Listy Things

Top 5 Things I Miss About London (in no particluar order)


3. The Tube - more specificly, public transportation that actually takes you places you want to go, and quickly

2. The plethora of opportunities to participate in the arts - museums, theater, opera, symphony, concerts

5. All the markets

1. European Men - Holy cats! Do those guys know how to dress! They always look fantastic. Guys here in the states are super shlubby by comparison

4. Having the rest of Europe at my fingertips. Granted, I didn't travel all that much, but it was there.



Top 5 Things I'm Really Happy About at Home (in no particular order)

4. My friends and my family. I missed them.

2. My bed! The beds at Regent's, where we stayed, were not very comfortable. Plus they were small and the quilt barely covered the mattress. I'm so happy to have my nice, big (comparitively) double, soft mattress and all my pillows and my lovely soft sheets.

1. My own room. My roommates in London were very nice. I like having my own space though.

3. Bacon!

5. Ice!

There's No Place Like Home

Well, I've been back for about four days now. Life in Salt Lake hasn't really changed much while I was gone. In the next few days (actually it will probably be more like the next week or so) I will hopefully find the time to fill in some of the gaps in my account of my trip. Dublin, for instance. Visiting there was one of my absolute favorite things I did, but I haven't given it more than a short paragraph in this here blog.

For now I suppose I should finish my brief account of the trip. The last two days passed rather quickly.

Thursday
I went to Saint Paul's Cathedral in the morning. It was really spectacular. I then climbed up 530 steps to the Golden Gallery. There I was with the most spectacular view of the city of London from right smack in the middle of it. I pulled out my camera... and realized that I had left the battery in my room. Sad day. Actually, it wasn't so bad. Big panorama's like that rarely turn out with a little point-and-shoot camera like I have. It was also kind of nice to spend the day without worrying about taking pictures of things - just to enjoy it totally in the moment. Except I kept seeing things and thinking "Oh! I want to take a picture of that!"

Anyway, I finished at St Paul's around 11:30 and then jumped on the tube. I took my lunch at Trafalgar Square and then went in to the National Gallery. After looking at art for a few hours (they had some very impressive pieces, and the building itself was rather pretty as well), I jumped back on the tube and went to Harrods. I would have rather skipped Harrods, actually, but I was commissioned by my mother to buy some tea that only they carry. It's the Harrods brand so....

Thursday night I went out with some other students. It was kind of a one last hurrah since a lot of kids were leaving really really early on Saturday so would not be able to go out Friday night.

Friday
I slept in a little and started packing. After lunch I went up to Camden do get some last minute shopping done. I went during a football match* so it was very pleasantly not crowded. Usually (based on the one other time I went there) it's cramped and busy. That's very neat for people watching, but kind of claustrophobic for shopping. Afterwards I watched most of the U.S. vs Slovania game, went out for a nice final dinner, finished packing... and that's about it.

All the pictures from the trip are up on Flickr. There are over 1,000! So if you are planning on looking at them all I hope you have a lot of time.

Saturday I spend all day on a plane. I touched down at 11:59 at night and got home, to my own lovely bed, around 12:30. The next day was, of course, Father's day. I feel like I kind of hit the ground running. I've been mostly taking things easy, but I haven't had a day when I haven't done something. I suppose my life will soon get back to it's normal state of chaos.

Winding Down

I only have two full days left here in London. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I have a long list of things I would still like to do (if I had time and money). On the other hand I miss all my friends and my family. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and in my own room.

The last few days I've been keeping busy. Sunday I did go to the Marylebone Summer Fayre and Spitalfields Market just as planned. It was a fun, and busy day. Sunday night I watched Blood Diamond with a few classmates in the cinema here on campus (a bar and a cinema? Yes, Regent's College is pretty nifty).

Monday
I had class in the morning, as usual. In the afternoon I went to The British Library. It was...transformative, incredible, awe inspiring, breathtaking... and those words don't even come close to describing how _________ it was.

What was it that blew me away? They have an exhibition of "treasures," and treasures they most certainly are. In one room they have (safely in secure display cases) so many incredible things. The first thing I saw was the Shakespeare folio. The First Folio. Plus several other early, early publications of plays, and a manuscript with what is most likely his very own handwriting.

Next I saw Beowulf... the Beowulf, and the original (in Charlotte Bronte's handwriting) Jane Eyre, and Jane Austen's notebook and writing desk, and Virginia Woolf's journal from when she was writing Mrs. Dalloway, a draft of an Oscar Wilde Poem, a first draft of a Pinter play. These are all in the actual handwriting of these great, amazing, brilliant writers. And that bunch alone would have been enough to floor me, but there was still more!

