The weekend I (almost) went to Liverpool

Class ended this week! Hooray! I still have two online classes, and I still have two papers to turn in for my UK classes, but I don’t have to go to class for the rest of the summer!

For my last Media in Britain class we had a two-part field trip on Thursday night. In the afternoon we went to the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank and played in the Mediatheque, which is basically a room with big computer screens and headphones where you can watch tons of archives of British film and television. I watched some of a program called 28 Up, which is a documentary that follows this group of people and revisits them every 7 years to see how their lives have changed. It stated with 7 Up when they were 7 years old, and 49 Up premiered a couple years ago. But it is a cool show. I also watched some Monty Python.

Then, we had some time to take a break and get dinner so I went to Eat and got a delicious bean salad thing (and when I was done I peeled off the ingredients label off so I can make it for myself at home) and some Greek yogurt with fruit and muesli.

We met back at the National Film Theatre for a screening of the newest film by documentarian Kim Longinotto called Rough Aunties about the women in South Africa who run the organization Operation BobbiBear that fights for sexually abused children. There was also a Q&A with Kim after the showing. The film was absolutely amazing, so well-made and very moving, I teared up a few times. And Kim was very cool—friendly and genuine.

Friday after my last British Life & Culture class Allison and I had planned to go to Liverpool, stay Friday night, and come home Saturday evening. We had booked a hostel and everything. But we failed to look up accurate ticket prices and when we found out how expensive the train would be we said, No Thanks, and went to the movies instead. We lost the money for the hostel because we didn’t cancel at least 24 hours before, but it ended up being less than $30 (yes, dollars) per person and considering the huge amount we saved by not going it was OK.

We saw My Sister’s Keeper which was sooooo sad. Really good, but heavy, and I don’t think I could watch it again. But it was very good. That night, Allison, Nancy and I tried to go to this bar/club I read about on Time Out London that was having its “One Year Anniversary Party” with free entry and free drinks and cupcakes! We got alllll the way there (took forever on the Tube) and it turns out you had to be on a list that we didn’t know about and that wasn’t mentioned on their Web site. Lame. So we went to Leicester Square and got McFlurrys.

Funny story about that. Leicester Square is mostly clubs, so there are promoters everywhere trying to reel you in to their particular venue by offering drink specials, etc. They usually come up to you on the street by saying, “You girls going to a club tonight?” Well, plenty came up to us, but to one of them I replied, “No! But where can we get some ice cream?” and he said “I don’t know” in a mean voice and walked off. Jeez. But I couldn’t stop laughing about it; it was just too funny.

Saturday I went to Camden Market again for most of the day; bought a pair of sunglasses for £5, almost bought a fake Chanel bag (reaaaaaally wanted it, but the price was just too high for me so I had to walk away. It was one of those cute little quilty ones with the chain strap, too!) But I did buy some grapes, a cantaloupe and a pineapple for £3 total—what a deal.

Since yesterday was the Fourth of July (happy bday, Amurrka!) there was supposed to be this big thing in one of the parks organized by Americans Abroad, or some organization like that, with a barbecue all day and fireworks at night. Most of the other people wanted to go all day, but Allison and I decided we would go for dinner and fireworks.

Well, the fireworks got canceled for some reason, and the barbecue was full (I don’t know the details.) So the other people in our group bought potato salad, chips, etc. and Whoppers from Burger King to take to a local park and have a picnic. Since that appealed to neither Allison nor me we decided to go out to dinner in the cool area we were in the night before, and would meet the rest of the group at the Rocket (a bar they frequent and that I have been to once before) for dancing. (Free entry always, and a DJ on Saturday nights!)

Dinner was pretty good, nothing special, and we made it to the bar at 9. The rest of the group, however, wasn’t going to be there until 10:30 because Liz had to meet her friend at the train station. The bar was pretty dead, so we went back to the Euston train station and bought a £2 book of puzzles (crosswords, word searches, etc.) to share, got the man at the info desk to give us a free pen, then went back to the bar where we did puzzles for an hour and a half.

When they STILL weren’t there at 10:30—turns out lots of crazy stuff was going on, including someone breaking a bone—we decided to make the best of it, stashed the puzzle book in a corner of the bar, and hit the dance floor. It was tons of fun! I was getting all chatted up, asked to dance, offered drinks—there was even a girl standing next to me at the bar (I was trying to get a glass of water, I promise. It was like 800 degrees on the dance floor and I needed hydration.) who said, “You are SO.SEXY.” Then she told me that she wasn’t a lesbian, and I said, well, thank you and okay.

I don’t know what it is about London, and I know I haven’t gotten any better looking since arriving here, but for some reason I am MUCH prettier in London than back home. Back home I consider myself fairly girl-next-door, probably a 5 or 6 on the looks scale. But here! I get checked out in the tube, in the grocery store, at the pharmacy, in the market, and even when we go out. I don’t know what it is! Either I am much more attractive to Londoners, or I am more attractive than I originally thought and Londoners are just more vocal about telling me. It is nice, I guess, to have people think you are pretty or whatever.

Anyway, three other friends of ours made it, finally, at like 12:45, and we all danced until the bar closed and took the bus home. It was so fun; Allison is definitely a good clubbing mate, and Jessica (who showed up at 12:45 and regaled us with the whole story of the day’s craziness) decided that we all need to go to clubs in Gainesville so we can all dance together. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Today I went to the East End again and walked around, explored all the different markets they have. Found a cool vintage dress from the 70s that had purple clouds all over it and fit great, but it was too expensive, plus it was really long and I’d have to have it made into something knee-length at a tailor if I could ever wear it out. Other than that I just ate an empanada and some ice cream (not together) from the different stalls.

I’m trying to get some work done, but I am just really enjoying relaxing, blogging, and eating cereal out of the box. I am going to get soooooo fat.

Joe is in Mexico and can only use the internetz once in a while, and doesn’t have a phone there, so I can’t really talk to him and it makes me miss him more than usual. Lame.

Tomorrow I am going to finish one of my papers; it is on the BBC. My other paper is pretty much done because the outline itself is 2500 words and the paper only needs to be 2000, so to put it all together should only take maybe an hour at the most.

Tuesday is the Harry Potter London premiere! Another girl here and I are going really early in the morning (everyone else has their internships—she does, too, but she’s taking a sick day, haha.) to camp out so we have a good spot to see all the stars arriving. I am so excited!

Then next weekend I’m going to Wales to kayak and jump off of cliffs into water! Hooray!

The internet in this building needs to stop sucking so I can watch videos online.

Love,
Amy