London in Pictures

Just thought I'd post a bunch of random pictures from throughout my time here. Tried to leave out all the pictures of trips to other places and focus on London.

Holly Ollie Molly and Holly

Noah's Arc party during Fresher's

Rachael at the Tate Modern

Hobgoblin!

Snow comes to London

Your average tube ride

Sports Cafe

Sian, Hannah and I being sharks

Holly, Me, Holly, Char, Hannah and Sacha

Night out at G-A-Y

Portobello Road

Louis and me at Irish folk night

St Paul's over the Millennium Bridge

Ice Bar

Parents came

Halloween

St Paul's

Tower of London

Flat Thanksgiving

Me and Hannah

Me and Caroline at a pub

Holly and Me

Snowed In

I'm sitting in my room and there's a (very light) blanket of snow outside. My bags are packed, I'm on hold with Orbitz, who never sent me my flight confirmation number so I can't check in, and I'm trying to figure out what I have left to do with this last night. Unfortunately the snow means lots of my friends have gotten stuck in their respective locations or at the airport since Europe doesn't know how to handle snow. Heathrow wound up shutting down the runways today. I'm praying that since I booked my flight for tomorrow night it wont be too delayed and will run smoothly.

I've said a lot of my big goodbyes so far, since a lot of people left today. Last night we had our last big night out and it was really fun: pre-drinks in the flat and some random club in Vauxhall. Pretty much all of us were together and that was definitely fun, but it was sad knowing that it was the last time that we all would be. Charlotte gave me a card that a bunch of people had signed and of course I started crying as soon as she handed it to me (having not even read it yet).

It's just so surreal that I wont be living and hanging out with these people anymore, considering they're some of the best friends I've made. I wont be riding tubes into central, taking night buses back, sitting around the flat table chatting for hours, laughing at the hilarity that is Ollie and Louis, crawling into Char's room in the morning to recap the night, going on Nando's chicken dates, sitting with F-Block in 4 or 6, or finding myself with all of London as my disposal. I'll miss London so much, since I've come to love this city like it's my own. But I'll miss it a thousand times more because of the incredible friends that I've made here. I was trying to think about how you could even possibly begin to explain what an amazing experience and came to no good conclusions. It's been indescribable.

Everyone's exhausted from last night so tonight will probably involve many cups of tea, a bottle of wine and not a whole lot of excitement. With any luck I'll be back in the states by tomorrow night and seeing my family. And it'll be sooo hard to leave, but I'm betting it's not the last time I'll be in London.

Just Good Night, Not Good Bye

In the words of a great camp song: I wanna linger / a little longer / a little longer with you. / It's such a perfect night / it doesn't seem quite right / that it should be my last with you. / And as the years go by / I'll think of you and sigh / This is good night and not goodbye

Christmas Dinner

I'm sure I'll do a last week recap, but I get too excited about food to not post about it. As a follow up to our Thanksgiving dinner we had a Christmas dinner last night. Once again, the girls in the kitchen, the boys on clean up duty. I (kind of) took the back seat, at least in terms of planning the menu, since they wanted a lot of the traditional food. We did turkey (3 turkey joints instead of a big one this time), roast potatoes, roast carrots, roast parsnips, brussels sprouts, cauliflower gratin, yorkshire pudding, pigs in a blanket, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Pretty delicious meal in the end. I made another cheese pie for dessert, and we still have a christmas pudding that we didn't eat because everyone wanted to die from eating too much.

Hannah and her parsnips

Ollie did the table setting

Keeping it classy

Me and my Christmas cracker

Overwhelming amounts of food

We still have a third of the turkey left.. but that's about it, since we devoured most of it. Followed by a cheese plate! I'm gonna miss making dinners with the crazy fools I get to call my flatmates.

Entering the Last Week

I've got £8 in 20p coins and am ready to do laundry.. except there are no available washers. So instead, I'm finding other things to do while I hide from the cleaner, since she REALLY hates us. We know this because she walks into our flat most days relatively early and just starts yelling, sometimes for no reason, and on some days opts to just not clean the kitchen. The relationship has really deteriorated. Most of us just hide out from her in our rooms. As evidenced by me right now.

The last few days have been pretty good and the perfect balance between eventful and relaxing (much needed since I'm getting the cold/flu that's going around my building). I hate to detail every day, but I've done some fun things that have been a little off the beat from what we normally do.

Thursday were the student protests in Parliament Square. For those who don't know, there have been tons of protests throughout the semester since Cameron announced the budget cuts that are being made, which include 100% cut to funding for arts, humanities and social sciences in universities. Seeing as this is what Goldsmiths does best, that means a 60% cut (or something thereabouts) for Goldsmiths funding. Students (and many professors) are absolutely livid over this, especially since in places like Goldsmiths this could mean the possible disintegration of the entire school. Then on Thursday there was a vote in Parliament on possibly raising the cap on tuition fees from £3000 to £9000. While it's impossible for me to understand considering our tuition is already astronomically high, it's pretty easy to see why this would be such an enormous issue for students considering attending uni.

A few of my friends went to the protests. From what I gathered from them, the media coverage of it wasn't too off, although I think they really played down the intense level of police violence. Students were being pretty shit to the police, but police responded by charging on horses, violence and kettling in (basically cooping them up and refusing to let them leave). Louis, my flatmate, got stuck on Westminster Bridge and didn't get home until about 1 a.m. after having been stuck since 6 or 7. It was pretty crazy, and there was definitely some violence on the part of students and of (apparently) anarchist groups that peppered themselves throughout. I wasn't involved but it reminded me of what an interesting time this is to be here.

