Okaaaaaaaay, it's been a while, I know. Don't be angry. I'm just going to write about things as I remember them.
In theater class last week, we went on a tour of the National Theatre, and it was really cool. It is actually a theater complex, with 3 theaters inside. They can wheel around different sets to each theater, and everything they use in their productions is produced in the building. (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/) That night we saw 'Women of Troy' there. It was ... interesting. It's about the fall of Troy, and 12 (?) Trojan women are all that's left, and it's basically about their suffering as some get taken away by the Greeks and such. It was super intense, and I was really annoyed by the woman who played the main character, Hecuba. It was also turned into a more modern take on the story, they were in a warehouse in evening gowns, and there was random swing dancing. That made it hard for me to follow, because it's a Greek tragedy, but not set in ancient Greece ... So it wasn't my favorite play, but I will say that the lighting and special effects were awesome. There were fires, explosions, breaking glass, and water from the ceiling. Our teacher gave us some ideas for other productions we could see that weren't part of the class. And one of the was a production of Othello with Ewan McGregor in it! There were only like 2 more nights of the show left, and Brit and decided to try to get tickets, because we LOVE him! So we went, but went too late and didn't get tickets. As it turns out the people who did get tickets in the line had been there since about 4 in the morning. The woman told us if we wanted tickets for the next day, we should probably get there at midnight the night before, to wait for them to sell at 10:30 am. 10 1/2 hours to wait seemed a little crazy to us, and although it would've been totally worth it, we decided to give up on Ewan. :( I was really sad about it, so we decided to see a musical that night to make us happier.
So we went to a half price ticket booth thing and got tickets to see Spamalot that night for 25 pounds, and we'd be waaaaay up in the balcony, but that was okay. Spamalot was really funny, it basically followed the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie, but was still different enough to not think you were just watching the movie on stage. And, it was a musical, and I was really excited to finally be seeing a musical in London! We were really high up and I felt that if I leaned forward too much I would tumble onto the stage ... but we could still see most everything okay. I just read in the paper that they guy who was Bradford Meade in Ugly Betty is going to be the new King Arthur in Spamalot starting in March, so I should've waited so I could've seen him! Oh well.
Brit, Tianda, and I went to Hyde Park the other day, but we went later in the afternoon, so it started getting dark quite quickly. We walked through to Kensington Gardens, and we saw the Peter Pan statue. We ate at this place called Art Cafe, and I got a crepe with ham and cheese. It was decent. On the way back to Nido, we got McFlurrys, I got the cadbury creme egg McFlurry, because I am in love with it.
The cafe and screening room in Nido are now open, and they play a movie every night at 8:00. I've gone and watched 2 already. The cafe is cool, there's two levels of it, and on the upper level are foosball tables and pool tables. They have TVs in there which usually is showing some sort of sport. They have American things for sale like Oreos and Kraft, but they are expensive, I believe the Oreos are 4 pounds (that's $8!). Not worth it.
I did my laundry for the first time the other day, and it's really expensive. 2 pounds a load, and then 50p for every 15 minutes of drying. I think I spent a total of $10. I'm going to handwash stuff as much as I can, and only use the washing machine when I absolutely need to.
After my Art in London class the other day, Brit and I walked down the Mall to Buckingham Palace (our class had met at a gallery really near there). We walked through St.James Park, which we decided we liked better than Hyde Park, it was prettier.
In other news, Ruth is coming to visit me this weekend!!!!!!!! I am so excited! For those of you who don't know, Ruth is studying a semester in Spain, and we both decided we were going to visit each other while we were abroad. I'm really excited for her to come, did I mention that? I'm going to get her from Victoria station tonight. She will be here from Thursday night until Sunday morning. We are going to do a ton of really tourist-y things, because she has never been to London before. We are also seeing Avenue Q, I got us really good seats, 2 for the price of one, since I have an Oyster card.
So right now I have to do dishes and clean up some stuff and charge my camera battery and take a nap so I will be ready for her. Before she comes, some friends and I are going to get wings at a place called Sports Cafe (http://www.thesportscafe.net/home.cfm).
Love ya!
:)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Weekend in Wales
PRE WALES
With my theater class we got a tour of the Globe Theater the other day - it was really cool, there was a rehearsal going on for A Midsummer Night's Dream. We will be seeing King Lear there in April. That night we saw The Importance of Being Earnest. I really enjoyed it and thought it was quite funny.
I went to Wales this weekend. At our orientation, a woman came to talk to us about the opportunity to go on an adventure weekend in Wales to do sweet activities, and I signed up because I thought it would be a fun thing to do on my birthday. There were 20 spots set aside for London Met study abroad students. We could pick two activities to do, and I picked coasteering and surfing. The trip also included a hike. It was amazing. It was in an area called Pembrokeshire, kind of near the town of St.Davids/Haverfordwest on this map: (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geogdata/ngw/mapgif.gif). Here are the details:
WALES
FRIDAY
We knew we had to catch our bus at Victoria Station, so we went there and got food to bring on the bus to eat because we didn't have a ton of time and it was almost noon. We thought the bus would be really close to the tube/train station, but apparently the coach station was a couple of blocks away, so we got there with five minutes to spare, while the bus was loading. Then the bus driver informed us that there was no hot food allowed on the bus, and Tianda and I had gotten McDonald's, so we had to throw it away ... money down the drain. I quickly shoved some of my burger in my mouth first though. Had I known, I would have hidden it in my purse or something. The bus was full when we (me, Tianda, Zoe, and Leon) got on, so none of us could sit together. I got the crappiest seat on the bus -- the very back, in the middle. No pull down tray, no storage area under my seat, no reclining, no window, right by the bathroom. There was no seat in front of me, so I did have lots of leg room. At this point I was kind of in a bad mood. I had a 7 hour bus ride ahead of me, I had eaten nothing yet, I had the crappiest seat, and it was my birthday. It was not how I wanted to spend my birthday, but I had to remind myself that I was going to end up in Wales ... Luckily, I had bought two cookies, and had also brought two granola bars with me, so that was my lunch. Half way there we stopped at this place for a break so I bought more food. The lady next to me starting talking to me and told me my accent was beautiful, which I've never been told before. She was cool to talk to, she was going to Wales with her daughter to visit her sister. Soon after that the guy in front of me got off so I was able to sit by Zoe. Near the end of the longest bus ride of my life, it got really cold, and we were all freezing by the time we got there. The Preseli people picked us up, and we were on our way to the camp (I'm going to call it a camp because I don't know what else to call it). We got out rooms and then went to the "lodge" to eat a delicious dinner of lasagna and dessert of apple pie and ice cream! We just kind of chilled and hung out the rest of the night, playing games. We met a bunch of cool people that were from Syracuse that go to a Syracuse campus here in London.
SATURDAY
We got woken up at 8:15 to go get breakfast. My first activity was coasteering. We went to the shed and got on wetsuits, vests, shorts, wetsuit socks and gloves, life jackets (they call them 'buoyancy aids'), and helmets. It was my first time ever in a wet suit! They drove us to the coast, and we walked down to the water. There's no beach, just rocks, so we had to climb down (which is the whole point of coasteering -- climbing all over the coast). It was pretty cold -- but then it was time to jump in the water. And THAT was freezing!!! The wetsuit really helped though and after a while it really wasn't that bad. So basically we just clambered all along the coast, on huge rocks, occasionally jumping in the water and getting thrashed about by the waves. There were three bigger jumps as well, and I did them all! The highest one was probably the equivalent of jumping off of the roof of a house. It didn't look that bad from the water, but when I was standing up there all I could think was am I crazy?!? But I did it and it was amazing. Afterwards, we changed into warm clothes back at our bus, there were no buildings or anything, so boys changed on one side of the bus and girls on the other (not in it, outside of it). It was cold and I think 2 cars went by ... We all shared hot chocolate in the bus. Everyone was freezing. We had a delicious lunch of soup and bread.
After lunch my group went on a hike (the entire group of 32 was split into three - in the afternoon a different group went coasteering and another went surfing). Basically they drove us really far away and we had to walk all the way back - we got no guides, we had to do it by ourselves, we did get a map though. Tianda and I were really slow because we were taking 80 million pictures, so we got separated from the group which was totally fine. It was a 7 1/2 mile hike, all along the coast. It was so gorgeous, but probably a little too long. In some spots it was really muddy and the trail often went through farmer's fields and sheep pastures. I fell down in a sheep pasture because it was really slippery. There were sheep everywhere, we took lots of pictures of them. We started getting sick of the hike near the end, but the scenery never ceased to amaze. Nicky (she works at the study abroad office at London Met and came with us) came back to get us because we were slow, which was good, because near the end I don't know if we would've found our way back. Our dinner was a yummy Indian chicken thing with curry, with berry cheesecake and cream for dessert. Afterwards, they made us a bonfire and had music on in the lodge. We played a four hour game of Monopoly, which was really fun. It was British Monopoly, too, so all the properties were places in England, like King's Cross, Fleet Street, Strand, Piccadilly, and even Pentonville Road! When we were done playing we went to check out the bonfire. There was a really steep and slippery hill to get to the fire, and I fell down it and tumbled a bit. Everyone had been falling up and down it all night, so I wasn't the only one! I roasted a couple of marshmellows ... they were yummy.
SUNDAY
I woke up and everything was sore. I had tiny cuts on my finger tips from coasteering, from grabbing onto barnacles on rocks when climbing about. My activity today was surfing, so we all gathered after breakfast. Our guide told us that the waves were not that big and we could probably catch some waves, but we might have more fun if we went kayaking instead. This was totally fine with me because I had actually wanted to switch from surfing to kayaking anyway. This meant wetsuits again, but a different kind, because we wouldn't actually be submerged in the water (unless you fell in). The previous day, we had rinsed off all the wetsuits and equipment to clean it, so that meant that today they were all really cold and still not dry. We even had to chip ice off of some, and some were stiff because they were frozen. Putting them on was SO COLD. The worst was putting on these wetsuit shoe things, I thought my feet were going to fall off from frostbite. But after about 10 minutes, your body heats it up and you get quite warm, especially if you move around a bit. I had never been kayaking before, so I was really excited. We started out, and my kayak just went around in circles ... but then one of the instructors did something to my kayak that helped. We played tag to get used to manuevering our kayaks, and I did fairly well, I was one of the last ones to be captured. Two people capsized their kayaks, out of enthusiasm for the game. Then we ventured out into the open sea. It was so beautiful with all the rock formations, we kayaked around some big rocks and into some little crevices. On the way back for some reason I had a really hard time steering, but I made it back to shore and never fell in! One guy fell in twice. :) We ate lunch (baked potatoes and corn), and then had to pack up all of our stuff and got driven to our bus stop at 2. We were the first ones on the bus this time, and for a couple of hours it was only us Preseli people on the bus (not all of the people that went, though, because some had opted to take the quicker, yet more expensive train back). At one stop (Swansea) we had to switch buses because apparently the heat wasn't working on ours. When we got on the new bus it felt equally as cold. We were all starving, and didn't stop for a break/dinner until 8:00. We only had 25 minutes, so basically just shoved the food in our faces.
We got back to London at a little after 10:00. I was exhausted. I slept like a rock. It was an amazing weekend. Coasteering was my favorite. I have pictures from the hike, but I did not have a waterproof camera, so I do not have pictures of me in a wetsuit for the water activities. Check out the website here to see what coasteering and such looks like: http://www.preseliventure.co.uk/
Here are pictures from Wales: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098278&l=bd921&id=73405745
MONDAY/(TODAY)
Slept in until noon ... (I was worn out!) Then went to the Natural History Museum with Louise, Daniel, Tianda, and Brit. It is so beautiful inside. Later we met up with Bat-el at The Rocket, a pub near King's Cross with curly fries!! Also, the screening room and cafe are now open in Nido! Yay! We can finally use things that we've been paying for!
I need to go to bed now, I have class tomorrow. And by class I mean for one we are meeting at the National Gallery and for the other we are meeting at the British Library. Love ya all!
