Weekend of London Nights

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The rest of the weekend was pretty much one big party. Thursday night I went out with Jess, Cassie, Melanie, and Jenny (my uni girls) to a bar called The Roxy, which had a really funky ambiance and played more alternative music, which was fun to dance to. Afterwards I found my way home by myself via bus so I'm slowly mastering all facets of the London transport system...even at 2 in the morning.

Friday night the uni girls didn't want to go out, but I really wanted to dance so I venture out by myself to the clubs in Leceister Square, which I learned first hand are not the classiest. I first went to a club called Yates, which had horrible music, so I quickly left and moved onto another club called Metra, just up the square. There I got thoroughly eaten up by boys when I seriously wanted to dance by myself, but they just didn't get the message when I literally swatted them away and told them straight up that I was flying solo. Nonetheless, I had fun letting loose and dancing like no one was watching. You'd think that the crazier you dance, the more people you scare away, but somehow I had the opposite effect and people kept flocking to me. Lesson learned--dance crazy if you to meet new people and vice versa.

I spent Saturday doing my laundry, reading, and hanging out with the uni girls. We went bar hopping on Old Street where I met Vicki, an American girl currently doing the year long Mountbatten program in London, which I am really interested in. I'm excited to meet up with her this week for coffee to pick her brain about the experience so far.

The trek home from that part of town would have taken me forever so I slept on Jess's floor, which was terribly uncomfortable. I can usually sleep on any surface, but the floor just got so cold that I was freezing all night. Note to self: find a sleeping bag to bring next time.

Sunday morning we had a feast of a breakfast with a bunch of English students on Melanie's floor: fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, baguettes, butter, cheese, juices, you name it was on the table. I was really impressed with their independence and ease of cooking on their own, compared to American freshman, many of whom don't even know how to boil water. There is no meal plan offered at the uni so the students have to know how to cook, and it seems that most of them do. The English are more mature when they enter uni compared to freshman in America, and I think it has to do with the gap year that many of them take to travel or work where they learn more responsibility and independence.
It was fun chatting with them about the differences between the UK and the US, particularly the driving tests. In London, they have to take at least 20 hours of driving lessons compared to the 6 in the New Jersey, and the practical part of the test is 45 minutes of driving versus the 5 minutes it takes to turn on your blinker, make a K turn, and parallel park in New Jersey! Apparently it is extremely difficult to pass because the city does not want to put more drivers on the road since it is already so crowded. Erin is in the process of practicing for her driving test in a couple of weeks and I really hope she passes this time around...

After brunch I ended up walking home for 3 hours from school because the underground and overground rails were out of service. Very frustrating, but at least I got to explore the different neighborhoods in the second zone and find an authentic asian food store where I bought edamame on sale! Then I just relaxed the rest of the day after a very eventful weekend.

This morning I woke up to Erin's gorgeousness back in the house--she and her mum were in Paris all weekend visiting her brother Niall and his girlfriend. She treated me to brunch at Hugo's, which is where she would often go with her dad. Today is the anniversary of his passing, so she was off from work and was talking about him more. She doesn't mention him much so it was really great to hear about him as a person and as her father. It was a really emotional day for her, but she handled it really well.

We took a spontaneous walk to Portabello Road, which has really great shops and restaurants, where Erin continued to open up to me and tell me about her 6 year relationship with Sharleena and how it ended a bit drastically a few months back. I really enjoyed her company all day and I feel like I'm truly getting to know who Erin is and what she has been through in life. She's such a strong person and a true gem. I really cherish her friendship and am so happy that we met 7 years ago in Spain.

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