6/2/09

I slept well for the firs time in recent memory. I tried to sleep longer but I couldn't. My shower has been not draining very well, and today was no different. So I decided to try to fix it. I was playing around with the drain and twisted it until I could just yank off the top. The inside was disgusting. All sorts of muck and hair and general grossnes. I spent about an hour cleaning that out, hopefully it should be better now.

I wanted to do some returns today, the American converter I bought, and the canvasses and paint. Unfortunately I can't find the receipt for the canvasses, which is too bad because I spent about £15 on all that. But I went and returned the converter that I didn't need.

On the way back I stopped in the All Souls Church that I pass everyday. It was built in the 19th century by John Nash, who is sort of like the Daniel Burnham of London. The outside is interesting with a circular entrance leading into a rectangular church. The inside was nothing special, just a church. It looks better from the outside.

My electric razor won't charge and stopped working today, so I went to Boots (the drug store here) and bought one for £30. It's nice and it was the cheapest one they had. I also bought insoles for my Pumas. Those are so worth the £2.

Since I was across the street from Primark, I had to go in. I found the only black hoodie they had (£4.80) and tried on some black jeans. I've wanted black jeans for a while but I don't know what I'd wear them with, so I didn't get them, even though they were only £6, which is super cheap.

I came back and ate some cannoli, this time I put cream cheese on top since I didn't have any sauce. It was surprisingly good. It's hard to go wrong with cream cheese though (they call it 'soft cheese' here.) I was still hungry to I went to Tesco and bought some milk, cheese, and crackers and came back to have the cheese and crackers.

I decided I'm going to apply to the International Student House trip to Cairo. I'm a member to ISH with my studying abroadness, and the trip is described as this:

Cairo, Egypt £275.00
Friday April 17^th – Tuesday 21^st
Return flights with FLY BMI
4 night’s accommodation in King Tut Hostel with breakfast
Group meal on a Nile boat cruise inc. belly dancing
City tour of Cairo inc. Egyptian museum, Citadel, lunch and the Khan el Khalili market
Excursions out of Cairo to Sakara, Memphis (capital of the Ancient Kingdom), Alexandria and Giza to visit the Pyramids and Sphinx
A camel/horse ride in the Giza Plateau
Applications accepted between 6^th & 19^th February

I looked for flights there for the rest of the year, and about the best I could do was around £280. ISH gives covers about half the fees, so this is a huge deal. Cairo is somewhere I'd love to go. I'm a little aprehensive about hanging with the group the whole time and getting to do everything I want, but it seems like they have a lot planned. Plus Cairo sort of scares me, so it would be nice to be with a group.

I'm basically for sure going to Liverpool this week too, just depends if I want to go Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. I'll look at prices and weather and figure that out today probably.

I went down to Islington Academy, which is down my street about three miles. Took my about 45 minutes to get there but it was nice out and a straight shot. The actual venue is in a new outdoor mall kinda thing. The weirdest venue location I've ever seen.
There was a little bit of a line outside for the place when I got there around 10:15. I was maybe 10th in line. I ended up in the front row, it wans't too hard to do. There were two rooms opened for the place where indie music was being played. The small room that Sebastien was going to play filled up quick and people went nuts when Vampire Weekend was played. Sebastien came on right after and people seemed excited but I don't think there were more than five people that were there to actually see him. Granted, he's not on the radio or anything but I was sort of surprised by how uninterested people were. By the end of the set, there were maybe 20 people hanging out.

It was a shame too because it was a great performance. They played for about an hour and Sebastien was going nuts. He used to be known for being kind of a jerk onstage but has mellowed out. When I interviewed him, he was an intelligent and funny nice guy. Tonight some of that jerkyness came out again, commenting on how the crowd didn't really seem to like them, suggesting it was because they weren't rave enough, even though he said he had rave pants on. He also pointed out how there were many more people at the start. I felt bad, he was really good.

From the little experience I have with concerts here, it seems like the Brits are much more into dancing and partying than actual live music. After the show was over, I went into the big room and it was jam packed with people dancing to indie stuff (Franz Ferdinand when I got there.) When I left around midnight, there were about 20 people lined up to get in. They bouncers seemed surprised I was leaving already. It's much more of a club culture over here.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to Camden Market and then I'm thinking of seeing my next play, Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." I have a feeling I won't go to Liverpool on Sunday, probably Monday I'm thinking.