Let me describe today's weather in Glasgow, Scotland:
Imagine waking up to a flat gray sky that looks rather like God has spread a bleak depressing tablecloth over the world. It is cold, very very cold, as though this tablecloth is insulated and keeping all the Sun's heat out. Now add some rain to this, cold rain, at times misty, at times heavy pellets. Finally, an extreme wind, the umbrella-breaking, phone booth-shaking kind.
Is it hard to see why I barely went outside today?
I'm not all that keen on Glasgow, where we arrived Tuesday, from Paris. There doesn't seem to be that much to do, but I'm sure things would be a lot more lively if anyone could motivate themselves to go outdoors. An abundance of good cheap food though. We are staying in a hostel that's really just a hotel where you have to make your own bed. But hey, there's free internet!
I know there are huge gaps in this blog, but I promise to fill it in as much as possible when I get home. For now, just know that I'm alive and still enjoying myself, but also am anticipating being somewhere warmer and more like home. I fly out of London Sunday morning and arrive in Atlanta Sunday afternoon sometime. It's a 9.5 hour flight, oh goody! I'll have to buy another book to make it through.
Tomorrow we go back to London, collect our luggage stored there, and Saturday we run around trying to do all the things we didn't get around to during the six weeks we were there before. I can't believe it's coming to an end. In a way it feels like I've been here forever, and in a way it feels like it's been only a few days.
Well, I should go try to put this suitcase together again. I'm amazed it's survived, with all the stairs I've been dragging it up and down, literally, because it's usually too heavy for me to carry comfortably. Hope everyone had a good Turkey day last week (Chandler and I had a 4-course French meal in Paris), and I will see you all again very soon now!!!!!!!!!!!
Countdown: 2 days. Wow.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Bonjour a tout!
This message will be very short because the keyboard here is different and is quickly driving me mad. At any rate, Chandler and I are currently alive and in Nice, which is in the South of France, right on the Mediterranean, and naturally it is gorgeous. We have already been to Paris, where it rained a lot, and we will soon be leaving here for a one night stand in Paris before heading to Glasgow for the rest of free travel. Get excited, only one more week till you all get to see me again!!!
And now I am leaving before I throw this keyboard into the wall.
And now I am leaving before I throw this keyboard into the wall.
Monday, November 06, 2006
I am currently sitting on my bed in my room at the Nasty. Though I cannot get internet in my room, I will go downstairs and post this at some point later tonight.
Roommate Colleen is sick and was sleeping until a few minutes ago when a knock on the door awoke her. She has now disappeared from the room, but I expect her to return relatively soon and crawl back into bed.
I have acquired an official 6-cup teapot from Whittard. This is highly exciting because it means I do not have to brew one cup of tea at a time. Indeed, I can make 6, yes, 6 cups of tea at a time and just keep pouring. This teapot is especially nice because it has a built-in strainer for loose tea and because it is extremely cute, with a handpainted little London scene on it. I am very excited about the acquisition of the teapot, though I have yet to determine how it is going to get back to South Carolina. I intend to return to Whittard and buy a few varieties of their delicious smelling loose-leaf teas, including flavors like Chocolate Chai. Yay for fun teas.
Today I made reservations for the hotel in Paris, where we will theoretically be staying for part of free travel. I say theoretically because between the attendant’s bad English and my bad French I am not entirely certain that I did in fact reserve a room for two people for the appropriate dates. I suppose I will find out when we get there. He was also having some difficulties with my name, apparently thinking my first name is something to the pronounced effect of “Dett” (I was trying to get “Pitts” through to him, but I don’t think he knew the English alphabet so well), so I eventually had to resort to spelling my name for him in French. Thank goodness for the teachers who felt the need to drill the alphabet into me in every single French class I took (i.e. “Welcome to French 3. We will begin the term by learning the alphabet…”).
Other interesting events of the week…
Thursday night we went to see Phantom of the Opera at its original theatre, where it has been playing for 20 years now. It was a marvelous production. The actor playing the Phantom was particularly impressive—honestly I would say his performance was flawless. I was glad to see that the casting directors did not seem to favor acting over singing, or vice versa, as nearly all the cast seemed equally skilled in both.
Thursday the day was very very long indeed. We had, I don’t know, 3.5 hours of class in the morning, then we had a 3 hour long scavenger hunt in the afternoon, during which we had to traipse around London on foot searching for obscure semi-historical sites, like the portrait of one of Dr. Leavell’s ancestors hanging in the Somerset House. Of course, it is now officially Freaking Cold in London, so by the end of this little quest I could no longer feel either my legs or my feet, hooray. Despite all this, my team won the “London History Quest,” as the professors termed it, and as a reward for our sort-of committed efforts we received a certificate (one for each of us) and a chocolate bar (one bar to divide up amongst the members of the group). Out of concern for my personal safety, I declined to take a piece of the chocolate and instead gorged myself on the all-American Dove chocolates I had stashed in my purse.
