Friday, March 31, 2006

Walking Back To Crawford...

I noticed a few interesting things when I was walking home from the gym today. Normally I see interesting, or at least entertaining, things when I walk home, but today I just feel particularly motivated to muse about it.
Observation 1: I noticed this one of the first days here, but I think it's worth sharing...British people run. I don't mean for you to think, "oh yes, good for them, they're healthy." They're not. I mean random businessmen and women, people of every denomination, can be found running down the streets looking either upset, concentrated, or in a rush. Yes, yes, I know, not that interesting...but think about it: I live in New York City usually. If someone's running down the street in NYC, and they're not in athletic attire, you better than hell believe you should be running, too. I wonder where these Brits are running to. I wonder what makes it so they're more motivated to get whereever so quickly.
Observation 2: Another not-so-new musing...the Europeans are FAR MORE into Public Displays of Affection (PDA) than Americans. Every crossing, tube escalator, or public nook has a couple or two snogging ever so in the open. I'm a little uneasy about this, mostly because I think PDA is rather low brow, but also because I'm slightly jealous. I think anyone seeing them is at that moment in time.
Observation 3:
British Street Police check out the backsides of women/girls walking behind, or past them.
Observation 4: More people are out of style than you really think. Just look a little harder. Not too much. Just enough to realize that what they're wearing may "in fashion" at the time, it still doesn't look good.

That's all for now in London.

PS: If any fellow NYUer is reading this, and is planning on getting an apartment for Fall 06, LET ME KNOW! I need to get out of Housing ASAP, and it'd be nice to room with a familiar face for once.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Aimee Visited

So, Aimee came from DC to visit this weekend. Yes, I had A LOT of homework to do while she was here (think 40+ hours on 1 project...I hate finance), but we managed.

Friday morning, I take the Tube 45 min. to get her at Heathrow. I think she was on her 3rd kick of adrenaline or something. We started our way back to my place, and....wow! I did not remember how loud Americans really are compared to Europeans! Her and the other "just-in" Americans were not just the only ones talking on the Tube, but they were echoing! That took some getting used to.
Anyways, I made her nap as soon as we got in so I could work on my project. A few hours later, we went and grabbed some Thai food nearby, and I went back to work some more. Luckily, the 2 that've been helping me out in this class, Manish and Susanne, were willing to make due in my room so Aimee could "see my sister". We had a reservation at the IceBar for 6:30pm, so we headed for that after a while. This place is hidden really well in this nook on Regent Street, and basically it's this kind of small room that has huge blocks of ice for walls, tables, bartop...even the glasses! We were forced to wear these eskimo-like hoodies, which we were glad for. It was lit kind of dimly blue, to make you feel in an igloo...I don't think there was music playing, but the people were so close and chatty, it didn't matter. The drinks were POTENT! HOLY MOSES! Absolut Vodka, and that's about it. Mine tasted like Christmas, Aimee's tasted like peach.
Eliana & Denysha met up with us to go to Wagamama's for dinner. We ended up at the Leicester Square one because Aimee's friends from DC were there....so we went, feasted, ate, drank. It was nice. Then Aimee's friends wanted to go pub/bar hopping...cute bars, very swanky places, very delicious drinks: The Cosmopolitan was delicious, the French Martini was a little pineapply, the Mojito was light and delightful. After I cut myself off, and I cut off Aimee, too, we walked home from Leicester Square. A bit of a jaunt, but only Aimee complained about it. ;)

Saturday, we woke up to go to the British Museum for the Michelangelo Drawing's exhibit I bought tickets for. It was really cool, that man was a genius! After about 30 minutes in there, Aimee and I went gallavanting around the museum, finding the Rosetta Stone, a crystal skull, the Parthenon, Cleopatra....you know, the essentials. But knowing me, I can't be in crowded, busy places for too long or I get a headache. So we left a few hours later, and went grocery shopping. Then I did some work. Then I forced (literally) Aimee to go to the gym before it closed so I could have some kind of cardio work for the weekend. And then we ruined all of the hard work by eating fish&chips for dinner. Lazy night, full of finance, it was glorious. We went to bed early to wake up earlier (daylight savings happened here on Sunday...).

