Back to School Again--Day Six

Well, I finally started my classes, and the two that I had today seem very interesting. One is about British politics, which seemed boring at first until I met the professor. He told us to call him Justin (Professor J from here on out) and walked us to a coffee shop mid-class. He told us to ask him whatever questions we were curious to know the answers to. He is a sociologist by trade, so he makes the subject of politics more relatable (read: more interesting) by bringing in aspects of culture. The other is about British art history, taught by an Augustana professor (Dr. Goebel--AKA Dr. G). We're starting with Old and New Stone Age art and continuing right up to modern times. Our first assignment is to focus on a specific area of the British Museum (we are visiting on Friday) and prepare a 10-minute presentation for the rest of the class by next Tuesday's lecture. I'm excited to be in this big city where original works of art are readily available. Art (as with everything else) is so much better in person, and I'm sure it will help me learn the concepts better if I have real examples mere inches from my face. I found the building just fine; actually, I'm getting more confident about finding my way around in this area. Leaving was a little bit more of an adventure because it was raining pretty hard, forcing me and my classmates onto the 49 bus (another opportunity to practice using my Oyster Card) after a rather wet wait. A lot of the items in my backpack--including my notebooks--got a little wet, but not too bad. I'm just glad to be back in my warm, dry apartment building. A few of my classmates (like my roommate) are going on a walking tour of Belgravia tonight, but I didn't go because the spots were all taken before I could sign up. Well, that and I've heard it's supposed to be somewhat of pub crawl. I'd rather stay here and have a restful evening. Perhaps I'll start on my homework while my roommate is gone.

This week saw the beginning of the school year for young British boys and girls, and on my walk to class this morning, I saw many little boys in their adorable school uniforms--maroon jackets, cropped black pants, and matching maroon hats. I also saw a little girl wearing her wellies (boots) and mack (raincoat) and walking with her mummy. (Okay, so that was mostly just an excuse for me to practice my Brit-speak).

Here's a little fun fact for you that I learned today in Contemporary Britain (the British politics class): J.K. Rowling is actually Scottish. The Scottish tend not to consider themselves British, and I've heard that they are culturally very different. For instance, it is not such a stereotype to call the British reserved, whereas the Scottish are much more outgoing, favoring a more American view on social interaction. This makes me look forward to our Scotland trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh even more than I did before.

I'm really enjoying cooking for myself. It's not that I've never done it before, it's just that I bought my own groceries and am living in something very akin to an apartment (versus home in Minnesota). I view this trip partially as a test of my self-reliance, a way to sort of prove to myself how much I can do. My only complaint about the kitchen here (and understand that I'm just having a whinge now--look that one up) is that the burners on the stovetop (or hob, as it's called) don't work very well, so I have to rely on the microwave to cook things like rice and pasta (mmm!) that would normally require boiling (I do need to eat more than once a week, which is about how long it would take for this stove to boil water).

As the weather here is much suited to reading, I think that now I will return to making dinner and afterward do just that. Until tomorrow! :)