my friend nicole keeps reminding me that tomorrow will be friday the 13th. i don't put much stock in all that superstitious waffle but i feel compelled to share the following two extraordinarily dumb things i've done in the past week, one one that i had no control over but sucks nonetheless:
-tuesday: with little over an hour to spare before meeting my friends at a club, i rushed to somerfield (small grocery store) for a cheap bottle of wine. in my haste i'd forgotten my ID, and sure enough the cashier apparently thought i looked under 18, and as there was a rather large security guard lurking in the background i thought it unwise to say what was on the tip of tongue. severely annoyed, but determined to prove my age nonetheless, i raced back home, grabbed the right wallet, and sped back to somerfield, only to find my previous cashier relieved of his post by another who clearly had no qualms about selling my underage-looking self alchohol. lovely.
-yesterday: i spent about six hours in the computer lab (reason for which i will explain below). i was hungry, hungrier than a very hungry thing, but i had little funds with which to procure nourishment, until around 5 pm. when that happy hour finally came i ran gleefully to sainsbury's (big grocery store), gathered the necessary foodstuffs (including sushi!!! they had sushi! yum.)*, and proudly waited in line at a register before realizing with a sinking feeling that i had left the house that morning WITHOUT MY WALLET. cut to me once more doing the store-to-home, home-to-store dash, and breathlessly paying for my food and before again beginning the journey home, now weighed down with grapefruit and cartons of soy milk and other items that seemed to weigh entirely too much.
-as i explained in a previous post, my computer cord decided to suddenly stop working sometime last week, and in a generous stroke of kindness my roommate left her laptop while she went home for five days for my use. but of course, the night she left, her laptop decided to automatically install updates and restart, and i need her password to log on. roommate is M.I.A. on facebook. i still have no computer. excellent.
*sushi was, to put it plainly, terrible. then again, it was sainsbury brand sushi. 2.20. what was i expecting, really?
going ice skating later on with some friends - let's hope my "luck" changes before then. broken limbs are the opposite of fun.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
c'est la folie (partie deux).
remember when my friends and i were supposed to go to yo!sushi and once more experience those miniscule conveyor belted culinary delights? it never happened. this non-event was a week ago and i'm still craving sushi in the worst way. but you did not come to read about my hunger. so henceforth i will continue recounting my adventures in paris.
the rest of that night was basically a test of endurance against two mighty foes: the cold and the high heel. the trains shut down around 3 am, which left us wandering around an area none of us knew were familiar with. two girls in our party had to -- forgive my crudeness -- pop a squat in some bushes, as there were no bathrooms to be found. and, i mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
a rowdy group of boys accosted us in the champs elysees, clamoring to hold our hands, kiss us, hug us, and generally invade every inch of our personal space. i've never experienced anything like that in my life. in new york this kind of behavior would warrant police involvement, screams of assault, questioning and perhaps hysterical tears. when we managed to tear ourselves away a couple of gendarmes who were standing nearby merely asked if we still had all of our money.
the rest of that night was basically a test of endurance against two mighty foes: the cold and the high heel. the trains shut down around 3 am, which left us wandering around an area none of us knew were familiar with. two girls in our party had to -- forgive my crudeness -- pop a squat in some bushes, as there were no bathrooms to be found. and, i mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
a rowdy group of boys accosted us in the champs elysees, clamoring to hold our hands, kiss us, hug us, and generally invade every inch of our personal space. i've never experienced anything like that in my life. in new york this kind of behavior would warrant police involvement, screams of assault, questioning and perhaps hysterical tears. when we managed to tear ourselves away a couple of gendarmes who were standing nearby merely asked if we still had all of our money.
two hours of pointless wandering later, nicole and i decided to give up on the idea of miraculously finding a cheap club, partying until the sun rose with exotic and sexy young frenchmen. we had chips back in our hostel. chips and beds. oh man, BEDS. we were ready to go.