Friday night we went to Venue, this club that happens to be right up the street. I'm not sure how we went a whole term without going there since it's literally the closest thing to us. But it wound up being a really fun night. The funniest part (sorry Holly..) was that our friend Holly got turned away at the door because she wouldn't give up a pack of gum that she had just bought. She kept yelling to them that she had just bought it across the street- they didn't care. Finally she just got kicked out on account of a bad attitude.

Then Saturday night Madelaine and I had our long-awaited night of playing beer pong with other Americans. It was strange to be around so many Americans, 'cause I think it was literally the most I've been around other than in my theater class since I've been here.

Sunday I finally made it to Brick Lane with Elsa and Charlotte, which was nice. Other than the frigid cold it was a fun day, involving curry, markets, bookstores and the great image of 3 pretty small girls trying to carry a huge vintage trunk that Elsa bought back on the tube. That night we went to this great little place up in North London, past Camden, that has a bunch of guys playing traditional Irish folk music on Sundays. The bar had a great atmosphere and the music was really fun. Elsa made friends with two old guys who were the owners of the place, and they were probably the nicest, least-creepy old men that have ever been in a bar. When one of them found out I was from Rhode Island he started in telling me about this dear friend of his from RI who is related to the Kennedy family and graduated from Brown. I was impressed he even knew where RI was.

All in all it's been a fun past week, and now commences the countdown of my final week here. We've got an itinerary all drawn up of my final things to do, and hopefully I'll get it all done!

50's Winter Ball

Last night was the 'ball' (basically a fancy dance or a formal) and most of the kids in my block went. And obviously I love any excuse to get dressed up and dance. The music was fabulous, we danced pretty much the whole time (real dancing, with dips and swings and everything, none of this newfangled grinding the kids do these days-- at one point Ollie picked me up and swung around). It was such a fun night and sadly it was poorly documented on my end, since the camera's broken still, but I do have a few. Only complaints: heels are the devil, and my new biggest fear in life is having my feet stepped on as many times as they were last night. Also I lost my shoes at Club Sandwich after (I'm surprisingly good at losing shoes), but I'm pretty sure they're still there. Fingers crossed.

Madelaine and Me in F4 before

Amee and Me

The band

Procrastination

I'm in the library (the libs, affectionately) putting off my essay, so of course I thought I'd blog. I've actually been pretty productive in the last week or so. I've turned in two of my essays and am currently working on my third and final. It's somewhat of a joke that people here think 2000 words is a long paper. My longest has been 25000 words which seems like a pretty standard paper for a class, but for some of them they only have to be 1500 words which is hilariously short. Luckily the topics I have to write on are relatively interesting too, ranging from a comparison of Richard Yates and Vonnegut (my homeboy) to various topics related to media and representation. Thrilling stuff, f'sho. 

I'm trying to balance out actually getting my work done with going out and not putting any nights to waste. Last night, for example, Madelaine and I really wanted to go out but no one could actually commit to anything so we were gonna have a pub night. Lucky us though because Charlotte popped out of the shower and decided she wanted to make us all go out, so we went to Soho to one of the well-known gay clubs for what turned out to be a hilarious night. Hopefully tonight will be Sports Cafe for one last dose of being super American in the UK. Tomorrow there's some ball going on for Goldsmiths. I don't really get it but I'll probably go. Basically every night it feels like there's something to do (don't make me leave) so that's been really nice for the last couple weeks.

The only disappointment in the last few days is that my camera randomly broke last night and the lens won't retract properly. I'm bummed since I really want to be able to take pictures while I'm here, but I guess I'll just have to steal from everyone else. I wanted to take pictures of the library today to post because students are doing a 24-hour "occupation" of the library to protest the cuts. The protests are a huge deal here and Goldsmiths students have been really passionate about it. Currently there are signs covering the outside and inside of the library and everyone is planning on skipping class to go to another big protest this Thursday. It's kind of cool to be here at a time when people are so involved in what's going on, but also a  little hard to relate since tuition fees are already insane in the US.

Anyway I guess I should stop listening to Jagged Little Pill and get back to writing my paper though.. 280 words down, 1720 till freedom.

Amanda Takes London by Storm

A few pictures from the trip

Amanda and me in a red phone booth!

Out in London

You can kinda see the London Eye and Big Ben in the background

Ice Bar

Snow!

Snow has come to London!! It's been lightly snowing for the last few days now which has got everyone in a flurry of excitement. Snowball fights abound, mini snowmen and cups of tea in the kitchen while gazing out the window have made me love the snow. Tube closures not so much. London can't handle even an inch or two of snow, which seems so strange to me. I thought Philly was bad, but this is on a whole other level.

