A little bit of skivving never hurt anyone

Sometimes you just need a skive day, ya know? Especially after the day I had yesterday.

Without going into too much detail, I ended up calling an ambulance for someone last night around 3am. Long story short, the person in question is totally fine and the story isn't actually that interesting. But it did result in a night of insomnia which further resulted in an unexpected day off from work.

Things could be worse, really.

While researching for one of my final papers, I got distracted by the source material and ended up having an accidental Hellraiser marathon. It's been deliciously nostalgic… I adored these flicks and this mythology when I was a teenager. Hellbound: Hellraiser II was the second horror movie I ever saw (the first was Poltergeist 2), when I was maybe twelve years old. Hellraiser: Bloodline (the fourth movie) came out around the time I graduated high school, when my infatuation with Fangoria was at its peak and I was consuming horror movies like they were going out of style (which, for the record, they weren't). Bloodline (aka Pinhead! In! Space!) is the only one I've seen in the theater… after that one they were just churned out straight to video and are now up to… oh, nine? Ten? At any rate, the first four movies were pretty important to my development as a horror connoisseur (doesn't that sound fancier than fangirl?), so it's been a load of fun revisiting them.

Sadly it means I'm not getting much work done. Just for the record, I have a 3000 word essay due on Wednesday, another 3000 word essay due on Friday, a 1750 word essay due on Saturday, and a 2500 word essay with is thankfully not due until January. Plus one final exam on Monday. No pressure!

Random observation of the day: Say what you will about the NHS (National Healthcare System) here in the UK, but I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to be able to summon an ambulance knowing it's not going to put anyone in debt. This is what we're missing out on in the US and it sucks.

How to waste a lot of time, but still get shit done

Seriously needing to do something about this snooze button situation. May have to move the clock across the room. UGH, I HATE DOING THAT.

Today was mostly focused on getting to the BFI (British Film Institute, for those of you who didn't take notes yesterday, shameful) library so that I could scan all those pages of research. Remember how I was supposed to bring along my USB drive this time so I wasn't wasting my time looking up all that stuff? Yeah, I didn't either until about twenty minutes into my studies. After much headdesking, I made the hour-long commute back home, grabbed the USB drive, then made the hour-long commute back to BFI.

Finally I could get down to business! It was a full-on musical montage of poring through dusty books and cataloged magazines and harried librarians digging through basements stack for missing back-issues of Fangoria and jotting of careful notes. Finally I had my material all picked out and ready for scanning. This was when I found it that they charge for scanning. Something nobody had bothered to let me know about before this.

Keep in mind, I'm absolutely broke. Like, £.17 in my bank account and £.34 in my pocket broke. The cost for scanning? £.20 per page.

Needless to say, I could only clutch my head as the librarian announced that the library would be closing in half an hour. All this work, all this ridiculous commuting back and forth, for nothing.

Then I glanced at my phone. My phone with the camera setting. My camera, which was kind of like a scanner.

YES.

So it's not a perfect solution, and I'll be squinting a lot while I read my materials, but 165 photos later I have what I need, now transferred from my phone to my laptop. Take that, British Film Institute.

Random observation of the day: Some people just do not get the whole stand-on-the-right, walk-on-the-left escalator rule. Mostly those people are tourists with suitcases and oblivious stares. If you come to London, for the love of all that is holy and unholy, do not stand on the left when riding an escalator. You will incite the silent, tutting rage of countless London commuters stuck behind you, unable to do anything because they are too polite to ask you to move.

My life is schoolwork

Oh, snooze button. We're really becoming codependent, aren't we? This has got to stop.

After my last sessions of Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (yay!) and British Horror (boo!), I started some research for my various final papers. This involved, just so you know, a trip past the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge. I made a point to eyeroll a little at all the camera-wielding tourists because I'm a LONDONER now and, you know, NDB YOU GAIZ SHEESH. Then I couldn't help but wonder how many times you walk past/over such an icon of London before you stop having to ogle at it.

I'm guessing a while.

After vising Unicorn Theatre for my London/Culture/Performance paper, I moseyed over to the British Film Institute library to do some research for my CHC paper on Paranormal Activity and my BH paper on Hellraiser. Which was when I discovered that they have back issues of Fangoria starting in 1988 and had a combined nerdgasm/nostalgiagasm. Also discovered in order to bring home any relevant articles I'll have to scan them rather than print them, so will be heading back tomorrow with my trusty stolen borrowed USB drive.

Got home to find a package had been left for me with one of the neighbors. The gentleman who lives next door kindly handed over what turned out to be my cigarette order, sent to me from US Customs after they determined that London is actually in the UK rather than the US. Got that, clovecigarettesstore.com? United KINGDOM =/= United STATES. Let's remember that for next time, shall we? Still, it was rather nice of US Customs to send me my cigarettes.

