so, obviously i've used the internet since the last time i posted anything, but once i send out a mass e-mail and respond to everyone who has written to me, it seems a little redundant to write up a blog post.

so, long story short, if you aren't on my e-mail list, this blog is going to be kind of lame.

since i've written - the last post was for the fete - fada has finally calmed down. thankfully. the last remnants of the ridiculous fete are the bizarre lion statues that are in the middle of the road and in front of the mairie. there might be pictures of vicky and i posing on one of them floating around somewhere. if so, i will definitely be keeping them secret.

work is going slowly but surely. i still have way too much free time on my hands (enough that i've decided to read ulysses). it's hard to think that i will most definitely be getting more out of this experience than my village will (especially since i think it would be better if they had an education volunteer at the lycee instead of a GEE volunteer) but i can only hope that i'll continue to use what i've learned here once i leave and, you know, go to grad school and get a real job and be a grown-up instead of bumming around africa hanging out at a nursery school, holding exam review sessions, and organizing theater activities with older women.

i went to mali with some other volunteers just after christmas and it was great to be able to expand my definition of west africa. from my limited perspective, it seemed like mali has a much better basic infrastructure and the tourism money (both from the tourists and the money the government put in to tourist areas) was evident. i haven't been to any of burkina's (few) tourist highlights yet - banfora or the game parks - but i am going to guess that they are going to be much less developed.

its hard to believe that i've been here for just over eight months and that i'll be going home for a visit in just under five. seriously, if you ever want to know just how much your parents love you, move to africa and see if they'll spring for a plane ticket home.

time is flying by and i bet before i know it it will be time to go home (or to france) for realsies.

weird.

i was in fada this week for the 11 decembre celebrations. its the burkinabe independance day and this is the first time that the official fete has been in a regional capital instead of in ouaga. fada is normally a very quiet, sleepy, chill town but it was crazy with all the fete goings-on. all of the volunteers who live in the east (though there aren't that many of us for security reasons - there are a lot of coupe de routes out here) are eager to see fada go back to normal.

there was a community expo where all the different nationalities and ethnic groups set up a stand. most people were selling things (arts and crafts or food) but we were giving away materials that the embassy had given us. a lot of the information had to do with the election. one of the more popular items was a copy of obamas victory speech translated into french. its pretty cool to think about his speech going out into all these african villages to school children to read. i just hope he follows through and doesn't make us look like idiots.

speaking of obama, we have renamed the states obamaland. we had a life sized cardboard cutout of obama that everyone wanted to take pictures of. we also bought obama t-shirts that someone was selling. mine is marigold (not the best color for either my or barack's complexion) with a picture of his face on it and it says "barack obama, yes we can." people will just randomly say his name or "yes, we can" to us all the time. its is pretty cool to think that for some of these people "yes, we can" is just about the only english they know.

we also marched in the parade (which involved standing in the sun for five hours so that we could maybe march for 20 minutes). we wore ridiculous looking outfits made from the official pagnes - our shirt was the color of a manilla envelope...not exactly the best color for whities. blaise, burkina's president, drove past to greet us and waved back to us during the parade.

burkinabe take parades very seriously. we had official parade marching practice where we were given lessons by the military. we tried to explain that in the states, parades involve waving and throwing candy and fire trucks and maybe some floats, but they were having none of it. people went nuts when we walked by - we got complimented on our marching skills, there were the requisite obama exclamations, some faux type-y guys yelled "i love you," etc. we were on television and there were official press photographers. we got texts from other volunteers saying they had seen us on television and random people stopped us in town to say that they had seen us.

the fete is now over and i am headed back to village tomorrow. hanging out in fada has been a lot of fun...maybe too much - it felt a little like i was back in college again. i am really looking forward to village but it feels like i've been gone for so long that i've forgotten how to be in village.

i'll be in village for a few weeks and then i am away again on a trip to mali just after christmas. cheers everyone and happy holidays!

not much new in village...apart from the time i went into fada to send in my etude de milieu and almost got stranded in the bush for the night.

normally i bike in to town but as i was only planning on going in for the morning to send in my report i took a bush taxi. my normal half hour wait on the side of the goudron ended up taking three hours and just before i actually got in to fada, we were stopped at the peage because the driver of another bus had forged some papers. so after spending the entire morning trying to get to fada, i typed up my report and went to the alimentation to pick up some tuna and the best peanuts in burkina.

i had planned to observe the cp2 class at my primary school that afternoon but i was hoping that i would at least be able to get back before the end of the school day to explain where i had been. after the requisite 45 minute wait, my new bush taxi started to leave town, only to take a "short cut" through the bush so that they didn't have to pay at the peage, which would have been a good idea...if only we hadn't busted a tire half an hour outside of town.

i thought that i was actually going to have to spend the night in the bush, but luckily some guy showed up on a bike with another tire after like an hour and a half.

so after leaving my house at 7:00 am, i made it back just before 8:00 at night.

