"No tomatoes, please."

Another Monday done. Three more lectures out of the way. Although lectures are the best part of the school week because I'd much rather just take notes than have to participate. And my seminars Tuesday and Wednesday are all about participation.

My least favorite class (the dreaded WIN) started out with the worst seminar. For some reason my professor forced me and Lori (from Wellesley) to speak on the "American perspective," of which there was little to say considering we were reading Irish literature... But that seminar has become more of a discussion in small groups, and I have come to appreciate the two girls in my group, one of whom I've even had a nice conversation with outside of class.

At the beginning of my religion seminar, I was somehow taken over by some outside force that actually enabled me to speak voluntarily. In fact, the first couple weeks, out of the 8 or 9 of us in the group, I was one of maybe 3 or 4 who spoke up. I have since then regressed into silence. I probably impressed my socially awkward professor only to let him down. But it's all his fault. He allows the awkward silence to descend over the class with his awkward ways. And then the really smart boy finally can't take it anymore and he speaks up. We all wait for this. It never fails.

And finally there is my American Studies seminar. Where I try desperately to blend into the table and speak as little as possible, in fear that I will fail my country. Although one could argue that my silence is its own kind of failure. Especially when the silence follows a question about some American thing that I should probably know. But this professor does not stand for awkward silence, and is not above calling out a name when the silence lasts too long. And my seat is directly across from him (we sit in a square). It's unfortunate because after 8 weeks everyone sits in the same seat. To move would be mutiny. So I try not to make eye contact. When I do I am surely called on. And then I stutter out some short response and the class goes on. It's sad that of all the classes, the American Studies one is the only one in which I have not made a friend. Maybe I scare them away with my scary American accent. Or maybe they all just think I'm an idiot. In any case, we've finally covered a good amount of court cases and AP US History is flooding back. And by flooding I mean it's kind of trickling into my consciousness. I at least recognize stuff.

And somehow I've let the weekend slip by without so much as cracking open the WIN book I should have been reading. I have a lot of catching up to do tonight. And a lot of planning ahead. Because tomorrow night is Taylor Swift's concert! And I finally have someone to go with (Lauren), now that the misunderstanding that I actually have two tickets is out of the way (she thought she had to buy her own).

I will also try to include some pictures next time. I just haven't taken any lately. But I swear there will be pretty things to look at again soon. Lauren and I happened upon the Manchester Cathedral yesterday (we thought it was much further away from the mall than it actually was), and of course I did not have a camera. But it was very pretty, so I will hopefully venture back there soon!

And before I go, Lauren and I had lunch at the Student Union for the first time in over a week, and we both got the usual cheese, tomato and pesto panini, only Lauren gets hers without tomatoes. And despite not having done this for our first several weeks here, the workers now go back to the kitchen to ask if this "without tomatoes" can be done. It always can be. It's a waste of time. But today the kid came back and said, "Do you usually order that? Because they seemed to recognize the order." And we just giggled like little girls. I hope they miss us when we leave.