Friday 27 February 2009


Oh thank goodness, I hear you all sigh with relief, I am UPDATING! I know everyone has just been simply dying to hear about my fabulous weekend in Wales, so never fear, buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight because heeeere we go!!!

After a lovely day back in Londontown to get caught up, attend class, do an essential load of laundry, etc, Jenny and I were off on yet ANOTHER adventure, this time with the everlovely Annie to the everlovely WALES! (although I will say -- gorgggeeeous place, but really I will never, ever live there. Except, of course, when I am seventy and growing old with bestfriend, but by that time I plan to not really know what's going on. I can't WAIT for our future life on a Welsh sheep farm! I also wish I remembered how this idea came up, and why I agreed to it...)

We went with through a tour company so we had other fellow adventurers and a coach and a tour guide, which was lovely as that meant we didn't have to worry about anything except getting our tushies back in our seats. Our fellow adventurers were hysterical, mostly because 98% of the people were American female college students, so we were riiiiiight at home. Unfortunately many of them were from Maryland so I had to hiss and hold up garlic every time they approached me. OH and our tour guide? he was Santa. Down from the North Pole. Seriously, this man looked like Santa, and that is how he is now programmed in my cell phone, and I plan to keep him in there like that. 

Anyway, we rumble on over to Wales, land of the people who do NOT understand what a real language is. Seriously. Ten consonants in a row? HOW DO THEY HANDLE THAT?! I don't even understand how to SPEAK that!! CRAZY! We spent Saturday tooling around at various historical (hahaha, at first I wrote hysterical. they were funny I suppose) sights, including Chepstow Castle, right on the border, and Tintern Abbey. Chepstow was actually pretty cool -- very castley, to the point where I felt that I was in Monty Python and it was the last battle scene. Very historic. But it was a GORGEOUS day and people were picnicking on the grassy fields inside -- it was quite lovely. And they had hysterical mannequin-filled education displays, so we all know I was happy about that. We didn't go into Tintern Abbey, but we did venture to the hill above the town, where an old, burnt down, slightly creepy but really cool church lives! We only had half an hour but it was a really eerie sight, with an old graveyard, ivy growing over the walls (the roof was gone, but the walls still stood), all overlooking the beautiful Welsh countryside. 

After scampering around the countryside (and stopping in Hay-on-Wye, called "Woodstock of the mind" by some because of its literary festival and THIRTY FIVE independent bookstores in a town the size of Western Branch... I was in heaven...) we tuck in to our hotel, BASKERVILLE HALL HOTEL. I don't know my favorite part...
1) We were in a room with eighteen other girls, to the point that it looked EXACTLY like the newsies room and Jenny and I sang newsies to each other and I threatened to wake her up by crawling into her bed and saying, "Dat's my cigah!"
2) The manager? Owner? Guy at the desk? looked EXACTLY like Filch from HP. Jenny and I took a covert picture of him, if you wish to see. fabulous.
3) This hotel was literally in the middle of NOWHERE, nothing around us but sheep
4) We got there at six and there was nothing to do except eat dinner and chat, except...
5) the only nightclub for MILES, basically the only nightclub in Wales, was BEHIND OUR HOTEL, and we had FREE ACCESS
6) so yes, we went to a Welsh nightclub. I don't know how to describe it except absolutely surreal, and a little pathetic how much the Welsh teenagers loved it. Of course they were also VERY weird and a little rude. One gentleman suddenly whips around and says to my friends, "Are you a JEW?! Are you laughing at me?? Well, your mother's a LESBIAN!" and then walks away. V strange.

So we head back to the hotel and snuggle in with eighteen of our closest friends before adventuring over to BREACON BEACON nation park for three hours of horseback riding! There are no words. It was indescribably beautiful, awe-inspiring, a little chilly, but amazing to be on a horse picking out the path up a mountain, trotting through valleys, looking out over the vast countryside, running into sheep, crossing creeks... it was SO MUCH FUN! I forgot how much I love horseback riding.

Needless to say, after that we were completely knackered and napped on the bus for the four-five hours home, stopping only at the Rest Stop of Dreams outside Oxford. This puppy was like American rest stops on crack... I loved it. Plus I got KFC.

So, my friends, that is that. This week and weekend are pretty quiet, and next weekend I'll be heading up to Haworth, home of the Brontes! Must inspiration to be had, hopefully. Must pick up a copy of Jane Eyre whilst I am there...

