...and Sarah clapped.

a defence of england

2010-04-05T22:51:00.004-04:00

I have an English friend who isn't such a big fan of her country and can't understand why I like it so much. So I've decided to condense all of my reasons into a blog post.

I am not an aficionado of all things English. I know England has its fair share of not-so-great stuff; I am not an Anglophile because of the chavs, or the sensational fear-mongering tabloid stories, or the reality television, or the former imperialism, or because I think the monarchy is an awesome idea and Prince William is a hottie. He's not.

However, because of my interests and personality, in my opinion the good things of Britain's past and present far outweigh the bad. And the best of England appeals more to me than the best of the US.

So here's a random list of things I grew up with or discovered in my teens that really made me fall in love with the culture and the country.

The Beatles
Fawlty Towers
Pride and Prejudice
The Importance of Being Earnest
Mary Stewart
Danger: UXB
Shakespeare
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie
Robin Hood
The Kinks
Lyra's Oxford
Arsenal
60's Mod fashion
Sherlock Holmes
Nick Hornby
Extras
Blake, Shelley, Byron, other Romantic poets
The Clash
Margot Fonteyn
Oliver Sacks
Harry Potter
Wimbledon
Henry Cavill
Bill Bryson

(Yes, the last one is American, but he is an Anglophile like me, and the way he writes about England makes it seem like a very funny yet awesome place to live. Which it is.)

I'm sure there are tons I am forgetting, but really. You can't say that a country that has produced all of these things isn't awesome.

this is a hockey post.

2010-03-03T12:36:00.003-05:00

NHL is back, baby! I'm super pumped. I love being the best team in the league, although it is a very strange feeling. I am not used to all this success!

Speaking of success, I must first address Team USA's amazing performance in Vancouver. Sidney Crosbitch's goal in OT was heartbreaking, especially after the full on seizure-inducing goal by Zach Parise in the last few seconds of regular time to tie it up. (Seriously, I spazzed out hardcore.) That being said, before the start of the tournament I never dreamed we'd be going into the gold medal game undefeated, having already beaten Canada once, so it was kind of a dream finish. The boys deserved silver at the very least--well I thought they deserved gold, but I am slightly biased--and they should be so proud of themselves and their performance. Not quite a miracle finish, but they'll always be winners to me.

But now that the Olympics are over, I have to deal with my new lover being on the wrong team--not only that, but the team that is second in Eastern conference, creeping up all sneakily trying to steal our spot! Well okay, the Devils are a ways behind us, but I still have to hope you suck for a little while Parise, sorry.

Moving on to tonight. The Caps kicked off their season restart with a 3-1 win over Buffalo and MVP of the Olympics Ryan Miller, who I now have a total hockey crush on. (Just to be clear, a hockey crush is different from a normal crush...I don't find Miller hot, but his skillz are sexy.) Jose Theodore (who, by the way, I do find hot) had a great game, and I am liking him more and more. I also feel like a total ass for getting pissy at his inconsistency over the past few months, because I had no idea about this. I cried reading it.

Mike Green got his 15th goal of the season when he scored the game-winner in the third period. Another reason I want to win the Stanley Cup: Greenie didn't get called up to the Canadian Olympic team (bitches!) so 1. he deserves some glory, and 2. then he (and Ovi) can rub it in Crosby's face.

I think that's about all I've got for the moment, considering it's 12:30am and I have to finish a book, write a short paper, study for a midterm, and pack before I go to bed.

I leave you with David Steckel bitchface:

(go here for more awesomeness)

shameless soliciting...for a good cause

2010-02-24T21:36:00.000-05:00

I have been getting much more involved with SHH this semester, including going up to the yearly summit at GMU last weekend to kick off the semester's fundraising campaign. We are shooting for $200,000 as a whole organization, with the Virginia Tech chapter pledging to raise $25,001 (that extra $1 is to best William and Mary, who only pledged $25,000...losers!).

Here's the breakdown of where the money will go: the first $100,000 is going to an education and empowerment fund, to keep kids in school and help them succeed. The next $50,000 will go towards building a business center in Villa Soleada, so the village will become self-sustaining and be able to support all of these various projects that we've been working on. The final $50,000 and any extra money we hope to get will go towards starting a new children's home project, to give orphaned and abandoned kids in the area a better place to live. If you read that novel down below that was my trip recap, you know how badly orphaned children can be treated, so this is something we are all very passionate about starting. So we really want to get to that $200,000 mark!

To help reach our fundraising goal, I have set up a webpage: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/shh/participantpage.asp?uid=3147&fundid=1678

Please donate if you can! It would mean so much to the kids of Villa Soleada, and it would make me very happy too. I love you all.

[Here is the general fundraising website, with a video and a running total of all the money raised by the different chapters: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/ ]

oooooh canada we stand on guard for thee!

2010-02-24T20:49:00.001-05:00

I always forget how much I love the Winter Olympics until they start. I've become obsessed. I will watch any sport they decide to show. My favorite (of course) is the hockey, but speed skating, snowboarding, skiing of all types, and even figure skating and curling have all made it onto my watch list.

And because I am a girl with a serious weakness for athletes, I have also found some new Olympic loves.

1) Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win a medal this year:

Yes, I think the French Canadian accent is cute. Don't judge.

2) JR Celski, the adorable pint-sized speed skater who nearly sliced his leg off with his own skate last September:

3) Zach Parise, NJ Devils (boo) player unfortunately, but a bit of a hottie:

Also the hero of today's quarterfinal game against Switzerland. I couldn't watch because I was in class taking a test, but he scored both goals.

4) Aksel Svindal, 6'5" Norwegian alpine skier:

5) Evan Lysacek, although this is mainly for Vanilla Bear's sake because he looks a bit like Gonzalo Higuain:

And this last one isn't an Olympian, but I stumbled across him when I was googling goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Ladies, I present to you Swedish model Alex Lundqvist:

I have a feeling Stephanie and Callie might agree with me on this one.

juntos por progreso

2010-01-13T22:20:00.023-05:00

As you all (probably) know, I spent a week in Honduras over the break. What Students Helping Honduras has been working towards for the past two years is building a village for 40 impoverished families in El Progreso; the houses are now finished, so our group was installing the water system so they could have running water in their homes. We also helped out at a kids camp for the children in the village, since they had been out of school for months due to instability in the country.

I flew into San Pedro Sula at around 12:30 on Saturday. Luckily there were a bunch of SHHers on the plane with me so I knew where to go when I got off the plane. Not that the airport was that big, but we did have a guy in our group get on the wrong bus and end up 3 hours north with a crazy Christian mission group, so it does happen. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, unpacking, getting used to our surroundings, and getting to know each other.

Our hotel was pretty awesome. This is one of the cabanas that we all stayed in.

On Sunday we got to know some of the kids at Por Venir, their school. Since lots of us don't speak Spanish, we drew pictures with them instead of having real conversations.

This is Jorge. He taught me "pescados", "caballo", "nube", and "lluvia". And he showed me how to draw the Honduran flag.

After Por Venir, we went to Siete de Abril, the slum that the families of the village used to live in. It was eye-opening, to say the least. The coordinators took us to Siete first in order to better understand why this project was needed. Afterwords, we went to the worksite, or Villa Soleada as it is now known. All of the villagers were waiting for us there with a big party to celebrate the near-completion of the project.

Entrance to Villa Soleada

Kids dancing!

The football pitch. The villagers were more concerned about this being built than the actual houses.

Random story about this field: Micheletti (the current president of Honduras)'s son built this for us. I don't know the details, but I know he is from El Progreso, and that Cosmo Fujiyama (one of the SHH founders) is extremely charismatic and apparently won him over and convinced him to help out.

On Monday we started the actual work, i.e. digging two foot trenches around the village to lay water pipes down. This task was made much more difficult by the fact that it had rained heavily for the past three or four days, so we were basically swimming in mud by the end of the day.

See, I wasn't kidding. Check out Wes behind me.

Monday night was salsa lesson night, which was a blast except for the fact that there were far more girls than boys on the trip so I had to lead! They set up a really awesome performance by the local high school salsa group though.

On Tuesday we had another morning with kids camp, and another afternoon at work. Our evening activity was supposed to be a soccer match, but it was raining again so the field we were supposed to play on was flooded! So we watched a great film called Sin Nombre instead. Not exactly a happy feel-good flick, but it was really interesting to see more about a world that I knew nothing about before my trip.

Monica and me with two of our favorite kids at Por Venir

Wednesday was our break from manual labor. We took the bus into San Pedro Sula for a bit of shopping at the indoor market in the morning, which was awesome. Most of the boys bought machetes. I bought a Honduras football jersey so I could rep my new favorite place during the World Cup this summer!

We had lunch at a place called Baleadas Express, which is kind of like their Chipotle, but better. Baleadas are the unofficial food of Honduras, and they are absolutely delicious. The day wasn't all fun and games, however.

In the afternoon we went to a government-run orphanage (known as Instituto Hondureño de de la Niñez y la Familia, or IHNFA) called Nueva Esperanza. This was an extremely misleading name however, as these children really have no hope for the future. The place is underfunded, understaffed, rarely cleaned, and looks like a prison. Nearly every child in there had been abused or abandoned before arriving there, and many of them are permanently mentally or physically affected by it. They don't get enough food and never get adult attention. They were so starved for affection that as soon as we walked through the door they attached themselves to us, a group of strange people who didn't even speak their language. They called us all "tio" and "tia", or "aunt" and "uncle", which was adorable and heartbreaking at the same time. There was so much that we wanted to do for them, but we couldn't. I've never felt more helpless. All we could do was play with them for an afternoon.

I spent most of my time with a little girl named Vilma, who didn't care at all that I didn't speak Spanish. I gave her piggy back rides and drew her pictures, and she was delighted. The hardest part of the visit was the infant room though. There were about 30 babies in one room, and most of them were sharing cribs that had no real bedding, just a thin plastic mattress. They were only changed once a day, if that, and had very little human contact, because there was only one worker in the room. When it came time for us to leave, Vilma found me again and just hugged me for about 10 minutes. It was so hard to leave, but at the same time it was so depressing that I couldn't wait to get out of there.

The saddest thing is that these children really have nothing to look forward to. When the boys get to about 12 or 13, if they haven't been placed in foster care they are kicked out. There used to be a boy's home in the building next to the orphanage, but it was closed down a few years ago after rumors of child abuse and murder. So most of the boys will join gangs to survive, and end up in a juvenile detention center or prison. The girls don't have it any better, either. There is a girl's home that they can stay in until they are 18, but it only has room for about 50 girls, and right now it's got 3 times that number. So they all sleep on the floor and again, don't get enough to eat, and once they turn 18 they are turned out on the streets to become beggars or prostitutes. Many of them will get pregnant and not be able to support their children, so they will go to an orphanage and the whole cycle will start again. It's such a depressing and hopeless situation. So even though Wednesday didn't tire us physically, by the end we were all completely emotionally and mentally exhausted.

Sorry for the tl;dr essay. I just had to get it all out.

On to less depressing things...Thursday we again had kids camp and work site digging. Since it was our last day working with the kids, we had an epic futbol match to celebrate. And we got crushed. By a bunch of 8 year olds.

In the evening we had a dinner celebration in El Progreso with all of the volunteers and Villa families, with good food and dancing. We even performed dances that we had been working on all week! There was even a special *NSYNC dance by the guys of cabana 5:

It was pretty epic.

On Friday we had our last look at Villa Soleada, when we planted trees around the edge of the football field. In about 30 years they will be huge shade trees, which will be awesome. I'll have to go back when I'm 50 and check it out.

Then we took the Villa kids to the beach at Tela, an hour away. A lot of them had never been to the beach before, so it was a great day of fun, sun, and relaxation. And I barely even got burned! I didn't get any other sort of color either though...

Spot the pale one...this is why I don't go to the beach.

The food at the beach was great. We had kebabs for lunch, and they sold beer and pina coladas and this absolutely heavenly coconut bread that I wish I had right now. I also drank coconut milk straight from a coconut. It was probably the best day at the beach I've ever had. A great way to end the trip.

Although it didn't quite end there...on our last night in town we got all dolled up and went out clubbing! It was a fundraiser party for the organization, and there were lots of locals there because apparently they had advertised with "come see american tourists dance, it's hilarious!". It was so much fun though.

We got back to the hotel at about 1am, and I had to go to the airport at 4:30, so I didn't even bother to sleep. A few of us went out to the pool and stargazed for a while, then we all trooped back into the dining room to talk. One by one, people started going to bed, until I was the only one left, and then I had like a half hour to sit by myself until the taxi picked me up. Needless to say, I was a zombie on the way home, but it was more than worth it.

And that was my epic trip to Honduras in a really really really large nutshell. My "life-altering experience" tag has never been so appropriate.

new years, new adventures, and new adults

2010-01-01T17:15:00.004-05:00

Another year, another January starting with another goodbye. I am off to Honduras for a week this time, before the new (and last ever!) semester starts. I am very excited, and also glad to be meeting a bunch of students there because I still speak no Spanish. I wonder if they'll understand "Jonathan Bornstein"...

Oh and happy 18th birthday to Jack Wilshere!

Still little, but not quite so little, so all of you who were perving over that shirtless picture of him a few months ago don't have to feel so pedo bear-ish. And he is possibly off to Burnley or West Ham or somewhere else on loan for the rest of the season. I'll be a little sad to see him go, but it will be good for him to get some real playing time.

Anyways, happy new year and I will see you all in a week!

top five albums of the last decade, part five: 2008 & 2009

2009-12-31T10:00:00.018-05:00

2008

5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

"Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?" Actually, I happen to like the Oxford comma. I think it helps to avoid confusion. But anyways, that isn't the point of this. This is another great workout record, and it's got a song titled "Walcott"! Although I doubt Theo Walcott has ever been to Cape Cod.

4. Hold On Now, Youngster - Los Campesinos

Los Campesinos are a band from Wales that aren't actually Welsh. Another very fun album, plus the girl is a ginger!

3. ¿Cómo Te Llama? - Albert Hammond, Jr.

Overall I don't like this album as much as Yours To Keep, but it's got a few of my favorite songs by him, including "The Boss Americana", "Gfc", and "Victory At Monterey".

2. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT

I heard how good this album was from several different people when it came out, but I didn't believe them, and for a while was all "MGMT, meh whatever, they aren't that good." Then I actually got the whole album and had to kick myself because they are that good. Love it.

1. Raise The Dead - Phantom Planet

I first saw that video soon after it was put up in 2007 and I became obsessed with the song and absolutely couldn't wait for the album to come out. Also I love how Darren commented on the video through PP's official youtube channel. I don't know if this is my favorite Phantom Planet album, but I do think it is their most complete. They grew and changed their sound so much throughout the first three albums, and this is the final result. Even though I was very upset when they called it quits, this was a great album to end on.

2009

5. Troubadour - K'naan

Yes, more rap. Deal with it Stephanie. I got this song as a free iTunes download, and then a few weeks later I learned that his song "Waving Flag" was picked as the official 2010 World Cup song. So I bought the whole album and it's super catchy.

4. To Lose My Life - White Lies

Total 80's post-punk throwback band and I love it. I first got "Death" in an Urban Outfitters compilation CD free with a purchase, then in January I started seeing ads for the album in the London underground, and then I finally got it online (thanks Roz!)

3. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

The information for this video on youtube is "Alex Kapranos of the band commented - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is music of the night: to fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for a night of hedonism, for the dance-floor, flirtation, for your desolate heart-stop, for losing it and loving losing it, for the chemical surge in your bloodstream. Its for that lonely hour gently rocking yourself waiting for dawn and it all to be even again." This is why I love songwriters.

2. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

I heard about this album around the time it came out over the summer, but I didn't get it until a month or two ago. So it's been on my current listening playlist and I am really liking it a lot.

1. Quicken The Heart - Maxïmo Park

For some reason, this song makes me really melancholy. It's hard to find more poetic representation of a storm than "static headlights glow / in the flooded streets below / the TV turns to snow / gutters weep with overflow", and the whole song has a very bittersweet feeling. I've talked about how much I love Maxïmo Park several times before so I'm not going to bore you all again, but this was definitely my favorite album of the past year.

top five albums of the last decade, part four: 2006 & 2007

2009-12-30T10:00:00.016-05:00

2006

5. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys

I know lots of English people got annoyed when this album came out because of all the hype about a band that wasn't really all that great. But since I was safely in my American bubble, I didn't get any of that, and I just enjoyed it for what it is: a fun record about boring teenage life sung in a very strong Yorkshire accent. And you all know how I love the northerners!

