Back to the Drawing Board

Today I had problems.

The plan was simple: two classes, one at 11, one at 12. This is where things got a little weird. The first class, which I suspected to be in a place called the Physics Lecture Theatre, was actually scheduled in a place called BLT on this random sheet of paper I found (this is how things are done in Europe. Your best bet of finding the right classroom for your lecture is to take advice from a sheet of paper you find on the ground.). Anyways, I was in a real pickle. I decided to go find out where the second class would be held and go from there. I suspected it would be in Drapers Lecture Theatre, so I headed there. I walked in the door and was confronted with a staircase and a sign pointing me in the direction of Drapers Lecture Theatre. Now you’re thinking, well at least there’s a sign clearly indicating the direction in which to find Drapers Lecture Theatre. True, there was a sign, but of the two available directional choices (UP or DOWN), the sign pointed straight. I stared at it for awhile and decided I was just being paranoid, the lecture hall was clearly upstairs because the sign was posted on the side of the upstairs staircase. Needless to say, the lecture hall was actually downstairs or I wouldn’t be telling this story.

Pretty exciting story so far. So, Drapers was closed this week for construction, so classes would be held on the Whitechapel campus, a twenty-minute walk away. My second class would be held in Bearsted Lecture Theatre, a BLT, just like the one I thought my Physics class might be held in. I had to make a decision. I could either stay on campus and see if the first class was going to be in the Physics Lecture Theatre, or make my way down to Whitechapel, where I suspected I would at least have one class during the day, and see if there was anything there.

I walked down to Whitechapel to find an empty classroom. Clearly, my physics class was meeting back on campus, now a twenty-minute walk away. I decided I had lost the battle for my first class and decided to hang around for my second class. I walked over to the British version of Walmart and bought some pillows and some kiwis and some dish soap which cost the equivalent of fifty cents, with the slogan “Cleans. No added promises” on it, and made my way back to Bearsted Lecture Theatre just in time to realize the teacher had reminded us all class would be cancelled today because the regular lecture hall was under construction. I walked back to campus a defeated man. I'm determined to learn one of these days. They can’t keep me out of class forever!

ANYWAYS, the rest of the day was nice. Tonight I went on a boat tour of London. A large group of American study abroad students boarded a large, three-story ship with a dance floor and ate dinner and danced the night away. We floated past Big Ben and under Tower Bridge and past the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, which is signified with a bright green laser beam. It was really great and I’m meeting some really cool people from all over the place.

I've attached some pictures of some stuff. The grassy castley picture is what used to be part of a moat around the Tower of London. There's one of the Tower Bridge (it's the one with a bridge and some towers) , and one of the Prime Meridian, and one of the boat we took with some of the more modern London buildings behind it.

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the blog. Just let me know when you get tired of reading about the tiniest minutia of my life and I'll spare you my cheeky journal entries.