Sunday, we ran to Victoria Station to hit up our tour bus going to Stonehenge, Devizes, and Avebury. The tour guide never came, so the bus driver (who was new to the english language) attempted to make up for it. 2 hour drive, I napped the whole way. Stonehenge is massive, but not really. Hard to explain. You can tell that it used to be a lot bigger, but it's still big. And it was pretty amazing. The stones were all craggy & ragged on the edges with moss and stuff growing off of it, but it was still elegant. We couldn't go up to it, but we could walk around it, with little audio tours attached to our ears. It's all rolling hills around it (well, except for the highway). And in the distance, you can see ancient funeral mounds !!!
Then we went to Devizes, which wasn't much to see, it was your typical British village; cute, laden with pubs, a square, closed on Sundays. I ate a Sunday roast at some pub (roast beef, potatoes, vegetables), while Aimee ate a jacket potato (basically a baked potato with 2 fillings/toppings).
On our way to Avebury, we saw the oldest man made mountain....in England? Maybe in the world, I can't recall. It was funky looking. Wonder why they made it. Avebury basically is Stonehenge-ish, only older, huger, and a little more primitive(?). It's 2 circles of stones with an inside circle, too. And inside the circles is this little town, divided by how the rocks are positioned. They put up a few keystone rocks to give you the full image of the circle. It was, dare I say, cooler than Stonehenge. And we could touch the rocks, climb them. It was raining and windy, but otherwise, pleasant.
After that, we came back and I taught Aimee how to make eggs & cookies while I worked.

Monday, I had class, so Aimee went to the National Gallery by herself. We met back up around 6pm (with Denysha by my side), and we went to dinner to this cute little Italian restaurante the girls & I have been to before and loved. Good meal. And cheap.
Aimee and I ended up going to a musical afterwards. It's called, "We Will Rock You." Only in London. Yes, it's co-written by Queen, the music's queen, the storyline is about Queen, and the jokes are Queen-related. I enjoyed myself immensely. The story is about the future, where musical instruments are banned, and only digital music can be listened to, and everyone's a clone. There is this group of rebellions, called Bohemians, who are trying to resist the government by finding out about the past and music. In the end, the bohemians learn to rock out, brainwashed people come back to their senses, robots are blown up....The usual. I've had "Under Pressure" stuck in my head all day, now.
After that, I went back to work some more after chatting to Mom, and Aimee called it an early night.

And.....that's it. Back to work. This project's due tomorrow!!!!

Monday, March 20, 2006

Saturday Night

.....it's REALLY long because it was a pretty interesting night, and I want to be able to recall everything that happened.

