| Vancouver |
[Sep. 21st, 2008|12:11 pm] |
Hello wide world of family and friends...
We're in Vancouver! we're alive! and we have pictures...or we will have at least. these things are hard to get together...maybe I can be better about it later on... |
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| Pictures from day 4! |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|08:20 pm] |
OK, finally, here are some pictures...these are fromthe day that started in Grants, New Mexico and ended in Las Vegas, NV.
The adorable dog that belonged to the chinese man who owned the motel...there was another one too...it was not cute, and kinda mean and tried to bite Holly.
( Lot and lots of pictures i you click here! ) |
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| San Diego Zoo |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|12:52 am] |
This morning I was awakened bright and early by Holly forcibly removing me from bed and towards the San Diego Zoo. I was not wasily disturbed from my slumber, but relented and speedily prepared for our zoo outting.
We managed top navigate San Diego traffic and arrived at the zoo shortly after 10am. It was some what overcast, which made it nice and even (for me) a little too cool outside...but anything is better than really hot.
So basically we wandered around looking at animals for several hours (hopefully there are pictures below, but if there aren't...know that there will be).
Then we ate lunch at the "Treehouse Cafe"...and wandered aroundl ooking at animals some more. The prices, of course, were exorbitant...but what can you do...it's zoo food.
After several hours of looking at animals sleep and eat, as well as dodging the HUGE zoo double decker tour buses (for the lazy and/or old) and me complaining about walking up hill (I'm lazy...I woulda paid to ride the huge tour bus and run over the plebians), we finally left the zoo. Surprisingly we made it back to Dweeb's without getting lost. There, we waited for her to return from work...kinda locked out of the apartment.
Then it was dinner time. We piled in to Holly's car and let Dannelly drive us to Old Town (because Dweebie knows the area and can ACTUALLY drive a stick shift). Holly was craving Mexican, or Italian (which seem to be here avorite food groups...except mexican and italian that don't have meat or onions) so we found a fun place called Fred's and had a good time. Holly was happy to discover another restaurant that would give her a side of JUST avocado (no guacamole, because it has onions...and onions are bad). However, since avocado is the amazing fruit/vegetable/whatever it is, I can't make fun of her....it's delicious.
We headed to La Jolla (pronounced la hoya) the beach to walk around for a while. Holly, Rachel and I touched the Pacific....then it touched us back and got our pants wet. We walked around and wandered into art galleries and boutiques and mainly watching from outside at the interesting goings on inside.
We found the car again and set off for ice cream...since both Dweeb and Holly hadn't had a fix in over a week. We went to this cool yogurt place that has about 10 different flavors of soft serve...you mix and match as much as you want and then add as many topings as you want. It was pretty delicious.
Then, since it was 9pm and we're old ladies, we pooped out, came back to the apartment, and everyone but me is snoozing away. |
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| San Diego |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|12:50 am] |
So eventually I woke up (Holly and Rachel were already enjoying the morning and Holly had recovered rom her budy's rebellion the night before).
We decided to go to Paris, across the street from our hotel, because Holly hadn't gotten to go out the night before. It was, of course, decadent and over the top and really hilarious, but what do you expect? Skimpily dressed "french" cocktail waitresses handed out drinks to people pouring their money into the slots. Rachel and I signed up for the players club so we could get lunch coupons and free T-shirts...unless I give you a tshirt from las vegas...in which case it was very expensive...I thought specifically of you when I was...umm...buying it.
Holly investigated restaurants while rachel and I wandered around trying to ind the poker room (which had no poker players in it...sad). finally we found a slightly less overpriced place in the Bally's casino, which was connected to the Paris casino. We ate and were surprised to discover that they even had table side gambling with this game called Keno. I guess we shouldn't have been too surprised though...
All the old women were playing it and having a great time, so we investigated how to pick the number and play this game which seemed so simple yet so complex. We split a ticket among us just for fun but ended upnot being able to play anyway as we didn't have enough time.
We wandered around Bally's for a few minutes, threw a dollar into the giant slot machine that was about 10 feet tall and 15 feet side. We wished we'd have enough time to stay and play "The Price is right" live gameshow they had going on...but we needed to hit the road.
I mostly slept in the back on the way from Las Vegas to San Diego...waking up long enough to take a pictures of the California sign as best I could. Shockingly, we were running late and didn't get there until 9 or 10 where we promprtly greeted Dannelly and crashed.
The iPhone died and we had to be landed manually...calling Danelly to get directions. There was also excitement on the road with a broken down car going 10 mph on the interstate which almost caused an accident as Holly couldn't speed up to go around and cars were slamming on their brakes not to hit us....unpleasant. Luckily we made it in and finally found a place to park on the streets near Dweebs apartment.