i'm in ouaga for the gad meeting until sunday, then i'll go back to fada, and then head up to titao for thanksgiving at the rose's after which i have ist in ouaga...again. i hope my village doesn't forget who i am.

ouaga is nice, especially if you've been in village for a while, but it overwhelmes and overstimulates me. having electricity messes up my new body rhythm. normally in village i'm in bed by 8:30 or 9:00, or at least reading in bed, and i'm up by 5:30. when i'm in ouaga i'm usually up until about 2:00 am...but i still wake up by 6:00. last night we went to paradisio for dinner since it was josh's (another pcv) last night before he cos'd and flies back to america and then we went for beers at rezoo after. when we got back to the house, it was around midnight, but i couldn't fall asleep so i just laid in bed until around 2:00 and then was up again by 6:30.

i should quit whining since i go to take a hot shower and i'll probably eat a cheeseburger for dinner.

so, i'm sick. not really sick, not sick enough that i thought i needed to call the pcmo, until... but i'm getting ahead of myself.

i woke up tuesday night in village on my lit pico ( i never sleep in my bed, the cot is at least ten degrees cooler, if you don't mind all the weird marks the ropes leave on your skin) with a low grade fever and general feelings of crappiness. i took some aspirin and one of the vicodin that were left over from when i had my wisdom teeth out way back in seattle.

wednesday was okay, thursday was kind of crappy (i was too tired to chat with my neighbors at night -it's become a ritual- so they were a little concerned), friday i had fevers fluctuating from 95 to just under 103 degrees.

at first i thought maybe it was the flu, but no nausea or diarrhea (i must be one of the only pcvs who can attest to that), then i thought maybe malaria. i was planning on sending a malaria slide to ouaga on transport on monday if it hadn't gotten better.

that is, until i escaped village on a bush taxi to sit in the air-conditioned post so that my brain wouldn't boil and saw another pcv. he said that he had had the same symptoms and asked if my hands and/or feet were peeling. coincidentally, the bottoms of my feet had been peeling but i had thought nothing of it.

he had what is called kawasaki's disease and it can apparently cause aneurysms in some people. so i called sylvie and she told me to get on the next transport (the 7:00 stmb from fada, which made the trip in just under an impossible two and a half hours - the driver must have been going at the speed of light) and come to ouaga.

i'm sitting in the bureau, typing on an english keyboard for the first time in months (all of my a's want to be q's) with a negative malaria test to my name. i'm just waiting on the lab results. even if i do have kawasaki's disease, it doesn't sound that serious (i just have to start an aspirin regimen).

so for tonight, i'll be ordering dinner from the iso (cheeseburgers are a distinct possibility) and watching old episodes of the daily show on vhs.

good times, good times.

if only i hadn't already planned a trip to ouaga a week and a half from now.

but only by pretending i think they are cute. i like to think that this is a preventative measure and therefore a worthwhile compromise.

so, i did laundry and got rid of the trash in my house. in america, that would maybe take two hours and not be such a big deal, but in burkina faso, it took about two days and everyone in village was amazed that i did it myself.

laundry involves going to the pump three or four times and luging 25 litres of water back to my house on my bike. then i have to swish clothes around in water and detergent (think of the "cheer up charlie" scene in willy wonka and the chocolate factory) until the water is dirty and my clothes at least smell clean and then rinsing (or swishing again) them in cleaner and slightly less soapy water. the last step, involves hanging my clothes up to dry and then hanging around to watch them (in burkina we don't watch paint dry, we watch clothes dry) so they don't fall off the line into dirt.

getting rid of trash is an even bigger pain. there isn't a landfill or dump, so you have to sort through everything to see what can be burnt and what can't. the stuff that can't be burnt, i either have to get rid of (little kids will take just about anything from you - empty bottles, old pens and pencils, etc.), which usually means throwing it down the latrine, for lack of a better option. i've tried not to throw anything too bad down there, in case the latrine ever gets used for fertilizer in the future. that means that i have a ziploc bag full of batteries that i have absolutely no idea what to do with. i'm hoping that i can take them into ouaga at some point and the bureau will have started a programme to recycle batteries.

i almost started a small brush fire last week when i lit my burnable trash on fire. i'm thinking it light be a good idea to burn it directly over my latrine next time. but i cheated today and took the small plastic bag of trash that i accumulated in the past week and brought it into fada with me.

living in burkina makes you hyper-aware of the resources you use. i used about 50 liters of water in the past week for bathing, drinking, cooking, and washing dishes (not including doing laundry, but that would probably double it) and have a smal bag of trash that can't be burned.i don't think that i will have access to electricity in my new house, but i will be able to recharge my phone and ipod with my solio charger (thanks dad!). i read at night by candle light, though i am usually in bed by 8-8:30, since that means it will have already been dark for about two hours.

fada this weekend and then hopefully school will have started with a vengeance so i will actually have work to do.