4. Robbers & Cowards - Cold War Kids

This is an awesome video for an amazing song. This album is a very cool blend of west coast quirky rock and folksy-bluesy undertones.

3. Yours To Keep - Albert Hammond, Jr.

While browsing youtube for a video to link to, I noticed that a lot of comments had to do with the Jonas Brothers. Apparently they wrote a song about a pizza girl (?) that sounds a lot like "Call An Ambulance". So I had to look it up and it does sound really similar, and now I'm getting Jonas Brothers youtube recommendations. Fuck them. Anyways, this guy is awesome. The guitars still sound very Strokesy, but without Casablancas' voice the overall sound is a lot less rock with a little more pop.

2. Ganging Up On The Sun - Guster

Like Phantom Planet, Guster have been one of my favorite bands for a very long time, and I think they will always be up there. I'm pretty sure we have three copies of this CD floating around our house, because my brother and sister and I were all in different places during the summer that it was released, and we all bought it. It's that good.

1. Bring It Back - Mates of State

(I'm not sure what's going on in this video. You can ignore it.) I really like male-female vocals, and this husband and wife duo is one of the best around. Neither of them have particularly incredible voices, but the harmonies and especially the rhythms are really great.

2007

5. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen - The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

This album was a collaboration between singer Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame), guitarist Simon Tong (The Verve), bassist Paul Simonon (The Clash), and drummer Tony Allen (Feta Kuli). It's not an album that really pops out at you, but rather one that grows on you. It's one of my studying records: not too loud or upbeat that it will distract me, but interesting enough to keep me awake.

4. Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman

The sophomore album from everyone's favorite Swedish crooner, Night Falls Over Kortedala is happy, romantic, sometimes melancholic, and always witty. I totally see why my best friend is a little bit in love with him.

3. I'll Be Lightning - Liam Finn

Liam Finn is one of those people that are born into rock royalty (weird fact: I have a cousin named Neil Finn), but he's not hiding in his father's shadow. I'll Be Lightning is a hauntingly beautiful debut album from a talented young musician. This is another one of my study-at-Starbucks records.

2. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

In my opinion, Neon Bible isn't as good as Funeral, but it's still great (especially the first four songs). Again, the mix of French and English lyrics make me geekily happy, especially when I can understand them, i.e. "le miroir casse / the mirror casts mon reflet partout" from Black Mirror.

1. In Rainbows - Radiohead

I remember the day this album came out. It was the infamous "pay what you want" deal, and their website crashed because so many people were trying to download it. After I finally got it, I didn't stop listening to it for about two months. And then I saw them in concert and it was uh-mazing.

top five albums of the last decade, part three: 2004 & 2005

2009-12-29T10:00:00.019-05:00

2004

5. So Jealous - Tegan and Sara

I love Canadians. And I love twin sister duos (see Exit Clov). So yeah, I love Tegan and Sara. I first heard of them through Phantom Planet's old blog, when Darren and Jeff played around with a cover of "Walking With A Ghost". I loved the song so I looked it up and found this gem of an album.

4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

The beginning bit of "Take Me Out" was my first musical phone ringtone ever. I actually thought it was so weird when I first heard it, but I couldn't get it out of my head.

3. Futures - Jimmy Eat World

I bought this CD for my brother for his birthday the year it came out, and then promptly stole it. I may be a bad sister but I do have cracking good taste in music! Jimmy Eat World are often lumped in with other random pop-punk or emo bands from the era, but they are really so much better than that.

2. Antics - Interpol

"I'm timeless like a broken watch / I make money like Fred Astaire" Awesome. I still regularly listen to this album.

1. Funeral - Arcade Fire

This is another band that I didn't love until recently. I thought they were okay for years, but never really tried to listen to a whole album. But last summer and this past semester I have become obsessed. I love the mixture of singing in French and English; it creates a beautiful, if strange, sound.

2005

5. Has A Good Home - Final Fantasy

I just found this video when I was searching for a song to link to, and it made me so happy. I love Owen Pallett. He was one of the collaborators on Arcade Fire's first album, but he is amazing on his own too. The electric violin fascinates me; it's so cool how he is like a one man orchestra, creating the melodies and harmonies live at the same time.

4. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party

Bloc Party aren't one of my favorite bands exactly, but the type of music they make is the reason I love British music. The British have a history of blending rock and dance music to create something that is much more fun to dance to than rap or techno. Of course it isn't limited to the UK; bands like MGMT and The Strokes and We Are Scientists do it too, which is probably why they're more popular in the UK than they are over here.

3. The Sunlandic Twins - Of Montreal

Despite the misleading name, Of Montreal is an American band. They're very quirky and I love them. Good to work out to and good to clean to because they put me in a good mood.

2. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens

There are some artists that are better live than in studio, and I think Sufjan is one of them. Not that I've ever seen him live unforch, but all of his live youtube videos are fantastic (Owen Pallett also falls under this category). Plus, of course I love the U 0f I-like gear.

1. Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers

I've talked about this album before so I'm not going to go into detail about why I love it. Suffice it to say that I really do.

top five albums of the last decade, part two: 2002 & 2003

2009-12-28T10:00:00.019-05:00

2002

5. Un Día Normal - Juanes

I just discovered Juanes a few summers ago (I never took high school Spanish, so I didn't get to translate his lyrics - we just got MC Solaar in French class), but Latino pop has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and this is some fantastic stuff. The Black Eyed Peas actually did a remix of La Paga that I like a lot, although the original is better.

4. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol

I actually didn't get this album until last year, and I don't like it as much as Antics, but it's still great.

3. Songs About Jane - Maroon 5

My sister got this album from a friend of hers right when it came out, and we both quickly became obsessed. Maroon 5 was the first band I ever saw in concert, when they were opening for John Mayer. They didn't get popular until like two or three years after they released their debut, and it was my first real experience with discovering awesome music before everyone else and being able to say I told you so. Hee, I still love that feeling.

2. O - Damien Rice

There are certain albums that bring me back to a very specific place and time when I listen to them. This album reminds me of summer camp in 2006. I had heard Damien Rice before that and didn't pay much attention, but my friend played "The Blower's Daughter" in one of the talent shows and I fell in love with it.

1. A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay

Like I said earlier, I don't listen to Coldplay all that much anymore, and I hadn't listened to this album in years until I started making this list. Then I re-listened and remembered how amazing it is.

2003

5. Keep It Together - Guster

This was such a great year for music that it was really hard to narrow this list down. But this album definitely deserves a place. Guster's best in my opinion, with "Amsterdam", "Homecoming King", "Keep It Together", and "Come Downstairs and Say Hello".

4. The Guest - Phantom Planet

This album--and band--is famous for "that OC song!" but there's much more to it than "California", which isn't even my favorite on the CD. Their first album was classic Cali pop rock, but this one is great because it has so many different sounding songs.

3. Absolution - Muse

This is the album that made me a Muse fangirl. I love the Rachmaninov influenced piano solo in "Butterflies & Hurricanes", "Hysteria" is my favorite road trip song, and "Time Is Running Out" is still one of the best songs ever.

2. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle and Sebastian

I discovered Belle and Sebastian far too late. I had heard how good they were for years but I never got around to getting an album until pretty recently. Silly me. This album is freaking awesome. Go listen to it if you haven't.

1. Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins

I don't even know how to describe how much I love Chutes Too Narrow. When I try to think of my favorite song, I can't choose. For every time I think "Saint Simon", I remember "Gone for Good" and "Pink Bullets" and "So Says I" and I give up and go listen to the CD over and over.

apparently i like funny guys

2009-12-28T07:26:00.001-05:00

I think I'm developing a thing for Joel McHale.

Of course I've always found him hilarious on The Soup, but I don't see it that often because I don't watch reality tv so I don't know what he's talking about half the time. Plus it's on past my bedtime.

But I finally started watching Community-which I had no idea he was in until tonight-and I've realized I'm a little bit in love. Something about the sarcasm mixed with the intelligence mixed with the arrogance is appealing to me. And don't ask me why I think arrogance is an attractive trait because I don't really know. Humility just kind of annoys me sometimes.

Plus, who knew he was so tall? You only see him from the torso up in The Soup so I always thought he was short, but he and Chevy Chase look like they're the same height! I'd be willing to overlook the light hair for that.

Am I crazy for thinking it or am I crazy for just now noticing?

top five albums of the last decade, part one: 2000 & 2001

2009-12-27T10:00:00.017-05:00

This will be a five-part series to celebrate the musical awesomeness that was the naughties, now that they're just about over. The new millenium has become a tween, how exciting! I originally divided this up into country of origin, but decided to do a top five list by year instead because it was easier. It's also good this way because I can include both nostalgia albums and great albums that I didn't discover until years after their release.

2000

5. Country Grammar - Nelly

First rap album I ever had, and I still rock out to it when my itunes shuffles it on. Andale, andale, mama EI, EI! Don't judge.

4. The Moon And Antarctica - Modest Mouse

I've never been a huge Modest Mouse fan, but this was the album that everyone always told me to get if I wanted to try to get into them. So I finally got it and realized that yeah, its actually pretty good! I still don't love the band exactly (although I did get-and like-We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank because of Johnny Marr), but this is one of those CDs that should be in any music fan's collection.

3. Parachutes - Coldplay

I've gone through several stages with Coldplay. I actually remember hating the band around this time. They played "Yellow" on DC101 radio all the time, and I thought it was whiny and dull. It wasn't until A Rush Of Blood To The Head came out and my sister played it over and over again that I started to like them and rediscovered this album. Since then, they have both grown and...shrunk on me, but this is still a fantastic debut album from an iconic band of the 00s.

2. Mass Romantic - The New Pornographers

The debut album from one of my favorite bands. It's not as good as Twin Cinema, but I still love it. The title track is one of the best on the CD, and I also love "Jackie", which is slightly strange but fun.

1. Kid A - Radiohead

First Radiohead album of the decade, and it was certainly a good one. It was definitely boundary-pushing with it's weird electronic feel, which is one of the reasons it is so memorable. Another reason is that it produced one of the best songs to be performed live in "Idioteque". The crowd turns into a giant rave dance floor and Thom Yorke does his crazy dance.

2001

5. Room For Squares - John Mayer

I don't listen to this album much anymore, but whenever I do, I get serious flashbacks to ninth grade. Katie and Alex, my two gym/health class buddies, introduced me to it when we were supposed to be watching a Kevin Costner baseball movie. It wasn't one of the good ones, so we were bored. So I spent a few months listening to it through Alex's headphones, then got it for Christmas and it didn't leave my CD player for ages.

4. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds

I was introduced to Ben Folds by my best friend from high school, who is a pianist so gets excited when any artist uses the piano in their music. We saw him in concert at the beginning of junior year during his Songs For Silverman tour, and it was amazing. Only the second concert I ever went to but it was still one of the best because he is such a great performer. I love this album because it is a mix of silly Ben Folds Five-esque songs and more mature songs, like the father's anthem "Still Fighting It".

3. Up The Bracket - The Libertines

I didn't know about The Libertines until right about the time that they broke up, but this was one of the first British indie bands that I heard that really sparked the whole obsession. I like this album better than their second, because it's kind of rough and loud and weird, like how The Clash would sound today. Pete Doherty grosses me out a little, but he and Carl Barat really were a great songwriting team and I miss them together.

2. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins

I also got this album from Emily, right around the time when we were discovering good music. The Shins became one of my favorite bands then, and they remain so now. I now like Chutes Too Narrow a bit better, but this holds a special place in my heart because it was my introduction to a fantastic band, and it was my favorite CD for a very long time. "New Slang" is of course a gorgeous song and probably their most well known, but the whole album is full of great songs.

1. Origin of Symmetry - Muse

Oh Muse. I still miss the Muse of this era, even though I have grown to like their new sound. Absolution was the first of theirs that I got, but Origin of Symmetry was always my favorite after I discovered them all. This album wasn't even released in the US until 2005, but my sister's boyfriend at the time had a UK copy of it, so we were in luck. "Citizen Erased" is still my favorite song of theirs (specifically the live version that was on Hullabaloo, but the album version is great too).

the american public strikes again

2009-12-08T13:32:00.003-05:00

I'm a little behind on my So You Think You Can Dance episodes, so I didn't see who was voted off last week until today.

Nathan is gone and I am sad.

I hate Mollee, she is so annoying and she needs to go. Like yesterday. She and Nathan never should have been paired together, and Nathan got voted off because he didn't get much of a chance to show his stuff with a better partner. He also seemed like kind of a douche, so maybe that's why people didn't vote for him, but he's still an amazing dancer.

Okay, the real reason I like him is because he danced his LA audition to Made Up Lovesong #43. Guillemots are <3 and so is this song.

Nathan was really only my third fave guy (go Jakob and Russell!) so I'm not too cut up about it, but the fact that he got voted off before Mollee is just stupid. And I liked Noelle too! Ugh, just total voting public fail.

Last thought: I freaking love Sonya Tayeh's choreography. Almost as much as Travis Wall and Tabitha and Napoleon.

I had the exact same thought as Adam while watching that routine; it reminded me a lot of The Garden with Courtney and Mark from season 4, and I loved that one just as much.

Yay dance.

the starbucks or the starbucks or the starbucks...

2009-12-05T19:08:00.004-05:00

I saw this for the first time yesterday and split my sides laughing. I don't live in Arlington, but I'm not far from it and I know lots of people from there, and truer words have never been spoken (or rapped, I guess) about a place.

EDIT: I just found the Fairfax response!

Ooh, it's on now! (Although the Arlington one is better...sorry Funfax.)

Mmmm, bulgogi.

finally!

2009-12-05T18:17:00.003-05:00

After November weather in the mid-70s, I was so ready for winter to get here.

And get here it did!

After the Arsenal win, I walked to campus with the vague idea of getting food. Then I realized that it was the first snowfall of the season, and so I had to get a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. When I got downtown, I decided to pick two up and take one to my friend LA, who was holed up inside her apartment because she hates snow.

On the way over however, the snow went from a light but steady dusting to a blinding swirl of white, and by the time I got there, I was soaked. So I ended up staying the afternoon because I didn't want to walk back in the blizzard.

Home sweet home!

sotw: this is the one

2009-12-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

I should probably change this segment to song of the month. Or song of the year, with the way this blog is going. Oh well, maybe my weeks are just super long compared to the rest of the world.

Anyways, on to "This is the One". (Side note: I found out a few years ago that they play this song at Old Trafford when the ManUre players are taking the pitch. This was far more upsetting news to me than it probably should have been. It makes sense, as the Roses are from Manchester and Brown is unfortunately a red, but ugh. It makes me angry that they get such an awesome song while we have Elvis. Not that I dislike Elvis exactly, but I mean, come on.)

The Stone Roses lyrics have always had a sort of understated beauty to them in my opinion. They aren't too complicated (although the word "brigantine" is used in Waterfall; how often do you hear that in a song?) but they manage to convey very stark images or emotions when you hear them put to music. Being a travel whore, the lines "I'd like to leave the country / for a month of Sundays / burn the town where I was born" have always seemed to stick with me. (This is the SOUND of my soul!) This track isn't really one of their greatest lyrical moments, as it does get repetitive at the end. But it doesn't really need a lot of words; the way it's composed makes it a very powerful song anyways.

Ian Brown's voice is nearly impossible to hear , let alone decipher, for the first minute or so. But I've always liked the way the voice blends with the music: rather than sitting on top of the melody, it integrates with the melody, almost like an extra instrument in its own right. And the way the song is very quiet at the start and then has these bursts of sound is not only cool, it's great to tap fingers and toes (or legs or any other body part) along to. Definitely the "Good Part" of the song (see: YLNT). I also love the jangling sort of guitar sound that is so indicative of late 80s Britrock. Overall great melody and great composition.

This whole album is fantastic actually; definitely one of my favorites. Most people point to "I am the Resurrection" and "I Wanna Be Adored" as the staple Stone Roses songs, and while both are great, my favorites have always been this song, She Bangs the Drums, and Waterfall. Check them out if you have no idea what I've been rambling about in this post.

singlehandedly keeping the american economy afloat

2009-11-23T22:36:00.008-05:00

Shopaholic, thy name is Sarah.

I have spent lots of money on myself lately. When, you know, Christmas is in about a month and I really need to be spending money on OTHER people. Here are some of my latest acquisitions (yes, this isn't even all of it).

