“Keep calm and carry on…….”

Blimey, you guys are pretty freaking awesome!

I usually like to save the sentimental musings for the end of my posts, but this time I’m going to switch it up a bit and blabber on about how much I love you all right off the bat. These past two weeks, while at times a bit emotionally confusing for me, turned out to be exactly what I needed. Through the power of Sykpe, email, and good old fashioned late-night girl talks, I had some quality heart-to-hearts with you guys, and they did wonders to keep me in a good mood and get me focused on what I need to do (and NOT do) in order to make this year freaking awesome. In fact, after having some long conversations with a couple of friends and family members, I was able to clear my conscience and ended up having one of the best weekends in England so far! Let it be known: a home cooked American Thanksgiving dinner, a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples, some Harry Potter cinematic action, Skype dates with old roommies and parents, and a headphone disco are sometimes all you need for a fantabulous weekend :D

So let’s try something different this week, shall we? I’m going to re-cap in reverse, starting with this past weekend and moving on to the last time I said anything interesting (which was far too long ago, I know – how have you all survived this long without my updates? Has there been, like, a Cake Boss marathon on or something?)

ANYWAYS, last Friday I got all dressed up in one of ma purdy new dresses and ran off to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by my American friend Raisa. It included all the usual fixings (the stuffing especially was tasty as heck), multiple rounds of Apples to Apples (greatest party/makeshift drinking game ever!), and a 3am taxi drive back to campus (which I’ve decided is how every Thanksgiving should end, whether Canadian or American, from this day forward). On Saturday, I watched a movie concerning a certain boy wizard and was thoroughly impressed (gonna have to shill out another 7 pounds to see that one again…..), then came home and had a reliably awesome Skype chat with my mom in which she dispensed her usual brand of optimistic wisdom and got me on track to what was quite possibly the best night I’ve had yet at Essex. Pretty much my entire flat and the majority of my friends went out to the Headphone Disco on campus, which is essentially a “silent” disco where you can only hear the music when you wear the headphones provided. It was super-neat: we could flip between two channels, one of which was more traditional club music while the other was classic pop tunes. We were singing at the top of our lungs, dancing up a storm, and generally just having a blast. Hanging out with Ellie and Sho in particular is really cool because we’re all a part of the Dance Society. So without a doubt, I lucked out when I landed in Tawney Tower, Flat 4, because I’m living with a fantastic group of people. We get along really well and we look out for each other, which makes partying with them even more enjoyable <3

(from left: Izzie, Klaus, Ellie, me, Sho, and James – just a sampling of my amazing flatmates)

Then I capped off Sunday with a weekly Skype session with my dad, which was as relaxing and heart-warming as usual (shout-outs go to Melissa, Anelia, and Lizzy for rounding out my Skype dates for the week – and for the rest of you, I won’t rest until I’ve heard all of your voices and seen all of your blurry faces!). Which brings me to mention one of the reasons I’ve been a bit slow with these posts: DANCE! I won’t say too much about it because our competition is on Saturday and I’d like to save some details for then (and hopefully a video too!), but it’s been a very challenging and exciting process preparing for it – I’ll be competing in Jazz and Contemporary, and with a few more rehearsals to go, I’m really eager to see how it all turns out! I danced for about 10 years but have never actually competed, so wish me luck!

ATTENTION: I interrupt this blog post to bring you an important WEATHER UPDATE: It seems as though the great nation of England is having some sort of identity crisis and has rather abruptly decided to be more like Canada, hence this scene outside my bedroom window early this morning:

And the it snowed some more, and then more, and then just for good measure, it snowed some more……seriously, I was not expecting to need proper winter boots on the 30^th of November, and neither apparently was the rest of Essex (one of my lectures was cancelled today, and the library closed at 7:30pm instead of the usual 10pm). England! Pull yourself together, mate!

Now, time to go about two weeks back to Camden! Oh, glorious Camden! What a groovy place, man. For the uninitiated, Camden Town is a section of London that has a MASSIVE indoor and outdoor market district selling everything from jewellery to clothing to antiques to art to UH-MAZING curry, doughnuts, and hot-mulled wine. Picture it as a combination of Ottawa’s Byward Market and Toronto’s Queen Street West, only much bigger and more awesome, and with a rave-clothing store called CyberDog