i should be in ouaga withing the next two weeks to see the pcmo, so pictures soon!

or how's the fam in gulmanchema, my new local language of choice.

so, training is over and i am officially a peace corps volunteer. not that that means i've done any work yet. our first three months at site we're just supposed to integrate into the community and meet people. very tough.

i've left the north and now live in a little village near the eastern city of fada n'gourma. i'm pretty close to benin, togo, and niger and the game parks so i should be able to do some pretty great traveling and hopefully fulfill my goal of feeding a baby lion from a bottle.

its a little weird that my first house of my own is a two room mud and cement house in burkina faso and i've come to realize that living on your own is lonlier than i would have expected it to be. school hasn't started in burkina yet and it is still the cultivating season so there aren't that many people around and all of the neighbors in my courtyard are funstionaires and haven't come back to village yet.

i took my first bush taxi today, which was an experience to say the least. i enjoyed it, although that was probably because it was a short trip. i don't know that i would have liked spending hours in a VW van with about twenty other people, especially since it was raining and none of the doors actually shut.

so, some random new things about me that have changed since being in burkina:

i eat meat (whenever i can and a lot of it)i can change bike tiresi am (or at least i was) a princess in my host village in the northi pump my own wateri go to bed by 9 and get up at 5i am very tanmy hair is turning blonde and is falling out at an alarming ratewell, that's it for now. i'll try to post pictures the next time i make it into ouaga.

soooo, its been over a year.

i spent the summer in boston volunteering at the living center (a community center for people living with hiv/aids) and then came home to chill out and plan activities with kensey -apple picking and antiquing, anyone?

then i moved out to seattle for six months to hang out with lynne and worked at a homeless shelter (hi johnny! hi liz!).

tomorrow morning, i'm leaving for philadelphia and then burkina faso since the peace corps decided to get it's shit together and give me a project.

i seem to only use this blog when i'm leaving the country so look out for danielle's foreign escapades (title of my future show on the travel channel?) version 2.0.

maybe i'll post a picture of my mud hut for you all.

if you're lucky.

so, i am back in america now. lots has happened since the last time i wrote anything so i think bullet points will be the most efficient way to write everything up. not that i am at all lazy.

my internship: was amazing. i actually miss getting up at 6:45 and hustling down the miracle mile to catch the 8:10-ish 11 to see the resident phisborough ginger knob and then working all day until five and then hustling back across o'connell to catch whatever bus would take me back to dcu. i got to do a lot of real work with some amazing staff. i once had to call sinn fein but i didn't get to talk to gerry "i mean, i'm sure he's killed some people" adams but i still felt sneaky nonetheless. i got to take the train out to galway and a flight out to killarney for some manifesto launches and i got to meet martin ferris, a sinn fein td, who was jailed during the troubles. also, a rat climbed into the office and died my last week there.tralee: or should we say trashlee. one of the weirdest irish towns i've ever had the pleasure of visiting. it's home of the rose of tralee festival. look it up and giggle at your own will. katie and i accidentally stayed there because bus eireann lies 50% of the time. there was a very nice park and our hostel gave us a private room and there was a free cappucino machine so i was suitably hopped up on espresso for the willy-nilly haphazaed bus ride to...dingle: ridiculously perfect little (and i mean miniscule) town on the peninsula. i got to eat raspberry sorbet, pet the town dog, take pretty pictures, spend a lot of money on cute things, and play 20(million) questions with katie. did i mention that she was deathly ill? she certainly deserves a gold star. dingle and i are a match made in heaven.co. kerry in general: green and full of sheep. so, naturally, i loved it. the weekend we drove through it had gorgeous weather and i got to see little tiny lambs, no bigger than cats laying passed out in the sunlight. i think i could have burst a few blood vessles trying not to squeal out loud.cork, but mainly blarney: katie is the blarney master. she made sure that julia, bobby, and i all knew that. unfortunately, the rest of the tourists heard her scream it through the castle as well. i kissed the stone and wandered through the grounds. i think someone may have gotten stuck momentarily in a tree. i forget who it was, but it certainly wasn't me. we almost missed our bus back to cork which meant that we would have missed our bus back to dublin and then work the next day, but we were saved by the lovely owner of the kopi cafe who flagged down an empty bus for us. i think we were all pretty grateful to be home after that.sligo: i think most of know what a yeats freak i am, so i made sure that i made it to sligo while i was there. bobby and i enjoyed a lovely date weekend and were joined by julia and a slightly crabby katie. bobby and i went on a boat tour of inisfree and met zoe, the cutest dog ever from belfast. we may have stalked her around sligo later that afternoon as well. i dragged everyone to all the yeats sights, including lissadell house and yeat's grave. we saw ben bulben from a distance but didn't climb it even though bobby wanted to. we almost panicked, thinking that we had missed a bus to donegal, but bus eireann was just late as usual. also, we saw blood diamond because apparently the only thing to do on good friday in ireland is to go to the movies. and i bought two pairs of shoes. and we went to michael flattley's favorite pub and we the only people inside. it might have been my favorite weekend ever (at least tied with brighton)donegal: we played in a castle and bobby and i managed to finally steal harp pint glasses, much to katie's dismay. we stayed in a very cute hostel. we missed another boat tour, which was disappointing but got to frolic around an ancient abbey's ruins until it started raining, at which point we wandered around donegal town trying to find something to do until the bus to dublin came. i think that i got slightly crabby. also, we drove through northern ireland on the way back (or at least we think we did) which was kind of freaky.dun laoghaire: katie and i spent a lovely afternoon shopping, eating brunch, laying in a park, and walking down what seemed to be the longest pier ever. also, a scene from michael collins was filmed there. liam neeson plus michael collins equals danielle freaking out at the gloriousness. we also took the weirdest dart ride ever.last week of classes. EVER.: i played beirut and didn't study the night before my last college final. it will be interesting to get this semester's grades back.and lastly, my return to america: i took a valium and passed out once our flight left shannon so there's not much to report about that. BUT- and this is the biggest news in my life right now including the fact that i am graduating college- chestertown, ny has gotten a real traffic light. i have not been able to wrap my head around that fact.i am not going to discuss graduation because that is just gross, but i am insanely excited to be in boston for june and july to finally see ashley and lynne again and to reunite with bobby, katie and possibly julia.

