Things I didn't write about, but still happened:
Dublin: Wicklow, city tour, Vanessa's eyeballs, pub crawl (Th-Sat)
Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, Fiestaaaa (Sun)
Burritos (Mon) - what else?
Tues? - discovery of Greek
Studying, Acrobatics (Wed)
Studying (Thurs)
Actuarial Final (Fri)
Greenwich- Maritime and Astronomy museums (Sat)
Movieum, Brick Lane, Hayfields (Mon)
Elephant and Castle (Tue)
Spoons (Wed)
Probability, Tottenham Court Road (Th)
Thorpe Park, BBQ (Fri)
Last day, protest, horses, Oxford Street, dancers in stores, Dames's family (Sat)
Flight home (Sun)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The rest of Scotland and MCFLY!!
May. 6th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Friday, 1 May
Kevin and I got up at seven in the morning to get ready, grab food, and get to Haggis Adventure Tours for our day trip. On the way out of the city, we passed a school that had been sold and was being done over into apartments. It used to be a school for deaf and blind children, and their big charity event was an annual football match where the blind kids would play the deaf. This obviously put the blind kids at a bit of a disadvantage, so it was decided to put a bell in the football for them to hear the ball to kick at it and not lose as badly. Three years ago, they cancelled the match, though, as a cat had cut across the pitch the blind children were practicing on; wearing a collar with a bell on it, it attracted the attention of the blind children, who kicked it to death. Whoops.
We drove through the countryside a little bit, passing Sterling and Scone castles (we couldn’t see them too well) and made a pit stop at a place that had a woolly coo, Hamish. He looked like a baby woolly mammoth, without a trunk, and was adorable. He thought my camera was a snack, which was almost bad. I guess a tour guide got bovine herpes from “kissing” Hamish by having him eat a Digestive out of his mouth. Teehee!
We drove through the Highlands for another couple hours, occasionally stopping to take pretty pictures. We saw the lake where Sean Connery has a house, and also a certain chunk of mountains that is used in a lot of movies, such as Braveheart and Harry Potter. We also passed a little glen where the MacDonalds live; they don’t like the Campbells and won’t let any one by the name of Campbell stay in their town because hundreds of years ago, the Campbells took advantage of Highland hospitality and stayed in the MacDonald’s homes for a couple weeks, until they killed them all in the morning. We also passed the tallest mountain in Scotland (Nevis, I think). The name of North Face originates from the treacherous North Face of the mountain, which is kinda cool.
We eventually ended up at Loch Ness. I forget the name of the town we were in, but it was very cute, and they had a manmade canal for little boats to go through. Kev and I watched those for a few, and also walked down to the lake to eat our bagged lunch. The view was very pretty; it probably would have been nice had we done the boat tour as well, but what we did was more relaxing. A swan tried to eat some of our food; I think Nessie was really a giant black swan. How terrifying would that be?
Before getting back on the bus, we tried to go see this old abbey that’s being redone into flats, but it was private property so we got scared and ran away. We slept for a lot of the drive back, in between watching the Highlands and rainbows (Scotland had lots of rainbows, man) out the window.
We got back a bit early from our trip, which was good, so Kev and I went on a seach for some dinner. We ended up at Maggie Dickson’s Pub- the woman who was hanged, pronounced dead, and then woke up going “jk! And you can’t retry me because I’ve been punished for that crime (hiding a pregnancy) once already! LOL.” They had a decent deal of 2 dinners for eight quid, so I got some fish and chips and a soda, and then when we were eating, some woman came by our table and asked if we wanted a sample of Jack and coke. So we got a couple free samples of Jack and coke, which was fab.
After dinner, we went to do a ghost tour. Rhiannon, Er’s friend, came to meet up with us, so that was cool. We got free wind-up flashlights; mine ended up being extremely bright for a while, but then died. I think I over wound it, which I didn’t think possible. Oops. The tour was pretty cool. It started at Waverly Bridge, where lots of people go to commit suicide- they were going to put nets as a preventative measure, but decided drunk people would think it a fun game to jump into the nets. They’re so right. Then we went to Calton Cemetery and heard the story about the woman who was buried alive and awoken from her coma due to the pain of graverobbers cutting off her fingers to remove her rings; they tried to argue that she would’ve died if they hadn’t dug her up, so they saved her life, but they still got hanged for it. We also went up Calton Hill, which is supposedly the portal to the faerie world, but that wasn’t explained too well. We did relearn a bit about changelings and redcaps and grindylows, though. Redcaps like to eat your intestines, and grindylows turn into pretty horses that, when you try to catch them, you get stuck to the horse and it runs back into the water and you drown. Our tour guide was really fun and entertaining, Kev tried to be his biffle, and I don’t blame him a bit.
We went to the Bank Hotel to enjoy our complimentary pint, and chat a little bit longer, until Rhiannon had to go and Kev and I decided to crash.
Saturday, 2 May
We went and wandered around Edinburgh castle for a while; we went into the War Museum, where I was distracted by a video about bagpipers and dancing in kilts, as well as the information about how when a sailor first crossed the equator, there would be a ceremony where people dress up as mermaids and Neptune and throw the sailor in a tub of water and give him a certificate. Scots are fun. We also saw the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (you can barely see where it was broken; I was too short to notice it, and had to stand on tiptoe when Kev pointed it out) before rushing outside to see the one o’clock gun go off (since it’s cheaper for one cannon blast than the twelve necessary to mark noon). The war memorial was also pretty cool, and had books with all of the soldiers’ names who died in action- I found Kev some Mc and MacQueens. There was also a really cute, tragic dog cemetery.
From the castle, we went into a kilt shop that had actual looms and stuff working in it- it was a really cool shop, and huge.
We lunched in the Elephant House, which was a cafe covered in elephant trinkets and books, and served very delicious beef and mushroom pie with some of the best mashed potatoes and gravy ever, as well as awesome chocolate cake. But the food easily could have tasted so good simply because that was the place where JK wrote a large portion of Harry Potter, since they would let her sit there all day with a single cup of coffee. You could see “Hogwarts” as well as Greyfriars Kirk and the castle from the large windows, and it was so so cute. Kev and I decided that it was far too loud for any real work to be accomplished, but that was probably because of JK’s fame, and it must have been much quieter on the whole when she initially wrote there. (Several times we also passed the hotel in which she finished the last book, and engraved the date on the back of a bust in the room she was staying in).
After we were full, we moseyed over to Arthur’s Seat (nothing to do with the king- maybe I’ll look up the origin of the name someday). We apparently took the exceedingly difficult way up, starting on a remarkably steep path, then diverging to go up and down the rocky crags before that small path met up with the level large one we initially left. After hanging out on the top a bit and enjoying the stellar view of the city, the mountains and the water, we decided to take the easy route down. Somehow we missed that and ended up slipping and sliding down what must have been a waterfall in the rain, but was dry since it was a sunny day. Yeah, we rocked that mountain.
I got back in to campus around eleven, and sent in the last of my forms to confirm my employment for the summer, so I will definitely be working a full-time internship from Newton. Go team!
Sunday, 3 May
This was largely a recovery from travel type of day. I watched a couple of movies and discovered textsfromlastnight.com (bad news bears), and then went to see X-Men Origins at Genesis when I figured I needed to get out of the room. It was really good. I will say nothing else about it.
Monday, 4 May
I did some more chilling and catching up on photos and LJ early in the day. Vanessa and I took a little while to plan our birthday party- we’re going to have sombreros and a piñata, be jealous- and then I went to Boulevard Brasserie at Covent Garden for the BC farewell dinner. I got duck as a starter, and it came looking like lunch meat with two pieces of yummy bread, cranberry sauce, and lettuce, so I decided to make a sandwich- the kid next to me copied my idea, and all the flavours mixed deliciously. I had chicken kiev and mashed potatoes as the main course, and profiteroles (cream puffs!) smothered in chocolate sauce for dessert. And lots of free wine. I talked to Paul Wooten for most of the meal, and then Liz came and visited towards the end. I ended up going back to Mile End on my own since everyone else was going to get drinks after, but Liz and one of her friends walked to the underground with me before they went back to their campus.
I ended up going to Hayfields once I got back, and played some pool. I was completely terrible, and accidentally hit Damien in the face with the pool cue after one of my crap shots, and I felt really bad. We left pretty early since Hassan and Damien had a final the next day.
Tuesday, 5 May
OMG MCFLY! I had McDonalds for the first time in a long time and it was delicious, and then went to the concert. David Achuerleda opened, and he was really good- everyone got very excited when he sang “Angels,” by Elton John. After he finished and before McFly went on, they were playing random music (“Mihnomihna” and the like), which was really funny. And then McFly was there, and they were wonderful. All About You, Obviously, Star Girl, Five Colours, Do Ya?, Another Song for the Radio, and The Last Song were among the many played. As “break times,” Tom explained how they called to order a pizza at every city, and the one with the fastest delivery time would be their favourite city to go to, so then Dougie called Dominos from on stage. When the pizza arrived, he threw the pizza on the people down front. (I was so jealous- the girls behind us, at the very back, got asked if they wanted to move down front, probably because they were enthusiastic during the opener, but also because they were too close to the spotlight operator. I almost bought those tickets. I am so dumb.) At the end, they threw everything into the crowd- towels, water bottles, poured the coke from Dominos on everyone... it was really funny. SUCH A GOOD EXPERIENCE. I bought a show shirt and am very glad for it. I tried calling Erin when they were singing All About You, but I don’t think it came across the phone very well. I couldn’t even hear if it went to her voicemail or if she picked up or if it failed to dial. The only really sad thing about the concert was that it was a small venue (good for being close despite being up back) but that made it a bit hazy from the heat, so they were harder to see and my pictures are pretty blurry. A good portion of them will be posted anyways, though, because I was so excited. Love McFly.
I had to have Caitlin hold on to my room key so that Carly could let herself in when she got to my campus, but that worked out fine.
Friday, 1 May
Kevin and I got up at seven in the morning to get ready, grab food, and get to Haggis Adventure Tours for our day trip. On the way out of the city, we passed a school that had been sold and was being done over into apartments. It used to be a school for deaf and blind children, and their big charity event was an annual football match where the blind kids would play the deaf. This obviously put the blind kids at a bit of a disadvantage, so it was decided to put a bell in the football for them to hear the ball to kick at it and not lose as badly. Three years ago, they cancelled the match, though, as a cat had cut across the pitch the blind children were practicing on; wearing a collar with a bell on it, it attracted the attention of the blind children, who kicked it to death. Whoops.
We drove through the countryside a little bit, passing Sterling and Scone castles (we couldn’t see them too well) and made a pit stop at a place that had a woolly coo, Hamish. He looked like a baby woolly mammoth, without a trunk, and was adorable. He thought my camera was a snack, which was almost bad. I guess a tour guide got bovine herpes from “kissing” Hamish by having him eat a Digestive out of his mouth. Teehee!
We drove through the Highlands for another couple hours, occasionally stopping to take pretty pictures. We saw the lake where Sean Connery has a house, and also a certain chunk of mountains that is used in a lot of movies, such as Braveheart and Harry Potter. We also passed a little glen where the MacDonalds live; they don’t like the Campbells and won’t let any one by the name of Campbell stay in their town because hundreds of years ago, the Campbells took advantage of Highland hospitality and stayed in the MacDonald’s homes for a couple weeks, until they killed them all in the morning. We also passed the tallest mountain in Scotland (Nevis, I think). The name of North Face originates from the treacherous North Face of the mountain, which is kinda cool.
We eventually ended up at Loch Ness. I forget the name of the town we were in, but it was very cute, and they had a manmade canal for little boats to go through. Kev and I watched those for a few, and also walked down to the lake to eat our bagged lunch. The view was very pretty; it probably would have been nice had we done the boat tour as well, but what we did was more relaxing. A swan tried to eat some of our food; I think Nessie was really a giant black swan. How terrifying would that be?
Before getting back on the bus, we tried to go see this old abbey that’s being redone into flats, but it was private property so we got scared and ran away. We slept for a lot of the drive back, in between watching the Highlands and rainbows (Scotland had lots of rainbows, man) out the window.
We got back a bit early from our trip, which was good, so Kev and I went on a seach for some dinner. We ended up at Maggie Dickson’s Pub- the woman who was hanged, pronounced dead, and then woke up going “jk! And you can’t retry me because I’ve been punished for that crime (hiding a pregnancy) once already! LOL.” They had a decent deal of 2 dinners for eight quid, so I got some fish and chips and a soda, and then when we were eating, some woman came by our table and asked if we wanted a sample of Jack and coke. So we got a couple free samples of Jack and coke, which was fab.
After dinner, we went to do a ghost tour. Rhiannon, Er’s friend, came to meet up with us, so that was cool. We got free wind-up flashlights; mine ended up being extremely bright for a while, but then died. I think I over wound it, which I didn’t think possible. Oops. The tour was pretty cool. It started at Waverly Bridge, where lots of people go to commit suicide- they were going to put nets as a preventative measure, but decided drunk people would think it a fun game to jump into the nets. They’re so right. Then we went to Calton Cemetery and heard the story about the woman who was buried alive and awoken from her coma due to the pain of graverobbers cutting off her fingers to remove her rings; they tried to argue that she would’ve died if they hadn’t dug her up, so they saved her life, but they still got hanged for it. We also went up Calton Hill, which is supposedly the portal to the faerie world, but that wasn’t explained too well. We did relearn a bit about changelings and redcaps and grindylows, though. Redcaps like to eat your intestines, and grindylows turn into pretty horses that, when you try to catch them, you get stuck to the horse and it runs back into the water and you drown. Our tour guide was really fun and entertaining, Kev tried to be his biffle, and I don’t blame him a bit.
We went to the Bank Hotel to enjoy our complimentary pint, and chat a little bit longer, until Rhiannon had to go and Kev and I decided to crash.
Saturday, 2 May
We went and wandered around Edinburgh castle for a while; we went into the War Museum, where I was distracted by a video about bagpipers and dancing in kilts, as well as the information about how when a sailor first crossed the equator, there would be a ceremony where people dress up as mermaids and Neptune and throw the sailor in a tub of water and give him a certificate. Scots are fun. We also saw the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (you can barely see where it was broken; I was too short to notice it, and had to stand on tiptoe when Kev pointed it out) before rushing outside to see the one o’clock gun go off (since it’s cheaper for one cannon blast than the twelve necessary to mark noon). The war memorial was also pretty cool, and had books with all of the soldiers’ names who died in action- I found Kev some Mc and MacQueens. There was also a really cute, tragic dog cemetery.
From the castle, we went into a kilt shop that had actual looms and stuff working in it- it was a really cool shop, and huge.
We lunched in the Elephant House, which was a cafe covered in elephant trinkets and books, and served very delicious beef and mushroom pie with some of the best mashed potatoes and gravy ever, as well as awesome chocolate cake. But the food easily could have tasted so good simply because that was the place where JK wrote a large portion of Harry Potter, since they would let her sit there all day with a single cup of coffee. You could see “Hogwarts” as well as Greyfriars Kirk and the castle from the large windows, and it was so so cute. Kev and I decided that it was far too loud for any real work to be accomplished, but that was probably because of JK’s fame, and it must have been much quieter on the whole when she initially wrote there. (Several times we also passed the hotel in which she finished the last book, and engraved the date on the back of a bust in the room she was staying in).
After we were full, we moseyed over to Arthur’s Seat (nothing to do with the king- maybe I’ll look up the origin of the name someday). We apparently took the exceedingly difficult way up, starting on a remarkably steep path, then diverging to go up and down the rocky crags before that small path met up with the level large one we initially left. After hanging out on the top a bit and enjoying the stellar view of the city, the mountains and the water, we decided to take the easy route down. Somehow we missed that and ended up slipping and sliding down what must have been a waterfall in the rain, but was dry since it was a sunny day. Yeah, we rocked that mountain.
I got back in to campus around eleven, and sent in the last of my forms to confirm my employment for the summer, so I will definitely be working a full-time internship from Newton. Go team!
Sunday, 3 May
This was largely a recovery from travel type of day. I watched a couple of movies and discovered textsfromlastnight.com (bad news bears), and then went to see X-Men Origins at Genesis when I figured I needed to get out of the room. It was really good. I will say nothing else about it.
Monday, 4 May
I did some more chilling and catching up on photos and LJ early in the day. Vanessa and I took a little while to plan our birthday party- we’re going to have sombreros and a piñata, be jealous- and then I went to Boulevard Brasserie at Covent Garden for the BC farewell dinner. I got duck as a starter, and it came looking like lunch meat with two pieces of yummy bread, cranberry sauce, and lettuce, so I decided to make a sandwich- the kid next to me copied my idea, and all the flavours mixed deliciously. I had chicken kiev and mashed potatoes as the main course, and profiteroles (cream puffs!) smothered in chocolate sauce for dessert. And lots of free wine. I talked to Paul Wooten for most of the meal, and then Liz came and visited towards the end. I ended up going back to Mile End on my own since everyone else was going to get drinks after, but Liz and one of her friends walked to the underground with me before they went back to their campus.
I ended up going to Hayfields once I got back, and played some pool. I was completely terrible, and accidentally hit Damien in the face with the pool cue after one of my crap shots, and I felt really bad. We left pretty early since Hassan and Damien had a final the next day.
Tuesday, 5 May
OMG MCFLY! I had McDonalds for the first time in a long time and it was delicious, and then went to the concert. David Achuerleda opened, and he was really good- everyone got very excited when he sang “Angels,” by Elton John. After he finished and before McFly went on, they were playing random music (“Mihnomihna” and the like), which was really funny. And then McFly was there, and they were wonderful. All About You, Obviously, Star Girl, Five Colours, Do Ya?, Another Song for the Radio, and The Last Song were among the many played. As “break times,” Tom explained how they called to order a pizza at every city, and the one with the fastest delivery time would be their favourite city to go to, so then Dougie called Dominos from on stage. When the pizza arrived, he threw the pizza on the people down front. (I was so jealous- the girls behind us, at the very back, got asked if they wanted to move down front, probably because they were enthusiastic during the opener, but also because they were too close to the spotlight operator. I almost bought those tickets. I am so dumb.) At the end, they threw everything into the crowd- towels, water bottles, poured the coke from Dominos on everyone... it was really funny. SUCH A GOOD EXPERIENCE. I bought a show shirt and am very glad for it. I tried calling Erin when they were singing All About You, but I don’t think it came across the phone very well. I couldn’t even hear if it went to her voicemail or if she picked up or if it failed to dial. The only really sad thing about the concert was that it was a small venue (good for being close despite being up back) but that made it a bit hazy from the heat, so they were harder to see and my pictures are pretty blurry. A good portion of them will be posted anyways, though, because I was so excited. Love McFly.
I had to have Caitlin hold on to my room key so that Carly could let herself in when she got to my campus, but that worked out fine.
BAT BIRD!
May. 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Wednesday, 29 April
Diff Eq was exceedingly easy. The final was held in the Octagon, which was (shockingly) octagonal, and several stories high; the upper stories were all lined by bookcases, and the dome at the top of the room was a skylight- quite the cool room, really. I went through the exam carefully and reasonably quickly, utilizing my well-organized binder. I finished right after they stopped letting people leave the room, so I read the novel I brought in with me. Mwahaha.
I had quite a lot of time to hang out and pack before I met up with Kevin to catch our flight to Edinburgh, which was decently empty, so we were able to get seats in the emergency exit row- comfy! In reference to guessing who says "yup yup yup!" - "bat bird!"
We had to walk up Cockburn Street to get to our hostel on the Royal Mile. Teehee.
Thursday, 30 April
We found out about a free walking tour of Edinburgh so decided to take that. It started at 11 and we finished around 3:30, so it was really long and informative, which was cool, and worth our money (badumdum CH). Doug, our guide, bothered me a little since he was pretending to be Scottish, but is actually from Philadelphia and has only lived in Scotland for two years. That also bothered Kevin, though he was more put off by his sense of comedic timing.
