And Then It Was Monday Again

And then it was Monday again. This was a fun week, still super busy, but boring for blog readers because I only took exactly one picture. So I hope you gorged yourselves on all the pictures on the other blogs because this is going to be pretty empty.

Monday I don't have class so I just went to training and then (because I am obsessed with the Roxy) went there to see Melancholia with Camila. I got there super early this time and it was still incredibly crowded. On a Monday! Do people really not have anything better do? Also, how did all of these people hear about this place when I didn't know it existed until the week before? I got us a couple of seats, not as great as the couch from the week before, but I did get to enjoy a well crafted cocktail while watching a movie that had been on my list for ages. In the end Melancholia was a little too art-house-project for me to say I enjoyed it but I'm glad I could check it off my list and I'll take any excuse to go to the Roxy these days.

Tuesday I did nothing exciting, I went to class and trained but I was really happy to hear about the Ninth Court of Appeals Prop 8 decision. Also I spent hours blogging and watching Another Earth which I liked a lot better than Melancholia.

Wednesday I had class and training again and then went straight from the gym to the George Pub on Borough High Street to celebrate Charles Dicken's birthday with Valeria, Rob, Camila and Andrea until we closed it down.

It was super apropos because the George was apparently featured in Little Dorrit!

Thursday I went to class and then walked through the snow(!) which disappointingly didn't stick, and went to the Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch to see Martha Marcy Mae Marlene with Sarah, Jardena and Alison. My sister was actually the one who turned me on to the Aubin, which is this tiny 30 person theater in the basement of a clothing store/gallery in East London. It has a little bar and snack area and then inside the theater each person gets their own armchair, with pillow and throw blanket and each chair has its own wine bottle holder.

Sarah and I split a bottle of wine and the guy next to me was so comfortable during the movie that he fell asleep and started snoring slightly. I really liked the movie and I absolutely loved the venue. So props to my sister for letting me in on this secret.

Friday I also don't have class so I went to training at noon and that was all I accomplished with my day. Except for the frantic call to my mom right before Shabbat to transfer money from my US to my UK account (why that necessitates my mom's help is another, long, sad, story that can be blamed on Bank of America). That night Valerie and I met Jardena and her friend for a drink before an Aish dinner. We got there technically on time but after everyone had already chosen their seats for the dinner and there was only one table left open. It was just the four of us and two ladies sitting across from us, but one was disabled and the other was her caretaker and they didn't respond to introductions or hellos. We were looking to see if we could split up because the whole point of these events is to meet new people but we were out of luck, it was full up. Then right after kiddush a couple of guys walked in and sat at our table. So exciting! Too bad they were THE WORST. Just the worst human beings/conversationalists that I've met in London, possibly ever. They were both trainee lawyers which sounds like it should have made for a good fit, three LLM students and two "lawyers." But no. The first question out of one of the guys mouth was "Do you like to party?" With is super awkward. 1) because it is how you ask someone if they like to do drugs and 2) because if you aren't asking us if we like to do drugs you are asking the equally ridiculous question that breaks down to "do you like to enjoy yourself?" WTF. It was so bad that after I got into a disagreement with the person next to me who was under the impression that arbitration and litigation were the same thing that I spent the rest of dinner studiously looking to my left to avoid making eye contact and having to engage in polite conversation. Thankfully the dessert was a buffet and I spent the next couple hours making pleasant conversation with new people that didn't suck and eating really really tasty parve desserts.

The weekend was quiet because I was kind of exhausted from doing social things most of the nights during the week. I spent a lot of time hanging around, made a quick trip to Borough market, did some reading and caught up on blogging and TV. I had hoped to go riding because I finally bought (after ordering the wrong size and returning it) a riding helmet but the ground was too frozen and cold for it to be safe. Other than that I had an adventurous brunch with Valerie where the waitress took the order without writing it down and then got everything wrong. The water showed up 15 minutes after the lukewarm coffee, the pastry for the coffee came after the main meal, the meal wasn't made correctly, and the second dish came out 20 minutes after the first. They also promised the pastry would be free but didn't argue when I insisted they take it, and the service charge (tip) off the bill. Then we vegged and did school work in the Atlas common room and watched trashy TV for hours - that was everything I wanted it to be. The Kardashians, English reality TV (The Only Way is Essex TOWIE) and Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Khloe and Lamar, how I've missed you! Also this weekend I got a card from my mom that totally made my day. Anyone that wants to drop me a line, it feels pretty great to get cards from home :)

