I realized I made a small mistake in my last post about May. Thinking back on it, it wasn't entirely the wettest month. I recall now that there was a gorgeous two week period where I mostly just stayed inside and studied for exams and told myself that missing the sunshine wasn't a big deal because whatever summer was on its way. That was a big mistake. Because June came and the rain came and never let up. June was miserable in that regard. I take back everything I said at the beginning of my year about how it just doesn't rain that much in London. It was lies.
This is another one of those posts that will be based on my existing pictures and facebook posts to remind me exactly what happened this month as I try to wrap it all up two months later.
By the time June arrived I was half way done with my exams, which only meant I still had half left to take. I spent a fair amount of time discovering new places to study, including a couple of places up in Angel with Valerie and with Gunperi a shop in Old Street called "Look Mum No Hands" that is half awesome coffee shop and half bicycle repair shop. For reals.
The first weekend of June was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, celebrating her 60 years on the throne. I had been looking forward to this weekend for over a year, ever since I found out I was coming to London in the first place. Sadly I had to balance my studying with my celebrating but I managed to do something every day that was Jubilee-related. At the beginning of the weekend I started at the World Food Fair at the Southbank Center with Marissa and Gunperi. There was so much to choose from that Marissa and I just walked through for ages looking at all the options.
this was also the first time I had really spent much time around the Southbank Center. I LOVED this fairly recent sculpture
and these suspended blocks that spelled out different words and questions depending on how you look at them
Marissa and Gunperi were overcome by the blocks
Then we went inside the Southbank Center for my very first time. There was some sort of DJ event going on in the middle of the afternoon, playing hits from every year of the Queen's reign.
This was also the first time that I noticed the country flags that had been put up on Waterloo bridge (I assume also for the Jubilee)
There are all sorts of art installations by the centre that I had never noticed before
cave formations made out of milk bottles
And a better view of my favorite
There is also this whole playground fantasy land that was new to me
And this prayer tree I had actually seen before, since the bus to school passes by here but this was my first time getting a picture of it!
Honestly, given the ugliness of the "Brutalist" Southbank Centre I can understand why they go so out of their way to dress it up with art installations.
Sunday was the Jubilee Pageant! The Pageant was a 1,000 boat flotilla on the Thames, with the Queen herself and her family headlining on the Royal Barge. It was one of the largest flotillas ever on the river and more than 1 million people lined the banks to watch. I was one of those people! Originally the plan was to watch from the Tate Modern, which overlooks the river. It said "first come first served" on the website but it turns out they meant "reservations required' and when my friend Gunperi and her friend Lou showed up they were turned away. So they staked out a spot on the river and I came to meet them. It was a trial. I stopped to buy some drinks and snacks to bring with. Then for some reason I thought I would be able to take a bus to a spot by the river. But the buses were only going as far as Elephant and Castle. So I got on the tube to Waterloo. But the exits were closed! So I got back on the tube to Southwark station and walked from there. I knew they were in front of the Tate Modern and I assumed (wrongly) they were on the side closest to Sidney Webb. Walking against the flow of traffic I felt really really smug because I assumed I knew something all those people didn't. They had the last laugh, for no reason at all the police had closed off that entrance to the river (not even operating a "one-in one-out" queue and there were people leaving!) and I had to hike back the length of the Tate (it's not a small building). I was also really worried I would never find Gunperi and Lou because there was no cell phone reception with all of the people lining the banks trying to make calls all at once the network was completely overloaded. Eventually I got through and they were able to guide me to their spot by the bank, helped along by the fact that Lou stands literally a head taller than anyone else.
They had a pretty good spot, right behind a bench maybe 10 feet or so back from the edge of the river. There was also a set of women who had brought camp chairs and set up right behind us so that kept some of the press of people off our backs. I set up my buffet of drinks at our feet(I didn't know how many people would be there or what people wanted so I brought a lot of everything.) and then we settled in to wait for a couple of hours.
Looking towards Millennium bridge
Looking towards Blackfriars
That's how close I was to the river!
There was the Tate Modern, right behind the trees was a giant screen that people were watching the BBC coverage on
(see what I meant about Lou being easy to spot in the crowd?) As we waited it got more and more and more and more crowded.
The same was true on the other side of the river.