Purple knit top from Anne Taylor Loft:
Blue Tahari dress and black pointed Steve Madden pumps:

ModCloth dress and purple boots (these I actually bought a month or two ago, but I had to take the dress to the tailor to get taken in so I still spent money on it recently):
Anthropologie dress and CL by Laundry shoes:

And this sweet hat from Forever 21 (this was actually only $4 so I don't know if it really counts):

I'd make a vow to stop buying clothes, but I know that won't happen because my sister just got a job at Urban Outfitters so now I get 40% off everything in my favorite store. 'Tis the season of consumerism!

help!

2009-10-31T21:41:00.000-04:00

I am thinking of getting a new Arsenal shirt (I feel like I just got one, but oh well. I have an obsession and a money spending problem) but I can't decide which name to get on the back. I love them all so much and this feels like I'm picking favorites! So I need input.

poll by twiigs.com

serious news

2009-10-13T19:20:00.004-04:00

Charlie Davies was involved in a serious car accident early this morning on the GW parkway in NoVA. He apparently suffered a broken leg and internal injuries, and went through extensive surgery. His injuries appear to be non-life threatening, but at the moment it's unclear as to how they will affect his career.

More about it here and here.

Get better soon, Charlie. Here's hoping it won't be long before he does the stanky leg again.

UPDATE from US Soccer :

U.S. National Soccer Team forward Charlie Davies is in serious but stable condition and resting following several hours of surgery at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. to treat injuries suffered in a one-car accident on the George Washington Parkway early Tuesday morning in Northern Virginia.

Davies suffered a lacerated bladder and fractures to the tibia and femur bones in his right leg. He also suffered facial fractures and a left elbow fracture. Davies was air-lifted to the hospital where a team of doctors first repaired a ruptured bladder and then inserted titanium rods in both the tibia, the bone in the lower leg, and the femur, which is the thigh bone, with no complications. Davies will be hospitalized for at least a week and additional surgeries will be required to stabilize his left elbow fracture and possibly the facial fractures.

“Injuries of this nature usually require a recovery period of six to 12 months and extensive rehabilitation,” said U.S. Soccer physician Dr. Dan Kalbac, who is with the team in D.C. and collaborated with the treating doctors. ”Due to Charlie’s fitness level, his prognosis for recovery and his ability to resume high-level competition is substantially improved.”

south africa 2010: be there

2009-10-09T01:06:00.007-04:00

We did it!

In what I hear was an incredibly unconvincing win, the USMNT beat Honduras 3-2 to secure a spot in World Cup 2010. OOO-sah!

I didn't watch the game because 1) I've already gotten in trouble once for streaming too many games so I didn't want to get a judicial referral (fuck college) and 2) I was too tired to stay up anyways, especially if all I could do was read a live report.

But Conor Casey (Conor fucking Casey???) got a brace and Landy scored the third, and Honduras missed a penalty and did other various things to choke and ensure our passage into next summer's tournament. They'll probably still make it anyways.

So yeah, go us! We better shape up massively before next summer though if we want any sort of a chance to, erm, win a game or two.

they don't just listen to rap?

2009-10-08T23:12:00.005-04:00

So Les Bleus have been growing on me lately.

Why, you ask?

No, it's not because of their stellar performances in the World Cup Qualifiers. And no, it's not because this crazy woman convinced me that Ray Domenech is awesome.

It's because they've started sporting awesome classic rock tees.

Yes, I know this one was from a photoshoot (that made him look very gay...) but still, good choice photogs.

But there is also this:
Um, I think Ribery has been raiding my closet.

One of my favorite t-shirts (and number five in my Top Five Albums of All Time list). Yes, he very well could have gotten the shirt because, i don't know, he really likes bananas. But I prefer to think that he's a fan of 60s experimental rock. Ribery would totally be in Ravenclaw.

Speaking of Frenchies and music, this post would not be complete without this gem. Let's play a game of spot the footballer!

Wow, two posts in three days! I'm on a roll...

tuesday night insanity

2009-10-06T22:46:00.005-04:00

There are tons of things I should be writing about, like the wonderful 6-2 drubbing of Blackburn at the weekend, the beginning of hockey season and the awesome start that the Caps have had, or possibly even the reign of Napoleon for my French class.

Instead, I mark my brief return to the blogosphere by penning this masterpiece.

Lucy and I were talking this evening about football and Harry Potter (as we do) and the two subjects started to mix. The discussion started with Thomas Vermaelen clearly being a Slytherin. Not because he is evil (on the contrary, he is wonderful and amazing and full of so much win...wow, I'm pretty sure this infatuation is not going to go away anytime soon) but because he is pale and slightly vampire-esque and sticks his tongue out a lot like a snake. He just has a very Slytheriny vibe.

So we started sorting other footballers into houses, and this is what we came up with (side note: I was watching a replay of Saturday's Arsenal game, so a lot of these happen to be Gunners)...

Gryffindor [Head of house = Pep Guardiola]:

Thierry Henry
Cesc Fàbregas
Robin van Persie (although he could potentially be in Ravenclaw too...he's a smart guy)
Steven Gerrard
Theo Walcott
Raúl Gonzalez
Andres Iniesta
Alex Song (specifically Neville Longbottom. He used to be pretty hopeless, but he's really started to come into his own. Perhaps one day he will help to bring down Voldemort's army AKA Manchester United, OBV.)

Hufflepuff [Head of house = Guti AKA Professor Lockhart]:

Gonzalo Higuain
Vedran Ćorluka
Nicklas Bendtner
Manuel Almunia
Aaron Ramsey
Lukasz Podolski
Lionel Messi
David Beckham (Lucy tried her hardest to put him into Gryffindor, but I won't allow it because he was a ManUre player.)

Ravenclaw [Head of house = Arsène Wenger]:

Dennis Bergkamp
Niko Kranjčar
Iker Casillas
Fernando Torres
Xabi Alonso
Bojan Krkic

This house is pretty sparse...there aren't too many bright footballers around, are there?

Slytherin [Head of house = Sir Alex Ferguson]:

Thomas Vermaelen
Cristiano Ronaldo
Wayne Rooney
...actually, all ManUre players.
Didier Drogba
Michael Ballack
...actually, all Chelski players too.
Torsten Frings
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Oliver Kahn
...and pretty much all Germans (especially the ones in the 2002 World Cup squad.)
Martin Skrtel
Karim Benzema
Vito Mannone
Alvaro Arbeloa
Artur Boruc
Gerard Pique
Carles Puyol
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Esteban Granero
Emmanuel Adebayor (Wormtail: used to be on the good side, but has gone very, very bad.)
All Italians (I know Steph will be happy about this one, being a Slytherin herself.)
Michael Owen (Lucy has dubbed him He Who Must Not Be Named, so clearly he's Voldy.)

Yeah so we put a lot of people in Slytherin. Like I said, not all of them are bad, some just have the right characteristics. But some really are evil, i.e. Drogba, Adebayor, and Ballack.

To borrow a phrase from my World Regions prof, I should really stop drinking. Good night, folks.

this is a rage post.

2009-09-01T18:26:00.008-04:00

I've been ranting about this to various people since I found out about it yesterday, so I figured I'd post a general rant on here for everyone to read. This place is seriously turning into a "Sarah bitches about football" page. I know you love it...

So Tottenham Hotspur. I hate them. This is no surprise, as I am an Arsenal fan, but lately I've been hating them for a very different reason. 'ARRY KEEPS SIGNING PLAYERS I LIKE!

In the same way that Arsenal are the France of the Premier League and Liverpool are (or used to be) the Spain, Spurs are becoming the Croatia of English football.

I am not okay with this.

Luka Modric went, and I was sad because he's awesome. Then Vedran Corluka went, and it wasn't super surprising because he follows Luka everywhere, but it was very sad because he's hot and I don't like lusting over the opposition.

Nice manbag, Charlie.

Now it turns out they signed Niko Kranjcar and I just don't know how to deal. I love Niko. Niko is hot like Charlie, but his personality is a little more complex. He's a smart cookie and seems like a genuinely sweet guy. I know Arsenal don't need a player in his position, so I guess I can't really complain, but from a selfish standpoint I'd rather see him on a sinking Pompey ship than with the North London Scum. (Sorry Ven!)

Jay kay. Real hottie picture here.

I hate that I like so many of their players now, because logically that should mean I should hate them less, but it just makes me more annoyed at them because it's Tottenham. I'm so confused! Vanilla Bear says I should dispense with the hatred a little and learn to accept, but I'm pretty sure I can't do that.

So...other opinions?

he's a cheat!

2009-08-27T21:04:00.002-04:00

[Somewhat unrelated note: I typed Eduardo da Silva in google image search to look for a picture to accompany this rant. I need to not do that ever again. I am now equal parts saddened and disgusted.]

Diving is bad. No two ways about it, it just is. And it depresses and embarrasses me when players I like engage in such "simulation". Yes, I'm looking at you Eduardo. I even wore your shirt yesterday! I thought you were better than that. Please don't make a habit of it.

That being said, the media hype that's surrounded this is ridiculous. He is not the only player to have ever attempted to gain a penalty that wasn't deserved, and he won't be the last. He's not a serial diver, and I don't believe he will ever become so. At least I hope not. And even if the penalty hadn't been given, we still would have won 4-1 on aggregate. WHAT IS THE BIG FUCKING DEAL? The media don't get this worked up when Drogba dives in every single Chelsea match he plays in. The media don't make a peep when an English hero like Stevie G happens to fall easily. Eduardo is not a bad guy, and while he shouldn't have done what he did, it's not the end of the world. All I'm asking for is a little consistency here!

Also, if I were Eduardo I'd be extremely wary of going up against any challenge, let alone crazy Artur Boruc. He probably was trying for the penalty, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had gone down just to avoid getting run into again.

Lastly, I'd just like to point out that every Arsenal fan I've talked to and comment I've seen online have all agreed that it was a dive and it shouldn't have been a penalty. Even "I didn't see it" Wenger said it! I can't remember hearing the same honesty from most Chelsea fans about the Anelka dive in the Champions League semifinal or Man United fans every time Cristiano Ronaldo made like a swan. Yes, I may have a massive sense of entitlement here, but Arsenal fans rock. That's all I'm saying. The end.

more summer soccer adventures

2009-08-10T18:20:00.009-04:00

My computer is broken again, so I've been a bit m.i.a. lately. I want to post these though because I'm still all giddy over the game. And I don't even like Real Madrid that much!

(For Vanilla Bear)

So the game was awesome, even though it was a shut out. Poor DCU. Seeing Iker and Raul in person was so so good though!

fellow potterheads know what i'm talking about

2009-07-31T16:00:00.005-04:00

As most of you know, I'm a huge nerd. So when July 31st rolls around, I immediately think of Harry Potter.

Happy birthday Harry! According to the original timeline of the book, he is 29 years old today.

It's also J.K. Rowling's birthday (weird coincidence, huh?) so happy birthday to her too!

Speaking of HP, I still haven't seen the sixth movie. I hear it's good, or as good as we can expect the movies to be, so I should watch it eventually.

for he's a jolly good vela

2009-07-26T17:12:00.006-04:00

This afternoon was the Gold Cup final, and once again the USA played Mexico. Unlike two years ago though, this one sucked. 5-0 to Mexico, with all of the goals coming in the second half, and each goal being scored by a different player. Okay, so it was only the Gold Cup, and we were fielding what was basically a C team full of MLS players. But still, El Tri's recent World Cup qualifiers have been very substandard. Did they really have to choose this game to start playing well again?

The American fan in me is annoyed, slightly embarrassed, and a little worried as to how this will affect the World Cup qualifier at the Azteca in two weeks. The Arsenal fan in me is pretty damn excited, because let's face it, the second half was totally the Carlos Vela show. He only scored one of the goals but he set up several others. He was subbed on for Medina at the start of the second half and immediately invigorated the whole team. Here's hoping he can do the same for the Gunners this season. Who needs Adebayor? We've got Theo's Mexican Twin.

americans are stupid.

2009-07-23T22:11:00.007-04:00

How did they vote this guy off??

Evan and Melissa needed to go, and they're both still here. It's all Tyce's fault for doing that stupid cancer dance. No one wanted to vote Melissa and Ade off after that, and while I didn't want Ade voted off, I did really want Melissa to go. I love ballerinas normally, but she's too one-dimensional and also kind of annoying. I used to love Evan, but he's long overstayed his welcome. Kupono was better than him, and Jason was better than all of the boys. My mom and I have decided that maybe we should actually start voting in these stupid things if we really care that much.

But seriously, what the fuck America? How can you not like a guy that looks like a cross between Eduardo da Silva, Goomba (haha thanks Ali), and a puppy dog? I am most seriously displeased.

spring break adventures, part three: when in rome...buy shot glasses of the pope

2009-07-21T08:30:00.000-04:00

Warning: Very long and picture heavy post. There's a lot of history in this city.

I met up with three of the other RoHo internationals in Rome, which was fun except I'm really not a fan of one of the guys that came on the trip. He was his usual self, but we all tolerated it because, well, we were in Rome.

On the first day we checked into our hostel, then went to see the Four Fountains, which was a bit of a letdown because they were flanking a very busy intersection, so there were people and cars everywhere and nowhere to stand. We moved on quickly.

First full day we were there we visited the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and walked around and got lost for a while.

Fontana di Trevi

The Spanish Steps

View from the top of the steps.

Day two was Ancient Rome day. BTW, the whole week I was in Italy it happened to be "culture week" meaning that tons of museums and exhibits and other things were free. So we only had to pay for the audio guides, and then we proceeded to get lost in the ruins, looking for the correlating structures to the stupid guide numbers. We ended up running around trying to identify every structure by its foundations and getting super confused, but it ended up being a ton of fun anyways. And surprisingly informative.

Ancient ruins.

Palatine Hill had a killer view. The remains of ancient Rome are spread out below, and as I looked from left to right the Colosseum loomed out of the distance. It was totally one of those "woah, this is unreal" moments.

View from Palatine Hill.

We splashed out a bit and joined an official tour of the Colosseum because we hadn't paid for anything else so far, and I'm glad we did because it was full of interesting tidbits of info. For instance, did you know that contrary to popular assumption, only four Christians were ever killed in the Colosseum? Also, despite what some people think it was never flooded for naval battles.

The Colosseum. Pretty cool, huh?

The inside of the Colosseum. Really made me want to watch Gladiator.

The third day was dedicated to all things Catholic. We woke up early to take the Metro to Vatican City, which in itself was quite an experience. I never want to take the Roman Metro ever again. We were packed in like sardines and the whole time I was thinking that someone was about to pickpocket me. The random guy in front of me had the same idea about me, since he kept looking backwards at me and his backpack. Do I look like a thief, really?

The Vatican Museum wasn't too interesting. Usually I love art museums, but this was full of religious art which isn't really my thing. Only so many times I can see a graphic picture of Jesus being killed or God casting sinners into hell before I get bored and a little freaked out. But the Sistene Chapel was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures or videos, so naturally I took both.

I'm sure this is familiar to all of you. Yeah, yeah I know what you're all thinking: where's the FSM? And the cloud behind God is totally a human brain. Michelangelo was a closet pathologist (autopsist?).

St. Peter's Cathedral is pretty indescribably breathtaking. It's ginormous and a little too ornate for my particular taste, but still really pretty. We spent a long time in there because the four of us got separated and then couldn't find each other again for ages. Then we climbed to the top of the basilica, which was quite literally breathtaking. That's a hell of a lot of stairs and we were exhausted by the time we got to the top.

Halfway up there (at the top of the church but before the cupola) there was a place to stop and catch your breath, and go out and look at the view. This resting place had a gift shop with lots of religious style things to buy like crucifixes and angels and such. They also had shot glasses. With pictures of the pope on them. We dared Rob to buy one from the scary nuns who didn't speak English but he chickened out. Brigid went traditional and bought a rosary for her grandmother. She managed to communicate with them in French. I didn't buy anything because a) my french is atrocious, b) I'm not really one for religion, and c) I had very little money left.

The curve of the walls near the top of the cupola. I'm not claustrophobic in the least, but this part even had me a little spooked.

View from the top.

A Swiss Guard in the fabulously stylish uniforms allegedly designed by Michelangelo.

We found another tourist to take a picture of the whole gang.

After we left the Vatican, we realized that we hadn't quite gotten our fill of climbing things, so we climbed to the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Another great view from the top.

That night we went to a (surprise, surprise) pizza place in Trastevere (the medieval quarter) for dinner. This place was recommended as having the best pizza for a reasonable price in the city, and I wholeheartedly agree with that guide book. It started raining while we ate, but stopped before we left so we decided to get gelato as well. Bad idea. Just as we were finishing our cones we saw lightning and the wind started howling, and within two seconds we were drenched. And we were all the way across the city (and the river) from our hostel. So we had a long walk in front of us and by the time we got back we looked like this:
Brigid and I were numb and slightly delirious by this point, and we turned on Italian TV and proceeded to find every channel hilarious. There was a football talk show with these old men with the most ridiculous haircuts I've ever seen in my life. And Italian pop music is...well, awesome, to say the least. Fun times.

