When In London...

…do some more walking! Yeah, that’s it! And dancing!

The past week (I can’t believe it’s only been a week) has been hectic with a side of crazy, but I’ve also been loving every last minute of it — yes, even those minutes when my feet were hurting and I was hungry and the weather was about as consistent as someone both indecisive and bipolar.

Since my last post, I’ve officially moved in at Queen Mary. I live in Pooley House, which is the largest residential dorm in the relatively new student village on campus. I have a single room in a suite of seven. We have our own toilets and showers in our rooms (small, but ours) and we all share a kitchen. I’d post pictures of what my room looks like, but right now it looks a bit like Ground Zero — I’ve been so busy doing things and meeting people (and trying to find push-pins for my corkboard, and finding out that the Brits call them “drawing pins” only after attempting to fruitlessly describe to a salesperson what I was looking for) that I haven’t had time to put up any of the room decorations I brought with me, excepting the large rainbow-striped “PACE” flag I bought this summer in Florence (pace is Italian for peace; when I was in Italy four years ago these things were everywhere, and I really liked them, plus mine packed small and really brightens up an entire wall of my room).

Although I’ve only known them for a week, I feel like I’ve found (best) friends in some of the other University of California students who are studying in London. There’s a core group of about five of us who have been hanging out together a lot (more on this later) and I just feel comfortable with these people. I also really love my flatmates. In Pooley Flat 3 we have four girls and three guys. One of the other girls is actually a UC kid, and one of the aforementioned (best) friends — our singles are literally next door to each other.

Yesterday was the first day since moving into Queen Mary that I ventured back into central London. Me, Jessica (my nextdoor flatmate), Sam (short for Samantha), Reno (yes that is a girl’s name), and Oren (actually, that’s a boy’s name) went shopping on Oxford Street, where I was willingly talked into a beautiful pair of brown ankle boots that make me feel like I waltzed out of a period piece. These would be the aforementioned UC students at Queen Mary that I feel I’ve gotten really close with. I’ve hung out more with Sam and Jessica, but Oren and Reno are both English majors and we’re taking a lot of the same classes. In fact, Oren and I have every single English class together first semester. This should be good times.

After shopping, we ended up searching in vain for a pub near Covent Garden (where our theater was). We actually ate at this Australian bar/grill place that was slightly pricier but had huge portions to make up for it and could actually sit the five of us comfortably. Then it was a quick walk to the Fortune Theatre and The Lady in Black.

The play is billed as the scariest ghost story in London theatre. The first half of the play was not at all frightening. And then the second half was just *shudders*. It does a really great job of building tension and always revealing just a little less than you want to know but a little more than you want to think about. It was in a more gothic tradition of horror, which I appreciated — I have a feeling Edgar Allan Poe would have enjoyed it. We bought the tickets in Leicester Square for a discount rate, paying about 25 pounds for seats that normally go for 45. I wouldn’t have seen the play for full price, but it was definitely a necessary experience (and better than The 39 Steps). I just feel so London-y: I’ve seen two west end shows in the space of a week.

I suppose I’ll round out this update by discussing my classes. I managed to figure out my schedule, and it makes me exceedingly happy. First semester, I only have classes Tuesday through Thursday; I pick up a Monday class second semester, but still have my Fridays off. I could’ve had a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule, but I would’ve been missing out on one class I really want to take.

In the British school system (or at least at QM) it’s possible to take year-long classes, or “modules” as they’re called here. I am taking two year-long English modules both focused around London: The Dickens City (where we read a bunch of Dickens books about London — seven within the first semester alone! — and supplement that with walking tours of Victorian sights) and Representing London: the 18th Century (aka 1700s, which is the class that meets on Thursdays and which I really wanted to take and almost couldn’t get into, but literally the girl in front of me in line dropped it and I nabbed it up before anyone else could).

First semester, I’m also taking an English course called Fiction and Narrative, which appears to focus on different types of narrative fiction. The first book for the class is Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, but the syllabus also contains everything from Jane Eyre to Jane Austen (Persuasion) to Henry James to the graphic novel Maus. The readings span a pretty wide time period, and I’ve never taken a class that does that, so I think it’ll be interesting to compare narrative strategies across centuries. I’m also taking Beginner’s French I because there was nothing else I really wanted to take as an “easy” course, and no way I’d take four English courses in the same semester — that’s like suicide. I have plenty of reading as it is.

Next semester, I keep all the year-long modules, but in place of Fiction and Narrative I’m taking the equivalent of a Senior Seminar course called Race, Gender, and Empire in Women’s Fiction 1790-1900 (for which I am also reading Jane Eyre — excitement!). In fact, my entire rationale for taking the course was that I knew we would be reading Jane Eyre, and that I’m kinda interested in women’s fiction as a distinct entity in the 1780s-1820s (thank you, Professor Goldsmith!). In place of Beginner’s French I, I am taking The Classical Hollywood Musical 1930-1960 in the film department…which should be amazing. I’m really excited.

Well, that’s it for now, folks! I have a few books to read before courses officially start on Tuesday, and it would also be nice to finally set up my room and sort through all the admin stuff I have to get done. Expect more in another week or so. Cheers! (See, I’m British already.)