Notes from a Wanderlust Soul

"...Inadvertently" - An Italian Opera: A Tale of 4 EAPers, Act 1

2007-12-29T00:15:00.001Z

to start, let's just say that this epic tale is going to take a while to execute in order to not leave out any juicy//funny//ridiculous//humiliating moments from this trip.

but for now, I've got papers and exams to cloud my mind for the next few days. so hold tight! I know everyoneee's just dying for the Rome entry, all 2 people who read this...don't lose your blob [please tell me someone got that reference, or else I'll just sound like a freak].

to satiate your appetite, I give you one photo over which you shall ponder internally.

ready...BREAK! HIATUS!

"you're in Paris! you're in love...turn around! - A Parisian Christmas, Ho Style 11-15 December 07

2007-12-29T00:14:00.001Z

Jessica and Diana at the Louvre with an amazing Parisian sunset. even still, the camera didn't capture the color as accurately as my little heart had hoped. but this'll suffice.

me, Christine, and Jess on our Leeds shopping adventure in the Victoria Quarter arcade. uhhhh pretty. how pretty? we saw someone taking wedding photos in there that's how pretty.

this is one of the photos Jess and I sent to our parents on the trip. my dad decided he liked it so much he was going to print them out and put them in our Christmas cards AKA....the one they sent me. I love my dad.
---
so, it was definitely a surreal experience seeing Jessica in the Charles De Gaulles airport. I know that we see each other on skype all the time, but it was great to actually see her in the flesh. I think I would've been more emotional had it not been for skype. so it was definitely joyful, but not crying-joyful [though I'll admit, I did feel some tears forming but never fully appeared..I've gotta keep my cool somehow, you know]. we managed to make our way to the hotel in the 5th arrondissement in tact and completely pooped. we also discovered that our hotel room only had a sink and a biday...the toilet was on the other side of the elevator and the showers were nonexistent in the type of room we booked. roughing it! so, it's a good thing that grabbed my dry shampoo or else we'd have to "wash" our hair in the sink. after we settled in, we decided it'd be est to take about a 4 or 5 hour nap to recoup. funny though, Jess had major jetlag//time differences to deal with, so it's no wonder that she was passed out on the best for 5 hours. amazingly enough, I had neither to deal with but I slept right along with her. if anyone who reads this knows me at all, they know that that's not surprising at all, considering how much I flippin' love sleeping. once we woke up, we went on a hunt for some food, but not wanting to stray too far at night and tired, we opted for the local McDo since it was close and predictable and cheap.

after falling into a sweet, sweet coma that night, we woke up the next day to a brilliantly sunny yet freezing [AKA...colder-than-Leeds freezing] day. we went on a search for some brekkie and eventually found a little patisserie on Port Royale and took our croissants and pains au chocolat to a small cafe a block or two down to get a cafe latte. the latte was good, albeit a bit overpriced for my wallet. that day [Wednesday], Noelle and I had arranged to meet at our hotel's lobby to catch up on our crazy EAP experiences and get some lunch. luckily, we connected without a hitch. she took us through the Quartier Latin, the mostly student quarter, to this AMAZING kebab joint about a block away from the Seine. they put chips [British chips, not American chips] and made it fresh in front of us. surprisingly, and very un-Parisian, it was €4 for the whole shebang! for Paris, a €4 filling meal is like GOLD. after, we promenaded to Notre Dame to meet Diana thanks to Noelle's cell phone...a close relative of my Blue Beauty. so the 4 of us proceeded to conquer Paris and all of its expensive aspects. what was great about being in Paris with JEss at the time that I was, was the fact that we could enjoy ourselves, catch up, and see some more of Paris that we didn't see before without having to really worry about how to get around or where to go since we were with our friends who a) spoke the language better than we could and b) who knew their weay around and knew where to go. things are so much less stressful that way.

Jess and I really wanted to see a ballet at the Paris Opera if we could, but of course all of the tickets were gone like hot cakes, or bagels [if you ask Heidi Klum to compare how quickly they were gone]. it would've been perfect to see the Paris opera Ballet doing the Nutcracker, but I suppose there's always next time. I think it's pretty much imposible to see one city in its entirety in one normal holiday visit. there's always something else to see, so we always say "it's just another reason to come back in the future" when we miss something or forget to do something. so, seeing Paris Opera Ballet wil definitely be on my list of things to do next time I'm in Paris [AKA....maybe with Cooper?!?!].

the next day we woke up to another sunny-freezing day in Paris to meet Diana at the Musee d'Orsay to do some chefs d-oeuvres viewing of my favorite art movement, Impressionism. we breezed past the high Impressionists [Monets, Manets, Renoirs, Degas], Barbizan painters [Corots, Courbets, Turners...one of the earlier movements that inspired Impressionism], and Post-Impressionists [Toulouse-Lautrecs, Seurats, Gauguins, and Van Goghs]. there was also a few rooms of some awesome examples of Art Deco//Art Nouveau era furniture design and windows on display. after, we headed over to Rue Rivoli to do some Christmas shopping for ourselves. Jess and I both loved this one gray wool skirt Promod, but neither of us could muster up the money to buy it or the energy to actually try it on for fear of liking it too much. but then we went to Printemps [the ginormous department store second only to Galeries Lafayette] and bought 4, that's right 4, Longchamp bags. granted, one was for Aunt Jan [from Mom], one for Mom [for herself], one for Jess, and unfortunately one for myself, completely on a whim. I had absolutely no intentions on spending €62 on a purse on this trip, but we were in the store and trying to decide on colors and all for the other bags...and the bags are just sooo pretty! and there's so many colors! and I'm a girl! so one thing led to another yadda yadda yadda [I yadda-yadda shop] I walked out of there with a gray//silver Longchamp that I figured I'll just use for the next 10 years to pay it off. that's right, it's a long term investment. for dinner that night, Diana tok us to a good Senegalese restaurant that she had been to before and we finally ate a proper, sit-down meal. in that arrondissement was this great little tea house that Jess had been to when she was abroad called Mariage Frères and bought a gift set that included their trademark tea, trademark storage tin, and some sort of ambiguous jelly stuff that we never quite figured out what it was.

