There are two kinds of people. There are those who fail to keep a blog such as this regularly updated on account of procrastination, of poor organization of time and energy and duties, of just plain laziness, and there are those who fail to keep a blog such as this regularly updated on account of sheer frenzied activity with time so utterly consumed by goings on and happenstances and developments both foreseeable and not. No doubt about it anymore, I’m the former. It is now August 14^th 2013. Last entry dates April 16^th. Four months, people. Four months patchmanblog has sat here in this little quiet cosy corner of the internet, utterly neglected, gathering dust, the odd cyperspacial tumbleweed passing by. Four months left entirely undocumented. This is actually tragic people. Suddenly, completely out of nowhere for you readers and, despite everything, for me also, the year abroad is effectively over. Done. Gone. A year and a day exactly since I sat in the minima back home, watching Toy Story 3, sort-of-hastily-but-not-really writing the prologue to this chronicle mere hours before I was due to set off for something I could never have anticipated in however many years it’s even possible to count to how it would ultimately unfold and turn out. Actually looking back to it that was actually an ironic little foreshadowing of my disorganization, I mean I did leave it until actually a few hours before going Heathrow. Literally, one year, one day. August 13^th 2012 to August 14^th 2013. And yet, as much as a four month gap in this blog is by no means a success of any kind, have to say though, of all days to finally return to it, I’m actually kind of glad it’s this one. Yeah ok so if it had been yesterday that would’ve been a tad more apt and ‘the circle is now complete’ sort of thing but call that a little symbolic reminder of my inefficiency shall we? Four months then, time for a bit of a catchup, and you know what? It’s gonna have to be a two-parter, finish it all off Harry Potter-style, because as much as there’s no defending me when it comes to disorganization….these past months have been one hell of a ride.

Ready for a read?

Rewind to April. Last Captain’s log, gritting teeth and bracing for the substantial academic obstacles rearing their loathsome heads, not just exams but a flipping colossal essay that was honestly at least half the length of what my fourth year dissertation is supposed to be. And I thought the Evil Class in first semester was taxing enough. No, wait, Evil Class is still worse. Would happily redo that entire mega-length paper, would happily stab myself to death with a blunt pencil rather than endure that class again. Sorry to get graphic but I like to illustrate my precise feelings sometimes…and frankly I’m still heavily understating it. I KNOW! LET’S FORGET ALL THE DULL SCHOOL STUFF UNTIL LATER AND TALK ABOUT COOL THINGS!!

Flicking back to the last blog for little reminders I see at the time I mentioned my Temple Smash audition, yeah I think that’s the one that really hit home for me how long it’s been….jesus. Now there’s a story. So I gave you all the rundown of how the auditions played out and the casting and what I ended up with so nutshell-recap: me, playing a repairman on the Titanic post-iceberg but pre-submersion. And if I may refrain from modesty for a couple sentences, this was MY sketch. Main man, centre of the whole thing, and therefore the lion’s share of the pressure when it came to remembering lines. Bit of a responsibility but have to say the sketch was bloody well written and was just one of those things where you enjoy being in it so much that it makes it that much easier to remember everything. We met for rehearsals roughly every Tuesday, everyone who could make it anyway, had one change of cast, if I remember rightly because the actual show was gonna clash with another show he was in I think, dance or something, but got another guy straightaway so was no problem, nailed how we were gonna do the whole thing pretty early on and there you go. Comedy gold. And if you’re all very good, and I can find the link again, I’ll put the entire show I was in up on here. Fair warning, Smash has a reputation for being just as frightening as it is funny, I’m just saying. Might recommend a PG rating for it, all involved were uni students after all. And so it came to pass, on April 25^th, that the big show itself took place. It was a Thursday, which was slightly unfortunate as my Superpower America class ran until 5 and I had to be at the campus venue by 5 so let me tell you that was a bit of a mad dash. Oh yeah, the venue itself can essentially be described as the ‘Film Department’ building, Annenburg Hall, and much like everything else in America it was pretty much miles ahead of the standard equivalent at any UK university. Aside from classrooms and lecture theatres, the place features two MASSIVE studios specifically designed for film production and performances, and that is where the Smash shows are always held. Around 7, people start queuing up in the ground floor corridors of the building, friends, students, parents, all sorts, whereupon they are ushered to seating rows set up against one wall of the studio at like 7.30, ready for showtime at 8. I know all this enough from having attended the last Smash show with Jess and Brittany and people but it’s a slightly different experience when you’re part of the show and therefore are confined backstage pretty much soon as you arrive at 5. Last minute rehearsals, costume fittings, makeup (that seems to be a recurring thing this semester, the Charlotte Sometimes interview and whatnot), all accompanied by the old familiar stomach butterflies….yeah so apparently I’m 21 and I still use that expression…ANYWAY, so for my part as Repairman Pete Jenkins they had me in a surprisingly-well fitted boiler suit with a belt strapped to me sporting a great number of tools. Pretty much name it and I had it, wrenches, spanners, screwdrivers, tweezers, hammers, scissors. Bear in mind I was just supposed to be fixing  a lamp in the sketch so I wonder why they had me fitted out to storm the Bastille. And before I knew it, everyone was doing some terrifying pre-show rituals (seriously I had no idea WHAT was going on…half expected someone to pluck out my heart shouting “KA-LI-MAHHHH”) and it was all go. Our sketch wasn’t for a while into the show, I think it was like the beginning of the final third or something, so backstage those of us not needed immediately got to enjoy both the show itself on tv screens and the sounds of the audience in the next room. Yeahh that was good. They loved it. Sexy Hospital Sketch, Great Morning America Sketch, Magic 8 Ball Sketch (I dunno why I’m listing this really, if I find the link, you’ll see for yourselves, probably the better option). And then I was on. And I will leave it to your own viewings to decide how our sketch got on but I will say this to my credit, I did like how many different ways I came up with to appear to be fixing the light, and I think the audience did too, especially once the hammers and scissors started coming out (improv people, I did improv, be proud). Aaaand not long after we were done, so was the show. All gather round for the big cast and crew photo, hello Jess and Brittany and Andrew and Lily’s Mum and frankly a rather flattering turnout friend-wise, not that they’d all come solely to see me of course 😛 After that, action stations. Pack up the studio, tidy all away, get out, get home, get ready for the afterparty. And a fine afterparty it was. Not that this is an area that I would intend to enlighten you all on anyway but actually can’t remember the night all that well, and NOT for the reason you’re assuming thank you. I think Lily was still weaning me off drinking Diet Coke out of a hipflask.

Time to move on to the next story I think, and we’re on firmly familiar ground here. Surreally familiar for me. Insomnia Theatre. Where it all began. The real beginning of this second half of the year abroad, and in many ways as late as it was, the real beginning of the year entirely. And for reasons I may go into here (or may not, I’m debating it), the beginning of a whole lot of experiences which not only am I now taking away from the year, but which also may well be one of the, if not the most significant and defining episode of my life to date. The final Insomnia weekend of the year, 24 hours to audition, cast, write, direct and perform mini-plays to a proper audience. Full, on. As I met up with Lily and Jess on campus to go to the auditions, taking place in a different room from last time, believe me my mind was thinking back to how it all unfolded the first time. Déjà vu abounded. I had my piece all set and ready in my head, Lily had insisted I do a runthrough for her that morning so I wasn’t the only one on my case. Lily herself was directing this time, as was Jess actually so upon entering the audition room and getting through some warm-up exercises we split off, and by that I mean sat in slightly different areas of the floor in the same room. The auditions themselves got underway, and like before they were an interesting mix. Some played it straight, actual monologues etc., some were…creative, let’s just say, some were hilarious (my god was I blown away by one girl’s rendition of the Prince Herbert’s Tower Guards scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and myself? Well I flexed the villainous muscle last time with Javier Bardem in Skyfall, so I thought it was time to show off my inner hero, so I went with the Doctor. David Tennant’s Doctor, great big monologue when facing the Devil. Yeah I think it went down well. Well no I know it went down well because afterwards when me and Brynn (have I mentioned Brynn before? Will get to her, don’t worry!) were waiting in the building’s atrium for the post-audition directors and writers meeting to finish, Lily and Jess came out and the former grabbed me by the arm, pulled me away from everyone and told me apparently all the different writer-director groups had been bidding highly for me to be in their pieces. Yeah that was kinda cool to hear not gonna lie. Cause for celebration even! And celebrate we kinda did right away as me, Lily, Jess, Brynn and our friend Christian all agreed on having a spontaneous film night. Stepped outside, pouring rain, lovely, so slight detour back to the Edge so Brynn could get some umbrellas and I could grab my hoodie (not waterproof but at least it’s something). Walking from the Edge to House House (Lily and Jess’, dunno if I’ve called it that before here but I’d been frequenting the place basically daily so think I was entitled to start calling it by its given name), just a ten minute jaunt but made an entertaining ten minutes by such factors as a strong wind mixing in with the rain resulting in the umbrella I was clutching smacking me in the face. I instantly empathized far more greatly with Lily’s decision to forgo an umbrella for herself. But we got to the house, completely soaked through, to such an extent that I decided to just jump in the shower to clean off (and apparently my singing whilst in there entertained everyone in the kitchen), we all convened in the basement and after a bit of debate (I mean three film majors and a film enthusiast make choosing a viewing slightly trickier) we put on ‘Blue Valentine’. Now let me just say this; I do not fault the film itself, it is a very good piece of filmmaking. Very solid, quite immersive. I just couldn’t stand how bloody depressing it was. Yes depressing films have their place but that doesn’t stop me getting pissed off at their sheer pessimism. I mean frankly I was riding on a high of audition adrenaline, Lily’s feedback, the whole night having consisted of quality hanging out and conversation and everything and then Blue Valentine….I mean it didn’t ruin the night, not at all, just gahhhh, depressing films, sod off. 