also, i get to see rachel zack again soon.

i don't have much to complain about.

karl pilkington on art. the ricky gervais radio shows are ruling my commutes to and from work.

um, so my life is crazy-busy right now. i feel like a legit grown-up. it's weird and very unsettling. also, my mother just brought up the fact that i am currently taking my last undergraduate course ever. thanks for the self-induced panic attack, mom.

so, to play catch up:

finals: they went pretty well. i got my grades back last week and got ridiculous grades for the amount of work i put in, especially considering i was writing both papers the afternoon they were due, with a hangover. thanks mark, thanks frank.warsaw: i only spent one night there and it was -2o degrees outside when our plane finally landed so i wasn't that enthralled. but there were ice-skaters which almost made up for it.krakow: it's such a gorgeous city, very old and dignified. i came home with polish chocolates for ashley, instant borscht for julia, and a tote bag, postcards and a bangle (not a bagel with hamburger, katie) for me. also, i had my second unsuccessful experience with absinthe. i'm not willing to drink something that tastes like black licorice unless i am guaranteed hallucinations and no one has been able to promise me that.over night trains through slovakia: i do not recommend them unless you are travelling with a chiropractor. or at least don't try to sleep on the floor.budapest: oh. my. god. i effing loved budapest. it's a better paris than paris is. i don't even think i can talk about it coherently, but the city was gorgeous and dirt cheap. it's definitely one of my favorite places that i've ever been. we spent four days there and i don't think i even scratched the surface. if you go, you have to bring wine home.vienna: i wasn't so much a fan, although it was probably unfair to pit silly little vienna against budapest. it was okay, but i didn't think it was anything special. although, we did have some lovely weather while we were there. i just felt like i was either in new york city or in epcot - it was either really metropolitan and global and dirty and loud or really clean and quiet and a little too perfect. also, they snuck custard into my pastries without telling me. or maybe they just told me in german.my internship: i really, really enjoy it, and the work, and the people in my office but i'm feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed out. they keep giving me actual work to do, but work that i don't feel comfortable chancing doing incorrectly. the other day we were all in a staff meeting (i don't feel like an intern, i feel like a member of the staff) and a phone call came through about the pensions case that i'm working on and whoever answered the phone said "the woman who is in charge of that is in a meeting. can i take your number and she'll call you back?" not "the intern is busy." i shouldn't complain, it's a great problem to have.well. i think that's it. that's basically the last three weeks of my life in a nutshell.

i can't believe that the first part of the semester is almost over. i took a final this morning and have one tomorrow and then on friday it's off to poland and hungary and possibly austria.

my parents are in dublin right now and it's been nice to see them and have them pay for tourist attractions that i didn't want to pay for myself. my dad freaking loved the guinness factory- he spent forever in there and i swear it was like his grown-up version of disneyland.

i have done just about the bare minimum amount of work this semester. both papers have been due after "accident tuesday" this semester and i have chosen to still observe our flat holiday and write the papers the afternoon they are due, sometimes with a mild hangover.

i finally got my camera fixed, so pictures from the last part of last semester and dublin and then spring break will be up soon.

i can't really think of anything else worth sharing, but i thought i should check in before i leave for eastern europe. just in case i don't make it back.

just kidding.

our flight from budapest gets in (hopefully) at 9 on sunday night so, my first day of work experience should be interesting. i'm pretty sure that it's the day the nwci is realeasing their election manifesto at the dail, so i'm pretty sure that i have to pretend to be awake.

peace out, kids.

say hello to dublin, everyone.

