Woke up, for the third time this week, to strange, circular brusies on my right leg. Whaaat?

Headache (state of life right now...grrr), logic homework, I'll save the feminist theory readings for tomorrow, I'd love to watch Chicago right now, missing my boy.

How is it that I was dead-on-my-feet tired at 8:30, but by virtue of having to power through to make a 9:30 appointment, I stayed up and am, now, completely wide awake when I need to go to bed. I sincerely hate insomnia, and that it seems to be rearing its ugly head in my life once again. Why can't you just leave me alone? Alternatively: all of my technology hates me. Funsies.

Tonight's Menu...

Tonight for dinner: delicious salad of fresh feta cheese, baby greens, roasted red peppers, avocado, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Tanya made this for dinner a few weeks ago, and I've this is now my third time recreating it, I love it so much!

(Forgive the picture quality, but I wanted to give you some idea of what the thing looked like...)
Yes, I am a poor college student. Yes, I am eating my salad out of a sauce pan. Don't judge me.

This is from the last time we made the dish, but this time around I'm subbing out the olives and adding fresh avocado instead...a taste of California home. Mmmmm.

Sculpture Park

For your viewing pleasure: a random smattering of photos from my most recent field trip to Goodwood Sculpture Park. It was a really cool place, a sculpture park set in the middle of a forest, right on the edge of big fields of sheep, and near enough to the sea that you could almost smell it. You just got to wander through the paths, running across strange sculptures, both big and small, all the while. Pretty cool stuff.

Cherries, locally grown cauliflower, and freshly ground coffee from the farmers market. I think I want to live in that place forever.

Updates and hellos

I have been such a bad blogger. I should be relegated to blogger purgatory. *gulp* sorry!!

A quick update, because that seems like all I have time for...

I've been working my butt off to get some essays done a bit early, in preparation for my boyfriend to be here in six short days!!! Ya, I'm a bit excited. So that means I've written approximately 100,000 words over the past week, and still have about 25,000 to go, and damn does that get old fast.

Still had a bit of time to cook, though, so tonight I made some delicious homemade mac n cheese, which I'm eating as I type. Yes, even dinner seems like it has to be multitasked right now.

So lots of work + a bit of stress = low grade anxiety attacks throughout the day. Luckily, I am a champ at anxiety attacks after all these years, so I am totally kicking their butts. True story.

I was the subject of not one, not two, but three separate tourists' photos today. I was just working in a park on my laptop, and literally had three separate people come up to me, stand about 4 feet away, point cameras straight at me, and take a picture. It was kind of surreal. Now I'm in a few Japanese families' photo albums, though, so...that's fun.

There are still birds living in my chimney, they are still hooting at all hours of the day. Thankfully they seem to sleep through the night, though, so I appreciate that!

Alright, back to work. Wish me luck!

Delicious Dinner

Roasted red bell peppers, feta cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and herbs, all tossed in a nice green salad. Delicious Mediterranean dinner, indeed.

Blech blech blech--where did all this work come from?? All of a sudden I actually have tons to do...merh.

Field Trip

Off to Goodwood Sculpture Park and Chichester today. Long day of driving, walking, and art-seeing. Looking forward to it!

What A Day

What a day. Walking to Grantchester, drinking tea in fields, chilling with cows, watching my mom open her Mother's Day present, making pizza, playing with friends, dancing, thinking excitedly about the future, playing capture the flag in the freezing cold, walking home happy. Lovely.

Florence, and other things

Ok, so things have been crazy over here this week. I have, most days, simply locked myself in the dorm and done ridiculous amounts of work. One class presentation and one paper down, one class presentation and one paper to go. Then, a field trip on Friday to see various contemporary art things in London. Whoohoo! But, before that, and in a brief interlude between essay writing, preparing for my presentation, and laundry (ugh. laundry day here never ceases to be awful), I thought I'd do a quick post about Florence. So, Florence! I apologize for the disjointed-ness of this post in advance....

Florence was beautiful. Relaxed, calm, pretty, warm, lovely. The people still made sure that we knew nothing about coffee, or Italy, or the world, for that matter, because we were but lowly stupid Americans, but once we got over that particular aspect of the trip, we had a great time.