Next morning, up bright and early (having stayed over for what was by then probably the umpteenth time), off to campus, solid rehearsal day ahead. As it turned out, I was actually in Jess and Christian’s group! And the script that had been written for us, kinda mental. Like, literally. Essentially revolved around three people getting lost in a ghost town on the way to a fancy dress party. Bit mad but fun stuff, and I was to play the….how should I put this….uber-nerd infatuated with his detached (and absent) girlfriend (who breaks up with him by phone during the show incidentally). Is it worrying how much I could identify with this character? Actually I can’t tell you lot just how difficult I found it to really nail the whole heartbroken thing, like Jess and Christian ended up having to show me that clip from ‘The Graduate’ when Hoffman screams through the window at the church to give me SOME idea of what they wanted. I do have my funny little hang ups.

And…to be completely honest, the whole day I found kinda tough. For one very fundamental reason which I only figured out at some point in the afternoon; I had just realized that doing all this was effectively my ‘first last’ of the year abroad. It just hit me really, no other way to describe it. Just a sudden realization that I’d just stumbled into something that officially foreshadowed the fact that my entire experience had an end date, and since my sheer enthusiasm and enjoyment and passion for everything I’d been doing and the people I’d met (especially most recently) was at an all time high….well it just wasn’t the most timely epiphany. So it was just a question of keeping calm and carrying on. Which I did. Although definitely need to acknowledge a big thanks to Jess for helping me talk it out a little in private, just a little vent that was very much needed and just helped get my head back in the game. So yeah, cheers Jess.

So, 8am to around 5 or 6pm, more or less solid rehearsing, bloody intense. After that, afforded ourselves time to go get dinner, throw together something resembling costumes for ourselves (which for me consisted of white shirt, bowtie and braces, decent trousers and shoes, long coat I got for Christmas…and a cowboy hat) and assemble at the performance venue (oh and I had to dash back to my room at the Edge to grab a little prop both directors agreed would greatly befit my character, so in the end I can’t say I went onstage looking like the most cool, calm and collected individual….but then again given the character that was ironically sort of appropriate. We were first up after the interval so got to enjoy the first two groups’ performances…which now given the amount of time that’s passed since I can’t actually remember but come to think of it they post all the performances on YouTube anyway so can just post links here! (Sweet Jesus there are going to be so many links by the time this entry is done…) , third one though we weren’t able to see as we had to be backstage and preparing for our turn, although for some reason I recall something along the lines of our immediate predecessors’ story concerning some kind of imagination island or an octopus or something…pretty sure they ended up having to improv a lot of their stuff as I believe they didn’t actually have a finished script. Well wasn’t that the most vague and conflicting reference you’ve ever read. Anyways then we were up and all did our thing aaaaaand….wasn’t bad! The odd forgotten line but nothing we couldn’t work our way around really, and I maintain to this day that my tragically lovesick scream (something I found particularly difficult during rehearsals) was rather damned impressive DESPITE the video of our performance sort of revealing that how I thought I sounded wasn’t quite as loud or intense as it actually sounded…ok so maybe I still didn’t manage to pull the right sort of scream out the hat but on the bright side I can now!! And apparently one or two audience members felt very sorry for me so I guess I emoted to a sufficient degree! And one or two shows later, curtains for everyone! Just like last time, everyone gathered on the stage for a great big cast and crew photo, one or two little speeches from outgoing and newly appointed society presidents and organizers, thank yous, rounds of applause, the works. 

(Basically what they were trying to get me to go for with my performance…)

And then it was time to prep for the after party, casually discussed out in the open on campus under its traditional codename of ‘milk and cookies’ (Prohibition-esque customs rear their head again). And this time around, where was it to be held but at House House itself! The very place I found myself staying over basically every night anyway so this time I just found myself spared a walk to and from anywhere unknown! Quick dash back to the Edge for shower, shave and suit-up (I’d been wearing a coat under hot lights in the show so that plus standard pre-performance jitters meant my character’s nervous sweat wasn’t put on for the sake of it). Then the good old ten minute walk over to Lily and Jess’  where I was just early enough to lend a hand here and there setting up everything, compliments were given and received on the outfits we were all wearing (I seem to remember rocking a black waistcoat which spawned both insistent praise and a few debates over whether the correct name for the item was ‘waistcoat’ or ‘vest’…really? ‘Vest’? Way to nominally demean what is generally considered a snazzy fashion item. Believe me I put an end to that injustice), and shortly after the party kicked off! Basement-centered of course, and I’ve said it many times before but the basement of House House is pretty damn grand a basement. All in attendance were more than satisfied I can assure you. Quality custom-made music playlists blasting out of speakers in the ‘club’ section of the basement, dance floor generally packed to the gunnels throughout the night, huge turnout, frankly you’d be a bit of an arse to ask for anything more from a night like that. I even got to have another cast photo with my performance group! Had to be done, they were a good bunch.

Cast & Crew

Although it would have been nice if I’d actually managed to catch that unexpected Backstreet Boys number, which ended quite literally as I set foot on the dance floor. The crowning moment of the night however? I think you’d be hardpressed when spending time with so eclectic a group of people united by a common enthusiasm for theatre to not fully admire, respect, appreciate and absolutely flipping love an impromptu group rendition of ‘One Day More’ from Les Miserables. Absolute perfection, as I ascended the stairs from the basement to grab a drink I recognized the tune and lyrics booming from the far side of the kitchen, entering to find a merry gathering completely caught up in the song. And given my timing and the fact I knew the words and frankly since Russell Crowe anything I did was gonna be better by comparison, I casually strode in breaking into Javert’s segment of the chorus. Which was very much cheered by all, I can tell you. Truly, a magnificent moment. And when came the time for the night to draw to a close, people trickled away gradually, those of us left (myself, Lily, Andrew, one or two others) set off for what was well and truly by now a post-party tradition of going Checkers for some chips, returned to House House, chilled, and then collapsed. A weekend well wrought.

Now. Now, now, now. There are many things that came from this year abroad, many things which I had to varying degrees already assumed and expected, and many things that hit me completely out of left field. Out of the latter, there is one such development that stands out beyond any other, a consequence and result of my participation in the year abroad which in retrospect not only came to irrefutably define one of the most remarkable periods of the experience, but also to epitomize what I now consider to be one of the most vital times of my life. If readers have been attentive, they will have detected the recurring presence of a name in my recent chronicles. I have described the person behind the name, detailed many of the adventures that have come my way simply by meeting this person. So it may be that some of you will react simply with “it’s about flipping time!” as I turn now to a few days after this Insomnia weekend, when I took Lily out on a date.

I’d asked her about a week beforehand, and though she had said yes at the time, it wasn’t exactly a relaxed period of the semester, and so we hadn’t managed to actually sort anything out in terms of a time or a place or an activity. But with Insomnia out the way my attentions were completely free to turn to these very questions. A decent bit of internet research yielded a few decent restaurants that weren’t much of a hassle to get to, and it being the first date I thought no harm in going for the good old fashioned fancy dinner option. Crosschecking any preferences Lily may have had, in the end we settled on an Italian place close to the Delaware River, ‘La Famiglia Ristorante’….yeah I had visions of ‘The Godfather’ also with a name like that. Monday early evening was saved by the both of us for going out, and all was set. Monday came, classes came (at least for Lily, although pretty sure I spent the entire day in Tech Centre anyway), were endured and went, and come 6pm we met up outside the Edge to walk to the subway station, herself looking frankly radiant in a white dress and myself…well she didn’t complain and I wouldn’t say I’m very good at self-flattery so let’s continue. Lily does have a car and could very well have driven us there and back but that would hardly be good form for a first date if the lady is compelled to be her own chauffeur, I’m from the country that brought America frickin’ Downton Abbey, certain standards and etiquette were to be expected…well not so much her expecting all this from me, which she really didn’t at all for the record, as me insisting on having and meeting these expectations myself. So subway it was then, which in itself yielded entertainment in the form of a frankly very disturbing advertisement on the tunnel wall that I immediately described (and to this day adhere to my description) as basically the old woman tree from Pocahontas on meth. I mean, seriously, what is this even?!

Well whoever though that particular marketing gem up can at least be credited for giving Lily and I something to laugh about, and indeed that very advert has since cropped up repeatedly throughout the rest of my time stateside. THERE WAS A COLOSSAL ONE IN TIMES SQUARE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! IS NO ONE ELSE EVEN SLIGHTLY DISTURBED BY THE SIGHT OF THAT THING?! And don’t even get me started on the flipping commercial that goes with it…yeah I’m not even gonna say anything, just watch the link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuz5DDACJY

ANYHOO! Following that entertaining little kickoff to the evening, we made our way down to center city and across to Penn’s Landing, the restaurant very conveniently being only a couple minutes walk from the station. The restaurant itself, very comfortable is probably the best description. We got there just as the sun was setting but even if it had been in the middle of a brightly lit day the restaurant would have maintained it’s low-lit, intimate atmosphere. We were by far the youngest customers there, I wouldn’t say they catered that often to those in their early twenties. Again, the mind wanders back to ‘The Godfather’…but intimate was good, pretty much exactly what you want from a restaurant first date. Not that I really worried it would be otherwise but Lily and I laughed and talked with barely a lull at all, the food was really nice, there was some sort of confusion as to whether or not we were gonna be having dessert but regardless we found ourselves with the bill when I guess we were expecting a dessert menu? Lily remembers this better than I do but I’m just of the opinion they wanted to get rid of us pronto for some reason. In any case, dinner was lovely, and actually we did get dessert of sorts as we went for a little walk after and ended up at a frozen yogurt place (which we barely managed to get something from on account of it being closing time). And eventually, frozen yogurt in hand, we made our way back to the station, got back to campus a short while later and retired for the night, but not before enjoying the final episodes of David Tennant’s era as the Doctor (Lily had started watching the show not long before we first met so I basically joined her for episodes from Series 3 onwards). As first dates go then, very happy.  And I guess Lily was happy with it too because as you’ll read for yourselves later, it was by no means the last.

