Ireland & Spain - February 2003

Monday, February 3
The year just keeps picking up more and more speed, I swear I'm gonna be back in the States tomorrow, it's going so fast. I don't really have anything to say about the week before last. Our friend Molly came to visit from Florence, and the only stuff we did was go see the Salvador Dali exhibit (which was really cool) and see a play called "This Is Our Youth." It was interesting, it's a 3-person show and this particular run is starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Chris Klein and the girl who played the ditzy winner in "Miss Congeniality." Yes, some of you may be saying, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Chris Klein on stage?? It's not quite as bad as it sounds, but they didn't really do much to convince me of their acting abilities, which I've never been too impressed with from their movies. Oh well. The story was basically good and Freddie WAS affecting at times, and it was really funny to see those 2 guys smoking joints onstage, even fake ones.



Anyway, this weekend that just finished I went to Ireland and took a bus tour, like I did with Scotland last semester. There were 13 of us from Pepperdine on the bus, and it was one of my favorite trips from the whole year, I had so much FUN. We met these 2 other groups of American students on the bus, and both of them live within a 20-minute walk of us, and we all got real friendly over the 3 days, so now we have people to hang out with outside the house! It was exciting. [Naturally, we never saw these people again.] It was such a hassle just to get to Ireland though, holy crap. Last Thursday, it snowed in London and it never snows here. So our flight is supposed to take off at 7:50, and the Tube was in such freaking chaos bcuz of the snow that we didn't get to the airport until 7:45. It didn't matter. Our flight had been delayed and we didn't actually take off until 1:15 AM. Yeah, that could have been more fun.

We got 3 hours of sleep that night in Dublin, and then left early on Friday morning and our first stop on the tour was a whiskey distillery. At 10:30 in the morning! Everyone's slamming back shots of whiskey and it's soo early, felt very strange. Then we went to some old monastic settlement and saw an ancient druid burial tomb as well. That night we stayed in this tiny village called Doolin (seriously, like population 50 or something) and everyone just got really drunk, it was fun. The next day, we saw the Cliffs of Moher, which are amazing, and one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen, called Coumeenole Beach. Our tour guide, Wendy, said she'd buy a pint of Guinness for anyone who jumped in the water, so Jason stripped down to his boxers and jumped in and as he was coming out, the tide came up really high and washed over all his clothes and shoes. Hahaha, it was hilarious. We also went hiking where there were all these sheep, and played a "dating game" on the bus and Jason got randomly picked to be the guy who had to pick between 3 anonymous girls based on answers to his questions. THAT was funny. I think he had a weird day that day.

Anyway, Saturday night we stayed in a town called Killarney, which is fairly touristy, and saw a seanchai, or Irish storyteller. What a crazy loon! The guy was seriously nuts, he was just so weird. I can't even describe the experience, you'd just have to see it. That night, the whole bus went to a club and craziness ensued. I have never consumed that much alcohol in one night before. I was so so SO drunk. Jason made out with the tour guide, which was frickin bizarre, and then she freaked out and said she could get in trouble, so he ended up going back to the hostel with this Australian girl from our bus instead and I stumble into my room at 2:30 AM and walk in on them screwing! Awkward. So I just turned around and almost passed out in the hallway until the crazy kids were finished. [Oh lord I remember this... after Jason came out to the hallway and picked me up off the ground, we went to find some water and I chose that moment to come out of the closet to him. Jason clearly did have a REALLY weird day that day.]

When we woke up on Sunday morning, we hit Blarney Castle where I got to kiss the Blarney Stone and walk around the grounds, which were really beautiful. There were the most bizarre, but cool naturally occurring things, like holes in the middle of rocks, and two trees that had one enormous horizontal branch connecting them, growing out of both of them at the same time! Try to imagine that, it was surreal. On the way back to Dublin, we played this game where you had to hold a matchstick in your mouth and transfer a Lifesaver from one person's match to another without using hands and the first team to get it all the way down the bus and back won. We were all getting so into it, even the driver, who kept swerving all over the road to mess with us. There are some really raunchy-looking pictures from that game, just cuz it looked like everyone was getting all up on each other. The tour group as a whole was just so cool and we had a freaking blast. This week I'm probably not gonna do too much, cuz I really have to catch up on all the schoolwork I haven't been doing and whatnot. That's me, the perpetual slacker! :)

