Another Thing I Will Never Eat

Ewewewewewew

I only have about three weeks left here in good olde England, and I am still finding new gross things at the store. It is things like these “gravy granules” that make me miss America more!

Supposedly this container holds freeze-dried gravy pellets? I don’t know why/how but I am not about to buy it and open it up to see. I guess it is a similar concept to instant coffee, but this is gravy we are talking about, which has MEAT in it. Meat goes bad. Sooooo I don’t get how a product like this exists/was ever developed.

All I know is that it is just another thing I will never eat!

zomgz exams!

Had my first exam last Thursday! Aaaaaand now I have 3 more to go :(

But it was actually an interesting experience... very different from any other exam I have ever taken.
The way sitting for exams works here starts off with a personal timetable that you are sent that has a room number and seat number for each of your subjects. All exams are either at 10am or 2pm from May 16 to July 11.
So when you report to the room where you are taking your exam, you are allowed to go in 10 min before and find your exact seat. Already sitting on the desk is your answer booklet and exam, with a basically see-through piece of paper over it. So you can easily see the questions before the test even begins! I don't know why they don't just flip the test booklets upside down... The other weird thing is that there can be multiple subjects per room, so the person in front of you may be taking a different test for a different class.
Then you have the exam moderator (some random guy) tell you that he will keep the official time and give you 30 minute warnings and that anyone who leaves the exam room must be escorted out, even to the bathroom and that no one may enter or leave during the first or last 30 min.
And then he screams "BEGIN."
And everyone scrambles to grab their pen and not waste a single minute of the 3 hour allotted time period. During the entire test the moderator's assistants (called "Invigilators" HAHAHAHA) paced around the room, and some kids bring snacks or even sandwiches to eat during the test. Kind of hard to focus when the kid behind you is having a picnic.

For my Human Resources exam, we had to answer 4 essay questions and cite specific papers and articles we read during the year to support our answers with evidence. So I had to memorize a bunch of last names and publishing years to use in my answers.Which was annoying.
But the test went well and was pretty easy, the hardest part was literally writing for 3 hours straight. After writing the first of the four essays my hand was already cramping! The process and hype and stress that surrounds the exams is way worse than the actual exams themselves.

So overall it went well, and although I was relieved to be done with it at the end, I can't believe that I have three more to go! UGH!!

THE LIBRARY.

Not sure if anyone is reading this (besides you, mom) but I dont blame you because I am not even reading this anymore. I know I have been neglecting this blog and you, my loyal follower(s) so I will try to make up for the past two weeks of nothing with something really special right now. Well not RIGHT now. Later in the post.

You really haven't missed out on much, my life has become extremely boring as I tell my parents on the phone everyday. I have literally fallen into a weird pattern of: wake up around 10, study until 1, eat, study until 7, make pasta and study until 1030ish. Yes. It is always pasta for dinner.
The biggest decision of my day is really deciding where I am going to study, or what music I am going to listen to while I am doing so. Lately it has been The Beatles on shuffle.

This has been my life for the past two weeks because my one end of the year exam that I have for each of my classes compromises my entire grade for the year and determines whether I have enough credits to graduate on time next year. A lot of pressure is riding on these exams, and everyone else around me is freaking out and that makes me freak out! Some kids have been studying all day, every day since the last day of the term, which was March 25. Everyone is burnt out. See?

So clearly not too much has been going on recently. The library has become the coolest place to be during the day (and night) and actually fills up by around 10:30 am, so if you don't get there early in the morning you wont get a seat! I don't mind though, I can't handle doing work around a gazillion other people, I just end up watching everyone and getting extremely distracted.
The majority of students love it though, and to try and lighten the mood a few students tried to plan a Flashmob in the library last week. The idea of a Flashmob is to have a choreographed dance that people in a random crowd do spontaneously and as the routine goes on more and more people join in. With that in mind, the LSE Flashmob was a complete failure, it was basically just a bunch of people packed into the library all at once after hearing that there would be a Flashmob there through Facebook. Here is a video clip at the end, with my expert analysis on what I thought of the "Flashmob" at the end:

I have my first exam tomorrow, so I will report back to you all (if you are even still here) on what it is like and how I am now realizing that having your entire grade ride on one exam is actually not such a great idea after all.

