August 10
So Monday was a highly eventful day. The day overall was a big win though. Since my train ticket was the only one that was the individual ticket, Celina and I went to the Mantell building at around 10am to meet with Lesley (the other girl in our class) to switch with her since she still hadn’t built enough stamina to walk with us all day since she was really sick. Once we met Lesley, we had to meet up with Sarah and Eileen in front of York House at 10:30. Well since we had to finish getting some stuff from upstairs, we hiked up the hill for a few minutes and then returned to the bottom to York House.
We all agreed to bring our lunches so as to save money, so I woke up extra early to make sandwiches and collect all that we would need to have a readily available lunch. The dilemma we all faced was what to wear. We were going into London for the day, but the whole point was to see “As You Like It” performed at the Globe. We had to find a way to balance the effectiveness of attire to walk around all day while still looking a little more dressed up for the theatre at night. Somehow we all found a balance and were well on our way to London.
We walked over to Falmer train station and as we were approaching, we saw the train we wanted approaching. We all of course hustle since we had to go up the stairs and over to the other platform to catch it. Since the conductor saw us running he held the train for us. So on our very first endeavor; I started to get Rainbow burn on the balls of my feet from the friction of my sandals. Once we got on the train, we sat at one of the tables that seated four. There wasn’t much of a trip to the Brighton Station, but once we got on the train going to Victoria Station we were set. The trip takes about 45 minutes to get there so we spent a good while talking. Sarah had brought the articles required for the next day in class to read on the train. Since none of the other girls had read either, we decided to read them aloud. The language in these articles was very strange. In the one we read going to London, the letters were a bit out of the ordinary. The letter S looked like an f so that made it difficult, etcetera was an odd sign. The letter C looked like the & sign. Above all else, we were reading a text that condemned the theatre with this overly Christian ideology. It was really funny to hear the absurdities some of the really early antitheatricalists. We each took turns reading sections of the article. By the time we arrive to our destination, we had gotten through one full required reading.
Once in London, there was one place I needed to go. I had to go to the Hard Rock Café gift shop to get a couple of souvenirs. Since our travel ticket was an all encompassing ticket, we were able to ride the tube free as well as the train. It was awesome. The other girls obliged me to run this one errand. We went into the vault since Eileen and Sarah had never been. Since it was lunch time, we took a minute and ate lunch in Hyde Park. It was a really nice day. It was typical London, overcast and cool.
Prior to our trip, we had all agreed that we wanted to go to the British Museum. When we finished eating lunch, we made our way back to the tube to go to the Museum. On our way out of Hyde park, the archway in which we passed though was a Princess Diana Memorial. It was really cool since I just happened to be looking down at the ground and saw the plaque embedded in the cement. The arch was a beautiful gateway, but I would have passed through it unknowingly had I not stopped and read it. That was a really neat find.
When we arrived to the tube station we needed to get to the museum we climbed out of the tube, for it was truly full of people, and started walking. As we emerged, we saw the street signs pointing us in the direction we needed to walk. After a little while of walking, we ceased to see the signs that were guiding us. Instead of continuing to walk in unfamiliar territory, we pulled ourselves to the side of the sidewalk against a building to look at our map. We literally pulled out the map and opened it when an old man came up to us and asked us if he could help us find something. It was pleasantly shocking that that quickly someone was willing to help us and point us in the right direction. After thanking the man many times we walked the direction he told us to walk. Once we came to an intersection we thought he led us the wrong way. We later found out that if we continued to walk the way we were we would have walked right up to the gat, but instead we turned right. We pulled out the map and decided to continue to walk right. We arrived at another landmark building and found that the museum was to our left now. We finally walked up to a gentleman and asked him where it was. We walked in a big circle, but we found it. The museum was huge. It was also free. That was a really nice perk. We took a picture in front and went inside. Since we did not have all the time in the world to look, we picked the major things we wanted to see and went for it.
