Love Actually

I saw this film for the first time this week. Everyone has told me that I would love it--and I really do.

I feel connected to this movie, perhaps because it's very British (obviously). It was much better that I saw it here; after living in London for a month, I could pick out all the little things that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. For example:

-Not knowing anything about the plot of the movie, I immediately knew that Hugh Grant was the Prime Minister just because he walked into 10 Downing Street. I screamed when he was greeted with "Hello, Mr. Prime Minister."

-I identified the biscuits that the PM was served: Digestives.

-I identified a few landmarks: the river Thames, the Gerkin, Big Ben, etc.

-Loved the Irish accent of the father character.

-Was amused by the anti-American slant: poor character of the US president & the way American girls were portrayed

-Agreed with one British character that he just had to open his mouth & be well received in the US because of his accent : )

This makes me want to stay and be British.

Hillsong London

This past Sunday, I went to check out Hillsong Church. It was a really unique experience because they were having some kind of special event, so the service was inside the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road!

This probably doesn't mean much to you if you're not in London...but this is the theatre where one of the biggest musicals, We Will Rock You, has been playing each night. We Will Rock You is the musical based off of Queen's songs.

Anyway, the band was, of course, good. And the audience was huge. It was interesting. Yep.

Wicked

I finally saw it.

We took the Tube down to The Apollo Victoria Theatre & made it right in time for curtain call!

Despite all the hype, I was not disappointed at all : ) I am thoroughly impressed with the two female leads that played Elphaba and Galinda--I want to be them.

We're going to see it again.

Visit to the Queen

Although I called in on Her Majesty, she was out on holiday : )

So we got to take a tour of Buckingham Palace while it's open for the season. From what I understand, the palace closes in 10 days. I could mention a lot of the history I learned, but I'll just show pictures from the gardens. We weren't allowed to take photos inside.

This is the lake in the gardens. Can you imagine having this on your property in the middle of the city?


Here's the backyard view of Buckingham. Our professor showed us pictures of himself here when he was invited to the Queen's garden party. He wore tails and a top hat : )

The most 'brilliant' part about the palace is that there's a large mirror in the White Drawing Room that is actually a secret door that the Queen uses! The candelabras are bolted down on the mirror table so that they won't fall off when the door swings open. That's pretty awesome.

Irish Holiday

Over the past weekend, I went to Dublin! So, I took the advice of my esteemed freshman year roomie : ), and went couchsurfing there.

A little nutshell description for those who aren't familiar with couchsurfing: It's an online network for people who are travelling & need a place to stay, and those who are willing to host people that are visiting their city. It's nicer than hostels because you get to be in an actual home and there's someone to give you advice on what to do & see.

Anyway, we ended up staying with a Turk who had moved to Dublin 2 weeks prior! We were expecting to be thrown onto a little couch. Instead, after our overnight, very red-eye travels, we were greeted by this sight:


It was amazing. Our host is an employee for Microsoft (the building you can see from the balcony in the picture). The company is putting him up in this luxury tower and he was nice enough to pay it forward to us.

As for Dublin itself, it was rather small. Some of my travel companions were very disappointed with its lack of 'real culture.' After a day, I had to get out of that place. We took a bus to Belfast!

While in Belfast, we got to see Belfast Castle. There was a castle in Dublin also, but Belfast's was so much more picturesque--and was quite a hike to get there. It looked a little like this:




When we arrived, there was a wedding going on *sigh of happiness.* The gentlemen in the wedding party were in black tails with pink ties and pink roses on the lapel.

I'm sure other things happened in Dublin/Belfast. But these are the highlights : )

I arrived back home on Monday after 4.5 days away from London & went straight to class after doing the last edit of a paper!

Temptation

Coming to London from the US (and being a semi-Chinese girl), it was quite a shock to see that the prices are double on this side of the pond. I had spent my life savings on a little bag of groceries and didn't know how I'd manage to stay for the semester.

Therefore, when I saw this, I thought I had reached girl-paradise:

Primark, primarily a clothing store, is located on Oxford Street-the "hottest" place to go shopping. Incidentally, Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical star) was sighted on this street during the first week I came to London.

Not only does Primark have tons and tons of clothing, it also sells their goods for very inexpensive prices, even for poor American dollar standards. And they sell a diverse selection of products: womens, mens, childrens, bed and bath, shoes, socks, underwear...Quality, quantity, and breadth, what more could I want?

I made a beeline for hangers which I desperately needed for my mound of clothing in my flat. As I stood in line with the girls, we already began making plans for a return trip to Primark to get the one-pound shirts and the adorable shoes.

I threw out my little joke/musing: "With all this stuff, I wonder who gets exploited?"

The girls laughed, "Everything's made in China, so probably your grandma."
I picked up some items that were labeled Made in Madrid. "Oh, Tiff-it's your grandma." I responded to my Spanish friend.

