"...beware that we had to remove the toaster due to safety reason..."

Housing has not been so happy the past week.  Just last weekend, the internet was down so we couldn't get any work/procrastinating done for an entire day.  Then, my room has been experiencing a phantom exhaust fan: we have 2 exhaust fans in our room/bathroom that are supposed to draw out smoky/bathroomy smells...but there are no switches to operate these fans.  This week, we started hearing loud whirring noises coming from the ceiling, and it sounded like a vacuum/lawn mower/truck engine, and would turn on and off spontaneously and annoyingly throughout the night.  We also had a long fire drill on Thursday that nearly made us late for class.  Also they shut off the elevators upon us reentering the building, so someone had to climb twelve flights of stairs.  Then, today, we went to have brunch in our communal kitchen and found that, not only do none of the outlets work (I discovered this yesterday, in fact), but also the fridges and freezers were off.  DEEP SIGH.

I guess I never blogged about our second home that is Nido.  Nido is located on Pentonville Road, which is the same as Euston Road, except streets like to change names to confuse people.  We are 7 minutes away from King's Cross/St. Pancras Station, so I can theoretically visit Platform 9 3/4 every day on my way to and from school if I wanted.  There are also plenty of stores (Tesco, Waitrose, Boots) and restaurants (Nando's, Humaira Tandoori) and things all around, and we are a good 30 minutes from the University of London/NYU in London campus.

Nido is a very modern-looking building, kind of out of place in this northernish part of London.  It has blue-green strip windows.  There are 16 floors and we're on 12, with a beautiful view of southwest London.  The rooms and bathrooms are tiny (according to one of my friends, if you really wanted to, you could sit on the toilet, wash your feet in the shower, wash your hands in the sink, all at the same time.  If you wanted to) but it's cozy and quite neat.  They have cleaning services for us once a week, so I always look forward to Thursdays when someone comes to sweep and mop and scrub-a-dub-dub.

For my first time dorming, I am really pleased with the experience (save for this week's break-downs of everything).  Nido feels safe; there are security guards and gates so you know only residents are getting in.  It's also pretty, for the most part.  The lobby is very spacious and bright and modern.  The communal kitchens have fiery red walls and paintings.  The rooms have wood floors and floor-to-ceiling windows and minimalist furniture.  All in all, I really like it.  I wonder what it will feel like to go back home, to my carpeted bedroom that is actually big, to my funny pink bathroom, to my dingy but always-filled-with-food kitchen, to my two living rooms, to my piano!  To my house, my home, my family!

p.s. Maintenance actually posted a sign that said "beware that we had to remove the toaster due to safety reason".  Just one reason?

49...50...51...huff puff...what, I lost count!

Today, my fellow architectural buff and I climbed all 528 steps of St. Paul's Cathedral!  And then I proceeded to come home and eat a lot of food to make up for the calories lost.

We heard about a special exhibit in the Geometric Staircase of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the odd thing is that the exhibit is only open from 8:35 am - 10:30 am.  So, yes, on a Saturday morning, we left NIDO at 9:15 am to go to a church.  St. Paul's costs £9.50 for students, perhaps the most expensive sightseeing I've done in a while, but it was definitely worth it.  Photos are not really allowed in St. Paul's...but I managed a couple.  

The cathedral is absolutely beautiful.  We first made a beeline for the Geometric Staircase to see Antony Gormley's Flare II exhibit.  The Geometric Staircase is where they filmed some bits of Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes (I think in HP, it's the divination tower?  But I'm not too clear, must go home and rewatch all the movies...).  The Flare II thing is basically a giant metal wire mobile.  I dunno, it looks cool.

Then, we wandered the entire cathedral, from the effigies on the sides and the famous floor under the dome (LECTOR, SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS, CIRCUMSPICE.  CHRISTOPHER WREN WAS A BEAST.) and the chapels around.  My favorite was beyond the alter, the American Chapel.  It is very touching: the Brits dedicated a chapel to the American soldiers who had died in World War II fighting alongside the Allies.  It has lovely hanging chandeliers and stained glass windows.  There is a large tome with the names of all the American soldiers that died, and the inscription said that Queen Elizabeth II presented this book to Vice President Richard M. Nixon in 1958.  Um, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was unavailable to meet the queen?