Things I Will Never Eat: It Gets Grosser

Since I have been shopping at the same grocery store for the whole year now, I figured that by now I would know most of what they carry, and fewer and fewer things would really gross me out. Well this proved to be false. I was looking for strawberry jam the other day, and this caught my eye:

 

"The Gentleman's Relish"

This little package is really tiny, holding just 1oz. but it is about 10 oz gross and definitely something I will never eat. Basically inside this container is a bunch of chopped up anchovies blended with butter and other stuff (had to google that). The directions on the package say "use very sparingly" which makes me think that maybe they use a dash of plutonium or arsenic in the recipe. In addition, the exact recipe is a secret, and the product is protected, with only one company in England being allowed to make it. That is probably a good thing because I seriously doubt there is enough demand for there to be a competitive market in fish paste. 

I really don't understand how some companies are profitable. Actually let me rephrase that; I really don't understand how some English food manufacturing companies are profitable when they make things I will never eat, like this!

Kate didn't ditch out!

So I know this is the post you have all been waiting for, hopefully it is everything you have ever dreamed of, but it probably won't be.
Yesterday was Friday, April 29th. And although a certain event was on at 5am for you... it was a perfectly reasonable time for me. Having survived Inauguration in D.C., I was prepared for outrageous crowds, silly security and lots of loonies. Since the wedding started at 11, and the procession to Westminister Abbey started at 10, I decided to head to the area around 7:30 to secure a decent spot.
I had a competitive edge in this situation since I had been going running around the area for the past 3 days to see what was going on and how the fences and barricades were being set up.
So my friend Marshall and I got up bright and early, packed some snacks and walked down to Trafalgar to find a good spot to stake out. We got lucky, we found a spot along Whitehall, right before Downing Street where we were right up against the fence!

With that early success, the rest of the day was easy! All of the pictures that I have are on my Shutterfly account, which you can access here. And here are a few of the highlights.

 Prince William and Prince Harry on the way to Westminister

 Kate and her dad on the way to Westminister Abbey

 Will and Kate after the ceremony going to Buckingham

Buckingham Palace during the Royal Flyover and before Will and Kate greeted everyone on the balcony.

After this busy morning, I was ready for a nap and then went to dinner and a few pubs that were having street parties in Covent Garden. Typical British, always finding a reason to binge drink.

So there you have it... I survived Inauguration AND The Royal Wedding. Lucky me!

It's Almost the Big Day...

Since coming back to England, I expected everyone to be in CRAZY mode, getting really excited about the royal wedding and the details being all over the news like it is in America. I seriously think that Americans are more into it than the English are.
Not that no Londoner seems to care about it, there are certainly a lot of people that are really excited, but it seems that most people are not that into it, or don't know every detail about everything like my American people do. While I have been back, it has been really nice out so I am basically looking for any excuse to not study and to spend time outside, so I went on a little walk the other day to see some royal decorations and take some pictures for you all.
I went to Trafalgar Square,

 where NBC has taken over with their stupid huge tent.

 Then to Regent Street which is nicely decorated.

And finally to Buckingham Palace.

So the scene is definitely set, and on earlier today I even saw some loonies that had set up camp along the road leading to Buckingham Palace, securing their spot to see the wedding procession close up.

I'm excited, and some English people are excited... I wonder if Kate is excited?

Things I Will Never Eat: Breakfast Edition

There is probably nothing that I like more than pancakes and waffles. Breakfast food is the best kind of food and I frequently eat it at all times of the day. I even filled my suitcase with boxes of Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops coming back to London instead of bringing more clothes and shoes!
But of course, I had no problem finding some breakfast items that I will not eat in London.

These packaged pancakes and waffles are the opposite of appetizing, especially since their expiration date was not for another 4 days at the time of this picture being taken! The pancakes even came in a "lemon and raisin" flavor variation. NO THANKS.
I am not even going to start going into the problems with the name of the pancake brand.