While I was in Ireland, we went to get HP7 at midnight. I read the first chapter that night, but then went to bed. The next day I read a couple more chapters. I finished the book a couple minutes ago. The book left me in a really weird mood. It's hard to believe that the Harry Potter series is over. I feel like in I way we've grown up with Harry. It's been ten years since the books first came out. I don't know. I feel like a really good friend, who had lots of adventures with moved away and I won't be seeing him anymore. That probably doesn't make sense. It's the weird mood I was talking about. I hope that people finish it soon so I can talk to them about it.
I'll blog about Ireland in the morning. For now, I feel satisfied knowing what happened to the boy who lived.
Monday, 23 July 2007
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
work work work
This final paper has taken over my life. I don't mind though. I'm really excited about my band and what I'm doing with them. I think this will end up being one paper that I am really proud of. I have just finished the Press Release. My rough draft is currently like 1000 words over, so I need to edit that down and make it sound smarter. haha. I think Johnny will be really impressed. I just wish he knew it was my work. When you turn things in here, you can't put your name on it anywhere. We don't even turn our papers into our professor but the main summers school staff. It's really strange.
Lauren and I went to The Mock Turtle again this morning. I love that place. Then we went to this other cafe that I had been wanting to go to for a while called "Moments." It has like all natural, yummy stuff. We stayed there for about 4 hours and go so much done on our papers. I was really proud of us. During that time I also went to Boots, which is like Rite Aid on crack. I got this really awesome toner since my face has been breaking out. I really like it. It makes my face feel super clean. Yay.
Tomorrow is going to be such a busy day. I have to wake up, shower, pack, run to the library to print and photocopy all my stuff to turn in, turn it in, go to class, head to the airport, IRELAND! I think Ireland is going to be really fun. I hope so at least but the weather looks horrible. The high temperature is 66 degrees and it's supposed to rain. Ugh. Too much rain!
I need to get rock candy for people. I keep forgetting. Rock Candy was born in Brighton. Woo. I seriously love this city. Lauren and I were talking about it and she wants to move back after college. If it weren't for my chosen career and my amazing friends and family, I would totally move here. I love it here and wish I weren't leaving so soon. I do really miss everyone and good food though.
I guess I should finish up my amazing paper. haha. My next update probably won't be for a couple days since I will be out of the country. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend gets HP7! woo
Lauren and I went to The Mock Turtle again this morning. I love that place. Then we went to this other cafe that I had been wanting to go to for a while called "Moments." It has like all natural, yummy stuff. We stayed there for about 4 hours and go so much done on our papers. I was really proud of us. During that time I also went to Boots, which is like Rite Aid on crack. I got this really awesome toner since my face has been breaking out. I really like it. It makes my face feel super clean. Yay.
Tomorrow is going to be such a busy day. I have to wake up, shower, pack, run to the library to print and photocopy all my stuff to turn in, turn it in, go to class, head to the airport, IRELAND! I think Ireland is going to be really fun. I hope so at least but the weather looks horrible. The high temperature is 66 degrees and it's supposed to rain. Ugh. Too much rain!
I need to get rock candy for people. I keep forgetting. Rock Candy was born in Brighton. Woo. I seriously love this city. Lauren and I were talking about it and she wants to move back after college. If it weren't for my chosen career and my amazing friends and family, I would totally move here. I love it here and wish I weren't leaving so soon. I do really miss everyone and good food though.
I guess I should finish up my amazing paper. haha. My next update probably won't be for a couple days since I will be out of the country. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend gets HP7! woo
Monday, 16 July 2007
I hate bugs
Bugs here suck. I woke up this morning with 10 bug bites! 4 on each arm, one on my stomach, and one on my FACE! ughhhh! It's so itchy and annoying. What sucks about being away or moving into your own place is that you don't have all the medicine like you do at your parents house. I could use some benedril or anti itch something. Also, the ants here are freaking huge! They are about half an inch long and FLY! They have large white wings. It's pretty much the scariest thing ever.
I finished Harry Potter 6 in 3 days! Woo. Now I have no distractions from working.
I went to the library today to work on my paper. I just sat and thought about my band (for my paper), and it was really productive. I thought of a lot of stuff, so now I'm going to work on it. woo hoo.
The past couple of days have been sort of uneventful. It's just time to buckle down and do some work.
I finished Harry Potter 6 in 3 days! Woo. Now I have no distractions from working.
I went to the library today to work on my paper. I just sat and thought about my band (for my paper), and it was really productive. I thought of a lot of stuff, so now I'm going to work on it. woo hoo.
The past couple of days have been sort of uneventful. It's just time to buckle down and do some work.
Saturday, 14 July 2007
Shopping round two
I went out shopping with Jessica again. It was really fun. It made me realize how much I really love Brighton. The town is so full of life and energy. Before shopping we went to The Mock Turtle. It's the kind of place I really want to take my mom to. It's the cutest little hole in the wall place. They serve homemade pastries and food and tea. We got tea and scones and this lemon cake. It was pretty amazing. Everything was so cute. They had really pretty china and the whole place was just full of homemade goodies. Our scones were like our idea of biscuits. We had really good butter and strawberry jam to put on them. The tea was a brew for The Mock Turtle. It was awesome. Jessica and I have decide we are going to become regulars there. haha. After a wonderful breakfast, we strolled along the lanes. I love that there are so many cute boutique stores here. We went to this bag shop. I found really pretty stuff I wanted to buy that was super on sale. I found this really pretty leather wallet for 20 pounds. It was originally 135 pounds! Huuuge sale. I didn't buy it because I had no one to give a $40 trendy wallet to. I did buy this cute little bag thing for my mom. It's kind of an all purpose little bag. I also bought a blown glass heart necklace for myself. I also got a 4 pound dress shirt that is really cute from Primark. It's this suuuper cheap store that sells moderately cute clothes. You have to search, but they have like 6 pound jeans. Pretty sweet. We really wanted to buy something in top shop. I tried on the Kate Moss jeans. They were sooo cute, but I am not going to spend 50 pounds on jeans. It was kind of sad. I got these really cute salt and pepper shakers for Lori. I saw them and thought of her. I keep seeing things I want to buy people, and keep telling myself it's okay because they arent for me. Oh well. It's mostly pretty inexpensive. Shopping here is too much fun.
