Sunday, November 14, 2010

RULE BRITANNIA! Pt. VI: Finale







aaand Home. Finished up with a weekend in Oxford and one last night in London. I haven't felt this exhausted in a long long time-

Also- Wasn't it HALLOWEEN when I left?! Now Thanksgiving is next week and I'm already behind on Christmas shopping?? And where did this giant pile of bills come from? And all these republicans?

Oh, how the duties of home descend.

Thanks for the adventure, England.

<3

Saturday, November 13, 2010

RULE BRITANNIA! Pt. V: The Long Way Home

Am now in Oxford where I am visiting family friends and feeling completely grateful for such wonderful people.

...and for taxis. Which get us home. Even after the sun has gone down at 4:30. And it is getting darker and darker. And we have insisted on walking home rather than catching a bus or getting a ride from said friends. And are subsequently very very lost and wandering home in the wrong direction.
Yes, we are humbled before our cabbies.



...but made it in the end.

Goodnight!--

Monday, November 8, 2010

RULE BRITANNIA! Pt. III- Now We Are the Masters of Our Fate



This afternoon I left Thanet for London. I'm one of those people (... there are more of "those people", right?) that get pretty intensely anxious before I travel anywhere. The question that will usually keep coming into my head between the fuzz and nonsense is "What am I doing??" Why am I in/ on this plane/ car/ bus/ train/ smelly, steamy, over-crowded subway with weird upholstered seats? I've asked myself a lot this time around, especially having been traveling on my own with a sort of haphazard game plan.
Last summer was an eye-opener in the sense that I now really see myself and a lot of people around my age entering onto this same terrible tableau-rosa period. Its like being handed a blank canvas and some paints and being asked to paint the landscape of the rest of your life.
Woa!
Ulcer!
We've been hijacked into a game of musical chairs... only you know... instead of chairs, its jobs. Most people I'm close to are struggling in one way or another, which I actually think is okay- but what I notice that actual struggle seems to be is not so much that the jobs aren't there, its more that we cant seem to focus on any one thing, and its intensely frustrating. Not knowing what to do next.
Anyway the whole point of that comes down to the fact that, all this week though I have suffered through anxiety-a-plenty and asked myself a trillion times "what am I doing?", I am safe and sound in another part of the world and I'm pretty sure the remedy for this post-graduate stagnancy, or any other kind of rut for that matter, is to expose ones-self to as much opportunity as possible. And that's what I'm doing here. We stand to gain so much more than we might lose.

This soap box is too high to get down off of at the point... I think I might just curl up here and go to sleep.
...so high in fact that I can see the O2 Arena and its lcd light car-ads which will be shining in my window all night long!


Goodnight everyone!

Friday, November 5, 2010

RULE BRITANNIA! Pt. II- Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!






Yay! After about 24 hours of door-to-door travel, I made it to my friend's place in Thanet:

Warm beer and a cold aside, it's been great! I've visited Margate and Canterbury and drank blasphemous amounts of tea. Guy Fawkes Day was yesterday and, though I did not get to see a stuffed-Guy Fawkes burned in an effigy pile like I wanted to, we had a great time at all the downtown festivities and pubs regardless.

Still have London to look forward to, and then those last three mystery days... meaning I haven't figured out what I'm doing or where I'm going. It'll be a surprise! Hide your tarps and cardboard boxes, bums! I'm looking for lodging!

Cheers, all.

Pip pip.

Monday, November 1, 2010

RULE BRITANNIA!

Yay Giants!! What a great send-off. Now I can spend two weeks bragging to a country who could care less. But you know what? I'm sure it wont be hard to find some other sports-related reason to drink in the United Kingdom.
Do you think they fire off shot guns when they win big games? The English? Someone living very close to me seems to be really into it. I can tell its going to be an interesting night of trying-to-sleep.

Tonight, "God Bless America"...

but tomorrow...



!!!

I'll be updatin'! Wish me luck!