Hundreds of years before the dawn of history, there lived a strange race of people...

I'm too lazy to really write anything but there will be an update later because I'm getting up at the asscrack of dawn tomorrow to take a trip to Bath, Bristol and...

STONEHENGE!!

Strange music

Quite possibly my two favorite bands of all time are finally doing stuff after making me wait in agony forever. The Magnetic Fields are touring (for the first time in 5 or so years) all next month in Massachusetts and New York and it's KILLING ME that I can't be there. They also have a new album that just came out this month called Distortion. I don't have the album yet, but here is a song called "Too Drunk to Dream"... just a warning, in true Mag Fields style, it's not very friendly to anyone who isn't already in love with the band.

My other favorite band, Why?, is coming out with an album March 11 called Alopecia. Thanks to my friends at Superfly, I got the album early. Here's the first track:

Why? - The Vowels Pt 2

Weekend Update

Look, I'm standing in two hemispheres at once!

Anyway, that's about the most exciting thing that happened on my tour of Greenwich. Yeah, it was that bad. Greenwich is really nice but the tour was absolutely horrid. It was an hour and a half walking tour in the freezing English weather with an inept tour guide who felt the need to inform us about elementary history... (Henry VIII had lots of wives? REALLY??) Also, since we had limited time, we didn't actually get to see any of the sights, instead it was "If you like this, you can come back later and see it!" Whatever though, it's always nice to see somewhere new. Even if you end up coming out of it with a cold.

Saturday I didn't end up going to the Tate after all because I was too tired and swamped with homework but Emilia and I ended up going to a friend's apartment and pawing through their extensive record collection. Seriously, any song I could think of that I wanted to hear they had on vinyl. They also had a bunch of instruments, so we had someone on the guitar, drum and piano and I was on the ukulele. Great fun.

Sunday was Sunday Roast... contrary to the gross picture I posted earlier, it was really good! The Yorkshire pudding is not actually pudding, it's like pancake batter put in the oven so it's crispy. Mmmm. It was just that, roast beef and lots of vegetables. No soylent green. After Sunday roast, we took a walk around the "famous" Brick Lane.

Anyway, now it's back to homework. Unfortunately, I broke the jack in my computer for the internet plug so any time I want to use the internet, I have to go to the kitchen, which is the only place we get wireless. The kitchen is hot as hell and there are always a thousand people in here, being really obnoxious.

Here are some of the songs I picked out of the record collection the other night... let me know what you think of the new format:


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Boring stuff about school that no one will read

Now that I've attended all of my classes, I can give a proper summary. They're surprisingly alright! I don't want to speak too soon, but I'm enjoying them, even though the work load is horrendous.

Monday:
Gothic Lit - This class is right up my alley. We are studying the beginnings of Horror in literature and film as well as the emergence of "Gothic" as a writing style and an escape from the previous Romantic era. We also are watching some of my favorite classic films like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. My professor is really intelligent and awesome, even if his accent is a little tough to decipher.

Issues in British Politics and Culture - This class actually doesn't start until this coming Monday, but it's a series of lectures from prominent British figures about current British issues. I'm kind of psyched!

Tuesday:
The English Novel in the 19th Century - Most of the required reading for this class is extremely boring (Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, ewww) and the professor expects an immense amount of work from us (close readings, frequent presentation, lots and lots of library time) but... wait, where was I going with this? This class kind of sucks. But we are somewhat focusing on feminism when it was still in its subtle stage, which is my cup of tea, so to speak.

Thursday:
Self-Fashioning in Literature, Art and Film - This class is pretty cool. We are studying the way that self-portraits, autobiographies and self-referential films reflect culture. The strange thing about this class is that in addition to the reading, writing, presenting and everything else, we must also become involved in the topic of "self-fashioning". By this, I mean that we must sketch a series of self-portraits (one a week) to reflect on later, write our autobiographies and make a series of 5 minute video diaries.

Seeing London - This is basically an Art History/Architecture class that requires us to travel to different parts of London, learning about their respective histories and analyzing what we see. The great thing about this class is that we get to do a lot of sketching. Today, I sketched different parts of the British Museum. Maybe by the end of the semester, I will actually be able to draw, ha ha... The bad part is that I have a class before this one and I'm expected to show up at whatever site we are studying on time. Every time I am late deducts 1.5% from my final grade. It's a little unfair, but whatever.

