SciFi Review: Childhood's End

     In case you didn't know this about me, though I don't know how you could not know this about me, I'm a little bit of a massive nerd. I love science fiction, especially classic SciFi novels. There are enough reasons behind this obsession to fill an entire post but I suppose the main thing is my love of science and how it affects every aspect of our lives. From the computer I type this on to the fingers with which I type, science is there. Science is in art, in business, even in religion. There is literally nowhere we can go and nothing we can do which isn't in some way concerned with science. I love that notion and so do SciFi writers.

     The great thing about science fiction is how philosophical it can be. Many of the best works of SciFi are structured upon astute concepts of life and death, the scope of the universe, the capabilities of the human mind, and so forth. Other genres certainly do this too but the thing that draws me to science fiction is that creative spark melded with actual science. So often it has been the case that a SciFi author in the 50's dreamt up a futuristic gadget or idea based upon some new or rudimentary science and any number of years later another appreciator of science reads this work and realizes that with modern technology such a thing can be made (an entire series on the Science Channel called Prophets of Science Fiction speaks to this fact)! Let's face it, there will never be Harry Potter type witches and wizards who can cast wondrous spells with a magical stick (and even if there were it would be based upon science at some level) but there may just be stardrives powering interstellar space travel in our future. I guess at the core of it, what I love most about science fiction is its ability to be almost unbelievably fantastic yet always based upon some shred of truth which leaves you wondering.

     With that said let me tell you about my latest SciFi read. If you're into this kind of thing and find this review helpful I could not be more pleased but if you don't care in the slightest and have already clicked away from this nerd fest that is fine too as I feel that writing about literature helps the mind to process and absorb it... so, yeah, I guess you could say I am doing this for my health.

Childhood's End

by Arthur C. Clarke

Cool Science Moment: "He was peeping through a microscope into what looked like a small bomb. Presumably it was a pressure-capsule containing some specimen of deep-sea life, still swimming happily around under its normal tons-to-the-square-centimeter conditions."

Cool Fiction Moment (still a bit science-y): "Miss Morrel's mind was the channel that, if only for a moment, let through knowledge which no one at that time could possess. It could only have come from another mind immediately linked to hers. The fact that it was a mind not yet born was of no consequence, for Time is very much stranger than you think."

     Arthur C. Clarke is most definitely one of the greats of classic SciFi. His stories tend to be very philosophical and often deal with religion at least obliquely. His short story The Nine Billion Names of God is one of my all time favorite pieces of science fiction. It essentially discusses using science/technology to prove the existence of God and the consequences that may come of this proof.

     Childhood's End also looks at the role of religion in human society but only in brief snippets relating to the larger story of mankind's possible future. The story not so much follows as touches on then moves away from various characters' lives as they deal with the arrival of an alien race dubbed the Overlords on Earth. When the Overlords reveal themselves to man they make it known that they are in charge, all powerful, and will be guiding mankind to some distant but specific future. Though man never knows what this future is a few individuals find the courage to seek it, this is their story perhaps more than it is the Overlords'. Under the reign of the Overlords, Earth becomes a utopia which opens the narrative up to the contemplation of what constitutes a utopia (a world where every person has the necessities of life and the freedom and education to pursue only their own interests?) as well as the price at which such a utopia would come (namely boredom). Erring more on the side of fiction than of science this is at once a very beautiful and extremely sad story of the end of mankind.

     Though there are many interesting characters in this story few are well established and seem to blink out of existence just as their role gains momentum. This can make the beginning sections of the book a bit hard to get through but it is worth it. What the book may lack in dramatic story telling or adventurous plot it more than makes up for in beautiful passages that broach concepts such as what it means to be human and man's place in the universe with incredible force delivered with equally incredible delicacy. The ending of the book, and indeed of man, is absolutely beautiful though there are many preceding passages which earned a folded corner for reasons of scientific and literary greatness.

     To the established SciFi fan I whole heartedly recommend this book with the warning that it is more the thoughtful type than the adventurous type. For those just setting foot in the SciFi realm I would caution the story's somewhat disjointed nature and slower passages which may or may not be made up for by its more artistic and thought evoking passages. Certainly have a go at it but don't swear off SciFi if it's not your cup of tea!

