Victory is Mine

Today was a very exciting day because today, I tracked down one of my classes. After emailing the professor, I discovered the first class was held today and I went to it, and now my life is a success.

The thermodynamics professor Theodosios Alexander is a very friendly, entertaining and smart Greek man. About halfway through class, he asked the two international students to identify themselves, so I and another girl raised our hands. Throughout the rest of the class, he asked me several questions (in front of the whole class) about whether or not I had found out how to do this, or whether I had this set up. Everyone was very (appropriately) amazed that a textbook could cost upwards of 200 dollars in the US. The thermo book cost thirty pounds.

Tonight I went out with John Sharkey, the UK-USC study abroad coordinator, and the rest of the USC Queen Mary study abroad students. We went to a nice Asian restaurant in downtown, and after we’d found out there was no limit on how much of USC’s money we spent on our meal, I had a pretty hefty meal. I had duck dumplings, a teriyaki steak served with noodles, an exotic fruit drink, a large glass bottle of very expensive water, a large Tiger beer (for Dad, because I know he loves them), some sake and a delicious piece of chocolate cake for dessert. I probably spent about 35 pounds on dinner, but it was worth it.

After dinner, we went to the play 39 Steps, which was a lot of fun. The theater probably held about two hundred people, so it was nice and small. There were only four performers who filled about fifteen roles, and the play was very funny.

I walked around downtown for a little while with some other students after the play was over. We walked down to Leicester Square and the two fountains there were frozen, which was apparently a pretty rare sight. We were ushered into a club a bit later by a very aggressive man in the street who gave us all complimentary tickets, probably worth about ten pounds each (we were two guys and three girls; I guess it pays to be heavy on the females. Well not heavy females. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with that). Anyways, we showed our IDs and were each felt up for weapons and walked through a metal detector, and we walked downstairs to find an empty club. It was clearly a very nice place, but nobody was there. I went to the bathroom to find a sink counter covered in cologne bottles, at least a hundred, all there for our use. There was a bathroom attendant who pushed the water for me and squeezed soap onto my hands and handed me some paper towels, and then told me and the other USC student about all his sexual exploits and gave us advice about women. I learned a lot.