Oy. I will be a very busy girl until May. I've added some more events to my upcoming roster:

Friday: day trip to Greenwich for "Seeing London"
Saturday: trip to the Tate Modern
Sunday: Going to a friend's place for Sunday Roast! (It's an English tradition thats like Easter dinner... except EVERY SUNDAY)

I don't even know what's on that plate but MMM free food!!
Next Tuesday: PANCAKE DAY

Emilia with a Pancake Day sign
Okay, so pancake day is a little far in the future, but I'm psyched. Can you tell?

And what would a post be without a random song? It's kind of go-go-go so pretend it works.
Albert Hammond Jr. - In Transit

London is Creepy

I have way too many photos to post at once, so here is a little selection I like to call "London is Creepy"

And a creepy song from one of my favorite Brits to accompany:

Patrick Wolf - The Libertine

Still too lazy to upload photos

I don't have classes today, which is completely awesome. But I do have a lot of things to do, such as buying books and reading them all day to try and catch up. It's not really a great sign that I'm already behind this early in the semester... Oh well. It'll be a comfy day in bed with lots and lots of tea and books. Is it weird that I say some sentences in my head with a British accent now? Like that one about tea and books. Anyway...

Last night I went to this science conference... No, it wasn't school related and yes, I went willingly. I really wanted to hear this group of scientists speak-- they're developing robots that are completely energy autonomous! This robot (called Eco-Bot) releases pheromones that attract insects, captures them, then actually uses their energy to power microbial fuel cells. Essentially, it captures and digests its own food. Really exciting. Also, there was a lot of booze there. Apparently, scientists like to party too. I haven't seen that much booze and beards since last time I was in Brooklyn. I wish I brought my camera (for the robots, not the beards).

Just for kicks, here is a picture my roommate snapped of me looking like an extreme tourist:

Here is what my future looks like, because I know you were wondering:
-Class ALL DAY tomorrow
-Getting up REALLY early on Friday and taking a boat to Greenwich
-Tuesday is Pancake Day!! Seriously, that's a real holiday.

Also, I just got the newest Sunset Rubdown album (a little late, I know) and it's alright, I haven't really formed an opinion on it yet, but here is the first track:

Sunset Rubdown - The Mending of the Gown

Boo

Some differences between New York areas and London areas:

SoHo in New York is full of very rich people. Soho in London is full of clip joints, prostitutes and burlesque.
Chelsea in London is full of very rich people. Chelsea in New York is full of very gay people.

Anyway, today was my first day of classes. Uneventful. I haven't bought my books yet, so there's not much I can do. But more interesting was my trip to Tesco, where I got a carton of apple juice, 4 frozen meals, a pack of scones, and a jar of jam for less than 7 quid!

I have a bunch of pictures from my tour but I am too tired to upload them now so I will leave you with one.

Pence-Pinching

Being an American, everything in the UK costs double for me. This has led me to employ some of my best penny-pinching, or pence-pinching tactics. So far, I haven't spent money on anything but beer, coffee, and transportation. Here are some of my methods:

-Attend EVERY school event.
As boring and pointless as they may be, they're almost guaranteed to have free food. Otherwise, kids wouldn't come.

-Oyster Card
I got an oyster card yesterday, and it's pretty much amazing. It costs £3 (which is refundable if you give the card back!) and gives you discounts on tube/bus fares. Usually, a ride on the tube costs £4, but with an Oyster Card, it's £1.50. Score!

-Ditch Starbucks
Unfortunately, my love for Starbucks is not worth the price. There's a deli that has £1 coffee. It's gross, but whatever, it gets the job done.

-Mooch off of other people
My London buddy is asking his friends if they have an old cell phone I can use/if they can hook me up with a job.

-Be Sneaky
I discovered that the Coke machine in the lobby doesn't charge because they haven't put in the pay system yet, so I got an accidental free Coke. I got two more and then I started feeling really bad. But hey, three free Cokes!


In other news, my foray into other parts of London went really well. I went to Piccadilly Circus, Camden and some area that I can't remember the name of but was like the Hipsterville of London. The only pictures I have are from Piccadilly Circus, though. It's kind of like Times Square except a lot smaller and less annoying.

My lesson of the day is that if someone asks you if you want marmalade on your toast, you should probably ask them to clarify or say no. I said yes, and as it turns out, in a British accent, "marmalade" and "marmite" sound almost exactly the same. I didn't want to be rude and reject toast with black marmalade on it, so I took a few bites, and it turns out that marmite isn't made out of oranges, it's made out of yeast. Be wary.