     Now promise me this; if you do read it or have read it, let me know what you thought!



Musings of a School Year

     The end of the school year is always a bit surreal, isn't it? Invariably you will eventually find yourself with all your finals behind you, hopefully feeling confident and accomplished, and facing the sisyphean task of moving a year of your life out of your dorm. A task which is not made any easier by the peculiar trait of dorm rooms that seem to compress your belongings in such a way that they all fit comfortably in the room but once move to the hallway they expand exponentially into an imovable pile of terror.
     On the bright side, while you're stuck out by the elevator guarding your stack of bins like the royal guard who drew the short straw, you have a bit of time to think back over the year. Your journey of reminicence is guided through the past year by the proddings of momentos, notes, and artifacts that whisk your thoughts back to the time you accquired them as they come thumping off the top of your stack of bins and jam into the elevator doors in front of every other hurried mover in your hall. You are mortified and nostalgic.
    Far and away the worst culprit of this offense is the text book that is either in your bag attempting to rip your shoulder off or in the bottom of some bin thinking heavy thoughts. You can't help but let your thoughts dwell on its immense weight as you shuffle across the parking lot, knuckles burning, knees rhythmically slaming into the back of the bin. As the pain in your fingers begins to dull your mental faculties your mind may wander back through the times you've had with that book or any of its equally massive cohorts. With any luck you will find yourself recalling interesting facts, arcing concepts, and genuinely useful knowledge. After all, that is, at the heart of the matter, what each of those text books is aiming to impart on its owner; the back problems, panic attacks, and sleep deprivation that they provide are just bonuses!
     I joke about it here but I must honestly say that I have really enjoyed this whole year. Actually I tend to enjoy school in general. Call me a nerd but I genuinely love learning. No, I don't always love studying, taking notes, or going to classes. I said I'm a nerd not a masochist! In general though I tend to like school and I'm pretty good at it. My mom is always saying that I'm going to be one of those people who is in school forever, a prefessional student. Aside from the fact that I don't think my body can handle the amounts of Mountain Dew that suh a life style would require I must admit it wouldn't be the worst thing. I already consider myself extremely lucky to be in the position I am in. My day to day life consists of going to classes lead by lovely, intelligent, passionate professors (for the most part) who are there for the sole purpose of sharing their knowledge and passion with us. Yes, it can be tedious or hard or boring at times but for the most part it is really great. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as useless knowledge. Everything in he universe is connected in some way so it follows that all knowledge would be similarly connected. Thus the more you know about anything the more you know about everything. (*note: keep an eye out for an entire entry dedicated to this subject that I wrote during a Mountain Dew fueled existential revelation... let's just say it needs some editing*) With that said I feel lucky and awed and exhilerated to know that, for the time being, my entire purpose in life is to acquire as much knowledge as I can!
   
