(Hopefully) keeping track of the many exciting travails that I encounter during my semester abroad this spring. Woo.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Still here, still bored
The highlight of my day pretty much just happened, wherein Amber threatened bodily harm to the older professor guy with the handlebar moustache who DEMANDED internet when he came into the lounge. I mean, she did it after he left and all, but I've GOT to be around whenever that happens, because seriously.
I got a new tv (oh yeah, my old one broke and wouldn't work at all. I mean, the sound worked, but there's really something lacking about ... listening to a tv show. Yeaaaah) and it's all pretty and shiny and I can change the channels with an actual! Functioning! Remote! Yay! It's amazing how the little things cheer you up when you've been living the spartan lifestyle.
It appears that Amber and I are sharing our kitchen with someone else (who we have yet to see). I determined this fact by using my stellar reasoning skills, with which I determined that no, she hadn't purchased a fucking horse-sized bag of pasta, and neither did I. We kind of can't wait to see who this person is, but then again - slightly scared of the gallons of pasta, so inherently slightly scared of the person who will be eating that much pasta.
Seriously, nothing else is going on. I finished my Cafe Nero card, so you can be damn proud of me, Al - I shall be collecting my free latte tomorrow. And with that exciting ending, I'm off to plan more exciting Munich spring break stuff - yay!
Since my tv's broken, there's fuck-all to do in my actual room. I hope I'm not scaring people by sitting here, but I need my interweb! Trying to plan the Munich trip is going ... slowly, I guess. I've got it narrowed down to a few hotels, but since I've never been there, I don't know which area is good to stay in. Ah, it'll be an experiment in my map-tacular judgment, I guess. I'm also trying to convince my brother over IM that weisswurst with mustard and a pretzel is God's culinary gift to the Germans, but he doesn't seem to be buying that so much. Just you wait, little brother ...
I kind of feel reeeeeeally foggy right now - I got some Sudafed cold and sinus stuff, and it was allegedly non-drowsy. Allegedly. It'd be so nice if I could call someone and have them bring me spicy chicken soup or something, but (a) the soup here is not all that good, and (b) nobody I know lives near enough or would probably be willing to traverse the maze of doors to do that. Ugh. It may be running in the family (ha), because I heard that my grandma has been kind of sick recently - not horrible, which is good, but sick is sick. It's just little things like that which are making me wish I could be home for people right now.
Then again, if I was home, I'd be straight up bitching hardcore about the craptastic classes I'd be taking and the godawful cold weather, so this is good. :)
Note to self: watching "Munich" is not necessarily the best way to get one's weekend off to a rollicking start. Yeesh. It was very entertaining, but not any lighthearted romp, if that's what you're looking for.
I think I actually may be getting sick for real, unfortunately - I don't think that taking flu and cold medicine will be bad for me if I don't actually have the flu (that I know of), but I guess that can be my interesting scientific experiment of the year. I guess my new Scottish (unpasteurized!) cheddar is not the miracle working-food I hoped it to be.
In conclusion to this random-ass post, Reese Witherspoon was in a FUCKED UP movie in 1996 that's randomly on one of the BBCs. This night is just getting more and more odd.
I sang karaoke last night. Clearly, this was not while I was sober and in complete control of my faculties. However, not only did I sing karaoke, I sang Britney effing SPEARS. I also did not sign myself up for this, but drunken observations reported that I was "good". This is purely subjective, of course. There may be photos, but not on MY camera, so I don't know what exactly happened.
I came *thisclose* to punting a pigeon while I was walking down Tottenham today. These creatures, I don't know. They're just chillin, you know, not-exactly-walking down the street, and it's like constant pigeon party time everywhere I go. It's not an impossible notion that I could actually grab one and make it my pet, but eww, diseeeeeeases. Unfortunately, I think I may be getting a little bit sick. It was a damn good thing I bought some flu and headache stuff, since I desperately needed it after last night's cider fest (again. I know). I could have been even smarter and bought actual soup, etc. that could have helped, but I chose to go for the pounds of Cadbury mini eggs that were calling my name. Hey, any calories are good calories when I'm running around the entire city!
Next weekend looks like I'll be headed to Dublin and Belfast; the weekend after is Glasgow/Edinburgh. I'm really dorkily excited about both, but especially Scotland, since (a) I've never been there, and (b) the travel book makes it look incredibly pretty. Ah, I can just feel the money being sucked out of my bank account, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.
I saw a NY plate today on a Suburban that got into an accident down the block from me. THAT was strange.
Nothing much else has been going on - we FINALLY got our grades today, and I'm thrilled to report that I didn't fail antitrust and that I brought an abysmal grade up to a B, yay!
