a full week in london?! you don't say...

I've been seriously lax on posts recently, so with this one I hope to catch up and get myself back on track-ish, or at least to the point where I don't have two weeks' worth of things to be blogging about. Sorry if you feel an urgent need to keep up with my life as it unfolds, this week has just been obscenely busy.

Monday we got back from Amsterdam. We had woken up at 2:30 am, and with the exception of the 1 hour nap I took on the flight back to London, I was running around all day until nearly midnight. I went straight from the airport (which had absolutely ridiculous lines to get through customs) to class, which I was an hour late for (due to aforementioned obscene customs queues). I had class straight through until 4, when I came home, showered, and then jumped on a bus to Victoria, where Jason and I met his family at Wagamama for dinner before seeing Billy Elliott down the road. I didn't know what to expect of the play, and I was really really pleased. The kid who played Billy in our cast reminded me of my cousin James and was so adorable and one of the most amazing dancers I've ever seen. Also, the play was a lot sadder than I'd expected. I am very prone to crying during movies and TV shows, but I don't think I've ever cried during a play and there were two instances where I was bordering on hysteria. All because of things that had to do with his dead mother (I love you mom!). When I finally got home around 11, I had no trouble falling asleep instantly.

The next morning, I had work. I've been getting more in the swing of things there so it's been nice having a few more responsibilities and also more to do. Also, my supervisor Vincent was being more entertaining than usual, and I spent most of the morning laughing. Tuesday night, I went for dinner with the Bergs again and their British friends. We went to a nice restaurant near Green Park (the name is currently escaping me) and it was so nice to have really delicious, high-quality food (living on a student budget rocks!!).

Wednesday I had class again, youth culture and architecture, both of which were interesting. I also had my internship seminar, so I was unable to go see We Will Rock You with Jason and his family, but I met them for dinner after (AT 10:30 PM) at this place called Hakkasan. Hakkasan was this high-level Asian restaurant but it felt more like a club, and the food was absolutely delicious. I got Mongolian-style Venison which was so tender and yummy and once again I was thrilled to be eating food that cost over 10 quid. We tried to go out after,  but it was already nearly 12 when we got out of dinner, 12:30 by the time we made it to where my friends were, and there was a very slow-moving line. Seeing that I had to work the next day, I figured that getting into a club at 1:30 and being at work by 10 was not the best plan, so we headed home for the night.

Thursday I worked, and the Callahans came to Camden for lunch. We went to The Diner, one of me and Sarah's favorites. As usual, it was absolutely delicious. After work I knew the Alice in Wonderland premiere was where I had to transfer trains anyway, so I figured I would try my luck at catching a glimpse of Johnny Depp. I wasn't the only one with this idea though, there were hundreds of people outside and it was pouring rain and I'm too short to see anything anyway so I headed home for the evening, and then went to dinner at Pizza Express with Dolan and Max.

Friday I had to make up a day of work I missed last week before Amsterdam, so I spent the day in the office. It was really busy again, so I had stuff to do all day (as opposed to spending the day on facebook and gchat). Friday night I had an oh-so-romantic dinner with Dolan at McDonalds, and then a bunch of us drank and went out to this bar in Chinatown called O'Neill's. Definitely seemed like a fun place but it was WAY too crowded hence much less fun than usual, I can only imagine. We still had a good time there, though.

Saturday, Max and I walked through Portobello Road Market all day, looking at antiques and other stuff. We had lunch at a really good pub there that was also really cheap, and we drank mulled wine from a street vendor which was so delicious. I came home and took a nap, ate dinner, and then decided to have a lazy night watching "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" with Dolan, but I fell asleep a quarter of the way through (oops).

Now it's Sunday, and I have to study for my midterm tomorrow (yuck). More to come soon, and on a more regular basis (hopefully).

a post about holland....isn't that weeird?! [rated PG-13]

[I hope you all caught the Goldmember reference in the post's title]

I realize that this post is extremely delayed, but I've had a very busy week so just bear with it. A post containing the contents of the rest of the week will come soon, but for now we'll focus on my PG-13 interpretation of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is the absolute most ridiculous city I have ever seen in my entire life. The city is built around a series of canals so if you look at a map it looks like an archery target. Naturally, combined with the other things that took place in the city, it was extremely hard to navigate. Luckily, they forget to charge for the tram that takes you everywhere. Seriously. We rode it all over the city without paying a dime.

Anyway, we got into Amsterdam on Thursday night, so exhausted that we literally just went to our hostel [The Flying Pig Uptown] and passed out, albeit not on the beds that were assigned to us since mine had a whopping chunk o' bird shit on it and I was in no mood to walk down the 4 flights of stairs to tell them about it. So since the room was empty other than Jason and me, I settled into a different bed.