We raided her fridge for food and a lte night dinner was had before bed. |
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| Viva Las Vegas part deux |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|12:49 am] |
Then we went back up to the room and finally got cleaned up enough to go out and look around in the casinos. Holly stayed in trying to recover and Rachel and I wandered down to the Bellagio. Since we'd watched Oceans 11 way too mmany times, we knew we had to go there. We wandered in and decided to try our luck at the poker tables...cause we like poker. The buy in was $40, which seemed expensive, but we had our small gambling stakes set aside and decided we'd try it.
You give the guy your name and when a seat opens up at a table the dealer yells out and then you get to go sit down. I went to sit down first, beore Rachel...and tried my best against the pros. unfortunately there was a drunken moron at my table driving EVERYONE crazy. He would bet and raise every hand, no matter what he had, and ended up getting way lucky on the river too many times. Over an hour or so I just got wiped out by three bad hands. I was really sad that I'd lost my money, but chalked it up to a learning experience (don't play poker in vegas)...and wandered away to let Rachel have my seat.
Rachel played a lot better than I did when I first sat down. i watched her play for a little while, then wandered around to penny slots. I lost my money to the penny slots and after losing my money wandered back over to wehre Rachel was winning money, to the amazement of all at the table..."You sure you never played this before?"
Finally i took the last of my gambling stake and bought back in at the poker tables...figuring...I bought it to gamble...why not? Slowly I grew my little stake and won all of my money back and made a nice little $80 profit...of course, the next day I lost some of it showing Holly how table games and slots work...butI didn't LOSE money in Vegas and I made a ltitle money in vegas soI felt successful.
In fact, at one point one of the old men at the table asked me if I had ever played before. I said that I hadn't ina casino...but that I played online a lot...to which he responded: "We had sharks in the water all this time and didn't even know it." heh.
finally as it crept into the wee hour of the morning nad the waitress kept bringing rachel the coffee I realized i was not playing well and needed the sleeps. So I cashed out and walked happily back to the Monte Carlo. Rachel and I basically collapsed into bed and dreams of winning millions in vegas....if only. |
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| Viva Las Vegas |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|11:51 am] |
So these may not have pictures yet, but I'll add them at some point. This is also a half entry...
Quote of the day (times infinity): Hey Look at those kwiff dwewings...I mean Cliff Dwellings....ARGGHH I am NOT Elmer Fudd.
So I'm behind on the typing and trying to catch up.
We woke up yesterday morning in Grants, NM and sent Holly to fetch the car from the tire place while the rest of us slowly got organzed. Repacking the car with the new spare was like working a jigsaw pussle where you've been given too many pieces...but eventually we got everything to fit. Though the added bonus of our Chinese (and not quite English speaking) motel owner's tiny dogs running around us and barking didn't really make it easier...and one of them kinda bit Holly, but she said she was fine.
We were on the road and could once again enjoy the splendor of nature. I've never really understood why people are always talking about how beautiful the Southwest is...I mean it's in the middle of the desert and it's all scrubby and ther are big brown rocks....but no, itsone of those things youahve to see to get. I'm posting a ton of pictures anyways., but I know they won't do it justice. So suffice to say we spent about all 7 hours we were driving going "oh wow....it's just so beautiful! Look at the layers in that rock...no man, look at that one...oh wow that mountain how far away do you think it is? It's huge!"
I was riding shot gun yesterday so I hung out the window taking way too many pictures (which I'm really going to try and pare down).
Our firrst stop right outside Flagstaff was the GRAND walnut CANYON...okmaybe it's not THE grand canyon, but that owul dhave added two or three hours to our trip and put us arriving at about 11pm or even 12 am. So we went to Walnut canyon instead. It was really gorgeous and it was sad that the main trail was closed due to rock slides. We did get distant pictures of Kwif Dwewings (I cold not for the life of me say cliff dwellings yesterday and then it started to rub off on everyone else).
It was here that I saw my first Scottish thing for papa...a little Westie whose name I didn't quite catch, hopefully by the time I post this there will be a picture underneath here.
After examining the canyon it was back on the road to Flagstaff to get some new tires....just in case. The tires took our Grand Canyon side trip, but at least we're not dead! We wandered around the mall where the Sears was and I finally got a cheap bel so that my pants would stop falling down (thats what I get for losing 10 pounds).
Finally, we were on the road AGAIN. This time it was just us and the scenery, and occassional stops for gas and Indian pottery or jewelry. So then it was back to "wow that's so pretty!" for about the next 4 or 5 hours.
Around dusk we arrived at the Hoover Dam...they were selling those Dam shirts anda few Dam shotglasses, but I only got some Dam postcards (and, you know, a cheesy joke that would make an 8 year old and myself giggle for hours). Once again,something beautiful and awe inspiring. The really freaky thing was the bridge they were building BESIDE the Hoover damn, which wasmuch higher over nothing and hadmuch less support over nothing and looked like something I would never ever ever want to drive on...I mean a stiff breeze in that canyon could blow you over the side!
We kept driving and could see the glow in the distance of Las Vegas long long vefore we got close by...when we crested the mountains and saw the lights spread out it was breath taking...but taking pictures was very dificult.
