puppet god and other "cultural" performances

royal crescent in bath

jack's bday cake (decorated with the signature 'xxx')

kenzie at anna nicole display-- the opera covered all art and  sculpture in the theater with anna nicoles face

overdue, but kahla and i at harry potter platform 9 3/4!

Again, a little behind on this whole blogging thing. Hm- ok highlights of the past few weeks: 

I went to Bath to visit Taylor. We had quite the amusing night attending the "storytelling" hour at a local pub. Basically a bunch of old men that gather in the upstairs of a pub and share stories--the only rule is that they not recite anything off paper and do it all from memory. The crowd was all middle-aged and older, with the exception of one young scruffy guy on the guitar who, naturally, both Taylor and I immediately fell in love with. Just as I was plotting our long life together, he started in on a rendition of "you are my sunshine" that just about melted my heart to a million pieces.....until i realized it was directed at his girlfriend seated behind us. Rats. He also did a rendition of "this land was made for you and me" except his was "this land was stolen from you and me." i guess it just wasn't meant to be. 

 As some of you know I have a bit of a track record laughing at inappropriate times  but I have to say  I was doing a pretty good job holding it together during the strange recitations of poetry and old men attempting to sing, that is until, "puppet god" got up to share his work. This 60 plus year old with a scraggly beard and weird silver necklace stood up and announced in the most dramatic way that "we all were the oompo loompas... and he was johnny depp" he then gave a long rant about the middle east. finally, he  got to his recitation which involved an interpretive dance as him acting as a puppet attached to strings and falling all over the place. I, of course, was seated directly next to him in the circle so i had an up close and personal view of the accompanying facial expressions. Now, there were lots of pieces shared that night that i didn't really understand which  I figured had deeper meaning or symbolism that i just wasn't catching on to -- but i'm fairly certain there was no hidden message in this piece. this guy was just legitimately crazy. he didn't help his case when at the end of his "performance" he said it had gone over much better here than it had when he had performed it earlier that day in the middle of the bath abbey. But, all in all, it was an extremely entertaining evening and Bath is extremely adorable town! 

Haley came to visit from Budapest later that week and Kenzie flew in from LA on Saturday. They were both here Saturday night to celebrate Jack's birthday at Brick Lane-- we found a restaurant where you can barter for free wine AND bring your own wine.  The food was good too. Haley left Sunday (but im going to see her in April!) but Kenzie was here for the rest of the week. The week flew by and we had a really great time. Kenzie studied here last spring so we didn't do much of the touristy things, in fact, it was almost as if she was showing me around. Sunday was a visit to brick lane market (its becoming a tradition) but i branched out this time and got turkish food instead of my usual pad thai. On monday we went to a exhibit on london street photography at the museum of london had a nice meal out and called it early night BECAUSE the next morning we were up at 6 am and in line at the national theater at 7 to get rush tickets. We had heard that their production of Frankenstein was incredible (Danny Boyle directed, starring atonement's Benedict Cumberbatch) so we decided to see if we could get rush tickets-- they go on sale at 9:30 but we'd also heard there's always a large "que" so we boarded the bus, scone and coffee in hand, at 6: 30. When we got there we were the sixth people in line and it quickly grew to around 50 people all waiting outside the doors to the theater. The first 30 minutes were kind of fun, caffeine induced, we chatted and made friends with the others in line (one woman had been there since 4 am!), then it just got cold.  luckily at around 8:45 a guy came out and told us we could wait inside if we promised not to run around. The box office opened at 9:30 and we got the last 2 tickets to that nights performance--front row! After a stop at Ben's Cookies and Primark (that kenzie claims is the only store cheaper than forever 21- and even at that early hour we couldn't beat the crowds,) we came home and promptly fell back asleep. The show was totally worth it though-- it really was incredible. We sat in the very front row, which was great except for the one full-frontal scene. Awesome sets-- and most of all just really great acting (the two actors who play the creature and frankenstein switch off which character they play every other night) - I loved it. After the show we met Jack and his friends for a neon night at a local club-- it was a late night but im proud to report I still made it to my morning class! 

