6 Months

This was me six months ago today, sitting in my first London cab, heading off to Brunel University in Uxbridge. Look at the raw terror hidden behind those twinkling eyes. I was scared. I was so scared. But I was so excited, because there I was, inside a cab that had "London Calling" scrawled along its sides, a Union Jack on wheels. And there we were, my mom and I, squealing at "quaint cottages" and grinning manically when the driver called us "luv." A mixture of terror and excitement. The only way you really can feel, setting off on an adventure.

Of course everything got much worse before it got better. I was homesick, oh so homesick, and being away from Greg made me cry every single night as I tried to fall asleep alone in that tiny, rock-hard institutional bed in Isambard Complex. I cried so much those first few weeks, and well into the first couple of months as well. They don't really tell you this, but moving overseas all alone is hard. I may speak the language, and I had a friend in Shaun, but they just do not tell you how difficult it's going to be. Which is probably good, because if I knew exactly how harrowing most things in my life would turn out to be before I set out to do them, I don't think I'd ever leave my bed. So well done, world, for not telling me how scary and insanely hard it is to move to England!

Things did get better, though. I made a friend in Lucy, who turned out to be like a Welsh, better-dressed, funnier version of me (who happens to write better as well, that harpy). She's my writing muse and my Mine-Husband and I couldn't be happier that I met her. I also grew closer to Shaun, who I would never in a billion years have guessed I'd be hanging out with on a weekend in London, drinking cider and discussing our futures. I can now call her one of my best friends. What amazing and unexpected turns life can take, really.

And so here I am now, just having finished an incredible work placement at a prominent publishing house, working diligently on my novel, and about to finish the second term of my MA program. I'm in London and I'm loving it. My living situation may offer up a fresh new hell every day, but I'm content. I like my room, and I like this city (despite how much it sucks sometimes, let's be honest), and I like the way my life is going. I really, really like it.

So here's to six months in London, and to six months more. May they be even more amazing, hilarious, ridiculous, and life-changing than the first.

Best Day Ever

Today. Was. Ridiculous. You know those days where everything goes right and it seems as though the universe is aligning itself for the sole purpose of giving you an incredible day? Well that was not today. In any way. Today, everything went as awry as it possibly could have. Well, not everything, I suppose, but many many things!

It began with a groggy noon-thirty scroll through my facebook news feed. I have the David Tennant page "liked" so I sometimes get random news about him that I would normally just disregard and scroll past. However, I noticed something about signings and meeting him, and I looked closer, and there was an event. An event? Here in London! With DAVID TENNANT! AN EVENT WHERE YOU GET TO MEET DAVID TENNANT IN LONDON. (Called EMS, incidentally, but it's over now.) After that everything went to hell. I ran around my room, heart beating a billion times a minute, adrenaline rush negating any need for breakfast, so I shot Shaun a text, grabbed my camera, and bolted out of my room on a mission to Earl's Court.

After that was when the "awry" started happening. Trains from Uxbridge were closed for whatever godforsaken reason, so I had to take a replacement service bus to West Ruislip, from there took the Central Line to White City, then walked over to the Hammersmith Line and took that down to Hammersmith, from where, I took the Piccadilly Line to Earl's Court.

By the way, there is no air conditioning on the tube. It was about 80 degrees today. Before I even got to the exhibition center I was dehydrated, sweaty, stinky, and exhausted. Even so, I made my way to the exhibition center, at which point I discovered that autographs from David Tennant were £35 (actually turned out to be £45 in the end but what's ten more pounds). I did not have £35 in cash, which I figured I'd need (turns out I didn't really), so I went to the ATM. It was out of cash. The member of staff told me I needed to go back to Earl's Court in order to find a working one.

On the way back to the station I saw a man dressed as the Tenth Doctor so I asked for a photo. When I turned on my camera I realized: I'd left the memory card at home. Noooo! How could I attend a nerd convention without my camera?! So, panicked, I returned to Earl's Court station and asked a man at a kiosk if he sold camera memory cards. He did not. I asked where the ATM was. He said around the block, on the high street. I asked where I could find a memory card, and he said on the high street as well. I said thanks and went toward the high street.

