Greetings Friends,
So, when we last left off, our group of weary travelers were in Rome and had finally found a hostel to call home for the next 3 days....or so we thought.
So,we head to Hostel Ivanhoe to check in and arrive to find out that actually have no rooms for us and that he had e-mailed Chelsea (shes the one that made the reservation) and told her, but we knew that was a BIG FAT LIE because we had just come from an I'cafe(group slang for internet cafe).BUT, he was sending us to another hostel that wasnt too far away and just a block from the train station and we were getting the same price etc. and he promised we had rooms there.
Turns out we got the better deal. The hostel was neat and we were in a room with 10 beds, so we were sharing with 4 other people, but we also had free breakfast and free itnernet. The breakfast was tasty, crossiants with chocolate in the middle,cereal, and bread to make toast with jelly and more chocolate spread. Apparantly chocolate is a breakfast item over here.
We found a great place for meal, no clue what it is called but our waiter was from Puetro Rico and we made besties with him and he asked me if I was from Puerto Rico and when I told him my dad was, he pretty much fell in love with us. BUT he kept trying to talk to us in Spanish and I made the most of my four years of Spanish (which consists of knowing the basic sentences and a few choice naughty words) and pretended to know what was going on. BUT, for just 10euros you could get two courses, a pasta then a meat and a side dish. The girls took advantage of this offer. I stuck with my trusty pizza and had a delicious calzone one of the days.
We visited all the city sights during our 2 days there. We walked around the ruins but passed on paying 11euro to go inside the Colesseum(remember we are poor college students!) We went to the Trevi Fountain and threw in a coin and made a wish, and if the legend is true, at somepoint in my life I will return to that fountain.
Saturday morning we caught our 11 o clock train to Florence. It was a nice break from having to hassle with airport security and go through ticket lines and making sure I had no liquids and etc.
We arrived in Florence and had finally caught on to booking ahead, SO we already had a hostel waiting for us. This time we were staying at a place called "Camping Michelangelo" Which has a great view of the city and is in an olive tree grove. We're living in glorified tents, a step above the tent in Germany, but a step below the bungalow we had in Venice. They're nice and enlcosed and have locking doors (however, the covering of the tent velcros off the frame,so really the lock is pointless) and a hard floor and NO electricity. But the beds are comfy and its a place to stay. The only downside is the 168 stair (yes I counted) climb we have to make twice a day.
We met up with Emily, another student from Simpson who happened to be in Venice at the same time and walked around the city and had dinner and saw the sights, and it was a pretty calm day.
The next day we walked around the city and paroused the markets and haggled with the illegal street vendors. They're fun to watch. The purse and belt vendors have all their goods displayed on blankets and the sunglass dealers have their goods on cardboard and whenever the police come they just fold everything up and walk away, its a sight to see when it happens.
Today has been the same, just walking around the city seeing the sights and enjoying the markets and of course the gelato.
Our first night we discovered a great place called "Very Good" which has amazing flavors;twix,snickers,nutella and others. Its probably the yummiest I have had so far!!
I think thats about it for our Italian adventures, tomorrow we catch an EARLY train to Milan where we spend the afternoon before heading to Brussels, which is the last leg of our journey.
As much as I have loved seeing everything and living out of a backpack wearing the same two pairs of jeans and 4 t'shirts for the last week and few odd days, I'm ready to go back to London and have a choice of outfits,kitchen to cook in and good solid bed.
I would like to give a couple shout outs in this blog.
FIRST
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY to my baby sister Maddy, who turned 13 yesterday!
and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my loyal blog readers Sally!!
Hope all is well in your lives!
ciao
Drew
Monday, October 15, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Roaming around the streets of Rome
Greetings Friends,
Venice was absolutly phenomenal!! I thourghouly enjoyed it!
We ended up finding a great hostel called "Camping Jolly" just outside of the city and we had this great little cabin type thing, and we had our own bathroom! The showers were very hot and amazing and it was great to finally sleep in a bed again, instead of on a mat in a tent!
Tuesday was our first full day in the city and we caught the shuttle that our camp offered and spent the whole day in Venice just wandering the streets. It was so beautiful and the weather was great, I took PLEN TY of photos and will put them up when I return to London-town.
Tuesdy night we sat around the campground and talked with a bunch of other backpackers who were staying there. It was neat, 3 of them were from Canada,1 was from Kentucky and the other guy was from Oxford.They were all just backpacking till their hearts content and didnt really have an internary, which would be amazing to do someday.
