Thursday 24 December 2009
Facebook summary of this Erasmus so far
Just as Jose, little summary of this Erasmus begining. Very hilariously, cos people don't need to share my sadness when I'm sad:
Thursday 17 December 2009
Fanta de Naranja
Lu:
Los británicos no tienen fanta de naranja en los pubs, no tienen fanta de naranja en muchos supermercados y si la hay... es carísima u_U ¿Qué hacen pues los amantes de esta bebida en UK?
*Redoble de tambores*
Mezclan, señoras y señores, sí, mezclan lemonade con concentrado de naranja... ¡y está bueno!
Siento no actualizar a menudo... últimamente no me apetece nada. A ver si cuando esté en España lo echo de menos y me paso más por aquí :P
Los británicos no tienen fanta de naranja en los pubs, no tienen fanta de naranja en muchos supermercados y si la hay... es carísima u_U ¿Qué hacen pues los amantes de esta bebida en UK?*Redoble de tambores*
Mezclan, señoras y señores, sí, mezclan lemonade con concentrado de naranja... ¡y está bueno!
Siento no actualizar a menudo... últimamente no me apetece nada. A ver si cuando esté en España lo echo de menos y me paso más por aquí :P
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Mi cajón
Adri:
Mañana a estas horas estaré dormidito en mi cama de Huelva. No, no me hace ninguna ilusión, voy a echar de menos esto aunque solo me voy por tres semanas y un día. Durante la última hora y media he estado haciendo la maleta y al abrir el cajón donde guardo todo los objetos que de un modo u otro son simbólos de algún día o de muchos o yo que sé y me ha dado un arrebato nostálgico:
Mañana a estas horas estaré dormidito en mi cama de Huelva. No, no me hace ninguna ilusión, voy a echar de menos esto aunque solo me voy por tres semanas y un día. Durante la última hora y media he estado haciendo la maleta y al abrir el cajón donde guardo todo los objetos que de un modo u otro son simbólos de algún día o de muchos o yo que sé y me ha dado un arrebato nostálgico:
- Postal de Granada de Jose y 2 postales en blanco de Chinatown: La primera es fruto del detalle de Jose de enviarme una carta, a pesar de empezar la primera línea reconrdándome que no me la debe (así me gusta, haciendo amigos xD). Con todo era un detalle y al final me decidí a contestarle, me hice con dos postales en el Little Wu del Soho y compré sellos, todo para al final darme cuenta de que no tenía la dirección (sino cambiaras de casa tanto). El próximo año se subsanará esto.
- Carta de Teresa: Con la dirección en el remite, contestar la carta fue tarea fácil. Era un resumen muy resumido de su vida en Alemania, pero tenía una ovejita dibujada. Escribir la réplica me llevo más tiempo, though. Espero que haya llegado\llegue antes de que esta mujer vuelva a España. Sino todo esto tendrá bastante poco sentido xD.
- Christmas de Anna Poon, Sara y Sarah: El primer año que voy a tener 3 cenas de Navidad y que me dan los Christmas en mano. No es de extrañar que yo sí haya sentido el espíritu nadiveño (llámalo X) estando aquí, más que nunca en España.
- Mapa y billete de bus para Manchester: Que moló mucho y donde tengo que volver. Ya se ha hablado de esto antes, pero es que sin tener nada concreto, tiene mucho que ver. Y las amigas de la infancia de Lu me ofrecieron sofá donde dormir, vimos a Carlos Román, un coro cantando en la catedral y hubo gossip para rato. Volver, sí, pero un martes que yo quiero cantar el Footage xD.
- Ticket para el Fraud Fest: Único evento de la Fresher's week por el que pagué. Entre Maybe Winehoues, Kins of Leon y los Antarctic Monkeys eché un buen rato. Pero claro, es que la Fresher's Week es una semana que es la ostia y en la que haces amigos en el Belfry todos los días y en la que comes de balde xD. Así es normal que ya este pensando en escaparme el año que viene a Londres y volver. Si Ella se enrolla a lo mejor hasta tenemos casa xD.
- Ticket para el concierto real de los Arctic Mokeys: A esto le dediqué un post entero y no creo que haga falta añadir más. Ouch, aún tengo pesadillas recordando aquel brutal pogo.
- Invitación para la cena de Digby: ¿Dije comer de balde? Pues no solo eso sino que también hubo vino gratis. Huelga añadir que me cogí el mayor pedo desde que estoy aquí y eso que ha habido unos cuantos. Lu le dedicó un post y yo me lo pasé muy bien así como todo aquel que estuvo cerca de mí esa noche xD.
- Oyster gratis para todo un día: Nos la dieron en el Photo Frenzy para ahorrarnos los evidentes costes de transporte. La aproveché al máximo y ese día vi el Big Ben de día y de noche. La competición no la ganamos porque entregamos la cámara el último día y al de la Student Union se le olvidó llevárla a Downshire House, donde se lleva todo lo de los itnernacionales y está Clare Burke.
- Publicidad de la Fresher's week y libreto sobre la misma semana pero con el prosaico nombre de Welcome week.
- Ticket para el London Eye: De cuando mis padres vinieron. Me jarté de echar fotos y vi una panorámica de Londres impresionante en un día inusualmente despejado de noviembre.
- Mapa del Tube: Para no perderse entre tanta línea. En este mapa jugamos a ver que estación era cada uno mediante el sistema de cerrar los ojos y parar un dedo inocente que no paraba de moverse. A mí me tocó Camden Town. Soy cool.
- Post it sobre la Film Society: A la que me apunté y nunca fui, primero porque me coincidía con la cena en familia y cuando estás acabaron por puro descuido.
- Tarjeta de T-Mobile: La promoción de mensajes gratis durante un mes a todos los móviles de UK si recargas 10 libras el mes anterior y el anuncio de "With free texts for life I'd start a superband" me convencieron para que abandonará Nomi y me pasara a su bando.
- Programa de conciertos del Royal Albert Hall: Al final solo fui a uno, pero me llevé cuantos panfletos pude por si acaso. Un tío muy parecido a Damien Rice (sino el propio con makeup) frecuenta el sitio, así que debe ser bueno.
- Dientes reflectantes de vampiro: Comprados por 7p en el Asda. Bueno en realidad salieron gratis porque la cajera los pasó por alto. Eran de Lu, pero los prestó para completar mi disfraz de vampiro después del chasco del Poundland. No me los llegué a poner durante más de 5 minutos pero la intención era buena.
- Billete de tren Huelva-Sevilla: De mayo pasado. Ni idea de que pinta ahí.
- Tubo de neón que me dieron en el Neon Bop: Rojo y brillaba en la oscuridad. Ya no lo hace pero fue una noche en el Bop y eso implica bailes y diversión.
- Decenas de wristbands para los más variopintos eventos: Ya ni me acuerdo de cual es cada una pero no me importa. Como siga yendo a más Acoustic o Bands nights acabo consiguiendo toda la escala cromática.
- Billete de ida Sevilla-Londres: Todos los billetes con destino en Londres deberían de ser de solo ida. Porque aquí vives. No quiero volver a España, pero la certeza de que el mejor año de vida hasta ahora está punto de comenzar me mantiene. Medium-Erasmus thoughts.
Monday 14 December 2009
Manchester and weekend (Lu version)
Si copio y pego del fotolog de Lu. Total es lo mismo que antes ponía aquí, así que no hay ninguna diferencia: Pues sí, he estado dos días en Manchester con mis amigas de Alicante y me lo he pasado genial. . . habrá que repetir, ¿no? :P
Este libro... ESTE LIBRO SEÑORAS Y SEÑORES estaba en la John Rylands Library (OMG!!!!), donde también te explicaban "the bookbinding process" que consistía en crear cubiertas preciosas de libros manualmente, y donde había también una "historic reading room". Madre mía, qué pasada, una de las mejores cosas que vimos allí, desde luego. Nos llevaron también a Castlefields, al MOSI, en el que había una exposición de "air and space", qué motivación más grande ^_^, el martes por la noche salimos con las amigas de Flor al Footage, donde había un karaoke y muchos British borrachos cantando, pero no tenían Guinness... vaya tela xD Me lo pasé muy bien, además, los mancunian no son todos unos chavs como nos decía Alberto Egea, no, los hay también muy lindos (aunque no tanto como los scouse, que conste), había un puente diseñado por Calatrava, el Trinity Bridge (qué fuerte) y por la tarde del miércoles quedamos con Carlos Román y nos fuimos al Christmas Market y bebí mülled wine... hmmmm creo que es el único vino (aparte de la sangría) que me atrae así un poco más. También fuimos a la catedral y entramos y había una orquesta tocando y unos niños cantando!! (y un hombre que no paraba de mirarnos en plan... ¡no habéis pagado, qué os creéis aquí? ay omá... :(
Y nos hemos reído mucho =) Lo he pasado realmente bien y me han tratado como a una reina. ¡QUIERO VOLVER! Además, la próxima vez que vaya, Flor y yo vamos a cantar en el karaoke y Laura dice de venirse a Sheffield de excursión conmigo (porque cuando vuelva pienso ir por más tiempo :D) wiihiiii!!!
Y AHORA EL FINDE
He tenido un fin de semana de la hostia:
Viernes: Fiesta en el Bop (música una mierda, pero me lo pasé bien, como siempre xD) y cumple de Alyssa.
Sábado: Estudiando francés por la mañana (poooo), cocinando para Marisa, Matt, llegada de Carmen Moscoso, llega Kurt, hacemos pajaritas de papel, hablamos y hablamos y Kurt no para de hacerme cosquillas y gestos raros lol, cenamos lo poquito que nos queda en el fridge (no me esperaba otra boca que alimentar, ¿vale? u.U ), vamos a la fiesta de despedida de Tracey, Alyssa y Julie... todos ya bebidos... nos aburrimos, decidimos irnos a W'lands con Kurt a jugar a la play yeah yeah yeah Desde que estaba aquí no había jugado!! (bueno sí, al Guitar Hero con los JCS xD), qué guay estuvo, Luke se unió cuando jugábamos al Soul Calibur, nos quedamos las tres hablando hasta las cuatro de la mañana =)
Domingo: Me despierta Carmen diciéndome que se va O_O No me había dado ni cuenta cuando se estuvo vistiendo y demás OMG!!! Cuán profundamente puedo llegar a mimir!! French again y luego Xmas dinner con los JCS y Secret Santa con los flatmates de Adri jooo qué guay!! Le toqué a Amy y me ha comprado un pañuelo superguapo, una bufanda y un gorrito to cool!!!
Me voy a la cama, me muero. No sin que Marisa me cuente antes.
Friday 27 November 2009
Erasmus BSO (1ª parte)
Adri:
Entrada en español para variar. Acabo de venir de una fiesta de acción de gracias que al final no se ha celebrado porque resultó ser esta mañana ¬¬. Si es que lo de a.m p.m está inventado para liarse. Es como poner dos calles llamadas King's and Queen's road una al lado de la otra, y en el mismo barrio un poco más adelante volver a poner una calle llamada King's Road y otra Queen's Road la una al lado de la otra. ¿Por quéeeee?? ¿Acaso Inglaterra nos odia? En fin para variar, aquí una selección de las canciones que por un motivo u otro han entrado a formar parte de la banda sonora de esta primera parte de la Erasmus. La inestimable ayuda de Spotify ha contribuído a que pueda escucharlas hasta aburrirme:
- The Scientist (Coldplay): Por curioso que parezca nunca había escuchado a Coldplay hasta que vine aquí. Y eso que cuando estuve en Dublín había un cartel bien grandote colgado en la calle principal anunciando el nuevo disco. Tuve que estar en Inglaterra para que algo de Britpop entrara en mis oídos. Y claro Coldplay, como mayor exponente actual del género, no podía faltar. La canción también fue un descubrimiento tardío. El título no me atrajo mucho al principio, pero la canción y el genial videoclip arreglaron el desaguisado. Sin duda. la mejor de Coldplay. Lo comenté anteayer con mi flatmate Jo, que la estaba escuchando en ese momento, y coincidió conmigo.
Y es que nadie dijo que fuera fácil, pero tampoco que fuera a ser tan difícil.