By this time my feet already hurt, I was giddy and light-headed from lack of nutrients (I'd only had a Gatorade or something which was oddly carbonated), and I was terrified I'd miss the Tennant signing so I was hurrying about with a crazed look in my eye.

Turning the corner from Earl's Court, I saw a cluster of Doctor Who cosplayers. I recognized them by the tall ginger dressed as a police kissogram, and I gasped and said, "Amy Pond!" As I trotted off (on a mission, remember), I heard the Amy cosplayer say excitedly to her friends, "She had a TARDIS tattoo on her arm! Did you see?" It made my day! Well, among other things.

Let's skip to the part where I found a memory card on Earl's Court Road, took cash out of a nearby cash machine, and booked it back to the exhibition center wherein David Tennant awaited me. I was sweaty and disgusting, but luckily I'd straightened my hair the night before (good thinking Meg), and had, on a stroke of genius, brought my comb with which to fix my bangs. Thank god, otherwise I'd have looked a right crazy person.

Right. Let's see some of the sights that met me upon my arrival at the Entertainment Media Show.












Okay this is great -- they had a stall selling American Stuff! LMFAO. Lucky Charms, Pop Tarts, Skittles? I had no idea this was a commodity at English geek conventions. I was so amused so I took photos.

Anyway, back the topic at hand: the deal with the Tennant signing was that you had to get a little ticket that had a number on, and when your number was written on the little white board (as shown at the beginning of this post), you could queue up for an autograph. I ended up buying some swag while waiting, because I found out you could pay for your autograph by credit card, so I spent a bit of my cash (I'm so responsible) and then bought vouchers for the signing with my debit card, and after that spent more of my cash on an autograph from Joe Flanigan from Stargate Atlantis. I pretty much just throw cash at celebs from geeky shows now.

So long story short I ended up in line for David Tennant, and I was so nervous and excited (and malnourished) that I was shaking. I'd dropped my camera earlier due to the strap coming undone (don't worry Dad it's fine), so I was clutching that under one arm, I had a bag of swag on my wrist, and a photo for David to sign in the other hand. I felt so awkward as I neared him, and I prepared my TARDIS tattoo in preparation to show it to him, but as soon as it was my turn... I clammed up. I absolutely froze. He signed the photo, looked up at me (into my eyes), and said, "There you go," in that glorious Scottish voice from the gods. I smiled as ridiculously as only a fangirl could and said, "Thank you!" before scampering off in a dizzy rush. And that was that.

I know, how lame, I didn't even show him my tattoo, I didn't say how much I love him, or that he's amazing, or that I dream about him often or that his freckles are so beautiful or that I've drawn renditions of him on many post-it notes to pass the time at work because he is the perfect Doctor in my mind. I didn't say it. Not any of it! Ugh, I am so awkward. Epic fail. Although I'm sure we can all agree it would've been horrible if I'd mentioned the freckles thing.

Anyway, here's a stupid photo I took while waiting in line. GUESS WHO:




DAVID I LOVE YOU.

Now that that's out of my system...

Oh yes, I mentioned Joe Flanigan. Well! Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of Stargate in all its forms, except for Stargate Universe, which was dumb and trying too hard to be like Battlestar Galactica. So the fact that John Sheppard, I mean Joe Flanigan was there got me super excited. I kept slowly walking past his little section of table, taking photos from afar before shuffling away, but finally I worked up the courage (and £15) to meet him. By the time I went up there the con was on its way to closing, so not many people were about. I picked out my favorite photo and gave my name to the member of staff so he could personalize it, and went up to him. You may imagine I was suave, that I played it cool and was like, "Oh hey Joe. What's up. I'm just hanging out, you know, being smooth and cool and collected," but no. Not whatsoever. I rambled at him, you guys. I RAMBLED SO MUCH. I was still giddy from David Tennant, and I hadn't eaten, and I just went off. I said something like, "I'm such a huge Stargate fan, seriously! I've been working up the nerve to come over here forever! I seriously loved Stargate Atlantis! I was on the tube for hours on the way here, dying of heat! Oh, I came in from Uxbridge! Yeah I'm American, hahahaahahahaha yeah! Oh I saw David Tennant earlier that was fun, can I have a photo?! ...No that's not how it works, sorry, you have to look through the viewfinder, sorry, yeah, no just use the lens to zoom out, sorry, yeah it should... There you go, yeah, did it work? No, okay another one, okay... okay yay! Thanks! Good! Thanks for the photo! Okay this was awesome, you made my day seriously! Thank you so much, okay bye!" That is, not joking, almost exactly how it went. I mean he said things in the midst of it, like "Oh you're American" and "Where did you come in from" and "It was nice meeting you" but... oh god. I am such a spaz, you guys. Such. A spaz. FML.