Wednesday we spent walking the city again, only we had to lug all our stuff with us because we left that night for Rome. We ended up sitting in this little square for probably like 1/2 an hour just playing with the pigeons and this cat we've named "Mikey". Then we walked some more and sat around on the waters edge and just relaxed,because it sucked carrying our packs everywhere.
So, once again a commuting adventure .We arrive at the airport and are looking on the call board thing for our flight and we can't find it. So, Paige went up and asked someone and it turns out we WERE AT THE WRONG AIRPORT so we had to hurry and catch a cab to get us to the other airport that was 20 minutes away. But before we get into the cab, we get stopped by a guy who tells us that he'll get us a cab. He brings up to the 1st level and says wait here, and then ditches us. So, we leave him and find another cabbie. Who tells us that that guy isn't a cabbie but some random dude, who does it all the time. Anyway, we ended up making it to the airport just fine and making it to Rome A-OK.
We arrive in Rome at around 8 o clock and were like , OKAY, lets go find a hostel. Turns out,people are right when they say book ahead, because it took us forever to find one :( All the good cheap hostels were either full or 30 mins out of the city and in order to get to it you had to take bus A, which would bring to bus stop 10 then you walked 50m to get to train Z that you rode to stop H then you took a shutttle that ran every half hour to finally get to the campsite. So, we found a hotel in town, dropped our stuff off and immediatly went to the internet cafe to book the rest of our weekend. So, today we're headed to "Hostel Ivanhoe" which looks promising and then when we get to Florence we are staying in a great little hostel in the city for super cheap! So, things are looking up. I can't lie though, last night got a little stressful. Not being able to find a place to stay. Knowing it wasn't going to be cheap. It being 11 o c lock and I was tired. But we're safe now and I'm ready to go explore the city.
I've fallen in love with gelato since I've been over here and it doesn't make it any easier when its only 1 euro for a cone,so i've explored the different flavors and trust me, they are DELICOUS!
Okay friends, think that brings us up-2-speed on the European Tour.
Hope life is swell for you!
Ciao Bella
Drew
Venice was absolutly phenomenal!! I thourghouly enjoyed it!
We ended up finding a great hostel called "Camping Jolly" just outside of the city and we had this great little cabin type thing, and we had our own bathroom! The showers were very hot and amazing and it was great to finally sleep in a bed again, instead of on a mat in a tent!
Tuesday was our first full day in the city and we caught the shuttle that our camp offered and spent the whole day in Venice just wandering the streets. It was so beautiful and the weather was great, I took PLEN TY of photos and will put them up when I return to London-town.
Tuesdy night we sat around the campground and talked with a bunch of other backpackers who were staying there. It was neat, 3 of them were from Canada,1 was from Kentucky and the other guy was from Oxford.They were all just backpacking till their hearts content and didnt really have an internary, which would be amazing to do someday.
Wednesday we spent walking the city again, only we had to lug all our stuff with us because we left that night for Rome. We ended up sitting in this little square for probably like 1/2 an hour just playing with the pigeons and this cat we've named "Mikey". Then we walked some more and sat around on the waters edge and just relaxed,because it sucked carrying our packs everywhere.
So, once again a commuting adventure .We arrive at the airport and are looking on the call board thing for our flight and we can't find it. So, Paige went up and asked someone and it turns out we WERE AT THE WRONG AIRPORT so we had to hurry and catch a cab to get us to the other airport that was 20 minutes away. But before we get into the cab, we get stopped by a guy who tells us that he'll get us a cab. He brings up to the 1st level and says wait here, and then ditches us. So, we leave him and find another cabbie. Who tells us that that guy isn't a cabbie but some random dude, who does it all the time. Anyway, we ended up making it to the airport just fine and making it to Rome A-OK.
We arrive in Rome at around 8 o clock and were like , OKAY, lets go find a hostel. Turns out,people are right when they say book ahead, because it took us forever to find one :( All the good cheap hostels were either full or 30 mins out of the city and in order to get to it you had to take bus A, which would bring to bus stop 10 then you walked 50m to get to train Z that you rode to stop H then you took a shutttle that ran every half hour to finally get to the campsite. So, we found a hotel in town, dropped our stuff off and immediatly went to the internet cafe to book the rest of our weekend. So, today we're headed to "Hostel Ivanhoe" which looks promising and then when we get to Florence we are staying in a great little hostel in the city for super cheap! So, things are looking up. I can't lie though, last night got a little stressful. Not being able to find a place to stay. Knowing it wasn't going to be cheap. It being 11 o c lock and I was tired. But we're safe now and I'm ready to go explore the city.