The lady in the picture above definitely wins for best outfit of the day. The crowd started out really pretty friendly, just hanging out and killing time. We shared drinks and stories with the people around us. But as the time drew near for the boats to come by it got more and more and more and more crowded so that there was barely room to move and even though we were 10 feet from the water all we could see was the heads of the people in front of us. The mood also turned uglier as people who had waited for hours realized they weren't really going to be able to see anything as the boats came past. This is where being pushed up by the bench came in handy. As soon as the first boat came by I jumped up on the bench and was able to see over the people. I tried not to be a jerk about it and only stand long enough to see, take a few pictures and then duck back down but there was pushing and shoving and pissed off people all over. It was a distinct change in tone from the hours of camaraderie that was quickly forgotten.
The first boat to come by was ringing bells that were mounted on the top to herald the coming of the pageant
Next came the rowboats of all sizes
This guy got desperate and creative for a picture
and all of these people who had bought periscopes found they weren't quite tall enough
then it was the commonwealth boats
And finally the first glimpse of the royal barge!
It was pretty big
And the Queen was standing on it!! (in white on the right, Camila in ivory to the left, Kate in red to the far left)
The barge sailed out of sight and the heavens opened up. We took that as our cue to leave.
On the way back to Sidney Webb (walking distance, even though I took approximately 8 forms of transportation on my way TO the bank of the river) we ran into this guy, who, when we asked for a picture, responded by saying "do you want me to lunge?" ummm, yes?
It was so rainy that the edge of the Shard was lost up in the clouds
the next day was more Jubilee fun! I took a study break to go and see the concert in front of Buckingham Palace, with all the people on the Mall. I hadn't gotten tickets but they promised many, many big screens, and I would be close enough to hear the music live.
The streets were all decked out in the Union Jack for the occasion
Including these flags at the entrance to the Mall that subsumed the Union Jack into the flag of England
There were a lot of people who had the same idea that I did about going to the Mall (you can see the Palace right there at the end of the road).
I arrived just in time for Lang Lang to play
Then this guy (who did a rocking set)
And this lady I didn't recognize.
It was actually the best kind of concert, where all these legends got up and did one or two songs and then the next took over so you never got bored. This is the view from the park of the view from the stage (on the screen)
And what the stage looked like, built around the statue that sits in the middle of the traffic circle in front of the Palace
Grace Jones, who I was unfamiliar with, sang and hoolahooped at the same time
The guy above won for best hat of the night and then the Queen finally arrived and everyone cheered (a LOT)
Then these people sang for her
including Kylie Minogue!
Which is when I decided it was time to clear out. As I left they had a duet on the balcony of the palace and projected a light display onto the front of the palace itself.
which you can kind of see happening in real life in this picture.
Marissa had intended to come and meet me but they wouldn't let her in. I was surprised because there was plenty of room at the back end of the Mall but I saw these signs which made it pretty clear
I felt pretty smug about getting there early enough to get in and I got to hear Elton John's set as I waited for the bus. Then I went home and skyped into my dad's birthday celebration! It was so nice to be able to see everyone and I bought some ice cream so I could feel like I was fully participating.
The next day was the last day of the Jubilee. This one I really messed up. For some reason I thought it wouldn't be as popular an event as the others. Boy was I wrong. First I streamed the ceremony at St. Paul's while studying and making fun of Prince Harry with Valerie because he was front row, slumped over, legs spread as wide apart as he could make them and clearly hungover. Then I figured I would just saunter over to watch the parade at Trafalgar since I knew I wouldn't be in time to get a good enough spot by the side of the road to see the procession as the Queen went from near Westminster Abbey down to Buckingham Palace. But by the time I got to the Trafalgar square area the square itself was full and had been closed. I searched for a place to stand, contemplated standing on a telephone box and shuddered in fear when I saw people literally launching their young children up onto their curved roofs. Instead I walked a bit up towards the top of the square (where they had obnoxiously placed these opaque fences (why would simple chain link not have worked?) and found a spot to perch on a porch with a huge number of other people. From here I could still only glimpse a small portion of the big screen in Trafalgar.
The crowd above Trafalgar
The tiny corner of the screen I could see to the right of that tall guy's head.
