Changed For Good

I haven’t written for too long, but things came up.  I will explain the title and those things which came up later in the post.

On Friday, I went to the Science museum with Kaitlin, which was super cool.  I love fun museums, and we had a great time.  Then I went to my hotel by Stansted Airport, because my flight to Bratislava was early Saturday morning.  The hotel room was AMAZING.  This whole bed was for meeeee to sleep in, all by myself.  It was truly heavenly.  Plus, I had a wonderful dinner at one of the FOUR restaurants in the lobby, one of which had a wine tower.  It had 1,000 bottles of wine, and women went up on ropes to get your wine.  It was awesome.

 

Then on Saturday, I went to Bratislava! Seeing Tina and Rado was absolutely wonderful.  We spent the whole day walking all over the city, checking out all the tourist sights.  We spent a lot of time at the Old Town Hall, which houses a museum about the history of Bratislava.  We saw the three famous statues, and the little blue church, and lots of other very cool landmarks.  The buildings tend to be really cute there, with adorable colors and trimmings.  For lunch, we had traditional Slovakian food.  I got fried cheese and mulled wine…can’t go wrong with that!  We also went to a fantastic chocolate place where I got hot white chocolate with caramel.  It was fabulous.  For dinner, Rado made us spaghetti, and Tina and I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love.  It is such a good movie!! I adore Ryan Gosling.  I slept on the couch, but it was honestly one of the best nights’ sleep I’ve had in a while.

 

On Sunday, we went to the CASTLE! It was really cool, but lots of walking.  Then we walked to the Clock Museum.  Yes, I know I’m weird.  But I was really excited to see the all the clocks!! Then we walked up the Jewish street and back to the car.  We drove past Tina’s old dorm, and then left the city to find the Biofarm.  There, we ate garlic soup and the national dish of Slovakia, bryndzove halushky.  It is little dumpling cooked in sheep’s milk cheese and topped with bacon.  It was an absolutely wonderful meal.  Then we went back to their flat, looked at wedding pictures, and then watched Bridesmaids.  It was good, but not all it’s cracked up to be.

On Monday, I flew home.  That night, I saw Jersusalem, a play about religion in England.  My seat was CRAZY high up in the balcony.  Each row of chairs had a railing in front of it, and everyone leaned on the railings to be able to see the stage.  The acting was good, but I’m not sure I entirely understood the play.  Tuesday was a pretty normal day, nothing too exciting happened.

“Now here’s the part of our story that gets a little bit sad…”

Wednesday started out totally normal for me.  I had class in the morning, boring as usual.  Then I had personal training, showered and went to meet John Plotz at the tube station.  When we got back to the dorm, nearly everyone was gone, and the people who were left were crying in their rooms.  We were really confused until Chelsea told us that Alex Reinis had died that morning of meningitis.  Alex was the first person I met when I got here, so I took it pretty hard.  I immediately started cooking, so I fed John and Jimmy, then we went to the Wedding Singer again to see the other cast.  Transportation was not going our way, so we didn’t get there until intermission.  I couldn’t sleep at all that night.

On Thursday, we went to our first class, but I don’t remember it at all.  Then we just couldn’t handle another class, so Caroline, Hillary, Jimmy, and I went shopping at Oxford Circus (Topshop and Urban).  Then I went to the doctor’s office to get the pill to protect against meningitis. Hillary, Victoria, and I had our Thanksgiving dinner at Carluccio’s, then Hillary and I met John and Jimmy at the theatre, and we saw Wicked. It was all fine and dandy until “For Good” came on, at which point Hillary and I started sobbing hysterically, thinking about Alex. Again, couldn’t sleep that night.  Then Friday, Kaija and I slept in until around noon, and then I spent two hours attempting to force myself to run.  Eventually, I won, and I went for a run.  Honestly, Friday was a bit of a waste, I mostly just did homework.  I hung out with Caroline, Hillary, Victoria, Jimmy, and John for a while, and we went to Snog, and then the girls planned our trip to Bath.

Which leads me to Saturday.  We went to Bath!We started the day by going to the Christmas market, which was absolutely adorable, but packed with annoying people.  Then we found the Fashion Museum!  We all loved that.  We were going to go to the Jane Austen Center, but it was super expensive, so we skipped it.  We spent a few hours trying to find a place for lunch, and when we finally found one, it had a ridiculously long wait for food.  After lunch, we hit up the Roman Baths! They were awesome.  We returned to the Christmas market for caramel apples, and then caught the train home.  It was a lovely day, and it was great to get away from the dorm.  Today, I went to the gym, then shopped for about three hours.  We had our dorm-wide Thanksgiving dinner tonight, and I ate far too much, but it was wonderful.