I've fallen in love with gelato since I've been over here and it doesn't make it any easier when its only 1 euro for a cone,so i've explored the different flavors and trust me, they are DELICOUS!
Okay friends, think that brings us up-2-speed on the European Tour.
Hope life is swell for you!
Ciao Bella
Drew
Monday, October 8, 2007
The European tour begins
Greetings Friends,
WOW Fall Break has already been amazing and it has only been 3 days!
We left the flat on Thursday night, and planned on sleeping in the airport so we could catch our EARLY flight to Munich.WELL we get there and they tell us the airport is closed.SO we ended up sleeping in the train station type area for 5 hours, it was definitally the experience. Some kindly older gentleman asked us if we were okay and brought us water while we were sleeping.
Our flights went great and we arrived in Munich Friday afternoon. It was culture shock right away. Being somewhere where English is the second language it gets minorly frustrating at times. So, we trekked alittle and found the "hostel" we were staying at. Its called Weis'n'camp and was just a big football type field with rows and rows of tents. So, I dont go camping at home, but i had to turn around and do it on fall break in Germany. It wasn't too bad though.
We decided to go and explore Oktoberfest and see what it was all about and once again MAJOR culture shock! All the signs were in German, everyone was speaking German, the menus at the food tents were in German and it was just crazy. Luckily people everywhere spoke english so it wasnt too difficult. We waited in line for 3 hours to get inside one of the tents that had a band and it was ridiculous. People were cram jammed against eachother in line and it was insane but after we got inside it was so worth it. People were everywhere singing and cheering and dancing and O to the MG it was great!!
That was what we did Saturday and Sunday too, just hung around Oktoberfest. Its actually alot like the state fair. It has food everywhere and rides and games and fun houses and it was just a really neat experience. Because people from all over where there. We made friends with people from: Russia,Holland, Italy, Germany and of course we found some fellow Americans!
This morning we woke up early :( and caught our flight to Venice. The security people were ridiculous and very thorough and it was minorly annyoing. BUT reassuring at the same time.
So, yea, we've been in Venice for about a couple hours now and are trying to find a hostel for the next two days. Its so beautiful though!! With the canals everywhere and the buildings and the weather is FANTASTIC!!!
So, that minorly brings you up to speed on our tour of europe. I'll try and give more detail at some point,but im on a time strain :(
OH, and if you're reading this Mommy, sorry I haven't e-mailed BUT this is the first time I've been on a computer and it wont let me access my e-mail!
Hope all is well for everyone!
cheers
Drew
WOW Fall Break has already been amazing and it has only been 3 days!
We left the flat on Thursday night, and planned on sleeping in the airport so we could catch our EARLY flight to Munich.WELL we get there and they tell us the airport is closed.SO we ended up sleeping in the train station type area for 5 hours, it was definitally the experience. Some kindly older gentleman asked us if we were okay and brought us water while we were sleeping.
Our flights went great and we arrived in Munich Friday afternoon. It was culture shock right away. Being somewhere where English is the second language it gets minorly frustrating at times. So, we trekked alittle and found the "hostel" we were staying at. Its called Weis'n'camp and was just a big football type field with rows and rows of tents. So, I dont go camping at home, but i had to turn around and do it on fall break in Germany. It wasn't too bad though.
We decided to go and explore Oktoberfest and see what it was all about and once again MAJOR culture shock! All the signs were in German, everyone was speaking German, the menus at the food tents were in German and it was just crazy. Luckily people everywhere spoke english so it wasnt too difficult. We waited in line for 3 hours to get inside one of the tents that had a band and it was ridiculous. People were cram jammed against eachother in line and it was insane but after we got inside it was so worth it. People were everywhere singing and cheering and dancing and O to the MG it was great!!
That was what we did Saturday and Sunday too, just hung around Oktoberfest. Its actually alot like the state fair. It has food everywhere and rides and games and fun houses and it was just a really neat experience. Because people from all over where there. We made friends with people from: Russia,Holland, Italy, Germany and of course we found some fellow Americans!
