Rosie's in London

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:17:11 GMT

Okay, so Scotland... is unbelieveable.
Except I know no one will be satisfied w/ that description, so here's a better one:

Thursday is spent almost entirely on a train. We left King's Cross at 3:00, expecting to get into Edinburgh around 7:15, but did that happen? Noooo. If the Underground's taught me anything, it's that train times are not to be trusted.
About an hour into our journey, some sort of cable problem occurs in the upcoming tunnel, leading us to be stopped on the tracks for a while, then pulled back to the nearest station. Every time the conductor radio-ed ahead to find out how long until the repairs were finished, he received the answer, "Ten minutes."
After two and a half hours, a packet of crisps, a free cup of tea, and a pint of really bad stout, they gave up and just redirected us to the next track over.

Bored!Amy plays with the sonic screwdriver.

Brett: Heeeeey.

This sums up our photography skills right here.

And... Amy's terrified. That's nothing new.

We rolled into Edinburgh around 10:30, and after checking into our hostel (and finding a v. angry Asian couple in our room who kept insisting they'd booked a private room; we pointed out as calmly as possible that it was a room for eight, and those eight were... us), we headed down the road to the Scotsman's Lounge with Ged (our AIFS... representative? Chaperone? Buddy?) and watched a guy named Acoustic David perform. He was really fun, and believe me, we've become experts on the subject of pub performers; best of all, he took requests, which meant Brett got him to play a v. risqué Tenacious D song I'll refer to as "Eff Her Gently." After the Scotsman's closed, we headed to the Nichol Edwards, which is tiny and fantastic, and has a chalkboard wall that became quite symbolic as the week went on for reasons I'm not allowed to divulge.
First, however, Ged decided a race to Edinburgh castle was in order. That sucked, but I got a couple of good pictures out of it:

Friday we met Graeme and Debs, our Haggis tourguides. Okay, I don't want to sound like a walking advertisment, but if you ever go to Scotland and want a tour, go w/ Haggis, because they were the best tourguides any of us had ever met. The group was split into two buses; the stone-cold fox that Graeme was, our bus was about 90% women (and vice versa for Debs's bus; you'll be eyeing more than just the sights on a Haggis tour).
First stop: Stirling, to see the William Wallace monument.

Monument to the real William Wallace.

Monument to... Mel Gibson as William Wallace. Ouch.

Graeme and Ged re-enact the Battle of Stirling.

Graeme was really entertaining, telling jokes and stories about past tours, playing music, and at one point, taking us completely away from the designated tour path to show us Doune Castle, the castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was shot. We were about half an hour behind the other bus for the rest of the day, but we didn't care, because we have pictures of Doune Castle now.

Amy, quit sucking at being my Patsy!

I, however, kick ass at Patsy-ing.

As we drove through the town of Doune, Graeme mentioned that "town" is pronounced like "toon" in a Scottish accent, as is "down," making "Doune Town" sound very similar to "Down Town." Cue the Petula Clark music. It was after this that our bus was christened "Clan MacDouneToune," and let me tell you, clan rivalry lives.
Then we stopped to meet Hamish, the Hairy Coo.

I WANT ONE.
It was around now that the scenery started to blow my mind.

We stopped in Kylakin for the night, just over the bridge to the Isle of Skye, where Amy, Brett, Megan, and I escaped to a quieter pub (our tourgroup took over the other one; it wasn't pretty) to watch the France-Argentina rugby match (have I mentioned how much I love rugby? Because I do). There some nice Australian tourists further explained the rules of the game to us, because we've only picked up so much from watching the World Cup matches in pubs (and by "so much," I mean, "when to yell"). Then, on Graeme's suggestion, we went to a charity gig down the way that was fun, in a really depressing way; it took place in what was essentially a high school gym, and I've since described it as "making up for every horrible high school dance I went to" (making up for them because there was an actual band instead of a crappy DJ, and there were drinks for sale, which really would have made any high school dance better).

Saturday started bright and early with a trip to Sligachan (the spelling of which still eludes me), a river where there's an old folktale saying the waters are healing and beautifying.
Cue a bus full of students plunging their faces into the water.

Then more amazing scenery...

... and a hike. When they say "Highlands," they're not kidding.