it's quite a nice city, especially at night, and completely absolutely opposite from london. i knew that they would be different, but i wasn't expecting them to be as different as they actually are.

dublin is freaking tiny in comparison and so much more relaxed, which i can already tell is changing the way that i am approaching this semester (that might be because it's also my last). i've decided that it's impossible to get lost in dublin, even if you don't have a map. maybe living in london has made me an expert navigator.

my flat is quite nice, as are all of my flatmates. especially when they share your affinity for nutella toast, crazy eight, rummy 10000 tournaments, stella, and completely ridiculous circle of death rules.

my classes are very interesting, but are also kind of complete fluff. mark, who lectures our history class, is the cutest of cute history professors. i'll try to take a clandestine picture the next time we have class. i won't lie, i may have stalked him on the excursion to glendalough.

good news: ireland has tesco and mcvitie's plain chocolate digestives. AND miss selfridge and topshop.

bad news: dcu has a stupid firewall that won't let me illegally download things and there is no longer an excursion to belfast.

more to come. p.s.- i haven't seen any recent blog updates from anyone else. just because you are back in america does not make you exempt.

i'm back in america and have been for about a week and a half. i have to say that jet lag is a lot better coming back than it is going over.

christmas was nice and about as low key as a christmas in the shaw house can be. i decided to ignore new year's eve this year because i don't really remember last year's , which probably isn't good.

i've been doing some catch up reading over break. i'm finishing james meek's the people's act of love. i can't really decide if i like it or not, but i am constantly intrigued while i'm reading it. i keep feeling like something big is going to happen and hasn't yet. meek is british but he's really good at imitating the russian style of writing. i find that they're really eloquent about things that appear insignificant and then really brusque about things that seem important. such as "and then i ate my horse."

i've got to send my camera out to be fixed, and after having my ipod and hard drive crap out on me this semester, i've about had it with electronics alltogether.

other than that, not much is new other than the fact that i've got to completely rebuild my music library so any and all suggestions and cds are more than welcome.

lastly, rachel zack: are you coming to new york AT ALL?

i thought it was time that i let you all hear the story of my office's christmas party. get ready.

the actual party was at the house of commons on monday and we spent the entire day getting ready for it so i didn't have time to eat lunch (warning sign number one). during the party i had to check people in off the guest list and while i sat at the table doing so, i apparently didn't notice that there was always a full glass of red wine sitting in front of me (warning sign number two). my "dinner" consisted of said red wine and a handful of peanuts.

after the party was over we had to clean everything up, which included the half empty bottles of wine that lydia (who actually calls people poppet) and i thought would it would be a good idea to steal. so, on our way out of westminster hall we smuggled bottles of wine in our jackets. i probably could have been shot by a sniper security officer or something.

we went to the red lion in whitehall afterward, where john (who is technically my boss even though he's only a year older than me) proceeded to get hit on by these two crazy scottish women who had been at the party and then followed us. lydia threatened to smash this one guy's glasses (which were still on his face) and then got really offended when he stopped talking to her. apparently, she thought she was being charming.

after the red lion closed, we got on the bus to soho and that's when i stop remembering individual bars. i remember that we got into one for free because we followed one of those sketchy guys on the sidewalk who pretended to know the owner. i think we were also at a gay bar for awhile. i do remember that john kept walking around bars to bum ciggarettes for lydia and i and that we kept leaving bars when they closed to find another one. also, i didn't pay for a drink all night because they magically kept appearing in my hands.

it was around 2:30 or 3 when lydia and i decided that we couldn't actually drink anymore and went to find the night bus. she was headed for islington and i was going back to south ken so we had to part ways and i think she was a little concerned that i wasn't actually going to get home.

i did, however, make it back to queen's gate and managed to climb into my top bunk. i remember being concerned that i wouldn't be able to climb the ladder. pattie must have woke up when i came in because she said that i fell right into bed once i got up there and was laying backward because i couldn't turn my body around. unfortunately, the lights were off and i remember thinking that i had the spins and that it would probably be a good idea if i made myself sick, to get it all out of my system. what i wasn't counting on was that i would be throwing up for the next hour (pattie timed me).

also, at some point in the night lydia spilled wine on my jeans and when i got home i thought it would be smart to throw them in the shower. i didn't really know what to do next so i just threw them over my closet door. i mention this because pattie saw my pants dripping wet when i got home and she thought that i had somehow fallen into the thames.

thankfully, everyone in the office got to come in late and with massive hangovers. unsurprisingly, i did not do a whole lot of work on tuesday. but i was told that i was the intern who could drink the most. i'm not really sure if that's just counting this year or all of office intern history, but i'll take it as a semi-compliment.

this was definitely one of the top five times i've been drunkest. so without further ado, in no particular order, here are the lucky five (with a bullet!)

