I love....

Meeting new people. Love it, love it, love it. My favorite thing is learning how they make fun of Americans. We're continually squealing "Oh my God!" using the word "like" incredibly too often, and according to New Zealanders (aka, Kiwis), we don't know how to use the word "wicked".

I was at a pub last night that was playing the Italy v. Ireland football (soccer) game. Those Irish fans are craaaazy!! It was so packed, you could hardly get in the door. I was actually a little nervous to cross the room to get to the bar because that would mean I would have had to go between the fans and the TV. Luckily, I made sure there wasn't anything to great happening with the game and I scooted through as fast as I could. Once safely on the other side of the TV, I met said Kiwis. They're pretty wicked. <-- Yeah, that's how you use it. It's not "wicked good", "wicked cool", "wicked whatever". It's just "wicked", and yeah, that's pretty wicked.

Yesterday I went on a Beatles tour around London-- another fantastic experience. Most of the video from Hard Days Night was shot in Marylebone Station, right down the road. We saw Westminster Council House, where two of them were married, the Abbey Road crosswalk, Abbey Studios, what used to be the Apple Offices and is now Reed's Unemployment... But the best part: I TOUCHED JOHN LENNON'S DOORKNOB!

Scroll alllllllllllllll the way down the page and check out the rest of my pics!

The door to the flat at 34 Montague Square that John Lennon shared with Yoko Ono in 1968. "Eleonor Rigby" was written in the basement :-)

Me crossing Abbey Road!

TONS of new photos

I've been busy uploading more pictures. I think there are three new albums up: "You won't live here again until you're a millionaire", "The Monument" and "Hampton Court". To get to them, scroll allllllllllllll the way down to the very, very bottom of the page, and click on where it says "Check out my London Albums!!" or something like that.
Today was a beautiful, beautiful day and I took advantage of it by doing very obnoxious touristy things. I went with my friend Kendra and climbed the Monument. It was built in 1671 to 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire, which burned most of the City. Fun fact: Everything fell into the river, so at low tide you can walk on the river banks and pick up tons of stuff-- including big bones of even bigger dead things. Anyway, the Monument is 202 feet high, which is exactly the length of the site of the Monument and where it started, on Pudding Lane. It was 311 steps up the spiral staircase, and man, were my calves burning!!
Last night I saw Billy Elliot at Victoria Palace Theatre. It was AMAZING. The seats were awfully small, and I'm luck I'm not any taller, but the dancing was beautiful and the music was great. Seeing live theatre is so much better than seeing movies all the time. We have to get a theatre company in the 'dale. It's probably one of my favorite things about being here. On Tuesday I'm seeing Mother Courage, which stars Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter movies.
I'm bummed that this weekend is UNH homecoming-- the fourth year in a row that I've missed. Oh well, I guess it's another excuse to be a super senior!

I remembered something important. I learned it at the Ain't Nothin' But (blues bar) last sunday. It goes a little something like this:

Everyone hates the US because of The World Series. The US is the ONLY COUNTRY that plays baseball, thus the rest of the world has nothing to do with it. So what gives the US the right to call it the world series?

Yeah, that's right. I've cracked it. Get rid of baseball and I won't feel the need to tell people that I'm from Canada when they ask where I'm from.

One of my friends overheard a Swede saying to her friend "I don't eat in the refectory. That's peasant food!" Yup, that's what I eat every day, so thanks EBS snobs. A friend told me last week that I'm jaded, which may be true. But I was also supposed to go out with said friend last night, but he bailed with some crappy, albeit legitimate excuse, so maybe he's the jaded one.

I haven't posted in a while. I haven't felt like it. I've been lazy.

I went to the theatre last week and saw "The Fastest Clock in the Universe". It was so good, but so, so bad. Imagine the screwiest, sickest, most perverted thing you've ever witnessed. Add an obsession with birds, the fear of growing up, animals skinned alive for fur coats, forced miscarriages, and the knowledge that we can all be who we want to be behind our masks, and there you have it: Two hours of my life last Monday night. The only thing I can say is "wow."

The weather here has been great-- we've been lucky. I think it's very odd in London to have a whole month of beautiful, sunny weather, aside from a few select days where it's been a little chilly.

Mmm.... I guess that's all I feel like

Cultural Collisions

Good evening, or if you're in the US, good afternoon :-)

London is a super posh city, if I haven't said that before. Last night I was walking with some girls to the tube station and we started talking about the differences between Americans and the British. They actually like, get dressed up to go everywhere. It makes me wonder what they wear when they're hanging around their flats on a rainy Saturday. Anyway, in an effort to fit in and not appear so "American" we've all subconsciously, I think, been trying to dress and act a bit more "British", which is actually beginning to feel a little embarrassing!

