This is me, not throwing swords.

So I was stranded in London for Christmas, but luckily Allison was stranded too, so bring on the mince pies and tinsel we declared (along with numerous lord of the rings quotes that need not be mentioned). I bought 3 craps of pine branch, tied them together with yarn, stuck them in a tea cup and declared it a Christmas tree. After thoroughly decorating said tree with earrings and paper ornaments, and remembering how horribly allergic I am to pine, it was time for dancing. John Denver and the muppets had us feeling festive, albeit bitter.  We adorned ourselves the the sparkliest of sparkly dresses and Christmas sweaters and headed for a slightly classier then normal pub on the strand. Things started slow with festive drinks and nostalgic 90s pop music, but after a few manhattans and an enthusiastic round of Abba sing along, it was definitely a party. As usual, old men hit of Allison and I ended up in a scoobydoo costume, (Ok, so that second part happens less frequently, but I consider that to be a good thing). If nothing else, it was a memorable Christmas in London.

Damn the air planes.

Considering how hard it was to get into this country in the first place you think they would make it easer to leave. Not that I'm bitter or anything. I have the loverly Allison to keep me company and plenty of cookies to eat. Today I fell down in a slushy mess and thought, after cursing the gods, I could be on a beach in Hawaii. FU TFL.

Thanks again TFL

I am now looking forward to christmas eve alone in my dorm room in London and christmas day in a hotel in LA. Thank you so much Heathrow International.

Just in case you missed me

This should relieve any such feelings.

Also, this is how i wear my hair to dissection in an attempts to minimize the amount that I smell like decaying bodies on the tube home. <3 biology.

Kicking some first term ass

I have survived the first term! glory be! (begin uplifting choir music here). I haven't posted in a bit because I have been spending every free moment studying and drinking tea, sometimes even simultaneously. I gave my first british style research presentation which was nothing short of terrifying, but many of my classmates said that my american accent made it far more interesting. Erm... thanks? Was my presentation really so boring that you listened to my accent instead? No one actually enjoys and American accent. To celebrate my survival of first term I watched the royal variety show (still trying hard to be british). It featured such things as pop music, comedy, acrobats and a male ribbon ice dancer in sparkly bell bottoms. This has to be the gayest thing I have ever seen.  I walked into my friends room the other day to find his boyfriend naked in bed and empty lube packets scattered about, and that was significantly less gay then male ribbon ice dancing.

This is me, taking showers

I have discovered the gym showers. These might be the single most amazing set of showers in all of Europe. The water is hot, and there is high water pressure, like a gift from the gods. I used to think one of the perks to living so close to the gym was not having to lug all of my things there and just coming home for a quick shower, but now I have seen the light, and there is no going back. In my new illuminated state (some might say obsessive state) I have become addicted to the gym. Working out is nice and healthy and all that crap, but the real reason I go is to have my nice shower. This has resulted in my visiting the gym nearly every day for the past couple weeks. Initially the man at the front desk was well impressed with my low blood pressure, which they insist on testing when you join the gym, and which he took as a sign of my great athleticism. But now that I am there so often he seems convinced I am some kind of super athlete. Luckily, the desk faces away from the fitness room so he can't actually see me working out, so the illusion can live on.

Have I mentioned that I love this city?

This is the view I get of St. Paul's if I stick my head properly out the window. Everything is wonderully decorated for christmas (only london would consider large lit up umbrellas to signify the christmas season), and pubs are serving hot mulled wine. I love to wonder down some of the crowded streets and enjoy the window displays while avoiding being impaled by hundreds of umbrellas. The snow is less snow-like and more fluffy rain, which makes umbrellas quite necessary but people never seem to understand that they take up more room with an umbrella and thus are constantly banging into each other and getting all twisted up on the pavement. But of course I will not let this dampen my christmas spirit.

This is me, Dancing

Joey had the fabulous idea for everyone to go out one last time before we get properly bogged down with work for midterms. Considering I'd spent the entirety of last weekend curled up in bed with my text books this seemed like a good idea.

we started the party back at the flat, where Raj and I have played allot of Patti Smith (I may have snuck in some Beyonce too).

Allison even graced us with her presence for a little while 

Joey and Alexia show off their mad skills of course. 

I tried to learn some ukulele, and failed. 

Raj and Joey played ukulele much more successfully. 