This week has been extremely difficult.  Sweet Alex, you affected all of us so much.  Our time in London would not have been the same, and our lives would be totally different if we had not known you.  Thank you so much for being so awesome ❤

[We Are A Family] Like A Giant Tree

Ok, I have been bad about updating, and I apologize! Going back in time…

Last Monday, we had a fabulous dinner at Benihana’s for Victoria’s birthday.  Tuesday was uneventful, but on Wednesday morning, my class went on a field trip to the National Portrait Gallery, which I absolutely loved.  After class, I rushed over to the Hotel Cadogan to find my parents.  We basically did a tour of my daily life here, which finished with seeing Yerma at the Gate Theatre. On Thursday, I had class all day, but I met up with my parents that night for dinner and Billy Elliot.  The movie is better than the show, but the dancing was really fantastic.

On Friday, we took a field trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth Castle.  We didn’t do all that much in Stratford, because the church where Shakespeare’s buried was closed, but we did do the cool interactive tour of his childhood home.  We got wonderful fish and chips at Barnaby’s, and then went on to the castle.  They tried to warn us that the castle isn’t that exciting, but we had an awesome time.  We played hide and seek, freeze tag, and red rover, and basically ran around like idiots.  It was wonderful.  When I got home, I met up with my parents, and we had dinner in Chinatown.  Then we saw a concert of Faure’s Requiem at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.  It was cool, but I was exhausted and had some troubles staying awake.

On Saturday, Dad and I went running in Battersea Park.  Then we all went to the farmer’s market by the Saatchi Gallery and had our lunches there.  We wandered over to the V&A, but of course Dad couldn’t just take us the straightforward way.  When we eventually got there, we saw the Jewelry exhibit, the Performance exhibit, the Architecture exhibit, and the Postmodernism exhibit.  By that point, it was time to go to the fireworks that Dad wanted to see, but when we got to the bridge, we couldn’t even see the fireworks.  So we left, and went to dinner at Le Suquet, where my mom and I ate the biggest seafood platter I’ve ever seen!!!

 

 On Sunday, we went to Hampstead, and walked around the Heath for a few hours. We got a traditional English lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, then tried to go to a few places that all ended up being closed.  So we went to Holborn, and saw a dance show, called “Some Like it Hip Hop,” which we all really enjoyed!  For dinner, we got Italian food at Como L’Ario (spelling?), which is a fabulous restaurant near Sloane Square.  Monday was museum day.  We spent the morning at the National Gallery.  Then we had an INCREDIBLE afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason’s.  It was truly magical.  And we finished it up with a trip to the Tate Modern (we walked along the South Bank to get there – SO LONGGGG).

My parents left on Tuesday morning, which was sad, but I have kept pretty busy without them being here.  On Tuesday night, we saw a production of Reasons to be Pretty, and I must say that the Vassar production was far superior.  Then yesterday, I had personal training, and then we got FREE CURRY! The Indian restaurant was great, but it made me miss Kismet/Vassar.  Today after class, we went to see another Mountview show, The Wedding Singer.  The musical itself is not exactly good, but the show was super fun!

At Times Like This (I sure could use a dog)

I miss my pets!!! Anyway, here’s my week:

On Tuesday, I went to the doctor’s office, which happens to be right down the street from Harrods! I wish I could have gone shopping, but I had class after.  The appointment was really silly; the doctor gave me two different nasal sprays and sent me on my way.  The whole thing took 20 minutes, and then I was on my own.

On Wednesday, we had an amazing theatrical experience.  We went to a Cardboard Citizen’s performance in a center for homeless people to be rehabilitated and taught skills that would help them get their lives on track.  We got lost and almost didn’t make it in time, but they held the performance for five minutes.  It was a really interesting performance, in which the audience gets to change the plotline when they think the protagonist should have made a better decision.  It was hard, because we all felt kind of guilty being there with all our afflulence, but it was really interesting (and heartwarming) to see them get into the production.

On Thursday, we saw The Last of the Duchess.  It was okay, but I was totally not in the mood to see a show, and we had to schlep through the rain to get there.  The show was fine.  The first act was really boring. The second act was better, but overall, I just didn’t like the whole thing.

I spent the weekend being lazy with my friends until Saturday night.  It was Guy Fawkes Night, and we went to Battersea Park to see the bonfire and the fireworks.  Both those things were very cool, but we didn’t get to eat there.  So we went to Stockpot for a pretty cheap but DELICIOUS dinner.  On Sunday, I made crabcakes for dinner, and did homework.  Today, we are celebrating Victoria’s birthday with dinner at Benihana, and I can’t wait.

