Mediocrities

The corridor further down the hall stinks. I think it's the toilet. Thank goodness for fire doors.

Had a feedback sesh with the lecturer for my first theology essay. High A!

I'm sleepy.

2 more essays to do.

I think my eyesight is getting worse. But then again, what's new.

Worst thing to come home to? A bed that needs to be made.

My left eye is twitching. I think that means I'm too tired to be up.

Theology Lecture

Tuesday evenings 4-6.

The murmurs when the American guy speaks just that little bit too loudly- again. "He gets so excited!"

The mature age student who never says anything relevant. (But the lecturer just smiles and ignores all the irrelevant stuff and finds the most obscure link to what we're actually talking about)

The beanhead in the hijab. (2 weeks ago, she was sitting in front of Wes and I, and in the break she turned around and asked us if she had a beanhead and proceeded to go to the bathroom to fix her hijab, convinced she had a beanhead, even though her friend was like you're being an idiot. So now every time Wes and I see her the only thing we have to say is "beanhead!" and the two of us crack up)

Oreos. (...are an awesome mid-lecture snack)

The lecturer who talks at a ridiculously fast pace. (My wrists hurt by the end of class)

Wes and I struggling to keep up.

Break's over.


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Location:Strand,London,United Kingdom

Evangeline's birthday dinner

Tonight we went out for Evangeline's 19th birthday!

We went to Fire and Stone Pizzeria in Covent Garden. 

There was a massive group of 18 of us.

Evangeline's champagne popped REALLY loudly, and only like half an hour later after we'd drunk most of it they came over and told us it wasn't BYO. Apparently they didn't realise that it was actually being drunk.

Dinner was good, they had pizzas from all over the world so 6 of us shared so we could try a bit of everything.

So appreciate food that is not halls food. Also to have a meal where you don't feel like you have to have everything that is put out in front of you

They brought out ice cream with a candle for Evangeline!

Reasonably pleased with the place. Until the end when they looked really hurt and asked us why we didn't pay the optional service charge.

Ummm... Because it was optional?

***

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An Essay on Sunday

I successfully wrote a whole 2500 word essay in one weekend. Omgosh I just want to go sleep now.

In other news, my Haagen-Dazs ice cream successfully spent 2 nights in the freezer without being stolen. It's now finished. It was half price at the Sainsbury's!

I finished my essay at about 3.30, and proceeded to spend the next half an hour cleaning up my desk, folding my laundry, doing my bed, washing my dishes. All the things I'd neglected while doing my essay...

The Comedy of Errors

Today I went to see a modern version of The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare at the National Theatre.

Berlin and I have had these tickets booked for aaaaaages! We booked them like 2 months ago cos back then we'd just got to London and we were super excited about doing stuff! Ahahahaha it was actually good that we did that, cos now I'm actually going out rather than sitting in my room doing my essays.

We got our tickets for only £5 each, because we both had Entry Passes. The Entry Pass Scheme is for 16-25 year olds, and you get £5 tickets (they reserve a few in each show for entry pass holders) and discounts at the restaurants and cafes at the theatre. I think you do have to book quite a bit in advance, because seats are limited, but they're cheap!

The play was in Shakespearean English, as in they used the original play, but as you can see from the picture above, most of the actors were African, so they had African accents. It's so different hearing Shakespeare in a African accent!

The sets were amazing!

Twas definitely a welcome break from study.


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Weekend lunches end at 1.30

On the wall calendar that they gave us, it says 1. It has taken us 10 weeks to notice that the piece of paper up in the dining room says 1.30.

That's my exciting discovery for the day. The rest has been doing this second theology essay. It will be done by tmrw *hopeful*

Winter wonderland at Hyde Park

So much mulled wine, so many lights, gingerbread, snowmen... Christmas!

The people (plus Berlin, she was taking the photo!)

The entrance

The Christmas Market- packed!

So yes, Susan and I got distracted by a little stall with cute Christmas tree decorations, about 5 minutes in, and so we lost the rest of them. Oh well.

The random moose head that started singing

The pretty lights

The point where I started to feel like I'd been transported to Germany

Santa Land!

THE CAROUSEL BAR. SUCH A COOL IDEA. It was slowly spinning round, too!

