14 Sept:
Woke up early. Hot water cut out during shower. Cleaning ladies pleasant. Tea + Toast breakfast.
Class. Boring. Theatrical theory or whatever is kind of boring. Well, it was kind of interesting, but I don’t know. Looking forward to Faustus a lot. Don’t have anything to add to class discussion.
Quick lunch. Vending machine food. Not that good. Acceptable regardless.
Went to the Globe. Faustus! Excellent.
Rory went from Dr Who to Dr Faustus. Can’t think of a joke, but there’s one there. The open air was interesting. The elements certainly added to the play. The wind blew when Helen appeared near the end of the play, made the scene much more powerful. Planes flew over when Faustus summoned Mephistopheles, and again the sound of the plane enhanced the play! Wasn’t expecting modern interference to do that.
Would/want to go to the Globe again. Must plan that—season is over soon, no?
Beautiful blond boy in the balcony. Good eye candy for sure.
Would/want to go to the Globe again. Must plan that—season is over soon, no?
Beautiful blond boy in the balcony. Good eye candy for sure.
France fell through. (I think?) We’ll see. Confusing plans. Have to pay L for ticket to Sweden—RyanAir doesn’t like American debit cards. Ah well, hope she’s all right with that, she seemed it. Been a long day.
FRESH LINENS. SO NICE. Gonna marry these cleanings ladies.
Pigeons outside flat. Pigeons are much bolder here than in the US. NYC squab are hardcore but these birds are tough and demanding. Don’t how the actours weren’t distracted by the pigeons and the aeroplanes and helicopters. That’s why they’re actours and I’m not!
Gift shop at the Globe was expensive. Expected. Pocket-sized scripts adorable.
Time to cook dinner. No class tomorrow. Nice. Homework all day. Reheated rice, minced meat steak? Not an amazing dinner. Taught card games to V and H and J. How can people not know things like poker and rummy? Ah well, bedtime.
15 Sept:
Woke up about noon. Nice long hot shower. So nice.
Tea + Toast breakfast again. Working on the US/UK log. Reading about Norman London. Need some more journals. History journals?
Mashed potatoes, zucchini, and gravy for dinner. Getting good at gravy, I guess. Alliteration. Working on homework—proposal next. B came over and gave us tickets for a music festival on Saturday. Should be great!
Staying in Brighton Friday night. Hostel, 18 people to a room? At least we’ll make up 1/3rd of the room.
Figured out how to use the washing machine to dry clothes. H almost opened it while running. Thankfully, we avoided breaking the machine. That’d be a big bill and many days without laundry. The opposite of fun.
Don’t know what’s going on tonight. We’ll see.
16 Sept:
Missed my alarm. Packed quickly. Going to Brighton. No breakfast.
Commute memorable. People got split up. Rush hour. Got to London Bridge. Big station. Waited around for a while.
Train to Brighton arrived. Confusion ensued. Got on train. Not many others did. Terrified.
OK. People on train confirm this is going to Brighton. Nice people. May get kicked off? Will they check tickets? The thrill of it all. Other passengers greatly amused by our situation. Helpful at least. Nice people, the British.
Visited the Pavilion. Opulence never looked so good. Poor George IV—most caricaturized king in history! (I think, if I remember rightly.)
Brighton shops are cute. Very hilly area—makes me think of San Francisco. Went to beach. Rocks—no sand. Lots of gnats. All shells smashed to bits. Kept one. Tide’s coming in. Only 2 people in the ocean. Pier looks like a carnival. Hungry. Brown seagulls—not white. Waves crashing in—soothing.
Discussing food situation. Seaweed everywhere. Gross.
Got fish and chips at a pub. Gnarly—waitress was really nice. Went on a wild choose hunt looking for hostel. Bad planning.
Couldn’t find the place. Livid. Moody. Walked for two hours. Feet are killing me. I want to murder the world.
Frozen yoghurt. Guess that counts for dinner? Ah well, c’est la vie. Calm down ! Don’t even like yogurt.
