Week 3 - Lizzing London

Grad school is hard. I mean, I know that's pretty obvious, but until you get into it you don't really think about it that much. I give props to anyone who does this while working / being a parent / doing anything else because of the sheer amount of reading and work that needs to be done!

Classes are going well so far and I'm enjoying the content, but honestly, they all sort of blend together a bit. I have all of my classes on Mondays and Tuesdays (That's 6 hours straight each day) so by Tuesday night (right now) my brain feels like it's seeping out my ears. Quite the image, right?

I had a meeting with my "tutor" today and I felt so much better about things after that meeting. At King's each student is assigned a personal tutor for the year. They are a professor who is teaching one of your classes during the year and is someone you can go to for advice, help, questions on material, and potentially as references after the program is complete. This is something that I think King's does really well - and I know it sounds like I'm sponsoring them now, but really, this is pretty awesome. It's basically someone to say "Yep, stuff is really hard and it's only going to get harder and there is a ton of reading, but honestly, if you didn't think it was hard we wouldn't be doing it right". Pretty relieving!

Aside from school, I have had more of a chance to enjoy being in London lately since I've gotten a better handle on my schedule and how to plan my days. Since I have somehow lucked out and gotten two days of classes, that means that I have five day weekends. European weeks? I wish.

Last Friday, I went on a night bus tour that was set up by the building I live in. Not much to say here aside from - wow, my city is amazingly beautiful.

Some of my coworkers from my office in Chicago were here last week and it was SO NICE to see familiar faces and just generally hang with people who already know me. I didn't have to be as on my game as with my friends from school. (We're still new and in the "please like me, I'm making good impressions" phase of our friendships). We went to the Borough Market, walked around Kensington Gardens, and went on our own little pub crawl in Queen's Park with some friends from the London office. It was awesome. And super London-y because it rained the whole time. For what it's worth - my raincoat is perfect.

Weekly list of my favorite things right now:

- Getting the front seat on the top level of the bus. See the Shard? I live right next to it. Ah!

- Indian food is literally amazing here. All of it. Anywhere. Even the frozen meals.
- CityMapper app. It is on the list again because I couldn't live without it.
- Having a "regular spot" at the library where I meet my friends.
- The fox in the courtyard now has a name. Foxy. Really original.
- Making a breakthrough in my flat. If you know me well, you'll already know this story.
- I'm rubbish (see see!) at taking care of plants. I think. Unless it's supposed to look like this:

Thing I learned to fear this week - flying daddy long legs. Yes, these are real. They are just like those spiders in the U.S. that have super small bodies and really long, thin legs and are totally creepy BUT THEY FLY HERE. I would have a photo of this, but in moment of sheer panic, you tend to forget all about capturing moments. They come in your window when you least expect it and the next thing you know you have a boot on each hand and you're jumping around your room yelling "I've aggravated it!!" Don't ask me how I know this.

Cheers!