MY PARENTS ARE COMING ON WEDNESDAY MORNING YAYYYYY!!!!

Rome [if you want to]

Oh Rome, the eternal city! Even though I was sick the whole time, Christina and I made the best of it.  On Thursday when I got there, I was totally exhausted.  I’d woken up at 7am to get to the airport in time, and I finally got there around 4 or 5.  We ordered pizza from the place they usually get it from, and it was FAB. I got mozzarella balls and a four cheese pizza.  We went to sleep pretty early (or at least I did), because we were going to have a pretty early day on Friday.  We started at the Vatican museum, and that’s where the above picture is from.  It was fabulous, particularly because it ended in the Sistine Chapel.  It’s technically illegal to take pictures there, but I snuck a few pretty good ones.  Then we went to St. Peter’s Basilica.  The line was long, but we stuck it out, and it was totally worth it.  Then we even paid to go up to the top of the basilica.  It was actually terrifying to walk up slanted/teeny staircases.  We had lunch at an adorable little restaurant, and then we shopped for a while.  We went back to the apartment and played a drinking game in the typical student way (students in Italy? not so different from students in America).

On Saturday, we had leftover pizza for breakfast.  Then we hit the Colloseum.  We were planning to just wait in the line, but it was going to take about three hours, so we just decided to pay to take a tour.  We had a good tour guide, and I loved the Colloseum.  As part of our tour package, we also got to do a tour of the palatine.  Our tour guide for that one was SUPER hot.  His name is Alex, and he worked on America’s Next Top Model in season 10!! Then we hit the Trevvi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon.  At the Trevvi, I had my Lizzie McGuire Movie moment, and it was amazing!  That night, we had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called “Once Upon A Time.”  I had a fabulous meal of buffalo mozzarella, pasta, and creme caramel.  It was fantastic!

On Sunday, we went to Firenze.  After some trouble with the trains, we got there around noon. We started out at the Ufizi Gallery.  It was super crowded, so we didn’t actually go in, but we took pictures outside!  Then we got lunch at a really cute little restaurant. We got the fixed price menu, and I got pasta in a meat sauce, then caprese salad, and then a latte.  We walked for about two minutes, and found some street vendors.  I got my own Ciao Bella shirt, and purses for Sarah and myself.  Then we hit the Duomo.  We couldn’t go in, because the line was super-long, but then we went to the Accademia.  We waited for like an hour, and then we went in to see the David statue! That was our last thing in Florence, and then we took the train back to Rome.

We ordered in again (I got a calzone), and watched the Lizzie McGuire movie in celebration of our weekend.  I flew home on Monday, and it was a good flight, but I was really sick by that point.  Now I’m back home in London, and after a quick trip to the doctor’s this morning, I am medicated and feeling like a real human being again.  Sorry that this one is so long, but that’s that.

Omigod you guys!

This week wasn’t too eventful.  On Tuesday night, I went to the movies with Caroline, Hillary, and Jimmy to see Drive.  Ryan Gosling is fabulous, but the movie is a bit too violent for me.  On Thursday, we went to see Saved.  There was a horrible scene where they stoned a baby to death, but the acting was some of the best I’ve seen here.  It was a very affecting performance even though it was hard to handle.  On Friday, we went to the American Apparel Flea Market.  It was amazing!! It was a warehouse full of AmApp clothes, and they were all SUPER cheap! I bought a fabulous bodysuit, which I then wore out to ULU that night.  The best part of the night was after ULU, when I made Kraft mac and cheese! It was so nice to have mac and cheese again.

Sunday was uneventful and full of homework, but it ended with Kaitlin’s homemade chili, so all was well.  I love that stuff.   Yesterday, Jimmy and I went to TWO SHOWS.  We got front row seats at both Shrek and Legally Blonde, which was great for Shrek, but the stage was really high at Legally Blonde.  They made a lot of changes to Shrek, including cutting “Don’t Let Me Go,” one of the best songs in the show.  Legally Blonde wasn’t much changed; I loved ittttt!

Paris Makes Me [happy]

I spent the weekend in Paris! To start off this post, I think we have to go back to Thursday night, because I saw Ralph Fiennes in the Tempest! It was okay, not really anything to write home about (and yet I am blogging about it?).  I got back from the show and still had to pack, but when am I ever packed ahead of time?  So on Friday morning, I got up exorbitantly early and got myself to the train station.  I slept the whole way to Paris, and so all of a sudden I woke up in a different country/time zone.