See that blue splotch? That's the bus.
And then I ate it coming down the hill, effectively coating myself in peat for the rest of the weekend. Note the pile of sheep poop about two inches away from me.

Then off to Fort Augustus, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town on Loch Ness, where we watched England lose to South Africa 15-6 in the Rugby World Cup final, celebrated Rob's birthday at midnight, and... wentskinnydippinginLoch Ness.

Ahem.

Sunday was more scenery,
(photos)
more hairy coos,
(photos)
and more Loch Ness (clothed this time).
(photos)
(Photobucket's being lame right now; I'll add the rest of the pictures in later.)
It was about this time that my camera died, and after forgetting the cord when packing for London, did I remember it for Scotland?
Nope!
Un-photodocumented escapades include driving through Inverness, which was apparently named the least attractive town in Britain, people-wise, Graeme's announcement of which leading to a rousing round of "Hottie Spotting" (pressing the little assistance bell button above your seat whenever you saw someone attractive). We headed southwards from there back toward Edinburgh, but pretty soon Big Blue, our beloved bus, started making funny knocking noises (those of us in the back row that day asserted that there was a "fairy carcass" stuck on the axle). We tried to power through it, but finally stopped in a tiny place that was only memorable for being next to Birnam woods (of Macbeth fame).
As soon as we found out we were being sent another bus, everyone said two things: One, "It better not be yellow;" and two, "the yellow bus does NOT find out about this." See, as the weekend progressed, Clan MacDouneToune and Clan DSL (who later changed their name to Clan McLovin, after realizing their first name was stupid) had cultivated a healthy rivalry (especially after they STOLE our theme song! Luckily, we had three).
Finally, we made it back to Edinburgh, where we bid farewell to Graeme, and headed to a pub where Acoustic David (remember him?) had told us he'd be playing. News of this had spread (probably thanks to Ged), so that once he started playing, the entire tour group was there (as opposed to the eight or nine of us who'd seen him Thursday). He was quite entertained by this, as well as by our aptitude for audience participation (there was a lot of "And... scream!" At which point we would), and although he was utterly bewildered by some of our song requests ("Downtown," "Donald, Where's Your Troosers?", etc.), he kept telling us this was the best gig he'd ever played. We were quite proud of this, to be sure.
Also, just to keep things straight: when we "bid farewell" to Graeme, that was only in an official capacity, because you can bet that he was at the Royal Mile with us and Acoustic Dave, dancing and shouting, and followed us to the Nichol Edwards to further dance and shout and draw on the chalkboard wall.

After all this, Monday was fairly calm. We toured Edinburgh castle, saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, went hat shopping (I didn't buy one), had a piercing party (I didn't get one), and rode the train home to London. The train was far less eventful this time, although we had a v. entertaining Would You Rather conversation, in which Robin decided he'd rather have the body of a cocker spaniel than the head of one, and eyebrows that migrated independently around his face instead of bendy straws for hair.
It's a sign that London has started to feel like home that we were so depressed to come back. London has a smell.

So, next I update will include Halloween, Guy Fawkes Day, and the like. In the meantime, send me presents!

Update!

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:13:25 GMT

I wrote out an in-depth, photodocumented version of the Scotland trip that I will be posting on Monday, as I can't be bothered to bring my laptop to school today.

It was looking like Amy had decided not to go to Dublin, which made my decision easy (plus the logistics of paying without any cards would have been hellish), but then she decided at the last minute to go anyway, so I'm alone in London after all. It does, however, look like that was the good choice, because the morning they left (at 5:30 AM; another good reason not to go), I woke up feeling really sick (fever, swollen tonsils, couldn't stop coughing, the works). I'm better, although still ill, but waking up feeling like that just reaffirmed my thought that going now wasn't a good idea.
Ann (my homestay host) was surprisingly nice when I woke up sick. Amy and I thought she didn't like us very much, because we like to cook a lot and we're bad at remembering to shut the bathroom window after showering, but she was really sweet, bringing me a cup of tea and telling me that there was a Paul McCartney concert on TV last night. Another upside to not going!
I'm looking into train/coach/hostel prices for a weekend in Cardiff, because I want to see Wales while I'm here. The country's beautiful, the language is fascinating, and there is a museum I want to see there quite badly.

