Reaction" there later in the term, but there are other things playing between now and then and once I see my required shows, it's so close I might as well check it out. Rachel was right; East End (Shoreditch, Hackney, Old Street) is the artsy side of town. There are at least three organic, whole food type groceries on Old Street that I discovered while I was wandering on Sunday (Mable slept in - we were supposed to go to this market she knew of but she never called so I wandered instead). One of them I really like has a little black and white cat that wanders around. Rediculously expensive I might buy a juice there just so I can visit with the cat, but I'll stick to Sainsbury's and Tesco for milk, eggs, bread etc.

I cannot wait to buy my tickets! A group of us are sharing our google calandars and this guy Dan from my class is putting everything together so we can get group and student discounts for some of the shows we're supposed to see in class. Also he's interested in seeing football games!!! His favorite team is Chelsea and I would LOVE to see a Chelsea game. Mind you I don't have a preference for football teams, mostly because I don't really know any, but since my NAME is Chelsea, I feel it would be fitting to go to a match. And it would be amusing to hear people cheering my name and singing songs to "Chelsea."

Yesterday Kartik stopped by London on his way to India and I gave him a quick walking/tube tour of the things he most wanted to see in London. We went to the Tower, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and walked by Westminster Abbey. We ate in this little Pub off Victoria St. and I FINALLY had fish and chips. Which for all the hype is rather unimpressive and didn't seem very English to me other than it was served with peas. Perhaps because my family is partly English, it was very much like a family dinner with grandma and grandpa Slone used to be. Fried fish, french fries and peas. No tarter sauce though - that would have made it a bit more enjoyable. What was enjoyable was the lagger! Very hoppy, though I don't remeber the name. And oh the irony of life: I watched Obama's inaguration from a pub on Victoria St in London, eating fish and chips (and peas of all things), drinking lagger and listening to the Brits talk American politics. One slightly tispy woman actually cheered, in a very Brittish way. I can't remember exaclty what she said, just that I found it extremely amusing.

I'm going to wind down a bit early tonight becasue I've got Art and Society at 9AM tomorrow and I want to be fresh. After that I'm going to try the Pilates class at the gym, get in some cardio and a quick lift and then head over to some where pretty - perhaps a library, to do some reading, writing, and preping for my classes. I have to grid out a to do list for all of them so I keep track of everything I need to do. With class only meeting once a week it would be too easy to get behind on my work.

Oroonoko

I finished Oroonoko today. It wasn't an easy read, though it was short. It made me think about literature and writing and reading. The language has changed so much since the 1600's, when Aphra Behn put pen, no, quill to paper that the nuances are lost. I don't taste this book the way I do modern authors. It makes me think of the temporal nature of literature. So much of it has been lost to time and indifference. Today's bestsellers, thrillers and Oprah's list books will be dust once again as forgotten and difficult to read four centuries from now as Oroonoko is today.

There are constants. Shakespeare I guess and Homer. Just as in science we have Newton and Galileo. Science is as ever changing as literature. I almost caught myself writing that the only constant is science/math/nature but all of it changes as well. The world is not constant. Not a single thing lasts infinitely. I've never felt so physically how true this is until I came to London and walked through buildings that were build before people set foot on North America.

I would think it would be the opposite. That surrounded by such beautiful old buildings, I would feel the ancient stone and be transported through the ages and feel the infinitude. But no. The old buildings on Regent Street are now shops. H&M and Banana Republic even McDonald's. These books, while informative, and thought provoking tell more about a time and a people long past. I read them and noted how strange and quaint the thoughts of the characters are. I do not really identify. Perhaps it's just this story, but the language distracts from the human story, and I guess that's my point. Language evolves to the point where a wonderful story is obscured. It's like looking at a beautiful painting through a translucent glass. It's still beautiful and evocative, but it's faded. Anyway. I did like the story. On to the next one Moll Flanders. Class starts Wednesday, I want to get halfway through Moll by Friday and finish it by early next week. I should go up and visit Andrew at Oxford soon too though.

