chocolate buttons

It was daylight savings yesterday and that means the sun was already beginning to set when I got out of class at 4 today. As I walked west along the strand the angle of the light was such that everyone in front of me was a black sillouette with a bright golden outline. pretty awesome. I am worried about the increase in darkness making me depressed when added on to the already grey gloomy weather of this place. But so far, so good.

I can't decide whether or not I want to go out tonight. I mean, I don't want to, but I can't decide whether I should anyway. I feel I am reverting back to my old, let's-just-hang-out-and-talk self. This is both comforting and scary. Boring is fine at home, but I don't want to be boring here. Well, I don't think it's possible anyway. For one thing, I don't have any friends that I am close enough to to just hang out and talk to for hours. And also, all the coffee shops close in the early evening. Which is completely unacceptable, in my opinion. But oh well. When in London, talk in a pub.

Tonight Sam and I made barbeque chicken and potato salad and zucchini (don't question it). It turned out prety good. I am proud of us.

Despite the small existential crisis I go through every time I take pictures recently, I uploaded a few new ones to picasa, complete with indirectly relevant wilco lyrics.

I am a shameless sampler

The Bourough market is an amzing, beautiful place. It's like going to costco on a sunday except way, way better. You get to have samples of all kinds of cheese, sausage, bread, jam, dried fruit, nuts, etc. And if you are still hungry you can buy an ostrich burger, a steak sandwich, fish and chips, english breakfast, or whatever. I bought oranges, pears, strawberries, dried apples covered in cinammon, dried pineapple, a giant fudge brownie, olives, and a cup of hot apple cider. Apparently this is where Jamie Oliver always goes to shop on his TV show. I can see why! It was awesome. We took the bus home cause we are lazy.

Yesterday I went to the natural history museum, and it was actually pretty lame. It was very kid-oriented and therefore the information was pretty basic and boring. Also, the place was swarming with four-year-olds. Gross. We got take-out from Indigo and ate it in our kitchen, which is way more fun, it turns out, than eating it in the restaraunt. Then Sam told us about some thing her friends were going to at the Victoria and Albert museum with lots of halloween storytelling and films and so on. So we went back on the tube to exactly the same stop we were just at to check it out. Turns out the Halloween-related stuff was all full slash sounded lame, so we just looked around the museum itself for a while. There was one really cool room about fashion with old dresses and shoes and things. It was kind of cool to be in a museum at night, but we were all pretty tired and we didn't stay too long. So far my weekend has been pretty siccessful. Now I am going to go do some laundry/reading in the laundry room.

im in ur londonz, watchin ur orchestraz

Tonight I watched the London philharmonic at the royal festival hall... for four pounds! It was brilliant. There's not much I can say about it because it was just really good in every way possible. Just imagine a really good orchestra, and you're watching them from a really good seat that you only paid 8 dollars for. Got it? Good.

This experience has confirmed my suspicion that Londoners have so much culture available to them at all times, they really take this kind of thing for granted. I mean, our seats were GOOD. And we bought them on Monday. And people weren't even dressed up! What is going on?? It's like all the grownups in the city got together and were like "look guys, we're all pretty worn out from seeing the lion king last night, and the opera the night before that, and then there's that film festival thing going on, and I was really hoping to catch a quick shakespeare play at the globe tomorrow... what do you say we just let the kids watch the london phil for 4 pounds tonight?" There was probably a collective yawn, and then the matter was settled.

So anyway, during one of the really quiet intense pauses, my stomach growled LOUD. I was super embarassed, but mostly just hungry. I spent the last couple movements thinking about that fact.

Afterwards we all came back to our kitchen. By "all" I mean me, the germans (friederike, urs, kathleen), the belgians (judith, forogt the other's name), my roommate sam and her american friend ashley. It was all very multicultural. We played cards and drank tea. Not me, though. I ate scrambled eggs-- my first meal since last friday. It tasted amazing, but possibly just cause I was so hungry.

