surfen ist streng verboten

So, here I am in Munich paying for some internet. I suppose I should have blogged in Amsterdam where it was free. Oh wellz. Munich is awesome. We have basically been spending our time in beer halls and beer gardens eating vast quantities of meat. we're right accorss the street from a brewery thats been operating since the 1300s and it's AWESOME. You sit at long tables with other people and the servers carry like 10 mugs at once and spill beer all over and are rude to you. you can get half a chicken or a huge hunk of pork on the bone or meatloaf with an egg on top. it's glorious. we've eaten there twice so far. we also spent a couple hours in a beer garden in the park yestrerday. we each got a liter of heffeweissbier and a pretzel as big as our face. there was a band playing traditional music and it was also very jolly and nice. I wish this was my real life! alas.

today we went to dachau and it was very sad. more on that later.

only a couple minutes of internet left so goodbye for now!

stress!

I am off in a few hours for my eurrail adventure. I am really worried about the following things:

my ability to cope with below-freezing temperatures
my lack of waterproof shoes
getting lost while trying to find the hostel in amsterdam all by myself
forgetting to pack things

and here are the solutions I have come up with:

spend lots of time in cafes
buy some boots during trip
take a cab
stay up even later double checking things


Hopefully there is nothing else I'm forgetting to worry about! Anyway I have my journal and my camera so I will let you know how it all goes. Be back in 10 days!

ok can i just say that not only did it snow today but it was also colder than any other day I can remember in London, it was windy, it hailed, and it rained. usually all at the same time. Perfect timing for visitors, right? I thought so.

But we toughed it out and went to covent garden, trafalgar square, picadilly circus, the giant toy store, cafe nero, and a pub for dinner. then we dropped off jason and crystal at their hostel and matt and I went to Cubana with my friends. Not bad for one day, I'd say. They are all leaving tomorrow for paris and I will get to work on my essays and pack for a couple days before flying to amsterdam to meet them.

Oh man, it snowed outside my window just now! But it didn't stick :(

Matt is here and I am currently waiting for him to show up at my apartment so we can go get lunch. I like to think I'm good at the whole showing people around thing, but when it comes to food I am lost. I have been to a total of like 5 restaurants in the city. I consider pre-packaged sandwiches to be big spending. I hope they're not expecting too much.

St. Patrick's Day: a playlist

The Galway Girl
Drunken Lullabies
The Irish Rover
Beer, Beer, Beer
I'm a Rover
Finnegan's Wake
Whiskey You're the Devil
Drink it up Men
Goodbye Mick and Goodbye Pat
Whiskey in the Jar
Everyone (van morrison-for good measure)

I CAN'T WAIT. Just wanted you all to know that those itunes gift cards you gave me are going to good use.

younger than that now

Well, it WILL NOT STOP RAINING in London, which sucks. But other than that it has been quite a nice few days over here. I spent wednesday afternoon at the national gallery looking at really famous art and not appreciating it enough. I ate tapas for the first time on thursday, which was cool. I found a new pub which is awesome and cheap. I also spent a lot of time with Jessie and denver, who I rarely see anymore, and had another really fun night at cubana with the international crowd. Last night I made considerable progress in the salsa dancing area, but I still suck really really bad at it. Like, it's a little bit funny how bad I am, but mostly just embarrassing. Even the germans are way, way better than me. The worst part is that for the mexican guys it's absolutely effortless, and they can't seem to fathom why I am so stiff and awkward, why dancing isn't just as easy as walking for me. Anyway, the night only made it more clear than ever that our white american culture is severely, severely lacking in the dancing area. Seriously guys. We need to work on this.

Here are some recent pictures. I have been trying to carry my camera with me more often these days, and this is the result of that.

View from the tate modern.



some art.


sunny day at trafalgar square


luck--we don't need it.

I have been keeping a list of cute things that they say in England in my notebook. This is what I have so far:

fizzy drinks (soda)
star jumps (jumping jacks)
candy floss (cotton candy)
Lucy (you know, like the name)
Love (as a general thing to call women)
eggy bread (french toast)


Oh, if only they knew.

end of a phone call with my mom

mom: ok well, thanks for calling, I'll talk to you soon... (turns to the rest of the family) does anyone want to say anything to Mandy? Yell "we love you."

silence. long pause.

dad: (halfheartedly) we love you...

mom: did you hear that pause? hahahaha!










wow.

