From Waterloo to London Bridge and Back Again

Yesterday more than made up for all of the time I killed in the past week.  I had Latin at 9am, and made a friend from the class!  His name is Dan, and he's a classics MA student from Plymouth.  We grabbed a cup of coffee after class, which officially makes us friends.

After coffee I had lunch with Alistair, a friend of a friend from back home.  He worked at Christ Church in Greenwich, CT for a year, so we actually have lots of mutual friends, and we engaged in a lively church gossip session.  We met at Waterloo and walked all the way down the south bank of the Themes to Southwark Cathedral, stopping for lunch at a yummy Asian restaurant.  It was bright out but chilly - a lovely fall day.

I had spent Wednesday afternoon looking for babysitting positions online and had set up an interview with an American family, and I got the job!  I'll be sitting three afternoons a week for Samantha, a happy and energetic three year old.  Her mother and I bonded over stories of cultural confusion.  They live a short tube ride away from me; it really all worked out perfectly.  I start next week.

I then ran back down to Waterloo to meet up with Emilia, one of the girls I was supposed to live with.  She's making it as a professional singer in London - how cool is that?  We hadn't seen each other since we were 12, but we had a great time.

Busy day; I had to run home to change for a night out with Oli, a friend's brother who lives just outside London in Reading.  We took the tube to Southwark Station, which, it turns out, isn't really near Southwark Cathedral at all.  We had to walk 30 minutes to get to the place where we were supposed to have dinner, and it was freezing!  The nighttime walk along the Themes was beautiful, though, and the restaurant was amazing, so it was definitely worth it.  After dinner we cabbed over to Kensington to meet Oli's brother and some of his friends at a club.  It wasn't really my scene - too many girls in corset tops and guys in blazers trying to impress them with expensive drinks - but we had a good time in our little group.

Oli and I met up with Christine and Katie, two friends of mine from DC and New York, respectively, this afternoon for lunch and a trip to the Tate Modern.  I saw the Surrealist exhibition - very cool - and one on art from 1945-1960.  I wanted to go to the Rothko show, but it was absolutely packed.  Another time, maybe.

Tonight I'm getting drinks with Dan.  It's exciting to have new friends!

Time on My Hands

I had my third and last class today; it's called Identity and Power: 500-1300, and it's taught by a charismatic Italian professor.  There are nine of us, which, apparently, is a lot for a master's course.  (Four students were just added to Cloister to Classroom, bringing our total up to 8.  That's still smaller than 90% of my Columbia courses, though, so I don't mind so much.  Seems small to me!)  We did some preliminary reading in class about medieval identity and discussed them as a group, talking about royal identity and how it's created and defined.  Very cool!  We don't have readings for the first week which is a bummer, both because I'm very interested in the material and because I could use the time filler.  (I only have seven hours of class a week - how bizarre!  And - maybe this is just because I'm used to Columbia - the readings don't seem to be too intense.)

Speaking of time fillers, I've been looking for babysitting jobs.  I have an interview tomorrow with a family that has a three year old daughter - wish me luck!  They'd want me three afternoons a week, which works well for my schedule and my wallet.  If it doesn't work out I've been in email contact with a few other families; two websites, gumtree and craigslist, have been instrumental in finding babysitting ads.  (What did you all do before the internet?  Crazy!)

Tomorrow's going to be nuts - I have a lunch before the interview, a coffee after, and dinner with my friend Oli.  I'll report back over the weekend!  Now, off to do some reading.  I think I'll start with "The Rule of St. Benedict."