I can't believe the program is almost over! Less than two weeks left . . . It will be such a relief to be done, but it's going to be sad too. I'll miss London, and I'll miss my friends. For now, though, I'm just enjoying the time I have left. Today was great--short reading, short MAG, and beautiful weather. I read and wrote in the park for a while, then came back for dinner, which was chili--a good meal! And dessert was chocolate cake. So perfect. After dinner we watched On the Waterfront. We'd seen the play last week; both were good, although done very differently.
Earlier this week--on Monday, to be exact--we went to the Imperial War Museum. It deserves a mention just because it was such a hard experience. Utterly emotionally draining. Seeing the devastation caused by the war, the stories of the men who died and the people who were left behind . . . and then there was the holocaust exhibition, which was equally trying. It was painful. It was sad. Overall a pretty depressing day.
Anyway. I just wanted to let you all know what's going on. That's all for now. :)
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Much better
Already this week has been so much better than last week (and the week before). Easier reading, shorter MAGG, and beautiful weather. On Monday we got ice cream from an ice cream truck (my first ice cream in London!) and read under a tree in the park.
Yesterday four of us dyed our hair green for St. Patrick's Day. It was spray-on, wash-out dye we got at a store called Preposterous Presents. We used a washcloth to protect our faces and took turns spraying each other and combing the dye into our hair. It smelled really strongly, and Eri and Steve started feeling funny. My comb turned green. Instead of doing his hair, Dan did his beard. It looked so funny. Steve had most of his hair done, and Eri and I did streaks. It turned out pretty well on all of us. (See pictures on Dan's blog, and on my Facebook eventually.)
Our friends' reactions were great, ranging from shock to amusement. Some people loved it, some seemed horrified, and it took some a while to even notice. The best part was going out to the Tate Britain and getting weird looks from strangers. Some smiled; some just stared. A schoolgirl said scornfully to Steve, "Oh my god, you have grass in your hair!" It was great.
That evening we watched the Fox and the Hound, since we hadn't done our weekly Disney movie last Sunday. And today Eri and I are done with MAGing for the week, and I've finished my reading. So I'm free! We might play tennis later; it's another lovely day. Life is fun again. :)
Yesterday four of us dyed our hair green for St. Patrick's Day. It was spray-on, wash-out dye we got at a store called Preposterous Presents. We used a washcloth to protect our faces and took turns spraying each other and combing the dye into our hair. It smelled really strongly, and Eri and Steve started feeling funny. My comb turned green. Instead of doing his hair, Dan did his beard. It looked so funny. Steve had most of his hair done, and Eri and I did streaks. It turned out pretty well on all of us. (See pictures on Dan's blog, and on my Facebook eventually.)
Our friends' reactions were great, ranging from shock to amusement. Some people loved it, some seemed horrified, and it took some a while to even notice. The best part was going out to the Tate Britain and getting weird looks from strangers. Some smiled; some just stared. A schoolgirl said scornfully to Steve, "Oh my god, you have grass in your hair!" It was great.
That evening we watched the Fox and the Hound, since we hadn't done our weekly Disney movie last Sunday. And today Eri and I are done with MAGing for the week, and I've finished my reading. So I'm free! We might play tennis later; it's another lovely day. Life is fun again. :)
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Funday
Ahhh, Sunday feels so good after a crazy week of work. This was the biggest MAGG (Museum and Gallery Guide) we've had (according to the professors), so it took a long time and wasn't the most fun. But the John Soane House was really cool--he was an architect and his house was like a maze, and each room was unique and filled with random stuff from his collections. So that was cool. The reading this week wasn't too bad--two of the major ones were fiction, Candide and part IV of Gulliver's Travels--but one day we had this long philosophical thing, which was actually interesting but really long, and it drove me crazy. Dan drew a comic on it for me, though, and Eri wrote encouraging notes. So that made it not as bad.
