F(L)OREIGN TRAVELS

COPENHAGEN! 

For reading week, I went with four other study abroad students living in my building on a trip to Copenhagen! We left absurdly early (like, 3am) to catch a bus to Victoria Coach Station, from which we took another bus to Gatwick, where we hopped onto a plane to Denmark. In general, the "sketchy" plane company actually ended up having a pretty spacious plane, and our hostel was actually pretty sweet -- our five person group got upgraded to a 6 person room, which we had to ourselves for the first night! My bed was comfier than the one in London, so I was happy enough.

It's absurdly windy in Copenhagen, and it got painfully cold quite often. This meant lots of cushion eating, especially in our deliriously jet-lagged state. I ate... a lot. Pastries on pastries on pastries, y'all. These pictures don't even do it justice. So much eating. In fact, if you want a closer look at one round of eating I did for Streatcred, you can look at that here. 

End of February - Beginning of March

(I'm going to attempt to consolidate the events I've slacked updates on, wish me luck!)

Went to see Carmen at The Royal Opera House for my Performing Arts  in London module. Aside from ending with a palava of fire dancers, contortionists, and awesome paper-mache bull head props -- the opera kinda stunk. Maybe I'm too h00d.

Went to visit Corina for the first time the first weekend of March! Roehampton definitely isn't the country, but there are trees and grass everywhere and that's just super lovely. I met her pal Jake, who is super fab and sang along to WMYB with me at the Bop while Corina was off doing her own thang. We went to a farmers market & made an impromptu trip to the museum the next day, which was pretty nice! There was this really awesome room of tattoo work found on infamous European prisoners...creepy cool.

Who's got two thumbs, two buns, and is complete crap at updating this blog?

Friday, Friday, Friday. My friend Mariah came to visit from Paris, so Corina & I went to pick her up from the tube station around 11:30ish. After getting her settled into 304, we set off for the palava that was getting to Peckham. Long story short -- luck was on our side. Somehow along the way, I was graciously given an Oyster card with sufficient funds, and we miraculously found our way via 3 different buses to Peckham Rye and wandered over to the Bussey Building for Shorebitch, an event going on from 10pm to 6am. We had booked the tickets last Saturday after having such a good time with the DJs in Shoreditch & being told by them to come hear them play at this event.

Upon entrance, we wandered past the way-too-crowded main room and journeyed upstairs. The time was colored with having dance parties, waiting in line for the toilets, and people watching - aka a furiously good time. Favorite time had to be going off in the nearly empty third room, pictured above. Two hours, two stolen beers (who leaves a perfectly good loose bundle of cans unattended? silly), and one energy drink later, we made our way to the main room for Bill and Will's 5am dance pawty.

It. Was. Such. A. Good. Time. They played good tunes, most specifically Azealia Banks' "212", which we had requested them to play the weekend prior (Flashback: direct quotation from Bill on Saturday about Corina & I -- "don't think we didn't see you guys smashing it over there"). Basically, I dragged Rins out of the bathroom line and we had a baby rapalong. So good. 212xB&W 4eva. Also, shoutout to the baby Ian Eastwood lookalike who was too good for anyone; keep looking cute, bb. 

Thursday was exhausting. Programming was a bit overwhelming, especially because we got our coursework breakdown and I had a mild internal panic attack. Yikes. Was super happy to get home at the end of the day, make some dinner, and get my dance on (in heels...what?). We went exploring in Soho and ended up at this place called Zebrano's. Good stuff! Played two different One Direction songs and a bit of Justin Bieber, among other things. Oh, and I rapped to 212. Ya done good, DJ. 

Friday commenced 24 hours of awesomeness. We began with a trip into central London near Chinatown to go to Pizza Hut's lunch buffet. While it didn't taste quite as good as American Pizza Hut, it was still highly enjoyable. Two hours later after our arrival, my final count went as follows: 8 slices of pizza, one serving of salad, two servings of pasta, one serving each of two different kinds of cold pasta salad, self-made nachos, and then apples & grapes to aid digestion right at the end. I was proud of our table. 

Jumbo post to attempt to catch up; ready, go!

SATURDAY

Actual nonsense day. Sat around in my room all day with Rins to attempt to recover from Sardine Can Friday. Ate these atrocious canned food meals that were on sale at Sainsbury's, because Corina is the best person to eat weird things with (and with some hot sauce, the sludge wasn't too bad!) Went out to Shoreditch that night and had a really nice time because the DJs were actually awesome for once! Topped off the night with a Big Mac because... well, America.

SUNDAY

Woke up properly early so we could get full American / English breakfast at the cafe near me. Went to see Hyde Park / Buckingham Palace (note to self: come back to see the Changing of the Guard when their red coats are back in action). Smuggled Rins in for an extra night because it's lame to travel home alone super late at night. Yay bonding time!