Last night we went to go see a little less classy of a production and saw "Anna Nicole Smith: The Opera" at the Royal Opera House. It was hilarious-- a full on opera about the life of Anna Nicole and it was everything you'd expect to be, outrageous and obscene. I think it will the one time in my life I hear the terms "cum bag" and "slutwhore" sung in classical opera voices.  The crowed was quite varied (i wondered what the old couple sitting in front of me thought they were going to see) but again the sets were awesome and the whole thing was just a bit too ridiculous to fully describe. After the show we again met Jack for a DJ-set by a famous BBC radio guy (so good!) and got home just in time for a late night kebab at the place next door... I love city life.

Kenzie left this morning and i was pretty sad-- but all is well because Willa comes tuesday and Karin and Hannah on friday.just call me  hotel garretson-- contact me now for  reservations! 

This artist was also there last night-- I love her rendition of elton john's "your song" 

CIAO CHOW

oh loyal readers-
im so sorry for the delay in posts- i've just been too busy writing essays and studying for exams (ha.) to think about this poor blog. but lots to tell...

last weekend i went to italy! it was wonderful. i left at 4:15 AM friday morning and navigated my way by myself to florence from the pisa airport. i also had my first experience on a discount european airline, lets just say i'll never take my free cran apple cocktail for granted again. but i arrived in florence and made my way to my hostel where i met willa (my friend from skidmore who is studying in florence) because she is living in a homestay i couldn't stay with her, so i had my first hostel experience alone. it actually was really good- it was a small place with a big room with 3 bunk beds, the other people staying the weekend were all young and very nice, however, no one spoke english but we communicated fairly well between my broken spanish and their little english and we ended up having some good conversations (and apologies when i almost accidently stepped down from my top bunk onto a girls head- i swear looking down it looked like no one was in the bed!) i also was woken up on the first morning by a cleaning lady in italian, i wasen't aware of the everyone out of the room at 9 rule, so i was quite confused as she shooed me out onto the street (coincidentally, i had been yelled at a different italian jaintor the day before at the airport)  but anyways, the first day willa and i walked around quite a bit and i got to see a ton of the sights- duomo, ponte vecchio, uffizdi, plaza di pitti etc. willa also took me for a cappuccino at a cafe which is said to be where fascism started!   we also made the climb up to a great view of the whole city. we had a great dinner, and well im on the i subject i should just say everything i ate in italy was incredible, i ate it all- gelato, pizza, pasta, wine, panini, more pasta and all of it was pretty much the best ive ever tasted. i also went a little hog wild because everything was so cheap compared to london- the wine! cheaper than water i tell you! willa also introduced me to some new foods- ribbolita, a tradition delicious soup and i tried veal. she couldnt quite convince me to try the trype though (pig intestines). after dinner we went to a place called "art bar" and soon learned why, the drinks were pieces of art. mine had like every single fruit around the rim, like seriously every fruit featured on the chiquitta banana woman was there.

the next morning (after my rude awakening) i went and explored the neighborhood where my hostel was and stumbled upon a great outdoor market, i made a meal out of sampling all the olives and breads the vendors were selling. willa than met me and she took me to another market and to santa croche where the chocolate festival was happening! chocolate is something i am quite passionate about i just got lucky that the weekend i chose to come to florence there was a huge chocolate festival happening. it was incredible- so so much chocolate, and again, i just sampled it all and ended up not even having to buy that much. we must have walked around to each of the stalls at least three times. we did some more sight seeing and later met up with one of willas friends for another great meal and witnessing some awful italian karaoke- (new goal karaoke in every country i visit!) the rendition of "barbie girl" was particularly bad.

