MISUNDERSTANDING

Okay. So through the grapevine I heard that one of my previous posts resulted in a misunderstanding of my intentions. When I attended the USA v England soccer match, I wrote "America...Fuck yeah!" Rather than INSULTING America, that is meant as a CELEBRATION of America. It's from a film "Team America: World Police" and it's meant as an indication of how much I LOVE the US. I assure all that I was well decked out in the American flag and was face painted with the red, white and blue. So anyone who reads this and/or reports to others... PLEASE clarify! :) Trust me, ask anyone who knows me in England... I am America's biggest fan.

All these things that I have done...

Nothing too thrilling has happened in the last week, but I'll share it anyway. On Saturday I went out with Andy and some of his friends that he went to school with, including Chris Smith who I had met last summer in LA. We went out in Clapham, and I probably drank a little too much wine (shocking, I know). The most amusing part of the night was when I started chatting to Dave, the flatmate of one of the guys Andy knew. He asked how I felt about GWBush and I said I, well, hate him and what he's done to my country, particularly on the international stage. He proceeded to tell me he thought Bush has done a good job, in Northern Ireland (thank you Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and John Major - NOT BUSH!), and he was forced to go to war with Iraq because we were being threatened with nuclear war. Needless to say, I sort of lost it, and Andy started giggling at me. He turned to Chris and Kay and said, "She'll kick his ass..." It was a little upsetting that someone could be so ignorant, but still... kind of funny at the same time.

On Sunday we went out to Andy's parents' house in Amersham for lunch. They live in such a cute little English town - sort of in the country... kind of like Lexington, really. Bigger lawns, large hedges, 40 minutes outside of London. His mother cooked lamb, pototoes, broccoli, carrots, and we had wine and cheesecake, and watched cricket and took a walk. It was a lovely afternoon despite having shitty weather.

That's pretty much it. I'm mostly moved to Andy's, which is good. Tonight we're going to see USA v England football at Wembley! America... fuck yeah!

Cranium and Champions League

Marina came back in from Europe yesterday for a 18 hour trip to London before heading off for home. After dropping her bags off, we walked up to Ciao Bella, an Italian food place near Russell Square tube to meet up with a bunch of my coursemates. We had an Italian feast before playing Cranium at Marc's dorm. In addition to a raucous game of Cranium we watched the Champions League final. The Champions League is the best club teams in Europe play in a tournament throughout the year. For the first time ever, the final had two English teams: Manchester United and Chelsea. It was a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation time, and it ended up going to penalty kicks. Very exciting match, and Man U pulled it out in the end (Chelsea is something like the Yankees of the premeireship).

A visit to Oxford and Hogwarts

Tuesday afternoon I took the train to Oxford to see Alison, Mary's junior year college roommate. She is doing a second BA and then an MPhil from Oxford in English literature (with a heavy emphasis on Middle English). We weren't close friends in college, but it was fun to see her. We walked around the town a bit (Oxford is very small, only about 140,000 people) to see the sites. We wandered through a couple of the colleges. Magdalen College had a lovely trail and natural gardens throughout the back, as well as a flood plain. We wandered through another college, and Alison took me into the Hall (which is where they eat), and as I looked around, I stopped dead, turned to her and said,

"WAIT. HOGWARTS IS HERE."

She laughed, and she said she couldn't believe she forgot to take me there. The Hogwarts entrance hall and great hall are filmed at Christ Church college at Oxford, so I got to go and SEE WHERE HARRY POTTER EATS. No joke. Where the magic happens! I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Other than that, we also went to the top of St Mary the Virgin, to check out the view (you can see much of Oxford from there), had some tea in a very quaint garden, and went to the Ashmolean, which is a anthropological and art museum of sorts. We went to Evensong in the Exeter (Alison's college) Chapel, and ate second dinner in her hall. Very cool - very Hogwartian. I was psyched. We ended the evening with a round of cider, but I had to get back to London. It was a relatively unexpectedly great day, and hopefully I'll make it back out there soon. It's always nice to be out of London!

Cricket devirginization

Yesterday I had my first cricket experience at Lords, which is the "Home of Cricket" and basically a religious mecca for Andy and his father. As cricket is a cousin to baseball, we all figured it'd be a good day out. We saw Day 4 of the test match between England and New Zealand. To be honest, I couldn't really tell you much of what happened during the actual match, because the whole game is really lost on me! What I did learn, however, is THEORETICALLY, nothing can happen all game. They can bowl (pitch) the ball, and even if the batsman (batter) hits it, he doesn't get penalized unless he gets thrown out, the ball gets caught or the stumps get knocked over (there's no such thing as a strikeout, etc). So one guy can literally bat all day with nothing. I guess it's kind of like hitting a foul ball all day. Weird. Anyway...

Cait and I met up with Andy at about 10am yesterday. The seats that Andy chooses are only available to members (Marylebone Cricket Club) and their guests, so they're quite good. Lords only seats about 30,000 so it's a small ground (aka stadium, though they hate that I call it that). Rich and Anna met up with us around 11, which is when the match actually started. There was a picnic (set up by Andy), wine, champagne (which Andy managed to get all over himself, classic) and Pimms (yummy and dangerous). I learned a bit about the game, enjoyed the sunshine and the company. I'm not convinced about cricket though. Baseball really is much better, there's a better pace to the game. However, cricket is so charmingly English with its lunch and tea breaks, and a drinks break every hour! And Andy seems to love it, which is quite cute. I told him I'd give it a few more chances before I reach my final verdict, as I think I'll have tickets to a few other matches throughout the summer. Andy covered in champers
Drunk before noon!
Pimms...mmmm
Cait and I taking the match very seriously through our free paper binoculars
Us late in the afternoon...3 o'clock haze?

Exams exams exams

I just finished my first exam. One down, five to go! WOO! I was the first one done, AS ALWAYS, and it went fine. I hope I got good marks but it's out of my hands now! I have another one tomorrow - boooo. But this weekend I can relax, work on my dissertation, watch some cricket, it'll be good. So, I apologize in advance for the blog silence and the boring nature of everything, but I spend most of my time revising or complaining about revising, so... yeah. That's all! :)

Some pictures from Europe

view from the top of St. Istvan's in Budapest
Chain Bridge over the Danube from Old Buda Palace
Me and Sissi in Vienna
The maze in the gardens at Schonbrunn
Marina on the giant glockenspiel at Schonbrunn
Me with a Sphinx at Belvedere in Vienna
view of Prague from Petrin Tower
Old Town Square from the top of Old Town Hall
Marina with our first round at the swinging table in Prague
Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

Summer weather in Londres

Having returned to London with the full intention of dedicating all of my free time to revising for my impending exams, the god of weather decides it's a great time to bring a beautiful, sunny heatwave to southeast England for the weekend! Well, I managed to get some studying done but I also was able to get outside for some sun and relaxation. On Saturday I met up with Andy and we took a walk from Southbank to Knightsbridge (where I showed him Harrods for the FIRST TIME), and then we had dinner and we ran around in Hyde Park for a bit until it was dark and teeming with creepy homeless people.

