jack frost nipping at your nose

There are a few reasons why I'm feeling good right now:

I went shopping today, and didn't find a coat (most frustrating experience ever), but it was still fun.

I just bought a bunch of christmas music on iTunes: ella fitzgerald, the nutcrakcer performed by the london symphony, and little st. nick by the beach boys

I am making a list of christmas gift ideas for my family

I am drinking mint hot chocolate (this is, however, a poor substitute for the chocolate buttons I would have bought had the vending machine not been OUT OF ORDER WTFFFFF)

I made up a list of self-imposed deadlines for my papers. The first one is due on monday morning, yikes! But deadlines are so comforting. In related news, I realized I will have a couple of days to finish them up when I arrive back in London in January. So hopefully I won't be making myself and other too miserable during vacation.

I rode the bus today and it was raining outside!




Which reminds me. It's funny how my thinking has changed when it comes to my accent. I used to be intensely self-conscious about it, but I also liked the attention that it brought me, especially from the opposite sex. Now my attitude is more like "yes, I just said 'dude,' let's talk about something else." I am no longer amused when strangers overhear me and my frineds talking and say "Oh, are you American? Where are you from?" Sometimes I audibly sigh. It would be one thing if it was just purely to be friendly. It would be one thing if the people saying it were at least young and attractive. But usually it's creepy men who want an excuse to chat it up with you. So, to all you creepy men in shoe stores and buses of the world-- it's time to get a little more creative. I am glad you enjoyed your trip to Florida 10 years ago, but I would really rather do my shopping in silent, stony-faced peace like the rest of the city.

yes, you can imitate everyone you know

I'm making an extreme effort to eat in as much as possible this week. So far I have done well, even for lunch! I might fail tonight because Sam is going for Indian take out and I don't know if I can resist the magnetism of the stuffed paratha. Hmmm I guess the stuffed parathas aren't that expensive... Or I could stay here and eat cheese and crackers. Can you tell how much of a grown up I am?

I don't think I will ever go to Top Shop again, as it is depressing on multiple levels. One level is that I can't afford anything there. The second is that they only have really small sizes. The third is that I probably couldn't pull off most of the clothes they sell. I am sticking to H&M in the future.

[I saw Irish Joe in the quad just now and man, do I love Irish people.]

Yesterday my roommate Friederike asked me if I had bought a warm winter coat yet, as I had expressed a desire to buy one a couple of weeks ago. I said no. She said that I had better hurry up, because all the good ones will be gone after Christmas. I found this idea alarming, since it had been my plan to wait until after Christmas and get a really cheap one on sale. I never considered that all the really cheap ones would totally suck! Now I just don't know what to do. Maybe I will go scope out the situation tomorrow. Or buy a coat in california? But what if they don't have any warm coats in california? Oh yeah. I just remembered that it is going to be freezing in Brussels and Berlin. So maybe I should buy the coat now! Man, this is a real dilemma.

I realize this has been a total waste of time and I am posting it anyway!

[edit: saw irish joe again in the laundry room. today is me lucky day!]

Holy crap. Natalie's blog has just alerted me to the existence of this incredible amazing thing where cool indie bands play songs in black cabs. As Natalie herself said, best idea ever,

Basically it owns all over Les Concerts a Emporter, and therefore Paris. Bet you didn't think of putting them in a cab, did ya, Paris? Not that your cabs are nearly as cute anyway.

And Josh, if you're reading this (are you?), there is one of Daniel Johnston!

knackered

Ok, it's official. Englsih kids are not better students than Americans. They are just waaaayyyyy better at faking it. Bravo, england. You really had me fooled.

I know this because I just had coffee with a girl from my Shakespeare class who I am supposed to be giving a presentation with tomorrow on the various texts of Hamlet. I didn't even know there were different texts of Hamlet until today, so I was pretty nervous about botching the whole thing up with my horrible study skills. But luckily she hasn't been reading the plays either! Or the scholarly essays! And she definitely had not started work on the presentation. What a relief. I also took the opportunity to ask her whether it's a coincidence that all of the christmas decorations in London are blue and silver (she doesn't know), whether a mince pie is sweet or savory (sweet), and how many secondary sources I should be using for my essays (not that many). I think that's a lot to accomplish in the time it takes to drink one gingerbread latte, don't you?

