Relationship Counseling

Alright, so I'm feeling much better about my sister. I argue that there is no relationship that a couple of gin and bitter lemon cocktails, plus a couple shots of whisky while staying up until 2 cannot improve.

Oh, and for anyone who has heard the story of Dmir, I left a birthday note for him at his work yesterday. I left full of joyful, nervous energy; I was rather embarrassed- when his fellow employees started searching for his phone number for me, I started to feel like a stalker! That was probably the weirdest thing I have ever done. Well, the weirdest thing I have done without Steppie present.

Speaking of Steppie, when I ge back, you me, and Larry need to go out on the town. His website needs an update. ^_^ (www.larrythegnome.i8.com)

Alright, I'm off to eat lunch now- later today Jessamine and I will be taking a train to Fort William, where we'll stay before beginning our hike of the Scottish highlands tomorrow.
Tscheuss!

Western Drawls

So it's been rather depressing discovering what a strong Colorado accent I've aquired. Listening to my sister, who talks lightening fast and with a crisp Eastern accent, I really feel like a yokel.

Anyway, I saw everyone off at the bus this morning. I'm going to miss that crew.

Alright, I'm not feeling very articulate- in fact I'm rather irritated, because it took forever for m to get aol to work, only to discover that I haven't gotten any e-mail. Drat.

I guess that I'm just feeling kind of estranged right now- I'm staying tonight with Jessamine and her friend Nicki at Nicki's apartment, so I'm hanging out with two people whom I don't know, but who know each other very well. It's really weird, after just having spent 6 weeks in the constant company of Matts, Mel and Diana. It's weird to be thrown in with someone and be expected to have a relationship with them, without it naturally forming. I guess it's just weird to be in the same city as her, much less the same room- she's always been half-way round the world for me. We've had our moments, but somehow she doesn't seem real to me.

Rampant Lion

Check it out- Dr. Facinelli doing her best impression of a rampant lion. ^_^

I've been on too many tours

Mmm, sweet sweet cappuccino. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! I can feel the caffeine coursing through my veins. Such a junkie. ^_^

I’m just chillaxin’, as they say, in the computer lab at Queen Margaret’s, doing my best to not be sad that my hostel reservation-making didn’t work. I’ll have to try again later. I found an awesome sounding hostel in Paris to stay in which is apparently very well known, has lots of amenities including precious, precious luggage storage, and has its own pub! Yay! Not that I’ll have anyone to go to the pub with, but it’s the principle of the thing. Seriously, this place sounds great, and it’s really close to all the sights I want to see, like Notre Dame and the Musee d’Orsay. Now, if I can just get the Ryanair website to work….

I read Sabrinah’s live journal for the first time today, and she wrote about how she was eating white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I feel a craving coming on, lol.

So…. Last night I went on the “City of the Dead” ghost tour with some of my friends here, and it was pretty entertaining. The only problem was, Diana started getting really scared because, as it turns out, she had seen the tomb we were visiting on the Discovery Channel (ranked the No.1 most haunted place in the world, no less), and hadn’t been able to sleep after watching it. She kept saying as we left that if she’d known that that was where we were going she never would have gone.

We all scared the Mackenzie Poltergeist away just afterwards, however, with a trip to the Greyfriar’s Bobby Pub with our tour guide David, who’s quite the entertaining fellow. Now, you may be asking, Greyfriar’s Bobby? What the hell kind of name is that for a pub? Well, I’ll tell you, because apparently I enjoy regurgitating information I hear on city bus tours.

Once upon a time in an earlier Edinburgh, there was a policeman, who lasted a surprisingly long time on the force, as conditions for policemen at that time were particularly harsh. After a couple of years, he acquired a watch dog- a little Skye Terier whom he dubbed Bobby. Soon after that, our heroic policeman perished, and was buried in the same churchyard which our ghost tour visited. The loyal Bobby followed, and, for the next fourteen years, lived on his master’s grave, leaving only to eat at a nearby sergeant’s house each day just after the one o’clock gun was fired at Edinburgh Castle. Now that’s dedication. I don’t think saluqis are even capable of forming attachments strong enough to remember someone for three days, much less fourteen years.