On Sunday I studied in the morning and then met up with Andy for some baseball in Green Park. The weather was absolutely stunning. We played catch and whiffle ball and lazied about in the grass. Afterwards we went for a BBQ at Andy's sister Catherine and her husband, Adrian's flat. They have a beautiful terrace that overlooks much of London and on a clear day like yesterday you could see everything - from the Eye all the way to Canary Wharf - unbelievable! We had lots of meat - burgers, chicken, some sausage with the cider, beer and wine (no, I didn't drink all three). I made some blondie brownies to wrap up the evening, and we also watched some footie and some baseball. Definitely a success! Some pictures:


Today I spent the morning at Andy's flat waiting for delivery men but I got a LOT of studying done whilst I was there. I met him for lunch to return his key and got to enjoy EVEN MORE sunshine - I actually have a tan now! Very exciting. The next few days are nose to the grindstone but come Thursday, we all get a bit of a break!

Praha Day 2 and return to London

Sadly, our trip has come to and end and I am back in London while Marina is off to Espana for a couple of weeks. Today we met up with Leona at a park called Vysenev (or something), which was lovely, peaceful, and had beautiful views of the city (this is a theme of Prague, it seems). We had some tea and nursed our hangovers, and enjoyed the bright sunshine! Unfortunately we only had the morning and we had to go to the airport to catch our flights... It was really a great week.

Highlights include:
Car-bike excursion in Budapest
Maze and labyrinth at Schonbrunn
Revisiting Sissi
Cute Austrian tour guide
Seeing Leona again
Lots of sunshine
The swinging table
Spending time with Rina!

A very successful trip. We have tenatively planned a trip around Germany the first chance Marina has a week off from dental school. Now, to the grind of studying for exams!

Praha Day 1

We are in love with Prague! Yesterday we had absolutely perfect weather, and really enjoyed just taking everything in whilst walking around the city. We felt less compelled to run from site to site, and just walked around and felt the atmosphere. We started out with breakfast in Old Town Square, which at 8am is a ghost town (we liked it better this way). We then walked across the Charles Bridge, which is an old pedestrian bridge of cobblestones, lined with Biblical statues. We managed to get there early before it was riddled with people, so we got some nice pictures.

We climbed up to Prague Castle to check out St. Vitus' Cathedral and some of the other sites up there. We were trying to conserve money so we didn't see everything it had to offer, but we poked around for awhile. After that we went to the Petrin Tower, which is a large viewing tower that looks just like the Eiffel Tower. The views from there were amazing - you could see the entire city and much of the countryside. As a side note, we also got to take a FUNICULAR up there, and we know how I feel about funiculars (giddy like a schoolgirl). ;)

We walked through (Good King) Wenceslas Square and a nearby market, which had a lot of toys, food and other goods. Including - YES - a HARRY POTTER MARIONETTE. Don't worry, pictures are coming! After lunch, we climbed to the top of the Old Town Hall tower, which also had very nice views - we actually liked it better than the previous two because it was so much closer to the architecture, and you could really see the sights from up there. We then walked through St. Nicholas' church, which had a gigantic chandalier and beautiful frescos painted inside. Lastly, we walked by the National Theater but were unable to get in.

After our marathon week of sight seeing, we were knackered. So we went to a restaurant that had tables that SWING - think of a child's swingset, where you have the swing when two people can face each other in chairs. Now, put a table full of cocktails in the middle. HEAVEN! After a couple of drinks, we met up with Leona for some wine and chat. This morning we're off to meet Leona at a park in southern Prague, and then to the airport to return to London town (for me, Marina is off to Barcelona).

Wien Day 3 and arrival in Prague

Last night after I gave you all an update (whilst it was pouring rain in Vienna), we headed off on another adventure. We didn't want to head back to our shady, dirty hostel (BLUE CORRIDOR - avoid it), so we went to Prater, which is the amusement park a little ways outside of Vienna. There is a famous "giant ferris wheel" there a la the London Eye, though this one is wooden and perhaps not quite so cool. We were glad to do it, though, it provided some nice views and it was a little different than the other things we had done in Vienna.

This morning we started early, and headed off to the Beethoven rooms. We were told they opened at 9 but were unhappy to find on our arrival at 8:45 that they didn't open until 10. Conceding defeat, we headed to the Mozarthaus and had a cup of tea while we waited for it to open at 10. We wanted to see more and hear less about the mundane history of Mozart - we saw Amadeus, sheesh! Then we walked over the Belvedere, which is an old palace that has been converted into a museum. Despite the guidebooks saying that it is not to be missed, I was relatively unimpressed! When we got bored of art (read: very soon after arrival), we walked to the train station and managed to catch the early train to Prague. We had another uneventful journey. I finished reading Atonement, and took a long nap.

Our hostel in Prague (Clown and Bard) is very nice, clean and friendly. We are sharing our room with three Scotsmen (excellent accents). Tonight we met up with a friend of mine called Leona, who I hadn't seen in five years. We had a class together when I was a sophomore in college while she was studying abroad at GW. We had sporadically kept in touch over the years, but it was so great to see her again! We had some Czech food and some wine, and we are going to see her again tomorrow! She is going to look into Opera tickets or something else fun we can get up to for our last night on my tour of Europe (for now, of course). She is actually moving to Denmark in a few months so I will now have someone to meet up with when I go there (now on the list of places to go!).

As we are off to another early start tomorrow, I am off to bed. Need lots of time to explore Prague manana!

Wien Day 2

We had a another marathon sightseeing today here in Vienna. We started out at Nachtsmarkt, which is a market a la Borough Market, selling meat, veg and yummy things. We picked up some breakfast there. We went down to Karlskirche, which is a church with a beautiful painted ceiling and a view of all of Vienna - nice despite the rainy haze. After that we wandered through Stadtpark, which is where there are a multitude of statues of famous composers and other Austrian artists. I got a couple pictures of Strauss and Schubert. Following this we went back to St. Stephens Cathedral to explore a little more. We went into the catacombs, where we saw the urns where the internal organs (not the hearts) of the Habsburgs are kept. Bizarre.

We went out to Schonbrunn to continue our love affair with the Habsburgs. We went through the palace at warp speed (enough furniture!) and spent a lot of time in the gardens. We did the maze and the labyrinth and all the games that were in that park. We also climbed the hill to the Glorietta, and then walked through the woods. Glorious! Beautiful flowers, it smelled like green... Really glad we went out there.

We came back to central Vienna and went to the Augustinian church to check out the urns that contain the Habsburg hearts, but it was closed - Boooo. So, we took a little break, and started wandering down to the famous ferris wheel when it started to pour. We´re trying to wait out the rain, otherwise we´ll head back to our shady hostel to get some rest before finishing up Vienna tomorrow and heading to Prague!

Wien Day 1

We made it to Vienna! I apologize if my grammar or spelling is bad, I am on a German computer and the keys are in different places! The train from Budapest was only three hours long, and we got a lovely view of the Hungarian country side whilst we read and rested our VERY tired legs! We got to our hostel at about 1 - it isnt as nice as the Yellow Submarine, but for two nights, it will certainly do! We promptly went out to lunch for authentic Austrian food (Weiner schnitzel and fries of course) at a place called Centimeter. Good, huge portions, cheap.

We wandered through the Museum Quarter, and to the Hofburg Palace (the winter residence of the Imperial family) to see the Sissi museum. For all of those who dont already know, Sissi was the Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, consort to Franz Joseph for much of the 19th century. We named our first dog, Sissy, after her. Marina was excited to learn what all the fuss was about and I was keen to refresh my memory of someone who clearly made an impression on my eight-year old-self! To be honest, despite the fact that she seemed a bit odd, I can definitely see why I loved her when I was young. Independent, moody, a little glamorous, shrouded in legend. Just my type of girl!