Before the snow, Amanda and Dara came to visit for the weekend. After a rather rough Wednesday I promised myself a few nights, which I obviously never got because they came to visit. Thursday was Thanksgiving and Brandon and I went to dinner with Madelaine and her family which was really nice. Then I met Amanda and others at the Absolut Ice Bar which the bar made entirely of ice. It was overpriced but it's definitely a fun experience to have had, and provided many photo ops as we got to wear these silly capes to keep us warm.  I looked ridiculous I'm sure, since the one size fits all principle rarely applies to those under 5'4. We went out after Ice Bar and it was a fun night with lots of Penn kids. Other highlights of the weekend included the London Eye, introducing Amanda to the concept of wine on the tube (classy...), lunch in Chinatown, dinner on Brick Lane with Lauren and Sonali & Kristina who were also in town for the weekend, and a trip to Chipotle!! [The Brits do many things well; Mexican, or even pseudo-Mexican, is not one of them. I kept wanting to go to this elusive Chipotle since it's the only one in all of the UK I think. It was heaven.] As noted, I went out every night which did terrible things to my voice and my health, and by the end of the weekend I sounded like a man. This wasn't helped I'm sure by the random grimey place we went on Saturday to some jungle music party that was fun, but very strange.

Following the weekend I've made myself take a few nights off and do some work. Somehow the snow has made it okay that I've had to be a real student. Madelaine and I have been little library elves, actually managing to get ourselves there and make ourselves write essays. Tuesday Madelaine, Caroline, Brandon and I spent way too long in the library, but it was productive, and I felt a little bit like a real person again. Plus, as we sat there we could watch the snow falling outside, which didn't hurt.

Other note-worthy events of the last week or so:
-Saw The Train Driver, a play about post-apartheid South Africa, which I really enjoyed
-Saw Fela! last night. It was such a great show to go see and for parts it just felt like a really great concert. The dancing in it was absolutely amazing and it really made me wish that the extent of my dance ability wasn't just 2nd grade ballet and awkward frat dancing.
-Two Club Sandwiches (to reiterate, not sandwiches I ate, but rather the weird club night at the student union). Always ridiculous, always fun. But also a sad reminder that I've leaving in less than two and a half weeks!
-Had my first full English breakfast with Ollie. I decided that it, not unlike standard American breakfast of fried eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast, is great hangover food.

Now I'm slightly better rested, pretty much over being sick, and facing a considerable amount of work between now and Monday. Word on the street is that my main man Michael Feinstein finds himself in London this weekend, so hopefully I'll get to see him. And hopefully when I next write I'll be done with my 3 essays and just able to enjoy my last bit of time.

Thanksgiving: London Edition

Thanksgiving came a little early to Flat F7 this year, but it certainly came extravagantly. I knew from the day I realized that I'd be missing Thanksgiving at home that I wanted to make a meal of my own. After all, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. So I may not get to go home and see my family, do the annual Black Friday mall trip with Emily or live off of Aunt Minnie's Potatoes for days, but that wasn't going to stop me from making a kick ass meal.

After encountering numerous issues with Turkey defrosting (which ended with us submerging the 15 lb Turkey in a trashcan filled with cold water because no other container was big enough), we were able to start in on cooking. Charlotte and I did a massive Sainsbury's run and started cooking by noon on Tuesday. I took on the sweet potato casserole and cauliflower gratin (recipes courtesy of Colin), the stuffing, the cranberry sauce and an impromptu cheese pie. Charlotte did roast potatoes, apple crumble and brownies. We both looked after the Turkey which Joey kindly removed all the gross stuff from (even the term giblets weirds me out). Then Hannah helped with chopping carrots that Joey peeled and making the gravy.

We sat down to dinner with the whole flat minus Sascha using the lovely Turkey napkins my mom brought us. I'm not gonna lie, it was a classy affair. The boys were in ties (albeit only Louis' was actually tied correctly and up around his neck) and we set out bread and oil and vinegar to start with our classy £3 bottles of wine. Then as we got ready to eat I even got to be the one to carve the turkey! I had to keep reminding people that the point was to eat as much as humanly possible and to feel like you're going to vomit at the end. We all succeeded on that front. Had to take a break before dessert but we all ate gross amounts there too. And then we had a cheese plate!

My first big kid Thanksgiving where I made a significant portion of the food was a resounding success and I was excited to get to introduce the Brits to my favorite holiday.

Much Food

Preparations afoot

So proud of my first turkey

The chefs (Hannah, Char and I) and the turkey

Carving the roast beast

Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Gravy, Stuffing, Carrots, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Roast Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole

F7 does Thanksgiving

F7 finishes Thanksgiving

I had copious amounts of tryptophan-induced dreams following the massive meal. And in the way that some people extend their birthday celebrations, I get to keep Thanksgiving festivities alive by going to dinner for Thanksgiving with Madelaine and her family on Thursday, by eating leftovers and through the promise of a skype date with my family on Thanksgiving day.

Just because I'm up and watching the celtics..

Yes I realize I just posted about traveling, but I’m not doing much so, hell, I’ll keep going. I haven’t written about just nothing in a while, probably much to the joy and delight of all 2 people who read this. I feel like between traveling and my parents visiting I’ve been insanely busy for the last few weeks. Having my parents here was fabulous, and not just because it meant I got treated to great meals. I've missed my family a lot since I've been here. It’s funny because in Philly I probably would’ve only been home once already for fall break, but it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve seen my parents or been home. Time moves very strangely here; I feel like I’ve been here forever, I feel like I just got here, I can’t tell whether days pass quickly or slowly and the only constant in this is that I know I'll have to leave way too soon. This week at Harry Potter themed Club Sandwich (the name of the club night at the Student Union) I had at least 4 or 5 people tell me I’m not allowed to leave London come Christmas. And trust me, I’m well aware that the next month is going to fly by way too fast. I don’t want it to end.