Inside, we saw the Rosetta Stone, a really old primitive cutting tool (the oldest thing in the museum), we touched 200yr old dolphin teeth trading strings, a half a million year old cutting tool (not the same one as the aforementioned cutting tool but we touched the recently mentioned cutting tool), we saw mummies (blech), we saw parts of the Parthenon, and much more. There were so many things crammed into such a small place it is impossible to take it all in in one day. Since we were meeting Lesley at 5 for dinner, we had enough time to go to Westminster Abbey and Parliament really briefly so that Eileen could see them since she had not seen them yet. On our trip over there, we paid it forward and helped a woman on the tube. She needed to get to a specific location and wanted to know how to get there. She actually had to switch trains at the same place we needed to so Celina and Sarah pointed her in the right direction and told her that she needed to get off the line at the same place we were. Once we were there wall 5 of us got off and the woman went her way and we went ours.
After visiting the Abbey and seeing Parliament, we went over to The Globe gift shop to get the things we wanted to buy prior to the show. It was a good thing too since the gift shop closes at 7:30 and that is when our performance started. After looking and scrambling for what we wanted, we realized Lesley had texted us and we missed it. We had to head over to Gabriel’s Wharf quickly. It was father than we thought it was from the Globe, but still relatively close. A thing to remember: I still have rainbow bur from my sandals in the morning. We walked as briskly as we cold to retrieve Lesley so that we could sit and enjoy our dinner. As we were entering the wharf, we smelled amazing pizza. So once Lesley was retrieved, we returned to the pizza restaurant on the corner. We sat outside since the weather was still agreeable. After looking the menu over; I got the gorgonzola and beet pizza. It was really good. It had spinach, beets, gorgonzola, ham, red onions and red sauce.
After dinner we went to the Globe. Once we were within the gates, it became real. It was so awesome; We walked up and touched the stage. We all took a picture together and, of course, our individual ones in front of the stage. All of my Shakespeare classes became real. I was starting to envision the players that had been on the stage and the feel of seeing the many plays I have read. I was imagining the way they would seem performed there. We were in the aristocrats’ seats. Apparently the school had never bought seats that high before so it was a real honor to be seated in the highest rank possible in the theatre. Right before the performance, the air was a little misty. It was kind of bad since I was wishing that it would rain on the groundlings.
The play was well performed. I was completely enraptured instantaneously. I was consumed by the words spoken, the costuming, the other audience members, and the atmosphere of the place. I might have inscribed a great deal of the atmosphere, but the play is one of the lightest comedies and was so well played that I forgot I was listening to Shakespearian language. The play was well incorporated with the audience. Many entrances and exits were done from within the groundlings. The audience was really invited in to the performance. An as noted by our instructor that they don’t usually do that so it was a real treat.
When the play was over, we walked over to the nearest train station. There was a train going to Brighton so we took it. We were all so tired that we were giggly and talking. We were sharing our experiences of the play and what we liked about it. We had re-distributed the articles that needed to be read the next day and were attempting to read them while talking. Then came the joy-kill. There was a creepy man that walked on to the train. He tried to sit next to me since we were in the 4 people seats. Lesley and Eileen sat on the other side so that one person wouldn’t have to sit alone. Since there was a seat available next to me, I put my feet up and so did Sarah and Celina. He came over and tried to sit next to me when there was an entire car of free spaces. He saw that all of us had our feet up and sat in the seat that was behind me. The seats behind me were facing the same direction as I was. He proceeded to sit up and hang on to the seat in front of him. He was listening to our conversation and was sitting a little too close to me. He was ogling at us and listening to everything we were saying. If you didn’t catch it before I was sitting by myself with him hovering over my shoulder. I was well aware of this and all the girls were trying to get my attention to tell me. He noticed this and then started to talk to us. He asked us who was paying us to talk to each other. He was hinting that we were so entertaining that someone had to be paying us. He tried to find out where we were from. Lesley took one for the team. He started talking and we started reading. He said that it was funny that a drunk guy on the train starts talking to us and we suddenly become more studious.
Like I said, Lesley took one for the team. He was talking and she responded. He kept asking her where in the states she was from and she told him about 8 times that she was from Holland. She didn’t care. She talked to him in a subtly confrontational way. None of us could really read and were listening so that if Lesley needed help, we were there. I was just praying that he did not ride the train to Brighton or try to take my off the train by pulling my hair or something. He was really that creepy. He, at one point was sticking his tongue out and it was right by my head. I was watching him by looking in the windows that were next to me. Celina was watching too. I think everyone was. He got off the train at the first stop. The tension was relieved by a huge sigh. We were all so glad that he left.