I liked the story about the Stone of Destiny, and how in the fifties four nerdy academic types tried to steal it back from the Brits, who were keeping it in Westminster Abbey; they actually succeeded, breaking it in the process, and fixing it, and leaving it in Scone since the fuzz were trying to track them down. It ended up being turned in to the authorities and ultimately returned to Scotland like fifty years later. We also heard about how they used the ashes of burnt 'witches' to build walls and buildings.
After the tour, we sat in our hostel for a little bit, then wandered down to check out Holyrood Palace and the new parliament building- it was very modern and rather African looking. We went to the cathedral for a bit, though you had to pay to take photos, and it's not really a cathedral since they haven't a bishop and got pissed off when one got sent there, so they took him away after a woman threw a chair at his head in the middle of the service.
After a delicious huge meal at Gourmet Burger Kitchen (we got a two-for-one deal), we went and wandered around Greyfriar's Kirk, a cemetary. There's a memorial to Greyfriars Bobby, a loyal doggie who sat next to his master's grave for fourteen years until he died. There's also a school right next to the cemetary, which used to be for orphans but is now the most expensive primary school in Edinburgh, though a quarter of the students are orphans. Oh yeah, and said school? Inspiration for Hogwarts. Woot. Also, we scavenger hunted all through the graveyard for HP character names, since JK got lots of them there. McGonagall, Thomas Riddle (Sr and Jr) and Scrymgeour were notable successful hits.
We debated going to the Beltane festival, but decided to go to bed instead since we were tired.
Wednesday, 29 April
Diff Eq was exceedingly easy. The final was held in the Octagon, which was (shockingly) octagonal, and several stories high; the upper stories were all lined by bookcases, and the dome at the top of the room was a skylight- quite the cool room, really. I went through the exam carefully and reasonably quickly, utilizing my well-organized binder. I finished right after they stopped letting people leave the room, so I read the novel I brought in with me. Mwahaha.
I had quite a lot of time to hang out and pack before I met up with Kevin to catch our flight to Edinburgh, which was decently empty, so we were able to get seats in the emergency exit row- comfy! In reference to guessing who says "yup yup yup!" - "bat bird!"
We had to walk up Cockburn Street to get to our hostel on the Royal Mile. Teehee.
Thursday, 30 April
We found out about a free walking tour of Edinburgh so decided to take that. It started at 11 and we finished around 3:30, so it was really long and informative, which was cool, and worth our money (badumdum CH). Doug, our guide, bothered me a little since he was pretending to be Scottish, but is actually from Philadelphia and has only lived in Scotland for two years. That also bothered Kevin, though he was more put off by his sense of comedic timing.
I liked the story about the Stone of Destiny, and how in the fifties four nerdy academic types tried to steal it back from the Brits, who were keeping it in Westminster Abbey; they actually succeeded, breaking it in the process, and fixing it, and leaving it in Scone since the fuzz were trying to track them down. It ended up being turned in to the authorities and ultimately returned to Scotland like fifty years later. We also heard about how they used the ashes of burnt 'witches' to build walls and buildings.
After the tour, we sat in our hostel for a little bit, then wandered down to check out Holyrood Palace and the new parliament building- it was very modern and rather African looking. We went to the cathedral for a bit, though you had to pay to take photos, and it's not really a cathedral since they haven't a bishop and got pissed off when one got sent there, so they took him away after a woman threw a chair at his head in the middle of the service.
After a delicious huge meal at Gourmet Burger Kitchen (we got a two-for-one deal), we went and wandered around Greyfriar's Kirk, a cemetary. There's a memorial to Greyfriars Bobby, a loyal doggie who sat next to his master's grave for fourteen years until he died. There's also a school right next to the cemetary, which used to be for orphans but is now the most expensive primary school in Edinburgh, though a quarter of the students are orphans. Oh yeah, and said school? Inspiration for Hogwarts. Woot. Also, we scavenger hunted all through the graveyard for HP character names, since JK got lots of them there. McGonagall, Thomas Riddle (Sr and Jr) and Scrymgeour were notable successful hits.
We debated going to the Beltane festival, but decided to go to bed instead since we were tired.
Since I'm still so far behind...
May. 3rd, 2009 at 12:18 am
Thursday, 23 April
I was reasonably productive with my paper, and went through a source before Caitlin and I met up to go to Trafalgar Square. Being St George’s Day, there was to be a show in the National Gallery in front of the painting of St George and the dragon, so we commandeered some seats whilst listening to a talk about the painting. Mostly I was playing with the toddler seated in front of me, though. After the talk, most of the chairs were cleared away and we ended up in the front on the floor to enjoy a “mummery.” If I remember, I’ll look up what exactly that is, but in general it’s a traditional show type that often incorporates music. Several becostumed people danced and sang up to the portrait and then re-enacted said portrait as a beginning stance. They acted out the story of St George in quite an entertaining fashion- the dragon was, of course, French, and the swords were flowers as the National Gallery would not allow them to use fake swords.
We grabbed muffins at Costa Coffee after, then sat on the steps in Trafalgar Square, enjoying the drunken Englishmen who had overtaken Nelson’s column, waving St George’s flag around.
The two of us then met up with Hilary, Kevin, his friend Amy, and Damien to go to Brick Lane, which was delicious as per usual, and a slightly better deal than the last time. Somehow I did not end up with a completely distended belly this time ‘round, so Caitlin, Damien and I went and got dessert at Cookies and Cream after.
Friday, 24 April
After doing a bunch of work, Hilary and I watched Men in Tights in my room, which is a most excellent film, which she had surprisingly not seen the entirety of. We also had a Cadbury hot sticky chocolate pudding which was heavenly; I am definitely buying more of those next time I go grocery shopping!
Saturday, 25 April
To continue our St George’s Day activities, Caitlin and I met up to find St George’s Gardens (near Russell Square), where a local small festival was going on. The Master of Ceremonies was walking around on stilts, covered in British flags, and the two of us watched jealously as small children got to play with the archery set (we wanted a go, but decided we were a little outside the target age range). We got tea and cake and set up on the sunny lawn, reading a bit while there was a Bollywood dance lesson going on a bit aways (taught by two blondes, strangely). Soon after, the Punch and Judy tent was set up and ready to go. That puppet show explained so much to me about the British sense of humour- Judy would leave her baby with Punch, explain calmly that if Punch were to go after her child with a stick, we must call her back. When, as he inevitably would, Punch did indeed go after the baby with a stick- twice- and everyone called Judy back, she decided that Punch should teach the child to walk while she went away again. After Punch tricked the Copper into hanging himself- and rubbing it in his face by saying “you are stupid” rather than “I am sorry” when the officer told him to “say you are sorry!”- Crocodile Dundee was called to settle the matter by setting a crocodile on Punch so she could bite his nose. It was really funny, kid’s show or no!
I spent a long time downloading Huck Finn with Elijah Wood in it to reference for my last paper.
Sunday, 26 April
I stayed up until 4AM finishing my paper. 2500 words exactly, booyah.
Monday, 27 April
I spent an hour wandering through the library and available computer lounges, trying to find a computer to pop onto and print off my paper and some study materials. No luck. I finally ended up in Computing Services, where the receptionist was kind enough to clock me in and let me use their printers- which evidently were free, so I did lots of free printing of materials for my Diff Eq final after I printed my paper.
I had a phone interview with Pearson, which I thought went pretty well (this was the ‘second level’ one, with the managers), and they had worked with Rennie (Mirollo, he was the prof I first graded for). However, I got a job offer from EMC that same day, which I decided would be in my best interests to take- I would get to work for three or four more weeks, get paid five dollars an hour more, and for an hour a day more; I also get two paid days off, which is nice. Rather than studying, I spent a lot of days in communication with the various companies, and also verified that I can live with my aunt in Newton and drive with my uncle to work most days- so I’ll be in the Boston area this summer :-)
Tuesday, 28 April
I spent a few hours making a study guide of the materials from the second half of the term, and going over my midterm study guide, as well as making sure that all my notes and solutions were in order for my exam. I spent an hour or two doing work in the ITL as well, which is where the computer science kids hang out (it reminded me of the math lab, actually); that was overall an entertaining and mostly productive experience. After dinner at Wagamama’s (yay Wagamama Ramen and Apple and Lime juice!), I went over past finals and their solutions while doing laundry so I would have clean clothes to pack for Scotland.
Thursday, 23 April
I was reasonably productive with my paper, and went through a source before Caitlin and I met up to go to Trafalgar Square. Being St George’s Day, there was to be a show in the National Gallery in front of the painting of St George and the dragon, so we commandeered some seats whilst listening to a talk about the painting. Mostly I was playing with the toddler seated in front of me, though. After the talk, most of the chairs were cleared away and we ended up in the front on the floor to enjoy a “mummery.” If I remember, I’ll look up what exactly that is, but in general it’s a traditional show type that often incorporates music. Several becostumed people danced and sang up to the portrait and then re-enacted said portrait as a beginning stance. They acted out the story of St George in quite an entertaining fashion- the dragon was, of course, French, and the swords were flowers as the National Gallery would not allow them to use fake swords.
We grabbed muffins at Costa Coffee after, then sat on the steps in Trafalgar Square, enjoying the drunken Englishmen who had overtaken Nelson’s column, waving St George’s flag around.
The two of us then met up with Hilary, Kevin, his friend Amy, and Damien to go to Brick Lane, which was delicious as per usual, and a slightly better deal than the last time. Somehow I did not end up with a completely distended belly this time ‘round, so Caitlin, Damien and I went and got dessert at Cookies and Cream after.
Friday, 24 April
After doing a bunch of work, Hilary and I watched Men in Tights in my room, which is a most excellent film, which she had surprisingly not seen the entirety of. We also had a Cadbury hot sticky chocolate pudding which was heavenly; I am definitely buying more of those next time I go grocery shopping!
Saturday, 25 April
To continue our St George’s Day activities, Caitlin and I met up to find St George’s Gardens (near Russell Square), where a local small festival was going on. The Master of Ceremonies was walking around on stilts, covered in British flags, and the two of us watched jealously as small children got to play with the archery set (we wanted a go, but decided we were a little outside the target age range). We got tea and cake and set up on the sunny lawn, reading a bit while there was a Bollywood dance lesson going on a bit aways (taught by two blondes, strangely). Soon after, the Punch and Judy tent was set up and ready to go. That puppet show explained so much to me about the British sense of humour- Judy would leave her baby with Punch, explain calmly that if Punch were to go after her child with a stick, we must call her back. When, as he inevitably would, Punch did indeed go after the baby with a stick- twice- and everyone called Judy back, she decided that Punch should teach the child to walk while she went away again. After Punch tricked the Copper into hanging himself- and rubbing it in his face by saying “you are stupid” rather than “I am sorry” when the officer told him to “say you are sorry!”- Crocodile Dundee was called to settle the matter by setting a crocodile on Punch so she could bite his nose. It was really funny, kid’s show or no!
I spent a long time downloading Huck Finn with Elijah Wood in it to reference for my last paper.
Sunday, 26 April
I stayed up until 4AM finishing my paper. 2500 words exactly, booyah.
Monday, 27 April
I spent an hour wandering through the library and available computer lounges, trying to find a computer to pop onto and print off my paper and some study materials. No luck. I finally ended up in Computing Services, where the receptionist was kind enough to clock me in and let me use their printers- which evidently were free, so I did lots of free printing of materials for my Diff Eq final after I printed my paper.
I had a phone interview with Pearson, which I thought went pretty well (this was the ‘second level’ one, with the managers), and they had worked with Rennie (Mirollo, he was the prof I first graded for). However, I got a job offer from EMC that same day, which I decided would be in my best interests to take- I would get to work for three or four more weeks, get paid five dollars an hour more, and for an hour a day more; I also get two paid days off, which is nice. Rather than studying, I spent a lot of days in communication with the various companies, and also verified that I can live with my aunt in Newton and drive with my uncle to work most days- so I’ll be in the Boston area this summer :-)
Tuesday, 28 April
I spent a few hours making a study guide of the materials from the second half of the term, and going over my midterm study guide, as well as making sure that all my notes and solutions were in order for my exam. I spent an hour or two doing work in the ITL as well, which is where the computer science kids hang out (it reminded me of the math lab, actually); that was overall an entertaining and mostly productive experience. After dinner at Wagamama’s (yay Wagamama Ramen and Apple and Lime juice!), I went over past finals and their solutions while doing laundry so I would have clean clothes to pack for Scotland.
Since I'm wayyyy behind...
Apr. 27th, 2009 at 01:57 pm
Friday, 17 April
After getting off the airplane from Italy, I caught a train and then a couple trams to my friend Paul's home in East Croydon. We were supposed to have a pool party but it was drizzly and dreary, so instead the group of us went to a pub; it was very nice and in good condition, so it felt weird, since I'm so used to Hayfields. I didn't really do much there, just talked a bit with a girl named Matilda who was visiting from Sweden, with her stepsister Matilda, who is friends with Damien and Paul. Otherwise I just stole sips from people's drinks and revelled in the burger that was in my tummy, since I was very very hungry (seriously, I inhaled it in under a minute, go me!). I fell asleep watching TV with them after the pub closed.
Saturday, 18 April
I was supposed to go shopping in Camden with everyone, but since I needed to go back to my room to drop my stuff off, I ended up not going... I was so tired, so I just sort of collapsed instead and used it as a rest day.
Sunday, 19 April
I met up with Carly and her family near Hyde Park, and we went and got a nice big lunch at a pub and talked a bit. Nachos here are very interesting- the chips are actually more like Doritos than tortilla chips. But sooo delicious. It was really nice to hang out with them, little bits of home are always good.
After lunch, I went to read in Hyde Park for a bit and enjoy the lovely sunny day while I waited for Caitlin and Hilary to make it in to meet up with me. I was excited to see them, since I hadn't for quite a while by that point in time- I think it'd been three weeks since I'd seen Hilary, and I'd only seen Caitlin once in that span of time. We wandered around Hyde Park, and then I think we ended up in Kensington Gardens a bit. We passed a giant group of rollerbladers (I mean giant, there were over a hundred people) on our way to check out the Peter Pan statue, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and the Italian Fountains. It was lovely and hot out, so there were lots of people rowing and doing paddling boats on the ponds, and even a couple people swimming, and lots of people playing in the Princess Di fountain. As we wandered around we talked about the trips we'd taken and shared some funny stories, generally catching up, then eventually made our way over to Speaker's Corner. There were loads of people up on soapboxes, talking about different things- some wearing very interesting outfits, as my facebook photos will soon show. There was also a group of people doing free hugs, and Hilary took two.
On our way to the tube, we passed the "Animals in War" memorial, which was a bit dramatic and cheesey, but still a cool thought.
Monday, 20 April
I have no idea what I did earlier in the day, I think just some work, but in the evening we went to go see Les Mis, which was most excellent. The whole cast was very talented, but Epamine had a killer voice, and Javert was also very impressive. I wanted to take Gavroche and little Cosette home with me, they were so adorable! We all put in 50p to these little contraptions and got opera glasses from them, since we were pretty far up back; they came in handy for solo numbers or if we were curious about someone's face, so it made our cheap seats very legitimate.
I didn't find this out until the next day, but apparently they were filming the cafe scene from Harry Potter 7 just a bit further down the street from us. How we missed this, I will never know, but I am so sad that I came so close to seeing Dan, Rupert and Emma, and we missed them.
Tuesday, 21 April
FREE ICE CREAM! Ben and Jerry's free cone day. Glorious. Vanessa, Damien, Caitlin and I went to Tower Hill and got in line; Damien took a cup off a tray they were carrying up the line to try to disperse it some, and then all four of us got cones (I love their chocolate fudge brownie). Then we went 'round and got back in line, and I got another cone.
Since it was another gloriously hot day out, we decided to hang out in the area a little bit longer, and wandered over to the Tower of London. They were just setting up for a demonstration of medieval warfare on the lawn, so we took a spot by the fence to watch the show for free (mwahahaha). At one point in time, when some of the paying customers were launching the trebuchet, one of the men asked if we wanted a go (since we were cheering loudly and participating as much as possible from our vantage point). When we said yes, he told us we should go buy tickets then, cheapskates! This prompted an adorable little boy on the field to pass by us a few minutes later and say, "Hey! You're cheap! Go buy tickets, cheaps!" There was also a kid who was hysterical to watch- when they were charging the Tower with a ladder, he tripped and fell, so a cast member said he stepped on a giant piece of metal; when they took up the charge again, the kid limped and hopped on one foot with the rest of the audience. Fantastic.
After our free show, we went through the line one more time- this time I took a freebie off a tray whilst waiting, but it was brownie in cheesecake and tasted a little funk, so I got a caramel chewchew at the desk. Don't worry, I did donate some money too! But it was a delicious, fun, free day, and I got a bit of a tan, so that was cool.
Wednesday, 22 April
I had a phone interview earlier in the day with a publishing company, Pearson. The internship sounded pretty cool- I'd be helping edit and publish a college level stats textbook.
That evening, we went to see Oliver! The show was fantastic- hoards of singing and dancing children. I want to take the Artful Dodger home with me, he was SUCH a ham. Also, Nancy had some serious lungpower. The stage was wicked deep, though it didn't seem it until Oliver started running upstage through the set and he got very, very tiny. I did the opera glasses thing again, which was a good choice. Also, I had to sit on my own for the first act, since they didn't have five tickets together- 4 and 1 was the best they could do. I switched off for the second act though. We were all a bit disappointed- I think Kevin and Hilary more so- that Rowan Atkinson wasn't playing that evening as Fagan, because he had had surgery recently. Twas a bummer, but alas.
It was boiling in the theater, so it was so nice when we got outside after and it was just slightly cool; we took a bit of a walk to Holborn rather than the Covent Garden station to get back to campus.
Friday, 17 April
After getting off the airplane from Italy, I caught a train and then a couple trams to my friend Paul's home in East Croydon. We were supposed to have a pool party but it was drizzly and dreary, so instead the group of us went to a pub; it was very nice and in good condition, so it felt weird, since I'm so used to Hayfields. I didn't really do much there, just talked a bit with a girl named Matilda who was visiting from Sweden, with her stepsister Matilda, who is friends with Damien and Paul. Otherwise I just stole sips from people's drinks and revelled in the burger that was in my tummy, since I was very very hungry (seriously, I inhaled it in under a minute, go me!). I fell asleep watching TV with them after the pub closed.
Saturday, 18 April
I was supposed to go shopping in Camden with everyone, but since I needed to go back to my room to drop my stuff off, I ended up not going... I was so tired, so I just sort of collapsed instead and used it as a rest day.
Sunday, 19 April
I met up with Carly and her family near Hyde Park, and we went and got a nice big lunch at a pub and talked a bit. Nachos here are very interesting- the chips are actually more like Doritos than tortilla chips. But sooo delicious. It was really nice to hang out with them, little bits of home are always good.
After lunch, I went to read in Hyde Park for a bit and enjoy the lovely sunny day while I waited for Caitlin and Hilary to make it in to meet up with me. I was excited to see them, since I hadn't for quite a while by that point in time- I think it'd been three weeks since I'd seen Hilary, and I'd only seen Caitlin once in that span of time. We wandered around Hyde Park, and then I think we ended up in Kensington Gardens a bit. We passed a giant group of rollerbladers (I mean giant, there were over a hundred people) on our way to check out the Peter Pan statue, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and the Italian Fountains. It was lovely and hot out, so there were lots of people rowing and doing paddling boats on the ponds, and even a couple people swimming, and lots of people playing in the Princess Di fountain. As we wandered around we talked about the trips we'd taken and shared some funny stories, generally catching up, then eventually made our way over to Speaker's Corner. There were loads of people up on soapboxes, talking about different things- some wearing very interesting outfits, as my facebook photos will soon show. There was also a group of people doing free hugs, and Hilary took two.
On our way to the tube, we passed the "Animals in War" memorial, which was a bit dramatic and cheesey, but still a cool thought.
Monday, 20 April
I have no idea what I did earlier in the day, I think just some work, but in the evening we went to go see Les Mis, which was most excellent. The whole cast was very talented, but Epamine had a killer voice, and Javert was also very impressive. I wanted to take Gavroche and little Cosette home with me, they were so adorable! We all put in 50p to these little contraptions and got opera glasses from them, since we were pretty far up back; they came in handy for solo numbers or if we were curious about someone's face, so it made our cheap seats very legitimate.
