last day in London and Brighton

August 14th (Thursday)
after everybody turned in their work for class, we all (Ann, Ruhi, Carolyn, Emily, Margaret and I) headed to London for the IceBar. we had some extra time before going so we went to Oxford st. where they have all the major stores on one street. shopped and browsed a little bit. we passed marks & spencers and saw that they had afternoon tea. we all hadn't had that specific tea and went inside to enjoy ourselves. our tea came with sandwiches and scones. it was a really big meal. right after we headed to IceBar which is a bar made from ice sponsored by Absolut. it cost 15 pounds and that includes a warm cape plus one double shot drink.

we go look for it and we could NOT find it, i was starting to panick because i'm a time freak. but eventually we found it and were on time. we all got these capes that made us all look good, thrown over our clothes. inside it was freezing, duh, but quite small. it wasn't too bad with those fetching capes, we all took our time getting drinks. we had some fun taking pictures and drinking our drinks. man mine was so strong, i can still feel it thinking about it now. bleq. it was fun taking pictures, our drinks were in cups made from ice. we started playing bumper cars with our glasses.

afterwards we met up with the other asian group, i'd call them the more hardcore asian group. of course we would meet in china town. i wanted one last pork bun but they ran out, sad. but i soon got a steamed pork bun, just as good. hung around with them for a little bit and we had to leave. lots of sad goodbyes, aww. the rest of us went to go get some food at a Hong Kong cafe place, the food was pretty good.

our last thing for London was getting autographs for me and ann's wicked program. basically we got the whole main cast, all except Fiyero! i was reallllly mad about it. come on, all except him, ugh! we had a pretty nice ride back on the train back to Brighton. London's been good to us, it was a sad goodbye.

August 15 (Friday)
our last day in Brighton. this day was truly the saddest day of them all. we all made a list of what we wanted to do in Brighton. usually when this happens we would only get 3 or 4 things done. but i was in charge for the day so we got everything done. We first went into the North Lanes for handmade fudge, Sejuice smoothies, and Frozen yogurt at Lick. quite productive i'd say, i also bought some candy and the first harry potter book. Off to the mall, borders, primark and peacock. we all found something each of us liked and bought. besides primark stuff, i bought a really nice wallet and got a student discount woo! at primark i bought a bomber jacket for 11pounds. not too shabby. me and margaret went back to our rooms and put our stuff down while the rest sat around at the beach.

we all met up at Donatello's, me and margaret shared a vegetarian lasagna, wasn't what we were expecting, but it was still really good. too bad we didn't have our first waiter. good stuff. afterward we all headed down to the pier. ate some donuts, gambled a bit, bad idea. found a karaoke place on the pier. we didn't have to pay to do it so we went and sang a bit. i got a little too excited for it and ran on stage, tripped because the step is decieving, and ate it. hahahha i played it off and no one really saw, ahhahahah! after we went back to our flats and packed up.

we met up again later that night to chill a bit. then we all said our goodbyes, super sad. awwww!

Reading List

so i have a bunch of books i want to read before i go back to school:

-The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas (own)
-The Roald Dahl Teasury (own)
-Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk (own)
-The Naked Lunch by Burroughs
-The Life of Pi by Martel
-Swung by Morrison

i will probably add more, but i shouldn't, hahhahah!

Taking a little break from typing

Right now I'm trying Word's version of blogger, apparently I can type on a blog word document and then it transfers to my blog. We'll see.

Anyways I have 1900/2000words I'm so close but not there yet. My mind is stumped on what to write. I think this final essay is going to suck ass!! Whatever! Tomorrow after people's done turning in stuff we're all going to London. I'm going to make a list of stuff I want to do, last minute stuff I didn't get to do. Like going to platform 9 ¾ I haven't done that yet!!! I also need to make a few more purchases as gifts, I feel like I'm buying too much, but it's okay because I like the stuff I bought for people, hahahha!

Oh so much to do but so little time. I feel like I should have done MORE stuff while I was abroad. It's very bittersweet for me to leave, I want to stay in England because the people are awesome and I like the atmosphere but at the same time I miss all the people at home (and of course the food!).

While researching my topic I found this picture. That thing in the background is the burned down West pier in Brighton. And that stencil, is by fucking BANKSY! Ann and I are going to search for it on Friday! That is soooo freaking crazy, apparently there are more in Brighton, but this is I guess easier to find. Hopefully it still exists.

P.S. i'm checking my blog and it worked! but the picture didn't go up, that's okay though. like if i travel in a place without internet i can still keep a blog.

