Trip to Edinburgh, Day Two

This post is dedicated to the one full day I spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was also the day where Carlin, Maxine, JennyRae and I saw virtually no one else from our group and spent some real quality time getting to know one another.

We got kind of a late start, but eventually made it down the road (just past Mamma's pizza place) to Edinburgh Castle. It cost £11 to get in, but it was so worth it. I think you could easily spend half a day there, but seeing as how we did not have half a day, it was a good two hours of exploring a very very old castle -- virtually a city, which is pretty amazing.
I'll just post some pictures so I don't have to describe anything.

There are tons of pics, so choosing them is difficult, so you'll just have to check out my Facebook albums for the whole deal.
Probably one of the stupidest moments of my life happened at this castle, and it's somewhat related to this very triumphant picture of me. See? It looks as though I have conquered this unsuspecting canon. I am magnificent and it is now my bitch. Except then I tried to straddle it and move forward. So this picture was taken about 30 seconds before I completely ate it off the side.

I cut my elbow and I may have dislodged something in my lower back. Ah well!

Following this escapade, we left and walked down the Royal Mile, basically in search of food. About a block from the castle, we ran into this happenin' street:
Yay for my totally boring yet exciting to see on a street sign surname! I got a little giddy. It made me all kinds of think of my dad. =)

We found a pub on my street, and I'm only reporting on this particular pub because we had such an amazing (and fattening) lunch there. And it's about time, because the food in Britain kind of blows.
Hmm... Stella...
When we saw that they had nachos, we basically flipped. And they were so good. Just what the doctor ordered, because I can't tell you how hard it is coming from California and not having access to any passable Mexican food. The guacamole was like Heaven in my mouth.
Anyway, following lunch, it was time to wander. And that's pretty much all we did for the rest of the day: walk aimlessly.

We got to see parts of the city that we may not have been able to see had we not gotten a little lost. The city is so beautiful, and after getting to see two great views of the city (Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh Castle) I got sad that we were only going to be there for one day, because there is so much to do and see. It just solidified for me that I'll have to go back again and see other parts of the city, not to mention the areas around it -- more castles and hills and lakes and great great stuff.
Instead of posting tons of pictures of the city, I'll cut to the night time. We were pretty exhausted after walking around all day and we went back to the room to nap before getting ready to find food and pubs.

We got pizza and chips at about 10:30pm, at the ONE place in all of Edinburgh (besides strip clubs) that serve food past 9pm on Sunday nights. We ate it all on a curb, shared some extra pizza with a bouncer and got a bottle of wine to share before heading up the road to a pub/club called Opium that had £1 drinks!!

That means a lot of whiskey and cokes for so very little. Also gin and tonics. And Foster's (which, incidentally, is very popular and cheap here, but they don't actually even sell in Australia... yeah.)
We met 3 crazy Scotsmen at Opium after trying to figure out why a certain song that came on (which none of us had heard) made everyone in the pub freak out with excitement. (It was like what I do when "SexyBack" comes on.)

They also don't really know how to take pictures, as you can see.

Honestly, they didn't quite know what to do with us. "Is that how they dance in California?!?"

We stayed out pretty late, but with enough time to get home and sleep a little, at least. The guys wanted us to go with them to another club, but it had a cover charge, so we peaced.

Then I had to take a bath at home, because we didn't have hot water coming out of the shower head.

It was interesting.

Trip to Edinburgh, Day One

I probably should have started this post days ago, but I have been so exhausted from travel and confused from new module set-ups, I just haven't gotten around to it. But now, finally, after two days, I have some coffee in me. So I'm ready to write.

Our group left Saturday morning for Edinburgh, and it was 8 hours of the bumpy back of a bus, a constant view of the English countryside and a crick in my neck. The same goes for the ride back, though this time, it was 10 hours because we made more stops. I will say however that any form of travel is bearable if you are doing it with awesome people, which I happened to be. Carlin, Maxine, JennyRae (another Santa Barbarian) and myself made up the female demographic of the last 2 rows, and Spencer, Marshall and Hirsh made up the male. When we weren't trying to sleep, read or eat, conversations were plentiful, particularly when Marshall decides to ask broad questions about dancing with guys who have hard-ons. What's not to like? (The conversation, not the hard-on... yeah.)

