Everyday Life

I've now been here for almost two months, so I'm quite in the swing of things these days. Here's a little update about my daily habits.

I'm sure you've heard me talk about the tube. It's an underground railroad system that runs throughout the entire city, and it's the cheapest way to get around (besides walking, that is).

This is Deb and Chase on the tube. You can see in the background that it's very much like the CTA in Chicago or the subway in New York.

After about the first couple weeks here I started walking to class everyday (it's only about a 40 minute walk), but I still take the tube a lot to plays and museums and such that are a bit farther away.

Anyway, Mondays and Wednesdays my classes start at 10:45am, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't have class until 2pm. I never have class on Fridays (though we usually leave early Friday mornings for our weekend field trips). So I have a lot of time to chill out, go for runs in the park, go study at a museum, etc during the day.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have a 45 minute lunch break in-between classes. I usually take the sandwich I've packed to a nearby park and eat outside. These are just some of the bird friends I hang out with while I eat. There are birds everywhere here! And, as you can see, they're not shy either. I love it!

We go to about two plays a week. And I'd say one professor or another has us over to their place about once a week.

This is a group of us at Mark Montgomery's flat for pizza.

I love this picture of Gretchem! I actually was just taking a picture of Sam, but then I got Gretchem in the background and I think it's just such a beautiful candid shot of her.

Since we're not always being given tasty food by our professors, I'm cooking for myself more than ever before. This is really exciting to me -- I feel like an actual adult ;)

 

This is our lovely refrigerator. We have a freezer that's just as big underneath the fridge. When I go grocery shopping, I actually have to freeze a lot of the food. It seems like food goes bad faster here. Or maybe I'm just more aware of how quickly food spoils since I'm only cooking for one.

I do much more real cooking than any of my flatmates. But I still do just heat up a lot of food. One of the staples of my diet here is tortellini. You can buy it really cheap, and it will be good for at least two meals. There are a lot of other good options as far as frozen pastas go, and I've noticed that the British are much more straightforward about the nutritional value of their food. The nutrition labels are really accessible.

Occasionally we have a "family" dinner in our flat. Last family dinner we made meatloaf. And one of the first weeks here we had a Mexican themed dinner.

Isn't my guacamole pretty?

I've also baked cookies a few times for my flatmates. They really enjoy that, and I like the homey smell it gives the flat. 

I have to say, I make really good cookies. We haven't been able to find any chocolate chips here, so these are M&M cookies. And it's a good thing I've had a lot of experience baking with my Mom, because recipes here are sooooo hard to decipher. All the measurement are different, and we don't even have any measuring tools in our kitchen. When I cook/bake I just guess on everything, and it's always turned out well!