I think I've met my first friend in London. Or at least...sorta... Her name is Victoria. I was walking down Holloway Road and she complimented my Modest Mouse T-Shirt, so we started talking. This was one week ago. Since then, we've been emailing and decided to meet for a drink tonight and I would give her a copy of Interstate-8. We talked ( Read more... )

I was at my lovely local pub The Faltering Fullback playing cards with Chad and enjoying a nice cold pint. It was hot inside, and so we were sat as close to the door as possible, waiting for a table outside in the beer garden to open up. I was engrossed in our game of Rummy when the next thing I know everyone is running out of the room. I had to ( Read more... )

I’ve been crap about updating, but hopefully that will change now that I’m finally settling into my new home. Also, I haven’t been around much. Last week I made yet another trip to Paris. This time I accompanied Sarah for a very intense 2-night/3-day house-hunting adventure. Sarah won a scholarship that gives her 10 months to live and research ( Read more... )

I've moved into London. I'm still unpacking. It seems like it will never end. But I'm happy. I'm happier than I've been in a long time. I've spent the last couple days walking around local areas in northern London and I constantly thinking to myself "I can't believe I'm actually living in London..." I'm currently typing this in front of the ( Read more... )

Mostly I'm happy about the move, but packing always stirs up memories. For instance, though I have no particular love for the cliche French advertisements on my living room walls, I can remember buying them at a poster sale at uni during the first couple weeks of my MA in an attempt to break up the white space of the empty room. I've also had to ( Read more... )

Aberdeen is grey like no other city I've ever seen. Literally, every building is made of grey granite stones, regardless of if they're 500+ years old, or 50. The sreets are grey. The sidewalks/pavement are grey. And of course the usual cliche--the weather has been grey. It was a very surreal experience when I walked out of the station and ( Read more... )

Guess what? In a quick change of events, I'M MOVING TO LONDON!!!!!!!!Chad and I found a nice flat in Finsbury Park this weekend and put money down. Assuming it all works out, he's moving in next weekend and I'll move in at the end of the month, after my conference in Aberdeen (northern Scotland ( Read more... )

Greetings from Paris, where I'm enjoying my (second) bottle of amazing wine (for less than 6€) and drunkenly trying to master the insane French keyboard--so sorry if there are typos! In case you cared, Italy and the US just played each other in the world cup and ended in a draw, which is all very heady and existential for a lady like me who ( Read more... )

Setting: Chad and I are walking back to his house from a bar in Hackney (east London).

Random woman: [mumbles something inaudible in a sexy voice]

We look around and find a couple on their balcony, calling down to us.

Chad: What?

Random woman: [sexy voice] You into foursomes?

Chad: No. Sorry.

Random man: [sexy voice] That's a shame.

Random ( Read more... )

One of the things that I think I'm finding the hardest about getting a PhD is that I feel like I'm from a completely different class bracket than everyone else. ALL of my friends' parents are either academics, doctors or lawyers--or some combination of these. I'm not kidding--I can only think of ONE of my friends who can join me in saying that we ( Read more... )