making good

Sewing room pictures!

2009-09-08T05:19:53Z

I finally found the time to organize my sewing room. :) And I even have room left over to grow...I am soooo glad I have a house. Even if I stress about money, it is worth it to have a huge room I can turn into a peaceful, productive sanctury.

The bad news is...I had no idea how out of control my fabric stash had become! It's actually embarrassing how much I have. I don't know how it happened.

And that's only half of my fabric...the rest is on the other wall. -_-

Here's the big version. Note my awesome "Wicked" blocks that Jason's mom got me for my birthday. :) Can you see my various costumes in the fabric? There's the Hermione Yule Ball hub in the bottom right corner, the Padme silk velvet fails in the bottom middle, Viktor Krum stuck in there... :D

Inside the drawers: The top drawer has my small notions organized into little totes. The other drawers have my crafty things and larger notions organized into medium totes.

The other side of the room. This is where I have room to grow...I can keep buying shelves and go all the way across this wall with fabric. I'm sure it will happen someday! lol. That little pile is fabrics I ran out of bolts for; I need to get some more from work tomorrow. Jason's Vegeta statue (HOW AM I GOING TO GET THESE DRAGONBALLS OUT OF HERE?) and the fabulous snakey-friend Jason bought me for my birthday. Large totes...these have patterns and fabric remnants. Then I have more medium totes with costume accessories/repair grouped into totes by costume, but those are further down the wall and not pictured.

And my lonely dressform in the corner..but it shows why this room is FREAKING AWESOME; it has drawers in the wall! *drool* That's where I have the messes of my current projects, wig heads, and various other random storage.

A 'before' shot just for the lolz. :)

I'm so inspired to get down to business now! I had no idea how much a difference having everything organized and ready to use would make. Thank you Christine for your totes at Drago*Con that got this in my head. And Edie, my co-worker at Jo-ann...I saw a picture of her sewing room with all of her fabric rolled onto bolts, and I had SERIOUS COVET. Now it's all mine! :D

Time to watch Inglorious Basterds with boy, have some tea, and head to sleepytimes. :) I hope you guys all had a great time at D*Con.

My LJ Housewarming Party

2009-08-17T05:21:31Z

Jason and I are having a housewarming of sorts tonight, now that our house is a little more decorated and unpacked. Since I can't invite any of you fine LJ people over (meaning, any of my friends) I thought I'd make a post and show everybody that way. I'll type this while Jason's people are playing Wii and trying on armor and such...so it's like you guys are at the party with us. :)

My HOUSE! How to reconcile Jason's goth Cthulhu packrat clutter with my minimilist neutral nerd tones? A story in pictures! It didn't really work, but I like our house anyway. xD

I wish the whole house looked like this...my favorite corner. A Slytherin common room if I ever saw one! But alas Jason has too much junk he loves for us to decorate well. ♥

Favorite corner again. I knew I loved this man...he has a gorgeous green and silver striped couch and chair. This is the front room.

My big Lord of the Rings map! Too bad flash wrecked it. You can see the other Slytherin couch, too.

Lord of the Rings map again, Fat Misbehaving Cat, and Matt (Jason's friend playing Wii.)

Some cool shelf thing Jason has and my gold Camellia tree. ♥ That's the front door, which leads out to our screened in porch.

Here's where the clutter comes in. :) Jason has this awesome set up where he networked the computer to the TV, so we can watch Hulu and stuff on the big screen. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but it is very handy.

Into the next room, the dining room. Jason's big gorgeous curio cabinet full of treasures. A big pile of board games (see what I mean about clutter? It's all awesome but there is no space for it.) A giant concrete snake with hats on it, a gun rack with canes and sword on it (Lucius cane!) Oh, and Jason's friend JT with some sort of claw thing.

Jason's Cthulhu art and my Mace Windu...lol. Wow we're nerds.

This is Jason's tobacco cabinet. SO GORGEOUS.

And the liquor cabinet...not as gorgeous, but full of deliciousness. And check out Jason's novelty goblets, lol.

Is this the most badass dining set ever? Wingback iron bar chairs. Also you can see Obedient Lovable Cat.)

Dining room leads into the kitchen. We haven't done much with it because it has purple countertops, red cherry wallpaper, and pink rose linoleum. X_x The kitchen has the back door and also a door down to the basement. Neither pictured.

SSo, back to the dining room and out into the hallway. Cool knights on boards. Two doors on the right, two doors on the left. Right #1 is Jason's office, not set up and boring. Right #2 is upstairs to the bedroom, also not set up and boring. Left #1 is the bathroom, onwards!

I LOOOOOVE my pirate bathroom. I just did most of this today. :D I made the curtain.

And I made the toilet seat cover...

And I made (well, cut out some fleece and stuck it in frames) some pirate art. xD Jason wants to get a bowl of gold foil candy dubloons and I want to mount a sword on the wall. Again, wow we are nerds.

Back into the hallway. Left #2 is my sewing room.

Sewing room! Perpetual mess, of course.

I should get some pictures of the backyard....big backyard with a couple of ancient trees in it ♥ And a shed and a garage. If only we could pay for everything without starving! ;D

I wish we could paint and change the wallpaper, but with renting all we can do it hang things. I hope someday we buy it...I always thought I'd want a bigger house than this, but I really like it. :)

Yay!

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills

2007-09-27T03:33:44Z

Public to honor Robert Jordan.

I just discovered today that Robert Jordan, the author of the The Wheel of Time series, has died. Apparently he died on Sunday, September 16. I can't believe I didn't hear it in the news or anything. http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/

I began reading Wheel of Time in junior high when my friend Camellia recommended them to me. I had not enjoyed any fantasy books other than Lord of the Rings because I found them mostly predictable and uninteresting. This series was different. I was immediately hooked.

Wheel of Time is SPRAWLING. To date, there are eleven 1000+ page books written, plus a prequel. That's a lot to discuss! Camellia and talked theories all the time, much like everyone did/does with Harry Potter. Is Rand really the Dragon Reborn? What is Moiraine hiding? Why does Perrin love Faile when she's so annoying? This wonderful series was also one of the things that led me to my first boyfriend - he read the books too and we spent many a lunch at the picnic tables by the C building talking about Robert Jordan's rich world. Recently, I introduced my brother to the books. He's only made it to book six so far. They take years to read.

I don't know what will happen to the series now that he is gone. His family says he has told them the major plot points and they will attempt to finish it for him, but I can't imagine it will be the same. I feel bad for all of the times I criticized him for taking so long with Book Twelve. I didn't realize he was having such serious health problems. I feel even worse that I didn't go to his panel at Comic-Con 2006. It was an inconvenient day for me and I just figured I would catch him another year. I'm deeply saddened by this great loss - for myself, for his family and friends, and for the literary world.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and go.
What was, what will be, and what is,
may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

STAR WARS CELEBRATION IV CON REPORT

2007-05-29T07:15:56Z

Public for friends and family who are not on Live Journal.

Celebration IV Report
Warning: Image Heavy

I know some of these pictures and events are mixed up, but I did my best to remember everything.

Friday:

We got a little bit of a late start on Friday, and arrived in LA around 12:00. I dropped off Luke and Kristi in front of the convention center to get their badges. I found the hotel and got our luggage inside, and met up with them a little later. Turns out that a couple of people offered Luke and Kristi badges for 100 (instead of 135) because their friends hadn't shown up. Awesome! So...we headed inside. We were all in plain clothes on the first day.

We wandered in circles for awhile, oogling over various costumes and not really sure what to do. One of the coolest things about the convention were all of the remote control R2-D2s fans had made. You'd be walking down the hall and suddenly a droid would run in to you and then run away beeping. We even saw one that had the head spin around with smoke coming out of it, wailing, just like in the movies! xD

We checked out the Droid Room, which had a bunch of the fanmade robots. I knew my friends Mike and Amy Senna had a couple droids in the room, and was excited to see their name next to one of them.

We visited the Darth Vader Helmet Exhibit, which was excellent. Statue of Liberty Vader for the win!

We took a break to eat some lunch and then decided we wanted to go to a panel with a bunch of Imperial officers. It was SO AWESOME. They had Admiral Piett, General Veers, David Prowse (freaking man in the Darth Vader suit!), the guy who Darth Vader chokes in the famous "I find your lack of faith disturbing" scene, the guy who says "you Rebel scum", etcetera. These guys had a lot of fun stories. The "little guys" were just thrilled to be there - they were on set for three days, and here they are, 30 years later, with hundreds of people excited to see them.

After that we split up for a little bit, because Kristi and Luke wanted to go to the Sneak Peek panel and I wanted to go to the costume contest. The costume contest was SO MUCH FUN. The costumes were crazy awesome. I saw Kaydee, who is costuming hero of mine, in her gorgeous Purple Senate Gown. There was also a crazy Peacock Gown, a Burger King mask + cape stormtrooper (I honestly thought Luke had entered the contest without telling me), a PERFECT Gammorian guard (he won best in show), and a lot of other awesome costumes. I was really excited to be in the contest on Sunday after seeing it. Luke and Kristi came in for the last part of it.

We were bummed when we realized that we had missed the Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) panel, so we took a little time to sit down and circle the things we wanted to do on the schedule. We wanted to attend Opening Ceremonies, but Kristi wasn't feeling very well. It was horrifying - she had paid so much money and gotten time off work and everything, and now that we were there, she was sick. We were hoping that if she took it easy for a day, she would feel better the next. Luke and I headed back to the convention center for opening ceremonies.

We learned Friday night that if you want to go to a popular event, you need to show up an hour early. We showed up barely on time for opening ceremonies, and had no chance of getting in. While we were waiting in line, there were a bunch of firetrucks and police cars, and a big commotion up the street. Eventually, the staff members came out and informed us that the convention center was going to be shut down for the night (later we found out that it was because of a bomb threat.) Frustrated, we headed back to the hotel. I saw scruffyrebel and her boyfriend in their pilot uniforms. Luke and I picked up some pizza from this cool little New York pizza place, and bought ice cream (Thrifty rainbow sherbet! oh my gosh!) and took it back to Kristi. It was fun - weaving through the streets with ice cream and pizza, waving to Star Wars people along the way.

Saturday:

Kristi felt 100% better the next day, which relieved everyone. Disaster averted! I woke up pretty early, excited about putting on my Padme costume for the first time. It worked pretty well. Everything was fine except for the armbands. My epoxy-ed hook and eyes didn't always stay put, and they still slid down my arm in the back (although I attached them in the front so they wouldn't). Kristi had to keep adjusting them over and over (thank you chan!) The wig turned out to be my least favorite part. It was way too shiny in pictures and in real life. I thought the wig was my favorite part, too! Oh well. I think I'm going to try to cover it with non-caulky extensions eventually.