I didn't find this out until the next day, but apparently they were filming the cafe scene from Harry Potter 7 just a bit further down the street from us. How we missed this, I will never know, but I am so sad that I came so close to seeing Dan, Rupert and Emma, and we missed them.
Tuesday, 21 April
FREE ICE CREAM! Ben and Jerry's free cone day. Glorious. Vanessa, Damien, Caitlin and I went to Tower Hill and got in line; Damien took a cup off a tray they were carrying up the line to try to disperse it some, and then all four of us got cones (I love their chocolate fudge brownie). Then we went 'round and got back in line, and I got another cone.
Since it was another gloriously hot day out, we decided to hang out in the area a little bit longer, and wandered over to the Tower of London. They were just setting up for a demonstration of medieval warfare on the lawn, so we took a spot by the fence to watch the show for free (mwahahaha). At one point in time, when some of the paying customers were launching the trebuchet, one of the men asked if we wanted a go (since we were cheering loudly and participating as much as possible from our vantage point). When we said yes, he told us we should go buy tickets then, cheapskates! This prompted an adorable little boy on the field to pass by us a few minutes later and say, "Hey! You're cheap! Go buy tickets, cheaps!" There was also a kid who was hysterical to watch- when they were charging the Tower with a ladder, he tripped and fell, so a cast member said he stepped on a giant piece of metal; when they took up the charge again, the kid limped and hopped on one foot with the rest of the audience. Fantastic.
After our free show, we went through the line one more time- this time I took a freebie off a tray whilst waiting, but it was brownie in cheesecake and tasted a little funk, so I got a caramel chewchew at the desk. Don't worry, I did donate some money too! But it was a delicious, fun, free day, and I got a bit of a tan, so that was cool.
Wednesday, 22 April
I had a phone interview earlier in the day with a publishing company, Pearson. The internship sounded pretty cool- I'd be helping edit and publish a college level stats textbook.
That evening, we went to see Oliver! The show was fantastic- hoards of singing and dancing children. I want to take the Artful Dodger home with me, he was SUCH a ham. Also, Nancy had some serious lungpower. The stage was wicked deep, though it didn't seem it until Oliver started running upstage through the set and he got very, very tiny. I did the opera glasses thing again, which was a good choice. Also, I had to sit on my own for the first act, since they didn't have five tickets together- 4 and 1 was the best they could do. I switched off for the second act though. We were all a bit disappointed- I think Kevin and Hilary more so- that Rowan Atkinson wasn't playing that evening as Fagan, because he had had surgery recently. Twas a bummer, but alas.
It was boiling in the theater, so it was so nice when we got outside after and it was just slightly cool; we took a bit of a walk to Holborn rather than the Covent Garden station to get back to campus.
OMG
Apr. 24th, 2009 at 02:40 pm
I just booked tickets for a McFly concert and I am SO EXCITED.
I'll catch up this past week later. But for now...
SQUEE!
I just booked tickets for a McFly concert and I am SO EXCITED.
I'll catch up this past week later. But for now...
SQUEE!
Rome in almost a day, and Pigeon Brothels
Apr. 21st, 2009 at 08:45 pm
Wednesday, 15 April
We slept in a bit in Pisa; when I got up, I met the other girl in my room- she was from Amherst, MA and studying abroad in Scotland, so that was kinda random. At the cafe we got breakfast at, these two "money police" dudes were hitting on the woman working at the counter and gossiping with her for a long time, and kept saying goodbye and going back to talk more, it was really funny. We chilled in the Piazza dei Miracoli again, and saw a bit too much of the pigeon mating process until a child came and kicked them. In the train station in Livorno, we ate lunch and there was an adorable child watching the train arrivals. Keener decided he was going to be a commuter when he grew up.
Upon arrival in Rome, we checked our bags at the train station and headed over to the Spanish Steps. I Rocky Balboaed them for a few steps, but there were just too many to run up singing the entire way. After admiring the sun setting over the city, we went and got dinner at a place near Piazza Navona, where we were served the biggest gelato I've ever seen. We walked the city at night a little bit, checking out Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona and passing Hadrian's Tomb and the Pantheon en route to the Trevi Fountain, which is GORGEOUS at night. After people watching, our real adventure began as we attempted to find our hostel.
After grabbing our luggage, we got the A train to Flaminio, where we were supposed to get the F train. Unfortunately, we had just missed the last one, so needed to wait and take a tram, which took quite a while to arrive. Fortunately, a small knot of slightly intoxicated French guys standing near us burst out into a song about waiting for "Le Tram." I looked around and noticed music notes on their hoodies- so apparently they were an a capella group, thus explaining the tight harmonies. After the tram finally arrived, we took it to another place and got on the 200 bus, and both of us spaced out and ended up getting off with the majority of the crowd. Which was wrong. We went over to a nearby hostel and asked directions, and they rushed us back to the bus so we wouldn't miss the last one. After finally getting to Prima Porta, we had to call the hostel and wait for a shuttle to come pick us up at the bus station, and ended up being checked in to our "hostel" aka camping site by quarter to one in the morning.
Thursday, 16 April
I was aoken by the sounds of people typing, which didn't make sense as Keens and I were the only two in our room, and neither of us had a laptop with us. After going to the bathroom, I came back and realized that there was an animal in our ceiling. After the intensifying cooing, I realized that the sound in the ceiling were pigeons. Mating. Yes, our room was a pigeon brothel. Go team.
Getting in to the city was much easier and took about an hour instead of the three hours it took us to get halfway to Florence. We went to the Vatican and in to St Peter's Basilica, which was gigantic. It could easily swallow several of the large cathedrals I've been in before. There was a mass going on in a side chapel, which was probably the size of my church at home. There was also this woman who had lined up a shot in the middle of a hallway and wanted to take a photo, so she gave me a death glare when I accidentally got into the frame, rather than saying anything. Litlte bit out of the spirit of being in a church, really. The Swiss Guards were cool, they sort of looked a bit like clowns, or like they were wearing the boy costume from Mother Ginger in the Nutcracker.
We got lunch near the Vatican, and were seated near a southern couple, so it was very interesting listening to the woman trying to speak Italian with a southern accent, and also recalculating her miscalculated bill incorrectly. After food, we went back to the Trevi where I made the wish, and we people watched some more. We then wandered on to the monument of Vittorio Emmanuelle II, and then tried to get into the place where St Ignatius is buried, but it was closed which was a bummer. We went in to the Pantheon, where the first two kings of Italy are buried- Vit Emm II and Umberto- as well as Raphael (not the ninja turtle, though). I liked that there was a sign in there telling you that you couldn't nap.
The Jesuit Church (St Ignatius of Loyola, of course) was really cool, though I quite liked the model that one of the Jesuits worked on for twenty six years or so of all sorts of churches and places of worship from different places gathered under one dome. Definitely such a Jesuit thing to do. Some guy was trying to ask us for directions to "God's Eyes." We still have no idea what he was talking about.
We passed by Hadrian's Tomb again, but it was closed, and then went by the Trojan Column and the Roman Forum, which were both cool and old. There were a lot of helpful signs near the Forum to explain what everything was, which was nice. Keener gave me a cheap tour of the Colosseum from the exterior, peeking in when we could, since it was twelve euro to get in which was a bit out of budget. He knew a lot of cool stuff, like were Caeser sat, and where the nosebleed section was, and how they put sand on the floor to soak up the blood, and how there was an outer concourse but a lot of the most exterior wall is missing now, since stones and iron were taken to build other things. The entrances were numbered, which was also cool and a lot like football stadiums and things now. We checked out Constantine's Arch while we were there, then went to find the Domus Aurea. After much aimless wandering, we asked for directions, but the couple wasn't from the area so went and asked "grandfather" (as they called the old men emerging from this cool random old building), so we were able to find Nero's old house. It was closed for renovation, though, but was pretty cool. We hung around the Trevi a bit more the rest of the evening before an uneventful return to the pigeon brothel.
Friday, 17 April
We saw the Tiber River before peacing from our crappy hostel, and then went and people watched on the Spanish Steps before going back to the train station. After saying goodbye to Keens, I got to the platform for Fiumacino airport, but some crazy dude kept coming up and bombing through the ticket kiosk and telling me to put money in the machine, so I eventually just bought the one he kept getting even though I was pretty sure I qualified for a student discount. It was just sort of confusing and weird to my tired mind. Getting back to England was relatively uneventful, which was nice. And thusly ends my Italian adventure..
Wednesday, 15 April
We slept in a bit in Pisa; when I got up, I met the other girl in my room- she was from Amherst, MA and studying abroad in Scotland, so that was kinda random. At the cafe we got breakfast at, these two "money police" dudes were hitting on the woman working at the counter and gossiping with her for a long time, and kept saying goodbye and going back to talk more, it was really funny. We chilled in the Piazza dei Miracoli again, and saw a bit too much of the pigeon mating process until a child came and kicked them. In the train station in Livorno, we ate lunch and there was an adorable child watching the train arrivals. Keener decided he was going to be a commuter when he grew up.
Upon arrival in Rome, we checked our bags at the train station and headed over to the Spanish Steps. I Rocky Balboaed them for a few steps, but there were just too many to run up singing the entire way. After admiring the sun setting over the city, we went and got dinner at a place near Piazza Navona, where we were served the biggest gelato I've ever seen. We walked the city at night a little bit, checking out Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona and passing Hadrian's Tomb and the Pantheon en route to the Trevi Fountain, which is GORGEOUS at night. After people watching, our real adventure began as we attempted to find our hostel.
After grabbing our luggage, we got the A train to Flaminio, where we were supposed to get the F train. Unfortunately, we had just missed the last one, so needed to wait and take a tram, which took quite a while to arrive. Fortunately, a small knot of slightly intoxicated French guys standing near us burst out into a song about waiting for "Le Tram." I looked around and noticed music notes on their hoodies- so apparently they were an a capella group, thus explaining the tight harmonies. After the tram finally arrived, we took it to another place and got on the 200 bus, and both of us spaced out and ended up getting off with the majority of the crowd. Which was wrong. We went over to a nearby hostel and asked directions, and they rushed us back to the bus so we wouldn't miss the last one. After finally getting to Prima Porta, we had to call the hostel and wait for a shuttle to come pick us up at the bus station, and ended up being checked in to our "hostel" aka camping site by quarter to one in the morning.
Thursday, 16 April
I was aoken by the sounds of people typing, which didn't make sense as Keens and I were the only two in our room, and neither of us had a laptop with us. After going to the bathroom, I came back and realized that there was an animal in our ceiling. After the intensifying cooing, I realized that the sound in the ceiling were pigeons. Mating. Yes, our room was a pigeon brothel. Go team.
Getting in to the city was much easier and took about an hour instead of the three hours it took us to get halfway to Florence. We went to the Vatican and in to St Peter's Basilica, which was gigantic. It could easily swallow several of the large cathedrals I've been in before. There was a mass going on in a side chapel, which was probably the size of my church at home. There was also this woman who had lined up a shot in the middle of a hallway and wanted to take a photo, so she gave me a death glare when I accidentally got into the frame, rather than saying anything. Litlte bit out of the spirit of being in a church, really. The Swiss Guards were cool, they sort of looked a bit like clowns, or like they were wearing the boy costume from Mother Ginger in the Nutcracker.
We got lunch near the Vatican, and were seated near a southern couple, so it was very interesting listening to the woman trying to speak Italian with a southern accent, and also recalculating her miscalculated bill incorrectly. After food, we went back to the Trevi where I made the wish, and we people watched some more. We then wandered on to the monument of Vittorio Emmanuelle II, and then tried to get into the place where St Ignatius is buried, but it was closed which was a bummer. We went in to the Pantheon, where the first two kings of Italy are buried- Vit Emm II and Umberto- as well as Raphael (not the ninja turtle, though). I liked that there was a sign in there telling you that you couldn't nap.
The Jesuit Church (St Ignatius of Loyola, of course) was really cool, though I quite liked the model that one of the Jesuits worked on for twenty six years or so of all sorts of churches and places of worship from different places gathered under one dome. Definitely such a Jesuit thing to do. Some guy was trying to ask us for directions to "God's Eyes." We still have no idea what he was talking about.
We passed by Hadrian's Tomb again, but it was closed, and then went by the Trojan Column and the Roman Forum, which were both cool and old. There were a lot of helpful signs near the Forum to explain what everything was, which was nice. Keener gave me a cheap tour of the Colosseum from the exterior, peeking in when we could, since it was twelve euro to get in which was a bit out of budget. He knew a lot of cool stuff, like were Caeser sat, and where the nosebleed section was, and how they put sand on the floor to soak up the blood, and how there was an outer concourse but a lot of the most exterior wall is missing now, since stones and iron were taken to build other things. The entrances were numbered, which was also cool and a lot like football stadiums and things now. We checked out Constantine's Arch while we were there, then went to find the Domus Aurea. After much aimless wandering, we asked for directions, but the couple wasn't from the area so went and asked "grandfather" (as they called the old men emerging from this cool random old building), so we were able to find Nero's old house. It was closed for renovation, though, but was pretty cool. We hung around the Trevi a bit more the rest of the evening before an uneventful return to the pigeon brothel.
Friday, 17 April
We saw the Tiber River before peacing from our crappy hostel, and then went and people watched on the Spanish Steps before going back to the train station. After saying goodbye to Keens, I got to the platform for Fiumacino airport, but some crazy dude kept coming up and bombing through the ticket kiosk and telling me to put money in the machine, so I eventually just bought the one he kept getting even though I was pretty sure I qualified for a student discount. It was just sort of confusing and weird to my tired mind. Getting back to England was relatively uneventful, which was nice. And thusly ends my Italian adventure..
Pasqua, Films, Towers and Learning Italian
Apr. 20th, 2009 at 06:04 pm
Friday, 10 April
Heading off to Italy, I got to the airport with no incidents, and consumed Digestives for dinner. After the flight, I got into Venice quite easily and was met by Andrew a few minutes after I got to Palazzo Roma. He helped me carry my stuff to Campo Margherita where I met some of his friends, and then, since I was ill and tired, we caught a vaporetto to the island they live on. It was very pretty, and the room was very much a hotel. It worked out pretty well that none of his roommates came back that night, so we both had beds to sleep in before an early morning!
Saturday, 11 April
We got up wicked early to catch the vaporetto and get to the train station, with enough time for a bit of breakfast and fix one of my tickets. I mostly slept on the train ride, and moved seats to sit near Keener a couple times, since we were in different carriages.
When we arrived in Torino, we took the hour walk to our hostel since it was decently nice out, albeit a bit drizzly. The hostel owner was jolly and very friendly, though he struggled through English with me a bit at check in until Keens let him know that he could speak Italian. He had a lot of good opinions on things to do- I was trying to listen in on their conversation, and heard a lot about “chocolate omnomnom!” Apparently, Torino is decently famous for chocolate. He also said something about how we should take the bus, not walk.
Following his advice, we took the bus into the city and found the Egyptian Museum, which was a lot like the British Museum. There was a huge chunk of the original city wall in the basement, which was really cool, and there was also a mummy whose face you could still see. The statue room had very dramatic lighting and mirrors, which was nifty.
We passed the royal palace and a war monument whilst wandering around looking for a place to eat dinner, which I was able to wait for as I had eaten a delicious puffy pastry. After dinner, we then got gelato at a place that had a wonderful sign, “If you desire to eat gelato, you must sound the bell.” Only in Italian, obviously.
Sunday, 12 April
Buona Pasqua!
We got up early in the rain and went to mass at the Duomo, which decided to start a half hour late and lasted for an hour and twenty minutes. It was pretty cool though, as a Cardinal gave the mass, and the music was gorgeous- especially the trumpet break. There was also the Shroud of Torino in one of the front chapels, although it was in a box with an image of the shroud hanging above it. Some bits of the homily that Keens was able to remember and translate for me were, “It might be raining outside but it is sunny in our hearts,” and “feel bad for non-believers, they’re sad and have no hope, but I have lots of friends who are non-believers.”
After mass, we had a quick yummy buffet lunch, and then found the film museum. The building used to be a synagogue, but was done over as they decided a museum would be more profitable. The main room in itself was really cool, with lots of reclined chairs so you could watch movies on the big screens, or watch the glass elevator grow smaller and smaller as it went to the spire for a panoramic view. There were also small side rooms all around, with various themes- such as a mirrored room that showed clips in which mirrors were important, and a room where you sit on toilets and there were comedy clips, and one with a Dracula’s coffin used on stage and in a film version with horror films. There was also a cool fifties-style house, where you could watch original footage and then a movie version of it, like JFK and a movie about D-Day. My favorite room was the “love room,” which had a lush red round bed that you had to lay back on and watch the movie projected on the canopy. As we wound up the spiral walkway around the perimeter, we found Star Wars storyboards, places where you could ride a bike in front of a green screen and pretend you were in ET, and a huge display to an Italian actor named Alfonso Rodolpho. I also accidentally ended up on a big screen acting like a tool, as there was a side room where you could be in a scene from Mr and Mrs Smith, I think, so I did that, and then we walked further up and my goofing off was projected on the large screen. It was very fun, and we easily could have stayed there all day.
After we left the museum, it was lovely and bright out, so we walked down to Fiume Po (the Po River), wandered alongside a garden and turned down to walk through an old tower from the original city wall, and passed a couple of churches before getting Biccharine at a little shop tucked away in a corner that the friendly people at the information booth had recommended. Biccharine is a sort of chocolatey, coffee-y, alcohol-y drink that is traditional in Torino.
We wandered along a bit more, passing some police officers who had capes and swords, and ultimately ended up taking a bus to the Stadio Olimpico. The hockey arena there was HUGE. After a pit stop at our hostel, we went back to the city centre and got some little chocolate eggs for Easter at a place recommended by information and then dinner at a Pizza Beer place (sorry, kids, not a Pizza Kebab, which are slightly more prevalent and remind me of Halal Bite and Perfect Fried Chicken).
Monday, 13 April
We had another relatively early morning to catch the train, with Keener’s hostel roomie, who also ended up in the same hostel as we did in Genoa. The train ride itself was pretty; we kept popping in and out of mountains. Genoa was very hot, I think around 80 Fahrenheit most of the time we were there. Since we got in at eleven in the morning and weren’t allowed to check in to our hostel until 2:30 in the afternoon, we lugged our baggage around a bit until we found lunch and hydration in the form of Coke and paninis on foccacia bread. We got a feel for the city, it was more graffitied and cluttered than Torino, and interesting in that it stretched immediately from ocean to mountains.
Happening upon Strada Nouva, we decided to check and see if any of the Palazzos were open, and managed to check our bags for free and gain entry to Palazzo Rosso, Bianco and Tursi for 6 Euro, as well as a panoramic view from the top of Rosso, which was pretty spectacular, and we could even see the lanterna (lighthouse). The art in Rosso was very pretty, though my favorite were the rooms where the frescoes were dedicated to the four seasons- sadly, winter and fall were closed for restoration. We also got to see where the Directrice lived for a while. The black and white floors of the art museum Bianco were pretty, and the art was pretty interesting, though I got a bit tired of it. The garden was really cute, above street level, and had a fountain of Mary and Jesus, though since she was holding a shell we weren’t sure if it was Mary or Venus until we asked. Tursi had a bunch of lilac trees, so it smelled gorgeous. The courtyard there was gorgeous, with a huge staircase and a clock and more lilac trees. I also really enjoyed the sculpture of Mary M, and we saw Pagini’s violins, which were pretty cool. The Cannone gets taken out once a year on October 12 to be played by the winner of a competition.
We wandered past a huge fountain outside the Opera, by the Palazzo Ducale, the Basilica, and down to the waterfront. We checked out what a giant globe was- a tropical greenhouse that was very expensive to get into- and then decided to grab our stuff and check in to the hostel. After winding up the mountain on the bus, we got to our hostel, which had a gorgeous view.
I had pasta with pesto for dinner, as Genoa is supposedly known for its pesto, and then got the Italian version of crème brulée for dessert. I also had coffee! Which is impressive since I do not do coffee. We wandered the streets a bit at night; there was one bit of the Porto Antico that seemed as if Disney’s Boardwalk was based off of it, and Via Girabaldi (with the palaces) was very cutely lit up.
