I did get up in time to go to Battersea park today. It was really nice - I like getting up and being able to do something like that before going on with my day.
In theatre class, we talked about Bertolt Brecht. He was a playwright who came up with the idea that it was best for a theatre production to constantly remind an audience that what they are watching isn't real - it's theatre. Through doing this, it prevented the audience from emoting with the characters and zoning out and going to their happy place - it made them think about what's really going on in the story. However, if someone actually adopted all of his advice, I think it would be a rather strange performance. For example, one of the things he said to do was constantly switch casting around (regardless of gender) and mess up the order of the scenes. This meant that characters could be wandering around with a script during a scene. You could also project what the scene is actually about onto the back wall, or maybe lyrics to a song that a character is singing and a stage manager could get the audience to sing along.
My teacher said that one time she directed a play entirely in a Brecht-ian style (in her defence she said that she was 24 at the time :] )and she purposely picked actors to sing and play instruments that had no musical ability. I don't think I would have been able to sit through that entire performance, or even three scenes.
Nicole is in Henley (another area of London) tonight - apparently there's a really nice nightlife and a rowing competition (she's on the crew team at her college). So, I've had the room to myself since I got back from class. I ate lunch and took a nap - I seem to be taking a lot of those lately. I've also been staying up later though, so that probably helps.
After my nap, I had dinner and met up with the rest of the class to go to tonight's show. The venue itself was pretty cool - it was recently converted from a library. There was writing all over the walls detailing future plans and asking for suggestions and thoughts about what to do. We also got to walk around backstage during the intermissions. In the loo, I saw a quote on the wall: 'A woman needs a bicycle like a fish needs a man.' Wondering what the bloody hell that meant, I looked it up when I got back to my room and found another quote: 'A woman needs a man like a fish heeds a bicycle.' That one makes a bit more sense.
The show was very interesting. The National Theatre gave them 9 props (including a necklace of fingers O.o) and three pllaywrights gave a number of stage directions. Three in-house playwrights then had to write one short play each involving whatever of those props they chose and the stage directions from one of the other playwrights. All three plays had different seating layouts - the first one had the audience on three sides of the stage, the second had us all around it and the third was a more traditional layout. They were all a bit strange and hard to understand at times, but the actors were amazing.
Going to shows (through class or West End) and listening to soundtracks is making me miss pit. I love playing in the pit, I'll have to ask my orchestra director if there's anything like that in the West Lafayette area when I get back to school.
It's interesting to read through my blog posts now. I usually type them so late that I don't bother proofreading them and so I find typos after. Sorry about those.
My days have been rather laid back lately and that means that the entries are shorter, but I'm going to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath this weekend so that should provide more long entries. Hopefully I'll be able to post something Saturday night, if not I'll do Saturday's entry on Sunday when we get back and write up Sunday's entry later that night.
It's another late night tonight, but I get to sleep in tomorrow :D
Till then,
-Squirt (my parents call me that, if you've never heard it before)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Dancing Through Life (or just for an hour in my room...)
Today was fairly uneventful. In Living and Dying we talked about the Great Fire. It burned 80% of the city in 5 days, including stone buldings and lead roofs. However, everyone wanted to get everything back up and get on with their lives again quickly, so a lot of the city was rebuilt in 5 years.
After class, Brittney and I met up to plan how we're going to get to Cornwall for our host visit. (I don't know if I told y'all - I'm going on the Host thing with Brittney who is also in IES.) We looked at train tickets and it was unfortunate that they were going to be so expensive, but then we found a coach that would get us there and back for £16 each. We chose that one :D We're also excited to have someone to travel with.
I also planned out my trip to Dover. I was going to get a train ticket, but the website didn't want to accept my credit card so I found a coach to get me there too. It's £15 for both ways and the trips are about the same length as they would be on a train, so it's a win-win :D I also looked at some things to do - I'm definitely going to see the Cliffs (that's why I'm going after all...) and Dover Castle looks pretty cool too. I'm really excited!
