in Life's name and for Life's sake

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I'm not sure this is even a question. 

I had typed up a lovely and angst-ridden couple of paragraphs about London and the United Kingdom and how I miss them (inspired by a re-watch of Series Four of Doctor Who, which just culminated with "Journey's End," which will ALWAYS make me sob like a frightened child separated from her mum), but then LJ ate those, so I'll take it as a sign to stop my whinging, be pleased -- in fact, delighted -- with the world that spreads itself out before me, and shove all the "far away can bite me" angst back into that little tiny corner of my brain (or is it heart?) that it has colonized and will not return.

(But seriously. I should never watch "Journey's End." Ever.)

Oh god, just got hit with the travel bug, and BAD. May have to forbid myself from looking at the photos jayintheclouds is posting of his round-the-world trip, at least for a while -- just looking at some shots of Marseilles and knowing that someone I know is there and that I'm not only not there but also not even close to there is really depressing. I want to have a trip to plan for but the next place I'm going (aside from hopefully hopefully hopefully London to do my MA) will be Ireland with my family and we don't actually have a set YEAR for that, yet. Probably it will be after my sister graduates from college, at this rate. But that means that it's three years I have to wait through.

Of course, if I manage to get the scholarship funding I need to study in London, I could conceivably do more traveling, but both of the scholarships I'm applying for stress the fact that these scholarship programs are meant to foster US-UK communication and are not just a chance for awardees to run around Europe. At least one of them (probably both of them) restricts travel for participants, but even if it weren't in the rules that I can't spend more than a weekend out of country per month, I feel like the level of academic work I'll be engaging in will be enough to keep me primarily London-bound.

And of course this isn't a bad thing, because I have so many friends there and there are so many things to see and to do there that I haven't yet; and of course there are so many things I want to see in the United Kingdom and there are no travel restrictions on that and I would definitely be doing some serious exploring (Wales! Scotland! the west Yorkshire moors!).

But dammit if I don't just want to be on some far-off seashore, with my feet in the sand and the wind in my hair and my gaze turned to the horizon and the setting sun, listening to the way that the passersby talk in foreign tongues and the sounds slip away beneath the pulsing of the waves.

I went and saw the university where I'll be spending the greater part of this school year, and I think I might be falling in love. Seriously, it's everything I could ask for -- but then again, so is most of this country!

( a few of the many many pictures )

Okay. So this whole studying abroad thing, coupled with the whole I've-actually-spent-a-decent-bit-of-time-in-the-UK-and-Italy thing, has started resulting in some fun conversations in which I throw multiple recommendations out into the air for things that people should do when they visit. I figured (mostly for Natalie's sake) that I would finally write these down in some concrete way. I might occasionally make posts like this about the UK and Italy, partially in preparation for my own travels next year, and partially for the benefit of some of my friends who may desire to partake in my abundant knowledge. :)

So, in the next fifteen minutes before I force myself to begin constructive work on my paper that's due on Monday, I will enlighten you all with a list of cheap, fun things to do in London.

( London arts, entertainment, libraries, and museums for £10 or less )

There is so much more that I could say about cheap but awesome stuff to do in London, but I told myself I'd only spend 15 minutes pulling this together and it's been an hour already. So I shall leave off here and return to my beloved London at a later date! Once I finish this, future topics include other cities in the UK worth visiting & what to do there, transportation in London, transportation within the UK in general, the things that you should spend money for, etc.

Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome!

I write this whbile sitting in a room in an apartment in Bath, and it feels so surreal.  I think it might be because I'm not quite excited for this yet, though how that's happened I have no clue.  I mean, I'm excited...but the plane ride felt like a normal plane ride (except a bit longer) and the drive felt like a normal drive (except a bit shorter) and the cars are like normal cars (except a bit smaller) and the shops are all the same (except a bit pricier).  In a way it's like I've traveled halfway around the world but I can't get away from home yet.

I think I might be feeling like this because this is very different from the last time I came to England.  Then, we only stayed in London, and my cousin Carissa was with us.  It's interesting, because my sister and I get along so much better and have so many more things to say to each other when she's there.  Of course, this time around she isn't, and it's just my family.  This is weird in and of itself; usually we don't vacation alone.  Usually we meet up with people, or we go to visit relatives, or some such thing.  But this is a full-blown vacation, and there was no one there to meet us when we got off of the plane.  For some reason that seems to be making all of the difference.

Basically, it comes down to: there are more people for me to miss this time around.