As its Sunday, most everything else was shut by the time we finished with Sissi, so we have been walking around Vienna taking it all in. We walked by the Votive Church and St. Stephen's Cathedral. We are going to go back to explore the inside a little more (its a bit rude to tour whilst mass was going on). Otherwise, there are a lot of people and market-like goings on in Vienna today and we are busy taking it all in. Tomorrow we want to go to Mozart and Beethoven residences, a couple of museums, a market, and a couple other sites. If we have time on Tuesday morning (and if its sunny), we will head to Schonbrunn Palace to get some more of Sissi!

Budapest Day 2

We had another jam-packed day dominating this city today. For the most part, the lovely weather held up (with a slight, hour-long break in the sunshine in mid afternoon). We started off early and climbed to the top of the Citadella, which overlooks the city. It was built in the 19th century by the Austrians to keep watch on the city. The view was really spectacular, but we were already tuckered out from the climb before 10:30! After that, we walked down and through a small part of Buda to end up at the Buda Royal Palace. We enjoyed the walk - Buda is a much prettier, more liveable city than Pest. It reminded us more of the country, which more green, hills, and home-like houses and buildings. The Palace itself held a museum by which we were entirely underwhelmed (luckily, students get in free, so no loss!). There was a beautiful view that overlooked St. Stephen's cathedral, so we got a nice view of Pest to compliment our view of Buda from yesterday.

Following this we took a walk to the "House of Terror" which is a museum converted from the Nazi and Soviet central building in Budapest (Andrassy Ut 60). They had some translations in English, so we were able to learn a bit about the experience that Hungary had during the transition periods. We were both surprised at how little time Hungary was occupied by the Nazis (not to diminish their suffering, of course). We both think that if we had been able to understand more of the films and commentary included, we would have gotten even more out of the museum.

After this we walked over to Margrit Sziget (Margaret Island), which is basically a giant park with athletics centers, pools, open parks, side walks and dirt trails to walk around. However, by this time we were nearly dead on our feet, so we jumped at the chance to rent a, erm, "car bike". It was basically a bike for two, but we sat side by side and there was a steering wheel - very touristy, you get it. We had a LOT of fun tooling around on it, I took it for some off roading adventures, and we had one mishap where we went careening uncontrollably into a field. Stupid Americans... ;) We had to turn the car bike back in after a half an hour, but we both agree it was worth every minute!

We wanted to head back to Central Market to pick up some more trinkets for ourselves and others today, but when we arrived it was closed! So we wandered around Vaci utac, which is the main tourist drag. We picked up some things (including wooden moose, donkeys and a couple of magic secret boxes - YES), and then had a long, leisurely dinner. Tonight we're going to pack up, get some rest.

Tomorrow, Vienna!

Budapest Day 1

Okay I know it has been ages, but my parents were here and I haven't had time to update everyone on that so we're just going to gloss over it. It was good.

Last night Marina and I arrived in Budapest and we are staying at the YELLOW SUBMARINE hostel, so I'm very amused. (Yes, I'm that pathetic). It's small and clean and relatively quiet, so it definitely serves our purpose (we're not that keen on partying... I've done Barcelona and she's heading there so we're taking it a bit easy). Today we basically dominated Pest (the north side of the Danube) and did basically all the sites!

We started out at the Jewish Synagogue, which is the largest of its kind in Europe. It was really beautiful, with gold and red and oranges on the inside. I was surprised to hear it was the largest in Europe because it wasn't overwhelmingly huge. There was also a Jewish museum and a memorial garden. There was a memorial tree that seemed to be made of tin (you're going to have to wait until my return to London for pictures, sorry), which was very cool. Names were carved into the leaves to commemorate those who were killed in the Holocaust.

After the synagogue we had intended to go to the National Museum (we wanted some much-needed Hungarian history), but it was shut. So we walked down toward the river, where there is a two-story covered market. The bottom floor is fresh food: meat, fruit, veggies, nuts, etc. The upstairs consisted of handmade Hungarian goods (wood carved pieces and a lot of embroidered tablecloths, etc), as well as your usual touristy stuff. I bought a couple post cards and a gift or two.

We walked down a main tourist road, had some lunch, and then followed the river down to the Parliament building. Along the river is a really subtle (we almost missed it) Holocaust memorial, commemorating people who were SHOT BY ARROW into the Danube in 1944-1945. I might have to do some more research to find out what actually happened there! The Parliament building looks remarkably like Westminster Abbey with a colored cathedral dome. It's lovely. We opted to not take a tour, simply because there were so many other things we wanted to do (and we know nothing about Hungarian government... sad). Following Parliament we walked through a park where, in 1945, the Soviets tore down the Hungarian flag and posted a Soviet monument. Now there is a Hungarian flag with a hole in it standing close by (and higher than) the monument, to signify its importance as well as what the Soviets attempted to steal from their national identity.

Following this we went to St. Stephen's Basilica. St. Stephen was the first king and seemingly the patron saint of Hungary. It was a beautiful church (though with a little too much gold for my taste), though it was mobbed with people. There was also St. Stephen's hand there. I thought that odd, but who am I to judge?

Lastly, we walked up to a city park to check out the Turkish baths. Neither of us had swimsuits, but we were in sandals so we splashed our feet in and enjoyed the sunshine (it was about 70 degrees and sunny today!). Then it was about five, we stopped by the train station to pick up our tickets to Vienna for Sunday. :)

Sangria!

Life is good... that's all...

War and Peace

Today I went to a production of War and Peace at Hampstead Theater, which is where Sherry works. It was a ridiculously long production - two whole plays, four acts, totaling well over 5 hours of stage time. We had a dinner break in between but I was at the theater from 4pm to 11pm! It was a good show and I enjoyed it - but bloody hell that's a LOT of theater! However, now I don't feel like I have to read War and Peace because I've seen THE ENTIRE THING on stage!

Busy weekend

So apparently my updates about how boring my life is aren't satisfying to those who are off fighting a war, so I'll try to spice it up a bit (happy, dear?). This weekend has been pretty busy and I'm quite tired, even though I still have work to do this evening!

Friday, after being caught in a ridiculous hail storm and spending the afternoon in the library with Katy, I went to the gym and then met Andy for dinner. I wasn't feeling that well so we just went to Wagamama's - not that thrilling. Saturday we went to the EDF Cup Final which is a rugby union final between the top English league team (Leicester Tigers) and the top Welsh team (something Ospreys). It was my first trip to Twickenham so I was pretty excited. The weather was all over the place (sun, hail, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, etc), and the rugby was mediocre. It seemed Leicester had bathed in Crisco before the match because they couldn't hold on to the ball nor could they make any good tackles. It was kind of embarrassing to watch, actually. The final score was 23-6 I think. But it was a good day out and I enjoyed it.

Saturday night we went up to meet Andy's sister Catherine and her husband Adrian in Angel for dinner, and then we went to theirs to watch the Sox game (they are fans, and pay for the channel that allows them to get the games - AWESOME). We had a couple drinks, watched the Sox win, all excellent stuff.

Today Andy and I went to an event at his work (which is right on Tower Bridge) where we got free food and watched the marathon go by. I felt so bad for the runners - the day started out as crisp and beautiful but by about 2 hours in it was piss pouring rain out, so I'm sure everyone was running with sopping wet shoes - how miserable! It was fun to see the runners and cheer them on a bit. After we got tired of watching them run we went shopping so Andy could buy some (very much needed) new clothes. Very domestic, yes, but it was primarily because I decided Andy needed my help in picking out clothes that don't suck. ;)

As for this evening... I think it's time to hit the books...

