LONDON

Cheerio!
Just got back from a brilliant weekend in my homeland; I must say I had a grand time presenting my British passport, although the curt nod didn’t live up to the bear bug I was hoping for. But in any case, I had a really nice time in London, which I visited for the first time in middle school via girl scouts. Since I had already seen all the major sites, we kind of just did some random fun things around the city. Sam and I left for London Friday morning, getting up before eight, to find the bus that would take us to the airport. The walk to the bus was beautiful, the sun was still coming up a bit and the sky was a gorgeous shade of purple, walking through the old town with the bell tolling and no rain! was refreshing. After asking directions from several friendly spaniards we found the bus station for the aiport shuttle, making it just in time. We got in to London around noon, and caught the hour bus ride that would take us into the city. Riding in was really exciting, the ride took us through some beautiful parts of London, giving us a glimpse of St. Paul’s cathedral and other impressive buildings. When we got in Lloyd was still in class for another half hour or so, so we walked and grabbed some lunch nearby his class. As we were in LSE territory, we got to see a lot of students and got a feel for the atmosphere. It seemed like a really cool place; just looking around I could tell that most people were international students (which Ryan confirmed, apparently something like 70% of LSE students are not from England). Afterwards we headed over and met up with Ryan after his class, hugs all around, and then went back to the café we had just been to-turns out it’s where he works! After he checked his schedule real quick, he led us on a walk around the city. I had forgotten how great London is; so many beautiful buildings, statues, etc. Plus, the accents are just so damn cute! We walked for a long time, and eventually made our way to his apartment, stopping at a market on the way for some veal burgers (which Ryan loves), and at a huge video game/entertainment place for some Bumper Car action, very fun. It was dark by the time we got to his place; we dropped off our stuff and just hung out at his place for awhile, drinking some of the booze we had picked up on the way home. We talked and played a bit of cards in the kitchen, and three of Ryan’s friends came in to talk and hang for a bit. Ryan had bought some tickets to a concert he had seen advertised online, so the three of us headed out to catch it. After a ride in the tube we arrived by the place, walking down a ways to find it. After presenting ID’s (Sam had forgotten hers and used one of mine…they weren’t looking to closely luckily:), we headed in, and were assaulted by really, really loud metal music (via a DJ). It was this little building, looking like more of a house than a concert hall, with a bar and some assorted bars stools and couches. Once we got in, we realized that the show had ended, turns out it ended at 10pm, when Lloyd thought it had started…whoops. After yelling into each others ears in an attempt to hear each other over the loud, loud music, we decided we had paid to be here, so we would stay for a bit goddammit! We found a table in the corner and got a couple beers, laughing at the rediculousness of the situation as teens with piercings and black clothes headbanged around the room. It was quite an experience, but we ended up having a pretty good time despite it all. I think the highlight would have to be when a heavy metal version of “Baby Got Back” came on…pretty hilarious. In any case, ears ringing and throats hoarse from yelling to be heard, we headed back out. At this point we were all pretty tired, so we decided to call it a night.
Saturday morning we all got up early so we could go check out Westminster Abbey, which was gorgeous! After an hour or two of exploring the Abbey, we stopped off at a bagel place on the way to the train station. We then caught a train to Hampton Court Palace, the palace of Henry VIII. It was also really neat, it was interesting to learn all about his life, and to see various parts of his castle via a free tour. We spent a long time there, heading back in the evening to Ryan’s apartment. After resting for a little bit we headed back out to a pub, where we watched a little bit of a “football” game, Manchester United vs. someone…I forget, haha. It was fun though, I really enjoy watching soccer games, and the pub was pretty full of people watching the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend a whole lot of time there because we had to get to a play, “The Twelfth Night” (Shakespeare). We were running a bit late, too much time watching football, which wasn’t helped by the fact that the tube was rediculously crowded. We arrived about ten minutes late, which meant we weren’t allowed in until the intermission. We settled down in the main room to watch the play from a small tv they had set up, but it was really hard to hear and I had missed the beginning, so despite Sam and Ryan’s efforts to explain I couldn’t really tell what was going on. Instead, I rested my feet and closed my eyes, awakening at intermission to get in. We had bought cheap tickets, standing only, which were also the only ones left. The play was actually really good, and I was able to follow what was going on because of Sam and Ryan’s earlier explainations. Afterwards, we decided to walk around a bit to see some more of the city, and ended up in Chinatown, where we stopped for a late dinner. We ended up at this three or four floor restaurant; it was really good, more authentic than what I would normally have. It was getting pretty late, so we headed back to Ryan’s place. Sam and I had to catch a 3:50am bus that night, so we planned to just stay up that late. Alas, sam conked out when we got back, but Ryan and I headed up to his friend Rob’s room (as you may remember, I met Rob in Amsterdam, cool guy). We hung there for a while, talking and then sharing various youtube videos until ryan started falling asleep sitting up. We headed back down to his room, and put on “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, which we watched half-asleep until it was time for Sam and I to head out. So yes, we left early, early Sunday morning (the later flight must have been a LOT more expensive, otherwise I never would have picked such a flight), and commenced the voyage back to Santiago. I finally got back to my house at around noon, and I promptly went to bed, not waking up until Monday at 9am for class…I guess I was pretty tired! So yes, I am back in Santiago, which is nice. Currently I’m alone in my apartment, as Biaggio moved out and Samuel is gone for a month, but it’s actually pretty nice having the place to myself. Also, last Thursday I went out with my friend Marnie, who is on the program and is from the University of Scranton (in Pennsylvania). We hadn’t hung out in a while, so she called and asked me if I wanted to have dinner together. We ended up just going and getting drinks and tapas, which are basically small dishes of appetizers, basically. Very popular here in Spain. It was a fun night, we had a good time getting to know each other a little better and judging the various tapas that came our way. So there we go, I think I’ve caught you up on everything. Now I really have to get some work done, the problem with travelling is that it’s not so conducive to schoolwork…Love,
Brit