     This year has been such an amazing year for me. As I look over my overfloing bins I am reminded of so many facets of the wonderful experience these few short months have been for me. From where I stand I see stacks of sheet music that I have performed, books of scores that I have studied, sheets of facts and data that I have analyzed, and pages upon pages of notes I have compiled. All signs of a productive school year well spent. Packed carefully in a bin of their own is a pile of framed photos and momentos bearing red buses, iconic clock towers, and Union Jacks. My heart swells a little as I consider these trinkets and think back to that most astounding experience that they represent. Three whole months in a city that has come to occupy a special spot in my heart. My life and my thoughts are now puctuated with funny little colloquialisms, traditions, and tastes that weren't there before. These bits and bobs are more than welcome now, little hold overs from a fantastic time spent in London that I won't soon forget. Yet another thing to be thankful for that this year has given me.
     Last, but certainly not least, are the plentiful memories that are scattered all about your room in little scraps of paper, movie stubs, and post it notes. On the surface they appear to be little more than meaningless clutter but they are life's momentos of time spent with friends. This year has certainly been a great one for friends! I started off my time in London all on my own but came back with a friend that I'm pretty sure I might actually share thoughts with across great distances. And back in the US I had the pleasure of living with friends as roommates for the first time. What an adventure that has been! Oh the things that room 555 has seen between our attempts at cooking eggs, fallible forks, and slippery counter tops! And the best part is that I get to look forward to another year of mayhem and hilarity with the girls when we return to 555 in the fall!
     Returning to 555 in the fall may well be the strangest part of this experience yet as it will mark the beginning of my final year at DU. I haven't always loved it, in fact I've rather detested it at times, but there is no arguing how much I have gotten out of this establishment. I will miss it when I leave to go on to the next adventure but I think the hardest part will be watching everyone scatter. I have some pretty amazing and talented friends, here at DU and elsewhere, and I know they will go on to do wonderful things all around the country and the world (the universe even? Any hopeful astronauts among us?). Of course I am excited to see what the future holds for everyone but I take no shame in my selfishness when I say I am glad that we have another year here in our little bubble together before we must face the real world!
     My friends will do great things, I have no doubts about that. But what the hell am I going to do? Currently, I find myself at a bit of a turning point in my education. I am nearly finished with the requirements for my music major, assuming I don't fail tomorrow's final (which I ought to be studying for at the moment) my biology minor is all but complete, and I have a few classes next year lined up to complete my general education requirments and a second minor in psychology. I feel like I am at a point of transition where my music studies have to go on the back burner as I turn my attention to science. I love science and I am excited to pursue it further in the future but as I finished my last required musicology final yesterday I was shocked to realize how fast the 2 years of required musicology classes flew by and how much I had come to enjoy a subject that I had previously known absolutely nothing about. In my last year here at DU I am lucky enough to have the freedom to fill my schedule with pretty much whatever interests me which I could not be more excited about but what comes next? Next I suppose it's specialization, more schooling, more degrees? I find myself torn between science and music, my two loves with the hope that they can be reconciled in my future. I hate the thought of having to choose one over the other. Maybe I'll just travel with the circus until I can sort it out.
     I don't know which I would choose but I hope I never really have to. For now all I know is that I have another year of learning ahead of me and then... well, more learning. One day I will have to stop being a student but I do not intend to let that stop me learning. So here's to it, a wonderful year and another to come!      

Cool People - #1: Douglas Adams

HAPPY TOWEL DAY ALL YOU HOOPY FROODS!!!

     Every year, on May 25th, sci-fi geeks the world over don their towels in honor of the late, great Douglas Adams and the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom that he so generously gave to us, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Why towels you ask? The guide has this to say on the subject of towels:
     "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santranginus V, inhaling the beady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the Ravenouse Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you--daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough." I myself have found my towel to make a lovely little scarf against the wind today!
    
     I've had this post started for absolutely ages but what better day than today to kick it out into the cold void of space... I mean the internet? Appropriate too, as Adams himself seemed to have trouble getting anything written in a timely fashion famously saying, "I love deadlines. I like the wooshing noise they make as they go by."
    
     Thus, I give unto you, in celebration of this most festive of days, the first installment of a series of people who I find extremely brilliant, talented, and straight up cool.

#1 Douglas Adams
     I have a large leather bound book with gold edged pages and a ribbon page marker. It is well worn and always lives where ever I am living. I have read it many times, some parts of it more than others. Guess what book it is? Did you guess the Bible? Well you'd be wrong. Mostly. It's kind of my own personal bible. Not in a blaspheming way, just in that I think it provides important insights and valuable lessons, though, at times, they are hard to discern. Sounds bibley right? You can turn to the bible and ask the meaning of life, the universe, and everything and find that, "The meaning of the Christian life is in the living of it" (Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life, by Bruce C. Birch, Larry L. Rasmussen). Interesting... if a bit ambiguous, certainly valid in many ways. However, there are times when I prefer my own book's answer to the ultimate question simply for its clarity and brevity. The answer is 42. Apparently it is the question that needs sorting. This deep and enigmatic book that I turn to for guidance in life (really, I do, please don't judge me) is none other than The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams which contains within it all five books of the series (and a bonus short story, oh yeah!).

     Adams is as close to a genius as I care to imagine at present. He was not just a master of his genre; he created a whole new genre! Comedic science fiction, who does that?! Douglas Adams did it... expertly.

Also, uh, hello... Martin Freeman and Mos Def!

