How could you tire of London? This is a LONG post, so settle in with a warm beverage....

I really love this city!
It is the start of the semester, so my friends and I have chilled a bit and explored the city. Thus creating a new approach to London, along with a new motto: "Less drinking, more walking."

There really is so much to see here... So we started going on London walks. www.walks.com
These walks take you places in London you would never see on your own, and for the price of 1 and 2/3 pints (5 pounds). A great supplement to actually living here...

My last week:

Last Friday- Took an evening to myself and explored the Tate Modern. Ultimately decided that the best place a person could physically be in is the Millennium Bridge over the River Thames that leads from the museum to St. Paul's Cathedral. Wonderful! After a sober evening in the museum I went out for a drink with (non-school) friends in the middle of nowhere in London (Woolrich-Arsenal). When I arrived at ten pm one person in my group was very drunk. Very drunk. We were asked to leave. I went home. In conclusion, I got kicked out of a pub. ... New experiences...

Last Saturday- Went to Notting Hill with Iris and bought a wonderful dress for only 3 pounds, in addition to enough brie to feed an army for only 1 pound. SCORE! I was with three others and we had our photo taken in front of the picturesque street. Right before the camera went off a man fell right in front of us. He dropped his cell phone, slid across the concrete arms out, and ate it. We weren't really sure what to do and it all happened so fast! As he was laying at our feet and we just looked at each other. The man then muttered 'dammit,' got up, and apologised to US! The stranger took our photo, and we walked off... just waiting for karma to get us. Photo: Some lovely English chaps enjoying the market.


Last Saturday evening- I went on the London Walks Tour called "the ghosts of the Old City." It was a wonderful excursion through old alleys around St. Paul's and a square mile of London that is known as "The City." It was marvelous! I learned all sorts of interesting ghost stories and the history of a neighborhood very close to mine. In fact, we decided to just walk home to Old Street from St. Paul's. I am not at all sure how long it takes (but, I know it is walking distance... cool, or what?) because I decided take a pit stop and give my friend a tour of the Barbican Centre, a complex built above all roads to house an entirely pedestrianized venue for multiple theaters, a library, museum, performing arts center, and much much more... An entire complex dedicated to public space! We ended up catching a free Irish band concert and drinking wine until 11 pm. We then walked back to Old Street to meet our friends for a quick 3o min. dance before closing time.

All in all.... I did everything possible in London in one day.

Last Sunday- We went to Brick Lane, Spitalfields, and Petticoat lane markets. Again, all walking distance from my house. I love the East End... It is a bit dodgy, and more than a little gritty, but it is old old old, and has tons of history (Jack the Ripper, German air raids, etc). I found a great Wedgwood piece for my mom for only 4 pounds. I love the markets! Sunday evening we all settled into Tino's apartment near Bond Street and had a Michael Lynch/Woody Allen movie night. Photo: me in tiny alley in East End and next to some great graffiti.

Monday through Wednesday- I went to classes, the gym, studied and led an otherwise boring existence, except that Ashley and I did a Jack the Ripper London Walk. I am determined to grow old in the East End.

Thursday- I had class. Boring. OK. Then it was the beginning of my favorite night of the month: SWAP-A-RAMA RAZZMATAZZ. Otherwise known as the clothes swap. My friend Dick and I took it very seriously this time, arriving before 9 pm. and armed with a few garments we could live without... And there has never been a swaparama like it!!! We had a strong crew of eight of us swapping with maybe 200 other London folk! The photos say it all. The first is what we looked like before. Then some photos of the middle. Then the last is what we looked like at 2 am in the kitchen. Oooh what a great evening.

Friday- Woke up early(ish) and met Richard in Greenwich. This is the place where time was invented. I would say what actually occurred there but I was kind of hung-over and extremely exhausted. So I am going to just go with 'time was invented there.' You can stand on the actual line that is the Prime Meridian. And I did just that, except we couldn't be bothered to take the photo of it. You'll just have to take my word for it. Interestingly enough, Richard was setting his watch to THE time of the Greenwich Royal Observatory with a clock next to the Prime Meridian, but I looked over to another clock on the Observatory building, and the times were different. Different! By at least 20 seconds. We really felt inclined to tell someone about this huge oversight, but we were awfully exhausted..... Photo: Greenwich.

Saturday- The longest tourist day in London history. I again woke up early and met Dick at the Barbican Centre for an exhibit on sexual depictions in art from artifacts to Warhol. Enough said, right family? OK, then we did our own walking tour of Canary Wharf, an area in London that has splendid sky scrapers. It is really the only place, other than The City that has such buildings. We explored the Docklands Museum, which covered the importance of the Thames ports throughout London's history and then walked along the river and the wonderful views of the rest of the city... Did I mention the sunset? Photo: this sunset!

At this point we had been walking around for about 6 hours, and we had plans to meet up with 6 other friends for a walking tour of Hampstead. I almost decided not to go, but am so glad I did. It was beautiful! It has the highest point in London, and amazing views of the city! We walked through pedestrian streets through Georgian houses, homes where HG Wells, Katharine Mansfield, Boy George, and the Spice girls live (or have lived). We also saw the house where Mary Poppins was set in (... I am pretty it is the concept, not the movie. Correct?). Then we met up with a few more friends and had a giant feast in an Indian restaurant in the area. Photo: Indian Feast.

