Movies, London, and Cambridge

Friday March 20th:
Mike and I met a prospective MSc A.I. student to tell him about the course and show him around ECS. He was the second person we showed around. The first was a Greek guy we met about a month ago and also showed him around. The two come from very different backgrounds. The Greek is young and a fresh Computer Science graduate and the English is an Economics graduate who has a lot of work experience and is also married.
In the evening Fleur, Becky, George, and I went to watch Duplicity. I liked it and I recommend it (No Sarah you are not right; my taste in films is great; see it before judging :P)

Saturday March 21st:
Happy Mother's Day, well, as expected this year my mother's Mother's Day was a FAIL :(. It wasn't our fault because my brothers and I agreed on the gift and everything but my mother went to Tripoli to spend the weekend at Grandpa's. So, we decided to postpone the gift to sometime early this week (and the time of posting this; my mom had still not received her gift *SHAME ).
I went to London to meet Badr. The initial plan was to go to Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, tate modern, and Science Museum. However, I was running late and some tube lines had partial or no service so we were also delayed in getting everywhere and the crowds of people on the tube were unbearable. So, we first headed the Science Museum intending to go to lunch then the two other museums afterwards. After the Science Museum we went to Oxford street to have lunch. Badr was told that there are some Lebanese restaurants there but we wasted at least an hour looking for one before we gave up and ate pizzas at some Italian restaurant. By the time we finished lunch there was no time to do anything because I had to catch a train to Cambridge. So, we shopped around in Oxford Street and then went back to his apartment so I can pick my stuff up and then I headed to Cambridge. The train that I took to Cambridge was kinda crappy - the trains that go from Southampton to London are nicer. I got to Cambridge at around 11 and took a cab to Tarek's place. We had biscuits and juice for dinner (he is single not poor :P) and after chatting and trying to solve some nail-puzzles I decided to call it a night. I slept on the couch covered with a sleeping bag - reminded me of camping as a kid; those were nice times.

Sunday March 22nd:
We went to Cambridge city center and toured around the colleges and the old buildings. We also went punting in the Cam river. I took loads of pictures because I love old buildings. Beirut - and Lebanon in general - is so different than Cambridge. There are only very few old building in Beirut or the other Lebanese cities because all of them were demolished so new building are built (and also the civil war contributed to that in addition to the many other wars and the seven earthquakes that hit Beirut...). Also, there are many green spaces in Cambrdige while sadly there are only tall building in Beirut. So, needless to say that I enjoyed Cambridge because of my passion to everything old and ancient. Tarek doesn't like it anymore; he thinks it is a very boring city and he wants to go back to London. After the tour and punting we went back to Tarek's place to collect our stuff and took a train to London. Tarek will be staying in London for a week because he has some work there. I then took a train back to Southampton. Unfortunately for me, the train terminated in Eastleigh and they had to take us by bus to Southampton. The whole trip from Cambridge to London to Eastleigh to Southampton was very tiresome ... next time; I will tell Tarek that it is his turn to commute across the country :P

Pillow Fight and A Gig 4 Gaza - And Another Fire Alarm!

Saturday Feb 22, 2009:
I did three major things today. I worked on the Cinnamon Rolls Video for Gassia. It is starting to take shape. The actual time it took us to make the Cinnamon Rolls was about 2 hours - without the time needed for the dough to rise and bake, I have already spent about 5 hours on the video and I am only half way through!
I participated in the first flash mob in Southampton. It was a massive pillow fight in city centre :). People were supposed to gather outside WestQuay shopping centre with their pillows hidden so no one suspects anything. An organizer would sound a horn and everyone would take their pillows out and fight. Fleur, Lotte, I took the bus to city centre. We were excited and we were feeling like kids again lol. We were about a minute away from where the fight was supposed to take place when we heard the horn. We started running but we we got tired really quickly because Fleur and I had been sick for the previous few days. We got there and there were A LOT of people fighting and we quickly joined in. It was so much fun, hitting people and getting hit WITH PILLOWS LOL. The horn was sounded very-shortly afterwards and everyone hid their pillows and casually walked away. People were very surprised with what was going on. A couple asked Fleur and me what the point was behind it and we shrugged our shoulders and said that it was just for fun. Some participants uploaded videos on youtube. We then went to ASDA to do our shopping, and for the first time ever I bought less stuff than Fleur lol
In the evening we went to a fundraising Gig for Gaza organized by the Southampton University Amnesty Club. We were 7 - Lotte, Fleur, Sheena, Hardy, Becky, George, and I - and of course the person who handled organizing the logistics of reserving the tickets and getting people there was me lol. We left Glen Eyre at 8 PM thinking that gigs never start on time. We got there half way through the performance of the first band - which was the band one of my course-mates, Mike, sings in. We only listened to their two last songs. Then a second band played and they were horrible. It took forever for them to finish and they kinda killed our mood. Afterwards a guy sang as well and he was much better than the second band but still not that good. Finally a really good band played and got everyone all active again. After the gig was over we walked home chatting very loudly, telling jokes, and laughing all the way.
Before calling it a night, I told Sheena that there would be another fire alarm tonight because it was a Saturday and a pattern of fire-alarms-being-set-off-on-Saturday-nights has started to emerge lol. And, I was right - of course! :P - and at 2:30 a.m. the fire alarm was set off! I had only gone to sleep at 2:00 and so I was half awake/half asleep and at first thought I was dreaming. But the alarm was so loud that I had to actually get out of bed. I went out to the lobby but then quickly decided to go back in. I snuck under my sheet and placed my pillow on my head. The sound of the alarm was very loud and annoying but I was not willing to go through what I went through last Saturday and decided to stay in bed. Thankfully though, this time it only took the wardens and security guys ten minutes to turn the alarm off and I finally went to sleep at 2:40.