heather and her friends were staying in le mans, which was an hour train ride from paris, and the next train wasn't until 7 am. sympathetic but unwilling to help us find our way home, we parted company, shouting goodbyes and thanks and bonne annees before realizing we were stranded on a busy paris street, nearly frozen to the spot, and completely, utterly lost. we thought of heading back towards the champs elysees but thought better of it; what if our fanboys were still there and the extremely helpful gendarmes weren't? according to the map we found, our hostel was not within walking distance. (shoes, weather, and manner of civilians still out and about were taken into consideration.) and according to a group of guys who we suddenly found ourselves next to, cabs never stopped on this street; we'd have to walk back to champs elysees and hope to get one. fantastic.
one of our friends suggested a train, one that, i realized after studying his map, would take us to the airport with no real hope of coming back before daybreak, much less stopping at the station across from our hostel. i tried to explain as much to him in my intermediate-level french, and he alternated between boozy agreement and vehement head shakes. imagine another half hour of this.
finally nicole and i went to the edge of the sidewalk and waved our arms frantically until, gasp, a cab pulled over. we did the obligatory "oui, obama!" exchange with the driver before falling silent and listening to him carry on a radid-fire conversation with a previous passenger who was sitting in the front seat. my brain literally hurt (like every other part of me) with the effort of trying to understand, so i gave up. nicole was already dozing peacefully against her window. i looked out at all the drunken stragglers and yellow-lit restaurants as we sped through the sprawling city streets, flexing my numbed toes in my shoes. bonne annee.
the next day we awoke to a maid knocking on our door, politely asking "Vous restez ici?" oops. no, we weren't staying, sorry, we're checking out in five minutes. hurriedly showering, cleaning our mess from last night and throwing our clothes back into our suitcases, we made our way downstairs, sure that the man at reception who had been so helpful last night when we needed a cork for our wine would have an ice glare and choice words for us oversleepers.
he smiled benignly and nodded when he asked if we could leave our luggage there for the day while we explored the city. well. that was easier than expected.
our explorations proved pretty useless; stores were closed and the streets were, for the most part, completely empty. surprise, surprise, it's new year's day! did we expect parades and dancing in the streets? everyone was nursing their hangovers and scrubbing vomit from their carpets. disappointed and bit bored, we did what you do in paris: went to a cafe.
our evening was spent wandering around montmartre, admiring the glittering lights and cozy atmosphere of the small tourist district. once again, we failed in finding any decent bars or clubs, so we went to a restaurant for some crepes, which were divine but not nearly filling enough. immediately after leaving we found an italian resturant where we ordered two plates of spaghetti, and returned to our hostel to eat while watching phantom of the opera (in french, naturally.)
[if you know anything about me, you won't need me to describe my paroxysms of delight upon finding this movie.]
the following day we awoke to snow. imagine our delight. thankfully, it wasn't sticking, and didn't last night, but we did experience brief pangs of worry that our flight would be delayed or cancelled. then we laughed at ourselves. being stuck in paris -- what a TRAVESTY! keep snowing, keep snowing!
oh well.
we made our way back to montmartre to try and pack as many touristy things done as possible before our flight that evening. we visited the moulin rouge, located in the red light district -- no giant elephant or singing moon, but it was exciting nonetheless.
we wanted to explore the west bank, perhaps go visit oscar wilde's grave, among many famous others (okay, so that was mostly me) but the gates were closed. according to the sign, they should have been open, and one bespectacled man bearing a large backpack pointed this out to the impassive guard on the other side of the gate numerous times to no response. another couple was there, and the four of us watched the exchange (or, lack thereof) for a couple minutes, before giving up and walking away. when we looked back about 30 seconds later, the man with the backpack was gone. we hadn't heard the gate open or close. that was rather eerie.
we then tried to find the restaurant"les deux moulins" (the two windmills) as featured in the movie amelie (okay, again, that was me; nicole had never seen the movie) but after inquiring after its whereabouts of a sour-faced man at a newspaper kiosk, he peevishly pointed out that there were many restaurants in montmartre; how was he supposed to know where this particular one was? rawr. fine. i suppose i should have looked up the address anyway.