We can be cute, and we can also be not 🙂 

Yeuuuurghhhhhh…..kinda running out of things to use as subject matter before getting onto all the academic blah blah…NOT QUITE YET! How’d you lot like to hear about something that’s at least heading in the direction of the actual study-side of things but involved very little actual work on my part?  The perks/problems of having so many film majors as friends, you’re always on call to play some sort of part in their film assignments and projects. Am I complaining? Not at all.  Here’s another little story for ya then. So in total I guess I contributed to two projects, the first being an assignment Lily had to do for one of her classes which involved filming with a very old fashioned camera and necessitated me wandering around House House in pajamas and a dressing gown, playing the part of a hapless boyfriend attempting to make breakfast in bed for his girlfriend, and basically all such efforts leading to disaster. So there I was in the kitchen pulling off my very own Norman Wisdom routine, cracking an egg in half only to have half the shell end up in the mixture, accidentally knocking frying pans off hobs and all crowned by a glorious attempt to extract a specific bowl from a cupboard only to have the entirety of its contents rain down on me. And the best part of it all was that by and large the accidents weren’t really put on for the sake of it but actual slip-ups on my part. Indeed I seem to remember while trying to fake the egg accident, I instead ended up jamming the egg so deeply on the rim of the bowl that it got stuck. Way to add a bit of authenticity to the role, and hey Lily and everyone working on this project found it hilarious so end of the day it was a job well done I’d say! The second project was a slightly bigger deal as it was essentially the final project, which Lily and Brynn were working on together and required filming not just at House House but in a few other locations as well. This time around it was more of a ghost story, me being basically a workaholic student who starts getting haunted by this ghostly girl (Lily). Come to think of it, location-wise it was relatively expansive. We filmed in the street next to House House, filmed in the library (at least we tried to but that didn’t fully work out, will get to that), filmed in this little place on campus known as the Secret Garden (pretty decently kept secret since I’d never even heard of its existence previously), filmed in a lecture hall, just all over really. And ultimately we basically had to do it all twice as Lily and Brynn realized only at the end of the initial shoot that the camera hadn’t been working properly for a lot of the stuff we had filmed that day, hence why the library still didn’t work out. Bit of a bugger in the works there. But hey, we got it done and actually in the end some of the reshooting we did I reckon was better than the day before soooooo, yeah, silver linings!

Okay, okay, no more backpedalling. Academia, me, the annual crunch time, essays, exams, assessments galore. Let’s get this over and done with, shall we?

US History Through Film:

…..Well we had another exam. And not sure if I’ve detailed this before but following the second-of-three exams for this class I did actually have to go read out my answer to the professor’s assistant because of, you guessed it, say it with me, HANDWRITING!! Bit of a bugger that this time they didn’t let me use a laptop or anything but the good thing was I’d performed decently in the previous two assessments and the last one did not count the highest. Still gave it its due share of attention and effort though (I have to stipulate things like that in case Dad’s reading this). And I seem to remember somehow coming away from that entire module with an A or A- or something…not entirely sure how that happened but once again will just put that down to the different…. ‘expectations’ of me between UEA and Temple.

American Presidency:

Sliiiightly more taxing, here having to do both what was described as a ‘policy brief’  paper (essentially a coursework essay in the guise of actually attempting to advise Obama on an issue of our choosing) and a final exam. And in ever-so-slight echoes of the evil class from first semester….I had no idea what I was doing. So essentially threw in everything I could think of without making the mistake of writing a flipping book when all that was required was a couple of pages. For the record I picked gun control as my issue, as did a fair few others in class what with all the atrocities that have been going on the last year. The good thing was no one picked it out of a sense of it just being fashionable, it really was like a sincere interest all round. Lots of occasionally heated discussions stemming from Aurora, Sandy Hook etc.  There is hope for this generation people, here and there and very scattered but there is hope. But yeah so did my ‘policy paper’ on that, and really it wasn’t alllll that difficult, basically like 2000 words? I mean the length specified was five pages double spaced so 2000 sounds roughly about right. Not a huge pain in the arse. And the final exam, I turned up, wrote some stuff, left, ended up with a sufficient grade and there really wasn’t anything else to it.  Then again that class was never exactly a breeding ground for interesting updates.

Superpower America:

THE BIG KAHUNAAAAAAA!!!! Ladies and gents, I have written many essays. Many of them have felt long. Many of them have actually been long. This coming semester I am to be academically dominated by the mother of all essays, the dissertation. Whilst what I am about to describe did not reach such extremes as I expect the last of these to reach…it wasn’t a great amount off. The big conference paper for my Superpower America class. The topic, entirely self-assigned and self-designed. The research, entirely independent, the argument entirely self-made and pursued. Now tell me that doesn’t sound a little like a dissertation. And on top of that, it was to be about 4000 to 5000 words. My final dissertation is due to be 8000. I know I’ve gotten off very light in terms of dissertation length, with many people I know either at or just graduated from university making the contrast with theirs abundantly clear, but is still a hefty workload when just one paper for one class in a non-dissertation year ends up being more than half the size of what your final thesis is supposed to be! Aaaaand on top of that, we had to give a presentation on our paper topics as part of an organized class conference thing. It was all very strange really, like sort of uber-official and yet also not…just a lot of work ending in a ‘Conference Day’. And what was my topic, I hear you ask? Well here’s the thing. The idea for what my dissertation is going to be came to me veeeery early on in my time in Philadelphia, literally the first week. And much of what we had discussed and analyzed and covered in this class fitted in to a decent extent with the general idea of what my thesis would focus on, at least touching on relevant stuff. And given the sort of ‘advanced’ nature of this particular paper, it sort of occurred to me to exploit the assignment as a very broad and loose ‘practice run’ for what my final dissertation is going to be. As such, my topic was entitled thusly; “‘Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy’, – Tony Stark (Iron Man, 2008). A Masculine Superpower by Self-Perception”. Let me be clear about something before I go any further, I AM NOT COPYING THIS PAPER FOR MY DISSERTATION. I’m casing the joint for this particular area of historical and cultural study which yeah I will revisit to varying degrees, but the resemblance ends there. So essentially, here I was discussing how the US looks at itself predominantly through qualities we would typically identify as ‘masculine’, the possible reasons for this, arguments for and against the idea, and my theories as to the various impacts such a mentality creates. Although you gotta love the fact that I was able to quote a Robert Downey Jr. character in my title eh? Add to that the fact that as essays go, especially self-assigned ones, I found mine pretty enjoyable, and the kinda insane fact that I wrote pretty much the entire thing in a long weekend, I’d call it kinda a triumph all round! Oh yeah, there was a final exam too but it only counted for like 10% and had my bases covered and it wasn’t a particularly arduous experience, especially when  compared to the coursework just described here. Oh and the conference! There was a sort of effort to make it more official by having everyone come in wearing suits and looking smart and proper to deliver their presentations to everyone, and we’d all been grouped into topics that vaguely crossed over into our individual works. Fun!….Kinda….I guess.

American Film:

Last and….not least but not most either if that makes any sense probably not anyway, this was just a question of a take-home exam consisting of four short-essay questions, in fact not even questions just four pictures taken from films we had watched in class and had to analyze for various things like film techniques and effects and such. You can imagine that after all the other stuff this was very much a ‘decent grade tossed in your lap’ sort of situation and you’d be right. And as a result there really isn’t much else to tell you about this one. The awkward moment when lack of actual work to report kills your academic update finale…

WHICH IS WHY IT’S A DAMN GOOD THING THIS IS ONLY THE END OF PART ONE THEN!! You’ve had the academic year itself, you’ve had the term-time antics and adventures, you’ve had the campus craziness and then some…even if it’s been absurdly, horrendously late. Indeed, let’s just stop for a minute and take it all in. It’s over. Temple time is over. Finished. Done. Kaput. Terminated. Never again will I rant of evil classes, nor talk excitedly of the craziness that is….was…day to day life attending an American university. Everything has its time, everything ends.

But not quite yet for this. You’re not quite done reading, and I’m not quite done writing. Yeah, the semester’s run out of anecdotes to yield, but want to know perhaps the best thing of all? There’s still the summer. And rest assured, dear readers, we’re reaching the last pages of this quaint little cyber-journal, but it all ends with quite the big bang. Summer 2013, unforgettable, and I expect for quite a long time to come, unbeatable.

Albyssinia.

Brace yourselves, Summer is coming…

Ok I’m not even gonna start on the whole time lapse thing between last blog and this because frankly I think I’ve run out of different ways of saying ‘sorry I’m late’.

IT’S THE DEEP BREATH BEFORE THE PLUNGE! And by plunge I of course mean, essays. It’s that time once again. Well over the halfway mark of the semester and my god has it gone by ridiculously, impossibly quick. Easily quicker than last semester I’d say, what is going on. And it would seem, my instructors being the ‘encouraging’ bunch they are, that workwise I now have the flipping mother-load. But bear with me, despite my haphazard writing style in these blogs I do tend to stick to a predetermined itinerary so will get to that later. But essentially, gonna have to consider this blog as the last one probably until the storm has passed and, at least course paper-wise, I’ll be washing my hand of all this ‘studying’ nonsense.

