MARCH 14 - 20, 2011
Alrighty, I've fallen behind so for my own sake, I'm going to go through a quick update of what went on this past week. I don't know if there will be any pictures - I'm just going to play this one by ear - so just a head's up to anyone who just likes looking at the pretty pictures!
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Monday, 14 March
Sadly, I had to take Brittney back to the airport to catch her flight home (fingers crossed for no problems with the flight!). Still half asleep, I pack into the now-crowded tube and find a seat amongst the early morning rush hour crowd heading into London. Made it back in time to stumble to my 9am class and sit through a couple hours of boring lectures. Then it was, of course, nap time! Eventually, I probably did some work and got something done.. That night, I got together with a bunch of people to celebrate one of my English friend's birthdays! A couple of beers, some cake, some drinking games, and fun times ensued for a while. Afterwards, made my way back to my room and readied myself for my sleep-in day tomorrow by staying up to watch a movie before heading to bed. Tonight's flick: 'Dr. Strangelove' to continue with the Kubrick theme. I'd never seen it, but have always heard great things. And I was not disappointed. Just a fantastic film with so much subtle humor and satire. Classic Kubrick as well. It was a good night!
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Tuesday, 15 March
I don't think I really did anything today.. Slept in, got some stuff done, went to my one class, hung around. Don't remember much else, actually! At least nothing too exciting.. Probably worked a bit on the blog, may have skyped with the family briefly.. Who knows!
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Wednesday, 16 March
One class early before getting ready and meeting up with the football lads for our last match of the season. It wasn't a terrible match, just not very exciting on both ends. I played right mid and didn't get any looks at the net. We lost 1-0 when an errant pass from one of our defenders went right to their offside strikers, who easily placed it into the corner of the net. After that, neither team really had any solid chances and the game eventually wound down. It was a bummer to end a not-too-strong season that way, but I was happy just to be playing!
Later that night, most of the football club came together at the university pub for a night of 'pub golf'! Now, a brief explanation: pub gold involves a huge group of people (in our case, 30-40 football lads!) all dressing up in anything falling under 'golf attire' and going around to nine different 'holes'. The holes tonight were seven different pubs/bars in the area where we would all have a specified drink. The main point of the game comes with the drinking: each place has a 'par' that stands for how many sips it takes you to drink whatever the specified drink is at the current destination. And let me tell you, there were a whole lot of Par 1's (basically, you had to chug it!) on that scoresheet.. It was a lot of fun though! 30-40 lads chugging down pints, wandering through the streets of London yelling KCL chants and football songs into the night, and me trying to hold my own as an American amongst a bunch of Brits! And in case you were wondering, yes, I did dress up a bit: that checkered jumper from Primark that I hinted at earlier last week? Rocked it with a polo and some khaki slacks. Looked like Bagger Vance out there ladies and gents (somehow, no pictures of said event survive..). Anyway, some of the drinks: a couple pints of beer (a Carlsberg, some Snakebite, a bitter ale), a mojito (no clue why this was on the list..), a glass of red wine (yuck.), a glass of white wine, a couple mixed drinks, and an Irish Car Bomb (happy St. Patrick's Day!). Most were pretty easy 'holes in one'.
And I think my score of par was a pretty solid showing for the evening!
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Thursday, 17 March
Top o' th' mornin' ya and a Happy St. Patrick's Day! I spent most of the day recovering from the night before, actually. Got through my early classes alright, but crashed back into bed when I returned to my flat. Everything was much better after that! Got some work done, but don't really remember anything particularly exciting happening. I applied to a couple more summer internships, so that was fun. Probably worked on that last big blog post, and tried to catch up with the couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother that I'd missed earlier this year. That was pretty much it though! Like I was saying with the St. Patty's Day parade, it's not that big in England. I walked around all day wearing my Ireland t-shirt, but I don't think I saw anyone else wearing a significant amount of green. Not like in the states, at least, where walking around my campus is like walking through a field of shamrocks. Oh well, as I was still recovering from the night before (green beer just didn't sound too appetizing at the moment for some reason..), I didn't feel too bad not participating in any shenanigans (not that I knew of any going on, sadly). Another thing I did miss though: Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds. They're really not that fantastic (to me, they just taste like vanilla milkshakes with mint syrup), but they're certainly a novelty for any true American St. Patty's Day celebrations!
