Today! London! Tomorrow? Who knows?!
Actually, it'll still be London. The term ended a week ago, and with that came three whole weeks of FREEDOM before revision week and exams start in late April. On Sunday night, Brittany-From-UCLA arrived, and spent time with me in Edinburgh. Now we're in London for a couple of days before she flies back to sunny SoCal on Monday. Lovely to have her for a visit. Some sight-seeing, a great gig tomorrow night (The Rakes @ Brixton Academy), and just general London-town in all its rainy glory... And when Brittany leaves on Monday, I'll be off myself (not by myself, though) to Romania -- Bucharest to be exact -- for the start of a long Eastern European Adventure. Woo!
I'll catch you up on the last bit of the semester, post-Dublin. Class: wound to a close, got a good mark on my Animal Bio essay (woohoo, bioluminescence!). Rugby: gut-wrenching loss to Leeds Met Uni a week ago Wednesday, knocking us out of the BUSA playoffs. Radio: last Rhymes With Unk episode co-opted by trip to Leeds for rugby, but excellent end-of-term events anyway (Twist & Shout 2, Fresh Air Awards Dinner); also finished recording all the actors' lines for the soap. Whoopie! One of the actors asked me if I'd ever do something like the soap again, to which I replied, "Only if I was paid." 'Streuth, mate.
Anyway, that's all for now! My time on the expensive pay-by-the-minute internet is running out! More later, I promise.
Friday, March 30
Tuesday, March 20
This Weekend: Julia Goes to Ireland
So, how was Dublin?
Cold, with variety. And that was just the weather: wind, rain, snow, thunder & lightning, and hail all within the same 20 minute period! Mostly just wind and rain, though. God I love to whine about the weather. To be fair, it was just as cold in Edinburgh over the weekend -- hooray for cold snaps. Someone bring back global warming. In all seriousness, though, I really enjoyed Dublin and wish I'd had a full week to spend exploring the city. It's got a great mix of new and (old of several varieties) and actually feels quite a bit more European and multi-cutural than Edinburgh.
Anyway, what did I do aside from shiver and dodge from coffee bar to pub to shop?
Saturday, of course, was St. Patty's Day and the city was packed full -- of tourists. Well, there were a fair few Irish out as well, but it seems like every other person on the street was American. (Then again we're fairly conspicuous.) A quick flight from Edinburgh, and we were there by midday with enough time to settle into our accommodation, get lunch, and wander around a bit before finding a pub in which to watch the rugby.
We didn't get spots in time to see the parade passing through town, but a fantastic and exciting final 6 Nations match in which Ireland trounced Italy in a crowded and extied pub was enough on its own. Back to the hotel for a quick kip/watching the Scotland v. France game before heading out for the long night. In honor of this national holiday all the pubs were open till 2.30am. We spent some time in a pub in the city centre before heading into the Temple Bar district for more excitement. Let's just say you know it's a good pub when you stick to the floor. Not wanting to tire ourselves out for the weekend, we called it an early night and headed back around 1.30am. Here's Temple Bar by day:
Sunday we were relatively early and out for some shopping on Grafton Street (Dublin's equivalent of Princes/Rose Streets) before lunch and meeting up with the rest of the group. After collecting everyone we struck out for the Guinness Storehouse on the other side of town -- I mean, how are you going to go to Dublin and NOT see the most famous (though commercial) source of Irish pride? A very long walk later, through the wind, rain, snow, lightning, thunder, and hail, we arrived cold and dripping to wait in several lines before finally getting in.
No matter -- it was nice to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in the museum and out of the weather. At the top of the museum there's a bar with a 360 degree view of the city, and it's absolutely lovely. A warm bus back to the city centre, tapas for a leisurely dinner, and a popular large pub, then an earlier night so we could see even more today (Monday).
Today, Monday (well, it sort of still is), we got up and out a little earlier so we could see the city before we had to leave for the airport. Realizing we probably needed a week to see all the most important sights, we opted instead for a double-decker bus tour of Dublin. Yes, a bit corny and touristy (in addition to being quite cold upstairs), it was a nice way to get to see a bunch of things that were just a little too far away for a morning's visit. But we did go by the canal! (This one's for you, Dad)
And now I'm back in Edinburgh. And tomorrow/today/Tuesday I leave for Leeds. 2.45pm. Rugby! Right, so story is, Wednesday is the quarterfinal BUSA match between us and (big rivals from last year) Leeds Met. Uni. We're spending Tuesday night so we don't have to drive down Wednesday morning, as Leeds is (I'm told) about a 6 hour drive from Edinburgh. (Better not be -- my iPod battery can't last that long anymore!) I'm not starting in the match because of my ankle, but I will be on the bench/running up and down the sidelines yelling like a maniac and wearing my super-fan cape.
