Sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would I wanna be anywhere else?

Given that I went to bed at 8am "last night" and woke up at 2pm today, I feel as though this has been a fairly productive day thus far (note, I've been up for a little bit under four hours). It was actually sunny and warm today (a high of 50°F!), the first time it's been this nice since I've been back, so I decided to go on a long, lovely walk around London. I think I can safely say I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (with the hilarious acronym of SAD). According to Wikipedia, "The US National Library of Medicine notes that 'some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods.'" I know that in actuality, the SAD description applies to basically every human being on earth, but my winter lifestyle patterns are much more similar to those of bears than those of humans. 

In any event, with no particular route in mind, I decided to make my way towards the Thames river. According to google maps, it was about a 6 mile walk in total. 

My Route:

View of my dorm from Wren Street

Grey's Inn Road, the old and the new

While walking through Russell Square, I passed a man feeding a Squirrel which climbed up his leg to get the nut from him (pause). I was quite shocked by the boldness of said squirrel, and after the initial bafflement, I attempted to document this occurrence. Unfortunately, it was too late. I made note of this event as not to forget to mention that there are really bizarre squirrels here in England. Then later, while I was walking along St. James park, an old lady was feeding a squirrel and it did the same thing! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

I just thought this was pretty, and the sun was so bright today!

I passed a lot cliché London sights.

The London Eye and Big Ben from a distance.

London Eye

Westminster Bridge

It was right around the time that I took the above picture, that I spotted an attractive bearded man. As I stared a bit I realized it was, in fact, teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson (the star of Twilight, duh). I did not take his picture, but I did stare a bit. While I have never really been a fan, I did end up swooning a bit.

Moving on...

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace from Afar

Being back in London has been really good so far. I am feeling really optimistic, and happy to be here. Of course, this may be the weather talking! I had a fun (though unproductive, as usual) weekend. Thursday night I went with Hannah and Miranda to a hipster dance party (kind of intense) which resulted in my shoes looking like this:

And last night we went to a nearby college-hangout pub where I ended up watching the Saints game and dancing to pop-rap. Made me slightly NOLA-sick, and while I am sad to be missing DJ Pauly D from Jerz Shore perform at the Boot, catching glimpses of the Real World cast, and seeing Simon and Garfunkel at JazzFest, there will be plenty of things to look forward to when I get back. For now, I am trying to concentrate on enjoying myself to the fullest here. Not to mention, Katherine will be here tomorrow!

Back in LDN

I survived the plane ride back! Always a success. Granted, this success isn't attributable to me, more-so to the pilot and Iceland's lack of enemies (as far as I know). I connected via Reykjavik. Both planes were no bigger than a plane to New Orleans so... that was an interesting experience. Overall there was very little turbulence, but that didn't stop me from thinking I was going to die anyway. I did however get to see 500 days of summer, which I enjoyed.

Today was my first day of classes, but I didn't go. Instead, I slept till 2:30 in the afternoon (oops). It was well worth it. Though I worry since skipping class usually leads to more skipping class (which is why I usually try and wait until at least halfway through the semester). But eh... I am jet lagged. What can you do?

London is cold. As is New York, as is New Orleans. So I guess, at least right now, there would be no escaping it. Though I dream of a weekend vacation to Barcelona (highs of 60° F are still way better than this).

I haven't done much since I've been back, only about 32 hours or so. I did manage to get food and coffee with Miranda today which ended the hibernation/solitude of the first 24 hours. Needless to say, human contact is pretty crucial in staying sane, particularly in this weather.

Anyway, break was really wonderful, I am glad I got to see so many of the people I love in New York which I still think is pretty much the greatest place in the world. It recharged my batteries so I think I am (almost) ready to face the next semester.

It's nice returning to London and not feeling new anymore. Since I am a lot more settled than I was at the beginning of last semester, I am hoping to find a job and join some clubs, tentatively considering the following:
yoga & meditation
cycling club (though I don't have a bike here... but perhaps this would lead me to finding a cheap place to get one?)
hiking and walking club
women students
foodcycle

I am also planning on joining the gym, and possibly going. This is really a stretch, but why not dream big.

That's all for now!