Return to the boring life...

I know people get antsy when I don't update my blog regularly so I suppose I will just tell you about the tiny details of the last few days. Mostly, I've spent them watching Scrubs and recovering from Barcelona. I've been doing some work, and seeing friends (Katy, Andy). This weekend I'm going to a rugby match with Andy, hopefully watching the Sox pummel the Yanks, and watching the London marathon go by on Sunday morning. Will keep everyone updated if anything exciting happens to me ;)

Una vacacion loca en Barcelona, Espana

Today I am spending in recovery from the epic trip that was Kerstin, Ricki and Laura's whirlwind adventure in Barcelona. All I can say this weekend was not for the faint of heart, or liver... Oy. But, all in all, it was a lot of good fun. That being said, I have never been happier to sit in a cab at 3 in the morning after a 90 minute bus ride, a 2 hour wait in the airport, a 2 hour plane ride, a canceled train and another 2 hours bus ride and see London. But... that story to come later!

Thursday, Day 1
Getting to Barcelona was actually pretty easy. As Ricki and Kerstin were already en Espana on tour with the team, I traveled down on Thursday night by myself. I got to the hostel (called Kabul, right off of Placa Reial, which is off Las Ramblas) at about 11:30. I had every intention of going to Subway, getting a sandwich, coming back and passing out. Well, I was in line at Subway and a group of about 8 English boys out for a bachelor party weekend were there. Naturally, I had to start talking to them, because that's what I do. It turns out they know Rachel from my rugby team, so they insisted I join them for a beer (or five, as it was). It was good fun, we played some amusing drinking games, talked sports and politics.


Friday, Day 2
Ricki and Kerstin arrived in from Calella by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I had spent the morning recovering and taking a short walk up and down Las Ramblas. The girls wer very tired from being on tour, so we had a pretty easy afternoon. We started out at Mercat de la Boqueria for some food and chocolate. Markets are potentially my favorite things about new cities because they tend to be places where locals actually hang out - and you get to see local food and local atmosphere that is often missed during tourist trips. We had some seafood paella, and I had some gelato in the sunshine. We walked over to the Barcelona Cathedral, but opted not to go in because the girls were dead on their feet and we didn't feel like paying the 5 Euro to get in. Instead, we wandered down to the Museu Picasso, which was very cool. I enjoyed the architecture of the building (the basement was like a crypt a la Christ Church in Dublin), and now I can say with confidence that I prefer his blue period and my favorite piece was the Portrait of Jacqueline. We were all very much in need of a nap so we headed back to the hostel for several hours. Later that night we met up with a friend of Ricki's who is studying abroad in Barcelona. We had some mediocre Mexican food but called it an early night.


Saturday, Day 3
Saturday we set off on a modernist architectural adventure. We started out at La Pedrera, which is the apartment building designed by Gaudi. Every room in the building has natural light! That's what I need to get me through the winter! The thing we found most remarkable about the building is that it was designed in the early 20th century, a time when art was changing but society was still so traditional. I can't even imagine how crazy those kind of designs looked to people back then! The roof terrace at La Pedrera was really interesting - unlike anything I had ever seen!

After La Pedrera we took the Metro over to the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family = the ongoing saga of building a modernist cathedral). Seriously, the pictures do not do it justice - it is really unbelievable. It has the same frame as a traditional cathedral, but its design elements are geometric and, er, well, modern! I really liked the stained glass but was disappointed that we weren't able to get to much of the completed stained glass due to ongoing construction.

After La Sagrada Familia we went up to a neighborhood a little north of central Barcelona called Gracia, which had boutique shops, street artists and a feeling that we were separate from the traditional tourist areas. We shopped a little bit and had some ice cream as we wandered around.

Ricki had to head off to Florence on Saturday evening so Kerstin and I stuck around together for the rest of the weekend. That evening we hung around the hostel chatting to some Aussies, Canadians and a Kiwi. Hilarity. I have some very amusing drawings in my journal of being taught about Australia and teaching others about the geography of America (my drunken map includes ALL FIFTY states - I hope you are impressed, I am). A couple of the guys were so sweet, as we told them it was Kerstin's birthday on Sunday (and therefore her birthday at midnight), they scoured Barcelona for a cake but instead made a makeshift one with a couple of chocolate donuts and a twix bar and a gigantic candle. We went out to a bar called the Queen Vic where we met up with some crazy Irishmen (also on a stag do, which seemed to be a theme for men I met this weekend).



Sunday, Day 4
Shockingly, we awoke with minimal hangovers on Sunday and headed off to Parc Montjuic, which is the home to several Barcelona museums, a few parks, and right next to the 1992 Olympic Park. We took a FUNICULAR (which is still one of my favorite words of all time) up to the top. We were unpleasantly surprised to find out that the museums closed at 2:30 on Sundays and were not going to be open on Mondays at all so we were victims of our own poor planning. We did, however, get to mozey through the Fundacio Joan Miro, which we both really enjoyed. Very cool stuff, and some beautiful views of the city. We took a leisurely stroll up to the Castel Militar that sits atop Montjuic, where we took in the view of the ocean and had some food. We took a very long walk that took us through Olympic Park and past a few of the other museums. It was a beautiful sunny day so we really enjoyed just being outside.


That night we were going to take it easy when we ran into J.P., another LSE student who is in Kerstin's program at school. He was really cool and fun, so we decided to have another night out (and to continue the celebration of Kerstin's birthday, of course!). We ran into the same Aussies from the night before who were, in a word - battered. There was a sign on the table that said "ashtray" and Jason picks it up and exclaims, "AUSTRALIA! This is our table!"... Classic. We went back to the Queen Vic, where we chatted to the bartender (who looks eerily like a certain Mr Lovejoy) and perhaps went a little hard considering it was a Sunday night. I think we ended up back at the hostel at about 4am. (Are you starting to understand why it's 1:15pm and I am still in my pajamas today?!)


Monday, Day 5
HAAAAANGOVER. That was the word of the day for Kerstin and I. We managed to get out of the hostel at a reasonable hour (read: before 11am), and make it up to Parc Guell, an area with more Gaudi designs and the mosaic lizard that seems to be quite famous. After a hilarious run in with an angry Spaniard (ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOOOING?! ARE YOU CRAZY!?), we walked around the park nursing our hangovers. It wasn't that sunny or warm so we opted to go back to central Barcelona for the remainder of the day. I was interested in seeing more Modernist buildings so we headed to Casa Batllo, but it costs THIRTEEN EURO to get in - that's more than the Picasso Museum and La Sagrada Familia combined! After what had already been an absurdly expensive weekend, we opted out. Instead, we had tapas and did what all classy ladies do, and we went to the Erotic Museum which was down the street from our hostel. Hilarity. I think that proves that we were tired and ready to come back to London town...



We had some snacks with JP before I headed off to the airport. Remember, now, how anxious I am to get back to London and to my own bed. Kerstin and I had been calling for a teleportation device since about noon. I take the 90 minute bus ride to Girona, get there 90 minutes before my flight - perfect. The queue to check in was about 20 people long (good start) but it took FORTY FIVE MINUTES to get through it. Then, once I get through security I find out my plane is delayed an hour. Awesome, considering I wasn't due into Stansted until the lovely hour of 11:30 to begin with. I get into Stansted at midnight, and then wait another hour to get through Immigration. Awesome. I run down to the train only to be told that it doesn't run 24 hours. Awesome. I find a bus that will take me to London, but it was going to take 90 minutes!! That was going to put me at Victoria station at 2:30am. I basically RUN to the first cab I see (I was NOT about to deal with night buses at this point), get him to stop at a cash point for me, and I arrived back in my room at 2:59am.

