It's been 5 days since I've blogged. what have you guys been doing without me!?
Since Wednesday my life has been kind of a blur. a really fun and crazy blur, but one that's led to a lack of sleep and stage one of my death, also known as the common cold. so please forgive me for being so missing in action, and let's get this thing started.
THURSDAY:
if we recall, I went to a rather violent (yet compelling) theatrical presentation of Macbeth last Wednesday.
thursday morning involved our discussion of the play as a group and our end-of-week recapitulation and basically our feelings after 2 weeks of being in London.
My thoughts are kind of all over the place. A part of me will always feel a little bit sad to be away from my family and friends. True to my theory about living, I feel strongly that life is short and my time should be spent with people I have the most fun with and care most about. Unfortunately a lot of those people aren't here with me in London. and even though I've made a few really amazing friends, there's still a tiny sense of longing for familiar faces and voices (the longing has been seriously complicated by my computer's suicide threats and the self-induced temper tantrum committed after 45 minutes of use--thus leading to infrequent skype dates).
on the other side of the coin I feel like I don't ever want to leave this place. I've always known that I was more of a "city girl" than a suburban girl (sorry, Fairfax) and I think it's safe to say that I'm not even going to mess with the country, but I'm still shocked at how easily I fit into life in London. I'm really really comfortable here. Like I blend in enough to feel at ease but the city makes me feel fresh and noticed. It's given me this energy that I can't explain. It's been kind of surreal because I never knew there was something missing but now that I feel this way it's like there was even more to me than I knew. it's inspired me to want to extend my graduate school applications to London schools!! so I'm very excited about that.
after our 2nd week recap we also had to say goodbye to one of our professors, Clare Kinney, who headed back to the states today, Monday. MISS YOU ALREADY, CLARE BEAR!
next we got lunch and then headed back to Hampstead to have a walking tour with Roger Bowdler, the funny architect. it was literally one of the most beautiful days I've ever experienced, and thank god because the walk was 2 hours long. we visited this really amazing cemetery I got real morbid taking lots of pictures weeeee!
after Hampstead we came back for dinner and I was somehow convinced, despite my severe fatigue coming on, that the Improv (in England called Impro) Show at 8:30pm was a GREAT PLAN. call it my negative attitude, call it an advanced knowledge of great humour, I did NOT enjoy this show. the first half was entirely music-themed, with the "comedians" singing songs one line or even one word at a time and the second half was not much better. I think I laughed once and it was because of something Becca said from 2 seats over. 5 pounds down the drain.
the highlight of my night was after we had left the show and after spending some time at a pub that served Snakebites (sort of) my friends wanted to stop off at KFC--wtf, ew!--and Nica and I snuck into the out-of-service bathroom. I lost approximately 4 months off my life from the stench. seriously not good. Nica then proceeded to throw french fries at all things until we got home.
FRIDAY!!
We went to the Bath Spas in the country! about and hour and a half outside the city. I had zero knowledge of the Roman Bath element to this town--because apparently I've never read a damn book--but they were STUNNING! I had no idea all the history and dirty details of the baths and how they worked (and please don't ask me to repeat them) but it was great. Unfortunately we chose to spend 10 pounds on a guided tour of the baths which sounds helpful but actually, we would have gotten these telephone-esque walky talkies that were synched up to a voice tour where you could press the number of a sign you saw while walking and it would tell you about what you were seeing. that was actually much more informative and interesting but alas, what can you do?
a few of us split off and went over to the Assembly Rooms as characterized in a few Jane Austen novels and I was pumpeeeed to see where all my favorite heroines spent their holidays :) Nica and I even joined together for some old school dancing (read we posed like we were dancing for a picture and called it a day).
we then made our way back over to the center of the town for High Tea! so precious. I had yummy green tea with mango and a coffee-walnut cake. it was very mmmm! Becca, Kelsey, and I then decided to head back early a few trains ahead of the rest of the group because Liz was coming to meet me after work!! this would have been totally fine except for one thing, and we shall call this thing: CHLOE.
Chloe and I are not acquainted. At least I'm not sure we are. She could have been the heinous woman sitting next to the extremely low-class man with the name Chloe tattooed in hideous medieval block lettering onto his neck. She could have been some random whore tattoo man had a "connection" with. I don't really care. the main issue here is that apparently, tattoo and maybe-Chloe-maybe-neglected-female sat next to us on said train ride and decided that we were too "American" for them because they made some loud, whiny comment about our nationality and, as they were getting off the train at the first stop, neck boy threw up his half-full cup of rosee wine into the air and onto the three of us and the poor gentleman who let us share his table.
Yes. you read this correctly. he threw wine at us. and said "Oh...hmm...sorry..." in a very assholey voice, to which I responded "uhhhmmm you don't sound sorry" and then he and his woman left. IS THIS A JOKE!? such disgusting human beings. lowest of lows. hope he got hepatitis C from his horrendous tat. **as a side note, I would like to just say that nobody said anything to this guy or helped us out at all when the incident occurred. in some defense, we thought it was pretty funny at first because honestly, why the hell would that ever happen, it was too weird, but come on, England, help some sisters out...