The ice skating rink

The point where Susan and I began our fetish with snowmen.

The bald one

The cute one

 The one who ate a bit too much

We finally found the rest of them again...

and had donuts! :) Once again, Berlin is missing cos she's taking the picture.

Yay for Berlin! She brought her big camera cos I asked.

***

All the photos mean I ceebs typing out slabs of writing. Especially after a day of study.

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Chocolate digestives

Forget Mee Goreng, chocolate digestives are the new staple student food. Cheap and yummy and makes you full


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Singing in the quad

Today I sang in the quad at halls.

I had booked the piano room, but the guy who had it before me hadn't returned the keys, and he wasn't in the room either. So I had to wait for him to appear. Security told me which room had booked the piano room, and I knew what the guy who lived in that room looked like

I stood at reception for about... 10 seconds. Then I got bored. I couldn't go back to my room, cos then I'd have to keep coming down to check if he'd returned the keys yet.

So I sang in the quad. The piano room is usually really warm, so I so was not dressed for outside. It was a tad cold :|

He walked past at about half past the hour.

He had gone to someone else's room to jam and totally forgotten the time.

Yeah that was the highlight of my day. I studied for the rest of it. I'm now 6 pages of notes further along the path of life.

Wednesday soup and bread lunches

On Wednesdays, Susan and I have a day off, and so we usually have soup and bread for lunch. Yummy.
We just get the canned soup from the supermarket, pour it into our mugs and microwave it. We go to the other pantry on our floor cos that one has a toaster and chairs and a table, so we can toast our bread and then sit there and eat.

Favourite.

Late dinners and Terry's Chocolate Orange

For the past 2 nights, I have been at uni till late, and so I have signed myself up for late dinners at halls, which is at 10. You just have to put your name down on a list at reception and they save you some food and microwave it.

Last night at late dinners I made some new friends, Alex and Melissa. Funniest ever. They were fighting over segments of a Terry's Chocolate Orange, and were shocked when they found out that I didn't know what that was, and so ceased fighting and gave the remaining segments to me.

A Terry's Chocolate Orange is literally an orange-sized ball of orange flavoured chocolate. It comes in a little box with some plastic and orange foil around it, and the chocolate itself is made up of wedges, just like when you cut an orange :) yummy.

Graduate information session

Today I went to a King's graduate information session. Just cos.

I was expecting, you know, a normal info sesh, with seats in rows and a projector at the front...

No. It was a nice intimate gathering of 12 people, including presenter and two graduate students who had come to talk about their experiences. We sat around a boardroom table. Awks. There went my plan of subtly eating my dinner sandwich at the back of the room.

On a slightly related note, the 8th floor of the Strand building is pretty snazzy. And you get amazing views of Southbank at night.

And on another slightly related note, but not related to the previous related note, it's forecast to snow sometime next week. The presenter said so.


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KCL Gospel Music Society Choir

So I decided that I was a little bit sick of singing by myself (by the way, I am so missing the Crossway Creative Min team, youth band, choirs, Sunday morning bands and all!). So I went to the GMS choir rehearsal that started at 6.

They actually have their Christmas concert coming up like next week, so they were rehearsing like mad, and I just joined in when I could.

So much fun! Love love love love gospel choirs cos they sound amazing, but I love them even more now that I know how fun their rehearsals are! Dancing is just so natural to them! I don't know why I didn't expect to be dancing, but they were learning the actions to a Carribean Christmas song, and half way through the song the semi circle converged into the middle and it turned into a massive dance party.

I was singing that song all the way home :)

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100 days have made me older

Today is my 100th day away from home.

In 100 days, I have taken a plane by myself, enetered a country by myself, gone travelling by myself.

I have been to 16 towns and cities, 4 musicals, and 1 theatre production. I have been to countless markets, churches, art galleries and museums, lost my way, found my way, forgotten my way, been distracted on my way. I have seen the most amazing houses and palaces, the most beautiful gardens. I have caught so many buses and trains. I have walked down sooooo many high street shopping strips. In fact, I have walked a lot, full stop.

I have met family, cousins, friends of family, family of family. I have made new friends, met up with old friends, made friends out of acquaintances. I have stayed with a family, a single parent family, a single person, a couple, in a youth hostel, and in a university dorm.

