i'm officially going to prague from april 20-24!

FUCK YEAH!!!!

dear diary,

today i destroyed anna's dream of staying in the Hostel Art PRISON in Prague. it was glorious. tomorrow, i hope to destroy more of anna's dreams, such as her secret desire to start another communist state with martin brown as the leader. anna also wishes to play bumper cars with me, but i have to decline. when i am in amsterdam, i am going to offer her a pot-ridden cookie. and then she'll be stoned and i'll laugh.

love,
sharon

ps- my post from last night was supposed to say "lesbian sex is like bumper cars. there's nothing to worry about." anna said that.

pps- after last night, i'm not sure if i can bring myself to drink bailey's again.

"lebian se is lik bumpmer ccars. there is nothing to wowry about

ok, so i don't usually enjoy commenting on the world situation in my blog, but now seems like a good chance to do it.

in case you haven't noticed, the world has gone FUCKING CRAZY! the situation in iraq has become so unstable that its leaders have admitted that there's a good chance of a civil war. at the same time, people have been running around iraq chanting "america brought us terrorism! death to americans!"

it makes a girl feel warm and fuzzy inside.

in addition, this whole cartoon thing is completely out of control. it's been over a month since this happened, and people are STILL freaking out over these muslim cartoons. no, they should not have been printed. but can people please just calm the fuck down and stop rioting?

i'm convinced that people are just looking for reasons to hate at this point. and that's frightening.

furthermore, south dakota's senate just passed a bill banning abortions.

*EDIT* in the 10 minutes that passed since i published this, gunmen killed 47 factory workers in baghdad.

*sharon

i guess that sometimes, things are doomed to break.

josh and i headed out around 7 to get to bayswater for some dim sum and movie watching with anna, lesley, chelsea, and marissa. we got in the tube and the next train was scheduled to arrive in 5 minutes. that's a little long, especially for 7pm but we figured it was no big deal. i looked up again, and it said 4 minutes. however, it said 4 minutes for a suspiciously long time. we then learned that service on the central line (our line) was suspended from liverpool st. to marble arch (where we live but not in the direction we wanted to go). since the service was suspended, no trains were coming towards us. the board kept switching between 4 and 5 minutes. we left and took a bus. note to self: when travelling to bayswater, the bus is MUCH better.

the dim sum was delicious. chelsea and marissa decided to go to a bar, and anna, josh and i were going to go back. marissa wanted her jacket so she came back to the flat with us and chelsea waited downstairs. a man got on and asked for floor 2. i pushed it, we headed up and suddenly the elevator stopped. we were stuck.

i rang the alarm bell several times, knowing it was futile since no one was in the lobby, other than chelsea. none of us had mobile phone reception. except for the other man on our elevator. anna called chelsea, chelsea called 999 (our equivalent of 911. interestingly, if you dial 911 in london, it'll still connect to the emergency line. apparently too many people have seen american movies and dial 911 instead). the fire brigade came to save the day. they forced the doors open and we slid out. see anna's blog for pictures.

that elevator was boiling hot. someone was claustrophobic. but luckily anna was able to practice her arabic with the man, so that lightened the mood.

personally, i found it hysterical. even though it would have been horrible without chelsea or that man around to save the day.

*sharon

Giggletwin (9:04:13 AM): shit do you see what republicans tdo to dme
Giggletwin (9:04:19 AM): they make me an alcoholica
Giggletwin (9:04:24 AM): alcoholic


i think a lot of people can agree with that.