Would like to come back to Brighton. Nice shops. Can be cheap. Can be expensive.
Would like to come back to Brighton. Nice shops. Can be cheap. Can be expensive.
Took charge of the return home. On the train early. Looking forward to shower. Maybe a night-in? Nope, going out. Westbury. Oh well, left that early. Not in the mood.
Brighton was wonderful but hate bad planning. Sour mood. Pretty sure my clothes have melded to my body.
Tons of gorgeous guys in Brighton. Very gay neighbourhood. Definitely have to go back. Sweden next weekend? Possible. We shall see.
17 Sept:
British Library V+C; Music Festival; James =(
Learned last night the cute Australian bartender was fired. Oh no.
Learned last night the cute Australian bartender was fired. Oh no.
Worked on presentation. British Library rocks. Took a while to sign up. Library cards or “Reading Passes” were a chore to apply for.
Had to formulate a list of books I wanted before they’d allow it. Reading rooms rocked. Annoying that you had to use the exact seat number. Security reasons, I guess.
Lots of stuff about Hastings and Norman kings. English monarchy so interesting. Only got to read for an hour, rooms closed at 5PM.
Went back to flats and got ready for music festival. Terrible idea. Brick Lane Music Festival packed. Approx 8PM. Queues over an hour long for every venue/bar. Got in one—packed. Couldn’t stay long; like sardines in a tin can. Haha Radiohead.
Went with them to buy chips. B got heckled about British men about her hair. All in good fun—at least she took it that way. Nice people, the British.
Went to OLD BELL pub by flats. Karaoke. I hate karaoke. Went out to smoke after the girls performed. All the old codgers hated “the Americans ruining their own music.” They were from Dublin. An Irish Statler + Waldorf.
Slept after. Subpar time at best.
18 Sept:
Open House:
Guild Hall
Fascinating; old; honoured(?)
[insert paper here]
Stocked up on food for the week. Sainsbury > Tesco. Worked on presentation after dinner with V+C—once at FSU and later at their flat. Not looking forward to presentation tomorrow. Slept.
19 Sept:
Overslept a little. Last to shower. No hot water and half-way through the whole thing nearly cut out. Big drops. Shampoo still in my hair. Fucking wonderful.
Rush hour at Tube. Delays. Insanity, really.
Research class. Presented after the break. We spent half an hour or more—whoops. 3x the allotted length. Oh dear.
Cheese sandwich for lunch. Muy lame. Kind of full, I guess. Nothing to drink. FRIENDS on—Hate this show. History class next—not looking forward to it. Maybe security?
No security. Class was OK. Hate history but the way the professor gets into the war is exciting.
20 Sept:
Dickens walk. Arrived early, figured we’d be late honestly.
Underdressed the entire way. Walked into fashion week then the legal quartier. How decidedly underdressed we were. Still though, interesting tour.
Professor got us in the lawyer’s dining hall. The English really love their martyr king. Big portrait of Charles I, so weird. Kill him, then honour him?
Old buildings fascinating. Hated the Da Vinci Code but glad its popularity let us tour Temple Church. I guess? Don’t know how true that bit was.
Fascinated by knights and things and all the plaques there commemorating the World Wars! Really shows how much they marked the UK. Even WWII monuments in the US are rare. The one in DC is less than 10 years old, yeah?
Disco Pigs show tonight. Striking play. Sat front row—not much of an accomplishment in that small theatre but still. Accents were hard to follow but I think it added to the whole thing that much more. Use of mannequins was disturbing.
21 Sept:
Super long theatre class today. Not super excited. Wish I had purely literature classes sometimes. Additional lecture annoying—hope our class ends early like the other.
Shakespeare lecture interesting at least. Posh Billy Speares is much more interesting than the pauper William.
Think I’m the only one who enjoyed Faustus outside of Rory’s involvement. Maybe I have terribly plebeian sensibilities. Ah well. Class took all two hours. Was a pipe dream anyways. Carol Churchill—not again! Hope I like her this time round. (Not really.)