When trying to fall asleep, one of the girls in my room (from China) was having a conversation with an Italian girl, so I listened in and surprisingly understood almost everything they were talking about, which was pretty cool.
Tuesday, 14 April
After a cheap breakfast at the hostel, we checked out, left our bags at the train station, and went to Christofo Colombo’s house; there was a bell from the Santa Maria there, and you could see their “sanitary facilities.” There was also a cute little religious thing (Keens couldn’t translate it very well, but it was sort of a small church or convent) which had been destroyed so a bank could be built on the site, and then they decided to tear down the bank and take the pieces of the old thing and rebuild it. It was like a small temple with some pretty columns, and was dedicated to St Andrew.
We went to the Basilica after; it had a lot of black and white marble, which was very strange but interesting looking. There were also a bunch of cool chapels, such as the one dedicated to the resurrection. The one that was for “prayer only” was gorgeous and had a very interesting organ with painted folding doors to cover it. We didn’t get to see the alleged Holy Grail, which was unfortunate.
After lunch and while eating gelato, we watched some pigeons attempting to mate and going for a mangy black one when they got frustrated, and were relieved when it was time to get on our next train to Pisa. We found a map there, then hopped on the LAM (like a green energy bus) and got off at the stop for the Tower of Pisa, and hiked a little bit to the “camping” location that would be our hostel. We could see the Tower from it, which was pretty cool.
We went and did the tourist thang at the tower- pretending to hold it up or push it down and whatnot- and then sat on the grass in the sun for a long time, admiring the tower with the duomo and the baptistery, and watching the crowd doing similar things. At dinner, I was confused when I ordered food with potatoes which ended up being French Fries. After eating well, we decided to call it an early night since Keener was getting pretty sick and I still wasn’t over my cold.
Friday, 10 April
Heading off to Italy, I got to the airport with no incidents, and consumed Digestives for dinner. After the flight, I got into Venice quite easily and was met by Andrew a few minutes after I got to Palazzo Roma. He helped me carry my stuff to Campo Margherita where I met some of his friends, and then, since I was ill and tired, we caught a vaporetto to the island they live on. It was very pretty, and the room was very much a hotel. It worked out pretty well that none of his roommates came back that night, so we both had beds to sleep in before an early morning!
Saturday, 11 April
We got up wicked early to catch the vaporetto and get to the train station, with enough time for a bit of breakfast and fix one of my tickets. I mostly slept on the train ride, and moved seats to sit near Keener a couple times, since we were in different carriages.
When we arrived in Torino, we took the hour walk to our hostel since it was decently nice out, albeit a bit drizzly. The hostel owner was jolly and very friendly, though he struggled through English with me a bit at check in until Keens let him know that he could speak Italian. He had a lot of good opinions on things to do- I was trying to listen in on their conversation, and heard a lot about “chocolate omnomnom!” Apparently, Torino is decently famous for chocolate. He also said something about how we should take the bus, not walk.
Following his advice, we took the bus into the city and found the Egyptian Museum, which was a lot like the British Museum. There was a huge chunk of the original city wall in the basement, which was really cool, and there was also a mummy whose face you could still see. The statue room had very dramatic lighting and mirrors, which was nifty.
We passed the royal palace and a war monument whilst wandering around looking for a place to eat dinner, which I was able to wait for as I had eaten a delicious puffy pastry. After dinner, we then got gelato at a place that had a wonderful sign, “If you desire to eat gelato, you must sound the bell.” Only in Italian, obviously.
Sunday, 12 April
Buona Pasqua!
We got up early in the rain and went to mass at the Duomo, which decided to start a half hour late and lasted for an hour and twenty minutes. It was pretty cool though, as a Cardinal gave the mass, and the music was gorgeous- especially the trumpet break. There was also the Shroud of Torino in one of the front chapels, although it was in a box with an image of the shroud hanging above it. Some bits of the homily that Keens was able to remember and translate for me were, “It might be raining outside but it is sunny in our hearts,” and “feel bad for non-believers, they’re sad and have no hope, but I have lots of friends who are non-believers.”
After mass, we had a quick yummy buffet lunch, and then found the film museum. The building used to be a synagogue, but was done over as they decided a museum would be more profitable. The main room in itself was really cool, with lots of reclined chairs so you could watch movies on the big screens, or watch the glass elevator grow smaller and smaller as it went to the spire for a panoramic view. There were also small side rooms all around, with various themes- such as a mirrored room that showed clips in which mirrors were important, and a room where you sit on toilets and there were comedy clips, and one with a Dracula’s coffin used on stage and in a film version with horror films. There was also a cool fifties-style house, where you could watch original footage and then a movie version of it, like JFK and a movie about D-Day. My favorite room was the “love room,” which had a lush red round bed that you had to lay back on and watch the movie projected on the canopy. As we wound up the spiral walkway around the perimeter, we found Star Wars storyboards, places where you could ride a bike in front of a green screen and pretend you were in ET, and a huge display to an Italian actor named Alfonso Rodolpho. I also accidentally ended up on a big screen acting like a tool, as there was a side room where you could be in a scene from Mr and Mrs Smith, I think, so I did that, and then we walked further up and my goofing off was projected on the large screen. It was very fun, and we easily could have stayed there all day.
After we left the museum, it was lovely and bright out, so we walked down to Fiume Po (the Po River), wandered alongside a garden and turned down to walk through an old tower from the original city wall, and passed a couple of churches before getting Biccharine at a little shop tucked away in a corner that the friendly people at the information booth had recommended. Biccharine is a sort of chocolatey, coffee-y, alcohol-y drink that is traditional in Torino.
We wandered along a bit more, passing some police officers who had capes and swords, and ultimately ended up taking a bus to the Stadio Olimpico. The hockey arena there was HUGE. After a pit stop at our hostel, we went back to the city centre and got some little chocolate eggs for Easter at a place recommended by information and then dinner at a Pizza Beer place (sorry, kids, not a Pizza Kebab, which are slightly more prevalent and remind me of Halal Bite and Perfect Fried Chicken).
Monday, 13 April
We had another relatively early morning to catch the train, with Keener’s hostel roomie, who also ended up in the same hostel as we did in Genoa. The train ride itself was pretty; we kept popping in and out of mountains. Genoa was very hot, I think around 80 Fahrenheit most of the time we were there. Since we got in at eleven in the morning and weren’t allowed to check in to our hostel until 2:30 in the afternoon, we lugged our baggage around a bit until we found lunch and hydration in the form of Coke and paninis on foccacia bread. We got a feel for the city, it was more graffitied and cluttered than Torino, and interesting in that it stretched immediately from ocean to mountains.
Happening upon Strada Nouva, we decided to check and see if any of the Palazzos were open, and managed to check our bags for free and gain entry to Palazzo Rosso, Bianco and Tursi for 6 Euro, as well as a panoramic view from the top of Rosso, which was pretty spectacular, and we could even see the lanterna (lighthouse). The art in Rosso was very pretty, though my favorite were the rooms where the frescoes were dedicated to the four seasons- sadly, winter and fall were closed for restoration. We also got to see where the Directrice lived for a while. The black and white floors of the art museum Bianco were pretty, and the art was pretty interesting, though I got a bit tired of it. The garden was really cute, above street level, and had a fountain of Mary and Jesus, though since she was holding a shell we weren’t sure if it was Mary or Venus until we asked. Tursi had a bunch of lilac trees, so it smelled gorgeous. The courtyard there was gorgeous, with a huge staircase and a clock and more lilac trees. I also really enjoyed the sculpture of Mary M, and we saw Pagini’s violins, which were pretty cool. The Cannone gets taken out once a year on October 12 to be played by the winner of a competition.
We wandered past a huge fountain outside the Opera, by the Palazzo Ducale, the Basilica, and down to the waterfront. We checked out what a giant globe was- a tropical greenhouse that was very expensive to get into- and then decided to grab our stuff and check in to the hostel. After winding up the mountain on the bus, we got to our hostel, which had a gorgeous view.
I had pasta with pesto for dinner, as Genoa is supposedly known for its pesto, and then got the Italian version of crème brulée for dessert. I also had coffee! Which is impressive since I do not do coffee. We wandered the streets a bit at night; there was one bit of the Porto Antico that seemed as if Disney’s Boardwalk was based off of it, and Via Girabaldi (with the palaces) was very cutely lit up.
When trying to fall asleep, one of the girls in my room (from China) was having a conversation with an Italian girl, so I listened in and surprisingly understood almost everything they were talking about, which was pretty cool.
Tuesday, 14 April
After a cheap breakfast at the hostel, we checked out, left our bags at the train station, and went to Christofo Colombo’s house; there was a bell from the Santa Maria there, and you could see their “sanitary facilities.” There was also a cute little religious thing (Keens couldn’t translate it very well, but it was sort of a small church or convent) which had been destroyed so a bank could be built on the site, and then they decided to tear down the bank and take the pieces of the old thing and rebuild it. It was like a small temple with some pretty columns, and was dedicated to St Andrew.
We went to the Basilica after; it had a lot of black and white marble, which was very strange but interesting looking. There were also a bunch of cool chapels, such as the one dedicated to the resurrection. The one that was for “prayer only” was gorgeous and had a very interesting organ with painted folding doors to cover it. We didn’t get to see the alleged Holy Grail, which was unfortunate.
After lunch and while eating gelato, we watched some pigeons attempting to mate and going for a mangy black one when they got frustrated, and were relieved when it was time to get on our next train to Pisa. We found a map there, then hopped on the LAM (like a green energy bus) and got off at the stop for the Tower of Pisa, and hiked a little bit to the “camping” location that would be our hostel. We could see the Tower from it, which was pretty cool.
We went and did the tourist thang at the tower- pretending to hold it up or push it down and whatnot- and then sat on the grass in the sun for a long time, admiring the tower with the duomo and the baptistery, and watching the crowd doing similar things. At dinner, I was confused when I ordered food with potatoes which ended up being French Fries. After eating well, we decided to call it an early night since Keener was getting pretty sick and I still wasn’t over my cold.
It's aMAZEing
Apr. 10th, 2009 at 03:06 pm
Tuesday, the fam and I went to Hampton Court Palace. The train fare was way cheaper than I expected, and we also got 2-for-1 entry. The whole palace is half Tudor, half Baroque, which was an interesting mix, but it looked cool and was big, sprawling and difficult to navigate. We looked through a bunch of the interior rooms, which were cool. In one, Jan and I played a game called "The Fox and the Goose," which was like a messed up version of checkers, and I was able to sprawl on a comfy cushion. The chapel was gorgeous- we weren't allowed to take pictures though, which was sad, but the ceiling was a pretty shade of blue with stars all on it. In one of the sets of rooms, Gram asked the curator a question, and got him talking about all sorts of stuff. We got a semi-private tour of those sets of rooms, and he even told us all about the team of twelve that spent six years putting back together a crystal chandelier that broke in the eighties due to a fire. Gram really liked said curator's family heirloom- a massive garnet ring between two dragons.
The gardens were gorgeous. The fountain garden looked like it went on for miles- it was really one fountain set in front of a long pool of water, Versailles-style. There was also a Privy Garden, which I thought was the prettiest. The King and six of his favourites were allowed out there, and it would have been accessible only from the king's private rooms. We also saw the longest grape vine either in Europe, England or the World. Regardless, it was BIG. After walking through some other cute gardens and "the wilderness," we happened upon THE HEDGE MAZE! Huzzah! That was fun, though we sort of walked determinedly through it (Gramps was trying to get us out, I was trying to get us lost). I want to go back and just run through it like the little kids did.
We had an early dinner at Pizza Express, and then I went back to my room and got all my winter stuff together to send home with Mum. We hung out for a little while at the hotel, and then I went to sleep early.
On Wednesday, I met up with Mum and we settled my flight home- 1PM on May 24, I'll be back in Boston 6:30PM Boston time. We admired St Paul's briefly, and then returned to the hotel to hang out for another hour while we waited for their airport service to pick them up. After seeing them all off, I went to Genesis and saw "The Boat That Rocked." I don't want to talk too much about it, I'm always nervous about spoiling the endings, but it was definitely very very good and I laughed a ton, which is always a key point for me.
After eating at Nando's, Steph, Damien, Lee and I went to the acrobatics gym again. I epic failed in an attempt to do a front flip off the springboard. And by epic failed, I mean I ended up kneeing myself in the forehead hard enough that two mornings later, it's still sore to the touch. However, my water bottle was doubling as an ice cube that day, and I had ibuprophin with me, so I was able to enjoy more of the gym and even learned how to do a butt bounce on the trampoline.
Thursday was a day for sleeping in, and it felt awesome. After making spaghetti bologanese and chocolate trifle with Damien, Caitlin and I went over our friend Dave's flat to talk for a little while so he could record our accents and then transcirbe them for a class. The two of us met up with Vanessa and her two friends, and I accidentally talked Haider in to joining us for Brick Lane- delicious as always. After packing for my trip, I had an early night, and slept in this morning before running to grab some granola bars to bring to Italy with me. I'm leaving in about ten minutes to meet up with Keener in Venice before we railtrip to Torino, Genoa, Pisa, Livorno and Rome :-)
Tuesday, the fam and I went to Hampton Court Palace. The train fare was way cheaper than I expected, and we also got 2-for-1 entry. The whole palace is half Tudor, half Baroque, which was an interesting mix, but it looked cool and was big, sprawling and difficult to navigate. We looked through a bunch of the interior rooms, which were cool. In one, Jan and I played a game called "The Fox and the Goose," which was like a messed up version of checkers, and I was able to sprawl on a comfy cushion. The chapel was gorgeous- we weren't allowed to take pictures though, which was sad, but the ceiling was a pretty shade of blue with stars all on it. In one of the sets of rooms, Gram asked the curator a question, and got him talking about all sorts of stuff. We got a semi-private tour of those sets of rooms, and he even told us all about the team of twelve that spent six years putting back together a crystal chandelier that broke in the eighties due to a fire. Gram really liked said curator's family heirloom- a massive garnet ring between two dragons.
The gardens were gorgeous. The fountain garden looked like it went on for miles- it was really one fountain set in front of a long pool of water, Versailles-style. There was also a Privy Garden, which I thought was the prettiest. The King and six of his favourites were allowed out there, and it would have been accessible only from the king's private rooms. We also saw the longest grape vine either in Europe, England or the World. Regardless, it was BIG. After walking through some other cute gardens and "the wilderness," we happened upon THE HEDGE MAZE! Huzzah! That was fun, though we sort of walked determinedly through it (Gramps was trying to get us out, I was trying to get us lost). I want to go back and just run through it like the little kids did.
We had an early dinner at Pizza Express, and then I went back to my room and got all my winter stuff together to send home with Mum. We hung out for a little while at the hotel, and then I went to sleep early.
On Wednesday, I met up with Mum and we settled my flight home- 1PM on May 24, I'll be back in Boston 6:30PM Boston time. We admired St Paul's briefly, and then returned to the hotel to hang out for another hour while we waited for their airport service to pick them up. After seeing them all off, I went to Genesis and saw "The Boat That Rocked." I don't want to talk too much about it, I'm always nervous about spoiling the endings, but it was definitely very very good and I laughed a ton, which is always a key point for me.
After eating at Nando's, Steph, Damien, Lee and I went to the acrobatics gym again. I epic failed in an attempt to do a front flip off the springboard. And by epic failed, I mean I ended up kneeing myself in the forehead hard enough that two mornings later, it's still sore to the touch. However, my water bottle was doubling as an ice cube that day, and I had ibuprophin with me, so I was able to enjoy more of the gym and even learned how to do a butt bounce on the trampoline.
Thursday was a day for sleeping in, and it felt awesome. After making spaghetti bologanese and chocolate trifle with Damien, Caitlin and I went over our friend Dave's flat to talk for a little while so he could record our accents and then transcirbe them for a class. The two of us met up with Vanessa and her two friends, and I accidentally talked Haider in to joining us for Brick Lane- delicious as always. After packing for my trip, I had an early night, and slept in this morning before running to grab some granola bars to bring to Italy with me. I'm leaving in about ten minutes to meet up with Keener in Venice before we railtrip to Torino, Genoa, Pisa, Livorno and Rome :-)
Space Monkey Cadet Thing Tired
Apr. 6th, 2009 at 09:37 pm
Friday I did the Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath tour with my fam. It was pretty good. Windsor was chilly at first because of the fog, but we looked at lots of stuff inside, like the GIANT dollhouse and all of the cool weapons and fancy rooms. One of them looked a lot like the giant hall at Neuschwanstein. I snuck a photo of Henry the Eighth's armor, since that was pretty cool.
I found myself defending Stonehenge to Gramps a lot- he thought it was a whole lot of fuss over nothing, since nobody really knows the purpose of the stones, and the Egyptians built the pyramids, and those you KNOW the purpose of. I tried to explain that a different type of precision was involved with Stonehenge, and that the Egyptians were just being exorbitant, since the pyramids were just burial mounds, and Stonehenge had some type of everyday use. Some guy got thrown out while we were there for running up to a stone and having his photo taken, that was exciting. Other than that, I really liked the sheep. And the people picnicking on burial mounds.
We wandered down the Putney Bridge in Bath, and did the audio tour of the Roman baths again. I enjoyed the wandering around outside, though, since last time we'd been it was hailing. There were also some cool art installations set up, featuring bunnies, which was an interesting juxtaposition with the quaint old-fashioned town.
On Saturday, we tried to go to Hampton Court Palace, but due to construction it would have been very hard to go there. Instead, we went to Madame Tussaud's since we knew Jan would enjoy that... waiting in line, there were two guys dressed as mimes running around entertaining everyone outside, it was really funny. They would mimic oblivious passerbys' gaits directly behind them and pull pranks on unsuspecting children.
After the wax museum (where we discovered a ride! It was nice to sit) we went to the London Eye. That was really cool- I really liked looking at all the people clustering around street performers below, and you got a really good view of the whole city. It was nice and sunny, which eventually got me quite dehydrated, but we went to Brick Lane shortly after so all was well. Haider, Damien and Kev ended up coming with us, and Haider and Gramps were off talking all rocket sciencey together.
Sunday, we went to the Tower of London. I want the crown jewels. They are shiny. I want them. I think the princes' uncle killed them, since he had the most immediate gain. And he looked funny. We saw more of Henry the Eighth's armor, and some lances, which are effing HUGE!!!!!!!! I could not be a knight. Good thing that's no longer an option.
We ate at Wagamama's, which was pretty delicious. I like the apple and lime juice there. I wasn't feeling well, so I came back to my room and napped whilst the fam went to mass at Westminster Cathedral. I met up with them afterwards at Cookies and Cream, and got the chocolate brownie sundae which was sooo yummy. I brought the fam back to campus and showed them around- I think everyone was so tired that they weren't shocked at the graveyard smackdab in the middle of the academic buildings.
Today, we went to watch the Changing of the Guard. It was a little different this time- the parade came in three sections, which also confused the police officer that we spoke to; the second band that came by had been playing a snazzy, jazzy version of 'When the Saints.' Someone passed out or something across the way, which was sort of exciting.
After the Changing, we walked through St James's Park to the Westminster area and checked out the jewel tower, which was not exciting and did not have jewels in it. It had an excessive amount of spiral stairs however, which my empty stomach protested against a wee bit. I did finally discover how much a bushel and a peck is, though!
We sat in the park next to the Houses of Parliament for an hour, which was pretty nice and chill, and then went in for our tour. We got to go all through- the Queen's Robe room, some big halls, the Lords Chamber, the House of Commons- and their 'no' hallway- and where the old chapel/Commons used to be. I wish we could take pictures in there, because it is so pretty, but alas, we cannot. It was really cool to see things that we learned about in Architecture, though, and hear our tour guide's take on the Barry/Pugin debate (our professor didn't think Pugin was given enough credit, as he's Catholic, and we all know how Catholics are looked upon in Anglican England). I even found the Pugin wastebaskets that our professor liked so much.
