pennies in the thames

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Disney On Ice, Thai, & American Party

Before Disney On Ice

This past week my friends and I went to Disney on Ice at Wembley Stadium because my friend Marta knew a girl who was in the production. It was full of children and we were probably one of the only groups of people there without someone under the age of 8 with us. It was still a really good show and they played a lot of Disney classics from the princess films that we all know and love. My favorite part was probably The Little Mermaid scenes (they had bubble machines in the ceiling and on the side of the stage that released bubbles and whenever the little kids would run up to pop the bubbles, security would shoo them away. It was quite the sight). After that we ate at our local Wetherspoon's pub and then I called it a night.

Walking to Wembley

The Little Mermaid

The Finale

The next night I went to a Thai restaurant called Rosa's at Spitalfields with my friend Zim. I had eaten their food at their location at Westfield Stratford and while I found the good tasty, their service was absolutely dreadful. Though Time Out London and Yelp had good reviews for them overall, on their Facebook page and on the comment section of user reviews on Time Out they had several displeased diners who found the service horrendous. Anyway, I advise against going there at all as the service alone is a major turn-of for this place despite it's good food and good location. We still had a nice night out and laughed at the experience but it was still an unacceptable way to run a business.

Pad Thai

This brings me to a cultural difference about customer service in the US versus in London. In the US, more often than not your waiters will be at least mildly nice if not fake-ly and abnormally sweet to you. Here, they do the bare minimum as far as "laying it on thick" goes. For the most part service here blows - and I think that's primarily because jobs in the service industry are paid higher wages and tips aren't anything they work for or depend on per se. In the US, most (if not all) positions like that are paid minimum wage and depend on their tips to even get by. Being a US citizen, I'm used to the tipping culture in The States and find that although we might pay more for the pseudo-kind service at restaurants, I personally appreciate the sort of experience it gives to your dining. For example, I don't recall if I told this story on my blog when it happened, but when Danielle and I went to Bath and we needed to catch the bus into town, we asked the bus driver of the bus that we thought we needed if it was the correct bus route. He bluntly said to us, "No. F**k off." That sort of interaction I just don't see flying back home and/or if it did their job would be on the line. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on customer service in the UK.

Last night my friends' flat hosted a party aptly named The American Party. It was themed to be like most college parties in the US with beer pong and red Solo cups. One of the girls had her mom send a bunch of Solo cups for the party and ping pong balls. The party was interesting. Interesting is the word I'd use.

At the American Party

American Party

Random night out at Picadilly Institute

At Picadilly Institute

Totem Pole!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Flatmate's Birthday Night Out

This picture is hilarious

We celebrated my flatmate Marta's birthday by surprising her with a cake, cards, and gifts and then all went out to eat at an Indian restaurant in Brick Lane. Brick Lane is in East London and it's basically like an Indian Town or Bangla Town. There's literally hundreds of Indian restaurants on the street and surrounding area and they all try to get you to eat at their restaurant by offering free appetizers, wine, and desserts. My friend bartered with them and we all got (for about £10 each) an appetizer, main dish with naan and rice, and 5 free bottles of wine to share.

I ordered the onion bhajis for my appetizer (basically fried onion balls) and the sag paneer with rice palau and plain naan for my main dish. Sag paneer is basically a cheesy spinach dish and it's probably going to be my staple order at Indian places as I quite like it and haven't had the guts to try other stuff yet.

At dinner

Dinner was a lot of fun, we talked about Rihanna her Twitter scandals and her new song "Birthday Cake" became the quotable tune of the night (cake-cake-cake-cake). After dinner we went to a bar called The Big Chill (also in Brick Lane) and just all chatted for a couple hours a bit more.

Overall we had a nice time just hanging out and celebrating Marta's 20th and it was a really nice night out with all the girls. After that we stopped by one of the famous bagel (spelled "beigel") shops and got midnight bagels for a snack before heading back to the flat and calling it a night.