Another thing that's bugging me is Script Frenzy.  At the rate I'm moving, I have to write about 2000 words a day to cross the finish line in time.  I really just want to give up on it, but something about myself won't let me.  I've started this and I will carry it through--I can't allow myself to give up.  The problem is that everything I am writing is shit.  I started with characters I liked, but they deserve a novel rather than a play.  Actually, I have a feeling they may turn into my November novel, assuming I develop them a little more and don't have anything better to write by then.  That's one way in which Script Frenzy will have helped me, at least.

As far as our day and what we actually did: we left our house at about 11pm CA time yesterday to get our flight out of LAX.  We flew to London Heathrow Airport.  When we got there, we picked up our rental car and had fun with confusing British street signs and directions.  Eventually we ended up in Bath, after getting lost several more times.  Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but gas (or should I say petrol?) is ridiculously priced here, so the mistakes we made cost us more money than I like to think about.

We finally got to the hotel where we're staying.  The Harington actually owns a small apartment down the street from the hotel proper, and that's where my family is spending the first two nights of our stay.  It's really nicely decorated and furbished -- there's a flatscreen TV and DVD player, full kitchen, washer and dryer...pretty much everything we could need.  Apparently it'll look really nice when compared to some of the places we'll be staying later during this trip.

The hotel and apartment are both on small one-way streets, so there's no side-of-the-road parking available.  Dad had to go park the car in a car park.  The hotel attendant gave him directions, but he's still getting used to driving on the left, so the results were tragicomical.  It took him forever to find the car park, and he got pulled over by a cop on the way for running the same red light twice.  He hadn't even noticed that there was a light for this particular turn, so he had just driven right through.  But there was a bus in front of him that began to back up, so he had to back up.  When the bus left, he pulled forward again, effectively running the light for a second time.  The cops didn't even get to him right away--according to his version of events, they found him later and told him what he'd done (he had no idea).   When he told them this was his first day ever driving in Great Britain, they took it easy on him and told him to be more careful in the future.

When he got back we all went out to eat (we were starving).  Then we bought some groceries and brought them back to the apartment so that we would have stuff to cook for dinners.  Then we went back out to look at this bridge over the Avon River, which runs through the city of Bath (this is the same Avon river upon which Stratford-upon-Avon sits).  We walked along the bridge for a bit and found this awesome shop selling old maps.  When I say old, I mean some of these were hand-printed over 300 years ago.  I was really tempted to get one for Rick--it was a map of Ireland from the 1800s denoting the political affiliation of the counties and showing how many MPs were serving each party from each district.  I would've bought it, if it weren't for the fact that it cost almost $100.  I still might, though, if he says he's interested in it.  More likely I'll find him some Irish National cricket team gear.

We turned in pretty early because we were all completely wiped.  I can't speak for mom, dad, or Corinne, but I have not slept more than 3 hours in the last 24, and those were all on the plane ride.  Add that to five hours of sleep the night before we left due to staying up late to finish packing and you get a rather tired girl.  So tired, in fact, that I'm going to end this entry now, eat some dinner, and then probably go to sleep.

So as you may or may not know, I'll be leaving Monday morning for Great Britain. The first half of this family trip will be spent driving around England, Scotland, and Wales in a rented car, and the last week and a half will be spent in a flat in London. I will have my laptop with me, and should be posting accounts of my days on here regularly. Also, if I have a chance I'll be uploading photos to Facebook periodically. I'll share really good photos on here, but it's easier to just put them in one place, so more likely I'll just post links. My family also has a camcorder that's coming with us...so while I probably won't have time to edit or upload any video while I'm on vacation, I'll have plenty when I return!

If any of you want me to try and find you something in any of the places I'll be going, drop a comment below and I'll do my best. Also, if you want me to send you postcards, leave your address in a comment or e-mail it to me at readingredhead07@yahoo.com (an address I will be checking periodically while I'm gone).

All that being said, here's the itinerary for anyone who'd like to know:

Date	Destination
6/25-6/26	Fly from LAX to London Heathrow
6/26-6/28	Bath
6/27	Day trip -- Oxford
6/28	Day trip -- Hay-on-Wye (called "the town of books")
6/29	Stratford Upon Avon
6/30-7/1	Conwy (small town on Irish Sea)
7/2	Glasgow
7/3-7/4	Edinburgh
7/5-7/6	York
7/7	Day trip -- Cambridge
7/7-7/14	London
7/15	Fly from London Heathrow to LAX

I think that's about it for now.  I should be at Katie's graduation party tomorrow, so hopefully I'll see some of you there for a little while at least.  I've been packing all morning (I was even packing yesterday when I was still half asleep from Grad Nite) and it looks like I'm almost done.  Now all that's left is to get some good songs by the Clash to listen to on my way there...