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!

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?

Cornwall

So, I just got back from a trip to Cornwall with a crew of 60+ NYU kids. I didn't really know anyone. So, alone I was.
Got to the hostel in a little Rockport-like seatown called St.Ives, and these kids are pampered, rich brats!!! They were all scoffing and complaining about the hostel: "oh, i can't shower here!" "i wanna go get a hotel room" "i bet you this is the dirtiest place in the town". Ok, honestly? It wasn't that bad of a hostel! I've lived in much worse! I felt like I was in a spa, they felt they were roughing it. Do kids my age not know what it's like to go hiking anymore?
That night I went out to get dinner by myself at a pub, some NYU kids came. It was awkward, but then a few nice premeds came over and befriended me. We went out to a pub, played some darts, and called it early.
Woke up at 7am for a full English breakfast: baked beans, sausage, mushrooms, bacon...I could tell that this trip was not goin to be the most healthy eating I've ever had in my life.
About half of us kids went on a tour of Cornwall. We drove St.Michael's Mount (much like Mont St.Michel, only a little newer....), Penzance, & Minack & The Minack Theatre (which is a beautiful outside theatre built into the cliffs of the seaside).
The seaside we saw the entire tour was amazing. It was dramatic drops, the water was crystal blue, and it wasn't that cold out. Just windy. The Minack Theatre looked like something just out of a Greek tourguide book. Stunning.
At the Minack Theatre, I ordered a normal Cornish meal called Cornish pasty, which is basically a steak&onion broth in a flaky DENSE croissant pastry. Delicious, and hearty.
We drove to see a Stoneghenge-like ancient formation called the Merry Maidens & Two Pipers. Very entertaining to see NYU kids gallop around fields with big rocks. We ended up at Land's End, which is the most western & closest part of the UK to America. Very touristy, but pleasant nonetheless. The rest of the ride home, our tourguide talked about the history of Cornwall, and we all slept.
I met up with 2 girls I remembered from Eugene's apartment, Natasha & Danielle, and we hit up St.Ives. Really, honestly, just like a New England seaport. We got the Cornish Ice Cream (which is super good, and fattening) and Cornish Cream Tea (just tea w/ scones...but you put Cornish Clotted Cream on the scones, which might as well be called LARD). We ate like true Corns that day, but we probably also gained about 10 lbs, too.
We walked to the beachfront, it was a nice walk & a great view.
Then we went to a local theatre to see "Munich". It's an OK movie, I thought some of it was well done, and other parts I felt Spielberg really banking on his directing genius a little too much. I was really disturbed by the movie, though, because it was about Israeli & Palestinian fighting mostly, so I got a calling card & talked to Ido for about an hour. That was nice.
Woke up at 7am again for yet another English breakfast. It was starting to wear on me....
We went to the Eden Project today. Basically, it's the largest Biodomes in the world. Pretty awesome stuff here. They have plants & trees from around the tropics & warm temperate parts of the world, jam-packed into this revolutionary bubble. It was soooo pretty. And I got to look at Cocoa beans. That made me happy.
I learned a lot about nature today.
The bus ride to and fro Cornwall was roughly 6 hours each way.

Glastonbury

So on our way to Cornwall (SouthWest England), we ended up at Glastonbury.
This is where a lot of the Arthurian legends pan out. When you enter this town, it's very very spiritual/relgious fusion....very pagan & into the more wiccan & celtic things.
I went to the Abbey Ruins. The Abbey is where apparently Jason & Jesus built the first worship area for Mary, and where King Arhthur & Guinivere is buried.
This place is gorgeous. I went to the ruins, and got teary-eyed. I've never seen beauty like that. The church that was built around the 12th or 13th century was ruined by Henry something something...that is what you go to see, and it is very majestic. But, it's not the first church built there....the first one was built somewhere in the 1st century, and they kept on getting burned down and rebuilt. Still, gorgeous.

I was alone in Glastonbury, since everyone else on the trip I didn't know, but I didn't mind. I don't think anynone else there was appreciating what we were seeing as much as I was. I got to take my time, be in awe. It was wonderful.

Ate a panini. Set off for the Tor.

