guiness is good for you

I am back from Ireland and it was fantastic. On Friday Jessie and I went ot the Dublin writer's museum, which was really interesting, to us anyway. There are so many writers from Dublin, but you don't really realize it until you see them all in one museum like that. And it seems like Dublin as a city is really proud of it's writers; they have monuments and quotes all over the place, which Jessie and I greatly appreciated. We went and looked at the outside of the Abbey Theater, where a lot of great plays were put on and protested and whatnot. The theater itself was not very memorable or exciting, which made me like it even more. We wandered around in Trinity college and wished we were students there, and saw a really cool monument to Oscar Wilde which was in a really cool park that was more like a forrest, with lots of chirping birds. Then we got kicked out of the park by a man with a bell and proceeded to try and go to a Yeats exhibit, which was also closed for the day. So we finally went back to our hostel and met our three roommates: two weird german guys, and an irish guy who is living there in the hostel "until he gets his own place". His name was Patrick and he was just great. The only bad thing about Patrick was that he slept like 20 hours a day, meaning we had to be quiet all the time and couldn't hang out in our room ever. Other than that jessie and I both had a huge crush on him and desperately sought his approval. Anyway, we were supposed to go gout Friday night, but Denver's flight was delayed and he didn't arrive until 2 AM, so we didn't.

On Saturday we went on a tour of the Guiness brewery, which I thought was kind of lame because of course we didn't actually get to see any of the real factory, and it was mroe like a museum. Denver, however, is obsessed with all things guiness, and loved it. The best part was that the museum is shaped like a giant pint glass, and you work your way up to the top, where there is a bar, where you get a free pint. So we got to drink our pint with a 360 degree view of the city, and, not surprisingly, there were quotes on each windowpane about different places in Dublin from Ulysses, corresponding to what you could see out of that particular window. Also, a stranger gave us her pint because she didn't want it. I think Guiness is disgusting, so it was hard enough to finish my own, but Jessie and Denver polished it off no problem.

Next we went to the Jameson distillery tour, which was similarly kind of lame except for the part at the end where we drank alcohol. Jessie and I were chosen to be taste testers, and were given 5 small shots each--3 irish whiskeys, 1 scotch, and one american (JD). After we compared them all and chose our favorite (Jameson, of course!) we were rewarded with another glass. We left the distillery in a very good mood, and wandered around looking at pretty buildings for a while before dinner at a pub, which was great and cheap and filling. Hooray for the euro.

Saturday night we went clubbing at Temple Bar, which is the nightlife hotspot in Dublin. It's actually not just one bar but a whole neighborhood of them. The places we went to pretty much sucked though, so that was lame. We (Jessie and I, anyway)were hoping to meet some attractive Irish guys with accents, but I have never seen so many creepers in one club. The only guys we met were so Englsih you could have spotted them from a mile away--pointy nosed, uptight, slightly gay for each other, faux hawked, simultaneoiusly skinny and pudgy. Basically they were exactly the type of English guys that make you want to meet some Irish guys. Fine for London, incredibly disappointing in Dublin.

Sunday we went to a place called Howth, which rhymes with both, on the train. We got lost on the way there and spent an hour in the middle of suburbia, but when we finally got there it turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's a little fishing town with boats, seals, a lighthouse, and all kinds of other picturesque things. We ate lunch at a market and walked along the jetty to the lighthouse, and sat in the sun. It was really, really nice. Finally we took the train back to Dublin, had some more delicious pub food, and called it a night because we had to leave for the airport at 4 the next morning.

I don't know if that was interesting to read or not, but I usually feel that I should go into more detail about my travels so this was my attempt to fix that. I still have no keyboard but hopefully it will get here soon. Pictures soon, maybe. kthanksbye.

such a shame

im sorry enough about heath to type this w/ my pointer finger... i think he was important to our generation

can't even trust myself

I am the stupidest person alive. Seriously, I am. I managed to spill a whole bunch of water on my computer and now half of my keyboard doesn't work. You'd be surpised how little you can do on a computer without half your keyboard. So now I am trying to figure out how to sort out that mess, and it's great.