(Side track: Finally talked to someone who has read and seen the absolutely romantic and literary brilliance of The Time Traveler's Wife, which let me tell you is a frickin' relief, because some people ::cough::Kim::cough::Gell::cough::Kait::cough::Ken::cough:: have yet to take my advice and get crackin' on the reading. Spencer is now my new best reading friend until I get a message from someone else saying they've read it and want to give me presents for having recommended such a miraculous book. Anyone who has access to my bedroom and fountain of books has no excuse: it's there ready to read for free.)

But I digress. I've got several posts to do and I'm rambling about great, but unimportant things.

When we finally got to Edinburgh, we were exhausted and starving, but that did not detract from the feeling of finally being out and about in Scotland. Our first mission was to find food, and friends had recommended that we eat at this pizza joint called Mamma's (the blue canopy in the background) in the central market square. The area had just been the location of the Scottish Jazz and Folk Music Festival, which we had missed by merely an hour. Sucks for us.

After eating, half the group walked to the edge of the city to hike up Arthur's Seat -- a very very large hill that I would argue is one of the highest points in the city. Had I known it was going to be covered in sharp rocks and very steep and slippery and freezing cold at the top, I wouldn't have worn my sock-like ballet flats or bought two mini-bottles of wine to carry in my over-sized side-bag. (Wow, that sentence had 4 dashes in it, I'm on a roll!) The walk looked a little like this, without pictures of the pain.

looking up at Arthur's Seat --- one of the 'yield' signs that I love

the progression up the trail, looking out over Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth
(you can see the differences in height by the phallic-like [aren't they always?] building in the distance)

My shoes were virtually ruined, and I had to walk half the speed of everyone else because it felt like I had no shoes on at all, but I made it up the hill not too far behind and I didn't slip or fall once. I even managed to avoid getting a single rock in my shoe. And in the end, getting to the top was completely worth the struggle.

The grass was tall and soft and the grass bed was even more so -- like a mattress! The thought of snakes and bugs and spiders didn't even cross my mind, partly because I was so tired and the grass looked so inviting. The wind was freezing because the ocean was so close by, so we laid down to avoid the wind. I could have fallen asleep, it was so beautiful and peaceful up there. Yet, despite the cold, our TA guide Jacqui passed around some very rewarding Chardonnay.

My favorite picture ever is this one (on the left) that I took of Katrina, with the city and the firth in the distance. As you can see, it's very high up. How could you not want to sit on the grass??
However, the one I like best of me (since I'm full of so much self-love) was this one I stole from Spencer. I had told people on the bus that I wanted a picture of me reading my edition of Wuthering Heights while sitting on a rolling hill of grass.

Even though I'm in Scotland and not Yorkshire, I feel this picture will definitely suffice; this alone was worth the trek for which my shoes/feet will never forgive me.

After heading down, night was upon us and the only thing left to do was party. And let me tell ya: Scottish people know how to party. These fools are crizazy! I don't have any pictures from this night, but even though I only had one mini-bottle of wine and 3/4 of a pint, we danced like maniacs at a pub/bar called The Three Sisters and experienced a Saturday night that rivals a Halloween in Isla Vista (just slightly less crowded, less costumes -- though there were some, for maybe 20 hen [aka. bachelorette] parties -- and more glass on the ground.)

For only being in Edinburgh for 6 hours, it was a pretty jam-packed night.

More to come. Pictures, etc.

Friday Follies (aka. boring updates)

I have been so friggin' tired lately, I dunno what it is. It seems as though everyone is getting sick here, and those that aren't sick are consumed with sleep. Or drinking, which is another fantastic option.

It's a beautiful day today, thank God, and that means I can finally go and see Much Ado About Nothing on the Garden Lawn behind King's. I might have to go and buy some wine.