And then a sneak peak at my life - I know I've spent most of the last few blogs focused on what I've done not how I've been but I've been great. I'm a bit sick now but I'm saving up my strength because I'm going to Prague this weekend and then I come back for a few days and then I pack up and go to Portugal for five days for a surf trip and there's even more coming up after that to look forward to. I'm putting some effort into getting my sleep schedule back to a semblance of normalcy after staying up until 3 am many nights and sleeping to 10 or noon. Today is my second day getting out of bed at or before 8 am! It's making me kind of cranky but maybe eventually I'll be able to start getting to sleep earlier too. Fascinating stuff, eh?

Love as always,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Now we've made it almost all the way to February, and the month isn't even quite half way over yet! As January moved into February my social life picked up in a pretty big way. I don't have class this semester on Mondays, so Monday I went to see a couple of ponies that I'm contemplating leasing. I think I've mentioned them before but there is a girl with a young Irish Sporthorse mare and a Shetland pony in Greenwich that wants someone to work them. I didn't have a helmet yet but I went out to spend a few hours grooming and lunging and bonding with them. Since I had been out there last the girl (Samantha - same name as the woman I leased a horse from for two years in LA) had added a couple of young long-haired goats and a ton of different kinds of rabbits. It was really pleasant to be around horses again and I'm so out of shape that even lunging at a walk for 20 minutes left my biceps sore. But I was also just slightly sick and I went home that afternoon and took a four hour nap until I felt better.

Tuesday I discovered the Roxy. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the whole time I have been living here I've been living a ten minute walk from a bar that has a big projection screen and uses it to show recently released movies (and other movie nights as well). Thanks Londonist for finally cluing me in! It's a three pound cover to see a movie and I went with Valerie and Syed to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which I had on my list of movies to see. I guess this is a really popular place because we got there about forty minutes before the movie was supposed to start and the place was packed. Valerie worked some sort of magic and we scored a previously reserved couch for three right in the front. The movie was really good and although the sound quality was a bit lacking I'm pretty much in love with this place. It's so cheap! And they have really good taste in movies! And it literally could not possibly be closer to where I live.

Wednesday was the first of the month, so I sucked it up and went back to the gym. For the first time in two months. I had not done any hardcore physical activity in two months. I did a bit of yoga here and there, lot's of walking and the occasional hike. But BJJ training is on a whole 'nother level man. I almost threw up. It was that bad. Also we did the exercise where you leapfrog over your partner and then crawl back between their legs (BJJ makes you do all sorts of weird stuff) and my partner was really tall and on the third time over I just didn't make it. Just wiped out in front of the class. It. Was. Awesome. To recover I went to Valerie's for a dinner she hosted for me, Marissa, Rob and her flatmate Fred in an attempt to get rid of her extra groceries and topped it off with fondue using Marissa's little fondue set.

Thursday night was the LLM Chinese New Year dinner + Karaoke. I think everyone knows how I feel about karaoke. There was a LOT of singing. There were also a lot more videos and pictures than the ones I have, that I am quietly hoping never see the light of day. The only downside (for me because I will keep singing FOREVER) was that the restaurant we were at closed really abruptly at 11:30 and kicked everyone out.

Friday I was tired was doing stuff every night all week so I just went to the gym to train and spent a quiet night at home recovering from the busy week.
 
Shabbat I also stayed at home, doing some reading and then, like some old lady was all WHY IS EVERYONE BEING SO LOUD IN THE DARN COURTYARD looked outside and realized that it was  SNOWING!! I haven't seen actual falling snow since February of 2009. The stuff already on the ground isn't nearly as magical.

 On Syed's suggestion we (him, Daniel and I) went to Costa for celebratory hot chocolate and an impromptu snow ball fall fight.