Our hostel was awesome. It had a beautiful patio and garden, nice rooms, free breakfast, super-cheap dinner, and super-cheap wine. What more could you want?

The Duomo. Crazy amazing on the outside, quite underwhelming on the inside. But the outside, wow. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the building is made up of the most vibrant green, pink, and white marble. Incredibly colorful and awesome.

The Baptistry Doors. GORGEOUS, but unfortunately replicas. The originals are still under restoration after a massive flood that covered the city in about 13 feet of water. And when they're restored, they'll probably go to a museum, not back outside.


The Arno river with the famous Vecchio Bridge in the background:

Oh my god, the world's best Gellato:

Florence also had lots of pretty little things, like this silver:

And...maybe this poster...or this might just be strange. I'm not sure:

Also: Oh my god, ridiculously small car!

And, last but not least, the Great Synagogue of Florence. You weren't allowed to take pictures inside, bags had to be checked into lockers, you had to walk through a metal detector, and there were armed guards outside, but god damn, was that place beautiful....

May Day

Rabbit rabbit! It's May, in which the weather's getting warmer, I'm going on two cool field trips, taking some interesting dance classes, having cooking dates with friends, my boyfriend is coming to visit, and things are generally looking good. Yay! (Oh...and...two essays and two class presentations due this week...merh.)

Roma!

I'm finally settled back into the school routine here in Cambridge, so it seemed high time to start catching you up on my trip! First stop, Rome, where the coffee was delicious, the streets were crowded (even more than normal, as we were there over Easter), the art and architecture were amazing, and the sense of history was overwhelming.

Ubiquitous coffee shot. Pun...intended. So much coffee was had on this trip. Most of it delicious. This cup sure was. And STRONG, too.

Of course we hit the major highlights, like the Colosseum, which almost doesn't seem real, I think partly because you're just staring up at it going "Wow, I've seen pictures of that all my life. And here it is....this is crazy." That happened a lot, actually, and it never ceased to be strange. You'd just be walking down the street and be like, oh, hello, Trajan's Column, how's it going?

We also saw the Trevi Fountain, which I loved, but so did about 8bagillion other people, I guess, because it was SO crowded!

One of my favorite parts of Rome was the Baths of Caracalla, a not-on-your-average-tourist-map site of ruins that a friend staying in Rome brought us to. The place was huge and so much of it was still in tact...

...including some amazing mosaics that just chill outside in the elements, and yet have been around since the Roman Empire!

We went in a dizzying number of churches throughout the course of this trip (with I took with two good friends from school, Katie and Andy), and they were each stunningly beautiful. Honestly, I can't even remember the name of this one, but I loved it's ceiling, and the golden light on the underside of the arches.
The art in the churches (and everywhere else, for that matter) was equally amazing. Please forgive the blurry photograph, but these are two works by Caravaggio that were on display in one of the Churches. They were in a dark apse whose lights could only be turned on by putting a coin into a machine. Italy does know how to gouge it's tourists...But it was worth it, to be that close to such amazing art.

There was so much amazing sculpture all over the city, but these two lovely pieces were in the Vatican Museum, where I could have spent days wandering around, if only we'd had the time!
The building itself was art--it seemed like every square inch was decorated with something-or-other. The opulence was overwhelming, and a actually quite saddening, as Sarah Silverman's Sell the Vatican, Feed the World and other similar sentiments came to mind more than once....
We spent an afternoon and evening walking around the Jewish Ghetto, which, while steeped in history, wasn't too much to look at. I did love the storefronts, though!
Dinner at a restaurant in the Ghetto actually provided me with one of my favorite stories from Rome. Katie, Andy, and I met up with a friend of mine and Andy's from Cambridge, a German named Konstantine, and his French friend, Xavier. The five of us went to dinner at this tiny tiny restaurant in the Ghetto, which, while being in the Jewish district, was not a Kosher restaurant. We had a very hard time ordering with our waiters, who spoke very little English (none of us spoke Italian) but were very much mocking us the entire time...it's hard to describe exactly what they were doing, but they made frequent mentions of how they were not McDonnalds and we'd have to wait a long time for our food, sighed exasperatedly when we each ordered a dish and made a big deal about how long five meals would take to prepare, laughed with each other quite obviously about us, next to our table, and were just generally very uninviting. When the food came, the waiter plopped a plate of spaghetti with pork down in front of me, and I immediately tried to explain that I had not ordered that, but just a simple spaghetti in tomato sauce. He jabbed his finger at his notepad, showing me that he'd written down pork. The thing is, I don't eat pork, as I keep Kosher, so I know I didn't order it. I tried to explain, and he just got more and more angry, saying it was my fault for ordering wrong, and raising his voice as he tried to get me to keep the plate. My friends at the table and I were all sort of shocked and stunned by the sheer awkwardness of it all, until finally Andy just erupted with a repetition of "Jewish! Kosher! Kosher! Jewish!" while pointing at me wildly. This actually seemed to do the trick, as they angrily whipped my plate away and brought back my real order a little while later. However, in their lasting graciousness, they charged me for the more expensive plate. Oh, Rome, how I will miss you....