we found notre dame! and, predictably, i began humming "the bells of notre dame", straining to see if i could find a familiar hunched shape up in the bell tower. (i watch too much disney.) two italian guys asked for pictures with us, which was vaguely flattering and mildly puzzling. we loitered for a bit near the tourist trap tables that attempted to wheedle us into spending money on 'authentic french' bits and bobs like magnets with the eiffel tower on them or mugs portraying the green fairy. no thanks.
the rest of the day was really just a blur of walking, walking, walking. we must have walked the total distance of the circumference of paris, even if we weren't necessarily able to visit everywhere we wanted.
highlights:
-another tiny cafe. we ordered crepes (we couldn't get enough) and espressos, because we were in france and in france you drink coffee. note to self: never spend money on espressos again. liquid despair. although it did warm us up a bit.
-centre pompidou. we had no idea what this was and most likely went completely out of the way to find it. it was a huge modern art museum with a line that stretched into eternity. and we had neither the money nor time to go inside. however, there was a man holding a lively mini-puppet show in the center of the waiting area; so that amused us for a couple minutes before we were off again.
-H&M. i know, i know, they are everwhere, including menlo park mall back in ol' edison, new jersey. we did not go to france to shop in H&M. but... come on. we're girls. we stopped in H&M.
-a restaurant called raclettes, famous for their...raclettes. giant blocks of cheese that come in a small iron stove that you scrape off as it melts and slather over your choice of meat or vegetables. horrifyingly unhealthy and just as delicious. we both groaned and moaned and generally wanted to be rolled back to our hostel after we finished eating.
-opera garnier: setting of gaston leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, one of the dearest stories to my heart. by this time the hour was late and our time in paris was up. a very fitting last stop, in my opinion.
paris, je t'aime. we'll be back.
Friday, February 6, 2009
c'est la folie.
as roommate is reclined with her own book (the host by stephenie meyer) i suppose i can keep writing. as you may have divined from the subject, i'll be talking about paris.
nicole and i flew into charles de gaulle airport on december 31st, which sounds absolutely horrific but really wasn't. the worst part was the mob (in lieu of a line) to get through customs. survival of the fittest. elbows in your nose. despite our irritation, i can't deny i felt a momentary thrill when two airport employees roughly shoved through the crowd bellowing "excusez-nous! excusez-nous!", a blaring reminder that we had finally made it to france, the country where all of our dreams would come true. [insert disney music here.]
our hostel was about one hundred steps from gare de l'est, which was a blessing when we finally emerged from the metro exhausted and weighed down by our luggage. while we waited for our room to be ready we sat in a small room that held a couple pieces of luggage, poring over a large map of paris while a tv mumbled in the corner. okay, the eiffel tower is there, and we're here, ooh and there's champs elysees, but moulin rouge is all the way down there...hmm...which metro do we have to take to get to here? we would only be there for the next two days, but the possibilites seemed endless.
when we woke up it was dark and about 5 hours to midnight. we had just enough time to eat and get ready - we'd be meeting heather, a friend of mine and her friends at the eiffel tower for the new year festivities. we ventured out into the city for wine, champagne, and food, acquring all three with little fuss with our mediocre french and excellent hand gestures.
i must end here; party tonight that i need to start preparing for. to be continued, never fear!
nicole and i flew into charles de gaulle airport on december 31st, which sounds absolutely horrific but really wasn't. the worst part was the mob (in lieu of a line) to get through customs. survival of the fittest. elbows in your nose. despite our irritation, i can't deny i felt a momentary thrill when two airport employees roughly shoved through the crowd bellowing "excusez-nous! excusez-nous!", a blaring reminder that we had finally made it to france, the country where all of our dreams would come true. [insert disney music here.]
our hostel was about one hundred steps from gare de l'est, which was a blessing when we finally emerged from the metro exhausted and weighed down by our luggage. while we waited for our room to be ready we sat in a small room that held a couple pieces of luggage, poring over a large map of paris while a tv mumbled in the corner. okay, the eiffel tower is there, and we're here, ooh and there's champs elysees, but moulin rouge is all the way down there...hmm...which metro do we have to take to get to here? we would only be there for the next two days, but the possibilites seemed endless.