     The idea for the guide came to him while he was lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck looking up at the stars thinking how helpful it would be to have a general sort of guide to all of it. From that point on it has seen countless incarnations in radio, television, film, video games, theater, and books. My first experience with the Guide was in the form of the 2005 movie remake which I immediately loved. This set me off in search of the books which are undoubtedly the cause of my subsequent sci-fi habit. There are so many things that I love about his books but the best thing has to be the story itself, well stories. They're fun, they're unprecedented, they're exciting, suspenseful, dramatic, sci-fi, romance, off the wall, out of the box, all around weirdness. Sure there are about 50 bazillion subplots, none of which with any semblance of an actual ending, and probably a third of the actual content of the books have nothing to do with any of the stories' plots. Still they're all little golden nuggets of imagery and detail of the wonderfully weird universe only he could imagine.
    
     I'm not going to tell you about the stories for two reasons: 1) I wouldn't want to ruin it should you take this post to heart and go read them for yourself, and 2) they are basically impossible to sum up, as it were, "due to the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" (bonus points to you if you recognize that quote). Instead I am going to tell you about a few of the other things that make these books so dear to me.

1) The clever writing      Adams is as descriptive as he is funny. Take this line from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where he describes enormous alien spaceships, "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't". I mean come on, how great is that? You can totally picture it! Plus, I love the way his imagery will have you following along, thinking you know where it's going up until the last minute when he finally draws the comparison to something completely out of context. It's exactly that sudden shift into lunacy that keeps me chuckling through the series every time I read it. Here’s one more little witty gem of imagery from Life, the Universe and Everything for the road, "Stones, then rocks, then boulders pranced past him like clumsy puppies." 

2) The hidden philosophy lessons     In my first year of college I took a foundations of philosophy class that I absolutely loved. Over the quarter we went through some of the questions that have been making Homo Sapien scratch his big ol' brain cavity ever since he realized that sticks make for good scratching devices. Well... maybe not that long ago but certainly for many centuries. With each new question we addressed I couldn't help but be struck by how some part of the Guide resembled it, only, of course, with more comedic aliens. Adams had some really fascinating takes on many of the fundamental principles of philosophy though they are often hidden in dizzying story lines and rapid fire wit. My favorite example has to do with a philosophical principle commonly associated with Locke which, essentially, deals with reality as being dependent on the perception of the individual (History of Philosophy by Alfred Weber). It is this question that stoned teenagers broach when they ponder whether the blue that they see is really the red that their friends see. Adams tackles the question in his usual manner of comedy so aloof you may not even catch it in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe when a crazy man who lives in a hut on the beach with a cat nonchalantly asks a man who has been questioning him, "How can you tell there's anything out there? The door's closed." The old man seems like just a crazy old recluse but he is constantly making poignant observations. Much like in the real world, you can't always tell if someone's theories are just far out conjecture or verging on some fundamental untold truth. Hell, people thought Galileo was insane to have said that the Earth revolves around the sun and look how that theory turned out. Galileo, old man in a shack on the beach with a cat, who's keeping track? Brilliant. I must share one other little tidbit of philosophical humor found in Life, the Universe, and Everything, "He hoped and he prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." A passing comment in an action scene as our main character tumbles toward what he is sure will be his demise, I just love its overly casual approach to and subsequent dismissal of the enormous question of religion's role in the eternal existence of the soul (if there even is one). Again I say, brilliant. 

3) Pure creative genius     In 815 pages Adams introduces us to more alien races, distant planets, and fictional technologies than I ever want to attempt to tally. Over the five books there are four important main characters who are all so well developed you feel like they are old friends of yours and a slew of supporting characters who all have distinct personalities of their own. More than that, there are characters who appear only once, and briefly even then, whose stories are so detailed you have the feeling of being some sort of all knowing outside observer. Which, I guess, you are in the context of most reading experiences. For example there is a character in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy called Mr. Prosser who is only around to demolish Arthur’s house in a silly allusion to foreshadowing who we know is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan with a penchant for fuzzy hats. Did we need to know this for the purposes of the plot? No. Does it make even the most inconsequential of characters more interesting? Yes!
     Beyond his imaginative characters are the wonderful people they meet and places and situations they find themselves in. A restaurant that the end of the universe where there are cow like animals that have been bred to want to be eaten. A rock star who is spending a year dead for tax reasons. And, of course, a queer fellow called Slartibartfast who travels the universe in an Italian restaurant that is actually a cutting edge, five-dimensional ship powered by the bistromathic drive. Not only does Slartibartfast build custom ordered, designer planets (he won an award for Norway) and lead the campaign for real-time in an effort to sort out the convulsions of space-time, he also helps our gang of main characters save the universe from the evil ways of the Krikkit army who sought to destroy the stars. What I’ve described here is literally a fraction of the books and I could never in my wildest dreams come up with such interesting, new, and inventive ways to look at the universe!

