According to Lorelyn, I take too long to write these, so from now on I'm going to try to update these more frequently than 6/7 days. (There's your shoutout, biotch <3)
Anyway, last Friday started a weekend of exciting events: In the afternoon Phil (my penpal of yearsssssss) came down to London to visit! I went down to the rail station to pick him up and knew it was him right away because he was the only ginger in the station. That night Yasin Ryan and I wanted to show him around the good parts of London but ended up in the red light distrcit of SoHo trying to find Chinese food at a decent price. We ended up at the Pizza Hut on High Street where it was more money than going out to a really good lunch at a posh cafe. Pizza Hut in London is nothing like Pizza Hut in America; they have wine glasses and things are clean. What an amazing night we really showed Phil in London....Pizza Hut.
Saturday we went to the science museum where Phil told us that his dad built the energy ring. The museum there was more for little kids but if you spent time actually reading the little blurbs on everything, you could have actually learned a little bit of more information than your 8th grade science class. Also, we spent about half an hour trying to find the 4th and 5th floor that was on the map, but didn't exist in the stair well or the elevator. Interesting. We were going to roll with a few of us to Camden that night, but somehow we convinced Rachel, Michelle and Chris to come out with us. Chris goes and gets changed and comes out legit 2 minutes later having chugged one beer, chucks it in the trash, then chuggs another Stella and chucks that in the trash as well. All in less than 4 minutes. This is from the kid that barely drinks. It was the epic start of a epic night. We ended up at the Worlds End Pub which might just be the biggest pub in London. (Fun fact: that really random club that Ryan and I ended up at in Camden one of those few nights, the Camden 'Underworld'? That's the 'sister' club that is UNDER this pub). The rooms and bars just never end. We found ourselves in the corner where one of the DJ's was playing. Of course the Brits couldn't dance and after we had a drink in hand, we of course requested Lady GaGa to get the night started. Now let me remind you, Camden is the home of the punks, hipsters and goths, so you can imagine the type of crowd of shaved heads and facial piercings we rolled up into. After a few songs we leard GaGa's beautiful voice once again roll through the pub and the Americans really started to boogie on the dance floor. I think the DJ thought we were entertaining because after that, the whole mood of the pub totally changed from a calm, possibly country type of atomosphere to a slightly club/dubstep/old school 90's (not forgetting Sean Paul/No Doubt/Nelly/Grease) scene. We got the whole place on their feet and dancing. I met some 'Turkish playboys', who were just really ugly but buff guys in white jackets who couldn't speak a word of English trying to pass off as 'Playboys' who thought their accents could get them girls. All the Americans averaged about 1 drink each while Phil, who had 4+ and could have still pased about sober sally, pretended he didn't know us because we were the ones who acted as though we should have been failing the breathilizer. Oh, and when GaGa's Telephone came on Yasin cleared the dance floor and I did it in front of the section of the pub where there were cameras going off. The night ended with dancing on tables with more foreigners and took the night bus home in the middle of the night. British people actually went up to Ryan and asked if they could come out with us next time because the Americans were so much fun. All we had to say to that night is, You're Welcome Camden.
Sunday was more chill than that night, to say the least. Phil and I walked around Oxford because he wanted to see this epic 95,000 pound watch, but most of the stores were closed including that one. We ended up just back at the flat and I cooked a huge family meal of stirfry. I hate to say it was also a very sad day: my dog died and I was very distrubed to hear that Papa Flemming passed away. I loved Papa Flemming so much and I'm just really thankful that I got to spend 'Thanksgiving' with the Flemmings right before I left so I can have a last wonderful memory of him.
Monday I had class almost all day. In British Life and Culture we learned all about the London newspaper system, from the trashy Sun tabloid to the 'New York Times' of London, the London Times. The Marist Bitties got in groups and we were given sheets of paper and 4 headlines and were told to create a British newspaper, based on the ones we read, geared towards our British audience. It was really interesting to see the similarities and differences between American and British newspapers and what kind of audiences they draw. After that I had a small break where I brought Phil to the train station to say our sad goodbyes :( and then I had to go back to Islam class, which was another snore and a half. Seriously, I love Hameed but after doing 50 pages of reading and then not discussing anything remotely close to what we had to read and being so off topic is being frustrating. We got through that class and I want to mention how awesome the sandwich I made that night was: that amazing Whole Foods grain bread, tomato, lettuce, mayo, chicken, and smoked cheese which I grilled in a pan. Delish.
Tuesday I slept in really late because I didn't have class til 5. That night in my music class we were studying experimental music and got to study the bizarre almost picture like qualities that this time period of music genre in Britain. We got put in groups and assigned a piece of experimental music and got to improvise and take what we thought the music was to us with only the objects we had in our bags. It was a really interesting and fun class. Halfway through, Ally and Christina turn to me and asked 'what are you and Yasin doing tonight?' I replied, 'nothing'. Christina then tells me that her friend is a club promoter and is getting us on the VIP list on 2 of the hottest London clubs, so she needed Yasins last name. I texted Yasin to tell her the good news and she texted back that she just met Keanu Reeves. I get back to my flat and look up the places we were going to (Funky Buddah and Wiskey Mist) and they looked insane. We were told to get there by 10:30 and we arrive, on time, and we were apparently early. (Because with this crowd, you need to be fashionably late. Speaking of fashionable, while we're looking like hatters, the people around the club have Louis Vitton and Chanel on. No big). So, Ally being Ally decides to stroll into the Ritz hotel next door and convinces the manager who says that the Members Only bar which is 21+ to let us in. We order drinks (12 pounds a drink mind you, I'm used to my 1.90 in Imperial pub or Camden.) and at 11:00 decide its time to go into Wiskey Mist. John tells the VIP lady that we're at his table and we just stroll right in. Now, this is not Camden, hell, this isn't even South Kensington. This place is nothing like I've ever seen before. There is crystal chandellers and class money dripping everywhere. Posh people are just walking around and I felt like I had to be 20 pounds thinner, have a Chanel handbag and holding a martini just to stand in the place. Apparently, when Nikki Manaj was in London a few days ago this was the place she was shakin' her booty at, and Drake was here the weekend before. Finally the dance floor starts to get going people started to loosen up. The DJ was SICK. Some really drunk British kids tried to tell us they were from Spain because they thought it would make them sexier and I kept getting groped by one of them so we moved away as quickly as possible. Out of nowhere, our friend Mary who had disappeared for literally 2 seconds told us that she had found some Swedish guys who had invited us into VIP with them. Um, excuse me? So there we were, in VIP with some Swedish guys who had 2 GIANT bottles of Grey Goose they were pouring as long as you stood there and shook your bootys for them. Um, no thank you. I stayed sober the entire night. I met the striker for the Chelsea soccer team Fabio who was in and out of the VIP ROOM (which of course we weren't allowed in, we're no Nikki Manaj). There were burlesque dancers with firewands parading around the entire night. It was legit intense. All of a sudden the Star Wars theme played and Rick Ross started rapping. What? Oh ok Rick Ross was just in Wiskey Mist with us on a Tuesday night. No big deal. At around 2:30 we decided that our feet hurt too much and it was time to go. Thank god the bus lets out right in front of our door.
Today was the first day I slept until noon since I've been here. I had class until 4 and then I've been doing work for my music presentations on Friday. I think the most exciting thing that happend today was that Erica, our RA had to come reset our circuit breaker before our food went bad. I'll try to keep this more frequently updated but I'm sure more hilarity will ensue!
No comments:
Post a Comment