"sell crazy somewhere else. we're all stocked up here."

i think that quote accurately describes my feelings towards half of the people in my program. it is almost as if ithaca's criminally insane all gathered and decided it would be a good idea to terrorize london. maybe visits to europe are a new prescription shrinks are handing out.

i can't even list names because these people could be so crazy that they stalk me on facebook. i seriously wouldn't put it past a few of them.

for example, anna's manic depressive flatmate's boyfriend. i'm pretty sure he facebook stalks. apparently he also eats wires. delicious.

while we're on the subject, the manic depressive flatmate is pretty crazy too.

there is also this girl on our program who is a theatre major. first of all, she's a big girl and finds it appropriate to jump and thud everywhere she goes. on saturday night in the dublin airport, lisa was asleep on a chair and this girl decided to climb over the chair next to her, perch herself on top, and jump off. seriously, she could have just walked around. she also liked to climb up high and stradle walls in dublin. furthermore, on the way to bath she decided it would be a good idea to sing showtunes on the bus while everyone was asleep. on thursday morning she was supposed to sit next to me on the flight to dublin. before we took off, she yelled at one of her friends. she also stared at me blankly when i asked her to move so i could get to my seat. luckily she sat in an empty seat next to a friend. because seriously, she's crazy. i still can't believe she has friends.

another crazy person: the girl who decided it would be a good idea to tug on my shoelaces on the bus in dublin. do i know her? barely. but she still did it. and for no apparent reason.

we also have the girls who live in the same flat and literally do EVERYTHING together. for example, on saturday night in the dublin airport they all bought matching shirts that said "ireland," put them on, AND WORE THEM AROUND THE AIRPORT TOGETHER. can we say annoying americans? they're also crazy gossip queens. not that i'm much better. but still.

then, of course, there's anna bulley. what's the deal with anna?

*sharon

valentine's day, 2006.

i'm writing this post so that i may brag (at least briefly). last night was an incredible night. we went on the london eye (it is the world's largest "observation wheel" aka ferris wheel). london at night is absolutely stunning. parliament is also the most impressive looking building. i don't think it gets enough attention. it's incredible. big ben at night is also amazing looking. i realize that big ben is really the name for just the bell inside the tower, but seriously, how else do you identify it? the london eye provided me with a long-stemmed rose and a chocolate heart. it was lovely.

after the london eye we got japanese food. it was delicious. we split a bottle of chardonay, sushi, tempura, chicken skewers, and duck in white miso sauce. for desert, we had some green tea ice cream. everything about that meal was simply amazing.

after that i passed out becaue my day was long and my politics quiz was horrible because i'm a dumbass. better luck next time. hopefully.

but that doesn't matter. josh is the greatest. last night rocked.

So this weekend i went to dublin.

i give the city a B+. it's shitty transportation system and it's lack of things to do other than drink is kind of a setback. it's also insanely expensive. i'm sure if i were irish it would have had more excitement involved. but it just wasn't that cool or pretty. i still liked it and had a great time.

dublin is an interesting city. it's pretty small and most distances are walkable, even if they are a little far. guinness owns the entire city. ironically, i think there's a heineken brewery or office there. guinness flows freely in dublin and it is delicious. the beer i drank at the guinness storehouse was fresh and incredible. it was heaven.

the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) is the public transportation system. simply put: if i had to deal with that on a regular basis, i would lose my mind. in spite of its name, it is not very rapid. it's an entirely above ground train and it frequently disrupts traffic because it runs across major roads. furthermore, the automatic gates stop the traffic before the train arrives at the station, and then stay down as everyone boards the train. finally the train actually crosses the road. does it make sense? ABSOLUTELY NOT. during off-peak hours, the trains run very infrequently, usually 20 minutes apart. it more closely resembles nj transit than a public transport line through a major city.

thursday night involved the musical pub crawl. two irish musicians took us to a few pubs and played irish music for us. they were awesome. irish music is awesome and anyone who goes to dublin should really do the pub crawl. you won't regret it. the pub crawl ended with a bunch of IC students pretended we could do irish dancing and bouncing around in a circle.
crawl is definitely the key word after 3 pints of guinness and a straight glass of bailey's. and that was only before 10. another pint of guinness and a glass of jameson's followed. i regretted that on friday morning.

on friday we went to a jail where i lost a contact lense. i had to go all the way back to the hotel to get my glasses, which meant wandering around the city with no depth perception. after retrieving my glasses, i arrived at the guinness storehouse, which was kind of like a religious experience. i accidentally got drunk in the afternoon because guinness in dublin is way too strong. however, it was the best, freshest guinness in the world and i loved every second of it. at the end of the tour, you go to the gravity bar which is a bar on top of the storehouse. it's very high up, entirely windows, and gives you an excellent view of dublin.