Since I seem to be in a story-telling mode, ya’ll are going to also get to hear a little about Burke and Hare, the first known serial killers. At this time, Edinburgh’s medical school was in desperate need of bodies to dissect, as they only were allowed to experiment upon convicted criminals who had been executed, or dead vagrants whom no one could identify. A lucrative trade sprang up in body snatching, bu8t the problem with that was that the bodies weren’t always terribly fresh. This was the climate into which Burke and Hare arrived from Ireland. Burke married a woman who owned a building, and met and befriended Hare. About a month after they became friends, one of Burke’s tenants, an old sickly man, died, leaving behind a £4 rent debt. Burke was outraged, since the old man left no money or valuable possessions, so he and Hare stole the old man’s body out of his coffin before it was buried, and sold it to the medical college. They received just over £7 for the body, and rapidly realized that this could become quite profitable. They arranged with a doctor at the medical school that they would be paid £8 for bodies sold in the summer, and £10 for bodies in the winter. With these wonderfully high sums in mind, Burke and Hare set out on their killing spree, in which they killed at least sixteen people. The victims were befriended in pubs, gotten drunk, and brought back to Burke’s flat where they drank still more, and were suffocated in a particular way which left no marks. Their method is still called Burking today.
Naturally, it was only a matter of time until they were caught. It all went downhill when they unwittingly murdered a famous prostitute, who was recognized by many students when she appeared dead at the medical college the next day. Burke and Hare were captured, and burke was convicted of the murders. Hare got away scot-free (haha, see, it’s funny because….), because he agreed to testify against Burke. Now, here’s the great irony of my tale. After Burke was executed, his body was sent to the medical school where it too was dissected. What’s more, his body was skinned, and a variety of objects were made out of his skin, such as the calling-card case made from his left hand which is on display at the police office here in Edinburgh. It’s actually a very pretty little thing- the leather was dyed a dark brown and has golden embossing on it. Weird.

Now wasn’t that a cheerful little story?

Alright, I’ve wasted far too much time at this point- I really do have essays to be working on, and I only have 50 minutes until the computer lab closes! Crap!
*runs screaming into closed door. bounces*

It's still 3:30 am

Alright, time for an update on the weekend. It's hard to do this whole blog thing right now, since the computer lab is only open from 9-5 on weekdays, and closed weekends. I am discovering right now just how much of a computer junkie I really am. It's quite sad, really. I miss people- internet is not the same, but I'm grateful for it, because this would be a lot harder for me without it.

Anyway, on Friday I went into town with Diana and Alex, and after going to the tourist office to check out day tours, we wandered around the town and took lots and lots of pictures. Edinburgh isn't called "the Athens of the north" for nothing- this is by far the most beautiful city I've ever seen. The neogothic Sir Walter Scott monument rears up in its sinister blackened limestone, the gardens fill the valley, the castle juts out on volcanic rock over the city, and Calton hill is crowned with neoclassical columns. Just over in Holyrood park is the sizeable Arthur's Seat, a 300 million year old volcano. We also wandered into the Tron Kirk, the second oldest church in Edinburgh and now dedicated to information about the various ghost tours in the city. This place is gorgeous!

Eventually Diana left us, and Alex and I hit the Calton cemetary, which is beautiful in its own right. It's where David Hume and Alexander Bell are buried, and there's a massive obelisk commemorating some fellows. The grass is very green, and in the sunny late afternoon, the view from the top of the walls (which we of course climbed up on ^_^) was extraordinary. We eventually tore ourselves away from the cemetary, and went and caught a movie- "The Day After Tomorrow," which we both figured we needed to see on the big screen while we still could. It was an entertaining movie, full of the special effects we were expecting. Of course, the entertainment value of the movie increased because we each grabbed a pint at happy hour at Q Bar on our way to the theatre...