The Tor was the Isle of Avalon...alright, basically, Avalon was a magical isle where Morgan LeFay lived, and helped Arthur. But then the water receded and it just became a huge mountain top. It's apparently where there is a portal to the "other side".
PS: The Tor is on a vertical drop. Hiking up the hill/mountain took roughly 25 minutes for me, alone, and a gym rat. Mini cardio workout. But man, was it gorgeous. Someone built a church on the hill, but again, it's in ruins, so only a ruined tower exists there now. But it was amazing. And the view was splendid, too.
However, the wind howled like nothing else. If that was a portal, someone on the other side (or the wind...I'm not sure which one) must be PISSED! I almost got thrown off of the hill!

Funniest Moments on a Date with a Turk

Well, I had a date tonight with that guy Oz from before....it was pretty humorous on my end.
Agenda:
1) There is a communication barrier
2) There's some element of awkward involved
3) He tend to be kinda touchy feely, i'm not used to that
4) I'm not interested
5) He took me to a club similar to an american gay club

So at first we were going to his place, then logic struck and I said, "no...how about a coffee shop?"
Caffe Nero we go. 2 hours of communication problems. I am laughing because I can't understand him, he's laughing because I can't understand him. Great. I'm screwing up already.
I can try to hold a conversation with him alright. And I don't mind being friends with him.

Then he took me to a club, MASH? Really, I thought it was a gay club at first. But then I realized that most of the guys there were straight. The music was......think Diana Ross. HILARIOUS!!!! I was laughing so hard, he didn't know why. He was all gentlemanly and nice, and kept leading me with my back, which I'm not used to....so he started dancing (his dancing was......something humorous too), and wanted me to dance, but it took me a while to be alright with it today. Ridiculous.

He is a gentleman, though. And legit. He paid for everything, and held doors and stuff, which was nice. I just don't know how to let him know he'd be a great friend.

And when I was walking to my flat building, some guy checked me out and hit on me; he was walking on the phone, looked at me, smiled, raised eyebrows, I grinned....then as I was unlocking my door, he turned around to look at me as I jetted in the building.

What is up with my life?! Sometimes I wonder.

Oslo, Norway

Bare with me, this will be a long one...
WOW! Norway was pretty ridiculous. Hey! Did you know that Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world?!...

Day 1: Denysha and I get in Oslo Torp Airport very late because our plane ran late. On the 2-hour busride to the city, we are stuck with some very drunk Norwegian telling everyone that he has tried every drug known to man, is a dealer, trying to sell drugs to us, claiming that he's a murderer also, that we are all comparable to a female body part.
We get off of the bus, realizing that everything is in Norwegian. We don't understand Norwegian. We take a cab to Anker Hostel, where we are informed that they messed up my reservations, so we would have to check out & in every day we plan on staying there.
A note: Snow. EVERYWHERE. As in, salt doesn't work. Snow to our knees. I was wet the WHOLE TRIP.
We walk around the streets nearby around 12:30am to find some place that will sell us food. We asked some local to show us a deli, where we cannot read the descriptions of the food. I end up unknowingly buying chip dip, while Denysha feasts on a "calzone" of questionable contents.
We get into our room around 2am, finding a sleeping naked man & a very old woman. We sleep.

Day 2: I wake up to find the "sleeping" man eating breakfast and watching me sleep. Everyone else in the room is speaking Russian.
Denysha and I check out, and head for the museums. We hit the Kon-Tiki Museum (very interesting, about a boat of reeds that was made to travel across the Atlantic and Pacific), The Fråm Museum (the most durable ship in the world), and experience our first Norwegian food: sausages and mashed potatoes.
We take a bus back to the main city & get lost by Oslo University, around the National Theatre, and hit up some window shopping at Karl Johans Gata (Street).
We are beginning to understand how to read and interpret Norwegian.
Check in, and take a nap.
Before we headed out for dinner and to a "jazz club", I overheard some guy in the lounge say that he was from Masachusetts, Drew. I went over, and we got along fine, so I told him that once we finished dinner, we'd come back for him to go to Club Blå (pronounced "blow") with us.
Denysha & I went out to some italian restaurant, Mama Leones. The food was good. My tiramisu was spiked. Lots.
Back at the hostel to pick up Drew, he's made a new friend from Bristol (UK), Alex. We sit down and talk for a while, hit it off. Also, "sleeping" man comes to talk to me. He's from Lithuania, and will further be called Lithuania man. He was around our age, and very very beautiful. I invited him out, but he had to wake up to buy a flat, so I told him breakfast at 10 with us. So Alex & Drew joined us at Blå.
Note: We thought it would be a jazz club. Oh, no. It was some underground HipHop/Reggae scene in some back alleyway of Oslo.
The boys got a little drunk, but us girls held our own and danced all night with Norwegians. It was fun. We got back and went to bed around 5am.

