It is February....wait...IT'S FEBRUARY!?!? The last two weeks in January seemed to fly by. And looking back, I realize that I've done a lot with my time.
This realization came about when Callum and I went out this past Friday night. He had a friend from his classes who was celebrating his birthday at a cocktail bar near Oxford Circus. Initially, Callum was going to go himself, but he asked me to come too. I haven't really met many of his friends from classes who don't live in Marylebone Hall, so I decided to go. It was a nice bar, stylish-y casual in design, big U-shaped couches with living-room-coffee-table inspired tables in the center. A barrel of ice filled with bottles of champagne and Jack Daniels sat in the middle with small firecracker-esque candles shooting off. The people there were a bit of a hodge-podge of students and upper-20-somethings. James, Callum's friend, was turning 19, so there were many student-aged people, some from Westminster and others from James's A-levels and high school years. But James's brother, Alex, who is about 10 years older, was also there as well, and so some of their mutual friends of Alex's were there as well. Once the candles died down, and drinks were passed around, so commenced the mingling. And it was through this mingling that forced me to actually say out loud very defining aspects of my life that I hadn't really thought of before.
When talking with one of Callum's friends from his classes, I could rely on talking about course work, Westminster, studying abroad, Alma at home, asking questions about their course work and home, etc.--basic student-y small talk, which I am now used to--being defined as the American studying English for a year. But when talking with the slightly older crowd, who have been in the working world for some time and have been finished with university, I realized that now have "work" talk that I can discuss because of my internship. I no longer was lumped into the student stereotype, not that that is a negative thing, it just has certain pre-conceptions that don't necessarily fully describe me anymore. So, when Alex told me all about his financial management job on Oxford Street and then asked what I did, I started saying things like "Well, right now I'm working at A and B Publishers. It's a small company, but I actually like the smallness because I am able to help with every department, not just editorial." And as the words came out of my mouth I was thinking, "Wow, I sound like a grown-up, when did this happen?" I don't know when this shift from student to actual grown-up started moving, and being aware of it is even more surreal, but I definitely like how this year is evolving.
In other news, I still am terrible at bowling, no matter what country I'm in. Last weekend, Callum and I tried to keep our evening low-budget and we went bowling. There was a really cool mall-like building in Leicester Square that contained an arcade, movie theater, bowling alley, spots bar, and laser tag venue. (Crazy, right? This building was enormous and had lots of fancy flashing lights and music--like two kids drawn to an ice cream truck, we had to check it out!). Despite it being extremely busy, we only had to wait about half an hour before we were able to get a lane. We played two games.....my scores for both games combined equaled less than 100...yup, that's how terrible I am at bowling. However, the gutter and I became quite good friends...I realize I may be a bit too old for those bumper things...but those sure would have improved my game! haha.
My internship is still going strong. I'm learning how to use InDesign, which is what they use as their formatting program for basically everything. I've been working on making their catalogue of books they will publish for April through December. This catalogue is dispersed throughout the London Book Fair coming up at the end of February. I've also been proof-reading a series of "old-lady romantics" as Georgina likes to call them. They are sappy and cheesy and sometimes makes you cringe at the sheer corniness of them, but I actually don't mind proof-reading them. They are rather comical at times, and for fluffy reading, it isn't half-bad. I'd say these were the upper-crust of soap-opera inspired writing, haha.
Speaking of this internship--because I work a normal work-day, I am now part of the normal work Tube traffic. And I'd like to say that I've mastered the commuting strategy! Because the tube gets so crowded, you have to be aggressive if you want to get on the train, and get on the train in a timely manner. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get on the very first train that comes to you and not have to wait on the platform for the next one. In order to do so, you must make your way down towards the ends of the platform, the parts where all the lazy people refuse to continue walking towards. That way, the ending cabins are a bit more empty and you'll be able to fit in just fine. However, you forgo this rule if you know you need to do a switch-over to another line in the middle of your commute (like I do...twice). In this case, you need to try to stay towards the middle because that is where most of the change-over hallways are. And if you aren't close to those change-over exits, you get stuck behind a flood of people who I swear have forgotten how to move one foot in front of the other, they go THAT slow. But of course, staying the middle poses the problem of possibly missing the train because there are more people to contend with. Well, this is usually remedied if you make your way to the yellow line, it marks where you no longer can walk for safety reasons...closest to the front of the platform and to the train doors as possible. Once the doors open, you wait for the passengers that need to get off the train to leave. While you are watching the stream of people get out, you pick one person and find where they stood and as soon as they leave, you make your move to replace them. By replacing a person, you don't seem to be in the way of anyone else and you know you'll have a space to occupy. However, if that doesn't work...you must resort to the final, last-ditch effort...and that is to just press yourself into people until this move. You see, most trains have a middle section where the seats are that also have poles for people to stand and hold. But often times these spaces are left open because people are reluctant to move away from the doors--easy access to get out without needing to walk all over people. Well, if you press yourself into the train, people will eventually move out of discomfort and will be forced to overflow into this area. Is it a bit rude, impatient, and selfish? Perhaps. But is always works. :)
In my "spare" time, I've taken up cooking. Callum and I try to make dinner together every Monday--gives us something to look forward to on the first day of the week. And Reena and I continue to have our pancake day, which has moved to Friday mornings--my day off and her early-morning class. So as a reward to Reena for getting up early and as a good way to stay my weekend, we have added listening to Michael Jackson songs (Reena's favorite) while we make and eat pancakes.
I still want to do some more exploring of England and London while I'm here. I want to make a new list of places and things to see. We get a lovely 3 week holiday for Easter and my exams are rather early, so I have a great chunk of time at the end of the school year to plan however I want without the constraints of homework and work. But right now, I am really very content and happy with just going to class, working at my internship, spending time with my flatmates, and enjoying "being a Londoner" while I can.
