Day 5: Fourth Year's official beginning

Getting out of bed this morning was much harder than previous mornings, probably because I needed to be up earlier than before. Also, I think, because I wasn’t looking forward to anything in particular; today was, by and large, about logistics.

We needed to be in Bloomsbury at 10:45, but I lacked a good sense of how long it would take to get there, so I was a little edgy already. Ryan and I both woke up late, and neither of us was exactly in a hurry to shed the covers and start the day. By 9:30 I was antsy to leave, 9:45 found me in the lobby pondering if I’d be a huge jackass for leaving everyone else and just going on my own.

We left 9 min later, 9:54, and headed down to the tube station (10 min), took the Tube to the center (20 min) and walked to IES (6 min). Needless to say, we were there with time to spare, and I’ve got a good sense of how long it takes, but I’ve been edgy all day because of the way things started.

We headed to the Senate House Library, our ad hoc Regenstein for the rest of the quarter. A rather long introduction ended with a long queue to get our library cards. Because of the long line, a lot of people just went to get lunch, or were still in line when I finished. Lunch on my own was the order of the day, but it wasn’t a bad deal at all. Tesco provided a sandwich wrap, drink, chips and candy bar for under 5 pounds, which was a solid deal. I ate in the sunshine of a local park backed against the trunk of a rather large Oak tree, it was all very pleasant.

I was one of the only people in the class who had taken a seminar before, so I felt bad for everyone who hadn’t. I remember my first three-hour classes seemed interminable (now I quite like them, which works well in this program) Mentally, you’ve just got to plan for the break and resist watching the clock at all costs.

Had this been a class of my choice, I would have dropped it straight away, literally before the first class had ended. Michael Murin read his introduction, which is always a bad sign. Once he got going, he was really quite pleasant and I like him just fine. He seems knowledgeable and pretty concerned with the students, which is a huge plus.

The downside is that I don’t know how to learn some of this material. Today’s lecture was three hours of material that wouldn’t be totally out of place in a poli sci lecture, but it’d be material that you’d file away for later; not actually useful on its own. Tomorrow may well provide a better sense of what we should be making notes of, but for now, I’m a little turned around.

Once we got back to Chelsea, Tom and I decided to explore the American* bar near by. The bar tender said the Sox-Tigers game would be on later that evening, so we left and came back. What we missed however, was the fact that there was a rain delay. So, we sat and waited for over an hour hoping that the game would be on soon.

*This bar reminds me SO much of America Town, the bar the Simpsons visit when they go to Japan, its almost scary. They have a HUGE bbq platter tastefully named The Chicago Board of Trade. No Lie.

We decided to head back to the dorm to watch the gamecast and work, which is how the evening has gone ever since.

I may lead a small group up to Arsenal tomorrow to see if we can get cheap tickets to the CL match, but unless we can find tickets for 25 or less, I doubt people will be interested.