I have been spending a lot of time at starbucks lately. There is one near the library that has this enormous undergorund seating area with literally like 20 armchairs. The first time I went down there was like the scene at the end of The Land Before Time when Littlefoot gets his first glimpse of the Great Valley-- I wandered casually down the narrow stairway, and suddenly found myself in a vast wonderland or seating possibilities. The best part about it is that you don't actually have to order anything from starbucks in order to sit there. I tested it out today. I just walked straight past the counter and down the stairs, took my pick of squishy chairs, pulled someone else's empty mug closer to me as a decoy, took out Paradise Lost, and immediately fell asleep. Speaking of which, I think it's time for another nap.

sea birds where the fear once grew

Dear relatives,

I just got a letter from grandma, and inside of it were pictures of her and grandpa bob in their halloween costumes--a clown and a cowboy, respectively. It was pretty much the most glorious thing I have ever seen.

For the rest of you,

The trip to brighton was pretty awesome. It was freezing cold, and I mean painfully effing cold, but mostly I thought that was funny. We basically just wandered around and ate delicious things for 5 hours. My fish and chips were not served in newspaper, but I put extra vinegar on them to make up for it. I think the strangest thing about the beach in England is not the weather or the rocky shore, but the lack of palm trees. It looks really strange without them. The germans were cool as always. However, now that I have blown my cover and revealed that I can actually speak quite a lot of German, they don't feel as guilty about leaving me out of the conversation, and therefore don't bother to speak in english unless they are directly addressing me. This makes things interesting, but they talk too fast and I feel confused. Oh well, it's good practice for Berlin! I can't wait! It's going to be awesome.

*cough* Oh yeah, so I'm going to Brussels and Berlin with charlene in a few weeks, between the time when school ends and I come home to california. It's going to be a freezing waffle christmasy hipster muscles airplane extravaganza! If we can get our shit together and finish planning it, anyway. Meh, tomorrow. new pictures! duh.

<3 joanna newsom

--and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

Yesterday for Thanksgiving Jessie and I cooked chicken, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. It tasted pretty good, and we were pretty proud of ourselves. Maybe a little too proud, given the suspicious coloring of the chicken. It was kind of fun to celebrate in our pathetic little way. Sometimes feeling far away from familiar things is scary and unpleasant, but this time it just felt like a novelty. It helps, also, to have Americans around at such times. Anyway, after we ate our frozen apple pie, we continued our traditional celebration by going around the corner to the Wellington (pub) with Tom and some friend of his from Leeds.

Right now I am trying my very hardest to work on my three papers which aren't due until January. Obviously it's a little hard to self-motivate, but I really don't want to have to work on them while I'm in California. I have been spending a lot of time in the library checking out books, but not very much time actually reading them. If only I could convince myself that the deadline was next week... I went to a new library today and had to get a membership card, horribly ugly picture and all. One hour later I lost the card. I am so awesome.

Tomorrow I'm going to Brighton and I'm so stoked! Jessie said that they serve fish and chips in folded up newspaper there! Basically that's like my dream come true. Like seriously, how cute. I've had chips in newspaper before, but not fish. Also Brighton is by the ocean, which is something I have not seen for a long time! I am basically really excited.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I have become a bus person. Here are the reasons why the bus is way better than the tube:

1. 90p as opposed to 1.50
2. They're red
3. If you sit in the very front on the top level, it's kind of like Soaring Over California at CA adventure
4. There are interesting things to look at outside the window, as opposed to rats and darkness
5. The temperature does not increase by a thousand bajillion degrees (celsius) when you enter the bus
6. Because the temperature does not increase by a thousand bajillion degrees (celsius), you don't have to strip off 4 layers, only to put them back on five minutes later.
7. People don't act so stressed out and uptight and life-hating on buses.
8. You have to know what a place looks like in order to get off the bus there, therefore you feel very clever every time you manage to pull it off.
9. There are night buses that run after the tube is closed.
10. Sometimes you have to run to catch the bus. This is fun.
11. There are buttons that you get to push when it's your stop.

I could go on. Basically, I love bus. I love bus!

It's Christmas! Let's be glad!