Last night I was lying in bed watching The Hills (yessssss I finally found a website that lets me watch it here!). There was a scene where Heidi and Spencer were eating dinner at their favorite Mexican restaraunt in LA and it was almost more than I could bear. After the episode was over, I literally spent about 15 minutes just lying in bed with my eyes closed imagining that I was eating chips and salsa with my family, on my thrid refill of coke, or the amazing tortilla soup at On the Border, or the huevos rancheros I got at Peppers the week before I left, or the cheesey salad at Espiaus, or the nachos at Cotixans, or the tacos at Ramiros, or the carne asada fries at Robertos, or the chile relleno at that one place aunt carol likes, or a nice fat chipotle burrito, or El Mercado, or taco bell, or ANYTHING. The one image my mind kept returning to, though, was me dipping a nice salty, greasy chip into my refried beans with cheese, lots of cheese, that stretches as I pull the chip away. I swear I can taste it right now, I really can, and it's amazing. It's not just the mexican, either. I would love to have a nice big salad, or a sandwich with lots of vegetables on it or something. I would love to have some soup with recognizable ingredients. A nice big steak and a baked potato would be cool, too. This sudden food obsession is probably caused by the fact that I basically haven't eaten anything besides plain white things that make me gag since last Friday. I would try to console myself by going to get some Indian takeout or something, but I am still at the point where two pieces of toast with jam is a huge accomplishment. Woe is me. I hate you, body.

gastroenteritis

I am still sick, but a lot better. I got to experience the UK health care system today, which was pretty efficicent and satisfying. I only had to wait about 5 minutes to see a nurse, and then after talking to me she made me an appointment with the doctor, which I only had to wait about 10 minutes for. Both were fairly helpful, except for the fact that they basically told me that they can't do anything for me and that I will just have to keep drinking a lot of water and wait it out.

"Soooooo there's no medicine I can take to make me feel better?" I said.
"No."
"No, antibiotics or anything like that?"
"No; that would just make it worse." At this point there was a pause, and it was clear that I was meant to leave the room.
"So, I basically have to just wait it out?"
"Yes, basically."
"And there's nothing you can do?"
"No, unfortunately not."

After another long pause, I finally got up and walked sadly to the pharmacy to buy something called "rehydration sachets," which, let's be honest, I am never going to drink. At least it wasn't a wasted doctor visit like in the states, where you are not only disappointed but down a few bucks, because I get free healthcare here, even though I am foreign. Oh, I feel so welcome. Tomorrow I get to experience more UK banking fun, and also UK being-registered-for-the-wrong-classes fun. God save the queen.

I have nothing new to say about London this weekend. I didn't actually see any of it besides the interior of my bedroom, because I came down with the flu and have been in bed, but for the most part not actually sleeping, for the past 48 hours. This is a huge bummer because I was supposed to hang out with Sarah last night, but when the time came I found that I could barely even pick up the phone to cancel our plans. Luckily I got to see her on Friday, but I am still really disappointed. I dragged myself down the street to the pub to watch the rugby world cup finals last night, but had to leave after 45 minutes. All I was doing was sitting on a padded bench watching a TV screen, and I couldn't even manage that. They lost anyway, so oh well. Basically this was supposed to be a really fun weekend, but it turned out to be pretty much the worst ever. You'll have to excuse me now while I go back to sitting in bed trying unsuccessfully to read.

