Borough Market + RiverBoat Disco + Trafalgar Square

So, this week has been fun to say the least.

It was a week of classes and other crazy shiz, the best part is I finally figured out how to stream Bones to the UK, which is awesome!!

On Thursday, we decided to go out to central London and just chillout. It was really exciting until when we got off downthere, it was more or less pouring. So we kinda just headed out to the pub, ultimately hanging out at this bar called the "Horniman" which knowing me, made me so giddy that I had to take a photo with it. :)

Well, on Friday we had the RiverBoat Disco which was actually really kinda lame, whack, whatever you want to say about it. I think I would have had a lot more fun going to a club and just paying the cover fee for a Friday night. Haha, it was though cool to see the Thames at night.

Onto Saturday, we went back downtown to Central and we headed out to the Borough Market which was actually wayyy cool. It was super neat, but super busy. I definitely want to go back down there prior to leaving and go early on on a Saturday so we can actually move around a bit. The market held some very interesting things though, they had a bunch of dead animals just lynched up on the chainlinks which was kinda weird though. Otherwise, the hippies and their food were amazing and definitely worth the prices. I finally had my first couple of pieces of Turkish Delight and I just have to say that I am not a huge fan of them. I got Banana and Strawberry but it was just kinda weird and I am not so certain I would ever go out of my way to buy them again. After the market, we went down Leicester and Camden and more or less just walked around a lot. At Trafalgar Square, Cat and Nick left, but Mika, Jess, Jaiye, and I stayed around and trying climbing the lions in the square which was hilarious.

After a couple hours down in the square, we headed back and got ready to go out to Thirst bar in central. It was a super amount of fun even though the place was super tiny, but it was a definite good time and all. :)

Mika and I on the lions in Trafalgar Square

A view from the bridge of downtown London

Room Tour!

Well, well, well. I have started to get back in the hang of this thing. Another post within a week. I know, Impressive. :)

But since I haven't had much time to do anything other than go to class and do some other random things, like laundry and go to the Sainsbury's (the grocery store), I thought I would do something I meant to do in Italy - a room tour!

I just want to point out that this room is much smaller than what the pictures show. I was looking through them and they actually make the room look a lot bigger than the room truly is. I just must be an excellent photographer. Pats self on the back. :)

But first I wanted to show you my Oyster Card. I applied forever ago trying to get the student card, which gives you 40% off fares and the like on the Tube, and was told I probably wouldn't be getting one and voila! I have one now! Booya!

So I thought I would snap a photo of the plain old ugly one and then the other one with my name and mug on it for your enjoyment!

But now on to more important things, new Cadbury chocolates came out at the Tesco Express by us, so therefore I deemed I must try them. The ones below, the raisin ones, are supposed to be like Raisinettes, but these were kinda gross. I would not want to buy those again but the chocolate was delicious.

These, however, were beyond delicious. I completely want to eat more of them. I might have to smuggle some back into the states and then protest Kraft, who as of March 1, will now own Cadbury Chocolates, to bring them into the States. They are just soooooooo delicious and I dont know why, they on the surface sound actually kinda gross. It says that they have rice and chips in them, then covered in chocolate, but OMG, they are phenomenal. I ate the entire bag in one sitting. 0:)

But anyways, onto the room!!!

This is my tiny, rink-a-dink desk area! I can barely fit here, and the worst part is, there is barely any light!!! I may have to go buy a cheap desk lamp or something, reading is soo hard to do with the dim lighting through the ceiling lamp.

Now here is the shower, the weirdest thing I have ever seen. There is no basin in the floor, it is just a drain and you are supposed to just shower on the bathroom floor. The first time I got in, i thought it was going to flood the entire room and the next, but it miraculously never did. I would have to say this shower is a great triumph over the shower I had in Italy.

The wall of fame!!

The entrance and coat rack, with the loo jutting out into my tiny little bit of moveable area. :)

Anyway, I felt you guys should see the living conditions. I also miss the quiet of my room back home. These people driving over here just never stop! It seems like there is rush hour traffic all the time, minus from 3-4am! Its absolutely insane.

On a more mediocre note, it has started getting cooler again, back down into the low 30s and high 20s but this time, the sun has been out! yeah sun! The worst so far is when it is 33F outside and it decides to sprinkle, not hard enough to put the umbrella up, or too windy to have the umbrella up.