The next morning we woke up and decided to wander around the city until Sarah and Keetin arrived. We walked up to this area called the Leidseplein which was near-ish to our hostel. We walked up and down the streets around there just to familiarize ourselves with the area a little bit. We stopped into a place called The Bulldog and had a sandwich (himym style) and then walked around aimlessly in search of some Dutch cuisine.

We ended up at the SportsCafe Pancake Corner.

This was the worst, most overpriced meal that either of us had all weekend. We both ordered pancakes which were too sweet and artificial-tasting (the toppings at least). Not to mention that the music sounded like rejects from MTV Party To Go Europe '96. Also, every few minutes an air-horn would sound randomly. It was treacherous. We each left with half of our meals left (an extreme rarity if you know me or Jason)

Sarah and Keetin arrived shortly thereafter, and we walked around some more with them. They wanted to eat so Jason and I accompanied them (and then shared a small English breakfast to compensate for the horror that was SportsCafe Pancake Corner). Then we stopped by this coffeeshop called Dolphins. As we walked in, the first floor was empty (the main lounge was downstairs) with the exception of the girl behind the counter, this one guy, and his friend who was sitting in a chair looking absolutely unresponsive. I'm talking cocked head, blank eyes, no motion, drooping mouth. Excellent. The friend was in panic mode, while the shopkeeper calmly (but forcefully) instructed the friend to take Stephen Hawking outside while she got him sugar water (apparently sugar is a good recovery tool). We hung out there for a little bit before making it over to the Rijksmuseum, which is the national museum but since it was undergoing a lot of renovations we only really saw the art portion of it. There were really amazing paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer and the whole museum was cool to look at.

After the Rijksmuseum we went back to the hostel to nap, everyone was tired, and on the way we got a snack at a bakery on the way (are you sensing a theme here?) When we got back to the hostel our two random roommates had checked in. One was a quiet traveler who the only information we got from him all weekend was that the next place he was going was Hamburg. The other was a boisterous German named Finn who asked us plenty of questions (in his German accent, no less), including "Do you guys want to go to a reggae concert tonight?!" He was definitely more entertaining.

By the time we woke up it was time to shower and head to dinner. We went to a type of place called a rijsttafel, or "rice table". Basically, you paid a flat fee and they brought you these huge things of rice accompanied with like 93 different kinds of things to eat with the rice. We all loved the chicken satay in peanut butter (which wasn't really peanut butter but that's what they called it). It was so delicious, and the staff there loved us. When we were done eating, they literally showered us with chocolates (which were devoured by the end of the night), and as we walked out of the restaurant every staff member there got up to form a receiving line and shake our hands. It was a unique experience, to say the very least. After dinner we walked back to the Leidesplein, where we bumped into our friends from IES on a random corner. We ended up spending the rest of the night at a coffeeshop called Rookie's, and it was really fun to all be together for a while. Before the night ended, we were sucked into a Burger King where we all shared an order of curly fries (which were amazing), before heading home for the night.

The next morning we got up early to go to the Anne Frank House, which is where Anne Frank hid during the Holocaust. First, I might add, we all woke up dripping with sweat (especially me) because I more or less shared my bed with the heater that was set to no less than 90 degrees. I'm being dead serious. The rest of the room was hot but it literally felt like I was sleeping in a sauna. Pleasant, obviously. Anyway, once we got to Anne's, there was a line around the corner to get in, even though we got there early. It was really cool to actually see a place I've always heard about and to imagine having so many people hiding there. It was very sad, obviously, but definitely worth going to. One of those museums that they did a really good job with.

By the time we got out it was almost a quarter to noon, and we had been told to try this place called The Pancake Bakery which was right down the street from Anne's house. It wasn't open until noon so we walked around the area for 15 minutes. When we got back there was a line down the street, so we waited in it and then ate. They had really delicious pancakes not to mention a literal vat of molasses on the table which was a very strange concept. But the pancakes were good and they also had this hot chocolate called Chocomel which was sweet and delicious (they had the exact same stuff everywhere which was AMAZING because it was amazing). We walked in Dam Square, the area around Anne's, for a while until deciding we were cold and wanted to head back into our neck of the woods. We wound up at Rookie's again to kill some time, and then to the Van Gogh Museum. Like all art museums, it's really cool to see famous works of art that you've been seeing in textbooks forever. It was also really impressive that they were able to fill an entire museum with works by him or that were inspired by his style. Some of his self portraits were really really amazing, and there were tons of really beautiful works of art. After, we went back for nap/shower time again, stopping at a little cafe called Bagels and Beans on the way. I had thought this was referring to baked beans, which are an English breakfast staple, but they were referring to coffee beans, so the food was far more normal than I'd thought it would be.

