Well here I am for my belated check-in, despite having convinced myself last week that I was going to update again. I am doing pretty well, and now that my fifth week of class has begun and there are only 5 weeks left, I am beginning to realize exactly how fast this is going. June still seems far off, but February is a cruelly quick month, and it will be March before I know it, and I will be finishing up classes and turning in coursework and making presentations and going to Paris and York and then it will be spring break and I’ll be on my way to Florence and Rome… and then I come back and take finals sometime between April 20 and May 15 and then Johanna and Dana and Flor will meet me in Paris May 16-19 and then Flor will come to London with me until the 24th and Dana and Johanna will join us on the 22nd after spending a few days in Dublin and stay until May 27th and THEN it will almost be June. And I need to fit in a seriously quality Ireland trip at some point. And Bath/Stonehenge. Also maybe Cadbury World, the Cadbury Chocolate factory. Mmm. Who invented money?
Anyway I suppose I should give you the illustrated play by play.
Thursday after I left off we went to the London Eye and then walked along the South Bank. Just as I feel the most scared when I’m waiting in line for a roller coaster, I wasn’t nervous about the height until I was standing directly in front of the Eye.
It was HUGE. But it ended up being completely fine. You couldn’t feel the movement of each “capsule” as it rotated throughout the “flight”. It was hard to take pictures at night, unfortunately, but I managed to get a decent shot of Parliament and Big Ben, directly across the Thames (pronounced “tems”).
We proceeded to walk along the South Bank away from Big Ben, and after a prolonged exposure to the frigid air we finally arrived at the first pub. Here’s a shot of the sign in front of the pub with St. Pauls in the background.
The pub was right on the river and it looked like a nice place for a meal any day. And it was WARM. After about half an hour and a half pint of Strongbow we went back out into the cold, and walked past the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern and a bunch of other important things that I simply must go see at some point. Here's the Globe, which was hanging out by the river nonchalantly, as though it didn't belong to Shakespeare or anything.
We went to the second pub, which was nearby London Bridge, and just down the bank from the Globe – The Anchor. I’d heard of that pub before, although there are probably about 15 pubs called The Anchor in central London alone. Apparently the first English dictionary was written by someone who frequented it, and Shakespeare’s actors often changed costumes in between acts there as well. We had some complimentary chips and sausage, and the former were significantly more enjoyable. We were pretty worn out and cold by then, so we abstained from the third and final pub. I was on my way to a different pub, O’Neill’s, with a girl I knew from my Modernism class and her friends. I met them at Wigram and after hanging out for a little we took the Tube to Piccadilly and found O’Neill’s, which was across from or in Chinatown. I’m not sure if it had one L or two Ls but we’ll go with two for now. They had been there often enough that the bouncer knew them and let us in without even IDing us. It was free to get in on Thursdays, and we skipped the £2 coat check by piling our coats on a counter in the back corner. The drinks weren’t too expensive, £4 for a Smirnoff Ice and £5 for a double vodka and cranberry, and there was a live cover band playing rock songs from the 80s and 90s – from my childhood! We danced and sang along to Teenage Dirtbag, All the Small Things, Mr. Brightside, and others that I can’t remember. When the band wasn’t playing they played typical club music. It was overall a lot of fun and I had a great night. The flat boots were a good choice, but of course the following night I would wear my heels.
Friday we were celebrating Rachel’s 22nd birthday, which was the upcoming Monday, and after a lazy afternoon sleeping in from my late night at O’Neill’s, I got ready and went with Joy to Wigram for a few drinks before we left for Fabric. Fabric is a nightclub near Farringdon and Holborn and it is pretty famous I think. When we got off the bus we were right in front of St. Bride’s church – the inspiration for the modern-day multi-tiered wedding cake!
Friday we were celebrating Rachel’s 22nd birthday, which was the upcoming Monday, and after a lazy afternoon sleeping in from my late night at O’Neill’s, I got ready and went with Joy to Wigram for a few drinks before we left for Fabric. Fabric is a nightclub near Farringdon and Holborn and it is pretty famous I think. When we got off the bus we were right in front of St. Bride’s church – the inspiration for the modern-day multi-tiered wedding cake!
