Rugby and A Chinese New Year

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I am happy to say that I am not going to do another huge blog posting like the last one that I wrote. It’s just way too much for those who have decided to read, and it is way too much information for me to type out. This is supposed to be fun for me and not some tedious thing like a ridiculously long essay. To make it a little easier, I’ve decided to write every day or every other day. I’ll be doing a lot of cools tuff with my classes, and that fact means a lot of good blogging. So, let’s get on with what happened this weekend.
It seems like the weekend has flown by. I can hardly believe that I have to get up tomorrow for school stuff tomorrow. It looks like time is starting to speed up, and this is making me slightly nervous. I have a lot I want to do, and I feel like that it’s not going to get done. Yet, this is not that time to go into that. It is time to talk about weekend.
This weekend was once again full of some amazing times. Yesterday, I went to Regent’s Park with some of my fellow fellows. It was the biggest, most beautiful park I have ever been to, and the beauty is hard to put into words. We came to this park to watch one of our fellow Elonians play in a rugby match. The fellow Elonian was Taylor, who is my flat-mate, and he invited everyone to come watch the match. It was really cool even though I had no idea what was going on. A lot of other people in our program were there, and it was just really fun to watch and talk to people.
After the rugby game was over, my fellow TF Taylor (I call her girl Taylor when I have to talk about both Taylors) and I parted ways with our other TFs and went to Trafalgar Square. Taylor wanted to go so she could walk around and I figured it would be nice to get out the flat and explore London. It was a really good idea. I got to actually take in everything that was around the square. I also got a chance to go inside the Adelphi Theatre again. If I haven’t mentioned it, the Adelphi Theatre is home to Love Never Dies, the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. When I went the first time, much of the lobby was closed because of rehearsals, but this time it wasn’t.



The real reason we went was Taylor wanted to find a particular theatre, and I knew there were maps near the box office. So we went in, and the lobby was n getting ready mode for the previews of the show. Speaking of previews, the first public preview for the show is tomorrow and I’m kind of bummed I can’t go. I am eagerly waiting for the reviews, for the soundtrack, and a personal ticket. Two of three can be done by me, but the third will hopefully happen this week. Anyway, as I was saying. The lobby was open, and it was just cool to be standing in the full lobby. There was a rope barrier separating me from the theatre, and I wanted desperately to jump it so I could see what was going on. I knew that was never going to happen so I just soaked in the lobby.
After getting the map and finding the theatre, we left the theatre and walked. After a few minutes, we found the theatre, and I had another episode of delight. Right across from the theatre we were at was Her Majesty’s, the home of Phantom. I was in a state of pure joy at this moment. I really wanted to go inside the theatre, but sadly, it was locked. That didn’t destroy my joy because it was just so cool to be that close to such a magnificent place. We left the area and went home.
For the rest of the afternoon, I hung out at my flat and made myself dinner. I ate the most wonderful packaged Tikki Masala. Chicken Tikki Masala is my favorite type of Indian Food, and I always have to deal with the frozen kind from the grocery store. Those are usually ok and get me by until I can have the real thing. So, I decided to do that here, and it was a really good idea. The stuff I got was so good and tasted so close to the stuff I would get in an Indian restaurant. It was extremely satisfying and was a good start to my night. After I finished dinner, I went and hung out some of my TFs. While hanging out, we ended up watching some movies. The first was Across the Universe and the second was A Series of Unfortunate Events. I really enjoyed both of them, and they were a good end to the night.
Today, I really didn’t do that much during the day. I just hung out in the flat mostly. I did clean up my computer a bit and cleaned/organized my room. I found out that I missing a couple of things, but I know that I will find them.
Tonight was so much fun. I went out with some of my TFs to Trafalgar Square to take part in the Chinese New Year celebrations. Last weekend was the real Chinese New Year, but the celebrations were a week later. The whole experience was interesting. We started off in the square where there were performances. The ones that I got to see were pretty cool, and the best one was a lady who did acrobatics while balancing cups on a plate. After the performances, we went to China Town to watch fireworks. On the way, we got a little lost, but we had Helon as our navigator. She got us to the place we needed to be. The place itself was extremely crowded so I wasn’t able to see the fireworks. Instead, we hung out in a Burger King until it was a little less crowded. Once we deemed it less crowded, we left.



After getting home, I made myself dinner. It consisted of gnocchi with a cream tomato sauce and a small salad. The gnocchi was extremely good. The sauce was semi-homemade, meaning I used cream and a sauce that I had already bought, and it was excellent. I used no measuring cups and poured the cream until I felt like the sauce tasted right, which worked out. I have some leftover and I can’t wait to have it.




For the rest of the night, I just lounged around the flat. I ended up cleaning the kitchen once again. I told myself this morning that I wasn’t going to do it anymore and just deal with my messes. Well, that worked for most of the day, but it got to me once I was done with dinner. I cleaned it up and was satisfied. This has actually been a problem since we got here, and I’ve somewhat talked about it with my flat-mates. What I really think the problem is that they were not raised to clean up after themselves. I am extremely thankful that I was, and in reality, I don’t mind cleaning up. It relieves some stress and boosts my confidence if I’m feeling down.


That’s it for today. Tomorrow is yet another eventful day. I have my first day of practicum and my second play. I will try to get a blog out, but I may be extremely exhausted. We’ll see.
Until Next Time,
Jefe