All Hallows Eve

Happy Hallowe'en, all! They don't do anything for it here, really, so it's been quiet which is a bit sad. I went to a pub called the Mad Moose last night, and on the bus I saw some Oompa Loompas, and a bloody nun (actually a man dressed as a bloody nun, how does that work?), and a bunch of grapes, and a few more. So that was something. But all the parties seemed to be last night.

And my flatmates told me that kids don't trick or treat anymore, because their parents are worried about them getting abducted. They said they sometimes have parties, but that's it. And they asked me if I've ever done anything "demonic" on Hallowe'en, because they've heard that's what happens in America! It must be Hollywood that does this. I told them that egging people's cars is usually as demonic as people get.

So I'm doing some quality reading, and I have no candy, and that is a little distressing.

Addendum: I just went in the kitchen, and my flatmates had carved a pumpkin (called Orangie) and they had party poppers and a bunch of cheap candy. So that was a good time. And we listened to "Thriller", and then some more quality Michael Jackson tunes.

Nice Night

I just finished playing 2 hours of cards with my flatmates. I went and had a good pub dinner with two American friends, and then we went and saw "The Tempest" at the Maddermarket Theatre. It was good; I kind of knew the plot, but mainly from seeing it in an episode of Wishbone. I kept expecting Ariel to be a dog...

The director made it a mostly female cast--I think there were two men. He said a few of the women had complained about the lack of good female parts in Shakespeare, so he thought he'd give it a try. Prospero was really good. And he set it on an iceberg type Antarctica island instead of a tropical one, so everyone was wearing big fur hats. I got some Norfolk ice cream during intermission: butterscotch and almond.

I turn my clock back tonight (end of British Summer time) but according to my calender you don't do yours until next week. Does that mean it's only a 4 hour time difference now? I'm not really sure.

Holy Cathedrals Batman

I went to three cathedrals while in Paris: Notre Dame, St. Sulpice, and Sacre Coeur. They were all pretty different. Notre Dame was HUGE and tourist packed. For spending almost a day on it in one of my intro classes, I don't really know much about it (as I've mentioned, my architectural retention is BAD) but it was still so cool. You could spend days there. I also had no idea that it was in the middle of the Seine. Except there were too many people. I don't really consider myself a tourist--which is really snobby of me--so I get mad when I go places where a lot of tourists are. I don't like looking at things over the heads of so many people. But it was sweet to see the rose window, and I really liked all the different side chapels. I thought the devotional candles (and there were a lot) were cool.

St. Sulpice was farther along our walk and was smaller and less packed, so that was nice. They were doing some outside reconstruction, but there was a neat dome on the inside, which I always like. The panel carvings are from there; they were right outside the door and all over the porch (would that be the right word for it?)

Sacre Coeur was my favorite. It was also crowded with tourists, and I had my backpack and everything with me since we'd checked out of the hotel by that point. But for some reason it was the most serene, maybe because you couldn't take pictures inside. We got there around noon and the nun's were starting their service. We sat in the visitors gallery and listened to them sing. It was so, so pretty.

I have a strange relationship with religious buildings and religious works of art. They normally don't have much spiritual significance for me. If I look at a painting of Jesus, say, I think about the light on his face, and how his eyes look. The way the cuts on his side are drawn. Where he is on the canvas compared to other people, things like that. It doesn't strike me any more than a painting of a field or a bowl of fruit or a courtesan would. Ditto religious buildings. It would never cross my mind to go on a pilgrimage to one for a spiritual reason. I climbed the San Francisco-like hills of Montmartre to Sacre Coeur because 1) it's in Amelie, and I like Amelie, and 2) because the painting on the altar dome is beautiful. It was so weird to me when I saw people crossing themselves and lighting candles and praying before the altar. The fact that they had traveled to these buildings because of devotion and not in search of flying buttresses and interesting carvings seemed so alien to me. However, in Sacre Coeur when the nuns were singing, I could see why people would travel for that. I would, too. It was so peaceful.

Strike!

