First Day of Classes

Monday, August 25th
Today is the first day of classes, and I started out my super senior studies with Shakespeare, which scares the hell out of me. I thought it would be a class that is geared towards an easier approach to Shakespeare because I am certainly not well read in that area of literature, but it’s definitely not that at all: papers, quizzes, class presentations… blech. It’s strange to go to class after I participated in commencement; going to class and doing work isn’t really high up on the list of things Mike wants to be spending his time doing right now, but I guess my degree depends on it.
After class, we checked out the Natural History Museum, which was awesome. We only hit up the dinosaur and human biology exhibits, which were both kick-ass. The human biology exhibit educated me on everything from memory, to sexual reproduction to the female menstrual cycle. Woof. Maybe the British have it right, though, by not charging admission to the museums which probably wards off many possible patrons to the museums in the US.
Following a small dinner (tasty baguette sandwich deal with salami) we ran (literally) off to tonight’s Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall, featuring the Royal Philharmonic playing Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, followed by Tchaik 5. Freaking mind-blowing concert. We paid 5 pounds for standing room only tickets, which were way up at the top of the hall, and that was fine with us. The brass playing, especially in the horn section, was absolutely phenomenal, and everything else was still awesome. It had been a while since I’d gone to a professional concert like that, and that was exactly what I needed to refuel that musical flame.
Shortly after the concert, we went grocery shopping at the Somerfield store (discount food) across the street from our flat. I got a good deal of stuff, but ended up only spending 24 pounds, or roughly $45, which isn’t too bad considering it was my first grocery shopping experience in this country. I hope my sliced chicken on ‘mature cheddar’ with English mustard sandwiches will suffice for a couple months. It’s a good thing I didn’t go for the discount chicken, cuz Omar did and when he opened it up, the terrible stench of rotten eggs filled our flat. He promptly walked back across the street, stench-bomb in hand, and got his money back. I love Omar. I have a feeling this will be one hell of a semester. And I also feel that once class work starts to pile on, these posts might become more infrequent. We’ll see.