So yeah. Good times. But it's good to be home.

Springtime in London Town

Spring has sprung! Thank God... we now have an extra hour of sunlight (for some reason the Brits delay it until the end of March), the warm(er) weather is upon us, and... I have to stay inside all day and revise for exams and write essays. Except that I haven't been. I HAVE been incredibly productive, which allows me to go out and do fun things, too.

Despite a forecast of rain all weekend, it only sort of spat at us a bit on Saturday afternoon (which was mostly lost to the gym and homework anyway so it didn't matter). Sunday after a trip to the library I met up with Andy for a walk through the parks, a game of catch and some paddle boating on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. There was a bit of a special needs moment when neither Andy and I were entirely sure if a baseball would float. SO, the genius I am, I just stepped into the Serpentine to give it a go... but, then, the entire bottom is covered in moss so I promptly slipped and nearly fell in. I think Andy, wherever he is, is still laughing at me about it. We went paddle boating for a bit which might be better if we added a bottle to the occasion. Next time!



On Sunday night I went out to Hugo's for Sherry's birthday with Sherry, Ryan, and 10 or so of their good friends. Ryan has a friend named James who is very much like Andy Richter in personality - but when he tried to banter with me, he wasn't prepared for someone who could actually handle it. Ryan got a kick out of watching us. Food at Hugo's was great - I had calamari and a burger. Mmm mmm good. If it wasn't so far away and expensive, I'd be keen to go there much more often!

Today I went bowling with Cait and Erin. We went to Bloomsbury Lanes, which is the same place we went for my birthday. It's a lot more chill but just as cool on a Monday evening. It was a good laugh, and I'm sure we'll go back soon. Tomorrow, a bunch of my coursemates and I are getting together for Cranium Part Deux. Looking forward to yet another study break (though tomorrow I anticipate having all of my essays finished and therefore will deserve a break!).

Finally! Some pictures of my latest shenaningans.

Allison, me and Kerstin at the AU Ball
Me at the Guiness Factory on St. Patty's Day
Erin, Cait and I in Dublin
The lakes at Glendalough in County Wicklow
Brazil vs. Sweden

Brazil v Sweden

My mother got me tickets to see Brazil v Sweden football at Emirates stadium. It was a friendly to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a World Cup final between the two countries. Well, the tickets were RIDICULOUS (2nd row, 2nd tier, a third of the way up the pitch), and we had a great time. Tim and Cait joined and Tim stuck with the southern hemisphere while Cait and I cheered on Sweden. It was good fun. Always enjoy going out for sports! Brazil ended up winning 1-0.

In other news, two essays down, one to go. Much revision left to do. Still in the process of unpacking and getting organized. Expect updates to be thin on the ground as I won't have a whole lot of fun things to report in the coming weeks...

America, FUCK YEAH

I heart America. Well, Bostonia anyway.

I've been home for a couple days and I've actually been fairly busy thus far. Jet lagged, I woke up at 4:45 yesterday morning - ARGH! But I managed to exercise in the morning. I went into Harvard to catch up with an old friend, then met Mom at the office for lunch and then we went shopping. New shoes, yay!

My friend Jenn from freshman year of college drove up and we hung out last night and this morning. I hadn't seen her in five years but it was really nice to catch up. We had had our differences back in the day but I'm glad we've moved past them. Last night we went to some Messican food with my parents, Andy and Robin. I had a burrito - couldn't finish it because of the sheer volume of chips consumed. Excellent. This morning we baked carrot cake (mmmm cream cheese frosting) and I had some BBQ pork. Thus far I am doing well at eating all the foods that are not available in the UK.

The best news of the day: NEW RUNNING SHOES. My old ones were 4 months old and the guy who works there (he's not the usual guy who sells me my shoes) was amazed - you must have had these for a year, 18 months? Noooo...four months. Winner.

Happy Easter!

St. Patrick's Day on the Emerald Isle

One of the beautiful things about living in Europe is being able to travel in Europe! So, on Saturday my friends Cait, Erin and I left to celebrate the greenest of holidays in the greenest of places, leaving many of our friends green with envy (we were just helping out those attempting to celebrate the holiday, you see).

We arrived at our hotel at about 10pm on Saturday evening and promptly went down the road to have a pint and celebrate being in Ireland. We loved the pub - it played awesome music, was homey and comfortable... and apparently was the regular for a very creepy old man who appeared to be there with two hired call girls - there is just no way they were there together. We attempted to take a couple pictures of the hilarious scene but were fairly unsuccessful. We saw the creepy guy again the next night on our way home from the pub, though this time sans questionable company.

Sunday morning we set off to explore Dublin. We basically walked around without a map for awhile but managed to stumble across some fun stuff. We walked into Merrion Square which is one of the four Georgian era squares in Dublin. This one is about half over-grown garden and half manicured lawn, with some random public art and statues (including one of Oscar Wilde). Around this area they were also setting up a fair and the parade for St Patty's Day. We wandered down to St. Stephen's Green ("the Green") which strongly reminds me of Boston Public Gardens - some man-made water features and manicured lawns, etc. I can see if I were a Dubliner having picnics and hanging out there on sunny days. Then we decided as we had not managed to procure a map (a persistent problem), we would take a bus tour to get the lay of the land a bit. Our main stop from the bus tour was Kilmainham Gaol (Jail), where many of the republican rebels were held in the 19teens and 1920's. I'll go ahead and admit that my Irish history is woefully poor but we really enjoyed it. That evening we went out in Temple Bar, had a few drinks, met some strange people and called it a night.

Happy St. Patty's Day! Well, in case you didn't guess, Dublin fills up for Ireland's big holiday. It was later reported that 670,000 people showed up to enjoy the festivities. We weren't all that keen on seeing the parade, so we pushed through the hordes and hordes of people to see where the magic happens - The Guiness Storehouse. Mmm mmm good. We learned a lot about beer making, had a mid-morning free half pint, and then another free pint (gotta love 'em). What I learned from the Guiness factory:

The word beer is thought to originate from the Anglo-Saxon word "baere" which means barley.
... and some other stuff. I just wrote that one down.

To stay in the spirit of St. Patrick, we followed Guiness up with a tour of the Jameson distillery. While I'm not a huge whisky drinker, I like Jameson and ginger so after the tour I got a free one. Awesome! Love the free drinks that come with the tours... the discount with the student rate basically means I'm basically paying less than I would for a drink in a bar for the tour+drink. Wicked.

We went out for dinner in Temple Bar to a "boxty" restaurant which is allegedly a traditional Irish dish centered around - no way - potatoes. It was quite yummy, I had lamb on mine and Erin had chicken. Then we went out in Temple Bar and ran into some Aussies. Up until that point, I wasn't really drinking...However, I was giving one guy (named Cieran) a hard time for drinking like a girl, and he challenged me to down the rest of his pint (which was about half full, and about 90% whisky). Well, I never turn down a challenge, and I finished it off no problem. The look on these guys' faces was absolutely priceless - who would have thought a girl could drink like that ;) I'm not entirely sure it's something to be that proud of. But the night was a success.

