today i was stuck on the tube for two hours

hello loves!

I love the smell and feel of the air right after it rains. Everything is so crisp and fresh and it brings a sort of calm to me.

Right now I'm in between tasks (I'm waiting for the laundry machine to finish) so I finally have a moment to sit down and write. So sorry I've left you all hanging for almost a week now!

This weekend I kept things relatively low-key and cheap, since my budget has become increasingly tight in the last week. A lot of my friends were out of town in Liverpool anyway, so I had some good time to myself. Friday I ventured down to Camden Market, about 2.5 miles away from where I live. I decided to walk there, which was nice exercise. I ended up getting lost in this place called Kentish Town, which wasn't exactly a glitzy area so I was speed walking trying to find my way back. Turns out I just took a wrong turn at the tube station and ended up way out of my way. I told you all before how easy it is to take a wrong turn and get lost somewhere completely different. When I finally found the market, I realized it wasn't what I had expected (vegetables, antiques, and trinkets like all the other markets I've been to). It was more of a subculture type place with lots of stalls and shops aimed towards people of a certain "genre," and by that I mean (and I HATE using labels, but this is to illustrate the picture I'm trying to paint for you) goths, hippies, and punks. Everything was black and smelling of incense... Even though I was a bit out of place, I enjoyed it anyway and took it for what it was. I stopped for a cup of coffee on my way back at this cute little place called Inhabition coffee shop and it was nice to just sit back and sketch in my book for a bit. I like that a lot of cafes and such here allow you to sit down and they serve you, rather than have you order at the counter. The twist on this is that you can leave at your leisure, because when you want to pay, you walk up to the counter and do so, rather than get a bill and be rushed out of the place like in the States. And you don't have to tip, which saves us poor kids some money here and there. I do try to tip when I have a little extra change though. Working in a sweaty ice cream stand all summer made me learn to appreciate the little bit of extra appreciation people sometimes offer up.

Saturday was go, go, go as usual, with my day starting around 9:30 (It was an early night for me on Friday). I spent most of my morning trying to hunt down a book to use for my history paper, which I eventually ended up buying because I couldn't find it in the library. I'm writing a sort of biographical paper on a historical person, and my history teacher pointed me in the direction of this book called "We Are At War," by Simon Garfield, which is a collection of journal entries written by people participating in the Mass Observation Project during WWII. I'm focusing on a woman named Eileen Potter (the name is a pseudonym) who was an evacuation officer for the London County Council. The interesting thing about this is that all the information I have and will be able to acquire about this woman is in this book, and this book alone. Since her name is a pseudonym there's no way for me to look up anything more about her. So it's kind of like piecing together a mystery in that I'm trying to figure out what kind of a person she was, how her job was, where she grew up and who she spent time with, all just by reading her journal entries. It's going to take some research but I think in the end it will be worth it. I'm devoting my entire evening, tomorrow night, and Thursday during the day to get this done before I leave for Belgium Thursday evening. My EEE paper is nearly complete, I just need to do a little fine tuning on it and I should be good to go with that.

Anyway, getting off of my little tangent, after I found the book I headed back to my flat when I came across the Korean Harvest Festival going on in front of the British Museum. Curiosity got the best of me and I meandered over to check it out. They had these little strips of Korean rice paper and I wrote a wish on one and tied it to a tree:

Korean Harvest Festival, 22 September 2007

I also tried Korean rice cakes. Not a fan. I think I'm too used to our American style of rice cakes.

After the festival, I hopped on the tube and headed to Canary Wharf, where I went to a jazz festival in Jubilee Park. It was really small and grassy and there weren't loads of people there so it was kind of nice to sit and read my book with some jazz in the background. The only thing that eventually drove me away was the number of couples that were sitting around me. The amount of PDA in this city is starting to get on my nerves. I'm all for finding your true love, but please for the love of God I do NOT want to see you making out against a fence/wall/on the grass/in the tube/in the museum/you fill in the blank. Sometimes it's endearing to see a couple happily cuddling together in a public place.. but when you're about the only person there without a significant other, the situation can get a little discouraging! All that aside, the jazz fest was well worth going to.

Straight after I left the festival I took the tube to Southwark, where I went to the Tate Modern. I'm such a huge fan of modern art so I obviously loved this place. Any excuse to look at real work by Andy Warhol and Claus Oldenburg is enough reason for me to visit a gallery. I realize that a good chunk of people think these two are freaks, and I'm in complete agreement with that (has anyone seen Factory Girl???), but I think they are geniuses. I'm also fast becoming a fan of Jasper Johns. I just find his work very powerful and eye catching every time I see it.