With my theater class we got a tour of the Globe Theater the other day - it was really cool, there was a rehearsal going on for A Midsummer Night's Dream. We will be seeing King Lear there in April. That night we saw The Importance of Being Earnest. I really enjoyed it and thought it was quite funny.
I went to Wales this weekend. At our orientation, a woman came to talk to us about the opportunity to go on an adventure weekend in Wales to do sweet activities, and I signed up because I thought it would be a fun thing to do on my birthday. There were 20 spots set aside for London Met study abroad students. We could pick two activities to do, and I picked coasteering and surfing. The trip also included a hike. It was amazing. It was in an area called Pembrokeshire, kind of near the town of St.Davids/Haverfordwest on this map: (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geogdata/ngw/mapgif.gif). Here are the details:
WALES
FRIDAY
We knew we had to catch our bus at Victoria Station, so we went there and got food to bring on the bus to eat because we didn't have a ton of time and it was almost noon. We thought the bus would be really close to the tube/train station, but apparently the coach station was a couple of blocks away, so we got there with five minutes to spare, while the bus was loading. Then the bus driver informed us that there was no hot food allowed on the bus, and Tianda and I had gotten McDonald's, so we had to throw it away ... money down the drain. I quickly shoved some of my burger in my mouth first though. Had I known, I would have hidden it in my purse or something. The bus was full when we (me, Tianda, Zoe, and Leon) got on, so none of us could sit together. I got the crappiest seat on the bus -- the very back, in the middle. No pull down tray, no storage area under my seat, no reclining, no window, right by the bathroom. There was no seat in front of me, so I did have lots of leg room. At this point I was kind of in a bad mood. I had a 7 hour bus ride ahead of me, I had eaten nothing yet, I had the crappiest seat, and it was my birthday. It was not how I wanted to spend my birthday, but I had to remind myself that I was going to end up in Wales ... Luckily, I had bought two cookies, and had also brought two granola bars with me, so that was my lunch. Half way there we stopped at this place for a break so I bought more food. The lady next to me starting talking to me and told me my accent was beautiful, which I've never been told before. She was cool to talk to, she was going to Wales with her daughter to visit her sister. Soon after that the guy in front of me got off so I was able to sit by Zoe. Near the end of the longest bus ride of my life, it got really cold, and we were all freezing by the time we got there. The Preseli people picked us up, and we were on our way to the camp (I'm going to call it a camp because I don't know what else to call it). We got out rooms and then went to the "lodge" to eat a delicious dinner of lasagna and dessert of apple pie and ice cream! We just kind of chilled and hung out the rest of the night, playing games. We met a bunch of cool people that were from Syracuse that go to a Syracuse campus here in London.
SATURDAY
We got woken up at 8:15 to go get breakfast. My first activity was coasteering. We went to the shed and got on wetsuits, vests, shorts, wetsuit socks and gloves, life jackets (they call them 'buoyancy aids'), and helmets. It was my first time ever in a wet suit! They drove us to the coast, and we walked down to the water. There's no beach, just rocks, so we had to climb down (which is the whole point of coasteering -- climbing all over the coast). It was pretty cold -- but then it was time to jump in the water. And THAT was freezing!!! The wetsuit really helped though and after a while it really wasn't that bad. So basically we just clambered all along the coast, on huge rocks, occasionally jumping in the water and getting thrashed about by the waves. There were three bigger jumps as well, and I did them all! The highest one was probably the equivalent of jumping off of the roof of a house. It didn't look that bad from the water, but when I was standing up there all I could think was am I crazy?!? But I did it and it was amazing. Afterwards, we changed into warm clothes back at our bus, there were no buildings or anything, so boys changed on one side of the bus and girls on the other (not in it, outside of it). It was cold and I think 2 cars went by ... We all shared hot chocolate in the bus. Everyone was freezing. We had a delicious lunch of soup and bread.
After lunch my group went on a hike (the entire group of 32 was split into three - in the afternoon a different group went coasteering and another went surfing). Basically they drove us really far away and we had to walk all the way back - we got no guides, we had to do it by ourselves, we did get a map though. Tianda and I were really slow because we were taking 80 million pictures, so we got separated from the group which was totally fine. It was a 7 1/2 mile hike, all along the coast. It was so gorgeous, but probably a little too long. In some spots it was really muddy and the trail often went through farmer's fields and sheep pastures. I fell down in a sheep pasture because it was really slippery. There were sheep everywhere, we took lots of pictures of them. We started getting sick of the hike near the end, but the scenery never ceased to amaze. Nicky (she works at the study abroad office at London Met and came with us) came back to get us because we were slow, which was good, because near the end I don't know if we would've found our way back. Our dinner was a yummy Indian chicken thing with curry, with berry cheesecake and cream for dessert. Afterwards, they made us a bonfire and had music on in the lodge. We played a four hour game of Monopoly, which was really fun. It was British Monopoly, too, so all the properties were places in England, like King's Cross, Fleet Street, Strand, Piccadilly, and even Pentonville Road! When we were done playing we went to check out the bonfire. There was a really steep and slippery hill to get to the fire, and I fell down it and tumbled a bit. Everyone had been falling up and down it all night, so I wasn't the only one! I roasted a couple of marshmellows ... they were yummy.
