Food, Wonderful Food.

No class on Fridays - aka so much time to kill.

On this particular friday, I decided to venture down to Borough (pronounced "burr-uh" apparently) market.  As its one of the largest and oldest food markets in the world, I really should have skipped breakfast beforehand.  I pretty much consumed 3 meals worth of free food and deliciousness.


Not only is the market teeming with fruits, veggies, seafood, and meat, but they had a huge amount of fine and gourmet foods, including some shocking ones like kangaroo burgers and meringues the size your face.

After walking around and trying samples of everything and anything I could get my hands on,  finally decided to try an ostrich burger for lunch.  Let me tell you, it was de-fucking-licious.

(notice the ostrich figuring to the left of the burgers. love it)

Will definitely be going to borough any and every time I'm free during its hours. 


Afterwards, we decided to go check out Camden, since I've heard great things but had never been.  We got there after prime market hours were closed so definitely didn't stay long, but it was nice to walk around and see the "bohemian"ness that is Camden.

babies?

I don't have much time, but wanted to share an interesting decorative scheme I came across while walking around Spitalfields yesterday.


Kate and I were craving some good Crepery style crepes, so we headed towards old Spitalfields Market. On the way we came across this super creepy looking vintage store called "A Child of Jago".


Wasn't Jago the parrot in Aladdin?

We really only stepped in because there were some masks in the window, and we recently booked tickets to Venice for Carnival (BOMB).


The clothing inside was actually pretty cool, legit vintage stuff. What was most interesting, however, was the chosen decoration.

Yes, you are seeing things correctly. In this vintage store, as a sort of art display, were a bunch of baby dolls handing by the neck from the ceiling.


Now of course, we all know I am not the biggest fan of babies.  I am absolutely not saying that I want to hang them by the neck or hurt them in an any way, they just make me a little uncomfortable. Or a lot uncomfortable. And a little vommish.

So naturally I found this pretty amusing, and had to share.


I REPEAT - I in no way enjoy harming babies. Just prefer to stay away from them, at least until my maternal instincts decide to show up.


And we made it in the end to The CrepeAffair.

Mmmm. Banana + Nutella = DELISHHH

GLEEK to the core.

Is it super lame that I decided to spend my Monday laying around at home watching Glee?

Okay stupid question - its never lame to suspend life for the sake of Glee. (Theres Finn singing "put a ring on it" on the football field - LOVE IT.)


The rest of my night post-Glee however got infinitely more exciting. Directly after Glee was "Bride and Prejudice", aka Ballywood at its best.  Featuring Jaya instead of Jane, Lalita instead of Lizzie, and Balrag instead of Bingley, I'd say it was extremely true to its Jane Austen roots.

With lyrics such as:


"Show them the way
Take them to love
Things only heard now they want to be
Two beings with one beating heart
For their whole lives not to part
Show them the way
Take them to love
ooooooooooh
La-la la-la la la-la-la"

Quite honestly, I am utterly SHOCKED that Bride and Prejudice isn't a top Broadway hit at this point.

The biggest shocker aired right after Bride and Prejudice (god I can't get enough of that title).

CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER

Apparently people in the UK are obsessed with this "big brother" reality tv show.  A number of residesnts are confined to live in a house together for 3 months or so under 24/7 camera surveillance, which is constantly available to watch - completely unedited.  Very truman show-esque.  I guess the point is that every once in a while, people are voted off?

For the past 20 minutes, I have been watching two of these residents sleep.

Yes, literally. Every once in a while one will scratch their nose or roll over. Very exciting stuff.  


The kicker is that there are actually commercial breaks - does that mean people are paying to advertise during this 12 hour sleep session, assuming people will actually be watching? Hm, I guess I am.


It gets better.... THEY HAVE A TWITTER. If you are a true fan, you can stay updated on their every move.


Screenshot:  (notice the super creepy fire eye logo)

You can see ridiculously exciting updates such as..


1:01 - Stephanie yawned
1:07 - Steph rolled over
1:12 - Stephanie farted in her sleep


No wonder they have a whopping 11,835 followers.


Alright bed time for me.


P.S. VINNY JUST ROLLED ONTO HIS BACK AND READJUSTED HIS PILLOW!!!

Nightseeing Vs. Sightseeing

Last night saw wicked - which of course was WICKED.

Not only was it my third time seeing the show, but I managed to cry approximately six times throughout. What can I say, I guess I've been extremely emotional as of late! I will have to add, however, that it was way better on broadway - although rumor has it that london theatre is bomb dot com. 

I guess I'll have to see more shows before I can make my final judgement!

After the show, wandered around for a while and paid a quick visit to my future home...