I have to keep reminding myself of the things I’ll be looking forward to and things I love about home. I’m excited to see all of my friends again, although it’ll be a few weeks before I’ll seen Penn people. I’m excited to see the family at Christmas and get to be an utter lazy bum during break. I’m excited to be able to watch TV shows and sports at normal hours (it’s 1:42 a.m. and I’m  watching the Celtics?). I'm excited for Blarn, Greek Lady and campusfoods.com. Ah, the small joys in life.

Sadly leaving will mean a host of things I’ll miss tremendously. There are plenty of little things: big clubs, tourist sites, tube rides, British accents, tea all day, SFG clothing (So Fucking Goldsmiths- aka extreme hipster-ness), silly British slang, markets, Sainsburys- the list really could go on and on. But it’s also the hilarious and amazing people I’ve met and the fact that I’ve gotten used to living in this city. Philadelphia was just starting to feel like home to me when I left and now I’m afraid I’ll have to get used to it all over again. Not to mention SEPTA can’t hold a candle, or really even a quickly burning match, to the tube lines here.

Luckily I’m working on doing more tourist things and working on getting all my “To Do’s” crossed off my list. Today Caroline and I went to the Tower of London, got some tasty fish and chips, went briefly into St. Paul’s Cathedral and walked across the Millennium Bridge. My general conclusion of the day: I want to be the queen of England. The crown jewels are insane, and really, who doesn’t want diamonds that big? Kate Middleton really got it right with the whole marry a prince thing.

Prague & Vienna & Bratislava (Oh My!)

It's been a while but I finally have time to write about my Prague & Vienna adventures. I absolutely loved my travels, even though it was sort of a whirlwind trip. We (Alyssa, Colin & I) had to leave before the crack of dawn on Monday in order to get to the airport on time for our early flight. The only problem with taking the ridiculously cheap flights out of London is that their at strange times, all the airports are far-ish and the tubes don't run that early. Getting to the airport on time pretty much becomes an adventure in and of itself. But we because of our early flight we were basically at our hostel in Prague by 12:30, leaving us most of the day, so I can't really complain.

The first day we did one of the New Europe free walking tours and walked all around the old town and the Jewish quarter. I didn't know as much as I would've liked about the history of the Czech Republic (and Bohemia in general) so it was nice to get to hear about it from someone knowledgeable. I also immediately fell in love with the architecture. It was so unique to Prague and unlike the architecture anywhere else I've been. Old Town Square was beautiful, and when we went there were booths set up throughout the square selling cheese, meats, wine and other food which felt really quaint (especially compared to what we saw in Vienna). We did some shopping and grabbed food by our hostel, but were also exhausted from having been up since 3:30. Between the bad news from home and the strange hours we had to wake up I spent a lot of the trip exhausted.

Luckily we slept in (by accident) the next day. We did Prague Castle and St Vitus' Cathedral (breathtaking-- possibly my favorite place I've been on my travels), walked down Golden Lane and then wound up by the Charles River Bridge. We made wishes off of it, followed the hoards of people who would touch certain statues even though we had no clue why we were doing it, and took the obligatory action shot of Alyssa and I jumping. We also went up the clock tower at night and saw Prague all lit up. What I was amazed by was how in general the tourist attractions were the only lit up things. It was by and large a dark city at night-- definitely different from big cities in the States where everything is blaring lights. We went out to this weird Czech bar that night, U Sudu, that wound up being really fun. You went downstairs and there was a maze of rooms all playing different music and with different bars. There were people with their dogs, people rolling joints and foosball tables. Just like Blarney in Philly? Not quite.. But it wound up being really fun and I was glad we went out.

Side Note: for anyone interested in going to Prague DEFINITELY look into staying at Sir Toby's Hostel. It was great, the people were so helpful and nice and it was one of the better hostels I've been to so far. 

The next morning (3 hours of sleep later) we headed off on a super cheap bus to Vienna. I loved Vienna too but it was different, and distinctly Austrian. I had been once with my Mom when I was 10 but it was fun to experience it 10 years later with a different perspective. We got bratwurst and sauerkraut, walked around the Hapsburg Palace and all of the beautiful old buildings, drank liqueur coffee at one of the famous cafes and stumbled across this strange little winter wonderland village that was set up for Christmas outside of City Hall (which looked 100% like a princess castle). We also rode the tram around the inner ring of the city and saw the buildings lit up at night, which was nice minus the part where the tram stopped, we were the only ones on it and we were slightly convinced that if we got off the tram driver would either abandon or kill us. It was a full day but it was really fun and I was glad we got a whole day in Vienna. I would've loved more time since we didn't make it to the beautiful gardens, but having been before it was okay.