Later that night Daniel and I manned up and went out to Book Club in Shoreditch and met up with Jardena while everyone else got stuck in the snow-related transportation nightmare that is London in a flurry. Although to be fair, there were some serious inches piling up (2-3 maybe?)

 Haha I felt so bad for this guy, both windows were open fully, he clearly didn't believe the forecast! To be fair, they were calling for snow for dayyyys without being right, except by accident. I'm obsessed with the weather and I'm used to weather patterns being fairly predictable. Here, possibly because the Atlantic and Siberian fronts collide, they literally can not predict what will happen in one specific place. Forecasts look like this: "There will be up to 8 inches of snow, one of these three days, somewhere in the UK, probably not Scotland, actually we aren't sure, and it might be snow, but, it might also be in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, freezing fog, flurries, and in amounts we can't predict."

Anyway the snow that actually fell made getting home from Book Club an adventure. We were waiting for the bus with 40 other desperate and cold people for about ten minutes and when it finally showed up we SPRINTED to the front of the crowd and shoved our way on because it was clear there was no way everyone was getting in and no telling when the next bus was going to make it. It was not the most comforting that the double decker bus then filled itself to way more than capacity before trundling off in the snow on streets that the city had not bothered to salt even though they had been predicting snow for days. The ride home was madness, people shoving themselves on through the back door etc., but we made it home safely.

 
Sunday I did very little during the day other than watching Breaking Bad. Later in the evening I met up with Sarah, Camila and Valerie for a Sunday Roast at this adorable little Victorian pub the "Garrison" followed by drinks at a really cute bar down the street, Hyde (spelling?), where they serve really well made cocktails.

 Camila and Valerie documenting how pretty the drinks were

 I just, love, this picture

 I couldn't resist.

That night was also the Super Bowl. Camila and I joined Valerie at her friend's flat to watch the game. It started really late here and we spent the first quarter wandering the streets of SoHo before figuring out they don't sell alcohol at off-licenses on Sunday (nights? not sure what the rule is exactly) and we gave in and stocked up on snacks instead. We watched the game on the BBC which was really....different. There are no commercials. There are no cheerleaders. They focus the camera on ONLY the football field. The commentary is provided (frequently because of the no commercials) by two British guys wearing sweaters and a rookie from the Rams, who could not articulate to save his life, but was pretty good at smirking. Thank goodness we had all the chips and candy to keep us occupied instead. Despite its deficiencies we must not have been the only people watching because when it finally ended around 3 am it was impossible to get a cab. We eventually caught the bus home and finally turned in for the night around 4 am.

And that's it! Another week in my life, laid bare for you folk. I'm technically, at this point, only two days "late" on letting you in on what happened last week. Sorry there were so few pictures from this week, I did lots of stuff and then did a fairly poor job documenting it.

Miss you/love you,

Here's what happens after everyone went home and I stayed in England

Well here we are. I've finished updating about my family's visit and now I'm supposed to figure out how I spent the next couple of weeks. It's funny, but I can remember every detail of their visit and then once it ended the days started to run together again. I know that starting from where I left you, after January 22nd, I had a paper edit due the 25th. I was freaking out about it, and I had a lot of work I needed to put into it.

Luckily, Valerie introduced me to a great study coffee shop just a short ten minute walk, if that, from our residence. I still don't know what the name of this place is, but they have great coffee, free WiFi, unobtrusive music, lots and lots of power outlets and comfortable sofas. What is incredible is that all the times I googled "study cafes in London" this place didn't show up at all! I'm pretty sure I spent Sunday afternoon after my parents left there studying on the same couch as Marissa and much of the next few days as well. I also owe a huge debt to my sister for forcing me to work through my paper and encouraging me to just DO WORK. It's way more work than it sounds, cheerleading.