Now then, remember all that spontaneity that befell me back in like February? Popping along to Insomnia Theatre auditions and it basically ending up as a decision that has fundamentally altered my experience of being here since? Well with a little strong-arming from Lily, I went along to another little audition-thing. Remember also my going to this on-campus equivalent of Saturday Night Live? Well guess what these auditions were for. So, went along, and immediately I gotta say it was veeeeeery different from Insomnia, frankly comparing the two is like comparing a family get-together with the actual serious process of selection acting-wise (for that was indeed how Smash auditions were handled as I discovered, and in fairness had been a tad forewarned about). Think X Factor but with more judges. Actually don’t. Please don’t think of X Factor, I’m doing everything I can to maintain a sense of class in this blog. I mean have you noticed the Hitchcockian design? TASTE IS EVERYTHING! Anyway so went along to the auditions and this is basically how it worked. Two rooms. One for auditionees, the other for basically all the casting people and directors and writers and such. And instead of just turning up, doing a random acting warm-up exercise or two (which since they’re always kinda awkward I didn’t complain about not doing), we had to go through all this stuff of signing the list, getting a number, having our pictures taken with the number (hopefully the only mug shot I’ll ever have) and then rehearse this little one-page sketch we were given, also having to pair up with someone for it. The sketch itself…bizarre. Frankly. I mean made me chuckle make no mistake, but still, bizarre. BUT, despite sitting in auditions for like an hour and a half before my partner and I were called up, managed to make the best of it by bonding with people over Harry Potter. Always a unifying topic of conversation that one, and no it wasn’t me who started it thank you. When you hear someone quoting Draco Malfoy you just have to call them out on it. So, the audition itself, how’d it go? Well, lucky for me I had an inside-man. Inside-Woman rather. Inside-Person let’s just go with that. Not sure if I said in the last Smash-related blog but Lily is actually the floor manager for the whole shebang so she was sitting in on the casting and I was able to wheedle such vital information as the answer to “how did I do?” out of her, with maybe one or two little comments about other auditions.

“MOLE! BLOODY MOLE! WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT THE BLOODY MOLE BUT THERE IT IS STARING ME IN THE FACE!!“

Aaaaand in addition to the little one-page thing we had to prepare before going into the casting room, once in there it basically turned into a full-blown cabaret of mini-performance requests. Literally so picture it as myself and my partner sitting on two chairs facing a big long bank of people, and one by one each of those people would hand us a page of a different scenario to read the lines off of. Well, that escalated quickly. No idea all that was coming, wasn’t a far cry from the Generation Game where at the end they have to remember all the stuff that passed them on the conveyor belt, except we at least had lines to look at. And how did I respond to this sudden splurge of theatrical variety? Well, most people are firmly aware of my knack for voices and the like so in all honesty it all became a raucous few minutes as I frantically leapt from one voice to another to demonstrate whatever versatility I could muster. Contemporary god-awfully cheesy ‘Good Morning America’ host (cue stereotypical American drawl), 1920s man-of-the-house (which I delivered in the vocalized form of a 1920s gangster for some reason), a robot that sounded, at least from my attempt, like a cross between Sheldon Cooper and C-3PO, all sorts of sounds and dialects came tumbling out my voice-box and I have to say on the whole they got a pretty decent reaction (though apparently no one understood a word I was saying with the 1920s gangster voice…ironic?). And also at one point I had to read a page from this book and apparently afterwards they were debating whether or not to ask me to come back in and just read something to them. Oh if they had known I had a copy of ‘The Hobbit’ in my bag (can’t remember why but then again do I really need a reason?). So yeah, that was the process. Intense stuff, fun stuff, and as it turned out such was the impression I’d made that I was basically cast as the star of one of the live sketches, namely ‘Repairman Pete Jenkins’, which turned out to be this like 5 minute piece where a head-in-the-clouds repairman is trying to fix a light onboard the Titanic whilst the ship is sinking. See hopefully even just from that little synopsis you’ll think the same thing I did when reading the full script: not a far cry from Monty Python-esque. Honestly think ‘Dead Parrot Sketch’ and you’re sort of on the right lines, how quality is that? I mean having seen a Smash show before I know there are funny sketches and then there are strange sketches and have to say our one could well be a highlight. No pressure.

More theatre now dear readers, but in a very different and frankly way more awesome sense. So here’s a little history for you. About four or five years ago, at least definitely after 2007 when the last book came out, the University of Michigan’s drama department put on a rather special production. ‘A Very Potter Musical’. Yes indeed, there is officially such a thing as a musical of Harry Potter, and not just one book, nor the first half of the whole franchise, but in fact combining every single book into one full-length production. And the whole thing was put on YouTube and it became a huge viral video hit, at least in America because everyone back home I’ve asked about it has never heard of it. In fairness, I’d only heard little mentions until the episode I am about to discuss. So Lily and Jess and people wouldn’t stop going on about this Potter musical and quoting it and such and so as would seem to be the standard these days a viewing party was organized for all those in the group who hadn’t seen it and for all those who really just fancied another view of it as well as enjoying the reactions of the newbies such as myself. So on a nice Friday night, we assembled at ‘House House’ (the nickname for Lily and Jess’ place, very original), all in the basement, couches and chairs all taken, people on cushions on the floor, laptop on with the show fully loaded with speakers plugged in for optimum sound (well, maybe not optimum but it was loud enough anyway), and we were off. Best part of three hours of performance, seriously this was a full-length theatrical production. And my god…when I say best part I mean LITERALLY the best part. That, show, is, INCREDIBLE!!!!!! SO well-written, SO clever in combining all the books and absolutely bloody hysterical. I honestly can’t even begin to explain how great that thing is, because it’s also not just a really funny play, it’s not just very well written and cleverly conceived and everything. That production is just, so, LOVING! Every single one of the people involved you can tell absolutely adores what they are doing, taking the mickey out of the story’s shortcomings, revelling in its poignant moments, just such a treasured reinterpretation of a story that has literally defined an entire generation, a generation I am ALWAYS going to be part of. Believe it. That Elder Wand I got at Harry Potter World in Universal Studios, keeping that for life. And the Gryffindor cloak, I’ve been sorted three times now and each time was the same. It’s official. Deal with it haters. Everyone involved clearly loved it, I can tell you everyone watching it that night absolutely loved it. And afterwards I decided to keep the distinct sense of Britishness going by quoting Monty Python with people and showing the group a few sketches from ‘The Two Ronnies’, which was received very well I assure you. Well naturally, it’s the Two Ronnies, come on. Has anyone not laughed at their Optician’s Sketch? I chose the selections well. A British night, a great night. A Great Britain night, indeed a surprisingly accurate description.

 Onto Saturday night then, perhaps even more highly anticipated than the Friday amongst all us lovely geeks on account of one very special thing: Doctor Who was coming back. Brand new series, brand new first episode and we threw a Doctor Who Party that any Whovian would die for. Dressing up as characters, Lily and Jess mixing drinks and giving them clever little Whovian names (no joke, they actually have a book specifically for creating Who-related drinks and snacks etc.), lovely sizeable crowd all gathered again in the House House basement (that is kinda  a regular thing, it’s a good basement for it). And as the time approached we put the TV on, put on BBC America and soon enough we were all settled down and watching. Not gonna talk about the episode itself because this isn’t the review blog, although actually that reminds me I do have a film blog and should really get back to writing for it…but once it was over we decided to freak out those attendees who hadn’t seen much of the show before by showing them the Weeping Angels episode….hahaaaa we really should have warned one of those newbies not to sit so close to the screen for that one 😛 And episodes over and done a whole bunch of people descended into an intense debate over ‘who was the best companion for the Doctor’. This is why I stay off the forums, but it was entertaining in fairness. And if I do say so myself, my Doctor outfit was particularly admired, as was Lily’s Clara outfit and Jess as Martha, also Tori made a fine Master. A Saturday night arguably even better than the Friday. We are such relentless geeks aren’t we? Fantastic.

Now, like I said I was gonna include a bit of a moan about the workload at the moment buuuuut now I get to it and frankly I rather fancy a minimally-moaning blog post today. All I’ll mention is I’m heading for the motherload of essay assignments, my organization could be better and my instructors still think it’s a good thing to be setting us additional weekly work assignments apart from the reading and getting prepared for the essay. Bugger. There you are, mini-moan over and done with. Next?

 Well aren’t I a lucky chappy eh? Because from a certain point of view, I was fortunate enough to be treated to A cheeky little extra Spring Break (mini) by way of a weekend visit down to Florida with the parents (luckier buggers seeing as they’re still there now and will be for the next two weeks as well, AND in addition to texting me now telling me when they’re going to all my favourite restaurants down there I’ve literally just had Dad on the phone fretting over the horrors of mall-shopping with Mum. As payback we cooked up a little scheme of sneaking in extra random items into Mum’s inventory to see if she’d notice before she gets to the checkout. Yeah let me know how that turns out yeah Ted? Teehee). But nonetheless, Thursday afternoon to Monday evening, nice long weekend at the good old holiday house in West Palm Beach. SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!! Had some driving practice for the road trip, went out to dinner a fair bit, chilled out, managed a dip in the pool even if it was only on the last day, had a haircut, was even not so bothered about going shopping with the mother at the mall or a Saturday afternoon game of golf with the father. And the parents themselves on very good form, I mean usually the three of us go away anywhere and we’re at each other’s throats before the week is out but this time it was thoroughly pleasant I have to say. Of course again I wasn’t there a whole week so god knows how it could have continued but nonetheless, four days, a genuinely lovely getaway and it was very much appreciated. Argh you know what, just get me back there now, I’ll skype all my classes from now on, sod this.

