Mexican Food. Peanut Butter. It’s the little things.
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Adventures
First things first: no, I am not becoming Madonna. HOWEVER, I do need to practise writing in the British English style, so I’m going to attempt to make those little changes when I’m writing these posts. Why? Because it’s just easier to get my mind around it now then to have to switch my mind to it later on.
My department meetings went really well. We had an induction for the grad students Thursday morning, followed by a lunch. There are four programmes in my department, and each is lead by a different professor. The one in charge of mine is also in charge of the graduate department as a whole, and he’s really entertaining. His attempts at humour are not lame, and are actually pretty funny. And none of the professors come across as overly . . . well, picture what you think when you hear “philosophy professor”. In my mind it could have gone two ways, and it seems to have gone the way that results in entertaining and interesting lectures.
Friday we also had another department meeting, as well as a little happy hour at one of the bars on campus. I bought my books (for the entire year it was not too bad), and even sucked it up and bought a printer. There are so many online articles, and I’m such a fan of holding things in my hand. Plus, I’m a draft-print-edit kind of student, so this will save me from hours of distress in the library.
Oh, the library. I went there today to study. It’s pretty cool inside. And outside there’s this interesting light display Blue Rain.
Yesterday evening I went to Late at the Tate Britain, then a birthday party, then a party in the hall. This week has been exhausting – if I have to tell one more person where I’m from or what my programme is, I may scream. And the hours – I can’t stay up so late and get up so early. But I think reality is setting in a bit – tonight things are much quieter around here as people start to realise that yes, school starts Monday.
I have found some things that help me to feel not so far away from home. Don’t misunderstand – I’m loving being exposed to new things. Like the chip and pin bank card (mine arrived today!). But there are some things (food, primarily) that I miss quickly. Peanut butter was one, and I found it! There’s a health food store down the road that has real, natural peanut butter. And salsa. And tonight a couple of us went to Green and Red, which is a good Mexican place. Not great, but still better than I thought it might be.
In addition to eight hours of class next week, there’s a meeting of the drama society, a lecture on the penal system, a screening of a documentary, and a lecture on responding to terrorism, all of which I want to attend. I know there were cool things like this going on at universities in NYC when I lived there, but even at NYU I didn’t really feel like there were such opportunities. I’m excited to keep soaking it all in.
