Cheerio, Chelsea!

London, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pau and PARIS!

2005-03-31T19:27:27Z

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.

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Scott came in on Sunday afternoon for his week-long visit. We started it out on a great note with a quasi-impromtu visit to Bath. Originally it was going to be just Scott and I, but then we coerced Jack, Katheryn and another Jack to come with us after we all met up in the York for breakfast. We chose a good day, because the weather was positively amazing.

We all brought our cameras, and there was much photo-taking.

We also found a cool little maze-thing after having elevenses; this is us at the center of it after completing the mind-boggling labrynth (sarcasm).

______

I got to London and crashed with Danny, and we went to go see the Tower of London with his room mate Jeff and Jeff's girlfriend Petri.

Hardcore Londoners.

The Tower was beautiful, and the crown jewels were equally beautiful. I'd like to wax philisophical here and say something about welath in countries like the UK versus the poverty in the rest of the world, but I'm too sickly to think that deeply. All I can properly remember is that it was HOT in London. I was walking around in a flippin' tube top the whole time, and there were hardly any clouds in the sky. OH JEZUS, if England could have weather like that more often, it really would be perfect for me.

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After going to a great indie-rock club with Danny and some of his friends on Saturday night, I caught a bus to Stansted at 4:30 am and was in Bilbao to visit Jake by 10:30. Bibao was BEAUTIFUL. It was so warm that Jake and I were able to lie on the beach, eat a baugette with cheese and wine and catch some rays.

The beach we hung out at is directly behind me, and Bilbao is behind that. The mountains were so amazingly lush and green, and Spain as a whole was breathtaking. I think I might try to get back there sometime this summer....

We went for a lot of walks, and a great one along the ocean when I first got in. We climbed down a hillside to a cove, explored the tidepools and found a natural spring coming out of a century-old pump house.

Jake had already done the Guggenheim, so I went in by myself on Tuesday. I was kind of dissapointed because the majority of the exhibits were Aztec relics and not so much art-art. I had massive expectations for the Guggenheim in Bilbao (I've been dying to go see it for about 4 years now), and I was definitely dissapointed. However, the 7 Euro ticket was worth it just to get inside the building and see it up close. The Guggenheim really is an architectual spectacle.

Guggenheim! Woo!

______

Jake and I took a bus to San Sebastian on Wednesday, with another equally beautiful day to accompany our little outing.

El Conche, one of two beaches in San Sebastian (or San Sabby as everyone seems to call it). I wanted to go swimming so badly....it was too zure to resist.

Wandering around the streets of San Sebastian.....I love the alleyways with shops and cafes that they had in both Bilbao and San Sebastian.

______

Wednesday night found us in Pau to visit the Kyle-meister.

Pau prettiness with the Great Pyrenees in the background.

Us hip cats catchin' some rays by the Chalet in Pau, after having some Basque crepes and espresso. Mmmm-mmm.

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Kyle was nice enough to escort Jake and I to Lourdes on Friday, which is the Catholic-Capital of France. As the story goes, some little shepherdess saw the Virgin Mary in a grotto 500 years ago, and so now the spring within the grotto is declared to be holy water, and a church was built on top of it.

The grotto, where Mary was seen. All the people are lining up to touch the rocks and drink the holy water. Oh, Catholicism....

_____

We got up bright and early Saturday morning to catch the 6-hour train to Paris. I tried to sleep, but it didn't really work out all that well. When we got into our hotel, I listened to the Amelie soundtrack and then it hit me: I was in PARIS. You hear so much about a city through books, tv, movies and stereotypes....but experiencing Paris first hand is nothing compared to looking at pictures of it. PARIS WAS BEAUTIFUL. I would put that statement in a bold, multicolored font, but that might be a little too obnoxious. I was seduced, entirely.

Notre Dame and the Seine....Paris is on a big Olympic kick (they're in the runnings to have the summer Olympics hosted there in 2012), which explains the bright primary colors. Everything was drenched in red, yellow, blue, and green lights. Not exactly romantic, but lovely none the less.