This morning we woke up early :( and caught our flight to Venice. The security people were ridiculous and very thorough and it was minorly annyoing. BUT reassuring at the same time.
So, yea, we've been in Venice for about a couple hours now and are trying to find a hostel for the next two days. Its so beautiful though!! With the canals everywhere and the buildings and the weather is FANTASTIC!!!
So, that minorly brings you up to speed on our tour of europe. I'll try and give more detail at some point,but im on a time strain :(
OH, and if you're reading this Mommy, sorry I haven't e-mailed BUT this is the first time I've been on a computer and it wont let me access my e-mail!
Hope all is well for everyone!
cheers
Drew
Thursday, October 4, 2007
One of my Simpson Stories
Greetings Friends,
I thought I would take a break from blogging about my fabulous adventures in London and talk a little bit more about Simpson and my experience while on campus.
You'll always hear when you visit Simpson's campus that the professors here care about you both in and out of the classroom and that they're always ready to talk about class,life,tv, whatever and you probaby always think: "yeah, right" "Loras,Luther and Central all say the same thing." Well I can tell you from first had experience that at Simpson it is most definitally true and I have two perfect examples.
It was near the end second semester and almost time for dead week, it was a Tuesday night. I had been dilligently working on not one but two portfolios that were due that week as well as a speech for my speech class. I decided to take a break and go out to eat with some of my fraternity brothers up at Buffalo Wild Wings in Des Moines. We eat, hang out in Des Moines for awhile and come back. I get back and continue to work on the portfolios. One was for a mock start up theatre company for my Stage Management class and in it I had to have: a budget,goal of the theatre, flow chart showing the order of command in the theatre, mission statement, 2 different press releases, actor packet and a few more things. Most of this had already been turned in, but now I was fine tuning it for the final and making sure everything was good. My other portfolio was for "The Simpsonian" and all I had to do for that one was put together my news articles I had already written, and I can't remember what the speech was about. But anyway, Im working on this and it gets to be 1 or 2 am and I have a brother(fraternity) come to me needing to talk, so we then sat for a couple hours talking about a few different things that he was dealing with and that were going on in his life and I in turn shared the current drama in my life. We finish and I go back to working on my homework.
By now its 5am and I realize I need to get some sleep or I won't even function the following day. So, I go to bed,planning to get up early and finish things. Well, I realize when my alarm clock rings 2 hours later that it isn't going to happen. I realize that if I was to attend class I would be the boy that falls asleep and looks like an idiot and that I really need to finish this homework. SO, I e-mail my professor and let her know what was going on. Explaining to her that I was up all night working on things and helping out some friends with issues. I felt horrible, I really did. I am one of those kids who CAN'T skip and feels really guilty when he does because he's afraid he's going to miss out on something important.
So, I sleep a little longer and then get up and finish all the things that need done. Later that afternoon I go into my professors office to beg for forgiveness for missing class and to explain to her what was going on.
However, the very first thing she says when I walk up to her is "Are you Okay?"
I felt so lucky and loved in those two seconds. That the very first thing she asked is how I was and if I was okay. NOT, "why'd you miss class?" or "I can't help you, find notes from someone else." This just really made me even more realize how much professors here really do care. Besides that, she was already an amazing professor who I learned SO MUCH from during my class with her.
SECOND STORY
This one happened just this week. If you read my previous blog, you know about the new volunteering I get to do at "Theatre 503". Well, its all thanks to the professor with us, JP. Who from the beginning has really wanted to get us theatre kids helping out in a theatre. He went around and asked all sorts of fringe theatres,off-west end theatres if they needed help. He didn't need to do this, we all already had set up other volunteer programs. But he wanted to because he knew how much it would help us. It was also really great how excitied he was when we left the meeting and knew we were set. It was just really neat, knowing that he went out of his way to try and get us some more learning opportunity.
These are just my stories and there are plenty more out there. This isn't something you can get by going to a big school, where you're known as student number 005406 and just one of 200 kids in a lecture. At Simpson the professors know your name, the activities your involved in and ask about them.
Whenever I walk by my advisor on the sidewalk he asks how I am and how theatre productions are going. I've had professors stop me on the sidewalk and comment on my article in The Simpsonian.
The professors here at Simpson are here because they care about 1) the subject they are teaching and are some of the most passionate people you'll meet when it comes to their subject and 2) ME-the student.
Just something to consider when looking at schools.