- Wonderwall (Oasis): Clásico entre los clásicos y más Britpop a fin de cuentas que debería haber escuchado hace mucho. Yo pensaba que aquí sabrían que carajo significa la canción pero que va. Tienen tan poca idea como nosotros los foráneos. Simplemente es algo que queda bonito. No hay Acoustic Night en la que alguien no la cante.
- Into my arms (Nick Cave): Me encontré con esta canción un día que fui a un concierto de jazz gratuito en la cafetería del Royal Albert Hall.
Bueno, exactamente gratuito no era porque había que consumir, pero me costó lo que una taza de té. La cantante una tal Yots K hizo un cover de la canción y ahí comenzó la historia. Un poema de amor religioso hecho por un ateo. Curiosa combinación, que da lugar a esta canción lenta, sencilla y emotiva.
- Kryptonite (3 Doors Down): Flamante aparición el día que jugamos al Guitar Hero en la JCS. No sé si sonó cuando yo estaba jugando pero tanto a Lu como a mí se nos quedó el ritmo. Ella la escuchó pechá de veces ese mismo día, yo me contuve un poco más y la dosifiqué. De hecho el día que vinieron mis padres no podía dejar de caturrearla mientras los esperaba en la estación de Victoria. Recomendable desde ya, porque todos nos volvemos locos algunas vez y nos creemos superhéroes.
- Jai Ho (A.R. Rhaman, Nicole Scherzinger, The Pussycat Dolls): Esta canción no está a título personal sino a título de Lu que al principio de la Erasmus no paraba de escucharla. Yo la escuché por primera vez cuando vi Slumdog Millionaire y sí, para bailarla está bien, pero no deja de ser eso, una canción para bailar. Pero el pique de Lu con esta canción me obligó a escucharla unas pocas de veces y eso la hace formar parte de esta banda sonora.
- Elephant (Damien Rice): Cuando vine aquí, creía que ya no me quedaba nada bueno del bueno de Damien para escuchar. Me equivocaba. Había escuchado esta canción antes sin prestarle mucha atención y tuvo ser aquí dónde le di su justa medida. Lo mismo me pasó con Rootless Tree. No podré imitar a Jose e ir a un concierto de este hombre porque los únicos concierto que ha dado desde Octubre han sido en Reykiavik, Islandia y como que no me hace mucha ilusión pelarme de frío más aún. Aunque en el concierto de la tal Yots K vi a un tío que sino era él se le parecía un rato. Iba descalzo y marcaba el ritmo de las canciones con el pie. No sé si le pega a Damien un rollo tan excéntrico, el misterio puede que nunca se resuelva.
No sé si yo también estoy lately horny, pero cualquiera puede pintar un elefante mejor que yo.
- Brianstorm (Arctic Monkeys): El único concierto importante al que he ido merecía al menos una canción. Y como el disco nuevo es nu mojón como el Big Ben de grande, confortémonos pensando que hubo un tiempo en el cual valoraban la opinión que el público pudiera tener de ellos. A parte de ser la canción que mejor representa el espíritu del grupo y ser hasta divertida en ocasiones, esta canción provocó el mayor pogo visto jamás por estos ojos. Solo por eso ya merecería aparecer aquí. O por el día que Lu y yo gastamos en aprendérnosla par ano hacer el ridículo en el concierto.
- Mr. Brightside (The Killers): Canción con unos pocos de años que Lu me descubrió aquí. Al igual que con Wonderwall, todo dios se sabe aquí la letra de la canción y mira que el estribillo es raro. Con la tontería la he escuchado pechá de veces. Por ello no es de extrañar que cuando la pusieron en Oceana entráramos en un éxtasis danzarín. Aunque hay gente que no sabe si decir eager o eagle eyes xD.
Estaría bien ser Mr. Brightside un día de estos.
- Basket Case (Green Day): Alguna canción era necesaria para hablar de la inestimable labor que hizo el Music Challenge por mi cultura musical. Uno de los motivos para convertirme al Facebookismo. La canción, una de Green Day, es un ejemplo de esos grupos como Linkin Park, Blink a los cuales no escuché en mi adolescencia, cuando se supone que se debe. Si formar parte de la BSO de mi Erasmus es un homenaje tardío, al menos es mejor tarde que nunca.
- Karma Police (Radiohead): Que no, que nadie sabe lo que Wonderwall no te esfuerces. ¿Y Karma Police? Tampoco. Ya ves, aunque nunca puedas estar seguro de lo que exactamente quiere decir una canción de algún modo esta provoca algo en tu cerebro, una sensación, y te emociona y eso pasa con esta. Y la parte del final cuando empieza "And for a minute there, I lost myself " me pone los pelos punta una y otra vez. El videoclip es una rayada, curioso cuanto menos.
The Wrong Hole (DJ Lubel): Eso sí donde este una canción como esta, que se convertirá en un gran clásico de ahora en adelante, que se quite todo lo demás. El vídeo incluye los subtítulos en español. La puntería, que está infravalorada.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thsaDPCw06w
Entrada en español para variar. Acabo de venir de una fiesta de acción de gracias que al final no se ha celebrado porque resultó ser esta mañana ¬¬. Si es que lo de a.m p.m está inventado para liarse. Es como poner dos calles llamadas King's and Queen's road una al lado de la otra, y en el mismo barrio un poco más adelante volver a poner una calle llamada King's Road y otra Queen's Road la una al lado de la otra. ¿Por quéeeee?? ¿Acaso Inglaterra nos odia? En fin para variar, aquí una selección de las canciones que por un motivo u otro han entrado a formar parte de la banda sonora de esta primera parte de la Erasmus. La inestimable ayuda de Spotify ha contribuído a que pueda escucharlas hasta aburrirme:
Y es que nadie dijo que fuera fácil, pero tampoco que fuera a ser tan difícil.
- Wonderwall (Oasis): Clásico entre los clásicos y más Britpop a fin de cuentas que debería haber escuchado hace mucho. Yo pensaba que aquí sabrían que carajo significa la canción pero que va. Tienen tan poca idea como nosotros los foráneos. Simplemente es algo que queda bonito. No hay Acoustic Night en la que alguien no la cante.
Bueno, exactamente gratuito no era porque había que consumir, pero me costó lo que una taza de té. La cantante una tal Yots K hizo un cover de la canción y ahí comenzó la historia. Un poema de amor religioso hecho por un ateo. Curiosa combinación, que da lugar a esta canción lenta, sencilla y emotiva.
- Kryptonite (3 Doors Down): Flamante aparición el día que jugamos al Guitar Hero en la JCS. No sé si sonó cuando yo estaba jugando pero tanto a Lu como a mí se nos quedó el ritmo. Ella la escuchó pechá de veces ese mismo día, yo me contuve un poco más y la dosifiqué. De hecho el día que vinieron mis padres no podía dejar de caturrearla mientras los esperaba en la estación de Victoria. Recomendable desde ya, porque todos nos volvemos locos algunas vez y nos creemos superhéroes.
- Jai Ho (A.R. Rhaman, Nicole Scherzinger, The Pussycat Dolls): Esta canción no está a título personal sino a título de Lu que al principio de la Erasmus no paraba de escucharla. Yo la escuché por primera vez cuando vi Slumdog Millionaire y sí, para bailarla está bien, pero no deja de ser eso, una canción para bailar. Pero el pique de Lu con esta canción me obligó a escucharla unas pocas de veces y eso la hace formar parte de esta banda sonora.
No sé si yo también estoy lately horny, pero cualquiera puede pintar un elefante mejor que yo.
- Brianstorm (Arctic Monkeys): El único concierto importante al que he ido merecía al menos una canción. Y como el disco nuevo es nu mojón como el Big Ben de grande, confortémonos pensando que hubo un tiempo en el cual valoraban la opinión que el público pudiera tener de ellos. A parte de ser la canción que mejor representa el espíritu del grupo y ser hasta divertida en ocasiones, esta canción provocó el mayor pogo visto jamás por estos ojos. Solo por eso ya merecería aparecer aquí. O por el día que Lu y yo gastamos en aprendérnosla par ano hacer el ridículo en el concierto.
- Mr. Brightside (The Killers): Canción con unos pocos de años que Lu me descubrió aquí. Al igual que con Wonderwall, todo dios se sabe aquí la letra de la canción y mira que el estribillo es raro. Con la tontería la he escuchado pechá de veces. Por ello no es de extrañar que cuando la pusieron en Oceana entráramos en un éxtasis danzarín. Aunque hay gente que no sabe si decir eager o eagle eyes xD.
Estaría bien ser Mr. Brightside un día de estos.
- Basket Case (Green Day): Alguna canción era necesaria para hablar de la inestimable labor que hizo el Music Challenge por mi cultura musical. Uno de los motivos para convertirme al Facebookismo. La canción, una de Green Day, es un ejemplo de esos grupos como Linkin Park, Blink a los cuales no escuché en mi adolescencia, cuando se supone que se debe. Si formar parte de la BSO de mi Erasmus es un homenaje tardío, al menos es mejor tarde que nunca.
The Wrong Hole (DJ Lubel): Eso sí donde este una canción como esta, que se convertirá en un gran clásico de ahora en adelante, que se quite todo lo demás. El vídeo incluye los subtítulos en español. La puntería, que está infravalorada.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thsaDPCw06w
Tuesday 24 November 2009
No puedo dormir
Lu:
Necesito a mis amigas, me siento bastante mal, necesito hablar con ellas, contarles las gilipolleces que se me han pasao por la cabeza en un día, las echo de menos, echo de menos a Marisa, que se fue anoche. . .
Y encima las canciones que escucho no me animan precisamente, porque me recuerdan a ellas, a cuando estábamos en "Palmera Real", en la 210 una noche random y Marisa empezó a poner vídeos de Estopa:
Bueno, supongo que todos tenemos nuestros días de bajón, también estando de Erasmus (aunque se supone que esto solo pasaba en los primeros días...). Aunque puede influir el hecho de que el miércoles será mi vigésimo bday y siempre me embajona cumplir años. Estoy nerviosa por algo que aún no ha pasado (x2). Uf. Habrá que meterse en la cama ya o mañana va a escuchar a Andy Walker quien yo te diga...
Necesito a mis amigas, me siento bastante mal, necesito hablar con ellas, contarles las gilipolleces que se me han pasao por la cabeza en un día, las echo de menos, echo de menos a Marisa, que se fue anoche. . .
Y encima las canciones que escucho no me animan precisamente, porque me recuerdan a ellas, a cuando estábamos en "Palmera Real", en la 210 una noche random y Marisa empezó a poner vídeos de Estopa:
Bueno, supongo que todos tenemos nuestros días de bajón, también estando de Erasmus (aunque se supone que esto solo pasaba en los primeros días...). Aunque puede influir el hecho de que el miércoles será mi vigésimo bday y siempre me embajona cumplir años. Estoy nerviosa por algo que aún no ha pasado (x2). Uf. Habrá que meterse en la cama ya o mañana va a escuchar a Andy Walker quien yo te diga...
♫ y tus ojos me miraron y la Luna se cayó del cielo [...] pero me pongo tan malo cada vez que me roza tu pelo [...] cuéntame un cuento, dame locura!! ♫ y si tienes que marcharte... llévame en una maleta ♫
Sunday 22 November 2009
Arctic Monkeys Gig
Adri:
Finally, Lu, Eli and me went to the Arctic Monkeys concert. It was gonna be our first real concert in London (Fraud Feast and Tahani tried really hard, but you know) and it was going to be in Wembley Arena (not the stadium, what a pity, maybe some other time). We had some technical problems in getting there, because we had to take the purple line (for those who are really worried about the colors, the Metropolitan one), and the fast and medium tubes didn't stop at wembley park, which was our stop. And our tube was actually goin fast. We pass some stations without stopping. But at the end it was a false alarm, the tube stopped at Wembley. We expected a long queue, but in fact it was short, cause we arrived quite early. Moreover, we managed to get a place near the singers.
People there were really drunk. A lot of drunken British I mean. Before the Arctics, a group nobody known played (three guys with long moustaches like the gauls in Asterix) and the people started jumping and shouting like if it was the main gig xD. Well, to tell the truth not exactly like that because when the real concert began people acted more violently. The first song Arctic's played was a new one, so anybody got excited. The storm started with "Brianstorm" and the people around us started to do a savage pogo. So hard that we almost fall down. Lu got lost in the wave of people but Eli and I succeced in remained together. . The only good thing about that pogo is that you end up touching asses without actually having the intention of xD. After that the situation was much calmed.
