Giant Santa

Some sort of weird giant Santa looking thing.

Remember Remember the 9th of December

Do you know what tomorrow is? The day before international human rights day? The 30th anniversary of the 1st game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), Chicago Hustle vs Milwaukee? Well, ya that and ma birthday. By the way, what a cool name for a womens basketball team, the Chicago hustle. Boyaaahh. I expect presents in the double digits and for Liverpool to be sunny. I also expect neither of those wishes too come true. :) It will probably end up being Chinese food and Tsingtao beer with the roommates, which is just fine by me.
Went and saw Blade Runner the directors cut at the fabulous FACT picture house/ film institute. The couple in front of us had beers from the Cinema bar, coolest theatre ever. A few nights ago we saw Darjeeling Limited in 'the box' -a room filled with couches.

Monday it is off to Manchester for a night, then Saturday we leave for Barcelona. So there won't be any updates till I get back, and maybe not even then because I have 6 finals to take.




Ciao

Bwaaaa???

So as much as I hate the Grammy's, i couldn't help but love some of their pics this year. check out some of the nominees.

Plain white T's song of the year, bwaaa? Maybe the ballots were confusing... or maybe the old white guys that do the voting thought it was a remake of the 1968 song by Tom Jones.

Akon got lots of love, Senegal repp'n. Guess the whole throwing that kid off stage thing didn't hurt him too bad.

Soulja Boy got a nod. is this the Grammy's keepin it real with the kids? Do ya think they know what 'Superman that ho' means"... i hope he performs.

Lupe is in there, which is awesome. Chi Town.

And Kanye is still gonna complain even though he got the most nods cause if you hadn't heard from any interview he has ever given or from half the songs he has written, the whole world never gives him enough respect, ever even when they do they really aren't. Who wants to bet he wins 6 grammys this year and he writes a song about gettin screwed. He just shouldn't talk when he isn't on stage, btw anybody see him free styling against Mos Def, he got rocked.



song of the year -
"Hey There Delilah" -- Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T's)
"Umbrella" -- Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius "Dream" Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)

Nods for Best Rock Song go to:
"Icky Thump" -- Jack White, songwriter (The White Stripes)

For Best Contemporary R&B Album, the nominees are:
Konvicted -- Akon

Best Urban/Alternative Performance nods go to:

"Daydreamin'" -- Lupe Fiasco Featuring Jill Scott

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration nods go to:
"I Wanna Love You" -- Akon Featuring Snoop Dogg

Nominees for Best Rap Song are:
"Ayo Technology" -- N. Hills, Curtis Jackson, Timothy Mosley & Justin Timberlake, songwriters (50 Cent Featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)
"Big Things Poppin' (Do It)" -- Clifford Harris & Byron Thomas, songwriters (T.I.)
"Can't Tell Me Nothing" -- A. Davis & Kanye West, songwriters (Kanye West)
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" -- Soulja Boy Tell'Em, songwriter (Soulja Boy Tell'Em)
"Good Life" -- A. Davis, F. Najm & K. West, songwriters (Kanye West Featuring T-Pain)

Chrizms

So yesterday was my roommate Lou's Birthday and Sunday is my Birthday and in about 20 days it's Jman's Birthday, so we had a party. I made eggnog for the first time which looked a little sketchy before it was all together but it turned out pretty delicious, well as delicious as 8 eggs and whiskey could be. My roommate Flemming also made some skittle brew. That was tasty too. Well as tasty as Skittles and Stella Artois can be. Our Swedish friends made gingerbread and we danced to some Wham!- Last Christmas.



Skittle Brew



My first taste of skittle brew




Molly drinking some of my delicious eggnog and Dan give'n some ups to Jesus.



Finishing the eggnog at the end of the night was rough, my 10am the next morning was even rougher but it all turned out alright. Our Dutch friend got me and Lou a gum-ball machine. I'm pretty sure that is going back to Denmark though. You know when girls in America are little they ask for a pony for their birthday and then are always sad when they don't get it. Well replace the pony with a gum ball machine and you got a little Lou in Denmark.

Whats New

So its 3am and what better to do then blog. sleep maybe? maybe...

English people love Jargos(Jean-Cargos). I never thought i would see the day this was socially acceptable. Probably the biggest culture difference I have noticed.