I kept wandering around, hoping to get a better view, but every time I did find somewhere with a clear line of sight, someone taller than me would walk in front of me, stop, realize they could see from there, and then stand there and block me. I got so frustrated that I finally just stood up on a bike rack, which was a feat itself. Immediately the couple behind me were all "EXCUSE ME! DON'T THINK OF ANYONE BEHIND YOU!" and I was like WHAT?! No! No I won't! No one is doing ME that favor! Sod off!
My friend the bike rack
As a result I pretty much missed the entire procession which made me really sad because it featured a lot of very very attractive horses. Once the procession ended they opened Trafalgar square back up. I decided to stay where I was but I headed back to the first porch I had stopped at which had cleared out. I had a better view of the whole screen but it was blocked by a statue of a horse.
This guy wins for best contraption of the games (bicycle with themed horn)
The Queen! On the balcony
The perfectly spaced young royals
What I was in perfect position for, even though I didn't know it, was the flyover.
I thought this was the end of it
So imagine my surprise when this happened!
Then there was confetti!
And then it was over and it was time for more studying. My last two exams were different from my first in a couple of ways. For these last two I made flashcards. A LOT of flashcards.
So many flashcards that I was hurt and sore from the tips of my finger all the way through my shoulder. It was serious physical exercise. I think I actually pulled a muscle in my chest.
My third final was at 10:30 am as opposed to the previous 2:30pm finals so I was a little worried about not sleeping the night before. Somewhat by accident I set myself up for success by not sleeping at all two nights before the exam, which guaranteed that no matter how stressed I was the night before I would be able to get enough sleep. I broke my promise to myself to never discuss exams with anyone and right after the exam was over I went to lunch by LSE with Jardena, Hash, Sarah and Simone. That night I celebrated being 3/4 done with Valerie and her tax LLM cohort (who were finished for real). This is the only picture I took that night, of me and Eden at the last bar at the end of a very long night
Sadly also the same bar and the same night that I left my owl umbrella behind and never came back to retrieve it. Let's have a moment of silence for that owl umbrella.
Moving on! I had a brief break for Shavuot and went with Jardena to a dairy reception at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue where we gorged ourselves on insanely delicious quiche and cheesecake and mini pizzas and everything we could have hoped for.
The next week was just studying and studying for my final final. I continued the search for the best place to study and drink coffee at the same time and in pursuit of such a place woke up super early for a Sunday breakfast at a place called Lantana with Gunperi. It was delicious but a bit too small and crowded to make a good workspace. In my spare time I booked my tickets back to DC and from DC to LA. I tried to get tickets to see Aung Suu Kyi at LSE but didn't win the ticket lottery.
The weekend before my last final I took a trip down to Bournemouth to cheer on some people from my BJJ gym that were competing in a tournament. There was a lot of waiting around so I got a little bit of studying done while others caught up on sleep (in descending order of stairs Sonia, Nilton, Dorian)
Then the action started to pick up
This guy wasn't from our team but he was down on the mat for a long time, with an unidentified injury. The guy who injured him (and won) ALSO injured himself doing it.
But we didn't escape entirely unscathed either.
When Sonia was done with her matches the two of us commandeered the mini-bus that had driven us down and took a side-trip to the beach. I called ahead to ask if there were surfboards available to rent and told the girl we would be there in 10 minutes. 10 minutes later we get there and she tells us that she JUST one minute ago, rented out her last board. I was PISSED. And pretty mean about it. I harangued her into renting us one that was lying on the beach. Eventually I also begged another soft board off the instructors on the beach who weren't using it. The wind was HOWLING. Classic English surf weather. The rip was also terrible. You had to start at the top of the beach by one jetty, you walked as far out as you could and then hopped on the board (difficult in the wind because the board was so light it would pick up the board) and paddle madly out. Then because the rip was dragging you down the beach so fast you had one or two chances to catch a wave before you had to get out and drag the board up the beach to start over at the top again. I caught about three fun waves. And was working so hard I wasn't even cold. We were in for less than an hour but as the tide turned it was harder and harder to catch a wave before the rip dragged you down to the next jetty and mostly it was all closeouts on the shore. It was exhilarating and worth it and a mess and a pure English surf experience. On the way back the driver took a wrong turn and it took significantly longer to get back than it did to get there. We arrived back just in time to watch the last few matches and then take some pictures with everyone.
the competitors:
Then it was back to London and back to the studying grind. Just to tease me before my final exam the weather turned gorgeous and I did some studying in parks around town so I wouldn't feel like I was missing out. Thank goodness the weather held out and the very moment that I was done the relaxing began. I got drinks with coursemates at the George and the White Horse pubs, then we went picnic shopping at Waitrose and moved the party to Lincoln's Inn Fields to bask in the sunshine.