So, Eliana, Denysha & I met up at Oxford Circus to grab a cup of tea before we went out for the night. Eliana had a falling out with a guy she was dating, and so they were both pretty upset about it all. Then I got a call from that Turk guy I know, Oz, because he was goin to meet up with us at Oxford and bring us out with his friends. So we met him, and started walking to the club, which wasn't very nearby but that's OK because it was nicer out.
We end up at this little place in Soho or Leicester Square, I'm not really sure which....to this aussie pub called WalkAbout. We got in early, so it was free, which was nice. This place was cool; it looked like the inside of some really old courtyard, kinda intentionally run down sports bar. They're still celebrating St.Patrick's Day, so there was a lot of drunken Irishness going around. That's cool.
We kinda waited in an awkward silence for a while until Oz's 2 friends met up with us. Mike (Oz's flatmate) and Lawrence. Cute. Nice. British. They were great, we hit it off with them at the beginning. Oz got us a few drinks, so life was neat.
For a while, us 3 were the only guys in the pub. Definitely could feel some focus on us.
I realize in the middle of talking to eliana, that there's a man behind her staring at me. I look at him, and he starts beckoning me to come over. Note: this guy must have been in his 30s, WAY TOO OLD! So I just look at him, laugh and look away. It was silly. But, 15 minutes later, he's still staring at me. I look at him incredulously, he's a little more persistent for me to come over there (why he didn't come over? I don't know). I shook my head, and looked away. Thinking that it was done, I went behind eliana to put my glass down on a table, and the guy grabs my wrist and yanks me over to him. As the girls start yelling for me, this guy says nothing and just kind of has me in this grip. weird. I look at him, say "what?......no." He let go, gives up. Awkward.
So we're all talking again, at first his friends are a little shy and are talking to themselves on the side. Oz is talking to us. He's kind of a touchy feely guy anyways, so he's always putting his arm or hand on me. Ok, I can deal with that, but I'm NOT sending signals, particularly because I'm not interested. I'm a little peeved, because I feel I've been pegged as "his", which I'm NOT. But then he's talking to Eliana who's sitting, and he starts playing with my hair lightly with his hands. That's when the big Stop Sign flares up. I try to move away a bit. So he starts talking to Eliana more, who's still a bit upset, and he puts his hand on her leg, and she kind of gives him this look. Good, good.
I took the initiative to talk to his friends more. They are quite the enthusiastic guys! Mike's in post-production, and Lawrence just quit his job at some agency because it, "was wank." Oz is still talking to the girls. I get kind of between these 2 and we're talking about music; what I listen to that's British, what they listen to that's American. Also, the geography of the US. I don't know why, but every European/etc. we meet always asks us about that. And I got into this intense conversation about media's role in society with Mike. Totally not pub talk, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Now the music turns up more, DJ starts mixing, and the lights turn dimmer. Dance party?
So we're having fun dancing, these guys are hilarious. We're all talking still. Us girls are getting into the music. Ok, so now we're all flirting. Everywhere. More people with Oz, but we're kinda focussing on these 2 guys. A few hours go by, we're all flirting, all having fun. The girls made me give my mobile to them both and get their numbers. We want to hang out later.
Something interesting about European guys I've noticed, when you're at a club, they talk really close to you. I know they have smaller personal spaces anyways, but they'll talk right into your ear, and they do that to each other, too.
Ok, so now the floor's spinning a little bit. And Denysha&Eliana wanna hit it home because they wanna finish settlin things with this random guy I don't know. OK, but I'll stay for a while longer.
So, Lawrence left for a little bit to get a drink or something. Mike and I are talking, we're flirting, and we're dancing kind of close. A bit touchy. The kind of situation where I was totally expecting something more. I mean, we were close to....but Oz came over, started putting his arms around me, and I was dancing away from him kind of. Then Mike left a little bit after Lawrence came back, and we're all talking, dancing. They're best friends, they were drunk, they're British, so they were hugging each other. But they're straight, they're so straight. Interesting. Lawrence starts talking to me more, he's not much into dancing I guess. But we're flirting, he asks if I'll really call, and I repsond of course! why wouldn't I? So he says he wants to go to lunch, dinner, whatever. I'm laughing, thinking OK I'm 100% for that! and we're close now, too. Mike came back for a little bit, but then he left and went off to make out with some random woman in the crowd. Whatever.
So, Lawrence and I are having fun, but then Oz comes over AGAIN! He really has a knack for that. He starts putting his hand on my back, playing with my hair again, and then rubbing my neck. Alright, I'm thinking, this has got to stop, so I'm trying to squirm a little bit, but I'm kind of stuck. It's WEIRD. And Oz starts talking to Lawrence. (I can't hear anything, so I don't know what was being said) Lawrence starts blushing a little bit? What's going on? Oz is trying to tell me, but I: 1) can't hear a thing and 2) can't understand his accent for the life of me. So he gives up, tells Lawrence to tell me. All I heard from Lawrence was, "he......sex....with you.....think he's lying." WHAT?! WHAT?! That's what I said. He kept trying to tell me, but I couldn't hear it all, and I said, "Did you just say you're gonna have sex with someone, but you think Oz's lying?" He told me to forget it, after I pleaded for a while, but he wouldn't say. Now I'm kinda confused.
Oz comes back over. Lawrence leaves! It is clear to me that Oz has just "cockblocked" me twice! And I'm NOT happy about that. So Oz is dancing with me. I'm upset. Mike's making out with some lady. Lawrence is alone in the crowd dancing......too much for me. I tell Oz I'm leaving. Oz: Ok, so I'll walk you to the door. Kim: No, no no no no, stay here and dance. I can walk out alone. (note: my plan was to go and find Lawrence, kiss him or something, then leave.) But Oz is persisting that he bring me out. And he grabs my wrist and leads me out to the exit. Thanks. Thanks, Oz. I leave in a moderately buzzed huff.
As soon as I'm out of the pub, without Oz, I call up Lawrence's number to leave a message, "Hey Lawrence, it's Kim, Oz's friend from WalkAbout. I'm sorry I couldn't say bye to you before I headed out, Oz kinda pushed me along without saying goodnight. But here is my mobile, landline, and email address. Let me know if you wanna get together sometime. Night!" I left something similar on Mike's mobile, only instead of "Oz", I said, "You were making out with someone, and I didn't want to disturb you."
And I walk home talking to Craig on the phone.
I wake up in the morning, and find a text message on my mobile. From Lawrence, "I'm hoping this is your number. If it is, give me a call anytime you feel 2 hang out. nice 1. lawrence x." Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees. I wrote back to him, saying if he wants to get together today in the park, I'd be there reading. Let's see where this goes, eh?
Either way, though, I just made 2 friends.