When we left Parliament, there was a HUGE protest out on the street (about genocide in Sri Lanka) that had shut down Westminster Tube station, and most of the stuff in the area, so we walked to Trafalgar Square where I gorged in a pub (I had a small breakfast and no lunch, I was HUNGRY and grumpy). I hung out with Mum and Gramps and Jan for a bit in the restaurant at their hotel, and had some apple pie, which was lovely, and am about to go watch a movie with some friends and pass out.
Friday I did the Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath tour with my fam. It was pretty good. Windsor was chilly at first because of the fog, but we looked at lots of stuff inside, like the GIANT dollhouse and all of the cool weapons and fancy rooms. One of them looked a lot like the giant hall at Neuschwanstein. I snuck a photo of Henry the Eighth's armor, since that was pretty cool.
I found myself defending Stonehenge to Gramps a lot- he thought it was a whole lot of fuss over nothing, since nobody really knows the purpose of the stones, and the Egyptians built the pyramids, and those you KNOW the purpose of. I tried to explain that a different type of precision was involved with Stonehenge, and that the Egyptians were just being exorbitant, since the pyramids were just burial mounds, and Stonehenge had some type of everyday use. Some guy got thrown out while we were there for running up to a stone and having his photo taken, that was exciting. Other than that, I really liked the sheep. And the people picnicking on burial mounds.
We wandered down the Putney Bridge in Bath, and did the audio tour of the Roman baths again. I enjoyed the wandering around outside, though, since last time we'd been it was hailing. There were also some cool art installations set up, featuring bunnies, which was an interesting juxtaposition with the quaint old-fashioned town.
On Saturday, we tried to go to Hampton Court Palace, but due to construction it would have been very hard to go there. Instead, we went to Madame Tussaud's since we knew Jan would enjoy that... waiting in line, there were two guys dressed as mimes running around entertaining everyone outside, it was really funny. They would mimic oblivious passerbys' gaits directly behind them and pull pranks on unsuspecting children.
After the wax museum (where we discovered a ride! It was nice to sit) we went to the London Eye. That was really cool- I really liked looking at all the people clustering around street performers below, and you got a really good view of the whole city. It was nice and sunny, which eventually got me quite dehydrated, but we went to Brick Lane shortly after so all was well. Haider, Damien and Kev ended up coming with us, and Haider and Gramps were off talking all rocket sciencey together.
Sunday, we went to the Tower of London. I want the crown jewels. They are shiny. I want them. I think the princes' uncle killed them, since he had the most immediate gain. And he looked funny. We saw more of Henry the Eighth's armor, and some lances, which are effing HUGE!!!!!!!! I could not be a knight. Good thing that's no longer an option.
We ate at Wagamama's, which was pretty delicious. I like the apple and lime juice there. I wasn't feeling well, so I came back to my room and napped whilst the fam went to mass at Westminster Cathedral. I met up with them afterwards at Cookies and Cream, and got the chocolate brownie sundae which was sooo yummy. I brought the fam back to campus and showed them around- I think everyone was so tired that they weren't shocked at the graveyard smackdab in the middle of the academic buildings.
Today, we went to watch the Changing of the Guard. It was a little different this time- the parade came in three sections, which also confused the police officer that we spoke to; the second band that came by had been playing a snazzy, jazzy version of 'When the Saints.' Someone passed out or something across the way, which was sort of exciting.
After the Changing, we walked through St James's Park to the Westminster area and checked out the jewel tower, which was not exciting and did not have jewels in it. It had an excessive amount of spiral stairs however, which my empty stomach protested against a wee bit. I did finally discover how much a bushel and a peck is, though!
We sat in the park next to the Houses of Parliament for an hour, which was pretty nice and chill, and then went in for our tour. We got to go all through- the Queen's Robe room, some big halls, the Lords Chamber, the House of Commons- and their 'no' hallway- and where the old chapel/Commons used to be. I wish we could take pictures in there, because it is so pretty, but alas, we cannot. It was really cool to see things that we learned about in Architecture, though, and hear our tour guide's take on the Barry/Pugin debate (our professor didn't think Pugin was given enough credit, as he's Catholic, and we all know how Catholics are looked upon in Anglican England). I even found the Pugin wastebaskets that our professor liked so much.
When we left Parliament, there was a HUGE protest out on the street (about genocide in Sri Lanka) that had shut down Westminster Tube station, and most of the stuff in the area, so we walked to Trafalgar Square where I gorged in a pub (I had a small breakfast and no lunch, I was HUNGRY and grumpy). I hung out with Mum and Gramps and Jan for a bit in the restaurant at their hotel, and had some apple pie, which was lovely, and am about to go watch a movie with some friends and pass out.
Obama Says Hi!
Apr. 2nd, 2009 at 09:48 pm
Monday was a good, good day. Damien and I went to a variety of stores and purchased THIRTY-NINE different types of candy standard in the UK but virtually non-existent in the US. We ate our way through fourteen of these types (seven candy bars each, with milk on the side) watching the first disc of Tenth Kingdom, and rating the chocolates on chewiness, crunchiness, creaminess, tastiness and 'overallness.' After a gym break (we felt gross) there was some home cooked curry and super cheesy nan, apple sourz with IRN BRU, and then Hayfields. Kev and Haider had drinks called 'Death Cocktail Number Three,' and I feel that they sort of lived up to their name but maybe not quite the 8 pound price. After we left Hayfields, we took turns riding Haider's bike down the street, stopped into Halal Bite or something along those lines (Haider wanted a kebab) and then spent a bit of time in Haider's room setting up his speakers- Liam, Damien and I were having issues as Haider kept 'helping' by unplugging things, and then we finally got them working and Haider was blasting music, so his flatmates had to come yell at him. It was funny.
Kevin and I finally planned Scotland on Tuesday, and Carly and I also booked Ireland, which is good. We found wicked cheap flights for both- Ireland was only thirty quid roundtrip. Kev and I hit up Brick Lane for dinner- we went down the LEFT side this time, and ended up at Spice Brick Lane, where they use ice cubes shaped like stars. After a record-time meal (in and out in under an hour!) we headed over to Abbey Road- no Beatles-style photo yet- to see if we could spot Barack and Michelle. They were visiting the American School in London, and we saw their convoy go by. They waved to us! Kev even has a pretty decent picture of Michelle, who was on our side. It was pretty cool.
After seeing our president, Kev and I went over to Damien's and watched the second disc of Tenth Kingdom and rated more candy bars (I think we have like twelve left now? Still a lot to go. I woke up Wednesday morning with a chocolate hangover).
Wednesday, Kev and I went to the Science Museum- they had some COOL STUFF in the math area, man. Like a GIANT MACHINE that solves differential equations. It was so cool, it took me a little while to figure out how it worked. After that, we turned right out of the museum, trying to find Kensington Gardens. We ended up eating at a Nando's, where I downed five cokes, then wandering around for two hours somewhat lost. Along the way, we found the house Hitchcock lived in, and a secret park we really wanted to go into, but it was locked and for residents only, and the girl with the yoga mat did not seem like she would let us follow her in when she was unlocking one of the gates.
We eventually found Kensington Gardens, and sat by the pond for a while and watched a puppy jump in after his stick, and then wandered up to the Albert Memorial, cooing over a dachsund that was keeping pace on the grass to our left. We parted ways at the tube station, and I went in to Heathrow and met Mum, Gram, Jan and Gramps and got them safely to their hotel, and was rewarded with a LAPTOP!
I stayed up late last night setting up my laptop, finding out I registered for courses today and not tomorrow, and also discovering that we got a sixman pick time, which is fab.
Today, Kev and I walked up Regents Canal to Victoria Park and walked all through it; they had a cute Old English Garden, and a really cool children's play area, several woodlandy ponds, a deer enclosure (with deer!) and a model boat pond that was devoid of model boats (apparently that starts up on Easter). After a poor showing at a game of frisbee, we headed back to Mile End. I met up with the family at the British Museum after my summer SAP interview, and we found our way to Shakespeare's Head (don't tell my sister, she'll be jealous we were in her neighborhood without her) for dinner. FYI, Wetherspoons curry is not that good.
I've just registered for courses- I signed up for Combat Film AND Costume Design, and will decide which I prefer to take soon- and am crashing hardcore, and need to get up at six am for a tour tomorrow, so I'm thinking bed now.
Monday was a good, good day. Damien and I went to a variety of stores and purchased THIRTY-NINE different types of candy standard in the UK but virtually non-existent in the US. We ate our way through fourteen of these types (seven candy bars each, with milk on the side) watching the first disc of Tenth Kingdom, and rating the chocolates on chewiness, crunchiness, creaminess, tastiness and 'overallness.' After a gym break (we felt gross) there was some home cooked curry and super cheesy nan, apple sourz with IRN BRU, and then Hayfields. Kev and Haider had drinks called 'Death Cocktail Number Three,' and I feel that they sort of lived up to their name but maybe not quite the 8 pound price. After we left Hayfields, we took turns riding Haider's bike down the street, stopped into Halal Bite or something along those lines (Haider wanted a kebab) and then spent a bit of time in Haider's room setting up his speakers- Liam, Damien and I were having issues as Haider kept 'helping' by unplugging things, and then we finally got them working and Haider was blasting music, so his flatmates had to come yell at him. It was funny.
Kevin and I finally planned Scotland on Tuesday, and Carly and I also booked Ireland, which is good. We found wicked cheap flights for both- Ireland was only thirty quid roundtrip. Kev and I hit up Brick Lane for dinner- we went down the LEFT side this time, and ended up at Spice Brick Lane, where they use ice cubes shaped like stars. After a record-time meal (in and out in under an hour!) we headed over to Abbey Road- no Beatles-style photo yet- to see if we could spot Barack and Michelle. They were visiting the American School in London, and we saw their convoy go by. They waved to us! Kev even has a pretty decent picture of Michelle, who was on our side. It was pretty cool.
After seeing our president, Kev and I went over to Damien's and watched the second disc of Tenth Kingdom and rated more candy bars (I think we have like twelve left now? Still a lot to go. I woke up Wednesday morning with a chocolate hangover).
Wednesday, Kev and I went to the Science Museum- they had some COOL STUFF in the math area, man. Like a GIANT MACHINE that solves differential equations. It was so cool, it took me a little while to figure out how it worked. After that, we turned right out of the museum, trying to find Kensington Gardens. We ended up eating at a Nando's, where I downed five cokes, then wandering around for two hours somewhat lost. Along the way, we found the house Hitchcock lived in, and a secret park we really wanted to go into, but it was locked and for residents only, and the girl with the yoga mat did not seem like she would let us follow her in when she was unlocking one of the gates.
We eventually found Kensington Gardens, and sat by the pond for a while and watched a puppy jump in after his stick, and then wandered up to the Albert Memorial, cooing over a dachsund that was keeping pace on the grass to our left. We parted ways at the tube station, and I went in to Heathrow and met Mum, Gram, Jan and Gramps and got them safely to their hotel, and was rewarded with a LAPTOP!
I stayed up late last night setting up my laptop, finding out I registered for courses today and not tomorrow, and also discovering that we got a sixman pick time, which is fab.
Today, Kev and I walked up Regents Canal to Victoria Park and walked all through it; they had a cute Old English Garden, and a really cool children's play area, several woodlandy ponds, a deer enclosure (with deer!) and a model boat pond that was devoid of model boats (apparently that starts up on Easter). After a poor showing at a game of frisbee, we headed back to Mile End. I met up with the family at the British Museum after my summer SAP interview, and we found our way to Shakespeare's Head (don't tell my sister, she'll be jealous we were in her neighborhood without her) for dinner. FYI, Wetherspoons curry is not that good.
I've just registered for courses- I signed up for Combat Film AND Costume Design, and will decide which I prefer to take soon- and am crashing hardcore, and need to get up at six am for a tour tomorrow, so I'm thinking bed now.
Cheer for Queen Mary- the Underdog!
Mar. 29th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I met up with Liz and Mike yesterday to get crepes at CrepeAffaire (I've found locations all over the place, it's so exciting!) after returning my massive pile of books to Senate House. It was delicious, and hanging out with them was really fun and weird. They are leaving tomorrow to go to Paris, but Mike should be back in Scotland by the time I get there.
Later that evening, I met up with Caitlin, Vanessa, Kevin, Hilary, Damien and Paul (last two are Londoners) and headed in to Leceister Square. We were going to split up and see Lion King and Avenue Q, but both were sold out, so the Americans got tickets for Spring Awakening and the Brits figured they'd go see a movie. We grabbed dinner at a sort of pricey Mexican place, that ended up forgetting Hilary's order then tried double charging her for it as she had to wolf it down so we wouldn't be late, since it was so tardy arriving at our table.
Spring Awakening was fantastic. It was hilarious and tragic, and the songs were catchy and extremely well-sung, and the set was really interesting and cool looking. I think it's one of the better shows I've seen since being here.
On our walk home, we got a little lost trying to find a different train station, and ended up wandering past the Old Bailey, St Bride's Church, and St Paul's, which was cool.
Today, the same group minus Paul met up earlyish and headed in to the city to watch The Boat Race. That would be the gigantically famous row-off between the crew teams of Oxford and Cambridge. There was a huge party atmosphere across the river from where we ended up watching- completely with bouncy slide and hot air balloon- and plenty of drunken, debaucherous fans to entertain. We originally were going to watch near Hammersmith Bridge, but accidentally wandered two miles downstream to a different bridge, which actually had an excellent view and was closer to the finish. The scenic, woody walk was nice, and Hilary bought a program that had some past tidbits in it. It was fun to speculate about how boats sank rather than finished in several of the past 154 races (answer: one year, Cambridge hit a stationary boat during warmups and sank. FAIL.). Thank you Wikipedia. (The Wiki article is actually really interesting.) Oxford ended up winning- we'd been cheering for them, so huzzah! Then we walked two miles back to the tube, and all fell asleep on top of each other on the hour ride back to campus.
Caitlin and I made brownies and watched Damn Yankees, and now I'm doing some housekeeping- like trying to figure out more seriously my course schedule.
War is Hell: Combat Film taught by Michalczyk. Any thoughts on that??
I met up with Liz and Mike yesterday to get crepes at CrepeAffaire (I've found locations all over the place, it's so exciting!) after returning my massive pile of books to Senate House. It was delicious, and hanging out with them was really fun and weird. They are leaving tomorrow to go to Paris, but Mike should be back in Scotland by the time I get there.
Later that evening, I met up with Caitlin, Vanessa, Kevin, Hilary, Damien and Paul (last two are Londoners) and headed in to Leceister Square. We were going to split up and see Lion King and Avenue Q, but both were sold out, so the Americans got tickets for Spring Awakening and the Brits figured they'd go see a movie. We grabbed dinner at a sort of pricey Mexican place, that ended up forgetting Hilary's order then tried double charging her for it as she had to wolf it down so we wouldn't be late, since it was so tardy arriving at our table.
Spring Awakening was fantastic. It was hilarious and tragic, and the songs were catchy and extremely well-sung, and the set was really interesting and cool looking. I think it's one of the better shows I've seen since being here.
On our walk home, we got a little lost trying to find a different train station, and ended up wandering past the Old Bailey, St Bride's Church, and St Paul's, which was cool.
Today, the same group minus Paul met up earlyish and headed in to the city to watch The Boat Race. That would be the gigantically famous row-off between the crew teams of Oxford and Cambridge. There was a huge party atmosphere across the river from where we ended up watching- completely with bouncy slide and hot air balloon- and plenty of drunken, debaucherous fans to entertain. We originally were going to watch near Hammersmith Bridge, but accidentally wandered two miles downstream to a different bridge, which actually had an excellent view and was closer to the finish. The scenic, woody walk was nice, and Hilary bought a program that had some past tidbits in it. It was fun to speculate about how boats sank rather than finished in several of the past 154 races (answer: one year, Cambridge hit a stationary boat during warmups and sank. FAIL.). Thank you Wikipedia. (The Wiki article is actually really interesting.) Oxford ended up winning- we'd been cheering for them, so huzzah! Then we walked two miles back to the tube, and all fell asleep on top of each other on the hour ride back to campus.
Caitlin and I made brownies and watched Damn Yankees, and now I'm doing some housekeeping- like trying to figure out more seriously my course schedule.
War is Hell: Combat Film taught by Michalczyk. Any thoughts on that??
Chocolate Covered Nomnom
Mar. 28th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Yesterday, I almost did not hear my alarm go off and just missed sleeping entirely through my last real Actuarial lecture. I woke up, and crisis averted, got there on time. Then, I ate and made an outline for my paper.
Several hours were then spent in the library, intermittently writing my paper, buying chocolate, and taking breaks to play bubbles. I actually finished my paper before dinner, and just needed to stop back in after quesidillas to make a bibliography and edit. I spent probably fifteen minutes longer than necessary ensuring that the word count was exactly 2000 words long for my 2000 word essay. Yay me!
After finishing my paper, I went over my friend Paul's and watched Date Movie and Beerfest (yes, both very classy) and went to bed far too late, but it was worth it. It was also nice to get to hang out with Vanessa's visiting friend a bit, since I'd been decently bogged in work up until now. It'd be really cool if I could legitimately feel like I could just relax now, but unfortunately Actuarial is going to take a lot of studying and I have a 2500 word essay due at the end of the month, and I'll be traveling a decent amount in the upcoming weeks.
Today started out normal- class (which let out early and was relatively useless to begin with), turning in my architecture paper, shower, food, nap, talking to Mum, and then my last Actuarial lecture (supposedly revision but really just uselessness in disguise). When I was in the library after Actuarial, I felt very much like that kid- the one that no one suspects would have it in her, relatively quiet in class and nice, who suddenly goes homicidal. That would be because a guy I once had a brief conversation in Actuarial with came up to talk to me, and commented that I always sat on my own and it made him sad. Honestly, I just couldn't be bothered to force my friendship on anyone in the course- all of them are third years and would be graduating soon- so I would roll in to class just as it started and leave once it ended. Worked out fine for me. After ten minutes of chatting (during which I discovered he and his friends would be pulling an all-nighter in the library- what?? Classes just ended!) I realized that he was just making sure I didn't go crazy. It was funny.
Dinner was pretty good, though it took a 2 and a half hour wait and was pretty ridiculously spicy- a Pakistani place called Tayyabs. They had banana lasi which was AWESOME. But no cheese nan. Van and I split biryani and were very full. Whilst waiting in line (which awkwardly wound through the entirety of the restaurant) V and I were hungry and grumpy, so when we were standing alongside the candy counter, V bought bladjammin (or something) and I got chocolate covered nomnom (ie Butterfree- BEEEFREEE! (Pokemon? Yeah.), ie barfi). This cheered us up for about 45 minutes more of our wait, and I serenaded Vanessa with some glorious songs of hunger.
Van and I are now in the library, and I am uploading a few more photo albums on to facebook. Hopefully the newest laptop sent to my house will work. That would be lovely.
Yesterday, I almost did not hear my alarm go off and just missed sleeping entirely through my last real Actuarial lecture. I woke up, and crisis averted, got there on time. Then, I ate and made an outline for my paper.
Several hours were then spent in the library, intermittently writing my paper, buying chocolate, and taking breaks to play bubbles. I actually finished my paper before dinner, and just needed to stop back in after quesidillas to make a bibliography and edit. I spent probably fifteen minutes longer than necessary ensuring that the word count was exactly 2000 words long for my 2000 word essay. Yay me!
After finishing my paper, I went over my friend Paul's and watched Date Movie and Beerfest (yes, both very classy) and went to bed far too late, but it was worth it. It was also nice to get to hang out with Vanessa's visiting friend a bit, since I'd been decently bogged in work up until now. It'd be really cool if I could legitimately feel like I could just relax now, but unfortunately Actuarial is going to take a lot of studying and I have a 2500 word essay due at the end of the month, and I'll be traveling a decent amount in the upcoming weeks.