Kristi wore my Lake Gown (it doesn't fit her either, but better than me. I think I do need to throw that thing away) and Luke wore his Han Solo outfit.

We ran in to a great Anakin, so I had to take my picture with him! I had been looking for a great Anakin all day and was really excited when I found him. We had a conversation about England (he's from the UK and I studied there last semester) and such and then went our separate ways. He was a cool guy. Too bad I can't go to Celebration Europe ;_;

We ran in to some AWESOME ghetto-cosplayers. Luke is posing with them in his Han Solo costume in this picture. I can't even explain how cool these guys were. Their costumes were made to look purposely silly, but were actually pretty well made! They were a lot of fun. That's one of the biggest differences between anime conventions and Celebration - everyone is SO much more laid back. There is no drama, no elitism, nothing like that. You can buy your costume, make it out of cardboard, craft it poorly, whatever - as long as you're having fun and love Star Wars, you're in the club. It's the kind of attitude everyone pretends they have at anime conventions, but everyone actually has it at Celebration. It was so cool. I found my own occasional elitist tendencies disappearing - I think I'm going to ask Kristi's sister Jenny to make me an Imperial uniform! XD (more on that later)

Saturday was our "slow-but-still-awesome" day. We didn't have anything planned that we really wanted to see, so we just wandered around making friends. It worked out well, because our costumes ended up being really popular for some reason. We could barely walk anywhere without being stopped for a picture, and when we were stopped, we got stuck for a couple minutes. I eventually pulled out my cell phone and started pretending I was on the phone, just so we could move through the hallways. I did not expect that at ALL - I thought it would be more like Comic-Con, where nobody cared about costumes. I guess I was wrong!

We went to see the Stormtrooper Olympics, which were mostly lame. While we were in the area, someone came up to Luke and asked "Han Solo" for his autograph. ;_; HOW CUTE IS THAT? It was a great moment.

Luke wanted to go to the Star Wars family guy panel, but Kristi and I didn't want to wait in the long line. We broke off and headed in to the dealers hall so Kristi could buy a Yoda backpack she had seen the day before.

Here's the Yoda backpack. Not on Kristi, obviously. xD

On the way to the dealer's hall, we found a Qui-Gon! I was so excited. Some of you may know that Qui-Gon is my very favorite Star Wars character, and also my very first costume. ;)

An incredible Obi-Wan Kristi and I found. *_*

Eventually we made it to the dealer's hall, where Kristi bought her backpack, and we ran into phavorianne and cosplaykitty - hooray! We camped out in the middle of the dealer's hall catching up a little bit and taking pictures. Apparently it was some sort of hot spot, because people kept coming over and interviewing us. One guy kept asking me if I thought dressing up in Star Wars costumes was homo, and other mildly offensive questions. I answered him politely and intelligently, I hope - because later I heard someone asking him where he was from, and he said HOWARD STERN. It wasn't him, but it was one of his little croonies. How scary! I hope I don't get made fun of on his show, lol.

cosplaykitty was in her Queen Apailana (I don't know how to spell it, sorry) costume, and Kristi and I were both in Padme costumes, so we got stuck taking pictures in the middle of the dealer's hall for probably an hour. It was funny - we kept trying to talk to each other in between pictures, but mostly failing.

Kristi and I eventually decided to go to Rite Aid and buy me some hairspray, because my real hair looked dull next to the extra shiny extensions. We said goodbye to phavorianne and cosplaykitty and headed out. We spent WAY longer than we should have away from the con - that's one of my big regrets. Saturday should have been the big awesome day and we spent probably two hours of it walking to Rite Aid, fixing my hair, and taking pictures.

One of many pretentious pictures with a low-quality camera. Anyone want to photoshop for me to make my hair less shiny and my face less washed out? :D But you can see the basic costume.

Being crazy in the hotel. I LOVE THIS PICTURE.

After we took pictures, I realized that I no longer had my badge. I tried to remain calm, but I read that Celebration does not offer $10 replacement badges like Comic-Con - I was going to have to buy a new $135 dollar badge. We retraced our steps for ten minutes or so, but still no badge. Just as I was beginning to give up hope and have that horrible sinking feeling, I spotted a badge IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. I ran out there and grabbed it, wiped off the asphalt marks, and pinned it back on. Disaster averted. But man, I was terrified for a second there.

After that, we met up with Luke (who loved his Star Wars Family Guy panel) and walked around the convention center some more. We decided to try to make it to Star Wars in 30 Minutes. While we were in line, I took some pictures of the patio eating area below.

Just so you can get a feel for what the convention was like. Lots of cool people milling around, eating together. Celebration was mostly young adults with children, where anime conventions are mostly college students or younger. It's a very different crowd, but I have to say I much prefer it =X

A Fett taking some time out to eat a hamburger with his armor on the table. Later another Fett costumer came over and ate with him - that's why there are two helmets. The other one must have been in the bathroom or something. I love this picture.

Samurai Stormtrooper! One of the reasons I wanted to come to Celebration. I saw this guys picture on line and was like WHOA. I need to be there.

Finally, we got in to see Star Wars in 30 Minutes. It was awesome - there's no way I can describe it, you'd just have to see it. Basically it was 10 or so people dressed in purposely ghetto costumes acting out the Star Wars Trilogy. Their were a lot of silly jokes physical humor, and we left it with a big smile on our faces, feeling a little revitalized from the long day. We met some more awesome people in the halls.

I think this might be the best picture of all of us. We all look great. This is a great Obi-Wan we met in the halls, me, Kristi, and Luke.

I know this was Luke's favorite part of the convention, and it might even be mine. EPIC MAN LEIA. It's like my camera was rejecting the shot, lol!

We ate lunch next to a great Return of the Jedi Luke I wanted pictures with. Yay! He was really nice. He had a friend dressed as Anakin, too...they were probably wondering why I wanted pictures with the Luke. But come on! ROTJ Luke is SO Hamlet.

Luke looking over the ~~spaceport~~ convention center.

Luke found a Chewie! (This is NOT the Chewie who won Best in Show on Sunday, although he is still awesome. More later.)

Another one of my favorite Obis. This guy was named Lance and was really in character. He talked slowly and deliberately and folded his hands. Usually this would kind of creep me out, but somehow it really worked for him. His costume was amazingly well made, too, which was cool to see in a Jedi costume.

It was getting late and the convention center was emptying (everything stopped around 7:00 every day), so we reluctantly headed back to the hotel. On the way there, we met some nice people in the street who offered to GIVE US PASSES TO CONVERSATION WITH CARRIE FISHER. I had been really upset that I missed buying tickets for it, and then doubly upset when we missed the open panel with her on Friday. And here were people offering us tickets to the smaller, after hours panel! We were all up in that business. They let us have them for $15 each, so we headed back and got in line right away. We took some silly pictures in line.

I love these pictures. I was sitting on the floor because my back hurt, and took a silly picture of myself (OH MY GAWD GUYZ I'M SO EXCITED LAWLZ), and then took one up at Kristi and Luke, who were still looking at me with their best "Courtney, I hate you and your overexcited state" faces. :D

The Carrie Fisher panel was really incredible. She was poised and intelligent and had a lot of funny things to say. She stuck to the Star Wars stuff (some other celebrities we saw didn't really do 'fanservice' and only talked about their present careers, more on that later) and made the audience very happy. She even revealed that she and Harrison Ford were DRUNK in the "arriving on Cloud City" scene, because of partying with the Rolling Stones the night before! How cool is that?

After Carrie Fisher, Luke ran back to go to Celebration Saturday Night, a big dance party. Kristi and I were uncomfortable in our costumes and wanted to back to the hotel and change. Luke apparently was leading a dance circle and having a great time - it's too bad that Kristi and I had to miss it. We got back just as Luke was getting bored, so that worked out.

After that, we weren't tired yet, so we went to an absurdly expensive Italian place on the way back to our hotel. I had the best clam soup I'd ever had (it was red and spicy with the oyster shells still in it). We also had some cocktails and some great pasta. It was cool because all of the restaurants and stores in the area were really marketing towards the Star Wars fans. This restaurant had Yoda posters in the window and was playing the Star Wars trilogy on their big screen in a continuous loop. Even the homeless guys were in on the action, saying "May the Force be with you" instead of "God bless you."

After that, we headed back to the hotel and crashed. Another busy (and even better, somehow!) day awaited us!

Sunday:

I woke up even earlier on Sunday, excited to check in for the costume contest that night. Kristi had to help me a lot with my costume the day before, but I had the hang of it today and managed to get in to it on my own, lacing up my own corset and buttons and everything. I did have to have her mess with the armbands, though. We re-did them with some of Luke's industrial strength velcro. It was ghetto, but it helped them stop falling down. I took off on my own to find costume contest registration while Kristi and Luke finished getting ready. Luke wore his Han Solo again, but Kristi decided to wear street clothes.

Costume judging was professional and easy. I was a little nervous, but explained everything I wanted to, I think. I may have been a little vague or even too humble...I feel self-conscious explaining my costumes after my embarrassment at Anime Expo last year (I rambled on about Earthy for 20 minutes and one of the judges got bored and left, lol). After costume judging, I met up with phavorianne, this time in her awesome Padme white battle costume! w00t! We met up with Luke and Kristi, who were in line for the Ray Park panel.

EPIC, EPIC RAY PARK PANEL. Ray Park was Darth Maul in Episode 1. This was one of the highlights of the convention. He was a really laid back guy with a great Scottish (I think?) accent. He did a bunch of cool gymnastics and kung fu for us. He was doing some lightsaber swirls with a broomstick when someone in the audience raised a Master Replicas Darth Maul lightsaber. Everyone started cheering and whooping, and the guy brought the lightsaber up to the stage. They turned off the lights and Ray Park went CRAZY. He was flipping it around like nuts, and it was glowing and red and making swooshy noises...I was fluttering and overflowing with happiness. I know this sounds really stupid, but Episode 1 was really special to me and it was just a great moment. I felt like that stupid girl in the American Idol audience who started crying. I didn't cry, but still. I was so happy.

After that, Ray invited a bunch of kids from the audience on to the stage and gave them lightsaber lessons and taught them a few kung-fu stances. He was just so great. We left the panel just glowing with excitement and stoked for the rest of the day.