I hope everyone is doing well and I love and miss you all! 

Friday 20 February 2009




[Before I get in to the actual body of my ridiculousness, I want to let everyone know that everything I write in here is strictly safe for work, shall we say. My mother does read this, after all, so I try to keep it PG. no worries :-)]

All right, kids, after the frivolity and nonsense of my last blog (that had really no point whatsoever), I have an ACTUAL UPDATE! Why, you may ask? Well I answer, because I have triumphantly returned from BARCELONA, SPAIN! (and the crowd goes wild)

I would say something in Spanish here, but I don't want to embarrass you lot with my excellent command of the Spanish language. so I will just say: Barca is my bff. There is no part of me that ever wants to live away from the water, and I loooove the heat, so vis-a-vis concordantly, Barcelona wins. (Oh, direct quote from my sister, mother of two: "Have  fun in Barcelona, are you going to go all vicky cristina barcelona and have a relationship with penelope cruz? cause that would be AWESOME." thank you Katy. and no, I unfortunately couldn't fit Penelope into my schedule, maybe next time)

So, Tuesday morning, I leave bright and early with Jenny... and when I say bright and early, I of course mean 4am. Lovely. and COSY! (yet another anecdote from crazy drunk Brit in a pub... there is just too much happiness). We make our way slowly to the airport, and sit bleary-eyed before boarding the quick two-hour flight to Spain. Seriously, I love that I'm only two hours away from southern Spain. After an hour-long bus ride, in which we had the pleasure of sitting next to Phlegm Phlegmerson, the happy Frenchman, we arrive in HOT SUNNY BARCELONA! 

(oh dear, I sense this is going to be quite dull, as I'm mostly just reporting things that we went to, and not so much funny things that happened... I'll try to insert them in, I suppose).

Our hostel, Pension Mari-Luz, was in an amazing part of town - old town-y, narrow streets, vespas zipping by, balconies with plants spilling over the edges... it was such a great place to stay! Mostly because we had a double bed so I got some snuggle time in. mmmm itchy sheets. 

With the intentions of keeping this short and sweet, I will say we hit up all the must-see tourist spots (or at least I hope so): the BEACH, of course, the Picasso Museum (hey, he drew a picture of a naked female and a fish below her... it's quite anatomically correct and very disturbing.. I'm just saying he's kind of crahazy), Las Ramblas (yaaay for tourist drags... aka people who speak English! Apparently my Spanish skills weren't up to par? who would have thought?!). After paella, sangria, ice cream (MUST... why oh why does England not sell ice cream as copiously as Spain? I mean yes it is a frigid climate but still, I enjoy ice cream when it is freezing outside, because since you're already frozen you can't really feel it. Hey is it true that con-e sells cupcakes now? I'M SO EXCITED! I hope they are delicioussss). Anyway, after dinner and wandering around, we hit the sack, pretty exhausted after our day of travel, time warp, insanity, and of course, the amount of times that Spanish gentlemen whistled and/or hollered at us eating the ice cream was just EXHAUSTING.

The next day (really our last day there... it was a short trip, unfortunately), was another action-packed day of kicking butt and taking names. And a TON of walking... I'm going to become a slip of a woman soon, I believe! jaykays. I'm too Swedish for that. Beautiful, awe-inspiring sights, incredible architecture, Gaudi's park was absolutely insane and colorful and gorgeous, hitting up the sights, and a lot of watching the world go by. We ended the night, after tapas and pizza (and yes we DID eat the tapas, to all of the disbelievers), by spending a lovely amount of time at the "Betty Ford Bar..." can we discuss how amazing that is? If only because of how inappropriate a name that is for a BAR?! sigh, true loooove. 

and now, for our failures of the trip. we actually weren't too ridiculous!
#1. yes, we went into McDonald's. yes, we were intending to eat there. BUT, it is okay for two reasons. One, it was for breakfast, and we had already eaten strawberries from a street market and were still a little peckish, and no one opens anything in Barca until about one in the afternoon (bigger fans of sleeping in than I am), so we were FORCED. And two, we didn't actually eat there! ...only because the breakfast menu wasn't up, I wasn't sure if they had sausage biscuits, and when I asked, they thought I said salsa biscuits. so we literally ran away, afraid of looking like idiots even more.

