Hats off to the Zebras......

ok,

monday night Bärbel and I went to London (where else? please..) to see the British comedian Bill Bailey. For those of you who dont already know, im not really a big fan....or a small fan of British comedy. Let's face it, england is an island and therefore secluded from the rest of the big world, and therefore somehow has crappy humor that only they can appreciate. (too harsh????)

anyhoo, after watching a few clips of him from youtube, i felt that i could spend a few pounds going to see him and hanging out with my flatmate!

we got to london and tried to find cheap tix for the show, and decided on either Wicked or chicago as a fall back plan. first, we found a very scrumtrulescent chinese buffet restuarant in Soho-(nice to meet you.......OPI nailpolish name! ;) anyhoo, we had to heaping plates and mine was mostly covered with sweet and sour chicken!! love love!

then, a quick stop and Starbucks, and then off to the show! our tix were only 20 some pounds and good seats too!

the show lasted about 2 1/2 hours and i laughed a lot. he was very funny and his personability (sp? is that even a word?) with the audience made it that much more enjoyable. the woman behind us, however, sounded like a hyiena (sp?)....always gotta be something, right?

anyhoo, that was it. it was a bit chilly outside, though that didnt detur us from stopping at Häagen-dazs :p

here are some youtube clips of him at the one we saw and other ones......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8wj6qoGVOs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRyvsRAo8T8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VM0eG8gb28 (this last one, refers to him wanting to get a tattoo of panther on his chest, but the tattoo guy said 'well, it will look like the panther is caught in a thicket'......and therefore, the story with the crazy tattoos.......i like the burned out car ;)

ENJOY!?

i should get paid for this....

alright, just a quick story about my life aka a ridiculous movie in which i swear someone is taping me cuz sometimes things that happen to me just gotta be planned or scripted..ya know?

anyhoo, the other day...thursday, i went with my friend Anna to see the movie Twilight (2x for me :) well, it all started off when we walked into town to catch the bus-in which the times i had checked online-only to be fooled yet again by the very conflicting times posted at the stop. so after a few vulgarities and laughter, we got a cab and headed to the movie place...er, the cinema.

we got our tickets and my bag of peanut m&ms and got our seats. nicely enough, it wasnt crouded at all, and we got good seats. i had brought along my titanium water bottle with me cuz i didnt want pop (runs thru me like niagria) and didnt want to pay a bunch for 1 plastic bottle. sooooo, during the movie my purse and bottle were perched on my lap. up until the point when the 'kissing scene' arrived and (if you've seen the movie) there is no sound, and based on special circumstances it takes the lead guy a while before he actually makes contact with her lips....during this time, my bottle decided it would be a good time to check out what the floor feels like....by falling off my lap smacking the ground with an alarming, tinny crack, and rolling for a couple seconds-which felt like 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!! i jumped, anna jumped and a couple girls behind me jumped at this. anna just laughed at me for like 15 min. and yelled at me for 'ruining the mood'....i could feel my heart nearly jump out of my chest in embarrassemnt, but even more, i was laughing at the irony of what just happened. go figure, the 1 scene in the movie, and this happens.

oh well. gotta love life.
then afterwards, i called for a taxi. we waited and waited, then finally got in a cab that pulled in front of us. the cabbi mumbled something i didnt hear but anna said 'yes'. he said something about Sandwish street. what the shiz? i said 'no, we would like to go to town center'. he looked at me and said ' are you lucy?' for a flash of a second i thought about either saying yes or just making some random comeback up to say..but if you know me well enough, those dont come easily, so we hopped out of the car and waited in the cold some more.
finally, another taxi showed up. but it pulled in front of another girl waiting next to us, and she kinda glanced over at us and hopped in. they drove away, and then i realized...i think she just took our taxi!! so, i called again and another one came to get us.

all in all, it was a relatively eventful night (well, eventful according to Eastbourne standards) and it was nice to have a few laughs.....though the main joke was on myself. go figure.

German Christmas (the most delicious!)

