(no subject)
So...it's been a while. It doesn't feel like that long to me, but then again, I've been incredibly busy.
But when I received an e-mail earlier today (which is now yesterday) from my mother asking if I had done anything since the 29th of May I knew it was probably time to update.
Here's a quick pictoral rundown of what I've been up to:
(1) We found a pub in Oxford Circus thats called The Cock (stop laughing, Dad) so naturally we had to stop by. Then those of us who hadn't eaten dinner yet decided that we wanted to get food somewhere. The only place open was a tequila Tex Mex (so British, I know) so we went there and when we discovered that they had a drink called "Wild Sex"...naturally we had to try it. It was pink and fruity and did not mix well with the Quesidillas (which were also delicious). Needless to say it was one of the most fun nights I've had here so far. And we got free shots on the house...they were Bailey's and peppermint (and continuing with the theme of the night they were called "Viagra shots"and they were pretty tasty.
(2) Just to clarify and to prove that I don't go out drin
king every night...here are pictures from King's Cross and Platform 9 and 3/4...because even though I didn't like the last two books, I'm still a huge Harry Potter dork. We were going to to to Westminster from there but we fell short on time and instead went to this cool little Thai restaurant which was really good.
(3) So then the next day I met up with Laura and Molly for lunch at this fish and chips place that Molly's guide book said was awesome and also (yay!) cheap. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 6pm. But since we were hungry at 2pm, we found a pizza place
in the area and ate there instead. Now, okay, let me tell you something about London. There are many things in the states that we take for granted. Trash bins on the streets for example, and also water fountains. They just don't have them here. At least, if they do, they're a pretty rare sight. Another thing we discovered they apparently don't have here are pizza cutters. Because we each ordered the same pizza, and we each received a whole pizza that was roughly the size of the fairly large plate with the beveled lip upon which they sat, and none of these pizzas were sliced. The utensils we had at our disposal were your standard kitchen knife (slightly dull) and a fork. Pizza cutting has never been so simple.
(4) That night we went to Waxy O'Malleys, a 5 story pub that looks like a church that's been renovated by the Keebler Elves:
But it was alot of fun and we hung out and drank cider and stood awkwardly in packed rooms and bounced to a beat. They played 'American Idiot' by Greenday but it was censored...to bleep out the parts that said like "F--- America" and such...I'm not sure why. It was interesting though.
(5) Lots of excitement here: I know I totally mocked Penn State's mandatory study abroad orientation slideshow for the 5-10 slides it spent warning us to avoid riots at all costs...because honestly, how often do you find yourself in the middle of a riot? I've been in England for less than a week and whaddaya know? I've already found myself in a riot.
It was the last night before a law went into effect that would ban the drinking of alcohol on the circle line. This made some people angry. These angry people decided to throw what they called a "cocktail party" on the tube that night, and we just happened to run into them on our way home from the pub.
It was crazy to see - everyone was clearly smashed, jumping up and down, packed tightly together on the other side of the tube tracks. Oh, and there were a few guys who kept mooning us. The security/train operating/crowd control guys in bright yellow vests were holding people back from the edge of the tracks and using their radios to stop and start the trains. We could hear all the t
rains pulling up to just around the bend and then stop and wait until they were given the go ahead to pull forwards.
It was incredibly cool to be a part of all of the ruckus - although I was definitely glad that I was on the other side of the tracks from the complete craziness, because being in the middle of all of that would have been total madness. We read about what had been going on at tube stops elsewhere along the circle line the next day in the paper and there were something like 17 arrests that night...and our station was far less packed than most. I can't even imagine that.
(6) Alright, last bullet point! This one should be quick, I hope. We went to Ha
rrods! That place is *huge*! Like, insanely huge. We spent a good 3-4 hours there and only made it to most of about 3 floors.
I was reading about its history online and back in its heyday you literally could get anything you needed there -- you could buy a house, a yacht, a baby elephant...Harrod's even embalmed Sigmund Freud. And they were the first place to have an escalator and it was so new-fangled that they needed to have a brandy stop at the top for "nervous passengers" which I think is an absolutely brilliant idea. It w
as amazing though. Very expensive too. But I wasn't even there to shop...it was interesting just walking around and looking at everything. Although we did cave an
d buy a fancy gelato chocolate sundae to share and it was totally worth it. Very rich and very delicious and it was lots of fun. Oh, but then when we got back to our apartment, we were talking to some other people who had also been to Harrod's earlier and apparently we *just* missed running into Simon Cowell (of american idol fame) who was doing some shopping there. Darn! Haha.
I'm going to end this here. Look for my next post on Friday probably, where I'll be talking all about work (which is awesome and very fun so far and I'm enjoying it alot).
Cheers!
Rebecca
p.s. Yay, Barack Obama!!!
p.p.s. as always, you can check what i'm up to without the commentary by checking out my picasa web albums.