this year's office christmas partythis summer's pub crawlthe party at fran brazowski's cabin in twelfth gradekensey's christmas partycarl barlow's graduation party my freshman year

you should thank rachel zack for this because she's been pestering me forever about neglecting this blog. my apologies for leaving you all on tenterhooks (great word, by the way, and too underused) about the goings-on in merry olde england.

the short version: my computer hard drive died, so i was without a life-line to the internet for a couple weeks. i also have no music because my ipod died a few weeks before that, so all recommendations for music would be welcome. then i went to wales to ride ponies for the weekend, which was insanely effing gorgeous and the ebd and breakfast we stayed at fed us glorious amounts of wonderful food. my placement finished this thursday and while it has been pretty boring, the people in my office are quite young and fun and british, so that keeps me entertained.

i'm sure that i'm forgetting all of the random events that would entertain you all (because i know you depend on this blog for your laughs) so i don't really know what else to say. other than that i rode the slides at tate britain and it was maybe the funnest thing ever. and the fact that i did it during a class field trip at the suggestion of a professor made it all the more enjoyable.

i guess that's all, ladies and gentlemen. peace out.

well, one week of my internship is over. i have to say that my least favorite part is waking up every morning at 7:45 am. but at least i've got a morning routine down which, if i'm in the kitchen alone, involves bbc news and if i'm not, involves "everybody loves raymond" and "will and grace."

i like my internship and the work is pretty interesting. although, since everyone else is my flat is working in fashion and pr, it is considerably less exciting. it doesn't involve tickets to a red carpet premiere, like lesley's does. thankfully, i can mooch off her. so, i have walked a red carpet and had paparazzi take my picture, even though i'm pretty sure that they deleted them right away.

islington is a really cool area and i wish that i could spend some time there outside of work. i might have to go one weekend.

i hope that after a week or two i'm used to these new hours so that i don't want to go to bed at ten o'clock at night.

i start my second elective class tomorrow. it's an art history class and i take a field trip every week. tomorrow is bloomsbury. i hope that i can contain myself and not ask where virginia woolf lived.

that's pretty much all the news that i have to report, other then the fact that i just got a single IM from rachel zack saying that she has a layover in london next week before she signed off.

things i love:

applescommuting on the tube (more so when it's not crowded)wearing jeans and sneakers to work"coast" on bbc2coming home to an empty flatthings i don't love:

leaflettingblistersfeeling like i'm overstimulatedbeing hungry but also being too lazy to go to sainsbury'sshouting

so, finals are over. at least the first set. i think i wrote a pretty kick-ass essay on the (lack of a) british constitution, but we'll see what sir paul cousins has to say about that. i don't actually know if he's been knighted or whatever, but the dude calls margaret thatcher "maggie." i think he's probably got some connections.

after finals, everyone else went away for mid-semester break but i stayed since one ms. rachel zack was coming to london. it was lovely to see her and spend time with her in london. it was less lovely to see that her program paid for everything, including a trip on the london eye, which costs about 25 pounds.

anyway, a quick run down of the weeks events:

tate modern (again, but not slides yet)tate britain (the turner galleries were a-mazing)british museum (i wanted to live in the reading room)bloomsbury and russell square ( i almost bought a book that would have allowed me to posthumously stalk virginia woolf)british library (the galleries were closed so i didn't spend that much time there and left a bit angry. i don't enjoy being angry at libraries)the rodin exhibit at the royal academy (it was great to see the burghers of calais, the thinker, the gates of hell, and the kiss in person)picadilly circus ( i don't think rachel enjoyed her flake as much as she thought she would)daily visits to hyde park, kensington gardens, and holland park to read some trashy novelstrips to hereford arms (where the cute waiter wearing lee jeans was severely missed)it was maybe the most relaxing week of my life. i got to experience what it would be like to live in london without having to have a job or take classes and it was fantastic. i think it just proved the fact that i am going to have to marry rich (just kidding- or am i?). i had the flat to myself a lot which was amazing, but did not prepare me for having to share it again.

this week also got me even more hooked on british television. from "strictly come dancing" to bbc's adaptation of "robin hood" featuring the pretty foxy jonas armstrong and let's not forget "extreme dreams with ben fogle," british television is hysterical. less hysterical is its tendency to air what is basically pornography. i'm talking about documentaries on the man with the world's largest penis (13.5 inches in case you were wondering) and men who have sex with dolls to an expose on nunsploitation. that would be pornography featuring nun characters if you didn't already know.

i start my internship with the islington labour party tomorrow and my second elective class (which includes weekly field trips) on friday. i'm not so much nervous as anxious so we'll have to see how it goes.

finally,

things i love:

rachel's commentary on london monumentsthinking it is acceptable to drink cider in the afternoon because it tastes like apple juicea flat all to myselfreading in the parkpineapple skittlesthings i don't love:

having to share my flat againthe absence of ben fogel on bbcwestminster bridge on weekendsnot falling asleep when i want todirty kitchens

i am writing this in the computer lab in the basement of 43 harrington gardens because WE HAVE NO INTERNET. it's effing finals week and we haven't had internet all day. now mind you, i don't want to use the internet to study or write my 6 page paper on scottish devolution, i want it so that i can read television without pity and entertainment weekly and download "the office." alas, i will have to do without.

