Bacon Buttie

In an attempt to avoid a run-in with the cleaning ladies today (it was my turn to have my en-suite bathroom cleaned), I went into Uxbridge for breakfast and half-assed job hunting. The former was successful, the latter not so much. Thankfully it's a nice chilly day today, blustery and damp, so I was able to wear tights and a sweater, yay. I'm easily pleased.

I ended up at Starbucks for breakfast because it's familiar and I know how to pay there (still intimidated by every eating establishment in England as I've no idea how to pay or tip or anything so I just try not to do it at all). To my delight, I found weird British food things at Starbucks! I almost bought a mature cheddar and mushroom croissant, but ended up with a bacon buttie. A bacon buttie. It said on the wrapper, "Bacon Buttie." EVERYTHING HERE SOUNDS HILARIOUS. So I got a bacon buttie with brown sauce and a latte, and it was delicious, and it was a bacon buttie.










Uxbridge is a pretty cool place. I like it. There's a shopping center so I don't feel like I'm in the sticks, but it's friendly and dare I say quaint (the man at the computer center on campus told me it wasn't quaint, but he isn't from the Land of Everything New, i.e. America, so). I mean, there's stained glass in the tube station! Quaint.

Not so excitingly quaint was my "job hunting" adventure. I went into several shops in Chimes and asked if they were hiring. They all said they'd just hired someone recently, except River Island, which claimed to be hiring but she told me I had to apply on the website. Of course I came home and went on the website and naturally there weren't any vacancies listed there. Frustration. Any tips for part-time jobs in London? I've no idea of the best way to go about it, and I'm unfamiliar with most shops here so if anybody has any suggestions I'd be beyond grateful for them.

In other news, I finally got my MoriarTea shirt from Qwertee! I promptly cut off the collar and made it a boat neck because I won't wear crew neck shirts unless they're pajamas. I have a phobia of things around my neck, plus I feel like they make me look fat. I KNOW, completely stupid but there it is. Anyway I love how the shirt came out, and will def wear it around hoping to be spotted by fellow Sherlockians. (No, I'm not wearing pants. It's called laziness.)

My Room

Like a proper genius, I failed to bring my Canon with me yesterday on my adventures. Thus you will not see photos of them in my blog. Woe! You may ask, "What did you do yesterday that I should care about or want photos from?" Well! I'll tell you, even if you didn't ask that and are just scrolling down hoping for some more double-decker bus photos. Sorry, nope, just pictures of my room in fact.

As I said, though, I had adventures yesterday! First, I went and toured the BBC Television Center with Shaun. I had a hell of a time with public transport on the way there, and long story short I showed up several minutes late, but they'd waited for me thanks to Shaun, and therefore we had a magical fangirly time in the BBC. It was really fun, and the two tour guides were informative as well as hilarious, so it was perfect. There were photos and quotes from various BBC shows along the hallways, and every time we saw something from Sherlock or Doctor Who we'd flail and squee, and once we saw a photo of Mark Gatiss which was exciting, and we also saw things like Cyberman heads and Daleks and the TARDIS (again? How many are there in London?). Run-on sentence, sorry, but the excitement cannot be contained in a normal-length sentence!

After the BBC we had a quick bite and then took the tube to Camden Town, which turns out to be amazing, and which I'd better just let you experience for yourselves in the form of my fabulous photography the next time I go there. It was really a feast for the senses, with stalls of food and clothing and jewelery and lots of pubs and music and vintage shops and countless statues of horses for some reason. It was incredible, and so fun. I'll definitely be back to take a billion pictures. So, patience.

Now that that's out of the way, I thought I'd post some more boring day-to-day photos, mostly for my mom, and for friends back home who I'm sure are just dying to see what my dorm room is like. Hint: it looks like every other dorm room in the entire world.
















Before you ask, yes I am watching Doctor Who Confidential on my Macbook. I'm depressed that they canceled it; what a great show. It was almost more fun than Doctor Who itself, but only just.