#2. Lunch the first day... we picked a little place that was cute and stuff, but sadly no one spoke English... we didn't really speak Spanish/Catalan well enough (strangely) and there was just quite a bit of miscommunication. But we ate eventually, so I count this as a WIN! 

speaking of fails, you MUST go on youtube and look at "911 fail." too. excellent.

And so, that is my quick round-up of Barcelona... as for my last impressions, I found it to be an amazing place. Besides the weather, which as I have mentioned was gorgeous, it just had a very nice buzz to it that I enjoyed... very unique from anything I have ever experienced. and I adore places that have those narrow, cobblestoned streets I mentioned, so clearly I am in love.

This weekend, I will be taking a tour of Wales, which should be pretty fascinating... the only thing I know about Wales I am basing entirely on Jasper Fforde's novels, so we'll see what it is actually like! (and how my butt feels after horse-back riding through the countryside ...!)

Sunday 8 February 2009

Completely Full of Nonsense

There's really not much to say except I feel it is my obligation to update with stories from this weekend, because we had some doozies. 

Let's kick it off with Friday night. Mol-E, Jenny and myself, as the epitome of cool, decided to bunk down in Borders, in order to conduct top-secret Europe research without buying the guides. After sitting in the upstairs cafe for a while, we decide it is time to leave and proceed to bundle up for the frigid London air. At this point, a man of unknown nationality (possibly French, maybe Italian, definitely not American or English) comes cantering - there is really no other way to describe it - up to Jenny. 

"Excuse me, I was just reading this book [he has props] and it said that you and I would be going on a picnic this weekend."
Obviously Jenny, who is usually cool as Luke, was a bit thrown off by this proclamation of affection and proceeds to sputter out something along the lines of "....oh really?"
I myself start laughing hysterically and pull out my cell phone to start Ace Gang notification. This was too good to keep to myself. 
"Yes, it would be so romantic! It would be romantic like that movie, American Pie."
I can no longer hold it in. I'm laughing at loud, laughing AT him (poor guy) and comment, "Yes, American Pie is the epitome of romance movies, after all."
Poor foreigner then realizes his mistake and quickly tries to rectify it: "Oh no, I meant, what is that, Romeo and Shakespeare." 
(my favorite book now). 
"And you could cook for me! So nice!"
There is literally no escape. Jenny tries to say she cannot cook, but he mentions that they could go CYCLING as well! There were just too many options. 
Finally, she lets him off gently with an "I don't think so" and clever Molly says, "and we're not here that long anyway" (ZING LIE!!!). I'm still laughing too hard to be any help. 
The poor guy, who has been christened Pierre, shuffles off after a dejected "So it's a no?" 
And we go laughing off into the sunset. 



Let's move to the next day, Saturday. A group of us are going to see Spring Awakening (which, by the by, was absolutely amazing and I am going to go see it again in TWO WEEKS... and this time I have on-stage tickets. My plan is that Melchior Gabor will fall in love with me and I will be his devastatingly gorgeous American girlfriend. First step after we are together: learn his actual name. Second step: if that is not possible, change my name to Zsa Zsa). Besides a strange man reassuring Annie that his bum is really quite lovely, we were standing in the tube station, minding our own business, when someone I can only describe as a cracked-out girl approaches us. Her mouth is upturned into an almost Joker smirk, one eye is closed, and she shuffles behind Jenny (again, poor jweb) and says in a smoker, Kay Prince voice, "Don't worry about it." 
We immediately stare at each other... don't worry about what? Jenny mumbles a response as this strange, strange specimen of a girl continues to stand there. We then later saw her literally stumble off the tube, so all's well that ends well.

this was also the same tube station where, as we are standing in a circle chatting, two males split to walk around the circle and bend down in unison as they pass us, fluffing my skirt a little bit. It was nice. 

And finally, last night we were coming back from Strand and, because I am conscious of this failing economy, stocked up on those groceries that I found at a reduced price. So I'm holding three boxes of cereal on the bus, about to debus when the back doors unexpectedly open, folding back on my purchases and CRUSHING one of my precious, 80p boxes of FROSTIES! I immediately panic and start tugging like my child is stuck behind those doors, as Jenny is screaming at me to leave it behind and get off the bus. I finally succeed it yanking it free, proclaiming that I will never leave any man behind, and certainly not a man that cost only 80p, when the bus doors close on my torso. 