MONDAY

Stayed in for a majority of the day so I could work on and finally kick off Streatcred! Ended my day perfectly with dinner at the Pho place near Clerkenwell. Kinda disappointed that a) the people running it weren't actually Vietnamese, and b) that our waitress didn't know about adding tendons/tripe to my pho, even though the option was listed on the menu. Inauthentic pho in terms of meat, but all the rest of the toppings & condiments were on point. Still happy. Finished my whole bowl. 

TUESDAY

Friday! Hell yeah! I'd been waiting for this day to come since January 13th, when I bought the damn tickets. It was Rin's first official All Time Low show and I was in absolutely agonizing anticipation for her. The babies never ever disappoint and I was super excited to be back in the Sardineland that is the crowd, because all the shows I've been to in the past three or so years I have either A) shot, B) done merch, or C) just hung in the back for. So it was exciting! Like high school all over again.

So we left super early and got to Shepherd's Bush easy peasy by 12:30pm. (We passed Westfield Mall on the way and I just about died on the train. D i e d. Must go when I visit Rins. Must.) And so the waiting game began! Just a mini run down in bulleted form:

Uncomfy concrete mini-step

Interestingly dressed fans

Feeling like the oldest people there

Blessing the sun

iPod tuneage

All Time Low line singalongs via some speaker contraption and a large box

Little Baby Alex & creepy ginger boy

Donut envy

Little babies in general drinking and smoking 

Actually feeling like the oldest people there

McDonalds heaven

Dying because I thought I was going to be found by a human I am hiding from

Missing the sun once it went down at like 4:30 and crying because it was so stinkin' cold and I am not about this life anymore 

Once 5:30 came around, all our food was gone, it was freezing, and our liquid sweaters were necessary. Rins' horribly unbalanced water bottle potion was finished to the tune of Azealia Banks' "212", and so we cracked into our can of Stella (because you need to be corny and appropriate for the occasion). Killed that, and then killed the other cider I brought along, and then my bladder wanted to kill me. So we journeyed into the bar right across the way and fixed the pee-dance problem...then got sidetracked and decided on some Jäger  because why not? Six Feet is my jam, after all. Then we got back in line and it was just about time to head into the venue! Hooray! After getting another set of shots (this is just sounding so promising, isn't it), because of reasons, we got into the crowd--4th row, ish, so not bad! (Sidebar: You know what was weird? Not being able to shoot the show. It's my favorite spot in the house, I think. And I was really, really envious of the people in the pit. Imagine being able to say I shot a show in London? Like hello...that's pretty friggen' sick. Maybe I'll try again for another show.)

TSS: So stinkin' lovely, as per usual. Couldn't see my favorite John dance too well, but I ain't even mad. What I was mad about was the fact that they played for like negative four seconds and then were done. Da fuq? Made me double think how good we have it in Amurricuh. All the Arizona lovin' that we desire.

LTA: Had to pee. So freaking badly. But yay for High At Five & Another Sad Song. Jamz. On the other hand, they played for too long for someone coming back to the same venue very soon after that show. Meh.

ATL: Babies! They're always so reliable, I love it. This marked the 11th time I've seen them, and we were in London, and it was all kind of nuts to me. At this point we had made it to about 2nd row, which I was damn proud of. I wanted barricade for Rins, but we could step on it, which was enough I suppose. Guts replaced Jasey, which kind of tore me to pieces, but I guess if that was a good one to replace it with. Alex sounded great despite his sickness (but when has he ever not sounded great), Jack's dancing was on point, Zack was smiling(!!!!), and Rian...well, damn, that boy will always just be like fine wine. Successful first show for the Rins, I would say!

What we won't talk about is how disgustingly sweaty, stinky, and all-around repulsive I felt at the end of the show. Like, I think I smelled better after Warped Tour, you guys. Warped Tour. 

We also won't talk about how we almost went into the lame-o bar that the TSS bbyz went into, but then the doors got shut. We just won't do it.

Another thing we won't talk about is the massive palava that was public transportation/night buses. Didn't get home 'til 2am. Show let out at 11pm. Do dat math. 

Thursday...aka Valentine's Day. Dun dun dun...but not really! I needed to "do homework" for my Web Design class, which as I've said in the past revolves around creating a blog as our project. Since I'm doing a street food blog, I get to eat for research -- yay! So for my first post, I decided I'd do it on Kerb, which is a street food market not too far away from me around the Kings Cross area. I won't go into detail, but you can read all about my experience as well as future ones on the site, STReatCRED. All I'll say is that the food was absolutely delicious, and that I was as gluttonous as I expected to be. Also...buses at noon are SO SLOW! I was late for class, but as you might gather from the food pictures above, it was well worth the grand entrance. There's only four kids in my class anyway, and only one of them showed up. So really, I think he was glad to see me, late and all. 

Later that night, I made dinner with Chelsea and it was again, super delicious. Food was my valentine, y'all, and I ain't mad about it. We all decided to get dressed up and go out, so I put on my new Missguided top (yahoo!) and scrambled over to the downstairs common room for fancy pre-drinks. Berries! Yay!