About the singers, well, lets say that they were as emotionless as a sleepy mussel. They just played their songs one after the other without saying anything to the public nor trying to be empathic. Besides, they don't know anything about when they have to play each song. Instead of saving the most famous songs for the end, the played "I bet that you look good on the dancefloor" in forth place. To top it up they didn't play "Leave before the lights come on". In spite of all this the concert was great, public made their ethilic joyfulness contagious.
That's the good thing about gigs. No matter who is singing, if you want to you have a great time you have it. And if you know the songs of the group, the better. Now I can cross from my list of things I should do in London " Going to a real concert" :D
Finally, Lu, Eli and me went to the Arctic Monkeys concert. It was gonna be our first real concert in London (Fraud Feast and Tahani tried really hard, but you know) and it was going to be in Wembley Arena (not the stadium, what a pity, maybe some other time). We had some technical problems in getting there, because we had to take the purple line (for those who are really worried about the colors, the Metropolitan one), and the fast and medium tubes didn't stop at wembley park, which was our stop. And our tube was actually goin fast. We pass some stations without stopping. But at the end it was a false alarm, the tube stopped at Wembley. We expected a long queue, but in fact it was short, cause we arrived quite early. Moreover, we managed to get a place near the singers.
People there were really drunk. A lot of drunken British I mean. Before the Arctics, a group nobody known played (three guys with long moustaches like the gauls in Asterix) and the people started jumping and shouting like if it was the main gig xD. Well, to tell the truth not exactly like that because when the real concert began people acted more violently. The first song Arctic's played was a new one, so anybody got excited. The storm started with "Brianstorm" and the people around us started to do a savage pogo. So hard that we almost fall down. Lu got lost in the wave of people but Eli and I succeced in remained together. . The only good thing about that pogo is that you end up touching asses without actually having the intention of xD. After that the situation was much calmed.
About the singers, well, lets say that they were as emotionless as a sleepy mussel. They just played their songs one after the other without saying anything to the public nor trying to be empathic. Besides, they don't know anything about when they have to play each song. Instead of saving the most famous songs for the end, the played "I bet that you look good on the dancefloor" in forth place. To top it up they didn't play "Leave before the lights come on". In spite of all this the concert was great, public made their ethilic joyfulness contagious.
That's the good thing about gigs. No matter who is singing, if you want to you have a great time you have it. And if you know the songs of the group, the better. Now I can cross from my list of things I should do in London " Going to a real concert" :D
Saturday 21 November 2009
Lost in London
Lu:
My first overnight visitor has been Marisa. She came from Berlin last Friday and I picked her up in Victoria Coach Station (despite my cold, temperature and coughing). We arrived at Roehampton at 3 in the morning! It was a nightmare trying to stop the N11, 'cos it was completely FULL.
We spent the Saturday together: we went to Tower Hill with the JCS, we had a good time (I played DDR!! ^_^), but it didn't come to my expectations, I thought there would be more cosplayers (that's why I brought Roxane with me!), but nope. I introduced Marisa to my friends there; Anna and Kurt (Luke seemed daydreaming, so I didn't say anything :S). Kurt was talkative, he was happy 'cos he had asked Sara out, and I am glad now everything had run smoothly for the two of 'em ;-) After a couple of hours or so, we headed to Soho with Adrien (but this story has already been told).
[...] in our way home, Harish texted Marisa: "find ur way to elephant&castle at 11. is dat kool?" Obviously, if it's 9 in the evening we think of 11pm, but for the British that's sth implied in the conversation and they think you've met at 11am the following morning. Therefore... picture my pale face when Harish calls me at 2 in the morning with his cockney-Indian accent I don't understand (damn!), telling that Marisa is lost in Central, that they've had a misunderstanding 'cos he was supposed to meet her at 11 in the morning!! And Marisa without battery in her cell-phone. Great. It took her 8h to come back from Elephant&Castle (which is not the best place to be at night)!!! I was incredibly happy when she entered in my room... =)
Her anecdotes:
In Elephant & Castle
- A man offered her ganya.
- A man asked her if she was sad and why was she sad.
- A boy whistled her.
In Victoria
- She swapped card sims with a Spanish group of people, realizing it was a waste of time 'cos she had my number in her mobile phone, not in her card.
In the N11
- She missed the Hammersmith bus stop.
In the 65
- The bus driver wanted to top up her oyster (she was really low), she talked about him as if he was her guardian angel.
In Roehampton
- There were 3 different bus stops in Roehampton and she got lost and asked an old crazy man for directions. And the man shouted: "My Lord! This lady has been lost in London all night long!!" So, Marisa aware of the situation started to cry a bit... but she found the dorm at 7 am!!
The following days she's stayed at Harish's. She came here in the middle of the week telling me she would leave on Monday (at first, she came only for a weekend LOL). So guess what, I still got her here, I'm writing an essay for photography and she's sleeping ^_^
My first overnight visitor has been Marisa. She came from Berlin last Friday and I picked her up in Victoria Coach Station (despite my cold, temperature and coughing). We arrived at Roehampton at 3 in the morning! It was a nightmare trying to stop the N11, 'cos it was completely FULL.
We spent the Saturday together: we went to Tower Hill with the JCS, we had a good time (I played DDR!! ^_^), but it didn't come to my expectations, I thought there would be more cosplayers (that's why I brought Roxane with me!), but nope. I introduced Marisa to my friends there; Anna and Kurt (Luke seemed daydreaming, so I didn't say anything :S). Kurt was talkative, he was happy 'cos he had asked Sara out, and I am glad now everything had run smoothly for the two of 'em ;-) After a couple of hours or so, we headed to Soho with Adrien (but this story has already been told).
[...] in our way home, Harish texted Marisa: "find ur way to elephant&castle at 11. is dat kool?" Obviously, if it's 9 in the evening we think of 11pm, but for the British that's sth implied in the conversation and they think you've met at 11am the following morning. Therefore... picture my pale face when Harish calls me at 2 in the morning with his cockney-Indian accent I don't understand (damn!), telling that Marisa is lost in Central, that they've had a misunderstanding 'cos he was supposed to meet her at 11 in the morning!! And Marisa without battery in her cell-phone. Great. It took her 8h to come back from Elephant&Castle (which is not the best place to be at night)!!! I was incredibly happy when she entered in my room... =)
Her anecdotes:
In Elephant & Castle
- A man offered her ganya.
- A man asked her if she was sad and why was she sad.
- A boy whistled her.
In Victoria
- She swapped card sims with a Spanish group of people, realizing it was a waste of time 'cos she had my number in her mobile phone, not in her card.
In the N11
- She missed the Hammersmith bus stop.
In the 65
- The bus driver wanted to top up her oyster (she was really low), she talked about him as if he was her guardian angel.
In Roehampton
- There were 3 different bus stops in Roehampton and she got lost and asked an old crazy man for directions. And the man shouted: "My Lord! This lady has been lost in London all night long!!" So, Marisa aware of the situation started to cry a bit... but she found the dorm at 7 am!!
The following days she's stayed at Harish's. She came here in the middle of the week telling me she would leave on Monday (at first, she came only for a weekend LOL). So guess what, I still got her here, I'm writing an essay for photography and she's sleeping ^_^
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Last Saturday
Adri:
Last Saturday was the Anime League event wtih the people of the JCS. I thought it was going to be like the Expo but in smaller size. I was wrong. It was even smaller. Actually, it was in a pub. Only a few shops and a television xD. But it was nice, at least I spent almost all the day talking in English. And I bought a surprise Christmas sock which turned out to contain 2 small figures of Dragon Quest, 2 small figures of Macross and a Bleach necklace. Moreover I saw part of an anime called Heitalia whose plot has captured my attention, so maybe i'll cast an eye over it. After that Lu came with her friend Marisa who came here this weekend in a love bussiness trip. Lu tried to play DDR with acceptable results. I tried to play with FAIL results, but it was OK. A photogtaph to illustrate the topic:
Then, the people of the JCS began to leave the place. We stayed a little more, but not too much. Lu wanted Marisa to know the Soho O'neills and there we went. I was completly crowded. The three floors. The reason: There was a match between Ireland and France and the place was filled with people of those countries. An example: When the Marselleise started to sound some people there began to sing along, when the unknown Irish hymn began to sound happened the same. I supported Ireland, because of the good times spent in Dublin last year summer. Besides I ordered a Guinness so I couldn't be more filled with Irish spirit. Lu a Marisa ordered a Foster's instead, because Lu has developped a liking for that beer, too soft in my opinion but still drinkable.
The atmosphere in bar was a little tough. Lots of people there.Not normal people but hooligans. Suited hooligans though. But nothing mattered and we introduced ourselves in that atmosphere, shouting or gettin nervous every time there was a goal chance for Ireland or for France. Was funny. At the end Ireland lost by one goal but I didn't notice that till the day after cause we only were there the first half of the game. After that we returned back to the University and Marisa went to meet his guy to Elephant&Castle, but this another adventure that deserves to be told by Lu with more detail.
Cheeeers!!!
Last Saturday was the Anime League event wtih the people of the JCS. I thought it was going to be like the Expo but in smaller size. I was wrong. It was even smaller. Actually, it was in a pub. Only a few shops and a television xD. But it was nice, at least I spent almost all the day talking in English. And I bought a surprise Christmas sock which turned out to contain 2 small figures of Dragon Quest, 2 small figures of Macross and a Bleach necklace. Moreover I saw part of an anime called Heitalia whose plot has captured my attention, so maybe i'll cast an eye over it. After that Lu came with her friend Marisa who came here this weekend in a love bussiness trip. Lu tried to play DDR with acceptable results. I tried to play with FAIL results, but it was OK. A photogtaph to illustrate the topic:
Then, the people of the JCS began to leave the place. We stayed a little more, but not too much. Lu wanted Marisa to know the Soho O'neills and there we went. I was completly crowded. The three floors. The reason: There was a match between Ireland and France and the place was filled with people of those countries. An example: When the Marselleise started to sound some people there began to sing along, when the unknown Irish hymn began to sound happened the same. I supported Ireland, because of the good times spent in Dublin last year summer. Besides I ordered a Guinness so I couldn't be more filled with Irish spirit. Lu a Marisa ordered a Foster's instead, because Lu has developped a liking for that beer, too soft in my opinion but still drinkable.
The atmosphere in bar was a little tough. Lots of people there.Not normal people but hooligans. Suited hooligans though. But nothing mattered and we introduced ourselves in that atmosphere, shouting or gettin nervous every time there was a goal chance for Ireland or for France. Was funny. At the end Ireland lost by one goal but I didn't notice that till the day after cause we only were there the first half of the game. After that we returned back to the University and Marisa went to meet his guy to Elephant&Castle, but this another adventure that deserves to be told by Lu with more detail.
Cheeeers!!!
Friday 13 November 2009
Oceana, Kingston
Lu:
I am so sorry you had waited for me uploading that long, but here I am!
In these two weeks I've had awesome experiences to tell, like...
...I was invited to a private party in a posh club called "The Velvet Room" in Piccadilly. This pic was taken b4 leaving Digby Stuart, wiv Anna Poon and Sara Bellwood ^_^ It was fun, the Indian guys dancin' bhangra, meeting new people,... =)
...I went to the cinema on Saturday, wiv Robin & Eli to watch The imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It was... different. I can say I liked it, 'cos in fact I did, and Johnny Depp appeared as well, but... it's not going to be one of my favs. After going to the movies, Robin invited me to a Carling in her flat and I stayed till 2 talking wiv her and her flatm8s =)
...ASDA has ripped us off U¬¬ So we won't go again at least in 3 weeks. Jhm!
...On Wednesday, I was with Tracey having a look at Photoshop; masks, layers, all that stuff. And I was invited to go to Oceana in Kingston upon Thames, with the JCS, but I didn't feel like it. Therefore, Tracey and me were planning to go to The Comedy Tree the following day. When... out of the blue, I ended up in the website of Oceana and we saw that FREE PASS VOUCHER... we looked at each other and we decided to go! (BTW, I met Sam, her flatmate... that's a hot guy!). 2h later we were drinking Foster's and Coronas in my flat with Adrien. He left before us, 'cos he had met the JCS @ Sandra's and Tracey and me were waiting for Robin and LaToya. Tipsy Tracey is fucking hilarious xDDDD We were working, we were working x_____D We took the 85 towards Kingston, we entered for free and we ended up with the JCS, together, nice group =) Wes came later.