Our fourth and final day was filled with seeing/doing the miscellaneous things that we couldn't do the previous days. First stop was Piazza Navona, to see more Bernini sculptures. I swear, just like Florence is filled with Medici things, Rome is covered in Bernini.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

From the back, con obelisk

Then we moved on to the Parthenon.

Raphael's tomb. And a bit of my finger. Picture taking win right there...

Bernini's Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini

Finally, we went to the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, or the Altar of the Fatherland. We wanted to climb more stairs, and didn't have anything else on our list of things to see. Unforch it closed right when we got there, and then we got yelled at by guards for sitting on the steps outside while we figured out what to do after.

When in doubt, get gelato. Since the guidebook pointed us in the direction of great pizza earlier, we decided to trust it again when it said Gelato di San Crispino was the best in Rome. And boy were they right again. I got nocciolo e cioccolato (hazelnut and chocolate) and it was pure creamy heaven.
*deep breath* Oookay that's pretty much it. The next morning the three others had an early flight so they left before I woke up, and I took a noon train to Pisa. My final Italian adventures coming soon...

spring break adventures, part two: gelato and michelangelo

2009-07-17T08:15:00.000-04:00

More train issues resulted in me not having any time to spend in Nice (quelle tragédie), so I will skip right on to Italia. First stop: Florence/Firenze.

Some of the city + the Arno + pretty mountains in the background

This city is so pretty. I am forever indebted to my mom for telling me to go here instead of Milan. The hostel I stayed at (The Archi Rossi, if anyone is planning a trip and wants a rec) was my favorite of the whole trip. The room I stayed in was huge and spacious, and they served free breakfast and dinner every day except Saturday.

I met lots of really cool people in the hostel, including a girl from Maryland who was studying abroad in Amsterdam for the semester, a guy named Kevin from Arizona who looked like a 90s boyband reject, and Lizzie, my new buddy who lives in Hammersmith and works for the BBC.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The first morning I tagged along on the free tour that was set up by my hostel, and it was actually really informative. I love free tours because you actually learn shizz, but you don't have to skip lunch to pay for it! (Hey shuddup, I really had to watch my spending on these trips!)

The fake David they put up after they moved the real David inside to protect him

I spent most of the rest of the day wandering around, looking at the architecture and numerous pieces of art around the city. I had the best pizza I've ever eaten for lunch, and then went back to the hostel and had free pizza for dinner. I pretty much survived on a diet of pizza margherita in Italy.

The second day I crossed the river and walked up the hill to the Piazza del Michelangelo, because the view is incredible. It was a gorgeous day too and I spent most of the afternoon up there just reading and walking around and soaking in the Italian-ness.

Both nights I hung out with Lizzie and Kevin and a few other people (whose names I can't remember) in the common area of the hostel, drinking wine and limoncello and just chatting about random stuff. We also went to get gelato several times because, well, it's pretty much an orgasm in a waffle cone.

So yeah, like London, Paris and Barcelona before it, this city was one of my immediate loves. If I knew how to speak the language I could happily spend a very long time there.

so i think i can blog?

2009-07-16T17:44:00.001-04:00

I have no excuse for the lack of posts. I suck. I swear I'll try to be back and blogging normally soon, but for now I just had to post this. I can't get over this dance. Best thing ever. It seriously gave me chills.

jandj 10 @ Yahoo! Video

The clearer (and shorter) version of the dance is here, but youtube wouldn't let me embed it.

Jason and Jeanine are my two favorites this season and I was so glad when they got paired. They are awesome together.

Mary Murphy is still freaking annoying though.

spring break adventures, part one: españa, te amo

2009-06-05T07:56:00.000-04:00

It's been forever since I got back, so I figured I'd better just sit down and get this done. Two months after the fact...sorry about that, but exams have kind of been more on my mind than blogging. Apparently I fail at multitasking. Anyways I have a lot to talk about, so the recap will have to be split up into several entries.

On Tuesday the 14th of April I flew from London to Barcelona to start my two week backpacking adventure. I had to take the bus to the Plaça de Catalunya from the airport, and for the whole bus ride I was looking out the window with this huge grin on my face. It was cold and rainy in London but I was in Spain, with the sun shining on everything, giving it all a lovely orange glow. There were palm trees and Messi shirts everywhere. The latter mainly because it was the day of the second leg QF between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, which I watched with some locals while eating dinner. There was also a German couple there, who were sad about Munich losing so badly but were good sports about the whole thing.

La Rambla, where my hostel was located (well it was on a side street, but within walking distance).

I was lame and kind of forgot to take pictures of Barcelona. I was also only there for a day, so I didn't get to see much of the city beyond the Plaça Catalunya. What I did see was amazing though. I really want to go back to Barça for a longer amount of time soon.

The next day I took a train to Valencia, and on the way I sat across from a family from Virginia! The daughter was studying at Valencia University for the year and the parents had come to visit her for the week. Odd coincidence I thought at the time, but I actually met a bunch of people from VA over the next few weeks. Apparently we're all very worldly.

Valencia train station. I thought it was a pretty sweet building.

My hostel in Valencia was really great, with this huge kitchen area where everyone hung out and cooked dinner and drank together (a litre of sangria was 80 cents at the local shop). I talked Canadian politics with a girl from Ottowa and a couple from Quebec, which was pretty interesting because I know nothing about it.

The next day I went to La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias (the City of Arts and Sciences), which is a group of crazy looking futuristic buildings housing museums of...you guessed it...art and science. The science museum was pretty cool, but a lot of it was only in Spanish so I didn't understand much of it. I really need to learn how to say more than "I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish", "Go Spain/Barcelona", "I love you", and "Where's the metro?".

As my friend said on facebook...this is not a building, it's a space ship.

I met up with fellow footie-lover Gina there, and we took a quick trip to the Mestalla. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but I hear that the inside is pretty awesome. Go here for proof.

Then we walked around the city some, ate delish paella, went to the very cool-looking silk exchange building, and took refuge under a building's overhang while it rained a lot. WTF, weather.
On my last day in town I took the metro down to the beach, because the weather was (finally) gorgeous. I didn't bring my towel or bathing suit with me, so I didn't actually sunbathe, but I did lay on the wall by the sand for ages.I also visited the local indoor market for lunch and to stock up on oranges...because what is a trip to Valencia without oranges?? I didn't take a picture of that but it was a really cool building. And I spoke Spanish to the girl at the fruit stand. Kind of.

Everyone heard/read my ranting about my stolen iPod, so I won't go back into that again, but here's the park where it happened. Not exactly the type of place you'd expect thieves to hang out, is it?Due to unforeseen train issues, I ended up going back to Barcelona for a night before traveling on to France, instead of taking an overnight train to Nice. Because I was effectively stranded there and my train didn't get in until midnight, I coudn't really be picky (i.e. money-conscious) about where I stayed and ended up at a hotel instead of a hostel. I didn't mind though, because it was the best night's sleep I had all trip.

Next up: Italia!

back...with pandas and new music.

2009-06-01T13:25:00.008-04:00

Okay, I'm back in the blogging world. Or at least I hope to be. I have ridiculous amounts of travel recaps needing to be written, so I figure if I take myself off hiatus that will force me to stop neglecting them. Plus exams are over (woohoo!) so I should actually have time to write.

New song of the week is "The Boss Americana" by Albert Hammond, Jr. from 2008's release Como Te Llama. I'm always a little bit wary of members of a band putting out solo albums because most of the time the individual parts never quite measure up to the whole (just look at Carl Barat and Pete Doherty), but I just got this album a few days ago and I actually like it better than some of The Strokes' stuff.

The reason I got this (and lots of other stuff...about 2000 songs worth) is because my friend Phil came to visit this weekend. I love hanging out with him because while we have practically the exact same taste in music, we don't actually have a lot of the same music. His music library is filled with albums that I've had on my list for ages but never got around to getting (Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, Pulp, early Ash and late Blur, The Zutons, The Hives, etc. etc.), and I have a ton of old school rock that he doesn't have (David Bowie, The Clash, The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, and so on). Ours is a synergistic relationship.

Friday night we went into London to meet up with a girl I met in Florence, who was hosting a "panda pub crawl". Why, you ask? (And many people did). Well, why the hell not?

We took pictures in the middle of the road like the Beatles.

We drank bamboo shooters.

We met a group of Freemasons.

And we hid from vultures.

It was by far the weirdest night I've had in a very long time. But it was totally fun. I also swear to Iker I saw Andrey Arshavin walking around Holborn. I'm so going to miss London.

so you may have noticed...

2009-05-16T19:02:00.006-04:00

...that my blog has been a bit inactive lately. So I'm putting up a temporary

sign on my proverbial blog lawn.

Fear not, I will be back soon. Until then, enjoy some pretty pictures of José Nicholas Théodore.

album of the week: quicken the heart

2009-05-12T11:24:00.002-04:00

This week's song of the week is a whole album. Shut up, it's my blog and I do what I want. (Well actually I was just going to pick a song off the album, but I couldn't find the one I wanted on the music playlist maker thing, so I settled for a medley sort of mashup of all the songs on the album. Deal with it.)

Maxïmo Park's third studio album was officially released on Monday (when I wanted to have this blog entry posted...ah well, such is life), although I've been listening to it on their myspace practically nonstop for about a week already. At first listen, I liked the album but not as much as the previous two. And then I remembered that I thought the same thing about the second album but it ended up really growing on me. I think maybe I just have to take some time to get used to new things.

Quicken the Heart has a very dreamy quality to it. Like Our Earthly Pleasures before it, it isn't as unfinished or unhinged sounding as their debut, although the first two tracks have traces of early Park in them. "Wraithlike" is slightly frantic (there are even sirens in the background) and you get a strange sense that the song is constantly trying to catch up with the beat. "The Penultimate Clinch" starts off somewhat uninspiring, but by the time the chorus comes around you're bopping around the room.

The third track is titled "The Kids Are Sick Again" and it's the first single released, and it's quite a bit more negative than their usual sound. It's about a never ending cycle of adolescent summers doing fuck all, basically. I can relate to "the comforting ache of the summer holidays / pointless days pining, afternoons whining", seeing as I really don't want to go back home when this term is over. This summer will be boring. But anyways...

"A Cloud of Mystery" hasn't really grabbed me yet. It's a decent song but not one of my favorites on the album. "Calm" and "In Another World (You Would've Found Yourself By Now)" are interesting to listen to back to back, because "Calm" starts out in a slow dreamy happy sort of mode and then turns darker, while "In Another World" is dark and sort of threatening at first but then a major chord kicks off the chorus and it's all happy and dancey. "You'll still end up on a revolving dance floor in the middle of the river" is one of my favorite moments on the album. And yes, that lyric sounds incredibly random, but the band said it's a reference to a weird night club in Newcastle that was on a boat on the Tyne.

"Let's Get Clinical" is a great song. Not a whole lot of symbolism here; just a lighthearted song about doing the dirty. I first heard a live version of this song on youtube and I was so excited to hear the official studio version, and at first I was a little bit disappointed because it was slower than I had imagined. However, I've grown to love it just as much. The next one, "Roller Disco Dreams", was the song that I wanted to use as the SOTW. It's a sad sort of regretful song about growing up, having adult relationships, and wanting to hang on to childhood. The soaring vocals at the chorus are fantastic, and "if it's a grower / why can't we take things slower?" is a sentiment that I think most people have felt at one time or another.

"Tanned" is another dreamy sort of song about happy lazy summer days. Nothing too earth shattering, but I do love the lyrical rhythm in the verses. "Questing, Not Coasting" is a slow song, but it's one of my favorites of the new bunch. The "Hey you, what's new?" part always makes me smile, and I love how it ends with the "thanks for coming by". This is another song with an emotive chorus that sort of soars above the rest of the song. Love it.

The last two songs "Overland, West of Suez" and "I Haven't Seen Her In Ages" aren't really the best songs, so the album kind of fizzes out rather than going out with a punch. That's not to say they're bad, and I'm sure in a few months I'll love them just as much as the rest, but that's just my first sort of impression.

However, I absolutely adore the bonus track "Lost Property". It sounds a bit quirky with just drums and a keyboard, and since there isn't much in the way of musical background the lyrics are free to take centre stage. And the lyrics in this song are some of the best of the whole album. "When I ask how are you / maybe I just mean how am I? / I line up my complaints / and cram them into my reply" is hilarious; we all know people like that, don't we? Also "take me to nostalgics anonymous" is a really strange thing to say, but it made me crack up when I heard it because it sounds so much like me. I'm always going on about one thing or another from the past and feeling all nostalgic.

So yeah...son of godzilla, that was a lot of waffling. I just get excited about new albums, kay? Don't judge. Overall verdict: I'm very satisfied with the release. It's put me in a very good mood, which I'm hoping will last through to the end of exams.

goalie love

2009-05-11T19:10:00.003-04:00

I love Semyon Varlamov.

He just turned 21, he just recently got called up from the Hershey Bears, and he still doesn't speak any English. But he makes saves like this against one of the best players in the NHL:

Click the HD button. It's even better.

This probably isn't the most appropriate moment to post this, seeing as how the Capitals have just lost three playoff games in a row, but whatever. He is amazing and the losses weren't his fault. Game 6 is starting...um, now. It's in Pittsburgh, and if we lose this one we're out of the playoffs. I'm nervous.

Come on Varlamov & Co. Football has sucked this weekend. Don't lose and make me even sadder.

LATE NIGHT EDIT: We won!! 5-4 in overtime to force game 7 this Wednesday back in DC. Let's all hope it will turn out better than last year's series against the Flyers. Go Caps!

i don't know why i find this so amusing

2009-05-09T13:34:00.002-04:00

The Backstreet Boys had a song called "That's What She Said".

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

How did I not know about this before?? Brilliant.

old school advertisements are better than today's.

2009-05-08T12:05:00.002-04:00

For more, go here.

spring fever

2009-05-07T13:24:00.009-04:00

It's springtime, which means dress/skirt weather. I have spring shopping fever, and no money to spend if I actually want to go to Ireland at the end of the month. So here's what I'd buy if I could.

By Shoshanna (from Nordstrom):
By Free People:

From Anthropologie:

And I haven't even started on the shoes yet.

Edit: oh em gee. Are jellies coming back into fashion??? From DSW:
I don't know how I feel about this.

august isn't too far away

2009-05-07T07:17:00.014-04:00

I know the season isn't technically over, but for us it might as well be. If Chelsea screw up enough we may be able to steal third place, and we could also take revenge on Man U and possibly even keep them from winning the title, but there's really nothing else for us to do for ourselves. We've secured fourth and there are no trophies for us to win (again), so all we can do now is look towards next season.

I'm no expert of course (I haven't even played soccer since I was about 13), but I've noticed some things that the team can work on for the 09/10 campaign.

Defence: Gaël Clichy and Bacary Sagna have been immense all season. Gallas, now that he's stopped complaining and being petty and started concentrating on playing, has been very good too. Silvestre...well, he's more hit-or-miss. He's had some good moments for us, but overall he's just not that great. And with the constantly being injured thing, he's really no help to the team at all. Djourou and Gibbs are young and have made some mistakes, but they are both shaping up to be talented players who will do well for us in later years.

One specific thing the defence can work on is not falling down. Yes, I'm talking to you, Clichy and Gibbs. I love you both, and you're both extremely hard workers, but a few (literal) slip-ups have led to goals being conceded at very inopportune moments, i.e. to start Spurs's comeback last October, and Man United's first goal on Tuesday, respectively.

Theo Walcott: I've been a bit underwhelmed by his performances this season. I know he's a striker at heart rather than a winger, but really, it's not like Wenger is putting him on defence. It shouldn't be that big of an adjustment. If you can score precision goals, you should be able to make precision passes, but his passing has been off lately. And with Robin van Persie, Eduardo, and Adebayor healthy and on form (not to mention Vela, and yes even Bendtner sometimes), the striker position is pretty well covered, so he should do his best to adjust to the wing.

Theo, I love you, so work hard this summer and be even more awesome next season.

Cesc Fàbregas: Cesc seems to be having trouble showing up to the big important matches lately. He hasn't been playing badly, per se, but he hasn't been playing particularly well either. I barely noticed he was on the pitch for the first half of Tuesday night's game, and the lack of Arshavin was even more apparent as a result. He never really had any issues before his injury, save for a few bad games, but everyone's got one or two of those. So I don't know, maybe it's a confidence thing?

