Check Mate--A Continuation of Exploration

I never thought it would happen, but for the past few days we have had temperature in the 70's!
Yeah. ENGLAND. With 70 degree temperature. I didn't even think that was possible.
The sky is cloudless, then sun beating down on us, and people are out in even less clothing than they usually wear: guys in City Centre are literally walking around topless and a girl I saw today was wearing shorts so short I could see her cheeks (not the ones on her face).

Being such a lovely day, I decided to walk to City Centre. It takes about an hour, but the sun was shining and I felt like being outdoors.
My first stop in City Centre was Cupcakes, as usual, to see if there were any new flavors out. As there weren't, I decided to show some restraint and not get one (I know! Me? Not get a cupcake? Maybe I was suffering from heat stroke.)

I went to the Leeds Art Gallery

They had some nice exhibits. My favorite room had paintings from 1800-1900, with huge canvases depicting different scenes: a guy in a fez being attacked by Nigerians,
an androgynous figure holding off a roaring tiger with his/her sword pointed right over the beasts' heart,

a mountain over a lake, reflected perfectly in it,

and, my favorite, The Temptation of Sir Percival:

I found this painting so intriguing I had to buy a postcard of it from the shop.

There were modern exhibits, with a lot of paintings that looked like something that should be in a pre-teen girl's bedroom.

Despite their cutesy appearance, I actually liked these painting because, in most of them, there was a space of darkness in them. It's like the stuff of Tinkerbell's nightmares.

I wandered around a bit, admiring the architecture of the building as much as the art in it.

After I'd gone around the entire gallery, I went outside to the shop.
I found some quotational stuff that I really liked.
One by Thoreau stuck out “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

I also found something I thought didn't exist: GOOD postcards of Leeds.
Most Leeds postcards I've found have been complete rubbish, ugly, or have nothing to do with Leeds.
But the gallery's shop had some good ones of buildings that I love to photograph anyway, so I got some to add to my massive postcard hoard.

Leaving the shop, I walked near the benches and saw people playing chess with enormous chess pieces on the plaza in front of the gallery.

I ended up watching chess games for a little over an hour. I learned some new things about chess: when your castle and king are beside each other, they can swap places.
And I thought the pairings were awesome. My favorite people to watch were these two:

It was this young, paunch bellied man taking swigs from a plastic Coca-Cola bottle and this old man with his cane. They would spend minutes sometimes thinking of their next move. The younger guy's friend was watching the game and they'd chat throughout it. At one point, some young, thin women in short shorts came up and watched the game.
"You girls play chess?" the young guy asked, his belly peeking out from under his shirt, they laughed and shook their heads and eventually ambled away.
The young guy won the game, despite my rooting for the collected-looking older gentleman, but when the young guy made his winning move, the older man laughed in appreciation. They shook hands and reset the board.

I moved over to the other game that was going between my next favorite players. These guys:

Both of these men were older, but they were equally entertaining. Their games took much longer than any others as they would extensively think their moves out. The darker skinned man was interesting to watch, he'd step right on to the board and wave his hands around in the possible moves he could make. He was bested by Victor, the yellow shirted man.

I must have looked very strange there. While occasionally passersby would stop and peer at the game, I was the only person that was not a tall, gangly, nerdy looking male/old guy that was sitting there watching the games. I got a few glances from the players and the men waiting to play, they all seemed more-or-less familiar with each other. You got the sense that they did this often.

As I was watching one of the games, an announcement made over a megaphone from a row of cars rolling down the street caught my attention. It was an advertisement for the Circus Vegas. Their little caravan of cars decorated in CIRCUS VEGAS-ALL NEW SHOW! rolled past the gallery. The roofs of their cars spangled with the American flag that made me internally groan.

About ten minutes later they passed by again, making the same announcement, going in the opposite direction. This time I paid more attention to the decorations on their vehicles: on the first one was Mickey Mouse, on the second was The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), and on the third was Elvis. While I was smiling to myself at how absolutely stupid and random that assortment of images were, the french man (I assume French by his accent) turned to me and said
"Isn't Elvis supposed to be dead?"
I agreed that he was, and he continued to talk about what a weird image it was to put on their cars, to which I also agreed. He was nerdy and slightly socially awkward, but we connected over the making fun of stupid advertising.
"All new show?" he said, "I haven't even seen the first one."
"I haven't even heard of Circus Vegas," I said.
Then he said something I couldn't understand with his heavy accent so I smiled vaguely and nodded.

Shortly after, I got up and went to Morrisons for some badly needed groceries: milk!

It was a really great day and although I didn't make it to the gym like I had intended to, I feel that this might have been the best way I've spent my time.

Shakespeare then Travel

I know that this is supposed to be about Study Abroad, but I need to take a moment to address the atrocity that has been inflicted upon the world.
You know what I'm talking about: NBC fired Dan Harmon, the creator & Head Writer of the show Community.
That might sound like a ridiculous thing to be upset about, but it's not just anger as a fan of the show, it's fear about the future. More particularly, my future.

I now know with certainty (thanks to my experiences studying abroad) that I want to become a writer for television. It's my dream, it's what I want to do, and I'm scared enough as it is trying to figure out how to break into that business (and everyone these days wants to be a writer, I've got loads of competition).

But let's pretend it's a perfect world, and I set out after graduation, write some spec scripts, manage to sell some, then I land a job as a writer for some television show. My career does pretty well, after a few seasons on the show, I come up with my own idea for a TV show, I write it, pitch it, and Bam! It gets picked up! Amazing, incredible! I'm a creator of my very own show at last! Everything I've ever dreamed of. And then we put the show out there, it's a success, has a nice devout following. And then, all of a sudden, three seasons in, the bosses at the TV station I'm with decides: we don't want Amanda anymore. So I get fired, and MY show gets given to some other writers I don't know.
Scary.
What the hell? Why don't writers have any rights in the business? Like...they can't HAVE shows or films if they don't have people to actually write them. And as far as I'm concerned, the episodes this past season have been good, so it's not like the quality of Dan Harmon's writing had deteriorated or anything.

My only slight hesitation is Dan Harmon's response in a blog post. While reading it, having first learned the news, I was with him every word, outraged, surprised, hurt. But I wonder now if his statement could end up hurting him. Having begun reading a lot of books about the film industry, most advice is, no matter how hurt you are when you get removed from a project/fired/don't get picked, you never never never burn bridges. I'm not saying Dan Harmon threw down and began cursing NBC to the heavens, I'm just saying the tone of his blog, while justified, was a bit on the accusatory side, and I wonder if it might prevent him from opportunities in the future. For all he knows, the men they hired to replace him could fail and they'd have wanted him back, but after his rant, they'd be too proud.


Just some thoughts. And, I admit, typing this up is a form (as always) of procrastination.

My Shakespeare midterm is on Wednesday.
And I feel unprepared. And I kind of don't care.
With the exception of Othello, I feel that the plays I must write essays on (The Winters Tale and Henry V) are IMMENSELY boring. I don't know what the expectations are here, but I'm concerned about how to write for 2 hours on these topics.
Right now, I should be re-reading Othello, but I'm lazy to the extreme. I know I'll get it done because I must. But these plays mostly bore me, and the exam questions can be as random as they like. With a TA this semester that had a tendency to digress a lot in class, I feel nervous about the expectations. Then there's the fact that I just don't like exams.


But once that's over, the fun begins!
I get to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London with my other International student friends and spend a few days in London. Then I come back to Leeds for a week, do a couple of day trips, Cambridge and York possibly, and then BZ comes to visit and we do another week in London!

And then....home.
Although, I don't know, Leeds is the only place in the entire world where I've been on my own, it kind of has become my home too.

Getting to Know Leeds

My time in England is coming to an end, which I find very disappointing, because I love it here.
The UK. England. Leeds. I love it.
I've now explored a number of different cities and countries while I've been here. I've been on tons of tours and have spent hours walking around museums, but one place I have yet explored thoroughly is my own backyard: Leeds.

It might seem a bit ridiculous that the bus stop I get off at stops directly in front of Leeds Art Gallery, yet I've never been in. Or that I live a 15 minute walk away from a mostly intact monastery near the river--heck!--I haven't even seen the river while I've been here. But now that my time in Leeds is running out, I'm learning to appreciate it more, and going beyond the limits of City Centre.