While here for the weekend, I'm figuring I'll get all the sightseeing done I haven't managed yet, like the National Portrait Gallery and the Zoo. Also, I've been planning an art study of the posters and ads in Tube stations that I'm going to start; it's not the sort of thing I can do with others with me, so I figure if I don't do it now, I never will.

Until next time!

sigh

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:26:48 GMT

So, we're coming up on the mid-semester break. How has time gone by this quickly?
But know what that means? SCOTLAND! Thursday, in fact.

Okay, so here's my situation, which is, quite frankly, lame:
Brett, Megan, and Amy are planning to go to Dublin the week after we get back from Scotland, and they asked me if I want to come along. That alone is awesome, because sometimes I get paranoid fears that my friends are tired of me and would rather I leave them alone. However, to go to Dublin will cost £200 (not including food and stuff, I'm assuming), and that's where I'm stuck. See, if you look at the last entry, you'll know that my wallet was stolen, so I am cardless and thus cashless until further notice, except for what Amy lends me, and while that'll work for Scotland food and such, borrowing enough to get to Dublin and back is not something I'm (nor is she, I think) prepared to do. So here are my choices:

Pros/Cons of staying in London for the week:
+ cheaper (duh)
- I'm in London, alone, for a week, because all of my friends will be in Dublin, or Paris, or Amsterdam, or Madrid, or... etc. "Alone," in this case, also means "without money," because Amy is the master of my money right now. Sure, there are many fun things to do for free in this city, but in the practical sense, I see this turning into me sitting in bed reading for a week. In effing London.

Pros/Cons of going to Dublin:
+ It's Dublin!
- £. A lot of it. A lot of it.

So, I'm probably not going. This just means I need to motivate myself to go places and do things that don't cost money while I'm here. Alone.
Wish me luck.

A little bad, a little good.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:29:49 GMT

Bad: I got robbed again yesterday, and this time it was a lot worse than a £10 phone. They took my wallet. Got everything cancelled and stuff, but it was still depressing and invasive. I no longer trust breastfeeding mothers; they're all out to get me. Grr.

Good: Saw Wicked, which was wicked (ha!). Elphaba has now been added to the list of roles I want to play (along w/ Josie from A Moon for the Misbegotten and Lady M from the Scottish Play).
Also, my camera cord finally arrived!!!! That was such a nice surprise. Along w/ the package was my grey hat; unforturnately, it's the wrong hat. Thanks for trying, Dad, and sorry I have your grey fleece rain hat, Mom; I'll send it along if you'd like.

In other news, British television is amazing. I've been posting YouTube videos of my favorite commercials in my other LJ (rosepetal9), and I don't want to clutter friends pages for people who read both blogs, so the links to the greatest ads of all time are here and here. Also discovered is the show KNTV Philosophy, a kids' show about (what else?) philosophy including home video clips and computer animation, supposedly set in the final European Communist state, Slobovia. Genius.
This morning was Nietzche, which involved him being the original emo kid. Totally true.
I can't find video of the Sigmund Freud episode (which was the best by far), but here's the song from the Karl Marx one:

Until next time!

Well done, ninjas! Let's ride.

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:45:54 GMT

^ Quote from "Energy Ninjas," a video exhibit at the Science Museum.

Sorry this hasn't been updated more often. Internet's hard to come by, so condensing all my thoughts when I do have it is difficult, so here's a +/- list of what I can think of that's happened.

