Drinking instant coffee and tea.

Yes, my life has become a mixture of instant coffee and tea. I love coffee, but have always had nothing but disdain for instant. However, since there are not too many options at the moment, I have resorted to instant. And tea.

Not a whole lot of new news since Tuesday, except another trip to GUANAVARA- the Brazilian club did occur yesterday:) Dance lessons kind of happenned haha. On the walk down there (it's in Holborn- takes about 10 minutes from Russell Square), Arthur and I walked down the road drinking Strongbow- I'm definitely a fan of the relaxed attitude towards drinking alcohol on the streets here. Awesome! Thye did 'outlaw' drinking on the Tube however. (But most people do it anyways).

I'm working on a paper for my one class on the Abortion Debate in the US for my Theories in IR class- I think that'll be one of my major projects of the weekend- exciting I know!

In much more exciting news- I'm going to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Monday night to see Timon of Athens- a Shakespeare play!!! SOOOOO excited!!! I joined "Arts club" at my school and it's our first 'event'.

Anyways, out for now:)

Motorbiking around London

I can without a doubt say that riding on a motorbike (motorcycle) through London is in the top ten list of the most scary things I've ever done. JD was driving, and I was thinking to myself (when we first started going) am I crazy? Do I trust him not to get me killed and run over by a bus? But as we rode more and on the way back from Camden (we stopped at Camden), I got less and less scared, and it actually was pretty f***ing awesome!

After the death-defying motorbike ride on Fri, I went out with some of my classmates to Club KOKO in Camden. It was sweet- there were a couple bands playing and the alcohol was definitely flowing haha. The only pain I was feeling was in my feet- I ended up walking barefoot the whole way home! Gross, I know.

Sat consisted of Regent's Park (of course) and going out with Hannah (fellow Phi Mu and American comrade over here) to Putney. Hung out w some of her English friends, which was change from my norm- there are no English kids in my class.

The past few days have been pretty normal- just catching up w/ schoolwork after the crazyness of the weekend.... all for now:)

Samba dancing at Brazilian club...

So last night, Thursday, I went with my friends Alex and Arthur from my class to this Brazilian club. We met up with some of Alex's Brazilian friends also. It was a lot of fun! They actually give you lessons at the club on how to Samba dance. So I tried and needless to say, I suck. haha. I probably might venture back at some point though, if for no other reason than to watch this dancer guy who is paid to just dance like a freak on the dance floor for hours and hours. He didnt stop the whole time I was there- which was about 3 hours. Also there were people dressed up in various costumes paid to entertain(?) I guess that's what you'd call it. The one dressed like Marilyn Monroe didn't do too much besides dance on a table and drink all night, while some guy lifted up her skirt the whole time.... very odd.

Crumpets and linked arms.

So! Today, Tuesday, I went grocery shopping. Let me just say, it is enormously harder to grocery shop when you don't have a car. This is me on a shopping trip:
I bring my reusable Tesco bags with me and walk about ten minutes to Tesco (cheapest groc store around). Go in and buy as much as one basket will hold (mind you I'm holding up the basket with my foot half the time cus its so heavy.) Then pay and load up the bags- which feel like 5 bowling balls at that point. Then walk ten minutes home lugging my bags and walk up the three flights of stairs with them. = hard work.

I bought some items off the 'reduced to clear shelf' - I am not ashamed to admit. One thing was crumpets. It turns out that they are just English muffins.

One thing I do not like is people who link arms and walk on the sidewalk. Perhaps that would be okay in a small town, but we are in London! There is no room for that! Unlink your arms you selfish space-taker-uppers! (my own vocab there).

That's all for Tuesday.

Why I love Regent's Park..

Reasons why Regent's Park is wonderful:
1. It's totally close to where I live
2. It has great paths for running
3. The waterfall
4. The totally awesome and wonderful smelling rose garden. (my parents' neighbor at home- Rickey-boy- would LOVE it. It smells awesome- and they have all dif names for the roses like: 'Remember Me', 'Ingrid Bergman', 'Nostalgia' etc. Love it.
5. There are many footballers around, some are attractive and shirtless I may add ;) haha
6. The ponds and bridges over the ponds.
7. You can see into the zoo from the one running path, so when I run there I see camels, llamas etc
8. On sunny days like today, everyone just lays out in the grass.

Anyways, that's it for now, but yep I love Regent's Park.

Classes, etc.

So on Monday I started my classes. I'm taking MA Toolkit, which is an academic writing class and Theories in international relations. They are both okay classes; it feels kind of weird to be back in school, after being out for three years. Ah well.

Still searching in vain for a way to get coffee. So far, I've only gotten Starbucks- which gets expensive after a while. I cannot find a coffeemaker anywhere! Lora said to get a kettle and 'cafetiere' which is some kind of french press. I just don't know where I will put all that in my room.

My roommate finally moved in on Thursday. Her name is Milena and she's from Serbia. She's 25 too, which is nice (as opposed to a youngster! haha).

Last night, I went out with Lora and Hannah (a fellow Phi Mu whose been living here for about a year) to 'Angel' (a trendy area kind of NE of King's Cross). Lora and I polished off two bottles of wine= very scary! haha. After that, I met up with some kids from my class around Leicester Square. We lost two of them in a club that the rest of us had some trouble convincing the bouncer to let us in...... so the rest of us walked to Tesco in vain hopes that they would still be selling alcohol at midnight. They weren't of course. So I got an egg and cress sandwich (drunken munchies) and we all parted our separate ways.

Today's agenda may involve: running, Portobello Rd, the library, the Tate, and dinner somewhere... but probably not drinking. Sunday, I am supposed to go on an 'American' pub crawl in Greenwich... don't know if I'll be up for any major drinking by then, but I guess we'll see. haha.

UNDER WATER!!!

So Dad and I went up to York and Scarborough (3 hrs north of London) this weekend. Whoa. There is some major flooding going on up there right now. York's river went over the banks, and over the riverwalk and into the parks even. The park benches were halfway submerged. It was crazy.

Because of the flooding there were major delays on the railways between London and York, therefore causing cancellations left and right. Our train was so crowded on the way back to London, we had to stand near the toilets half of the way. Not fun!

Ciao for now!

Everyone is London is in a hurry.

I really am wondering, why is it that all Londoners are in a hurry? Where are they all going? Did I miss something? I can usually be found standing around, looking aimlessly from here to there, why is everyone else who lives here always full speed ahead? Where is this amazing party?

Dad has a gripe- there is no Mountain Dew anywhere here. lol.

I really love the london paper- the one they hand out for free and everyone reads on the tube. It is really funny. The love connections part is great. "Richard. We met on No 8 bus last Fri. Hope you enjoyed your nectarine. Fancy a date/ pear/ peach?" That was a good one.

IN LONDON....

So, I have arrived. This is not going to be a long one... just letting everyone know I am here and safe. So far, there's just been a lot of getting stuff for my room and food, etc. My dad is here with me, so far we've been pretty much walking around and shopping. Okay, better get head off for now... down to Oxford St and the river to check out what's going on down there:)

Tommorrow I depart...

So tomorrow (Tues. Sept. 2), I'm off. My dad is coming with me to England, and staying for ten days. I on the other hand will be staying at least a year.... yikes! But AWESOME at the same time! I'm almost done packing.... just watching the Today show with my mom and drinking coffee at the moment. Something I will miss when I'm away! See you in England:)