No Maids

I woke up and felt yucky, not good. BUT, I felt smart again in tutorial this time! The girls next to me were asking for me to explain some things to them since it was so crowded, and they couldn't get any of the tutors over. Woot!

Then Vanessa and I went and picked up our Brazil/Italy tickets, and also talked to the abroad advisors for a few minutes. Apparently it is REALLY bad to call housekeeping "maids," since that has connotations to do with butlers and maids being servants, and is really insulting. "If you call her a maid, she has every right to kill you." So I won't be making that mistake again.

I had to make some notes for a "presentation" I have to give in class tomorrow about Pinocchio- what is taught and how it's taught and who teaches the lesson in the chapters when he turns into a donkey. Since I had to split it in half with another girl (there are too many students for everyone to be able to have their own presentation), I was scared I wouldn't have as much to say, but I have five minutes of stuff (which was the requested time). So that's cool. Collodi is a pretty funny guy, underneath the trippy story.

When I went to the fantastic screening room to watch Pinocchio, there was just one other girl and the professor there, so we chatted for a few minutes while it went through the previews (mostly about if Will Smith would make a good Captain Nemo in 20000 Leagues. We decided not so much.), and then I curled up on the loveseat again, and the other girl commented, "Getting comfy there, eh?" I just explained that I was in love with the room and wanted one in my house.

We tried to go see Oliver! tonight, but it was sold out, so we ended up at Chicago instead. I looooooove it! And apparently I once did the exact dance for All That Jazz, since I knew THE ENTIRE thing. Not even chunks, or the main chorus. The full dance. It was also really entertaining to see the actors trying to attempt American accents. Most went through Southern and Jersey and a little bit of the "nonaccent" type, though one guy who had a line apparently sounded very Irish (I thought it was a bit Australian, but I mean, he wasn't aiming for either...) and Mama was like Jamaican Gangster, which was interesting. Also, Velma couldn't dance. But Roxie was really good. And I enjoyed how a guy would dance (well, go through a series of dancey poses, really) at the bottom of ladders when girls had songs up on them, it was a very interesting way to incorporate spotters into the number. It also threw me off that Velma was blond and Roxie was brunette.

Magic Me

Magic Me was so much fun today! We went to John Scurr, a primary school, and played with some Year 5 students today (they're all nine). They were so much fun! Abid was a riot, when they were practising how to get an elderly person's attention, he went up and stuck his hand in Priti's face and goes, "You alright?" Which really, is like the equivalent of saying, "Sup dawg?" as a way of introduction. When asked to be more polite and speak a bit clearer, he said, "Are... you... all... right?" and sort've agressively, we were all trying not to laugh too much. We also played this game where we were each paired off with a child, and each person had to spend three minutes asking questions. I was put with Sameera, who is adorable by the way, and is essentially a mini me. When I told her I was studying maths, she said that was her favorite subject. And we have the same birthday. And when I asked her what her favorite food was, she said cheeseburger, fries, with (of course!) a chocolate shake. Girl after my own heart, right there. It's sort've unfortunate she can't have her picture taken (her parents didn't give permission for some reason or another), but it would be great to be able to work with her again. Plus I feel like she'd be pretty good with Elsie, who is pretty deaf, blind and very distractable, and has a poor memory, so asking questions is difficult, but I think Sameera could handle it.

Vanessa came over and we made quesadillas again, which was quite the endeavor with two of my flatmates and one of their friends trying to cook at the same time, and my other flatmate using the microwave. Then we were hanging out for a bit to see when we'd be meeting to finish booking stuff for reading week, since Hilary had to run an errand and Kevin had some meeting to go to. Haider ended up coming over and we were hanging out for a while, then finally called the others to see where they were. We couldn't get a hold of Hilary, and Kevin was still busy, so we told him to call when he was done to meet up and go over what we were booking, and then dragged Caitlin over.

Enter into a couple hours of hardcore hostel price and location checking, with lots and lots of background noise. I had to raise my hand to get everyone's attention to ask opinions about things, since just talking wasn't enough. We finally booked the ones for Venice and Geneva, and have a good one lines up for Luzern if a potential lodge that Haider's friend might know of is too expensive/out of the way.

Mind the Gap

Monday: I successfully went to the gym and did work and ate after my nine am, rather than napping. Yay me! We had an architecture field trip, which was really really interesting, but then I got back and it was 5:25, so I missed Actuarial Maths. Oh well, now I might have to meet someone to get the notes. Or I could be antisocial and see if they're online. I might write more about Monday later, I'm tired and can't think of the funny stories I had from that day.

