16 February 2008

Countdown Begins

Paris/the rest of England was awesome. Claire and I went to about a billion more pubs, and then got taken out to some more. We also had dinner in the Eiffel Tower, which was pretty sweet, and spent a solid ten minutes of that dinner pushing a strange bulbous vegetable around my plate and debating what it was, until the waiter came over (probably to stop our mangling of gourmet french food) to tell us. Except now I forget what it was. But we got called "very politically aware for Americans" (not by the french waiter), which I decided to take as a compliment.

Anyway, I just figured I'd make official the countdown until take-off (15 days). Yesterday I was really excited, the day before that, not so much. I'm still excited today, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Peace out yo.

09 February 2008

Lions, Lumberjacks, and Tina gets carded EVERYWHERE

HELLO ENGLAND!

So it all started with a nine-hour plane ride, because the voice that tells you to fasten your seat belt broke. So instead of actually telling people to buckle their seat belts, they took an hour and a half to power down the entire plane, and restart it. Entertaining, but time consuming. But I did finish reading the seventh Harry Potter. So it was time well spent.

So far since I've been here I've:

--seen British sheep on the way in (SWEET!)
--made friends with a 60 year old Scottish dude behind me with a mullet. And he helped me navigate Gatwick because I'm American and stupid. Thank you, Scottish Mullet Dude.
--shocked half of England by revealing the fact that I've never had tea. It went something like this: "Do you want tea?" "I've never had it." "You've never had tea?" "No." "Really?" "No." *Claire's grandmother walks in* "Tina's never had tea." "You've never had tea?" "No." "Really?" "No." *Claire's aunt walks in* "Tina's never had tea." "You've never had tea?" "Seriously, no." "Really?" "No." I can say, now, that I have had tea. About a million cups of it, and I LIKE it.
--Marmite is a no-go. Don't know what it is? Don't worry yourself trying to find out. It's one of those thins you have to be born into to truly appreciate. Sort of like Vegemite, or McDonalds.
--Claire and I went to Brighton today, went to three pubs, and I got carded at two of them. Why? Because twelve year olds aren't allowed in pubs.
--Went to the Royal Pavillion and got a dragon!
--Went to a "portuguese" restuaurant, but not really, but made friends with Red-Short Andy the Waiter, who called us mates, and called himself a 'happy chappy'. And I apologized for being American, but he said it wasn't my fault.
--Claire got complimented on her blue pants by a really really drunk man. Who told me Claire was a "gorgeous, really nice looking girl."
--in the royal Pavillion, we heard someone described as a "Dandy", but we didn't know what it was. We wanted to ask, but (in case it might have been an offensive term) we decided to do a little underground research. According to the book "Dan the Dandy" we found at a flea market, we gathered a "Dandy" to be either a lion or a lumberjack. Turns out it's just a really really metro dude, or a giggilo. (I prefer lumberjack)

Sidenote: Claire goes completely Angoflied when she talkes to British people! Like woah! Accent and everything comes out! First I just quietly laughed at her, now I tell her and laugh out loud.

Paris tomorrow! Cheers!

Your happy chappies,
Tina and Claire

03 February 2008

Pilot

Okay! So in light of my upcoming departure to Germany (for five months! whaBAM!), I've decided to make a blog-thingy so that you all can keep up to date on my various escapades in Europe, or whatever. March 3 is take-off day, so I'm not actually in Germany yet, but I just got my mailing address which I feel like I should give to people. So they can send me mail. Or other stuff:

My name, Rheingutstr. 40/635, D-78462 Konstanz (Germany).

I don't know what it means, or how the German postal system works, but I DO know (think) that if you put that on the envelope, it will probably get to me. So now you all can send me stuff, Google-Earth stalk me, and show up at my door, but for right now, peace out yo! The next time I internet blog-or-whatever my life, I'll be three thousand miles away at Rheingutstr. 40/635, D-78462 Konstanz (Germany), whatever that may turn out to be!