Keep On Keepin' On

So as school becomes more involved, posts are being more spaced out, but I'm still keeping a journal everyday so nothing is being missed! Thanks to anyone still reading, I hope you are enjoying at least part of what I write!

Day #52 - Tuesday, November 9: Still a bit exhausted from my travels to Glasgow, I slept in today. I spent the afternoon working on some homework and also Skyping with Eric. My night class got canceled, so I honestly did nothing exciting today! I also spent a while with my library books looking for some inspiration for projects.

Day #53 - Wednesday, November 10: I woke up today around 10:30 to go to school to meet with my study abroad advisor. Upon getting there, I noticed campus was really strange...all the gates were closed and there were security people all around the perimeter. Upon entering the building, a security guard promptly asked me for my school ID, which I have never been asked to show. I knew there was some sort of demonstration going on, but wasn't sure the extent it was going to reach. I ended up having to post pone my meeting till 3:30, so I decided to head out and go to the National Geographic Store, which I have been wanting to go since I first saw it a few months ago.

On the way to the store, there were some students on my bus that were part of the protest going on. As it turned out, over 50,000 students from London showed up in Parliament Square to protest tuition rises. They marched from Parliament Square to my school, which would explain all the added security. I thought the whole idea of it was a bit silly, I mean students at my school pay under 5,000 pounds a year to go to one of the top design schools a year. And tuition was going to go up minimally. Kind of stupid in my opinion, but it seems  young students always need a reason to complain. And I guess the march got way out of hand, with broken window, kids arrested, etc. If you're interested in reading about the stupidity of my generation and at my school, click here. The bus driver had a fun time mocking them...the whole time we were driving through the crowd he was chanting "What do we want? MONEY! When do we want it? NOW!" 

Once I finally got through the angry mob of college students, I finally made it too the National Geographic Store. How amazing! I spend a good hour and half in there, drooling over all the photography, books, DVD's, etc. I found a really great book that I caved in and bought called National Geographic: Guide to the National Parks of the United States. Exploring and re-exploring some (hopefully all!) of the National Parks at home is something I'm really interested. My parents and Eric and I are planning a road trip this summer so hopefully this book comes in handy! :)

After finishing drooling over the store, I went to meet with my advisor. Essentially, I have decided to come home a term early and need approval. So, instead of staying in London until the end of June, I'll be coming home in April. It is required that I have two internships to graduate, and seeing as I only have one year of school left, I don't want to leave myself trying to have two internships that year. So, that leaves the summer. My visa is up in July, so I can't stay here and get one, and decided it would be better to come home and get an internship so I can graduate on time! My top contender right now is Meredith Company, based out of Des Moines (they own better Homes and Gardens, etc.)

 Day #54 - Thursday, November 11: I had lecture this morning from 10-12. The tutor I have for that class is the spaciest man I have ever met. We'll be talking about design terminology, and then all the sudden he'll yell "It's like...what the fuc* is that? Since when did farmers walk on all fours? Oh wait it's a cow. Wait, why the fuc* is the cow drinking beer?" All said with a goofy Irish accent (This is a direct quote from today's lecture). I can't understand half of what the man says because his accent is so thick, but from what I can understand of him he is crazy, but also intelligent nonetheless. 

After lecture, I had a final review for my film project I've been working on all semester. That lasted until 5:30. I met up with Paige, and we decided to go get some dinner. Afterwards we went to TGI Friday's and got some cookie dough cheesecake and some fun drinks. I came home and had some more lovely flowers and chocolate awaiting me for Eric and I's anniversary. I did some homework and headed to bed!

Beautiful orange roses :) my third set of flowers from my wonderful boyfriend!

Day #55 - Friday, November 12: I woke up today around 1230, got ready, and headed to my typography class from 2-5. I came home and cleaned for a bit (my room was atrocious, even to me, and that's saying something!) I also spent a good amount of time filling in my new journal. I found a really neat London Adventures journal at the National Geographic Store, and decided to use it to put all of my experiences in one place, along with items I've been collecting (previously, I had just been jotting down my days on any scratch paper I could find, and I wanted it all in one place). After I finished that, I skyped with Eric for a bit for our 6 month anniversary. Then I watched Thursday's Grey's Anatomy, and headed to bed around midnight, since I had to be up at 6...and I am the farthest thing from a morning person.

