LONDON!

OMG, we went into London today and we did SO much, it was AMAZING! It was hands-down the best and most productive/tiring day I've had here so far, haha.

We got up super early so we could take all our trains and tubes into London, and I got really excited when I realized the London Victoria Station is the one from The Bourne Ultimatum. Our first official stop was seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and good grief, were there a lot of people. We walked past St. James' Park on our way to see the London Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament, and then Jess and I went to Westminster Abbey while Kristin waited for us at St. James because she'd been before.

Westminster? INCREDIBLE. We were only supposed to spend an hour there, but it defs turned into closer to two and a half because Jess and I listened to every single recording on the audio tour and just totes geeked the fuck out over things like Poet's Corner, haha. No joke, we spent about twenty minutes trying to pick out postcards before giving up because the guy at the kiosk in the cloisters (which reminded me so much of the Harry Potter movies!) told us there were more at the gift shop. I think we both picked out more to keep for ourselves than to mail to people, haha.

Jess really wanted to go back for the Evensong service at 5, so we took a break by getting food and going to Kensington Gardens/Palace. It was gorgeous, we just picnicked and creeped on Herculean-looking soccer boys, haha. We were almost late for Evensong because of how ridiculous the soccer boys were, but Evensong was really cool. Is it bad that the plainsong made me think of Monty Python and want to giggle? Probs, haha.

The Cobra Starship show didn't start until 7:30, so we went to Trafalgar Square and had a photoshoot with the lions. Yeah, climbing those huge lions in a short dress? Not one of the best ideas I've ever had. Some smart bystander gave us the idea of tying our cardigans around our waists to avoid flashing small children, though, so overall, it was still a success. Then we went looking for Platform 9 & 3/4, except we defs spent like twenty minutes running around St. Pancras before a sympathetic cop essentially told us nicely, "Hey idiots, you're in the wrong station!" We eventually found it, though, took pictures, and then scooted over to ULU for the concert.

Uh, so the concert was AMAZINGGGG: Cash Cash, Sing It Loud, and Cobra Starship, hells yes! Also, some other opener from Brighton called Mimi Soya, but we missed them, whatevs. Not the most outrageous show I've ever been to, but probs Top 5. I feel kind of bad for bringing Kristin and Jess and not warning them of the extent to which scenesters (and especially Cobra fans) are just totes insane at shows, haha. Now I sound like a 60 year old chainsmoker from screaming my lungs out, and feel like Barney (after he ran the marathon) from dancing my ass off, it's pretty sweet (okay, even I'm not entirely sure how much of that was sarcasm).

We were sooo exhausted by the time we got back to Brighton, all sorts of nonsense about baby ducks and stabbing England's weather, but the 2 AM falafel helped, haha. Now I'm basically going to take a three-hour nap so I can get up in time to navigate from Brighton back to Heathrow and then I'm off to ROMA!

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]

Primark shopping spree!

We've basically run out of things to do in Brighton at this point, but we went into town just to do some shopping. Poor Jess felt sick so she went back early, but Kristin and I stayed and I basically went on a ridiculous shopping spree, haha. Myyy bank account hates me right now, but my wardrobe is adorable! Everything was really cheap, though, so I felt justified. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself, haha.

We just stayed in and made curry for dinner, and I'm pretty proud of us, it came out DELICIOUS. I accidentally fell asleep after dinner while Kristin and Jess made plans for London, but then I got up to pack (because I wouldn't have a chance after we got back from London) and then stayed up until like 4 because I couldn't fall back asleep, ughh. Still, LONDON TOMORROW!

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]

Yo!, Pav Tav and Coalition

We slept in obscenely late today because we didn't get back until so late last night. Poor Kristin had to get up for a 9 AM class, but she went back to sleep afterward, haha. The weather was miserable anyway, so we just kind of hung out in Kristin's room all afternoon, but then we went into Brighton and got dinner at this AMAZING sushi place called Yo! (yes, the exclamation point is in the name). It's like conveyor belt style, and you just pulled whatever you wanted off of it, and then a chef station was nearby so you could order specialty dishes, too. The only other sushi place I've been to like that was in Taiwan, so I was pretty stoked. I totes earned my title of "eating like a champ," as Joey tells me, haha.