SUNDAY
I woke up and everything was sore. I had tiny cuts on my finger tips from coasteering, from grabbing onto barnacles on rocks when climbing about. My activity today was surfing, so we all gathered after breakfast. Our guide told us that the waves were not that big and we could probably catch some waves, but we might have more fun if we went kayaking instead. This was totally fine with me because I had actually wanted to switch from surfing to kayaking anyway. This meant wetsuits again, but a different kind, because we wouldn't actually be submerged in the water (unless you fell in). The previous day, we had rinsed off all the wetsuits and equipment to clean it, so that meant that today they were all really cold and still not dry. We even had to chip ice off of some, and some were stiff because they were frozen. Putting them on was SO COLD. The worst was putting on these wetsuit shoe things, I thought my feet were going to fall off from frostbite. But after about 10 minutes, your body heats it up and you get quite warm, especially if you move around a bit. I had never been kayaking before, so I was really excited. We started out, and my kayak just went around in circles ... but then one of the instructors did something to my kayak that helped. We played tag to get used to manuevering our kayaks, and I did fairly well, I was one of the last ones to be captured. Two people capsized their kayaks, out of enthusiasm for the game. Then we ventured out into the open sea. It was so beautiful with all the rock formations, we kayaked around some big rocks and into some little crevices. On the way back for some reason I had a really hard time steering, but I made it back to shore and never fell in! One guy fell in twice. :) We ate lunch (baked potatoes and corn), and then had to pack up all of our stuff and got driven to our bus stop at 2. We were the first ones on the bus this time, and for a couple of hours it was only us Preseli people on the bus (not all of the people that went, though, because some had opted to take the quicker, yet more expensive train back). At one stop (Swansea) we had to switch buses because apparently the heat wasn't working on ours. When we got on the new bus it felt equally as cold. We were all starving, and didn't stop for a break/dinner until 8:00. We only had 25 minutes, so basically just shoved the food in our faces.
We got back to London at a little after 10:00. I was exhausted. I slept like a rock. It was an amazing weekend. Coasteering was my favorite. I have pictures from the hike, but I did not have a waterproof camera, so I do not have pictures of me in a wetsuit for the water activities. Check out the website here to see what coasteering and such looks like: http://www.preseliventure.co.uk/
Here are pictures from Wales: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098278&l=bd921&id=73405745
MONDAY/(TODAY)
Slept in until noon ... (I was worn out!) Then went to the Natural History Museum with Louise, Daniel, Tianda, and Brit. It is so beautiful inside. Later we met up with Bat-el at The Rocket, a pub near King's Cross with curly fries!! Also, the screening room and cafe are now open in Nido! Yay! We can finally use things that we've been paying for!
I need to go to bed now, I have class tomorrow. And by class I mean for one we are meeting at the National Gallery and for the other we are meeting at the British Library. Love ya all!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Classes, British Library, Hampton Court, Chinese New Year, BAFTAs, BBQ
This is going to be a loooooooong post, so hold on tight. I'm also not going to say the days I did things, because I just confuse myself and can't remember ... so I'm just going to randomly tell you about activities I did. Sometimes I may throw in a day if I do remember. If this bothers you, too bad, get over it. :)
CLASSES
My Art in London class will be awesome, instead of meeting in a classroom every week, we meet at various galleries. Tomorrow we meet at the Courtauld Institute. We have to keep journals of our reactions to various places and works of art we see. The class covers mostly modern art, which is cool, but not what I expected. I think the professor thinks I'm dumb because I'm an art major and I haven't had any art history classes yet. She asked if I was taking any art history classes while I was here, and I said no (because the one I wanted to take wasn't being offered and it's so confusing to find classes on their website so I couldn't find a replacement.) and then she asked me if that was on purpose. Jerk face.
Then I had a graphic design class which is just called 'Print'. I think it will be a cool class. It's with all British students, which is cool. I was talking to this one girl who said she didn't like the professor, said that he was mean, but she said not to worry, he is really nice to study abroad students. I thought he was just fine. In this class and my other graphic design class (I actually have the same professor for both) we just have one project we have to work on for the whole semester. In Print, each person is going to make their own magazine. It's a little intimidating, but it will be really cool to do. There are probably about 15-20 people in the class.
My other graphic design class is called 'Design for Change'. It's interesting ... there's a ton of people in the class (maybe 50), mostly British students. We got in groups of 5, then picked a topic out of an envelope. Our topic is 'traffic cones'. So we have to do a project with traffic conse. And that is all I know. Should be interesting, eh?
My last class was Theater in London, which I think I already posted about, because it's going to be a really cool class. We'll see a play about every week. Our first play we are seeing is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
BRITISH LIBRARY
Brit and I went to the British Library on Thursday because we don't have class. I've been there before, but it's still soooo cool. My mind can't even grasp that I'm looking at the Magna Carta, or a Gutenburg Bible, or letters written by Jane Austen, or the first copy of Beowulf, or one of Mozart's songs, etc. They have headphones you can listen to at various points, so I was standing there listening to the Beatles song 'Yesterday' while reading the original lyrics that were written down on a scrap piece of paper with a blue marker or something. It's crazy. And they have this sweet exhibition that has a lot to do with graphic design and the Bauhaus.
HAMPTON COURT
We went on a free trip (provided for study abroad students by London Met) to Hampton Court, one of King Henry VIII's palaces. It was really cool, but unorganized. We took the tube to Waterloo train station, and then took the train to the last stop. But the leader person didn't tell us any of this. It was just all of a sudden "We're going to the tube now, let's go to the station" and she looked annoyed when people would ask her what stop we were getting off at. The Palace was huge, and they are renovating part of it so they covered up the scaffolding with a ginormous tarp with a picture of Henry VIII on it. I thought it was funny. There are really nice gardens, and the oldest hedge maze ever is there (I think, it said something about the Guinness Book of World Records on it).
CHINESE NEW YEAR
London has a Chinatown, and now it is the Chinese New Year! So they have lots of celebrations going on. We went to an event at the British Museum were there was food and different performances and stuff. We went to it with our new Danish friend, Bat-el. We got to see some dances with swords, some girls danced with huge long feathers on their heads. It was really sweet.
BAFTAS - THE RED CARPET
On Sunday, we headed out to go to the Chinese New Year parade. Brit was interested in possibly going to the BAFTAs, (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), it's like the British Oscars. We knew you needed a wristband and had to wait in line and stuff. So before the parade (it was really close to the parade route) we decided to swing by and see how hard it would be to get wristbands and stuff. We talked to this security guy and he whipped out wristbands out of no where so we decided to go for it. Brit got in line, and Tianda, Bat-el, and I went to go watch the parade. It was cool, but honestly nothing amazing, it was hard to see, there were so many people watching it. Then we went back to the line and took shifts to go to the bathroom and eat food. We had to wait to be let in "public pens" next to the red carpet. We were there from 11, and celebrities didn't show up until about 5:00. But it was worth it.