Nicole had to go see a film screening at the Centre for a class, so I was by myself in the room for a while. I was kinda bored, so I decided to play the Wicked soundtrack and sing along. It was fun :D The Lion King came on after, but Nicole returned to I wasn't dancing around the room like I was ;]
I was still antsy and bored, so I went to wander around Battersea Park. There were a ton of water features and flowers, and I had way too much fun with my camera. I took 57 pictures, I think that's the most I've taken any day so far, and it was all in the span of an hour. I love my camera :D I've wanted to go there since we got here, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get up early tomorrow to take another walk before class :]
Short post, but it was an uneventful day. Tomorrow we're going to see Where's My Seat? with Theatre class, so that should be interesting - apparently it's 3 different plays and we're going to move around because they're trying to figure out the best seating arrangement for the venue, which is brand new.
Till then,
-Carly
After class, Brittney and I met up to plan how we're going to get to Cornwall for our host visit. (I don't know if I told y'all - I'm going on the Host thing with Brittney who is also in IES.) We looked at train tickets and it was unfortunate that they were going to be so expensive, but then we found a coach that would get us there and back for £16 each. We chose that one :D We're also excited to have someone to travel with.
I also planned out my trip to Dover. I was going to get a train ticket, but the website didn't want to accept my credit card so I found a coach to get me there too. It's £15 for both ways and the trips are about the same length as they would be on a train, so it's a win-win :D I also looked at some things to do - I'm definitely going to see the Cliffs (that's why I'm going after all...) and Dover Castle looks pretty cool too. I'm really excited!
Nicole had to go see a film screening at the Centre for a class, so I was by myself in the room for a while. I was kinda bored, so I decided to play the Wicked soundtrack and sing along. It was fun :D The Lion King came on after, but Nicole returned to I wasn't dancing around the room like I was ;]
I was still antsy and bored, so I went to wander around Battersea Park. There were a ton of water features and flowers, and I had way too much fun with my camera. I took 57 pictures, I think that's the most I've taken any day so far, and it was all in the span of an hour. I love my camera :D I've wanted to go there since we got here, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get up early tomorrow to take another walk before class :]
Short post, but it was an uneventful day. Tomorrow we're going to see Where's My Seat? with Theatre class, so that should be interesting - apparently it's 3 different plays and we're going to move around because they're trying to figure out the best seating arrangement for the venue, which is brand new.
Till then,
-Carly
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
No One Mourns the Wicked
This morning, it was still hot and stuffy in our room. Nicole and I both wore summer clothes to class, but once we were off the tube and out of the station we discovered that maybe that wasn't such a good idea - it was a little chilly. I decided that I was going to go back to the room to grab a sweatshirt for me and a jacket for Nicole ater my class before we met up to go to the theatre for Wicked.
Theatre class was fairly uneventful. We talked about Chicken Soup With Barley and basically agreed as a group that it was really good.
After class was a meeting for people going on the trip this weekend. We talked through the itinerary and signed up for roommates and what we want for dinner.
After the meeting, I walked with KB and Ivy to get some bubble tea. While we were there, it started pouring so we stalled a bit before going back to the tube station to get home. It wasn't raining at South Kensington, so KB decided that she wanted Ben's Cookies (this store next to the station that sells amazing cookies). Well, while we were inside there, it started raining again. We all ate our cookie and by the time we finished it had stopped again. We debated taking a bus back to the res hall, but decided that we might as well walk (it's a 5-10 min walk).
After all this adventuring, I only had about 10 minutes in the room before I was going to leave to meet Nicole after her class. I changed into jeans and grabbed jackets for us and went back to the tube station.
When we got to the theatre, there was a line to the box office and I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to get tickets, but we did and they were pretty good ones too. The cool thing about getting tickets at the box office is that we get the cool looking tickets, not the ticketmaster printoffs. That was at 5 pm, the show wasn't until 7.30. We got dinner and that killed an hour, then we stalled in a Pret for another hour until the house opened.
I got carded for the first time at dinner. Nicole and I both decided that we wanted a drink with our dinner and so I ordered a Malibu and pineapple - and the bartender asked for ID. I'm glad I moved it into my ID holder, the people at the first pub I went to didn't ask me with either drink.