Monday, February 10
I'm starving. And tired. And frustrated with all this work. And trying to live up to Wednesday's designation of myself as "Mr. Dramatic." :) Really though, this work stuff sucks. I just realized I'll be working on papers and/or exams from now straight through to our field trip to Spain at the end of February. This month doesn't look to be too much fun. Oh well. The past week was fun! I was kinda proud of myself, cuz I went somewhere new on the Tube every single day. Monday we had a new museum for Humanities, and then Tuesday night was Jason's 20th birthday, so some of us went to a hookah bar. Mmmm, apple shisha. Or however you spell that. Then Wednesday, I was in class aaalll day long and went straight from class to a John Mayer concert (very good) and from there straight to Student Nite at Ministry of Sound. I ran into 5 different kids from our Ireland bus tour that night, so that was kinda weird. It was a full day. Thursday was just as bad though. I didn't wake up till 2, then left at 3 for an Astronomy field trip to the Greenwich Observatory. I stood on the Prime Meridian, so I was in two hemispheres at once! Exciting, I know, hehe. After that, we ate Mexican food for dinner (I can't wait to eat real Mexican food again!) and then saw "Catch Me If You Can." Wasn't the best movie I'd ever seen, but I liked it a lot.

After doing so much with myself, though, I proceeded to absolutely waste my entire weekend. Friday night, me and Jason and K went to a club and didn't get home till 7 and I slept literally all day Saturday. Then Sunday, I slept all day again. I seriously felt like the biggest waste of space on the face of the planet. Totally worthless! I am completely and totally worthless! Oh well. Friday night was fun, so I don't really mind too much, I don't think I'd ever danced to acid techno before and I really liked it. Lots of bass. :) Anyway, spent all last night studying for a Religion test that I had this morning, and I think I did pretty well. Now I just have a Humanities paper, 2 more Humanities essays for a midterm, 2 Great Books papers, and an Astronomy midterm all in less than 2 weeks. I suppose it's good that practically everybody is leaving this weekend, maybe I'll actually be able to get stuff done... hahaha, yeah right!!!! Anyone who really knows me undoubtedly knows I won't get started on a damn thing until 9 PM on Sunday night, I'm sure. Well whatever. It's just another week in the London house!

Tuesday, February 18
Well, this last week was frickin packed. And somehow it still feels like I did nothing. :) Isn't that amazing how that works out? Haha! Well, let's see, last week I was bitching about work and such. There's still plenty of work to be done, but it's not so bad as I expected. I once again wrote my Humanities paper the morning of the day it was due, and I really do think my best work stems from hardcore procrastination, hehe. Anyway, last Tuesday night, the whole house went to see "Macbeth." It was REALLY good. Sean Bean (Boromir in "Lord of the Rings") and Samantha Bond (Moneypenny in the Bond movies) played the lead roles and we had seats in the third row!!! It was awesome to be sitting that close to the production, of which every part just happened to be incredible. The only distracting thing was that we were so close that we were able to see Sean Bean showering the entire first row with his spit. :) Good times.

Then Wednesday night, a small group of us went to go see Sigur Ros in concert. OK, I don't know if any of you have ever heard Sigur Ros, but you all should. They are this really bizarre Icelandic band with 8 members that all play just the craziest combination of instruments to make this music that is really mellow and trippy and amazing. It's definitely an acquired taste, but I know I personally loved it. I felt so serene when I left the concert, it was such a freaking good experience. Anyone who hasn't heard them should download some songs off the net NOW. Anyway, done with my plug now. On to Thursday night... don't really remember! So it must have either been no fun whatsoever or way too much fun. Who knows, Anyway, Friday was Valentine's Day. Everyone in the house was either traveling for the weekend or out with their respective honeys, so I went and saw "About Schmidt" and "Gangs of New York", both of which I liked for different reasons.

Saturday, Christine and I went to see Karl Marx's grave (I had to do it for Great Books) at this allegedly haunted cemetery out in zone 2. Talk about creepy! It was seriously like something out of a horror movie, all overgrown and crooked graves, muddy hidden trails, and creepy old gardeners. Afterwards, we went to Camden Town, which is a big market area where they sell all sorts of vintage clothes, clubbing gear, and smoking paraphernalia. Interesting part of London. Then we saw "Punch-Drunk Love", which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then I got wasted at Southside. Fun fun day. Sunday night, I went out with a friend to a bar and watched yet another movie. Now, during all this time, do you think (with the exception of my big paper) that I did any work whatsoever? Of course not! Hahaha! Time to get crackin though. I have a Humanities midterm tomorrow, an Astronomy midterm on Thursday, and then 2 Great Books papers to write over the weekend. And then SPAIN! We leave a week from today for our field trip to Spain and I can't wait, it's going to be a blast.

Monday, March 3
Well, this past week was *so much fun*, let me tell you. We went to Spain for our educational field trip and it was such a more relaxed trip than Greece was last semester. First of all, we stayed in one hotel the whole week rather than a different one every night. Second, we had 3 different tour guides, 2 of whom were really cool, instead of one horrible one like Pat in Greece. Plus, Madrid was SO cool. I'm really glad I got to go somewhere I could get a good opinion of Spain, since I hated Barcelona so much. Central Spain is beautiful! We left last Tuesday morning at 4:45 AM (!!!) and as soon as we got to Madrid, we drove around a while on the bus before going to the Prado, which is their major art museum. The Velasquez painting from AP European History was there, which was random. [Ah yes, "Las Meninas", I believe.] That night for dinner we had this nasty paella... the food for most of the week was pretty bad actually, that was the one downside, I think. [I don't think this was a fluke either... when I returned to Madrid for my Spanish summer program in 2005, I constantly complained about the quality of Spanish food.] That night we stayed in and got drunk and played Kings. The pictures on Bree's camera just make it look like me and Mary Jayne were getting it on all night. There's kissing and lap dances... MJ shakin her ass. Good times!

Then Wednesday we went on a day trip to Segovia, where we saw the alcazar, or castle, that Ferdinand and Isabella lived in and commissioned Columbus from. There's also a massive Roman aqueduct there, which was neat, I guess. Lunch in Segovia was hilarious though. They brought out 3 piglets, already cooked and everything, but they were still in the shape of piglets, heads, tails, and everything! Then this Spanish guy grabs a plate and proceeds to chop the body of each piglet into 3 pieces and then chop off the head, just with a normal dinner plate! That's how soft the pigs were! So many vegetarians were freeeeaking out. Then for added effect, when he chopped off the last pig's head, he threw the plate on the ground and shattered it, and a few of us couldn't help but yell "Oompa!!" The most tender pork I've ever eaten. That night, even though it wasn't a planned Pepperdine event, all 40 of us and Lisa (our awesome office manager) went to see flamenco dancing, and that was really cool. Afterwards, we got almost 30 people to go out!!! It was inSANE!!!! 27 people at this tiny club, and there were quite a few "very good kids" who were getting completely faded. I never thought I would see some of those girls pick up a drink, let alone get full-on drunk!

The next day, there was drama. (There always has to be something. :) Our bitch of a Program Director knew Tina and Bree were coming down in 2 minutes, but she said since they were 8 minutes late, we were leaving the hotel without them. Even though the day before, she waited 15 minutes for 4 guys, and the night before that, 17 minutes for me and the RA (who happened to be my roommate in Spain... very very unexpected and strange). So yeah, she just left them, and Tina and Bree watched the bus drive away. Kids were so pissed off all day. We went to the Reina Sofia, which is the modern art museum, and we saw a bunch of Picasso and Dali, which was really cool. Afterwards, we saw the Royal Palace. The current monarchs are the first monarchs in hundreds of years to not actually live in it. It has 2800 rooms!!!!!!! Some of the most AMAZING rooms and decorations and just everything you've ever seen. Precious stones everywhere, hundreds of clocks and mirrors and Stradivarius violins. We went out again that night, but I wasn't in the best mood, so I ended early.

Friday we went to the Valley of the Fallen, which is a memorial to all those who have died fighting for Spain, and it was incredible. It's out in the woods, and there's a cave that is hollowed out and there is a MASSIVE church inside the mountain. Actually in the mountain! Plus the biggest cross I've ever seen in my life made out of granite perched on top of the mountain. Afterwards we went to a monastery called El Escorial, which was easily the most boring and least favorite part of the whole trip. Only the chapel was cool, otherwise it was pointless. That night we ate tapas for dinner and everyone went out AGAIN. Yes, it's true. This house became total party animals in Spain, it was hilarious. I think I was drunk every night we were there. Totally ridiculous. Even our female RA, who is the absolute biggest bitch in the world, had her first alcoholic beverage since we've been in Europe that night. Not only one, but two! Talk about my world turning upside-down.

Saturday we left the hotel and went to Toledo, which was the capital of Spain for hundreds of years, so it has lots of cool stuff there. We saw a factory where they forge swords (Toledo is famous for its steel) and some people even bought these huge real swords. We saw a church with the hugest organ I've ever seen and a former synagogue that was built by Muslims and taken over by Christians during the Spanish Inquisition... so crazy. 3 religions in one! Toledo is beautiful too, it is built on a huge hill and still looks medieval. It's like walking through a time warp. We went straight from Toledo to the airport and we were back in London just in time to discover that while we were away, a shit ton of mice took up residence all over the basement. Let's just say the girls who have bedrooms down there were none too pleased. Evangelyn even ran out screaming, "I have mouse turds in my bed!" Hilarious!