So going to our "pens" there was lots of pushing... it was annoying, but all part of the experience. We met this woman in line who goes to premiers and the Baftas every year, so we got some good advice from her. Before any celebs arrived, they let out two puppies to smell out the carpet to make sure there were no drugs or bombs. And they literally were puppies. They were really cute, but I don't know how well of a job they did. They were really hyperactive and got easily distracted. The first person we saw was Ryan Seacrest, and we had to explain to some British people behind us who he was because they don't have American Idol here. Next to come was Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office. I was really close to the red carpet, and so I got really good pictures. I didn't have anything for them to sign, but there was only one row of people in front of me, which was sweet. Some celebrities seemed very happy to get the attention and tried to sign as many autographs as they could, whereas others didn't really seem thrilled. Others didn't come to our side of the carpet, so I only saw their backs for a long time and then they would finally turn around when they were really far away. We got these ear phones things so that we could listen to this announcer guy that could see who was arriving, and he sometimes provided comments on what people were wearing.
Notable people I saw include: Hugh Laurie (didn't sign any autographs), Eddie Izzard (British comedian), Andy Serkis (Gollum in Lord of the Rings), Viggo Mortensen (did not seem happy to be there), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter!!!!), Orlando Bloom (did not come on my side), James McAvoy (Atonement and The Last King of Scotland), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood), Daniel Day Lewis (Brit got his autograph, he signed 'Daniel DL'), Kiera Knightley, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, Big Fish) ... and more. Here are pictures: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097518&l=4bb8b&id=73405745 They are on my facebook. See the stars!! It was really exciting and I've never done anything like that before.
BBQ
After the BAFTA red carpet walk, we went to a barbeque that the Brazilians had invited us to at one of their houses by Turnpike Lane. It was really fun. I miss chilling around a fire because that's what my friends and I do all the time at home. They grilled us some delicious chicken. We just sat around and talked the whole night and it was a nice relaxing way to end our busy star-studded day. The tube closes at midnight, and we didn't want to figure out the bus, so we just slept at their house (they insisted), because it was really late by the time we were getting tired. They whipped these mattresses out of no where and sheets and pillows and everything. Just Brit and I slept over because Tianda and Zoe had left earlier and Louise had gone to Daniel's (her boyfriend's) house. We left at about 11 and went back on the tube.
TODAY
Today I went with Louise and Daniel to Covent Garden because she had an interview at a cafe. Then we just walked around for a while. I also cleaned up the room for a while. We bought some cleaner, so I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen area. I'm trying to figure out how to get to Cairo over spring break to visit Amanda. I need to hardcore figure everything out soon before it is too late. This weekend I go to Wales on an adventure trip. http://www.preseliventure.co.uk/
It will be a fun birthday!
More pictures of general London stuff so far can be seen here: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097511&l=01611&id=73405745
Enjoy! It's bedtime for me, I actually have to go to class tomorrow ....
Night!
CLASSES
My Art in London class will be awesome, instead of meeting in a classroom every week, we meet at various galleries. Tomorrow we meet at the Courtauld Institute. We have to keep journals of our reactions to various places and works of art we see. The class covers mostly modern art, which is cool, but not what I expected. I think the professor thinks I'm dumb because I'm an art major and I haven't had any art history classes yet. She asked if I was taking any art history classes while I was here, and I said no (because the one I wanted to take wasn't being offered and it's so confusing to find classes on their website so I couldn't find a replacement.) and then she asked me if that was on purpose. Jerk face.
Then I had a graphic design class which is just called 'Print'. I think it will be a cool class. It's with all British students, which is cool. I was talking to this one girl who said she didn't like the professor, said that he was mean, but she said not to worry, he is really nice to study abroad students. I thought he was just fine. In this class and my other graphic design class (I actually have the same professor for both) we just have one project we have to work on for the whole semester. In Print, each person is going to make their own magazine. It's a little intimidating, but it will be really cool to do. There are probably about 15-20 people in the class.
My other graphic design class is called 'Design for Change'. It's interesting ... there's a ton of people in the class (maybe 50), mostly British students. We got in groups of 5, then picked a topic out of an envelope. Our topic is 'traffic cones'. So we have to do a project with traffic conse. And that is all I know. Should be interesting, eh?
My last class was Theater in London, which I think I already posted about, because it's going to be a really cool class. We'll see a play about every week. Our first play we are seeing is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
BRITISH LIBRARY
Brit and I went to the British Library on Thursday because we don't have class. I've been there before, but it's still soooo cool. My mind can't even grasp that I'm looking at the Magna Carta, or a Gutenburg Bible, or letters written by Jane Austen, or the first copy of Beowulf, or one of Mozart's songs, etc. They have headphones you can listen to at various points, so I was standing there listening to the Beatles song 'Yesterday' while reading the original lyrics that were written down on a scrap piece of paper with a blue marker or something. It's crazy. And they have this sweet exhibition that has a lot to do with graphic design and the Bauhaus.
HAMPTON COURT
We went on a free trip (provided for study abroad students by London Met) to Hampton Court, one of King Henry VIII's palaces. It was really cool, but unorganized. We took the tube to Waterloo train station, and then took the train to the last stop. But the leader person didn't tell us any of this. It was just all of a sudden "We're going to the tube now, let's go to the station" and she looked annoyed when people would ask her what stop we were getting off at. The Palace was huge, and they are renovating part of it so they covered up the scaffolding with a ginormous tarp with a picture of Henry VIII on it. I thought it was funny. There are really nice gardens, and the oldest hedge maze ever is there (I think, it said something about the Guinness Book of World Records on it).
CHINESE NEW YEAR
London has a Chinatown, and now it is the Chinese New Year! So they have lots of celebrations going on. We went to an event at the British Museum were there was food and different performances and stuff. We went to it with our new Danish friend, Bat-el. We got to see some dances with swords, some girls danced with huge long feathers on their heads. It was really sweet.
