I've left this far too long so the post will probably be lengthy and I'll miss out a lot but I'll have a go.
Two Thursdays ago (the night before Boston), I went to an American version of a pub quiz - called Trivia over here. We didn't win but we won a few individual rounds so we got pitchers of beer and shots of tequila for free. After that, I went to the cinema at midnight to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It was a good film and I was a bit tipsy which made it even more enjoyable! On the Friday morning we left for Boston which took about 2 hours 30 minutes in the car. We stayed at Ellen's friend Mallory's apartment which was fun. On the Friday evening we went to Quincy Market for food (I got curry, not up to English standard) then headed to the basketball game. The Celtics lost narrowly but all-in-all it was extremely enjoyable, I saw Shaquille O'Neal who was one of the few players I'd ever heard of, he was literally the size of a bear. Afterwards, we got the train to Cambridge which is one area of Boston and met Ellen's friend Michelle and went to a really good club called Middlesex. It just had one DJ doing a continuous mix which was a nice change and he threw a lot of different things in (Human League, Lion King, The Beatles, lots of rap). On Saturday morning we went to a diner called The Breakfast Club which played 80s songs and had 80s movie posters on the walls, the food was really good and reasonably priced, I tried Eggs Benedict which was nice but a bit sickly. In the afternoon we went for a tour of Boston on an amphibious vehicle, also known as a duck, which was a bus that became a boat on water. The tour was entertaining and Ellen was allowed to drive it on the water which was entertaining. Afterwards, we met Ellen's friend Michelle and a couple of her friends and they took us to a barbecue restaurant called Soulfire for dinner, the food was so nice and there were four different types of BBQ sauce to choose from! Later on, we headed out to a few pubs but they didn't accept driving licences as ID so went back to Mallory's and sat around for a few hours before we went to bed. On Sunday, we decided to go out for breakfast again so we drove to Cambridge to look for somewhere but there was no parking so we headed to The Breakfast Club again - one benefit of driving round Cambridge was getting to see quite a bit of Harvard which was really nice. In the afternoon, we went to downtown Boston and did a bit of shopping and sightseeing then went back to Mallory's and headed home at about 4.30.
Last week was a bit disjointed because classes finished and the dining halls closed on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday night a few of us went to WT's for a meal, I got steak which was lovely. On Wednesday lunchtime, I went to the international students Thanksgiving dinner which was more fun than it sounds. The food was good then afterwards we did some folk dancing which was weird but entertaining. On Wednesday evening Ellen picked me up and went to her house on Long Island for Thanksgiving. The drive took just over 3 hours and on the way we passed signs for Woodstock, Sleepy Hollow and Amityville, all of which I wish I'd taken photos of. That night we went out for a little bit but we were tired so went back early. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we got up quite early and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV which is basically lots of floats and balloons going through the middle of Manhattan with a huge crowd watching. In the afternoon we went to a lovely restaurant called Villa Lombardi's for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a buffet and there was basically everything you would expect and more, I had about 4 plates full of food and was stuffed (turkey, beef, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin crepes, spinach, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, ice cream). In the evening we visited some of Ellen's extended family who lived about an hour away. They were all really nice and friendly and we listened to lots o stories and ate more desserts! On Friday morning, Ellen took me for a Long Island bagel which was very nice (spinach and bacon cream cheese) then I got the train to New York City from a place called Ronkonkoma, which I thought was a very funny name. When I got there I met my friends Nikki and Sian from Nottingham in SoHo and we walked to Little Italy for a slice of pizza then we went to Grand Central Station for a look around and headed to the Rockefeller Center to look at the Christmas tree and ice rink. After they headed back to where they were staying I met my friends Pontus and Stine from Albany and went to eat at an Italian where David Letterman once took Madonna for pizza! I got the bus back to Albany at 8.30 so was home for midnight.
The weekend was very quiet, I did almost nothing besides going to Giulia's on Saturday night for pizza. On the way to her apartment, the winds were possibly the coldest I've ever had to deal with - my brain felt like it was frozen and took about 20 minutes to thaw out! I've got a lot of work coming up in the next few weeks. I have a final exam on Thursday and a 10-page essay due in next Wednesday then two exams the week after that. On the bright side, this time in 3 weeks I should be at home in Workington if all goes to plan, although I don't hold much hope after the hellish journey I had on the way here! That's all for now.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Friday, 12 November 2010
Viruses All Round
I looked up the plural of virus hoping that it might be viri or something nice sounding but instead it's just plain old viruses, anyway more about that later...
The first fun thing I did last week was on Thursday . We went to WT's for Joao's 24th birthday (a lot of my friends here are older than me). It was really fun, although the people who were under 21 and didn't have ID got asked to leave. They always go before the bouncers start working and have a meal there and wait for everyone to show up a bit later and it's usually fine, but this week they got asked for ID after they finished their meal and were made to leave when they didn't have any. Besides that, it was a really good night! Joao got very drunk and everyone sang Happy Birthday at midnight.
