Nevím, jak mluvit česky

     ...and you probably don't either.

     Thank God for Google Translate.

London Love, Kristen

"Let's Just See Where Life Takes Us"

     There is a certain beauty of having class only three days a week. A facet of this beauty lies in the fact that I can explore the city for as long as I want to at night without having to worry about waking up early for class four days a week. This was exercised earlier this week when I met up with my new friend Rad (remember him?).
     I've been in London for awhile now and I've navigated and explored the city a lot. So when I don't recognize a Tube stop, it gets a little curious and fearful that I'm going to get lost (and I think we've already established my susceptibility to getting lost.) Nevertheless, I trusted Rad to navigate for the both of us, seeing as he is a native, and we managed to not get lost at all (thank god.)
     The night began casually with catching up, pleasant conversation, and of course more political debate. Then we moved on to another new part of the city for me to see a concert in a small pub basement. I have to say it was really nice to be seeing a show in a basement where not everyone was terrified that it would spontaneously ignite at any given moment (yes, that has happened before.) And London has proved it's talents again with two incredible bands. I'm seriously going to hate not being able to find pub bands when I go back to the States.
     The first was Grass House. Admitedly, I was skeptical at first. But after listening to the whole set I think they're really onto something. They may be a little ahead of their time, but I like it and it can see them going places.
     Now the second band was soooooooo gooooood. Houndmouth is still really new and only has one EP but they're reealllly good. They're actually American but had a hard time making it there. So they're trying the UK to see if that works better.
     After the show, Rad and I went exploring some more and found ourselves at a small jazz pub in Shoreditch. We were literally the only ones in the pub with the exception of the bartender (who is now my new best friend.)
     All in all, yet another wonderful evening exploring the city with a really amazing guy. See what beautiful things happen when you just see where life wants to take you?

London Love, Kristen

I Could Have Touched Heaven

     In order to properly understand what I'm going to talk about you need to see this:

     That massive land formation in the background, my friends, is Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest point in Edinburgh and has the most beautiful views of the city and of Scotland. You can see for miles past the city where the farms start to lay out and the sea comes to the coast.

     On our last day, a few of us decided to hike it. Well, it ended up being more like a sprint up to the top due to a time crunch, but we made it nonetheless. And my abs felt wonderful after it, so that's good. At the top I found absolutely no disappointment. It was breathtaking and it was majestic and it was pure. When I was at the Abbey, I felt this sense of understanding and clarity with myself as a person and human, and being at the top of Arthur's Seat brought me the same thing. I felt infinite; I was infinite. 

     If I may have a moment of complete honesty, I began writing these entries with the intention of finding inspiration to properly relay the impact that Scotland, Finnigan's Wake, and Arthur's seat had on me. Yet I have to admit that I'm struggling for the words. It all means so much to me and I feel like a broken record, but in all sincerity I can't explain how much I loved every moment and what it did for my experience of this country. Perhaps one day I'll find a more eloquent and novella worthy manner of explaining this experience, but for now, I think I'm still in awe.

    So in that case, I think I'll just let some of the pictures speak for themselves:

And this one's for my fellow Dukes and Ambassadors:

London Love, Kristen

I'm Shipping Up To Scotland

Brief unrelated preface: my deepest apologies for my absence as of late. Too much life living and school work, not enough hours in the day.

     Edinburgh: the one weekend in Scotland that I will never forget. And if I had the ability to live a night over again, it would be my first night in Edinburgh at Finnegan's Wake (clarifier: it's a pub, not an actual wake for someone named Finnegan).
     The beautiful thing about Edinburgh, and Scotland in general, is how incredibly homey it feels. It's a smaller city, but it functions much differently than that of London. Its foundation is not only based on historical presence, but also tradition, customs, and an overall sense of family. Now by that I don't mean that everyone is creepily related because they marry their cousins, I simply mean that strangers are welcome just the same as old friends. It's a purely pleasant place that just feels comfortable.
     And Finnegan's Wake was no exception. Ironically enough, it's an Irish pub in the middle in the middle of Scotland. The band playing there consisted of a few middle aged men playing a mixture of Scotch and Irish folk songs, the Killers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dropkick Murphy's, Journey, etc. ("Don't Stop Believin'" came on at one point, and for any JMU kiddos out there....well you know what happens when that song comes on). Let's just say it was the best Scotch-Irish-JMU pub/party that I have been to.
     I hate to make it sound like a fairytale, but for that night, everyone lived happily ever after. Everyone left with warm hearts, new friends, and first-hand knowledge that Scotland is one of the most beautiful places in the world, inside and out.
     The following night we returned to Finnegan's Wake only to find another glorious night. Different band but it was equally as fun and the Aussie bartender invented a new drink for me and my friend. Sorry Mom and Dad that I'm making that a highlight, but you got to admit that's pretty cool :)