We decided that we would head into the Red Light District that night, especially since none of us were particularly hungry (given bagels), and we figured we would get food there. All around the red light district they had places called Doner Kebabs, which are little stands that sell food like gyros and pizza and other things. We went to one that looked appealing, and I got a doner sandwich (aka gyros served in a cone with fries on top...aka AMAZING). Everyone else got pizza, and halfway through eating Sarah turned to me, hysterically laughing, and goes "you have to try this...this is the worst pizza in the world".

More importantly, the red light district  was the absolute weirdest experience I've ever had. They have rows and rows of these girls behind glass doors, all dressed in blacklight-responsive bikinis, who are staring at you with the creepy-as-fuck "come hither" look. Literally, they just stand there in these tiny stalls waiting for somebody to decide that they want to fuck them. And then there are a bunch of doors with curtains pulled in front, indicating that there is some sexing going on in that particular stall. We went into sex shops and walked around and all found this extremely amusing while also wildly creepy (at least the girls). It was hard to fathom that a place like that even exists.

We met with the boys at a place called Cafe Remember, but they had to leave early on account of their early-morning flight the next day. We did some more walking (and eating), finding a doner kebab stand with seats to get dessert and then literally being sucked in to a burger place called Burger Bar (clever) where me and Jason romantically shared a cheeseburger and EPIC french fries. Literally, some of the best I've had ever, not just compared to the shitty ones they have in London. We went home and promptly passed out in our inferno room.

The next morning we went to the Heineken Experience, which is the glorified Heineken Brewery. Sarah and I were both skeptical, fearing that this was the absolute most touristy thing we could've done. In actuality, it was really cool and entertaining and since we hadn't eaten anything that morning (for once), we all got pretty tipsy off of the 3 free beers that we got with price of admission. After, we went and got food at Cafe Hansel and Gretel, before Sarah and Keetin had to head back to the airport. Me and Jason meandered around the city, trying to cover areas that we hadn't been, but it was raining and we were both fairly miserable so we ended up going back (naptime!). We had new roommates, three Canadian brothers in their 20s who were extremely reminiscent of Marshall and his brothers on How I Met Your Mother [No joke, one of them even looked identical to Jason Segel]. Once we woke up and got our bearings, we decided to head out for dinner. We tried to find this restaurant that was in the book, but wound up instead at an all-you-can-eat tapas restaurant which was really really delicious, and then we headed back to Red Light to wander some more. We went back home pretty early since we had to get up at 3:45 am for our flight.

 I woke up the next morning with Jason hanging over my bed, ready and rearin to go to the airport. We walked to try to catch a bus, and got there early so we decided that, since we hadn't had a chance before, we would go take pictures at the IAMsterdam sign. Naturally, this made us miss our bus, so we wound up having to pay 30 Euro for a cab to the airport. Whoops.

Anyway, Amsterdam was a ridiculous and amazing place and I want to go back when it's warm and ride a bike around (EVERYBODY rides bikes there), but who knows. For now, I'm satisfied with my trip.

the nose knows and pancakes galore

[side note: I wrote this post last week but my internet was completely on the fritz and then I was in Amsterdam and then I forgot. More recent events to come as soon as I can a) piece them together and b) make them blogosphere-friendly]

This week gave me my first insight to the amazing British holiday known as Pancake Day. Pancake Day was February 16^th this year but I think it’s generally held just on Fat Tuesday, so that everyone observing lent can indulge themselves in pancakes before giving them up in observance. Personally, I do not know anyone who has ever given up pancakes for lent but I’ll let it slide because I love pancakes and having an entire day in their honor was nearly heavenly. Also, I just want to note that I am not blowing this out of proportion. I went to the grocery store on the 15^th and they had an abundance of pancake mix and next to all possible pancake toppings (Nutella, sprinkles, fruit, whipped cream, syrup) they had a specially made plaque that said “Perfect for Pancake Day!” It’s  big deal here. My pancake festivities started (unintentionally) on Monday night when Jason and I went for dinner across the street at a restaurant called My Old Dutch. I had walked by it many times but never gone in, and they have pancake specials on Mondays so we decided that was the day to go. We ordered savory pancakes (I got basically pepperoni pizza on a pancake while Jason got ratatouille and spinach…ew) only to flip the menu over and find an assortment of sweet pancakes. Obviously, I resolved to save room for dessert. Also, it should probably be noted that the pancakes here are more like crepes than American pancakes, so they’re giant and flat and can be made to be savory…I didn’t just have pepperoni and cheese on top of buttermilk pancakes. Anyway, we ordered for dessert a chocolate sprinkle pancake. It came out with chocolate sprinkles, chocolate ice cream, and “chocolate sauce” (which really just appeared to be warm, melted ice cream). I hope it’s needless to say that eating this pancake was an amazing experience. I would say it was priceless, but it actually cost 5 quid, so that would be a lie. Then the next day at lunch I went to The Diner (a restaurant near work) and ordered banana pancakes with chocolate and peanuts (for real pancake day). These were more like American pancakes but were still outrageously good. I think I’ve found my favorite holiday.