Sunday Stroll

one form of procrastination this weekend was a "sunday stroll". i call it a gentle hike. i just wore a tank top, capris, and tennis shoes. i brought a cardigan just in case. before we went on our stroll i went to the student store and bought a huge bottle of water. it was relatively cheap for its size so i brought it along, figured i'd need it.

the sun was shinning and it was breezy. perfect weather for a gentle hike. i've never been on a hike or a stroll through the countryside. it was beautiful and wasn't too bad. just a bunch of steep hills and lots of cow poos. it got really windy the higher we went. my hair was just fucked from that point on. i had insoles in my shoes so it wasn't bad. but we did walk for around 2 hours. that's a lot for me. i stepped in cow poo, yuck.


our guide, michael poked at cow piles, it was disgusting! in the end it was sorta worth it. we finished at a nice tea place. on the way to the tea place we found some horses, they were so friendly and soft, i fed one an apple when i wasn't supposed to. i also saw a cat on a leash, hahhaha, but the cat was reallllly soft and like watever about the group of teenagers surrounding it. off to eat! i got a Farmer's breakfast: 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, beans and some tea. it was good after that hike. i even forgot to take a picture of the food, i just dug in.

the walk was refreshing and i did something i should have done while here in England.

today i looked on my leg and there's like a rash-like thing. doesn't itch when i don't touch it. but it just looks weird.

My groceries:

WKD Vodka BLUE
WKD Vodka RED
1% Fat Milk 2Pints
Organic Yogurt
Tetley Teabags
One Onion
Haribo Starmix (x6)
Milky Way Stars (x4)

i bought the vodka for home to show how good the alcohol is in England and WKD is REALLY good. i just haven't tried the red one. i hope i don't get it taken away from me at the airport. i am flying to a place where it is illegal for me to be in possession of alcohol. we'll see.

weird thing is that i didn't even get carded. this is at a grocery store that has a huge sign saying that if you look under 21, you'll get carded. has my looks already gone?

k gotta do essays and stuff.

procrastination

well nothing is due yet, but i figured that i shouldn't do it last minute. i have a 1,000word paper and a 2,000word paper due on thursday. the 1,000word paper is just about a art gallery we went to and the 2,000word paper is about "anything art related". the vagueness of that topic scares me. i haven't procrastinated everything, i have started putting together my 20min presentation, it's a shame i get stage fright. i'm going to take public speaking classes winter quarter if i can get in.

what my procrastination entails:
-started packing for home, i don't think i'll need that extra duffel bag i bought, dang.
-made lists of stuff to do here, at home and stuff i want
-cleaning/organizing stuff/paperwork
-ate, a lot hahahah
-spending too much time reading tuckermax.com (seriously this site is addicting)
-account for my spending for the last week or so because i stopped
-searched for ideas on redesigning my guitar, since i made it fugly and i want to pick it up again
-washing the sink full of dishes, i hate doing this but i was bored
-staying up all night web chatting with helen
-watching the WHOLE 5hours or so of the Olympic opening ceremony
-writing on post-its the stuff i have to do/count down of days till stuff i due
-checking facebook and myspace every 5min or so
-thinking and typing out this blog topic
-probably going to go on a hike tomorrow with the school, i don't even go on hikes!
-browsing a lot of different websites

i don't WANT to procrastination but it's like something inside me just likes to pull me away from it. i have the want but not the will.

website recommendation

this is actually the first time i recommend a website. usually nothing realllly catches my eye to share with others, but this is an exception.

www.tuckermax.com

it's basically a site where Tucker Max himself writes recollections of stuff that's happened to him. he is such a jerk, asshole, whatever you may-guy but i gotta say it's the funniest thing i've ever read so far. i haven't read all the stories yet but the funniest one is "Tucker tries buttsex; hilarity does not ensue". it was so gross but so funny at the same time. i think he's a very talented story teller. reading this blog, you already know i suck at telling stories.

i don't laugh this hard about things i read. man, give it a try, if it's not to your liking stop reading.