Day 3: Wake up at 10 realizing I told Lithuanian man about breakfast. I got down an hour late, found him waiting for me in the lounge. We talked for a while and laughed for a bit, but he had to go buy a flat, so I told him to meet us in an hour or so (which he never ended up showing, so I never saw him again).
Checked out. Alex & Drew joined us, and we set out to Tyrvann (a tower to see all of Oslo). The train ride took about an hour. We ended up, essentially, on a ski slope. Here we were with our shoes and boots, surrounded by people in skis and snowboards. It was pretty ridiculous.
We walked up the mountain about 3 km to the tower. It was cloudy and snowing. And the tower was closed. Nothing with people was near the tower. We walked back and returned to center Oslo.
Beforehand, Denysha & I discovered the beauty of their "Kit Kats", called Kvikk Lunsje (Quick Lunch), as well as their MAGNIFISCENT brown cheese. Basically, it's unprocessed goat cheese, really sweet, but still tastes like cheese. So, we all went to the grocers and bought 1 kg blocks of cheese.
Naptime.
The boys wanted to make reindeer fajittas, but Denysha & I headed out for a burger. Best, leanest, most scrumptious burger I've ever had in my life. And a fruit shake made of Galia melon and milk. Oh, my, lord.
We headed off with the boys to see Jarhead at a cinema, (english sound, Norwegian subtitles, it was a real trip), said goodbye to Drew (leaving that morning) and then headed off to bed early.

Day 4: Check out for real this time. We had made friends with the reception, Camilla already, so he chatted with us for a while. Cool guy. British.
Last hoorah for Denysha & I was going out to Akershus Fortress & Castle. Very quirky, kinda ugly and pretty at the same time. We walked there and took great pictures of Oslo's harbor. Walked into the Norwegian Resistance Museum. Did you know that Norway was under Nazi regime 1940-1945? But they were one of the main reasons why the Nazis failed, because they didn't obey them whatsoever. It was neat.
Tried to go shopping. WARNING: Oslo is officially closed on Sundays. We learned that the hard way, and ended up at some hotel's tourist shop to buy a mug & shirt.
Back to Anker Hostel until we headed back to London. Alex met up with us for a lunch/dinner, and we swapped more emails, and a few songs. He is going up to northern Norway to be a mountain guide for a while. Finished up our Kroners (Norwegian currency), and headed back for the 2 hour busride to Torp.

Noteworthy Norwegian foods: shrimp (aka scampi, or prawns), bureck (don't know the spelling, sounds like that...might be from Turkey), brown cheese, Kvikk Lunsje, sausages, fish&chips (be surprised), waffles, jam, reindeer burgers, galia melon

Happy Valentines Day

Now...back to my chocolate....the chocolate here is soooooo good. I don't know why, but it's just so good! Even the bad chocolate is good!
Kenneth, who's been joking with me about being my pretend boyfriend brought me a chocolate bar, how sweet! And we were going to go have dinner together, but I couldn't wait for him and ended up making dinner for myself before he could go. It's all good.
Nothing really new here.
Julia's little party has made the school get involved, so us in the apartment have to go to one of the supervisor's office tomorrow for an "investigation". Sweet. Considering Erin and I had nothing to do with it, and Julia is scheming to get out of her own problem.
I'm gonna start taking some yoga classes here. I've lost some of my core muscles because I have not danced in a while, so I'm gonna get those puppies back.
Booking trips takes the LONGEST TIME. Still trying to get spring break under control.
This 24-year-old Turk here is trying to pursue me, asking me out for drinks and whatnot. I feel bad because I'm not really interested, so I keep telling him maybe later. But I've been told by some to give him a chance? Maybe later for real, then.