Friday I spent the day singing Phantom songs over and over in my head.
An ambulance siren just went by. I’m sure it wasn’t the first since I started typing this, but bizarrely I have gotten accustomed to the sirens, though not the general London racket that fills the air night and day.
On Saturday I had a delightful two-pound (the currency, not the weight) traditional English breakfast at a pub 2 tube stops away. It was soooo good. I haven’t had a real full breakfast since Stratford, so it was very exciting.
Sunday evening we had a designated Girls Night, planned and hosted by two of the girls on the trip, and attended by about 12 of us. We had hors d’oeuvres in the girls’ rooms, then watched the Guy Fawkes Day fireworks from the roof of the hotel, and went out to eat Italian food. It was delightful, and I was completely exhausted by the end of the evening. I collapsed on my bed, fully intending to stay awake long enough to call home, but I apparently failed because several hours later I awoke with my glasses still on and a book imprint in my back. I think I just rolled over and went back to sleep. However, when I woke up around 5:15 am for No Apparent Reason, I found myself bizarrely wide awake and was unable to go back to sleep for a full two hours. Not fun at all. I had intended to be very productive today and go museum-hopping and such, but I ended up sleeping later due to the lack of sleep during the night and just went shopping with Hayley and Chandler, who bled all over the H&M store because she cut her finger and didn’t have any tissue and there were no toilets to be found. It was charming I tell you. She finally used my receipt to stanch it. I hope I don’t decide to return anything.
Roommate Colleen returned, put on a sweatshirt, then left again. She seemed to be in a sleep-induced stupor. Because we (and by "we" I mean "I") keep losing our ("my") room keys, we now have a large collection of useless key cards in our room and we have to check to make sure we have a functioning keycard before we leave. I think I shall eat a banana then go downstairs to post this bit of nonsense. Current countdown status: 27 days (less than 4 weeks, wow!)
Cheers from the Girl who is Really Starting to Miss Home.
Roommate Colleen is sick and was sleeping until a few minutes ago when a knock on the door awoke her. She has now disappeared from the room, but I expect her to return relatively soon and crawl back into bed.
I have acquired an official 6-cup teapot from Whittard. This is highly exciting because it means I do not have to brew one cup of tea at a time. Indeed, I can make 6, yes, 6 cups of tea at a time and just keep pouring. This teapot is especially nice because it has a built-in strainer for loose tea and because it is extremely cute, with a handpainted little London scene on it. I am very excited about the acquisition of the teapot, though I have yet to determine how it is going to get back to South Carolina. I intend to return to Whittard and buy a few varieties of their delicious smelling loose-leaf teas, including flavors like Chocolate Chai. Yay for fun teas.
Today I made reservations for the hotel in Paris, where we will theoretically be staying for part of free travel. I say theoretically because between the attendant’s bad English and my bad French I am not entirely certain that I did in fact reserve a room for two people for the appropriate dates. I suppose I will find out when we get there. He was also having some difficulties with my name, apparently thinking my first name is something to the pronounced effect of “Dett” (I was trying to get “Pitts” through to him, but I don’t think he knew the English alphabet so well), so I eventually had to resort to spelling my name for him in French. Thank goodness for the teachers who felt the need to drill the alphabet into me in every single French class I took (i.e. “Welcome to French 3. We will begin the term by learning the alphabet…”).
Other interesting events of the week…
Thursday night we went to see Phantom of the Opera at its original theatre, where it has been playing for 20 years now. It was a marvelous production. The actor playing the Phantom was particularly impressive—honestly I would say his performance was flawless. I was glad to see that the casting directors did not seem to favor acting over singing, or vice versa, as nearly all the cast seemed equally skilled in both.
Thursday the day was very very long indeed. We had, I don’t know, 3.5 hours of class in the morning, then we had a 3 hour long scavenger hunt in the afternoon, during which we had to traipse around London on foot searching for obscure semi-historical sites, like the portrait of one of Dr. Leavell’s ancestors hanging in the Somerset House. Of course, it is now officially Freaking Cold in London, so by the end of this little quest I could no longer feel either my legs or my feet, hooray. Despite all this, my team won the “London History Quest,” as the professors termed it, and as a reward for our sort-of committed efforts we received a certificate (one for each of us) and a chocolate bar (one bar to divide up amongst the members of the group). Out of concern for my personal safety, I declined to take a piece of the chocolate and instead gorged myself on the all-American Dove chocolates I had stashed in my purse.
Friday I spent the day singing Phantom songs over and over in my head.