I had a supergreat time at Oceana. With the spectators who jumped on stage:
- In the disco room we were taking pictures of the group and that party-animal decided to appear in them too, he posed with us xD
- While chilling out upstairs the pop room, the "high five" guy we came across twice haha
- And Adam, the drunkard xD He couldn't find his glass 'n he thought the table went around on its own x_D He was fucking sexy 'n I got his numba, but... dunno... xD
- A guy dressed in colourful tights were holding a lady upside-down around the club!! xD
Boys there were handsome, there were loads of'em, not like in The Bop, where you can only see the ones from uni and most of'em gay U¬¬ Adrien told me the girls were incredibly pretty there too, so we have to come back, deffo! hahaha And play "Have you met...?" x_D A Portuguese man tried to pick me up, but he wasn't good-looking and he seemed he was in his thirties! OMG! I danced wiv him (didn't see that a prob) but when he started to touched my hands, to get close... nooooo let's run away from here! xD And the guys were laughing at the scene and taking pics so they didn't help me T_T
OMG I almost forget this! While we were dancing in the pop room... the DJ played The Killers, Kings of Leon and... BLINK 182!!! OMG!!! That was the best "music part" of the night ^_^
We took the 85 back Roe and... I think that's it. AWESOME. We had the time of our lives :P
Apart from that... I met Kurt yesterday... 'cos he was low 'cos his 2 year girlfriend dumped him, and he helped me wiv my Luke stuff so we met at Whitelands @ 8 and... we said goodbye @ 12. Good times. Four hours practising English... yay! But the problem is that... I thought I had found a friend here (a male one)... and.. he dropped some hints while being wiv me... I think he's a nice guy, not sexy, but so funny and good-looking, but when he told me he was a fiancé when 16 and he almost had a child before uni... he lost 999999999999999999999999999 points, out of the blue xD Hope we can still be friends, 'cos he rocks! ^o^
And tonite... tonite MARISA IS COMING TO TOWN!!!!!! (L)! Can't wait any longa! =)
I am so sorry you had waited for me uploading that long, but here I am!
In these two weeks I've had awesome experiences to tell, like...
...I went to the cinema on Saturday, wiv Robin & Eli to watch The imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It was... different. I can say I liked it, 'cos in fact I did, and Johnny Depp appeared as well, but... it's not going to be one of my favs. After going to the movies, Robin invited me to a Carling in her flat and I stayed till 2 talking wiv her and her flatm8s =)
...ASDA has ripped us off U¬¬ So we won't go again at least in 3 weeks. Jhm!
...On Wednesday, I was with Tracey having a look at Photoshop; masks, layers, all that stuff. And I was invited to go to Oceana in Kingston upon Thames, with the JCS, but I didn't feel like it. Therefore, Tracey and me were planning to go to The Comedy Tree the following day. When... out of the blue, I ended up in the website of Oceana and we saw that FREE PASS VOUCHER... we looked at each other and we decided to go! (BTW, I met Sam, her flatmate... that's a hot guy!). 2h later we were drinking Foster's and Coronas in my flat with Adrien. He left before us, 'cos he had met the JCS @ Sandra's and Tracey and me were waiting for Robin and LaToya. Tipsy Tracey is fucking hilarious xDDDD We were working, we were working x_____D We took the 85 towards Kingston, we entered for free and we ended up with the JCS, together, nice group =) Wes came later.
- In the disco room we were taking pictures of the group and that party-animal decided to appear in them too, he posed with us xD
- While chilling out upstairs the pop room, the "high five" guy we came across twice haha
- And Adam, the drunkard xD He couldn't find his glass 'n he thought the table went around on its own x_D He was fucking sexy 'n I got his numba, but... dunno... xD
Boys there were handsome, there were loads of'em, not like in The Bop, where you can only see the ones from uni and most of'em gay U¬¬ Adrien told me the girls were incredibly pretty there too, so we have to come back, deffo! hahaha And play "Have you met...?" x_D A Portuguese man tried to pick me up, but he wasn't good-looking and he seemed he was in his thirties! OMG! I danced wiv him (didn't see that a prob) but when he started to touched my hands, to get close... nooooo let's run away from here! xD And the guys were laughing at the scene and taking pics so they didn't help me T_T
OMG I almost forget this! While we were dancing in the pop room... the DJ played The Killers, Kings of Leon and... BLINK 182!!! OMG!!! That was the best "music part" of the night ^_^
We took the 85 back Roe and... I think that's it. AWESOME. We had the time of our lives :P
Apart from that... I met Kurt yesterday... 'cos he was low 'cos his 2 year girlfriend dumped him, and he helped me wiv my Luke stuff so we met at Whitelands @ 8 and... we said goodbye @ 12. Good times. Four hours practising English... yay! But the problem is that... I thought I had found a friend here (a male one)... and.. he dropped some hints while being wiv me... I think he's a nice guy, not sexy, but so funny and good-looking, but when he told me he was a fiancé when 16 and he almost had a child before uni... he lost 999999999999999999999999999 points, out of the blue xD Hope we can still be friends, 'cos he rocks! ^o^
And tonite... tonite MARISA IS COMING TO TOWN!!!!!! (L)! Can't wait any longa! =)
Friday 6 November 2009
Shepherd's Bush connection, Guitar Hero and Quiz Machine
Adri:
As Lu refuses to upload interesting stuff about our everyday life here and instead upload boring posts like the last one (which was past course homework) so I guess I'm alone in taking care of this part:
The Shepherd's Bush part have been told by Lu in her Fotolog(the place where she tells that type of stuff I was talking before) and she did it quite well so just go there and see.
Yesterday, Bonfire Night (fireworks don't amazed me so much) the JCS organised a Guitar Hero competition and an anime projection. Compared to Guitar Hero, the anime projection fainted, so we went to the Guitar Hero thing. I was the first time I played in my life, but I did it fair enough. My highest puntuation was 70% in higher-easy level (that means easy level, difficult song xD). And I learnt lot of songs that I should have known before, like Livin' on a Prayer, In the Shadows or Kryptonite.
We stayed there till 10 so I thought I wasn't gonna made it to the acoustic night (we thought that it was off at 12) so I felt quite depressed because I had in mind goin out that night. At the end, although it was eleven, I decided to go alone to Whitelands. The first good new I ve encountered arriving there was that the pint of Guinness was only 1 pound! So I obviously ordered one. Then I started to look for someone I would know and I met Dane's flatmates Sam, Michael and Chantal. I tried to talk with them but was really hard to understand them partly because of the loud music partly because of the twisted accent of Michael partly because they talked very few, even among them.
But things changed when they decided to go to the Quiz Machine. It was one of those typical bars machine full of touch videogames that are also common in Spain with the difference that here if you do it well you earn money! At first they played the Family Guy quiz, which was a quiz in which your objective consisted in achieve all family guy characters by answering questions and then another one called Pub Quiz in which you just have to answer questions one after the other. I enjoyed it very much, I love trivial games and I have a good time every time I play. I wasn't as good as I used to because many of the question were related to England but even with that I managed to know some questions the others didn't. Michael, who was the one that paid, ended up with having neither win nor lost money, so it was fun for free.
Today my parents have come to visit me, so I'm not gonna be, if any, the one that uploaded things this weekend. Lu is right now in a party. It something interesting happens to her, then she won't upload anything so let's pray for the contrary xDD.
As Lu refuses to upload interesting stuff about our everyday life here and instead upload boring posts like the last one (which was past course homework) so I guess I'm alone in taking care of this part:
The Shepherd's Bush part have been told by Lu in her Fotolog(the place where she tells that type of stuff I was talking before) and she did it quite well so just go there and see.
Yesterday, Bonfire Night (fireworks don't amazed me so much) the JCS organised a Guitar Hero competition and an anime projection. Compared to Guitar Hero, the anime projection fainted, so we went to the Guitar Hero thing. I was the first time I played in my life, but I did it fair enough. My highest puntuation was 70% in higher-easy level (that means easy level, difficult song xD). And I learnt lot of songs that I should have known before, like Livin' on a Prayer, In the Shadows or Kryptonite.
We stayed there till 10 so I thought I wasn't gonna made it to the acoustic night (we thought that it was off at 12) so I felt quite depressed because I had in mind goin out that night. At the end, although it was eleven, I decided to go alone to Whitelands. The first good new I ve encountered arriving there was that the pint of Guinness was only 1 pound! So I obviously ordered one. Then I started to look for someone I would know and I met Dane's flatmates Sam, Michael and Chantal. I tried to talk with them but was really hard to understand them partly because of the loud music partly because of the twisted accent of Michael partly because they talked very few, even among them.
But things changed when they decided to go to the Quiz Machine. It was one of those typical bars machine full of touch videogames that are also common in Spain with the difference that here if you do it well you earn money! At first they played the Family Guy quiz, which was a quiz in which your objective consisted in achieve all family guy characters by answering questions and then another one called Pub Quiz in which you just have to answer questions one after the other. I enjoyed it very much, I love trivial games and I have a good time every time I play. I wasn't as good as I used to because many of the question were related to England but even with that I managed to know some questions the others didn't. Michael, who was the one that paid, ended up with having neither win nor lost money, so it was fun for free.
Today my parents have come to visit me, so I'm not gonna be, if any, the one that uploaded things this weekend. Lu is right now in a party. It something interesting happens to her, then she won't upload anything so let's pray for the contrary xDD.
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Driving over lemons
Lu:
I was writing an exhibition review of the gallery I visited with Tracey and Adrien in Brixton; Photofusion. And I am likely to upload this review, but I came across with the one I wrote last year for the BIII course, and here it is:
I was writing an exhibition review of the gallery I visited with Tracey and Adrien in Brixton; Photofusion. And I am likely to upload this review, but I came across with the one I wrote last year for the BIII course, and here it is:
Driving over lemons, Stewart, C. London: Penguin Books, 2006. 247.
Chris Stewart, ex-drummer of the English rock band Genesis, wrote the novel Driving over lemons at El Valero, a cottage in the Alpujarras ―the foothills of Southern Sierra Nevada in Spain. He and his wife Ana had purchased it ten years ago and they continue making a living there, with their sweet daughter, Chlöe. This is the first book of a trilogy, since after the success it had, Stewart released A Parrot In The Pepper Tree in 2002 and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society in 2006.
Driving over lemons tells the story of the drastic decision Chris made without seeking advice from Ana: leaving the United Kingdom in order to live in a cottage, El Valero, in the Southern foothills of Granada, in which they had to learn how to stock up to survive. Nevertheless, the neighbours living around did not hesitate to help them as much as they could. Bearing in mind that El Valero lacked drinking water, electricity and it was almost inaccessible ―neither by car, nor on foot―, the Stewart faced the construction of a bridge over the close and unpredictable river Trévelez, they first attended the well-known matanzas, learnt how to water the acequias, made a smooth transition to the rural-Spanish gastronomy: papas a lo pobre and costa wine. Apart from that, they harvested their first olive crop, aided their sheeps to lamb, sheeps which were sheared by Stewart and the neighbours together. Besides, they got used to the changeable weather of the zone, which some days covered their land with heavy rainfalls, so that they could stay isolated for weeks! Finally, their last adventure at El Valero was bringing a baby to life, Chlöe. Furthermore, they fitted into the group of Granadinos that inhabited the valley, they felt part of them and what is more, they discovered more foreigners in their very same situation.
The way the novel is written makes it easier to read; the book has a linear narrative, which means that it does not contein either flashback or flash-forward. Apart from that, the landscapes are perfectly described. In fact, they are so well narrated, that we manage to escape from the daily skyscrapers and tubes to place ourselves into the breathtaking Andalusian valleys. Therefore it is a tireless description, not very deep so that the dynamic dialogues the author has created make the reading pleasant and enjoyable. Stewart adds a touch of humour to every new sitatuation that should not be forgotten. What can be clearly seen in this extract, where he introduced the hippy Welsh couple Amanda and Malcolm: «There seems to be a preponderance of eccentric women among the foreigners here [...] Amanda and Malcolm are one Duch couple: typical, in their way, of the Órgiva New Agers. Malcolm has long white hair and a penchant for loose flowing clothes. Rodrigo, whose flock of goats ravages the wilderness around Amanda and Malcolm’s land, is unable to accept that Malcolm is a man [...] and he refers to them, as ‘those two Englishwomen’».