 Once I got there, Lillie and I met up at the train station.  We dropped my stuff off at her apartment, then went to grab a quick lunch and pick up the kids she au peres for.  On the way, we passed the Eiffel Tower, hence the picture to the left! The kids were absolutely adorable, and I felt really stupid because I could barely understand their french.  It made me sympathize with all my past au peres and their friends, because the kids just jabber away in their native language until all you can do is smile and nod.  After playing in the park, Lillie cooked dinner for the kids (and thus for me too).  Around 9, I left to go find Julien’s apartment, where I would actually be staying for the week.  I got there without too much trouble, but on Saturday, I had a slight issue.  I was supposed to meet Lillie for brunch.  When I tried to leave the apartment in the morning to go meet her, I found I could not open the door, no matter what I tried.  So of course, I pulled a little too hard on the door handle and landed flat on my butt with the handle in my hands.  Luckily, the handle is not the way to open the door, so when Julien got home, he wasn’t too mad.

 

Then Chris got to Julien’s apartment and we went to go meet Lillie at Hotel de Ville.We went to Ile St. Louis, and had a wonderful dinner of crepes.  We walked to Notre Dame, and then continued on to the Eiffel Tower, where we sat and drank wine and talked, watching it light up and sparkle at us.  Funny story: I really had to pee, but the public bathrooms were closed.  I asked the security guard if there was somewhere for me to pee, and he pointed me toward the bushes.  So I have now peed in the bushes at the base of the Eiffel Tower.  Anyway, we had a lovely time just chatting there, and it was beautiful, as you can hopefully see from this lovely picture.

 

On Sunday, we packed as much as possible into one day.  We started at the Bastille Market, where we had baguette and raw oysters for breakfast.  We also found THE MOST AMAZING JUICE ever.  It was truly a revelation in the world of juice.  Then we went to Saint Chapelle, and looked at the beautiful stained glass for quite a long time, trying to figure out the story of each panel.  From there, we found a phenomenal statue of Moliere that can a traffic cone for a hat and was holding a light saber.  Next, we hit the big sights of Monmartre.  We did the Dali Museum first, and it was absolutely AMAZING.  I loved the sculptures there, and we all found things we loved.  Then we took a quick walk through Sacre Coeur.  To finish off, we went to the Moulin Rouge!  It is in the middle of all the sex shops ever.  It was unbelievably seedy.

That night, I got to have the two foods I really wanted to have while I was in Paris.  I got escargot and a kir royal.  This dinner was beyond incredible.  It was the best meal I have had in quite some time, and the escargot were totally perfect.  Then on Monday, we went to L’Arc de Triomphe, and walked down the Champs d’Elysees.  Then Chris and I said goodbye to Lillie and went to the Pantheon.  It was really cool! We saw the graves of famous dead people!

So that was my trip to Paris, in a nutshell. Food, fun, and friends.

Dance [under my] Umbrella – ella – ella

Yeah, I know the title is definitely a stretch. It is in reference to the Dance Umbrella concert that I attended last night. But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Nothing hugely exciting happened this week, so I will just do highlights.

On Tuesday of last week, I had my first personal training session! It was awesome.  I really like my trainer, Alison.  She is hilarious, and keeps me on my toes.  We do a lot of boxing, and yesterday we started working with a kettlebell (owwwww).  I am extremely sore now, but in the best way.

Last Wednesday, I had a VOICE LESSON with the head of Music at Mountview Academy.  I loved working with him, and he was very complimentary of my voice!! The lesson was really enjoyable, and while he is too busy to do weekly lessons, he said he would love to work with me again.  He also came to our performance class yesterday and did a group singing workshop, which was really fun.  I’ve missed singing in harmony!

This weekend was hard because it was Yom Kippur.  I fasted the whole day!! We went to see a play called “Decade,” which was this really affecting piece about 9/11.  It was super intense, and I really wish I’d seen it on a fuller stomach.  But we broke the fast at Stockpot, and we got this INCREDIBLE dessert: apple crumble with custard on it!  De-lish.

On Monday, Kaitlin and I travelled to the Portobello Rd. market, and I bought some super cheap clothes and went to Poundland for the first time.  Then I met up with Jill and Nikki, my Lathrop friends!  We did My Old Dutch Monday, and I got the Italian pancake.  They had never been to Snog, so I had to take them there, of course.  I think they enjoyed it.

Then last night, we went to the Dance Umbrella performance.  We saw the work of Karole Armitage, and it was crazy.  The first half was a ballet about physics (Quantum and String Theory), and it was beautiful.  The second half merged punk and ballet.  It was just loud.  Not my favorite.  But the first piece was really beautiful. And I’m going to Paris on Friday!

