Catch Up Time!

Alright, I think that due to my extreme lateness in posting about last week, I’m going on a posting spree and get through a few days in one.
So! Here’s a quick rundown:

Thursday!

Basically everyone was exhausted after the opera, and the roommates and I, as well as Tom, slept in. After rousting ourselves out of bed with some difficulty, the two of us decided to go find a restaurant called Yo Sushi, because I knew there was a location near where my classroom is on Marchmont Street, and because Tom loves Yo Sushi (and now so do I). We meandered over there, about a 20 minute walk, found it, and sat down for what could be classed as an official first date. Yo Sushi is really cool: basically, the food goes around a conveyor belt beside the tables on little plates colour-coded by price. There are also taps for still and sparkling water set into the booths, which was ceaselessly amusing for me. So, I had miso, edamame, and chicken gyoza (dumplings), while Tom ate some actual sushi and pepper squid, which I actually tried. Everything was delicious, and the company couldn’t have been better.

After lunch, I dragged him with me to our class tour of the British Library, which incited some glances and whispers from the rest of the group, who had very little idea who he was. While in the Library, Karen explained to us the process for getting a Reader’s Card, the book delivery system, and what is and isn’t allowed in the various Reading Rooms and Rare Books Rooms. Protocol is pretty strict: you have to lock up your belongings, and place things you want to take in inside a clear plastic bag to be inspected on entry and exit. I can’t wait to actually start researching!
We took some time in the Library, and then Karen took us on a walk to the classroom building, the Wellcome Library, which specializes on the history of science and medicine, and then to the University of London’s Student Union building (we can become members if we want). Poor Tom had to tag along the entire time, and so I think was pretty happy to come back to MTH while I went to my first class.

Alison and I both had Music, so we went together, not knowing what to expect. Our professor’s name is Sinead Pratshke, a singer who used to work at the Royal Opera House (hence our tickets of the night before). We got our outline, and I was delighted to discover that most of the performances we’re attending during the semester are classical: Mozart, Brahms, Sibelius, etc. But we also get to go to a few really interesting jazz shows, and hear the RAF Band in concert (!!). The class was really good, comprised of a kind of overview of the transition between classical composition and the sonata style to early romanticism to get us ready for the very short notice concert we were to attend that night at the Royal Albert Hall. There were extra tickets, so I scavved one for Tom so I wouldn’t have to abandon him for the second evening in a row. Some other people who were going to drop the class offered their tickets to others, so Brooke and Jono came with us as well. I managed not to get my head stuck in the Tube doors this time, and we made our way down.

We were sitting a lot higher up in the Royal Albert than the Opera House, but this just provided a really good view of the orchestra again. The performance we were at was one in the series of BBC Proms that run annually through the summer with the BBC Philharmonic, and was broadcast live onto the radio. We heard Schubert’s Symphony No.8 in B minor, 'Unfinished,' Schumann’s Introduction and Allegro appassionato in G major, Op.92, Robin Holloway (a modern composer’s) Reliquary: Scenes from the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, and finally Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor in 4 movements, which were all absolutely amazing. Even though “some people” “don’t like classical music that much,” there was very little yawning from beside me, and only a small amount of giggling at the conductor who looked a little like he was doing the robot.

Post-concert, and me almost wiping out down the stairs (thank goodness Tom caught me), everyone was starving, so we went to Pizza Express (which is actually kinda fancy) right after getting off the Tube home for sake of easiness. This turned out to be a slightly bad decision, as we had one of the worst waitresses of all time. She didn’t like us, and we didn’t really like her, but the pasta I had was much needed, as well as the nice cold Coke. After dinner, we pretty much came back to the room exhausted (despite the Coke), and everyone crashed for the night.