It is expensive to get in to Fabric – Saturday it’s £16, but on Friday and with the student discount it only cost us £10. It is, unlike Tiger Tiger, a techno club. I was a little apprehensive as to what we would find and what the music would be like, but we had an amazing time. The club was very cool, expansive rooms, halls, and stairs, without too much décor to make it feel busy. The people and the lights did enough of that. We didn’t get drinks except for £4 Smirnoff Ices, and there were plenty of places to sit – including 2 large black leather mattresses across from the black leather couches outside one of the rooms. Convenience is everything I guess. It was an experience. I danced with Liam, a 20-year-old British soldier stationed at Essex at the moment who had recently been in Afghanistan with “my lot,” who told me I was "f*cking gorgeous," who was also father to a baby boy, whom I saw a picture of, although Liam “wasn’t with the boy’s mum anymore”. How reassuring. The dancing styles that we saw there were… different… to say the least. But we got the hang of it pretty soon and we rotated between the three main rooms as they rotated DJs, and we eventually found ourselves in a laser-disco-mosh-pit-techno room. There were enough people packed into the room for it to be considered a mosh pit, there was trance techno music thudding through our bodies, there was a giant disco ball with a diameter approximately the length of me, and there were green lasers shooting out of one side of the ceiling.
It was amazingly trippy. And if I had been on any assortment of drugs like most of the people there, it would have been even more amazingly trippy. It was open until 8am, and we probably could have stayed that long if it weren’t for our feet being pulverized by the constant bouncing up and down in high heels. Next time, we will be in flats, and we’ll stay until the dawn. Coat check had only been a pound, but the line to get them back at 3 was pretty long. While we were waiting, our feet had a chance to get the feeling back into them, and they were not happy. Both Joy and I took our heels off while we waited in line, and my feet were swollen like I couldn’t believe. We managed to limp down the street past tons of minicabs that the abroad office had been successful in steering us away from, and it was with great relief and excitement that we hailed a black cab when we got to the main road. Transportation after midnight really sucks in this city. We would have had to take 3 buses to get back, but we decided to save time by paying for a taxi to Piccadilly, where Rachel and Beth and Joy and I could go our separate ways. Joy and I prepared to wait at bus stop Y, where I had spent a significant amount of time waiting for bus 453 just 24 hours before. For 40 minutes we waited. We saw plenty of bus 94, bus 159, bus 88 at that bus stop, and we even saw the Baker St.-bound bus 18 pass by several times, but it didn’t stop at that bus stop. Finally, in the distance, I could make out the numbers 453 on the front of an approaching bus.
With almost-frozen glee we hailed the bus. It looked like heaven on wheels as it pulled up after that long night, and the second we limped into the elevator back safely at Marylebone, Joy and I pulled off our shoes and let our feet expand to their swollen size.
Saturday I appropriately slept in until 4pm and then got ready to go out to dinner with Rachel and her friend Mayumi, whose grandparents live next to Rachel in New Hampshire but who lives with her Oxford-professor-father in Oxford. We went to Pizza Express, which is quickly growing on me, although its not REALLY pizza. You have to eat it with a knife and fork. But it is delicious. We went back to Wigram after our meal and sang some karaoke as we reminisced through Rachel’s iTunes library, much to her neighbors’ dismay. It was fun, but I was worn after two late nights of dancing, and I was looking forward to talking with my friend from home. I went back to Marylebone around 11 and for not-too-various reasons went to bed around 7am.
Sunday, you guessed it, I slept in. I didn’t do much, but made a brief excursion to Tesco for groceries that I thought would last a while. Joy and I made a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and salad and garlic bread and pudding in anticipation of celebrating Hayley’s return from being snowed-in at home since the blizzard a week before. She didn’t end up coming back until Monday morning, though, so we saved her leftovers and enjoyed the dinner ourselves.
Monday I went to my lecture and didn’t do much for the rest of the day until we met for Rachel’s actual birthday dinner. We got Indian and I wasn’t in love with it. It was pretty expensive if you did it right, which was to order a rice/bread, a curry, a vegetable, and a meat, so I ended up getting Tikki chicken or something like that, which was chicken baked in red spices, and a samosa, which was good.