Doublin' in Dublin

Hello dear friends! Tis already the end of my school week (hooray!). I had a paper due today and have another due tomorrow at 2pm. Amazingly, I managed to finish them both relatively early, so I am both relieved to have that over with and well rested. A truly unique experience for me around this time of year. I am only a paper away from being done with this semester! That being said, two of my classes don't have finals until the end of the school year so... the British educational system will probably bite me in the ass at a later date.

Backtracking to last Thursday—Hannah and I were about to embark on our journey to Dublin. Being that I am both neurotic and forgetful, I was constantly checking my bags and pockets to make sure I had everything (or hadn't lost it since I last checked). Wallet, check. Tickets, check. Passport, check. Made the train on time—check.
At long last we made it into the airport, belongings still in tow. Size checked our carry on—success. Then we handed the woman behind the counter our boarding passes, and after a while she said, "Do you realize you're leaving from Gatwick?"
Gatwick being an airport. Luton being the airport we were currently standing in, on the opposite side of of London.
No, no we did not realize that.

The airline representative there said our options included taking the next flight out of Luton–£200 each, or taking a cab to the other airport and paying a flight change fee of £100 each to catch the next flight from there. Neither of these options sounded particularly appealing, especially given that we had only paid £10 for each round trip ticket. It seemed like Dublin might not be in the plans for the weekend after all.

After some research we discovered that we could get there by a combination of train and ferry for £29 the next morning. So that's what we did. We decided to take the earliest train out which required waking up at 5am. The voyage there was nice though. I hadn't been outside of London, the British countryside seemed lovely from what I could see of it.

Sheep!

Whilst switching trains, I saw this sign on the platform

Dublin itself was pretty great all around. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews from friends who had been—some loved it, some absolutely hated it. The city was a lot prettier than I had imagined (though, granted, I can't even recall having seen a photo of Dublin before, all that comes to mind is generic Irish hills and greenness).

Hannah and I were lucky enough to be staying with my godmother and her family. They are living in a beautiful home in Dublin for the year. This meant that each evening we feasted like kings, ah, those were the days. My god-sisters (who I have mentioned before, age 5 and 9), were very cute and quite entertaining.

We spent most of our days in Dublin just walking around, exploring the city and taking in the feel of the place. At times it felt a lot like Who-ville. It was very quaint, full of decorations and brimming with cheer. Moreover, it was the weekend so all of these families (often with 3+ kids) were out and about.

It was quite foggy and rainy like they say...

We went on a tour of the old Jameson Distillery where Hannah and my cousin Martyna's boyfriend Nacho took part in a Whiskey tasting

Martyna

Miranda, Hannah and I decided to go on the Ferris Wheel at night. I thought Martyna and Nacho would come along too, but it turns out they are afraid of heights, and my powers of persuasion proved useless.

Waiting to get on the Ferris Wheel

At first it was a little scarier than we had anticipated, but we got the hang of it eventually.

The view from above

In the evenings we went back to the homebase to unwind, and so that Sonya and Olga would brush Hannah's hair.

One night we planned to go to a club called The Button Factory, but it didn't seem like there was much going on from our outdoor analysis, so Hannah and I ended up going into a pretty crowded pub called The Temple Bar, where we met a bunch of really drunk British lads on a business trip. Needless to say, we have a lot of incriminating evidence, if the NHS is interested.

I want to take a moment to mention that people are constantly farting in the pubs in Dublin (it's pretty gross, actually). It should seriously renamed Fart City, it's that bad. I hear it's the Guinness.

On another note, we had a really cliché moment where a Brit and this Irish dude started singing some old folk tune. That I have not uploaded yet. I have, however, compiled some clips from the evening, which includes Hannah Mo' Riffs and Jay-B freestyling poorly. We somehow found inspiration for our rap personas on the long, long walk home. Enjoy.

On our last full day in Dublin, the sky was clear, which is always a lovely note to end on.

We had planned to take advantage of the city's public bike-sharing program. Unfortunately, our credit cards were incompatible with the machine. This was a pretty big bummer. The program itself is great though—it's awesome that so many cities are doing this. Hopefully next time we travel to a city with a bike-sharing program we'll actually get to utilize it!

Instead, we walked... a lot. It was death to our feet, but well worth it. It was a pretty perfect last day. Bye, Dublin!

P.S. I am expecting "parcels," or at least letters. Bonus points if you send them by carrier pigeon/owl.

