I'll follow you into the dark...

Hey! Look at me, posting, and it hasn't been a week since my last one! Although, I hate to break it to you, not much has changed since my last post. School is still dictating most of my actions, but I'm at a point now where I can take breaks from it like watching Grey's, going for walks, watching movies (I watched Bridget Jones' Diary tonight!) or going to ISH bad trivia! So it's nice to not be doing one thing all the time, my brain kind of gets fried when that happens.

Talked to my mom for about an hour tonight on the phone, it was so good! We talked about tons of stuff, and it was just so nice to hear her voice again. I'm getting stressed over here so it's nice to hear an accepting voice.

I don't know what else to say. I'm seeing a concert on Thursday for music, Rachmaninov and Dvorak, I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it is!

Back to the grind I suppose, until next time!

under the blacklight...

So, I can't seem to go less than a week before updating. I'd love to update more, but the weekdays feel so jam packed that I either don't get a chance to or don't even think of it. Oh well, though, I'm not even sure anyone actually reads this, so it's probably just me writing to myself. Which I can do in my paper journal. Right. But I'm posting anyway! On the off chance one of you Canadian peeps are actually stopping to see what I'm up to.

So what have I been up to? WORK! This felt like my hell week, so much stress and so many things to do. I managed to get a good chunk of things done, and now I only have my four final projects due, which I guess is like having four exams, and they're mostly not due 'till December 5th, so I think I'm doing ok. I hope! I could wake up tomorrow and realize I forgot a bunch of stuff or underestimated the amount of work something will need. But right now it's ok.

This week I saw a play at the Soho theatre called Joe Guy. It was a really good play, basically about the main character, Joe, and how he felt he had to stop being himself in order to suceed in life, which he them failed at. It's also kind of about the tensions between African blacks and Afro-Carribean blacks in London (or Britain in general, I guess) so that was really interesting too. And, the best part in my opinion, it starred Abdul Salis from Love Actually! (That's who the picture is of) For those of you not familiar with this amazing movie, he plays the friend of a guy named Colin Frissell who, after being rejected one too many times by British girls, decides to move go to the US where he will become instantly irrestitable. Anyways, Abdul Salis was amaaaaaazing and I'm so glad to have seen him in that show. Very very cool.

Not much else happened this week, besides a lot of stressing over work. The roomies are gone again. They went to Spain on Tuesday and get back tomorrow. Oh, and I've been slowly falling more and more in love with Rilo Kiley as of late. I always had their album Take Offs and Landings, but I recently got Under the Blacklight and really started liking it. So then I went and got More Adventurous because it already had three songs I liked on it. So yeah. Lots of Jenny Lewis happening in my room right now!

I guess that's all. I'll try to update BEFORE next weekend.

Oh and PS - 26 days and this is all over! Not sure how I feel about that... I'll get back to you.

we'll do it all, everything, on our own

My roomies are both away this weekend, leaving me with a big ol' empty room. It's been a little lonely, but a little amazing at the same time. I forgot how nice it was to have some time for yourself. I also got out of the room a lot and hung out with other London Semester people who I don't spend as much time with. I tell you, being in a triple definitely makes you socially stunted, especially when all three of you are on, for the most part, the same schedule. Same classes, same assignments (which means same busy and quiet periods) and we all know everyone so we all basically have the same social schedule. It's good, because there's always people there, but it's mindless because there's always people there! I'm enjoying it actually, but I think I'll also be glad to go back to my regular social habits.

I've been really stressed about my workload lately, and also getting homesicky because I was having troubles calling home or talking on msn or anything (no phone and no computer make meg something something). So I had a minor breakdown about that on Thursday night, and, to my relief, my friend Blair said she didn't know how I was doing this semester without a computer. It really justified my frustration, and the breakdown gave me the push I needed to do something about it. I talked to my friend Liz, who's also going through this sans CPU, and we decided to split the cost of renting a computer for our last month here. I'm really happy about it. This way I can get all my work done guilt-free, and connect with home a LOT more often.

Last night a bunch of us went to this Canada themed bar in Covent Garden called The Maple Leaf. It was so cool! It felt so stereotypically Canadian. It felt like a log cabin, there was a stuffed bear, hockey memorabilia all over the place, aboriginal art, and Canadian beer! They had Sleeman on tap, and they sold poutine! So of course we indulged. Oh! And they do pitchers, that's virtually unheard of over here! So it was a really good night. :)

I suppose that's all for now. Things are good. :)

I don't need to lose it to know that I had it good...

Well hello! As always, it's been a while, and as always, so much has happened I'm not sure I'll get it all in. But I suppose that's the nature of a blog; something is always left out. And I'm ok with that, more opportunity to share stories when I get home.

Speaking of home, I fly home in a little over a month - 34 days to be exact! I'm both happy and sad about that to be honest. I'm having a great time over here, I really like London and all I've been doing for classes and stuff. But I really miss my family and friends, the people who love you no matter what. I also realize I don't really like the place I'm living in. I feel like I would really have enjoyed living in a flat, with a computer, and a phone (I don't have either here. I know, crazy!)