Tomorrow we leave for Edinburgh, 7am -- an 8 hour bus ride. I shudder at the thought. Maxine, Carlin and I are going to haul ass to the back of the bus where there is tons o' leg room and we're going to annex ourselves back there so we can sleep and read. Carlin and I armed ourselves with 3 butter croissants, 2 chocolate chip pastries, 2 chicken and bacon sandwiches, 2 1.5-liter bottles of water, and various fruit types to share between us and anyone else we feel deserves our food. Some other cool peeps (yes, I just said peeps) are going on the trip too, like Megan and Spencer, which should be a lot of fun.

I'll be sure to take an insane amount of pictures and try not to bitch and moan about how I'm not going to Edinburgh 2 weeks from now when the festival is going on. (PS. I got an e-mail two days ago saying that a spot had opened and since I was next on the waiting list, I could forgo this weekend's trip and go to the Festival instead.... but my friends are going to this one, and I wouldn't want to abandon them. Psh. What I do for friends...)

Whatever. I'll have a blast. It's SCOTLAND! I ain't complaining.

In other news, and old news, I have a book buying problem. Like... even pounds don't stop me! (The "deals" are actually better here, but whatevs...) And I've been exploring the world of British authors. So many new books to explore, and covers to judge! =)

I've already bought (aside from HP) Fred & Edie by Jill Dawson and Hotel World by Ali Smith. The latter is actually extremely experimental and very interesting to read. I also bought Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I hope to finish those last two books before Eclipse comes out, 'cause my reading capabilities will all be going downhill once that heart-attack-waiting-to-happen comes out.

I'm going to be mailing all my books home, because I simply have too many. Carlin and I are also planning on starting our own Book Club (name to be decided). I'm excited about it. We both read the same one and then talk about it. What's not to like? Other people should join and we could start a forum. We both agree that we want a reason to read (and finish) certain books, even if they aren't our favorite. That way, it makes for greater discussion. It's been nice having to read books I didn't particularly love, and that I probably would have chucked after 50 pages if I didn't have to finish.

Anyway. It's dinner time. And the play is soon.

If you didn't read my short story and you want to, it's posted below.

Goodbye for a few days!

A little tipsy right now...

Hello hello hello...

Just a general update here. Nothing has really been happening, except a bunch of business. After finishing Harry, I dedicated myself to focusing on my short story "Token For Perdita," which as of today, my half-way mark got great marks in class! =) So that is exciting. If it is up to snuff at the end of the week when it is due, I'll post it here. It's very, very, very (should I continue?) basic and straight-forward as far as short stories go -- my goal was to just write one, even if it was boring and predictable. Having never written one, I just wanted to do it and see that I was capable of telling even the most pointless of stories in 3000 words.

Today was insane -- Week 4, which means all 4 week classes have their finals this week. For some reason, all 8 week classes don't have lectures this week, so all of my seminars were moved to today, which made my already 2 lecture, 1 seminar, 1 screening Monday very, very full. Needless to say, the movie we watched today, The Way Ahead, was entertaining, and Carlin and I brought our usual cheese, bread, wine and fruit -- this time sharing with our fantastic guy pals, Sean, Dean and Mark. Also, Nick, Ben and Ben's visiting friend Terren were allowed to bask in our bread and chocolates! =)

Carlin and I are the token females and we know how to provide our men with good food and drink! (Wow, these 1940's war films are really rubbing off on me in a bad, bad way...)

Afterwards we rewarded ourselves -- after such an extremely long and exhausting day -- a trip out to The Eagle for a pint, where we talked movies and hot celebs with Dean and Sean. I love these boys, they're so chill and easy to get along with! Thank God we have more screenings. That just means more wine and bread and... well, you get it.

Edinburgh is this weekend, which is more than fantastically exciting -- I cannot wait! Dublin plans have been made concrete -- last weekend of the programme, we're going with an enormous group of people; Carlin, me, Austin and Dan are sharing a hotel room and I made the plane/train reservations last night. Crossing fingers, hoping everything works out. Cannot WAIT for Dublin.