To think, I was there for history in the making! I went to the library before class today, and the headline on Friday's "International Herald Tribune" was about the strike. They had a good picture of people crammed into the Metro, which I had to do on Friday. It was pretty scary. I literally had to push the man in front of me in the back multiple times and yell "pardon" in order to get out. Those Metro cars are small anyway, even without a bunch of disgruntled commuters stuffed on them. There were all these police with riot gear down by the tracks as well...it was kind of surreal. I didn't know that Sarkozy and his wife announced their divorce on the same day--I'm thinking he had a rather bad day?

For a Monday after a vacation, today was pretty good. I only had my Foreign Policy seminar, which is my favorite class anyway, so that was good. I got 4 letters/cards which made me sooo happy. And I had guacamole and broccoli for dinner which was pretty delicious. Apparently they don't eat much raw broccoli here; my flatmates all thought it was really strange. No more strange than dipping all your food in mayonnaise...but maybe that's just me.

So this one time I went to Paris and everyone was on Strike

I'm not really sure where to start with this!

Paris was awesome, and exhausting. I walked a crazy amount. I saw a lot of tourist-y things. The weather was sunny and the patisseries were plentiful. Here was the deal with the strike: when we checked into the hotel on Wednesday, the desk man told us that the metro would be shut on Thursday. That was okay, because we were planning on just walking anyway. We went to the Palais Garnier on Thursday night because La Traviata was playing, and if you go an hour early sometimes they have leftover opera tickets. The opera was cancelled because of the strike. The next morning, we tried to take a bus to Versailles. The bus service was cancelled because of the strike, so Versailles was out. We went to the Musee d'Orsay instead, which was really cool. The second floor was closed (you can guess why). We went to the Louvre that night. The top floor was closed; not that it would have really mattered, since it would have taken about 3 days to see everything there anyway.

I do sympathize with the people on strike--I think they were doing it to keep their existing pension benefits. So I hope something comes of it. And in the case of museum workers, well, I might be one of them doing that one day! I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't go to Versailles, but it'll just give me something to plan to do another time. It makes for a good story. And those of you that know me know that my life often has farcical elements to it, so it kind of makes sense that there would be a major transportation strike on the two days that I go somewhere.

The French people were, on the whole, really nice. My French is not great (okay, it's pretty bad) but as long as you tried, they appreciated it. A lot of the time, they'd say what I'd said back to me in French, and make me "repete". I'm okay with listening to it, like in the EuroStar station I could figure out what the people on the loudspeaker were saying. I also know enough to read museum signs, which was helpful.

Getting back to England was interesting as well. We had an hour and a half to get from Waterloo (where the EuroStar arrives) to Liverpool St. where the Norwich train departs. I don't know if we were just tired or what, but we got on the Westbound loop of our tube line instead of the Eastbound. We saw that it looped around, so we just decided to stay on since we had enough time. Big mistake. The tube line stopped about 5 stops before it was supposed to, because of track construction. We had to take about 3 different lines, the final one being severely delayed due to an earlier problem. People were so packed on it, it was actually hard to breathe. A similar thing happened on the Paris Metro, but this was even worse. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but when I got off I never wanted to go on public transport again. We missed our train back to Norwich by 5 minutes, and had to wait an hour for the next one. I got back here in the early hours this morning.

I'll keep doing posts, because I have a lot of pictures to put up and it's going to take me awhile to process everything! I am used to coming back from a vacation and going home, so it's kind of weird to be back here, since it's almost like I'm on vacation here too.

Bonjour

It's taken me awhile to figure out this keyboard, so I will just say that we made it to Paris with no problems and today are wandering around (we've been to Notre Dame so far). We're planning on Versailles and the Louvre tomorrow. And I ordered my breakfast in French this morning...success.

Au revoir, probably until I reenter England.

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Pa-ree?

I'm going to Paris tomorrow morning until Saturday, with one of my friends from H & WS. We're taking the train to London and then the EuroStar the rest of the way. Two months ago this would have freaked me out, and now it doesn't seem like a big deal. I'm getting pretty excited!! I do still need to pack though...oops.