the elevator was, without a doubt, the smallest i'd ever seen. we could barely fit ourselves and our luggage in, and you had to manually slide the door shut. we tried to take pictures, but they couldn't capture the true sardine-like essence. when we reached our floor we practically exploded out, giggling and giddy about the weirdness and wonder that was france so far.
our room was tiny and charming, our bathroom even more so. after putting down our bags, inspecting everything closely and promising ourselves we wouldn't nap for more than an hour, we fell into bed and slept for the next three and a half.
when we woke up it was dark and about 5 hours to midnight. we had just enough time to eat and get ready - we'd be meeting heather, a friend of mine and her friends at the eiffel tower for the new year festivities. we ventured out into the city for wine, champagne, and food, acquring all three with little fuss with our mediocre french and excellent hand gestures.
a few hours later found us wandering through the metro, stumbling on high heels and laughing at the strange looks from passers-by as we butchered the names of the various stops as only two half-buzzed american girls can. at one point we gave up, deciding to ring in the new year at the champs elysees instead, but at an inquiring text from heather we decided not to take the easy way out, and eventually found ourselves emerging from the right stop amongst a sea of people, the eiffel tower glittering in the distance. it was beautiful. it was magical. it was...so cold we could hardly MOVE.
we had a hard time finding heather - the amount of people there was staggering - but we finally did, and thankfully she had brought cups. we found some empty space along a curb facing the tower, and shivered and talked and laughed and shivered and drank and shivered until - wait, what? what was that? why were people cheering? i checked my phone - there were still two minutes to go! we kept looking around, confused. ...or maybe not.
so, yes. we never got to countdown to the new year, which was more disappointing than it should have been. but i determined to stay positive - we were in paris! we were young! life was good! my toes were frozen!
i must end here; party tonight that i need to start preparing for. to be continued, never fear!
my power cord went softly into that dark night.
so i must wait patiently for my new (well, not new, but functional) power cord to come in the mail before i can use felicia (my computer again). why felicia? i can hear you asking. why not felicia? is what i counter.
and again with the snow! now that it's started it can't seem to stop. this is unfortunate, as bristol uni still refuses to close. i spent about five hours reading and preparing assignments for class today so after a brief fit of indignation ("eff this! i'm not breaking my neck to walk all the way there! haven't they heard of SALTING the sidewalks?!" i exclaimed to my sleepy roommate) i grimly realized i should not skip two days in a row and set back out.
imagine my delight when not only my first class was empty, but my second was absolutely nonexistent; our normal classroom being used by a professor and her students that were decidedly NOT my professor and classmates.
i also found out that my boots are not waterproof.
so that was my morning. but my foul mood was quickly dispelled by my warm socks, my favorite hummus (moroccon style!), and my most beloved habit: reading in bed. my current book is you remind me of me by dan chaon, which i'm enjoying immensely. although the constant jumps in the narrative timeline in each chapter are wearying. i'm such a lazy reader.
i don't like hogging my roommate's computer for too long so here is where i'll bid adieu.
and again with the snow! now that it's started it can't seem to stop. this is unfortunate, as bristol uni still refuses to close. i spent about five hours reading and preparing assignments for class today so after a brief fit of indignation ("eff this! i'm not breaking my neck to walk all the way there! haven't they heard of SALTING the sidewalks?!" i exclaimed to my sleepy roommate) i grimly realized i should not skip two days in a row and set back out.
imagine my delight when not only my first class was empty, but my second was absolutely nonexistent; our normal classroom being used by a professor and her students that were decidedly NOT my professor and classmates.
i also found out that my boots are not waterproof.
so that was my morning. but my foul mood was quickly dispelled by my warm socks, my favorite hummus (moroccon style!), and my most beloved habit: reading in bed. my current book is you remind me of me by dan chaon, which i'm enjoying immensely. although the constant jumps in the narrative timeline in each chapter are wearying. i'm such a lazy reader.
