Cheerio, Chelsea! [entries|friends|calendar] cheerio_chelsea [ website | Chelsea's art gallery on the web ] [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

London, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pau and PARIS! [31 Mar 2005|08:23pm] Alright, I have 30+ pictures to post. Hold on to your hats and please fasten your seat belts, because without further ado I would like to present to you.... THE LAST THREE WEEKS OF CHELSEA'S LIFE IN A VERY LARGE NUTSHELL ...imagine that Melaney and I were shouting that at you, and you would have the right idea of how monumental, crazy-go-nuts it's been. ( crack it open )

[21 Dec 2004|03:59pm] [ mood | accomplished ] [ music | Custom - Mess ] Budapest is gray. That's the simplest way to describe it. ( Read more... )

[22 Nov 2004|02:52pm] [ mood | excited ] A quick followup from Kai's visit to Bristol, and London pics! Robert and I sailed up the Hudson, following the migrating carbou. Or we just went to the British Empire Museum and played in the kiddie exhibition. ( Read more... )

[12 Nov 2004|09:35am] [ mood | distressed ] [ music | Phillip Glass - Rubric ] a) Getting dressed b) Packing to go to London c) Finishing my essay thats due at noon d) Printing out my essay thats due at noon The sun is out right now. I have not seen the sun in well over a week. Truth be told, I do have to admit that the lack of genuine helio-light mixed with blue skies is starting to wear on me......When I walked into the kitchen and saw BLUE outside the window, I immediately grabbed my museli and yogurt and went to sit out on the patio. I hope it stays like this all day today...... ...but who am I kidding? Anyhow, tonight is Cake in concert, for whom The Decemberists are opening! Seeing The Decemberists will almost be enough to make me want to forgive the UK for not having any blue skies. And then on top of it, I get to see Kyle and Jake! This weekend is going to AWESOME, to put it lightly. Okay, okay, being overcast all day is definately NOT something that I'm genuinely annoyed with while living here. I guess I'm just capitalizing upon the fact that the sun came out, and it's making me remember what non-overcast days are like. There are very few things that I can point at and say "This genuinely annoys me" while living here, and one is the fact that my dorm room looks out onto a car park and a dumpster. But other than that, I have been literally having the time of my life. Everyday, no matter where I go, I cannot BELIEVE that ME, Chelsea Conboy, that I am ACTUALLY in another country. Not simply to visit, I'm living here. In the months prior to my arrival here, I had a nagging feeling that this wouldn't happen, and that I was simply deluding myself into thinking that I was actually going. I seem to have this life-long plauge of failed and unrealized dreams (because I sometimes have overzealous goals), and I'm trying to not take this experience for granted in any way, shape, or form. I get to paint next week.....a massive backdrop for the Oklahoma production. It's going to be sweeeeet. Too bad Kyle's the only one who will actually get to see it, since he's coming for Thanksgiving (when the show is being put on). I really, really miss painting. A LOT. Pain au chocolat is fabulous. I'm going to miss all the awesome cakes and pastries here.

[12 Nov 2004|09:33am] [ mood | awake ] [ music | Phillip Glass - Rubric ] Just a quickie picture post: ( Read more... )