Stopped to buy a new digital camera for Sweden. Old one takes only blurry photos, but crisp video. Go to Argos. Can’t understand the procedure. Can’t understand the cashier. Get some stupid accessory kit added to it when I asked for a memory card. Couldn’t hear well. Thirty pounds I’ll never get back.
Got home and attempted to fry chicken just like my mother makes. Failed miserably. Debating on taking the tube/express train to Stansted instead of Night Buses.
Settled on the Tube. Got to Stansted about 11PM—no flights leaving anymore, people sleeping everywhere. First flight is 6AM. Nowhere for me to hunker down and sleep the night. Most of the lights off. Gonna be a rough night.
Managed to get a seat. Slept for an hour—sitting up. Uncomfortable. Some people left so I can lie down now, aces.
22 Sept:
Got about 3 hours sleep total. Whole place lit up about 4AM. More people coming in.
Extra hoops for non-EU. Annoying. Gate # appears 50min before departure, boarding stops 20min before departure. Small window.
Gate# appeared—other side of airport, great. Got there in time for a good place in the queue.
Boarded now, window seat. Hate heights. Read some Dickens, fell asleep though. Woke up when we landed; 30min early in Save/Gothenburg City Airport.
Coach driver very annoyed with me. He gave me directions in Swedish—obviously I did not follow them as I had no idea he was speaking to me. Supposed to only be 2 stops, just one for this bus. Asked him if it was the final stop at the terminal, thankfully it was. He was rude about it. Jerk.
Too early. L won’t be here for an hour or so. Can’t find the coffee house she told me about. Sitting at the end of the terminal—the terminal point one might say, hahaha.
Fell asleep. Missed 3 calls from L. Whoops. Woke up 10min before she found me. Off we go.
Don’t know a whole lot about Sweden. Being born and raised mostly in Czechoslovakia, neither does L.
Went to beautiful archipelago—the touristy thing to do, L says. Very picturesque. Whole country is, really.
Rain came in fast + hard. Hail too. Took shelter in a little cafe/inn. Lots of cafes on these islands. Got Swedish meatballs, well just meatballs made by the Swedish I guess. Anyways, they were good but still meatballs.
Coffee is very strong.
Coffee is very strong.
Take another ferry back to the mainland, long ride. Talk about linguistics. Wish I could understand 7 languages and teach 4 or whatever she does. So crazy.
Everyone in Sweden speaks English—but not everyone does it well. Can be difficult. Hej. Hejdou. All I know. And skolpada. Hello/Goodbye/Turtle.
I’ll get real far!
Extensive use of trolleys and buses in Gothenburg. Trams are a big thing here. Went to fish market. All the Swedish eat is fish and potatoes and sometimes elk/deer I swear.
Get to L’s apartment. Ate some shrimp we bought. Really unnerving. Intact. Rip heads off. Rip tails off. Grab legs and rip the rest of the shell off. Really really gross. Little black eyes stare back at you. Delicious though, don’t taste quite the same. L makes some fish dish and we have some white wine. Reminisce.
Exhausted. Go to bed.
23 Sept:
Wake up. Yoghurt in a carton—weird. Bread has seeds and nuts in it. “Very Swedish.” Bus to the city. L gives me a brief tour of the city and goes to her hair appointment. I go and read Dickens in the lobby since I have no Swedish money anyway.
Two+ hours later, she finishes. I change money. She takes me to sushi bar. Lots of sushi in Sweden. Must be the whole fish aspect. Avocado is gross. Never really ate sushi before. Here and there, one or two, never a whole platter-thing.
L has to work for a few hours. I wander around the city. Imitation London Eye—still too expensive. Gothenburg Wheel, pah! Bunch of boat museums, but I opt to see a fashion show.
So unusual to see a fashion show in a mall. Makes sense, you can buy everything they wear in the shopping centre. Still weird.
Tried to go to the boat museums. All closed. Thinking an opera? The Royal Opera? Is nearby. Call C instead. Haven’t called him from Europe yet. What a terrible brother I am. Used all my minutes. Conversation cut sort. Shit.