I originally wanted to go to Amsterdam, but I'm afraid that that isn't going to end up happening. I could go, but while being in England, I'd like to try and make plans for day-trips around the country. Bath, Stonehenge, down to see Barb!!! Also, Oxford is so very close -- I want to make sure I see it. And Ely too.

So, we'll see. Almost half-way there. Will be very sad to approach the end, but there is still so much to be done!

Love to everyone. Peace.

Punt This Way: Cam Trip #2

Today is a disgustingly British day. Yesterday was so sunny and warm and beautiful -- all day -- and today there is constant downpour. Very upsetting, because I wanted to see Hairspray, but can't walk that far in the rainy rain. So I may just have to postpone that trip until tomorrow or Sunday. Holy crap, I'm just waiting for the frickin' thunder to start. It is raining so hard.

Yesterday I went punting for the 2nd time, this time I got a chance to do the actual punting, which was definitely harder than I thought. It's just a matter of getting your coordination down, and figuring out the right way to put the pole so that you turn the way you want. I only went about 100 yards (I parked us), and it took a good 10 minutes or so.

Here are Bri and Austin heading down to the punting area. We're so special 'cause we're King's College members. =) And that punting stick is looooooong.

I was gonna post a lot of pictures, but I figure the videos would be more appropriate. Two of 'em, which was definitely not enough, but I ran out of memory on my camera. Enjoy.

Highlights, mostly having to do with Bri, explained because they're difficult to hear/see:

- Bri thinking that a guy on the side of the river looked like Jerry Garcia.
- Bri making up/reporting trivia about Wren Library, which she mistakenly calls "Wren College," and nobody acknowledging poor punt-master Austin when he corrects her numerous times by saying that it's actually Trinity College.
- Bri telling me, as we're going under the bridge: "I saw so much PDA on the streets today I couldn't help myself but think of what you said yesterday about 'What is this, the city of fuckin' love?'" (it's true.... these people in this town are all over each other).
- Dan attempting to feed a duck wine just after the time ran out on video #1.
- The entrance to St. John's really does look like a vagina.
- We get hit by other punts, several times.

PS. Austin, Dan and Michelle are punting geniuses. I suck at punting.

Here's a picture of that calf I was talking about several, several posts ago. Cute, huh? That's one side of the cam, then there's the other (which, every time I see it, looks like a postcard).

Smart Dressers

You would have to be a student here to understand how exciting this was. And like most things, the novelty wore off pretty quick.

But I'm not gonna lie: Walking on the grass felt pretty cool. Except for the fact that my heels kept crushing through the grass, so I spent all of drink time walking on the balls of my feet to avoid aerating the King's Lawn. I just made life easier for some worms, oh well.
Monday was our second formal hall dinner. Can't say I was feeling my prettiest on this day, but hey! Wine and more wine and lots of free food and good people! I ain't complainin'.

There isn't a lot I can talk about with regards to this dinner, except that it was fun, the food was kind of iffy (but it's Britain... so... what else is new?), and I stole all of these pictures from Maxine and others, because I just don't have the space for a camera in my little, itty-bitty purse.
Here is part of the group, clockwise from top: Maxine, Rich, Phil, Dan, Carlin (who's gonna hate me for putting this up because she looks a little possessed =/), Austin, and me. Don't we all look so "smart"?? Meaning fancy. Except "fancy" actually means costume. Whatever.

This is just a good chance to show you pictures of people, since the last post was virtually ALL buildings and pretty nature things. Below: Maxine and Lauren (both SBers); Nick and Michelle; TA ladies Ariella and Becky (heh, that girl off to the side has no clue, the poor thing); then Mark and Spencer (you have to live in England and go grocery shopping to know why these two being friends is more than kind of funny) and Abby -- such a scandalous picture, props to Maxine for capturing it.

There was also karaoke. It was pretty painful, but when isn't it? We definitely managed to kill the party for a few minutes with a rather insane and virtually inaudible rendition of "I've Got Friends In Low Places," which I don't really know, but I yelled along, you know. Then someone saved the mood by playing "Since You've Been Gone," so all was well.

