Defying Gravity

Breaking news: I am officially a London local.

"What makes you say that?" you ask? Blackfriars station is open. When we arrived, it was closed, and there were signs saying it would reopen in "early 2012." I have now been here long enough to witness change.

More breaking news: Amanda, Liz, and I have fled the country.

We weren't actually "fleeing" anything, and it was only for a day, but that just doesn't sound as dramatic! On Friday, we hopped on a bus and, three and a half hours of beautiful countryside later, we were in Cardiff, Wales.

Wales wasn't super high on my list of places to visit. Actually, I really only went because it wasn't too expensive, it's close, and... well, why not? Amanda and Liz were super excited and planning on doing some serious fangirling at Doctor Who things; I was just along for the ride. Thankfully, Wales surpassed all of my non-existent expectations and gave me quite a fabulous day!

We walked around a little bit after we got off the bus and got some great views of Millennium Stadium before heading to Cardiff Castle. It was really great! We got to go up and walk along the battlements, before Amanda found a secret-looking door that led us down into the walls of the castle into what was a WWII air raid shelter.



I find WWII absolutely fascinating, and being in these tunnels was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced, ever. There were speakers playing air raid sirens and some speech and a song, so it was like the ghosts of the hundreds of people that had crammed in there during the war were down there with us. There were no other (living) people, though, so it was just us. It was dark and eerie and so unbelievably awesome. There were benches and bunk beds and wartime propaganda posters, and even a bar where they served food. Seriously, so cool. I'm such a nerd. But it was unbelievable.

We eventually resurfaced, and got to climb up to the actual castle, in the middle of the moat. It's pretty small, and is kind of just a fortress. But we got to overlook the city from the top, and all of us conquered a fear on the treacherously steep and slippery steps up and down. I wish I was kidding. My camera died when got safely back to the ground, so I guess there was one casualty :(. Our tour next took us to the castle apartments, which is where the royalty actually lived. They were absolutely gorgeous! I was DYING without my camera! Before we left, we climbed back up to the top of the wall and reenacted some Harry Potter things on what looked like the wooden bridge (because why not?).



Liz wanted to get some food after that, so we walked down towards the center of the city and found a little shop selling pies and pasties and such. Whoever tells you that the UK doesn't have any good food is lying through their teeth, because the cheese and onion pasty I had was one of the most perfect foods I've ever eaten. Deeeeeeeeelish. We meandered a bit after that before catching a bus to Millennium Park, near Cardiff Bay. Apparently it's very significant in the Doctor Who-verse, but it was a really nice area even to those of us oblivious to the Tardis. (Wait, I think that's supposed to be in all caps. But typing TARDIS makes me feel like I'm screaming it. TARDIS. See?)



(Photo courtesy of Liz -- my camera died at the castle.)

But anyway. I looked on in amusement as they took their nerdy pictures, and then we spent some time in the Millennium Center before attempting to take a bus to BBC Studios. We ended up not doing so because of bad timing, and instead tried to find what we thought was a restaurant that we found in Liz's guidebook, called Gdwidh (because Welsh is the greatest language ever). It took AGES to find, and we got there only to realize it's a bar, not a restaurant. At that point it was getting close to when our bus was going to leave, so we got takeout from Wok to Walk (so punny) to bring with us. Somehow we all forgot where we were supposed to catch the bus, which led to an interesting 15 or so minutes of race walking around the station on the brink of panic. But we found it in time, and the driver told us we couldn't bring hot food on board.

Needless to say, our food tasted that much better because it was eaten illegitimately after being snuck on in our bags. We're just ninjas like that.

On Saturday, I was planning on going to The British Museum to see an exhibit for my Text, Art, and Performance class, but I got the worst night of sleep, so it was all I could do to shut off my alarms and go back to sleep. Good decision making on my part! I got some work done, and at night we got to see a play that Amanda had written! Queen Mary has a new writer's workshop, which is a few nights of student-written shows. The price of admission included another show, and they were both really good! I already knew Amanda's was, since I'd read it weeks ago, but the other one was set during a war and it was really intense. There were two characters, a dying soldier and the guy who finds him, and it was set in a hole that the audience stood around. I happened to be facing the dying soldier, and I swear we made eye contact during the show several times. Which was weird, since he was dying really convincingly. Amanda's show was called Writer's Block, and was the perfect counterbalance to death. It was hilarious, and I even called the musical number the director added! Hah.

Later that night, after the shows, Amanda, Jen and I started booking things for our EuroTrip in April! So far we have train tickets to Paris, and our hostel there. So exciting! :) I can't wait!

