Life in London

    So I'm finally starting to feel like I have a little bit of a routine here (and I mean very minimal routine..). I have so little class that it's very hard planning out time but I'm starting to get used to it! They told us right when we got here that British students tend to view school as a 9-5 job and then they relax or go out at night. As strange as this is for me (my power hour for studying is 1-3 in the morning), I'm trying to get in the spirit. It makes it a lot easier to do things at night when you are not stressing about school!
    Let me start with the biggest news - TAYLOR SWIFT'S NEW ALBUM CAME OUT YESTERDAY. I'm a little bit of a fan. So far my personal favorites are "Better than Revenge" and "Mean," but I suggest that everyone takes a listen. I'm not as big a fan of this album as the last, but I've ben listening to it on repeat nonetheless. Speaking of T Swift, she was in London all last week but somehow I missed her! I saw pictures of her at dinner at a restaurant that is 20 minutes walking from here! I wish I had known, I've been wearing my T Swift concert t shirt for a week in case I run into her. I think people are starting to think it's weird. Lady Gaga was also in London, but I didn't think I really had a chance at finding her. I mean, she probably doesn't even know where she is half the time.
    Last week I decided I needed to do more touristy things so I spent a few hours at the National Gallery and really liked it! There is a little bit of everything there. I saw paintings by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Van Gogh, Renior, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Gaugain, and Raphael! It was quite a collection. I was supposed to go there to take some notes for my art history class but that didn't end up happening. My personal favorites were "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" by Delaroche and "The Virgin in Prayer" by Sassoforetto. Afterwards I just walked around central London a little bit. There is always some crazy performer in Trafalgar Square!
    The next day I walked around Hyde Park with my friend Katie for hours and just talked. We had lunch with our friend Cara from Australia that we met at Oktoberfest (and our other Aussie Oktoberfest friends are going to be here this weekend!!) and then we walked down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. It's giant! I really enjoyed walking around there, it doesn't feel like you're in a big city at all. We were walking around and ran into Royal Albert Hall. For those of you not in the know, Royal Albert Hall was where the Spice Girls had their big finale performance in "Spiceworld." I was really upset I didn't have my camera - such an important moment in my childhood!
     I went back to Hyde Park the next day with my friend Emily and we also just walked around and talked. We're going to go back this week to go out on the paddleboats on the Serpentine. Emily wants to have a wine and cheese party on it but I'm not sure that's allowed...
     This past weekend was pretty boring - a lot of my good friends here were traveling so I tried to get some work done. Saturday was our first girls night and it was pretty fun. We bought wine glasses and decorated them with "Girls rule" stickers we bought at the 99 pence store (which I am SO glad that I found). Mine is actually quite the artistic masterpiece. We went to a local pub, but I think the DJ thought we were at Ministry of Sound or something because he was blasting intense house and techno music. We left and went to a club in SoHo which was much better. They even played a song from Glee!! It was the Sue Sylvester version of "Vogue."The last song was "Teenage Dream" which I have been obsessed with lately (Katy Perry also just got married in India to Russel Brand this weekend - congrats!!).
      The last few days have been a lot of work and class (I have four hours of class on Monday and one is at the National Gallery - it's a long day). I've heard Halloween is a big deal here but I'm not really sure when I'm supposed to start dressing up. I also heard you actually need to dress scary or it's weird. I guess I'll put that spray bottle of glitter away...
    In exciting news, nine days until I leave for Italy!!! Rome ---> Florence ---> Barcelona during our break week. And the next weekend after that is Dublin and Cork!! I could not be more excited to travel. I've found it a little frustarting being here - I really want to travel and see other places but I'm having a hard time doing that knowing I have 8 papers to write for this semester. I'm trying to make my days at the library really count though so that I can plan a few more trips. First trip I need to arrange: Cambridge!   Donnie is waiting for me! Everyone I have talked to has said that Cambridge is beautiful. I also may go to Budapest because I made some friends at Oktoberfest who are studying there (I was really social at Oktoberfest). I've also heard amazing things about Greece and Portugal, and even Croatia so I need to get to work so I can plan these trips! Hope all is well in the US!

Lucas