moving on to paris. i have to say that i was underwhelmed. i spent five and a half hours at the louvre and i don't even think i saw one tenth of their collection. i spent most of that time looking at the sculptures, which were amazing. my favorite part of the weekend was finding shakespeare and co., which is basically the best bookstore ever. it's crowded and the books are on shelves that reach the ceilings so you have to use stepstools to get to them and there is french music playing and used books on carts in front of the store and it is just...perfect. i wanted to stay there for hours and spend all of my money. check this out to see some of the gloriousity that is shakespeare and co. and if you are ever in paris it should be at the top of your list.

other highlights: frites avec mayonnaise, the leviathan thot at the pantheon, the latin quarter, pain au chocolat in montmartre, and the jardin de luxembourg.

not much else new in london, aside from the fact that i have a crap load of work to do by friday, but then RACHEL COMES TO VISIT!

i just realized that i used a lot of capital letters and exclamation points in this post. i'll try to work on that.

and lastly (because i know you all expect it):

things i love:

black currant starburstsshakespeare and co.scottish devolution (that one might be sarcastic)mid-semester breakapples (because they make me feel like it's autumn)things i do not love:not having internettaking the overnight ferry back from pariscooking for myselfthe french version of pringlesnot being able to use wikipedia as an academic source

a great idea. too bad plymouth rock is in plymouth, massachusetts not plymouth, england.

i am exhausted. but i earned it and it was fabulous.

we went to brighton on friday and stayed until saturday. i love it there. seriously love it. the first thing we did after getting off the coach was run across the road to the shore and stick our feet in the english channel. my pants immediately got soaked, but i didn't care. there were still quite a few people on the beach for the end of september, including a naked guy. lesley took a picture (on my camera!) which i will post on webshots, until they tell me that it is inappropriate and take it down.

we walked all up and down the pier and the boardwalk and the beach until my lips were salty from themist off the sea. we stayed in st. christopher's inn which was right across from the ocean. there was a bar downstairs (2 for 1 coronas) which housed some of the best worst dancing i have ever seen in my life. it was pretty effing great. we also sat on the beach and midnight. it was kind of cheesy and i'm pretty sure that there were some people on the beach who were pretty close to having sex, but i liked it nonetheless.

on saturday we went to the royal pavilion, which was basically the first playboy mansion. george IV was kind of a little sketchy. then we went one of the most random art musuems ever. i was really sad to leave, but it's kind of asshole-ish to whine about coming home to london.

one of the other reasons the trip to brighton was awesome was because all i ate while there was fish and chips, chicken and chips, and ice cream. and i also bought crap on the boardwalk.

brighton equals love. just love.

after getting home on saturday night and going to bed reasonably early on saturday night we woke up seriosuly early on sunday to go to oxford and blenheim. we saw christ church college where they filmed parts of harry potter and alice's sweet shop which is named after alice because lewis carroll took alice there for sweets when he was writing "alice in wonderland. we also went to the eagle and child, where jrr tolkien and c.s. lewis read their stories out loud at their weekly meetings. i couldn't talk lesley into having a beer at noon, not even a cider, so i had to pound a pint all by myself.

after a torrential downpour, we got back on the coach to go to blenheim palace. i got to see the bed that winston churchill was born, which may have been too much information even where winston is concerned. the grounds were really pretty and i got to see lots of baby sheepsies, which i thought was fantastic but lesley did not enjoy. it's because she is a cold-hearted animal-hater.

things i love:

baby sheepsiesbrightonreally good bad dancingwakeboarders, specifically those who shoot thumbs-upcoaches, because i feel like i live on them after this weekendthings i don't love:

people who lose their mobile phones in fieldsamy march, from little womengetting people towels when they're already in the showerphantom toastpeople who don't like sheep (i'm talking to you, lesley!)

which for the record, i cannot.

lesley and i went to dover yesterday and explored the castles and tunnels. i thought we got lost in the medieval tunnels for a couple of minutes and lesley had to talk me out of freaking out. after we climbed up and down hills for almost four hours, we went down to the beach and ate ice cream and looked at the ocean and france. it was a lot of fun. also, while we were getting on our coach back to london, our driver wouldn't let a guy on because he had been drinking A LOT. after we started to leave the woman in the seat in front of us started yelling at the driver that it wasn't fair of him to do that, but she was russian and clearly crazy, so she probably thinks that vodka is the same as water. so our driver had to pull over and yell at the woman that he was in charge and that no one else wanted him on the coach and that he had been drinking too much. and then he turned to lesley and i and asked us both if we could drink three quarters of a bottle of vodka. i think we both shook our heads no like school girls.