Next stop: Florence!

A very good day

So I am officially going to be traveling through Europe this summer with my boyfriend....I don't think it gets much better than that! And he's coming to Cambridge in under a month!! What a damn good day...

rain

Didn't think I'd be happy to see the return of rain to Cambridge, but I just love that humid warm rain smell....

zzz

Well, I guess I discovered a cure for my insomnia...do my Mary Wollstonecraft reading. Hello, unintended nap! Ugh. I'm going to make myself a strong cup of tea and try to get back to it...

Here comes the sun

I'm mildly afraid that the pigeons flapping about outside my windows are going to fly inside (the way a gigantic killer bee did yesterday, by the way...), but it is still too warm outside for me to want to close them! It was legitimately lovely outside today. LOVELY. I walked around without even a jacket on...first time since getting here! It's like early fall in Los Angeles...crisp and clean and warm and beautiful. Went to the library to pick up some required reading on Mary Wollstonecraft, but also got sidetracked and picked up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban, Beginning Old Testament Study, and Feminist Interpretations of the Bible....y'know...for fun.... :-D

Yumm

Avocado and cheese sandwich and some tangerines. Mmmmm, late-afternoon snack.

Hooray!

Ballet class = total success! I am so happy and am definitely going back next week! Tomorrow, I will be sore, but still very happy. Now, for a big, carb-y dinner...pasta, here I come!

This Afternoon

Going to have a coffee and a pastry at a new bakery I found and read some Harry Potter. :) Rome post coming soon!

Well, I tried to go to my first ballet class in 2+ years today, but the schedule was different than the one on the studio's website, so no ballet for me today. Also, the receptionist was quite snooty about it, and very unapologetic. Oh, the British, sometimes... Nonetheless, I will try again on Thursday, with a 6:30 Intermediate Ballet and a 7:30 Intermediate Contemporary, or maybe the 7:30 Yoga! I'm very much looking forward to it, for sure. So, instead of ballet I took an hour-long walk around about half of the outside of town, going down some streets I'd never been before, and talking to mi madre on the phone. I also stopped in the library and picked up the first two Harry Potter books, because I'd like to reread the series! (Fun fact, they're the British versions of course, so its not the Sorcerer's Stone but the Philosopher's Stone instead). Then, a quick pop into the grocery store for fresh pesto and goat cheese tortellini for dinner tonight, and back up to my dorm. Now, dinner and watching some House....

Back in Cambridge

6 weeks, 8 countries, 11 cities, 5 languages, 5 plane flights, 9 train trips, 1 bus ride, and 1 volcano later, I am back in Cambridge for the next two months. I've really missed blogging and updating you all on my goings-on, and I hope maybe that you missed me too! For the next few weeks, I'll be doing some backtracking and some present-day blogging, combining photos and stories from my spring break travels with updates of what is going on in my life right now. I promise to put up lots of pictures, some crazy stories (like about how my Czech guide got slapped in the middle of a church, or why a Jewish restaurant in Rome insisted on serving me pork...), and plenty of extra info for those interested. So, I just wanted to say that I'm back in England, safe and sound, and looking forward to writing some more!

Ugh

Can't fall asleep, but have to be awake in 8 hours to get started on the day. Freaking out about tomorrow/travel/life/everything. Bad moods and jet lag make awful combinations.

