WEEK 1

Today concludes the first week of school here in London!  Before I know it, fifteen more weeks will have passed and I'll be dreading the fact that I have to leave this amazing place....

So, this week I had ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LAB, COGNITION, SEEING LONDON'S ARCHITECTURE, and SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY.

Organic Chemistry is taught by Dr. Urch, about whom I heard great things even before I arrived.  He is old-ish, but very chipper and tends to say things like "whoops-y daisy" when dropping a dry erase marker or "shut up" when molecular models don't go the way he wants them.  Orgo has always been a huge difficulty for me...but perhaps it will be more tolerable with the lovely and lively Dr. Urch.  He is also the lab professor, and this is the most relaxed lab I've ever been in.  Get this: we don't have to pay for broken glassware!  We also get lab coats, and while goggles (safety glasses) are mandatory, gloves are optional, and they don't freak out at you when you don't have dishwashing gloves (we use latex).  Everything is in miniscale, so we had 3.6 grams yield...whereas back home, we would get fractions of a gram and desperately try to make excuses as to why we only had 0.03 grams of acetaminophen....  Also they encourage us to write lab reports in a narrative form ("My partner and I did this...") so I actually had fun writing my lab report!!  (POSTSCRIPT: IF ANYONE GETS THE ANSWER TO THE POST-LAB, HOLLER AT ME)

Cognition is a different story.  Our professor is a Dutchman, Dr. de Fockert.  He...speaks very quickly....  And the subject seeeeeems interesting...but the reading is quite dry....  I dunno, I'm quite up-in-the-air about it all.  I won't drop it because I don't want to quit...but I also might not have such a blast in this class.

Seeing London's Architecture seems great so far.  Our professor is Benedict O'Looney (great name) and he was born in the UK but raised in NYC!  He is so enthusiastic about his trade, and I am honestly interested in the architecture and history of London anyway.  We also have to go on required trips to sketch buildings, so it's a good excuse to go sightseeing, and then get a nice sketchbook/collage book.

Finally, Social Psychology.  I'm not going to lie, Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (is that how you spell his name?) is hot and Argentinian.  The class sounds really interesting...but I can't really figure out how to input good information for discussion.  Hot professor = good, though.

ANYWAY.  Day trip to Greenwich tomorrow.  Greenwich, for you ignorant folk (j/k), is where the 'zero' time zone passes through, also known as the Prime Meridian.  I am supposed to bring my sketchbook and try to make some doodles, so I hope the weather is fair (but it is scheduled to rain...).  Good night folks!