HP

So, there's this National Railway Museum here in York.

Even though its free entry, I'd never really had the desire to go.  A bunch of trains?  Really?

But sometimes my desires change.

(and after walking through it today i can see myself spending a lot of time there.  it looks foreal cool)

For this week, they have a special display:

Wizard Week at the museum!  This train went to Hogwarts, suckas!

I'm not even a super-duper excited HP fan (i've only read up to the middle of book 4) but I figured I at least had to go see this thing.  I guess they had owls, too, but sadly I missed them.  Real bummer.

Also, I had big plans to record and make a sweet video out of this, but my battery died right after this picture.  But just so you know, there was a group of girls (i mean they looked around my age) who walked out in front of me and they were squealing with delight. Loudly. Then they saw me and looked a little embarrassed, but then they saw that I was by myself so I also must be a freak HP fan like them so then they continued in their excitement.

Trains.  Bringing people together.  Thanks, Harry.

(keeping on this DanRad note, I just saw The Woman in Black and it was pretty spooky.  

so if you're into that, you should probably check it out.  

and i did spend a few minutes trying to see if he had a scar on his forehead in this movie.  he doesn't)

London Eye Spy

While I am an avid and dedicated Backstreet Boys lover, NSYNC just came on my playlist and I am really enjoying jamming out to (Dirty) Pop right now.  And its not even my favorite NSYNC song! 

(and just so you know, top nsync songs include: i want you back, it makes me ill, girlfriend, and this i promise you)

Anyways.  Point is, a couple weeks ago I did something fantastic.

I like to call it: The Best 12 Hours.

My friend Maude, whom I met during my Paris Study Abroad 2006 (shout out to you guys! some of the best of the best went on that trip), is currently back in Paris doing awesome things.  And I'm in York, doing less awesome things.  Anyways, we'd been trying to plan a time to go and meet up somewhere and when it got down to it, we both didn't have a ton of options that worked with both our schedules (but the future months do look more promising).

So it was planned: 12 hours in London.  It's pretty much halfway between us and it turned out to be totally worth it.  

From an outsider perspective, it probably won't sound that amazing.  We wandered a lot, because we're both indecisive and didn't really plan any part of our day.  But it was so perfect.  We ate at chain restaurants (ps Wagamama is delicious!  and their staff is very international-we probably understood 13% of what our waiters said), we ate chocolate, we took the bus to its final destination without knowing exactly where it was going, we met a strange man who is a chef and who also took a picture of Maude on his iphone, we laughed until my stomach hurt (i can't speak for maude), we shared our individual yet same concerns over being so far away from our families and the pros and cons of international living, we ended up both having train delays and then miraculously ran into each other on the street outside of the stations, we saw London from the sky on the London Eye (after sitting through a very rough 4D experience), we met a nice Egyptian man on said London Eye (its actually a socially difficult situation on those things-like an elevator but worse.  you have to plan who you talk to and at what point you engage in conversation because you're going to be stuck within 10 feet of them for 20 minutes), we talked about things that were both embarrassing and hilarious, and we ate more chocolate.

It was so nice.

And now, a photo journey:

(to see things from Maude's perspective, you can click here!  she is way mo' betta at taking pictures)

BBC

I try to keep up with the news as much as I can.

Recently I've added the BBC website to my list of sources to peruse when the mood strikes.

And let me tell you, it has some good stuff on there.

Just tonight I was caught by some very interesting headlines (the articles are just as good):

Valentine's Day 'wedding' for ram and deer at China zoo

This is real article about, well, a deer and ram getting married.  If you don't want to read the article, totally fine.  Here is the best part:

"But Changmao (the ram) has not been exactly faithful to Chunzi. He fathered a baby lamb with the zoo's only female sheep."

And the second article:

Science behind ponytail revealed

I think my favorite part about this one is the fact that its #5 on the most popular article list.  People are way more interested in ponytails than I thought!  

And thats whats going on in the world.

Cold

I have not been warm in what feels like days.

This cold spell has to stop.

If, for anything, to make me not feel/look like a homeless person every time I leave my house.

A homeless person with wannabe hipster glasses.

(gotta keep the rep up, you know? especially on the streets)

Blue

Recently I made friends with a new kid.  

I knew we were foreal real friends (well, i guess this is still debatable but whatever) when we were talking about music.

And Jay-Z.

Our mutual love for this man, and the discovery that both of us own his biography Decoded, was a revelation.

Also, I know its maybe too much because I already shared this link on the FB, but just how perfect is this picture?

(via here-baby girl already has her own tumblr and is featured on a song by her daddy)

I've never been more jealous of an infant.

And yes, I realize this is ridiculous.  It's how I do.

Summer of Legends

Tonight I was going through some old pictures.

Sometimes this activity makes me sad.  Other times it makes me happy.

I'm feeling a mix of both right now.  But mostly happy.  Because I have some good friends.  And we've had many a good times.  

A sample, specifically from the Summer of Legends. 

Such joyful and carefree days.  I had my mullet and you can tell how busy I was by how tan I got.

Also, this makes me extra hate the snow currently covering the ground.  

Hope you're having an awesome Tuesday!

Power Outage

Today this happened.

There was a fire in the Chemistry building on campus.  

Lucky for me, that happens to be right next to where I live!

Which means we were out of power for a couple hours today.

And even though now our electricity is working, there is no warmth in my building.

No heat.  No hot water.

But thats ok. I've been freezing before.

And also, I worked on this video.  I don't talk in it at all so you might like it.

I didn't realize how shaky I was with the camera.  I'll try to be better, but no promises.

York

 

Despite being ridiculously cold lately, beauty is still everywhere.

(only when its not raining, of course)

Just make me a sandwich

Today I went to Subway for lunch.

I don't go out a lot here (i know, i know. its very strange) so it's kind of exciting when I do.  Except Subway isn't that exciting...most of the time.

Today I had quite an adventure (please lower all expectations because it wasn't really an adventure by any means.  it was just something that happened).

I will tell you about it.  Here:

(if you have a ginger baby, i'm sure he/she is cuter than the one i saw today.  i'm also pretty positive your child isn't hanging out behind the counter at subway)

Happy Tuesday!

Too much to ask?

This is really all I want in my life.