the next day Diana had to teach so Jess and I were on our own in the big city. unfortunately, we got too late of a start cuz we wanted to catch some of the early morning sunlight = good pictures but missed it. it's a sore subject...I don't like to talk about it let's change the subject. besides missing our golden opportunity for some quality kodak moments, Jess and I had a pleasant time strolling through Paris during Christmas and seeing all the shops decorated to the nines and to see the Champs Elysées all lit up. that's when Jess and I got in a little tiff. looking back on it, though, is pretty funny. just think...Jess and I are in Paris, it's Christmas [how romantic] walking along the Champs Elysées, but walking 5 feet apart because we can't walk next to each other. that's what's great about us, we get each other so much that we can look back and laugh at our own ridiculousness. in conclusion, I love my sister. :)

the next day was our fun little trek back to Leeds via London. here's some background info:

item #1: Ren ended up not being able to come back to Leeds with Jess and I because she wasn't feeling well. she wrote me saying she felt terrible, but it was best for everyone, health = important! seeing Ho = ehhh not so much...it can wait another few months, I'm still the same boring Ho. she's going to NEW ZEALAND! that's crazy and I'm jealous!

item #2: easyJet decided that our flight into London Luton was going ot be delayed for a whole 4 hour due to short crew on the flight before from Milan. arrrrgh. if only Jess and I knew that before we left the hotel to be early at the airport. I like to call them non-so-easy-Jet now.

so yeah, Jess and I spent some quality time bonding together sitting in the CDG airport trying to firgure out what the hell to do with ourselves cuz we were already early early because we actually did something right and got there on time//early. eventually we did make it to London Luton, then coached from Luton into the city center [AKA we didn't have time to see that couture exhibit at the V&A Museum...sigh] killed more time in the Subway at the Victoria Coach Station [I swear, that day we did about 4 hours of travelling and about 10 hours waiting]. we took our las leg to Leeds on the NatExp coach and got a cheap [£3!] cab back to St. Ann's that was thankfully empty of flatmates. just after we got in and gave Jess the grand tour of the flat, Christine had gotten her cab to temporarily live at St. Ann's for the next few days. it was so cute, she arrived bearing gifts! she brought some foodstuffs from her flat, and a box of candy canes [festive!] and a homemade sign made of Post-Its and Sharpie that said "Welcome Back, Ho's!" it made me so happy, and I think she was happy to see friends again cuz Leeds is a real ghost town with all the students gone.

so the next 3 days Christine, Jess, and I hung around, watched movies and cooked REAL MEALS for dinner! it was fantastic. maybe I just needed Jess to come visit me to get me cooking again. it's not like it's hard, I'm just so reluctant to buy all those ingredients at double to price and all that mumbojumbo. even though we didn't do much that was special, it was awesome just to hang around and do nothing great in particular, so long as I was with Jess. the second day in Leeds we took her on the "grand" tour into town and showed her some of the university and the usual walk into town to do some shopping. we took her all over to the stores, but we had to show her what Leeds culture us like. when we got to H+M, I was having some major retail conflict because there was this one really well-proportioned coat that was ON SALE for £25 instead of £50! problem is, I had just bought this really cute party dress from Zara that fit really well etc for £29. the rest of the day went well. I just bought the long cardigan that I had been wanting for a long time from the Scarlet P for £8. the next day I ended up returning the dress and getting the coat in this suble black, blue, and brown plaid pattern. I figured that if I didn't get it, I would just end up talking about it and completely regretting not getting it. and I can totally us it up in Davis. and this way, I will have stuck to my word about only buying that Top Shop dress [the only "expensive" party dress that I'm buying this year].

Tuesday was an intense day, it mainly consisted of me running back and forth between downtoan and St. Ann's...I think that by the end of the night, I had taken the bus 7 times. so, at 3pm when I finally had to say bye to Jess at the train station, I got a little verclemt. although, we were pretty rushed so we couldn't just stand and wallow and wait for the train to come. but I think that that's almost better or else I probably would've cried. luckily I found out later that I had handed her off to Achim without a hitch. I didn't even have time to it and wistfully miss her and wallow in my sorrows at seeing her leave because Christine and I immediately had to get ready to go to ROME via Liverpool! in conclusion, I was SOOOOO happy to get to see Jess even without the parents. it felt good to spread out their trips so that there isn't going to be too long of breaks between seeing them. all in all, très bien. :)

“Wait...Who’s from California?” – A Hilaaarious Misunderstanding 27 November 2007

2007-12-10T09:52:00.000Z

true story. Rachel, Christine, and I, sort of on a musical whim, decided to go to a Rooney gig in Birmingham on a Tuesday night. Reasons why we decided to go:

1. it’s Rooney and they’re flippin’ awesome!
2. The ticket was only 8 pounds.
3. They’re from California and that’s flippin’ awesome!
4. We didn’t have to pay for train fare cuz of Christine’s GNER train vouchers.
5. We hadn’t been to Birmingham yet.

Useful information to know:

1. Christine and I are in love with the fictional character, Michael Moscovitz from The Princess Diaries series. Robert Schwartzman, lead singer, was MM in the Princess Diaries movie. So put 2 and 2 together and you get 4, also known as Robert Schwartzman is Michael Moscovitz.
2. I had messaged Rooney as a joke a couple weeks ago asking if they could just, you know, make a quick pit stop on their UK tour in Leeds cuz there are a bunch of Californian students studying here who’d like to see some other Californians. Ned, the drummer, replied suggesting we take a field trip to one of their other shows IE London, Bristol, Birmingham. So we did.
3. According to the all-knowing www.LoveCalculator.com, Robert Schwartzman and I have a 99% shot at true love. Love Calculator doesn’t lie. Naturally, I had to make it to Birmingham to get a glimpse of my 99% true love.

