Being as I have five weeks and two days before I leave this country (and this blog), I'm going to try and post every day until then. I think I've been lazy about it / procrastinating because I feel like I have to write longwinded accounts of my life, which is mellow at best. So here are some bulleted updates:
- Last night we played Sardines and I hid in the middle branches of a big tree for about 25 minutes before anyone found me. I had to give cell-phone clues. Losers.
- Looks like I'm going to be writing copy for a San Francisco chocolate company this summer. I'm overly excited, and will be even more excited if they tell me I'm getting paid. If not, I'll try and wheedle my way into going to work at camp so I can make some money this summer.
- There's a croquet field right outside my window, which is very distracting.
- I had two really fun club nights this week - one at Bridge which is (comparatively) classy, and the other at Filth, which is. Well. You get the idea.
- I've been listening to the Carnivâle soundtrack all today, and it's pretty glorious. Combine that with my recent obsession with Deadwood, and O Brother Where Art Thou before that, and I'd say I have a powerful case of Americana withdrawal going on. I've come to realize that just as Ohio made me truly appreciate California, England has made me truly appreciate Ohio / the majority of America which I often take for granted.
- There are enormous koi in the moat outside my window. The water plants are REALLY thick though, and I worry that the fish get tangled in them. So worried, in fact, that I told the Porters Lodge about this problem.
Last and CERTAINLY not least, a few days ago, the undergrads at St. Catz got this email (for reference, "entz" is a semiregular college-sponsored themed party):
Last night or early this morning the top floor kitchen of staircase 2
was befouled by a person unknown. The mess left was of the most
noisome and unsanitary kind. The housekeeping staff have fully cleaned
and disinfected the affected area. As a college we must be very
grateful that housekeeping undertook such an unpleasant task. They
have, I trust, our most sincere thanks and gratitude. We must also
register our deep unhappiness that such a task was made necessary.
From the point of view of general welfare, I urgently need to know who
was responsible for creating the mess. Until I am in possession of
this information, I cannot consider the college to be adequately safe,
orderly and under control.
In these circumstances, I will not allow Entz to go ahead. As of now,
therefore, the Entz scheduled for Thursday of fourth week is banned.
The Entz will be reinstated only if I am made aware of who created the
mess in staircase 2. Anyone with relevant information may contact me
in confidence.
The Dean.
I think it was worth going to England if only to see the word "noisome" written out.
Saturday, May 10
Wednesday, April 23
You've all been waiting...
And some of you have actually started nagging (no no, I need it). It's WAY overdue. So I finished my work before dinner specifically so I could write this epic blog entry. And watch more episodes of The Wire without feeling guilty. It really would be impossible to write about everything that happened over break, so I'll pick out a few highlights, and if you want to know more about a specific bit of my time, ask away and I'll regale you.
France was great, a whirlwind of phenomenal art, company, food, wine, and culture. One highlight was meeting Guy Sitbon, a renowned French journalist, who graciously led a fascinating tour of Paris (including a delicious lunch of Hungarian food) and shared his home when accommodation was lacking. I learned in Paris that wine gets me drunk often much faster than I realize, Metro systems are not as intimidating as they first seem, and Pan au Chocolat really means NOTHING outside of France.
I took a train from Paris to Lyon, where I spent a week and a half with Meg at her apartment, relaxing, partying, and meeting LOTS of Brits (sad, I know). We also ate a lot of Nutella. 'Nuff said.
Meg and I flew to Madrid, where we spent a truly amazing weekend immersing ourselves in culture (local and global) and eating lots of ham. I think we had as good a time as we did because we were guided by an AMAZING list Courtney made for Meg, including restaurants, museums, and other great things we might have missed otherwise.
Meg took off on Sunday morning and I hung out for the rest of the day before taking a train to Barcelona. Once there, I met up with Nicko just as he was on his way out of town. It was awesome to see him in person after so long, and catch up a little bit. Then I spent about a week alone, hanging out and exploring the city before my parents and brother arrived.