We got a little lost in Las Vegas because they're doing construction on the stripand building this GIGANTIC living complex. However, with the iPhone for help we made it to the fabulous Monte Carlo, "next door" to the Bellagio. However, next door in las vegas is blocks away in the real world. we settled in but Holly wasn't feeling too great after all the excitment of the day before. We wandered down to the $20 buffet and ate and ate and ate and ate. They had so many different options that it was easy to get three our four plates worth. We all tried a little bit of everything (yes I have an abundance of food pictures for you Papa).
More later... |
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| Flagstaff...didn't happen... ok, Grants, NM |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|11:50 am] |
Quote of the day:
Holly, while brushing teeth: I have a hobo in my bag
me: What?
Holly: I said I'm sure I did it to mine too
Me: oh...
Day THREE
So it's morning and we're in Grants, NM instead of Flagstaff arizona (pardon if I use Arizona and New Mexico interchangeable from here on out, but as horrible as it may sound I've always gotten them confused).
( Driving to New Mexico )
( Santa Rosa )
( Pueblo of Acoma )
( Flat Tire ) |
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| Long story short |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|12:25 pm] |
It's 9:30 am here in San Diego. We made it safely...we're not dead...and we're staying with Dannelly and are on our way to the Sandiego Zoo.
Long serious updates with pictures to follow, but Holly won't give me time to make them. She wants to see animals... |
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| Kareoke night |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|02:16 am] |
Well tonight we went and sang kareoke, Taryn and I sang some Hank Williams Jr. "Family Tradition" and the place was more country than it is back home...i was shocked, they're all a bunch of rednecks up ehre.
today was a lot of fun, i made a juge platter this morning (I mean huge for me, not that big for most people), it's the first rondel i've evermade it's definately like...triangular and wonky and stupid looking, but it's mine...unfortunately it's too big to ship home or to take on the airplane with me. I really don't want to pay out the wazoo for shipping. The good news is: Jonathon Swanz is in my class and he lives in Louisville and is a Centre grad. This means that if he comes for homecoming, he can bring my stuff, or the first week of school i can drive up to louisville at some point and get it....yay!
Tobias demoed some of his pieces, a really really long thin murrine one (it was like 3 feet long, pretty cool,really skinny) and also this cool piece with cane that ends up looking like a woven basket...here are some of his works http://www.mohl-drivsholm.dk/mw.htm i really really like them. he's such a super nice guy too and a good teacher. I feel liek I've gottena lot better just this week.
We had chinese for lunch today and it did not sit well with me at all...i felt uber gross afterwards. i recovered though and then we went ot the corning glass headquarters where they have these amazing amazing installations by super famous people and it's totally awesome, no camera's allowed (like stueben) but i had mine at my side and i think it accidently wentoff a few times...oops, must have bumped it.
I assited the big boys (kurt, bengt, and wayne) on some huge rondels (aka plates) and man it hurt my hands worse than they already are...oh yeah, my skin condition has flared up horribly this week from all the hot work and my fingers are basically skinless...it's annoying..i used up all the bandaids int he first aid kit (both mine and the shop's), so I've given hup and am just letting the skin fall off...people keep thinking i burned my hand...and ihve to be like...no it's this weird thing i have... ::Sigh:: annoying.
anyway, time for sleeping, one day left...eep! |
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| the city of glass |
[Aug. 18th, 2006|12:40 am] |
| [ | Feeling |
| |  tired | ] |
(I typed up yesterday's entry and jsut posted it, so there are two here in a row, it wouldn't post last night, the interent here hates me)
I'm so tired all the time, but it's really great here..
at pilchuck had to sign a confidentiality agreement because osme guy supposedly stole kait's ideas.....and yeah, he's totally in my class, it's hilarious...sheer hilarity, sheer coincidence.
i've taken a ton of pictures and videos and everything ha sbeen really interesting. i seem not to get to my room until 11:30 or later. Today we had lots of demo, took us forever to get dinner again (we went ot burger joint called captain morgan's and are going back there tomorrow night for kareoke. oh yeah)
I pulled a lot of cane, we have a grey color pot, so i'm using a lto of grey...because it's free....i've only really made one piece because the time here is a lot looser than pilchuck, i might get two hours imight not, and so i made probably 6 or seven pieces in two weeks at pilchuck with a lot more blow time than we get here. I think I'm learning though and i'm really looking forward to using all of this back at Centre, i have a lot of ideas spinning around in my head.
