The Anniversary
So, it's been a month from today. A month ago I was wandering around Camden Town for the first time in a sleepless daze, trying my hardest not to get dangerously lost. Today, I still wander around in a daze, but at least I pretty much know where I'm going.
So what grand, momentous, life-altering lessons have I learned since I got here? Um, well. . .
I've learned that London is pretty much like Chicago, except the bars close earlier and the bus drivers are meaner. I've learned that even if you're Gwyneth Paltrow, you're not going to get decent customer service from the English. Um, that's pretty much it. Oh, I've also learned that English accents are no longer sexy when you hear them all. the. time. And that American accents do not have the same resonance for them as they have on us (or me, specifically).
I've had a pretty chaotic week. I spent most of Monday at the British Library. Tuesday I was in a panic because I needed my AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, for ye non-library-types) for class, which I'd allegedly ordered two weeks before from Amazon.co.uk, and had not arrived yet. For a brief moment I was joyous because I stopped by the main office before leaving at 8am, and there was my name saying I had a package! Hurrah!...wait, wtf is this!!
They had sent me just an update, instead of the entire 700 page rule book. Useless! And expensively so! It's like ordering the encyclopedia and just getting an index! Oh, I was stomping mad. So I emailed the fella I bought it from asking him what he was thinking advertising "2002 AARC2 revision with 2003 update" when all he had was the 2003 update. I, of course, said this nicely. He blamed Amazon. I spent much of the day TODAY running around trying to get it returned and forking over the £31.50 for the 2005 edition from my cataloging teacher, which I should have done in the first place.
Anyhow, that was all boring.
Yesterday was nice. After our morning classes, Robyn and I grabbed a sandwich and went to a park near campus to eat. This park was surrounded by lovely buildings, one of which was the home of Virginia Woolf. Very neato! It was a very sunny, mild day. Robyn and I nabbed a bench and stretched out. Not five minutes into it, I look up and there's this older gentleman with a cane just hovering over us, looking from us, to the 6 inches of free space left on the bench, and back to us. I look around at the other benches that were half occupied, and therefore half empty trying to say "Buzz off, old man!" with my eyes. He had none of it. So I gather up my things, and scootch over a bit and he plops right on down. I can't move over any more than I have, so he's like touching me. All down my left side. It felt ooky! And what the heck, man! I was trying to eat my sandwich! Then he starts waving his cane around at pigeons that were invading his territory about 30ft. away.
Robyn and I squish together and try and finish our sandwiches and conversation. This works, sort of, for a few minutes, but then...Then! He starts BARKING! I whip around and look him straight in the eye, like "....the heck, crazyman?" There's a dog barking in the distance, and everytime the dog woofs, the old man woofs and stares at me like an imbecile. I just...I don't know if I've dealing with an actual crazy person, or some dementia case, or an old dude who's playing the crazy card to get the bench to himself. Robyn and I stop talking and just give each other weirded out looks and try to ignore it, but finally we have to get up and just get the heck out of there. I couldn't help feeling, as we walked away, that old crazy dude won.
I guess if you're going to be crazy anywhere, it should be in front of Virginia Woolf's house.
Today was maddening again, with other problems in trying to get my housing bill paid and deal with a check for £1000. People here can't seem to get their heads around the fact that I a) do not have a UK bank account, and b) don't have a mobile phone. It's unbelievable to them, despite the fact that bank accounts are impossible to open and they make British citizens jump through an enormous amount of hoops, nevermind foreigners. Also, mobiles are expensive and worthless as the only people I'd care enough about calling me would end up paying a fortune. There's just no real reason. Anyhow, because of these two things, today involved a LOT of running around. I am very content to now be back in my room, reinstalling windows, and typing about nonsense.
Anyhow, it's struck me that of all the photos I've posted, none have had me in it. So here's me, about 10 minutes ago, waving hello to you all!!
Also, I have learned that in addition to drizzly, stick-to-you rain, it does indeed thunderstorm here. Or so I found out after yesterday's hailstorm! Here's a picture of some scary sky outside my dorm.
