Since I finished the bulk of all my essays before my friend arrived, the whole time she was here I felt extremely relaxed and was really happy to spend time with her. The day she arrived I met her at Liverpool St. Station and from there we walked to Spitalfields market (which was empty since it was a weekday) and I bought a few books for £1 each. We walked around Brick Lane for a bit before hopping on the tube and getting off at St. James Park where we did the walk from Buckingham Palace, past Big Ben along South Bank. We stopped at the book stalls underneath the one bridge and browsed there but it was too chilly and so we walked further on to the Tate Modern. I had just been there a month ago for a class trip but my friend, Monica, had never been before, or to London for that matter. Since she has worked in a museum before she pointed out things, like the layout of the artwork in the rooms, to me that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. Cris met us there after work and after the museum we headed up to St. Paul’s and then took the tube to Southgate and Cris’ flat. We ate dinner there and chilled out for a bit, mainly because Monica had been up since 4am.

The next day Monica and I went to Leicester Square, was yet again tempted by all the bookstores on Charing Cross Rd. and then finally  to the National Gallery to see the exhibition on Renoir landscapes. After that we scouted out the rest of the museum with Monica’s Art History and Religion knowledge. It was getting late and we planned to go out that night so we walked over to Piccadilly Circus, stopping off at Lillywhites so Monica could get a new pair of sneakers that she was in desperate need of! (We compared the condition of our beat up shoes and hers won!) They were on sale for £12 and I liked them so I bought a pair too. We quickly got ready at my flat only to take a long time having our pasta, drinking wine and talking. By the time we got to Cris flat (he was the only one I could convince to come out with us, though we made a bargain that I’d help edit his essay due on that monday) it was pretty late but we caught one of the last tubes to tottenham court rd and found the club we were looking for- The Roxy. It was only £3 to get in, there were good drink deals and a really good selection of music (some of which I hadn’t heard in a long time, like The Offspring!). So Teenage Kicks @The Roxy is being added to our indie night calendar!

The next day Monica and I decided to get up at a leisurely pace since we got back late the night before but we ended up getting up earlier than the day before, so we went to Camden Market. I love showing people Camden Market, because Monica kept saying “is this is?” and I would say “no, there’s more”. On this particular day however we were both weren’t our usual money controlling selves. We both bought zipper bags because it was a good deal, she bought some tea, I bought a journal and a belt for £1. But we should have expected that, you can never go to a market “just to look”. After that we returned once more to Cris and Damon’s flat, or should I say the stressed out study flat. Petros was there helping Damon study. They all graciously took time out of their studying (well, I didn’t really have to twist their arm) and the five of us walked to ASDA and returned home to make dinner. We ate our quesadillas in their living room where Damon had lit lots of little candles. It was the first time in a long time that their flat had that many people in it! It was a nice little dinner while it lasted, but then Damon and Cris had to get back to work. Monica left that night to catch the bus to the airport for her early morning flight and had a few adventures on the way to round off her entire trip. When she left I couldn’t believe that 3days had gone by already.

The day of deadlines was a major relief to everyone. Suddenly you saw people called your friends, that you hadn’t seen in weeks. Cris, Damon and I met some of Damon’s friends at Wetherspoons after 5pm. Then Cris and I pub hopped over to The Goat to meet Evan and Bertan joined us. The atmosphere was light and we talked about TV shows (mainly current American ones like Lost and Heros) and sports. After that we headed to Tesco and ran into a bunch of our other friends who were on their way to the party at Evan’s flat. We stocked up on supplies and then headed over to Evan’s flat and ran into the rest of our crew. It was great to finally see everyone all together especially since the uni bar has been closed for a few weeks and that was our main meeting place.