Later that week in class, one of our professors handed us each a different newspaper source. I got The Guardian, a local paper. I saw this front page headline: http://business.guardian.co.uk/retail/story/0,,2161302,00.html

To my horror, Primark is ranked as one of the most unethical companies.

And sadly, it took me a while to decide what I would do. It's final: I will not support businesses that refuse to be fair to their workers & I'm going to be doing more research on this. Interestingly enough, I think that this is one of the biggest temptations that I've come across & I could use all the accountability I can get. That is why I've posted this.

Another night of Firsts

We decided to spend our evening in Convent Gardens. The Lamb and Flag is a pretty well known pub; all it took was asking a man on the street and he immediately directed us down an alley. Around Convent Gardens, it's evidently protocol to buy your drink and take it out into the street to socialize--it's a pretty friendly, open environment.

The girls and I followed suit and started hanging out in the roped off street. I had my first taste of alcohol there: less than a sip of Mo's Cronenburg beer. We were met by 3 gentlemen that some of the girls had met a few days prior, 2 Italians and 1 Mexican. I became engrossed in a Spanish conversation with the Mexican, delighted that I could practice my more-than-rusty language skills.

Without warning, one of the girls dropped limply into the arms of one of the Italians. We laid her out on the ground and it felt like ages 'til she woke from her blackout. The pub employee quickly called an ambulance. By the time the paramedics arrived, she was sitting up and felt fine...she just couldn't remember what had happened. Evidently, the issue was that she just hadn't eaten much at all that day and had a small amount of beer on an empty stomach.

Nevertheless, the EMTs wanted to check her blood pressure, etc. so I went with her into the ambulance and sat as they took her info and test results. It was awesome to be in a British medical vehicle--I hadn't expected to be in one. The ambulances here are pretty pyschedelic-looking: neon green and yellow reflective-checkered on the outside.

As I have already found with the British police officers, British paramedics are likewise very jovial and open to fun while getting the job done. I really appreciate their ability to be light-hearted in every situation & to not take themselves too seriously.

So it's accurate to say that I had my first drink and ended up in an ambulance.

A little London night life

We have seen many interesting things in regard to nightlife while here. There are too many things to be said (& left unsaid), however, I will document the events of Thursday evening:

A group of us went first to Mahiki, the club where Prince Harry reportedly frequents. It was clear that we were not going to get inside without paying a 15 pound cover fee. We then promptly went across Picadilly Circus to TigerTiger, a club that had been recommended.

Unfortunately, the bouncers at TigerTiger wouldn't let certain members of our party in because, after scrutinizing drivers' licenses, only people 21 and up were allowed inside. This shocked our sensibilities since age limits are so much younger here; the bouncer merely told us, "The younger the kids, the more trouble." I waited outside with the babies in our group so that they wouldn't be ditched.

While outside, four of us girls met a guy named Steve who asked us if he saw his friend in a cowboy hat. We answered in the negative. Steve continued to carry on a conversation with us and introduced his friend, Tim. Finally, the cowboy hat friend materialized behind me and introduced himself as Piot. He shook my hand and instead of letting go, he proceeded to play thumb war with me. When he saw that I was a seasoned pro, he started cheating by tickling me so that he would win. Fortunately, I extracted myself from the game and I guess we'll never know who won.
"How do you spell your name?" I asked.
"Why do you want to know? Are you going to look me up on the internet?" replied Piot.
"Are you famous?!" I queried. (Our conversation was becoming purely questions)
Piot told me that he modeled his backside and was pretty famous for it. Whether or not that's true, I still haven't looked it up, but I'm sure you will let me know if you find anything interesting.

Finally, my flatmate emerged from the club, bringing the manager. In seconds we were all brought into TigerTiger. Evidently Alli had told the management that if all of her friends couldn't get in, the whole group would want a refund. She was pretty brilliant.

And the club was amazing. There were several floors, each part was themed in different eras. There was a 70s/80s lounge, a hip hop dance floor and bar, and other genres that I am not good at identifying or naming. Here's a small snapshot of what it looked like:

The interesting thing about European guys is that they have no problem with dancing with their guy friends in a group, or even by themselves. They also dress really well, nice dress shirts and blazers. I think that's pretty awesome.

Oh I almost forgot to mention how the night ended. I had borrowed a pair of heels from my roommate. I am not accustomed to wearing such high shoes. By the end of the evening, I was still dancing, but I could barely walk. The Tube had stopped running by the time we started heading back to our flat, so we had to make the trek home by foot.

Finally, a few yards from Piccadilly Square, I could stand it no longer. To my own dismay, I pulled off those wretched shoes and walked barefoot through the streets of London all the way back home. I'm pretty sure I was in danger of communicable diseases.