The REAL Adventures of Alissa in the UK...

Hello friends!

So, I know I put you all on my big, fat, formal email list, but ya know, I included like, my grandmother and neuroscience advisor on there, so... I thought it would be quite entertaining if I also made a more informal, truthful blog for those of you who I feel can handle the REAL me :) Y'all know what I'm saying... I'm not about to email my aunts, uncles, and the light-hearted about that time I stayed at the pub til five am, or how many British boys I've hooked... but I'll tell all of YOU about it!!!!

I began writing this blog on the plane from San Francisco to London, and i'm now finishing it as I sit in my room on the 4th floor on Campbell House West at University College London in Bloomsbury district.......

Whoa quick interlude, the flight attendants are walking through with the alcohol cart. Too bad we are probably only flying over, like, Utah, so I'm not legal yet. mmmm I wonder if they have gin? :)

So anyway, I'm on the flight to London right now, with, according to my personal television, about 8 an a half hours to go. I was delighted to find not only Sex and the City AND Will and Grace (unfortunately no Law and Order SVU, though) on the flight's entertainment roster, but also new releases like Hairspray... whee!!! I also have four hours of battery on my laptop, a puzzle book with logic problems (love it), and People's "Best and Worst of 2007" magazine, which has Jamie Lynn Spears on the cover and a three-page spread dedicated to just Britney....YES. WHOA A HOT GUY JUST GOT NAKED ON SEX AND THE CITY hahha big surprise... oh and thank god this fucking baby stopped crying, or I was going to have to throw it off the damn plane.

Well, better be off to take a loooong nap and enjoy some plane food. I'll pick up writing when I get to Heathrow or on my flight to Paris to meet Morgan and Eliza!!!!!!

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Kay just kidding about the writing again when I get to Heathrow part, it'll be more fun to give you short updates as the flight progresses. It's like I have someone to talk to and tell things, so I don't go insane. We're flying over Montana now, with another joyous eight hours to go. I watched a Will and Grace episode and silently shook with laughter at Jack, who had an eyepatch on due to a "GRI"- "Glitter-Related Injury". ahahahahaa LOVE HIM. I also enjoyed a delightful meal of chicken and rice pilaf, salad, a roll, weird orange-y cheesecake, a chocolate, and of course, tea, served by flight attendants with British accents. Lovely! Kay, gonna watch Hairspray and bounce in my seat/get a boner for Zach Efron. Back later...

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Hokay, so, the flight is almost half over. The goddamn baby is crying again, only it's not crying, it's fucking shrieking. Stupid brat, why do people take babies on international flights, grrrrr. Just watched Hairspray-- I'm not even going to begin telling you all the things I'd like to do to Zach Efron...damn, he's tasty. I fell asleep for most of the movie and woke up just in time to watch the ending, sweet. I'm sitting in an aisle seat with no one next to me, so I get to stretch out and kind of lay down, thank god. I wonder if I can roll on my Ma Roller in my seat somehow? The guy in the seat in front and across from me is such a dick, he keeps frowning at everything they bring him and asking for special shit and sending stuff back. asshole. Whoa it's so weird, the flight attendants came by with carts of like, stuff to buy, as in perfume, jewelry, mp3 players. So random, like, why the hell would you ever buy something like that on a plane? And they had all these colognes and no Intimately Beckham...I mean, come on. Hmmm, what to do now. Read People? Do a puzzle? Watch something on the computer or TV? Oh, the options. For now I'm content listening to "Smooth Criminal" :)
OMG HAHAHAHA Katie Duberg: my computer just declared "IT'S NINE O'CLOCK" at full volume in Ralph's voice put on slow. Dear lord. Good thing it didn't say any of the things that we normally make it say...

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Less than four hours to go. We are flying over the Atlantic somewhere between northeast Canada and Greenland. We're going 600 mph and it's -70F outside up here. SWEET, defs don't want to leave this aircraft at the moment, 37,000 ft in the air. I've been organizing my photos on my laptop to pass time, occasionally glancing at a few. Good god, I have ridiculous friends.. I mean, what? Anyway, you know how organizing and making lists brings me comfort, so back to that and listening to Britney (duh).

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Whoa. I'm back, three days later and much wiser (?) I'm on my flight back from Paris to London to meet up with the other Pomona kids and move into our housing. What a three days, lemme tell you. I made it to London fine and killed time before my Paris flight by ordering my first legal alcoholic beverage-- Guinness on tap. At noon. haha. I got on my flight to Paris no problem, but had a bit of trouble navigating to meet Morgan and Eliza once I got off the plane. I didn't realized quite how disorienting it is to take a 10 hour flight, then another one hour flight and land in a country where you don't speak a word of the language. Had a little confusion in meeting up with my friends, but we managed to find each other, thank God. I was sooooo glad to find them and see them!!! We took the metro to where we stayed-- we "couchsurfed"! There is a website called Couchsurfing.com which is basically like facebook for people to advertise couch space for people travelling (mostly young people I think?) Anyway, it's pretty legit, they check people out and people leave reviews after they stay with someone, so you kind of have an idea of what they are like. Anyway, we stayed with Richard, Ivan, and Simon, three 28 year old Parisian guys. YES.

We were all tired once we got back to their flat, so we went to bed early so we could get up and sightsee. On the 31st, we went allll over Paris-- the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre (which was soooo amazing), we also went to H&M, hahaha. We walked from the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre along the Seine...everything was so incredibly beautiful and breathtaking, I couldn't believe I was there!!!!! I could spend days and days in the Louvre, there is so much to see. We took tons of pictures (I'll send a link to my pics once I make an account), some cute and some ridiculous, obvi. Different parts of Paris made me think of you all, from French Bugles (Kira) to the water-polo statue (dance drama people) to creepy art in the Louvre (Kendall).

On New Year's Eve, our couchsurfing hosts had a little dinner party with some of their friends and invited us to join them, which we did. They had some DELICIOUS hors d'oeuvres, and their friends were very fun and spoke mostly in English for our sake (although once there were a few drinks in everyone, the English usage gradually faded...) Well, I'll let Morgan tell you how HER night went (muahahahahahahaha), but Eliza and I had a great time ringing in the New Year, or should I say, "bon annee"! I danced salsa (Alex!!!) with Ivan and for some reason one guy, Hugo, asked me if I was Mexican and if I did cocaine...not really sure if and how those are related...anyway, we were all dancing drunkenly in the living room, and my drunken mind thought, what better time than now to put on Britney? So I ran to my room and grabbed Blackout (which I brought to Europe, obvi) and put it on, shrieking, "It's Britney, bitch!" That's right, people... I brought Britney to France. WORD.

At some point (I think around 2am?) we thought it would be a great idea to go out to a club. so we did. just me, Ivan, and Simon. can we say, awk? They kinda both were drunkenly hitting on me, then started talking angrily at each other in French....hmmmm.....but I was far too drunk to care, so drunk that we were refused entry into the first club we went to (if you think that's bad, seriously, ask Morgan how her New Years was...:)) we did make it to one club, where they played only American 70s music. lame. we came back at 6am and I ended up hooking the wrong Frenchman. Don't ask. Worst. hangover. ever.

Anyway, we saw some more of Paris the next day (Notre Dame, Arc du Triomphe, Moulin Rouge), and the next morning I said goodbye to Eliza and Morgan after a far too short visit. After standing in the wrong line at the Paris airport and almost missing my flight (and by almost, I mean I was running/sweating), I'm in one piece and on my way to jolly ol' Britain.

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I will conclude the blog for now, as it is already far too long. I will write another one shortly, probably tomorrow (Jan. 8) after my first class at UCL, to fill you in on how my first week in London went!!! And trust me, there's plenty to say :)

I miss you all terribly and hope your winter breaks/whatever you are doing is going very well. Belated Happy New Year!!!!!!

Love love love from London,

Dirty/Twat/Whore/Betch/Alissex/Roomie/Missy/Liss/Ate/Delish/Alissa, or whatever it is that you call me :) (why are at least 50% of my nicknames derogatory, you guys????)