I started reading HP6 today.. I read 100 pages then had to stop myself because I realized I would rather sit and read HP all day than do my homework. haha.
I got some two sandwiches and yogurt from EAT today. It's this really awesome place that sells food. It's kinda like a little stand, but restaurant at the same time. It's weird. Anyway, they are my new favorite place to eat. They have all these really innovative food creations that are all fresh. They make them all in store that day and are only on the shelf for that day. At the end of the day, anything they don't sell goes to charity so hungry people can eat. I thought that was really awesome. They also use minimal packaging that can be recycled. I wrote them a letter today telling them how awesome they were.
I've gotten myself on a weird schedule and I need to change it. Maybe sleeping at regular hours would help. Oops.
Tomorrow its library and Sainsberry time. I'm almost out of food again, so I have go back. Also, Indian food with Jessica I think. We'll see.
I started reading HP6 today.. I read 100 pages then had to stop myself because I realized I would rather sit and read HP all day than do my homework. haha.
I got some two sandwiches and yogurt from EAT today. It's this really awesome place that sells food. It's kinda like a little stand, but restaurant at the same time. It's weird. Anyway, they are my new favorite place to eat. They have all these really innovative food creations that are all fresh. They make them all in store that day and are only on the shelf for that day. At the end of the day, anything they don't sell goes to charity so hungry people can eat. I thought that was really awesome. They also use minimal packaging that can be recycled. I wrote them a letter today telling them how awesome they were.
I've gotten myself on a weird schedule and I need to change it. Maybe sleeping at regular hours would help. Oops.
Tomorrow its library and Sainsberry time. I'm almost out of food again, so I have go back. Also, Indian food with Jessica I think. We'll see.
Friday, 13 July 2007
lazy days
It's so hard to be motivated to do school work when it's summer and you're in a foreign country. I had no class today so I slept in. Then I went online and did nothing. I wrote about a paragraph and read 5 pages while making lunch. Then I took another nap. I love sleeping.
Today was a really pretty day. It was warm enough to not wear a sweatshirt and it's the first time since I've been here that it hasn't rained. Jessica and I went downtown to do some shopping. We first went into h&m. I really want to get some skinny jeans, but I just feel like I look like a lightbulb in them. They're always too long and look funny when cuffed. I don't know. I found two really cute tops though. I think if I go to warped tour I am going to wear one of them. H&M has been having this really good ongoing sale, so I got the two shirts for about 11 pounds. Sweet! There is a shoe store right next to H&M that has the cutest stuff. I really like the shoes and might just have to pick up a pair before I come back. We'll see. They're just so cute. After that we went to Top Shop because I haven't been there before. They had so much cute stuff there but it was just soo expensive because of the exchange rate. We found these cute dresses and tops and stuff, but didn't get to try any of it on because the store was closing. We decided we are going back tomorrow. After that we met up with some of Jessica's friends to get some dinner. We went to an Indian vegetarian buffet. It was only 5 pounds which was nice, but I've definitely had better indian food. I miss Indian food at home. Here everything is sweet. It's really weird. Then Jessica and I went into Boots. It's like a high class rite aid type of store. It's amazing. They sell all this really awesome make up there, like benefit, ysl, etc etc etc but also have the really cheap stuff too. It is just fun to look around and play there. haha. I got hand soap and it smells like lilac. Yay.
I have so much summer reading I want to do. I brought three books over here, bought three for class, bought HP6, and will be buying HP 7. I am determined to finish these before Sept 25th. We'll see how well that goes. I think I'll get through HPs pretty quickly. I'm going to finish one of the books for class tonight. We don't really have to read them, but they're interesting and fun. I would rather read them than write my paper right now, so that's what I'm doing. Plus, I always feel so accomplished when I finish a book. Maybe that will be motivating. I'm happy I've found books that I am excited to read.
I'm really glad I didn't go anywhere this weekend. I think I will manage to be productive and get a lot done. I'll be mad at myself if I don't. I think finishing this book is a start though. I've kind of made a timeline. Tonight I'm finishing this book and going to bed early. Tomorrow I'm doing half of my course journal and thinking more about my project. Sunday is the rest of the course journal and start an outline on the paper. Monday is finishing outline and start writing. Tuesday is finish paper. Wed is press release. Thursday I turn that all in and go to Ireland. Whether I follow that schedule or not, I'm going to get it all done.
I've almost eaten another box of cookies in one day. I need to not buy cookies anymore because this is not healthy. On the other hand, my apricots were ripe today. They were delicious.
The most addicting cookies ever. The tagline is "one may lead to another!" (Sorry its backwards)
Today was a really pretty day. It was warm enough to not wear a sweatshirt and it's the first time since I've been here that it hasn't rained. Jessica and I went downtown to do some shopping. We first went into h&m. I really want to get some skinny jeans, but I just feel like I look like a lightbulb in them. They're always too long and look funny when cuffed. I don't know. I found two really cute tops though. I think if I go to warped tour I am going to wear one of them. H&M has been having this really good ongoing sale, so I got the two shirts for about 11 pounds. Sweet! There is a shoe store right next to H&M that has the cutest stuff. I really like the shoes and might just have to pick up a pair before I come back. We'll see. They're just so cute. After that we went to Top Shop because I haven't been there before. They had so much cute stuff there but it was just soo expensive because of the exchange rate. We found these cute dresses and tops and stuff, but didn't get to try any of it on because the store was closing. We decided we are going back tomorrow. After that we met up with some of Jessica's friends to get some dinner. We went to an Indian vegetarian buffet. It was only 5 pounds which was nice, but I've definitely had better indian food. I miss Indian food at home. Here everything is sweet. It's really weird. Then Jessica and I went into Boots. It's like a high class rite aid type of store. It's amazing. They sell all this really awesome make up there, like benefit, ysl, etc etc etc but also have the really cheap stuff too. It is just fun to look around and play there. haha. I got hand soap and it smells like lilac. Yay.
