Cold Monday!

So the frigid temperatures from this weekend have sadly continued into today. Come on, this is London, not Rochester! PLEASE WARM UP! Thanks.
So our trip to the Globe didn't get cancelled today, as we *were* able to make it by tube! It was a nice, informative tour, and I learned a lot, but I'm glad that I already went there to see a play because I think I learned more from experiencing the Globe than actually having a tour of it.
Today Oliver and I went out for some quick food at the Union for a little bit. Both of us have work to do, so we couldn't hang out for that long, but it was still nice.
Yeah, sorry for the length of this entry, but nothing else really happened today. I wish the weather would improve.
- Miranda

British Museum (Part 3!)

Hey guys!
So today was reallllllly cold, yet again. Wowwww. Fortunately, Oliver and I planned a nice, inside date today- going to the British museum! It's actually the 3rd time I've been there, and I STILL don't think I've seen everything! The museum is seriously that huge. We did see a lot that I didn't see last time, though, including a whole exhibit on clocks! (Oliver, being an engineer, really liked that one hahaha). I also bought some Christmas presents at the gift shop (but I won't say for who!).
Since a tube strike is starting this evening, I didn't go to his place afterward, but I still have fun. The tube strike is continuing until tomorrow, though, so I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get to the Globe Theatre tomorrow for my Shakespeare class field trip. I'd love to go again, but I'm kind of hoping that it will be cancelled because I don't want to have to take multiple buses etc. to get there. Plus, I've already been there.
I'm really tired today. Mehhh. Also, the Bills are currently losing, but they just need a field goal to try and tie the game! LET'S GO BUFFALO! 3 IN A ROW BABY!
- Miranda

Hmmm, maybe I should update every TWO days now?

....because clearly updating every day isn't working for me.
Anyway, on Friday I uploaded all of my Christmas music onto my iTunes, which made me really happy! I'm currently listening to my playlist, it's really nice.
Also, on Friday I did a very British thing: watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail with my British boyfriend! If only we were eating fish and chips as we were watching it...hahahaha. It was a really great Friday night.
Today, Oliver and I went to the King's College school Christmas fair! It was REALLY cold but we had a great time! We got some nice French-type lunches (I think mine was called a Racqulette and his was a Tartiflette?) and he bought me a really nice hot chocolate and some FUDGE! Any guy who buys me fudge is tops in my book. After getting out of the freezing cold, we went back to his place for some Chinese food. We watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles because I feel like I need to see that movie every Thanksgiving break, even if I'm not in America. All in all, another great day :)
Tomorrow we're going to the British Museum (and hopefully getting some Belgian waffles with Nutella at the stand outside the Russell Square tube station....NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM). I'll be sure to tell you guys all about it!
- Miranda

Not a Thanksgiving post!

I had lots of time to update yesterday, I really did. I even told Oliver when we were chatting last night that I had to update this thing at some point, but I guess it just slipped my mind somehow. Meh.
ANYWAY, yesterday Oliver and I went to the "adults night" at the Science Museum, which is basically the Science Museum plus added talks and stuff and added alcohol. It makes for a really fun night! It was fun to be a bunch of adults playing with all the children's exhibits, hahaha.
Today I went over part of my research paper with my tutor and got some GREAT feedback on it! I was really happy. It's hard to believe that the whole thing is due in 2 weeks....ahhhhhhhhh! I'll be able to get it done, though. I'm confident about that.
Today I am NOT doing anything for Thanksgiving, as that would make me really homesick. Instead, Oliver and I are going to do something. Exactly what, I don't know. Hopefully it doesn't involve being outside a lot- it's SO COLD today. Brrrrrrr.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in America!
- Miranda

Monday and Tuesday!

