"Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art. " Thomas Hardy
Yesterday we went to Brick Lane to wander the Sunday Up Market and Spitalfields Market. I go there often, but this is the first time I noticed on our 205 bus route there an old graveyard with crooked headstones peeping out of a rot-iron fence right off the city street near Finsbury Square. When the red double decker bus stopped at a light, I read the notable people buried there, etched on the outside cement wall. Thomas Hardy was one of them. Thomas Hardy! The man whose words I had to nearly memorize in 10th grade English, hidden away in a graveyard no one cares to notice. It was a rather depressing realization to see a man of such passion and inspiration to rest in a graveyard so forgotten.
I wasn't in the best mood yesterday.
I just discovered that Thomas Hardy's heart is buried in Dorset, and his body in Westminster Abbey. So maybe not the same Thomas Hardy. Oh well, still allowed for some poet research. The man had some good quotes.
Today. I'm sick, and I never get sick.
"And yet to a bad there is worse" ~Thomas Hardy
My head was pounding all day, my tired eyes hardly met anyone else's. The language barrier I often smile and work through with residents was higher than ever, and a mob of Italians thought it wise to bring their screaming children to the hostel. When sickness hits, homesickness is at its worst. I woke up from a 4-hour afternoon nap craving Egg Drop Soup, the chinese food my mom always gave us when we were ill. Alas, I found no Egg Drop Soup in the area...it must be an American Chinese thing. So I walked down the street and bought some soup and Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. It called out to me with its "U.S. Recipe" promotion on the front...I want anything that tastes like home right now.
Keane tomorrow night at ISH, and Edward Scissorhands on Wednesday if the ticket price drops to 10 pounds. Then a night out with some ISHers on Thursday, staff party Friday, fellow BUNACer's bday Saturday, then before I know it, Tuesday will be here with Adam. I can hardly wait for it...
"A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all." -Thomas Hardy
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
December already?
Note to self:
Etiquette requires the greeting "Hey y'alright?" to be answered with "I am and you?"
It's taken me three months of stumbling through awkward greetings and responses to learn the proper wording. It seems simple enough, doesn't it? But I was caught off guard the first month. Why wouldn't I be okay? Do I look sick? Angry? Paranoid, maybe?
And you, is it rude if I ask if you're alright?
Another long gap since I've written, so another long entry.
Today I directed Sam Neil, the actor who plays Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park, to the accommodation office. I didn't know it at the moment because I talk to at least 200 people every day who want to know where the accommodation office is, where their business conference is, how to get back into their locked rooms, etc., and I hate to say it, but I've stopped paying attention to people beyond "Down the hallway, to the right" or "I'll call the duty manager". So to be honest, I wouldn't have recognized the guy anyway if one of my coworkers wouldn't have yelled in a whisper "That's the dude from Jurassic Park!" I looked at his IMDB then back to him several times and began to see the resemblance eventually. Noticing actors age always makes me realize how much time is going by.
Edinburgh was beautiful, frigid and creepy. Who knew it had one of the most haunted graveyards, finger-pointing witch hunts and a portal entrance to the Fairy World? Two castles and an ancient volcano, the real life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the adulturous queen for whom the term Bloody Mary came about? What an amazing city to be in. I'm going back with Adam in a month (!) and I can't wait. I've learned that it's best to visit the cities you love at least twice because I think the first time is the honeymoon tourist phase, and the second is really getting to know the city itself. I learned that with London.
On Sunday Olesia asked me to go to a free photo shoot at a Urban Slink, a fashion photography studio. It was on the 3rd floor of a warehouse type of building and we were quickly ushered into a bright room with funky urban decor across the walls. Music was playing loudly. We had our hair and makeup done, and after I looked nothing like myself, we went into the studio. There were about six different cubicles with different setups..one was a circular bed with satin sheets, another was a staircase with bricks in the background, one all-white scene, a leather burgandy sofa, and so on. My favorite part was when he said "Okay, into the box with you." He pointed at a white cubed tunnel on the ground that I'd thought was a bench and had me squeeze my body into it. I have to say, some of those shots were smokin'! At the very end of it they brought us into a room with just a woman and her computer and you go through every single shot and say "Yes" "No" "Maybe" to narrow them down, until finally we got so narrowed down that we asked how many we were supposed to choose. One individual shot was £75!!! And it wasn't even a print, it was on a CD. We got her talked down to £50/shot and I had 4 that I absolutely adored but I had to walk away. I couldn't do it. I'd rather buy my own SLR with that and do the shots myself! Olesia ended up buying four, and they are incredible.