[24 Oct 2004|08:35pm] [ mood | accomplished ] Quite a bit has been going on. The intrepid Manor Hall Hat Society, prior to an Indian dinner social. (Behind them is the inside of the hall that I live in.) Top left to bottom right: Jack, Dan, James, Katheryn, and Charlotte. Prince of India a few weekends ago. Left to right, Lawrence, James, Charlotte, Jack, Louisa, and Nikki. Id'duh kyutie widdle Katheryn! (At Prince of India) Dan and Alex, his flat mate. (Also at Prince of India) Sometime a few weeks ago, en route to the infamous CORRIE TAP. L to R: Will, Lee, Lawrence (epitome of all things adorable), and Jack. Lawrence went and bought a blonde wig and some elf ears and is planning on going as Legolas for Halloween! HEISSOCUTE! The seedy insides of the Corrie Tap...I don't know whats going on with Melanie.... L to R: Jack, Dan, Mel, James. Once again, Melaine manages to surpass even me for the title of 'Weirdest Facial Expressions in a Photograph" Meet my friend Choco Duo, a delightful conglamoration of chocolate, hazlenut and vanilla in the form of an easy to spread paste...... I don't know what posessed me to do this, but that's me brushing my teeth with the abovmentioned Choco Duo. Wills Building on a particularily clear and beautiful day, taken en route to work. The Bristol town center, which leads out to some canals and docks, and then to the river. You can barely see on of the canals in this picture. We stumbled upon a giant map of the world in a downtown area.....I'm pointing to Bristol. 'HERE I AM!' The rest of these pictures are from yesterday, when Anthony and his brother Johnathan graciously invited me to have lunch and watch a local rugby match with them. Nicole and I went out with the brothers and their friends on Friday night, and then Anthony asked me if I would be interested in going the following morning at 10. He needn't ask twice; I had been wanting to see a rugby game since I arrived here. We went to a classy town about an hour north of Bristol (I don't remember the name, though), had lunch in the most posh of all posh French restaurants, and then drove to a grassy field to watch the game. Johnathan worked at a factory a few years ago with many of the men from the team, and he deceided to go back on Saturday to see old friends and see how the local rugby team was doing. Johnathan's moving to Italy in January, so he's been down a lot lately to visit 'Anton', and then he's getting married in June. He's so adorably in love with his fiancee....it makes me feel all warm and tingly inside :). I had so much fun! The village we ate lunch in. Ditto. I thought the leaves on the ground in this picture added a special something......The colors on the trees were really fantastic. This old Irish man was riding down the street, with his dog bundled up in the bin on the front of the bike. Note the dog's head covering. The dog was keeping time as he was riding along, barking loudly every second on the dot, like a metronome. Someone walking yelled aggressively, "Tell that fucking squirrel to SHUT UP!" and this was taken as the biker was dismounting to give the attacker what-for. We later ran into the metronome-dog-squirrel....I thought I should immortalize him with a dignified photograph. I was trying to take a picture of this quaint little alley we walked through, but just as I was aiming my camera a dirty dishevled woman walked in and stood by a card rack looking at the wares. I waited a bit for her to leave, but Anthony seized the chance to look suave AND block her from view. Nice, eh? The brothers Giles. Johnathan left, Anthony right. Don't let that grin and dandy purple scarf fool you, Anthony was bitterly battling with the wind and rain at this point. The rain was coming in nearly horizontally, and we stood out in the rugby pitch with little more than our feeble umbrellas. The field was simply a big green grass pitch, and the spectators stood behind a railing level with the players. The amount of mud was astounding. When the ball was knocked out of bounds, the teams literally *tossed* one of the players into the air to catch the throw-in. A scrum, where the teams basically morph into massive walls and push against one another, until someone comes clear with the ball. I heard the sound of this man's head colliding with someone else's clear across the field. He passed out, and was carried off on a stretcher. Another better shot of men being tossed in the air for the throw-in. Johnathan, Anthony and myself. We stood in the rain for an HOUR and a HALF and had the god-damned best times of our lives! I think I must have been the only female in my age range to have set foot within the Rugby lodge in several years. The bar area was filled with old men discussing the ins and outs of rugby and sharing a pint, but all eyes awkwardly turned towards me when we walked in. I felt a tad bit out of place at first, but over all I enjoyed myself and the game too much to really be bothered by anything. Rugby is SO much more interesting than American football! Afterwards, we rung up mum and dad Giles to see if we couldn't stop in for a bit of tea. It turns out that Anthony lives in the same village as JK Rowlings (the author of Harry Potter) did when she was growing up. Anthony's dad TAUGHT her in school. And Anthony's chemistry teacher in school was the basis for Professor Snape. ANTHONY WAS TAUGHT BY THE GENUINE PROFESSOR SNAPE! Small world, eh?

