Be You.

Graduation is over and done with.

I'm an alumni! Alumnus? Alumna. Right?

In any case, here's me eating my hard-earned diploma. Expect more pictures once I find a camera cord and get back home after crashing on Katie's floor for a few days.
The ceremony itself was pretty good and I liked the speakers. Only problem? They fucked up and said my name too early-- I had to shake the Dean's hand and walk across the stage in silence while everyone kind of looked at me in bored pity. Sigh.

There was a very touching moment while everyone in my school was filing into the arena-- we walked past all the faculty and some of them were crying and waving and saying hi to their students. Then I heard "Pomp and Circumstance" and had to do a little facial exercise to keep from losing it. The rest of the day went by very smoothly, with a terrific dinner at Gaslight to top it off.

Steven Spielberg was at the Boston Pops last night. John Williams showed up and did a medley of his works and then introduced the 'Berg. It was pretty cool.

In other news, I move into my apartment in New York by June 1st. I suppose this is real life and it's slightly terrifying.

Pregraduation

This weekend is graduation. Freaky. It's also my birthday, meaning my entire posse of assembled family members will have no choice but to celebrate my birth and praise my achievements for three whole days.

It's been a really long 4 years since high school:

Until this year's pictures, here are my new (on sale!) graduation shoes. It's almost guaranteed I'll trip in them onstage. At least my aforementioned posse will have something to do--mainly, laugh at me-- during the ceremony.

Review

Katie's Review, originally uploaded by fernweh_still.

It's getting close to the end for AdLab, meaning all my teams spent last class critiquing my management style and assessing my strengths as a copy supervisor.
We also got to review them and assign grades.

My AD was having a bad day and wrote her own review for me.



In other news, I went to the Independent Film Festival of Boston on Friday night for 500 Days of Summer. I'd freaked about the chance to see the movie because the preview looked amazing. I'm a HAuge Zooey Deschanel fan, and I didn't want to wait until I could pay $12 to see it in a theater.

Welp, it lived up to expectations. It was a quirky, adorable film with beautiful observations and a soundtrack to die for. I loved the combination of shooting styles and the dialogue. Don't listen to the haters: this is one to see.

Settle Down, Class

In class, when we learned about journalism, we:

-brought in newspapers to analyze
-took notes on important terms
-watched a documentary about a university paper

When we learned about PR, we:

-read two books about PR people
-watched a news report on leading figures in the industry
-watched a documentary about PR in the White House

When we learned about advertising, we:

-watched a clip from Mad Men.

I rest my case that advertising is for badass motheruckers.

New York City Agency Trip: Where Shit Got Real.

Two professors from my school took about a dozen of us advertising kids for a 3-day tour of some of the best agencies in the city. We also did some meet-and-greets with alums and had the chance to network like a bunch of crazy fools.

I got in Sunday night and met Katie at our hotel. We headed over to Williamsburg to do some thrifting (sold a dress and got a $20 pair of cowboy boots) and get liquored up for the next day. A bit of a pubcrawl ensued, and we managed to fit in quite well, I think.

Monday morning, 9:15 AM sharp, we rolled into the lobby of Publicis. I interned at Publicis Groupe in Paris last year, so I was interested to see their New York office. They laid out an amazing breakfast spread, gave us free shirts, and let us talk to one of the new Creative Directors after a looong presentation. As a copywriter, I have little to no interest in hearing about the account side and dealing with a client, but I suppose it's a good reference point. The presenters were great speakers and it was a beautiful conference room on the roof of the building.

Katie and I got locked into the stairwell on the way out, so we tripped down about 12 floors of stairs and somehow got out to the street level. Eesh.

The next agency was Kirschenbaum Bond and Partners downtown. We made a quick stop for fish and chips at A Salt and Battery first. I rushed into the place and must have a seemed a bit frantic, because the guy doing the fish frying called me "love" in his perfect accent and calmed me down.

Katie's fish and chips

I also got some roast chicken crisps and Hula Hoops to tide me over until... something. I don't know the next time I'll have more.

