2/4-2/7-2010

2/4/2010

~ ??:??am
mmmmm bought butter rolls and a hunk of cheddar-





very good and should cover my lunch the rest of the week till Amsterdam. Also know for sure I'm in Rob's room at the hostel it's like 13 euro a night w00t! Just need to book my train then to the airport. Going down Piccadilly to hopefully see the Van Gouh exhibit but it might be 12 pounds so we'll see- hanging out down their until Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, only heard good things, excited and wish it was warmer so I could dress nicer. Apparently.- it's 20 degrees cooler in Berlin, sad day hmmmm I forgot I needed a hand written journal for INTS, maybe I can pick one up today- just a small one though, only need to do 3 entries a week with 14 weeks or so 29 entries or so. :P gah it's hot on the tube. Might see a movie tom maybe. Nowhere boy, the beginnings of John Lennon

~5:30pm
decided to chill out at this cute mall instead, out side the history studio's old time portraits place eating Turkish delight, which is really quite good



~6:00
fell into a bit of a marketing ploy, though I think it's worth it- XD see I've been accepting anything anyone hands me, it's been fun but I got this picture thing and the photo was free and all sooo- lol

mmmm strawberry Turkish Delight- I got a mish mash of stuff-few flavors of Delight and some dried fruit- this was fun-hmmm- sun dried banana is kinda gross- lets try something else...mmm dried kiwi is good....lol I think they are having some technical difficulties good thing I still have a half hour before I should leave, poor woman's on the phone with someone. I feel bad although maybe I'll get a discount lol- wow dried papaya is very tart. Oh the dried strawberry is very good. Mango's good as always. Oh side note the public toilets in this mall cost a pound, they're also the baby changing station, sad day for parents but I got a pic for urine town goodness lol



...holy crap there's a whole 'nother floor I haven't been to....oh mans- that clothing shop-like a hot topic style kinda- was selling top hats and bowlers at 50 pounds a piece- so cool!!!



~6:20
wow these escalators are really shoty. This is like a huge arcade, I enjoy that all of the “quarter” machines are 2 pence and 5 pence lol...shoots and ladders is adders and ladders...with snakes tee hee

~6:30
this place is intense: arcade, bowling, bumper cars, cinema...---ooo Claire's is going to have an Alice in wonderland product chain- oh and they have a sweet internet cafe here, it's all cyber techie.



Oh that's a cool idea-they're rhinestone necklaces that look like neck ties but shorter-got a pic – way cool, might be able to bead something like it :D



~8:25
intermission for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It's really good so far, just gorgeous and the set is so cool. The scrim in the back is all ivy dripped trees, so pretty – oh and some guys from our group are here too, and the seats by them were still open so I moved up like 10 rows and found people who I know...win XD...guy behind me, who was in a t-shirt and recently said “dude they sell ice cream here!” just offered me some chips...aka crisps. These people are awesome- the ones behind us are talking about making beer floats ROFL oh and the rose Turkish Delight is quite good

~9:50
I really like the attention to detail with the lighting. The moon is on stage right with this beam streaming into the room and you can see the shadows of the clouds drifting by on the light on the bed sheet

~10:35
Waiting at the stage door X)





(fun fact: this was pretty much the first time Nate and I ever spoke to each other)


2/5/2010

~7:27pm
waiting in the theatre for Les Misirables,



set looks so cool so far- it's weird to see grimy France creeping into this gilded angel filled theatre


(sorry it's so blurry...was trying to be discrete)

~9:00
intermission, before the show I went over to Trocadero Mall and picked up my stuff- it's so cool


(It's me!...made of bubbles!...in a key-chain!...although unfortunately it was lost in the mail...poor me floating around somewhere in a mail room.)

and went over to TokyoToys and was tempted to get pocky lol- Nate got a Bleach key chain and we admired the wooden swords lol...finished one essay and have another one tonight after the show- only 3 pages though and it's a critique so not so bad although I'm tired now- le sigh- oh and sooo much fog here- I think I've inhaled at least a gallon. Oh and this is the 25th year Les Mis has been playing on the west end- last show in London maybe- got some Hoagen-Dazs...very good X)...mmmmm


