Wow, kids. It has been a pretty insane past few weeks…Allen pierced both his nipples. Seriously. No – don’t ask me why. He just came home one day, flashed me and was like “Beat THIS, Fox!” It was really strange.

Ok, none of that is true. Well, I haven’t seen Allen’s nipples lately, but I think it’s safe to say that they are fine. Don’t worry.

It really has been a pretty amazing few weeks, though. Andrea Gibson, Katie Wirsing, and Buddy Wakefield began their “I am a Lagan” tour here in London and stayed with us for a few nights. It was pretty crazy showing three of the best slam poets in the world how to use our shower. Those guys are amazing, and having them here has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip so far. Their last show was at Farrago (the first “slam” we went to in London) where John Paul organized a UK vs. US “slam-off.” Buddy Wakefield, Andrea Gibson, and Katie Wirsing vs. two random London dudes. Seriously. I don’t even need to tell you how the scores ended up, but after questioning Allen’s score-adding skills, John Paul “misplaced” the scores during the break and, calling Allen’s memory unreliable, decided to call it a draw. If anyone thought that slam was worth it at all, I’m sure we’d be upset, but it’s really just hilarious that he has to pull those kinds of shenanigans. We ate at Mildred’s, a vegan restaurant in Soho, and it was hands-down some of the best food I’ve ever had. Those three are so much better at the eating healthy thing than we are, so Allen and I were inspired to go vegetarian until we leave. It hasn’t been too bad so far. We also went to the Tate Modern (briefly) and wandered around Trafalgar Square for a few hours at night, which was gorgeous.

When they left, I had 2 days to finish my projects for finals that next week. That sucked, but I’m done now. Everything went pretty well, and now I have no responsibilities until we go back…except work, but that doesn’t really count. My job is amazing.

Friday sucked, though. Almost all of our friends from school flew out on Friday b/c it was the last day they could stay in the student housing in Camden. It’s so weird to think that we really might never see those kids again. It’s also a little weird to think that we came all the way to London to make mostly American friends. (We went to an American school. It was the cheapest way to go…) It’s cool, though – now we have places to stay all over the US when we go on the epic road trip I’m planning in my head.

We finally nailed down our itinerary for the rest of the traveling we’ll be doing. It goes a little something like this:
Christmas in Amsterdam (why not?), next few days in Rome, then on to Venice and Florence for about a day each, ending up in Paris for our final days before the grand homecoming on January 8th. Then I get to return to poetry at the Meadowlark, which I am pretty excited about. Lincoln is sending one poet to the first ever Women’s Slam in Detroit in March, and I’m really hoping it can be me... which means I have some writing to do. A few of our friends from school here live in Detroit, so I could save the slam a little money and stay with them instead. See? Don’t you think they should just give the qualifying spot to me? Sure you do… SURE YOU DO…

-stacy

3 hours of my life that I will never get back

Ok....where did I leave off...

I have no idea, so I'll start here.

Guy Fawkes Day, November 5 is a little like the 4th of July in the states...well, there are fireworks... and... ok, other than that they're really nothing alike... (Don't know what I'm talking about? Go watch V for Vendetta. It's more entertaining than me describing Guy Fawkes to you, and there are pretty masks.) I had lots of homework to do and had to work, so I didn't get the best view of the fireworks, but some of them looked pretty sweet from my bedroom window.

side note: The Smashing Pumpkins' Bullet with Butterfly Wings (Rat in a Cage) just came on randomly for the second time today, and that makes me super-happy... (oh, go on - click the link and watch the video - you're just checking your e-mail at work anyway...) ;)

...Now I'm stuck in the youtube music video pit of unproductiveness... well, here - watch this one too... and this one (see - my constantly changing hair could be much worse)

Allen and I realized that our Britrail passes were about to expire, so we decided to go back to Ediburgh, because we love that place. (Have I mentioned that?) We took an overnight train to Glasgow (with a layover in Birmingham from 2 to 5 am...that was fun) and spent a day there before moving on to Edinburgh. Our original plan was to make a stop at Birmingham on the way back to see the Cadbury chocolate factory, but their website made it look much more like a weird children's attraction with purple cows and talking easter candy than an actual factory tour, so we opted out of that (plus, it cost £10 to get in...£10 for cow costumes and screaming children? really?) We did another ghost tour in Edinburgh, this time going down into the vaults under the city. It was pretty neat, and actually pretty spooky. We also returned to the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote much of Harry Potter, for a few hours of writing and scheming, and went back to one of my favorite builidings of all time, the Scottish Parliament Building (left.) In Glasgow, we went to The Lighthouse, a museum of architecture and design in Scotland and the Gallery of Modern Art ...a gallery of...modern art. They were both pretty fantastic and made me want even more to drop out of school to become an installation artist. Don't worry, mom - I'm not really going to ;)

We got back from Scotland on Wednesday night and left Thursday afternoon for Dublin. It was kind of a lengthy little holiday, but I have had a pretty hellish past couple weeks (I'll spare you the details - call me if you really want to know) so it couldn't have come at a better time. I needed a break. The timing was perfect, because the Two Gallants played at the Koko in Camden on Wednesday night, so we caught that before we left. That was such a good show. I just love watching them perform - they bring a kind of passion and emotion to their music that is unfortunately becoming rather rare I think. And they are really nice people, too. We got to hang out with them a little after we saw them with Against Me! in Omaha in August. The best part by far was the last song - Waves of Grain from their What the Toll Tells album. I LOVE that song sooo much. I found a video on youtube someone made using the song, and while I don;t think it communicates everything the song is really about, it does explore one aspect of it, and it gives you all a chance to hear it. Here it is. The lyrics are so amazing. One of the support bands was from Portland - Blitzen Trapper, and they were quite good as well.

