All Tudored Out--Day 26

Today was a very productive day! In the morning, I did my laundry, so I have lots of clean clothes to pack for Scotland on Thursday. I also worked on some homework that I was hoping to get done before I leave on Thursday. After lunch, I worked on my history presentation and then went out to buy some items we needed in our kitchen and our bedroom at Waitrose and to carry out a secret mission that I can't tell you about right now. Don't worry, though. You'll find out soon enough what it is. ;) Both my art history presentation and my regular history presentation are about Hampton Court Palace, so I'm going to be talking a lot about the Tudors these next couple of days. Needless to say, I am getting a little overloaded on King Henry VIII and his wives!

I got a very general e-mail about Scotland today, informing us that we will in fact be staying in a hotel. Thursday night we are having a welcome dinner, so we had to choose our main course and dessert electronically. I guess we are leaving very early on Thursday, either 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, so that will be lots of fun. The e-mail further encouraged us with the news that more specific information (like the itinerary) will be coming in a second e-mail tomorrow, so I'll have more to share with you then.

In other news, I am really getting comfortable here. I was skeptical about this when our professor mentioned how London would start to feel like home after a few weeks. I didn't think it could happen because I expected everything to be so new and different as to prevent effectual acclimatization in such a short amount of time. However, to my delight and surprise, I am adjusting quite well, and like I said in a previous post, London really agrees with me. I came to this realization this afternoon as I was walking casually back from the grocery store with my purchase in my hand and my bag slung around my shoulder. I think this sentiment extends to the Tube as well. I never thought I would figure out the subway system as quickly as I have. When I heard about the Tube in our seminar sessions, it sounded complicated and intimidating, but really, all it took was a few rides before I felt confident in my ability to successfully navigate my way around London below street level.

Strangely enough, being in London makes me want to travel to more parts of my own country. Many Londoners express surprise that an American would ever need to travel outside of the country because we have so many different types of landscapes and places that it would probably take a whole lifetime to see everything. When I hear people say things like this, I realize how little of the United States I have actually seen. I've never been to the West Coast, and my knowledge of the East, South, and Southwest is marginal at best. Someday, I hope to drive across the country from Minnesota to California (or Washington or Oregon) with my family so we can see the landscape change. I also want to visit my cousin in Boston because I have never been! (No, I've never been to Boston in the fall! Props to you if you get that reference. It means you're just as silly as I am.) In the meantime, I will appreciate everything that I can see here.

One more little tangent before I call it a night: as you may know, the British have a lot of weird spelling rules. For instance, instead of using "z" in all those "-ize" words, they use "s," so "apologize" would be spelled "apologise." Also, in some words that use a "k" after an "s," the Brits use a "c," so "skeptical" becomes "sceptical." I think this is deceiving because we in the US have been taught that "sc" makes a soft "c" sound whereas "sk" makes a hard "c." So every time I see "sceptical," I want to say, "septical," which is obviously not correct.

Tomorrow is a really busy day. I have class from 9:30 to 12:30 and then a break and then another class from 2:00 to 5:00 before our Iraqi dinner at 5:30. Not to mention that I have to study for my history test, finish preparing for my history presentation, and meet with some of my classmates to work on the essay portion of the test. Whew! I think I'm going to be glad to get away to Scotland for the weekend!