Story of my ankle: in a match about 4 weeks ago I was running up to a ruck and like a daft idiot, stepped on my foot wrong and twisted my ankle up. I went to the physio, who diagnosed it as either a bad sprain or that the ligament had pulled a bit of one onf my ankle bones off. Ow. She gave me some exercies and a compression bandage for it (to keep the swelling down) and cleared me to go back to running and training last week. It's up to me as to when I'm confident enough about my ankle to go back to playing, but being on the bench for Wednesday sounds grand. It's not a full 80 minutes, which would frankly make me nervous for my ankle, but good for maybe getting a few minutes out there and supporting the team. And aside from all the rugby and traveling, I've got a busy week ahead. Better yet, it's the last week of classes!
P.S. I realized I am REALLY GOOD at taking blurry pictures.
Thursday, March 15
Little Update
Quickly! I'm falling asleep here, but I thought I'd catch you (and myself) up with the past few days and a bit of the future...
First of all the rugby team won today (without my aid), so we're moving onto the next round of BUSA (the quarterfinals). It'll be a tough game, with something to prove, since we lost against the same team, Leeds Metropolitan, last year in the same round by 3 points. We've got fewer starting players injured going into the game than last year, hopefully myself included. I'll see what the physio says tomorrow; last week she said if I kept improving so quickly I could go back to training (but not playing). They're one and the same in my mind, I'll see what I can convince her of. A longer rugby recap will follow later, including the Tour in Devon, Scotland v. Ireland game, and The Knackekering of My Ankle.
I also went to a killer band night tonight, put on by none other than us at Fresh Air. It was a charity night for Comic Relief (I cannot be bothered to put in all the links, so google this stuff yourself), coordinated with something like 17 student radio stations across the country. We had some local bands perform: Nick Trepka (who gets mad props for covering The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" acoustically on the balalaika), Edinburgh's own My Tiny Robots, and the Glaswegian bands Futuro and The Hussys.
I've also found a definite place to stay if I want to stay the summer. It's with my friend, Tim, from the radio station, and one of his current flatmates. It'd be pretty convenient, as their flat is only half a block from where I live now, so I wouldn't have to move far. Yeah... I'm thinking of staying the summer here in Edinburgh. I've decided to decide at the end of March, and seeing as it's only the Ides, I've got a few days at least. If I do stay, I'll miss you... but come visit! It's much warmer and sunnier here in the summer, plus August has the Festival.
I'm off to Dublin this weekend for St. Patty's day with my friend, Stephanie who I'm going to Eastern Europe with. We both keep forgetting that our trip to Ireland is so close, since we booked it so long ago (October for her, January for me, after one of her flatmates bailed on the trip). I am very excited about our trip to Eastern Europe... it's getting closer and closer. We've had to re-route a bit, based on the best way to get to Sarajevo, so now our route goes like this: fly to Bucharest (from London), train to Brasov (middle of Romania) and spend a few days there doing day trips, a few days in Budapest where we'll hopefully be able to meet up with Jitka, a few days in Sarajevo (most direct way there is train from Budapest, so that's why we had to rearrange the trip), then to Dubrovnik (Croatia) to start off the second week of the trip, and finishing our week of relaxing in Croatia with a couple days in Zagreb and Pula before we fly back to London and catch the train back to Edinburgh. Whew! Like I said, we tried to plan it with the busy sight-seeing part of the trip first and a nice week to relax on the Dalmatian Coast second. Changing the itinerary did mean we had to cut out Vienna, but oh well. Another time.
Other travel plans in the works = a few days stint in London when Brittany-from-UCLA (that's how she'll be known in this publication from here on out) comes to visit, a few days/long weekend in June at a rugby 7s tournament in Venice, Paris oo-la-la some weekend... eventually... when I find the time, after exams. Which, by the way, is May 8th! Yes, be jealous, be very jealous!
First of all the rugby team won today (without my aid), so we're moving onto the next round of BUSA (the quarterfinals). It'll be a tough game, with something to prove, since we lost against the same team, Leeds Metropolitan, last year in the same round by 3 points. We've got fewer starting players injured going into the game than last year, hopefully myself included. I'll see what the physio says tomorrow; last week she said if I kept improving so quickly I could go back to training (but not playing). They're one and the same in my mind, I'll see what I can convince her of. A longer rugby recap will follow later, including the Tour in Devon, Scotland v. Ireland game, and The Knackekering of My Ankle.