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2/6/2010

~10:55 am
finally got my paper written and I found out I write about 2 pages long hand for every 1 page typed and double spaced- lol I might write my Germany paper by hand seeing as it'd only be like 7 typed pages instead of 15 lol

~1:25
holy crap nearly got blown down a set of tube stairs because of a wind tunnel draft- crazy scary, jeeze...7 stops glad I brought my book lol and got a seat- man my legs are sore though mainly just my right thigh

~2:00
I love British fashion, just saw a guy wearing red chucks, skinny dark blue jeans, a white 70's tux shirt and a maroon velvet bow tie...and short spiky black hair

~2:15
oooo and a men's gray wool trench with a couple of great vintage costume jewelry pins

~4:00
at the market, and everything in London is steampunk...XD told myself I can't buy anything over 10 pounds lol...oh mans they have a stereoscope here....ah! So cool...eeee they have a Victorian photo album...sham it's 55 pounds and fragile- oh they know my weakness- skeleton keys- there are soooo many vintage clothing stores......
….my god this clothing store is lined with singer sewing machines, the old black ones like mom has at home...:'( wont let me take pics though sads...the shelves are bobbin winders I think...got a pic of the outside at least :D...



...oh and this is the Portabello Market Although I did pick up a cheep pocket watch today...7 pounds, the ones for 5 were lame and had monuments on them...but same watches elsewhere were 10 pounds, so I got a good deal :D



....hmmm Qype- what is it?

~5:55
holy craps I saw a bat in the tube- swanky, and cause Berlin is 20 degrees cooler then here and I've been cold here I got the coolest sweatshirt known to man- pics soon- it has kimono like sleeves and a ginormous hood sooo cool...


(trying it on...documenting the crazyness of it before I had decided to buy it)


(Action Shot!)

oh and I got a stereoscope slide for 3 pounds...it's of Niagara Falls very pretty-



oh and had a delicious sandwich for a pound- ham and cheese melt on ficata bread, so good- ooo I get to eat dinner in the hostel today fun fun- I have like 4 tokens right now- lol- can't wait for the funny look I'll get with my sweatshirt though XD- although an interesting fashion here are pants with like a 2 inch inseam, so they're like bags with ankle holes they're so weird- sigh I hope the tube comes soon

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2/7/2010

~ 9:24 am
on the tube going to Westminster...right next to the clock tower- going on a boat tour over to Greenwich and get to see the prime meridian.


(just got off the tube)


(Chillin on the boat)

Last night was fun, sept for me panicking like mad when I came in at 1:00 am and my comp wouldn't turn on...turns out the outlets are shot but I think it's the whole hallway, cause we weren't the only room

~1:00
just took pics on the prime meridian...

(not just any pics...Jumping Pics!)


Note: look up Harrison's time keepers, as well as Riefler's precision clock and Shortt's free pendulum clock

~9:45 pm
went beach combing while waiting for the boat. So much fun. Like 5 seconds after walking down Nate and I found a femur followed by a giant rib it was crazy. We think they might be like cow or horse or something like that, although we found a jaw bone that looked kinda like a deer/small horse like animal of some sort. I did pick up a few teeth though. A very large molar- like horse/ox type, a smaller molar, a front tooth that is from some herbivore, and a rodent tooth- similar to beaver but darker brown. I also found a couple very small poetry shards and a rock full of holes. Then as we were looking around we started finding clay pipe shards. I have like a kagillion of them. I'm thinking jewelry-maybe a couple of pieces for Etsy XD anywho-trying to pack blarg

(all the cool stuff I found!)