Then it was time to migrate to the club, not an easy task but don't they all look fabulous?

 I may have gotten a bit too into this singing along business, but to be fair I think it was The Smiths. 

We all danced

and were merry. 

Again, I may have gotten a bit too enthusiastic 

It was a lovely night out with my very lovely mates (and it was quite a workout as well)

snowy snow snow!

glory be there is snow in london! ok, so no snow is actually sticking to the ground, but it's coming down pretty hard and dusting the roof tops. it is fantastically beautiful and freakishly cold. one word, layers. every day when i leave the house i feel like i'm reliving that scene from a christmas story, "well honey, you can put your arms down when you get to school." it's the perfect weather to curl up with tea and a ginormous text book by the window to watch the snow fall on the trains and while pretending to revise. i feel like i'm living in one of those london Christmas themed snow globes. like this... but probably the people would be a little smaller in comparison to the buildings.

tis the season for fancy socks

it's officially the christmas season! not only has starbucks brought out their wintery themed drinks and oversized balloon holly sprigs, but i have received christmas socks from my mum. they are tacky and sparkly and i shall wear them with pride (inside my boots where no one has too see them of course) i wish a happy that-time-of-year-where-everything-is-tacky-and-shiney-and-lovely to you all!

this is me, being way too american

It is really hard to explain thanksgiving to people who haven't grown up with it. "was this before or after you killed the indians?" "what about buckle shoes?" "does this have anything to do with the irish?" and "why are there marshmallows in the potatoes?"

I'm not sure a holiday for which we commemorate the mass slaughter of a race of people by eating pie gives the best introduction to our culture, but the food was good and in the end that's really what thanksgiving is about. That and of course, hand turkeys, an age old tradition our british guests adopted with minimal enthusiasm. I was asked to bring a vegetable dish, evidence that none of these people knew me at all. I made carbonized root vegetables with peas, which is about 20 minutes past sweet caramelized root vegetables with peas. I tried passing this off as an advanced american cooking technique but no one bought it. next time I'm brining wine.

do they offer lessons for this?

in attempts to explain why a night out ended with my on my back on a pub floor (if you will recall, this is 100% the fault of a boy grabbing my feet out from under me). i was desperately trying to justify such an outcome without the involvement of alcohol and, as usual misused some rather vulgar british expressions. while laughing loudly, my friend asked how i could have possibly ended up on the floor if i hadn't been drinking. speaking even more loudly so he could hear me over the sound of his own frantic laughter, i exclaimed, "he tossed me off!" which i can assure you does not mean the same thing here as it does back home. nor did this stop my friends from laughing at me, now accompanied by the disapproving stairs of my entire genetics class. the moral of the story is that i am really bad at being british. do you think they offer lessons? and if so, does a fantastic accent cost extra?

winter winds

the wind is so loud here sometimes i am sure the building is coming down. i am also pretty sure this is ridiculous but i keep the windows closed just in case and try not to think about it. this has inspired a number of thoughtful drinking tea curled up in my blanket playlists. walking outside seems to dangerous, the wind whips down the narrow streets and tangles my scarves and skirts around my body, seriously impairing my forward mobility and only occasionally revealing my pants (british meaning) to unfortunate passerby's.

weakenders

so now that i live in a bit exciting city you are probably wondering what i do on the weekend, seeing lots of art, going clubbing, reading fantastically witty memoirs in a cafe on the river... but no, i spent the majority of this weekend curled up with my grays anatomy atlas and these ridiculous slippers i got last christmas. one of the great things about the weather being so crappy and the sun going down in the middle of the afternoon is that this actually seems acceptable.

soup

i always thought it was wrong to eat straight spaghetti sauce because it is not actually a food, but then, by the grace of god i discovered tomato soup. now, i know i probably should have caught on before now, but how amazing! it is basically tomato sauce, and it is delicious and cheap and you don't have to cook it! it is possible that i am too excited about this, but there are so few good foods that come in a can. i know what you are thinking, thank goodness i now have the means of sharing such insightful thoughts with the world. the thing about tomato soup is that you have to be sure and get the kind with bits of actual tomato in it (aka not cambels) usually tomato basil. but really, these are probably the kinds of things i should keep to myself.

there's something wrong with the left phalange!