Our last day we decided to get up early and since we were flying out of Bratislava we planned to go there and spend the early day there before our flights. Bratislava, by the way, is in Slovakia. Important things to know before you leave: the country in which your city is, and the language that country speaks. We got to Bratislava and all of a sudden realized we had no clue what language Slovakia spoke. Once again, my Penn education serving me well. We pulled up the wiki page and discovered that it is in fact Slovak.. duhh. Bratislava turned out to be a really cute town (city?) and there were beautiful buildings and squares, so we wandered around for the morning. It was nice, and now I can say I've been to Slovakia, so that's a plus. The only downside was I went to the airport at the same time as Alyssa and Colin, but their flight was hours before mine because they were going on to Rome and I was heading back to London to meet my parents. So I spent 9 hours in the Bratislava airport. Add that to the list of things not to do in Europe. In no particular order my activities were as follows: catching up on all my school reading, listening to Harry Potter 7 to refresh my memory for the movies, being stared at by a Slovak man for 3 hours, drinking Slovak beer that tasted vaguely like Natty Lite, drinking coffee, ordering a sandwich that looked like cat vomit, not eating the sandwich and wandering through the duty free shop for about an hour. If that doesn't look like 9 hours of activities it's because it wasn't. I also sat. A lot. All in all I can't complain though- 3 countries in 4 days and I loved all of it.

I think I might still be catching up on sleep from all of it, and I'm not actually sleeping full nights, so I'm exhausted. But that was also from trying to get up at real people times for my parents while they were here. Having them here was great, but I'll save that for a time when I haven't already written a ton of what I can only assume is mindless blather.

Fireworks and Flashes of Brilliance

From really really bizarre fringe theater and Bonfire night celebrations to traveling to continent, a lot has happened in the last week and a half. I'll probably split this into a few chunks, because I don't want to sell any part of being here short. But in case you don't want to read through this, I'll start with the summary: I'm absolutely in love with London in a way that I never thought I'd be, but was recently reminded how insanely far I am from home and how difficult that can be.

To start, I haven't been to class since last Thursday, because this week has been reading week. All of my flatmates and the people in my building went home for various amounts of time, but all the Americans have been gallivanting across Europe on various excursions. I myself made plans to go to Prague and Vienna with Alyssa and Colin. We wanted to do Budapest too but Colin was sick so we pushed the trip back and left early Monday (basically late on Sunday). It was actually nice because it meant that I got be around for Bonfire Night on Friday.

When Bonfire Night initially came up I was generally met with one reaction: "How the hell do you not know what Bonfire Night is!? Guy Fawkes?? Fireworks!?" I mean, obviously when you put it that way I'm going to know what you're talking about. I had just never known the name of the day. Basically it's a day for celebrating the failure of Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up the parliament building and people light bonfires and there are fireworks shows all across the country. We decided to go to Primrose Hill because from there you could see bursts of fireworks all across the city. I went with Sascha, Hannah, Lewis, Joe and Ollie, all from my flat, and we met up with Gub, Rae and Katie, all from our building. I was so glad we decided to go to Primrose Hill because we had the most amazing view of all of London-- at one point I was just spinning around getting the full view (until I got dizzy and fell down). We brought cider and sat on the hill for a while watching the fireworks, but it got really cold and started raining so we made our way back, which involved a slight detour in Notting Hill, a quick pop into McDonald's (classy, I know) and only a few instances of taking the wrong tube.

Saturday night a lot of people had left for trips already so I got to hang out with a bunch of people who were around in the flat downstairs. We've been overstaying our welcome in that flat recently because, lucky us, the ovens and stoves were broken in our flat so we needed a place to cook. Wound up being a really fun night though of hanging out, playing games (they call Kings "Ring of Fire" where instead of a middle beer you have a middle cup that you pour into, and we didn't have a cup for the middle so it became "Pan of Fire" and whoever had to drink the middle thing had to drink from a pan. If that description means nothing to you you probably don't play Kings/aren't a stupid 20-something-year-old, so ignore).

Sunday I planned on relaxing, packing, finishing up plans for our trip and going to bed really early because we had to get up and meet at 4 a.m. to leave. Unfortunately, I got some terrible news from home about a friend who died in a car crash Saturday Night. Death is always terrible and shocking, but it hit me really hard being alone over here because I had no way to explain to anyone I was with just what I was feeling, no way to reminisce and remember, no way to break the dam of grief that was suddenly overwhelming me. Kevin was an amazing person who was best friends with some of the people I hold most dear in life, not to mention a lingering presence in my life for the past 9 years since I first decided that he would be my butterflies-in-the-stomach, giggle inducing, occasionally-cried-over crush for a year and a half. I've spent the last week thinking about a lot of difficult things: about those people who had made their way home to grieve together and share their pain; about someone I was amazingly close to once who I reached out to because I couldn't imagine his pain; about his younger sister who lost her older brother in the unimaginably tragic blink of an eye; about the importance of funerals and collective grief in the process of handling the impossible task of saying goodbye. Hearing that someone my age has died always has a tinge of the tragic and terrible; Kevin's situation feels too important to call merely tragic and terrible.

It was in this mindset of tears and sleeplessness that I set out for Prague at 4 a.m. on Monday, not sure how it would affect my trip. I'll write about my travels separately, trying not to focus solely on the sadness that hit me on waves as I was there. But when I returned Thursday night I returned knowing that the next day my parents would show up on the same day that everyone at home would be celebrating Kevin's life and mourning his death. I have heard now that the service was really nice and as his friends lit candles for him, I had my friends including my in their thoughts.

My thoughts and prayers remain with Kevin's family and with all those who were close to him. He was a flash of brilliance in all of our lives and was the sort of kind, warm and hilarious person who will leave a crater in the hearts of those who knew him. Rest in peace, KD, you will be sorely missed.

