Chinese New Year

Gung Hoi Fat Choi!!

Well, it has been a couple of days since I last updated but there has not been much happening everyday except doing more work for classes. The weather is starting to get colder and nastier each day with brief breaks of nice sun coming through, which is nice.

On Friday, we went to a bar off of Mornington Crescent called Positively 4^th Street, which was supposed to be based upon a Rolling Stones song, I think. It was kinda cool, it more or less resembled a hipster pub/bar. It was also the first time that we met Mika’s girlfriend Noora, who is visiting for the next three weeks. It was fun, but the drinks were expensive, so we ultimately called it an early night.

On Sunday, they had the Chinese New Year celebrations for the previous weekend’s New Year. There was traditional Chinese dancing and festival style routines happening in Trafalgar Square. There was also lots of vendors in the streets surrounding Chinatown, which had amazing food. Jess and I wound up getting two of these chicken pie dumpling things, which filled me up so much that I did not even finish the second one. It was amazing though, spicey yet tastey all at the same time. We had ultimately though of staying dor the fireworks in Leicester Square but we considered the crowds and getting back to campus at a decent hour might be the better decision. There was work again from Golders Green all the way to Camden Town, which meant we had to take the bus making a usual trip time of 25minutes into almost 1.5 hours.

Otherwise, the weeks have been flying by and I can’t believe that next week is already March. Papers are finally coming due, so there is high stress at this point. I can’t wait to just turn these things in and just be done.

Chicken Dumpling!

Reading Week + Comedy/Italian Night

So, this reading week has gone by insanely fast and I feel right now that I still have a ton to do before papers start becoming due in 4 weeks. Scary, huh? But, I did manage in accomplishing to finish my critical review book for Global Politics, which was very interesting. I wish I had more time to just read it very leisurely, but right now I am on a time crunch. Hah. Gotta spend lots of time outside doing all the very London-y things aswell. :D

But for that class, I have been reading Our Choice by Al Gore, the followup book for An Inconvenient Truth. It was actually a very excellent read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone really. It truly takes on a devil's advocate position, it looks at both sides of the argument instead of taking on a this is bad, you NEED to do this NOW. I'm definitely going to have a not so bad of time writing the review of the book.

On to more exciting recap of the week, we went to a free comedy night and half price italian meal down in SoHo, by Piccadilly Circus, which was fun for being relatively cheap. We went to this italian restaurant named Nove, which had exceptional food, the service was eh and the portion sizes of the food was not nearly enough for me, but I'm nearly always hungry, so I guess that isn't the best way to rate something. I did wind up ordering the lasagna, which was fantastic by the way, but it was literally about 3inches by 3inches by 1inch. So after dinner, we headed over to the show, and on the way we stopped in this Belgium chocolate store and ordered several pieces of chocolate to only be shocked by the 9quid pricetag for only 8 pieces of chocolates. Granted after eating these chocolates they were the best things I have ever tasted in my life, but way too expensive to repeat.

We went to this comedy place nearby called the Source Below for this New York guy called Lewis Schaffer doing an act called "It's free until I'm Famous". He was funny but incredibly Jew racist, I'm really glad I didn't spend a lot of money to see it. But it was a good fun night and the place was kinda cool, very intimate setting, only about 45-50 people allowed downstairs.

Otherwise, right now, its Friday and I'm just sitting here doing work for class and then getting ready to go out for some fun later tonight. :)

-Your Ever Fearless Leader

Valentine's Day Premiere + Hyde Park + Football

So, wowza, time sure has been flying bye yet again and it has already almost been another week that I haven't blog. I swear, there just never seems to be enough time to blog and do everything anymore. It is kinda crazy to think about it that way. But onto the juicy weekly adventures...

So, on Thursday we headed out because the weather was somewhat decent and kinda just strolled around the area. The first place we went to was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which realistically is a fantastic museum, but it just seems like there is just sooo much history that it is just getting lost on me, ya know? Like after Italy, there are only so many ways you can depict the Virgin and Jesus, like there are only so many ways that you can look at tapestries and other old ancient things. They are amazing, like I still want to see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, but I feel like these things are just getting lost on me right now. After a couple hours at the museum, Cat, Jess, Mika, and I headed out. After meandering around the streets for a bit, we wound up in Hyde Park and had fun running around with the geese and swans, or maybe, just mainly me, while Jess and Cat snapped photos of my American-ness. Haha.