Yep, thats me at the Buckingham Palace gate. Just waiting for prince harry to come let me in - he's having a key made for me asap.

P.s. I'm wearing a dress under my coat, I swear! It was just riding up a lot. Hmm..

Woke up bright and early this morning to be on a 9am walking tour of London, where I got to go to all of the same places during the day! Pretty sweet.

I'll give a run down of my top 5:

#1 : THE LONDON EYE

Started out at Westminster, where we had a beautiful view of the London eye (still have yet to take a ride on the giant ferris wheel) and the river.  

They say that if you fall in the River Thames you have two minutes to be rescued if you want to survive. TWO MINUTES. Thats some scary shit - I might be avoiding the millennium bridge for a while.

#2 : WESTMINSTER ABBEY

We then moved along and saw parliament and Westminster Abbey, which was absolutely stunning.  

Gave a quick wave to Big Ben...

(just love that picture because the sky is blue - well, sort of blue at least)

#3 : THE PRIME MINISTER

Payed Gordon Brown a quick visit on Downing Street! 

Yes yes - Prince Harry and Gordon Brown all in the span of two days. I'm pretty much a baller.

#4 : CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

Definitely best part of the day. Apparently to be a bomb solider in the UK, you have to belong to one of the five top regimens. In order to belong to one of these regimens, not only do you have to be fit as a fig, but you have to be ridiculously smart AND musically talented. Who would've thought?

The changing of the guards is a ceremony that takes place at Buckingham Palace.  Basically, the two regimens of soldiers play MusicMan-esque marching band instruments as they march down the street and trade places. Not really sure why there is music involved, but it was sweet. 

Besides, who wouldn't want a fit smart soldier-drummer? baller.

Seeing the palace during the day was so completely different than at night time, but equally as beautiful.

Oh, and I forgot my #5.

#5 : FREE CHINESE LUNCH

Payed for by WashU of course. So thats where all of my tuition money is going...



Other than intense sightseeing, I've been mad sick and therefore taking it easy. Hopefully I'll be able to breathe again by the end of the week!

Rape Alert?

 One thing I've found extremely amusing in London is their advertising, especially concerning safety.


For example, observe the following ad warning against using unbooked mini cabs as transportation.

Not only is there some wonderfully vivid dialogue ("STOP, NO, PLEASE STOP"), but the picture is definitely worth a thousand words. 


In case you can't tell, its basically a girls face pressed up against a cab window, clearly saying "help me i'm being raped".  Would we ever see an ad like that in the states?

I like this one too - man about to face plant from falling down the stairs.  I've definitely been grasping those handrails for dear life.




More to come - just haven't snapped photos yet!

From Hell

Jack the Ripper was a pretty sick dude.


"At 10.45am when Thomas Bowyer called to collect her overdue rent and discovered her body. She lay upon her bed, her head turned to the left. The whole of the surfaces of the abdomen and thighs had been removed and the abdominal cavity emptied. The breasts had been cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition. The uterus and the kidneys, together with one breast, were found beneath her head. The other breast lay by her right foot. The liver had been placed between her legs, and the spleen by the left side of the body."

I did the official London Jack The Ripper walking tour - it was sweet. Basically, the biggest expert on JTR (who also got to prep Johnny Depp for his role in the movie From Hell) walked us around London for an hour and a half while slowly unveiling and explaining all of the details of the Ripper's "reign of terror". He basically murdered and mutilated five 40-year-old prostitutes, ripping each open "from the vagina to the breast bone", and was never caught. Pretty clever if you ask me!



Afterwards we ducked into The Ten Bells ,a pub thats been around since 1666 - the pub that all of JTR's victims were known to hang around, and that is still known locally as "the ripper's pub". Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found.

Other highlights of the past few days - 

We had our first Snakebites (legendary drink highly recommended by all previous abroad students) at the KCL bar, where we also made our first KCL friends! Pretty exciting.

We moved from there to an Australian bar that boasted a nice mix of Queen, Elton John, and Jay-Z. Pretty interesting. Afterwards, I made my first moves into Chinatown to grab some 3am schezuan chicken.

You can sortof see the china arch...

Also of extreme importance to mention - I made my first ever home cooked meal! Well thats a lie. Kate made it but I assisted, and even cut some of the zucchini. Which was pretty much disaster.

Finally, last night was King's once-per-term event The Truffle Shuffle - basically a huge 80s night.  Think legwarmers, side-ponies, and neon tights galore.

Plan for today? Oxford St, baby.

