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.