on sunday we decided once i had seen most of the major sites in florence to take a day trip to lucca, a smaller town located about an hour and half away from florence. despite the rain, it was an adorable little city and we had a fancy 3 course lunch (amazing) and found ourselves in a anti- berlusconi (italian prime minster rumored to have slept with a 17 year old girl) march, actually i shouldn't say march, this was no egypt, it was more of a anti-berlusconi stroll. just a huge group of people causally walking throughout the city. no big protest signs- just pink balloons.  it was pretty hilarious because we didnt have much idea what was going on but we stuck with them for awhile and they ended up leading us on a great path to see the sites of lucca. we ran into a little incident on the train home- we had not stamed our tickets before we got the train- and the conductor told us we were going to have to pay a 40 euro fine a piece. but after some sweet talking (and begging) we got it reduced to 5 euro- although i may or may not now be on "blacklist" for italian trains.

monday i had the day to explore while willa was in class before my night flight. i walked the whole city- bought some of the famous leather, filled up on gelato and mozzarella, and managed to get some pretty nasty blisters- but it was all worth it, by the time i arrived at the airport i really felt as if i had seen most of florence. willa was an excellent host, and it was a beautiful city-- and im getting emotional just thinking of how delicious the food was! the one thing i will say though, is the visit did make me very appreciative that im studying in an english speaking country. for those of you who don't know, my foreign language tracke record is not so hot- e.g. when i gave the spark note version of my torah portion at my bat mitzvah because i couldn't learn the whole thing, or that my spanish name in high school was "avalancha" yep, it means avalanche. this record was not improved by my time in italy, which involved a lot of pointing and hand motions. perhaps ASL would be more up my alley... 

arrived back in london to write my first essay for school. ergh. and kahla came in wednesday night ! we had a great weekend of site seeing in london and getting kahla the ethnic food she craved (apparently seville does not have much to offer in that boat) so we had some great meals in chinatown, brick lane and of course, pad thai at the market today. we jammed a lot in over the course of the weekend- changing of the guards, st. pauls, victoria and albert museum, tate modern, portobello road, parliament, trafalger square, borough market. two of the highlights for me was a ride on the london eye on thursday night (the giant ferris-wheel like thing on the thames that gives incredible views of the city) and going to "pet kingdom" at harrods. for those of you who don't know, one of my favorite youtube videos of all time is christian the lion (whitney houston i will always love you version) , and christian was originally purchased at harrods, so it was great to see to his hometown, and to see the puppies that they now sell there. i was glued to the glass for a significant portion of time and seriously considering dropping a couple thousand dollars to bring one back with me to my flat.

mmmmm... gelato! 

view from piazza michelangelo

truffles at chocolate festival

ponte vecchio

lucca

mimes, futbol, urination

Its been quite awhile since i've posted, I apologize and will try to give you the readers digest version of my past week.
Some highlights:

The International Mime Festival is currently taking place in london and last tuesday some friends and I decided it would be fun to get tickets to go see one of the performances. I was expecting some white face guy pretending to be trapped in a box action-- but what I got was much different. It started out relatively normal, two mimes in a corporate setting and it was kind of like watching an episode of "the office" on mute, but things took a strange turn fast-- the mimes ended up having sex in a trashcan, puppets of various forest animals emerged, it ended with the pair getting attacked by a bear covered in blood and the office set collapsing over revealing a full forest scene. Oh, and at one point one the characters stuffed an entire tv dinner in their mouth and I stepped on it leaving the "theater" where this all took place. Yep, it really as weird as it sounds-- i guess it was some sort of avant garde mime critique of capitalism-- but coming from the girl who thought that george orwell's "animal farm" was just a sad novel about some animals... it was way over my head.

Taylor arrived on Thursday morning! She is the first of many visitors to come my way this semester and we really had a good time and I'm looking forward to everyone to come-- have you bought your ticket yet? On Friday, we had a little Foley reunion in Camden and met Jack, Christina and Sarah and Peter, a former counselor and camper for thirfting and dinner. The thift stores were SO good, so much stuff i desired! I swear that at one of them, someone had just picked thru midwest goodwills for the best finds and brought them to london and jacked up the prices, I found a great Minnestoa "the north star state" sweatshirt, Taylor got a Cardinals world series one and there was even an Eden Prairie Band sweatshirt- we passed on that one hoping that some londoner would pick it up thinking they had stumbled upon some really edgy find. At one point we wanted to get a picture all together ( and apparently Christina decided that the man peeing all over the sidewalk was the best man for the job (keep in mind this was a very busy street with plenty of non urinating people) so needless to say we had a few good laughs about Christinas "artistic eye." Public urination seems to be more acceptable here, and even encouraged- when I first moved into my flat I noticed a cool modern "sculpture" in the courtyard, only later to learn it was actually an outside urination troft. yum.