KBP was really, really cool-- it's the sort of agency you imagine when you hear "advertising," I think. The walls were bright neon colors, beanbags were scattered around, and everyone was in their 20s. John Bond, one of the partners, actually came in to answer questions and talk to us. It was pretty surreal to hear him describing the business.

At the end, one of the Art Directors stuck around to critique the creatives' books.

That night was a reunion/meet-and-greet sort of dealie in midtown. I ended up meeting a lot of alums who are or were at amazing places, like JWT, BBH, Ogilvy, and Atmosphere BBDO.

Tuesday morning was Cline Davis. I frankly didn't expect to like it because it's a pharmaceutical ad agency, but it was the best presentation of the trip and everyone seemed to really love working there. The creative work is beautiful and the physical agency is very cool-looking. One of the ADs brought us over to do a quick tutorial on their thought process and handed out little BU postcards she made us. Everything was personalized and they made an effort to make us feel welcome and understand their culture.

Pret for lunch (w00t!!) and then uptown to BBDO. Katie and I were shitting ourselves, frankly, because BBDO is one of the oldest, biggest, and most prestigious agencies around. The conference room was filled with these gorgeous, comfortable chairs and free stuff. The lady who hosted us came into the room last, and was telling us to "grab m&ms, some water, make yourself at home--" when she realized we already had.

"College kids!"

Conference Room

The best part was having the creatives come in from both Atmosphere (the digital wing of BBDO which is now Proximity) and BBDO to answer questions. Atmosphere's done some truly amazing stuff over the past year or so, and it was so cool to hear first-hand where it all came from.

There was also a production guy who gave an insane presentation about his job. I know Katie and I are both also really interested in production, so hearing about and seeing his most bizarre and challenging work was an opportunity we hadn't expected.

After the presentation, they took us straight to the world-famous BBDO bar, Central Filing. Being BU kids, we immediately sidled up to the bar and started ordering: it was open bar for us, and they served their clients' products (BudLight, Guinness, Red Stripe).

Over the next few hours, we met the CEO (who came in with a group of clients), Skip the lawyer (who apparently lives in the bar every day after 4 PM), and a few other important heads of state at the company. There was drinking, Guitar Hero-playing, and drunken Twitter discussions.

Aforementioned Wii-playing

We closed down the bar and ended up with kebabs on the street in front of Radio City.

The next morning, we saw Kaplan Thaler, another Publicis Groupe-owned company. I distinctly remember calling KTG while I was working at Publicis Groupe, trying to get an update on their employee number or something. Whoever put them into the internal directory had accidentally included Linda Kaplan Thaler's direct line, so I called her without realizing and then had a very nice conversation about the weather in Paris and the theater strike in New York. Linda came into our presentation to say hi and left us all feeling inspired. She's really an amazing lady.

Our last stop of the trip? TBWA/Chiat/Day. Which. Was... phew.

They're probably the best known for their creative of the places we visited. A BU album who does new business for TBWA WW talked to us about pitches and their recent Pepsi work. They also brought in some junior creatives to talk to us about our books and how to approach work. The copywriter is a woman, and she is doing a Survivor-style program right now-- she's not even a permanent employee. She told me it's definitely a situation where you have to prove yourself, as a female creative.

The scary thing is, nearly all of the creatives I met over the trip went to portfolio school for 2 years. I really can't imagine doing that now, because it's expensive and another 2 years where I'd be out of work. I did get some great tips for my portfolio, so I'll be working really hard to get it good enough to show to the TBWAs of the world.

Themes of the trip? Finding your first job is the hardest part. It seems nearly everyone got lucky and used their contacts to get their books seen. Once a CD approves you for an interview, it's all about proving you're a real person with hobbies and an interesting story.

So.

That's where I'm at right now. I'm hopeful about talking to a few people in particular, and I'm doing a copy test for another place. My professor at BU is amazing for taking us, and I already feel better prepared. I'm also very stressed out, but that's how it's going to be until I can get hired.

