London Actually

Coming Home

2009-07-25T18:19:00.002-04:00

Well readers, I am returning to America tomorrow after nine weeks of being away. Jon and I have been having a great time this week and I can't wait to let you all know about it. However, the time is not now as I am quite exhausted and have to catch a plane from Heathrow tomorrow in the morning. I will have a grand conclusion post once I am stateside again. I am really excited to be returning to Indiana especially as summer is not over yet and I have the beach with my mom's family, a week at my Dad's, Jon's sister's wedding, and Jon and I's one year anniversary all to look forward to before dreary old school starts again. I'll see you all in the States!

Gutentag!

2009-07-21T05:38:00.002-04:00

Jon and I are now in Cologne, Germany and our hostel has free Internet so I thought I would have a quick update. After a morning struggling with two large suitcases and various buses at early hours, I stored my bags and got to the airport. Jon's flight didn't show up on the arrivals board and so, being my mother's daughter, I assumed it had crashed and panicked. Luckily, the case was not so and he and I had a disgusting Love Actually reunion I will not recount here.

I immediately took him to the Tower which we both thoroughly enjoyed despite large numbers of tourists. Seriously, the most concentrated area of tourists since I have been here. We also went on Tower Bridge before leaving for the airport for Amsterdam. This drunk guy with a dog wouldn't stop talking to us on the train to Stansted but other than that, all went fairly well.

We loved Amsterdam. We went to the Sexmuseum, walked all over the district, took a paddleboat on the canal, went to Anne Frank's House, and shopped for prostitutes in the Red Light District. Not really, but we did walk through the Red Light District, seeing as that was where our hostel was. Our room was also a stainless steel bachelor bad circa 1970, pictures to follow when I return to my laptop. Amsterdam is a beautiful city besides all the sin and smoke, so we had a really great day there.

We are now in Cologne about to go off to the Chocolate Museum (!) but I wanted to let you all know we are OK and having a great time. Aufwiedersein! (I know, not how you spell it, give my apologies to Heidi Klum.)

Going Offline

2009-07-18T04:58:00.002-04:00

I am about to leave Palace Court and thus leave Internet access. I don't know when I will have it again or if I will get to an Internet cafe but I am hoping that I will. I can share Jon and I's adventures with all of you plus have some sort of blog closure to my whole study abroad experience. So keep watching for an update my loyal readers.

Last Week of the Program

2009-07-17T06:16:00.006-04:00

Sunday I slept until noon after the debacle that was Fabric and was awoken by Molly coming to get me to go to Spitalfields Market, yet another open-air market with stalls of clothing, jewelry, ethnic food, and various other goods. We had a late start since we were waiting for two girls who had partied pretty hard at Fabric and thus were not the quickest to revive but set off we did. Spitalfields was definitely the least crowded of the markets I have been to and had a lot of really cool stuff but once again, nothing really caught my fancy. Well, except for the most beautiful vintage dress I have ever seen, but it was 250 pounds so that was no use. I am just really bad at shopping, especially in a different currency system, so came away without anything again. It was a fun trip anyway and turned out to be my only venture away from Palace Court that day. I needed the rest of the time to continue recovering from Fabric and to get things left undone accomplished.

Monday I resolved to get back out there and get things done. I left in the morning for the Museum of London which is exactly what it sounds like, a museum about London and its history. Snore. Seriously, I love history, but this was without a doubt one of the most boring museums I have ever been to in my life. Not well laid out and very dry. Plus a large section of it was off limits due to construction and there was a large group of schoolchildren. Shudder. Schoolchildren. Shudder. It had some items of interest such as an ancient lion skull (yes, there used to be lions in Britain, who knew?) and Oliver Cromwell's funeral mask but it looked like the best stuff was in the under construction portion. Lametastic. After that disappointment, I headed for the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666. Then when I got there, I decided I didn't really want to pay the 2 pounds to go up to its balcony and thus I looked, took a few pictures, and then left. I had some time until my oral exam at City but I got turned around a bit trying to reach my next museum so I ended up foregoing anything else and going early to print train tickets and such for Germany. The exam was basically just me talking to my academic adviser and internship coordinator about my internship and academic paper. No big deal at all. Just chit-chat really. I headed home for a quick dinner before heading to the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre where I had tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest.

I immediately fell in love with Regent's Park as I walked through it to the theatre. It has a boating lake and gazebos. I have a thing for gazebos. I also loved the theatre when upon entering it was decked out in twinkly lights. I also have a thing for twinkly lights. It reminded me so heavily of the Tippecanoe Amphitheater that I got nostalgic for bygone summer days at Civic. The show was very good too. Well, Act I not so much. I didn't think much of the actors playing Algernon and Jack and they were the vast majority of the first act so I didn't enjoy it much. Everyone in the first act just seemed to know they were performing Wilde and that it should be funny so they played everything more over the top than was necessary. They seemed to be telling us the audience how we should react rather than letting us react how we pleased. Luckily, the second act, really Act II and III, introduced Cecily who was my favorite performer of the evening. She overdid nothing and was a breath of fresh air to the proceedings. She and Gwendolyn also had great chemistry together, bouncing off of and complementing each other well. I don't know what it was but everyone seemed to do better in the second act than in the first, even Jack and Algernon, so the evening ended with delight rather than boredom. Though I still had qualms about the scenic design. Who thought it was a good idea to require the crew to "plant" dozens of roses on the stage floor during intermission and then take them up again between Act II and III without an intermission? Seriously, it was like the painfully long scene changes from Number the Stars all over again. The theatre also made us exit a different way than we came in so I had no idea how to get back to the Tube station. Luckily, I just followed the crowd and ended up back there anyway. Yay for lemming logic!

Tuesday was bad. I slept until 4 pm. I know, shameful, I agree but I swear it felt like I had mono again I was so tired and lacking in energy. I tried to wake up at 8 am and noon but both attempts were miserable failures. My body just gave out on me and would not let me do what I wanted until it had its proper rest. I felt much better when I finally did get up and shower and grocery shop. Plus people were going out that night and my intense sleep session left me ready and raring. We went to Sports Cafe because it was student night so we got in for free and got really cheap drinks. Some people chose to join a beer pong tournament but I opted for the dance floor instead. I had the time at Sports that I expected to have at Fabric. Great music, enough room to breathe and dance, and company to keep away the creepers. Unfortunately, a few unavoidably got in but they were dispatched as quickly as possible. I also had an interesting conversation with a Brazilian through my notebook and pen since we couldn't actually hear each other. Poor Tiago could hardly speak or write English anyway but he was nice and not creepy. It was 2 am before the others decided we needed to leave. I could have stayed and danced longer but having traveled back alone in the middle of the night before, I did not wish to repeat the experience. Really fun night at Sports and way cheaper as well.

Wednesday sucked because it was our final exam day. Everyone was studying or attempting to study all day because of course none of us had before then. This being the last hurdle to complete freedom made it all the harder for us to complete. By 8 pm, it was indeed done and time to sleep to prepare for...

CHAWTON!!!!! For those of you who don't know what Chawton is, it is the location of the Jane Austen's House museum where Jane lived when all of her novels were published and where she wrote my personal favorite, Emma. I have been looking forward to this trip since before the program even started. I missed the 10 o'clock train by a few minutes (FML) so I had to wait in Waterloo station for the 11 o'clock. Tres boring seeing as the only thing to do was go into the 50% off sale at Monsoon and marvel at how 50% off can still be so expensive. Then when I went through the ticket gate the guy asked me where I was going. I said Alton (the nearest train station to Chawton) but I said "al-ton". The ticket guy gave me a dirty "you American" look and snootily corrected me that it was "uhl-ton". What the fuck ever dude.

An hour later, I was in Jane Austen country. The Jane Austen's House website said to take a bus and then walk but after picking up a map, I figured I would just walk since it really wasn't that far. This meant I got to walk through Alton town and I liked it. It felt somewhat like Penzance in that it was small town and pretty but minus the ocean. I found Chawton with little difficulty and came upon Jane Austen's House before I even knew that is what it was. I entered through the shop, though nothing caught my fancy, and watched the intro video surrounded by stills from Jane Austen films. Jane Austen's House is a nice sized cottage with a courtyard, garden, and bakehouse. It was gloriously sunny so I sat in the garden for a bit before entering the actual house. I got to see the table where Jane Austen wrote all of her novels. I about hyperventilated with excitement and coolness. It was a very interesting place with costumes from Jane Austen film adaptations, Jane artifacts, and displays about her novels as well. You really could imagine her life even if being surrounded by senior citizens and wall plaques dampened the effect somewhat. Feeling I had paid proper homage, I decided after leaving the museum to not go to Winchester, where she is buried, but rather explore Alton further before boarding the train.

This turned out to be an excellent idea as I had a delicious meal and found an awesome secondhand book store. My late lunch was a farmhouse burger (a burger topped with a fried egg and bacon), chips (with salt, pepper, and vinegar of course), and a chocolate milkshake (my first since coming to Britain). Well worth the splurge of pounds for it. Thanks to the Alton Secondhand Bookstore, my collection of Charlotte Bronte novels is complete as I purchased The Professor there in addition to Child Star, the autobiography of Shirley Temple (50p!), and Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories.

I caught an earlier train back to London, got myself an enormous Diet Coke from McDonald's, and then perused ANOTHER discount bookstore until it was time to enter the Old Vic for The Winter's Tale. The Old Vic is an excellent theater and one of the few that has managed not to burn down at some point or other. My seat in the dress circle was 19.50 because a safety rail was partially in my sight line. This safety rail was a skinny bar of metal that obscured my view not a bit. The people right in front of me had to pay 45 pounds for their seats and we really had the same viewpoint. Even the pillars I doubt would have obscured a view too much considering how small they were. So the lesson is, when going to the Old Vic, always pick a seat with something "in your way" because it likely will make no difference and you get a cheap ticket. Yay!

I had never seen The Winter's Tale performed but I knew the story and had used a monologue from it to audition on several occasions. It was very good, as evidenced by my tears at the end of the first act and the second. It takes good theater to make me cry whereas any old film or TV show can manage to do it. The cast was made up of a company of British and American actors, including Ethan Hawke, all of whom are distinguished in the profession. For all this, I was not as impressed by some as I would have thought. Leontes was not very good in my opinion nor was Perdita, Florizel, or Polixenes. Paulina was truly amazing as was Hermione and Ethan Hawke was hysterical besides apparently being able to sing country music well. The most exciting thing for me though was Antigonus who turned out to be played by none other than Headmaster Charleston from Gilmore Girls! I was probably the only one in the theater whose celebrity awe was for him rather than Ethan. All in all, a most enjoyable evening at the theater, even if it was 3 hours and pouring rain when we exited the theater.

Today is not really worth mentioning beyond that I fruitlessly went shopping and packed. For most people, today is their last day in London or their families are here, so I was in a rather interesting spot. Perhaps I should have done something more notable than visit two Primarks and various too-expensive vintage stores but really I am so tired of touring and especially on my own as most of mine has been. I am SO ready for Jon to be here so I will have someone to tour with me and I can see London afresh through his eyes. His week here will be intense so perhaps I am just resting up for that rather than wearing myself out before it even starts. It is just getting to that point where you know it is time to go home and you are ready for it. I am ready, after Jon and I's week, to come home. I love America. I love Bloomington. I love my mom. I love my pets. I love London too but it isn't home, though someday I do hope to make it so.

Last Week Recap

2009-07-14T03:56:00.008-04:00

Last week I spent Monday and Tuesday finishing my enormous academic paper and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were my last days of work. It was an intense week, let me tell you. I had to work for 10 hours on Thursday because we had the get in for the kids' show and then the dress/tech rehearsal that night. I got to learn how to use the BAC's Ion light board which is beautiful and far more advanced than anything I ever ran at Civic. Though running the lights comes down to the same thing really no matter what: pressing the Go button. The kids were still predictably unfocused, most especially a few of them, but the show went off without too many problems Friday night. I stayed after to have a pint with the director and two other helpers and we had some good laughs about beatboxing and George Lucas. I got more emotional than I thought leaving that night knowing it was the last time. I was sad to not be able to say good-bye to any of my co-workers because none of them were working that day and my manager Luke had already left as well. The BAC wasn't exactly what I had had in mind for my summer but I did learn things and got to work with some fun people.

The Saturday following work was the Arcadia day trip to Brighton. I was really excited to go because Mom and Maddie had a great time there 7 years ago before I arrived and have been raving about it ever since. The day was like all other days on Arcadia planned trips: cloudy, chilly, and wet. Not the best weather for exploring a seaside town but I was determined to to be optimistic. After 1.5 hours in a freezing cold bus, we alighted right by Brighton Pier but made our way to the Brighton Pavilion to collect our group tickets. The Pavilion looks like an Indian palace from the outside with onion domes and such and then is decorated inside in a Chinese style. George IV built it when he was regent as his opulent seaside retreat and continued to use it until his death where it was then used by his two brother successors but Victoria didn't like it and sold it to the city council of Brighton. It really is remarkable inside, though for one who has been to China, it is obviously a very British interpretation of Chinese style. The dragon chandelier was my favorite thing, naturally, as it was very shiny.

We breezed through the Pavilion, seeing every room but not listening to the extensive audio tour commentary (not all of the buttons on my handset worked too), and then went to lunch in The Lanes, Brighton's main shopping area of very narrow alleyways. We ate at this amazing Italian restaurant with 8.95 three course lunch but it took 2 hours to get out of there and we were seated in the family section and thus had screaming children to put up with. My mushrooms cooked in butter, garlic, and parsley made up for it though. Oh my god amazing. After lunch we wandered through The Lanes some more, attempting to shop, but nobody really buying anything. Eventually Nori and I decided we wanted to check out the pier so we left the others to go do that. I love Brighton Pier; it is like King's Island on the Water. Fried food stands, henna tattoos, psychic readings, thrill rides, arcade games, etc all await you on the pier. We had limited time so unfortunately could not partake in any of the trashy chic enjoyment and we also only got to spend about a minute on the pebbly beach before taking off in the coach. I definitely want to return to Brighton someday and do it right, hopefully when the sun is out.

This day was followed by the biggest FML night I may have ever had. Against my better judgment, I decided to get dressed up and go out to a club with people from the house. I hadn't been to one my entire stay so I thought it was about time. We were supposed to leave at 11 but it was actually midnight before we left. This meant we missed the last tube and had to take a cab. Now, 8 people had tickets to the club, meaning they could go straight in without waiting in the line. Three of those girls were in my cab, however when we arrived at the club, it was discovered that three girls in the other cab that arrived before us had taken their tickets. This made the three girls incredibly angry and upset, making them call people inside to rant and talk of going home. I, who was going to have to wait in line anyway, didn't mind but I wanted to get in the line due to it being very chilly and raining. We got in the line and almost immediately got moved to the front of it because we were four girls on our own.

16 pounds (I know, too expensive, but I hadn't gone out before and figured it wouldn't hurt that much) later and we were inside Fabric, apparently London's hottest club. Yeah...it was like being inside an aneurysm. There were strobe lights, flashing lights, and fog, so that you couldn't see anyone around you and always felt somewhat off balance. It was also extremely crowded making dancing an uncomfortable invasion of personal space and the only music playing was very bad techno. I ended up with two girls and our three guys, none of whom really seemed interested in dancing, the whole reason I came,and all of whom were trashed while I was stone cold sober. Needless to say, the night was tedious and I wanted to go home but none of them wanted to come with me. I checked my phone at 3 am and saw I had missed a text from two girls who were leaving at 2 and wanted to know if I wanted to come with them. This made me angry at the world and so when my group moved to change locations again, I refused to come and instead left to go home.

So there I am alone in London at 3 in the morning when its raining and having no idea where I am. An enviable position to be in, I know. Still, I know enough about how to navigate London to not panic and walk until I find a bus stop. Of course, one is just down the road and I hop on the first bus that comes. On that bus, I figure out I need to take the 390 back to Palace Court, so I get off at the first stop where the 390 stops. However, since it is the middle of the night, the 390 wasn't scheduled to come for 20 minutes. This meant I had to hang out at the bus stop freezing cold and wet, tired to the core, surrounded by drunk/creepy people also waiting for early morning buses. Fun. The bus was late, which freaked me out for a bit, but I got on without any trouble and made it home fine. I got in bed at 4:30 and slept until Molly came to get me to go to the market at noon. Needless to say, I have been effectively turned off clubbing and will not be attempting another such night the rest of my sojourn in London.