So we train it out to Birmingham [locally pronounced Bir-ming-um] and meet up with our friend Frankie who’s from the area and came down to see the Kaiser Chiefs in a venue down the street [jealous much!]. she was lovely enough to give us the whirlwind tour of the city IE the High Street and Selfridges’ AMAZING food department and bull made out of jelly beans. That’s right, jellybeans. Incidentally, Christine told the bull’s security guard that she’s like to purchase the bull, only to be told that they don’t have enough gift wrap for it. What’s the world coming to…
As we wait in line for Rooney, we encountered a drunkard roaming up and down the queue trying to sell the Big Issue. Basically, all you need to know is that he slowly lunged towards Christine at which point we all grab her and the meeting culminated with the sentence, “I swear I don’t have fleas”. By then, we were pretty, pretty sure he was fibbing. We finally got inside and ending up hanging out near those girls who knew we were from California since we bonded over the encounter with the drunkard. The opener musician was a pretty good acoustic solo act whose name I can’t remember…my apologies. The other opener was a local band [Rooney held a contest for local bands to try out to be openers at each gig] called the Days. They were pretty good also, sort of a typical sound, but solid nonetheless.

At last Rooney came on and played a good mix of old and new and a few covers here and there. While Rachel fended for herself at the front of the crowd to get some sweet photos and videos amongst all the Giant People who decided to go to the gig and stand right at the very front, Christine and I took advantage of our benches by the wall and stood on them to get eye-to-eye with the band. At about halfway through their set, Robert decided to point out to the crowd their flag, which happens to be the California flag with the Rooney emblem at the bottom. The following interaction went like this:

Robert: “hey guys. Uh…check out our flag, isn’t it great?”
[some murmurs, mostly silence]
Me: “CALIFORNIAAAAA!”
[laughter, tangible confusion]
Robert: “..what?”
Me: “CALIFORNIAAAA!”
Robert: “Oh. Uh…I don’t know that song. [Phantom Planet’s California which duhh I know is his brother’s band’s song] You’ll just have to sing it and keep it in here [gestures to his head] and in here [gestures to his chest, heart, whatever].
The girls we met in line: “NO! they’re FROM California!”
Robert: “Wait, who is?”
The girls we met in line: “Them!” [points to Christine and I on our benches under the spotlights]
Robert: “Oh, awesome. What are you guys doing here?”
[most likely a rhetorical question, so we just smiled and gaped at the fact that Christine and I just “talked” to Michael Moscovitz]
some dude in the audience: “they’re lying.”
Robert: “well, [points to us] this one’s for you girls.”
[Christine and I look at each other with a look of what-the-hell-just-happened on our faces]

after that little ditty, Rooney proceeded to play a cover of the Beach Boys’s California Girls. Dedicated to us. AWESOME.

After the gig, I attempted to steal a promo poster from the wall but too many other people had the same idea, blasted. So instead I took a Carina Round poster. ☺

Then, after a failed attempt at waiting outside to hopefully meet Rooney face to face and apologize for the California misunderstanding, the 3 of us went to meet Frankie to take the train back to Shropshire [AKA the Shire, Frankie’s hometown!] to spend the night. Not only was she such a sweetie for letting us crash at her super-awesome farmhouse, she saved us 10 quid for the train fare. So the next morning, she provided croissants and orange juice to our absolute delight and the 4 of us road-tripped back up to Leeds! It was bloody FANTASTIC.

Final thoughts:
I’m still in love with Michael Moscovitz//Robert Schwartzman
I love Rooney even more after seeing them live
I can’t listen to California Girls anymore without a giddy smile

Get your Ceilidh On! An Edinburgh Thanksgiving 25 November 2007

2007-12-10T09:41:00.000Z

so I’ve currently got 2 papers to write for the end-of-term, which is nearly upon us! But I wanted to write about Thanksgiving before I dive into my work.

Let’s just start off by saying that it’s quite a difficult task to explain to the British what Thanksgiving is about. Considering, you know, it’s kind of an awkward history between the two nations. So in the past week, all of us EAPers have managed to diplomatically describe the significance of Thanksgiving without saying “yeah, we hated you guys and kicked you out and so we eat a lot of food with the Native Americans celebrating our victory” outright.

Thanksgiving festivities really started on Friday night, when Christine hosted Fajita Friday at St. Marks. Let’s just say that it made me really long for some Wahoo’s, Chipotle, and/or Las Golondrinas, but for what resources we did have at the market, I’d like to thing we did pretty, pretty, prettttty well. After our gastronomic delights, we immediately revelled in the joy that is my Princess Diaries DVD faster than you can say “chick flick” and pined over Michael Moscovitz. To this day, he just might be my #1 literary crush and I’m not afraid to admit it! I challenge all other characters of literature to surpass him. Do it. Just do it. Pop the trunk, do it.

The next morning Christine and I trekked down to the train station at 0-800 hours in the drizzle drazzle to catch the train that pretty much everyone else was on. We arrived in Edinburgh in high spirits, mainly because we flippin’ LOVE Edinburgh. The greatest part was that a) it wasn’t as cold as we were anticipating, b) all the Christmas festivities were in full swing [and apparently Edinburgh REALLY knows how to do Christmas] and c) we were getting a Thanksgiving meal, hellooo [cellooo it’s a bass]. Between the 5 of us [Jessica’s friend in Sunderland, Rachel, joined us!] we managed to find our way back to Budget Backpackers where I think we were all thoroughly disappointed to not be greeted by Jessica and my favorite Scot, Marty, the supposedly 19-year old yehh-grew-up-in-Edinburgh-but-lived-in-New-Zealand-for-the-past-8-years-now-I’m-back staffer. Hmm, perhaps we should go back to Edinburgh in the springtime?? Yes, that would be very good indeed.