While stalling in Pret, I read an article in the Evening Standard about how the British education system 'no longer encourages children to read books, let alone absorb them or get lost in them'. Evidently time and testing constraints make it so they mostly teach in excerpts rather than whole books. I wouldn't survive very long int he system as it is today :]
Wicked is such an amazing show. There were a few lines that I understood better and were better now that I've actually seen The Wizard of Oz. Nicole had never seen Wicked before, and now she's in love with the man who played Fiyero. He was a rather beautiful man :D In Britain, you can go to the stage doors if you want and see the cast and crew as they leave, so we went down there and she got his autograph and a picture with him. I'm jealous :] Before he got out there, I saw a violinist leave and I think that was the fastest packing up of a violin that I've ever seen - they were still playing when we left the theatre and she walked out about three minutes after we got to the door. Other instruments followed, but they probably had their cases with them. We could never do that - our pits were rarely big enough for us, let alone all our cases and things as well.
We both agreed that Elphaba was a very pretty woman while looking through the pictures in the programme, and she also had a great voice once the show started. I'd forgotten that they went stright from The Wizard and I (her first big song) into What is This Feeling? (she sings this with Galinda), I thought that was impressive.
Glinda had a great voice, but anyone cast as her has an amazing voice in my opinion - Glinda has such a range. Glinda and Elphaba had an amazingly fas costume change going from the scene where they decide to go to the Emerald City together and they run off stage and come back in completely different outfits for One Short Day (the song that they start when they decide to go together). It was very good.
And, in addition to being very hot, Fiyero had a great voice as well. He also danced well :D
And now it's 12.56 am and I have class at 10, so I'm going to sleep.
Till then,
-Carly
Theatre class was fairly uneventful. We talked about Chicken Soup With Barley and basically agreed as a group that it was really good.
After class was a meeting for people going on the trip this weekend. We talked through the itinerary and signed up for roommates and what we want for dinner.
After the meeting, I walked with KB and Ivy to get some bubble tea. While we were there, it started pouring so we stalled a bit before going back to the tube station to get home. It wasn't raining at South Kensington, so KB decided that she wanted Ben's Cookies (this store next to the station that sells amazing cookies). Well, while we were inside there, it started raining again. We all ate our cookie and by the time we finished it had stopped again. We debated taking a bus back to the res hall, but decided that we might as well walk (it's a 5-10 min walk).
After all this adventuring, I only had about 10 minutes in the room before I was going to leave to meet Nicole after her class. I changed into jeans and grabbed jackets for us and went back to the tube station.
When we got to the theatre, there was a line to the box office and I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to get tickets, but we did and they were pretty good ones too. The cool thing about getting tickets at the box office is that we get the cool looking tickets, not the ticketmaster printoffs. That was at 5 pm, the show wasn't until 7.30. We got dinner and that killed an hour, then we stalled in a Pret for another hour until the house opened.
I got carded for the first time at dinner. Nicole and I both decided that we wanted a drink with our dinner and so I ordered a Malibu and pineapple - and the bartender asked for ID. I'm glad I moved it into my ID holder, the people at the first pub I went to didn't ask me with either drink.
While stalling in Pret, I read an article in the Evening Standard about how the British education system 'no longer encourages children to read books, let alone absorb them or get lost in them'. Evidently time and testing constraints make it so they mostly teach in excerpts rather than whole books. I wouldn't survive very long int he system as it is today :]
Wicked is such an amazing show. There were a few lines that I understood better and were better now that I've actually seen The Wizard of Oz. Nicole had never seen Wicked before, and now she's in love with the man who played Fiyero. He was a rather beautiful man :D In Britain, you can go to the stage doors if you want and see the cast and crew as they leave, so we went down there and she got his autograph and a picture with him. I'm jealous :] Before he got out there, I saw a violinist leave and I think that was the fastest packing up of a violin that I've ever seen - they were still playing when we left the theatre and she walked out about three minutes after we got to the door. Other instruments followed, but they probably had their cases with them. We could never do that - our pits were rarely big enough for us, let alone all our cases and things as well.
We both agreed that Elphaba was a very pretty woman while looking through the pictures in the programme, and she also had a great voice once the show started. I'd forgotten that they went stright from The Wizard and I (her first big song) into What is This Feeling? (she sings this with Galinda), I thought that was impressive.
Glinda had a great voice, but anyone cast as her has an amazing voice in my opinion - Glinda has such a range. Glinda and Elphaba had an amazingly fas costume change going from the scene where they decide to go to the Emerald City together and they run off stage and come back in completely different outfits for One Short Day (the song that they start when they decide to go together). It was very good.