I have so much summer reading I want to do. I brought three books over here, bought three for class, bought HP6, and will be buying HP 7. I am determined to finish these before Sept 25th. We'll see how well that goes. I think I'll get through HPs pretty quickly. I'm going to finish one of the books for class tonight. We don't really have to read them, but they're interesting and fun. I would rather read them than write my paper right now, so that's what I'm doing. Plus, I always feel so accomplished when I finish a book. Maybe that will be motivating. I'm happy I've found books that I am excited to read.
I'm really glad I didn't go anywhere this weekend. I think I will manage to be productive and get a lot done. I'll be mad at myself if I don't. I think finishing this book is a start though. I've kind of made a timeline. Tonight I'm finishing this book and going to bed early. Tomorrow I'm doing half of my course journal and thinking more about my project. Sunday is the rest of the course journal and start an outline on the paper. Monday is finishing outline and start writing. Tuesday is finish paper. Wed is press release. Thursday I turn that all in and go to Ireland. Whether I follow that schedule or not, I'm going to get it all done.
I've almost eaten another box of cookies in one day. I need to not buy cookies anymore because this is not healthy. On the other hand, my apricots were ripe today. They were delicious.
The most addicting cookies ever. The tagline is "one may lead to another!" (Sorry its backwards)
Harry Potter
Today was kind of Harry Potter filled and pretty good.
I went to class and was surprised with good news. Johnny was like "Melissa, you're going to love this." He pulled out the Sun and the Daily Star and they both had little snippets about the tip that I gave him. He was really excited about which made me feel eve cooler. The Sun is the most popular paper in the UK. About 3 million people buy it each day and the Daily Star has like 10 thousand or something. So that's really big for the UK. 3 Million is small in the US, but England is like the size of a state at home. He was really impressed with me. He said that the little pieces are a really big step for the band. It is their first bit of press in popular, mainstream press. That makes the magazines more likely to write about them again. Also, it was perfect timing since Harry Potter came out today. Lastly, he said it was going to help them get more radio play since he can now say they have the semi backing of those papers. I went out and bought the papers. I'm excited because I felt like I helped them and made a really good impression on my professor.
I also saw the Harry Potter movie. It was soo scary. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I was really freaked out. I wish I had someone to like hold on to. I almost grabbed my friend Blake because I was freaking out. Ahh. So the movie theaters here are kinda different. The seats are assigned when you buy your tickets. Also, they don't have butter on their popcorn! It was really sad. We got these 3d glasses for an ad that was never shown but took some funny pictures with them. (See below. heh) On the way back from the movie, I sat next to Blake on the bus. We had a really nice conversation about like our futures. I only met him tonight, but it was nice to get to know him. He wants to do journalism, so we had this really awesome talk about the news and how I want to do music business stuff. It was fun and much needed.
Tomorrow I need to do lots of homework. Our professor just kind of explained our final. Its a 3000 word paper and a press release. We also have to do our course journal, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. I think I'm going to go to the library and then maybe go shopping with Jessica. We'll see.
Oh, last night before our movie for class we had a pot luck. Lauren, Alina, and I did most of the cooking. It was fun!
Picture Time! Check the gallery in session one for a couple more if you please.
Bruschetta (How gourmet! woo)
The cooks (kinda blurry)
Popcorn and 7up. Butterkist is a lie. There is no butter! booo
Blake and I being nerds with our super glasses
I went to class and was surprised with good news. Johnny was like "Melissa, you're going to love this." He pulled out the Sun and the Daily Star and they both had little snippets about the tip that I gave him. He was really excited about which made me feel eve cooler. The Sun is the most popular paper in the UK. About 3 million people buy it each day and the Daily Star has like 10 thousand or something. So that's really big for the UK. 3 Million is small in the US, but England is like the size of a state at home. He was really impressed with me. He said that the little pieces are a really big step for the band. It is their first bit of press in popular, mainstream press. That makes the magazines more likely to write about them again. Also, it was perfect timing since Harry Potter came out today. Lastly, he said it was going to help them get more radio play since he can now say they have the semi backing of those papers. I went out and bought the papers. I'm excited because I felt like I helped them and made a really good impression on my professor.
I also saw the Harry Potter movie. It was soo scary. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I was really freaked out. I wish I had someone to like hold on to. I almost grabbed my friend Blake because I was freaking out. Ahh. So the movie theaters here are kinda different. The seats are assigned when you buy your tickets. Also, they don't have butter on their popcorn! It was really sad. We got these 3d glasses for an ad that was never shown but took some funny pictures with them. (See below. heh) On the way back from the movie, I sat next to Blake on the bus. We had a really nice conversation about like our futures. I only met him tonight, but it was nice to get to know him. He wants to do journalism, so we had this really awesome talk about the news and how I want to do music business stuff. It was fun and much needed.
Tomorrow I need to do lots of homework. Our professor just kind of explained our final. Its a 3000 word paper and a press release. We also have to do our course journal, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. I think I'm going to go to the library and then maybe go shopping with Jessica. We'll see.
Oh, last night before our movie for class we had a pot luck. Lauren, Alina, and I did most of the cooking. It was fun!
Picture Time! Check the gallery in session one for a couple more if you please.
