I've been in London for almost three weeks now, and it's definitely been an emotional roller coaster. But I have a place to live (starting November 5th) and classes are settling in, and it's going well. We've even seen the sun a few times!
So I figure that this can act as a way for me to keep people aprised of what I've been up to out here (and believe me, it's gonna be boring. Three days of class, and then three days of reading. Master's Programs don't leave much time for fun, I'm afraid.). Hopefully from time to time there shall be exciting-ness.
I also constantly get asked about what I eat as a vegan, so I figure that this will lead to me having a greater awareness of what I'm eating (or even if I'm eating, which I question sometimes.) I'm also always jealous of all those vegans who have blogs showing the amazing stuff that they cook, so I want to try having one. Plus, if I actually pull off a proper vegan American Thanksgiving in the kitchen that I'm going to have soon, I need to brag about it to the world!
So what have I been doing? The basics of settling into a new society. House-hunting (which left me in tears most days) until I found an open bedroom with a couple girls from my master's program. I'll be moving in there on November 5th (hopefully before, if the painting and everything gets done faster, which would be nice cause I'm basically homeless starting on the 27th). But it'll be worth all the stress and the four or five years that have been lost from the end of my life because of it. It's in Camden Town (the absolute coolest part of London), I'll have a huge bedroom, we'll have a kitchen and a living area, there's a fireplace in my bedroom, and we have a backyard. That's right, a backyard. Almost unheard of out here. Plus, there's a patio along with the backyard. It's gonna be amazing. Sure, there's no washing machine in the place, but oh well. There's a laundrette around the corner, and we can hook up drying lines in our backyard and let our sheets dry in the sun.
Other than that, it's been homework and setting up a bank account and a phone and everything else. I saw a movie this past weekend, a British film, and it was exactly as Eddie Izzard describes them. Impossible to eat popcorn too. But soon Ides of March will be coming out, which is basically my life put on film, so that'll be good.
I've made friends with all kinds of fancy Europeans, and an American to boot, so that's going well. I am relearning my Italian so that I can speak with my new friend Carmelo. And I'm just trying to understand Philipp's German accent. And sometimes the British accent is as difficult to understand. But I'm picking up the lingo out here: jumper, trolley, lift, and the like. It's the system of measurement that kills me. I have no idea how many dLs equals a cup. And all my recipes are in normal measurements. So I either have to go find some American measuring cups or just start guessing. I'm assuming the latter will happen.
