“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