Sunny with a Chance of Showers

It actually poured yesterday, but no matter.

Anyway, I'm finally here!  I arrived Tuesday morning.  My flight was smooth; in fact, we got in early.  I made it to my new flat by 11:30am and settled right in.

Karma is a wonderful thing: finding somewhere to live was a chaotic experience, so the place I finally ended up is lovely.  It's on a quiet road a short walk from the West Kensington tube stop, and the building fronts a leafy courtyard. The neighborhood is right next to post South Kensington and near the ritzy Kensington High Street, but it's a little grittier and has lots of character.  All the rooms in the flat are off one main hallway; there are four bedrooms (split among five housemates), a huge living room, a big kitchen with a dining area (and a dishwasher!), and two full bathrooms.  I've only met two of my housemates, Jess and Gianni, but I'm sure I'll run into the others sooner or later.

Classes began today.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Beginner's Latin from 9-10am.  The class is largish - maybe 15-17 students - but we're all MA students, which makes me more comfortable for some reason.  The teacher is a young Italian woman and is very enthused about Latin; the students range in age from early 20s to late 40s.  We only did introductory stuff today; the real work will begin Friday.  Straight afterward I had From Cloister to Classroom, a course on monastic scholarship.  There were four history students there, although the professor said some English interlopers might be joining us next week.  We'd had some reading to prepare for today, so the class was pretty meaty; we discussed different types of scholasticism and read some extra texts.  Tomorrow my third and final course, Identity and Power 400-1200, meets at 10am.

Lots of early classes - but hopefully I'll start to find some babysitting work, maybe in the afternoons, and my days will fill up.

Last night Christine Buras and I tried to go to an Indian restaurant that was highly recommended, but got totally lost in East London.  We walked in the wrong direction - twice - and carved a big circle around Whitechapel.  (I kept imagining that Jack the Ripper, who haunted Whitechapel, was going to jump around the corner.)  An hour and a half after we met at the tube, we finally gave up and picked the first Indian place we found; it turned out to be an amazing restaurant.  Who knows, maybe we'll go back there again - on purpose!

Clear as Mud

The past week I've been home has been both incredibly frustrating and wonderfully clarifying, in terms of what I'll be doing for the near future.

Here's what I don't know for sure: when I'll leave the states. My passport - and visa - should arrive today or tomorrow, allowing me to fly to London on Saturday night. Until it comes, though, I'll be on tenterhooks. My accomodation plans have also been turned topsy-turvey; Emilia and Jess weren't able to find us a decent three-bedroom flat in the area we wanted. Tentatively (although this will be figured out for sure later this morning) I'll be living in a room in Jess' current flat in West Kensington, which is being vacated this weekend. I'll be subletting it for four months, giving me a base from which to locate a studio apartment for myself for the last six months of my stay in London. Cross you fingers for me that this all works out!

Luckily, I do know more about my course. There are 10 MA students in Medieval Studies, and each of my graduate level classes will include 4-6 of my peers. I'll be taking Beginner's Latin, which will be supplemented later in the semester with a class on reading medieval Latin; Identity and Power, 400-1200; and From Cloister to Classroom: Monastic Scholasticism. If I have the time I'll also audit Old French, although from what my professor said I probably won't because of the workload of the aformentioned three classes plus preparation for my dissertation.

That's all I know - or not - for now. Hopefully the next time I write I'll be in London!

Take Two

When I was in middle school, the theme - or inspiration, if you will - of one of NCS' Writer's Day cathedral services was "Take One."  Curled up in piles around the cathedral, our skirts tucked around our knees and our bare feet pressed against the relieving coolness of the marble floors, floppy bluebooks and number two pencils in hand, we girls wrote stories and poems and scribbles about Take One.  Most entries, I believe, touched on movies or the theater.  One memorable finalist story had to do with the sign over a bowl of Halloween candy.  I can't remember what I submitted; it's likely that, as I'd done before and would sheepishly do again, I didn't turn in my bluebook and, instead, crumpled my scratchings in my hand, embarrassed by what I had committed to the page.

Many of you read my Parisian blog - the account of my exultant, breathtaking, whirlwind seven months in Paris as a student and explorer.  (For the curious or nostalgic, here it is: B is for Betsy.)  That, my friends, was Take One.  This is Take Two.

For those of you who haven't been in the loop, welcome; let me catch you up.  In late January 2008 I decided to begin looking into graduate programs in England.  It was contrary enough to everything I had said I wanted that it took me nearly a month to tell family and friends that I had, in fact, applied to four Master's courses at various universities in the United Kingdom.  Four months - and one very frustrating application complication - later, I was admitted as a MA student to University College London in Medieval Studies.

I don't know much about the program; I haven't received information beyond what is listed online.  I do know, though, that I am thrilled to go back to school to study what has always interested me most.  Obviously, I'm also over the moon about being in London for a year.

My accommodations are still up in the air, though I know I'll be living with two other girls, Emilia and Jess.  Emilia and  I did several choir exchanges ten years ago, and reconnected via Facebook.  She responded to the desperate "Help!" message I emailed out a few weeks ago; it turns out that she and her friend Jessica were looking for a third for their new apartment - sorry, flat.  We're hunting in northwest London, relatively close to UCL's campus, and we're trying to be close to Paddington.  I'll let you know what we - well, they - find!

So.  Take Two.  A second European city, a second degree, a second amazing experience.  Wish me luck!