Aha! I have at last figured out how to add photos to this blog.
Holy freaking h***. This is what the "Storm" compelled civilized me to scream, shortly after we reached the very top, and non-dg turned to me and said, "I think this was a bad life decision" and I replied, "Does your harness feel loose?" Not to mention the two other classmates who ran up to us right before we paid the enormous sum of £4 to board this and said, "Just for the record, I think you all are &#%$ crazy!!" Now, I wished I hadn't closed my eyes for half of it. I had the most beautiful view when they were open, though. www.yelp.co.uk/biz/super-booster-ride-brighton here is a good description.
Why did I do this? :D I figured as long as my world was being turned upside down anyway, I might as well do it thoroughly.
Last night was a 'fun fair'. It drove into town overnight and blocked all the traffic with: crazy mazes, fun houses, spinning and twisting and whirling and upside down and slingshot rides, trampolines, win gifts booths and sweetstalls, helium balloons, blastic music, screaming, grinning and hopping and dancing little kids, gyrating and grooving teens, incongruous Superbowl and Mariah Carey themed rides complete with US/Wild West flag, burger stalls, cotton candy and candied apples, and lots more.
Even more exciting than last night's (and tonight's) fun fair though, was our visit to the University campus today, in which I actually. got. to. touch. Holinshed's Chronicles. And Plutarch's Lives. And Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Let me sum up: the last two days have been a whirlwind (pun unintended :D) of lectures on research, support, finance, postgraduate students, rare books (during which I started giggling..I felt SO bad! because it was so monotonous and my classmate next to me was giving me this 'make.it.stop' look, and after opening and describing the 65th book --I counted!-- the lecturer went over to the shelf of 10 more to continue. I had to hide behind the people in front) and more research. Some of us actually played hooky during the last one, it was my first time ever. Before you get excited, it was a repeat, so I got elected to go casually tell the lecturer that the group of us who had already had the lecture were going to the 'Barber Institute' (art gallery). We then went to the student protest march and a bar.
Sorry, I just had to exaggerate. We walked by the march on the fringes of it, briefly flirted with the idea of being on BBC TV (which means Theatre talent #1, and I mean that seriously, said come on, you know you want to!) and having our hooky playing publicly recorded for the entire UK to view that evening, and then continued on to the Student Guild, which includes the bar, which we also passed by. We then went to have fast food sandwiches, and then Theatres 1 and 2 sadly had to depart by train, and then my remaining classmate who I will dub 'Wild West dad' and I went to the Barber Institute, which is an incredibly excellent small, free, and deserted museum. Unfortunately their Monet was out on loan, and we had just 1/2 an hour left to go through it, but it was incredible, there is one piece each to represent nearly every major artist there.
Right before the library research lecture, we had gone to the "Cadbury Research Library" (! :D which is not chocolate but rare books). http://www.special-coll.bham.ac.uk/ There we got to see how books are cleaned, preserved, and stored. They have a special A/C room in the basement accessed down a twisty stair by an alarm panel, with doors you have to swipe to enter, metallic walls, rolling shelves, low ceilings, curved floors to avoid floods entering and argon gas pipes in case of fire and which cost £40,000 to replace if you accidentally push the button by the door. It would make a fabulous movie set for a chase scene.
And then...after the 45 minute book showing we got 10 more to actually HOOOOLLDD them! Which was even more exciting than "The Storm". We took turns turning the pages and breathing.
I forgot to add that my whirlwind days included opening a bank account with HSBC which involved signing lots of forms, paying invisible money I don't have yet, photographing their bilingual Welsh calendar and crossing my eyes at the security camera in the lobby. And running into 4 classmates who were there to use the ATM and already had bank accounts so I couldn't recommend them and get £10 back for each, lol HSBC corrupts quickly.
Finally I will just say the support lecture included all the things students have to balance...So...I have boxes to unpack, more boxes to rescue from customs, bills to pay, police reports to file, money orders to figure out how to get overseas and then mail back, official documents to amend, contracts to sign, books to read, handbooks to read, papers to write, meals to cook, clothes to wash, rooms to turn right side up, CVs to print, printers to buy, and miles to go before I sleep...
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