It was obviously great to see my family after three months away. There were some major issues with our accommodations, but once those issues were cleared up it was pretty smooth sailing. Interesting because this was the first touristy vacation my family has had since my brother and I were really old enough to have a say in what we were doing that day. This made for exactly twice as much discussion (and subsequent frustration) than our previous European trips. Despite this, we had a lot of fun, TOOOOONS of good food, and some really wonderful meals with native Spaniards.
I made it back to England to spend a night at the GORGEOUS estate (yes) of a family friend before setting off back to London.
I spent the day with Charlie, wandering around before he left the next day, and we had a great time in Covent Garden and beyond finding cool little shops. We rounded out the day with the traditional cartoon watching, which was simply perfect.
While at times stressful, annoying, and maybe even boring, the break was, overall, a great experience, and I even learned a little about myself.
NOW - onwards and upwards. Hopefully I'll post within a few days about my new classes, my plans for the semester, and even more exciting, my plans for a summer job. Can't wait!
France was great, a whirlwind of phenomenal art, company, food, wine, and culture. One highlight was meeting Guy Sitbon, a renowned French journalist, who graciously led a fascinating tour of Paris (including a delicious lunch of Hungarian food) and shared his home when accommodation was lacking. I learned in Paris that wine gets me drunk often much faster than I realize, Metro systems are not as intimidating as they first seem, and Pan au Chocolat really means NOTHING outside of France.
I took a train from Paris to Lyon, where I spent a week and a half with Meg at her apartment, relaxing, partying, and meeting LOTS of Brits (sad, I know). We also ate a lot of Nutella. 'Nuff said.
Meg and I flew to Madrid, where we spent a truly amazing weekend immersing ourselves in culture (local and global) and eating lots of ham. I think we had as good a time as we did because we were guided by an AMAZING list Courtney made for Meg, including restaurants, museums, and other great things we might have missed otherwise.
Meg took off on Sunday morning and I hung out for the rest of the day before taking a train to Barcelona. Once there, I met up with Nicko just as he was on his way out of town. It was awesome to see him in person after so long, and catch up a little bit. Then I spent about a week alone, hanging out and exploring the city before my parents and brother arrived.
It was obviously great to see my family after three months away. There were some major issues with our accommodations, but once those issues were cleared up it was pretty smooth sailing. Interesting because this was the first touristy vacation my family has had since my brother and I were really old enough to have a say in what we were doing that day. This made for exactly twice as much discussion (and subsequent frustration) than our previous European trips. Despite this, we had a lot of fun, TOOOOONS of good food, and some really wonderful meals with native Spaniards.
I made it back to England to spend a night at the GORGEOUS estate (yes) of a family friend before setting off back to London.
I spent the day with Charlie, wandering around before he left the next day, and we had a great time in Covent Garden and beyond finding cool little shops. We rounded out the day with the traditional cartoon watching, which was simply perfect.
While at times stressful, annoying, and maybe even boring, the break was, overall, a great experience, and I even learned a little about myself.
NOW - onwards and upwards. Hopefully I'll post within a few days about my new classes, my plans for the semester, and even more exciting, my plans for a summer job. Can't wait!
Thursday, March 6
London Weekend and other photos
I just had my last primary tutorial of the term, meaning one paper and one tute to go before I'm completely done. My agenda for the rest of the day includes getting started on the aforementioned paper, making biscotti with Dara, her roommate Susan and my friend Zach, going to spaghetti night at scaf (informal dinner), seeing Zach as the lead in Sartre's "No Exit" with various friends, then going to "Filth," the club that murdered my eardrums last weekend (I won't stand right next to the speakers tonight), and drinking cheap pitchers of Kirkland Signature Red Bull and vodka.
But I'm still posting pictures from weeks ago. The first set is from the "Unball," the brainchild of my friend of Pat and I in response to the 85 pound-tickets to go to the Catz ball. It was basically an America-themed Around the World (going and having a drink in each room), and we did a lot of planning for it. Unfortunately, I didn't keep to the one-drink-per-room rule, and ended up calling it an early night, and missing a game of Kings. Oh well, here are some pictures from earlier in the night:
Dara and Brady:
The face we all make multiple times a day, cribbed from YouTube's 'Unforgivable':
The party in my friend Devika's room:
Keith and Pat:
Dara, Laura, Brady, and Sam, one of my (only) British friends:
Dara, Rachel, and Me:
Brady and Me:
Also, these geese hang out outside our room and honk pretty much constantly:
LONDON WEEKEND: IFSA-Butler pretty much hypes this up to be the best weekend all year. It wasn't, but it also didn't suck. Dara and I were rooming together during the weekend. She had a tutorial on Friday afternoon, so around 2PM we jumped on the Oxford-London bus and made it ton London. We had a heck of a time finding our hotel, but as usual, my keen sense of direction eventually figured it out (ha ha?).
