sleep in tomorrow

tomorrow I will be having what the British call a "lie in" (ie. sleeping in) though I didn't put that in my title because I dont particularly like the aesthetic of the word "lie" when its used in the context of sleeping... I'm not sure why, its just one of those mental blocks I've always had, when when I write "lie down" I always think that it should be spelled another way.

so anyway, things are moving along as usual in Brighton.

I have started working as a assistant waiter at a hotel near my house. It's quite a fancy place (as the website will show you) and I'm enjoying it, though I have worked breakfast for the past three days (ie. 7:30 starts sat and sun, and 6:30 this morning!!). They seem to think I am a somewhat capable worker and so they put me in charge of doing all the room service orders yesterday and today... this was fun because it meant that I got to make a bit of tips and also meant that I got to see more of the hotel.

However, this job was also a bit awkward, firstly because I've never worked room service before (dont think I've ever even ordered room service before) and secondly because the job involved giving food and bringing breakfast to people in their nightgowns and pants (a.k.a. underwear).

Many times people answer the door expecting a small tray they can carry inside themselves... so they come to the door and just peer around the corner. Before they know it they are in the awkward situation of facing an, in fact, GIANT tray that they can' carry themselves, for fear for spillage, and so I have to bring it into the room and then struggle to find a clear surface to put it on (in several cases this surface was on the bed next to the other occupant still sleeping under the covers).

So yeah it was a little wierd but fun at the same time. I got to see some gorgeous rooms including some of the luxury suites.

After finishing work at 10:30, today marked the first official day of my scholastic endeavours. While I have done some work for school, until now my efforts have been mainly preparatory and administrative... but today (monday) was the first day of my plan which involves keeping my readings within the five day week. The course is set up with dayschools on Fridays (9:00am-4:00pm) with the occasional extra day here and there... my basic plan is to collect and organize all my reading monday mornings, and then use the week to read and prepare for my presentations and discussions. This way I theoretically have the weekends to relax and work. Since Friday is my first dayschool, today marks the first day of my studying. I had the reading for this week collected last week, but I didn't want to start them until today because I wanted to test out how this reading plan would work and if it was actually doable... so far it seems it is.

Lucky for me the sun decided to celebrate this wonderful day by emerging from the rain and cloud cover we have had lately, and so I was able to spend my afternoon reading on the beach with nice big coffee, and a light picnic of bread and cheese and meat.

I am learning to savour the sun like a true british person - from what I hear taking a flask of hot coffee/tea and bundling up in a scarf for the beach is not uncommon during the fall or spring months in Brighton. As of yet I haven't braved getting into the water, and dont expect it is something I will try until next summer... though every now and then I do spot someone giving the channel a go.

On Friday I had a meeting for my history placement course, and was encouraged by my tutor to start trying to find a work placement as soon as possible and so I'll also try and follow up some leads this week for that. Friday evening the head of my program held a barbeque at his house for all the new students, part time students, and students who have just submitted their dissertations... it was a nice get together and I got to meet some really interesting people including a woman who wrote her dissertation on blogs and the way in which blogs will one day act as source material for life history research.

i think that's just about all for now.

- Chris

p.s. my photo blog is on temporary hiatus due to me needing to work out a better way to public lots and lots of photos without it either taking up a ton of my webspace or it taking me forever (blogger is slow for photos). Hopefully it will be resolved soon - I'm still meeting my quota, I'm just not able to post quite yet.