classes? what?

"Since time is the one immaterial thing which we cannot influence --
neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish --
it is an imponderably valuable gift."
-Maya Angelou

And yet another week has flown by without my realizing it. Time here is strange. Sometimes I feel like I'm here forever, and other times I realize how much closer I already am to leaving.

I started classes last Wednesday. Statistics in the morning was strange, because people didn't start showing up until 15-20 minutes late. I'm not sure if that's the usual for such an early class, or if people were still held up from snow, but I was surprised at how little the lecturer cared. It should be a relatively easy course, though. I've already done some basic statistics in quantitative, so I'm hoping some of that carries over, even though this is economics based. Later that day I had British Life & Culture with all of the study abroad students. I was hoping this would be an easy grade, but the first thing handed out was a list of essays we'll have to write. The lecturer seems like a cool guy, though. We take mini-quizzes every week (for no grade) about British people, sports, music, etc. I doubt I'll get a single one right. At least there are fieldtrips!

On Wednesday night, in celebration of us surviving our first day of classes, a huge group of us went clubbing. There's a club in Kingston called Oceana that has three floors and several different rooms, including the Ski Lounge, the karaoke room, the disco room, the Grand Ballroom, etc. Apparently Mondays and Wednesdays are the big student nights here, so it was crowded, but it was a lot of fun. My favorite room was the disco one, mainly because the floor flashed different colored lights and they played Footloose. What isn't there to love about that?

Thursday I had my Evidence & Issues lecture in the morning, and then the seminar later that day. The lecture is my only large (lecture center type) class, and it was pretty interesting. We talked about how crimes go from being a personal problem to being of national interest. Looking through the module guide (modules are courses, and courses are majors), it seems like there will be a 3-4 week section on forensics, so I think I'll like this course. The seminar was strange, because it's nothing I'm used to. We had to sit in groups and discuss all sorts of questions on our own, and it was more like a workshop of sorts. I've never had to do anything like it at home, so it will take some getting used to. The only thing I don't like about this course is that our entire grade will be based on a single briefing paper. Should be fun?

I had a day off on Friday, so I got some work done. On Saturday, we had another study abroad "social event" entitled Photo Frenzy. Everyone was put into teams and given a list of clues, and the teams had to race across London and take pictures of themselves in front of the various landmarks, and the first team back would win. Things didn't start off well for us, because the Kingston line of trains was delayed, so a group of six of us were about half an hour late. We were put into a group, and luckily we had one guy who studied here a year and a half ago for a semester, so he already knew his way around the city pretty well. So we set off and traversed London, seeing all the usual landmarks. Our group leader was pretty hardcore, so despite the fact that Maggie and I were incredibly hungry, we didn't stop for any food. Finally, we passed by the third or fourth guy selling warm sugary nuts, and she made a dash for it. I joined her in buying some, and they were delicious. Apparently his refusal to stop did us well, though, because we made it back to the restaurant first and won hoodies! We had missed the memo on making the pictures creative, though, so we were shown up by the other groups who had very entertaining pictures.

Sunday was another day off where I stayed in and relaxed. Actually, I hardly got out of bed all day, because I was curled up reading some of my textbooks. Crime & Society in Britain is pretty interesting, but learning how to interpret crime data has got to be one of the most boring topics ever created. Yesterday, I had my first chemistry seminar/lectures. I think I'm the only white girl in the class. The seminar went alright; there was no lecture from last week to discuss, so we just went over naming various functional groups. It would have been easy, except for the fact that the lecturer was putting things in a different order than I had learned at home. I'm not sure if that's a difference in the English system, or if that was just him, but I'll have to figure that out soon. The first lecture went really well; the guy taught well and I had already looked over the material, so it wasn't difficult. The second lecture was awful. It's the same guy who runs my seminar, and he can't teach to save his life. He just flipped through slide after slide of mechanisms, not explaining a thing. By the end, I'm not sure if a single person in the room was paying attention. I think I am going to stay in the course, though, so we'll see how that goes. No labs this week either, so I'm saved from having to face the practicals for another few days.

Last night, one of the girls was celebrating her 21st birthday, so we braved the rain to go out. We went to a Spanish restaurant for dinner, which I thought was fantastic. I love Spanish tapas, and we got quite a variety of them. Then we went over to Oceana again, which was crowded despite the rain. It was fun, though going to a club means you have to stay up ridiculously late, so I'm tired. I'm not planning on going back there anytime soon, but it's a fun place for the occasional night out.

I guess that's the week in review. It was more of a "hey, I'm living here!" week, as opposed to "hey, this is a cool vacation!" week, which was fun. I'm starting to know my way around the town center pretty well. I was asked for directions to one of the university campuses the other day, and actually able to give them correctly! And a lot of fun stuff is coming up; the start of dance society, a tour of Parliament and the Globe Theatre, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre, and a trip to Dublin next weekend! All in all, things are looking up in London town. =)