Whatever it is, sort it out please Cesc. You're one of the best midfielders in the world, and you playing well usually means that the rest of the team plays well. And then we tend to win.

Nicklas Bendtner: Stop talking and getting shitfaced/dropping your pants and start playing. I know people mention the goals scored statistic as an indication of how he's not actually a bad striker (14 by the way, only two less than Adebayor and four less than van Persie) but imagine how much higher that number would be if he didn't keep missing the easy chances. I don't hate him, really. I've been frustrated with him, and I wouldn't be devastated if he left over the summer, but I don't hate him. I just want him to play to his full potential.

Manuel Almunia and Andrey Arshavin: Have been fantastic lately. If they keep on doing what they've been doing, I will be a very happy girl.

Emmanuel Adebayor: Incredibly talented, but often looks apathetic or bored. Everyone has bad days, but I think he can put more effort into his game sometimes.

Denilson, Alex Song, and Emmanuel Eboue: Ah, what to say about this bunch? They are just so unpredictable. Solid in one match, then making horrible mistakes in the next. Eboue in particular needs to a) not dive, b) not make bad tackles, and c) not whine. To his credit, he's cut down on all three and his game has subsequently improved. In fact, I think each one is improving. Song particularly has been doing quite well lately. I really don't know what else to say about them; they're all relatively talented, and each has had their moments of greatness, they just need to be much more consistent.

Tomáš Rosický: He is still an Arsenal player, right? Tomáš, get healthy and play, please.

Arsène Wenger: Buy a central defender, please. And a defensive midfielder. (I still want Xabi Alonso...any way to make that happen?) As you can see, Silvestre did not solve the problem. We can get by somewhat when our whole team is healthy, but when we have an injury (or two, or three, or four...) our defence suffers abominably. Gibbs will be a great player one day, but right now he's young and inexperienced and not really ready to start big matches like the Champions League semifinal against Manchester United. And as this season has shown, we can't win trophies relying solely on creative midfielders and a porous back four. With an anchor in midfield (like Patrick Vieira or Gilberto Silva, remember them?) the creative players are free to roam as they like, and that's when we play our best football.

I know I haven't gone through every player on the team, but this entry is long enough as it is. Players like Nasri and van Persie just need to keep up the good work and stay healthy.

I'm looking forward to see our youngsters getting more playing time soon too. Vela, Ramsey, and Wilshere have all been excellent when they've gotten to play, and I'd like to see more of the likes of Fran Merida, Jay Simpson, Mark Randall, and Rui Fonte. I believe we're also getting Hårvard Nordtveit back from Norway in August. Of course, there's always the risk of inexperience with the young players, but every time I've seen them play this season they've seemed to play with much more heart and tenacity than the senior squad, who have often looked listless and uninspired (especially in the tail end of 2008).

I'm looking forward to a few more entertaining matches this month, and a great new season come August.

Yay!

oh manchester, so much to answer for...

2009-05-05T19:17:00.006-04:00

I made a playlist last October when the Cubs once again crashed and burned out of the playoffs, and I rediscovered it on the train back from London tonight. It's pretty awesomely emo. Most of the songs don't have anything to do with sports, but they are all sad and/or depressing. So if you are ever in a horrible mood thanks to your favorite sports team, slap this on the player and it...well, won't make you feel any better, but it might just fit your mood.

Sarah's Emo Playlist of Epic Sporting Failure:

1. I Know It's Over - The Smiths

2. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens

3. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

4. Bruised - The Bens

5. Atmosphere - Joy Division

6. Romulus - Sufjan Stevens

7. 23 - Jimmy Eat World

8. Gather To The Chapel - Liam Finn

9. Suffer Little Children - The Smiths

10. Vienna - Matt Costa

11. Sandblasted And Set Free - Maximo Park

12. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

13. Remember When - Liam Finn

14. Let Down - Radiohead

15. A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request - Steve Goodman (Okay, this one is pretty specific to Chicago. You may want to leave it off any non-baseball heartbreak lists.)

So yeah. Fuck Manchester United. I have nothing but pure, blind hatred for each and every one of them. I hope Cristiano Ronaldo breaks both legs trying to perfect his swan dive during training. I also hope SAF chokes on his chewing gum one day in the near future and dies a very painful death.

I'm also pretty upset with the Arsenal boys at the moment. I don't know that I ever really expected them to go through; the finals were always a longshot. But I certainly didn't expect them to roll over and die within the first ten minutes. Grow a pair and fight for your team, dammit.

song of the week: my mirror speaks

2009-05-04T07:59:00.003-04:00

I've always liked Death Cab For Cutie, but they've never been one of my favorite bands. I listened to Transatlanticism quite a bit in my early high school years (and that makes me sound so emo, but I swear I wasn't really!) and I picked up Plans along the way somewhere--probably stolen off my sister's iTunes--but I never got that into them.

However, Vanilla Bear gave me a link to download The Open Door EP a few weeks ago, and I seriously got hooked. All five songs are great, but the first three are especially addictive. I think my favorite is actually track 2, titled "A Diamond and a Tether". It's a bit slower and more angsty than the others, and I'm usually more a fan of the happy songs, but really I love the lyrics. I'm sure you all know from my earlier musical musings that I'm a sucker for well-written poetic lyrics. But I chose "My Mirror Speaks" for the song of the week because it's catchier and more upbeat, and I just can't help but smile when the claps kick in at the chorus. I don't have Narrow Stairs, the LP that these B-sides were recorded with, but I'm thinking that if it's anything like the EP then I might have to get it.

aniversari feliç, el meu capità!

2009-05-04T03:21:00.008-04:00

Happy 22nd birthday to Cesc Fàbregas!

The Arsenal babies are growing up so quickly. *tear* I still remember the days of "Fàbregas, woooaah, he's only seventeen, he's better than Roy Keane!" Now he's 22, and...well, the rhyme's gone, but he's still better than Roy Keane.

He came to Arsenal at the tender age of sixteen, in possession of very little English but rocking a pretty sweet mullet:

And now look at him. Given the captaincy at 21, like Tony Adams...

Scoring at AC Milan in the Champions League...

Taking the final penalty against Italy to bring Spain to the Euro semifinals...

And just generally being a fantastic player and playmaker. So happy 22nd, and here's to many more years at Arsenal.

do you have swine flu?

2009-04-30T20:05:00.002-04:00

You better check.

hope everyone's playoff beards are growing nicely...

2009-04-30T14:25:00.008-04:00

Blogging about two weeks' worth of traveling seems a very daunting task at the moment. So I'm going to blog about something else entirely.

The Capitals won game 7 against the NY Rangers and are moving on to the next round of the playoffs! First game of the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins is this Saturday, 6pm my time (1pm local time, if you're back in the States) at home.

Tuesday's game was the only one that I was actually able to watch, due to me being all continental for the past couple of weeks, so I really don't know how the whole series went. Must have been exciting to actually get to a game 7 though. Varlamov seems to be taking over for Theodore very well. And Sergei Fedorov's still got it, scoring the winning goal in the third period and all! So yeah, I am once again caught up in Stanley Cup fever. Although this year is going to make me a lot more tired, seeing as I have to stay up until like 4am to watch the games.

The Penguins series should be exciting and really tense. Everyone always makes a big deal out of the rivalry between Ovechkin and Crosby, and then of course there's the Semin vs. Malkin deal. I don't really buy into the whole rivalry thing as much as I probably should though; I like both teams. I'm a little worried about having to go up against Fleury in goal, but I guess it can't be any worse than Lundqvist last series. And at least we're not playing the Devils and Brodeur.

Edit: Okay, bad news. Just found out that El Clásico starts at 7pm on Saturday, so I'm going to have to abandon the hockey after an hour. It's only game 1 so I can afford to, but still, how annoying. Scheduling conflicts suck...although I may be the only person in the entire world that is affected by this particular one.

highs and lows of european travel

2009-04-19T02:17:00.003-04:00

To the little punk in the Valencia park who stole my iPod out of my hands while I was listening to it: Fuck you. I've had to sit on five long trains with nothing to do, and am looking at two more full days of train travel bored out of my mind because you couldn't keep your stupid thief hands to yourself. Replacing it when I get back to London is not a problem; the problem is I want to use it now!! I die without my music. I highly doubt you die without my music. You probably can't even understand it and are deleting my library at this very moment. In which case: Fuck you doubly. How dare you delete my music to make room for your crap?!? I have fucking amazing music. You don't deserve it, you bastardo hijo de puta. I hope you accidentally turn the volume up too loud and blow out your eardrums, never to hear again.

God. You always hear "watch out for pickpockets", but you never hear "watch out for people who come up to you face to face, talk to you, then steal shit right in front of you and run away". I mean, I had my headphones in! He actually unplugged them. I was in such a state of shock that I didn't react quickly enough. I felt so violated. I've been passively mugged. I gave chase for a while, but then I realized that in my surprise I had left my bag on the bench. I had a split second of terror where I thought maybe while bastardo numero uno was distracting me, another buddy of his was off stealing my purse--with my passport, money, train tickets, oranges (because those are v. important of course), etc. It was still there, thank god, but I figured that it was more important to go back and guard the bag than run after my poor kidnapped iPod.

Other than that Valencia was great. And I absolutely loved Barcelona too. Am in Florence right now, and I'm kind of in city love again. Ate the biggest pizza imaginable today, then walked it off up a mountain to see the gorgeous view from above. Going to have gelato for dinner.

Thieves aside, seriously, can I never leave Europe please?

Oh yeah, no song of the week this week. I have no music in my life anymore. :(

we are virginia tech.

2009-04-16T00:00:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe it's been two years. In some ways it seems like it happened a lifetime ago; in others, only yesterday. As a campus and as a community we have moved ahead, but I can't easily say that we've moved on. I don't think it's something that I will ever fully get over, and I know many of my friends, classmates, and sisters feel the same way. It's not easy, with gun violence still extremely prevalent in the US and even abroad, and with unthinkably easy access to guns it's no wonder we still have a problem. However, the Hokie Nation has grown stronger, and we are healing.

For all of those who have helped in the recovery process over the past few years - thank you.

And for all of the Hokies no longer with us - requiescant in pace.

song of the week: violent berries

2009-04-12T16:33:00.003-04:00

This week's song "Violent Berries" comes courtesy of DC band Exit Clov made up of twin singers/violin/keyboard/guitar players Emily and Susan Hsu, Aaron Leeder (guitar), Brett Niederman (bass), and John Thayer (drums).

Maybe it's my dorkestra background (yes, I played the viola for about 7 years), but I love bands that incorporate classical or unusual instruments into their sound. They are largely influenced by the city they live in, so a lot of their songs are politically fueled ("MK Ultra" tells the tale of Candy Jones, who claimed to be brainwashed by the government in the 1960s, and their haunting rendition of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" will never get old), and they're supposed to put on a fantastic live show. My friend and I tried to get to several of their concerts back in high school, but it never seemed to work out. They actually sent us back a message on MySpace once that said they would try to get us in to a show free because they love their MySpace fans (this was back when MySpace was cool, mind you), but high school stuff always got in the way.

Sorry, I know this is kind of a crap writeup but the plague is still eating at my brain. I'm posting it anyways because I've been serious neglecting this place.

peep set me up!

2009-04-12T15:08:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all are having a happier holiday than I am. Have been practically bedridden with flu-like symptoms since Friday, and haven't eaten a proper meal since Thursday lunchtime. My parents even bought me a chocolate Easter bunny from Fortnum & Mason when they were in town last week, and it looks delicious but I have no appetite. I am devastated. Nothing like chocolate to make you feel better.

On a funnier Easter note, the Sunday Source section of the Washington Post held their second annual Peeps Diorama contest, and some real gems made it to the finals. This one, titled "Peep set me up!" had me laughing for about 5 minutes straight.

Semifinalist: Jodie Smolik, 42, of Washington re-created former D.C. mayor Marion Barry's infamous 1990 arrest. "The Peep on the bed has been drinking champagne ordered from room service," she writes in an e-mail. "The FBI agents (or Funny Bunny Investigators) are hiding in the W.C. after having set up video cameras and providing a bag of crack to the Peep (please see dime bag with rocks on the dresser). Perhaps the Peep did set him up."

More positive news: Arsenal beat Wigan 4-1 yesterday away, ringing in another joyful St. Totteringham's Day. If I were hungry, I'd make myself some lasagna to celebrate.

family obligations

2009-04-05T18:03:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the sparseness of my blog lately. My parents and little brother are in town and so I'm hanging out with them for the rest of the week. We're in Bath right now, and we're renting a car tomorrow and doing a tour of the Cotswolds.

I am really hoping that I'll be able to watch the match against Villarreal tonight, but I missed last Saturday's Citeh game (and Cesc's homecoming!) because we were on the Tower of London tour. We'll see if I can convince my parents to eat at a pub tonight.

Oh yeah, new song of the week: Let It Rain by Living Things.

"i don't know how i got off that island phil..."

2009-04-03T14:10:00.006-04:00

I may have been a bit over dramatic in my last entry. It really wasn't all that bad. The main problem wasn't the other tourists, it was the weather. Freezing cold and rained every day...I didn't even take my bathing suit out of my backpack. And I was so looking forward to going to the beach. Definite mood killer.

Because none of us had cold weather clothing it was nigh on impossible to actually do anything outside for very long that didn't end in us shivering and wanting to go back and curl up under blankets, so we pretty much sat in our hotel room all day, and then were kept up all night by the aforementioned banging and yelling and general drunken debauchery going on all around us. But everything else would have been much more bearable if we weren't in such crappy moods already. That's not to say that we didn't go out at night, because we did. Like I said, there was really nothing else we could do. And about the nightlife...yeah, Blur were totally right.

On Thursday we did go to the Inca markets, which would have been great...if it hadn't started pouring an hour into our trip. So of course we got soaked again, and all the vendors closed down, and we couldn't even go inside a cafe because it was too crowded so we ended up sitting outside in the cold under the little overhang.

Best part of the trip: our last night we splashed out and went to a nice Spanish restaurant and I got seafood paella and it was absolutely delicious. Although I split it with a friend who loves seafood, but only if it's all de-shelled and de-clawed and de-headed and everything, because "eating anything with eyes that looks alive freaks me out!" So I had to deshell all of her seafood before she could eat it.

I did get to watch the Spain vs. Turkey World Cup qualifyer, which was pretty cool to watch while actually in Spain. Same with the Nadal - Del Potro tennis match. Those Mallorcans (the few that I actually met, at least) do love their Rafa Nadal.

So my overall verdict is that it was a pretty awful vacation, but I would really like to go back someday when 1) it's actually hot out, and 2) I have more money so I can stay somewhere farther inland and away from the British area. The actual island is gorgeous, the mountains look like they'd be great for hiking, and the beaches were pretty even without the sun so they'd probably look even better with it.

a warning to all travelers

2009-04-03T14:01:00.005-04:00

The Curse Of Mallorca, or Get Me The Hell Off Of This Godforsaken Island

Past the white sandy beaches of a small island in the Mediterranean, through the narrow winding forest paths, in a hidden cave high up on the tallest mountain, an ancient tale was written on a forgotten stone wall. It is a tale of the horrors that befall wayward travelers in the few months known as Spring, when the evil spirits of the night come out to play...and to prey.

These zombie-like creatures are of the species Britannius Inebrius, and they thrive in dismal rainy weather and feed off of greasy chips, alcohol, and the sheer exhaustion of others. It is written that when unsuspecting foreigners come across these spirits, they will not be left alone until the zombies' appetites for doom and destruction have been satiated. Do not make the mistake of thinking that since they are the devil's minions that they are therefore insubstantial; they are very much flesh and blood and they can do enormous amounts of damage if given free reign.

If you ever find yourself in the company of these spirits, traveler, I beg you: do not make eye contact, for they will drench you with water. Do not stop to chat because that will only encourage them. And most of all, do not give them your name, for they will alter it into a ridiculous nickname and call it out all night long down the streets and hallways. You must also never invite them inside, for they will eat your food, listen to your music, and refuse to leave you in peace. And even if you let them know where you reside, they will wail, bang on the walls, and buzz deafeningly outside until you go insane.

The terror that you feel in the midnight hours when you are awoken by screaming, chanting, and horrible crashes is indescribable; you feel as if there is no escape and you will surely die. It may be possible to keep them at bay with spades, mops, and brooms, although it is probably best if you just don't open your door, because it is very likely that you will be consumed and reduced to a pile of pink powder. Their overall aim is to turn you into a night-prowling devilish zombie like themselves. Again, I urge you to be inconspicuous; do not stand out by letting it be known that you are not of the Britannius species, because drawing attention to yourself is the quickest way to destruction.