Me, sad because TBWA didn't hire me on the spot.

"Probs Rory"

Possible update on CAS Incident:

My sources tell me the suspect may be a punk kid who happens to wear a specially decorated belt to class every day.

We will update as we receive further confirmation.

Oi! What's Occurring?

There was some sort of incident at school today-- someone called the police after seeing a guy in the College of Arts and Sciences building with magazine clips. I got a message blitz from the school, telling me to stay away from the address where "police activity" was occurring. What was the police activity? No one told us until an hour ago.

The scary bit is, I work in the CAS building and was on my way over when I checked my phone. I slogged through about 10 messages from text, email, and voicemail, all telling me to avoid the area. The even scarier bit is that the building was not evacuated, no security measures were taken to warn people inside the building that there might be a problem, and no explanation was given to the students until a few hours later. My boss somehow got a tip-off and I circulated the news to my friends.

They said the police would be present in and around the building for the rest of the day. Which raises the question: uh, did they catch the guy? Does he have an accomplice? Was it a fake call? If the police were not 100% sure they caught the guy, then why would they risk the safety of anyone to let us continue taking class and doing work?

I can't even get to the website reporting the event. The whole school is probably on there. I'm choosing to trust the police and the administration, but if that dude walks into this office, I'm going to come back and haunt whoever made the decision to let us go about our business.

Rounding Up

I'm here, still alive. I came down with my annual hacking cough, which luckily didn't descend into bronchitis (as it's been known to do in years past). After drowning my cold in Day and Ny-quil, depending on the time of day, I am left with a teeny little cough that persists but is slowly going away.

I finished classes FINALLY, and my final isn't until Wednesday. Until then, I'll be catching up on sleep and going to a review session. I'm also supposed to have an interview for a copywriting internship at an agency in the North End. As far as the rest of the week goes, I bought a ticket to New York for Thursday. I love doing little day trips to the city because it's not a horribly long drive (4 hours each way), and I get to sneak around the museums and go shopping in proper flagships. I'm also bringing a Holga so I can capture the holiday spirit that's been sorely lacking in these parts.

Aside from a Uniqlo visit, finding a good cupcake place, and checking in on the Guggenheim, I mostly wanted to visit this: Beedle the Bard is on display at the NYPL. I have to make sure it's open on Thursday.

Friday I go back to Chicago, and I'll most likely go straight out to visit Lindsay in Madison.

And one final triumph-- I figured out my Polaroid SX70 definitely works!! Here's a picture I took of my eggs benedict this morning:

Eggs Benedict, originally uploaded by fernweh_still.

In direct sunlight, the picture turns out beautifully. Never mind my terrible scanner, which turns everything yellow.

Keep Calm 4.0

My Thanksgiving was very nice, thanks for asking.

I missed my MINI like woah, but I still got to drive my dad's sweet new beamer.

In other news, it snowed the night before my 6:30 am flight. Woot! I got up at 4:30 and made it to the airport with enough time to get a chai and wander around like a zombie. Then I proceeded to sit on the plane for 2 hours and listen dazedly to music while waiting for the de-icing of the plane to finish up. When we finally managed to take off, I wrote my 5 page paper (the one I'd been putting off for weeks) while the entire rest of the plane slept. Sigh.

Once we landed, I had 20 minutes to get to my first AdLab eboard meeting, so I just again sighed audibly and took a cab directly to school and stowed my suitcase in the corner.

I actually came over here to share my new favorite teeshirt site: It's affiliated with or owned by Threadless, called Type Tees. The site is super well-designed, with a cool rollover feature that lets you see the whole shirt without clicking through. TRY IT.

I've long been obsessed with Keep Calm and Carry On, which led me to buy a Keep Calm and Rock On Poster. Now, I feel as though this is the next logical step in our relationship.