Tuesday night, Jason and I planned on going to see the Lion King after I was done with work. (editors note: Tuesday was the worst weather since I’ve been here. TORRENTIAL downpour all day, my boots were entirely soaked through) So Jason and I went to find the Lion King theater, ended up 15 minutes out of the way, and then finally found the theater only to find out that they’re sold out for WEEKS. Generally, shows never sell out on a Tuesday night, so this was disappointing and strange. We moved down the street to a place called Café Rouge to eat dinner, where we both ordered a sausage baguette with mustard, which turned out to be pretty much the exact same thing as a hot dog. Really delicious though.

Wednesday was a completely exhausting day of field trips. I started off my day in Soho, for a British Youth Culture field trip. We were a bit rushed for time, so my professor was literally sprinting through the streets of Soho for nearly 3 hours. The field trip was really neat though, we saw things like record studios and homes of musicians like Jimi Hendrix. We also saw where talent like Elton John and David Bowie were discovered in Tin Pan Alley, and we saw the street where the photograph on the Oasis “What’s the Story, Morning Glory?” album cover was taken. We also saw the former sites of two epic London venues, one of which has been turned into a TGI Friday’s-esque bar, and one which is being turned into housing developments. On the site of the Fridays was the Marquee, which is where The Who really got started. My professor said that after it had been converted into this bar in 1996, Pete Townshend admitted to standing on the street facing it and weeping endlessly. I found this really sad, especially because they didn’t even turn it in to anything good. We saw where the Sex Pistols played their first gig and also the toy store (Hamley’s) where their manager once went in December dressed as Santa and took toys off the shelves and handed them to children. 10,000 quid later, the store manager realized they hadn’t hired a Santa for that day and tried to reclaim the toys from the children. As you can probably imagine, this did not go well. We also saw where the Beatles cut their first demo, Paul McCartney’s offices, and where they recorded The White Album. If you need more proof I can provide it, but this was an awesome field trip, even if it was completely exhausting.

In the afternoon I had a field trip for my architecture class where we walked around and saw churches and also some business buildings. This was cool but pretty standard (we do this almost every week), but at one point we got on a bus to go back to another church. There was a group of  people, I’ll say 18-21 years old who were smoking weed in the back of the bus. Not discreetly, there was a cloud of smoke around them, no windows open, and they were loudly heckling tourists and everyone who came on the bus. My professor Anne, a little British lady, was extremely caught off guard. I was completely amused.

Thursday I decided I was going to get my nose pierced! I was bored, and I decided that I might as well do it since I've wanted to for a while and if I didn't like it I could always take it out. Anyway, I got it done at a place called Cold Steel in Camden and the girl who did it was really nice, it barely hurt, and I'm really liking it. [You'll be able to see in photos from Amsterdam]

I think that's all for now! More to come...very soon!!

Essen, Touristik, andere Abenteuer und mehr Essen in Wien

If the title of this blog post confuses you, good. It's inspired by my recent adventures with Jason to Vienna, the capital of Austria, where they speak German. I guess I've been spoiled a bit because England (obviously) speaks English, but the language barrier to German was more difficult than any I've dealt with before mostly because I have absolutely no familiarity whatsoever with the German language. When traveling to Italy, Mexico, and France in the past, I'm at least able to piece together things. German was a horse of a different color. Every word seems like it's 42 letters long and are very hard to pronounce. Luckily (spoiled again) everyone is used to English-speaking tourists and we didn't have too much of a problem once we asked. Still, we almost always had to ask.

By the way, the title of this blog post (in English) is: Eating, Touring, Other Adventures, and More Eating in Vienna. I can't guarantee the accuracy of this because I translated using some website. Like I said, my knowledge of German is zero.