*My gift from Frau Beschnitt and Norbert of traditional Leipzig 'wood widdled' people!!!!!!!!!

ok, obviously, i cant write every single thing that happened/all that i did while i was in germany this christmas/new years, but ill try to highlight as much as i can...if i can remember all of it!

i arrived in Berlin at 11am on the 23 and then stayed the next 2 days at Kristin's moms/bf's house. Where the days basically consisted of eating, taking walks in the cold, and napping. seriously, i dont think ive ever been so consitently stuffed! they made roast duck/goose (eaten at one meal, mind you) and 4 diff. kinds of delicious potato salad, and breakfasts of rolls, jams, cheeses, and meats!! always coffee and snacky cake things too. on the evening of the 24 (which is basically christmas for them) i went Tine to a nearby church for a quick German christmas service. however, upon my arrival there, after being drawn in from the cathedral/old school architecture of the building, i realized there was no heat!!! yes, very very very cold. but i endured and enjoyed the experience. Next we went back home and proceeded to open gifts and eat food. lovely.

on the 26 i arrived at Tine's dad's/gf's house (where i stayed over this past summer when i visited) for the rest of my trip. it was really great to see all of them again and to talk about things that have happened and also, for me, to realize how crazily blessed i am for a) being in germany again, b)having a family away from home and c) experiencing a close friend's traditional christmas. we opened some presents at thier house as well, and that was pretty low key. and again, as was expected from the summer, breakfasts of cheeses, meats, and rolls!! *dont forget the staple of nutella as well ;) i also (somewhat surprisingly enjoyed the liver patae....or something with some strange meats....but whatev. no surprise to any of you back home i got no prob trying anything. except maybe some crazy sh*t that those guys eat on the travel chanel. *chelsea and julie, you know what im talking about!!)

soooooooooooo, a few of us went to visit Wittenberg where it had to have been the most frigid, cold day outside, nonetheless the germans loved the strolls in the cold.........while i was willing my insides not to freeze over!! we toured the first church that Martin Luther preached in as well as his house turned museum too. it was pretty cool (figuratively and literally). later we ate dessert at an italian restuarant where i got a kick ace dessert of vanilla ice cream and warm sweet cherry stuff on top!! rock my sox!

aaaaaaaaaaand, then on the 30, Tine and i were off on our 4-5 hour road trip to Hamburg to meet up with our friends to celebrate the new year! we arrived without any problems and had fun listening to the radio on the way (which played really great American hits and whatnot). we ate japanese food prepared by our MGU friend Michiko visiting from her study in Ireland, and then went out to a really posh bar called "20 up) in a veeeeery nice hotel. we met up with some others of Ruth and Philipp's (the friends we stayed with) friends at the bar and one of them was Asian/American!! might sound silly, being around fluent english speakers, but talking to another American was really great! its just something different about it when its someone from 'back home'.

the next day, we went shopping for some food and i bought a dress for the new year party we were all going to at a 4 star hotel. the party was fun, and it was cool to count down in german and then watch all the fireworks all around the city. then i called the fam back home (while they were still in 2008) and wished them a merry new year. of course, according to Zach, talking to him while we were both in different years was like something out of the Twilight Zone. :p

anyhoo, that was my trip! it was fun, exciting, i learned some more german words and phrases, ate incredible food, fell in love with the country a little bit more, and slept for 11 hours the night i got back to England!! i already miss Tine and being around my friends, but i know ill see them again sometime.

for now, anxious about my other uni friends to return back to Eastbourne, and finish up this semester and git got with the new one!!

Bestest Run Ever!! *am i in a movie?????

ok so the title of this entry is a bit strange, i know.

But, this morning i woke up (after some crazy dreams...) and was SO EXCITED to go running and skip swimming. (gasp!). the sun was shining and it wasnt very cold out, at all!!

i started my usual running route, and started getting a bit down cuz my shin splints were acting up again, and i most certainly did NOT want to quit early and head back. so, i kept on truckin.

going up hill somehow seemed to relieve the pain. after about 15 warm up, i decided to try some new territory and headed down a couple new roads to see where they lead. Also, Barbel told me about some nature running area near Beachy Head/the coast...and i was in search of this mysterious nature for my run!

I found it and started running through the path from the road along the coast. Once i got past the shrubbery and trees and hills blocking my view, it was breathtaking!! felt like i was in a movie or something and just running about free and easy on the beautiful coast of some magical place.......