+ Saw Cabaret, which was a-freaking-mazing.
+ Saw Merchant of Venice @ the Globe Theatre.
- About 15 minutes late to Merchant. Damn Tube
- Speaking of which, now that I'm used to the Tube, I can hate it as much as I want. The love comes from the beginners' awe, we discovered. Now there are delays and breakdowns all the time, and it makes me want to scream.
+ Discovered I'm eating way more healthily here. Meat's expensive, so I don't eat much; I'm drinking more juice; and (best of all) there's this guy on the University of London campus who sets up every day at lunchtime with a giant vat of warm, yummy, FREE vegetarian food. Yesterday was curry and basmati rice. And it's FREE.
+ Football match on Saturday! Fulham v. Man City, tie.
- Late to the football match, too. DAMN TUBE!
+ Found an amazing little pub called the Larrik next to the football stadium, where this great band plays every week. They loved us, because we were the only ones actually listening to them instead of pounding a pint and leaving. We danced. It was fun. We're going back tomorrow.
+/- Amy's first creepster, a Norwegian guy at the Larrik. +/- because it was really entertaining, even to her.
- I'm poor! Even with the food stipend plan AIFS plans for us, it's only £35 a week, which equals £5 a day, which— regardless of the exchange rate— is like living, drinking, and going to plays on $5 a day. I'm coping, but it's still lame.
- Everyone gets letters and care packages but me and Amy! Yesterday Devin got a cardboard box full of Annie's mac 'n' cheese, and I almost cried. It's depressing. Send me stuff.
- On the subject of Annie's (which you should send me), there's no macaroni and cheese here. At least not the normal box kind. It's either in a can (yuck), or in a bag, but the bag macaroni, as we decided, is "more boring than Orlando Bloom." We took pictures of it, but...
- Still no camera cord, because I'm too lazy to find a camera store and see if they'd sell me one. Even if I did, it'll probably be expensive. Balls. Also, found out that if I don't charge my camera, I can't get the pictures off of it, so y'all are bereft of pictures of me and the Orlando Bloom macaroni until I get a cord.
+ Met a v. cute boy on the Tube. See, not all Tube riders are creepsters! His name is Kevin, he's 19, he's from South Africa, and he seemed the least bit interested in me.
- However, didn't ask for his number, because I'm lame like that.

Honestly, it's way better than that just made it look! I'm just tired after a long day, which makes me keen to gripe.
We got to tour the Globe theatre today, which was really fun. Last week we did the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (where we'll be seeing Lord of the Rings: The Musical later this semester).

Okay, that's all for now. A girl met Q. Tarantino last night, so I'm going to listen to her story.

"Some crowds can be aggressive, like an angry mob that's decided to riot." - Actual quote from text

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:05:15 GMT

So, nearly a week in, and I'm already blasting through all my money. Whoops.
Granted, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it's gotten (and that's really not that bad, I suppose), if not for a life experience I wasn't yet planning to have: my first Tube Theft!
They stole my day-old cell phone (sorry, mobile). It was more inconvenient than anything, really, but it still sucks, and I'm still out £20 I'd planned to have, after I had to buy a new one again.
No matter, though, 'cause my phone is pink and pretty.

In the same vein of Tube experiences, I had my first creepster on Tuesday. Funny, I thought creepsters had to have a measure of subtlety, but no such luck. This particular one sat across from Amy and I when we were headed to class, and made a big show of trying to look up my skirt. This struck me as a faulty plan, because A) I was wearing tights; and B) I had a rather heavy bag positioned on my lap, making it pretty much impossible to see anything, even if I hadn't had tights on.
I did my best to ignore him, concentrating instead on my iPod, but then he came up and tried to talk to me, presumably about what I was listening to. I couldn't understand him (he had a thick, non-UK accent that I couldn't quite wrap my mind around), so I again tried to ignore him (because I am a master of the passive-aggressive brush-off), but when that didn't work, Amy leaned over and told him in no uncertain terms to shove off.
So, that sucked, although now I have a good story to tell. I am, however, a little worried to wear that skirt again. Creepster karma, you know.

We started class this week. Everything looks pretty simple, so I shouldn't have trouble keeping up, even in a city such as this.
I feel bad for my Critical Thinking teacher. He announced first thing that he's never taught this class before (he's usually a Psych/Sociology teacher), which could have been a good thing with any other audience. These boys, however, seemed quite content to tear him to pieces, questioning every statement he made. I mean, I understand that this is a class that will include a lot of debate, but they just seemed very mean-spirited about it. I hope they ease up, or that I can manage to match them.

Last night was our viewing of In Celebration, starring Orlando Bloom, for Theatre class. It's a fairly modern (mid- to late-20th century) play about three brothers returning to their Northern, coal-mining town to celebrate their parents' fortieth anniversary. It's a good, if extremely confusing, piece; my only real issue with it was that questions kept being raised and not resolved, and the conclusion lacked fulfillment, but I guess that's an artistic choice, because real life doesn't always resolve things. Still, quite entertaining.
Orly wasn't bad, I suppose, although I had a couple of bones to pick with his performance. For the most part, I ignored him in favor of the rest of the dynamic cast. The actor playing the eldest brother, especially, was amazing.

That's all for now, I suppose. Once I get around to uploading photos, I'll post a tour of our flat.