Anyway, Jason and I had the brilliant idea while booking flights that it would be wise to choose a 6:50 a.m. flight to Vienna. This way, we figured, we would have the entire day there to travel and do touristy stuff. Naturally, we hadn't considered that in order to get to Gatwick Airport cost-efficiently, we would have to leave our dorm at 4 am. I set my alarm for 3:30. This afforded me a whopping two and a half hours of sleep. Needless to say, I was in a very pleasant condition when I met Jason in the lobby of the dorm. He, on the other hand, was overwhelmed with excitement about traveling (which I was annoyed to to no end, thanks to my extremely charming disposition). We were supposed to get the bus at 4:15 but the bus sign said it didn't come until 4:30 and we needed to make a train, so we took a cab to Victoria station where we boarded the bus for Gatwick. (side note: London Gatwick Airport is literally a shopping mall. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. SO many shops. In an airport!) The entire plane ride I grasped what it felt like to be narcoleptic. I have little to no recollection of the plane ride, except that it was delayed a little bit. I couldn't keep my eyes open for the life of me and have never in my life slept that well in any moving vehicle. It was outstanding.

When we arrived in Vienna, we boarded a bus to Westbanhof (our stop) and headed to Hostel Ruthensteiner, where we were staying. The hostel was kind of off the beaten path but it was nice and also clean (two things that are definitely beneficial when dealing with hostels). We were both tired, but decided that in order to make the most of our time in Vienna, we should head out for the day and nap later, once the museums and other tourist attractions were closed. But first, we needed food. We took the U-Bahn (their equivalent of London's Tube) to Stephansplatz, which is more in the center of the city. There, we meandered aimlessly until I was both starving and freezing, at which point we walked into the first place we could find (a place called Chattanooga Cafe and Grill). We both ordered Wiener Schnitzel and were caught offguard when a) they allowed smoking in the restaurant, and b) a man brought a full-size labrador and fed it off of his plate without anyone else batting an eye, but the food was good so we didn't complain. From there, we made our way over to the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty, which was the big royal family in Austria. They had an exhibition of all of the silver and cutlery of the imperial family, and they also had the royal apartments on display. The most interesting thing, I thought, was this huge exhibit on Sisi, which is what they call the Empress of Austria who was Franz Joseph's wife. Keep in mind, I knew about as much about Austrian history coming into this trip as I did about the German language in general (aka NOTHING), so it was interesting that they made her out to be this big mythical character and I had never eevn heard her name. Anyway, they had all sorts of stuff about her life and death (which occurred in Geneva, when this guy who was supposed to get killed didn't end up in Geneva so his murderer decided to kill Sisi instead) and it was cool to learn about. By the time we were done at the palace, it was closing so we went and took a nap. Later, we went for dinner at a place called Centimeter which served Austrian food. We had goulasch and potato fritters and also some brown bread. It was really good, except for that we came out smelling like an old, dirty ashtray (yay for smoking indoors!!...oh wait....)

The next morning we got up and went to Schonbrun Palace, the Hasburg summer palace. (conveniently located about 7 minutes from the winter palace!) Here, we took a grand tour of the palace, which reminded me a lot of Versailles in France. Personally, I thought the funniest thing here was overlooking the kindermuseum (children's museum) and watch children dressed up in medieval costumes walk up to a "queen", bow, and give her giant gift bags. hilarious. After Schonbrun, I satisfied my ongoing craving for potato wedges (hallelujah!) at a stand outside the palace, and then Jason and I walked around Judenplatz (the Jewish area) and some other areas of the city. We ended up at the Haus der Musik, a really interesting music museum that chronicled everything about music from Mozart, to how the brain interprets sound, to the Vienna Philharmonic. They had this really cool installment that allowed you to hear how deaf Beethoven was at various stages of his career, which I thought was really interesting. Then, we wandered around downtown Vienna some more before ending up at the Mozarthaus, an old residence of Mozart that has now been turned into a museum. Here, we saw all sorts of cool Mozart stuff, plus a guy with the biggest zit I've ever seen (the size of a silver dollar I shit you not). Overall, the museum really made me want to listen to classical music and watch Amadeus. Maybe that was the point.

By the end of Mozarthaus it was already close to dinnertime, so we headed back to the hostel before departing to Seven Stern, a brewery and pub with more Austrian food that was delicious. We got more Goulasch and also some gnocchi with cheese and bacon and onions that was so amazing. We debated going out but realized we needed to be up by 8 the next morning and maybe that wasn't the wisest idea. The plane ride home was fairly uneventful, with the exception of a child who spent the entire descent into London WAILING, "WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MY EARSSS?????!!!!!!!!" An enjoyable experience for all (but seriously, Jason and I could not stop laughing).

