going to London tomorrow to do the touristy thing.
i have had a lot of fun here and i can't believe how amazing people are. i had a lot of fun this past week. i went to see the band the dead sixties and they were pretty rad. thanks to joey, i already knew some of their songs.
i want to a fancy restaurant with my flat mate. i ate a monkfish. i think that it was buddhist. haha
last night, turned it into tequila thursday and partied like a rock star at this place called fez. i think i broke pete's hand by accident :S what are you gonna do huh?
i went punting today. pictures seriously to come since i will be on a proper laptop now. if you don't hear from me for a while it is due to my transition period between destinations.
going to nashville for a week on sunday, going to watch john mayer on the 3rd!!! woooOOOhOOOO
connecticut til the end of august
home til 12th of september
and then holland onwards.
oh life. its funny how times keeps to just slip slip slip by. it is cool though. i like england. but then again i think that i will like a lot of places :) there are some really cool people out there. just gotta go find them ;)
cheers
-normandy
Friday 27 July 2007
Tuesday 24 July 2007
normandy. that's my new name.
i have officially turned into this arbitrarily set stage in my life known as 23. i think it is just a cause for a party. like a personal national holiday. i quite like it, since i will at least remember it for a while. and every country i go, we can always celebrate my birthday.
this year my flat mates in cambridge threw me a nice big party with lots of people, fun and most definately wine. it seemed like the fridge was never empty. like a dream come true. so we had fun that night eating the salmon that they cooked and the cake. yeah a nice cherry cake.
here are a few highlights of the evening.
1. i discovered the trees in the garden outside are full of blackberries
2. when you dance with a full glass of wine you actually might spill it
3. bob was upset with his phone, so he took a hammer to it [yeah regretted it the next day]
4. i won a cappucino from pete, since we bet on some dating situation that was unfolding before our eyes
5. learned how to salsa.
6. some how decided that i REALLY did not want to dance hula in front of peole. odd yes i know.
7. i learned some useful life skill points. how to roll a cigarette. i just figured that i would learn in case i was in the hood by accident and the way to save my life would be rolling a cigarette, then i would be fine. i dont plan on starting to smoke, so don't worry about that.
8.lost simon's shoe somehow
9.i decided to wear this little backpack and people would fill it with presents and i wouldn't open it til the morning. and i didnt. [the contents: 50p, lollipop, 2 books, cd, boomarang, canary island cigars, 2 heavy rocks and string] i think it was a brilliant idea. and it was great in the morning.
10. i some how managed to stay up til 4 even when i started drinking at 4 in the afternoon. i think that is a new personal record
the next day was equally fun. i leaned how to ride a unicycle (slightly hungover). another life skill. we took the boomarang to the park. that was fun. til bob broke it on a fence. had my cappuccino ;) went to the gorgeous botanical garden. oh yeah i went to the museum the day before. it was amazing. i find that i am amazed by totem poles and their construction. there was a really cool maori exhibit and it reminded me of amy and our deep talk about indigenous people under my kukui nut tree.
oh yeah and the title of this blog is normandy, since i have a new name now. bob was a bit drunk and kept calling me different regions of france until he decided to settle on normandy, which some how caught on with everyone there. i like it. its kinda sexy.
tata for now. i am done making excuses on why i dont have any pictures up. truth is they are not there.
-normandy
this year my flat mates in cambridge threw me a nice big party with lots of people, fun and most definately wine. it seemed like the fridge was never empty. like a dream come true. so we had fun that night eating the salmon that they cooked and the cake. yeah a nice cherry cake.
here are a few highlights of the evening.
1. i discovered the trees in the garden outside are full of blackberries
2. when you dance with a full glass of wine you actually might spill it
3. bob was upset with his phone, so he took a hammer to it [yeah regretted it the next day]
4. i won a cappucino from pete, since we bet on some dating situation that was unfolding before our eyes
5. learned how to salsa.
6. some how decided that i REALLY did not want to dance hula in front of peole. odd yes i know.
7. i learned some useful life skill points. how to roll a cigarette. i just figured that i would learn in case i was in the hood by accident and the way to save my life would be rolling a cigarette, then i would be fine. i dont plan on starting to smoke, so don't worry about that.
8.lost simon's shoe somehow
9.i decided to wear this little backpack and people would fill it with presents and i wouldn't open it til the morning. and i didnt. [the contents: 50p, lollipop, 2 books, cd, boomarang, canary island cigars, 2 heavy rocks and string] i think it was a brilliant idea. and it was great in the morning.
10. i some how managed to stay up til 4 even when i started drinking at 4 in the afternoon. i think that is a new personal record
the next day was equally fun. i leaned how to ride a unicycle (slightly hungover). another life skill. we took the boomarang to the park. that was fun. til bob broke it on a fence. had my cappuccino ;) went to the gorgeous botanical garden. oh yeah i went to the museum the day before. it was amazing. i find that i am amazed by totem poles and their construction. there was a really cool maori exhibit and it reminded me of amy and our deep talk about indigenous people under my kukui nut tree.
oh yeah and the title of this blog is normandy, since i have a new name now. bob was a bit drunk and kept calling me different regions of france until he decided to settle on normandy, which some how caught on with everyone there. i like it. its kinda sexy.
tata for now. i am done making excuses on why i dont have any pictures up. truth is they are not there.
-normandy
Saturday 14 July 2007
signs you know that you are in a foriegn country
so i went to the nederlands last weekend. these are a few things are key signs to know that you are not as close to home as you may think.
1: everytime you hop on and off a plane you need to show your passport
2: you are on the plane and they are speaking in a completly foriegn language
3: you get off the plane and there are english words but they are teeny weeny under the extremely long arrangement of letters. letters that you know but not like that.
4: the trains are nice except when this dumb chick got her arm stuck in the door as we were leaving and the train almost started! yeah she was being silly
5: to be in the conversation people have to stop and translate for you. ie, the laugh and you have a puzzled look on your face, someone interprets it for you and you let out a very delayed laugh to go with the rest.
6: yet a different currency. looks like pounds but not.
7: there are more bikes than cars
8: you feel like a midget because everyone is at least 6 feet tall. even the old people are tall. i think its because they drink excessive amounts of milk.
9: lots of things are very orderly, such as iefke's house, karin's neighbor's yard
10: you find yourself trying to learn a new language, which is fun and new but hard with a lot of gurgling noises.
11: oh yeah and water polo practice. yeah went to one of those. try to go to one where no one is speaking english. oh yes you just follow and smile.
so i had fun while i was there. karin's house is pretty huge. that is where i am going to be living next year. i love it she even has an indo board and two papasan chairs. she said that i can paint one of her walls and that she will take me to barcelona. humm nice. i had fun riding on the back of her bike and seeing the city a little bit. then i was at ief's house. it looks like you opened a modern magazine and that was it. it was really nice and neat. ief and koen took me around, saw the beach went to a casino, ate stroopwaffles from the market. that was amazing. saw some of those windmill things. wooden shoes. things like that. guess we know what is everyone's bday/christmas presents are going to be next year ;)
currently in cambridge, i think i am obsessed with books. i just read pompeii, started to read siddartha, a book about drawing, and this weird book about people's lives in a bland way. today i hung out at this big park called jesus green, had a picnic and read books. it was nice compared to the annoying morning of downtown sunny tourist ville of cambridge. i dunno why i was so annoyed with the tourist, i was one too but it was just like ahhh what the heck.
i made some friends here. we watched this indie flick last night about the dixie chicks saying they were not into bush and the whole entire drama around that. it was better than i thought it would be. then we went out dancing in a spur of the moment way. it was great.
lost my converter, gotta buy a new one which = cool pictures up
1: everytime you hop on and off a plane you need to show your passport
2: you are on the plane and they are speaking in a completly foriegn language
3: you get off the plane and there are english words but they are teeny weeny under the extremely long arrangement of letters. letters that you know but not like that.
4: the trains are nice except when this dumb chick got her arm stuck in the door as we were leaving and the train almost started! yeah she was being silly
5: to be in the conversation people have to stop and translate for you. ie, the laugh and you have a puzzled look on your face, someone interprets it for you and you let out a very delayed laugh to go with the rest.
6: yet a different currency. looks like pounds but not.
7: there are more bikes than cars
8: you feel like a midget because everyone is at least 6 feet tall. even the old people are tall. i think its because they drink excessive amounts of milk.