On Friday, I went to see Due Date at the cinema with Emma, Ellen and Josh. I had quite high expectations and it didn't really live up to them, most of the film was just Zach Galifianakis saying stupid things which weren't particularly funny. I did work for most of the rest of Friday and Saturday then on Saturday night we had a wine party in my room and the room next door. We'd been sitting at dinner and everyone was saying how desperately they wanted wine, so we went to the liquor store and bought some. It was a very nice event! Most people went out afterwards but me, Emma and David stayed in and drank some of the remaining wine.
Sunday to Wednesday was spent doing work with a few notable events. On Monday, it snowed quite heavily which was pretty to look at but annoying to walk around in but it was gone by Tuesday. It was a lot earlier than expected, most people told me that it would first start to snow at the beginning of December! I also got my 1970s America exam result back, and got 97.75%! I think this is the best test result I've ever got in my life so I'm very pleased. On Tuesday I woke up feeling ill and got a heavy cold, bad head and sore throat etc. (Virus number one), I had loads of work to do and had very little energy so I ended up missing all my classes from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning but I'm feeling better now.
I had a disaster on Thursday morning when a virus took over my computer just as I was finishing my essay which was due in an hour later. After a lot of panicking, I managed to retrieve my essay and hand it in on time and luckily the virus was quite easy to remove. My anti-virus software had expired and I hadn't bothered to get some more, but I've downloaded a new one now! In the afternoon I went to the mall with Emma to get some supplies. I ended up buying a denim shirt for Forever 21 for $10 - absolute bargain! At night I psyched myself up to go to the gym for the first time since I've been here but I got there and it was closed, despite the fact that it was supposed to be open for another 40 minutes! I was very disappointed because the urge to go to the gym is a very rare occasion in my life. When I got back, Jacopo persuaded me to out so we went to Chubby's for a couple of hours but came home at 12 because he was going to Boston in the morning. I got Chinese on the way home which was lovely.
Today, I went to the cinema with Ellen to see Morning Glory this afternoon. It was basically The Devil Wears Prada in a TV studio. It wasn't anywhere near as good but there were a few hilarious moments and Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford were very good, as usual. Tonight, it was the first home basketball game of the season, against Cornell (ranked by The Times as the 14th best university in the world, no less!). Our basketball team is our best sports team and it was very entertaining but in the end we lost 65-61 which was a bit disappointing because we led for three quarters of the match. There's another game on Monday which I'm planning on going to.
I'm planning on having a lazy weekend because I've got a lot of work done this week but next weekend I'm going to Boston with Ellen and Josh which should be fun. Ellen's driving us there and we're staying at her friend's house, so we don't have to spend much money on transport or accommodation, which I'm extremely grateful for! We're going to see the Celtics game on Friday night and I'm hoping to do a bit of sightseeing on Saturday. I really want to go to Quincy Market, which is a giant food hall, and I'd like to go to Harvard if it isn't too out of the way. The week after is Thanksgiving so we get Wednesday to Friday off. I'm not sure what I'm doing on actual Thanksgiving but I'm planning to go to New York on the Friday and me and Emma are thinking about going to Washington D.C. from Friday night until Sunday morning, then back to New York for the day on Sunday.
I'll try to write another post before I go to Boston, bye for now.
The first fun thing I did last week was on Thursday . We went to WT's for Joao's 24th birthday (a lot of my friends here are older than me). It was really fun, although the people who were under 21 and didn't have ID got asked to leave. They always go before the bouncers start working and have a meal there and wait for everyone to show up a bit later and it's usually fine, but this week they got asked for ID after they finished their meal and were made to leave when they didn't have any. Besides that, it was a really good night! Joao got very drunk and everyone sang Happy Birthday at midnight.
On Friday, I went to see Due Date at the cinema with Emma, Ellen and Josh. I had quite high expectations and it didn't really live up to them, most of the film was just Zach Galifianakis saying stupid things which weren't particularly funny. I did work for most of the rest of Friday and Saturday then on Saturday night we had a wine party in my room and the room next door. We'd been sitting at dinner and everyone was saying how desperately they wanted wine, so we went to the liquor store and bought some. It was a very nice event! Most people went out afterwards but me, Emma and David stayed in and drank some of the remaining wine.
Sunday to Wednesday was spent doing work with a few notable events. On Monday, it snowed quite heavily which was pretty to look at but annoying to walk around in but it was gone by Tuesday. It was a lot earlier than expected, most people told me that it would first start to snow at the beginning of December! I also got my 1970s America exam result back, and got 97.75%! I think this is the best test result I've ever got in my life so I'm very pleased. On Tuesday I woke up feeling ill and got a heavy cold, bad head and sore throat etc. (Virus number one), I had loads of work to do and had very little energy so I ended up missing all my classes from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning but I'm feeling better now.
