Saturday night, the 26th, a lot of the girls from the flats got dressed in black and we went to the party for Minjung. There was LOTS of cake. Apryl and I had baked two box mixes, so our cake was huge! and then the girls upstairs baked a cake as well. There was everything chocolate, and our balloons dangled from the ceiling of the kitchen. It was fun. We listened to music and chatted with the people. After a while, they all went out on the town and Apryl and I hung around Paddock Fields for a while seeing if we could find any British people to talk to, but we didn't, so we went to The Bear for a little while and just chilled out. Well, I tried to. The Bear was crowded, so the only place to sit was right behind the pool table... So my eye nearly got put out several times. Then I kept dropping my clutch, and when I was trying to cross my leg into a more comfortable position, it slipped and my shin went crashing into the iron disc leg support under the table. Apryl laughed. Ha ha, Apryl. Ha ha. Actually, it was pretty funny, but it was very painful. And then this guy just kept staring me down, but wouldn't say anything. No friendly, "Hello" or "How's it going?"... nope, just a cold hard stare. We watched some highlights of football matches, and then we decided to catch the 11:5something bus back to campus (you have to pay a pound cash after midnight... yes we are cheap).
You know, I'm getting rather used to the cigarette smell. Probably not such a good thing to get used to, but I am all the same. And I have never smelled so many people wearing perfume/cologne/au de toilet in my life. EVERYONE wears it. No one just smells like soap and deodorant. They either smell like a wonderful scent from a bottle, or they smell like terrible B.O. and wonderful scent from a bottle. Or, a terrible scent from a bottle (not all of them smell good). However, for the most part, it smells good, there's just so much of it everywhere. You walk down a street and everyone that passes you can smell. I guess it's just another way of getting attention. People like attention here. You give them attention and they are eternally thrilled. You can see it in their faces.
Anyway, that was the end of Saturday. It was a fun day.
Sunday, the 27th, nothing much happened. It was quiet, as usual. I spent most of the time in my room reading the news on the BBC website. And I also spent part of it reading the two week old paper in the kitchen I bought... I need to get a new paper. Reading the personal/romance ads section was pretty entertaining, though. I like how almost all of the men described themselves as, "handsome" and described exactly what kind of woman they wanted to contact them... I thought to myself, "Keeeeeep wishin' there, fellas". Some of the ads were pretty genuine, actually. But a lot of them were just male ego call-outs. The youngest one advertising was 28 and the oldest was 78. The youngest woman advertising was 20 and I don't know the oldest, because I was getting bored by that point, and the maintenence person appeared and was fixing the window, so I stopped reading.
I sketched a picture, but it isn't very good. I was just mainly playing with shadows and light source. But Pavelsky's words kept floating back to me, "simplify your lines"... Although I got all the proportions right the first time. One step at a time, I suppose.
Apryl and I mosied down to the "Odeon" which is the cinema in city centre. There's one down by the Marina as well, but we wanted to see the movie Dorian Gray and it wasn't playing at the Marina. Anyway, the Odeon is closer, so it all works out. The movie was a little strange, as is the book, but it isn't much like the book. They tried to put something about Dorian's grandfather beating him, but the movie could have done entirely without it. It wasn't necessary. There was also Harry as a married man with a daughter... which was not in the book, I think. And here's a difference in culture for you: The movie had a lot of nudity in it, but it was rated for 15 years and up. It would be an R movie in America (17 and up). Although in recent years I have seen some PG-13 movies with nudity in it. So, I guess things like that change. But the movie was much more explicit than the book and with considerably less dialogue, which I wish they would have kept. They had most of Harry's awesome remarks about women and society, but left a lot of Dorian's dialogue out. I suppose to create him more mysterious. However, I think because of that, they sort of chopped the head off the debate Oscar Wilde was presenting about youth and pleasure, innocence, and happiness, and I think it ruined a lot of the psychological tension. Dorian needed more lines!
Benjamin Barnes played Dorian and Colin Firth was Harry, which was awesome! Colin Firth is great. He was the best part of the movie, for sure. Another famous actor whom I can not remember the name, but I remember his face, played Basil. It was more like a horror film... not very literary, and not very compelling, but it was alright. But I wouldn't want to see it again, probably.
After the movie, I went back to the flat with Lorin (who met us at the Odeon) and went for a run. Then I went to the King and Queen to listen to the Battle of the Bands, but once again, the bands weren't that great, so I didn't stick around. I talked to Sarah, which was nice because I had not talked to her but once since I've been here. Then I took the bus back home. I sang a couple songs to myself waiting for the bus trying to think of something interesting. But I couldn't. So I stopped singing after a while.
As was typical: Almost everyone was out on the town getting drunk. There are no real friends to find among drunk people. I've discovered that. You can have a friend and they get drunk and they are still your friend. But you can't really make friends if you are sober and the other person is drunk. And I mean sloppy, can't see straight, smell the booze ten yards away drunk. Walking back to the apartment, I could actually smell the alcohol standing in the air from all of the people's breath. Oh, and it's cold enough now to see your breath. Althought the skies are clear and sunny for the most part, there is a definite chill in the air.
Anyway, it is now Monday morning of the 28th. School does not start until next week. (!!!) and no one has contacted me about classes. So! Today I plan to register with the doctor, get some groceries, put in a bank letter form, take my payment to the American office for the trips I am going to partake in, and then maybe I will look at airline tickets to Scotland.
I can't decide whether I just want to travel around England for a while, and get used to it, then travel a lot next semester, or if I want to travel NOW... I think I will go somewhere this week and then just stick around in England. A lot of other kids are gone this week to Ireland and Spain and places like that. I just need to be patient and see.
All for now!
Cheers!
Hannah
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