Once that paper was turned in I felt GREAT. It was such a heavy weight off my shoulders. I celebrated by going to the local pub, the Roebuck after I turned it in. It was technically also a celebration of Burn's night, the Scottish poet who wrote Auld Lang Syne and an ode to Haggis. I met Valerie and her flatmate Ellen and my friend Hash at the pub and we had a pint and chatted for a couple of hours. It was mellow and relaxing and everything I wanted after turning in my paper. The next day my Scottish professor (who has the greatest accent ever) brought Scotch to class in honor of Burn's night. He had wanted to bring haggis but couldn't figure out a way to heat it up. So we drank Scotch and he recited some of the poetry for us. Since we had already started we figured once class was over we would just go straight to the George. I had gone the week before as well, every Thursday the LLMs have an informal get together at the pub on campus. This week I was there right after class ended with my friend Camila and some of her fellow South Americans. I stayed for quite a few hours before deciding it was time to turn in, because I wanted to be up early enough the next day for free cupcakes.

What's that? Free cupcakes? YES! Hummingbird Bakery was opening a new location in Angel and they were giving away free cupcakes. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Friday morning than in the queue for one, so that's where I was at 10:45 am.

It took about half an hour to make my way in and out and I was just in time to the LSE campus for the Holocaust Memorial Service in the Shaw Library. This reminds me, I had been there the week before when it was grey and drizzly and someone came in and sat down while I was studying and started playing concert quality piano. This time I showed up for a planned event, the Memorial. It was an Interfaith Initiative. So it was run by an Anglican Priest (the head of the Interfaith group) and they had members of each faith group read a piece of their scripture to speak to the gathering. The Sikh group started, then the Jewish representative spoke and said Kadish, and then the Muslim, the Christian and the Catholic reps all spoke their piece. It was just a little strange to me to have the Holocaust memorial service with the Jewish representative not placed either first or last. I get that it's interfaith, and that you want to make it all about "no genocide" but it is about genocide. About one very specific genocide. One that targeted in large part, Jewish people, because of their faith. Even though I thought the service was moving and the choir sang a wonderful medley and there was a long moment of silence, it rankled a tiny bit.I guess this is the price of attending an LSE Interfaith event but I think they could have at least invited a Rabbi. The rest of the day I spent at Waterloo, purchasing my 18-25 railcard which makes the train fares cheaper by a third than they would otherwise be for younger travelers.

This practically paid for itself when that weekend Marissa and I took a trip to Bath, England. It is a tiny little town a couple of hours away by train.

We got there before noon and spent some time getting our bearings.

We wandered past the Abbey, where there was a protest for peace underway

Then we explored the main shopping area

which was really cute

Everything in Bath is made of Bath stone which makes for a very clean, quaint, put-together look for the village/town (not sure exactly which Bath qualifies as - possibly even city?). We walked up a large hill to the  Circus, which a Bath website describes as "the masterpiece of John Wood the Elder. The striking architecture has spawned numerous theories to explain its stark originality. Viewed from the air it forms the shape of a key, perhaps a Masonic symbol? John Wood is also thought to have taken inspiration from the ancient standing stones of nearby Stanton Drew and from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Either way, the Circus is a stupendous creative accomplishment and one of the key reasons Bath was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO."

Then we turned and walked up the street to the Royal Crescent, described by the previous site as "one of the world's best known landmarks. Built between 1767 and 1775 and designed by John Wood the Younger, the crescent contains some 30 houses, one of which is now the Royal Crescent Hotel, another is Number 1 and is open to the public." We didn't know about the open to the public house, so we just stood and took pictures from the outside.

 And thought about how sometimes even historical pedigree, can't buy you class

We walked back towards town and into the Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum. The Assembly Rooms include "The Ball Room, Octagon, Tea Room and Card Room which were used in the eighteenth century for dancing, music and card playing, tea drinking and conversation and are still in use for functions." They are pretty much just empty rooms but they do have some original chandeliers

And best of all - they have a couple old modes of transport used by the high society men and ladies to get around town. This started with the regular old divan chair. Then, someone brilliant invented THIS

A stroller. That is nothing more than an adult sized baby carriage. You can see the divan chair in the background of the shot. And this was better because only one servant was needed to push you! Hahahahaha. It was the height of technological advance and fashion. Downstairs in the basement of the Assembly Rooms is the Fashion Museum. We kind of rushed through this but it is "a world-class collection of contemporary and historical dress. The displays include 150 dressed figures to illustrate the changing styles in fashionable clothes from the late 16th century to the present day, chosen from the museum's collection of 30,000 original items." We saw an exhibit about fashion and sport that is there because of the Olympics and we saw some of the only surviving dresses from the 17th century on display. We also tried on corsets and looked at the evening dresses of the past century. It was somewhere that might have even deserved more time than we gave it, but we didn't have a ton to give since we were just in Bath for the day.

We left the museum and walked back down into the town for some lunch at a fabulous Nepalese restaurant.

Then when we left we saw this

I still have no explanation for what this might have been. Somehow related to this rugby game? Maybe?

We watched the game from afar for a bit while we ate dessert, gelato for me and a shared Bath bun (which I wasn't a huge fan of). We did a little exploring after lunch finished and then ended up back at the Abbey, which this time we entered. We only had fifteen minutes before it closed for a service, but other than the fantastic ceiling there isn't that much to see there.

I did love how light and airy the place seemed because of the huge windows that run the length of the nave (is that the word?). When we left the Abbey the sun was starting to set and we turned our attention to the famous Roman Baths. They've been an attraction in Britain for literally thousands of years. And the tour and exhibit took way longer than I would have imagined. The trip through the baths starts up on the terrace overlooking the Grand Bath (Roman Bath House)

Then you walk past and overlook the sacred spring

Then you walk downstairs to see the model of the baths complex and the reconstruction of the facades of the Roman Temples that were previously on the site and a number of excavated articles. You also pass through an underground room that houses an old altar and some old steps and foundations and stairs up to Temples but it's hard to piece together since it's very little that is left. You eventually stumble back outside on the ground level of the Grand Baths.

I touched the water to see how hot it was, pleasantly warm actually, and luckily did not contract amoebic menangitis. This was a possibility I wasn't aware of until after when I saw the "water is absolutely unsafe to touch" sign. The best part of the exhibit was this really cool piece that was a computer-generated layout as though you were looking down onto the Baths complex as it had been in Roman times and it showed moving figures playing in the yard, exercising, swimming in the pools and getting massages. It really brought the complex to life in a way that was unmatched by the rest of the museum. We finished up by browsing through the giftshop and then started walking back towards the train station.

And then made our last stop in Bath at a Catholic church.

We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare, especially after our train was canceled. The next train was half an hour later and it had a mess of people waiting to get on since ours was canceled. We went all the way down to the end of the platform to try to score some seats as soon as it stopped. But we neglected to check before we rushed in and sat down and we ended up in someone elses' reserved seats. We stood for the first ten or fifteen minutes before we were able to find some open seats and because this train was stopping fewer places than our original train we were in London only about fifteen minutes behind schedule. On the way back I stopped at an off-license where they had spelled every single pastry wrong on their pastry shelf

It was so nice to spend the day outside of London and Bath was a great choice for a day trip. I felt like we saw all the important things and I loved being a tourist in the UK. I'm hoping I get a chance to do more trips like this over the year so I can see more of the actual UK while I'm here.

The only other really exciting thing that happened this weekend (the last weekend in January) was that I went out with friends to Koko's, for the "Guilty Pleasures" DJ night. It was everything it promised and more. A fun crowd, lots and lots of dancing, and every song was one where you were like "Oh, man! THIS song! I LOVE THIS SONG!" Brilliant. There was also this really great dancer up on the stage dressed in an 80s futuristic outfit

Like I said there was lots of dancing

 Dave and Jardena

 Sarah, Dave, Jardena and Camila

Me and Valerie. I can't explain my face in this picture, sorry. The important thing is that I'm pretty sure you can tell that everyone is having fun.

And there you have it, parts, not particularly well connected, that made up the last full week of January. I know its a bit stilted and disjointed. I'm trying to piece together all these things that happened over the last four weeks of so and the process is a bit difficult. But I'm doing my best and I hope you are all enjoying or at least appreciating the results.

I'm hoping (as always) to get through the last two weeks that I haven't covered by the end of this week before I leave for Prague and find myself with a whole 'nother adventure to write about.

Love,