After te movie, Alex and I went to Tesco. After we got back from Tesco we headed out again really soon to go to The Oak, a pub just down the road. It was, unfortunately, exceedingly lame, because by the time we got there (around 11:15) everyone was drunk and singing kareoke, and it was mainly people from the Communications trip (also from ASU) who were there. Of course, that meant that I had to let Alex go and try to hit on the Comm. girls- he's doing pretty well for himself, but he's too shy to really ask any one girl out- which left me trying to find someone, anyone to talk to in the fray of drunken dancing idiots. It was a shame, but when we left, Alex made sure I had some people to walk back to the college with (a bunch of the others including him were taking taxis into town to find a club). One of these was a Comm. girl named Sarah, who was really very pleasant to chat with. I will say, however, that the highlight of the evening was that Mike, who has long, curly hair, had teased it up into a fro. Awesome, Mike, awesome.

Alright... Saturday... was cold and rainy. A fairly large group of us took the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour of Edinburgh, but we didn't get off anywhere- the weather really was miserable. We almost went to the Writer's Museum... but then we wussed out. Seriously, it was frigid. In the evening, Diana, Alex, Matt Neff and I went back to the movie theater and saw the latest Harry Potter movie. It was, like "The Day After Tomorrow," entertaining. Short, but entertaining.

On Sunday most of the people I know here went on a day tour to Loch Ness and Inverness, but since I plan on walking to Inverness with Jessamine, I declined to go. Instead, I took a walk to help me prepare for my trip with Jess. As near as I can tell, I walked about 13 5/12 miles, including climbing Arthur's Seat (the volcano I mentioned). It's really very beautiful up there- you can see very far in every direction, and as I ate my lunch, I could see a rainstorm headed for teh little mountain. I'll see if I can get pictures to show y'all. ^_^ On the way down I took a detour past St. Andrew's Chapel, a building of which only a small portion of one corner remains. The bset part, though, was that from up there I could hear, from somewhere off in the distance, some event playing the Proclaimer's song "I Would Walk 500 Miles" ober the loudspeaker. I also stopped off at the Palace of Holyroodhouse to see the gallery exhibit there on Dutch paintings in the collection of the royal family, because apparently the palace is going to be closed for the next two weeks while the queen is in residence there. It was a good show, and I was amused to see paintings which were recognizably by the same artists as pieces which I had discussed with Mel at the National Gallery of Ireland. Beautiful stuff.

On Monday morning I had class. My classes here really aren't bad, and I don't have too much of them. One is a history class on the places we're visiting, and the other is a literature class. They're really not bad at all, though yesterday we had them for four hours straight. Ouch. In the afternoon we met our group for a tour of Edinburgh Castle, which was interesting. We saw the room where James I of England was born, and still more breathtaking vistas. I can totally see why this is my sister's favorite city.

In the evening we borrowed a copy of "Donnie Darko" from Jason, and went and watched in a lounge. It's such a beautiful movie! Twisted and demented, but above all an excellent film. I'm now convinced, of course, that the opening scene was filmed on Dead Man's Curve in Colorado, and am no doubt wrong. ^_^ I remember the first time I ever heard about that movie- Evil Sean was taking me out, and he'd just seen it- he told me the entire plot, which doesn't make any sense even when you watch the movie.

Anyway, my watched stopped, so as far as I'm concerned, it's still 3:30 am. Of course, that was something of a problem when it came to getting up this morning for class, but I woke up in time. Alright, now it's essay writing time 5,000. Tscheuss!

In rush

Still alive. Made it to Edinburgh. Checking out city today. Walked to Tesco last night. Thank God for Tesco. Very far away though. Feel like intrepid explorer. Still entertaining idea of hiking the Grand Canyon someday. Will post further when computers become available once more on Monday morning. Have good weekends, everyone! ^_^

Death by suffocation through methane gas

Francie, I took your advice and went to St. Michan's Church. Once there, I went down into the vault (you know, the one with the mummies you love so?) and proceeded to get LOCKED IN behind the massive iron door. I was trapped down there for about a half an hour until the tour guide and one of the parishoners/vicar/whatever were walking past to their cars and heard my screams. Not happy.

Did Someone Say Red?

check it out:

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v291/Hedgehog19/Study%20Abroad/763016b1.jpg

Alright, so I'll admit that it's fading somewhat, but boy was it awesome at first!

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping this blog up in the last few days- the computers here are pretty lousy, and I'm never really in the mood to write this stuff. Therefore, the following entry will be summarized Bridget Jones style...

Wednesday. Bus tour to Glendalough and Powerscourt Gardens. Started an hour late. While in bus station, our school group harassed at length by a drunken bum. No air conditioning on bus. Not happy. Powerscourt Gardens mind-blowingly gorgeous, especially the Japanese Garden. Viewable at:

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v291/Hedgehog19/Study%20Abroad/Japaneese_garden.jpg

Seriously, beautiful! Glendalough pretty also. Ate good food, wandered around monastic ruins. More bus. Saw where castle was built for movie "Reign of Fire." Went to bog in the Wicklow Gap. Tried to sleep despite "traditional" Irish music blaring. Spent evening doing homework and writing. Lots of cappucinos- very hyper. Got homework done by 4 am. Way too much fun. Seriously. I was that giddy. Specific reason? Personal optimism, with happy blend of scenery and warm-and-fuzzy e-mails. ^_^

Thursday. Got up at 8 (that's 4 hrs sleep, in case you're counting). Went for short run, then went out in a field and did Yoga. Possibly the single most pleasant activity on this trip. Puffy clouds, cool breeze, warm sun. Trip the light fantastic. Seriously loving study abroad; excited to go home to Colorado and Arizona. Anyway, went to Lynch's class. Bored class to tears with presentation on the Elgin Marbles. More's the pity. ^_^ Alex patronized me by saying it was interesting. Thank-you, Alex. After class, went into Dublin. Abandoned original plans, because Matt was with us (Diana, Mel and I)and needed to leave for airport soon. Went to pub, had Guinness. Sweet, sweet Guinness. Went to Tourist office- I bought a tour ticket. More on that later. Mel, Diana and I got good lunch at The Queen of Tarts. Very good place. Went back.

Friday. Got up VERY early and got cab to Heuston Train Station with 11 other students. Went on RailTour. AWESOME. Two hours on train to Limerick in western Ireland. Bus to Bunratty Castle. Cool place. Raining while on top of towers. Beautiful views of the River Ratty. Can't compare to the white beaches of Lahinch, or the windy and spectacular Cliffs of Moher, where we went next. Breathtaking. Ocean is a cold, clear dark blue/aquamarine color. Sweet, sweet coffee at Cliffs. Nectar of the Gods. Went to Gus O'Connell's pub in a small town. Drank a Guinness. Nectar of the Gods. Yes, I know that I just said that about coffee, but I argue that they're the same beverage. ;-) Drove out to the barren, a landscape of bare rock running right to the sea. Wandered around, right up to cliff edge. Shorter cliff than at Moher, though. Pounding, spraying surf. Found a small stone with two fossilized shells in it. Still on my desk. On bus, struck up lengthy and lively conversation in Spanish with some women from Seville. I spoke better than I expected. Nice people. Talking with them and hearing the difficulties they've experienced makes me grateful that English is my first language. Much easier to travel abroad. Bus rounded Black Head, went around Golway Bay to Golway. Lots o' cows and sheep. In Golway, dashed off to shopping mall. Snuck into bathroom (didn't have 30 cent to pay for toilet). Old city wall and one tower are built into the mall. Crazy cool. Hopped train to Dublin. Played hearts. Lost at hearts. Good times. ^_^ Got back to campus around 10. Slept like a rock.

Saturday. Continued to sleep like a rock until noon. Ate some rice, went to computer lab briefly. Got curry chips from Leo Burdock's, and ate them on the lawn of Christchurch Cathedral. Went shopping with Stephanie. We each bought two things. I spent 10 euro. She spent around 500. I shudder to think what her credit debt is like. Luckily, her father is a personal injury lawyer. Makes excessive spending slightly less of a problem. Even so, I pity her future husband who will have to deal with her bringing home Louis Vuitton purses and Versace sunglasses like she did on Saturday. Shopaholism is a disease. Came back Saturday night. Went for another run, then did yoga in the field. Exceedingly pleasant. Slept like a babe.

Sunday. Got up early. Diana, Mel, "Drunken Matt" and I went to a free breakfast outside of the GPO on O'Connell Street to kick off the Bloomsday activities here in Dublin. Mmm, massive quantities of meat in a baguette. Went to Carroll's- massive souvenir shop. Some fun stuff. Went shopping. Bought small backpack to carry lunch/waterbottle/umbrella/wallet etc in while walking accross Scotland with Jessamine. Walked to Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery. Tasted Mel's "Irish Coffee." Tasty. Shopped some more. Went back to UCD. Very hyper. Begged Mel to go to Temple Bar with me. Yay! Got tipsy, went back to UCD, massive group (me the only one not entirely sober) hung out in Alex/Matt Neff/Coleman/Jason's room. I stole Alex's hat and started rapping. Still have the hat.

Monday. Today. So resentful of being dragged to the early class by my roommates instead of being able to go running then go to later class (the one I'm actually in). Ate darn good chicken and bacon tikka sandwich. Rode bus into town. Caught bus to Kilmainham Gaol. Seriously disturbed when Alex tackled me in the museum while I was reading about someone being hung. Didn't know he was there. Went on tour. Awesome place- very interesting. Very good elaboration of info on Irish rebellions touched on in class today. Went to Beshoff's Fish and Chips for lunch. Tres yum. Returned, made beeline for computer lab. Such an addict. Now talking to Steppie online, and laughing at the jokes she's cracking about the Indian guy sitting in the row in front of me who's looking at porn online. Funny stuff.

Alright, I think that covers it for now. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get around to writing a bit about classes and whatnot. Right now, dinner and sleep.

Good times. ^_^

Burger's Plus

Holy crud, Amy, you have no idea. I was just being nostalgic about Home a few days ago. I miss you guys!

Global Warming at its Best

So I arrived in Dublin early yesterday afternoon, and as long as I've been here it has not, I repeat, has NOT rained one drop! It's a miracle! Dr. Facinelli was overheard saying that she'd never arrived in Dublin on a sunny day before. This was a very good thing, because we had to lay around outside for a couple of hours until our rooms were ready.

I must say, the rooms were worth the wait! Compared to the dingy little flats we had in London, these things are houses! There are four people per flat, and there are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room with two couches, a dining table, and a kitchen! This definitely beats three bedrooms and one shower for six girls! Of course, there are downsides, such as the fact that we have a pretty decent walk anywhere, and we have to attempt to figure out the buses instead of having the extraordinary convenience of the tube. That's been just fine so far, though- Mel, Diana and I managed to take a bus into town today, where we caught the "City Bus Tour" which is a "Hop-on-Hop-off" bus that goes to several of the sights in town and has commentary from the driver. We got off and, not noticing that our destination was across the street when we disembarked, walked around a small park to get to the National Gallery. ^^; My fault, I'll admit- though the lousy map of the tour bus' route contributed to the fact that I had no idea whatsoever where we were. We found our way there eventually, and went pretty quickly through, since we were more excited about lunch than about seeing still more paintings. It's really a nice gallery, though, and it was very empty. The privacy was really nice, because it gave Melissa and I a chance to talk about some of the paintings. There were some nice Vanitas paintings, and we got to see a Vermeer and a Caravaggio, which were both very good, and both very obviously better than those shown near them who were attempting to imitate their compositions and styles.

Having seen the biggest works at the Gallery, we hopped back on the bus, and took it to a famous fish and chips take-away place called Leo Bradock. I had the smoked cod and curry chips, and we took our meals to a green just next to Christ Church Cathedral where we ate and tried to write poetry and laughed at the awful results. Never try to spontaneously recite an ode to a blade of grass. Seriously. It gets weird.

We had gotten back on the tour bus and got thoroughly entangled in rush hour traffic, when, much to our dismay, Mel and I discovered that we had to go the bathroom ASAP. We therefore consulted the driver, and, with great haste, hopped off the bus, made a mad dash through the train station and into the pay toilets, and walked leisurely out the other side of the station to find our bus still stuck in traffic, ready and waiting. ^_^

That drama done, we hit Tesco (the "big" grocery store in the British Isles), and let me tell you, sustenance is expensive! Even their canned spaghetti costs 2x as much as it did in London, and that's factoring in the improved exchange rate! I'm going to be eating a lot of rice with chicken soup, let me tell you! I'm kicking myself for buying cheese yesterday- it's tasty, but dang! Too much $!

Anyway, my cold is improving, and I think that with some more sleep I'll be good to go. The mystery spot is thankfully gone, and my mind is clearing, if not my sinuses. Of course, that doesn't mean I want to do my homework now. ^^;

Oh, I forgot to mention, I sent out a couple of postcards today from the GPO, and a second wave should be coming soon. (speaking of which, Dad, what's your new address?)
Alright, I have yet another paper to write, and we're going to Glendalough tomorrow, so I'd better get it done tonight. Or, you know, started at least. ;-) I hope all is well with those reading this! I love you, and miss you all! :-*

~Ellie A. Nor

Unproductive

So... The mysterious spot on my tonsil is still there, which is rather a disapointment. I went to the drugstore today and got what the pharmacist told me to, though, and if this bizzarity doesn't go away in a couple of days I'll hit up a doctor in Dublin.

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum- there are so many beautiful things in that building! I was particularly entertained by trying on a kimono there, obi and all. Also, I was completely shocked to walk into a room to discover a plaster cast of the ENTIRETY OF TRAJAN'S COLUMN from Rome! That thing's freaking huge! How in the heck would you cast somehing that big?!? I don't even want to know right now- my mind isn't really functioning properly thanks to this crazy cold I have (plus mystery spot on tonsil).
I think Freezepop (yes, I'm listening to Freezepop, Mat ^_^) said it best:

"Feeling lazy feeling tired
feeling sleepy feeling slow
feeling slothful feeling sluggish
feeling drowsy don't you know?"

I'd better shake this off, though- I'm writing a paper and it would be nice if it made sense. ;-)

Sleepy Attempt at Blogging

Oi Vey. I would say that I'm not getting enough sleep, but I think that instead I'm just asleep 24/7. Today I've been in a complete haze- I'm definitely sick, and boy do I wish I weren't!

As I had said on Wednesday, we went to "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Globe Theater. We got somewhat lost on the way there from the tube station, but that wouldn't have been a problem if Steffi hadn't been wearing wicked-looking 4 inch stilletos. Ouch. Not good for cities, I tell you. When we got there, we had seats with restricted views, but we were actually very lucky- we were in the back row, so we could lean back against the wall- everyone else was standing or on benches. The all women troupe which performed it was really quite good, though it took a little while to get used to their shouting and trying to make their voices slightly deeper. I also had a little trouble with it at first, as I've only seen the movie, and so I had preconcieved ideas as to how the characters should be played. Benedick and Beatrice are irresistable characters, of course, and I was very excited at the end when they kissed. So romantic! *wipes a tear*

Thursday, well, Thursday was fun. I started the day in my usual tired haze. I had Lynch's literature class in the morning, and had to suffer through a painfully boring research presentation on Cardiff Castle, but we got out of class early, and after a quick lunch at the flat, Matt, Mel, Diana and I went out. We went to Tower Bridge, which we would have gone inside if not for the admission fee; the same with the HMS Belfast. We wandered our way down the Thames, stopping to get ice cream. It was really weird; this wasn't your typical soft serve. This was like Cool Whip on a cone, with some chocolate stuck in. It was good.... but very sweet.

