Why I like the Institute

I went downstairs this morning during break to get a hot chocolate out of the machine in the common room. When I got off the elevator the floor was covered with rolling fog.. You know.. like in the Thriller video. Anyway, there was just a liquid nitrogen tank in the middle of the floor running. You know. Like you always see at 10 am in your building.

Awesome.

We have an apt!

Yesterday was so much fun... I could move into a new place everyday as long as it meant that all I brought with me was a suitcase and then I had to go buy everything else thereby putting me deeper and deeper into debt. But whatever. So much fun!

First I had to drag my crap from the hostel to the tube station. This wasn't too far and my bags were a hell of a lot lighter than when I got there- eating a bunch of food, using all my shampoo, crap like that. There were still pretty heavy though. Anyway, manage to get on the tube and make it to Finsbury Park to catch the bus. I had luggage flying everywhere and some nice businessman carried my bag up the stairs and said something I totally couldn't understand.

At the bus stop the highlight was the crazy drunk man with no teeth talking to me about his trip he took to Australia. It was 9 am. Good for you, crazy man!

At the apt it took a while for the landlord to show up with the keys and for Lily and Jen to show up. When they did this nice old man from across the street came over and invited us in for some tea. We're going to make him cake or something because he was so sweet. I hope he isn't diabetic...

Our landlord is awesome. He took us to a giant Tesco's (huge supermarket/home goods place) to get some stuff and then over to a bed bath and beyond type place to get bedding. When I find batteries for my camera you'll all see my sweet bed!

So last night I got to sleep in my own bed, in my own sheets, and take a shower in a bathroom with continuous hot water. There was loofahing!

I love our new apt...

Glad I'm not in NY

Between Yankees crashing into buildings and two feet of snow in Buffalo, I'm happy I'm here. The sun is shining, there's always a police siren going, and they have these premade sandwiches in ever shop so that all I have to think about to feed myself is "what the hell is rocket?"

I'm still doing lots of reading, I still have no idea why...

We move into the apt monday, possibly even get our crap in there a little earlier. Which would be a lot easier but very unlikely given my luck with things. The financial aid people lost half my paperwork and the lady that may know where it is is sick. That's ok, though. I don't need money to feed, house, and pay tuition with. Nah.

I got moved back to the annex of the hostel which means I've totally come full circle since I started there- annex, girls dorm, 12 person, girls dorm, annex. The nice thing this time though is that I'm in with all the long term people who are very considerate.

We watched Underworld: Evolution last night on one of their computers and, although not the greatest movie, I was pleased that kate beckinsale and the guy from felicty got to be together in immortality forever, it was very sweet. I've become the resident girl in the hostel in the sense that I keep trying to put on more lighthearted movies like Bridget Jones.. If I have to watch Green Street, Fight Club, Blow, Fear and Loathing, or any other heavy, violent, drug related, or graphic movie again in that place.. I may buy Mary Poppins and make them all watch it to change things up a bit. If they had a vcr I'd totally have my mom ship me the Last Unicorn, but oh well.

Sparkling water

I love sparkling water apparently. To the point where I'm disappointed if the little shops I go into don't have it. It's so refreshing... My favorite so far has been black currant and white grapes with "summer fruit" coming a close second.

I've been spending a lot of time reading in the library for class. I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to do with it since I don't get tested on any of it.. but I'm reading it! Archaeological pottery theory is... boring to say the least. The upside is I get to play with clay in my pottery practical today. I'm making a point to not be in the same session as the suitcase/turtleneck lady. I don't want to end up shoving clay down anyone's throat.

Read as I briefly try and describe why I love the London Underground

It's no china (which is what we called the apt mentioned below with the bar and awful decor) but we have found ourselves a place! The deposit was put down yesterday, I give them a ton of money next week, and voila!

It's huuuuuuuge, in a nice neighborhood, and has a great little garden in the back with a wrought iron spiral staircase leading down into it. You're all going to love it when you come visit. Except for Mike because he only loves America. And he has "school." And during the summer he has "work." What a load of crap. Anyway, make sure your passports are valid or get one and come visit me.

In fact, everyone come visit me during Thanksgiving. It's my favorite family holiday and I'm stuck here for it. At the very least someone mail me a box of Bell's stuffing...?

I keep getting the same disgusting cold over and over because everyone I the hostel has it. I told the girls when we move in that we have to make sure I bathe in bleach so they don't get it. I was almost over it yesterday- I felt my body winning! Then I was an idiot and made a date with a bottle of smirnoff. At least I got vitamin c from the orange juice...

This cold is the worst- it's mostly in my lungs and throat which makes me a pleasure to be on the Tube with... Speaking of the Underground, I love it! I keep thinking while I'm riding it that it's like being in the future because the trains are round (like riding in a can or a bottle). I'm not describing this well at all but it's true. And it always seems to me like it's going in the wrong direction, but you always end up where you want to go! MAGIC!

Apt hunting

Or flat hunting, as it's called here, is lame. Although when you're doing it with two ridiculous people it's fairly fun.

Everyone cross your fingers that the place with the 80's bar and terrible cheesy decor is the one we end up with. That way you'll get to see pictures. :)

The honeymoon period is over

Meaning, not only did I start classes today, but that haze of pleasant I've mentioned I've been floating in is gone. Oh yes, good old crabby, bitchy Casey has returned from wherever she was vacationing. I physically had to bite the side of my cheek today when some jackass Eurotrash David Beckham wannabe ran into the side of me while I was walking to the financial aid office. I did glare.. ohhh the glare of doooooom! His friends saw, which satisfied me. Maybe if he had taken off his GIANT BUG SUNGLASSES while INSIDE he would have seen me. I'm quite tall, really. Hard to miss.

Other than that, I met the first person that I truly dislike in the the Institute of Arch. She is that person who, in elementary school, built 3d models out of plaster of paris while the rest of us made diaramas out of newspapers and shoeboxes. She has a little wheelie suitcase that she unzips in the middle of the hallway... She nods when the professors say things that she too knows... WHICH IS EVERYTHING! She was wearing a sweater and turtleneck, with the turtleneck pulled up so high that it screamed "I AM A WASPY BITCH, LOOK AT MY ENGAGEMENT RING!!!" She also got all uppity with a girl that I happen to like from my program. Yep. I will be making this woman pasta with ground up glass in the sauce before the month is through. In one of my pottery classes we had a bit of a hands on practical where the lecturer dumped a couple of bags of roman pottery on the table and said "how would you sort this." As people were fiddling with the pottery (it's roman for gods sake- grey, black and red. WHOOOOOOOOO) she was taking bits and pieces and talking over the top of the lecturer "explaining" things to the girl next to her or asking a stupid question loudly to the person across the table. The class is pretty cool, actually, so I'm hoping she's going to trip and fall over her ugly ass mules that she seems fond of and is not able to get up before a black cab mows her down. Then she'll be goo for the pigeons!

Now if I could only find a place to live...