Vodka Island a.k.a. WashU LondonFest

Welcome to Vodka Island, Tiger Tiger's (resident touristy Piccadilly club) STUDENT NIGHT - basically a way to get all the study abroad students in one big hot sweaty mess together by making them wait in a 20 minute line and charging them a 6 pound cover to enter a ridiculously crowded dance club with another 20 minute long line to check your coats.

But its worth it because once you DO make it through the horrendous coat queue, you barely have space to dance, can't talk to your friends because "Riverside" (see end of post) is playing at an extremely high decibel, and you get to sweat out all of toxins from previous nights of partying while simultaneously filling up with new ones for 2 pounds a shot being served by shirtless italian men.

Wait a minute - who am I kidding?

Although I usually prefer to stay away from touristy clubs like Tiger Tiger, partying with Wash U at Vodka Island was for sure a blast. WashU kids from Kings, UCL, and b-school (cass?) all came out for the fun.

And we had an ALPHA PHI FEST WOOOOT. (just spent an hour stalking all the new girls - already in love)

Oy.. sweaty mcgee.

AFTERTHOUGHT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V775PPuBc7Y

(bomb london song that I'm pretty pos hasn't hit America - not a lot of words other than "riverside motherfucker" but put it on a pregame mix or something. trust me)

Tower Bridge

Typical day in London town...

Shira and I wake up at 2pm (yes, pm) ready for an eventful day of sightseeing. Where to? TOWER OF LONDON.

Eat. Shower. Waste some time lying around in bed.

4pm rolls around and we finally arrive at our destination, only to discover that the Tower of London closes at 4:30. Wowsers, we really need to start our days with more appropriate timing.

We managed to still get our fill of tourist pleasure by snapping a quick picture and heading over to Tower Bridge, which luckily was open for a few hours.

What I absolutely love about these sights is imagining London as it was when they were being built. For example - when I look at the Tower Bridge, I vividly see the climax scene in Sherlock Holmes when Downey Jr fights that dude atop the still-under-construction tower bridge. Pretty sick.

For 5 pounds we got to go inside and see the exhibit, featuring some quality reenactment videos of the planning and construction of the bridge. Better yet, we walked along the walkway (the top one connecting the two towers) and got to see a beautiful view of London and the River

Thames of which a picture can not do justice - it was worth a shot though.

After we exited the second tower, we were told to "follow the blue line" until we reached the engine room. Kindof felt like a scavenger hunt, weaving our way through crowds along a line painted on the sidewalk of the bridge, up some stairs, around corners, etc.

The engine room was cool - very brightly painted engines. While we were visiting them, the engines actually starting running.

Oh - and yesterday was my first day of classes. WHAT A JOKE. More on school in another post.

Three Words: Rebel Fucking Bingo

"We are not just a club night – we are a movement. We belong to something. Something we believe in. We don’t just play Rebel Bingo. We live it. It’s part of us. It’s inside us. It runs through our veins. We’ve created our own world, and we live in it together."

I don't really know how to explain, but here goes.

On monday night, Shira and I were out with some local friends at a live music night. (We actually got to see the girl perform who wrote Party in the USA for Miley - sicknasty.) And they kept going on and on about how on Friday night we had to play "redbull bingo" with them. I smiled and nodded in my usual fashion, and it wasn't until my daily facebook stalking the following afternoon that I found a link to what is actually called The Underground Rebel Bingo Club.

We went into the night knowing three things:

1. The location was secret.

2. Dress code: "loud"

3. Bingo. Enough said.

As soon as we walked in the door, we were literally thrust into an alternate universe. Crazy/awesome electro and dubstep music, crazy people, crazy hair, crazy hats. I felt right at home. We were given bingo cards, party hats, clipboards, and markers. And on top of this, the theme was really burlesque-ey. bomb dot com.

Everyone, and I mean literally everyone, was there to go crazy and have a good time. Strangers would come up to you and write on your arm or draw on your face. There is no way to explain how ridiculously clutch it was, except maybe with some photos. (see facebook album for all 96 of them)

I would honestly be able to say it was already one of the top 20 most fun nights of my entire life, but once the bingo started it reached an entire new level.

This wasn't just bingo. It was rebel bingo. Burlesque bingo. Wildly inappropriate bingo. The Rebel Bingo Revolution. Check out how intense everyone is with their bingo boards.

Each number was called out with some outrageous / hilarious sexual comment (mom you'll probably cringe but its still pretty funny..)

For example - and these are some of the calmer ones:

Your mom. What a whore. 44

Lick my bum. 21.

Sucking dick is never a chore. 64.

Also, imagine the numbers being called out with british accents by burlesque girls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1UxnpoNCiw - that'll give you a good idea of it.

Let's just say, I spent an hour scrubbing marker off of my body in the shower today.

Like I said - Rebel Fucking Bingo.