Soon to come, my recounting of a whirlwind trip through Prague, Vienna and, slightly by accident, Bratislava.

Belated Paris Pics

Oh hay there, Eiffel Tower

Jumping for joy outside the Louvre

 

 

With Madelaine outside the Moulin Rouge 

Please don't make me leave ever

It dawned on me today while I was shopping in Camden with Alex that in about 6 weeks I'm going to be heading home. I love home, I love Penn, I love my friends. But please, oh please, don't make me leave this city. I'm in love. Absolutely in love.

Paris and Halloween!!

After a rather taxing/unenjoyable mid-week last week involving broken phones, lost coats and not being able to get home from Central London at night, I took my weekend trip to Paris and it was absolutely amazing! I wasn't sure whether I should actually take one of my weekends to go to Paris since I've been before and have done a lot of the touristy things there, but I'm so glad I decided to go. Madelaine and I left on Thursday and took the Eurostar there. Such a good call because the train was so much easier and more relaxing than all of the hassle of planes. We got in with no hiccups Thursday night and made our way to our hotel which was right next to the Arc de Triomphe, definitely a great welcome to the fabulous city of Paris. We grabbed food, met up with Rachel Sax who is studying in Paris and had a relatively low-key, early night.

The next day we got a bbm from Amanda telling us to meet her at the Eiffel Tower. I think that's when it hit me that I was in Paris and could get texts saying 'Oh no big deal but let's meet at the Eiffel Tower in 30 minutes.' Around the Eiffel Tower there are all the men coming around trying to sell little piece of junk Eiffel Tower souvenirs and literally every single one of them comes up and goes "1 euro" and when you say no goes "5 for 1 euro, you want?" We were also repeatedly referred to as Gaga or sexy lady, or they'd follow up the rejection with "You're beautiful, 5 for 1 euro." Oh totally, I'm so sincerely flattered by your compliment that NOW I want not one but five small junk Eiffel Towers. It was an interesting first introduction to French men.

That day we tried to get our tourist on. We went up the Eiffel Tower, ate lunch in the area, went to the Louvre and then walked all the way up the Champs-Élysées, past the Obelisk and up to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a tiring day but it was so fun, and we had Amanda and Dara as company which was great. It worked out so perfectly that we all met up there. That night we met them by their hotel in Montmartre for an amazing French meal (real French onion soup and duck!). Then we got to go over to Sacre Couer and see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. It was amazing and except for a few more encounters with wildly sketchy and creepy French men (boundaries apparently don't exist there?) we had such a great Parisian night. It was the kind of night we couldn't have had anywhere else, which is exactly the point of traveling here.

Saturday Madelaine and I hit up the Centre Pompidou which had amazing modern and contemporary art. I got way too excited about all the Kandinsky and my inner art nerd came out in a major way. I guess it was time, since the history nerd in me definitely came out in the Louvre, and it wouldn't be a trip without me turning into a nerd several times.

Then we met Rachel, Amanda and Dara and while Madelaine met her friend the four of us went to Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie and Notre Dame. The last time I did all of that was with Adrienne in 10th grade but I was so glad that I did it again. For one, Sainte-Chapelle is one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been and I had forgotten how ridiculous all the stained glass was. Also, the Conciergerie was definitely better having studied more of the French Revolution, although I definitely had to ask Amanda questions since I basically have forgotten everything I've ever learned since being here (I swear I do go to class...). And while we were at Notre Dame I had the same reaction I had to so many things in Paris-- "Guys, how the hell did they build this? Like, someone had to BUILD this!"

Saturday night was probably the funniest part of the trip because we met up with Amanda and Dara to go out and went over to Oberkampf to find random bars. The first plays we went was this random Tex-Mex place (in Paris?) that was serving mojitos and margaritas and was celebrating Dia de los Muertos. It was strange to say the least, but fun. It was so crowded that we left after only a little bit to find somewhere else. The next place we wound up at was the random bar, not super full but definitely had people who seemed to be enjoying themselves. When we went in we realized they were playing random American music (Elvis, Hendrix, that song 'Baby Love') and everyone was rockin out, swing dancing, grooving, etc to the music. It was hilarious and you would never have found somewhere quite like it. So we joined in, danced for a while and had an all around hilarious night. The only setback was having to wait for about an hour to find a cab, which was miserable. That and the fact that on the whole trip we didn't ever manage to succeed in stealing a Parisian child as a souvenir, which was the initial goal.

We finished up the trip meeting up with Alaina for lunch and came back in time to go out to Halloween. Apparently all the big student events are innapropriately named club parties, so we went to F*ck Me, It's Halloween at this club Debut and it was so fun. All the Penn kids from UCL were there so I ran into them which was really fun, and we were also with a big group of Goldsmith's kids. By the end I was covered in soap bubbles (they need to rethink their foam device-- I was soaped in the mouth so many times) and dancing to everything from Pon de Floor and Barbara Striesand by Duck Sauce (going out staples) to random 90's music. It was the kind of Halloween I doubt I could've had at home and I had an amazing time, so in the end I'll call it a success. Although I wont lie, seeing all my friends from Penn dressed up as those little troll dolls in nude leotards with crazy hair made me miss Penn just a little more.

So with all of that having happened, I'm going to call the last week a great week despite the broken phone, lost coat, etc. And that's saying something.