After Ray Park, we headed out to the Billy Dee (Lando) panel line. On the way, I ran in to Kaydee and her friend Cassandra! I was SO excited - Kaydee, as I said earlier, has been one of my heroes for years. They took pictures of my costumes and asked me a bunch of questions. I was so excited and happy. I probably came off really stupid, but I tried my best to explain my fabric choices. It was SO cool to be around these people who have studied the same silly details.

We rushed to the Billy Dee line, worried that we wouldn't get in. We made it, and while we waited in line I took some silly pictures.

Star Trek invasion! I was proud of this guy for having the balls to wear a Star Trek shirt to a Star Wars convention. We saw three people with Star Trek uniforms on (one of them even had a Jar-Jar head, lol!)

The lovely phavorianne in her Padme battle costume. We got to hang out with her all day on Sunday and most of Saturday. Yay!

JENGA! *smash* For those of you who saw Talladega Nights, that is what these little kids reminded me of. They were running around, climbing on stuff, singing, and shoving each other. They made me so happy.

Kristi being a good girl and reading her Anthropology book. You can see her Yoda backpack too.

Luke sitting on the wall, being Han Solo esque. Which is really just how Luke acts anyway! xD

Finally they let us in to the Billy Dee Williams (Lando) panel. It was pretty fun, but not what we were expecting. Luke and I really love the "How're you doing, you old pirate?" silliness of Lando, and we expected Billy Dee to be a really cool guy. He was actually kind of quiet and boring, but good-natured. There was some funny stuff in the panel, but he didn't ham it up like Ray Park and Carrie Fisher did, so we left a little disappointed. No cool stories that I can remember - he mostly talked about non-Star Wars things in his life. Here's an example of his demeanor. Luke got in line and asked him a question. "What can we do to get a charming smile like you, Lando?" He answered, "Brush your teeth everyday. Go to a good dentist." And that was it. You'd think he's say something clever, or funny, but he was just straightforward.

After Billy Dee, I had to run off to check in for the costume pageant, which was starting in 15 minutes. We did a "costume parade" where we walked around the convention center. While we were in the parade, I was talking to Kristi on my cell phone and making friends with a Mara Jade costumer next to me. xD It was very low key and casual, just like the rest of the convention. Then we went backstage and the pageant started! It was SO much fun to chillax with the rest of my Padmes. I talked to a costumer I had met the other day with Kaydee, and she was really interested in my costume and asked me a lot of questions. She had helped set up the dresses at the FIDM exhibit, and said my skirt fabric was very similar. I was so happy ;_; It's hard to explain, but this was really exciting for me - costumers I had admired for years all together in one place, and I was meeting them at last! I'm definitely going to get more involved with theforce.net forums now.

A big Chewbacca won Best in Show! It was so great. One thing Star Wars fans have been continually irritated by is that Han and Luke receive medals in A New Hope, but Chewbacca, who is standing right there and helped just as much, does not. Everyone was screaming "LET THE WOOKIE WIN!" and "GIVE CHEWIE HIS MEDAL!" while we were voting for Best in Show. xD He won best in his category and best in show, so he received TWO. ^_~

After the show things got even more awesome. We stood out in the hall talking to people and taking pictures for another couple hours. By this time, we had met up with cosplaykitty, who was wearing her Queen Jamilia (I dunno how to spell this one either) costume. A guy who said he was from Robot Chicken took my picture and asked for my telephone number "in case we put it on the site", but I think he may have just been a creepy guy, lol.

We met a number of really cool people during this time, too:

This guy looked just like Lando, and his shirt, if you look closely, even says "Lando" on it. Luke and I were really excited, and I made the Lando guy slap Luke on the back and say "How're you doing, you old pirate, so good to see you!" I took the picture right as they were doing it. xD

Crazy old Ben! This guy was talking to us about Comic-Con and kind of rambling on. He was very entertaining and we liked him a lot. =)

Whoo! They had a giant Death Star hanging from the ceiling, so we thought it would be cool to take a picture of Luke blasting it!

Luke sliding on the stair rail, blasting all the way. We took a picture while he was actually sliding, which didn't turn out well. This one was posed and turned out a lot better.

This is my favorite picture of Padme so far. I guess the "fierce" look works better for me than a smile. This Darth Maul was...wow, what word haven't I used? Extravagantly magnificent? I was freaked out around him, actually. With a Darth Maul costumer, the makeup covers their face, and the costume covers their body. With this particular one, he was soft spoken and mild-mannered. He WAS Darth Maul. It was creepy. It's difficult to explain...you'll have to meet a great Darth Maul cosplayer someday, if you haven't yet. ;)

Okay. Now the best part of the entire weekend began. The convention center was emptying and they were kicking us out, so we headed sadly to our hotel. We knew this was the end of the last full day and probably the end of our fun. As we were walking, Luke started chatting with the Darth Maul costumer, and he turned out to be a really interesting guy in the 501st (a Star Wars costuming group) named Sonny Maul. He hired a professional makeup artist to do his Darth Maul makeup, and BOY did it show. He told us a story:

His little daughter saw him in his Darth Maul costume many times before she saw Episode 1. Because of his involvement with the 501st, he wears the costume frequently for charity events and stuff. When his little daughter finally saw the movies, she screamed with glee and said "DADDY!" Because of this, he would always turn off the film because Darth Maul's death, thinking that it would freak her out. One day, he was busy on the computer and not paying attention, the movie played all the way. He heard a wail and his daughter came running in to the computer room, crying. THAT IS THE CUTEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD.

After this, we were hooked on this guy. We decided to all hit up IHOP and pork on pancakes! Sonny, his makeup artist, Jen (whose LJ name I don't know yet), Flo, phavorianne, cosplaykitty, Kristi, Luke, and myself all hitup IHOP at midnight for some well deserved pancakes. Flo told us another great story:

One day the 501st was in a building somewhere with a group of stormtroopers and Darth Vader in the elevator. As they reached the bottom and the elevator opened, an old woman screamed and ran in the other direction when she saw them. XD

Pictures from IHOP:

Whoo! The IHOP was full of Star Wars people. We were somehow not out of place at all.

You cannot tell me there has ever been a picture better than this. Because there isn't. This is literally best picture ever taken. He doesn't really eat with his tongue out...he exaggerated for the sake of a funny picture. xD And he took his gloves off, if his hands are bothering you. ;D

I don't think I can really describe why this IHOP visit was so amazing. There were a bunch of members from the 501st there. Flo is a Vader for the 501st and had a lot of cool stories. I am so excited about getting involved in a Star Wars costuming community. Unfortunately, for the 501st, you have to have a "bad guys" costume. I am thinking about making an Imperial costume, maybe one that matches with Kristi, so that I can join. I don't see myself doing a trooper or a Vader, so maybe an Imperial officer. How fun!

I told the table about my badge-losing experience, and complained that they did not send me a lanyard in the mail. Sonny graciously gave me a 501st lanyard! I was SO EXCITED. Only 501st members are supposed to have it. I will treasure it forever. *chew*

After IHOP, it was very late and we really had to head home if we wanted to enjoy the convention the next day. We went back to the hotel and crashed, already getting depressed. The last full day had ended ;_;

Monday:

Luke wanted to wake up early for the One Man Star Wars Trilogy, so he and Kristi got going a little earlier than I did. I cleaned up the room and checked out, expecting to miss the show, but somehow I arrived and found them just in time! One Man Star Wars Trilogy was a LOT of fun. He was performing in London while I was there and I didn't see him. Again, like the Star Wars in 30 Minutes, I can't really describe it. You'd have to be there. He'd been to mime school, so he imitated movements while also doing music, voices, and sound effects in an edited version of the trilogy. It was hysterical, and very impressive.

We visited the Celebration Store and got some hawt Celebration merchandise - half off! Yay for Monday shopping. By now, we knew the weekend was something really special and wanted to remember it. I bought a hoodie with a stylized Darth Vader on it that says Celebration in the corner and also a black "Star Wars is Forever" shirt. Whoo!

We all were in street clothes, so we could move much more quickly through the convention center. We didn't really have anything else we wanted to do, so we just walked in circles. We met up with phavorianne again, this time in her Tatooine Peasant Padme. I was so excited! This is one of my favorite Padme costumes, and phavorianne did it so well. Her hair was fabulous. *_*

We took a stroll through the Fan Hall, hoping to get some information on the 501st and the Rebel Legion (the Rebel Legion is the "good guys" version of the 501st, but all the cool people I met are in the 501st...*torn*). Then we took a stroll through the Dealer's Hall...and I had a moment of weakness.

The Darth Maul Gentle Giant statue is something I've admired for years. Some of you may know that I have a huge weakness for the Noble Collection collectibles and the Gentle Giant statues. (HINT FOR BIRTHDAYS OMG.) I buy about one piece of the Noble Collection a year, but don't indulge in the Gentle Giant stuff as often because it is more expensive. I bought the Snape bust while I was in London (picture - http://gentlegiantcollectors.com/ImageGuides2006/HP_Snape.jpg), but still wanted the Darth Maul badly. It's just...so beautiful. Here's a picture of the Darth Maul one - http://mobydiskrecords.net/images/FIGURA_DARTH_MAUL_GENTLE_GIANT.jpg. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL? Anyway, I have never bought it because it costs...well, a lot. But they stopped making them a long time ago, and there were only 3000 made. I found one for a pretty good deal...there are cheaper ones on Ebay, but a lot of those are damaged or don't have their certificate of authenticity. Long story short, I bought one for 180 dollars and I have no regrets. There are very few things I collect - just Noble Collection and Gentle Giant, and there was one of the rare beauties I have wanted forever.

The man selling it to me suggested I get it signed by Ray Park, who was 100 yards away in the autograph booth. OH MY GOSH, WHY THE BIP NOT. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it until then. We all excitedly got in line to see Ray Park! He signed my figure, and Kristy and I told him about how we were Obi and Qui-Gon (I managed to leave out the ten times and the gummies), and even took a picture with him.

He was so cool! We just posed stupidly, and he helped us get in to cool poses that made sense. We wanted to look like we were fighting (because we're Obi and Qui-Gon and he's Darth Maul!) I ruined the picture by looking at the camera at the last second, but that's okay. I'm still happy. We thanked him graciously and turned to leave, and he was like "Wait guys, we have to get a nice picture too!" HOW COOL IS HE? So we got this one as well:

Whoo! Thank you to phavorianne and Luke for standing in line all that time with us. I'm sorry we monopolized the Ray Park time.

