luna de margarita

Last night I went with some people to a bar called Cubana which I have been meaning to go to for a while since it is right around the corner from here. It had live salsa music and a really cute bartender. Urs, this guy Pablo from Mexico, and I took turns buying pitchers of cocktails made with gin, limeade, strawberrys, cucumbers, and mint. They were very weak but very delicious. Urs tried to get the hot bartender to throw in a free cigar but he said no. Pablo tried to get me to salsa dance with him but I said no. There were margaritas on the menu and stucco walls. I craved a taco. There were lots of Australians and a guy outside on drugs. The place closed at 1 AM, just when everyone was starting to have a good time. Stupid London.

the fall of the british empire

Got another A from last semester. Managed to sound reasonably intelligent in seminar today despite not having even bought the book. King's College London? More like King's College Lame.

Yeeeaaaahhhh the night's not over

OK, so, Barcelona.

J and I arrived on Thursday night. After settling in at Sarah's place and having some celebratory champagne, we went to a bar and got some pitchers of sangria. I was introduced to "sexy beer" and "sexy samosas," both of which are actually just normal beer and samosas sold by creepy looking men on the street.

On Friday we went and looked at the outisde of the big gothic cathedral, then walked around some really pretty narrow streets while eating gelato. Then we walked around on La Rambla, which is like a big wide boulevard with street performers and stuff. We saw the harbor and shopped at H&M. We also went to La Boqueria, a big food market with pig's legs hanging all over the place. Later we had burritos at rachel's place, and then at like 11 we went to a really old, awesome-looking, smoky bar and I tired absinthe for the first time. It tasted like black licorice and therefore was disgusting, but I enjoyed the part where you get to light things on fire (see pictures). After that we went to another bar called Chupitos, where they have all different insane shots. I had a harry potter shot and a cafe latte shot. Very weird. But the place was really crowded with obnoxious americans so we didn't stay long.

On Saturday we took a picnic to Parc Guel, which is a really cool place built by Gaudi. There were musicians and people selling jewelry, and the weather was very nice. We stayed there for a long time enjoying the sunny weather and the views of Barcelona. Then we walked down the hill and saw some more gaudi buildings. Then we had dinner and Jessie and I got paella, which apparently is a very barcelona thing to eat. It's basically rice and a bunch of seafood. Pretty good. After dinner we headed back to sarah's place to get dressed for our big night out, which included Cyrano, her favorite bar, and Razzmatazz, her favorite club. Both were awesome. I don't think I've ever had so much fun dancing at a club; the music was so good and there were a lot of cute boys. Razzmatazz didn't close until like 7 (so awesome; I think I was born in the wrong country) so when we got home the sun was rising.

On Sunday we slept for most of the day, and finally dragged ourselves over to sagrada familia, which is a really cool and strange looking cathedral, also by Gaudi. Then we ate some mexican food. Then Jessie and I went home.

And, because I am amazing, I already uploaded the pictures.

up yours, jack

I had a very nice time in Oxford. I ate a full english breakfast, napped in the sun, looked at some pretty buildings and gardens, and spent a long time in the Lewis/Tolkien pub. The pub was probably my favorite part, because it was not touristy at all, the ceiling was crooked, there were lots of fireplaces and cozy corners, and they had tuna melts. We planned to only go in for one drink, but it was so nice that we didn't really see any reason to leave, so we didn't.

I spent the rest of my reading week in my room fighting the Cold of Death. I'm not kidding, worst cold ever. Congestion, sore throat, runny nose, whatever. I can deal with that. But pinkeye, sinus infection, nosebleed?!?! Not OK. Either London is a very unhealthy place or I have the immune system of...something with a really bad immune system. Maybe there is toxic mold in my room?

Luckily things are looking up. My cold is getting better, I finally got a keyboard, and I am going to Barcelona on Thursday to stay with Sarah for 3 days. I am pretty stoked about that.

In other good news, I got back my first essay from last semester, and I got an A on it! Granted, this was the essay I had spent the most time on, but it's still a good sign. I get the rest of them back this week. In order to get them, apparently, I will have to go to my professors' office hours and they will actually talk to me about the essay and tell me my grade in person. Needless to say I am pretty nervous about that.

In conclusion, today it was really cold.

she was with that bloke in the white top in macdonald's car park

Here are some things I have done lately. I'm really sorry about the list format but it's the only way I know of to catch up.

- Westminster Abbey, the most bizarre church I have ever been in. For starters, costs 7 pounds to get it, which I think is pretty blasphemous. Also, it is very cluttered. Also, it is cluttered with dead people. Also, houses the oldest door in britain. Also, there was a phone sitting in top of William Congreve's tomb. Enough with the "also"s. It was pretty epic. We stood on top of dickens, aphra benn, rudyard kipling, chaucer, darwin, and others. Saw the graves of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.

- Picnic at St. James' park. Got yelled at by an angry goose.

- British LIbrary, this time not to study but to see the manuscripts, OMG, the manuscripts! Sooooooo cool. Original handwriting of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, WB Yeats, Lewis Carol, John Milton (!!!!) Charlotte Bronte, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and many more. Voice recordings too. And the Magna Carta.

[sidenote--Jessie has a lot of terrible music on her computer, and I am totally judging her right now]

- Stood outside the Baftas, trying to see celebrities. This was pretty much a complete failure, because it was way too crowded and we couldn't see over the heads. However, I did get a good look at Daniel Day-Lewis, which I suppose is a big deal seeign as he won the award for best actor.
Speaking of which...

- Watched There Will be Blood

- went out for the Full English Breakfast. In case you are not aware, the Full English Breakfast consists of: fried eggs, sunny side up but with the yoke pretty much solid, "bacon" which we would call tough slices of really salty ham, some really strange sausages, a grilled tomato, baked beans, and toast. It's actually really good if you don't overthink it. The best part of the experience was that while we were searching for a place to eat, we discovered a shop around the corner that sells all of this for only 3.80! It's only take-out so we didn't eat there, but DEFINITELY made a mental note.

It think that's pretty much it for the last few days.

[I am currently listening to The Streets. English white people rapping. Bahaha.
"Tell my mum I won't be back for tea."
"Hit the fifty quid button... insufficient funds"
"I couldn't be bothered with any more rowing."
"You're fit by my gosh don't you know it."
"I saw this thing on iTV the other week, said if she plays with her hair she's probably keen"
I am not joking. I'm pretty sure they're not either. They eve have a song called "What a Twat." I take it back, Jessie's music is AMAZING]

It is currently reading week, which is that completely unnecessary break they have in the middle of each semester. Tomorrow Jessie and I are going to Oxford to check out the great hall from harry potter, and the pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien used to chill. Should be good times. I had better go to sleep, but I can't seem to drag myself away from The Streets. Oh man.

a doll on my desk

I love typing! typing typing typing it is so fast and beautiful and has such a nice sound. this is me, getting my typing fix, btw. oh typing, I love you so much.

Anywayzzzzzzz

It was my birthday on Thursday, and that was incredibly fun. Everyone came over to our flat, and I think there were like 10-15 people there, which I consider a really good turnout for a 3rd year not-especially-outgoing expatriot like myself. We had nachos, cake, absolut, etc. Good times. Then we went to O'neils, which is my favorite bar/club. On Thursdays there is a live band playing cheesy music and it's super fun. I even got my own shout-out, haha.

I don't have much more to say at the moment. The library is closing soon so I will work on making some captions for my ireland pictures before I leave. Peace.

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.