Traveler, you have been warned. Do not awaken the drunken spirits, for they will destroy you. Or your holiday. And perhaps your balcony furniture.

We, the undersigned, urge you not to take this warning lightly.

Vicky, Bobby, Sandy, and Fernando

another one of these farewell messages

2009-03-27T17:52:00.003-04:00

Woot, España!! Epic adventure begins very soon.

Yes, I realize that Mallorca is rather touristy and not exactly "real" Spain, but whatev. I'm just excited to go to the beach and see the sun again! I'll do continental Spain soon, I swear.

I'm catching an early flight on Sunday, so I'm staying in London overnight tomorrow. Which means I have to say goodbye to you all tonight. I will be back next Friday, although I won't be able to post again right away because I'm meeting the parental units / little bro when they fly into London later that day.

I love Easter hols!

song of the week: romulus

2009-03-27T09:14:00.006-04:00

[Being posted early because of looming vacation.] This week's song is "Romulus" by Sufjan Stevens. From his debut album Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State, "Romulus" is a heartwrenchingly beautiful song about children growing up with an absent mother.

The simple child-like lyrics and Steven's quiet voice perfectly capture the confusion, sadness, and pain of unrequited motherly affection, and when he plucks at the strings of his banjo it's like he's plucking at your heartstrings. The child of the story struggles with feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment when talking to a mother that he barely knows, while at the same time he desperately wants her to stay in his life. In the last stanza, his feelings of shame towards himself are transferred to the mother, when he sees that her neglectful attitude is not just towards her children, but to her father as well after he died. "She didn't seem to care / She smoked in her room and colored her hair / I was ashamed" is such a simple lyric, but it is absolutely perfectly written.

I had a completely happy childhood and I feel like I shouldn't be able to relate to this song very well, but I can understand exactly what the narrator is going through. Sufjan Stevens has this incredible ability to make you feel exactly what he wants you to feel, and "Romulus" gives me chills when I listen to it.

i don't blog like a girl

2009-03-25T04:00:00.002-04:00

According to the Gender Genie, I have a male writing style. I tried it four times with different random blog entries, and only one of them came back female. And it's not because I write about sports, because they didn't even highlight those words. Apparently I just sound manly.

It's okay though, because apparently all of the women columnists at The Guardian are also manly. I think their system might be a little flawed.

shiny new feature: song of the week

2009-03-24T12:34:00.006-04:00

For a while I had a scrolling Last.fm widget showing what I had been playing most recently in the "What I'm Listening To" section on the right hand side of my blog, but I've decided to implement a song of the week feature instead. (And yes, I did totally steal this idea from choccobear.)

For my very first SOTW installment, I am going with "Coat Check Girl" by The Rinse.

Self-described as:

Brazen pop. Cheeky Baroque. Rude Love. The Rinse are a tug-of-war between London and Brooklyn, dance and rock, brains and loins. But you’ll forget to worry about just what their deal is the minute you join them on the dance floor.

The Rinse were formed in Brooklyn by Will Bates (London), James Rickman (Santa Cruz, CA), Ryan Gruss (Des Moines, IA), and Megan Thomas (Salt Lake City, UT). They have now evolved into Fall On Your Sword and have a much more techno/house feel, but I prefer their original stuff. "Coat Check Girl"'s poppy bass beat and keyboard dings make for irresistible toe-tappingly dancey goodness. Funky as a mudslide, indeed.

[If you like this song, check out "Rollerskating" and "Twisted" too.]

watch this space

2009-03-23T22:13:00.007-04:00

New sweet football blog soon to be arriving on the scene. Name and URL to be announced...when we decide what they will be.

Bojan can't contain his excitement.

Dirk and Xabi can't wait either.

And Nando is overjoyed. I think.

So yeah, it'll be awesome. Keep your eyes peeled.

asinine proverb

2009-03-20T17:04:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling very childish tonight. I've been playing with an online anagram generator all evening and giggling at the funny things it spits out.

First of all, my full name can be rearranged into Zealous Hair Radius. Surprisingly, a pretty apt description of my coiffure in the morning.

For those of you who have read Harry Potter, you know that Lord Voldemort got his evil dictator name from an anagram of his given name. Just for kicks, I plugged "Tom Marvolo Riddle" into the generator, and realized that there are so many better things he could have come up with than I Am Lord Voldemort! For example:

Armored Vomit Doll
Volatile Dorm Dorm
Lord Ovoid Trammel
Immoral Veldt Odor
Immortal Odd Lover
Dread Milvolt Moor
Mortal Doom Drivel
Marmot Devil Drool
A Troll Mom Overdid
Overlord Mami Dolt
etc. etc.

These next few are for the bears:
Iker Casillas = Ace Air Skills
Sergio Ramos = Roams Orgies; Orgasm Osier; Roars Egoism
Gonzalo Higuain = Laughing in a Zoo
Bojan Krkic = A Brink Jock
Vedran Corluka = Clear Vodka Run; Cola Rave Drunk
Yoann Gourcuff = A Con Runoff Guy
Vicente Rodriguez = Recognized Virtue; Oviduct Energizer (hee!)
Manchester United = A Stench Unmerited; A Cemented Shit Run

Clearly I have too much time on my hands now that I'm done with all of my coursework for the term.

[P.S. A cookie to whoever can unscramble the anagram in the title!]

well...that was quick

2009-03-20T09:39:00.001-04:00

Illinois got knocked out of the tournament in the first round by Western Kentucky. Boo, they suck. And they have a stupid mascot.

What is that thing anyways?

VCU also lost to UCLA and Radford got slaughtered by UNC. So now who am I supposed to root for?

the night hull froze over*

2009-03-17T19:57:00.006-04:00

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
We're going to Wembley
Que sera sera!
Best. Night. Ever.

Hokay, so it wasn't exactly the most brilliant game I've ever seen. But it was my first Arsenal match--hell, it was my first football match--and it was an FA Cup quarterfinal AND WE WON after going a goal down in the first half...yeah, that all adds up to a fucking amazing time.

First off, let me say that live matches = fantastic. I don't see how anyone could make the "soccer is boring" argument after going to a professional game. I totally didn't think the whole short sleeved shirt thing through very well, so I was a little chilly during the match. But I didn't really notice it when the ball was in play because I was too engrossed in the action.

The other team's attack is so much more nerve wracking live too; every time Hull were at our end we were on the edge of our seats screaming "GET RID OF IT!" And by "we" I mean me, the guy sitting next to me, and his son, who looked to be about five or six. Baby's First Football Match or something, it was cute. The dad spent half the game explaining things to him, like "Number 23 is Arshavin, he's the best player on the field" or "Arsenal just made two substitutions. Niklas Bendtner came in for Song, although God knows why..."

Quick rundown of what I saw: Defense was very lethargic early on but picked up and did pretty well after Hull's early goal; Arshavin and Vela had a few lovely little exchanges; Walcott doesn't seem to like running down the middle of the pitch but also couldn't seem to get his crosses right as he had some surprisingly poor passes; Song had some unsurprisingly poor passes; Gibbs made a few great tackles; and Bendtner missed a shot or three. Most notably, he scuffed an easy chance where the goalkeeper wasn't even in sight. Credit to Hull's defense on that play though, they did well to clear the ball off the line. Overall, we should stop passing once in a while and actually attempt to shoot the ball. Novel idea, I know.

First glimpse of the stadium

View from my seat

The boys warming up

Gunnersaurus sighting!

Right before kickoff

New kid being awesome

Lull in the action

Arsenal attack that amounted to...zilch

I met two guys from Leicester walking back to the tube station after the match, who were very curious as to how a Yank came to be an Arsenal fan. They were also really excited when I told them I was from DC, and then they wanted to talk politics with me. And then on the train I sang "we've only come to see Eboue" with two other guys. Football is a great icebreaker; I haven't talked to this many random strangers in one day since like recruitment.

I come home to hear that apparently Cesc spit at Hull's assistant manager...? He claims he didn't (although what are you going to do, say "Actually yes, I did. Got a problem with that?"), but in that statement he also claimed he has never spit on anyone on the pitch before.

Um, Cesc? I think you may be forgetting this little encounter. And yeah, I know spitting is gross and the opposite of classy and all that, but I hate Ballack and might possibly spit on him too were I given the chance. (Ditto the whole throwing pizza at SAF thing, if that's true.) So more power to you. But I do hope this new spit-cident didn't actually happen.

Phil Brown also claimed that the only reason Hull's keeper was booked for time wasting was because the ref succumbed to pressure from the crowd and Wenger's complaints. All I have to say is, if he wasn't time wasting, then he is the slowest human being alive. But only when Hull were up a goal, of course. As soon as they started losing, every time he got the ball it was back in play immediately.

Curious...

I dunno, Brown's whole post match spiel sounded a little bitter. He was blaming everyone but his own team. But whatever, sour grapes. We won, we won, nah nah nah nah nah nah! And wow, I'm childish.

*Yeah, I know the Hull/hell pun has been beaten into the ground already. But leave me alone, it's one am and I can't think of anything wittier. Plus it was really cold at the game, so nerr.

beware the ides of march...madness

2009-03-15T19:47:00.006-04:00

Today was Selection Sunday for the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament, and here's how it panned out:
Of course, no VT. Our season was kind of a failure. So I'm an Illinois fan for the duration of the tournament...or at least for however long they stay in the tournament. First game on Thursday!

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Oskee wow-wow!

stuff i wish i could do, part two

2009-03-15T12:59:00.002-04:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I want to be artistic.

the fall will probably kill you!

2009-03-14T07:57:00.000-04:00

Movies I need to buy:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I'm not really a fan of westerns, because most of the ones I've seen have bored me. (I've been told many times that I need to watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and I'm sure I will one of these days, but I'm not really in a hurry to.) But this movie is fantastic. It's sad at times, hilarious at others, and has some of the best one-liners in movie history. "Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?" is a common phrase in my household. And the whole language barrier issue when they go to Bolivia is just classic comedy, because it's so easy to relate to...you know, except for the whole bank-robbing thing. Really, you can't go wrong with a Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie.

Amélie, a.k.a. Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

I watched this again after I went to Montmartre. I'd forgotten how much I like it. It's quirky, fun, and just makes me smile.

And keeping with the French theme...

Les Choristes

Like the French version of Dead Poets Society, with music. Jean-Baptiste Maunier's voice is absolutely stunning. I want to kidnap him and make him sing to me all day.

Singin' in the Rain

I'm not entirely sure how I don't own this movie. It's one of my favorite movies ever, and definitely my favorite musical. In an interview Debbie Reynolds said that Gene Kelly made them practice the dances until their feet bled. You know what, Debbie? It was worth it.

Notorious

My favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. It's got love, mystery, Nazis, and Ingrid Bergman's kickass wardrobe. And the wine cellar scene is one of the most suspensful scenes in cinematic history.

The Godfather

Who doesn't love a little mob drama? Al Pacino is awesome. Although the first time I tried to watch this movie, I couldn't finish it because it was too sad when his Italian wife died. I still don't like that part. But still, it should be a part of everyone's movie collection.

There are tons of other movies that I don't own but should, but I clearly can't fit them all here. My film collection isn't very big.

i've got the travel bug

2009-03-12T08:30:00.000-04:00

Right now, the tentative April plan goes as such:

Week 1: 5 day vaca in Mallorca! Nice hotel for a relatively cheap price, music festival, beaches (I can finally break out the bathing suits I bought!), the whole deal. Just found out about this today and I so want to go.

Week 2: Back to the UK for family visit. My mom wants to do a few day trips around the south of England: Bath, Stonehenge, Cambridge, etc. which will be nice, because I want to go to all of those places and this way I don't have to pay for it! Yay fam.

Week 2/3ish: Begin the 10 day tour of Italy (Milan, Rome, Venice, and Florence if we can fit it), France (Nice, Marseille), and back into Spain (Barcelona, Valencia). This will be hectic as all hell and we probably won't get to all of these cities. But we're having such a hard time cutting down, because we want to go everywhere! Must figure out eurail sitch soon.

Week 4: Back to uni to study for exams.

After I get back from the break all I have left are four essay exams, but I still have a month and a half before I go back home, so I'm hoping to do more single trips around this time. I should get my exam schedule next week, which means I can start thinking about that soon. Still want to do the central Europe thing, i.e. Vienna, Prague, Zagreb. Oh, and Berlin! Gah, traveling is tough stuff.

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

2009-03-11T10:34:00.004-04:00

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!

/incoherent

song covers

2009-03-10T09:55:00.006-04:00

I found myself in the middle of a discussion about the pros and cons of song covers a few weeks ago. Some people don't like covers as a general rule, because the remake usually doesn't live up to the original, but I tend to enjoy them (as long as they're well done). I do think they should sound different from the original song, because what's the point of remaking a song if you're just trying to make it sound like it did before, but not as good? Anyways, here are a few that I like:

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Muse (original by The Smiths)

Just - Mark Ronson & Alex Greenwald (original by Radiohead)

Across the Universe - Rufus Wainwright (original by The Beatles)

I Fought the Law - The Clash (original by Sonny Curtis and the Crickets, but I couldn't find it on youtube.) Not really sure what's up with the beach pictures in the video, but whatev.

I Found A Reason - Cat Power (original by The Velvet Underground, but again I couldn't find it on youtube. Original versh is much longer and a little more upbeat.)

Working Class Hero - Exit Clov (original by John Lennon)
This one I can't find anywhere online, and the stupid iTunes file on my computer is locked and won't let me convert it to any other file type. But trust me, it's a good cover.

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (original by Leonard Cohen)
This one I actually like better than the original. No matter how many times I listen to it, Buckley's voice never ever fails to give me chills.

A few covers that never should have been made: Madonna's version of American Pie, Limp Bizkit's Behind Blue Eyes, and the Orgy version of Blue Monday (I know a lot of people like this one, but I just can't get into it, it's far too angry for me).

parisian skies

2009-03-10T00:41:00.000-04:00

Everyone always says they want to go to Paris, and for some reason I've always thought of it as a rather cliché thing. Of course I was excited to see the city, but I thought of the trip more as something I should do, simply because of the hype.

I don't know what was wrong with me. I love Paris.

Seriously, love.

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, due to the fact that I forgot to charge my camera battery before I left and it died halfway through jour deux. And there aren't any with me in them...at least not until the ones from Brigid's camera show up on the book of face.

Jour un: We got off the train at about 1ish, then took a coach tour of the city. Briefly saw most of the typical sights, then got checked into our hotel by 4. We were all starving by this point, as most of us hadn't eaten since early in the morning, but no one really seemed to be moving, so I ventured out on my own. I got my map out, walked to the Metro station, hopped a train, and wandered around Saint-Germain-des-Prés for a while. I ended up having an early dinner at the Cafe les Deux Magots, the place where Jean-Paul Sartre used to break his fast every morning, sometimes staying to write for hours, but occasionally stopping to chat with another writer by the name of Hemingway. I felt super important and literary and philosophical. And I was able to order a meal in French!

Jour deux: Woke up early to get to the Louvre around opening time.

I only went to the Denon wing and didn't stay there too long, but I did see the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and this awesome statue of Psyche and Cupid by Antonio Canova:

[Side note: Speaking of victory, pictures from the "V for Victory" Nike campaign are all over the Paris Metro. Claude Makalele, Hatem Ben Arfa, and two French (I assume) guys that I didn't recognize.]

Then I museum-hopped to the Musée d'Orsay for the Monets, the Sisleys, the Renoirs, the Van Goghs, and of course my favorite Degas painting:

After I had my fill of paintings and sculptures, I bought a sandwich and had lunch in the Jardin de Luxembourg and sat people-watching for a bit.

In the afternoon I walked down the Champs-Elysées, was overwhelmed by the amount of people in Sephora, and saw the Arc de Triomphe up close for the first time. I didn't go up to the top, but I heard the stairs are pretty brutal. Two of my friends did it twice in one day, because the first time it was raining and they wanted to get the good view after it stopped!

Jour trois: I made up for not going up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe by climbing all the way up to the Notre Dame belltower on Sunday morning. No pictures of that yet but the view was UH-mazing. It rained all morning, which spoiled the mood a little bit, but not too much. I had delicious french onion soup for lunch and everything was fine. (I can't think of many better feelings than sitting inside on a rainy day with a hot bowl of soup.) It stopped raining soon after and the sun came out again, so I decided to crash my friends' walking tour of Montmartre. There were enough people that the tour guide didn't notice, and I'm really glad I did!