What with my lack of computer access, and all my money being in my bank of america account, and me not doing any schoolwork, and all this beginning of term paperwork I need to fill out but haven't filled out, and blah blah blah, I feel a lot like I felt when I first got here--like I am stretched between two places--only this time, it is raining. It's that feeling where you have so much to do that you just lie on your bed staring at the ceiling, and then watch Alien vs. Predator on channel 4, and then eat some biscuits. If you know what I mean.

On Wednesday I am supposed to meet up with Corey and Cambria (cousins), who are passing through on their month-long educational journey through the UK, and pretend like I know a whole bunch about London for a day. Hopefully I can pull that off convincingly. Maybe I can get them to go inside Westminster Abbey with me, since I have been wanting to do that.

Oh yeah so I went to Cambridge on Saturday and it was pretty cool despite the total crap weather. I know I keep talking about the horrible weather but my goodness. I think that tourism is almost entirely pointless in the winter, yet I never learn my lesson. Anyway, Friederike and I did a lot of trespassing and saw some cool things while the others waited outside in the rain. Hooray Cmabridge.

Jessie and I are leaving early on Friday morning for Dublin, and Denver is metting us there that night. We plan to spend our day without him doing literature-y things, such as looking at graves of dead writers and really pretty books. Should be good times. I will probably not blog for a while until I get this computer thing sorted, so goodbye for now! Next time you hear from me I will be writing from my quaint cottage in the Irish countryside, where I am living with a ridiculously attractive man named Seamus and our 2 adorable, accented children.

tangled up in blue

OK so here is the news:

I am definitely going to Dublin with Jessie and Denver next weekend. We had to book a kind of crappy hostel because it was a little last-minute, but it's in a good location, both according to our Irish source (Denver's flatmate Claire), and the fact that it's very near the Guiness factory, or something alcohol-related like that.

We have made some progress in befriending our new roommate, and managed to coerce her into getting a pint with us last night. She is really shy, I think, but nice.

I wandered around in the British Museum for a couple hours yesterday. I don't know if I'm just really stupid or something, but I found it kind of boring. I was just like hmmm Rosetta Stone, cool. *yawn* I mean I can understand why it's a big deal, but does that mean I'm supposed to feel excited about it? I was way more impressed by the ginormous glass ceiling in the middle of the building. I guess this is why I am not an archeologist. More and more these days I am losing interest in things that are old.

I saw a really really good movie, Two Days in Paris. See it. I know you will like it.

I discovered a new and addicting candy called Fizzy Fish at Sainsbury's. This is very bad!

London has turned green from moss, and it's really pretty.

So far, after only one week, I find my classes very thought-provoking. And that was without even having done the reading!

I really really like being young.

I found a new song about London which pretty much describes my life. But instead of describing my actual life, like waterloo sunset, it describes my imaginary life. It's called A Foggy Day in Londontown and it's great:

a foggy day in londontown
had me low and had me down
i viewed the morning with alarm
the british museum had lost it's charm
how long, I wondered, could this thing last?
but the age of miracles hadn't passed
for suddenly I saw you there
and through foggy londontown
the sun was shining everywhere

call on meeeeee, call on me

Now that I have a few days off with no schoolwork to haunt me, I don't really know what to do with myself. Today I watched a whole bunch of TV online, went to Sainsburys, cleaned my room, and then sat in the kitchen for literally hours talking to whoever happened to be in there at the time--the Germans at first, then Jessie and Tom, then Jessie Tom and some new guy that Jessie is dating, then just Jessie and the new guy, then just Jessie, then Jessie and Friederike, you get the idea. It was nice to get back to our old tea-drinking, stir-frying, time-wasting ways.

Last night despite our intense sleep deprivation Jessie and I got talked into going to Phase, the club night at our student union (the club is named Tutu's after Desmond Tutu, hahaha). All the freshers were there and it was quite fun to see everyone again. We made friends with one of our new American neighbors from across the hall. He normally goes to Weslyan, and Sam told me everyone at Weslyan is crazy, but so far he seem really cool. Oh yeah, also last night we went to McDonalds and Denver taught us that if you flash your student ID you get a free cheeseburger?!?!?! WTF you guys should try that back in the states.