Next, we accepted the challenge of climbing 528 steps to the top of Christopher Wren's dome.  The steps to the Whispering Gallery were kind and shallow.  When we got to the Whispering Gallery, there were a lot of people interfering with our whispering, but when we sat at either side of a stretch of the dome, we could whisper into the wall and hear each other!  Then, we climbed some steeper stone steps to the Stone Gallery, the first outdoor bit.  Finally, we climbed the hole-y metal winding stairs up to the Golden Gallery!  It was beautiful - albeit drizzly - when we got to the top.  We had a lovely panoramic view of London.

What I noticed about London, the city that is now my second home ♥, is that there is a ton of construction going on.  The skyline was littered with a smattering of cranes.  It was a bit annoying that they blocked our view, but intriguing.  It means London is aiming to become newer and better.  I just hope they preserve the old stuff too.  And, no more gherkins.  God, I'm starting to sound like my architecture professor.

After St. Paul's, with aching legs, we had Pizza Express and journeyed down Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, and the Strand to one of the best shops in the world: TWININGS!  It is a teeny shop, almost like the Leaky Cauldron in that you (Muggles) will miss it if you don't look closely, but it's very long inside.  The walls are absolutely lined with the most fragrant teas ever.  Some of the stuff you can buy at Tesco or Waitrose (and cheaper), but some of the stuff is unique: vanilla tea, blackberry/ginseng/vanilla tea, honey tea, orange/mango/cinnamon tea...oh gosh I wish I had more money on me, because then I would have boxes and boxes of tea to bring home.  No worries, I will visit Twinings before leaving London and bring lots of yummy tea home to New York!

Hogwarts, Of Sorts

Today was our trip to Oxford University!  So yes, I've been to Hogwarts.  Or, at least the bits of Hogwarts that were filmed on the "campus".  I air-quote "campus" because Oxford is actually composed of 400-plus colleges that are independent microcosms of the university.  They don't really have a campus (like NYU...duh), but there are some more surprising things about the English university system.  For example, at Oxford, they follow the tutorial way of teaching, which means each student is taught by essentially his or her own professor.  Imagine being in a room, alone, with John Halpin learning General Chemistry, instead of sitting in a room of 600!  Then, the tour guide (a retired lecturer herself) told us about the dormitory situation.  (Sounds just like Harry Potter!!)  Undergrads live in a quad and in a staircase (I guess equivalent to Gryffindor Tower, perhaps?) with their tutors (heads of houses?) and scouts/servants (house elves!  The parallels go on and on).  Then, there's the thing about Oxford students.  Apparently, they are genii, but also a bit mad; Oxford has a really high suicide rate, and apparently they have stupid accidents too where students decide to fling themselves in catapults or climb up domes with grappling hooks....  

Some days, I wonder what my life would be like if I went to a university with an actual quad, minus the suicides and idiotic stunts, of course.  Likely, my sister (if you're reading this, SHOUT OUT!  I miss you!  Thinking of you always.) will attend some small liberal arts college with quads and such.  I will have to live vicariously through her, but pray that she won't climb in a catapult.

Good evening from London ♥

At a Loss for Snazzy Titles

Phew, it's been a long week.  We had our first organic chemistry exam on Tuesday.  It consisted of 7 problems (each with parts a, b, c, etc.) in one hour.  Other than that, it was really straightforward and kind.  It was nothing like Maitland Jones' tests, which were completely abstract and torturous.  Fingers crossed for a good grade.

We also had a social psychology paper due today, actually.  I'm a bit ashamed to say that I finished it (1,500 words) at 2:00 am this morning...but since class didn't start until 2:00 pm, I woke up at 10:30 am, still able to squeeze in some beauty sleep.  Lovely.  I think it went well.  My title was "What does the Muslim headscarf represent: perpetuating prejudice or self-sufficiency?"  How's that for a snazzy title?  I was really interested in the topic, so I ended up reading tons of articles more than I needed to, but it's all good.

Today, the most exciting thing to happen was that I got a haircut, for free, in the comfort of my own room, done by my lovely and amazing roommate!  My hair was getting a bit unruly and tangled up and clogging the shower drain...so now it's a nice shoulder length.  I love it!

恭喜發財

Happy Lunar New Year and St. Valentine's Day!

As much as I love being here in London, I can't believe I'm missing Chinese New Year at home (in the sense of not being home), and I can't believe I am missing it too (in the sense that I didn't think I would pine for it, but I do)!  Chinese New Year was never a huge celebration in my house.  At the most, I'd collect red envelopes from relatives awkwardly, try to thank them incessantly, or refuse, or a combination: "Oh, you didn't have to, but thank you so much".  Then, the red envelopes would keep coming, and it'd be a bit annoying collecting odd amounts of money ($2, $5) for the entire week and having to empty all the envelopes and do accounting....  Then, we'd have a biggish dinner at home and that would be the end of it.  I haven't gone to a parade in Chinatown for years, namely because the lion dances kind of creep me out (namely, those guys in masks who taunt the lions).  We never really made house calls to any other families; people always came to visit us.