Chris Stewart –known as Cristóbal by his Spanish friends-, is the main character of the novel and he shows himself as a humble human being, interested in what surrounds him, well-behaved, who fights nail and tooth for transforming El Valero into an habitable place for his family. As soon as the reader begins turning the pages of the book, they realize how Stewart treats his wife; he does it as if she was an angel fallen from Heaven, he is very caring with her, sometimes a little henpecked though. As a whole, these are the keys of the success Driving over lemons has had: it is impossible not to take a liking to Chris throughout the story.
Otherwise Ana seems distrustful when it comes to meeting the inhabitants of the valley, as it is shown in the following piece of text ―which is a conversation about Pedro (the former owner of El Valero) Ana and Chris are having: «‘It’s one thing buying a peasant farm, it’s quite another thing buying the peasant1 with it’ [...] ‘You know I don’t like that word, Ana. I really do think it would be as well not to use it’». Despite this kind of reactions she could have had at the beginning, she ended up getting on like a house on fire with some neighbours, such as Belinda or Expira.
The reader’s attention is attracted by a vast command of rural vocabulary, understandable at every moment. Besides, the recipient of the book appreciates the usage of Spanish words trhoughout the plot, that Stewart bothers to translate into English; papas a lo pobre «poor man’s potatoes». After this one, he writes a mini recipe, since the reader may be interested in how to cook them. There are many other examples, take; matanzas «Everyone around here keeps pigs, fattening them throuhg the year and killing them at the traditional matanzas in the fly-free days of winter», chumbos «prickly pear» or acequias «watering channels» among many others.
Moreover, the book incorporates a physical features map showing the Alpujarras, in order to help the reader to locate each scene when reading.
The purpose of the author may have been to catch the reader’s eye to the simple things of life; the modest people living in Órgiva, the stories the shepherds tell him,... At least once, the people living in the noisy and polluted atmosphere of a metropolis have dreamt to escape from it, to feel the wildlife the country offers. Maybe, that is why this novel had such an outstanding acceptance, since it achieved the number 1 in the UK sales.
Despite the fact that Driving over lemons has amazing descriptions and a rich vocabulary, this book leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. Althought it is not a marvel, it is an entertaining work, that is true ―with which you learn the geography of the Alpujarras and the rural tasks mentionned, with just a few strokes of the brush. Therefore, I would recommend it just in case you like country life, or if you are looking for a novel with a hilarious touch or even if you want to escape from daily life for an afternoon. So, do you belong to any of these groups? Then, give it a go. You have nothing to lose.
[1] Here we can see that the word peasant has two different meanings: country people and country bumpkin. The first one has no negative connotations, but the second one does.
Thursday 29 October 2009
Anime Convention
Adri:
Bigger, more populated but more expensive than Jerez. This is London! Yeah ten pounds it's pretty expensive for the entrance ticket, but deserves it. I would say even that it deserves the hour and a quarter of queue, well only forty five minutes for us that discovered a shortcut by ignorance and accident xD. The amount of people cosplayed was AMAZING!! We saw a Halo's Master Chief, Darth Vader and some imperial troops, three Sefirots and Clouds, some Kakashis (with sharingan), really well done predators and aliens, a Godzilla, a Ronald McDonald, the Ghostbusters, a princess Mononoke and so on, and so on, and so on... A London size Anime Convention.
In the photo here, Lu with a sharingan user xD. But apart from the people, the place itself was also awesome. Lots of shops (with expensive stuff, but nice to see), lots of cheap manga (obviously never the number one, always number 2 or 5 xD), lots of videogames to play (actually I played the new Dinasty Warriors and another one very strange about creating undead soldiers xD), lots of competitions (cosplay, DDR...) tables and tables for playing Yugi Oh! (here, more important than Magic) and also a Warthog that I couldn't help taking a photo with, only to make Jesus jealous xD.
You know AWEEEESOME XD.
Bigger, more populated but more expensive than Jerez. This is London! Yeah ten pounds it's pretty expensive for the entrance ticket, but deserves it. I would say even that it deserves the hour and a quarter of queue, well only forty five minutes for us that discovered a shortcut by ignorance and accident xD. The amount of people cosplayed was AMAZING!! We saw a Halo's Master Chief, Darth Vader and some imperial troops, three Sefirots and Clouds, some Kakashis (with sharingan), really well done predators and aliens, a Godzilla, a Ronald McDonald, the Ghostbusters, a princess Mononoke and so on, and so on, and so on... A London size Anime Convention.
You know AWEEEESOME XD.
Wednesday 28 October 2009
First date with a Brit
Lu:
First dates ending in Great Britain are quite different from the ones I am used to back in Spain:
Who should ask out who?
I asked Luke out... well, let's say I said I wanted to see Saw VI and none of my friends could join me *sarcastic quotation marks* and he told me he didn't mind coming with me, and so we went last Sunday to watch it at Odeon (in Kingston). He suggested we could grab something after, what in my book means "we could spend more time together, huh?"
The ouftit:
I am not a very dressy person and I only wear skirts in special occasions, so if I had worn one it would've been quite obvious, so... no skirts. A tight jeans in the waist and baggy from the knee below and a sexy T-shirt instead ;) What about him? He always wear jeans, shirt and a jacket. What surprised me was that instead of the shirt, he had a polo! (a very ugly one, btw) But the one which he wears in special occasions ONLY -I have stalked his FB, alrite, you got me. That was nice :-)
Talk:
I was on edge 'cos I didn't know if we were going to have that c·h·e·m·i·s·t·r·y that enables you to talk about everything and nothing and makes the time just fly. And it happened! It was amazing! We talked during... more than 4h! In fact, when I finished my dinner n I was ready to go home, he asked to order another pint! (that was a sign of fun, wasn't it?).
I only have one problem when I'm with him: he speaks cockney. He is from North East London and it's hard to catch up when he's speaking ù_ú so maybe he has to repeat twice or even three times whatever he had just said :(
Is he playing hard to get or isn't he interested at all?
Well, although we had a really good time together, we talked non-stop, we laughed, we watched the movie, we had dinner together and he walked with me back to uni, nothing happened. Normally, when saying goodbye, the moment is the CRUCIAL moment, but I don't know why, this time it wasn't the right one. In fact, I didn't notice any special signs or anything, so maybe he went with me 'cos he had nothing else to do, just as a friend 'cos he is a generous guy (and then, that's why he invited me to the pint at he pub). An anecdote I feel I have to share with my readers is that at the end of the night, I was a bit disappointed so when saying goodbye, I only held out my hand to him :$ Yes, laugh at me. However, he possibly thought I must be slow or something and the hugged me xD It wasn't too long, too short for me, but it was a hug, anyway =)
I've kind of asked him out again. Need to see if he really wants something or it's gonna be a friend, 'cos I like the guy and if he doesn't like me back, this feeling shouldn't be growing up inside of me.
Blink 182 - First date
First dates ending in Great Britain are quite different from the ones I am used to back in Spain:
Who should ask out who?
I asked Luke out... well, let's say I said I wanted to see Saw VI and none of my friends could join me *sarcastic quotation marks* and he told me he didn't mind coming with me, and so we went last Sunday to watch it at Odeon (in Kingston). He suggested we could grab something after, what in my book means "we could spend more time together, huh?"
The ouftit:
I am not a very dressy person and I only wear skirts in special occasions, so if I had worn one it would've been quite obvious, so... no skirts. A tight jeans in the waist and baggy from the knee below and a sexy T-shirt instead ;) What about him? He always wear jeans, shirt and a jacket. What surprised me was that instead of the shirt, he had a polo! (a very ugly one, btw) But the one which he wears in special occasions ONLY -I have stalked his FB, alrite, you got me. That was nice :-)
Talk:
I was on edge 'cos I didn't know if we were going to have that c·h·e·m·i·s·t·r·y that enables you to talk about everything and nothing and makes the time just fly. And it happened! It was amazing! We talked during... more than 4h! In fact, when I finished my dinner n I was ready to go home, he asked to order another pint! (that was a sign of fun, wasn't it?).
I only have one problem when I'm with him: he speaks cockney. He is from North East London and it's hard to catch up when he's speaking ù_ú so maybe he has to repeat twice or even three times whatever he had just said :(
Is he playing hard to get or isn't he interested at all?
Well, although we had a really good time together, we talked non-stop, we laughed, we watched the movie, we had dinner together and he walked with me back to uni, nothing happened. Normally, when saying goodbye, the moment is the CRUCIAL moment, but I don't know why, this time it wasn't the right one. In fact, I didn't notice any special signs or anything, so maybe he went with me 'cos he had nothing else to do, just as a friend 'cos he is a generous guy (and then, that's why he invited me to the pint at he pub). An anecdote I feel I have to share with my readers is that at the end of the night, I was a bit disappointed so when saying goodbye, I only held out my hand to him :$ Yes, laugh at me. However, he possibly thought I must be slow or something and the hugged me xD It wasn't too long, too short for me, but it was a hug, anyway =)
I've kind of asked him out again. Need to see if he really wants something or it's gonna be a friend, 'cos I like the guy and if he doesn't like me back, this feeling shouldn't be growing up inside of me.
Blink 182 - First date
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Brighton y Bristol
Adri:
Escribo en español básicamente porque es más rápido y no dispongo de mucho tiempo y sí de cosas que decir. Estos dos últimos fin de semana he hecho algo de turismo de interior, es decir por dentro de Inglaterra. Primero fui a Brighton con un viajecito organizado por la uni. Íbamos todos los del grupo internacional excepto Lu que como ya había estado decidió no venir y luego se arrepintió porque hizo un día del carajo, pero luego no se arrepintió tanto porque se puso a hacer fotos en Central. Lo que iba, Brighton no estuvo mal. Al principio estuvo la cosa un poco aburrida porque el ritmo del grupo era muuuuy lento y no solo porque al principio tuviéramos que andar por las rocas de la playa. La gente se paraba a hacer fotos cada dos por tres y cuando fuímos al Brighton Pier se metían en cada tienda ya fueran de souvenirs o de golosinas. Al final tuvimos que irnos dividiendo porque cada uno llevaba una velocidad diferente. El Brighton Pier no me impresionó tanto como esperaba desde el bus, pero el Royal Pavillion si que lo consigió. Choca ver un palacio que parece hindú en un pueblo inglés.
Las tiendas de Brighton tampoco estuvieron mal. Había hasta un Games Workshop donde la raza predominante eran los Tiránidos xD. En verdad había bastantes tiendas de temática friki, no en vano entre en una de cartas (con sobres de Yugi Oh! de los que no tenía noticia) y tb en una de artículos de artes marciales japonesas, con un vídeo en el que explicaba cómo defenderte de un tío que te ponía una pistola en la cabeza, en la barriga o en la parte del cuerpo que se te ocurriese xD. Luego tb había un mercadillo de libros de segunda mano en el cual me pillé un ejemplar the "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" por 2.5 pounds, que no tiene ni pintarraqueos ni nada, no como otro de Roald Dahl que le interesaba a Eli pero que no compró porque habían escrito Liverpool FC en la primera página. Tanto a la ida como a la vuelta la gente se quedó dormida en el bus, pero el viajecito mereció la pena.
