The West End: Tea, Theatre, Beer

We woke up in time for breakfast and made it to the Andy Steve's talk on time. I wore a new dress that I had got at H&M the day before. We were in the back of the line that walked to the room where the talk was, causing us to not have a chair to sit in so we (my roommates and I) proceeded to sit on the stairs in the small auditorium type classroom... In a dress. I was thoroughly irritated at that. I don't mind sitting on the floor, but if I am wearing a skirt, I would expect at least one person (typically male) would offer their seat. Apparently I am in a group of selfish American boys. It was very disappointing and it was quite a pain in the butt to keep my legs and butt situated on the stairs, luckily there was no one in front of us except for Mr Andy Steves.

Andy was a very good speaker and had a great presentation for us. He gave us wonderful useful advice for traveling, and I shall try my best to remember it. His company (WSA World) has many places planned out for 199 Euros each trip (but you have to get yourself to the destination from London). The talk wasn't too long but by the time he was finished I was ready to stand up off the dirty steps.

Before we went to the travel fair, a group of us ran to Boots to grab a few things (mouthwash and floss for me). The travel fair was also very interesting. It was a bunch of travel companies that offer anything from English Day Trips to Weekend Escapes throughout Europe. Andersontours.com seemed to be a company that I will be using this semester to find myself in York, Dover and other various places.

I realized I received an Email from Anderson (our London mother) telling me I have got a package. Our mattress topper is here early! Horay! Nicole (a short girl from California that I met at the fair) and I went to the office to pick it up, as she was going to join us for afternoon tea, in a couple hours. Expecting a compact package that was vacuum sealed, I was flabbergasted at the giant blue bag I had to carry down the street. It wasn't heavy, just big and awkward! Together, Nicole and I managed to get it back to my room, where I proceeded to cut it in half, and use the leftovers to even out the foot of the bed. As it turns out, Nicole also lives in the dungeon basement, through some doors and around a couple corners. Emily turned up with a girl, Sam, and they tried to find a hostel to stay in for their trip to Ibiza next weekend. Ibiza is crazy, I wish I could go, but I decided as a history major, I should go places relevant to history. Granada would be great.

Not too long later we found ourselves at "The Muffin Man" on a side street off of Kensington High Street. There, Nicole, Emily and I enjoyed small tomato and cucumber sandwiches, deliciously brewed tea, and cakes. I indulged in "The Queen Mother's Cake", which was a cake with walnuts, dates and chocolate frosting. It was delightful. When the tea came out, none of us really could figure out what to do with it. It was brewed loose leaf in tea pots and we got mesh strainers with silver cups, cups, milk, and sugar. Finally after staring at it for a couple seconds, we figured it out ;)

While we walk on Kensington High Street, we pass a woman standing outside of the tube station holding a stack of magazines, asking people to purchase them. We have passed here probably 4 or 5 times since we have been here. She isn't dressed very nice, and is not a very good sales person. The last time we passed her, she was sitting down, moaning "please please please". It was disturbing.

As we keep walking by the outdoor flower stands, I want to purchase a bouquet and write a note on it from Cathy to Diana, and take it to her memorial. I will have to get around to that.

Finally we made it back to the room, where Emily and I chilled for a while, cat napped and then got ready for dinner and the theatre performance. Dinner was great. It was spaghetti with meat sauce, cheesy cauliflower, garlic bread, and chocolate cake. Everything was really good, but the cake was slightly dry, so I only had a bite. I cant even eat sweets nearly as much as I used to. Its so weird. I didn't even finish my cake at tea, I ate about a third of it.

Since we did not finish dinner in time to leave with the group, Emily, Elana, Kathrine and I made our own way. After fighting with the ticket machine at the tube stop for 15 minutes, we made it to Piccadilly Circus unharmed. The theatre (The Cirtirion) was right next to the tube stop, so that was easy. We were 40 minutes early so we decided to go have a beer. On our way to find a pub, we stopped to take touristy pictures with the phone booth, and all. We found a pub, The John Cribb's. It was slightly lame because the barkeep wasn't the friendliest, and it was like all men there. But we had a Asahi , and went on our way.

The show, 39 Steps, turned out to be quite hilarious, filled with classic British humor. The theatre had beautiful decor and friendly staff. The actors in the show (4 in total) played many roles and did a fantastic job at it! I laughed so hard at many points in the show. Emily and I had front row seats, while Elena and Kathrine sat back a row with some rude girls from our group, who out-rightly talked crap about them. So that was unpleasant. They did not enjoy the show as much as we did, so they left at intermission and walked around Piccadilly. The second half of the show was better than the first! I was pleased that we decided to stay.

After the show, we waited for Elena and Kathrine to return from their walk, to decide what we were going to do. We stood there, in the center for quite some time, and a tall lanky dark skinned man kept walking past us. I spotted him about 4 times until finally he whispered "want some weed?". I cringed, looked at Emily, and we bailed to the other side of the 'circus'. Not too long after we found the girls and Kathrine mentioned how she also had the same encounter with that man.

We chose to return to Kensington and go to the Queens Arms pub we found down the street. That was a bust, as it closed at 11, about 10 minutes after we got our beer, so my Becks was not finished completely, yet another pound wasted. Emily and I were ravenous by now, so we decided to go to another pub that served food, we were directed to head down the towards the station, as places down there are open later than up here. So down to the station we went. We found a middle eastern place that served 'fish and chips', as advertised on a big neon sign. The best fish and ships I have had in England yet! It was great. They also served a lot of middle eastern food, and they are open until 1am with reasonable prices, this shall be our drunk feasting spot.

By the time we returned back, I was far too tired to blog, text or even call Frank. I showered and passed out on my new comfy bed. I had a horrible dream though. Ive had the dream before so those really irritate me.

Have a good day! <3