OH WELL, I got a photo at least! Even after the staff lady had a million issues using my camera, and clearly didn't hear what I said about zooming out with the lens. Oh well, I think I look rather okay, despite internally having a seizure and having run all over London in the hot sun for hours beforehand. Go me! (It's the straight hair, I swear. Saves you from all kinds of frumpiness.)

At the end of the day, I came away with some pretty awesome swag (photos 5 for £10!):






Mission: accomplished. Of course the trek home was its own adventure, which I will tell briefly. I made it all the way back to Uxbridge on nothing but Gatorade, water, and a small muffin. By then it was 7:50pm. I was waiting for the bus, and was suddenly overcome with the feeling that I was about to faint. So, not really looking forward to passing out on the overly hot bus back to Brunel, I ran across the street to The Good Yarn, a pub I'd gone to earlier in the week with Shaun. I asked for water and chips, and planted myself at a table for the next hour. It took me about that long to recover, after three glasses of water and a bowl of chips (i.e. French fries, just in case anyone reading this is super American). When I was considering going back out to catch the bus, a random drunk man came up to me and decided we should be friends. Turned out he'd been drinking all day watching football (soccer), came to the pub, and was now apparently chatting up girls half his age. His name was John and he was a London cab driver. I wanted to ask if he ever thought of using his profession as a way to kidnap and murder people, but I didn't think that would go over well and I doubt he was a fan of Sherlock anyway.

Here's me in the bathroom of the pub, reacting to the events of the day:






And there's The Good Yarn! It's a pretty awesome pub. Every time I've gone in there it's mostly old British dudes drinking pints, and they have some super cheap food. Shaun and I got sausages, chips, and beans (3 sausages each, guys) for £3.20 apiece. Ridiculously awesome! If you visit me I'll take you there, guaranteed.

So, long story long, I think today was a success. I came home to all of my flat mates having a bit of a party in the kitchen, so I joined them and was offered wine and gherkins (tiny pickles), the latter of which I refused. Now I'm still completely jacked up from everything, although I think if I got in bed I might just pass out instantaneously. You never know until you try.

Aaaand last but not least:

My Room

Like a proper genius, I failed to bring my Canon with me yesterday on my adventures. Thus you will not see photos of them in my blog. Woe! You may ask, "What did you do yesterday that I should care about or want photos from?" Well! I'll tell you, even if you didn't ask that and are just scrolling down hoping for some more double-decker bus photos. Sorry, nope, just pictures of my room in fact.

As I said, though, I had adventures yesterday! First, I went and toured the BBC Television Center with Shaun. I had a hell of a time with public transport on the way there, and long story short I showed up several minutes late, but they'd waited for me thanks to Shaun, and therefore we had a magical fangirly time in the BBC. It was really fun, and the two tour guides were informative as well as hilarious, so it was perfect. There were photos and quotes from various BBC shows along the hallways, and every time we saw something from Sherlock or Doctor Who we'd flail and squee, and once we saw a photo of Mark Gatiss which was exciting, and we also saw things like Cyberman heads and Daleks and the TARDIS (again? How many are there in London?). Run-on sentence, sorry, but the excitement cannot be contained in a normal-length sentence!