Now, it is important to remember that i had been listening to Coldplay songs all along my run today. The funny/awesome part about my run (other than it lasting 55 min ;D) was that at certain times during my running a certain song would play or lyrics being sung and would coincide with where i was running!
*For instance, as i was pushing myself up a straight grassy path towards the top of a hilly path in which i could only see the top of the hill and sky, i heard "and in the end we lie awake and we dream of making our escape" which seemed really cool cause it felt like i didnt know where the path would lead, but it sure was gonna be beautiful!! *and then the next example, is when i was heading back to the start of the path and i looked up in the distance and saw a pretty steep hill that i would need to run up.....at this moment a song played 'when you try your best but you dont succeed'....which summed up how i felt about that stupid hill (though, in the end, there was a less steep hill that i decided to climb ;)

so, sorry if this entry was lame for reading, but the entire experience this morning was unreal. Standing at the edge-ish of a cliff with eyes closed, coldplay singing, and the warm breeze was a personal encounter with God. and i just couldnt keep the amazingness to myself!

peace out home dogs.

coldplay, 5 feet away........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The morning started with a quick episode of a mere heart attack when i almost couldnt check out books from the library due to an outstanding debt of 3 pounds from overdue books. i quickly pretended to search my book bag for money (cuz i didnt bring my wallet with me) and somehow, by God's grace and sheer awesomeness, i pulled out 3 pounds!? wooooooooh. that was a great start to the day i would go see my favorite band ever COLDPLAY in concert in LONDON. a dream of mine for quite some time!!!

Barbel and i left eastbourne around 3:30, and arrived in london at 5. made great time on teh train, too. so, we took the 'tube' and got off near parlaiment, searched thru a couple restuarants before deciding on a Latin one that was just amazing! I got some kind of beef curry/casserole thingy with fried plantains.......DELISH!! we both had long islands to prep for the awesomeness that awaited us. little did we know it was going to be one of the craziest, greatest nights ever. (i mean, we could have guessed, but not for what actually happened...........;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDv7G0d6Mqs
actually, this link is better. this is seriously about how close we were....only imagine straight behind them, not to the side....and that's what it was like! CARAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYY.
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pa8gFeFH38&feature=related

this was taken by the guys next to us!! so really, this is how far/close they were to us!!!!

oh man. so afterward. we were floating all the way home. im still processing what just happened! it was an unbelievable performance, yet again. and i cant wait till the next album comes out!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

We arrived at the O2 areana and found our seats. they were VERY good! much closer than i thought they would have been. and we had 2 free seats next to us, which was nice cuz we had more room to jump around, flail our arms, and go nuts (that may have been more me than her, but we still both rocked it out). the concert started with the first song of their album "life in technicolor" which is just insrumental, but totally amazing (and i called that that's what theyd open with...man in so good!). then it was "violet hill" and after that i really cant remember. to enthralled with being in england/londong/seeing coldplay for a 2nd time!!!!!!

so, rewind a bit, to before the band actually started performing. there was a little platform like, 5 rows ahead of us that was covered in a black cloth. and some security guys were telling the people around there that the band was going to come out of it/come sing on it....we were a bit skeptical. does this stuff really happen??!

sure enough, about 1/2 way thru the concert. there was a quick pause on the stage, and then they started running off and over to where we were sitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the four of them got on the little platform and talked to the crowd, and then Chris introduced some guy who they had play along with them on the platform with his harmonica. Once he said his name, the crowd erupted....it was Simon Peg!!!!!! you may not know him, but he's the English actor who starred in 'sean of the dead' and 'run fat boy run'. very funny! He is very short and small in real life. so we saw him up close as well as the band. and you know what the cherry on the top was?! WE DIDNT BRING OUT CAMERAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:o

Afterwards, we both exchanged emails with the two people next to us who videoed/photoed almost the entire concert. so im reallly hoping/praying that he comes thru for us!? anyways, at least we actually go to see them so close up! it was crazy. and i thought the seats were gonna be bad. pshhhhhhhh.
here's also a pic of the O2 arena. very cool. http://www.theo2.co.uk/inside/the-o2-arena.html

here is a link of a video someone took of the band near our seats. if you figure about 4-5 rows up from where they are standing, that's where we were!!!