Halloween

Things I was for Halloween:

A penguin




Sarah


(non-costumed photo of Sarah I stole off her facebook page for reference)


(detail of my "nose ring")

Churches

Friday's trip. It rained a lot.

LIES. IT'S ALL LIES.

there is nothing at the end of a rainbow.

London

I wasn't sure what to title this one. I was thinking something along the lines of "One stop", or "'Sir, please stay off the Queen's wall.'", or even giving in to my childish amusement at the "Piccadilly line to Cockfoster" tube ride; but giving that those were somewhat inside-joke-y, I considered general Britishy goodness, such as "Pip pip" and "Blimey. Marmalade." In the end, I was not confident enough to use any of these because I feel only a small handfull of you would be privy to the joke. Cheers.

You came here for London. I'll tell you how brilliant it was. Then I'll tell you the terrible bits. Stick around.



I flew in very late, arriving at about 1 am, where I was able to catch a bus to Baker Street, which was several blocks from Russell Square, where my hostel was located. During normal hours, I would have taken the tube to Russell Square station, but because of the late time the tube no longer ran. Not feeling perky enough to attempt to find a nightbus, I walked.
It took an hour.
The small map I recieved from the bus station had poorly labeled streets, but eventually I discovered groups of rental bikes with maps saying "YOU ARE HERE.", which I thought enormously helpful until I swear each of them told me to go in a different direction than the previous map.

I made it eventually, and was able to be in bed by 2:30. Oh- and, this was my room:

(This is bad, even by hostel standards.)
It was also entirely co-ed, which made going to the (communal) bathroom verrry awkward. Excuse me-- the 'loo'. (see: what I bought at the Queen's Gallery.)

At 7:00 that same morning, I was up again and somewhat ready to walk to Amanda's hostel by 9. Google maps in hand, I set off, only to lose my way somewhere around the time the directions said to continue onto a street, then turn right onto that street, then turn left onto that street, then turn right again. Onto the street I was already on. Baffled, I did my best to eyeball the direction I needed, crossing the river at the London Bridge, which offered this view:

which cheered me up a tish, until it started raining.
Thankfully, that did not last long, but neither did my directional sense, as I failed for 65 minutes to find Jamaica street.
I arrived at the Thameside Hostel a little after ten, where I snuck in their gate behind a real boarder, and immediately requested that we stop for breakfast. (Oh yes-- did I mention I did this all on having not eaten since 5:00 the night before?)

Once I was stuffing a muffin in my mouth we decended into the London tube for some complicated transfers. It was nice to simply follow wherever Amanda and Caroline went and not have to think about the train myself. It was weird that the English make you use your ticket to get OUT of the station as well as in.

As Buckingham Palace (or "Buckminster", as Amanda misquotes) did not change their guard until Sunday, we instead walked a long way for some well-known cupcakes:

and Portobello Road market. (Which would have been amazing if I had 300p to spend on antiques.):




Then we took some pictures of the Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.



Then we went to an Bella Italiana for dinner, and then I went back to the hostel early because I was so tired. Unfortunately, my new room mates were 8 loud and rowdy Irish lads, who did a lot of odd chanting-like songs and made fun of each other. Loudly.

Sunday continued on with the changing of the guard, which wasn't until 11:30, which was grand as we had some time in the morning. We agreed to meet at 10 at a milkshake shop, which I couldn't find, so I ended up going to the guard by myself. It was cold. I took a lot of pictures.

They're changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice..



Fortunately I found the milkshake shop later and the girls were theres still. Then we went here:

wait for it..

waiiit..

a-Yep. That's me going to Hogwarts.

And here's the Globe Theater:


And the London Eye! First they made us watch a video, complete with 3D glasses, a fog machine, a bubble machine, a snow machine, and a sprinkly-water machine. It was horrible and hilarious.
Then the ride:


And Amanda volunteered me for this silly photo:


Then dinner at another Italian restaurant. They stuck us in a back alcove. It was oddly romantic. :P

Monday was museum day! (Monday was also Emma-thought-the-bank-froze-her-account day)
The British Museum:




(Look, Cara! An African chicken!)
and the National Gallery, but we couldn't take pictures there. :(
Amanda and Caroline were super late to the BM, and I waited for an hour an a half. At one point, the security guard came up to me and said, "I don't think they're coming."
On the plus side, they had plugs on the walls and I was able to charge my camera battery.

Then we had afternoon tea:

and put me on the train back to Luton Airport! Bye bye London..

...and hello worst 24 hours of my life.