When we got in to Brighton Station, of course, the last train had left. We decided that splitting the tab of taking a cab was the best option since none of us wanted to walk to the bus stop and the night bus cost a pound more to ride than the day. We all piled in to a 5 person cab and rode to Falmer station. Lesley lives at Stanmer Court which is right next to the train station. We walked Eileen to York since she is at the bottom of our huge hill and then we hiked up to Norwich. It was a full day and I was tired. Overall a great day in London. I called my Mom, Lauren and Jake on Skype since they were all in one place and told them all about my day. When I crawled into bed, I crashed good thing my homework was done.
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- The rainy hill to Norwich house
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- Lunch at Hyde Park
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- The British Museum
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- We made it
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- British Museum ceiling
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- Fauxsetta Stone
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- Ancient cutting tool
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- The real Rosetta Stone
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- This is what intellectuals do in museums
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- Walk like and Egyptian
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- The Parthenon
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- Statues from the Greek Room
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- Aphrodite
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- Westminster Abbey
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- Mini Globe
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- The Globe as taken by and Australian woman
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- Dinner!
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- Celina, Lindsie, Sarah, Eileen, Lesley
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- The stage
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- The audience
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- I so excited
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- Our view from the top
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- Look at thos groundlings gettin’ rained on
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- The stage in the forest setting
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- Bastard…look at his evil eye
August 9
My sincerest apologies for the delay in my postings. The wonderful world of Shakespeare has swept me away so that I have forgotten all time. Commonly known as, School got a lot more demanding as the course is winding down. We are now in week 3 of 4 and that means that final essays are rapidly approaching and reading must be completed. Since there are only 5 of us it really is apparent when more than one of us has not read. So Sunday was a day filled with, as far as I remember, nothing. It was a day spent inside. I had an article to present and had already prepped it. There was other reading that heeded to be done so I did it. Sunday was also the day of recuperation from the late night wedding I attended via Skype with Celina.
Since I knew it was a day filled with nothingness, I took full advantage of it and watched movies. I also, if you took notice to the dates of the other blog postings, caught you all up on the happenings that I had missed before. I didn’t spend a great deal of time on Skype since everyone that has it was gone. Actually, they were all together at my Cousin Matthew’s baseball game. I was able to call my Mom, Lauren, Jake and Robert while they were in the car and driving to the game. It was rather difficult since the car has a built in Bluetooth so they would talk and it sounded muffled or I couldn’t hear anyone at all. Come to think of it, Sunday turned out to be a little bit of a lonely day since everyone was inaccessible to me and they were all together. Not to mention the fact that I was inside my room since I woke up really late.
Although we had a sad revelation, Celina and I did make a positive promise. We realized that we had not had a real hug in 7 weeks. That was the saddest revelation of all, but the promise makes up for it. Since we had this depressing revelation, we promised to give each other 1 real hug a day. When you are so far from home and familiarity so long, you forget the small things like that make a difference. The night looked much better since I was going to London the next day to see a play at The Globe Theatre.
August 8
Saturday was a day filled with anxiousness. Not for me directly, but for Celina and therefore moved over to me. Celina’s boyfriend’s brother was getting married. The groom’s name is Nathan and the bride is Nicole. So, since we are ahead 8 hours, I had eight hours of Celina waiting for them to wake up in California so that she could talk to them while they were getting ready. It was already planned that Shane (Celina’s boyfriend) was going to have his phone in his pocket for the ceremony so that Celina could hear it.
So as I was reading the rest of the articles for my homework, Celina knocks on my door. We go and eat breakfast at noon. After breakfast we go back into our own rooms for a little until Celina gets an idea. She has decided that we have to get ready right then so that we could go outside and take pictures of ourselves all dressed up so that she can edit herself in to a few of the pictures. It will be a joke photo album, but the idea is to add herself so that it is as if she were really there like everyone there really wanted. So we go upstairs to Celina’s room, dresses, hair products, makeup and all and get ready at 1pm. The wedding, mind you, won’t start for another 12 hours. I had my makeup done that morning and my hair was done since I let it dry curly so our attention was centralized on ensuring Celina looked more gorgeous than she does every day. I sat in her room while she curled her hair and advised her on her eye shadow choices. The basic supportive girlfriend duty. As she is finishing up, I went downstairs to my room and talk to my sister on Skype.