After Ray Park, we headed over to the Jabba the Hutt statue (freaking Gentle Giant crafted a LIFE SIZE statue of Jabba the Hutt, complete with a recording of his laugh playing over and over.) I still wish I had a picture of just me posed in the tail like Salicious Krum, acting all crazy. Oh well.) Anyway, we headed over the the Jabba the Hutt statue with phavorianne and friends for a picture.

After that, we sadly sadly had to leave. Monday was a half-day and everything was closing, and Kristi and Luke had homework to do. We drove to Little Toyko, ate at Mr. Ramen, and Kristi bought some of those bean paste things for her Anthropology class.

Then...*sniffle* I dropped everyone off...and now I'm home. I'm still coming off the high...if I hadn't had so many amazing experiences last year, I might say it was the best weekend of my life. I can tell you now that I will be hard core Star Wars convention goer for the rest of my life. I want to read the books. I want to join the 501st. I want to hug more little girls dressed like Princess Leia and sign more autographs "Padme Amidala". I want to eat pancakes with more Darth Mauls.

STAR WARS BORN
STAR WARS BRED
I'M GONNA LOVE STAR WARS
TILL THE DAY I'M DEAD

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This was the best convention I've ever attended, by FAR. Seriously. It blew any other convention completely out of the water. Thank you to everyone I spent time with during that fantastic weekend!

ladyamaryllis @ 2006-12-09T13:01:00

2006-12-09T21:01:19Z

Public for friends and family who are not on Live Journal.

The Adventures of Mace and Courtney
Farewell Style
Warning: Image Heavy

Tonight is my last night in London. I've exhausted myself by trying to suck everything I could out of the city on my last day, so I have no regrets in spending my last night down here in the computer lab. I have some new pictures I've found from borrowing everyone's camera, so I wanted to do a farewell post with pictures from the entire trip.

*strums guitar on Austrian mountainside* Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...

One of the first days, before we left for Paris and Amsterdam, a small group of us ventured out to Buckingham Palace. I like this picture because it provides the "before" to a "before and after" story. We're still wearing American clothes (sunglasses? how embarrasing), posing like tourists, and clearly have no idea what is going on. In the picture are (left to right) Christie, Lizette, Caitlin, myself, and Liu.

In Paris. This was the best elevator ever. It was TINY. Smaller than a phonebooth, maybe (oh wait, you don't have those over in the Colonies.) It was uncomfortable to stand in with only two people. We shoved in five and took a picture. xD These are the same people as the picture above.

These are some people from the program waiting at the docks for our cruise on the river in Paris. It went past the Eiffel Tower, under pretty bridges, etc. It was one of the best things we did in Paris. In the front are Liu and Lizette again. In the background are Alyssa (my room mate), Jason (who makes toffee, has conspiracy theories, and talks a little too much), and Mitch (who was gone most of the time in other European countries. He was awesome. No one really ever knew where he was. I wish I had enough money to enjoy this experience like he did.)

Me waiting for the girls to get back from the bathroom in Paris. I purposely tried to look irritated. I love this picture. xD

In Paris again. I think this was on the road between the Opera House and a restaurant we ate dinner at. You can't really see anything, but I think it's a funny picture. Lizette, Caitlin, Christie, Liu, and myself.

In the Paris metro station. A lot of people thought the British tube was disgusting...they quit complaining once we got to Paris. It smelled like BO, was always stuffed full of people, and rattled like it was about to fly off the tracks. This is Christie, myself, and Lizette looking bored while we waited for the next train.

Getting ready to leave our hostel in Paris and head to Amsterdam. One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. I am so awesome. Lizette, Christie, myself, and Caitlin.

From Amsterdam, my friends Christie and Caitlin. Caitlin was my good friend for the first half of my adventure, but we had a little too much of each other in Venice. After that, Christie and I became closer. Christie is on the left and Caitlin on the right.

I posted absolutely zero pictures from Amsterdam when I first posted about it, so I had better make up for it now. We found this restaurant (after a day of visiting the Van Gogh musuem and the Anne Frank house), and I was very excited. ALL PANCAKES! Unfortunately, in Europe, pancakes are usually eaten with weird things on top of them - fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. Pancakes are more like pizza here. I just ordered a "dessert pancake" covered in ice cream. It satisfied. This is a terrifying picture of me, I realize, but I thought it was funny.

I briefly mentioned the disgusting-ness of our hostel in Amsterdam, but here is some proof of it. This was posted in the entryway. I think they were trying to be funny, but still. GROSS.

In our hostel in Amsterdam. I'm so glad someone took a picture of this filth. I wish we had taken a picture of the bathroom - that was really the worst part. Caitlin had bug bites all over. There was graffiti about drugs and sex all over the walls (you can see some behind me). It was freezing. People screamed in the hallways at all hours of the night. The shower was the same level as everything else and there was no barrier, so it flooded the entire room. Ugh. *shudders*

Christie and I in the London Waterloo train station, arriving home from Paris and Amsterdam. Glad to be away from that awful hostel!

Myself in front of Canterbury Cathedral. It was incredibly windy. xD

Christie and I in the parking lot across the street from Stonehenge. It was windy, again.

All right, that's all of the new pictures I had from the beginning of the trip. Now we can move on to new things that I have done since my last post.

Hampton Court

This is an old palace of Henry VIII just outside of London. Christie and I ventured out because we had heard it had beautiful gardens and a fabulous hedge maze. The gardens were mostly dead because we didn't make it out there until November, and the hedge maze was nothing compared to the one we had already experienced at Leeds Castle. It was a disappointment, but there was still some fun stuff.

Myself inside the first courtyard.

Mace in front of the awesome trimmed trees. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland or maybe even Candyland. xD

More gardens. This was one of those places where it was especially clear that we had come too late in the season. You can see in the planter behind us that the flowers are just twigs. *sniffle*

A lake with swans! And more gumdrop trees! Yay!

The Lake District

My British Literature class trekked up to the Lake District, where Wordsworth and Coleridge used to bum around. I absolutely LOVED it there. The land is protected - no one has been allowed to build any new structures since the Victorian times. There are sleep and hills and lakes and wild trees as far as the eye can see. I definitely need to go back there someday and explore it at my leisure.

When we first arrived. Everyone is grumpy from the long train ride, and because we had never heard of the Lake District and didn't know why we were there. Little did we know what was waiting for us! xD You can see my favorite professor, Dr. Gass (one of the reasons I decided to do the London Semester) hunched over on the left side. She's smaller than I am, limps a little when she walks, is incredibly intelligent, and refuses to tolerate nonsense. I love her.

What we found when we ventured in to the Lake District. Pictures never to anything justice. It was amazingly beautiful. I just wanted to sit down and soak everything in for hours and hours, but there wasn't time. Ugh, I'm so sad to go back to California tomorrow ;_;

On a boat tour around Lake Windemere, the biggest of the lakes in the Lake District. Caitlin and I.

I worked on my Padme Packing Gown embroidery while we took a boat tour of the lake. Always the cosplayer. <3

We took a little hike to this overlook spot. Again, pictures don't do anything justice. It's farmland and wild wood in every direction.

Another little hike, this time to a waterfall. Nature is my favorite part of traveling. I think that is why I loved the Lake District so much. Whatever beautiful buildings and canals and statues man can erect, they can't ever rival the things God has done with nature.

We drove up to a stone circle, like Stonehenge but not as well preserved. I actually liked this place better than Stonehenge, because it was on top of a hill and had fabulous views in every direction. I took this picture for Luke because it was the closest I could get to lying in the middle of Stonehenge on Halloween. It actually turned out great, even though you can't tell I'm in a Stone Circle. It just looks like I'm in love with England, and that is pretty much the truth.

Another one from the stone circle. Caitlin took this while I wasn't paying attention. It's very Romantic period - I look like I'm battling with the forces of nature and losing. The wind and the rocks and the mountains overwhelm my tiny little figure. I love this picture, too. You can see my professor in the corner again.

There she is again! Isn't Professor Gass the best thing ever? She's so small and angry in such a big happy world. I want to be just like her. <3

One more from the stone circle. I like the shadows.

As we are leaving the Lake District. Everyone is grumpy again, A) because we're leaving and B) because Caitlin won't stop taking pictures. There's a typical British sign for you - "Keep back from the platform edge. Passing trains cause air turblulance." Yes, because if I jumped in to the pit with the train tracks, air turbulance is the greatest of my worries. >_>

Cambridge

We visited Cambridge University with Professor Gass and my British Literature class. Cambridge and Oxford are huge rivals. When you are at one, you refer to the other as "The Other Place." Christie and I, who were quite taken with Oxford, were suspicious of Cambridge and didn't take many pictures. This is from Caitlin's camera. We're crossing the bridge into some college. I dunno which one. Hmph. Cambridge *grunt* was beautiful, though.

Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music

'Nuff said.

Phantom of the Opera

As some of you know, I dressed up all fancy for our trek out to see Phantom of the Opera in London. It was mediocre, actually. The Christine was HORRIBLE - she was flapping around like Batman the entire time. Not even kidding you. She would literally take the ends of her cape and hold them up above her head, and run around the stage. She also couldn't sing or, perhaps obviously, act. The rest of the cast was okay, but I couldn't get over that embarassing Christine. Anyway, on to the pictures!

Ready to go! Alyssa (my room mate), Caitlin, and myself. This was in my room.

Without my coat. I bought a bouquet of red roses and insisted on carrying them around. My friends thought I was crazy, but what-eva. That's how I roll. It made the experience better, for me. ^_^ AREN'T MY SHOES THE BEST THING EVER?

Caitlin spent about an hour curling my hair. I loved how it turned out! I felt very Christine.

The Christmas party. The one in the front wiping her face is Alyssa, one of my room mates. She's really funny and nice, I like her. I want her hair. We opened those party popper thingies and they all had little crowns in them. That's why we're wearing them ^_^;

Naar, me father was a tree! Me at the Christmas party. I had a pirate eye patch in my popper. That is my friend Christie and Katie Hammond from my British Lit class.

Everyone in my program, at the very end.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye...

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WHEW! That's it for my adventures! I still have pictures from Christie's camera that I haven't uploaded to Photobucket, so you may get one more small update. I leave tomorrow morning.

Thank you everyone so much for your letters, comments, AIM conversations, e-mails and everything. A lot of my friends have gotten desperately homesick, but I think my love for the Internet really saved me. When I started missing everyone, I just came down here and there you were. Thank you all for helping me out and keeping me safe and happy on this trip <3 See you all soon! I come to California December 18th!

ladyamaryllis @ 2006-11-10T08:09:00

2006-11-10T16:09:10Z

Public for friends and family who are not on Live Journal.