After the BBC we had a quick bite and then took the tube to Camden Town, which turns out to be amazing, and which I'd better just let you experience for yourselves in the form of my fabulous photography the next time I go there. It was really a feast for the senses, with stalls of food and clothing and jewelery and lots of pubs and music and vintage shops and countless statues of horses for some reason. It was incredible, and so fun. I'll definitely be back to take a billion pictures. So, patience.

Now that that's out of the way, I thought I'd post some more boring day-to-day photos, mostly for my mom, and for friends back home who I'm sure are just dying to see what my dorm room is like. Hint: it looks like every other dorm room in the entire world.
















Before you ask, yes I am watching Doctor Who Confidential on my Macbook. I'm depressed that they canceled it; what a great show. It was almost more fun than Doctor Who itself, but only just.

As you can see I didn't bother to straighten up before taking photos of the room. There's an empty water bottle on the floor by my bed under the window, if you missed it. Classy stuff happening right there. Also those Cheddars on my desk are addictive and I urge you to stay away from them! They're worse than Pringles. Well, maybe not worse but I definitely popped and I can't stop. Harr harr. Also I bought PG Tips because they didn't have English Breakfast at the campus market (how dare they), but I haven't had it yet as it's been too warm to drink hot tea. I'm scared it'll be gross and I bought a whole box of the stuff.

Clearly it's time for me to stop writing here or I'll just start rambling about completely random things, such as my classes, which nobody needs to hear about. Maybe I'll share some of my ~deep thoughts~ in a later post, but for now, this is all you get.

Lazy Monday

Being a dweeb in my dorm room, as usual, but this time taking photos. As you can see I don't have anything on the walls yet, mostly because I keep forgetting to buy thumbtacks and/or sticky tack (do these exist in the UK?), and also because I haven't anything to hang on the walls yet. I'm thinking I need a "keep calm and [insert nerdy thing here]" poster, as well as something Doctor Who or Sherlock related, but not sure yet where to acquire those. I also need to pick up some cheap frames for the rest of the photos I printed out of Greg! I miss that boy more than anything right now.

Other than lack of real decorations, I do like my room a lot. Having an en-suite bathroom is pretty awesome, because sharing bathrooms is so seven years ago (can you believe it's seven years ago I was a freshman in college? JEEEZ). The bed came equipped with sheets, a pillow, and a down comforter, but why is the duvet such a gross color? Sigh, we takes what we gets I guess! At least Leppy, the green pillow (which my mom left behind, not sure if she meant to), my red throw, and my Union Jack make things cozier.




I did a bit of shopping today in Uxbridge; just some essentials. I wandered in the Chimes shopping center and checked out New Look and River Island, but steered away from Topshop as I know I shouldn't spend that much money. Going shopping again with Shaun on Thursday though, so maybe I'll cave and buy one or two things. I am in need of a winter coat, a slightly bigger purse (my current one hasn't quite been cutting it), a coin purse, and maybe some winter boots but I'll probs hold off on those for a while. I did end up getting a saucepan and a frying pan from TK Maxx, which is basically TJ Maxx but British. Also got a tiny strainer for pasta and a wooden spoon for stirring purposes. I think I'm all set to make beans or pasta, and to fry up those frozen sausages I bought! Excite. Oh and I also got some Pepsi Max, toilet paper, and cereal from Poundland. Need to find a tiny thing of milk, and some tea, and I think I'll be pretty much set.

Now that you are aware of my shopping lists, oh boy, I think I'll go get some reading done before I get sucked into tumblr or fanfic or something. Must be responsible now! I'm a grad student after all.

Sherlock Holmes Adventure

Oh. My god. First let me just say: today was the best day. EVER. Look at that picture up there. Just look at it. Do you recognize it? Do you? Hmm I wonder why it could be such an interesting place... OH WAIT IT'S BECAUSE THEY FILMED SHERLOCK THERE. That's right, it's the outside of 221b Baker Street in BBC's Sherlock, only my favorite thing in the world ever (aside from Doctor Who and Greg and Dr Pepper)!

