Saturday, the 20th, I had a nice lazy day where I last left you. My host made Mexican dinner for us, which was really "Mexican" dinner of tortilla shells, guacamole, lettuce, cheese and ratatouille (definitely not Mexican). It was a good dinner and after an online episode of Frasier (so many people here love Frasier!), I headed to bed.
Sunday I left my host's house and went to a Couch Surfing picnic in Kennington Park, just a short walk (seems longer with my pack) away and relaxed in the sun/shade for a few hours. Met some new people and saw a bunch of people I knew already, which was fun. The weather was beautiful and after, I went to Susy's for a few days.
Monday, Susy and I went to a local student art show just near her flat. It was very cool to see what students can do after going to museums with famous works. It was obviously more modern and quite impressive. Susy kept saying things like "I know this artist," "I know the person in this painting," and "this person comes to my pub all the time and now I know why she always has blue paint on her arms." It was fun and since it was in the art school building, there were classes going on and art students everywhere. A neat ambiance after being in museums for so much of my trip. After a quick drink and light bite and Wetherspoons, we started making our way to Valaria's new flat for dinner and games. First, we went to Sainsbury's for plastic plates and some seasonings. When we only found paper plates (for lasagna, plastic is very important and paper just won't cut it) we went to Tesco and found everything. On the walk back to the bus stop, we ran into Grant and his family. Quite random to bump into someone I knew after only being in London for a few weeks! I was able to confirm that he could host me in a day and we caught our bus. At Valaria's, we were greeted with homemade lasagna, tiramisu and lots of games and wine. We played Apples to Apples again and it was a lot of fun. It's the British version, of course, so it was educational with the historical cards and places. If you've played Apples to Apples, you know what I mean. If not, don't worry about it. Just know that it's a great game and you should play it if you ever get the chance! Since Valaria had just moved, she had gone through some things and she found a nice coat for me since I still don't have mine (long story I won't get into again). So now I have a coat, not my coat, and it won't go with me to somewhere warm, but it's really nice for when it gets chilly here. Of course, since I got it, it's been in the mid 20s (around 70-80F) here so I've only worn it leaving her flat when she gave it to me. I'll probably wear it on my walk to the shop now since it's chilly and rainy. Anyway, dinner and games were great fun and well past midnight (she wouldn't let us leave earlier!) Susy and I got a night bus with Omar, another CSer, back to Susy's area and went out for a drink. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until 3:30am so I was not expecting Tuesday to be productive at all.
Tuesday, Susy and I decided to forgo cooking breakfast (at lunch time) and we went out. It's hard to find a good, family-run breakfast place where we could sit in the sun at noon and while we were wandering, a gal came up to us and asked if we wanted free haircuts. She was in styling school and needed to cut short hairstyles for her level. Susy and I both had short hair and had no problem going shorter (especially for free!) so when she asked when we were available, Susy said next week sometime and I thought and said "well, I'm free in about an hour after we eat lunch." So after my fantastic brie and roasted red pepper toasted baguette I went to meet Mai and get my haircut. It was a great thing that I didn't have any other plans that day because it took about two hours. She was certainly a student and wanted to do a good job and her teachers came over a few times to make sure she was doing everything properly (they were for everyone else, too, so I didn't fear too much for my hair, plus if they were watching everyone, there wasn't as much of a worry that you'd come out with a bad haircut!) and she did a great job, I think. After she was done and got the approval from her teacher, so told me she was going to dry it and if I decided I wanted fringe (bangs), she could give them to me after it was dry, so I had about two minutes to decide. I decided I may as well, so she gave me fringe and I love it. It's really quite short in the back which is nice for warmer weather. After, I went to H&M to buy a new top and earrings. Then I went to The Couch for CS drinks and then off to Grant's.