By the next morning we luckily woke up hangover free, but we were exhausted. We had done a ton of walking over the last couple of days. We also wanted to get out of Dublin a bit to see some "real Ireland". So we hopped on a bus tour that took us into County Wicklow which has beautiful "mountains" and some ancient settlements. Our first stop was Glendalough, which is an ancient Monastic City and the home to St. Kevin. It sat overlooking two beautiful lakes so we had about an hour to walk around and explore. Our second stop was Avoca, which was a small town near the coast, an hour south of Dublin. We had lunch and walked around a bit. I'm not going to lie, Erin, Cait and I slept almost every minute we were on that bus. So unfortunately i missed some of the scenery driving by, but I think I got the jist of it. I also found out that "rugby" in Gaelic is "rugbai" ... in case you cared. We went to bed about about 9 that evening. I cannot remember being so physically exhausted in recent memory.

Wednesday, our last day, we packed in everything we had failed to do up until that point. We started out in St. Patrick's Cathedral, followed by Christ Church. I've seen a lot of churches in my day, but they always seem important to visit. Also, having spent the morning watching the Tudors, I was pleased to know I had just been in the church where they filmed some of it (the church scenes are filmed in Christ Church)... mmmm... Jonathan Rhys Meyers. We also went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I'm not big into Modern Art but it was free, so we took a turn around it. They had some interesting exhibits. Lastly, we finally wound up at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. What I liked even MORE was the giant library full of old first edition books. I was just disappointed I didn't get to flick through them!

We had a long, lazy lunch and wandered around a bit more before returning to London town at about midnight. After a mad dash and unsuccessful attempt at getting the last tube, we took the bus home, absolutely exhausted. It was a really fun long weekend. I don't think I would return to Dublin but I am definitely interested in seeing more of Ireland some day.

Banter!

Let's sum up the Tuns + team dinners + walkabout with the way I started my e-mail to the girls this morning:

oh. holy. jesus.

i wake up this morning to find my jar of peanut butter open with a spoon in it. that isn't a promising start to the day.

Yep. It was that kind of evening.

Mundane details of my life

In an effort to update more often, I find myself telling you a) about my political and social ramblings and b) about the mundane details of my life. As I have been told my stories are more fun to read than my ramblings, I'll do that.

Last night I met up with some of the rugby girls (Katy, Martin, Rachel, Laura, Ricki, Kerstin, Sophie, Kim, Tatiana and Nina) for some dinner and theater. That makes it sound a lot classier than it was. We all met up in the Tuns and headed over to the "classy" Wetherspoons for some dinner and drinks. Most of the others had steak, and it's always nice to see other girls polish off an 8 oz steak, chips, salad and a pint. I have clearly found my people. We headed down to see Lia as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Lia was great but the rest of it was, well, shit. The munchkins were essentially people with down syndrome. It was bad, very bad. Luckily we had brought alcohol in order to sustain us through the production. The best part was we had been told that Howard Davies was doing the voice over for the wizard, but would not actually be making an appearance. Well, he did come out as the Wizard and was AWESOME. He got a lot of cheers from the crowd. Lots of good times. There was some talk about going out after the show but everyone was tired and went home.

Today I had a lazy morning, did a bit of reading. I went to the gym and then met Chrissy for lunch. She works about 10 minutes from Bankside and doesn't always have a ton of work to do so we're going to get lunch more often. In a couple of hours I'm meeting Nadia and Karim for coffee, then 7pm the Tuns followed by team dinners.

Bring on the lash.

Busy again

So this week is shaping up to be wonderfully busy, which I love.

Today I met with my group for my presentation in my campaigning class. There are 6 of us, and 4 of them are really smart and interesting (one Aussie, two Canadians, one other American), and one is, well... whatever. It is our job to design successful campaigns for both HRC and Obama through to the general (in each case, assuming they win the nomination). It's a good thought process. I spent the afternoon research VP candidates for each, and I chose Jim Webb for Clinton and Bill Nelson (FL) for Obama. A few minutes later Tim (the Aussie and probably the smartest guy I know) sent around a silly online quiz to determine who our preferred VP candidates are. Remarkably, the two that matched my choices 100% were Webb and Nelson! Crazy - who would have thought it would be so accurate?

Anyway, the campaigns look promising. I know that if Obama makes it six months without making another mistake it's all locked up, but he's unraveling at the seams right now so I'm hoping a few more prods at his ego and we'll have another Howard Dean-esque fiasco on our hands! Anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the INCREDIBLY POMPOUS speech he made about the suggestion that he would be VP for HRC. Troubling, considering how open and welcoming and "yes we can" he was in February. Poor guy knows he's on his way out ;)

At 3 we had a dissertation symposium where Bart (my advisor) and his tutees went through what they have so far for their dissertations and we got some feedback. They thought I had it pretty well wrapped up (just now needs to be started!) and thought my paper was going to be very cool. I'm looking forward to getting it rolling. Amazing how I have basically become wedded to feminist discourse theory... it would certainly shock my GW professors... though I did a lot of ideological criticism back in the day and this is certainly in the same vein, just more focused, so maybe not! Either way, I 'm confident about where my work is going and am glad that people think it will be interesting and worthwhile. (For those who don't know I am analyzing the media's portrayal of Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate and whether the coverage reflects or undermines the traditional cultural narrative of patriarchy.)

Sad news... Jonny is benched for the game vs Eire this weekend. Very unhappy I don't get to watch my love play.

Tonight I'm grabbing some food with the girls and then going to see my friend (and teammate) Lia play Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Should be a good night!

Week 10 ramblings

I still cannot believe that my class time here at the LSE is wrapping up. I have settled on a campaign strategy for George Washington 2008. If you think about it, it's really quite unlikely the people of the U.S. would take to him in this day and age so it makes the essay a little challenging, a little amusing and a little different. Which is exactly what an essay should be.

Anyway...

So I'm about 200 pages into Living History. Here's the thing. I already like Hillary Clinton. I think she's smart and hard and determined and unrelenting - all those things that you had to be to be a really successful woman of her generation. I also think that balancing the "progressive feminist" image with that of "woman as wife and mother" is a difficult balance for any woman to achieve who lives in the media spotlight (because the media likes to compartmentalize people, and cannot reconcile success with traditional femininity). Also, understanding that her memoirs (updated in 2004) are a political tool used for garnering support and sympathy, here's what I think: SHE IS TRYING TOO HARD. She writes in a conversational style. This, of course, is necessary to reach middle America, but I find it difficult because she's sort of dumbing herself down. She jumps around a fair amount and doesn't show her intelligence when presenting and analyzing issues from her past.

She attempts to demonstrate how she really is just like any other woman... My problem here is that she most certainly is not! She is one of those women who have broken barriers and lived and fought against the entrenched all-male professional workforce - and it just bothers me so much that in order to resonate with the American people, she felt the need to diminish those accomplishments.

Also, I recognize that she is a complex person (as we all are), but she doesn't write of herself in a way that reflects that complexity. She compartmentalizes herself: she speaks of herself in her role as a professional, as her role as First Lady, as her role as a lawyer, as her role as a policy maker in one way. But then reverts to a hyper pre-feminist movement perspective on her life with Bill and Chelsea. It's just too soppy to FEEL realistic - even if it is meant with sincerity (which I hope to believe much of it is).