Bruschetta (How gourmet! woo)
The cooks (kinda blurry)
Popcorn and 7up. Butterkist is a lie. There is no butter! booo
Blake and I being nerds with our super glasses
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
When Waffles Attack (aka.. the longest post ever)
As you can probably tell, I am back from Paris and Brussels. I was a really fun trip but super tiring. Before I talk about it, I want to talk about yesterday, even though it wasn't that exciting.
Yesterday in class I had to do a presentation. I did mine on Fall Out Boy. It was all about their image and dynamic. I think it went pretty well. I am really excited because my professor is very happy with me right now. The other day I saw a video of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter). The Hold Steady ( the band we went to see in concert, represented by my prof) was in the background. Later he said that they were his favorite band of the year. So I sent him and email with the link. Turns out he hadn't seen the video and was very excited about it. He showed his son and is now talking to the Sun and Daily Post (two big newspapers in the UK) about doing a story on it. So I might have gotten The Hold Steady a lot of new press. He was really grateful for the tip. Someone in the class was like Automatic A+. He said I got myself a job. haha.(I didn't really get a job, but it was nice to hear that he thought I did something cool). After class I went to Sainsberry and got some more food. I bought apricots (that aren't ripe.. they are sour.ew), cherries, and bananas. I'm trying to eat healthier. I got other random food too so I dont starve. Then I decided I need to do laundry. I put all my dirty clothes in my suitcase and wheeled it over to the laundry place. It cost me 6pounds to wash and dry! Ah. So much. But at least I have clean clothes now. My room even smells like laundry which is pretty cool. I also finalized the details for our Ireland trip. I am leaving on Thursday at 5pm and coming back on Sunday at 8am. The 5 of us are staying in this cute little bed and breakfast about a mile out of the city center. We wanted to be closer but the hostels and hotels were all full or had some strange requirement. I'm happy about everything.
I really need to take a shower, but our shower is like overflowing. It's really gross. I think I need to suck it up and go after this though because a shower would be good right about now.
Anyways, on to what you really want to read about- The Hold Steady, Paris, and Brussels.
The night before we left to Paris we went to see The Hold Steady and The Steers for class. It was an awesome field trip. We took a private bus to the venue. The tickets here are really different and cute, not like ticketmaster tickets. Of course, right when we walked in everyone headed straight for the bar. It was pretty funny. I got a coke and crisps because I was starving. The venue was about an hour away from home. The first band was called The Steers. They were really good. (I looked them up on myspace but they sounded way better live). I was bummed because they didnt have anything to buy or any cds. Their single comes out in September.
The Steers
Then The Hold Steady came on. At first I was kind of like eh..but they really got me into their set. It's so cool and funny to see these old looking guys rock out. The lead singer was such a nerd. It was so cute. The show was sold out and the crowd was super into it, which added to it. The crowd was mostly older folks, but it was fine. They gave a shout out to our class, which was kinda cool. We felt special. We felt even cooler when after their set them came and talked to us. It was funny. They were telling us, if you want to be in the music business, stay on the business side. Then they were telling us story about Johnny (our prof) and how he did a lot of cool stuff. He kinda denies it and says he doesn't remember. haha. Once we all got on the bus again, we were like story time! Johnny told us a lot of stories about Oasis and how he feels about Kings of Leon. He did handclaps in one of Oasis' #1 songs and got a check for 3k. haha Awesome. He's just like the coolest guy ever. I love it. This is seriously the best class I've ever had. I really really love it and am sad it's almost over. We didn't get home until 1am from our trip. I still had to pack and stuff. I went to bed around 2:30 and woke up at 4:45 for PARIS!
The Hold Steady (they don't look exciting in this picture, but they were. This is just to give you an idea of what they looked like. haha. Yay semi old dudes in bands!)
When I woke up packed all my stuff into my duffle. I wish I had a better bag. I might need to buy one (because I think I'll be coming home with more stuff than I came with..). Anyways, I met up with Lauren at 6 am and we started walking to the trainstop. From there we had to take a train, change trains, underground times two, and then find our gate. We got to the airport really early, but that was okay. We were afraid that security was going to be really bad because of all the bombings and the Glasgow incident. When we finally got on our plane, I fell asleep really quick. When I woke up, we had arrived. The flight was only about an hour. It was really quick. We walked off the plane and immediately just started cracking up. We realized we were in a foreign country and we knew nothing about the language. We looked at the signs and were just confused. It was pretty great. So we went through customs and learned how to say "Do you speak english?" and figured out Sortie meant exit. Once we got through customs, we had to try to figure out the train system. It was not as easy as it looked, but we eventually got the hang of it. We made it to the hostel. Lets just say it could have been worse. Here is a video tour. You have to tilt your head to the left to see it. Sorry if it makes you dizzy.
After we dropped off our stuff, we headed back to the metro to see Damien Rice. It was seriously the best concert ever. The venue was amazing. It was this big like Opera hall. I don't know if it was the acoustics or just the sound people, but everything was so clear and crisp. Nothing was harsh. I don't know. The sound was perfect. It was better than on his cds even. He was the most amazing performer. Lauren and I were both just speechless. I am so happy I was able to go. I felt like I was a part of something really special. Anthony said we had like the best set list ever so to have that a historic venue, was pretty cool. He spoke french most of the time, which was funny. He was kinda struggling, but it was cool. During his encore, he did Cheers Darlin, which is my favorite song if his. Damien did a little skit where he told the story about the song. Basically he went to a bar and talked to this girl. They hit it off really well and he really really liked her. They talked until really late, after all the busses were gone. They figured they needed to go home. I think the story goes that he offers to walk her home or something, and she says that her fiance is coming to pick her up. (Oo burn). She gives him three cigarettes and leaves. So he told all this in french and then at the end was like fucking bitch in english. It was really classic. haha. Then he sang the song. It was soooo awesome.. We couldn't believe it was him singing. We seriously thought he was lip-synching because it sounded that good (He obviously wasn't). It was so cute too to see the French kids sing in English with their accents. I loved it. We left very very content with our purchase. But our pictures turned out really badly. I did get some videos though. It's illegal to upload them though I think. If you want to see them, I can send them to you.