(I can get away with saying that because I already celebrated Thanksgiving)




I know it looks like someone pasted my face on top of a postcard here, but this is a totally legit picture taken by whitfield the other day. Me in my natural habitat. If you're not already, you'd better get used to the vomit-yellow scarf; I've decided it's gonna become my trademark. Anyway, as you can see I am alive and well, and my neck is warm. Over and out.

just to stay abreast

Learning to like tea is not nearly as hard as learning to like coffee. In fact, it's not hard at all. It's unthreatening and watery, you don't have to add much sugar to make it sweet, and it doesn't make you screw up your face the first 20 times you drink it. If I had known this I might have started drinking tea first and worked my way up to black coffee, but since I started at the other end of the spectrum, tea is no problem. And there is a communal tea kettle in our flat's kitchen, whereas the coffee maker acually belongs to someone. Not to mention that it's a much simpler process to make a cup of tea--why don't they have coffee bags, like seriously? So last week, partly because George freaked out about someone drinking the last of his, and partly because whitfield was coming to visit, I bought my very own box of PG Tips and stole some little milk thingies from burger king, and with the help of my cadbury fingers and McVitties digestives, I'm well on my way to becoming a real brit. This is not to say that a single drop of coffee on my tongue can't still change my entire outlook on the world. OMG coffee. We still hang out now and then, but we've grown apart. I used to be able to tell coffee anything. Now we just smile and say hi as we pass on the street. I wish we could just go back to the way things used to be. Coffee, if you're reading this, give me a call or something. Maybe we can go grab a coffee sometime; catch up.

cinder grey and spray paint

I just want to say that the whole sushi thing was pretty the best idea I've ever had. We found this place called the "Japan Center" that my friend Yuki told me about. On the ground level is a sushi restaurant, but if you go down into the basement you can get it to take away. The prices are like 2 or 3 pounds for a whole roll, but then there is a sign that says 50% off! Upon asking, you discover that this is indeed 50% off the already insanely cheap price! So basically we got 4 packages of sushi for less than five pounds. Then we took it outside to picadilly circuss and sat on the stairs by the fountain to eat it, sitting on newspaper and facing inward on the steps so as to use the one above us as a table. I felt pretty freaking cool about the whole thing, but also literally cool because I don't know if I've mentioned it, but London has become really freezing in the last week or so. Eveen whitfield said so, and he lives in Lancaster. Anyway, if you are ever in central London, go to the japan center at picadilly, because I am pretty sure that's about the cheapest meal you will find anywhere, unless, like me, your idea of a meal out is black coffee and a textbook. Or even if it is.

After eating our sushi feast we walked around the regent street/oxford street area, stopping periodically in coffee shops and bars to get warm. I drank a mint hot chocolate and wore my hood[s] because it was cold, we went to a 5 story toy store, and it was pretty christmasy in a slightly sickening way. Then we came home and watched elf.

Today the best thing ever happened. I walked whitfield over to his hotel so he could meet up with his study abroad program group thing. We had to get there by a certain time so he could go to this free mexican meal they had planned. When we arrived we realized the mexican restaraunt was right around the corner, so I figured I might as well go scope out the situation and see if I could bum some food. Turns out there was no sort of sign-in sheet or ID check, so I basically just walked in, grabbed a plate, and helped myself to a steaming heap of beans, rice, meat, and tortillas. It wasn't terribly authentic, but it was terribly free, and to make a long story short I definitely had a cramp in my side as I made the trek home afterward. It was a long, cold walk, but I had my animal collective and my satisfaction in not needing a map. Map shmap, I always say.

My body is really tired from the past couple weeks of craziness and I can't wait to stay in my room all day tomorrow. sleeeeep.



new pictures up.

Like a field mouse

I'm really sorry that I have been so MIA. But I am not sorry that I have been too busy to write, because it's been an awesome sort of busy. Right now whitfield is here shaving off his ridiculous facial hair in my bathroom and we are going to eat sushi at piccadilly circus soon. Him visiting was totally out of nowhere but awesome nonetheless. Last night we went to the london phil again, and for some reason got free beer afterwards. then we went to literally the worst club in all of london. serisouly, if you were wondering where the worst club in london is, we found it. But it was hilarious, so we still had fun. Also, we got some more free beer there. Also I think on the way home we got invited to a porn party. I think it was whitfield's beard. This morning we went to the tate modern for a little while and saw some famous stuff. Then I went to class, then we drank PG tips, and now I've written my way back to the present. There are so many books and paintings and ravioli and things to say but if I say them I might miss something else. I think that my life is about to overflow, but for now I prefer that to empty by far.

This saturday is thanksiving dinner for EAP. Be jealous, I get to stuff myself with pumpkin pie before you do!