Finally, something to say!

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:57:04 GMT

Last time, I didn't have anything to say; now, I have too much.

I finally got to go home on Friday, after all the pre-tour kids got in (about 6:30.... bleughhhh). The taxi seemed to go way out of the way to get there, looking back now that I know a bit about the area, but it was okay, because we passed a Q-Zar (called Quasar here, but it's the same Q symbol, so I'm good), and a pub called the Winchester (where we'll be heading should any zombies attack).
Then, at long last, we got home, where we met Ann, our host for the next three months. She's quite nice, if a little stiff with us; I don't think she realizes how much we plan to cook our own food, which may end up a problem, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Our flat is sooo cool. Everything is decorated in pink and chrome (which looks way cooler than it sounds, I assure you), and our room is in the attic, sort of. The roof is our ceiling, and we have a bunch of skylights. I took a bunch of pictures, which I'll post once I bring my laptop on campus later this week.

Saturday was fairly uneventful during the day. AIFS took us on a coach tour of the city, which was really only entertaining because of our tourguide, Nigel, and our driver, Roly (like Roly-Poly). That got a lot of the sight-seeing out of the way, which was helpful, but more importantly, it added into the adventure that was Saturday evening.

You see, that morning in the Tube station, Amy and I saw a poster for a play called Elling, starring John Simm (of Life on Mars/Doctor Who fame). We both got really happy and squee-ey, but didn't think much of it until the coach tour, when we passed the theatre where it's playing (cue more squees). It was then that we swore to find it that night and see it. We set out to Trafalgar Square that evening to find it, only to wander around for an hour and a half looking for it (we get lost quite easily, we've discovered). Apparently no one you ask knows where Trafalgar Studios is until you've already found it.
Finally, we're there, not ten minutes before it starts. We rush to the box office, asking if there are any more tickets, and the only two together left are around £45 ($90... this play's popular, we found out). We then mention that we're students, and get them for £25 each (still expensive, yes, but far better). Inside we go, only to find that it's a little black box theatre, and where are our seats?
Row E, Center. About six to ten feet from the actors. Quite possibly the best seats in the house.
It was about then that I decided that this play was a Sign from God. That's the only way we could possibly have scored such great seats so close to curtain.
The play was fantastic, even aside from it being John Simm. People are calling it the comedy of the year, and they're right, to be sure. It's about a pair of men, roommates at a mental institution, who are released and given an apartment to prove that they can function as normal members of society, except that it becomes overwhelmingly clear that they're not yet ready, and it evolves from there. There's no way I can properly describe it, except to say that if you ever have a chance to see it, do so.

We start classes this week, so I'll update with that, as well as with pictures of our place and what we've seen so far. Until then, so long!

Day One

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:56:08 GMT

"It is difficult to speak adequately, or justly, of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent." - Henry James

As I can't be bothered to go dig my laptop out from the mountain of luggage upstairs (here at the Student Centre), I'm on one of the computers in the lab. It's quite an experience, typing on an English keyboard; most of it's the same, but certain little things are just different enough to throw me.

The flight over was fairly uneventful. I only got about an hour of sleep, finding the wide selection of television shows and movies available far more enticing. Also, I discovered that watching Sunshine (the new Danny Boyle movie, where they're on a spaceship going to re-ignite the dying sun) when there's turbulence is a bad idea.
Virgin Atlantic is all sorts of swanky. Each passenger got a little gift bag with a toothbrush and toothpaste, an eyeshade, socks, and a pen, all advertising the Lord of the Rings musical we're seeing later this semester, as well as the standard plane pillow and blanket (although the blanket was way bigger and softer than usual; I liked mine so much I stole it). Also, for plane food, it was pretty amazing, and the free drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic alike) were a major plus. I didn't drink, per se, but it was nice to have a glass of wine with dinner, especially when I didn't have to pay for it.

I haven't seen Amy yet, as the pre-tour kids haven't arrived, not that that would matter much anyhow; we can't go to our homestay until 6:00, when Ann (our host) gets home from work. Still, it'll be nice to have someone to putter around here with once she does get here. I made a few friends on the plane and the coach (pictures of whom will be posted once I do the laptop thing), but they all already got to go to their homes, so I'm here all alone. Oh well, I suppose I'll go exploring until my cab comes. I'll update again when I have more to say!