And, in addition to being very hot, Fiyero had a great voice as well. He also danced well :D
And now it's 12.56 am and I have class at 10, so I'm going to sleep.
Till then,
-Carly
Monday, June 27, 2011
I'm losing weight just typing this...
I'm loving the warm weather, but I'd rather not be living in a sauna O.o This morning was terrible - Nicole and I were seriously dripping in sweat. It's really gross and now it's to the point where Nicole and I are hoping that it storms tomorrow - the rain will cool it down!
Today, we went to the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666 in Living and Dying. It's a large tower with a winding staircase of 311 steps. I don't like heights, so I went up, took some pictures, and went back down. We got a certificate thing saying that we made it up the Monument, it was exciting :D
After the monument, we went to Guildhall Library to work on our research paper topics. I think I'm doing mine on infanticide - so a happy topic. But there was a case where a woman was going into labour and she just told her servant that she was feeling nauseous. Her servant didn't believe her, but she didn't know the entire truth. What I want to know is how that woman concealed the fact that she was 9 months pregnant! I thought the dresses back then flaunted your hips, not your stomach...
When I got back to the room, the stifling heat hadn't gotten much better. The unfortunate thing about the heat is it was making us both rather lazy. We needed to get laundry done and we both stalled for a while because we didn't want to get up.
Eventually, though, we did manage to get up and get it done. After, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is a museum centred around art, so there were sculptures all over the place. I had heard that there was a display of pld instruments and I wanted to see that, but we couldn't find it. I did see a really cool grand piano.
We were making our way to the Thratre and Performance section, thinking the instruments would be there, and looking at some tapestries (I definitely saw the word 'tapestries' and thought it in Indiana Jones's voice from The Last Crusade in my mind. Tapestries! If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this. It's not the best quality but you can hear what I'm hearing in my head :D ) I don't even remember what Nicole and I were talking about, but I glanced through a doorway and stopped mid-sentance and said 'Ooh, Scar!' Scar and Sarabi's costumes from the West End show were on display in the theatre section. It was really cool to see them up close like that. On the way back from the V&A, Nicole and I went to Waitrose to get me some more vegetarian country pies (they're yummy and easy to make - just throw it in the oven for 30 min and I''ve got a meal!) and we found the J2O! Nicole and I were so excited and now have to practice some self control to not drink them all right now :] We also discovered that our kitchen has a bottle opener - we weren't sure if the bottles were twist top or not - which is lucky since they aren't.
When we got back to our room, I changed into a softball shirt and athletic shorts and I'm a little toasty but much more comfortable than earlier. I checked my emails and saw that Mrs Harper - my host mom in Cornwall - sent me an email. I thought that was very sweet, and I'm excited to go visit :]
I saw on facebook that someone talked about the Blagojevich retrial and I'm so glad that I'm not there for that. I'm so tired of him.
Nicole and I were going to try and go to Wicked tonight, but it was entirely sold out when we looked online so we're going to try again tomorrow. She's never seen it, I'm excited to see it again :D Hopefully it'll work out.
This entry is a rather random and jumping entry, but that's what the day was like, really. Tomorrow there's a meeting for everyone going on the trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath this weekend. I'm curious how they're going to sort out the room assignments, by roommates? By request? I guess we'll see.
Till then,
-Carly B
Today, we went to the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666 in Living and Dying. It's a large tower with a winding staircase of 311 steps. I don't like heights, so I went up, took some pictures, and went back down. We got a certificate thing saying that we made it up the Monument, it was exciting :D
After the monument, we went to Guildhall Library to work on our research paper topics. I think I'm doing mine on infanticide - so a happy topic. But there was a case where a woman was going into labour and she just told her servant that she was feeling nauseous. Her servant didn't believe her, but she didn't know the entire truth. What I want to know is how that woman concealed the fact that she was 9 months pregnant! I thought the dresses back then flaunted your hips, not your stomach...
When I got back to the room, the stifling heat hadn't gotten much better. The unfortunate thing about the heat is it was making us both rather lazy. We needed to get laundry done and we both stalled for a while because we didn't want to get up.
