Week 1 – Check!
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Adventures
I’ve attached below some pictures of the neighborhood, campus, and THE QUEEN.
The week was full of a lot of everything. A lot of class, a lot of reading, a lot of wandering the city. Yesterday it really started to feel like fall; it was bright and sunny but had that feeling of the sun being a bit lower in the sky. It’s chilly in my apartment – the heat only stays on for two hours at a time – so I’m getting a lot of use out of my sweatshirts, scarves and hoodies.
Classes are good. The lectures are great primarily (in my opinion) because they are true lectures – there’s really no Q&A piece. And you all know how much I loathe Q&A in most situations…
Tuesday I went to a lecture that was ostensibly on the penal system. I think the lecturer’s thesis was interesting, but I was so focused on staying awake (and on the fact that the seats seemed like a huge fire hazard) that I missed a lot.
The seminars are a bit different. They are supposed to only have 15 students (although the dissertation one has everyone in the program, or 28 of us), and are the appropriate place to discuss the readings and the lecture and go deeper into the week’s topic. One of my seminars has an amazingly obnoxious person in it – someone who starts sentences with “well, obviously” and continues on by stating something that is an opinion an by no means obvious or factual. That is possibly my least favorite type of comment, followed closely by the “let me tell you a story I want to tell so I can feel like I contributed but has no bearing on the discussion” comment. There were a couple of those in my seminar today (that’s right, I have a seminar on Friday mornings), but not nearly as bad as the obnoxious person from earlier in the week. Actually, he’s in my program, so I’m lucky I don’t have all of my seminars with him.
I’m done with my required readings for week two (that’s what happens when I have two days off during the week), so this weekend is for fun in London! I’m sure I’ll study some on Sunday to prepare for my four hours of lectures on Monday, but in the meantime I’m going to enjoy some of the uniquely London events around town.
And Sunday is the Royal Parks Half Marathon. If you want to contribute and still haven’t, there’s still time!
Finally, the Queen. She was at St. Paul’s for this: UK Armed Forces Memorial. Apparently two of the three princes were there (Charles and William), as was the Prime Minister. But I timed my walk home well – I got to the barriers about five minutes before she exited, and was able to get a few pictures.