What I found most interesting about Vienna was how different the culture was. A lot of the pictures I took there were of funny signs or things that I thought were comical and different about their culture. They DID, however, have Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live [Austrian] Experience. Whattttup Livenation.

This afternoon, after getting back, Sarah, Keetin, and I went to an antique mall set up in the town center down the street. I got a cool tin for Jason, but there was loads of cool other stuff that I admired but didn't purchase. Tonight for Valentine's Day dinner Jason and I went to an Argentinean steakhouse by the South Kensington tube stop called El Gaucho. It was so delicious and we had a great time together (not to mention an amazing meal). Also, I was only 50p off when guessing the check. Always exciting.

Oh well, it's nearing 2am here so I'm gonna hit the hay. Long day of classes tomorrow (WOO! not)

Auf Wiedersehn!

avenue q and other recent happenings

At this point, I've found that my blogging frequency really diminishes over the weekends. I'm sorry for this, I guess I'm just running around more, whereas during the week I am in more of a routine that I can account for blogging, especially when I'm feeling particularly un-sleepy at 1am. Like now.

Thursday I had work again, I'm starting to get more familiar with what I'm supposed to be doing which is good. Jason met me in Leicester Square after work, and we got tickets to go see Avenue Q. We got seats in the third row of the first balcony, dead center, and the seats usually cost 55 quid but we got them for 20 because of a student discount (or possibly a realization that they weren't going to sell these seats with an hour and a half remaining before the curtain went up). Either way, we were both excited for the show. I saw it last year in Madison with Jana, but I figured that the London West End cast would be a different experience than seeing it in Wisconsin, plus I assumed that Jason would be largely in favor of sexually perverted puppets. Right on both accounts, we both really loved it. Also, I had my first sushi experience. We split a roll before the show at a fast-food-ish sushi place across the street from the theater. It was crowded and seemed pretty legit, but I'm still nauseous thinking about the rock-hard avocado. I don't want to talk about it any further, just felt it deserved an honorable (or dishonorable) mention.

Friday morning Jason and I woke up around noon and made breakfast before heading with some of his friends to walk around Hyde Park and the Natural History Museum. It was SUNNY and almost 50 degrees which was very exciting seeing as we haven't had many days like that since I've arrived. Hyde Park was beautiful, even in spite of the horse poo that was everywhere. We saw this beautiful memorial to Victoria and Albert and also Royal Albert Hall, which is where the big Spice Girls concert at the end of Spice World was. And yes, I do retain this information. And yes also, that this did make me much more excited about seeing this building.

In the afternoon we headed to the Natural History Museum. The museum itself is in a BEAUTIFUL building and there was lots of cool stuff inside. We only covered about a third of the museum but this included the dinosaur exhibit, the mammal exhibit [everyone else also went to the reptile exhibit but due to my intense fear of snakes and general dislike of reptiles, I went to the bathroom instead], and the human exhibit. Personally, I found the human exhibit to be hilarious. They had all sorts of things that they would never have in America because people would be too offended (i.e. a cross section of sexual intercourse...in a family museum!!). There was also a lot of stuff that I generally found funny because I have a sick sense of humor (i.e. a GIGANTIC fetus). We ended up leaving after that, resolving to head back in the near future.

Saturday we got up late again and me, Jason, and Mallory headed to the markets by Camden, which is right near where I work. On the way there we passed by the Roundhouse, a famous music venue, where some teen pop-metal show was apparently taking place later that night. There were hundreds of kids camped out for the doors to open, and a RIDICULOUS amount of 12-16 year olds smoking cigs. Creeped me out a bit. But anyway! We went to Camden and it was awesome. They had this really cool little market with all these shops that were so neat and lots of places to get cheap food and other stuff. I got this vintagey tin that was originally made to honor Queen Elizabeth's coronation, but now is all ghetto looking and makes me feel like I should be boarding the Titanic (didn't Leo have some janky tin in that movie too? Maybe I'm just hallucinating). Anyway, there was tons of cool stuff in that market and a few awesome thrift stores. I'm really enjoying the Saturday morning market extravaganzas that have taken place the past two weeks. Also proud that they haven't done any significant damage to my wallet.

Sunday was a chill day, I ended up waking up after 12, which is so late for me that I just assumed my body needed the rest. I went for a short walk around my area before watching Elizabeth for class with Kevin, and then making chicken quesadillas for dinner. Then Jason, Keetin, Sarah, Mal, and I went to where the Wisco boys are living to watch the Super Bowl. Sadly, I did not win any money in the pool (so unfortunate), but it was fun and good to see the Madison crew.