Seriously, this is all I can think of to write about that's acceptable for the general public. I'm that exciting. I have the crap day of classes tomorrow (starting at 9am with the class that makes me want to commit hara kiri early and often), but after that we've got some stuff going on that should make for an excellent evening. If I know you well, the news shall be updated as events warrant. :)
Not any of you - basically me. It turns out that we're able to push the Scotland weekend back one, so (a) we can fearlessly find and book a hostel to stay in, and (b) I may make it to either Amsterdam or Lisbon the weekend before that, which is deliiiiiiiightful.
Eh - other than that, I became entirely too shitfaced after three-ish glasses of wine (and eventually two ciders) tonight - did manage to beat my all-time 10pm Rathskellar beer record, which is "special". I might have accidentally made friends with the allegedly pompous British Legal Systems professor, who became very interested when I told him I played violin - of course, it turns out that his son was studying music (and is now a ski instructor). If I get called on in class tomorrow, I'm gonna be REAL pissed.
...between eating my way through the city (they have Cadbury eggs and EVERYTHING! All the TIME!!!!) and finding myself with absolutely nothing to do, leading to my working out for over two hours. Oops. I'm going to be sore and cavity-laden come Memorial Day, I think.
This weekend was nice - out for Annette's birthday on Friday, followed by my insisting that everyone immediately go and get falafel. Then, of course, I got tired and went home, but it was seriously late enough anyway. I guess my pattern is to stay out late if I know I have to ferry people home, which is ridiculous anyhow, and totally won't be happening here. Yay drunk buses - just like Madison!
Then I got my hair chopped. Photo on the flickr site. :)
Matt (from Pace) and I met up with some of his real, authentic British friends last night at a club called "Clockwork" - definitely a good place (reminded me of the Garage/Hi-Hat at home) and has the cheapest drinks that I've come across so far. I even saw my very first authentic London prostitute at King's Cross on the walk over. Thrilling. Barring the sketchy neighborhood sightings, the company was excellent and I ended up staying out WAY later than I had planned. I successfully forced Matt to eat falafel (his first time! heh) and made it home in time to catch the early morning BBC news. Not to fear, they have news on ALL the time, so it's not like one of those 6am things. Unfortunately? Probably not, since sleep is an excellent thing in my world.
Oh, just for Alison, they totally played "No Diggity" at the club last night, and THEN they had something on BBC news today talking about reducing the squirrel population. Very you, very chic.
Everyone else: the gym was playing the OC where they go to the sketchy skank-ho's cabin. It was excellent, except for the sweaty people around me.
So this whale - didn't see it, didn't even hear anything about it until I turned on bbc news after a fit of insomnia at 5 this morning. Let me tell you - after a night of relatively serious drinking, there's nothing more confusing than finding a news report about a whale when you're in London. It honestly took me about 10 minutes to sort out that yes, it was the same whale they were showing, and no, not stock footage of random dumb sea mammals.
And the stupidest thing is that we were RIGHT THERE, RIGHT WHERE IT WAS SWIMMING yesterday for several hours. I'm an idiot.
I hope it lives, though. Marine life makes me happy (emphasis on that "life" part).
So some of us are attempting to get up to Glasgow and Edinburgh the weekend of Feb 2-5, but there's a teeny snafu: nearly every hotel/hostel in Edinburgh is booked up for Feb 4th. Now, I'm willing to hazard it and buy the train tickets tomorrow as planned, but I don't know if the other three are. The two cities are close enough that it wouldn't be difficult to get from Edinburgh to Glasgow, but it suuuuuuuucks, because I don't waaaaaaaaanna have to think. Ew.
Anyway - what are people's opinions on this? Has anyone attempted this before? (Rebekah and Joe, I am staring obviously in your directiooooooooon!) We're renting a car for part of the trip, which will totally be drama enough, so who knows! Maybe we'll just say screw it and drive way the hell up north to Loch Ness. Now there's an adventure, heh.
Ah well. Nothing exciting has really been going on - I shall be dramatically unearthing my grand haircut after it happens on Saturday afternoon (and bitches at Toni & Guy are charging an arm and a leg, so the chopping had better look GOOD). I think I scared some of the guys at the gym today by actually manhandling a punching bag ... with kicks. Woo. Girls can do that, who knew?! All that's happening tomorrow (aside from my crazy "I have to work out as much as possible to get my damn money's worth" mantra that's happening now), one of the girls in the group is celebrating her birthday tomorrow after our well-behaved tour at the Palace of Westminster - I'm sure debauchery will be the word of the night.