She was the first to see me all dressed up. I was wearing my new dress from Spain and Lauren agrees it is a good one. After a little bit, Celina came down to my room so that we could go outside and take photos. We must have looked so silly to other people since Celina was dancing and really making a fool of herself for “realistic” pictures to add to the wedding photos. We of course took a few of the both of us especially since we felt so pretty in our dresses. We had a huge hill of flowers nearby so we really got some cute pictures in the countryside. Plus, we stopped to take the “European” style pictures that we see all of the other tourists from Europe take. It really is as funny sight to see, but we couldn’t not make fun of it.
When we went back inside we made lunch at around 4:30 pm. After lunch I went back into my room and Celina to hers. She was calling everyone since they were finally awake and getting ready for the ceremony and I was waiting for Blake to get back in from camp. Before he went we agreed that he would call me when he got into reception area to let me know what the approximate timing of the rest of the day was. This was to make sure that I could be at my computer but that I didn’t have to sit in my room all day. Well, a few hours later, I finally got to talk to him. I also spoke to my dad and mom in that time of waiting. It was a really full day of contacting people. I loved it. As I was talking I realized how little time I have left here and how quickly it all is going to fly. The rest of my time is almost completely booked. I have class this coming week, I will be going to Scotland this coming weekend, I will return for my last week and turn in my final essay, I will leave that Friday for Ireland, and finally I return to London the 26th to return home on the 27. I am happy for how soon I will be coming home, but I am also sad that it is ending so soon now. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to live her, but I really do like England. All the more reason to visit again with more friends and family with me.
Finally after much waiting, Celina and I attended the wedding. I went in her room and we sat at the computer while Shane had us on speakerphone. We muted the mic so that nothing we did could be heard, but it was really cool to listen to the ceremony. It was not a long ceremony, it was just right. As we sat there and listened, we ate dinner, we made the quickest batch of spaghetti ever. And it turned out to the best spaghetti we have had here. After the ceremony, the bridal party went to take pictures so I went back to my room and finished a movie that I had been watching since I finished my reading and the presentation I have to do on Tuesday. I am free to enjoy the rest of my weekend worry free. I love it.
August 7
Friday began as an ordinary day. Not much was happening. Unfortunately I woke up fairly early in consideration of the face that I was awake until 4am the night before. When I awoke, I knew Celina and I needed to go to the ISS (International Summer School) office to pick up our tickets for the Globe on Monday. Since she wasn’t awake yet, I stayed in my room and did some homework.
I was quite proud that I did not push that work off until Sunday night/Monday or wherever I could fit it in before class. Lately I have found that I really like to enjoy my weekends without crowding it with so much work. I think that has come out of reading so much for first session. This session does not have nearly as much reading and I am aware of it and taking advantage of it. If you’re starting to worry, don’t. I don’t turn up to class unprepared. I always engage in the discussion. Part of that comes from the fact that there are only 4 of us, but that is not the point.
After Celina woke up, we ate breakfast/lunch and headed out to make sure we got our tickets. It was a hike up an even larger and steeper hill to the Mantell Building, but we made it. After collecting our tickets, Celina went back to the dorms and I took a walk over to the bank. The bank that is the sister bank of mine is Barclay’s (bark-lees) and it is literally on the far edge of campus that is diagonally opposite of where I live. Since I was over halfway there I decided to go and handle my business there.
When I got back in to my room, I finished reading half of the articles I need to have read for class Tuesday and then watched a couple movies. Celina and I were getting restless, however, and we wanted to return to the candy store Suck It and Sea so on a whim we decided to go in to town. We have week long bus passes so we decided to make use of them. When we got into town, we got off the bus in front of St. Peter’s church and walked the few meters up the street to our new favorite old-fashioned candy shop. Once inside, the owner that helped us last time was there so we began conversing with her when a whole lot of children came in and made it much louder in there. She helped us rather quickly then, but told us not to return this coming week since she will be out of town. We told her we would be back the following week then. So with a bag of bon bons and chocolate covered honeycomb (not the cereal) we left.