In the next case was music. The first draft of Handel's Messiah. Scores written, by hand, by Mozart, Beethoven, Shubert, Hayden. I was literally in tears by the time I took all that in. I had to sit down and recover for a few minutes. And still there was more!

The next case was much smaller. In it was Beatles lyrics, originals. They had the birthday card on which John Lennon wrote "Hard Day's Night." They had 8 lines of an unknown song by George Harrison that is the only Beatles manuscript in his handwriting. Plus several other songs and an original John Lennon poem. And still there was more!

I turned around and found myself face to face with an Alice in Wonderland case. Within in, Alice's Adventures Underground: the original story, written out by hand and personally illustrated by Charles Dodgson (nom de plume: Lewis Carroll). Plus the original woodblocks for the illustrations of the first published edition.

Around the corner then were three pages from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook.

This was only about half the exhibition. I left completely overwhelmed and thoroughly impressed. I can't even begin to find the words to describe how I felt to be in the same room as all those impossibly wonderful things. It was like a religious experience.

Tuesday
It seems odd to write anything after that. But the next day I was back out in London enjoying the city. I had class again in the morning. In the afternoon I went to Macbeth at The Globe. It was a really interesting production. I'll tell you all about it in a later post. I'm a little typed out now. I think my first week back will be very full of blogging just so I can fill in all the details of things I've breezed over while here.

Anyway, after Macbeth and then dinner we went on a Jack the Ripper walk. It was a very bloody day.

Today
We had our last class. And in the afternoon we went on a guided walk to Brick Lane. It was kind of neat, but I'm also very walked out. Plus it was the same general area as the Jack the Ripper walk so parts of it felt very redundant.

I am not up to very much this evening. I'm taking it easy and letting my legs recover. I'm going to need them tomorrow. I'm planning on going to Abbey Road, St Paul's, The National Gallery and Harrods. It will be a very busy day. Friday I'm going back to Camden to shop and then I suppose I will have to pack.

Slainte*

I love Dublin.

I just had to get that out of the way first. I don't have a lot of time to write this morning, but I wanted to at least do a quick update. I'll probably go into everything more extensively later... like when I get home (which will be a week, sad face). So, on with it:

Wednesday after my brithday
The day was full of class stuff. In the morning we went on one of our walks lead by David Brady. This time we were (mostly) following in the footsteps of Mrs. Dalloway. That was really kind of fun because we had to read that book for class. And, that reminds me, I have to write a short paper by Tuesday. *sigh*  Anyway, our walk took us through "club land" where all the men's clubs are and where all the men's shops are. That's where you go for suits, ties, cigars, fancy shoes (that don't have heels) etc. Best thing I found: Zombie cufflinks!


The Weekend after my birthday
A group of us headed to Dublin on Thursday. We took the train and then a ferry. I may have mentioned this, but I love Dublin! I think I may have liked it better than London. It deserves it's own post completely but here is a short list of highlights: I rented a bike from the hostel and rode around a bit, saw the Book of Kells and the Guinness Storehouse, drank lots of good beer, saw some live music. Here is a picture:


Monday
After spending all day on the train back from Dublin on Sunday, I was all set to spend the day recovering. But then some classmates said "We're going to Kew Gardens" and I said "I want to come!" so I spent the day in Kew. The gardens are really lovely. I took lots of pictures of flowers. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the day.


Tuesday
I did finally take some time to rest. I was kind of exhausted after Dublin and Kew. Plus I had some homeworking to do. So after class I spent most of the afternoon just getting things done. Tuesday evening I went to a play: Joe Turner's Come and Gone. It was brilliant

Wednesday
was full of class stuff. We had regular class in the morning and then the afternoon was another David Brady walk.



I have to confess, I had a hard time on this walk - I only have so much interest in buildings and architecture. It was kind of a rainy day. I like London in the rain. After the walk I took the tube over to Covent Garden with a few other people for dinner, then caught a play at The Dunmar that was really good.

Thursday
We took the train to Richmond and then took a ferry up the Thames to Hampton Court.



I would have been happy to spend all day just on the river. But Hampton Court was really neat too. There was a real hedge maze. I got lost for a minute. That evening I went to a concert of the Philharmonia Orchestra.


Friday
Lynsey and I took a bus to Cardiff so we could be nerds.



We did Doctor Who and Torchwood stuff (didn't see any Cybermen or Daleks or even Weevils out around town, sadness). Plus, we saw the church where Roald Dahl was baptized.


