Watching traffic from the lab

Found the computer lab- finally- no more internet cafes! It's a pretty spacious building one side of which, the side facing the streets, is all glass, making it easy to become lost in people-watching and the back and forth of traffic...makes you lose your train of thought. It's especially nice walking by at night when all the lights are on and you can look up and catch the eye of a student looking away from the computer for a distraction. Someone's always looking out. Reminds me of the little office in Cambridge above the Dunkin' Donuts on Bow street where I used to walk by on Friday afternoons- this office is also all windows on the street side and, like clockwork, this one woman would be sitting at her desk and she'd look at me we'd wave at each other. Every Friday. Someone say hi for me.

Present news...I'm continually asked about what my room is like aside from cold, so I thought I'd explain. Firstly I've managed to figure out the heating system. Um...it was there all along I'm just a twit. Turn the thingy on the side of the thingy and heat goes on. Still working on the internet in the room situation but as I'm the kind of girl who’s surprised electricity doesn't dribble out of the wall socket when you unplug something, it's slow going.

The room itself is about the size of my original dorm at Regents- a little bigger even, although that was a double. The flats we're all in are seemingly refurbished recently. Mine's carpeted (yes!) and has nice light wooden panelling, cubbies, and desk space that curves around to become a sort of nightstand. Each room has a tiny bathroom, so no sprinting through hallways to pee in the middle of the night, and I've bought tile cleaner for the shower, a sponge and some rubber gloves (by the way Mum, you owe Kate ten bucks). I'm on the first floor at the very end of the hall, and my window looks out on an alley with a few plants in which a catfight took place around 4am last night (real cats, not girls). There's a kitchen we all share but I have yet to use it except for the microwave. As for the people in my flat, I've yet to meet any them. Perhaps this is because I'm not housed with the other visiting students but with British students who are still not yet back from holiday.

This morning was all just more orientation meetings. How to stay safe in London. Banking in London. How not to plagiarize in London. How to use the underground. If the room weren't so cold I might have fallen asleep.
So far people seem very nice but reserved. Most of them are here through particular programs (usually you apply via an American Abroad program i.e. Syracuse, BACL etc, rather than sending your application individually like I did), so these programs have their respective orientation and icebreakers and tours of the city separate from Goldsmiths. It does make me wish that I'd applied through one of those programs simply for the immediate community, but that'll come. Classes begin Monday. I don't know my schedule yet, but the classes I'm taking are Ethnomusicology, Folk and Urban Music, Classical Music Vocal Study, and Shakespeare's London (a course which I think everyone has taken at least three times by senior year, but I'm assuming it'll be a completely different experience to take it in London). I've got a music department meeting at 2, and then perhaps a run. I've heard tell of club soccer teams through the student union and I'll see what I can do to get involved. As for Shotokan, I'm beginning to think it doesn't exist in London. If I don't train soon I'm gonna forget how to tie my belt.

Also, I'm possibly going out to dinner with other newbies whose names I never remember. They've learned to re-introduce themselves each time we meet. I'm so appreciative.



Paul Simon - Spirit Voice (everything off this cd reminds me of driving through France with Mum and Kate)