Paris, je t'aime

Ah, Paris! With its exquisite architecture, beautiful boulevards, world-renowned culture and cuisine, and countless piles dog shit, the French capital truly is a sight to behold. Myself and my companions arrived in the City of Lights last Thursday night after a trip on the Eurostar train from London, through the Chunnel (that's the tunnel under the English Channel, thus the Channel Tunnel, thus Chunnel). After some Metro riding confusion and an attempt to walk the considerable distance from Gare du Nord to our hostel, we finally managed to meet up with the rest of our group, who had arrived the previous day. After a decent meal at what I would describe as a Jazz/Western themed restaurant, we grabbed some booze and drank at the hostel while planning our itinerary for the following day. Everyone hit the sack after dinner, as it was late and we planned to get up early for a full day of sight-seeing adventures. As for the hostel we stayed at, I was actually pretty impressed. As my only knowledge of hostels is based on stories of grimey accommodations full of creepy Europeans (and the Oscar-worthy Eli Roth film), I was expecting the worst, but our place was actually pretty clean, the beds were fairly comfortable, and their was even free internet and breakfast.

The next day, after enjoying a breakfast of bread, croissants, coffee and juice, we set off to take in Paris. Our first stop was Sacre Coueur, as the iconic church was just a brief walk from the hostel in the Montmartre neighborhood. Sacre Coueur is a beautiful church, but the real appeal lies in the fact it is built at the highest point in the city and offers awesome panoramic views of Paris. Then, we rode the Metro down to the center of the city to hit up the Eiffel Tower. My opinion of the Metro is that it is a bit grungier then the tube (though still nicer than the El) and the seating layout is a bit inefficient, but on the whole, still a solid form of public transit. I think we probably could have found a closer stop, as our walk to the Eiffel Tower was pretty long, and on our arrival there, we chose the cheaper option of taking the stairs. The long walk did allow us to walk along the Seine and stumble upon a neat little playground, which was fully enjoyed by our group. One disappointing aspect of the Eiffel Tower trip was the failure of the canned wine experiment. Myself and a couple other gentlemen had planned to enhance our day in Paris by partaking in the wonderful past time of canned wine drinking (an art we learned from the fine program, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). What better way to enjoy Paris then with a can of the finest 3 euro wine to accommodate one's violent hand gestures? Alas, our wine was lost upon entry to Eiffel Tower, as apparently bringing bottles of wine up the iconic structure is forbidden. An attempt to hide the wine in a nearby bathroom failed miserably, as on our return to the hiding spot, the vino had disappeared. C'est la vie. Anyway, the Eiffel Tower did not disappoint, as the views were amazing.

Our next stop, after a gyro for lunch, was l'Arc du Triomphe, which I must say, was a bit of a hike from the tower. Though the arch was pretty cool, as was walking up the Champs de l'Eysee (sp?), it was significantly out of our way, and I don't know if it was necessarily worth the walk. Moving on then, we next hit up a tea shop/brunch place called Angeline's that had been recommended to someone for its hot chocolate. I didn't buy one, but I did try it, and I must say, delicious. It seemed to be basically a melted Hershey bar, and I dunno if I could have drank a whole one, but it was definitely pretty damn good. After that, it was off to the Louvre, where on Friday's from 6-10 EU students can get in for free, and, as we are studying in London, us Americans outsmarted the French and didn't have to pay. Everybody kind of split up, and I decided to forego seeing the Mona Lisa and just kinda wandered. I really liked the stuff by Delacroix (Liberty Leading the People is sweet to see in person). I probably could have spent some more time there, but as everyone was pretty wiped out and hungry from the long day, we left after a couple hours.

We headed back to Montmarte for dinner and managed to stumble across a pretty neat little place, with some cheap grub and wine. Our waiter was this hilarious Moroccan guy and it was a piano bar, so the whole atmosphere was pretty neat. Montmarte is apparently really touristy, but as January is kinda the dead season for tourism, there weren't too many Americans around, so that made me feel a little better about rolling with such a big crew. After dinner, we grabbed some drinks to enjoy back at the hostel before trying to find somewhere to go out, but a couple of the girls had found out that there was some live music and people hanging out and drinking up at Sacre Coueur, so we brought our drinks up there. It was a little chilly, but hanging out up there with the view and everything was very cool. After that, a few of us were heading back while some others stayed at Sacre Coueur, and we walked past a big group of people standing outside a bar. The bar was small and crowded, but it had a great vibe, and I'm glad we stumbled across it. One of my fellow Americans, having imbibed a bit too much, took a leak on a door near the bar, which didn't sit well with the Frenchmen who's door it was. As tensions were increasing and my attempt to diffuse the situation with my terrible French skills failed, we decided it was probably time to head out, and that was it for our first action-packed day in Paris.