Saturday
Yesterday. I've finally caught up to the present! I had a slow morning, slept in a little, took my time getting ready for the day. Then we took the tube to the south bank and saw Henry IV, part 1 at THE GLOBE THEATER. It was really good. We were groundlings, which means we were standing in front of the stage the whole time. That also means we were really close to the actor and got a (semi) authentic Shakespearean experience. I loved it, though my lower back and my legs were a little unhappy about standing around for 3 hours. Last night was, of course, the USA v England World Cup football match**. I watched it with my fellow classmates in the sports bar on campus... Oh? Have I not mentioned that there is a bar on campus? Well, there is. After the match we wandered over to a nearby pub and just spent some time having fun.

Today I'm planning on going to a couple markets with my roommate. There's a big street fair on Marylebone High Street and we're also maybe going to go to the Spitalfields Market.

* Irish for "Health." It is a common toast and is pronounced slon-cha
** British for "soccer game." Football match sounds so much nicer though, don't you think?

Cheers, Mate!

Oh I have been remiss! There is so much that I've done in the last week and I really don't want to spend a lot of time blogging today.
Really quick recap:

Tuesday we (as a class) went on a guided Shakespeare walk through London. We started at Middle Temple Hall, where the very first production of Twelfth Night was performed (and the film site of Hogwarts' banquet hall):

Then we proceeded to go past the reconstructed and relocated Globe Theater, the original site of The Rose theater and The Globe, and several other interesting things as well.

Wednesday we went on another walk, this time lead by our very quintessentially British guest lecturer, David Brady.

He's an Arts and Architecture professor at Regent's so his walk was more to do with architecture. Very interesting. Lots of buildings. We went from White Hall to Somerset House through Trafalgar Square and Covent Gardens. After the walk I dallied at Somerset House a while. They had a really interesting sound installation - the artist placed microphones under the Thames. As you walked around this interesting little space, you could hear all the different noises of the river. It was very cool and very difficult to describe. Finally I wandered around The Courtauld Gallery. It's a small art gallery but it has some amazing paintings, including two Van Goughs. One of those two is THE self portrait. The other is just spectacular. All Van Gough painting are, and you have to see them in person. Just the depth and the texture of the paint. I could stare at a Van Gough painting the size of a post card for hours on end and stay completely enthralled.

Thursday we took the train to Stratford-Upon-Avon (!)(... that wasn't nearly enough parenthetical exclamation. This is better: !!!!!!!!!!). It was really nice to get out into the country for a little while. We did all the typical Shakespeare tourist stuff, of course. The highlight for me was Shakespeare's Grave:

I know it doesn't look like much, but as I stood there I had chills. I was just a few feet away from the corporeal remains of the greatest writer of all time! Just let that sink in. The greatness is indescribable. Of course, we also went to all the important places: Anne Hathaway's Cottage, the Birthplace, Hall's Croft (his brother in law's house), and we saw a production of Antony and Cleopatra. The play was actually a little disappointing.

Funny thing: Seven years ago, Make-A-Wish sent me and my family to London for a few days. It was a wonderful, but brief trip. My actual wish was to see a play at the reconstructed Globe Theater and the play we saw was Richard III. It was a spectacular production with an all female cast. Very unusual, very interesting, very good. The actress who portrayed Richard in that production actually played Cleopatra in the play we saw last week. She's brilliant, but I'm not sure it was the best casting choice.

On the way back from S-u-A on Friday a handful of us decided to jump off the train in Warwick and have a look at Warwick Castle:

It was gorgeous. Sadly my camera battery died in the Peacock Garden so I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. C'est La Vie.

Saturday and Sunday I spent lazing about. My stomach rebelled and wouldn't let me eat anything so I spent most of my time in my room doing not much of any interest.

Yesterday I wrote a paper. In the evening we went to a play at The National Theater: London Assurance. It was fantastic! It's a farce, so of course it was funny. The cast was brilliant and star studded.

Today is my birthday so I am definitely going out tonight and having a fabulous time. I've got my eye on blues bar with a live band. Hopefully some dancing in is my future too. It will be grand! And, as per tradition on this blog, I have some some dancing creatures doing a birthday dance:







I like cats. Here's another one:

Good Day Sunshine

This weekend in London the weather has been beautiful! In fact it has been almost too warm. I think when the sun come out all the Londoners head to the parks and proceed to take off all their clothes. Saturday I wandered around Hyde Park. It was thick with sunbathers and footballers and frisbee throwers. Not that I can blame them for being outside; it was gorgeous weather. It's kind of shocking how many people live here in the city though. I can't imagine any of our parks in Salt Lake getting so crowded. And here EVERY park was full of people. There are a lot of parks in London, and they're big.