At her surprise flat party

Walking amongst East London street art

Random construction truck pic

Group photo

One more for the road

Some Things I Miss (Heavily food related)

Honest Tea Half-Tea & Half-Lemonade (the company even tweeted me!)
Mexican food from restaurant in my hometown
Takeout Thai food from my university town
A clean kitchen
My college campus and the libraries there
Having more than one knife, fork, spoon, etc.
A decorative room
Driving (believe it or not)
Pizza from Pizza Papalis and/or Jet's
Hearing American accents all the time (believe it or not, once again)
Home-cooked food (macaroni and cheese comes to mind)
Trying to cook with friends
Teavana teas
Almond milk (no where to be found here)
Having a laundry service
Showering in a regular sized shower (not a wet-room)
My Tempurpedic pillow
Seeing friends and family in real life (not via Skype)
Super efficient Americanisms (like free refills on drinks)

All is well in London Town, I just miss a few American goodies and people. On the other hand, I know I'll dearly miss London when I leave and it makes me sad to think of this upcoming June when I will be forced to leave behind all the wonderful people and places I've experienced on this side of the pond. This whole adventure has really showed me the vast amount of people, opportunities, places and experiences out there that so many people will sadly never get to see, live or feel. Going back to Michigan will have its advantages, but I know a large part of me will always be in London.

This trip has also made me aware of the multifaceted thoughts and qualms I have with a traditional American life in Suburbia, USA. We're conditioned to work hard in school and go to college and get a job and have a family in the suburbs with 2.5 children, a dog and a white picket fence. I fully respect much of that notion, especially when it comes to education, however; I think this ideal has its issues. The ever elusive "American dream" and all its promises to millions of people permeates our culture and upbringing and often leaves many desiring more or shorthanded. And while I fully understand the desire for a secure and "normal" life, a part of me really wants to break that mold and not fall victim to a tireless and uneventful day-to-day life. Perhaps the Europeans and Brits have the balance figured out a bit more as they seem to retain a bit of themselves and their culture of enjoying life a bit more. The US is the most overworked nation and while we're awfully efficient at a lot of what we do, our "work-tirelessly culture" hurts us in the end and can lead to a monotonous and predictable life in many respects.

Just some thoughts.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Reading Week Festivities

Canterbury architecture

This past week was reading week so I spent most of it catching up on rest and trying to get onto a more normal sleep schedule. Nothing too eventful happened, just a lot of hanging out around the dorm and I went to this awesome Mexican restaurant in Notting Hill called Taqueria with my friend Brittany. We had a really nice time there and both were excited to eat Mexican food (it's not all that popular here in England).

I went to Canterbury with my friend Zim for a day to explore a bit and we had a really nice time. It was a very cute, quaint town and very "Olde English" in appearance. When we first arrived we went to a tea house called Tiny Tim's Tea House and the food was fabulous! The dessert plate was especially delicious.

After tea we wanted to check out the Canterbury Cathedral. It's a really famous cathedral where the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leader. We only saw it from afar as they charge about £8 to enter or even get closer to it, which was a bit odd. So after we saw that main attraction we just shopped a bit walked around the town. Toward the end of our time there we were pretty exhausted so we just chatted and hung out at a pub for awhile before the trek back to London. I have a few photos from that but I'll add more photos from that once I get the rest of them from her. Cheers!

At Taqueria

Before event

At Taqueria

Our food!

Our bootleg shot of me in front of cathedral

At tea

Preparing a cup

Mmm!

Entrance to Canterbury Cathedral

Later in the week we went to an event during the day that we thought was going to be a brunch but actually ended up being more of like a dance party. That was a bit strange as it was in the middle of the day, but we had fun.

Me and Zim

Me and Zim again

Some of Zim's friends

Dinner cooked by yours truly

Zim at Tea (her first tea!)

Canterbury Tales

The teahouse we ate at

Zim enjoying her tea

Friday, February 24, 2012

I Try Marmite.

Marmite. A brown sludge "yeast extract" popular in England.

Funny cartoon about Marmite.

Flatmates Try American Junk Food

Several weeks ago my British flatmates tried American junk food items and I filmed their reactions! Enjoy! =)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Bath and a Visit from Danielle

So a couple weeks ago my friend (from a summer program that I did back in high school) came to visit me here in London. She is studying in Bologna, Italy and was excited to come to London and have a nice departure from speaking entirely in Italian. When she arrived she brought me the most sweetest presents ever - fresh pasta made that day in Bologna and a lovely black scarf with fur that I've worn nonstop since she gave it to me.

Me and Indian food - dun dun dun!