The next day Cris, Evan, Bertan and I hung out a bit since Evan was leaving for the States the next day. Later on a couple more of our friends joined us  and we had dinner at Wetherspoons (one leaving for the states the day after, one staying; it’s hard to keep track of who’s leaving when, for how long and if they will ever be back). The next day I had to run around North London (and get lost, but see the . . . uh. . . sights?) to find Middlesex’s New Southgate administrative campus. Damon is working there for the summer but as luck would have it he doesn’t have a phone, and just as I was about to give up I found the place! And this was on the hottest day in London! (It’s now currently freezing and raining.) After that I headed back to Ponders End to make and eat dinner with Raggy who was leaving for Rome the next day to visit her sister and go to a concert. Thursday was The Twins’ Unbirthday. Two of my friends have the same birthday, different year, but in August when no one will be around to celebrate so they decided to have a party anyway. They went all out and bought balloons and card games for four year olds which we somehow managed to mess up because someone (I won’t name names) didn’t read the directions properly. It was pretty fun and a chance to see the ever dwindling group again.

Friday, Cris, Damon and I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela. They’re from Mexico and play spanish  guitar and are pretty amazing. (http://www.rodgab.com/) Afterwards Damon and I were still up for some fun (Cris went home to work on his website) and so we went to Club NME (New Musical Express, a music magazine) at KOKO’s, where we definitely didn’t feel hip enough compared to the NME kids. We had a good night anyway, KOKO’s is an amazing venue, it’s this huge, old elaborate theatre now used as a venue/indie club. The next night I dragged the boys plus Bertan and Max to see the film, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. It was really good; even if you weren’t that big of fan a lot of the stories about Joe or things he himself said were pretty funny and it didn’t focus too much on just his career in The Clash.

Yesterday I had breakfast with a New Paltz friend and we talked about going back home and how strange that will be. It will be really weird to live with my parents again, after being used to living in my own flat and cooking all my own meals. What will be even weirder is that when I go back to the U.S. I won’t be able to drink. Not that this has a major impact on my life or is a major need, but it’ll be strange. Here, I’m used to being able to stroll into a pub, bar, club with no problem. I’m used to meeting a friend for a drink and a long conversation or a great indie night out (yeah and no indie nights either), it will just be strange to suddenly be dubbed too young to do any of these things. Money-wise, as everyone says, the States will feel like everything is half off. There will be no more curfew with the tube and night buses to get home, but there will also be no more incredible markets, no indie nights, no trashy free LondonLite or LondonPaper newspapers on the tube, no tiny fridges and for the most part healthier, fresher outlook on eating. And no erratic weather either! (its changed from sunny to rainy twice since I’ve written this!)

Anyway, there’s yet another birthday party tonight though many of the group are gone. I’ll be leaving soon as well though it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Part of me does want to go home, especially since here those who are staying have already started summer jobs and I need to find one as well, but part of me wonders if the English ever truly get a proper summer!

So….the semester is almost over. Mixed emotions for me. I am happy to be done with classes and on my way to traveling, but I am sad because I have made some absolutely amazing friends here.

I have 3 exams, which aren’t looking to tough. They are in about 2 weeks, so I am starting to study day by day a little bit. We have a going away party planned for next week when everyone is done with classes. The theme is superheros and villians. Our entire apartment will be dressing up and hanging out for one last time.

I was extremly sick last week. I somehow managed to get strep throat and tonsilitis, over the period of just about one day. Of course it was on a Saturday, so the uni doctor wasn’t open, so I had to go to a health center which cost me about 160 dollars for the visit and medication. It sucked. As soon as I took the meds though, I was feeling 100% better.

I have some plans set in stone for when school ends. I have two art openings to attend. One at the place that I have been volunteering and the other is one of my friends who I have been working with here. The Dali Lama is coming to Australia and giving 2 free public talks in the Royal Botanical Gardens which I am definitley going to. I purchased a ticket to Tasmania for 6 days with my sister. Then after that her friend comes to Sydney and we all go to Cairns, to do some diving and snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. My sister also surprised me with concert tickets to go see about 7 artists play for the Live Earth Concert. This is a concert with 24 hours of music in every continent, put on by Al Gore to raise money and awareness for global warming. So excited.

I also recently acted in another flatmates movie, that she has to do for her film studies class. I played a druggie who goes to this guys house to steal his money. I make up this crazy dream while he is making me coffee to distract him and keep him talking and interested, and then steal his money. It was so much fun, but so tiring. The filming took all day, and now I am helping her edit it because she is unfamiliar with the program. It should come out awesome though.

This weekend was a blast too. Our flatmate Ricky won a night in a hotel, so we all went and hung out there on Sat. night. We all ended up going out at about 2am to the bars then going back at 5am, going to sleep, waking up to check out at 10am and having free breakfast at the hotel. It was a blast!!

Well time to finish studying.

Cheers!

I realized i haven’t posted in a bit, but this week was an important one: i had my italian exam. I’m pretty sure all went well, but it was a huge ordeal. Plus a few of my friends left, so we were pretty busy here with the goodbye parties.

Day 2 was also spent in Taormina, mostly lounging on the beach.
We paid a student rate of 5 euro and got beach chairs and umbrellas, and enjoyed the view of the turquoise water. It’s always a bit strange to go to the beach in italy because they are very free (meaning lots of topless women and speedoed guys), and i’m still just getting used to it.

For lunch we went up to the center of town to eat at this restaurant i read about in the guidebook. The food was awesome – i had rigatoni alla norma, which is a typical sicilian dish. It is baked rigatoni with red sauce, eggplants, cheese, and basil. However, we had the worst waiter ever! When we tried to order 3 different items (you know, for 3 different people), he got all huffy and rolled his eyes, trying to explain that it’s so much easier for everyone if we all order the same thing and the chef can make 3 portions. We refused to do that, and he said it would just take longer to get the food.

This is not a problem because in italy, one usually waits about 45 minutes to recieve the food. The restaurants here, while they serve some of the best food i’ve ever had, are lacking as far as customer interaction. I do like the american style of dining better, where waiters/waitresses will come around and ask if you need anything and bring fresh bread, etc. Nobody does that in italy, because they don’t make their money in tips. They have a standard salary, so they don’t have to put on the performance. But i miss the performance!! It’s more hospitable!

We went back to the hotel and channel surfed a bit, which is always an adventure when you can find a tv. Italian tv is mostly goofy male comedians and scantily clad women giggling and looking pretty. We did find Funniest Home Videos and watched the Professional, both in italian.

Day 3 was spent travelling from Taormina, on the east side, to Trapani, in the west. Sicily is a small place, but when you have to rely on public transportation, it can take a while to get around. We had arrived really late because our train was an hour and half late, so the town was pretty much closed. We had to take a taxi over to the bed and breakfast – it was so cute and homey. They also had a huge tv with dvd’s and a computer. We watched the Truman show in italian and went to sleep. The people who owned it were also really friendly and accomodating.

I can safely say that Sicily is one of the most beautiful places i’ve ever seen. Alison, Erica and I left Urbino on the 4th of May and made our way to Pisa, where we flew to Trapani, on the northwestern coast of the island. We opted to fly rather than take the train, since the train means 13 hours in the same tiny box with lots of possibly smelly people.

The night we arrived, we got stuck in Trapani. We stayed in a hotel for the night because there were no buses or trains running at the late late hour of 9pm. That was one of the most difficult things to deal with in Sicily – the public transportation was a lot less reliable than mainland Italy. Twice during our vacation, our trains were an hour late.

The next day we woke up super early (5am) and got ourselves to Taormina, which took some time (forever). We wandered around, did a little souvenir-shopping, ate cannoli and went to the Greco-Roman Theater, one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. During the summer they actually still put on shows and operas. The view from the top of this place was like no other.
There were so many gorgeous views in Taormina. The town is perched on the side of a mountain, so it’s easy to get up high and look down to the rocky coast and turquoise water. In the theater it was great because you could walk all over – we sat in the same spot where greek people watched tragedies and romans watched gladiators fight lions over 2 millenia ago. It’s completely mind-blowing.
After the theater, we went to the public garden, which also afforded beautiful views, along with plenty of shade and roses. We hung out there for a bit and I wrote some postcards while resting my feet. It was a great place to relax. We also had to suppress the urge to pick the oranges and lemons from the trees. (The whole of Sicily is covered in groves and groves of bright citrus trees.)
We crossed the street and ate at the Ristorante Ai Giardini, or Restaurant at the Gardens. I got caprese salad and some fried calamari. I had made a promise to myself to eat seafood everyday while I was in sicily, but it ended up falling through soon after this meal…most times we were too strapped for cash and time to sit down to a dinner.
The hotel we stayed at that night was decent – Cundari Inn. It was clean and the people were friendly, but it was still at 40-minute bus ride from Taormina, but probably only 10-15 minutes in a car.
One thing I did notice about visiting Taormina is the mass amounts of Germans. Taormina is a resort-type of city, which relies heavily on tourism. Apparently Germans are to Italian tourism what the Japanese are to New York City tourism. Even in Urbino, there are lots of German couples walking around, taking in the scenery for the weekend. Here it was more like NYC because there were tourists by the busload.