Clubbing fun + Brighton

last night i went out with my group to go clubbing. i was kinda not up for it because it was raining and there was a lot of lightning, but oddly no real thunder. but i decided to go since everyone was going. wore a primark shirt i just bought earlier that day, turquoise with a girls face and some gold foil, i think it looked cool. plus i brought the pink wristlet purse that i also bought at primark. i claimed i could use it as a weapon. i wore capris in case it did rain and i didn't want my jeans to soak the rain water. it actually wasn't raining outside just lightning. we decided to go to Casablanca, a spanish jazz club.

well we got off the wrong stop, my bad, oh well. we were walking and weren't 100% sure we were going the right direction. then we see Zack Efron look alike, Ryan, and he was going to Casablanca too. the weird thing is that the night before i said my goodbyes to him and was pretty sure i wasn't going to see him, but that night he said "you never know". so that was weird. he got us there in time to get in for free and we were a bit lost. there was a spanish club floor and below it was the disco room. we went to the disco room, it was cool because they played familiar songs and we had some space to ourselves. i wasn't feeling up for drinking so i only got half a pint of strongbow. my body doesn't want alcohol anymore since i threw up.

we sat a booth for a bit and something crawled on Ann. i saw what it was, since i was sitting next to her. it was the most disgusting thing i've ever seen here in the UK. it was a spider but with really thick black legs, and it was like half black and half white. so i freaked out, and so did everyone else. then we decided to not sit anywhere. we just stood around. some people i knew came into the club with their group. so it was a bunch of americans hanging out.


i went with Ruhi to the potty and i waited outside for her. Zack Efron started a conversation with me, we talked a lot, i don't know how to break off a conversation with him. apparently we took too long, and the girls found us. since they came i wanted to break off but he just kept talking. i even tried to get him to talk to the other girls from the other group. i said "why don't you talk to the ladies in the other group" and he said "they're kinda weird" which i thought was weird. hahahhaha, i was trying really hard to break off convo with him because i wanted to talk to my friends. he's hot and all but i don't want to isolate my friends. sometimes the whole group can talk to the guy that i find and it's better that way. but zack efron was only talking to me. hmmm... hahahah at one point i put my wristlet purse on my head while i was talking to him.

anyways, he said that a band was coming in and that they're really good. he was right about that, although they played 70's songs they were good. the singer was pretty good looking and the band was talented. we danced the night away. there were some funky weird dancers out there. especially one guy, i have no idea what he was doing. he was freaking me out. it was like he was swaying with the music but way too slowly. i think he was high or on drugs.

at one point we were all once again with zac efron on the dance floor. he was like by himself, i don't know what to think of him. maybe he's just a guy who wants to make friends. because i know a girl from the other group was hitting up on him, but he told me she's just a friend. well there were some freaky dancers and we used him to block us from the weirds. i went to get water and brought it back to the group, the water tasted so disgusting. something was definitely wrong with it. zac efron put his beer bottle on my head because i told him to put it away, it was empty.

dancing to 70s music is so strange, i did miss hip-hop thank god it wasn't freaking house music/techo. we ran into the guy from pub crawl that Ruhi danced with. it was awkward for her but he didn't talk to her, and vice versa. i think he didn't talk to her because she didn't talk to him. he said something about techno, and i'm like "HECK NO TO TECHNO" i really hate that stuff. that guy called me crazy! i said that i wasn't and that i was just drunk! it's different! i was busy wondering where his friend Sam was, he was the hottie of the two. but the other girls thought he was cute. i dunno he's not my taste, i like dorky guys but a differnt type of dorky guys.

even after the half pint, i didn't feel too well. but i was a tiny bit buzzed, not drunk. i should get drunk anymore. i think my body's like "jeany, you have to stop drinking!" and i'm like "no i wanna drink a bit" and body's like "fine but only a little bit, don't get drunk!" i would have drank some water and maybe that would have made me feel better but the water was really gross and yucky. but then my body hasn't been feeling so well after that night of barfing. i don't feel sick, i feel like something is wrong but i dont know what. i might have to get a physical when i get home or school watever.

we left Casablanca at like 1:30am, we took the night bus home and i was kinda disgusted because this couple was making out and i sat in front of the security cam and it would flash them making out. gross and it was this creepy guy too from sussex.

the next day i had class i thought i would be dead tired because i finished my homework at like 2:30am. but i was fine the next day, class just dragged on. i'm very jealous of Jeff's eyelashes, they're thick and they curl perfectly. looks a bit funny on Jeff but i wish i had those feature. after class i picked up my learning diary from the first session. no marks or anything. lame.

at 3pm i went shopping with Ruhi, Carolyn and Ann. we went to the North Laines, lots of cute tiny shops. we finally got Sejuice, apparently the best smoothie place in Brighton. it was good i just don't like seeds in my drink. the straws were pretty spiffy too. Ruhi got a smoothie with Acai berry which made her drink taste like lipstick, hahaha! i bought some candy and the most english pimpin belt ever. pictured here with my pimp(?) pose. i love the belt, it's red and has like the queen's crown on it. five pounds, i think it's a good investment.

