Random · Nothings...

ok, so i know i'm crazy and all, but indulge me. so i have this goal in life to personally see all of the stars of any version of pride and prejudice. this trip is really great for that goal. so last week we went to the premiere of pirates in leicester square and i saw keira knightley. that was awesome and yes she is that skinny in real life. last night we went to a play called fools for love and it starred juliette lewis and martin henderson. martin henderson played darcy in the bollywood version of pride and prejudice, bride and prejudice. we were on the second row. i almost touched a darcy. anyway, its a big deal in my little world. i'm still holding out for colin firth, who is by the way the one actor i wanted to see the most on my trip. it could happen. well probably not, but i can still hope.
tomorrow is bath. get excited. saturday is chawton house where jane austen grew up and where her favorite writing desk is. she wrote pride and prejudice on it. get way excited about that.

So, to sum it all up, England is amazing. We have been running around like crazy people for the last week and a half. I finally made it to the British Museum and my all important Rosetta Stone. No Mr.Right (or rather Lord Right) was waiting for me, lol, but thats ok. We have been doing all sorts of things. We went to the Globe Theater, saw a performance of titus, and had a special tour. While we were there we were able to see the rehearsals for a new play and Jeffrey from the Fresh Prince is in it, so we saw him! We also went to the London premiere of Pirates and saw Kiera Knightly, Johnny Depp, and my personal fav- Orlando Bloom. There were sooooo many people there. London is a museum lover's dream, so its working out quite well for me. i also saw a performance of jane eyre this week and it was seriously one of the best plays i have ever seen. the theater world in london blows my mind. This weekend we went to stratford-upon-avon which was super fun. we went to shakespeare's birthplace, saw a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the royal shakespeare company, and saw where he is buried. Today we went to blenheim palace. it was one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. its pretty common knowledge that i love all historic places so this place was right up my alley. the grounds were amazing. i have this new found passion for estate grounds. the grounds at versailles were my favorite thing in paris, and so far the grounds at blenheim are one of my favorite things about england. next weekend is the extended break, so i think i am going to do some day tours from london to various stately homes and castles around the country. i am definitely going to bath one day, windsor castle, stoneleigh abbey, hampton courts, warwick castle, chawton, and some other fun places. ok, well i think we are fixing to head back to the dorm. i plan to work on my photo website tomorrow, so hopefully there will be some more pictures posted!

Hi everybody! Sorry it took so long to update, but we made it to London! It is absolutely amazing. I still cant believe I am actually in my beloved England!!! We had a bit of a crazy time navigating the train station in Paris, but other than that it was a good trip over. As we were riding in the taxi from the train station to our dorms we were able to see the changing of the guards as well as some sort of procession of carriages and costumed riders taking the queens money to the bank. Anyway, it was an awesome way to begin my time in London. Our dorms are really nice. I have a private room in the basement with my own shower and sink. We have private toilets down the hall. Its really nice being in the basement because its cool most of the time, and considering the heat wave in London right now and our lack of air conditioning, thats a really good thing. Yesterday we walked all over some of the major parts of the city. We ended up staying with one of the professors and he took us to Buckingham Palace, Tony Blair's house, all over parliament, trafalgar square, convent gardens, and lots of other fun places that i recognized from books. My classes are going pretty well. I kinda wish i would have taken the history instead of the theater, but its going to be fine. The classes are really relaxed and everyone seems to be really open to discussion and such. Today we are going to the Victoria and Albert Museum (one of my favorite monarchs!), Hyde Park, and our first play tonight, Titus Andronicus (i think its at the globe). Hopefully I'll be able to put some pictures on here today or tomorrow! So far England is everything I expected it to be and oh so much more!!! Its so beautiful and full of history. I think we are going to try to go to Bath (the Jane Austen museum) Sunday, so I'll definitely update about that! Saturday England plays in the world cup so thats going to be crazy! Thanks for everything and I'll try to update again soon!

Bonjour from Paris!!! Everything is going really well. We have been able to see some really beautiful things. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walked down the Champs Elysee, stood under the Arc de Triomphe, and explored Versailles (just to name a bit of what we have done). My favorite thing so far has definitely been exploring the hidden gardens, ponds, and walkways of Versailles. The grounds are absolutely amazing!!! Today we are going to brave the crowds at the Louvre, have true French tea, and see the Eiffel Tower at night. The hotel has been really really great, so thats a relief (i was really worried that it would be a brothel)!

Au Revoir!

oh, my blog is having issues, so i will update here until they get worked out!

Ok, so the stress is starting to pile up right about now. I leave for Europe in a day and a half. I am sooooo not ready to go. My clothes arent clean yet and my room looks like something blew up in it. There is stuff everywhere. It all is going in a suitcase, but just cant find its suitcase until tomorrow when the packing officially begins. My extreme OCD nature cant handle all the stuff not being in its appropriate place.
So on a more positive note this week has been really great. I have been able to play with lots of people that I havent seen in a while. Tomorrow night is girls night, so thats going to be even more fun. hopefully i'll have some sort of grip on this packing nonsense by then.
Not to be completely random or anything but i have this goal of doing movie reviews for all the new movies i see. i decided now is as good a time as any, so here goes.
I have seen two movies this week, one new to theaters and one on dvd. the first was The New World on dvd. I think i should begin by saying that one of the things that drew me to this movie was the prospect of seeing colin farrell in historic clothes (and i wasnt disappointed). anyway, the movie was really weird and long. it was one of those movies where they try just a little to hard to be all artistic in the filming and stuff. it has weird angles and is choppy. anyway, the story wasnt all that good and the actors whispered a lot. overall, i dont recommend it, unless of course you are all about two and a half hours of not only colin farrell, but also christian baale in historic clothes. i probably just butchered the spelling of their names, so just ignore that.
the second movie that i saw this week was Nacho Libre. I'm not the biggest jack black fan in the world, and for good reason. anyway, we took two 13 year old boys to see it and they thought it was the funniest thing ever, so that should warn you to beware. it was funny and if you get the religious mockery then it is really funny. overall, it has some really great one liners and the normal jack black singing humor in it. its worth the matinee price though.
alright, now i guess i better stop wasting time and actually do something productive because i'm leaving for europe in a day and a half!!!!! Yay!!!