Yeah. No wireless in the classrooms = boring, mind-numbing insanity. EU law makes me want to poke my fingers with sharp objects just to keep myself awake. Ew. Yeah. School is kinda boring. It's definitely a godsend that I can keep in touch with people at home, because the drama here is definitely mostly nonexistent. I miss people like crazy, and it just occurred to me that I'll go without seeing anyone from home for just over three straight months (Jan 8th - April 14th. Ugh). At least I have shopping therapy - and good GOD, with that exchange rate, I can pretty much afford, like, A shirt. Don't tell my credit card that, though.
Oh - forgot to add that we had festive taco night on Friday, complete with me harassing everyone in the teeny kitchen by taking photos - those should be up on Flickr. Also may be putting some British Museum photos up as well, but none involving inappropriate statue poses, as far as I know (but Andrew totally has them up at his blog).
Nothing else exciting is going on, honestly. I did manage to go to the gym this morning, and rowed for the first time since I quit freshman year. I must be in WAY better shape now than I was then, because 3000 meters was absolutely nothing, and I remember everyone bitching heartily about a 2000 m test we had to take. I'm quite sure I'll be in serious pain tomorrow, though. :)
So I'm torn - the annoying people who just moved into the house I'm living in are watching "Aqua Teen," and that's awesome. But this one guy is amped up like a colobus monkey on crack, and that's just not going to end well with me. Damnit! I need cartoons!
Mmkay - so this weekend was actually pretty decent. Thursday night we all went to the lovely Pint Pot, which is oh so conveniently a five-minute walk away. Unfortunately, it seemed to be "Batshit Crazy 80's Karaoke" night, and Brits? Cannot handle the Michael Jackson. It was paaaaaaaacked, though, and pretty much way more entertaining than we'd anticipated. We then went to Spanish Bar in the sketchy alley, where we made friends with the bouncer and are pretty much going to go there all the time now, since he let us in without a cover, yay! The night ended with the other three buying street-corner-cart sausages, which I thought was possibly the worst idea to ever exist. Unfortunately for my argument, nobody got sick/died, which I guess is better that way.
Friday, the four of us went to the British Museum, where I immediately informed the boys that I had been an anthropology major in undergrad and might seriously lose my shit if they tried to crawl on any statutes. Good thing I wasn't looking when Seth tried to make out with a tiger statue, because I would have smacked a bitch. Ahem. So that was fun, and I got lazy and didn't go out with the boys, who ended up walking around, not able to find the bar they were looking for - further justification that I possess awesome directional skillz.
Saturday was lazy in the morning, seeing as how I totally slept until 1 in the afternoon. Oops! Amber and I then walked all the damn way to Harrods, which means we are awesome and economical. We managed the throngs of people, I fell in love with a $1,000+ Chloe purse that I got to touch and pretend made me cool, and walked home in time to get ready to go out to Tiger, Tiger, London's "premiere meat market," according to Zagat's. So we went, it was actually a good time, and we solidified our opinion that most of the native British boys cannot dance well to save their lives. (For those of you in Germany with me, it was also Part II in the series of "Is he gay or European?!" I think I got a lot wrong, meaning that they were straight.)
The night ended spectacularly badly, with Amber and I not able to find a taxi. We then walked home for, like, 30 minutes, from Piccadilly Circuis to Euston Station, basically (look it up, bitches!) - all that way in 3+ inch heels. I had to give up my embargo on Burger King since I was so damn hungry and hurty, and we finally made it home around 2:15 in the a.m. and responsibly attempted to purchase our train tickets to Bath. That didn't work.
We then woke up at 8:30, went to Paddington Station, bought the damn tickets, got on a train, and visited Bath. Kind of underwhelming, and much more full of crappy-ish stores than I would have thought, but it was definitely a decent way to spend the day. We were hobbling due to the previous evening's adventures, though, and we didn't want to pay the hella expensive entry fee to the roman baths (which, eh - they included a drink of the warm, nasty mineral water, which NO THANK YOU), so we ended up back in London by 7, tired as hell.
All in all, this weekend's events just mean that I have to do the laundry and read 200+ pages by Tuesday that I really meant to do on Saturday. Whee!
...there is locked in evidence of the day/night/morning before the most wonderful flight to London ever, where I thought that I was going to die several delightful times, at my flickr site, yay! http://www.flickr.com/photos/good_noodle82 - be amazed, chillun.
Alright people, comment the hell out of this post: I need to figure out the easiest/cheapest way to get to Germany (and no, probably not Berlin) from London on April 14. I'd LIKE to take the train, but it looks like it might be more expensive. However, my brother will be comatose from the flight over, so it's not like flying to save time would actually accomplish anything. (Rebekah, you better damn well comment!)
