(Being the study-filled days of:)
MAY 8 - 14, 2011
Yup, the long-dreaded finals period has arrived; sadly enough, its arrival has coincided with the longest stretch of sunny days I've seen yet in London. So I sleep in every day, eat lunch, and get to studying (with breaks here and there, of course..) - all while the 65-and-sun laughs at me outside my window. But oh well - already looking forward to the week and a half I'll have between my last final and my trip home! Nothing but relaxing in the parks, checking out a couple lasts things I'd like to see (some museums, amongst other things), writing (maybe even recording!) more music, movies, and sleeping of course!
But that's still to come. For now, it's just falling into the finals grind..
My first one was my software course and wasn't bad at all. Can't see myself getting anything less than the English equivalent of a B, at the least (don't want to get too overconfident though..). But afterwards, it was nap-time!
I had a couple days before my next final on Friday, so I took it easy Monday evening; got some new music, first of all:
- The Good Life's "Album Of The Year"; the indie solo project of Tim Kasher, lead singer of the band Cursive, one of my favorites. Pretty good stuff.
- Fleet Foxes' brand new album "Helplessness Blues"; true to the stellar form of their first album, their second is a fantastic return to the folksy rhythms and harmonies that made their self-titled debut so awesome.
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And, as always, I added to the weekly movie count; moving on from Japanese samurai to kung-fu/martial arts. Nowhere else to start that except with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Fantastically choreographed fight scenes make it great, but the overall story was just 'meh'. Plus the English dub was terrible.. I would've rather read subtitles to get the actual feel of the characters.
After that, it was the 2002 wuxia film 'Hero', which I found far superior in its beautiful cinematography and the compelling storyline, focusing on the attempted assassination of the King of Qin in 227 BC. Solid, beautiful flick.
Finally, to wrap up the whole binge, I ended on a good note with the kung-fu action/comedy 'Kung Fu Hustle'. Combining solidly choreographed fights, cartoonish CGI, and a mix of both subtle and slapstick humor, it's a good one.
No idea what movie genre I'll move onto next, if any. Might just move on back to covering the classics: thinking about maybe watching 'Lawrence of Arabia' tonight, though I'm gonna need a good amount of time to watch the whole 3.5-hour flick!
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My second final was Abstract Algebra on Friday. Went as well as I could have hoped: I don't know if I just got lucky studying all the right material, but there wasn't a question that I didn't have some idea of how to tackle it. Feeling pretty good so far, now that I'm halfway done!
Later that night, I met up with a bunch of friends, and their pals, and went out down near Borough. Started off drinking and hanging out at Great Dover with some American pals, as well as Pablo and several of his Chilean friends. Eventually, after being told we were too loud around 12:30am, we made our way to a local pub that does late-night karaoke and sang the night away! Pictures possibly (hopefully not.. haha) forthcoming..
Stumbled back home around 3:30am, ended up skyping with Brittney as we've rarely been able to talk due to the time difference and her schedule.. So that was nice, even if light was beginning to appear outside my window by the time I went to bed..
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I know I've just been spewing a bunch mindless crap and throwing out a bunch of band names and movie titles lately. It sounds just as boring to me as it probably does to you. To be honest, I've not really found time or motivation to just plop down and reflect, or get all philosophical again. So nothing too interesting to write about, and not too many new pictures going up as I'm not traveling or touring new places in London that often. Truth be told, I've seen A TON of London. Living here several months affords that luxury. You get all the big stuff in early; what you can't afford at first, you budget in later down the line; when you find free time to wander, you get lost in a new area (hard for me to do, yes, but still fun nonetheless). And that's how you see everything worth seeing. I've explored outwards in all directions from my centralized location and have seen so many things, both the incredible and average - I just hope to get that across in my blog: that there's certainly no 'getting bored with London', but there is a limit to the 'new' things you can see under time/money/convenience restrictions. I'm completely content with how long I've been here and am so wonderfully happy that I got to have these experiences and seen what I've seen.
But there's a place called home sneaking back into my life, even knocking on my front door - though I'm still down the hall a ways.. It's all culminating now: the feeling that I'm concurrently running out of time but have too much left to go; that I don't want it to end, but I want to be back home with my friends and family. And Brittney, who I do hope to visit this summer, work permitting..
I guess what I'm trying to get at is: I did it. I've lived the dream of 15-year-old me: to live in London for a while. And I've enjoyed it immensely. But all things have to end sometime, and I feel that this is concluding at just the right time - 5 months is a long enough time for me to experience everything I need to, to feel like a local amongst people halfway around the world. Can I call London a second home? Sure. It's a great base-of-operations for seeing the rest of Europe - a fact that I plan to exploit in the future. But I have the feeling that I won't be returning to London for an extended period again for a good while.. There's just too many other places that I'd like to see, and to have these same experiences of finding a home away from home. I've lived the London life. Check it off the list. Where to next?
..
BUT, I'm not gone yet! So need for all that talk. I think another point I was trying to make is that I don't just sit around in my room all day listening to music and watching TV/movies, even if it seems that way.. I go out and have fun if I'm under budget and have nothing to do; if it's a nice day, and I'm just sitting around, I'll go walk around a park or down along the river. So maybe I'll just rather write about stuff like movies and music, where I can input my opinion - mostly for my own sake, when I'm reading this later in life, rather than for the sake of you readers - instead of writing 'Today I walked through a park. The end.' I've been to these places, I've taken the pictures already. Now it's just about enjoying it for the sake of enjoying it.
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Not really much else going on.. next exam's not until next Friday - Thermo. Probably going to be my hardest exam, so I'll get to studying tomorrow. But after that, only one more then I'm home free!
Good music of the moment:
Gatsby's American Dream - 'A Mind Of Metal And Wheels', off their album 'Volcano'
First album of their I'd ever bought, right after I saw them live at Mr. Smalls YEARS ago. Man, seems like forever ago! Makes me think of high school. Great song and album.
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Nothing else to say.. been writing a new song so we'll see where that goes!
Cheers!
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