i have officially completed my first british exam! it was terrifying, but in the end i managed to kick some major written exam ass. now all i have to do is memorize all the muscles, nerves, bones, joints and vessels of the upper limb for monday. i don't see this ending well. hands are really great, i mean, i'm glad we all have them and i  do find them useful, but my god are they complicated! anatomy has really made me appreciate the complexity of the human body, and then promptly hate it. i will be spending the entirety of this weekend holed up in the library with my anatomy text books and one very spectacular anatomy coloring book.

this is me, attempting social interaction

so i went out the other night with my friend and some people he knows from first year, but he promptly left to shag his oh-so-gorgeous boyfriend (life is too unfair) and left me with a group of people i don't really know in a pub i don't really know. it was alright tho and i got on fairly will with these kids until i had to climb over this one guy to get out and he for some reason thought it would be a good idea to grab my feet and pull them high above his head and shout, "i stole your feet!" which of course led to me being on my back on the pub floor with some guy i don't know claiming ownership over my feet and most of my legs. good thing i wore trousers... all in all i would say it was a good night out.

done with hibernating

 i am officially homesick, but i am fairly certain it's 60% the sun going down at 1500 and 30% having been holed up studying all week. i plan on spending one more day studying today and then taking a break tomorrow to do fantastically touristy things. the view from my room has become even more amazing now that so many old chimneys are smoking, it is perfectly wintery and only occasionally looks as if it's on fire. in my attempts to get out more i've been taking some really nice walks along the river. it is unbelievably cold there, but it so damn beautiful it's hard to care. i have also knit myself numerous warm layers at this point which helps tremendously.

tea time.

i believe that the amazingness of this mug is not diminished by its being backwards and therefore shall continue to live my life by its wise words.

i am currently lacking in cake, but am oh so desperately trying to move on.

this is me, hibernating.

it's reading week, also known as an entire week with no reason to get out of bed. it's the week before midterms and there are no classes so that all the students in london can move into the library and go insane. i have made it my personal mission to not wear proper trousers for the entirety of this week (and yes i am still bitter about the use of the word trousers). i am also leaving my bed as little as possible and living out of what is in my fridge, which at this point is down to apples and sting cheese. this is as close to actually hibernating as i can get without risking illness. the weather is just dreadful and it gets dark about 1500, which makes me feel rather homesick. at least back in new york winter was beautiful and full of snow related activities. i miss having friends to curl up in bed with to do homework, and i miss hot toddies and cocoa. the british seem to deal with this crap weather by holing up in pubs and drinking constantly. i am no good at this. i have instead immersed myself in cell signaling pathways and compliment cascade. you are all jealous i am sure.

things from home

my lurvey baby pickles died earlier this week. she was spaztic and adorable till the end.

also my mum seems to have inadvertently adopted a very picky peacock who now lives in the backyard and demands to be fed twice a day. i find myself asking why in gods name did my parents have to move to the sort of place where this is even possible? she has named him Robert.

on holiday

Allison and i went to oxford for the weekend, which was about as beautiful as you imagine and far more rural. our trip consisted of site seeing, shopping, and drinking with the middle aged inhabitants of horspath.

our weekend in oxford... in pictures.

 we stayed in Horspath, which is a loverly town in bumfuck Britain. 

 it was beautiful and rural and full of cows.

we tried to feed the ducks by the river

but they were a bit too aggressive. 

 i fully appreciated the landscape

GORGEOUS. 

still gorgeous. 

 i found this really bizarre plastic piece under the sheets in my bed. very princess and the pea...

we saw lots of fantastically old and impressively large buildings 

there were enormous old trees at the natural history museum. i found this really really exciting.  

i pretended to be a big scary dinosaurs

allison did too

she then went on to demonstrate her maturity

we went on dates...

because dinosaurs make good boyfriends. 

allison mimicked birds of prey.

and i made some new friends.

we went to lovely old pubs

(the eagle and child)

and then we went home.

tea and biscuits yum yum yum

i am still having a ridiculously hard time with the language given that it's, erm.. english... i told the boy next to me in class yesterday that i really liked his pants. he just gave me this shocked and confused look for the whole 30 seconds it took me to remember that pants means underwear, and i actually meant to compliment his trousers. i'm sorry, i just can't take the word trousers seriously. 21 years of thinking trousers were what old men wore, tweed pants up to their chests that are just a wee bit too short, trousers. for the most part my friends have been understanding of my handicap, laughing only minimally and very rarely pointing.

boys are stupid.

but that's nothing new, and london is spectacular nonetheless.