Cheers
Drew
I thought I would take a break from blogging about my fabulous adventures in London and talk a little bit more about Simpson and my experience while on campus.
You'll always hear when you visit Simpson's campus that the professors here care about you both in and out of the classroom and that they're always ready to talk about class,life,tv, whatever and you probaby always think: "yeah, right" "Loras,Luther and Central all say the same thing." Well I can tell you from first had experience that at Simpson it is most definitally true and I have two perfect examples.
It was near the end second semester and almost time for dead week, it was a Tuesday night. I had been dilligently working on not one but two portfolios that were due that week as well as a speech for my speech class. I decided to take a break and go out to eat with some of my fraternity brothers up at Buffalo Wild Wings in Des Moines. We eat, hang out in Des Moines for awhile and come back. I get back and continue to work on the portfolios. One was for a mock start up theatre company for my Stage Management class and in it I had to have: a budget,goal of the theatre, flow chart showing the order of command in the theatre, mission statement, 2 different press releases, actor packet and a few more things. Most of this had already been turned in, but now I was fine tuning it for the final and making sure everything was good. My other portfolio was for "The Simpsonian" and all I had to do for that one was put together my news articles I had already written, and I can't remember what the speech was about. But anyway, Im working on this and it gets to be 1 or 2 am and I have a brother(fraternity) come to me needing to talk, so we then sat for a couple hours talking about a few different things that he was dealing with and that were going on in his life and I in turn shared the current drama in my life. We finish and I go back to working on my homework.
By now its 5am and I realize I need to get some sleep or I won't even function the following day. So, I go to bed,planning to get up early and finish things. Well, I realize when my alarm clock rings 2 hours later that it isn't going to happen. I realize that if I was to attend class I would be the boy that falls asleep and looks like an idiot and that I really need to finish this homework. SO, I e-mail my professor and let her know what was going on. Explaining to her that I was up all night working on things and helping out some friends with issues. I felt horrible, I really did. I am one of those kids who CAN'T skip and feels really guilty when he does because he's afraid he's going to miss out on something important.
So, I sleep a little longer and then get up and finish all the things that need done. Later that afternoon I go into my professors office to beg for forgiveness for missing class and to explain to her what was going on.
However, the very first thing she says when I walk up to her is "Are you Okay?"
I felt so lucky and loved in those two seconds. That the very first thing she asked is how I was and if I was okay. NOT, "why'd you miss class?" or "I can't help you, find notes from someone else." This just really made me even more realize how much professors here really do care. Besides that, she was already an amazing professor who I learned SO MUCH from during my class with her.
SECOND STORY
This one happened just this week. If you read my previous blog, you know about the new volunteering I get to do at "Theatre 503". Well, its all thanks to the professor with us, JP. Who from the beginning has really wanted to get us theatre kids helping out in a theatre. He went around and asked all sorts of fringe theatres,off-west end theatres if they needed help. He didn't need to do this, we all already had set up other volunteer programs. But he wanted to because he knew how much it would help us. It was also really great how excitied he was when we left the meeting and knew we were set. It was just really neat, knowing that he went out of his way to try and get us some more learning opportunity.
These are just my stories and there are plenty more out there. This isn't something you can get by going to a big school, where you're known as student number 005406 and just one of 200 kids in a lecture. At Simpson the professors know your name, the activities your involved in and ask about them.
Whenever I walk by my advisor on the sidewalk he asks how I am and how theatre productions are going. I've had professors stop me on the sidewalk and comment on my article in The Simpsonian.
The professors here at Simpson are here because they care about 1) the subject they are teaching and are some of the most passionate people you'll meet when it comes to their subject and 2) ME-the student.
Just something to consider when looking at schools.
Cheers
Drew
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Just like the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going and....
Greetings Friends,
Well, I was catching up on my Simpson campus news and browsing through The Simpsonian website when I saw under the "recently commented" heading, a link to an article I had written way back in March about working in the restaurant business and it was all about how to be a better customer.
Well, the article recieved alot of attention for some odd reason. Mainly from a very um. unique individual who goes by the name of "springs1" who left a comment on my article that was around 1,500 words when my original article was around 800!
So, banter went on between this springs person and a few different people for awhile and finally died down.
WELL, I looked today and once again Springs is back and the article is now at a whopping 19 comments. If you need a good laugh check it out, because really I just find it halarious.