I've downlaoded pictures but i haven't had time ot go through them to post any...
today was fun though, i was really tired this morning, and tobias pulled a lto of cane so we didn't have ot pay al ot of attention, though he did do some cool stuff...i'll show pictures and describe it better at some point. I assisted our TA, Moshe (he was born in israel), today, which was good learning experience and he made a wicked cool piece, though it was a bit of a struggle as we startede at 10 pma nd were already completely sapped. expecailly since we sat in there forever waiting for our food. Tobias also did a really nice incalmo switched axis piece, and everyone seems ot be doing rondels like his (because they are quite pretty).
finally walked back to the hotel with my friend isabel (as usual) tonight after clean up...and I'm sapped...just wish pictures would finish downloading so i can hit the hay. |
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| The Glory Hole |
[Aug. 17th, 2006|12:33 am] |
| [ | Feeling |
| |  exhausted | ] |
(this wouldn't post yesterday, so here it is late)
Wow, the days have been so surreal here, different than pilchuck, but not bad, and actually pretty amazing.
Tobias is fantastic, i like him so much, and it's good to have had a class with him and everything, it'll be very helpful in the future i think.
Today was kinda like usual, morning demos, but before that we went to the Stueben factory and saw how they did their glass, even though it is a little kitchy for me, it is an amazing quality of glass, and an amazing process...the precision and attention to detail ther is amazing. Theyw ere making lobsters and i was weird, but cool, their clory holes are behind them and they do everything in this precise but different manner.
Demo was good, another large platter, this time with the hairy, curly cue murrine (quoth Tobias, "It has a nice hairstyle"), then was a quick demo of jsut murrine that were clear with the pot grey over the outside, it was tight, very much like one of kait's demos. We got lunch (sandwhiches again, different from yesterday's premade and the taco's we got super later the day before).
My roommate was sick this morning (as in throwing up) and so she didn't come in until lunch. i felt so bad for her, she said she had a migrain, little i could do. We got to blow then,a nd I pulled some green over white cane (thought it was blue) and a few ritorti's, my balentini failed pretty miserably.
Since today is wednesday they were charging the furnace so the class went out to eat at the mexican place in the hotel (yay chicken quesadilla's!). found out a guy in the class named Kurt was pastry chef to the stars and super famous and stuff so is probably super loaded. He's friends iwith a guy in the class named Bengt who has two smal children, but is here anyway. Jonathan is crazy (in a clothes optional kind of way) and it's weird ot meet a centre grad who doesn't think that steve powell hung the moon. i find it very strange we're in the class together. Isabel is my buddy, we partner, even though she isn't very good, and i coach her through things andtry to make her feel better. Wayne is a very very sweet old guy, but he never ever ever shuts up, and he isn't spectacular at helping with glassblowing, he's very good at what he does, but not necessarily at doing what you want to. Taryn and Adam exist, I've been giving them wide berth since taryn and i were at pilchuck. Moshe is our TA and he's pretty cool, I like him a lot and he's very good at helping you out and not being a jerk about how he does it. Nikolaj (pronounced Nikoli) is really cool, but super space cadet kid...like he's really good at glass but also a super hippie, reminds me of ted in a lot of ways.
Also ntoday Nikolaj decided to start teaching me martial arts and how to defend myself, so i listened politely and let him beat me up some...it was really weird, i should hit guys in the thoat or poke them in the eye apparently. yay self defense classes?
bed time |
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| Boston Pictures |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|01:36 am] |
All the pictures from Boston are currently loading, so hopefully they will be up shortly )the wireless here is dodgy)..anyway...
My Boston Extravaganza: Featuring Rachel, myself, painted cows, and old famous dead guys. |
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| Travel to Corning |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|01:35 am] |
| [ | Feeling |
| |  excited | ] |
So today after getting through airport security and starting that first entry I boarded my flight for Philadelphia, PA. I had, of course, managed ot stand in the wrong line when first tring to check my bag, but ended up int he right place evernutally and shoelessly said bye to rachel and went through security.
I got on the plane and almost had two seats to myself but the cancelled a flight ot albany and put people on our plane. the guy who sat next to me was very nice though and i fell asleep so we didn't really interact much. I wasn't too thrilled abotu Philly like I had been DC...I just found my terminal (which was a shore, as their signage was horrible, but I finally got hter after asking three people for directions). So getting to terminal F on the bus then lead to getting some sbarro (my first meal of the day) and sitting on the floor outside my gate until it was time to board. On that flight there were very few people so i did get a row all to myself and moved to the front so i had leg room as well...i quickly fell asleep and only woke after we'd landed in Elmira/Corning.
My bag was first out of the baggage claim and then i walked over to the desk of the place I was supposed to get to take me to CMOG (Corning Museum of Glass) and signed everything and paid and eventually got into the shuttle with a rather nice yankee. we talked about sports, and how he didn't like living ehre (though it was very very rural and really gorgeous...it's beyond beautiful here, which is a surprise, and it's much smaller than danville, also surprising). Got to the days inn, unloaded and found my room and roommate, Megan, who is here for flameworking.
I unpacked, took a nap and headed over to the museum for our free opening night dinner. Imet some peoplein my class, including a girl named isabel who i think i'll like, and our TA Mosha (sp?) a guy named Nikolai (intersting, eh?) and some other folks i can't remeber. supper wasn't bad and megan, isabel and i sat and chatted and then we came back to the hotel where we watched movies and talked some, took a shower, and now I'm ready for bed.