I know I sound awfully feministic here but my problem is this: people are complex, and shouldn't be put into boxes. I find it frustrating when those women who have the capabilities of breaking those barriers down - to present themselves as WHOLLY integrated people, who exemplify the tensions of professional and personal success and professional and personal tragedy as all part of ONE being, rather than dramatically different facets of the same person. All of these things I know reflect an effort to appeal to her constituents and the people of America - I KNOW this is a campaign tool, but that almost makes it more frustrating. The system is so backwards. Do you really think that if she were to simply embrace the fact that she exemplifies these tensions , Americans would resent or ignore her? Although I don't know the answer to that question, I certainly hope that even if they did, it would at least begin chipping away at the compartmentalization that happens to women when they are represented in media and cultural pieces.

Anyway, that's it for now, but I will keep you updated. I'm looking forward to reading her thoughts on the Lewinsky scandal because i feel that will exemplify (or refute) these thoughts...

Also...

Because I have absolutely nothing positive to say about the rugby this weekend (seriously, England? what was that?), I will, yet again, provide you with lovely photos to hold you over until England wins... or France loses.

Though I'm not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for the Scots - they are so fit!!


And just in case you forgot... I heart Jonny. In a big BIG way. <3

Absolute rubbish, I know.

OKAY, it's come to my attention that I need to update my blog (as though I didn't know this already). I've just lacked motivation in about every corner of my life so you can imagine that the blog is lower on the list than say, the gym (always #1), papers (more to come on this), other school work, and general life functioning! But as of yesterday, my room is clean. I have already been to the gym today and done some school work. So I will give an abbreviated version of recent events.


Museums
I finally wandered into the Tate Modern and actually saw an exhibit on Dadaism that featured work from Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia. I reiterate the fact that I really don't get modern art. I can say I could have passed on a lot of the stuff in the exhibit, but I did enjoy some of the layered, photograph-esque paintings that were featured at one point. And I can say I've been to the museum that sits on my front door step so that was that.

I went back to the National Portrait Gallery for their exhibit of Vanity Fair portraits. Needless to say, the combination of celebrity and photography doesn't often get topped in my book and I LOVED it. It was quite busy when I went so it wasn't a relaxing museum trip, but I liked it so much I may even go back... the only thing that's standing in my way is the 8 quid entry fee. Argh.

Other random things
I went up to Hampstead Heath with Sherry last Sunday which I absolutely loved. As we know, I really enjoy walking around the parks in London in order to get the feeling of being outside of the city. Well, the others pale in comparison to the heath on this count - it's basically a forest! And it has swimming ponds so in the summer when/if it's warm, I can go up and sun myself. Or study/swim. So I really enjoyed that.

I've seen a couple of movies lately:
Definitely, Maybe: as expected, shit. But Ryan Reynolds is hot so it was totally worth it.
My Blueberry Nights: Really interesting. A non-Hollywood esque film with an interesting use of silence. You forget how much a difference music makes in a film until one really doesn't use it much. Also, Jude Law = lovely!

The AU Ball
We had the AU Colours Ball on Wednesday so all the ruggers got all dolled up and went out. SO much fun. Allison and I went over to Katy's beforehand to get ready there with her and Martin. It was nice to have other people around whilst getting ready - those things are always nerve wracking because you don't know what others are wearing, etc... so it was nice to have company. And lots of baaanter!

The ball itself was held at the Grange City Hotel right next to Tower Bridge, which was lovely. The food was mediocre. The wine was free (winner), so you can only imagine what ensued. One of the girls did a runner before dinner was even served. Martin went outside and threw up on his own shoes - puke and rally, puke and rally. My usual shenanigans went down, I received Half Colours (any masters or general course student who plays for a year on a 1st team receives half colours, whilst any 3rd year student who plays 3 years on a 1st team receives full colours). Photos suck right now so will add some at a later date. See Facebook for full albums!

We have the last team dinner of the year on Wednesday... there may or may not be stories from that... all depends on how the memory holds up ;)

Other news
I am about to enter Week 10 of Lent Term which means, well, my classes at the LSE are basically over. I am about to enter 6-10 weeks of revision and writing period - bizarre. I have finished one of my essays - it is about political spin and if it threatens democracy. Blah blah. It's interesting. More importantly, it's finished. The next essay I will write is going to be a campaign plan for a "candidate of your choice." I think I may choose a historical figure. Toying with Benji Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt... I dunno. Some pop stars are floating in there (Bono being one of note). Also, may try and get George Washington elected in the modern age of campaigning. Would enjoy that immensely. GDuuuub!

I head to Dublin in a week and then home! Very excited for both of those.

Hrm. Right now I am reading Living History by Hillary Clinton. I'll let you know how that pans out...

That's all for now. I promise I'll try to update more because I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting to hear the juicy details of my thrilling life.

"Because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true"

I woke up today and felt motivated! So I cleaned my room, started an essay (and thought about it a lot - I reckon I can have it finished by Tuesday, fingers crossed), applied for a job, and even managed to get to the gym without feeling miserable about going (my motivation to go has been marginal at best. I've only gone 5x/week the last two weeks - not good). Thank God... feeling much more myself. Anyway, otherwise, the last week has been good, interesting, varied.

I've finally started sleeping past 7:30... which is good, primarily because that means I'm getting enough sleep. I get frustrated when I wake up at 7:00 and then can't get back to sleep and then am tired all day and don't get anything done. So 8:00 is a much better start to the day...

Yesterday England won their match v France - good game, too. Love rugby. I reckon that's the best thing I decided to do this year. I've never been much of a joiner, and I'm glad I stuck to my guns about joining a team this year. While perhaps my brain (due to concussions) and my liver don't necessarily agree, I'm glad I joined. While it may shock some, I reckon I may even like rugby more than football... but then, I haven't been watching that much football lately so it's hard to say.

In other excellent news, I am going home for five days over Easter weekend! I think after the darkness of winter it will be nice to go home and not have to deal with much. I go through spurts of hyper awareness of the fact that I am foreign here and I get pangs for 'fitting in' and not having that weird chip on my shoulder that 'no, don't judge me, i am not here on holiday, i am a Londoner!' It will also be nice because not many of my friends around here are that keen on church or Easter or any of that so it will be nice to properly have church and Easter dinner. Anyway, it will be good to go home.

And on a bizarre note, thank God it's raining.

The next few weeks will be school-work intensive. Only three weeks until my classwork at the LSE is done with, which is INSANITY. I'm hoping to have my essays done by then (a pipedream) so I can focus on exam revision and my dissertation. We will see how that all pans out.........

Now for your gratuitous viewing pleasure (because I love him and he is a living god): Jonny

Hermione

For all those with concerns that I have lost my Hermione-esque edge, I want you all to know they are unfounded. But apparently I'm smart without effort. Winner.

Sound of silence

Apologies for the blog silence! I have been very busy doing very little. Classes, socializing, broken computers, general lethargy has impeded my efforts to keep all those back at home informed of my every move. Since Edinburgh, which seems like months ago, I have been quite busy eating and drinking and occassionally attending classes.

School news
Sadly, our lovely professor Philip Gould was recently diagnosed with cancer and is not able to take the rest of our campaigning course. However, we have Alistair Campbell as the 'substitute' which I am thrilled about... despite being the Sultan of Spin, I'm happy to have someone who is really at the top of the Communications (rather, perhaps, than exclusively political) field teaching the course. He is not as great of a teacher as Philip, but I think it'll work out in the end.