 And in the week since I’ve been back from that? Eh, not much to report. Workload mounting again, heading full throttle for the semester’s climax now. Still managing to squeeze in socialising somehow, probably at the cost of much-needed work time that will likely get me panicking sometime this week as the full reality of the hurdles ahead hits me. Thaaaaaaat’s gonna be painful. But again, not gonna be entirely about the work as this weekend is due to be both the last Insomnia Theatre weekend of the year and also the week after the last episode of Temple Smash for the year. So basically in the next fortnight I have to get two essays done (one of which genuinely rivals what my dissertation is supposed to be insofar as length and depth required) in addition to learning lines for the sketch, coming up with an audition for Insomnia and putting aside the whole Saturday for rehearsals. People, this shift just got real. Wish me luck. See you on the other side.

Albyssinia!

(sorry just had to get this one in here somehow, very fitting 😀 )

I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool. Yep, not even kidding, I bought one. A proper vintage cowboy hat from a properly vintage antique shop (well if it wasn’t vintage it wouldn’t really make all the goods antique would it). Nothing says “I’ve gone as far west of any major land mass as humanly possible on this earth” than a proper, old-fashioned, awesome-silhouette-created-when-wearing-it cowboy hat, so I bought one. Also I was in need of one anyway for the next time I am called upon to don the garments of the Eleventh Doctor for whatever reason, applicable contexts ranging from the casual social to planetary salvation.

So! Midterms and Spring Break, that’s the agenda today you lot. Should be a healthy combination of the usual tirade of grumbles against the tragic fact that I am actually expected to do some work whilst I’m here (yes thank you Anne-Marie for pointing out my lack of detailing that side of the business, I know you’re a teacher but, and I mean this in the most respectful way, YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE!) So yes it’s been 2.5 weeks now since the last update, not so bad an interim as the last, I’m improving I think. Sorry, tangents, can’t keep off them, so midterms! How’d they all go then?…………….Eh. They went away, is the important thing. So technically in total I had four, one for each class but how they all panned out requires a tad more explanation. I’ve already talked about the first one, U.S. History Through Film, so can skip right on to the two ‘main ones’, American Presidency and Superpower America, in the sense that they were the ones I was actually concerned about and resolved to actually commit some time and effort towards preparing for…..hence why I started revising two days before them. Both on the Thursday before Spring Break as well, back to back, my hand didn’t half end up doing a rough impression of Dr. Strangelove’s by the end from all the stiff scribbling. But yeah so essentially one day of study was dedicated to each of them. And it dawns on me now that I’m on blog number twenty and still awaiting signs of any actual progress towards improved self-organization. I mean I know Rome wasn’t built in a day but still…it was built eventually. I might look up how long it took to build Rome and so long as progress for me beats that rate I think I’ll feel a tad better about myself. Superpower America revision, more or less simple enough, I’d been pretty decent at taking notes in class so had a lot of stuff just to read and go through. American Presidency however….well it didn’t help that the teacher was completely vague about what the exam would focus on and whether it would be a better idea to focus on readings or class discussions or whatever for actual revision tips. Seriously sir, it’s all fine not wanting to spoon feed us the answers but an information blackout IS NOT the only alternative. Best that we got was a page of sample questions literally the class before the exam, his advice being for us to prepare full essay answers for all of them…starting to get that feeling that this guy thinks he’s teaching a class of experienced Poli-Sci post-grads rather than the average undergraduate. Not good. But hey, went through the questions, scrambled together enough to arm myself with at least something to say on each of the questions, not much else to be done really given the time and resources. So week one of this gap, pretty much just work intensive, the usual mad rush to finish everything required before a nice little holiday arrived on our doorstep. And dear reader, it could not have come at a better time.

On the one hand, not sure of the logic in having a week off at only the week 6 point of the semester. Sure back at UEA the reading week is timed more or less the same, but there the semesters are shorter anyway, 12 weeks most. Here we get 16. Plus the fact, as I found out shortly before the break, Temple has its week off strangely early in comparison to most other universities and schools. I know for a fact the lot over in Oregon don’t even go on theirs until next week, a solid fortnight after mine started! A tad annoying in some respects seeing as some of the plans bouncing around before spring break included myself and good old chum Ella Stacey (of northern UK affiliation, regularly seen in cahoots with Sarah Cowan, and who herself is spending a year abroad in Santa Cruz) doing a full-on mini-road trip up and down California! Sadly, there was no synchronization in holidays between Temple and U.S.C. so that particular potentiality quickly puffed out, but California as destination was definitely set in stone. But before all that I should absolutely not neglect to mention the first weekend of the break spent in the amiable company once again of Brandon Shain and family and co. Now I may have mentioned in the first or second blog since coming back from Christmas that during my last stay with them I was treated to a visit to Brandon’s old high school, where his sister Lauren was rehearsing for the spring play (‘Grease’ this time around, my god could an American high school experience be any more definitive without literally becoming ‘Saved By The Bell’?). Well they made sure to get me to promise to come to the play when it was ready and I held true. The first Saturday of break dawned and I was off to Shain’s by train by mid-afternoon. The performance was set for early evening and think I got there around like 4pm, 4.30, so there wasn’t the longest time between arriving and heading off to the show. The attendees in question were myself, B-Man, comrades Eddie Feller, Matt Hoffer, DJ and Mr Shain himself. Well weren’t we a privileged bunch, since Brandon’s Mum was actually the president of the production which meant we got seats right in the front row. The VIP section? Please, the GOLD section. VIP area within VIP area. Cue the inception button: http://inception.davepedu.com . Not bad, once again a memorable experience courtesy of my most hospitable native allies. Curtains up and before I knew we knew it we had cheerleaders dashing past right in front of us in addition to pretty much all the cliques represented in the story. Sandy herself came and sat on the stage not five feet from where Brandon sat, actually Brandon seemed to be getting a lot of attention from the guys throughout the play…I always knew the man had a thing for musical theatre. Crowning moment of the whole thing though was undoubtedly during the ‘drive in movie’ segment. Excellent idea by whoever, but rather than just have Danny and Sandy staring offstage at something that wasn’t there that was supposed to be a big film screen, they actually had one projected against the back of the stage, and more than that it was actually a little video some students had clearly shot especially. A take on the classic horror films people in stories like ‘Grease’ or Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video always seem to be watching…aaaaaand it was hilarious. Not only for the fact that the main demonic focus of the video was someone running around in a big werewolf mask, and I mean just a mask, the rest of the guy was adorned in just trendy-looking sportswear, not only for the fact that at one point this ‘monstrous apparition’ was shown riding a tractor across a field….god knows why but it was beautiful, but simply for a tiny little scene featuring a scientist. Everyone who knows me knows I’m a renowned jukebox of film quotes and references, and seeing this scientist just compelled me to mutter to the guys beside me “Great Scot!” GUESS WHAT THE SCIENTIST IN THE FILM CRIED OUT LITERALLY A SECOND LATER!!! My god, I literally had to shove my fist in my mouth to stop myself screaming with laughter at this, as did the guys either side of me! It was, I tell you, a magical moment. But yeah, the play was great, they all looked to be having fun etc, aaaaaand another standout moment was during the final number when suddenly the car ‘Greased Lightning’ itself emerged onto the stage, straddled by a guy who was definitely not one of the cast, with a big sign on the bonnet asking his girlfriend to go to prom with him. Gentlemen, take note, this man has style and balls. Another magic moment (she said yes btw, well it’s not like she had much of a choice with the entire cast and audience screaming at her to accept). Excellent event! And had a bit of a laugh afterwards sticking around waiting for Lauren when myself and DJ decided to ‘swap accents’ and see how long we could get away with the ruse on other people. Also strangely some students remembered me from my last little visit, I think it was the coat. And then back to Brandon’s for a nice chilled out evening. As ever we’d agreed to watch like 3 films that at least one of us hadn’t seen but ultimately saw NONE of them, again as ever. I believe in the end it was the standard people dropped off to sleep in front of various YouTube videos and the odd episode of whatever someone decided someone else should sample. Not, complaining, one, bit, a decent chilled out night, you can’t beat the appropriateness for the first of a holiday.

Sunday, straight back to Temple, stuff to sort before my little excursion. Laundry, online check-in, meant to print out the boarding pass Sunday night but because of Spring Break the Tech Centre was closed early so had to relocate that task to the morning’s activities. Ah….yes. The next morning. Monday. Travel Day. So here’s the thing. There are two accounts to be told here;

What SHOULD have happened:

Spring out of bed at a decent hour of perhaps 9am, maybe a tad earlier, I always get a little paranoid prior to a flight. Get up, get dressed, breakfast, shower et al. Go Tech Centre, print off the boarding pass, call a taxi to arrange a pickup for the airport, finish packing and laundry (which in the end I hadn’t managed the previous night, watching DVDs, chatting to people, the usual miscellany), get the taxi at like 1.30pm so as to be at the airport by 2 for my flight at 3.30. Pretty rational, well-thought out schedule eh?

