I can’t even believe where the time has gone. Everything is happening so fast now. Looking back, it seems like my spring break was just a great dream I woke up from. This week back in London has been so startling rapid that I feel like I’m losing control.
Getting back to class after two weeks of vacation was rough, to say the least. I’ve been struggling in my education class because the end of the semester has become a free-for-all. The only mark we’re receiving in the class is a paper that is due at the end of the semester—which is, for me, within the next two weeks, whereas the rest of the class has another month. We are supposed to be giving a presentation (for no credit) that will mirror our paper, and we’re supposed to be doing it in groups. Well, my group is fairly incompetent, and so the presentation we are giving Monday is incoherent and not at all relevant to the assignment. However, my paper is written, and it should get me some good marks when assessed. ::knock on wood::
It was funny. Last Monday, when I was headed home from LMU, I made it a point to walk from the Green Park tube station. Not because it was a beautiful day (although, it was), but because I wanted to see Buckingham Palace. I’ve enjoyed seeing all of the London landmarks this week. After that long week of traveling, I realized that I missed London; after being away for nine days, I did really really miss London. It was such an odd feeling.
I spent most of my free time during the week preparing and writing this paper that’s due for my education class. It hasn’t been fun. I did take my second Differential Equations test on Wednesday. I was so upset at the test. The professors said it was going to be really difficult. It was only two questions and the questions were identical to those on the study guide. IDENTICAL. Sure, it was nice to know that I am going to get another near-perfect score, but I guess I was really hoping for a challenge. I wanted to “flex my mathematics muscles,” for lack of a better term. I was looking forward to having to think. Although, my comprehensive final exam is going to be in that class next Wednesday, so that should promise me some challenge.
Like I said, the week flew by. I was originally going to go to Berlin this weekend, but the girl who was going to go with me backed out, so I never booked a flight. Instead, I spent the weekend here, enjoying everything London has to offer. Thursday was St. George’s Day. (St. George’s Day is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England. So it’s comparatively England’s St. Patrick’s Day.) There was a huge concert in Trafalger’s Square on Saturday to celebrate; it was a bunch of ‘native’ music. It was honestly pretty cool. I was out there for most of Saturday afternoon. When I got there, a guy was performing who was like an English Jason Mraz. It was nice guitar-pop type of music, but had a nice ‘English’ twist to it. I debated buying one of his CDs for most of the day. There was a woman who played a thing similar to the bagpipes while her brother played guitar and fiddle and violin. There was the Bollywood Brass Band, which was two trombones, a trumpet, sousaphone and soprano saxophone, accompanied my three drummers. They came weaving through the crowd and ended up playing right where I was standing, so I have some great video of them, actually. There was this woman and her band who were really bizarre. It was like your typical rock band, except she was singing lead vocals playing what I can only describe as ‘rock sitar.’ Yeah! It was unique. I didn’t think they were terrible, but I really didn’t completely enjoy them either. The lyrics to the songs were kind of trite and simple. I really felt like they would have a great CD. I feel like they probably sound great in the studio, but their live show was a bit sub-par. I am going to try and find their myspace to see if my hypothesis is correct.
Friday! Before that delightful concert on Saturday, I had Friday. Okay. I’ve mentioned this a few times, but I’ve had one song that I’ve listened to basically non-stop since arriving in London. It’s called “Yankee in the Chip Shop” and it is by my favorite band, the Matches. Well, in the video for the song (which they filmed here in London) there’s a scene where they run past a collection of tipped over phone booths. It’s a really cool scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLKPN0bpP9Y Watch the video now and you will see what I mean. Anywho, I’ve been looking for these tipped over phone booths since I got to London. I even asked the people in charge of the programme here, hoping they would know, but they were just as clueless as I was. After spending an obscene amount of time with various google searches, I discovered in the comments for the youtube vid, someone talked about where they were located. So I got in touch with him, and he gave me the 411. So Friday morning, Andy and I trekked out to an area of London known as Kingston.
To understand London, you must know that it was a city that was, according to my history geek friends, made up originally of 32 villages, and so the city is still divided into these separate areas, similar to the boroughs of NYC. Well, Kingston is a ways away from the center of the city. It’s not necessarily far to refer to it as a suburb, because the geography of London is more complicated than that, but if you were just dropped there, it would be the easiest association to make in comparison to the “city of London.”
Anywho, so a tube ride and two bus rides later, we arrive in Kingston. It was so beautiful! And we did find the phone booths. I wanted to climb on them, but when the band was shooting the video, they were written a citation for doing just that. It wasn’t overly monumental, but it was something I wanted to do since I got here, so mission accomplished. After exploring the area somewhat extensively, we found an antique shop en route back to the bus stop. Our curiosity peaked, and so we meandered in for just a moment. It was the best thing we’d done all day. Inside of this place was a Polish Café. We decided it was then a great time to stop and eat. I ordered a plate of pierogi and I was in heaven. For six pounds, I got a plate of ten pierogis! They were so good. It basically made my day.
This weekend has been my only real productive part of my past week. I had a list of things to do over the weekend and I’ve successfully done them (except it took ALL weekend to write that miserable paper). Also, Saturday, I went out to Borough Market again. That was my last chance to go, and I wanted to because I love it out there so much. Jenna had never been there before, and she has a love for delicious food, so Andy and I took her out there. It was delightful.
Sunday, however, was an incredibly glorious and eventful day—and my eventful, I mean a single event consumed today. The London Marathon. I’ve always wanted to run a marathon; it’s on my bucketlist. However, after today, I’ve realised that if I’m going to run a marathon, the London one is the one to run. It was so great. I was out and about all day watching different portions of the race. I started the day around Canada Warf (around mile 9), and from there I saw the top runners go by. Then I went to Canary Warf and saw runners at mile 11 and 14. From there, I went to Southwark and followed the race all the way down to Westminster. It was so much fun to just walk along the racing route. I also stopped into a tent that Adidas set up, and I got a free marathon t-shirt! I was super pumped. It really was amazing to see such a huge outpouring of people out and about to support all of the runners. I was out watching the races from 10 until about 2:30. It put me in such a great mood.
Then, for dinner Sunday night, Jenna, Andy and I decided we were going to try and make kushari. Kushari is something I ate while in Cairo (if you read my mammoth spring break blog, you should remember that ;-D) It actually turned out really well! I was so pleased! And it wasn’t terribly difficult to make. Jenna and I tag-teamed it and there was no panicking at all. It went really well and it was really delicious.
I’ve only got two weeks left. I can’t even believe it.
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