An ambulance siren just went by. I’m sure it wasn’t the first since I started typing this, but bizarrely I have gotten accustomed to the sirens, though not the general London racket that fills the air night and day.
On Saturday I had a delightful two-pound (the currency, not the weight) traditional English breakfast at a pub 2 tube stops away. It was soooo good. I haven’t had a real full breakfast since Stratford, so it was very exciting.
Sunday evening we had a designated Girls Night, planned and hosted by two of the girls on the trip, and attended by about 12 of us. We had hors d’oeuvres in the girls’ rooms, then watched the Guy Fawkes Day fireworks from the roof of the hotel, and went out to eat Italian food. It was delightful, and I was completely exhausted by the end of the evening. I collapsed on my bed, fully intending to stay awake long enough to call home, but I apparently failed because several hours later I awoke with my glasses still on and a book imprint in my back. I think I just rolled over and went back to sleep. However, when I woke up around 5:15 am for No Apparent Reason, I found myself bizarrely wide awake and was unable to go back to sleep for a full two hours. Not fun at all. I had intended to be very productive today and go museum-hopping and such, but I ended up sleeping later due to the lack of sleep during the night and just went shopping with Hayley and Chandler, who bled all over the H&M store because she cut her finger and didn’t have any tissue and there were no toilets to be found. It was charming I tell you. She finally used my receipt to stanch it. I hope I don’t decide to return anything.
Roommate Colleen returned, put on a sweatshirt, then left again. She seemed to be in a sleep-induced stupor. Because we (and by "we" I mean "I") keep losing our ("my") room keys, we now have a large collection of useless key cards in our room and we have to check to make sure we have a functioning keycard before we leave. I think I shall eat a banana then go downstairs to post this bit of nonsense. Current countdown status: 27 days (less than 4 weeks, wow!)
Cheers from the Girl who is Really Starting to Miss Home.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Timmy my love!
What you really need to know in this post is that Monday night I went to see Spamalot (sooo clever!), with Tim Curry starring as King Arthur. And then after the show I went to the stage door to stalk the actors, and this is what happened:
This is the conversation I had with Tim Curry (post-picture, while he was signing my programme):
Me: Great show!
Tim Curry: Thanks.
Me: I feel the need to tell you that Clue is my favorite movie ever.
Tim Curry: That's alright, it's one of mine too.
This may be among the coolest things that has ever happened to me that I actually have proof of.
Among other things going on...
Monday I also had my picture day, so I have a few more pics to post other than the ME AND TIM CURRY one. (Note added later: actually I seem to be having difficulty uploading pictures, thus I will send out an email with pictures. If you don't get the email and would like to, then email me and I will put you on the list.) Tuesday we had class and a silly walking tour to a train station. Yes, a train station. A walk... to a train station. I can't describe how exciting it was. Today we had class and a tour of Highgate Cemetary, which was fairly cool. Lots of really old graves. Some newer ones. My favorite of the new ones was a husband/wife joint tomb. On the husband's side it said "Loved by all." On the wife's side it said "Loved by many." I laughed out loud, which was somewhat innapropriate at the time. Hopefully I will be able to post some of the Highgate pictures, if any of them came out right, later this week.
Up for tomorrow: a mystery scavenger hunt created by the professors (sounds promising, doesn't it?) and then Phantom of the Opera!!!!!!!!!!
Please email me any interesting news! I'm getting a little desperate for news from home!
This is the conversation I had with Tim Curry (post-picture, while he was signing my programme):
Me: Great show!
Tim Curry: Thanks.
Me: I feel the need to tell you that Clue is my favorite movie ever.
Tim Curry: That's alright, it's one of mine too.
This may be among the coolest things that has ever happened to me that I actually have proof of.
Among other things going on...
Monday I also had my picture day, so I have a few more pics to post other than the ME AND TIM CURRY one. (Note added later: actually I seem to be having difficulty uploading pictures, thus I will send out an email with pictures. If you don't get the email and would like to, then email me and I will put you on the list.) Tuesday we had class and a silly walking tour to a train station. Yes, a train station. A walk... to a train station. I can't describe how exciting it was. Today we had class and a tour of Highgate Cemetary, which was fairly cool. Lots of really old graves. Some newer ones. My favorite of the new ones was a husband/wife joint tomb. On the husband's side it said "Loved by all." On the wife's side it said "Loved by many." I laughed out loud, which was somewhat innapropriate at the time. Hopefully I will be able to post some of the Highgate pictures, if any of them came out right, later this week.
Up for tomorrow: a mystery scavenger hunt created by the professors (sounds promising, doesn't it?) and then Phantom of the Opera!!!!!!!!!!
Please email me any interesting news! I'm getting a little desperate for news from home!
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