Lo de Bristol fue más improvisado en cambio. Lo planeamos deprisa y no dudamos en ir cuando descubrimos que nos iba a salir por solo 10 pounds ida y vuelta. Teniendo en cuenta que ir de Huelva a Sevilla cuesta 14 euros ida y vuelta, yo creo que está bastante bien. Marta y Estefanía, dos upolitas que están de Erasmus allí, nos hicieron de guías. Lo primero impactante que vimos fue la universidad-catedral, porque eso lo pones en Huelva y lo consideran catedral, en la que entramos sin tener permiso para descubrir que tenía una pedazo sala de relajo para estudiantes. El impacto fue superado por Brandon Hill un parque con una torrecita en medio, que estaba en obras, y en la que nadie resistió el impulso de hacer fotos. Valga esta ídem como ejemplo:
Resultó que Bristol era la ciudad de los skaters y los graffiteros, por lo que tb vimos unos cuantos. La catedral no tenía nada que llamara la atención, excepto la misa. Lu decía que parecían de una secta xD.Era una misa extraña de toas formas. El cura parecía sacado del Club de la Comedia, cada dos por tres se largaba un chiste y todos los parroquianos se reían. Luego había un nota que era como el DJ xD. Y los feligreses todos llevaban una pegatina con el nombre. En fin, cosas de anglicanos xD. Buscamos sin éxito el bar de sidra pro que nos recomendó Anna Poon.
Es decir, lo encontramos, pero lo encontramos cerrado. Visitamos el puente colgante justo a la hora del día que hacía mejor temperatura, por lo que un descansito en el cespéd fue inevitable. Nos tumbamos en plan siestecita y Lu le hizo una foto a una pareja de pahí que estaba sentada. La iba a subir pero me acabo de dar cuenta de que no me la ha pasado. Pues nada, pondré una del puente y Lu en el making off de otra foto y con esto y un bizcocho. Finalmente terminamos en un pub donde nos pusimos púos de nachos con salsas y nos volvimos con las mismas para casa. En Londres a la vuelta hacía frío así que Juliane se inventó un baile para no pasarlo xD. Was real fun. Lu me acaba de pasar la foto at least por lo que puedo enmendar el error y cumplir las expectativas. Aquí está, lástima que ya este retocada. Yo siempre preferí el zumo exprimido en casa. A ver si a partir de ahora actualizo más often. Entretanto a viajar que son dos días.
Escribo en español básicamente porque es más rápido y no dispongo de mucho tiempo y sí de cosas que decir. Estos dos últimos fin de semana he hecho algo de turismo de interior, es decir por dentro de Inglaterra. Primero fui a Brighton con un viajecito organizado por la uni. Íbamos todos los del grupo internacional excepto Lu que como ya había estado decidió no venir y luego se arrepintió porque hizo un día del carajo, pero luego no se arrepintió tanto porque se puso a hacer fotos en Central. Lo que iba, Brighton no estuvo mal. Al principio estuvo la cosa un poco aburrida porque el ritmo del grupo era muuuuy lento y no solo porque al principio tuviéramos que andar por las rocas de la playa. La gente se paraba a hacer fotos cada dos por tres y cuando fuímos al Brighton Pier se metían en cada tienda ya fueran de souvenirs o de golosinas. Al final tuvimos que irnos dividiendo porque cada uno llevaba una velocidad diferente. El Brighton Pier no me impresionó tanto como esperaba desde el bus, pero el Royal Pavillion si que lo consigió. Choca ver un palacio que parece hindú en un pueblo inglés.
Las tiendas de Brighton tampoco estuvieron mal. Había hasta un Games Workshop donde la raza predominante eran los Tiránidos xD. En verdad había bastantes tiendas de temática friki, no en vano entre en una de cartas (con sobres de Yugi Oh! de los que no tenía noticia) y tb en una de artículos de artes marciales japonesas, con un vídeo en el que explicaba cómo defenderte de un tío que te ponía una pistola en la cabeza, en la barriga o en la parte del cuerpo que se te ocurriese xD. Luego tb había un mercadillo de libros de segunda mano en el cual me pillé un ejemplar the "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" por 2.5 pounds, que no tiene ni pintarraqueos ni nada, no como otro de Roald Dahl que le interesaba a Eli pero que no compró porque habían escrito Liverpool FC en la primera página. Tanto a la ida como a la vuelta la gente se quedó dormida en el bus, pero el viajecito mereció la pena.
Lo de Bristol fue más improvisado en cambio. Lo planeamos deprisa y no dudamos en ir cuando descubrimos que nos iba a salir por solo 10 pounds ida y vuelta. Teniendo en cuenta que ir de Huelva a Sevilla cuesta 14 euros ida y vuelta, yo creo que está bastante bien. Marta y Estefanía, dos upolitas que están de Erasmus allí, nos hicieron de guías. Lo primero impactante que vimos fue la universidad-catedral, porque eso lo pones en Huelva y lo consideran catedral, en la que entramos sin tener permiso para descubrir que tenía una pedazo sala de relajo para estudiantes. El impacto fue superado por Brandon Hill un parque con una torrecita en medio, que estaba en obras, y en la que nadie resistió el impulso de hacer fotos. Valga esta ídem como ejemplo:
Resultó que Bristol era la ciudad de los skaters y los graffiteros, por lo que tb vimos unos cuantos. La catedral no tenía nada que llamara la atención, excepto la misa. Lu decía que parecían de una secta xD.Era una misa extraña de toas formas. El cura parecía sacado del Club de la Comedia, cada dos por tres se largaba un chiste y todos los parroquianos se reían. Luego había un nota que era como el DJ xD. Y los feligreses todos llevaban una pegatina con el nombre. En fin, cosas de anglicanos xD. Buscamos sin éxito el bar de sidra pro que nos recomendó Anna Poon.
Friday 16 October 2009
Japanese Culture Society
Lu:
En la Freshers' Week, Adri y yo nos apuntamos a varias societies, entre ellas la Japanese Culture Society cuya vicepresidenta es Anna Poon (me llevo genial con ella) y organizan quedadas cada jueves. El primero fue de presentación, donde conocimos a Anna, Luke, Kurtryan y Philip. Buena gente. Philip es un poco niño chico, no creo que se pueda tener una conversación seria con él (solo bromea y/o habla de sexo U¬¬), oye, que a lo mejor me equivoco, solo lo conozco de tres díass, pero esa es la impresión que me da.
La segunda quedada fue irnos a un restaurante japonés todos (ocupamos cuatro mesas, brutalísimo jaja). Nos sentamos en la mesa de Calab (un fresher friki de unos treinta años), que resultó ser muy majo y luego se nos unió un chino y Philip y Luke (podrían haber escogido cualquier otra mesa, pero escogieron esa!! La nuestra!! Wijiiii xD). Y de puta madre, me lo pasé genial, hablamos un montón en inglés, bromeamos, había buen rollo entre los de nuestra mesa. Pimpampún bocadillo de atún x_D Y la comida estaba buenísima. El restaurante está en Putney, por si a alguien le interesa, se llama FRIENDS, pero no tiene nada que ver con la sitcom americana. Conocimos a Sandra, la hermana de Philip y a un belga británico llamado Michael que si mi intuición femenina no me falla (y creo que no me falla en estas cosas excepto si yo soy el sujeto de la investigación), acabarán teniendo algo juntos porque a él sí que le gusta ella y ella... le sigue la tontería :P
Y ayer, señores, fue nuestra última quedada: quiz. Preguntas de anime, videojuegos, openings y cultura japonesa. Nos aliamos con Anna Poon y quedamos los cuartos, que no está nada mal, pero me dio rabia que nos ganaran nuestros colegas quedando en segundo lugar. ¡Mecachis! Cuando se terminó, repartieron comida entre los ganadores y perdedores yujuuu y tiramos para Montehall a beber pintas y a jugar al póquer (¡qué British todo, OMG). Y cuando ya se iba cada uno pa su casa o hacia otro bar, nos fuimos Adri y yo con Luke y Philip a Belfry a la Bands Night, dos libras la entrada y Luke nos invitó a una pinta (por ser la primera vez que salíamos por ahí con él, por lo visto es una costumbre que tiene ¡cómo mola este niño!). Yo que con una pinta ya me pongo contentilla, os podéis imaginar cuando Kurt me invitó a otra xD (aunque esta la compartí con Eli). Las flatmates de Adri se creían que estaba wasted pero no, hombre, estaba feliz, simplemente =) Y me lo pasé genial. Hablamos un montonazo en inglés, nos reímos con los tres pavos estos, me derretía cada vez que Luke me hablaba mirándome a los ojos, me puse a hacer tonterías con Kurt, diox mío, ¡qué bien me cayó ese muchacho!, Eli se partía conmigo, una noruega empezó a decir "perro, dog, perro" cuando yo salía del WC porque me oyó hablar con Ella (Ella en español y yo en inglés), le dije a Philip que follara mucho (tengo la impresión de que es virgen), Kurt intentó liar a Eli con Philip, Eli hormonada, Adri con el punto también, una mijina de tonteo con Luke, diox, que me encanta, ¡que yo quiero con ese niño!
Nos despedimos después de una gran noche y nos dice que nos escribirá en el Facebook para quedar otro día (señal de que se lo pasó bien =)).
Gran día el de ayer, sí señor. Y curiosa conversación de hoy con Kurt en la que me ha dejado caer alguna indirecta. Lu rayada mode on.
Luke es el que está a mi lado que no es Adri xD
En la Freshers' Week, Adri y yo nos apuntamos a varias societies, entre ellas la Japanese Culture Society cuya vicepresidenta es Anna Poon (me llevo genial con ella) y organizan quedadas cada jueves. El primero fue de presentación, donde conocimos a Anna, Luke, Kurtryan y Philip. Buena gente. Philip es un poco niño chico, no creo que se pueda tener una conversación seria con él (solo bromea y/o habla de sexo U¬¬), oye, que a lo mejor me equivoco, solo lo conozco de tres díass, pero esa es la impresión que me da.
La segunda quedada fue irnos a un restaurante japonés todos (ocupamos cuatro mesas, brutalísimo jaja). Nos sentamos en la mesa de Calab (un fresher friki de unos treinta años), que resultó ser muy majo y luego se nos unió un chino y Philip y Luke (podrían haber escogido cualquier otra mesa, pero escogieron esa!! La nuestra!! Wijiiii xD). Y de puta madre, me lo pasé genial, hablamos un montón en inglés, bromeamos, había buen rollo entre los de nuestra mesa. Pimpampún bocadillo de atún x_D Y la comida estaba buenísima. El restaurante está en Putney, por si a alguien le interesa, se llama FRIENDS, pero no tiene nada que ver con la sitcom americana. Conocimos a Sandra, la hermana de Philip y a un belga británico llamado Michael que si mi intuición femenina no me falla (y creo que no me falla en estas cosas excepto si yo soy el sujeto de la investigación), acabarán teniendo algo juntos porque a él sí que le gusta ella y ella... le sigue la tontería :PY ayer, señores, fue nuestra última quedada: quiz. Preguntas de anime, videojuegos, openings y cultura japonesa. Nos aliamos con Anna Poon y quedamos los cuartos, que no está nada mal, pero me dio rabia que nos ganaran nuestros colegas quedando en segundo lugar. ¡Mecachis! Cuando se terminó, repartieron comida entre los ganadores y perdedores yujuuu y tiramos para Montehall a beber pintas y a jugar al póquer (¡qué British todo, OMG). Y cuando ya se iba cada uno pa su casa o hacia otro bar, nos fuimos Adri y yo con Luke y Philip a Belfry a la Bands Night, dos libras la entrada y Luke nos invitó a una pinta (por ser la primera vez que salíamos por ahí con él, por lo visto es una costumbre que tiene ¡cómo mola este niño!). Yo que con una pinta ya me pongo contentilla, os podéis imaginar cuando Kurt me invitó a otra xD (aunque esta la compartí con Eli). Las flatmates de Adri se creían que estaba wasted pero no, hombre, estaba feliz, simplemente =) Y me lo pasé genial. Hablamos un montonazo en inglés, nos reímos con los tres pavos estos, me derretía cada vez que Luke me hablaba mirándome a los ojos, me puse a hacer tonterías con Kurt, diox mío, ¡qué bien me cayó ese muchacho!, Eli se partía conmigo, una noruega empezó a decir "perro, dog, perro" cuando yo salía del WC porque me oyó hablar con Ella (Ella en español y yo en inglés), le dije a Philip que follara mucho (tengo la impresión de que es virgen), Kurt intentó liar a Eli con Philip, Eli hormonada, Adri con el punto también, una mijina de tonteo con Luke, diox, que me encanta, ¡que yo quiero con ese niño!
Nos despedimos después de una gran noche y nos dice que nos escribirá en el Facebook para quedar otro día (señal de que se lo pasó bien =)).