Today started out normal- class (which let out early and was relatively useless to begin with), turning in my architecture paper, shower, food, nap, talking to Mum, and then my last Actuarial lecture (supposedly revision but really just uselessness in disguise). When I was in the library after Actuarial, I felt very much like that kid- the one that no one suspects would have it in her, relatively quiet in class and nice, who suddenly goes homicidal. That would be because a guy I once had a brief conversation in Actuarial with came up to talk to me, and commented that I always sat on my own and it made him sad. Honestly, I just couldn't be bothered to force my friendship on anyone in the course- all of them are third years and would be graduating soon- so I would roll in to class just as it started and leave once it ended. Worked out fine for me. After ten minutes of chatting (during which I discovered he and his friends would be pulling an all-nighter in the library- what?? Classes just ended!) I realized that he was just making sure I didn't go crazy. It was funny.
Dinner was pretty good, though it took a 2 and a half hour wait and was pretty ridiculously spicy- a Pakistani place called Tayyabs. They had banana lasi which was AWESOME. But no cheese nan. Van and I split biryani and were very full. Whilst waiting in line (which awkwardly wound through the entirety of the restaurant) V and I were hungry and grumpy, so when we were standing alongside the candy counter, V bought bladjammin (or something) and I got chocolate covered nomnom (ie Butterfree- BEEEFREEE! (Pokemon? Yeah.), ie barfi). This cheered us up for about 45 minutes more of our wait, and I serenaded Vanessa with some glorious songs of hunger.
Van and I are now in the library, and I am uploading a few more photo albums on to facebook. Hopefully the newest laptop sent to my house will work. That would be lovely.
Masquerade, Jack the Ripper, and Bubbles
Posted on Mar. 26th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Thursday
The masquerade was quite fun! I had lots and lots and lots of chocolate dipped strawberries, cream puffs, pineapple, waffles, and chocolate. Yes, I dipped chocolate in chocolate, and it was delicious.
I placed in the mask competition- I got some body lotion for tying for fourth. I wanted third place so I could get the giant maltesers egg. Which is pretty cool.
Friday
I had classes as usual, and Actuarial wasn't very exciting this time 'round. Our Diff Eq professor told us that lecture would be cancelled Monday morning (yay!) and that Tuesday would be useful for revision.
Emma came over, and she, Ha and I went to get fish and chips from the place near Tower Hill, and then we went on the Jack the Ripper walking tour, which was pretty cool and interesting and makes me a little sketched out to go walking around the East End at night (which, come to think about it, I wasn't planning to do on my own anytime soon anyways). We ran across this huge group of people wearing bandanas and playing some sort of manhunt type game, which was interesting. Also, down a backstreet, there was a loud bang and flash whilst some people were closing down a shop, but it freaked our tour guide out and made her really nervous, so she started looking around anxiously.
After the tour, we went to the New Globe and got a round of drinks and chilled. It was really cool to have us hanging out in London, especially at a time we normally wouldn't see each other.
Saturday
After walking Ha to the tube, I went back to bed for a bit, and then got up and met Emma and her parents at the British Museum. We got lunch, which was yummy and fun, and then I said goodbye at the tube station and went back to campus.
I did some work and accidentally fell asleep; my friends and I were supposed to go to a comedy club, but they got back late from a day trip to Canterbury so that fell through, which resulted in a lovely lazy evening for me.
Sunday
I learned how to make curry with pineapple in it; it was SO DELICIOUS. I love curry.
I don't remember what else happened. I think I just studied. And finished my coursework.
Monday
Classes per usual; I also had my architecture slide test, which was pretty easy, and I got back my architecture paper, which I did really well on, which made me happy.
We Brick Laned it after classes, and got a normal deal that was really not much to brag about, but the cheese nan was SO GOOD at the place we went to (there was cheese all on the inside of the nan, yumyumyum). We went to Hayfields after that- I'm starting to get a lot better at pool, man. Someof my Brit friends and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall after that, so I went to bed pretty late, but it was fun.
Tuesday
After sleeping in a bit, I did some work and went to Diff Eq, where our professor promptly announced that this would NOT be a revision lecture, as he does not do those, so I wasted an hour of my life sitting in the classroom whilst he gave 'study tips' (ie, do what I do to study. Thanks for the advice).
After figuring out hostels and trains with Keener, I went to a pizza party for study abroad students for some free food and lots and lots of soda (I was pretty over-caffeinated), and a free tee-shirt, which was awesome.
I discovered an addicting game in the library- Bubbles. It's the first game that comes up when you google bubbles, and it is fabulously addictive. I'm getting so good at it.
Wednesday
After making more delicious 'chicken malaya,' I got the rest of my research done for my paper, so tomorrow will be decently straightforward- just compile it so it looks like a paper.
I went to the acrobatics gym again today, and didn't really get any better at anything, though I did discover that I can do entrechat sixes alarmingly easily on the trampoline (big surprise, I know), and tried to teach Hassan. He was pretty crap at it, predictably, since he's never even done a changement. (Entrechat six is a small jump with your feet close together, and the right foot starts in front and goes back-front-back-land. A changement is where you do a small jump and your feet change positions.)
After buying some food at ASDA, we returned to campus, where I have since watched a couple episodes of TV shows and generally unwound before I go to bed.
Thursday
The masquerade was quite fun! I had lots and lots and lots of chocolate dipped strawberries, cream puffs, pineapple, waffles, and chocolate. Yes, I dipped chocolate in chocolate, and it was delicious.
I placed in the mask competition- I got some body lotion for tying for fourth. I wanted third place so I could get the giant maltesers egg. Which is pretty cool.
Friday
I had classes as usual, and Actuarial wasn't very exciting this time 'round. Our Diff Eq professor told us that lecture would be cancelled Monday morning (yay!) and that Tuesday would be useful for revision.
Emma came over, and she, Ha and I went to get fish and chips from the place near Tower Hill, and then we went on the Jack the Ripper walking tour, which was pretty cool and interesting and makes me a little sketched out to go walking around the East End at night (which, come to think about it, I wasn't planning to do on my own anytime soon anyways). We ran across this huge group of people wearing bandanas and playing some sort of manhunt type game, which was interesting. Also, down a backstreet, there was a loud bang and flash whilst some people were closing down a shop, but it freaked our tour guide out and made her really nervous, so she started looking around anxiously.
After the tour, we went to the New Globe and got a round of drinks and chilled. It was really cool to have us hanging out in London, especially at a time we normally wouldn't see each other.
Saturday
After walking Ha to the tube, I went back to bed for a bit, and then got up and met Emma and her parents at the British Museum. We got lunch, which was yummy and fun, and then I said goodbye at the tube station and went back to campus.
I did some work and accidentally fell asleep; my friends and I were supposed to go to a comedy club, but they got back late from a day trip to Canterbury so that fell through, which resulted in a lovely lazy evening for me.
Sunday
I learned how to make curry with pineapple in it; it was SO DELICIOUS. I love curry.
I don't remember what else happened. I think I just studied. And finished my coursework.
Monday
Classes per usual; I also had my architecture slide test, which was pretty easy, and I got back my architecture paper, which I did really well on, which made me happy.
We Brick Laned it after classes, and got a normal deal that was really not much to brag about, but the cheese nan was SO GOOD at the place we went to (there was cheese all on the inside of the nan, yumyumyum). We went to Hayfields after that- I'm starting to get a lot better at pool, man. Someof my Brit friends and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall after that, so I went to bed pretty late, but it was fun.
Tuesday
After sleeping in a bit, I did some work and went to Diff Eq, where our professor promptly announced that this would NOT be a revision lecture, as he does not do those, so I wasted an hour of my life sitting in the classroom whilst he gave 'study tips' (ie, do what I do to study. Thanks for the advice).
After figuring out hostels and trains with Keener, I went to a pizza party for study abroad students for some free food and lots and lots of soda (I was pretty over-caffeinated), and a free tee-shirt, which was awesome.
I discovered an addicting game in the library- Bubbles. It's the first game that comes up when you google bubbles, and it is fabulously addictive. I'm getting so good at it.
Wednesday
After making more delicious 'chicken malaya,' I got the rest of my research done for my paper, so tomorrow will be decently straightforward- just compile it so it looks like a paper.
I went to the acrobatics gym again today, and didn't really get any better at anything, though I did discover that I can do entrechat sixes alarmingly easily on the trampoline (big surprise, I know), and tried to teach Hassan. He was pretty crap at it, predictably, since he's never even done a changement. (Entrechat six is a small jump with your feet close together, and the right foot starts in front and goes back-front-back-land. A changement is where you do a small jump and your feet change positions.)
After buying some food at ASDA, we returned to campus, where I have since watched a couple episodes of TV shows and generally unwound before I go to bed.
Study Zombie
Mar. 25th, 2009 at 05:20 pm
Twelve sources is a lot of a 2000 word essay.
I'm finally done researching though, which means I will legitimately update soon, once I have actually written my paper.
Things that cause study fails: fmylife.com, notalwaysright.com, Garfield Minus Garfield, bubbles (as in the game that comes up when one googles bubbles), Suite Life on Deck.
Ways to avoid: study in my room where my laptop lies broken, therefore preventing me from computer usage.
Ha.
Twelve sources is a lot of a 2000 word essay.
I'm finally done researching though, which means I will legitimately update soon, once I have actually written my paper.
Things that cause study fails: fmylife.com, notalwaysright.com, Garfield Minus Garfield, bubbles (as in the game that comes up when one googles bubbles), Suite Life on Deck.
Ways to avoid: study in my room where my laptop lies broken, therefore preventing me from computer usage.
Ha.
It's late.
Mar. 23rd, 2009 at 02:31 am
Studying for tests is not fun.
Figuring out how to make delicious pineapple curry with cheese nan is lots of fun. Just thinking about it is making me hungry again.
Dell sucks. Current computer: still forcing self into standby and not waking up again. Brand new one Dell sent to my house: BSODing. Glad my rentals didn't drop mad bucks to ship it. I hate Dell.
More about the last few days later.
Studying for tests is not fun.
Figuring out how to make delicious pineapple curry with cheese nan is lots of fun. Just thinking about it is making me hungry again.
Dell sucks. Current computer: still forcing self into standby and not waking up again. Brand new one Dell sent to my house: BSODing. Glad my rentals didn't drop mad bucks to ship it. I hate Dell.
More about the last few days later.
Flipping Fun
Mar. 19th, 2009 at 07:19 pm
It was fortunate that I made lunch plans with Vanessa, or else I would not have got out of bed yesterday. After making curry, I left campus to shut myself in Senate House Library off of Russell Square, despite the glorious day and texts to go play in a park again. I managed to get through another book for my paper and take out six more for reference, which was very productive, and had time for a very light dinner before meeting up with Damien, Paul and Hassan to go to an acrobatics gym.
The acrobatics gym was actually really cool- aside from our friend Steph and me, there were only three other girls, and the rest were all guys breakdancing, flipping, doing the rings, and jumping into huge foam pits. I started learning how to do a front flip- I can do one, but I land on my butt rather than my feet- and showed up all of our friends with toe touches and splits on the trampoline. We also invented a fun game of foam fencing on the balance beam, which was pretty awesome.
After leaving the gym, we went next door to Asda and bought ice cream and donuts (as a reward for the workout, of course) and then headed back to campus before watching Labyrinth and falling asleep.
I woke up so sore this morning from the gym yesterday- a combination of the flips and a certain toe-touch for which I was a bit too airborne. I had lots of running from class to top up my phone to lunch to class, and then a phone interview with UNUM. Maybe I'll have better luck with the underwriting position than the actuarial.
I did a bit more work, and then Ha came over again, so we made dinner, and now I am about to get ready to go to a Masquerade at Drapers with my friends.
It was fortunate that I made lunch plans with Vanessa, or else I would not have got out of bed yesterday. After making curry, I left campus to shut myself in Senate House Library off of Russell Square, despite the glorious day and texts to go play in a park again. I managed to get through another book for my paper and take out six more for reference, which was very productive, and had time for a very light dinner before meeting up with Damien, Paul and Hassan to go to an acrobatics gym.
The acrobatics gym was actually really cool- aside from our friend Steph and me, there were only three other girls, and the rest were all guys breakdancing, flipping, doing the rings, and jumping into huge foam pits. I started learning how to do a front flip- I can do one, but I land on my butt rather than my feet- and showed up all of our friends with toe touches and splits on the trampoline. We also invented a fun game of foam fencing on the balance beam, which was pretty awesome.
After leaving the gym, we went next door to Asda and bought ice cream and donuts (as a reward for the workout, of course) and then headed back to campus before watching Labyrinth and falling asleep.
I woke up so sore this morning from the gym yesterday- a combination of the flips and a certain toe-touch for which I was a bit too airborne. I had lots of running from class to top up my phone to lunch to class, and then a phone interview with UNUM. Maybe I'll have better luck with the underwriting position than the actuarial.
I did a bit more work, and then Ha came over again, so we made dinner, and now I am about to get ready to go to a Masquerade at Drapers with my friends.
"What are you looking at?"
Mar. 18th, 2009 at 12:35 am
I saw Emma off this morning, then went back to bed for a little bit. I just managed to gym, shower, eat and call Mum before Diff Eq, and then grabbed my final exam schedule; I only have two, on April 29 and May 15, spectacularly spaced out! So now I need to figure out when I want to come home.
It was really weird to walk around campus and see minimal green, since everyone at BC is always uber decked out for St Patty's day. Then again, it shouldn't be too surprising I suppose.
I skipped out on the BC event that was going on tonight, since I couldn't get a hold of Liz or Paul and see if either of them were going to go, and instead took a while to chill and actually do a bit of work for once. After eating some brownies with my friends, we decided to try to go to an Irish Pub. Epic fail. Do not leave the dorms at 10PM on St Patrick's day and expect to find anything. We got into one, but it was packed so we were all standing immobile spread out all over the pub, and after two minutes decided to boot and head back towards campus. We did an Irish Car Bomb in New Globe and called it a night, which I was pretty down with since I have a lot I want to get done.
I don't remember the name of it, but at the pub in Leceister Square we were in, this belligerent guy kept telling Haider, "Stay out of my face!" very angrily, and then when I gave him a confused look one of the times, started yelling at me, "What are you looking at?" I shot another look that clearly said, "You," and then moved onward. He left us alone for some reason after that. I don't think it's that I was particularly threatening though.
I wish I had a bit more money I could spend, my friends are starting to make me jealous with all of the trips that they are able to take... one of my friends is probably going to Greece twice, which makes me insanely jealous since I have wanted to go there for several years and just can't swing it. Oh well! I'm just going to keep looking forward to Italy with Keens, and Ireland and Scotland.
I've been a bit off today, and I'm not quite sure why. I might just be overtired, so I'm going to head to bed and try to get nine hours, see how I feel in the morning.
I saw Emma off this morning, then went back to bed for a little bit. I just managed to gym, shower, eat and call Mum before Diff Eq, and then grabbed my final exam schedule; I only have two, on April 29 and May 15, spectacularly spaced out! So now I need to figure out when I want to come home.
It was really weird to walk around campus and see minimal green, since everyone at BC is always uber decked out for St Patty's day. Then again, it shouldn't be too surprising I suppose.
I skipped out on the BC event that was going on tonight, since I couldn't get a hold of Liz or Paul and see if either of them were going to go, and instead took a while to chill and actually do a bit of work for once. After eating some brownies with my friends, we decided to try to go to an Irish Pub. Epic fail. Do not leave the dorms at 10PM on St Patrick's day and expect to find anything. We got into one, but it was packed so we were all standing immobile spread out all over the pub, and after two minutes decided to boot and head back towards campus. We did an Irish Car Bomb in New Globe and called it a night, which I was pretty down with since I have a lot I want to get done.
I don't remember the name of it, but at the pub in Leceister Square we were in, this belligerent guy kept telling Haider, "Stay out of my face!" very angrily, and then when I gave him a confused look one of the times, started yelling at me, "What are you looking at?" I shot another look that clearly said, "You," and then moved onward. He left us alone for some reason after that. I don't think it's that I was particularly threatening though.
I wish I had a bit more money I could spend, my friends are starting to make me jealous with all of the trips that they are able to take... one of my friends is probably going to Greece twice, which makes me insanely jealous since I have wanted to go there for several years and just can't swing it. Oh well! I'm just going to keep looking forward to Italy with Keens, and Ireland and Scotland.
I've been a bit off today, and I'm not quite sure why. I might just be overtired, so I'm going to head to bed and try to get nine hours, see how I feel in the morning.
Sunny London
Mar. 17th, 2009 at 02:47 pm
The last couple of days have been beautiful out, which is my excuse for not updating.
Sunday was the warmest of the last three, and very, very sunny. I mostly did chores though, gym and laundry and grocery shopping. I bought a ridiculous amount of food at the grocery store, and it looks like I'm carbo-loading due to the myriad breads I purchased, but it was well worth it. For a late lunch on Sunday, I made my very first curry! And it was darn delicious.
After doing a bit of work, I went into the city and met up with Emma and her parents, and we went to get dinner. We ended up at a very nice Italian place called Carluccio's, and I am currently eating my leftover delicious gnocchi.
I did more work when I got back, but was feeling a little down since I hadn't spent much leisure time outside- just my grocery trip, really- and I was missing being able to drag someone outside to do work or for a quick bit of frisbee. One of my friends pulled through in the clutch though, and we spent some time throwing around a crappy pink frisbee and a cool thing called an aerobie.
Monday started out pretty standard- class, turn in coursework, nap... I played a bit more frisbee right before we had our last architecture field trip. We ended up going to the new City Hall, across from the Tower of London. It looks a bit like an onion or a snail's shell, which is pretty cool. Our professor started talking about the really ugly London Hotel across the water, and how he disagreed with everyone who said it needed to be pulled down, since he thinks you need something truly hideous so you can appreciate the pretty things more, which is why he has a large, light up Mickey Mouse statuette in his house. I was almost peeing my pants laughing.
After going inside City Hall, USC Kevin and I walked across Tower Bridge to the tube station since it was so nice out, and I bought an ice cream (delicious). When I got back to campus, I decided to go meet up with some friends in the park across the street from campus. I hadn't yet been in there, they had some fantastic fountains and at the very back there was a really cool playground. I'll take pictures sometime. The see-saw was pretty fun, it went in circles as well as up and down, so whilst Lindsay and I were on it, Damien and Hassan came up and started pushing us in circles as fast as they could- Lindsay and I ended up holding on for dear life. We also played on this cool thing that launches you into the air a bit, but these two schoolchildren had to teach us how to use it properly, and were laughing at us since we were so bad at it. They thought I was okay at spinning, though- better than the guys.
After Actuarial, I went and picked up Emma from the tube station, and we met up with a bunch of my friends and some of their friends and went off to Brick Lane. We got the same deal as last week, but Haider kept telling the guy to REALLY SELL IT to us; the doorman answered quite honestly that he had nothing else to offer, and he was definitely right. I have never been that full in my life. Also, I LOVE chicken malaya- it has pineapples in it and is heaven. Chilies also had the best lasi I've yet experienced.
Five of our friends went to the bathrooms, so Emma, Haider, his friend Pablo and I started granny-running around a pole to try to work off our food a bit, and we'd yell things like "switch!" or "backwards!" at random intervals to change it up. One time I tried to go "reds skip one!" since Emma pointed out that it was a bit like UNO, but Pablo failed at skipping one. A guy came up and was begging off of us as we ran around the pole, and someone else yelled at us to go faster- I responded that we were working our way up. When we tired of the game, another guy came up to us and told us that the amount of times we went around the pole, we probably could've done at least a lap of the street. But the pole was more fun.
I refused to go in the Beigle shop since I was so full, and then we walked to Hayfield's. It was a pretty good night there- they almost didn't let in our extra friends since they didn't have student IDs, but when they realized they'd be losing six or seven customers, they let everyone in.
The only bad point of the last two days was finding out I didn't get Orientation Leader. I luckily discovered that when I was dropping Emma off to bed before I went back to Hayfield's, so my amigos were able to cheer me up quite a bit :-) Plus, I kicked butt at pool.
The last couple of days have been beautiful out, which is my excuse for not updating.
Sunday was the warmest of the last three, and very, very sunny. I mostly did chores though, gym and laundry and grocery shopping. I bought a ridiculous amount of food at the grocery store, and it looks like I'm carbo-loading due to the myriad breads I purchased, but it was well worth it. For a late lunch on Sunday, I made my very first curry! And it was darn delicious.