Here is the link:
http://media.www.thesimpsonian.com/media/storage/paper1080/news/2007/03/01/Perspectives/Friendly.Reminder.When.Eating.Out.Dont.Mess.With.People.Who.Serve.Your.Food-2748707.shtml?reffeature=recentlycommentedstoriestab
Well, I was catching up on my Simpson campus news and browsing through The Simpsonian website when I saw under the "recently commented" heading, a link to an article I had written way back in March about working in the restaurant business and it was all about how to be a better customer.
Well, the article recieved alot of attention for some odd reason. Mainly from a very um. unique individual who goes by the name of "springs1" who left a comment on my article that was around 1,500 words when my original article was around 800!
So, banter went on between this springs person and a few different people for awhile and finally died down.
WELL, I looked today and once again Springs is back and the article is now at a whopping 19 comments. If you need a good laugh check it out, because really I just find it halarious.
Here is the link:
http://media.www.thesimpsonian.com/media/storage/paper1080/news/2007/03/01/Perspectives/Friendly.Reminder.When.Eating.Out.Dont.Mess.With.People.Who.Serve.Your.Food-2748707.shtml?reffeature=recentlycommentedstoriestab
A US History Lesson while in London!?!
Greetings Friends,
Who would have thought that I would learn about US history while in London? I sure didn't. But, that's pretty much what happened last night when Chelsea,Anne, and I went to "The Globe". The show playing was called "We The People" and it was essentially a dramatic re-enactment of the writing of the constitution.
Overall, I'd give the show a B+ or A-. It was pretty well written and entertaining,although some parts seemed to drag on for me. I was confused at some points too, but thats just because I am horrible at history (sorry, Beth, Jamie,Cassie and Andy) and so I wasn't sure what was going on. Then there were the accents,some were great and they totally sounded "american" but others were RIDICULOUS, one guy honestly sounded like he was trying to impersonate Bill Clinton, so it was rather amusing but got annoying 5 minutes into the show.
But, it was a good show to see and I'd recommend it. It was also neat to be in a totally different theatre setting. With the thrust staging, yard where everyone was standing, and the open ceiling.
Today we had our art class and had the pleasure of visiting the "Victorian and Albert" museum. This was a fabulous museum and we got to see all sorts of different works of art. We looked at some fashion, and JP surprised us by telling us he loves watching the fashion preview to the red carpet and that his favorite designer is Versace because of his classic lines and cuts. I was rather impressed, along with everyone else,including his wife, Elyse.
We also looked at some different sculpture work and finished off the day by looking at just a bunch of random household things; lamps,radios,chairs etc. and how art has influenced them and how art is present. It makes you realize that essentially everything is art, not just paintings and pictures.
After the gallery, a few us headed to a meeting with a local off-west end theatre company called "Theatre 503" in the hopes of getting us Thespians on the trip some career related volunteer experience. The theatre is right above a pub and the office/lounge area of it is pretty neat and has couches and tables and just seems very laid back. Well, we show up to meet with Gene and he was super friendly and right away was like " what can we do for you guys" and we told them how were interested in helping out with their theatre and pretty much willing to do whatever they need done and that we have all sorts of theatre experience thanks to our liberal arts background at Simpson!!
Gene was super friendly and helpful and told us that they would LOVE to have us and that there's as little or as much work there for us and that they can take us whenever we want to start and so I am pretty excitied! They have a really great turnover for shows and we will get to help with 3 different shows during the time we're here!!!! So that'll be amazing. And I am hopefully going to get to help out with PR things and the press nights they have.
Needless to say, I'm really stoaked and can't wait to start!
I finally did laundry today and am now 3.60 shorter,which = about 7 American dollars for ONE LOAD of laundry! Thats only washing too. I didn't even spend the 50p to dry my clothes for EIGHT minutes! So, now they're hanging over anything and everything in my room, in hopes that they'll dry by tomorrow so I can pack for Fall Break.
Yep, I leave tomorrow night for 14 days for fall break and I am roughing it backpack style. That means 2 pairs of jeans and probably 4 shirts for 2 weeks! I'm pretty excitied though. Munich,Rome,Venice,Florence,Milan and Brussels!
UNFORTUNATLY,that means little blogging for the next two weeks *collective sigh here* (hopefully from sadness and not relief )! But don't you worry, I am bringing along my personal journal and will write everything down so I can relay it when I come back!