Nothing Suits Me Like A…Kilt?

Guess where I was this weekend? Well, if you read the title of this post and still don’t know, I may have to disown you. I was in SCOTLAND!  The trip was incredible.  I will try to remember everything, but just know that it was completely awesome.

So my friend Amy picked me up at the airport, and we drove through Glasgow to her farm. I love farms. And animals. So that was cool.  Her family was absolutely wonderful, and made my trip so much better! That first night, we went into Glasgow, and went to FireWater, and then to ABC (the club that she and her friends love).  It was a great night, and we took some pictures in the photobooth, so hopefully I can find them online.  On Saturday, we spent the day in Edinburgh. We took a tour on a bus, and then walked up past all the tourist shops to the castle.  I tried Scottish shortbread, and this delicious dessert called tablet.  And we ate our dinner at the ELEPHANT CAFE (the place where JK wrote the Harry Potter books)!!  It was actually quite a lovely dinner, and the cafe was adorable.

Then on Sunday, we went to Loch Lomond. Check that scenery out, y’all.  That is just lovely.  It was super misty all that day, so all my pictures are shrouded in mist, but it seemed kind of appropriate.  We explore cute little villages on both sides of the loch, and ate some yummy food (why is this blog predominantly about food?).  We rushed back to Glasgow to have dinner with Amy’s parents, at which time I tried haggis and black pudding.  The haggis was in lasagne, which was actually quite tasty.  The black pudding? Kinda gross. It’s made of blood. Ew.  That night, we saw the live stream of the 25th Anniverary Phantom of the Opera, which was the best production of Phantom I have ever seen.  Basically, Scotland is awesome.

Run, Freedom, Run

This week was pretty chill.  My roommate and most of my friends were sick, so we all took it easy, for the most part. The three big things of this week were South Pacific, Family Brunch, and the Starfish 5k Run.

So….South Pacific.  The LINCOLN CENTER revival transfered to London.  I quite enjoyed the Lincoln Center revival.  It was lovely, and relevant. But here (apparently the land where musical theatre goes to die), it was not good.  The acting was pretty terrible all around.  The accents were especially bad. And while Emile had a wonderful voice, Nellie just wasn’t very good at all.  The show was originally designed for the thrust stage at the Lincoln Center, and it didn’t translate very well to the proscenium stage of the  Barbican Theatre.

Then on Saturday morning (read: afternoon), a bunch of 8th floor people made brunch! We had bacon, french toast, scrambled eggs, and mimosas. It was wonderful.  We all contributed to the ingredients, and Noah and Nikki mostly cooked, but it was super fun.

This morning, I decided to run a 5k race. Well, I decided a few days ago, but this morning was the actual race.  I ran in the Starfish 5k Race, which was a charity run for AIDS research.  The actual running part was not exactly fun, but I got a T-shirt and a medal! And I did much better than I thought I would; I ran it in 34:56.

Just take a look at me now!

 Sorry I haven’t written in a little while, but I have been living it up in London-town! This photo is from Thursday night.  We went to The Young Vic to see a production of Disco Pigs.  It was really weird, but definitely good. A ton of people were crying.  It reminded me a lot of Vassar theatre, because it started with people onstage.  Then we went to O’Neills, a bar/pub type place.  They had a live band, and they were great! I met someone who is on the TV show MERLIN! It was super exciting! The night ended kind of badly, because I fell down the stairs. I bruised my back and my elbow =/

On Friday, we slept in, and then when I woke up, I actually saw my bruises.  They were huge and ugly (and have only gotten uglier as they’ve healed). The drama kids had to go see a bunch of theatre grad students graduate.  It was definitely interesting, but not really worth the “early” wakeup it required.  I did homework all afternoon, but then we went out at night. We went to the Rocket – another pub.  We had an awesome time (as is evidenced by the photo above).  It was just a pub, but we made it fun.  We had a tough time getting back on the bus.  We ended up walking like two miles, which was cold, and got us home around 4:30.

On Saturday, Kaija and I went to see Betty Blue Eyes, which was a terrible musical. It was proof that Americans really are better at musical theatre (not to be a snob, of course). I had SO MUCH READING TO DO, so I actually stayed in on Saturday night.  Then on Sunday, we went to the East-end markets. It was very cool.  We found all sorts of cute stuff, and I got amazing street dim sum! Also, I brought the Ghostbusters to London, guys, don’t worry. All in all, it was a great weekend.  Today was my first day back at the gym since my bruise, and it was totally great.  Then we did My Old Dutch Monday again, this is definitely going to be a tradition.