The next day we did so much touristy stuff it was crazy. We woke up late but it didn't matter because we were so productive. First we wandered to the Musse de Picasso. We stumbled along some random pretty buildings so we took pictures. We got to the museum but decided not to go in because of money and time. we pretty much did that all day, but the outsides of the buildings are so great anyways. Then we went to the centre de pompidou. This is such a cool building. It's way colorful and has these cool escalators on the outside. Around that area there were really good panini and crepe vendors too. Yum! We kept walking and eventually found a fake mac store. We thought they might have internet, so we went. We were wrong. (Eventually we did find an internet cafe, but it was horrible. It was so dusty and our allergies freaked out. The keyboards are also very different there which makes it hard to type). Then more pretty buildings and the river. Then NOTRE DAME! We laughed because we saw this restaurant called "Quasimoto". It was pretty funny. Notre Dame was really pretty and huge! I had no idea how big it was. We took a ton of pictures and wondered all the way around. Its really hard to get pictures of buildings here because everything is soo big. It's nuts. After that we went to the Bastille, which was not as exciting as I had hoped. The Bastille is like an important thing in history, but when we got there it was like a statue and roads. How disappointing.Then we tired to find Victor Hugo's home. We don't know if we did or not. We found a hotel and took pictures of it, but didn't think that was it. Later we found out he lived on the 2nd floor of a hotel, so maybe we did find it. We don't really know. We walked along these little streets and looked a the boutiques. They were cute but we didn't buy anything. On our way to the Louvre we saw a huge group of people so we figured we needed to get in on the action. It turns out it was Tony Parker and Eva Longoria's wedding! How cool! We couldn't really see anything which was sad. We took pictures of the building. We aited for a while and then decided to leave.
Center Georges Pompidou
Fake mac store
Notre Dame
Bastille
Evas wedding (I know you can't see anything, oh well. This is where it was)
So we headed over to the Lourve. It was sooooo huge. I had no idea. I was amazing. We took a ton of pictures and did a video. haha. We didn't go into the Lourve because we didn't have enough time to devote to it. I was satisfied just being there though. It was awesome.
After that we went to the gardens and got some yummy ice cream. We could see the Arc and The Eiffel tower. Neato. We ended up going back to our hotel and crashing until about 9pm. Then it was Eiffel Tower Time. We took a ton of videos there. It was fun. The tower was really cool. I'm glad I got to go up. Right as we made it to the 1st floor, my camera died. It was frustrating. Lauren bargained on of the vendors down for postcards. He wanted 15 Euros for 15 post cards. She got him down to 2 Euros. haha. So we wanted to mail post cards from the Eiffel tower, but they were closed. We were kinda bummed. After we got down, we went and waited in a huge line for Crepes. They were amazing though.
So after that we decided it was time to head home. It was about 12:30 at this point. When we finally made it to the metro, we had to wait 20 minutes for a train. It was the last train of the night. (Oops). So we got on, but at the stop before ours, the train stopped and said it was the final destination. So we had to get off and find our way back. When looking at a map, this creeeepy scary guy came up and tried to kiss Lauren. It was soo scary. So then we just ran! We made it to Rue de Temple, which is where we were supposed to go. Turns out that street actually splits in 5 directions. We were so confused. Then we saw the creepo guy again and ran away. We finally made it home at about 2. We were really happy to be back.
So the next day we were pooped from all the stuff we had done before. So we kind of took it easy. We went to the Arc in the morning. We didnt realize you had to pay to climb up the 200 stairs to get to the top, so we didnt. We just took pictures. It was really beautiful though.
After that we sort of wandered around the shopping areas. Everything was really expensive, but it was kind of fun to just wander without a real agenda. We went back home and I fell asleep because I was so tired. Lauren was like "No, you have to get up!" I got scared of her so I listened. haha. We ended up heading down to the Latin Quarters. It was sooo cute. There were people eating outside everywhere and lots of live bands. We wanted to go to a bakery and get desert, but ended going to an Italian restaurant instead. We ended up paying 24 Euros for two deserts, my water, and Lauren's glass of wine. It was so worth it though. It was seriously the best desert ever. We were so full by the end of it we could barely walk. We were in a much better mood after though. Then it was bed time. (Lauren has pictures of our desert. yumm)
Overall, I enjoyed Paris. I wish I had more time to do things more leisurely and go into musuems. I also wish we had a chance to sit down and eat dinner. We ate a lot of paninis, baguettes, and crepes (which were all wonderful), but it would have been nice to relax a bit more. Paris is kind of dirty. I'm used to the US I think because things in Europe just aren't as clean looking. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I had fun and I really want to go back in the future.