On other travel news, was planning to go to Amsterdam with a couple of the other international students, but looked at the weather and it is supposed to be horrible in Amsterdam next weekend, so, Jess and I and a couple of other people are planning on going in March or end of April when its supposed to be really nice out. Now we are thinking about going to Bath and Stonehenge this weekend, and maybe checking out an Arsenal game or one of the rugby matches on Sunday as there is no classes Monday!!!

Well, I'm spent now from all this typing,

Auf Weidersein!

Wicked Busy

SOOO, its been awhile. Again, and I apologize. :)

Classes have been crazy and the work load is kinda messed up. They give you all these "suggested reading" choices which is like maybe 15 chapters or so (which is impossible to read all of it for the next week, without becoming a recluse) so I've just kinda been like I'll read one or two since its all very repetitive. But anyways, we've been kinda galavanting around. This past week, we went to Camden Market and The Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Camden is kinda a crazy place. I'm just gonna put that out there. Most of the shops are just filled with all these bohemian and ecclectic people. It really is something really cool to look at and some of the stores are just an experience in themselves. This chick is one of the people who would be known to inhabit Camden Market.

And then there is this store, CyberDog. Its called electro-cyber-punk. Completely crazy fantastic. If you go to Camden, you MUST go in this store. You will be shocked/horrified/bedazzled/love this store. Its completely unique and its an amazing London experience.

And then there is this place. The Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street was supposed to be interesting and after paying 6quid to see the home of the infamous Dr. Holmes, it is by far one of the most touristy rip-off things we have been to since getting here. It is by far a shame to the memory of the awesome Holmes and Watson. owell.

After that, we crossed Reagents park and Cat decided to take my camera and had a mini photoshoot at night. lol. This one came out the best and I kinda want to see what Reagents Park looks like in the daylight. We had some v. interesting experiences there last night :)

(L-R: Mika, me, Jess, and Nick)

Until next time,

Adieu

Tower of London + 22nd Birthday

Hiya,

So it's been kinda crazy the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to update as consistently, which I will become consistent, hopefully, by the end of the trip. :)

Well, it has been kinda dreary outside lately, not too much sun as you can see in the photos below. Overall, I really never though much about not having the sun out, but I was wrong. I have noticed that sometimes it can get really easy to get depressed when you are by yourself, but it disappears pretty quickly once I start talking to Jess, Mika, Cat, or Nick. I finally met a couple of the other flatmates, Serdar from Turkey and Max, whose from the UK.

To start out the recap, we have been to the Imperial War Museum, which was cool, kinda sad because of the Holocaust exhibit (which was extremely depressing, I have to say) but otherwise it was worth the tube ride. On saturday, Jess and I went to downtown London to go see the Tower of London and the Royal Jewels. I have to say that I was kinda let down from the exhibit. Several of the buildings were closed, so we didnt get to see much, and yet they still charged the 15quid for students, which is kind pricey, but w/e. Even the Royal Jewels were kinda underwhelming. They put you on a conveyer belt and only have a limited time to look at the jewels and then are ushered onwards, so that was kinda lame. But we did get to see one of the beefeaters keeping guard in his boothy thing while it was downpouring.

But on the otherhand, we did get soo turned around prior to the Tower that we went down the Tower Bridge misnamed London Bridge. Take that! It was really cool walking on the bridge and getting to see everything on the Thames, but the rain put a kinda kabosh on walking to the otherside, but I bet it will be very cool to do later on.

Onto Sunday, my 22nd birthday was nice and chill. Didn't get "schwasted" like Akash wanted me to, but it was good none the less to hang out with people. Shopped around on Oxford St. and then came back and had a kinda potluck dinner with the crew in which they had made a very sinfully delicious cake. My mouth is still watering from it.

On a side note, to wrap this entry up, I just wanted to post a couple of things that I have started to dive into English culture.

They have started baking these Hot Cross Buns (which is supposedly just an Easter treat) but they are being sold almost everywhere now. They are kinda just like a regular sweet wheatbread bun but with raisins and dates inside. When you heat them up and mix it with some jam, they are actually pretty good.

Another cool thing, but something really bad, is the Cadbury Creme Eggs. O.M.G. They are the most delicious things I have eaten so far. You can barely eat more than a couple or you are just sooo sick, but they are definitely something that I will buy again.

After all of this, its been an interesting couple of days and with that I leave you.

Cheers mates!