i don't like hogging my roommate's computer for too long so here is where i'll bid adieu.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
of snow and sushi. (and still backtracking.)
this is the third time it's snowed in bristol and the third time classes HAVEN'T been canceled because of it. everywhere else in england is shut down because they can't deal. of course i chose the one city that battles on despite the weather. shame. but i didn't let it bother me, really, i just rolled over and took my own snow day. i can almost guaranteee barely anyone showed up to the lecture anyway. including the lecturer.
i suppose i should pick up where i left off last night. (these trips are all out of order, sorry.)
the first excursion with other rutgers students studying in the UK and ireland was to battle abbey, site of the battle of hastings in 1066. i don't usually like history but i found it interesting.
we also visted the cliffs at beachy head, where we had planned to do a long hike. we quickly realized this was impossible, lest we blow away to a sharp, watery death.
in early december my study abroad advisor invited some of us to london to visit the british library and platform 9 3/4 (the latter of which i'd already been to, but unfortunately failed in passing through to hop onto the hogwarts express). surprisingly, i was the only one who showed up, but i had a good time anyway, seeing original manuscripts of some of my favorite books and even the magna carta. afterwards we went to a wine bar in st. pancras station, right where the eurostar terminates from france, so the majority of the restaurants and waiters were french. the food was excellent, but the portion size was not in any way proportionate to my hunger. too bad the prices were.
i'm going to save my second trip to ireland for a separate post, because there's a lot i want to say about it. so sit tight.
and don't worry, once i get caught up on what's happened already, i'll report my trips and what not with regularity and some sense of chronology, i promise.
back to the present. today is some sort of centennial celebration at bristol uni so all afternoon classes were canceled. (so of course my class would be at 10 am... yes, the one i skipped.) they're going to have free cake and cheap drinks at the student union - which sounds divine, although not so much the drinks; i fail to see how cake and alcohol go together - so i think roommate and i will head over there in a bit to meet up with some other friends. although the thought of that long walk through the cold and slush just makes me want to get back underneath my warm covers.
later on we're all heading to cabot circus (the mall, it's fairly new and ridiculously big) to eat at yo!sushi, arguably the best sushi restaurant on the planet. i have absolutely no credentials as a sushi connoisseur, nor have i visited many sushi restaurants, let alone enough to make that kind of statement, so basically all i'm saying is this place is incredible. there's a conveyor belt that runs throughout the entire restaurant carrying small colored plates of many varied types of sushi and desserts that you can collect at your leisure, and when you've eaten to your heart's content the waiter simply counts how many of which colored plates you've accrued to determine your bill. best part? their website has student discount coupons that we print off everytime we know we're going to go. excellent.
well, my homework beckons with a disapproving finger. i planned on getting more done last night, but i made this blog instead. okay, homer, bronte, and yes, you too voltaire, i'm coming, i'm coming. sheesh.
i suppose i should pick up where i left off last night. (these trips are all out of order, sorry.)
the first excursion with other rutgers students studying in the UK and ireland was to battle abbey, site of the battle of hastings in 1066. i don't usually like history but i found it interesting.
we also visted the cliffs at beachy head, where we had planned to do a long hike. we quickly realized this was impossible, lest we blow away to a sharp, watery death.in early december my study abroad advisor invited some of us to london to visit the british library and platform 9 3/4 (the latter of which i'd already been to, but unfortunately failed in passing through to hop onto the hogwarts express). surprisingly, i was the only one who showed up, but i had a good time anyway, seeing original manuscripts of some of my favorite books and even the magna carta. afterwards we went to a wine bar in st. pancras station, right where the eurostar terminates from france, so the majority of the restaurants and waiters were french. the food was excellent, but the portion size was not in any way proportionate to my hunger. too bad the prices were.
i'm going to save my second trip to ireland for a separate post, because there's a lot i want to say about it. so sit tight.
