ya'ahlrigh luv?

I thought I would make the title of this post in English as I just spent the last week in northern England hanging out with my rad Scottish pseudo-godparents. It was a really awesome and extremely necessary escape from France-land!

Anyways, they have this amazingly cozy little house that I've stayed in since I was a child and they're really like my second parents--they treated me so well and it was like being halfway home... Which was really rather depressing to have to leave again and come back to my stupid lonely apartment. But we did some super SUPER sweet things, like going to the Trafford Centre which is basically just a giant English version of an American mall and going to the theatre to see a George Bernard Shaw play. Also went to Primark which is this absolutely absurdly cheap store you can get loads of great clothes in -- I bought two coats, a thick sweater, leggings, tights, socks and a scarf for £50 which is a steal, even with the dollar-pound conversion. But I consider them necessary purchases because damn, it's cold in Europe.

I was also fortunate enough to be in England for Guy Fawkes night ("remember, remember the fifth of November...") which was so awesome. Quick history lesson of the holiday: in a nutshell, England celebrates the fact that in 1603, a Catholic man named Guy Fawkes failed in his attempt to blow up the houses of Parliament in London in protest of the fact that England had recently come under Protestant jurisdiction. His punishment upon getting caught was to be burned at the stake so they have a giant bonfire every year with a Guy Fawkes dummy sitting on top and burn it. Yes, they have a mock human bonfire every year. And this is 2009. God, I love being a citizen to two nations with such an incredibly violent and corrupt history.

ANYWAYS, back to the good parts. Due to the fact that it was raining pretty much the whole time, we didn't know if there would even be any bonfire celebrations but luckily it cleared up in time. So, we went to the Bowdon Cricket Club where they were putting on three sets of firework displays plus a giant bonfire and other fun stuff like a barbeque and candy floss and even a couple little kiddie rides -- the best part of all this was that is was about 38° and the grass was all sludgy and wet. But those Brits, they sure are devoted to their holidays. The fireworks themselves were pretty amazing, most of them were so high up, you had to crane your neck all the way back to see them and they played music to accompany the fireworks. There was a group of young boys, maybe about six or seven, standing right in front of us going absolutely beserk -- I was crying laughing so hard because were playing this song, the same song that Hugh Grant dances to during "Love Actually", and these kids were jumping up and down and shouting (no joke) "we like to boogie! we like to boogie!" I swear, they looked orgasmic, I've never seen children like this before. But with these kids dancing around and "Jump (For My Love)" blasting over the stereo, and cider in hand, I was feeling quite hilariously English.

One of the other highlights was going to Liverpool on Saturday which was really cool, as touristy as it was. We went to Mathew Street which is where The Beatles got their first start and even went into The Cavern where they played their first show. I really wanted to go to Penny Lane but we unfortunately couldn't make it as the rain started to come down heavily at that point. But we headed up to the Liverpool Cathedral where we stumbled upon a Bishop being installed which was actually sorta neat to watch. It's a bit of a grungy, rather dirty city, but full of really cool history. I wish I could have stayed longer... There will be pictures to come at some point.


So it was a wonderful, wonderful holiday and now I'm back to the grind of finding a second-job and figuring out what the heck I'm doing with my life. But hey, Christmas is not too far away now.

grossssssss bisous.