So the last time I wrote was when my father came to visit. I'm actually going to go back slightly further and touch on my week off--especially because it allows me to think of cooler times. I mean like temperature-wise. Excellent.
So. I caught my flight from Marseille to Birmingham, from where I took a bus to London. This all went pretty smoothly--well, for me. Granted, I thought I was going to miss my flight and then had to walk around Birmingham at night trying to find the bus station then forgot that England isn't the same time zone as France so was freaking out about missing my bus too...but yeah, that's my definition of "smooth"--and I met up with the lovely Isa St. Clair, who was studying at BADA for the fall (check out her blog from her semester in Londres! http://poggiolondon.blogspot.com/ ) at the Edgware tube station, right near her flat.
We caught up and had excellent lovin' times, then Sunday we had a lovely time wandering around London, hitting up TopShop (obv necessary...come on, it's London!), admiring the Tudors (&Billy Shakes, duh) at the National Portrait Gallery, devouring fish and chips and bangers and mash (teehee...see below) at a sweet-awesome pub with cider/beer on the side, etc. You know, the usual.
Monday I was due to fly out to Dublin where I'd stay in a hostel in the city and just generally be Irish. Yeah so that didn't really work out so well...I planned to buy my ferry-train ticket from Dublin to Edinburgh at Victoria Station before I went out to Gatwick, but that took so long and the man at the window clearly had no idea what was going on (fricken websites that tell me things are possible--LIARS) and I didn't get to the airport until about 1/2 hour before my flight was supposed to leave and I didn't have any way of leaving Dublin even if I made the flight, so I decided to just go back to Isa's then take the train directly to Edinburgh from Londres. Much better decision in the end, I think. I'll obvi get to Dublin sometime, it just wasn't in the cards for October.
So instead of the rainy, cold couple of days (yet how wonderful does that sound right now...) in Dublin, I got to hang out with Iz-dogg for longer. Tuesday night, the night before my train to Edinburgh to meet up with the incomparable Tarra Martin, we two Williamstownies went to a wonderful pub that also serves thai food (apparently this is a thing in London...thai food in pubs...who would've thought? Not that I'm complaining, of course), then stopped in the bar around the corner from her flat. What's amazing about my friendship with Isa (one of the many things, really), is that we have known each other pretty much our entire lives, but we manage to still have an incredible connection that has evolved so much--there aren't many people who can keep up with my Shakespeare nerd-osity, but Miss St.Clair is the one who even manages to surpass me...sometimes ;) But seriously, I'm so glad we had this time together, she's a wonderful person and friend. Love you Isa!!
That Wednesday, I went to Hogwarts. Not really. But I DID take a train from Kings Cross Station to Scotland...so basically I'm a wizard. Except I went to Edinburgh. The conductor must have gotten confused. Also I have this horrible fear every time I'm on a train--or really any sort of public transportation..thanks Williamstown--that I'm on the wrong one, or going the wrong direction, or something. Luckily I was in fact on my way to Tarra's loving arms. She met me at the train station and walked me back to her flat, and I got to see the Old City, which is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was my first time in Scotland (my homeland--okay, secondary! Erin go bragh and all that), and it felt incredible. I was surprised by the connection I felt to this city--not only is it absolutely gorgeous, but the history is palpable.
She made us a wonderful dinner of pasta, after which I met up with Mindi and Terrence (from AUCP) for a grand reunion. We also hung out the next day, again with fish and chips involved (gimme a break, it's the UK...also Mme Motte isn't big on cooking the fried deliciousness, which I'm totally cool with...but still...mmmmm), and I feel like we did something else that afternoon? I forget. Oh right we hiked! So it was Terrence's 21st birthday, so I met the two of them halfway up Prince Albert's Seat (I think that's what it's called...), then as we came down, it started raining. Obv, because it's Scotland. But all was well because GUESS WHAT THERE WAS A BAGPIPER I LOVE SCOTLAND
Umm yeah so that's awesome. Tarra was feeling under the weather (pun?), so that night I went out with my AUCPers--Joy had arrived at this point! Apparently I'm not the only one with lots o' travel woes--and we had a rollicking good time. Srsly. Santa was involved. And the first devil of the weekend...
Okay that's all I'm going to write for now, the game's starting pretty soon. If you actually read this (really it's for my benefit, so I can remember all that happened!!), respect. Thanks! and I love you.
A plus
Umm yeah so that's awesome. Tarra was feeling under the weather (pun?), so that night I went out with my AUCPers--Joy had arrived at this point! Apparently I'm not the only one with lots o' travel woes--and we had a rollicking good time. Srsly. Santa was involved. And the first devil of the weekend...
Okay that's all I'm going to write for now, the game's starting pretty soon. If you actually read this (really it's for my benefit, so I can remember all that happened!!), respect. Thanks! and I love you.
A plus