I just had a meeting with my advisor, Bart, about my dissertation. While he does very little in terms of my subject matter, he is a really nice and personable guy and I think it will be easy to work with him in the following months. He says I am on the right track with my thinking and to keep him posted on the progress I've made. I am doing a content analysis and feminist discourse analysis of the representation of Hillary Clinton in the media. I will likely choose several 'campaign highlights' to focus on (i.e. the crying in NH, the emergence of Bill on the campaign trail). Once I get rolling (soon, I hope), it should prove to be an interesting project.

I am still waiting on my marks from last term's essays. Bart seemed confident that my essays were fine, as he said the one from his class (citizenship) was fine, and that was the weakest (I thought) of the three I wrote. So I'm feeling vaguely more confident, but have trouble moving forward on the new ones without incorporating previous feedback into the substance and style.

Visitors

Lydia flew in from Milan for my birthday weekend. On Friday we went out with a bunch of my friends to Texas Embassy which is the only place to get Mexican (however mediocre) in London. They had some lethal drinks ('Texas Tea' which is LIIT without gin but plus tequila). We were all well on our way. After that we went to a place called Bloomsbury Lanes which was a really fun bowling alley with lots of American music and, yep, more drinks. I have never bowled so poorly!

On Saturday we went to Borough Market and Camden Town (later to be burning down) before having a walk through Regents Park. We met Andy and watched some rugby near Baker Street. We followed up with more drinks in Soho and then crashed. Sunday was also rugby filled, we met Andy and Russell to watch the England-Italy game. Good banter, too much cider...

On Monday we went to St. Paul's and watched the changing of the guard (just as boring the second time around!). All in all it was an indulgent but fabulous weekend.

This past weekend Andy and Robin flew in from Boston for a mini holiday. We had a LOT of fun, and the weekend had a good pace to it. They flew in late on Thursday and we promptly got pizza (despite the pleas for pie) and went to bed. Friday we split up for the morning because I had class. They went to the Tower and I went to class and the gym. We met up at the Tuns at 3. That afternoon we... I wish I remembered what we did on Friday afternoon. Oh! We took a walk through Covent Garden, St. James Park and to Buckingham Palace. We met Ryan at Green Park and then went for a couple of pints (I resisted drinking at this juncture which if you were here for the rest of the weekend was excellent self control). We met Sherry and Andy Williamson and went to Bermondsey Kitchen for dinner - so good! Then we went to the George near London Bridge for yet more alcohol. Good vibes, good times.

Saturday I dragged the jet-lagged out of bed and we went to Borough Market. Despite Andy being a zombie, everyone seemed to enjoy the market. We showed them the crack in the ground at the Tate, climbed to the top of St. Paul's (beautiful views) and then it was nap time. After the nap we went on the London Eye which we remarkably caught RIGHT at sunset and it was pretty phenomenal. We went to Brick Lane for dinner - mmm mmm curry!! Andy was pretty blown away by the whole experience. Everyone was content.

Sunday morning we got up and walked to the Imperial War Museum - I've done the propaganda exhibit three times and I STILL think it's awesome! Then they all (Andy squared, Robin, Ryan and Sherry) all came out to my rugby match to watch us get slaughtered - and me get pretty battered and bruised. We went out to a restaurant called Hugo's which was UNBELIEVABLE - I will definitely return there for dinner. Such good food...

Monday we did the British Museum (yay for stealing from the rest of the world!), Westminster Abbey (when all else fails, put it in the abbey), the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. We were all art-ed out by the end of that day. We went to Wagamama's for dinner and it was yummy. We followed up with drinks at the Nell Gwynne - love that place! They took off this morning, sad to see them go.

Otherwise
Life is an emotional rollercoaster... to say the least.

I walked by the American Embassy this morning and was happy to see the flag. I look forward to coming home again... there is some question as to whether my decision to stay in London town next year will stick. I love it here, but... I think I may start planning a trip home in March...

I want my essay results! I need to feel valid and grades do that for me!!!

Edinburgh

Sorry for the delay, it took me ages to get my photos uploaded from my camera and there's no reason to tell a story about a trip if I can't provide you with some visual stimulus as I'm sure my verbal recounting will be lackluster at best...

Day 1

We get up SO early (not really. Like 5:30am) to get to Heathrow for a 9am flight. Everything went without a hitch, etc, and we arrived in Edinburgh a little past 10, and at the hotel at about 11. I drag Andy around downtown Edinburgh for a couple of hours. It is a beautiful city. I had heard that before but the architecture is great and the city is just formed around massive green spaces, to which we all know I am quite partial. We walked up to the castle and down the Royal Mile (which is the length of a Scottish mile, approximately 1.1 miles), to Holyrood Castle, which is the Queen's residence in Edinburgh. We didn't actually go in anywhere because we needed time to get to the rugby. We walked to Murrayfield (the rugby pitch) and the seats were absurdly good (well done Andy). The match, however, was disappointing. Scotland couldn't manage to hold onto the ball and France didn't suck, so Scotland lost. Good fun. We went to the Hard Rock for dinner. I drank myself silly. The later sporting defeat will not be mentioned.

Day 2

Despite being half Scottish, Andy had never climbed Arthur's Seat, which is essentially a mini-mountain in a park in the middle of Edinburgh. We had a perfect day for it, despite it being a little bit cold. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures but you're going to have to trust me that the view was fantastic. As soon as my computer is more reliably not shit, I will post lots of pictures.

Love the Scots!

This week

I am SO tired of being sick; I have been walking around like a zombie since Sunday afternoon (though despite this, it seems the pace of my life has not slowed down at all). So in the spirit of keeping people informed (as I haven't been able to stay up past 10pm in order to talk to people), I will tell everyone what I've been up to.

Monday: I hung out on Andy's couch for 12 hours because of said illness. Managed to get up at 6pm and drag myself to the gym, only to then collapse back onto my bed when I got back to Bankside.

Tuesday: Nothing exciting, because I don't remember it well enough.

Wednesday: Rugby. We took a coach to Brighton (it took 1:45 to get there and 2:30 to get back - ridiculous). We also lost, 17-0. It was a rough game...absolutely knackering. The forwards were literally running back and forth across the pitch because the other team had a really strong passing game. And then it seemed when we got the ball we would make no headway. Incredibly frustrating. And I took a couple of hard hits but I think I have recovered by now. One girl got the worst black eye I ever seen - her eye literally swelled shut before she had stood up off the pitch! Wednesday night was fun, I went out to the Tuns for ReAUnion, which is the week when all the old players come back for a classic Wednesday night. The fates seemed inspired to keep me away from Walkabout, so I was back by 12:30 or so.

Thursday: Literally RAN to class on Thursday morning only to have it cancelled, and me to have missed the email. What with being sick and suffering from a mild hangover headache, I was not pleased (especially as I like the class). I came home, showered, and went for falafel + cookie Thursday with Cait. We go every Thursday and I swear I live for falafel and those cookies (triple chocolate... to die for!). After that we went to H&M, did some random errands. I ran up to Andy's work to drop off his keys, and then I went to the gym. Sherry called and invited me to go to a show at Trafalgar Studios called Angry Young Man. It was very, very cool. Sherry knew three of the actors so went to a pub afterwards and I got to stand next to Patrick Stewart. I am on a celebrity-spotting spree lately! And both of the ones I've seen here are way better than the ones I saw in LA. Wicked.

Today: Class, gym, class, dinner and show at Sherry's theater, back here to crash.