While we were there I went to use the toilet in the LSE New Building basement. I was wearing my flip flops and jogging around a corner in the basement when I rolled my left foot. Badly. Like badly enough to sprain. And leave me with a limp.
I was determined that this new injury wouldn't keep me from celebrating and nor did it. When the picnic ended I went back to Sidney Webb to get ready for the end-of-year party, on a boat on the Thames. We met up in my flat and took a couple of pictures before heading out. The alcohol left over from the Jubilee pageant made a reappearance.
Me and Gunperi (above) and me and Daniel (below)
As we made our way to the Tube station I was striding confidently along in my heels and as I stepped forward my injured foot refused to hold my weight and in front of everyone I just collapsed to the ground in a heap. It was unexpected and hilarious. I brushed myself off and we kept going on our way. Despite some fears that we would be late and miss the boat we got there in plenty of time and partied and danced for hours up and down the Thames.
You can tell it's a party because Daniel has a lei
Valerie, Rob and Marissa (above) and Marissa, me and Valerie (below)
Westminster Palace and Waterloo Bridge (above) and a picture of the Royal family put up for the Jubilee Pageant below
Olympic Rings on the Tower Bridge
There were also a lot of out-of-focus pictures taken on my camera
Marissa, Gunperi and me (above) and Gunperi, Marissa, Doris, Martin and Jessica (below)
The Thames Barrier! Did you know they can SHUT the Thames? I found out about it at the Pageant but this is not at all what I pictured it looking like.
Super awesome and futuristic
The sun went down and the sunglasses came out. Gunperi and me
Me and Marissa
Valerie (hahahahahah)
Gunperi, Valerie, Marissa and Daniel above, Gabriela, Gunperi and Daniel below
When the boat finally docked we weren't exactly ready for the night to be over so we went to this club Opal that happened to be conveniently located right next to the dock. Despite the drinking age being 18 they still gave me trouble at the door for not having an ID but let me in when I insisted that I didn't have one because it had been stolen (which it had been when I left my purse on the bus weeks before). The doorman only agreed to let me in with the admonition that next time I had to have one (as though he though stolen meant I had just forgotten to have it with me and it would magically reappear in my possession at a later date). Anyway we were inside and there was dancing and ridiculous picture taking to be done.
It was an incredibly fun night and the celebrating didn't stop then. I marked the end of finals with a week long stretch of non-stop parties. I honestly don't remember what I did each night of that week or in what order things happened. I believe the day after the Sidney Webb boat party was Valerie's birthday. She arranged dinner at a really cute French restaurant in Angel to mark the occasion and I arranged for a giant slice of chocolate birthday cake and a singing candle and a round of "happy birthday" much to her dismay.
[More pictures to add from Valerie's birthday]
In the midst of all the celebrating and letting down of hair I took a moment to commemorate exactly how many notecards I had created while studying for finals. It was an impressive pile. And then I threw them away and kept celebrating.
Eden and I met up to watch a Euro Cup game between Germany and Greece at the Prince of Wales pub in Covent Garden. He brought me Bisli from Israel, which we devoured as it's the perfect snack to pair up with beer at a pub. We were met by Prakritee and Selena who took us with them to the High Holborn residence hall end of year party at a nearby bar. It was open bar for the first hour we were there so we took full advantage as long as the drinks were flowing.
When the open bar ended and Eden had to leave I went to go meet Jardena and Sarah at the Book Club. It was the first time I had seen Sarah in ages and also the last time I saw her before she left London. The upstairs was quiet enough that we were able to snag a table and hang out and catch up.
There was one notable incident while we were sitting there. A guy came up to the table, where we all had semi-full drinks and plopped down what looked like a half-empty glass of champagne and tried to offer it to me. I wasn't interested in being roofied so I said no thank you. He was taken aback that for some reason I had a policy against drinking what looked like date-rape in a champagne-flute and left affronted in the extreme at my apparently unreasonable response.