So let me just explain. My friend Shaun, who I know from way back in Montana, was the one who initially inspired me to move to London for grad school because she was coming here to study Library Science. She arrived in London a day before me, so we finally met up today to have a day of Sherlocky fangirl adventure! The first stop on our list was, of course, Speedy's Cafe on North Gower Street. We had lunch of fish & chips there, and discussed many dorky things and giggled a lot and were giddy. It pretty much ruled. If you like Sherlock and are able, you should go there; the man working there (the owner?) will tell you all about the filming and stuff. Amazeballs!





Our tour didn't stop there, though. After the fake Baker Street we headed over to the actual 221b Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Turned out that tickets were 6 pounds (jeez Louise), so we just went into the gift shop and took photos of that and each bought a little Baker Street plaque for 4 pounds before leaving. It was super dorky and tons of fun.

















After Baker Street we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus (which is not, contrary to what I used to believe, an actual circus with elephants and a tent). While waiting for the train we discovered that, excitingly enough, the Baker Street tube station is chock full of Sherlock Holmes's visage! Behold.









Oh man. The awesome things never end in London, you guys. Even the tube stations are full of photo ops. Anyway, Piccadilly Circus was incredible, and kind of felt like the Times Square of London but with a lot fewer flashy lights and more double-decker buses. There were human statues lining the street, people piled onto every conceivable sitting place, and a constant moving throng of humanity on all sides. I loved it. Can you spot me freaking the eff out below?





London is a lot more fun with a friend who's been there before. Shaun lived in London for four months while studying abroad in college, so she knew her way around for the most part and took us from Piccadilly Circus down to Trafalgar Square. The walk there was beautiful in itself; I can't get enough of the architecture here. You just don't get that kind of old stately beauty in the States, you really don't.

Trafalgar Square was exciting as well, but the sun was so bright I didn't get many decent photos there so you'll have to wait to see the lions and Nelson's Penis Tower or whatever until later. We did go into the National Portrait Gallery because we'd heard a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch might be in there, but sadly it must have been removed months before and was no longer on display. It was just before this discovery that we'd both wolfed down Mars bars at an inhuman speed, so needless to say we were disappointed and nauseous.

Not to be daunted, however, we decided to "walk it off" by ambling up into Soho. At first we thought it was some weird strip club neighborhood, but soon we came out of a little alley into a cool hipster-y street with weird hipster cafes and many fabric shops.

If that weren't exciting enough, eventually we ended up on Oxford Street, which... let me tell you. It is full, chock-full, of shopping. There are two H&Ms within like a block of each other. Two! Should that be allowed? That should not be allowed. And yet it is. We mere mortals shall not complain. There was also Aldo, New Look, American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, and a bunch of other shops to tempt us. Luckily Shaun had a play to get to at 7:30, so we did some quick shopping in H&M (I limited myself! I swear!) and then took the Bakerloo line together before parting ways at the Piccadilly line. I nearly fell asleep on the way back to Uxbridge; that's how exciting my day was! Super exciting, guys. Super exciting.

Sorry I didn't take any photos in Soho, it wasn't stereotypically British enough for me. I only take photos of the Union Jack, double-decker buses, and Big Ben. Tough luck. ♥

London Calling

Home again home again jiggity jig! Oh wait I'm not home, I'm thousands of miles away from my home country. I always thought of England as my soul's home, but the past few days have been so hectic and exhausting that I'm rethinking that assumption.

That's not to say it's awful here; it's not! It's incredible! But I'm suffering from jet lag (still), culture shock, homesickness, crippling fear and introversion, and an extreme case of missing Greg. I'm so glad to be here, but it may be a while before I feel comfortable and happy here. Real life is overwhelming; I kinda just want to do touristy things forever.

Luckily my mom and I were able to take the tube into the city yesterday, so here are some photos from that. It was a lot of fun, and of course the first thing I wanted to see was the TARDIS at Earl's Court! (Not to mention Earl's Court and all the Underground stations totally makes me think of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.)
























Anyway I'd write more but at the moment my computer is going so slow it's like 1995. I think I may just burst a blood vessel in my brain if I try to navigate this nonsense any longer. Hopefully I'll do a proper update about my life soon. There are so many things to write about!