31 August, 2007 | 5 Comments

Today I’m movin’ on up…in more ways than one.

I’ll be leaving Suth-uk (or as it’s known officially, Southwark) and moving north of the Thames to my most favoritest section of London. Lucky me. I’ve enjoyed living in Southwark these past couple months. It’s been a time of wandering and exploration. I’ve spent time at the Tate, way too much time admiring St. Paul’s dome and way way way too much time hanging out on all the bridges I’ve had such easy access to from here:

My lovely bridges, in order: Lambeth, Westminster, Golden Jubilee, Waterloo, Blackfriars, Southwark, London, Tower. I’ve been spoiled! I love bridges and I love the Thames. That’ll be the toughest thing about leaving this part of town. I’ll also miss my own personal view of the London Eye. I used to be able to hear Big Ben from here, but Big Ben is undergoing repairs and has been silenced for the first time in 50 years. Yes, that’s me. I have impeccable timing.

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29 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

I am reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I’ve read this novel before, but not for many years. It’s a beautiful book; it couldn’t be more beautiful. This morning on the way to work I read the passage below and for a moment my heart just stopped. I’m serious. Taken out of context, it won’t have the same impact, but I just want to share it anyway. It spoke to me in a very deep way.

Here’s to perfect moments…

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27 August, 2007 | 6 Comments

“Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster?”

That is the first line of Sarah Water’s novel Tipping the Velvet (a wonderful book!). Yesterday I tasted a Whitstable oyster, the most famous in England. Actually, I tried an oyster for the very first time ever. I’ve never been tempted to try an oyster — they look disgusting. I love shellfish, but oysters? No thanks. However, I was in Whitstable, so I thought it was the perfect time to lose my oyster virginity.

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25 August, 2007 | 6 Comments

This is my last weekend living in Southwark. I wasn’t scheduled to move into my new rent-free digs until mid-September, but the stars aligned and long-story-short, I’m moving on Friday. YAY! I’ve been in a state of limbo and just want to get settled in my new place. But that means this weekend I have to pack. This will be my fifth move of the year…a new record, I think.

Since I got paid yesterday, I spent today doing some shopping. I like getting new stuff, but I don’t like actually shopping — if that makes sense. I lose my patience very quickly when shopping for things like shoes and clothes amongst the hordes in the chain shops and department stores. Grrrrrr. I went into Selfridges, rode the escalator up a few floors, then had to flee. I just couldn’t take all those mannequins and fluorescent lights and pushy people. [I can spend hours shopping for books, however. That's not a problem.]

Since I’ve been poor for so long, there are a lot of things I need now that I have some extra money. First I needed to buy a train ticket for a short trip I’m taking the week after next. And at the top of my list of things to buy was a new pair of trainers. [Why do Americans call these tennis shoes? We don't even wear them to play tennis. It makes no sense at all. Granted, most Americans actually say tennashoes, so we don't really even think about what we're saying.]

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23 August, 2007 | Comments

I’ve only been working for six weeks without being paid. No probs. Perhaps tomorrow, with actual British currency in my pocket, I’ll be able to afford the delights of all the food groups, rather than just my normal two — cheap take-away and gum.

Oh — and Monday is a holiday.

Thank you, Jesus.

23 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

The major news story here right now concerns an 11-year-old boy who was shot dead outside a pub last night by a teenager on a bike. While this story is exceptionally horrific, the amount of violent crime in this country is shocking.  One example of completely senseless murder: A few weeks ago a man was shot in a London nightclub, all because he tried to enforce the smoking ban. He told a couple of men to stop smoking and in response, they gunned him down. This was in Fulham, a rather nice area of London. Hmmm, I thought such things only happened in America?

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22 August, 2007 | 5 Comments

Today I told two of my fellow instructors at the university that I am quite irritated with one of the classes I’m teaching. The students chat the whole time and ignore my requests that they be quiet and pay attention. My two fellow instructors — both raised in Eastern Europe — said they didn’t have that problem, that their students were too scared to ever misbehave. One of them said to me, “Your problem is that you’re too nice.”

The other teacher said, “No, her problem is that she wasn’t raised under a totalitarian regime.”

True enough. One of them offered to switch classes with me for the day. He said after he was done with my class, they’d never act up again. Besides just being generally scary, he engages in other kinds of psychological warfare too. For example, since we’re teaching English to foreigners, he said most of his example sentences involve violence.

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20 August, 2007 | 4 Comments

I know it’s freakishly cold here, but all you people wearing jackets and scarves and hats — get a grip! On principle alone, you should refuse to bundle up. Let’s not forget that it’s August. On a purely technical level, it’s summer.  We must stand together!

19 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

Matt Damon calls James Bond a misogynist! And an imperialist! Ah, you gotta love it. More on this in a moment.

Today I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. In general, I’m not a fan of action movies and summer Hollywood blockbusters, not because I don’t like pop culture, but because these movies are usually so stupid they’re unbearable to watch. In light of this, the Bourne movies are really exceptional. They’re primarily entertainment, obviously, but they feature great actors, an actual story as opposed to dumbed-down idiocy, fab European locations, a lack of computer-generated effects and they even make the audience think about U.S. foreign policy post-9/11. Not too bad for a popcorn flick.

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18 August, 2007 | Comments

“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds

on the heel that has crushed it.”

–Mark Twain

16 August, 2007 | 8 Comments

I didn’t intend to post again today, but then I received some shocking news.

Yesterday, the poet Liam Rector committed suicide. I knew Liam because he was the director of the creative writing program at Bennington College, where I received my master’s degree. All of us associated with the program are stunned at this news. It’s hard to believe that Liam is dead. He was a larger-than-life figure, a big bear of a man with a beard, a loud booming voice and a penchant for drinking and smoking and living hard.

[And who can forget the "Always be closing!" scene from Glengarry Glen Ross that he made all the new students watch?]

Here are news stories from the NY Post and the NY Daily News and the NYT obituary. This is Liam’s bio and some of his poems.

The first time I ever talked to Liam was when he called me — at my little Brooklyn apartment — to tell me that I had been accepted into the graduate program at Bennington. I thought it was so very strange that he would call me himself, but it was a small program and had a real community feel to it. My life sucked at the time and I needed a change. Enrolling in this program would change me forever.

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16 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

it’s been raining in london again. the pope is catholic, the yankees suck, etc. etc.

there was quite a bit of rain the past few days, though now it’s appeared to have cleared up. i wasn’t expecting rain, since i had become so accustomed to the unseasonably sunny weather. but while others complained, i was just happy for yet another opportunity to indulge my obsession with reflections in puddles and on wet pavement. i’m sure one day pfizer will invent a pill to help people like me, but until then, i’m quite happy to be living in a city with such wet streets.

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15 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

Yesterday’s terrorist bombings in Iraq — the deadliest attacks since the war began — targeted Yazidis, the Kurdish religious sect. Sunni Muslims view the Yazidis as infidels and devil worshipers and there is much sectarian violence. I’m mentioning this because Du’a Khalil Aswad, the teenage girl horrifically murdered in April about whom I wrote so much in the spring, was part of this minority community. Tonight’s leading report on the BBC’s Newsnight about the bombings showed part of the video of Dua’s death at the hands of a bloodthirsty mob. Dua’s murder inflamed tensions between the warring religious factions and has been a justification for further violence — but not because of any concern over the horrific treatment of women in this region. That’s not even an issue for these groups, given that they’re all guilty of it. Instead, Dua’s death is used for propaganda purposes, thus further dehumanizing her and her unspeakable suffering.

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14 August, 2007 | 6 Comments

Lately it’s been work work work. And until the middle of September it will continue to be work work work. But sometimes I force myself to take some time out. This afternoon: A movie (Waitress at the Curzon Soho) and an hour drinking mint tea and reading Mrs. Dalloway in the café at the National Gallery. A much-needed respite.

13 August, 2007 | 8 Comments

Yesterday I left the building where I live and there was a guy standing outside holding two bibles. He approached me and said he wanted to talk to me, but I said no thanks and kept walking. I assumed he was the usual kind of Christian-African missionary I encounter in London — annoying but harmless. But the weird thing is that he started to follow me. I’ve written before about how my neighborhood can be eerily deserted, especially on weekends. So there was literally no one else around. I could hear this guy walking behind me. Finally, after about a block and a half, I turned around and told him in very strong terms to stop following me, that I was not going to speak to him, that I wanted nothing to do with him. Then I crossed the street.

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12 August, 2007 | 3 Comments

On Friday, my university students had to read an essay about squirrels. After class, one of my Chinese students told me that he had never seen a squirrel before he arrived in Britain a few weeks ago. He then asked me if squirrels are a type of monkey.

I know it’s not nice to laugh at students, but I just couldn’t help it. Monkeys! In England! Imagine that.

12 August, 2007 | 6 Comments

Tonight I received some devastating news. Sainsbury’s is no longer making or selling their reduced-fat guacamole. I looked all over for it and when I couldn’t find it, I asked the guy stocking the shelves. He said, with an evil glimmer in his eye, “Discontinued!”

Wah!

I can’t eat the full-fat variety because it has cream in it, whereas the low-fat is dairy-free. How on earth will I survive without this staple of my diet? Right now, thanks to my kitchenless existence and manic teaching schedule, my dietary staples are: Water, bagels, guacamole, pretzels, pre-packaged sandwiches, Kettle Chips, bananas, over-priced fruit salad from Marks & Spencers, Cadbury’s chocolate eclair candy and vegetarian hot and sour soup from the take-away place (btw, what is in hot and sour soup? Some sort of narcotic? I crave it and must have it everyday. I think they should rename it hot and sour extra spicy Chinese crack).

But as for the guacamole, I really don’t need this kind of stress right now. Why God? Please don’t take guacamole away from me. What’s next, being pushed in front of a fast-moving train? I must admit that compared to the guacamole you can get in America it tastes like sh*t, but it was my last remaining tie to the Mexican culinary world. Sainsbury’s, how could you do this to me? Rot in hell! All of you!

10 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

when no one understands

me

at all.

this week, for example.

10 August, 2007 | 11 Comments

Everywhere I go, people keep talking about Facebook. I’m serious. In restaurants, shops, etc. I’m not entirely sure what Facebook is. I get hits on my blog from it, which perhaps means there’s some sort of campaign out there against me. In a shop the other day, some of the customers were chatting about Facebook. I asked them, “What’s the big deal with Facebook?” And they told me it was great, that you can use it to find old friends and people you grew up with.

Ah. Well, if I were interested in keeping in touch with people I grew up with, I wouldn’t have moved thousands of miles away from them at the first chance I got. And I certainly wouldn’t have moved to a different country. So, uh, no thanks Facebook. That sounds like my idea of Hell.

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7 August, 2007 | 3 Comments

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

–Crowfoot