I got my books today! My reading list is:

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Samuel Richardson, Pamela
Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews
John Cleland, Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

I'm so excited. I've started Oroonoko already and I'm looking forward to finding the most beautiful reading nook in London and digging in! One of the things that's been bothering me about my roaming around London is that I didn't feel like I have a purpose. Everyone is this town has a purpose. Everyone is walking, running, rushing somewhere; everyone here has a purpose. Without my reading list, before my classes start, I didn't really have a purpose. Now I have one!

Tomorrow we're going to Somerset House to go on a tour and go ice skating! After ice skating we're going to a pub for dinner (I want fish and chips) and then we're going to a movie with our director Rachel. I'll give a good run down tomorrow or Sunday.

Logistics

Did I already say London is expensive? Four pounds for a load of laundry in the laundrette around the corner. I'm going to have to do some bargin hunting! I guess I've been so used to $1/load at fuller, free in Austin and Elizabeth Street and Barclay way. Especially Barclay Way where we didn't even pay for water. I guess though that this machine holds a lot more laundry than they did. I guess the bonus is that I can tap into the Alexandar Flemming WiFi from here so while I'm doing landry I can be blogging...as I am now...or working on homework. Ooo spin cycle.

I had my registration appointment yesterday and discussed my classes with Veronic Speicer, the study abroad coordinator for Westminster. I didn't have to make any changes because I got the four classes that I wanted. Three out of the four are the London specific courses developed for study abraod, which means unfortunately that I probably won't get to mix with many British students in my program. My one regret (well I regret four pounds for laundry too). I would have liked to have taken classes with British kids. There are probably just going to be a lot of Americans in my classes. "The Rise of the Novel" though is a level five and there should be some British kids in that one.

I just picked courses that I found very interesting, very hands on so to speak. I mean how could one resist taking "London Theater in Performance" when the course description explains that you'll get to go and see performances as part of the course, or "Art and Society" in which you'll go to the various museums, galleries and special exhibits in London as part of the course rather than sitting in a darkened room looking at slides of famous art work. I guess I'll have to figure out other ways to meet other British students. At the gym perhaps, or the student union. There are a lot of activities and clubs to join and all that. The tube isn't a good place to chat with people, no one ever talks.

I'm enjoying the city so far. Our orientation group was fun, I've been shopping on Oxford St, and found my way around pretty well. I wasn't planning on shopping right away, rather I want to travel, but the 70% off signs and the new reduction of the VAT are too hard to resist! I got a $100 seater for $20 yesterday. But that's all really, the other girls I'm with are on a tighter budget and I didn't want to make them feel bad. Now that I know laundry is so expensive I won't be headed back to Oxford St anytime soon! Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches are a good way so save money though I'll have to give up the diet coke habit. 1.65lb for a two liter and their equivalent of a 20 oz is 500ml, very small, and it's usually about a pound, that's like $1.50 for so much less. Looks like skiing might be to pricy for Febrary, especially because most of my friends so far are here on student loans. We have three whole weeks off for spring break though so I'll have to plan something fun!

I'm looking forward to meeting more of my classmates tonight. There is an event at Intermission, the club/pub/place/thing run by the Student Union. It's all for international students tonight, but there will surely be other events there throughout the semester where I can meet people.

Settling In

So I found out why the bathroom is so dirty. They have housekeepers that come in and clean and they've probably been out for the holiday, or it was at the end of a cycle. I came back from poking around my new neighborhood and there she was, cleaning the bathroom, and it was, well not sparkling but at least didn't smell like mold anymore when she left. I am really starting to get comfortable here.

I had a nice chat with my flat mates last night and we've made plans for some clubbing later in the week. I've also made plans with Mable and her flatmates to check out a club in Leicester Square tonight, AND go to the mall. I didn't bring very many sweaters because they were too bulky and now I'm a bit cold. My room is toasty though! I slept well last night because I used the sketchy duvet that came in our pack as a mattress pad and used my big yellow towel as a blanket. It worked well, so I'm not going to get a mattress pad, just a nice soft blanket and I'll keep using the duvet as I did last night.