and don't worry, once i get caught up on what's happened already, i'll report my trips and what not with regularity and some sense of chronology, i promise.
back to the present. today is some sort of centennial celebration at bristol uni so all afternoon classes were canceled. (so of course my class would be at 10 am... yes, the one i skipped.) they're going to have free cake and cheap drinks at the student union - which sounds divine, although not so much the drinks; i fail to see how cake and alcohol go together - so i think roommate and i will head over there in a bit to meet up with some other friends. although the thought of that long walk through the cold and slush just makes me want to get back underneath my warm covers.
later on we're all heading to cabot circus (the mall, it's fairly new and ridiculously big) to eat at yo!sushi, arguably the best sushi restaurant on the planet. i have absolutely no credentials as a sushi connoisseur, nor have i visited many sushi restaurants, let alone enough to make that kind of statement, so basically all i'm saying is this place is incredible. there's a conveyor belt that runs throughout the entire restaurant carrying small colored plates of many varied types of sushi and desserts that you can collect at your leisure, and when you've eaten to your heart's content the waiter simply counts how many of which colored plates you've accrued to determine your bill. best part? their website has student discount coupons that we print off everytime we know we're going to go. excellent.
well, my homework beckons with a disapproving finger. i planned on getting more done last night, but i made this blog instead. okay, homer, bronte, and yes, you too voltaire, i'm coming, i'm coming. sheesh.
...five months late.
but better late than never?
dad kept telling me to journal, and i WAS journaling, but never in one place, and never of much use or interest to anyone unlucky enough to stumble across it. but the less said about that, the better. who wants unnecessary gloom and doom in a travel blog? ...exactly! no one.
i suppose i'll start from the beginning - i've heard tell that it's a very good place to start.
i am studying at the university of bristol for my junior year. bristol is in southwest england, about two hours away from london by train. [i can hear you scratching your head in confusion - don't worry, it's a common mistake! no, england and london AREN'T synonymous! london is a city, and bristol is a city. equally legitimate! see how that works? amazing, i know.]
i am a belated english major and french minor, meaning that like most bewildered college freshmen i wandered aimlessly through my first year with no sense of purpose or clear goal. after spectacularly falling out of favor with the gods of mathematics (the icing on the cake was probably quoting shakespearean passages instead of graphs on my precalculus final) and science (if i never hear about the kreb's cycle again, it will be too soon) i realized where my true passions were. writing. literature. art. french. and so, typical of a starry-eyed-quasi-hippie college student, i pursued the liberal arts path - one that no doubt would create more difficulties when considering a career, but brought me boundless joy nonetheless.
i also joined the popular facebook group "i picked a major i like, and one day i will be living out of a box".
despite this major change in which i'd hoped to finally find some semblance of satisfaction, i was still miserable. my classes were infinitely more interesting and engaging but rutgers remained cold, grey, and obnoxious. i had to get out. but where? after entertaining dreams of transferring to NYU (a dream firmly deferred by its astronomical price tag) i found myself applying to study at the university of bristol. i fought with the english department, argued with the study abroad department, bargained with the french department, soundly complained about all three to anyone who would listen, and pushed my anglophilia to the breaking point. then, suddenly, miraculously, it all came together. i was accepted. funds were paid. bags were packed. i was on a plane. i was in bristol.
i've been here for five months. first semester was an endless succession of getting lost, misunderstanding directions, anxiously checking exchange rates, meeting people and instantly forgetting their names, of thinking "what?! that's so weird." i drank my first cider. i drank my first four ciders. i drank my first five ciders a bit too quickly and later quickly rid myself of them at my stomach's insistence. i still pass that spot fondly, my first mark on bristol, about sixteen steps away from the hostel that was my home in that first week. pukey sentiments. how charming.
i've found wonderful friends, of all types of backgrounds. i love them. sadly, but also naturally, my best friends here are american. at times they were what made living in this strange country bearable, my anchors in the constantly shifting tide of a completely foreign culture. england is not america with an accent. it is much bigger but ridiculously smaller. it is soulless and fascinating. it is beautiful and infuriating. having a fellow yank complain about canned macaroni and cheese and mirror your puzzled look when talking to a brit with a particularly incomprehensible accent - these little moments, instead of adding to my ire, only calmed me. grounded me. i'm not the only one perpetually confused. i'm okay.