At the foot of the hill is a little place called the Moulin Rouge:
We saw where Amélie Poulin worked (as well as the little market where a few scenes from the movie were shot):We stopped at the Metro Abbesses station for a few minutes, and I had two random French guys come up and start talking to me. The first was flirting with me because he thought I was Irish, and the second was a crazy homeless dude who was yelling about how beautiful Paris was. It was quite the experience. Near the station is the "I love you" wall, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like (it has "I love you" written in every language on Earth):
We saw where Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani used to live, and the cafés and other buildings they hung around/painted.

Since Montmartre is a massive hill, it's got a great view of the city from the top:Again, there were many more photo ops, but due to my forgetfulness I am relying on others to send me their pictures. I might post a second picture entry later. After the tour was over, we walked around the top of the hill for a while, sat on the steps of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, and did some souvenir shopping. Then I bought a baguette and one last crêpe, and headed back to the train station.

So in summary, the city is amazing, the architecture is gorgeous, and so are the people. I swear, it seemed like every other boy I passed on the street was stunningly attractive. And everyone was so friendly and they all had fantastic style. London is still my soulmate city, but I think Paris has become my bit on the side. And don't judge me for cheating; I'm a travel whore and I know it.

The only bad thing about this weekend is that I missed this.

Ah well, I guess sacrifices must be made to the travel gods. Or maybe Arsenal just do better when I don't watch them, who knows.

i don't know what to title this: blog challenge nine

2009-03-09T15:10:00.011-04:00

THE RULES:
You have to choose one footballer to do each of the following activities with.
You can't choose the same person for more than two answers.
You have to explain your reasons behind each answer.
Bonus lolz for being specific with certain questions!

Who would you choose to...

1) Go backpacking across Europe with?
Roque Santa Cruz. I think I heard somewhere that he could speak lots of languages, so that would probably come in handy. And if people still couldn't understand us, they'd be nice to us anyways because he's too pretty to say no to.

2) Teach you their language?
Eduardo da Silva. Bonus because I get to learn both Croatian and Portuguese!

3) Go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with?
I tried to think of a witty answer for this one but came up short. I can't seem to come up with any smart (sounding) footballers other than Niko Kranjcar. At least with him on my team we'll be set on the questions about the economic situation in Nigeria!

4) Bake a chocolate carrot cake with?
Xabi Alonso. Then I'd force him to eat it Miss Trunchbull style, because that boy is too skinny.

5) Get drunk and sing karaoke with?
Pepe Reina. No explanation other than this necessary:

6) Go on an extreme sports holiday with?
Kun. I don't know why, but he seems the type to like rock climbing and white-water rafting and all that. And by the way, that would be such a fun vacation.

7) Raise money for underprivileged kids with?
Iker Casillas. Remember those pictures of him with the Peruvian children?

8) Marry and have lots of sex and babies with?
Cesc Fabregas. Starting to sound like a broken record with this one...

9) Play an embarrassingly tabloid-worthy prank on?
Benny Feilhaber. And I'd recruit Sacha Kljestan to help. They'd both find it hilarious.

10) Have a short but wholly satisfying sordid affair with?
Yoann Gourcuff. He seems to have an aversion to wearing clothes, so it probably wouldn't be that difficult to convince him.

11) Go to a fancy dress event with?
Others have already said it, but you really can't do better than Fernando Torres in the fancy dress category.

12) Have a drunken hook up that you may regret with?
Vicente Rodriguez. But I'd only regret it because Gina would kill me afterwords.

13) Go ballroom dancing with?
Roque. No idea if he can dance, but he's the perfect partnering height for me in my ballroom heels.

14) Pull off an Ocean's Eleven style heist with?
Thierry Henry. He looks fab in a suit, plus he's great at being sneaky.

15) Go on a secret mission with?
Cesc. We'd get walkie-talkies and wear all black and hide behind doors and stuff. It would be fun.

sarah, sartre, what's the difference?

2009-03-09T14:30:00.006-04:00

Excerpt from my travel journal (actual trip recap to come later):

Paris, 6 March 2009

Friday night in Paris - sitting in Les Deux Magots with a glass of red Bordeaux and a notebook. I'm feeling inspired and philosophical...and like maybe I should go buy a beret.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my Biological Psychology professor to discuss my essay on the mind-body relationship that's due next Thursday. Ever since I learned there was a debate about the relationship, I've known my stance--I firmly believe that what we define as the mind, consciousness, or even the "soul" is a mere product or extension of the physical brain. I don't believe in some higher intangible element of our being that lives on after the body's death.

And not to offend anyone, but I think the main reason people do believe in an eternal soul is that they're scared of dying, of ceasing to exist. Religion began because a) people needed explanations as to how the world worked, and b) people wanted to believe that they would live forever, in some way or another. Now religion has become a tradition--in certain cases (but not all of course), a narrow-minded, bigoted, and prejudiced tradition--and even though science is answering all of these previous unknowns, people don't want to give up their God and their idea of Heaven because they're scared to death of, well, death. Truth be told, I'm scared of death too. Which is why I'm living it up in Paris while I can, I guess!

But back to the mind-body thing for a bit. There are some recent research developments that give evidence to support my claim. They are also totally mind-blowing and slightly disturbing. And super cool, if you're a nerd like me. So basically, fMRI scan technology has advanced to the point where it can quite accurately read people's intentions; effectively, a simple form of "mind reading". One form of experiment is as follows: they stick people in the machine then have them do simple mathematical equations without telling the researcher whether they are adding or subtracting--and based on the machine's readings, the experimenter can then predict what the final number will be. Of course, they can't read thoughts, and the data isn't instantaneous because it still has to be analyzed after it's collected, but the main point is that the most recent tests have shown that the neurons in the brain can start firing almost full seconds before a person is consciously aware of a decision they are going to make.

If this is an accurate depiction of how the mind works, it brings up a pretty scary prospect: free will, as we understand it, doesn't actually exist. We think our conscious mind is deciding something, but if our neurons have made the decision long before we are aware of it, then is it really us doing the deciding? Can we even be held responsible for our decisions? I don't think the excuse "my brain made me do it" would fly in most cases, but it's an interesting thing to think about. Some people say the human brain is incapable of understanding itself. Maybe that's true, because this stuff is blowing my mind...or my brain...or whatever. This type of technology also brings up a whole host of ethical issues, but that's for my Conceptual Issues paper, not my Biopsych paper, so I don't have to think about that until next week.

Well, that was a long and pointless ramble. Maybe there's something in the French air that makes people want to harp on about God and philosophy. Me and Descartes, just like two peas in a pod...

France has made me weird.

Weird, indeed. I just thought I should share.

à bientôt, mes amis!

2009-03-05T05:53:00.006-05:00

Demain, j'irai à Paris le matin! Pour les prochains jours, mon expression préférée sera: "Uh, je ne comprends pas...répétez-vous, s'il vous plaît?"

Clairement, mon Français est un peu...um...rusty? (Babel fish m'indique qu'il est "rouillé".) Désolée.

J'espère que je peux employer l'expression "Est-ce que tu as une baguette dans ta poche, ou es-tu rien que heureuse de me voir?" au moins une fois en mon voyage. (Ma meilleure amie Emily l'a écrit sur mon mur de Facebook...)

[English interlude] I'm not leaving until tomorrow morning, but I will be staying overnight in London tonight in order to catch an early train to the city de l'amour. [/English]

Alors, c'est au revoir pour maintenant! Bisoux!

i'm such a boy

2009-03-04T19:07:00.000-05:00

From Lion in Oil, via Kickette: the majority of men would rather see women wearing their favorite football team's shirt in bed than lingerie.

"So while today was the great unveiling of the priorities for men, it was also a sad one for women. Once again the evidence points to men preferring sports over women. Surely the backlash is about to begin."

Hmm...not quite.

1) Football shirts are so much more comfortable than lingerie. I actually do wear an oversized footie shirt to bed.

2) What does it say about me that I see the man's point of view in this situation? I'm certainly guilty of finding guys more attractive if I see that they're wearing an Arsenal jersey, so it's not surprising to me that guys would find the reverse true.

Sports and sex = the perfect combination? I mean, what else do you really need in life?

...like I said, I'm such a guy. I really need to go do that spa day ASAP, before I start spitting and scratching my crotch and drooling over flashy sports cars.

winning? what's that?

2009-03-03T16:05:00.005-05:00

Check us out! We won one! I feel like I maybe shouldn't be so excited about beating West Brom, but under the circumstances (i.e. us sucking epically for the past several league games) I think a little celebration is called for.
It's too late for me to type up a legit recap of the game, because I have class at 9am tomorrow so I need to go to bed. But here are the important bits:

1) Bendtner scored two goals! Who'da thunk it?
2) King Kolo scored the other. He also set up the third goal, Bendtner's second.

3) Arshavin is really really short.

P.S. All of the dancing goal celebrations made me miss this bizness:

tickled pynk

2009-03-02T19:43:00.003-05:00

There's this new(ish) salon in London called PYNK, and they're trying to get their name out by going around to London uni campuses and giving out awesome deals.

So today my friend Allie and I were cornered after class and given this whole spiel about how awesome they are, and call me gullible, but I totally fell for their marketing scheme. It seems worth it though! Here's what I got:

Two vouchers (which cost £60 overall--it was a two-for-one deal) for a 50% off haircut including a professional style consultation, as well as any coloring, highlighting, or this new high-gloss treatment (that will make my hair super shiny for about a month) that I might want. So I get all that for £35.

With these vouchers we also get a free spa day complete with champagne, facial, manicure, hair styling, makeup, and a "magazine style photoshoot" which is a little cheesy, but hey, after the free champagne it might be fun! I have to put a £50 deposit on that one when I book the appointment but I get it back as long as we show up.

We ALSO get a "VIP party service" ticket with free guest list entry to about 20 different London clubs.

So basically, I get a £600 value full spa day plus random extra cool stuff for...£65. I freaking love London.

time wasting on a sunday night

2009-03-01T17:57:00.003-05:00

Stolen from ONTD_football:

A) 3 players you like who play for rival teams:
1. Fernando Torres
2. Roque Santa Cruz
3. Pepe Reina

B) A player from a rival team that you would unfunfunfff:
Vedran Corluka

C) The player who got you into football:
Brian McBride

D) 2 players you dislike for club but like for country:
1. Luka Modric
2. Um, Edwin van der Sar? I don’t even really like him for country, but I like the Dutch team overall.

E) A player who you used to like but not anymore:
Niklas Bendtner

F) A relatively unknown player who you are a fan of:
Moritz Volz

G) A player who has grown on you:
Denilson

H) A player you love who has left your club:
Thierry Henry

I) A player you could not stand who has left your club:
Ashley Cole

J) 3 players who you liked for their talent before you considered their looks:
1. Cesc Fabregas (Um, mullet. Enough said.)
2. Thierry Henry
3. Carlos Bocanegra

K) The one player you would 1000000000% put out for:
Cesc Fabregas

L) A player you like who plays in a league you don't follow:
Yoann Gourcuff

M) 3 players who you don't understand the appeal of:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
2. David Beckham
3. Nemanja Vidic

N) A player you like but is disliked by most:
Emmanuel Adebayor

O) The player who you will love unconditionally no matter what:
Cesc Fabregas

Now take the first names you answered for questions A, L, J and play a game of F/M/K!
Fuck: Gourcuff
Marry: Fabregas
Kill: Torres (sorry Nando!)

sick of this shit

2009-02-28T12:02:00.004-05:00

Arsene is not impressed.

Why the hell is it so hard to win a flipping league game, Arsenal? Scratch that, why the hell is it so hard to score a flipping goal? This is our fifth consecutive league draw, the last four of which have been nil-nil.

Yes, we are missing lots of players. Fabregas, Eduardo, Adebayor, Rosicky (who?), Walcott...all very important, and I have no doubt that the team will improve when they return. However, there comes a time when complaining about injuries just isn't enough. The problem is that the team we're fielding at the moment should be good enough to beat Fulham at home. I mean, give credit to Fulham, because they're very good defensively this season, and they played well and deserved to get a point from the match.

But that's the problem, isn't it? We didn't deserve to win. Our finishing was shocking, and it wasn't limited to one specific player. It's like the team is going through a communal slump in form, and it's freaking annoying. Is it really so difficult, as a professional football player, to find the back of the net?

I guess some people would tell me to stop complaining. At least we're not losing, right? Yes, I know that there are many teams that are worse off than us. But the big four are held to a higher standard, and when they aren't performing up to their potential, then it is disappointing to the fans. And being one of the "big four" and not actually being in the top four is definitely disappointing. Not playing Champions League football next season will be disappointing.

One of the announcers during the game kept going on about how Arsenal fans were some of the most "unforgiving" of all Premier League teams. All I can say is that right now, we seem to have just cause. You can't tell me that Man United fans would act any differently if they were in our position. Actually, they'd probably jump ship and go support Chelsea or something. Fucking glory hunters.

I don't mean to be a bitch though, really, I'm just frustrated. Get it together, guys! Make me happy again.

for gina

2009-02-28T07:18:00.003-05:00

My friend Gina had a bit of a bad day yesterday. So I made something to cheer her up. And photobucket sucks, they blocked it for copyright infringement. Lame. Youtube to the rescue!

(Yes, I realize the music and the pictures don't really fit together, style-wise. Just go with it.)

I hope you feel better soon!

Also, the Hottie World Cup quarterfinals are under way. Don't forget to go vote for your favorites!

what would we do without youtube?

2009-02-25T07:10:00.004-05:00

I love the random things you can find on the internet.

John Cale of The Velvet Underground on an American game show in 1963:

The second woman asking questions cracked me up. WTF kind of questions were those? This whole thing was just so weird and random and hilarious.

Ingram Hill covering Chris Brown's "With You" in a bright pink studio:

Video description: So, the spirit of Chris Brown took over Phil's body, and he said that we needed to cover "With You." The rest of us were a little unsure, but after Phil suggested we paint the walls pink, we changed our mind. So on a rainy, strangely warm January day, we did all that... even the paint job.

Thom Yorke dancing to M.I.A. in a DJ booth:

The Smiths on a kid's show called Charlie's Bus sometime in the 80's:

One of the strangest clips I have ever seen. So many good things about it: notice Johnny Marr giving some kid the wanker sign at 0:19, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now being played when the children are going through Kew Gardens, Sandie Shaw singing Jeane to them on the lawn (real uplifting songs there), and Morrissey's constant looks of disdain towards the camera.

"Where are we going?"
"We're all going mad."
"I thought we were going to Kew Gardens!"

What a weird decade.

quick notes

2009-02-24T19:04:00.007-05:00

Lots of things have happened over the past few days that I haven't had the time or energy to blog about, so I'm just going to do a quick rundown and stick them all in one post.

1) Arsenal beat Roma 1-0 earlier this evening on a Van Persie penalty. Again, Bendtner was kind of shite. Eboue got a standing ovation when he was subbed off, which is good I guess (that the fans aren't booing him anymore at least), but he's still pretty crap too. Positives about the game? Um, we won.

2) This article says Fàbregas is scheduled to come back for the Man City game in April. My Citeh-loving buddy better come through with those tickets. I don't even care if I have to sit in the away section.

3) My sister got engaged. I haven't actually been able to speak to her about it yet (she told me on Facebook while I was in Brighton, haha) because she's always out when I call. So I don't know all the details yet, but it's pretty exciting! For those who don't know, the sis is 22 and is due to graduate this spring; her fiance is 24 next month, graduated a year ago, and works for a bank in Pittsburgh.

4) I have three essays due soon. One every week until the end of term, specifically. I should probably start writing those.

5) I'm starting to think about where to go in April, when I have a month off of school. If any of you have input, feel free to leave it in the comments!

6) Don't forget to vote in the Hottie World Cup! Specifically, don't forget to vote for the USA in the Hottie World Cup! We're beating the Italy B team, but not by much.

You should also vote for the Dutch, because they're behind. Ditto Croatia. They also have awesome promo videos:

First round voting ends at 12:01 am GMT on Thursday. And thanks to Kickette, Unprofessional Foul, The Offside, and everyone else who has helped to spread the word!

"astublieft don't arrest me...dank u!"

2009-02-23T06:10:00.009-05:00

Okay, I'm back. Sorry I've been a little behind on my travel updates, but sometimes typing up several days' worth of adventures seems a daunting task, and then I tend to procrastinate. Story of my life.
So I finally got across to continental Europe last weekend, and it was fabulous! We only spent a few hours in Bruges, but there's not too much to do there other than walk around and see the general prettiness of the town, so a few hours seemed to be enough. We also went into about five different chocolate shops. And then we got back on the coach and headed to Amsterdam. (We also watched In Bruges on the trip...I was the only one who laughed at the Tottenham joke.)