This morning I got up to get ready and the fire alarm went off! At least it was after I was showered and dressed. Imagine if it had been ten minutes earlier and I'd been in the shower! I had planned to get up earlier but I snoozed my alarm a lot. I think I'm still catching up on REM from the past week of traveling. After I watched an episode of House I went out exploring the neighborhood. I found the Tesco, which is like a grocery store and the dollar store that Margret showed me last night. I bought a few things that will help me settle in better. I got a bowl, a fork, knife and spoon, two tupperware, pens, a pad of paper, envelopes, a small food scale, a plate, a mug and a glass, a pan and some tacks. £23. Stuff is expensive here, even at the dollar store! It's that damn VAT. Homemade sandwiches and soups and hopefully I can not be completely broke! I still need to buy a soft blanket, a proper pillow, a laundry bag, and a UK cell phone charger. I've got orientation soon though so I'm not sure if I'll have time before I have to meet at the Tube station.

Greenwich

We went to Greenwich today and poor Rachel did her best but it was quite an adventure to get there! The Jubilee line that we were going to take to the DLR was under construction or maintenance or something, one of the stations where we needed to switch trains on another line to get to the DLR was also closed and the DLR itself was experiencing "serious delays." We ended up walking down from Bank tube stop to the Tower Bridge ferry stop and taking the ferry to Greenwich instead. It was not horrible though and I had a wonderful time!

Greenwich was absolutely lovely. Other than being cold most of the day because I listened to the weather report and assumed it would be warmer today I had a wonderful time! I got a couple of cheesy little beaded change purses, which I think are very cute and we had really good Indian food. I loved the old buildings and museums we saw and I'd like to see more of them. I really want to go to Greenwich again and get some of the hot apple cider with rum! Oh it smelled so good!

Tomorrow if I have time I'm going to Ikea to get a few more nice things to help settle in. I'm going to check Tesco and Argos first though because I wouldn't have to take as far of a tube ride. I'd like a comforter and a mattress cover because the bed here is horrible.

I'm feeling less homesick today. Greg got me on surfthechannel.com and I found a ton of HouseMD episodes. Also, I love Skype, I am handeling some hiccups with my bank via Skype and I can talk with a real person and not worry about the cost at all! While I am frustrated with my uncomfortable bed I am relieved that I have working heat! In fact I'm a little warm right now. The girls in Will Wiet don't have decent heat and they're freezing! I'm going to run and see if I can chat a bit with my flatmates who just got home and try to be more social.

London!

This is our third day in London and we will be moving into our dorms now. I am writing from the bus because we are dropping other people off through out the day and those of us who are last, or almost last, have to wait on the bus for the others to get checked in and such. I haven’t updated me blog yet because I haven’t completely had time, nor reliable internet access.

This is what’s gone down so far:
Kate and I had breakfast at Angelo’s on Tuesday morning. I left the lab late the previous night and had an enjoyable time watching movies with some new friends afterward saying goodbye. Needless to say I was already deathly tired when I arrived at the airport but I had hoped that I could sleep on the plane and it would ease my jet lag. I got to Detroit Metro at about 12 and by 12:30 I was waiting in the terminal until 2:15 before we boarded. The flight to Dulles was alright except that the turbulance lead to my spilling my drink in my lap. I had to sit with a wet bum for half an hour because the trip was so short that they never turned the fasten seat belt light off. So in Dulles I changed into my comfortable and thankfully dry clothes and bought a few snacks for the next leg of my trip.

