Hey there

   So I think I am going to blog now just to keep myself caught up, and because I don't think I have time to get much else done before I have to leave for the day. I think I might have to live on pasties for the rest of my life...ANYWAY. Obineche Sean came to visit me and I didn't get a chance to see him until Friday afternoon. Due to my lack of directional skills and his lack of coins to make longer than a 14 second phone call we didn't actually get together until an hour after we said. But we finally made it. And it was beautiful. I was so mesmerized by him that I got us lost leaving Trafalgar Square...twice. But I figured it out and I got a pasty for dinner and we went to Chapters (cafeteria at Strand) and just talked for an hour and a half. I swear, being with one of my best friends from home, the world went hazy around me and it was just us talking about middle school and high school and laughing at ridiculous things. It was good. And by good, I truly mean that.
   Emilie had invited us out to get drinks at this bar that had a half-off happy hour so we met up with her, Divya, and Sam and went to Jewel. Sooooooo trendy. Uber trend!! But still cool. There was nowhere to sit that wasn't reserved, but we managed to find five stools around near one of the like five bars there. It didn't quite make conversation that great but it was ok. Obi and I left early because he had to get to a theatre for Harry Potter. We waited ages for RV1 and the whole time he was flipping out a little bit so we got off at Southwark Station to take the tube. His friends apparently were later than he was but whatevs. I was a little wangwung (?) and talked to another best friend. Difficult.
   We had a fire drill at quarter to 6 on Saturday morning. We stood outside for 20 minutes. It took me an hour to fall back asleep and I wasn't happy. So it was quite painful to make myself get out of bed at 9:30. This time I was ten minutes late, but Obi said he was too and it took us only ten minutes to find each other. But we did. Outside Harrods, which we then explored. And dear sweet Jesus, Harrods. The food halls were amazing. We spent the most time in the Christmas area, which was soooo movie Christmas. And cheery. They had a bunch of Christmas ornaments that just said "Harrods 2010" on them in glitter, which I was like, "Whyyy?" Especially because they were 7-10 pounds (cost). I didn't even want to attempt to walk through women's clothes in my state, so we passed through men's clothing. Cue Prada CASE--i.e. locked case of legit Prada clothes that you can't even touch unless you have the money to buy. Yup. Then we kind of realized we were done. Obi wanted to sit so we attempted a Starbucks down the street but it was really full so we walked on. It was cold so I decided to skip Hyde Park, which is just down the street from Harrods. We got slightly lost trying to find a tube station because one entrance we passed was closed for construction. Upon doubling back we realized there was one across the street so we went to Holborn, where we found another Starbucks, under the presumption that we would rest and then tackle the British Museum. We stayed in Starbucks and talked for another hour or so and after that, neither of us wanted to do anything so we went home. Well, we dropped things off and then we went to Sainsbury's to get the rest of the food for dinner. Then we came back to my room and hung out, went to the computer lab so we could print off boarding passes and I refigured Christmas break plans, which cost me more money AUGH AUGH.
   Finally, we made dinner to the tunes of my "OBI LONDON VISIT PLAYLIST." Magical. Alison had some friends over and they were making dumplings, so she was to knock on my door when they were ready. Obi skyped with some people from home. Then we went in and ate sweet dumplings and talked and ate savory dumplings and nearly exploded. Obi took a 20 min nap in my room, only waking up when I came in to get my keys so I could let Emilie in. He was very disoriented, thinking at first he was at his host mom's house, then his hostel, then realizing he was at mine. We all played cards for like 45 min and then a lot of people left, so it was Alison, Mark, Obi, and I who went down to play some pool and ping pong. Boy, what a mess. There was tribal and victory dancing and falling on the floor and lots of scratching. One shot I took I was totally confident and it was a beautiful shot, only I sent the cue ball straight into the hole without really touching another ball. Ping pong was almost worse but we agreed that Alison would work wonders on ANTM action shots because she is the most graceful ping pong player I've ever seen. I had to call it a night after two games on my part, so Obi and I chatted a bit in my room before I sent him off on his way. Then I skyped with Ben and Mum and went to bed. (Steve, you should be around to make a four-way skype!)
   Sunday morning was brill. Made an egg scramble with tomato and onion and feta and watched Psych in my uber-grub state. Happy. Then took amazing shower and got work done for the rest of the day. I don't really remember. But on Monday I got out by noon to go to the library. Before that I digress a little bit--for those of you I haven't told, it gets dark here literally at 4pm. Yesterday weather.com said sunset was at 4:02. It's horrible. It makes you feel like you don't want to leave your house. So when I was on the bus at quarter to 12 it felt like mid-afternoon already, which was totally weird. But anyway. I went to Maughan and staked out a spot in the circular reading room. And read. And read. For three and a half hours. I got through three readings and a PB&J. Then I went home. I stopped at the public library on the way to check out a Shakespeare book for next week. In that section there was a book by Jo Brand from 1994. I checked it out and am reading it. Right next to poetry and plays was the LGBT section with books that looked suspiciously like erotica. I will work up the courage to check that section out. On the way out, I saw cooking. It happened. I checked out ONE book. THEN I saw their Bollywood dvd section. Do you know what this all did to me? SHELVES and SHELVES of Bollywood. The only thing that stopped me is that they charge to check out movies. But I will live there during winter break. So I came away with four books stacked high in my arms and a giddy mood.
   Then I came home and read more! A play for Irish Lit called Translations. Made dinner and then had four hours of nothing because I had been so productive all day! Finally, yesterday was another long Tuesday and at only like 1pm I was dying and couldn't believe how long I still had to go. That's one reason why I can't wait til next semester. That long of a day just kills me inside now. And I have that nagging feeling about papers in the back of my mind now. Augh. (Cus over here they don't do exams before break. I have one essay due on the last day of class but then I have one 3500 word essay and one 4000 essay due the day we get back, along with an essay exam that I will have to prepare for over break that I will take the first week I get back. Where is the time for fun?!)
   Ahhh, there you have it. My life.