Saturday we went to Notting Hill (sadly, no Hugh Grant sightings) to the Portobello Road Antique Market. Notting Hill is splendid and we enjoyed browsing the goods (animals in suits!) despite the cold wind. We warmed up with a nice cup of tea and people watching before we headed to Harrow and I finally got to go to a real sized supermarket (all the ones by me are tiny tiny)!

Sunday, we woke up early and met Jack at Emrites stadium for an Aresenal soccer  futbol game- it was a really awesome experience- 60,000 fans chanting hilarious songs and cheers and a great game, Aresenal won 2-1! Plus we sat next to the most adorable british kids and even got to witness a fight (green street hooligan style). After the game we met Jack's uncle and his friends at a pub to discuss the match, although we weren't able to contribute much to the conversation, we felt like a real locals sipping on our pints celebrating the win!

Taylor left on Monday- and it was back to class for me. My classes are shaping up nicely, although I still struggle a bit with the whole 3 hour long lecture thing. In my American history class focusing on race its pretty fascinating to hear the british students perspectives of the U.S. I held my tongue the other day when one student kept calling "mississippi" "massachusetts" by accident, because its not like i'm a pro at the geography over here either. Tuesday was my free day and I went had delicious indian food on brick lane, saw the movie the King's Speech (really enjoyed it), and found a fro-yo place (wahooo). Yesterday I had creative writing and did some more exploring/ thrifting around my neighborhood and today I had my Art History class and we took a trip to the National Gallery which was great.

and now off to sleep before my final class tomorrow morning, and then the weekend! cheeeeeerio mates! here are some pics:

me, jack, tay at thai food in camden

the urine foley shot

outside the stadium! 

The Top Three Dangers of London Life

1. Showering

My shower has two knobs- one that spews frigid water and one that spews burning hot water... neither water stream can be run alone, the results would be deadly. I feel as if I should wear a lab coat every time I enter the shower as I am like a mad scientist trying to get the perfect mix. Its quite the lengthy process and I almost always have to start from scratch at least three times. I am currently in the process of devising a complex mathematical equation (e.g. three turns to the right+ two to the left=touchable temperature) that could help my chemistry along, but so far- no dice. Once I have mastered the mixing of the water, there is the issue of the shower head and its attached tubing. This dynamic duo prefers to be anywhere but its designated hook- i think its favorite place is relaxing across the floor of a shower, where I find it most days. I swear it always laid out in a way that looks like the tub has an evil grin. Showering than becomes a juggling act- holding the evil villain shower head  in one arm and preferred cleaning agent in the other...to have both hands accessible one must tuck the shower head under their armpit, resulting in water spurring in every which direction. During my most recent shower, I decided I wanted the water to be just a tad bit warmer so I turned the hot knob just a tinsy tiny bit. mistake. Imagine showering with one of this automated moving sprinkler heads, now imagine its spewing hot lava. I had to hop up on either side of the tub just escape the scolding water, trying to maneuver my body to the faucet without letting a single drop of death get on me. Treacherous.  After some yoga- like poses, I finally did get the water off- just call me indiana jones. But, I still  had conditioner in my hair so I had to begin the mixing process once more. When I finally did exit the shower, there was water dripping from all four walls of the bathroom not to mention a rather massive puddle on the floor. As you can imagine, all of these factors do not bode well for my already fairly apathetic attitude towards personal hygiene....

2. Opening the blinds

My room is located on the ground floor overlooking a fairly busy pedestrian sidewalk- this means that at all hours of the day a constant stream of people are walking right past my bedroom window. This also means that say, you want some natural light in your room because your lightbulb is out, and you also want to change into your PJs... you may mistakenly flash a small indian man and his wife.