Naturally, we needed to get some sustenance so we went to the Grassmarket and settled into Maggie Dickon’s Pub for a couple hours and caught up with some of our good old Sheffield friends. One of the perks of going back to Edinburgh was the 20% discount card Christine impulsively signed up for at Frankenstein’s during Orientation. So we all managed to get our hands on discounted pints and proceeded to dance in our high heels = excruciating pain was in my future. It didn’t help that Edinburgh is a medieval town meaning that their streets are cobbled and hilly. Obviously, people in the Middle Ages didn’t plan for womenswear to evolve into wearing shoes with spikes to make one appear taller.

After, we returned to Backpackers to shoot some pool in the Americana-ridden game room. Picture, if you will, painted murals of Mt. Rushmore, American flags, and what looks to me like a beach scene loosely based on Baywatch.

Next morning, we met a bunch of other EAPers in the lobby for check-out at 10am and wandered around Edinburgh and their Christmas Market until it was time to get changed at the Roxburghe Hotel, which I have to say, was sooo nice! I wasn’t expecting our American Thanksgiving party to be held at such an cute hotel. Points for EAP! Anyhow, at one point when all the girls were getting ready in the bathroom the fire alarm went off, we ignore it for a while, then end up running out of the bathroom to the streets where we see everyone else is waiting, including the whole of the staff on the other side of the street wrapped in space blankets.

MORE ON THIS LATER. I’m off to Paris for 4 days to meet my beloved SISTER!

Au revoir, mes amis.

you know the drill. it's business time!

2007-12-04T11:06:00.000Z

again, apologies for the lull in capitivating blog entries, it's end-of-term!

for some people, end-of-term means "YEAH let's go celebrate "no more work" and partyyyyy".
for others, end-of-term means "BALLS I need to finish all this work asap so that I can go celebrate "no more work" [at least...until January] and partyyyyy".

I'm the second.

so, until Friday//Saturday, wallow in my sorrows with me! woe, c'est moi.

classic moments: a retelling and a work-in-progress

2007-11-12T01:24:00.000Z

so we all go through life encountering new people who don't know your whole story and what you're about. in the process of getting-to-know-you, light chit-chat most likely involves some sort of recount of a good story, or of a one-time-when-I-was- [something years old]-at-[somewhere]-with-[someone] tale of an incredible event or moment of absolute bliss. being 20 years young myself, I don't think I can quite say I've had many moments of absolute bliss, but I can say that this list of moments have come close to absolute contentment while in the UK thus far. given my current state of life, most of these moments have something to do with England and music. I've come to the conclusion that my life really does have a soundtrack. apropos? I'd say so.

Moment #1
Edinburgh. Sept 15.
as Jessica and I sit down to eat our continental breakfast at the Premier Travel Inn during EAP Orienatation, the Beatles' I Feel Fine starts to play from the hotel's speakers. 2nd day in the UK and I already feel welcome.

Moment #2
Leeds. Sept 21.
Christine and I go to a house party of a friend of Louise while some other EAPers go to a club on our first Friday in Leeds. at the house, the basement//downstairs is devoted solely to getting your groove on with the in-house DJ. Christine and I venture down, start dancing, and the DJ spins Soft Cell's Tainted Love. next thing you know, the entire room is singing at the top of their lungs to the song. the awesomeness of the moment is only perfectly punctuated when I learned that the members of Soft Cell met at Leeds Met Uni here!

Moment #3
Leeds. Oct 23.
Wednesdays I usually head into the city center and read [leisurely or seriously]. of course, leisure reading = Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries because a) Mia Thermopolis is my hero, and b) Michael Moscovitz is my fictional crush. as I was reading, what should come on Borders' speakers but Dina Carrol's Someone Like You, the song that plays at the end of Bridget Jones's Diary when Bridget is wrapped up in Mark Darcy's peacoat. siiigh.

Moment #4
Dublin. Nov 4.
During our Dublin Blitz weekend, Christine and I wandered around the city while Gaby did some stuff for her classes. we walked through Trinity College and heard a lot of people on the other side of some buildings and went to check it out. turns out a rugby match was going on. we stopped to watch and the action edged closer to our end of the pitch. I realized that I couldn't be in a more perfect Irish moment: gloomy day, rugby match, Trinity College.

Moment #5
Dublin. Nov 4.
Also during our Dublin Blitz, when we were hanging out at the Village club [the one with the midnight karaoke seshes] the DJ started spinning U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday which, naturally, every single person in the club faithfully sung to their hearts content. so Irish.

so that's my tentative list of moments of satisfaction abroad so far. more to come, I'm sure. :)

"so are you telling me you don't have to tie your shoes??" time to go big or go home - Dublin Blitz 03 November 07

2007-11-11T15:12:00.000Z

Thanks to Christine's magical way with words, I now present you with an accurate retelling of our foray across the cold English waters to the land of bottomless pints and blarney stones.

There is a general stereotype of the Irish being heavy drinkers. It is true.

Here is an approximate itinerary of Christine and my time spent in Dublin:

7:50 AM- Wake up late for our bus to the airport.
11:00 AM- Take off from Leeds/Bradford Airport.
11:15 AM- Fall asleep on plane.
11:55 AM- Wake to the sound of trumpet calvaries playing the "off to the races" tune over the loudspeakers, accompanied by the passengers clapping and whistling (no joke-thank you Ryan air low budget airlines). Look out the window and see nothing but green grass and grey skies. Realize I have arrived in Dublin.
12:15 PM- Take bus to Trinity College.
12:20 PM- "See" Trinity College.
12:30 PM- "See" Dublin Castle.
1:00 PM- Find Gaby. Gaby takes us around Dublin to see parks, shops, famous sites (aka Guinness Factory), etc.
5:25 PM- Eat most amazing kebab dinner ever experienced.
6:00 PM- Self-induced food coma...fall asleep on Gaby's couch. Pre-night nap, if you will.
9:30 PM- Wake up, get ready for the night.
10:00 PM- Gaby, Lauren and I meet up with 22 other NYU students for a night out on the town. This is the part where I observe that the Irish do love to drink. I tactfully use my lack of monetary resources to avoid the inevitable alcohol poisoning which the Irish must experience on a nightly basis.
Somewhere between 10:00 and 5:00 AM- We head back to the NYU flat and kick it old school on the roof, listening to tunes and dancing the samba till the break of dawn.
5:15 AM- head back to Gaby's. Resume state of comatose.

