The London Eye!

My lovely Katherine has been visiting me in London for six days now, and our friend Helga who lives in Estonia has come to visit as well, she has been with us for three days! We were an inseparable trio junior year of high school while Helga was studying at Beacon for the year, this is our first group reunion! Needless to say it has been a very good week, and my focus on school has been minimal. It's only the beginning of the semester though so I am not yet stressed out by schoolwork.

Before Helga got here, Katherine and I went on a long evening walk, where Katherine took this picture of the London eye—look at those Mardi Gras colors!

We went to a cheese store called Neil's Yard Dairy and got some yummy cheese.  These are the crackers that followed:

The following evening we attempted to go out, which was pretty much a fail aside from the fact that we got Mojitos... mmm.

The next morning Katherine and I went to a quaint diner in my neighborhood and got breakfast before Helga arrived. We ordered "coffee" and they brought us lattes, I love Europe! No grey drip coffee for me.

After a bit of downtime with the Helgster we walked to the National Portrait Gallery where we saw the Beatles to Bowie exhibit, which was in its final days. The exhibit was about Pop music in the 60s and it was pretty well put together, I thought. The only problem was that it was so crowded! That's what I get for going on one of the last days.

The girls in front of one of the exhibit posters

All of us in front of the National Portrait Gallery

Yesterday, we wandered around Notting Hill, where I only took one mediocre photo, many of the houses in the neighborhood are painted pastel colors.

A picture Katherine took of a pink door.

We walked down Portobello Road which has a famous market that goes along the road as far as the eye can see. Vendors there sell a variety of things such as cheesy touristy souvenirs, handmade leather goods, knick knacks, and antiques. We stopped into a shop along the road which had a lot of antiquey British knick knacks, it was really cool.

After Notting Hill, we went on the London Eye!

A view of one of the bridges near the eye as we began to ascend.

People on the promenade below.

The BT tower in the distance—it's in my school's neighborhood and always a good reference point when I am walking around.

Big Ben...obv.

St. James Park & Buckingham Palace.

When we were approaching the top of the Eye!

From way up above

Spaceship

Obligatory photos of us on the Eye

Preparing to cross back to the other side of the river.

Later in the evening, we went to a club called Proud which had three live bands performed followed by DJing. It was a lot of fun despite the fact that at one point an old man tickled my armpit.

One of the bands, Race Horses, on stage. Our favorite band was called Fool's Gold but we don't have a picture of them.

The four of us in the fogginess.

There were two main rooms, and after the live music, we went in the other room where the DJ was playing mostly soul music—it was amazing. He played lots of Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder... this turned our good night into an absolutely spectacular one! I was dancing so ferociously I actually managed to hurt my knee, which resulted in a slight limp on the way home and some pain today. Tis the price you pay for a good time.

Today has been pretty low key, we wandered a bit around Camden and went into my favorite tea shop (Yumchaa) for some tea and cake. Tomorrow after my Russian class, we are headed to Birmingham for 24 hours!

Sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would I wanna be anywhere else?

Given that I went to bed at 8am "last night" and woke up at 2pm today, I feel as though this has been a fairly productive day thus far (note, I've been up for a little bit under four hours). It was actually sunny and warm today (a high of 50°F!), the first time it's been this nice since I've been back, so I decided to go on a long, lovely walk around London. I think I can safely say I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (with the hilarious acronym of SAD). According to Wikipedia, "The US National Library of Medicine notes that 'some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods.'" I know that in actuality, the SAD description applies to basically every human being on earth, but my winter lifestyle patterns are much more similar to those of bears than those of humans. 

In any event, with no particular route in mind, I decided to make my way towards the Thames river. According to google maps, it was about a 6 mile walk in total. 

My Route:

View of my dorm from Wren Street

Grey's Inn Road, the old and the new

While walking through Russell Square, I passed a man feeding a Squirrel which climbed up his leg to get the nut from him (pause). I was quite shocked by the boldness of said squirrel, and after the initial bafflement, I attempted to document this occurrence. Unfortunately, it was too late. I made note of this event as not to forget to mention that there are really bizarre squirrels here in England. Then later, while I was walking along St. James park, an old lady was feeding a squirrel and it did the same thing! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

I just thought this was pretty, and the sun was so bright today!

I passed a lot cliché London sights.

The London Eye and Big Ben from a distance.

London Eye

Westminster Bridge

It was right around the time that I took the above picture, that I spotted an attractive bearded man. As I stared a bit I realized it was, in fact, teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson (the star of Twilight, duh). I did not take his picture, but I did stare a bit. While I have never really been a fan, I did end up swooning a bit.

Moving on...

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace from Afar

Being back in London has been really good so far. I am feeling really optimistic, and happy to be here. Of course, this may be the weather talking! I had a fun (though unproductive, as usual) weekend. Thursday night I went with Hannah and Miranda to a hipster dance party (kind of intense) which resulted in my shoes looking like this:

And last night we went to a nearby college-hangout pub where I ended up watching the Saints game and dancing to pop-rap. Made me slightly NOLA-sick, and while I am sad to be missing DJ Pauly D from Jerz Shore perform at the Boot, catching glimpses of the Real World cast, and seeing Simon and Garfunkel at JazzFest, there will be plenty of things to look forward to when I get back. For now, I am trying to concentrate on enjoying myself to the fullest here. Not to mention, Katherine will be here tomorrow!

Back in LDN

I survived the plane ride back! Always a success. Granted, this success isn't attributable to me, more-so to the pilot and Iceland's lack of enemies (as far as I know). I connected via Reykjavik. Both planes were no bigger than a plane to New Orleans so... that was an interesting experience. Overall there was very little turbulence, but that didn't stop me from thinking I was going to die anyway. I did however get to see 500 days of summer, which I enjoyed.

Today was my first day of classes, but I didn't go. Instead, I slept till 2:30 in the afternoon (oops). It was well worth it. Though I worry since skipping class usually leads to more skipping class (which is why I usually try and wait until at least halfway through the semester). But eh... I am jet lagged. What can you do?

London is cold. As is New York, as is New Orleans. So I guess, at least right now, there would be no escaping it. Though I dream of a weekend vacation to Barcelona (highs of 60° F are still way better than this).

I haven't done much since I've been back, only about 32 hours or so. I did manage to get food and coffee with Miranda today which ended the hibernation/solitude of the first 24 hours. Needless to say, human contact is pretty crucial in staying sane, particularly in this weather.

Anyway, break was really wonderful, I am glad I got to see so many of the people I love in New York which I still think is pretty much the greatest place in the world. It recharged my batteries so I think I am (almost) ready to face the next semester.

It's nice returning to London and not feeling new anymore. Since I am a lot more settled than I was at the beginning of last semester, I am hoping to find a job and join some clubs, tentatively considering the following:
yoga & meditation
cycling club (though I don't have a bike here... but perhaps this would lead me to finding a cheap place to get one?)
hiking and walking club
women students
foodcycle

I am also planning on joining the gym, and possibly going. This is really a stretch, but why not dream big.

That's all for now!