The "Difficult" Kind of Fun

Now that the semester is less than a month from ending (for me, anyway), there is actually work to be done now and balancing it all with other duties like my blog and applying for housing has been difficult... but honestly fun. It's nice to finally have some end goal in mind and to be able to look back and see all I've learned. I've found that in American Universities, we tend to learn things through doing, with professors assigning bits of work throughout the year and then having one large final in order to keep us busy. Strong work ethic is something that American schools seem to stress almost as much as the education itself. In the United Kingdom, however, University is a far more contemplative exercise that requires more observation than making a finished product. This is not to say that Americans learn to work harder or that the British are more deep thinkers, but it has been incredibly interesting to see and learn in such a different way.

The other side of this "difficult" fun has been trying to work in multiple different aspects of my life. I have my formatives, of course, but I've also been applying for housing when I get back to Hawaii, planning a trip to Prague to see a friend and getting ready for Thanksgiving. It's all been quite stressful, but I'm excited to see how everything turns out and glad just to be doing something again.

Quite honestly, all this time management has made the unplanned things the best parts of my week. After our field trip to the Wetlands Centre for my sustainability class, my friends and I decided to go look for somewhere to get dinner. Our hunger for proper English pub fare brought us to Hammersmith and the beautifully lit Hammersmith Bridge at sunset.

And when the first restaurant we visited wasn't to our liking, we decided to go to a pub called The Blue Anchor, where I got a delicious duck cottage pie!

I can't even remember the last time I had duck! The best part, though, was just getting to spend time with friends in a cozy English pub. Those are the experiences I came here for.