Also this week Adam, Dan, Mary Beth and I finally booked our flights to Ireland and Scotland, where we're traveling together after the program. That's definitely something to look forward to. Let's see . . . I played tennis for the first time ever on Thursday, before we got the paper topic. Steve is good, but Dan, Eri and I are not--none of us three have played much before. But it was fun and silly, a good thing to do before the stress of the paper began. The topic was ridiculous; no one could really figure it out. So we were all miserable together for three days, especially on Saturday. We called the blue lounge "the room of despair", Adam repeatedly asked me to kill him, and other people were talking about suicidal urges as well. I turned in my paper right at midnight, and I know it wasn't good. But we all made it through, and now it's Sunday!
I slept till noon, went grocery shopping (it was a beautiful day), then we got a pizza for 5 pounds and watched The Prestige, a ridiculously amazing movie full of crazy mess-with-your-mind unexpectedness. It was good. So although it was another stressful week, now it's over, and this new week has started well. And next week is break, which we definitely all need. And Mom and Joe are coming to visit! So I just have to make it through one more week, one more paper, and then I'll be able to completely relax and have fun. :)
Also this week Adam, Dan, Mary Beth and I finally booked our flights to Ireland and Scotland, where we're traveling together after the program. That's definitely something to look forward to. Let's see . . . I played tennis for the first time ever on Thursday, before we got the paper topic. Steve is good, but Dan, Eri and I are not--none of us three have played much before. But it was fun and silly, a good thing to do before the stress of the paper began. The topic was ridiculous; no one could really figure it out. So we were all miserable together for three days, especially on Saturday. We called the blue lounge "the room of despair", Adam repeatedly asked me to kill him, and other people were talking about suicidal urges as well. I turned in my paper right at midnight, and I know it wasn't good. But we all made it through, and now it's Sunday!
I slept till noon, went grocery shopping (it was a beautiful day), then we got a pizza for 5 pounds and watched The Prestige, a ridiculously amazing movie full of crazy mess-with-your-mind unexpectedness. It was good. So although it was another stressful week, now it's over, and this new week has started well. And next week is break, which we definitely all need. And Mom and Joe are coming to visit! So I just have to make it through one more week, one more paper, and then I'll be able to completely relax and have fun. :)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Scraps
What follows are bits from e-mails that I've sent since I last posted. I know it's not much, but at least you'll get an idea of what's been going on.
Jan. 29: Last night some friends and I went to see Les Mis--it was amazing! Three of us were in the very front row (the cheap seats). The stage was right in front of us. It was scary when the actors came right up to the edge. But the music was so good. The cast did a wonderful job. It was so cool.
Feb 1: I got an A- on the first paper (about the individual and the state in Greco-Roman culture). I was surprised and happy. :) I only know of one other person who got an A-.
Feb. 21: London is so busy and so much fun. I've been staying up way too late and doing ridiculous things, like going on a walk at midnight and seeing some ghetto-looking kids frantically run by and then seeing the police with a big group of them (that was earlier tonight) and going on a walk in the evening at Canterbury and having drunk people swear at us (maybe these night time walks aren't such a good idea . . .) London is certainly a lot different from Houghton!
This weekend is wonderful because the professors surprised us by not giving us a paper! So we have a completely free weekend; it's great. I got A minuses on my first two papers, which was a surprise. I have gotten the others back yet. Tomorrow we're going to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; some people saw it tonight and said it was really good. So I'm looking forward to that.
Let's see . . . my favorite thing . . . it's so hard to pick. Going to Bath and Canterbury (they were overnight trips) was really fun because we stayed at nice hotels and had good food (unlike at the Highbury Centre) and had lots of free time, so those were probably what I liked best. My least favorite thing was all the trips to the British Museum, which we had to spend a lot of time at and we all got so sick of. Now we're done with it, though, fortunately. Another bad thing is the papers--they came be pretty stressful. >:(
Now let me update you on a few of the those things: I got my 3rd paper back today and got a B+, which isn't bad but is a little disappointing after doing better on my first two. Also, we didn't actually see Twelfth Night because it was sold out, but we're going to go another time instead. Yesterday was a beautiful day, practically like spring, and we went on a walk by the Thames. Utterly amazing. We've watched a lot of movies and just hung out. Tomorrow, though, it's back to school. :( But I'm still loving the whole experience.
