Flying time

It's been three years since I took my A Levels. I was thinking about this because last week I had dinner with some RJ friends, and we had such a lovely time swapping updates about former schoolmates.

I was also reminded about that crazy flurry of exams because the psalm I'm reading this week is Psalm 27, which helped anchor me to an undulating peace during the prelims. (It's also sort of crazy that I've been reading a psalm a week for 150+27 weeks now. Man.)

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It's been three months since I last mentioned law school on this blog. Yes I was vain enough to check. And over the course of those three months I've become quite certain that God doesn't want me in law school after college. It's a blessing to be taking two law classes at SOAS -- like taking Comedy and Tragedy and modern physics during my freshman year at Williams -- and as fascinated as I am by their philosophical and historical dimensions, these classes have helped me realise that I don't have the patience that legal analysis demands.

Currently, the books I've checked out from the SOAS library comprise one Arabic grammar reference, two law books, three books on education and language, and five about economic development in Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. We'll see.

I have to get that ego out of the way and trust that people better than me will fight those excruciatingly crucial legal battles at home. And I have to get that fear out of the way and trust that God has some purpose for the time I have invested and will invest in learning Arabic, even if it turns out to be just for conversation starters and sheer linguistic beauty rather than for intensely practical usage in sharia courts.

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It's been 1.5 months since I got to London: we're well into autumn now. I've actually been feeling cold over the last few days, even in my wool coat. Which is odd because last year in Williamstown at this temperature range (>5C, >40F) I was perfectly comfortable in a denim skirt sans tights, and I was going around in flip flips.

Time with good friends in Cambridge this weekend and a Skype call with a cousin last week made me realise that I miss being with people who know me well enough to insult me. Among all the vibrant people I've met in London, there are a few whom I joke with but hardly any who tease me -- most are too sweet or too distant. It's truly been a stellar time -- I'm just too ungrateful.

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It's been a week since I got a haircut at the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy. It's a spin on the student cut concept: I paid just 5 quid but the hairdresser wasn't a greenhorn, but someone who'd been cutting hair for years and was at the academy to learn "creative techniques". Which apparently sound like postmodern poetry: there is now controlled misdirection, concealed layers and disconnections on my head. The teacher really liked what the hairdresser was doing to my hair and kept calling it "brilliant, brilliant work". And although my haircut and me are distinct entities, having a "beautiful shape" is a pleasant compliment. According to the same teacher, there're supposed to be some squares and a triangle back there, but from my point of view I see a fringe and half a foot less of length, both of which are good changes that I'm still getting used to.

It's also been a few days since I decided that as much as I love my hooded black wool coat, it was boring. So eventually I cut up a spare (new) red-and-white-striped dish cloth and used dental floss to fasten it round half the buttons on my coat. No one's made any comments so far, but so long as no one approaches me in the street to say, "Pardon me, but why do you have a tea towel on your winter coat?" I will be content with my colourful buttons.

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It's a few hours till I set out for Sweden to visit a really good friend. I'm still weirded out by the combination of generous educational institution/weird economics of budget airlines/luck/grace that is making this possible. And I'm so, so excited.

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Events log

Turn of the month: Christian Union weekend away in Marlow. Didn't find any horror, just scores of rich conversations, lovely food, a wildly fun water gun fight, and lots of nostalgia for camp days of yore.

Thursday: Had a major "Whoa I'm in London!!" moment when I was walking from campus to Victoria and got help up outside Buckingham Palace along the way because they were changing the guard!! (Which I think totally warrants tacky punctuation.) Once at Victoria, I met up with a Williams friend who was visiting London, and we moseyed past Hyde Park to Knightsbridge, where we ate Cornish pasties from the Harrod's food halls (i.e. the only buy-able department) and later drifted through the V&A, talking about life and art and home ownership.

Later in the evening, I went to my aunt's house for the Bonfire Night (= Nov 5 = Guy Fawkes) gathering that a cousin had pulled together. Yay bonfire! And double yay talking to all four cousins and all three of their spouses! Uhh. By which I mean the cousin who is my age isn't married yet. But yes, it was such a great time and I felt so happy.

Friday: LPO concert with my cousin -- really really liked the tension in the Verdi, got slightly drowsy during the charmingly exuberant Tchaikovsky, and was completely taken with the tempestuous majestic Dvorak.

Weekend: Cambridge. Gorgeous old town, venerable halls of learning &c, wonderful friends, marvelous concert, amazing walks. Am thankful. :)