Been so busy with school, no time to blog. Just finished a massive paper though (30 pages, aka Chapter One, aka 2/17 of my dissertation) so....

In the States we have these little plastic tabs, or maybe you could call them clips, that hold our plastic bread bags together. This helps keep the bread from getting all moldy. The English have a tiny little piece of tape that serves the same purpose. Except it doesn't, because if it takes you two weeks to eat a loaf of bread like me, one slice a day, the tape looses it's stickiness and becomes worthless. And then you get the mold. Look, I'm not saying that America is better than the UK by any means. I'm just pointing out that our massive waistlines and tendency toward obesity have evolved us to better handle our food. So that we can eat whenever we want. So, in conclusion...

Strange Thing #27: The worthless strip of tape that holds bread bags "closed."

Had a really good weekend, working hard, getting a curry, having my five month anniversary of moving to London, seeing my first London snowfall, and spending four freezing cold hours stomping around the Tower of London. It was great! I didn't know my very favorite British historical figure, Anne Boleyn, was buried there. Or, the pieces of her were buried there, whatever.


Tower of London

Rugby was brill, I actually enjoyed it. Although I don't think anyone can deny I've watched two of the lousiest games: the England and Holland friendly and the England and France Six Nations (France came from behind to win by one point all on England penalties. Hey, I'm a Redskins fan, I'm used to that!) So, anyway, I'm picking that up and acclimating and all that....

I'm in good spirits because my first set of experiments is going really well! I managed to get a flux rate that was in a straight line, as it was supposed to. The masters student who tried it before me had a curved line which means either (a) she is a supreme idiot or (b) I am an infallible laboratory goddess. Of course neither of those is true, but my senior student has stopped looking at me like I'm an idiot, and I'm starting to feel less like an idiot, so it's all good.

So, I finally watched my first football match last week, a friendly between England and Holland, and much to my surprise, I actually liked it! I thought it would be boring, and sure enough, there were no goals, but it was actually pretty good. I guess it helps that it is only 90 minutes long, instead of American football, which lasts about three hours.

I liked it so much that I'm going to meet Howard later today to watch England take on France in the Six Nations (the six nations being England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy) which is rugby. I'm ready to take on rugby.

And in another four months, I may even to try sitting through a cricket match.... (It seems to be going on now, but it's just too complicated for my tiny American brain to comprehend. One sport at a time, please.)

Here's the creme de la creme of my Paris photos:


Arc


Store


Notre Dame


Notre Dame


Notre Dame


Louvre

Yea, I definitely had a rockstar of a good time!

Strange Thing #26: Fee-less ATMs (or cashpoints or hole-in-the-walls as they are called here.)

Meaning, if I use another bank's ATM, I am not monetarily raped. I can use my Natwest card at any other bank that is not Natwest for free . This is astounding to me, and unheard of in the States. There, I had Bank of America. If I used a non-Bank of America ATM, that ATM would charge me US$2 just for the pleasure of walking up and putting my card in. Then BofA would charge me another US$2 for not using their ATM. So the entire transaction would cost four dollars. What a waste.

Freedom really is a beautiful thing. *sniff*

I turned over my Hello Kitty! calender this morning to see Hello Kitty! getting ready for the big Valentine's Day dance. Hearts and cupcakes and pink everywhere.

Et tu, Hello Kitty!? Everyone is coupled up in London except me, even cartoon cats.