But today, I really miss home!  I really miss my family!  What pains me the most is talking to them on Skype and hearing that they miss me.  I talk to them on Skype often, and I've seen everyone in my household, which is really nice!  So, I kind of have no reason to miss them this much, but when they say they worry about me and my wellbeing, I honestly do get all misty-eyed.  Ahh, home.  Well, they'll get enough of me in 3 more months...

We Londoners have tried to recreate the feeling of home for Chinese New Year and whatnot, so we're having a "St. Valentine's Day/Lunar New Year potluck secret Valentine thing" tonight.  I am excited!!  And then...hell week arrives: Organic Chemistry exam on Tuesday, and Social Psychology paper on Thursday (which I haven't started, and have no intention of starting until Tuesday evening...!@#$)

Cheers, all, and enjoy ♥

No hong bao this year...

The notion slipped from my working memory that I actually had a blog...so that's why I forgot to update in the past five days.  My bad!!

On Tuesday night, I went to my first (and probably last) book launch!  My Social Psychology professor, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, has just written a textbook called The Psychology of Personnel Selection, basically a bunch of stuff about making choices for hiring and firing.  The launch was held at 6 Bedford Square - there was finger food and wine, beer, and soda...!  I'm about to announce to the world: I had my first glass of wine that night!  Albeit, I mixed it with 7Up.  And it was only about one-third wine anyway.  But, whatever, I'm classy.  I also learned that I have very very very low tolerance for alcohol.  I'm also very Asian...yeah.

The party itself was quite interesting.  First, David Rubin (director of NYU in London) spoke a bit, then my professor's PhD professor spoke a bit (about how unfair God was being when he distributed qualities in Tomas: smart, handsome, charming...yeah, God was definitely being unfair), and then my professor thanked the crowd and plugged his book.

Unrelated: Yesterday was our Architecture trip to Westminster Abbey!  That was always on my Places To See In London list, so I was glad I got to go (for free, because NYU footed the bill...YES).  There's something about the exterior that is very pleasing to my eye.  Usually I don't like too much clutter on the outside of a building.  For example, no matter how much I love Il Duomo in Firenze, I think the facade is way too busy, what with all those white and green stripes.  The facade of the Abbey is completely verticals, verticals, verticals in the Gothic style of course.  It is also busy-looking, but I really like it.  I also love cathedrals' cross floor plans; I think that is the most ingenious thing, to build your building in the shape of your representative symbol.

The inside of the Abbey is...slightly anticlimactic?  It's dark inside.  There aren't many soaring windows, or maybe it was cloudy when we went inside.  The Lady Chapel, where Henry VII is buried, is very nice.  It's got the same fan vault pattern as in Bath Abbey (but I think Bath Abbey is, on the whole, so much more beautiful!).  We also saw where Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I are buried!  That's actually a motif to the Abbey, there are bodies underfoot everywhere.  Westminster Abbey is known for its coronations and its dearly departed.  I wish we had been able to wander around more, but my professor had us sit down and sketch the north gate.  I was quite proud of my sketch, but he came over and told me I was being too neat (to me, there's no such thing as too neat...), grabbed my pencil, and started drawing on my sketch, flowing lines and then dark hatch marks.  Why didn't he just stab me in the eye?

Another unrelated: Sunday is Lunar New Year/St. Valentine's Day!  I've been to Chinatown here twice.  It's TINY, but kind of cute and kitschy.  It's so small that they can afford to string up those round red lanterns across the whole of Chinatown.  It's mostly restaurants that compete for the same business (they have the same menus, there's no debating that).  I haven't brought my camera there yet, but I'm itching to do it in the coming week!

Also, my friends and I are doing Secret Valentine on Sunday, and then a potluck dinner of hopefully mainly Asian foods.  Mom told me that they are having a big dinner on Sunday night, and I became unexpectedly jealous.  You don't know what you have until it's gone, or until you study abroad and don't have people to cook dinner for you...I miss Chinese food a little!  I miss crispy pork and cha siew and oyster sauce and bao and lobster sauce and the garlic shrimp my aunt makes and the list goes on.

Anyway, gong hay fat choy!

Harrods

Today we went to...HARRODS!  I have been dying to see this, and I am still thrilled by it and can't wait to go back.