Hey, readers of my blog!
You may have noticed that I neglected to update yesterday. This was because I spent another incredibly busy (and awesome) day with my family, who had to leave this morning :(.
Anyway, yesterday was a very awesome day indeed. First of all, Oliver and I are official now (according to Facebook, at least)!!!!! This is the first time I've ever had to change my relationship status on Facebook (Dawson and I went out in the Myspace years....oh, Myspace), so I was really excited about it. :)
My family went to the Tower of London while I was in class, and after that we had a great Italian dinner and saw Oliver! (the musical). (yes, this was just a coincidence). The little kid playing Oliver was so adorable! He was only 10 years old, but he had a really good voice and looked so cute onstage! Awwwwww.
Today I've just been working on my research paper, basically. I need to write a good portion of it by Thursday to show my tutor. I'm not that worried about getting it done, though. I'm going to grab a quick late dinner with Oliver and then get back to work.
I have a headache today. Mehhh. I legit think it's because I ate really good food all weekend and then today I had to go back to eating what I usually do. Wowwww. Ah well, I'll be home in 3 weeks, so I'll have plenty of good food then. I don't want to leave, though. They're going to have to forcibly drag me from Heathrow onto the plane to JFK.
- Miranda

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters...

Yes, I just used the same title for my blog post and my photo album on Facebook. Ah well, I like it.
And I still haven't heard about the secretary position yet. Meh. I guess they're *keeping us in suspense* or something like that. Tomorrow's Monday, though, so I might hear something then. *crosses fingers*
Anyway, today Kid and I had a great time in London! First, we went to Platform 9 3/4, which actually took FOREVER to find. Seriously, there are no signs pointing to it. You'd think that tourists would be stupid like us and need signs to find things, but there weren't any. We found it eventually, though, so we had to do the stereotypical "trying to get to Hogwarts" pose:


We also took a video, but that would take forever to upload here.
After that, we had lunch and looked at the exhibits at the British library, since we were at King's Cross anyway. Then we went (mostly window) shopping on High Street. Kid actually bought something, though- this stylish hat!

After that, we saw the 7th Harry Potter movie! It was a good thing that I bought my tickets in advance, because I'm pretty sure it was sold out! The movie was great. I can't believe they're onto the 7th one already- I was in 5th-6th grade when the first one came out. I can't believe that.
Then we went back to Picadilly Circus for some epic Chinese food and celebrated the Bills win with my parents! Overall, another great day. Tomorrow we see Oliver! (the musical).
- Miranda

Still waiting...

...about whether I'm the secretary of Wandering Minds, at least. Yeah, I've STILL received no word about that. If I do become secretary, I'll promise that I'll send timely emails about stuff like this! Keeping people waiting is never good! Ah well, you guys will hear about it as soon as I find out!
So! I realized after I wrote yesterday's entry that I told you guys absolutely NOTHING about the AMS gig on Thursday! Wowwww, what a fail. The gig we went to was called "Come Get Felt Up" and it was really cool! Basically, it was like a giant arts and crafts night with a band playing. People compete to make the best arts-and-crafts project that fits the theme, and the winners receive some awesome prizes! Thursday's theme was PERFECT for AMS- animals/celebrities crossed with musical instruments.
Charlotte, Liam, and I worked on Tyrannosaurus Sax:

While Peter and Tom made Piano Reeves:

GUESS WHICH ONE WON THIRD PLACE?
OF COURSE, IT WAS THE TYRANNOSAURUS SAX! We won a Benny Hill record and a "chamele-horn" (chameleon strapped to a play instrument).
THE WINNERS!:

I'm such a good chamele-horn player, hahahaa.
OK! Onto what happened today!
Today Mom, Dad, Lydia, and I went to the British Museum! It was SO COOL! We saw lots of really cool things, including the Rosetta stone! Of course, we got lots of pictures, but they're all on the family camera. We spent so long there, but we barely scratched the surface of the museum. They even had an exhibit containing the BOOK OF THE DEAD, but it cost 12 pounds a person and was also sold out, so we didn't go. I loved the rest of the museum, though- they had another special exhibit that contained original Picasso drawings, which was really cool to see.
After that, we went to the Cheshire Cheese pub for dinner (where I went with the literature program in September! It seems so long ago now). Oliver joined us for dinner, so my parents and Lydia got to meet him for the first time. Luckily for us, it did NOT go like this:

(I tried to find the "I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?" scene on Youtube, but I couldn't. It's probably there, I'm just lazy tonight. Meh.)
It went VERY WELL! We were both SO HAPPY about this. We walked back past St. Paul's cathedral, which was really pretty at night. I had a really nice night :).
Tomorrow LYDIA AND I WILL TAKE OVER LONDON TOGETHER! MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Don't worry, we're not planning anything evil- just a day of EPIC FUN! Let's see what's on our itinerary...HARRY POTTER 7, Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross, Chinatown, Notting Hill, frozen yogurt, possibly some shopping....man, we're going to have a packed day! I'm really looking forward to it, though. Yay!
- Miranda

Playing the waiting game...

So, I meant to update my blog once I found out whether I've been elected as secretary of Wandering Minds. But I haven't found out yet (I think they're going to send an email out with the voting results for both the secretary position and the shows that were pitched at the meeting...hopefully). So, I'm going to update this blog before the day is over (in my time zone, anyway).
Today was fun because MY FAMILY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED IN LONDON! AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING! I spent a good part of my day with them and had a great time! They explored Kensington Gardens, and we had crepes for lunch at this nice little place by the South Kensington station. After they had a nice nap for a couple hours, we had dinner at this Italian place by my dorm. The food there was GREAT- I had this wonderful pasta with spinach, pine nuts, basil, parmesan, and garlic in a cream sauce. NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM. After that they went back to their hotel and I prepared my speech.
I don't know if I mentioned this in my blog before, but I this evening I ran for secretary of my theater group at BU, Wandering Minds. Our current secretary, Sylvia, is going abroad next semester, so we obviously need a new secretary. I've loved being a part of the group during my time at BU, so I was excited to have the opportunity to run for a leadership position there. Send me good vibes!
Tomorrow I'm hanging out with the family again. We're probably going to just do some touristy things- Buckingham Palace, Notting Hill, maybe a movie tour, etc. Should be fun! Mom's taking most of the pictures so you'll have to wait a while before they're posted anywhere.
- Miranda

That's the plan, rule the world, you and me, any day...

So! No blog post yesterday because I was sooooo tired after coming back from the AMS gig. The gig went really well, by the way! I had a great time and the bands that we heard were really good. Tomorrow I'm going to another gig with them, so I'm excited about that.
Tonight I went over to Oliver's place to watch some movies. We watched Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (I had to stop myself from singing along to every song, hahaha) and an episode of The Simpsons. I had a really great time! It was really nice and relaxing :)
Tomorrow I'm going to another gig with AMS (like I said before) and I also have a field trip with one of my classes- we're going on a Mrs. Dalloway walk around London, which should be nice.
But the big news is that THE FAMILY IS ARRIVING ON FRIDAY MORNING! HOORAY! I'm sooooo happy to see them all! I can't wait!
It's kind of late, so I'll cut this entry short.
- Miranda

Skating!

Hey everyone!
So Oliver had the idea of going ice skating ever since our very first date, but today we actually did it! Now, basically everyone who reads this blog knows that I about the most unathletic person on this planet. So it follows that I'm pretty bad at ice skating. Luckily, Oliver is also bad at ice skating, so we were pretty evenly matched, hahaha. We actually did quite well for ourselves- we only really fell over once, and even then it wasn't too bad of a fall. We then got some ice cream at the skating rink. Now, you would normally think that we'd want to get hot chocolate or something like that rather than something cold like ice cream. However, we were actually quite warm once we exited the rink, and there was a gelato shop right in the skating place (it was actually an ice rink/bowling alley/arcade/snack bar place). So we had some wonderful ice cream- mixed berry and teramisu! NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM. All in all, another wonderful day :)
This is going slightly out of order, but this morning I had a really great croissant for breakfast. When I went to the cafe, they had JUST COME OUT OF THE OVEN, so the one I got was STILL WARM and sooooo good. Hahaha, that was such a typical Miranda tangent.
Tomorrow I'm going to a gig with AMS at Madame Jojo's, where we went earlier last month. I really liked that venue, so I'm glad that we're going again!
- Miranda