SUNDAY
1:30 PM- Arise from comatose. Eat breakfast. Wander throughout Dublin once again.
5:00 PM- Eat delicious homemade MEXICAN food (dream come true) compliments of Gaby.
8:00 PM- Gaby takes us to a venue called Crawdaddy where she has gotten all three of us on the VIP guest list (aka free entry). We see local Dublin bands The Mighty Stef and The Things, who are the supporting acts for the most hilarious show I have ever seen, put on by the Black Lips who are from GEORGIA. By hilarious I mean that if I had to describe these guys in four phrases it would be: cowboy boots, handle-bar mustache, silver teeth, and mushroom/bowl haircut from the '90s. It was stunning...simply stunning. It is also here that we meet up with the club promoter (the one who put us on the guest list), who introduces us to other club promoters who then take us and the bands to a new venue for which they promote.
12:00 AM- Karaoke at one of the club promoter's clubs. It is here that I observe that the Irish are even more spastic dancers than the English.
1:00 AM- More Karaoke
2:30 AM- Still at the Karaoke bar
4:30 AM- Lauren and I realize that we probably won't be sleeping tonight. We are correct.
6:30 AM- Lauren and I catch the bus back to the airport.
9:25 AM- Take off from Dublin Airport
10:30- AM- Land in Leeds and catch the bus home.
1:00 PM- Class.

I am told this is how it is done in Dublin.

hey, when in Rome.

"smell my breath!" A Wales of a Weekend! 22 October 2007

2007-11-06T19:48:00.000Z

This entry is lonnnng overdue, but it was too good not to blog about! Some basics:

1. Rachel has some relatives who live in Cardiff who were eager to see her [after about 18 years!] and they were generous to offer their place for us to crash at.
2. Rachel and I had a Reading Week [no lecture for one of our classes where, in theory, we’re all supposed to be catching up on readings and such. But for us, Reading Week = Travel Week].

The weekend was amazing on a number of levels. First, for the whole weekend, I think I only had to spend about 30pd for travel and a couple postcards. Rachel’s second cousin, Sarah, who we got to stay with, was a BEAUTY to us for a) housing us for the whole weekend, b) treating us to everything we did/ate, and c) introducing us to her 2 amazing children, Steffan [6 y.o] and Phoebe [4 y.o]. they were quite possibly the 2 cutest, blondest little buggers I’ve ever seen. Phoebe would say the craziest things. Example: each morning we could hear outside our door Phoebe saying “are they awake??” or Sarah explaining to Phoebe why we’re still asleep…Phoebe answered, “Rachel can’t sleep in because she’s family so she isn’t on holiday”….on the second morning Kristin, Rachel, and I were almost done getting ready for the day out when we hear from down below, “THERE’S NO TIME TO PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES AND BRA.” Naturally, I look downstairs to see what the co-mmo is about and there’s Pheebs staring up at me wearing pink tinted sunglasses. Could this girl get any cooler? YES.

Basically, at one point in the trip, we took a tour of a coal mine [a little out of the ordinary for us, but fantastic nonetheless: its Wales’s history!] and we were down in the depths learning about the goings-on [like how Rachel is a direct descendent of the guy who invented the Davy Lamp, tool used to detect poisonous gases in mines that is STILL used today. That’s right.]. being the clever guy he is, he brought along bags of Cadbury toffees and tic tacs for the young ones to keep them occupied. Naturally, Steffan and Phoebe are given their lollies//tic tacs and munch away as Robert gives his spiel about pack ponies and Phoebe taps on his leg and so very eloquently says, “smell my breath” and opens her mouth for Robert to smell. The best part about it is that she has this tiny, little British accented voice which automatically makes things a bajillion times better//cuter.

The rest of the trip consisted of the royal treatment courtesy of Sarah and her awesome tour guide skills, showing us Caerphilly Castle with the leaning tower that Rachel’s other ancestor, Oliver Cromwell [you may have heard of him] ordered to be destroyed, curry and chips [!!!], dancing the night away at O’Neills to a handful of American-themed songs as requested by Sarah, and LOTS AND LOTS OF AMAZING TAPAS at La Tasca!

I have to say, even though I had just met Sarah and her family, who were all SO warm and welcoming to us, it felt so great to be back in a house with a family. It made me sentimental for my family and home. Everything seemed so much more relaxed and easy-going where all you had to worry about was what the kids were putting in their mouths. It was a grand time!

what a TRAVESTY.

2007-11-02T10:54:00.000Z

ok. so apparently in the last week or so I've managed to lose some of my blogging stamina! I'm out this weekend to Dublin with Christine but just you wait. when I get back there will be a whole new world of blog updates you won't even BELIEVE.