My roommate Lou and I are having a joint Birthday party on Monday. Who has a party on a Monday? We do apparently. We have some Swedish friends who are leaving forever on Wednesday so we moved it up. I'm in charge of eggnog so we will see how that goes, ummmmm raw eggs, milk, and whiskey; what a great invention. ( I recently watched a video of Kurt Vonnegut speaking at Ohio State University. He said "do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” I kinda still like em though; no?)

Kurt also said, "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts." I think Briana heard this one before me.

So anyways... me and Lou went to Asda. Asda is a walmart owned grocery store. It is like a really small meijer, but still 3 times the size of any other grocery store. It was great. (Yes. I just said that something Walmart was great.) It made me feel like I was back in America. That and the PTI podcasts I have been listening to.

I have taken a few drum lessons and can play 'Umbrella' and 'Heat of the Moment' poorly.

i got down to 1 pair of underwear today. whew, that was a close one.

Here are some more videos from Ireland.

In case we die...



Where's the bathroom?



Stumblin and bumblin

Ireland

We knew Dublin was going to be fun when the first thing we saw as we got off the airplane was this.

Turned out we were right.

Irish people are some of the best I have ever met. They are what I imagine the English would be like if they smiled.

Giant spike known as the Spire of Dublin, or its official title the Monument of Light

Its almost 400 ft tall, thats over a 130 Shillelaghs if you are keeping count.

Dublin castle was lame. Don't bother if you go to Dublin.
There were tons of statues, such as this creepy statue. There were also several dragon vs unicorn statues. Don't know whats up with that.
We stopped by the Guiness store house then took a tour of the Jameson distillery. We got to try some wiskey that you can only buy at that distillery which was cool. It tasted like Jameson.
Also if you are ever in Dublin, check out Abracababra. It tastes as amazing as it sounds.



Trinity College was relly cool too. We stopped in to pee.


We went to Kilkenny, a town 2 hours west of Dublin by train, for a night to get out of the city and see the country a bit. While in kilkenny we stumbled on a bachelorette party. They grow 'em big in Kilkenny. there was a lot of woman in their bunny-eared posy. Here is one them singing that song from the Ford commercial. Simply the best...


We visited Kilkenney castle and saw a picture of the guy who inspired the look for captain hook from peter pan. The tour guide also said some other stuff but its not as exciting as Disney cartoons so i wont bore you.

That night we met an archaeologist and IT lady who used to work in production on movie sets and had met River Phoenix. Dan was real excited. I think he has a man crush on River.


The B&B we stayed at was run by an odd old lady. She kept a group of spiders as pets next to the stairs outside our room. She called them her precious. Not really, but maybe, there were a shitload of spiders.


The next day it was back to Dublin where it rained a lot and where we meet a girl from Kansas and a guy from Ontario who were staying at our hostile. We watched some hockey, cause what else do you do with Canucks?

Last night we gave it 35%

Me and Dan went to see Against Me! in Manchester yesterday. Staci was nice enough to meet us at the train station and show us around a bit. Dan was a little worried about getting mugged. He left this picture on his camera just in case...

We met Andrew before the show which was awesome, he sweats a lot.

I got the set list

and a pick

and pushed off stage as soon as I got on

but as soon as he pushed me off these two girls hoped on stage and the roadie let them hang out for a minute, i guess i should have boobs next time i try to get on stage.
Its ok though, i got on again at the end and sang we laugh at danger with Tom, who had a scraggly beard goin.


We missed our train home by 2 minutes so we had to hop a bus at midnight, but it all worked out.

Halloween pics coming soon...

Canoe Polo

Hello all, so last week i witnessed the greatest sport ever invented. Its called canoe polo and I will get to it in a minute. There are also lots of pictures i've been meaning to put up so i guess i will start from the start.

So we went out on Thursday night. On the way home we met these hippies, biff and jane. Biff has some cool dreads and may or maynot have been high out of his mind. Saturday we went out and watched Liverpool play their cross town rivals Everton. Its like sox vs cubs. The game was pretty rediculous, 2 red cards, 2 penalty kicks and an own goal. Liverpool won, which was awesome. Now they are 4th in the premiership and still undefeated.

Later we went out again to watch England vs South Africa in the rugby world cup finals. England lost. Prince Harry cried. i thoght there were going to be riots but everyone was pretty tame.


Afterwards we went out to this classy bar that almost didn't let me in, cause... well... we all know i'm not classy. They had some feather girls dancing and flower petals falling everywhere and 8 pound drinks (like the money pounds not the weight. Its metric here anyway so you should probably have figured that out) which i didn't get but some people liked 'em. after that we met up with our hippie friends at their way to nice for hippies apartment. There are some videos to come maybe, we will see how they turn out.



