Enlightened

I am so happy.
Things are going amazingly well... SURPRISINGLY well! ... and its not just the London 70 degree weather. That's right, I said 70!
(OK, fine, 69 technically. Haha 69)

Disclaimer: You deserve a huge, Bill Clinton size apology for not getting proper updates from me via this BLOG. I'd like to think I've been really busy, but come on, I've just been lazy.

What I've been doing in London has been so fun! Taking a boat tour of the city is the first thing that popped in my mind just now. Starting from Westminster (YES! Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, etc), the student- discounted (holla) tour ending 40 minutes later at the Tower Bridge and Tower of London tube stop. The Tower of London is a billion million years old. It's where enemies were beheaded. Gross.

We've been to load of plays too. Let's see... I've seen Habit of Art, The God's Weep, Ruined, Posh...
My favorite was Ruined. It was a play about women in Congo. I'd suggest either trying to see it or looking up more information about the play because I would never be able to explain its great message. It's honestly something you need to experience. Humor, reality and shock are probably the best ways to describe it. Tonight, we're going to see William Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Globe Theatre by Westminster- ish. How many people can say that? Its historical, its beautiful, ITS THE GLOBE THEATRE. Only... you have to stand the entire time to watch the play. Great.

This past weekend was huge for me! ... and Morgan and Leah and Jackie and Mandy and Liz and Vanessa! We all went to Amsterdam for a few days. It had a lot of humor, reality and shock value to it too now that I think of it. At 2PM, it wouldn't be surprising to see half naked (really, though- one girl was only wearing a bra) prostitutes in windows or people smoking blunts outside. It was beautiful too. Known for their tulips and windmills, Holland had some pretty cool attractions. They're also so, so sweet. I have a Dutch aunt and every time I heard someone speak in English with her same Dutch accent, I was reminded of the olden days. Also, attached to this weekend came the emotional draining that was the one year anniversary of the death of awesome, awesome Ryan. GOD HE WAS AWESOME. My mom told me she went to his memorial in Fairfax and put tulips and a note from the Azimi family. She put tulips because I was in Amsterdam that Monday. This act of her's is probably one I'll remember the rest of my life. An act that made me tear up when she skyped it to me and an act that made me tear up just now. Thank you Mami <3 I couldn't have asked for a more appropriate weekend, though. The sheer freedom that came with simply leaving London or my flat was amazing. To spend the weekend at such a distracting, busy city? That made it a vacation. This weekend has also made me appreciate so many of those little things we're always told mattered most. My friends, first. They're the strongest, funniest, most genuine and caring people I've ever met. Making that effort to tell each other we're thinking about each other especially during the past week is adorable and something I cherished.

I went to another art gallery just now. Today, it was in Sloane Square. Nothing really popped out at me to remember it by, but I appreciated it!

I don't know what it is. Maybe its the weather, or the people here as well as in the States. It could be the songs I've downloaded or my laundry being all done. It might also be me realizing that I'm growing up, but I just can't seem to get this smile off my face.

So much love.

PS SWAT TEAM AT JMU FOR SPRINGFEST? haha. what a month.

Facebook Is Boring

Its still spring break!

Check out all the fantastic things I've done during this break in London...

1. Sleep forever

2. Watch movies with Easy Breezy, Megatron and Morgy including:

_Shutter Island

_Drive Me Crazy (because Entourage apparently doesn't give enough screen time for Adrian Grenier... in my opinion, of course. Marry me, Adrian?)

_Alice In Wonderland

_Up

_Coyote Ugly

_Step Brothers (barf)

... enough movies?

3. Sleep

4. Go to Tesco

5. Go on a Jack the Ripper tour

6. Cook

7. Go to Sports Cafe

((I want to make this a list of 10... hmm, what should I put for the last 3?))

8-10. Sleep

We accidently slept through the Changing of the Guards this morning. I really can't wait to see it though. I wonder if any one has ever made those guards laugh or move at all.

I'm about to cook dinner, but shout out to Johnsito for getting into "U-to the-V-to the-A" this week!! You go John Coco.

Praying for a good month,

Jas

FAIL

I'm officially failing at... (hold your breath Mami & Papi)... at blogging.

No posts since Dublin? How lame.

What has happened?

As if we couldn't be any more of Beatle feigns, we went to Liverpool. It was the home/ birthplace of that crazy foursome: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. Sitting on John Lennon and Paul McCartney's beds was a highlight- especially when told the last person to sit on those beds was Bob Dylan. Yes, BD: the man who got the Beatles high for the first time. I'll forever credit BD for singles like "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Yellow Submarine."

