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lilreds02
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Name: sarah
Birthday: 1/18/1984
Interests: LONDON, boston <3, music, aimless drives, BU ice hockey, clubbing, spending time w/ my partners-in-crime and the londoners, missing the londoners, crofton parties, piccadilly circus, etc.
Expertise: last semester at boston university...formerly a resident of south kensington, london. and i do believe i may have left my heart there.
Occupation: Student
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Lil Reds02
Member Since:
1/12/2002
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| So I'm sitting here sipping a Coke with a week in London under my
belt. I never truly appreciated Coca-Cola until I came here and
realized that I couldn't buy it all of the time b/c I can save a lot of
money by drinking water instead (although in many pubs and restaurants,
mineral and/or sparkling water costs more than soda.) Along that
same line, some new friends and I wandered into McDonald's the other
night after a trip to a pub (the pub's kitchen was closed) and bought
some french fries, which were possibly the best french fries
ever...maybe just because I was excited to eat something that tasted
exactly like it does at home, although I must say that bbq sauce and
ketchup here taste weird. It's interesting to consider how I fit
into this city. I'm an American student temporarily studying
here...I'm an annoying tourist reading a map and trying to figure out
how to get to Notting Hill with the District and Piccadilly tube
lines being partly down...I'm a resident of South Kensington who
watches BBC,
reads London newspapers, and takes her "rubbish" outside and down the
steps
to the rubbish storage room. I know that even in December I'll be
visiting things that I haven't seen before, but it's strange to think
that I'll still be in tourist mode 3 1/2 months from now...especially
since my longest vacation ever was 6 days at Disney World. This
city, by the way, makes Boston
look as small as I used to think Whitehall was, and it makes Whitehall
look like the smallest village possible. Everything here is very
clean and very beautiful, too. There's not a pub anywhere in the
city that doesn't have fresh, fully bloomed flowers covering its
outside walls. I need ten more sets of
eyes to be able to look at everything and everyone all at once...I feel
like a wide-eyed child, and I love it (although it sometimes makes me
feel ignorant.) I thought before coming here that I would be able
to look at people and know whether or not they were truly British (as
opposed to foreigners just living here,) but there's no way to tell
until they speak. The same with the Londoners being able to tell
whether or not I'm an American...they can't until I talk...at least
that's the impression I'm getting. Anyway...the first week went
by in a blur, and today was the first day I didn't get to see something
touristy b/c of errands and class. My Brit and Irish lit
professor looks very much like Hagrid from Harry Potter...he's rather
big and has scraggly, long brown hair, and in the past he actually
taught a film set designer or costume designer (I can't remember which)
who designed either Hagrid's house or his costumes. Speaking of
Harry Potter (Erin Gabel will enjoy this,) on this London Panoramic bus
tour my friend Sarah and I took yesterday, we drove over Lamberth
Bridge, which is the bridge that the wizard's bus drives over in the
beginning of the third movie according to our tour guide.
Our Thames River cruise was absolutely amazing (but leave it to BU to
not supply any lunch at all even though our trip was from 12:30 p.m.
until 4:30.) It was very tiring, but I couldn't understand how
anyone could fall asleep...a lot of kids did, but I was content just
sitting in the sun and wind and looking at everything. Who wants
to fall asleep and miss anything? I don't get it. But that
goes along with my inability to understand why almost everyone wants to
get drunk every single night...who has the money to do that (oh, that's
right, the "BU Princesses" do,) and why are you even here if that's all
you want to do? I don't know. Anyway...my
favorite London landmark so far is definitely the Tower Bridge...I
think I have a dozen pictures with the bridge or part of the bridge in
it. Also, the Tower of London was part of our tour yesterday, and
I actually felt knowledgeable while there about some of British
history. I didn't think anything I learned in British literature
was really cool until yesterday, when I got to see where Sir Walter
Raleigh and the two young princes were held as prisoners and where Anne
Boleyn and Catherine Howard were beheaded, and I could see the jewels,
crowns, etc. that the monarchs I've learned about wore. By the
way...Henry VIII must have really been a huge guy because I'm pretty
sure three or four of me could fit into his suit of armor. The
whole time we were walking around the tower, I couldn't get it through
my head that these were the real old buildings...it seems that many
tourist places in America are simply replicas of the real thing...and
American history is starting to seem kinda boring compared to that of
the British....the British just have so much more ceremony and
extravagance and whatnot.
Anyway...I guess I should go....I'm sure these updates will get shorter
soon...once I start actually reading for my classes and going on my
daytrips and longer trips and whatnot. So far Prague, Vienna,
Paris, and Italy are all floating around in the air (not all of them of
course, but we're thinking about Italy for our week-long break.)
Hopefully I'll be able to afford whatever we choose, if not I'll just
come back early and hang out around here for a few days, which I have
no problem with...I'll be totally excited and satisfied just going to
another country for even a few days. If anyone could get me Sara
G.'s, Puja's, Taryn's, Stephanie Burak's, and/or Heather Miller's
emails, I'd be super grateful.