i haven't done an impressive amount of traveling so far. i've been to bath, which was pretty sure, and interesting, for the roman baths. stonehenge was... stonehenge. a lot of rocks on a field. after twenty pictures and jokes about what would happen should we hop the fence and run over to lick a rock, it got old.
ireland was a short trip. nicole and jess flew there a couple hours before i did, since i had a seminar i couldn't miss. when i landed in dublin it was about 11 pm, and i spent a good half hour trawling the wide city streets trying to locate our hostel. it was a short weekend. we stayed in mixed dorm and made friends with a seemingly unfriendly french guy who left us notes in very poor english to win our attention, at which point we realized he was only shy. we drank bottles of wine and played "never have i ever". we spoke to one of our roommates in bad french while he responded in bewildered italian. we found out he wore only a speedo to bed, and posed for a picture "for his wife". we laughed a lot. nicole lost all of her credit cards in a club. she cried a lot. dublin was very cold, and very green.
thanksgiving - my study abroad advisor in east sussex had dinner at her home. the food was good but i of course missed home. there was no macaroni and cheese! my usual contribution to the thanksgiving spread. the stuffed squash was excellent, however. and in retrospect, mixing red and white wine was a horrible idea.
2009 - paris was too cold. we somehow missed the countdown, which was upsetting. we toasted anyway. me and nicole bemoaned our decision to wear heels. the trains stopped running and we were lost. we found ourselves in a bright restaurant that gave us party instruments and we made use of their bathrooms but quickly left when we saw the prices on the menu. we later on regretted that decision when we discovered the standard 90 euro cover of all the local clubs. nicole and i stood unsteadily on a corner, peering at map, fingers frozen. there was a group of guys who kept trying to tell us which train we should take, they were young and excitable. "non, non," i had to keep saying. they didn't know what they were talking about. we finally got a taxi back to the hostel and devoured our bag of chips before passing out on our tiny beds. happy new year.
i'm going to end here, partly because i'm hungry and tired of writing but also because this post is way too long as it is. i know that i vary between tiresome rambling and unforgiving bluntness. try to deal. if there's one thing i've learned in the past five months, it's that life is rife with inconsistencies but also tinged with familiarity in the oddest, most unexpected places. i hope that at some point in this blog, you find yourself able to relate to my experiences, even if you weren't there with me, tasting what i tasted and hearing what i heard. if not, you can just shake your head and laugh at my international shenanigans. i don't mind.
dad kept telling me to journal, and i WAS journaling, but never in one place, and never of much use or interest to anyone unlucky enough to stumble across it. but the less said about that, the better. who wants unnecessary gloom and doom in a travel blog? ...exactly! no one.
i suppose i'll start from the beginning - i've heard tell that it's a very good place to start.
i am studying at the university of bristol for my junior year. bristol is in southwest england, about two hours away from london by train. [i can hear you scratching your head in confusion - don't worry, it's a common mistake! no, england and london AREN'T synonymous! london is a city, and bristol is a city. equally legitimate! see how that works? amazing, i know.]
i am a belated english major and french minor, meaning that like most bewildered college freshmen i wandered aimlessly through my first year with no sense of purpose or clear goal. after spectacularly falling out of favor with the gods of mathematics (the icing on the cake was probably quoting shakespearean passages instead of graphs on my precalculus final) and science (if i never hear about the kreb's cycle again, it will be too soon) i realized where my true passions were. writing. literature. art. french. and so, typical of a starry-eyed-quasi-hippie college student, i pursued the liberal arts path - one that no doubt would create more difficulties when considering a career, but brought me boundless joy nonetheless.
i also joined the popular facebook group "i picked a major i like, and one day i will be living out of a box".