Ok, moving on - Dublin. We went to a pub the first night with Gavin and Stu (because really, what is better to do on your first night in Dublin?) I had the best pint(s) of Guinness I have EVER had at that place. SOOOO good... The next day we went to the Guinness factory(also very good) and the Irish National Gallery, which was ok, but not nearly as good as the English or Scottish National Galleries. We tried to go St. Patrick's Cathedral, but it was closed for a graduation ceremony. Lame, I know.

So, you may remember me mentioning in an earlier blog that we went to see Katie's friends' band The Satin Peaches at the Astoria in London? Well, their tour manager, Gavin happened to take a liking to miss Katie, and she happened to like him back, and he happened to be from just outside of Dublin, so we happened to stay with him and his roommates for a couple nights while we were there. It was great - they made us amazing food, and we walked out in the Irish rain and played with their cat, and their house had fantastic carpet.

Oh, Sinead O'Connor's from Dublin - here's a video from her too. She has such a pretty head.

And now we're back in London. And it's raining here too. A lot.

We went to see Andrew in a play, Angels in America, at Royal Holloway, the school he goes to in Egham, just South of London. He played Roy Cohn, and did a phenomenal job. It was quite amusing to hear everyone else in the play trying to do an American accent.

...Whish brings us to today - Thanksgiving. I had an especially tasty peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today to celebrate (or peanut butter and jam, as they say in the UK - "jelly" is jell-o here.) We intended to have some kind of Thanksgiving dinner at Katie's flat last night, but everyone was busy, so we ended up with plain rice, mashed potatoes, and my pumpkin pie. I doubt I'll get a proper Thanksgiving meal this year, but that's ok. I can miss one out of 23, don't you think?

In honor of the 2 1/2 hours it has taken me to right this because of my useless youtube adventures, here's one of my favorite videos ever. It's not a music video, but trust me - it is HILARIOUS.

Ok. Some people need to go get an ice cream sandwich. Stacy needs to go get an ice cream sandwich.

(...that would have been funny if you had watched the video...)

-stacy

"It's cheaper than a movie and there's free coffee"

I feel like you all have an awful lot of catching up to do, and by that, I mean I've been slacking in the blogging dept.

I've been busy - leave me alone.

Let's see...ok - ice bar. I went to the ice bar on Tuesday. It was cold. I couldn't resist the urge to smash one of the made-of-ice glasses on the floor. I didn't get kicked out for it, but if I would have, it totally would've been worth it.

For Halloween, I had the BEST COSTUME EVER. I was Marla Singer from Fight Club, and it was amazing. Allen was Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. ALSO AMAZING. We went on a boat cruiseon the Thames for Halloween with our school, and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of American fun, but fun nonetheless. I didn't get to carve a pumpkin, though. Sad.

On Thursday night I went to the Electric Ballroom in Camden to see Against Me!, one of my favorite bands. It was a hell of a show, and I only came away with minor injuries (a few clawmarks to the face is a small price to pay, right?) They gave the best performance of "Walking is Still Honest" I have ever seen, and "Americans Abroad" was crazy - the audience LOVED it. They closed with "We Laugh at Danger (and Break all the Rules)", which is the song I remember most from I when I saw them for the very first time my freshman year with Sean in a basement in Omaha. They're so good - seriously, people - follow my little linky thingies and look them up. You'll thank me later.

Also, the Two Gallants are playing on Nov. 14th at the Koko Theatre in Camden. I am soooo there.

And on Friday, I had my first poetry feature. It went pretty well, I'd say. I didn't make a complete ass of myself, but I did feel a little nervous. I need to work on that whole being comfortable with small talk in front of a bunch of people thing. I'd post a picture of me actually doing a poem, but I'm realizing that I just don't look good when I talk - I'm constantly making some kind of weirdo face, so if you want to see it, you'll just have to wait 'til I get back! Ha! Maybe I'll record my next feature (Nov. 28th at the Poet Cafe in Covent Garden) and post the video. Don't hold your breath.

Also on Friday, we met up with Ann H-P (also from UNL, studying in France this year) who was visiting for fall break. We met her at Westminster Abbey , which was sooo beautiful. Right now I really have to pee, and I have 2 mid-term reviews this week to prepare for... yikes. Pray for me.

stacy

Oh, wait! I created my "No, really - I'm a poet, I swear!" myspace page: www.myspace.com/stacylfox If I haven't added you yet, it's probably b/c you don't accept adds from bands, which is ridiculous. I am clearly not a band. Add me.

That is all.

HIS mom never told HIM to stop drawing on the walls...

We attended the last of Mahogany Browne's London shows on Thursday at Neighborhood's near Portobello Rd, which apparently the venue where hip-hop got started in London.

We got there early enough to walk around the area a little before the show, and we happened upon some spraypaint on a wall by some dude who defaces public property. Gosh, what was his name...? Bant...Brink...Blank.... oh, yeah....BANKSY. here's his website. We also saw a really sweet skate park wedged in the space below an overpass.

The guy who runs the Farrago International Slam was there and remembered us from Mahogany's first show. He invited me to feature at their next show (Nov. 2nd - this friday,) but it's a spanish/english night, so he expects me to do at least one piece in spanish or a spanish translation. I know, right? But it's a feature spot, so I'll cover some spanish poetry if that's what it takes. I've never featured before, though, and I'm kinda nervous about it, especially since Allen won't be able to go with me. I know, I know - get over it. I'll be fine. I have decided to make a music myspace page, though, so it looks like I'm at least a little bit of a poet. I'll post the link when it's done. A publisher from Tall-Lighthouse also contacted me after the Farrago slam about doing a feature and submitting some poems for their 2008 anthology. He's giving me a short feature spot at the November reading at the Poetry Cafe on Nov. 28th.