Head of the Charles

Finally... some new, interesting photos from this weekend. The Head of the Charles regatta went extremely well. If by "well" you mean I got tons of free stuff and watched a few boats go past. I walked from my apartment to Harvard Square and ate Chipotle for lunch as a reward. It felt supremely collegiate at Harvard because everyone was in their boat shoes, "crew" shirts, and was cheering for illustrious teams like Yale. After our school's team went past, my friends and I decided to cheer for a team dressed in horizontal black and white striped tank top leotards. They were practically wearing berets, holding croissants, and yelling "hon hon hon!" while twirling their mustaches.

I went to the BC v Virginia Tech game last night because my roommate's mom went to Tech. We got all decked out in borrowed Tech gear and alternated between cheering and slowly freezing to the metal benches. It was. SO. cold. I had a great time, though, because I haven't seen a college football game for a few years. I wish we had a team!

The Sox lost tonight, which means I won't be camping out for World Series tickets. Would I have done that anyways, you ask? Probably not. So all is well in the world.

Deep Thoughts, Part... ?

--Somehow, my school has not one single printer for 11x14 inch paper. Travesty. I was told to check out the School of Fine Arts, and opted not to as my project was due in 20 minutes. This should probably be looked into.
--They were painting the walls in the stairwell, so the numerous times I ran up and downstairs, I got a teensy but awesome fume high.
--One of my professors showed us nearly an entire reel of 1992 Cannes Lions award winners. Really? There's no good work to show us from after 1992?
--I spent the entire iMovie exercise during my late class checking up on British music blogs and then did the :30 clip in five minutes and practically jogged back home. I am sincerely terrified to learn Flash, however.
--Jess checked the Sox score and laughed, then went to bed. About half an hour later, I had to shut my window because there was a ruckus of yelling, clapping, and honking. ESPN.com and the douche outside confirm the Sox tied it up. Thank you, Sir on the street downstairs. Yes, Hell of a win, as you keep yelling. Now go home.

I am extremely excited for this weekend, because my roommate's mom is coming and I have big plans. I need to take pictures, for a start. I have half a roll of film left in my Holga, and my Flickr is overrun with interesting but ultimately not good mobile phone pictures. The Virginia Tech v BC game on Saturday will be interesting to see in person. I have full confidence in Jess's ability to teach me all applicable chants and fight songs before I go in and cheer on some Hokies. What is a Hokie?

C'est Pas Vrai!!!

I'm in a better mood now, but, Ohh sweet Lord did I just have an embarrassing conversation on the street. One of my professors from Paris happened to be walking past so I accosted her and managed to forget every word of French I'd ever learned. I'm 100% putting it down to surprise and cold, because I spent the summer doing a class in Chicago AND not to mention, I lived in Paris for OH FIVE MONTHS OR SO.

This was the professor who taught me--completely in French-- Literature in the Age of Versailles, watched me present a powerpoint on Versailles for 10 minutes without notes (or um, preparation--other than making the slides look gorgeous. That's me, style over substance), and gave me an outstanding grade on my final interview in front of 4 other French people about my internship. And I just asked her if she's "learning French classes" this semester. And then said I was forgetting all "ma" français.

Jeesh.

The good news is, I have gotten a swift kick in the ass. I'm vowing to watch the news on TV5 once a day, download podcasts from OUI FM or France 2, and will take at least one speaking class at school next semester (which I was going to do anyways). I've also emailed Madame with a friendly "Hello! I'm not dead yet! And I will also be looking for a job soon so ifyouknowanyone who needs an American around, hollaback!"

Rant, Rant, Rant

As usual, once I hit city streets, I slide back into Bitchface. It's not a conscious move-- I just don't see the need in pretending to smile at strangers when it's gray and cloudy and there's work to be done. However, unlike Paris or New York, Boston doesn't take too kindly to this face. I'm annoyed that people try to make eye contact with me on the T. I'm annoyed when people look at what I'm wearing and visibly react. I'm also annoyed when people stare at me as I enter the union or try to edge around groups of loud, slow freshmen. I think I'm about ready for a permanent move to a big city where people look mean all the time. It suits me.