HALLOWEEEEEEN

this year halloween had to take a backseat to steven's birthday, but this certainly did not stop alice and i from dressing up (although it did stop everyone else at the party....) unfortunately no one thought to get a camera out until we had had a few drinks so here is what was left of my costume at that point.

the loverly joey and i showing off our fantastic moves

 tom and alexandria can come too...

things i can make that keep me warm

i recently knit myself this hat and scarf combo to keep from freezing to death

"he thawed himself with the heat stored in his mustache..."

mr sun

i haven't seen the sun for days at this point, to be honest i'm not sure it's even still there. it may have been replaced by the shard, which emanates rays of light down onto london. they sent a note to international students recommending that we take vitamin C supplements, to keep from getting too depressed. the good news is that in this sunless environment no one seems to question my obscene paleness. clearly this is where i'm meant to be. so take that all of you tan ppl who used to point and laugh, pale IS coming back. perhaps i am a bit too excited about this... but really, it is deserved. i still have italian family members who believe i have a genetic disorder.

dorm life is glamerous

the driers are broken, so i've strung up yarn and hung everything i own across my room. now i just have to hope no one comes to visit as there isn't anywhere to stand in my room. i'm thinking this is the gods telling me it's time for a study break, so i am off exploring courtesy of kings college halls maintenance department.

them little chickies are growing up quick.

the baby chicks have clearly reached that awkward chicken phase where they are losing there baby fluff but haven't quite grown enough feathers to look alright again. i lurve them!

the two red ones are chick pea (my baby!) and sweet pea, the funny looking brown gal with fluff sticking out the sides of her head is betty boop, and the two yellow chicks are nelly bells and squeaker.

a few of my favorite things

in continuing our tradition of being old ladies, allison and i attended knitting club at knit london. there was tea, wine, middle aged women complaining about their children, and a plethora of fancy organic yarns. it was everything one could want from a thursday night. AND there was a yarn baller, which is by far the coolest thing i have every seen.

my newest knit creation... still looking for a name.

shiny things.

there was a time when gay clubs were a fun place to go because you could wear glitter and didn't have to worry about being hit on by creepy men. unfortunately, the creepy men have caught on to this strategy and begun frequenting gay clubs as well. nothing like a 40-something year old german man with a comb over asking if you and your lover girls want to come back to his place. this all may still be worth the array of beautiful shirtless men paid to walk around being beautiful and dance on pedestals and the excuse to wear really shiny things.

blarg.

adjusting to life halfway across the world, although exciting can be quite lonely and overwhelming. so thank you to all you loverly people who have spent even a couple minutes talking to me, it is so nice to be reminded that i didn't have to leave everything behind. but the fact remains that there is quite a bit i did leave behind, and quite allot i miss.

but on a much cheerier note, we came in third in pub quiz tonight! i'm not doing to terribly for myself here. i am making friends and a life i do really enjoy. everyone says it's hard some times during the first couple months, and i expect things to work themselves out. please don't worry, (especially you, mum!).

this is why i don't meet men in pubs

i met this really cute bartender, and he took my number, and i was super super excited. a couple days later he texted me and asked me to come for a movie and i was all, YIPPY FOR BRITAN! and then he proceeded to explain how he actually just wanted me to come have a threesome with him and his girlfriend. and i was like... graggleeekeels? because there were no words, and then, please don't call me again. so that's one less pub i can go to which is sucky because they served tea and not many pubs do that. hmph. it was so blatantly, hey can i use you? and then kick you out so my love and i can cuddle? and i was like, please, i lived that for the past year. you make good tips, hire a hooker.

gahh school

this is me, keeping up with my school work.

things you win at pub quiz

the great thing about pub quiz is that you can get prizes for things other then having extensive knowledge of random facts, you also get a prize for best play-do model of a pop idol... more reasons to love this city. by combining our fantastic knowledge of united states presidents (perhaps this was unfair) and our ability to sculpt both life like llama figurines and exploding pop stars we were able to win our groups first pub quiz! i got this really happy pinwheel.

lessons learned: useless knowledge should always be rewarded with equally useless trinkets to decorate one's room.