University College London's main library, where the writer will never be found.
5:05
Showed up casually late for lecture again. Typical. Not like it matters. They’re so big on student rights here that if the professor but raises his or her voice at me a decibel above what is acceptable, they get canned. Awesome.
5:06
This is so pointless. Why the hell did I get out of bed? It’s not like she’s teaching us anything profound. I complain a lot for someone who only has class on Mondays and Tuesdays don’t I? Well, okay correction, this term I have a lecture on Thursday, but I omit that little tid-bit just to emphasize how infrequently I go to class.
5:15
This room looks a lot like one of the LG rooms in Tech. Actually, I could mistake this whole moment for one at Northwestern. My professor is wearing a North Face jacket, I’m on Facebook, the guy behind me is passed out (probably hungover), the lecture slides are getting put up on Moodle (Blackboard) after class…You know, everyone conjures up these images of London college life: bow-tie wearing professors, antiquated libraries, study sessions over tea and crumpets…or perhaps more likely you think of Harry Potter, with melodious British accents chirping all around you and cauldrons filled with strange potions. How nice…
Too bad it’s actually just like America. My professors don’t even have charming British accents. Just annoying Liverpool ones. Okay, they’re kinda entertaining. But definitely not charming.
5:31
Someone else just passed out. Ha, his pencil is kinda up his nose.
5:32
On the subject those disposed to falling asleep in lecture, I am at a loss for explaining the English student. At times, they can be bookwormish and UChicago-y, and other times they can rage harder than the hardest rager I know. What’s puzzling is just how erratic these shifts in personality are (let’s get wasted on Tuesday but hit the books Friday night?). They can also be totally inept. I cite the example of the British chick who thought ‘irony’ was an adjective describing anything with metallic-like properties (get it? iron-y? I’m pathetic). But I guess incompetence is what binds all humans together.
5:45
So apparently Mubarak’s sons are in London. That’s pretty cool I guess. Maybe not as cool as Jullian Assange being arrested here. When you think about it, that right there is one of the coolest (and I say coolest ‘cus I’m a nerd) things about London: when you host Saudi royalty, Russian oil-tycoons, Kenyan elites and dictators’ sons on a daily basis, you know you’re a global city. Yeah I know you get that a lot but seriously it is.
New York is definitely a global capital in its own right, but the people in New York are more or less American, or at the very least they’ll settle for being New Yorkers. On the other hand, about 25 percent of London isn’t a permanent resident of the UK (and don’t want to be more importantly) and I’d wager that over half of London isn’t even English. That’s what makes London all the more global: the fact that it has a closer relationship to the rest of the world than it does to England.
5:57
…did she just say ’sexport’ instead of ‘export’?
5:59
I need a beer.
Read Anirudh’s previous post or next post | Meet the rest of our other study abroad bloggers