4 Essays Down (And None to Go!)

Hello readers of my bloggy bloggy blog (apologies if this come across a bit hyper, I may have just crossed into the land of overtired.)

It has officially been over 2 months of me being here in London! I still can't really believe it, I've been sort of running on all cylinders for the past two months, and I'm really excited to get to slow down. And walk around more of London. And swim. It's on my list and I'm going to do it! This week, maybe! (Yesbe?)

Job prospects are mixed. I have a couple of leads on tutoring agencies that I need to follow up with (I rather like explaining things, and tutoring math in particular would be excellent, I think.) I also applied to a job at Next which is a sort of H&M ish place. Hard to articulate really. Anyway I got called and passed what I assumed was interview one to be followed with in person interview two. Showed up and basically ended up abandoned on the store floor for an hour and an half and told to help customers. Can't say I was overly fond of the experience, but I was willing to tough in out since the online literature said they'd tell me immediately after if I was hired. No such luck. Ended up being a rather awful day for me after that so I'm honestly not sure if I'll take the job after all that. Better than sticking around my apartment for a month though! I'll drive myself and everyone online crazy!

In the land of trying to get out and do things more so I spend less time muddling about inside my head, my choir's concert was on Sunday and went really well I think. There's always a sense in that choir of being vaguely lost, but I really enjoy the work that goes into it, so I'll continue along.

I went to the Royal Society's Best Popular Science Book of the Year awards ceremony (or something along those lines on the name) last Monday. Admittedly, I almost fell asleep, but that was wholly because I think I was running on less than 4 hours. It was actually pretty cool, because the winner was a graduate from the same program I did for my undergrad. And also I learned about a guy who jerked off a bird. You learn something new about scientists every day...

I actually spent some productive time in the Imperial Library, and boy does that place need an overhaul. I'm strongly reminded of Falvey pre reno's. Same temperature issues too, ick!

My evil coughy cold thing seems to have FINALLY gone. Hurrah! (fingers crossed, knock on wood)

I acquired yarn and other equipment to make the sweater that I decided I wanted to make back in September and I'm already a skein in! The yarn isn't exactly what I expected but I'm excited to see how this adventure turns out (how important is a gauge square anyway?)

In that package I also acquired a cupcake tin and some cookie cutters. I'm VERY excited to make some cupcakes and pierniekes in the near future!!

Oh, and I've just finished my last essay of the term. So glad to be done with it!

 Hope Turkey Day treated everyone well!

Love from London!

See? Told You.

Apologies abound.

I had my first proper assignment due last Tuesday in addition to being down with some chesty cough "moved-to-a-new-place-and-now-my-immune-system-hates-me" thing. So blogging wasn't really on my radar.

Let's get the sad stuff out of the way so I can talk about the cool things. Basically can't get a part-time regular job because I don't have time between essays every two weeks and the amount of reading assigned (let alone the amount I'm actually expected to do.) So I applied for an RA-type position at my residence (nope) and a really amazing science events planning job (nope again.) The ways of the universe better have some good stuff on the agenda for me or I'm gonna hunt them down!

I still haven't done much exploring of London besides my immediately pertinent mall and campus area. I did get a chance to go to the Natural History Museum as part of a class video assignment which was completely amazing. The architecture is amazing and the parts of the collection I saw were pretty awesome. It's also positively massive.

I FINALLY got my checking account up and running and, therefore, my phone up and running. I ended up having to go a different way than I'd initially planned, but it wasn't that much different in price and I have a phone again. So that's the important bit.

I have been doing an excellent job of trying as many chocolates as possible while I'm here and the far and away winner in my book is still Crunchie by Cadbury - sponge candy readily accessible? Yes please. And I've gotten Wagamama three times now, with my favorite being the firecracker chicken I had yesterday as a consolation meal. Totally delicious, A++, would buy again.

I'm just getting used to the idea of how the grading system works here. Like, people shoot for passing. It's such a foreign concept to me and I'm understandably, I think, more than a little stressed to hear how I did on my first piece. Not my best work, I think.

I did manage to do a night out in East London with some of my coursemates after choir rehearsal last week and a pub called "The Book Store" or something like that. There was actually a book launch going on downstairs, and I was so tempted to crash!

So I'm starting to fall into a groove of things here, and I have PLANS - this week I'm going to try to go swimming! Inside, of course, but I am trying to add some physical exercise into my schedule before it gets cold and I get even lazier.

Oh and for all of my skips out there - it looks like someone shot this hippo.