the dorm room life.

So its been.. about, around four? years since my last dorm room experience (Laplata 7 what what!?) and although this hall is both postgrads and undergrads and I have my own kitchen area and bathroom it still resembles an American dorm at times. There's a diner, with mediocre food, and noise from undergrads parting, all of which I'm fine with and expected. But this week, I had to deal with a little unexpected visitor in my room, who was never part of the plan.

On Tuesday night, before going to bed, I saw something run from next to my mini fridge to the other side of the stove, all I originally did was stare towards the kitchen area, as i didn't know what just ran by, just that something did, and so I stared.. stared for what seemed like forever, hoping,wishing,praying, that it wasn't my most dreaded fear inducing bug- Mr cockroach. But thank goodness it wasn't, because if it had been.. this would be an entirely different blog about how I ran around London like a crazy person after seeing one. but anyways, Mr mouse came back out and I pointed at him and said NOOOO. and he ran away.

 I got up from my bed, looked at everything food related I had left out and threw half of it out scared he had already been in it, and put the rest of what i thought he hadn't gotten too in the fridge. I then proceeded to clean everything possible, at 2am mind you. I had a mold & mildew spray for the bathroom that contains bleach.. and used that everywhere, because I googled that mice don't like the smell of bleach. I then had the courage to open every single drawer in my kitchen to see if i could scare Mr mouse away. I then heard him crawling underneath my sink, and that's the only second I squealed  like a girl and realised I would not be able to do anything if i found him while opening the cabinets besides scream and run away so I decided I was going to try and sleep. Between the mix of the smell of bleach and the irrational fear that Mr mouse was going to crawl into my bed, it was a hard night. I woke up the next morning and ran to reception to ask for help. I remained calm, knowing that if I yelled it would not help. The man at reception was really nice and helped me set up traps, and told me he would call pest control the next day. We never caught Mr mouse, but they did find a hole behind my fridge and fixed it. So for now, I won the battle against Mr mouse, and had to sadly remind myself that not only am I living with probably around 500 other people, but I'm also living in a major city, where rodents are common... never leaving food out ever again. Apparently mice don't like the smell of mint either?

A friend of mine reminded me of this mousehunt movie, and this is entirely how i felt on tuesday night.

More observations after being in London for about a month:

• Wildlife: London, has a lot of animals. Lots of birds, pigeons, geese, peacocks (just chilling at hollandpark) and the one I've just learned about; urban foxes, everywhere, according to this picture, even on the tube. 

• Fashion: Its bit obvious, but man do Londoners know how to dress (OK i guess it depends on who you look at). Both females and men, are wearing everything perfectly. Sweatpants are never seen, PJ's to classes are not an option. 
• Making out/Snogging: Is everywhere, its very public, and especially at night in pubs/bars/clubs. 
• Addresses: make absolutely no sense, the numbers do not go by evens and odds, and while your at number 105 take two steps and you'll be at 300. They have maps all over the places for the tourists (and the directionally slow like myself) but these maps are NOT facing north, their just a map of exactly how the streets are- a bit confusing. 
• Tea: although its always been a stereotype that the English love tea and drink tea every day at 5PM, while I been here I can say they do fancy their tea, but not in the carzyly exaggerated way seen in marry poppins. I always smile and haven't gotten used to guys asking each other "Ay mate, fancy some tea before we head to the next class!?". 
• THE Meltingpot: There seems to be very few people who live in London who are actually from London. London is more of a melting pot than New York. You step outside and can be submerged in endless chatter in 20 different languages, all NOT english. 
• Beer: Beer at pubs are not always served stereotypically at room temperature. A few that I've had, have been roomtemp, but most have been cold. Alsooo beer here that claim they re IPA's are nottt..Cider here is really good though :)