Sunday, October 31, 2010

My School

My school is like old and shit and I think it's pretty, so I thought I'd post a few pics.
The grad school bar is conveniently located on campus- across the street from the library.
What up cobblestones.



Nerd alert: the library posts the most searched terms in neon.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Loneliness of Somewhere New

When you first move to a new country, especially to start grad school, there's such a whirlwind when you arrive that you forget that it's not a vacation. You're meeting new people, seeing new places, trying to figure out how life works somewhere else, and it's manic and crazy and stressful but fun. You're too busy to breathe, too busy to properly stop, so any misgivings or worries get pushed under and passed over.

It's when you have a moment to stop, when you're actually kind of acclimated, that you start to think: this is my life. Where's my family? Back home, with a five hour time difference. My friends? Like the ones that truly know me, who I can tell anything to, not the ones who I like having a beer with but barely know? Shit, they're on the other side of the world too. Not everyone's into S. I'm not coming back once I've seen all the sights. The weather's getting colder and the work's getting harder, and I'm still here. Worse? My friends are moving on without me. Friends have parties, they get married, they go on vacation. Maybe they think, "Oh, I wish Alex was here." Maybe not.

EMO MUCH? I know. You alright? (That's what they would say around here. It's also a greeting- weird.) I haven't been blogging because I don't want to put peoples' names or pictures, I feel like that's what Facebook is for, and I don't want to make this my sometimes-happy sometimes- emo diary because Livejournal isn't cool any more. Not that it ever was.

Anyways, I drafted that yesterday and didn't put it up but whoop there it is. Because I haven't blogged in two weeks so whatevs. On the bright side things are significantly better today. It's Halloween this weekend and I'm going to be a carrier pigeon, which may just be me kinda slutty with a feathered cape. My friends are printing out peoples' faces and taping them on their faces. It's pretty meta and kind of freaky. I'll stick to slutty because I love it. I've gotten a bit lame because our work has gotten intense, however in my slutty pigeon outfit I'm going to a crazy hipster party where the theme is a veterinarian's office (because why not?). Other big plans for the weekend include going to a strictly 18+ bakery where I'm hoping for an aborted fetus cupcake, then I'm going to maybe watch the World Series with Americans. In between I shall work like I never really did in college. So I guess I'm trying to remember how junior year of high school was. We'll see..

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Spent

I'm pooped. This city has worn me right out. It's only Tuesday but it feels like I've been non stop going to class, reading, walking, socializing, exploring... I guess I didn't have the most restful weekend and I probably could have used it. This grad school thing is no joke. The reading isn't exactly a Spanish novella. Alas. It's fun being busy, but in some ways this feels like high school. Running from activity to class to discussion group to social stuff, eating in the cafeteria, running into friends outside of classes and around campus. Or just running--

I decided to skip a guest lecture and wine society and a happy hour and band playing because I'd had class 9-5 and I was donezo. So glad I did. I'm going to take some time to recover and get my life in order. Read some blogs, binge eat, watch Glee, basically all my favorite things. Cuddle with my Kindle. Once my life is in control maybe I'll take some pictures and write lovely things for real.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Things I'm liking

Even though I'm hungover and have a ton of reading to do today (already?!) I'm going to take a second to think about the things I'm liking lately, like... purple nail polish. the pink glitter skull in my room. no rain for three whole days! replacement kindle. kindle, i love you. brunch in nearby spitalfields market. windowshopping in south kensington. markets and vintage shops everywhere. new gay besties. smelling the thames. finding the perfect gym. LONDON.

Here's to a day of taking it easy with a cuppa and catching up.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

My new hood

I can never figure out the actual name of my neighborhood. It's in East London, near the Liverpool Street tube which is where The City is (London's Wall Street), and super close to this market called Spitalfields. I'm also a couple of minutes from Brick Lane, an interesting mix of curries and vintage stores and organic cafes that is super hip. People have been comparing the neighborhood to the Mission in San Francisco which I'm not super familiar with, so for right now I'm going to have to go with NYC's East Village. Although I don't wear fake prescription glasses or tights with my shorts (yet), I love hipsters and organic food and vintage shops so I'm very excited I ended up here.
Pictures of the hood will be posted very shortly.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

One Week In

After rereading my post from my first full day in London it's apparent just how jetlagged I was. Even though my English has more mistakes than the menus of the curry restaurants on Brick Lane, I'm leaving it for posterity. And to warn everyone off of Ambien.

This week has been completely overwhelming. Finding bedding and groceries, where my various orientations were, GOING to my various orientations, being social with my dorm and classmates, and going away for the weekend with my program has me completely knackered out. I've been in a constant state of near-panic and information overload but also super excited. The program seems really great and I'm amazed by how freaking impressive my classmates are. I've had separate conversations with a Cornell grad and a Berkeley grad just trying to figure out how the hell we got in here. Still wondering. There's a guy in my course who toured the country in a band for ten years with a member of Metallica, a girl who organized the designs for the state US quarters, and more than one person who has lived in five separate countries. The non-Americans are at least trilingual, and constantly put us to shame. My dorm bestie apparently spent all weekend in the library even though classes haven't started yet, and the class clown of our group (and Wharton grad) mentioned that he's already started a Google doc of dissertation ideas. Dios mio.

I'm trying to stay calm and revel in the fact that it is not intense work time yet, and my schedule really doesn't look too bad. Most of my courses are required ones this semester but all of the professors I've met are really good lecturers and totally brilliant, and I'm in London bitches. So I'm going to start taking advantage of that. Plus the people in my course are cool, and we're already talking about organizing some vacays to Edinburgh, Oxford, and Brighton. I leave you with a pic of where I stayed this weekend, the 'royal residence' near Windsor Castle, Cumberland Lodge.