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.

Masque and Monarchy

Friday night I went to a dramatic performance of the Masque of the Red Death at the Battersea Arts Center. It's sort of hard to describe what it was, but basically the entire building was the stage and the audience members got to explore the whole building while the players enacted their parts in several different rooms. There was also a cabaret show in one area, which was highly entertaining. After that part of the evening was over, we were shuttled into another large room where they had swing dancing and a variety of other performances. It was a very cool (but very weird) evening.

On Saturday Nadia and I went to Borough Market and then to Hampton Court. This whole weekend has been sunny and quite warm so it was a lovely day overall. Pictures:

Sunny winter afternoon stroll

Random sign. I always wonder how old such things are
Prince Albert Memorial. Appropriately cool sky in the background.
Princess Di memorial
Random area in Hyde Park

Lake Como

Day 2: Lake Como + Miscellaneous Adventures

We got to Lake Como by about noon on Sunday after a short train ride out of Milan. The town is cute and nice and the views are spectacular. We spent all day wandering around the town and getting into all sorts of trouble. To start, we walked around a small part of the lake and some of the town. They had some interesting miscellaneous buildings and churches:After having a stroll through Como: We had an amazing lunch of fish, risotto and calamari in a restaurant a little off the beaten path (which was good as it wasn't teeming with tourists). Then we took the FUNICULAR (which, by the way, is my new favorite word) up to the top of the hill/mountain overlooking Lake Como. Despite the fact that it was a little misty and foggy, the views were spectacular. We spent some time looking for George Clooney's house (as featured in Ocean's 12) and I pointed to a particular gray house that had a swimming pool. I swore it was the one. You'll have to wait until I get to the part about the boat trip for the end of that story!!
After we came down on the fuuniiiiicular, we walked through a small market where I picked up a cannolli and we got some almond cookies (yuuum. needless to say I ate too much this weekend). Then we decided to take a boat ride around the public part of the lake, which was freezing but also beautiful. ALSO, it turns out that I was right about Clooney's house and I was able to pick it out from a height of 2000'! My celebrity hunting skills were spectacular after a year in Los Angeles, I suppose. Some pictures from the boat ride will be posted soon. Then we began our epic adventure back to Milan. We got a train out of a different station that we had come in on because it was (seemingly) more convenient. However, we didn't have time to get a ticket so we just sort of... hopped on the train and hoped for the best. WELL, the best didn't happen. The ticket collector started coming up the train so we had to hop off at an incredibly sketchy station, the sketchiness drastically increased by the DENSE FOG that surrounded us - no joke, I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me. We had a cup of tea surrounded by about 10 scary old men. Then when the next train came, it was straight out of the 70s and smelled of stale tobacco and urine. Two and a half hours later, we finally pull into Milan.

To sum up the weekend:
Modes of transportation used: Metro/Tube, Train, Bus, Car, Plane, Funicular, Boat, Tram (all in 48 hours)
Ways I could have died: Fallen off the Duomo, In the bathroom at McDonald's in Como, hit by a train at sketchy station.