Middle of exam season

Hello lovely people! I am sorry for not updating for so long, I have been quite busy. I have just taken a big exam and have one more on Monday. While revising for exams, it has also been so sunny and beautiful outside. Anyway, I don't have a lot of time for a real update, but here are some pictures I have taken over the past month. :) After my exams, I will update more!

A deer in Richmond Park, where Ellie, her mom, and I went for Ellie's birthday

Banana and Baileys Bread and Butter Pudding from Jaime Oliver


A part of the Parliament Building

hilarious/helpful sign near Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives)

Elliephant

Horse crossing sign near Buckingham Palace

going to see the queen

Post election night

It is a hung parliament! That means that no party has a clear majority, so someone has to make a coalition (possibly Labour and Liberal Democrats?) or the Conservatives can try to have a minority government. What!? All of the constituencies haven't reported back yet, but even when they do, it does not look like any of the parties will have the majority (which means they have attained 326 seats). If you are interested in keeping up with the action, you can check here at the BBC.

Either way, an awesome bit of history was made with the election of the first Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas - she was elected in Brighton, this awesome hippy beach town.

All of the campaigning Ellie and I did in the end did not amount to much. The conservatives won in the Ealing Central and Acton constituency! :( The Lib Dems came 3rd, although it was kind of close. We even had a sign in our yard:



It is a sad day here in Ealing. But I am excited to see what happens with this hung parliament business. It is different than the United States. I mean, the Queen calls for the parties to form a government! Amazing!

Election night!

Tonight is the big UK election - will I wake up tomorrow in a conservative Britain? It hasn't been conservative since 1997. Labour has been in power since then. It does not look good for labour in this election however. Ellie and I did some campaigning for the Liberal Democrats in Ealing! We delivered letters and flyers for our local prospective MP - Jon Ball. He's a silly and tall man. We spent the last 2 evenings out around Ealing and Acton. I have a bit of a new sympathy for mail delivery people. Its hard to get things through some people's mail slots! I messed up a few by accident - because some of them have these brushes that don't move very easily and then the outside metal flap gets caught. Below is Ellie, holding the letters we delivered, ready to go out:
The Lib Dem prime minister candidate is Nick Clegg. If you remember anything about British history from high school - the liberal democrats were the wigs and the conservatives were the tories. This will be quite an interesting election. It seems like the conservatives will probably win, but the Lib Dems are putting up a fight. And it seems, at least from what I have seen in papers and on the news, that Labour are not going to have a good chance.

Ellie and I are going to watch the results coming in, and instead of the traditional BBC election coverage, we will be watching the alternative election night coverage on Channel 4. David Mitchell, of peep show fame, will be one of the presenters.

In other news, my old co-worker, Laura, and her husband, Matt are coming to visit soon and I have turned in my four papers! Lots of exciting things. In word count, the papers equal more than my dissertation! Now I am studying for exams and starting on my dissertation. Oof. I think this month is going to be very busy for me in terms of work.

GI 2009-2010 class photo!

more baking therapy/procrastination

My papers are not going the best. I am trying, maybe not hard enough, but they are just taking so long. Anyway, Ellie was in need of a pick-me-up today, so I made these delicious cookies. Seriously, the best cookies I have ever made. The picture isn't the best, as its from my phone, and definitely does not convey the amazingness. However, if you check the original recipe here, there is a better picture.

I modified the recipe a bit. First of all, they are gluten free! I used a white gluten-free flour mix, and added a little less than 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum. And secondly, I used milk chocolate chunks instead of dark chocolate chips.

I think next time I make these, I will use some white chocolate chips. The amount of chocolate in these cookies is a bit hilarious, but also so delicious.

Spring is here?

Hello gentle readers! Spring is here. Seemingly... although it was quite cold and rainy yesterday. I think there is going to be more cold weather before proper spring sticks.

Here is what I am up to in between papers (which are going slowly).


I made many batches of these cookies, chocolate-peanut butter cookies. The first time I made them by the recipe, but Maple Syrup is expensive here, so I substituted Golden Syrup - which is far too thick. I have been baking a lot of things lately, which soothes the soul after all the paper writing when its not going well.

With the occurrence of spring weather comes awesome things like this:


Back to papers for me! Come visit!

Lent Term Ends

I am on my first week of Easter break. Lent Term, and all teaching, is done - no more teaching in my Master's!? Its just me and my paper writing.

Right now I am working on a 5000 word paper for my Gender and Postcolonial Theory class - its going to be a gender and race discourse analysis of the media portrayal of Haiti after the earthquake. If you have any opinions or ideas, send them my way!

The weather is finally getting better in London, spring is showing itself and you can spend long periods of time outside and not be uncomfortable! Ellie and I have big plans to spend lots of time in London parks, with delicious food.

Life has been pretty normal, I have been very busy with school work lately. But, my lovely friend, Kelsey, came to visit a few weeks ago. She was here for a week and we saw lots of the sights around London. (Below: Kelsey and I with the penguin at LSE)


I have pretty much acclimatised to London, I feel like I am fully present here. I remember when I first got here, I was having some anxiety about the whole experience. I never knew which way traffic was going to go and I was overwhelmed constantly by the number of people. But I feel at home now. It is not the same as Seattle, and honestly I really miss living in Seattle. However, I am a fan of London.

Lots of work ahead of me! 3 papers, a research proposal, and an annotated bibliography due on 26th April! Hope everyone is well!