Hmm I'm thinking this listing the highlights thing that I did last time is going to be best from now on. Now that I'm well into classes and all I don't see the need to give a day-by-day account of class, work, and study. I'll try to just hit particularly interesting things and maybe I bit of what I'm thinking during this time. Also, hopefully I'll get back on task of a weekly update... my bad!
School:
- Essays!! Just to clarify something, if I say essay here it's not a short couple pages. My experience in the States says an 'essay' is short and a 'paper' is long. Here everything is an essay, not a paper. Also, at the master's level you are writing a 'dissertation', not a 'master's thesis.' Another thing is that they have a specified length by number of words instead of number of pages. Thank goodness there is a word count tool in Microsoft Word!
- Two essays were scheduled to be due before Christmas break and I was starting to get stressed about it because I was definitely behind in research due to all of the time I've spent sick. I am pleased to say though that one of those essays is now due after break!! Takes a lot of stress off of me these next few weeks. I still need to get a lot done before break though because since I'll be home I won't have access to anything in our libraries that isn't online. Since now I have two essays due that first week back, it looks like I'll need to be writing a lot over break. Goal is to get pretty much all of the research done before I leave. This is so weird because I haven't had courses that lasted all year since high school! Everything since then has only lasted a semester, meaning no work over Christmas! For now I still need to finish that essay due coming up on Thursday, Dec 1. I can't believe it's about to be December already! And I'm so behind again due to being sick again this weekend ahhhhh...
- My Chinese Archaeology class had a 'field trip' of sorts to the British Museum. So awesome that it's connected to campus. I can walk in and out of it whenever I want. It's really neat to see artifacts we've been talking about in class in person. And my Silk Road Archaeology class had class in the British Library, only a 10 minute walk from campus. They brought things out of storage for us. We got to see documents and books from the Silk Road that are over 1000 years old!
Work:
- My shifts have been sporadic but thankfully next week I start working regulars.
Dorm Life:
- My flatmates and I are all officially Facebook friends with a group forum to communicate! lol it took long enough!!
- Within one 24 hour period I lost my keys and got locked in our bathroom. Where the keys went, I still don't understand because I used them to get IN so they must be in the flat but we've turned the place upside down and still can't find them, meaning I had to pay for new ones. Grrr.
The locked in the bathroom thing... yeah sounds weird but it really did happen. And it happened just before 4am. Woke up, needed a bathroom break, went in and couldn't get out. It's a deadbolt and as I turned the lock it just kept turning and turning without moving the deadbolt. I stood there thinking this must be a dream but soon realized it wasn't and was determined not to spend the rest of the night sleeping in the tub. Since it was then very early on a Saturday morning, I knew it would be a very long while before my flatmates woke up. The bathroom is on the inside of the building, so no windows, the door opens inward (so no kicking it down), and the hinges have screws on the inside of the door frame (so no prying them off, not that I had a tool anyway). I was yanking and picking away at the frame around the deadbolt when one of my flatmates, Xiao, woke up, heard something, and came to investigate. So happy he found me!!! After he tried kicking down the door and slipped a knife under for me to try to use, he went and got Tianyi (another flatmate). Tianyi had a tool kit, not surprising he's the engineering major, and freed me by taking the entire lock off the door. By this time it was 5am and I was sooooo glad to be out! My hockey teammates were very amused by this story later on that day... I even got voted the "idiot" (for lack of a better term, and in an endearing way of course) of the game for it. How that story was relevant in the voting I don't know... but at least I had votes for "Man of the Match" as well lol.
And I'd like to add that when I told a member of staff here about it she was just like "oh that happens all the time"... ????
Hockey:
- I'm still playing for the Accies. This past Saturday I played for both the 1s and 2s. During the 2s game we only had 10 players the whole game and we were playing the team on top of our league. We lost but managed to hold them scoreless the second half and only lose by 1! Very busy game in the backfield. They better watch out for when we play them next round. Still reveling in how super fun it is to have hockey a couple times a week. I love how it is a game for all ages here.
Church:
- Corinne, another 20-something, moved here from Canada!
- The Messersmiths rescued me in my illness this Sunday. I was starting to feel pretty bad again on Saturday and was feeling just horrible by Sunday afternoon. They said I looked like death warmed over. Lovely. Slept on their couch all afternoon and took over the guest room that night. Felt so much better in the morning! I think London life would be miserable without the people of CBC.
Thanksgiving:
- Unfortunately, I for the first time had class on Thanksgiving, BUT fortunately it was in the morning so I was completely free to enjoy Thanksgiving afternoon and night at the Messersmith's along with Paula, Bobby, Rachel, and another American family from outside of London. Oh and Corinne the Canadian was permitted to join after work in the evening seeing as she's a North American haha. Paula and Lisa did the cooking, Pastor Steve did the turkey, and it was delicious!!! Lisa even made a gluten free pumpkin pie!
Randoms:
- I will be running the Paris Marathon in April!
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