La Femme d'Argent

Every Sunday night, I get that horrid realization that I have a lot of work to catch up on for the week. We have only had one week of classes, so it's hard to imagine that I would have too much to do, but since each of my classes only meets once a week, the professors are sure to provide enough work to last until the next class meeting. I need to have one third of Bleak House read by Wednesday. Considering it's a 989-page novel, that is more of a task than it may seem.

But my classes are shaping up to be great. My Reporting the Arts class has several mandatory theatre visits, but on weeks when we don't have an outing, the students must choose their own live performance to attend. This means I can count concerts I go to as part of that, which makes things easier and more interesting for me.

In Contemporary Art in Britain, the professor gave me the impression of a street ruffian who just knows a hell of a lot about art. She's very open to beginners and different interpretations and, since she didn't like school when she was a student, she tries to make our work load desirable. This means that there is no final 15-page essay, but two smaller ones earlier in the semester. (She knows that our other classes are bound to give us huge final assignments.)

Writing London also seems extremely interesting, though I have a feeling that this will be my most work-heavy class. We have plenty to read (Bleak House), which I'm half looking forward to, half dreading. The professor is a smart Italian woman who used the three-hour class time wisely (unlike my other professors during the first week). Instead of spending huge amounts of time talking about nothing while thumbing through the syllabus, she brought two Jonathan Swift poems and a William Blake poem about London for us to read closely and analyze. I got the chance to show off a little bit of my English-major pizazz.

I haven't yet been to my final class, Issues in Contemporary British Politics and Society, the mandatory London class for NYU students. The first meeting is tomorrow. We have assigned seating. I'm curious to see how this class unfolds because, as of now, I'm not too thrilled about it.

I have newspapers strewn around my room for my Reporting the Arts assignment, and I have an onion (which I got from an interesting night out) sitting on my desk. I'm not a very neat person, as if we all didn't know this already.

As for the London nightlife, I can tell that I'm going to have a good time. I found another bar that I enjoy, with cheap drinks and loud music. The great thing about going out in London: You don't need to tip the bar tenders! When a drink is one pound and 50 pence, that's all you pay! I have met some interesting people too, ranging from an art museum curator to a biotechnologist to a 17 year-old rich boy who has twin baby girls. London has quite an interesting mix of people, and I'm slowly (but surely) piecing the different areas of London together in my head and where my home (King's Cross) is in relation to the places I go out. It's getting easier.

It's going to be a good semester, I think.

SOME PICTURES:



















Me in front of a statue of Winston Churchill.



















Kristen and I (temporarily) swap clothes sometimes.