Dara was meeting up with Brady and his roommate Jon to see Billy Elliot, and I had plans to see a play with Charlie, so neither of us had time for the free Mexican dinner IFSA had set up for us (I later heard it actually sucked, which made me feel better). We grabbed some dinner at Pret near her theatre, and I jumped back on the tube and went to Hammersmith, where the theatre was. Charlie and I saw Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," which was put on by an African cast and set in Africa, and was pretty good, and in an awesome theatre. After the show, we went to the theatre's bar and had a few drinks (baaasically all Charlie drinks is cider, so that's all I drink when I'm with him), we left after awhile and went to a pub that stayed open late (for London) and had more cider, and wasabi peas. They were pretty great. I then jumped on a bus back to our hotel and ran into Brady, Dara, Keith, and Zach in the lobby. We hung out upstairs until the wee hours, then went to bed.
On Saturday, Dara and I made a stop at Harrods, got yelled at for taking pictures, and went across the street to eat sushi. Yo! Sushi has all-you-can-drink miso, and we each downed three bowls supplemented with other delicious things. We met up with on of Dara's friends in London to go to a cafe called Coffee, Cake, and Kink which was filled with really nice people, comfy couches, a gallery, and assorted, erm, gifts. Plus they had the best hot chocolate I've ever had. We chatted there for awhile, and wandered back to the tube stop, darting into shops where they looked interesting, including a lingerie store where we were offered wine while we browsed (we refused, but accepted the Chupa Chups they offered) and the most awesome vintage dress store ever.
We got back to the hotel in order to get ready for the boat ride, which included dinner and was James Bond themed. Another IFSA thing, it was free, and included dinner, so of course we were in. I halfheartedly rocked a goldfinger-girl thing, wearing my gold pants and a LOT of gold makeup. We pretty much ran to get to the boat on time, and of course we were. Dinner was really good, and there was karaoke, which we of course hit up, and then a 'disco' aka a dance. Which was decent. The views outside the boat were pretty, but we were pretty tired afterwards, so we stopped momentarily at the UCL JCR before heading back to the hotel.
We got up early for the free brunch IFSA provided to get reimbursed for our travel, stuffed our faces, and jumped back on the bus to Oxford.
We got yelled at mid-snap at Harrods:
Zach told us a story about a kid puking in an all-pink room, so when we saw this display, we felt compelled:
One of the tube lines ends at Cockfosters. Yes, we are twelve:
Chupa Chups, lingerie, and also headpieces:
Obligatory 'Summer Lovin'" karaoke:
Expertly crooning 'Lady Marmalade':
Drunk and singing Irish boys on the tube:
West Brompton, represent:
Well, that's all for now, but my camera is charging for tonight, so maybe I'll get some more pics up this weekend. <3
But I'm still posting pictures from weeks ago. The first set is from the "Unball," the brainchild of my friend of Pat and I in response to the 85 pound-tickets to go to the Catz ball. It was basically an America-themed Around the World (going and having a drink in each room), and we did a lot of planning for it. Unfortunately, I didn't keep to the one-drink-per-room rule, and ended up calling it an early night, and missing a game of Kings. Oh well, here are some pictures from earlier in the night:
Dara and Brady:
The face we all make multiple times a day, cribbed from YouTube's 'Unforgivable':
The party in my friend Devika's room:
Keith and Pat:
Dara, Laura, Brady, and Sam, one of my (only) British friends:
Dara, Rachel, and Me:
Brady and Me:
Also, these geese hang out outside our room and honk pretty much constantly:
LONDON WEEKEND: IFSA-Butler pretty much hypes this up to be the best weekend all year. It wasn't, but it also didn't suck. Dara and I were rooming together during the weekend. She had a tutorial on Friday afternoon, so around 2PM we jumped on the Oxford-London bus and made it ton London. We had a heck of a time finding our hotel, but as usual, my keen sense of direction eventually figured it out (ha ha?).