...sort of. you probably won't think they're that interesting, but nevertheless, it shall be updated. :)

peace+love

Journeys, Elephants, and Castle - London Weekend

2007-10-14T00:18:00.000+01:00

First, let me say HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY to my dear mother! love that woman. wish I was there! :)

this little outing of ours to London las weekend was an awesome rollercoaster involving money, caffeine, and sore feet! it all started on friday night when we stayed over at Rachel's hall [since she's closest to the train station] and just hung out. we went to her pub at Clarence Dock, had a couple drinks, and met some nice guys at the pool table named Richard, Laurence, and Patric...without a K...because he's half French. Laurence knew someone who lives in Laguna Beach and was like:
"yeah, she has a really strong American accent. she says things like 'that's so fetch."

what? anyone can say that.

saturday morning commenced at 0430 hour [we're getting really good at catching trains at ridiculous hours, I swear] without any real sleep for any of us. some of Rachel's flatmates came home from their night out and I heard them thinking//hoping to myself:
"God, I hope that means that we have to get up soon and my alarm will go off. PLEASE go off, alarm. PLEASE."

it didn't for a long time of sore back and cold floor, but all for the excitement of our first weekend trip! once it did, we trekked over to catch the train, only to get off in London short 92 pounds [long story, sort of] because of a ticket ish. Cue the first low of the weekend! we finally arrive, learn a quick lesson about the price of a singe Underground pass [4 pounds! ridicle!] and make our way to our hostel, amiably titled Journeys, Elephants, and Castle. no words, no explanation, no history...just 3 unrelated words. :) brilliant! even now, we still don't get it. we got greeted and check in by perhaps the most unfit woman to work front desk at a hostel who, by the end of the weekend, clapped at Jessica to get her attention. what human does that to another human?

first thing we did was head to Camden Town to see and shop in the punk and funk of London, a side of the city I think a lot of people overlook or neglect but is very much a large part of London pop culture whether it's your taste or not. tucked inside are some great artisan stalls with handmade goods to be haggled over. after grabbing some [probably] overpriced food at Camden Lock, we Undergrounded it to the main sights of London IE London Eye, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and lastly and quite appropriately Buckingham Palace. before getting to the palace though, we had an intense action shot photoshoot of each of us trying to run and jump sort of gracefully through all the gorgeous leaves in St. James Park. it was just too darn pretty not to use up the rest of our cameras' batteries. evidence of our shenanigans can be found on my Picasa page. :)

after a long, long day of a buttload of walking, we went on an intense search for a local joint with reasonably priced food for dinner, but ended up at a restaurant near the Millennium Bridge called Black and Blue partially because it was the only non-completely crowded places and it had 2 statues of bulls at the entrance. how can you say no to bulls?? it had, perhaps, the greatest toilets I've ever seen: all were individual rooms with amazing sinks and full-length mirrors, we ordered a spinach artichoke dip that we devoured in, oh say, 45 seconds flat, and ordered 2 still waters in a fit of desperation, 2 pounds each! tough financial lessons are being thrown at us all over this country. after our ravenous appetites were satisfied, we Undergrounded back to J,E, and C to hang around the hostel's pub for a while. played a couple games of pool with a cool local named Junior where I discovered my innate propensity for a) scratching, b) hitting the cue ball up and over/u-turning it around other balls, or c) hitting them completely off the table. live and learn, I say, live and LEARN! the day ended as we all went into a coma in our beds.

day 2! bring on the charm of notting hill, AKA my home hopefully in the sort-of near future!

let's just say, we spent ample time in shops, cafes, and at the Travel Bookshop [yes, the one from Notting Hill the movie] and walked away with some good deals from Portobello Road. the whole day, I don't think I ever said "Portobello Road" without singing the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks and then realizing that I still only know the first 2 lines of the whole of the song.

woe, c'est moi.

we took a coach bus back to Leeds, which we sort of prefer over trains if they're the same price and time. it feels a lot more personal since you actually get to see the surroundings that you're driving through and stuff...it's almost like a roadtrip, but someone else has to pay for gas and drive and everyone has their own personal roadtrip soundtrack. Christine and I shared my ipod, and I think our song for the roadtrip was...Stand Out, by none other than glorious Powerline. :)

peace out, girl scout.

[[[ if you fancy seeing one of the best picture slideshows this side of the Atlantic, check our Christine's blog! www.heywheretheheckareyou.blogspot.com ]]]

"we're with the band." 29 sept 2007

2007-10-05T13:45:00.000+01:00

QUICK, MAJOR UPDATES!

Last Saturday night brought on the advent of the infamous "yeah, we're on the guest list" situation, which worked out beautifully! the gist of the story is that Christine knew a band from home called My American Heart and they were doing a gig here in Leeds [imagine that] and we were going to try and get in. Christine had to review the show for the paper and there were supposedly 2 tickets reserved for she and I to get in, but we needed to get Jessica and Rachel in, and we were winging it. we walked around the back and asked a guy if we could get in since we knew the band. turns out he was Mike, the lead singer of the 2nd band Halifax. whaaat? so we all got in, even though we missed the whole of My American Heart except for 1 or 2 songs. after the show, we got some drinks, hung out at Cockpit, which apparently converts to a club after gigs, how convenient! we chilled with MAH//Mike in their ginormous tour bus, which was a grand old time, meeting band members, roadies, groupies and the like. I have to say, I developed a short-lived crush on the lead singer of Envy on the Coast [the 3rd band] despite the dreads he was sporting. good smile > dreadlocks. sadly, I shall never see him again. or perhaps that's a good thing.

on a more mundane note, classes are in full swing! so far, they all seem pretty interesting to me or I feel like I know what it is they're talking about already, which I guess is good, yes no? My Comm Arts class I have to say is the best so far, since Simon Popple, yes Popple, [if Popples were a race of jolly, plump Brits, Simon would be king] can fill up the 2 hour lecture with good info and make the time go by faster. My History of Costume class is my shortest, but more grueling. why? not becuase we're studying 16th century dress and attire, but because my professor, whose name I still don't know, reads from a pre-written script she types up before class. the only saving grace for History of Costume is that a) I'm in it with my friend Vanessa and b) the professor looks EXACTLY like Frau Schmidt from Sound of Music.

Tuesday night, October 2nd, Jessica, her flatmate Phuong, and I went to go see Stars at the Brudenell Social Club! they were, how to you say...EFFING AWESOME! the Club was really ambient, and the band decorated the stage with fake flowers and twinkle lights. how sweet, indeed. that's all I have to say about that. :)

"Do I have to pay for that comment?"