I have hired a fridge, broken an iPhone, eaten absolutely tasteless and unnutritional meals, done my own laundry, used toilets that don't flush, seen in people in their bath robes (yeah that's right... oh dear), been woken by loud fighting/laughing/talking people.

I've been amazed, happy, annoyed, frustrated (Corp Fi Book...*seethes*) and so so sleepy at times. I have been freezing cold cos I didn't have a jumper, and boiling because the heater doesn't turn off.

I have been in crowds, walked down quiet streets, found nooks and crannies that no one knows of. I have been in crowded trains at peak hour. In London.

Of course, I've been to uni, sat through boring-as-anything lectures, droning voices, tutes where I have no idea what's going on. I have written 2 essays, had 6 group meetings, 2 study seshes in the library (I know yeah... what happened to my lifestyle of living in the library?)

I have bought 2 coats, 3 jumpers, 2 t-shirts, a clothes drying rack, a laundry basket, 2 textbooks, 34 christmas cards and lots of postcards.

I have eaten fast food ONCE.

Wow, I've done a lot.

Camden Market and Keats House

Today was really misty! I woke up and outside the window it was all just mist.

My phone told me it was supposed to be a high of 9°, but when I got outside it felt warmer than that.

Did about an hour of study after breakfast... probably less, then I headed to North London!

I went to Camden Market and because I was already going that way, I decided to go to Keats House too.

I took the bus to Euston, then walked to Camden Market because I didn't want to pay for a bus trip that would take me 15 minutes to walk. Then, of course, I walked through Camden Market.
THEN, I WALKED ALL THE WAY TO KEATS HOUSE.
Firstly, I didn't want to pay for another bus fare.
Secondly, I hadn't seen the area before.
It took me 45 minutes, but it was quite a nice walk. And walking meant I could take photos.

This map shows my journey today. I actually did walk a fair bit!

Camden Market

Camden Market is actually a collection of markets in that area. It's so big and there's so much, although mostly it's cheap mass produced stuff for tourists, such as those made in China dresses that are everywhere. Cheap mass produced stuff is great if you're looking for cheap souvenirs to take home. Not so great if you actually live in London and want to go to a market. You'd go to Portobello for that. I feel like Camden wasn't as crowded as Portobello, but that may be cos I was at Portobello later in the day.

I only spent an hour and 45 there, because I pretty much skipped through a majority of the cheap rubbish. I did buy some souvenirs.

I bought a chicken fajita for lunch. It was yummy, even though the chicken was a bit overcooked.
It was good cos it was easy to eat, compared to the paella I got 2 weeks ago, which had chicken on the bone and so impossible to eat while walking.
And I bought some freshly squeezed orange juice :)

After that, I set off on my way to Keats House!

By the way, this is my 4th day without credit on my phone. I haven't wanted to top up credit, because it means I'm left at the end of my time in London with a few days without credit, and the cheapest you can top up is £10. And I'm not paying £10 for 4 days when I've paid £15 a month.
So today preparation was the key: I brought my free paper map from student services at King's! This meant that I did not get lost trying to find Keats House.

Here are some pictures of Hampstead area

This park bench amused me. Clearly the skinny people in the area got sick of the fat people who took up more than their fair share of space.

Keats House

Keats House, as the name suggests, is where Keats lived for a while, from 1818-1820.
It's the house where he lived next to Fanny Brawne.
It is SO CUTE!
(It has been renovated, and some items are on loan from other museums, but still)
When I have a house, I want that kind of house.
Not too big, not too small.
Nothing too elaborate, but with enough class.
It had cute bookcases, and pretty wallpaper, and nice carpet.
And the odd marble fireplace or other special feature item.

AND THE GARDEN!

I still can't get over how green the grass is here...literally.

After I'd had a look at the house, I sat in the garden on a bench facing the
house, and wrote a postcard.

This was my view from where I was sitting

Sigh I love Keats.

Lonely Planet rightly describes this house as 'dripping with atmosphere'.
It's so poetic... well suited to a poet.
That was not a joke. The house literally feels like it comes out of a perfect little world.
I walked out of it feeling so romantic!

