Winter has arrived! (?)

Once again, I have to apologize for my lack of updates. It probably goes without saying, but life in London sure does move quickly. I've had a million things going on in the past week or so, but I quite like the hustle and bustle of it all. I'm sure the school stress will eventually eat away at me a little, but I think that's to be expected in graduate school.

I'm pretty sure that winter has arrived in London. Although, the weather changes so frequently here that one can never really know. Today is nasty, cold, windy, and rainy. Yesterday was cold, but nice and sunny. I guess we'll see.

Since I last wrote, I haven't done anything too out of the ordinary. Last week consisted of a lot of school work, mainly due to a presentation I had in my International Peace and Security class. Though, I did get a nice break midweek on Thursday, when I went on a date with a guy from my school. Without giving too much away, it was a very, very lovely date. :)

Once we got through the week, it was time for our weekly ritual of going to the union for some drinks with our classmates, which is always a good time! Actually, on Friday night we were planning on going to Clapham Common to watch the fireworks for Guy Fawkes day. However, once Friday rolled around, mother nature had other plans. Go figure, it was absolutely gorgeous on both Thursday and Saturday, but Friday was positively awful. Rainy, stormy, cold, windy...not ideal for firework watching. So, we ended up just staying at the bar where it was warm and dry!

On Saturday Charlotte, Abbey, and I headed back over to Borough Market. I told you it was my new favorite place! We had lots of samples, I bought some blackcurrant jam (YUM), and of course we got our veggie burgers. After that, we did a little walking along the Thames and in the City, and somehow ended up shopping. I really have no idea...but I had no part in making the decision to shop. ;)

Saturday night was completely chill...I was exhausted from Friday. I stayed in, caught up on my Grey's, did some reading, and just enjoyed the night. It was definitely needed.

So that pretty much brings us to today. This week is reading week here at UCL, which means we have no lectures or seminars all week. It is essentially meant to allow students to catch up on anything they've been behind in for the past five weeks, as well as get started on essays (not every class has them though) that are due in the next couple of weeks. For me, reading week will consist of a TON of work. I have my essay for IPS due next week, and Kellen gets here on Saturday! So, I 'm going to try and get ahead of the curve and get some reading done early so I'll be able to be around more for her. I'm so excited for her to come and see my city, meet my friends, and experience my life over here. She's never been, so this is a big deal!

The next couple of weeks should definitely be fun, though. My birthday is next weekend, and the girls and I are planning a Thanksgiving feast the week after that. So, lots of good things to look forward to...now to just work on balancing all of that with this insane school work. I'm trying!