I had a disaster on Thursday morning when a virus took over my computer just as I was finishing my essay which was due in an hour later. After a lot of panicking, I managed to retrieve my essay and hand it in on time and luckily the virus was quite easy to remove. My anti-virus software had expired and I hadn't bothered to get some more, but I've downloaded a new one now! In the afternoon I went to the mall with Emma to get some supplies. I ended up buying a denim shirt for Forever 21 for $10 - absolute bargain! At night I psyched myself up to go to the gym for the first time since I've been here but I got there and it was closed, despite the fact that it was supposed to be open for another 40 minutes! I was very disappointed because the urge to go to the gym is a very rare occasion in my life. When I got back, Jacopo persuaded me to out so we went to Chubby's for a couple of hours but came home at 12 because he was going to Boston in the morning. I got Chinese on the way home which was lovely.
Today, I went to the cinema with Ellen to see Morning Glory this afternoon. It was basically The Devil Wears Prada in a TV studio. It wasn't anywhere near as good but there were a few hilarious moments and Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford were very good, as usual. Tonight, it was the first home basketball game of the season, against Cornell (ranked by The Times as the 14th best university in the world, no less!). Our basketball team is our best sports team and it was very entertaining but in the end we lost 65-61 which was a bit disappointing because we led for three quarters of the match. There's another game on Monday which I'm planning on going to.
I'm planning on having a lazy weekend because I've got a lot of work done this week but next weekend I'm going to Boston with Ellen and Josh which should be fun. Ellen's driving us there and we're staying at her friend's house, so we don't have to spend much money on transport or accommodation, which I'm extremely grateful for! We're going to see the Celtics game on Friday night and I'm hoping to do a bit of sightseeing on Saturday. I really want to go to Quincy Market, which is a giant food hall, and I'd like to go to Harvard if it isn't too out of the way. The week after is Thanksgiving so we get Wednesday to Friday off. I'm not sure what I'm doing on actual Thanksgiving but I'm planning to go to New York on the Friday and me and Emma are thinking about going to Washington D.C. from Friday night until Sunday morning, then back to New York for the day on Sunday.
I'll try to write another post before I go to Boston, bye for now.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Death Clown
Helloooo! Time for quick update of what's happened in the last week or so...
Tuesday and Wednesday were boring - besides a trip to the mall to buy my Halloween costume I mainly just did work. One positive was that I finally located a box of Twinkies - I've been looking for them since I got here. They were sort of nice but it wasn't really worth the effort... I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, which was a nice escape from work.
It was Halloween this weekend so we went out on Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a "death clown" both nights but varied my costume slightly. On Friday, I was a sad, angry clown and on Saturday, I was a happy clown, the "death" part came from having a ripped up shirt covered in fake blood. Friday night wasn't particularly great, everybody had different house parties that they wanted to go to, but they always ran out of beer soon after we arrived so they were winding down. After walking the streets for a few hours, we decided to call it a night but it took a while to find a cab which was annoying. On Saturday night, Aimelyne had decided to have a party at her apartment following the previous night's disorganised events. We stayed there for about an hour and it was really fun having everybody in the same room in their costumes, especially for photo opportunities. Afterwards, a few of us headed downtown which was a big mistake. Most people left Aimelyne's just before us and managed to get a taxi but me and Ellen couldn't find one for ages but we eventually made it downtown and managed to sneak in to the front of the queue at Envy (I don't usually do it, but it was cold and the queue was absolutely huge). Envy itself was actually good for a change but trying to get a taxi back uptown was a horrendous experience. It took us the best part of two hours to manage to get one, as most refused to go to the university campus (I swear the job of a taxi driver is to take customers where they ask) and Ellen ended up having to walk home alone because he wouldn't take her home on the way. She happened to see people threatening each other with knives on the walk back while I'm sure was a very unpleasant experience!!!
Earlier on Saturday I watched X Factor (Cher was amazing) and Greg's friend David took us to a fish fry - an American version of a fish and chip shop. The fish was really small and quite bad quality and the chips were just cheap oven chips, so there was absolutely no comparison to English fish and chips - I'm now very excited to go to Superfish when I'm next at home! Sunday was a lazy day, I just watched X Factor and lay around. Our shower broke and now we have a new one which isn't as powerful which deeply upsets me. I watched the first few episodes of season one of Modern Family which is absolutely hilarious and one of my favourite TV shows already!