Tuesday was cool -- went to the Globe Theatre with my Performing Arts in London class! It seemed super surreal being in there. The quite theatre nerd in me kicked into overdrive and I was pretty doe-eyed the whole time. I even bought a shirt... I may as well draw a capital "L" on my forehead from now on. Moving along...

Wednesday was f r e e z i n g! Even in my Uniqlo HeatTech turtleneck, I was still shivering my little butt off! (That didn't sound like a plug or anything.) But the Historic London walk that day went through a really nice area; I felt better being in a church, it being Ash Wednesday and all, even if I didn't end up finding a service to go to. I do wish it wasn't so bitterly cold though. I would've enjoyed the day a lot more if my feet weren't completely numb and feeling like ice blocks. 

Kicked off last Sunday in a really excited mood -- we had planned to go to Borough Market, and I had hyped it up quite a bit in my head. As luck would have it, it's closed on Sundays... boo. Chelsea, Steve, and I decided to man the weather anyway and walk along the Thames in Bankside as we made our way to Tate Museum.

I have to say, I may not be an art buff, but I think I've found what I like and what I don't in terms of art. Maybe it's less about discovering what my taste is and more about being comfortable/confident enough to have an opinion about it. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I think surrealism might not be my cup of tea. Now, for someone who thinks themselves to have a wickedly expressive imagination, that may be a little odd. But I see right through surrealism; I think it has to do with that one saying where you need to come halfway with modern art, and contribute to it to get an experience. Not that I don't do that -- minimalism may seem boring as beans to some people, but I find it so interesting (as you may notice in my choices of photos above). There are things that I still don't understand, but it gives me things that I enjoy. I like symmetry, clean lines, and a good dose of organization in art...well, at least at this point in my life I will. 

I wonder if I'll ever like Picasso, though. His stuff just seems a bit over my head. I can get down with Monet, but again... meh. And Pollock is not as moving in person as I guess I originally anticipated. Which is kind of a bummer. Am I being excessive right now!?!? Maybe one day when I'm old I'll look back at this and laugh at myself, maybe this'll read as a pretentious girl-in-her-twenties blog post in some years.

We woke up super duper early on Saturday morning to head over to Paddington station, where we were taking the Overground into Oxford! After picking up a a breakfast bagel (<3_<3) and my tickets, we boarded our train and headed over!

We were greeted with a rainy day in Oxford, but it was super enjoyable nonetheless. The architecture in Oxford as a whole is absolutely beautiful, super medieval and well-un-maintained, if that makes any sense. In other words, the tiny alleys and old buildings made the place feel like it had authentic history! I swear, if Tumblr let me put on more than 10 photos, I would :( 

Mini highlight of the day: slipping as I attempted to hike up the side of a muddy mound near Oxford Castle, resulting in me doing a casual plank for all, pals and strangers, to see. Comic relief to the rescue?

Actually huge freakin' highlight of the day: spotting my first Harry Potter landmark! We paid to actually enter the grounds of Christ Church, which houses the actual stairs that they filmed in the movies, one scene being Professor McGonagall introducing the first years to Hogwarts (references can be found here and here). Walking up those stairs, I was positively geeking out. Seeing the Great Hall at Christ Church, which was the inspiration for the Hogwarts Great Hall, it was clear where they drew from and I was pretty awestruck the whole time. Eep!

After a very tiring Thursday, I couldn't wait to sleep in and meet up with some other kids in the Brockport England Program at the Barbican! We made plans a few days in advance to make a day of seeing the Rain Room. It's an art installment that uses motion sensor technology to create an environment where you can enter an area of pouring rain but never actually get rained on yourself. The one catch was that the wait was 3 hours long. At the end of it all, it was so worth it. I can't even explain how preposterous it felt when we started to walk at this wall of rain -- I literally couldn't fathom the idea of not getting Salacious and myself soaking wet. But, we followed the directions to walk super duper slowly and alas, after a bit of patience, Corina and I made it to the middle of the room where our 360° view was of complete rainfall. So, so, so cool. (Wayne McGregor/Random Dance is actually doing a performance in the Rain Room space at the end of February, so Corina and I are gonna head back and brave the long wait for a second time to see the dancers in the space. I absolutely cannot wait. )

First excursion for my Historic London class happened last Wednesday! The plan for the day was to go from Monument and end up at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was reallly quite the beautiful day, albeit wicked windy on London Bridge. Also, St. Paul's felt overwhelming, half because there are so many rules there and half because the epicness of the cathedral's architecture and just overall vibe was kind of a lot to handle (super eloquent sentence structure there, eh?). Anyway, I snuck some sneaky pictures because I couldn't bear not to. Cardio moment of the day was walking up and back down the 250+ steps on an intimidatingly trippy enclosed spiral staircase to get to the Whispering Gallery. The air felt heavy up there, but I could've easily stayed on that balcony all day...not sure that security would've loved that though. Ended the day with some conveyor belt sushi at YO! Sushi with Krissy & our ever-so-lovely Australian pal Kath.