So this last week and a half has been filled with tons of things going on.

Firstly, Fashion Week was not what I expected on a bad note. The volunteers were very poorly organized and they had way way too many for the amount of jobs they had. The first day I spent sitting around for a few hours and then I decided to just leave. The next day I went I brought my friend Heleen with me and we just walked around into dressing rooms and makeup rooms asking if anyone needed any help. We got plenty of jobs that way, rather than just hanging out all day waiting for the head woman to say “I need 10 people”, and then herds of girls run to try to be those “10″ people. Heleen and I got the job of being the San Pellegrino Guys bottle openers. We pretty much stood behind the runways, opening up bottles and refilling the guys trays so they could go out and give samples to all of the designers and buyers (AKA the people with a whole lot of money!). That job was run because we got to see almost every runway show, so it was a plus. We only ended up going back one more day for about and hour, and then left again, but hey we got a free Lee shirt so its ok!!

So school for me is not really school right now. Everyone in my Faculty is student teaching so we don’t have classes for 4 weeks. Its like another break before exams. So with my free schedule I got given a free Ceramics class by the head of the art center I have been volunteering at. It started this Wed. and was awesome. I was so happy to be back working with clay again. Its so nice.

On Thursday, my friends and I got tickets to go see a show at this place called the Forum, we went and saw Sneaky Sound System. They were so so so good!!! One of the best live shows so far that I have seen. The crowd was great, everybody was dancing and at one point we got pushed so far up we were all almost in the front row!! Then Last night I went to go see another show at the Metro and I went to go see Muscles and Architecture in Helsinki. Muscles is a crazy DJ who jams out on these funky electro keyboards and the sings as well. Very good beats and nice sound. Architecture was a large band who has a funk/electro/reggae feel to them. There is a lead singer then tons of instruments, bongos and a trombone!! At one point in their last song, the crowd jumped on stage and were dancing with them. It was hilarious trying to watch the security guards get them down.

My trip is sadly winding down. I only have about 2months left and it feels like nothing. I am planning some trips with my sister once school ends so that should be awesome. Off to clean my room and go for a run!

Cheers!!

The semester is really starting to wind down and it’s bringing up a mixture of emotions in everybody. Last friday the group got together for one last night out with Will who left on Monday to go back to the States. Saturday Cris, Damon, Bertan and I went to a night called Casino Royale at Barfly, specifically for DJ Black Knight. We had gone to this same event in October or so and really enjoyed the music. The four of us ended the night by stepping up on the small stage and dancing to Bloc Party’s “Banquet” and then Blur’s “Song2″. Sunday a large group of us went to Wetherspoons to have sunday roast dinner sort of in honor of Will even though he didn’t show up. We then went back to Flat 19 and hung out in the kitchen, drank white russians and played charades. Will came back to the flat and then we got to say our last goodbye to him.

Monday and Tuesday I worked on essays. Tuesday was the last pub quiz and at it Petros and I decided that we should dress up for the last Half Time. We wondered what to dress as and then looked over and saw Damon at the table and we decided to dress like him. It was sort of a big inside joke and so on Wednesday most of our friends showed up dressed as Damon, wearing stripes and we handed out sheep nametags. It was fun and I’m glad we dressed up because so did several other people at this last, packed Half Time. There were smurfs, batman and robin, and teenage mutant ninja turtles! Thursday I went to class and returned library books and then came home with even more. Friday I went to Trent Park campus because I had a tutorial about the last essay I have to write. Then I met up with a girl from my postmodern class who used to go to New Paltz and lives in LI for a drink. It was cool to talk to her because we got to chat about things that are similar/different about the US and England and things we like and don’t like. After that I headed over to Enfield Campus where I live and met up with a sparse group of friends for the last “Fun Friday” at the Forum. Some of us were kind of sad for the small turnout or that it was just our last “Fun Friday” of the semester but we still had a good time, good if not strange talks and lots of laughter.