Once we stepped out into the street, Celina and I smelled Chinese food. It was coming from the store next to the candy shop. They were preparing the food for dinner. We stopped and looked at their menu and saw they also had Thai food. We were hooked. We were going to find an Indian food restaurant, but now it didn’t matter. We could have either Thai or Indian food. Since we were in the North Laines (spelled incorrectly in my previous blog) we walked around there hoping to find an Indian food restaurant since we liked the North better than the South. As we walked we passed a Thai food restaurant that we bookmarked in our minds to return to. After much looking and not seeing what we were looking for, we suddenly remembered there was a restaurant near The Mock Turtle that we could go to. So we hiked down to the farthest part of the South Laines to find that the restaurant we wanted was not there and the one that was there was waaaaay overpriced. So back North it was.
We walked back to the Thai restaurant that we noted. As we were walking it didn’t seem as though we were right, but we remembered the exact ways we walked. It had to be where we were walking. After a little bit, we found it. Somehow neither Celina nor I remember it being as far as it was. We walked in and were seated. We were handed the lunch menu and took our picks. Since in Southern California we are so used to iced tea, we asked about their Thai teas and we were saddened to find that it was hot. After our server left for a minute, he returned to tell us that they could make Thai iced tea for us. That brightened our day so much so that is what we ordered along with Pad Thai. Out food came out and it was perfect. It was just what we wanted. The tea was exactly right and the noodles had the right flavor. That was a really good meal.
After eating we returned to our dorms. I stayed awake really late that night too, but I couldn’t get myself to fall asleep. I talked to my mom on Skype for a long time, but something was keeping me awake. Celina and I started watching Igor really late, but she went to bed. Finally, I decided to lie in bed until I fell asleep and finally, I did.
August 6
Today was an n ordinary day. I went to bed kind of late and therefore had a difficult time waking up. After class yesterday, Celina, Eileen and I decided to meet in front of York House at 10:30 so that we could go up and pay our “class fees” for our Shakespeare trip that is on Monday and then head over to the library since we were meeting there for class instead of the usual place in the Arts Building. Well I had to wake up in enough time to shower and eat breakfast before then, so I rolled out of bed at 9. After leisurely getting ready I headed down to meet where we designated. The only difference in the plan was that we were no longer meeting in the library but back in the normal room.
We all walked, paid our fees and headed back to Arts D. On our way, I saw Sarah out of the corner of my eye walking briskly towards the library. She had her headphones on so I knew calling her name wouldn’t get her attention. So without any known reason to Eileen and Celina, I took off running. I followed Sarah and finally stopped to tell her that we were actually meeting at our normal class instead of the library. So all four of us proceeded to Arts D instead of just the three of us. When we arrived in the building our instructor was leaving. He told us he would be right up and for us to go in and be seated. So we did. The projector was set up and we knew we would only be watching film clips of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, so there was no surprise. After waiting a little, I began to wonder where on earth our instructor could have gone. Either way I was going to have to wait and then he walked in carrying Malteasers (a candy that is the English’s superior to Whoppers) and toffee popcorn. He placed them in front of us and told us we couldn’t have a movie without popcorn or Malteasers.
Of course, the discussion and comparison of Malteasers to Whoppers inevitably ensued, but we were in class for only an hour and a half instead of the usual full 2 hours. It was a nice break especially since I am still used to class like my first session always ending early. After class Eileen, Celina and I were going to head over to the farmer’s market over at Falmer House. We trekked along campus to find that the market was held on Tuesday that week and not Thursday. I was really sad since I was so looking forward to the fresh fruit and veggies. Since the market was closed I headed over to the library to check out the rest of the books I needed for class. After that I went back to my dorm and ate lunch. I called a few people on Skype, but not much else.
I did attempt to read one of the articles I need to for the coming week, but it is in a very different kind of English and I spent most of the time de-coding it than understanding its contents. The article is from 1582 and written about the theatre. It is interesting to see a piece of writing from that time when theatre was so controversial, but I wish it didn’t take so long to read. When I finished with that article I went to the store and bought some broccoli and cauliflower. I really wanted some fresh steamed vegetables. So I made a small bowl, but the cauliflower they had available at the store was much, much larger than I needed. Usually they have segmented pieces, but this was an entire head with the green leaves an all. I brought it up because I wanted it still and the clerks were shocked that the supplier would send one that size. They pulled off the leaves to take the weight of it down and it only turned up being 95p for the thing. I was impressed since I was sure it would have cost 2 or 3 pounds. Before checking out I did grab a can of garbanzo beans for those of you who know what I have in mind. I am quite excited for that meal.