feb 2nd and 3rd

2/2/2010

9:50am
had bar trivia last night was super fun. At the end of round two we had a break and at that point we didn't know two questions- what is the capital of wales? And who was the lady of the lamp? And the guy who was doing it said something like lets have a change of pace, you ask me questions...and jokingly I asked him what the capital of wales is. And he was all like oh that's an easy one and then told me the answer then stopped and caught himself in the mistake ...it was hilarious during the break I ran upstairs and looked up the lady of the lamp question- Florence Nightingale- and ya know after reading it I did know that. Oh and the questions were general knowledge for 6-11 year olds it was like “are you smarter then a 5th grader” but without all the math and spelling...lol . Well we were 'team America-Fuck yeah!' it was good fun. We weren't sure which war the Somme battle was fought in...we knew it was french though...i think we said WWI- but we did get Gettysburg...lol. In the end we tied for first with the Australian team...so we each picked representatives for a tie breaker . I got volunteered and the announcer told us that he was going to read a question if I knew the answer I had to raise my hand and yell fuck yeah! If she knew it to yell Vegemite! He told us to put our hands on our buzzers which turned out to be his knees lol and Kelly was video taping all of this and the question was “what is used to transform sound waves into electrical current?” we both paused for a beat- completely lost and I shot up my hand, screamed fuck yeah and said “what is a microphone?” (damn geek jeopardy XP ) and I was right and there was screaming and hugging and high 5's everywhere. Everyone on our team got two buy one get one free drink token slips … I gave mine to the table cause I wasn't going to use them then us girls went over and danced with some of the Spanish (?) girls



mmm om nom I am going to miss black current jam after this ...I wonder if the Pig has it... I'll have to ask Michael. Worried I might be getting sick though my throat felt horrible last night...le sigh. Going to the globe today and to see War Horse, hopefully book tickets today. Oh and I just found out you can post vid and pics straight to blogger so once I get better internet I can put stuff up...fun fun



~6:20 pm
at the Hercules Pillars Bar getting dinner



...went to the globe and then over to the Tate Modern Museum saw some Picasso, Duchamp, Warhol and this really interesting exhibit based on the Anime “Ghost in the Shell” it was both really interesting and depressing.


(for some reason I took like no pictures in the Tate)

Speaking of Anime though they had a Manga section of Shakespearean plays, way cool.



(War Horse!)





~8:30 pm intermission of War Horse. People next to me don't get it...le sigh...not enough “realism” I guess- this is a very stylized show and all I've heard form peeps are complaints. Cause some of the puppet horses, the back ground ones are only like the front half of the horse. Oh and the backdrop is like a torn piece of paper across and they have been playing projections like sketch work on it the whole show to help show the scene changes. I think the show is just beautiful, bad seats or no bad seats- cause we're way on stage left in a balcony and the railing is in front of all the action of stage left and a lot of stuff is going on over there right at the beginning- but it seems to be getting better...my shoes and socks are sopping wet....my feet feel so nasty. I can't wait to get back.

~10:10
war horse was amazing. Made me cry though and I was the first one on my feet in our group for the standing ovation that was scattered through out the crowd...I really think they deserved it.. So good planing on seeing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at 3 tom and then Lion King at 7:30 XD

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2/3/2010

~12:00pm
walking through Kensington park- good weather.



Just finished up at the natural history museum, it was actually quite fun and only took us an hour and 20 where as people kept saying it took them 2-23 hrs.



off to Drury Lane to look for a TKS booth-

huh just saw a bird that kinda looks like a parrot...speaking of birds it is like a cacophony of bird calls here and in the midst of this I just heard someones ring tone which was the shower scene from psycho – felt surrounded by Hitchcock

~12:15
just saw a swan scratch it's head with it's foot... lol



~12:20
the trees are so cool here knobbly and twisty and old



~1:40
had a “lost in London” adventure, but I found batteries and a free ATM so all is good. Went from Kensington over to the south wharf



finally found Paddinton station and am now working my way over to Holburn to find Drury lane aka theatre land :D hopefully pick up some tickets for either today or Friday or Saturday actually. Should have brought my homework with...lol...ah well it would have been too heavy anyways. Stupid book, had a really tasty Belgium Muffin though :) mmmmm and past my first lingerie place and a place selling bongs lol- well my station is up soon hopefully I find tickets



