DAY 27: Tuesday Club

Most of today was quite average. I woke up, went to school, blah blah blah. I've been waiting for a package from my parents for days now. Everytime I go to the library to pick it up, its not there. It honestly feels like Christmas was canceled or something. Hopefully tomorrow it will be there!

There are only 6 days of class left, most of which are field trips. In my Historical Costume class we're going to see the Yoji Yamamoto exhibit at the Victoria & Albert museum and another exhibit that isn't coming to mind at the moment on another day. For Journalism we're watching a movie on Thursday, doing a photoshoot Tuesday and I'm not sure what Robin has in store for the last day. He did say there would be pretzels involved. Though the last few days sound like a breeze, I have SO much work to do on the coming days. I feel like my time here is flying by, but once classes are over I'll have more time to really do and see more. Speaking of doing more, Paris is only 9 days away!

The weather was kind of crappy today, it rained on and off all day. This was the first thunder storm I've seen since I've been here. During class there was this huge clap of thunder and Robin said (in his high class British accent), "Ah yes, well you can always tell when God's angry...or perhaps it's indigestion." Maybe you had to be there, but the man is hilarious. I'm going to miss being around him.

After school I met up with Giada, Stefano, and Naomi. I had dinner with them last Tuesday and were kind enough to invite me this week.. As I believe I mentioned before, every Tuesday a group gets together, Giada, Stefano and Naomi are always there but there are others who come too. They get together for dinner and try new restaurants and go to Scoop for Ice Cream. This weekly gathering has become known as Tuesday Club. Tonight, the four of us, as well as friends of Naomi went to Wong Kei, in the center of Chinatown. They made a point to tell me that they don't eat Chinese food every Tuesday... just the last two that I've come.

After dinner, we headed towards Scoop. Unaware that Scoop was part of the ritual, and not a special occasion that I witnessed last week, I had no room for dessert - even that amazing ice cream. We all chatted some more in the ice cream shop, then in the street. Around 11 we finally parted ways. Though there were only 7 of us tonight, from last weeks 14, I met more new people, learned more about those I've already met and had great conversations. Tuesday Club is definitely something I will be looking forward to every week!

Unfortunately, I only remembered to take out my camera when I was eatting today. This makes me look like a total pig, but I promise I didn't eat as much as it looks like and it was spread out over the whole day....

BRUNCH: a chicken club sandwich, sea salt kettle chips and fruit from Pret a Manger

SNACK: a small Chicken Pot Pie Soup served with flaky pastry from EAT.

DINNER: Spring Rolls and Sweet & Sour Chicken from Wong Kei

DAY 26: Getting things done!

Today was a pretty ordinary day- another hot one! Woke up, went to school, left school.. Whitney and I went to Oxford Street so she could find some things for her photoshoot and so I could look for a swimsuit. My roommate Shelise found a pool in Camden and spent the day lying out since she doesn't have class on Mondays and Wednesdays. Besides tomorrow the rest of the week looks like it's going to be sunny and warm, so I wanted to be prepared! Unfortunately, I didn't find a swimsuit. My pickiness and impatience were kicking in so I decided to put it off for another day.

As amazing as this trip has been, and will continue to be, I've been feeling kind of off- missing home, missing my friends. I felt like I needed a change. After I made dinner, I spent the next hour and a half dying my hair back to brown. No more ombre (dark faded to light) for me. It was cool for a while but I was tired of looking at it and for some reason hated it in pictures.

I've cleaned my room and prepared to do laundry, now I plan to do homework and try to get ahead for my last two weeks of school (EVER, undergraduate at least...). I'll try to have a more exciting day tomorrow to document! Until then, CHEERS!

Jenny, Whitney and I at the Porterhouse Pub on Friday night

Bye-bye Ombre hair!



DAY 25: Spitalfield Market and Brick Lane

Today was a GORGEOUS day- sunny and 82 degrees. Unfortunately I got a bit of a late start because Whitney, Jenny, Sam and I went out last night and didn’t get home until around 4:15AM. We probably would have got home around 2 if it weren’t for the McDonald’s and lack of cabs or adequate busses in the area…

I woke up to Whitney calling me to make sure I was still going to the market with her. Seeing as it was 1:30 in the afternoon, it was about damn time I wake up anyway… Cassidy, Whitney, Sam, Jenny and I set off for the market at around 2:30. Today’s journey was to Spitalfield Market. Suggested to us by one of our instructors, it was one of the few left of my list of must-visit markets. This one was much different than the others we’ve visited so far. It was smaller, and under a big modern looking structure. The booths of the market were surrounded by restaurants, almost like a food court. After some browsing, we worked up an appetite and decided on Las Iguanas, a Latin restaurant we’d all heard good things about. Since today was about 20 degrees hotter than it’s been in the last month, I wasn’t used to it at all. By the time we sat down for lunch I could have downed a gallon of water without stopping. My pork nachos were delicious and judging by all the other cleared plates, everyone else enjoyed theirs too!

After lunch we walked down Brick Lane. I don’t really know how to describe it. It was a really cool, trendy street with a bunch of vintage shops and bars. The style on the street was incredible. Sorry to be so brief, I’m ready for bed but I didn’t want to get behind. I’ll try to be more detailed with my captions!  

Just off the tube, heading towards the market

Rebuilt in 1893!

First, view into the market

 ... when pigs fly

Las Iguanas

Ice, a precious commodity here...

Shredded pork nachos - DAMN GOOD! 

The group walking to Brick Lane

This fabric store was crazy! A little full...

There was a lot of cool street art in the Brick Lane area

More art..

The masses..

Loved this girls shirt.. glad I brought mine that's almost exactly the same

The All Saints flagship store - obsessed with this store 

DAY 23: Bourough Market & Wimbledon

I feel like today was actually 3 days long. This morning Whitney, Jenny, Stacey and myself set off for Borough Market, a market dedicated to food… yes, I’m serious. I don’t know what took me so long to get there, but when I did it made my soul happy. Tony told us that you’ll often find famous chefs here buying things for their cooking. This place had EVERYTHING, and they were ALL giving samples for people to try. I tried all kinds of cheeses, olive oils, truffle oil, chocolate covered honeycomb, honey roasted almonds, brownies, dulce le leche, hummus, salsa, dry cured meats, and the list goes on. There were lots of people selling specialized goods like meats, cheeses, breads, and produce, but there were also lots and lots of vendors selling actual food to eat. As tempting as it was to get something from everywhere, my budget and my stomach wouldn’t allow it. First I tried a Chicken & Pistachio Kibeh, a Middle Eastern pastry thing, similar to falafel, but with chicken inside. I was drawn to it because I thought it was a hush puppy… obviously it wasn’t, but it was VERY good!

After that we came across a vendor selling “flower pot bread”. Jenny and I were extremely intrigued and bought a mini loaf to split. It was a really delicious sourdough bread with sun dried tomatoes, thyme, and cheddar in the loaf. My next treat was the freshest, most amazing orange juice I’ve ever tasted. I watched this cool contraption squeeze the oranges that made my juice. I feel like I’ve been spoiled forever knowing how good FRESH orange juice is. The next snack was a Chicken Empanada. Fantastic! It was the perfect size, flaky and full of flavor. Since I always have to end on a sweet note, I went back to one of the vendors I had already sampled from. They were this really adorable English couple selling something I never thought I’d try… Goat’s Milk Ice Cream. I can’t even describe how good it was. It’s got a texture that’s so creamy and light, it’s amazing. They had tons of flavors, and I tried 3 or 4 of them, but I decided on the Honeycomb. It was vanilla ice cream with swirls of honey and pieces of crispy honeycomb. WOW.

After the market, Jenny and Stacey went back home to meet Ashley and Sam, while Whitney and I headed towards Wimbledon. We knew we’d have to wait in a line to get onto the grounds, but we had NO IDEA it was going to be how it was. As we were walking I said, “Wow! Look at line! That’s insane… wonder what that’s for?” Not one minute later was it that I realized we were headed for the back of that line. I’ve never seen so many people waiting in line... or queuing, shall we say. After we were there for about an hour and a half, Jenny, Stacey, Ashley and Sam showed up and got in line with us. It was about another hour before we got to the ticket booths. I really have no interest in tennis. It was more of a “say I’ve been there” kind of adventure. About 2 seconds after we paid our £14 to get in the damn place, it started raining. No big deal, we’ll walk around and find a match to watch… OH no. While we were looking for a match the referees made the call to stop play and cover the courts and that they’d decide at 7:00 if they’d continue play.

Seven O’clock came and the referee “reluctantly” canceled all of the games for the rest of the day. The main match at Center Court would continue because they could keep it covered but we needed a separate ticket to see that. So just like that, we left.

Whitney and I were starving and the massive flood of people at the tube station would take forever to dissipate so we found a Thai restaurant near the station and got a late dinner. We split spring rolls and I got a beef and noodle dish that was good. We headed home (in the rain), soaked and exhausted.

Now that I’m warm and comfortable at home I made some chocolate chip cookies. I was skeptical because they were Betty Cocker instant cookies- just add water! They actually turned out well. I know it sounds like I ate a grown man’s weight in food today but I didn’t really eat that much. It was spread out over a whole day and everything from the market was pretty small. Don’t judge! :)

Now, I plan on snuggling up and watching a movie! Goodnight!

Welcome to Borough Market!

Always crowds...

Beautiful!

EW! Check out that squid! yuck.

Another part of the market

I love this "map"

Roasted nuts, chocolate raisins, honeycomb bites, white chocolate covered rasberries, and more

Sweet treats! That plate was pretty awesome too!

 MY TREATS:

Chicken & Pistachio Kibeh - click the photo for description

"Flower pot bread" - see below

Sourdough bread with sun-dried tomatoes, fresh thyme, and aged cheddar

World's best orange juice!

Chicken Empanada - YUM!

Honeycomb goats milk ice cream... don't knock it till you try it!

Leaving the market

Waiting for the train to Wimbledon

Couldn't resist, gorgeous

These roses were to die for!

Indicated the back of the "Queue" (aka line)

I can't even describe how massive this line was.

Wimbledon campers

To show youe place in line....

more of the line...

FINALLY!

The brackets

Serious tennis fans watching the Center Court match on a Megascreen

The main event (I think?)

really yummy spring rolls!

cookies & milk <3