mcvities's cookies are my new guilty pleasure

hello loves!

The past two days have been a blur of classes, new faces, work, and tons of running around. I'm falling more and more in love with London everyday.

Classes and education in general here are very different than at home, and I almost think I like it better. Almost all my professors have made comments about America's strict education system, and by that they mean that everything in the States is by the book... we have a syllabus that we follow, things to memorize, and a specific amount of time to do it in. Everything here is much more lax, freethinking, and really focused on learning things for a purpose other than being able to take a test. Multiple choice doesn't exist in the UK.

So far, I've had four of my classes, so here's the rundown thus far:
PHO 204 (Intro to Photography) - The professor is this cute little older man with white hair and a red face. We aren't going to be getting specific grades on our photographs, as he thinks it's more of an objective art form and grading wouldn't be fair. More or less, we are graded on our effort, our passion, and our desire to learn. We have to shoot a roll of film in the week following each class, which we will develop the following week. We do have one main assignment, "People, Places, & Things," which is going to be three final photographs that will go up in a show at the end of the semester. Even better, we are being provided with film and photo paper, which is a huge relief for me now that I don't have to buy these extra things on my own. Also, I should mention that in this class we "make" photos, rather than "take" them, because "making photos" implies that there is thought and creativity behind each shot, not just random snapping like tourists. I am very excited for this class, and can't wait to show you all my work!!

PRL 500 (Public Relations in an International Setting) - London is the PR capital of the world, so this class is going to be extreeeemely beneficial for me in the career sense. I think my professor is vastly overqualified for her position though- just some highlights in her career: press secretary for the Prime Minister before Tony Blair (Major, I think??), chief political correspondent for The Times, and she's somewhere high up in the ranks at Fleishman-Hillard (a well-respected PR company)... she worked on the video that was sent in to the Olympic bid committee that won London the 2012 Olympics. AND she's a mother and grandmother, meaning she found time to have a life amongst all of her work. Basically she's amazing. I'm looking forward to learning from her experience.

EEE 370 (Intro to Entrepreneurship) - I was thinking that this class was going to be my worst of all, because I'm least interested in this topic (it's a requirement for my minor though), but I think I'm actually going to learn a lot and hopefully come out with a new perspective on business. This is by far my biggest class (the rest of my classes have 6-10 people in them), with something like 25 people in it. The professor is quite funny; he said he thinks humor makes learning easier and more fun. Better yet, he shortened the class to be from 7-9 instead of 7-10... I can't really complain.

HST 300.2 (Investigating London's Past) - I think I learned more in the three hours of this class that I have learned in my entire two years of college. The professor for this class is a published author on several noted London history/travel books and he really knows his stuff. I'm just blown away by the amount of knowledge he has about this entire city. Today we started with the history around us and he took us through the area and pointed out several key spots where historical figures made their mark...Robert Frost lived on the street next to Faraday, Sylvia Plath was married in the church at the end of the street, the first vaccination clinic in the world was built a few blocks away (actually at the exact site of where the first Wagamama was built, haha), the man who invented the chronometer developed it in his laboratory down the street... and there's so much more, it's brilliant. He then took us on a tour from Faraday to the Holborn Library (which is where he wants us to work on our research projects), stopping all along the way to observe architecture, plaques, sidewalks, parks, trees, anything that pointed out a historical note in time. I've never taken a history class before and I have to admit I was kind of scared for the amount of work and memorization history requires, but I'm finding it so interesting I don't think it's going to be too difficult. I think it's definitely going to be a challenging class as far as research and paper writing goes, but it will be worth it.

Tomorrow I have my last class, something about lawmakers and lawbreakers... we'll see how that goes.

In other London notes, there's a huge Tube strike going on, only about two lines are open at the moment, so the city is insanely congested with buses, bikes, cars, and PEOPLE. I couldn't even walk in a clear path down the street to the market this afternoon. Some of my friends today had to walk 45 minutes and longer to get to Faraday from their flats....ahh, the benefits of pre-arranged housing. Speaking of which, I found out that apparently the Bedford Place/Bloomsbury area is quite ritzy and we have a lot of wealthy people living around us... it's kind of cool knowing I'm living the posh lifestyle!!

Also, at the market today I was craving a sweet, so I bought these McVitie's cookies, and it was a huge mistake. Now I'm addicted to them. There goes all my money. They are more delicious than any American cookie I have ever tasted.

And the most random note of all! Yesterday, I was shopping for supplies in the stationary store down the street, rushing because I was going to be late for work, when I turned around and my friend from HIGH SCHOOL walked into the store. He's studying abroad here this semester too (actually, a lot of people from Rome are), which I knew because I had been in touch with him, but I totally thought he was on the other side of the city. I just thought the encounter was so bizarre because out of the millions of people in London, I run into the one other Roman that's in town- small world, when you really get down to it. I saw him and my jaw literally dropped I was so stunned. I'm glad I ran into him though... we're hoping to get together sometime soon, I'm looking forward to comparing our experiences so far.

I'm loving life, and missing you all.

Cheers!