london is fabulouso. i'm seriously in love. i've been going to musuems and galleries and markets almost everyday. st. paul's is fantastic and well worth the seven pounds it costs to get in. the national portrait gallery is pretty good, but i liked the national gallery better. i still haven't been to the british musuem or the british library, but they're next on the list.

i'm getting ready to do some travelling in the weekends ahead which is exciting. lesley and i are going to brighton this friday and saturday and then to oxford and blenheim palace (winston churchill's house! i think everyone knows about my crush on winston) on sunday. then next weekend is paris. i think that i'll be ready to hang out in london for awhile after that, especially since rachel is coming to visit!

since i think this will be a tradition, my new likes and dislikes:

things i love:

hereford arms (1.2 pound pints are lovely)helen mirren in the queen. basically, helen mirren in anythingtate modernpaternoster squarebritish primary school uniformsthings i don't love:

getting lost in medieval tunnelswaiting in line at the post officecooking for myselfblistersbroken ipods

i feel like i'm actually living in london now, which is very nice. classes have started and i'm really enjoying them. the myth about the british sense of humor? not exaggerated by the way. it's fantastic.

i've been slowly working my way through the city which has left a few blisters on my feet and some wonderful pictures on my camera. i'll try to post them soon, once webshots decides to cooperate.

rachel won't be in copenhagen while i'm on break, so i'm going to have to find something else to do. i think that i might try and travel on my own, just for fun. maybe prague or edinburgh.

i've also had my first "celebrity" sighting. lesley and i were walking through leicester square when all of a sudden we were caught up in a crowd of screaming teenage girls. apparently, the cast of highschool musical were there. i still don't quite know what/who it/they is/are.

lastly,

things i love:

british grocery storeshyde parkhearing british people make fun of rhode islandice cream cones with 99 flakescovent garden's jubilee marketthings i don't love:

rude cyclistscars that don't signal when they want to turnitalian tourists (they are everywhere)tony blairbu students who will only travel in crowds

this was the farewell given to us by our academic tour boat guide. i really liked him.

so, my flight was fine except for the fact that because i flew virgin atlantic the entire cabin was red and purple. i wanted to vomit. also, all of the stewardesses were spectacularly coiffed. i watched an inconvenient truth, dave chapelle's block party, and the wind that shakes the barley. all good choices.

after moving into my "flat", we went to sainsbury's and giggled at the biscuit aisle. i resisted buying any.

we went on a walking tour which was pretty embarassing because they marched like 25 american students through the streets of south kensington. i felt like i was in kindergarten.

bu held an academic boat tout of the thames for us, during which the above advice was given. i got some pretty cool pictures. if i wasn't so lazy, i'd upload and post them.

i wonder when i'll stop blaming the time difference.

pip pip!

after a quick newsies sing-along to "seize the day," "and the world will know," and "king of new york," rachel is on her way to copenhagen. everybody cross your fingers that she doesn't come back as a crazy, metallica-listening, hans christen anderson-quoting dane.

a breakdown of "vacation" events:

my mother had to drive me to boston because the train decided to be nine hours late, just to fuck with me.finally rode the swan boats in the public gardens. best $2.75 ever spent.played wiffle ball whilst drinking vodka and grape kool-aid, which culminated in smacking heads with ashley.ate at sunset. mmmmm.saw shakespeare in the commons. not the greatest rendition of "the taming of the shrew."realized how much i missed watching "project runway" with lynne and ashley.went to a free tv on the radio/yeah yeah yeahs concert and got to listen to "maps" be played live.participated in the greatest pub crawl ever that included the plough and stars, the people's republik, and our house. it was preceded by vodka shots, dum dum lollipops, and a journey sing-a-long.

was quite hungover on the train ride home.i promised myself that i wouldn't go out for a couple of nights because i felt so shitty on friday, but lisa tosti is here this weekend so we're all going out after work. i guess i can handle it.

1. john denver (obviously)

2. mr. robertson, my high school earth science teacher

3. the games leader/magician on rachel's home videos

i don't know what this information can do to solve world peace or cure aids, but i hope someone can harness it for good.

hallelujah, i am saved! rachel is home for a few weeks before we both leave. (p.s. her home movie from cape cod with the sing-a-long/dance party is still the best thing ever. and i got to watch it again.) she's going rafting tomorrow which means that she will have seen my dad more than i have in an entire week. that should tell you something about my work schedule.

slightly less than one week until i go to boston, which i am very excited about. i should make a list of things i want to do, but i'll probably end up just riding the subway all day like the crazy homeless people, especially if ashley finds employment before i get there.

its august, and that means that i only have about a month left before school starts again and i'm starting to get more and more freaked out that my four year plan is coming to an end. i've been scrambling to come up with a new one, involving asking professors and bosses for recommendations to put on file which is a frighteningly grown-up thing to do. i think the whole peace corps/grad school thing is just a ploy to defer becoming an actual adult.

i bet if i had a shrink that's what he or she would write in their notebook while pretending to agree with me.