Running and Relaxing

February 8, 2010

Sickness is gone!! That cough didn’t stand a chance. There are a bunch of kids sick on the floor below us, but we are all on the mend now. When we first got here, Mary, our program advisor scared the crap out of all of us when she told us that the common cold was much more severe here. She said that it might hit us really hard because we weren’t used to the viruses over here. She said it was worse than the swine flu… I think she over exaggerated in a ploy to get us to eat healthy. Because after, we got a twenty minute lecture on eating something green at least once per week. Mary is so funny. She is like our London mom. Always looking out for us. And scaring the crap out of us.

On Friday, everyone made the hour trip to Oxford. I didn’t go. I stayed home, slept, and got healthy. But I guess if I had to miss a day trip this would have been it. Not the most exciting place, but I still would have liked to see the campus. They filmed a lot of sequences from Harry Potter there, apparently and there is so much history attached to that town. Hal and Viv enjoyed it, but they said it wasn’t great and the tour was pretty long and boring. I can always go some free weekend, I guess. It is only a short train ride away.

By Saturday I was feeling a lot better. I went for a long run around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The parks aren’t very pretty right now – a lot of dead leaves, bare trees, and mud – but they are glorious in the spring. I can’t wait! I ran past the northeast corner of Hyde Park by a place called Speaker’s Corner. On Sundays, crowds gather around and people can get up and make speeches, protests, sermons, whatever. I want to go. I don’t know if I’ll be making at speeches, but I’ll watch. I’ve heard it is very entertaining. There is also a huge grassy space on that side of the park and I want to have a picnic soon!

On Saturday night Hal and I joined our friends Laurel and Julie for a night in Leicester Square. We didn’t have any set plans, but we just wondered for a bit. We stopped by a few pubs, ate at the Hamburger Plus (sooo good), and then Laurel and I headed home. Julie and Hal stayed out for a bit longer. That area of town is so fun, especially at night. Tiny streets are lined with theatres, bars, restaurants, and shopping arcades. I love it. Covent Garden close, but I have yet to stop there. It is a huge open-air shopping center that used to serve at the vegetable market. Anyway, Laurel and I headed home on the night bus around 11PM. As we got to our front door, I realized I forgot my keys… stupid me. I could get in my apartment, but not in my room. And really stupid me, I told Hal to turn off her phone because it was dying. She might need it in an emergency, so I told her to save the battery… So I stayed up and talked to Laurel for a bit (she lives on the first floor), but then around 12:30 I headed up to my apartment. Viv was at her aunts for the weekend, but luckily, there were still some roommates awake and hanging out in the living room. I fell asleep on the couch until Hal came home. At 3:30AM. I don’t know how she stays out that late. I would be dead tired and probably sleepwalk home.

Ahh, the sun just came out! Happy Day!

Anyway, Sunday was laundry day. Which translates to wheeling my heaping pill of dirty clothes five blocks to the Laundromat in my suitcase, paying way too much to wash and dry them (almost $12!), wheeling them back, and then cramming them in my two-foot wardrobe that only has five hangers and one drawer.... Laundry sucks. The rest of the day was good. The weather was nice, but I had a bit of homework to do so I worked on that. That night, a bunch of our roommates stayed up to watch the entire Super Bowl. It started here at 11PM…and didn’t end until 3:30. And they had class in the morning at nine! I went to bed after I put a pound in some squares scoreboard thing they were doing. A guy from downstairs explained it to me, but I can’t remember how it worked. I didn’t win a thing!

Monday, Monday. Class! In Contemporary Britain we talked politics for a bit and then watched The Queen. Such a good movie. It moves pretty slow and gets tedious at times, but the acting is amazing. And it is always more exciting when you see places on screen you’ve seen in real life, real people, and events I’ve learned about since being here. After class, we all headed to Maggie Jones’s for a lunch as a big group. All 50 of us. It was one of our pound trips. Best pound I’ve ever spent on food. It was sooo good. At the restaurant was so authentic and quant. Like so many things in this city! I have mushrooms, chicken and bread and butter pudding. Yum! Oh, and tea, of course.

Pretty boring weekend I guess. Not much exciting going on this week, but on Friday I’m going to Ireland! I’m can’t wait. Hal, Viv, and I are heading to Dublin for three days. We got a hostel right downtown, but we have no other plans besides that. I’ve got to do some reading and researching. Sooo excited.

Well, I’ll be back soon. I’ve got a test on Thursday and a small field trip tonight to Waterloo, but other than that, this week is pretty dull. Have a good week!

Love, Kelly