Wicked

this musical was fantastic! we got some pretty good seats considering i only paid like 10pounds for the tickets. the stage and props were amazing. the actor playing Fiyero had the most proportioned body i've ever seen on a real person. in my art class you see enough naked statues to know what perfect proportions look like. he was tall which made his dancing look awkward, but it was cute at the same time. i did tear up a little bit at some parts.

i did not expect the ending, that was the second time i teared up. it was so clever and kind of the writers. it didn't have too much to do with Wicked the book. the book was a bit of a downer and confusing in the middle. i love this musical a lot but all the actors had accents even in their singing so i want to go to LA to watch Wicked. i was just sad that we couldn't go to the stage door and get autographs, i really wanted to meet the actor who played Fiyero. luckily Ann said that we can just come back to London and wait for another show to end and get autographs!

P.S. right before we got on the bus to go to Wicked we saw mr. masters in philosophy. he was wondering what we were going to do tomorrow, we said "Paris" and i asked why. he said he was going to invite us to go down to the beach. it was weird seeing him but i guess we were right to say we see him everywhere.

Movie Experience in England

Monday was basically my day off from this crazy schedule so me and Ann went to go watch The Dark Knight. we got our tickets on time, i didn't know how movies worked here so i thought i was late, but the usher told us that the actual movie starts 25mins after. geez, 25mins of ads that's a lot.

so we got in the cinema and sat our butts down. the commercials were like TV commercials about: cereal, cars, and liquor. i think every other ad was promoting some kind of alcoholic drink. it was weird. after the commercials were done the lights went up and everyone was just sitting around. obviously me and Ann were really confused. i asked the person sitting next to me if this was normal and they said "yes the movie will start in a minute or so". that was confusing part.

(no real spoilers for The Dark Knight)

watched the movie, i like the acting but the plot seemed a little bit scattered. also, when we watched Hamlet a few days before we knew that one of the actors we met, black David, was in The Dark Knight. me and Ann gasped sooooo loud when we saw him on the screen. he had a part of an extra but a main extra(?). the only part i didn't like was when Bruce Wayne had to disguise his voice and made it raspy. they should have dubbed it over with Will Arnett's voice, hahahahha! i like the social dilemma that the Joker brought up, it was very Saw-like. i especially love the end where Commissioner Gordon was talking at the very end. i would like a copy of the speech, sorta epic. overall i like the movie, Heath Ledge was awesome i think method acting the Joker would be such a hard task.

Phantom of the Opera

so i heard through helen's blog that there was an earthquake at home, sounded pretty bad with stuff falling. i hope that everyone's okay and that there is not too much damage. i wonder how big the earthquake was. earlier in the trip, i randomly, thought an earthquake happening at home while i was abroad, looked like it happened. at least my mom's not freaking out, she would have if i was in Santa Barbara, but i'm on a whole other continent so i think it's safe to say she's not going to freak.

anyways, a couple of days ago, one of my friend, Carolyn's passport and wallet got stolen, in another country. Belgium to be more specific. she was on the metro to get to the eurostar which was their way back home, when it got stolen. she had to go to the embassy the next day but luckily she got a speedy passport and made her way back home today. we since we had tickets to Phantom she went straight to London. i felt bad for her so me and Ann went to London Chinatown to pick up some cha su bao, aka pork buns. delicious to the max. Carolyn enjoyed it, she's chinese, hahahahha!

I was really excited for this, i really loved the Phantom movie and i knew all the songs. The performance was really amazing. too bad our seats sucked, but we got some binoculars for 50p, which was a worthwhile investment. Ann cried, twice. the actors sang very well especially the men. at one point when the Phantom disappears, he throws this smoke bomb at the floor and i was staring at that spot with the binoculars when it happened so i basically got blinded by the flash. i am so glad i saw Phantom in London, i probably wouldn't have watched it in LA.

After the show, me and Ann bolted to the stage door and got autographs from the actors who played Raoul, Christine, and The Phantom. it was exciting! but i am glad to be home. oh btw i got dibs on this:



p.s. on the brighton bus i talked to this guy that went to sussex as well, i've seen him a lot on campus. he's from ohio, 22, and finishing his dissertation for his masters in philosophy. OMG WTF?! how come all these people have such amazing credentials.

