I have told my friends many times that I could have done exceedingly well for myself in the regency era. I am certain I could have scored myself a Mr. Darcy or a William Tilney or an Edward Ferrars (in my Jane Austen fantasy I am straight and happily so). While I probably would have blown major chunks at the piano forte, I would be great at drawing and well I've got a voice on me and hey I am a perfectly well-aquipped conversationalist. I'd be well-read too I'm sure. Throw in a little of my wit, charm, and handsomeness and I've won over every desirable bachleor in English society! Sigh, in another life I'm sure.
I find Jane Austen heroine's to be some of the most relatable characters in all of fiction ever, it's bonkers how she was able to write characters that are so timeless they feel as though they could be my current friends and family and of course myself! I was destined to be a Jane Austen heroine, that I am certain of. As you might be able to tell, I have been enjoying my Jane Austen class, for which I have read Northanger Abbey and am now reading Sense and Sensibility. I've made a goal this semester to finish all my books on time because lord only knows that once the class has passed I'm never gonna pick up that book ever again, and so far I have been successful. Granted it's only been one week, but I finished Northanger Abbey and The Mist on time and I intend to finish Sense and Sensibility and Children of the Corn on time as well. Wish me luck. I'm also feeling triumphant because I have finally broken into Austen's writing! I tried to read Pride and Prejudice a bit ago because the movie (2005) is one of my favorites ever, but I really struggled to get into it on my own. It takes a lot of dedication to put your rotted brain to work on an older novel, but with my hand forced because of school I have succeeded and they get easier to read with each chapter. I also made a goal this year to read 50 books and so far goodreads tells me I am on track, 4 so far and 2 more on the way for this week. I used to be an insataible reader in my youth, my family can attest to this, and I believe that reading is the only way to get better at being a human. I want to be smart and well-read and be able to say oh yes I have read that oh and that too mmhmm yup that as well. Ohhhhh I want it so bad, so I've put my mind to reading, to reallllly reading. I never really stopped reading you know, I just moved my attentions to fanfiction and things of that nature, and trust I still love and read fanfiction but I admit that a lot of it is like the candy of reading. Real sweet with not a whole lot of substance, especially those little one shots that are only one chapter. So! I have decided to pick up actual novels as well. And trust I will finish Middlesex soon, I just am really busy making my reading goals for class...
Speaking of Jane Austen and class, there are no boys in my Jane Austen class!!! This was exceedingly (second use of "exceedingly," my bad) dissapointing, where are the men at people??? Do boys not read these days? I was totally expecting there to be some pretentious feminist men in my class and I was so excited to judge them, marvel at them, be jealous of them, and have debates with them. But my dreams were sadly crushed. Not even a little gay boy. smh. Seriously we gotta get the boys reading again, I think the pretentious college boys have lost their bite. Maybe you can only find them in Ivys now, and that is sad. Maybe Trump and Joe Rogan and Elon or whatever should be telling the boys of America to read, although I guess that would be contrary to their goals...keep them dumb! My creative fiction writing class only has one boy, I hope he stays in the class. The boys need to write! I was joking to Kate the other night that we should be giving boys a platforms, lifting them up so that their voices can be heard, obviously they feel discouraged from writing! Or at least from taking writing classes, which maybe I understand because creative writing classes are a bit silly, but they give you great practice and peer review. Oh well maybe one day the boys will learn. Girls really got the chance to go to university and just absolutely bodied the competion. Not a great look for all the men out there I gotta say.
my first day of school outfit hehe
My other classes are American Horror Stories: Stephen king and The Supernatural in Britian. Coooooool right. That awesome professor that I had a drink with at that history welcome thing teaches the Stephen King class and I felt pretttty cool when we were going around the table saying our experience with Stephen King and I was about to tell my Mel reading me the shining out loud story he said "Right! You told me this when we got a drink together, hahaha" Yup that's right fellow classmates I got a drink with the professor and we have inside jokes already. Haha losers. So that was awesome. I am only one of two Americans in that class which is purrrrrfect, I like to be special. I think I'm gonna have a grand ole time in that class, people are pretty talkative so I'm feeling hopeful about making friends.