St.Patrick's Day

I'll keep this brief.
My roommate, Erin, invited me to go out with her and her friend Jaya (& 2 others) at night to celebrate lightly. So, we went to this little pub in Soho called St.James' Tavern. It was crowded, we didn't stay there very long. So we went to another nearby pub.
Being on antibiotics, I only had a drink. Everyone else was pretty much gone.
After a while, I'm talking to some nice British guy about his phone, British drinking problems. Ironic.
Then somehow these random Brits & Jaya got in this silly fight about a hat. People were upset, getting kinda rowdy, we went outside. Jaya's friends and I are trying to calm people down. Erin gets pissed and storms off. I have to run and catch up with her. We walk home, stop at a Subway.
I had made cookies beforehand, so we finished those.
And then we were sexiled for a few hours.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Quick Housekeeping

Just a quick apology for the very long posts. I know they're really really big, but it's because I am trying to document for myself my trips for later.
If it helps, I won't be traveling again until Spring Break.

I'm officially passing all of my classes this semester! 80 and up! So much better than last semester! Harvard Business School, here I come!!! Not really, I don't want to go there.

I went to the doctor on Monday and was put on drowsy-inducing antibiotics & pain killers. It's a doozy. I feel like I'm in high school all over again.

I tried to go to 2 club meeting yesterday at University College London, but I got lost, lost my ID, and it started to rain out. Another failed attempt to be immersed into British culture.

I made a really nice dish last night, with Basmati rice, tuna fish, mustard, Welshireland (?) cheese, olive oil, and cinnamon. A little dry, but great with tomatoes. I'm a culinary genius. And modest.

By the way, if anyone knows of a summer job I could apply for, LET ME KNOW!

Monday, March 13, 2006

Paris

I was in Paris from Thursday night to Sunday morning...
I write a lot.