My pictures page has also moved back to webshots...I guess I'm just too
familiar and comfortable w/ that program to leave it. So go
here: http://community.webshots.com/user/sarah_in_london.
That's all for now...love and miss you all.
Cheerio,
Sarah
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| i'm absolutely burnt out...
yet i still work at both the daycare and lonestar until the 25th.
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these past two weeks have been two of the most interesting/crazy weeks of my entire life.
if you want to know more, email/call/im me b/c i haven't the nerve nor the energy nor the time to detail it all out on xanga.
37 days until london, and hopefully all of the bombers are caught before then  .
p.s.- i'm thoroughly enjoying being the "guy" for once.
love always,
sarah
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last year my friend and i went to a taping of a fleetwood mac pbs
special @ the fleet center in boston, courtesy of free tickets from
bu's dog pound (aka the terrier sports fanatics' club.) apparently,
sara goldstein and yours truly appear in the above dvd a number of
times. i have not yet seen this for myself, but sara recently purchased
said dvd on a whim and has seen us on it, dancing and singing after we
rebelliously made our way from our crappy assigned seats into the vip
section and up to the second row. 
this was a pretty interesting weekend. by far the best i've had since i came back to whitehall.
cool points to:
- thursday night, seeing nick, and actually looking pretty nice to go there this time
- orientation at lonestar and starting there on wednesday at $1/hour
more than they told me i would be, plus the cute little northern lehigh
senior who was in orientation with me
- tyler's new car
- not-so-hot-tub parties with matt, tyler, and katie during the wee
hours of the morning. drummers give good back/foot massages. 
- booking my flight to london, which was $120 cheaper than the group flight bu arranged through a travel agent
- student life, which changed the guys and dolls ticket i mistakenly bought for a july show to a september show instead
- my brother randomly handing me $5 for gas today and $4 for ice cream
- the blue cushie pillow steph bought for me
- sara's
brilliant idea last night to take a spontaneous trip to philadelphia to
bar hop in honor of recent birthdays> katie's 21st and stephanie's
23rd
- me being the weekend navigator
- summer weather, which allows for going to a bar w/out a coat= no coat check, no stolen garments, no freezing our asses off!
- Tragos...first bar of the night and prettiest bar i've ever been in.
i'm a HUGE fan of the olive-shaped and -colored squishy chairs. and we are ON THEIR WEBSITE!
- scratch that...we're on their website...TWICE!
- BOSTON. after spending a night in philly, a fun night nonetheless, i
truly am convinced that boston is one of the prettiest cities ever, if
not the prettiest. being in another city made me miss boston like
crazy, though 
- seeing many of my favorites: c, steph z., katie, steph b., sara
g., josh, matt, tyler, and the bartender...and talking to brooke
(finally!) for a decent amount of time
- brooke choosing to go to grenoble, france for fall semester...can we say 'meeting up in europe together?'
not-so-cool points to:
- still being a pathetically shy loser who can't give her number of her
own initiative or ask a guy what he's up to during the upcoming weekend 
- people who get what they want out of me and then stop talking to me (???)
- making phone calls i shouldn't have made
- driving over to the post office by the airport to drop off my
passport application on thursday, only to realize that i couldn't hand it
in b/c i needed my birth certificate @ lonestar on friday
- flying into and out of gatwick instead of heathrow (gatwick= 30
minute train ride from victoria station= dragging all of my stuff all
over creation...victoria station= another cab ride to bu london)
- leaving london @ 10:25 a.m. (read: ~45 minutes to the airport +
having to be there at least 2 hours early= waking up on my last day in
london @ ~5 a.m.)
- a large cell phone bill my mother isn't pleased with
- the expensiveness of bar hopping in philadelphia
- not getting any sesame chicken when i severly craved it as we walked the streets of philly after leaving the last bar
- the cockroach in the lady's salad @ friendly's during katie's birthday dinner...EW
- i have a phone. you have a phone. i know where you live. you know
where i live. i have a car. you have a car. don't go through someone
else to get to me. i realize it may be the most convenient thing to do, but it makes me feel like i don't matter.
- my brother having his license and carting around sweaty, basketball-playing teenage boys in my car
- $25 minimum tabs
- my two jobs really kicking in starting this week 
- canaira missing the trip to philly b/c she was sick
- little sleep and getting disoriented in the city
- not being able to meet up with ali and nate this weekend
lesson learned:
don't go to get ice cream at the new all-american ice cream and donuts
place. way too many super-annoying teenagers. "That could be a pitcher
of beer @ mcgrady's or rookie's...the bar...where THEY CAN'T GO!"--
steph z., while pointing at my milkshake
on the agenda for this week: 50.5 total hours of work, hand in
passport application, set up a summer budget (?), start researching
places in europe to visit on mid-semester break, finish london forms
it certainly doesn't feel like i've been home an entire month...wow.
love always,
sarah
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why am i the world's biggest coward ever???
...at least he smiled in our direction a few times (whether out of
sheer politeness or potential interest, i do not know) and said it was
nice to see me again.
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