I Miss Mexican Food, or, Quintuple Meta. A conversation, by Mandy and Amy Ripley, for Sarah Rothberg.

me: have you gona to the taco stands yet? the colorful ones?

amy: haha no not yet!!

me: you are so stupid.

amy: but tuesday night we rode a bus to inglewood to see cirque du soleil (which was amazing) and beforehand we ate at a mexican diner with a B rating!

me: NICE. was it delicious?

amy: it was so good!!!

me: oh man. so jealous.

amy: yeah. I told them about the secret of B mexican.

me: i am putting this conversation on my blog

amy: cool! I am famous. sort of. not really.

me: i am not gonna cut out the part where i say I'm gonna put it on my blog, either. it will be so meta.

amy: oh man. awesome. 5:30 am conversations about B mexican.

me: and i'm gonna leave that too. it will be double meta. oh my god.

amy: duuuuude. and leave that too.

me: i think i just imploded.

amy: TRIPLE META WTF

me: the title of the blog will be "quadruple meta"

me: oh no

amy: ahhhhhhh

me: this is getting out of control

amy: it really is. god help us.

me: don't talk about it anymore!

amy: ok

me: anyway, what did you order? I want to eat it vicariously.

amy: enchiladas. but we split some guac. it was so delicious. chunky and everything. newly mashed mmm I could use some now. I stuffed myself.

me: aaahhhh. sometimes i make guac for myself. but i want a mexican to make it for me!

[etc]

Hmmm

I think the Kinks lived somewhere very close to here...

Take me anywhere, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care

Today all of us UC people had to meet with the study center director, Andrew, to officially register with EAP for our classes. Basically what this means is we had to show up at the study center in Bloomsbury at a certain time and sign some papers. As a reward for this huge sacrafice, they took us all out to dinner at a really cool place in St. James's park overlooking the pond. We all dressed relatively nicely and got a three course meal and wine like real grownups. None of us have eaten that well since, hmm, let's see, the last time the EAP people took us out to dinner! It was awesome. Afterwards I walked home with Yuki and Jessie, and it was a totally gorgeous night. We passed by big ben and parliament, the aquarium, the london eye, the skatepark, and all the trendy restaurants on the south bank. I realized that I don't really mind what I do each night here, as long as it involves wandering the streets of London in the dark. That never really gets old to me. Last night, for example, we tried to go to Ministry of Sound but the que was about a mile long and not moving at all, so we ditched it and walked in the rain to chicken cottage instead, and despite not having a jacket, I didn't mind in the slightest. Honestly, I wouldn't mind much if I just ambled along on a wet shiny street, with nowhere particular to be, from now until June.

I guess the mail strike is over, becaue when I walked into the building today there was a crowd of people around the mailboxes, and when I got to my kitchen I found THREE things for me on the table! Also, I recieved an unusually high volume of facebook comments yesterday and today. In conclusion, I feel loved, and both of my grandmothers are INSANE!

All my lies are always wishes

Today I woke up, went to class, went to the bank, bought groceries, ate lunch, went to more classes, took a nap, cooked and ate dinner while watching game shows with Yuki, wasted a lot of time online, talked to my family, and read book four of Paradise Lost and half of a scholarly essay on Richard III.

That counts as a life, right?

Rainy days and sundays

I am feeling pretty homesick today, and sad to be missing out on things at home. I guess this happens to me every sunday, for some reason. Sarah is going ot be here this weekend which I am very glad about. Also, I suppose it won't be long till I go see Charlene. But today I am feeling rather lonely. I keep doing all these awesome things, but they are less awesome than they would be if I could experience them with my family and friends. Even though I have friends here that I hang out with, I still feel like I am experiencing London alone. I guess that was kind of the point though, right? Right. I didn't come into this expecting anything, so I don't know why I'm expecting things now.

I am thinking about getting a job or internship here. I feel like everyone back home is thinking about careers while all of us here are just screwing around, and that freaks me out. Also, I have way too much free time, and not enough money to fund it. Also, maybe I will meet some more people. Everyone else does their own thing, so I need to start doing my own thing too.