After doing a bit of work, I went into the city and met up with Emma and her parents, and we went to get dinner. We ended up at a very nice Italian place called Carluccio's, and I am currently eating my leftover delicious gnocchi.
I did more work when I got back, but was feeling a little down since I hadn't spent much leisure time outside- just my grocery trip, really- and I was missing being able to drag someone outside to do work or for a quick bit of frisbee. One of my friends pulled through in the clutch though, and we spent some time throwing around a crappy pink frisbee and a cool thing called an aerobie.
Monday started out pretty standard- class, turn in coursework, nap... I played a bit more frisbee right before we had our last architecture field trip. We ended up going to the new City Hall, across from the Tower of London. It looks a bit like an onion or a snail's shell, which is pretty cool. Our professor started talking about the really ugly London Hotel across the water, and how he disagreed with everyone who said it needed to be pulled down, since he thinks you need something truly hideous so you can appreciate the pretty things more, which is why he has a large, light up Mickey Mouse statuette in his house. I was almost peeing my pants laughing.
After going inside City Hall, USC Kevin and I walked across Tower Bridge to the tube station since it was so nice out, and I bought an ice cream (delicious). When I got back to campus, I decided to go meet up with some friends in the park across the street from campus. I hadn't yet been in there, they had some fantastic fountains and at the very back there was a really cool playground. I'll take pictures sometime. The see-saw was pretty fun, it went in circles as well as up and down, so whilst Lindsay and I were on it, Damien and Hassan came up and started pushing us in circles as fast as they could- Lindsay and I ended up holding on for dear life. We also played on this cool thing that launches you into the air a bit, but these two schoolchildren had to teach us how to use it properly, and were laughing at us since we were so bad at it. They thought I was okay at spinning, though- better than the guys.
After Actuarial, I went and picked up Emma from the tube station, and we met up with a bunch of my friends and some of their friends and went off to Brick Lane. We got the same deal as last week, but Haider kept telling the guy to REALLY SELL IT to us; the doorman answered quite honestly that he had nothing else to offer, and he was definitely right. I have never been that full in my life. Also, I LOVE chicken malaya- it has pineapples in it and is heaven. Chilies also had the best lasi I've yet experienced.
Five of our friends went to the bathrooms, so Emma, Haider, his friend Pablo and I started granny-running around a pole to try to work off our food a bit, and we'd yell things like "switch!" or "backwards!" at random intervals to change it up. One time I tried to go "reds skip one!" since Emma pointed out that it was a bit like UNO, but Pablo failed at skipping one. A guy came up and was begging off of us as we ran around the pole, and someone else yelled at us to go faster- I responded that we were working our way up. When we tired of the game, another guy came up to us and told us that the amount of times we went around the pole, we probably could've done at least a lap of the street. But the pole was more fun.
I refused to go in the Beigle shop since I was so full, and then we walked to Hayfield's. It was a pretty good night there- they almost didn't let in our extra friends since they didn't have student IDs, but when they realized they'd be losing six or seven customers, they let everyone in.
The only bad point of the last two days was finding out I didn't get Orientation Leader. I luckily discovered that when I was dropping Emma off to bed before I went back to Hayfield's, so my amigos were able to cheer me up quite a bit :-) Plus, I kicked butt at pool.
Are you Australian?
Mar. 15th, 2009 at 12:26 am
So today wasn't terribly exciting- I slept wayyyyy in, ate, planned out a huge chunk of Italy with Keens, and then met up with Caitlin and two friends of hers from home that are visiting.
We ended up at 'spoons (Wetherspoons/The Half Moon, I don't understand why it's called both), and after acquring a table, Caitlin takes her friends up to the bar to order their food. I go up on my own after, and this guy who was at least late twenties was trying to order a drink, but saw me waiting behind a woman ordering food and told me to come stand up at the bar. He proceeded to tell me that I am very pretty, and I discover that he is both Irish and, typically, drunk.
The woman who was ordering was taking forever and asking a hundred fifty thousand questions, and the bartender kept shooting me apologetic looks both for the wait and the fact that the Irish clan was trying to get me to play 'hot or not' with them, when really I just wanted to tell them all that they are older than I find attractive so they all lose. However, I was polite but distant, and finally placed my order whilst fending off questions of whether I was there alone or not and comments about how my friends can't possibly be as pretty as I am. I was a bit put out that he didn't at least buy me a drink after talking at me for so long (he got a kick out of one of my responses, which was to indicate that a friend of his that was twenty years older as the 'best looking,' rather than himself or another friend that he was trying to compare himself to).
Lo and behold, they were sitting in the same area of 'spoons as the four of us, so just after I sat down with my water, I started trying to tell my story of woe when Patrick came up yet again, introduced himself, and tried flirting with all of us and attempting to get us all to rank him and his friends. We were just about dying laughing, especially when his rundown of names went 'Emily, Emily, Caitlin, Steph,' rather than the two Caitlins and the one Steph and Emily actually at the table.
One of his friends came over and asked if we are Australian, which brings me to the main purpose of this post. What is it about rather indeterminate American accents that makes British people think we are Australian? I have heard that from numerous others, and it always strikes me as rather strange. Maybe I'll start working on an Australian accent, and see if they think I am American if I speak with one of those.
At any rate, his visitations made our decision about dessert, so we hoofed it to Budgens, bought some cupcakes, consumed said cupcakes, and now I am shivering in the library since they apparently don't believe in heat here at night.
I really enjoyed the guy who was yelling at his computer a little while ago- he was very, very intent on a boxing match. The guy across from me and I gave slightly weirded out looks. Also, I saw my copy/paste friend from the library in a phone booth today, which would not be strange if it weren't for the fact that she was on the phone for at least two and a half hours.
So today wasn't terribly exciting- I slept wayyyyy in, ate, planned out a huge chunk of Italy with Keens, and then met up with Caitlin and two friends of hers from home that are visiting.
We ended up at 'spoons (Wetherspoons/The Half Moon, I don't understand why it's called both), and after acquring a table, Caitlin takes her friends up to the bar to order their food. I go up on my own after, and this guy who was at least late twenties was trying to order a drink, but saw me waiting behind a woman ordering food and told me to come stand up at the bar. He proceeded to tell me that I am very pretty, and I discover that he is both Irish and, typically, drunk.
The woman who was ordering was taking forever and asking a hundred fifty thousand questions, and the bartender kept shooting me apologetic looks both for the wait and the fact that the Irish clan was trying to get me to play 'hot or not' with them, when really I just wanted to tell them all that they are older than I find attractive so they all lose. However, I was polite but distant, and finally placed my order whilst fending off questions of whether I was there alone or not and comments about how my friends can't possibly be as pretty as I am. I was a bit put out that he didn't at least buy me a drink after talking at me for so long (he got a kick out of one of my responses, which was to indicate that a friend of his that was twenty years older as the 'best looking,' rather than himself or another friend that he was trying to compare himself to).
Lo and behold, they were sitting in the same area of 'spoons as the four of us, so just after I sat down with my water, I started trying to tell my story of woe when Patrick came up yet again, introduced himself, and tried flirting with all of us and attempting to get us all to rank him and his friends. We were just about dying laughing, especially when his rundown of names went 'Emily, Emily, Caitlin, Steph,' rather than the two Caitlins and the one Steph and Emily actually at the table.
One of his friends came over and asked if we are Australian, which brings me to the main purpose of this post. What is it about rather indeterminate American accents that makes British people think we are Australian? I have heard that from numerous others, and it always strikes me as rather strange. Maybe I'll start working on an Australian accent, and see if they think I am American if I speak with one of those.
At any rate, his visitations made our decision about dessert, so we hoofed it to Budgens, bought some cupcakes, consumed said cupcakes, and now I am shivering in the library since they apparently don't believe in heat here at night.
I really enjoyed the guy who was yelling at his computer a little while ago- he was very, very intent on a boxing match. The guy across from me and I gave slightly weirded out looks. Also, I saw my copy/paste friend from the library in a phone booth today, which would not be strange if it weren't for the fact that she was on the phone for at least two and a half hours.
I'm not dead, but my computer is.
Mar. 13th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Uh oh, I have some catching up to do now!
I didn't get to blog much while Ha was visiting, and then not at all in Wales, and then my laptop redied. So here goes.
Monday
I went to my niner, went back to my room and showered, and then took Ha to Picadilly Circus to catch a bus tour.
We got her ticket at a kiosk, and when she went to get on the bus, the guys taking tickets started messing with her and freaking her out a bit, saying they couldn't take those any more since they'd had lots of counterfeits lately. I was laughing, but she was not impressed. I think they got along in the end when I left though.
I found out I have to have 12-15 sources for my 2000 word architecture paper. He expects there to be original thought how, exactly? I'm going to try to get a start on that this weekend, with any luck, since a bunch of my friends are off on various excursions.
Ha got herself back to my dorm before my last class started, and took a nap, and then we got the biggest group yet together and went to Brick Lane. Caitlin and I played off of each other quite well, and we managed to get two rounds of drinks, starter, main course, rice, nan, pompadons, and service charge for nine pounds a head. It was soooo good, and some of our British friends that had never been loved it. It is going to be tough going when I can't do Brick Lane once a week any more, I'm officially addicted.
We went back round to Paul's after dinner and the Beigle shop, and Ha and I taught the Brits how to play Kings, which they embraced whole-heartedly.
Tuesday
Ha and I got up nice and early on Tuesday and powered through the V&A- I think we spent as much time in the jewelry room as the rest of the museum combined (we're girls, we like sparkly things, okay?). We got some pasties at Budgens and then made our way to Paddington station and onto our train to go see Carly in Wales! I was going to do work but ended up sleeping most of the four hour journey, and we were both famished by the time we got to Carmarthen.
Carly met us at the station and we lugged all of our stuff the twenty minute walk to Carly's campus. Her uni (Trinity I think?) is really cute, and is situated directly across from a picturesque misty meadow with sheep in it.
In Wales, people learn Welsh first, and then start English intensely when they are nine or so, so all of the signs and fliers are written in Welsh and English, it's pretty interesting to look at. I learned more about pronouncing Welsh than Carly has so far- for example, one L at the start of a word sounds like an F, but a double L in the middle of a word has a Th sound.
Carly kindly cooked copious amounts of pasta for us to consume, and then it was getting late so we headed to Jacksons (Carmarthen's version of Hayfield's) for her friend's 21st birthday celebration. The bartender was stellar and opened the bar up early just for them, and kept giving us free credit on the jukebox so her friend could have whatever music she wanted for her birthday.
Wednesday
After sleeping in a bit, the three of us got up and met up with a bunch of Carly's friends for lunch. I actually got tea (I'm so refined now!), and Ha and I split a ham and cheese panini and also a peanut butter and nutella one (I am henceforth always making things with peanut butter and nutella, warmed; deliciousness). Being still hungry, after parting ways with Carly's friends, we meandered through downtown Carmarthen. I bought my first donut since December, and it was delicious (though not nearly up to par with Dunkin Donuts). We also went and checked out Carmarthen Castle, which was really cool, and located in Nott Square, which I thought was a funny name for a square. I mean, is it a square, or is it Nott?
We stopped at Tesco's on the way back to Carly's flat and got dinner stuffs and snacks, and made delicious curry and nan (are you sensing a trend in my eating habits here?) for dinner. We also made some guacamole, and brought houmus, and went to watch Crash in the international student's lounge on her campus. One of her friend's Welsh flatmates was watching with us, and it was entertaining to hear her talk about how relieved she was when she first saw the film and realized we don't all use the obnoxious brown paper shopping bags with no handles on them.
In talking to that girl and Carly's flatmates, I sensed that Welsh girls are pretty tough- they get injured a lot, and laugh it off a lot more than a lot of people I know would. I forget her name, but the one watching the movie with us was talking about how she thought it was so cool to be able to see all the layers of tissue before it started bleeding when she sliced her hand open down to the bone; not a usual reaction.
Thursday
We just missed the train I was supposed to take from Carmarthen, which made me just miss the train I needed to take from Swansea back to Paddington, which meant my trip home cost an extra £65 on top of the £10 it originally cost me. Bummer. I got a chunk of my maths homework done, though, which was good. Some soldier was trying to chat me up acrost the aisle, but I just wanted to get my work done so I could nap.
I went to Nando's for dinner, which is a delicious chicken chain, and decently cheap too. I'm surprised that I'd never been there before, you can order different levels of spiciness and put sauce on it; I got medium on pitta bread (pronounced pit-tah, not pee-tah) with pineapple (yum!), and also houmous (not hummus; who-muss? you must!) as an appetizer. Happy stomach ensued. Happiness furthered by a trip to Cookies and Cream for ice cream.
Also, something I tend to take for granted is often recognizing the brands in movies. This was pointed out whilst watching Hot Fuzz, that Brits often aren't familiar with brands in shops and things like that, so it's fun watching good British movies and recognizing all the names.
Friday
My computer decided to stop working this morning, which was fantastic. So I went to the gym, then the library to do some emailing (I might have another chance at a UNUM internship, huzzah!), and took a shower. I ran out of time to eat in my room, so brought my mashed potatoes with me to Diff Eq. I ran into Haider on the way and he judged me for my lunch, so I went and got a tuna melt (no raspberry vinagarette like Kimmy and Molly put on at Hillside) and chocolate cake, both delicious, to eat in the library while I finished trying to catch up on stuff before Actuarial.
No smackdowns occurred in Actuarial today, which is probably for the best, and then Caitlin and I hit up Leceister Square. We ended up seeing Mousetrap, which is an Agatha Christie play. It's been running for fifty six years or so now, and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it, but it was hysterical and did a pretty good job with the twist ending to the murder mystery. I actually figured out the biggest bits (such as who the murderer is, but I'm not supposed to say!) but there were still lots of intriguing ties that I didn't predict.
I also liked that we were sitting way high up in the upper circle, and had to go outside and walk around to the sketchy back staircase to get to our seats. I decided it was where the pleebs sit; even the bathroom was tiny and dirty, definitely plebian.
I am now finishing my marathon blog catch-up in the library, supported by Mr. Coca Cola and Miss Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, and should probably leave soon since it's almost midnight on a Friday. Just because the library is open 24/7 doesn't mean I need to spend the entirety of my time here :-)
Uh oh, I have some catching up to do now!
I didn't get to blog much while Ha was visiting, and then not at all in Wales, and then my laptop redied. So here goes.
Monday
I went to my niner, went back to my room and showered, and then took Ha to Picadilly Circus to catch a bus tour.
We got her ticket at a kiosk, and when she went to get on the bus, the guys taking tickets started messing with her and freaking her out a bit, saying they couldn't take those any more since they'd had lots of counterfeits lately. I was laughing, but she was not impressed. I think they got along in the end when I left though.
I found out I have to have 12-15 sources for my 2000 word architecture paper. He expects there to be original thought how, exactly? I'm going to try to get a start on that this weekend, with any luck, since a bunch of my friends are off on various excursions.
Ha got herself back to my dorm before my last class started, and took a nap, and then we got the biggest group yet together and went to Brick Lane. Caitlin and I played off of each other quite well, and we managed to get two rounds of drinks, starter, main course, rice, nan, pompadons, and service charge for nine pounds a head. It was soooo good, and some of our British friends that had never been loved it. It is going to be tough going when I can't do Brick Lane once a week any more, I'm officially addicted.
We went back round to Paul's after dinner and the Beigle shop, and Ha and I taught the Brits how to play Kings, which they embraced whole-heartedly.
Tuesday
Ha and I got up nice and early on Tuesday and powered through the V&A- I think we spent as much time in the jewelry room as the rest of the museum combined (we're girls, we like sparkly things, okay?). We got some pasties at Budgens and then made our way to Paddington station and onto our train to go see Carly in Wales! I was going to do work but ended up sleeping most of the four hour journey, and we were both famished by the time we got to Carmarthen.
Carly met us at the station and we lugged all of our stuff the twenty minute walk to Carly's campus. Her uni (Trinity I think?) is really cute, and is situated directly across from a picturesque misty meadow with sheep in it.
In Wales, people learn Welsh first, and then start English intensely when they are nine or so, so all of the signs and fliers are written in Welsh and English, it's pretty interesting to look at. I learned more about pronouncing Welsh than Carly has so far- for example, one L at the start of a word sounds like an F, but a double L in the middle of a word has a Th sound.
Carly kindly cooked copious amounts of pasta for us to consume, and then it was getting late so we headed to Jacksons (Carmarthen's version of Hayfield's) for her friend's 21st birthday celebration. The bartender was stellar and opened the bar up early just for them, and kept giving us free credit on the jukebox so her friend could have whatever music she wanted for her birthday.
Wednesday
After sleeping in a bit, the three of us got up and met up with a bunch of Carly's friends for lunch. I actually got tea (I'm so refined now!), and Ha and I split a ham and cheese panini and also a peanut butter and nutella one (I am henceforth always making things with peanut butter and nutella, warmed; deliciousness). Being still hungry, after parting ways with Carly's friends, we meandered through downtown Carmarthen. I bought my first donut since December, and it was delicious (though not nearly up to par with Dunkin Donuts). We also went and checked out Carmarthen Castle, which was really cool, and located in Nott Square, which I thought was a funny name for a square. I mean, is it a square, or is it Nott?
We stopped at Tesco's on the way back to Carly's flat and got dinner stuffs and snacks, and made delicious curry and nan (are you sensing a trend in my eating habits here?) for dinner. We also made some guacamole, and brought houmus, and went to watch Crash in the international student's lounge on her campus. One of her friend's Welsh flatmates was watching with us, and it was entertaining to hear her talk about how relieved she was when she first saw the film and realized we don't all use the obnoxious brown paper shopping bags with no handles on them.
In talking to that girl and Carly's flatmates, I sensed that Welsh girls are pretty tough- they get injured a lot, and laugh it off a lot more than a lot of people I know would. I forget her name, but the one watching the movie with us was talking about how she thought it was so cool to be able to see all the layers of tissue before it started bleeding when she sliced her hand open down to the bone; not a usual reaction.
Thursday
We just missed the train I was supposed to take from Carmarthen, which made me just miss the train I needed to take from Swansea back to Paddington, which meant my trip home cost an extra £65 on top of the £10 it originally cost me. Bummer. I got a chunk of my maths homework done, though, which was good. Some soldier was trying to chat me up acrost the aisle, but I just wanted to get my work done so I could nap.
I went to Nando's for dinner, which is a delicious chicken chain, and decently cheap too. I'm surprised that I'd never been there before, you can order different levels of spiciness and put sauce on it; I got medium on pitta bread (pronounced pit-tah, not pee-tah) with pineapple (yum!), and also houmous (not hummus; who-muss? you must!) as an appetizer. Happy stomach ensued. Happiness furthered by a trip to Cookies and Cream for ice cream.
Also, something I tend to take for granted is often recognizing the brands in movies. This was pointed out whilst watching Hot Fuzz, that Brits often aren't familiar with brands in shops and things like that, so it's fun watching good British movies and recognizing all the names.
Friday
My computer decided to stop working this morning, which was fantastic. So I went to the gym, then the library to do some emailing (I might have another chance at a UNUM internship, huzzah!), and took a shower. I ran out of time to eat in my room, so brought my mashed potatoes with me to Diff Eq. I ran into Haider on the way and he judged me for my lunch, so I went and got a tuna melt (no raspberry vinagarette like Kimmy and Molly put on at Hillside) and chocolate cake, both delicious, to eat in the library while I finished trying to catch up on stuff before Actuarial.
No smackdowns occurred in Actuarial today, which is probably for the best, and then Caitlin and I hit up Leceister Square. We ended up seeing Mousetrap, which is an Agatha Christie play. It's been running for fifty six years or so now, and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it, but it was hysterical and did a pretty good job with the twist ending to the murder mystery. I actually figured out the biggest bits (such as who the murderer is, but I'm not supposed to say!) but there were still lots of intriguing ties that I didn't predict.
I also liked that we were sitting way high up in the upper circle, and had to go outside and walk around to the sketchy back staircase to get to our seats. I decided it was where the pleebs sit; even the bathroom was tiny and dirty, definitely plebian.
