3/20/09 roman baths, thai food, poonans

We headed out to eat an English breakfast at the Boston Tea Party, which was tasty but the portions were too small and we had to wait forever for the food. Our next stop was the Roman Bath Ruins that the town of Bath is named after and famous for.

From Bath Trip

Walking around the ruins was like stepping back in time, and seeing how the Romans used the temple to worship and relax was very interesting. The natural springs underneath still feed water up into the pools, and the water is warm to the touch. After the tour we sampled some of the natural spring water in the pump room, and it tasted similar to blood, because of the high iron and other mineral content.

From Bath Trip

For dinner we went to the Thai restaurant “Shang-Ri-La”, and I had some chicken type thing in sweet and sour sauce, which was tasty. We went back to the apartment and got ready to go out to the club Po Na Na. We headed out, and I was disappointed that Joey's other (and cuter) friends there didn't want to go with us since they all had to leave by 9am for their trip to Oxford.

We danced for a while at the club and then attempted to do karaoke. I chose the song Just Dance by Lada Gaga, and found out that it is really damn hard to attempt to dance while simultaneously singing at the same time, especially while inebriated.



After some more dancing Joey and I needed a break and we randomly sat down next to some girl and some drunk guy started taking his shirt off and dancing in front of us, which was slightly disconcerting. However, the girl sitting next to us said she was from Liverpool and that he was one of her drunk marine friends, and we started a conversation. I found out that she was 25 and has been obsessed with the Spice girls since she was young. She also apparently met her boyfriend on hotornot.com, which surprised me. After a while the conversation got stale so I headed back to the dance floor since the club was closing in like ½ hr (3am?). We left the club and got some Mr. D's, a fast food stand, on the way back.

From Bath Trip

3/19/09 Oxford, then Bath

Oxford was ok, we walked around the town and saw some cathedrals and learned some history.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court, Oxford

Took train from Oxford to Bath, but apparently we weren't supposed to take the train that went to Reading, and we got bitched at by some train manager that I could barely understand. Eventually we got it sorted out and switched to a train to Bath.

From Bath Trip

Joey picked us up at the train station and walked us back to his apartment. We met a few of Joey's housemates, and then introduced Joey to the awesomeness that is the British TV show “Skins”. For dinner we went out to an Indian restaurant named Bengal something, and I had lamb curry type stuff, which was good.

Later at night we went to the Huntsman (a local pub), where it was student night with 1.50 pints of Fosters. I though that it was such a great idea, that I had a 2nd one. There were a lot of other people from Joey's study abroad program (which has 55 total) and we talked with them for a while.

3/18/09 girl talk concert

Headed out to the Girl Talk concert in Scala around 10 or so. The music wasn't really live as GT just hit a few buttons on his laptop and then stood on the table and danced around the rest of the time. It was basically just a huge dance party. The venue was really crowded and obscenely drunk dbags kept bumping into me constantly, which really pissed me off. I danced with some random girls for a while (from Chicago I think?) and overall I had a decent time.

From London - March, April

From London - March, April

3/17/09 st. patty's day, view from the bridge play

The view from the bridge play was mediocre but I had to pay attention since I will be presenting on it for my theater class. After the play we made our way to O'Neil's to celebrate St. Patty's day, but the line to get in was huge and JJ and Nate and I headed over to the Duke of York instead. At the Duke we got free Guinness St. Patty's day hats after a couple beers, and then headed back to the flat.

3/16/09 not much

Not a whole lot going on today, worked on my MOB assignment for tomorrow.

3/15/09 the Watchmen

Today we went to see the Watchmen at the Odeon movie theater. It was pretty expensive at 10.50 pounds. The movie gave a very interesting look into a 1980s alternate universe where the Cold War has left the world on the brink of nuclear war. The movie explored how morality really isn't divided into black and white, it is just shades of grey. I particularly enjoyed the irony of the character Dr. Rorschach, who wore a mask akin to the psychology test pictures whose interpretation is supposed to change with the perspective of the viewer, but yet he was the only character who was steadfast in his values and morals throughout.

3/14/09 walk around camden, fabric at night

In the early afternoon JJ, Nate, and I ventured into Camden Town to do our research for our British History and Culture presentation. JJ randomly decided to get his ears pierced, and we ate at a really terrible Thai restaurant, which we found out afterwards was actually all vegetarian food and that is why it tasted like crap. Walking around the streets of Camden markets on the weekend was an interesting experience, as there were lots of younger kids obviously into the alternative kind of lifestyle, with ridiculous hair and lots of body piercings and tattoos. What was really interesting was that the residential areas of Camden were almost completely devoid of people, even though they were only a block or two away from the main markets. We also walked through Hyde Park, which had like 10 million different football(soccer) fields and then headed back to the flat.

