It's Been a Week

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

It’s been a week since I came to London for study abroad, and it’s been a good experience so far. I really do like the city, but I’m starting to realize that it’s not really my cup of tea. I have enjoyed walking around the city and being able to see everything. I love the history and the vast amount of stuff that I can do, but the big city life that London has isn’t something that I like. I just don’t like the feeling of haste that there is in the air. When I’m at Elon and even at home, there’s just this feeling of calmness and a feeling that there is time to get to the place where you want to go. Here, the feeling isn’t really panic, but there is definitely a feeling that time isn’t on your side. I guess the contributing factor is the fact that the city is so big, but I just don’t like. It all stems back to the fact that I hate being rushed. I’ve never done well with that kind of feeling. Over the years, I’ve adapted, but there are times when the pressure of the rush has hit me hard. I’ve learned what I needed to do to prevent the pressure, and those things have worked. I’ve applied them here, and they’ve kind of worked. Yet, the feeling of the rush is still there. I really can’t figure out what the causes are, but when I do, things will possibly get better. At this moment, I can honestly say that the big city life is something that I will never be happy with.
With that off my chest, I can get to the more positive stuff about my last week. Yesterday was the start of classes. I am so happy that they have started because I can now be on some sort of a regular schedule. Orientation last week was killer because the schedule was all over the place. That was kind of frustrating, but I adapted well. I do well with chaotic schedules, but I really love having a set routine. Chaos amongst the coherency keeps life interesting so I try to enjoy when it comes. It does stress me out, but I see the positives at the end of the day.
Classes themselves seem really interesting. I am taking a whole class on the Beatles, an art history class, a theatre class, and a class that goes with my practicum. I’m really excited for all of these, but I am somewhat reserved too. The class that I have some worries about is the Beatles class. I know that I am going to enjoy this class, but the workload is somewhat intense. We have a couple of papers and an album essay. These are fine, but what worries me is some of the grading. Apparently, my professor has decided that he is going to go by the School of Communications and deduct 1/3 letter grade for every grammatical error. I am one for good grammar, but for a class made up of several majors, it is a bit harsh. Not all of us in that class constantly write. I’m a math major for two reasons: I like math and I hate to write papers. I love creative writing, but I absolutely abhor papers. Also, grammatical errors are different for every person. Someone may see something that is wrong that others do not. In other words, grammar is a hard thing to judge whether or not it is right. Even with these things, I am still looking forward to this class. I’m not really worried about any of my other classes because they all sound so interesting. I’m really psyched that my theatre class is going to open me up to theatre that I would normally not go to. Along with that, I’m psyched for my art class. The best thing about the class is that I am going to be able
Another good thing that has happened is I’m getting the hang of using the Tube. I have to thank Elon for housing us so far from everything because it has helped with familiarizing myself with the tube. The tube for is a necessary evil. I hate it so much. It stems from two places. The first is the feeling of haste. The tube just oozes haste. You have to be quick to get on it and quick to get off. There is no time to think and there is little time act. The good thing is that I am getting used to this and judging when it is a good time to get on the train. I am also getting good at figuring out what is the best route to get somewhere. Overall, the tube is a blessing in disguise that I know that I am going to miss when I come home.
In keeping with the positive side of things, Love Never Dies is almost here. For those who don’t know, Love Never Dies is the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s the Phantom of the Opera. It previews next week and then opens a week or two after that. I so far have eight people who are interested in going, and I am still awaiting news on whether Anglo, the program we are with, can get some discount tickets. Besides that, I also have people who want to go to both Les Mis and the original Phantom too. I’ve basically become the organizer for these three shows. These are the shows I really want to go to, and I figured others would too. Plus, it’s never a bad thing to try and save some money. I’m going to wait a little longer before I submit the actual numbers to Anglo, but I can’t wait to see these shows.
I think that’s it for now. I apologize for being slow on the pictures, but with the limited internet, it is hard to upload pictures. When I get my new minutes on Saturday, I will upload some more.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

P.S. I meant to add this, but forgot while I was writing. Yesterday, I cooked for ten people in our group. Last weekend, I decided that I wanted to do a dinner for my fellow Teaching Fellows, and I planned on making chicken cutlets and garlic/olive oil string beans. I did this, and it was very successful. I luckily had some help, which was a godsend. Everyone enjoyed the dinner and wanted some more today. The interesting thing is I learned two things from this: I don't want to cook for ten people unless it is easy and if I ever make chicken cutlets again, I need to find the actual cutlet cut.