Free Pizza

I really should just start my introductions in a foreign language, that way when I ask someone "where is the library" and they point to a building right next to me that says "Library", I won't feel so ridiculous.

Leicester's Central Lending Library is a nice walk from my place and conveniently has all the texts not in the university library that I need and don't want to buy. One thing university students rarely think to do is visit the public library. That just makes life easier for me. D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love": certainly not a horribly poplar reading choice, yet missing from the university library and bookstore shelves. Thanks to my new Leicester library card, it's sitting in my room. And I have books coming from branch libraries -- it feels like being at home again.

I've decided that my flat is a microcosm of Leicester in concern to its population. The city is incredibly diverse. I'm pretty sure most people only come here for Indian cuisine. There are four of us in this flat, all from different cultural backgrounds, and even countries in some cases. Along with learning about their cultures, I'm hoping to pick up some of their study habits because they always seem to have their noses in books. I do, too, but just reading literature doesn't make me look as studious as some of them who constantly have calculus assignments spread out over the kitchen table.

Earlier today, when I came home after a lecture, I walked in to smell garlic and started thinking to myself how nice it would be to have some garlic bread and pizza. One of the girls then walked out of the kitchen and into the corridor carrying a garlic pizza. We stopped to chat a bit and, quite suddenly, the pizza decided that it would be much happier off of her plate and on the floor. I instantly told her to pick it up and by mandate of the 10-second rule, she could still eat it. The idea of eating a pizza that had fallen to the floor did not appeal to her. I brushed off the one or two hairs stuck to it (the cheese wasn't gooey, so no harm there), and told her to just stick it in the microwave for a while if she was concerned about the germs. It took about 10 minutes of me trying to convince her that eating the pizza would in no way kill her, and if she ended up with chlamydia, I would most certainly pay her medical bills. Needless to say, there was no convincing her that the pizza was okay to eat, but instead of throwing it in the bin, she let me have it. So dinner tonight was pizza del pavimento. Eccellente.

I should be posting more pictures of the city of Leicester on flickr in the near future. I've taken to exploring it a bit on my own, always with some sort of eventual destination, and I've tried to force myself to look like a tourist and stop to take a picture or two every once in a while. And my flickr account will soon be overloaded with pictures once I've done a bit more travelling.

I also found oreos in the student store. That was a happy moment. I'm still trying to understand the student union store, though. There's a shelf full of sex toys, a shelf full of gummy candies, an aisle of asian food, rows of school supplies, and cartons of vodka cheaper than a small bottle of fruit juice. Needless to say, I'm going to go broke because I buy strawberry-banana smoothies instead of vodka.