It's been a crazy traveling experience, but at least I'm here. |
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| Logan International and what happened before |
[Aug. 13th, 2006|10:31 pm] |
So, I'm currently chilling out in Logan international airport with about an hour until boarding, wishing that I had hung out outside security with Rachel for a little while and trying not to feel that complete sinking depression I start feeling whenever we seperate...the whole--I don't know when I'll see you again, it might be a year--thing.
oooh...some like army looking people (national guardsmen i'm assuming) jsut like patroled through our terminal...i heard the governor called in the guard to help with airport security but it's weird to see like armed army men in full camo like patrolling around.
Anyways, on to what we've been doing.
( Fire and Ice and witches )
( Ghosties, Cheers, and puking )
Well, I just called to confirm my shuttle to the museum of glass from the elmira airport, and i'm all set. eep...and i remembered what i wanted to check online when I was in Rachel's room, and of course i forgot...my bank balance at national city. annoying, oh well. |
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| The Freedom Trail and sleep |
[Aug. 11th, 2006|12:30 am] |
| [ | Feeling |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Death Cab For Cutie: Soul Meets Body | ] |
so rachela nd i muy tres slept in today, and that was nice...except we didn't really intend to.
Then we got up and meandered over to like where the Kendall T stop is and bought a map and ate food (yay sbarro!) and finally meandered on the T over to where itlooked like on the map the freedom trail started. We wandered around Boston Commons for a whiel trying to find the freedom trail and finally we meandered around enough that we found it.
then some tour guides tried to get us to pay like a million dollars for a tour in french...and yeah...taht's weird, a tour in french...but we didn't go. they have lots of painted cows here too..and had i remembered my camera cable i would show you awesome pictures...but alack and alas a las alone in all the world am i....
so rachel and i followed the freedom trail all on our lonesome and stopped at historic landmarks like the old south meeting house and the new state house and the old state hosue,a nd the little square of paving stones in the middle of this MASSIVE intersection which is where the Boston Masacre happened, but now it's jsut really a busy street.
Fanueil (sp?) Hall was kidna fun, and very pretty inside (and free, like everything that we went in), we had gone into the cenetaries to see Paul Revere's grace and John hancock and Samuel Adams and all sorts of good patriots, including Dawes, who succeeded where Revere failed (he only got 19 miles before being captured) in warning about the british arrival. We found a really cool store in the market behind Fanuiel Hall, in the Quincy Market...ti was called "Funusual" and we spent waytoo much time and a little bit of money in there. We also ate there, mmm, corndogs, cheap but effective. they honestly had more stores and more variety of food than i had ever seen in one place...it was crazy.
Rachel and I then decided it was time to head to Shakespeare in the park, which was super fun. They did The taming of the Shrew which, aside from being incredibly masogynistic (sp?), was AMAZING. The actors were all superb and the modern twist was great....and free shows in big parks are always fun.
Now we've made it back to the dorm and I will be going to sleep...tomorrow is more touristing and going to salem to see witchiness and the Davide Salvadore reception at Salem state. woot! |
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| Some old entries and pictures! |
[Jun. 24th, 2006|10:47 pm] |
So now we're in Edinburgh and I have bits and pieces of entries i've been writing trying to keep up, but the pictures are all captioned and should carry you through where the entries don't:
Pictures first:
London
Reading Where I went ot University when i studied abroad for 3.5 months, visiting old friends
Stratford (and oxford and warwick)
The Lake District
Scotland Villages on the way to Glasgow
Glasgow the dirtiest, ugliest city...i love scotland, but not this place.
From June 20th
Time keeps rolling on and it's amazing how little time I have to write down everything that's goingo n.
The last I think i said was that I was going to Avenue Q...and go I did. It was fantastic, and really cheap because it's a preview show, which means tickets aren't really on sale yet and they are still working out a few kinks...just with an audience. They definitely changed a few things fromt he recording I've heard, Gary Coleman was played by a male, he was the handy man not the super (I don't think "Super" for superintendent translates to british).
The show was amazing, we had some issues getting there because the tube would NOT come so since Laura was missing Phantom we took a taxi to get over there, this was Jacquelin (yes I can't spell) Laura, Frannie and myself. Mom and Pop went too and mis padres and I went to Pizza Express to eat, per our tradition, and it was good, as always. I switched seats with mom to be sit down where I had wanted to purchase seats. It was a really really good show. despite the awkwardness of sitting nest to one's father while they are singing "You can be as loud as the hell you want when you're makin love"...but still really really good, especially with the TV screens added in, it really was like sesame street little clips, it added a lot. plus our Christmas Eve character was played by the original which was cool.