Natural History Museum etc. with Oliver

Before I properly start this entry, I want to state that, at the time I'm writing this, the Bills are beating Detroit! If they win, I will probably do a victory dance of epic proportions. I know we're playing DETROIT of all teams, but still. That is all.
ANYWAY, today was really fun, like the rest of the weekend! It was raining this morning, so Oliver and I went to the Natural History museum, which was free, like most museums in London. I was glad that he suggested that because I actually haven't been to any museums AT ALL while I've been here. Everyone keeps telling me to go to them because all of them are free, but I guess I've just never gotten around to it, really. I've been to a lot of author's houses, though, which I find more fun than most museums anyway.
The museum did allow photography, so I probably should've taken some pictures, but I figured I took enough at the parade yesterday, haha. It was pretty standard stuff that you'd see at a natural history museum- dinosaurs, animals, different kinds of rocks and gemstones, etc. It was a lot like the one in New York City, although of course this one was better because it's free :).
After walking around the museum for a couple hours, we got lunch at a pub (the same pub that I went to on MY VERY FIRST DAY HERE, in fact). It was good and it got us out of the rain for a while, hahaha. By the time we were done eating lunch, though, the rain had stopped. Then we walked for a bit in Hyde Park until it got dark. Overall, it was a really good day :) My feet are practically KILLING ME from walking so much this weekend, but I don't really care.
Tomorrow we might actually go ice-skating, so that should be cool.
- Miranda

Lord Mayor's Show!

Hey guys! Today I went to the Lord Mayor's Show with Oliver for our 2nd date (which is basically a parade/fireworks thing). It went really well and I had a great time.
So, let me show you some pictures! First, I'll show you some of the parade:

EVERYONE READING THIS POST: Shut up, Miranda! We want to see pics of you and Oliver!
Ok, fine. Calm down, here they are- one at the parade, and one after the fireworks:


There ya go. Happy now?
ANYWAY, the rest of the day went wonderfully. We had lunch at Pizza Express and ended up walking for a long time in order to get to the river....getting lost...and then taking the Tube back to the river, hahaha. Then we watched the sun set:

(This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken on the entire trip- it ranks up there with the rose one from Hampstead).
Then it was time for FIREWORKS!

Yeah, I'm a happy girl :)

You probably expect this right now...

...yeah, no update yesterday, but as I said in the subject line, you guys probably expected it because it was Thursday and I almost never have time for updates then. So this will be a combined Thursday/Friday entry, like they usually are.
So, on Thursday I had a field trip to Samuel Johnson's house, like I told you guys in the Wednesday entry. We hadn't read a lot of Johnson's work this year, so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was actually really fun and informative! We had a really good tour guide, too, which helped. The house was right near the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub that I reallt liked, where we went in the beginning of the year with the Literature Program. It was really weird to go to basically the same place with the same people and see how much we've changed in two months...
Speaking of months...I officially only have 1 month left here :(. Actually, a little less than that, as I leave on December 11th. :( I guess I better take advantage of every opportunity I have, then. I'm of course going to be thrilled to go back to the US but the people here are just absolutely wonderful. I'm definitely going to miss some of them.
....but I'll save all of that gushy stuff for the day before I leave. No use getting all sad now. There are exciting things happening!
....which is a perfect segue into the rest of my Thursday! (Sorry...about the...love affair...with the...ellipses...in this...entry, hahahaha). Last night, I had a wonderful date with Oliver, who I met at the AMS Halloween party! I know lots of you probably feel INCREDIBLY out of the loop about this, but I didn't want to make it a huge deal before anything significant happened. That happens so many times with me- I build something up to be bigger than it is, and when it actually happens it isn't nearly as exciting. ANYWAY, Oliver and I saw Due Date, which was hilarious (even though it was basically a remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles). I had a really great time! Tomorrow we're going to the Lord Mayor's Show (which is referred to on the website as "the world's oldest civic procession", so I guess it's kind of like a parade). I'm really excited for that too!
Today I haven't really done much...it's been really cold and rainy all day. I did my laundry, though, so that was good, and did some shopping. That's about it, really.
- Miranda