Anyway, the last time I had gone to the Tate Modern it was four years ago, I think, and it was hot and crowded. What little I saw, I didn't like, and I was a little wary of returning. The desire to see the paintings by Mark Rothko persuaded me to return, however. This time, I adored it, and engaging with all of that art brought me right up ut of my haze. I returned to the world of the living, as I passed by some extraordinary pieces of art. there was this really cool piece called, I think, "Your Double Light-House Experiment," which had an entire room devoted to itself alone. It had two circular rooms, with walls that were flat colors of light. You started by going into the larger room, and staring at the wall of light. It would constantly change color; the changes were so slight, though, (being, as they were, computer controlled) so that the colors faded one into the next very gradually. You were meant to observe the psychological effect of these changing colors, but at this point I was still pretty tired and not really feeling emotion of any kind whatsoever. Anyway, the museum was full of interesting things, particularly Rodin's "The Kiss." Yes, I'll admit I like it's sensuality, but I also appreciate the reference to Dante's Inferno, now that I've read it. It's a huge, and wonderful piece. I saw a couple of paintings by Dali, and his "Lobster Telephone," which made me laugh outloud having just spent time pondering his paintings. It's exactly what it's name implies- a telephone with a lobster on its handle. You gotta love the surrealists. Oh! and I saw Magritte's scuplture "The Healer" which I really liked. It's a bronze of a man whose torso and head is a birdcage, still draped in his cloak with his hat on top. Neat stuff.
And, of course, I saw the room with the Rothkos. They were described to me as tragic, and that they were. They're huge canvases covered in layered glazes with simple, boxlike forms or none at all, and you could just see the depression and monotony that went into their making. It's awesome that Rothko was able to decide how they were presented- the large room with only his pieces in it, dark blue-grey walls, and low lighting are perfect for their viewing. oh, and I was excited to see "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" by Boccioni, one of my favorite sculptures ever, even though I'm not terribly fond of the Futurist movement in general.

Anyway, we eventually had to get out of there- Mel and Diana had left long since, and Matt Neff and I needed to run back to the flat before we all headed out to see "Cyrano de Bergerac" at the Royal National Theatre. This we did, returning for the play later that evening a mere few blocks from the Tate Modern.

This presentation of "Cyrano" was certainly interesting. It was very experimental, and I'm not sure how I really felt about percussion, modern ballet, and a band with accordions and a sax being worked in. Definitely interesting, though. I think I kind of resented the ballet, just because it was making a long play longer, and we were all exhausted- we seem to be that way a lot these days.

Oh, and last night was no help on the sleep front. Mel and I went and hung out with the guys at another building, plus Alex who lives in the flat next door (the shy one with the crush, remember?). When Alex and I went back to our rooms on Penywern, however, I discovered that I had forgotten my keys. We went all the way back to the other house so that I could get Mel's keys, but those sadly didn't do me any good. You see, a bit of back story here- Mel got a faulty set of keys. There are two locks on our door, and Mel only has the key to the bottom lock, so the roommates all agreed to only lock the bottom one. Sadly for me, someone had forgotten, and locked the top one before they went to bed. Alex and I pounded on the door and rand the buzzer in the room for a long time, but my flat has two stories, so my roommates didn't wake up! Lucky for me, a bunch of Alex's roommates are in Paris this weekend, including Matt Neff, whose bed I commandeered for the night. I didn't sleep well once morning started coming, either, because I was convinced that one of my roommates, who is a control freak, was going to to notice that Mel and I weren't there, freak out, and call Facinelli (one of our teachers). Of course, when I did get back, she didn't care one bit, which is terribly ironic considering that she was freaking out on anothe night when she had no reason to worry. Anyway, I'm not going to stop disliking this Elizabeth girl anytime soon, so I'll stop ranting about her. I'll just say this- if I have to room with her in Dublin, things are not going to be happy. She's really quite impossible.

Argh, curse this cold! Anyway, tomorrow's my last day in London- we fly to Dublin very early on Monday morning. I'll probably hit the Victoria and Albert Museum tomorrow, if I can drag myself out of bed and convince myself that I wouldn't rather lie about all day trying to fight off this cold.
Tscheuss!

P.S. Matkun, there's actually a picture of said hair on the way- it's fun stuff, let me tell you ;-) And Steppie, I'm SO jealous of you seeing Clay! I could totally go for a Clay hug!

Run, Lola, Run!

Ta-da!

Here I am again, full of updates on my not-so illicit activities in this British archipelago. Alright, so I know it's not really an archipelago, but isn't that a wonderful word?

Alright, so on Saturday night we didn't go to the Tate Modern, because we were all tired by the end of the day, and a trip to the computer lab to write essays was instead engaged in. Of course, I got an e-mail from Mat with the first seven pages of his blog of his travels in Japan attached, so I ended up doing more reading than writing. :-)

On Sunday morning my alarm clock was really confused (it was somehow set two hours ahead). I had planned on getting up at 7 to run, but when the alarm went off, it was really 5, so, still extraordinarily tired, I rolled over and reset the alarm for 9. This of course meant that when my alarm went off again, it was the actual time I had meant to get up in the first place, and thinking at first that we needed to get going, I got up. So, despite my rampant lazyness, I did go for a run. I'm really loving how flat this city is, as well as the low altitude!