9: lots of things are very orderly, such as iefke's house, karin's neighbor's yard
10: you find yourself trying to learn a new language, which is fun and new but hard with a lot of gurgling noises.
11: oh yeah and water polo practice. yeah went to one of those. try to go to one where no one is speaking english. oh yes you just follow and smile.
so i had fun while i was there. karin's house is pretty huge. that is where i am going to be living next year. i love it she even has an indo board and two papasan chairs. she said that i can paint one of her walls and that she will take me to barcelona. humm nice. i had fun riding on the back of her bike and seeing the city a little bit. then i was at ief's house. it looks like you opened a modern magazine and that was it. it was really nice and neat. ief and koen took me around, saw the beach went to a casino, ate stroopwaffles from the market. that was amazing. saw some of those windmill things. wooden shoes. things like that. guess we know what is everyone's bday/christmas presents are going to be next year ;)
currently in cambridge, i think i am obsessed with books. i just read pompeii, started to read siddartha, a book about drawing, and this weird book about people's lives in a bland way. today i hung out at this big park called jesus green, had a picnic and read books. it was nice compared to the annoying morning of downtown sunny tourist ville of cambridge. i dunno why i was so annoyed with the tourist, i was one too but it was just like ahhh what the heck.
i made some friends here. we watched this indie flick last night about the dixie chicks saying they were not into bush and the whole entire drama around that. it was better than i thought it would be. then we went out dancing in a spur of the moment way. it was great.
lost my converter, gotta buy a new one which = cool pictures up
Monday 2 July 2007
from exeter to cambridge
i apologize ahead of time to those very avid readers of brittany adventures. as i do when i talk, i tend to ramble on a bit. so if you feel that these entries are too long, let me know and i will work on trying to do something about it. once again pathetic update on pictures. i am at work again and no pics with me. good news place i am staying in has internet, so it could be quite soon!!
+++LAST WEEK IN EXETER+++
tues = same old at work. went over to aude's house for an african dinner (since she is from benin) after i played squash with ben and dave. i did really bad since they are too professional for me and i started questioning my devotion to the sport, but realized i had a lot to learn. anyways after we had dinner at aude's we played 3D connect 4 which is really crazy/fun/think a lot. it was great with a bunch of really smart people since they all have different logic.
wed = played squash with aude after work. we are on the same level so it is good for the beginner like me. the went went shopping and rode back home on aude's bike which TREMEBNDOUSLY cut down commutting time. it was so nice. i went over to her place because it was her roommate's birthday. it was hilarious since guy's dinners are meat bread cheese and a lot of alcohol. it was just me and aude and a bunch of guys playing some quiz game on play station and then hanging out talking about life. this french dude who has the same name as daniel quinica's 300 lb friend, who looks nothing like him, and i were comparing the few tahitian words that he knew with hawaiian ones. it was fun. i made friends with this italian guy who was quite charming and gave me a ride home since it was late.
thurs = winding down to my last days at exeter. it has been great since every tea session had some sort of cake. yes it was mostly my doing. i played squash with the italian who was really cool and helped me get better. from tues-> thurs i became a changed woman. it was great since he would tell me what i wasa doing wrong. then i had to hurry home since i was having friends over for the last supper. i made an extravagant meal of spagghetti and salad and all the cheese in my fridge. i did make brushetta for the first time which came out quite good! so we huung out and played pictionary. i think me and aude can read each others mind sometimes. it was creepy a little. we had two cakes for my "birthday" yes i know this year we are starting early ;D. i had to wash everything in the world and pack to go to cambridge, but i thought it would be an injustice not to finish the bottle of wine that was left. there was about 3/4 of it left. i am not sure that it actually helped the whole cleaning process AT ALL.
fri = loaded up my 2 bags, meike's guitar and everything into suzanne's car and went to work. my bags are so FREAKIN heavy!! just keep this in mind for the rest of this entry. they each seperately weighed like 100lbs. and not too mention the guitar and my backpack full of stuff. so it was a half day at exeter and i was mindlessly doing not much as i cleaned up my things. my friends that i made at exeter got me a tshirt and a necklace and i thought that was sooo very sweet. they are so cool! i am really glad that i met them.