Dara was meeting up with Brady and his roommate Jon to see Billy Elliot, and I had plans to see a play with Charlie, so neither of us had time for the free Mexican dinner IFSA had set up for us (I later heard it actually sucked, which made me feel better). We grabbed some dinner at Pret near her theatre, and I jumped back on the tube and went to Hammersmith, where the theatre was. Charlie and I saw Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," which was put on by an African cast and set in Africa, and was pretty good, and in an awesome theatre. After the show, we went to the theatre's bar and had a few drinks (baaasically all Charlie drinks is cider, so that's all I drink when I'm with him), we left after awhile and went to a pub that stayed open late (for London) and had more cider, and wasabi peas. They were pretty great. I then jumped on a bus back to our hotel and ran into Brady, Dara, Keith, and Zach in the lobby. We hung out upstairs until the wee hours, then went to bed.
On Saturday, Dara and I made a stop at Harrods, got yelled at for taking pictures, and went across the street to eat sushi. Yo! Sushi has all-you-can-drink miso, and we each downed three bowls supplemented with other delicious things. We met up with on of Dara's friends in London to go to a cafe called Coffee, Cake, and Kink which was filled with really nice people, comfy couches, a gallery, and assorted, erm, gifts. Plus they had the best hot chocolate I've ever had. We chatted there for awhile, and wandered back to the tube stop, darting into shops where they looked interesting, including a lingerie store where we were offered wine while we browsed (we refused, but accepted the Chupa Chups they offered) and the most awesome vintage dress store ever.
We got back to the hotel in order to get ready for the boat ride, which included dinner and was James Bond themed. Another IFSA thing, it was free, and included dinner, so of course we were in. I halfheartedly rocked a goldfinger-girl thing, wearing my gold pants and a LOT of gold makeup. We pretty much ran to get to the boat on time, and of course we were. Dinner was really good, and there was karaoke, which we of course hit up, and then a 'disco' aka a dance. Which was decent. The views outside the boat were pretty, but we were pretty tired afterwards, so we stopped momentarily at the UCL JCR before heading back to the hotel.
We got up early for the free brunch IFSA provided to get reimbursed for our travel, stuffed our faces, and jumped back on the bus to Oxford.
We got yelled at mid-snap at Harrods:
Zach told us a story about a kid puking in an all-pink room, so when we saw this display, we felt compelled:
One of the tube lines ends at Cockfosters. Yes, we are twelve:
Chupa Chups, lingerie, and also headpieces:
Obligatory 'Summer Lovin'" karaoke:
Expertly crooning 'Lady Marmalade':
Drunk and singing Irish boys on the tube:
West Brompton, represent:
Well, that's all for now, but my camera is charging for tonight, so maybe I'll get some more pics up this weekend. <3
Wednesday, March 5
Guilty Post
Hello everyone! I've been feeling mega-guilty lately for my serious lack of posting, and lack of entertainment when I do. I've been feeling pretty envious lately of a lot of my friends who are abroad and meeting tons of people. The one thing they DIDN'T use to intimidate us on our way to Oxford is that it's a pretty solitary experience. Unlike school, I don't have real classes, so I don't have that vehicle to meet people, and unlike school, I'm making my own meals for breakfast and lunch, so that socializing opportunity goes out the window too. So pretty much I don't see anyone until dinnertime, and then only for an hour, and then back to the grindstone.
Speaking of the grindstone... at the risk of kicking myself later for many an varied reasons, I have to say...Oxford just isn't that hard for visiting students. God knows I'll be milking this experience for all it's worth when it's on my resume, but after I got my grades on my first set of papers, I knew that I wouldn't be killing myself working here, like I did when I took a summer neuroscience class at Brown. To be fair, I haven't been given assignments as long as some of my friends here, and because I can't do real research, most of my papers are literature reviews on whatever topic. It is, of course, a different story for the real students here, who have lectures and exams to deal with as well. Of course, this leaves them with even LESS time for socialization and consequently, leaves the visiting students much to themselves.