So the next morning, we woke up and headed to the train station. We had to wait a while because we got there too early. But it was okay, we filled our time by eating yummy pastries. When we got on the train, I tried to read but started to feel sick so I just went to bed. The train ride super short. I'm amazed that it takes so little time to go from country to country when traveling from here to London takes an hour and from SF to SD takes like an hour and a half. It's crazy. So our first part of our time in Brussels wasn't so great. We got of the train and our bus towards our hostel. Again, we realized we had no idea about the language. We didn't even know what they spoke. And we had no map. So we walked around for a while and eventually found our hostel. This was at about 11. They told us we couldn't check in until 3, so we dropped off our stuff and began to wander. We went to the metro and took it to some random place. Then we went on a bus. We really had no idea where we were going, we were just trying to find food. It didn't work out so well for us. The place we were trying to find ended up being closed! We were so frustrated. After a while we found this little cafe restaurant. They served these really amazing Pitas. Mine had chicken and you put these sauces over it. It was really amazing. Lauren's was mostly fruit. We met this really cute American couple there who told us what we needed to do. They were really sweet. After lunch we decided it was time to hunt down some chocolate, and we sure found it. We went to so many chocolatiers. It was perfect! Everywhere had samples and they were amazing. I ended up buying chocolate from 3 different places. It was perfect. I also bought a really cute bag that I will eventually show everyone. So as we were walking, we found the Grand Place. This is like the center of Brussels. There were all these cute restaurants and vendors and the buildings were amazing. We got waffle, of course. Mine had strawberries and whipped cream. It wad delicious. After the Grand Place, we went back home. At that point we didn't realize we had been to the Grand Place. We just thought it was somewhere cool. So we unpacked and enjoyed or amazing hostel. After a little 7th Heaven on the TV, we headed out again.. to the Grand Place. We didn't realize we had already been there. We ended up going to a Pizza Hut for dinner. It was the first American food we had in days. It was the nicest pizza hut ever. You had to wait to be seated. It was crazy. haha. We got pizza and it was surprisingly good. Then we made our way back to the Grand Place. Lauren decided she wanted another waffle or desert. This is where the night goes bad. So she decided to get ice cream. I figured I would get another waffle, plain. So the guy takes it hot off the grill (with tongs), puts it in a paper and hands it to me. When he does that, the sugar on the waffle is like carmelized and burns onto my hand. It starts to harden. I swear, it was like the most painful thing I've felt in a really long time. I peeled it off but started to cry because my hand felt like it was on fire. I asked if they had ice because after like 2 minutes it was starting to blister. This nice man took me into his restaurant and gave me some ice in a bag. At this point I just wanted to go home. So as we are walking back to the bus stop, my bag of ice bursts open and falls everywhere. I was really depressed and still in pain. My burns turned into blisters (4 of them) quickly. I iced them for about 2 hours and decided I needed to sleep. It felt a little better in the morning but it was really gross and still painful.
Me in the Grand Place.
Brussels wasn't really that exciting other than the chocolate. I think my whole waffle incident kinda ruined it for me. Maybe I'll give it another shot again. Lauren has most of the pictures from Brussels, so check out her photo albums. I'll link them in the corner.
The airport in Brussels was super lax. I was kind of scared. My liquids were in a bag, but it wasn't even sealed. It was like a plastic bag and they didn't care. Security like barely existed there. Our flight back was fine. I slept again. The train rides after though were kind of miserable. We were so tired and just wanted to get back. We had to change trains 4 times and then walk home. Ughh. When I got home all I wanted to do was sleep, but I had to work on my presentation. I ended up doing most of it in the morning. Oh well. The trip was really fun and made me excited for Ireland. I think this weekend I am going to go into London or something. We'll see. For today I think it's just homework and class at night. The term is almost over and it's kind of scary. I need to make sure I do an awesome job on everything since this class is so good.
Okay, well, I think this is the end. I changed the picture hosting service because this one is better and I can do albums. The link is up there. I have a ton of pictures in there so go look. Lauren has a lot of other pictures of us. She has lots and lots, so go look at them. You can also watch my videos at my youtube account which is linked at the top. I hope you enjoyed this. I better get some comments or emails, because this took forever! Ah!
Done!
Yesterday in class I had to do a presentation. I did mine on Fall Out Boy. It was all about their image and dynamic. I think it went pretty well. I am really excited because my professor is very happy with me right now. The other day I saw a video of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter). The Hold Steady ( the band we went to see in concert, represented by my prof) was in the background. Later he said that they were his favorite band of the year. So I sent him and email with the link. Turns out he hadn't seen the video and was very excited about it. He showed his son and is now talking to the Sun and Daily Post (two big newspapers in the UK) about doing a story on it. So I might have gotten The Hold Steady a lot of new press. He was really grateful for the tip. Someone in the class was like Automatic A+. He said I got myself a job. haha.(I didn't really get a job, but it was nice to hear that he thought I did something cool). After class I went to Sainsberry and got some more food. I bought apricots (that aren't ripe.. they are sour.ew), cherries, and bananas. I'm trying to eat healthier. I got other random food too so I dont starve. Then I decided I need to do laundry. I put all my dirty clothes in my suitcase and wheeled it over to the laundry place. It cost me 6pounds to wash and dry! Ah. So much. But at least I have clean clothes now. My room even smells like laundry which is pretty cool. I also finalized the details for our Ireland trip. I am leaving on Thursday at 5pm and coming back on Sunday at 8am. The 5 of us are staying in this cute little bed and breakfast about a mile out of the city center. We wanted to be closer but the hostels and hotels were all full or had some strange requirement. I'm happy about everything.
I really need to take a shower, but our shower is like overflowing. It's really gross. I think I need to suck it up and go after this though because a shower would be good right about now.
Anyways, on to what you really want to read about- The Hold Steady, Paris, and Brussels.
The night before we left to Paris we went to see The Hold Steady and The Steers for class. It was an awesome field trip. We took a private bus to the venue. The tickets here are really different and cute, not like ticketmaster tickets. Of course, right when we walked in everyone headed straight for the bar. It was pretty funny. I got a coke and crisps because I was starving. The venue was about an hour away from home. The first band was called The Steers. They were really good. (I looked them up on myspace but they sounded way better live). I was bummed because they didnt have anything to buy or any cds. Their single comes out in September.
The Steers
Then The Hold Steady came on. At first I was kind of like eh..but they really got me into their set. It's so cool and funny to see these old looking guys rock out. The lead singer was such a nerd. It was so cute. The show was sold out and the crowd was super into it, which added to it. The crowd was mostly older folks, but it was fine. They gave a shout out to our class, which was kinda cool. We felt special. We felt even cooler when after their set them came and talked to us. It was funny. They were telling us, if you want to be in the music business, stay on the business side. Then they were telling us story about Johnny (our prof) and how he did a lot of cool stuff. He kinda denies it and says he doesn't remember. haha. Once we all got on the bus again, we were like story time! Johnny told us a lot of stories about Oasis and how he feels about Kings of Leon. He did handclaps in one of Oasis' #1 songs and got a check for 3k. haha Awesome. He's just like the coolest guy ever. I love it. This is seriously the best class I've ever had. I really really love it and am sad it's almost over. We didn't get home until 1am from our trip. I still had to pack and stuff. I went to bed around 2:30 and woke up at 4:45 for PARIS!