We met Nicole and Brian in front of the Notre Dame, and then went out for dinner in the Latin Quarter (which is more Arabic and Greek than it is Latin).

Brian, Nicole, Me, Kyle and Jake.

The next day (which just so happened to be Easter Sunday), we all caroused about Montmartre, home of two of my most favorite things: AMELIE and the MOULIN ROUGE. Lots of things were closed, but the place was OVERRUN with tourists. The number of people seriously detracted from my enjoyment of the place, it was THAT crowded.

Me and the Sacre Cœur.

If you've seen Amelie, this should look familiar. I was on a mission to find all the major sites from the film, and we saw Nino's porn shop but not the cafe she works at. THAT would have been neato. We also found the cafe that the Xavier and Audrey Tatou break up at in the end of Le Auberge Espangnole. All in all, however, Montmartre wasn't quite as cool as I was expecting, mostly because of all the tourists. Haha, which I definately was one of.

We went on a great bike tour of Paris that night, in the torrental rain. I wasn't feeling too hot by the end of the night courtesy of a sore throat, but I did enjoy the boat ride at the end of the tour. The Eiffle tower was lovely, as was all of Paris. Since it had just rained as we started our night tour, the city lights were all reflected on the streets, and I really saw why Paris is nicknamed 'The City of Lights'.

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I wandered about the Louvre on Monday, and I only saw about 1/3rd of it. AND I was doing it speed-style. Holy crap, that place is huge. Kyle and I enjoyed a coffee and a sandwich on the river, and we watched kids sail toyboats in the gardens in front of the Louvre. Ah, how I love thee, Paris.

Jake, Kyle and I went to a really fantastic jazz club on Monday night, which was housed in the basement of what looked like a dungeon. It was SOOO COOL. WHEN I live in Paris, it's going to be the place I bring all my visitors to show them a good time.

_______

Finally, Tuesday morning Jake and Kyle left, and I wandered about Paris by myself for a few hours. I wanted to go into the D'Orsay, but I figured I didn't have enough time to see it properly, and I'd save it for my NEXT trip to Paris (hah!). Instead, I went to the San Chapelle, which was originally built to house Christ's crown of thorns and his cross, which the Kind of France bought from the King of Constantinople in 1000 or something like that.

The San Chapelle, which has the most stained glass in Europe or something like that. Kyle was saying that there is SO much stained glass that they don't know how it can remain standing. It was awe-inspiring.

Afterwards, I treated myself to a 22-euro lunch in a cafe overlooking the Seine and the Notre Dame. I had a salad with Bayonnese Ham, goats cheese, and walnuts, as well as two cups of espresso and two truffles. I've become a nutso espresso drinker...mmmmm.......essspressssoooooooo........

A little sketch I did of the cafe while enjoying my lunch. I need a blasted scanner. But by GOLLY I love Paris.

That's all from me for the time being.....UNTIL NEXT TIME! This is Chelsea, signing out.

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-12-21T15:59:00

2004-12-21T15:56:05Z

Budapest is gray. That's the simplest way to describe it.

I took the train from Bristol to Birmingham on Saturday night (the 11th) and had dinner with Dan, Kat and Dan's mom who is just as eccentric (if not more) than her son. She hit the pub with us as well as some of Dan's old high school friends and Kat and I sang every Christmas song we could think of. We discovered that 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' is sung to a different tune depending on which side of the pond you're on and I tried to convince her that our version came first and was therefore superior (without success). We flew out of Luten at six am the next morning, with all 10 of us falling asleep almost as soon as we sat down.