The next morning we walked down to the waterside and saw the coolest sport ever, canoe polo. (I don't know why they call it canoe polo since it is kayaks it should be called kayak polo but i didn't call em out on it.) They invited us back next week, I think they want us to join. But that shit is cold so I will probably pass, but someday....

Oh and we fed some seagulls


And they finished the China town arch.



Here's the picture that brought about the term Flemming Time. Actually a better way to put it is this picture is a result of Flemming Time.



Oh and if you preheat your ovens before you make frozen pizza, STOP! Its a conspiracy, the gas companies and the pizza manufacturers are in cahoots to sell more gas. good watching out.

Flemming Time

Exciting news everyone, we now have a light in our bathroom! No more showering in the dark for me.

On another note, thank god for bit torrent. i don't know what I would do without The Office and Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. i would probably have to watch The EastEnders or something.

Lots of people have asked me what England is like, so i made a little list of things British people love.

- Belts with words studded or bedazzled onto them. Such as: Rock star, rebel, and Rock Out
- Asking me if i have been to the OC.
- Fancy dress (AKA themed ho outfits)
- Guy fox day
- Fighting
- Asking me if I have been to NYC
- Not assigning homework at University
- Calling college "Uni"
- The queen
- Rain
- Baked beans
- Asking me why the hell I would come to Liverpool
- Primark
- V-neck shirts
- Marmite
- Scarves
- Charging per TV you own
- Beating the French at Rugby







11 more days till Nip/Tuck... anyone else excited?

Duck!

Watch out all you Americans abroad! The US state department has issued a Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, which means what exactly? I don't know, but thanks state department for that.


But anyways... i think i went on a tangent. Whats new in England? Last night we went to the Cavern, this cool underground venue/Beatles hot spot. There just happen to be a Beatles cover band playing. People were loving it. Oh and we went to punk rawk night, i totally got digits from this dj. his name is pete and he likes the lawrence arms. how exciting. oh and i met a british girl named georgia, which kind of confused me. And no joke, 9 out of 10 british people i have talked that have been to the us have been to hotlanta. I think i underestimated the drawing power of the dirty south.

Ancora un po

Day 2




Day 2 started with us going to Lake Garda. We spent the day walking around, visiting castles and eating really expensive food and drinking really expensive wine. Thanks Karen! I think America needs more castles, I mean we have that one in Orlando but other then that they are kinda scarce.

Here is the store where Karen got tricked by an old Italian lady into sniffing a garlic bulb then quickly got yelled at by the owners. There were about 15 signs in different languages saying DON'T TOUCH PRODUCE!



We walked around a bit, checked out the town, then went back and ate next to the arena which we visited the next day.



Day 3

So they bolted down seats on the inside of the arena which kinda takes away from the place a little, but it was still very cool.

In the afternoon we tried to go to a vinyard, but it was raining and they were closed, so me and Shannon went to get some wine for dinner, which wasn't as easy as it sounds because we don't speak italian, and the cabby didn't speak english. He was trying to find us another vinyard and we just wanted anyplace that sold wine so after about 10 minutes of english and italian flying around he called his friend who spoke a little english and had him translate for us. He found us a good place and we inivted him up to eat with us but we weren't having any carne so he passed.

I tried helping with dinner for about 5 seconds but i was just getting in the way, so I sat in the corner and drank wine while everyone else cooked.

Laura and I took a cab out the next morning. We accidentally called 2 cabs which pissed off the cabby and made the ride a little awkward.



Thats about it. I'll leave you guys with a video from italian MTV

Ciao!

Che fa? Me? Well I am back in cloudy old England after a few days in sunny Verona. I didn't get to meet Gattuso but it is so nice to be able to understand people again! Italy was amazing though. I've never seen so much pasta, sunglasses, and chest hair in my life. I think I will learn some of the language before I go back though. Thank god Shannon and laura were with us because I have a feeling we wouldn't have run into so many friendly Italian men without them. My aunt and cousins have the lions share of the photos so I will put up some more in a week or two when they get back in the states. Till then here is a little recap.




Day 1
The flight in to Venice was awful. I felt like my sinuses were going to explode the whole way. Luckily they didn't and I hoped a bus, to hop a train, to go to Verona. I met the sweetest old Filipino lady on the bus, she just talked and talked and talked and she forgot to buy a bus ticket but she was old so it was OK.