IT'S COLD

I couldn't think of a subject for my entry today, so I decided to just go with the weather, hahaha. I'm going to have to break out my gloves soon. There hasn't been any snow yet, though, which is good.
The ukelele cabaret was really fun yesterday! I had a great time. It was just full of lots of happy people playing the ukelele. They did ukelele covers of "Back in the USSR" and "You are My Sunshine". Overall, it was a great time. Next Tuesday Charlotte said that we're going back to Madame Jojo's for a gig, so I'm super excited about that because I really liked the gig there. It was a fun venue, and the drinks were really cheap.
Today I have to type up an outline for my research paper, which shouldn't take too long but I'm procrastinating so it still isn't done yet. Meh. It'll get done, though, don't worry.
Tomorrow the literature program is going on a field trip to Samuel Johnson's house. Unfortunately, it's predicted to rain, so I don't know how well that's going to go. Hopefully, the rain will stay away and I can take some good pictures.
- Miranda

Forgetfulness, etc.

Why didn't I update yesterday? Was I on some incredibly wonderful London adventure all day that kept me away from my computer?
Sadly, no. I just plain forgot. Yesterday was a typical Monday- I slept through my alarm and woke up with only 10 minutes to get ready for my Shakespeare class (but I made it there ON TIME, thank God). So I had to walk there IN THE RAIN, holding my umbrella in one time and drinking my Coke in the other. Meh.
Other than my class, I didn't really do much of note yesterday. Like I said before, I had plenty of time to update, I just forgot. Stephanie FINALLY uploaded pictures from Halloween/the AMS party, so those are on Facebook now if y'all want to see them.
Today I'm going to another gig with AMS, and a very unique one at that- a ukelele gig! This should be quite interesting. I'm looking forward to it.
That's all for now.
- Miranda

Schedule!

First off: wowwww Bills, wowwww. The only way I can keep myself sane about this is if I convice myself that the only reason you're not winning is because I'm not on US soil to root for you. Mehhh.
Second off: I've officially registered for my Spring 2011 classes! I got EVERYTHING that I wanted! One of my classes had 3 classes as I approached my registration time, so I was getting kind of nervous, but I was able to register in the end.
HERE'S A PICTURE OF IT:
EDIT: You can click on the picture to make it bigger! Yay!

EN 468: Time and Literature: 1800-1930
EN 534: American Literature: 1855 to 1918
EN 536: Twentieth-Century American Poetry
WS 305: Middle Eastern Women Write
WS 340: Women, Race, and Gender in Mass Media

ISN'T IT PRETTY? I think so. I'm really excited for next semester! The books for EN 534 are already up (which means that the professor is prepared, so I already like her! We're reading Pudd'nhead Wilson by Twain, Daisy Miller by James, The Virginian by Wister, House of Mirth by Wharton, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Crane, Contending Forces by Hopkins, McTeague by Norris, and Ragged Dick by Alger. Sounds like a cool class!

I know this entry was mostly about my life when I come back and not my life here, but my schedule was the only cool thing I did all day, lol.
- Miranda

The Saturday where I don't do anything

As the title said, I didn't really do anything today. Mainly because my cold from last week seems to have returned WITH A VENGEANCE....seriously, now I have a sore throat/cough thing along with the cold. Why is this happening to me? Is this real life? Is this gonna be forever? (If you didn't get the reference...you clearly haven't seen David After Dentist, lol).
It's annoying, but hopefully it'll pass. I'm taking Tylenol.
I'm registering for my Spring 2011 classes tomorrow! I'm super excited about this. I planned out my schedule a couple weeks ago, but the time for one of my classes changed so I had to switch some things around. This was kind of annoying, because now I won't get to take the Charles Dickens class I wanted to take (unless I want to go from 12-5 without a break on Wednesdays...DO NOT WANT.) I'll post a pretty picture of my schedule tomorrow when I'm done officially registering (which'll be at around 10:00 PM my time).
Other than that, I don't have much planned for this weekend. Meh.
- Miranda

Remember, remember, the 5th of November...