I saw Girltalk in concert the other night, what a mess. Somehow, one of the student groups managed to get good old Greg to come play a show, and I had stood in line for 45 minutes to get tickets. Of course, nothing went smoothly on the night of. They didn't let the huge line of people in until half hour after doors were supposed to open. Two people searched bags and patted down 1500 kids. The first opening band was good, but I was extremely distracted by short people in stilettos and ridiculous American Apparel dregs pushing past me to get to the front. After the second opening band went on, my friends and I gave up and moved to the back so we could have some air. No one at the concert under the age of 21 seemed to have any concert etiquette, nor did any of them appear to be sober. My school can afford to have about 10 policemen outside the venue, standing around and shooting suspicious glances. None of those policemen, however, could come inside and rough up the ridiculously drunk or high underaged kids shoving everyone else around.

The second band absolutely sucked. They came out with their handmade shirts and tilted hats, and then jumped around to other peoples' songs. Occasionally, someone would play the drums over the recordings. I think they actually sang two songs, but the lead singer was so terrible and shrieky that at least 50 people left before Girltalk came onstage.

We found a comfortable place on the floor and waited until 12:30-- a half hour after the concert was supposed to be over-- and then got up to dance for Girltalk. Except for a stage light that someone felt the need to shine in our faces for a good 15 minutes, and the five minutes where the entire left side block of speakers turned off, Girltalk's set was great.

What else is annoying me lately? People who don't close the elevator grate so I have to climb 5 flights of stairs to get back to my apartment. A girl I work with who has never apparently had a real job: she went into a funk when our boss told us to shred some documents. After 5 minutes of silence and her clicking around on Facebook, I started heading downstairs alone and then she told me earnestly: "I hate when she doesn't ask me to do things. She tells me." She's our boss? That's what bosses do?

Last night was a shining beacon amongst the negativity. I camped out on the couch with a roommate and a friend and watched the Emmys Red Carpet, ate some Indian takeout, and then watched the Emmys. It was amazing. A friend who goes to school near LA somehow scored a job at the Governor's Ball and got a "Good night" from Kevin Bacon. I'm excited and proud to be only 2 degrees away from the man himself.

I'm going to class. Maybe a client meeting later will cheer me up.

The Stumbler and the Mumbler

My Ethics class is going to be interesting, if only for the anthropological possibilities coming from studying my professor, TFs, and the assorted freshman who take it with me. My professor lectures to a large class of about 100 kids twice a week, so he's no slob-- he also has two TFs, so he doesn't even have to grade papers or answer questions. However, he is extremely confusing because his soft Aussie accent trips over complex sentences. And anyone who knows anything about Ethics can tell you the first few weeks of it are complex sentences (full of "true"s and "not the case"s).

He also tends to interrupt himself when he's thinking of a better way to explain something. It's completely distracting, because I will be leaning forward with my pen poised against the paper, trying to grasp his meaning, and then he'll veer off in a different direction. Just SAY in one sentence the difference between "valid" and "sound". Then, I will write it down and we can move on.

Henceforth, he is the Stumbler.

My TF leads a discussion class with about 30 kids once a week. He's a shy graduate student who, in trying to make us explain ourselves, can actually come across a bit asshat-y. I raised my hand to volunteer a passage in the book, and I paraphrased what the author had said. Instead of asking me a leading question or nodding or even--Heaven forbid-- praising me, he snootily asked: "Who said that? You or the author?"

Completely deflated, I stabbed my pen half-heartedly at the textbook and said, "Uhh well it's mentioned in there."

He is the Mumbler, because his sentences are well constructed and clear, just usually descend into a low grumble by the end of them.

It's been a while since I've had a class with so many freshman (damn you, requirements I put off until senior year!). It's extremely interesting to see how they are handling their first big scary college course. For example, on the first lecture day, about 20 of them tried to volunteer information or ask leading questions. That. Is what. Discussion. Is for.