She had been to Liverpool once. For what you ask! A quilting society meeting? A bake sale? To eat some scouse? Nope, all wrong. A Euthanasia conference! How charming. although on second thought she could have meant "Youth in Asia" conference... but seriously that just makes no sense.


So I got into Verona and met up with my Aunt, two of her friends Jeanie and Penny, and two of my cousins Laura and Shannon. We saw what was supposedly Juliet's house, then we ate at what was supposedly Romeo's house (both of which I am sure are tourist traps but I love tourist traps so it worked out well for me). At dinner one of Karen's friends, Penny, signed the reservation book thinking it was a register where people from around the world left their mark, this was after they exited the bathroom* together which turned some heads, but before Jeanie hung out the second story window looking for her nephew. I think when we left they weren't to broken up about it.

*In Italy many of the bathrooms are just a hole in the floor which made things interesting for the ladies. Also they have pay toilettes everywhere! Which kind of suck. I though the right to pee was inalienable across the world. Guess not.

Check out the diggs. Pretty swanky. Pretty much the opposite of what mine and Dan's European travels are going to be like in December.




more stories soon...

From Amsterdam to Italia

Here are some more pictures from Amsterdam... cause I'm bored. And trying to find ways not to spend money, which isn't as easy as it sounds. I need to find poor friends...

I got bored today, went out, and bought a bunch of pastries. I think I might be addicted. Anyways, Thursday I am off to Italy to see some aqueducts, drink some wine, and hopefully run into...

||||||||||||||||||||||GATTUSO!||||||||||||||||||||||



I will put up pics of Verona and things next week.

Ta!

I fly like paper, get high like planes

Hello all.... back i am from Amsterdam. It was a great trip, aside from the bed bugs that is. The night we got in is probably the funnest night I have had in Europe so far. We took off from John Lennon international airport. They had a room full of Beatles memorabilia, which was actually the first time i have seen any Beatles stuff in Liverpool.

Now that I think about it, it is kind of nice that Liverpool hasn't turned into a giant Beatles merchandise Kiosk.




PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT: Giant packs of cigarettes kill!


Anyways.... we meet a cute english girl on the plane who's friend gave us a lift from the airport to the middle of town. He was a real scouser, I couldn't understand a flippin word he said. But we made it in and headed out to check out the town.

Day 1

Before we set foot on the main square by our hostel, this guy in a band, Antwerp Gypsy Ska Orchestra, came up to us and gave us 2 free tickets to his show (He said he was only giving them to hot girls but apparently we were cute enough to get some). We had a few pints and watched Everton (the other premier league team based in Liverpool) play against a dutch team in a EUFA Cup qualifying game, kind of random that a Liverpoolian team was on TV in Amsterdam. We showed up to the show and Caspian hat dance was playing. Pretty much the coolest gypsy band i have ever seen.



We shook our asses for a while then Antwerp Gypsy Ska Orchestra came on. They were pretty boring so we left and checked out a few more bars.







The next day we checked out some museums. We went to the Rijks Museum(Rembrandt) and the Van Gogh Museum. Cool stuff.








The canals in Amsterdam were probably my favorite part, they are everywhere. They really have no purpose except for being awesome. Oh and house boats rock.



Oh and about 70% of the people in Amsterdam ride bikes around instead of cars.
They also have trams running in the streets between pedestrians cars and people, its kind of scary.


The night watch in statue form



Day 2

when we were checking out an outdoor bizzar type street sale some people in costumes and stilts started dancing because... well i dont know dutch people are weird.


















We spent half the day riding the canals. We got off to see the ann franke house, just so happened it was Yom Kippour. Who knew? Well i guess jewish people knew, but we didnt.
We caught a liverpool f.c. Game in Amsterdam too, they tied. Just like last game. Bust last night they won 4-2 against Reeding, Torres had 3 goals, what a sexy man.






Day 3

















Day three was more walking around the city, more canals, and naps to get ready for an all-nighter before out 9am flight. We also discovered outdoor open urinals! Dan was so excited!








Huge Crowds



Shwarma



We met an american girl from minesota of all places who was working on her second bachelors degree and a guy from wales who spent half an hour telling us why we should be living in whales and not liverpool.

We found a place that served beer in goblets, they also loved The Temptations which was awesome.


Then Pints...

And Pints...

And Pints...


Finally it was time to get some McDonalds breakfast, orange juice, and it was time to catch our plane back to Liverpool.


Oh and here is a video of me dancing to Panic at the disco