Tuesday I left early for my Third World Studies class so I could figure out how to print notes and the avant-garde manifestos from the Regent Library, but it wasn’t hard and it is only 5p a page. I got to my 3WS seminar and our tutor started talking about the project and presentation that we have to do, and the subsequent report about it, that makes up our grade in addition to the final. He told us that we are to start our presentations next week, and turned to me and asks what I would like to do mine on. Everyone was stunned – he hadn’t even explained the work involved yet – how could we present next week? It was a very frustrating class made more frustrating by the foreign accent and the vagueness with which he described the project, but we were separated into groups and, from what I could gather, were supposed to work on individual projects within the group, but make sure they all have a common ground on which to debate upon within the group. After keeping us after our lecture he resigned to let us choose a topic for each group and then to email him during the week. Well, I have that seminar tomorrow and we still have not conversed as a group to decide upon a topic. I hate being the overachiever but I like to follow the rules and when he says “email me with your topics” I take it to mean before the next class. I’m the only one who has proposed an idea so far and I have never even studied this area before so it is a pretty bullshit idea. But looks like that’s the one we will be using. And we might have to present in a week! It wouldn’t be such a daunting thought if I had any confidence in the other members of my group, but they haven’t given me reason to have much confidence in them whatsoever. Happily, Tuesday night Joy and I went to go see Avenue Q, which I had seen before in NY, but Joy had never seen a musical before!
Saturday I appropriately slept in until 4pm and then got ready to go out to dinner with Rachel and her friend Mayumi, whose grandparents live next to Rachel in New Hampshire but who lives with her Oxford-professor-father in Oxford. We went to Pizza Express, which is quickly growing on me, although its not REALLY pizza. You have to eat it with a knife and fork. But it is delicious. We went back to Wigram after our meal and sang some karaoke as we reminisced through Rachel’s iTunes library, much to her neighbors’ dismay. It was fun, but I was worn after two late nights of dancing, and I was looking forward to talking with my friend from home. I went back to Marylebone around 11 and for not-too-various reasons went to bed around 7am.
Sunday, you guessed it, I slept in. I didn’t do much, but made a brief excursion to Tesco for groceries that I thought would last a while. Joy and I made a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and salad and garlic bread and pudding in anticipation of celebrating Hayley’s return from being snowed-in at home since the blizzard a week before. She didn’t end up coming back until Monday morning, though, so we saved her leftovers and enjoyed the dinner ourselves.
Monday I went to my lecture and didn’t do much for the rest of the day until we met for Rachel’s actual birthday dinner. We got Indian and I wasn’t in love with it. It was pretty expensive if you did it right, which was to order a rice/bread, a curry, a vegetable, and a meat, so I ended up getting Tikki chicken or something like that, which was chicken baked in red spices, and a samosa, which was good.
Tuesday I left early for my Third World Studies class so I could figure out how to print notes and the avant-garde manifestos from the Regent Library, but it wasn’t hard and it is only 5p a page. I got to my 3WS seminar and our tutor started talking about the project and presentation that we have to do, and the subsequent report about it, that makes up our grade in addition to the final. He told us that we are to start our presentations next week, and turned to me and asks what I would like to do mine on. Everyone was stunned – he hadn’t even explained the work involved yet – how could we present next week? It was a very frustrating class made more frustrating by the foreign accent and the vagueness with which he described the project, but we were separated into groups and, from what I could gather, were supposed to work on individual projects within the group, but make sure they all have a common ground on which to debate upon within the group. After keeping us after our lecture he resigned to let us choose a topic for each group and then to email him during the week. Well, I have that seminar tomorrow and we still have not conversed as a group to decide upon a topic. I hate being the overachiever but I like to follow the rules and when he says “email me with your topics” I take it to mean before the next class. I’m the only one who has proposed an idea so far and I have never even studied this area before so it is a pretty bullshit idea. But looks like that’s the one we will be using. And we might have to present in a week! It wouldn’t be such a daunting thought if I had any confidence in the other members of my group, but they haven’t given me reason to have much confidence in them whatsoever. Happily, Tuesday night Joy and I went to go see Avenue Q, which I had seen before in NY, but Joy had never seen a musical before!
We got tickets in the “stalls,” or the orchestra, for £25 each, regularly about £60 each. I overheard a boy in front of us bragging that he had gotten his ticket for £45. I just looked at Joy and we smiled smugly. The theatre, Noel Coward, was very nice, but I was shocked at British theatre customs! First of all, there was no free playbill like on Broadway – you had to pay for it. Second, we sat down and noticed that everyone around us was walking in with beverages. Glasses of wine, soda, and liquor. They were serving them from the bar in the lobby. Then I noticed that everyone also had bags of snacks. The lady behind us pulled out a plastic package of popcorn, other people had chips. Food and drink, not only allowed, but sold and encouraged in the theatre! I was horrified. Then, to my right, I saw a young girl posing in front of the stage curtain, and her father snapping the photo. Aww that’s so nice, I thought, and then it slowly dawned on me. Photography. In. A. Theatre. I am STILL scarred from trying to take a group picture in Spelling Bee, a low budget, non-famous, show – and our picture was facing AWAY from the stage. If we had been in NY at least two ushers would have run and tackled that man before he could have said “Cheese”. But nope, here, wide open photographic opportunities before the curtain went up. Fine, I said, and I snapped a picture.
Ah, New York City. But so conditioned am I that I could only take one and didn’t dare pose with it. We settled into a good show despite the distractions caused by the crinkling of popcorn bags and the scent of brandy and coke wafting over from the person on my right. Oh, and during the “interval” or intermission, they were selling mini Haagen-Dazs ice cream cups. I felt like I was at a baseball game, although they don’t know that game here, as my linguistics teacher admitted. Since we didn’t have enough money to partake in traditional British theatre cuisine, we headed to the McDonalds across the street after the show was over, and sank blissfully into milk shakes and fries from the 99p menu. I realized afterwards that it was Feb 10, and I had officially been there for one month, and had therefore honored my vow to abstain from American fast food chains for a month. Thank god that's over.
Wednesday was a weird day. I had dropped my phone the day before around 3:30pm and had to reset the clock, but had forgotten that it follows military time. So when I set my alarm for 8:30 before I went to sleep, I did not realize that I should have set it for 20:30 if I wanted to wake up in the morning. I woke up around 22:00 and was incredibly confused because I couldn’t believe I had slept the entire day because I hadn’t even gone to bed that late, but then I noticed the sun coming in, and by the time I pieced together what had happened, it wasn’t worth going to my 10am seminar. My mom was having surgery that day though, and I was worried about it and the fact that I was so far away and couldn’t be of any help. So I decided to put my missed class to good use and I looked up Catholic churches in the area. I found St. James which was only a 5 minute walk away, and I went to noon mass. It was gothic style so it was huge with vaulted ceilings and it echoed nicely. There was no music since it was a weekday mass and that threw me off a bit, and there was a communion rail, which I had never experienced before. But I got the hang of it and I lit a candle for mom before I left. It was a feast day of Mary, and there were more people than I expected at the mass. On the way back I explored Marylebone High Street, which is one of my new favorite streets, packed with little shops and a Waitrose – finally a nearby BIG NORMAL grocery store. Hooray! The prices were normal and the selection was 10 times bigger than Tesco or Sainsbury’s, but still no Chex Mix. I had my night class, which was frustrating as usual because of the 5 or 6 people there I am the quickest learner. And I feel bad always answering so I try to do it in moderation but sometimes if I don’t answer we just sit there in silence. It is awkward and it is the longest 3 hours of my week. Mom’s surgery went fine, and I got to talk to her a bit on the phone via skype+cell.
Thursday I had my Modernism class and then it was the weekend again. I stopped into a Ryman’s on the way home and got a dry erase board – finally a to-do list! And it’s a good thing, too, because there is a lot of stuff to remember to do this week. That night Hayley, Joy, Verity, and I went to see Benjamin Button since it had just come out Feb 6 here. I assured them it was a good movie, and it was just as good if not better the second time around. I noticed more details, and I could appreciate more artistic elements of the movie without focusing on the plot. And let’s face it, Brad Pitt is pretty amazing looking. It still threw me off seeing previews for movies, though. There was a preview for Grand Torino or something with Clint Eastwood and I said to Hayley “Oh my housemate Dana saw that, she said it was violent but good” and then the screen said “Coming Soon.” Weird.
Friday I didn’t do much of anything. I guess I read and did homework and went on Facebook.
Saturday I wanted to do something since I had been a lazy bum the day before and most people I knew were either in Amsterdam or Brussels and it was going to be an uneventful Valentine's Day and I began to realize that the time that passes is time that can never be recreated. So Joy and I went to Camden Lock Market. It was like a giant Hot Topic flea market. There was a maze of back-to-back, side-to-side stalls with clothes on racks piled so high you couldn’t see past the one next to you. There were some accessories too, and Joy and I each got a bag. I was looking for a big purse, because I have my Vera Bradley tote and my purple shoulder strap bag, but I needed one that was fashionable AND big AND collapsible enough to be worn out or packed. I found the perfect bag and I am in love with its many pockets and compartments and it will be a great carry-on bag for Italy because I can probably fit a change of clothes and some toiletries in addition to my normal purse stuff. We also went to Argos and I got a much-needed second set of sheets, red. And we went to the Pound Store right down the road, or more accurately, the 99p Store. And I bought some kitchen necessities and some snacks. When I got home I booked my flight back from Rome (which had dropped from 77Euro to 22Euro) and a bus to get back from Stansted in the wee hours of the morning on April 8. It was not a good day for my bank account.
Yesterday I did homework all day and finished the reading for Modernism. I was actually very engaged in reading that novel, Riceyman Steps. Maybe because it takes place in London and they go to Madame Tussauds in it, so it’s tangible in a way.
Today I didn’t have class but I will be missing Word/Sentence Wednesday night because we are doing a Shakespeare walking tour as part of the social programme, so I went to his other class that was today at 10:30. Only to find that this class is actually a week behind and I was settling in to the exact same lecture as last week. Great. But since I was already up I took a different route home, got a little lost, explored, walked down random streets, and got to Marylebone High St where I spent a quality amount of time (and £17) in Waitrose and got a lot of delicious food. Tonight I am planning on making ziti. Which I have to go get started actually.
London Lingo for the week:
Wednesday was a weird day. I had dropped my phone the day before around 3:30pm and had to reset the clock, but had forgotten that it follows military time. So when I set my alarm for 8:30 before I went to sleep, I did not realize that I should have set it for 20:30 if I wanted to wake up in the morning. I woke up around 22:00 and was incredibly confused because I couldn’t believe I had slept the entire day because I hadn’t even gone to bed that late, but then I noticed the sun coming in, and by the time I pieced together what had happened, it wasn’t worth going to my 10am seminar. My mom was having surgery that day though, and I was worried about it and the fact that I was so far away and couldn’t be of any help. So I decided to put my missed class to good use and I looked up Catholic churches in the area. I found St. James which was only a 5 minute walk away, and I went to noon mass. It was gothic style so it was huge with vaulted ceilings and it echoed nicely. There was no music since it was a weekday mass and that threw me off a bit, and there was a communion rail, which I had never experienced before. But I got the hang of it and I lit a candle for mom before I left. It was a feast day of Mary, and there were more people than I expected at the mass. On the way back I explored Marylebone High Street, which is one of my new favorite streets, packed with little shops and a Waitrose – finally a nearby BIG NORMAL grocery store. Hooray! The prices were normal and the selection was 10 times bigger than Tesco or Sainsbury’s, but still no Chex Mix. I had my night class, which was frustrating as usual because of the 5 or 6 people there I am the quickest learner. And I feel bad always answering so I try to do it in moderation but sometimes if I don’t answer we just sit there in silence. It is awkward and it is the longest 3 hours of my week. Mom’s surgery went fine, and I got to talk to her a bit on the phone via skype+cell.