Eventually, though, we did manage to get up and get it done. After, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is a museum centred around art, so there were sculptures all over the place. I had heard that there was a display of pld instruments and I wanted to see that, but we couldn't find it. I did see a really cool grand piano.
We were making our way to the Thratre and Performance section, thinking the instruments would be there, and looking at some tapestries (I definitely saw the word 'tapestries' and thought it in Indiana Jones's voice from The Last Crusade in my mind. Tapestries! If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this. It's not the best quality but you can hear what I'm hearing in my head :D ) I don't even remember what Nicole and I were talking about, but I glanced through a doorway and stopped mid-sentance and said 'Ooh, Scar!' Scar and Sarabi's costumes from the West End show were on display in the theatre section. It was really cool to see them up close like that. On the way back from the V&A, Nicole and I went to Waitrose to get me some more vegetarian country pies (they're yummy and easy to make - just throw it in the oven for 30 min and I''ve got a meal!) and we found the J2O! Nicole and I were so excited and now have to practice some self control to not drink them all right now :] We also discovered that our kitchen has a bottle opener - we weren't sure if the bottles were twist top or not - which is lucky since they aren't.
When we got back to our room, I changed into a softball shirt and athletic shorts and I'm a little toasty but much more comfortable than earlier. I checked my emails and saw that Mrs Harper - my host mom in Cornwall - sent me an email. I thought that was very sweet, and I'm excited to go visit :]
I saw on facebook that someone talked about the Blagojevich retrial and I'm so glad that I'm not there for that. I'm so tired of him.
Nicole and I were going to try and go to Wicked tonight, but it was entirely sold out when we looked online so we're going to try again tomorrow. She's never seen it, I'm excited to see it again :D Hopefully it'll work out.
This entry is a rather random and jumping entry, but that's what the day was like, really. Tomorrow there's a meeting for everyone going on the trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath this weekend. I'm curious how they're going to sort out the room assignments, by roommates? By request? I guess we'll see.
Till then,
-Carly B
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Shopping in 28 degrees
Today was such a beautiful day! It was 28 degrees C (about 85 F or so).
Nicole and I went to Oxford Street today. It was really cool - the buildings were neat and Nadal was all over the place. Nicole really likes him, so she was distracted whenever a bus with him in it would drive by :D
For lunch, we went to this place called Garfunkel's. I had the best Margherita pizza I've ever had - it was so yummy! We both had this apple and mango juice that was absolutely delicious and we're planning on looking for it when we go shopping again. We also had this dessert waffle topped with ice cream and toffee that was really good.
We went to H&M because Nicole needed new shoes and I got some fun socks. I love fun socks :D
Then we went to Nike Town - the store with Nadal posters in all the windows :] Nicole found this cool shirt - it's a Nike tennis shirt that said 'Bring on the Reign' over the Union Jack.
Then we got to the Disney store! Nicole was laughing that a 19 and a 20 year old wanted to go into a Disney store for themselves, and I laughed at her. I told her how 4 high school graduates and their mothers went to Disney World for a graduation gift, she was jealous :D There was a Beefeater Mickey in there - I got a picture with him :]
I got to skype with my mom and dad when I got back. I like talking to them :D I can't wait till they get to join me out here, and Uncle Mike is coming too! He's travelled all over the world, it'll be cool to travel with him.
Unfortunately, when we were making dinner back in the res hall, Nicole and I discovered that all of the bowls, most of the forks and our cups were gone. Wondering what the other people were doing with all that stuff, I wound up eating my ravioli with a spoon. Hopefully some of those bowls are returned by tomorrow morning by breakfast...
Today was a good day, but tomorrow needs to be a laundry day. After that Nicole and I might go to a museum - they're free and we're both college students :D
Till then,
-Carlito
Nicole and I went to Oxford Street today. It was really cool - the buildings were neat and Nadal was all over the place. Nicole really likes him, so she was distracted whenever a bus with him in it would drive by :D
For lunch, we went to this place called Garfunkel's. I had the best Margherita pizza I've ever had - it was so yummy! We both had this apple and mango juice that was absolutely delicious and we're planning on looking for it when we go shopping again. We also had this dessert waffle topped with ice cream and toffee that was really good.
We went to H&M because Nicole needed new shoes and I got some fun socks. I love fun socks :D
Then we went to Nike Town - the store with Nadal posters in all the windows :] Nicole found this cool shirt - it's a Nike tennis shirt that said 'Bring on the Reign' over the Union Jack.