Today was pretty standard. Had 2 classes and then watched The Exorcist in screening (still not sure how I feel about it). Then came home and did laundry which was going to spurn a raging blog post about all the things I despise about my dorm, but I think that will have to wait until later (hint: the laundry room will be on that list). For now, I'm going to head to bed. Gotta get up early in the morning for work! xx

Debunking Myths About London

Today was a pretty standard day, and in an effort to keep you informed about things that are going on in my life (and in my head) I am going to try out a new format in which I will explain about the general experience of London and Europe moreso than the specific day to day things. I'm going to start by clarifying common misconceived thoughts that I used to have about London and we'll see where this ends up.

Myth #1: "Everyone in London has British accents! Maybe I will have a British accent!!"

Perhaps the most startling thing about getting here was the fact that not everyone has British accents. Obviously, everyone from Great Britain has a British accent, but there are tons and tons of foreigners and lots of hybrid accents which are legitimately impossible to understand. Sometimes I pretend that I understand what people say even when I don't, because I'd rather not sound like an obnoxious American. This leads to obvious problems. Also, I do not have a British accent [yet...still keeping fingers crossed]. This is supremely unfortunate because being here has really highlighted how obnoxious my Chicago accent is and I am consistently tempted to speak in a fake accent. I resist, but I do always say "sorry" after bumping into someone in a British accent, so they think I am just an obnoxious person, and not an obnoxious American. There is a method to my madness.

Another thing I had seriously underestimated is how differently Americans speak English. I had expected some new slang terms, but there are a real lot of differences and I think I've picked up on that a bit just by doing some writing for work and whatnot. I also try not to say "like" as much because I want to not sound like an asshole (somewhere, my mother is kvelling).

Myth #2: It always rains in London, and I am going to have a serious case of Seasonal Affective Disorder


I am one of those people who last year considered getting one of those therapy lights for my room because I was consistently depressed during the winter. Here, though, it really doesn't bother me that it is always cloudy because the clouds and the rain don't really inhibit anything. I won't lie that I was thrilled when there was sun peeking through my window for three out of the past four mornings when I woke up, but when there were clouds today I was kind of happy too. In a way, I had missed them. Also, the coldest it's been is probably the warmest it gets in Madison so I absolutely cannot complain about the weather.

Myth #3: London men dress the same as American men


This is absolutely and wholeheartedly false. Every man here dresses in clothes that would be considered moderately to extremely flamboyant by American standards. Personally, I find this admirable.

Half-Myth #4: London is REALLY EXPENSIVE


I will call this a half-myth because London itself is not very expensive, meaning that things do not cost very many pounds. The issue is that pounds are worth a lot of dollars. So even though its not uncommon to get a decent dinner for 10 pounds, it is still 16 dollars. On the plus side, I am continuing to be moderately good at math.

Half-Myth #5: London smells like soup in the absolute most peculiar way


This gets half-myth status because I never once thought about London smelling like soup, but every so often I will get random whiffs of soup walking around the streets, and it is consistent enough that I felt that it was worth mentioning.

Myth #6: London is a huge fucking city and is going to be impossible to navigate and also very dangerous.


Literally, this city is idiot-proof. The tube is so easy, there are super-clear signs pointing you in the direction of all major landmarks..fuck, it tells you which way to look before crossing the street at every intersection! The only possible downside is that the street signs are randomly placed and sometimes non-existent. But seriously,  if you can't figure out London, you're pretty screwed for all cities ever. Also, the cops here (called Bobbies) don't even have guns. This means that the police here do not find a high enough level of violence to carry around firearms. They carry MACE. The stuff that girls are encouraged to carry when they're walking alone at night is the strongest weapon (with the exception of a baton) that the police here have. This inspires confidence that I will not get shot here in London. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.


These are all of the fake myths that I can think of, I hope this wasn't excruciating to read, I just felt like I had to change it up a little bit. More tomorrow...or maybe the next day ;) xx

BLITZ! (and topshop. and porn in class)

The past two days have been nothing short of thrilling, so even though it's late and I should probably going to bed (or at the very least planning trips so Jason doesn't murder me), I will write about them as to not forget and/or get lazy.