Day 2 started a little later, as the day before had been such a whirlwind, but eventually we hopped on a commuter train to the Parisian suburbs to see Versailles. I was blown away by the place. You hear stories about how opulent Louis XIV's pad is, but it went beyond what I had imagined. The place is huge and the gardens outside are insane. I can imagine in the spring, once all the shit starts blooming, its pretty beautiful. Beautiful enough to inspire people to revolt, one might say. After Versailles, we headed back to Paris, so some people could do some shopping, and some people could nap. I opted for a nap. Dinner that night was definitely a highlight, as we went to this place Refuge du Fondu, that someone's friend had recommended he check out. The deal is that for 15 euro, you get appetizers, a shit load of fondue and fixings, a dessert, and a baby bottle filled with wine (the bottle held about 2 glasses and for an additional 2 euro, you can get another bottle, which is a great deal in Paris). This wine out of a baby bottle thing isn't just some cute little gimmick either, apparently there is a tax on glasses o wine and the baby bottle thing is a way to get around that. Clever Frenchmen. The restaurant itself was pretty cool too. It consists of this small room with too long tables, and you are literally squeezed in to the person next to you, whether you know him or not. People had written all over the walls, and the staff was rude in a fun Ed Debevic's kind of way. Overall, solid venue. After dinner, we wandered out in an attempt to find a place for some dranks. The first attempt was an epic failure, as it was way too nice and expensive for our large group of American college students, but the second place was pretty neat. It was cheaper, had a couple dudes playing the saxophone and piano, and Frenchmen hitting on our American girls in a way that was creepy/funny, rather than creepy/creepy. And thus concluded day 2 of my Parisian adventure.

Day 3, the plan had originally been that some people would hit up a market, some people would go to mass at Notre Dame, and some would just sleep in before our 1 pm train back to London. Alas, everyone was so wiped out/hungover, that the entire group ended up sleeping in; epic tourism failure. Still, the weekend had been a huge success and a lot of fun. Bravo Paris, bravo.

Nothing else of note to report really, except that the homestay in Wales this coming weekend should be neat. Until next time then, au revoir, mes amis.

2 weeks deep

So, as of today, I've officially been gone for two weeks, and I must say, so far, so good. I was a little nervous going into this whole deal without anyone I'm really friends with, but the experience has really been amazing. It's strange to think that I'm already 1/12 of the way through my semester over here, and probably even less since I will most likely be finished with finals/heading home a week or two before my scheduled return date of June 12 (epic return in time for Dillo Day? Possible). The city of London itself has gone above and beyond what I was expecting, which was a lot. The people, the culture, the atmosphere, everything is just cool as hell. I wish me and Rauh had won the lottery before I left so that I could do everything, but alas, no such luck. Regardless, even while trying to stay within my budget, I've gotten to do some really cool stuff. The other day, myself and a couple other kids went to the British Museum, which I did see when I was here in high school, but I could probably spend a week in that joint. Plus, its free so I'll definitely be going back over the next few months.

Today was also the first time I've seen the sun since I arrived in the UK, and not because I've been partying so much that I've been living nocturnally. It's just always cloudy here, so maybe all that Vitamin D is what's put me in such a good mood. So because of the sun's glorious appearance, I decided to check out a local park that I was told is pretty neat. It was actually

really cool, and it had a hill that offered some sweet views of the local area and Canary Warf, which is a business district seperate from London's central financial center, and it contains the tallest building in the city. (Pictures included: looking south towards Canary Warf from the top of the hill, and looking north from the same spot, into the park) There was also a schnazzy little (free) art gallery in the middle of the park featuring an exhibition on childhood which was pretty interesting.

