I Don't Know Nuffing

     I think I'll just pick up where I left off.  After the hospital incident things calmed down for a bit, we had a pretty low key week (much different than I anticipated, but very welcome).  Well, I suppose it was just as low key as you might expect, you know, being an American in London and all.  Monday night we went into central London for what we thought was going to be a fairly quiet night at this bar Tiger Tiger (rather than staying in Wood Green we thought we'd just venture to a bar instead) and it turned out to be much more of a loud, club atmosphere and we ended up dancing all night.  No complaints though because we had an absolute blast, at the end of the night the people at the bar started giving away free hats, we had quite a good time with that and then a bit of an adventure getting home as Jenni and Katie got lost on their way to the bus and we had to find them, not knowing where they were.  The picture is of Becky, me, Chris and Elena after the club in our sweet hats.  

Tuesday night Chris, Jenni and I went back to KoKo to watch a band, Stars, perform.  They were absolutely stunning and the vibe was very calm and soothing.  Wednesday I had class, studied most of the day and then Liz and I decided to be productive with our study breaks and traveled to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery and spent a few hours looking around.  I was in absolute awe for two hours, first when I saw Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, which is monumental and absolutely beautiful.  The second time was when we got to the modern art and I walked into a room that was half dedicated to the work of Vincent Van Gogh.  The way he uses color mesmerizes me every time, I think that that room will become my happy place while I am here (most of the museums, including this one, are free so no sweat off my back if I want to go sit for a bit!).  Also, seeing some of Georges Seurat's work up close is always really interesting to examine, he invented pointillism so to first look at his work, and then to look at the work of a bunch of amazing people who imitated his style was very interesting.

     Thursday night was a quiet night in with some of my favorite people, Liz, Paul and Chris.  We really just spent some time hanging out around our place.  Friday night was the Riverboat Disaster (which actually ended up being quite fun).  We walked onto the boat after about an hour long bus ride (which was late picking us up by about 45 minutes) and stepped into what we referred to as Little India (we're terrible).  For a bit we all felt very much like we'd like to walk off the boat while we still could, but stayed out of obligation to our £10.  It turned into a night full of memories: we had our own little karaoke session on the dance floor to Journey, Andreas was molested by two drunk girls who thought he danced funny, and I was propositioned to the seaside by an Indian gentleman who made it a point to mention that he could come pick me up in his spacious and comfortable Lexus (which he bought because he works for BT and makes VERY good money for his age... apparently I look like a gold digger?) anyway, after talking for, well it was under 5 minutes, he said "what are you doing tomorrow?" to which I (being sick still) responded "sleeping" "well how about I come pick you up in my Lexus at 8 and take you with me to the seaside for a couple of days," to which I so smoothly responded "I would, but I'll be busy... sleeping."  Andreas came outside looking for me (knowing I'd probably be trapped by some random dude) and I grabbed his leg and shouted "HEY BABE!!!!" and he swept me away like any good stand in boyfriend would.  This picture is of Erica, Andreas, Chris, Paul, Liz and I on the boat.  The next picture is the view from the Thames of the Houses of Parliament and, of course, Big Ben.
     Saturday we spent the day in Notting Hill at Portobello Market.  I got 3 amazing scarves and two pairs of vintage shoes which I am super in love with.  Unfortunately I only managed to talk the woman down £5 so it was £35 for two pair, but my justification was that number 1 I'm in London and number 2 I'm SUCH a sucker for vintage shoes when I find good ones.  They are both sassy little pumps, one pair is a really great blue and the other is black, both are leather and have detailing around the front.  After shopping we stuffed ourselves with our first great Indian meal at this place called Khan's in Notting Hill.  It was absolutely delicious.

     Today was another fantastic day, I slept in, did some reading and then headed into central with Erica and Ben to make a trip to Borders and then eat lunch at this nice little cafe, baguettes and tea... so delicious.  We came back thinking we weren't doing anything tonight and found out that plans had been made to go watch the Super Bowl at a pub in central that had no cover charge!  We seriously had the best time rooting for the Giants, such a good game.  The only sad thing was that we didn't get the commercials (BOOOOO!)  It was Becky's first experience with American Football so that was lovely, her first question was "why do they call it a bowl?"  This picture is of Becky, Liz, me, Erica, Barclee, Andreas, Paul and Ben (who you really can't see in the bottom right corner).  It was wonderful, we ate staple American dishes (nachos and buffalo wings) and drank beer, so cliche.  We even stood when they played the national anthem with our hands over our hearts, I'm sure no one knew where we were from.  Oh man, you all should have seen Ben's face when New England scored that last touchdown, he looked SOOOO pissed!  It was fantastic, I have a picture (but it takes so long to load them on here!)  and then Erica was shocked when the Giants came back and won it, so much rubbing in the faces happened.  
     More travel plans have been booked as of tonight.  We have what is called "reading week" in mid February so some of us girls, Becky, me, Erica and Liz are taking a trip to Barcelona from the 16th to the 20th of February.  We booked it tonight so yahoo for Spain!!  We're all so excited and Becky has been there before so she knows a lot of wonderful places we can go.  We've already discussed going to the Salvador Dali museum (and some of you know how much that excites me!!!).  Man, I feel like so many wonderful things happened within all of these experiences, usually I feel pretty confident that I've relayed the best parts to all of you.  This week I'm not so sure, which makes me a bit sad.  It might be due to the fact that it's 5:21 am here at the moment (watching the Super Bowl 8 hours ahead will do that to you... especially when the tube is closed and you have to take a bus home).  The things we do for America.

Love and miss all of you!