Harrod's

So, I didn't get the chance to update last night, but here's how it went down. I had class in the morning, Global Politics, which was surprisingly kinda interesting. Most of the other classes so far have been more of repeats or just very general, which isn't something I like too much. Anywho, after class, Jess and I went down to Harrod's for a couple of hours to just explore and whatnot. Harrod's is just freaking huge. I would have to say it's like the Macy's in New York with all the floors and whatnot, but Harrod's has a much larger array of things to buy. From clothing and perfume, the store also has a ton of food items, like the candy floor and the fresh seafood area, all the way to the newest electronics and the like. The main center escalators is just something to see. It's all of these Egyptian themed escalators filled with sphinxes and hieroglyphics. It really is the craziest store I have been in a while, and one of the most expensive by far. I would up buying a souvenir of sorts, Harrod's is well known for their teddy bears, so I decided since my birthday was this weekend, I would go ahead and just buy one of the bears. It was 17quid ~ 27.50 in US, so it was kinda pricey, but way cheaper than anything else I could have bought in that store. But anyway, life has been finally starting to fall into a pattern I guess you could say, I don't feel completely overwhelmed as much, but I do hate that I can't sleep the whole night consecutively. Last night, I slept for about 12 hrs, going to bed at 8 and I woke up about 6am. It's crazy how going 5hrs ahead has just screwed my clock up sooo much. It also doesnt help too much that the sun doesn't rise until about 8am and then sets again at 3:30 to 4ish. It's barking mad. :)

Attached is Harrod - the Harrod's bear.

The British Museum

So, today, I can decidedly say that I have finally ridden the tube as an actual Londoner and crazily getting used to it. I know, never saw that coming. :) But anywho, since I didn't post yesterday, here's a tiny recap. Monday was the first day of classes and surprise surprise, Patrick is the only one with classes on Monday and has two classes --> DOUBLE LAME! First class was development of the Third World, which is interesting but I think its going to be the drop class. The other class is this International Law class which is actually really interesting. I haven't really taken any of these political science classes before but this could be really interesting. After that, Jessica and Cat called me up and told me to meet them down on Tottenham Road Court, which meant, I had to traverse the subway...errr... I meant Tube! So, I made it down there, got lost for a bit, b/c I came up on the wrong side of the road, but found an Orange boutique and finally got a prepaid sim card!! Woo! After that, finally met up with them and Mikup. After a round at the pub, we came back to Hendon to meet up with Nick and grab Chinese from this little place called Wok N Roll next to the Bentley/BMW dealership. :D

Today was the just the reverse, I was the only one without class. Complete insanity, but anywho, I went back to Tottenham Court Road and finally made it to the British Museum, which is by far the coolest museum I have been to recently. This place is freaking massive and by the way is also FREE! I literally spent about 4 hours in just the Ancient Egypt floor and barely hit everything else. Supposedly, THE rosetta stone is in there too. I dunno though. Another amazingly cool thing that the museum had is the big atrium which is just massive. It houses the food court and sitting area, but it is just so cool and neat looking, I could have spent a lot of time just in there. After being there about 5 hours, I headed outside to discover the temperature dropping and decided to head back to campus and visit ASDA (brought to us by WalMart!) Even in England, you cant get away from them! Haha!

So, it's been a couple of days since I have arrived in London, and lets say its been a whirlwind for sure. More or less we arrived on Thursday afternoon and got picked up by the Middlesex people who took us back to our dorms. Several hours later we are finally getting settled in and I finally got to crash. After a somewhat restful 14hrs of sleep, we all ventured on down to the main campus for orientation. Meet a lot of really interesting people and have been hanging out with a couple of people from Australia and Finland. Crazy. On saturday, we had a tour of downtown london, which is gorgeous!! minus the bitter cold that it has been lately.

My address here I believe it to be is:

Platt Halls C0604

Chancellor Place,

Colindale,

London NW9 5LJ

I'm gonna try and confirm thats correct but for now, thats the best Ive got. :)

Until later,

Cheers

So this is going to be a quick post. London in 1 day!! but more importantly......

Stacey and Clinton are coming back to tv! Hallelujah

lmao.

So, this is me trying to keep more up to date on things. haha. I am right now currently freaking out that I am about to leave to London in a 3 days, O.M.J. (yeah, I went there). I am really, really, going to update this more often when I leave.

Right now, gotta get ready for bed since we have Disney in the morning! :)