Cliffs of Dover

Hello again! It has been a while since I updated all of you! As some of you may already know, our mighty USA was spanked by England last Wednesday night 2-0. We all prepared ourselves with red white and blue clothes on and screamed when we thought our players had a chance. It is safe to say, the Englishmen definitely put us in our place.

The arrival of the infamous Matthew Prudhomme occurred just the next morning! (the boyfriend incase some of you did not know!). Matt decided to come in to celebrate my 21st birthday here with me. When he first arrived, he almost was sent right back to the United States because he didn't have the address of where my school was. The British guy at customs asked him all the basic questions to enter the country..."what are you doing here, how long will you be here, where will you be staying?" I completely forgot to tell him the address of the college and the British dude told matt it was a returnable offense....aka: send your butt back to America. He somehow convinced the guy to let him through and he made it! We finally met up and headed back to campus. I am glad Matthew is here with me to enjoy London and see all the sites I have been seeing.

On Thursday night I experienced my first "Pub Crawl." For those of you who do not know what it is, it involves going out on the towne and drinking one beer at a bunch of different pubs in a certain area. We decided to go on Thursday because it was one of the Resident Assistant's 22nd birthday. We had sooo many people show up almost to the point where the pub crawl was pointless because everywhere we went we would fill up the pub completely with just our people. Matthew, Mallory, and a couple people and I split off from the rest of the group because if you hit up 5 different pubs and get their stamps, you get a sweet free tshirt! It is kind of a jip, I will admit...because there is no "free" about it. You end up spending 2.5 quid per brew per pub. I guess it is worth it for the experience. The funny thing is, we started the pub crawl at 9:00pm here, and all the pubs close at 11:00pm. Making it to five pubs in 2 hours doesn't seem like a challenge until you attempt. I remember having a good time and looking at my watch to see we had 15 minutes until 11:00 and two pubs left. I have never run so fast in my life. One of the girls with us was wearing heels, took them off and ended up cutting up her feet pretty bad. All for a tshirt!! I guess when you have a couple beers in you, you are willing to do anything. Somehow, we made it in and out of the first pub in 10 minutes and raced to the second pub by 11:04pm. Of course, they rejected us. Ridiculous! We went back the next day to get out shirts at the same pub and they ended up not even having the shirts in stock. Word to the wise, never visit the "White Lion" Pub when you are in London.

The next morning Matthew, Mallory and I went to watch the Changing of the Guard outside of Buckingham Palace. Something neat about Buckingham (random fact)...if a certain flag is above the palace, the queen is there. If she is not in and at one of her other residences, the British flag waves. The procession starts at 11:30 every day and they march around together and play trombones! Pretty awesome. Afterwards we walked through Green and St. James Park which are right passed the palace. The park was absolutely beautiful and I took lots of pictures. The ducks here are very large and pretty intimidating. We saw a HUGE bird who looked like a pelican but I think it was a stark? Not sure but we got a few pictures of it. The squirrels here will literally eat nuts out of your hand. Obviously they have never met Americans. American squirrels stay away from humans, because according to locals here, "we all carry guns."

I had planned a surprise trip for Matthew while he was here with me. Since Matthew is studying Geology, I thought it would be really neat to take him to Dover, which is South East England. The famous "Cliffs of Dover" are located there and are the cliffs in between the English and French coast. We experienced the first train ride out of London Victoria station and headed into Dover Priory. According to Matthew, I scared the crap out of him while he was sleeping on the train because I rudely awakened him because I thought we missed our stop. The streets of Dover are confusing and we had no idea where to go. A sign would point "this way" and it would be the complete opposite way! It was aggravating but Matthew used his superior navigational skills to get us where we needed to be. First off, the freaking Dover tourist information place was closed. Why on earth would they close the tourist facility on a Saturday!? We walked to the coast and sat on the beach for a while. The beach here is a bit different from the States; sand is replaced by rocks. We definitely smuggled a few rocks from the beach and I plan to tell everyone they are actual chips from the cliffs. Matthew and I thought the water was way too cold to jump in but in the distance you could see about 2 dozen people swimming! Apparently they were practicing for an annual contest to swim the English channel. I do not expect any survivors. We took a boat tour and we were able to snag a picture in front of some of the cliffs. Afterwards we grabbed some of the best food I have had in England so far. FREAKING CREAM TOMATO SOUP. Matthew had Lasagna Verdi and it was delicious as well. Who knew that soup could be the best meal I have had so far here. The restaurant was located on a pier which was the closest cafe in England to France! Pretty sweeeet. Afterwards we took the Abominable Hike up to Dover Castle. According to FACT: it is 800 miles above sea level. I made Matthew piggy back me up only 750 of them, and decided to give him a break at the end. I kid...it is actually 400 ft above sea level, but it was the longest 400 ft of my life. The castle was beautiful and it had some magnificent views. I have a ton of pictures from the castle. Matt and I pretended to be characters from Monty Python (particularly the scene with the French Guards **John Cleese**). After visiting the castle we hiked back down which was so much faster than the journey up. We took the train back to London Victoria and passed out the whole way back.

The other day I had my first Indian food here in London with Matthew. This place was phenomenal but a bit pricey. Personally, I have only had Indian with my dad so he usually knows what to order but it all looks like gibberish to me. Matt and I didnt know what to get except curry because curry is delish. But then, they had like 20 types of curry...lamb curry chicken curry...some weird fish curry. We asked the waiter what he suggested and of course he pointed to the two person meal deal for a steal of only £35 !! We gave him a "we are cheap Americans" look and he reminded us of the happy hour special. Apparently with the special its 25% off. You throw a discount at me and I am sold. Soooo we ate. They really feed you til you look pregnant. They first came out with this food that looked like chinese dipping sauce. You dip a crispy chip like thing in the sauce or something. Great description, Aimee...i know. Then they brought out kebabs. Thank the lord kebabs were invented because they are so good...and perfect for on the go! They brought out lamb, chicken, and some weird sausage looking thing that was sort of spicy. After that we were still a bit hungry and thought we had no more food. Alas...another big tray of food was staring back at us. This tray of food I like to call, tray o' phenomenal. They brought out chicken curry (which was the best) as well as lamb curry. They also had rice to mix it with which made it extra good. And of course they had the nan, the best bread in the world. We were stuffing ourselves so much I had to unbutton my pants. Literally, I did. The meal was not finished. Last, but certainly not least came the desserts. They give you a cup and you look inside and the desert looks like a little terd. I was so upset because I have trouble eating foods shaped like poo. Matthew was the brave one and took the first bite and it was so good. It was a bread like soaked in a sugar sauce type of thing. It reminded me of a poop shaped beignet. Wait, I take that back. Poop shape beignet combined with Dulce de leche. But the cajun in me will tell you it was definitely not as good as a nice tasty beignet.

What else, what else. I feel like I am cramming so much information here! Matthew being here put a hold on my blogging because of course I had to keep him entertained. I promise to write more about this week. Short and sweet summary for next time: visit to the london dungeon, london eye with matthew, and river themes walk. AND WHO COULD FORGET MY 21ST BIRTHDAY!!! which is today! Guaranteed some fun filled stories from last night to share with you all. Love you all, keep the comments coming!!

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