Sunday most of my day was spent working on my paper, but I took a little walk at night to finish up my film and ended up wandering into Covent Gardens. There's this charming little alleyway right off of Southampton Row called Neal's Yard and I was dying to walk through and once I emerged I ended up right in the middle of Covent Garden aka shopping central. Kind of depressing that all I could do was window shop, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. I came across this place called the photographer's gallery and stopped in because it was free and ended up browsing a whole bunch of really powerful photographs. The place is literally a hole in the wall and I'm lucky to have caught it...definitely a good find.

So now it's back to the regular routine. Class and work took up my day yesterday, and today was the same. For History we went to South Kensington, which from what I understand is a very ritzy part of London where a lot of celebrities live, and visited the Victoria & Albert Museum. The trip back was horrendous... I was stuck on the tube for almost two hours because the Piccadilly Line was backed up. I ended up having to back track and switch lines about three times before I finally got home. But once I got back out into the fresh air my antsiness quickly subsided. It's impossible to be in a bad mood when my life is just so, so good.

The laundry machine should be shut off by now... and it's also tea time. Kisses and hugs to each and every one of you.

Cheers!

primark: a bargain shopper's paradise

hello loves!

It's been a slow week, and I expect a long, relaxing weekend. Classes are going smoothly and I was officially given my first big assignments. I think it might be the teaching style of British professors, but for some reason school isn't stressing me out as much as it usually does. I think because so much emphasis is placed on actually LEARNING and not test-taking that I find my classes actually enjoyable and not a burden. I don't feel like my life is revolving around my homework and studying like it usually does. Actually, I would say my classes are actually enhancing my time in London because a lot of the content forces me to get involved with the city, by taking pictures or going on "history walks" or studying London businesses. It's a good feeling.

Tuesday night I went to see Les Miserables with Cory and his flatmate Allison and was completely blown away. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, hands down. I didn't realize the whole show was sung, which actually makes me more excited because now that I downloaded the soundtrack, I can re-live the show over and over and over :) I was teary-eyed through probably the majority of the show... I had all I could do not to completely lose it in the final scene. I don't think there was a dry eye in the entire theatre. I even got choked up when the little girl who played Cosette came on stage because she made miss my little Emily!!!

This week for my History class we did a walk of Medieval London, which included stops in the borough of Clerkenwell and a former monastery and a PLAGUE PIT, which is actually a really pretty park now. I guess the plague has some really long turnaround time, so the best way to make sure it doesn't happen again was to bury the bodies, plant and fertilize over them, and put trees in to secure the soil. We also went to a Medieval church, which happens to be where scenes were shot for Robin Hood Men in Tights and Four Weddings and a Funeral. I love this class!!

Last night I met up with Amy finally and we went out for fish and chips. I took her to this place I heard about called The Fryer's Delight and it was THE BEST fish and chips I have ever had. And reasonably priced too! I was so happy to finally see her and am so excited to venture over to her part of London and explore.

Today I went shopping on Oxford Street and discovered a goldmine of bargain clothes: PRIMARK. Very cute clothes and very cheap prices. I didn't actually end up getting anything though, because I couldn't justify spending money on shirts when I need to eat, haha. I did, however, buy two pashminas from a street vendor for 5 pounds, which was a steal. I plan to buy more. Hopefully I will come home with a rainbow of pashminas.

Tonight Christian and I went down the street to this girl Carolyn's apartment for a little dinner party because we're going to Brussels with her next weekend and we wanted to figure out what kinds of things we're planning to do. As of now, we're taking a tour of a chocolate factory, going to a brewery, visiting the Royal Palace and probably one other cathedral/palace/touristy spot and then doing a day trip to Bruges, which has been said to be more beautiful than Venice!! I'm so excited.

It's a low key night so I'm having some people over to watch a movie. I'm so happy to just sit inside and do nothing... I'm trying to come up with some fun things to do this weekend that I could take pictures of for class. I definitely want to visit the Tate Modern and perhaps go to a foreign film on Sunday. I love me some culture :)

Miss you all so very much!

Cheers!

the supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- Les Miserables

I went to see Les Miserables tonight. I would go see it a hundred more times if I could.

photographs & memories

Hello loves!

I uploaded loads of new pictures, so check them out when you get a chance and let me know what you think!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amrineurope/

Miss you all... Cheers!

it's just like your life, only funnier

hello loves!

