When in England...Pound=Quid=Dollar and Pence=Cent

It's high time I mentioned something about the money system, though I think I'm finally getting used to it, after nearly a month in this country. Two things drive me the most crazy: there's no such thing as a 25 pence coin and a pound comes in coin, not bill form. I didn't realize how much I relied on counting coins using 25p as the number to fall back on when figuring out change--52 p? Oh yes, that would be two quarters and two pennies in the U.S. Here, it's two 20p coins, a 10 coin, and then a 2p coin--they have, for your info, coins valuing 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 1 pound, and 2 pound. That's 8 coins! And goodness, the pound coin...somehow, changed from paper to coin form, the value of the pound feels far less than the value of one dollar in the States. I always feel like change is never worth that much, so I don't take them into consideration for how much money is on me. I still feel the same, but I shouldn't, because I can have no bills, and only pocket full of change, but depending on the number of 1 or 2 pounders in there, I could have quite a decent amount of money. That blows my simple mind.


These are the coins in order, from left to right, 1p to 2 pounds. Hmm, are there names for these coins? It'd be so much easier than saying 10 pence coin, etc. Also, congratulate me on my first picture! Though it's not one I took myself...I just have yet to have any really impressive pictures worth extending the size of my post for.

One more thing--I knew the pound would get confusing! I bought a pound of lychee, and the seller got confused and wasn't sure if I meant a pound, weight-wise, or money-wise (I meant weight!). Hah! This is what they get for using such a confusing term for the money system. :)

On other things, I discovered shopping near me, and now I really want to be making money, so I can just buy clothes. I've met some people in my class, so it's nice, knowing some faces. On class, I'm currently writing an essay--2000 words (it's also odd basing it on amount of words rather than number of pages), so I'm procrastinating by updating. I went with Colin to Tate Modern a week and a day ago--there was one exhibit that disturbed me a lot, and I still freak a little when I think about that exhibit. No, I don't think torture and self-mutilation is an interesting art topic.

I also went to the Lates at the Science Museum, though I was a bigger fan than Colin--I went with a bunch of other Affiliate students from UCL, so I'm glad I'm hanging out with some people. It was Japan-themed, and there was taiko, a kendo demonstration, and origami! There were so many people, and when we got there, we had to wait in a 3 block long line! I'm looking forward to the next Lates!

I made sausages for supper this evening--yummy! It satisfied the craving I've had all day for them!

Wish me luck on my essay--for those curious, it's about genes and biased sex ratios! :D Go females!

When in England...To the Left! To the Left!

Most of you are already well aware of the odd state of English driving, that is, drivers drive on the left side of the road. I knew that going in, and aside from a little confusion when crossing the street--easily remedied by the helpful street signs indicating which direction I should look to cross--this matter affected me little. Or so I thought.

A rather more pressing problem, I soon realized, was that in normal pedestrian walking, I am faced with a terrible conundrum when facing an oncoming person strolling purposefully forward. Should I move to the right or left? Usually, I follow that rule of shifting to the right, and most Americans, if they give it any thought as they are walking, do the same. Here, though, I no longer know if that is standard, and each time I face that person walking towards me, a moment of panic arises, and I usually end up awkwardly performing a sudden evasive maneuver to the right (only left when I recover from panic a little sooner), and I walk away from the scene feeling horribly clumsy and bumbling.

I finally got around to being touristy, so I met up with some fellow Swatties to walk around London, and I discovered that I was really close to all the really famous places. Of course, I'm not a very good tourist, because after taking about 5 pictures, I realized my camera was out of power. To add to the folly, London Eye was closed, and Westminster Abbey wasn't open that day. However, I got to catch up with friends, and have an enjoyable day out, and eat amazing Italian food, so all in all, I had a lot of fun.