I am now finishing my marathon blog catch-up in the library, supported by Mr. Coca Cola and Miss Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, and should probably leave soon since it's almost midnight on a Friday. Just because the library is open 24/7 doesn't mean I need to spend the entirety of my time here :-)
Zeeba Neighba
Mar. 9th, 2009 at 01:31 am |
There was a "UV Rave" at Drapers Friday night, which was really, really, really fun, though it resulted in me staying up way too late dancing, wearing white and neon colours, glowsticks, and neon facepaint (it looked awesome in the blacklight!).
I got a grand total of two and a half hours of sleep before I rolled out of bed and onto the tube to go meet Ha at Heathrow; I completely passed out when I got on the Picadilly line, and almost didn't get off at the stop for Terminal 2, which would've been disastrous. (Not really, I would have just had to go back a bit and been even later than I was).
We chatted a bit on the way back, though I fell asleep standing up on the last leg of our journey, and we both crashed for a couple hours until we got woken up by a text asking if we wanted to go to the London Zoo. So we did!
The zoo was pretty awesome, there were animals and they were cool. Vanessa and I watched baby monkeys playing around, and we all went into the Reptile House and saw where a scene from the Harry Potter movies was filmed, though I was very disappointed that I looked at every snake in the place and there was not a single Brasilian boa constrictor. What a waste of me getting creeped out. Apparenty when Harry helped him escape, there was no replacement.
Kevin and I enjoyed watching the giraffe stick his head over the fence to say hi to his Zeeba Neighba, and we all spent a little too long watching the penguins waddle around adorably. One of them fell in, it was cute.
After an epically long trek around the park, we managed to navigate the underground closures and get to Byron for burgers. The place is a bit overpriced to me, but I was hungry, so whatever. When we got back to campus, we met up with a big group of people and went to the New Globe and then Hayfield's for Damien's birthday, which was really fun.
Ha and I slept in today to make up for the lack of sleep yesterday, and then we went to the British Museum. It started pouring whilst we were on the tube, so it was really fun walking around the chilly museum slightly dampened. We're definitely on an equal museum going level, where we wander around and investigate what looks really interesting a bit more closely, but don't insist on seeing everything.
We came back and did some work and made dinner, and watched an episode of the Office, and then I decided to take her to check out Parliament at night, since that's really pretty. It took a while to get there, again thanks to line closures, and we walked around, took some photos, and then just missed the last train. Following our study abroad advisor's advice, we found our way to Trafalgar Square via bus; however, none of the buses that go to Queen Mary leave from Trafalgar Square, so that advice was sort of worthless. We took another bus to Bank (after asking the driver for advice), and went to wait for the 25. We just missed one, so were really excited and cold when another 25 came along ten minutes later... only to be out of service. Growing colder, Ha started showing me a partners' jig she learned in a dance class, and the one other person waiting for a bus was watching and laughing.
We finally caught a bus and got back to QM, and are slowly thawing out with the aid of hot chocolate. Yumm!
There was a "UV Rave" at Drapers Friday night, which was really, really, really fun, though it resulted in me staying up way too late dancing, wearing white and neon colours, glowsticks, and neon facepaint (it looked awesome in the blacklight!).
I got a grand total of two and a half hours of sleep before I rolled out of bed and onto the tube to go meet Ha at Heathrow; I completely passed out when I got on the Picadilly line, and almost didn't get off at the stop for Terminal 2, which would've been disastrous. (Not really, I would have just had to go back a bit and been even later than I was).
We chatted a bit on the way back, though I fell asleep standing up on the last leg of our journey, and we both crashed for a couple hours until we got woken up by a text asking if we wanted to go to the London Zoo. So we did!
The zoo was pretty awesome, there were animals and they were cool. Vanessa and I watched baby monkeys playing around, and we all went into the Reptile House and saw where a scene from the Harry Potter movies was filmed, though I was very disappointed that I looked at every snake in the place and there was not a single Brasilian boa constrictor. What a waste of me getting creeped out. Apparenty when Harry helped him escape, there was no replacement.
Kevin and I enjoyed watching the giraffe stick his head over the fence to say hi to his Zeeba Neighba, and we all spent a little too long watching the penguins waddle around adorably. One of them fell in, it was cute.
After an epically long trek around the park, we managed to navigate the underground closures and get to Byron for burgers. The place is a bit overpriced to me, but I was hungry, so whatever. When we got back to campus, we met up with a big group of people and went to the New Globe and then Hayfield's for Damien's birthday, which was really fun.
Ha and I slept in today to make up for the lack of sleep yesterday, and then we went to the British Museum. It started pouring whilst we were on the tube, so it was really fun walking around the chilly museum slightly dampened. We're definitely on an equal museum going level, where we wander around and investigate what looks really interesting a bit more closely, but don't insist on seeing everything.
We came back and did some work and made dinner, and watched an episode of the Office, and then I decided to take her to check out Parliament at night, since that's really pretty. It took a while to get there, again thanks to line closures, and we walked around, took some photos, and then just missed the last train. Following our study abroad advisor's advice, we found our way to Trafalgar Square via bus; however, none of the buses that go to Queen Mary leave from Trafalgar Square, so that advice was sort of worthless. We took another bus to Bank (after asking the driver for advice), and went to wait for the 25. We just missed one, so were really excited and cold when another 25 came along ten minutes later... only to be out of service. Growing colder, Ha started showing me a partners' jig she learned in a dance class, and the one other person waiting for a bus was watching and laughing.
We finally caught a bus and got back to QM, and are slowly thawing out with the aid of hot chocolate. Yumm!
I Really Want to Eat a Child
Mar. 6th, 2009 at 06:01 pm
I managed to squeeze in a really quick gym run after lecture and tutorial and before my other tutorial yesterday, though I decided to take a shower rather than eat, so I was chilling with tortillas and humous or however hummus is spelt here. I managed to look up a few books in the online catalogue, then finally returned my massive pile of Westminster Cathedral texts to Senate House Library. I was glad Liz met up with me there, so that we could go get lost in the bowels of the buildings (and by bowels I mean maze-like upper levels) trying to find a book. She told me that the building wasn't bombed in WWII because Hitler wanted to use it as a headquarter if they took over England. I thought that was cool, and creepy.
We went and hung out in Westfield Shopping Centre for a little while, and after crepes (CrepeAffaire is so good, I'm glad it's pretty far away!) we went to Foyles. We found a book about a crocodile family that ate bananas, only the baby crocodile got pissy and wanted to eat a child. It was a superb children's book.
After doing not much in my room when I got back, I went and hung out in Drapers with some friends- it was so empty! James and I came really close to beating Damien at pool, though probably because James and I took some turns for him while he was off getting another pitcher. So that was epic.
We went to Halal Bite after. I've yet to determine how they keep the names of these fried food places straight, since they all have some combination of Chicken, Taste, Halal and Bite in them, and all have almost the exact same menus and prices.
Diff Eq was really exciting today- three girls got shown the yellow card by the professor, and they kept talking so he finally said, "That's it! You've been red carded! Get out!" I really like that it was a football match, apparently.
That's the only exciting thing that's happened so far today, aside from Grand Tours (I was hungry), a two hour break in which I looked at courses for next semester, Diff Eq, an hour break (I made mashed potatoes and they were delicious) and an Actuarial lecture that went on for forever.
I managed to squeeze in a really quick gym run after lecture and tutorial and before my other tutorial yesterday, though I decided to take a shower rather than eat, so I was chilling with tortillas and humous or however hummus is spelt here. I managed to look up a few books in the online catalogue, then finally returned my massive pile of Westminster Cathedral texts to Senate House Library. I was glad Liz met up with me there, so that we could go get lost in the bowels of the buildings (and by bowels I mean maze-like upper levels) trying to find a book. She told me that the building wasn't bombed in WWII because Hitler wanted to use it as a headquarter if they took over England. I thought that was cool, and creepy.
We went and hung out in Westfield Shopping Centre for a little while, and after crepes (CrepeAffaire is so good, I'm glad it's pretty far away!) we went to Foyles. We found a book about a crocodile family that ate bananas, only the baby crocodile got pissy and wanted to eat a child. It was a superb children's book.
After doing not much in my room when I got back, I went and hung out in Drapers with some friends- it was so empty! James and I came really close to beating Damien at pool, though probably because James and I took some turns for him while he was off getting another pitcher. So that was epic.
We went to Halal Bite after. I've yet to determine how they keep the names of these fried food places straight, since they all have some combination of Chicken, Taste, Halal and Bite in them, and all have almost the exact same menus and prices.
Diff Eq was really exciting today- three girls got shown the yellow card by the professor, and they kept talking so he finally said, "That's it! You've been red carded! Get out!" I really like that it was a football match, apparently.
That's the only exciting thing that's happened so far today, aside from Grand Tours (I was hungry), a two hour break in which I looked at courses for next semester, Diff Eq, an hour break (I made mashed potatoes and they were delicious) and an Actuarial lecture that went on for forever.
Being Harry Potter
Mar. 5th, 2009 at 12:27 am
I am not going to remember many of the names of the places I was at today, but this day was a lovely long one dedicated to visiting Carrie.
She lives in the sketchy part of Oxford, which is still ADORABLE. I got to meet her flatmates- very fun girls, I must say- after she picked me up at the bus station, and then we started wandering. We walked along Martin's field, which is very pretty, albeit a bit muddy (no huge deal, we had fun jumping over puddles), and generally enjoying the arbitrarily sunny day (it was supposed to pour all day; no complaints here that it worked out to the contrary!) Then we started to play a game called "let's see which colleges we can get into!" which was really fun. When I am more awake I will name all of them.
The first quad we went into was where they based some major scenes from the Golden Compass movie out of- Christ Church. We also went into the dining hall that they based the Harry Potter Great Hall off of, which was so cool. Carrie is going to try to eat there one of these days. We also walked down an outdoor corridor that was most definitely used in the movies, and Carrie told me about how one of her friends has to wear a huge black cloak for certain formal occasions, and he lets her wear it and flap around in it a bit before he heads out. I want to be in Christ Church and wear a black cloak- talk about feeling so Harry Potter!
We went into St Mary's after that, and paid a couple quid to go up a staircase... and then up this really narrow twisty one. Halfway up, two people were coming down, and there was no room to pass; since we didn't want to go down and start again, we decided to stand in the window nooks while the other two went the rest of the way down. It was inventive, but I think the other two thought it a bit odd. The view from the top of the tower was really cool, and Carrie pointed out the library where she usually does work (which we can't go in since I'm not a student) and some of the other colleges, along with random trivia about things in their courtyards we could see.
As we walked along some more, she told me a story she had been told about a certain area that supposedly inspired CS Lewis; there was a black lamppost in the walkway, and a bit further down from it, a doorway that had what looked eerily like one would imagine Mr Tumnus to appear, and a door with a tree that has a face and ears ("Here, even the trees have ears!"). She doesn't know if that truly did inspire him, but it was still cool.
We walked through the courtyard of the Bodelian library- that's the big deal one, where when you go in, you have to have everything in a clear bag, and you're not allowed pens, and you have to swear not to be wet when you go in, or to take anything from it. We passed under the Oxford Bridge of Sighs (inspired from Venice), and then went along to Waterfords, which has the most miles of shelving in a bookshop. It was epic, I almost got lost in there and loved it. We passed Trinity college but couldn't go in, and went down to the Eagle and Child, where the Inklings would often meet and hang out.
After buying milkshakes (I got Cadbury Caramel, and it was SO GOOD) and Ben's Cookies at the covered market, and inquiring about where the fishmonger's crabs were imported from (apparently Denmark- Carrie had been guessing Maryland or Alaska), we found ourselves at Keble College. It was a strange mix of gothic structure but very Byzantine decoration, which was interesting.
I forgot the name of the pub we ate at (I usually write that stuff down!) , but lunch was yummy and at a very cute sprawling pub, and we got in a good talk. From there, we went to Carrie's college- Mansfield- and she set me up in the library while she went to meet with her tutor. Classes there sound so cool- they're on a trimester system, and you have a primary course that you meet one-on-one with a tutor for once a week, and a secondary, also one-on-one, that meets every other week, and you get to choose a topic, and they'll find you a tutor, and then you work with the tutor to decide what you want to study, and they'll make reading suggestions and things like that. She says it's a lot of work, but very interesting and worth it.
After we left her adorable library, we went and got afternoon tea, and watched two little British boys run around playing a game that, when asked, they didn't know what it was either. We tried to go shopping, but the one store we went into was adorable and pricey, and then everything else closed, so we went back to her room and watched an episode of the American Office and then one of the British ones, and had fun comparing the two. Then she saw me off and I slept my way back to Mile End!
I am not going to remember many of the names of the places I was at today, but this day was a lovely long one dedicated to visiting Carrie.
She lives in the sketchy part of Oxford, which is still ADORABLE. I got to meet her flatmates- very fun girls, I must say- after she picked me up at the bus station, and then we started wandering. We walked along Martin's field, which is very pretty, albeit a bit muddy (no huge deal, we had fun jumping over puddles), and generally enjoying the arbitrarily sunny day (it was supposed to pour all day; no complaints here that it worked out to the contrary!) Then we started to play a game called "let's see which colleges we can get into!" which was really fun. When I am more awake I will name all of them.
The first quad we went into was where they based some major scenes from the Golden Compass movie out of- Christ Church. We also went into the dining hall that they based the Harry Potter Great Hall off of, which was so cool. Carrie is going to try to eat there one of these days. We also walked down an outdoor corridor that was most definitely used in the movies, and Carrie told me about how one of her friends has to wear a huge black cloak for certain formal occasions, and he lets her wear it and flap around in it a bit before he heads out. I want to be in Christ Church and wear a black cloak- talk about feeling so Harry Potter!
We went into St Mary's after that, and paid a couple quid to go up a staircase... and then up this really narrow twisty one. Halfway up, two people were coming down, and there was no room to pass; since we didn't want to go down and start again, we decided to stand in the window nooks while the other two went the rest of the way down. It was inventive, but I think the other two thought it a bit odd. The view from the top of the tower was really cool, and Carrie pointed out the library where she usually does work (which we can't go in since I'm not a student) and some of the other colleges, along with random trivia about things in their courtyards we could see.
As we walked along some more, she told me a story she had been told about a certain area that supposedly inspired CS Lewis; there was a black lamppost in the walkway, and a bit further down from it, a doorway that had what looked eerily like one would imagine Mr Tumnus to appear, and a door with a tree that has a face and ears ("Here, even the trees have ears!"). She doesn't know if that truly did inspire him, but it was still cool.
We walked through the courtyard of the Bodelian library- that's the big deal one, where when you go in, you have to have everything in a clear bag, and you're not allowed pens, and you have to swear not to be wet when you go in, or to take anything from it. We passed under the Oxford Bridge of Sighs (inspired from Venice), and then went along to Waterfords, which has the most miles of shelving in a bookshop. It was epic, I almost got lost in there and loved it. We passed Trinity college but couldn't go in, and went down to the Eagle and Child, where the Inklings would often meet and hang out.
After buying milkshakes (I got Cadbury Caramel, and it was SO GOOD) and Ben's Cookies at the covered market, and inquiring about where the fishmonger's crabs were imported from (apparently Denmark- Carrie had been guessing Maryland or Alaska), we found ourselves at Keble College. It was a strange mix of gothic structure but very Byzantine decoration, which was interesting.
I forgot the name of the pub we ate at (I usually write that stuff down!) , but lunch was yummy and at a very cute sprawling pub, and we got in a good talk. From there, we went to Carrie's college- Mansfield- and she set me up in the library while she went to meet with her tutor. Classes there sound so cool- they're on a trimester system, and you have a primary course that you meet one-on-one with a tutor for once a week, and a secondary, also one-on-one, that meets every other week, and you get to choose a topic, and they'll find you a tutor, and then you work with the tutor to decide what you want to study, and they'll make reading suggestions and things like that. She says it's a lot of work, but very interesting and worth it.
After we left her adorable library, we went and got afternoon tea, and watched two little British boys run around playing a game that, when asked, they didn't know what it was either. We tried to go shopping, but the one store we went into was adorable and pricey, and then everything else closed, so we went back to her room and watched an episode of the American Office and then one of the British ones, and had fun comparing the two. Then she saw me off and I slept my way back to Mile End!
What's the matter with BU?
Mar. 4th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Just in case you were all wondering, I have not yet become a full Londoner. I was popping over to Budgens to top up my phone, and passed a girl wearing a BU hoodie, and had to bite my lip to prevent myself from saying "BU sucks!" as she passed.
Otherwise... yesterday was pretty legit. We had a field trip in architecture to the Royal College of Physicians. Unfortunately, photos will not be forthcoming as I had to sign a waiver saying I would only use the photos in relation to the class, so I can't share them. There were some cool things though- despite being modernist, I thought it was actually rather pretty. They had some cool stained glass windows that were actually a new design, but made of glass from previous locations of the RCP. The library had some really creepy dried out veins from the seventeenth century that were "teaching tools," and there was a collection of old "home remedies" in the basement, such as leech applicators, nipple guards (a double pronged one for twins) and the largest syringe ever seen, for giving enemas, accompanied by two coins depicting King Louis getting one, I believe.
USC Kevin and I got to the meeting place to go to the RCP a half hour early, so we were going to walk down and look at the zoo (literally just look at it from the outside), but our architecture professor hailed us from across the street, so we had to go over and talk.
We had a really funny conversation on the underground back to Mile End, but I can't remember what we talked about right now. So you just get to know that it was fun. I finished editing my video together, and then went and watched My Best Friend's Girl. I was so out of it, that it took me until more than halfway through the movie to realize it's set in Boston.
I slept in pretty late today, and haven't done much in the way of real work, though I have figured out most of my travel for the next couple weeks, which is good. I just need to decide if I have enough money to go to Athens for two days right after Italy, or if I will end up starving to death. Vanessa and I also had a nice chat stressing about what we're going to do slash planning out essentially the rest of our semester. She didn't eat enough of my Maltesers, that silly girl.
Getting Gram to Skype is really entertaining.
The cleaning staff confuses me. I got yelled at today when I went to take my laundry out of the drier, it was scary. I've succesfully stayed out of the way of the lovely lady who cleans my room for the last two weeks, though, so hopefully that means I'll have another pass to have her come in while I stay in bed :-)
Just in case you were all wondering, I have not yet become a full Londoner. I was popping over to Budgens to top up my phone, and passed a girl wearing a BU hoodie, and had to bite my lip to prevent myself from saying "BU sucks!" as she passed.
Otherwise... yesterday was pretty legit. We had a field trip in architecture to the Royal College of Physicians. Unfortunately, photos will not be forthcoming as I had to sign a waiver saying I would only use the photos in relation to the class, so I can't share them. There were some cool things though- despite being modernist, I thought it was actually rather pretty. They had some cool stained glass windows that were actually a new design, but made of glass from previous locations of the RCP. The library had some really creepy dried out veins from the seventeenth century that were "teaching tools," and there was a collection of old "home remedies" in the basement, such as leech applicators, nipple guards (a double pronged one for twins) and the largest syringe ever seen, for giving enemas, accompanied by two coins depicting King Louis getting one, I believe.
USC Kevin and I got to the meeting place to go to the RCP a half hour early, so we were going to walk down and look at the zoo (literally just look at it from the outside), but our architecture professor hailed us from across the street, so we had to go over and talk.
We had a really funny conversation on the underground back to Mile End, but I can't remember what we talked about right now. So you just get to know that it was fun. I finished editing my video together, and then went and watched My Best Friend's Girl. I was so out of it, that it took me until more than halfway through the movie to realize it's set in Boston.
I slept in pretty late today, and haven't done much in the way of real work, though I have figured out most of my travel for the next couple weeks, which is good. I just need to decide if I have enough money to go to Athens for two days right after Italy, or if I will end up starving to death. Vanessa and I also had a nice chat stressing about what we're going to do slash planning out essentially the rest of our semester. She didn't eat enough of my Maltesers, that silly girl.
Getting Gram to Skype is really entertaining.
The cleaning staff confuses me. I got yelled at today when I went to take my laundry out of the drier, it was scary. I've succesfully stayed out of the way of the lovely lady who cleans my room for the last two weeks, though, so hopefully that means I'll have another pass to have her come in while I stay in bed :-)
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