I returned from the store and watched movies on my lap top. I watched a couple and just when I was getting bored/ lonely who calls me? My mom. She doesn’t even know that her timing was that impeccable, but I was able to talk to her and felt a ton better. I also loved the fact that I knew if I stayed up late I would be able to talk to her in video chat. I watched a couple more movies and had the craziest conference call I have ever experienced.
I was on the phone with just my mom. Then Lauren calls her cell and Lauren was on speakerphone as I was on the computer with my mom. Then when Lauren got in to her apartment she was conferenced in to the call mom and I were on. Jake was there too so I was talking to Mom, Lauren and Jake. After some time, Auntie Tina signed on to Skype and wanted to talk so we conference her in as well. So total it was Mom, Lauren, Jake, Tina, and Russ plus me on the same call. You could only imagine the conversation that ensued. It was perfect.
When I got off of the phone at 2:30, I remained awake to finish the movie I had been watching when mom called me. When I finished that, I tried to go to bed. The problem, I was not really tired and someone was still talking really loudly so that it was echoing in the quad. It was a humid night so I couldn’t keep my window closed. When I still couldn’t sleep at 4 am I got up to walk around and find the sound’s source. I walked around my floor to see if it was one of the kitchens on my level. It wasn’t. I walked up the stairs by my room and immediately found the source to be above me. Not the room directly above me, but the room next to the one right above me. I knocked on the door and asked very politely if she wouldn’t mind talking a little quieter as it was echoing in the quad and keeping me awake. I felt bad, but I was actually tired at that point and wanted sleep. Of course people waking up and moving about woke me early so I woke at about 9:30 this morning. There will need to be a nap today.
P.S. sorry about the inconsistency of tense. I am aware that I started it as if it were still Thursday, but it is in fact Friday and I don’t care enough to go back and fix it.
August 5
I am finally caught up. Hooray. Today was a filled day, but it is not as crazy as my event days or planned weekends. I went to class today and we had a long discussion of the Taming of the Shrew. I like that play. After class, Celina and I decided to go and pay our fee for the trip to the Globe since it is not just calculated in my fees for school. We got there and the place had already closed. They are only open from 10am-1pm. I go to class at 11 and am out at 1 so every time they are open, I am in class.
Celina and I really needed to get groceries so today was the day we went to ASDA. We made our list and headed out. On our walk from the bus stop to the actual store, we saw that there was a Reebok outlet. We went in curious to see what they had. My eye was immediately caught by an exercise jacket. Everything in the store was buy one get another for only 1 pond. They did not have to be the same items, but it could be anything. I looked at the jacket and decided that if I got legitimate running shoes, I would get the jacket for only 1 pound. The shoes were 28 pounds, and the jacked was 1 so I got these items for a little less that $60 US. That may seem like a lot of money, but in looking solely at the brand and quality, I could not get the same items for less in the US. If I can, don’t tell me and burst my bubble. I really like my shoes and my exercise jacket. I at least know I could not get the shoes I purchased for less than what I paid.
Anyway, we walked around the store for a bit and then went over to the grocery store. We got everything we needed an would have made the bus if the checker at the stand we chose didn’t stop and help the woman in front of us bag all of her stuff. Here they don’t bag your food for you, as the customer, you do it yourself. This woman went out of her way to help the customer which ordinarily would be great, but since we had a deadline, it was annoying. We missed the bus by 1 minute. We had a half an hour to wait for the next one. Since we had not eaten lunch wet, we opened a box of cereal and started munching. It was good.
