Tuesday, January 27, 2009

random late night facts and musings

there's a buzzing coming from one of the rooms i'm in between that's been driving me nuts for days. i don't know what it is, where it's coming from, or how i can stop it.

however, all the new music i've recently acquired has helped me through this. and then i try and get myself out of my residence room for a good amount of time, that works too.

but falling asleep has been hard. staying asleep has been hard. waking up has been hard. sleeping is just generally not a fun task anymore. i haven't had a pleasant dream since i've been here, lately i keep waking up, and also the last few days ive been woken up by very, VERY loud drilling on the street outside my window.

my floor kitchen gets grosser by the day. the one thing that was clean, the microwave, was product of some explosion by this morning. i don't know but it's a little appetite-stealing. guhh.

today, i met up with an old acquaintance, Martha, from toronto who used to be my journalistic mentor-ish who's now doing grad school here, ate a huge lunch at wagamama and drooled thinking about it all day, wrote in Round Letters, wrote some emails to publications back in Toronto with hopes of getting a summer internship, then met up with a friend, Alex, from Ryerson who was only in London for the day before he flew off to his exchange in Denmark. Carmen and I went to meet him and took him to a pub near Leicester Square. Then Hilde, Suzan, and Soren met up with us and we went to celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown at some restaurant I completely forgot to get the name of. Then Alex left. Then after dinner, the five of us wandered Chinatown in search of fortune cookies. Then Soren left. Then the four of us wandered Leicester Square until we got to Piccadilly Circus and then as Hilde really (hehe) wanted cheesecake, we trekked back to Angel, walked fooorever (I'm lazy) down Upper Street to another restaurant I forget the name of and stayed there for quite some time especially after giggling for at least a half an hour after all the new ways Hilde discovered to say "I'd tap that."

I've been feeling kind of homesick the last couple days. I don't miss some significant things, but it's just the aura of it. I miss my routine. My room. My house. Concerts. Ryan. You know. I wonder what it will be like when I get back...

That said, I'm back to fretting about my journalism future.

Oh. The crew and I are planning a trip to Barcelona for a weekend at the end of February I believe. I hope this works out! I never thought I'd want to go there, but right now I really do. Jetsetting here is way cheap, and we might as well take advantage of it! Trips still to come: Manchester, Oxford/Brighton/Liverpool? Hmmm. Then Edinburgh, Karlstad, and wherever Francesca lives in Italy and wherever Malte lives in Germany. I. Am. Excited.

15 days until Ryan's here!

i can't wait until its warm out so i can find places to walk to in this city, sit down, and read a book. or people watch. although, everyone here has a scowl on their face. especially at Sainsbury's.

oh last ps -- more photos up here.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

will you let me romanticize the beauty in our London skies?

Jamie Cullum's song "London Skies" has been in my head for days.

Paint a picture,
Clear cut and pale on a cold winter's day,
Shapes and cool light wander the streets like an army of strays,
On a cold winters day.

Chorus:
Will you let me romanticize,
The beauty in our London Skies?
You know the sunlight always shines,
Behind the clouds of London Skies.

Patient moments chill to the bone under infinite greys,
Vision hindered mist settling low like a ghostly ballet,
On a cold winter's day.

Chorus


Bridge:
Nothing is certain except everything you know can change,
you worship the sun but now,
can you fall for the rain...

Chorus


It's beautiful. Below, listen to a clip. Otherwise, you can download the song here.




In the past few days, a lot has changed.


Carmen and I spent days stressing over our journalistic futures, and it's exhausting. We decided that since we're in London, only taking four classes (and I only have two days of classes a week, HA), we're going to try and be more zen. We're learning how to relax in this new city, all the while plotting our plan of attack on the future. And it's turning out to be a really healthy decision. I feel so happy right now, and content (minus the fact that I'm missing people so much.)

And further helping the zen are our new journalism exchange student friends Hilde and Suzan from Holland and Soren from Denmark. The five of us together are hilarious, we never stop laughing. And it's not like we aren't just fooling around. I love when we get onto topics of journalism and such that we can really dig into.


Anyways, we've been out the past two nights on the town: the Angel neighborhood and Camden Town that is. We've been finding lounges and restaurants. One of the ones we found in Angel the other night has DJ nights every Thursday with 70s, 80s, and 90s music, so you'll be sure we're hitting that up tomorrow to check it out.

I had my first class -- International News -- on the Inauguration Day of Obama. We didn't actually talk about Obama, apparently the professor is saving that for next week. Instead we talked about war and journalism and the risks journalists take to cover it. It was pretty interesting, and I think the rest of this class for the semester will be helpful. And then for Obama, the crew and I went to the schools' student union to watch the ceremony. It was fun, but I kind of wish I was in the States for it.

I have three other classes coming up by next week: Features, Print Production, and Web Creation & Design. The latter of which I already have to get started on as I'm a semester behind the rest. They're all doing podcasting now. This is great because I've been thinking about getting into podcasting myself, so now I'll be able to learn how to do it. Yay!

Today, Carmen and I are doing laundry and taking it easy. I've already spent most of my day reading the Watchmen and listening to all this new music I discovered. You can read about these musical studies on Round Letters.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

updates

Two things:

Soon, you'll be able to check out more London updates on my other blog, Round Letters.

And for more London videos that I've taken, go here.

a beautiful day

Yesterday, Mom and I took a bus tour from London to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Before we went, I was a bit skeptical of the tours, and I didn't think Stonehenge was more than a bunch of rocks, and I didn't know what we would do in a castle and the Roman bath houses.

But it turns out, it was a great day. Albeit long and for every minute I was on the bus and then some after, I was nauseous.

So, we went to Windsor Castle first. This is where the Queen stays most of the time, but she wasn't there when we went. It was created by ... a King. I don't remember his name. In order to keep the Romans out? Geez, I guess I was listening to Arcade Fire and not the tour guide Godfried more than I thought.

Anyways, we walked around a bit with the group, checked out Queen Mary's doll collection and old documents of the Royal Family, and then checked out the changing of the guard. Which was awesome! And hilarious (especially at the part when towards the end guards came out of nowhere running out of step into the Guard Room in the back hahah).

Here's a video of the beginning of the service (which was about a half an hour or so):



Then we got back on the bus to get to Stonehenge. It took about an hour or so, and then we got to the Stonehenge Inn for lunch. I had my first ever chicken pot pie with gravy. It was good!

Then a few minutes later, we were at Stonehenge. It was beautiful from the bus as the sun was just over it. Who knew? I never thought I would like looking at a bunch of rocks, but it's the way the sun hits them that matters. And the plains, oh the plains. They roll forever. However... some mounds are actually burial grounds from the people that built the structure 5,000 years ago. A little creepy, no?

It was just so green. And blue. And bright. Yesterday I was really in love with England.



Then we headed over to Bath. I didn't know what to expect, I thought it was a little place that happened to have old Roman remaining bathhouses there. No, it's now a city of 3500 I believe, and it's beaaaautiful. It looks like it's straight out of Italy. It feels like a place of its own, like Horton's Who. Everyone looks special, and they glow. A woman we met today said that all of the bricks there were specially made for that city. The stores glow onto the paths, and over the hills you see distant little lights. The Roman bath water is supposed to have healing power, I think that it mainly has been sponged into this city to make everyone beautiful and glowey.


Too bad that when I had a sip, it made my stomach hurt for a half an hour.

alone in their own worlds

I've noticed that in London hardly anyone has headphones on while they're navigating the underground. And when I do see people that have it on, they're usually men probably in their 20's, 30's.

I did see this one girl get on the tube the other day though, that was all dressed up from work. She was heading home. She got settled into her seat and looked all snugged in. She took out her ipod and then all I could hear was hardcore music coming from her headphones and she had this content little smile on her face and her head was banging really slowly. She didn't fit the part of her music, but she loved it so much.

(In a sidenote of unusuals on the subway, I also saw a fancy dressed up man who, as his legs were crossed, you could see his socks that read "Who's the Caddy?")

Anyways. As almost everyone in Toronto has their headphones on, listening to whatever makes them feel better that day, it makes me wonder.

Are Torontonians more scared to be alone with their own thoughts? Or do Londoners not need the music in their lives?

Maybe they just have shorter trips.

Navigating the Underground

In my life so far (twenty-one years people, even though every person in Britain feels the need to look ridiculously shocked when they find that out) I've learned four subway systems.

Buffalo, Toronto, NYC, London.

Buffalo. To me, this is useless. It's one line that gets you from University at Buffalo's South Campus to the HSBC arena. In other words: The Sabres path. I'm sure it works out for Canisus students, the maybe 100 people that work downtown, or subway fanatics. But it's ridiculously overpriced and doesn't do much difference against just driving to your destination.

Toronto. Now, I've come to appreciate Toronto's TTC for the fact that it gets me from home to school and back. And to all of the places I ever want to get to in Toronto, it gets me there. It's my time to zone out and listen to my music or catch up a bit in a book. However, both trains and stations are dirty, the trains are constantly interrupted, and the system is not very complex. In fact, what branches out the most are the busses and streetcars. But one of my main beefs is that they shut down at 1:30 AM.

NYC. The scariest one yet. I thought I would never be able to handle it, but my pal Vanessa got me through it when we went to the city in October. It's got a ton of connections every other stop you need to take, disgustingly dirty and dark, and you have to walk a ways to get to the one you need, but if you have a map in your hand (and there isn't any ridiculous construction that makes you go in a different way but nobody says anything) it should work out alright. It still feels way sketchy, though, and my last trip in October involved a crazy woman yelling at an imaginary person, and then a real person. And then everyone started yelling.

Now, London. I thought this was never going to let me master it, but surprisingly, it's way easier than I thought. You must, must, must, plan out where you're going ahead of time, and once you're in the station, you're gold. The signs are clear (much unlike NYC) and show all of the stops in big bold letters where you want to go, and even the stations with 4 different lines running through them, it's easy. Now, when you get on the "tube", it's usually small, a bit cramped, but still nice and cozy with their colourful seats. There's screens that tell you what station is next just in case you've got your headphones on, and signs in the tube that show only that line you're on.

So far, London has my favourite underground railroad.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

tourist updates

Hey all, I've got quite a few days of recap for you.

Let's see..

We've done the London Eye, which has probably been my favourite part so far. It's the most amazing view. And it just baffles my mind how it's still fairly new. It was built in 2000 as a present to London! I forget from who. Maybe from London. You never know. Anyways, that's where I've taken some beautiful photos (if I do say so myself) and didn't once stop to lament scarily over the fact that I was so high up.


Oh, before that, we took a few moments for our first glances of the Parliament and Big Ben. So detailed.

Then we hit a bus tour, which spanned Thursday and Friday. We saw all of the famous parts of the city, and it's beautiful. It's hop on, hop off, so we got off at a few places.. first stop was St. Pauls Cathedral. There, we paid to walk around inside and ponder over the statued caskets and higher than high ceiling. Then we climbed the ridiculous stairs up to the second level to the Whispering Wall, where we couldn't hear the whispers because the organ was too loud. Figures.



From there, we got back on the bus and toured around until (the real) Picadilly Circus, where we stopped to use the washroom and find mom a sweater. In fact, whilst buying the sweater, she left her credit card, which we didn't discover until a day later. (The Gap kept it: good luck!)

Then we got back on the bus which showed us where the Princes live, where the bowler hat was invented, The Tower, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and back to Westminster. There we checked out the pretty Parliament and Big Ben at night, and I got a couple great shots there too.


On Friday, we went to the London Bridge and walked from there to the Tower Bridge. Then we went to the Tower, walked around, saw the Crown Jewels. Then we had a nice lunch and got on the boat cruise down the Thames, to get off at Westminster. From there, we went over to Trafalgar Square via the bus tour to book tickets for Paris and Stonehenge tours. Then it was back to Westminster for the Abbey's Evensong.

Saturday was Paris. We had to get up at 3:45 to be at St. Pancras station by 5:30. Mom left her camera in the cab, and they returned it that night (more good luck!) Then the Eurostar was stuck in Kent for an hour because another train got stuck in the chunnel. By the time we got to Paris, it was noon and we had to be back to leave by 5:30. So we hopped on a bus which took us to the Eiffel Tower. You know, all my life I thought it was black? No, it's brown. Or at least really rusty. Actually, all of Paris is dirty and stinky, and I had never heard that before (apparently everyone knew but me, instead I had this Lady and the Tramp view in my head). Anyways, we ate real french nutella crepes (tasted just like Cafe Crepe in Toronto) and got on a boat cruise of the Seine. So many bridges!! And all the buildings look the same, and the same colour. It's kind of strange. Anyways... then we got back, checked out the Tower again, and somehow found our way over to Notre Dame, where we had lunch at Cafe Panis right across the street, looking out the window at the cathedral. It was pretty. There was a french couple sitting next to each other that were so into each other. The waiter didn't seem to like us tourists and made us wait for everything. I had french fries in france and they tasted just like Toronto fries too. Whatever. We got back to Gare du Nord (station) and were delayed on the train again. Also, France is REALLY COLD.


Lets see... then today my mom let me sleep in and relax for the day, which I was very grateful for. Then we grabbed some really tasty Thai food in the neighborhood and saw Bride Wars. haha.

I know this is kind of a flavourless update, but I'm getting tired.

Also, as of the last entry, it's not the posture that makes everyone cooler.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

London Calling

I arrived in London Tuesday evening. Today's Thursday. Since then, I've been staying in a very nice hotel/apartment (or, how you say, 'flat') on City Road, checked out my new neighborhood of Islington via school, residence, and Angel marketplace-square-typething. I've also been on a terrible sleep schedule and I am paying the price.

London is everything they say it is. Grey. Rainy. Fancy. Old.
The people seem to be about 10x cooler than anyone, no offense. They have this air to them. Maybe they have better posture. Mental note: check this out today. Prove thesis.

I've enjoyed watching British television, everything seems 5x more important. (At least on the news. Although, even silly commercials like for KFC don't seem so terrible. I'm sure these people know their accent is convincing. Market! Market! Market!)

My new neighborhood is great, although I've been adviced twice so far to not walk alone at night. Seems easy enough.

Today, mom & I will be riding a boat down the Thames River. She says it's pronounced 't-ems'. We shall see. I bet it sounds more convincing if you say it British. Speaking of which, I find I've been catching myself trying out the accent on the voice in my head. Just be glad it's in.