The morning started off kind of iffy-ish.  We missed the stop on the route 73 bus, so we went all the way to the terminal at Victoria Station and had to walk around 30 minutes backwards to Knightsbridge.  That's the one thing I don't appreciate about buses: I don't care how cool you think you are with your double decks (or double backs like the one we rode) but bus routes are confusing and they don't announce stops so you really have to know when to get off.  Luckily, the weather was decent (and later, it got super sunny and warm-ish!) so the walk was not dreadful.

When we first got to Harrods, there were people outside protesting because apparently Harrods is one of the only remaining major department stores to sell real fur.  That was a bit heartbreaking; I accepted a pamphlet from a kindly-looking elderly lady protester, just before I pulled open the doors to the store.

Once inside, it looked pretty much like Macy's.  There was the typical department store fare: jewelry, handbags, other stuff that I didn't even care to notice.  We saw the Egyptian Hall that the owner, Dodi Fayed's father, stuck in Harrods just for the hell of it (because he's Egyptian, I suppose...).  Finally, we wandered into the foooooooooooooooooooooooood sections.  Chocolate, dried fruits, fresh vegetables, apples with hearts printed on them, preserves, cheese, salad bar, meats, sushi, dim sum, gelato, pizza, bakery...oh my GOD.  A lady came around with a platter of cheese samples and Comte St. Antoine is officially my favorite cheese.  Ever.  I ended up buying a jar of strawberry jam that was "on sale" (not bad actually, 3 for the price of 2 at £2.95 each, so I split with some other people) and a roll of cheese foccaccia that was a bit greasy but delicious.

I'm hungry just thinking of the damn place.  !!

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Oops, I'm bad; I haven't updated in several days....

Today was our trip to Bath and Stonehenge!  We had to, unfortunately, wake up really early to load onto coach buses and drive up to Salisbury to see massive mysterious stones.  Honestly, it was a bit anticlimactic to drive up to the hill and see...a bunch of rocks.  People on our bus were literally more excited to see sheep on the neighboring meadow, baa-ing and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the poufy white things.

The weather was forecast for pouring rain today, but when we got to Stonehenge, obviously someone was playing a trick on us.  It was brilliantly sunny and quite warm.  The stones of the henge are just as you'd expect, and just as you've seen in frillions of photographs before.  Personally, I really enjoyed being in the presence of the stones, but I could see how others might find it boring.  I like being amidst all the mystery of how the stones got there, what was the purpose, etc.  It made me feel like I was witnessing history, standing in a field and looking at a structure 5,000 years old.  Yay!

Then, we drove over to the Roman city of Bath (Bahh-th, with the accent).  We had a guided tour to the famous bits, like the Royal Crescent (LOVE - want to live there), and the Circus (not a real circus, obviously).  We had lunch at a pub for a good price, £3.95 for my bangers and eggs and chips.  Then, we toured the Bath Abbey on our own.  I was very impressed by the abbey and I felt...je ne sais quoi...standing in there.  The ceilings are lofty and covered with spindly webs of fan vaults.  The stained glass windows are very intricate and colorful.  I was very impressed at the architecture of it all.  Plus, it made me feel the passion that has driven religion, particularly mine, for 2,000 years.  It makes me want to go home and go to church every Sunday.  Almost.  I wanted to support the church somehow, so I bought a little stone with The Lord's Prayer printed on it for my grandpa:

Our Father who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory, 

For ever and ever, Amen.

I learned it ages ago when I was a good little granddaughter and followed my grandparents to church on Sundays, so I thought it was very touching and lovely.

Finally, we toured the Roman Baths.  I remember back in sixth grade (apparently, the year when I learned all the important things about the world and architecture; see: Parthenon marbles), we learned about the structure of a Roman bath: the tepidarium, the slaves who would slick you up with oil and then scrape off the dirty crap that seeped from your pores, etc.  Oddly, the Bath baths did not emphasize this stuff.  It featured lots of things by Minerva (my favorite goddess).  It was, again, very interesting to be in the midst of something so ancient and important and real.  At the end of the walking bits, we tasted real spring water from the baths.  DISGUSTING.  It smelled and tasted like metal, probably from the ancient pipes from which the water flows, and it left an aftertaste that kind of resembled...blood?  It was as though you bit your lip really hard and then tasted the blood in your mouth.  Ick, ick, ick.  BUT, the water has supposed healing properties, and I figured I couldn't go to Bath without partaking in the tourist tradition...so yes I gulped a glass of Roman bathwater.  Hooooray for history!