The New Love of My Life: Amsterdam

  

So I spent this past weekend in Amsterdam and it was absolutely amazing. I met up with Aly and Rachel and it was so nice to see some familiar faces from home. Aly came with two girls from her program in Belgium, Janice and Katie. I got in on Thursday night with no big travel issues and when I met up with them we headed back to the hostel which was smack in the middle of the Red Light District. It was a pretty hilarious first impression of Amsterdam because to walk there we walked right past all of the red lit windows with women gesturing to the men (and at times to us). It's a strange contrast to the beautiful canals that run down the streets with swans in them. I was disenchanted with the swans, because I've heard time and time again that they're vicious. Everyone else seemed to be on team swan.

It wasn't until Friday that Rachel got in so we just hung out and explored Thursday night. Friday we got up at 10 and wandered the city, saw some of the big churches and the palace, which sadly had construction so we couldn't really see any of it. But as we walked around I fell totally in love with Amsterdam as a city. It has so much going for it. Architecturally it's beautiful and I just loved it the whole time I was there. When Rachel got in she and Aly and I hung out for a while just the three of us and then met up with Janice and Katie at the Van Gogh Museum. Loves me some Van Gogh so I really liked the museum. It's amazing how much better paintings look in person, because some of them I had seen reproductions of over and over again and the prints don't hold a candle to the real thing. Then at night Janice had found a pub crawl that we went to meet up on and it was really fun. I actually ran into two people I knew. Avery, Tricia's best friend from home who lived with us this summer, was there with Gabby's friend Molly! It was so strange running into them but really fun to totally randomly bump into people I knew in Amsterdam. Also the pub crawl was fun because it was a nice way to get to experience the nightlife there with some sort of guide steering you away from places that might be dead. 

Saturday we tried to get up and out again, so by 11 or so  Rachel and I were headed off to the Anne Frank House (Aly had been before). It was rainy and freezing out so waiting wasn't exactly a picnic but I'm so glad we did it. There's no way to describe it other than intense. Most people don't talk too loudly as they walk through and there are lots of guides and video clips to guide you through the house, which is rebuilt but not furnished (as per the wishes of Otto Frank). It was really emotional walking through, especially when you get up to the annex where they talk about the arrest and deportation of the families in hiding. It's amazing all of the documents they've been able to preserve and that definitely adds to the experience. All in all it was definitely a make you think kind of place. 

Later we did lunch (bagels! haven't had one since being here), hung out, went to the flea markets and went to Rembrant's house which was really interactive and different from the other museums. It was a good day and we got a lot in. We tried to do cheap Chinese for dinner. It was.. cheap Chinese. Then we went out for a bit with some Germans from our hostel and it was a fun but relatively early night (back by 1 or 1:30 maybe?).

Another key part of our trip were the other people in our dorm room, which I'll mention now because our Saturday night interactions with them were hysterical. On one side we had some guy who I honestly couldn't describe if I had to because he stayed in bed literally all day. We had to tip toe around him because he just laid in bed and slept. We were convinced for a portion of the trip that he was a vampire (I was less convinced, since, c'mon, vampires aren't real). Then on the other side were these two Australian men who I would say were late 20's or early 30's. Katie was sick and so she was generally up coughing for a large portion of the night and so when they came back Saturday night (drunk, stoned, probably both) they kept making comments about her coughing. They actually offered to get her something for her cough, which was both nice and a plea to her to not cough. But then when they came back again (much more drunk and stoned) they were having long loud high conversations. And one of them couldn't stop laughing every time Katie coughed, so you'd hear her cough followed by an uncontrollable giggle. The best part of their conversation was when one of them said "Probably best we didn't throw that moped into the canal," to which the other replied "Yeah but it would've been funny." We had the exact same conversation (I wanted to try to get the 5 of us to push a car in) so many times on the trip. 

Sunday we had to check out of the hostel and we wandered, did touristy shopping and hung out until Aly, Janice and Katie had to leave for their trains. That left Rachel and I to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. We poked in and out of touristy shops (lots of souvenirs to be had), wandered the Red Light District (definitely highest concentration of erotica shops anywhere in the world) and when it started hailing (yes, random hail) we wasted 5 euro at the disappointingly small "Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum" which was no facts about the Netherlands culture as affected by legalization and much more about how hemp helped with ship building. Ships are kind of boring compared to the rest of Amsterdam.. 

It was nice to have Sunday to just hang out and wander around and Rach and I had a lot time to chill out. I got home late Sunday after a series of minor travel delays: flight was delayed an hour, I forgot my UK university acceptance letter and had to convince customs that I was in fact a student at a real school in the UK, I missed the last tube and then my Oyster card wouldn't work on the bus. But after all that I made it back to Goldsmiths. I'm definitely excited for next weekend's Paris trip when a.) I don't have to deal with airports and b.) I'm traveling with Madelaine so I don't have to do everything alone. 

More to come either before or after the Paris trip. For now I have to go watch the Celtics undoubtedly kick the Heat's ass at Sports Café.

The Past Week

I'm not sure why but it seems like time absolutely flies here and I hate it. I realized the other day it was exactly two months until I leave. Okay, so two months is a long time. But I'm already hating the idea of leaving. Especially since I start traveling this weekend and am realizing I have a limited number of weekends actually in the country. Tomorrow I head off to Amsterdam. I'm a little nervous to do my first big kid travel around Europe. I've flown from the states to Europe by myself multiple times but never around the continent alone. I also kind of forgot that Amsterdam, unlike London, my little haven of pseudo-English, actually speaks another language. Apparently the ticket machines to buy train tickets when I get there don't have instructions in English, so I had to print off a little instruction sheet of how to buy travel tickets on them. Cute, I know.

