Routines, Updates, and (Missing) Photos

I'll try to make this post a little less random than the last one--though I can't promise that is how it will turn out after the insane amount of coffee I have in me this morning! Look out. I am fully caffeinated and ready to type like the wind.

Week Two has begun, I can't believe how fast the days go by. This is in part due to the fact that at least for these opening weeks (while I get everyone 'trained'), my days are structured by meals here. I generally assist the students in the set-up and clean up of breakfast and dinner (lunch is on our own here, which typically consists of me running to the Le Pain du Jour to pick up a yummy baguette sandwich for 1.70). So here's a sense of my daily routine, at least during the week:

7:15am Get up (this is very, very hard for me as a night owl...still trying to get used to it!)
7:45am Bleary-eyed students pad downstairs and we start getting out the breakfast food. Breakfast is continental, and is basically cereal, various breads, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and my downfall, croissants.
9am--help clean up breakfast with the students who are a little less bleary-eyed at this point, thanks to heavy amounts of instant coffee.
Rest of the Morning--I'm either teaching if it's Weds/Thur or doing work at the computer. It's nice, quiet time as students are either in class or still sleeping.
Noonish--Sylvia arrives, students each lunch, sometimes I am around...or not.
Afternoon--more class for students, often a nap for me (thanks to the early morning/later night thing) or more buzzing about town.
4:30pm--prep for dinner with students who are excited about eating this early.
5pm--Dinner is served, we eat, then dinner clean up.

The rest of the night is pretty much mine. The students study, watch movies, or go out. Sometimes I'll chat with them in the Common Room, help them with various things, or sometimes I hardly see anyone at all. When on my own, I tend to do work or various things, which apparently will soon include going to a ton of shows. I'm going to join the Theatre class for several plays on Tues/Weds nights (including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Phylicia Rashad and, ahem, JAMES EARL JONES; The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley; Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellan, just to name a few). I also am getting tickets to see Peter Gabriel in concert (a dream of mine, I know he does amazing shows and I love his music). What this means, of course, is that I'm bleeding money on these shows, but whatever, I don't care. It's just amazing to be so close to so much great theatre and great shows, and there's tons of free stuff too, which is great. Many of the museums are open til late on various days (I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a museum full of pretty stuff--think dishes, clothing, figures, from all over the world) last Friday night and while it wasn't my favorite of the museums I've been to here so far, it was still pretty awesome and a nice way to spend a Friday night, even if it was by myself.

[Sidenote about the 'by myself' issue: I will say as much as I love this city already, I am missing people very much. I really just wish I could magically transport everyone over here, and we could go to plays/concerts together, and takeover a pub and drink good beer all night. If I figure out a way to make that work, or one of you back home wins the lottery and can be my personal companion for the semester, let me know].

So that is the basic structure of my days/life so far here. As you can imagine, I also spend a fair amount of time on the computer talking to people back home and emailing for work back home, blah blah blah. I am hoping that once the routines get established for everyone here I will likely get to do more during the week on my days off from teaching, and get to do some day trips too on the weekends. Four of the students went to the cliffs of Dover this weekend for the day and had a great time, I can't wait to start bopping around nearby places and do the same.

As far as updates from my last entry--I learned that dim sum are those delightful dumplings of various varieties that are staples for Chinese lunches (thanks Wikipedia!). I was able to meet up with Anil, a friend of my friend Evelyn that lives in London, has a PhD in some computer-related field and works for Cambridge University (so clearly, he's a dumb guy) and his friend Eva for lunch on Saturday. It was great to meet them and chat about our respective schools/jobs as well as learn about dim sum. Of course, this is also where I recalled how badly I use chopsticks. I have been taught a million times but I blame the fact that I am left-handed on the fact that I am a terrible user of chopsticks. So you can imagine my embarrassment as I look around at this extraordinarily crowded restaurant and NO ONE is using a fork. Well, I'll be damned if I'm the only one using a fork, so I plowed through the meal with my chopsticks probably looking like a 4 year old learning how to eat. Fortunately, Anil and Eva were kind and didn't make me feel stupid (though in their heads they were probably laughing at me) and the meal was delicious. The restaurant was over in West London so I decided to walk home, taking me all through Hyde Park, near Kensington Palace, and all through central London (the walk ultimately took 5 hours, but that was part due to the shopping I was doing on Oxford Street along the way). On Sunday, while I VOWED I would get some rest, I ended up going to Camden Market with two of my students, and we had a great time looking around at the endless, endless stalls and booths selling everything and anything (ranging from punk to vintage to street clothes to foods of all kinds). It was great, if a bit cold--the weather here is extra cold this week, which of course gives me license to buy new scarves and hats. :) I also bought a new pair of tall boots (gray suede, thanks for asking) and its only a matter of time before I pick up those leggings.

So here goes with the pics. I'm not sure if I can do captions or not, and I'll start with pics of the House and my room (there's a class going on in the Common room right now, so I'll get some other ones up later) and then throw in a couple of shots from the random places I've seen/been so far, so enjoy. I'll try to do better with taking and adding pics as we go along!

[OK, sooooo....I don't know if it's my slower internet, or me just being slow, but I'm not getting my pics to upload. Tips from anyone who uses blogger...what am I missing? I'll work on that so there can be a few on the blog too, but for now, will start an album on Facebook! Enjoy!]