When we got back to campus, we put everything away and sat in our rooms for a bit. When it came time to make dinner I was excited. We were making lemon chili chicken. We left the ginger and cilantro out of this one. We had vegetable rice and steamed veggies. It was really good. Andrea and her friend were in the kitchen and had just eaten dinner and then Allison came in and ate too. Andrea and her friend were taking these disgusting cardboard-tasting rice crispies and making rice crispie treats with them. We watched as we ate and then when it came time to make shapes participated in giving good ideas since they didn’t want just squares. We also decided to add chocolate and nutella to the top of them. This was a good choice. When they were all finished, we all sat at the table and ate chocolate covered rice crispie treats. Most of us had chai tea as well, but Celina rocked a glass of milk instead. That was fun making fun of the shapes that were made.
After dinner, Allison and I planned our trip to Ireland. I am officially going. By that I mean I have a plane ticket and a place to stay while I am over there. Since we heard Dublin is so touristy, we decided to go to Cork and Limerick. We will be flying in to Dublin, but our reservations are in Cork and Limerick. It was really exciting because booking all of that means that we really are going and not just talking about maybe visiting Ireland. Since it is really, really late here; I have to go to bed, but today was a grocery and trip-planning filled day.
August 4
This day was a day in which Celina and i decided to go in to town. We attended class from 11am- 1pm. Our instructor went over about a half an hour without knowing it so we really were in class from 11-1:30. None of us wanted to say anything since we all though it would be really rude to interrupt and tell him that class was over.
Since neither Celina nor I wanted to cook anything for lunch, we decided to go into town and make use of the coupons they issued us from burger king. if we ordered a burger, we got a free french fry and medium soda. I was okay with that plus it got me out of my dorm room. So we went and ate lunch. Since we still had some time before we needed to be back to campus, we explored the North lanes some more. There is a completely different vibe to the North Lanes over the South. They seem more spacious and less crowded with people. When I say spacious, I mean the roads are wider and less cramped because the South lanes are crammed with stores and the roads are much more narrow. We walked around to the places we had visited before. We explored an antique shop that was so haphazardly thrown together it is a wonder they know anything that is in there.
We decided as our final stop to go to Suck it and Sea. The candy store that I have posted pictures of in my earlier blogs. They have old fashioned candy there and you actually have to go to the candy counter and ask for what you would like. The owner was there and she was very generous and helpful. We asked her for some traditional English candies and she was more than happy to help. I got a bag of candy from her and as she measured and weighed, I thought it was really going to cost a lot of money. It took only 1.80. I was impressed. After the purchase she also threw in a couple of candy heart things free. I loved the small home town feel to the store. In our taste testing and candy fun, Celina and I have decided we will return to bring her business since we really liked the shop.
Since we had a movie screening at 6, we had to leave and get back to campus to watch a film version of Twelfth Night. That version was a very funny one especially compared to only reading the play. Some parts were changed and artistic liberties were taken, but we all had fun eating popcorn, and sharing weird British candy.
After the film I returned to my room to read the articles I hadnot touched that day. i finished reading The Taming of the Shrew first, and then I moved on to the critical essays for the course. The obstacle ion my reading last night was that there was a birthday and there was a lot of drunken singing and screams from another kitchen. Then there were pwople in my kitchen at 1 am talking really loudly. Someone finally had enough because there were a lot of screams of drinking games and then a sudden silence. they had finally been busted. I was free to read. It was glorious. I flew through the rest and went to bed.
August 2-4
I’m sorry to report that these days were much of the same. I had a report to do on Tuesday for the reading from the weekend, so there was much time and effort spent on that. I stayed in and read. I also watched movies on you tube. It may seem pathetic, but it was really nice to be able to sleep as much as my body needed. I was also able to be on Skype for longer to talk to family and friends. I really like to converse on Skype because it is almost as if we are in the same room. I know we are not, but it is nice to pretend.
August 1
Saturday was an interesting day. If you are unaware, Brighton is a town that can be equated to San Francisco. It is well known for its LGBT community and is an avid supporter of such lifestyles. Saturday was the day of the gay pride parade. Since Brighton is a sea town the theme was “Brighton by the Seaside”. Curious as to what goes on at one of these parades, Celina and I went. It was a very hectic day for the transportation workers going to and from Brighton. We took the train into town thinking it would be less hectic than the bus, but it really made no difference.
The parade started at 11:50 and lasted a good 20 minutes. I think. There were floats and all kinds of displays. There were some highly questionable costume choices, but it was interesting to see the different variations of sea life and beach themed floats that passed. There were people on foot with paper machete costumes and much more. I think the most overwhelming thing about the entire parade was not how shocking the images seen that day were, but rather the whistles that people had purchased and ceaselessly blew into the entire time. They were really annoying to hear for an hour straight.
