CIAO!!

     I didn't take many pictures this week so I figured I'd take an opportunity to show you a couple pictures of where I live.  This first picture is of our favorite Kebab Shop where we "kebauch" or where "kebauchery" ensues.  I have a special kebaby boyfriend who already knows my usual (hummus and pita with cucumber in it) and he always shoos the other workers away to make me my pita delight.  The second picture is of the beautiful Wood Green student halls... picturesque isn't it?

     This past week has been rather uneventful as far as weeks in London go.  I've been, for the vast majority of my waking hours, in social isolation writing papers.  I turned one in on Monday and one in on Wednesday, exciting, right?  My last two papers are due the next two Mondays so I'll be writing this Sunday and next (because let's face it, I'm not giving up my entire weekend for a 1500 word paper).  

     After spending two days with historiographic metafiction (cheers to my hefty vocabulary) I decided to try to go to bed early Wednesday night.  I hopped in bed at 10pm and realized I had, as usual, picked the worst night of the week to try and accomplish sufficient sleep.  Everyone was running amuck in the halls and around 12:30 I got up,  very grumpily, to go to the bathroom and told the girls that I knew I was being grumpy but I was super tired from writing a paper and could they please shut their doors, that lasted about 5 minutes. At 1:30 I heard some of them yelling at Paul so I knew he was up, so I got up and walked down the hall and Becky looked at me after saying WAZZZUUUUUPPP! In her best non-British gangster accent and all of a sudden a horrified look went across her face and she said "oh my gosh why are you frowning like that I'm so sorry!"  I went into Paul's room, complained a bit, and then went back to bed.  Next morning Becky was like "I'm so sorry, please tell me you don't hate me you looked like you were going to kill us all last night!"  Apparently I'm capable of giving the first floor at large the look of death.  That didn't help me sleep any though.

     Last night was a rather enjoyable night as I had a date with a guy I met at a club before I left for Barcelona.  He's, of course, a Brit originally from Manchester.  We met in Covent Garden (a very trendy area with outdoor shopping of the best sort: a mix of middle end shops and boutiques coupled with little restaurants and street performers during the day).  First we went to a nice little pub and had a drink outside on their balcony that overlooked one of the main squares in Covent Garden, it was a really nice view so we got to people watch a bit.  Then we went walking to find somewhere to eat, ended up at an italian restaurant and stuffed ourselves with garlic cheese bread, salmon and avocado fettucini (so delicious), and tiramisu.  After dinner we went to a bar for cocktails.  At around 12:15 we realized we'd lost track of time and that the tube might be closed, which meant I had to take the bus home.  We left and went to the tube stop and to my good fortune there was one door still open and I made it in just in time to get on one of the last trains.  The whole thing was really great and he's quite nice so we are going to go out again sometime next week, should be fun!

     Today I went and saw Grandma Eileen and she grandmothered me to death.  It was wonderful.  I met her boyfriend Gordon, she made me a ham and cheese sandwich, tea, had bought me a cream-filled pastry and sent me home with birthday cake, maltesers, brazil nut toffee, and californian raisins.  I think we're going to go out for a proper British meal in the next couple of weeks.  We looked at pictures and talked a lot, it was wonderful and made me feel very homey.  Tonight Paul and I are staying in and watching a movie and tomorrow we're going back to 4th Floor (Saturday nights are student nights and it's cheap and a whole lot of fun).