The Hold Steady (they don't look exciting in this picture, but they were. This is just to give you an idea of what they looked like. haha. Yay semi old dudes in bands!)
When I woke up packed all my stuff into my duffle. I wish I had a better bag. I might need to buy one (because I think I'll be coming home with more stuff than I came with..). Anyways, I met up with Lauren at 6 am and we started walking to the trainstop. From there we had to take a train, change trains, underground times two, and then find our gate. We got to the airport really early, but that was okay. We were afraid that security was going to be really bad because of all the bombings and the Glasgow incident. When we finally got on our plane, I fell asleep really quick. When I woke up, we had arrived. The flight was only about an hour. It was really quick. We walked off the plane and immediately just started cracking up. We realized we were in a foreign country and we knew nothing about the language. We looked at the signs and were just confused. It was pretty great. So we went through customs and learned how to say "Do you speak english?" and figured out Sortie meant exit. Once we got through customs, we had to try to figure out the train system. It was not as easy as it looked, but we eventually got the hang of it. We made it to the hostel. Lets just say it could have been worse. Here is a video tour. You have to tilt your head to the left to see it. Sorry if it makes you dizzy.
After we dropped off our stuff, we headed back to the metro to see Damien Rice. It was seriously the best concert ever. The venue was amazing. It was this big like Opera hall. I don't know if it was the acoustics or just the sound people, but everything was so clear and crisp. Nothing was harsh. I don't know. The sound was perfect. It was better than on his cds even. He was the most amazing performer. Lauren and I were both just speechless. I am so happy I was able to go. I felt like I was a part of something really special. Anthony said we had like the best set list ever so to have that a historic venue, was pretty cool. He spoke french most of the time, which was funny. He was kinda struggling, but it was cool. During his encore, he did Cheers Darlin, which is my favorite song if his. Damien did a little skit where he told the story about the song. Basically he went to a bar and talked to this girl. They hit it off really well and he really really liked her. They talked until really late, after all the busses were gone. They figured they needed to go home. I think the story goes that he offers to walk her home or something, and she says that her fiance is coming to pick her up. (Oo burn). She gives him three cigarettes and leaves. So he told all this in french and then at the end was like fucking bitch in english. It was really classic. haha. Then he sang the song. It was soooo awesome.. We couldn't believe it was him singing. We seriously thought he was lip-synching because it sounded that good (He obviously wasn't). It was so cute too to see the French kids sing in English with their accents. I loved it. We left very very content with our purchase. But our pictures turned out really badly. I did get some videos though. It's illegal to upload them though I think. If you want to see them, I can send them to you.
The next day we did so much touristy stuff it was crazy. We woke up late but it didn't matter because we were so productive. First we wandered to the Musse de Picasso. We stumbled along some random pretty buildings so we took pictures. We got to the museum but decided not to go in because of money and time. we pretty much did that all day, but the outsides of the buildings are so great anyways. Then we went to the centre de pompidou. This is such a cool building. It's way colorful and has these cool escalators on the outside. Around that area there were really good panini and crepe vendors too. Yum! We kept walking and eventually found a fake mac store. We thought they might have internet, so we went. We were wrong. (Eventually we did find an internet cafe, but it was horrible. It was so dusty and our allergies freaked out. The keyboards are also very different there which makes it hard to type). Then more pretty buildings and the river. Then NOTRE DAME! We laughed because we saw this restaurant called "Quasimoto". It was pretty funny. Notre Dame was really pretty and huge! I had no idea how big it was. We took a ton of pictures and wondered all the way around. Its really hard to get pictures of buildings here because everything is soo big. It's nuts. After that we went to the Bastille, which was not as exciting as I had hoped. The Bastille is like an important thing in history, but when we got there it was like a statue and roads. How disappointing.Then we tired to find Victor Hugo's home. We don't know if we did or not. We found a hotel and took pictures of it, but didn't think that was it. Later we found out he lived on the 2nd floor of a hotel, so maybe we did find it. We don't really know. We walked along these little streets and looked a the boutiques. They were cute but we didn't buy anything. On our way to the Louvre we saw a huge group of people so we figured we needed to get in on the action. It turns out it was Tony Parker and Eva Longoria's wedding! How cool! We couldn't really see anything which was sad. We took pictures of the building. We aited for a while and then decided to leave.
Center Georges Pompidou
Fake mac store
Notre Dame
Bastille
Evas wedding (I know you can't see anything, oh well. This is where it was)
So we headed over to the Lourve. It was sooooo huge. I had no idea. I was amazing. We took a ton of pictures and did a video. haha. We didn't go into the Lourve because we didn't have enough time to devote to it. I was satisfied just being there though. It was awesome.
After that we went to the gardens and got some yummy ice cream. We could see the Arc and The Eiffel tower. Neato. We ended up going back to our hotel and crashing until about 9pm. Then it was Eiffel Tower Time. We took a ton of videos there. It was fun. The tower was really cool. I'm glad I got to go up. Right as we made it to the 1st floor, my camera died. It was frustrating. Lauren bargained on of the vendors down for postcards. He wanted 15 Euros for 15 post cards. She got him down to 2 Euros. haha. So we wanted to mail post cards from the Eiffel tower, but they were closed. We were kinda bummed. After we got down, we went and waited in a huge line for Crepes. They were amazing though.