Can’t receive calls. Can’t make calls. Can’t send text messages. Can receive texts. Between Orange and PogoLink I might jump off a building.
Wander to try to find an internet cafe—can’t. Library doesn’t let you go online. Well, they do but only .se websites. Annoying. All the websites are like Gothenburg City or Swedish newspaper. Why the hell can’t I use google or something? God. Free wi-fi all over the city, I guess, but very limited.
Went to shopping centre—maybe something is open. NOPE! All stores close at 6PM or 7PM latest. Very lame.
Walk up and down the river; visit statues; wait for L to get off.
The plan is to stay at R’s place tonight since L’s ex is using the ap’t and they don’t wanna see each other? I guess. Beggars can’t be choosers.
Downside is the obnoxious bag and lack of clothes, as we consolidated to one bag. She wants to go out. Underdressed again! Twice in one week.
Try to meet co-workers but they’re MIA. She wanted an excuse to see a new gay bar in town and I’m that excuse. Could be worse.
She finds an old classmate at the bar. We’re cross-introduced. Most prefer Swedish (obviously) but L tries to get them to speak English for me. End up talking to a Spanish-Swede who wanted to practice English and a woman from London. She had great fun making fun of my tragically American accent and sensibilities. She was kind of a bitch honestly, but she tried to buy me drinks too. Didn’t manage it because we left soon after.
L convinces me to dance. Ugh. I don’t dance. The music is terrible and old. We leave shortly after.
24 Sept:
Plan is to meet R and help her study for her tour guide exam. She needs to practice her English and route and I love free things. Win/win.
L works a long shift today. She’s saving for her trip to the US so I can’t be too condescending.
I see her off to work and visit the animal park instead of wandering around the city some more.
Wander around the park a while, climb a mountain there. It had some steps, so not like an intense mountain climbing 128 days experience thing. See a bunch of weird animals. Penguins, seals, deer, swans and mallard. Mallards made me laugh, how exotic they are?
L explained the tram and bust system to me, but I ignored her advice. Too shy to ask questions to random people. I walk to the statue of King Carl Gustav IV or whatever, the guy who founded the city. A good half-hour walk. Feel good.
All this walking has definitely slimmed me down. That and the food. I always lose weight at school though. Moving belt loops is very weird.
Eventually find R. I asked two Swedish women before she found me—whoops.
R’s English is lacking. That’s OK—it’s why I’m here. Free tour for English lessons and practice! History interesting—Gothenburg a fort on “bogsoil.” Statue of Poseidon undergoing renovation—sad. Scaffolding had an amusing message about Poseidon going to a spa. Taught R+L the word “scaffolding”- I am so knowledgeable, yeah?
Got tired and hungry. Me and R go to the restaurant where L works. Menu is Swedish. R isn’t much help. L eventually finds us. Oh god, the outfit ... Gives me an English menu—all I had to do was ask. Whoops.
Food is good. First steak I’ve had since flying overseas. Dessert and more strong coffee. Bitter enough to choke me, I swear.
L doesn’t get off for a few hours more and R has a prior engagement. Plan to see a film at cinema but me and R end up talking over the dessert for a while.
She’s trying to start a company with a friend to give tours of Scandinavia. Very interested in what an American tourist wants to see—I oblige and promise to ask more people back home.
Eventually leave and wander a while. Pointed in the direction of a cafe but get lost. Go back to restaurant near end of L’s shift. Tons of drunk people on the streets. You see Brits drinking all day but Swedes are plastered by 7PM.
Sit and talk with L’s co-workers. Some of them speak such fluent English I can’t hear any accent. In my defence, she had just been studying in Los Angeles for a year or two. They all decide to go back to the same bar. Meet a lot of old acquaintances of L’s. She knows half of Gothenburg, I swear.
Bus is delayed by a slow driver. SOCIALISM! And a very dull driver. We caught the last bus at 2.20AM, he didn’t leave until nearly 3AM, by the time I went to bed it was nearing 5AM. I fly out in 5 hours, wonderful.
25 Sept:
Woke up. Rush to bus stop. Had a very quick shower. Catch the bus. Sleep on the bus.
Oddly refreshing bus ride. Coach to the airport is some ways away.
Go to a cafe. L orders my coffee in Swedish. She mentions my being American and unable to drink the standard strong Swedish coffee. Server laughs. Server says she’ll make me an Americano coffee. No idea what that is. L insists on it. OK. Scones are weird. The coffee was weaker—tasted like the bad coffee my dad brews in the morning before he’s fully awake. I ignored milk and sugar though. Say my goodbyes to L. Promise to see her in December in the States, and she promises to get me the cheesy souvenir I forgot to buy.
RyanAir flights terrify me. Sit next to some Germans, flight is packed. Sleep on plane. Wake up. Sea is frozen beneath us, scary. Germans staring like they never seen someone sleep on a plane before.
Customs line actually shorter for non-EU this time. Manage my way to the train. French woman puts her oversized bag and purse in the seat next to me and sits a ways from down the carriage. Ticket collector asks me to move my bag. She stares daggers when I rat her out. Later, she curses about me to someone on her mobile phone. She clearly didn’t think I could speak French. How rude, all she had to do was put her luggage on the luggage rack.
Make my way back to the flats. Pass C on the way—she ignores me. Or well, doesn’t see me I suppose.
Exhausted. Stumble through the rest of the day. Sleep like a baby that night.
26 Sept:
Wake up. Warm shower on a Monday for once! Brilliant.
Presentations in class. Still behind, whoops. My fault! Not really. Passes slowly.
End up at the Imperial War Museum. The chef at the sandwich shop is beginning to recognize me.
Museum startling. Fascinating lectures, and I hate history. Several people stopped and joined our tour—amusing.
Stopped for a pint with S and J after class. Thought more people would. Don’t understand cricket. Made a bunch of agreeable grunts instead of trying to contribute. C eventually finds us—did the same thing as yesterday; walked right past us (at first).
Got back to the flat late and finish Dickens. Blurry, tired.
27 Sept:
Class. London Lit. Love this class. Apparently I’m near alone in my opinions on Pip. More favourable opinions than I would have imagined!
Confusion about “seminar papers.” Good! More presentation than paper. Tres bien.
DECADE. Walked in expecting not to be bothered. I was 10, and so far away. No direct connection, not even homesick for Philadelphia or NYC, or any of the East Coast right now. Still, left me shaken. Some people cried. Opening was very jarring, the people running about in the towers...
Utilized the very unique space well. Wish we sat at tables and not along the back. I skipped customs because I went in with H. A shame.
Get back late. Tube delays. Don’t find them often.
Still exhausted and tired from all this travel. My fault. Pass out ASAP.
28 Sept:
Cleaning lady wakes me up. What a first world problem. I decided to wait for her to finish our room before I shower.
Maid asks my leave to go to the bank. Confused, I agree. Shower! Class.
Theatre class. Whoops. Didn’t send Questions in, didn’t think that’s what he meant. Should have read e-mail more carefully. Am I the only one who found a critique of colonialism in Disco Pigs? Possibly—fucking Anglophone Literature Survey and the themes and “BORDERS.”
Pig and Runt—Gaelic;English, etc. It could work. Ah well, it’s a very loose connection. Dumb idea.
Finished booking hostels for break at flat. Student bank card must be nearly done, I swear. Wish we got a statement more than biweekly.
Can sleep in tomorrow, so nice.
29 Sept:
Wake up at noon. Laundry day. Figured out how to make the washing machine dry. Cook lunch, dinner, etc. Boring day.
Used the British Library website to find sources for research proposal and history paper. Read a bunch of Dorian Gray. Enjoy Wilde. Kind of pretentious.
G says proposals don’t have to be ready until Monday. I like that. Time to focus more on research paper. Hate history. Need tea, some toast too.
