Term finally started on Monday and I have been quite busy already! On Monday I have E-Publishing and Intro to Programming for Architecture and Design. E-Publishing is a class that covers topics like metadata, online journals, legal issues, analysis of website designs, blogs, community edited content (wikipedia), etc. So I am not terribly interested in it so far, but I think I will learn many useful things from the course. After agonizing over the details of different programming class options, I decided to attend the class over Architecture and Design. I showed up to the room printed on my course options sheet, and found that the room was incorrect. So I quickly picked up my computer and did a search. The official time table told me another building! I ran across campus and made it to the room just in time. Then I discovered that this was ALSO incorrect, and I pulled out my computer once again. This time, I googled the syllabus and found that the class was two stories down in the same building (because I had not enroled in the course officially yet, I think I may have been out of the email notification loop). I threw myself into a seat right on the hour and got ready for class. We learned the basics of a programming language called Processing, and it was really fun, actually! Then after the class, the guy sitting next to me made some comment about how this was Programming for Studio Design and Art and I was soooo mad! I had gone to the wrong class...for three hours! Of course, then I noticed that the professor's name was different, etc. I emailed him after the class asking what was going on (and also if I could audit his class, since I was very interested), and he responded that I had actually been in the right place. So the student sitting next to me was the one who missed his class!
The Architecture and Design class may be my favorite one so far. The programming language is very high level, it would appear, so I don't need to worry about telling the computer HOW to do things, I just tell it WHAT to do. For example, if I want to create a rectangle, I tell the computer how big the dimensions of the screen should be and then say 'rect(0, 0, 10, 10)' to place it on the coordinate system and set its size. It is quite simple to use and I even figured out how to make shapes move, follow my cursor, etc, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. These are some of the projects that past students have done for this class:
Examples
They may not work if your computer doesn't have Java installed.
Tuesday, I went to Database Systems and it sucked. It is very boring but hard enough to require attention. I only take that for three weeks this term so I don't have to worry too much until January! After Database Systems, I had Internet Technologies which focuses on XHTML, HTML 5 and other such internety subjects. So far I haven't learned too much, because I'm already fairly familiar with writing HTML files, but I will start learning stuff when we get to more advanced concepts.
Today I woke up early to go to Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology I. Showing up to the metro an hour earlier made a huge difference. I could barely cram my way into the packed trains, the platforms were congested, etc. It was very unpleasant, but I don't think buses would be much better as they are at the mercy of traffic.
GIS was a bit intimidating, but I should be able to manage. Today we just learned some basics and kind of messed around with a mapping application, but soon we will need to generate data sets and feed them into the program in order to create maps, etc. Because this GIS course happens to be archaeology, I will probably be doing a lot of analysis of early human populations, ceramic fragment scatters, graveyards, etc. Whooo!
This afternoon my class was Digital Resources in the Humanities. It seems quite similar to my old Digital History grad class at UNL, but I am going to have to work a lot harder because her reading list is tremendous. Dozens and dozens of readings and websites, etc. Unfortunately, many of the books that I need for the class are sitting in a box in the US, but I'm hoping that I can just reach back in my mind and get by without reading them again, haha.
Anyway, that's enough about classes for now. Let's talk about my weekend! On Sunday I decided to check out St. John's Wood. My friend Daniel thinks that is a hilarious name and he snickers every time the underground stops at that station. But by all accounts I had heard it is a nice neighborhood so I rode the tube for a bit and got out to walk around. I think it may have been overhyped. It was a nice neighborhood but nothing fantastic. I think the charm of it must be that it is a neighborhood very close to the middle of London. Anyway, I accidentally stumbled into the crosswalk made famous by the Beatles while I was wandering. A tourist wanted me to take a picture of him walking, so then he offered to take a picture of me. I realize I am crossing the wrong way, but traffic is not overly kind to pedestrians so I did what I could without getting fatally injured. Also, I'm not confident that he knew about the zoom feature on my camera, haha:
I also found the Lord's Cricket Grounds, whooo!
A friend of mine here, Maia, called me while I was walking and asked if I'd like to meet her and a friend for tea at...where else? St. John's Wood! Perfect, so we got some stuff to eat and walked to Regent's Park. It was super crowded because the weather was nice, but here is a picture I took of a lake!
