Second part

So let me finish catching everyone up with what I've been up to. There is one topic that I've been thinking a lot about. The differences between last time and now. We are branching out more and meeting more people. Last time, Amaya, Kathleen, and I hung out with Jenna, Nye, and the boys we lived with. We really didn't hang out with a lot of British kids. Now every Thursday, we hang out at Spring Grove after class with other MA Creative Writing students. We have a few American friends- Julie and Lindsay, but also Jenny from Malta, and of course the boys. Spring Grove is great though; my teacher goes and there are a few familiar faces. We have a lot of fun. Now some of the similarities- Kingston is the same, Pizza Experts is still good, the British need to pick a side when walking down the street or down stairs, and classes are about the same. I think I eat the same things I did before, though I don't make it to the market as much. I went today, but they were already closing down and it wasn't even 3pm. We still shop at Sainsbury's, but now it's the big one by the car park. And once again, I don't mind walking 25 minutes to class. In Maine, I wouldn't walk down the street, and yet I walked 45 minutes for Pizza Experts once.

I have also been back to Oxford. Julie, Jenny, Kathleen, MT, and I went a few weeks ago for the day. We went to Christ Church, New College, and walked everywhere. They loved colleges, Radcliffe Camera, and the Sheldonian Theatre. We ate and had a drink at The Eagle and Child and had a snack at the Cow Place. I had my first cup of tea at the Cow Place. Kathleen and I were the only ones who had ever been to Oxford, but only I remembered it enough to be the tour guide. Not that I didn't get us lost once or twice but hey. I missed Oxford. I love the history and of course it's where Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings. Jenny and Julie are big Harry Potter fans so we had a good time at New College and Christ Church. I thought Jenny was going to have a heart attack being where they filmed parts of the movies. We had so much fun that Kathleen and Jenny dueled at New College. Yeah, dueled with sticks. Got evidence of this event too.




Two pictures from Oxford. The one of the group has me in the middle, Kathleen to my left, and MT on my right. Behind me is Julie and next to MT is Jenny. The other picture is Jenny and Kathleen dueling.

So other than going to Oxford and hanging out in London...I've been going to school. I have two classes...one on Tuesday night and the other on Thursday. I like my Thursday class since its seminar. My group is pretty cool and has Lindsay and Julie in it. Nicky Brown is the teacher and she's a children's writer. Very down to earth and cool. I do have to get on my papers and figuring out my thesis but I have time. I think the theory part of it will have to do with the history of travel writing since if you think about it The Odyssey is an example of travel writing. YES! My creative thesis will, of course, be about our time in England three years ago and it will focus on Amaya.

So I think that is it for now. I should clean my room and waste a few more hours before the Avalanche play tonight. Game just starts at 1:30am...no biggie.

Back...again

Okay I'm back. Again. It's been way too difficult to blog since I didn't have internet. I did use the Big Guy Palace's internet and schools, but I always had a hundred things to do in a short amount of time. But finally, internet has come to 215 Kings Road. Finally. Let me see if I can get everyone caught up.

So we, being Kathleen, MT and I moved into Kings Road a week before my birthday. MT had not arrived yet; she arrived on the 23rd and Kathleen and I picked her up. I was glad that she didn't arrive until we moved out of the Big Guy Palace because I'm not sure where she would have slept. I wasn't giving up my couch. Nye and James helped us move aka dragged our bags down the street. Nye also carried my big red bag up the stairs. Our house has three bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. No living room. Boo. But it’s in a nice area, close to school (25 minute walk) and a few streets down from the boys. That's one of the big things. When we were looking at a place in Surbiton, the boys were upset that we weren't close by. Now, of course, they joke that we will never see them again since we have internet. They miss us already! Anyway, back to our place. I have the room in the back, MT has the room in the front across from mine, and Kathleen has the room downstairs. It's nice and we are making it all work.



There's a picture of my room.