This post ended up being not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be...hmm.... sorry abo- OH MY GOD! A HUGE CHUNK OF THE ROOF JUST FELL IN BEHIND ME! THERE'S BLOOD, ASBESTOS AND PIGEON FEATHERS EVERYWHERE! OH, THE HUMANITY!

...too much? it was too much, wasn't it? i should have kept it small... no one goes for roofs caving in - too dramatic. oh well...i tried.

stacy

my legs = jelly

We did it! We found poetry! And Mahogany Browne was featuring! And she was AMAZING! The slam was WEIRD, though. I had to go first, and my score of 23 was the HIGHEST of the night until the last two poets read. Yeah - a 23. Out of 30. Freaking crazy. It gets weirder - one guy read 3 short poems instead of one 3-minute, another guy passed out brochures with his poem and promotional material for himself before he read, and the last poet was introduced by the very impartial host as "by far the best poet living in london." It was a zoo. I got candy, though, which was pretty cool, and a publishing fellow talked to me after the slam about doing a feature sometime while I'm here, so we'll see how that goes. I should probably start memorizing some poems. Mahogany is doing a couple more features this week, so I think we're gonna just follow her around and look for some more poetry connections in the city.

In other news, I hiked over seven miles on Friday, and my legs almost fell off. No, seriously. I almost needed peg legs. Yes, both of them - don't question it.

It was beautiful. We hiked somewhere around Surrey, by Boxhill to Leatherhead (small towns about 30 minutes outside of London.) Apparently there is something in Jane Austen's Emma about Boxhill (any idea, Sarah?) This was one of the paths we took - a little stepping-stone bridge.

I started my new job at HMV on Saturday, and I LOVE it. I had no idea how hard it apparently was to get the job, but one of my managers told me he gets 400-500 CVs (british resumes) a WEEK. Yeah, that means I'm amazing. Or lucky.... we'll go with amazing. Apparently it's also the 2nd largest music store in Europe. (The largest is HMV's Oxford Circus location, just a few blocks away.) I work in "back of store" which is the rock/pop, metal, vinyl, dance and urban section. It's been tough to remember to say "pounds" instead of dollars when I'm working the till (that's what they call the cash register...silly, isn't it?) I messed it up once, and the guy I was helping was a real dick about it, so I punched him in the throat. Ok, that's not true, but I gave him a less-than-cordial "thank you" when I was done. Take that, man.

Let's see...what else.....umm.... I decided that I'm starting to get just a little home-sick, but not necessarily for home. I think I'm starting to miss familiarity in general. I'm having a really great time here, and I still love it, but I have been wanting nothing more than to play zombies with the roommates, sit in my hammock, or have a Wednesday night at the Coffee House. These things are all very regular and familiar to me, and though I'm building my own familiarities here, I still feel like a visitor. And I miss people. You should all come visit me. Get on that. You can take turns sleeping on my couch.

Wait a minute! Have I posted pictures of my room yet?! I don't remember. Here you go.... aww....it's small! Well, look at it on facebook, then.

I am going home. To my small room. Goodnight, moon.

stacy

Minor Delays

Some dude's suicide totally put a damper on my evening.

This is a ridiculously long and whiny story, so I'll try to sum it up for you quick-like:

We went to a museum for our Literary London class on Tuesday (which is worthless, by the way) and I was scheduled to meet my Hospitality Design class at Dans Le Noir (see previous post) for dinner to research unique dining and all that jazz. We didn't have to meet until 9 and it was 6 when we got out of the museum, so I thought I had plenty of time to go home and change. I should have had plenty of time to go home and change, but NO, the world hates me, and the central line (of the tube - the London underground train I use to get EVERYWHERE) was partially shut down b/c of "a person under the train." So by the time I got off I had to run home and change and get right back on the tube, realizing that the restaurant was only one stope away from the museum I had just come from. Ugh. But I had an hour to get there, so I thought it would be ok.

Nope.

Not only did it take me an hour and a half to get there, but it started pouring rain as soon as I got off the tube. Not a biug deal, though, right? I can meet my class late - no problem. So I finally get there, and they wouldn't let me in to meet my class! They said that once a party enters the "dark room," it is not possible for them to be joined by anyone else until their meal is done - not even if that person has just spent a hellish hour-and-a-half on the tube and in the rain. So I yelled at the lady and left.

Seriously, if you are going to kill yourself, don't do it in a way that inconveniences me. Ok, that's not entirely fair... I also heard the guy might have been pushed. If you are planning a death of any kind - yours or someone else's, please do it in private or at some obscure tube station that no one (meaning me) uses.

Thank you.

stacy

Frozen Furniture, Satin Peaches, and Jane Austen

Hey, kids. It's me again. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you missed me terribly and that my resuming this blog-action has just made your day. You're welcome.





Life lesson #34


You can only rinse and re-use styrofoam bowls so many times, and that "so many" is never as many as you think it is.





Life lesson #51


Though it takes slightly longer, cereal gets just as soggy on milk-soaked carpet as it does in a styrofoam bowl of milk.





I learned a lot yesterday morning.


It was a great start to an even greater day. Allen and I spent £30 each (that's right - $60) on a show that we never should have gone to, I ran out of money on my oyster card (again) and had to use change to top it up because I had no more money (so embarassing), and a pigeon crapped on my head. Ok...that last part was a lie...but my seemed really horrible and then I started bitching about it and it didn't sound nearly as bad as it was in my head, so I compensated with pigeon poo. Don't judge me. The point is, we're poor.





Our friend Katie knew some guys in a band (The Satin Peaches) that was passing through the area on tour with The Go! Team. We saw them at Astoria near SoHo in central London, which was a pretty sweet venue, but tickets were £10 and £15 (don't ask - it's a sore subject) and after a couple Strongbows and Jack-and-Cokes, our money was gone. We only caught the last couple Satin Peaches songs, which sucked because they were pretty good. We were there for the whole Go! Team set, though, and that was not as good. Not nearly. They all looked about 17 years old (all SEVEN of them - seriously - is that necessary? They had 2 drummers on stage, and I'm pretty sure they were playing exactly the same thing the whole time.) Whatever. It was a night. No more ridiculous outings. If we're going to see a band we don't know, we're setting a limit on our spendings.





My financial woes are about to ebb, though, ladies and gentlemen! I'm getting a job! I've actually already been hired....at....subway....

but that's only a last resort, I swear! I told them I can't start til Monday so I'm going to see how my other interviews go before then. I have one at HMV, a big music store on Oxford Street on Friday and with Gift Fundraising, a company who does street fundraising for charities. I am super-excited about that one.



Yesterday we went to The British Library for our Literary London class. What a horrible thing - spending class time in a world-famous library/museum surrounded by original copies of some of the world's most important works of literature. Seriously, it was miserable. (If you can't smell sacrasm wafting through your computer speakers, please make necessary adjustments.) I saw Shakespeare's First Folio, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sylvis Plath's Insomniac, pages from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Virginia Woolf's Notebook for Mrs. Dalloway, Jane Austen's Vol. the 3rd (one of several stories she wrote to a friend when she was young), Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, John Milton's commonplace book, the Codex Sinaiticus, the original handwritten lyrics of a bunch of Beatles songs, a letter from Charles Darwin to Alfred Wallace, one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, and LEWIS CAROL'S DIARY. That was so freaking cool. I also looked through a digital copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in his handwriting, with his original illustrations. And that was only some of it. A few little things like the original copies of Beowulf and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales were out of rotation, so we didn't get to see them. It was still pretty fantastic, though.



I really like my classes so far. My project for Hospitality Design is to "redefine the dining experience." I'll explan more about it as the term goes on, but I'm looking into doing a public-awareness project on the experience of dinnertime as a homeless person. It's looking pretty promising so far, and I am SUPER excited about it. For "research" our professor is taking us to a couple "unique dining venues" around the city, the Ice Bar and Dans Le Noir.




Ok, time for some food. There's an amazing deli down the street that sells everything for £1 after 18:00, and it's totally 18:15 (Yeah, everyone uses "24 hour clock" here. It's weird).


Done and done.


stacy

School?

Sorry about not posting for awhile, we've been busy. Oh, and the internet is hard to find for cheap. For some reason I'm opposed to paying £4/hour for internet, which is what some of these places charge. So instead I've scouted out Central to find places with free wireless. In all of Central London (which is big) I've only found three. It's irritating to say the least. But now that school's started, we have access to the school's computers, but I can't hook-up with my laptop because it's taking FOREVER for my computer to be registered with the network. Which means that you're getting a blog post, but still no pictures. Deal with it, lovelies.

Thursday and Friday we took two days off from life. I was still feeling really not good, so I bought some immunodefense multivitamins and Vita-bombed (thanks, Niki) myself while also getting lots and lots of sleep. Stacy apparently worked on some cardboard art project to make her room pretty (don't ask her if she's finished it yet). It was good. I felt TONS better after those days of rest. I'm practically healed now.

Saturday we went to Camden Market, which was pretty freakin awesome. It's basically this huge street market in these old vaults and catacombs which actually used to be a cattle market, so the old stables are now shops. We were there nearly the entire day, and spent very little (mostly because: 1) We're terrified of using our American credit cards because people look at us funny because we don't us the same kinds of cards as the Brits, and 2) We refused to bring cash with us), which was good, since we're poor. The market was a lovely little adventure. We ate at the food stalls, where Stacy got salmon shish and I got an intense veggie burger. Then we went back down to Shepherd's Bush (that's the neighborhood where we live, in case you forgot) and went to the Post Office, where Chaya (our Indian London mom) had a bag FULL OF INDIAN FOOD for us! Pretty amazing.

We wandered down to SoHo with Andrew that night, but I went home early to make sure to get lots of rest (and continue to get better) before school started.

Sunday was orientation for school. Orientation itself was pretty boring and generally useless, but Stacy and I stumbled upon some of the best people in the world there. We've already started our own little clique, and we call ourselves the Clever Clique, which is a much improved version of the Smart Kids, which was my idea, by Kiki (or Kristine, whichever you prefer). In our little clique we have Stacy and I, obviously. Then there's Katie Lee, or Katilee, a demure and chic indie girl from Chicago, and Kiki, or Kristine, a short and spunky Detroitian (I have no idea if that's what we're calling residents of Detroit). There's also Sarah, from Albany, NY (and who goes to SUNY Oneonta, which those of you who know about an incident I had at the National Poetry Slam will realize that I freaked out when I found out which school she goes to), who is quiet and confident, and another shy but hilarious girl named Alli from somewhere in Michigan. We hung out most of the day and through the night, and ended up at the OhBar, which is one of the places where Stacy and I had tried to find an open mic, so we already knew where it was. Along the way we absorbed Joe from Chicago, a fashion design major with a penchant for hoodies. There were a bunch of kids from school at the OhBar, and we got to know a couple of them. Stacy and I ended up taking an hour an a half to get home on the bus that night, because we made a tragic error in getting on the wrong bus (I know, I know). But thankfully, on the right bus (which we found eventually) we met a sweet guy named Jay who talked to us most of the way.

Monday there was a Freshers thing, and we ended up at the Marylebone Tup (which is one of the places with internet, so Stacy and I had been there numerous times before). There we ended up hanging out with the four guys who go to our school (I'm almost serious), and then we went home.

Tuesday was the first day of classes, and before class our little group hung out at the lounge in the main building, and that's where we unofficially absorbed the guys into our group. So there's Kurt, who is tall and lanky and is almost as much of a know-it-all as I am, and then there's Alaska Joe, or Joe Foxley, buff and blonde and a super nice guy, and then Dave from Wisconsin, who is a complete smartass and sarcastic dick, which makes him my favorite. We were talking about bands coming to London that we wanted to see, and Dave mentioned The Decemberists were coming on the 21st. I asked him to go check the net to see where it was, and he was too lazy, so I went to check. Turns out, it wasn't the 21st, but it was that very night. Luckily, I checked. We surveyed the table and turns out only Dave, Sarah, and I were interested enough to pay £20 to go, so we bought tickets.

Kurt, Stacy, Joe Foxley, and I are all in Literary London, so we trekked off to class. The professor is an odd little duck with eccentric stories and an easily distractable personality. Apparently we aren't going to need to buy any books, we're only going to partially read the books she provides (most of which are already public domain because they're old), and one class per week (out of two) will involve us going to museums and other locations of literary interest in London ...score. Sounds like a tough class, right?

After class I dashed home to shower and then dashed to Waterloo to get to the concert hall. However, the stupid tube line was delayed because of signalling problems, so I got there late. Thankfully, we just missed the opening act, and didn't even remotely miss the Decemberists. We got pretty fantastic seats at the Royal Festival Hall, and it was a GREAT show. Well worth the 20 quid.

Afterward, the three of us wandered around the Thames and Parliament Square, seeing the London Millenium Eye, Parliament (and Big Ben), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and Trafalgar Square at night. It was sweet. Wait till you see pictures. And... then we went home.


Which means, we're doing well. I'm feeling a LOT better, mostly because I've been sleeping my butt off and bombing my body with vitamins. Stacy's been doing well too, I guess. Meeting new friends has been good for us. Especially the cool kids. Yes, there are TONS of stupid fashion design (no offense kids) kids here, but we met the smart kids.

Okay, more later!

Cheers!

Transitioning...

(Picture uploader is working, but very slowly, so pictures will come later.)

We got back from Edinburgh and that very day Stacy and I set out to finalize our housing plans. We contacted our housing agency, and after several long dashes across London on the Underground, we finally had a place to stay.

It was going to take a few days for our flat to be cleaned for us to move in, so we spent those days sleeping (resting from Edinburgh), hanging out with Bob, and generally being lazy tourists. Oh, and Indian food, did I mention that before? I really apologize in advance to everyone who loved Indian food in Nebraska, but the next time we go eat Indian together I'm going to be a total jerk about it. I mean seriously, you're supposed to use naan as an eating utensil, not an appetizer! Meh, I'll get over it. What I probably won't get over is actually paying for Indian that isn't nearly as good as homemade... but I'll be emo about that later.

Eventually we moved into our flat. And, as Stacy has said, it's a charming little place. Our address, for those of you not on Facebook is as follows:
(Name)
55 Sedgeford Road
Middlesex W12 0NA
London, United Kingdom

But if you want whatever you're sending to actually reach us, you need to plan in advance. Surface/sea mail takes FOREVER. You need to send it by the second week in OCTOBER for us to get it. Air mail is faster, but you need to send it to us by the last week in November if you want us to get it before we leave.

Our very first day living in our flat (which is as-of-yet unnamed), our friend Nick from New York (the guy we hung out with in Edinburgh) called me. He was in London, which is awesome. We picked him up from the tube station and wandered around. We ate some shish and doner and a local shop, and then got ready to go out. Andrew showed up from Central, and we headed down to Piccadilly Circus... which was ridiculous. So many people. Yes, I know it was a Friday night in London, but it was nuts. We got wrangled in by a lady who works for a club ticket agency, where we got VIP Passes and cheap tickets to get into a club. We were fine with that, because it saved us about ten bucks on the cover.

It was a pretty decent night, but we left early because there were tons of 18 year old running around (drinking age is 18 in the UK). Andrew and our new friend Drew from Georgia went back to Tottenham Court Road, and Nick, Stacy, and I went around to find food. We explored a little, then headed back to Shepherd's Bush and crashed.

In the morning we went to the grocery and bought food, and Nick made us English breakfast. It was delightful, and filling (which was the best part, we're so poor). Then after a bit we walked Nick back to the Underground because he was leaving to go back to the States. It was a bit sad, saying goodbye for the first time to a friend that we had met here. It's odd, we'd known Nick for a grand accumulated total of less than a day, but completely got along great and have an established friendship. (And now we have a place to stay in New York... score!)

Since we moved in, we've spent the five days crawling around London, exploring the terrain. Sometimes it feels like we're mountain climbers or jungle treasure hunters, but in a good way. Streets in London are definitely NOT set up in the lovely grid pattern we enjoy in Nebraska. Sometimes the streets move in straight lines, but don't expect them to keep the same name for more than a few dozen blocks.

Mostly we've been spending days in Central (Zone 1), wandering around outside of our school, finding coffee shops that offer free wireless (which is rare), and just generally getting to know the place. We've mapped out direct and alternate routes home (sometimes the Underground lines decide to quite suddenly get severe delays, like when someone gets sick on the line, or when a signaller falls asleep on the job... doesn't happen often, but the King's Cross station has been up and down for three days because of signalling problems), found three used (second-hand, "charity") clothing and bookstores, and determined cheap places to eat. Yesterday we went down to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. We were in the Gallery for THREE HOURS and only visited about a quarter of the place. Definitely a place to re-visit several times. (Check out this webcam of Trafalgar Square.)

In the evenings we've been looking for slam poetry. Sad to say... we have no idea where these Brits keep their poetry. We've been all over the internet and the city, and have come up empty -handed every night. Sunday we went to The Foundry, this hot little indie bar east of Camden Town. Sure, the bar was hot. There were lots of indie kids hanging out. But the poetry... wasn't there. There was an open mic, but it was music, comedy, and wretched foul words tossed together and called poetry. We called it "Oh-Noetry". Plus one dude wrote a poem about breasts and then read it at Stacy, improv-ing it with lines about how he didn't care how big her "bearded" friend is, he still thought she was hot. Luckily people disliked his crap enough that he immediately left after his set was done. However, one good thing of the night, we met a dude named Louis ("like the kings"), who shared us his knowledge of the area, and told us about a spoken word reading on Tuesday nights at a place called "The Distillers". We took that information as good enough reason to have gone.

Monday night was a total bust. Went to two different places (in two different parts of London) and there was absolutely nothing. At the first one we had the wrong night, but the barista also said that it was comedy, not poetry. Then, dashing across the city to the Water Poet Pub, the baristas there had NO IDEA what we were talking about. So we took a long tube ride home and didn't even get to bed early because we wanted pizza... and then our oven didn't work, so we went and got take out at this cheap little pizza place down Uxbridge.

However, Tuesday didn't end up being too bad. Following the directions from Louis (who didn't show up the whole night, even though he said he never missed it), we found The Distillers, which was surprisingly close to our house. There, we paid a 5 quid cover and slid into a gold mine. We "slid" instead of "walked" because we didn't actually find slam poetry. But what we found was good. There's an arts organization in London called "One Taste" which hosts musical festivals weekly and monthly. We saw some amazing musicians. There was a Scottish band named "Blue Rose Code" which was awesome (plus they were Scottish). The host was named Jamie Woon (or something like that) and he played guitar and then did acapella with a loop machine, and it was great.

Possibly the best part of Tuesday night: there was a poet. Granted, he was a foul (that's British slang for "He was REALLY BAD"), but he was still a poet. Stacy talked to him after his set, and he gave us his myspace, because he's not a slam poet (we knew that already), but he's FRIENDS WITH SLAM POETS! So today Stacy sent him a message and now we're waiting in anticipation to see if he's going to hook us up. Seriously, being away from slam poetry this long is making my face hurt (cause it's not getting melted, obviously). I've gotten to the point where I go to Podslam and stare at Ken or Jen or Katie just to get my fix for the day.

Anyway, Stacy and I are about to head home. I think we're mostly caught up with "We did this today" and so I can get over my OCD and start actually writing about what I think of this place. Obviously we'll still tell you what we did today... but now with a lot more rambling and philosophical diarrhea.

Cheers!


(PICTURES WILL BE COMING SOON!)

Dislocation - The Yellow Wallpaper

Cheers!

Since Allen is pretty much a champion and has taken care of the postings thus far, I thought I had better contribute if I'm going to continue to call this blog part mine.

So we moved into our place, which is really quite adorable, even with the flaking yellow paint and gigantic floral stickers on the furniture (the interior designer inside me is TEARING HER HAIR OUT right now). Charlotte Perkins Gilman was on to something about this shade of yellow...seriously - so unsettling. It's ridiculously expensive compared to rent in Lincoln, but, believe it or not, a really good price for zone 2, London. We pay 100 pounds each per week. That's right - $200 a WEEK. We get our own rooms, though, which is pretty great for cheap temporary housing.

There's always something a little exciting about moving into a new place - exciting, and a little disorienting...especially if you're in a completely different country with no job and no idea how you're going to pay for the rest of your term here. That's being a bit pessimistic, I guess, but with a healthy dose of realism. This place is fucking EXPENSIVE. There is also the sense of ownership and personalization that comes with moving into a new place. I'm an interior design major - I connect with spaces. When I live in a space, I need to feel like it is at least a little bit mine. It needs to feel like home - like a reflection of myself and my tastes, etc. With our kind of budget, though, and the short time we will be staying here, I'm having a hard time finding ways to really connect with my environment. This might not be a big deal to most people, but it's a bit of an obstacle for me here. I have some ideas for the space, but most of them involve cardboard and sharpies...we'll see how that goes...

Edinburgh has been my favorite part of the trip so far. That city is SO beautiful. I know I've only been here a couple weeks, but I'd live there before London if I had my choice. There is so much history, and, let's be honest, the accents are AMAZING.

Allen and I haven't killed eachother yet, and though I was a little afraid of getting sick of eachother, I really don't think we will. There are few people I can be around this much and still want to see them alive the next day - luckily, Allen is one of them. It helps a tremendous amount to have someone with me who is not only responsible and attentive (something I cannot always claim of myself), but is fun to be around as well.

I've been able to keep in contact with people pretty well so far. The phones we got are kind of geared toward internat'l calls, so it's actually cheaper for me to call the states than somewhere here in London. I've been talking to my parents pretty regularly, and Amy almost every day (which has had a lot to do with my remaining sane through all this crazy travel nonsense - don't know what I'd do without her.)

