Random notes (plus sahlab)

Thanks again for all the birthday thoughts (really, I can't be grateful enough).

Had my first graded assignment on Tuesday - a group presentation for Television Cultures. I presented on Lost and 24, and have an essay due next week that will focus on those shows as well.

Some friends and I are going out to dinner tomorrow night as a belated birthday thing. Should be fun.

The educational system here is a little weird. Unlike in the US, where assessments are given throughout the semester, your whole grade here can be made up by one or two tests or papers. (In my case, it's one test, one paper for my classes). Professors give out a dauntingly lengthy reading list over the course of the semester, from which one is expected to read extensively in advance. I'm not sure I've done nearly enough in this regard, though I'll have much more time to work on this in the next few weeks, after the TV essay and my summer internship applications are out of the way.

The food here continues to be pretty mediocre. You can eat pretty much anywhere on campus for lunch, as long as you spend £4.68 or less (no idea where they got that figure from) and the options are really pretty respectable in that regard. Dinner, though, must be eaten in halls, and while the food surpasses my very low expectations, it's not great. The options available lean way too heavily towards red meat, cheesy stuff, and fried food (even the vegetarian options, in the case of the last two), and whole grains are not nearly common enough.

On the plus side, I am acquiring a taste for custard.

This weekend: London! Butler is paying for, well, a lot, and I'm not passing up what should be a very fun, not-terribly-expensive weekend. (Itinerary, for the curious: here) (Typically for me, I'm going to totally half-ass the costume. Whatever.) Plus, I am making it my goal to hunt down a cup of sahlab, though it may not be as easy as I'd like.

What, exactly, is Sahlab, one might ask? Well, I happened to fall in love with it in Israel and Turkey last year. It is a drink/hot dessert pudding, made with sweetened milk, thickened with orchid root powder (though cornstarch can be used instead), and typically topped with cinnamon, crushed pistachios, and a little coconut. It's kinda like rice pudding, but without the rice. And it is delectable. My hope is that I'll find it if I go to one of the areas of the city with a lot of Middle Eastern places, but that remains to be seen.