On Sunday, I actually did drag myself out of bed to go to the museum. It was the last day of the exhibit, and tickets went on sale at 9 am, so I didn't really have a choice but to get there early. I actually got there closer to 10 ('cause the Central Line was closed. Freaking tube!), but I got a ticket for 11:30. My professor had said when she'd gone to get a ticket, they were already sold out for the day, which begs the question -- what time was she getting there? I know I have mild anxiety about getting to things first, but still.

I wandered around the museum until I could go into the exhibit. Let me tell you, this guy is WEIRD. The concept was cool; he displayed some of his own stuff along with things made in the past -- it was called "The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman." But the artist, Grayson Perry, is a transvestite who makes shrines to his 50-year-old teddy bear. I mean, to each his own, and kudos to him for embracing his true self so fully, but after seeing Alan Measles (the teddy bear) drawn and painted into nearly every piece of his artwork, I had to wonder a little bit. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea. That's not to take away from his talent, though. People in the exhibit were talking about how he's a genius, and I can definitely see how one might think so.



Reading week is, alas, over, so yesterday I had to go to class and got to experience the stress of handing in my first assignments. Class was at 1, but I actually got up in a timely fashion to do laundry and get everything printed. I'm truly, truly confused as to why assignments have to be handed in to the department offices rather than the professors that assign them. The British school system is bizarre.

My reward was going to see Wicked, though. :) We'd bought tickets ages ago, and I'd almost forgotten it was yesterday. It was really good! Our seats were in the last row, but they still weren't bad. I'd seen Wicked when I was younger, and the only thing I remembered about it was that my expectations for it were so high that it disappointed me. This time around, I was really impressed by the performance, but got the same feeling of, "Okay, this did not change my life." I think it's because I love The Wizard of Oz so much as it is that anything else feels lesser. I mean, it all happened in Dorothy's mind, so the entire premise of Wicked is an alternate universe. It just feels like fanfiction. Really well written fanfiction, but I just can't make myself believe it. Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, though! And we stage doored after it, because Celeste is a Wicked fangirl.

Now it's Tuesday, and the first one in a while in which I have nowhere to be... but I do have a paper to finish. Le sigh. It's due tomorrow, so I really need to stop procrastinating and edit it already. I'd much rather watch the new episode of Castle again, but hey. Wish me luck remembering to stick "U"s where they don't really belong!

...My last Olympics shift is on Thursday. I'm depressed in advance.

OH! I almost forgot! I applied for a volunteer job with the International Quidditch Association, and I got it! I'm the new assistant to the PR coordinator for the London Olympics Quidditch match! More info as it comes. :)

#ThingsStudyAbroadStudentsSay

I really need to get a hang of this blogging-regularly thing. More than a week is definitely too long to go between posts, but I have no idea what an appropriate interval is. Because I do want to write with some detail, but when does detail become tedious? Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as a boring day in London. Unless, of course, you think sleeping late, going grocery shopping, going to class, doing laundry, etc. is exciting. In which case I really have to wonder about your priorities. I find it pretty unnecessary to blog about these days.

These are the things I think about, people.

Okay, so last Thursday, Jen and I attempted to go to the J. Edgar premiere, but it was a complete bust. It was being advertised as the premiere, but I think it was actually just a screening: no red carpet, no barriers for the crowd, no security, no nothing. No stars, either. It was pretty lame. We did see some British celebrities that were just randomly staying at the hotel, though – a band called JLS, and some soap opera star. Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

The next day we woke up super early to get into central London and rush tickets for Hamlet. The box office opened at 9:30 and we got there about a half hour before… and they ran out of tickets before we could get them. So we went to a bunch of other theaters (hey, when you pay for an all-day unlimited tube pass, you use it!) and still came up empty. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city and got to see the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park.







We went back to campus in the late afternoon with the intent of going back out to see if there were any returns at Hamlet, but we all kind of crashed instead. Well, Jen and Lorraine went out again to hang out with one of Jen’s friends at UCL, but once I sat on my bed there was no way I was getting up again! Most of the weekend was spent recovering/doing the boring things it’s not really necessary to talk about. ;)

On Monday my one class, Architecture in London from 1837-Present, had our first site visit. As a class we met up at Big Ben tower and had a lecture on the street as we stopped to look at Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the British foreign offices. I basically took that class as an excuse to get out and see the city, so it’s really cool that that’s actually what we’re doing! When we were finished, a guy from my class named Henry and I walked around a little more to be touristy.





Since the tube is pretty expensive, I decided to lump my excursions for the week into that one day and do my assignment for another class – Text, Art, and Performance in London. We had to download an audio tour online and then go do it. It would’ve been really cool, but it had some things seriously working against it.

1. It was made ten years ago. So when she says, “walk in the direction of the orange restaurant with the red stripe,” there was no restaurant anywhere in site. Basically, I got lost. Really lost. In an area of the city I’d never been to before. And I was alone. Luckily I had a map with me!

2. On top of the anxiety of having no idea where I was or where this lady was taking me, she was talking creepily into my ear about a murder and telling me to turn into various alleys. I’m sorry, but that goes against everything I’ve ever learned.

3. I’m sure the story would’ve been interesting, but instead of paying attention to it I had to try to time my footsteps with hers, listen for directions, worry about whether not I was going in the right direction… Basically, I had no idea what was going on in the story. I was just trying not to lose myself in Whitechapel, thanks.

So THAT was an experience.

But later that night Amanda, Celeste and I made four-ingredient peanut butter Nutella cookies. And they were freaking delicious!



On Tuesday, I did various errand-y things (and wasted all the print credit the school gave me because everything here is ridiculously convoluted) in the early afternoon. Celeste doesn’t have class on Tuesdays either, so the two of us explored the East End a bit and went to the Museum of Childhood. It’s basically exhibits of toys throughout history, and we were there for like two hours just ogling everything.

That night was Refreshers Fair, which is the QM equivalent of CanesFest. All the clubs and societies had info tables set up in a room that got miserably crowded. I put myself on the list for student media. I’m not sure if I’ll want to write much, or if I’ll have time to later on, but we’ll see.

The fact that I only have to wake up early for class twice a week makes it really difficult to go to sleep before 2 am, which makes my 9 am class on Wednesday a huge problem and Wednesday itself a day of sleep. To make matters worse, it was foggy and drizzly and dark – quintessential London weather! So I napped for like two hours during the afternoon. Blackout curtains are pretty magical, did you know that?

That night, I hung out in Amanda’s room with her, Jen, and Lorraine. We watched videos on YouTube and… played Neopets. Well, I didn’t. I can’t even remember the last time I played, and haven’t the slightest idea what my login info would be. So I sat there and marveled at the fact that Neopets is still a thing!

But later that night (or, well, the next morning), the fire alarm in Feilden went off at 3:15 am. There’s nothing like standing outside in the drizzle in the wee hours of the morning to facilitate some flatmate bonding time, right? They call roll during fire alarms here. It’s bizarre. I can’t even imagine them trying that at Miami! But no, here they call your flat and each room as to declare him or herself. After 45 minutes of this nonsense, I was very glad to get back to bed. I didn’t sleep well after that, though. Waking up for my 10 am class on Thursday was brutal.

Thursday is my “long” day, with four hours of class. I have a nice little hour break for lunch, though. That night we all got together to cook dinner – stuffed peppers this time. Nommmmmmm. Seriously, it was delicious.

Friday was another crazy day spent in central London. We woke up even earlier to try and get Hamlet tickets – we left campus at 7 am – and failed again. Not cool. But again, we paid for all day unlimited tube tickets, so we took serious advantage of them. We went to Oxford Street (aka SHOPPING!) first so Lorraine could return a coat she’d bought the week before, and then walked to the British Museum. I actually have a few memories of when I was there in 2004, but this time the Olympic medals for this summer were there, so I’m imagining this time was far superior. Ya know. Just by default.



From there, we walked to the Tate Modern (which included crossing the Millennium Bridge!) for tea. Holy delicious, Batman! There is nothing quite like a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. <3



Ughhh. Want.

We sat and ate and recuperated for a while, and then took some beautiful pictures of St. Paul’s Cathedral all lit up. Our first stop from there was Platform 9 ¾, of Harry Potter fame. We did all the typical touristy pictures, and then Amanda and I reenacted some scenes because we’re just awesome like that.


Dobby may have sealed the barrier, but we can take the flying car to Hogwarts instead!!!11!1!!1

From there, we headed back to Oxford Street and did a little bit of shopping. We hit up Primark, where everything is cheap – I got an awesome scarf for £1. But that took forever because it was so crowded, and by now it was getting late and we were slowly but surely crashing. So we decided to forgo a stop at Big Ben, and just headed back to campus.

I slept obnoxiously late on Saturday, and all I did was go grocery shopping. That kind of day is just necessary sometimes! We hung out in Liz and Celeste’s flat at night, which involved drinking and Chat Roulette and living up to the “obnoxious Americans” stereotype. I can happily say that I was just a spectator in both aspects (I think I might be British at heart), and that it was too hilarious for words.

Sunday and today have been pretty slow as well. There was an unfortunate laundry fiasco yesterday, and I Skyped with my grandparents and my parents, and some trip planning was done at night. And today I just had class (actual class this week, unfortunately) and grocery shopping. Fascinating day, right? :P

But tomorrow is Castle Tuesday (WOO!) and I’m going to the Woman in Black premiere (WOO!), and on Wednesday I have an interview to be a volunteer with the casting department for the Olympic ceremonies (WOO!). Good, good things!

Have I mentioned that London is awesome?