[07 Oct 2004|12:52am] I only have two classes a week, for two hours each.....and leave it to me to miss my FIRST ONE. I wrote down the wrong time, and showed up at 11 AM when the class was really finishing at that time. Luckily, the teacher was really nice about it (I think I'm getting a lot of "special" treatment since I'm a dumb study abroad student), and she just gave me the entire lecture during her office hours. Borders Books was having a 20% for students sale, so I went in and bought some books for classes. £37 later, I walked away with 4 postcolonial literature books (which is roughly $70 USD). I just barely have finished Oedipus and Hamlet for tomorrows class. I'm somewhat proud of that, since this will mark the first time I read classical literature/drama and actually ENJOYED myself. Shakespeare seems to be a lot easier to sift through as I get older. Catherine (one of my house mates) randomly asked me to go with her to visit her parents today, along with James and Melanie. I took a load of pictures, which I'll post when I'm feeling more active. Her house was such a classic British cottage, and I almost wet my pants when I saw it. They had these romantic-era georgian paintings hanging on the wall, and me being the American that I am, I assumed that they were thrift-store fodder (or 'charity shops' as their called here). It turns out that they're actual paintings of Catherine's great great great great great great great great great grandparents. My eyes popped out of my head when she told me that. I also got excited because she had a whole doll house full of sylvanian famlies and maple town figurined (little fuzzy poseable animals). I got all excited and went on and on about how cool it is that we played with the same toys growing up. I think I was a little bit more enthused about the cultural/anthropological link than she was, hehe. I also have decided that British chocolate products are FAR SUPERIOR to any American chocolate products I've ever had. Melanie and I sung every single word to the Beatles 1 album on the way back. We're going to do karaoke to 'Paper Bag Writer' on Friday. I've been living off of cakes and tea and coffee the past few days. It seems like every time I turn around, everyone's asking me to come to a tea party. They're a lot less formal than you would think; 'Tea Parties' for college students pretty much consist of cheap cakes and cookies from the grocery store and talking with friends. I think it's a riot that they're still called 'TEA PARTIES', though. Finding out all the differences between what things are called America versus Britian is really fun. -You don't have a 'crush' on someone, you 'fancy' them. -You don't 'make out' with someone, you 'snog' them. -Something isn't 'nice', it's 'lovely'. -You don't top your salad with 'salad dressing', you put 'salad cream' on top. ....Well, that's all I can think of for now.....but I'll try to keep a list running. Tomorrow night is the international student dinner. Hooray for free food. I'm about 90% positive that I have a job lined up at Starbucks. HOW American. I'll try and get some pictures up tomorrow, but I'm going to be fairly busy. Hope everyone's doing well, and be on the look out for postcards! :D

[07 Oct 2004|12:51am] I almost forgot. If you want to contact me: by Phone: (440)(0870) 775-5401 or by Post: Chelsea Conboy Manor Hall Lower Clifton Hill Bristol, BS8 1BU United Kingdom Feel free to do so! Cheers!