So-- Got back to Dublin at about 11pm. Couldn't find a bus to anywhere near Ballyvaughan, so I hopped on one to Galway, hoping to find something there. At 2 we arrived. I found out that Citylink and Go Bus don't stop at any small towns, but a nice cab driver told me I could probably find one from Bus Eirean, and gave me directions to their bus station. They didn't have a complete timetable posted, and the security guard didn't know anything, and it started raining in the middle of the night in Galway, so I was forced back to the Citylink/Go Bus station where at least I could sit. All night. In 60 and minus temperature. Good thing I had "Her Majesty's Guide to the Queen's English" to keep me entertained. (This is the reference to what I bought at the Queen's Gallery, btdubs. Also, yes, I am a super nerd.)
I have a new sympathy for homeless people.
At 7 am, I walked over to the other station again to see if I could find a bus to Ballyvaughan, which after some looking around and asking I found one that left at 10:30. So I had a couple hours to stand around in the rain. And the ticket machine ate one of my fivers. And I was 3 hours late to school on midterm crits.



so, to recap: London was full of Londony things, like red buses and red phones, and black cabs

and living in the middle of nowhere is horrible when you have to get back by a certain time. Went 34 hours without sleep, 16 without food, and 29 without being warm (5 without being dry).

But, ooooohhh, London was fantastic. <3

Rewind to Friday

It was cold and rainy. We left to view old Celtic sites that later became Christian sites.

An earth rain fort:


A wedge tomb:


Then it was raining too hard and we decided not to go to the cliff fort. Which was fine because I needed to leave early to catch my flight.

Instead of going to stupid creative writing today I vote I go bite Lucy for making me so stressed out.

Tuesday updates

-Whew! Mixed media project #2 went well. I am pleased, was very nervous! (It was sort of a performance)

-SAIC stopped being bums after 4 weeks and what I hope was a stern phone call from mein mutti. Hurray money!

-Hurray I can finally book my return flight! (I was getting worried there!) Will not be going to Italy, sad Emma.

-New photo assignment is tableau vivant. As a photographer who likes to catch moments rather than stage them, WHAT?! It's either going to be really fun or really horrid.

-It's starting to look less light out when I wake up in the morning.

-Get to see Amanda in 3 days! (No, not in France. Wahh.)

-Painted a self-portrait and did a great job shading the face, until I realized it is about 13 shades too dark. Didn't anyone know I'm part Mediterranean?
(tip: don't start with the shadows.)



Photo uploading is disabled temporarily for maintenance apparently so if I had any new pictures you wouldn't be able to see them anyway. Superspecialawesome shots after this weekend though! :DD

Midterms

So apparently we're all retarded and miterms are NEXT week. Sweet.

Blrrrgh.

7:21 am. My room. Puking.

Been up since 5:30. Sickies have been floating around the school, hopefully this is just alcohol-induced. (ha! that's a great wish.)

Yesterday started out great. Slept in, then bused to Gort where we wished WE had 3 super cheap grocery stores. Emily and I literally stopped traffic. (I like to imagine it was because we're super hot, not because people are nice and we were crossing the road.)

Came home and watched 2 out of 10 Star Trek movies that were marathon-running on film4. Khaaan!

This week was Sarah's 21st, but since people were in London she waited until the weekend to celebrate it. Unless they showed up after I went to bed, the only person that came from the other houses was Emily K., which was super lame of grads.
Played some games, had some sangria, felt a little sick got sleepy and went to bed. (pictures later. Maybe. They're not that exciting.) Woke up later, dunno what time but I heard Devin talking so somebody was still up. (Felt fine then.) Woke up again at half five and you know the rest.

Pretty sure there's nothing left in my stomach, so not sure why I still feel so nauseous.. naseous? too sick to spell :((

Cliffs of Moher

Today in art camp we went on a field trip to the cliffs of moher! it was sooo fantastic.






I was worried earlier in the week because Kimberly didn't want to pay the 10 euro for it so we were going to just go to Ennis but then she got sick so we got to go yayy! (Sorry Kim. Feel better!)


In other good news, the water is ok!

In bad news, midterms next week aaaaahhh!

October 13th

Today it was foggy allll day.

Spiders! Spiders everywhere!

Today in art camp we had photo activity. Martina took us to an old manor house near Galway owned by a very batty man. The house is completely falling apart and is stuffed full of cobwebs, dust, and things he's collected.

Things like taxidermied animals on the staircase:

100 year old fire trucks and gypsy wagons:


chairs, other junk, mold:


And don't forget the dead birds:


There's more photos-- I took 377 pictures, the whole CF card. There was so much shit everywhere. And we all came out of it with little black spiders in our hair. Aaargh I can still feel them crawling on me!

On the way back, a hunting party:

I like photo field trips :).


tonight: MILKSHAKE PARTY!