raF oS keeW ysuB

I think that I've finally settled in at the house. Things feel familiar. It's nice.

This week has been insanely busy. It all started last Saturday with our evening out-- a few students and I went down the street to a pub and then to a bar for some drinks. There was an interesting mix of personalities that, unfortunately, did not mix very well. We called it an early night around 11:30. The students were fun to hang around for the evening, but it becomes clearer and clearer to me every time I go out on the town that I dislike places that are too loud where I can't hear or be heard and that are packed to the gills. Hate it.

We saw two plays this week. The first was Rope, a very interesting story about a planned murder committed by two students in the 1920's one afternoon. The play follows the events of the evening after the murder. It was really, really well done-- the actors were excellent, the story was great, and it had a satisfying ending. I'd recommend it.

The other play we saw was a one-man show done by Simon Callow(Four Weddings and a Funeral). Charles Dickens wrote a few plays in his lifetime, and Callow did two of Dickens' half-hour plays. Each piece included several characters which Callow had to impersonate. He metamorphosed between characters seamlessly. It was quite nice. It would have been nicer if the group of students and I had arrived earlier at the playhouse. I had barely sat down before Callow walked on stage. In fact, this has been a week of close calls on the tardiness front for me-- it just takes longer to get from place to place than I have judged.

I am also allowed go on art tours with the students and one of their art professors. Two weeks ago we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see some of the works there, and this week we had a tour of the National Gallery, focusing on the Hogarth paintings as well as Gainsborough. I didn't hang around for much after either tour since my back usually starts hurting after standing up for a while. Still, I'm really enjoying the tours.

The students also go on several London history walks throughout the semester. Our first this past week took us around the City of London to discuss Medieval London. We began at the Barbican and worked our way around to Guildhall and over to St. Batholomew's church near Smithfield Meat Market. I'd been to several of the places we went already with my auntie and uncle, but the commentary by the professor was mostly new to me.

Yesterday was a gourmet day, starting with dim sum for lunch (which was very nice) and finishing with dinner at a vegetarian restaurant nearby. The former was treated to me by Dr. P, and we dined his wife and a fellow alumna of my university who is currently living in London. Drinks with the fellow alumna afterward resulted in my realization that my tolerance for alcohol has plummeted since Australia.

The rest of this week will hopefully be devoted to MCAT studying, writing, and training. The latter, by the way, is going really well.