Cheers

Last night was my first real night out in London. My roommate Emilia and myself went to ULU to drink at their bar. Yeah, their University has a bar in it. We were expecting it to be pretty dull--and it was--until we realized why everyone was looking up at the televisions with the drink prices on it.

It was set up like a stock market-- the prices would go up and down depending on what people were buying. Every once and a while, the market would crash and we'd all rush to the bar for cheap drinks. The most expensive drink I saw was a pint of Fosters at £2.50 (around $5) and the cheapest was Vodka Blue, something like Smirnoff Ice for £0.70. I ended up somewhere in the middle, having two pints of cider at a steady £2 apiece. Surprisingly, it ended up being ridiculously fun.

We ended up making friends with the kids who had stacks and stacks of empty pints at their table, which included a guy from Newcastle with an awesome Geordie accent and a kid who we later found out was 15 years old. 15! Seriously, when I was 15 I was probably still playing Pokemon!

Anyway, the Geordie was almost unintelligible at first but once I got used to it, I realized it is incredibly fun to speak. Here's a little lesson in Geordie for you:

divn't = don't, as in "Ah divn't smo-ekh!"

"Ahm gahn yahm" = I'm going home

It sounds kind of like Scottish... but cooler.


The Geordie and our new Bulgarian friend


Emilia and I home after a long night of... ping pong...

Just so this post isn't all about beer, here's what I'm up to for a while:
Today - Meeting a friend at Piccadilly Circus to see a new part of London
Tomorrow - Guided tour of King's Cross to get to know my part of London
Sunday - Coach tour of London (wow I sound like a tourist! I should wear my fannypack "bum bag")
Monday - CLASS. ugh.

And finally, one of my old favorite British bands:

Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love

Cheers!

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE...

"England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies and humors."
-George Santayana in The British Character

Okay, George. You think England is weird? Well I lived in New York, the home of all that is loud, strange and downright crazy. Nowhere else do you find popular events called Motherfucker (R.I.P.) and socialites that look like (loveable) tranny freakshows. Yeah and thats just on the surface.

Our villages may be called East and West while yours are called Piddletrenthide and Crapstone (seriously), but I bet England's "weird" isn't as weird as it thinks it is.

So here's a challenge, England. Prove me wrong. Out-weird New York.

Assuming I don't forget, I want to keep the weird-off as a running theme. Who will be victorious??

For fun, some songs about my beloved nyc.

Ace Frehley - Back in the New York Groove

Cat Power - New York

New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour

And of course...

The Magnetic Fields - The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side

There are loads of amazing songs about London but that's a whole 'nother post...

Departure... Arrival

Flying always makes me think about death, particularly during takeoff. And I had two transfers! I have no problem flying coach but somehow questioning my mortality three times in one day just doesn't seem fair. Anyway, I'm alive enough to blog so I guess I can't complain.

I flew out of Logan to Ireland. Coming in to Dublin at dawn is something really magical. Not magical like leprechauns but pretty damn close. More magical like "ohmygod I have to come back here." I'm putting Dublin near the top of my list of places to travel when I'm older and rolling in dough (i.e. never).

Now I'm all settled in, semi-unpacked. My room is embarrassingly small (think 9th st. apartment except half the size) but my roommate is awesome. She's Finnish and likes the same things I do (music, photography, sequined clothing...) but I already forget her name. Oops!

So I've decided that my stay in London could go one of two ways:

(As Anita sees it:) I make lots of friends and spend my time partying and gallivanting with a certain British electropop star

OR

(As I see it:) I don't know anyone and don't have money to go out and meet people so I take up chain smoking (for dramatic effect) and spend my days gazing sadly out the window, sipping black coffee or whiskey or something equally dramatic (black coffee AND whiskey?) ...And then I do my homework.

I guess we'll find out. Here is some music I was listening to on the plane:

Radical Face - Welcome Home
(This song might not play on your iTunes because I bought it, but it will definitely play on your iPod.)

+/- - Yo Yo Yo (Please Don't Fall in Love)

This should be interesting.

I ship off for London in two days; expect an incredibly long winded entry full of excitement, neuroses and a little nausea. I'll certainly miss the energy of New York and the rural "charm" of Massachusetts, but I'm looking forward to starting a new, but temporary lifestyle.

My hard drive is full, my iPod is full and my pockets are empty. To reiterate: this should be interesting.