Morgan and I just got back from PORTUGAL, our stellar Spring Break 2K10 location. It was... how should I say this... the great-est, best-est, awesome-est, superb-est, fun-est, owifjalskn -est trip of my entire life. Though the hotel was 80-90% full of people who were 80-90 years old, the young crowd flocked together, so Morgan and I really were able to have fun with these people we identified with. Some were even from north England! They flew out from our favorite English spot: Liverpool. John Lennon Airport perhaps? Making friends, we explored and explored. Soon it was 3 days later and Helon and Addie joined the fun when they arrived to the hotel on Sunday. Even sooner, it was Tuesday and we had to come (figuratively) back "home" to London. I'm loading pictures of Facebook in 1.4 seconds, don't worry. I just have to charge the camera battery.

Oh, and Mami & Papi... you think it would be OK if we all go back to Portugal in May? Just, soak that idea in.

Hopefully with this post, my failure to blog won't be so lame.

"Cheers!"

Everyone is Irish on March 17

It blows my mind I can casually travel throughout Europe for the next three months. France. Ireland. Spain. Wherever. (Don’t worry, Mami & Papi, I won’t go crazy). Last weekend, 16ish of us went to Dublin from Thursday to Sunday. I’ve been anticipating if for so long, last weekend felt like it would never come. When it finally did- I was excited! I can honestly say none of my ancestors were Irish, I mean… look at me, but Dublin was really full of hundreds of cultures. Only about 10% of true Irish live in the city, but that doesn’t stop signs to be translated to Gaelic.

Our journey to and from Dublin was no easy one. Our flight was at 6:30PM from the London Airport to Dublin. Morgan and I split a large suitcase we checked, so we wanted to be a bit early to have time for everything. Leaving the flat around 1:45/ 2PM, we grabbed our large-large-large suitcase and carry-on bags and dipped. A 2- minute tube ride, an hour-long bus trip to the airport and a 2 second shuttle bus to our desired gate was our journey. Finally, we boarded and RYANAIR took us to Ireland. Morgan and I ended up sitting next to a primary teacher who was visiting her parents for the weekend… what are the odds! We then take a bus to our hostel. When I heard the hostel was called The Shining, I thought nothing of it (despite the jokes everyone told us). The Shining… how should I explain it. Well, this is the view from my bed:

It definitely taught me one, ok, TWO things. One: if you’re going to stay in a hostel, don’t stay for more than 3 nights (because its gross). Two: don’t stay in a hostel (because its gross). We got in rather early, so it was dinnertime when we landed in Dublin. After checking in and sorting out the beds, Morgan and I go a very beautiful, very Irish restaurant called… McDonalds! YUM. We’re pretty tired so we go to bed early. The next day was Friday. We went on a “Hop-On, Hop-Off” bus tour around Dublin. Thank goodness for it because it got all the tourist-y/ dorky things out of the way. The bus tour was conducting so that if you wanted to get off at a stop, you could and every ten minutes another bus would come and get you to take you to the next stop. The stops we got off of were Trinity College:

St. Stephen’s Green (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful), Dublin Castel, and the Guinness Storehouse. Throughout the tour, we still saw Abbey Street corner, the National Gallery, Leinster House, Temple Bar, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Old Jameson Distillery, and so many more (23 stops total!) St. Stephen’s Green & the Guinness Storehouse were my favorite- for two very different reasons! The Green: BEAUTIFUL.

Guinness Storehouse: AWESOME.

Really, it was nothing short but amazing. It made me appreciated something I knew nothing about. I recommend it! At the end of the self guided tour (the levels and levels of the self guided tour), the top level of the storehouse was the “sky bar” that overlooked the entire city:

Later, we went shopping at Pennies aka Dublin’s PRIMARK. We all (all meaning Morgan, Addie, Russell, Helon, Mandy and Kristen) got “ready” and went to this old pub and had scrumptious food! It was called… hmm… Malagins? Magalans? Something like that. It was then we realized how “wickedly nice” the Irish are. Maggie (Lindsey’s big) studied abroad in Dublin last fall so she gave us some pretty sweet tips and being from the big Mass… her use of “wicked” was appreciated! (and definitely accurate). We went back to our hostel room, crammed in and “pregamed.” We went to two bars after that. Porterhouse and Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons was where the million of us (yes, all 16ish of us piled into the bar. Um, you’re welcome Fitzsimmons!) spent the majority of the time. There was a “wicked” cool live band who, in reality, were “no bodies,” but by the tone, volume, energy we gave them, you’d think Jay Z was performing. The next day, Morgan and I made sure to sleep in ( meaning 11AM) because we knew we’d get no sleep with our flight back to London being at 7 30AM on Sunday. Sleeping in, we were able to have the whole hostel to ourselves. We packed up so that we could make sure we wouldn’t leave anything behind and set off. We had lunch at this adorable café called “Scrumptious:”

We really just walked around after that. Meeting up with more people (not everyone), we went to a really beautiful Irish pub to watch the anticipated Ireland versus England rugby game. Really, all I could tell you about the game and the only thing that mattered, really, was that Ireland won! I think I saw a grown man cry out of happiness.