Here are some of the TA boys -- adorable Dave on the bottom and little, tiny Nick off to the right, singing their cute, British hearts out; and then a very beautiful one of the two coolest, most chill SBers ever, me and Bri!

Hurray. Exciting. Fun-ness overload. Ya ya ya.

Walk In My Shoes: The Coffee Run & Creative Inspiration

Today was a very, very surprisingly nice day.

So I've still been extremely busy with schoolwork, and class takes up too much time (as does rest), but I managed to get my sorry ass out of bed this morning, go and get coffee (as I usually do) at Starbucks ('cause the coffee place here, Cafe Nero, sucks!), and forced myself to take pictures along the way.

You can now see what I see, virtually every day, at least 3 times per day, because it is all about 100-200 yards from my room. The common route du Stacy.
From the corner, outside King's, looking down King's Parade. The college on the right, shops/coffee/stuff on the left. Then, of course, the enormous, intimidating front gate of King's, of which I have constant and unlimited access as a member of the College. =)

Next is the tiny little road that leads to the central market (not the center of Cambridge, by any means, but definitely the apparent center of our college universe), past the amazing Barclay's (bank) which I stop at far more than I should. Then, of course, the market place, where you can get pretty much anything. Flowers, bread, clothes, CDs/records/DVDs, really... anything.

Just past the market is the Starbucks. Then I turn around and head down a different road, leading past the Cambridge Bookstore, several extremely photogenic phonebooths and St. Mary's Church -- which is always open and has bells every 5 frickin' minutes.

Then, after entering through the large, fortress-like gate, this is the view we have of the King's main courtyard -- just across through the 2nd black doorway from the left is where my film seminar is. After making a left, you approach this amazing doorway, leading to our main area of hangout: the King's College Bar. Everything happens here.

Following coffee is usually class. My last class of the day today (Wednesday) was my Creative Writing seminar, which takes place in this humble area: Bodley's Court. As you can see, it is the one area in King's this side of the Cam that has grass you can sit on. And we do. (My class happens just beyond that big bush.)

It's kind of gorgeous, I'm not gonna lie.

Once leaving Bodley's Court, we get a fantastic view of the Backs -- punters on the Cam and the great King's Chapel (here, with a very smiley Spencer and Megan).

And then it's nap-time. Stay tuned for more picture tours.

Lush Fest

Carlin and I are lushes.

2nd week in a row that we've brought wine and some sort of food to our Cinema & Identity screening. Luckily, our professor Patrick is just sad that we don't bring him a Guinness. For sure, next week, we will. As well as our usual wine and spot in the back of the room.

Normally I would think I was annoying during these screenings, and perhaps someone thinks she and I both are, but sometimes our "Oooo"s and "Oh no she didn't!"s are just what the class needs to lighten the fuck up. No one really wants to be there when they can be in the King's Bar or at The Eagle drinking.

Tonight's movie, Millions Like Us, was actually really good, and very well-written. I was not so "comfortable" on the wine that I didn't notice it had really good dialogue. It made me want to watch A League of Their Own.

The two guys who were supposed to drink with us in the back totally bailed, so we say SCREW 'EM! Or rather, whatever. We made a new friend, Dean, and we'll convince him to drink wine with us next time. Maybe we'll even have some beer, step it up a notch.

Been a weird day, slept a lot. My brain is working harder than my body is capable of acknowledging, so the end result is more sleep. It's only 10 p.m. and though I'd rather be out with certain people, I'm glad to just get to read, and maybe actually something for class. Who knows. Miracles happen.

Love to everyone.

PS. I'm sooo over Cute Guy. Though he's still beautiful.

PPS. Seeing Much Ado About Nothing on campus this week, and will be taking part in an all-night Harry Potter Party at the local Waterstone's on Friday night, to get my 7th book. Most people are going on the Dublin trip this weekend, so I can comfortably lock myself in my room, read HP7 all night, and then sleep all day Saturday. I want to be done before the people in California can even get the book, boo ya!