Then I walked back out onto the street and got confronted by big farting buses.
Welcome to the real world.

Toodles for now, it's Sunday night and I have some cramming studying to do.

Would you like some tea #2

This just appeared on my news feed.

It's from the profile of someone called Hans Hill.

I hope it made you smile.

Southbank Christmas Market

This evening, I was so tired... like so SO tired, that I was just going to have dinner, take a shower, do my laundry, hang it up to dry then go to sleep.

Ummmm...no. I got out of the shower, and went to knock on Abigail's door at about 7.20 with my basket of dirty laundry, because we were going to do laundry together (with Berlin). Turns out after I left the dinner table, Beth, Abigail and Teresa had decided to go to the Southbank Christmas Market which started today, and they had planned to meet at 7.30!

There went my quiet early night. I GOT SO EXCITED! I was already in my pjs, and my hair was still wet etc... In short, I was just not in a presentable state, so I got dressed really really fast, and blow dried my hair and chucked on my boots and grabbed my coat and I was at reception at 7.30. *Proud*

Today was the first day of the market, and it was surprisingly quiet. Which is good, because I don't like pushing through crowds. There were heaps of random things on sale- gloves, scarves, christmas decorations, mini books, fake snow...

There was even a merry-go-round!

Here are some more pretty lights

Some of the things for sale

And I bought a gingerbread heart!

This is Abigail and I waiting for Beth and Teresa. In the end we went home without them.

This market is open pretty much all day from now until Christmas, and it's really close to uni, so I'll probably go back at some point. It's quite small (only took us an hour to walk through all of it and back), but the atmosphere is so Christmassy!

***

A pot of perfectness

I'm really getting sick of halls breakfasts.

So today, I went out for breakfast with Marine and Berlin, to Flat White. It was quite an early morning, cos I had class at 10, but I really wanted something different for breakfast! I had banana bread and coffee. Honestly it wasn't that great. I thought the banana bread tasted a bit funny, and the coffee was too strong. I'm still buzzing. I think I need to ask for a weak.

I also inadvertantly missed class. Woops. I did plan on going to that 10 o'clock class, but the traffic on the way to breakfast was baaaad, so I was late to breakfast and it was rude to leave early to go to class, so I just didn't go to class.

When I got home I bought yoghurt and (more) muesli from Sainsbury's. I've gotten so used to watery, super sweet yoghurt from the dining hall that this creamy-ness was AMAZING. 

The yoghurt was really cheap as well! It was a 4 pack for £2.19, or two 4 packs for £2. 

Like combined. Not each. So THAT was a no-brainer. 

So when I settled in my room with Berlin, I had yoghurt, muesli and some canned mandarin segments. Perfect. (The first photo is the pot of yoghurt with muesli on top, I couldn't fit the mandarins in so I had to eat a bit first. And yes, muesli flakes did go everywhere)

On another note, I'm quite proud of myself for not letting things bother me today. I forgot my wallet. Which was a problem, considering I was planning on going shopping, and also my phone credit expired today and I bought a voucher from Sainsbury's the other day, and I was planning on topping it up on the bus today (which is when I noticed that I'd left my wallet at home). So I effectively had no money, AND no phone. Which also meant no map to get to Flat White. I knew where Milk Bar was and remembered that on the back of their loyalty card they had a map of them in relation to Flat White, so we popped in and got one. WIN.

And Berlin was an awesome friend and lent me money. And with it I was able to have breakfast, go to Hamleys to get a Christmas present for my little cousin in Singapore, and buy glue and a paintbrush from an art store. You know how yesterday I wanted to make something? Yeah I wasn't kidding. I really was itching to do something creative.

I made a right mess of my desk (/room).

No, I haven't been buying papers, the Europe Wall Street Journal is free outside the Management office.

And..this is the final product!

This was made out of a tube map in a newspaper and an old Cadbury's hot chocolate powder container.

In other news, the internet is fast again! *grateful*

And the weather was really nice today! Even though it started getting dark at 4.

Aaaaaand, I'm just about to start studying for the day.
That's okay. I finished my second of five essays yesterday (or the first of the four essays that I blogged about a few days ago).

Happy. Blessed