The Adventures of Mace and Courtney
England/Venice Style
Warning: Image Heavy

LOTS to cover this time. Probably my biggest update yet. To start off, my mom wanted to see what my living accomodations are like, so here are some boring pictures of the house I live in and the things I see every day.

3-7 Queen's Gate Terrace, Room 18

These are the stairs I climb every day to get to my room on the second floor. I'm lucky - there are six floors all together and the elevator is dodgy.

This is my kitchen, where I make my various ramens and soups, and the occasional cake. When we make nice dinners, which we occasionally do, we go up to the fifth floor because their oven works better.

These are my dresser drawers were I keep my clothes and other various things. Snape, books for class, my Harry Potter calendar, picture of my family, etc.

This is my closet/cupboard where I keep my food and my clothes. That's a recipe book I made in elementary school that mom sent me, full of my favorite recipes from home. Yay!

More food! This is the refridgerator we have in our room. Mostly full of my roommates food. I prefer soups. All of those bowls in the middle are mine, because I made too much pasta sauce. One batch lasted me a week! I think that cake on the top is mine too, a lemon one I made a few weeks ago. That could be Hailey's homemade bread disaster, though.

My bathroom...I dunno, my mom wanted to see it.

Around London

Hailey and I went to see Mary Poppins, and she made me take a picture in front of the sign. The show was all right - it just wanted very badly to be Disney's Mary Poppins, and it wasn't. I think I would have preferred to stay home and watch the movie.

I've seen a lot of shows since my last update - Spamalot is hands down my favorite. It was hilarious. IT's basically a musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The version I saw had Tim Curry as King Arthur! Yay! I didn't expect to like it so much, because I usually like the serious, more dramatic musicals - but it was just so entertaining and so funny. Go see it, if you can.

I'm seeing Phantom of the Opera and Wicked in a couple of weeks. I'm expecting those to be my favorites of the trip. Phantom of the Opera is already very close to my heart (I literally have it memorized), and I've heard great things about Wicked.

We took a ride on the London Eye, which is basically a giant ferris wheel with glass carriages next to Westminster Abbey and Parliament. I got this great picture near the top. London is so pretty.

The obligatory "Mace and Big Ben" picture. I also took this from the London Eye.

Venice

I took a trip to Venice with my friend Caitlin October 28-30.

Hooray! Venice was...fantastically beautiful. I can't even describe it. It was like being a part of a dream or a fairy tale. It really does have canals for streets - there are no cars at all. We didn't realize this, and tried to take a taxi to our hotel. We eventually realized we had to take the water taxi. xD

This is taken from the Rialto Bridge, a bit pretty bridge right in the heart of Venice. Our hotel was about 2 minutes from here. See how pretty it is? There are no modern buildings, or even brand name shops. In London, they often have McDonalds in old buildings, or sometimes brand new buildings with brand new businesses. But in Venice, it is all old world, like going back in time.

The main site in Venice is San Marcos Square. We did that in the first hour (it was only about 5 minutes from our hotel). It was probably my least favorite part of the trip - it was swamped with tourists and didn't feel anything like the rest of the city.

Mace in the main part of the square. Note all of the pigeons and tourists. One of the things I learned on this trip is that I am afraid of pigeons. Pretty irrational, but there you have it. They are pretty big, compared to most animals that roam around freely, and they aren't afraid of you, and they're dirty, and flappy, and squawky, and have sharp little beaks...I think they're scary. ;_;

We found that there weren't many places to "visit" in Venice. Venice is more of an experience and less of a place to sight-see. We would sleep late and take long lazy walks, shopping for souvenirs and presents and what not, and then have loooong lunches and dinners by the canals. We spent most of the time eating, really. A 3 hour lunch and then a 3 hour dinner. The food was SO good.

We lost our minds one night and ordered lobster - but I am telling you, it was the best meal I've ever had in my life. The dessert was this berry mix - cranberries, raspberries, blueberries - covered with gelato ice cream, which is ice cream but WAY better, but somehow better than gelato, too (Caitlin said it had some sort of white wine over it or something?) and then a little bit of cream, and it was the best thing I've ever tasted. It was amazing. I'd go back to Venice just for that dessert again.

This it Caitlin and our waiter at that amazing restaurant. You can see the canal behind it - see how the water shines at night? Venice was unbelievably beautiful.

When we weren't eating gelato at restuarants, we were eating it on the street. It was so good and inexpensive, we couldn't help it! This was just a random street I thought was pretty.

There are bridges all over Venice. In a city, there are crosswalks when you need to cross the street, right? Well, in Venice, there are bridges whenever you need to cross the canal street! Every bridge we came across was prettier than the next. In this picture, Caitlin decided to focus on the big ugly wall, rather than the pretty buildings on the other side, but it's the best I have of me in Venice. Sorry. I was and am very frustrated that no one will put any effort into pictures. I suppose I have been spoiled by costume photographers, who always try really hard to get the best possible shot. Normal people don't do that, I guess?

The shopping in Venice is the best I've seen so far in my adventures. They had really neat stuff - Venetian glass, crazy feathered/sequined/painted masks, Italian wool, all for really cheap. I was surprised - usually touristy places are expensive. I HAD to stop and take a picture of this window display. If you ever cover a French gown with all sorts of Venetian masks. *sighs happily* I wish you Undergrounders could have been there with me to appreciate it. Caitlin wasn't impressed.

We did take one little excursion out to an island called San Giorgio. I wanted to go to Lido because of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, but Caitlin hadn't read it and wasn't interested, so we trekked out to Giorgio to see some Roman ruins, which were closed. The only place they let the public was a semi-interesting monastary. So we just took some pictures of the Venetian coastline and moved on.

Me standing at the coastline...the sun was in my eyes.

My favorite picture from the entire trip (meaning England/France/Netherlands/Italy, everything) so far. I love the way the sun is shining on Mace's head. He just looks so peaceful, like he's pondering the view. It's funny - this really old world city, with beautiful architecture, but the picture is focusing on an awful media-pushed Star Wars action figure...I dunno. I think it's a great picture. I like the juxtaposition.

Guy Fawkes Day

I posted an entry about this already, so I'll try to post different pictures. Guy Fawkes Day celebrates the day a Catholic named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Parliament in protest of the Protestant government. It's a celebration because he and his companions were caught and executed - so they celebrate that he failed, I guess? It seems a strange thing to celebrate, but they make quite a big deal out of it. There are fireworks, bonfires, burned effigies, and the like. Apparently they used to burn images of the pope, sort of an anti-Catholic thing, but understandably changed to simply burning effigies of Guy Fawkes.

We went to a big carnival that had fireworks, rides, and Brazilian donuts (churros), visited Parliament, made Guy Fawkes masks, and burned a little Guy Fawkes made out of toilet paper.

My roommate Hailey at the fair. You can see the rides in the background.

The moon was full and really spooky. Perfect for Guy Fawkes Day!

The ghetto masks I made for myself, my roommates and my friend Christie. Muslin and Sharpie, hooray!

Oxford

We visited Oxford with my British Life and Culture class. I was totally excited to go, because it is where large portions of the Harry Potter movies were filmed! Squee! I brought along my Harry Potter costume (sort of. This isn't up to the calibur of most of my costumes, because it is simply various pieces I've aquired over the years, rather than a planned and executed costume effort. I have two awesome Harry Potter costumes I'm planning for 2007, but they aren't finished yet, unfortunately! So I had to go a little bit ghetto. Oh well.)

Yeah I said it, whut?

Oh that's right, I brought my scarf with me! Quick, Courtney, try to look serious rather than excited.

This one would be my favorite, if those filthy Muggles hadn't walked in to my picture.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy-watty Hogwarts, teach us something ~ please! I'm actually reading Alice in Wonderland - don't tell Professor Snape.

I'm in the Great Hall! I'm in the Great Hall! *passes out*

I was so caught up in the Harry Potter-ness that I didn't take a picture of anything else while I was at Oxford. My friend Christie and I want to go back to Oxford again - there is so much to see that we missed. I want to eat lunch at the Eagle and Child, where Tolkien and Lewis used to eat together and discuss their stories. Christie wants to wander the Oxford gardens and look for more Alice and Wonderland inspiration (she's a big fan, and Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland based on things in Oxford. We found the cheshire cat trees and the stretched necks, but there's more to see!).

The school itself was fantastic. It made me wish that I had studied harder in school. I am intelligent, but I never set lofty enough goals. Cal State Fullerton was good enough for me - so why get straight A's in high school? I hadn't decided if I even wanted to go to graduate school, so why get straight A's in college? But jeez...I really, really wish I had, so that I could have more options for graduate school. I would love to go somewhere amazing like Oxford, and really get an education, rather than be passed through the wheel of ignorance at a school for mediocre Orange County kids. I know I fall into that catagory presently, and it makes me sad.

The Lake District

Finally, up to recent events, my British Literature class took a field trip up to the Lake District, which is way up north near Scotland. It was beautiful - the water and clean air of Seattle mixed with the autumn trees of the east coast. I loved it. I think Wordsworth's house, Rydal Mount, was my favorite. I stood up on a hill in his "back yard", which is a wild rambling forest overlooking a lake, and read "Daffodils". It was very satisfying.

I forgot Mace and my camera, so this is only picture I have of the trip, from Caitlin. I might add more later if I can get a hold of Christie's camera. She's in Wales right now.

Sewing Projects

Bonus points for whoever can tell me what this embroidered velvet is going to be for! xD It's maybe 5% done, so it is probably hard to tell. I know the embroidery isn't perfect or symmetrical, but I've never done it before, so...yeah. ^_^

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WHEW! That concludes this third update. Way too many pictures! I'll try not to get behind like that again. Thank you for reading, and see you all soon!

ladyamaryllis @ 2006-10-07T23:35:00

2006-10-07T23:33:44Z

Public for friends and family who are not on Live Journal.

The Adventures of Mace and Courtney
England Style
Warning: Image Heavy

All right! Since I haven't written in a month or so, we have a lot of ground to cover. I'll do this chronologically, best i can remember. The reason I don't have as many pictures is because my camera was out of batteries, and I was too lazy to change them. Caitlin took some assorted pictures of me that I am using in the first half of the update. In the second half, I finally got some batteries and fixed my camera, and things get much more exciting.

