I Probably Should've Started This Sooner...

But well, you know me by now. This is what I do.

So far, this experience has been a blast and I don't see that changing anytime soon. As a fellow NU student here is apt to say, "We're just living the dream." And aren't we? I have about 10 hours of class and three of those hours are spent watching film or watching a play. I have classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I have four day weekends. Whenever anyone goes out of town for the weekend, they come back HERE. London is our home. On my way home from Paris (to be discussed in another post) I realized I was leaving Paris to go hoe to London. And this is my life right now. How is this not living the dream?=

Now for my classes. The standard format for classes here is an hour lecture with the whole class. After that the class splits into different seminar groups for another hour in which the topics are discussed, led by the instructor.

Explorations in Literature. I enjoy this class. We read a classic work, go to a lecture about that work, then have a seminar to discuss. So far we've read the Odyssey, Antigone (a play by Sophocles), Ovid's Metamorphoses and Beowulf. All books I've meant to read before, I just never get around to it. So far I'd have to say I enjoyed Antigone the most, especially after I went back and read the two previous plays that lead up to Antigone.

Ethnographic Film. This class isn't exactly what I expected. I think I was looking for more focus on the films, instead of focusing on the evolution of film as an anthropological medium. This class is basically a lecture/seminar hybrid, a straight 2-3 hours. After a brief introductory lecture, snippets of the main film are shown with portions of a secondary film shown next. Afterwards, the instructor assigns rows different questions to focus on, and the class devolves into a lot of loud groups doing the questions until they have an easy answer than talking about whatever. Then the instructor calls us back together and has us present the answers. Nothing ever really seems to get accomplished.

Lived Histories. This focuses on social movements of Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. The lectures are ok, but the seminars don't really have much direction to them. I'm also not that big a fan of the instructor. Not really much to say about this.

London Theater. Easily the most enjoyable class. We meet for an hour and discuss the previous week's production. However, most of my class consists of theater kids, so the four NU kids just sit back and let the theater kids talk about it. After class ends, we have to jump on the bus or overground and journey to the play for the night. Then we watch a play and that's it. So far we've seen "Brief Encounter" which was an adaptation of the movie put to stage. It was a very interesting production, audience participation was involved, film was used to supplement the action on the stage and it was presented as a night out at the movies like in the 40s. After that we saw "Mine" which is best described as a bad Lifetime movie. Next was "Radio Golf" by August Wilson. The production could've been better, but it stirred interest in me to see more of his work. Last week we saw "Now or Later" which is set in real-time right when the polls are closing on a US presidential election. Easily the best production we've seen so far, very engaging and provocative.

The drinking culture is very relaxed here. It's just a part of everyday life, not an occasion, like in the States. A lot of kids pop in for a pint or two after their classes and then go on with their day. Everyone seems to be able to handle it a lot better too. Which is good, because drinking is almost constant. The only night we really take off is Mondays. Sunday and Tuesday night are pub quizzes, Wednesday is Club Sandwich and also the start of the weekend for most of us, so Monday is the only night that seems to be universally taken off. And of course lots of people are sick because our bodies are breaking down.

I haven't done much touristy stuff in London, since I've been here before and I'm waiting for people to come visit. I went to the British Museum and Greenwich and we go into Central London every so often. Otherwise, my time is spent in the New Cross area. Not much too exciting around here, we mainly go to the Hobgoblin and the Student Union (SU). Going into Central is expensive or takes a while, since the Tube is down, and so far it hasn't been worth the effort to go for a night.

The people are much more friendly here, everyone uses please, you're welcome, thanks/cheers. There's a lack of urgency that is refreshing, but at the same time it can be frustrating. Sometimes I just don't want to stand in a long line at Sainsbury's when the checkout woman is taking her time. But most of the time its fine, a different pace that is nice.

The weather has been pretty great. It was warmish/sunny the first several weeks here and it has not rained much at all. It's getting colder now, but it is almost November, so it's to be expected.

I'm running out of steam. If you want to view pictures, there's links to albums on the right, closer to the top of the page. If I have not addressed anything you would like to know about, please leave a comment or send an email to tram66@gmail.com. Check back in the next day or two for posts on my trip to Paris and my trip to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath.