londontimes: THE CONTINUED SAGA

[EDITED TO ADD: Hey yo! Sorry about the VAST DELAY. But at least it's going up, right? There are some . . . ah. . . condensations toward the end of this post, made with an eye to not having it sit in cyberlimbo until the end of time. The original date on this post was 4/10/11, but I'm changing it to now to make it show up where peeps will notice it.]

The saga continues. . . . (now, with more pictures!)

---

DAY DEUX dawned. It dawned later than I had planned.

Damn snoring lady.

First, breakfast; I had walked by a grocery store the day before, "Tesco's Express." They had a seemingly unlimited supply of almond-filled croissants (mmmm) and, of course, 500-650 mL bottles of funny-tasting diet Coke. (In terms of the tastiness of their diet Coke, I have found Spain > U.S. > France > U.K.)

You can see my second day's route here as I slowly wended my way across London. I walked alongside the Buckingham Palace grounds on Grosvenor (!) Place. (My grandmother's maiden name is Grosvenor -- her family actually has [minimal] records going back to about 1350. John Grosvenor, my great-times-something grandfather, came to North America around 1660. NOW YOU KNOW.) I was kind of hoping to see the Palace from afar -- forgetting of course that it is sort of a government building and also a private residence -- in any case, it was surrounded by 10-foot stone walls with an array of six-inch-long spikes jutting out of the top.

Some famous streets -- yes, it amuses my immature mind that "Drury Lane" is just another street for most Londoners. (I also was on Fleet Street, but it was already dark, so I didn't want to stop and take a picture.)

My mom and I have a standing souvenir agreement -- wherever I travel, I will attempt to bring her back a Christmas ornament or object that can easily be repurposed into a Christmas ornament. So far she has a lacy laser-cut metal ornament from Mount Vernon (Dad and I went there on a high school trip to D.C.)(and now it's also a "flood ornament," because all the laser-cut flourishes have little lacy borders of rust from being submerged in mucky water), a yellow charm with a tiny white dog from the Shinto shrine at Kotohira, a charm with a small white peak embroidered on the front from the Shinto shrine on top of Mount Fuji, a metal bookmark from Ellis Island showing the Statue of Liberty, a supercheap metal keychain of the Eiffel Tower from Paris, and now -- this little dude, purchased the Buckingham Palace Mews gift shop, where I stopped as I made my somewhat confused way across London. I think I'll call him Percy. Apparently Christmas ornaments are a normal souvenir in England, because there were tons of excellently garish ones -- stuffed sequined crowns, blown-glass carriages, teddy bears in royal robes, etc.

londontimes

I've been so busy with weird-ass meta stuff (purpose statements, tumblr posts, twitter shit, self-promotional gar-bage) and fiction that I'm frankly intimidated by trying to wrangle actual experiences into some kind of a narrative.

I should also note that BECAUSE of all the meta crap, this post has taken me an unholy long time to write and generate images for (mainly maps! helpful maps.) (So, forgive the delay, if you please.)

But, you know, there's posterity and memories and such, so.

---

For the two people who DIDN'T read a previous blog entry, or any Facebook statuses, or look at photos on Facebook or Tumblr (because I have been blathering on about it online for WEEKS!), I was invited to the Royal College of Art in London for an interview after applying for the Innovation Design Engineering program in January. My flight from Omaha went Saturday, March 12, and landed in London on Sunday, March 13. My interview was on Tuesday, March 15; my flight back to Omaha was on Wednesday, March 16. I was only moderately terrified, and frankly as much worried about getting my pocket picked while walking about London as I was about making a good impression on the interviewers.

new years' thoughts, I guess

Though not really related to the new year.

This site, which I cannot remember how I found, is pretty cool. Furniture!

I got a Nook for Christmas. Fffffffffffffubbbtth. This is the sound of the Nook sucking out my brains. It is AWESOME.

I want this book! Sadly, it is not on the Nook. And I refuse to pay $65 for a doorstopper, though it might be a doorstopper of epic design coolness. (For another peep inside the fun, here.)

What is up with this book, exactly? It looks cool. . . sorta. . . not sure.

In other news! I have been reading Tiger Beatdown for a while. It is a good blog! It is thoughtful! Funny! I think that Sadie/Sara Doyle is probably a genuinely nice person, and probably someone who would be great to be friends with! I have been watching the #mooreandme debacle (debacle because of the trolls, mainly) unfold from a distance from the beginning about two weeks ago. . . and it makes me so sad. Not because it isn't a good protest, but just that it takes so much effort and misery on the part of a few people just for a basic concession that rape allegations, even when against an Important Person! deserve to be taken seriously. Ugh. I get freaked out by one mean comment on the internet, so I can't imagine what it would be like to be inundated with demands that you, personally, go die (among other horrible things.) So I feel really bad that she basically had to make a giant target/punching bag out of herself to make a point.

In final news, the MIT admissions department does not believe that my recommendation letters have been submitted, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE. Ugh. I am also trying to write some kind of coherent mess about how the Royal College of Art should really let me study Design Engineering there because, uh, I like international collaboration! Also I like technology and design TOGETHER. Yeah, I'm obviously still working.

In REALLY SERIOUSLY FINAL NEWS, there was a lot of crap under my keys that I dug out this morning.

continuing application struggles

I wish I had done a Christmas countdown calendar on my blog. . . it would be fun. I also wish I could do one of those "gift guides," but I'm crappy at that kind of stuff, and besides I'm not buying anyone anything, I'm just baking stuff.

Perhaps I shall count down the last. . . 12 days to Christmas.

In any case, things I really, really need to get done today (plus a bunch of things I need to get done, but maybe not EXACTLY TODAY):

ugggggggggh scholarships

I need money.

You see, next year (September 2011) I had been planning to go to graduate school. And -- gasp -- I had been planning to do it in the UK (most preferably.)

The most conservative estimate of how much this is going to cost me is about $35,000 a year. It goes up from there.

I need money.

Thus, I have been hanging out in websites like this, this, this, this, this, and (God have mercy upon me) this.

Altogether, it makes me pretty nauseous. I had mysteriously decided somewhere along the way that my three extracurriculars (give or take) and 3.4 GPA were none too shabby. Where did I get that impression? I do not know. I don't think it's going to do me much good in this round of begging. . .

P.S. I'm insecure, so I'll note that this is my GPA in "real world" terms -- not the MIT 5-point scale.