I'm going to hunt out an Internet Cafe, so I'll let you all know how things are going. We have an idea of plans, but nothing definite yet.

Oh, and I now have Pink Eye as well, apparently because my karma is disastrous. C'est la vie, or something like that.

Today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

I just talked to her on the phone, which always makes me feel better with life, but homesick, too...it's funny how that works.

And, today is also my half birthday!

For the rest of yous...a very merry unbirthday to you all.

This semester is starting to rival last Fall, when I was in the health center every other day, but no knee injuries so far (knock on wood.) The best part of the past few days was that I went to my first Pub Quiz last night. Some of my flatmates put together a team. It's a very competitive thing here, especially with the guys on my flat. I only went for about an hour (all that standing wore me out). By the time I got there, they had picked a team name: Don't Call me Shirley. The people doing the questions would read out two rounds at once, then you'd have to swap answers with another team and they'd read the answers off. You then had to have them taken up to the people running it and have your totals entered into the computer. It was all pretty complicated, and there were something like 10 rounds, so it took awhile. Each round was a topic like General Knowledge, Name that Phobia, Current Events, Politics, Pop Culture, etc.

Rugby was on while this was going on, so there would be occasionally shouting from people taking the quiz. I don't know anything about Rugby, but at one point someone got tripped (that much I could tell) and nearly everyone got out of their seats and started yelling at the TV's. It was pretty crazy.

I did get three questions that no one else in my flat knew: Who plays Edie Britt on Desperate Housewives? (good thing I watch cheesy TV), What state was Mitt Romney the governor of?, and Which head of state just learned that there might be a possible assassination attempt on his visit to Iran? (Putin, I fortunately checked the BBCNews right before I left). We ended up coming in third, which resulted in a five pound drink voucher and squishy mini rugby balls. Too bad I missed that being handed out!

Well, I am going to go and take about six medicines and try to sleep. Night! (or good afternoon, for most of you).

Wanted: Anna's Immune System Returned

Well, apparently I was more sick than I thought.

I went to Wroxham yesterday, which was a lot of fun. It's a tiny, tiny town about a 15 minutes train ride up from Norwich. We went there for a tour of the broads. We were the only ones on the boat besides a senior citizen bus group--the man giving the tour went on for awhile about how "kiddies need to come to the broads to get away from the telly and their video games", which we thought was pretty funny, seeing as how we were by far the youngest ones on board. I want to live on the broads, as you can see from the pictures. So Wroxham has a little tourist market, but it's for British tourists, not American ones, which was nice.

We had our one large meal a week, and starting walking to the Wroxham barns, which are a bunch of little shops. It turned out they were 1 1/2 miles outside Wroxham; we had to walk through a field lined with hedgerows to get there. By the time we made it, I was feeling decidedly sick to my stomach. I spent the whole time there lying on a park bench. On the plus side, I did get some good people watching in. My friends inquired about a bus back to the village, but no luck. I spent last night and today, so far, in a state of miserable coughing and boredom. Most of my flatmates have been sick too, but not as sick. Their theory is that I'm not used to British Bacteria, so it's hitting me harder. The Romanian girl was sicker than the rest of them too, so there could be something in that.

The thing is, these past few days would have been the perfect opportunity to get a lot of work done, but who wants to do work when they feel sick?? No one. So I've been wasting my time on youtube (last night: School House Rock. My favorite will always be How a Bill becomes a Law; feel free to discuss. Today: the Vicar of Dibley, most of the first season). I also like to read books that don't require much thinking, but I don't have any of them. I did start Crime and Punishment (thanks Melis!) and that's good so far; it's not really light reading, though.

Behind all this is the sneaking suspicion that I am not, and never will be, very capable of taking care of myself. I didn't like getting sick in Geneva, either, but there my mom was in the same time zone and I could just call her. Here, I can't. I don't know if that changes for people who have been away from home for awhile. And I can't register with the Health Service on campus, so I don't even have that option. I bought some Chesty Cough (the name cracks me up everytime I use it) and some Sudafed, so we'll see how that goes. I miss you all like crazy, and I'm especially jealous of those on Fall Break; I hope you are having fun!