despite this major change in which i'd hoped to finally find some semblance of satisfaction, i was still miserable. my classes were infinitely more interesting and engaging but rutgers remained cold, grey, and obnoxious. i had to get out. but where? after entertaining dreams of transferring to NYU (a dream firmly deferred by its astronomical price tag) i found myself applying to study at the university of bristol. i fought with the english department, argued with the study abroad department, bargained with the french department, soundly complained about all three to anyone who would listen, and pushed my anglophilia to the breaking point. then, suddenly, miraculously, it all came together. i was accepted. funds were paid. bags were packed. i was on a plane. i was in bristol.
i've been here for five months. first semester was an endless succession of getting lost, misunderstanding directions, anxiously checking exchange rates, meeting people and instantly forgetting their names, of thinking "what?! that's so weird." i drank my first cider. i drank my first four ciders. i drank my first five ciders a bit too quickly and later quickly rid myself of them at my stomach's insistence. i still pass that spot fondly, my first mark on bristol, about sixteen steps away from the hostel that was my home in that first week. pukey sentiments. how charming.
i've found wonderful friends, of all types of backgrounds. i love them. sadly, but also naturally, my best friends here are american. at times they were what made living in this strange country bearable, my anchors in the constantly shifting tide of a completely foreign culture. england is not america with an accent. it is much bigger but ridiculously smaller. it is soulless and fascinating. it is beautiful and infuriating. having a fellow yank complain about canned macaroni and cheese and mirror your puzzled look when talking to a brit with a particularly incomprehensible accent - these little moments, instead of adding to my ire, only calmed me. grounded me. i'm not the only one perpetually confused. i'm okay.
i haven't done an impressive amount of traveling so far. i've been to bath, which was pretty sure, and interesting, for the roman baths. stonehenge was... stonehenge. a lot of rocks on a field. after twenty pictures and jokes about what would happen should we hop the fence and run over to lick a rock, it got old.
ireland was a short trip. nicole and jess flew there a couple hours before i did, since i had a seminar i couldn't miss. when i landed in dublin it was about 11 pm, and i spent a good half hour trawling the wide city streets trying to locate our hostel. it was a short weekend. we stayed in mixed dorm and made friends with a seemingly unfriendly french guy who left us notes in very poor english to win our attention, at which point we realized he was only shy. we drank bottles of wine and played "never have i ever". we spoke to one of our roommates in bad french while he responded in bewildered italian. we found out he wore only a speedo to bed, and posed for a picture "for his wife". we laughed a lot. nicole lost all of her credit cards in a club. she cried a lot. dublin was very cold, and very green.
thanksgiving - my study abroad advisor in east sussex had dinner at her home. the food was good but i of course missed home. there was no macaroni and cheese! my usual contribution to the thanksgiving spread. the stuffed squash was excellent, however. and in retrospect, mixing red and white wine was a horrible idea.
2009 - paris was too cold. we somehow missed the countdown, which was upsetting. we toasted anyway. me and nicole bemoaned our decision to wear heels. the trains stopped running and we were lost. we found ourselves in a bright restaurant that gave us party instruments and we made use of their bathrooms but quickly left when we saw the prices on the menu. we later on regretted that decision when we discovered the standard 90 euro cover of all the local clubs. nicole and i stood unsteadily on a corner, peering at map, fingers frozen. there was a group of guys who kept trying to tell us which train we should take, they were young and excitable. "non, non," i had to keep saying. they didn't know what they were talking about. we finally got a taxi back to the hostel and devoured our bag of chips before passing out on our tiny beds. happy new year.
i'm going to end here, partly because i'm hungry and tired of writing but also because this post is way too long as it is. i know that i vary between tiresome rambling and unforgiving bluntness. try to deal. if there's one thing i've learned in the past five months, it's that life is rife with inconsistencies but also tinged with familiarity in the oddest, most unexpected places. i hope that at some point in this blog, you find yourself able to relate to my experiences, even if you weren't there with me, tasting what i tasted and hearing what i heard. if not, you can just shake your head and laugh at my international shenanigans. i don't mind.
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