Jan. 29: Last night some friends and I went to see Les Mis--it was amazing! Three of us were in the very front row (the cheap seats). The stage was right in front of us. It was scary when the actors came right up to the edge. But the music was so good. The cast did a wonderful job. It was so cool.
Feb 1: I got an A- on the first paper (about the individual and the state in Greco-Roman culture). I was surprised and happy. :) I only know of one other person who got an A-.
Feb. 21: London is so busy and so much fun. I've been staying up way too late and doing ridiculous things, like going on a walk at midnight and seeing some ghetto-looking kids frantically run by and then seeing the police with a big group of them (that was earlier tonight) and going on a walk in the evening at Canterbury and having drunk people swear at us (maybe these night time walks aren't such a good idea . . .) London is certainly a lot different from Houghton!
This weekend is wonderful because the professors surprised us by not giving us a paper! So we have a completely free weekend; it's great. I got A minuses on my first two papers, which was a surprise. I have gotten the others back yet. Tomorrow we're going to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; some people saw it tonight and said it was really good. So I'm looking forward to that.
Let's see . . . my favorite thing . . . it's so hard to pick. Going to Bath and Canterbury (they were overnight trips) was really fun because we stayed at nice hotels and had good food (unlike at the Highbury Centre) and had lots of free time, so those were probably what I liked best. My least favorite thing was all the trips to the British Museum, which we had to spend a lot of time at and we all got so sick of. Now we're done with it, though, fortunately. Another bad thing is the papers--they came be pretty stressful. >:(
Now let me update you on a few of the those things: I got my 3rd paper back today and got a B+, which isn't bad but is a little disappointing after doing better on my first two. Also, we didn't actually see Twelfth Night because it was sold out, but we're going to go another time instead. Yesterday was a beautiful day, practically like spring, and we went on a walk by the Thames. Utterly amazing. We've watched a lot of movies and just hung out. Tomorrow, though, it's back to school. :( But I'm still loving the whole experience.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
My last day of freedom . . .
Sunday, January 18
I wanted to take advantage of my last day before the schoolwork started, so I decided to go to Kensington to see the hotel where my mom, sisters and I stayed when we were here in 2005. I found a friend, Lizzy, to go with me, and we managed to navigate the tube on our own for the first time and make it to the hotel. After peering into the window and taking a photo, we and saw Kensington Palace, since we were in the area.
Somewhere else I’d been wanting to go to was the Tower Bridge, so next we went there, stopping at a thrift store on the way. We walked across the bridge and saw the Tower of London as well; it was evening then so it was closed, but it was cool to see it at night.
We were adventurous and bought a bag of roasted chestnuts by the Tower. They weren’t my favorite, but since I was hungry I ate them.
It was a fun last-day-of-freedom. The next morning we had our first plenary session . . .
I wanted to take advantage of my last day before the schoolwork started, so I decided to go to Kensington to see the hotel where my mom, sisters and I stayed when we were here in 2005. I found a friend, Lizzy, to go with me, and we managed to navigate the tube on our own for the first time and make it to the hotel. After peering into the window and taking a photo, we and saw Kensington Palace, since we were in the area.
Somewhere else I’d been wanting to go to was the Tower Bridge, so next we went there, stopping at a thrift store on the way. We walked across the bridge and saw the Tower of London as well; it was evening then so it was closed, but it was cool to see it at night.
We were adventurous and bought a bag of roasted chestnuts by the Tower. They weren’t my favorite, but since I was hungry I ate them.
It was a fun last-day-of-freedom. The next morning we had our first plenary session . . .
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