3. Crossing the street

New Best Friend

This was by far the single most common worry people expressed to me when I said I was going to London. I'm guessing it had something to do with  my track record with all things involving automobiles or directionality. People really seemed genuinely concerned I would be smucked by a car within my first days on foreign soil. Well...  their concerns might have been warranted, let's just say there have been some close calls. You see, the words "look right" and "look left" are printed on the ground of most crosswalks for us foreigners that drive on the other side of the road. These seem to do the trick for people that a. know their left and rights and b. know which way cars drive down the street in America. However, considering I am a member of neither group, these little "helpful hints" just haven't proved that helpful. But wait Mom before you send me back on the first flight out to Minnesota, let me tell you about my new best friend. He is this little light up green guy that motions on stoplights for walkers. He really looks out for me, except not when he gets angry and turns red. For the crosswalks without stoplights a friend (clearly, not my new bff) gave me another little "helpful hint" that at "zebra" crosswalks, pedestrians have the right of way. So yesterday, I was happily strolling along and what do you know, but I come upon a crosswalk... said crosswalk had white markings on black pavement. These markings were not in cow pattern or dalmatian polka dots for that matter, so, naturally, I concluded zebra and waltzed across. Well, as it turns out, black and white in no other logical animal pattern, is not means enough to qualify a crosswalk as a zebra... and I ended up darting cars at zebra speeds. As luck would have it the one "helpful hint" that might have actually proved useful to me was never given to me. The other day I was waiting patiently to cross the street and be greeted by my new best friend, when I heard a faint whistling, "how nice" i thought "someone enjoying this early morning," but  soon the whistling grew louder.. and angrier... and the next thing I know a bike was swerving around me at full speed and its rider yelling some not very nice things at me in a british accent. Again, turns out whistling = move out of the dumbass and not happy biking melody...but then again, i never was too good at math.

First Week at Uni!

Outside St. Pauls

Some of my wall decorations-  my animals in suits collection takes on a british twist- animals in vests!

My first week of classes is now complete! I'll give you all a full review-

Monday: Was super nervous about finding the classroom so I left at noon for my two o'clock class. I arrived with about an hour and a half to spare- luckily, the Westminster campus is located on Regent Street one of the busiest shopping streets in all of London. My class is called "Race in America 1920-1970" and sounds as if it will be really interesting and challenging. I'm one of two Americans in the class and the professor called us out pretty early on (we also were both drinking Starbucks...). He apologized to us in advance for all the bad things he would be saying about America. He did give quite the angry rant about Sarah Palin at one point so I think we will get along just fine. Its a level 6 course meaning its designed for final year Histroy students and all my British classmates were talking about their dissertations they are writing. AH- thank god I don't have to worry about that (yet..). All of my classes only meet once a week for three hours and I don't know if this is the best setup for "hyper piper-" I already got a nasty glare from a guy in front of me for taping my leg too much on his desk and maybe I'll cut back on the Starbucks.

Tuesday: No class! Wahoooo- slept late and went and explored my neighborhood some more. Not too far there is the Spitalfields Market that sells a lot jewelry, clothes and art- not to mention a vast collection of erotic art! I purchased some really old photographs for wall decorations and my room is starting to look less and less like a prison cell. In the evening I went and met up with some visiting Skidmore friends for dinner in Covent Garden and discovered a dessert called "Nutella Balls" yum  yum yum.

Wednesday: I had my creative writing class, this is a special class designed for international students to explore London thru writing. Therefore our assignments are to explore to the city and to read works set in London. This week its Tale of Two Cities and we are also supposed to get on a bus and ride it to the very last stop, journaling the sights we see. Eavesdropping for homework? a-okay by me! One of our in-class writing assignments was to write about something precious to us without explicitly writing what the object was. I naturally wrote about Morrie, however when I read it aloud to the class it sounded as if I were writing about some sort of lover with "dark eyes that always understand." what a way to make a first impression, token dog freak? present.