…….which is essentially a rave itself (male and female dancers spinning around poles, vogue-ing, wearing robotic-like florescent spandex clothing, while the music thumps loudly and everything is cast in a green or blue glow – including the sex shop in the basement. It was like walking into Lady Gaga’s techno guest house). Punks, hippies, hipsters, clubbers, artists, vendors, and tourists at every corner, and although we weren’t allowed to take photos inside stores or of the street vendors, trust me when I s

ay the whole place is just one big crazy circus. AND, without realizing it until Stephanie pointed it out to me days later, not only did I buy some Banksy prints (one of his better-known pieces is on the wall behind me in the picture to the upper-right), I actually laid eyes on some authentic Banksy street art:

Banksy is a famous graffiti artist in London who for the past few years has been tagging walls all around the city with politically charged paintings and socially-conscious images. His style is very distinctive and really tongue-in-cheek. He (supposedly) works undercover at night and nobody knows his real identity, which makes him somewhat of a cult figure. Andrew showed me some of his work a few years back and since then I’ve wanted to see a painting of his up close – so now I can check that off my list

, along with taking the London Underground with the help of my lovely friend Laura, AND meeting up with my friend Quin (from Ottawa) who is travelling around Europe this year. All in all, a very successful day – I can’t wait to go back!

Finally, I will simply add that Christmas is fast approaching and, unbelievably, I actually have some pretty nifty travel plans lined up already! (Thank God that I’m not here

on my own – Amberle and Stephanie are so on the ball with these things). So without further ado, the three of us plus Julie will bringin’ the Canuck charm to………

• Amsterdam, the Netherlands: The first st op on our trip. Our hostel is movie-themed, so we might end up in a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings dorm room! AND it’s right next to the Red Light District! Geeky movies and Dutch sex-trade workers: it’s the perfect holiday combination!
• Bruges, Belgium: Brussels may have been the more obvious choice, but my love for the movie In Bruges (starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hit-men on the lam in Belgium) steered us towards what is supposedly the more quiet, romantic Belgian city (I am so pumped for the Christmas markets it’s nuts!)
• Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: Admittedly, we’re kind of just going there cuz, you know, it’s right there (our EuRail train passes consider Benelux one country, and it’s cheaper than country #4 on our list). But one thing I wanted to check off my study abroad to-do list was to visit a sort of off-beat country as an alternative to your standard touristy nations. So after Christmas we’ll be off to Luxembourg to enjoy its, uh…..ummm….crap, to marvel at its…..erm….shoot, what is there in Luxembourg? Hmmm…..I sense an ‘all-about-Luxembourg’ blog post in the not-so-distant future!
• Paris, France: Get this: our hostel is in the Monmarte district, which is near the Moulin Rouge, as in the big red windmill/brothel of stage and screen fame (*brief pause to squeal…….aaaaaannndddd we’re back*). We’ll be ringing in the New Year francais-style, and after what my mom had to say about her trip to Paris several weeks ago, I am thoroughly looking forward to experiencing the most-visited city in the world for myself. I’m also hoping to meet up with my old friend Leonie, who is from the Netherlands but will be working at Disneyland Paris(!!!) over the holidays :D
• Rome & Venice, Italy: As a back up, just in case the previous four countries suck, but also because it’ll probably rule. Unless Mother Nature decides to pull a fast one on us the weather should be the warmest in Italy, and along with all of the super-historical stuff to see, deli meat sandwiches to eat, and fancy coffee to drink, Julie and I are planning on meeting up with Magdalena, an Italian exchange student who lived with Julie’s family last year. Man, all ya need to do is come to Europe and you reunite with all sorts of people!

So you know, nuthin’ too fancy, just five countries in three w

eeks. I’ve been so busy with essays and dance that it hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’ll be backpacking around continental Europe, but my gosh, am I ever excited for it! All we need to do now is book our hostels in Italy, book the ferry to the Netherlands, and figure out what else we need to buy/pack (I am seriously considering purchasing a Flip video camera so that I can document all of our shenanigans in fancy moving images…….techies, any thoughts?), Less than three weeks to go…………

Hooray for Maddy’s world domination!!!!!!!!

P.S. 8 imaginary gold stars for whoever can guess what I’m listening to……………***(answers at bottom of post, because you’re clearly dying to know)

And now onto.......

British Thing of the Week(s)!!!!!!!!!!! (TV edition)

I’ve been saving this one for a while, but given the stress of essays, exams, X-mas shopping, winter driving, and the ever-looming possibility of a zombie attack, I think it’s about time that I shared with you one of my first and best British discoveries:

The Inbetweeners. Possibly the funniest British show I have ever seen, and definitely the most hilarious teen comedy I’ve ever watched. The show centres around four 16-year-old boys who aren’t total losers, but who are pretty damn lame (hence “inbetweeners”) and all of the mayhem they get into. It’s very raunchy, fast-paced, witty, and pee-your-pants funny. It’s become my go-to pick-me-up series whenever I’m feeling a little down or distracted. Here’s the first episode of the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Px7zH-MK4&feature=pyv&ad=5910860718&kw=inbetweeners&has_verified=1 If you have 22 minutes to spare, give it a go! As Jay would say, you’d be a right knob not to! (P.S. if the link doesn't work, Youtube that baby!)