BAFTAS - THE RED CARPET
On Sunday, we headed out to go to the Chinese New Year parade. Brit was interested in possibly going to the BAFTAs, (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), it's like the British Oscars. We knew you needed a wristband and had to wait in line and stuff. So before the parade (it was really close to the parade route) we decided to swing by and see how hard it would be to get wristbands and stuff. We talked to this security guy and he whipped out wristbands out of no where so we decided to go for it. Brit got in line, and Tianda, Bat-el, and I went to go watch the parade. It was cool, but honestly nothing amazing, it was hard to see, there were so many people watching it. Then we went back to the line and took shifts to go to the bathroom and eat food. We had to wait to be let in "public pens" next to the red carpet. We were there from 11, and celebrities didn't show up until about 5:00. But it was worth it.
So going to our "pens" there was lots of pushing... it was annoying, but all part of the experience. We met this woman in line who goes to premiers and the Baftas every year, so we got some good advice from her. Before any celebs arrived, they let out two puppies to smell out the carpet to make sure there were no drugs or bombs. And they literally were puppies. They were really cute, but I don't know how well of a job they did. They were really hyperactive and got easily distracted. The first person we saw was Ryan Seacrest, and we had to explain to some British people behind us who he was because they don't have American Idol here. Next to come was Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office. I was really close to the red carpet, and so I got really good pictures. I didn't have anything for them to sign, but there was only one row of people in front of me, which was sweet. Some celebrities seemed very happy to get the attention and tried to sign as many autographs as they could, whereas others didn't really seem thrilled. Others didn't come to our side of the carpet, so I only saw their backs for a long time and then they would finally turn around when they were really far away. We got these ear phones things so that we could listen to this announcer guy that could see who was arriving, and he sometimes provided comments on what people were wearing.
Notable people I saw include: Hugh Laurie (didn't sign any autographs), Eddie Izzard (British comedian), Andy Serkis (Gollum in Lord of the Rings), Viggo Mortensen (did not seem happy to be there), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter!!!!), Orlando Bloom (did not come on my side), James McAvoy (Atonement and The Last King of Scotland), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood), Daniel Day Lewis (Brit got his autograph, he signed 'Daniel DL'), Kiera Knightley, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, Big Fish) ... and more. Here are pictures: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097518&l=4bb8b&id=73405745 They are on my facebook. See the stars!! It was really exciting and I've never done anything like that before.
BBQ
After the BAFTA red carpet walk, we went to a barbeque that the Brazilians had invited us to at one of their houses by Turnpike Lane. It was really fun. I miss chilling around a fire because that's what my friends and I do all the time at home. They grilled us some delicious chicken. We just sat around and talked the whole night and it was a nice relaxing way to end our busy star-studded day. The tube closes at midnight, and we didn't want to figure out the bus, so we just slept at their house (they insisted), because it was really late by the time we were getting tired. They whipped these mattresses out of no where and sheets and pillows and everything. Just Brit and I slept over because Tianda and Zoe had left earlier and Louise had gone to Daniel's (her boyfriend's) house. We left at about 11 and went back on the tube.
TODAY
Today I went with Louise and Daniel to Covent Garden because she had an interview at a cafe. Then we just walked around for a while. I also cleaned up the room for a while. We bought some cleaner, so I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen area. I'm trying to figure out how to get to Cairo over spring break to visit Amanda. I need to hardcore figure everything out soon before it is too late. This weekend I go to Wales on an adventure trip. http://www.preseliventure.co.uk/
It will be a fun birthday!
More pictures of general London stuff so far can be seen here: http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097511&l=01611&id=73405745
Enjoy! It's bedtime for me, I actually have to go to class tomorrow ....
Night!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
AMAZING -- theater
SO I know I promised to tell about my classes, but that will happen tomorrow .... you know, things happen.
I'm seriously going to pee my pants.
Had my theater class today and we're going to see a bunch of plays, and one musical. The musical is We Will Rock You, the Queen musical.
We're also going to see Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey (http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=38) in a play called 'Speed the Plow'.
But the most amazing thing? Brit and I just booked our tickets to see JOSH GROBAN, IDINA MENZEL, and ADAM PASCAL in Chess In Concert!!!!!!!! Read about it here, it's interesting, introduced by Tim Rice, lyrics by him, music by some guy from ABBA ... http://tickets.royalalberthall.com/season/production.aspx?id=10741&src=t&monthyear=5-2008. For those of you who are not aware, Idina Menzel played Maureen in Rent (both original broadway cast and movie), and also Elphaba (main character) in Wicked. Adam Pascal played Roger in Rent (both). What an amazing cast!!
I AM SO EXCITED!
It's 3:23 am ...
peace out.
I'm seriously going to pee my pants.
Had my theater class today and we're going to see a bunch of plays, and one musical. The musical is We Will Rock You, the Queen musical.
We're also going to see Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey (http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=38) in a play called 'Speed the Plow'.
But the most amazing thing? Brit and I just booked our tickets to see JOSH GROBAN, IDINA MENZEL, and ADAM PASCAL in Chess In Concert!!!!!!!! Read about it here, it's interesting, introduced by Tim Rice, lyrics by him, music by some guy from ABBA ... http://tickets.royalalberthall.com/season/production.aspx?id=10741&src=t&monthyear=5-2008. For those of you who are not aware, Idina Menzel played Maureen in Rent (both original broadway cast and movie), and also Elphaba (main character) in Wicked. Adam Pascal played Roger in Rent (both). What an amazing cast!!
I AM SO EXCITED!
It's 3:23 am ...
peace out.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Your city will NOT burn down ...
Yesterday (Monday) I got woken up by a lovely 5 minute fire alarm testing. And by 5 minutes I mean 5 minutes of it being on, then 5 minutes of silence, the 20 MINUTES of it going off again! And I am seriously not exaggerating. I think I just spelled that wrong. I don't care. And then after that the halls were all dark and the fire doors in the halls were closed. They are so paranoid about fire here, I guess. If there were to be a fire, it definitely would not spread, that's for sure. Plus, anywhere there are stairs, it's marked as a fire exit ... which to us in America means 'do not use' but here they just like to point out they have a fire plan or something.