The Grand Mosque (that may or may not be its name, I can't remember, sorry) is right next to Regent's Park, so I tried to take a picture. I was losing light so it didn't come out very well. It is quite shiny in real life.
I was supposed to meet Serene and her boyfriend at 4:30 to go to a church she had found, so I said bye to Maia and booked it over to King's Cross. Here is a picture of a building next to King's Cross...that may be part of it? I don't know, it was all very confusing.
Later when we were walking back at night:
And this is a picture of Baker Street. This is where I wait for the tube most days, though occasionally I see another train that goes to my destination at a platform that I pass on the way. It is nice to have two options, as that way I can take whichever one says it is coming first!
So now you are all caught up. Ling has made it her mission in life to feed me, and she routinely comes by my room with a steaming bowl of rice, pork, peppers, etc and forces it on me. Not that she really has to force me, but I feel guilty about eating her food especially when I have my own! So last night I made some twice-baked potatoes for her to try. She said she liked them and wanted the recipe, but I think she was frustrated that she couldn't use her chopsticks very effectively when it came to the skin.
Today I was able to pick up my student loan check from the Financial Aid Office, and conveniently enough, my debit card came in on Monday! So I trooped over to the bank and now I not only have money in my checkings account, but I also have a way to access it! How exciting! Santander's also set up a savings account for me which has a separate card (only good at Santander's atms), which is nice of them, I suppose, but a bit confusing for me. I will probably only carry the debit card around. Unfortunately, that means that I am now officially living on a budget, because up until this point I was operating from my Nebraska bank account and not really trying to color inside the lines when it came to food consumption. Hopefully £40 a week for groceries will work out for me, haha.
I think I should save money on the internet though. The problem at the moment is that everyone wants to put their two cents in on what kind of internet plan we need but no one is willing to call! So a bunch of the guys on the first floor stopped us from ordering internet because they came up with a plan involving fiber optics, linked routers, etc, but then none of them was willing to call the company to see if it was possible. So I did that for them and it is not possible. So okay, then I was going to order internet just for my floor, but I was stopped again because people were concerned that we would leave people out unless we took a tally of every single room, etc. So FINE I called the company again and got the list of every room in the residence hall that has a line, has a phone, etc. And my floor does not, so they will need to bring IN a line, which costs £150 unless you sign up for an 18 month plan which has a cancellation fee of £80. Sweet, so obviously the 18 month plan is the way to go! I was THEN going to order that plan for my room and even had a floor sign up going so I could see what kind of interest there was when I was stopped AGAIN because people wanted to know if another provider has better service, and if we really need the 18 month plan. Soooooo guess who got to call them again? And the service may be better, but they have no legal rights to the building that we are in and only British Telecomm is allowed to alter the lines. Now the choices are pay £150 for a line and use a different provider that is not much cheaper, or just pay the £80 fee. And each day we wait means another day we don't have internet. So at this point I am kind of thinking, screw it, I am going to order internet for myself, put the line and router in my room, tie it to my bank account, and if people want in then I will let them in for a portion of the cost and the cancellation fee. If they don't like it then they can get their own damn internet. I budgeted for £40 / mo on internet which will more than cover the service even if I am the only person on the line, but I think once I have internet then the people on my floor will suddenly appear again out of the shadows.
Meanwhile, though the guy whose internet I was using finally changed his password, Maia should have internet by next week and she said I could use hers until mine came through. Yay! She ordered internet as soon as she moved in, but now she is getting the same heat as I am from everyone asking if there are better options, etc. Well, not really, so get over it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I don't really understand people's inability to do a little research themselves. There may be a language barrier problem as well, but it's ticking me off. I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over and over to the same couple people!
Meanwhile, I asked permission from all of my teachers and I think I am going to buy a plane ticket home from Wednesday of the last week of school. I have no class on Thursday and I wiggled out of two classes on Friday, so I will save around $400 by coming back on Wednesday instead of Saturday or Sunday. It is pretty sweet.
Also, Maia and Serene and I may be going to Scotland soon for a weekend trip or something. We are also checking plane tickets for deals on going to Holland, Sweden, or the Czech Republic for 'reading week,' which is kind of like dead week, essentially, but with zero classes. Perhaps in a few weeks I will have some cool pictures up here of windmills or ... things that are often associated with Sweden / Czech Republic...? I'm going to need to read up on those countries before I go, I think.
Time to leave the computer lab and get some dinner!
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