I also went to a killer band night tonight, put on by none other than us at Fresh Air. It was a charity night for Comic Relief (I cannot be bothered to put in all the links, so google this stuff yourself), coordinated with something like 17 student radio stations across the country. We had some local bands perform: Nick Trepka (who gets mad props for covering The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" acoustically on the balalaika), Edinburgh's own My Tiny Robots, and the Glaswegian bands Futuro and The Hussys.
I've also found a definite place to stay if I want to stay the summer. It's with my friend, Tim, from the radio station, and one of his current flatmates. It'd be pretty convenient, as their flat is only half a block from where I live now, so I wouldn't have to move far. Yeah... I'm thinking of staying the summer here in Edinburgh. I've decided to decide at the end of March, and seeing as it's only the Ides, I've got a few days at least. If I do stay, I'll miss you... but come visit! It's much warmer and sunnier here in the summer, plus August has the Festival.
I'm off to Dublin this weekend for St. Patty's day with my friend, Stephanie who I'm going to Eastern Europe with. We both keep forgetting that our trip to Ireland is so close, since we booked it so long ago (October for her, January for me, after one of her flatmates bailed on the trip). I am very excited about our trip to Eastern Europe... it's getting closer and closer. We've had to re-route a bit, based on the best way to get to Sarajevo, so now our route goes like this: fly to Bucharest (from London), train to Brasov (middle of Romania) and spend a few days there doing day trips, a few days in Budapest where we'll hopefully be able to meet up with Jitka, a few days in Sarajevo (most direct way there is train from Budapest, so that's why we had to rearrange the trip), then to Dubrovnik (Croatia) to start off the second week of the trip, and finishing our week of relaxing in Croatia with a couple days in Zagreb and Pula before we fly back to London and catch the train back to Edinburgh. Whew! Like I said, we tried to plan it with the busy sight-seeing part of the trip first and a nice week to relax on the Dalmatian Coast second. Changing the itinerary did mean we had to cut out Vienna, but oh well. Another time.
Other travel plans in the works = a few days stint in London when Brittany-from-UCLA (that's how she'll be known in this publication from here on out) comes to visit, a few days/long weekend in June at a rugby 7s tournament in Venice, Paris oo-la-la some weekend... eventually... when I find the time, after exams. Which, by the way, is May 8th! Yes, be jealous, be very jealous!
Saturday, March 3
Marching On
Er, I'm getting worse and worse at keeping you all up to date... Sorry. Anyway, I shall commence looking back through my calendar to remind myself of the past two weeks' events...
Classwise: Got my major assignments in (Bioluminescence Essay, Genetics Problem), so it's pretty much smooth sailing until the end of the semester. Our last day of classes is March 23rd, oddly enough, the same as UCLA's Winter Quarter. I must admit, I like the fact that semesters here last only one week longer than UCLA quarters. The catch is, here, we have a month-long term for exams after our three week spring break (excuse me, "Easter Holiday"). Doesn't bother me too much yet, it gives me time to catch up and study, though I might decide that I mind later.
Radiowise: As I said last time, Tenants has been pushed back to next term's broadcast, which is good news. I'm still doing my own show, Rhymes With Unk, which will probably be returning as part of a mega-show for next term's broadcast as well. Basically, the loose plans are to get a whole block of shows with my friends and combine them all into one big blob with everyone and all the features from our own shows. Both music and chat will be great. It'll likely be my friends from the shows Sweet As The Pineapple, Incence and Peppermints, The Jonny Brick Show, and Brash Air.
That's all I can think of for now. I'll get this much up and write you more later.
Classwise: Got my major assignments in (Bioluminescence Essay, Genetics Problem), so it's pretty much smooth sailing until the end of the semester. Our last day of classes is March 23rd, oddly enough, the same as UCLA's Winter Quarter. I must admit, I like the fact that semesters here last only one week longer than UCLA quarters. The catch is, here, we have a month-long term for exams after our three week spring break (excuse me, "Easter Holiday"). Doesn't bother me too much yet, it gives me time to catch up and study, though I might decide that I mind later.
Radiowise: As I said last time, Tenants has been pushed back to next term's broadcast, which is good news. I'm still doing my own show, Rhymes With Unk, which will probably be returning as part of a mega-show for next term's broadcast as well. Basically, the loose plans are to get a whole block of shows with my friends and combine them all into one big blob with everyone and all the features from our own shows. Both music and chat will be great. It'll likely be my friends from the shows Sweet As The Pineapple, Incence and Peppermints, The Jonny Brick Show, and Brash Air.
That's all I can think of for now. I'll get this much up and write you more later.
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