Slow ride, take it easy...

I finished my first week of classes yesterday & I'm currently putting off packing for a rainy weekend in Amsterdam. Despite the rain, I CANNOT WAIT!

Classes are cool. That was lame. What I mean is that I don't mind my classes, they seem pretty good - I'm taking five classes but one doesn't start until next week & another one I signed up for is being taught at another school all the way by the Thames.... did not realize that! Whoops. So that's being changed & now I'm taking Marxism instead of Medieval Philosophy.. lovely, lovely. The other classes I'm taking are 19th & 20th Century Art in London Collections - which is taught by two artsy young professors and includes going to different galleries and museums each week, should be cool. I'm also taking Politics of the EU and Intro to British Politics. It's weird because somehow I usually end up taking classes that I already kind of know a thing or two about and I only end up learning filler information & random facts until mid-semester. However, the first week of class I actually learned a lot since I really don't know anything about the EU, British government, or art history. What's even better is that I will not have a single exam this semester - only papers - not to mention, my grades don't count. The fifth class I'm taking is Service-Learning in the British Context through Villanova.. so I'll be teaching acting - I think - to little kids... should be fun. Even though UCL is apparently now ranked the fourth best university in the world (WHAT?!), everything is so disorganized and just generally more laid back... which I'm seriously finding as a general trend here.

Tourist flash: I went on the absolute last tour given through Parliament for the year last week, which was extremely cool. Though it was an hour & a half long and my friend and I were starving and sick of walking (we spent a few hours couch hopping in the National Gallery - museums are free here so they're a great place to just chill and relax), it was the perfect precursor to all my government classes. Not to mention, it was just so cool to see all through their government system and traditions. I'll write more about their government later but fun facts: they have no written constitution - no bill of rights - and a complete winner-take-all majoritarian party system yet it works and pretty well. I'm amazed by this & I think there's a huge correlation between that and the difference between the American and British mindset/attitude/lifestyle, which I'm excited to keep learning about. If an American political party had control over the system without any opposition, forget about it - life would be over. Here, it's just not like that - from the little I know, it doesn't seem like hunger for power is the over-arching theme of British politics.. rather, they just want things to be good. Slow ride, take it easy keeps playing in my head while I learn about it.. seems so appropriate. But anyway, it was GORGEOUS inside Parliament and the political geek who lives inside me loved being inside the House of Lords and House of Commons where their entire system is administrated. It's especially cool because I really didn't/don't know anything about the British government or the EU so this semester is kind of like a first-hand tour & fieldtrip through all of it.

My friend & I were walking down the stairs of our dorm yesterday and passed a flyer that looked like a nightclub promotion... except it was about chlamydia. A few hours later, some girls in the lobby tried to give me free condoms and tell me about the effects of chlamydia and give me a test for it. No longer in Villanova... at all! Between this instance and the co-ed bathrooms (which my other friends visiting from Villanova - guys, even, were shocked about too), I feel like I'm freaking Dorothy waking up in a completely different land of free love & pee. That was gross. No filter right now. What's even more shocking to me, though, is that I really don't consider myself an extremely modest or conservative person yet both of these situations made me feel oddly uncomfortable. I guess I'm just not accustomed to it... I don't know!

We went to Ministry of Sound the other night, which everyone kept telling me was one of the best clubs in London. Well, we took a cab ride over the river down to the venue, which was in a sketchy area and ended up in a club that had three rooms and just wasn't that cool. Overrated. Though, my friend & I did get to rock out to teenage dirtbag in one of the rooms, which is never a bad time. Later that night, we got a glimpse into the nightclub/cop/taxi cab alliance that I never knew about ...but I'm not making it up. The bouncer at the club legit would not let my friends & I get in any cab until he said it was okay... the cab was not a black cab, which are the ones you're always advised to take, and it cost almost 10GBP more than the incoming ride and we had to give them the money up front. While this was all going on outside Minstry of Sound cop cars were circling all around.... weird. It reminds me of the BYOB deals on Lancaster at Villanova - you cannot tell me that those restaurants that don't ID and allow everyone to drink don't have some deal with Radnor cops, some of the biggest hardass cops around.... not that I don't completely benefit & love it. Also reminds me of Dizzy's by Hofstra's campus on Long Island.. never felt safe there when there's so clearly a ploy going on between the cops & the bar when you only have to show your 18year old ID to get in and drink while the cop cars never stop driving back and forth in front of the place. Whatever. Anyway, moral of the story - Ministry of Sound = overrated. I hear Fabric's a lot better & in a much more centrally-located area so I'll be checking that out soon.

Topshop had a student 20% discount this Wednesday - with my friends and I all off on that day, we took complete advantage - spending sooo much time going through every corner of that store while it poured outside. There were some pretty good deals but I continue to go through money as though I'm a millionaire in a third world country. Whoops.... I'm only in London once though and I'm spending it on things like airfare & hotels, so I think it's worth it to see Europe. I didn't work nearly everyday this summer to not enjoy every last dollar/pound I have. I also keep getting anxiety that eventually I'm going to have to leave, which is ridiculous considering I haven't even been here three weeks. There are just so many trips I want to take and I don't feel like I'm taking full advantage of even London yet.... it's only been three weeks, it's only been three weeks.....

I keep running into people who I somehow know in some way. I ran into my roommate's ex-bf from high school in Seattle the other night, whose friend knows some kid who I went to elementary school with. I also ran into someone who I used to volunteer at the nursing home with even though we went to different high schools. I saw a girl from my high school running through Leicester Square one night. Oh, and my roommate and I realized that coincidentally we will both be in Amsterdam this weekend, which makes me that much more excited to get there.

Speaking of, I have to go pack for my rainy weekend in the Netherlands. A few of my friends from Villanova are here this weekend so we went to the pub this morning.. which is why this post is probably gramatically incorrect.

I'll be in Amsterdam in t minus seven hours. Peace. Love.