Shops, Freshers Flu, and Pity Parties

Today was not much fun, and you lucky people get to hear about it!

I now officially have Freshers Flu (I'm blaming my next door flatmate, but most of them have had it so far). So I'm not sick sick, but I'm still annoyed. I didn't have class today, so I thought I would sleep in. I was wide awake at 7. Fine, I thought, I'll be productive. I couldn't concentrate. I ended up going for a walk for awhile. I came back and before going in the shower, checked my UEA email. I had one from the library saying that I had an overdue book. I completely forgot to return the short loan I had gotten on Monday, which was due on Tuesday. I ran over there. The fine amounted to 7.80. 7 pounds and 80 pence. I almost had a stroke. All I had was a ten, which I needed for groceries. So I still haven't paid it, but they said since I returned the book at least the fine wouldn't get any worse.

I came back to my cement palace and fell asleep for awhile. I staggered out to go to office hours for my Foreign Policy Professor (or Tutor as they're called here). Most profs here have office hours maybe once a week, so it's kind of tricky to track them down. I got there and he had a note on his door--"In The Blend having a coffee, you can come and look for me there." The whole point of office hours is to be in your sodding office. I muttered a few choice phrases and decided to just go shopping and forget about it. I just made it onto the bus as it was leaving (what good luck, thought I) until it turned out that there were no seats on either deck. I ended up gripping a pole and practically standing on top of a nun. We all know that I get bus sick in the best of times, which was currently compounded by the fact that I felt dizzy today every time I stood up.

I decided to get off the bus at the City Centre instead of staying on to my usual grocery store. I found the downtown shop finally and proceeded to shop fast. I was going through some papers from school over the summer, and found two Wegmans receipts. One was for: Nyquil, Ibuprofen, ice pack, and instant Oatmeal. Sounds like a girl with a cold and in knee therapy. The other one was: Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, tampons, and a People magazine...I think we can guess what kind of day I was having. Here was my receipt today: baking potatoes, cheese, cup of soup, juice, plain yogurt, bran flakes. I sound so mature, or so boring. I went to check out, and the woman in front of me no lie had 8 boxes of kleenex, 9 things of biscuits, and 6 cans of beans, amongst other things. She wanted them checked out in two groups, because she wanted to pay for half with cash and half with cheque. She was the cutest old woman, too ("ooohh my dear girl, I am so sorry that I'm holding you up") but I did want to throttle her a little bit.

Things are starting to look up a bit now. I had some soup, and I'm going to make a jacket potato (my new found love). I really like it here. I do. Sometimes though, on days where I feel gross, I want a TV, or movies, and some type of food that I don't have to cook, as well as people who I've known for longer than 3 weeks. I put the picture on here because it makes me happy; I took it in Cambridge. It reminds me of the good stuff about here, and there is plenty. Yesterday I bought a pot, so I can make pasta. I heard "Jump for your Love" (the song Hugh Grant dances to in Love Actually) when I was in the store, and it made me so happy. I got a scone and a mocha yesterday, and read in a cafe. Once I get some cold meds, things will be much improved.

So, ready...let's have a Pity Party, one two three awwwww. You can thank my mother for teaching me that.

Procrastinator Me

It's inching toward 1 am here, and I am maniacally gathering images of Asante art online for my presentation tomorrow. I just forced down my fourth straight cup of tea; this is one of those moments when I miss ol' American gigantic coffees. I could use some.

It's not helping that I keep checking my email, and going on youtube to watch clips of musicals. I've seen "Shall we Dance" from the King and I an unhealthy amount of times in the last few hours. Ditto for "If I were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. My flatmates are distracting, as usual. I have gone through my Beatles playlist already, and am nearing the end of my Opera one.

I do have good plans for when this is finally done tomorrow. We are celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving tomorrow night, even though it is today. None of us wanted to cook tonight, not even the girl from Vancouver on my flat whose idea it was! I am contributing cranberry sauce. I'm also planning on going with one of my American friends to try another pub tomorrow night.