Screw you, France

Just got back from the Stamford Arms pub, where my friends and I watched the semifinal of the rugby world cup. England won, tiiiiiight. They will play in the final now against either argentina or south africa, I think. It was really fun to be one of the crazy cheering fans at the pub, but also to laugh at them. There was this one guy in particular who was pretty much way more entertaining than the game itself. He would stare at the screen furiously mumbling "kill him. kill him," or jump out of his seat involuntarily and grab the nearest person with a vein throbbing in the middle of his forehead and his fist punching the air, or simply scream random things like "RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT." This in itself was funny enough, but the best parts were when he would remember himself and sit down quickly in his chair, glancing back apologetically at us for having blocked our view. Or when some friends of his showed up and within half a second he went from "NOOOOOOOOOOOAAARRRRRHGHGHGHGHSDKJJASDKNFKLBNJALGB" to "Alright mate?" patting them on the back with a friendly smile. Oh, it was glorious. Especially for someone who doesn't actually know anything about rugby. Well, I kind of do now. It was a good game, at any rate, with lots of scoring at the very end.

Before that we went for indian food at Indigo, the aforementioned hilariously awkward resteraunt down the street. And before that we went to Harrods. Oh wow, Harrods. It was like disneyland in there, no joke. I knew going into it that this place supposedly sells eveything, but I wasn't prepared for cats and dogs. Seriously? I also wasn't prepared for Christmas stuff to be out this early in the year. They had a whole room of it! Completely redic. We obviously didn't buy anything, except for some stuff at the bakery that was pretty reasonably priced. I got this thing called a bacon and cheese baguette. It was pretty much amazing. They have an entire room full of chocolate, by the way. Just saying.

I came home early tonight, and I am going to do some reading, unless I fall asleep, which is a serious possibility. Peace out.

Sainsbury's Own

I don't think there is any such thing as the freshman 15 here. At least not in my building. Most people I know, including myself, have lost weight since coming here. Yesterday I sat in my kitchen with two freshman boys and listened to them discuss the nutritional value of their dinner, wanting to make sure they were eating enough calories (I told them to keep knocking back those pints and they'd be fine).

I guess there are two main reasons for this. One is that we all have to cook for ourselves, and we don't really know how to do that. The most popular food items being cooked in our flat are: spaghetti and tomato sauce, boiled potatoes, toast, cereal, pasta with tuna and mayo (george), cheese toasties, canned soup, fried eggs, ramen noodles, anything premade that you just have to heat up, and tap water. Just kidding, we don't cook the tap water.

The other reason is that we hardly ever eat out. I read in the paper that London is currently the most expensive city in the world to go out to dinner. Apparently a relatively nice meal costs around 40 pounds a head. Not that I would know, because I have only gone out to dinner twice, and both times it cost like 10 or 12 pounds, which was way too much for my budget anyway. I am thinking of maybe trying to pick up some older guy in a business suit at a bar so that he will feed me. But for now, there are too many other things to spend money on, so I will stick to my super noodles. Food schmood, I say.

Oh yeah, and walking. I forgot about walking.

Los Angeles, I'm yours.

I added a link over there on the left to my photo page, so it will be easy to find now. Hooray! Sorry it took me so long to come up with that idea.

Today I really did go to Oxford Street. I saw at least four H&Ms there. I went into one of them and bought a really cute dress. I think it's worth noting that Londoners pronounce the H differently than we do. It sounds like "haych and em" instead of "aych and em," if you see what I mean. I think that is pretty silly of them.

I also introduced myself to the glory that is Primark. Primark is the best place in the world. This is a list of things I purchased for 40 pounds: two pairs of flats, 3 pairs of brightly colored tights, a black coat, a duvet cover/sheet set, 5 tea towels, and long-sleeved t-shirt. Holy crap, I love you primark. My room looks about a million times more attractive without that disgusting early nineties motel room peach colored crap that was on my bed. And I am going to try to start keeping up with these brit girls and their absurd levels of unattainable cuteness. I swear I feel like I'm inside a fashion spread every time I go to stupid class. Jerks. The one essential London wardrobe item that I am still lacking is the boots. Everyone here wears boots. They are warm, but also cute. And you can wear them with jeans OR a dress. I must have boots.