after shopping we walked all the way to The Mock Turtle for some tea. Ann saw our waitress the day before and she gave us each an extra scone. so a total of 8! geez it was a lot, we can barely finish one scone. we were sooo full and wanted to walk it off. the beach was really close so we walked there and sat on the pebbly beach. we threw some rocks for a bit, the rocks tickled my feet while sitting down. then me and Ruhi headed for the water to dip our feet/wash them. it was so painful, there were little sharp rocks and large round rocks. it was somewhat worth it. hahhhahah! i had a good time.

look at my pants! i'm very stylish.

Wall-E, Throwing up, and Primark

after finally having a break from paris, me and Ann went to go watch Wall-E on Monday. that movie made me cry so many times, i'm such a baby. it had some really political ideas established. i think everyone should watch Wall-E, it's so freaking cute. i want to watch it again when i get home.

so yesterday i had a plan to get Ann drunk at karaoke at the King and Queen pub. sadly this did not happen, Ann just got sick-ish. for the first time i drank liquor before cider, the slight headache i already had became much worse. i didn't feel so good, i just had one cocktail and a pint of strongbow. i figured i had to drink water and eat. so that's what i did when i got home soon after. i made myself eat a quesadilla and some fries. then i felt really nauseous. i thought that the food had to settle so i just sad in my room. so basically i threw up everything i just ate. gross. i haven't thrown up in such a long time. and it's not like the alcohol went with it. gross. but i felt much better after puking, if i didn't i think i'd die. not a good experience.

today i went to a museum with some people in my class. samantha, mirium and jeff came along. it was fun company. the museum realllllly sucked, i don't know how a museum becomes like that. i really did not like it. but after Sam said that we should go get some ice cream, everyone thought this was a good idea. she said that we should go to Lick, a frozen yogurt place. i thought we were going to get lost, but surprisingly we didn't. i got a medium frozen yogurt with kiwi, mango and passion fruit. yum! after we walked to the cheap luggage place Sam and Mirium had to get a duffel bag because they bought a lot of stuff. then Sam suggested Primark. Jeff didn't want to go because he doesn't take that long to shop, so we "dropped him off" at Borders. i spent so much at Primark, 25.75 pounds. it might have been more but sometimes when they scan the stuff it's cheaper than what the tag says. it's never more expensive than the tag. i bought presents for people and some clothes for my mom and myself. i got like 10pieces of clothing and accessories.

walking to the bus stop to go back home some stand was selling a container full of small strawberries, it looked good so i bought some. they were pretty good. i'm usually cautious of strawberries, because they sometimes end up really sour.

long Paris blog

Getting there (July 31):
right after Ann's class Tiffanie, Kathie and I all hustled to the Brighton station, i needed to buy a ticket to get into the station and get the tickets from the machine. i didn't buy a ticket on the train but i was buying it at the station, the guy still yelled at me. at least i paid for it. so we missed our train to london because the stupid ticket machines took too long or didn't work. we waited 20mins for the next train, wasn't too bad. we got to London and had to take the tube but Kathie and Ann had to top up their oyster cards because they didn't have enough money to go through. whatever i had allowed extra time just in case of this. we had to run to the office/ticket place and Ann hurt her knee doing that. we get to the eurostar with like 10min before the train departs, but we were supposed to be there 30min before departure. so we missed our train, some guy signed our tickets and told us to get another ticket for the next paris train. we get the the service place and the lady tells me that i have to pay an extra 50 pounds, i was shocked, i didn't see the others bust out their credit cards so i asked them, the manager just told the lady to waive it because we were technically early. we are lucky the manager was at bay. we got a different ticket and waited for it.

got on the train and i tried to sleep for a little bit, i was sleeping on my fist and woke up with drool on it, gross, hahhaha! but what woke me up was the rain slapping across the train, the train was going so fast the rain sounded like loud rice crispies. i should have taken dramamine, i got a bit nausious. finally got to paris! had to get a taxi to our hotel, we got into a mercedes taxi, but we got totally ripped off. freaking 24 euros, i know the cab driver took the long way to the hotel and he knew we were tourists. finally got to the hotel and checked in, the room was so tiny. yeah we got three beds but one of them was a bunk bed. it was just so tiny i laughed. at least we could see the Eiffle Tower if we leaned out the window a bit. man was i tired.