OH, PS HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! To me and London that is. It's now officially been over a month since I've been here!! It's hard to believe that a month has already gone by! What's weirder is to realize that all my friends back on campus that I talked to everyday and hung out with and called all the time, I haven't in a month! I've called a few friends a couple times and I've spoken with my mommy twice, but other than that, its just been the ocassional facebook message and its just crazy!
Okay, so I need to get back to finishing homework thats due tomorrow.
Ttyl my friends
Cheers
Drew
Who would have thought that I would learn about US history while in London? I sure didn't. But, that's pretty much what happened last night when Chelsea,Anne, and I went to "The Globe". The show playing was called "We The People" and it was essentially a dramatic re-enactment of the writing of the constitution.
Overall, I'd give the show a B+ or A-. It was pretty well written and entertaining,although some parts seemed to drag on for me. I was confused at some points too, but thats just because I am horrible at history (sorry, Beth, Jamie,Cassie and Andy) and so I wasn't sure what was going on. Then there were the accents,some were great and they totally sounded "american" but others were RIDICULOUS, one guy honestly sounded like he was trying to impersonate Bill Clinton, so it was rather amusing but got annoying 5 minutes into the show.
But, it was a good show to see and I'd recommend it. It was also neat to be in a totally different theatre setting. With the thrust staging, yard where everyone was standing, and the open ceiling.
Today we had our art class and had the pleasure of visiting the "Victorian and Albert" museum. This was a fabulous museum and we got to see all sorts of different works of art. We looked at some fashion, and JP surprised us by telling us he loves watching the fashion preview to the red carpet and that his favorite designer is Versace because of his classic lines and cuts. I was rather impressed, along with everyone else,including his wife, Elyse.
We also looked at some different sculpture work and finished off the day by looking at just a bunch of random household things; lamps,radios,chairs etc. and how art has influenced them and how art is present. It makes you realize that essentially everything is art, not just paintings and pictures.
After the gallery, a few us headed to a meeting with a local off-west end theatre company called "Theatre 503" in the hopes of getting us Thespians on the trip some career related volunteer experience. The theatre is right above a pub and the office/lounge area of it is pretty neat and has couches and tables and just seems very laid back. Well, we show up to meet with Gene and he was super friendly and right away was like " what can we do for you guys" and we told them how were interested in helping out with their theatre and pretty much willing to do whatever they need done and that we have all sorts of theatre experience thanks to our liberal arts background at Simpson!!
Gene was super friendly and helpful and told us that they would LOVE to have us and that there's as little or as much work there for us and that they can take us whenever we want to start and so I am pretty excitied! They have a really great turnover for shows and we will get to help with 3 different shows during the time we're here!!!! So that'll be amazing. And I am hopefully going to get to help out with PR things and the press nights they have.
Needless to say, I'm really stoaked and can't wait to start!
I finally did laundry today and am now 3.60 shorter,which = about 7 American dollars for ONE LOAD of laundry! Thats only washing too. I didn't even spend the 50p to dry my clothes for EIGHT minutes! So, now they're hanging over anything and everything in my room, in hopes that they'll dry by tomorrow so I can pack for Fall Break.
Yep, I leave tomorrow night for 14 days for fall break and I am roughing it backpack style. That means 2 pairs of jeans and probably 4 shirts for 2 weeks! I'm pretty excitied though. Munich,Rome,Venice,Florence,Milan and Brussels!
UNFORTUNATLY,that means little blogging for the next two weeks *collective sigh here* (hopefully from sadness and not relief )! But don't you worry, I am bringing along my personal journal and will write everything down so I can relay it when I come back!
OH, PS HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! To me and London that is. It's now officially been over a month since I've been here!! It's hard to believe that a month has already gone by! What's weirder is to realize that all my friends back on campus that I talked to everyday and hung out with and called all the time, I haven't in a month! I've called a few friends a couple times and I've spoken with my mommy twice, but other than that, its just been the ocassional facebook message and its just crazy!
Okay, so I need to get back to finishing homework thats due tomorrow.
Ttyl my friends
Cheers
Drew
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
NO, Seriously this weather kind of blows
Greetings Friends,
The weather is still London-esque in all its glory: wet,chilly, and smoggy and unfortunatly I think we are officially done with the gloriousness of sun and blue skys. :(
You will be pleased, or maybe not, to find out that even though I haven't blogged in a couple days, you have not missed out on anything. Thus the reason for no blogging, nothing exciting to talk about.