But when I received an e-mail earlier today (which is now yesterday) from my mother asking if I had done anything since the 29th of May I knew it was probably time to update.
Here's a quick pictoral rundown of what I've been up to:
(1) We found a pub in Oxford Circus thats called The Cock (stop laughing, Dad) so naturally we had to stop by. Then those of us who hadn't eaten dinner yet decided that we wanted to get food somewhere. The only place open was a tequila Tex Mex (so British, I know) so we went there and when we discovered that they had a drink called "Wild Sex"...naturally we had to try it. It was pink and fruity and did not mix well with the Quesidillas (which were also delicious). Needless to say it was one of the most fun nights I've had here so far. And we got free shots on the house...they were Bailey's and peppermint (and continuing with the theme of the night they were called "Viagra shots"and they were pretty tasty.
(2) Just to clarify and to prove that I don't go out drin
king every night...here are pictures from King's Cross and Platform 9 and 3/4...because even though I didn't like the last two books, I'm still a huge Harry Potter dork. We were going to to to Westminster from there but we fell short on time and instead went to this cool little Thai restaurant which was really good.
(3) So then the next day I met up with Laura and Molly for lunch at this fish and chips place that Molly's guide book said was awesome and also (yay!) cheap. Unfortunately, it didn't open until 6pm. But since we were hungry at 2pm, we found a pizza place
in the area and ate there instead. Now, okay, let me tell you something about London. There are many things in the states that we take for granted. Trash bins on the streets for example, and also water fountains. They just don't have them here. At least, if they do, they're a pretty rare sight. Another thing we discovered they apparently don't have here are pizza cutters. Because we each ordered the same pizza, and we each received a whole pizza that was roughly the size of the fairly large plate with the beveled lip upon which they sat, and none of these pizzas were sliced. The utensils we had at our disposal were your standard kitchen knife (slightly dull) and a fork. Pizza cutting has never been so simple.
(4) That night we went to Waxy O'Malleys, a 5 story pub that looks like a church that's been renovated by the Keebler Elves:
But it was alot of fun and we hung out and drank cider and stood awkwardly in packed rooms and bounced to a beat. They played 'American Idiot' by Greenday but it was censored...to bleep out the parts that said like "F--- America" and such...I'm not sure why. It was interesting though.
(5) Lots of excitement here: I know I totally mocked Penn State's mandatory study abroad orientation slideshow for the 5-10 slides it spent warning us to avoid riots at all costs...because honestly, how often do you find yourself in the middle of a riot? I've been in England for less than a week and whaddaya know? I've already found myself in a riot.
It was the last night before a law went into effect that would ban the drinking of alcohol on the circle line. This made some people angry. These angry people decided to throw what they called a "cocktail party" on the tube that night, and we just happened to run into them on our way home from the pub.
It was crazy to see - everyone was clearly smashed, jumping up and down, packed tightly together on the other side of the tube tracks. Oh, and there were a few guys who kept mooning us. The security/train operating/crowd control guys in bright yellow vests were holding people back from the edge of the tracks and using their radios to stop and start the trains. We could hear all the t
rains pulling up to just around the bend and then stop and wait until they were given the go ahead to pull forwards.
It was incredibly cool to be a part of all of the ruckus - although I was definitely glad that I was on the other side of the tracks from the complete craziness, because being in the middle of all of that would have been total madness. We read about what had been going on at tube stops elsewhere along the circle line the next day in the paper and there were something like 17 arrests that night...and our station was far less packed than most. I can't even imagine that.
(6) Alright, last bullet point! This one should be quick, I hope. We went to Ha
rrods! That place is *huge*! Like, insanely huge. We spent a good 3-4 hours there and only made it to most of about 3 floors.
I was reading about its history online and back in its heyday you literally could get anything you needed there -- you could buy a house, a yacht, a baby elephant...Harrod's even embalmed Sigmund Freud. And they were the first place to have an escalator and it was so new-fangled that they needed to have a brandy stop at the top for "nervous passengers" which I think is an absolutely brilliant idea. It w
as amazing though. Very expensive too. But I wasn't even there to shop...it was interesting just walking around and looking at everything. Although we did cave an
d buy a fancy gelato chocolate sundae to share and it was totally worth it. Very rich and very delicious and it was lots of fun. Oh, but then when we got back to our apartment, we were talking to some other people who had also been to Harrod's earlier and apparently we *just* missed running into Simon Cowell (of american idol fame) who was doing some shopping there. Darn! Haha.
I'm going to end this here. Look for my next post on Friday probably, where I'll be talking all about work (which is awesome and very fun so far and I'm enjoying it alot).
Cheers!
Rebecca
p.s. Yay, Barack Obama!!!
p.p.s. as always, you can check what i'm up to without the commentary by checking out my picasa web albums.