What DID happen:

Panic. Chaos. Frenzy. Sprinting. And why? Because of the fact my flipping, godforsaken alarm didn’t go off which resulted in my not waking up at all until 1 O’CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON!!!!!! Catapulted out of bed, threw myself in the shower, wrenched on some clothes, dashed to the Tech Centre to print out the boarding pass, dashed back whilst simultaneously trying to arrange a taxi for as soon as possible. Laundry? Pff, ain’t nobody got time for that now, chucked all remaining items to be packed in the two carry-on bags I was taking, hurtled downstairs continuing to sort out a taxi and by the blessings one was with me after just a few minutes. So I was in the taxi by like 2.10pm, so just the standard 1 hour and fifteen minutes before my flight was due to take off. And legend of a taxi driver could see the panic I was in so took shortcuts and traffic-weaved, full credit to the man! Got me to the airport in like 20, 25 minutes, and luckily since I wasn’t actually checking in any bags they just printed out another boarding pass at the check-in (just because, I hadn’t lost my one or anything), sent me in the direction of the gate, I just had time to grab a drink and some chocolates and mints (which basically constituted breakfast and lunch that day) before getting to the gate, a clean ten minutes before they started boarding. Bugger. Me. Remind me to hire someone to come and hit my bed with a flipping croquet mallet if my alarm fails to wake me up, anytime, EVER again.

SO, after the most harrowing morning possible, the flight more than made up for it. 6 hours, ‘Skyfall’ showing on the communal screens (oh yes, the Brit on-board felt highly honoured), completely chilled out, even managed to get a little bit creative with scripty stuff, been meaning to get back to that hobby for ages! I mean frankly anything after that morning would’ve been an improvement but the flight was definitely a major improvement on the day. Eventually get to San Francisco International, we disembark, no immigration malarkey (domestic flights, no need), no fuss, straight down to where I’d been told to go by the shuttle company I’d arranged to take. Right, so looking back at mentions in previous blogs, evidently I just kept saying I was going to San Fran. Not entirely accurate, like I said Ella was in Santa Cruz which is like an hour and a half south. So rather than fret over having to get there via various trains, buses, walks and whatnot, just fixed up to be taken all the way by an airport shuttle car. Simplez. The flight landed at 6.45pm, the shuttle turned up at 8, only one other passenger (this woman who worked in administration apparently, also ironically she had an undergraduate degree from Temple), and we headed straight off. In the end only took us an hour to get the S.C, zero traffic AND the legend that the driver was, I got dropped off right on the university campus itself instead of the Holiday Inn Express downtown that was the predetermined drop-off point. Door to door service, pretty impressive. And then it was happy and awesome reunion with Ella, rapid introductions to her group (oh yes, greeted en masse, a fitting hero’s welcome 😉 ) then straight back to their campus accommodation for a hastily arranged viewing of Django Unchained (cheeky download off the internet then projected up on the wall). Monday 11^th March, began in hell, ended in heaven.

Next day, first full day of the visit (I was only going to be there until Friday so was very much a ‘make the most of it’ attitude. Up at 9 for breakfast at the campus dining hall, basically everyone had meal plans there. The cuisine was….interesting. I had been forewarned and in fairness it’s not like the stuff you can get at J&H at Temple is exactly Michelin-star quality but still…those were some particularly tough pancakes. Nice enough though. Then after brekkie it was on with the campus tour. Now, University of Santa Cruz could not have been more different from Temple. Forget the sprawling, Philadelphian cityscape with its endless, flat, grid-based layouts, high-rise downtown zone and all the dodgy areas around campus here, Santa Cruz was essentially a national park. Hills all over the place, you go somewhere and you go up a hill, you come back and you’re still going up a hill. Towering trees, miniature river valleys, expansive grassland areas, not to mention weather that was never anything but relentless sunshine. The campus buildings, scattered all over the place, clearly wherever the architects and developers felt they had found space to stick in another complex amongst the trees they had done so. Off we went, myself, Ella and her friends Erin and Leo, down the bank of a roadside to a little tunnel going under it, walking through the forest, coming across an old amphitheatre from what we figured to be the 1960s, just generally awesome scenery. Suuuuuuuch a refreshing change of environment, I can tell you. So we must have spent a good two or three hours walking around, the areas on the periphery of campus, through and around campus itself, seriously they showed me a map of campus and highlighted how we had literally walked around the entire thing. And the view from the grassy expanses, brilliant. Top of a series of hills looking out over Santa Cruz itself and the Pacific beyond (YES I HAVE SEEN THE PACIFIC OCEAN FROM THE WEST COAST OF USA, ONE LESS THING TO ACCOMPLISH NOW!). Now there was the option for me to just go for a wander around downtown myself whilst the others had class but partly because I was still shattered from the frenzied day before and partly because I wanted to make a full day of it if I was gonna go downtown, decided to just chill out on campus. I was on holiday, I needed a few hours of peace and nothingness. So I did. Sat on the balcony of Ella’s flat, did some reading, went for my own walk around campus (well technically I was looking for the dining hall as I’d been told there was a public restaurant above it for lunch but seeing as I got lost within five minutes of walking it just turned into a little ramble around the university). And then dinner back at the dining hall, which actually was pretty good. Evidently the master chef only works after midday.

Wednesday then! Proper excursion day, Ella had class and stuff to do for most of the day so perfect opportunity for a solid walkabout. So, morning, went to the dining hall building (actually finding it this time) where above there was also a little café, grabbed a hot chocolate and a croissant, wolfed it down then headed over to the nearest bus stop, jumped on the number 16 and was at the downtown Metro station inside of half an hour. And then, I walked. Out of the Metro, down a block or two, over to Pacific Avenue as had been recommended to me by pretty much everyone I’d met thus far and straight on ‘til morning. Well, until about two or three hours later. But yeah, I went for a mooch. Up and down the high street, checked out Urban Outfitters, as ever pretty much just for the funny books and t-shirts they always have, a couple of nice little antique stores (think I’m getting a thing for antiques), one of which was easily the most awesome on account of its collection of swords, cowboy hats (you can guess where my Stetson came from then), vintage coats and jackets and an impressive array of pipes. Classy. Ended up chatting to a guy working in the shop about the Imperial War Museum, there really is no age limit to the whole ‘boys and their toys’ thing. Then had to come all the way back down Pacific Avenue to meet Ella and a friend so they could take me to the boardwalk and the actual shoreline itself, an excursion within an excursion, again; http://inception.davepedu.com. Now this was more or less just your average seaside boardwalk, jutting out into the water a good distance, restaurants and maritime-esque shops, balcony sections for fishing, if you’ve ever been to the seaside you know what I’m talking about, maybe not necessarily in boardwalk form but still the same conglomeration of facilities along the shore. And there were seals. Lots and lots of seals. Dozens of them, alongside the boardwalk, beyond it, underneath it, the place was basically a hive. Now didn’t they provide a number of entertaining little episodes, from the one or two casually swimming around in a noticeably dignified fashion (head up proudly, back straight, could well pass for the monopoly man in aquatic form) to what we figured to be an actual school of them at the end of the boardwalk (denoted by the fact that nearly all of them were seal…lings, young seals, with the only adult swimming around with one fin stuck up in the air either doing an impression of Jaws or acting like a teacher on a school trip carrying a flag so all the students can see where to go). Not to mention the three lounging on a timber beneath the boardwalk where two of them kept trying to shove the little one off, OR perhaps most dramatically of all the great big bozo who shot out of the water and landed on top of another big fella, the two then proceeding to snarl at each other until the latter moodily shuffled off to lie down elsewhere. And thus concluded the sightseeing for the day, with the rest of the evening spent going to the downtown grocery store to buy ingredients for my volunteering as chef that night, the classic lemon chicken salad once again proving a great success, Ella and co. are much appreciated for their culinary compliments.

Thursday, last full day, I know I know I only just got there but hey, one week Spring Break, not exactly much space for time or time for space. A quiet morning, some more decent chilling out followed by once again a self-excursion downtown. Last proper day, last proper dance to get all the good little souvenir shopping done (not to mention I simply had to get that Stetson). Managed to find my way back to the shorefront as well, this time going along it rather than back out on the boardwalk, coming across the most classic American coastal fairground, all the little rollercoasters and novelty games and ghost houses and arcades, colour it all in black and white and I could’ve been in the Jazz Age, Coney Island (well wrong seaboard but still). Ahhhhhh!! I found a Laser Tag venue!! My god did that take me back to my tenth birthday party, by far one of the best to date. I need to do laser tag again, it’s shocking I haven’t in over ten years. FARE THEE WELL MATURITY! Gahhh, didn’t get to go on, well I wasn’t gonna go by myself, no Billy No Mates “yes just the one ticket please, excuse me is anybody sat there? Excuse me I’m on my own, guffaw”. So hightailed it back from the shorefront to catch the right bus as everyone was going out to dinner to an eatery known as ‘burger’. That was indeed its name, well isn’t that just so descriptive? Mexican food per chance? Italian? Now this place…..I don’t think I come across as a rich and spoiled chap to people but this restaurant did rather show me up. So you get in, go to this welcome desk and make your order right then and there. They then give you a photo of a celebrity who went to jail (………well of course), you find a table and they bring your food when it’s ready and they look for the celebrity picture rather than you (mine was Robert Downey Jr. for the record, I feel like that automatically gave me certain distinctions). And I have to confess the entire process did rather throw me, especially when a waitress came by to ask us if we wanted or needed anything and I tried to order a drink…the piteous looks from all assembled around me, INCLUDING the waitress herself…well excuse me for thinking that her asking if any of us were wanting for something ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING MOST PATRONS WOULD WANT AS PART OF THE SERVICE!!! Okay, sounding rich now, tone it down, so went to the bar and got a milkshake. Yeah my diet was pretty horrendous the whole week but hey, I was on holiday, gym routine would resume upon my return east…yeah I knew there was something I’d forgotten to do this week, guess where I’ll be spending MY Friday night! And to round out the day we gathered in Erin’s flat to watch another film, a French flick all about police investigation crimes to do with children, paedophilia, roping kids into gangs etc….cheerful.

Friday then, last day, up and off to breakfast/lunch (it was like approaching midday) at the big restaurant above the dining hall, then me and Ella had to hurry to the IT centre to print out my boarding pass (yeah like I’d learned my lesson from Monday…), bags only took a couple minutes to pack at least so before too long we were at the bus stop awaiting the number 10, the closest route to the Holiday Inn we had found. Bus turned up, farewell hugs were exchanged and off I went. My shuttle was at 2.15, got to the pick-up point at like 1.50, sat down in a covered area outside the hotel and just hoped no one inside would come out and kick me down the pavement with accusations of loitering. Seriously I’ve never understood the big deal about loitering, it’s literally just standing. I know we live in a mobile and active civilization but COME ONE, it’s just standing. No one came out to tell me off, if that’s what you’re thinking has set me off now. Nope, just grumbling. Shuttle came promptly, only two other passengers and it was a much bigger car but nobody really talked, personally I just sat back and listened to some music. Back to San Fran International by like 3.45, and since my flight wasn’t actually until 10.50pm I had a healthy bit of time to kill. So, allons-y into San Fran itself! Was directed to an air train that took me to the airport branch of the proper train line (bit of a bugger that there was nowhere in the airport I could use as a baggage drop to spare me lugging all my stuff around the city) but nothing I carried was that heavy so no big deal really. Got the train to ‘Embarcadero’, as I had been recommended by Ella and co., this being closest to the bay where I could basically just keep walking up and down and see a whole bunch of stuff. So I did. Got there, found myself indeed a block up from the edge of the bay and off I went. Upwards and upwards, on and on, walking, walking, in the end I think I must have walked for the best part of two hours up the bay checking out everything. People, it, was, brilliant. Walked out onto a couple of piers to take some photos, saw the Tribeca building, walked further up and around to see Alcatraz Island and the port for people to take ferries over for tours (definitely would have myself if I had the time), and of course at long last, the Golden Gate Bridge itself. I got nowhere near close to it, was miles away but just to see it in the distance, and this was when the sun was setting so it had this great orangey-amber backlighting, plus all the clouds and vapour hovering above it. Suchhhh a great sight.

I went as far north as I thought I could get away with, in the end calling it a day when I saw there was actually a hill inbetween me and the bridge but I was in a cool little retail area so checked out a couple shops, bought a couple more souvenirs, noticed a restaurant called ‘Tarantino’s’ and instantly decided on dinner. Was a bit fancy but hey I got the cheapest thing on the menu since I was pressed for time, was in and out inside of half an hour. Found a taxi rank a couple minutes walk down from the restaurant, grabbed a cab, got back to the train station and soon was heading back to the airport, think this must have been like 8pm, maybe a bit later, back at the airport by like 9 so was able to enjoy a far less intensive travel experience than Monday had provided….yeurgh. And chatted to a guy in the queue for security when we both started commenting on a rather odd sign, you lot make what you will of this:

My response:

Got some edible and drinkable provisions for the flight, got to the gate and settled down until the flight was called. Boarded, the flight wasn’t packed so the seat between me and the other guy in our row was empty, nice little bit of space there, plane took off, I took some nice (I think) piccies out the window, last sights of the West coast until whenever the hell next time will be (oh yes, there will be a next time) and had considered watching a film (this plane actually being one befitting the twenty-first century with individual screens and the in-chair tv and film library, except the cheeky buggers that they are (United Airlines or whoever made the call) made it so that if you wanted to watch anything, you had to pay. Noooooooo way. So just did a bit more scripty writing stuff and dropped off to sleep. Got back into Philly International at 7am, and dearest Lily astonished me entirely by actually picking me up from the airport in her car. This being the same Lily who is essentially She-Hulk anytime before midday went to the trouble of getting up at the crack of dawn, getting in her car, driving all the way to the airport and picking me up. Not even going to crack any sort of joke or sarcasm about that, was seriously appreciated, quality girl she is, and in recompense I bought breakfast for the both of us at this nice little diner place, a solid meal and mutual Spring Break-storytelling, a lovelier welcome back to the east side I cannot currently envisage*

Right then! Think that just about covers everything, I mean all that goes up to last Saturday and it’s Friday evening now and fortunately stuff already been going on this week that’ll definitely be making it into the blog, let’s just say a combination of the ‘just do it’ whimsical fancy plus a little strong-arming from Lily may well have me ready to enter another acting anecdote in the next blog….or two, actually this could well be a recurring thing for a while. Stay tuned. Stay classy.

Albyssinia!

It’s been a while, friends. Friends and fam. Friends and fam and god knows what other sort found themselves washed up on the show of this blog one day and decided to keep following for their own amusement. Not complaining, hope you’re not either, entertaining is my thing. Sort of. On occasion. Don’t ask me for all the go-to places in London (or Philly, although as it happens I’m slowly starting to work on that) or anything, else you’ll probably find yourselves being directed to the nearest pub with a karaoke night…or failing that, just anywhere that does food.

So hang on, if I’m right in thinking it’s been just a casual 3 weeks since the last blog? Not entirely sure if that’s a record and not entirely bothered enough to go traipsing back through all the others to check the date-stamp. If there is one. Nineteen entries in and I still don’t know this stuff in and out. Technology, if you would be so kind as to hurry up and BE MY FRIEND!!

So what’s up? Well you can’t very well answer that can you so I’ll answer it myself, it’s that sort of a self-indulgent Sunday evening. Well after a 3 week gap, happy to say: FRIGGIN HUGE AMOUNTS!! So yeah kinda a lot has in fact been going on and whilst I’d like to just blame being so busy on my not keeping up with blog regularity…well who am I to call me a liar? Last I posted all about Superbowl stuff, it being the weekend of, appropriate therefore. Oh and also the Brazilian ‘Carneval’. Ok I’m already getting what happened when confused in my own head so sod the recap and skip to the new stuff eh? Now who among you would know to what I am referring if I were to say ‘Harlem Shake’, hmm? That latest YouTube sensation, each one just half a minute long, one fella stands in the middle of an ordinary setting doing a dance then all of a sudden EVERYONE WITHIN THE HORIZON LINE JOINS IN!! Well Mr Brandon Shain and co. decided to organize their own one for Temple Uni and so I’m gonna skip most of the first week as really nothing interesting to report from the weekdays, straight to Friday’s Harlem Shake then! Was arranged to occur at the bell tower at 3pm, myself and the esteemed Mr Tim Galbraith, that Danielle Thor girl (:-P) and co. arrived probably like 2.40 to find the area packed to the gunnels with participants and bystanders (waaaaaaay too many bystanders people, you were noticed in the final video, way to ruin the idea of this whole thing being flippin SPONTANEOUS!). Now of course an inherent trait of this craze is that participants should garb themselves in some form of bizarre attire, or at the very least just look a bit odd. So the Thor woman, you can guess what she went as. Mr Tim, I was gracious enough to lend him my Stewie Griffin head. As for me? Well. Well, well, well. I was noticed. Believe me made some friends since who allegedly noticed my distinct choice in crazy fashion at the event. Now we all know me to be a classy fellow, and so classy was the criteria. My nice new awesome Christmas coat, smart-ish clothing, collared t-shirt etc….and a Daniel Craig mask in front of my face with an additional mask of Prince Harry strapped to the back of my head. Well I think it rather befitted the occasion, plus of course the whole ‘Rule Britannia represent’ thing I’ve got going on here. Nothing says that like James Bond and tabloid journalism’s favourite royal combined. But as is always the way, never stood a chance of getting anywhere near close enough to let the camera enjoy my presence, myself and Mr Tim finding ourselves a fair way back amongst the masses. Seriously even got Tim on my shoulders for a minute or two in our bid for YouTube recognition but bugger if that worked. Still, fun way to spend a Friday afternoon! Especially I’m sure for everyone present who was teeeeeeeechnically supposed to be elsewhere 😉

Now. Dear readers, here’s where I reached a rather awesome turning point. Remember waaaaaaaaay back at the start of all this madness, that International Society hike thing? Ended up befriending this great big group of Brazilians that have featured many a time here since? Really all that came down to was a spur of the moment decision to actually get up early for once and do something different, the whole ‘just do it’ philosophy I came out here with in the first place. People, the attitude is officially still live and kicking, the Thursday night before Temple Harlem Shake I got this email from Insomnia Theatre, that thing where you go along and audition on a Friday night, get cast in one of the groups then spend the whole of Saturday rehearsing to put on a show Saturday night. Intense. Proper commitment. Not at all my usual kind of thing, not how I typically spend a weekend. So I went ahead and did it anyway.

Well, that escalated quickly. Straight after Harlem Shake went round to Brandon’s to rehearse my little audition piece, which I think everyone would have highly appreciated seeing as it was Javier Bardem’s monologue from Skyfall. Dashed home to have a shower and change into something, I dunno, actor-y? Audition-y? So was prepared but a tiiiiiny bit hectic. And since I only signed up at the last minute I at least felt assured that I’d be like the last audition so I’d have a bit of time to gather myself. Oh yeah and the auditions weren’t like old-school X Factor, just the judges etc. Nope, in front of EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE WHOLE OF INSOMNIA! Unexpected. And then only six or seven names down the list, there was my name called, and you can imagine my reaction: “Bollocks!” Up I went, throwing on my jacket (which naturally I’d cast aside onto the floor assuming it would not be needed for at least a further twenty minutes) aaaaaaaaaand into character. Have to say, freaked the hell out of them. Especially the one fella Ben who honestly looked a bit terrified when I sort of zeroed in on him as ‘James Bond’ in the scene. Bless, if only I’d done the Joker. He’d be scarred for life. So that was fun! Got a bit of a cheer from the crowd, Ithankyouuu. Watched the rest of the auditions which were frankly universally tremendous. One person did a scene from Finding Nemo, one guy literally had nothing prepared so he just started commenting on friends present in the room, a girl ranted about the difficulties she had faced in sorting everything out for her graduation. And Lily, yes there’s a new character to introduce to you lot, Lily did a sample from this YouTube thing called ‘Most Popular Girls In School’…something I had the ‘pleasure’ of being introduced to OVER AND OVER again THE ENTIRE WEEKEND!!! Think Mean Girls meets Team America, that literally sums it. But hey, first time hearing it, it was funny, so can’t fault her audition. We’re discussing doing a joint one for the next Insomnia weekend in April. We shall see. 

