because I heart London. I really do. And I'm super excited about the semester! Lectures only start next week, but as of today I've gotten verbal approval for the two courses that I hope to count towards my major (i.e. political economy). And then I was sitting on the grass in the square next to campus and a pigeon saw fit to relieve itself on the reading list for The Economic Development of Southeast Asia. o_O But yay nonetheless!
There have been a lot of things that I wanted to blog about but didn't because I've been doing other junk on my computer (emails, a bit of Facebook, lots of looking at maps, orientation schedule, class timetables, booking GBP8 Ryanair tickets to visit a friend in Sweden, etc). And I am determined to go to bed before midnight today, so I shall just say what comes to mind before I get embarrassed about being long-winded.
1. Being in London is still sort of surreal. I was trying to figure out why it always takes a while for it to sink in when I go to a new place, and I think it might be because I always expect myself to feel different when I travel, but I don't, but it makes sense that I don't since it's just my location that changes and not my brain/soul/temperament/essence/[other pretentious term]. But since I always feel like I should feel different but never do (jet lag excepted), I don't know why I still always have the same expectations. I must not be a dog, Pavlov (in the "therefore I conclude" and not the imperative form of must) (grammaretical terminolology ownage).
2. If you tried to parse Point 1, I'm sorry. If you succeeded in parsing Point 1, I don't know if I should declare you my best friend for life or Try To Help you.
3. My knees sort of hurt. I must be getting old. I've also been doing an average of three hours of walking every day, which I think is lovely. It's a good thing my joints can't think because then we'd have fights. And the four hours plus of clubbing yesterday didn't help -- there was a freshers party and I hadn't gone out in London yet (it's interesting how many different concepts claim the phrase "going out"), and I met someone whom I wanted to chat with so I said I'd walk there with her. It was a really mainstream club; I spent about 2/3 of the time dancing and 3/4 of the time wondering why I'd bothered going. It's sad that part of me (again, joints not included) wants to be among people who are desperately trying to look like they are having a good time.
4. It's really weird being in a place where I don't know anyone again. I lie -- I just had dinner with a Malaysian cousin and had lunch with two old RI Boarding friends when I moved from my aunt's to central London on Saturday, and I've gotten to know a bunch of people here, but you know what I mean lah. It's annoying to encounter orientation week insecurities again, especially now that post-orientation life at Williams has decisively disproved such insecurities. But the first evening after I moved into hall I was really tired from all the lugging and waiting and walking and I started thinking that maybe I'd just spend the term being isolated and exploring London and studying on my own and emailing other friends when I got lonely and such. That plan has kindof failed, though. :)
5. Although I almost felt like isolating myself again when I browsed the SEAsian collection in the SOAS library yesterday. It's ridiculously wonderful -- the books I saw include: a volume on betel nut chewing traditions in Southeast Asia, a five-inch thick Malay-English dictionary from colonial days, a Malay novel that I'd always looked at in my secondary school library but never actually read, and a book of Penang recipes, which I borrowed. I also checked out a book on the 1997 financial crisis (which happened way before I was remotely interested in economics so I'm am still hazy on the details but not for much longer!) and a collection of papers on language planning in SEAsia (possible prep for possible thesis). But yes, basically I felt I would be completely fulfilled if I just buried myself in the library for the term.
6. But then I remembered London. And then over the next few hours I met a Scottish fresher girl, a bunch of Japanese undergrads and postgrads, a Singaporean doing her second bachelors, a handful American exchange students, an Iraqi-Canadian, a Malaysian doing a masters in linguistics after his bachelors in engineering and his Filipina colleague, a Polish research student who also wants to exploit student discounts for theatre. And some other people. So the isolation plan failed again.
7. I have no recollection of what the fresher whom I walked to campus with this morning looks like. He was walking downstairs at the same time I was, so I asked him if he was walking to school and we talked the whole of the 20-minute journey and I can't remember his face. At least I did remember to also tell him that I'm really bad with faces. Bleh preemptive whatevers.
8. So far I have spoken American to everyone except my London cousins and the handful of Malaysians and Singaporeans that I've met. It started on the flights over -- talked for about three hours with the guy on my Abu Dhabi-London flight; he was very patient with questions like, "So how do Brits pronounce 'Sir Gawain'?" (I was reading it; he didn't know). At first I was peeved that my code switch default in the west is American, because it would be wonderful to acquire a quasi-British accent, but it just takes too much concentration to try to speak British. If I had more than 2.5 months here I'd definitely give it a go, but for now it's probably better for me to think about what I'm saying rather than how I'm pronouncing it (not least because history has shown that my mouth often works faster than my brain). And we shall see what transpires.
9. Setting up a kitchen requires so much shopping. It's sort of gross. But in a way grocery shopping is pleasant because I actually buy things from supermarkets, unlike 97 percent of other shops. The first few days were frustrating because I was trying to procure cheap pots and dishes. To wit: on Sunday I was walking back after church and buying a cheap wok in Chinatown and thought I would crown my satisfaction with tea. Then I remembered that I didn't own any mugs. The next day I bought a pot and some crockery from Oxfam and finally went to buy stuff to cook, but then I didn't have a knife and the small shops were closed and Sainsbury's only had big expensive knives, so I resorted to pasta with bottled sauce and just a lot of ground beef and frozen peas and carrots thrown in. But I shall make real food tomorrow.
10. I am now officially embarrassed and shall stop here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment