Fun Fact of the Day: Never Call a Cab.

Today is the official first day of class/work...however, lucky me gets almost another week break :). My boss is out of town, so I don't start work until February 1st, and I only have classes on Thursday. I would make moves and go exploring today if: a) it wasn't so dreary outside, b) I didn't feel so sick, and c) my bank account was of any worth. I don't know how I've spent so much money since being here because I've only legitimately purchased one dress, and that was in Paris. Interesting. Anyway, this past week was filled with more clubs, more pubs, delicious food, and house field trips. Since we only had one orientation thing a day, some people from my house decided to go exploring during the day, so we went by the Tower of London/Tower Bridge, the Globe, the Tate Modern, and the British Museum. I feel like I'm forgetting something. A few of us went out for a delectable Indian meal last week since London is supposed to have the best Indian food - unfortunately, they love charging you for every single thing, so that turned out to be an expensive meal.
Lesson #1: - "water" is not the same thing as "tap water"...you WILL get charged the equivalent of $5 for a bottle of Evian. (I learned this on the first meal)

Tuesday night, we ended up going around Piccadilly Circus because it was student night, and went to a bar called Sports Cafe. It was like stepping into America. I saw everyone & their mom; pretty sure I saw 90% of the people that I knew were in London. Even though half the people I went with refuse to go back again because it was so American (ie: they played "I Love College"), I might have to go back solo with Nebi because we were loving it haha. Minus all the creepy middle eastern men trying to dance with college girls. Minor detail. I knew my cue to leave the night on a good note was when Infinity came on...even though there were no blue strobe lights, I immediately shoved my way to Logan so that we could both love on the 716 house song together :).

Oh, and either Monday or Tuesday (I forget), I got these from Ben :)


Paris:
For my first weekend trip, I ended up going to Paris. Even though I wasn't the biggest Paris fan the first time I went, I decided to try it out again. I went with six other girls, and four of the boys from my house ended up going too. Before we got there, we found out that the hotel we were staying at was in a pretty dodgy area...so dodgy that we weren't supposed to walk there. Anyway, turns out that it wasn't nearly that bad...the area wasn't super sketchy, and our hotel reminded us of camping haha. We were there from Thursday-Sunday morning & probably saw every tourist attraction in that time. The Louvre, the Arc, Notre Dame, Musee D'Orsay, the Opera House, Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Elysees, etc. It was a lot. Since I'd seen a lot of that before, I wish I did more shopping this time around & took advantage of all the sales, but oh well. We had plenty of delicious meals, with extremely fast service. Since when did it take 5 minutes to cook risotto?
Lesson #2: "Medium" really means "Rare" in Paris. - I ordered a steak on our last night at the River Cafe, and when I cut it open, it bled. A lot. I think the steak had more blood than I do. I had them re-cook it, but they just gave me another steak that was equally as bloody. Oh well, I ate it, and probably burned extra calories doing twice as much chewing. It was good though, I also had a crab/granny smith apple appetizer and "soft chocolate cake" for dessert, which tasted like a hybrid of a pot de creme (sans the pot) and chocolate mousse. Delicious.
Lesson #3: Never Call a Cab. - Calling a cab really means letting the cab's meter run until he gets to you, then continuing to let it run until the cab gets you home. On the way home from the River Cafe, I was in a cab with Krystin & Nebi. Nebi nudged me to look at the meter, which was already past 11 euros. I said something to our cab driver, and he explained it to us, and then just laughed at us as we were like, "wait what??" I can't hate on him though, he was entertaining. From then on, I kept telling him that it was okay to speed past all the cars so we'd get there faster. At one point, he went into a bus lane where a lady was walking towards us, and I said, "it's okay, just run over her!!" and he nearly did. I guess not speaking literally to a cab driver can be lesson #4? He just laughed at us the entire time, so I guess that 25 euro cab ride earned half of its worth through sheer entertainment.



From left: Becky, Hannah, Carly, Avery, Krystin, Nebi & Me

Paris was fun, but I still don't like it nearly as much as London. Maybe it's because I didn't like it the first time around, and part of this last trip it was cold/rainy & I was really sick. It would probably be a lot nicer when it's sunny/decently warm outside and I could do some quality shopping...;). We did get croissants every morning, which were amazing, I'll miss those! It was still refreshing though to come back to London. It was nice to be able to speak English & have people understand you! Although, I did say, "excusez-moi" to someone at Sainsbury's, not realizing that I could have just said it in English. At our last dinner in Paris, we all kind of agreed that the reason why it hasn't quite hit any of us that we're in London is because it just feels like we're away at college. I guess that's good though, or else I'd be homesick all the time :(. It's like a mixture of being at school and being in New York this past summer...I'm in a big city working, but I'm still taking classes & living in a house of like 30 people. Two fun things in one :). To make a Jersey Shore reference (I know), it definitely doesn't feel like we've only been here for two weeks - now I understand how they were able to make so many eventful episodes out of a month haha.

Dad, I thought you'd enjoy this - at the Musee D'Orsay, there were a lot of impressionist paintings (Van Gogh, etc.), some Art Nouveau, and this guy. I thought of you when I saw him because he just looked like a huge wooden polar bear randomly trapped in an art gallery, I figured you & mama would find him cute :)



What to do when your bank account is low, you're home alone sick, and it's dreary outside??