As you can see I didn't bother to straighten up before taking photos of the room. There's an empty water bottle on the floor by my bed under the window, if you missed it. Classy stuff happening right there. Also those Cheddars on my desk are addictive and I urge you to stay away from them! They're worse than Pringles. Well, maybe not worse but I definitely popped and I can't stop. Harr harr. Also I bought PG Tips because they didn't have English Breakfast at the campus market (how dare they), but I haven't had it yet as it's been too warm to drink hot tea. I'm scared it'll be gross and I bought a whole box of the stuff.

Clearly it's time for me to stop writing here or I'll just start rambling about completely random things, such as my classes, which nobody needs to hear about. Maybe I'll share some of my ~deep thoughts~ in a later post, but for now, this is all you get.

Lazy Monday

Being a dweeb in my dorm room, as usual, but this time taking photos. As you can see I don't have anything on the walls yet, mostly because I keep forgetting to buy thumbtacks and/or sticky tack (do these exist in the UK?), and also because I haven't anything to hang on the walls yet. I'm thinking I need a "keep calm and [insert nerdy thing here]" poster, as well as something Doctor Who or Sherlock related, but not sure yet where to acquire those. I also need to pick up some cheap frames for the rest of the photos I printed out of Greg! I miss that boy more than anything right now.

Other than lack of real decorations, I do like my room a lot. Having an en-suite bathroom is pretty awesome, because sharing bathrooms is so seven years ago (can you believe it's seven years ago I was a freshman in college? JEEEZ). The bed came equipped with sheets, a pillow, and a down comforter, but why is the duvet such a gross color? Sigh, we takes what we gets I guess! At least Leppy, the green pillow (which my mom left behind, not sure if she meant to), my red throw, and my Union Jack make things cozier.




I did a bit of shopping today in Uxbridge; just some essentials. I wandered in the Chimes shopping center and checked out New Look and River Island, but steered away from Topshop as I know I shouldn't spend that much money. Going shopping again with Shaun on Thursday though, so maybe I'll cave and buy one or two things. I am in need of a winter coat, a slightly bigger purse (my current one hasn't quite been cutting it), a coin purse, and maybe some winter boots but I'll probs hold off on those for a while. I did end up getting a saucepan and a frying pan from TK Maxx, which is basically TJ Maxx but British. Also got a tiny strainer for pasta and a wooden spoon for stirring purposes. I think I'm all set to make beans or pasta, and to fry up those frozen sausages I bought! Excite. Oh and I also got some Pepsi Max, toilet paper, and cereal from Poundland. Need to find a tiny thing of milk, and some tea, and I think I'll be pretty much set.

Now that you are aware of my shopping lists, oh boy, I think I'll go get some reading done before I get sucked into tumblr or fanfic or something. Must be responsible now! I'm a grad student after all.

London Calling

Home again home again jiggity jig! Oh wait I'm not home, I'm thousands of miles away from my home country. I always thought of England as my soul's home, but the past few days have been so hectic and exhausting that I'm rethinking that assumption.

That's not to say it's awful here; it's not! It's incredible! But I'm suffering from jet lag (still), culture shock, homesickness, crippling fear and introversion, and an extreme case of missing Greg. I'm so glad to be here, but it may be a while before I feel comfortable and happy here. Real life is overwhelming; I kinda just want to do touristy things forever.

Luckily my mom and I were able to take the tube into the city yesterday, so here are some photos from that. It was a lot of fun, and of course the first thing I wanted to see was the TARDIS at Earl's Court! (Not to mention Earl's Court and all the Underground stations totally makes me think of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.)
























Anyway I'd write more but at the moment my computer is going so slow it's like 1995. I think I may just burst a blood vessel in my brain if I try to navigate this nonsense any longer. Hopefully I'll do a proper update about my life soon. There are so many things to write about!