Thursday,
We took Eurostar to Paris. As soon as we got out of the train into the station, I looked around and panicked; I realized that I had lost most, if not all, of my french skills. Considering I'm living there in less than a year, this came to be quite an unfortunate shock. It took us about 45 minutes to figure out how to get a metro ticket, and another 20 minutes to figure out how to get to our hostel. On the way there, 2 strange french men came over to Denysha and started hitting on her. But, seeing that I was the only one in the group who could kinda get around using French (Eliana knows some, but usually asked me to ask stuff for her...and Denysha knows "oui" and "merci"), Denysha started crying out for me, and I simply said in french, "She doesn't like you, goodnight."
The hostel was....something else. It was basically a rundown apartment...2 beds, an open shower on the side of the room, a sink next to it...it reminded me something of Tom Hanks' first apartment room in "Big". Pretty sketchy and grody. It was amazing.
We went out to get dinner, and ended up at this cut little bistrot that served us an amazing filet mignon dish (it's the only thing we could actually read on the hand-written FRENCH menu) and potlucked our deserts. The mousse au chocolate and creme brulee were irresistable!
We decided to walk off our dinner by taking a photographing night tour of Paris. We took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. It is sooo pretty at night!!! We were taking pictures of it, and right before we left, it started SPARKLING! SPARKLING! I kid you not! It was one of the prettiest spectacles I've ever seen! walked past the Hotel des Invalides (Napoleon's gravesite), very gold and bright at night. Ended up stopping at a Domino's to use the lavatory. Got lost trying to find Sciences Po Universite (my future uni), ended up on some back alleyway with defense centers and embassies everywhere. It was very intimidating. Then got to the main street, and I feel in love. Walked by some adorable places. Witnessed a few swat teams (there's a student strike/riot going on in Paris right now...), that was neat. People kept on trying to ask me stuff on the street, but......I don't speak French. Sad.
Got lost.
Found the Notre Dame, and trudged home on the windy and FREEZING COLD Seine. Did I mention that the entire weekend was FREEZING COLD!??!?!?

Friday
Woke up late, and bought crepes for breakfast at noon...smooth. We were staying near the Bastille, so we walked over to it to see the student rally. Interesting, because the Bastille was in memory of the French Revolution, non?
Walked over to the Notre Dame to go inside, it started hailing/raining. We were all sick, so this didn't go over well. Ran into Notre Dame, looked and sat around for a while until it cleared. Then we walked to the Louvre. Cold. Windy. And walked down the Champs Elysee, the main "5th Avenue" of Paris. I didn't remember it to be so long with parks, and so short with the space of stores, but it was jam packed! Walked all the way to L'arche de Triomphe, and then hit a fast food shop for lunch. Denysha's in love with Louis Vitton (or however you spell it), so we went there. And then we went into a bunch of concept car shops, because we all love pretty cars. MAN, were these cars PRETTY! Sooooo pretty.....anyways
Went back to the Louvre to get in for free and look at some of the exhibits. I think the Louvre is too confusing and large, they need some kind of consolidation system or something. And walked back to the hostel. Denysha & I wanted to have a baguette & cheese & fruit dinner, it was delightful! And another early night for the sick kids.

Saturday
Early morning, and headed over to Montmatre (the "hip" part of town on a hill). Had croissants, and hiked up the tall hill. The view of Paris there is amazing; you can see almost anything you want to, south of the hill. Got to the Sacre Coeur, which is this very eastern style cathedral. Very simple, very lovely. We hung out in there for a while, it was raining again. Then walked around the little markets and villages around the cathedral. Very bohemian, very adorable. I love that part of town. Even found the Salvador Dali (my favorite artist!) Gallery! We didn't get to go in, so I must do that some time!
Stopped by the Moulin Rouge, and then feasted at a cute little brasserie for lunch.
We were still tired and sick, so we headed over to the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum...near our hostel). It's hidden in the middle of nowhere, so it took us about 30+ minutes to find out where it was. Ridiculous. But we got in on discount, and saw some REALLY WEIRD art. Some things include: a Shroud of Turin from a basted chicken named "Binky", and its caskette....a man on a TV screen saying repeatedly, "I am making art".....and my favorite, a picture of a cat, and a metal figure of a man in front of it, saying, "Chatter chatter chatter...." Pretty quirky, and hilarious.
Dinner was at one of the cute places we walked by Thursday night. We got cocktails in conkshells with fresh fruit, and amazing duck dishes!!!! This place was great. Fun place for cool university students, very loud, very neat! The bill was also very large.
Walking around, a bunch of guys stopped us to talk to us, but we didn't understand them, so we would just say, "no". We're lame.
Went somewhere else to get creme brulee again. Delicious, as always.
Another early night for us sick kids.

