So, my relatively faithful once-a-week blog entries of first semester have now turned into once a month entries...this was not my intention! Balancing my internship and classes with fun things and exploring London has forced me to triage my time I had dedicated to my blog. However, I am going to update it now!
In the beginning of February, Callum and I went to Ronnie Scott’s—London’s oldest jazz club. I went because some of my Dad’s favorite performers have played there and I said I’d go visit and see a show for him. And since Valentine’s Day was a Monday this year and we both had classes, it also served as Callum and my “Valentine’s Day night out”. We saw Kenny Barron—a really good pianist, 6 time Grammy nominated. He had dedicated his whole life to performing and has played all around the world. He was amazing to watch. The place itself was really nice. On the outside, there’s just simple posters hanging in display boxes with a neon light hanging above beaming “Ronnie Scott’s” with a saxophone next to it. As we walked in, we were greeted by two very well-dressed men, complete with awesome zoot suit-inspired hats, and they were very pleasant when they directed us to the hostess’ desk. We were taken to our table—a very skinny booth-style up against a back wall and lit by the red glow of two table lamps—and watched the intro band. They were a very raggedy looking trio, but they were very talented none-the-less. And though it made me miss the music part of my life a little bit, the whole night was very fun and relaxing.
Another weekend, Callum’s mom, mom’s boyfriend, and little brother came up to London for the day. We all went out for lunch and walked around the British Museum for the afternoon. The British Museum is amazing! It has a very wide collection of everything from Egypt to China and the building itself is amazingly beautiful. We only toured around the Egyptian and Greece exhibits that day. So the following weekend, Callum and I went back and did some more exploring. We still haven’t seen all the exhibits yet! It is quite an expansive place, with large Roman columns marking the entrance, high glass ceilings, a quaint open café area, and a giant staircase in the middle leading off to various floors. It was very nice to walk around and read all the history.
On the same note of history, we also went to the Imperial War Museum—Callum’s pick. We went at the beginning of half term for younger school kids here in England, so the place was flooded with little school kids—mostly boys with cute caps—going “ah, wow, look, a bomb, a truck, a ‘name of cool big-kid-war toy here’” haha. It was a smaller building, and the exhibits were very close together, but I liked learning a bit more about England’s war history—it was more in-depth than what I’ve ever had in high school.
Classes are still going well. With only 4 weeks left of term, the school year seems to have gone by quickly. But I have lots of time after classes official end, which is really nice so that I can enjoy London and everyone I hang out with here in a non-stressed, summer-like context. It’ll be great and relaxing—I can’t wait!
My internship is still strong as well. I’ve been doing a lot of proof-reading, research for book/blog tours, and previewing new manuscripts. I definitely want to look into this as a career—I am really glad I took on this internship. J
When I’m not in class, at work, are walking around a museum, I’ve just been doing normal, average things. Reena and I still make pancakes every Friday—I enjoy sitting around in my p.j.s until 1. We also saw a movie—Black Swan. Rather good, but not the best flick to see late on a Wednesday night—too much thinking involved! Haha. I also spend a lot of time in our kitchen still, sitting and talking and drinking tea.
And now, like the title of this entry states, it was my birthday a few days ago!! I am now 21, which strangely feels so much better than turning 20. Don’t ask me why…I think it is just because I am more comfortable with “being in my 20s” now than I was last year, which is good. J I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. We had gorgeous weather! I mean, really gorgeous weather, even for London. It was warm (ish) and REALLY sunny. I had one class in the morning and actually really enjoyed my walk to and back. Then when I got back at my flat, I find that my door and the kitchen has been decorated with streamers and balloons—all Reena’s doing. I knock on her door and she was there, along with Callum and Reena’s friend Sophie, which apparently helped blowing up the balloons. We sat and talked for a bit there. Reena gave me her gift—a silver necklace of a set of keys. It is a tradition in her family that when you turn 21, you are given a key—there is some kind of folklore behind it that I need to look up still. It was really sweet. When Reena and Sophie went to their class, Callum and I went for a walk in Regents Park before his class, which was really nice. I saw lots of daffodils and other flowers springing up, which was lovely. That evening, Callum, Reena, Jess, and I went out to dinner—we had Italian food, complete with wine. Even though I’ve had wine before here, it was nice to have wine that night especially to mark my 21st. We came back to the flat afterwards to eat the beautiful cake Callum bought for me. It was chocolate with fruit and a kind of buttercream frosting on the inside and milk and white chocolate covering the outside. YUM! I like cake, haha. My parents had sent me a gift in the mail, which Reena held hostage until my actual birthday day in her room. So I opened that up next on skype with my family so they could see. It was a really nice day, filled with family, friends, and food—always a good combination.
I have posted pictures on facebook of Regents Park a few weeks ago—Callum and I like to walk there whenever there’s good weather to do so. I’ve also put up the handful of pictures that I’ve taken since there—at the park again and of my birthday celebration.
No comments:
Post a Comment