We went to Primark on Saturday, and I got some clothes, and had a really long conversation with the cashier; therefore holding up the really long line. He recognized my credit card was from the US. He didn't know where Wisconsin was, though. He told me he was going to go to Miami and then asked if I watched NBA. I told him I liked European football and he asked me which team I supported. I told him I lived near where Arsenal plays to which I got a response of "Yeah Arsenal!!!" And then I left because other people wanted to leave the store as well.
After that we went to the British Museum for an hour and a half, saw the Rosetta Stone and all that jazz. After that we went to this little restaurant near Nido called Eddie's. Later that night we went to Guanabara (http://www.guanabara.co.uk/), a Brazilian club. A big carnival is going on in Brazil right now, so they have all sorts of parties. It was cool to go to the club with actual Brazilians. They taught us how to samba. There was a DJ half time and a live band the other half. It was really expensive to get in, but really worth it. We also had to wait at least an hour in the cold to get in (luckily we had cut in line - the Brazilians had some friends that were already there). I would highly recommend looking at the website, they have pictures posted from last year's carnival, so you can kind of get an idea. I think we're going back there this Sunday, because it will be free.
On Sunday, I basically slept alllll day, but later we went to Tesco and picked up a few things. Later at about 10, we left to go to the International Student's House (ISH) for a superbowl party. The Superbowl was on here at 11:30 pm, so it was kind of late and we left at halftime. I met Erin there, the girl that worked with Dad. We just recognized each other from pictures, even though we had never met before. She will probably come to Guanabara with us on Sunday.
On Monday Louise (our 'main' brazilian - lol), Zoe (Jamaican), and I went to the city campus to find our class buildings. We met up with Daniel (Louise's boyfriend) and ate at McDonald's, then we went shopping on Oxford Street. Then we met up with some of his friends at the Austrailian pub, Walkabout, except it was a different one, and a lot cooler. It had a big open room with a dome ceiling and two levels. It also had a giantic screen and tons of plasmas, that played music videos to the songs they were playing. Zoe and I left because we really wanted food, and they had cleared away all the tables to make a dance floor, so we figured food there would just take too long. So we met up with Brit (my roomie, from La Crosse) and Tianda (from Tennessee) and ate at a Burger King. (This is the same day as the fire alarms, I jumped around a bit, sorry, just follow along the best you can. :)
Today was my first day of class. I will tell about all my classes tomorrow, because right now I really need to go to bed, but I will finish telling about everything else that happened besides classes today. Basically we walked down to Angel looking for a place to eat, and we found this Mexican place called 'Tortilla' (http://www.tortilla.co.uk/), and I was so excited to have Mexican food!! It was good, too. Similar to what Qdoba/Chipotle would be. On our way back to Nido we stopped in a little convenience store and I bought tons of Hobnobs (yummy cookies) because they are delicious. Then we stopped in Louise's room and chatted with her and Daniel. And then I came and wrote this blog.
And Brit and I spent a really long time trying to figure everything out (when we did what) so you BETTER enjoy it, or I will pillage your hometown.
Also, I almost got ran over by a bicyclist today and it was totally my fault.
We went to Primark on Saturday, and I got some clothes, and had a really long conversation with the cashier; therefore holding up the really long line. He recognized my credit card was from the US. He didn't know where Wisconsin was, though. He told me he was going to go to Miami and then asked if I watched NBA. I told him I liked European football and he asked me which team I supported. I told him I lived near where Arsenal plays to which I got a response of "Yeah Arsenal!!!" And then I left because other people wanted to leave the store as well.
After that we went to the British Museum for an hour and a half, saw the Rosetta Stone and all that jazz. After that we went to this little restaurant near Nido called Eddie's. Later that night we went to Guanabara (http://www.guanabara.co.uk/), a Brazilian club. A big carnival is going on in Brazil right now, so they have all sorts of parties. It was cool to go to the club with actual Brazilians. They taught us how to samba. There was a DJ half time and a live band the other half. It was really expensive to get in, but really worth it. We also had to wait at least an hour in the cold to get in (luckily we had cut in line - the Brazilians had some friends that were already there). I would highly recommend looking at the website, they have pictures posted from last year's carnival, so you can kind of get an idea. I think we're going back there this Sunday, because it will be free.
On Sunday, I basically slept alllll day, but later we went to Tesco and picked up a few things. Later at about 10, we left to go to the International Student's House (ISH) for a superbowl party. The Superbowl was on here at 11:30 pm, so it was kind of late and we left at halftime. I met Erin there, the girl that worked with Dad. We just recognized each other from pictures, even though we had never met before. She will probably come to Guanabara with us on Sunday.
On Monday Louise (our 'main' brazilian - lol), Zoe (Jamaican), and I went to the city campus to find our class buildings. We met up with Daniel (Louise's boyfriend) and ate at McDonald's, then we went shopping on Oxford Street. Then we met up with some of his friends at the Austrailian pub, Walkabout, except it was a different one, and a lot cooler. It had a big open room with a dome ceiling and two levels. It also had a giantic screen and tons of plasmas, that played music videos to the songs they were playing. Zoe and I left because we really wanted food, and they had cleared away all the tables to make a dance floor, so we figured food there would just take too long. So we met up with Brit (my roomie, from La Crosse) and Tianda (from Tennessee) and ate at a Burger King. (This is the same day as the fire alarms, I jumped around a bit, sorry, just follow along the best you can. :)
Today was my first day of class. I will tell about all my classes tomorrow, because right now I really need to go to bed, but I will finish telling about everything else that happened besides classes today. Basically we walked down to Angel looking for a place to eat, and we found this Mexican place called 'Tortilla' (http://www.tortilla.co.uk/), and I was so excited to have Mexican food!! It was good, too. Similar to what Qdoba/Chipotle would be. On our way back to Nido we stopped in a little convenience store and I bought tons of Hobnobs (yummy cookies) because they are delicious. Then we stopped in Louise's room and chatted with her and Daniel. And then I came and wrote this blog.
And Brit and I spent a really long time trying to figure everything out (when we did what) so you BETTER enjoy it, or I will pillage your hometown.
Also, I almost got ran over by a bicyclist today and it was totally my fault.