The other day I saw a video about Greggs sausage rolls and I knew I needed to get one. So I walked 20 minutes to get myself a 1.50 pound sausage roll and it was so worth it. It was totally delish. 10/10
my kinda insane pasta that I made. There was so much pork mince and my pan is kinda small is it was like PILED HIGH in my pan and I was frantically trying to cook it and my chopping skills are so bad my carrot and onion chunks were insane. I was laughing the whole time I was making it, but it turned out pretty good and fed me for many many days 6.5/10
In my Supernatural seminar I am the onllllyyy American which is awesome, it's a sweet class. And in the beginning he made us go around and give our most supernatural experience, which I was primed and ready for as some may remember my insane experience last semester in the middle of the night. Almost everyone else had no story to offer and said well my mom saw this one time, but me, I had a story and it was good. For those unaware I'll give you the short version. In like the middle of last semester, I woke up in the middle of the night under the covers (I often sleep under the covers when it's cold) and I heard Kate (my roomie and bff btw) talking to me. She was asking me to get up out of bed, but I felt in my heart that it wasn't her and that if I brought my head out of these covers something horrible would happen, so I pretended to be asleep. And I was TERRIFIED. I've never been more scared in my life. Her voice, which had started out normal just casually asking me to get up, got more urgent and angry. She was saying "Maria, get UP! I know you are not asleep can you please just get UP!" I continued to pretend to be asleep and after awhile the Kate-like entity gave up and it was quiet for a while so I peaked out from under the covers at Kate's bed and it looked like she was sitting up in bed. I told myself it was just the way that her posters looked like in the dark and she wasn't really sitting up and I forced myself to go back to sleep. The next night I checked to see if it really did look like she was sitting up in bed in the dark and it did! Which kinda freaked me out because how could I have known that if I was dreaming?? I mean maybe I subconciously knew how Kate's side of the room looked? But oh man it felt so real and I'm pretty sure I was just being haunted by maybe Mary Lyon who is buried right outside our dorm or maybe some poor girl who died in this dorm which was built in 1897. Lots of chances for someone to die you know? So that was the great freaky expeerience I got to share and people were totally intrigued by it. Score.
Me and Irene went to a bar the other night to catch up and hang (wow so adult) and in Irene fashion she was too tired to go home and slept over. Some things don't change even when you're across the Atlantic ocean.
I'm actually a pretty big believer in the supernatural, ghosts and magic/the second sight. I don't see why they wouldn't be real, you know us Mormons have a history in magic which I am fond of. Jospeh Smith was a cunning man in his community, finding lost items for people and such. And of course theres the seer stone, which is total magic. There's a ton of magic in early church history, and it makes me sad that the church administration has kinda stamped out that history. I mean I know why they did it, credibility and seriousness and all that, but that is totally misguided. Magic is from God duh! Why wouldn't it be? And magical practices, local rites and rituals, are so important to communities, connecting them and quelling anxiety. I think that as Latter Day Saints we should embrace our magical past with all its superstition. I think it's offensive to our ancestors to act like that is silly and misguided nonsense. Gross, that is no way to treat people's religious beliefs and practices. So yeah, I'm excited for this class. I should probs do some research on the practices of early early mormons that owould be cool.
Me in the library elevator. I am very often in the library reading for class. It's kinda a sucky library, it makes me miss Mount Holyoke, honestly this whole campus makes me miss mhc. You don't realize how gorgeous a campus it is until you're on a regular degular college campus. Need to go too some old libraries in London to do work. perhaps a plan this week...
All in all my classes were great, and I am a talker in class as per usual. Oh and also sometimes they have food spreads in the academic buildings and you cna bet your bottom dollar that I take total advantage. I FEAST at the school provided charcuterie board. Hehe.
Another experience worth recounting here is that the other day when I was walking back from class an old British lady stopped me and asked me why they hold classes here so late, because she's never seen somewhere with such late classes (it was like 6 btw), and I said I have no idea, and told her as a study abroad student I also thought it was strange and had never seen that done before. We laughed together and she asked me how I was liking the UK and I answered that it was just great. She let me go because it was so cold, but she said "Well I hope you enjoy your time here, you're such a pretty girl :)" Thank you old lady! It was greatest compliment I've ever recieved, I walked away like "you know what I am a pretty girl, she's right!" I'm realizing nice old British people has been a theme of my trip so far. I've had more interactions with old people here than young british people. I am a'okay with that.
All in all, I plan to be an absolute academic weapon this semester seeing as I am in a era of my life where I kinda just walk around and only desire reading, walking, and watching movies. Truly, I am such a chill girl these days, I am so surprised that I don't feel lonely. I have little desire to go out and party or do crazy things, but I figure I'll do them anyways. I'll have to find some cool things to do this week, I haven't gone anywhere cool in a second. And it's getting warmer....
me in the library writing this right now