Also, where should I go?! You people have ideas, and if I get good suggestions, you can live vicariously through me and my photos! Yay! I have many little three-day weekends, so I'm looking for short-type trips. I've also got April 1-13 open, and am looking for big, wonderful, scintillating travel ideas. I'm pretty sure I'll be hitting up Spain and Portugal after the program ends (May 10), so if anyone is actually interested in taking a break after finals (or from work if you're lucky enough to be gainfully employed, ahem), let me know!
Also, Martha, that t-shirt you gave me for Christmas is the best t-shirt EVER. LOVE.
If you want to see the story that bears the title, you have to go to http://followandrew.blogspot.com - I'm far too lazy to write more.
Well, one thing - the male roommates may have made a POOR dinner choice when they went to the "Yes Buffet," which they instantly renamed the "No Buffet." Amber and I are afraid for the fireworks to really start, but we're totally extra happy that we didn't go to eat with them and went to "Yo! Sushi" instead. And I'm a total wimp when it comes to curry. Indeed.
Now, this random observation collection covers the weekend up through today, so I can’t claim 100% accuracy. However, I don’t really care.
-“Why does the rainiest city in the world have the fucking worst sidewalk system so that every. Damn. Drop of rain is caught and I STEP IN IT?!?!”
-The conversion rate is making me weep, which is why I’m basically charging everything and ignoring the bill. Wheeee!
-WHY THE OBSESSION WITH BIG BROTHER?! Especially with Dennis Rodman, a billion old “celebs,” and some chick who’s not actually famous. They talk about it on the NEWS, for the love of god.
-BBC news, though = <3> -"I did NOT come this many thousands of miles to be surrounded by so much UGLY." --Amber, my wholly entertaining and "pretty much better than the other potential roommates" roommate -There’s totally a five story H&M at Oxford Street. I’m a happy girl.
Well, I've made it here for half a week. Considering that I started out by having the worst hangover known to man a few hours before taking off from O'Hare, things are progressing nicely. The apartment is a few short blocks away from a rather large main drag, so it's nice to have groceries, etc. close by. Internet is free (huzzah!), and we actually have tv's, which apparently need to be licensed here. The weather hasn't been too bad - sunny some mornings, but it almost always ends up clouding over. There's a chance of snow tonight (of COURSE, because IIIIII am here), so that should be "fun," but nothing I can't handle. I've already wowed people with my ability to wear ridiculously warm-weather-centric shoes in 30-degree temperatures. Thanks, Wisconsin!
It looks like the four of us living here will be heading to an "American BBQ Joint!" (seriously described as that - the website repeatedly hammers in the fact that it is NOT A PUB. Unfortunately) to watch the playoffs. There are really all sorts of interesting shows on over here - they're about a season or so behind some of our shows, and have this weird, manic obsession with "Big Brother." I think it's a celebrity version - I honestly have no idea, other than that it's really really strange and reminds me of the Spanish obsession with that show when i was over there.
Eh, other than that, I've just been doing my best to avoid clogging my arteries to new narrows while eating here. I've put a sort of embargo on any McDonalds, Burger King, etc. - the only exception, of course, will be Starbucks, but that's for two reasons: first, Thea gave me a card there for my birthday, and I've yet to use it up; second, there are about twenty bazillion of them in this neighborhood alone. I'll be hitting Cafe Nero soon (thanks, Alison!), so way to broaden my horizons, I know. I think right now, though, I'll quell my stomach noises by going and buying some Nutella and bread. Yesssss.
Well, I'm here. It's been fun so far, but oh maaaaaaaaaaaaaan am I spending money. There are four of us staying at this house (which is basically dorm style, but with kitchens to share and much nicer overall). We've already gotten phones on the same network so that it's cheaper, mainly because we all have the nerdy vibe going. It's fantastic. We have plans to form a kind of "Janet Poole House" gang, complete with initiation rituals. This is pretty much like Germany, except better (and that is not intended to slight anyone I was there with; it means that I can understand the language and street signs and it's just lovely, really).
I had a "fun time at the airport" scenario when my luggage didn't make the Munich to London connection and I had to wait for 2+ hours at stupid smokey Heathrow and be followed around by creepy guy, who couldn't follow me into the ladies' room, could he! Damn. I did manage to make a delightful sprint from gate H02 to G46 at Munich in order to make that flight, though - very impressive, if I do say so myself.
Other than that, it's just kinda normal here, except eating out at every meal, sans any running. That's not a good combo, but I'll hopefully be spending MORE money tomorrow buying some running shoes. Finally. (That was boring, but I don't care! My blog!)
Location: Washington, District of Columbia, United States
I'm yet another fan of food, random televised entertainment, and generally dumb things who likes to ramble on about them in blog form while trying not to annoy my lovely boyfriend with whom I live (boyfroommate?) to death. We own a stabby cat who may make a random appearance in the written word from time to time.