My goals for the coming term are as follows: slack off even more in school, go to more museums, explore less central areas of london, bump into more attractive young men, get either job or gym membership or both, befriend people from class, wake up at a decent hour each day, go to Fabric once, find way into London hipster scene, travel more.

That's all I can think of right now that's worthy of The Travel Blog. Back to illegal TV.

DONE.

Now, almost a week later, I feel like I am really back in London. Let the festivities begin!

new experiences: a list

route 507 between waterloo and victoria stations

having to wipe fog off the inside of the window in starbucks in order to people-watch

adding more money to my printing account at the library

umbrella turning inside out before it is even open

taking harry-potter-OWL-esque exam in a sterile, backpack-free environment with 500 other students

waking up before sunrise without the help of an alarm






This was supposed to have an optimistic tone but I think I may have failed at that. In related news, this morning I received a facebook message from a UCSD girl who is thinking of studying at King's next year. This is the first part of my response:

Ok, so yes, London was very very intimidating at first. People all do their own thing, they walk really fast, they don't smile, they wear pinstripes, it's hard to understand their accents, it's big, cloudy, loud, etc, etc, etc. Any fears you have about the anonymity of living in a huge city are probably true.

Then I talked about how it is worth it and fun and whatnot. But still, I hope I didn't scare her off. Probably should have waited until tomorrow to respond

shakespeare understands how much I hate his plays

Oh, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.

Song playing on my iPod:

With a sky blue sky
this rotten time
wouldn't seem so bad
to me now


Unfortunately, it is pouring down rain, and walking a mile to the library with my computer, oxford complete shakespeare, and other books in my backpack in said pouring rain has taught me that I have gone soft over break, both in terms of muscle mass and ability to cope with city life. Lets just say that if one more double decker bus threatens to splash dirty gutter water all over my legs, I am calling it quits.

procrastination!

new neighbors!

tea!

procrastination!

goodnight, world. tomorrow will suck.

Back in London, haven't done much yet besides sleeping and working on finals. This is how messed up my sleeping schedule is:

-got home at 3 PM yesterday
-took a nap till 7, ate dinner (spaghetti)
-slept from 10PM-6AM
-woke up, finished essay, went to library, printed it out, turned it in, went straight back to library to work on shakespeare exam
-crashed and came home at 3, took a nap until 7
-ate dinner (spaghetti)

I am pretty much screwed beyond belief for this shakespeare thing, by the way. More on that later.

You never give me yo money

Bloody hell! I always pick the hard essays, but I am not smart enough to actually write them.

Anyway. I went to LA. That gets to be on the blog because it is traveling. I took the metrolink which was exciting because I had to take two different trains--one to LA and one to Chatsworth. However, it took a pretty long time. I chilled with Sarah and company, we ate greek food, we played Beatles songs on the piano, etc. Today we went to an exhibit at the MOCA of this dude Murakami which was pretty sweet. He did a design for louis vuitton, and they sell the bags at the MOCA, inside the museum, which I was really wierded out by because at first I thought the sales people were just some sort of performance art or something. So we're walking around in the museum, and this woman approaches us shadily and asks us to buy her a bag each, since they have a rule that each person can only buy one. We agreed (for some reason), and she proceeded to hand us a stack of hundreds, about 2300 total. So we go in there and awkwardly ask to see some bags, and then say we want to buy them and bust out our stack of hundreds. Neither of us had even showered recently, but she didn't question it, so we gave her fake names and addresses and got the hell out of there. When we gave the bags to the lady she said "What do I owe you?" and we said "ummm I dunno I guess we'll keep the change" which was 20 bucks. Yotam says we could have asked her for like a hundred each, easily, since she is almost definitely making a profit from this. This makes a lot of sense in retrospect, but I suppose we are very naive. Now we know for next time. So then we spent part of our 10 dollars each on another exhibit next door of art that has been the in magazine Giant Robot, which I had never heard of before but apparently is really awesome. Then Sarah and company dropped me off at union station, which was conveniently only a couple blocks away, and I metrolinked it on back to Rancho in time for tostada night.

my brain is melting. fo realz.