London: A Day Trip

Long-ass, picture heavy post a-ho.It is now Sunday and I am very exhausted from the trip to London yesterday. Originally I had planned to stay the night, but numerous things made me come to terms with the fact that I just couldn't afford -- in numerous senses of the word -- to waste a day aimlessly walking around London when I could get a free ride home and my own bed for no money at all just by coming back last night.

I'm SO glad I did. But before that...

LONDON! I don't feel as though I've been to London before, despite my experiences in 3 of it's airports and one night in a hostel where I went absolutely nowhere, so this was very exciting to get to go with a huge group of people, ie. the entire PKP programme.

Half the group (my half) got dropped off at Trafalgar Square, which was exciting and very busy, it being a Saturday afternoon in the summer and all.

We started off at the National Portrait Gallery, which was really great, as far as museums go -- much more organized and easier to navigate than the Met, I'll tell you that much. There were far too many Madonna and Child, Virgin and Baby paintings for my taste, and it's like... We get it. Jesus died for our sins. Can we stop painting about it already?! So the early stuff wasn't quite my taste, except for this one by da Vinci (not surprisingly) which I feel has such a dark, subtle beauty. Like I've said before, I prefer to see the brush strokes. I want to see a painting, not a photograph (though, don't get me wrong, those are extremely impressive and worthwhile as well, yadda yadda...), OK and moving on.

Carlin, Michelle and I sort of jumped through the museum since we were needing coffee and had only a little while until needing to meet our group, so we went straight for all the modernist, expressionist stuff. You know, the stuff I like.

Probably the most amazing for me was Van Gogh's "The Wheatfield with Cypresses," because (I dunno if you can tell) but it looks exactly like "Starry Night." I mean, exactly. Just day time. And in the country. And opposite sides. I was stunned by it, and got to thinking about why one piece of art is more famous than another. That's always a question I guess, but this one... well, I find it just as beautiful, and the brush strokes up close are absolutely breathtaking.

Several other great things we got to see were a few gorgeous sketches by Toulouse-Lautrec, some Cezanne, tons of Monet's, more Van Gogh's and even more Picasso's. The coolest thing for me was probably seeing "The Rokeby Venus" by Valazquez -- what I think is probably one of the most famous and beautiful images ever to display the female form. It's a flawlessly intricate and beautiful painting, in my opinion. And interestingly enough, my favorite part is probably Cupid's wings. Continuing on with my love of noticeable brush strokes, I could probably have stared at the wings for an hour. Anyway, it was cool to see another famous painting, among many.

OK! Enough of museums (until later...), and on to London, the city! Or what we saw of it. Oh, here is me, trying to get into a phone booth. I intended to take a picture of me inside it, but I think it might have been Armageddon-proof, because I just couldn't get inside. Though it was full of garbage. I'm just very easily confused.

After getting some sandwiches nearby (here's Bree, Caitlin, Dan and Austin), a small group of us were led by two of our amazing TA's around central London on a little "guided" tour. I've been meaning to post about the TA's, because they're awesome and hysterical, but I didn't have any pictures or video of them. Until now. This is Aileen and Dave. Carlin and I love Dave. We love all of them, but particularly Dave, because he is like a puppy we want to take home with us. Actually, we wish he was pocket-sized so we can carry him around and have him entertain us at our beckon call. (We're pretty sure he is scared of us because we tell him all the time how much we love him. He just laughs when we tell him, but I'm also pretty sure he thinks we are in love with him, which is just silliness.) Here they are explaining the statue of King Charles I, right on the edge of Trafalgar Square (with Carlin and Austin looking on at the end).

Hehehe. Just times Dave's adorable-ness by one hundred and you can get an idea of how amazing it is to watch him frolic. He taught everyone to frolic at Sports Day last week. He is a master.

Our trail through Central London took us through the Admiralty Arch, down The Mall, past Buckingham Palace, back all the way through St. James's Park, past the Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, Downing Street and Parliament Square and finally ended at The Palace of Westminster and Big Ben (which is the name of the bell, not the tower/clock, fyi.) Unfortunately, everything past us pretty quickly, because we had to make it to our river boat cruise thing on the Thames, but I don't usually like looking at buildings too long anyway.