The next night was the Sidney Webb end of year BBQ. There was lots of free food and free drinks and everyone watched one of the Euro Cup games and we played foosball and Flip Cup and beer pong and there was general debauchery that ended at the Dover Castle down the street when the beer ran out.
A couple of days later Gunperi organized drinks at the Roebuck pub across the street from Sidney Webb where, after going back to BJJ for the first time in ages, I met up with her, Daniel, Chris, Rachel and a couple of other people. We played Scrabble and somehow I lost to a non-native English speaking team. Sorry mom! I feel like I let you down :(. Eventually the group decision making process somehow led us to a decision that we would go and meet some people who were out in the Shoreditch area. 45 minutes later Gunperi was ready and we made our way to East London.
We ended up at pretty much the only club that stays open late on a Monday and danced for hours and hours. When we finally headed home I was starving so I led the charge to Brick Lane because for ages people had been telling me about this 24 hour bagel place that is THE place to go to for late night food in London. We walk and walk and walk and walk and finally turn onto brick lane. And there are TWO 24 hour bagel places literally three shops apart from each other. I was so annoyed. How can you people rave and rave about "the" bagel place to me and never once mention that there are two? And which one am I supposed to go to? And what if I get it wrong and I've wasted my chance to go to this amazing bagel place? We ended up just randomly picking one and the bagel was fine and so I guess I'll never know which one I was supposed to go to.
The next day I woke up and the weather was glorious. Beautiful and sunny with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky. Valerie and I decided to meet up and visit Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regent's Park. We met up in Primrose Hill and got lunch outside on a terrace in the sun. By the time we had walked from there to the rose garden it had clouded over and started to sprinkle. On the way to the roses we passed by a car with eyelashes on its headlights. Apparently that is a thing now?
We walked through the rose garden for a couple of hours and took picture after picture after picture. There were so many different varieties of Roses. It puts the Rose Garden outside of USC to SHAME.
There were roses literally as big as my fist
and roses the same hot pink color as my nail polish
There were also these adorable little ducklings swimming around in the lake.
And more roses!
At one point it started to really rain and so we had to huddle under a
tree for shelter because we had neither of us bothered to bring an
umbrella. When it was done we took our leave of the rose garden and
found our way to this little hidden garden that had been recommended to
us by a helpful stranger in the rose garden. It was very much a place
you could imagine Little Lord Fauntleroy playing in as a child.
From there we made our way to the part of the park where they had giant Union Jack flowerbeds.
I had a bit of time before I had to go meet Daniel and Syed for a movie so we stayed and hung out on the lawn in the park and read our books. Then it was off to the movie theatre to watch Prometheus (which was terrible). I bought my ticket from the electronic ticket dispenser but then I had to stand in another line for the 3D glasses. This took approximately 15 minutes because the couple in front of me were acting like they had never been to see a movie before and were in the snack line trying to buy tickets and decide which movie they wanted to see and could they maybe see the program? When I absolutely lost it the cashier agreed to just let me pay for the glasses and move along but then refused to serve Syed until those people had finished their epic decision making. We ended the night with a late dinner nearby where we got 20% off for being students! It's that sort of thing that makes me looooove London.
The next day was similar. I woke up and it was gorgeous outside. I got dressed appropriately for the sunny warm weather and got on the Tube to meet Valerie in Angel so we could go to the outdoorsy store to buy supplies for our trip to Scotland. By the time I got out of the Tube it was cold and drizzling. We were in the store for hours and came out fully equipped, we had hiking pants, socks, boots, rain coats, midge bug spray, and midge nets to keep the little buggers off our faces. Then we took a bus over to Covent Garden to meet up with Camila who was having goodbye drinks.
Later that week I went riding and for the first time in ages jumped a horse! It was awesome. I took Vogue out with her owner to a park in her neighborhood where they had some hills we could work on. They also had a great little set of tree trunks that were perfectly positioned for jumping and with some minor trepidation I took her over them and she was perfect. She's only 4 years old and I wasn't sure exactly how much training in this regard she had, but she took it like a pro and I was thrilled with how well it went. And to end we gave pony rides to a bunch of women who had been sitting around and watching us.
And now we come to the end of June. I ended June with a bang, the LLM end of year party. It started as a get together in a park, that was transferred to a pub terrace because of possible inclement weather. We stayed on that terrace, drinking in the sun until it was time to take the party to The Book Club for the after party.