in less than a week i will leave for europe. in a week i will be in paris. i cant handle this. its crazy, seriously. i dont think words can express how excited i am. everything is coming together and it just makes me happy. today i went by sta in the union and picked up my train tickets (britrail pass- for travel around the uk) and my eurostar ticket (the "chunnel" from paris to london). they are real paper tickets and for some reason i just find that to be way fun.
so as most people know, i am a book snob. i love british lit with a passion. we have some really great literature based visits planned for england and it just makes me happy. first and most importantly is the city of bath, which is famous for all things jane austen. i think i might cry when i actually get to the jane austen museum. its just crazy to think that after years of going to their website and getting the newsletters and magazines, that i am actually going to be there. i cant handle it. anyway, we are also going to the bronte museum/parsonage. i love love the bronte's (thats jane eyre and wuthering heights for those of you who dont know). we are also doing stratford upon avon for some serious shakespeare time. some of our other options that are currently in the air are brighton (scenes from jane austen novels), chawton (one of jane austen's homes and the chawton house library), winchester (jane austen's buried here and there is a pretty decent size museum). actually there are quite a few famous people buried around winchester cathedral. we are also going to be visiting canterbury and oxford.
anyway, i love books and this trip is going to be like heaven.

So, it would be no understatement for me to say that its been a long week. I had my wisdom teeth (all four) out monday, so since then i've been laying in a bed either at my parents house or my grandmothers. today was the first day that i actually got dressed and put on makeup all week. my face has been so swollen. it would have been really funny if it hadnt of hurt so much. anyway, i was hoping to catch up on my reading (lol, like i really need to do that) but the pain medicine puts me to sleep. i'm not taking it anymore except at night b/c it really hurts to sleep on my face.
well, monday i have to go back to work. i really hate work. really.
i'm also moving out of my apt next weekend. thats kinda exciting b/c i hate having my junk in two different places.
now that finals are over i'm getting way excited about my trip. kristin, angel, and i had a meeting sunday afternoon to try to plan our paris adventure. so far we have a draft itenerary. let me know what you think:
friday: arrive in paris at 11:00am, that night go to the eiffel tower and out to eat at a nice restaurant
saturday: markets in the morning, not sure about afternoon (maybe natural history museum)
sunday: versailles
monday: louvre and museum d'orsay
tuesday: luxembourg gardens, sorbonne, notre dame, pantheon, etc
wednesday: london!
So, as you can see its a work in progress. let me know if you know of any really great things we have left out. we're not real big on modern art so thats why there isnt really anthing to do with it.
i'm also getting excited about my trip to atlantic city. i'm not sure what there is to do in atlantic city other than gamble (i'm going to win my europe money on the nickel machines), but its going to be nice to get away and eat at fun restaurants.
well, i think i am going to go take a nap...

after much searching and many unavaibilities, we finally found a hotel in paris. its super exciting. i was really worried we were going to be homeless for a couple of days in paris. anyway, its the hotel opera maintenon in the first district of paris. its like 5 mins walking to the louvre. thats so exciting.
anyway, speaking of paris, i started reading the da vinci code yesterday. its really quite good despite the closeminded people yelling thats its the devil. anyway, if you've read it let me know b/c we should have a booktalk. oh how i love a good booktalk.
well, i guess i better get back to working on the 87 projects i have due this week. its times like this when i wish all my major invovled was going to a lecture and taking three tests, instead of all the nonesense they throw at us...

Ok, so i know its been like 10 years since i updated, but there's not time like the present. Well, things are looking up in my little world. We had our first official London meeting last week and that was way exciting. I found my room mate and we decided to go to Paris for a week before London. We also decided that on our long weekend break (like 5 days) we would go on a "Jane Austen/ Pride and Prejudice Tour". I am way excited. We are going to tour some of the locations from the filming of both versions as well as some historic Jane Austen places, like the Jane Austen museum in Bath. Its going to be amazing. Anyway, all the travel stuff is starting to stress me out b/c we have to plan our paris trip and the extended weekend. Next week i have plans to have a nice long visit with the travel agency in the union.
On other fronts, the doctors still havent figured out whats causing my migraines, dizziness, and nausea. I hoped after the hour long mri that they would have some idea, but no so much. anyway, i think its just stress, but i guess we'll see. I am also trying really hard not to loose it on my room mates. The whole situation is just pushing me over the edge. I came in this morning after spending last night in zachary and my whole apt was a disaster. apparently they had some kind of party that lasted till 5 this morning and some of my things were thrown about the living room and the curtains were pulled down (including rod) and there was junk everywhere. who does that? anyway, i'm just struggling a lot with that right now.
So, class is crazy. Thats really the only word to describe it. the education dept is famous for its end of semester explosion of random, useless crap due and this semester is no different. Well, i guess i better go start cleaning in the living room, blah.