I'm losing touch with myself in this job. My creativity needs an outlet but I'm stalled at the front desk with this invisible barrier between me and what I want to do.
That's just a lame excuse, I know that. I'm just too much of a coward to take a step in a definitive direction.
My supervisor at KUTC said something last summer that still hovers in my mind and sooths my anxiety about career choices. No matter where you choose to live, you wake up the same, go to work, go home, sleep, and do it all over again. And on the weekends you do what you like: take trips, whatever you choose. But work is the same anywhere. I don't know that I completely agree with that, but I'm realizing that the redundancy part is true, even across the ocean. And that no matter how far I am from home and how different the culture is, I'm still myself.
I choose coffee shops over night clubs and I still need to make time to clean my room. And some nights, even though I have london at my doorstep with infinite possibilities whispering in my ear, I decide to stay at home and watch Runaway Bride with a few other girls.
Etiquette requires the greeting "Hey y'alright?" to be answered with "I am and you?"
It's taken me three months of stumbling through awkward greetings and responses to learn the proper wording. It seems simple enough, doesn't it? But I was caught off guard the first month. Why wouldn't I be okay? Do I look sick? Angry? Paranoid, maybe?
And you, is it rude if I ask if you're alright?
Another long gap since I've written, so another long entry.
Today I directed Sam Neil, the actor who plays Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park, to the accommodation office. I didn't know it at the moment because I talk to at least 200 people every day who want to know where the accommodation office is, where their business conference is, how to get back into their locked rooms, etc., and I hate to say it, but I've stopped paying attention to people beyond "Down the hallway, to the right" or "I'll call the duty manager". So to be honest, I wouldn't have recognized the guy anyway if one of my coworkers wouldn't have yelled in a whisper "That's the dude from Jurassic Park!" I looked at his IMDB then back to him several times and began to see the resemblance eventually. Noticing actors age always makes me realize how much time is going by.
Edinburgh was beautiful, frigid and creepy. Who knew it had one of the most haunted graveyards, finger-pointing witch hunts and a portal entrance to the Fairy World? Two castles and an ancient volcano, the real life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the adulturous queen for whom the term Bloody Mary came about? What an amazing city to be in. I'm going back with Adam in a month (!) and I can't wait. I've learned that it's best to visit the cities you love at least twice because I think the first time is the honeymoon tourist phase, and the second is really getting to know the city itself. I learned that with London.
On Sunday Olesia asked me to go to a free photo shoot at a Urban Slink, a fashion photography studio. It was on the 3rd floor of a warehouse type of building and we were quickly ushered into a bright room with funky urban decor across the walls. Music was playing loudly. We had our hair and makeup done, and after I looked nothing like myself, we went into the studio. There were about six different cubicles with different setups..one was a circular bed with satin sheets, another was a staircase with bricks in the background, one all-white scene, a leather burgandy sofa, and so on. My favorite part was when he said "Okay, into the box with you." He pointed at a white cubed tunnel on the ground that I'd thought was a bench and had me squeeze my body into it. I have to say, some of those shots were smokin'! At the very end of it they brought us into a room with just a woman and her computer and you go through every single shot and say "Yes" "No" "Maybe" to narrow them down, until finally we got so narrowed down that we asked how many we were supposed to choose. One individual shot was £75!!! And it wasn't even a print, it was on a CD. We got her talked down to £50/shot and I had 4 that I absolutely adored but I had to walk away. I couldn't do it. I'd rather buy my own SLR with that and do the shots myself! Olesia ended up buying four, and they are incredible.
I'm losing touch with myself in this job. My creativity needs an outlet but I'm stalled at the front desk with this invisible barrier between me and what I want to do.
That's just a lame excuse, I know that. I'm just too much of a coward to take a step in a definitive direction.
My supervisor at KUTC said something last summer that still hovers in my mind and sooths my anxiety about career choices. No matter where you choose to live, you wake up the same, go to work, go home, sleep, and do it all over again. And on the weekends you do what you like: take trips, whatever you choose. But work is the same anywhere. I don't know that I completely agree with that, but I'm realizing that the redundancy part is true, even across the ocean. And that no matter how far I am from home and how different the culture is, I'm still myself.
I choose coffee shops over night clubs and I still need to make time to clean my room. And some nights, even though I have london at my doorstep with infinite possibilities whispering in my ear, I decide to stay at home and watch Runaway Bride with a few other girls.
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