[07 Oct 2004|12:45am] [ mood | accomplished ] Okay, so first of all, I just wanted to let everyone know..... I'M IN THE BLOODY UK FINALLY! Needless to say, this moment has been a highly anticipated turning point in the life of Chelsea. And it has finally, finally arrived. I suppose I could start with the initial depating train ride up to LA, but it was really just full of a jittery, giddy feeling coupled with a self-absorbed Canadian author. We hitched a ride together from the train station to the airport, and she just talked for ONE HOUR STRAIGHT about her dog and cat back home, and about how successful she is. However, in comparison to everything else that's happened, that's just chicken scratch. The plane ride over was GREAT, except for the whole 'notta lotta sleep' thing that happens when you're on an overnight plane. Each and every seat back was equipped with a little TV screen and a remote controller, with which you could navigate through 50+ movies, 50+ TV shows, British news, American news, a 'Learn Spanish While You Fly' book on tape, 100+ CD albums, 25+ radio stations, and a nifty little 'here's where we are now' map. I saw the northern lights as we flew over the Hudson Bay. When the male flight attendant handed me a napkin and said 'Cheers!' I got all giddy giggly, and he probably thought I had a thing for him or something. I just was SOOO thrilled by the fact that I was hearing a British accent and he actually said 'cheers'. I met Nicole, who is from Boise State, and was also going on the USAC progamme (<---HAHA! British spelling!) to the UK with me. We luckily had the same flight (although we didn't sit near each other), so when we finally go into Heathrow 11 hours later, we groggily clung to each other. We had a hard time with our luggage, since we both had about 95 pounds of it. Our plane couldn't dock at one of the terminals because they were all full or being remodled, so a little stairway was slapped on the side and I walked down into London for the first time like a rock star. You know, when you see footage of celebrities arriving in airports, and they walk down the stairs from their plane and everyones there to take pictures? It was like that, minus the cheering crowd. There definately was a chorus in my head, though. I WAS FINALLY IN THE MOTHA LAAAAAND! Nicole is REALLY great, and I'm glad that I have here here with me. She's very good looking, laid back and hillarious. She's an English major, like me, so we've been stuck together for all of the orientation and registration process. Anyhow, we had a hard time getting from the Bristol bus station to our housing, and it was cold and we were tired and SOOO disoriented. Finally, we made it to Manor Hall (which is where I'm staying), where we were greeted by the three most GORGEOUS British men. Anthony, who is a 'Tutor' (which is like an RA), was like "Are you Chelsea? I was expecting you!" in an oh-so-sexy British accent, and it was as if a light showered down from above onto him and his two 'mates'. We had been on our own all day long, so it was really great to be actually 'expected' somewhere. His friends were Rhys (pronounced 'Reese') and some other guy (who we haven't seen since), and we gratefully handed our bags over to them and they carted them up the hill. We then ventured down into the city of Bristol on our own, had some Indian food, got lost trying to find our way back, and then passed out on our respective beds. The town was REALLY busy and bustling with club 'n' pub goers, and even thought I was tired as fuck, I couldn't stop thinking about HOW HAPPY I WAS TO FINALLY BE IN BRISTOL. In other news, my room in RIDICULOUSLY small, but it also has the highest ceeling of any room I've ever seen. If you were to turn it on it's bloody side (haha, I said bloody), it'd have more floorspace. I really hate it, especially because everyone else in this house has a lovely big room overlooking rolling lawns and trees and rose bushes, and I look at the parking lot. I got a cheap gaudy pink vintage lampshade from the thrift store and hung that, and it makes the room feel a little bit lower and more cozy. My bed is the size of a cot. I have a sink in my room, as well as a boarded up fireplace (from 50 years ago when there weren't heaters in every room). European cars are SOOOO SMALL. It looks like they all got smooshed both on the front end and the back, and if they were driven in the US they'd be laughed out of the nation. It's pretty funny.....see picture below. I also got involved with the hall musical production, Oklahoma. HAHAHA, I can't wait to see Oklahoma performed with British accents. I'm set designer and publicity designer. I brought in my portfolio for the interview, and they were all wowed by my professional-ness. THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE UK: Tea. All day everyday, every where you go. Indian food in abundance. Saying 'cheers' allllllll the time. Cheers = "thank you", "youre welcome", "here you go", "goodbye", etc etc Penguin cookies. BEAUTIFUL architecture. BEAUTIFUL scenery. 8 Crumpets for 30 pence. Student discounts everywhere. Capri pants on men. The weather. THINGS I DONT LIKE ABOUT THE UK: Scary divers in quick little cars. Instant coffee (which is in abundance). Cheesy American pop music being played everywhere. My room. Queen's Road, the main bit near the "Uni" with Borders books etc. Will's Memorial Building, where we had orientation. It's RIGHT on the main road. Some cool statue thats on a triangle bit in the road. The former hospital, which is now a boy's boarding school. (Built in 1590) The street I live on The view from the street above, while standing over to the left side of the road and looking out. The building is the hospital/boy's school from above. Same, but looking more out to the surrounding city. The ONLY palm tree in ALLL OF THE BRITISH ISLES! The funky graveyard where we found the palm tree. Robert and his floormate Tobaias (who's SOOO adorably british) in the walkway through the abovementioned graveyard. The surrounding contryside. "I'll give you a ring and we'll go out for a bit of tea!" "AAAH! WE'RE FINALLY HEEEERE!" Nicole and I in front of the Will's Building. Rhys and Nicole walking up this cool little alleyway with shops and stuff. Greetings from the UK! Home of the world's SMALLEST BLOODY CAR. Same view as above, but from today when it was actually SUNNY! Chimneys rooftops. Bristol prettyness. Chris, Rhys and Anthony. OKAY! Well, thats it for now. Sorry if that took a million years to load on you 56-kers. Cheers!

[05 Sep 2004|03:16pm] [ mood | accomplished ] [ music | Bright Eyes - Falling Out of Love at This ] I got my visa! After a 2 hour drive up to LA and a 2 hour wait in the British Consule, I got it. The only thing that sucks is that I put together this highly organized package of all possible documents they would need with photocopies of them all, and they didn't even look at any of it. Urgh.... And I meant to ask one of the clerks about setting up a bank account, but I forgot completely. Ah well. I also bought my plane ticket.... (finally). I'm leaving from LAX at 5:30 on the 24th, with a non stop flight to Heathrow. I'll get in at 11:30 am London time, after an 11-hour flight. There, I'll hopefully meet up with Nicole, a girl who's also going on my program from Idaho...or someplace like that. I'm glad that I'm going to have someone else to wander through London with. We'll have to get a bus to the train station, and then catch a ride out to Bristol. I hope I'll be able to sleep on the plane......I have such a HORRIBLE time sleeping in/on moving vehicles. At any rate......everything's finally coming into place. Now the only thing there is to do is to bide my time until the 24th....

[31 Jul 2004|01:05pm] testing, one two.

[31 Jul 2004|01:05pm] testing, one two. testing....

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