Ok, whitfield is still shaving maybe I can write more. Ummm ok so rome was a totally epic experience. I guess I should have realized it would be, but I didn't. Thinking about the future is not my thing anymore, so I just arrived there to find that I didn't know a single word of italian (even "thank you") and I was actually in another country. Later, I was surprised beyond belief to find myself in the vatican, or a narrow alleyway with restaraunts, or being catcalled by creepy men. But it was awesome. Charlene is a seriously awesome tour guide and should be charging money. Oh and we ate at the hard rock cafe for her birthday dinner, which I was pissed off about until I opened the menu and ordered myself a 7 ounce bacon cheeseburger with carmelized onions and barbeque sauce. also, THEY HAD RANCH DRESSING. AND I DIPPED MY SEASONED FRIES IN IT. There were way too many americans in there acting embarassing but it was so worth it. So worth it. Anyway, rome was totally awesome. and we met some nice people there. and there was a lot of really old stuff. I don't mean to sound flippant, it's just that it really is shocking how old this stuff is when you're standing there next to it. Oh yeah, and lots of art I didn't know anything about. Ok this entry sucks really bad. sushi!

no grazie

Pictures from Rome are up on Picasa. Too tired to blog about it now. Gotta finish the paper. It is so so so so cold.

I realized that 1,000 words is not really very many at all. I typed out a rough list of ideas to talk about in my essay which is due monday, and realized that the list alone is over 400 words. So I just have to like add one sentence to each sentence I have, and I will be golden. By which I mean, I will have something to hand in. Still, I am a little nervous about all the work I have to do within the next few weeks. My goal is to finish all of my essays before I go home for Christmas, so that I can have a real vacation, worry-free. Also because it will be basically impossible to do the research I need to do from my bedroom in Fontana. They are all due when I get back in January, which is strange. I don't like that at all. When in London...

Yesterday was Guy Fawkes day, which I thought woul dbe a much bigger deal than it actually was. I envisioned the entire city celebrating together, out on the streets while fireworks went off overhead, but this was not the case. Apparently all the fireworks shows were over the weekend, and the streets were, if anything, emptier than normal. Oh well.

Apparently tomorrow they are lighting up Oxford Street at a certain time. I am going to go see it if I remember, if I can find someone to go with, and if I am not running around like a mad woman trying to prepare for my trip to Rome. Yayyyy Rome!

and you left your shoes in the tree

I swear that all the leaves changed colors overnight. I am pretty sure I did not imagine this. Suddenly everything is yellow and red and your feet are crunching, the air is cold and clean and life feels like a memory, or some sort of slow-moving French film.

Today was a big adventure. As I mentioned last night, I had to wake up early to go with Sam to east London to get her computer fixed. We showed up at a warehouse under a bridge that looked sketchy as hell on the outside but inside turned out to be more of a studio, with computers along the walls and huge six-color laser printers all over the place. Turns out the place functions as a graphic design/printing press type place as well as a PC repair shop. It was Sunday so the place wasn't actually open, just two guys working with the radio on. The computer repair man was incredibly nice and not at all like the stereotypical socially awkward computer nerd with a thick accent that you might imagine. He soon figured out the problem and started installing stuff and transferring stuff, which ended up taking about 4 fours to complete. During this time he cooked us three egg omelets with toasted pita bread and orange juice, gave us advice on saving money in London, and offered me a part time job. I would try to explain but there's not use; nice people don't make any sense-- suffice it to say he was just a disarmingly friendly guy who took pity on some yawning, hungry, and confused Americans. But he said he would only pay 5.50 an hour so I don't think I'm gonna take the job, even though it would obviously be incredibly chill.

So, we explored a new part of London, figured out a new bus route, got a free breakfast, and came home with a brand new hard drive, all for the low cost of 175 pounds (luckily that part was Sam's problem, not mine). After that we went and spent a few hours in the library working on papers, then came home and cooked Indian food using a pre-made tikka masala sauce from a jar and tesco brand naan bread. It actually turned out to be pretty delicious.