The parade did not last as long as I thought it would, but it was a good thing since I was really hungry. Celina and I decided to “swim upstream” and walk away from all the commotion and into town more. Since we spent most of our time in the South Lanes in Brighton, we decided to venture into the North lanes and see what food places were available. We ended up choosing a place I had really wanted to go to since I first saw another location of the same restaurant elsewhere. We ate at a place called Giraffe. It celebrates world dishes and offers a wide variety of foods and music. The place was decorated very earthily and had a funky vibe to it. I loved it. We went in and looked at the menu and decided the prices were not too high and they actually had some good looking stuff. As we looked at the menu at our table, we noticed at the bar there were these stirrers for drinks that were in the shape of a giraffe. I really wanted one, but I didn’t want to order a cocktail in order to receive one. Instead, we decided to get smoothies. When they were done, the server brought them to our table and we ended up with a plastic giraffe anyway. I was so happy. For our meal, Celina ordered a mango chicken taco and a side salad and I ordered hot duck Thai noodles. My dish was really spicy and it was nice to have that change in flavor.
After lunch, we decided to walk to the south lanes and get some ice cream from a small shop called scoop and crumb. This shop is apparently famous for their sundaes, but I sis not order one. I only discovered that they were better known for sundaes when we walked upstairs with our waffle cones. To be exact, there are 53 different sundae possibilities in this small shop. They have a very strange ice cream selection, but I guess it makes for more fun in creating sundaes.
Following our ice cream break, Celina and I took a brief trip to Poundland. It is the equivalent to Dollar tree in the UK. They sell waters for the best price I have found in Brighton. SO I got a few of them and we went on our way. Since the way to the bus station involves walking past Primark, Celina and I went in to look at leather boots. They had a wide selection that were fairly priced, but I wanted to wait a little longer since there was a store really close that also sells shoes for a discounted price. As we left Primark, it was raining. Not a small drizzle, but a good amount of rain. We still wanted to go in to New Look to see their shoe section. When we got of the escalator and turned the corner I saw the boots I wanted. I tried them on and they were the perfect fit. After much deliberation and debate, I bought the boots. I am very happy I did, but England is really posing a problem for me on the shoe front because I have purchased another set of shoes here.
When we left new look, it was still raining quite hard so we decided to go back to campus. We had purchased train tickets so we had to get back to the station from downtown. When we got to Falmer station we walked to campus. On that walk, I realized that my leg was really getting wet. I had my umbrella up and it really was becoming soaked. I looked, and I had a steady stream of water coming from my purse to the ground. One of the liter sized bottles of water I purchased was leaking into my purse. My camera was in my pocket, but my iPhone was in my purse. I got it out as quickly as possible, but I don’t know how wet it got. I took it out when I got to my room and tried to dry it as best as I could. I don’t know how it is now, but I am leaving it alone to make sure it dries totally. There wasn’t water running from it as if it was completely submerged, but I had to dry my entire purse out when I got in.
Did I mention that that morning on our way to the train station we were attacked by another seagull? Apparently it happens to a lot of people and is not as uncommon as in the US. There are some ruthless and vicious birds here and the locals hate them too. I did just find out that they are protected birds and it is illegal to kill them. WHY?
July 28-31
During this time, not much occurred. I started my second session of class. The class I am taking is Shakespeare. During the first week, we only read critical essays on Shakespeare and other important things, but did not look at any plays or sonnets or anything of that sort.
Since I did have quite a few readings this week, I spent most of my time inside. I did not really do much but wake up, watch a movie on you tube and then dive in to the required readings. it also did not help that I was transitioning back into the allergens of the UK. Since there are not as many flowers and the weather was so much warmer in Spain, my body adjusted to the air there. Upon my return, my body became very angry with me and both my asthma and my allergies flared up. My asthma was really triggered by the construction in Madrid on the last day, but my allergies were really bad even when I took my medicine. The first full day back, my eyes were so puffy that I could barely hold them open. Now I am fine, but it is because of these interferences that I did not really do anything but remain in my room for the week.