un sacchetto delle caramella

The Camden market was really really cool. I would talk more about but I am kind of over it now. My weekend was pretty quiet and uneventful. But last night I went out clubbing with my friends, which was super fun. I love that guys here will actually dance. Not just creepers, either--normal, every day white guys. And it's not gross like dancing in America. It's just having a good time and usually looking pretty silly, with our arms around each other's shoulders, drinks high in the air. I kept trying to sit down and yawn in peace, but always found myself being pulled back to my feet and spun around to gnarles barkley within 30 seconds. Oh London, you are such good exercise. Dancing with my friends is definitely one of my favorite London activities. On a slightly more negative note, I almost got thrown out of the club for throwing an ice cube. What the crap, man. Long story.

I cleaned my room today, and organized all my paperwork. Tomorrow is one of my many days off and I am determined to do something productive and not sleep all day. I might go to oxford street, but I always say that. Before anything else, I need to buy a new umbrella. Lets just say the walk to class today, despite my four layers, was not pleasant in the slightest. New pictures up on picasa! here are a couple:







Oh yeah, and I also saw Natalie at the club, so, that was weird. One more thing: today George told me that of all the Americans he knows, I sound the most American. I don't think he meant it in a good way, but I was quite flattered.

interesting england facts:

-they call redheads "gingers" and they're serious
-you can order a pizza here with tuna and corn on it
-their peanut butter is not sweet



to be continued

so many opportunities to not be alone

Having never really worried about my own food and when it expires, I find that I am slightly disturbed by the length of time that my loaf of bread has lasted without getting moldy. I don't even wanna know what kinds of chemicals are in that stuff, it is still toastable and that's all that matters. So I turned on the TV just now while eating my toast, and Old School was on BBC1. Suddenly I found myself stuffing my face with peanut butter and jelly and LOLing in the kitchen all alone. It was kind of glorious, actually. I guess Friday night at home is not that bad. Earlier, in a moment of homesickness, I decided to go down and see if I had received any mail. It was basically the best decision of my life, because in the courtyard I ran into the cutest guy ever in the whole world (Italian guy who looks like young Colin Firth) and we bonded over our mutual foreignness. I didn't even end up getting the mail, in the end, because my stupid key never works and I got tired of standing there wiggling it like a fool. But I guess the fact that I didn't end up getting the mail says a lot about the change in perspective that can be caused by running into a young Italian Colin Firth. Furthermore, I ran into my roommate Friederike in the hall after my peanut butter and jelly party and she invited me to go to the Camden Town market with her tomorrow morning. Cool! This has been a very out-of-order paragraph, and I'm sorry about that. I just thought you should know that I am very tempted to quote Death Cab for Cutie right now. Ok, maybe I will just do it in the title. That won't be as embarrassing.

I decided to do my homework in a scenic place today, so I wandered down to the starbucks on the south bank to do some people watching, I mean, reading. On my way back, around sunset, I came across a film that was being made. I stopped for a second out of curiosity, but couldn't get a good view of the actors, and was about to leave when I heard something that sounded a lot like "Emma Thompson" from the mouth of someone near me. I got a little closer, and sure enough, after the take was over, the actors turned around and it was not only Emma Thompson, but Dustin Hoffman as well! I stuck around for about 15 minutes and watched them repeat a scene a few times. Everyone had to be very quiet and not take any pictures while they were filming, but in between takes you could be as stalkerish as you wanted. It was cool. What a city man, I swear. Finally I got bored and started back on my way home, stopping every now and then to take some pictures, because there was a pretty nice sunset today, especially for a place that usually doesn't have a sun. I feel really self-conscious taking pictures here, because I am anxious for people to know I'm not a tourist. That is very stupid of me, but I can't help it. Thus, immediately after taking a picture, I try to look as local as possible by walking really fast and frowning slightly. Life is so ridiculous. Mine is, anyway.

