more OWW

Well the week has come to an end. It was a really incredible one. On Tuesday they had some animals in the union: snakes, tarantulas and a skunk. the skunk was really adorable and I held it for a while. like a baby. I was a little worried that it would get scared and unleash some toxic carnage, because a lot of people were crowding around it. but it just buried it's head in my arm like an adorable skunk should.

They brought falcons and snakes and lizards in on thursday. and scorpions and spiders and stuff. I played with baby boa constrictor which was very friendly and lovable. It actually posed for my pictures! simran wants to adopt it, and feed and nurture and love it until it becomes a seven foot long muscle bound predator that must be kept in a tank in order to prevent it from strangling it's owner at night. I don't blame her, because it really was very very likable. I think the brighter orange one was a corn snake or something like that. When I picked it up I could feel it's muscles moving in my hand, which kind of tickled so I just started screaming in the middle of the union and yelling at nobody in particular to get it off, because it had tried to weave its way through my bag. I think it liked nooks and crannies. It was incredibly fun stuff.

There was a really great workshop on acting and performing shakespearean works. I went to cover it and take a few photos towards the end. It was so good, I wish I had gotten there earlier. It focused on the use of language, tone, voice and the development of a character through the play. standard stuff I suppose, but seeing as how I've never been to a workshop and performing shakespeare, it was really exciting. the things that were being taught and demonstrated were so eye opening, and even rivaled acsian theatre productions.

I might start going for ballroom dancing sessions. After being spun around in a Viennese waltz on wednesday, which was incredibly fun, I decided to go learn some more.

I managed to drag nitram for the world music concert. he was incredibly bored, but stayed until I wanted to go. the performances were alright I guess. I didn't particularly like any except for the drumming society's performance. It made me miss my dear percussion a lot. I miss how the rhythm gets into your ribcage and rattles everything around.

The World Party on saturday night was awesome. There were some awesome performances by the different societies, and the music was really good especially towards the end. good DJ. It was really packed and everyone was cheering for the people on stage. It was so fun dancing with jenny candy and christine, particularly because I hadn't seen them in a while. They went home after the belly dancing and break dancing performances. I wanted to go for the after party which was for the organisers, but it started at three in the morning apparently, and I didn't want to walk home alone after that. So I chilled with some hall people until they decided to go home as well.

one world week is incredible.

OWW

no I'm not in pain. One World Week is the largest student run international event in the world. It's kind of like a giant racial harmony day only that it lasts a week and is much much cooler. wooo I've been soooo busy. most of the time I've been running around covering different events and missing a lot of the events that I wanted to attend.

forum? that's something that we never have during racial harmony day. it is amazing. so far I've had meetings and talks with the ex attorney general and ex chief justice of pakistan, and amazingly, an ex-detainee from Guantanamo bay who came to talk about human rights along with Helen Bamber and other human rights representatives. that talk was amazing. everyone was just hanging on the words the speakers breathed and there was a huge amount of respect for the guy who was detained. and it was really amazing how it ended. they read a poem by another detainee from the prison, to emphasize how they were human beings instead of faceless prisoners. awesome. and you could tell that every person in that room really wanted to find a way to make things right, that such violations should not exist; such hypocrisy should not be allowed. there were many other talks which I didn't have time to attend because I was busy covering other events.

They're having a viennese ball tomorrow which sounds like a hell lot of fun. and there are lots of workshops on art, theatre and dancing. even grafitti art, and theatre for the disabled. it's really really incredible.

There was the international food festival this evening. tickets were sold out and people were lining up a half hour before the doors opened. there was food from so many places, brought to us courtesy of the different societies. everyone was given tickets for each course that could only be redeemed once. Indian, Polish, French, Cypriate, Vietnamese, Chinese and so much more. and they had this giant chocolate fountain that was incredibly delicious. they had marshmallows, grapes, wafers, nougat and more. It was amazing. and there was a lot of cake. everyone was rushing around getting food spooned onto their plates, sharing with each other, talking, laughing. It was awesome. plus there was like a heap of free bread and trays of salads which didn't require tickets. It was so much fun.

I love one world week.

simplicity

I am happy.

fuzzy

stardust warms my soul

return

I nearly died dragging close to forty kilos of stuff back to emscote from heathrow. that's about slightly more than eighty pounds. and aside from this, I was carrying my cello on my back which was about seven kilos. It was a very sad affair, because I kept stopping every few meters. the bag was so damn heavy! and when I finally got back to emscote, I put my hand luggage and cello in my room and went back down to slowly drag my bag up the stairs, which was another very sad affair. I kept stopping and sitting on the stairs at random intervals. I was aching all over the next day. in fact, I'm still aching.

anyhoo, I didn't stay up on new year's eve to welcome in the new year. jet lag prevented me from doing so. It's so strange being back here. I can't believe I was home only a few days ago. warm air, clean clothes magically appearing in the closet, food magically appearing on the table. mangoes. coconuts. piano any time I feel like. yai's mattress.

ahem. back to here. I spent new year's day cooking and eating two people's worth of claypot rice, which was yummy if I do say so myself. I played my cello very badly for a while because I truly suck. I didn't play too long in case I disturbed other people with my horrendous skills. later in the evening I watched pan's labyrinth which is an incredibly poignant movie. I want to own it some time in the future because it's such a beautiful film.

I have to do work today. so annoying.