Gran día el de ayer, sí señor. Y curiosa conversación de hoy con Kurt en la que me ha dejado caer alguna indirecta. Lu rayada mode on.
Luke es el que está a mi lado que no es Adri xD
Tuesday 13 October 2009
How I met your mother
Lu:
I said I was not going to bed until I had written this post, so here I gooo!
It took us almost a week to start watching the series. Every night we decided to meet up to watch it, we ended up doing something else, actually.
It's said that HIMYM is the best series ever after Friends and it becomes even better in the following seasons -we're just in the first one.
Ted is the main character. He tells the neverending story of howhemethiswife to his children. He is looking for The One For Him, but in the meanwhile he fell in love with Robin, had some one-night stands, listened to Barney's different ways of flirting and so they end up in Phili or wasted,... our daily life, right?
Each episode is great, better than the previous one and so on and on. I couldn't help laughing everytime Barney said "suit up!" or "It's going to be... legen-DARY!!" x___D
We watch the series in OV, that is in American English, covering with a towel the Spanish subtitles ;) If you want to download it, click here. The stuff learnt up to the S01E11: chicken out, suit up, under one condition, flip someone off, toast & set someone on fire. Awesome! =)
[...I'm like Ted, just looking for the right fish in the huge ocean. And when it seemed I've found someone, he doesn't give me any chances. Great, huh?...]
I said I was not going to bed until I had written this post, so here I gooo!
It's said that HIMYM is the best series ever after Friends and it becomes even better in the following seasons -we're just in the first one.
Ted is the main character. He tells the neverending story of howhemethiswife to his children. He is looking for The One For Him, but in the meanwhile he fell in love with Robin, had some one-night stands, listened to Barney's different ways of flirting and so they end up in Phili or wasted,... our daily life, right?
Each episode is great, better than the previous one and so on and on. I couldn't help laughing everytime Barney said "suit up!" or "It's going to be... legen-DARY!!" x___D
We watch the series in OV, that is in American English, covering with a towel the Spanish subtitles ;) If you want to download it, click here. The stuff learnt up to the S01E11: chicken out, suit up, under one condition, flip someone off, toast & set someone on fire. Awesome! =)
[...I'm like Ted, just looking for the right fish in the huge ocean. And when it seemed I've found someone, he doesn't give me any chances. Great, huh?...]
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Cooking
Adri:
We will end up as chefs of something similar...We are doing a lot of stuff related with housework, but for sure the one that has given us the best results has been cooking. At the beginning it was a little bit tough. We started cooking simple things like chicken or rice in the frying pan (a bad idea, but when we found out that the frying pan was quite adherent it was too late. Almost three hours of washing up and fight with the sticking rice was the punishment). The stuff we cokeed turned out to be eatable, though. Below, an example of how the chicken was like could be seen. It has to be taken into account that this was the first meal we cooked together:
But the days went on and we improved, as always happens in the stories of the self-made people xD. Take the cans: The first time I tried to open one with a can opener it proved impossible. In my defence, I should say that it was the cheapest can opener of ASDA. Lu, with no few difficulties succeced at opening it. But something was pending between me and the cans and the following day that a can needed to be opened I tried. I failed miserably xD. And so happened the third time. But at the forth attemp I made it! And in one single round, doing a perfect circle! Nowadays I'm better at can opening than Lu but she doesn't want me to remind this, so I'll rather keep quiet. The point is that we were improving in cooking and here is another example of that, a healthy dish of scrambled eggs with pepper:
Then, we realized that making every night the meal was harsh, so we decided to join my flatmates so that each day one of us will cooked for the other five. Well, at the beginning we were five, now it's seven xD. The thing is that each os us tried to do its best, spaghetti, fajitas, rice with chicken, fried chicken...even roast dinner! In all fairness I should say that it was delicious. Well everyone did its best except for Ryan and Steven who did precooked pizza in the oven. And last Wednesday our turn arrived and we did paella. It seems logical: the Spanish guys make something from Spain. So we did paella. Well,kind of because we couldn't find coloring and it was white, but everybody liked it! It was a complete success. Was so big the success that, unfortunately, we are going to dissapoint them this week xD. To prove my words, here is the photo of me dealing with the paella:
At that's all for today. In following numbers of this Erasmus magazine we'll tell more about our progress in cooking, if so. Have a good meal tonight! (cause we will).
We will end up as chefs of something similar...We are doing a lot of stuff related with housework, but for sure the one that has given us the best results has been cooking. At the beginning it was a little bit tough. We started cooking simple things like chicken or rice in the frying pan (a bad idea, but when we found out that the frying pan was quite adherent it was too late. Almost three hours of washing up and fight with the sticking rice was the punishment). The stuff we cokeed turned out to be eatable, though. Below, an example of how the chicken was like could be seen. It has to be taken into account that this was the first meal we cooked together:
But the days went on and we improved, as always happens in the stories of the self-made people xD. Take the cans: The first time I tried to open one with a can opener it proved impossible. In my defence, I should say that it was the cheapest can opener of ASDA. Lu, with no few difficulties succeced at opening it. But something was pending between me and the cans and the following day that a can needed to be opened I tried. I failed miserably xD. And so happened the third time. But at the forth attemp I made it! And in one single round, doing a perfect circle! Nowadays I'm better at can opening than Lu but she doesn't want me to remind this, so I'll rather keep quiet. The point is that we were improving in cooking and here is another example of that, a healthy dish of scrambled eggs with pepper:
At that's all for today. In following numbers of this Erasmus magazine we'll tell more about our progress in cooking, if so. Have a good meal tonight! (cause we will).
Wednesday 30 September 2009
When Adri is wasted, everyfink becomes funnier
Lu:
You won't believe that, but I promise you, it's been real fun!
Everything has started quite boring... going to the library to find out some books to Translation Portfolio, which took us 3 hours, defrosting the trout for the paella, wasting time deciding if it was worth it to photocopy Japanese for busy people or to buy it (we'll finally make the copies :p),...
But at 16:30 we've started cooking the paella -we have a calendar with the flatmates so every day one of us cook and the one who cooked the day before washes- Ella and Sarah already says how good it smelled =) And so it tasted! The girls liked it that much, they asked us for cooking the rest of the nights haha nop
We had the Digby supper, so we couldn't try our own paella T__T But we kept some in our tupperwares for tomorrow lunch ;) it won't be the same, but at least we don't waste food ^o^
And the supper... is been amazing (or sugoi in Japanese). We sit next to Julie, the Austrian girl we met in the BBQ the other day, and she introduced us to her friends, LaToya (from Virgin Islands), Robin (from Nebraska), Nikita (Indian) and Tomomi, who we had already met in the BBQ as well. And we've had free dinner and so free wine and Adri couldn't resist the temptation... so... we all have had fun. A bunch of laughs, photos, a pool, nice chats,... and when coming back to take my bag, Adri's flatmates were awake and we've been talking for a while, laughing at the state of Adrian and suggesting the same for Friday, the traffic night party!!
We'll see.
It's been a good day ^o^
Although... I've missed RP hum
You won't believe that, but I promise you, it's been real fun!
Everything has started quite boring... going to the library to find out some books to Translation Portfolio, which took us 3 hours, defrosting the trout for the paella, wasting time deciding if it was worth it to photocopy Japanese for busy people or to buy it (we'll finally make the copies :p),...
But at 16:30 we've started cooking the paella -we have a calendar with the flatmates so every day one of us cook and the one who cooked the day before washes- Ella and Sarah already says how good it smelled =) And so it tasted! The girls liked it that much, they asked us for cooking the rest of the nights haha nop
We had the Digby supper, so we couldn't try our own paella T__T But we kept some in our tupperwares for tomorrow lunch ;) it won't be the same, but at least we don't waste food ^o^
And the supper... is been amazing (or sugoi in Japanese). We sit next to Julie, the Austrian girl we met in the BBQ the other day, and she introduced us to her friends, LaToya (from Virgin Islands), Robin (from Nebraska), Nikita (Indian) and Tomomi, who we had already met in the BBQ as well. And we've had free dinner and so free wine and Adri couldn't resist the temptation... so... we all have had fun. A bunch of laughs, photos, a pool, nice chats,... and when coming back to take my bag, Adri's flatmates were awake and we've been talking for a while, laughing at the state of Adrian and suggesting the same for Friday, the traffic night party!!
We'll see.
It's been a good day ^o^
Although... I've missed RP hum
Monday 28 September 2009
Cosas que he hecho de la lista de cosas que deben hacerse
Adri:
Sin que sirva de precedente, voy a escribir esta entrada en español. He aquí una lista las cosas que he hecho de una lista de cosas que debía hacer bien en mi vida bien mientras estoy en UK:
Sin que sirva de precedente, voy a escribir esta entrada en español. He aquí una lista las cosas que he hecho de una lista de cosas que debía hacer bien en mi vida bien mientras estoy en UK:
- Irse sin pagar de un restaurante: No lo conseguí en Sevilla en aquella pizzería de Triana con Javi, pero lo conseguí aquí en un fish&chips regentado por unos chinos. Aunque la verdad es que fue más por el empanamiento de la que me servía que por alguna astuta maniobra de despite.
- Ajustar el reloj del móvil con la hora del Big Ben: Será un topicazo, pero al menos ahora siempre que disctuo con Lu sobre si llega tarde o no, estoy seguro de llevar la razón.
- Comprar un póster de Chuck Norris: Aunque lo tengo doblado, para centrarme en lo importante que son los Hechos de Chuck Norris.
- Ir en el mismo avión que un famoso: ¿Farruquito cuenta, no?
- Ver un zorro: En realidad, ya he visto dos con el de esta mañana.
- Utilizar la lavadora y planchar después la ropa: Voy a acabar hecho todo un amo de casa.
- Hacerse fotos chorra frente a monumentos emblemáticos: El día del Photo Frenzy cumplió las expectativas de sobra.
- Salir todo un piso a la calle en medio de la noche por una falsa alarma de incendios: La colección de pijamas fue reseñable, aunque hacía un frío que pelaba.
- Unirse a una society: En verdad, a 4 cosa así.
- Ir a Camden y no comprar nada.
- Hacerse una foto con un símbolo del Tube.
- Abrir una lata de comida con un abrelatas de los más baratos: Lourdes sabía la maña, yo no y tuve que sudar mucho para abrirla, pero finalmente lo conseguí.
- Que me tomen por inglés después de haber hablado: En este caso fue por una española pero si consigo que me tome por un inglés alguien que sea inglés, habré logrado el gran objetivo de todo intérprete.
Sunday 27 September 2009
Freshers' week is over
Lu:
¡Vaya pedazo de semana en Roehampton University! La freshers' week es la semana de iniciación aquí, cuando empieza a llegar gente al campus, se instalan, se conocen (normalmente en Belfry, el bar de nuestro college) y se organizan fiestas todas las noches. Por las mañanas, en el césped había montada una carpa con varias actividades según el día; como la venta de pósters (tengo uno de Friends y otro de Kill Bill en mi cuarto, Adri se llevó uno de Chuck Norris) o la fair, donde te apuntabas a distintos grupos de interés según tu personalidad. Estos grupos, llamados societies, tienen un montón de actividades todos los meses, semanas, etc. y como los días de clase brillan por su ausencia (yo solo tengo 9 horas de clase a la semana, sin contar las tutorías de Translation Portfolio) pues me dio un ataque de locura y me apunté a film, alternative culture, Japanese culture, international, give it a go y Blue Arrow.