Today the weather was really good. One might even be tempted to call it warm. I wore my sufjan shirt and my rainbow sandals and was unnecessarily happy. While walking I listened to the new animal collective album on my iPod and smiled at random strangers. I had done half of my reading (this is a big deal ok) and in class I didn't sound like a total idiot. After class I sat on the south bank and read the newspaper so that I wouldn't miss out on all the sun. In the paper I discovered that the new pornographers are playing here tonight. I got really excited about that and went home to see if i could get a ticket. The guy at the box office said they still have 400 left! Needless to say, I am going. This is the best day of my life, except for maybe the one that was two days ago.

Should not have slept in so late today. Too depressing! The weather was good and I missed it. But I am almost done with the reading for a class that I have NEXT MONDAY. Dude, I am so awesome. Off to try and find humans to interact with.

edit: I resorted once again to the insanely outgoing version of me and invited myself to hang out with people tonight. go team. Also ate fajita leftovers. Also cleaned my bathroom, which was a pretty disgusting experience. Just keep living, just keep living, what do we do? we live.

I made myself fajitas today and they didn't turn out half bad. The peppers and onions were kind of not cooked enough, and the avacado I used to make guacamole wasn't fully ripe, but other than that it was delicious. I still have two more avacados and that is exciting.

The concert was great and we actually got really decent seats, especially considering the timing. We were in the second section up, but in the first row of that section, towards the middle. I was a little disappointed in the crowd, who was incredibly boring, but toward the end they got into it. The venue was super swanky and I felt very cultured about the whole thing, to tell you the truth. Also, I definitely got a kick out of being allowed for once to partake in the pre-concert drinks at the bar. Just a few weeks ago at the greek theater I was feeling pretty left out of all the fun, but this time I got to watch my concert while sipping on my very own insanely expensive beer. Sometimes I am very easily entertained. Anyway, I have a good video to put up here but I don't feel like doing it now.

I was going to go to sleep but instead I decided to give my adoring fans what they want and take pictures of my bedroom. I didn't even clean it first, so you can get the full effect. They are currently in the process of uploading to my picasa album, so you can go see them there. I also added a bunch of other pictures that I have had sitting around, but they're not too exciting. The URL is http://picasaweb.google.com/mandy.ripley if you don't already know.

kthnxbye

Holy crap, I just bought a ticket to see the decemberists tonight at the royal festival hall, which is like 2 minutes away from my apartment. It is currently 5:50, and the concert starts at 8, and I am going to it. What the hell! This city is amazing, I swear. The ticket was 17 pounds, which is kind of a lot but not really when you think about it. Whatever, this is so cool! I guess people aren't as starved for culture here as they are in LA, because there's no way you could get last minute tickets for a band this big at home unless you bought it froma scalper or something. I think.

Also, I managed to get through my classes today with minimal trauma. I am determined to actually do my reading for next week. I swear. As long as I don't get any more opportunities to go to good concerts. Or something else fun.

This whole going to school while in england thing is just not working out for me. It feels like I'm on a vacation, but I'm not. What is that all about? I managed to get reasonably caught up for two of my classes but unfortunately I am taking four classes. I haven't even bought this week's book for American fiction and the class is tomorrow. For some reason I am deathly afraid of being called on in class and revealed as the ignorant clueless homesick American that I am. I am not used to being the stupid one. Maybe this whole thing would be easier if I were. Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that I will not be getting good grades while in this city. I will just have to stop being such a nerd, that's all.

In other news, I opened a bank account today. Kind of. It's not actually activated yet. But I did it all by myself like a real grownup.

I have decided I need to become more cultured and start going to concerts and plays and things instead of just the student bar all the time. I have also decided that I need to explore other parts of London besides the few square miles within walking distance. But I suppose first I should get on this whole reading thing. Oh geez.