Trippy Trips

So I pulled a "Beth" (as my wonderful family would call it) and got on the wrong bus this morning. It was around 6:40am, and I was completely exhausted, and I just wanted to get on the bus and go to sleep. The damn kids in my dorm have been keeping me up and perpetuating my terrible sleeping patterns, so my body just wanted some peaceful rest. I knew the bus ride took around 2 hours to get from Coventry to London, so that was a good chunk of time to rest.

2 hours later, I woke up in the Welsh countryside. I was in Cardiff, on the south end of Wales. Oh geez...

I actually didn't mind at all that I was in Wales. I really love it there, but I bought my return ticket from Victoria station in London. Luckily, that same bus was headed towards London, so I just took another 3-hour nap and finally caught up on sleep that was sorely missed this week.



This is me in front of University College London. It's a wonderful school, but I don't think I could ever afford living as a student in Central London. Ridiculous!



Me and Ardy, a fellow Anteater and Computerstore employee. He's doing a Master's program in Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis at UCL and Yale. It was great to hang out with another Irvine person!

Promises, Promises

Wow, I apologize for the lateness of this post, but things have been quite chaotic and ridiculous here in good ol' Coventry. A quick recap, perhaps?

29 Sept was move-in week, and it was crazy times. It remains one of the pivotal moments in my life. I'll write about it one day, but basically it led me to make some of the greatest friends I have right now.



This is Joannis, Carl, and Max. Don't be fooled by the picture, Max is a giant, about Carl's height. They are my European bodyguards :P

Right now I'm taking 4 classes:
-Politics, Literature, and Ideas in Stuart England
-Medicine, Identity, and Technology
-Political Theory from Hobbes
-Politics of the USA

The last class is a riot, because that's basically what I'm majoring in. HAHA! So it's my one "easy" class of the quarter. I feel guilty for not reading any of the material yet, but I doubt there's something I'd read that I don't already know...

Also, I feel like I'm going to be defending myself a lot in that class. But luckily, I actually have the mental capacity to do so and not look like a stupid American. Go me!

10 October I went to visit a very good friend of mine, Tom, in London. I took a bus and he met me at Waterloo station. Spent the weekend in Eggham, and it quite literally was one of the most outrageous nights of my life. I also got to see Windsor castle at night, but I didn't take any pictures because I knew my camera wouldn't do it justice.



There's Tom and me. He's the most lovely host!

Last night our residence rented out the student union venue for a party. It was a costume party, so a bunch of us dressed up and attended. I was just recovered from the flu, so this is the first time I'd been out in a while.



Airline Attendant, Amy Winehouse, American Sarah Palin, and Athenian.


My experience here has been nothing short of amazing. I consider Warwick to be like one of the Ivy Leagues of the UK, and getting to know the people here has been such a blessing. It's nice to meet people who are really smart, really driven, and who really want to go to school and study. I don't feel like a freak or abnormal for loving school and loving my courses and to read and to study for classes. I'm surrounded by people like me, instead of half my class only attending because they're required to do so. People here get excited and interested when I tell them about my research and independent projects, not intimidated or taken-aback by it. I guess it's like I'm attending an Ivy League without the pretentiousness. Luckily I haven't met a pretentious person yet, but the school term is still young...

It's fun to get so much attention for being American. Especially when they try to question me about politics. Especially when they don't realize that I'm a double-major in History and Political Science specializing in post-1945 America and US foreign policy. WHAT NOW!?! HAHA!

And funnily, the more I talk to my friends back home in California, the more I appreciate being here. It's because I know that I have people at home who miss me and are waiting for me to come back. And that's a nice comfort.

Hopefully I'll update more later.