First off, this is the room I am staying in. Mine is the bottom bunk bed on the right. The girl in the picture is my room mate Hailey. We actually have the biggest room in the entire building, and we only have three people! We also have our own bathroom, which most people don't. Tee! It is hard to imagine that we have the best room in the house, because it seems so small and inconvenient. I feel really sorry for the other people. ~_~

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Buckingham Palace

As for my adventures - basically, we have a "British Life and Culture" class that has a field trip every Friday morning. Most of my adventures have been on those trips. Sometimes my friends (namely Caitlin, and sometimes Christie) and I go on adventures on our own, when we are feeling bored. Once, we even paid for a big tour on a coach (bus) on our own. That was pretty awesome. I'll start off with what I think is the earliest picture - about a month ago Caitlin and I did a tour of Buckingham Palace.

They only open Buckingham Palace to the public during one month out of the year, which happens to be September! We were very lucky to be able to take a tour of it. It wasn't as gaudy as the Opera House in Paris, so I have to admit I was a little disappointed. Caitlin loved it, but I missed Paris. It was fun, though, to be able to see where the Queen walks around all day. I don't have any pictures of the inside (I don't think we were allowed to take any), but I did take a picture of myself in the gardens.

TEE! The gardens weren't as spectacular as I had imagined - it was very natural and rambling, and the lake looked kind of dodgy. I was expected manicured rows of roses, or something.

One of the other great things about Buckingham Palace is that they had a big display of the Queen's gowns, from the last 70 years or so. That was VERY exciting for me, as someone who is interested in costumes and in sewing. All of her dresses were ridiculous - silk, beads, embroidery, the works. I'm not sure that I have exactly the same taste as the Queen, but it was fun to see, all the same!

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Stratford

Sometime later, for my Shakespeare class, we took a day trip to Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was born. I had stayed there for a week with my family last year, but I had fun visiting again. Stratford is a really quaint little city. We saw a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theater with Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek), and that was really fantastic. Patrick Stewart really IS a great actor, and it was exciting to be able to see him perform live. The play was Shakespeare's The Tempest, which I am unfortunately not really a fan of. The play was set on an arctic island, rather than a tropical island, which was interesting.

Caitlin and I visited Shakespeare's house, of course.

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The Globe Theater

We spend a lot of time on "The Underground", which is the London subway system. I absolutely adore it. Sometimes when I am bored (which is outrageous - I will not allow myself to be bored here), I get on the tube and just ride around in circles. I like to get off on a random stop and walk around, watching people and looking at the scenery. There are so many people and so much to see - I really love it here.

This is my friend Caitlin on the tube. I just thought the picture was hilarious. xD And also, you can see what she looks like. Sort of. I think this was on the way back from the Globe theater, after seeing Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.

The Globe! There is something to talk about. It is an new theater that they have built to be as close as they can to an accurate Elizabethan theater. They even have a standing pit where the "groundlings" can watch the pay for really cheap - but you have to stand. All our our tickets have been in this cheapo standing area. LAME! But the theater is really beautiful, and the plays are very good, so it's all right. We have seen Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, and Antony and Cleopatra.

You can't really see the Globe, but you can see Caitlin and I. This was at Comedy of Errors. I'm angry because she's making me take another picture. xD I tolerated it for awhile, but she's one of those Camera Nazis, so I just decided to start scowling in all of her pictures to discourage her. ^_~

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King's Cross

Now, you HAD to have expected this! At King's Cross station, they put up a sign to mark Platform 9 3/4. There is even a trolley stuck halfway in to the wall! Caitlin is a Harry Potter nerd as well, so we were very excited when we saw this.

Look who else was there! Okay, so to be honest this is a figurine I bought that I was holding up Mace-style. But it's very good quality...doesn't it kind of look like Alan Rickman is there? Just a little? xD

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Brick Lane

One Friday for British Life and Culture class, we took the tube down to Brick Lane, which is on the east end of London. We had Indian food and walked around all of the fabulous bohemian art studios and fashion stores. It was a lot of fun, and unique - it reminded me of Rent. Old warehouses full of free art displays (and by art, I mean pieces of trash hanging from the ceiling and things built out of old VHS tapes), fabric stores, thrift boutiques, and lots of exciting people. I really enjoyed it. I didn't take a picture of any of those things, of course, (sorry), but I do have a picture of our group near the tube station.

These are the people I hang out with most often (generally just Caitlin, though). From left to right - Lizette, Liu, Christie, Caitlin, and myself. I'm not really sure what that guy is doing next to me. Trying to be funny I guess. His name is Anthony.

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Tower of London

Caitlin and I did the Tower of London! I had already gone with my parents last year, so I wasn't that excited, but we took some fun pictures. The Tower is an old palace of English Kings and Queens, chock full of murders and imprisonments and beheadings. It is also where they have the Crown Jewels.

This is our tour guide, known as a Yeoman or a Beefeater. They are respected veterans from the military, and it is a great honor to be able to retire in to work at the Tower. They are tour guides and live at the Tower, and guard it as well, I suppose. At this point in the tour, he was talking about Henry VII proposing to Anne Boleyn, and I happened to be standing next to him, so he took my hand and pretended he was Henry and I was Anne. It was pretty funny. Caitlin snapped this picture. xD

This is me wasting away in the Salt Tower. Caitlin and I both took princess pictures. Doesn't this tower just look like the kind of place a poor princess would be imprisoned? The sad part is, it probably was. So many people were locked up in the Tower of London.

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Leeds Castle

Can you see why I hadn't updated for awhile? Nothing nearly as exciting as my last big update. All of those pictures were boring and Mace-less because my camera didn't have any batteries. Finally I got some, and from here on out, the pictures are more exciting!

Caitlin, Christie, and myself took a coach (bus) tour to Canterbury, Leeds Castle, and the Cliffs of Dover. It was a little expensive, but it was a great way to see a lot of things we didn't really have access to. I thin we're going to do another one, because it worked out really well!

The first stop was Leeds Castle. It is an ancient castle in a lake - not ON a lake, but IN a lake. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a completely ethereal kind of place - Lady of Shallot or something. I loved it.

Squee! I can't believe people LIVE here! And they do, by the way. It is a tourist attraction and some parts are open to the public, but a lot of the castle is closed off. But yeah...can't you just see the poor Lady of Shallot in her boat floating down this river? I wish we could have spent more time here.

Mace storming the portcullis. PORTCULLIS! I couldn't help but think of the Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride. "Give me the gate key." "I have no gate key." "Fezzik, tear his arms off." "Oh, you mean THIS gate key!"

I'm in the right corner there, pondering the castle. See how it simply rises out of the water? Fantastic. I had seen pictures of it, but I didn't really understand how pretty it was until I was there. This is a crappy picture and you can't really imagine the scope of it. The air was crisp, there were birds singing, and there was huge beautiful trees and landscape stretching for miles around. It was like stepping in to a fairy tale.

We decided to head to the hedge maze (YES, the HEDGE MAZE!) On the way we discovered a wall covered in ivy with a thick wooden door. Caitlin and I looked at each other and squealed, "SECRET GARDEN!" That is one of my favorite books, even though it is a children's book. I am channelling Mary Craven as much as I can in this picture. "Please sir, may I have a bit of earth?" Wow. England is so beautiful.

The hedge maze was really fun! Caitlin, Christie, and I all split off in different directions and raced to the finish. It took about 20 minutes. Once, I ran into Caitlin unexpectedly and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" She almost died laughing. It was awesome. I'll have you know I finished, first, too. :P

Canterbury

Regrettably, we had to leave Leeds Castle to get back on the bus. Next on the tour was Canterbury. If any of you have read Jeffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this is the city the title refers to. There is a beautiful cathedral in the middle of the city, and the characters in the book are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.

After visiting, I understand why. It was BREATHTAKING. I think I liked Canterbury Cathedral even better than Notre Dame in Paris. It's a little older, too (I think.)

Again, you can't really get an idea of how magnificent this place is just from a picture. It's huge, and old, and crumbling, but noble...I am at a loss for how to explain it. It was one of my favorite things on the entire trip, I think. It is also a working cathedral - there are still people who worship in it. There are so many empty cathedrals in Europe, converted in to restaurants or tourist sites or simply abandoned. It was comforting to me to know that this one is still a thriving body.

I didn't take any pictures of the inside for some reason, so it is on to the next stop on our trip - the white cliffs of Dover.

White Cliffs of Dover

I have heard a lot about them, but honestly they were disappointing. Because they are on the edge of the land, there is really no place to see them clearly, unless you are on a boat. We were not on a boat, so we didn't get a good view at all. I tried to take a picture anyway, though.

They are the little specks in the upper middle left of the picture.

That was it for our big coach tour! Definitely worth the £40.

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Stonehenge

Just last Friday, October 7, my British Life and Culture class took a coach (bus) tour to Bath and Stonehenge. I had done the exact same thing with my family last year, so again, I wasn't that excited, but I had a great time anyway.

Mace ponders the mysteries of Stonehenge.

Stonehenge was much more fun this time. When I came with my family, it was after hours and they wouldn't let you walk around. This time, I was able to get a little closer to the formation. The BEST part, though, was that it was ridiculously windy, absolutely freezing, and pouring rain. =D I loved it! It was great to be able to experience something eerie like Stonehenge in that kind of weather. Most of the kids were complaining, but I was excited.

TEE! Look how classy I am! In my WOOL COAT! *screams happily* I absolutely adore this weather. We'll see how I feel in December, but right now I am excited!

Bath

After Stonehenge, we continued on to Bath. The city is named Bath because the Romans built a great bath there - and you cans still go to the well-preserved ruins.

Caitlin and I visited the Jane Austen Centre, which I missed when I came last year with my parents. It was really great. I am a moderate Jane Austen fan, and Caitlin is a fanatic, so we were bound to enjoy it. They had a little lecture on Jane Austen's writing and time in Bath, and then Caitlin and I had tea and cakes. It was neat to think that Jane Austen herself may have had tea and looked out of the very same window. We realized, though, that we were late for our tour of the Roman Baths - and we picked up our cakes and ran! I'm sure we were quite a sight to see - umbrella in one hand, cake in the other, running through the streets of Bath. xD

The tour was much better last time (with my parents) because we took our time and carefully examined everything. It was lame going with a group of college kids, because they just wanted to rush through, and the experience was very different. I was disappointed. I found consolation in the gift shop, though, with THIS gem:

That's right - Harry Potter translated in to Latin. Harrius Potter. BEST THING EVAR. I opened the pages and tried to read some of it - and it was definitely all in Latin! Awesome! I didn't buy it, but now I'm kinda wishing I did. xD

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That concludes this second update! I'm sorry it isn't as fabulous as the first, but honestly, I haven't been doing as much! That's all for now, folks, because I'm really exhausted. I hope everyone is well, thank you for reading!

ladyamaryllis @ 2006-09-08T09:43:00

2006-09-08T09:12:25Z

THIS HAPPENED!
lawlz i pwn ur friends page

Public entry for my parents, again.

