Step Into the Gap

Since I was so sick last week, I got an extension on my final project for the TV module (incidentally, my favorite course of the whole MA program). Anyway, the project was due yesterday to the Postgraduate Office. The office was set to close at 4:30 pm and not reopen until jan 2nd for the holidays.

I decided to do a story on Chlamydia in the UK (see previous post "Slutty Brits"). I had called at least 12 hospitals and the NHS spokesperson. No one was available. Though a nurse informed me that there was a Chlamydia office at the hospital by my house. So I went to interview them. Carried my 20 pound tripod and 30 pound camera down the hill, onto the tube, around the uni and into the hospital. After all this, the lead CHLAMYDIA NURSE tells me she is not qualified to be an interviewee on a Masters project. I assured her that it didnt matter, that her quote was important. But she just offered me brochures and refused to be on camera.

So I dragged myself back to campus. After numerous tries at stories (Smoke Radio just won an award and they are always on so someone must be there! WRONG. University Security guards are always here, they will tell me about security over the holidays! WRONG. The librarians will give me an interview! WRONG) so i was screwed. It was now 5pm and I was completely without options. So I sadly dragged my equipment and my sorry self to pricky's dorm room. I walked in, threw my stuff on the floor and said "I have no story." And then pricky kicked into action. "Of course you have a story, there's always a story..." and he got on BBC web. The lead story was fog delays at Heathrow. Well look at that.

"I would love to do this story, its amazing. But it's so far and I have all this equipment." And he said the magic words "dont worry, I will come with you." And off we went - to get the story like true journalists. Pricky showed me how to take the bus to Heathrow, which takes a while but saves some money. I learned a valuable lesson on that bus - never sit upstairs if you're alone. This time pricky was there to save me, but if I had gone alone I dont know that I would have even made it to Heathrow. We were sitting right by the stairway of the bus (double decker london bus) and 3 white punks come up the stairs. The 1st guy looked right at me while I was laughing at something pricky said. And then he started (with his ghetto english accent): "ahhh, ya know them pearly whites get me goin' ay..." and i ignored him. But I have seen this situation before and I knew that a.) they were likely drinking, b.) they were bored and c.) there were more of them than us.

They sat in the back row and I thought that would be the end. I was wrong. He just continued yelling from the back row. Since I wasn't responding - he decided to come sit in the seat directly behind me. I was sitting next to pricky and they obviously assumed we were "together". He kept trying to talk to me and he was getting relatively obscene. "You know you need a real man" (right. and a creepy, drunk, ghetto lil white boy is exactly what I consider a "real" man...). I needed a tactic. "How old are you?" I asked.

"Me? Well I'm 24."

"How old do you think I am?"

"like 19, 20 yeah"

"I'm 26!! Too old for you."

At this point his friend came and sat next to him. Another opportunity for me.

"Aww look, your friend got lonely without you."

"Naw babe, ferget 'em, I'm trying to get on you."

"well I think you need to get on him, he obviously missed you."

Now I don't exaclty remember who said what or exactly what happened, but suddenly pricky turned around and said "no, you're a bitch!" to one or the other (or maybe both) of the punks.

And very quickly, the 2nd guy jumped up and said "dont you talk to me like that". He was trying to fight and convince pricky to get off the bus. I was hoping and praying that pricky would just sit down and ignore them til they got off. I know its customary for the guy to stand up for the girl, and normally that would have been great, except I needed this story, I needed a cameraman, I needed to not end up on the side of the road, calling the police and cleaning wounds. And I really didnt want pricky to get hurt. So I silently prayed that pricky would turn back to me and continue our conversation until they got bored and left.

No such luck.

He stood up. STOOD UP. 3 violent, horny drunks and he stands up to fight them. I pulled him back down. "Don't". "How bout you just go?" I said to Drunky Mc HitsAlot .

Words were exchanged and then they (yelling obscenities and making sexual references) were all walking down the stairs. Someone said something then Drunky (suddenly in slow motion in my head) pulls back, his mouth in a pucker, and propels forth a "pitooee" spit. Not very effective as neither pricky nor I felt anything. But pricky jumped up and reached down the stairs to hit him. They all ran and got off the bus.