This previous Sunday, Maggie and I went to IronCupcake Leeds: the cupcake competition held monthly at the Adelphi hotel (conveniently located near Leeds' abysmally small gay bar area). We have been wanting to attend literally for months, but have always been busy/traveling/studying. But last Sunday, we finally got there, and it was A-MAZING! That was (coincidentally) the first time I saw the Leeds River in the five months that I've been here.

The theme for this month's Iron Cupcake event was Flower Power.
The bakers came with all of these beautifully crafted cupcakes that made you almost not want to destroy them by eating them.
They were cut into fourths and the judges (amongst them me!) got to go around to each table and try a bit, ranking them from 1-5 on appearance, and 1-10 on taste.

The absolute BEST cupcake in my opinion was one decorated with Sunflowers, that had chocolate chips in the bottom and chocolate icing on top!!

Maggie and I left giggly and sugar-high, and walked through the nearly empty streets of city centre. Everything closes around 5 on a Sunday, and it felt as though we were trespassing, or breaking the sanctity of Sunday Silence.


It was an awesome event, though I'm pretty sure I haven't that much sugar in one sitting in a very long time.


Another new thing I'm experiencing: the Edge facility.

The Edge is our gym with a high-tech computerized system that keeps track of your workouts.
All students that live in the dorms get basic membership, which means I can go from 6am-12Pm and 2PM-4PM Monday through Friday. I've recently begun working out (including the weight lifting machines!) and although I have to force myself to get up and go in the mornings (yesterday, laziness prevailed and I skipped) I always feel better after a workout.

My new plan, therefore, is to work out in the mornings, come back to Grayson Heights, eat lunch, and then go out to explore some new part of Leeds.

Today it was Kirkstall Abbey (that monastery I mentioned earlier).

This place was absolutely beautiful! I don't know what it is about old buildings, I'm obsessed. Churches, Monasteries, Chapels, Castles, whether still standing or in ruins, I love walking around them. Kirkstall Abbey is massive and falling apart in many areas so you can see through it. It was gated off so that you couldn't enter. I don't know if it's like that permanently or if you have to book a tour or something in advance, but it was something out of a book, and I was tempted to hop the gate (damn that CCTV!).

I also got to get up close to the river, which surprised me with how rapid it's current is.

The day was gorgeous, and I'd have loved to lay out and do my reading (Henry V) for my final, but one of the biggest drawbacks on England stopped me: the wind!
My GOD the wind is a freaking bastard over here! When it's strong, it pierces through your jacket and shirts with it's icy fingers and makes walking against it near impossible!! I don't know if this is just a Leeds thing, or all of England, but seriously! The wind! Nightmare.
I spent around an hour at the abbey and the Kirkstall Abbey Park that surrounds it, managed to get in ten minutes of reading on a park bench before the cold of the wind forced me to get up and begin my trek back to Grayson.

It was a really nice experience though, so I consider it time well spent.

Tomorrow, after lunch (and hopefully, the gym, if I can rouse myself) I plan to return to city centre and go explore the Art Gallery (I mean, really, it's FREE, how lazy am I?).

Friday I'm going to see some art installations around the city and then dinner at Nando's!! I've been trying to limit myself to eating meat once a week, but this is testing my strength, I might not be able to do it much longer, I'm a happy carnivore and it would only take cutting out yogurt and milk from my diet now to make me a vegan! (shudder)

My final exam is next Wednesday and after that things really start to pick up!
I'm going to London for a few days with some of my friends, during which, I will go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour!!! Be jealous!!! I also hope to see if I can get cheap day-of tickets to Wicked.

Then possibly a trip to Cambridge with Maggie.

Then (and I'm very excited about this!) BZ has decided to come visit me my last week!!!! She'll be here from June 9th-15th and we'll be doing a couple of days in Leeds, where I will get to show her the FABULOUS shop: Cupcakes by Charley, as well as bring her to my very last Iron Cupcake event! Then we'll be down in London for the remainder of her stay, hopefully seeing Henry V (see how these things happen?) at the Globe theatre!!!!

I've loved my time here, and I'm really thrilled that I get to share it with somebody from home. Although BZ is a world traveler and has been to London before, it'll be nice to be able to show somebody how I've been living and the country that I love so much.
And I'm not gonna lie, the fact that she's bringing a second suitcase ROCKS because now I don't have to throw away as many things as I thought I was going to have to and will make my life so much easier when going back home!