"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