Day #56 - Saturday, November 13: I woke up around 630, left around 730, to head out on one of the adventure excursions put on by the Butler program I came through. I had quite the exciting morning. All I wanted was some coffee, but I guess I wasn't meant to have any. The bus ride was supposed to be 45 minutes, and about 20 minutes in, at a bus stop, I heard screaming from the bottom level. Well, it turns out, some drunk woman (yes, it was 8 in the morning) got into a fist fight with another angry woman. And the cops (4 cars worth) had to come and question them. But instead of getting them off the bus and letting us get on our merry way, we weren't allowed to go until they were done. Finally, what seemed like forever later, another bus showed up and I got to continue on my journey. I got to the departure place late, coffeeless, and grumpy. Around 9 we headed out to Bath.

When we arrived in Bath, we got a walking tour of part of the historic parts of the city. We saw the Crescent Palace, the Bath Circus, and the oldest house in Bath. We broke for lunch, then reconvened outside the Roman Baths and went on a guided audio tour. I didn't listen to much of it, I was too busy taking pictures! After finishing there, I went to a few little shops, and then we loaded up to head back. Here are some pictures from my day!

A bridge in Bath. Every single building in Bath was made of the same stone (Bath stone!), which was kind of boring but also interesting to be completely surrounded by it. 

Part of the Bath Circus. The man who designed it was obsessed with Stonehenge and the number 3. The circus area is the same diameter as Stonehenge, has 3 buildings, each with 3 floors and 11 on each floor, so 33 rooms per building. Also, from above, the circus looks like a key, which was a mesonic symbol. 

Columns at the Roman Baths

Crescent Palace in Bath. An interesting piece of information our tour guide told us: notice on the left, right below the building, how there is a little ledge in the grass. Extremely rich people lived in this palace many years ago and they wanted to have animals to look at outside their window, but didn't like the idea of fences. So they built a tall ledge that the animals couldn't get over, and that was unnoticeable from inside. Kind of genius! 

East Bath at the Roman Baths

The main Roman Bath

Jane Austen Center! Which I sadly didn't have time to go to. 

Day #57 - Sunday, November 14: I decided to not set an alarm today and slept in. Really, really, really late. I will spare you the actual time, because it is kind of embarrassing, but I guess I was really tired! I woke up, got some groceries, made dinner, then spent the rest of the night doing research and starting to teach myself a new Adobe program. Lesson #20: The new education system over here is teaching me something; you can only be as successful as you are driven. You can't reach your full potential without drive. At home, I never would have taken the time to teach myself a program. But I've been motivated to be a better designer and learn more, even if I have to teach myself. 

Day #58 - Monday, November 15: Today, I had class from 10-2. We spend most of the morning watching videos on the history of motion graphics (a branch of graphic design). After class, I came home and worked more on learning the program. Eric was nice enough to set me up with an account on lynda.com. For anyone looking to learn anything about any (and I literally mean ANY) program on computers, this site is heaven. One of my flatmates made us all dinner. On the invite it said we were eating "pasta, chili, cheese" which turned out to be spaghetti. Same thing I guess though, except the chili was pasta sauce. Silly British. Then I iChatted with Mom and Dad for an hour or so, then with Eric, then to bed!

Day #59 - Tuesday, November 16: Tuesdays always seem to be the day where I have absolutely nothing to write about. Today is no exception. I spend the afternoon with a cup of tea (Turkish Apple Tea...amazing!), some music, and lynda.com. I went through a bunch of tutorials and am continuing to teach myself things!

Day #60 - Wednesday, November 17: I had class 10:30-12 and 2:30-4:30 today. After class, I came home, ate quick, and headed to Peckham. I'm sure some of you who read this have noticed that I mention "Peckham" a lot in my posts. Since the first week of class, we have all been working on producing short films about businesses in the area (Peckham, that is). At the culmination of it all (which was tonight) all of our films were shown in the Peckham Multiplex. On a big screen! The films we created were showed to the public for 2 pounds, and the theater was full! It was really gratifying to finally see all of our hard work and frustrations pay off on the big screen. Here's a link to the description in the Londonist! After the showing, we had a little after party at a local business. I became more aware than I already was at the fact that this country is slightly alcoholic...as my tutors were all rather drunk. It provided some amusement but it is definitely not something that would happen at home!

My groups film description in the program!

Day #61 - Thursday, November 18: I got an email from my professor this morning saying his "throat hurt and class was cancelled"...aka we all saw him very very drunk last night and he couldn't make it. This country is ridiculous. I had another class from 12:30-2:30, then went to the library to get some more books. On the bus ride home the girl sitting across from me had her school uniform on and it had a pin that said "PREFECT" on it. It instantly reminded me of Harry Potter! WHICH COMES OUT TONIGHT!! If I can find tickets I might go tonight, otherwise I'm going to go Saturday.

English Language Revised

pastry - more of a crossant, not the sweet type we have

cheese bread - grilled cheese