Stratford Upon Avon Weekend

Right after pub crawl i went straight to sleep because i had to get up early to get ready for the early train to Stratford. Kathie, Ann, Mary and I headed to the train station but Ann didn't get her ticket, so she had to get into a long line and we barely made it on the train. we made a few connection and finally got on the train straight to Stratford. there were a bunch of teenagers/young adults on the train, we were worried they were going to camp out for Hamlet. when we actually got to Stratford there were police and drug-sniffing dogs all around. we asked what was going on and someone said it was a Rave Festival thing, called Globle Gathering. i do not like techno music.

we looked for our hotel and couldn't find it because we were walking around town, Mary called the hotel and they picked us up, the hotel was really far away like 3miles from the center of the city. got to the hotel dropped off some stuff and rested a bit before going to camp out. Before we actually camped out we went to this pub "the dirty duck" where "actors frequent daily". we didn't see anyone but i had a great lasagna dinner.

went to the Courtyard Theater and we heard that people were going to gather around the stage door to see the actors. we weren't watching the play that day so when we got there, there wasn't many people. we lined up further down the row, we knew that the actors would make their way over there eventually. the show ended and a lot of people started to gather around. first to come out was Patrick Stewart, i was soo excited, i couldn't believe he was right there in front of me. he was very nice and talked to people while signing programmes.



next came the screaming, aka David Tennant. he went from the beginning of the line where there were the most people and then made his way down. he was really cool, looked a little different from picture and clips of Doctor Who i've watched. but humble nonetheless, not like the Hollywood stars these days. i got an especially great picture of him. someone tried to get something signed from Doctor Who but he said "i can't sign that you've seen the signs" i have no idea what signs he was refering to. he signed my notebook and these crowds of girls pretty much crushed me so after i got my signature i scooted my way out of the crowd. it was awesome, i've never really met such a big celebrity.



this black guy walks out and David says that we should get his autograph so we did, his name is David as well but i call him black David. he was really nice and we told him our story of camping out all night to get standby tickets. he felt sorry for us and actually gave us a free programme, but only one it was nice of him anyways.

so we camped out after getting autographs. we played some card games and stuff to entertain ourselves. some girls joined us because they were waiting for their coach which came at 3am so they were both around 16 years old, pretty young to be out on their own. but they were cool and really fun to talk to. a bit later 2 girls and a guy joined our pow wow, out of all of them only the guy was going to camp out to get tickets. we chatted had some fun, even sang a little bit. they slowly left us and the guy went to sleep, he was ready for the cold, but not us. i was too cold to sleep, so i just stayed up all night. it was pitch black because the lights went out at 2am. it was pretty boring all night except when we had to pee in the park. i went with kathie three times before she went pee. it was hilarious.

finally day comes and i went to browse for early opening stores and bathrooms. found a public bathroom open all night a little further down from where we were, that would have been good to know. got back and everyone was sitting up and awake. the guy we were with is Tom, he's from England, 23 years old and finishing his disertation to get his masters, in Engineering! geez people these days. he was very intimidating because of these facts and he had a hot body. we waited the remaining time by talking and eating a little bit. Mary said that he was flirting with me, that made me nervous because he's so intimidating. he also took a shower in the freaking river next to the park in the freezing water! later around 7am some people came and waited in line too. the place finally opened up, we got our tickets, browsed the store and parted ways with Tom.

got back to the hotel slept for 3 hours, showered and killed some time before going out for dinner and the show. for dinner i got "duck and water crest salad" i was very much disappointed but i didn't want to spend anymore money so i didn't get anything else besides "chips". then we went to the show, we waited a bit outside and met some cool canadian girls, they had tickets since September, i can't imagine waiting that long to see the show. they were very nice so we told them about David Tennant and the stage door. they thanked us for the advice. i was also looking at the park where we peed and people were sitting where we peed, hahahha gross!

we all hustled in to our seats. the seats we got we not bad, situated to the left of the stage. the show started and David Tennant came out of the stage to the left, which was pretty close to us. the first lines David said were with his strong Scottish accent. i could not understand what he was saying, he stopped with the accent at the next scene. i really loved their "modern"-ish take on the Hamlet. oh and i swear that for a full half second during the famous "to be or not to be" speech, he looked at ME! he did it quite well, i wasn't disappointed. i loved his take on his character Hamlet, he was very funny, but at the right time. the Mel Gibson version has nothing on this play we watched. this performance was brilliant. great stage usage and props. the parody play within the play was disturbing, a guy played the queen and was really...i dont know it's hard to explain but it was very unpleasant.

at intermission we all meet Tom's friend David. he was very tall and apparently looks like John Lennon. well David is 24 years old, already finished his masters in biology and works for the freaking Medical Journal! ughh... but he was really nice. he used a lot more English slang than Tom, who uses more American slang to make fun of us. Suddenly one of the Canadian girls comes up and tells us that Kate Winslet and her husband Sam Mendez were in the audience. she showed us where she would be sitting and what she was wearing. we all gave out a big gasp at the same time which freaked out the guys. hahahha!

so back to the play! the rest of it was wonderful i was wondering how that guy was going to get shot because he was hiding behind a mirror like door. apparently he gets shot and the mirrors are shattered but not on the floor, that would be expensive and dangerous. when David was talking to the skull i understood that little speech more because of his use of the skull. the ending was sad, of course, and it was amazing! curtain call and all the actors bowed and stuff.