We took a train back to Hoxton and went to the dance club behind our house until 1 am. Then the Aussie friend we were with had the idea to go to a Rockabilly night at a club down the road. The club is a "Gentleman's club (read strip)" but one night a week the owner hires rockabilly DJs and the Shoreditch and Hoxton elite (there was a male Christian Dior model there) come to dance to music anyone in even my hillbilly hometown would have thrown a fit if played at a dance. But these people loved it! It was insanity! The bar was a bit dodgy, but no one in the bar was. It was like a secret meeting of those bougie Londoners who have an inner love for rockabilly. And frankly, there were a lot of them. Furthermore, I have no idea what to make of this.....

Aaaaah. So my tourist weekend(s) ends? No.

Today I woke up really late and met my friend Sarvenaz, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend's Scotch coworker for a market afternoon in Camden. This turned into us walking to Regent's Park's Primrose hill to watch the sunset! Afterwards, we walked all along the Embankment to Parliament, then to the Abbey, then to Buckingham, then to Trafalgar, then to Piccadilly. Her boyfriend is going back to the states in a few days so he had to get it all in!

I am going to sleep for an eternity now!

Christmas Break!

I really should've stayed home longer... after returning I suffered the worlds worst jet lag, followed by writing the most difficult paper ever. I finally finished Monday evening, all to start classes the next day!

But, the most exciting thing has happened: Ashley, Tino, Richard, and I booked our trip to Amsterdam! We will be there from the 7th-11th of February. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will be taking in the Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, the Red Light District, canals, and cafes. Monday Ashley and I are going to leave depressed, as we are visiting the Anne Frank house, where she and her family hid during the war.

Ooooh. Can't wait for the holiday!!

Writing....

I don't have much time to write...

So I am going to leave you with some photos of New Year's Eve and talk about the evening later.Just after midnight!

Crowds at Trafalgar Square.

Belly dancers at dinner.

Obligatory flip-off at 10 Downing Street.

Ashley's and my first Big Ben photo!

Space of time between arrival and NYE.

I arrived on Friday afternoon and managed a 3 hour nap around 3:30 p.m. When I woke up I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself! I bought groceries around ten. The hours between 6:30 and groceries, and from groceries to 1:00 am cannot be accounted for. I did not sleep. I did nothing productive. Ashley and I each discovered that the other was awake and visited until about 3:00 a.m.

I tried to sleep, but just couldn't! I started texting people I thought would maybe be awake. Sharif, of course, was up. He was just leaving a party and took a cab over so we could play with the remote control helicopter I imported for him from the states. That amused us until about 8:00 a.m. (sunrise), when I finally passed out.

I woke up at about 4:00 pm the next day, which is after sunset in this part of the world, which was terribly depressing. Sharif and I reconvened a few hours later and took a stroll through the East End (about fifteen min. walking time more east than me). We went to this members only club that did not sell alcohol, just tea and juices, and apparently had the only benefit of having excellent mint tea and enough room to again play with the helicopter. I stuck around long enough and then met Manish in the West End (a nicer, but less interesting bit of this town).

We went to a pub on a boat. Pub boats are wonderful when you can sit outside, but it was too cold for that. The only negative thing about pub boats is that there is this compounding affect of having a bit too much to drink and a swaying foundation under your feet. At that point it was time to call it a night! I slept until around noon, then napped from about 12:15 pm. to 4 pm. ... and I missed another span of daylight completely. Damn!

That brings us to Sunday. All I really had time to do was take a shower, unpack about 3 shirts, and meet my old boss Tom. We had a good meal in Covent Garden. I got us super lost in the area of ???, and then managed to find my way back to Leicester Square without looking at a map or asking people. Because, folks, that is unacceptable and less exciting than walking around in circles. I mean, I have my pride.....

Then I dragged him to Camden with my pal Richard. The dance floors were closed in preparation for the next night's NYE spectacular. So, we just bar hopped a bit. And Tom had the marvelous experience of being in a dodgy area of town while depending on two kids who drank to much to teach him how to use the night bus map. "It's not hard. You find your destination with the index. Find the bus that goes there. Cross reference that with your location on this map. Determine which bus stop letter corresponds to your bus. Figure out how to walk to that bus stop. Then jump on the bus! See? Not hard. Now, you'll need to repeat this when you get to Oxford Circus, you can manage, right? You'll be home by dawn, no doubt!"

I really hope he made it. It's been bothering me.

Ashley, Richard and I chatted until about 4:00 a.m. Then I slept until 2:00 p.m. Just in time to watch the sun set, which I felt was an achievement.....

Next: NYE

Been a while, eh?

I will be blogging more. Or at the very least trying harder to blog more.

TRIP HOME: Dissssaster.

At the airport in Indianapolis, my mom played the obvious and evil trick of telling me my flight to Chicago had been cancelled. Moms are funny. But wait, she was serious. The American Airline man said that he would kindly book a hotel for me in Indianapolis and I could catch the flight the next day. But I had already said goodbye to my cats, was packed, and finally emotionally prepared to say bye to my parents. I would have to repeat all of this tomorrow?? No, sir.

So, I cried a bit and they switched me to a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit, and then a British Airways flight to London.

The BA flight was great! My lovely flight neighbor and I shared London stories over (numerous) bloody Mary's. Customs at Heathrow was a cinch and I was back home at around 2:00 pm.

After lugging my bags all over the London Underground, I felt like I was in the homestretch after carrying my bags up the final flight of stairs to my flat. All these feelings of success drowned as I discovered that maintenance had changed the locks to my flat. Exhausted and grumpy, I left my bags to be stolen and asked for new keys at the front desk. The man decided it would be a fun 'group excursion' for us to find a key together. He tried random keys on a ring, while I stood there dealt with his small talk. Me: "Hey, I have a great idea. I go to sleep. You find my key. I wake up and get it later. Yeah? OK great. Buh bye!"

I fell asleep at approximately 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

NEW YEARS EVE '07-'08 is coming.