Belgium

Wow.. where do I start? I went to see Grandmaster Flash last Thursday, for those of you who don't know, he's the 'daddy' of all hip hop DJ's. Sooo old school, which is exactly what he played. It was freaking awesome, songs from the 60s and 70s, I totally had a good time. Then this Russian DJ - DJ Vadim and Mister Thing came on and they were amazing! I wish I understood spinning and all that better because then I'd probably appreciate more what they were doing. Matt told me that they had won the world's DJ competition or something like that. There was this other group that joined them later called the Russian Percussion and they were great too. Totally different vibe and tune from Rhazel and Blackalicious. The singer was singing poetry, like spoken word and it was really cool.

Saturday I left for Belgium with my friend Grace. So here are the highlights: 45 min bus ride into town, 4 hours coach (bus) ride to the airport, 50 min flight to Charleroi airport near Brussels, 1 hour coach ride into center of Brussels, 1 hour train ride to Brugge, 20 min bus ride to hostel.. where we sleep for 9 hours. Played in Brugge, saw a Salvador Dali exhibit, got gyped out of food prices from following stupid 'Lonely Planet' Guide Book, but the food was worth the price.. so we ate very very well. Toured the old buildings of Brugge and the medieval areas around the city. It used to be a port city, until the port suddenly disappeared as the water receded and they turned to lace-making instead. Belgium is known for 5 things: lace, chocolate, waffels, fries, and beer. So then.. we get back on a bus to the train station, 1 hour train ride back to Brussels, metro ride to hostel, went the wrong direction, found the hostel, went back out on the metro to the grand place, ran into a group of Americans from Colgate University and managed to get two free waffels from them because they had too many.. whoo hoo! Here's some money coming back to us. haha. Went back to the hostel (during this day I'm progressively getting more and more ill.. my nose is running and I'm not feeling too well), I get a fever that night and sleep 9 hours, waking up every so often, we get up eat breakfast at 8am, I can't handle it, my body is aching, so I go back to sleep and Grace gets some fever reducers, I pop those and sleep for another 45 minutes and finally feel better. We check out and head back to Brussels, run into a Cathedral and a statue of a man with a dog, eat some more food, get back on the Metro and get to the train station, take the 1 hour coach back to the airport, the 40 min flight back to London, the four hour coach ride back to Brighton, the 30 min bus ride to Sussex university and I'm home!!!

Never been soooooooooo happy to see it. It was good to see my housemates again too, I missed them. :) I end up sleeping 28 hours in the last three days and two nights, so I stay up until 4 am, because there's supposed to be a huge meteor shower! It was absolutely clear.. up until the point we went out to look at it. So that sucked. We climbed up the huge hills behind our school and my socks got all wet, but I was still warm and we sat on plastic bags trying to peak through the gaps in the clouds. We caught a few, so that was cool. I finally managed to get out of all my wet stuff and crawl into a nice warm bed and fall asleep.

The End. :)

Chinese Food.. mmm

Last night was soooo delicious! I was totally missing home and chinese food, so over the week I planned this big chinese feast for Saturday night. My friend came over and we made egg rolls, wontons and her gyoza's as well. It took us three freaking hours just to prepare that all so it would be ready to cook later. Then more of my American friends came over and we started chopping and preparing stuff at 6:45. OMG.. sooo funny. We had bought all this stuff for fried aubergines (eggplants), stir fried spinach, stir fried courgettes (zuchinnis), chinese scrambled egg, chicken drumsticks (w/ my family's "secret" recipe), egg rolls, wontons, and gyzoa. We had both of our kitchens going in the house w/ me deep frying egg rolls and eggplants and all the other veggies and people downstairs doing chicken, rice and gyoza. Soooo delicious. It felt like being back home again. There's something about having a bunch of friends sitting together eating food together that just feels sooo good to the soul. I love friends and food, that combination always makes people soo happy. Haha. Yeah.. good times. I've got pictures if you want to see up in the England photo album!

just like home..

I come home from dinner last night and my housemate tells me he met the person stealing food from our kitchen. I was thinking.. what?!! He said he came into the kitchen and some guy was in there with a stocking over his head and they had a sqirmish and the guy punched Theo (who had a black bruise over his right eye) and then jumped out the window and took off. So at first.. I don't believe him but he says ask Tilly and then I go downstairs later and Peter asks me if Theo told me how he got in a fight. If you've seen a picture of Theo, he DOES NOT look like he'd ever physically fight anyone, much less win or anything like that haha.. I still love him though.. but yeah. SO gullible me.. I believe him all the way until today when I aske Noelle if he's lying or not. And she gets that look like I do when someone asks me the same question. Damn that boy! and darn me for being so stupid sometimes. haha.. it's just like being back at home and getting picked on! Apparently some things are universal.

Hip-Hop, You the Love of my Life

OMG! So my Halloween had to be the most incredible and funniest Halloweed I have every had!! (...besides that time when I was eight and dressed up like a bunny walking through the mall with my parents and getting loads of candy!..) So this is how it went. I wasn't sure what I was going to do Halloween, probably just kick it with some UC kids and sit around and do nothing. Well it turned out there was a Rhazel concert at this club in Brighton. My housemate, Matt, had an extra ticket and his friend couldn't go, so he asked if I wanted it. I said ~ cool, yeah sure, why not, Rhazel would be tight to go watch. I'm still afraid something is going to go wrong and the plans will be messed up and I'll end up sitting on my ass again. But it didn't and I get dressed up, it was a beautiful, "warm", night in Brighton and we get to the club. I look on the ticket when we get in and it says Blackalicious too!! All for £11!!! And this British rapper B'Twang was on as well, he was really good. So I spent the night dancing away to some awesome music and just having a freaking amazing time with my housemates!! So yeah.. that was my Halloween! Haha.. yeah I know.. I'm bragging. But hey, I'm finally having fun in England and being happy, so it's a good thing. :D