2007-09-29T15:39:00.000+01:00

Christine, Jessica, Rachel, and I have turned into Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda. It’s been more or less declared that we’ll go to the pub on a Friday and catch up with each other about each other’s weekly happenings…happenings, which as we speak, are getting more and more interesting. Last night, Jessica and I showed up at the Leeds Student newspaper room for some “directions” which they meant as “come back on Monday for when we actually do work.” So that was a waste of our half hour on our day off. How DARE they. At last, we made it to the Eldon, the local pub close to St. Marks [Christine’s hall] and shacked up in there for a couple hours. 2 of us had half a pint of cider and 2 of us had whole pints of cider, but all acted extremely silly nonetheless. It was a motley mixture of cider, Janet Jackson’s Escapade, and cheesy chips. Our diets these days is as follows: cheese on bread, cheese on chips, cheese on garlic bread. Also known as Heaven. Current weight: let’s not discuss that…all I have to say is, at least my pants still fit.

I think we want to make the Eldon a weekly thing because a) they serve cheesy chips, b) they serve cider for dead cheap, and c) Pubtender and Beanie Baby are buff [the word buff, here, refers to one who is cute, good looking, attractive etc…love those Britishisms]. Cute Pubtender came and bussed our table after we obliterated our cheesy chips so we said,
"oh, it was soooo good!"
"what? me or the chips?"
"both."
"...do I have to pay for that comment?"

ahhh definitely not.

After a good long giggle at the Eldon, we trekked back to my flat to watch some good old chick flicks [uhhh cue Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants] and have an impromptu slumber party complete with Maltesers, Fruity Pastilles, and Cadbury. ☺

"how dare you accuse me of drugs."

2007-09-23T00:06:00.000+01:00

so Fresher’s Week is just about over. And all the Freshers now have a nice, substantial alchy debt to their dear old parents for at least 100 quid. The idea is that they all go out to the clubs every day of the week before classes start. Most times it involves ridiculous costumes in cold weather and club promo minions harassing you with their flyers and stickers who have a desperate look in their eyes as if to say, “PLEASE take this paper from me. And make sure to recycle it”. Me, being the 3rd year who feels like a chaperone at these things, clubbed once last Sunday, at a place called Tiger Tiger: where all good peoples’ cell phones go to get pickpocketed. A big group of EAPers and girls from Christine’s block made our way down to the club, danced our hearts out to some good house music, and left short one Blue Beauty cell phone and 10 pounds each from entrance//drinks [the money, not the weight].

adventures seem to be happening all around! Wednesday night, Christine's hall had a social that I had the pleasure of infiltrating for the 2 free drink vouchers. Maria gave me their flatmate's room number [L 2.25] and her name [Natalia]. Thinking that wasn't going to fly very well, considering I don't look much like a Natalia to be honest, they were like, "oh, say you're Vanessa then". So I get up to the door, preparing myself to turn around from failure, Subwarden Wally asked,
"what's your flat?"
"L 2.25."
"what's your name?"
"Vanessa."
"Where are you from?"
"......Singapore"

good thing I actually remembered Vanessa's deets I met her the other day; my dignity was spared this once.

Friday night, Christine, Jessica, Garrett, Sage, Jessica's new friend Frankie, and I met up for sushi at Nooshi Sushi, sadly not living up to our expectations or cravings for some good sushi. After, Christine and I headed to a house party with Louise which was a lot of good fun. As usual, it started out pretty awkward, but then it got to be loads of good times and good laughs. Basically, one of the highlights of the night was this one guy who, we swear, looked exactly like Mr. Bean who was holding a wine bottle, and seriously on drugs or something, stood up in the middle of the room and said to no one in particular, "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF DRUGS."

excellent times, excellent times. :)

"they really like their roundabouts here." 15 Sept 2007

2007-09-22T20:17:00.000+01:00

we all finally arrive in Leeds around 11am on Saturday, luckily greeted by the awesome International Centre’s Meet and Greet service who took care of our luggage and well-being. After dropping off most people, I finally get to go to St. Ann’s and am extremely relieved to find that the flat actually does exist. I learned later that Louise was also relieved to find that I am an actual person since I arrived later than what I had told her, she beginning to think that I wasn’t real. So, relief all around!

I think that day I was running on just orange juice, some trail mix, and water. Once I sort of settled into my flat, Louise’s parents were nice enough to take us out to dinner in the city centre to this noodle bar called Wagamama. it was Waga-awesome. I finally got to sleep in my bed albeit without any sheets or real pillows [I improvised with my down blanket and my sweatshirt] until our sweeet Ikea run the next day. it was an amazing feeling to just breathe easy in the place I was going to be staying in for a long period of time. and I couldn't have asked for a better set up. everything's coming together!

PHOTO: That would be the British coastline circa 6am on the bus. Don't tell me that's not worth the 11 quid coach ride we took at 5am.

"well I wood like to stay ooovah." - Edinburgh Part Deux Sept 14 2007

2007-09-22T19:42:00.000+01:00

On our second and last full day of orientation, we again hoarded for internet at the Study Centre. We were booked for entrance into Edinburgh Castle at the hilltop in the afternoon and cruised around the compound, caught a glimpse of the Honours [the historic crown, sword, and sceptre] and some awesome reconstructed prison cells from all those wars. At one point, we were snapping a bunch of photos around the cannons and barricades of the sick views [it was an amazingly clear and sunny day] and Christine and I overheard a mother as her son if he’d like to sleep at the castle, to which the 5 year-old boy answered “well I woold like to stay ooovah…” Little Scottish boys are awesome.

That night, we got to go on a ghost tour through some of Edinburgh and hear some awesome ghost stories from the city’s past. Basically, we were feeling pretty, pretty uneasy when our guide told us that we’d be going down into the Edinburgh Vaults, supposedly the most haunted place in Britain. Whaaat? Not exactly what we signed up for. The guide explained to us some of the occurrences past people have experienced down in the vaults since they record anything that anyone reports, and I have to say, I felt a cold rush of air against my legs at one point, but I’m thinking that it was just some fresher air coming through the musty vaults. Hm. We shall never know.