On the Dulles to Heathrow flight I was hoping dinner would be served early so I could sleep the whole “night” but it wasn’t served for at least two hours. I dozed here and there but I didn’t completely fall asleep until after dinner. I deplaned at 6AM in Heathrow and went through immigration and customs without hassle other than I got in the wrong line at immigration because I was so tired and wasn’t paying attention. I had to wait in terminal 1 until Rachel came to get us, but the doors were always open and it was just about as cold in the terminal as it was outside and it being unusually cold this winter in London it was about -2C and just bitter. I couldn’t imagine waiting three hours in that cold so I got up after calling my mother and wandered around looking for a warm place to wait. Suddenly an alarm went off and everyone headed out of the terminal. Some kind of fire or bomb scare. I walked outside and waited with everyone else and was even colder. While I was waiting out side in the cold, feeling sorry for myself I chatted a bit with a couple from San Fransisco and then took a little video.

A girl standing next to me was watching me take the video and walked up to me afterward and was like “Hey are you in API?” and I replyed that I was. She is Mable, the girl I’d been e-mailing with before I left! We banded together and headed for terminal five. I had called Rachel and asked if I could meet there because the other group was meeting at 10:30 and the terminal 1 group was supposed to meet at 11:30. Now I didn’t want to wait an extra hour in the fridged terminal so I had the brilliant plan to take the interterminal trains to terminal five and meet the other group earlier with the hope that it would be warmer. It was a bit of an adventure manuevering out huge bags through out the airport, and Mable had even larger bags than I did but we made it, and it was warmer. While we were waiting for the others in terminal 5 to arrive we all got through the getting to know you basics. There was Clinton, from New York, John from Minnisota, Kelsey from New Jersey, Kaitlyn also from Jersey, Caitlin from Maryland, Mable of course from Jersey, Margaret from Ohio and Kelly from.

We got on the mini bus and drove then to our hotel. At this point we’re all exhausted. Mable and Caitlin and I were in room 510 at the Sydney Hotel on Belgrave St. Took a short nap and met the others downstairs to find food. We stopped at a little deli and I had a spinach ricotta roll and a diet coke. All the airline food and the light lunch gave me a stomach ache so I wasn’t feeling too well during our bus tour but I eventually perked up. After the bus tour we came back and we all went to this little Italian pizza place for dinner. We were completely asleep by 9pm in our hotel after dinner. It was such a long day it felt like two or three days all squished together - it WAS two days all squished together because I woke up Monday at 6AM and didn’t sleep until Tuesday at 9PM. Wait that’s not right, I missed two nights of sleep...wow the time change is just confusing. Anyway, it was exhausting.

The next morning we got up around 8 and went down for the complimentary breakfast. Bacon and scrambled eggs and toast for me though there were a few other choices. Then we were off on tour of London. We took a ferry down the Thames and then did a tour for quite a bit of the afternoon of the Tower of London. We ate tomato and lentil soup for lunch and saw the crown jewels and the torture chamber ad heard bloody and gruesome stories. On our way back from the tower of London we had a tube lesson and then some free time in which we went shopping on Victoria St. We bought a bottle of wine and then we went to dinner at Grumbles all together. That evening we stayed in, drank the wine and played a card game called taretts. A little API group bonding.

The next day was Friday and the art students had a separate orientation in the morning. The Westminster students myself included went to Westminster Abby in the afternoon. I got up very late like 9AM but it was a lovely day. That evening Rachel, our program director took us on a little walking tour of London and after she headed home the group all went out to a pub and had a merry old time. We managed to make our way back to the hotel using the night bus on our own and we moved out the next morning.
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Saturday we gathered our things and moved into the residence halls. We took the other students first and Caitlin and I were the last to be dropped off at Alexander Flemming Hall. The weather has been very gloomy and gray and I’m not in the best mood. I moved all my things in and the girls and I went to the mall to shop and find things for our rooms. I took a short nap this past afternoon before shopping and discovered some very unhappy things. The bedding packs API purchased for us are crap. The polyester duvet and cover feel like paper and the pillow is nearly flat. I will have to go and purchase some higher quality items because at the moment I am dreadfully uncomfortable. I would be able to deal with the duvet is the bed weren’t the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever touched. MoJo and Couzens are heavenly in comparison. I can feel every spring pressing into me as I try and sleep. My flatmates who’ve I’ve briefly met are being loud, celebrating I suppose the end of their exams. That doesn’t stop it from driving me crazy at 1AM, I figured since I can’t sleep because of the bed and the noise (the sounds of London outside my room are loud as well), I’d get up and vent my frustrations. Everytime a door opens or closes it echoes loudly throughout the whole place making it sound like people are slamming doors. I was crying for a little, wishing I were back home with my friends and family and my quiet basement room on Nixon.