Also, props to Kegan Daugherty, who's iPod provided the soundtrack for my saunter through the park. The nostalgia provided by middle school favorites such as Blink 182, Alkaline Trio, Getto Boys, and Rage Against the Machine nicely complimented my stroll. After the park, I threw the frisbee around with a couple other kids, before we headed to Brick Lane. Brick Lane is probably the coolest place I've seen since I've been here and doesn't really compare to anything I've seen in the States. It's this old street in a Bangladeshi area with a ton of restaurants, stores, night life, etc. Quick side note first however: so the way some of the London buses work is that they are those kind of double length buses with a squishy-like connector in the middle. You're supposed to swipe your card when you get on, but if you get on the back half, you can just ride for free, unless its one of the very rare occasions where there's a cop/transport authority person on board. This doesn't work with the famous double-decker buses, but basically everyone does it with the double-length ones. People literally call it "the free bus". So anyway, our original plan was to take the free bus to Brick Lane and check out this bagel place that was recommended to us by a British kid, but while we were walking to the bagel place, we were overwhelmed by one of the most insane/amazing smells I've ever experience. Turns out we were walking past the famous Brick Lane Market, held every Sunday. There were food stalls from probably every country imaginable, even Mexican, which you don't really see on this side of the pond, and those stalls were the cause of the fantastic smell that had overcome us. I opted for a healthy helping of Chinese food with a Brazilian soda called Guarana Antarctica, all for 3 pounds. There was also stalls selling clothes, antiques, bikes, all kinds of shit. I'm sure some of it had fallen off a truck at some point, but it was really like nothing I've ever seen before. I wish I had brought my camera, but luckily one of the other guys did so when he puts up his pictures, I'll steal a couple. We eventually did make it to the bagel place, which was pretty good (and cheap!), but I'm sure any Jewish people/New Yorkers would have some better place to recommend. I think the reason the Brit recommended it was because it makes fresh bagels and other baked goods 24 hours a day, which I imagine would be amazing at like 3 am on a Saturday, but I'll let you know if I ever get to experience that. So alas, my plan to have a quiet Sunday doing laundry and some reading was thwarted by the city of London, but I'd say it all worked out for the best.

In terms of night time activities, I really tried to do a better job of controlling my drinking coststhis week, as that has traditionally been my number 1 expense, and I think I did a decent job. However, I still managed to squeeze in some raging, including playing my first game of beer pong since arriving. It's tough to find ping pong balls and solo cups (damn metric system), but we managed to succeed in scrounging up a game. Monday night is 1 pound drinks at Draper's, the on-campus bar/club (yes, on-campus), so naturally it was pretty crowded, but still pretty fun. I feel like its a fair assumption to call it the Keg of Queen Mary. Along those lines, Thursday included a trip to the Deuce of Queen Mary, the New Globe, which is actually probably classier then the Deuce, though more crowded, believe it or not. Friday included an abortive trip to a club in favor of cheaper drinking at Draper's, which I really had no problem with. I mean, going to clubs is great, but not really my cup of tea, and I'll always choose cheaper drinking within walking distance of where I live. I then decided to stay in Saturday night to stay within my meager budget. From this point forward however, I'm afraid I will have to maintain a Mike Roche-esque social calendar, trying to only rage one or two nights a week. As Roche himself might say in this situation, mega sad face.

It's not all bad though, as this restricted drinking agenda will allow me to continue to check out London and also to travel around Europe. On that note, my first trip commences Thursday (no class Friday, WOOT), as I will be Chunnel-ing over to France for a weekend in Paris. The following weekend, we have our program arranged homestay in Swansea, Wales, where I will be staying with a Welsh family for the weekend, experiencing a more relaxed, small town side of Britain. I'm actually really looking forward to the home stay. Exciting stuff. Oh yea, and classes started this week, though for some reason those don't seem that important....

Weekend recap

'Ello 'ello (see, I'm talking like a local already), I just wanna give a quick highlight for anyone interested enough to click a link, but not interested enough to read through this whole, moderately long post. So, some of the British kids I live with taught us a drinking game, that I thought was very clever, both for its simplicity and for its just straight up drinking-ness. Its called "Arrogance" and the rules are as such: the first person fills up a cup with as much of his drink as he pleases and then flips a coin and chooses heads or tails. If he is correct, he passes the cup onto the next person, and if he is incorrect he drinks the contents of the glass. Thus, if the player is feeling lucky (or arrogant, hence the name) he will pour a lot of booze into the cup figuring either he will screw over the next person or that he is awesome enough to just chug the whole glass. If people in the group are consuming different types of booze, that adds a whole other dimension to the game as someone might end up having to drink a delicious mix of various beers, wines, ciders, and spirits (luckily we were just playing with beer, but its still kinda nasty if you're drinking different brands). Anywho, I'd never heard of the game before and thought it was pretty sweet, moving on.

