First Week of Classes

Gordon Square, right by my dorm. Sometimes I read here.

I've learned several new things this week (and relearned several old things, too):

I love the sparkly, rainbow bubbles of my screen saver. Honestly, I hate to move the mouse to disturb their frolicking, but I know that if I wait 60 seconds, they'll be back.


Being a full time student again is fun. Don't get me wrong; college was fun the first time. Saint Olaf will always have a special place in my heart. I also enjoyed my time at the University of Minnesota, but working full time (much more than full time, usually) while going to school doesn't exactly lend itself to all of the experiences college can mean. I was not able to devote enough time to my courses nor to the social aspects of being a student.

This time I'm doing a better job. First of all, I know myself and my work ethic better. I'm really interested in what I'm studying now, so I don't mind doing the hours and hours of reading every day (I'm already planning on talking more about my reading in future posts, so I won't bore you with it now. If you're curious, I'll send you an exhaustive summary of what I've learned this week). Additionally, after years of reminiscing about college and listening to "Avenue Q" sing about all its wonderful aspects, I'm doing a better job with the social parts, too.  Too often at St. Olaf, especially freshman year, I didn't take all the opportunities as they came.  Maybe I was shy, maybe I was homesick...whatever the reason, things passed me by which I later came to regret.  Hindsight is 20/20, after all; at 33 I'm unlikely to make those mistakes. Suffice it to say: college is fun.


Currently I'm in the midst of a phone crisis. For years, my phone has been my only source of the internets away from work, so I'm attached to it all the time. It's always in my hand, on the table, on the back of the couch, by my bed: never out of arm's reach, in other words. In London I don't have a smart phone. I have a phone remarkably similar to the first one I got in 2001, and I'm having to relearn to text without a full keyboard (and no T9 function--this phone can do that for Spanish and French, not for English). I have learned my number--you're welcome to call me--but mostly I give it to people to text me. It's been the strangest cultural experience for me, and I'm waiting to feel liberated from technology. Mostly I feel cut off from the world and inconvenienced. I'm sure the sense of liberation will come. Won't it?

Museums should always be free. London is an expensive city, no two ways about that, but I think they have several of their priorities correct. Yesterday my Norwegian friend Ane and I went to the British Museum for a few hours. I've been there twice before on previous trips: neither time was very successful. The first time the fire alarms went off about 10 minutes after we arrived so we had to leave. The second time I had a monster headache, and it's hard to be interested in learning when you're considering self-decapitation. When Ane suggested the British Museum, I agreed immediately, but not with an overwhelming excitement. Mostly my associations with it aren't the best. Yesterday, however, all that changed. First of all, there was no pressure to see everything in the museum in one shot: it's a six minute walk from my dorm to the museum. Because it's free, I can and will go back. We spent some time in the Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome sections and then decided to save most everything else for another day; there was a nearby Mediterranean restaurant beckoning us for linner (Get it? Lunch/dinner? You got it). I'm super excited to have the time to go to the other museums and galleries over the next year at my leisure.


When I got home from linner yesterday, there was a new friend request waiting for me on Facebook. It was from a former student at Andover who graduated three years ago, and it came with this message: "Are you in London? I think I just saw you at the British Museum, but when I did a double-take, you were gone." This world is amazing and vast, but incidents like this remind me of how very tiny it is, too. I know I made this point last week, but we are much more similar to each other than we are different, and, clearly, we're much closer than we think.

Medals for the 2012 London Olympics

My new Canadian friend Justin said something last week that I've been pondering since: cities have moments when things are happening and moving there, and they have moments when they feel a bit stagnant. This is London's moment. Really, this city is the place to be. So many things are happening and upcoming, it is really startling. This relates to what I've been reading about the beginnings of the Modernism movement in literature in the nineteenth century (again, if you want to know, I have things to say), and this city feels like the place to be in the twenty-first century. The Olympics in 2012 (the medals are on display at the British Museum) are only one very obvious example. Walking down the street today, I was stunned again by the beauty of this city. I said aloud "Wow, I live here" while walking (alone), and I'm convince the guy next to me thought I was crazy; it's a small price to pay.

Really, come visit. Things are happening here.


Addendum: Two minutes after I finished typing this I got a very exciting text on my crappy, crappy phone.  Congrats to two of my very favorite people! Tyler and Katie, I know you'll be amazing parents! Ethan is one lucky kid!