League of Gentlemen

Rui clued me in to the League of Gentlemen a few weeks ago. It was a British dark-comedy that aired over here a few years ago. I remember hearing about it in the US, but never caught it on BBCAmerica, becuase my sister dumped her satellite before it was aired in the US.

Anyway, last night, Rui surprised me by taking me to see the live performance they did here at the Plymouth Pavillions. The show was pretty good, and was definitely funny, but unfortunately the sound wasn't all that great.

If you have the chance to see the show, it's definitely worth it. Just be warned that it's a very dark comedy... very dark. It's also kind of like X-files with comedy mixed in, so that may throw some people off. I need to see more than just the first series though.

Stayin' Alive!

Hey everyone. I know that some of you are probably wondering if I'm still alive, and what the hell's happened to me in the last month. Time just seems to have been flying lately. Last thing I knew, it was the middle of October, and then I blinked, and it's the end of November! I can't believe I turn 29 in a little over a week! EEKS!!

Halloween consisted of two separate events here. The night before Halloween, Syndie and I dressed up and went to Sing-A-Long Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was incredibly fun. I'd never been to a showing of RHPS where people went all-out before. This one had the squirt guns, screaming, dressing up, etc... it had it all. The next night, we went to a small party at my Portuguese friend Rui's home. The pic above is Rui and I dressed up. I went as BabyDaddy from the Scissor Sisters, and yes, I did buy that hat...and do continue to wear it...thank you very much.

Since then, time has been flying. I've been keeping up with school and keeping up with life in general. Because of a Visa problem, my bank account got locked up over here for a long time, and I had to get that sorted out. Basically, Heathrow wrote the wrong date, and messed things up big time. I had to get them to acknowledge said mistake and put it in writing. Hopefully rude customs lady got in big trouble over her mistake.

I'm currently trying to make plans for Christmas. I might go to Portugal to stay with Rui, or may go on a trip to Scotland. Money's the big deciding issue right now. New Years will be spent with Syndie and Charlie in London. Whooo!

I've got more to share, but I have to run for now. Just thought people might like to know that they didnt' fish my dead body out of the Barbican here in Plymouth.

Cheers!
Rick

National Aquarium Trip

I joined the International Student Society here at UP a week ago. I mainly did it because there were promises of discounted trips around the area for sight seeing.

So, yesterday, the ISS gave us the opportunity to visit the National Aquarium in Plymouth for 1/2 price! I of course jumped at the opportunity, despite the fact it would seriouly cut into my afternoon kip time.

The National Aquarium was a lot of fun, and pretty cool. Admittedly, I've been ruined by the Seattle Aquarium, which is huge, and a trip to Sea World a few years ago. There were some incredibly interesting things, like a huge shark that kept swimming directly over Syndie and I, and a pickled giant squid! (See Picture Above) This is the only giant squid to have washed onto land in the UK, and I got to see it. The thing was huge! Counting the tentacles, it was about 8 feet long, and this was a smaller giant squid!

Here's a picture of Plymouth from the Barbican District outside the Aquarium. The Barbican is the posh historic district, with lots of interesting shops and expensive eateries. Anyway, you get to see how pretty Plymouth is, and get a better idea of how big the city is too.

Dear Sweet McKitten!

Another thing that made this week good was the demise of the pink sheets and the arrival of a mysterious package! Hooray!!

I checked my Yahoo IM last Sunday to find that McKitten had wrote saying she had sent me a care package! I anxiously awaited the package to arrive. When I got in on Monday, I saw a package from the US in the main office. Sadly, the package was held hostage in said office until Tuesday morning when I could rescue it from the clutches of the hoarding bandits (or is that whoreding? I don't like them much.)

I tore into the package, and to my surprise, it was the BEST CARE PACKAGE EVER!!! Inside were all manner of bedding for me to replace the pink sheets! New sheets, duvet covers, an incredibly soft blanket, throw pillows, world's smallest kite(!), some great DVDs, and Peanut Butter!!! God Bless the USA!!!

McKitten way outdid herself in showering me in all that love. Seriously, I've never felt so loved as I did when I opened that box and saw all of the amazing stuff inside. And the card...ah, the card! Made this bear's heart melt and his eyes mist up.

So, a huge THANK YOU to McKitten for taking such good care of me, and rescuing me from the horrors of the pink sheets!

Idaho Squared

I know I've been a little remiss in my blogging duties lately. I've been so busy with school, life, fighting with my new bank, and other things, that I haven't even thought of the blog until today!

This last week has been really fun. It started Monday afternoon when our doorbell rang. I opened the door to someone with an American voice saying, "I heard there's someone from Idaho here! Is that true?" I told her it was me, and discovered that she, Syndie, is from Idaho Falls! She's also an ISU student, here on an exchange. Then, it gets crazier. Not only have we been living literally right down the hall from each other for almost a month now, and never bumped into each other, but we discovered that she dated my cousin for a while!!! We used to hang out at a lot of the same places, but never met until we got here.

It's been great hanging out with Syndie this week. It's comforting to talk of things back home, speak American, and experience culture shock together. It's been interesting how we've both experienced all of our insecurities in life being thrown in our face the last week or so. I'm glad we've got each other to talk these things through.

Friday night, we went to the club to go dancing. Syndie and I danced for 3 hours straight. It's a good thing I have to walk everywhere now, or I'd have collapsed from exhaustion! We snapped the picture before we were covered in sweat, which definitely happened. This humidity thing is weird!

So, it's been great making a new friendship this week, that is both new and exciting, but comfortable and reasuring at the same time.

Excited about classes

I'm excited about a few things I'll get to do in my classes this year. I'll have a couple of opportunities that I would never have gotten if I'd stayed at ISU this semester.

First, I get a full year to work on my documentary, rather than just one semester. And actually, I think I would have just made a 3 minute short video for FilmStyle production back at ISU. Having the full year will give me the time to do quality research, get quality interviews, and really make this a showpiece worthy work of art.

Second, I'll get the opportunity to really shoot something on film. Not just DV, but actual film. Processed, developed, and projected film! I'm so excited! Film is so different than DV, and having this in my resume looks so good. Besides, no matter how good the Panasonic DVX series gets, it won't look 100% like film.

Third, I'll get to be trained in Adobe AfterEffects. I've whined at the Mass Comm department for not teaching us this software, and how it sets us at a disadvantage in the work field. A lot of people are using AfterEffects, and I'll get hands on training to know how to do something with it.

Fourth, I have a class where we just watch movies, talk about them afterwards, and write a few papers now and then. Does it get any better than that? Today we watched the French film "Breathless" from the 50's. It was pretty good, but due to a lot of circumstances, I was sleep deprived/sick, so I kept nodding off.

So, overall it looks like I made a very important educational decision.

Awww... it breaks my heart

BritBrat got her mid-terms on Friday- 7 As and one B-. I was really glad, especially since one of the As is in her AP Biology class. I think she misses you the most out of everyone in the entire family, and we all miss you lots.

It's funny. Your 15-year-old niece isn't supposed to be one of your closest friends. She's not supposed to tell you that you're the older brother she never had right before you leave for the airport. You're not supposed to hate Sunday afternoons because you can't call and talk to her like usual.

I miss my BritBrat!!

iTunes Tracker

Darn iTunes. It can be too helpful sometimes. I just noticed that I've listened to Travis's "Love Will Come Through" 35 times in the 48 hours since I found it on the internet on Saturday.

I heard a rumor the song can be found here. Pure speculation, of course.

I'm the Firestarter, Twisted Firestarter

I missed out on Saturday night. I didn't quite understand what was going on in the Student Union. Everone was cramming in the Illusion to watch three girls singing, talking about what was going to happen in a little bit. I didn't care. I was too cool. I missed out.

It was last night that I talked to Laura and found out what happened in the SU. The Prodigy played a free concert. Remember "Firestarter" from about 10 years ago? Yeah, those guys. I missed it. AAArrrgh!

"Developmentally Disabled" Shopping

I went on a major grocery shopping trip on Saturday. Well, as major as you can allow yourself when you remember that you have to carry the groceries home the mile and a half to your flat. I didn't have any food at that point though, so I desperately needed to make some purchases. You can only eat toasted bagette sandwiches so many times at Jake's before your bank account feels it.

As I was shopping in the large grocery store (we finally found where it was), I felt like I'd been struck with a "developmental disability." That's mentally retarded for anyone that grew up before the horror of political correctness in the 90s. I was looking at the food, but nothing looked right. I'd see similar packages, but instead of saying Lay's Chips, it said Walker's Crisps. The Mexican food section consisted of one type of enchilada sauce, and one type of refried beans. I'd find something I wanted, such as some cheese, but the cheddar was white and scared me. I was on sensory overload, and I couldn't handle it after a while. Anyone that's ever gone grocery shopping with me can attest that it's almost an ordeal for me anyway, but doing it in a foreign country was almost enough to send me into an epileptic seizure. I don't want to go grocery shopping again.

Thanks

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I really appreciate it.

Things have been going better the last few days. I haven't had to watch any movies about America lately, so that's been a big help. I'm also feeling a little more settled over the last few days. I bought hangers finally, so the bags are unpacked, the shirts are hung, and the suitcases are hidden away. The room's looking like a room, rather than a hotel.

Crying in Class

Today was my first day of class here at UP, and I had documentary class this morning. We talked for a bit about the documentary we'll have to make through the course of the year, and then we watched "Bowling for Columbine" as an example of a good documentary. We were supposed to be watching it to notice all of the different styles that Michael Moore uses in his docs.

I'd never seen it before, and it left me thinking "Damn. America's messed up!"

But then, all of the sudden, I got so homesick I couldn't handle it. I'd try not to think about it, and think of something else, and inevitably, that something else would remind me of something that made me even sadder. So, in the back of the dark room, Rick started to cry because he was missing home so bad.

Poetry Contest

Just because I'm bored (can you tell classes haven't started yet?) I thought I should have a poetry contest on the blog. Since it's my contest, I thought a haiku contest would be fun. There's no prize in this contest, except for the knowledge that you posted something really cool in the comments section, and that you're smarter than all the other kids. Basically, nyah nyah nyah nyah bragging rights.

Here are a few examples. Haiku have the form of 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second, and 5 again on the third and final line.

Hi Pocatello.
I lament that I'm not there.
Keep me in your heart.

England: Your food sucks.
I want real peanut butter
not your awful crap.

Pink sheets on my bed
make me angry and bitter.
Send me new sheets now.

Saturday pub crawl
leaves me feeling really good.
Making out is fun.

Yay Lindsay Lohan!
It looks like you ate some food!
Help the Olsens now.

I'm sure that the smart and witty readers of Blandella will be able to come up with much better than those feeble attempts at poetic greatness. Oh, and any dirty ones that aren't signed I will just assume were written by M or S.

Volunteering and Pub Crawls

Only in England would one lead to the other.

I went with the ViP group on campus (Volunteers in Plymouth) yesterday to clean up the Japanese garden at a local hospital. I really didn't want to go, but Sarah reminded me that it'd be a good way to meet people, and get me out of the flat on a Saturday.

It actually was a good time, and it felt nice to be productive.

When the group got back to campus, we decided to go across the street to Cuba! and grab a pint. As we were sitting around, Nic, the leader of the ViP, decided he should take us out on our first official pub crawl. We started at 6pm. I have no idea what time we ended.

There are some interesting drinks in England that you can't get in the US. First is a snakebite, which is 1/2 lager and 1/2 cider. Both halves combine to form a super-hero wicked tonic that'll get you pretty smashed. Then, there's the fishbowl at Cuba!, which is a punch bowl sized drink full of every hard liquor you can imagine with a bunch of orange juice and tonic. Finally, there's the terminator. It's pretty much a super-fishbowl in a handy pint. I didn't try that one, and I'm glad. The girls that had been sober were all completely pissed after the terminator.

I decided to play it more conservative last night, and I'm glad I did. It made for a much more interesting evening, watching Sarah go from happy/giggle drunk to raging angry/aggressive drunk after the terminator, and watching Sam spray vomit all over the couch at Zeros. What a night!

Cross Your Fingers

I might *might* get to see LCD Soundsystem in December in London. They're playing at a club there, and Mike in London (MiL) might have an extra ticket if his mate backs out. I should know in a few days.

The best part is, LCD Soundsystem, fronted by the incredibly talented James Murphy will by playing London on MY BIRTHDAY! YAY!!

LCD Soundsystem, London, Birthday...could it get any better? Oh yeah...if S, W, MK, JftB, M, and T were all there with me. That would be heaven.

Duvets and Bank Accounts

I went this morning to start a new bank account here in England. Currently I'm stuck using my bank account in the US, and they're not really thrilled to have to convert the money for my purchases. I have some cash that I brought over, so I've been using that in the meantime. So, I go to the bank, but find out that I'm one of thousands clamouring for a new account. I had to set up a meeting for Tuesday afternoon to set up the account. Hopefully it's not too big of an ordeal, but I've heard it can be a pain setting up an account as an international citizen. I have to remember to take my passport with me.

I really wanted to go shopping for a new duvet cover this afternoon. The salmon/peach cover is driving me nuts. I'm not sure why it bugs me so bad, but it really does. Anyway, I found that there's a TK Maxx not too far away. Yeah, that's not a typo. TJ Maxx is alive and well here in England, but somehow the J got transposed to a K. It's the exact same store though, so I'm not complaining. It's where I bought all sorts of stuff back in Pocatello. Maybe I'll make it down there tomorrow and see if I can find a cheap duvet in a nice green or blue. Heck, I'd even take Power Rangers duvet covers over the pink one now.

Oh, and Gmail is having problems. I haven't been able to check my email there since early yesterday. Hopfully it's fixed soon. I'm thrilled that they keep offering more space in the email every day, but I'd rather have email that worked consistently. This seems to happen a little too often for my liking.

Hooray and Boo

Hooray: I finally feel like things fell into place for school this afternoon. I went to a meeting this morning for the freshers (freshmen) and met the various faculty in my department, and got a tour of the facilities. The faculty weren't very happy that I crashed the little party, but hey, it's their fault that they haven't communicated with me at all previous to that time. Then, I had a meeting where I discovered how to go about signing up for classes. One of the ones I have to do is a repeat of a class I had last year, but it should be okay. I have a documentary class that should be fun, and a couple of indie film classes that should be really insightful. I'm looking forward to classes starting next week.

Boo: The fact that Blogger is having all kinds of issues today. I'm not able to access the blogs at all today, and I'm not even sure that this will post. It's kind of frustrating to write something, with the possiblity that it might not even show up.

Editor's Note: This was actually posted yesterday, but due to problems with Blogger, never got posted. The BOO entry just went up ten-fold.

On beer and mad cow disease

Here's the bombed out church that I've been talking about. Aparently it really was bombed out, but not by the IRA as I had been imagining. This church was the victim of a bomb attack during WWII. Isn't it crazy to think that I'm seeing a church that was a victim of WWII? Well, it is for me. Unfortunately, this picture isn't the greatest. The church looks best at night when it's all lit up and has a mixture of beauty and horror to it. It's brilliant!

Here's a picture of my flatmate Sarah. She dragged me out of the flat on Monday to go to the Student Union and watch football for a while. It was interesting sitting on campus, drinking beer with 300+ other students while watching them cheer on the Arsenal football team. It's weird that there are like three pubs on campus, and that you can just drink anywhere. Students are often in the open area outside drinking a pint. After we left the SUB, we went to a club called the Walkabout. There was a band playing, who Saz told me was the Kaiser Chiefs. I was really excited, until I learned they were just covering the Kaiser Chiefs for a while. They were a good band, but the Kaiser Chiefs would have been better.

Craving a bit of home this afternoon, I went to McDonalds. We have one close to campus, as well as a Burger King. Sadly, no double-cheeseburger for $1. I was surprised how small my extra value meal was. I got a medium, but it was only small size. No wonder they're so skinny over here, and we're so fat in America. God bless America though, with our 32oz soft drinks. It was halfway through my burger though when the thought of mad cow disease popped into my head. I'm sure I'll be fine, but if I mysteriously die in a year...I blogged about it here.

Photolog

This entry will once again harken to the days when I had a short-lived photolog going. This first picture is from Paddington train station. This is the train I rode from Heathrow, and the same station I would catch the train to Plymouth in. According to my sister, this is where the brick post for the Harry Potter movies was shot, but I sure as hell didn't see any brick columns. This is also where Paddington Bear is from. I could have taken my picture with a statue, but I was tired and looked like crap at the moment. Sorry.

Here's the kinds of buildings that line the street where I live. I don't have an actual picture of my accommodation house, because people were giving me that "are you smoking crack" look. Almost all of the buildings have shops in the bottom, and housing above them. It's like old town Pocatello, where things where economical, if only in use of space.

Time change:

I forgot to say that Plymouth is 7 hours ahead of Idaho. So, add a seven to the time you see posted on my blog to figure out what time I really posted.

Unfortunately, 7 hours is killer when it comes to jet lag. I slept all night last night, but I'm still really tired. I slept until almost noon, and then realized it was only 5am my time. Now wonder I was still sleepy. I felt hungover all day, without ever drinking. Sarah really helped by offering me "a spot of tea" that worked wonders. Hopefully, this whole jet lag thing passes soon.