Sunday
We went early to the train station. At customs/immigration, I was held up. Apparently, because the first person that let me into UK screwed up on my passport for my student/working visa, and someone else had to fix it for me at customs from Norway...I am questionable to get into the country again. Basically, I think I was close to being deported or put into interrogation. I was being questioned about my whereabouts, what I was doing in London, what I was doing when I got back to the US....etc. etc.
Sick girl who can't talk. Thanks.
Another 10 minutes for the customs people to look and discuss my passport about whether it could be accepted or not. Finally, they grumbled and let me go. Keep in mind, Eliana, who's a citizen of Ecuador, was already accepted in and waiting for me with Denysha.
Think about that.

Note: By the end of the trip, I could hold a comprehensive conversation with a French person for a short period of time. I had also lost my voice by Saturday, though, so it seemed kind of pointless.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Wales

The night before I went to Wales, I was asked to go out by Erin & some nice girl I just met, Jaya. We went out to this Latin pub where we met a handful of very drunk accountants, some from Wales, some British, and some rugby-playing Kiwis, who felt compelled to show Jaya & how to scrub as you would in rugby. Interesting. Then we went to another pub/club and danced, and ran away from guys getting too close to us dancing. Fun. That was Friday night in a nutshell.

Ok, so I put on my alarm clock for 5am so I could wake up and get to the bus station @ 7am to go to Wales. Denysha calls me at 6:56am saying, "Girl, you better get here soon, we're leaving in 4 minutes." HOLY LORD! I've never gotten ready in 5 minutes before, but I did...and I called back and begged the tour lady to wait for me. Mind you, this bus station is a good 30 min. walk from my flat. So I tried hailing a cab. And failed, so I RAN to the tube station, changed trains like it was MY JOB, and started getting so upset that I started crying a bit. I've never been so frustrated. But, bless that woman, at 7:30am I caught up with them SOMEHOW, and went to Wales.

Just a note: Welsh is a language based on Celtic roots & Roman influence. Aka, it's one messed up language. I can't read it for the life of me. "W"s sound like "uh" or "ooh" so, good=gwd. WEIRD. Thank god everything's in english, too.

It wasn't that long of a drive (compared to Cornwall...), maybe 4 hours max. But we stopped at a few spots before we got to Cardiff around 6pm. First, we stopped at the Roman barracks & the ampitheater in Caerleon. These places are, well, old, and mostly grassy fields with rock foundations. It was really neat, but took a lot of the imagination. Then we headed off to eat lunch (I was good & had a salad) at Caerphilly Castle. It's kinda interesting, because you can tell that it's been built by a BUNCH of different kind of styles...you got Norman, Crusade-esque, etc etc. But it's magnificent. One of the towers is missing one part of the circular wall, and falling over to one side. I loved that. And there were walls inside walls inside walls. We couldn't go into the chapel b/c of a wedding being held.
But it was quite the photo-taking experience. Eliana, Denysha, & I kinda went a little nuts on this trip with taking pictures. More to come on those some other day...
Then off to the Welsh Life Museum. This place was a huge outside exhibit of Welsh living over the last 500+ years. Big. So, when we first got there, I caught wind that one of the housing exhibits were celtic huts. If you know me, you might know that I am very much obsessed with celtic culture, and I was in my element. No, but really, I was giddy. We took tons of pictures. And then we headed over to the more "colonial period" houses, and bought ourselves bags of Welsh cakes. I HIGHLY recommend them, FABULOUS! Like scones, only sweeter & more pancakier. We headed off to the modern castle & gardens, where it looked kinda like the Secret Garden in winter. That's when my inner photographer/artist came out.
Then we drove to Cardiff, Europe's youngest capital cities. It's small, and a lot of youth are here. We were staying in a sports center/hostel. Very clean & nice (hotel-ish), but like a maze! It took us 20 min. to find our room. Then we napped for an hour.