London Love, Kristen

PS- We discovered that you can take any song with "Boston" in it and change it to "Scotland" and it still sounds normal. Hence, the title of this entry.

Critical Update: Sog, Rad, Puss, & Aud

     I received a message from Rad today inquiring as to when our next meeting and sharing of conversation will be. In the spirit of full disclosure, a scene may or may not have been had in the middle of Forever 21 due to unexpected and superfluous giddiness.
     That is the end of this update.

London Love, Kristen

Whitman Has Songs of Himself, Women Have Rationalities For Themselves

     At various points in a woman's life, she will feel the need to celebrate. Tradition has it that celebrations include (but are not limited to) drinks, food, dancing, "getting dolled up", and/or shopping. The celebratory experience that occurred this past week included a very skewed and estrogen-filled take on this celebration.
     Now as women, we tend to be very....conscious of our food and drink intake (something about how women are always insecure about their weight. I mean who does that, right?). So instead of going out for some drinks and flirting at a pub, we stayed in our yoga pants and went hard core grocery shopping to buy two bags of frozen french fries, 2 loaves of garlic bread, a pepperoni pizza, and an assortment of British biscuits and crisps (biscuits = cookies; crisps = potato chips... yeah, I got colloquialisms.) The night started out as so:

We also needed paper towels, but that's beside the point.

     I wish there was an "after" picture, however I was so monumentally full of junk food and regret that I could not do so. Now, mind you, this IS NOT an everyday occurance. We were merely done with classes for the week and wanted to enjoy some quality time together to celebrate. So rather than drinking our calories, we ate them.... quite a lot of them. But it was filled with wonderful company, a few Beyonce youtube videos, and quality "girl talk." 

     IMPORTANT: I would also like to add that we all went on a 5 mile run this morning to rid ourselves of any left over regret and shame for out actions the night before.

     Thus is the theory and rationality behind the celebratory actions of women.

London Love, Kristen

For Your Viewing Pleasure

     I've been noticing that I have a tendency to use a lot of words, particularly with this blog. Today's post will be a deterrent from that course as I will now show you some of my favorite pictures that I have taken thus far. But of course since it is me, I may be adding "brief" commentary to my selections.

Bedford Place: This is one of the first pictures I took here. It's just down the street from my flat, but to me it's one of the most London-esque scenes I've yet to see.

The Streets: En route to the British Library, I snapped this in the middle of the street. It's so ordinary, but I can't tell you how much I love it. For some reason Mumford & Sons "Winter Winds" comes into my head every time I see it.

Tower Bridge: Ever lovely and, surprisingly, kind of green.

Scene of It All: From inside the gates of White Castle.

Big Ben: the most iconic London image and beautiful building in the city.

Big Ben II: I just like to play with angles.

On the Thames: The London Eye and a riverboat. I feel like I keep taking postcard snapshots instead of artistic pictures. Oh well, I'll still take it.

Cutty Sark: I don't remember a thing about the story of the Cutty Sark. But they turned it into a monument in the middle of Greenwich Square so I guess it has a pretty good one.

Is This UVA?: No, it's not UVA. It's just Greenwich Park... just casually being wonderful.

The Middle of the Universe: This is the marker for the Prime Meridian. 

In Two Different Worlds: In many ways, I was in two different worlds standing there. It wasn't just eastern and western hemispheres, it was (ok, sorry about this. English major problems) like a metaphor for my adventure over here: straddling my culture and a new culture, where my life was and where it's going.

Perfect: Greenwich is perfect. This town made me feel like I was home, and I would love to call it that someday.

As Always, London Love, Kristen