I was on Live Journal in the US, in Michigan, actually, and someone posted in my Snape Daily community that Alan Rickman was making a semi-rare public appearance at the Every Man Theater in London on September 5. He made a movie called Snowcake, somewhat of an art film, that they are having trouble selling to distributors. So they decided to do a charity showing at the Every Man, where people would pay (quite a lot) to come see it, and the the producer, director, and star (Alan Rickman) would do a question-and-answer panel afterwards.

I reserved my tickets immediately, but got a call in the middle of the night the next day telling me that the tickets were already sold out. I was terribly bummed, but decided that once I was in London, I would head down there at the proper time and see what I could do.

Cut to September 5, in London. I called during the day, and they said that I should come about half an hour early to see if they had any returned tickets. I got excited and ended up leaving 4 hours early ^_^; I took the Underground up to Hampstead (about an hour ride), and on the way there realized I had forgotten my digital camera. I bought a disposable at the tube station (for 12 dollars, sniffle), and headed over to the theater.

I got there about 3 hours early, and lucky for that, because they DID have a returned ticket. One. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRONT ROW. I almost died. Instead, I bought the ticket and walked around Hampstead until showtime.

I ate at McDonalds, took a walk in a churchyard and admired the gravestones, called Aaron Ozment, sat on a bench for awhile, went to McDonalds again, and finally it was time. Well, close enough anyway. I went back to the theater, and they led me into the "lounge". I had no idea it was such a posh theater! I was led into a dimly lit room with scattered velvet couches and gaudy armchairs. They were serving free drinks, alcoholic and non, and soft music was playing. I felt so..."New Money". xD

After sitting for a bit, I heard some people talking at the reception desk. Then I head it...His Voice. "Thank you, I'm Alan." I risked a look, and there he was, Alan Rickman. Standing only ten feet away from me. I averted my eyes. I didn't want to be the giddy fangirl. I studied my programme with interest, probably too much interest, and strained to hear his voice again. I saw him take a peek into our room, and his eyes brush over me, but I steadfastly refused to look up and give a dopey smile. I ignored him. Eventually he left, and the other women in the room and I looked at each other and giggled with excitement.

I continued to study my programme, and apparently I looked lonely, because a group of people invited me to come over and talk to them. They turned out to be an artsy indie theater group, and they talked and talked of Little Miss Sunshine and all of the current popular art films. I didn't have anything intelligent to say, so I kept mostly quiet, unless people asked me about my "accent" (squee!), and then I got to loftily admit that I was studying abroad. I think I pulled off the "artsy snob" pretty well. I don't think any of them realized that I was simply an Alan Rickman fangirl. ^_~ It was a LOT of fun to sit and talk with them. What a different kind of experience.

After that...they ushered us in! They briefly introduced Alan Rickman and company before the movie, and then they went back to their seats in the corner and we all prepared to watch Snowcake.

It was surprisingly good. I assumed that if they were having trouble selling it, it must be pretty crappy - but I was wrong! I liked it a lot, actually. It was about a man who just got out of jail (Alan Rickman), who picks up a hitchhiker, but then gets in a car accident that wasn't his fault and the hitchhiker dies. Full of guilt, he looks up her family to apologize to them, but it turns out she lives only with her mother, who is autistic and incapable of taking care of herself (Sigourney Weaver). He feels even worse, and decides to stay with the autistic woman until her parents can come (they're unreachable on vacation at the time). They all learn to enjoy the moment and to enjoy the beauty of simplicity, Alan's wounds are somewhat healed, and everybody is ready to move on with their lives. There is all sorts of metaphors about snowglobes and snow and what not...*sigh* you'd really have to see it. It was quite beautiful.

After that, the question-and-answer panel. I was sitting about five feet away from the stage with Alan Rickman on it. It was SO hard not to squeal "SNAPE! SNAPE! HARRY POTTER!" As some of you know, I seem to have "Harry Potter Turrets Syndrome", and it was difficult to restrain myself. I tried to look interested and intelligent and keep the fangirl inside. Alan's shoes were beautiful, I remember that much. And he looked nice - not all blotchy and old like the picture seems to indicate. I thought he looked pretty good.

After everything was over, people filed into the hall. I clutched my bag, with my disposable camera and the picture Brittany drew me, hoping Alan would be in the hall giving autographs. And he was! He looked clearly tired, like he wanted to go home. I felt kind of bad and fangirl-ish asking for an autograph, but...I knew I would regret it forever if I didn't. How strange that I had to ruin my 30 seconds with Alan Rickman with typical fangirl things, just to preserve the memory of the ruined moment in the future. Oh well.

He gave a little "hmm" of surprise that was SO Snape when I handed him Brittany's picture to sign. It was a recognition that I actually was a Snape fangirl and not an artsy intelligent person like everyone else who had come to see the film. I loved that sound. I felt like I had just given him a less than satisfactory potion, and he was "hmm"-ing in disapproval. It was so cool. He signed it quickly, and all my carefully constructed thoughts of beautiful intelligent things to say faded quickly. I squeaked out, "Truly Madly Deeply is one of my favorite movies, thank you so much for making it", and he may have said something, but honestly I can't really remember. I remember him handing me the drawing back, now signed, and smiling at me. I remember thinking, "I wish he had scowled and raised his eyebrow rather than smiling."

I sat down on one of the velvet couches in the room while he was surrounded by more people. I tried to get the drawing back into it's clear pouch, but my hands were shaking so much that I found it quite difficult. I changed positions to support my arm with my leg, and then my leg started twitching. I was sweating quite a lot. It took me a full minute to get the picture back in the clear pouch and safely inserted into my folder. I didn't really care though, because that was just more time I had to be in the same room with Alan Rickman.

I suddenly remembered my camera. Shoot! Any hopes of being beautiful and mysterious would fade if I had to get back in line and ask him for something else. I was shamed, but I just NEEDED a picture. He was clearly even more tired, and wanted to leave, but I stopped him quickly and said, "I'm sorry, may I have a picture with you as well?" Again, he may have said something, but I'm not really clear on it. I handed my camera to a stranger, she snapped it quickly, and I said, "Thank you so much" to Alan, and then stepped in to another room.

Now shamed and embarrassed and fully revealed as a fangirl, I decided to make my exit, rather than standing around in the room gawking at him. I literally ran down the stairs and in to the streets. As I headed for the Underground, I no longer could restrain my Harry Potter Turrets - as soon as I knew Alan couldn't hear, I screamed "SNAPE! SNAPE! HARRY POTTER! OH MY GOSH! SNAPE!" Some strangers on the street glared and me, but I didn't even care. I started running, and ran all the way to the subway, grinning like a fool. I didn't even care. I had just met Alan Rickman, and he "hmmed" at me, and smiled at me, and let me take a picture with him.

I finally arrived home to my flat, and that was that! Alan Rickmannnnn! Woo-hoo! *dies happy*

ladyamaryllis @ 2006-09-06T12:03:00

2006-09-06T12:40:57Z

Public for friends and family who are not on Live Journal.

The Adventures of Mace and Courtney
Paris/Amsterdam Style
Warning: Image Heavy

I'm going to start in London, because we toured around London for a couple of days before we left for Paris and Amsterdam. I had seen a lot of it before, but I still took some pictures. Nothing real exciting. The group was horrified when I pulled out a Mace Windu action figure to take pictures with. But seriously, I would rather have a picture of the Tower Bridge and Mace than just the Tower Bridge. Pictures without people or silliness are always boring, and people get tourist-y and forget that. If a place was really beautiful or important, I of course try took "real pictures" of myself there as well. But really, I'm using Mace Windu to make my reports more interesting for you guys. ^_^

This is the view from my kitchen, in my flat in London. We live in the Royal Burough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is the richest area of London. Judi Dench and Orlando Bloom are rumored to live on our street! I have yet to see them, but you bet I'm looking. xD I love the view from our kitchen - you can really see the lines between time periods blurring - there is beautiful old style architecture (that arch in the very back), beginning to fall into ruin, and then SUVs and people walking their dogs. It's all very strange, but pretty.

This is the Tower Bridge. We went on a bus tour our second day and stopped at some of the big sites, so I pulled out Mace. Tee!

Mace at Buckingham Palace. The guards didn't stand a chance. ^_~

Myself at Buckingham Palace, looking very study-abroad-student. A hot French guy took this picture.

Then it was off to Paris! This is the French train station. I thought it was really pretty. It was massive. You can't tell, of course, you never can in pictures, but still.

So, we arrived in Paris. First was a ride on the hot, stinky Metro (subway) to our hostel (cheap hotel). The hostel was different than anywhere I had stayed before, but kind of quaint. It had four beds in one tiny room, smaller than my bedroom, ugly curtains, and a shower where you had to hold up the nozzle. It was small, but not really unpleasant. We were all BURSTING to get outside and see Paris, so we only stayed there a few minutes.

On the way to our first attraction (Notre Dame cathedral) I got my first real glimpse of Paris...and was disappointed. Everything was beautiful, but so dirty. London is a very old city, and it still manages to seem clean and respectable. Paris was filthy - it reeked of cigarette butts, and worse, urine. The whole city smelled like a sewer. I suppose everyone always idealizes Paris as this magical place, so disappointment is probably normal, but still...urine? That was a little much.

Notre Dame Cathedral. I didn't even know this was in Paris. ^_^;

It was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures never do anything justice. It was just SO huge, and the sides of it were even more intricate and beautiful than the front was (this is the front). If it weren't for the overwhelming stink of urine, I might have stayed around a little longer to take better pictures.

The inside of Notre Dame. It's dark, but hopefully you can see some of it - the Lord of the Rings "Khazad-dum" style ceilings, the huge stained glass...wow. I honestly didn't know that men were capable of building something that big and that intricate.

We finished Notre Dame kind of early, and seperated from the group to go to a little Paris cafe. I was trying to save money, so I bought the cheapest thing on the menu (by pointing and smiling, since I can't speak French for beans), and it was awful. It was a REALLY hard piece of bread with a slice of ham inside it. Not many slices, a slice. ^_^; It also had nothing else in it - no sauce or anything. I also ordered a coke, just because I thought it might be rude to order tap water, and the coke was FIVE EUROS. Which is like 7 bucks. -_-; Once again, Paris disappointed me. Our whole group was kind of depressed, by this point. This is Paris? This is it?

