Saturday, October 11, 2008

Things That Have Happened Since Wales

I still have two days of Wales trip stuff to post, and I'll get around to those eventually, but they take a long time to post because it takes a while to upload photos. In the meantime, I thought I'd bang out a small post about what I've got up to since we got back from Wales.

Sunday night was party night in the dorm for sure. After the Bills were well and truly crushed, I went out in to the hall and saw not one but two kitchen parties. I went into one where Josh, Andy, and Francesca were playing their newly "invented" card game The Essence Of War, which is in actuality just a few (relatively major) rules tweaks to the basic game of War. Then we ended up playing cards and having a few drinks and a good time was had by all. The next morning class was interesting to say the least. At least two people (though not me, don't worry) showed up to class obviously hungover. Classy.

Monday we also had to buy our new monthly tube passes. We were hoping to get student passes, but our program doesn't run long enough for us to be eligible, so we just had to by regular monthly passes for 93 pounds (!). This caused quite a delay because when we did so we had to register our cards which caused many of us to be late for class.

Mostly, it has been a slow week. We had a paper prospectus due on Wednesday and our final paper for our first class is due this coming Wednesday, so there is a fair bit of freaking out going on. Monday afternoon a few of us did get out to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for a pint. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is a pub that was supposedly frequented by Dickens and Samuel Johnson way back when. They also have, by far, the cheapest beer, we've seen. I had my first pint, as 2.10 didn't seem as unreasonable as the 3.50 you'll pay elsewhere. And it was, to my uneducated tastebuds, pretty good beer anyhow.

Tuesday night, Emily ordered pizza for us on the expense account before we headed downtown to the Wyndham's Theatre to see Kenneth Branagh play the title role in Anton Chekhov's play, Ivanov. We were definitely in the nosebleed section, but we couldn't complain too much. At least we didn't have to stand for the whole performance like at the Globe. The play was decent. It starts REALLY slow. I fell asleep at the beginning, partly from boredom and partly from extreme tiredness. After intermission, however, things got very good indeed. Kenneth Branagh upped the intensity as Ivanov starts to quick into full nervous breakdown and it looked as if we were headed for a real cracker of an ending. Unfortunately, the climactic will they or won't they seen at Ivanov and Sasha's wedding draws on way too long and kind of kills the suspense. All in all, not a bad night at the theatre.

Wednesday after class, 6 of us went for fish and chips at Fryer's Delight, which is a rather small fish and chip shop in Holborn that is pretty well known as the place for authentic fish and chips. For 7 pounds, you get a fried fish and an ample portion of chips. Not bad, especially considering that most pubs will charge you a pound or two more for inferior food. It was a very filling lunch, indeed and quite tasty.

Basically, since then it's been pretty quiet. We did have a good time staying in Friday night. First we watched Nevermind the Buzzcocks, a pseudo game show which is basically just an excuse for host Simon Amstell to rip the show's (minor) celebrity guests to shreds. That was followed up by Beautiful People, a truly and utterly strange sitcom that seems to be about male models, I think. It was hilarious, at any rate. Then, we watched the Graham Norton Show before capping the night with a viewing of a so-bad-that-it-is-amazing Beowulf movie. Even though I feel somewhat lame staying in in such a vibrant city, I think it still counts as taking advantage of being in London when watching hilarious British TV shows.

That's the week that was. More or less. More Wales posts and pics to come.

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