Weekend update

I’m breaking away from my usual nonsense this time and I’m just going to talk about my weekend. This may be a good time for you to get back to work.

This past weekend my two roommates went away to Munich from Thursday after our last class until Sunday morning. For purely academic reasons, of course. You know, just appreciating its culture, people and beverages. But that’s another story. The point is, I had the apartment to myself for the weekend. When you live in a triple, alone time is a precious and wonderful commodity, and being able to spend it somewhere other than the bathroom is pretty great.

Thursday was spent doing the usual routine- class at 8:30, clean up apartment for cleaners, skype mom, nap and write a blog for my university class. I was really, seriously tired from staying up late the night before and determined not to go anywhere that night. But, of course, my two friends from upstairs came to hang out in my small dark (I hadn’t figured out how to change the light bulb) living room before leaving (because they prefer it over their large bright one) and told my they were going to see Rochelle, a friend from Bucknell who is in another program. After they promised not to stay out late, I joined them. Ironically, this was the only night I went anywhere.

Friday I did work. Or tried to. I didn’t really get anything done. I did go to the food store six times or so, and managed to make myself a real dinner- like, with a recipe and ingredients and everything. I had the hardest time finding eggs, flour and a salt shaker, of all things. I ended up finding the eggs on the bread aisle, naturally, and had to buy a large pourable container of salt. I’m not even going to comment. Even after finding my ingredients, I still faced a serious dilemma- pounding chicken without a meat hammer thing or a rolling pin. I put a bag of flour in a casserole dish and tried that. It didn’t really work. Whatever.

Saturday I went to see the Great Gorilla Run. People raise money to help protect gorillas, and then complete a race wearing a gorilla suit. I woke up late, found out too late that the train I needed was closed, etc etc, and I thought I had missed it. Fortunately, I hung around long enough to find out I was there just before the runners started coming. I traced their path back from London bridge to the Tower bridge (the famous one), which I hadn’t been to. On the way back, I got to see the outside of the Tower of London, which was still pretty cool. I really like how any outing in London can turn into a historical, sightseeing adventure. That might be my favorite thing about this city. Once I got home, I did homework for the rest of the weekend. The end.

30 seconds or less: I saw Rochelle, found eggs, cooked dinner, watched gorillas run, went sight-seeing, changed a light bulb. Thrilling stuff.

Say what?

The English talk funny. I know I already touched upon some British slang, and the accent itself is obviously different, but I’ve been surprised at how many things they pronounce significantly differently from Americans. I’ve also learned the origins of many American sayings that don’t make sense. For example, (and please excuse my pathetic pronunciation guides; I am no linguist) it is the English that pronounce tomato as toh-mah-toh, like in that saying, “You say tuh-may-toh, I say toh-mah-toh”. I used to always wonder who the heck actually pronounces tomato that way, since I had never heard someone say it like that and couldn’t imagine someone thinking that was the right way to say it. Now I know who says it. It does make sense a little bit if you try to say tomato with a British accent- saying it the weird way is actually easier and sounds more British. I think pecan (peh-con, rather than pee-can) and idear (you know, when people add an r sound to the end of idea) also originate from British English, for the same say-it-in-a-British-accent deal. Of course, I know Americans that say it this way. They, however, are wrong. According to me, at least.

These things did not throw me for any significant loops; I just found them interesting and a bit enlightening. Place names, on the other hand, throw me off all the time. I’ve come to think that the reason why Greenwich (not green-wich, but gren-ich) Village in New York is pronounced as it is and not phonetically like other American words is because it’s named after the British original, and thus keeps the British pronunciation. Maybe it’s just me, and my stubborn refusal to believe that dropping that w is a logical thing to do. Still, I am fairly confident that no non-accent-wielding, God-fearing English speaker would pronounce “Leicester” and “Gloucester” as les-ter and glous-ter, “Chiswick” and “Southwark” as chis-sik and suth-urk, or “Hertfordshire” as haht-ferd-shur. I know at least one of my roommates and I have been afraid to pronounce place names for fear of forgetting to drop half its letters. In addition, that station-announcer woman on the tube has baffled me a few times, requiring me to closely examine a map in order to figure out possible stops and do a multiple-choice of what she may have said. Anyway, now that I have offended everyone that has ever spoken to me, I’m going to go back to drinking my wudder (water).

30 second summary: See first sentence.

Here’s proof that I’m not lying about the slang from earlier:

So this one time, I had a blog...

I’ve kind of failed with this whole keeping-up-with-my-blog thing. To be fair, I have had a ton of readings and field trips to do for my classes, and my summer brain automatically switches to sleep or procrastinate mode when all alternative activities are more boring than sleeping. In addition, I’ve had to convince my roommates that I am actually social and enjoy doing things, so I have lost a great deal of time I normally spent pondering the meaning of life, psychoanalyzing my breakfast choices, and letting people know what I’ve been up to. Once my roommates are thoroughly convinced I’m normal, I’ll return to my misanthropic, hermitic ways and have more time to blog! Anyway, I apologize for the delays. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I have made it quite clear that I was unqualified for this role as blogger.

My mom tells me my blog posts are getting too long so I’m going to try to keep things simple. I hope to make a bunch of short blog posts and put them up over the course of a couple of days, so look out for more to come. Or don’t, which ever. This is coming from me, so you may not want to get your hopes up.

Since I’m sure your attention will soon wane (along with mine), I’ll start with the note-worthy things (read: tourist attractions) I’ve visited recently. I saw Stonehenge, which was pretty neat, but very touristy. I mean, the stones were cool, but the gift shop, café, audio guide station and ticket booth were rather disappointing (along with outrageous admission prices- seriously, Stonehenge lasted for 5000 years without any help; I honestly don’t think those giant rocks need much maintenance).

I also saw Buckingham Palace, which I believe is how the Queen affords all those hats. It's amazing how many people come to spend all their money looking at a bunch of old furniture and a wedding dress, hot off the bride (just about). And, of course, everyone had an audio tour: a pair of silly headphones playing random facts along with long musical introductions to every room. Truly enlightening. Anyway, I went with a few girls from my program and Caitlin, a friend from home who is also studying abroad in London. It was really cool to see her, but it is a little weird being with someone from home at the same time you are with college friends, since you share completely different commonalities and acquaintances with each. But it was still fun to see her and hang out with someone you share such a long history with. Cait and I had dinner at a nice pub we found, and then the group of us visited a pub over by her, which was also a nice place. Overall, it was fun but chill day. The best.

So yeah, that’s it for now.

30 second summary: I went to Stonehenge and Buckingham Palace. I will try to be a better blogger, though I may not meet my mom’s high standards. This whole post is pretty dumb.