And not just because of Guy Fawkes day!

Because today my cousin, John, and his wife, Cela, became the proud parents of SOFIA DIANA SHUKIE, the cutest baby on the planet!

JUST LOOK AT HER.
Anyway, onto more serious stuff, like what I did today! Today, my roomate Chelsea and I went to see a play on the West End- The 39 Steps! The play was sooo funny and good! The actors were also VERY talented- it's written for a 4-person cast that plays hundreds of roles within the show, which calls for impeccable timing, which the cast certainly had. It was a very good time!
Still no plans for tomorrow. Maybe researching?
- Miranda

For once, I didn't do anything on a Thursday...

This is kind of a first for me! A weekend with absolutely NOTHING planned! This means that I'm actually updating now, on a Thursday, and not on Friday saying "sorry I didn't update on Thursday, I went out on Thursday night and bla bla bla bla bla". You know the drill. Anyway, AMS isn't doing anything this weekend, so I don't have anything to do on that front. I thought I had nothing planned at all, but I realized I bought tickets to go to club Egg tomorrow night. The last time I went to Egg, though, it was pretty disastrous: we ended up not getting our free drinks/free entry, etc...so I don't know if I want to go again. Plus, I don't really know anyone else that's going this time. Last time Egg happened, they really heavily promoted it, but considering what happened last time, I don't think they are this time around. Meh.
I *do* want to go out at some point this week, though, because I don't want to just sit around and do nothing this weekend. I went to the Pub Quiz on Monday, and that was pretty fun, but I need some fun things to do this weekend...Stephanie's going to be in Paris for her birthday, so she won't be here. Mehhh. I might go and research my paper on Saturday- that would be pretty productive.
Sorry for being such a downer in this entry- I just like being more productive/having plans, I guess.
- Miranda

Wacky Wednesday! Actually, not.

So the only reason that this Wednesday was wacky was because of the Tube strike (which didn't affect me at all, thank God) and the fact that the weather was pretty nice (60's all day!). Other than that, not too wacky. The only reason that this entry is called "Wacky Wednesday" is because I needed a subject line and I remember reading that book in kindergarten.
Didn't do much today, just had class. I finally submitted my final research paper proposal, so that's done. Hopefully my tutor will like it!
Not doing too much tomorrow, either...no class, though, which is good. Yay sleeping in! I might go down to the library to research if I'm in a productive mood.
- Miranda

This entry has pictures!

So I totally could've updated yesterday, but I just got lazy, I guess. Yesterday was pretty fun- I went to a music-themed pub quiz with AMS. We didn't win (because most of the questions were about pop music that we didn't know about) but we didn't do terribly either. We also didn't have a creative enough team name to win in that category (the winner was "Halal, is it meat you're looking for" which I think is quite clever). Overall, though, it was a great time.
Today, I finally got to go to Hampstead again! As readers of this blog will remember, I went to Hampstead about a month ago with my "Meeting the Writer" class, but it was pouring rain, so I didn't get a huge change to take lots of pictures. Today, though, it was nice out (if a little chilly) so I was able to finally show you guys how gorgeous Hampstead is!
I went to Hampstead with the literature program to see the Keats house, which was really interesting! Keats hasn't been my main area of study during this trip, but going to his house was still really cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside (this has been true of basically every museum I've been to here) but the outside was still really pretty:

There were also some lovely gardens around the house. Not much was blooming, but I was able to get some good pictures, including this one of a rosebud. This is also probably my favorite picture I've taken my entire time here- I love the simplicity of it:

After we toured the Keats House, we walked up the Heath, where there were some AMAZING views:

Once we reached the top of the Heath (where I took the above picture), we read Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" out loud. It was a really cool experience.
While we were on the Heath, we saw lots of people hiking/running etc. that had the same idea as we did. To my delight, we also saw lots of DOGS! This REALLY made me miss Dylan, but I loved seeing the dogs- all of them seemed so happy to be running through the Heath. Three of them were so excited that they decided to go swimming in the lake!

I'm going to end the entry with the swimming dogs. Bye everyone!
- Miranda