Sadly, all those pictures are on a memory card that is so badly damaged that the two professional camera places that I have taken it to have been unable to retrieve the pictures. Oh my goodness, you must be asking yourself, do the tales of camera-related woes ever end? In a word. No. But rest assured June ended on a high even if its blog post did not.
The very last day in June I took the train to Eltham to see the palace where Henry VIII grew up. There was a dance event being held there so they opened up the big hall and had performances in the garden. I got there just as the skies opened up so I huddled in the big hall and admired the wood beam ceiling and the enthusiastic line dancers and then when the rain had quit I explored the grounds and watched the last of the performances (tango, salsa, kung fu, house etc.).
Looking at the front of the palace from the drive
Inside the main hall
view of the palace from the back lawn, the sky was beautiful after the rain
and (below) in the gardens
tango!
(the end!)
This is another one of those posts that will be based on my existing pictures and facebook posts to remind me exactly what happened this month as I try to wrap it all up two months later.
By the time June arrived I was half way done with my exams, which only meant I still had half left to take. I spent a fair amount of time discovering new places to study, including a couple of places up in Angel with Valerie and with Gunperi a shop in Old Street called "Look Mum No Hands" that is half awesome coffee shop and half bicycle repair shop. For reals.
The first weekend of June was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, celebrating her 60 years on the throne. I had been looking forward to this weekend for over a year, ever since I found out I was coming to London in the first place. Sadly I had to balance my studying with my celebrating but I managed to do something every day that was Jubilee-related. At the beginning of the weekend I started at the World Food Fair at the Southbank Center with Marissa and Gunperi. There was so much to choose from that Marissa and I just walked through for ages looking at all the options.
and these suspended blocks that spelled out different words and questions depending on how you look at them
There is also this whole playground fantasy land that was new to me
Sunday was the Jubilee Pageant! The Pageant was a 1,000 boat flotilla on the Thames, with the Queen herself and her family headlining on the Royal Barge. It was one of the largest flotillas ever on the river and more than 1 million people lined the banks to watch. I was one of those people! Originally the plan was to watch from the Tate Modern, which overlooks the river. It said "first come first served" on the website but it turns out they meant "reservations required' and when my friend Gunperi and her friend Lou showed up they were turned away. So they staked out a spot on the river and I came to meet them. It was a trial. I stopped to buy some drinks and snacks to bring with. Then for some reason I thought I would be able to take a bus to a spot by the river. But the buses were only going as far as Elephant and Castle. So I got on the tube to Waterloo. But the exits were closed! So I got back on the tube to Southwark station and walked from there. I knew they were in front of the Tate Modern and I assumed (wrongly) they were on the side closest to Sidney Webb. Walking against the flow of traffic I felt really really smug because I assumed I knew something all those people didn't. They had the last laugh, for no reason at all the police had closed off that entrance to the river (not even operating a "one-in one-out" queue and there were people leaving!) and I had to hike back the length of the Tate (it's not a small building). I was also really worried I would never find Gunperi and Lou because there was no cell phone reception with all of the people lining the banks trying to make calls all at once the network was completely overloaded. Eventually I got through and they were able to guide me to their spot by the bank, helped along by the fact that Lou stands literally a head taller than anyone else.
They had a pretty good spot, right behind a bench maybe 10 feet or so back from the edge of the river. There was also a set of women who had brought camp chairs and set up right behind us so that kept some of the press of people off our backs. I set up my buffet of drinks at our feet(I didn't know how many people would be there or what people wanted so I brought a lot of everything.) and then we settled in to wait for a couple of hours.
The first boat to come by was ringing bells that were mounted on the top to herald the coming of the pageant
On the way back to Sidney Webb (walking distance, even though I took approximately 8 forms of transportation on my way TO the bank of the river) we ran into this guy, who, when we asked for a picture, responded by saying "do you want me to lunge?" ummm, yes?
The streets were all decked out in the Union Jack for the occasion
There were a lot of people who had the same idea that I did about going to the Mall (you can see the Palace right there at the end of the road).
