Vacation's Over

Things have been pretty tame since I got back from Edinburgh. The first two weeks (or almost three now, I guess) were like a vacation, since I didn't have any real assignments and wasn't doing work outside of class. Now, though, I have two papers due next week (granted, one of them is very short -- but the other has to be an editorial about what US foreign policy should be... yeah, um, someone want to figure that one out for me?) and then two papers due the following week. Ugh. This wouldn't be so hard if I wasn't going to Paris next weekend.

So, since I've just been going to class, I don't really have too much interesting info to report. I did just notice today that the Iraqi embassy is six doors down from where I live. I only just noticed because the sign is very small, but it's pretty interesting because these are all apartment-style buildings, so it's actually very close... like less than half of a block. The embassy for the UAE is around the corner, the Thai embassy is nearby, and there is one more that I can't remember that is next door to the Thai one. It's an interesting area. I think the Israeli one is around the corner by Hyde Park, because the few times I walked that way to the Kensington High Street (there's some good shopping there, like Topshop and Marks & Spencer) there were protesters outside.

Besides class, I have nothing to tell. I'm still not a fan of my International Correspondent class, but the core Journalism class is pretty good (even if I do get restless toward the end of the 4-hour session). Yesterday we took a field trip to see Frost/Nixon, and today, among other things, we watched a British nightly news programme (mme!) in which the anchor was very blunt. He was interviewing the former Prime Minister of Iceland, and the first question he asked was, "How did it feel to have your government collapse?"

These are a few other interesting things:

1. KFC sells fish and chips here.
2. One of my friends saw Jonathan Rhys Meyers (from The Tudors) on the street and he winked at her. A friend of a friend saw Emma Watson (Hermione) at dinner.
3. I have Rome booked for mid-semester break. (In related news, I'm broke.)
4. I might not come home alive because they drive like freakin' maniacs here.
5. The word "maniacal" is pronounced like "maniac" with an L at the end here.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say soon.