Then we got to the Disney store! Nicole was laughing that a 19 and a 20 year old wanted to go into a Disney store for themselves, and I laughed at her. I told her how 4 high school graduates and their mothers went to Disney World for a graduation gift, she was jealous :D There was a Beefeater Mickey in there - I got a picture with him :]
I got to skype with my mom and dad when I got back. I like talking to them :D I can't wait till they get to join me out here, and Uncle Mike is coming too! He's travelled all over the world, it'll be cool to travel with him.
Unfortunately, when we were making dinner back in the res hall, Nicole and I discovered that all of the bowls, most of the forks and our cups were gone. Wondering what the other people were doing with all that stuff, I wound up eating my ravioli with a spoon. Hopefully some of those bowls are returned by tomorrow morning by breakfast...
Today was a good day, but tomorrow needs to be a laundry day. After that Nicole and I might go to a museum - they're free and we're both college students :D
Till then,
-Carlito
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Missions Slightly Accomplished
This morning, I checked my email and saw that I have an invitation to visit a family in Cornwall through the HOST program! It's the weekend of the 22-24 July, so that means that I won't be able to go on the IES Brighton trip, but I really want to do the HOST thing so it's ok.
Nicole and I went grocery shopping today, and afterwards I needed to get some things done so I set off again on my own. Of all the days to get mistaken for a local, I wasn't expecting it today. I was wearing my Finding Nemo seagulls 'Mine' shirt, brown shorts and tennis shoes and someone asked me for directions. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to help her.
When I set out, I had 5 mission for the afternoon. I only succeeded in one of them, with two half successes.
First: mail some postcards. Result: fail. I needed to get stamps, but the post office closed at 12.30 today, about 2.5 hours before I got there.
Second: get some cash - I'd run out. Result: half success. I was going to go to this Thomas Cook place because it has good rates, but they couldn't do it off a card so I went to an atm. I found one that won't charge me, even though Chase probably will.
Third: get some of those cinnamon things as a treat from McDonald's. Result: half success. I don't think they had them, so I got a McFlurry instead. It was yummy anyway.
Fourth: get new headphones - one of the earbuds on mine now doesn't work. Result: fail. I was hoping the Waterstone's nearby might have some, but they didn't. I'm planning on wandering around Oxford Street (major shopping street) tomorrow, so hopefully I'll find some then.
Fifth: get tickets to see Harry Potter. Result: win! Jasmine and Ivy, two girls in IES, were getting their tickets online today so they got one for me too. Huzzah!
So, all in all it wan't the most successful afternoon, but not too bad either. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Tonight some of the student assistants were planning a pub trip, but I didn't go. Partially because I didn't want to buy anything. I only bought groceries and a McFlurry today, no meals - I ate from the kitchen. I'm so proud of myself :D But also partially because I wanted to work on my research paper topic. I want to do something with Criminology and Justice, but I don't know exactly what. I'm thinking maybe something with witchcraft and/or murder. If my math career plans fail, I want to be a cop so this should be a fun paper to research.
I'm going to go read some Shakespeare now - we're going to see King Richard III in Theatre class so I'm reading it first. I get to sleep in again tomorrow! :D
Till then,
-Carly
Nicole and I went grocery shopping today, and afterwards I needed to get some things done so I set off again on my own. Of all the days to get mistaken for a local, I wasn't expecting it today. I was wearing my Finding Nemo seagulls 'Mine' shirt, brown shorts and tennis shoes and someone asked me for directions. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to help her.
When I set out, I had 5 mission for the afternoon. I only succeeded in one of them, with two half successes.
First: mail some postcards. Result: fail. I needed to get stamps, but the post office closed at 12.30 today, about 2.5 hours before I got there.
Second: get some cash - I'd run out. Result: half success. I was going to go to this Thomas Cook place because it has good rates, but they couldn't do it off a card so I went to an atm. I found one that won't charge me, even though Chase probably will.
Third: get some of those cinnamon things as a treat from McDonald's. Result: half success. I don't think they had them, so I got a McFlurry instead. It was yummy anyway.