"What is wrong with you!?" I asked. "Why would you try to hit them? They were just drunk and looking for trouble!"

"What could they have done?"

"They could have hit you!!"

(smiling)"...yeah I guess I didnt think of that."

Posted by S at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

All 5 of my housemates and I went out for dinner tonight. It was so awesome. We had a ton of fun, great food and got to catch up. I really lucked out with the girls I moved in with. They could have been crazy, theives, bitches and just generally horrible people. But they're not. They all have stories and lives and really good personalities. Interestingly though, I am the only housemate not in a relationship right now.

However, one of my housemates - actually the one who is the reason I moved in - told me she broke up with her boyfriend this weekend. I was so busy with being sick and travelling and Aly that I didnt even know the house gossip yet. Its tragic actually. I really liked her boyfriend - he was so polite, always introducing himself and saying "excuse me" and "thank you" and "may I" and he seemed so sweet. and i know she reallllllly liked him. They were together for 2 years. 2 YEARS. And he cheated on her. I can hardly believe it myself, I cant even imagine how she feels.

I can't say I know what I'd do if I was in the same situation. He is a good guy. I have this feeling about him that makes me want her to give him a second chance. But he cheated. you just cant come back from that, no matter how great of a person u are. There are so many things men can do to women, so many ways that women can be hurt very easily. but being cheated on by an awesome guy who u really loved - thats the worst. even physical violence doesnt cause more pain. Honestly, I would prefer my boyfriend to raise a hand to me and let me break up with him over that than to tell me he cheated.

Here's why: every girl knows this is true - once you've been cheated on you are never the same in a relationship. You always want to know what time he gets home on a saturday night, always want to look through his phone, always want to check the details in his story. It breaks our sense of trust. But if u hit me, I know theres just something wrong with u and I would never, ever go back to a wife beater. So I feel much more confident in choosing to break up with a beater than a cheater. Of course I cant say I would put up with either, but faced with losing a man that I truly loved and wanted to be with, I can say I would much more easily walk away from a beater.

Posted by S at 3:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

I knew I was sick before we left. Yet I still insisted on staying out every night. On not sleeping for days at a time. On not eating much. And generally not taking care of myself.

So when we got back to London I figured it was only a matter of time before I had to do the dreaded: take a visit to the doctors office. I wanted to wait until my friend from Chicago left so I wouldn't make her sit in the doctors office waiting for me. So when we were rushing to the airport to get her on her flight home, I was already planning my trip to get this whole ugly cold taken care of. But then she missed her flight and so much was happening and I was rushing and tired and generally feeling ill. Then I started to feel dizzy and I knew I had put off the doctors office too long. But by then it was 8pm. So I took Aly with me and went to the Emergency Room at Northwick Park Hospital.

The doctor I saw was nearly incompetent. I went in feeling sick and weak. He just smiled and said it really wasn't that bad. And he kept SMILING. It is so irritating when you can barely breathe and theres a constant ringing in your ears and pressure in your head and the damn doctor SMILINGLY reassures you that you SIMPLY have a respiratory infection (or as he put - "you're sick *right here*" pointing to his chest). As icing on the cake, he tells me if I want to relieve the pressure in my ears I should hold my nose closed and blow. I explained that I thought that was unhealthy for my ears. To which he replied (I am not kidding) "No no, you can blow them out 100 times a day, its fine." He gave me some amoxycillin and sudafed and told me to take them with aspirin, and sent me on my way.

As I walked to the exit, I tried to blow the pressure out of my ears. Immediately I nearly fainted. I lost my balance, got very dizzy and fell into a wheelchair that was parked in the hallway. As I sat there trying to focus on the spinning room, my belongings scattered at my feet, no less than FIVE nurses walked right past me. FIVE. Not one asked if I was ok, if I needed a doctor, if I at LEAST needed help picking up my stuff. I remember thinking "I'm dying. In a hospital. And no one is going to help me." I couldn't hear out of my right ear, my head felt like it was going to explode and it felt like my eyes were spinning around in their sockets. I was extremely dizzy. Finally an older female nurse came up to me. I was so grateful. But then she said "Is that your bag. You can't leave it in the middle of the floor like that."