(These two shots are of the same building, I just couldn't fit it all in one frame.)

We got to our hotel in Amsterdam around 8:00, and had a half hour to go unpack and get ready before going out with the trip guide to buy public transportation tickets/have a walking tour/go clubbing. Buying tickets for the trains, trams, buses, etc. was kind of a nightmare. I'm really not impressed with the city's transport system. But it got us where we needed to go (eventually), so I guess it's not totally useless.

Clubbing in Amsterdam is fun, although drinks are super expensive so you either have to buy cheap booze from a grocery store and drink it beforehand, or go sober. Although as a girl you can always wrangle a few free drinks out of people. Also, don't wear a dress if you go dancing, unless you want drunk guys putting their hands up your skirt. Not so fun.

But they played lots of Spanish music (including Juanes and Ricky Martin! And the Macarena, no lie) so we all had a great time. The next morning we woke up early, had a delicious free breakfast from the hotel, and headed to Edam.

This town is really pretty, although I wouldn't want to live there. Far too quiet...except for the hot naked man in one of the windows of the houses we walked by. I didn't see him but other people filled me in. But anyways, Edam is famous for its cheese, so of course I had to buy some. Smoked goat cheese, to be specific, and I've been eating it all day today. So good.

After Edam, we got back on the coach and drove to Volendam, a town on the coast.

It has a cool old windmill that isn't actually in use anymore, but people still go to take pictures of it. Because what's a trip to Holland without a windmill?

We then walked around by the water, ate some ice cream even though it was pretty freezing out, and looked in the souvenir shops. Then back to the hotel to figure out what to do in the afternoon--we decided to do a canal tour of the city.

After the tour, we had been planning on going to the Van Gogh museum (especially since they have a special exhibition at the moment and have The Starry Night on loan from the MoMA), but we were kind of exhausted by this point so we just went back to the hotel to freshen up before going out.

[Random side note: Raul almost caused me serious injury on Saturday night. Or at least moderate embarrassment. We were getting ready to go out in the evening, and were waiting down in the hotel lobby for the rest of the group to show up, when we decided to check out the hotel bar area. I was leading the way, and to the left I noticed that they had the Real Madrid game on a big screen TV. Probably because of all the Dutch players. Anyways, cue a Raul closeup...I had my eyes on the screen, wasn't looking where I was going, missed two full steps down, and fell flat on my face into the room. To add insult to injury, one of the bartenders came over and asked disapprovingly if we were already drunk. Usually you see people falling OUT of bars at the end of the night, not tripping INTO them in the evening.

Embarrassing story interlude over.]

So again, we stayed out until all hours of the morning dancing (also walked through the red light district...interesting stuff...) and again didn't drink much but it was still tons of fun, and again woke up early to see as much of the city as possible. We were going to try to fit in the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank's house before we had to leave, but ended up doing neither--lines were too long at the Van Gogh so we ended up going to the Rijksmuseum instead. It was still very cool, lots of Rembrandts and Vermeers. But I'm definitely going to have to go back to Amsterdam again someday to do the touristy things that I didn't get to do last weekend.

I know this was a super long post already, so I didn't go into all of the drama that happened with the actual group--let me just say that I now know why American tourists have such bad reputations. I can't even believe the idiocy levels of some of the people on the tour with us. But anyways, all in all it was a very good trip.

cross your fingers for me

2009-02-19T07:05:00.003-05:00

text by Ali

Hopefully this trip will actually go through without any hitches. I leave tomorrow at 5am ish, and come back Sunday night. If we happen to miss our transportation and end up in Newcastle for the weekend or something, you'll hear about it then.

this is serious.

2009-02-19T07:00:00.001-05:00

Teams posted 20th Feb, and voting begins on the 23rd. You know you want to join in.

the ski trip that wasn't, part three: final destination

2009-02-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

[Part one]
[Part two]

We woke up around 9 am (with no traces of hangovers, another sign that those shots were barely alcoholic), packed our belongings, and headed out to find food. We stopped at a cafe that served breakfast all day, and I ordered a traditional English breakfast because I hadn't tried it yet. And jeez, is that a lot of food! And it's very fried and greasy and heavy. Not bad, but definitely not something I can do every day. Or, you know, year.

After very substantially breaking our fast, we walked back to the station and hopped a train to Portsmouth. We only stayed long enough to look around near the train station a bit, then got on a ferry to the Isle of Wight.

fortressy thing on the coast, seen from the ferry

The island was much bigger than we thought it was, and everything closed at 4pm. Seeing as we didn't get there until 2:30, this meant that we didn't have time to see Needles Park or the Dinosaur Museum. Heartbreaking. But we were all about spontaneity this trip, so we went to Sandown instead to walk along the beach and eat lunch/dinner (I think we decided it was Lunner?).

"1, 2, 3, everyone turn around!"

Sandown beach and cliffs

Seriously guys, no loitering. DEFINITELY.

We ate fish and chips on picnic tables with a gorgeous ocean view, and then trained the seagulls to snatch thrown chips out of the air, because Victoria didn't finish her food. I did, and it was my second huge fried meal of the day. (I felt so weighted down after all the heavy grease, so I went to the grocery store today and bought nothing but fruit and veg for a major detox. Seriously, America is known to be the fat, greasy, fried food capital of the world, but I have been eating so much more unhealthily here. Why isn't everyone 300 pounds in Britain?)

We had been thinking about going to Winchester and Salisbury, and maybe even stopping by Stonehenge, but we didn't have the time because no one had enough stuff to stay an extra day. So this marked the end of our impromptu journey to the coast. It was unexpected, and it wasn't a different country, but it ended up being such a good time. And I spent less money than I would have in Norway.

But since I didn't get to leave the UK last weekend, I signed up for a trip to Bruges and Amsterdam this weekend. And it's through a legit travel company, so there's no chance of it being canceled. Should be a blast.

the ski trip that wasn't, part two: winging it

2009-02-18T19:12:00.001-05:00

[Part one here]

Since precise planning led to nowhere but trouble, we decided instead to throw planning out the window and go on a spur-of-the-moment tour of the coastal towns of southern England. First stop: Brighton.
We've all decided that we love Brighton. The seaside was the perfect way to get our spirits back up. Plus, the fact that the beach is pebbly instead of sandy is great--no mess! Also, I love beaches in the winter because of the whole not-getting-burned-to-a-crisp thing. So we spent a nice relaxing hour or so just chilling on the seashore, and then we meandered over to Brighton Pier.I rode the bigger roller coaster and the big crane-arm-swingy thing (yes, that is the technical term for it), but most of the rest of the group were too chicken to go on the scary rides so they did the slide and the twirly one. Then we got noodles from a vendor, and Leonore got hers stolen by giant seagulls. Serious, these birds are totally Hitchcock-esque. But we got chocolate waffles on sticks, which made it all better.
Après ça, we walked up to the Royal Pavilion, which is this very cool building that George IV used to hang out in.After a few pictures, we headed back to the beach to watch the sun set.
We had originally thought that we would only spend a few hours in Brighton then head somewhere else or go back to uni, but we were having such a good time that we decided to stay overnight. So we found a Walkabout hostel that had rooms for £10, and went down to the pub area for dinner and drinks. Fortunately, because we were in an English pub instead of a Norwegian club, I got to watch the Arsenal FA Cup replay. And of course we all know what happened there.The rest of the group weren't into football, so they couldn't understand why I was flipping out so much about Eduardo's brace. But I didn't really care. After the 4-0 win and the triumphant return of the Crozilian, nothing could spoil my mood. We stuck around for a while, and met some British randoms after an awkward picture-taking incident. One of them was in love with my friend Victoria, and gave us £20 to spend on drinks, so we got lots of shots. Which did nothing. We suspect they weren't real alcohol.

We eventually got bored of the pub, so we left and walked around Brighton looking for a dance club open on a Monday night. The guys followed us, claiming they knew where to go, but we ended up at a grody hole-in-the-wall pub far away from the beach. So we left (after Mark got Victoria's number) and went back to the hostel. One of the windows in our room was broken and they didn't have enough bedding for all of us, so even though I was sleeping right next to the heater it was absolutely freezing. But I guess you get what you pay for. It was still totally worth it, because we had a fantastic time.

Part three, coming soon.

the ski trip that wasn't, part one: murphy's law in action

2009-02-18T16:39:00.000-05:00

As I wrote previously, I had a ski trip to Oslo, Norway scheduled for the past few days. As it turns out, we didn't actually go. So here's what happened.

We were scheduled to fly out of Stansted on Ryanair at 6:30 am Sunday, but getting to the airport was a bit of a hassle. We took a minibus from Egham to London in the middle of the night, and from there were supposed to hop a coach from Liverpool Street Station to Stansted. But our minibus driver got lost so we were driving around the dark streets of London in circles for absolute ages. When we finally got to the station we had missed our scheduled coach, so we had to take a later one (which didn't even leave on time), and by the time we got to the airport we had about a half hour before our flight left. But because it was Ryanair, check-in was an absolute nightmare and not everyone got their boarding passes. Even for those of us that did get our passes, by the time we cleared security and bolted across the airport, we had missed our flight. So we had to walk all the way back through security and get in this huge queue to try to buy new tickets...which turned out to be £200 at the cheapest.

By this time, we were exhausted from running across the airport, sleep deprived since we had stayed up all night, and bummed about missing our trip. We sat in Costa for a while, eating breakfast and trying to figure out what to do. Half of our group decided to go straight back to Egham, while seven of us figured that we'd stay in London for the day. One of the girls has an aunt that owns a hotel in Sussex Gardens, so she got us a reduced rate there and we decided to stay the night since we had our bags already packed and all. So we dropped our stuff off, then had a child-like regression therapy day in Piccadilly Circus: Burgers and milkshakes at Ed's Diner, hugging giant teddy bears at Hamley's toy shop, and a night at the Trocadero Centre arcade. Then we went back to the hotel, ate chocolate, listened to music, and planned what to do next.

Stay tuned for part two...

back in a few days

2009-02-14T15:51:00.002-05:00

Okay everyone, I'm off to Oslo for a couple of days! May or may not go skiing, I haven't decided yet. There are apparently lots of other things to do in Norway (like the viking museum!) so it should be fun either way!

Will update when I get back. And crossing my fingers for an Arsenal win on Monday!

what ballers do on their off time...

2009-02-13T16:20:00.002-05:00

thanks Venice!

there's clearly something wrong with my brain

2009-02-11T18:18:00.007-05:00

I was going to blog this earlier but I totally forgot about it until now.

So three nights ago I woke from a very vivid nightmare at about four in the morning. One of those sudden eyes popping open and heart racing deals. Now this is unusual for me because I rarely remember my dreams, and pretty much never have nightmares. So what was so scary to my subconscious that it left such a lasting impression?

Well in my dream, there was a murderer loose on the RHUL campus. At least, I think it was here; I don't really remember the specifics in the beginning, but they're not really important. Anyways, people started turning up dead, and no one had any idea who was behind the grisly murders. For they were bloody--almost Jack the Ripper-esque. We were all terrified that it was someone we knew, or someone we were about to meet, and the police had no leads so they were pulling everyone in for questioning. I remember two friends of mine (twins) made a cameo; one died, and the other was very nearly accused of being the murderer. I also remember having a pizza with some random guy, and being terrified that he was gonna turn around and knife me.

But it wasn't pizza dude. The dream progressed and somehow I ended up at a football pitch that I knew to be Anfield, although it didn't quite look like it. It was more like an arena, with walls right around the field, kind of like a baseball stadium. Suddenly someone comes out of the shadows, crazy-eyed and holding a machete.

No lie, the scary murderer was Robbie Keane. He started swinging his machete and yelling "come on you Reds!" and mass pandemonium ensued. There weren't many people on the arena-field-thing, but the crowd was going crazy, screaming and everything. Keane started chasing people around the pitch, and luckily I was able to climb one of the walls and sit on top of it safely (he's not tall enough to reach me, see). Unfortunately, someone else wasn't so lucky. Some random guy ran into a door in the wall, Keane followed him, the crowd went silent in shock...

...and then I woke up.

So the current theory on where dreams come from is that they are a result of neurons used recently during the day, firing at random to strengthen connections while you're asleep. Your brain tries to make some sort of sense out of these random bits of information, so you end up with (usually weird) stories. I can rationalize the process while I'm awake, but still. WTF is wrong with my brain that it came up with this??

new place, same old habits

2009-02-11T09:51:00.001-05:00

So my New Years resolution to stop procrastinating totally isn't panning out well. I have a 1500 word essay due tomorrow and so far I've written...250. AND I had all day yesterday to write it because I had no classes. I even put myself in voluntary isolation by refusing to sign on to AIM or MSN, and I still couldn't convince myself to work.

I just have a problem working without pressure. I can't force myself to write essays unless the deadline is mere hours away. As strange as it sounds, I write better like that. Even the knowledge that I would want to watch international football matches this evening/tonight didn't force my brain to concentrate and get my shit done early. So now I'm going to stay up all night to write about the limitations of the DSM classification system.

Sarah's timetable:

3:00-6:45 = Attempt to work. Try to get at least 1/2 of essay written.
6:45-8:45 = Croatia vs. Romania. Check up on a certain Arsenal player's progress.
[8:00-10:00 = France vs. Argentina. Mild interest, but probably won't catch much of it due to previous and next matches listed.]
9:00-11:00 = Spain vs. England. Theo being injured means I have (less than) zero interest in team Engerland, so viva Espana!
11:00-12:00 = Work? Doubtful. Will probably screw around on facebook until...
12:00-2:00 = USA vs. Mexico! Not merely a friendly like the others (pssh, like anytime we play Mehico could be considered "friendly"), but the first match of the final World Cup Qualifying round. I will no doubt be exhausted by this time, but there is no way I'm missing the game.
2:00 - ? = Nap. Will wake up in a few hours to finish essay.
12:00 Thursday = Deadline.

ugh.

2009-02-08T10:37:00.006-05:00

Well...that was annoying.

0-0 draw and two players off injured. And of course, a first half red card. (I don't even know what to say about Eboue anymore, he's just...aglfdkjsdfjgs!) Considering these hitches, it was good to hang on to a nil-nil draw. Considering we were playing Tottenham, we desperately needed the points, and Eboue was a total douche when he didn't need to be, the game was not satisfying in the least.

And because of the hamstring injury to Ade and the buckets of blood pouring from Clichy's head resulting in necessary subs, neither Arshavin nor Eduardo got playing time, even though they were both on the bench for the first time (at least this season, in Dudu's case). Ah well, baby steps I guess.

Speaking of Eduardo though, I went to the official Arsenal store yesterday and got this:

I'm pretty excited about it, no lie. I can wear it next season while watching Arsenal compete in the UEFA Cup...

britpop: blog challenge eight

2009-02-06T08:42:00.008-05:00

The return of the blog challenge saw all of us assigned a specific era in music. Vanilla Bear first suggested that I do Britpop, because well, we are talking about me here. But I didn't know if I could do the 90s English music scene justice, seeing as I knew nothing about it at the time it was going on. And I'm actually not as big a fan of Britpop as I seem to be; I know little if anything about some of the smaller bands and one-hit-wonders of the time, and I don't really like Suede. However, I decided to come up with a list anyways, and it ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

I was going to comment on all of them, but I'm getting lazy so you're just going to get a list.

1) Teenage Fanclub - Your Love is the Place Where I Come From. Songs From Northern Britain, 1997.

2) Blur - The Universal. The Great Escape, 1995.

[I'm adding the video to this one because I love it. Damon Albarn does a pretty darn good Alex DeLarge.]

3) Pulp - Disco 2000. Different Class, 1995.

4) Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life. Everything Must Go, 1996.

5) James - Laid. Laid, 1993.

6) Echobelly - Great Things. On, 1995.

7) Super Furry Animals - God! Show Me Magic. Moog Droog, 1995.

8) The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony. Urban Hymns, 1997.

9) Ash - A Life Less Ordinary. A Life Less Ordinary (Single), 1997.

10) Oasis - Live Forever. Definitely Maybe, 1994.

Well that was fun. I now have the urge to drape myself in the Union Jack and go hang out in Camden Town.

oh snap!

2009-02-05T18:57:00.003-05:00

1) Hahahaha!

2) I want to go to Liverpool for £12. I may have to research this. Bet there's some catch to it.