Just in case any of you care, I'm going to be in England for the next three weeks (until August the 4th), and thus won't be sharing any of my scintillating insights with y'all unless I get time at an Internet café.

I might post to my music blog, but it's not particularly likely either.

See you all in August!

Musicblog? Why are we only just now learning this?!!

Safe travels, V. I'm envious and will look forward to hearing all about your trip when you return.

Now Playing: "You Are Everyting" The Tragically Hip In Between Evolution (Zoe)

Well, V, have a good trip. I always wondered why someone from New Joyzee would spell like they were from Canada or Britain, so does this trip take you to the homeland? Try to check the posts; you wouldn't want to miss out on Machols again. I'll be "talking" to you later.

Safe travels!

Hey V,

Are you gonna post Waldo-style pictures and force us to try to find you in Piccadilly Circus, at some cool outdoor festival gig, under a pile of fish n chip paper, etc? Winner gets a pint of Boddington's?

I don't know what the drinking age is in England, 18? If it is, V would have to get somebody else to provide the prize.

The legal drinking age is 18 in England, but it seemed to me that as long as you were over 14 and were with someone over the age of 18 (or were known in the pub) it was pretty much okay.

ANyway, have fun Vykromond. I love England.

OK, V, now that we know where you are (somewhere in NJ, near a crapload of roads), maybe you can respond to our responses. We're glad to have you back. Have you checked your private messages lately? See you later, Alligator.

Sorry for the delay on this- as soon as I got back from England, it was all college visits and preparing for the school year that is now in full swing.

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Musicblog? Why are we only just now learning this?!!

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Because I had only decided on making it into that a few days before I left . I also didn't update it regularly for a while, but that's going to be changing now that I'm safely settled into routine. Speaking of which, I guess this is a good opportunity to plug it: http://spiraltreeline.livejournal.com - Vykromond, talking about music, far too much.

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hearing all about your trip when you return.

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It was amazing. I signed in to a three-week programme in Cambridge College, where we took classes during the weekdays for the length of the three weeks. My four classes were in Scriptwriting, British Cultural History, Political Theory, and Theatre, where I acted in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Scriptwriting I could have done without, because the teacher didn't like me at all (actually, that's not strictly accurate: he liked ME just fine, but thought my writing was atrocious, which was a pretty heartbreaking experience for this wannabe-writer) and we didn't learn particularly much, but Political Theory was an absolute gem. It might have been the best class I've ever taken in any school or programme: we covered a ton of material in an interesting fashion, and the instructor was a genius. Midsummer was also great. For those who are familiar, I played Theseus and Oberon. After a week (!) of rehearsal, we had two performances: one Sunday evening, one Monday afternoon. The Sunday performance was only so-so, mostly because of a lack of audience connection with the material (they didn't really seem to get the jokes and everything; classic case of people who don't know Shakespeare just assuming that it should be somber, brilliant fare to be imbibed seriously rather than the playfulness that characterises the Comedies) and some weakness in Demetrius's knowledge of his lines. But Monday was FANTASTIC. It was amazing that we managed to get it to the level that Monday was at in only a week of practice.

Outside of schoolwork, I met a ton of people that I really liked, and there were tons of trips outside of Cambridge. We went to Ely Cathedral, London (four times!), Warwick Castle, Stonehenge, Bath (beautiful, beautiful city- it might be my favourite in England), and Stratford. Amusingly enough, we only got to see the play that we were catching in Stratford (a great production of Hamlet) and didn't have time to stay for a minute more, because on the way our bus got caught in a six-plus-hour traffic jam (we eventually just left and walked the rest of the way) because a rave called Global Gathering was being held that same day. Etc, etc, etc. It was a great experience.

(On a side note, things are expensive! I've been to Europe a lot, but in England it seems to be considerably worse. CDs regularly run at 13-15 pounds per, which is more than twenty-five USD! There was a store called Fopp right across the street from us, though, that had a steady sale of five pounds per for some older CDs, which gave me the opportunity to purchase a lot of good stuff that I'd never gotten the chance to buy. I understand why the singles market hasn't died out in England the same way it has died out in the States- in the UK, it's still a good deal, because albums are so expensive, to just buy the singles you like. I picked up several handfuls.)

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Well, V, have a good trip. I always wondered why someone from New Joyzee would spell like they were from Canada or Britain, so does this trip take you to the homeland?

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I wish! I'd love to have an Anglo lineage, but that's not the way things are at all: I'm Russian, and my family moved to the US when I was four and a half. My UK-esque spelling idiosyncrasies (theatre, programme, honour, etc.) are largely homegrown, the result of learning English by reading the classics.

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Well, V, have a good trip. I always wondered why someone from New Joyzee would spell like they were from Canada or Britain, so does this trip take you to the homeland?

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Haha! I wish I had thought of this.

Sounds like you had one amazing trip. I would like to take a trip similar to this some time, but now I wonder: where is Vykromond?