I went crazy in my head. I was so outraged. I just yelled "I need a doctor. I am going to throw up, I can't walk. I need a doctor NOW." So she got another nurse to wheel me back the the emergency room. 20 minutes later the same doctor who I had seen earlier came in. SMILING. "Oh look," he said, "it's you again. I treated you before!" I explained to him that I followed his instructions and nearly passed out. And he replied "well, maybe you shouldn't do that anymore." No shit sherlock! Dumbass doctor. It turns out in attempting to depressurize, I had forced "catarhh" into my inner ear, and into the region of my ear and that controls balance and orientation. He therefore diagnosed me with acute vertigo, gave me anti-dizzy medication and snet me home. I couldn't actually move for about 15 more minutes and the cab ride home was true torture. I have never felt so miserable. I honestly wished I could have just knock myself unconscious.

I am now recovering. I have been in bed for 2 days now. I left the house for the first time in days today - to go to class and make sure I can extend my final submission until next week and see everyone elses final submissions. This sickness really came at the worst time, when Ihad the most important work and when the semester was ending.

But one thing is for DAMN sure, I will do my best never to get life-threateningly ill in London. I feel lucky to have made it out of the hospital with just an infection. I cant even imagine anything worse. I would rather fly home.

Posted by S at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

So there are way too many stories to tell all at once so we shall begin with a very memorable anecdote. Right now, in my clear cut retrovision, the situation seems overblown. But at the time it seemed like a matter of life and death...

So me and aly were out on the town in amsterdam and decided (since we were both wearing 5 inch heels) to take a cab home. So we hail and go.

We told the driver to take us to the Hotel D'LEurope. He stops about 1 block away and charges us 12 euro. We both knew, as we paid him, he had taken a long way and was ripping us off. So then we said, 'well we paid u, take us to the door.' and he refused. so we explained that the ride should have been 10 euro and the least he could do was take us to the door. He told us to get out of the cab very rudely. So we were even more pissed. Then he got mad and said FINE. And drove off!! We were still sitting in the back!

The guy then gets on the highway. we hadn't taken a highway in our whole trip so we knew we were going farther and farther away. So I call the police. Unfortunately my pay-as-you-go phone was on roaming AND charging per minute b/c its pay as you go. So I was only able to begin my explanation before the phone completely ran out of money and disconnected.

Luckily we passed a police car. The cab driver pulled over and started speaking in Dutch. The police officer came over to my side of the car and told me to get out of the car. I refused. I may have been a little tipsy. But I explained that we paid him and he drove us to the middle of nowhere and now we didnt even know where we were. She explained that we were in North Amsterdam and insisted that I get out. I said I would not move because he still owed us a ride. She said he would give us a refund.

Now does that seem fair? We were a 10 euro ride from our hotel before we got in the cab. Then he drives us farther away only to leave us with a longer, more expensive ride home - all because he wanted to overcharge us? It was 5 am and this was ridiculous.

We both explained this to the police but they totally didnt like us, probably because we're American. The female officer was like "your drunk, get out of the cab." I was so annoyed. Again I said I would not leave until he took us home. So she opened he door, saying she was just going to take us to the police station and started to PULL me out. WTF? I may have been tipsy but I was NOT drunk and I know for damn sure that the cab driver should have at least taken us back to where he picked us up from. I got out of the cab and asked the cops to drive us to our original location so we could take another cab. She said "Im not a cab" so Aly started yelling at them about how we now had only 12 euros and wouldn be able to get home. They really didnt like us yelling a them. We had to convinced the rascist cops that we weren't drunk so they wouldn't arrest us and then we caught a new cab home. Sometimes the American accent really doesn' work in our favor...

Posted by S at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

OMG. Our Eurotrip was AWESOME. We met so many people and Aly and I totally had a unique experience. Our saying of 2006 is "only aly and mira..." soooo many things happened. i will be posting pics soon. we got home today and have been sleeping for about 18 hours. over the past 7 days we had about 10 hours of sleep, thats less than 2 hours a night!! so now we are sick and have spent the day in bed. ordered chinese and watched my favorite movie - Breakfast at Tiffanys. I will write more about our trip as soon as i get the pics uploaded...well the PG-rated ones anyway ;)

Posted by S at 2:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

im in AMSTERDSAM!

Posted by S at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments