London - March / April 2003

Monday, March 10
Today is the first day in a long time where I've felt like I don't have anything to do, and it's GREAT. I love it! Haven't really done much in the past week beyond homework (yes, believe it or not). Saw "Rent" on Thursday, and really liked it. It was a mediocre production, but it was OK since I'd never seen it before. Went to a hookah bar on Friday night and out drinking, but otherwise I've done shit! :) I've read 500 some pages of a Russian novel though. Wow, my life sounds kinda crap. Haha!



Monday, March 17
Wow. 3 weeks and 2 days left. It's a little mind-boggling to think that after more than 6 months in Europe, I'll be home soon. Crazy. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. One thing I DO know I feel though is excited for my week in Socal!!! Damn, I'm excited to be in Malibu again and see everyone from Pepperdine and all that... but until then, I only have 3 weeks in which to do everything I haven't done! Like every "touristy" thing in London for example: the Tower of London, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Harrod's, etc. What have I been doing with myself! Well, last Tuesday night was Summer's birthday and so a small group of us went out to some club in Covent Garden and I drank sooooooo much. I have really not been drinking at all since Spain, so having so much in one night kicked my ass. Wednesday was the worst hangover of my life, and it lasted AAAALLLL day. I had 7 hours of class that day, and I missed every minute. No fun. Thursday night though, we had "Man Night" in the student center, and all the guys ate a ton of pizza and watched movies and played cards, and the gambling got pretty intense for a while there. EJ and I both took pots that were up to 5 pounds, so that was cool. I never argue with free money, especially when I'm broke and it's over 8 dollars I'm winning. :)

Saturday, me and Tina and Bree went to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Stonehenge: disappointing. That's what I hear from everyone who goes though. Not much to see. Salisbury was cool though, we saw the cathedral there, which has an original of the Magna Carta inside. The paper is green-gray-blue, in case anyone was wondering. Weird. We had a real chill day though, just saw the town and sat in a nice warm sunny park and ate an amazing Italian lunch. That night, me and Bree and Christine went to this massive club night that happens 3 times a year called Hard House Academy in Brixton... a few thousand people, for sure. It was enormous. The girls saw people doing *everything* there, like huffing ether and even shooting up. It was way too crazy for us. We went home by 2:30. I don't know, the week was pretty calm, and next weekend is the long weekend, and unless war is declared and we're put under house arrest (which could actually happen) [and it did!! Thanks a lot, George W] everyone will be traveling so I will be free of distractions just in time to research and write 3 papers. Yay!

Monday, March 31
Nine days... This week was halfway decent. :) I finally saw "Phantom of the Opera" which was really good. It's not the kind of show I normally would like, but I think since I knew most of the music from it, it was better. Plus, all the stuff they did with the sets and whatnot was really cool. Tuesday night was the house talent show. It was just as fun as last semester's and maybe even a little better since it ran about an hour shorter (thanks to there being no law students and no room 10 slideshow). Some of the highlights: Bryceson and DJ teaching us how to play rugby, complete with tackles and lifting Dr. Chesnutt on their shoulders; Tina and Mary Jayne running through some of their favorite memories from the year ("Rudabeh giving a show to the Mafia players in Greece!" "Josh and a teabag!") before showing us their surprisingly adequate belly-dancing skills they learned in Turkey; DJ dressing up as Little Orphan Annie and singing "Tomorrow" in the worst falsetto ever. It was great fun.

Then Thursday night 4 of us went to Camden Town and saw a Hot Hot Heat concert. They were REALLY good. I mean, really REALLY good, and it was even cooler cuz the venue only held about 100 people and it had been sold out for a month, but Christine knew the doorman and somehow managed to get all 4 of us in while other people lurked outside the bar asking anyone they saw for extra tickets. Yeah, Christine is the shit. The opening band was called Moving Units and the lead singer and the drummer were on some kind of crazy drugs or something, but wow, was the drummer INCREDIBLE. We were all in awe, I've never seen anything like it. He was out of control. Their last song almost made me feel like I was tripping, I was really impressed. Great concert. Friday I finally went to Harrod's for the first time and the food halls are SOOO cool!! Harrod's is like the coolest department store ever. That night "The Rules of Attraction" was opening in theaters here, so 5 of us went to go see it. What a messed-up movie! I liked it though.

Saturday I went and actually did school stuff, like going to the British Library and British Museum. A little bit of culture before attempting to see K and Jason's favorite DJs at a club Saturday night all the way in freaking zone 3, and of course the club filled up while we were still queueing so we had to turn around and come home, which, since the Tube was now closed, required a 2-hour bus ride. It was OK though, me and Bree made our own fun. We were still awake at 8 AM. Then I slept Sunday from 8 to 5:30 and went to sleep again at 10. What a waste of a day. I can be the biggest slug sometimes. Oh well. Hey, this morning was my last Great Books class! Yes, it's true, after 4 semesters, the hell is over. Well, there's still a final and a 9-page paper I have to write, but you know, I don't care! *No more Great Books! Hurray!*

Wednesday, April 9
Well, the day has finally come. It's time for me to leave London. The realization still hasn't hit me yet, and I'm not sure it will for quite some time. I think I'm gonna get to Malibu later tonight and feel like I'm just on vacation visiting my friends and then I get to go home. But I'm not going to come home. This is it for me, and now seven months of my life is just done, snap, like that. But this has been the best year of my entire life, and I wouldn't have changed a single thing about it (well, except for finals weekend, which was probably the worst 3 days of school-related hell I've ever had to deal with, honestly). At the final banquet last night, I realized suddenly that I have to brace myself now: for my first full-time job, for once again being underage, for not being in London anymore. I don't know how I can not be here. I'm not *ready* to not be here. But I guess I don't have much of a choice, huh, since we leave the house for good in just one more hour. Gah. Anyway, as I write this, it's 1:30 AM for everyone in California, and we will be landing somewhere around 6:30 PM, so I have a loooong day ahead of me. Last time from London -- I'm out.