Today was pretty good... the maid woke me up at ten (I don't have class until three!) instead of coming in at noon as is usual, so I threw on some clothes and went to the Curve and read a bunch of Pinocchio. This book is seriously messed up. I also did laundry today. It only took me putting my clothes through the drier three times to get them to be dry! Amazing, I know.

Vanessa and I went to this store called Primark- I'm a little bit in love. It's like Forever 21, only British. I restricted my purchases to within reason, however. It helped that I didn't know my size in their clothes so I didn't take too much to try on- just enough to get a better gauge for next time I go shopping. We stopped at a Souvenir Shop as well, and Vanessa could not get over the Tube-related underwear.

Caitlin, Kevin, Vanessa, Hilary and I congregated and started booking some stuff for reading week. At the moment, we have plane tickets to Venice to enjoy a bit of Carnival, and then tomorrow (we all started falling asleep, me especially) we're going to figure out our trains and whatnot to go to Lucerne and Geneva in Switzerland, and then get back to London. It should be really fun, we might splurge a bit and go skiing in the Alps! We'll see what kind of deals we can get, though.

Where's the village, then?

I woke up at quarter of seven. That is really, really early for me. I showered and made scrambled eggs- those took a long long time, our hobs are not high quality. I then met up with Vanessa and got on a zebra bus. Hilary showed up too, which was cool. We slept on the bus for an hour until we got to a rest stop, where I had extra chocolate hot chocolate and a double chocolate muffin.

I see the judgment in your eyes. Stop it, it was darn delicious!

We got off the M4 another hour later, and the driver was following the GPS system's directions. It said "turn left and end at your destination." The bus turns left, and there is a dirt path and a school. We stop for a minute while the driver (Gerry with a G, he's a Gerald) stares perplexedly at our surroundings.

He then drives the bus down the dirt path. Obviously the logical choice. After driving down the dirt path for five minutes, we pass a biker. Gerry stops the bus and leans his head out and yells, "Where's the village, then??"

The biker gives us directions, which include turning around. So we roll backwards down the hill a bit to a littler offshot of our dirt road to turn around. We then overtake the biker and follow behind him for a few minutes until he angrily pulls off to the side to let us pass, flipping us off. He was very friendly and logical, obviously it makes sense to make the bus follow behind the biker.

Finally we get to a parking area, and get out and start walking down this little road... and into the cutest village ever! They told us Castle Combe is supposedly the most beautiful village in England, but it was seriously way more adorable than I'd anticipated, plus the rain cleared up and the sun came out a bit for when we got there. It's a historical site, so even the new buildings have to be styled exactly the same as the other cottages and use the same stones and everything, it's so cool. Vanessa and I almost got hit by a car when we were looking at a gate, which apparently opens automatically. That was fun, and unexpected in such a cute old cottagey village.

From there we found our way to Bath, where we walked through the central part of the city (we saw Putleny Bridge or something along those lines, which was a bridge built with shops on both sides, and the Abbey, and the Baths, and the Crescent, and some museums and the big shopping street).

We walked around the Abbey (tombstone of the Abbey: "Manley Power") and then grabbed some very yummy pasties and went to the Jane Austen Centre, and took photos with the model of Jane Austen out front, and spent a long time in the bookshop and successfully avoided purchasing anything, and then went and did a tour of the Roman Baths. There was a guy in a toga that was making "incantations" or something along those lines to Soulis, due to the hail that was coming down. He was making fun of this kid named Jed's scarf while Jed took a picture of me and Vanessa with the toga dude, it was funny. We had some of the spa water to drink, it was warm but otherwise good (I think it was legitimately flowing to the Pump Room restaurant from whatever its original source was, which is cool).

My flatmates decorated our flat and were making dumplings, since it's the Chinese New Year tomorrow. And apparently, on New Year's Eve, you make dumplings.

Flowers or shoes?

Caitlin, Kevin and I went to the National Gallery today. We had fun wandering around Trafalgar Square, taking pictures of pigeons on top of statues heads, rasta children playing instruments, and people doing sidewalk chalk. We then met up with Paul and went into the Gallery. I got a little sick of the section we started in, since three quarters of the paintings were the Virgin and Child, but I got a good laugh when we went into another room and there was one where she was launching milk into his mouth. I don't think that's quite how it works, but whatever makes the painter happy, I suppose.

I found a "fish of the painting" in one of the really big ones by someone representing the four elements, and my favorite painting was in a sort've little room- it was a French family having hot chocolate in a really pretty garden. I also liked Casanova's lover that decided to marry a really rich, much older guy instead.

I was sort've done looking at paintings after an hour and a half, and the other three hit a wall about a half hour later, so we literally walked into the last five rooms we wanted to do, glanced at the walls, and left again.