I had a fairly eventful and enjoyable past fews days, I'm happy to report. Friday night I went out to a local Chinese food restaurant with some folks, which wasn't too shabby I must say. It was kinda neat to hear a British accent coming out of an Asian person, just not something I'm used to hearing. Later on we were drinking in the flat, and then planned to head out on the town. The plan originally was to go to a club that one of the British kids we've met suggested, but at some point over the course of the evening, a few of the people I was with decided going to a club wasn't really for us so we ended up just going to a bar. Also, when I say bar, its technically a pub, but I feel like a poser calling a bar a pub, just fyi. Ended up just getting drunk and having a great time, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Saturday was the first day where I was completely free and we were on our own, which for most of my group meant grocery shopping. Now I don't really grocery shop, ever, so this was going to be a challenge. However, I am determined to obtain a healthy variety of foods when shopping over here, at as low a cost as possible in order to maximize the quantity of adventures I could afford over the course of my time in London. I'm willing to sacrifice eating good food of any sort in order to be able to travel around more. I believe I was fairly successful in my first attempt at this goal, as I managed to obtain a good amount of various, fairly healthy foods, at the cost of only about 20 pounds. So huzzah to that.

That day, the rest of the British kids moved in, and we drank with them that night, thats when we played arrogance. Let me just tell you, these Brits can drink, even the girls were just pounding 'em. Insanity. We didn't even go out that night, which is probably ideal for my bank account, and it was just a lot of fun. As the people who read this probably know (better, August?), I would much rather sit around, shoot the shit, and drink with a good group of people then go out to a bar, let alone a club. Though as some of you also know, I have 3-4 of the best dance moves ever utilized by man, which allow me to frequently win dance offs against the most challenging of competitors.

Sunday was a touristy day. Gotta see all the sights over here, ya know? A couple other kids and myself went out to the Tower Bridge, where there's a pretty neat exhibit in the bridge and you can walk up to the top area. Tower Bridge is the famous cool looking bridge bt dubs, London Bridge, of falling down fame, is actually pretty lame. Fun fact: The old London Bridge was sold in the 1970's to some rich dude in Arizona. Rumor has it that he thought he was buying the cooler-looking and iconic Tower Bridge. He musta felt like a real dope when he opened the box andthe crappy London Bridge was inside. Regardless, you can go to Lake Havasu in Arizona and check out the original London Bridge if you so fancy. So there ya go, you learn something new everyday. I already knew all that though because I'm just awesome/a huge loser. After that, I was planning on just hitting the sack early, six days of drinking, sight-seeing, and meetings will get to ya. However, some folks were planning on checking out an American bar to watch the NFL playoffs, which I had sort of forgot about while I was over here, damn Brits. I joined in and saw the Patriots get beat down by the Ravens before heading back home.

Finally, Monday the real fun began as that was the first day of classes. I'll go into the details of my classes and the retarded English university system in a later post as this one is starting to drag on I think, but I've had 3 out of 4 thus far and overall, none of 'em seem too bad. That night was the official Queen Mary's International Student boat cruise on the Thames, which reminded me of our post-prom thing on the Odyssey. We cruised up and down the the river, and saw all the sites, it would have been cool if it wasn't 4 HOURS LONG. Holy Crow. Some advice, if you get chance to cruise up the Thames, definitely do it, but make sure it lasts only like an hour or two.

I figure now that I'm going to class and have a bit of a routine, my going out will decrease significantly for the sake of my finances, otherwise I'm going to have learn how to play the guitar or didgereedoo (sp?) like some of the dudes I've seen on the street. That's it for now though folks, but stay tuned for a thrilling post on my classes and my first continental travel plans. Gracias.

The East End

I hate to start off with a complaint, but I just discovered that Hulu does not function outside the U.S. and that causes me great pain. Anywho, on to the main subject of this post, which is the East End of London, where I live.