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Friday, 18 March
9am lectures. Ugh. During the afternoon, met up with my Italy travel pals and booked our hostels: so it's all officially set now! We have all the travel and living stuff down - now to just plan out everything we want to see! I'm excited, though I don't think I'll be doing anything too exciting (read: expensive) until then so I can save up the money to splurge a bit while I'm there! In fact, after all the money I spent with Brittney, with pub golf on top of that, I kind of had it in my head to just hang in this weekend and take it easy. So I just hung out, got some stuff done, played some Starcraft with the Case guys, then popped in a movie for the night: a strong finish to the Kubrick binge with '2001: A Space Odyssey', which I'd seen before, but still consider a sci-fi classic and always enjoy. Great stuff on all accounts.
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Saturday, 19 March
Today I slept in. Like really slept in. We're talking rolling out of bed around 2pm sleeping in. I hadn't done that in so long, and it was awesome! After the sleep deprivation (read: waking up far too early!) of the previous weeks, I felt like I finally was all caught up! I was productive once I was up though, doing some necessary grocery shopping, then finishing up some math homework and doing a bit of studying. After dinner, a bit more Starcraft with the Case boys, then another movie to round out another relaxing, cheap, night. Something completely new for this evening, however: Guillermo del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth'. A beautiful mix of fantasy, horror, and war all encompassed in the story of a little Spanish girl trying to escape the terrors of a war-stricken nation and the loss of her father by entering a fantasy world where she must prove herself as the princess of another realm. A great story, with beautiful visuals and effects - plus enough gore and war violence to safely say this one is not for the kids, regardless of the premise. Don't let the subtitles turn you off (it's a Spanish film after all) - it's a pretty solid movie on all fronts. Although it's awesome that Peter Jackson is now handling the reigns of 'The Hobbit' film adaptation coming out next year, del Toro's version would probably have been just as great, if not better, had he not departed from the project due to production problems and delays. Bummer.
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Sunday, 20 March
Just a pretty lazy day overall: slept in, got some work done in the afternoon, skyped with the family, played some Starcraft with Tom, watched a couple episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' to catch up on the last couple episodes. Really not much else going on. Oh, I did get a bunch of new music this weekend (and wrote a tiny bit of my own as well!). Some of the highlights include:
Arctic Monkeys - 'Humbug'
The English indie/punk heavy hitters came out with another fantastic album back in 2009 and I'd been meaning to get my hands on it for some time. Great stuff; classic A.M.
Bright Eyes - 'The People's Key'
One of my all-time favorite bands just dropped a new album! After the first couple of listens, I can say that I like it, but I think they've definitely had better. Conor Oberst is a fantastic writer, but with a couple songs on here, I'm just not hearing the usual passion. Definitely some good tracks, but I'll definitely need a couple more listens to decide.
Frightened Rabbit - 'The Winter of Mixed Drinks'
After how much I liked their debut album, I've had my eye on this one for a while. Pretty similar in feel and sound, which is never a bad thing. Love these Scottish indie rockers.
Grizzly Bear - 'Veckatimest'
These New York folk rockers are definitely an acquired taste with their experimental tunes and lofty vocals. Great stuff though.
Swan Lake - 'Beast Moans'
Speaking of acquired tastes, this indie supergroup (with members from two other great bands: 'The New Pornographers' and 'Wolf Parade') put together this interesting bit of music back in 2006. Some good stuff coming out of these guys, but make sure you're a fan of the two aforementioned bands before having a listen. Both have very specific sounds. Love it regardless.
Things to look forward to this week: new episodes of 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations' and 'How I Met Your Mother', some great weather (sunny, high 60), maybe pub quiz Wednesday, and some fun nights out hopefully. Things to not look forward to: another Thermo exam Friday, have to do laundry, need a haircut, need to keep being stingy with the cash. Oh well, should be fun times regardless.
Here, have a pretty picture
Beautiful
Good music of the moment:
Toro Y Moi - 'Still Sound', off their album 'Underneath The Pine'Another new discovery of mine. Sort of sound like 'Broken Bells' with their indie/synth-pop vibe. Good stuff; still deciding if it's "great stuff" though.
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Sorry for the pretty dull post - also can't promise anything too exciting in the near future, what with me trying to save money for the trip to Italy. THAT will be a fantastic couple of posts when that happens in April. Can't wait!
Cheers!
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