At last, I am now caught up to this week which really hasn't been all that exciting but that entry will follow this one and then I will be completely caught up. WOO! Let this be a lesson to never get behind on ones blog; it is quite an effort to catch up again and your loyal readers become frustrated with you. I am sure there are many things that I forgot, especially pertaining to work, but I have always been of the mind that if you forget something then it was never really all that important to begin with.

Caty Turns 20 in Wales

2009-07-12T11:11:00.007-04:00

My co-workers and I spent four hours talking about cultural differences between the US and the UK while also looking at funny websites. I also witnessed two of them, grown men, enthusiastically playing Cat's Cradle. Class was about immigration and we got a simple math worksheet to determine who did or did not have enough points to become a citizen. Ok, now that is out of the way, the fun stuff.

The weekend of July 3-5 was Arcadia's Adventure Weekend in Wales which I had been looking forward to ever since Arcadia sent us the activities list way back in May. My love for outdoor adventure is well-documented plus I really wanted to go to Wales plus it was the 4th/my birthday. Awesome. The 9 of us going from Palace Court set off together to Paddington Station which is about a 20-30 minute walk as it turns out. We were all in high spirits for our weekend away from London and academic paper stress.

We took a train to Swansea and then changed to a train to Haverfordwest, the nearest train station to Preseli Venture. It was uneventful, as most train travel is, except for the amusing Bunny Suicides that Stacy and Phil drew and shared with me. If you don't know about the Bunny Suicides, go look it up now, so funny. Preseli Venture, the name of the company who arranged the weekend and owned the lodge we would be staying at, sent people to meet us at Haverfordwest and take us in their van/jeep vehicles. I thought they were cool because they had such high ceilings that you could stand up inside the van and not hit your head. However, the ride was rather turny and twisty and 25 minutes long and I hadn't eaten in awhile. Not fun but I survived with minimal sickness.

Preseli Venture Lodge is an isolated area of the Pembrokeshire National Park with a small village a 20 minute walk up the hill and a few farms down the road. Absolutely gorgeous green hills, wildflowers, and a peek of the cliff and ocean beyond. The lodge is made up of two connected buildings. One is for the rooms and showers and the other is for the kitchen, bar, and lounge. The rooms were actually very nice with comfy beds and plenty of storage space. I shared a 6 person room with Clare, Molly, and Nori, and got my always beloved top bunk so that was fun. We threw our stuff down and went to dinner. Preseli provides all your meals while there and it is all home cooked by their chef Jackie. Our first dinner was vegetable lasagna and I was so hungry by that time that I just started eating without thinking about the vegetables. Shockingly, it was really good and I didn't even have to pick anything out of it despite the presence of my least favorite veggie, zucchini. I liked the lasagna more than the dessert of apple pie and ended up trading Phil my pie for his leftover zucchini. I know, take a moment to recover from the shock and feeling of the world turning upside down on itself.

We had free time after dinner so we all decided to walk 20 minutes down the hill to the local beach. We got a map from behind the bar and Helen, the bartender, explained the route to us. It seemed easy enough: walk down the hill, turn left, go through the gate right past the houses, and just follow the path through some woods, a meadow, and some more woods. No problem. Most people brought booze with them too so we were a merry party setting off. The farmhouses along the way were adorable and the walk was just very picturesque. We ran into no problems until after the meadow. There was a path leading up stairs and one leading through mud into a semi-swamp. Helen hadn't said anything about stairs but she had said there would be lots of mud and we should remove our shoes so we went the way of the semi-swamp. Soon we were all over our ankles in the most disgusting mud contracting who knows what diseases from the multitudes of insects. Eventually we came to where there was no way we could walk farther, it was genuinely swamp and was covered with water. Phil climbed up the hill next to us and then shouted down to us that the beach was straight ahead that way. We should have taken the stairs and thus avoided the whole muddy mess. FML.

Abermawr Beach is my perfect beach and we were there at the perfect time. The sun was setting making the clouds yellow and pink and purple. There was a cliff on the right side and on the left side and the beach was rocky instead of sandy. I fell in love immediately. Those of us brave (read: stupid) enough stripped to our bathing suits and ran into the water. Let me tell you, if I thought the Channel in Cornwall was cold, the Irish Sea in Wales is even more so. After dunking my whole body under, I came up screaming. Your skin goes numb eventually but for a few minutes there, it is intense. After wave jumping and allowing our bodies to get used to the water, some of us swam over to some rocks and went climbing. Not the best idea in bathing suits and bare feet especially since the rocks were covered in barnacles and thus very sharp. It was really fun though and I got to sing "Part of Your World" from a rock similar to the one in the movie where the ocean crashes up behind her. We left the rocks and Phil and I stayed in the water some more before going and sitting on the sand right at the water line and just staring around us in wonder. The sky looked like a gorgeous still painting because there was no wind. At last, Phil and I left the water, the last to do so, and then everyone on the shore informed me I was bleeding. It was true, somewhere along the way, barnacles had sliced open my leg and my calf was covered in blood. Nothing serious, I just let it bleed and figured the saltwater would have done it some good. We sat there until the sun was close to down and then made our way back in near darkness. Somewhat disconcerting but we made it back fairly easily and got to see a beautiful moon over the meadow. A shower and then it was bedtime since we would be rising early to start our activities.

Saturday morning they had bacon. Not bacon strips like in America, but more ham-like bacon. Still it was bacon and I was REALLY excited about that. Made the lackluster other offerings of toast, cereal, and fruit all that much better. My morning was dedicated to sea kayaking but first we had to go to the shed and suit up. Let me tell you, wetsuits are the worst possible things for your self-esteem. They are so hard to get on your body that you can actually injure yourself in the attempt. Not that I did that. No, that was that other girl. Yeah. Anyway, I had so many layers on. Bathing suit, fleece jacket, wet suit, waterproof jacket, life jacket, and kayak skirt. Yes, you read that right. You have to wear a skirt that hooks around the opening of your kayak so excess water doesn't get in. I felt mega attractive, let me tell you.

After our struggles outfitting ourselves, fitting our kayaks, and going over kayak basics, we drove off for Fishguard where we would be kayaking. Fishguard is a very pretty seaside village with a calm harbor that is ideal for beginner kayakers even if it was the setting for first Moby Dick movie and thus made me twitch a little. Once in the water, our instructors gave us more information about how to manage our kayak and then made us play kayak polo with a tennis ball so we could figure it all out. Needless to say, I was completely useless at both the kayaking and the polo playing. We then set off for the open ocean and I discovered I had the kayak magnetically attracted to the rocks. At least, that is what I am blaming it on. I lagged behind until we got safely away from the rocks and from there I could more or less keep up with the group. Our instructors shared fun facts with us as we paddled such as when the women of Fishguard saved Wales from the French in around 1797 by dressing in their absent military husbands uniforms and standing on the cliffs so the French though there were lots of soldiers and surrendered. They also pulled up crab traps and I got to hold a velvet crab. We also explored a cave before heading back to the harbor where we had to paddle against the wind which proved extremely difficult. I was so hot and tired by the time we got back to the ramp that I capsized on purpose (It is really easy to get out of a capsized kayak contrary to popular belief) just to cool off.

Thoroughly exhausted and soaked, the lunch of delicious gammon (basically vegetable with pork) soup and bread was much needed. I took a quick rinse in the shower just to get the salt off because our afternoon activity was going to be a hike so showering would have been useless. I forgot to mention that the weather in Wales is even more schizo than in Indiana. It will downpour for five minutes and then the sun will come out for an hour and then it will downpour again and so on and so forth. I didn't mind the rain when we were kayaking because I was wet already but hiking is a different story. There were two hikes: one 7 miles and one 3.5 miles from the halfway point of the other hike, Abercastle. It was pouring rain when the van stopped and the Preseli lady asked if anyone wanted to just do the Abercastle hike. No one wanted to be the weeny who voted for the short hike so we continued on. The Preseli lady dropped us off, basically said "Have fun but be back by 6 or else we call the coast guard.", and then we were left on our own to follow the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. It poured through the first 15-20 minutes of the hike and then was sunny and beautiful the rest of the time but we were already soaked so it didn't count for much. The scenery was without a doubt some of the best I have seen with cliff after cliff after cliff, the clear blue sea spreading out to the horizon, and all manner of flora growing on long grass reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie. Had the lower half of my body not protected by the waterproof not been so wet, it would have been more enjoyable.

Now it is time for my rant about sheep shit. The path led us through pastures, as in we were in among the animals. This also meant we were in among their excrement. It was everywhere. Big poop, little poop, dry poop, wet poop, completely unavoidable. I stopped admiring the scenery and instead had to constantly look at the ground to avoid the biggest piles of poop all the time knowing I was stepping in smaller ones which made me very grumpy. They should have had an advisory or something to warn about the sheep shit or found some way of cleaning it up. Who likes to walk through fecal matter? Who?! Of course, after Abercastle, the path went through no more pastures and so if I had walked the shorter hike then I could have avoided the sheep shit altogether. FML. It also turned out that 7 miles was a bit too much for me and sometime after Abercastle, my muscles started a mutiny and I had to push myself to keep moving. All in all, the hike was a fairly miserable experience despite the amazing surroundings. I felt fully justified in scarfing down an entire tube of Pringles after finally getting back to the lodge. A shower and dinner of curried chicken and rice restored my spirits but I was still exhausted. After a game of Balderdash and a Vodka Blue, I couldn't make it even to the bonfire and went to bed early to soothe my aching muscles. Not a very exciting 4th of July but I enjoyed myself, minus the sheep shit.

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO ME! Really, it wasn't a very birthday birthday since my friends said Happy Birthday to me and that was about it. Still, it was one of my favorites because I got to go coasteering. Coasteering is a mix of rock climbing, swimming, and cliff jumping, so obviously designed to be one of my favorite activities ever. After breakfast (MORE BACON FOR MY BIRTHDAY!), we had to climb into wet suits again. This is when I was worried my birthday was going to go horribly wrong. I couldn't squeeze myself into my first suit despite incurring multiple friction burns in the attempt and they had to get me a second bigger one which I required aid to get into. At this point, everyone else was not only in their wetsuit, but had their padding shorts, lifejacket, helmet, and wet suit socks on as well. I was holding up the van. Because I was too fat. On my birthday. Woo.

It all got better from there though. Martin, our native Welshman guide, took us to an old abandoned quarry right on the coast so we had a protected lagoon to start off in. The water was a shock again but winter wetsuits are awesome and really did keep us mostly warm. We bobbed about in the water for a bit before Martin led us to a rock wall and we all climbed up onto the plateau. He had us practice proper jumping technique there because it was not but a foot or two up from the water. After that, we climbed up to a ledge of the old quarry building and jumped from there. I wanted to go higher (when don't I?) but Martin wouldn't let me. I seemed to amuse him in my enthusiasm for jumping from high places and climbing up rocks. He pointed to a section of the rock wall and said "If you want to climb up the hardest way, that is it." So I proceeded to climb up that way. Twice. The only girl to do so. Leaping off a cliff into the lagoon was incredibly fun and posing for my waterproof camera while doing so was an interesting challenge. All in all, an excellent birthday activity on its own. After we were all jumped out, Martin took us out onto some rocks into the open sea. The sea was pretty rough that day but that just made it more fun. He let us bob in this "jacuzzi" between two rocks as waves came in and out which inspired much screaming and giggling fun. The only part I didn't like was the seaweed that tangled around my legs and made me feel like the Kraken was coming for me.

We returned to the lodge for a baked potato loaded down with cheese and sweet corn for lunch before getting driven back to Haverfordwest. We then spent the next six hour on trains getting back to London. I got home and immediately called Mom and Jon before going to bed. End of birthday. So like I said, not very much like a birthday, but a fun day anyway despite the obnoxious hours of traveling. I love Wales and would love to go back at any time. Being 20 is also quite strange I must say. It has been one week now and I am still not used to the idea of no longer being an adolescent and that in 10 years I will probably be married and having babies. Woah. Too much for me. But for now, I am just chilling and waiting to turn 21 since we all know that is the way more important and cool birthday, at least in America.

Dublinia

2009-07-09T16:43:00.008-04:00

Skip and I didn't awaken until 10 the next morning. We hadn't gone to bed until 2 so cut us a break. After a breakfast of three slices of toast and milk, we made for the city. Santry, Skip's neighborhood, is about a 45 min-1 hr bus ride to the city center. You have to have exact change for the bus ticket too. Very annoying. The ride was interesting, as I got to see a lot of Dublin on the way and hear more about it from Skip.

We were dropped off at O'Connell Street which is the main thoroughfare of Dublin. It contains The Spire, a huge monument modeled after a knitting needle to commemorate the Aran sweater, one of Ireland's greatest exports. Take that Eiffel Tower, there's a new phallic symbol in town. We walked along a wide pedestrian shopping street before going by her work and then crossing the River Liffey. We encountered a creepy woman who tried to hit on Skip as we passed by and a bunch of guys dressed as fictional female characters before we saw the rainbow flags and realized the Gay Pride Festival was in town. We were super excited but didn't actually end up running into it which was sad. We didn't really go in any places but we walked by quite a few such as Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and Trinity College. We went in the Trinity bookstore where Skip knocked over an entire row of books about Napoleon much to my amusement. Dublin Castle doesn't really even look like a castle but like any other Georgian brick building with a random medieval tower attached so we passed on that too. We walked around A LOT though so I saw a great deal of Dublin including some very non-tourist areas and being with Skip was enough to make it fun. We ended up at St. Stephen's Green, a gorgeous park, before deciding to head back to O'Connell Street and get ready for our night on the town.

Much to my delight, they have Tesco in Ireland so we walked to Skip's nearby branch and stocked up on food and booze, of course. She had discovered the deliciousness of Bulmer's hard cider, just as I had, so we bought a 12 pack for the two of us for the weekend. We retreated to her apartment to drink our Bulmer's, eat cheap pizza, and watch half of Confessions of a Shopaholic before the audio got off sync and highly annoying. Her friends returned from wherever they had been and preparations for going out began. I liked her friends, though it was a bit strange being the odd one out of all of their jokes. They seemed to be the same kooky kind of people I like to spend my time with. We went to a pretty cool bar that had dancing but no cover charge. The first song they played upon walking in was "Summer of '69" so I knew the music was going to be awesome. Skip, her friend Laura, and I danced the night away implementing our own unique system of pulling and turning each other away from any creeper who tried to dance with one of us. It was a No Boys Allowed party. Skip then took me to Temple Bar but at this point it was 2 a.m., everyone was smashed, and the streets were trashed. We headed back, getting Burger King for Skip on the way. Yes, she got us Burger King cardboard crowns, yes, we wore them on the street and in the cab, and yes, we had a photo shoot when we got back. That is why Skip and I are friends. I slept on the L-shape that night which worked out only slightly better than the floor but hey, it was free.

We slept in again since we had stayed up late again. Skip mocked me for having a Bulmer's with breakfast but it was the only beverage I owned in her apartment, I didn't want to waste what I had purchased, and the Irish have a pint with breakfast all the time. I was just getting in touch with my ancestry. We got into the city center at roughly 2 in time to meet my roommate Lacey at the hostel she and I had gotten for Sunday night since Skip had to work early on Monday. The three of us then went to the National Museum. This was really cool because it had dead people. Literally. Four bog preserved bodies and a Viking skeleton. Totally gross and creepy so I loved it naturally. They were definitely the highlight of the museum along with the random Ancient Egypt exhibit with mummies (hey dead people again) and jewelry. I was tempted to buy a genuine Irish newsboy cap at the gift shop but it passed when I saw the price. After the museum, we settled in a pub to watch what we thought was a football game. Well, it was...Gaelic football. Gaelic football is the oddest sport I have ever witnessed. It seems to combine every other sport known to man. I mean you can kick the ball, dribble the ball, punch it with your arms, and there is a goal AND goal posts. We simply could not figure out the rules but it was funny to watch as well as the attractive men playing. Skip and Lacey got Irish breakfast for dinner so I got to pilfer their unwanted sausage which made me happy.