us girls bolted off the to stage door, i was literally running. there were a lot of people there but we went almost to the end of the line to be in the front. Patrick Stewart came out and started from the end of the line signing stuff. it was awesome once again. then the screaming again, meaning David Tennant. Lucky for us he went straight to the end of the line. he took a quick picture with a little boy and everyone, including me, went "AWWW!!!" really loud. he was like "pshh!" with that one hand gesture that means "get outta here" got him to sign stuff and took more pictures of him. getting out of THIS crowd was soooo hard, i had to back out and push with all my might to get out.

afterwards, canadian girls, us, and the guys went out for drinks. i was initially not going to drink but i did but only half a pint which was enough to get my drunk because i didn't eat too much. i think i was way too flirty with david, i sat next to him and kept hitting him apparently. we talked about california, roofies, rapists, and other lovely subjects. they said that i was "cheeky" when i was drunk, and said i was going to be a bad wife because i like to hit people. it was awesome hanging out with these guys, i think i was an attention hog. we said our goodbye and got some hugs. yay! this was a great day.

i had a wonderful time because of the people we met, not necessarily the town. i love making friends especially locals.

Pub Crawl 2 twice the fun!

so our leaders for this pub crawl were Scott and Mark. Ruhi liked Scott and i kinda thought that Mark was cute because he looks a bit like Will Arnett. so it was our mission to get hugs from these guys by the end of the night.

the first pub we went to was really crowded because half of the group got there before us. i quickly ordered a strongbow, a whole pint and i waited for the rest of my friends to get their drinks. sadly i was drinking by myself for a little bit. sounds like an alcoholic to me! so the girls ordered a pitcher of Pimm's, which came with lots of yummy fruit. i was drinking strongbow and they said i couldn't try their drinks because "beer before liquor never sicker". so i asked scott if it were true, he said beer before cider, never sicker. strongbow's a cider so i asked if i could drink liquor with it and he said it was fine. good because i was going to drink the nicer stuff later in the night.

so i was about 1/4 done with my pint when scott comes up to us and says we have 5mins before we leave! i hate wasting stuff, especially if i paid for it, so i tried to chug it with Mark, obviously he won. my drink was too bubbly to just chug, i had to keep burping. so basically i drank 3/4 of a pint of cider beer in 2 minutes. anyone want to guess what happened. in the rest of that 3 mins i started feeling the effects. i was super drunk, i even stepped off a ledge on accident. Ruhi had to hold on to me on the walk over to the other pub. i was stumbling everywhere and ran across the street dangerously, taking Ruhi with me. fun stuff.

the next pub i vowed not to drink because i was way to drunk to begin with. i kept that vow and only drank water to sober myself up a bit. this is the point where i TRY to hit on Mark, didn't really work. hahahaha but we had some fun.

the next pub, was the Globe, me and Ann have been here before. it has a very nice atmosphere. here i decided to try a shot. most of my beer had worn off so i was ready to go. i'm not good at taking shots so someone offered their strongbow as a chaser, which i gladly accepted. the shot was sambuco, or something of that sort. it wasn't too bad but i didn't take the shot right, i held it in my mouth for a split second. bad idea. it was a bit gross but it didn't burn my throat. i still had that "too much alcohol taste" face. this one guy Tree let me have some of his drink, it was a jack daniels with coke, that was even worse. the shot kicked in pretty soon i was again stumbling.

i decided to be safe and go get some water upstairs. while waiting i met a really tall guy and his friend. the tall one was really cute, he said he was 6'5", i like them tall! we chatted for a bit then i realized i had to get back to my friends so i left. but when i got down everyone was leaving so i left too. bad news, i forgot my bag, good news michael got it for me, bad news he made a speech in front of everyone about forgetting stuff, good news he gave it back, bad news i had to say "i love seamen" to everyone/sing twinkle twinkle little star.

we all then went to Oceana aka biggest club ever! maybe not i dunno.

Crazy/Hectic-ness

so this week is going to be CRAZY!

July24: (tonight) is the Pub Crawl, 3 pubs and 1 giant awesome club.
July 25: taking the train early in the morning to go watch Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon for a few days.
July 27: take the train back to Brighton
July 29: Class, then dash off to watch Phantom of the Opera in London
July 30: Watching Wicked in London
July 31: Class, off to Paris!
August 3: Come back from Paris to Brighton

it's going to be one crazy ride! time is going by so fast this second session of summer school.

BTW here's a picture of me and my friends with the hottest guy ever (the picture does not do justice, he's way hotter in person) :

first blog

well everyone seems to have a blogspot nowadays. i've decided to try it out, but i still have my livejournal, which has all of my blogs from traveling in the UK.

i guess it's useful, i can type my blog on Word 2007 and transfer it on to here. i really like this font, makes me look classy.

the above picture is me and my fake tattoo, i think it looks mighty fine. i really want to get a tattoo but i don't want to regret it plus i am low on funds for now.

anyways, this is a test to check this site out.