So after auditions found myself in decent conversation with Lily, her housemate Jess and a couple others and it turned out they’d all just spent Autumn semester iiiiinnnn…..LONDON!!! So, out of the blue, probably one of the most interesting bonding experiences I’ve had with a group, I mean come on seriously what are the chances? They were homesick FOR MY HOME!! So yes, out of nowhere, brand new group of friends. And within about half an hour, was invited to a house party! And again, this alien ‘just do it’ sense of motivation kicked into gear (since this would technically constitute my first proper American house party since coming here) and it was settled. Dashed back to mine, had another shower (hey, new group to ingratiate myself with, there are impressions to be made), met Lily and co. and we were off. The house party itself, interesting. Beer pong in the front hall, pretty crowded as was to be expected (with myself somehow always ending up blocking a narrow hallway) buuuut as I have heard before but never actually experienced firsthand, a basement redone into the ‘clubbing’ room. Underground speakers, lights, ok just realized how flipping old I’m sounding talking about all this. THE NOVELTY MY DEAR BOY! UNDERGROUND FESTIVITIES I’VE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING! It was a party, use your imaginations. And afterwards back to my newfound friends place to drift into slumber in front of a film. A quality Friday night well overdue.

UUUUUUNTIL we had to get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for all-day rehearsals, myself especially lacking time since I had to dash back to The Edge for a shower and change of clothes. But I got to campus alright, only ten minutes late in the end and on with the day. Turns out Jess was one of the writers for our group’s play and clearly my crashing into their lives had an impact since it seemed the ENTIRE THING was written for my benefit. The setting, a flight to London Heathrow, my character, a post-nervous breakdown English ad agency creative director (so like Mad Men but after the party was over) – essentially grumpy English air traveller. References to the Beatles, James Bond, J.K. Rowling, what WOULD they have done with themselves without me eh? So all day, again and again, went through the script, rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed. Intense stuff, believe me. And the final show itself that night, in this wondrous venue known as ‘The Underground’ (basically just…a big room, not even that big, low-ish ceiling, but hey was sizeable), and wouldn’t you know it? Our group was up first. Yep. Not entirely sure if that was a case of putting your best foot forward first or more like warming the audience up with a ‘slow news day’ kick-starter but hey we were up. Lasted about 10-15minutes in total, got a few laughs, decent audience applause at the end so on the whole was worth it. And then it was a merry old time watching all the rest of the groups, some of which were just hysterical, a Jedi-Yoga class one definitely needing special mention. Had everyone giggling. Oh and Lily played this mid-fifties bitter-old-bag character with one hell of a bitter-old-bag voice. That was interesting. And following all the acts, it was off to the afterparty! And dear lord do I love these people for obliging me when I sneakily switched the music at one point from whatever club beat was playing to the one and only Bohemian Rhapsody. I mean come on, Englishman in the house, I needed musical representation. And it’s a classic. And it’s Queen. So yeah really they’d be doing something kinda illegal if they did not respect the adjustment. But no, they were good, EVERYONE joined in, it was a rather magical moment. And in the end wound up back at my friends and crashed overnight again. And then Sunday literally just bummed around theirs the whole day chilling out. Didn’t get home until like early evening, seriously. And so, dear readers and the like, I can assure you that was an exceptionally fine weekend indeed. I’d perhaps even go so far to as to say possibly the best weekend of my time here to date. Funny to think all it really came down to was a simple little email that Thursday night, a nice little ‘mind if I join’ message? February 15^th to 17^th, the definition of ‘that escalated quickly’.

So we get to week 2 of my absence from the blogging world, now what little gems of anecdotes does this yield? Well apart from the prospect of my first exam of the semester looming the week after, not all that much considering. Oh Tuesday was lovely to me, 2/3 of my classes were cancelled. A GOOD DAY HAD DAWNED…apart from the fact that the one class that wasn’t cancelled was my morning one.  Meh, focusing on the positive. Thursday Lily had arranged to introduce me to what is evidently a sort of on-campus Mecca for food, the ‘crepe truck’. So Thursday lunchtime we went. Yep. They were good crepes. Also by some divine intervention the radio blaring out of the truck’s speakers was playing a string of classic British tunes, Queen, David Bowie, yeahhh I was happy. Thursday night, Kim’s birthday, out to city centre for a karaoke And so we can quickly come to the following weekend, and a Friday night that was truly honouring. James Bond films (Daniel Craig only, oh and speaking of which met a guy in their group at one of the parties whose name is ACTUALLY Daniel Craig, I assume he is using the name to its pull potential) round Lily and Jess’ preceded by homemade fish and chips. Those girls, people, are VERY good to me. Seriously I was getting homesick while eating! Was just like the takeaway stuff we always get from next to Sainsburys in Stortford! And then down to the basement for Casino Royale, which was all we ended up watching in the end. I had so dearly hoped we’d be able to get up to Skyfall, which I officially own now and am DELIGHTED about it. And, you guessed it, ended up crashing there again. Saturday, sadly a studying Saturday but Saturday night yielded another party! Well sort of party, it was fancy dress so I threw together my best Eleventh Doctor outfit and quite unsurprisingly dazzled…well when practically NO ONE ELSE dresses up it’s kinda easier.

SUNDAY HOWEVER!! Ohoho, what a Sunday night. The Oscars, ladies and gentlemen, and I have neglected to mention that many of my newfound friends are in fact film majors. I’ve been dying to have/attend an Oscar viewing party for years and my god was this one worth the wait. Honest to god, couldn’t have spent watching the Oscars with a more qualified bunch, nothing quite like not only finding out the winner but also being told exactly why they won 😛 I mean the show itself, best in years, I mean the benchmark for me has always been 2008 with Hugh Jackman hosting but seriously this one either equalizes it or bests it. Nothing at all to do with the fact I’m a Seth McFarlane fan…but yeah, no word of a lie, it was the Oscar night I’d been wanting for years. Lily, Jess, Andrew, Billy (and his concepts of quicksand being a big thing in London, don’t ask, I still can’t quite fathom it), Jessica, Alex, all gathered. Made it an epic night. And the rousing rendition of ‘One Day More’ from Les Miserables (review on PatchManReviews still to come by the way) that we all joined in on, just magnificent.

Ok nearly done now, if you haven’t had some kind of coffee break whilst reading this now is as good a time as any I think. Week 3. So Monday, little to report. Aside from leaving my revision for my US History Through Film exam to the last minute, and I’ve been at university how long? Meh, went ok Tuesday morning, wasn’t a disaster. Wasn’t great but wouldn’t call it a disaster. Then again, haven’t had the results yet so what do I know? Tuesday, nothing to report, Wednesday nothing to report, Thursday, TEMPLE SMASH!! So there’s this thing on campus, which can best be described as like student Saturday Night Live. Except it wasn’t filmed on a Saturday. And it’s not live. Actually parts of it were but only online. Anyway so me, Jess and co. went along because Lily just so happened to be the floor manager for the show and not at all because we’d all been sent Howlers warning us of the consequences for not attending….well that was an interesting experience, series of sketches and digital shorts etc, pretty much all ranging from the genius to the frankly bizarre, personal favourite being this Mexican children’s preschool TV show featuring not so much ‘Dora the Explorer’ as ‘Diego the Dealer’. Also there was this one sketch I’d been forewarned about, featuring British teenagers and….’krimpets’….I’m sorry what? I know, a take on ‘crumpets’ but still, who on earth thought the whole sketch up? Fair play, the accents weren’t bad, believe me I was judging harshly from the audience. But yes, another noteworthy experience for the annals of Patchmanblog right there. Friday, bugger all to report aside from cheekily watching Silver Linings Playbook online, now THAT was a film. Seriously I can’t believe ‘Argo’ won best picture, of all the nominees I’ve seen I was WAAAAAAYYYY more invested in the others, and Playbook adds to that. Affleck, just go away, please.

As for this weekend now, well yesterday didn’t do much but once again a house party last night, ironically at exactly the same place as the first one I went to with these guys. Believe me, I mean I had fun…but was just food for thought. It’s been two incredible weeks, not even just in terms of this year abroad. And to begin and end them at the same place, just makes me stop and contemplate is all. I can honestly say leaving at the end of all this is going to be so much harder now for these past two weeks. The people, the events, the memories. The whole reason I did this year abroad, just didn’t expect so high a concentration in so short a time. It’s just been one of those periods where even though it’s not over by a long shot, you still realize how much you’re going to miss it all when it’s over. Ahh, it’s late, it’s Sunday night. Sentimental as ever. Week ahead then of midterms and paper proposal submissions, Spring Break coming up after that, cheeky little jaunt over to San Francisco for a few days, no doubt more memories in the making right there.

There you have it then. All up to date. Sorry again for the lateness but hopefully as you can see…I haven’t entirely been sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

Albyssinia.