Joanna Bak
Langton Close
Wren Street
London, WC1X 0HD

Oops.

It appears it has been 21 days since my last post. My, how the time flies!

The most notable "event" in the past three weeks of my life has been my trip to Poland. During my cab ride on the way to my grandparents' house my cab driver (an older dude with three teeth) asked me if I had a fiancé. I said "no" and "I'm young, I think I've still got some time," to which he responded "what are you, nineteen? twenty?" Yes. Yes I am. I know that these kind of expectations vary based on different generations and whereabouts in Poland people are from, but still. I am glad I don't face those kind of expectations and judgements on a regular basis.

Otherwise, I spent quality time with my family which was great—made me wish we didn't have to limit our time spent together to such occasional, planned visits. I was in Słupsk visiting my dad and his parents, in Okonek visiting my mom's sister and grandparents on that side of the family, and I went to Gdańsk for a day with my dad which was lovely.

Słupsk

I got to see some of my dad's new art

Grandparent's house in Okonek

Okonek Scenery

Deliciousness I stuffed my face on

Grandparents in Okonek

With my aunt and Grom

Gdańsk

Me in Gdańsk

Dad photographing Gdańsk

That's about all from my Poland trip!

Not too much going on in London, I've been back for a week, and since I turned in my last paper on Wednesday I have been extremely lazy, but I'll have to get it together soon. My dorm room seems to be a black hole where productivity comes to die.
This past Saturday I went to the Pop Life exhibit at the Tate Modern. Which I thought was £5 but was actually £11. YIKES. My favorite part of it was the Keith Haring room which was made to look pretty much exactly like his Pop Shop in NYC in the 80s.

(A photo of the actual Pop Shop)

There was also a lot of "explicit" content in the exhibit, aka porn. The exhibit was 18+, and I got stopped pretty much every time I was going into an "explicit" room with questions like, "You're not eighteen, are you?" and "HOW OLD ARE YOU?," which got on my nerves. Mainly because a) I am TWENTY dag  nabbit and b) because if I really wanted to look at some porn, do you think I would be paying ELEVEN POUNDS for the privilege of seeing it in this museum when I could easily see it for free on the internet? But enough about that...

What else? I have finally learned to forge my own signature without drawing suspicions from cashiers. That's about all I can think of. I'll be home in less than a month now, and in Dublin even sooner! I'm listening to Christmas music as I write this and getting into the spirit!

In the words of Tigger, TTFN, Ta ta for now!

Hip hip, hooray!

At long last, I am no longer homeless! I've finally got a decent-sized room that I can call my very own. I have already started making my nest (which I am sure comes as a surprise to absolutely no one). I'm not done, but it's looking a lot more like home already. The rest of the hall itself is pretty drab, and the hallway outside my door smells like the home of a 75 year old chain smoker, but hey, I think this is as close to heaven as it gets for a student in London. I do have one small complaint. I have no kitchen/glass/silver/dinnerware of any sort, which means all meals for now will have to be prepared using only my hands and a cheese grater. I am not quite creative enough for that challenge so hopefully I will manage to find some cheap kitchenware stat.

My lair with abnormally high ceilings:

During the day you can see my lovely view of a brick wall, with some trees above it.

I should probably keep that food in the kitchen...

I needed to have at least one vase, alright? Let it go.

This year I did diddlysquat for Halloween (translation: worked on a paper and watched desperate housewives). A drastic improvement from the past two years so I'm not disappointed. During the day I went to the brick lane area for the first time with Hannah and Austin. There was supposed to be a "day of the dead" parade of sorts but it was kind of a flop, so we just walked around a bit.

Hannah

Ever since I was on the tube yesterday and a subway performer was playing a kenny G-esque version of this song, it's been stuck in my head. I've been wanting to stop in the middle of the street and just belt it out and start dancing, but I have thus far resisted.

What else? Steffani was back in London for a couple of days before heading off to Rwanda.

We finally went to Harrods

Where we rode the egyptian escalator

saw the pet kingdom

and I tried on shoes I cannot afford.

The following day we went out with Hannah and my friend Miranda from middle school, the night is best summed up by the comic which Steffani created:

My first paper is due this Thursday and I am heavily procrastinating... but now I shall try and focus. Wish me luck.