Here I am again

Okie-doke. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been quite busy the past couple weeks. It was a big transition getting into my internship, but I'm finally settled and establishing my new routine. I'm working three days a week (Wed-Fri) for the Speech Development group at UCL, a research group that does a lot of research work on causes and other things related to stuttering, especially in children. So far I haven't done anything terribly exciting at work (I've spent most of my time proofreading transcripts of interviews to make sure the syllabic and phonological word annotations are both accurate, although this past Friday I spent most of the day taking notes on published articles for a talk Pete will be giving this week), but I'm getting to know the local Subway pretty well. A sandwich with jalapeño peppers on it is a poor substitute for Mexican food, but at least it's got a bit of a kick to it. I miss proper chips and salsa, though. There's one other FIE intern working for the same group, but our schedules are different and we only work together about twice a week. Still, it's nice to have company my own age at work sometimes. The only other time I see much of college-aged kids is when I sit lectures (I've got about 12 pages of notes from speech science lectures, and that's just from the past two weeks!), and you can't exactly talk during class!
Last week I went to Parliament and had a verynice tourguide lead me around. I had to go throuugh all sorts of security before they'd even let me into the building (and apparently you can't even get in if you haven't made a prior appointment to do so. Thank goodness for field trips!), but our tour guide was a very nice man named Keith Cameron.

And that drove me absolutely mad. I know there's some politician or small-time celebrity out there named Keith Cameron, but I can't for the life of me remember who it is! It's someone current, I'm about 95% positive about that. The 5% of me that's not certain thinks that it's possible I've mixed up his name with Kirk Cameron, actor and internet evangelist. But if anyone knows anything about a Keith Cameron, please let me know.

Anyway, Keith Cameron was our tour guide, and he took us around Parliament and told us all sorts of neat things about it. All in all it was a pretty cool trip, but I would have preferred to be able to walk around on my own. In addition to the building's "functionality," there was a lot of interesting architecture and statues all over the place that I would have liked to have spent more time looking at.

This weekend (actually today, but since today is Sunday, celebrations started yesterdaay) is the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night. It's supposed to be a huge festival with lots of celebrating and fireworks and bonfires (hence the name ^_^), and I'm going to see if I can't sniff some out tonight. Some of us tried to last night, but a bunch of stuff came up, and the the mission was not a success. It's okay, though, 'cause I'm still pretty amazed that I'm even in London. I won't be too disappointed if I don't get a chance to experience every single little thing.

Apparently Guilford College budgeted for us to have a Thanksgiving meal, which was really thoughtful of them since the British don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Not celebrating Thanksgiving has some other implications, too, since it means there's no major holiday between Hallowe'en and Christmas! Literally the day after Hallowe'en, I started seeing Christmas ads up all over the place. The "holiday season" is kickin' it into high gear already over here...
I haven't listened to the radio much, but now I'm a little afraid to, because I'm afraid all I might hear will be non-stop Christmas music! I talked to mom last night, and she said that the Magic station is already doing that.
Seriously, how absurd is that? What possible point can there be to starting Christmas music almost two full months before Christmas actually happens? Sheesh...

Well, that's all for now. Now that I've got something resembling a schedule again, I'll try to update more regularly.

PLUR!