Fourth: get new headphones - one of the earbuds on mine now doesn't work. Result: fail. I was hoping the Waterstone's nearby might have some, but they didn't. I'm planning on wandering around Oxford Street (major shopping street) tomorrow, so hopefully I'll find some then.
Fifth: get tickets to see Harry Potter. Result: win! Jasmine and Ivy, two girls in IES, were getting their tickets online today so they got one for me too. Huzzah!
So, all in all it wan't the most successful afternoon, but not too bad either. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Tonight some of the student assistants were planning a pub trip, but I didn't go. Partially because I didn't want to buy anything. I only bought groceries and a McFlurry today, no meals - I ate from the kitchen. I'm so proud of myself :D But also partially because I wanted to work on my research paper topic. I want to do something with Criminology and Justice, but I don't know exactly what. I'm thinking maybe something with witchcraft and/or murder. If my math career plans fail, I want to be a cop so this should be a fun paper to research.
I'm going to go read some Shakespeare now - we're going to see King Richard III in Theatre class so I'm reading it first. I get to sleep in again tomorrow! :D
Till then,
-Carly
Friday, June 24, 2011
A trip to Wimbledon, complete with a visit to the First Aid station!
We had an early morning today. My alarm went off at 4.23 am so I could get a shower before we gathered in the lobby at 5.15. We took one of the first trains out of South Kensington (the tube station nearest to the res hall) and got into the queue at 6.30 or so. I was number 2935 for the day, and there were people setting up camp in the queue for tomorrow around 8.30. Nicole and I had breakfast, but in the queue my stomach and back started hurting. It got worse as time went by and I started debating how long I was going to stay once we entered the compound and I found a place to sit for a bit. The compound is huge - there's 19 courts and all sorts of food and shopping places as well.
I was going to get lunch when suddenly I felt really faint and I knew I wasn't going to make it to the food court, so I went to the first aid centre. They steered me to a bed - evidently I was pale and shaking. I think I was underslept, undernourished and dehydrated, just lying down for 10 minutes and drinking some water helped immensely. The guys who were helping me were super nice too.
After that fun experience, I went to find some food and stake out a spot on the hill with the large viewing screen. The sun was out for the majority of the day - it was exciting. And my face is pretty pink now, but it was totally worth it :D
Unfortunately, there was a British female player playing at the same time of Andy Roddick's match, so I only got to see the very ending of it. The match I was watching was Laura Robson v Maria Sharapova, and Robsin gave Sharapova a run for her money. It was a good match, and goodness does Sharapova make a lot of noise when she plays. It's not like she's tired, it started on the first point!
After Andy's match clouds were rolling in and it felt like it was going to rain. I was also getting pretty tired, so I decided to leave before Andy Murray's match. It was unfortunate, I wanted to see that one, but smart. I got back and planned on relaxing and reading some Shakespeare - I got a 1252 page book of all his plays :D
When I woke up an hour and a half later, Nicole was back and I was feeling a lot better. I got dinner and watched some Bones episodes, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow :]
Till than,
-Carly
I was going to get lunch when suddenly I felt really faint and I knew I wasn't going to make it to the food court, so I went to the first aid centre. They steered me to a bed - evidently I was pale and shaking. I think I was underslept, undernourished and dehydrated, just lying down for 10 minutes and drinking some water helped immensely. The guys who were helping me were super nice too.
After that fun experience, I went to find some food and stake out a spot on the hill with the large viewing screen. The sun was out for the majority of the day - it was exciting. And my face is pretty pink now, but it was totally worth it :D
Unfortunately, there was a British female player playing at the same time of Andy Roddick's match, so I only got to see the very ending of it. The match I was watching was Laura Robson v Maria Sharapova, and Robsin gave Sharapova a run for her money. It was a good match, and goodness does Sharapova make a lot of noise when she plays. It's not like she's tired, it started on the first point!
After Andy's match clouds were rolling in and it felt like it was going to rain. I was also getting pretty tired, so I decided to leave before Andy Murray's match. It was unfortunate, I wanted to see that one, but smart. I got back and planned on relaxing and reading some Shakespeare - I got a 1252 page book of all his plays :D
When I woke up an hour and a half later, Nicole was back and I was feeling a lot better. I got dinner and watched some Bones episodes, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow :]
Till than,
-Carly
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