Budapest instantaneously struck me as a former Soviet country; all of the stereotypes you've ever heard about it were completely fufilled, and then some. The buildings were dilapidated and in a stagnant state of decomposition, with black stains running down the sides from mildew and graffiti covering EVERYTHING. I bet if you were to fall asleep in a public area you'd find yourself tagged with some anti-governmental sloganl; it's THAT bad. The sky was a depressing gray and complimented the concrete city so well that one might have thought it was planned like that. There were buildings that seemed to have been abandoned 60 years ago which were simply left to rot on the side of the road. Eventually we made it into the main city area, which was slightly more modern and not so cold-warish, but even the semi-respectable city buildings couldn't escape the dogged Budapestian taggers. I was really disspointed at the lack of snow, but the weather report assured us that everything would be blanketed by the end of the week. We found our hostel, which was nice enough (not as nice as the one in London but a lot more personable). We were split into two rooms, four in one and six in the other, and Louisa insisted that we all move into one room (which accounted for an unimaginable mess but was a lot more fun). We all collapsed in heaps around the room and set the tone for the rest of the week: a lot of sleep and general laziness.

One of the tram stops running along the Daube. The walls were covered with the most elaborate graffiti I've seen.

The Beautiful Blue Daube. Which isn't really all that blue or beautiful.

A head-on view of the above bridge. The orange car down in the lower left corner was the most colorful thing I saw throughout this particular day.

The royal entryway to Castle Hill, which is wallpapered in advertisments for clubs and discos, and graffitied underneath that.

Monday was our only real touristy day, when we went to this gorgeous bit called 'castle hill' (the very first picture is taken from the top) which overlooks the rest of the city and (who'da thunkit!?) has a castle. The greyness still permeated even this royal hilltop, and the buildings and churches sadly moaned of glories past. Afterwards we went ice skating, where I taught Alex and Jack how to skate and Dan fell on his butt regularly at 8 minute intervals. Lawrence and I made up some sort of dance set to the tune of "Blue Danube" and when he went to dip me at the end I slipped and we fell in an awkward heap on the ice. I taught myself how to do little tight spins and felt smug, until I tried to show my newfound skill to Nicola and Lawrence and only succeeded in showing them how hard I can fall on my own butt.

Before this picture Dan skated up and just barely avoided slipping for the 37th time by whirling his arms around elaborately, that's why we're all laughing at him.

In order to truly get the Hungarian experience, we decided to go to the most Hungarian of all Hungarian pubs that we could find. Which is why we wound up hanging out at the "Nevada Pub" for 5 hours. The decor was an elaborate reproduction of the inside of a mine, and it reminded me more of Frontierland in Disneyland than anything. When I told the owner that I was actually from Nevada by showing him my driving liscense he got excited and asked to photocopy it.

I loved the fact that they decided to translate the already English (American) word in the English menu. Just incase you guys didn't know, the really really foreign word 'Cowboy' means 'Bandit' in our language, okay?

A hotel on the way to Nevada Pub.

Tuesday we went to this great little Christmas fair with shops and hot food and mulled wine and lights, and I bought a little leather wallet as an early Chrismas present to myself.

The Christmas fair, which was in the nicest part of the city.

Some tourist nesting dolls, which included just about every pop figure from the last 10 years, as well as a John Kerry one, a Stalin one, and a Clinton one.

Wednesday we went to the Holocaust Museum which was REALLY well done except for the fact that there were all these really interesting-looking movie clips and sound bites but no English subtitles to be found. I still managed to learn a lot about Hungarian history from the last 90 years or so. Afterwards, we went to a massive museum off of this impressive marble square, and this building was officially the most amazing, elegant, surreal, hallowed place I've ever had the pleasure of standing in. I literally had to catch my breath as we walked in, it was THAT gorgeous. And it was huge, evey little sound was echoed off of the marble and tiles which seemed to hang miles above my head.

Hero's Square.

Lawrence, Melanie and I paying a visit to the Heroes of Hero's Square. We're between the legs of the horse on the bottom of the tall pillar from the above picture.

The Heroes of Hero's Square. The ice skating rink we went to is behind the statues, where the bright white light is shining.

Thursday included more Christmas fair and a visit to the Budapest castle which puts Sleeping Beauty's to shame (which was the only Castle I had ever seen beforehand).

The Budapest Castle. I thought it looked a little like Hogwarts here. :)

I really like how this picture came out. Hooray for having a good camera.