I had my English Country House presentation today, and it actually wasn't too bad. The other William Smith-er in the class went before me and she did well too. And speaking of William Smith...Take Back the Night is starting soon! Tonight!! If you are on campus you should go!! I couldn't walk it last year (stupid knee) but even if you just go to the vigil after it is sooo worth it, trust me.

There wasn't much point to this post, except that I want to go to bed, and I'd rather be on here than do work. Even if it is pretty interesting.

P.S. Happy Columbus day to all you Yanks, try and avoid finding a smallpox blanket. :)
Here's my only story about Columbus day: when I was in the third grade, every other third grade class got to a have a party, but we couldn't, because Mrs. Rasmussen told us she hadn't taught us about Leif Erickson yet, and seeing as how he was truly before Columbus then we couldn't celebrate. I was so mad. I think now she had a point though.

Update at 1:20 I just realized that I used up all my milk today in hot chocolate (what is with me and hot beverages?) so I can't even have cereal in the morning. Stellar.

Mind the Gap

This is most likely going to be a long post, just a heads up.

Well, I made it to London and back in one piece. I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I managed to navigate two different tube lines AND three different stations, make it to two museums, all which culminated in a minor travel crisis. Let me back up.

I caught the 8:30 train from Norwich, which was rather early considering I didn't have to be in London until noon and the ride takes about 2 hours. I was up pretty late the night before, too--it was my flatmate's birthday, so we had a party for her in our kitchen. I may in fact have moonlighted as a one woman Bon Jovi tribute band (my cousins will be proud to hear) but that's a story for another time. The train got into Liverpool Station and I took the Central Line to Holborn. Those of you who know me well know that I am a) not very graceful, b) tremendously accident prone, and c) directionally challenged, so the subway is usually a danger zone for me. My nervousness was not helped when one of my flatmates informed me that, "the tube has only been bombed once, and the IRA has been really inactive recently". The subway cars here are very small, so I ended up standing each way. I got very close to falling over a few times, but through planting my feet and gripping the pole with both hands I made it. How do people read and stand up on the subway?? It never ceases to amaze me.

I eventually found the British Museum after walking for awhile in the wrong direction. The terracotta army of Chinese soldiers is a special exhibition now (I want to go so, so , so bad!!) so there were masses of people there for that. I found my classmates and the professor with no problem. I mentioned before that he is pompous (if you have watched or read All Creatures Great and Small he is uncannily like Siegfried Farnon), but he is also a big deal at the BM. One of the girls in my class told me that he curated there until retiring a few years ago, and now he lives in London but teaches a few classes at UEA too. I went in the gift shop, and every book on African Art in there was written or edited by him. It was kind of surreal. He showed us around the galleries, which is where the picture above is from. It's by an artist from Ghana named El Anatsui. It is a rendering of Kente cloth (one of the main art forms of the Asante, who I'm doing a presentation on for Tuesday), but he did it in metal instead--you could see where he had cut up Coke cans to use in it. It was really cool, especially when you looked at actual Kente cloth that was also in the gallery. I liked how it was suspended and flow-y; really technical art terminology, I know! We then went down into the reserve collections with one of the archivists. I saw the pressure/moisture controlled room where the Ivories are stored, and also some gold weights and disks (again, Asante), and some brass heads. We had to go through a lot of locked gates to get into the rooms.

After that, I literally jogged through the Egyptian and Greek galleries...I'll have to go back there, because it would probably take about 3 days to see it all. My mission, however, was to make it to the National Gallery, which I did, after another tube ride. This one was easier to find...Trafalgar Square is hard to miss! The view from the museum entrance was pretty crazy; that's where I took the picture. I loved it. I kind of like going to museums alone, because if I have limited time I'm picky about what I want to see, and I feel bad dragging people to things they're not interested in. I've also started trying to get my face really close to paintings, so there is always the chance I'll get yelled at for touching things. Another problem is I always have a strong urge to touch the sculptures; I want to feel how they are carved. Minor digression, but if you do go to a museum with me just realize that you are going with a potential delinquent. The National Gallery is awesome. I took a Painting in Venice class last year, and their collection of Venetian art is crazy. It made me really happy. Total nerd, I know.