Love you all to bits!

Madalyn

***if you picked a medley of The Foo Fighters, The Replacements, and Glee’s version of “Teenage Dream” on repeat, you’d be correct! :D

"Need a little time to wake up, wake up....."

Damn, has it already been two and a half weeks since my last post? Shoot, I need to stay more on top of this blogging thing…..I can barely remember what I did this morning let alone what I did two weeks ago! To be perfectly honest, while I’ve managed to settle into a fairly regular routine, things haven’t slowed down at all, and my mind has been a jumble of thoughts, particularly for the past week or so. Unbelievably, I’ve gone out every night this week (more on my social antics later), and tonight is really the first opportunity I’ve had to sit down and attempt to pool my thoughts together into one (long) eloquent post. I don’t know how successful I’ll be at it, but heck, I’m making a pretty decent effort, right? ;)

Since I’ve got some catching up to do, I’ll rewind a few weeks back to Halloween weekend! And boy, was it ever a WEEKEND! I woke up at 5:30am on a Saturday morning to drive off to see some gloomy-looking old rocks and hang out in a town where that woman who wrote Pride & Prejudice used to live (but apparently disliked). After pumping myself up with a certain classic Spinal Tap performance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlf5ucFanpY) I ventured off to feast my eyes on the awesome epicness that is STONEHENGE. Admittedly, I was much more consumed with capturing the rocks from various angles (I really wanted to document the stones from different perspectives, you know, exploring their complex rock emotions, so to speak) than I was with learning the actual history of Stonehenge and how it came to be, but that’s what Wikipedia is for, so for an hour I shamelessly and completely embraced being a tourist and snapped away (I also bought a miniature Stonehenge from the gift shop………Nigel Tufnel would be proud).

We then drove another hour to the town of Bath, which is where Jane Austen briefly lived and where she set two of her novels (Northanger Abbey when she had only visited Bath, and Persuasion once she actually lived there – the latter depicts the town in a much more unfavourable light as we learned on our Jane Austen Centre tour). We strolled around the Roman Baths (but could not swim in them, sadly), and attended an organ recital at the Abbey (and yes, it was as classically-badass as it sounds).

AND THEN we drove 4 and a half hours back to Colchester where we all got dressed up in our costumes (I was a cat burglar) and commenced the traditional Halloween ceremonies, ie: dancing on the kitchen chairs and getting too drunk/exhausted to go out to the campus club for which you bought a 7 pound ticket :S Actually, I wasn’t so much partied-out as I was drained from such a hectic trip – for only the 3rd time since I’ve been here one of my nasty migraines kicked in and I had to finally listen to my body and take a breather (I did after all, travel across an entire country in the amount of time it takes me to get from Ottawa to Peterborough – England is so freaking small, lol). So while these trips with the Travelling Society are always worth it, from this point forward I’ll have to be a bit more selective with which trips I go on, just so that I don’t burn myself out!

What was kind of awesome but also a little bit difficult for me was seeing all of the photos from back home pop up on Facebook after Halloween night – it was awesome seeing some of you guys all dressed up and having a great time, because it’s usually only one-day events like Halloween when people actually take photos of what they’re doing! (I sometimes forget that not everyone is on a year-long trip abroad and is bombarded with photo-ops every day). But it also made me realize that - news flash! - the world doesn’t revolve around me, and people’s lives back home are moving on whether I’m there or not. So while most of the photos I saw made me feel closer to home and to the friends who are holding down the fort for me, a few of them were a bit distracting for me and got me a nostalgic for how school life used to feel for me. If that made any sense. (Geez, I REALLY have to stop writing these posts so late at night. I’m going to read this tomorrow and have no clue what I’m trying to say, lol).