Yesterday we got up bright and early at the Stratford Victoria hotel and finally got to go into the places of interst for Shakespeare. Unfortunately we didn't get to go to Anne Hathaways cottage, but we went to Shakespeare's birthplace, as well as the home of his daughter and grandaughter. The history of it was really interesting and I talked ot one of the tourguides about the house and restoration for a while, she noted that I seemed ot be the member of hte group most interested in history...but then I am probably the only history major on the trip, so there ya go. Most of our guides were really good.
Mom, Pop, and I went into Trinity Church where shakespeare and his family are buried and looked around, took pictures. the church itself is magnificent...truly...wow...beautiful. I don't know how much of it has changed over the years, but I can understand why Shakespeare and his family would choose it as their final resting place...it's just amazingly beautiful.
The gardens attached ot the church and to all the houses have all been incredibly beautiful as well. They are so intricate and large...it puts american gardens to shame. we spend as much time wandering through the gardens as we do looking in the buildings. we even saw a mulberry tree that grew from teh shoot (yes, again with the spelling, and me not being able to do it) of a tree that Shakespeare planted....oooooo....aaaaaahhhh. yes it's amazing i know.
Then we hoped on the coach that Gordon so kindly brought ot us in town and prepared to head to Warwick Castle. The Castle was pretty phenominal really. we grabbed some lunch-ishness and then wandered around. it was huge, the great hall was filled with armor and impressive portraits hung everywhere...the dining room was really amazing. We walked through parts o the castle that were set up to look like they had in the late 1800's and had wax figures of the characters who stayed there. We asked one of the docents how long peopole had lived there because news paper clippings that we saw around seemed ot indicate it was being lived in into the 40s and 50's. he said the fammily didn't sell it to the state until 1978...can you imagine living in a Castle? it's just incredible. we climbed up the the tallest tower and saw all of the defense stuff, arrow holes and things. there are railings on the pediments now, but used to be it was jsut a good idea to steer clear of the edge.
We headed out fromt ehre about 3 and got on the bus for the long ride up to the lake district. i finished the book i had bought the day before at about 4 by 4 yesterday, and it was really annoying...I'm runnign out of books for the coach rides. I do recommend Endymion Spring to anyone who cares though.
We were a little nervous pulling towards the hotel as the o nly thing we saw for miles around were sheep and cows, more sheep than cows...the sign for the hotel was right ext to a kind of sheep hovel with large dung heaps and things and Michelle got really nervous, "We aren't staying HERE are we?" but luckily we passed it and made it to the Shap Wells Hotel, which is actually really nice and old and cool...i really like it a lot. It's been a hotel for over 100 years except during the War when it was a camp for german POWs, how cool is that? we ate supper at the hotel and then i think had some class and went to bed.
This morning I realized how truly cold it is up here in the Lake District. I woke up freezing, the window had been left open some and I closed it and chenged into warm clothes, but still....brrr...i was comfortable in short sleeves in London, today I put on long sleeves and a sweatshirt, and I hope that that will be enough.
Continued on June 23rd and today, the 24th
So I guess now is what's happened since the Lake District.
I really liked our hotel, the Shap Wells, but many people didn't. admitedly the rooms were tiny, the hotel had all these weird twists and turns and stairwells (and probably hiddne passageways and things as well). You'd go up he stiars, then down a few then up a few more turn trun down again turn up a few turn turn turn down and bam there's your room. It's been a hotel since the 1890's at least (from the pictures in the lobby). The rooms had real keys and it was really pretty.
We went to Windemere (which was kind of like the gatlinberg of the lake District) and wandered around the crap stores before grabbing some lunch and then getting back onteh coach for Gordon to take us to Hawkshead where we shopped a little before taking a smaller van/bus to Hilltop where Beatrix Potter lived. it was gorgeous, we went in her house and saw illustrations and it was really pretty there and jsut inspiring to see. makes me want ot write a children's book.
Then we went back to Hawkshead where Michelle and I bought Gordon a present for his coach, he has little stuffed animals in there so we got him asheep that matched the sheep we had all gotten in Windemere. I ended up naming my sheep Gordon after our Coach driver, Michelle's was Elvis, and Holly's was Buggy (because of how the eyes on the sheep bug out).
In Hawkshead we saw the beatrix potter museum in her husabnd's old law offices. I went into this cool little store called the tiger's eye and talked to the crazy guy who worked there/owned it. his name was Rod. they had djembe's and jewlry and random stuff and when i told him I was from tennessee the only association he could make was Woody Guthrie, and so that meant he decided ot play some David Bowie. it was interesting to say the least. Then it was time to go back to the coach and shelter from the monsoon
it was raining and icky, so we got back to windemere and picked up the other group, including Nicole who was happily walking by the coach munching on ice cream, but we got her on board and headed back to the Shap wells hotel int eh middle ofnowhere for dinner. We chilled out and played some cards, regualr card cgames and uno, which we introduced to the british folks who worked at the hotel. Two of them were off work, but they live at the hotel (as there is nothing around really for miles...i wasn't kidding when i said it's in the middle of nowehere.