We have yet to start our classes, but we journeyed down to visit the area a couple times, and it is definately in a very nice (very expensive) part of London. I'm a little afraid I will need to dress up for class...that would make me very sad. AIU is only one building, and looks to be predominantly a design school - mostly fashion. Ugh. Don't get me wrong - I love fashion, but to be honest, I just do not get women's fashion right now, and if I have to be surrounded by girls in $400 heels and 3 inches of foundation everyday, I just might throw myself in front of one of the neato 2-level buses they have here. I'll keep you updated on that...

And writing. Oh, writing. I've been trying, kids - I really have. I've written a few things, none of which I'm especially excited about, but I have plenty of ideas, and have decided to make a goal for myself. By the time I get back, I plan to have a chapbook done and ready to print. Lofty, I know, but I think I can do it. I would REALLY like to represent Lincoln at the 1st Women's Slam in Chicago this year, and the qualifying bout for that is just 2 days after my triumphant return to Nebraskaland. Pressure? Nah.... ok...maybe a little...

WOW. We finally found a place offering free wireless down here in Oxford Circus, and it happened to be a sports bar, which is fine, but seriously - these people are INSANE! There's some huge cricket game on ("match?" "game?"...whatever) and it is so lound I can barely hear myself think. It makes me miss NE football a little....very little, but the sentiment is there.

This place is getting ridiculous....I'm out.


-stacy

The First Week, Part Two

(Okay, picture uploader thingy = still not working. Work on that later)

Sept. 16
We left Inverness the next morning, taking a train back to Edinburgh. It was odd to leave the place. Even though were were there for only about 36 hours, I felt a little connected to the place. I am sure that Inverness is one of those places I'm just not ever going to forget. The train ride back was sad, in its own way. Watching the Scottish Highlands flatten back out into lowlands, as Edinburgh grew closer. But we all three loved Edinburgh, so it wasn't all that sad.

Once we got to Edinburgh, the first order of business was to find a hostel. All three of the hostels owned by Macbackpackers were full, so we had to find somewhere else. Eventually we ended up at the Cowgate Hostel, which was only 9 quid, cheaper than Mac's.

We went to Edinburgh Castle for a history tour. It was amazing. The castle was huge. In the castle there are hundreds of years of history. Wars, revenge, intrigue. It was absolutely fascinating. The Scottish Crown Jewels are held there (under some tight security. Oh, and they don't allow cameras into the Honours Room, lame).

One of the best parts for me was seeing the Stone of Destiny, or the Stone of Scone. On this stone there have been literally hundreds of Scottish kings and queens crowned, the stone itself being an integral part of Scottish history.

After the Castle closed, we went to Carlton Hill, one of the highest points in Edinburgh, and watched the sun set (obviously taking LOADS of pictures). Then we dashed around the graveyard where David Hume is buried (actually stood inside his tomb).

Before we went on the ghost tour, we went to a FOUL Fish and Chips place. Stacy had a deep-fried cheeseburger. Here's how you make a deep-fried cheesburger:
1) Make a cheeseburger (with cheese)
2) Deep fry the sucker... including the cheese.
It was absolutely disgusting, but my deep-fried chicken sandwich was all that bad.

Finally, we went to the City of the Dead ghost tour. It was pretty entertaining. Not really worth the 6 and a half quid, but it was entertaining. The best part of the tour is when I caught an orb on my camera. Check this out:
The tour people were significantly impressed. Another girl on the tour caught a few more orbs, but they were very faint compared to mine.

After the tour, we talked to the only other young people on the tour, who both ended up being solo backpackers... from America. So, sadly, the first night we went out drinking on our trip... was with Americans. Ah well, we'll survive. Nick was from New York and Stephanie (the other girls with orb pictures) was from New Jersey by way of Florida. We headed back to our hostel, which was just across the street from this club Opium, which had really cheap drinks.

Opium also ended up being a goth/emo/alternative bar that only played 90's rock music on the dance floor... completely lame. But with the five of us it was fun.

After getting slightly intoxicated, we wandered around for a bit looking for food. Seeing none, we just went back to our respective hostels and crashed, after making sure to share contact info with Nick and Stephanie.

The next morning we went to the Royal Museum of Scotland, which was pretty sweet. Luckily, it was free. Then we dashed down Canongate and tried to get into the Holyroodhouse Palace, which is the Scottish residence used by the Queen of England when she's in the mood to jaunt up to the Highlands. However, it was rather expensive, so Andrew stayed and Stacy and I went to the Scottish Parliament building across the street. The Scottish Parliament has a rather interesting political history, so that was entertaining. Stacy loved the interior decorations... wait, I mean the architecture. Right.

We went to a lovely little cafe on Canongate, and then trekked up the Royal Mile to the Elephant House. What's so important about the Elephant House, you ask?

THAT'S WHERE J.K. ROWLING WROTE HARRY POTTER!!!

Erhem... I mean... it has a rich literary history. Actually, news articles inside claim that at least three books besides HP have been written there as well, which Stacy and I, as wannabe writers, found impressive. So we subjected Andrew to several hours of us feverishly writing in an attempt to absorb the creative energies of the place.

At that point we wandered around New Town, found a bar called Hog's Head (at this ponit those of you familiar with Harry Potter will realize how much of Edinburgh probably ended up in good ole HP. There's also a drink at the Elephant House called "Fleur's Delight" which the barista claimed had been there since BEFORE HP4 was written). Eventually we ended back up at the train station, to take our train back to London.