Lacey and I bid Skip good-bye after a drink in Temple Bar. Lacey and I went to another pub to watch the Brazil-USA football game but got sidetracked by who else but creepy middle-aged men. I swear, I must project some kind of midlife crisis vibe or something because the only guys who ever talk to me, excepting UQ douchebag, are overly friendly middle aged men. We weren't in the pub five minutes before a group zoned in on us and wouldn't let us go. We spent the next three hours principally with this one guy whose name I either never learned or do not remember. He kept buying drinks which I refused but I had to sit there while Lacey got drunker and drunker, eventually lopsidedly line dancing to "Cotton Eyed Joe". At least she didn't shout "DOWN WITH THE BRITISH!" Finally, I peeled Lacey away from the cesspool and conducted her safely back to our hostel. Where she proceeded to vomit, only partially in the trashcan, waking up the three other women in our room and I had to run and get toilet paper to try and clean up. All in all, not my ideal evening in Dublin. I am just too serious, at least according to creepy middle aged man, but he gave Lacey his e-mail address and a room key so I don't really pay attention to his opinion.

Lacey and I were predictably tired after our long night/weekend so Monday was very chill. We went to the Carriage Office where I found out no one had turned in my cell phone and gave them Lacey's number in case some miracle happened and they got it before our plane took off. (It didn't and I looked up my account online and someone had used my phone after I lost it. FML.) We then bought our airport bus tickets, went souvenir shopping (none of my definitely Irish family names were present on the heredity key chains and mugs which miffed me), and walked along the Liffey. We found a series of the scariest looking sculptures I have ever seen. They looked as if they were made out of the scum that forms on ships and were excessively tall and skinny. They really resembled Redeads from Ocarina of Time and thus filled me with horror. The sculptures were to commemorate the victims of the Irish Potato Famine but we took inappropriate smiling and mocking photos anyway. I know, express elevator to Hell, heard it all before. We had no problems with anything at the airport so we had time to grab food and then I found my flight was delayed again. Ironically, Ryanair is the "on time airline". Ha. That is all I have to say about that. Ha. I had also forgotten my month unlimited Oystercard expired while I was away so I had to pay 2 pounds for a bus to get to a Tube station to start a pay-as-you-go account. Slightly annoying but nothing compared to losing my cell in the cab.

My impression of Dublin was not very favorable. Great nightlife, no doubt about it, but if you are like me and not very interested in that, it is a slightly underwhelming city. Admittedly, I didn't get to go to any of the renowned theaters which might have tipped my favor a bit nor did I see near everything but what I did see did not impress me. I enjoyed Ireland much more 7 years ago but then Ireland is really a lot about its countryside and that is where I went before. Getting to see Skip was really awesome though; we had so much fun and so many laughs that Dublin could have been Gary and I would have had a good time. So I am very glad I went but I don't really have a strong desire to go back. Sorry homeland, no good craic.

Catching Up

2009-07-08T04:53:00.006-04:00

So my evil academic project is done, pause for a moment of celebration. This means that I actually have time now to update my blog. I really am sorry it has been so lax as of late but trust me, I had a lot of stuff going on that needed to be attended to especially considering how long my entries usually are (boring I know). I didn't want to half ass my entries and so I haven't had any. But enough dwelling on my tardiness, time to start the catch up.

I am not really going to bother a whole lot with work the week after I got back from my solo holiday. The only noteworthy event was me calling numerous prop hire companies trying to get as many fridges (yes, like refrigerators) as humanly possible. This was mostly noteworthy because as anyone who knows me can attest, I usually go into a panic at the thought of calling people I don't know. However, this was incredibly easy and even somewhat fun. My favorite moment was the following dialogue between me and one prop hire man:

Man: You're from Dallas?
Me: Um, no.
Man: Then where are you from?
Me: Indiana.
Man: That's the same thing. It's all cowboy country.
Me: Not really.

Other than that, typical BAC and I still want to kill the children. Class was about class (haha) in Britain. We learned that class doesn't matter but it does. Seriously. We also got to take a test to determine our class. Seriously. We were also told that you can go up to anyone in the UK and ask them about their class. My co-workers were appalled when I asked them if it was true. Way to go Arcadia, way to go.

Friday June 26th right from work I left for Dublin to visit one of my best friends from high school. Her name is Sarah but from here on out she shall be known as Skip since that is the unfortunate nickname our Honors English 9 teacher gave her to distinguish from the two other Sarahs in the class and somehow it stuck. She is also interning though at a law firm because she is hardcore like that.

The trip went easy enough at first. I got to the train station just down the hill from BAC no problem and after just a momentary confusion about how to get collect my tickets from the machine, I had time to browse the shops before going to my platform. I found US Weekly which brought on joy not seen since the Britney-K. Fed divorce announcement. I also got 50p off the magazine for taking the MJ memorial newspaper. Whatever, 50p is 50p. Gatwick was the second stop on the line so the ride was easy and quick.

A few words about the inefficiency of Ryanair/Gatwick Airport. My online check-in boarding pass said I had to get it stamped to prove I had all the necessary visa/passport requirements. This meant I still had to wait in this enormously long line at the Ryanair desk in the terminal with all the people who needed to check bags. Why there wasn't a special express line for visa check I have no idea but I got fairly irritated as I saw all benefit to online-check in slip away. Finally, when I got to security, I noticed no one was taking off their shoes so I just assumed for some reason you didn't have to. Wrong. There was a second metal detector for shoes after you went through the first one and thought you were going to be allowed to exit. Why they couldn't just have you put your shoes on the first belt with everything else, again I don't know.

My flight was delayed by 30 minutes which turned out to be good because it allowed me to find a Pret A Manger and get some dinner before boarding. For those of you who don't know, Pret is a somewhat upscale (by that I mean expensive) sandwich and coffee chain that is as omnipresent in London and the UK as Starbucks in America. I got the cheapie ham & cheese toastie and my new obsession, salt & vinegar potato chips. I got on the flight no problem, got a window seat, and only had one other person in my three seat row. All in all, a success despite the garish yellow decor of the plane interior.

Here is where the story gets really interesting. I had Skip's roommate's phone number, the address for her apartment complex, plus the various codes to get to her room if all else failed. I got into a taxi since it was too late for the bus to be running and handed him the address I had written down. He seemed confused so I tried to call Skip but it told me I didn't have the authorization to call the number. Great. The taxi driver gets me to the correct road and drops me off outside of what he claims are the only apartments on the street so they must be the right place. Greater. He drives off and I almost immediately come to the realization that I left my phone in the backseat. Greatest. There I am at 11 at night in Dublin without any means of communication and no idea where I was. I refused to panic though and found a pay phone to try and call the number again. The phone eats my money. Ok, still not panicking. He got me to the right road so I just have to pick a direction and start walking. I do and find a student apartment complex called Shanowen House. Not Shanowen Square like Skip said but I try the entry code anyway. The door opens though begrudgingly. It immediately becomes apparent to me I am in the wrong place since all the windows are open, thus allowing anyone to enter, and no lights are on. Hey, at least I could sneak in and sleep there if nothing else. I do however notice a great deal more activity from the apartments next door. Lo and behold, it's Shanowen Square and I find Skip's apartment with no more difficulty. She is thrilled to see that I am ok since when I didn't ever call her she got really freaked. It was a great moment of my life being safe with her.

We talked, catching up and laughing, for a few hours before finally becoming too tired to go anymore. I took her extra pillow out to the loveseat in her combined living room/kitchen and made myself an L-shaped bed with the aid of a chair. I was just laying down when in burst her extremely drunk roommates accompanied by friends. Immediately, they start screaming "WHERE'S CATY?!". Apparently, my coming was a highly anticipated event.I doubt in my exhausted condition and dying-my-hair pajamas shirt I lived up to the hype. I relocated to Skip's room to sleep on her folded comforter while the drunkies desecrated the living room/kitchen.

The rest of my Dublin story will follow in the next entry. Don't want to overwhelm you guys too much. The photos that go with this entry are meant to illustrate Shanowen Square where I spent two out of my three nights in Dublin.

Solo Holiday in Cornwall: The Second Bit

2009-06-26T06:51:00.006-04:00

So I have to apologize for how long this entry has taken. My life has been work, travel, paper, sleep, and eat for the past few weeks and nothing else. I will catch up though, I promise.

I awoke early on Sunday to get the YMCA's cheap and rather pathetic breakfast before starting off for St. Michael's Mount. I had decided rather than take a bus to Marazion that I would hike along the Southwest Coast Path for two and a half miles to get there. After some initial hardship with actually finding the path, I set off on my way. It was a lovely, bright, sunny day so perfect for being on the sea. However, I ran into an issue. The path came to a set of stairs...that were blocked by bars. The group of people in front of me climbed around the door by climbing up the slope next to the stairs and then going back over the wall. I, however, decided to take a different route. I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants, and set off down some stairs to the beach. In high tide, this area is completely covered with water, however at low tide, it is a wide expanse of sand and pleasant for walking. I got to squish my toes in the sand and walked in the water when my feet wanted some frigid cold refreshment. Low tide is apparently THE time to walk your dog as practically everyone I saw had one or two with them.

St. Michael's Mount is an island in the bay with a tall cliff at the top of which sits a castle. There is a small village of about 30 people at the base of the cliff but really the castle is the majority. Since it was low tide, I crossed to the Mount on the Giant's Causeway that is covered with water at high tide. The legend goes that the Mount used to be home to the giant Cormoran and that Jack, of course, had to slay the giant to keep him from eating the townspeople. I bought my ticket and after watching an intro film about the Mount, I made my way up. All the signs said that only those in good health should attempt the climb so I thought it would be very difficult. It wasn't. You just followed the path up the hill and it wasn't very steep or far up. Along the way there were excellent views of the bay, gorgeous flowers, and ruins of medieval military lookouts from when the Mount was a fortress.

The best part about the castle is the rocky sloped lawn in front of it when you reach the end of the path. There is a wall around it with cannons with a great breeze always blowing and lots of grassy spots to sit and enjoy the view which is one of the best I have seen. I sat on a corner of the wall and looked out to sea for a good while before I went in to the castle. Ok, so I had a photo shoot too because I liked the wind blowing my hair. Don't judge.

The castle itself is underwhelming. Of course, it couldn't help but be next to all the other castles I have been to but still I expected a little more. The same family has lived at the Mount since the 1500s but the conservation of the Mount falls to the National Trust aka the blue bloods can't afford their castle anymore. There was construction going on on the North Terrace but I fell in love with the South Terrace. It is the perfect place to have a party or a wedding with lots of space, castle architecture, and the previously mentioned beautiful scenery. The castle interiors were pretty standard and boring with the exception of the mummified Egyptian cat. Apparently, collecting mummified animals was an acceptable pastime in Victorian England. Who knew?

After spending a little more time on the castle lawn, I decided to descend to look for lunch. By this time, the tide had started to come in. At high tide, a ferry service starts to and from the Mount for 1.5 pounds. The ferry had already started by the time I got down to the causeway, however some people (in direct violation of the sign posted nearby) were wading across since the water wasn't too deep yet. I had the foresight to wear my bathing suit under my clothes, so I whipped off my socks, shoes,and pants, hiked up my purse, and set off down the flooded causeway. I was not going to pay 1.5 pounds when I didn't have to. It was remarkably simple with the water getting thigh deep at its deepest and I reached end of the causeway with no harm done. I was the last person smart enough or stupid enough to attempt the crossing, but since nothing bad happened, I say smart enough. I had a good laugh at the saps who took the ferry before moving on to find a pasty.

Cornish pasties are amazing. They are portable pies filled with all manner of deliciousness. The one I got had steak, potatoes, and carrots in it. Completely delicious, filling, and not to mention cheap. I also got some chocolate Cornish ice cream to top off the meal before setting off again. The beach was flooded with the tide, so I took the path this time. It was wonderful to be walking in the sun on the beach surrounded by the beauty of Cornwall. Other than the unfortunate sight of a naked bather, the walk back was pleasant and uneventful. By the time I got back to Penzance, I was so hot that I was totally ready to jump off the seawall into the English Channel.

Of course, when I got to my favorite section of the sea wall, there was a crowd of obnoxious teens, tweens, and families there. I tried my best to ignore them as I disrobed, hid my purse beneath my clothing, and without a word jumped into the sea. Let me tell you, it is as cold as you would think it to be. Also, make sure to hold your top and blow out your nose or else your top will come up and you nose fill with saltwater. Not that that happened to me or anything. Luckily, I fixed my top beneath the water before anyone noticed. I jumped off two more times but the water was so cold and my stuff so vulnerable that I didn't actually stay in the water very long. Plus the stupid teeny girls squealing about how high up it was (it was like five feet above the water) made me severely irritated. I set off back to the YMCA to shower before seeking food.

Here again I ran into problems with traveling alone. After showering, I went back into town and spent an hour trying to find somewhere to eat. I can never make up my mind and being alone didn't help. Everywhere was too much of a bar or too expensive or wasn't clear about where to order. Finally, desperate, I settled on a Thai restaurant and had some fried rice that was supposed to have soy sauce but didn't. I was feeling down and slightly ill after my day and then the lack of sustenance so I went back to the hostel and went to bed. At 8:30. Even my middle aged Asian woman roommate was stunned I was going to bed that early. Whatever, I was tired and feeling lonely. I was also woken up a few hours later by fireworks for an unknown reason which made me incredibly cross as well.

I checked out right at 8 the next morning and set off for the bus station to explore the Minack Theatre and Land's End. I got on the special summertime only open top 300 bus and expected to enjoy the ride to Porthcurno where the Theatre is. Instead, there was severe wind, I got smacked in the face by tree branches, and the driver skipped Porthcurno and dropped us straight off at Land's End. Land's End town looked very pretty and quaint however the bus dropped us at Land's End complex which is a tacky tourist trap if ever I saw one. It houses 3-D attractions, much too expensive gift shops, and a few restaurants. It also wasn't open when we arrived and I hadn't had breakfast. I went and sat on a rock around the side of the complex to stare at the sea and cliffs until it opened.

Land's End is a lovely area. Gorgeous hills, cliffs, rocks, sea, and heath but the complex is just annoying. Once it opened, I could hear the 3-D shows going with their cackling witches and Knights of the Round Table battling. I got a cheese and onion pasty from one of the shops and then left the complex to walk along the cliffs. They have a spot where you can have your picture taken with the official Land's End signpost with the distance to your hometown but it was stupidly expensive so I passed. I was more interested in the plaques that had apparently been erected for the millennium with resolutions and promises by visitors to Land's End. The theme of most of them was to love as much as possible but there were a few interesting ones like the people who ran a home for retired show pappilons and the mother who wanted to take her family to Euro Disney.

This whole time I am surrounded by people there with their spouses, friends, children, etc. and I started to feel really alone. I saw the distance from Land's End to NYC, factored in hundreds of extra miles for Indiana, and freaked out a little about just how far I was from home and those that I love. I decided to skip the Minack, head back to Penzance on the next bus, and catch an earlier train back to London. I had had enough of being by myself plus my backpack was REALLY heavy. I still had two hours before the next bus so I wandered down to the metals craft shop in the farm right by the complex. There was a kitty outside so I stopped to pet it and got to talking with the man who made the crafts in the shop. His name was Edward and he was a very nice older man. He immediately, of course, ascertained that I was from America and started to ask me the requisite questions about how I came to be in the UK. Meanwhile, we had moved into his shop and I was looking at his rings. He told me he could custom make me any ring I liked so I chose a star ring.

I spent the rest of the time until my bus watching Edward make my ring at his work desk and talking about his days as footmen for the family living on the Mount, how he came to make silver jewelry, and the children's books he writes about Big Head the Pirate Cat. He was very nice, explaining everything to me as he did it, and just in general making me feel a whole lot better than I had felt the whole day. He also had a cat named Marley who had no fur on one of its ears so Edward coats it in suntan lotion every day to keep Marley from getting sunburn. I figure anyone willing to sunblock a cat's ear is my kind of person. I thanked him very much for the ring and talking to me and he told me I was wonderful and to have a good time the rest of my days in the UK. Feeling much better, I went to wait for the bus which came promptly and to my utter delight a train was waiting in the station to go back to London thus getting me home at 7:30 instead of 11:45. This also allowed me to relax, settle in, and put my stuff in order before going to bed which wouldn't have happened had I gotten home when I was originally supposed to.