Where in the world?

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few weeks, I was in LA/at school for the past two weeks, and had the greatest vacation ever!! Spent time with my family, my boyfriend, my friends, my professors, my dogs, and just generally enjoyed being around people I love so very much. I miss it so much already and honestly didn't want to leave at all...these next two months in Cambridge are going to be hard, but I'll pull through with the love of family and friends! Now back in Cambridge for just two days in order to organize myself, try to get rid of the jet lag, pack, and be on my way to the next leg of my journey. Next up: Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin with two of my very close friends. Hopefully I'll blog a bit from the hostels, but look forward to lots of info and pictures for sure when I come back!

Going Home!

St. Patty's day in Ireland was absolutely fabulous, but now, I'm on my way to LA! Can't wait to be there!!

Edinburgh--Part 1

Ok, so! Edinburgh! Let's start with: I am completely in love with that city. I just felt an immediate connection to it (in a way that I also distinctly remember feeling with Hawaii when I first went there...though those couldn't be two more different places!), and my love only grew as I saw more of the place! I stayed with my good friend Ratna, who was kind enough to house and feed me for two days, three nights. I started out my stay with a 3 hour free tour of the city. Such a great deal, and a great way to orient myself for the rest of the trip. Well, actually, I really started out my stay with a cup of coffee and a panini at Black Medicine Coffee Co. (apparently frequented by JK Rowling) and then went on the tour.
The tour was, as I said, great. We walked along the Royal Mile, into little alleyways or "closes" like this one, with a great view of the Sir Walter Scott memorial tower...:...through Grassmarket, by the Castle, down to Greyfriar's church/cemetery, by St. Giles cathedral, and other places that I now can't remember! Our enthusiastic guide gave us great history along the way and surely kept me entertained the whole time. Look! A Castle! More on that later...
A cute story from the tour was of Greyfriar's Bobby, a little terrier whose owner was a nightwatch policeman. After his owner died and was buried in Greyfriar's cemetery, Bobby apparently sat next to his grave for the next 14 years! He was looked after by the whole city practically, and they loved him so much that they buried him just outside of the cemetery, and gave him a monument on the street in front:
Edinburgh/Scotland in general, it seems, is very serious about its pets. In addition to the Greyfriar's Bobby memorial, I also saw a small cemetery at the castle for the dogs of military officers and a sign in a pup saying "please keep dogs off the seats." Yup, not out of the pub, just off the seats, please!

After the tour I took to wandering some more on my own, walking all the way down the royal mile to Holyrood Palace and Arthur's seat. Look its me! I'm so happy to be there!
That night I went out with my friend Ratna and her flatmates and had a great time at a pub and later at club that, honestly, played pretty awful music, but oh well!
Thus ended day one in Edinburgh. I'll save the rest for the next post.

Sorry to be a few days behind on updating, but I guess I'll just have to blog more about Dublin when I'm already in Cork, and then do Cork when I'm in the US! Leaving for Cork tomorrow morning, but before that I just have to go out on the town and find me some dinner! :)

A few days ago...

Ok, so I FREAKING LOVED Edinburgh. Absolutely amazing city. Now, I'm in Dublin, which is honestly a bit of a let down from Edinburgh, but c'est la vie. But, I need to back up a little bit....here's what I wrote on the train on the way to Scotland, seemingly a good place to start:
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After hauling ass to the train station because I was sure I was going to be late (there was a slight mishap involving an open water bottle, a backpack, and a laptop…don’t worry, all parties eventually emerged unharmed), I managed to get there just in time and get my butt on that train. Switched trains in Ely, and then again in Petersburgh, and now I’m happily sitting on the train to Edinburgh. However, I managed to pick a seat whose view is mostly obstructed by an entirely unnecessary piece of plastic, so I’m craning my head out of someone else's window to get a load of this awesome scenery. And, it really is awesome. The sun just came out a moment ago, so now its all green and golden fields, cute little farmhouses and towns were the biggest building is either the church or the pub, blue skies, and puffy white clouds. The whole areas is pretty much a lowlands as well, so there are lots of little fens and rivers and whatnot along the side of the tracks. But, most importantly, there are horses wearing, well, horse pajamas I guess (to keep them warm in the winter) and there are sheep and sheepdogs, and that just makes my day.