I left there right before it closed, and walked up to the Trafalgar Square tube station. It is kind of like Times Square, with a lot of theatres and such on the way. I took the "look left" picture near there, they have them on the street, apparently for tourists. I read that an American in Europe is most likely to die by being hit by a car because they looked the wrong way when crossing the street, so I guess they might have a point.

Here is the scariest thing about the train/tube stations to me: the escalators. They are the longest escalators I have every seen, and steep. Escalators make me nervous anyway...I saw some show when I was little about someone getting their leg caught in one, which I realize never happens, but these escalators were pretty intense nevertheless. I also got asked for directions multiple times, which either means that I look like I could live in London, or I just look as clueless as the people who asked me. I'm going to pretend it's the former.

When I got back to Liverpool Street, there were big signs everywhere, saying that services to Norwich were canceled or severely delayed. There had been a truck carrying an explosive cylinder that had caught fire on the highway next to the tracks in between Manningtree and Colchester (they are in between Norwich and London) and that the tracks there had been closed. It was around 6:15 now, and I was supposed to be on the 7 o'clock train. I asked a Rail Employee what I should do (go to Charing Cross? look for a bus? walk?), who told me that the lines were actually reopening, and that there would be a 6:30 train leaving. I told him I would just wait for the 7 o'clock one, which he said was, "very sensible of you, madam". Except it wasn't because the 7 ended up being cancelled. I managed to get on the 7:30, along with all the people who had missed the 7, so people had to sit and stand in the aisles. We were only delayed about a half an hour so it wasn't too bad.

I picked up a copy of The London Paper, which is free and tabloid-y (headline: Wills and Kate Step out Again), and read it on the train. Here was my horoscope: Aries. Be grateful for the obstacles. Show appreciation for the delays. Both are pointing to avenues you would probably not have pursued. You knew something was not going to happen without a struggle. That would be too easy. What you can expect is the thrill and sheer delight associated with having overcome barriers to a cherished goal.

Hmmm. Appropriate, no?

The Bonnster Monster

This is Bonnie. She died on Tuesday morning, and I found out in an email from my mom last night (their afternoon). She was 11 and had been sick most of the summer. I had been expecting this. It doesn't make it much easier though.

I'm kind of relieved to know, and I'm glad she's not in pain anymore. I'm going to miss her so very much, though. She was a fantastic dog. I preferred her company to a lot of people's, which I think is often the way with pets. It's going to be strange to go home and not have her be there. It seems pretty unreal right now.

I've tried all day to not mope around, but it's hard. I'm sad.

Happy October!

Not too much has happened in the past two days. I had my classes for the week, and today I am going downtown to look for Canaries tickets (the Norwich football team) and do my weekly grocery shopping. Here is something exciting, though--I am going to London on Friday! We're going to the British Museum for my African Art Seminar. The professor used to curate there, so we can go behind the scenes which is pretty cool. The professor is pretty pompous...he's one of the types who assigns his own books as reading, which really bothers me. I keep having to hear stories about all the African leaders he's met, how he showed them around London, how the King of Kuba was "sloshed" the whole time he was with him, etc. I think he just enjoys talking about himself, which I can deal with if it gets me to London! I'm coming back on the 7 train, so I should be able to go to the National Gallery before heading back, yay. This also involves me navigating the tube by myself, which is scary but also makes me feel pretty grown up.

I am giving a lecture next Monday and next Tuesday for my two art classes, the thought of which makes me rather nauseas. I was planning on doing some hefty work for those last night, but I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea at 10:30, and ended up staying in there until 1:30, just talking to my flatmates. So I'm kind of behind now, but it was totally worth it. I had a much better time than reading about architecture would have been.

In other news, I effectively washed my clothes yesterday. The laundrette is waay on the other side of campus, so getting the laundry there is kind of a pain. I have also discovered WNED online (thanks Liz!) and they played "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" a few days ago which made me really happy. And the International Herald Tribune is available in the library, and on Sunday there was an op-ed in it by Garrison Keillor! The excitement never ceases.