I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus

Listening to the Beatles is perfect for London. I'm sure I'm not the first to come to that conclusion.

I actually managed to get out of bed before 9am this morning (ok, not OUT of bed, but I was sitting up). Managed not to electrocute myself, which is always a plus. Decided on a breakfast of fried eggs and toast, which was definitely better than my usual cereal and...cereal.

I spent the early afternoon in Spitalfields with Dorothy, who lives downstairs. We explored Brick Lane, which is a really cool, funky area near the City of London. The walls are covered in street art, there are vintage shops (not the kind that sell crappy clothes from 2002--real shops with cool old belts and boots, etc) all over the place, and it has a very cool vibe. It was very urban and, ugh, hipster, which I actually didn't mind. We browsed for a while, and then had Indian food for lunch. I've never officially had Indian food before, and now I'm in love with naan (delicious, delicious carbs). Brick Lane has evidently become a predominantly Bangladeshi area, which seemed more apparent on the end opposite all the shops. I guess there's a pretty cool street market on the weekends, so I think I'll do that soon. Definitely worth the trip.

I was thinking of going to the British museum to poke around a little bit more, but I think I'll save that for later. I feel a nap coming on, and I'll probably wake up around dinnertime. Cheers!

Sunshine in London!

Blue skies in London! Don't get me wrong, I sort of like the overcast, but not freezing, weather we've been having here, but I was so glad to see sunshine this morning, especially the kind that sticks around. It's been beautiful all day.

Since most everyone else had class today, I pretty much had the day to myself. I woke up late, as expected, and only managed to electrocute myself a little when I tried to dry my hair. I decided to put it up in a ponytail.

A couple stops west on the Piccadilly line is Covent Gardens, where there is a market and lots of shopping. Since it was so nice out, there were people EVERYWHERE. I window shopped the expensive shops in the area, and even bought a pair of jeans on sale (£13.50!) I NEVER find jeans that cheap that actually fit me, so I grabbed them. Even though they may or may not be extremely similar to a pair I already own. Can't have too many, right?

I wandered up and down Neal St., which is supposed to be chock full of shoes, but I didn't find boots I liked. Every woman in England seems to own a pair of really cool boots, but I can't seem to figure out where they bought them. I did find a Muji, though, which has a lot of really minimal, really cool home goods and clothing. Definitely worth a trip back.

Once I was done browsing, I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich and a ginger beer and people watched in the square near the royal opera house. Came back to the flat pretty happy with the sun :)

So, so tired.

I'm obviously still adjusting to the time, which is super-lame because I've been here for a full week. It takes a Herculean effort to get out of bed in the morning, and I'm sitting here at 12:17 am tippy-tapping on my keyboard and reading celebrity gossip. Ugh.

Anyways, the last two days have been fairly uneventful. Yesterday I tried to go to The Monument, and after I got of the tube (Ps: I LOVE saying 'tube.' Tube! tube! tube!), I found out it's closed for renovations for like, ever. So I came home and did grocery shopping. I'm fascinated with foreign grocery stores, so that was alright with me. I took a rather uneventful walk around Bloomsbury, my neighborhood, and wound up in a rather uninspiring office-y area. I did find King's Cross, however, so that was good.

Today was my first day of class, and I'd like to take a second and say how much I adore our professor. His name is Norm, and he is fantastically blustery and English. He dithers. He wears crocheted ties (really!). He is a font of mostly sporadic lectures, but he gives us great packets of notes to read instead. We had our first lecture today, which was mainly about western history; Mesopotamia, the Greeks, the Romans, etc. He also took us around Bloomsbury to show us the neighborhood, and we saw the squares, the British Museum, the British Library, and King's Cross and St. Pancras. Tomorrow I think I'm going to look around a little bit more; I found a brochure for a walking tour of the area at Faraday House.

My good friend Thea from USC has been here for the semester, so we met for coffee this afternoon. She's leaving Friday, so we only had a little bit to catch up, but it was fun. When she was here last summer, she stayed in the same street as I'm living on, so she knew exactly where I am.

On another fantastic note, I finally have internet in my apartment, which is like holding MAGIC in my hands. I've talked to both Alex and my mom on Skype today, and it seems to be a really good way to keep in touch. So if you've got it, I'm doreen.amelia.

Goodnight!

Finally set up

I've been here in London since Tuesday, but now is the first chance I've really had to write about what I'm doing--the internet still isn't set up in my flat, so now I'm in a coffee shop taking advantage of the free wireless.

The first couple days mom was here, we mostly slept and ate--jetlag is tough to shake. We went to see Spamalot, which I loved, on Wednesday night and Saturday night we went to see Mamma Mia. We had tea at Harrods, which was delicious, and we spent a little time exploring the neighborhood I'm in, which is called Bloomsbury.

The girls I've met so far are really nice--I went out with them on Friday night, and we went to an American sports bar. That was fun, but I'm looking forward to going to more local places; what's the point of looking for other tourists?

Today I went on a school trip to Greenwich to see the royal observatory--where the prime meridian is. I was super touristy and took a picture standing in both the east and west hemisphere. About an hour ago two other girls and I booked a weekend in Dublin--I'm really really excited about it, although there are some more details to work out.

More later, I think. Tomorrow I'm going to try and go to the monument so I can see the view from the top...we'll see how well I do with the apparently endless staircase.

Cheers!