The next day was the last day of the Jubilee. This one I really messed up. For some reason I thought it wouldn't be as popular an event as the others. Boy was I wrong. First I streamed the ceremony at St. Paul's while studying and making fun of Prince Harry with Valerie because he was front row, slumped over, legs spread as wide apart as he could make them and clearly hungover. Then I figured I would just saunter over to watch the parade at Trafalgar since I knew I wouldn't be in time to get a good enough spot by the side of the road to see the procession as the Queen went from near Westminster Abbey down to Buckingham Palace. But by the time I got to the Trafalgar square area the square itself was full and had been closed. I searched for a place to stand, contemplated standing on a telephone box and shuddered in fear when I saw people literally launching their young children up onto their curved roofs. Instead I walked a bit up towards the top of the square (where they had obnoxiously placed these opaque fences (why would simple chain link not have worked?) and found a spot to perch on a porch with a huge number of other people. From here I could still only glimpse a small portion of the big screen in Trafalgar.
My third final was at 10:30 am as opposed to the previous 2:30pm finals so I was a little worried about not sleeping the night before. Somewhat by accident I set myself up for success by not sleeping at all two nights before the exam, which guaranteed that no matter how stressed I was the night before I would be able to get enough sleep. I broke my promise to myself to never discuss exams with anyone and right after the exam was over I went to lunch by LSE with Jardena, Hash, Sarah and Simone. That night I celebrated being 3/4 done with Valerie and her tax LLM cohort (who were finished for real). This is the only picture I took that night, of me and Eden at the last bar at the end of a very long night
Moving on! I had a brief break for Shavuot and went with Jardena to a dairy reception at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue where we gorged ourselves on insanely delicious quiche and cheesecake and mini pizzas and everything we could have hoped for.
The next week was just studying and studying for my final final. I continued the search for the best place to study and drink coffee at the same time and in pursuit of such a place woke up super early for a Sunday breakfast at a place called Lantana with Gunperi. It was delicious but a bit too small and crowded to make a good workspace. In my spare time I booked my tickets back to DC and from DC to LA. I tried to get tickets to see Aung Suu Kyi at LSE but didn't win the ticket lottery.
The weekend before my last final I took a trip down to Bournemouth to cheer on some people from my BJJ gym that were competing in a tournament. There was a lot of waiting around so I got a little bit of studying done while others caught up on sleep (in descending order of stairs Sonia, Nilton, Dorian)
Then it was back to London and back to the studying grind. Just to tease me before my final exam the weather turned gorgeous and I did some studying in parks around town so I wouldn't feel like I was missing out. Thank goodness the weather held out and the very moment that I was done the relaxing began. I got drinks with coursemates at the George and the White Horse pubs, then we went picnic shopping at Waitrose and moved the party to Lincoln's Inn Fields to bask in the sunshine.
I was determined that this new injury wouldn't keep me from celebrating and nor did it. When the picnic ended I went back to Sidney Webb to get ready for the end-of-year party, on a boat on the Thames. We met up in my flat and took a couple of pictures before heading out. The alcohol left over from the Jubilee pageant made a reappearance.
In the midst of all the celebrating and letting down of hair I took a moment to commemorate exactly how many notecards I had created while studying for finals. It was an impressive pile. And then I threw them away and kept celebrating.
Eden and I met up to watch a Euro Cup game between Germany and Greece at the Prince of Wales pub in Covent Garden. He brought me Bisli from Israel, which we devoured as it's the perfect snack to pair up with beer at a pub. We were met by Prakritee and Selena who took us with them to the High Holborn residence hall end of year party at a nearby bar. It was open bar for the first hour we were there so we took full advantage as long as the drinks were flowing.
When the open bar ended and Eden had to leave I went to go meet Jardena and Sarah at the Book Club. It was the first time I had seen Sarah in ages and also the last time I saw her before she left London. The upstairs was quiet enough that we were able to snag a table and hang out and catch up.
There was one notable incident while we were sitting there. A guy came up to the table, where we all had semi-full drinks and plopped down what looked like a half-empty glass of champagne and tried to offer it to me. I wasn't interested in being roofied so I said no thank you. He was taken aback that for some reason I had a policy against drinking what looked like date-rape in a champagne-flute and left affronted in the extreme at my apparently unreasonable response.
The next night was the Sidney Webb end of year BBQ. There was lots of free food and free drinks and everyone watched one of the Euro Cup games and we played foosball and Flip Cup and beer pong and there was general debauchery that ended at the Dover Castle down the street when the beer ran out.