What a weekend! I think I crammed more into this weekend than I did all summer.

I had my first celebrity spotting of the semester! Friday night while I was out on a walk with Elsa, Alli and Tuan, we went by the Chicago theatre and noticed the show was just getting out. Kelly Osbourne just started in the show as Mama Morton and being the celebrity gossip that I am, I decided it would be a good idea to try to stalk her after the show. We went and waited out by the back door for about 20 minutes and she finally came out to the screams of fans and hundreds of flashes from all the paparazzi that were there. It was so exciting! She looks really great and is actually so small in person!

kelly signing autographs.

Saturday was extremely productive. Finally got to sleep in which was so refreshing that when I woke up, I did my entire PR paper. The flatties and I bought 20 pound tickets to the matinee showing of Avenue Q, so we spent a lovely evening out watching puppets sing about life ("It Sucks to Be Me," "The Internet is for Porn," "I Wish I Could Go Back to College," etc). The show was hysterical, I loved it! It was very blunt humor, which was hilarious. It was kind of a cool concept-- the actors have these puppets on their arms that they make talk and move, but they are actually on stage singing and playing along too. Its just such a different idea for a show and even though the characters were puppets, the theme and the songs in the production were actually very true to life. If you ever have the opportunity to see this show, I would recommend it. Now I'm so excited to go see more shows... I'm hoping to at least see Wicked, Les Mis, and Blood Brothers before I leave London. Luckily as students we get such an amazing discount that it is actually plausible for me to see a bunch of shows and not go completely broke.

After the show, we went out for a nice dinner at this place called Cafe Pasta on Monmouth Street. It wasn't too expensive, but all I got was a chicken caesar salad... original, I know. The portion sizes are SO much smaller here. There is little temptation or reason to overeat when you go out to dinner. No wonder so many Americans are overweight. I also saw a bunch of cute little coffee houses that I plan to check out on my days off AND a cupcake shop, which was a clutch find for me because you all know how obsessed I am with cupcakes.

Later that night, I went out with "the Team," meaning Alli, Elsa, Tuan and Dan, to this place called the After Skool Klub. It was in a student union of some college here but you couldn't even tell. This place was bumpin, as I like to say. We got in for free because we were in the first 100 people and drinks were half price until midnight so we were only paying about 1.20 for drinks, which is unheard of around this expensive city. All of the people there were my age so it was nice to not have to worry about creepy old men looking at you. The music was great... they didn't play any awful rap music but instead played indie dance music, which was so fun! The club was packed out and it was just a really good time. And obviously when we got home, we dug into the McVitie's caramel cookies, my ultimate weakness. A fabulous end to a fabulous night.

Today was jam-packed. We woke up early and went down to the East End to hit up the markets. I only bought two scarves but I took some cool pictures of the market and had a good time with my friends.

one of the booths at the market.

After the markets, we met up with a group from school and went to this place called the Dennis Severs house. It was quite an interesting and quirky little place. Basically, this guy was an artist and used this house as the medium for his "still life drama." He decorated each floor of the house in a different time period, and as you go up in the house, it becomes later in time. I think the time periods were from the 18th-19th centuries, maybe? In short, the idea was that as time went on, this house kind of decreased in status, meaning in the early 18th century it would have been somewhere that the wealthy lived, and more towards the 19th century, it had been inhabited by more poor people. It was supposed to be a "sensory experience" so we weren't allowed to talk, we just had to walk through and take in the sights, sounds, and scents of the house. Kind of a weird experience, I'm still not sure I completely understand why this guy felt compelled to do this, but you can read more about it on the Web site: http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/ because I would only confuse you if I tried to explain it myself.

Tonight was a highlight of my time here. Elsa, Alli and I went down to the Thames Festival and stayed for the firework display at the end. Most of you probably know my affection for firework shows, so I was especially excited to see my first BIG firework display in a big city. I was absolutely blown away by the show. It was only 15 minutes long, but it was undoubtedly the most beautiful fireworks display I have ever seen. It was such an amazing setting, with the city in the background and the river underneath the sparkling sky. It was truly an experience to take in and one that I will remember. Its really the little things like that in life that make me really appreciate how lucky I am. I also took about a gazillion pictures so look for those when I get around to putting them up.

All right, it's approaching midnight so that means bedtime for me. Monday is my longest day so I try to be as rested up as possible. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Cheers!

fireworks over the Thames, 16 September 2007

little moments

River Thames/London Eye at night, 14 September, 2007.

This is the happiest I have felt in a long, long time. Cheers to you, London.