Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday: Writing in the Public Sphere

My solo class, yay! I had had another reading to do, and it was so dense and challenging to get through, so I felt a little more unprepared for class discussion. We discussed a lot about the public sphere and how this author, Nancy Fraser, presented her argument as a critique of Habermas. I have an essay due next week so we looked a lot at her writing style to give me an idea of how to format mine.

Apparently, I had a much better grasp on the material than I had thought, and my professor was very happy with the discussion and  the things I was saying. She complimented me on being an excellent reader, and being able to pick out the important parts of a piece of writing, which was so great to hear!

Our outing was across town (by tube and above ground tube) in the East End at the Museum of London Docklands. Read more about it here: http://londonpublicsphere.blogspot.co.uk/

Rusty and his daughter, Erin, went with us, and it was a wonderful outing. I really enjoyed the exhibit a lot. And my professor complimented me again after Rusty joked about me being a bad student, and she said I was brilliant. Like, what?! Seriously?! So cool. And so humbling coming from her, because she seriously IS brilliant. So awesome.

It was me and Rusty on the ride home- Erin and my professor went their separate ways. I grabbed a sandwich, came home, took a nap (this is getting to be my normal routine...), then went off exploring. I wanted to find a bookstore to just do homework at, and I ended up at Waterstones. It's more of a chain, and HUGE with a below ground level with a Costa Coffee and then the ground level, and then three levels up from that. I absolutely loved it. There was so much to explore and it didn't have a chain feel at all...there were so many books everywhere. I went up to the highest floor and found the religious section and ended up not finding the book I was looking for (Love Does by Bob Goff) but got a Tim Keller book that I'm really excited about, and then found a book called Britain, etc. that is AWESOME. It goes through the alphabet and dives into the significance of the items of each letter on a variety of levels. I'm loving reading it- it's teaching me so much about the culture I'm living in! Love it. Such a good find.

I spent the next few hours down at Costa with a delicious raspberry iced tea, getting SO much work done. Best afternoon on my own ever. I seriously needed it.

Came back to the house in time for our weekly meeting, bought tickets for Les Miserables for Saturday (STOKED ABOUT THIS).

It was Amanda Gallagher's birthday, so a bunch of us went out to a pub a little further away from the house but still within walking distance. It was called The Rocket, and they had pitchers of Pimms for eight pounds, so most of us got those. Such a good deal. Amanda Mey and I got one to split, but I ended up not liking it much and I got other drinks on my own. They were a lot cheaper than other places we have been, which was great! It was a perfect evening so we started the night outside on picnic tables, but then moved inside when it got colder. We were definitely loud, obnoxious Americans, but it was SO much fun. One of the best nights so far!

Raced home (literally, I ran) to skype Kyle at midnight, then skyped Zach Powers!

Such. A. Good. Day.



Today- Thursday- free day

Took serious advantage of this and didn't set an alarm this morning! Yay, so great. Woke up about 10:45, had breakfast, read some of my new book, got ready, had lunch, and when Amanda got back from class, we headed back out to Waterstones.

Read more of my book and wrote a bazillion postcards and had another yummy iced tea with a blueberry muffin. Got my thesis for my upcoming essay all worked out and ready to get approved too! Stopped at a great little cluttered secondhand and new book store on the way home- so much fun but didn't find anything worth buying. Stopped at the post office to buy more stamps, then came home, made dinner (a yummy cottage pie with Quorn- a veggie meat substitute that was really good), and have been reading, writing, etc. Skyped Emily and her boyfriend! So good to see her again.

Off to Windsor tomorrow to explore on our own- I think it might just be Amanda and I! So excited. Grammy recommended it and I'm excited to see it!