So the wine eventually dried and we got back to school to meet Lizzy! we changed and mellowed for a second before heading back out to everyone's favorite pub, The World's End in Camden.
we'll get dinner when we get there, they said.
we're not that hungry, they said.
they really should start thinking ahead.
someone, sadly, jumped onto the third rail in the underground moments before we realized we (Chelsea) had taken us on the longest possible root to Camden, so not only were we basically stranded on a line that was miles and miles away from our final destination and no longer in service, but the rest of the world inconvenienced by this suicide was also scurrying about trying to figure out a new root. it took us about and hour and 45 to get to Camden, by which time the England game was already 30 minutes underway. keep in mind, still no food.
so we got drinks and frolicked watching the game. and then for whatever reason my London confidence encouraged me to strike up conversation with the extremely sexy Italian boys who were standing behind us. (your welcome, Kelsey and Becca).
they were hilarious. the language barrier was only somewhat of a problem and only with one of them. they kept trying to buy us drinks, and my name is now in "Emmanuelli's" phone as "Chelsea (Blonde One)" great great night. Kelsey thinks so too ;)
SATURDAY:
Saturday morning was an early start. not really sure why even, since all I did was shower and read until breakfast. which I inhaled, btw, because I still never got dinner. At noon I went to hang out with Selim, the German boy (who is in fact very Turkish, his family just moved to Germany about 50 years ago). we got cheeses and a baguette from the street market and went home and made hummus and just hung out all day. don't need to go into the gory details but it I'll just say it was one of my best days here.
quote of the day:
"Woahh...that girl was realllllllllllllly tall."
"I think that was a man."
"oh."
SUNDAY:
in case no one told you silly Americans, yesterday was the summer solstice. what does this mean, you might ask? I'm pretty sure it just means it's the longest day of the year. UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR.
we raced to the train station for a 5:15 train to go "see the solstice" at Stonehenge, the famous prehistoric monument. toting delicious snacks and coffee, we made the hour and half long trek to Salisbury for 18.50 pounds. we then took a 9 pound bus ride to a randomly placed "stop" where we all got out and walked for about 3 miles (but for free!) through a hilly, hidden hole-filled, cowpie field of doom until we made it to STONEHENGE! wait--is that really it? huh...thought they'd be bigger...
apparently, this special annual event brings out a quite a lively crowd. and boy oh boy does it. about half of these individuals are the creepiest people one could ever meet. some looked homeless, some were just dressed to look homeless, some were dressed up in matching and clearly homemade costumes of black and purple fabrics with facepaint chanting Pagan rituals and with a goat skull bringing up the rear, some were insane hippies with drums and bells around their ankles and dreadlocks that dragged on the ground. you get my point. WEIRD, WEIRD SHIT.
it was basically like woodstock. only in England instead of the States. and by a pile of rocks instead of by musicians. and with about 1,000 extra psychos. still plenty of weed and acid, though, so that was a plus. JUST KIDDING MOM! I only do the REALLY hard stuff. so like the nerdy UVA kids were are we played "Fish Bowl," a variation of Catch Phrase, Taboo, and Sherades. it was sort of awesome. sort of long and stressful. my team lost 52-69.
it then began to get rather dark. and rather cold. and then really cold. and then really really cold. what the hell, is this the summer solstice or the winter one? frozen solid, ya'll!
this was supposed to be an all-night rave but most of us crashed by about 1:30am. I never actually slept but I could not pretend that I wasn't afraid that hypothermia would set in, and I thought it best to find my happy place of warmth and love in the fetal position with my eyes closed.
by about 3:30 we were all starting to chirp about how much we hated our lives, Stonehenge, and summer solstices. the sunrise (which is one of the "coolest" parts about the experience--yeah, this thing sucked, ok) was supposed to happen right around 4am. BUT OF COURSE we're in fucking England and the sun never shines because there are always clouds threatening to make it pour. so we huddled around watching the clouds cover the sun until about 515 when I started to cry because my feet were so cold.
so now we have to do the 3 mile hole-y, cowpie death march BACK to the "bus stop," take the smelly bus back to the station, and wait for our train. which, by the way, isn't until 9:45am (4 hours from now) and they won't allow us to go to the platform for food or toilets until 8:45. so we trudge into the "city" of Salisbury and collectively resemble death. no public restrooms are open at 6am. or 630. around 645 we wait in line outside of The King's Head Inn which will open for breakfast at 7am. LIARS. 7:15 we go into the restaurant, use the bathrooms, and about half of us fall asleep in the booth. we get yelled at for sleeping so Becca and Kelsey and I say "fook you" to the king and his head and traipse over to Starbucks which opens at 730. our spirits are significantly lifted by coffee and muffins and our own personal couches in the upstairs common area.
we fall asleep. we are again chastised for sleeping in a restaurant. we fall asleep again.
back through the city to the train station. onto the platform. oh shit, wrong platform.
only 3 coaches? are we even going to get seats?
molly finds 5 of us seats, 3 are left behind.
all 5 of us pass out hard core.
***
"next stop is...Woking."
***
"next stop is...Waterloo." (this is what we want)
***
yawwwwwn...
"next stop is...Wimbledon."
oh shit, you guys.
oh shit. did we miss our stop? OHHHHHH MY GOD.
just kidding we didn't. wouldn't that have been funny? (no.)
all in all, worst day of my entire life.
good news is we got to miss class (which was ok and even encouraged by Professor Levenson).
we somehow convinced our weary bodies that we had the energy to buy tickets to The Phantom of the Opera? but we got pretty decent tickets for a pretty decent price, came back to Regents, inhaled lunch, showered, and passed out until dinner.
I'm officially too tired to detail Phantom, which I saw tonight, but I promise I will fill you all in tomorrow.
missing everyone like crazy but I'm having a blast! BIG LOVE, ck.
Yay i can seeeeee you! :)
ReplyDelete