After class I met Christina and Jack to go explore St. Pauls Cathedral. We didn't want to pay the steep entrance fee but we took plenty of pictures of the beautiful outside. We then walked across the Millennium Bridge a walking bridge that was shut down shortly after it was built because of the wind induced swaying. Don't worry Mom, its all fixed! Right over the bridge is the Tate Modern and we did a short exploration around the museum.  

We then went back to Jacks and watched the latest episode of the  BBC sitcom he's gotten us hooked on, "Hustle" Its really good- and I've caught myself scheming ways to hustle people all week...

I also watched my first football match! Jack likes the team Aresenal, so I've decided I like them too, and they won! I actually really enjoyed watching the game- and hope to make it to one live sometime in the future. 

100 Million Porcelain Sunflower Seeds 

Thursday- I had a 9 am class. ugh. and unlike Skidmore I can't get up 5 minutes before and still make it on time. In fact, because of the rush hour tube traffic I have to leave even earlier than usual. The tube gets really crazy in the morning- personal space is non existent as people squeeze the cars to full capacity- there are literally people that fall out when the doors open (making it hard i'm sure to mind the gap) Luckily, the class seems really cool so it might be worth the rough commute. It is called "Art and Society" and again is just for international students. Every week we go to a different museum or site! Finally a class more designed for my restless legs. This week we went to the Tate Modern (if i had only known that the day before..) There is an awesome exhibit at the Tate currently by chinese artist Ai Wi Wi, he commissioned members of a small chinese village to individually sculpt and paint over a hundred million porcelain sunflower seeds- which now fill a massive space on the floor of the Tate. Its crazy. My professor for the class is really great and smart and he took us around some of the permeant collection rooms. We saw works by Monet, Pollock, Mattise and all those cool cats. 

Thursday night was our first Skidmore pub night- we met at an 18th century pub called "the lamb" It was fun to see a group of familiar faces (there are about 23 other skidmore kids in london at 6 different universities) and share stories of our first week. We also met the on-site Skidmore coordinator Maureen and her husband Gunther, they are a super cute older couple that will make great quasi british grandparents while we are here. They also bought us dinner and drinks, wahoo for free food! Something, i've noticed here is that Brits are obsessed with chicken tikka masala and its served everywhere, even along side more traditional pubs foods. Totally fine with me seeing as "mushy peas" and "black pudding" don't really appeal to me. 

Friday I had my final class. Its called the Psychology of Education and as far as I can tell I'm the only American in the class. It also is a final year course so will be very challenging, especially considering I didn't know my british schooling terms and couldn't keep up in the first lecture if they were talking about middle school or elementary school... wikipedia here i come. There was also much discussion about the fee increase at Universities- something the students (understandably so) are pretty fired up about. After that class I tried to go print something in the student computer lab. I stood over the printer at the digital screen feeding me directions trying to push the buttons like a touch screen probably for a good ten minutes and was getting quite frustrated that nothing was happening. It was only until the girl behind me pointed to the mouse attached to the screen that i got it to work. I wish i could blame these mistake on language or cultural barriers- but nope, just dumb american syndrome. After class I met some friends on the london bridge and had tea and toast in a tiny hole in the wall shop. That night I went to a bar close by with Jack and Francie a girl from St. Paul who I met here. 

Saturday and Today have been a lot of relaxing and a bit of school work. I've also done some domestic things like laundry, grocery shopping and even some cooking. Last night I met my former housemate Nico who is studying at the London School of Economics at a pub near me. Great to see him and catch up. 

Again, thought I would avoid language barriers studying here but tonight jack sent me a text that read "wagwan jessie?" assuming it was the name of a restaurant i replied that sorry i couldn't and already had plans to cook in my flat, turns out "wagwan" is in fact not a restaurant (expect there is a chain here called wagamamma) but rather slang for "what's going on" 

on that note- cheers! 

*note to readers: i know my grammar and sentence structure is not perfect in these entries and i know this is a pet peeve for many of you, and for that I apologize. However, i think we can all agree that my time here would be better spent exploring london or doing homework rather than scrolling these pages for misplaced commas :) 

*p.s.- if you know anyone at all in london (or anyone that might know anyone) that could set me up with some babysitting gigs please let me know! yes, im willing to take the risk of being deported.