Celebration mode kicked in. We went to McDonalds!

and then back to The Shining for some pregaming action. Wow, the stories that were told. We then went back to Temple Bar (a tourist-y area full of bars, etc) and went to Fitzsimmons. It was such an amazing, amazing day. Because we started off so early in the day (the rugby game being at 4PM), everyone was tired so the night ended rather early. Well, 1 30AM, but still: early. Morgan and I know we have to stay up because of our early flight so we go to McDonalds! (wow…) and talk for 2-3 hours STRAIGHT. We go back to The Shining, get our packed bags and head to the airport. Blah, blah, blah… airport buses, shuttles, and the tube: we get back to London aka “home sweet bed” and sleep forever. Only bad thing: my sleeping schedule is off.

I’m so into Dublin and London though (even though they don’t exactly get alon with each other). At Fitzsimmons the last night, Morgan and I met these hysterically funny and nice Irish men who were fascinating by Morgan’s Dolly Parton accent and the United States. We got them to hate South Carolina and love North Carolina and hate Southern Virginia and love Northern Virginia (no offense to any one from SC or SoVa… but, I mean, come on).

This life rocks!

Other picture of Dub:

What's Missing?

1. Crushed Red Pepper

2. Meal Plans... swipe. swipe. swipe.

3. Texting

4. 40 mile drive to see X

5. Driving

6. Customer service

7. Not having to beg for the check after dining

8. Texting

9. Free internet

10. American accents

11. Waiters understanding what "can you split the check between all of us?" means

12. Texting

13. TV shows and not Gilmore Girls, my goodness

14. Downstairs Collonnades

15. Texting

16. Using my credit card, not cash, for everything

17. American portions for food & drinks

18. Ice

How Do Cows Make Babies?

Today was my first day at Wilberstone Primary School and talk about the most adorable Year 5 students in London. Okay, okay, I still don’t know their names, but can you blame me? The only name remotely recognizable was Ahoub because it kinda sorta sounded like Abe. The diversity is like nowhere I’ve been. The “Welcome” signs and “Office” signs had Arabic and Bengali translations under it. Five out of the 25 students (both boys and girls) were wearing head wraps. Also, there was one white person, one. Different, isn’t it? Like I mentioned in a blog before, they call erasers “rubbers.” Imagine how funny it was hearing kids saying, “hey, you’ve grabbed six rubbers already, what in the world are you doing over there?” or “can I use your rubber when you're done.” What a laugh out loud momento. The day started at 9AM, but we were there at around 8:30AM. (Kara Schillings and I are “we,” by the way). The two biggest differences between American and English culture in the classroom are: One. Students in England do not get held back in schools even if they don’t meet specific benchmarks (nope, no summer school here!). That means there are students of all different levels of intelligence/ comprehension/ literacy/ etc in the same classroom. For those “falling behind,” they have adults in the classroom helping them out, personally. Second thing that’s different: the breaks the teachers get from their kids. America- teachers eat lunch, go to recess, all that jazz with their students. In da UK, there are other admin who take care of your students when you’re on a 15-20 minute break in the morning at 10:30AM and then again at 12 for your glorious HOUR long lunch break. In twenty minutes “we” plus Breez/ Breezy/ Bhriel are heading off to class… its our Teaching Fellows seminar. I’m very curious to hear the stories of the gals! After class, there’s more! ...but GOOD more! I’m in that theatre class on Tuesdays and tonight we’re going to see “Six Degrees of Separation.” I’m anticipating this play like whoa. It’ll have a lot of America in it too! Today, I found myself answering every SINGLE question asked of me just to hear my own American accent- you really miss it. When we pass people in the streets speaking with that nostalgic accent, my heartstrings pluck. ß What a queer line, huh? So that is my busy day. I also want to share some hilarious quotes the students in Andy’s Year 5 class said today. Also. Weird. The students call their teachers by their first names, hence, them calling their teacher Andy:

“Jasmine. You’re from America? Are you friends with Hannah Montana?”

“How do cows make babies?”

“Andy! We was talking about cows making babies, but now he brought up ladies and men!”

“In a beauty salon, they had free internet and there was S.E.X on it!”

“Ew, don’t be spelling it out!”

“It was disgusting. Blehh”

Forever Young,

Jas