Perfect Weather, Paper Writing and Tasty Dinners

Hamlet is such an amazing play. From what we've read in Shakespeare, I knew he was a master wordsmith, but Hamlet is above and beyond that to a scale that I'm not sure can be found anywhere else.

Tuesday was a very full day, two hours of Shakespeare, three hours of homework in the library and then another two hours of History of London. It's odd when the day doesn't end until 6:30, and then I still had a paper to write. I didn't really get much done on it Tuesday night, I was much more amenable to being distracted by my flatmates. I didn't have globo on Wednesday, so the whole of the day was given over to my History of London paper. For this, the only paper in the class, we had to explore a certain section of London, the actual 1-square-mile City rather than the rest, and compare it to a very complete survey of what that area, or ward, was like before the Great Fire, so early 1600's. The research itself was very interesting, wandering around my ward and noticing the little marks left by the guilds to show that they own the land on which the buildings rest. The paper, though, was hard to write and it amounted, for me at least, into pretty much a narrative catalogue of the characteristics of my ward and how they differed from what the older document described, both physically and in the general ethos of the area. But it's done and turned in - yea.

Thursday I was really tired, but I am a lot lately. I'm at that point in the semester (I probably said this before) that I just wake up tired. But fall break is coming, faster than I'd like to think, for all that it brings mom. Institute that night, a cool lesson, but an exhausting tube ride. I've discovered that I'm a pretty fair cook when it comes to making tasty things that will keep for a few days. Last week I made a huge amount of what was basically Chipotle filling - taco meat, black beans, sauted onions, and rice. It's good, but the shear volume of food I made has ensured that I'm rather sick of eating it at this point. Yesterday I bought some premade Indian Korma sause and combined it with shredded chicken and rice. Also quite tasty. So in case anyone was worried, I can feed myself :).

Friday my goal was to get started with the staggering level of reading I had to do, but also to enjoy the most beautiful weather we've had in a long time. I spent a lot of time outside, walking around the park and rediscovering places I ended up when I was lost last weekend. Fun movie watching with the flatmates, Sahara, with lots of laughing and expert commentary by yours truely. Saturday I was a little less productive on the homework scene. We visited a huge old cemetary (not really my cup of tea, but a couple flatmates really wanted to go) where Marx was buried. It wasn't a normal cemetary of rows of headstones, but a really old one so it had been largely given over to woods. Beth's word was meloncholoy to describe the crumbling headstones covered in ivy, which is very apt, and it turned out to be a nice afternoon wandering around in the woods. I miss the cabin. Last night I watched Garden State, which is just such a great movie. So many parts of it are so poignantly real and touching. Really a well done film.

Church today, like normal. Church sandwiched with the frantic reading of a novel for globo that I don't think I'll be able to finish be 10:30 tomorrow. Oh well, I tried and I read like 200 pages in 3 days. Sorry peeps, it's London. All told, a good weekend. I got a respectable amount of work done, but more importantly, I enjoyed the absolutely beautious weather. I hope all is well at home and I miss you guys loads!

Cheers!