Friday, February 1, 2008
A real update from real internet
MY INTERNET WORKS IN MY ROOM!
By some miracle, Nido finally loves me.
Let me explain about Nido. It is similar to a dorm, only we have kitchenettes and and bathrooms in each room. It is all students, going to different colleges, (not necessarily London Met), and they are not all international. It is crawling with security guards (I actually haven't seen them as much lately), and you need to scan your ID every time you enter or leave the building. We were promised awesome things on the website, a screening room to watch free movies on a big screen, a cafe, fitness center, etc. There's not a lot finished in reality, and the internet didn't work until just today. (Here's the site http://www.nidolondon.com/ ) Yes, it's a brand spanking new place, so it could be expected that not everything would be up to par. However, it did open back in September or so, so they've housed students and have been open for months with half the features non-existant. I'm not really complaining that much, it's a great place to live to meet great people, I just wish everything was completed.
The unfinished stuff has no date that it will be ready by, either, there's always construction guys all over the place.
The 29th - 31st we had orientation from 10:30 til about 3:00, with lunch breaks. It really wasn't that bad. Afterwards we (the people I've met and I) would always go do something. I've barely been in my room until tonight. We went to Covent Garden and walked to Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Standard-Tube-map.gif), they are areas well-known for their nightlife. We ate at an Italian Place where I had really crappy spaghtetti (no flavor, um, flavour). We went to Camden Market, which was really sweet, a huge market with cheap stuff. (http://www.camdenlockmarket.com/flash_main.htm)
Yesterday we (all the study abroad students at London Met) went on a bus tour of London and a boat tour on the Thames. Neither was super amazing, it was raining and there was lots of traffic. Afterwards we went to an Austrailian pub called Walkabout. There was live music there. Then we went to a club/pub called O'Neills (http://www.oneills.co.uk/home.php) which was really fun, with good music. We were out late, so the tube stopped running when we wanted to go home, so we had to take a bus which was really confusing, but we figured it out and made it back. I like the tube a lot better, it's so easy and convenient.
Today we went to both campuses (London Met has 2), North and City. I have classes at both, and North Campus buildings are pretty close together, but City Campus is much more confusing. We probably wandered around for 3 hours trying to find everything. We ate dinner by King's Cross (my neighborhood) at a pub called the Rocket. 2 meals for 6.50 pounds, and there were 4 of us, so it worked out really well. Afterwards we went to Tesco (cheap grocery store) because we needed a few items. Then we came back to Nido and were just chilling, and I figured out my internet worked, so I've been on it ever since.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to buy hangers, going to Primark (really cheap clothes), and then doing something really fun, like going to the British Library to check out this exhibition (http://www.bl.uk/breakingtherules), or maybe going general sight seeing or to the British Museum. At night, we are going to some Brazilian event thing. I really don't know what it is, but we are friends with some Brazilians, and at the time I am typing this, we're still not really sure what it is. But it will be cool, I'm sure.
Some things may be repeated from the last post, but I wanted to give a little more details. If you guys have specific questions about anything I've talked about or whatever, just ask me in the comments.
I'm tired, it's after 1 in the morning.
Cheers!
By some miracle, Nido finally loves me.
Let me explain about Nido. It is similar to a dorm, only we have kitchenettes and and bathrooms in each room. It is all students, going to different colleges, (not necessarily London Met), and they are not all international. It is crawling with security guards (I actually haven't seen them as much lately), and you need to scan your ID every time you enter or leave the building. We were promised awesome things on the website, a screening room to watch free movies on a big screen, a cafe, fitness center, etc. There's not a lot finished in reality, and the internet didn't work until just today. (Here's the site http://www.nidolondon.com/ ) Yes, it's a brand spanking new place, so it could be expected that not everything would be up to par. However, it did open back in September or so, so they've housed students and have been open for months with half the features non-existant. I'm not really complaining that much, it's a great place to live to meet great people, I just wish everything was completed.
The unfinished stuff has no date that it will be ready by, either, there's always construction guys all over the place.
The 29th - 31st we had orientation from 10:30 til about 3:00, with lunch breaks. It really wasn't that bad. Afterwards we (the people I've met and I) would always go do something. I've barely been in my room until tonight. We went to Covent Garden and walked to Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Standard-Tube-map.gif), they are areas well-known for their nightlife. We ate at an Italian Place where I had really crappy spaghtetti (no flavor, um, flavour). We went to Camden Market, which was really sweet, a huge market with cheap stuff. (http://www.camdenlockmarket.com/flash_main.htm)
Yesterday we (all the study abroad students at London Met) went on a bus tour of London and a boat tour on the Thames. Neither was super amazing, it was raining and there was lots of traffic. Afterwards we went to an Austrailian pub called Walkabout. There was live music there. Then we went to a club/pub called O'Neills (http://www.oneills.co.uk/home.php) which was really fun, with good music. We were out late, so the tube stopped running when we wanted to go home, so we had to take a bus which was really confusing, but we figured it out and made it back. I like the tube a lot better, it's so easy and convenient.
Today we went to both campuses (London Met has 2), North and City. I have classes at both, and North Campus buildings are pretty close together, but City Campus is much more confusing. We probably wandered around for 3 hours trying to find everything. We ate dinner by King's Cross (my neighborhood) at a pub called the Rocket. 2 meals for 6.50 pounds, and there were 4 of us, so it worked out really well. Afterwards we went to Tesco (cheap grocery store) because we needed a few items. Then we came back to Nido and were just chilling, and I figured out my internet worked, so I've been on it ever since.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to buy hangers, going to Primark (really cheap clothes), and then doing something really fun, like going to the British Library to check out this exhibition (http://www.bl.uk/breakingtherules), or maybe going general sight seeing or to the British Museum. At night, we are going to some Brazilian event thing. I really don't know what it is, but we are friends with some Brazilians, and at the time I am typing this, we're still not really sure what it is. But it will be cool, I'm sure.
Some things may be repeated from the last post, but I wanted to give a little more details. If you guys have specific questions about anything I've talked about or whatever, just ask me in the comments.
I'm tired, it's after 1 in the morning.
Cheers!
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