London Calling

Lots of events this weekend. I have, by the way, noticed that my posts have been continuously decreasing month per month, which is actually quite understandable given the steadily increasing workload. Rule of inverse proportions!

To begin, Thursday: Thanksgiving Dinner at Reid Hall! I was extremely excited. I love Thanksgiving, probably because my parents have never had a real one. Well, there was this one time where I was 5, but a family dinner party happened to coincide with it, and there was a Turkey involved. The prior 2 Thanksgivings I had spent in Central Jersey with Ellie's family, which proved to be life-altering in various ways (can I be any more vague?). That, and delicious. Freaking delicious. I was looking forward to the full bird presentation, complete with cornbread and stuffing. However, we began the meal with pumpkin pie (I know, right?), continued to mashed potatoes/gravy/turkey (SANS STUFFING, and already on the plate. Silly French restaurants who don't understand American culture), and finished with no less than 7 pieces of various types of pie (an estimate, as I ended up sneaking a lot of pieces onto Nate's friend Eric's plate).

One of few pictures of the party (the boy on the left is my homestay brother J.D., the boy with the blazer and hilarious expression is my friend Will)


In fact, Thanksgiving was a tad disappointing. I expected that Thanksgiving with all of the people I liked from the program (every single person at the dinner was a friend of mine! So happy!), it would be extraordinarily fun. It was fine, but... just fine. Our homestays were late, and we couldn't figure out what language we were supposed to speak, as half of the people there spoke either only English or only French.

Oh, well. At least we got pie out of the deal, as we each had to bring one (and thus die of wonderful sugar overdose!)

Then, four hours of sleep, and taking the Eurostar to LONDON!

Friday: arrive overwhelmingly sleepy and take an embarrassingly long time trying to find the hostel, which was, hilariously, located on "Moscow Street" next to an enormous Russian Orthodox Church. How did I know?? Then taking the tube. I LOVE the tube. Mostly for the hilarious automated British accents saying "Mind the gap, please." It was such a relief to hear English after over three months of French!

Then I met Melissa, Monica, and Caroline in a restaurant/coffeeshop near Westminster Abbey, which was right near Big Ben and Parliament. Photos:




Drinkin' some tea:
Melissa said this picture gave her "character". Hmmm... I was indeed nice and did not upload it onto Facebook. Now it is the blog, for all the world to see! I am such a good friend.

After tea, we went to Westminster Abbey, which was by far the best time I had all weekend, JUST because of the Poet's Corner. People buried at the Poet's Corner who you might have heard of: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Lewis Carroll (Charles Henry Dodgson), W.H Auden, Henry James, George Eliot, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters (Emily, Charlotte, Anne), Matthew Arnold, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Charles Darwin (not a poet but cool nonetheless), Charles Dickens. I will spare you the illegal photos within Westminster Abbey, and include a photo of the gorgeous gothic Abbey itself:


We spent the entire day trying to get a good picture of ourselves in the red phone booths. Alas! No luck to be found. Next we ate at a pub near Westminster (fish and chips = yummy! I missed greasy food. I was less into malt vinegar in lieu of ketchup, however. Sorry Brits, I just love my fries + ketchup). Continuing, we did a bit of shopping on Oxford Street, especially at Primark, a cross between the cheapness of Target with the clothing of TJ Maxx and the craziness of Sam's Club on a Sunday. Gotta love it.

I was exhausted and cold (it had been raining all day), so I went back to the hostel for a quick catnap while the rest of them had a Jack the Ripper tour. Afterwards I ended up meeting up with Sonia, my new friend, who I met through my friend Paulina at Reid Hall. She was the girl I'm hugging in the photograph that ended up in Metro!

London was actually surprisingly stressful-- I had a choice of no less than 4 groups of people I could possible hang out with, and only 1 day to do it all! I could have also seen Julia Gonzalez, who goes to Columbia, or Youcef Draia, another new friend made through Vanessa at Reid Hall (who recently graduated from Columbia). Alas, after multiple miscommunication I met Sonia and two of her friends at the Volunteer, a really amazing pub. Needless to say, I had an absolute blast hanging out with Sonia. Too bad she's staying for the year in London! I would've loved to visit her in Sarah Lawrence.

I would just like to clarify that this is APPLE CIDER, and not beer. 1. It's not carbonated, clearly, and 2. It looks and tastes like apple juice! Most wonderful drink EVER.

Next we took the bus (unfortunately not one of the double-decker ones) to Hyde Park, where we ran around being idiots. How fortuitous, as running around being a complete idiot is in fact one of my favorite activities.


Blake and his friend Julia were absolutely fantastic, too. What a great night! Unfortunately I ended up taking a taxi back, as I missed the last metro, unfortunately. But what a great time!

Saturday: Hurried to Victoria Station, where I had to take the bus to Cambridge, as I was visiting Steph that day, who is doing the OxBridge Columbia program. I arrive breathless at Victoria, stressed and confused, and realized that I hadn't changed the clock on my phone and indeed woke up an hour earlier than needed. Poo. For some reason these things just keep happening. I blame it on being an only child. There's nobody to reprimand you for being stupid!

I arrive in Cambridge a little after noon, and Steph gives me a wonderful walking tour. Cambridge University is amazingly beautiful. Such architecture! And so EPIC! The only setback was the cold. I had a massive throat-ache the next day. Brrr! There was tons of fog, which was actually quite beautiful. Steph and I decided it was right out of a Wordsworth poem (how funny that I had just seen his tomb at Westminster Abbey the day before!).



I didn't modify the pictures at all. It really looks like that.

We went to eat at a pub, which was absolutely delicious, and met up with Stephanie's friend Rui (pronounced "Rey"), who also goes/went to Columbia, and also studies both English and French. A nice meal, then scouting a flea market, where I of course bought another cheap pair of bizarre earrings. Next, more touristy activities, and then hanging out in Steph's dorm with a bunch of Brits. Interesting people, Brits. Hilarious accents, diverse backgrounds, knowledge of interesting buzzwords like "jumper" instead of sweater. Huh.

A nice night, again. We ended up hanging around listening to music and eating our weight's worth in crumpets with peanut butter, delicious scones with cream and jam, and apple pies. So unhealthy, but so worth it!

Next day, hectic transportation, and arriving in Paris early evening, greeted by freezing temperatures and rain. I missed you, too, Paris, I missed you, too.

I LOVE THE U.K.! 2 days are not nearly enough. Maybe London over the summer, if my bank account doesn't run out (which it actually is)? On verra, on verra.