(I included links instead of all the pictures I took of everything, simply because I'm not in any pictures and these Wiki-links include pics and facts. I will never be as informative as The Great and Powerful Wiki.)

The only downer was that we didn't get to see the front of Westminster Abbey, just the back of it. Poop. BUT, seeing Westminster Tower was a lot like seeing the Eiffel Tower: not quite real. Even though it was right in front of me, it still felt super-imposed. It was the only building I got starstruck seeing.

After this we took a 15-min. River Thames cruise, which let us out down the river on the South Bank, right next to the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre, which was so trippy to see. But we still had 3 hours to spare before seeing the play...

The group kind of split up at that point -- the people who were planning to stay the night going off to check into the hotel, and Maxine and I got some food and heading into the Tate. I was feeling a little museumed-out, but that has never stopped me in the past. I love Modern art, but c'mon. I mean... c'mon. Really? That video? Oy. Either way, I just can't deny how incredible I find certain paintings, and I will never be too tired or cranky to stare at some Kandinsky (to the right: "Swinging") or Pollock or... well, the list goes on.

There was a Dali & Film exhibit, but it was £11, meaning a whopping $22. Not worth it, at least as of yesterday. We might go back, though, 'cause it would be an amazing thing to get to see. Dali was on crack, especially in the films he did with Walt Disney. And I dig crack-induced artists.

A few of the paintings I saw and loved, shown below, in this order, were Picasso's "Seated Nude," Nicola Tyson's "Swimmer," and Francis Picabia's "Otaïti."



At this point, my legs hurt so badly I didn't think I could walk anymore (I have tendon/muscle problems, don't ask). But we still had Othello ahead of us, and normally that would mean 3 hours of sitting and watching a play, which would have been GREAT. Except, we're commoners. And commoners, in the Globe, get to stand for the entire performance. Now, I'm all about authenticity, and Lord knows I love me some Shakespeare, especially when people are brutally murdered, but I did not think I could make it through. But I did. And I'm alive. And my feet/legs still (kind of) work.

The show was sensational. Talk about a minimalist production -- my favorite kind! Period-appropriate costumes, no sets except for a table, benches and a bed (of course). No lighting, no sound. The man playing Othello was so good. He was scaring the crap out of Bree and I, because of his intensity, and we were right near the front of the stage and, not sitting in seats, there was nothing to grab hold of. Desdemona was cute as hell, and died the kind of death that Claire Danes in Stage Beauty would be proud of. My favorite of them all was Rodrigo. I thought he was hot, everyone thought I was crazy, and they maybe would have settled for "cute." But I love me the fool, especially when he steals the show. (Merry Wives of Windsor, Shad Willingham, OSF 2006, anyone??) Fools are the best characters to play, and the most entertaining, because they are open to the most interpretation. Every production, the fool is different. ::sigh:: Rodrigo was the best part of the show for me, and the perfect amount of comic relief.

Afterwards, I filmed a very brief video of Carlin and London at nighttime. If you're interested.

So we made it through the show, with just a little bit of rain trickling down on us, and Carlin, Maxine and I hiked our asses to the buses so we could get home. It was 11 pm and we had a 2 hour bus ride ahead of us, and chips from the Trailer of Life food cart in the Market Square were screaming our name.

Unfortunately, though, some girl who sat across the aisle from us had been drinking what must have been 2 bottles of wine during the Othello performance and she started throwing up on herself about half-way through the drive.

It was the nastiest smell to have to sit with for an hour, but luckily we had AC, and being completely frozen was a small price to pay for slightly fresher air. But nothing really helped. As a result, Carlin and I became bandits using the two pashmina scarves I bought.

That's right. You wish you were us.

London was definitely fun. Gonna plan another day-trip or more than one to be able to take our time with non-touristy stuff. It is definitely a city that is over-run with tourists. Ughy ugh.