Summer Ball

The end of the spring term is celebrated every year with the Summer Ball. Friends who had attended this event in years past insisted that it was an event not to be missed. Tickets went on sale in late April, and cost a whopping £50, but we continued to be assured that this would be 50 quid well spent. Satursday, the day finally came for us to celebrate surviving the normal school year at Roehampton. Maybe not as exciting for us postgrads, who still have a long summer of dissertation writing ahead of us, but nonetheless we were quite excited.

Summer ball is an event that lasts pretty much all day. From 1:30 pm until 5 am, with a short 3 hour break in the middle from 5 - 8 pm for cleaning. There is live music, carnival rides, food and drinks. The afternoon portion is relaxed and fun- time was spent mostly laying in the sun and enjoying the awesome weather and the music and friends. The evening portion is more formal, girls and guys are both expected to dress formally, and there's more of the same things from the afternoon. The rides are open until 10, the food and drink tents are around for the whole night, and the live music is going until 12. The few who make it until the end of the event are rewarded with the privilege of being in the "survivor's photo" - a group photo of all of the people who lasted through to the morning.

In the afternoon, we relaxed on the lawn, enjoyed the live music, ate some yummy food and drank a bit. We drove the bumper cars, or as the British call them - "Dodge 'ems" and some people rode the tilt-a-whirl spinning thing. After my roast pork sandwich, I didn't think it a good idea. It was a pleasantly warm and sunny afternoon - perfect for laying out in the grass and enjoying live music.

After a break back home for a shower, some dinner, and some relaxing, we got all dolled up and headed back to the main campus for part 2 of Summer ball. The live music consisted of DJs and small, less known artists, as well as a band called Hard-Fi and another one called Example. I had never heard of these bands until they were announced as headliners of the Summer Ball. Most people were pretty excited about it, except for us foreigners who were left a bit in the dark. Regardless, Example put on a good show and Hard-Fi was alright. There was a 5 minute fireworks show, which was fun and just long enough to be cool and keep our attention. After the live music ended, there was Silent Disco. Still just as fun as ever, but for some reason this time the music wasn't quite in synch with our dancing mood. We did the headphone-bop for a little over an hour before wimping out and coming home. None of us made it to the survivor's photo, but I don't think I would have been a happy camper if I had. My mood had deteriorated with exhaustion by 2 am when we headed back. I couldn't imagine staying until 5.

Terry's Birthday!

Friday was Terry's Birthday. I baked Terry this chocolate cake for her birthday and, after a crazy-far-away interview on Friday afternoon, we all gathered around in the barcode to enjoy it and each other. The cake was scrumptious and we had a good time chilling and celebrating Terry.

Anne, Terry, and Ulfie light the candles 

Cutting the cake and making a wish

Blowing out the candles

Columbia Street Flower Market

Sunday Jess, Ulfie, and I ventured to East London to hit up the Columbia Street Flower Market. I'd never heard of it but it sounded like a good idea, and there was a promise of flowers for cheap! Robbed of my Saturday due to class from 9-4, I decided I deserved to get out and buy myself some flowers.

Columbia Street is in East London near Brick Lane. We went to Brick Lane first, to pick up delicious Bagels from the aforementioned, infamous bagel shop "Brick Lane Beigel Bake." I treated myself to a salt beef bagel for £3.70. Such a delicious, filling, and affordable lunch! Nomnom.

After our tummies had been silenced, we went in search of the flower market. We knew the general direction, but the actual path was unknown. We followed the endless line of people caring armfuls of beautiful flowers. We found a friendly American who happened to be going the same direction who actually knew the way, and we followed him. We arrived at the market after 3. The market supposedly closes at 2 but apparently not. We were immediately bombarded with the shouts of flower salesmen under their tents shouting things like "Bunch'a sunflowers for a fiver!" and "Two for a fiver, any o'em here, two for a fiver!" God, I love the shorthand for British money.

Anyway, we did a quick pass through the market without purchasing anything, just to scope out the best deals, then doubled back to gather our spoils. We shared in the purchase of 5 sunflowers for a fiver, Jess bought 2 bushels of Lillys, and I bought 2 bunches of gerber daisies for a fiver. Sweet deal. Now my room is beautifully decorated. The down side to this - now the bees are trying to get into my room.

The sun is finally shining, I finished another term paper this afternoon, and I am starting to believe that summer might actually be here. It's supposed to be beautifully sunny for the rest of the week, including Saturday - the day of the much-anticipated Summer Ball. I even found the time to lay out in the sun today! Yippey!

35mm Love

Another post dedicated to my 35mm fascination. I promised pictures of my trip as soon as they were developed, but then a giant pile of work got dumped on my lap and I am only just now emerging from underneath it. (Yes, it's true, I have completed my literature review, aka 1/3 of my 20,000 word dissertation.)

Anyway, there are still 2 rolls of film which are still loaded in 2 of my cameras that are not finished and have pictures of Holland and Germany on them. However, the sun has refused to come out for the past few weeks at any convenient time, and so I haven't been able to finish the rolls. Hopefully soon I will have a chance to feed the birdies again on a sunny day. Phoenix friends, send the sunshine my way, you've had enough.

Anyway, here are my most favourite shots of my recent month of travel as seen through Sprocket Rocket, LC-A+, and El Capitan. Enjoy!

Things Are Looking Up

I will admit, I had my doubts. There were days when I thought my whole world was falling apart - that nothing was going to work out the way I wanted it to. (I know....I have a tendency to be melodramatic.) But finally, this week things are looking up!

Tuesday we got an opportunity to go view a flat and it was everything we wanted and more. And for the right price to boot! We put an offer down, filled out all of the paperwork, and coughed up a considerable amount of money in advance and now the flat is ours! We should move in in about a month! We are over the moon excited. Me mostly to be out of halls and into a place I can settle into and call my own.

Securing the flat was the first sign this week that the universe hadn't completely given up on me. But today, I had a meeting with another teaching agency way up in North London and, though I was thinking of reasons to miss the meeting and coming up with excuses for why I didn't want to go, I'm really glad I went. After braving the dangers of North London and finding the building where the agency was, I went in for my meeting/interview. Not more than two minutes into my interview the lady smiled at me and said, "You know you can get QTS now, right? 'Cause you're from the States." My mouth dropped open a bit, and I swear the rainclouds that have been covering London for days opened up and let a ray of sunshine fall down onto me. QTS=Qualified Teacher Status, AKA the thing you need to teach in England. Amazing. With QTS I can apply at any school I want and get paid the same amount as English-trained teachers. I was so excited I could hardly sit still for the rest of the meeting/interview. I filled out the application and turned in all of the necessary documents so hopefully soon I will get that beautiful letter in the mail that's my golden ticket to teach.

In short, I apologise to the keeper of the Great Beyond for doubting that life wasn't going to work out. I am hearing my brother's words of zen wisdom echoing in my ears - everything falls into place if you let it; everything is exactly as it should be.

I'm stepping down off of the proverbial ledge now, feeling happy in my renewed faith in the universe's perfect accidental chaos. Yes sir, things are certainly looking up.

Now, some Happy Banjo, from Dark Mean.