Yesterday Sarah and I met her British friend Fiona for an afternoon of shopping at Oxford Circus. Fiona was appalled that after three weeks in the UK we had not yet been to TopShop, so we started our day there. It was absolutely a thrilling shopping experience for both of us, even though I generally am not a fan of shopping. Unluckily for my wardrobe (but luckily for my wallet) a lot of the stuff I liked didn't fit but I still managed to come away with a new jacket (I came here with one jacket, which was driving me insane), a pair of high waisted shorts, and a pair of plum tights. Sarah got a really cute dress, which I plan on stealing, and Fiona got a great skirt and pair of jeans so it was a successful day for all. Then we walked around the area and stopped in a toy store called Hamley's, which was very reminiscent of F.A.O Schwarz (RIP). I got a kick out of the 50-pound (money, not weight) Twilight Barbies (this is the equivalent of an $80 Barbie...so the set of Edward and Bella would be $160) and also the sign above the dress-up section that said "It's Roleplay Time!" Sorry, I have a twisted mind. We ended the afternoon at a local juice bar called Joe and the Juice, which had a really laid back atmosphere and really fresh, delicious juices (think Jamba Juice's hippie cousin).

Today my day started not with class but with a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Our teacher assigned us a topic in partners to keep track of as we went through the museum (SPOILER ALERT: me and Sarah were partners). Our topic was women at work, which I found very interesting because I am a woman and I have an internship (ALERT: I did not find this very interesting, but it was easy enough to spot the women artifacts so I did not complain). First, I thought that the museum was insane because the facility itself used to be the mental institution that spawned the term "Bedlam". Upon walking in, my first thought was "my cousin James would absolutely go apeshit in here". There were all sorts of planes and bombs and submarines and other vehicles in the foyer which were really cool. We went through an exhibit about the onset of WWII and also a more in-depth exhibit about both World Wars. There were about 79 different school groups touring the museum this morning, which became a bit exhausting and made me feel old because they were somewhat obnoxiously loud. Regardless, I thought the exhibits were well put-together and it was interesting to hear about these things from a non-US perspective. In the WWI part of the exhibit we went through THE TRENCH EXPERIENCE. This was a walk-through of a model of a trench which was much more elaborate than I had previously imagined (note: it also smelled like the mammal house at the zoo). In the World War 2 Exhibit, however, we went through the BLITZ EXPERIENCE. This was supposed to simulate what it felt like to be in a bunker during an air raid. The effect would probably have been cooler if there were more people in the room, and what I mean by that is that the "bunker" was designed to fit about 30 people and it was only me and Sarah in there. Needless to say, we did not take this experience very seriously, and ended up laughing through a large portion (i.e. the entire thing). It was a cool idea though. We also went to a Holocaust exhibition that they had at the museum, which was obviously sad but not as graphic as some I've seen in the past (whether this is a good or bad thing is still being decided). 

After the Holocaust exhibition, I had to head back to the IES Center for class. Instead of class this time, however, we had a speaker coming in from the BBFC, which is like Britain's MPAA except it seems to make a little more sense. He explained the rating system, which is similar to the American system, for example: U (Universal) = G, PG =PG, 12A = PG13 (except the age is twelve instead of thirteen), 15 = R (can't be admitted under 15, even with a guardian), and 18 = NC17 (can't be admitted under 18, even with a guardian). Overall, this was actually very interesting because I learned a few things.

1. Unlike America, an 18 [NC17 equivalent] Rating is not a box office death sentence

2. "Zack and Miri Make A Porno" Was rated 18 here, while "Bruno" was only rated 15. I'm still not sure how this happened

3. The BBFC rates everything that comes out on DVD, even porn, and if you have a question about why something was rated a certain way, you can look it up on their web site. Also if a town disagrees with the rating, they can change it for the theaters in their town

I guess you can say I was pleasantly surprised with most aspects of the BBFC guy's presentation. I was pretty shocked, however, when he showed clips from a film called "Antichrist" which were both gruesome and pornographic, and also from another film where a variety of sex is taking place (hint: in far more graphic ways than they'll show you in America). I'm still a bit confused by this. I'm also confused by the movie we watched for class, called "Battleship Potemkin" and how it was a silent film but still required subtitles.

HEALTH UPDATE: My sinuses are still bothering me, a little less now than earlier today, and I am hopefully going to go see a doctor tomorrow and get some prescription so I can stop being a miserable, aching shell of a human.

FUN FACT I LEARNED TODAY: here, fanny packs are called "bum bags". i guess the "fanny" label makes more sense now, even though people generally wear them in front.

OTHER FUN FACT I LEARNED TODAY: "bollocks" = testicles. tell someone!

Sorry I'm a little giddy, a few too many nights not leaving the building are starting to get to me. DAMN YOU SINUSES!

I will leave you now with a picture of a piece of the Berlin Wall which was outside the museum. I thought it was cool. xx