Anyway, Saturday morning Mike, Ben, Katherine and I rented paddle boats and went around our little lake in Regent's Park.



We had the option of a paddle boat or a rowboat. Mike and I started with a rowboat and quickly discovered that we both were really bad a rowing. Since we actually wanted to get out into the pond (and not waste the whole hour we had for the boats getting 20 ft away from the rental shack) we quickly exchanged our rowboat for a paddle boat. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning. Regent's Park is so picturesque, and it was nice to see it all from a different perspective - on the boat.

Saturday afternoon I struck out by myself (I couldn't find anyone from my group after lunch) and headed to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I'm not really positive where one ends and the other starts. It's all one gigantic green space when you're there. Like I said, it was positively thick with people. I passed several hours wandering around people watching and hunting Peter Pan.



I also took a nap under a very lovely tree and snooped around Kensington Palace. I then headed out of the park and wandered around Kensington/Notting Hill (I walked up Notting Hill Gate, which is kind of the border between the two areas, as far as I can tell anyway). Off the main roads there were a bunch of adorable and colourful apartments. It was a really lovely neighborhood actually.

Anyway, I made my way over to Holland Park. Holland is a smaller park, but I think I like it better than Hyde. It's very shady and dense with trees and plants. It feels much more intimate. And by the time I got there, the weather had gotten really warm, so it was nice to wander around in the shade for a while. There is a theater in Holland Park too where they put on operas. I will have to see if I can catch one.

This is the little Japanese Garden in the center of Holland Park:



You can't see it in this picture, because I am a very clever photographer, but there were a bunch of people lazing about. There were "keep off the grass" signs all over the place, but anywhere that it could be argued that people could be allowed, there were people lazing.

By the time I was done wandering Holland Park I was rather exhausted. I had been walking for about 4 hours straight. So I jumped on a bus and went back to the college.

Saturday night I managed to have another adventure with a group of people. A handful of guys said they were going to a jazz club. They said it was right off a certain tube stop, there would be a live band, and there was no cover. I was still pretty exhausted from walking around all afternoon, but it sounded fun so I allowed myself to get talked into going. Well, it took two trains to get to the stop. Once there we had to walk about 20 minutes before we found the place we were looking for. The club, as it turned out, was not free (there was a 9£ cover), it was fancy dress (people were in full out 1920's costume), and there was no band, just a DJ playing jazz tunes. If we had been more prepared, it might have been fun to go to this club. Most of the people I was with were dressed really casually. Plus none of us really wanted to pay a cover.

At that point we all decided to head back at least to the area near the college. By the time we got back to the tube station (we just made it before the tube stopped running), I was falling asleep on my feet. When we arrived back I fell into bed and slept.


Yesterday was another beautiful day. It was a pretty relaxed day too. I walked up to Primrose Hill, just north of Regent's Park, with Cameron and Matt. There was a little street fair going on in the area. It was kind of fun to walk through that. I bought some fudge at one of the booths (Rum & Raisin fudge, Mom. It's so rich!) and we all three got Churros. They were super fresh, we literally watched them being made, and really good. Then we walked up the hill. From the top of Primrose you can see a view of most of London. It was very impressive. Apparently (if you don't mind getting up really early and hopping the fence because the park is not open yet) that is a really nice place to watch the sunrise. I believe it. It would be really cool to see the sun rise over London.


Today is another not-much-going-on day. I'm planing on going swing dancing tonight so I don't want to spend all day walking around. It's just as well though because this is a heavy class week. I'm using the afternoon to get a little ahead with the reading and to write a short paper we have due on Wednesday. Now that I mention it, I suppose I should get to it. This blog has probably distracted me from working long enough.

And, of course, I have more pictures you can look at if you want.

London is Full of Nutters!

Let's see, the last time I posted was Tuesday afternoon, right? Tuesday evening we went as a class to South Bank for a backstage tour of The National Theater. It was really neat to see, especially since we will be seeing a play there as a class. At The National every evening thy have live music in the lobby for about an hour before the evening shows start. When we finished our tour the band was on so I sat and listened for a bit. When I turned around everyone in my class had vanished so I decided to wander around South Bank for a while by myself.

When the sun started to set, I made my way back home. I didn't really want to be wandering around London by myself at night. I decided to take a bus back rather than the tube. You get to see more that way. It took a while to find the proper bus stop, but when I did, did I ever get a treat. I was entertained until my bus came by the most amusing crazy man I've ever seen.