Also got the excellent news that the hold on my account that happened after the whole health insurance debacle* was successfully appealed so I can register for Spring and therefore get my financial aid. Massive relief there. Money is still difficult but at least I won't be forced to cut my time abroad short! A lot of the American associates I take classes with are getting ready to go home after finals, with lots of "I don't want to leave yet!" going on. Every time I hear that I'm so very glad that I was determined to stay a whole year rather than just a semester. No matter how tough some things have been, I love being right where I am.

*If you have no idea what I mean about the health insurance debacle, leave a comment and I'll do a proper post about it.

Random observation of the day: I ended up taking a different train than I usually do to school today, and I'm almost positive the guy sitting across the row from me was Colin Farrell. It wasn't a great angle and also I didn't want to stare creepily, so I'm not 100% sure, but I'm going to call it my first celebrity sighting anyway.

A day in the life

It's nearly the end of the my first semester in London. I don't know where the time went, but the quick run-down of my life since I last posted (I don't know when that even was and I'm too lazy to go look) is this: I'm clawing my way through my classes; I'm broke beyond belief (£.17 in my bank account right now, no lie); and I started a job with a hotel which will not be named as a housekeeper, which may actually kill me.

Don't worry, things aren't as dire as they sound. I'm also still enjoying school and the fact that I'm in London, I'm feeling a lot of love for my friends, my Mom is amazing, and Christmas/my 35th birthday are just around the corner.

So! On with business. I'm normally off Wednesdays, but since Professor Awesome was offering a review session for British Horror I dragged myself out of bed at what was supposed to be 8am but turned into 9am after I poked the snooze button a little too much. I did get really lucky with transportation, catching a bus and both trains within a few minutes of arriving at each place.

I've been listening to the latest (2009) 30 Seconds to Mars album rather obsessively on the commute for the past few days, partly because my phone is stupid and partly because the album is EPIC and lots of fun to listen to while traveling. Seriously, try cranking "Kings & Queens" while in a moving vehicle of any kind and tell me you don't have the urge to climb on top of whatever it is and throw your arms out and pretend you're flying. Always helpful for gearing up to sit in a classroom for several hours talking film theory... Luckily Professor Awesome kept it interesting as always, in spite of his noticeable head cold. The good news about British Horror is that I've finally settled on a topic for my paper; the bad news is I only have a week to make an excellent 3000 word essay out of it. Also the class is almost over, which makes me sadface. #FirstWorldProblems

I attempted to sell some textbooks to get money for cat litter. Found out I can't do that until Monday, and only two of the three will be taken by my school bookstore. However, I later determined that I can sell the third book - along with one of the Film Studies books I impulsively brought to London with me - on the internets. w00t! With luck, the total sale will net me around £40. That's a lot of cat litter! And boy is it needed... the damn box is about 80% pee, 10% poo, 10% litter. YIKES.

Now if my cigarettes would just show up... they appear to have been shipped to the US for some reason, but the online store isn't answering me when I tell them I'm in the UK now (as I have been for the last two perfectly successful orders). I am making a trollface right now. Thank goodness for the random pack of cigs I found on the steps into the Tube station near my job and the idiot who dropped a nearly full box. However, the supply is almost out and then I'm in full-on nicotine withdrawal until I have money/get the smokes I ordered. Look out, London.

Random observation of the day: a British girl in my Horror class who I always thought was a bit detached and arrogant turned out to be an amazingly funny and cool person when I finally got a chance to talk to her today. I love when a person I've judged totally breaks down my first impressions and makes me remember why those judgments I make are bullshit, just like the judgments I think people make about me are bullshit.

Just a little bit of culture shock

I'm nearly two months into my London Adventure and I've yet to update. See, it turns out there's so much cool stuff I want to talk about that I started to get overwhelmed by it. Every time I think of updating this blog I basically just freeze up with all the things I want to tell you.

The solution to this problem is that I'm just going to do a quickie update now, and then try to post small, frequent updates from now on. Although I've not experienced much culture shock, there's still little things I see everyday that make living here really fascinating and amazing. So I'll talk about the little things.

My one big moment of culture shock was actually related to school supplies. Somehow I just never imagined that school supplies would be different here, but they are. It all came to a head over folders. You know, these things:

The things that cost 50 cents and hold all your loose papers for class and generally are just a total staple of school shopping? They don't exist here.

I went into a bit of a panic. How am I supposed to organize handouts? Where am I supposed to put things? WHAT THE HELL DO STUDENTS DO HERE??? I was getting seriously overwrought over fucking folders.

Don't worry, it all came out alright. After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of internet research, I found these:

They're called "document wallets" and they basically saved my sanity. Since then it's been pretty smooth sailing in the school supplies department.