The first day she was here we went to Brick Lane, an up-and-coming-hipsters-love-this-place area with a lot of Bangladeshi and Indian culture, restaurants, and tons of vintage and thrift shops. As we headed there we stumbled into the Whitechapel Art Gallery and an artist she's familiar with had a few pieces being shown there. We shopped around for a bit and I got a pair of gold flats for £5 (though they weren't actually vintage). I also ate/tried Indian food for the first time in a long time (to summarize, I tried Indian food when I was about 13 or so and really didn't like it so I've avoided it since then). I've always like the naan bread but never really tried much else since my bad experience years ago. Though I will never be a fan of curry, I actually rather enjoyed my meal! I had sag paneer (which is a spinach and cheese dish) and a spicy prawn dish that was served in puri and rice. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bad!

Later that night, she and I went to Gordon's Wine Bar - this place was seriously awesome! I'd recommend it to people coming to London. It's basically an underground cave-like system of tunnels with candles and a wine cellar. We both shared a bottle of a red wine from Spain (I think) and it was actually very good. We met a ton of American students who were studying in London as well and basically chatted with their table the whole night. The wine bar is rather busy and you sort of have to duck to walk around inside, so for a large portion of the night we actually sat outside underneath their heaters, which wasn't too bad. Once we got a seat inside we also decided to share a cheese platter that had mature cheddar and brie with bread - it was fantastic. After that we checked out a few other bars in the area but didn't stay out too late. We decided to check out Beigel Bake on Brick Lane for a midnight snack. It's basically a 24 hour bagel shop - but the bagels didn't taste like regular plain American bagels -- they were sweet. That was a bit weird, but it was still tasty.

Danielle & I in a cave with wine and cheese

Cave livin'

Me and new American friends

More American friends!

Me, excited to eat a good 'ol American (or so I thought) bagel at midnight

Danielle & I at the Tate Modern

The following day we went to a few museums that Danielle wanted to check out - The Tate Modern and The National Gallery. I had been right by The National Gallery several times, as it's right on Trafalgar Square, but I hadn't ventured out to the Tate yet. The Tate was sort of difficult to get to, as it's a bit more South and South London is not as well serviced by the Underground. I would say that I enjoyed the Tate more than the National Gallery, just as I tend to find modern art more engaging and interesting. There are several world famous pieces in the National Gallery (like the Van Gogh Sunflowers painting, paintings by Monet, Rembrandt, etc.), but as a non-art studier it's not as intriguing or interesting to me.

FOOD. Glorious food.

After gallery perusing, we went to Notting Hill to try to find Kensington Palace to go to afternoon tea there, but we weren't able to find it in enough time to still be served tea so we instead went to a pub called The Prince of Wales! This pub was so delicious - I'm not sure if it was because I was rather exhausted from all the walking we had did or if the food was actually fantastic, but either way we both finished the bulk of our meals. We both ordered fish and chips (as you must while at a pub in England~) and were so excited to eat. Later that night we went to another pub to hang out with friends and just chill out in East London right across from Spitalfields Market (this pub, called The Ten Bells was apparently a pub that Jack the Ripper, the infamous East London murderer, used to frequent).

In the wild by our hostel in Bath

The following day we departed to Bath, Somerset, UK which is a beautiful town that has Roman architecture and looks like it's out of a painting. We stayed at a hostel (which wasn't half bad- though the bathroom was a bit....off) and did tons of sightseeing. We went to the Jane Austen Centre (accompanied by a friend of mine who is an old friend of one of my flatmates) which is built where the famous author used to live apparently. The gift shop and the workers there were so incredibly sweet! The highlight of the visit there, however; was the afternoon tea. It was one of the best teas I've ever done - the food was just absolutely delicious and the tea I had was perfect. It was unpretentious and just had an overall nice ambiance and great service. After that we browsed the shops a bit and I got a fresh face mask at Lush (as I had desperately been in the mood to do a face mask). Later that night we had a hard time finding food that was still open because we weren't hungry when restaurants were still open as we had a lot to eat during tea. We met a guy from our hostel who was from Uruguay and was in Bath to go see Stonehenge the following day and he went with us to try to find food. We eventually went to a random falafel booth and it wasn't bad surprisingly (though they didn't have tahini sauce- which is the best part of falafels in my opinion).

Later that night we just hung out in a few pubs in the area that some of the university students recommended to us and we met some cool people. We met two guys from Glasgow who recommended places for me to go when I go there next month.

The following day we saw the Roman Baths and the Abbey - both of which were really beautiful and cool to see. I liked the way that the Roman Baths museum parts were interactive - it kept it interesting and engaging. After we saw the sights we ate at yet another pub until our train departed back to London. That was basically the end of our trip - we did sooo much and were both exhausted, but it was an amazing long weekend. Cheers!