First thing he did was set down the 3 grocery bags he was carrying and then lay down on his back on the sidewalk. A few minutes later he rolled over on his stomach and yelled at a man standing a ways off "Why are you standing over there?" then, as some people walked around him he half mumbled "I'm about to be trod on there." So far he didn't seem too crazy. Next he walked out into the middle of the road, spread his arms and addressed God, I presume, and said "I'm accepted you gift!" then mumbled as he came back to the sidewalk, "but I don't know why you've given it to me."

He continued to mutter to himself for a while in a very amusing manner until a bus came by. He tried to get on and wasn't allowed for some reason. That set him off! "I don't want to ride your bus! Why would I want to get on your bus. London is full of Nutters! That's why I keep going back there." It was all I could do to keep from laughing at him. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. I didn't dare; not sure what reaction I would have spurned.

Taking the bus back rather than the tube was really neat. The bus I was on went through Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner. It was really neat to see a big chunk of London, albeit briefly, without walking for ages.

Wednesday

Wednesday after class we all took the tube to Kilburn to see a play at The Tricycle Theater:



The play was Twelfth Night. The theater is quite small and intimate. There was a lot of interplay between the audience and the actors. At one point they actually passed a couple pizzas around to the crowd. It was a spectacular performance!

After the play a handful of us decided to just jump on a bus and see where we ended up. The bus we chose happened to go by Abbey Road, so when I saw the cross walk we all decided to disembark and do the Beatles thing.



Unfortunately it was basically rush hour and we had no plan of action so the picture isn't great. I think we'll try to go back sometime early in the morning and get better pictures.

When we were done with Abbey Road we got back on the bus and headed more into town. We ended up at Trafalgar Square. From there we wandered back to The National Theater to see if we could get tickets to Habit of Art, a play for which we saw the set during our tour. They were sold out, but Cameron and I decided to go see Women Beware Women there instead. We sat around drinking wine and listening to the band until our show started.

Women Beware Women was another really well done play. I didn't love it as much as Twelfth Night, but it was still quite good. We were in the Olivier theater, which is the biggest theater at the National. As such there was not really any way to have the audience interplay like at the Tricycle. Plus Women Beware Women is a really dark tragedy so... it was basically the opposite of the play we saw in the afternoon.

Thursday

Which was yesterday, I forgot my camera. Much sadness. I went with a few people to The Tate Modern. That was spectacular. They have a really cool looking exhibition starting in June, so I will be going back. I can take all the pictures that I missed yesterday then. Some of the highlights: They had a full size marble statue of Rodin's The Kiss, several Picassos, a few Pollocks. I love modern art.

After the museum, we went across the river to St Paul's, but didn't want to pay to go in. They run tours and we missed the last one. We wanted to take the tour and didn't really want to pay 10£ twice. After that we walked down Fleet Street (I wanted to stop somewhere and get meat pies, but no one I was with got it). Finally we came back to the college around 5, quite exhausted from walking around all day.

Last night I went out with a group of people to a pub (or maybe I should call it a club, or a bar, I don't know. It looked like a pub to me, so I'm calling it a pub). There was a live band that covered a bunch of good rock songs. We danced and drank and had a generally great time. At about 1:30 we stumbled back to the dorms.

Today I'm really not doing anything. This afternoon I'm going to go out into the park and find a nice place to read. I am here for class, after all, so homework stuff must be done.

Even though I didn't have my camera yesterday, I still have a quite a few more pictures you can see. Go here to see them

Greetings from London

Well, here I am! And, of course, I have been here since Saturday. I have been keeping myself so incredibly busy. I haven't had time to write more than a crude list of everything I've done in my journal. I don't know if this post will be any better. I'll just tell you what I've been up to.

Saturday
I arrived at Heathrow around 8:15 local time. Our plane sat for an hour (after it we were all loaded on) at the gate before we were able to leave JFK so I was stuck on the plane an hour longer than expected. It wasn't so bad though: I was sitting next to a very attractive British man who was also very friendly. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get his name (or any contact information). There were about 12 of my fellow classmates on my same flight so we all made our way to Regent's College from the airport. We got a group rate for the Heathrow Express into town and from there half of us (the smart half, that didn't include me) took a taxi to Regent's. The other half took the tube.

This is where I'm staying. Regent's College is right in the middle of the park. This is a view from just inside the gate. It's in the middle of London, but also in the park so it's super peaceful. Just outside the gate, in the actual park itself, there are a million birds and flowers and gardens. It's absolutely lovely. This picture was taken right outside the gate:


So... Saturday afternoon we had orientation. Afterwards I went out with my roommate, Andrea, and another classmate, Andrew, to Angel in the Fields. When you think of a typical English Pub, what do you think of? Does it look like this:
 

That is an actual photo of Angel in the Fields. It's was a perfect English Pub and it's only about a 10 minute walk from where I'm staying. We had a couple pints and then wandered around to find some dinner.

By the time we finished eating and stumbled back to the college, I had been awake for close to 36 hours, except for the few uncomfortable hours I managed to sleep on the plane. Between that and the beer, plus wine we had with dinner, I easily fell right to sleep almost as soon as I returned to my room.

Sunday
I woke up very naturally at around 6:30 in the morning. I would have probably liked to sleep a little more (both my roommates and several classmates slept until at least 11:00) but I couldn't really get back to sleep. Plus I am in feeking London! I was excited to explore. I took a shower first then set off by myself to explore my surroundings a little. I went into the Inner Circle of the park and had a look at some of the gardens. They are stunning! After that I wandered up Baker street for a little way then made my way back to the college.

By the time I returned, more of my classmates were awake. I went to the Refectory (English for Cafeteria) with my two roommates to get some lunch to take-away (take-out). We then proceeded to walk through the park to Camden Town. We walked up and down Camden High Street and through Camden Market and Camden Lock Market. All three of those things are mind-blowing awesome. All three of them together are amazing to the point of over-kill. By the time we exited Camden Lock Market and started back down Camden High Street, we were totally burned out. Camden High Street is a busy little shopping mecca. It's also the place where all the punks and goths and "alternative" sort of sub-cultures come together so just people watching is fascinating. The shops are all kind of punky-goth with a smattering of cheap touristy stuff and discount everything. It kind of reminded me of China-Town in NYC. Plus, all the buildings have these great facades:


The markets are even more interesting. Camden Market was mostly clothing. You walk into this... it's like a tent city or something. In about one square block (except it may have been much bigger... every time I thought it was ending there was another row shooting off somewhere) crammed full of booths (for lack of a better word) where people are selling things. Mostly clothes, as I said, but there were also some shoes and a little jewelry and accessories.

Camden Lock Market was a little more spread out and possibly not as big. There they also had lots of food vendors. Everything smelled delicious and as we walked down the row people were handing us samples left and right. We probably should have just walked through there for lunch instead of getting something at the Refectory. Camden Lock Market had more jewelry and accessories than Camden Market. I absolutely intend to go back (probably near the end of my trip so I don't have to worry about saving money for the rest of my trip) later. I'll probably just do Camden Lock though - I found it much more interesting personally.

As I said, we were kind of burned out by the time we finished with Camden. Plus it was starting to rain. We walked back in a downpour. I spent the rest of the day taking it easy and reading for class.

Monday
We had our first class in the morning. It looks to be very interesting and somewhat informal. We've started our discussion with Twelfth Night, which we are going to see tomorrow. It looks like the course will be a combination of literature and London history. I think that's pretty fantastic! It's nice to know things about the city as I'm going about.

After lunch quite a large group of us went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, just across the street from the park. Then we all took the tube to Kings Cross to be super Harry Potter Nerds:



We thought maybe if we all pushed hard enough we would get through.

From there half the group stayed to wander around... there was some talk of a Charles Dickens museum. I went back with the other half for lunch then we headed to South Kensington and the Victoria and Albert Museum. That was extremely interesting, but we were only there for about 2 hours before it closed. 2 hours is not enough time to see the V&A. We did see quite a few very neat things though.

When the museum guards kicked us out we jumped back on the tube and took it one stop to Knightsbridge where we ate supper at Pizza on the Park. English Pizza is quite different. Three of the menu items (read: pizzas) had egg listed as a topping. Egg on pizza is not a happy combination. When we finished, the people I was with left for the LDS church for Family Home Evening. I didn't have much desire to join them. I decided to walk back to Regent's through Hyde park (just along the edge, I wouldn't call it seeing the park at all) bast Wellington Arch



 and The Marble Arch. It was a lovely stroll, but by the time I got back to my room my legs were about to fall off. I spent the rest of the evening reading and talking to classmates.


Today I haven't really done much at all. We had class this morning. Since then I've been lazing about in my room. Writing this, researching things to do, uploading photos, that sort of thing. I bought my bus ticket to Cardiff. I think I'm now finished with my computery stuff so I might go out into the park and read or write a little.

I'm wondering if I should try to blog every day. Mostly for my own benefit. It's nice to have a record of my day when it's still fresh in my head. Plus I'm doing so much that just a few days is... how long is this post? I haven't even really gone into any detail. That said, I really haven't had a lot of time to blog. I suppose it wouldn't take so long if I wasn't doing days at a time. I don't know. I guess we'll see.

I have a lot more pictures than I posted here. You can look at them Here.

Have You Got Anyone Named Alonso?

I'm jumping on a plane in a few hours and I'm about to shut off my computer and put in in my carry-on. So, this is the last time I'll be posting from the states for a while *grin*.

So, in the words of The Doctor:

Allons-Y

Shiny Shiny Blue-ness

Look! My blog is all pretty and new looking. I decided I should blog in blue. I had to keep the background dark because I've been posting forever in exciting and varied colors. I think it's nice to be able to read the archive. There are a lot of inanities I've thrown out into the void that you might find totally fascinating. If you were really bored. And creepy obsessed. I've been blogging since 2005! Isn't that nuts?

Anyway, enjoy the blue!

I'm busy busy busy getting ready to head off to London! I'm so incredibly excited. I promise I will update this blog at least once a week while I'm there. It's how my parents plan to keep track of what I'm up to, so if I don't keep things updated they will probably assume I'm dead. As much as that sounds like a great prank, I actually like my parents and don't really want to put them through that.

Speaking of parents:

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

ROAR (It's Totally a Thing)

It should be no secret to you that I am not the biggest fan of text messaging. I've mentioned it here once or twice and even gave it up for a while in protest. Granted that was a long time ago and I do use text messaging fairly often. I've begrudgingly come around to the technology. I blame Job o' Death. I spent so much time menially talking on the phone then that the very thought of a telephonic conversation made me gag. Not really. Still, I didn't love phones for a long time after getting out of that disaster.

Anyway, I don't really mind text messaging anymore. Notice how I am not saying "texting" that word still makes me cringe. TEXT IS NOT A VERB PEOPLE!!!!! Yes, that did warrant full capitalization. "Texting" and phases like "Do you text?" are such horrendous bastardizations of the English language (which is enough of a bastard already) they make me want to lock the speaker/writer (Gods! it's worse if they write it! Writing, at least, calls for proper usage of language. I can forgive a slip of the tongue, but you can do better if you're writing) in a steel box full of rabid, sharp-toothed, squirrels!

Deep breath.

That rantage aside, I will come to my point. I accept text messaging. I use it. I still don't love it and feel like there are some conversations that should not happen via text. Small talk, as I have mentioned before, should not be done with text messaging. Important "deep conversations" should not be done with text messaging. Emoticons should never ever be in a text message unaccompanied by actual text (rare... rare exceptions may apply). Nor should they come at the end of every message you ever send :). It's really annoying :). Almost as annoying as ending every statement with "lol" :). In fact, "lol" should probably never ever enter your text message/IM/internet commenting vocabulary... lol :).

Silly, joking, insubstantial but still fun banter is ok as text messaging. It can be kind of fun that way, plus you can then have record of the conversation so you can say to friends (when you are hanging out with real people), "Look how clever and witty I am!" Text messages are also ok for: Arranging to meet up (especially if an exchange of address is required), conveying quick info (running late; can't find the cheese; zombies on 4th and main! Run!), getting information to several people at once (NOT spamming, that's different and totally unacceptable).

Sigh of a ninja. I feel better now. That rant has been building up for quite some time. I'm glad I got it off my chest.

In other news, I leave for London in one week and 15 hours!

I think I'm going to give my blog a makeover before I go. Be excited.

This, That and the Other

Gosh it's been a while. I'm not going to make any excuses for why I haven't posted in a long time. You've heard them all before. Besides, it's my blog, I can not write if I want to. At this rate though 2010 will be my slowest blogging year ever. Maybe I need another Job O' Death so I have nothing to do all day at work but write useless stuff for the interwebs.

I'd rather not.

I plan to post a lot when I'm in London, at least once a week. There will probably be pictures. I'm really excited for that trip. I've been doing a little research about possible weekend (or maybe just day) trips to other towns in the UK. I'm definitely going to visit Cardiff (they have a Doctor Who museum thingy - squee!) and Liverpool (Beatles! double squee). If I have time I might hop over to Ireland and kiss the Blarney Stone or something. Even if I don't get to spend a lot of time traveling all over the UK, it's going to be a great trip! I'm so excited. I have a meeting (orientation thing) on Tuesday where I will probably find out a lot more about what we're doing officially with the program. I just might update with more details.

Classes are winding down now. I haven't really mentioned my classes for this semester. I don't really want to get into it now, except to say that they have all been really good classes. I've had fun and I've learned stuff. What more can you ask for?

That's really all I feel like saying right now. My love life has recently been kind of interesting, but I think that may be a whole different post. I promise I won't just be a tease about this. The post will happen. Soon.

But for now, I'm off to do something awesome!

Tally Ho Etc

A few posts back (if you click on the link, it's the second half of the post) I mentioned the summer London program at school. Well, this is just a quick update on that. I totally got accepted! There's still one potential obstacle, but hopefully it will prove not insurmountable. 5 weeks in London = Much Joy!

Checkin' In

After a long absence from the bloggosphere, I've decided that today conditions are perfect for a triumphant return. I'm playing hooky from school today because my brain is all clogged up with mucus and I can't breathe. I have a terrible cold. It started Friday in my chest and has expanded up into my head. I've spent the last two days sitting around in misery doing more or less nothing. I was hoping I would feel well enough today to go to class, but I got to the end of the driveway (on my way to the bus stop) and felt like I was going to pass out. So I turned around and went back home.

These conditions are perfect for blogging because a I'm super bored, b my brain functions are under the influence of awful cold virus which makes for some really interesting ramblings, c it's been a long-ass time since I blogged. (he he he long ass-time....this will make sense of it all)

When was the last time I wrote anyway? Damn! January 11th. That means I totally missed ULX, the start of classes, a revelation about my personal relationship to the whole dating thing, London excitement, and various other random bits of fun that I'm sure would have made an awesome blog. Sorry guys. I'll try to be more responsible with my updates.

Funny thing: a lot of the blogs I follow have been just as slack-tastic lately about updating. But in the last week or two they've also brought out their typing fingers and jumped back on the wagon.

I guess I'll start out with catching you up on all the stuff I just mentioned. Starting with ULX. Since I have posted about it in years past I'm not going to go into what it is here. Funny enough, I was just recovering from a cold when it rolled around this year. So I skipped out on the Friday dances and just rested with the hope that I could rally for Saturday and Sunday. My method worked. I wasn't able to do too much fast dancing, but I got in my fair share.

Highlight of the weekend: I totally danced with The Doctor. Ok, so he wasn't the real Doctor, nor was he David Tennant. This kid was dressed exactly like The Doctor though, even had the long coat. I found out later (because I had to talk to him... he's The Doctor) that he had it custom made for him. So, yes, the doctor look was totally intentional. Bonus: he is a great dancer. I was geeking out the entire weekend. He indulged my geekery, as did all my friends. Wasn't that nice of them?

I really wish I could go to more exchanges and lindy events. There are so many great opportunities for great dancing, most of the outside of Utah so you get the added bonus of great opportunities to travel and see new places. *sigh* Maybe some day I'll be able to run around the country dancing with fabulous people. In the mean time, there are a handful of fabulous dancers here, and I can be quite content dancing with them.

Speaking of travel... I might go to London this summer for a study abroad thing. Every year the English Department at the U does a summer trip to London. It's 6 credits for 5 weeks in Freaking London. Every year's trip has a special theme - for example, a few years ago, they did a London underground/ghost story sort of theme. They read Doyle and Poe and such and visited places those authors wrote and the setting for many of the stories. This year the theme is Early Modern Performance and Post-Modern Spectacle. That means pretty much Elizabeathan Theater (read Shakespeare!), and then how the city itself acts as a sort of "performer" and is a spectacle itself. But more important... Shakespeare!

I honestly didn't think there was any way I could possibly go on this trip. It's not exactly cheap, and 5 weeks would (will) be difficult to take off work. I didn't want to ask my parent's to pay for it. They've been hit hard by the shitty economy (who hasn't) and I certainly can't afford to send myself. About 2 weeks before the application was due, I mentioned it to my Mom. I brought it up just as something interesting, not as something I expected her to do anything about. When I finished telling her about it, she pretty much told me I should apply. They will find a way to pay for it. I guess these once in a lifetime opportunities should really be taken advantage of.

So anyway, I applied and am now waiting to hear if I got accepted into the program. Cross your fingers for me! There are a handful of things that could still pop up and stop me from going, but hopefully they can be worked around. I'm kind of afraid to get too excited about it until I know for certain I can actually go. It's hard though because, well, London!

My finger nail just broke. I'm going to go take a break now. I'll be back though, just like Arnold. Maybe even later today. Wouldn't that be fun? Two blog posts in one day! It shouldn't be possible! Oh, but I assure you, it is.