Wednesday, I went to Camden Market. The market is huge and I found too much to buy, but it's all useful, so I figured it was ok. I found a pashmina, small pocket mirror, tiger's eye bracelet and a piano to play for about a half hour. After a few hours wandering the market, I went to Susy's to return her keys and stayed for tea and the Simpsons. The highlight of the day was the Science Museum for Adult's Night (Lates they call them). The museum is open late one day a month for adult only and they have live music, drinks (yes, wine and beer) and no children to occupy the hands on stuff! We wandered for a bit, had some cake, and then went to the silent disco floor where they gave us all headphones with two stations and we were to just dance to whichever we wanted. It was a lot of fun, even more so when you took off the headphones and saw everyone dancing in silence. We went to the hands on area and had our turn at what the kids usual take
over, heat camera, spinny things and rice transporters. Lastly, we went to a show on bubbles. Usually it's for five-year-olds, but even since it was a room full of adult the gal still treated us like kids, telling us to "clap really loud for your favorite bubbles... or for any bubble I tell you to clap for!" and just going on about keeping our bums on the ground- even the people dressed up and leaning on the wall. She wouldn't start until everyone was seated quietly. Some people left before she was done, so we all screamed "bubble haters!" which is an odd thing for a room full of adults to yell, but it seemed to fit nicely in the atmosphere. It was a lot of fun and at the end, she let some of us hold a carbon dioxide (?) bubble. I named mine Bebe the Bubble.Thursday I found my way to the Tate Britain on the bus, but after 15 minutes on the bus it inconveniently changed destinations and dropped me off about 15 minute walk from the museum but since it was a really nice day, I wasn't too bothered by it, just annoyed that it changed destinations after I got on. I got to the Tate Britain just in time for a tour which interestingly turned into a discussion group. Most of the art we looked at on the 45 minute tour was modern, slightly abstract art and one (very vocal) man kept saying how he "didn't get it." He couldn't tell what it was or was supposed to be and just thought it was worthless ("how much did the museum pay for this? So I could just take paint and brush it over a canvas and get paid that much for it? I could just buy a boat and then write 10 words and associate them with the boat and the museum would buy it from me?") While he had interesting points, he didn't have an imagination. The tour was small, only 6 of us, so we were able to put in our two pence (two cents! haha) and tell what we saw in the artwork. The guide was impressed with my comparison of art and music. I think that the classical art (portraits, scenes, etc) are like classical music that tell you what to see or hear and you appreciate the technical aspects but don't need to use your imagination too much. If you look at landscape paintings, it's more like that pastoral music and you have to use your imagination a little bit more, finding your own story and how you feel about it. The most modern art is more like progressive, improvisational, abstract music where it doesn't elicit a storyline, it just tries to get you to feel certain things. Everyone is going to feel something different about them. While you may see horizontal lines of red, yellow, orange and one purple line, you may thing of one thing, but I think of an African sunset. I've never been there, but I connect it with what I imagine my Aunt Dorthea sees in Nigeria. Since other people don't have that connection, they may not see it, but for me, that's exactly what it is. The artist was trying to get us to have an emotion about the painting and for me, it was peaceful, just like I would feel watching a sunset with those colors. The man said he wanted to understand, but he wasn't trying to use his imagination at all and kept talking about how worthless and easy these paintings would be to do. While it was interesting, it was quite annoying to have him slam the art so much. Anyway, I explored the museum and then found myself another Tesco meal deal and Starbar (delicious chocolate bar with peanuts and caramel) then met Susy and a few others for drinks in Central London.
Friday, I went, on Grant's suggestion, to Bourough Market and found greatness! The weren't goods for sale like at Camden Market. This was more about food. Actually, all about food. There were food stalls (including a long line for falafel, I opted for a venison burger), cheese counters, bread booths and veggie stalls. There was plenty of options and it was hard, but I needed to be selective. I found a great Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Focaccia, almonds and hazelnuts covered in milk chocolate and cinnamon, a Sundried Tomatoe bread loaf and some portabella mushrooms for sandwiches the next day. After making my purchases and chowing my burger, I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and saw the show As You Like It. I bought a 5 pound Groundling ticket, so didn't have a seat, just stood near the stage. At intermission, a couple with a perfect spot right at the stage edge left, so I took their spot and was able to lean over the stage and be in the shade. It was a fantastic show and I really enjoyed it and am considering going back for another. For 5 pounds and two and half hours of Shakespeare in the arena he wrote his plays for (even though it's small now since they rebuilt it), it is well worth it. After the show, I went to the Themes (the Globe is right on the bank) and read for a bit, then came back to Grant's before going with another CSer to a Cuban club in Camden, but there was sadly not much dancing and it was very crowded, so I didn't stay too long there.
Saturday I didn't do much of anything in the afternoon besides catch up on some things online and ate bagel, cream cheese, smoked salmon, pepper and lemon that Grant put together, then I made us sandwiches with the red pepper bread from the market, yellow pepper, portabella mushroom and Edam cheese toasted then topped with tzatziki sauce. It was delicious. In the evening, I met Gabby (from CS) at Brick Lane for Bangladeshi dinner and then more Salsa dancing at Tito's, the same place we went last week. On my way to the tube, it poured. Grant gave the understatement of the week, telling me before I left that I "might want to take an umbrella because it might rain a bit later." It was so bad that he told me his carpet downstairs is wet from the rain on the balcony. I am quite glad that I took my umbrella because I didn't take a coat and only took my pashmina since it wasn't too cold and I'd rather loose that at the club than a coat. Anyway, the dinner was great and the restauranteur gave us a free glass of wine and 20% off the bill because they were competing with all the other Bangaldeshi restaurants on Brick Lane, which is quite a few! Gabby and I split a Lamb Ragon, a dish that was a variety of other dishes, naan, and lemon rice. It was really tasty. At the end, we tried to guess what the bill would be and decided that the person wrong would buy dessert. I was closer and Gabby bought some treats from a Bangladeshi shop but we never ate them because after Salsa dancing, we were both still full and Gabby wasn't feeling well so we called it an early night (at 1am). I found my buses back to Grant's and slept a very peaceful sleep until 11am.
Now it's Sunday, just one day until my birthday and I'm going to Forro dancing with Gabby and other CSers tonight in Central London. I'll have a bite to eat before I leave here, or maybe just get something in town, and then try to stay dry. It's just started to rain and it's been getting a little dark all afternoon but my umbrella works well! :)
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