January's almost over?

Craziness, I tell you. January has, for the most part, been a blur. The first half consisted of being home, flying back, getting acclimated, turning essays in, and gearing up for a new term. The second half has been full of lots of reading, researching for my dissertation, (STILL) trying to get on a semi-normal sleep schedule, and has been interspersed with a little bit of fun here and there.

Last weekend, on Friday specifically, the group headed out to Shoreditch to the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen. Sound familiar? Well, that's where we went on the night of my birthday back in November. It's a really cool place, has a fun dance floor (albeit a little too much house music for my taste), reasonably priced drinks, and is in an interesting part of town. Most importantly, it is NOT the bars at UCLU (my uni's union), which seems to be our go-to hangout spot when we don't have concrete plans to go elsewhere. It's fine (read: the drinks are cheap, and it's super close to my place), but it's much more fun to get out to different neighborhoods in London.

The occasion this time was our friend Sergio's birthday. A good time was had by all, and as far as I know, there weren't any too outrageous moments or outbreaks, good or bad.

Katelyn was a little too busy dancing to look at the camera for this picture. Jean-Baptiste is clearly thrilled and having a great time though!

So yes, overall it was a fun night. I'm proud to state that I: 1) did not drink too much (three drinks to be precise), and 2) was home by 12:30! Go me.

What else am I up to? Well, Charlotte and I have been going to some movies lately. We saw 'Love and Other Drugs' last week. Jake Gyllenhaal - you really can't go wrong there. Yesterday we saw 'Blue Valentine', which I surprisingly was not crazy about, despite the fact that I love both Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. I thought Michelle Williams was very good in her role, and she deserved the Oscar nomination for best actress, but the storyline itself in the movie didn't grab me. I still have a few movies to see from the Best Picture category, so Charlotte and I are both working on that. Right now, I'm considering going to see '127 Hours' with James Franco later this afternoon.

In other news, my ring finally got here. I can't remember if I posted about that whole fiasco here or not, but long story short: Zales screwed up. Fight ensued between Mama Bear and Zales. Zales admitted defeat and shipped ring to me, free of cost. Ring got here last week.

It's so purty, huh? Thank you again, mom and dad! I love it...which I'm sure doesn't surprise you, since I emailed you the link to the exact one I wanted. :)

As far as classes go, I'm absolutely loving my Terrorism course. I really like the professor, who will also likely end up being my dissertation supervisor. The content of the course is so fascinating and I really enjoy the readings and going to class. My other module this term, Conflict Resolution and Post-War Development, isn't as exciting to me. I'm not thrilled with this particular professor, although the course material is quite interesting. I guess it's just not grabbing me as much as I anticipated it would. And finally, I have another term of Research Methods, which is basically the exact same course that I took in undergrad, dealing with statistical math use in political science. It's...fine. I don't love the program they're having us use, which is STATA; as opposed to SPSS which is what I used in undergrad, and is preferred by most in the academic world as well as most employers. I'll deal.

Crazy to think I'm already 3/10 of the way done with this final term of classes.

So, that's my update on my life. Hopefully it gets a little more exciting in the weeks to come so I'll have more to share with you! Lots of love from London!