So I am enrolled at Queen Mary's University of London, so this trip is not just a long vacation, I will actually be doing school work. However, the British university is system is a bit different, in that for each class you have only one lecture per week and one seminar (small group meeting) per week. This means I am technically only in class for 8 hours a week. On the flip side, they say that there is a ton more independent work (reading, researching, etc.), and that there usually aren't that many quizzes or smaller assignments. A lot more is based on final papers and exams. Craziness. Anyway, this means I will have a pretty good amount of free time in which to explore, which is nice considering I live in one of the schnazziest places in the world, the East End.

Now traditionally, the East End has been the poorer, more working class area of London (check out the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" for a musical education on the socio-economic differences between London's geographic regions), and it has often been the entry point for immigrants. Word on the street is that Queen Mary's was founded back in the day for smart but poor East End kids who wouldn't be allowed in to England's more established universities, and it was just down the road from me in Whitechapel where Jack the Ripper was doing his business in the 1800's. Today, the area is still less well-off then other areas of London, and the immigrant population still remains huge. Though the majority of the immigrants around here are from South Asia and the Middle East, there are also a lot from East Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. You can hear like 5 or 6 different languages every time you walk down the street, and theres people in Middle Eastern dress all over the place. A bit of a surprising thing I've noticed is all the fried chicken places in the area, and around London in general. There are actual KFC's everywhere and also a ton of KFC knock-offs. Copyright laws must be lax over here because I've seen places that look just like a KFC with names like PFC or FFC. Craziness.

This area is also really up and coming apparently. There are a lot of young people around, because of the school and just because its kind of a trendy area. Interspersed in between all the chicken shops are schnazzy little restaurants and shops and what not (yes, you have counted correctly, that is two uses of the word schnazzy in one post). Not exactly my cup of tea, but its a cool area to be in regardless. Additionally, most of the stuff for the 2012 Olympics is going up on this side of town, so thats adding another level of excitement and investment. On the whole, its pretty neat. And preparation H feels good.

Thats it for now, thanks for reading.

In the beginning...

Well, I've been over here in England for several days now, and I figured I might as well start writing about it, for my own sake and to let anyone who might care know what I am up to. This post is pretty long and detailed, so I just wanna give one highlight for any Northwestern folks reading this. You know how you've always thought that Lisa's would be absolutely perfect if only it sold booze and/or cigarettes? Well my campus has that. Pure glory. Moving on then, this first post is kind of just a long description of what I've been up to, which I suppose might be a bit boring. In the future, I plan to make this thing more interesting/funny, but I've just been so busy the past several days, that I kind of feel like I need t to write down what I've been doing for anyone who might actually care and sort of as a journal for myself. Thus, if you do find it boring, please stay tuned for hopefully more entertaining posts to come.

So my flight was from Chicago to London last Monday, with a 3 hour layover in Ottawa. Upon arriving at O'Hare and settling in at what I was told was the correct gate, I happened to glance at the display board and noticed that my flight was now departing from a different gate. I had to basically half-run across O'Hare but managed to make it in time to board. A rather inauspicious start to my journey I suppose. I then arrived in Ottawa and had a Molson and watched some hockey at an airport bar, feeling very Canadian. I finally arrived at Heathrow about an hour behind schedule, feeling like absolute shit from the jet lag and lack of sleep. Those who know me will recall I have trouble sleeping in cars and on planes, which can cause problems on a 7 hour overnight flight. Managed to make it through immigration without any problems. Luckily they didn't find all the drugs I was smuggling in my rectum or the explosives strapped to my leg.