so suzanne, andy bunker (really cool astronomer guy), and i headed down to the trainstation. jumped on and headed out. *this is where it gets interesting* so our train is delayed because there was a suicide on the tracks ahead of us, so we jump off the train in london paddington (where it is wild an hectic) run over to the place where we catch the tube. don't forget that we have ALL my luggage and suzanne has a giant backpack, andy has nothing but helping me with all my stuff. we have to lug everything up a huge flight of stairs to get to the place you get to the tube(subway). that tube is delayed so we catch another one that connects one stop down. no elevators there either. we get to this place called kings cross where we have 2 minutes to RUN across the station to get to the cambridge train. if we miss this then it is a 45 min wait for the next one and we have dinner to go to in cambridge. so running with ALL this luggage and barely make it on the train. when we get to cambridge we are trying to get a taxi , we put everything into a taxi and it doesnt fit so he kicks us out. the taxi next to us is a massive van but the guy wont take us because some sexi cute girl is walking over! whatever. we FINALLY make it to the place that i am staying in and are just like woohoo.
it is a really nice place. my room is teeny weeny. basically a bed a window about 2m to the wall and thats about it. the rest of the house is really cool. i am living with 3 guys. you can kinda tell by the organization of things. so we drop my stuff and run over to the dinner that we were trying to make it to. we made it. we ate and hung out and it was fine.
sat = suanne and andy went to a rememberance service for a friend that passed away and i met up with them at suzanne's flat in the afternoon since they were having a litto get together. i hung out with pete (the guy who's house i am in) and bob (the other guy staying in there) in the morning and had an amazing cappucino from an italian joint. hung out at suzanne's all day with her and her friends. decided that i am going to teach myself dutch with the books that she has.
we went to a pub. played some games. then went to a thai place. it was really good. went to another pub had a guiness (which i decided i really don't like). made some more friends.
sun = cruised around the city centre and adventured cambridge. it is really cool and old and stuff. soooo touristy! blah that is one thing i can do without. i know i am a toursist but i mean i dunno whatever. suzanne met me and showed me where newton lived and where rutherford figured out the structure of DNA. oh just the litto old place. what the heck isn't that CRAZY?!?! i cant even remember all the names that she was droppin. it was like WWII all over again.
we bought books at borders and read them in a park. i went back for a shower at pete's then back to suzanne's. i know i have been there a lot. i skated there and skating on cobblestone isn't the easiest. but there were some really cool places though and smooth ones. suzanne lives in a flat that is next to this giant house where a lot of people live. so every sunday they have dinner together. there was about 16 people there and it was really nice. like a big family. met a whole bunch of cool people. later on in the evening we ended up getting into a religion discussion since this polish girl is a born again christian who encountered an atheist. humm put 2 and 2 together. funny thing she didnt think english was my first language for some reason. then she did then decided it was beautiful. went home sleep, etc.
mon = first day working at the institute of astronomy in cambridge. it is a nice facility by the time that i found it. i think i took the weirdest way to find it but luckily i did. i have a nice office here and you would think i am famous and important or something. haha i am really good at faking it all.
that is that.
life
to be continued...
+++LAST WEEK IN EXETER+++
tues = same old at work. went over to aude's house for an african dinner (since she is from benin) after i played squash with ben and dave. i did really bad since they are too professional for me and i started questioning my devotion to the sport, but realized i had a lot to learn. anyways after we had dinner at aude's we played 3D connect 4 which is really crazy/fun/think a lot. it was great with a bunch of really smart people since they all have different logic.
wed = played squash with aude after work. we are on the same level so it is good for the beginner like me. the went went shopping and rode back home on aude's bike which TREMEBNDOUSLY cut down commutting time. it was so nice. i went over to her place because it was her roommate's birthday. it was hilarious since guy's dinners are meat bread cheese and a lot of alcohol. it was just me and aude and a bunch of guys playing some quiz game on play station and then hanging out talking about life. this french dude who has the same name as daniel quinica's 300 lb friend, who looks nothing like him, and i were comparing the few tahitian words that he knew with hawaiian ones. it was fun. i made friends with this italian guy who was quite charming and gave me a ride home since it was late.