When we did get to discussion, some of them decided to use extremely annoying examples in their questions. When you could relate a proposition to a cow OR you could relate it to the existence of God, why would anyone in their right mind decide to take on religion and whether or not Jesus was a real person? It's just like morbid self-hate to do that, and in front of an audience of your peers.

Some of them strolled in late for the first class, leaving the rest of us to endure the Stumbler's distracted tangent while he blinked at them in confusion from the podium. I really enjoyed seeing a couple of them get to discussion late and then, rather than choose a quick seat near the door, cross the room to the farthest row of seats and squeak a few desks aside for a prime seat near the middle. Hellooo don't call attention to yourself when coming in 20 minutes after class started.

I'm seeing The Wombats tonight! That is just terribly exciting.

No Comprendo

On the way home from my exam*, I saw a taxi with an ad for Jelly Bellies and the words, "Bean around London."

What does that even mean? I can understand one of the meanings-- there's a bean going around London because it's on a taxi that moves and thus the taxi moves the bean. But there's definitely no double meaning, at least not to me, a native English speaker. It might as well have been for Dominos, with the words "Pizza around London."

*My exam was two essay questions she gave us in advance. My second prompt was to compare London with another city. Which did I choose? I think it's a fitting end to this year that I compared Paris and London. I used the layouts, the rivers, the populations, and the culture of the city planning to show the difference between the cities. Not sure whether my professor will like it as much as I did, but as I edited the paper, I sort of leaned back and enjoyed rereading my work.

Packing is done. I got most of my stuff into two (heavy) suitcases, and have a small stack to fit into my carry on right before I leave for the airport. Auugh!

Day Trip

Tomorrow's my exam, and then I am. Officially. Done. I will be a senior! Yeehaw!

Everything's come to a close much faster than last semester. I do feel a bit less panicked this time, though. Which is nice.

After my final, I need to pack up everything and then attempt to ship a box of winter clothes and other random accessories. Which will be followed, on Friday, by a day trip to Paris.

I really could not be more excited to go and hang out on the continent for a day. I've been hearing stories from friends and seeing pictures online of the city in full bloom, and it was getting to me. There's no return trip on the horizon, so I wanted to get back, try to forget about leaving and packing and being stressed about everything, and just relax.

Madame already returned my email describing the Pete Dohrety "blood paintings" exhibit I need to see... She offered to take me herself, if, in her own words, she "remembers to sleep and get dressed."

Ooookay.

Where Can I Find Dancing Orcs, Singing Gollums, and Disco Elf Robes?

LOTR MUSICAL!!!!

rawk.

Okay, it wasn't really "rawk." I would go with "really smooth jazz" or "bangin' elevator muzak".

As a bleeding heart sci-fi/fantasy nerd, it was terrific--nay, spectacular-- to see wizards, elves, and other manner of magical folk onstage, in their shiny costumes. The actual look of the show, with the sets and the lighting, plus the enormous moving stage, was beyond cool. It's not a surprise the production team's won loads of awards for their work on the musical. However, most of the music was pretty straightforward, and much less exciting than the movies. Also, the hobbits' singing voices were a bit umm hobbity. Arwen and Galadriel did a fantastic job with their parts, but I was distracted by all the elves doing random sign language and arm movements the entire time.

The choreographer apparently did Billy Elliot and a few other famous shows, so obviously the dancing was really cool. I just feel like the pacing was a bit boring. Toward the end, I started daydreaming about going to My Ex-Boyfriend's Records tomorrow night.

I did dinner with Mom and my aunt at Belgo Centraal, which means I had some tasty moules/frites and then hopped back across Covent Garden for the show. That place has so much energy, it's really fun to walk around and soak it in. As long as you're not hemmed in by tourists watching street performers. I hate that.

When I got home, I had an email waiting for me: the school sent me one a few days ago, asking for students to send pictures for the new website about study abroad. I had responded and offered to look for specific pictures, if they had any guidelines.

"...Any photographs that combine the idea of ‘study’ and ‘abroad’ would be great as well. For example, a photograph showing group of students standing in a circle, looking at someone who’s in the lead, with the location of the photograph conveying that they’re in a classroom, or standing in a remote landscape, or gathered at a museum in London."