But last weekend I went to Sheffield to visit Amy, who lived across the hall from me in my first year in Artz. She moved there in September, and is just loving it over here. It was great to see her and spend time with her, and it was also really great to see her so happy with her life right now. She said she has no plans to live in Canada again unless it's to get her immigration papers to move to the UK for good. Wow!

This weekend I feel like be a slow one. I should do some work, so that'll probably happen at some point. But I'd also like to get started on the list I've made of things to do before I leave. Among other things, it is:

- Hyde Park, to see Kenginston Gardens (the Diana stuff) and the Peter Pan statue
- Covent Garden, to see te market that's there
- a movie in Leicester Square
- the Imperial War Museum
- go inside St. Paul's Catherdral
- go ice skating (I'm not sure tis one will pan out, I might just wait 'till I'm back in Kingston)

So that's where I'm at now. Slowly getting more and more ready to go home!

I've been searchin' all around the world...

This weekend feels like the world slowed to a snail's pace. My weekdays go by so fast that when I don't go anywhere on the weekends they feel soooooo sloooooooooooooow. I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad thing. I like having the chance to catch my breath, get caught up with friends and on school work, and have time for myself. But it's a little hard because I when things go by slowly I have more time to miss home, which just makes me feel bad because I feel like I should be enjoying London so much that it wouldn't occur to me to miss something from home. Oh well, can't control what you feel I suppose.

Friday night was ridiculous. A big group of us went out to the Notting Hill Arts Club and drank and danced the night away. It was actually a really good time except for little bits of drama that crept their way into the evening. But the good outweighed the bad I think, so it's ok. Saturday I went to Camden Market again and got myself a day-by-day horoscope book for 99p and a blue bone ring that had dyed my finger. I also got some more gifts - ones for Emile and Alex. Now I only have three people to buy for! And I have ideas for two of them, all I need now is inspiration for Nick and I'm all set. Who knew brothers were so hard to buy for? Last night was really relaxed. I spent the night in, watched a couple episodes of Grey's and V for Vendetta. Today I've got the room to myself mostly, which is so great. I'm getting a great chance to relax and just so what I want. I met with my group for music class and we worked a little on our project, and now I think I'm going to do some more work and possibly watch something on the computer. Feels like a typical Sunday afternoon. All I need now is a copy of the Sunday Star. sigh, I miss it.

What did you do this weekend?

life keeps rolling on...

Yet another busy week. I swear, this one went by faster than the others! Probably because I only got back from my Reading Week adventures on Monday.

Classes this week were good, although it was hard to get back into the school mindset. I managed to though, by music on Wednesday I was back in the swing of things. Tuesday night I saw a play called Kebab at the Royal Court which was pretty good. It was a translation of a Romanian play about Romanian immigrants in Dublin. Specifically it's about three Romanians trying to make a life for themselves. And of course, it being a play, things go wrong. It was a pretty enjoyable play about immigration (something I can identify with, being a Canuck and all) but I felt a little left out because it was Romanians in Ireland, two cultures I don't know a whole lot about. I really liked the show anyway though, probably because there was a talk with the director and cast after the show. I always love hearing feedback from the people actually doing the show.

Last night for music I saw the London Philharmonic Orchestra (not the same orchestra as before!) doing Holst's Planets and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. Let me tell YOU. The Planets was AMAZING!!! Probably my favourite piece of music I've seen since I've been here. So big and so entertaining, and unlike a lot of other really structured classical music it wasn't trying to go awywhere or work toward something. Each movement was just a beautiful meditation on whatever Holst's inspiration was. Just amazing. I need to own it. Belshazzar's Feast was good too, it's a choral piece with singing and all that, and tells the story of the downfall of Babylon. I really like it, just not as much as the Holst. I think I'd like to own it too though.

Wednesday was Hallowe'en. The people at the other res (Vic League) hosted a party for everyone. It was such a good time! Oh man, some people had the most ridiculous costumes! My roomie Steph went as Charlie Chaplin with this creepy paper mask she bought in Amsterdam, and my friend Liz went as euro-trash, but it wasn't enough to go as that she needed to be male euro-trash. Oh man, I've never laughed so hard in my life, she was SO GOOD! She had a unibrow, and a gross goatee, and a fake package, and kept hitting on all the girls in this really indescriminate european accent. It was hysterical, the pictures still crack me up. Oh and another highlight? Jerrard (our prof) and his wife Diana coming to the party, complete with costumes!

So that's basically my week. Today I'm going to try to do work (mail that thing off to Australia, finally!), and watch Grey's. I might watch other things too depending on how much work I get done. I'm staying in London this weekend, and it's the first weekend in a while. I was really excited for it until I remembered why I don't like spending the weekend in London - I get so bored! Maybe I just need to go out walking more. Oh well. Adventure awaits?