I know that this is only a first night, disappointed sadness and it will pass but I’m terribly lonely at the moment, despite the wonderful new friends I’ve met and the wonderful time I expect to have, I’ve basically hit the first major hiccup... a lumpy bed and loud roomates. (I would go party with them except that I have to be up by six to get to the tube station to meet Rachel and the group and head out to Greenwich.) All the things that are different here are overwhelming. I’m worried about classes, food, getting around the city, making friends, the cloudy depressing weather and finding a more comfortable sleeping arrangement. I also miss my friends back home a lot. My new ones are great, but in a new life like this the old ones are that lovely soft comforter, rather than a thin papery duvet, that just wrap you in warmth, joy and confidence. Miss you all, I'm thinking of you here and I hope you're thinking of me as well.

Last Day in A2

My test set-up is finally working, I've made my samples properly and I'm finally collecting data! If I can get it done before seven I'd like to go to see "The Reader" at the State Theater on my last night in Ann Arbor! It's sad but I am very excited about the future! London lies ahead of me. I also got an e-mail from Georgia Tech MSE department. They typically pay for the flight and accommodations for prospective graduate students to visit which means that if they approve my flight I get to visit! Also, they will notify me of my acceptance (or rejection!) via e-mail, so I don't have to wait for the letter to be sent to my mother, for her to open it, call me, etc. I really hope I get in!!! Closure in my research, future graduate school prospects, and London tomorrow! The world is a rosy place today!

Lab

Despite a few set backs I'm still working in the lab right now. I have a few more films to make, some testing tomorrow, maybe monday, and hopefully I'll have some nice data. If not...I'm going to London in three days so oh well. I'm trying to prepare my mind to be open and friendly for my trip. I've been in contact with this girl Mabel who is also in API and I'm looking forward to meeting her!

Happy INew Year!

It is New Years Eve, 2008 - almost 2009. I cannot believe that one more year has passed. I have graduated from The University of Michigan, College of Engineering. I've applied to a bunch of graduate schools and in less than a week I will be heading out to London to study at the University of Westminster!! I am so excited! I got all of my first choice classes: Creative Writing, Rise of the Novel, London Theater in Performance, and Art and Society, and get this...I have no class on Mondays and Tuesdays...four day weekend!!! While there will certainly be a lot of work to do on weekends and days that I don't have class in order to keep up with my studies, I will have the option to manage my time the way that I would like in order to take longer weekend excursions around Great Britain and Europe.

I am anxious as well as excited. I've packed and unpacked my suitcases three times, making sure that I have everything I need and nothing that I do not need. I've copied all of my travel documents, filled out my Cambridge application, which is FINALLY online and I am ready. Only three days of intense research to finish up my paper and then I am off!

This has been the most difficult semester of my life. Lets just leave it at that. I'm looking forward to getting into the gym when I get to the UK, and finding some fun running trails or parks to start jogging again. The holidays where not nice to my health and I haven't really worked out all semester beside my spinning class. I'd like to take a spinning, pilates or yoga class in London. The University of Westminster has gym facilities and I live right down the way from the YMCA.

Did you know the YMCA started in London? I was surprised! Megabus started in the UK also. I'm looking forward to more traveling than I thought - $10 trip to Glasgow, Aberdine, Dundee....I'm thinking about taking a trip up to Scottland to see Sandi Thom in concert!