"I find your Yankee vulgarity intensely attractive" -waspy english boy in What a Girl Wants

hahahaha I wish.

10 gallon ascots

I dunno if I have mentioned this yet, but my weekends are far too long here. I don't really know what to do with myself, ever. It's especially difficult to find things that don't involve spending tons of money. Everything is expensive! Yesterday I got breakfast (only 3.40), bought a new wallet from H&M, and treated myself to a cheeseburger for dinner. Total cost?! about 17 pounds. That's 34 dollars! Clearly a normal relaxing weekend where you hang out and eat with your friends is not an option here. The other challenge is to find something I can do by myself, while everyone else is busy doing productive things. Basically it comes down to museums. There are plenty of them, so it shouldn't be an issue. But the problem is they close at like 5 or 6, and I usually don't wake up before 1 or 2 unless I have some motivation like class or a planned outing, but since it's always the weekend, I can sleep as much as I want! Today I was going to go the national portrait gallery, but since I slept so late, I am gonna go to the tate modern instead which is open on weekends until 10, even though I have already been there twice. This is the kind of pointless life I lead over here in England. Be jealous or full of pity, depending on your life philosophy-- I personally have not decided yet.

I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear

more on picasa

I do this thing occasionally where I will be talking about something academic in class, and suddenly slip into this really colloquial voice, causing everyone, including professors, to laugh. To take some examples from today, I used the phrase "whatever, man" to describe the reaction of the Welsh people to the armistice at the end of World War I, and then in the next seminar I proposed that the purpose of the film we were discussing was to make the intended white audience say to themselves, "dude, that sucks for the aboriginals." I believe I also commented that the film was, "pretty much a downer all the way through."

This kind of thing was embarrassing enough back at UCSD where such phrases were at least part of the normal vocabulary of my classmates. But here, where even their slang sounds more formal than mine could ever be, I stick out like a sore thumb. An English student, talking about the same movie, would have probably said something like "Surely the film is meant to place the white audience member in the position of the aboriginal child, inviting a kind of compassion that, at the same time, borders on condescension." I can do the academic voice, you see. The problem is, I usually don't forget myself and start speaking in Californian unless it's something I feel strongly about. So while I'm dead serious, the rest of the room thinks I'm trying to make them laugh. Luckily they seem to find it charming or something. I would much rather win the approval of my peers through actual intelligence than by just being a novelty, but I am hesitant to stop doing anything that gets me a friendly smile from one of those terribly attractive young english guys. (like the subject and also the nationality, get it?!?!)

This has gotten me thinking about how it really must take a long time to fully lose an accent. That is why I refuse to forgive my Modernist Fiction professor. I don't care where you did your PHD or how long you have lived in London--people should not have to be subjected to hour-long lectures where people say things like "the ways in which modernism was a product of the technological advances of the time period," in a horrible, pretentious, annoying, half-American-half-British accent. It just should not be allowed. Pick a side, for the love!

new pictures

I've added a whole bunch of pictures from Dublin trip that were taken by Jessie and Denver. Go have a look if you're interested. If you're not interested, just look at this one!

I am currently having a mild anxiety attack about the spring. First of all, the idea of this school year ending had finally become real and suddenly I am panicking, trying not to waste my time here and cram as much as possible into my remaining months. But the cramming just makes me more anxious and stressed out. A lot of things are up in the air because I have absolutely no clue when my final exams will be. So I can't properly plan my mom's visit, or my trip to visit Friede and Urs in Germany, or any other potential visits and/or trips. I won't know those exam dates for two more weeks so until then I will just have to live with the uncertainty. It's just hard when other people are waiting on you to make decisions.

Until then I will be busy enough planning out my eurrail trip with Matt. He, Jason, and Jason's girlfriend are getting here on the 21st, the day after my classes end. The three of them will go to Paris and Brussels, while I stay here and hopefully work on my essays. A few days later I will meet them in Amsterdam, hang out there for a while, and then the other two will leave and Matt and I will travel southward by train. The tentative plan is southern Germany, Austria and/or Switzerland, and Italy. I am really excited to take the train, since flying is a huuuuuuuge pain in the ass, especially when you buy the cheapest flights (which of course I always do), and not nearly as scenic. Unfortunately, traveling with my brother, I am unlikely to meet the love of my life en route to Vienna and wander the streets with him all night (I just watched Before Sunrise--such a great film!).

Anyway, it will be a very eventful spring, and hopefully I don't fail all my classes. That's basically all I wanted to say.