Basically On Vacation

Week two is over! And I start classes this afternoon, finally. I feel like I've been on vacation for 5 months and then all of a sudden I have to like...read something. It's weird, I'm not sure I'm prepared for it. Anywayyys.

Regent's Park

This week started off a little rough. I was pretty stressed for most of Sunday through Tuesday. I also spent A LOT of money. I had to purchase all the basic things like sheets, pillows, towels, pots, pans, plates, cups, forks, etc. And of course all the small things you forget until you need them like a can opener or an oven mitt. Struggles. I managed to split all of the cooking stuff with a friend, so that's less expensive. And we've sort of created a little circle of 4 of us on the same floor who cook together. We share the grocery shopping and it's working out pretty well so far.

Had several Westminster orientation meetings this week and I'm starting to feel a little over-oriented. It's been a lot of repeated information and cautionary tales about kids failing classes. We were informed that we should be terrified to take 600-level classes. I'm taking 2. We'll see how that goes. I got my course schedule all worked out by Wednesday. I am officially taking: Renaissance Literature, Romantic Literature, Writing the Self, and the silly class that goes along with my internship. No idea what it's going to entail yet, but it is my only class that is NOT a 20-minute walk away, so I may end up enjoying it.

Tower Bridge

I went down to meet the woman who runs the literary agency I'm interning at on Tuesday. It's an hour-long bus ride (ouch) but a beautiful one, so I'm less annoyed. The agency is run by two lovely women who served me tea and biscuits and chatted with me about the publishing industry for about an hour. It was awesome. They are both very kind and eager to get me involved. I am beyond excited to get some useful experience and start figuring out if this is really what I want to do with my life! Fingers crossed. I'll be working there for about 16 hours a week: Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoons and 9-5 on Thursday. Lots of time, but hopefully rewarding.

Tower of London

Thursday we planned to go to Buckingham Palace, but learned from a friend that tickets had sold out before 11 am. Shoot. So instead we ventured down to the Tower of London which was SO COOL. I'm such a nerd. But it was awesome. We took a tour of the complex, and it is huge and beautiful and old and so full of history. People have been living in that castle since like the 1100s. It's insane. I took about a million pictures.



Friday we actually did go to Buckingham Palace (bright and early) for a lovely tour of the State Rooms, which are as glamorous as you might expect. The Queen was not in residence, but she has a spectacular art collection, so it's okay. I saw THE dress. Kate Middleton's stunning Alexander McQueen which was even more stunning in person. I about died. We wandered around and saw Big Ben, etc but didn't really get to see much of Parliament and the beautiful churches down there because we were running late for our tour. But I'll go back!

Buckingham Palace

British kids are turning out to be very friendly and sociable, though they prefer to be called English. Pfft. Thus far I've been introduced to toad-in-the-hole, aka Yorkshire pudding, and beans on toast for basically every meal. We've shown them iced coffee and beer pong. They find beer pong to be ten times more fun than iced coffee, though I prefer the former to the latter. Ah well. Everyone is learning lots of fun new words such as "bollocks" and "steaming bag of wank." Very colorful.



All in all, I am happy and healthy (mostly)--I'm developing a cold. Not really ready to start classes this afternoon and not really sure what I'm eating for lunch. But... I miss you all something awful. And I love you very very much! xox

Ben!