Spring Time

Hello, March. The new month brought a rare day of 45 degree temperatures and, shockingly, sun. The weather report actually looks somewhat promising for the next week, so hopefully we'll start seeing more of that elusive sunlight.

It's been a quiet week and a half since our return to London, as we've actually had to do some work. We turned in our first papers for International Security, and both have presentations for Art History tomorrow. So if anyone ever needs some help with Mantegna's The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome, I'm your man. Since last week was our first week of class since reading week, our psych classes all added a new, one hour lecture on different days. But, neither of my new classes went as planned. On Tuesday, my developmental professor forgot the new hour of lecture was that day, so for the first 25 minutes of class everyone sat and chatted. Finally, someone who knew where her office was went and got her, and we held a shortened class. Fair enough.

BUT, on Friday, I had to wake up an hour earlier than usual (and Jillian actually had to go to class) for our 10 AM Psych and Education lecture. It became clear that that professor too had forgotten, and some administrative-type came in at 10:20 to tell us that the professor thought the lecture was at 11 and wouldn't be able to make it. So the psych department emailed us later that day telling us the lecture had been rescheduled for Wednesday the 10th as an additional hour after our normal meeting period. Jillian and I both think it's ridiculous to make us come in for a second hour when the professor simply forgot - especially since we had to sit there for the hour on Friday anyway. Not to mention that Mom and Dad will be visiting then, so it's another hour spent sitting in class during their visit. UCL seems to have a major problem with organization, which is surprising for a university held in such high esteem. To top it off, we got another email today telling us our International Security lecture for tomorrow morning was canceled because the guest lecturer couldn't make it. At least that instructor is simply rescheduling the lecture for the last day of class - I guess it will replace the conclusion and "toward the future" lecture that had been scheduled then. But even so, considering we only have ten hours of lecture in the entire semester for that subject, it seems a bit odd.

Anyway, last week Jillian and I took the tube down to Borough Market, a very old and well-known outdoor market, per the advice of Lauren and Michael. We decided to break our cost-saving ways a little and bought some good (but expensive) stuff there: fresh brownies, two big hunks of fresh mozzarella from Italy, fresh pesto also from Italy, and a cantaloupe. The brownies were HUGE, and pretty good, and the cantaloupe was delicious as well. But the highlight was definitely the cheese and pesto, which we used to make two meals. The first was my brainchild - a fresh chicken panini. I grilled some chicken on the George Foreman, and then put it on some fresh ciabatta bread along with the cheese, pesto, and tomatoes (for me, not Jillian) before putting it back on the grill briefly to create a melted sandwich of deliciousness. This began a recent trend of more actual cooking for the two of us, instead of just preparing a lot of frozen/precooked dishes. Later in the week, we decided to use the rest of the mozzarella and some more of the pesto to recreate the Caprese crepe I had had in Amsterdam. We got crepe mix from Sainsbury's, and added the pesto, cheese, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms - it was a lot of work, but they were absolutely delicious. Jillian took pictures of both dinners, so I assume she'll post them whenever she writes her new post (tomorrow, I'd assume?). Later in the week we caved and finally went to an American restaurant - none other than the fabulous KFC. Nothing like some fried goodness to remind us of the US. This week we're planning on cooking loaded baked potatoes with a side of bruschetta (interesting combination, right?), cream of mushroom chicken with asparagus, and loaded nachos. But enough about food (which seems to be a significant portion of these blogs).

Last week we went over to Lauren and Michael's to celebrate his birthday with some of their friends, and then went back a couple nights later to cook enchiladas together for dinner (more food...) They left bright and early on Friday morning for Portugal, but our flatmate Rosie's boyfriend George came in for the weekend. The four of us decided to head to a bowling alley near our psych building on Saturday night for a change of pace, but did not get what we expected. We knew it was also a bar/restaurant in addition to the bowling alley, but we were pretty surprised when they told us there was a 10 Pound cover. We turned to walk away when one of the guys working the door said he could get us in for free. So he walked us around to a staircase on the side leading to an entrance, and we headed in. This place was STRANGE. It was much more of a bar/place to play pool that just happened to have 5 bowling lanes. They told us it was £36 for an hour on a lane. That, combined with the hour+ long wait and the interesting assortment of people made the decision easy for us, and we left to head back to Schafer. We all agreed that had we paid £10 to get in for that we would've been pretty upset. But we made the best of the night and had a good time back at our flat.

This coming week is the last before the craziness really begins - Ashley comes this weekend, and Mom and Dad get here Sunday morning. We have a list of restaurants to go to with them and some places to see, but because they've been here before their visit will likely be much different than when Jillian's mom comes. We've saved most of the big tourist sites here for that visit, since we knew Sheri would want to see them.

Other than that we don't really have any big plans for the week. I got my first British haircut today (much to the delight of my girlfriend, who, rightfully, lamented the craziness of my hair in recent weeks). A nice Greek man named Michael cut it, and seemed to be even more nervous than I. But I think in the end both of us were happy with the result, and, perhaps most importantly, so was Jillian. Tomorrow after Art History we're going to try a fast food Chinese-type place called Wok in a Box that we hope brings back memories of Wok to Walk from Amsterdam. I know, I know, more food talk, but I can't help it. George also introduced us to a great British snack food called Quavers that are Funion-esque, but so much better. He'll be returning in a few weeks, so we're excited to hang out with the two of them again - perhaps they will finally meet Lauren and Michael.


Well I've stretched an entry about nothing on for long enough, so here's my cultural difference:

Dachshunds, while known as wiener dogs at home, are apparently called sausage dogs here.