I hopped on the coach bus with some other Americans on my program and set off to a hotel where our program's orientation was to take place. I got settled in, had some introductory meetings, met some people, and then we grabbed a couple beers at a local pub. The hotel was in an area called Kensington, which is very upscale and touristy, so the price of everything was a little obnoxious. The next day we had a lot of orientation stuff (differences between U.S.-UK education systems, getting around London, look right instead of left before crossing the street, don't get mugged, etc.), and then we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum and out to dinner. The museum was fairly boring, it was full of stuff that you could consider art, but that isn't like paintings, such as statues, cloths, everyday objects, etc. etc. They had stuff from all over the world, though mostly everything was pre-1800's it seemed. Hit up some more pubs that night. The beer here is magnanimous. I would imagine if I were a normal person and my weight actually fluctuated I would pack on a few pounds. Though that would probably be canceled out by the walking and the fact that I am poor. Look for updates on financial distresses in future posts, as I am sure they are coming. Anywho, the next day was a bit more orientation stuff then we basically had the afternoon free. Myself and some other kids attempted to do some touristy stuff in order to get better oriented with the Tube. We went to see Big Ben/Parliament and the London Eye, which wasn't even running because of the weather. O man, the weather. Apparently this past week or so has been the worst week for winter weather in like 50 years in the UK, meaning its like 30 degrees with like 5 inches of snow. The whole country is freaking out, you'd think it was the apocalypse. It is a bit of a pain in the ass with all the walking around I've been doing, but I suppose it'd still be worse in Evanston. Anywho, after the failed attempt at tourism, our group had tickets to see the musical Blood Brothers. It's about these two twins in Liverpool who are separated at birth, with one going to a rich family and one going to a working class family. They become friends without knowing they are brothers, but later in life drama ensues because of their socio-economic differences. They really beat you over the head with the class stuff. Went straight to bed after that, as I was pretty wiped out from the jet lag/walking around/endless meetings/drinking.

Yesterday (Thursday), we finally took a bus across town to the school where I will actually be staying the next 6 months, and I moved into my flat. Its a pretty legit set up they got over here. They don't really do the whole shared bedroom situation in the UK, so I've got my own room and bathroom, and share a kitchen with the 5 other kids (2 other Americans, 3 Brits) in my flat. I took some pics and will get them uploaded eventually, so stay glued to your facebook for that. There's no real common area with couches, a TV or anything, which is a bit disappointing. Makes me miss the Pike great room that much more. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and buying some sheets, towels, etc. at a local store called Sainsbury's. It seems kinda like the Target/Wal-Mart of England, full of your local schmo's but its got a good selection at low prices. After a group dinner, the main focus was on finding the local liquor store so we could celebrate our first night in style. It was also some kid on my programs 21st birthday, so we had to commemorate that meaningless age (in England) as well. I opted for a 3 liter (or should I say litre) bottle of cider that cost like 3 pounds, for pregaming in the flat. It was glorious. Not in taste, but glorious in its cheapness and volume. It really tasted like apple juice, which is kinda hard to binge drink with. Anywho, I don't think I accurately gauged the strength of the beverage (7.5% abv), because by the time we left for the bar, I was really drunk. Not as embarrassingly drunk as many of you may have seen me, but probably a little too drunk for hanging out with people I'd known for 3 days. No major problems, but getting up the next day for a 9 o'clock orientation was rough.

Today was spent registering for classes, which was a huge pain in the ass. The Brits apparently can't handle the internet, so all registration has to be done in person, the old fashioned way. Really made me miss the glory of CAESAR, which I never thought would happen.This means queue-ing up and waiting, which is something I absolutely hate. Anyone who knows me knows I will just keep walking rather than stand and wait 2 minutes for a shuttle. I can't deal with standing around and waiting. Other than that, I just kinda hung out today and caught up on the world now that I have the internet and some free time. Read the newspaper and sports, I had completely forgot about the BCS championship. The registration experience kinda segways nicely into the subtle differences between American and British culture that I have begun to catch on to. Our program adviser put it nicely, so I am going to paraphrase his analogy. If you go to a place like China or Africa, where everything is completely different, the shock is kind of like a punch in the face, but at least you know its coming. With Britain, the differences are like being consistently poked, ever so lightly. Sometimes you don't even notice it, but its always there and it can be obnoxious. The queue-ing is one shitty aspect I've come across. Another subtle difference, that probably seems retarded, but which has been a bit bothersome is that the locks are upside down from what they are in the states. I don't know if you can even picture that, but its really bugged me the past couple days. One kinda more positive difference I've noticed is some of the different word usages, which I kind of like. For example, a new building is being built on the campus as part of the "2010 Construction Scheme". Now, in the states, that would probably be called the 2010 Construction Plan, and I really like the use of scheme instead. I think it makes the construction sound just a bit more devious, which is at least entertaining.

Anyway, thats all for now. I have a lot more to say about the area the school is in, my plans for the semester, and just general musings, but I realize this post is pretty long, and I'm also getting hungry. So kudos to you if you've read this far and thanks for either caring about what I have to say or for just using reading this as a way to procrastinate.