Having to get up at 4am on Saturday, I made sure to get to bed and rest up. So I finished up my packing and went to sleep at 1:30am. So basically, I took a nap. Vanessa, Aram, Jessica, Christine, and I managed to navigate our hellish bus-train-train itinerary from Edinburgh to Newcastle to York to Leeds with ALL of our crap. Luckily, on the trains, people who were waiting to either get on or get off while we assembly-lined our luggage, helped us. Whether it was because a) they were impatient and needed on or off, b) felt sorry for us, or c) genuinely wanted to help our group of international students, we don’t know. But a big shout-out to those Brits who did! Cheers!

Edinburgh Part Un 13 Sept 2007

2007-09-22T17:18:00.000+01:00

Today was the first full day of orientation. After milking our free Premier Inn breakfast, we met with Peter and Hilary at the University of Edinburgh to go over a bazillion logistics about academics, student life, etc. they were cute: we each got a water bottle and a choice of Scottish cookies, one of which wore a rather comical face [see photo]. After, a few of us managed to find our way to the UC Study Centre for [yes!] internet and then managed to [yes!] find food.

Later, we trekked down to the Palace end of the Royal Mile to the new Scottish Parliament to meet for our walk up to Arthur’s Seat. Let me say, this was no walk. It was a hike; had we dressed up in green and brown cloaks and moppy wigs you’d think we were in Lord of the Rings. The upward battle started immediately, not leaving much hope for the rest of the “walk”. The view from the top, however, made up for all the shortcomings of the “walk” up there. Edinburgh is a quintessential medieval town, complete with a hilltop castle, some crown jewels, and cobblestone streets that randomly change names and/or direction and/or end completely for no reason.

After grabbing [personally] an ordinary but complimentary dinner at Buffet King, the resident Chinese eatery, we all gathered our laptops and plonked down at Bar Alba, this awesome-looking café bar with GET THIS free wi-fi! So about 5 of us walk in first, laptops at hand, and set up shop at a table without ordering a thing. Some of the locals seemed to be staring, who knows whyyyyy. Christine and I finally reached a guilt point where we both bought non-alcoholic drinks, still a little shy about our newfound freedom. Later, the rest of the Crew joined and then we just looked like we rented out Bar Alba for a let’s-all-facebook-each-other-at-the-same-time party.

quick update!

2007-09-20T00:43:00.000+01:00

Oi!

so basically, I'm posting this so everyone knows that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth and that I don't have internet for another couple days so updating this is quite difficult.

once I do get my internet though, I'll post some older entries [IE from Edinburgh and the beginnings of Leeds] and then be back in the present, dig? :)

Cheers!

this is what a monster post looks like

2007-09-13T19:54:00.000+01:00

sooo. it's been a few days since I've been here and it's been a bit of madness the whole time. at the start, Jessica and I got the special treatment. a couple of security guards got the unpleasant task of searching and scanning all of our carry-on crap, which of course contained all of our metal objects and "questionable" liquids in unmarked containers. luckily, my guard was laidback and made lighthearted side comments about terrorists, bombs, and threats. just following Protocol.

flights were decently decent. we were surprised at Delta's coach service and their agile beverage carts. 5 points for Delta!

arrival in Edinburgh commenced with a niiiiice shared taxi ride with our study abroad comrades we met on the plane ride. between the 4 of us, I think our luggage weighed as much as a zippy Smart Car.

our Budget Backpackers hostel was awesome! we had a really easy time storing our crap luggage and checking in etc. surprisingly, that day we decided to go on the hostel's free walking tour guided by our friendly hostel front desk man, Marty, who's supposedly 19. he grew up in Scotland and had just returned from New Zealand so he was cute, blond, and had a sweeeet accent.

after our 5 hour nap, we finalllyyyy got to meet up with Achim! after a bazillion attempt to call him via the hostel's phone, I resorted to calling all the way home to Jessica, who had been g-chatting with him to tell him where to meet me. Jessica M, Achim, and I went to Glenhas Cafe, a local place with awesome paninis. after an extremely well-rested night in Backpackers, the 3 of us went to a local cafe called Black Medicine who had Illy coffee (yes!) and (YES!) bagels and cream cheese. the cafe's decor was similar to like, a Tahoe lodge with natural wood furniture and river rock walls. I'd definitely be in that place on a cold winter's day [which this country has PLENTY OF].

orientation officially started on Wednesday afternoon...meeting everyone from all the other UCs felt soooo good, as did moving into an actual hotel where we could kind of hang loose and "settle in". I love not having to really worry about where I'm going or what time or whatever, since Orientation is pretty much all set up for us. so far, it's been freaking awesome! other than the CSF Bay Area Trip, I'd never been on a student trip, and it feels great to finally connect with the right connections.

soooo, this post is probably too long for most people's attention spans, plus I don't think many people read this. :)

peace+love

"3 days? easy peasy."

2007-09-06T19:46:00.000+01:00

all lies!

recap:
number of suitcases: now 3
number of coats: 4
number of shoes packed: uhhh big fat 0
number of Pounds purchased with $1: 50p

crunch time is upon us. the trick is to stay focused and ignore any emotional attachments I may have to a sweater, coat, or pair of shoes. this is not the time for weaklings! my last weekend at home is right in front of me, and the southern california weather is gloating with its + or - 5 degress F from 80 temperature as I round up all of my ridiculous amounts of nonsense.

"there's nothing like trying to fit a year's worth of stuff in one suitcase."

2007-08-26T23:05:00.000+01:00

it's all happening now. 1) stress. 2) panic. 3) anxiety.

slightly more exciting updates to come, assuming I survive the behemoth that is packing.