So what grand, momentous, life-altering lessons have I learned since I got here? Um, well. . .
I've learned that London is pretty much like Chicago, except the bars close earlier and the bus drivers are meaner. I've learned that even if you're Gwyneth Paltrow, you're not going to get decent customer service from the English. Um, that's pretty much it. Oh, I've also learned that English accents are no longer sexy when you hear them all. the. time. And that American accents do not have the same resonance for them as they have on us (or me, specifically).
I've had a pretty chaotic week. I spent most of Monday at the British Library. Tuesday I was in a panic because I needed my AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, for ye non-library-types) for class, which I'd allegedly ordered two weeks before from Amazon.co.uk, and had not arrived yet. For a brief moment I was joyous because I stopped by the main office before leaving at 8am, and there was my name saying I had a package! Hurrah!...wait, wtf is this!!
They had sent me just an update, instead of the entire 700 page rule book. Useless! And expensively so! It's like ordering the encyclopedia and just getting an index! Oh, I was stomping mad. So I emailed the fella I bought it from asking him what he was thinking advertising "2002 AARC2 revision with 2003 update" when all he had was the 2003 update. I, of course, said this nicely. He blamed Amazon. I spent much of the day TODAY running around trying to get it returned and forking over the £31.50 for the 2005 edition from my cataloging teacher, which I should have done in the first place.
Anyhow, that was all boring.
Yesterday was nice. After our morning classes, Robyn and I grabbed a sandwich and went to a park near campus to eat. This park was surrounded by lovely buildings, one of which was the home of Virginia Woolf. Very neato! It was a very sunny, mild day. Robyn and I nabbed a bench and stretched out. Not five minutes into it, I look up and there's this older gentleman with a cane just hovering over us, looking from us, to the 6 inches of free space left on the bench, and back to us. I look around at the other benches that were half occupied, and therefore half empty trying to say "Buzz off, old man!" with my eyes. He had none of it. So I gather up my things, and scootch over a bit and he plops right on down. I can't move over any more than I have, so he's like touching me. All down my left side. It felt ooky! And what the heck, man! I was trying to eat my sandwich! Then he starts waving his cane around at pigeons that were invading his territory about 30ft. away.
Robyn and I squish together and try and finish our sandwiches and conversation. This works, sort of, for a few minutes, but then...Then! He starts BARKING! I whip around and look him straight in the eye, like "....the heck, crazyman?" There's a dog barking in the distance, and everytime the dog woofs, the old man woofs and stares at me like an imbecile. I just...I don't know if I've dealing with an actual crazy person, or some dementia case, or an old dude who's playing the crazy card to get the bench to himself. Robyn and I stop talking and just give each other weirded out looks and try to ignore it, but finally we have to get up and just get the heck out of there. I couldn't help feeling, as we walked away, that old crazy dude won.
I guess if you're going to be crazy anywhere, it should be in front of Virginia Woolf's house.
Today was maddening again, with other problems in trying to get my housing bill paid and deal with a check for £1000. People here can't seem to get their heads around the fact that I a) do not have a UK bank account, and b) don't have a mobile phone. It's unbelievable to them, despite the fact that bank accounts are impossible to open and they make British citizens jump through an enormous amount of hoops, nevermind foreigners. Also, mobiles are expensive and worthless as the only people I'd care enough about calling me would end up paying a fortune. There's just no real reason. Anyhow, because of these two things, today involved a LOT of running around. I am very content to now be back in my room, reinstalling windows, and typing about nonsense.
Anyhow, it's struck me that of all the photos I've posted, none have had me in it. So here's me, about 10 minutes ago, waving hello to you all!!
Also, I have learned that in addition to drizzly, stick-to-you rain, it does indeed thunderstorm here. Or so I found out after yesterday's hailstorm! Here's a picture of some scary sky outside my dorm.
posted by Lauren Matson | 6:56 PM
3 Comments:
No photo, but, HI!!!!!
The whole sexy British accent thing is only in comparison to the bland, vaguely stupid sounding American accents *I* listen to every day. I can see how it would lose its grandeur in a different setting.
*bark bark bark*
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