Monday, March 30, 2009

A Few Days Pass

Well then. I've learned a thing or two by now, one of which is that while I'm living in the equivalent of Society Hill or the Upper East Side, it's only three stops on the Tube to a shopping complex that boasts the English equivalents of Walmart, Shoprite, and Wegman's. Thus, my cupboards are now fully stocked with Nutella, pears, Darjeeling tea, some red meat, sharp cheddar,celery, lovely crusty bread, and, er...not much else. I never said I was good at balancing meals, but at least I'm good at avoiding junk food.

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. I believe I left off on Friday night? Which was a shitshow. Word to the wise: NEVER attempt to coordinate the schedules of 16 people in order to get anything at all accomplished. The lto of us went out for Indian (went to this great place called Masala Zone that was as authentic as a chain restaurant in London cna be) then stopped back at the flat to plan the rest of the evening. After at least an hour of discussing and waiting and fucking around, we split up into two groups. Mine went to Leicester Square to check out the clubs there, and when we arrived and realized that clubs cost money to enter, everyone except Raquel, Kevin, and I bailed. We basically said fuck it and went to Oxygen, and proceeded to have a great time drinking overpriced cocktails, dancing like mad to silly techno, and goggling at the abysmal dancing skills of the English people. I also got surprise-snogged by a cocky English boy and ran into some cuties from Colorado before we stumbled back home.

Everyone was hungover on Saturday, which did not excuse us from the walking tour of S. Kensington that we were forced to take. It turned out to be a rather lovely time, and our tour guide ruled. Our neighborhood if beyond ritzy, but there are plenty of adorable tiny French cafes and shops tucked away along the alleys to keep it interesting. Can't remember the rest of the day, but I do know that I went out for Thai with Jess, Rob and Rainier and thusly managed to miss Extreme Noise Terror. Bummed about that. I ended up staying in and talking to Grzesiek on Skype for about two and a half hours then crashing when the girls came home from whatever gay club they'd tripped off to.

Sunday was a 10am bus tour of the city that took us all over the place and crammed about two days' worth of sightseeing into about three hours. We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Scotland Yard, London Bridge, the Old City of London, and about a billion other spots, effectively knocking out about 2/3 of the shit I'm supposed to go see to satisfy my grandmother. Afterwards, I went to lunch and shopping with Jess, Rob, Jo and Lili, and escaped early because H&M is an awful place. Raquel and I went for a run through Kensington Gardens, during which we discovered a couple ponds, a statue of Peter Pan, and a nifty little art gallery called the Serpentine smack dab in the middle of everything. After that, made dinner, then a bunch of us went out for a quick beer before the pubs closed and went to bed early.

Today was our first day of classes! We only had one, a 3-hour lecture on British Culture and Society. I really enjoyed it, and love the professor already, so am looking forward to the rest of the semester with that class at least. Evan, Raquel, Kevin and I went out shopping for necessities afterwards (which took ages), I made a badass dinner (soy chicken w/ basmati rice, baby corn, and mangetout) and now I am settled the fuck in for the night. Cheers.

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