From London - March, April

At night we made our way to the infamous London club, Fabric, around 10pm. But we had to wait outside for a while since it actually opened at 11pm. We had a couple of beers while we waited and two random Russian girls came up and asked us if we were going inside. We started a conversation and the two were apparently flight attendants on some Russian airline I had never heard of before.

After getting inside we all found out that the people who you have to pay to get in are total dicks. They wouldn't accept our international student ID cards for the student discount rate, so we had to pay full cover (16 pounds wtf). The club was very good, but not the best I have been to so far. It had three different dancing areas with a decent amount of dance floor space, and was moderately crowded. JJ and I randomly ran into the Russian girls again on the dance floor so we danced and hung out with them for a while and then headed back to the flat after waiting forever to get on a night bus and having a deep conversation.

From London - March, April

3/13/09 not much

Not much going on today. Watched some more Skins, aka the best tv show evar.

3/12/09 Stonehenge and Hampton Court

We traveled to Stonehenge, and learned some of its lengthy history, as it was apparently used as some kind of burial ground and/or calendar. Stonehenge was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We were able to go up right into the circle and touch the stones, which was pretty cool.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

Next we headed to Hampton Court, which was a psuedo-castle where royalty lived in medieval times. It had very elaborate architecture and a massive garden complete with fountains and lots of wildlife. There was also a hedge maze to walk around in, but it was very easy and we figured it out in like 5 minutes.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

3/11/09 class, hip hop dance at night

Went to another hip-hop dance class at the YMCA tonight, had a great time.

3/10/09 class, Duet for One play

Class in the morning and then off to see the play Duet for One. The play was boring, as it was basically just a continuing discussion between one woman and her psychiatrist. Not to mention at some points the over-acting was a little ridiculous. Afterwards I worked on my theater paper that is due tomorrow.

3/9/09 back to london

Took the train to Copenhagen in the morning and then flew from there back to London.

3/8/09 Quick trip to Copenhagen, visiting Nikolas

Today we took a daytrip to Copenhagen, Denmark but had no idea where to go or what to do there. We walked along the water but it was cold and windy and lots of stuff was closed because it was Sunday so we headed back after an hour or so.

From Sweden Trip

We headed by train to the town of Akarp where Nikolas and his family live. Their house was very nice and was undergoing some renovations. They served us some tasty lo-mein kind of noodles and I had Swedish kafe(coffee) which was pretty strong. We went out to Big Bowl in Malmo with Nikolas and I bowled a 141, but JJ barely beat me with a 144. There wasn't much to do in town since it was a Sunday so we headed back to Rikard's apartment and packed our stuff.

3/7/09 Lund, night out

This morning Rikard showed us around the college town Lund, that has over 40,000 students going to school there. We saw parts of the campus and went into the monstrous 14th century Cathedral, which had an ornate and intricate clock that had seasons, days, and more on it similar to the one in Prague. There was also a crypt downstairs where some ancient royalty were buried. We walked around the streets some more and I tried Swedish hard candy but didn't like it.

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

Rikard drove us back to Monica's after picking up his apartment keys from JJ's mom at Brit's place. For dinner we had grilled chicken and I tried some brie cheese on a flat cracker with marmalade on top, which was pretty good.

We headed back to Rikard's apartment and had a few drinks before heading out to Anna's apartment. We got there and talked for a while, and apparently one of her friends worked for Carlsberg as some kind of manager and gave me his business card in between him high-fiving everyone. Anna suggested going to Debaser, a club near the center of Malmo that catered towards a somewhat older crowd. Apparently some woman there was having her 30th birthday party, so it was a little awkward being there with mostly older people and we then headed over to a club called Rumble, which was nearby and catered to a younger crowd more our age.

The club was good overall, and had two separate main dancing areas, one with more electronic/techno music and the other one with more chill/reggae music. JJ, Nate and I danced for a while in the techno area. We met some cool Swedish girls, a redhead (Johanna) and blonde (Emily), who we talked with for a while. Johanna was 23 and studying in Malmo as a student and had taken a road trip in the United States a few years back. Her friend Emily was 21 and was studying in Lund, where we had been earlier that day. We didn't realize that the club closed around 3am, so we ended up waiting forever in the coat check line before we could leave.