The past week a lot has happened I feel like, although I didn't actually do all that much. I've been to two more plays. One of them was this crazy circus-like interpretation of Goethe's Faust and it was pretty awesome. Not everyone in my class liked it, but I thought it was really fun and interesting. Granted I don't know much about Faust so who knows if my opinion has any merit. Then tonight we went to see this play called The Country. In it there was this British woman playing an American and oh my god I wanted to kill myself when she spoke. She did what so many Brits do when doing their best "American" accent and was a total valley girl. At times it fit her character.. but not really. And everything had this mocking, sarcastic quality that literally made her unwatchable. I know that I have a bad British accent, but even the kids who think they have good American accents here put on valley girl voices when doing impressions. It gets old..

Then Saturday I went with Hannah and Tom from my flat, two girls from downstairs, Alex and Amee, and Amee's friend to Portobello Market (yes, again). It was really fun but it's getting cold here so I was freezing my ass off the whole time. I think something happened to my good New England cold tolerance during the boiling summer in Philly, because I'm a pansy when it comes to cold now. I hate it. Despite the cold though we had fun browsing at Portobello, and then headed to Camden Market after. Camden is really cool and "punk artsy." We got there late so the market stalls were closing but it was fun to check out the area. We got food cause they had tons of little shops with Chinese, Indian, even some Mexican where you'd get a bunch of food for £3 so we ate dinner there. It was a fun albeit exhausting day. Then Saturday night was a little, erm, rough so I didn't actually get my act together to do anything on Sunday except wallow in bed and pretend to do homework while actually just streaming football (athde.net and ch131.com have been my saviors tv-wise).

I'm getting used to my Monday schedule of actually having class, although I don't think I'll ever be good at the 9 am class.  Luckily I've got friends in the class so I generally drag myself there and then nap after. Yes, I do realize that some people actually get up at 6 or 7 every single day and go to work, but I'm also guessing they don't stay up till disgusting student hours every night and refuse to give up going out those nights.

Then last night was my flatmate Charlotte's birthday so we made plans to go to Pacha, one of the relatively big clubs. We had people over before and got to get all dressed up so it was really fun. Again, the cold made catching the night bus less than pleasant, but when that's the only complaint I call it a good night. I love the club scene here but I always prefer to go with large groups of people I know 'cause it's just more enjoyable that way. It's definitely fun to go out with all the F-Block (that's my building) kids because it's generally a good big group and everyone's pretty chill. A good time was had by all, although the cleaners who came this morning were not exactly delighted that we had a good time all over our flat before going out.. an interesting relationship is developing between us and them. They hate us, we acknowledge that they have the worst job in the world and their hatred is valid, but think the notes they leave are funny. Best by far was the night that no one else had cleaned their dishes (I don't have dishes, all throwaway plates and cutlery) and the cleaners threatened to throw them out if they weren't cleaned by the next day. A few people hadn't cleaned theirs so Hannah, in a moment of alcohol induced brilliance, tried to hide all the dirty dishes in the oven. We awoke to a loving note-- "Nice try flat F, we will be back in the afternoon for your dirties. You're preventing us from cleaning the oven." Mind you I'm 100% positive they have never once cleaned that oven.

Now I'm having a low key post-theater night watching the Yankees with increasing despair since I was really hoping tonight would be the end for them. As a real member of the facebook generation or whatever you'll call us, I'm wishing I had an extra computer so I could watch the game full screen while also writing this and booking my hostels for my trip to Paris. My need to multitask is mildly frightening. I have to go to bed at a real person time tonight (1?) so I'm trying to use the next hour and a half to actually be productive. I'm hoping I'll have some good stories after my weekend in Amsterdam with Rachel and Aly.

Friday Boredom

So Madelaine is off to Dublin this weekend with fellow Arcadian-ites (Colin and Alyssa), Caroline has moved out of our lovely New Cross flat and into one in Central London (although we never got confirmation that she actually made it there... hmm...) and I'm sitting in my room bored on a Friday afternoon. I officially have too much free time. I think I'm about to head either to follow in Madelaine's footsteps and wander around Harrods for a bit or, depending on how cold it is, I'll take my sketchbook somewhere and people watch. Might as well take advantage of London with my tons of free time. Then hopefully tomorrow and Sunday I can round up some troops to do another market or two with me. I'm hoping to do Brick Lane Sunday, where I've heard I can find some great Indian food. I have yet to try any Indian since being here, which just might be the biggest failure of the trip thus far.

It's been a strange week since it feels weird to be here enjoying London when so many people are dealing with difficulties back home. But my thoughts are with Marin and her family during this terrible time, and I'm sending all my hopes and wishes for the best possible recovery to Lorna.

Here's to hoping a new week brings better news and fewer reminders of how quickly life can change. Trying my best not to sound corny, but alas, I've failed. Sometimes you realize the reason corny lines exist is that they sum things up the best.

Pictures

With Annie at Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

We deemed them the "blues"

A chocolate wonderland we stumbled upon

The chocolate wonderland had a grocery store too- and lucky charms!