Ready For The Floor

I now have a working phone!

The man behind the counter was rather incompetent and kept pushing a T-Mobile pay-as-you-go card on me, but it wouldn't work when I put it in my phone. I ended up getting an Orange card. I have already called a friend, so I know everything is in order. I started off with 15 pounds, and I'm hoping that lasts me a while.

The phone I'm using (Mikko's phone?) is ridiculously confusing. The numbers are arranged in a circle, so the dialing (and texting) habits I have acquired through years of owning a cell phone are useless. I feel like I'm technologically challenged with this phone. I'll learn.

My second week of classes is over now. I finally had my last class, which is Issues in Contemporary British Politics and Culture, not society. (I called it by the wrong name in a previous post.) The class starts at 6:30 pm, but they tell us to get there ten minutes early if we want our attendance counted. The building was rather hard to find, so I was two minutes late (as in 6:22, not 6:32) and us late-birds (of which there were quite a few) were told to sit in the back (instead of our assigned seats) and we were singled out for being the "late kids." I figured they provided that extra ten minutes for those of us who might be a few minutes late, like an "Aim for 6:20 and you'll be there before class starts" type thing. Nope. Looks like I should start aiming to get there at 6:10 instead.

However, it seems we will have some impressive speakers in that class. In our first meeting, we had political strategist Bob Shrum lecture. (He was supposed to come later in the semester, but he had to come on Monday because he can't make the other scheduled date.) It wasn't the most stimulating lecture, but British politics isn't the most stimulating subject either.

And now for something completely different:
As I sit here and write, I have a maid cleaning my room. This polite Russian lady with a big mole over her lip is cleaning my bathroom (which was in desperate need of a good scrub). There is a slight awkward tension between us, but I'm sure she gets it from every student. Turns out that NIDO housing does provide basic cleaning for the rooms once a week. The maids clean the bathrooms and mop the floors. This is about one of the only things NIDO does that actually pleases me.

The people who run NIDO seem to have no idea what they're doing. I think they just decided to make a building in which they could cram a bunch of students and take shortcuts anywhere possible to make money. Either that or they're just stupid.

FOR EXAMPLE:
One morning, I went into my kitchen to have breakfast. I noticed that my key wouldn't go into my cupboard lock. I figured I was being silly and left it open or something. Sure enough, it was open. Yet, I never leave my storage area in the kitchen open. I thought little of it; I was hungry. Later on, as I ate my cereal, a locksmith came in. He and I struck up conversation. He started talking about how NIDO had hired him to replace the locks on the storage cupboards in the kitchens. Why? NIDO realized they didn't have spare keys for these storage spaces and, apparently, the students had the only copies. Solution? Replace all of the locks so that they can make spare keys!

The locksmith went to work, except he needed the key to get into the cupboard to change the locks. NIDO's response? "Oh! Here's the spare."

He was working and considering that he should tell the people at NIDO about their mistake. If they have spare keys for him to replace the locks, then, well, they have spare keys! I asked him if he had already changed my lock and he said he had (hence the trouble I had earlier and the reason it was open). I'm so glad NIDO informed me that my lock was to be changed. I told him to do his job and make as much money from these people as he could. He agreed.

BUT, I live in a great area in London. Why complain? I only have to deal with a sweltering hot kitchen (that makes food go bad sooner than it should), small living spaces, and that dorm-y living for three and a half more months. I can handle it.


NEWS: I gave myself straight bangs.













Kristen and me after a night out. We found a place that sells a microwaveable piece of pizza for 99 pence (well worth it, let me tell you) and this picture shows some of our crazy adventures in our kitchen at the wee hours of the morning.