Long time no blog!

Word up, folks!

Well well well. It's been a long time, eh? Yeah. I know. Completely my fault. My mission to update my blog every week was a miserable fail this term, seeing as it has now been 2 and a half months(!!!) since my last post. My life in England this term has been absolutely nuts - tons of partying, competitive dancing, flatmate bonding, bags of crisps, late-night tea-drinking, juicy gossip, quiet reflection, and a whole lot of milling about on the ol' computer. I PROMISE that you will all be updated properly on my past few months at Essex, with pictures and words and enthusiasm and all that jazz, but FIRST......I've got to backtrack a bit and tell you all about my amazing 3-week journey around continental Europe. Below in chronological order you will find some videos I took a few weeks ago of me talking and musing and generally just giving a riveting account of my journey. I've got 7 more to upload, but unfortunately #7 is too long for Youtube's standards, so I need to figure out a way to cut it before uploading it and the rest of the videos (computer nerds, HELP!!!). But for now, I hope you enjoy my rabblings!

Love you all, and I sincerely pledge to make it a regular habit once again of keeping this blog up to date. Even writing this short post is reminding me of how happy I am I started this in the first place......

Cheers!

Madalyn

Last video from Europe...

Well folks, here's the last video taken on my trip through Western Europe. I really enjoyed the whole vlogging experience - traveling is so stimulating, and I found it very difficult to sit down with my notebook and write my experiences as I was living them, so filming myself instead was a good remedy for my lack of focus. I am currently working on an essay about contemporary British Cinema (yay! I get to watch British movies all day!), but slowly, as inspiration strikes, I plan on writing some blog posts about my travels (with all of the good times, stressful times, and beer-drinkin' times) and sharing them with you. I spent nearly three weeks visiting five different countries and I feel each one deserves its own little story, so while I've been a bit lethargic since I arrived back at Essex (but definitely still in good spirits!), I'll hopefully have some more of my meticulous writings up here within the next few days and weeks. For now, here's a video taken on our cramped Ryanair flight (but it got us home in one piece, so I can't complain too much :P). Also, Youtube insists on picking the most awkward screencaps of my face to display >:( In terms of the sound quality, I have no clue why I was whispering, as I now realize you can't hear a damn word I'm saying. I think I said something along the lines of "Hey everyone, we're on our Ryanair flight from Rome to Stansted airport, it's super packed, but it'll just be a little hop across the English channel" and then Steph astutely mentions that our pilot looks about 12 years old (which he totally did - I was close to asking for his credentials). That's pretty much it, haha. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Au Revoir, 2010, Bonjour 2011!!!

For your enjoyment, here are 3 videos I took at Les Champs d'Elysees in Paris on New Year's Eve, plus one video of Stephanie dancing with the glorious Gutenschlaut (more on that later :P).

Hope you all had a fantastic New Year's celebration! I return to jolly old England tomorrow night, and I am very much looking forward to sharing more of my experience with you guys!

Love ya!

Madalyn