Though the weekend ended on a somewhat sour note, I still thoroughly enjoyed the R&R. Cornwall is an absolutely beautiful place with so much to see and experience that I didn't even get to do. It restored my mind and spirits a great deal as well as teaching me that I don't like traveling on my own. It is alright during the day when there is plenty to do but once everything closes and you are left on your own, it gets kind of sad, at least for me. Activities such as a movie or the theatre are needed to prevent ennui from taking over. If ever I seek to travel alone again, I will be much more prepared, but really I would just prefer to have others with me. As long as they wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do of course :)

Solo Holiday in Cornwall: The First Bit

2009-06-23T16:39:00.004-04:00

I awoke at 5:30 to shower, dress, and eat breakfast before catching the Tube at 6:30. I figured I'd need to be there an hour ahead of time to validate my BritRail pass and to board the train. Man, was I wrong. I got there, validated my pass, and then looked at the departure board. At London Paddington, they will only tell you which platform your train is boarding from after is has been completely cleaned and prepared for departure. This can mean you don't get your gate until a few minutes before your train is supposed to leave. I feel this is a stupid system that causes much needless stress as the clock ticks closer to your departure time and there is still no gate for you. So I had nothing to do but sit there in the freezing cold station on the frigid metal bench with all the other poor travelers hoping to get their gate in time. It was a fun time, let me tell you.

I, thankfully, got on my train in time and had two seats to myself the entire way minus about an hour when an obnoxious curly haired young teen boy sat next to me and slept on his tray table. The train took 5.5 hours and made lots of stops, so who was sitting around me was constantly changing as I was one of the very few to go all the way from London to Penzance. It wasn't bad really, very smooth with lots of gorgeous scenery to look at. I slept the first two hours laying across my seats and then read or listened to music the rest of the way.

We arrived in Penzance and I have to say it is a very nice town. It's main street is Market Jew Street which oddly enough has nothing to do with actual Jews but is taken from Cornish or something. There are lots of cute shops and bakeries and pubs and it was a straight shot down that street to my hostel. I couldn't check in until 5 so I left my bag in storage at the hostel and then took off to explore.

I made straight for the Promenade, a wide brick pedestrian thoroughfare right against the coast with benches for sitting and gazing at the ocean. I preferred to climb down some steps to the sea wall a few feet below the Promenade and sit dangling my feet above the clear water. I was shocked to see that I could see all the way to the bottom, being so used to the murky Atlantic of the Carolinas. Of course, this water was much, much colder, but that comes later. I just sat there for awhile taking in Mount's Bay and the surrounding cliffs and hillsides that contain the three towns of the bay Penzance, Newlyn, and Marazion. It was so stunning that i seriously teared up. I am getting so sentimental while I am over here.

After hanging out on the sea wall, I continued along the Promenade and passed the Jubilee Pool, an art deco enclosed seawater pool left over from the 30s. It cost to get in though so I just decided to jump in the ocean for free on my own, as is to come later. There was also the token war memorial right next to the Jubilee and a path leading down and around the Jubilee. I found my rocks on this path and sat there feeling like The Little Mermaid. I dipped my feet in the water and !@#$%, it was cold. It is just as cold as you would imagine it to be, much too cold to get in on the cloudy, windy day that it was. It was nice to just sit there on the rock and hear the sea crash around me and look out to St. Michael's Mount across the bay.

I eventually came to the quay and the end of the Promenade. There was a cafe and tacky beach shop called Buccaneers. I found it comforting to know that tacky beach shops selling overprices sea shells and pirate flags are international rather than being a solely Carolina thing. I then went to the cafe next door to get a snack. I picked up a Sprite out of the fridge and ordered a caramel slice, which is a shortbread cookie topped with a layer of solid caramel. The lady behind the counter looked at me funny and asked "Are you sure?" as if this was the strangest request she had ever had. I didn't know what else to do but say yes and pay. It was delicious but as my life would have it, I wasn't supposed to sit on the picnic tables outside because they had just arrived and weren't secure. I picked up my stuff to move inside only to have my caramel slice slip from my plate and drop to the floor. I took a moment to mourn my caramel slice before exiting the cafe to continue my walk.

Having walked the length of the water line, I turned uphill to explore Market Jew Street. I liked a lot of stuff I saw but it all was either actually too expensive or too expensive for my miserly taste which doesn't want to pay more than 5 pounds for anything. I also managed to find the cemetery and wandered about looking at interesting gravestones as we all know I like to do. Really, would a visit anywhere be complete without a trip to a cemetery? I think not. I turned back to the sea to make my "Yes Mom, I'm alive, No, no one has kidnapped me." phone call and then ate two jumbo sausages with chips at a seafront cafe for dinner. I had been fantasizing about sausage when I was hungry on the train so it was perfect. I have also discovered something rather odd: I like salt, pepper, and vinegar on my fries more than ketchup. Not something I would have expected of myself.

I then headed for my hostel to check in at last. If you need a hostel to stay at in Penzance, I highly recommend the YMCA Cornwall. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful plus students stay really cheap. A flash of the ISIC card and I got a bed for roughly $25 for two nights. The room itself was much cleaner than the one at Hostel Blue Planet and had a desk and a large armoire with lots of shelf space so I could actually unpack and arrange my stuff. It was a four person room with two bunk beds but I only had one roommate. She was a middle aged Asian woman who I never spoke to and who did nothing but chew loudly, belch, and mutter to herself. She also rose very early and went to bed very early which suited me since it meant less time with the two of us being awake in the room. We didn't have our own bathroom but the women's in the hall was clean so that was nice. I didn't have to pay for sheets and a towel was only 50p so again, it put Blue Planet to shame. I was very satisfied with my lodgings.

Here is where I ran into the flaw of traveling alone. What do you do at night? I had been perfectly content during the day but what was I to do when everything was closed and the sun was going down? I didn't want to go to a pub by myself and I hadn't seen a theater or a cinema so I just headed back to the Promenade. I called Jon but my phone credit ran out since my calling card didn't mean free minutes on my cell phone which I had been unaware of. This meant I had to return to the hostel, buy 30 minutes on their Internet, and top up my phone. This really annoyed me since I wasn't expecting to have to top up the entire time I was here. Stupid 20p a minute calls and calling card that doesn't actually do what it says. I was pretty tired from my early rising, long train, and then hours of walking around so I decided to go to bed at like 9:30. I had no troubles falling asleep in my top bunk though the pillow was rather overstuffed.

My first day was pretty chill, as I had wanted it to be. It was nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of a big city like London or Paris. The scenery was breathtaking and it was nice to just wander and gaze. I will complete the story of my weekend tomorrow but now I must go and work on my evil academic project some more and shower and go to sleep. Work in the morning is going to seem so difficult after my lovely holiday.

Back to the Grind

2009-06-19T16:05:00.002-04:00

Work days, oh work days, what to say about my work days? Wednesday was like any other day except for an interesting conversation I had with one of my co-workers. Basically he told me that this was the worst time for me to be at the BAC because no shows are going on, no one at the BAC has time to teach me anything, and it is just overall not a good place to put interns. Oh goody. Thanks for that. Really made the rest of the day feel great let me tell you. Thank goodness I got to leave early for class. Class was all about different management models and so on and then we watched an episode of the UK version of The Apprentice. Apparently everything you ever need to learn can be taught through a reality show as this is the second class where we have watched one. I am waiting for Paris Hilton's British BFF to come up on the schedule to teach us about British-American relations or something. As is our after class tradition, we went out to a pub, more specifically the Prince Albert, scene of my infamous Aussie run in. Luckily, this time there was no such activity. I discovered a great love for Pimm's, a liquor mixed with Sprite with slices of fresh citrus fruits added in. SO FREAKIN' DELICIOUS. I had like four glasses from our two pitchers. We got to playing Truth or Dare somehow and Lindsay was dared to talk to this balding man at the bar. He ended up being an extremely friendly and drunk Italian man who went on about how Lindsay was his favorite name and how sexy we all were. That was slightly awkward so we extricated ourselves back to Palace Court.

My grocery trip on Thursday was made a little more thrilling by the discovery of a 1.78 2 litre bottle of hard cider. I am in love with hard cider and now for much less than the price of a pint at a pub, I now have 2 litres. Being of legal drinking age here is awesome. Work was spent in setting up for the youth rehearsal I stage manage for and then the rehearsal itself. The kids were surprisingly more focused today so I didn't want to kill them quite as much as I usually do. However, the show doesn't seem to be any closer to being ready to rehearse than two weeks ago when I started, so once again I was pretty useless to the whole preceding besides setting up and taking down the equipment. Speaking of, when I was taking down the projection screen and putting it up, this other group came in to the space to rehearse. They all looked at me like I was some kind of obnoxious intruder who had no business being there and their directors asked me if I could move all the stuff. As if that wasn't exactly what I was trying to do anyway. They continued to look annoyed until I finally got everything out. Sorry if my cleaning up so you can work in a clear space is getting in the way but I think you would prefer I do that rather than leave it all there and not make any noise. Ugh, theatre people. (Yes, I see the irony in that statement)

Today was an extraordinarily light day. The only job I did in the morning was help my manager for the day, Rob, put up some drapes to black out a dressing room. This particular performance group had a large selection of food in the dressing room: biscuits, croissants, brownies, chips, Ritz crackers, fruit, etc. It was just Rob and I so Rob says "Do you think it would be wrong of me to steal a croissant?" and I replied "I was thinking the same exact thing." So job completed we nipped a bit of food from them and then stole down to the tech office (pictured above) to enjoy our spoils before they could find out. Sh, don't tell anyone. My afternoon was spent up many a ladder. I had to take down four drapes in the Grand Hall which meant going to the top of a very tall and rickety ladder that kept oscillating and making me fear for my life and limbs. I also got mocked by Rob and Matt for being concerned about breaking my nails untying knots but really I was concerned about it being painful, not the aesthetic of it. Easy to pick on the only girl in a boy's club. Jerks. Rob and I then put up some banners outside the building which brought us to about 5 and Rob sent me home early due to their not really being much to do, as had been the case the whole day. I took it as a good sign of things to come for this weekend.

I am leaving early in the morning for Penzance (yes, as in the Pirates of) to spend a peaceful weekend hiking along cliffs and lazing on beaches before I have to come back and really buckle down on the evil academic project. It is the first time I will be holidaying by myself and I will be in a hostel dorm, so I am a little uneasy about it all. Knock on wood and Drew, but I think I can handle myself for three days and two nights. I hope you are all breathlessly awaiting my return to regale you with my stories and photographs.

What's Wrong with London

2009-06-16T15:31:00.003-04:00

Schoolchildren. Massive amounts of little children wearing Day-Glo vests to avoid getting lost/hit by cars walking around in swarms led by loud, obnoxious teachers desperately trying to corral the little monsters and failing. They are everywhere. They are one the Tube, in the Victoria & Albert, in the Natural History Museum, even on effing Earl's Court Road. There is nowhere to go to be safe from them and their annoying chatter about which of the Fashion exhibits they would wear if they were in "the old days" or their constant hogging of any hands on exhibits in Human Biology. I had to fight so hard not to carry one off by their braid and leaving them to rot in the middle of a busy street. When did so many children appear? Why must they all wear matching uniforms and walk around in large groups? Don't they have anything better to do than go on field trips? Shudder. Ok, rant over.

So today I returned to the Victoria & Albert and Natural History Museum since I had the whole day and didn't have a companion who needed to be somewhere. I immediately made for the Fashion exhibit at the V&A since it was what I most wanted to see. It was a great exhibit with both historical and more modern pieces. I, of course, most enjoyed the evening gowns and wedding dresses, but the evolution of underwear through the years was also interesting. I definitely found several dresses I really wanted to own myself. I then went to the Jewelry exhibit to admire all the sparkly things and even got to design my own ring on one of the computer terminals though adiamondisforever.com is much better for that. Hey, shut up, I like sparkly things. The next stop had to be the Theatre & Performance exhibit. The first thing you see what you walk in is an uber-realistic rhinoceros costume from some play where becoming a Fascist is represented by becoming a rhino. It was really scary to look for too long at the costume because you seriously expected it to come to life and start charging you. I kept a safe distance just in case it decided to go Jumanji on me. It was a really interesting exhibit with all manner of items from promotional posters to scale model sets to costumes (my favorite of course) to photos of famous thespians to footage of actual performances. I totally geeked out and basked in the love of theatre. I also saw the Paintings and though the collection was small it was some of the best stuff I have seen and I've been to the Louvre and the National Gallery. I prefer paintings with stories behind them and most of them were like that so that probably accounts for it.

I finally got museum fatigue after realizing I had been in there for about 3 hours so I popped over to the Natural History Museum for a quick look around the Human Biology exhibit. And there I encountered something even more terrifying than the rhinoceros. In fact, it may been one of the scariest things I have ever seen and I will probably have nightmares tonight. Naturally, Human Biology starts with explaining conception, pregnancy, and birth. Gross, but whatever. So I am just innocently walking from one room to another only to come face to face with an enormous fetus. Seriously, a 7 months along fetus 8 times larger than an actual 7 month old fetus. It was this huge alien looking thing on the wall accompanied by a loud heartbeat meant to simulate how the baby hears its mother's heartbeat. I was just in shock for a good 10 seconds, staring in horror before I finally managed to take a picture and then flee for my life. Who thought that was a good idea? WHO?! I had to skip the rest of that part of the exhibit so I could stop having heart palpitations. Luckily everything after that was fairly mundane stuff about how we move, memory, hormones, learning, etc and I was able to put the terror behind me. I briefly ventured to the Minerals exhibit to find more sparkly things and then went into "The Vault" where they have the really good sparkly things including the Star of South Africa diamond. I seriously stood there for two minutes just moving my head back and forth to watch it sparkle.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I set off for Earl's Court to see if I could find the pub Maddie and Mom frequented the summer we lived here. I didn't end up finding it (Mom and I later Google mapped it and realized I just didn't go far enough down the street which yet again proves my lack of looking skills) and instead bought a 75p baguette and noshed on that as I window shopped. I went into two secondhand clothing stores by Notting Hill Gate on the way home but I have never really liked shopping by myself so I didn't look hard or try anything on. Will have to get someone to go back to Portobello and Camden sometime so I buy awesome London clothing.

Well tomorrow I have to return to work after 5 days off and also go to class straight from work. This will be much better than last week since there is no Tube strike but I still don't much like Wednesdays with constantly being on the move from 9 in the morning to 9 at night. I anticipate my third week of work being much the same as the first two so I see manual labor and brat teens in my future. I also realize that I haven't updated on my summer goals in two weeks so I will close this time with just that.
1. Stop biting the inside of my lip (Trying so hard but still not there)
2. Beat my dependency on daily diet soda (Accomplished, I am going to strike this from the list from now on)
3. Make friends despite my socially fearful nature (Accomplished, have lots of friends though not at the level of my friends at home yet)
4. Go for a jog/walk in Hyde Park every day that I am not touring (Starting tomorrow I am going to try to jog every day because it has either been touring or working so I have not done this yet)
5. Take full advantage of my 18 days working at Battersea Arts Centre (I do want I'm told, does that count?)
6. Try new foods that I ordinarily wouldn't, especially British Isles specialties (Chicken tikka masala is excellent but other than that I don't go out to eat enough)
7. Acquire a working knowledge of British slang much like Australian last summer (Say Cool or Cheers or Aces a lot. My co-workers do.)
8. Go to Paris, Dublin, Cornwall, and Chawton (Paris is a check. Plans in place for Cornwall and Dublin. Chawton TBD.)
9. Keep a private journal in addition to this blog (Haven't felt the need to write so I haven't. I think this is a fail besides recording expenses, bus routes, and things I want to remember when my blog is not handy.)
10. Have the time of my life (Been having a good time lately)

C'est Paris! Part Deux

2009-06-15T04:51:00.004-04:00

Now to finish my story while sweating it out in my incredibly hot room which shouldn't be so hot considering it is only about 68 degrees outside. Ah the joys of top floor rooms with no air conditioning.

I was the first to wake up the next morning so I got in the shower. It was actually bigger than the ones we have at Palace Court but it had a weird feature. You pushed in the knob to get the water but after a few seconds it popped back out and the water stopped. Thus you had to restart your water countless times during the shower which made it quite annoying and seem very inefficient. I have to say when I stepped out it was much like showering in China where you didn't actually feel cleaner but just kind of hoped you were.

After the other girls plus Adrian showered in our shower, we set off. Another strange feature of this hostel is you can't take your key with you when you leave but must leave it at reception to retrieve when you return. I suppose this makes sense if you are staying with strangers and don't want to have to wait for them to get back in your room but since we were all together I didn't think it really had a point. We left our keys and went for breakfast. It was omelettes all around and Molly got laughed at for requesting ketchup. Not really in a malicious way but laughed at all the same. Then we made for the Eiffel Tower.