The next morning we were up bright and early and hoped on the coach to go to a place for the social work course called New lanark. It was run (in it's hey day) byt a guy called Robert Owen who trated the workers relatively fairly (for the time) and then went on to try and found utopian colonies elsewhere, including in the US. It was very institutionalized, and apparently people still live thre which is a little...weird...but ti was an interesting visit (the rain wasn't very cool though) So we took off again from new Lanark and headed up to Glasgow (I think)...yeah it was Glasgow.
We said goodbye to Gordona nd I slithered under the bus for the third and final time ot help ferret out the luggage. Then we set our stuff down in our rooms and came down for supper and then...you guessed it, crashed.
In the morning we got up and went to all these little villages in the highlands, sadly, without Gordgon to drive the coach, but ya know, you gotta make do. we went to Loch lomandd (sp?) andseveral little villages whose names i can't remember. in one thre were some cool antique shops and we ate at this great pub. we had breaded mushrooms, pizza, and hot fudge ckae for dessert. it was fabulous. we ate too many sweets in the next village as we kept hitting up candy stores. these places were so pretty and quaint, and then we headed back to glasgow.
When we got back we were so tired of buses and traveling and sightseeing that we decided to just hit up pizza hut and go see X3 at this like 10 story movie theatre. it was good to see the scene at the end and jsut do a big group ativity. only downside was cathleen losing her international student ID card. we bonded and then..again...were wipedout and went to bed.
The next day (yesterday) we woke up bright nad early for a basically free day in Scotland...erm Glasgow..whatever. I've thought Glasglow was an ugly dirty city with very little going for it since I first visited here. yesterday did nothing ot change my mind. There are allt hese psuedo-gothic victorian buildings built during britain's industrial revolution that are dirty and disgusting because they never cleans them, the buildings are several stories tall but don't have heat/air so there are ventalation holesi nt eh windows that i think you can open or close....anyway...it's not very pretty.
We went ot the Glasgow School of Art and saw the senior exhibition which I thought was fabulous. There was some really interesting work. There was one that especially caught my eye by a guy named John Woodman, his figures were expertly executed but his use of color was jsut...pehnominal...it was a great job of taking technique and taking it somewhere else. he did an amazing job of showing the movement of hte human figure and then tied in this sense of light down with pastels and bright colors that made it look like a sunrise in the figures...i an't describe it...but they were really nice.
Then we went to the Willow Tea Room, which was also heavily Mackintoshed. The love Charles rennie Mackintosh here since he's so famous and his architecture/design work is so good and he's a Glaswegian. Some people took off becasue they weren't up for trying a real traditional tea...but it was fun.I had salmon and cream cheese croissant (i know, sounds gross, but isn't) we were mostly exotic sandwich eaters at my table, but at the other table, mom and pop and amanda and becky did the full on tea. sandwhiches and desserts and teas and everything. then, after purchasing a particular print that caught my , we were off again heading past corner bagpipers and fiddle players to go check out the Royal concert Hall and Cathedral.
The Concert Hall was closed up, but we headed to the Cathedral and it was pretty amazing. we saw the Tomb of St. Mungo who built the original chaple n the site where the cathedral is now and I had a major flashback to art history and cathedral architecture and the triforum and clear story windows and gothic pointed arches. the trancepts were never completed, through they were started...but it is a beautiful building, except for a few bullet holes here and there when protestants and catholics started fighting for the church...in the church.
It was really pretty and i took lots of pictures and then we went into this like history of religions museum and it was really...fascinating, they covered almsot every major relgion and a lot of non-mainstream things like voodoo and aboriginal tribal things. it was cool...and then we were tired and went back to the room, where i tryped some of this entry...but then headed out with the parents to a pub for sinner. "the Crystal Palace" was the place, and it would have been a little more calm were it not for all this world cup action which has stalked us from day one. after eating our sandwiches (or fish and chips with guiness for papa) we walked back. I hung out with the rest of the group in the longue for a while, again playing cards and this time meeting crazy people from South Africa, Ireland,a nd of course Scotland. before, again, collapsing into bed.
this morning up bright and early to load up in the coach , with new driver Henry (who, when I asked him, said he did not possess any super powers, oh well we can't all be a gordon). we went to stirling castle and a battle field and the wallace monument adn then to edinburgh, but i'll break down the details of that later, cause it's late and I've been writing this forever.
Sorry about the typos |
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| Old entry from London |
[Jun. 20th, 2006|12:32 am] |
Here's my entry from the first day in london, then another entry after being here a few days...haven't had internet to post these until now
So I'm in London, in England at the Kennsington Close hotel with my parents and a bunch of students taking a course from my mother.
Everything comes back so quickly...it's as if I never left and I never want to leave it again.