Well, for crying out loud. Gimme some cash and lights and I'll do a photo shoot. I do have millions of "standing in a remote landscape" pictures, however, so I might have to hunt through my flickr. Having my picture online might be cool.

Hello. Remember me?

Here's where it stands--

Dublin last weekend, which was a riot. I stayed with my friend from school who's studying there, and we had a really good time. It was cold, rainy, and grey for most of the time. One of the days, however, it was sunny and warm (ish), so we went hiking. I know! Me! Hiking!

The city seems really nice and charming-- I can confidently say that the bar scene is excellent. The people are extremely nice. Like, sometimes too nice. I would have women talking to me while I queued for the bathroom, which is a strange experience if you live in a big city like London. My friend's friends are all super nice and we had a big party weekend, so I was pleased.

Then this weekend, I was in Amsterdam. The place is gorgeous and I loved it. The flight over was a bit bumpy and I had the pleasure of watching it all from a window seat. For a few minutes, I was fairly sure we were going down into some fields. The girls next to me thought so, too.

I rented bikes with my friends and we ruled the roads (::cough::), clanking our bells at people that got in our way and eating Dutch pancakes until we couldn't move. I was really shocked by the Red Light District-- the first time we walked down the canal, I wasn't really prepared. A lot of the "ladies" in the windows are really beautiful and fit, and it's a strange thing to see men walking straight into their bedrooms and curtains being closed. There was also a fair amount of sex shops, which was fun to poke inside-- you become completely desensitized.

Weather was great, tulips were lovely, and shopping was done. The flight home was a minor disaster, however. BA overbooked the flight (going to London on a Sunday night? Really?), and of course I didn't get a seat. I hung around and annoyed everyone until they got me on a plane to Heathrow leaving 30 minutes later. My friend gave up her original seat to come with me, and I think she was probably glad she did. We got upgraded to business class (window seat for me!), refunded 125 euros (did I mention the flight was 85 pounds round trip? Hello, free flight and then some!), and sent home in a minivan with 3 other disgruntled BA customers after waiting around for an hour. Safe to say, I will not be flying with them again anytime soon. Unless it's cheap. T5 lived up to expectations, read into that what you will.

Yesterday, my final portfolio was due for school. Of course, thanks to leaving work at my usual time (6:30), plus the commute and no stationary stores being open*, I got there almost 40 minutes late.

*Side note: I have not felt like I was in a third world country for a while (ahem, FRANCE. Why oh why are your stores closed on Sundays?), but yesterday was definitely one of those times. Why does EVERY store on the High Street but M&S close at 7 PM on a Monday? Why don't ANY other stores, including computer, book, corner, and card stores, sell binders?? WHY??

Once at school, I eventually talked my way into the library to turn in my paper. They had locked the door and weren't prepared to let me in, as though I had just printed it out 10 minutes ago and waltzed in drunk. Obviously this is an important paper, and it's important to me. I explained to the woman that I work in Shoreditch, and had done my best to get there.

I left out how I couldn't find a binder and had to buy a pink ribbon to thread through the hole-punched pages to keep it together. The nice guy working at the card shop had palmed me an extra plastic document cover from his stock folder, so at least I had something to put the damn thing in. I also didn't mention how I decided against running the 20 minutes to school, instead springing for a cab. And of course the cab got stuck in traffic.

Definitely my bad for not doing it earlier, but a couple of things ended up adding together into a big mess. HOWEVER. Paper got turned in, I'm done with that nonsense, and now I can look forward to seeing my mom and aunt tomorrow.

O The Weather Outside

Well it's raining. And trust me to go on a walking tour for my architecture class sans umbrella or rainproof coat. I just rocked the wet hair in my eyes/soggy Vans look until I was allowed to go home and dry off. Phew. My teacher managed to take us to Buckingham (for the architecture) in the middle of the guard changing ceremony, which was a fiasco. Thousands of screaming Russians, Italians, and Spanish people (shudder) were milling around with their cameras, umbrellas, and lack of sense. We had to walk through it.