Check out Stacy's post on our new flat, and look for The Second Week (or rather The Transition to Living), coming soon.

Peace and Love to you all.

Cheers!

The First Week, Part One

Right, so I know that we've been here for a week and a half and it has taken me this long to make a blog and post something to it, but whatever.

Sept. 11 - Sept. 12th
Andrew, Stacy, and Allen... leaving on a jet plane.
The plane ride was actually not that bad. Stacy and I sat together and there was a decent amount of room, so we weren't too upset about it. Arriving in Heathrow, we figured out why it's known as a wretched airport. We were new to it, of course, but we waited for almost an hour to get through Immigration. We got through alright, picked up our luggage, and wandered out to the "Meeting Point" to wait for Andrew, whose plane was landing two hours later. I had developed a cold a few days before, so I was generally miserable sitting there for three hours. We were hungry, tired, and I was all stuffed up. Eventually Andrew showed up and we started making plans. Originally we were just going to stay in a hostel for three weeks until school started, but wanted to contact some of the people we knew here first. Andrew called his roommate's friend Bob, and thankfully the kid answered. We explained our situation, and he gave us directions on how to get to his house, hoping to just drop off our bigger bags and then find a hostel or look for trains to go right to Edinburgh (pronounced "Edd-in-borrah"). Our bus trips took two hours and lots of hassle (we got off at the wrong stop, they only take exact change, which we didn't have, we were lugging around three huge bags each), we finally arrived at... KFC. Yes, KFC. Bob knew we would recognize that, so he met us there. From that point, we were saved. Bob took us to his house, insisted that we stay for dinner if not overnight, and helped us figure out what the heck we were doing. We talked, shared stories, smoked a few cigarettes, and generally had time to relax.

Bob's mom and sister got home and it was even better. Their family is from India, and we had Indian food for dinner, and it was ridiculously amazing.
The three of us were completely dead on our feet, and so at 9pm we crashed in Bob's family's living room, which was surprisingly comfortable. We slept for almost 14 hours, we were so tired.

Sept. 13
We spent the rest of the day with Bob, going for a walk, making plans for Scotland. Bob's mom made us more Indian food, which was again amazing. We're so ridiculously spoiled on Indian food now, Americanized Indian food will never again suffice. Ever.

We left late Thursday night for Edinburgh, taking a night train. We almost weren't able to get on, we got the last three seats. There were four guys from Notre Dame sitting near us, but they weren't very talkative, so we all just tried to sleep all night. The train ended up an hour late into Edinburgh, which didn't bother us since we had no plans, but the Notre Dame kids were pissed off about it.

Sept. 14th
Edinburgh is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. We spent that Friday wandering about. The only thing of real importance we did was go to the National Gallery of Scotland. There we saw several pieces by Raphael, Botticelli, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, and others.

Later in the day we looked around for hostels, but not having made a reservation, we weren't able to find a place, all the hostels were full. So, what to do? Change of plans, go north.

We found a train to Inverness, which is in Northern Scotland. On the train we got kicked out of our seats by a group of middle-aged Scottish women, who nearly ruined our love of the accent by how rude they were. They got drunk on the train and were completely obnoxious, and since we were already tired, I was still sick, and a little stressed about having to change our plans, we were pissed off most of the train ride.

But the view of the Scottish Highlands up north was amazing. The Fife of Forth, a large bay on the east of Scotland, was alongside us for much of the first part of the trip. We got into Inverness late, found our hostel, and found some food and beer as quickly as possible. We made plans for a two-hour hike up to Loch Ness the next day, and went to sleep after a long day.

Sept. 15

Inverness was an important city to Scotland, hundreds of years ago. A sort of crossroads from Edinburgh to the south, and then Urquhart Castle to the west. That morning it started raining, and after picking up some supplies (Stacy and I did not bring warm enough jackets, and Stacy forgot socks... oops), we decided to take a bus instead of hike. Urquhart Castle was an important strategic outpost on Loch Ness, and we spent the day there. It's in ruins now, but the castle on the lake is still breathtaking.

After spending the day there, we took a bus back again to Inverness. Across the loch was a rainbow, and Stacy and I took several picture of it. It's not surprising that the folk culture in Scotland is similar to Ireland, with stories of fairies, ghosts, and witches and folk supernatural experiences. The forests are thick and wild, and haunting in their own way. There is something raw and real about the Scottish Highlands that is strange for kids from Nebraska.

Getting back to Inverness, we ate dinner at the Blackfriar Highlands Pub to get some traditional Scottish food. It was delicious, and I accidentally ate sheep. (I thought haggis was a vegetable product, I have no idea why, shut up). Then we wandered back to our hostel and hung out practically the entire night with the night porter, Evan. Evan is an Aussie who travels around, finds a place to stop, works for awhile to get money, and then travels some more. We've made plans for him to come visit us in Nebraska in April, when he travels through the States.


The First Week, Part Two will come soon.

Welcome to Juicy Bits

Welcome to Juicy Bits. This is the travel blog (and maybe more?) for Allen and Stacy and Andrew and their adventures in the United Kingdom.

First off, the origin behind the name. We were talking to our British friend Bob, and "pulp" (as in, the pulp in orange juice) is called "juicy bits" in British culture. That, combined with the fact that we're going to be giving you juicy little bits of our lives here, gave us the first part of the name. The second part of the name comes from the fact that we are in the British Empire (duh), and Stacy and Allen's flat is located in Shepherd's Bush Empire. Plus Stacy says it reminds her of Star Wars, which was more incentive for me to push for that aspect of the name, my nerd soul was demanding it.

And so, here it is. Juicy Bits of the Empire.