We have been to London a few times. Last weekend, JJ was visiting. He's Kathleen's friend from Montana and he stopped by on his way home from Kenya. He was working as an engineer. Julie and MT decided to in early and go to Westminster Abbey. However, before they got there MT found a haunted pub in one of her books, so we agreed to meet at the pub near St. Paul’s for lunch. So it's so haunted, it wasn't opened. MT called us while we were walking from Waterloo to St. Paul’s and they decided to find a pub nearby. Well they walked to Holborn! I couldn't believe it. We walked for like 45 minutes. It was the weekend though so not a lot was open in the 'city of London'. Holborn is right outside so they have stuff open. The pub they were at though was really expensive, so once we got there, we left and went down to Tottenham Court Road which was like two stops away on the Underground. We found The Pillars of Hercules off Charing Cross Road and by now it's like 3pm. We had only been looking for somewhere to eat since 1-1:30pm. We had a good time though. JJ was cool and had some good stories about Kenya. We talked for awhile and ate lunch before splitting up again. Julie and MT were in sight seeing mode so they went to Harrods. JJ had been to London before so we went in search of bad postcards. Kathleen wanted a postcard of Prince Charles's head which you can find anywhere...except when you are looking for it. We got gelato in Leicester Square, and then got delayed because Jenny was nearby. She met us in Leicester Square and we went in search of bad postcards. We did find Skicat. It's a postcard of a cat's head with a winter hat on...aka Skicat. It makes me think of London. We never did find Charles's head though.

We ended up going down to Trafalgar Square and headed to a Wetherspoon's pub. We wanted to be near Trafalgar Square when the sun went down. Trafalgar Square is so beautiful at night and when Big Ben is lit...ahhhhh so wonderful. So Jenny got Scrumpy’s. HAHA! It's like 7% cider that you can buy in a jug at ASDA for 4 pounds. Nye got Kathleen drinking it who introduced it to Jenny. I'll take Bulmer’s any day of the week. We were at this pub for a few hours and it was a great time. Julie and MT met us there after they finished with Harrods, and by that time it was time to go to Trafalgar Square. We ended up playing on the lions and then sitting on the stairs just enjoying the views. Kathleen and I love Trafalgar Square at night or any time of the day. It's our favorite place in London. We stayed there for awhile, but ended up going to another pub off Trafalgar Square. Kathleen tried to find "the pub", but only did that for a few minutes. We went to this pub three years ago...and Kathleen and I cannot remember where it is. It's cool though. We need to find it. Anyway that day was fun. The next day, Kathleen and JJ spent in Kingston just walking around and hanging around the Thames. He left early Monday for Montana.



Jenny and I sitting in Trafalgar Square.

So before I leave the topic of London, I thought I should mention one other time we went to Central. We had this great day, it was Jenny, MT, Kathleen, and I. We went to Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Harrods, Kensington Gardens, and Kings Cross. We went from Trafalgar Square to Harrods and then walked to Kensington Gardens. Queen Victoria was walking around and that was cool. She looks good for her age. We ended up at King's Cross because Jenny is a huge Harry Potter fan. Going to King's Cross is like me going to Rome. So we went and when we got to Platform 9 3/4, IT WAS GONE! They are doing construction and they moved the Platform to the other side of Platform 9. I thought Jenny was going to have a heart attack when we saw it was gone. But we did find it and Jenny was as happy as can be. I so missed King's Cross.

This post is getting long so let me introduce my friends and then I'll end this. I've talked about the boys so moving onto Jenny. Ms Malta. Kathleen and MT met her at the MA History induction. There are about 15 students in the MA History program and most of them are older students. After their induction was the Postgraduate Social. Kathleen and MT saw her, waved her over, we all started talking, and the rest you can say is history. When she said where she was from, I thought she was saying, "Mordor." I thought, "Oh cool!" Her local pub in Malta is where Oliver Reed died while filming Gladiator. She won Kathleen over when she downed two or three glasses of wine at the social. We also saw Julie and Lindsay there who we met at the North American social. I have a class with Lindsay and Julie. Lindsay is from the south, and Julie is from Ohio. Lindsay is friends with Hudson who is from SF and growing on me. We see each other at Spring Grove every Thursday when the Creative Writing students hang out together. Julie is a MA Publishing/Creative Writing student and Lindsay and Hudson are doing the two year Creative Writing program.

And that is it for this post.