Gaah.

It was quite nice to go into Westminster Cathedral though, which I'd always passed in buses or cabs and wondered what it was. The murals on the ceilings were gorgeous.

My sister's been in town for the past week, which means she's been by herself a lot. I've been working quite a lot and really enjoy it. Last night was drinks and dinners with everyone at the office, and we had a grand old time-- even the bosses were sloshed. I heard about all the famous people the creative directors have worked with. The copywriter had his picture with Jennifer Anniston in his wallet, so that was interesting.

Stars, Hyde Park, Arse-numbing Chill

I saw Stars last night at KOKO, a really cool theater in Camden. The opening act was some random guy with a tiny synth and a drum kit, and he tried (and failed) to loop tracks and get the audience interested. We weren't. The second act before Stars was a strange Canadian band that totally rocked the place. The singer was wearing painter's coveralls and made the most ridiculous faces and gestures while playing lead guitar. They had a tribute song to EZE and everyone sort of alternated between swaying around and then nodding heads along to the music.

Stars started off with "Ageless Beauty", and frankly, I was disappointed. The place was sold out, but it seemed like the audience wasn't really there to dance or move around. The sound was also a bit thrown off, with the keyboard coming over waaay too loud, while the drums weren't strong enough. Sad. The band is known for being "melodramatic" indie rock, so there was much squinting, arm gesticulating, and bizarrely, they kept throwing fresh flowers off the stage into the crowd. By the end of the show, a lot of the girls had flowers stuck over ears and the whole place smelled like crushed petals.

My favorite part was when they played "Take Me To The Riot", mostly because I completely lost my shit and just danced. Of course, the only other person rocking out was the drunk Texan guy behind us, who made sure to high-five me afterwards. He was hysterical, and obviously having the time of his life. Every time a good song would start, he'd just moan or scream out, "Oh God!" in appreciation, not even saying "Oh golly, I love this song", or anything like that.

During the agonizingly slow, sad songs they insisted on playing, the blue lights on the ceiling would shine on the disco ball. Then, the tiny little squares of flickering light would rotate over the three levels of the venue, and bounce off the ornate ceiling. It was really, really beautiful.



In other news, I sat through an extremely awkward Marketing class this morning. Right at the beginning, a man stood up and introduced himself. Apparently, he comes from BU's Boston campus to check out the situation here in London, and figure out how to diversify the population taking the semester. He wanted to encourage more guys, as well as "ethnic people", to come and live in London for the semester. Then, after he sat down, my professor began her lecture on how marketers must group people by stereotypical demographics, in order to determine how they will act. She finished by saying how all people who fit into specific types can be grouped and predicted.



After emailing my Mom about how lazy I sometimes was after the 4-hour long classes I have, I decided to leave my flat and do something worthwhile. Me and my camera went to Hyde Park, just down the street, and I took some pictures. I've been having problems with my photos being too dark on the "P" setting, but not liking how plain they are in the "no flash" setting. Soo, I wandered around and tried to use "M", manual, to my advantage. Though I say so myself, I think I got some cool shots. Shadows and standing pools of water are everywhere in London, and I got a lot of them. I noticed a pattern after a while: everything was sort of fairy-tale-y and spooky. There was a teensy bit of mist, some of the trees are gnarled and black, with no leaves or moss, and I found the Peter Pan statue, which is covered with fairies and woodland creatures.

Hyde Park is also a Heaven for dogs: people let their pets off the leashes, and then everybody runs around and has a jolly good time. At the ends of the park, you see owners calling their dogs and the dogs pretending not to hear. It's very sweet.



It's getting a big chilly, too. I'm hoping, if it does NEED to get cold, that it least it doesn't start this raining nonsense again. It really kills my will to get out of bed when I have to wear crummy old shoes, not worry about my hair or my jacket, and run from building to building.