And, since my courses are finally settled, here's a little look at what's occupying my next few months, academically:
Sex, Genes, and Evolution
Molecular Evolution
Field Course in Ecological Genetics (in Spain!!)
The Emergence and Spread of Modern Humans

The best part of this is that the first two classes are each for half the term, and the field course in a week in Late April, so I am currently only taking two classes, and I have both Wednesday and Friday off! Of course, I have to figure out how often I'm going to go do research for my Biology studies...

When in England...Curry is the Food of Choice, Not Fish and Chips

First day of classes, and I'm a little overwhelmed! It's such a big school, so there are so many students! I'm too used to the small school environment, and I'm a little surprised by how disorienting it feels to no longer be in that type of environment. You need a card to get into every building, and half the places in the building, and oftentimes, you need the card to get out as well.

Oh, right--the password problem I had earlier? Turns out that I thought the first two digits were not part of the password, and that's why I couldn't access anything. I had an idiot feeling for a little while after that.

As for classes, if I take the four classes I just signed up for, I have no class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the next five weeks, and still no class on Wednesday the entire term. Because I'm the sort of person that wouldn't know what I would do with all that free time, I'm trying to take a fifth class, but it's proving difficult. If they don't let me take it, I might ask if I can audit it, because it sounds really interesting--it's called Sex, Genes, and Evolution.

Finally, on one last note--it seems a go for working with that professor to do research, so yay!

When in England...It's Red, Yellow, Green, not Green, Yellow, Red.

Did you know that in England, the yellow light comes after the green light, to tell drivers that they're almost ready to go, rather than warning they have to stop soon? Someone also decided that pedestrians needed the help (I do!) and on many streets, they wrote 'Look Right', 'Look Left', or 'Look both ways' to tell us where to direct our head to observe for oncoming cars.

Classes start tomorrow, and I still have no internet in my room--I'm currently at the British Library using their wireless. The British Library is HUGE, and perhaps when I start actually taking pictures, I'll put one up. I've also discovered that my username and password is not working, so I can't even sign up for the courses I am interested in.

I've figured out most of my classes, but there's a conflict between two courses I'm interested in, and I'm so conflicted! Choosing courses is so complicated.

When in England…Order Drinks at the Bar, not the Table

I’ve been in London for two days, and it’s been eventful.

The flight itself over the Atlantic was fabulous—there were a million movies on the little screen in front of me, and several new releases, so I finally got to watch Eagle Eye, which I’ve wanted to watch the entirety of last semester. Between flights was sort of boring, and the public transportation in London was new and overwhelming, though I made it safely through, though I had two slight bumps: Great Portland Square in an American accent sounds like some other place on the outside of London and NOT where I was aiming to go in a British accent; trying to grab the attention of a taxi cab driver on the street is scary when you’re not used to anything other than calling a cab by phone.

My residence is so-so. The room’s fairly nice--it's sweet having my own sink and a supplied fridge, there’s one working shower in the girl’s bathroom (only two normally—the third is a bath!) and the kitchen closest to me is infested with flies, but the kitchen further from me is where everyone hangs out anyways. There’s like 15 other American study abroad students on this hall, and the regular students we’ve met are really social, so the hall’s pretty lively.

Orientation felt like the beginning of freshman year all over again—awkwardly looking at other people trying to figure out whether I should just go forward and introduce myself, a series of lectures from various administration telling us things that went in one ear and out the other, and a party in the evening, where people mingled from group to group, asking the same series of questions. Well, one thing was different—they served red and white wine to everyone at the party, and I don’t remember that in freshman orientation.

I planned on retiring early, but one freshman on my hall said they were going out to a pub, and I decided being antisocial so soon into the semester wasn’t cool, so I joined the group of partly freshman, partly study abroad students (about 85% of all the study abroad kids were from the U.S.) who were going to the pub, and had my first taste of a drink called…Snakefight? Snakebite? It was yummy, a mix of cider and beer and grenadine, but far too sweet for me to have more than a cup. Tomorrow morning, I have an early morning lecture on “How to Study Successfully at UCL.” Joy. Night, everyone.