thurs = winding down to my last days at exeter. it has been great since every tea session had some sort of cake. yes it was mostly my doing. i played squash with the italian who was really cool and helped me get better. from tues-> thurs i became a changed woman. it was great since he would tell me what i wasa doing wrong. then i had to hurry home since i was having friends over for the last supper. i made an extravagant meal of spagghetti and salad and all the cheese in my fridge. i did make brushetta for the first time which came out quite good! so we huung out and played pictionary. i think me and aude can read each others mind sometimes. it was creepy a little. we had two cakes for my "birthday" yes i know this year we are starting early ;D. i had to wash everything in the world and pack to go to cambridge, but i thought it would be an injustice not to finish the bottle of wine that was left. there was about 3/4 of it left. i am not sure that it actually helped the whole cleaning process AT ALL.
fri = loaded up my 2 bags, meike's guitar and everything into suzanne's car and went to work. my bags are so FREAKIN heavy!! just keep this in mind for the rest of this entry. they each seperately weighed like 100lbs. and not too mention the guitar and my backpack full of stuff. so it was a half day at exeter and i was mindlessly doing not much as i cleaned up my things. my friends that i made at exeter got me a tshirt and a necklace and i thought that was sooo very sweet. they are so cool! i am really glad that i met them.
so suzanne, andy bunker (really cool astronomer guy), and i headed down to the trainstation. jumped on and headed out. *this is where it gets interesting* so our train is delayed because there was a suicide on the tracks ahead of us, so we jump off the train in london paddington (where it is wild an hectic) run over to the place where we catch the tube. don't forget that we have ALL my luggage and suzanne has a giant backpack, andy has nothing but helping me with all my stuff. we have to lug everything up a huge flight of stairs to get to the place you get to the tube(subway). that tube is delayed so we catch another one that connects one stop down. no elevators there either. we get to this place called kings cross where we have 2 minutes to RUN across the station to get to the cambridge train. if we miss this then it is a 45 min wait for the next one and we have dinner to go to in cambridge. so running with ALL this luggage and barely make it on the train. when we get to cambridge we are trying to get a taxi , we put everything into a taxi and it doesnt fit so he kicks us out. the taxi next to us is a massive van but the guy wont take us because some sexi cute girl is walking over! whatever. we FINALLY make it to the place that i am staying in and are just like woohoo.
it is a really nice place. my room is teeny weeny. basically a bed a window about 2m to the wall and thats about it. the rest of the house is really cool. i am living with 3 guys. you can kinda tell by the organization of things. so we drop my stuff and run over to the dinner that we were trying to make it to. we made it. we ate and hung out and it was fine.
sat = suanne and andy went to a rememberance service for a friend that passed away and i met up with them at suzanne's flat in the afternoon since they were having a litto get together. i hung out with pete (the guy who's house i am in) and bob (the other guy staying in there) in the morning and had an amazing cappucino from an italian joint. hung out at suzanne's all day with her and her friends. decided that i am going to teach myself dutch with the books that she has.
we went to a pub. played some games. then went to a thai place. it was really good. went to another pub had a guiness (which i decided i really don't like). made some more friends.
sun = cruised around the city centre and adventured cambridge. it is really cool and old and stuff. soooo touristy! blah that is one thing i can do without. i know i am a toursist but i mean i dunno whatever. suzanne met me and showed me where newton lived and where rutherford figured out the structure of DNA. oh just the litto old place. what the heck isn't that CRAZY?!?! i cant even remember all the names that she was droppin. it was like WWII all over again.
we bought books at borders and read them in a park. i went back for a shower at pete's then back to suzanne's. i know i have been there a lot. i skated there and skating on cobblestone isn't the easiest. but there were some really cool places though and smooth ones. suzanne lives in a flat that is next to this giant house where a lot of people live. so every sunday they have dinner together. there was about 16 people there and it was really nice. like a big family. met a whole bunch of cool people. later on in the evening we ended up getting into a religion discussion since this polish girl is a born again christian who encountered an atheist. humm put 2 and 2 together. funny thing she didnt think english was my first language for some reason. then she did then decided it was beautiful. went home sleep, etc.
mon = first day working at the institute of astronomy in cambridge. it is a nice facility by the time that i found it. i think i took the weirdest way to find it but luckily i did. i have a nice office here and you would think i am famous and important or something. haha i am really good at faking it all.
that is that.
life
to be continued...
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