Today until Wednesday will be spent on finishing as much of my essays as possible since Wednesday my friend studying Amsterdam is coming to visit. Most everyone’s deadlines is May21 so everyone is a bit stressed, tired, and sometimes dismal. Though on the 22nd I’m sure we’ll all feel alive again and everything will look much better.

Last friday night I had to leave my group of friends early because I started having intense pain in my lower back. Damon said I was just dehyrdated, it was my kidneys hurting and I should drink some water. So I went back to my flat and did just that. But the pain grew worse and my stomach hurt as well as my right side. I thought maybe it was the Carling but I had barely two pints. It wasn’t that. I thought maybe my stomach had too much acid in it so I took some antacid and Petros brought me over some cammomile tea. That helped my stomach a little but the instense pain in my side persisted. I then remembered the night before when I woke up with a pain in my back, took aspirin, went back to sleep and took nothing of it. I wondered what that was a result of. The pain worsened and Cris and Petros asked what side it was that hurt, I said my right and they both looked at each other and said “appendix”. Now I was really freaked out.

Eventually I felt good enough to sleep. I was thinking about my flight to Spain the next morning and something told me I wasn’t going to make it. I was right. Two hours later the pain had returned. I woke up and decided to go to the hospital. I remembered some insurance thing called Medex that I bought from SUNY and Cris called them for me to see if they suggested we go to a specific hospital. Good thing Cris talked to the woman for me because I don’t think I would have been able to stand it! She asked all sorts of questions, and really random ones too like the ID number on my New Paltz and Middlesex IDs. I would have thought that most of my information would be in a database somewhere since I was issued a card with a number on it, but apparently not. Finally we were recommended two hospitals, in Central London of course and I’m in North London. It was now 5am and by the time we got the bus to the tube luckily it was already running.

I was so happy to finally arrive at London Bridge and see that the hospital was right across the street, however that’s where my happiness ended. We soon found out that the London Bridge Hospital that was recommended, was actually a private hospital with no emergency room, no doctos until monday and unavailable anyway unless you’ve booked an appointment. A lot of good that would have done me! I don’t understand why I was recommended to go there, especially if I was in fear that my ailment might be appendicitis! Across the street was another hospital (not recommended) but we tried there anyway, however it was closed until 8am!

Finally we took the tube to the second recommended hospital and hoped this one was open, had doctors and an emergency room- what I would have thought to be standard procedure for a hospital! After around an hour or so of waiting I got to see a doctor at St. Thomas’ Hospital. My pain at this point had almost entirely gone away however I discovered that it was due to a urinary or kidney infection and the pain in my back was in fact my kidneys. We were also told that any hospital will provide this service (emergency room check up) for free because of England’s NHS healthcare, however at the time I feared I would have to be kept in overnight and wanted to go with what the insurance said. Armed with antibiotics and instructions to drink loads of water, Cris and  I crossed westminster bridge, got on the tube and headed north.

For five days or so after I mainly stayed at home, took antibiotics for three days, and drank loads of water. On Wednesday my pain was fully gone and I celebrated this by writing part of my essay : ( This is not a good time to fall ill not only because I missed my flight to Spain to visit Ang but also because I have tons of work to do for my deadlines. I do feel a little stupid though because I know that I have issues with getting dehydrated easily, though at least this happened here and not while I was meant to be in Spain! Medex called me on Monday to check that I was alright, however I was caught so off-guard by the brief phonecall that I didn’t have a chance to ask why they would suggest a private hospital that wouldn’t treat me! But, I’m fully recovered and feeling alive and pain free again, the only change is that I now have a constant water bottle by my side!