Hannah's Room with a view.

Letter from Hannah, my emphasis

Things are good. Yesterday morning I got settled in and waited for other house members to arrive. There are five of us here right now. Kazia (pronounced Kaja), Lauryn, Jessica, Chelsea, and me. Apparently I've settled into the wrong room. Lindsay (staff member wo picked us up at the train station and showed us our rooms) got mixed up and put me in Nicole's (who isn't here yet) room. By the time we figured it out, I had already completely unpacked, so Lindsey said I could just stay there. I hope Nicole doesn't mind. It's the best room with the best view. It's the only room in this house that is meant to be a single, so it's cozy. I'll send pictures after Nicole gets here just incase she wants me to move. I hope she doesn't care. We're also waiting on Heather.

Our house has four bathrooms. The one by my room on the top floor is a huge room with just a shower and a sink. Next down is a bathroom attached to Jessica and Lauryn's room. It have two vanities, a sink, and a bathtub with no shower attachment. It is also carpeted. Then there is a bathroom with just a toilet and a sink on the landing. The last bathroom is in the basement by the kitchen. It has a toilet, sink and shower/bathtub.

Our kitchen has two fridges and a freezer. It has a stove (either the stove itself or the burners are called hobs, which makes no sense) that has a grill (a little oven) and an oven (another little oven) attached. Then we have a little washer and drier. They gave us a "welcome pack" of food, which included pasta and sauce, which we had for dinner.

We have a common room on the first floor that has several couches, a TV with VCR and DVD player, a desk, a guitar, some books, and some movies. The movies included BBC Pride and Prejudice (VHS), two Sense and Sensibilities (DVD), Persuasion (DVD), Bridget Jones's Diary (DVD - we watched it last night), Stardust (DVD), Clueless (DVD) and The Fellowship of the Ring (VHS). Kazia has never seen the Lord of the Rings, or read all the way through them. The common room is where we have the wifi, but it it currently reaching all the way up to my room.

This morning we were picked up to go to Nelson House and Masonic hall for various orientation things. We were given our food allowances for the next couple of weeks. We were also given tea, coffee, and biscuits. We had a tour of Nelson House, then allowed to leave for lunch before we had to come collect our books and go to various meetings if they applied to you (nothing applied to me, so I had a lot of free time). We (Kazia, Emily [from the U of R], another Emily [I think], and me) went to a sandwich place and brought them back to Nelson house to eat in the common room in the basement. It was pretty delicious. We chatted for a long time and eventually other people started showing up and it was a fun chatting without actually getting to know anybody time.

I got textbooks for two of my classes (Tudor and Stuart England, and Renaissance Politics). One was used. If the previous owner had left marks in them, they were free. Mine had no marks :(.

So apparently John Cleese lives in Bath. He's away right now, though. Jonathan Hope, the Dean of the program, told us we might see him, and I got excited about it. I was mentioning it later to Jamie (the only boy here right now) and he didn't know who John Cleese was! He's never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Or Fawlty Towers! Also, Sir Ian McKellen is currently doing a play here that we might try to see. I don't know what it's called.

We also had a meeting about social things. I took an application to sign up for volunteering at the dogs and cats home to walk dogs. I also signed up as interested in volunteering at Bath Abbey. It sounds really cool, but I don't know if being a tour guide is for me. We'll see.

We were given a shopping tour of the city. It wasn't wrong, but I got completely disoriented and couldn't figure out how to get home. Luckily other people knew, and we made it home without getting hit by cars, which has happened apparently. Also, apparently there have been several ASE student marriages in the past, either within the program or with English people they meet here. They don't get married while they're on the program, obviously, but later.

I'm liking it here, so far. Everyone seems to be nice. I miss you guys, though. I think that's all for now.

the storm

We are all fine, the power is on.
The city is unusually quiet. As you may know the transit system was shut down.
Is the weather effecting Hannah's travel plans?
How was the party?

DOJ

Suzi and I have been discussing dates for next year. August is bad for Jay. C&S, would you be back by the last week of July?

i live in Georgia now

A week ago today Adam and I started driving down here (he in his van, me in my Camry). It took us about 3 full days. The first day we hit heavy rain around New Jersey and ended up staying in Delaware rather than our intended destination, Baltimore. The New Jersey turnpike was terrible. I was gripping the steering wheel for dear life. But we survived! 12 hours of driving that first day, and the second day what we thought would be a 6 hour day turned into 12 hours. We stayed in Benson, North Carolina that night. The next day we stopped at a bizarre Disney World-esque place, South of the Border, SC. Anyone else been there? Terrible food, super weird. Arrived in Macon about 7pm. My house is very cute, with a huge outside back porch, big backyard, big kitchen, 3 bedrooms. My room was already furnished with a queen sized bed, dresser, desk and TV with cable! Pretty sweet. My roommates are both very very sweet and have really strong southern accents. One is a med student, one is law.

Macon itself is not very nice. There's a lot of crime, apparently, and not a lot going on. Just Burger Kings and gas stations. I've found one nice area with a couple good grocery stores.

Campus is really nice (voted one of the top 4 most beautiful campuses by Princeton Review and I suppose well deserved). But kind of giant and I got super lost the first day. I'm taking Intro to Literary Studies, Fiction Writing, American Romanticism, and Intro to Global Health (thought I was signing up for nuitrition but this is more like health care policies and stuff...). No classes on Fridays so I'm in Savannah visiting Adam. It's about a 2.5 hour drive, and very easy. Today we went to a diner called Clary's with his roommate. In Forrest Gump, it is the diner where Jenny waitresses.

Well, it's not Senegal but it does seem very far from home!

The Ferrari

Last night we went to Eastview mall to finish shopping for Fall and eat. While Ashwani and I waited for the girls by the restaurant, we watched a guy in a very new red Ferrari. He was maybe 60, white hair, shorts, sneakers, kind of wiry. His girlfriend (?) maybe thirty, heavyish, very tattooed, inadequate sundress, not permitted to smoke in the car. They waited for the valet parker to show up. Then we saw them in the restaurant. He had left a note under his wiper. To the valet? They had to wait for a table, but he kept bouncing up to check on his car. A lot of people stopped to stare at this car.
Then, when we were leaving, we noticed a cop giving the Ferrari a ticket. The girls got back out of our car to watch. Everyone stopped to watch. It was like a community event; the weather was lovely.

The Lake

sarapicassa's photostream on Flickr.

Photos on flickr

Noah posted.

No new pictures, though.:(.

Yay!!

She did it!

Dr. Madhu with her advisor.

Bhuaji returning to India today

It was very nice having Vinod here, she will be missed.
Spider web on the way up the hill to say goodbye.

The East North Coast

The new stage, scenes from the Tempest, Nicky was Ariel,

Week end in NY

Madhu went to a play both Sat. and Sun., Chiara and I went to the Guggenheim one afternoon, nice. Drive home with the 3 kids was long, the sky was gorgeous.

the weekend

We had a very nice weekend with Janice and Madhu. We had tickets to see the RSC. Chandran went with Madhu on Saturday to see Julius Caesar, I went on Sunday with Madhu to see As you Like it, it was fantastic. On Sunday we also met up with Junu and went to the new Saravanaa's on the west side. Not as good as the one downtown. Janice And Madhu went off this morning taking the kids with them. We will be going up tomorrow.

Noah posted.