Me surprising Cat

Jumping for Joy in Hyde Park

Now with it being close to lunch time, we went to a small cafe around the lake and warmed up, while laughing over the ridiculous photos taken in the park.

After that, Jess and I got ready to head out to the premiere of Valentine's Day starring more or less everyone in Hollywood. We got there around 5pm and wound up seeing a sea of people surrounding the ODEON theatre where the premiere was to be held. As we had come all the way into Leicester Square to see it, we braved the crowd out and managed to get somewhat close to the barricades in the front. After a couple of minutes, the celebrities starting showing up (namely Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Jessica Alba, Topher Grace, Emma Roberts). We wound up getting some really cool photos and in the end decided it was too cold to continue standing outside, thus leaving back to Colindale.

Jessica Alba!

Demi Moore!

On Saturday, we decided to hit up a "new to us club" called KOKO in Camden. At first, we thought this was going to be another Fabric fiasco, since we had to get "invited" to the party and then print the invitations to just get possibly in. So, I was kinda wary about that aspect, but once inside, this club was actually pretty amazing. It was an old theatre that has been converted into a club and painted red. It was phenomenal and I wish the photos I had justified the sheer awesomeness and the coolness of it. The "Buttoned Down Disco" was a ton of fun and ultimately left around 2:30 to take the N5 bus home, but notwithout stopping at the nearby Kebab shop for some chips. Brilliant!!

Today, we went to the Fulham Fc vs. County football match, which was fan-freakin'-tastic. It is such an intrinsic part of English culture that you truly cannot miss when you come to England. The game, although was bitter cold, was truly exciting and never once was there really a slow part - either between the team crushing county or the fanatic Fulham Fc fans. I truly had an awesome time sitting outside for 3 hours in 15degree weather. (I never will get used to Celsius, therefore I will probably just always use Fahrenheit, how American of me ;) ) Fulham ultimately wound up winning the game and also won the FA cup. Whatever that means, but to me, it was an amazing afternoon.

-Your Ever Faithful Python Wrangler

Windsor Castle + Stonehenge + Bath

So, yet again, I have failed to update this thing regularly, but it has been just insane these past couple of days. Mainly classes and the like have been hectic and I have my first presentation that is due on Monday, which should be interesting. Anyways, did a tid bit of traveling this week. Jess and I had classes cancelled for Development 1003 this week, so we took advantage of going to Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge on Thursday.

Thursday was crazy, prior to even getting on the bus to the places! We all started off late, leaving Colindale around 6:55am and then made it by the skin of out teeth to the stop where we thought we would get picked up, only to find that since we never called the place, they weren't stopping there. We then needed to figure out how to get to Victoria station where the coaches were going to be leaving from. So, we made it there and everything was good from that point on.

We first went to Windsor Castle which was really cool. It is the out of town residence of the Queen and where Prince William and Harry lived when they were boys. It was a very quaint British town. It was kinda cool to see how massive the place is, and how it has varied over time. It started out as a section and then has been added on since then. I'm not sure it would be worth making a special trip there, but it was actually cool to see it. It also had the Queens guards and we were able to see the changing of the guard, which took a long time and had way too much music, probably lasts about half an hour, give or take a few.

The next place was Bath, home to the famous Roman Baths and the famous Bath sandstone that the entire town seems to be made out of. These were actually very cool and was happy that we wound up going there. I really do recommend it and it was very cool to see the place, though we did not get to the try Bath water, which is supposed to be very disgusting but very beneficial. Supposedly it also was able to cure a Princes' leprosey. Crazy stuff.

The next stop was STONEHENGE!!

I was soo excited to see Stonehenge and even more importantly was all the sheep! I kinda wanted to let the sheep roam free and let the sheep wander around Stonehenge, which would have made it a lot better I think. :) Stonehenge was a win for me in my books, but there were some people on the tour that did not like it as much as they thought it would be. I did my little happy dance and paid some tribute to the stones through worship. :) All in all, it was a good little trip, also it was cool to see all the fake "henges" all the way to the place. Ie. Carhenge, Woodhenge, and the like.

We went out to this club last night called Fabric, which was cool, but very expensive. 15quid entrance, but the place was huge! The drinks were expensive too, but this is obviously one of those places where you are meant to be seen, and also to be very casual in dressing. Mika almost didn't make it in because he was dressed "too dressy." Crazy.

And on the way out this week, I send you with a picture of me dancing my way out. :)

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