~4:10
god it's good to sit down- well lion king was sold out but I got a decent ticket for Cat tom night. I think I might look up some cinema times tonight. I have film critiques to write :) but holy crap I've walked every freakin where today and my feet are so upset with the world- spend almost all day by myself, it was actually quite nice- found this adorable retro shop that ken was telling me about- snuck some pics and bought a vest for 10 pounds. It's way cute and I can use it for steampunk I think





- well time to book my flight...oh so cool- the guy next to me is in a full suit and tie with tennies on

~6:30
ticket purchased now I need to find away to print my boarding pass to make life easier- mrrrr I think my ankles are swollen not cool – well homework time

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I know I'm behind please forgive...I have 15 more journal pages to type before I'll be up to date so here's a snipet

this is a really early vid that youtube decided to hate...I hope this works

jan-30th-Feb-1st

continued from 1/30/2010

~11:19
lol just got whistled at while I was walking to the loo...I guess I shouldn't wander in my pj's.

1/31/2010

2:11 am Just had my first drink...ever... not bad either [it was a VK Vodka Orange...i have the label in my journal...lol] I was told it's basically a screwdriver in a bottle lol... I felt very much in London standing at the bar watching a football game (soccer of course) with pints on either side of me. Had fun hanging out with peeps though


(Kyle found out about this occasion and decided that I needed a photograph to prove it...even though i had already finished it and peeled the label off)

~4:45
trip back from the loo...hallway was filled with 3-5 boys all fit and in just boxer briefs talking to Kelly- I believe the boys were having a room “party” and all you could wear was your underwear...apparently Swedish

~9:12
ok that was terrifying ...fire alarm went off around 8:55 and my heart is still racing...smells like burnt toast though and no one is evacuating so we think we're good.

~2:45
in the national Gallery, just saw Van Gough's Sunflowers and Monet's Water lilies- just about died...omg!

~3:30
waiting outside the Odeon for the UK premiere of Invictus- going to hopefully see Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood XD

~3:55
picked up my London patch and just found out we're standing behind the barrier where the interview is happening...we might be on British TV...swanky

~5:15
freaking out- just got interviewed by a reporter! And our little American group totally cheered the loudest, out of like everyone there. Freezing out and the rugby cup just went by and got pics – that was fun- very frozen though (GMTV station that interviewed me)


(god I looked stupid why did no one tell me!?!)

2/1/2010

~8:32(am)
got some profile and back of the head shots of the big 3 last night. Morgan Freeman even did a little dance- he was the nicest out of the 3 for paying attention to the screaming crowd behind them.


(Morgan Freeman)


(Matt Damon)


(Clint Eastwood...this is Rob's photo...because all of mine were just of his luscious hair...lol)

(as you can see here)


Thought we lost Emily in the crowd afterward but it turns out she got a signature from Matt Damon and when we walked back to look for her we saw a “rugby riot” outside the Piccadilly tube- group of rowdy guys yelling and waving flags and the police around them. It was fun lol. Put milk in my tea this morning- it's actually quite good. Plans are after class to go to the British museum, book our flight to Amsterdam and see is we can't find Diagon alley.

~6:50
went to the British museum today-



for 3 hours- it was awesome, saw the Rosetta stone



-so cool and they had a whole room for clocks and it was awesome- nearly had a heart attack when I turned my back on the big clock and it went off- so freakin loud – I jumped. And they had this really sweet one that has like a ball bearing that went back and fourth on a track every 30 secs.



Took soooooooo many pictures though. Then went to find a cafe with wifi and the first place totally wouldn't let us on and the outlet didn't work at the second place so my battery died before I could do anything...although the hot chocolate I had to get for free wifi has got to be the cutest drink I have ever seen...pics soon...super depressing.



Although I ate at a pizza place for lunch today super delicious. And had some cherry soda that tasted like I was drinking carbonated candied cherries Super tired though blarg...hopefully pics will see facebook soon

~7:27
guh...my back is killing me...although I did find out I can strap my day bag around my waist which was so nice cause my shoulder felt like it was going to explode...