I found out yesterday that (hopefully) next term I will be taking "Modernity's Effects on Psychology" with topics like advertising, body image, etc, and "Contemporary Interpretations of Greek Myth" in literature and film. Anyway, the coordinators for our tutes are arguably somewhat incompetent, so we'll see if that works out.
In other, better news, I finally have my laptop ("Li'l Cutie" for those of us on speaking terms) back in my lovin' arms, and through some professional grade finagling, my dad convinced Apple to fix it for free. They ended up replacing the hard drive, the motherboard, and RAM, so I basically have a new computer. Additionally, it was astonishingly easy to restore files from Time Machine files on my backup HD, so I got all my music, bookmarks, and docs back. Also, my debit card issue was FINALLY resolved (knock on wood, I'll be eternally suspicious now), so this weekend I went around and finally bought all my train tickets and reserved hostel beds for Spain.
Speaking of break, I'll certainly be posting from abroad. My schedule is this, for those who'd like to follow along:
- March 12-18: Paris
- March 18-27: Lyon
- March 17-30: Madrid
- March 31-April 5: Barcelona (on my own)
- April 5-12: Barcelona (with my family)
But for now, let's take a trip down memory lane, now that all of my pictures are loaded on this computer...
HOMESTAY WEEKEND IN WORCESTER:
Anna (Oxford buddy) and homestay daughter Hannah
Comics follow me wherever I go...
Worcester Cathedral's original wall
Cloister wall
One of many many ornate doors
The faces were scratched off during some religious dispute (it's been a month, okay?)
Huge huge huge pipe organ
There were a LOT of tilty houses in Worcester
More photos later today, including London weekendstraviganza.
Speaking of the grindstone... at the risk of kicking myself later for many an varied reasons, I have to say...Oxford just isn't that hard for visiting students. God knows I'll be milking this experience for all it's worth when it's on my resume, but after I got my grades on my first set of papers, I knew that I wouldn't be killing myself working here, like I did when I took a summer neuroscience class at Brown. To be fair, I haven't been given assignments as long as some of my friends here, and because I can't do real research, most of my papers are literature reviews on whatever topic. It is, of course, a different story for the real students here, who have lectures and exams to deal with as well. Of course, this leaves them with even LESS time for socialization and consequently, leaves the visiting students much to themselves.
I found out yesterday that (hopefully) next term I will be taking "Modernity's Effects on Psychology" with topics like advertising, body image, etc, and "Contemporary Interpretations of Greek Myth" in literature and film. Anyway, the coordinators for our tutes are arguably somewhat incompetent, so we'll see if that works out.
In other, better news, I finally have my laptop ("Li'l Cutie" for those of us on speaking terms) back in my lovin' arms, and through some professional grade finagling, my dad convinced Apple to fix it for free. They ended up replacing the hard drive, the motherboard, and RAM, so I basically have a new computer. Additionally, it was astonishingly easy to restore files from Time Machine files on my backup HD, so I got all my music, bookmarks, and docs back. Also, my debit card issue was FINALLY resolved (knock on wood, I'll be eternally suspicious now), so this weekend I went around and finally bought all my train tickets and reserved hostel beds for Spain.
Speaking of break, I'll certainly be posting from abroad. My schedule is this, for those who'd like to follow along:
- March 12-18: Paris
- March 18-27: Lyon
- March 17-30: Madrid
- March 31-April 5: Barcelona (on my own)
- April 5-12: Barcelona (with my family)
But for now, let's take a trip down memory lane, now that all of my pictures are loaded on this computer...
HOMESTAY WEEKEND IN WORCESTER:
Anna (Oxford buddy) and homestay daughter Hannah
Comics follow me wherever I go...
Worcester Cathedral's original wall
Cloister wall
One of many many ornate doors
The faces were scratched off during some religious dispute (it's been a month, okay?)
Huge huge huge pipe organ
There were a LOT of tilty houses in Worcester
More photos later today, including London weekendstraviganza.
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