Yesterday, my 3 hour 1970s America class was cancelled which was a nice surprise, so I spent the whole afternoon single-handedly editing the latest episode of ATV 360 which was a good experience, but I;m scared to watch it in case I made any mistakes! In the evening I went to the cinema with Ellen, Emma and Emma's friend from Hull Uni who's on an exchange in South Carolina and came to visit for the weekend. We went to see it "Life As We Know It" which was a rom-com about two people who don't get on who have to raise a baby together when their best friends die. It was actually better than I expected but it wasn't one of the best films I've seen since I've been here.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat and missed one of my classes because I didn't feel up to it. I spent the afternoon watching Modern Family, 30 Rock and Dexter then I've been working in the library tonight. Today was the mid-term elections in America where all members of the House of Representatives, a third of the members of the Senate and a significant amount of State Governors faced election. It seems as though the low approval ratings for President Obama have cost the Democrats their large majorities in the House and Senate, which means that he's going to find it much more difficult to get his proposals made into law, an issue which was already a serious problem when the Democrats had the majorities. Let's just say his chances for re-election in 2012 aren't looking great....
I've got a lot of work to do for next week - 2 long essays and revision for an exam so I probably won't blog again until that's over which will be a week on Thursday. We're going out on Thursday for Joao's 24th birthday and hopefully I'll have the willpower to stay in for the rest of the weekend so I can get my work done without having a mad rush as the deadlines approach, probably wishful thinking...
Tuesday and Wednesday were boring - besides a trip to the mall to buy my Halloween costume I mainly just did work. One positive was that I finally located a box of Twinkies - I've been looking for them since I got here. They were sort of nice but it wasn't really worth the effort... I went to WT's on Thursday as per usual, which was a nice escape from work.
It was Halloween this weekend so we went out on Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a "death clown" both nights but varied my costume slightly. On Friday, I was a sad, angry clown and on Saturday, I was a happy clown, the "death" part came from having a ripped up shirt covered in fake blood. Friday night wasn't particularly great, everybody had different house parties that they wanted to go to, but they always ran out of beer soon after we arrived so they were winding down. After walking the streets for a few hours, we decided to call it a night but it took a while to find a cab which was annoying. On Saturday night, Aimelyne had decided to have a party at her apartment following the previous night's disorganised events. We stayed there for about an hour and it was really fun having everybody in the same room in their costumes, especially for photo opportunities. Afterwards, a few of us headed downtown which was a big mistake. Most people left Aimelyne's just before us and managed to get a taxi but me and Ellen couldn't find one for ages but we eventually made it downtown and managed to sneak in to the front of the queue at Envy (I don't usually do it, but it was cold and the queue was absolutely huge). Envy itself was actually good for a change but trying to get a taxi back uptown was a horrendous experience. It took us the best part of two hours to manage to get one, as most refused to go to the university campus (I swear the job of a taxi driver is to take customers where they ask) and Ellen ended up having to walk home alone because he wouldn't take her home on the way. She happened to see people threatening each other with knives on the walk back while I'm sure was a very unpleasant experience!!!
Earlier on Saturday I watched X Factor (Cher was amazing) and Greg's friend David took us to a fish fry - an American version of a fish and chip shop. The fish was really small and quite bad quality and the chips were just cheap oven chips, so there was absolutely no comparison to English fish and chips - I'm now very excited to go to Superfish when I'm next at home! Sunday was a lazy day, I just watched X Factor and lay around. Our shower broke and now we have a new one which isn't as powerful which deeply upsets me. I watched the first few episodes of season one of Modern Family which is absolutely hilarious and one of my favourite TV shows already!
Yesterday, my 3 hour 1970s America class was cancelled which was a nice surprise, so I spent the whole afternoon single-handedly editing the latest episode of ATV 360 which was a good experience, but I;m scared to watch it in case I made any mistakes! In the evening I went to the cinema with Ellen, Emma and Emma's friend from Hull Uni who's on an exchange in South Carolina and came to visit for the weekend. We went to see it "Life As We Know It" which was a rom-com about two people who don't get on who have to raise a baby together when their best friends die. It was actually better than I expected but it wasn't one of the best films I've seen since I've been here.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat and missed one of my classes because I didn't feel up to it. I spent the afternoon watching Modern Family, 30 Rock and Dexter then I've been working in the library tonight. Today was the mid-term elections in America where all members of the House of Representatives, a third of the members of the Senate and a significant amount of State Governors faced election. It seems as though the low approval ratings for President Obama have cost the Democrats their large majorities in the House and Senate, which means that he's going to find it much more difficult to get his proposals made into law, an issue which was already a serious problem when the Democrats had the majorities. Let's just say his chances for re-election in 2012 aren't looking great....
I've got a lot of work to do for next week - 2 long essays and revision for an exam so I probably won't blog again until that's over which will be a week on Thursday. We're going out on Thursday for Joao's 24th birthday and hopefully I'll have the willpower to stay in for the rest of the weekend so I can get my work done without having a mad rush as the deadlines approach, probably wishful thinking...
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