Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night

Ah, Guy Fawkes Day.

Considering that this English holiday celebrates the 1605 plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament in protest to the Catholic king, I'm not surprised by any of what I saw, in retrospect. Rather than try to explain it all again, though, I'll just paste in my journal entry from the night and tack on a handful of videos from the night.

Turn your speakers up as loud as they'll go and you'll maybe experience half of the ridiculous amount and level of noise present in the streets that night. It was absolutely deafening. Crazy.

OGGIE OGGIE OGGIE!

OY! OY! OY!

“Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”

Coolest English experience I've had to date. Surplus of videos to come. Here's my explanation of the night that I has with Megs over AIM.

how was Guy Fawkes celebrating?!

Fun!
COMPLETELY MENTAL.
The whole sky's rumbling right now still.
It's their fireworks night.
And literally bonfire.
HUGE BONFIRES.
They burn effigies of people.
And denounce Catholics.
And shout things like BURN THE POPE!
And BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!
It's really amusing.
And... confusing.
I don't think I'll ever get it more than I do now.
They have groups that go in costume...
All different Bonfire Societies, usually with a theme.
There are the Mongols, and pirates. Brass bands, a Trojan horse, Moorish dancers, Jedis with lightsabres. People in blackface, and people in blackface as African tribes, and people in Catholic pope/priest/holy wear, and Native Americans they a-a-a-a-a at, and WWII uniforms.
It's like the least Politically Correct event of all time.
They burn giant crosses, and big effigies of Guy Fawkes, as well as whomever they're malcontent with including Gordon Brown this year and the meter maids, George Bush the last.
OH. The most bizarre costume, in my opinion: UNION SOLDIERS from the American Civil War.
It was... yeah... I don't even know.
Really fun.
CRAZY FUN.
Barbarian fun!

Starting to play catch-up

Hmmm, an update, finally!

I haven't been up to much in the past month -- and at the same time, I have. I didn't really get to doing anything, though, until Hallowe'en weekend, but then I've pretty much been busy every weekend after, or thereabouts.

Right before it all, though, was an exciting epicurean adventure: sushi on a conveyer belt. I hope you'll forgive me for being a bit… tipsy… but the sake was strong that night, and warm, and it was cold outside, plus I had just finished a presentation. It was my 30-somethingthed hour awake and it was a night of relaxation.


You see, school had been consuming me up until Hallowe'en weekend, I even made a photostrip documenting it, kind of, at a friend's request. She asked what I was doing and I replied, 'consuming literature.' I decided to be literal.



It's been more of that, really, lately. Lots of schoolwork, mainly just loads of reading, with final papers looming in the horizon. I'm in my last three weeks, though, so I'm trying to push to get it all done and fit in a small trip before the end.

We did manage to visit a proper teahouse, though, the other day, and make a feast of the scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea. It was amazingly delicious. And I felt so British! Pinkies out for fancy tea time!





We were then able to follow it all up with some photography expeditions around Brighton, capturing bits of the city we've lived in for the past 2 months. I hope to do more of that before the end. I want to be able to reconstruct the city a bit for when I get home and show everyone all my photos.

I'm hoping that popping in here will motivate me to play catch up so I can share what I've been up to, including going to a book signing in London and doing the tourist thing there, experiencing Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night, observing Remembrance Day, and spending time with friends. I'll be commuting back and forth to London from Brighton all weekend with my German friends who are flying in, but after that, no excuses!