I hate beneath the Eiffel Tower. I really do. It completely destroys any kind of romance Eiffel may have had at one point but really doesn't now. First of all there are about a bazillion people all waiting in horrendously long lines for the various elevators. It didn't help that when we were there only two of them were working. Then there are the armies of gypsies going around asking "Speak English?" and if you are gullible enough to say yes they hand you an index card with some sob story written on it in English and they won't go away until you give them money. Thanks to Jamie Goedde's Facebook note on just this subject I knew not to mistake them for lost tourists needing directions and to just ignore them. Still they were extremely annoying. Lastly, there are the armies of black/middle eastern men (this is not racism it is true) jingling illegal Eiffel Tower trinkets and asking you to buy them. Then a police officer will come up and they will run away halfheartedly but the police officer never even tries to catch them. All of this combined makes underneath the Eiffel Tower a less than exciting experience.

The monster lines made us decide to take the stairs since that line was significantly shorter than the ones for the elevators. So I ended up climbing 700 stairs up and 700 down and here is the scary thing: it wasn't hard. I know, I know, me, Caty Natt, who was constantly being yelled at in gym class for not doing anything had no problems climbing 700 stairs. I blame climbing up six flights of stairs every day to my room plus the manual labor I do at work plus all the walking I do to various sights around London. This was when I fully realized just how good for me London has been the past 3 weeks. I have to say it felt kind of cool.

The views from the Eiffel Tower were of course beautiful and I could pick out most of the other major landmarks such as Notre Dame and Sacre Couer. You had to pay extra to go up to the third platform and the line was heinous so I along with Molly, Lindsay, and Jin decided that the 1st and 2nd were good enough for us and we would go wait for Phil and Adrian at the bottom. We sat on some steps next to one of the four pillars and people watched. Really this meant watching naive tourists get swindled out of money by the gypsies and harassed by the illegal Eiffel Tower trinket sellers. It was kind of amusing to watch the trinket sellers run away from the police but eventually that too wore out. We were also cursed by a gypsy when we ignored her "Speak English?" which made us somewhat uncomfortable especially in the wake of Drag Me to Hell . We then decided to head to the Champs de Mars, the field right in front of the Eiffel Tower, to wait for Phil and Adrian and take pictures. Sadly, I didn't get the stereotypical picture I wanted with a guy twirling me around while the camera is slightly tilted and black and white but then again it has to be raining too and it was a beautiful day out. So no obnoxious L'Amour Paris or whatever poster picture for me.

We were then supposed to check out the catacombes, which was my pick on the itinerary. Well, after having an enormous chicken lunch, we got to the catacombes entrance and there was a long line. No problem we thought, it was 3:30 and it didn't close until 5. However, the line doesn't move. Literally in 20 minutes we moved maybe 3 feet. Then this guy who works at the catacombes comes up and says they stop letting people in at 4 and we won't make it through the line in time. Great. I was pissed. Not at anyone but just at the world for denying me what I had most wanted to do in Paris. So we had to move on to the Pantheon and not get to see tunnels of dead people's bones. The world is cruel.

The Pantheon was pretty as most churches are, though the Pantheon is no longer a church but a national monument or something. The most interesting part was the large number of notables that have tombs in the crypt. Rousseau, Voltaire, Zola, Dumas, Hugo, Curie, Braille, all buried there. Rousseau and Voltaire had the grandest tombs even the architect of the Pantheon didn't get as ornate a tomb as them. Somehow I missed the commemoration plaque to Antoine de Saint Exupery, writer of Le Petit Prince , which kind of made me angry once I found out it was there.

When we left the Pantheon it was still early so we headed for Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. There were probably hundreds of people on the Butte Montmartre basking in the sunshine in front of Sacre Coeur. After climbing the various stairs to reach the top of the hill and Sacre Coeur itself, we came upon two street performers. They were basically French Budapi Brothers except they didn't juggle but messed around with cups on strings and a crystal ball. Hard to explain really. They captivated most of the crowd being somewhat good-looking but I was fairly unimpressed.

We went inside Sacre Coeur which was beautiful like all churches, especially Catholic ones, are. This one was notable though because we came in during what I presume was a service and nuns were singing our entire visit. No hills were alive however. There was also a huge painting on a dome above the altar of Jesus that was made up of a large amount of gold paint. It was pretty incredible. Though I admit this visit also made me sad because I saw all of this beauty and work dedicated to Christianity but there are so many other religions with equal beauty and work and yet some or all of them have to be wrong. That made me sad thinking about which ones were wrong and if any of them were right. Really deep philosophical stuff. Perfect to prepare me for our next stop at the Pigalle red light district.

Pigalle was ostensibly for the Moulin Rouge but then we came acress Sexodrome. Seriously, that was what the store was called. It was a massive three story building with mannequins performing sex acts in the window displays. We all laughed and took pictures but then Jin decided to go in. So Phil, Adrian, and I followed suit while Lindsay and Molly went to find the Moulin Rouge. Sexodrome was a disappointment. It seemed to be like any other adult shop you could find in America except much more expensive. The boys and I indulged our inner immaturity for a little while, pointing and laughing at the various toys and DVDs for sale, and then went to find Lindsay and Molly. We found the Moulin Rouge and then went to eat a few blocks away. I decided to get a banana split for dinner since I really hadn't had any ice cream in a good while and thoroughly enjoyed it. This was one of the best meals we'd had with everyone enjoying their pasta, French bread, and wine.

At last, we were ready to head back to the hostel. We stopped for a few more drinks at a local sidewalk cafe where I enjoyed some delicious hard cider from a very pretty green jug. Then we, of course, got crepes again. The crepe seller loved that we were American and kept going on and on about Obama and how awesome he was. We all played along with his enthusiasm until we got our crepes and then we took off fairly quickly. Another full day of touring meant we were all asleep within an hour, though our neighbors were even louder and more obnoxious than the ones the night before.

In the morning we simply woke up, went to the train station, got breakfast, and left. CGT was still there making noise to see us off and I once again fell asleep against the headrest and really can't tell you anything about taking the Eurostar except you will in all likelihood pass out for the entire journey. My overall impression of Paris is that it is highly overrated and overhyped but then again most places are. Of course I was only there for a weekend nor did I have my significant other with me so maybe that is the key to finding the true beauty and romance of Paris. I was really glad to be back in London in fact we all were. We all talked about how we felt like we were truly coming home after being on vacation when really London is our vacation too. It is just different when you live, work, and study somewhere rather than just sightseeing. I do feel very comfortable and at home in London and should I ever get the opportunity I would live here in an instant.

Here I have caught you all up with my weekend. Yesterday after returning and today are probably going to be spent playing catch up with work I haven't done and making the most of time to myself since Lacey won't return with her group from Paris until late tonight. Maybe I will do something worth talking about on Tuesday but for now it is just chill time.

C'est Paris! Part Un

2009-06-14T16:28:00.010-04:00

Ok, so these are going to be REALLY long entries since they are going to cover the entirety of my weekend in Paris. Feel free to tune out or skim if you so desire but I am going to endeavor to put it down in its entirety.

A group of 12 of us woke up and gathered in the main hallway at 3:45 am. Yeah, that's right 3:45. I had about 4 hours of sleep in me, good times. We sat at the Notting Hill Gate bus stop for a good 20 minutes but the 390 bus came relatively on time and any heart attacks on our part were entirely unwarranted. We had no troubles the rest of the way. We got there in plenty of time, got our tickets from the kiosks, and got some food to hold us through. Security is much like airport security minus having to put liquids in plastic bags or have them be travel size or take off your shoes. Customs was a stamp in my passport, no problem. We sat for about 30 minutes in the waiting area before boarding through the inclined moving walkway and making our way to carriage 15. Here is where Eurostar is ingenious: there are headrests to either side of your seat so you can rest your head without hurting your neck. I passed out before we even left London and didn't wake up until we pulled in to Paris. It was a little like magic to go to sleep and then wake up in France.

We exited to the train to immediate activity. Right outside the gate there was a large crowd of people with flags, whistles, sirens, and megaphones screaming something in French. We still have no idea what they were doing, some protest or something, but it was an interesting welcome to Paris. We ran into trouble with the metro since the ticket machine only took cards with chips on them which of course none of us had. We then had to wait in an excruciatingly long line to pay with cash at the info desk. Paris metro doesn't have a three day pass or anything like London so we all bought 10 single trip tickets and figured that would hold us the weekend. It was easy to navigate the map but once we arrived at Gare du Lyon we had no idea which exit to take. We exited and proceeded to walk around for 30 minutes lost until we realized our hostel was right around the corner from the station if only we had exited the right way. Great.

We dropped our bags in luggage storage at the hostel before setting off for l'Arc du Triomphe. The Arc is really cool but it is in the middle of the world's deadliest traffic circle so I wasn't really too keen to get closer. A couple pictures and we were ready to move on. We set off down the Champs-Elysees, perhaps the most famous shopping street in the world and the most hoity-toity. We found a small sandwich shop on a side street and sat down to baguette sandwiches. I actually ordered all in French which made me quite proud of myself. It never ceases to amaze me that though a sandwich in France can be just a baguette, butter, and ham, like mine was, yet it still tastes so amazingly delicious and like nowhere else you could get the same thing.

The boys went back to the Arc to climb to to the top (it turned out to be closed due to some kind of ceremony) while us girls set off down the Champs-Elysee towards the Louvre. The Champs-Elysee has huge sidewalks under trees so it is a very leisurely and pretty walk. Eventually we hit the Place de la Concorde which was another traffic nightmare. Seriously, I would not drive in Paris for anything. There aren't even any traffic lines on the roads. I would never hack it.

The Place de la Concorde is crowned with this enormous obelisk that was a gift from the pasha of Egypt in times gone by. Looks slightly out of place in modern Paris but it was interesting to look at. The fountains on either side were also pretty cool and we got our picture taken with one.

After the Place is the Jardin de Tuileries which is so pretty. It has a large circular pond right at the entrance with chairs for people to sit and relax in. There are also a plethora of marble statues most of which have pigeons seated on them comically. Then there is a long and wide central path with squares of trees surrounding open patches of grass with artwork in them. There are benches beneath the trees and this was definitely the most romantic spot I encountered while in the City of Love. We got accosted by a schoolchild asking for directions or something in rapid French but all we could do was shrug until she went away. Molly's scared/confused face was priceless.

At last, we came to the Louvre. We entered through the infamous Pyramid to the immense lobby beneath. We discovered that European students get in free so we showed our City University London IDs and presto, no 9 euro entrance for us. It was pretty awesome. We ambled about Neo-Classicism for a bit before making our way to the Mona Lisa to meet the boys. I repeat again my assertion that the Mona Lisa is highly overrated and actually pretty boring. Apparently the guards felt the same way because flashes were going off all over the place and they did nothing about it. Mildly irritating. We then hit Winged Victory and Venus de Milo with some sculpture and antiquities in between before taking our leave of the Louvre. I haven't been able to spend enough time in the Louvre the first time or this time so someday I hope to have enough time in Paris to give over at least a half day to it. There is so much of it I have never seen or even really considered. They have the Code of Hammurabi for god's sake, the Code of Hammurabi! Ok, geek moment over.

We followed the Seine to Notre Dame taking in the lovely day and browsing the side stalls. Adrian bought an enormous Eiffel Tower and we joked he would use it to ward off any muggers that might come our way. There is also a huge nude postcard trade in Paris, all black and white and from ye olde times. Slightly weird but I suppose with the Moulin Rouge it makes sense.

Notre Dame at last loomed before us. We got in the extraordinarily long line which actually went rather quickly. The gargoyles and such were closed so we had to content ourselves with only the cathedral itself. Notre Dame is beautiful but of course so is every cathedral in Europe so I don't have much to say about it beyond that.

All our sightseeing accomplished for the day, we went back to our hostel's area to seek dinner. We finally settled on a place only to discover an incredibly complex French menu beyond my meager 4 years of high school capabilities. We asked the waitress who luckily spoke English but it still wasn't very helpful. Adrian and Lindsay ordered something the waitress said was fish and they got a big bowl of mussels. They like mussels but it was just funny to see all our faces staring at it going "WTF?" I got a croque-monsieur (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) which I knew about from a French field trip and thus enjoyed my meal immensely. Some fellow American college students who had been in Paris for a month pointed us to some good bars and we spent a few hours enjoying happy hour at first an India themed bar and then a bar we thought might be a gay bar but never really got confirmation about. The cocktails were tasty, so I didn't really care and the language barrier prevented interaction anyway. Sleepy and slightly tipsy, we made our way back to the hostel, after the obligatory crepe run.

So Hostel Blue Planet is basically what you would expect. There is a reception desk with a small lounge containing vending machines and computers you can buy online time for. You go up stairs to the rooms. Every floor has a toiler and shower right at the top of the stairs and then you go down that hallway to another perpendicular hallway with the rooms. Every room has a bunk bed and twin bed and that it is. Molly, Lindsay, and I had our own full bathroom because we had a female room (obviously) while the boys had only a sink. Sometimes vaginas are pretty convenient. We had to pay 4 euro for a sheet and a towel and we all immediately covered the entire bed, pillow and comforter, with the sheet because none of us wanted to sleep on the other stuff. We went to bed quickly after arriving but we had incredibly loud neighbors that kept slamming their door, running up and down the hallway, and talking loudly. Walls are paper thin in hostels apparently. Really though, it was about what I expected and what I paid for, a place to sleep and that is all.

Our second day will have to wait until tomorrow because I am just sick of writing. I have other things to do and sleep to have. To be continued.

UQ Strikes Again

2009-06-11T17:43:00.003-04:00

I HATE THE TUBE STRIKE. Yesterday was such a hellish day, way more so than necessary, principally due to the tube strike. I figured out that all I had to do to get to work was take the 70 to South Kensington and then take the 345 to BAC. No problem. I left Palace Court at 8:20, 40 minutes earlier than usual. Not that it did me any good. I waited that entire time for the 70 bus. The 94, 148, and 390 all sped by about every 5 minutes but not the 70. I was getting really irritated and worried and then one showed up only to be unable to take more passengers. I was about to cry when another one showed up and I rushed on. There were no more problems so I got to work about the time I usually did only it took 1.5 hours instead of 1.

It was a pretty light day especially since I had to leave at 4:30 to make it to Islington for class. Josh, Ed, and I carried extremely heavy drapes to the Grand Hall, unfurled them, measured them, labeled them, refolded them, and then carried them back. Thus we were engaged for the morning and I went off to enjoy breakfast for lunch at a local cafe. The sausage here is SO GOOD. The grilled tomatoes not so much.

After lunch, there was lots of taking things apart and stacking of extremely heavy scissor deck. I hate scissor deck. With a fiery passion. It hurts. I have wounds to prove it. 4:30 rolled around and I sped off for the 87 bus to Aldwych and then the 341 the rest of the way to Angel. Ah, the best laid plans...

I got on the 87 like I was supposed to. Then we get to Parliament Square and the driver says last stop. Last stop is supposed to be Aldwych but for some reason he decided he was done or something. So I got off that bus only to wait about 30 seconds for the next 87 that did go to Aldwych to get through the intersection. So pointless. I thought I was in the clear again. Wrong. Traffic came to a standstill. Literally. We sat there for like half an hour watching green light after green light go by. I was completely freaked out by this time. Of course the 341 took its sweet time coming as well but at last I alighted at Angel and walked rapidly to City University. I got to class right on time, 2 hours after I had set off. I was not even the worst either, some people took as much as 3 hours to get there.

The class was about Britishness and national sentiment. We took a British citizenship test and I was one away from qualifying for citizenship. Really though, who cares that the number of people in the UK 19 and under is 15 million? How is that relevant to life as a British citizen? How to register to vote now that was a good question. Then we watched a British reality show called Dragon's Den where people pitch their product, business, band, etc to a panel of established business men and women hoping to get their investment. It was kind of amusing to see some of the stupid things people tried to get these people interested in. Like a machine that made water out of air but tasted like crap thus making it useless. It was nice to see it was taken seriously though, no Simon Cowell needless meanness, but actual business and business like behavior. Lindsay, Nori, and I rode home together and had a good time sitting at the front of the top deck just talking and watching the city go by.

Some of us really needed to go out after our day so we went to the nearby Prince Albert. I walked in the door and was immediately grabbed by a very drunk Australian. He wanted us to talk to his friend on the mobile phone and get him to come to the pub. Mark had his arm around me and would not let me go, which was unpleasant for many reasons, not the least of which was the alcohol on his breath. The other girls were of course thrilled to be talking to cute Australians so we eventually joined their table with our drinks. I, however, was stuck with ridiculously drunk Mark from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Great, another ass from UQ, am I safe from them nowhere? I was having terrible flashbacks to Andrew and China. Finally, the other girls were ready to leave, so I move to get out of the booth. Mark immediately scoots in and blocks my way. He puts his arms around my shoulders again and tries to get me to stay. I refused and his hand moves down to my waist. I refuse again. Finally, he lets me go only to squeeze my ass as I leave the booth. At this point, I about to bolt out of there though I have to wait a few more agonizing moments for the others. Needless to say, I sped away from that pub and did not look back. My ego couldn't even get a boost because he was so drunk he probably had no idea what I actually looked like nor would remember meeting me in the morning. Ugh.

Getting to work was much easier today probably because no one is in transit to work at 12:30 like me. The bus rides were actually pleasant, nice to see London and not just be underground. I have discovered this is the great thing about buses, you know when they aren't packed full of disgruntled commuters. I might take the bus more once the strike ends and most other people go back underground.

Work was standard again, laid out dance floor which is surprisingly difficult and tedious. Then the YPT kids came for their rehearsal. I don't like a lot of those kids. They are so rude to their director, never listen, and just always talk and don't try. Plus they still wear tights as pants. I didn't do anything for the whole two hours since they haven't really progressed to needing a stage manager yet and just restrained my desire to smack some of them. I would like to think we at Civic were never as bratty as these kids. The adults even had to have a discussion after the kids left about how bad the situation was.

Well now I need to go to sleep because I am waking up in 4 hours to go to Paris for the weekend. I am really excited but it is going to be intense. I will be leaving my computer here so no updates until Sunday at the earliest. Hoepfully I will have many Gallic adventures with which to entertain you all. A bientot!

The Calm Before the Storm

2009-06-09T17:56:00.002-04:00

Today was a typical day at work for me. I got up at 8, left the house by 8 and took two tubes & a bus to arrive at work by 10. After being the stationary end of a tape measure, my fellow intern Karina and I measured, labeled with the corresponding color tape, coiled back up, and the sorted by color a huge stack of cable. I know, the life of an intern is just so glamorous. This venture lasted until 11:30 and from there until lunch at 1:15 there were various other minor diversions including an unsuccessful attempt by me to take inventory of some lights in one of the spaces. Lunch until 2:30 and then I aided Ed in the main performance space. I plugged in probably about 50 or so lights to make sure they worked and placed the ones that didn't in a separate pile along with another pile for those without barn doors or gel frames. I then restocked the light storage closet with all of those lights. That got me up to about 5 which was when the highlight of my day occurred.

The main performance space aka the Council Chamber is a large, well, chamber with a high ceiling. Dangling from a socket in the ceiling was a red cable. Ed asks me how am with heights and I, of course, say the higher, the better. So I got to climb up a really tall ladder to get to the ladder to the bridge and then onto the bridge to unplug the cable. I was a good 50 feet in the air and I sat there for a minute just enjoying it. Then I came back down. Not exciting by some people's standards but I liked it.

After my daring adventure Ed and I carried a whole bunch of stuff back down to the tech wing (I carried four lights at once, totally Sarah Connor) and I took more stuff apart with a wrench. That is the entirety of my day minus a few tea breaks, or in my case Read-The-Hobbit breaks. I am learning more about lighting, which is extremely useful since I am taking Stage Lighting in the Fall. Hopefully my ability to distinguish a profile from a fresnel will be of use there.

My day will be interrupted tomorrow severely because there is a Tube strike. Yes, the Tube workers of London are striking from tonight until Thursday night. This means I have to take two buses to work and two buses to get from work to class tomorrow. Along with the millions of other people who have to take the bus due to the Tube being out of commission. Oh joy. So glad they decided to strike right in the middle of my work week. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

Now I leave you by referring to the picture at the top. That is my cat Sam as a pigeon. Anyone who has ever seen Sam should see the resemblance and laugh. I did. I promise to have actual pictures of work soon to adorn my work week entries. Until then, enjoy the fat pigeon.

All Arted Out

2009-06-08T18:59:00.003-04:00

Another Monday, another vast majority of people working. I set off for the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square since it wasn't all that nice a day out.

I love Trafalgar Square. It is large compared to most of London's other squares with two large fountains and, of course, Nelson's Column. To my utter shock the enormous hordes of pigeons that were there last time have managed to be eradicated and only cling in small groups to the fringe. Maybe that is the 500 pound penalty for feeding the pigeons in play. There were also three ducks in one of the fountains, which was precious but also slightly strange. How on Earth did they manage to make it all the way to Trafalgar Square from whatever mallard place they came from? I also really enjoy the enormous phallus, I mean Nelson's Column, with its four gargantuan lions. Watching my fellow tourists struggle to climb up to take a picture with a lion was quite amusing for a few minutes.

I first hit up the National Gallery. Wow. So many paintings. Seriously. I didn't even go to an entire wing and I was still fatigued at the end of about an hour. The important thing was I got to see my favorite painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey again. Really other than that all the art tends to run together in my mind even though I really did like most of it. I have to give it to painters of the Virgin, don't like their subject matter but the blues they are capable of producing to clothe her are amazing. I wanted them horrendously. I didn't like the swarms of schoolchildren everywhere in their school uniforms and stupid voiced tour guides. Ick.

No children at the National Portrait Gallery right around the corner. It is basically British history presented in portraits from the Tudors to modern day. It was interesting at first, love the Tudors, but eventually once people stopped beheading their wives and waging wars about roses, things get boring. It all becomes a portrait of an old dude with a beard. I did a lot of skimming as I went through, though I immensely enjoyed the portrait of the Bronte sisters, though I have to disagree with the description's assertion of Emily as the most talented Bronte sister. I am on Team Charlotte all the way. There was also a visual orgasm photograph of Dan Radcliffe in the modern section where he was wearing Chucks, thus further imprinting him in my mind as my one true love and future husband.

Returning from the galleries I was starving because their cafes had horrendous fare (egg and watercress sandwiches? seriously, who eats that?). I stopped into Spar to get more cereal and then due to my roaring stomach made the decision to try a 3 pack of sausages wrapped in puff pastry. The first two were a good idea but by the third things were turning bad. Way more pastry than sausage and not very good sausage at that. I felt slightly ill after consumption and thus didn't eat for a further few hours. My buttered pasta with Parmesan cheese was so much better.

We finally had our Paris powwow to iron out a lot of the details but I will write about all that when we have actually been to Paris. Needless to say, I am pretty excited, though we are going to be jam packed for the 2 days we are there. Need to brush up on my French so I can attempt communication in a pinch. Bonne nuit mes cheres!

The Cotswolds

2009-06-07T14:25:00.003-04:00

We awoke yesterday to a lovely gray and rainy day perfect for enjoying the outdoor splendor of the Cotswolds. Our luck had finally run out and the sun retreated not to be seen. Naturally getting up was a little rough but by 8:45 Lacey and I were downstairs with the others in the lounge. After fetching Nori, who thought the coach left at 9:30 instead of 9, we were on our way.

It became immediately apparent that our guide Liz was going to get on my nerves. Most people were sleeping on the coach or listening to their IPods or reading like me. However, she decided to come on and start talking. She talked the entire two hours up to the Cotswolds. Ok, I get it, it is her job to guide, but seriously what do I care about the abandoned Seagrams building to the left of the highway? That had no value unless I am a beverage enthusiast or something. Some of what she said was interesting like when she pointed out a pub in Hurley that had been frequented by Cary Grant, but other things just seemed to be needless blabber. Plus she kept asking questions and expecting us to answer, which of course we didn't, since most of us were thinking about ways of throwing her from the coach. Oh wait, maybe that was just me. She also made a smacking noise at the end of most of her words and added the syllable "uh" to the rest of her words. Seriously not nice to listen to for hours.

We finally escaped Liz when we arrived at our first stop, Burford, the Gateway to the Cotswolds. We only had an hour so me, Lacey, Brittany, and Nori went to Huffkins Bakery for pastries. I finally had a scone and it came with butter, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. Seriously delicious. We wanted to order everything on the menu, especially their extensive cake menu, but we restrained ourselves. After Huffkins we wandered down Burford's one and seemingly only street to look at some shops and admire the picturesque Cotswold stone buildings. We also came into contact with the most annoying bathroom sinks I have ever encountered. There were three buttons on the side: soap, water, and air. However, you had to wait for one to stop to move on to the next one, thus the whole process was rather prolonged and irritating. Good job Burford, good job.

Our second stop was much more exciting, at least for me personally. I returned to Bourton-on-the-Water after 7 years away. Honestly, not much has changed. There was still the Mad Hatter where we had lunch, though no one was dining outside today as it was raining. I led a group to the Dragonfly Maze to laugh again at people's confused attempts to solve the riddle. I went straight for the center as I already knew the answer and waited in the pavilion for my friends to catch up. It felt a bit like I was in Ocarina of Time as a sage waiting for Link to come to the temple to free me. It was also amusing to listen to exclamations of "That IS number nine. We've past it so many times already!" and "What does the fish mean?" Brittany and Lacey did eventually figure it out and much easier and sooner than Mom, Maddie, and I, sad to say.

After the maze, we went to lunch at Cor Blimey! which was run by some rather unfriendly men. They told Nori her meal came with fries and then charged her for them separately, forcing her to change her order without them. They also charged 15p for ketchup and barked at you when your food was ready. The food couldn't even make up for the service, though it was edible enough. I enjoyed my steak pie though it was rather smaller than I expected.

Wondering around Bourton-on-the-Water you really can't believe it is real. The cottages are just so pretty, most with climbing flowers and little fences. That with the background of sheep grazing on rolling green hills lends a certain air of too-good-to-be-true about the place. The doors are very small as well, making them about my own height,so you almost expect a hobbit or something to come walking out. We went by the Motor Museum to see the car with three wheels and also the Cotswold Perfumery where my scent, Ruby, was still being sold. I didn't remember all the tacky, old lady jewelry that was being sold though. It was more of a jewelry shop than anything else.

After stopping by The Cotswolds Shop for sherbet lemons (Dumbledore's favorite), we went back to the coach to complete our tour. This meant driving through a few more villages and then heading back to London. It was disappointing weather but overall a fairly pleasant day. It was just nice to get away from London, which I love dearly, but a change of scene is always good. The countryside in England is superior to any I have ever seen in America. The green just leaps out and grabs you. It just feels so ancient and mystical, something America seriously lacks.

That evening we went out for Brittany's birthday. We met her friend Lauren at a pub right by Spitalfields Market in East London. It was incredibly loud and crowded, as most pubs are I find, and my Bulmers Pear Cider was a bit more expensive than I would have liked. Some of the girls got chatted up by weird older men so I was more than willing to bail when the time came. It was the same story at the next pub though and my drink had made me sleepy so I came back early with a group of girls to go to bed. I know, I am so exciting complaining about noise and crowds and then going home to my jammies. What can I say, sometimes I am a rather old soul.

Today has been my designated laze about the room day to attempt to catch up on a few things I have been neglecting. Don't know what I am doing tomorrow, probably the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery as we are once again doomed to rain for the foreseeable future. Just want to get something in before my work week starts again on Tuesday.

At Work

2009-06-07T08:21:00.002-04:00

I apologize for not writing for a few days but for a little while there all I did was go to work, eat, and sleep. Not really much time for blogging.

I started work on Wednesday at 10:30 with another tour of the BAC which showed it to be even more vast and labyrinthine than I thought. I have some areas down fairly well but others are still complete mysteries to me. After my tour, I was put to work sorting a large box of light gels into their proper numbered file in the filing cabinets. Typical intern work. I went out to lunch with my three co-workers, Rob, Maddy, and Steve but I must say I didn't contribute much to their tech savvy conversation. They can literally have a conversation about which number light gel is their favorite. It was really amusing actually. Then after lunch we had tea break. Tea breaks form a large portion of the day. There is always one before lunch and then one after lunch as well, often lasting about 30 minutes. I use this time to semi-nap or watch amusing British talk shows on the TV in the office.

I had to leave early to make it to class on time but I was still a few minutes late due to having to travel all the way from South London to North London. Not that it seemed to matter since the class was on the leisure activities of the British and the notes I could get off anyone. We then had a brief, non-marked quiz about what we had learned briefing week. Apparently none of us learned much because the best mark was 21/30 but I blame this on them asking questions about statistics and whatnot that of course never stay in anybody's mind. Like the percentage of the non-white population in the UK. Who seriously remembers that?

Thursday I didn't have to be at work until 2 so I went to the grocery. I, of course, left Palace Court later than I should have and was forced to shove all my groceries in a 39p reusable shopping bag and waddling down Queensway with the enormously heavy bag on my shoulder hurry back to get to work on time. The first thing I had to do was fear for my life. A window needed to be blacked out so I had to climb to the top, literally the very top, of a really tall ladder to get on my tiptoes to tape a piece of black tat to the top of the window. The ladder kept making ominous noises and I was sincerely terrified that I would fall. However, I survived to safety pin more black tat to the bottom of the fabric since it was not long enough to cover the whole window. Highly frustrating work since I had to make it look somewhat neat.

From there I went to a production meeting for the youth show I am going to be stage managing for. Hannah, the Melanie Buchanan of the operation, seemed nice if a little eccentric and the show is going to be pretty much the same. It is in a very rough stage right now but it has something to do with news and then there is a song and dance in there somewhere. The kids came in at 5 and were predictably teen (14-16) with girls wearing tights as pants and everyone being overly concerned with how cool they looked. I didn't really do much since they were still trying to shape their show rather than actually rehearsing it. I honestly have no idea how it is all going to go but hopefully better rather than not.

After work, a large group of us at Palace Court played Never Have I Ever to some hilarious results. My personal favorite was Lindsay constantly trying to get the sole male of the group, Phil, out by saying things like "Never have I ever had sex with a girl." and then staring at him blatantly. I stayed up later than I should have but it was definitely necessary for my mental well-being.

Friday was my first full 10-6 day of work. The morning mostly consisted of Steve taking down cables from the lobby and me coiling them up and taping them around so they would stay together. I did various other fetching and putting away jobs as well as it was the day for the tech crew to do a full sweep of the building and put away anything out of place. For my lunch break I got a burger and fries and peacefully read Sense and Sensibility in a local cafe for an hour. The food wasn't so good but the literature was excellent. After lunch, we all started tidying up the heavy store which is where the tech crew keeps all their heavy materials and equipment. I swear, I am going to be Sarah Connor in T2 by the end of this internship with all the heavy lifting and running around I have been doing. I got to put things together and take things apart as well, which was fun. Needless to say, I was ready to call it a day and go home to sooth my sore muscles.

That is my internship so far. I have to say it is not exactly what I expected. The BAC is in their summer student season now so tech isn't needed to work these shows because the universities have their own techs so a lot of the work is maintenance. The BAC also doesn't produce any shows of its own but rather is where companies come to put on their shows. I am still waiting to see exactly how I will find my place and what exactly I will be doing. I feel more comfortable there than at my interview but it is all still rather confusing and unfamiliar.

Alright, I am sick of blogging for now so expect an entry later about the Cotswolds. Two blogs in one day, I know, who knew such awesomeness could occur.

A Return to Old Haunts

2009-06-02T17:55:00.002-04:00

Lacey proposed going to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert today and since that is in the neighborhood of where we lived the first time I lived in London, I said of course. Instead of taking the Tube, we walked through Kensington Gardens to get to the museums. It was a brilliant sunny day and on the way we passed Kensington Palace Green where Mom, Maddie, and I would sit many an afternoon eating Walkers and reading Bridget Jones. It was slightly surreal to see it again.

I had to defer recalling old memories because our neck of the woods was right on Cromwell and the museums were left. We came to the Natural History Museum first and I think Lacey put it best when she said "I think this beats Buckingham Palace." The Natural History Museum is made of light brown and blue-grey stone and slightly resembles the Palace of Westminster. It really is impressive, wonderfully kept up and clean. You go through the doors and the lobby is just as stunning as the exterior, stained glass, mosaic ceilings, stunning arches. The Brits really know how to treat their museums; Lacey and I kept wondering aloud about how clean and well maintained it was.

In the lobby was a large dinosaur skeleton that would have thrilled Finn though we made for the Red Zone to see the gemstones. En route, we had to weave our way through other displays, mostly of taxidermied animals. I thought this was a bit macabre and weird even with its educational value. At last, we came to the Red Zone and after zipping through boring geology displays, we came to shiny, sparkly gems. So much shiny. So much sparkle. So many colors and varieties. Much more interesting than magma and plates, though there was a cast of a person who died at Pompeii, which was cool.

After shiny things, it was time for more shiny things! We crossed the street to the V&A and after passing through the sculpture gallery, we found the jewelry exhibition. All sorts of rings, brooches, tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, etc most of which was truly stunning. We didn't get to see the whole thing though because Lacey had to leave for her internship interview. After leaving her at South Kensington station, I walked back down the Cromwell Road to find Kensington House.

I first came upon the Internet cafe where Mom and Maddie first saw Dad and I coming up the road. I took a picture of it and of course the three skeezes sitting at a table hollered for me to come sit with them and which one of them had I been taking the picture of. I ignored them and kept walking. I found Kensington House, which is now called the Astor Kensington, but was too afraid to go inside to see if the mysterious stain was still there. Bobo Bubbles, our favorite laundry, and Sainsbury's, our grocery store, were all still there and looked much the same. Gloucester Road as well is much the same and the circular public toilet that so amused me at 12 is also still there. It really felt like absolutely no time had gone by since last we were there.

After stopping at tkts for tickets to that night's performance of The Woman in Black , I came home and promptly died. I had to take a nap or else my body was just not going to move anymore. After walking so much yesterday and then somewhat again today, I could not do anymore. I am going to have to cut back on consecutive touring days, which work will accomplish for me anyway. I left for the theater at 7 and once again was able to find my way with relative ease.

The Woman in Black is a thriller about a solicitor named Arthur Kipps who is sent to a remote mansion to go through a woman who has just died's papers and encounters a ghost while he is there. I really enjoyed it, though I would have preferred a more traditional set up. There were only two men in the show: Arthur Kipps and The Actor. The story was told as a performance that Arthur and The Actor are giving so that Arthur can exorcise The Woman in Black that has been haunting him for years. The Actor plays Arthur and Arthur plays all the other characters and then there was a woman in the non-speaking role of The Woman in Black. It was effective, but I still would have preferred the story be told as a straightforward narrative as the performance angle made the beginning drag as The Actor and Arthur figure out and rehearse their performance. The Woman in Black herself was genuinely terrifying with a gaunt, old woman face that I am sure takes hours to apply and white contacts. I will admit there was a moment or two when I screamed out loud and many more when I flinched or gasped to myself. The only real complaint I have is about the women's bathroom which was literally the size of a small closet and thus was very hard to negotiate with all the women needing to go to the bathroom at intermission.

Well, I start work tomorrow. I am slightly anxious about that and really have no idea what to expect. I just hope that it will be helpful to me and I in turn can be helpful to them. We shall soon find out I guess. Hold your thumbs for me. And now to end I thought, since I have been here one week, that I would give an update on my summer goals.

1. Stop biting the inside of my lip (HA, not even close)
2. Beat my dependency on daily diet soda (Done, one soda since I have been here and it was a regular soda. Water from the kitchen sink is cheaper.)
3. Make friends despite my socially fearful nature (In progress, slow at the start but certainly picking up now)
4. Go for a jog/walk in Hyde Park every day that I am not touring (There really hasn't been a day when I wasn't touring in some form or other, so we shall see)
5. Take full advantage of my 18 days working at Battersea Arts Centre (More on this next week after I have actually worked)
6. Try new foods that I ordinarily wouldn't, especially British Isles specialties (Failure, food is expensive so I have been sticking to sandwiches and cereal to sustain myself. Hopefully soon.)
7. Acquire a working knowledge of British slang much like Australian last summer (Have learned much already. Advice slip=receipt. Hob=stove range.)
8. Go to Paris, Dublin, Cornwall, and Chawton (Paris is planned, others to follow.)
9. Keep a private journal in addition to this blog (Have written as much as is necessary since most goes in this blog)
10. Have the time of my life (Getting there)

George and Me

2009-06-01T16:40:00.002-04:00

I was one of the few without an internship today (more on that to come) so I decided to make my pilgrimage to Highgate Cemetery and then pad around Hampstead Heath. The weather has been strangely warm and sunny as of late so I am trying to take advantage of it. I had troubles getting out of bed but I at last managed to get moving around 11-11:30.

I went for Highgate Cemetery first. When I got off the tube, there was a sign with directions to the cemetery. It said I could take a bus or walk Highgate Hill to get there. I thought I would walk since it was only a mile. Yeah, a mile all uphill. I know, I know, I should have known since it was called Highgate HILL but I didn't think it was going to be that steep. I mean it was no Great Wall, but it was fairly steep. Then when I reached the top I found that I had to walk through Waterlow Park to get to the cemetery. This was all turning out to be more complicated than I had anticipated but the walk turned out to be fairly short and it was nice weather.

I at last arrive at the cemetery and make ready to pay my respects to George Eliot, one of my favorite novelists from the 19th-century. Upon entrance, you are assaulted by enormous mausoleums of some long ago higher ups but then you get into the actual gravestones. There are so many. Like it boggles the mind. Row after row all crammed in right next to each other. Many of the older ones are overgrown, have fallen, or are semi-buried. I know the maintenance staff do what they can to upkeep the cemetery but it was striking to me how forgotten these graves are now and how numerous they are. It is still a lovely semi-wooded area with winding dirt paths and flowers, a place I wouldn't mind being laid to rest.

After some initial difficulty (ok, I found it completely by accident and unexpectedly), there I was in front of George Eliot's grave. I teared up, as I did many times while in the cemetery, just in awe of being there. Then I did something Temperance Brennan would not approve of: I left a note for George Eliot. I felt bad that I had come all this way and then I didn't have any flowers or something to offer, so I whipped out my journal and wrote a note of appreciation for her. I secured it with some rocks and left it there for the staff to eventually remove but I would like to think somewhere she appreciated the gesture. I mean Karl Marx had crap tons of flowers and his grave is an enormous monument to his own large head. I wanted George to have something at least.

Most people would have gone in, seen their chosen famous person, but I, being the weird person I am, continued to wander and look at graves. I just like gravestones and cemeteries; they are comforting to me for some reason. So tranquil and still. Some of them were really beautiful too. I teared up at one of a couple who were together for 40 years, another for a father whose daughters had a letter to him carved on his stone, a woman whose numerous children and husband had all died before her, etc. I just like to see how loved people are and how those left behind express it by their stone and what is left on or by it. There were some creepy children ones with mangy looking toys on them but I avoided them so as to avoid horror the likes of Pet Semetery. Eventually though, the place got to me and I knew it was time to go amongst the living again. Onward to Hampstead Heath.

A funny sidenote though. When I was walking back through Waterlow Park, a woman stopped me to ask if I knew where the cemetery was. I of course did, having just come from there. But the only directions I could give her were "Go straight and head down." She looked at me like I was crazy and I thought to myself "Head down? What does that even mean? Way to go Caty, great directions. Good thing she wasn't on The Amazing Race or she would be eating you alive right now." It was an epic failure.

Hampstead Heath is a large wooded park north of London where you can genuinely forget you are even in a city because you are so surrounded by wildlife. It was a lovely hike and the windswept heath was exactly what I would expect after reading Wuthering Heights. There were tons of dogs and children and couple so it was very idyllic but due to my hatred of dogs and children as well as couples since my own boyfriend is back in America, I was less than enthused by these elements. I sat and read Sense and Sensibility before heading up Parliament Hill for a great view of the city.

I don't know why but strange older British men really like to talk to me. I was sitting on a bench on Parliament Hill when all of a sudden this guy stops walking, comes over, and starts talking to me. I was majorly uncomfortable and luckily (never thought I would say luckily to this) but my contact lense got lost in my eye so I had to run (yes, I literally ran from him) to the bottom of the hill to a bathroom mirror to rescue it. It is just the story of my life that weird old guys talk to me instead of hot, young Brits who turn out to be viscounts and want to take me to their country home for the weekend and buy me things.

After my flight from the weird dude, I was pretty far from where I needed to be so I had to navigate my way back with only a rough map to guide me. Needless to say, after all the hills and walking, I was exhausted when I got back and really still am. I will most definitely be going to bed after finishing this post. I still have to decide what to do tomorrow since I don't have work until Wednesday.

So at my interview, Luke said I would most likely come in on Monday but he needed to get in touch with my internship coordinator to figure it out for sure. I e-mailed David, my coordinator, but I didn't hear anything so I assumed I wasn't supposed to come in. While climbing Highgate Hill, I get a call from David telling me that Luke expected me to come in that day. Oh !@#$%. It's alright though, Luke said he probably wasn't clear and that I could come in at 10:30 on Wednesday and work Wed.-Fri. this week. I don't think I have made the best impression on this guy so I am going to make serious apologies on Wednesday because I would never have purposefully missed a day of work if I had thought I needed to be there. Really, I would have preferred to have gone in today and gotten the first day jitters over with. Oh well, soon I shall see, but for now it is time for sleep for me.

Penny for a Smile

2009-05-31T19:45:00.002-04:00

Camden Market is incredibly cool and much more enjoyable than Portobello. Camden is on a canal with bridges crossing over and adorable canal boats chugging up and down the lock. The Market is much more spread out than Portobello so the crowds, though numerous, did not seem as bad. I was also glad that I didn't buy anything at Portobello because they had some of the same stuff at Camden so now I know I can be picky about prices. There was so much stuff that I just wanted to snatch up right away but I restrained myself and after seeing a lot of the market, I have a pretty good idea about what I truly want more than others. Like Portobello, there were food stalls as well selling the most delicious smelling ethnic foods.

There was an odd incident where a man came up to me and said "Penny for a smile". He had a British penny in his hand and I just kind of stared at him. So I gave him a smile and he gave me the penny. And that was that. It was really strange and I couldn't really see why he did it unless he really had the desire to see my serial killer, I'm-massively-uncomfortable-right-now smile. If so, well then I guess he got what he wanted.

We also found some of the most hilarious birthday cards. Just some of the colorfully humored cards were "Fancy a tit wank", "You're a huge fucking rug muncher", and "Fuck me senseless". We were bursting out laughing at how blunt and funny these cards were. Plus the sign that said "Blow me and watch me wiggle" next to the pistachio shell collectibles. College has obviously made us very mature adults. I also enjoyed the T-shirt that said "Swine flu: bacon's revenge" but the stall man got mad at me when I took a picture of it and made me delete it so sadly no photo for the blog.

Some girls and I went out to a local pub for dinner to just chill the night before most of them were to start their internships. My boss still hasn't contacted my internship coordinator or myself about when I am working so I am assuming I will not have work tomorrow. The situation is kind of nerve racking for me so I really just want to hear some word soon. Back to the pub, I ordered a hot sandwich called Cheddar Cheese on Toast which I assumed was like a grilled cheese. I got two slices of toast with cheese on them, so not really a sandwich, still delicious, but kind of odd.

I am also definitely for sure now going to Paris in two weeks with five other people from the program. We have one triple bedroom for the girls and one triple bedroom for the guys and we're taking the Eurostar from London to Paris. Hours tonight were spent trying to find the cheapest transportation and then the cheapest accommodations and then we accidentally booked two female triple rooms so we had to cancel that and do another one and it was chaotic and stressful. However, we have emerged with what seem to be cheap but decent lodgings for two nights. We have to leave Palace Court at like 4 in the morning to get to the train station in time but I figure I will just sleep on the train and go to bed at 8 the night before. I sleep much more easily and earlier here in London. I am really excited to plan what we're going to do and just to get back to Paris after 8 years and see it with fresh, much less bratty eyes.

Stories from a Pub Crawl

2009-05-30T19:41:00.004-04:00

So I just had one of the most surreal moments of my life. There I was sitting there in the middle of The Champion with Lacey trying to sign with two gay deaf men, one of which was from Dubai, Jessie was screaming about Miami to some dudes from North England, and Brittany was trying to make out with a guy, any guy, because she was just that drunk. Wow. Pubs in London are incredibly happening places. I just sat there in the middle of the chaos and laughed. That is what life in London is like, especially for an American. We are regarded with so much interest, not as much as China, but we're still fairly popular. This was only my second night out, but I look forward to many more.

Today was a pretty chill day. We set off with Philip for Portobello Road Market, passing some of the coolest vintage shops I have ever seen and some of the prettiest brightly painted houses. Portobello is a huge chaotic mess. We walked up the street for 1.5 hours and we still didn't reach the end. There are antique booths selling rings and clock necklaces, produce booths selling the reddest strawberries you have ever seen, and every sort of delicious smelling food known to man. It is incredibly overwhelming and crowded, which I, no big shock here, was not a fan of. I didn't buy anything, feeling that it would be like the Silk Market in that you should go once to see how it works and then come back a different day to do the actual purchasing. I heard so many languages while I was there, but that is just a general feature of London: rampant multiculturalism. There were street performers playing Jamaican drums, a dude in a yellow clown wig lip syncing to Journey, and an old man walking around with his dog on his shoulder. It was utter insanity.

The afternoon was spent trying to figure out when everything I wanted to see was open and how much it cost so that I could better plan for future days. A majority of us then had a picnic in Kensington Gardens for dinner. Strange note about London: you can be approached by a salesperson anywhere. Anywhere. Some guys pitched Victoria Jackson cosmetics to us (The lipstick is also a nail polish!) in the park and the night before we had been approached about massages and giving to the poor while at The Champion. It usually makes for a pretty bizarre experience. It was really lovely in the park with what seemed like the whole population of London out on the warm, sunny day.

After dinner we started the previously described pub crawl. The Phoenix came first, which was quiet so not best suited to a large group of American college girls, so we moved on to the Prince Alfred and spent a few hours there. I got yet another cider, Blackthorn, which was delicious and large and cheap (cheap being relative in London of course). We then had an interesting episode with Clare. She ordered a vodka cranberry and the bartender asked if she wanted a single or a double. She asked for the difference in price and he said nothing since she was a pretty girl and he was a bartender. So she orders the double...and then he charges her double. He later came to our table with a free Snakebite which he said all the American girls love but which none of us liked, so it was a rather pathetic attempt at sorry. Men are confusing even over here in England. Speaking of men, Lindsay's friend from home who is also studying in London came to meet us so we got some male company for once. It was really nice to just sit and talk with a smaller group of people, sharing guy stories and the like. The Champion came last of the night and after that experience, I felt it best to retire. What a way to end an evening.

Third Time's a Charm

2009-05-29T14:55:00.003-04:00

It finally happened. I finally got to go inside Westminster Abbey. I failed 7 years ago and I failed yesterday but today, today I succeeded. Man was it worth the wait. I also think I know why I was meant to go in alone: I spent 2.5 hours there. While I was off being a history geek, anyone with me would have been like "OMG CATY COME ON!" At it was, I was able to utilize my audio tour guide (narrated by Jeremy Irons) and take my sweet time.

I got to the Abbey at 10, so only half an hour after it opened. It was amazing first stepping into the Abbey and there being virtually no people in it. The enormous vaulted ceiling, the gorgeous stained glass windows, the numerous marble monuments, and best of all the High Altar where every monarch since 1066 has been crowned; all virtually to myself. OK, I will admit it, I cried a little bit. I'm sorry but it was just so amazing to be in a place that has been around in one form or another since the 1050s, so much time, so many stories, so much history. I couldn't believe that every monarch since William the Conqueror has been crowned in the same spot (well minus Edward V because Richard III killed him and buried him and his little brother under some stairs in the Tower and Edward VIII because he decided to marry Wallis Simpson for some inexplicable reason).

Another huge nerdy confession here: I took notes. Yes, I carried around my journal and paused the audio tour and wrote down what he had said. I had no choice, you aren't allowed to take pictures, so how else was I going to remember what I had seen? Some guy with an accent (Italian? Spanish?) laughed at me for taking notes in one of the chapels. Whatever, I wanted to remember the large black and gold fireplace-esque memorial was to Lord Hunsdon, one of QE1's favorites, and is the largest in the Abbey at 36 feet.

So Westminster Abbey is covered with memorials and tombs. I don't know how they find room for new ones. Every bit of wall and floor is inscribed with a memorial to somebody, extolling how awesome they were. In some cases, the people were only children when they died, yet their relatives were rich or important enough to get them a spot in Westminster Abbey. Personally, I feel you should have achieved more in your life than living to the age of 6 and then croaking to get a tomb in the Abbey, but maybe that is just me. Some of them are really quite interesting. Lady Nightingale's portrays her husband trying to fight off the skeletal form of death that has come for her. Romantic, if a bit macabre and strange. Lord Norris, another QE1 favorite, has his six sons kneeling around his and Lady Norris's effigies and since only one of his sons outlived him, he is the only one shown looking up towards the sky. Really, most of the people in the Abbey get more elaborate memorials than royalty. Some monarchs, such as Edward VI, Mary II, and Anne have nothing more than a slab on the floor with their name and the year to mark they're buried there. I actually missed them the first time around because who would think to look at the floor really?

Poet's Corner wasn't all that exciting. I mean come on, Jane Austen and the Brontes only got inscriptions? No busts or anything like the other dudes? So not cool. Scientist's Corner I also found interesting. There is this huge memorial to Darwin, yet isn't he supposed to be the blasphemous enemy of all that is Christian? You would think the guy who came up with the theory of evolution wouldn't be celebrated in one of Christianity's greatest churches.

I could go on (I took notes remember?) but I will bore you all no further. After returning from the Abbey around 1, I ran into a large group of girls waiting for some others to go out and just walk around. I decided to go with since I had been headed for Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park anyways and that is where they were going first. All of us then proceeded to walk the entire length of Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace to Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square to Chinatown. Basically, we walked A LOT. It was a gorgeous day out though, so it was very pleasant. Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park is incredible and definitely worth more exploring. The best part is that it is a 5 minute walk from Palace Court so any old day you can decide to pick up and go there. I still years ago. We also came across an open-air market in Piccadilly. I was shocked when I was able to browse through the stalls without anyone grabbing me or calling me "Pretty lady". It was slightly unnerving I must say. Also there is now a Ripley's Believe It or Not! in Piccadilly Circus. I love a Ripley's as much as the next person but they should be reserved for cheap, tacky, trashy places like Myrtle Beach and the Wisconsin Dells, not London.

All in all, it was a great day. I was glad to finally be getting out and doing things whereas the past few days have been more have to do this, have to do that. Tomorrow our graduate resident Philip is leading us to Portobello Road Market which I am incredibly psyched about. Haven't decided what to do with the rest of my day from there but that will at least cover my morning. So cheerio from bright and shiny (no one is shocked more than I) London.

BAC in London

2009-05-27T18:16:00.002-04:00

Interview day. Shudder, twitch, shudder. Even 12 hours of sleep couldn't prepare me and I set off two hours early because I was sure I would get lost. Miraculously, I didn't. I got on the right bus from the Tube station and got off right in front of the BAC. I was an hour early so I sat on a comfy couch and read Sense and Sensibility until Luke arrived. He was still a few minutes late so I was told to go and wait for him in the cafe. The BAC has their own cafe where besides coffee and tea they serve food as well. I just continued to read.

Luke arrived and asked me if I had my CV...I didn't because no one told me to bring it and he already had it from Arcadia. I thought great, what a first impression to make, no CV at my interview. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind so much. He asked me a series of questions about what I had done before, what my favorite show was, why I was in the theater, etc. It was all pretty informal and nice; he seems like a nice guy. I must have said the right things because he took me on a tour of the building.

Dear god, the BAC is effing huge. He kept leading me down passageways, up and down stairs, through doors, with no discernible direction. He didn't even show me the whole place because that would have taken about two hours he said. There is no one theater space, in fact, every room is considered a space. Then there is the Grand Hall which has the biggest organ I have ever seen. Phantom eat your heart out. He says they do all kinds of things in there from shows to weddings to Caribbean funerals which are like weddings to banquets and conferences. It's all very alternative and different, not like anything I have really ever worked with before. Except that he wants me to work with the BAC's youth program, which is very familiar territory. At least, that might be what I am doing. He said he doesn't know exactly when I will be working because he hasn't decided where to use me yet. Oh and I can wear whatever clothes I don't mind getting a bit dirty a.k.a. I don't need any formal work clothes or shoes. Good thing Mom and I went to Goodwill and didn't spend that much money. I am of course thrilled at this development as we all know I am most comfortable in jeans and Chucks anyway.

To make sure the universe didn't turn inside out from me flouting God's law, I got lost on the way home. I got on the wrong bus and when I realized it, it was too late to do anything but take a kind of roundabout way back, thus ensuring it took me a lot longer to get home then to get there. The bus system is not so second nature to me as the Tube but I have it figured out for next time. No worries. I was able to get to Leicester Square to get a half-price tkts ticket for Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre, more on that to come.

I chilled out, took a nap, and ate a dinner of a turkey sandwich and Walkers potato crisps. My whole scrimp-on-food plan to save money is working but my stomach is NOT happy with me. Right before writing this I was so hungry that I was forced to snack on dry Frosted Flakes (Frosties in the UK). I haven't eaten lunch since I got here and all other meals have been pretty small as well. I am so splurging this weekend on some yummy, fatty, calorie filled meat pie or something at a pub.

While everyone else set off for Wicked (shudder, twitch, shudder, twitch), I went to see Blood Brothers. I also was able to find this with minimal time spent lost, in fact I had to hang out at a nearby book shop because I got there with too much time to spare. I forgot some very important things about London theatre: you have to pay for the programs and binoculars are available for rent for 1.5 pounds. I had an odd assortment of coinage on me so I was unable to purchase either.

The show though was AH-MAZE-ING. The lead actress was just about one of the most talented women I have ever come across. Most of the actors had to spend the first act being 7 years old which they did well with. The only real down side was the accents made it hard to understand sometimes and the sound was highly electronically altered, which was effective sometimes and distracting at others. Overall, it was really moving though and I did NOT cry at the end. I gave a standing ovation, which I never give lightly, as did the rest of the theater. The cast had to come back for four encores before we all left.

Amusing story time now. There was this loud Southern woman two rows ahead of me with two underdressed Biff and Boff sons who were listening to their IPods when they walked in and had pants too far down their asses. She, remember loudly and Southern, asked the Brits in the row in front of me how to get back to Gloucester Road station. They were not from London so they didn't know, but this lady just kept talking anyway so finally I got up and showed her the best route to take. She, Biff, and Boff had walked from a station far away when there was one right up the street. I told her this and she just seemed stunned. I drew on her Tube map how she was to get back to Gloucester and gave directions to the nearby Tube station as well. She was very grateful and the Brits in front of me seemed stunned that an American was able to help where they were not. I was just glad the lady would shut up and I didn't have to look at Biff and Boff's indifferent stares anymore.

It was a highly stressful day but my evening at Blood Brothers was thoroughly enjoyable. I am already starting to stress about a topic for my academic project (you know, just the 5,000 word paper I have to write) and if I am going to be able to do well at my internship. It's been harder than I though being here but I just have to wait to settle in, find my footing, and hopefully all will be well soon.

I'm Pretentious

2009-05-26T13:45:00.003-04:00

It's happened. I have become my own pet peeve and it is all Beijing's fault. Some people today were complaining about how crowded the Tube was, how much walking we had to do, and how janky our accommodations are. None of these things phase me anymore after China and I found myself saying so every time someone said anything. Thus, I became the pretentious bitch who tries to one up everyone and looks down on others for not being like her. I recognize this. However, I still want to slap anyone who complains in front of me. They have no idea, just no idea. The Tube was not anywhere near Beijing subway levels of crowded; in fact I found myself plotting in my head how to fit more people onto the train. At one station today, we let two trains go by that we definitely could have gotten on if only everyone had Beijing skills. When we had to push into the third car, I was the first person in while everyone else tried to be polite. Living in college town Indiana, I didn't realize how invaluable my time in China was in helping me to adapt and survive, but it has definitely come in handy here. I really must quit talking about it though or no one will ever want to talk to me.

Today was another administrative day. We left here at about 7:45 in the pouring rain to venture to City University to meet our internship coordinators and learn about the class we will be taking at City. The Circle line was closed due to someone throwing themself under a train so we had to take a more roundabout route. Apparently, the Tube has all kinds of delays and such nowadays, which I don't remember happening last time. City is several tube stops and one line change from Palace Court. The trains and stations didn't seem to be air conditioned like I remembered them being as I was exceedingly hot despite it being rainy and cool above ground. I got to hear "Change here for the Piccadilly line" which made me happy despite it not having the same inflection it did 7 years ago.

Our intrepid graduate resident Philip got lost leading us and we were late. It wasn't a terribly big deal but my still jet-lagged body and sore calves were not fans of the extra walking. We got more packets of copious amounts of papers to sign and read and know, which was overwhelming. We also met with our project supervisor, Mo, to talk about the academic project that is the major component of our academics besides the class. This is a roughly 20 page paper or project of similar magnitude. We have to have an idea by June 10th and I have to say that I am completely at a loss for what to do. Hopefully my internship will spark some creativity in me otherwise I am going to be in very big trouble.

That meeting was over with at about 10:45 but I was assigned to the last group of internship coordinator meetings at 12:30. I went with a group to get our City University IDs and I am happy to say mine is not truly terrible, nowhere near my Olympic pass photo. Sign-ups for the Arcadia side trips were also today. I noticed I was only about the third person to sign up for the Wales weekend but as long as they don't cancel the trip, I don't really care. I am pumped to be coasteering and sea kayaking on my birthday this year. The last hour before the meeting was spent sitting in Costa Coffee talking with some girls from my housing and some from Redcliffe Gardens in Chelsea.

David, my internship coordinator, informed me at our meeting that Battersea just had a really excellent intern also named Caitlin, so I now have to try and be the as good or better Caitlin. My interview is tomorrow at 11 am with Luke the production manager. It sounded like I will be doing a lot of practical tech work, though alas they have no costuming department. I have to take the Tube and then a bus to reach it, but it is still within District 2, so not nearly as far as some others. David also informed me of a previous intern who got to work Hairspray on the West End because he used to have a contact in the show who is no longer with it. Why he felt the need to tell me this I don't know. He also didn't believe my field work request when I said I would work in any area of the theater, but I assured him that was true. There is no diva here.

After the meeting, I led a Palace Court group back. I know, Caty Natt, daughter of Jane "They moved Winston-Salem" Natt, actually remembered how to get somewhere. It was pretty astounding but then I had been paying a lot of attention due to my love of London and its buildings. I went to Queensway, the nearby shop road, to buy a cheapy cheapster mobile phone and to get groceries. Most importantly I bought four bags of Walkers Cheese and Onion potato crisps and nearly cried with happiness. Now I am preparing to go to bed and sleep 12 hours before getting up to go to my interview in the morning and to buy TKTS at Leicester Square so I have something better to see tonight than the poor souls using the free Wicked tickets we were given yesterday. I really want to stop being jet-lagged so I can actually start to enjoy myself more. Cheerio as they say here.

Am I There Yet?

2009-05-25T09:41:00.003-04:00

I sit here and the whole feeling I can muster is dazed. I am here in London but I have yet to feel like I am. Then again, I don't really feel anything except for the overwhelming desire to sleep and various aches and pains resulting from travel and very large suitcases. I must stay awake so that I fall asleep tonight but it is exceedingly difficult, especially as everyone else in the building, including my roommate, seems to be slumbering. I will try and clear my foggy brain to relay my story.

Well, I left on the 8 am train for Chicago yesterday. The ride was uneventful; I drank my last two Diet Dr Peppers and played the Sims 2 for the entire time. After another heinous battle with my luggage, I found Aunt Lori Sue, Iz, and Em with no trouble. We proceeded to have a wonderful afternoon dining at Giordano's, recalling past memories, and catching each other up on the latest gossip of our lives. I always have a great time with those girls and it was much better than sitting in the airport all day.

All of us on Arcadia's program basically made up the entirety of the airplane and we most definitely dominated the gate area. I, of course, had a difficult time talking to anyone but I haven't been a complete recluse. Not that it mattered because once we got on the plane I was seated next to old Indian lady whose sari scratched my skin on several occasions and who spilt apple juice on my pants. Better than vomit leaking from an air sick bag, but still not pleasant.

Ok, have any of you ever ridden Virgin Atlantic before? BECAUSE IT ROCKS! They have video games, several different TV and movie channels that play continuously through the flight, and food that is actually edible. It was actually not excruciatingly boring to be on an airplane and I enjoyed myself thoroughly playing Inflight Trivia Tournament and watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Of course, after the 13.5 hour United flight to Beijing, all other flights are a cakewalk, but this was really a superb flying experience.

We landed at Heathrow an hour ahead of time and were forced to wait in a hideously long line at Customs that I swear did not have air conditioning. Then the baggage carousel broke down, causing delay, and after almost having a coronary that my bag had been lost, I found both of them to my joy. We then found our Arcadia staffers and waited for our buses to arrive to take us to our housing.

I have to say I was slightly frightened when I stepped outside and the sky was gray. Terrible flashbacks to Beijing. They were only clouds here, not smog, and there is definitely blue sky out my window right now, thank the lord. I, naturally, managed to rip my right big toe's nail off as I got on the bus, and thus bled through our drive.

I live in room 12. The very top floor. Up five flights of stairs. With no air conditioning. Getting the bags up and unpacking was, as you can imagine, a great joy. I will be skinny as hell with toned legs after 8 weeks of climbing up and down the stairs every day. I only have one roommate, Lacey, which is unusual for Palace Court and my window looks out onto the backs of houses. My favorite part is the spikes on the roof right outside my open window to kill any birds who try and land there. The day when I look out the window and see impaled pigeon is going to be a savory one. The room is quite large and has its own sink. However, we must go down one flight of stairs for the nearest toilet and another half flight for the nearest shower.

I bathed after unpacking and it was comedy at the levels of Lucille Ball. The shower is very small, so that you have to strategize about which part of your body will be wet when because it is impossible to get completely out of the water. It has a rain shower head so there is no moving it out of your way. Shaving your legs is only possible if you are fine with most of your shaving cream washing away before you get a chance and if you can stand like a flamingo and not die. The water temperature is also tepid at best no matter how far you turn the handle towards hot.

All in all, the accommodations are much as I expected and I am happy. I have a mattress and the shower and toilet are separate so it is already much improved from China. We are all laying low until 4 when we have an arrival meeting, followed by dinner, followed by a tour of the neighborhood. I would go out and do some shopping as I need sheets and groceries but I haven't gotten to a currency exchange yet plus I am really and truly exhausted.

I am so tired that everything has this surreal quality to it. My brain cannot function enough to process that I am really here and these are the people I am going to be living with and this is going to be my life for the next two months. It just feels like some kind of dream or limbo. An 8 o'clock bedtime tonight will fix me up nice and allow me to truly soak everything in and give me the necessary energy to go out and do something notable. An hour of airplane sleep and an hour's nap just won't do. Tomorrow, tomorrow...

Before I Go

2009-05-23T23:12:00.002-04:00

Well, I have to be on a train to Chicago in roughly 9 hours, en route to London, England to spend the next two months of my life there. This is my second time being in London but the last time was 7 years ago and I had my parents and sister with me. Now, I am going all alone. I know no one on the trip, no friends, no family, international travel, life in a foreign country, and my first real world theater work experience. This is a little daunting especially for someone as shy and passive as myself. I am really, really excited but also slightly terrified and anxious. I feel this is entirely appropriate but I'm still biting the inside of my lips raw.

I have decided to commit to this blog a few summer goals, some of which have to do with my trip and others that don't. This will either motivate me to accomplish them or be an embarrassing show of my failure. I hope the former rather than the latter.

1. Stop biting the inside of my lip
2. Beat my dependency on daily diet soda
3. Make friends despite my socially fearful nature
4. Go for a jog/walk in Hyde Park every day that I am not touring
5. Take full advantage of my 18 days working at Battersea Arts Centre
6. Try new foods that I ordinarily wouldn't, especially British Isles specialties
7. Acquire a working knowledge of British slang much like Australian last summer
8. Go to Paris, Dublin, Cornwall, and Chawton
9. Keep a private journal in addition to this blog
10. Have the time of my life

10 seems like a nice number doesn't it? Well I have dreamed of studying abroad in London basically since I left 7 years ago and now my dream is coming true. Only Hannah knows how it will all go from here. I'll be writing next time from London, cheerio till then mates.