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I’ve just spent the past two hours reading thebloggess There were at least two points in which I was laughing so hard (silently, so as not to completely freak out the other passengers) that I was in tears. Which probably lead to me freaking out the other passengers even more, because there I am shaking and crying in the corner, but don’t worry, I’m actually just laughing. Anyway. She’s hilarious. Thanks to my sister for the link.

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This train has outlets for your computer. Win!

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We have gone through Newcastle. Joke about coals.

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We just started going by the coast, which was so beautiful! By the time I got smart enough to grab my camera, however, we’d turned inland again. Boo. Hopefully we’ll turn back out one more time, because the glimpses I got of those cliffs and the sea were definitely picture-worthy. Its getting more hilly here, and there are sheep all over the hills. This is exactly why I took the train. I’m loving this.

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So, Edinburgh rocked. But I will save the post about what I did there for another day, because hopefully my random train musings are enough for now...

As of now, I'm in Dublin, which, like I said, is...meh. I think I would like it loads better if I were with other people, as it is a very "sit in a pub with a friend" kind of a city. Alas, this is one stop on my trip during which I am alone. Today I walked through St. Stephens Green park, which was very nice, and it was sunny out, so I sat there a while and just soaked it up. Then I wandered about the city, around Temple Bar and little back alleys, finding lots of cute stores to window shop in, followed by a crepe and some coffee. Oh, and lunch in there somewhere too! I tried to go into Christ Church cathedral, but alas I got there just as it closed for the day. I am quite tired because I woke up at 6:30 this morning to get to the airport, etc., so now I'm just chilling in the hostel. Will go out for dinner later. Until then!

Getting Ready

So today I have been packing, running errands, cleaning, essay writing, doing laundry, and generally preparing for the beginning of my 6 week adventure! Good lord, I can't believe I leave tomorrow. At 12:30 I get on a train for Edinburgh where I'm meeting up with my good friend Ratna (who is spending the year abroad there). Then its three days in Edinburgh, two in Dublin, and three in Cork (where I'll be staying with two more friends, abroad for the semester) before jetting off to the US for two weeks. Still too much to do, so I have to run!

Malvern Hills

Hot water is out throughout the building, so my room is sooo cold!

Went on a great hike with my group yesterday, through the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. It was beautiful and so much fun! Possibly the best time I've had in Cambridge so far. There were some incredibly steep uphills which I did not enjoy at all (and can feel in my legs today), but other than that, it was great. Nice views, only slightly obscured by the cloudiness of it it all, fun conversation, lots of cute dogs running around the trails, and just a generally good time. We hiked about 10 miles in total, saw an Iron Age hill fort, went to the highest point in the hills, and ended up at a great little pub where we waited for our bus to come get us at the end of the day.

Going up! This was way steeper than it looks.

On the ridge of the hills:

I am very happy to be there, but it is also quite windy at the top.

Cows! Furry cows!

There were a couple of these great signposts throughout the hills.

A bit cloudy, but still some nice views.

And a relaxing drink at the pub at the end of the day.

Return of the Laundry Day

For the first time since being here, laundry day has not been the death of me. I finally figured out how to wrestle these awful machines into submission, and my clothes have emerged victorious! They are clean, DRY, the appropriate colors, and only smell a little bit too much like detergent. Now, if only this whole complicated process didn't take 2 and a half hours just to do one load, then we'd really be good!

Barcelona Part 2--Park Guell

Park Guell is another Gaudi creation, originally intended to be a "model community," but now a public park.
Though the community project failed, its intentions are still obvious in its design. Covered areas for a marketplace, different levels for housing, winding pathways, gardens, and beautiful views of the city.

(Including a view which you may or may not recognize from a past season of America's Next Top Model. Yes. I saw it. Don't judge too hard, please.)
Gingerbread houses! Or...meant to be a school and a guard house, I believe?
Friendly neighborhood pets, too!
There is also, of course, plenty of mosaic in the typical Gaudi style:
And you must not forget the famous lizard statue at the front:Next up, food? The Cathedral? Marketplaces? All of the above?