After Notre Dame, we headed over to the Louvre. I saw a street vendor selling Moulin Rouge artwork, and then it hit me. THE MOULIN ROUGE IS IN PARIS. I'M IN PARIS. I COULD GO RIGHT NOW. The Moulin Rouge musical is my all time favorite movie. I definitely wanted to visit, but for the time being, I needed to stay with the group and go to the Louvre.

Mace does the Louvre.

For those of you who don't know, the Louvre is one of the world's best art museums, perhaps the best. All I knew about it is that it had the Mona Lisa, and that I was going to see it! MONA LISA! Squee! I've loved that painting forever. I've wanted to do a Mona Lisa Halloween costume for years - myself dressed as her, with a painted background, holding a big gaudy frame. D

I was getting really excited about the Louvre just by looking at it. Apparently it was built to be a palace for the French kings, but they eventually moved out, and it became the museum. It was OUTRAGEOUS. It was like...I can't even explain to you how large it was. You can kind of see from the pictures, but not really. There were two buildings, with several floors, and the whole thing was done in old style French architecture, because it is freaking old. There were gorgeous marble floors throughout the whole thing, and gold-gilded everything, and huge glass windows, and paintings on the ceiling. It was absolutely obscene. I loved it.

Once we were inside and had our tickets, some of the girls needed to use the restroom, so I sat down near a wall and tried to figure out where the Mona Lisa was so we could make a beeline there. It was neat the the museum was so huge, but it made it difficult to get to all of the things we wanted to see. I could probably spend a full week in the Louvre and still feel that I missed a lot of things.

They finally finished, and we were off! The first big hall of paintings was really impressive, but kind of discouraging, because I didn't recognize anything. Eventually we got to the Mona Lisa, and...it was tiny, and they wouldn't let you get very close. It looked just like another print of it. It probably was, and the real one is locked away somewhere. I don't know. It had been a lifelong dream for me to see the Mona Lisa, and there she was...same as always. Nothing magical. No pictures were allowed there, or else I would have Maced up her up. I was very disappointed, again.

After that, we were off to look for some of the other familiar things on the map.

How YOU doin'?

The Venus de Milo. I was aware of this sculpture, but seeing it in person was AMAZING. It was the Mona Lisa experience I had been hoping for. In person, it was so much more detailed, and large, and beautiful. I really loved it. I felt better about the Louvre, and my mood started to change.

The girls were tired and wanted to quit, so I branched off on my own to see the French sculptures. And boy, was I glad I did! This is really where my whole attitude about Paris and the French experience changed. You can't tell from the picture, but this room is GIGANTIC, and filled with huge, beautiful sculptures. The ceiling was glass, so light was streaming in and illuminating everything...I can't even explain it. I audibly gasped, and then just sagged against the wall for awhile, looking at this amazing room. Look how tiny the people are. Try to imagine how large this room is.

The French may be proud and keep to themselves, but they definitely can appreciate beauty through extravagance - the more sequins and sculptures and gold moulding and chandeliers and glass ceilings and silk gowns and medieval paintings that you can stuff in to a room, the better. I really like that kind of attitude! It's really fun, and it IS beautiful in a way, to do everything so over-the-top. I began to see that, and I began to love Paris.

That was all for the first day. We headed back on the Metro to our hostel, and after resting for awhile, my roommates and I went out for dinner. We went to the Opera district, because we wanted to go somewhere ridiculously fancy. And as I emerged from the steps of the Metro Station...There. It. Was. The Paris Opera House. I literally choked and fell against the stair rail when I realized what it was. How could I have forgotten this was in Paris?

The Paris Opera House is the place that inspired Phantom of the Opera! Gaston Leroux heard stories about the (confirmed) underground lake and the (rumored) phantom at the Opera House, and he wrote his novel based on it, and the play was based on that. I saw a giant gaudy gold statue of an angel on the rooftop, and recalled that they filmed some of the scenes for the movie there. I was absolutely beside myself. We tried to go in, but realized they only gave tours in the morning hours. I resolved to go the next day. No Matter What. I'm crazy about Phantom of the Opera, for those of you that didn't know.

Dinner was fantastic. My meal was this fat juicy steak, and French Fries - which of course aren't French. I learned that in Europe, people eat French Fries with a knife and fork. WHAT? Absurd! It took me forever to eat them - pick it up with the fork, dip it in the ketchup, eat it. Lame. I eventually started eating with my fingers, and people glared at me, but oh well.

For dessert, I ordered chocolate crepes. O_O Literally the best thing I have ever had in my life. Soft, thin, moist, sugary pancakes, folded in half and stuff with fantastically rich creamy chocolate. WOW. I'm going to try to learn how to make crepes, because it was amazing.

Also, French service IS extremely slow. We spent three hours in the restaurant - like an hour before we ordered, an hour for our food to come, and then an hour for our bill to come. It was nice to be able to sit and really enjoy ourselves - I couldn't do that all the time, though.

After that, back on the Metro, where we crashed at our hostel. SLEEP!

--

The next day, we started out with the Eiffel Tower. YAY!

Mace at the Eiffel Tower.

Myself at the Eiffel Tower.

It was much larger than I had imagined. It was also brown. I had always thought it was iron, like silver-colored, for some reason. *shrug* It was fantastic, either way. We took pictures, then went on a boat ride on the canal, where we saw lots of the big sights again (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre). From a boat, Paris is beautiful. Can't smell the urine. Can't see the dirty streets full of cars. Can't see the lower-levels of the buildings, which are full of slummy shops and bright, ugly signs. Just "Old Paris" - the beautiful architecture on the upper-levels, and the blue sky. It was great.

After the Eiffel Tower and the boat ride, we headed to the Arc de Triumph, a big monument Napoleon set up. I was mostly unimpressed. A lot of the girls wanted to shop and sit in a cafe for awhile, but I persuaded a small group to come and do the Opera House tour instead. YAY! PHANTOM!

So, wow. Shut up with the the Opera House. I am SO glad I went. It was definitely reminiscent of Phantom of the Opera - there were old style candelabras everywhere, and the whole place was dimly lit by chandeliers. In one room, the moulding around the chandelier had ravens painted on it! It was very gaudy-creepy. I really loved the whole place. They wouldn't let us go see the underground lake, but I suppose I can understand that.

My favorite room. Just look how HUGE it is - the tassels on the curtains were twice as big as my head! The room made me desperately wish I were wearing a ball gown.

This is the main entrance room...wow. So pretty.

After the fabulous opera house, we met up with the rest of the group and headed off to another museum, called Museum d'Orsay - an Impressionist museum. It was fantastic! There were three entire rooms full of Monet, two rooms of Van Gogh, and a lot of other awesome artists (Toulouse, the one who always drew the Moulin Rouge!)

Mace chats it up with Vincent Van Gogh.

After THAT, my feet really hurt, but it was our last day in Paris and I absolutely had to see the Moulin Rouge. My tour guide said it was really dangerous to go after dark, especially alone, and that I should go while it was still light out. I grudgingly agreed to this, but it would have been a lot better if I had gone at night and gotten pictures while it was all lit up. Oh well.

I tried to go in, but apparently a lot of people are interested in the Moulin Rouge now, and they've been taking advantage of it. They only let you in if you are seeing a show, and it cost 200 euros (250 or so American dollars) for tickets. Oh well, it was still awesome to at least see!

Finally I left, and then it was back to our hostel for sleep.

--

PHEW! That is all of Paris. I had one more adventure there, but it was after Amsterdam, so let's move on.

AMSTERDAM. Amsterdam is in Holland, for those of you who don't know. I didn't know. ^_^; Holland is also known as the Netherlands. It's the land of tulips and windmills and wooden shoes. Or at least it was, before the legalization of marajuana. Now it is the land of drunkards and potheads. It was very sad to see the clash of the two cultures - wooden shoes and tulips, so sweet and innocent, overwhelmed by all of the drug paraphelania and prostitutes.

The first day we went to...why are these days so blurry, and Paris so clear? Maybe because I forgot to take pictures. We went to the Van Gosh museum, which was a huge disappointment (there had been much better Van Gogh in the impressionist museum in Paris), and passed the Rembrant museum because we were exhausted. We took a canal ride, but there wasn't as much to see, so I just wrote postcards. We went out to eat at this nice place, I had French Onion soup...*shrugs* Amsterdam wasn't nearly as exciting as Paris.

The second day we went to the Anne Frank house (where she lived in hiding), which was nice but depressing. We realized the day they were discovered and taken away was September 3, which was the day we were there - very sad.

On the way back to the hostel, we ate at the Pancake house. YAY PANCAKES!

Mine was a huge pancake, bigger than my plate (like an inch over the plate on every side, and it was a big plate), covered in two giant heaps of ice cream and three giant pillars of whipped cream. Oh, and swimming in chocolate. I ate the whole thing though, and it was awesome. I was sick the next two days, but it was worth it!

After that we headed back to the hostel for the night. The hostel - there is a story in itself. It was a TINY room, about the size of our Paris one, but with six beds. Everything was white, and there were no curtains, and there were all sorts of drawings and writings on the walls. The bathroom was the worst part, though - the shower was just in the same room as the toilet, with no barrier of any kind, so the shower flooded the entire bathroom. With six people taking showers for two days, you can imagine. It was NASTY.

Anyway, sleep, gross shower, and back on the train, back to Paris.

One more adventure the second time I went to Paris. I decided I wanted to buy a Moulin Rouge poster that I had seen on the street near the Louvre. I took the tube by myself back down to the Louvre, talked in French to the guy there (bonjour! merci!), and walked away the proud owner of a Paris Moulin Rouge poster. xD Somehow I managed to get back to the train station in one piece (the Paris Metro is really confusing becase all of the instructions are in French), and then back on the train to London.

WOW it took me a really long time to write that, and I still kind of have more to say. I have made a couple friends here who don't drink and party (namely Kaitlin and Christie), which is reassuring. I am GLAD to be back in beautiful London, which doesn't smell like urine and isn't full of pot. I am going to stay in London for the next three months, because school has started. Speaking of which, I'm late for class! Thank you for reading!

ladyamaryllis @ 2005-11-14T21:03:00

2005-11-15T05:12:04Z

Public because John Denver is awesome.

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, go to the country, build you a home.
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own.
~John Denver, Blow Up Your TV