My attempt to capture three london icons- black cab, double decker bus, telephone booth

DJ Queen Jessie Lohan

It was only this weekend that I realized how big of an influence the movie The Parent Trap has had on my life. Definitely, the reason I first went to summer camp... and look where thats led me. Also more than likely the reason I took up fencing once I got to said summer camp and again, look where thats gotten me, ok so not far- but now I find myself  far away in london and I can't help the movie soundtrack from playing in my head as I too feel the awe of the city that young lindsay lohan felt when she first arrived here with her birth mom.   Subconsciously, I think that scene where she is the back of a cab and "Here Comes the Sun" plays as she passes the major sites could be a major factor in my decision to come to London. But despite my latest  posts, I'm going to try to not follow in Lindsay's more recent footsteps... and promise to make 3AM  club nights only an occasional occurrence.

On Thursday all the University of Westminster International Students were invited on a booze cruise (sorry that was my alter ego lindsay typing), boat cruise on the River Thames (I try to avoid ever saying that word because I know i'll get it wrong... i found myself saying "are you guys going on the boat on the river" then producing a short  cough, most of the time by the time I was done with my fake cough the person I was speaking to had filled in the blanks with the correct pronunciation) It was kind of a rainy night but still fun to see some the sights along the river.. and I didn't even get sea sick,  looks like the throwing up to make a first impression phase has passed in my life. wahoo!

Friday, I went shopping with Christina on Oxford Street and back to her place in Harrow- where she treated me to a delectable salad of iceberg lettuce, deli meat chicken, peanuts, olive oil and sea salt. I think cooking with her is going to expand my taste buds considerably... That night we parted ways and I went out with a few girls from my flat around our neighborhood, which is hip and happening at night. Every DJ i've heard hear has been great, and I don't mean great to like the usual standards of great music, but great to like DJ Trash standards- im talking lil romeo, ace of the base, mariah .. its like they went into my itunes and stole all my most recently played hits! Maybe I'll look into a DJ gig while i'm here.. it's about time my beatz went live!

Saturday, I woke up early and met up with Scott and Lucy and her flat mates to spend the day as a tourist. We started at the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. We saw some really cool historical exhibits (Tudors fans, you would have loved it) including torture chambers and ancient armor.  My favorite part by far was going into the chamber (no phones or cameras) where the crown jewels are on display- so so cool. You stand on a moving escalator to view them and I understand why ... I could spent hours gawking at all the gems. New life ambition: become the queen. Seriously, that bitch has it all. I think my American Studies degree will set me up nicely for that position.... Kate Middleton- watch out! After leaving the Tower of London with diamonds in our eyes (and the soles of our shoes) we headed to St. James Park where we saw some huge birds who honestly scared me quite a bit.. my favorite moment was the possibly intoxicated man who knelt down to one of the ungodly large geese and said "the queen owns you, you know that...you belong to the queen" he then started shouting to other birds "she owns you too.. and you!" Case in point to previous statement, the queen has it all, even massive birds. We then headed to Buckingham Palace where there was an unfortunate lack of guards- (I was positive I was going to make them crack a smile with my "duck buys some chapstick  and tells the cashier sorry i don't have cash...just put it on my bill) We then walked to Westminster Abbey and saw Big Ben and the London Eye and took the requisite tourist photos in front of a double decker bus and in a phonebooth (which judging by the smell I'm guessing are no longer used for phone calls so much as urinals?). We tried to get tickets for a show at the National Theatre but they were all sold out so we settled for mexican food and a movie (love and other drugs... cute, jake glleynhaals cuter). I then met up for some twilight ice skating with Jack and Christina outside of the Sommerset House Art Gallery (think Rockefellor Center except surrounded by a beautiful old building and with a live DJ!) It was a lot of fun and it was the first time I had ever skated outside of Minnesota, so where as usually I'm by far the worst one on the rink I was actually pretty good compared to these city folk- I didn't fall once!