One of the girls I was with last night had put on a very classy dress and heels. She looked lovely, but still said she felt like all Brits could just look at her and know right away that she was an American. We physically look the same, so it can't be so obvious, but I have the same feeling every day. Ironically, I feel less obvious when I'm wearing my typical jeans a flip-flops, which is trademark American gear.

Today I was hanging out with a different group of UNH kids and one of the guys was saying that it must be so much easier being an American woman in England than being an American man. British men apparently love us ladies-- someone actually told me that our accent is beautiful. Ugh, I think it's gross, especially if you're from the southern east coast.

Last night a small group of us stopped at McDonalds for some late night munchies on our way home from a pub. A mixed group-- two guys, myself, and another girl. We got our food and sat down. We hadn't been there long when a friendly, chatty young British guy came over to chat with us. We were sitting down, having a good conversation about why were in London and such, and then some other, much older guys came over, who had been with the young guy that had been chatting with us. Somehow something was mentioned about good ol' G.W., the phrase "fucking Americans" was dropped by one of the men. Kelly, who was a little drunk, very happily wanted to know why they were putting "fucking" in front of "Americans"... Next thing I know one of the friends I was with grabs me and tells me to get up and leave with Kelly and wait for them outside. I don't really know what happened, except that they clearly didn't like us.

Thinking about it now, and taking into consideration what was said today about being an American guy in England, I don't think there would have been any sort of problem if it had just been a group of American girls last night. It seems like American men are pretty much a target for someone to pick a fight with, because of course, American women have such beautiful accents...

New York is the Big Apple-- London is the Big Orchard

Tonight we went to The River Thames Festival on the banks between Tower Bridge and London Bridge, complete with music, food, vendors, and the most spectacular parade and fireworks display I've ever seen. I would love to say that we stood on Millennium Bridge and watched said fireworks with The London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey in the background, and I would love to describe the reflection of the fireworks in the water and all the noise that would have shook the bridge. Why can't I?

Because we were on the wrong fucking side of the bridge!

Imagine the beautiful scene which I could have just described, turn around, and imagine a rusted railroad bridge, with the fireworks behind it... Yup.

Oh well, we still had a great time. The parade was the most colorful, exciting parade I'd ever seen. It was like mardi gras, but with out all the boobies! I have no words to describe how great it was.

Yesterday about 100 students piled into two buses and took a nearly three hour drive to the city of Bath to see the Roman Bath Houses. You can check out my album on Picassa by clicking here. Once we got out of London, the drive there was beautiful. The first few pictures in the album are just of the country side, out the bus window. I have no idea where we were. There is so much empty green land out here and very few highways. I definitely like the country more than the cities. The city smells like a million different kinds of ass.

We were told that we wont live in Regent's Park again unless we're filthy rich, which is true. Hugh Grant lives somewhere next door... I'd like to stake it out. Anyway, the park is so fantastic because even though it's right in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world, it's no where near the city. People jog, walk their fluffy little dogs, read, have picnics, feed the birds... I love to sit by the lake and watch all the birds.

Sometime within the next couple days I'll put up some more pictures of the park.

BBQ turned Soiree!

I'm beginning to get a little less cranky about the food... It's still pretty bad though! I do however looooooove salmon and cream cheese sandwiches!!! Mmm'mm!

It's been pretty exciting around here. A bunch of us went out to The Sports Cafe in Picadilly last night. For 2 pound pints, we'll go anywhere! Londoners love their techno, and I'm beginning to appreciate it simply for decent (okay, good) dance music.

It's very posh here. None of the European students would wear blue jeans, a plain white T and flip flops to class, which is what I'm wearing now. Lots of tights, heels, big belts, high waisted skirts, loafers, sweater vests, and suit jackets. So yes, I feel a little out of place, but not horribly. The funny thing is that only Americans wear flip-flops, so you pretty much can always tell the American students from the European students.

There was a student "barbeque" the other day on the front lawn. Barbeque certainly wasn't the word for it. It was more like an outdoor soirée! American barbeques have burgers, beer, cole slaw... Yeah, this barbeque had all of that---including more. There was a big white tent with a gossamer ceiling, CHANDELIERS (!!!), wine, beautiful white picnic tables, astro turf on the inside of the tent. It was like a wedding, or the kind of wedding I would have, at least. Oh yeah, and the catering staff served us our food. Yes, much more classy than an American barbeque. ...I wonder if they know what a pig roast is...

I'm in the process of planning some trips with a few friends. This weekend there is a school trip to the Roman bath houses in Bath. Next weekend we're taking the bus to Liverpool to see The Beatles Museum, and what ever else we might happen to stumble across. It's about a five hour bus ride, but it's like, 5 pounds. If it's cheap, I'll do it. In a few weeks there is a school weekend pony trekking trip in Wales, so out in the country side. I'm super excited for that :-D Some people are talking about going to Greece for our semester break in October. I think I might like to go to Vienna to see the Spanish Riding School, so I may do that instead... You can also travel to Ireland fairly cheaply, so we'll see...