Three bonus cool points for Adams:
1) He was clearly a Beatles fan, trust me, I can tell.
2) He worked on Doctor Who in its early days!
3) He was often touted as an honorary scientist even by the famed biologist Richard Dawkins, who spoke very kindly of him and his humble yet deeply rooted love for science that seem to exude from his work in this lovely eulogy.

     We humans know so very little in the grand scheme of things (a point the Guide makes several times) and I love how Adams is not afraid to go barreling into our great unknowns full steam ahead.
     He said it best himself in a speech at Cambridge when he said,
     “There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be, but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions.”      In his customary style it is an eloquent and clever take on human perspective, the scientific pursuit of truth, and the ever unanswered questions of life, the universe, and everything. If you know me at all, you will see in this alone why I admire Adams and his work so much. In closing I would like simply to say Thank You to Mr. Adams; you, your wit, and your talent will never be forgotten here on Earth! Here’s to the hoopiest frood of them all!

   

*** Since having drafted this entry I have had the enormous pleasure of living for several months in Islington, London. If youknow your stuff you will recall that Islington is where Arthur once attended a fancy dress party and met some very important characters. I'm not going to lie and tell you that this did not occur to me while I was choosing my study abroad program or that it was not the first thing I told my fellow fans about. While I was there I came to learn that Adams actually lived in Islington! It made perfect sense reading back through the Guide and some of his other books to find them riddled with references to places that I had come to know well! So, in closing (for real this time), I will leave you with this little nugget of Hitchhiker's joy which struck me my very first weekend in London. I know that my fellow fans will recognize it straight away and for those of you who don't get the reference, aren't you just dying to know? I guess you'll have to start reading! Enjoy!

19 Awesome Things To Do on a Snow Day

Today's post was going to be about working really hard for midterms. But it's a snow day! And as we all know, it is against the law to be productive on snow days. This includes writing a proper blog post. Thus I present to you...

19 Awesome Things To Do on a Snow Day

a photo editorial by Cailey, Emily, and Jen



1) Sleep in (duh.)

2) Enjoy Breakfast.

3) Sleep on every surface in the apartment.

4) Stare at Steve the Volcano. When Steve stops working, stare at the wall.

5) Laugh at tour group.

I am positive that none of these people will apply to DU.

6) Attempt to play board games. Forget the rules. Turn to Google.

7) Become professional play-doh sculptors.


"Flower" by Jen. "Alien Fish" by Cailey. "Snowman" and "Tucker" by Emily.



8) Eat lunch.

9) Wear scarves.

10) Play in the snow.

11) Tea Who.

"Tea Who" is a tradition Gill and I made up in London.
As the name suggests, it involves Doctor Who and
 a lot of tea and biscuits.

12) Stare at snow through window for extended periods.

13) Watch Disney movies.

14) Chat over tea/hot chocolate.

15) Bake cookies.

16) Eat Dinner.

17) Read for pleasure.

18) Enjoy sports and cider (if you're over 21).

Fun despite a pathetic game.

19) Don't get dressed all day.

New Plan!

Is it just me or does it seem like I change the purpose, format, content, and style of this blog every other week? Right, maybe that's an exaggeration. But it has changed tons of times before. Well, several. Well, a few. Well... once. But it was a big once, it allowed for study abroad adventures. Can you blame me? Besides, you know you liked it *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Anyhow. Moving right along. Yes! I am back now so that means I don't have a travel theme to keep to anymore (though there are still a few stories I might tell, they're on reserve). Oh the possibilities! The freedom! I can write about anything! Oh god... what do I write about?!

