It's only Tuesday, but I've now had one session of each of my classes! Although it's probably too early to choose, my favorite so far is (oddly enough) Shakespeare. Tomorrow morning's class has already been canceled in favor of a night time rendezvous at a pub near the Tate Museum. Afterwards we're going to take a walk along the Thames and visit various places related to Shakespeare (such as the location of a no longer existent fighting ring, where viewers would bet on how many dogs a single bear could kill, and then they would watch the bloody action). My Islam class comes in a close second. The teacher was born in Iran but is not a practicing Muslim. To be honest, I warmed up to him quickly mainly because he looks absolutely identical to Charlotte's second husband Harry from Sex and the City. He has a much deeper tan, but still the resemblance is crazy.

Because we're in London where the primary language is English, the mandatory language class characteristic of most study abroad programs has been replaced by a mandatory British cultures class. I chose British Life and Cultures (which seems exactly the same as the British Life and Media and British Life and Business alternatives, which some of my friends are taking). In our first class today we discussed our first impressions of London, and British people in general. We read a passage about Margaret Thatcher's political style, and the author gave an anecdote about Thatcher's tendancy to dismiss young promising politicians that she didn't like by vaguely proclaiming that they were "not one of us!" It's a phrase that comes as no suprise after spending a short period of time here. Social rules (such as no talking on the tube during rush hour) aren't written down anywhere; they are just known. "Look at that American swagger" a few English men sneered at our American group of ten or so when we walked into a bar the other day. When I asked a security guard at the tube station how to get out, he glared at me angrily and silently pointed in a vague direction with a look that declared "how dare you use the tube if you're not a regular". Katy asked for honey in her tea at a coffee shop, and the man looked apalled and waved her away. "No honey here" he muttered as though the request was totally alien. People do not seem conversational (unless I meet them at the bar) and I'm incredibly thankful that at the very least I speak their language, so that I'm not totally lost. However there are some perks: we've been highly discouraged from ever tipping more than 5 or 10% at restaurants because customer service does not exist, and in clothes shops the workers leave a wide berth between you and them, and never pester any shoppers annoyingly. Hopefully I'll soon pick up on enough of these silly social rules, and I'll no longer be dismissed the second I so much as look the wrong direction or speak in my American accent for "not being one of them."