Sunday was yet another day of rest for yours truly.BUT I did end up getting around and some friends that we had met at "The Rocket" a few weeks ago came over and hung out with us, it was nice having fresh faces in our rooms instead of the same boring Simpson people all the time. (j to the k).lol
Monday-more napping and movie watching for Drew, I was introduced to the wonder of "Not Another Teen Movie" and it is now one of my new favorites! I also rode the tube for an hour or so and did homework on it. lol.yes, I rode the tube and wrote my journals, finally getting almost all the way caught up and I plan on doing that tonight.
Today we had class and we took a walking tour of where all the Bloomsbury Group people used to live. For those of you who don't know and don't feel bad if you didn't, I only know because I'm taking the class. But the Bloomsbury group was a group of scholars back at the turn of the 20th Century who were leaders in their fields; artists,economists,writers,politicians and they were all friends and lived in the same area and even loved eachother at times. The saying goes "they lived in squares but loved in triangles" and it was all very bohemian and intellectual. But we got to see where some of those people lived
Tonight, the theatre nerds of the trip(Ann,Chelsea and myself) are going to see a show at "The Globe" because its season ends this week. It'll be fun!!!
At some point, I need to do laundry, I think I've used my alloted rewearing times for my clothes, and my jeans are beginning to stand on their own :S.
MORE GOOD NEWS- JP has possibly hooked us up with volunteer-things at a local off-west end theatre. So hopefully, I'll be getting some more theatre experience in London which would be minorly fantastic!!!
I need to figure out my class schedule too. We're supposed to get registered tomorrow and I still only have a rough idea of what I want to take. I'm debating on how many more cornerstone classes to take versus classes to take for the major and etc. Right now I'm at 2 classes for the theatre major, 1 class for the communications major( which will also be a cornerstone) and 1 cornerstone class, so I have one more to sign up for. Plus I'll probably be taking "The Simpsonian" again.
So, I should probably go do that NOW, while I am thinking about it.
Hope all is well!
Cheers
Drew
The weather is still London-esque in all its glory: wet,chilly, and smoggy and unfortunatly I think we are officially done with the gloriousness of sun and blue skys. :(
You will be pleased, or maybe not, to find out that even though I haven't blogged in a couple days, you have not missed out on anything. Thus the reason for no blogging, nothing exciting to talk about.
Sunday was yet another day of rest for yours truly.BUT I did end up getting around and some friends that we had met at "The Rocket" a few weeks ago came over and hung out with us, it was nice having fresh faces in our rooms instead of the same boring Simpson people all the time. (j to the k).lol
Monday-more napping and movie watching for Drew, I was introduced to the wonder of "Not Another Teen Movie" and it is now one of my new favorites! I also rode the tube for an hour or so and did homework on it. lol.yes, I rode the tube and wrote my journals, finally getting almost all the way caught up and I plan on doing that tonight.
Today we had class and we took a walking tour of where all the Bloomsbury Group people used to live. For those of you who don't know and don't feel bad if you didn't, I only know because I'm taking the class. But the Bloomsbury group was a group of scholars back at the turn of the 20th Century who were leaders in their fields; artists,economists,writers,politicians and they were all friends and lived in the same area and even loved eachother at times. The saying goes "they lived in squares but loved in triangles" and it was all very bohemian and intellectual. But we got to see where some of those people lived
Tonight, the theatre nerds of the trip(Ann,Chelsea and myself) are going to see a show at "The Globe" because its season ends this week. It'll be fun!!!
At some point, I need to do laundry, I think I've used my alloted rewearing times for my clothes, and my jeans are beginning to stand on their own :S.
MORE GOOD NEWS- JP has possibly hooked us up with volunteer-things at a local off-west end theatre. So hopefully, I'll be getting some more theatre experience in London which would be minorly fantastic!!!
I need to figure out my class schedule too. We're supposed to get registered tomorrow and I still only have a rough idea of what I want to take. I'm debating on how many more cornerstone classes to take versus classes to take for the major and etc. Right now I'm at 2 classes for the theatre major, 1 class for the communications major( which will also be a cornerstone) and 1 cornerstone class, so I have one more to sign up for. Plus I'll probably be taking "The Simpsonian" again.
So, I should probably go do that NOW, while I am thinking about it.
Hope all is well!
Cheers
Drew
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