We met some of Kristin's friends at Pav Tav (short for the Royal Pavilion Tavern, how presh) afterward, and since they were from Louisiana, we had a good ol' Southern reunion, haha. Then went to this club called Coalition, which was fun because we were a bigger group than last night, but goddamn, European men can be some serious creeperssss! Some dude spanked me, and then tried to make me kiss his friend, and then another guy essentially mauled me and Kendall, ugh. Also, some English girl started following Kendall's brother around, and Jessica got into a linguistics debate with her, LOL.

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]

Rottingdean and Digital

We went to the Lanes yesterday, and I practiced dressing like a Brit: short dress, big belt, and tights. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty adorbs, haha. We had lunch (Scottish smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber sandwich!) in this cute courtyard by a fountain (where we spent fifteen minutes taking pictures of making wishes, haha), got red velvet cupcakes from a cupcake shop called Angel Food Bakery, visited the Royal Pavilion, stopped for tea, and had dinner at Wagamama's (Japanese fusion!) with some of Kristin's Uni. Sussex friends (I like how it sounds like all we did was eat all day, but that's all I can remember!). It was raining that night, so we just went to the East Slope Bar where I tried cider black for the first time: Strongbow with blackcurrant flavoring, SO GOOD. Things got sillay pretty quick, considering who the three of us. It deteriorated into secret-telling and tickle-fighting back in Kristin's dorm, aka all the things that make up a good girly sleepover!

Today, we went to Rottingdean and then back in Brighton for some shopping. Kristin insisted that someplace had "THE BEST cream tea in the world!" in Rottingdean, which is why we went, and holy balls was it amazing: shepherd's pie, tea, and scones with clotted cream and jam! Artery-clogging, but amazing. I'd never had shepherd's pie before or clotted cream, but I basically inhaled it, haha. Kristin told us that there are like 700 cal in a tablespoon of clotted cream, JEEZ, kill me now. We also explored the beach for a little bit, which was all sorts of danger (climbing huge piles of rocks in flats = dumb), but superrr gorgeous.

Later that night, we wound up going out to this club called Digital with one of Kristin's friends, who actually reminded us all so much of Robin, it was eerie. European club music is pretty silly (Jessica and I kept catching each other's eye, like "WTF are we listening to?" and LOLing), but it was a lot of fun. Well, minus the part where apparently English girls all wear hooker heels. One girl in stilettoes stepped on me and I almost knocked her the fuck out, but now I have this intense bruise on my foot, ugh. Srsly, I don't think anything gets me more feisty than large oppressive crowds, haha. Also, I got pulled into a dance-off with some random dude? Awk. All in all, super fun, but we got back to Uni. Sussex at like 3:30 AM, and when the sun comes up at 4 AM, it makes trying to fall asleep bloody torturous, haha.

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]

Arrival in England!

Back in the realm of Strongbow and Heineken on tap, ahh =]

My flight was alright, minus the part where these little kids were sitting behind me who kept shrieking and kicking. I felt bad and didn't want to say anything because they were so little, like two and six, but every time I fell asleep, they'd kick me awake. Srsly, by the end of it, I was ready to punt one down the aisle. The girl sitting next to me was super sweet, though. She just graduated from Taylor High School (I keep meeting Taylor grads this summer!) and is studying in Rome, too.

I had to wait for Jessica at Heathrow for like two hours, but we managed to navigate the series of tube and train rides just fine. Dragging 70 lbs of luggage up and down stairs and on and off trains was such a pain, though. We were really worried we were going to PTFO on the train from Victoria to Brighton so were totes dead by the time Kristin picked us up from the Falmer Station and basically took a nap as soon as we got to her flat.

We took a bus into Brighton when we woke up, got dinner (lamb doner kebab, mm!) and went to the Brighton pier to hang out, meet some other Uni. Sussex people, and see the fireworks for the finale of Brighton Festival or whatever. We're still pretty beat from all that travelling (14 straight hours, BALLS) so now we're just lying around in Kristin's room with Strongbow and talking. I think we're going back into Brighton tomorrow to explore the Lanes and stuff. I can't believe I'm in Europe, AHHH!

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]