A couple of days later Gunperi organized drinks at the Roebuck pub across the street from Sidney Webb where, after going back to BJJ for the first time in ages, I met up with her, Daniel, Chris, Rachel and a couple of other people. We played Scrabble and somehow I lost to a non-native English speaking team. Sorry mom! I feel like I let you down :(. Eventually the group decision making process somehow led us to a decision that we would go and meet some people who were out in the Shoreditch area. 45 minutes later Gunperi was ready and we made our way to East London.
We ended up at pretty much the only club that stays open late on a Monday and danced for hours and hours. When we finally headed home I was starving so I led the charge to Brick Lane because for ages people had been telling me about this 24 hour bagel place that is THE place to go to for late night food in London. We walk and walk and walk and walk and finally turn onto brick lane. And there are TWO 24 hour bagel places literally three shops apart from each other. I was so annoyed. How can you people rave and rave about "the" bagel place to me and never once mention that there are two? And which one am I supposed to go to? And what if I get it wrong and I've wasted my chance to go to this amazing bagel place? We ended up just randomly picking one and the bagel was fine and so I guess I'll never know which one I was supposed to go to.
The next day I woke up and the weather was glorious. Beautiful and sunny with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky. Valerie and I decided to meet up and visit Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regent's Park. We met up in Primrose Hill and got lunch outside on a terrace in the sun. By the time we had walked from there to the rose garden it had clouded over and started to sprinkle. On the way to the roses we passed by a car with eyelashes on its headlights. Apparently that is a thing now?
We walked through the rose garden for a couple of hours and took picture after picture after picture. There were so many different varieties of Roses. It puts the Rose Garden outside of USC to SHAME.
There were also these adorable little ducklings swimming around in the lake.
And more roses!
I had a bit of time before I had to go meet Daniel and Syed for a movie so we stayed and hung out on the lawn in the park and read our books. Then it was off to the movie theatre to watch Prometheus (which was terrible). I bought my ticket from the electronic ticket dispenser but then I had to stand in another line for the 3D glasses. This took approximately 15 minutes because the couple in front of me were acting like they had never been to see a movie before and were in the snack line trying to buy tickets and decide which movie they wanted to see and could they maybe see the program? When I absolutely lost it the cashier agreed to just let me pay for the glasses and move along but then refused to serve Syed until those people had finished their epic decision making. We ended the night with a late dinner nearby where we got 20% off for being students! It's that sort of thing that makes me looooove London.
The next day was similar. I woke up and it was gorgeous outside. I got dressed appropriately for the sunny warm weather and got on the Tube to meet Valerie in Angel so we could go to the outdoorsy store to buy supplies for our trip to Scotland. By the time I got out of the Tube it was cold and drizzling. We were in the store for hours and came out fully equipped, we had hiking pants, socks, boots, rain coats, midge bug spray, and midge nets to keep the little buggers off our faces. Then we took a bus over to Covent Garden to meet up with Camila who was having goodbye drinks.
Later that week I went riding and for the first time in ages jumped a horse! It was awesome. I took Vogue out with her owner to a park in her neighborhood where they had some hills we could work on. They also had a great little set of tree trunks that were perfectly positioned for jumping and with some minor trepidation I took her over them and she was perfect. She's only 4 years old and I wasn't sure exactly how much training in this regard she had, but she took it like a pro and I was thrilled with how well it went. And to end we gave pony rides to a bunch of women who had been sitting around and watching us.
And now we come to the end of June. I ended June with a bang, the LLM end of year party. It started as a get together in a park, that was transferred to a pub terrace because of possible inclement weather. We stayed on that terrace, drinking in the sun until it was time to take the party to The Book Club for the after party.
Sadly, all those pictures are on a memory card that is so badly damaged that the two professional camera places that I have taken it to have been unable to retrieve the pictures. Oh my goodness, you must be asking yourself, do the tales of camera-related woes ever end? In a word. No. But rest assured June ended on a high even if its blog post did not.
The very last day in June I took the train to Eltham to see the palace where Henry VIII grew up. There was a dance event being held there so they opened up the big hall and had performances in the garden. I got there just as the skies opened up so I huddled in the big hall and admired the wood beam ceiling and the enthusiastic line dancers and then when the rain had quit I explored the grounds and watched the last of the performances (tango, salsa, kung fu, house etc.).
(the end!)