New plan! Fridays. I think a lot of things during the typical week and often (well, occasionally), just one or two of these thoughts seem to be worthy of sharing with the world. So, starting this Friday, my new goal is to blog about one or another of these things at the end of the week. That would be Friday... depending on who you ask.

As per usual, there will be no rhyme nor reason to the following lunacy. Just thoughts that I hope will be interesting, or at least amusing, or maybe just dumb enough for you to laugh at. Yep, any of those will work.

Coming?

Cheers, London!

Gill and I at our last pub

     I left London on December 18th, a Sunday. The last weekend I was there was full of nostalgia, friends, and lots of good food and drink (savoring all the things we don't have in America)! The day before that final weekend, the real and true end of the trip, Gill, her friend Andrea, and I went to a cool little piercing shop conveniently located right down the street from our school.We each got piercings, a little something that will always remind us of our adventure in London. I won't tell you about how big of a baby I was in that basement, it'll detract from the nostalgic nature of this story to have you all laughing at my completely unjustified terror.



    



The aforementioned super cool piercing shop

     Yesterday was the 6 week mark of that piercing, the day you are officially allowed to change the earring without the threat of your ear falling off or something equally terrible. I can hardly believe that I've been home for six weeks already. At the same, time it does feel like ages ago that I wandered the streets of Islington. I have been thinking a lot during this time about what I would say in this post, my final study abroad post. Truth is I still don't really know what to say but it's now or never.





The tube! Ok, it's still sort of exciting.



     I can't even begin to recount all of the wonderful experiences I had in the UK. I lived in my favorite author's neighborhood, I walked in the footsteps of my favorite band, and I studied amongst years and years of history. I made new friends, saw new places, an tried new things. Yet, in the midst of all the new, there was time enough to get comfortable. Even though new experiences big and small seem to come every day when you're abroad, three months is enough time to settle in and shed that initial feeling of being the outsider. I'll never forget the first time that a tourist asked me for directions.Apparently I looked the part of a local (though I surely never sounded the part)! What made the moment so memorable though, was the fact that I, normally quite directionally challenged, knew the area well enough to actually give the man directions! It is exciting whn riding the Tube stops being exciting and you start to know all the bus routes and stops by name and number. When you know the good, the bad, and the hilarious places to eat as well as all the pubs in your neighborhood (and when they are open). When there is practically a worn down track through the local Sainsbury's because you have your usual shopping list (and your friend's) down pat. When you consult the list of top attractions in the travel book and realize you've seen them all but your list of places to go and things to do still stretches on. When you watch an episode of Doctor Who ("Aliens in London" to be precise) and you have been to every location. When you ride Piccadilly line all the way out to Heathrow and you know what's above every station you stop at in central London. It is so thrilling to know a city as amazing as London on that level! 

     My flight back home was uneventful, a welcome relief after the horror show that was my flight out, but long. So LONG. A ten hour direct flight to San Fransisco and then 2 more hours home. Between airport time, time zones, and layovers I was up for a solid 24 hours with 12 of them actually in flight. I had no idea what day it was when I finally got to DIA! I must say, I think this trip has cured me of my air travel anxiety (mostly). I feel like there is nothing left that an airline can throw at me that I haven't seen before. Bring it on air travel!... *Except not really, I would like to keep the travel Gods on my side for any future travels. I didn't mean what I said just then. Please, bring it off!* 

     Coming home to my parents and my puppies was so great. It was like I had never left even though things had changed. How good it is to return to your home! There are so many things that I missed while I was away and I feel extra lucky to have around again! Lots and lots of things I miss now too. I never, never ever thought that I would love any place as much as I love Denver. I guess that's why I was taken so off guard when I began to feel more and more at home in Islington. Three months is the perfect amount of time to get to know a place and the perfect amount of time to be away on your own for the first time. Honestly though, it's barely enough to scratch the surface of all that London has to offer!

     There is so much more I could say about those amazing three months but I don't want to ramble any more than I already have. It was a time of many firsts for me; first solo plane ride, first time out of the America, first time living on my own. I honestly had no idea what to expect. Yet, somehow, it exceeded every expectation that I didn't seem to have. 

Damn, this one isn't the
TARDIS either!