We decided to go out to the Cardiff nightlife to see what it had to offer.
Heads up, we were with a bunch of Un.Wisconsin kids, they were nice kids, but I felt like they were doing their own thing. Still nice kids, though.
Cardiff nightlife, in an image, is like NYC on Halloween night after the parade. To those that aren't knowledgeable in NYC culture, that means: hell opened up and let loose. People walking around without coats (IT WAS FREEZING!!!!), trashed out of their minds, walking on the streets in scores, NUTS. So, us girls tried to duck out ASAP, and we sweet-talked our way with a bouncer into this little club called Moloko for free. We danced the whole night, it was nice. And because none of us had the desire, nor the money, to buy drinks, we were aware of all of the weird things around us ALL NIGHT. We were trying to be nice & friendly with the locals, but these 2 guys came over to dance with us, which was fine then, but then grabbed my butt (think full grab), and then Denysha. That's when things stopped being fun, so we called it a night, at 11:30pm. Got lost getting back to the center. Walked back through hell. And slept hard.

Full English Breakfast at 8am. Passed by the Brecon Beacon National Park. Left for the Big Pit Mining Museum at 8:30am. What is that, you ask? Basically, we got to go into & under a coal mine on a tour. It was awesome. We put on the hardhats, the belts, and scuttled about 300 feet underground. Learned a lot about coal mining. And our guide was adorable, he was this old bubbly Welsh man. Couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but we got the point.
Into the bus. Went to Cistercian Tintern Abbey. This abbey's in the Wye Valley, a very picturesque place that Woodsworth wrote all about. The abbey reminded me vaguely of the Glastonbury abbey, but only b/c it was the ruins. This abbey wasn't so dismantled, though. Most was missing was the roof, floor, the window glass, and some walls. Very aesthetic, but pretty at the same time. Denysha & I saw 2 doves fly above us onto one of the cathedral walls, and that was pretty inspiring. Took lots of more pictures. The grass was so green on the floor, and the sky was so blue for the rooftop. And some of the cemetery stones in the chapel part were still there. COOL!

Drove home, slept most of the way, and said farewell to our Wisconsin mates.
Got back to the flat to frantically study for a marketing midterm........now. WISH ME LUCK!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Get Involved

I'm apparently volunteering at the Benjamin Franklin House Museum in London....who knew? The lady is really flighty, and has been having a hard time making plans with me. We'll see how far this goes

I joined UCLU's Stage Crew Club for their play this weekend, "The Tempest" (I love this play). The guys were pretty nice. Picked up my name immediately, got me involved right away...and were really glad to have me there helping. Very approachable. Very techies.

I have come to the fatal conclusion that I am dead broke. Think, no money. So, I'm looking for some little jobs here & there that can replenish what I like to call my, "PITS OF HELL." Let's hope I can come back to the US still holding onto a thread of decency.

Oh, Monday morning around 6:30am I got a call from my friend Matt Dell (NYU). He was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and was calling all of his good friends to say hi, he said. I was still asleep, so I think I mumbled something about seeing him when I get back, have to hang out, and then I fell back asleep, but VERY happily. It may have been a drunk dial, but it made me happy, nonetheless.

Classes are happening. Wonderful. Burning out much?