I slept a lot because I didn't sleep the night before...we got to UTC at 7:30am monday morning, then we drove the Nashville (Anne sleeps,a s she did not the night before) then we get to the airport and go through security, board the plane and fly to Atlanta. In Atlanta we have like a 5 hour layover...so i sleep...then we get on the plane...I sleep, watch Failure to Launch and then sleep some more. then we arrive here in London.
We had ot wait in the airport for the rest of the group for like three hours after we landed, and customs lines were forever long...but I'm ehre and we got on a bus and drove to London and got ot the hotel.
Everyone seems really cool. three other girls and i went to lunch at an italian place and split some pizzas and talked and had Kentucky bonding time (they go to NKU or EKU, so it's all about the Kentucky schoolin'...one girl even know Laua Zanewich which is kinda funny)
Anyway...another country...it's surreal, but fabulous. Don't know when I'll get ot post this, or pictures, but hopefully soon!
Here's an entry from Friday june...erm...16th i think? haven't had much or steady internet connections, more to come soon.
Well I'm in London...it's been and interesting couple of days.
Monday was a lost day, where I was traveling from 7:30am until 7:30am on tuesday, when i arrived here (atmitedly five hours in the future, but still it felt like 24 hours). my psuedo british accent is coming back (in other words, i crave to immitate the way people speak to me). I'd forgotten how few actual british people are in london, for the most part they're all (pardon the expression) "foreigners" mostly european and middle-eastern
Tuesday was kinda a lost day, idon't really remember what we did...some wanering arund i'm sure...ate lunch at an italian place on kennsington high street...walked through kennsington parka nd found the statue of peter pan, ate in the hotel, crashed at about 8pm.
WEdesnday i woke up bright and early at 7am. went downstairs for breakfast and then we piled on a tour bus at 9 and went around the city with our tourbuide Su and our driver Martin (who was adorable, i liked them both). I liked doing the tour thin that way because i saw i lot i hasn't seen before on the open top tour with my parents, and i got a refresher on a lot of stuff. Then we went to lunch in the Methodist like...complex...the international like methodist head place with statues of wesley and everything. i had fish and chips and it wasn't half bad. Then we went ot this children's lit thing in the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) I'd love to actually look around in there instead of just hearing about some children's lit stuff... then...what happened...oh we went ot leicester square and looked at TKTS and decided not to buy tickets but walked back to the hotel we stopped at Hard Rock, but it was chockerblock full of people with a line stretching around the block to get in. so we went back to the hotel, grabbed some mcdonalds on the way, changed clothes, and headed out to the casinos...it was fun, we walked ot one really close by, since we can't in the states....just to try it out, only four of use went, few of us bet.. I won about at three card poker. we headed back to the hotel shortly there after, having experienced some british culture
Next morning, despite not getting a wakeup call, got up bright and early and met downstairs before going to westminster abbey. that was awesome to see again, it's magnificent and having just re-read the davinci code i enjoyed seeing everything it mentions, including chapter house and newton's tomb. i talked to one of the red coated docents and he said they hadn't been allowed to actually film in the abbey. its so majestic in there though. then we decided to head to tower hill ot go visit the Tower of London. Several of us decided to lunch at the Wetherspoon's pub. Then we did the whole Tower of London tour. This warder was as funny as the last one and kept making fun of the short girl in the group, teresa..it was great. saw the crown jewels (magnificent) and the two chaples, the first one built in england is majestic in it's simplicity...i loved it. bloody tower and the story of the princes in the tower is still moving.
Then away we went on the tube to TKTS where (after much confusion and wandering around trying to get Avenue Q tickets) we finally got Lew Mis tickets. 3rd row...amazing. We went to eat (mom, pop, and holly and kathleen who are on the trip from oregan). this italian place we went to was fantastic. i had this amazing chicken dish in cream sauce and i would definitly go there again.
Then it was time for les mis...and even 3rd time around it was amazing...it's been a while since i saw it so i basically started crying when the bishop gave him the silver and didn't stop. it was an amzing produciton, eponine was soooooo good. Chaver, i thought, was good as well, mom thought his voice was a little weak, but i think it was jsut his pitch on acapella parts. we had an understudy jean val jean, but he was still fantastic.
then it was back to kennsington close to bed.
today i've been on my own since morning, lost my tube card so had to buy another one. tried to meet up with the group twice, but failed. did manage to talk to Meg, Laura, and Grace so I['ll be going to Reading tomorrow and I'm super pumped about that. I went to Camden today. Camden is so much fun to shop in, and i spent about £25 there, on nothing spectacular but a few little knick knacks. went to king's cross, couldn't find the group, went to covent garden and shoped some more and watched street perfomers,handed out about £5 to different ones...got a lto of pictures, tried to find the roup at the London Eye but failed again...so came backt o the hotel, no group here either...so now I'm giving the grand update and i'll go back to the hotel before I go to Avenue Q tonight, which I'm really excited about. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|09:31 am] |
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in london riht now, loving it lots, no time to write. saw le mis last nihght with mom and pop. scotlnd soon, and oxford. much love! |
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