De estos ajetreados días cabe destacar la noche que quedamos con Dane Cobain y sus flatmates, Michael y Sam, en Belfry para jugar al billar (noche que aprendimos palabras como back up to o squeeze up). El jueves era el día de la famosa y temida registration, pero todo resultó salir más o menos bien -me queda un papel con mi coordinadora española y listo- y ya tenemos nuestra ID card que nos identifica como estudiantes de Roehampton ^^ La noche del jueves era el fraud fest, un concierto en el que actuaban bandas tan conocidas como Maybe Winehoues, Antarctic Monkeys y Kins of Leon xD Oh diox, los Antarctic me encantaron, yo creo que cuando vea a los de verdad en persona ¡¡me da un algo!! Antes de irnos a la carpa del concierto, estuvimos Adri, Eli y yo con las noruegas, una sueca y dos francesas en la habitación de una de ellas porque nos invitó a chupitos :D Y el viernes por la tarde... pusimos nuestra primera lavadora (dos horas pa poner una puñetera lavadora de color y otra blanca, ¡joder!), sin desteñir nada, pero con una secadora que no secaba y claro, pues teníamos la habitación llena de la ropa húmeda. A mí no se me ocurrió nada mejor que poner la toalla de baño encima de la cama... me teníais que ver por la noche dándole al edredón mojado con el secador x___D Y de ese "gran" viernes cabe destacar nuestra interesante charla con Sarah, compi de piso de Adri, que resultó ser una believer from head to toe y la fan #1 de Westlife y nos enseñó palabras como chocoholic y cheesy.
Hoy hemos estado todo el día en en el centro, llevo despierta desde las 9 de la mañana y nos hemos
pateado el Tate Modern y Camden Town.
En un principio fuimos al Tate con Kine, Line y Naoko, pero en la segunda sala ya las habíamos perdido de vista (¡no se paraban a leer las notas!), así que hoy no ha sido un día muy provechoso lingüísticamente hablando. De entre los cuadros/autores que más me gustaron o llamaron la atención están: Paul Nash, Salvador Dalí, este que veis a la izquierda es de Edward Burra y me recuerda a un videojuego de aventura gráfica. Me extrañó un montòn ver un intestino en un marco, pero resulta que sí era un intestino y un clítoris y de todo ahí metido en un espacio reducido xD Esta obra era de Trevelian. Portrait of a doctor, de Francis Picabia, me hizo mucha gracia porque por lo visto en un principio era el retrato de un doctor con una calavera, pero como no vendía, lo cambió un poco y puso penes alrededor y tal xD Las treinta piezas de plata de Cornelia Parker, The pack, de Joseph Beuys, la pornografía de Paul McCarthy daba asco, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Günter Brus y su Run through of an action, me quedé to loca con la gigantesca obra de Robert Therrien y
John Latham.
También moló tela la escultura Venus of the rags, el título de una obra que consistía en una palmera tirada en el suelo de una de las habitaciones del Tate, Palm Sunday, el Self burial de Keith Arnatt, me hizo gracia la cantidad de material pornográfico visual en el corto de Yvonne Rainer, Hand movie, la cantidad de publicidad que le hicieron a la muñeca manga Ann Lee de Richard Phillips, el cuadro que era cómic Whaam!, de Roy Lichtenstein y el último cuadro que estuve admirando un rato fue The end de Ed Ruscha =)
Y por último nos fuimos a Camden Town a ver una exhibición de skate que se había acabado hacía cinco horas xD Así que nos quedamos Eli, Adri y yo por el mercadillo dando vueltas, viendo puestecillos y tal, a Adri le impresionó y yo me compré una mochila que me hacía falta para el curso, ya que la mía no me la pude traer porque no cabía en mi maleta :S El mercadillo era mucho más grande que cuando fui este verano, pero es porque era sábado y es el día grande de Camden. Me acordé de los housekeepers cuando cruzamos el puente para la zona subterránea y les enseñé la tienda de Cyberdog, que debe ser el culmen de la civilización makoy británica. Estuvimos paseando por el barrio, entramos en un Sainsbury's (L)! y nos compramos batido de plátano a falta del de vainilla (¿por qué no se comercializa aquí la vainilla? U¬¬). Y luego nos cogimos el 27 hasta Hammersmith, tardamos una hora, y desde allí el 72 hasta Roehampton.
Y aquí estoy, muerta de sueño, después de este día agotador, pero con la barriga llena después de habernos comido macarrones con gambas y champiñones rehogados en cebolla picada ¡ñam ñam!
PD: Ni en Londres me libro de quemar el pan...
¡Vaya pedazo de semana en Roehampton University! La freshers' week es la semana de iniciación aquí, cuando empieza a llegar gente al campus, se instalan, se conocen (normalmente en Belfry, el bar de nuestro college) y se organizan fiestas todas las noches. Por las mañanas, en el césped había montada una carpa con varias actividades según el día; como la venta de pósters (tengo uno de Friends y otro de Kill Bill en mi cuarto, Adri se llevó uno de Chuck Norris) o la fair, donde te apuntabas a distintos grupos de interés según tu personalidad. Estos grupos, llamados societies, tienen un montón de actividades todos los meses, semanas, etc. y como los días de clase brillan por su ausencia (yo solo tengo 9 horas de clase a la semana, sin contar las tutorías de Translation Portfolio) pues me dio un ataque de locura y me apunté a film, alternative culture, Japanese culture, international, give it a go y Blue Arrow.De estos ajetreados días cabe destacar la noche que quedamos con Dane Cobain y sus flatmates, Michael y Sam, en Belfry para jugar al billar (noche que aprendimos palabras como back up to o squeeze up). El jueves era el día de la famosa y temida registration, pero todo resultó salir más o menos bien -me queda un papel con mi coordinadora española y listo- y ya tenemos nuestra ID card que nos identifica como estudiantes de Roehampton ^^ La noche del jueves era el fraud fest, un concierto en el que actuaban bandas tan conocidas como Maybe Winehoues, Antarctic Monkeys y Kins of Leon xD Oh diox, los Antarctic me encantaron, yo creo que cuando vea a los de verdad en persona ¡¡me da un algo!! Antes de irnos a la carpa del concierto, estuvimos Adri, Eli y yo con las noruegas, una sueca y dos francesas en la habitación de una de ellas porque nos invitó a chupitos :D Y el viernes por la tarde... pusimos nuestra primera lavadora (dos horas pa poner una puñetera lavadora de color y otra blanca, ¡joder!), sin desteñir nada, pero con una secadora que no secaba y claro, pues teníamos la habitación llena de la ropa húmeda. A mí no se me ocurrió nada mejor que poner la toalla de baño encima de la cama... me teníais que ver por la noche dándole al edredón mojado con el secador x___D Y de ese "gran" viernes cabe destacar nuestra interesante charla con Sarah, compi de piso de Adri, que resultó ser una believer from head to toe y la fan #1 de Westlife y nos enseñó palabras como chocoholic y cheesy.
Hoy hemos estado todo el día en en el centro, llevo despierta desde las 9 de la mañana y nos hemos
pateado el Tate Modern y Camden Town.
En un principio fuimos al Tate con Kine, Line y Naoko, pero en la segunda sala ya las habíamos perdido de vista (¡no se paraban a leer las notas!), así que hoy no ha sido un día muy provechoso lingüísticamente hablando. De entre los cuadros/autores que más me gustaron o llamaron la atención están: Paul Nash, Salvador Dalí, este que veis a la izquierda es de Edward Burra y me recuerda a un videojuego de aventura gráfica. Me extrañó un montòn ver un intestino en un marco, pero resulta que sí era un intestino y un clítoris y de todo ahí metido en un espacio reducido xD Esta obra era de Trevelian. Portrait of a doctor, de Francis Picabia, me hizo mucha gracia porque por lo visto en un principio era el retrato de un doctor con una calavera, pero como no vendía, lo cambió un poco y puso penes alrededor y tal xD Las treinta piezas de plata de Cornelia Parker, The pack, de Joseph Beuys, la pornografía de Paul McCarthy daba asco, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Günter Brus y su Run through of an action, me quedé to loca con la gigantesca obra de Robert Therrien y John Latham.
Y por último nos fuimos a Camden Town a ver una exhibición de skate que se había acabado hacía cinco horas xD Así que nos quedamos Eli, Adri y yo por el mercadillo dando vueltas, viendo puestecillos y tal, a Adri le impresionó y yo me compré una mochila que me hacía falta para el curso, ya que la mía no me la pude traer porque no cabía en mi maleta :S El mercadillo era mucho más grande que cuando fui este verano, pero es porque era sábado y es el día grande de Camden. Me acordé de los housekeepers cuando cruzamos el puente para la zona subterránea y les enseñé la tienda de Cyberdog, que debe ser el culmen de la civilización makoy británica. Estuvimos paseando por el barrio, entramos en un Sainsbury's (L)! y nos compramos batido de plátano a falta del de vainilla (¿por qué no se comercializa aquí la vainilla? U¬¬). Y luego nos cogimos el 27 hasta Hammersmith, tardamos una hora, y desde allí el 72 hasta Roehampton.Y aquí estoy, muerta de sueño, después de este día agotador, pero con la barriga llena después de habernos comido macarrones con gambas y champiñones rehogados en cebolla picada ¡ñam ñam!
PD: Ni en Londres me libro de quemar el pan...
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Actually, we are happy with only a few things
Adri:
This day has been sick (which actually means good). It began filling papers and consoulting doubts about the registration though. We have filled the paper for the NHS, we have met Claire Burke again, who was very nice with us and answers all our questions with only one phrase: All that has to do with the registration should be done on Thursday, or later on.
It was the afternoon what was sick. We cooked a "revuelto" with things like tunna, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and lots of pepper, that turned out to taste good (in fact it tasted more like pepper, but it was good though) xD. After that, Lu wanted to go to some London quarter in order to get to know something appart from the city center. Eli suggested Brick Lane (not Green Lane xD) the Indian quarter and Lu sent an email to all the people that we know to go with us, but at the end we only were four and plans were changed. There was a barbeque in the main ground of Digby Stuart, so there we went. Naoko, another Japanese, a Taiwanese and an Austrian were on a table and we sat together.
Some English like Steven and a black girl joined some extent of our conversation, and I was enjoying the day. The most funny part of it comes here, though. We needed the photo of someones who looked like a celebrity for the photo frenzy and since the competition day we thought on Dani who is quite similar to Robert Pattison, the main actor of Twilight. But to get the jury know that we did some extra caracterizing on Dani, looking for pale makeup and a proper shirt xD. That process and the photo session were very funny. Also the final result was quite close, judge by ourselves:
And another one with some crazy fans to make it more realistic, that shot was a good one (because I did it, obviously xD).
Then we went to the pub as always to chat with whoever we meet there. I played pool for free, but only with the red balls, they were the ruins of a match between Dani and David, who ended up winning although having the red balls, because Dani slipped the black ball in the wrong hole. We talked with the other japanese girl whose name happens to be Totomi and who have a pretty funny tag, because after every phrase spoken by us she said wooo xD.
The day cames to an end going to Lee House to see Naoko's room, that was awfully big, compared with ours, and searching for a party for half and hour. We were so encouraged in the searching that when we finally found it we returned back home, bacause it wasn't such enjoyable. Looking for more days like this, that's for sure. Cause actually people are happy with only a few things.
This day has been sick (which actually means good). It began filling papers and consoulting doubts about the registration though. We have filled the paper for the NHS, we have met Claire Burke again, who was very nice with us and answers all our questions with only one phrase: All that has to do with the registration should be done on Thursday, or later on.
It was the afternoon what was sick. We cooked a "revuelto" with things like tunna, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and lots of pepper, that turned out to taste good (in fact it tasted more like pepper, but it was good though) xD. After that, Lu wanted to go to some London quarter in order to get to know something appart from the city center. Eli suggested Brick Lane (not Green Lane xD) the Indian quarter and Lu sent an email to all the people that we know to go with us, but at the end we only were four and plans were changed. There was a barbeque in the main ground of Digby Stuart, so there we went. Naoko, another Japanese, a Taiwanese and an Austrian were on a table and we sat together.
Some English like Steven and a black girl joined some extent of our conversation, and I was enjoying the day. The most funny part of it comes here, though. We needed the photo of someones who looked like a celebrity for the photo frenzy and since the competition day we thought on Dani who is quite similar to Robert Pattison, the main actor of Twilight. But to get the jury know that we did some extra caracterizing on Dani, looking for pale makeup and a proper shirt xD. That process and the photo session were very funny. Also the final result was quite close, judge by ourselves:
And another one with some crazy fans to make it more realistic, that shot was a good one (because I did it, obviously xD).
The day cames to an end going to Lee House to see Naoko's room, that was awfully big, compared with ours, and searching for a party for half and hour. We were so encouraged in the searching that when we finally found it we returned back home, bacause it wasn't such enjoyable. Looking for more days like this, that's for sure. Cause actually people are happy with only a few things.
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