non-english english speakers

the past 24 hours have been a bit stressful, trying to get research done for my final papers (that way i can relax during my trips!) while hosting my friend Sanghee who came to London on very short notice. i met her last year in Korea when she was working at the NGO i interned at last summer. she was in Africa for the past few months, caught malaria, and decided she needed to get out of the continent for a while. so she decided to visit London for a few days before catching a flight to Dublin.

the day she arrived, we went out to see a really cool exhibit called Evolving English at the British Library.

super cool!! unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but i saw all sorts of rare books--all the gems of English literature. i even saw the ONLY surviving manuscript of Beowulf! it was written in the year 1000 (although it was probably around in oral form in like the 700s). the manuscript was fire-damaged and was sort of glued on to pages of another old book. other displays included rare copies of the Canterbury Tales, bibles, poetry written in SMS text form, and audios of famous/charismatic speeches in English.

 get it??? oh, puns...

anyway, the exhibit was a great way to complement the book that i'm reading right now, Globish. check it out! English can be reckless and powerful, yet comical and sensitive...

this morning, Holly, Sanghee and i went to Spitalfields Market, where we saw these two guys playing ping-pong on an old wooden table. what a clever idea...

afterwards, i had to rush Sanghee to the Tube so she could catch her flight at Heathrow. never have i come across such a slow-moving person...but i still love her dearly :)