I could not wipe the smile off of my face as I entered this glorious haven of natural foods. I was greeted by a woman who was pouring berry smoothies into small cups for the masses, while instructing the group of people who had huddled around her prep table on how to use the blender she had been using. Once I entered the store, I became aware of a very familiar smell in an unfamiliar city; Whole Foods scones. I was only going in to get some shampoo and the like, but one delicious ginger scone wouldn’t keep my friends waiting too long, right? I quickly bagged the goodie and headed downstairs (did I mention this store has three floors? I know). I grabbed some shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, soap and body lotion and was very pleasantly surprised that the store had just happened to be having a sale on most of those items. Score! I purchased a bunch of reusable bags with the rest of the items, and blissfully dug into the scone as I exited the store.
For dinner we went to our local pub, Glocester Arms, with a group of our friends from American. I ordered a Thai chicken curry pie with mash and a Strongbow Cider. Delicious. After we got back from dinner, (around 9:30p.m.) the entire building fell asleep. I know this because Skype won’t work in the dorms until the broadband is fixed later on in September, and I was somehow magically able to Skype. Jetlag gets the best of us.
Friday we had to wake up at 10a.m. for an orientation session followed by another orientation session. Between the two sessions I went back to the hotel we had stayed last week because I left my stuffed animal monkey there (“Hi, I just checked out this morning and I was wondering if you found a stuffed animal monkey in room LG25?”). I got it back… success! I took the tube back to Kensington High Street and met up with Emily and Brian for lunch and some pillow shopping at Marks and Spencer. We went to Whole Foods to pick up some groceries and we all got this awesome Whole Foods London strawish-burlapish bag. After all of our orientations were over, I ended up back at Whole Foods (are you really surprised?) for dinner with Jeff and Rebs. I went over to the hot food bar and made myself a burrito with black beans, shredded pork, pico de gallo, cheddar cheese and roasted butternut squash. The food was great but the utensils were strange; wooden spoons, forks and knives that I’m sure could cause some sort of paper cut when slicing into hard foods. I dutifully recycled them when I was finished eating, and got a scoop of galia melon sorbet for dessert. Yum. After hanging out in the dorms for a bit, a bunch of us walked over to Imperial College. As part of our program, we are given access to the Student Union at Imperial College, which just happens to include a subsidized bar. All of you people in blog land are definitely going to be hearing more about this bar as the drinks are cheap and the Brits are friendly. We grabbed a table and mingled until the bar closed at 11p.m. After meeting some people who are in our program from Temple University, we all walked over to this bar/club named Archangel on Kensington High Street.
We had a great time making fools of ourselves while dancing to the very American music blasting over the stereo (think Bob Dylan). Jeff and I stayed to hang out a little longer while some of our friends went back, and stopped into the convenience store down the block for a 50 pence croissant later on.
Saturday morning I woke up really itchy all over my arm. I had to forget the itch and rush to get ready as we had a tour guide waiting outside the dorm for us. It was about 9:47a.m. and the tour was leaving at 10a.m. on the dot. I have no idea how we made it, but I’m glad we did. The guide took us on a historical tour of Kensington and the surrounding areas. We walked through the Royal Kensington Gardens, over to the make-shift Princess Diana memorial made for the anniversary of her death, around to Kensington High Street and back to the dorms. The guide took us through tertiary streets to get to our destinations so we could experience the quaintness of the area. We stopped at several houses where artists had once lived (T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, etc.), and got to learn how this area came to be so high-class and affluent. Once the tour was over, we were given two hours to do as we wished (Rebs and I fell asleep), and were told to meet outside for a bus tour at 2p.m.
We were instructed to sit at the top of the double-decker bus, and our hilarious tour guide spoke to us via a microphone from below. I was a bit distracted due to my still-itchy arm, but that didn’t take me away from seeing the infamous postcard-like sites that we all know so well. After driving past Harrods, down Oxford Street, through the financial district and over Tower and London bridges, the bus stopped so that we could all get out at Buckingham Palace. The palace is as grand as anything, and I can’t wait to take a tour in the near future while the Queen is still away.
The most interesting thing that I saw on this bus tour was a 60-year-old man by the name of Brian Haw who has lived in London’s Parliament Square since 2001 in protest of Britain’s policies toward Afghanistan and Iraq. His peace camp has garnered much attention by the media, and support from individuals both ordinary and influential. It was pretty cool to see this very, very tan man through the bus window. I took down a lot of notes during the tour, and have now got a long list of places I’d like to visit. Our guide was so entertaining that even after three hours I didn’t want the tour to end. I decided to cope with my sadness when it finally did end by purchasing a Mango-Passion Fruit frappuccino at Starbucks. Very thirst-quenching.
Back at the dorm, I made pasta with spinach and Bolognese sauce and garlic bread for Jeff, Rebs and I. We ate our dinner on the floor of mine and Rebs’ room as the kitchen is only equipped with two seats (but it does have practically everything else; pots, pans, cheese graters, proper cook’s knives, etc.). After cleaning ourselves up a bit, we headed over to the Imperial College Bar to meet up with our friends. We met some students from Imperial College as well as students in our program and stayed until close.
This morning I woke up itchy—again! I have determined that I have bed bugs after an extensive Google Image search of what bed bug bites look like. I am having my mattress and linens changed tomorrow. I met up with Jeff in the lobby of the dorm and we bussed over to Kensington High Street to go to the gym. We were planning on going to a 12p.m. class and Jeff purchased a pair of sneakers with a few minutes to spare! Jeff and I got our butts kicked at this circuit class but we had a lot of fun when we were paired up for the kickboxing portion. We got lunch at Marks and Spencer (see a pattern here? They’ve got sandwiches, salads and wraps for less than 4 pounds!), and walked our smelly selves around Kensington High Street before walking back to the dorms. After a shower and a walk to the stationary store to purchase some books and pens for Tuesday, I hung out in the room a bit (not on my bed, of course!) and am now in the computer lab. Tomorrow I’m going to Ikea with Jeff to pick up some more things for our rooms, and we both start class on Tuesday! I’m going to try not to let the bed bugs bite before then!
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