Thursday I had my Modernism class and then it was the weekend again. I stopped into a Ryman’s on the way home and got a dry erase board – finally a to-do list! And it’s a good thing, too, because there is a lot of stuff to remember to do this week. That night Hayley, Joy, Verity, and I went to see Benjamin Button since it had just come out Feb 6 here. I assured them it was a good movie, and it was just as good if not better the second time around. I noticed more details, and I could appreciate more artistic elements of the movie without focusing on the plot. And let’s face it, Brad Pitt is pretty amazing looking. It still threw me off seeing previews for movies, though. There was a preview for Grand Torino or something with Clint Eastwood and I said to Hayley “Oh my housemate Dana saw that, she said it was violent but good” and then the screen said “Coming Soon.” Weird.
Friday I didn’t do much of anything. I guess I read and did homework and went on Facebook.
Saturday I wanted to do something since I had been a lazy bum the day before and most people I knew were either in Amsterdam or Brussels and it was going to be an uneventful Valentine's Day and I began to realize that the time that passes is time that can never be recreated. So Joy and I went to Camden Lock Market. It was like a giant Hot Topic flea market. There was a maze of back-to-back, side-to-side stalls with clothes on racks piled so high you couldn’t see past the one next to you. There were some accessories too, and Joy and I each got a bag. I was looking for a big purse, because I have my Vera Bradley tote and my purple shoulder strap bag, but I needed one that was fashionable AND big AND collapsible enough to be worn out or packed. I found the perfect bag and I am in love with its many pockets and compartments and it will be a great carry-on bag for Italy because I can probably fit a change of clothes and some toiletries in addition to my normal purse stuff. We also went to Argos and I got a much-needed second set of sheets, red. And we went to the Pound Store right down the road, or more accurately, the 99p Store. And I bought some kitchen necessities and some snacks. When I got home I booked my flight back from Rome (which had dropped from 77Euro to 22Euro) and a bus to get back from Stansted in the wee hours of the morning on April 8. It was not a good day for my bank account.
Yesterday I did homework all day and finished the reading for Modernism. I was actually very engaged in reading that novel, Riceyman Steps. Maybe because it takes place in London and they go to Madame Tussauds in it, so it’s tangible in a way.
Today I didn’t have class but I will be missing Word/Sentence Wednesday night because we are doing a Shakespeare walking tour as part of the social programme, so I went to his other class that was today at 10:30. Only to find that this class is actually a week behind and I was settling in to the exact same lecture as last week. Great. But since I was already up I took a different route home, got a little lost, explored, walked down random streets, and got to Marylebone High St where I spent a quality amount of time (and £17) in Waitrose and got a lot of delicious food. Tonight I am planning on making ziti. Which I have to go get started actually.
London Lingo for the week:
"digestives" - cookies. More specifically, graham-cracker-based cookies.
“proper” as in “They were proper drunk.” – I’m having trouble translating it, because its sort of self-explanatory. I guess its something along the lines of “really,” but not really.
anything, everything = “Eh ni thing, Ev ri thing”
urinal = “your eye nal”
I sit at my desk and look out at my view every day, and when I can see through the clouds, the sky is consistently scarred and rescarred with criss-crossing contrails from planes to London City Airport and Heathrow. I can watch the air traffic and can usually count at least 5 planes in the sky at once. And the thought just occurred to me that I will be on one of those planes in a few months. And just as actually coming to London was not fathomable to me a month and a half ago, leaving London is unimaginable at this moment. Who knows if I will ever come back? I’ve grown attached to this city in the relatively short time I’ve been here already, and I can’t imagine giving it up and leaving it behind me with a contrail.
“proper” as in “They were proper drunk.” – I’m having trouble translating it, because its sort of self-explanatory. I guess its something along the lines of “really,” but not really.
anything, everything = “Eh ni thing, Ev ri thing”
urinal = “your eye nal”
I sit at my desk and look out at my view every day, and when I can see through the clouds, the sky is consistently scarred and rescarred with criss-crossing contrails from planes to London City Airport and Heathrow. I can watch the air traffic and can usually count at least 5 planes in the sky at once. And the thought just occurred to me that I will be on one of those planes in a few months. And just as actually coming to London was not fathomable to me a month and a half ago, leaving London is unimaginable at this moment. Who knows if I will ever come back? I’ve grown attached to this city in the relatively short time I’ve been here already, and I can’t imagine giving it up and leaving it behind me with a contrail.
Love, Amanda
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