According to Jenny, I looked like a linebacker as I had the mangled box cradled to my chest and charged off the bus, shoving the doors open with my body. She also said that she would have helped me if it had been a puppy stuck back there, but apparently cereal isn't as precious as a puppy.

And that was my weird, hilarious weekend. It's a bit of a bleary day here, cold and rainy, but I'm absolutely startled at how quickly time has flown. It's already the second week of FEBRUARY! Luckily in a week I'll be flying down to sunnnnnnnnny Barcelona... mmmm please don't rain that week. 

Thursday 5 February 2009


This is literally going to be the shortest blog post of ALLLLL TIIIIIME (well of my time anyway) just because I have been focusing primarily on being useless and doing nothing -- although I feel I have been accomplishing those tasks admirably. 

First and foremost, I would like to issue a formal apology to the British educational system in general, and to Rebecca Lehrman specifically. She is quite upset that I have been smack-talking the British educational system, what with my "I never have anything to doooo, they never assign me annyyyything" (I feel like I must be extra-whiny over here, which should be a pleasant surprise to my sounding board back home! something to look forward to!). I must emphasize: it is simply my unique set of circumstances making me so slovenly. Real students (including year-long study abroaders) actually take exams, have to do readings, do presentations, and so on. However, because I am only here for a semester, and because I entered into classes that all are based on previous information, the professors understand I know jack squat and cannot possibly be expected to take the exam with everyone else... and so I just have to write papers... and so I don't have to do the readings. So, England, I am sorry. Your universities are difficult. Please forgive me.

Well besides that I have been doing jack SQUAT. I did get to sponge off someone else cooking for me for a change with a DELISH dinner with some pallies on Friday night of.... you can't handle this fabulous combination... fajitas (FAJITAS!!), potatoes, and crepes. We aim to create a tiny United Nations, on the table, with every meal we (they) cook. But I did continue with my deal and I washed the dishes, so everyone can rest easy.

Sunday was, of course, the Superbowl. This has got to be the most unique Superbowl experience I have ever had. A little background: Sunday night here, it started to snow. And when I say snow, I mean SNOW. Sticking immediately, winter wonderland, we were literally singing Christmas carols. It was very attractive. So we hop on over to the Waterfront Bar to celebrate AMERICAN DAY with their American food (literally the most ... saw like hot dog I have ever eaten. Amazing) and overly enthusiastic English students as well. And McKenzie, seven beers in by the time we arrived and feeling GREAT! So, we snuggle into a booth, Jenny and I practice for our upcoming album (release date TBD), and cheer wildly when the game started here (around 11:30). Whilst this is occurring, the snow outside is going insaaane. This bar overlooks the water (one could say it is in front of the water), and there was so much snow you couldn't even see the other side. INSAAAANE. Around midnight we decide to blow that joint and head on back, walking eagerly outside to catch the night bus back... to find out that London decided the road conditions were too treacherous for the buses! ...and the tube had closed. I must emphasize this point: the buses didn't even stop running when the BLITZ was occurring. But just because there was a little bit (all right a TON) of snow on the ground, they had no plows apparently, and this was the most snow London had seen in eighteen years, they must shut down the BUSES?! 

So yes, you guessed it. We trudged, forty minutes, in the snow, at midnight, back to our dorm. It was actually more thrilling than you could imagine (and more exciting than actual sporting activity, I have found). The snow did make everything look precious, and I do believe Dickens popped up at one point to say Cheerio! However, I officially loathe the Brits in the snow. They think it's fun to throw snowballs at strangers... and that stranger was ALWAYS me. I would be with three other friends, but no. snowball at my head. Literally twenty thousand times. One time a lad threw a snowball at my bum region and made a rude remark... made me feel like I was home again.

So next day, London is in chaos. No one can get anywhere, as the Tube was flooded and the buses too scared, classes canceled, absolute chaos and snowmen popping up everywhere. It was a lovely day of frolicking in the snow, however! ...although looking at that picture at the top, I feel like that is the EPITOME of the K10 run. Oh GOD. 10 run in the snow. gosh. 

Beyond that, very little. Went to the Imperial War Museum yesterday (short walk from my hall and very interesting... a little masculine and a lot depressing, but a good experience overall). Class again today and tomorrow, then a FABULOUS weekend of SPRING AWAKENING and bringing out my amazing new DRESS. try not to drool, all.


and yes I know this was longer than I thought. and less inside jokey than usual. But I feel the picture at the top counts for five inside jokes at LEAST.