Luckily for me, the perfect remedy to my hectic state of mind came when my mom and Steve visited me :) I won’t say much about the three days I got to spend with them (they both know how much it meant to me to have them there and to be able to share some of my thoughts, stories, and feelings with them – and don’t worry Mom, I’m doing fine!), but I will note that their brief visit really woke me up to the fact that while this is my year abroad, I’m definitely not in it alone. I am so fortunate that my family will be visiting me throughout the year (I still get to see Lizzy, Malcolm, my dad, and hopefully my grandparents and aunt), and simply knowing that I’ll see them eventually is doing wonders to stave-off any feelings of homesickness. I’ve fallen in love with Skype and have had some very heart-warming and fun conversations with many of you, and even just the odd MSN chat or Facebook message makes me feel like I’m not too far away from home. Heck, that’s why I’m writing this blog after all – as cliché as it may sound, sharing this experience with all of you is what’s making it truly worthwhile, and while it can be difficult to find the time to collect of all my whacked-out thoughts on paper, once I do I always feel a sense of peace and accomplishment. So thank you guys for reading all of my ramblings! Knowing that people are actually interested in what I’m doing is the biggest motivator to writing about it! :D


On top of all of that, I also have a very exciting dance-related update to share! As some of you already know, every week I’ve been taking dance classes here at the university (Stretch & Tone, Jazz, Ballet, and Contemporary/Lyrical), and so far it’s been well worth it – I’m getting lots of exercise, the girls teaching it are very friendly and talented, and most of all, I get to do something that I love but have been putting off every since I’ve been in university. I also attended the big dance social on Wednesday, which acted as our initiation into the society: in a nutshell, the night consisted of wheelbarrow races, Tequila and Rum & Coke, accompanying the girl I was taped to into the bathroom stall, some late-night clubbing, international-texting-while-under-the-influence, and me napping on our kitchen table while my flatmates made me toast and danced around me. So, you know, your basic Wednesday night at Essex ;)
(Side note: despite my inebriated state, I still managed to make my 9am seminar the next morning – Academic Responsibility: 1, Hangover: 0!!!)

BUT what I kept hush-hush was that a few weeks ago I auditioned to be part of the competition squad aaaaaannnnnnndddddd………I MADE IT! Yay! What that means is that in addition to attending regular classes I’ll also be rehearsing for various competitions and performances throughout the year. I had my first 5-hour rehearsal on Sunday and miraculously managed to get back to my flat in one piece (I have another one this Sunday as well). I’m excited to have the opportunity to compete since I’ve never done so before, but hokey-freaking-doodle was the choreography ever difficult! They were by a long shot the most advanced dances I’ve ever had to learn, and I still have to learn a new Jazz number on top of the Ballet and Contemporary numbers we’ve rehearsed. So basically, while I’m technically a member of the competition squad, I need to actually pick up the choreography and look good doing it, otherwise I won’t be selected to compete and will have to brush up on my skills for the next competition. So hopefully I’ll know the dances well by December 4th – I’ll keep you posted!

Ok, I’ll leave it at that for now, but you can expect to start reading shorter but more frequent posts from me in the coming weeks – I don’t want to fall behind!

So without further ado, let’s get to my favourite part of this blog………

British Thing of the Week!!!!!!!!!!! (music edition)

“Morning Glory” by Oasis: It is a proven scientific fact that Britain is cooler than approximately 86% of the rest of world, specifically when it comes to music. Britpop is easily one of my favourite styles of music, and Oasis is probably the most famous of that group of 90s rock bands who are described as such. However, I am ashamed to say that beyond “Champagne Supernova” and the quintessential drunken-university-students-sitting-around-campire-singing-while-semi-talented-friend-strums-acoustic-guitar song “Wonderwall”, I don’t really know many Oasis tunes. So when I heard my flatmates playing it in the kitchen the other week, I immediately Hype Machined that sucker and have been listening to it every day since. If you want to hear some quality guitar-driven rock ‘n roll, give it a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7MSSPNH9o

“Another sunny afternoon
(I'm) walking to the sound of your favourite tune Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know too sooooooooooon”

AND, a very special edition of Totally-not-British-and-Very-Much-Canadian-but-Inexplicably-Popular-Here Thing of the Week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael Buble. I feel like kind of a lousy Canadian for not supporting his success here, but I kid you not, I hear at least 3 of his songs EVERY DAY on the radio here (specifically the very cheesy-but-has-good-reception 96.1 Heart FM). It’s getting to be unbearable, particularly that “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” ditty (I really hope he meets that girl soon, because it’s getting ridiculous). If this aural assault on my ears goes on much longer I may have to book a flight back to Canada and slap the Bubes across the face with a Beaver Tail.

One last note: Over the past few weeks I have been amassing a large collection of postcards – if you’d like to receive one, and believe me you do because I will be decorating it with my insightful and rapturous prose, let me know what your mailing address is and I’ll slap a 67p postage stamp on one and send it your way!


Cheerio!


<3 Madalyn