I haven't slept much for the last two nights and I am about to remedy that.

portrait of a lady, poster of a girl

Today I went to Windsor. We got train tickets that went straight from Waterloo station (right next door, in case you haven't heard me say so about a million times already) to windsor for only 5 pounds, round trip. We left our flat at 9:30 and were on our way by 10, gliding along through the suburbs in the morning sunshine. The trip took less than an hour, and when we got off we were right in town at the bottom of the hill leading up to the castle. After a short stop at starbucks, we went and saw the castle. It was a beautiful stunning fall day. All of the leaves were red and orange and yellow, the sun was out, but the air was cold. The place looked just exactly like a castle should. We went inside and saw Queen Mary's dollhouse, which was totally incredible. I have never seen such a cool dollhouse in my life. They had mini towels in the linen closet, mini chess board, mini silverware, mini everything. Then we saw original da vincci drawings, and pictures of royal people getting married, and jewels and china. then we got to go into the state apartments, which were totally gorgeous of course. By the way, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of any of this. Finally we went to see st. george's chapel, which was way more impressive than i expected. first of all it was more like a cathedral than a chapel. second of all it's where knights are installed, which literally means they are given a choir stall in the church. above each of their stalls there is a flag with their coat of arms, a sword, and a crown-type thing. I asked if any of them belonged to paul mccartney, but apparently these are only for really really special knights who actually matter, not just pop singer ones. So I felt pretty dumb for asking. But soon I forgot because I saw the grave of King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, aka the queen mother, and also princess Margaret. Basically that means the parents and sister of the current queen. Cool! There were all kinds of other royalty burried there as well. It was all very historic. We finally left the castle and went in search of food. By now it was cold out and everyone was grumpy. It feels nice to have to kind of friends you can be grumpy with, so I didn't mind. Finally we settled on an italian place where i had a really delicious calzone, definitely one of the best ones I've ever had. Then we wandered back to the train station to see off yuki, who was really tired and had been being a downer all day and didn't feel like walking anymore. So he went back and we stuck around for another hour to see the town of Eton, whcih is right across the Thames from Windsor. There wasn't much to see there, but it was a cute town. We took the train home at about 6, but it felt way later. Thanks, daylight savings/waking up early! Tomorrow I have to wake up early again to go with sam to get her computer fixed because it's an emergency and she is totally freaking out. Then we are gonna go to the library and get some work done. After all, this is "reading week." Oh wait, I forgot to say that it was reading week. That means I get a week off class. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a vacation or a time to study, so I am using it as both-- writing for the first half, and going to rome for the second. Italian food, here I come! Oh, and Charlene.

edit: Judging by my sister's reaction to this post, it seems I never mentioned that I was going to Rome. Woops. Yeah, so I'm going to Rome on Thursday to see Charlene.

under the bridge

It has been a few days since I last blogged. This week it got a lot colder, only 50 during the day, and I bought a couple new sweaters at primark, and a nice warm scarf. Then it got a lot warmer. As in, yesterday I was too hot wearing my grey hoodie. This was annoying, cause I wanted to wear the new sweaters, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Someone had the brilliant idea to make the london eye green, and I am very excited about that. I get to walk home from class at dusk now, the most beautiful time to see London, in my opinion. Everyone is outside living, and the lights are turned on but it's still light enough to see the details of the buildings. There have been some christmas decorations going up since before halloween. I find that a bit excessive, but pleasing at the same time. At oxford street, I noticed that they had put up all the twinkle lights over the street, but when it got dark they didn't turn them on. I wonder if they will turn them on now that it's november. The one exception to this was some huge department store that has a light for every square inch and a huge window display of teddy bears wrapping gifts and playing trumpets and other such ridiculous things.

Yesterday was a really good day for me. I ran into Denver in the study room and we ended up having an intellectual conversation about film (him) and literature (me). My paradise lost seminar was more than usually interesting, and we all argued about whether or not it's possible to understand God, and my teacher smiled and nodded his head when I talked. After that I went to talk to my shakespeare professor (one of the three, anyway) about the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing in her class. She was very helpful, and we ended up talking about Shakespeare in Love and whether or not I plan to see the new Elizabeth. Then I went home and picked up a couple things for sam's birthday on the way, because it was her birthday. To celebrate, we feasted on sushi and a german thing called auflauf. Then everyone came over and we had cake and ice cream and strongbow. It was a big group, and it was fun to see everyone in one place. Oh, I love birthdays. When the security guard came upstairs to yell at us for being too loud (hate that guy), we left the kitchen in favor of o'neils, a bar in china town. It was really fun because they had a live band playing cheesy music and a pretty good crowd. We stayed there until almost three dancing, and then walked home past trafalgar square. I wish all days in London could be like that one, but the ratio of ones that are to ones that aren't is becoming surprisingly high.

Is it weird that the red hot chili peppers make me homesick? I don't even like the red hot chili peppers. ok, that's not true, they are kind of good. the city she loves me; lonely as I am, together we cry