So after that we decided it was time to head home. It was about 12:30 at this point. When we finally made it to the metro, we had to wait 20 minutes for a train. It was the last train of the night. (Oops). So we got on, but at the stop before ours, the train stopped and said it was the final destination. So we had to get off and find our way back. When looking at a map, this creeeepy scary guy came up and tried to kiss Lauren. It was soo scary. So then we just ran! We made it to Rue de Temple, which is where we were supposed to go. Turns out that street actually splits in 5 directions. We were so confused. Then we saw the creepo guy again and ran away. We finally made it home at about 2. We were really happy to be back.
So the next day we were pooped from all the stuff we had done before. So we kind of took it easy. We went to the Arc in the morning. We didnt realize you had to pay to climb up the 200 stairs to get to the top, so we didnt. We just took pictures. It was really beautiful though.
After that we sort of wandered around the shopping areas. Everything was really expensive, but it was kind of fun to just wander without a real agenda. We went back home and I fell asleep because I was so tired. Lauren was like "No, you have to get up!" I got scared of her so I listened. haha. We ended up heading down to the Latin Quarters. It was sooo cute. There were people eating outside everywhere and lots of live bands. We wanted to go to a bakery and get desert, but ended going to an Italian restaurant instead. We ended up paying 24 Euros for two deserts, my water, and Lauren's glass of wine. It was so worth it though. It was seriously the best desert ever. We were so full by the end of it we could barely walk. We were in a much better mood after though. Then it was bed time. (Lauren has pictures of our desert. yumm)
Overall, I enjoyed Paris. I wish I had more time to do things more leisurely and go into musuems. I also wish we had a chance to sit down and eat dinner. We ate a lot of paninis, baguettes, and crepes (which were all wonderful), but it would have been nice to relax a bit more. Paris is kind of dirty. I'm used to the US I think because things in Europe just aren't as clean looking. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I had fun and I really want to go back in the future.
So the next morning, we woke up and headed to the train station. We had to wait a while because we got there too early. But it was okay, we filled our time by eating yummy pastries. When we got on the train, I tried to read but started to feel sick so I just went to bed. The train ride super short. I'm amazed that it takes so little time to go from country to country when traveling from here to London takes an hour and from SF to SD takes like an hour and a half. It's crazy. So our first part of our time in Brussels wasn't so great. We got of the train and our bus towards our hostel. Again, we realized we had no idea about the language. We didn't even know what they spoke. And we had no map. So we walked around for a while and eventually found our hostel. This was at about 11. They told us we couldn't check in until 3, so we dropped off our stuff and began to wander. We went to the metro and took it to some random place. Then we went on a bus. We really had no idea where we were going, we were just trying to find food. It didn't work out so well for us. The place we were trying to find ended up being closed! We were so frustrated. After a while we found this little cafe restaurant. They served these really amazing Pitas. Mine had chicken and you put these sauces over it. It was really amazing. Lauren's was mostly fruit. We met this really cute American couple there who told us what we needed to do. They were really sweet. After lunch we decided it was time to hunt down some chocolate, and we sure found it. We went to so many chocolatiers. It was perfect! Everywhere had samples and they were amazing. I ended up buying chocolate from 3 different places. It was perfect. I also bought a really cute bag that I will eventually show everyone. So as we were walking, we found the Grand Place. This is like the center of Brussels. There were all these cute restaurants and vendors and the buildings were amazing. We got waffle, of course. Mine had strawberries and whipped cream. It wad delicious. After the Grand Place, we went back home. At that point we didn't realize we had been to the Grand Place. We just thought it was somewhere cool. So we unpacked and enjoyed or amazing hostel. After a little 7th Heaven on the TV, we headed out again.. to the Grand Place. We didn't realize we had already been there. We ended up going to a Pizza Hut for dinner. It was the first American food we had in days. It was the nicest pizza hut ever. You had to wait to be seated. It was crazy. haha. We got pizza and it was surprisingly good. Then we made our way back to the Grand Place. Lauren decided she wanted another waffle or desert. This is where the night goes bad. So she decided to get ice cream. I figured I would get another waffle, plain. So the guy takes it hot off the grill (with tongs), puts it in a paper and hands it to me. When he does that, the sugar on the waffle is like carmelized and burns onto my hand. It starts to harden. I swear, it was like the most painful thing I've felt in a really long time. I peeled it off but started to cry because my hand felt like it was on fire. I asked if they had ice because after like 2 minutes it was starting to blister. This nice man took me into his restaurant and gave me some ice in a bag. At this point I just wanted to go home. So as we are walking back to the bus stop, my bag of ice bursts open and falls everywhere. I was really depressed and still in pain. My burns turned into blisters (4 of them) quickly. I iced them for about 2 hours and decided I needed to sleep. It felt a little better in the morning but it was really gross and still painful.
Me in the Grand Place.
Brussels wasn't really that exciting other than the chocolate. I think my whole waffle incident kinda ruined it for me. Maybe I'll give it another shot again. Lauren has most of the pictures from Brussels, so check out her photo albums. I'll link them in the corner.
The airport in Brussels was super lax. I was kind of scared. My liquids were in a bag, but it wasn't even sealed. It was like a plastic bag and they didn't care. Security like barely existed there. Our flight back was fine. I slept again. The train rides after though were kind of miserable. We were so tired and just wanted to get back. We had to change trains 4 times and then walk home. Ughh. When I got home all I wanted to do was sleep, but I had to work on my presentation. I ended up doing most of it in the morning. Oh well. The trip was really fun and made me excited for Ireland. I think this weekend I am going to go into London or something. We'll see. For today I think it's just homework and class at night. The term is almost over and it's kind of scary. I need to make sure I do an awesome job on everything since this class is so good.
Okay, well, I think this is the end. I changed the picture hosting service because this one is better and I can do albums. The link is up there. I have a ton of pictures in there so go look. Lauren has a lot of other pictures of us. She has lots and lots, so go look at them. You can also watch my videos at my youtube account which is linked at the top. I hope you enjoyed this. I better get some comments or emails, because this took forever! Ah!
Done!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)