     As Gill and I cleaned out our flats at Liberty Hall into the early hours of December 18th "Hello, Goodbye" by my dear Beatles came on. How perfect! I don't know why I had to say goodbye to London when I could be saying hello to all of the wonderful times it showed me, the memories created there, and hopefully a return trip. After searching all this time for the right words I guess I only needed one. This one: fantastic! Every last bit of it was just fantastic and I cannot believe how lucky I am to have had this experience.

    
    As for that earring, I didn't change it. Not just yet. For now I like knowing that I have a tiny bit of London on me at all times. Even if it is just a little post.

*One last fantastic thing: this is Gill's final study abroad post which is far better executed than mine and makes me cry every time I read it. I highly recommend it. Also, note her expert use of British spelling.... britalyzations? And this is a wee little bit from Emily's post of the same nature that uses her English major ways to make a point that I can't seem to. "It’s always strange to have an adventure come to an end . . . it really is like the end of a chapter   in a book. Even a section in a book (i.e. Part 1, Part 2 . . .), if it’s epic enough. It feels like there should be some kind of cliffhanger ending, some realization, some type of epic closure. But there rarely is. Things just careen right along without seeming to care that you want to pause for a minute and mull over the chapter before continuing on."



A fantastic impromptu photo of a

construction crew outside City U!

  

  



How to Succeed in The British Education System Without Really Trying

What a terrible blogger I am. It is certainly not for lack of wondrous amazing experiences and adventures and funny British-isms that I haven't posted lately. It is for lack of time! I am writing this to you from the library at City University on what is quite likely the last day I will ever spend on this campus. I just finished with my psychology exam which was unfortunately difficult and has left me with what may be a permanent claw in the place of my hand. It's a testament to my commitment to you, my loyal readers, that I am typing this at all.

No. That's not true. I'm really just killing time before meeting up with a friend to go to a pub. But the bit about the really hard psych test was true... and my hand does still hurt. Here's the thing about this test. As an international student who is leaving in just a few days (yikes!) I got the pleasure of sitting said exam today, 3 days after the final class where as my peers won't be taking theirs until January 12th. So I got significantly less time to study which is not comforting when you are faced with some pretty tricky essay prompts. On top of that though, is the fact that British people, or at least those at City University, are total nutters about staging exams!

*Note: this is all 3 days old, I write it then forgot to post it but I feel that if I were to change the afore mentioned times now the post would lose some of its impact... also, I don't wanna change it all.*

You know you are in for a long two hours when you can't even figure out how to fill out the front of the exam booklet! Should you ever find yourself sitting a British exam here as some tips; ten minutes of reading time before the test begins does not mean you can review your notes, in that reading time all you are allowed to do is read the questions... for ten minutes. Also, during these ten minutes you are not allowed to make notes on the prompt, just stare at it. This was my first and only formal exam (thankfully) so these ten minutes were really baffling to me. After that initial confusion I set off on a whirlwind essay writing spree on a subject that, aside from the past 9 lectures, I have absolutely no background information on. It was exciting! The rest of those two hours is a blur of hand cramps and really wishing I had used the loo before the exam after all that tea. I literally wrote scrawled my last words the moment the administers called time. Whew! Glad that is done with! 

Here's the thing about the British education system, it's very different from America's system. I am not saying that either one is better or worse than the other. They are just different. I personally have been using the American system for the past 14 years so, naturally, attempting to operate in the British system straight away for just one term is a bit of a shock. I am used to going to any given class between 2 and 4 times a week and doing a bit of homework or a small assignment after each one. Here there is one class a week (usually for a grueling 3 hour lecture), one piece of course work (usually a short essay or presentation), and a final project (a longer essay or an exam). That's it, that's all your grade is based on. So yeah, there is a lot of pressure on those few assignments, not something I particularly enjoy.

So my friends, here is the answer to succeeding in the British education system without really trying; you don't. If you don't put in the effort you are going to crash and burn. But on the plus side, when you see a 70 mark on your paper, do not fret that you have barely even pulled a C. 70 is equivalent to an A here, it's a first level grade. The system does go all the way to 100 but some how marks higher than 70 are reserved for publish worthy, gilded, or magical documents. At least that's how I understand the system to work.