Later on Sunday morning, Mel, Diana and I braved the crowds and went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The best part was this mounted policeman who was talking to the people in front of us. He was very cheerful and made conversation as everyone made much of his horse. We laughed in surprise when the marching band, during the changing of the guard, started playing the song "Yesterday."

We hopped on the tube, then, and met Matt at the Imperial War Museum. We wandered around in there for a while, though I feel like if you've seen one war museum, you've seen them all. Well, that's an exagerration- I enjoyed the case devoteed to relics of Lawrence of Arabia, because I wrote that paper on him back in high school (plus, he was just plain cool!), and also the video on crimes against humanity that they had, which was really powerful, and I think I really learned more about the events covered in the video, such as the genocide in Rwanda.

In the evening, we celebrated Mel's 19th birthday with chocolate cake and a moderate amount of drunken revelry in the flat next door. It was actually really depressing listening to the tipsy Mel a liberal bisexual such as myself who's ideas are similar to mine, talk about religion with Coleman, who's a nice guy, but very, very Baptist. Overall, it was a pleasant night, though; Matt hung out with me so that I wouldn't be sitting there listening to Mel and Coleman.

On Monday morning, we enjoyed the bank holiday in leisure. After we got up, Mel helped me dye my hair "Hypnotic Red," which is a wonderful, bright red- the closest I've come thus far to "Run Lola Run" hair. :-D It's a lot of fun, especially when it's flipped out. And of course I have a soft spot for that movie. ;-) Ooh, and then we went shopping for a little while at H&M. Yay girly, shallow activities!

In the afternoon we met our class by Green Park, and took the "Oscar Wilde Walking Tour," which would have been much more interesting if the buildings referred to were a)still standing, or b)not covered in scaffolding whilst they're being remodeled. What a character, though. It gave me a slightly different perspective on his play "The Importance of Being Earnest," which we read for class. IT was fun- I kept thinking of the movie with Colin Firth. ^_^

I spent the evening bumming around the computer lab and in the pubs, the highlight being with this guy named Alex who lives in the flat next door. He's a cool kid, I discovered; I'm trying to encourage him to do something about the crush he has on one of the girls upstairs- you know, it's the whole thing where they like each other and everyone knows it, but they're both too shy to do anything about it. Anyway, we found out that the archaeology camp that I went to when I was in 6th grade, Crow Canyon, was actually founded by his parents! It's a small world we live in, still.

Teusday rocked. Not so much for having class in the morning, nor for going ot the Tower of London, which I've been to before (plus it rained hard), but for the fact that almost everyone I know here plus myself, got cheap tickets and went to see "Les Miserables!" It was incredible- I'd never heard the musical before (I'd only seen the movie), so I was vey, very impressed. And of course, it was London, so it was very, very well done. Go Team Barricades and Cobblestones! It reminds me of Mehlbach, lol.

And here we are on Wednesday evening at the computer lab, me listening to "Elechan;" the cd Mat made for me before I left. I'm enjoying this techno, and finally having some 311 in my collection. (Tristan, shouldn't you have taken care of that? ;-))

Alright, I'd better go; I told Mel I'd read over her presentation on Oxford before we go back to the flat. We need to leave plenty of time for figuring out how we're going to find the Globe Theater; we're going to see "Much Ado About Nothing" tonight, apparently done by an all female cast. This should be interesting. And so I go, excited about my dinner-to-be of canned Chicken Tikka Masala. God I love London supermarkets!

P.S, I miss everyone! I called my mom, Lee, and Shaun last night, and though the conversations were very brief, it was nice hearing certain voices. Ooh, and I got a letter today! (You were right, I felt special ;-))

Comments

All I have to say right now is, Lindsey, you rock my socks off. I miss you, and hope you're having a good summer! I love the science lectures! ;-)