Paris binge (August 1):
i really wanted to go to the Louvre in the morning so we got up early and went straight to the Louvre. we were super hungry so we tried to look for food but everything in the Louvre, food-wise, was closed. went outside and found small place. i got a mushroom quiche, a raspberry tart and a drink. they were both good and filling, but the tart was amazing! we ate across the street from the Louvre. nice view and weather. it wasn't a free day so we payed like 9 euros to get in. i walked it all in 1.5 hours, my feet hurt at this time, but i decided to get to those smaller rooms so i walked some more. after this we headed to the Notre Dame, on the way i got a nutella crepe, it was really good but they put way too much nutella. walked through the Notre Dame then off to the river cruise. it was really nice if i had a sweater but i didn't bring it. but i got to see a bunch of sights from the river.

needed a break so we went back to the hotel to rest a bit. on the way i talked to some cute guys from manchester. too bad i didn't catch their names but we got to our hotel and looked for some place to eat. we found a chinese food place, it was really good but they charged per 100g no wonder they were packing on the food. really good and full.

went to the arch de triomphe and climbed a million stairs, but it was worth the view. we went around sunset and saw the Eiffle Tower light up in front of our eyes. it was beautiful and bright. basically got kicked out and wandered on to Champ Elysees the shopping street of paris. lots of brand stores and car stores. tried to find the Eiffle tower but didn't make it just chilled at a cafe. i got a diablo and tasting it was like a shirley temple. yum still. drinks are so expensive in paris.

went home at 1am, but the buses stopped running at 10pm, so we had to hail a taxi but waiting for one to come by was scarrrry! the taxi was a lot but at least we knew why we were charged the amount. so at this time we knew we had a curfew to make. on the way home i saw a prostitute, and it was a man dressed as a woman.

i was tired as hell when we got to the hotel so when some french guy said "ni hao" to me i just told him to "shut up". racism is not my friend. tiffanie was sooo angry about it but she didn't hear it when that guy said it.

The real france? (august 2):
t was raining when we went out and sorta depressing. i was super hungry again so i just got a crepe with sugar, it was freaking amazing. i liked it with sugar more than nutella. nutella is just a bit too much for a crepe. we ate at a cafe on a side street, they spoke no english but helped us out a bit. i got an apple tart with ice cream. the ice cream was awesome but the tart was bland. we then went to sacre coeur which is a big church on a hiljj. we found a bunch of cute eateries around this area. i got a crepe and some fries, really good stuff. at one place i got a pink macaroon filled with delicious jelly. we headed to the hotel to get ready for our french dinner. we ate at the cheapest place to save money we all got the duck magret with peach which came with pasta that tasted weird. it just took fucking forever to get the check and we had to make our curfew. barely made it to the bus to go home. in the hotel we watched some weird french challenge show, it was good. then we watched some story of a asian lady maid who wanted to work for a family but she changed her mind and it was just weird. tiffanie was angry at the depiction of the chinese lady and was yelling at the tv. tired as fuck after this day.

Goodbye france (august 3):
woke up early but i was the last to rise. quickly checked out and went to the Eiffle Tower. you could walk up or take the elevator. the others took the elevator but i walked up it. it was difficult but i made it. freaking 700 stairs! i felt accomplished and really good about myself. of course this is with all my stuff i brought to france. i felt like a backpacker which i think is cool. the view was amazing and i did write my name on the effile tower, too bad i put the wrong date, oh well, hahaha. i also ate a crossiant on the eiffle tower, how french. lots of people started coming so i went back down. very long queues for the elevator.

Ann and i headed to the Orsay museum it was a free day so i thought i'd check it out. on the way we found a cute cafe and got a savory crepe. it was basically a crepe with pepperoni, chirizo, cheese, and other stuff piled on. it was reallly good and at the end i got a tuna sandwich and eclair to go. the orsay had the longest line ever, i wasn't going to stand in that. instead we went to another church we were both tired as hell so we stopped at a park and chilled. we just sat around and ate the tuna sandwich, it was really good and on a baguette. the eclair was amazing as well.

went back to champs elysees and met up with tiffianie and kathie. me and ann just watched people while waiting. lots of people had really nice shoes. actually ate at mcdonald's and got a happy meal. came with a yogurt drink yum. more people watching but on the less classy side of the street. hahahha! finally went back for one last sugar crepee to eat. then off to the eurostar. we went outside and drank some drinks at a cafe, a classical french experience. once on the train i knocked out! and just slept in an awkward position.

tired as hell but it was worth it. yay!