On friday night, we celebrated barb's 21st birthday. we had delicious italian food and then went to a few pubs and listened to irish music. at some point, bill (our program director) bought me a guinness. bill is awesome. after drinking a guinness, i decided to go outside, where i ran into EMILY MARION AND HER PARENTS. crazy, huh? turns out she's studying in dublin and her parents were in town for her b-day. good times!

on saturday we walked around the seaside. it was seriously amazing and beautiful every step of the way. the walk was intense. my feet are only starting to recover now. we were standing on these cliffs, and it felt like i was standing at the edge of the earth. i was so high up and there was nothing but water in front of me. no picture of mine could do that scene justice.

dublin was a good weekend, but kind of tiring. i also went broke. i didn't buy any groceries until today, and today it was more like a few veggies, noodles, and eggs. as they say in london....

I'M SKINT!

*sharon

dear anna,

i know that i promised you an update last night, but i accidentally fell asleep at 10:30. you will receive a better update later today.

love always,
sharon

today i learned the sad horrors of the london underground.

as usual, i was slow getting out this morning. josh and i rushed over to marble arch and managed to just hop a train. it sat on the tracks for a few minutes before starting. we arrived at notting hill gate at 10:05, and i knew we'd still be on time to class. we rushed over to the circle line platform (we have to transfer to get to school). i heard some woman screaming hysterically, but she almost sounded excited. we kept walking and were about to reach the platform when someone was like "you can't go down there, we're clearing the platform."

suddenly it was announced that the station was closed. it turns out that someone was underneath a train. if they jumped, got pushed, or fell, i don't know. but they had to shut down the station. there were ambulances, fire trucks, and cop cars everywhere. it was insane.

we couldn't manage to get effective directions to school. thankfully i brought my map, and we were able to walk over. we were about 30 minutes late for class.

i'm so happy our first train sat for a few minutes. otherwise, we probably would have been there to witness the insanity. it's really scary how this happens, but life goes on as if everything is normal.

*sharon

first of all...a rant

dear metropolitan police,

i hate to break it to you, but no one is around at 4:30am. there is hardly any traffic on my street at 5pm, let alone 5am. so please, DON'T PUT ON YOUR FUCKING SIRENS AND WAKE ME UP ALL THE DAMN TIME. this is getting ridiculous. i'm pretty sure that if you just flash your lights, the 2 people on the road will get the message.

ok glad that's out of my system.

so last night was probably one of my better nights here. josh and i went to bayswater and hung out with anna, lesley, marissa, and chelsea. their flat is soooo nice. i'm jealous. our room is like a closet, and anna and lesley share this huge, spacious room.

we went to a local pub and drank 2 for 5.50 cocktails. i got drunk quickly so i stopped for a while, then finished the night with a guinness. because guinness is life.

josh and i left to catch the tube, grabbed some mcdonalds, and watched "house." i had a lovely time with everyone.

disclaimer: i have some really sweet mcdonalds coupons. since you can get mcdonalds until 1am, and you can keep the meal under 5 pounds...it's well worth any health risk you take.

*sharon

spring break:

March 4:

14:45: depart London Gatwick
17:00: arrive Amsterdam

March 7:

21:00: depart Amsterdam
22:30: Arrive Geneva

March 9:

21:50: depart Geneva
22:25: arrive London Gatwick


SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!

so, paris is on march 17.

and i have just learned that anna and braden will be there at the same time and josh and me.

can we say, SEXY?!

*sharon