When we left, we noticed tons of police around Trafalgar Square, and some barricades and whatnot, so we went up to one of the armored trucks blocking traffic and asked the head of a riot squad what was happening. There was going to be a march and a protest about Gaza in a little bit. We ducked into an "American style diner" and got some pizza and milkshakes, finished pretty quickly and sort've wanted to get going, since our abroad advisors all warn us not to get caught up in protests. I finally had to go ask for the bill so we could pay and get moving, but we still had to walk through the edge of the crowd that was starting to gather.

Best sentence I heard on our way by?? "Now look at what happened to Bush; President Obama has to ask himself, 'Do I want flowers thrown at me for bringing justice to the Palestinians, or shoes?'"

Now I'm about to go make some cheese puffs I got at Budgens and just watch a movie on my own and go to bed early, since I am very overtired.

Haggling on Brick Lane

I eat way, way too much. I got out of my adventure stories class (some girls stopped me and were asking where in America was from, and said that my saying "Maine, the top-rightest one" was much more helpful than people using their hand as a map and pointing out their states), went to the gym, came home, and ate a huge serving of mashed potatoes and some fishsticks. I sustained another burn on my hand while flipping said fishsticks. (I also have one on a knuckle from flipping cheese puffs that Shidvash and I made the other day, and another one from oil spitting at me while Vanessa and I were making quesidillas Monday night. It's the week of the burns for me...). I then ate ice cream until it was time for class again. After my last class, I made a pizza and Vanessa came over so we could figure out what we wanted to do that evening, and when I was halfway through my pizza I heard her saying on the phone, "Oh, I don't know if we can go out to eat, my friend is having dinner right now."

Of course I said I still wanted to.

Luckily we decided to get a late dinner, and a few of us and Haider (Vanessa's friend) met up and hung out at Haider's flat for a bit, and talked with him, a flatmate and her boyfriend. James, the boyfriend, actually worked at a summer camp in Massachusetts over the summer, so he really enjoyed talking about Boston, and Rii kept trying to get us to talk about stereotypes of British people, which I couldn't really come up with since I was pressed. After hanging out a bit longer we caught a bus and went to Brick Lane.

Brick Lane is FANTASTIC. It's a bunch of curry places, which all have exactly the same menus, and workers have to stand in the doorway and make you deals to come inside, and what you're supposed to do is ask them for their absolute best offer, and say that so-and-so down the road was offering more percent off and free drinks, etc etc. It was so much fun! Haider was trying to get us to haggle in a British accent, but I opted out of that... I still got us a deal for ten pounds a head- two free rounds of drink, a starter, a main course, and then rice or nan- but we decided to go to the place that had won an award for best curry the last three years (recommended and haggled for by a Perfect Fried Chicken worker on that road, actually- so I guess I indirectly got us that deal as well, since I made us stop so I could go to the bathroom). We only had one free round of drinks at Papadoms, but that was plenty, and I left and was finally legitimately full! It was delicious. I'm totally just going to go haggling on Brick Lane when I get bored.

Whale of a Tale

I actually had fun in Actuarial Maths tutorial today, I'm back into the swing of algebraic manipulations to solve problems, and I did really well on my last homework sheet. Plus I had the first tutor thus far who actually over-explains, which is awesome. Usually they half-answer a question and rush off.

We watched Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for my adventure stories class today, and boy do I have a whale of a tale to tell ya. The room we were in was innocuously named Arts G19, but it's actually "The Alfred Hitchcock Studio." It looks like a mini old-fashioned movie theater- carpeted, a couple rows of stadium seating with large, red plush movie theater-style seats (but way more comfortable and with padded arms), and a red curtain that pulls back from in front of the projector screen. I personally enjoyed the classy love seats set up in front of the chairs, and enjoyed my movie viewing curled up on one of those. I'm seriously taking pictures sometime, it was really really nice.

I met up with Vanessa after that, and we went to a Chinese food buffet with a friend (Hassan, I think) who's been helping her with her computer. While we were there, four of his friends came in and sat down with us, and we ended up staying and talking for three hours. It was really fun; a lot of the guys were slightly disgusted by my idea of microwaving a bit of Nutella to function as hot fudge to put on ice cream, but Damien thought it sounded like a good idea. Granted, this is the kid who established a four-plate minimum for the buffet. I also really enjoyed how they were planning to put a whoopie cushion on a professor's chair, thinking it seemed like the greated prank of all time. Maybe it's only overdone in the US?

I'm finally almost done with my reading for tomorrow- just one more chapter!- and have actually finished all of my maths homework that's due Monday. Vanessa and Caitlin came over and we all talked for a while, and I helped Vanessa with her probability homework a bit; I also finished making my mint brownies, so those are in the fridge ready to go for tomorrow!