Friday included another art museum and lots of sketching, and me catching Melanie's cold and feeling generally miserable. We did less and less each day as the week wore on, mostly because we woke up later and later as the week wore on. I would really would have liked to have seen more, but it was hard organizing such a large group. On the other hand, the large number of people meant that I didn't get sick of any one person in particular. I do wish we could have been a little bit more scheduled, though. :\

Here's looking at you, Budapest.

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When I got back on Saturday night, the air was thick with the most lavish snowflakes I've ever seen. They were huge, but unfortunately didn't stick once they hit the ground. Ironic that I went all the way to Budapest in hopes of seeing snow, was dissapointed, and finally got my wish once returning to Bristol. I was really happy to be back; even while we were simply driving along the motorway back from Luten I could feel a comforting contentment settling over me. As I told Kat afterwards, Britain feels like home.

I've been attempting to get back in shape this week. I've been jogging twice and I've been eating healthy. Nevermind the cheeseburger (which put all others to shame) and ben & jerry's ice cream; that was just another early Christmas present to me. Happy Christmas, Chelsea.

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-11-22T14:52:00

2004-11-22T14:50:02Z

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.

Bristol is SO COLD!

Kai and I cut up our conquered lands in the hull of our galleon, the S.S. Flying Boatmen.

Kai: "Okay, so, I get the continent of Africa. The Sahara Desert can be yours, though."

We played 'Little House on the Prarie', too. In case you couldn't tell, the kids section was my favorite part about the museum.

OKAY! Fast forward to last weekend. LONDON with Kyle, Jake, Jon, Brad and Stacy, who I evidently had met before...but I didn't remember. She goes to UNR, though! And Ashley, who goes to a school in Ohio, but is on the Bilbao trip with Jake and Stacy.

Anyhow, I bussed into London Friday night to catch the Cake/Decemberists concert, which was AWESOME. The audience was all primarily middle-aged, which meant that they weren't QUITE as enthusiastic as they COULD have been, but it was still fun.

There were these two Irish guys RIGHT behind us, and they were seriously rocking out.....like to the point where they intruded into my personal space a few times. They were also REALLY drunk and evidenltly only liked ONE Cake song. At least 30 times throughout the evening, they yelled out in the most drunken Irish accents I've ever heard, "MEX-EH-KOW! OOOOOWWBAH-BIEEE, I WAS BOUND FO MEX-EH-KOW!" in the exact same pitch and tempo.And then at the end of the concert, one of them had conked out. Ironic? Just a wee bit.

John McCrea, Kyle and Jake. John (the lead singer of Cake) was signing autographs and stuff, and Kyle and Jake snuck in behind him, and I snapped a shot while he wasn't looking. Afterwards, everytime someone held up a camera, he was like "NO! No photos!", so *I* got the ONLY photograph of him. And here it is.

Queensroad station. I artsied-it-up with a sepia tone. Go me.

At the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace. The Pomp and Circumstance ratio to entertainment ratio was low, and there were too many people to really see anything.

A little kid went to stand next to a policeman at a crosswalk to have his picture taken, and I took a picture as well cause it was too cute.

Me being at one with nature in Hyde Park.

My favorite part about London...the leaves!

Westminster Abbey.

Big Ben.

Kyle, Jake, and Jon in the tube. "MIND THE GAP!"

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...

Tower Bridge in the background, from London Bridge. Left to right, me, Kyle, Jake, Brad and Jon.

Jon being pirate-y in front of Sir Francis Drake's galleon. Scurvy bastards!

Me in front of the Globe Theater! YAY for SHAKESPEARE!

London nightlife.

THANKS USAC! Stacy, Brad, Ashley, Jon, me, Jake, and Kyle. (Side note: USAC is the program we went through in order to study abroad)

We were all going to try and fit in one....but then there'd be no one to take the picture.

Everyone left me at like 1-am ish on Sunday morning, and my bus wasn't leaving for Bristol until 6 pm that night, so I had an entire day to myself to wander around London. I went shopping at Topshop and bought a skirt, a sweater, matching tights (cause tights are IN this season), and a scarf, and then a black blazer from H&M. I also sat in Starbucks for a while 'cause my backpack was HEAVY and I was sick of carting it around.