Christina and I again tried to navigate the night bus system home from the rink but with a little less luck then last time. I got worried when the bus said it was on a diversion and had us hop off- putting us on a diversion instead. Luckily, a very small bald headed man in full tuxedo (think midget Daddy Warbucks) appeared walking down the sidewalk and was able to offer some drunken guidance (not to mention entertainment.) We finally made our way back to my flat, treated ourselves to some "Tennessee Fried Chicken" located just a few steps away from my door and called it a night.

Today, we went to the Brick Lane Market which is a Sunday market just about a 10 min walk away from my flat. It was awesome- tons of vintage clothes, junk, and ethnic food (three of my favorite things!) I was too overwhelmed by the amount of money I've spent already to purchase some vintage finds but I did allow myself to  buy  a plate of delicious, delicious pad thai- yep, believe it or not- even better than big bowl. I have a feeling Brick Lane will become a Sunday Tradition. Visitors prepare! Speaking of... don't you think its about time to book your ticket? (kenzie just did!)

Well, i'm off to pick out my first day of school outfit (goodwill sweater A or B??) I'll report back how it goes!

100 Dolla Bills, scratch that, Pounds Ya'll

So I've been in London for five days now and I can safely say that each day i've a. been lost on the tube and/or streets b. drinking in a pub or bar c. spending lots of money- a true Londoner already? 


Yesterday I had to find my way to my individual advising meeting at Westminster and got horribly lost.. luckily, I left two hours early to find it (thanks mom for instilling that unnecessary timing instinct in me). Once I did get there I had a nice meeting and finalized my class timetable- it looks like I have one class everyday except for Tuesdays (what a random day to have off) I also have a 9am class on Thursday that could be rough considering I have to take a 30 min tube ride to get there... luckily, the woman at the coffee shop across the street already seems to recognize me, ok so she recognizes me as the dumb american who cant count her change right, but its a start. 


Because we don't have classes this week and very little orientation programming, I've been staying out pretty late everynight- not great for my jetlag adjustment... but I'm sure it will get better once classes begin. Monday night I went out to a pub in Covent Garden and last night Jack and his flat mates took us to a nightclub in a similar area, it was an 8 story club with awesome views of London. We danced the night away- and one to many backstreet boys songs (no joke) and sambuca drinks (delicious!) later we found ourselves at 3 AM, long after the tube stopped running...oops. Christina and I decided it was probably better to just sleep at Jacks then find ourselves on a "dodgey" late night bus, which worked out well, except this morning I had to ride the tube home wearing my outfit from the night before. Luckily I dressed much more conservatively than the other night club patrons so I don't think I stood out much more than the early morning commuters on the train. Today, after a long nap, I made my first venture to the grocery store- although the million of kabab places surrounding my flat seem much more appealing than cooking at this point. 


Tonight, I met up with Scott and Lucy from Skidmore and we headed to explore my neighborhood to find a place to eat. Not but a few blocks up we found ourselves in what must be London's "little Vietnam" as the entire block was Vietnamese restaurants. We took a lucky guess and headed inside one (we decided against the one thats sign advertised its air conditioning) and I had my first vietnamese meal. I thought coming to London would avoid the language and cultural barriers of studying in a new country, but I guess not, Lucy ordered a vodka soda only to be given a glass of pure vodka and I struggled to use chopsticks and finally settled eating my meal with a spoon. I ordered a chicken in coconut sauce and it was delivered literally engulfed in flames! I was a little scared of it but it looked awesome, and when the flames settled the meal was delicious. At another point during dinner the entire restaurant went dark, and a cassette recording of happy birthday came on to bring a man a small vietnamese cake. Very amusing- I wonder if they did the cassette because the waiters don't know english? If so, very clever, and even if not, very clever. We then headed to a cool pub in my neighborhood where there was karaoke happening in the basement... speaking of karaoke, I'll leave you with a karaoke version of one the songs that was played at the night club last night. I can only dream of being as good as this guy one day. Its people like him that make me miss America.