I wandered down to Chelsea in the afternoon, and saw the Chelsea bridge! That's it in the background. The Chelsea area of London is SUPER ritzy (or "posh"), and I sat in a cafe and people watched for a while. London, I've decided, is THE most racially and culturally diverse place I've ever been to in my entire life. While I was sitting there eating my pizza and drinking my latte, I think I heard at least 7 or 8 different languages being spoken over the course of 45 minutes. I looooove that.

Quite eventful. The hostel we stayed at was great, only £11/night, and right near all the good stuff. I think I'm going to have to drag Nicole back at some point.....I also am going to try and pop up to Cork to visit Jon and Brad at some point before they head back to the states in January......I had a lot of fun with them this weekend, and I'd like to continue it in Ireland!

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-11-12T09:35:00

2004-11-12T09:30:28Z

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.

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-11-12T09:33:00

2004-11-12T09:29:07Z

Just a quickie picture post:

Clifton, the posh area I live near on a nice day.

The patio outside of Manor House, also on the same nice day. The sun shines through very few times a week, and everyone instantaneously turns into sun-worshipers when it comes out. I'm starting to miss the sun. :(

Anthony went fishing a few weekends back and brought me back a trout...since I have no culinary skills to speak of, he came over and we cooked it together. The fish was transformed from this....

...into this! VIOLA! My mashed potatoes sucked, though. Too much garlic.

Dan "doing the papers" on Sunday. The big thing here is to sit in a cafe from around 10 until 2 and just read newspapers on Sunday mornings.

Jack and me, with his birthday beanie (courtesy of me!)

Jack, Dan, Kat and Kai at the Polyphonic Spree concert! The concert was AMAZING, and Dan put it best: "That wasn't a concert. That was an EXPERIENCE."

The lead singer reminded me of some sort of televangelist, which is probably why the bands been labled as a cult. There were SO many people in the band (I think our final count was 23), and they were all SOOOO into the music. The audience was enthusiastic, the band was enthusiastic, overall it was awesome.

Kai had a fit when he saw the guy playing this thing....it makes electronic space-mountain-esque noises and you play it by moving your hand closer and farther away from this pole.

TWO VIOLINS AT ONCE!

There was a town bellringer who came on before the concert and annouced the Polyphonic Spree, and we cornered him after the concert to get our photos taken. I love how beet red he looks.

Theres a beautiful cathedral right around the corner, but it's decomposing....theres grafitti all over the walls, broken windows and etchings carved intot he stone.....it's kind of depressing.

And then there's the beautiful Bristol cathedral in down town.

The outside of the cathedral.

Nicole and I being pious...there were some tombs inside of the cathedral from the 1300s!

They call bathrooms 'toilets' here. We think it's hillarious.

Bristol atmosphere.

Ditto.

The Clifton suspension bridge....which is famous...for something.

Cabot tower, which was erected in memorial of John Cabot who "Discovered North America". 5 years after Colombus did.

Yeah, I got a bit lazy when coming up with captions for those last few pictures. Kai came this weekend and we played tourists, and saw some historic things that Nicole and I hadn't gotten around to yet. The Polyphonic Spree was AMAZING. If you have a chance to see them in concert, DO SO. I'm in a rush to get out, so sorry for the blurbs and bits......

CHEERS!

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cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-10-24T20:35:00

2004-10-24T19:32:12Z

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?

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-10-07T00:52:00

2004-10-06T23:48:19Z

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

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-10-07T00:51:00

2004-10-06T23:46:52Z

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!

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-10-07T00:45:00

2004-10-06T23:44:11Z

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!

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-09-05T15:16:00

2004-09-05T22:19:14Z

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....

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-07-31T13:05:00

2004-07-31T20:04:09Z

testing, one two.

cheerio_chelsea @ 2004-07-31T13:05:00

2004-07-31T20:03:36Z

testing, one two. testing....