ENGLANDINSPIRATION: It's been way too long..

Wow I feel like it's been ages since I updated this thing. I didn't realize just how much of a problem this was, however, until I received a concerned phone call from my father asking why I hadn't been posting!

15 January, 2011
Let me update you on what I've been doing. Last time I uploaded photos, I spent the day "getting lost in Harrods," and Harvey Nichols too (another fancy department store) with Hillary and Jenny. We ate the most fabulous macaroons from Ladruee, a Parisian cafe in Harrods. It just so happens that we were there during Harrods famous one and only sale of the year, which happens right around Christmas time. For this reason, it was absolute craziness, particularly for anyone with claustrophobia. It just made me feel kind of drunken and topsy turvy. I did manage to find one beautiful green grey sweater from Whistles, an iconic London brand, which I have practically not taken off since I bought it. At Harvey Nichols, I discovered Penhaligon's, which is a famous perfumer that has created colognes and perfumes for everyone from Winston Churchill (lemony gin and tonic scent), to Her Majesty herself. Oh, and Nicole Kidman too.

16 January, 2011
The next day, I traveled to Kensal Green for lunch at my cousin Jodi's house, with her Italian husband Simone, and two adorable children, Julietta and Marciello. Jodi's mother, Sandy, or "Alysara" as she goes by these days, was also visiting from Israel! It was such an amazing feeling spending the afternoon with them, and just knowing that I have such amazing people in my family and that they're here, in England, and I can see them as often as I like. You never really feel so grateful for your family, I think, until you're in a new and strange place.

17 January, 2011
So that was pretty much my weekend, and then I had classes on Monday and Wednesday, which all went quite well. I bought a week pass to go to different clubs every night (it really feels strange to be going out this much, particularly during the week, but it's been pretty fun!). So Monday was TigerTiger and Tuesday was Koko. Koko was definitely much better than TigerTiger, which seemed like a night club for International visitors only here for a week, whereas Koko in Camden was a much younger, hipper scene with lots of UCL and other college students. I went out both nights with my Wash U friends, Hillary, Cameron, and Paula, and on Tuesday we met up with another Wash U girl, plus some Cornell guys. We had a great time!

19 January, 2011
Last night (Wednesday) I met up with my friend from high school, Brittany, and the two of us took the tube to Angel for dinner at a sweet little place called Med Kitchen. It was so great to finally see her! After dinner, took the tube home and met up with friends at Ramsay, who were playing a ridiculous game of Kings with a group of British fresher (freshman) boys. Deciding to take a break from the clubbing scene, we head to the Union bars (literally at the UCL Student Union). It was Mollie's last day of Princeton exams, so we were going out to celebrate. And that's when I more or less hit my limit. After several days of non-stop partying, it was time to stop. So I called it a night early, and headed on home.

20 January, 2011
Woke up this morning feeling better rested and headed around the corner for some breakfast at Pret. On my way back into my building, I ran into an American Juicy-branded mother waiting with her son for her daughter to come downstairs. As soon as she heard me say something to the woman at the front desk, she was thrilled to have found an American friend for her daughter. So anyway, she (the mother) invited me to go out to dinner with them tomorrow night, and bring a friend! Her daughter was clearly completely embarrassed by the whole incident but I thought it was pretty funny.

Later on, I ventured over to campus and wandered around Waterstone's (my favorite bookstore) for a little while, then stopped in to Planet Organic (of course) for some delicious (organic) tomato soup and "V" water, as it's called here (rather than "vitamin water"--it's actually completely different although a very similar concept). Then I went to the English department for a viewing of Metropolis, which I had no idea was a 2 and a half hour film, but nonetheless was very interesting and entertaining. I went for my Modern Literature seminar, which is film-based, called "Civilization and its Discontents," and this was the first film we had to watch. It was a really surreal experience to watch this movie, because since it's a classic film I could not stop thinking of all kinds of more modern movies that I'm sure this film must have been referencing (kind of like when you're reading Shakespeare). It was also very rich with biblical allusions, so it seemed like every 5 minutes I was picking up on either a biblical or modern allusion of some sort, from Moses all the way to Black Swan.

Afterwards, I ended up chatting with the British boy I'd been sitting next to and found that we had a ton of things in common! His name's Jack, and he's an English major and also very interested in art, and even though he's only a fresher and very young looking he was really interesting to talk to. I was also impressed by the fact that he's not even in my seminar, just interested in classic films since his mom was an art film major. He told me that his goal is to get his PhD in English, and then move to New Orleans and become a politician, which kind of blew me away. Then we were talking about our favorite authors and artists, and he told me his favorite artist is Barry Flanagan, and asked if I've ever heard of him, and I said no, I hadn't. Then he proceeded to tell me about how he makes sculptures of bunnies out of metal that are very rough looking and stretched out and lanky and I realized OH MY GOD !! That's the bunny from Wash U!!! What an insane coincidence that that would be his favorite artist! Well, it turns out Jack's from Cambridge, and Cambridge University also has one of these rabbit sculptures on their campus.

Small world. Very very small world. So anyway, at that moment it seemed like fate and I of course gave him my number. And he invited me to see Much Ado about Nothing. My first British friend!

Then met up with Mollie, Hillary, and Jenny and took the tube to Topshop. Once again, did not buy a thing (except dinner). Oh well, still a fun night!

Also, my mother requested I post more pictures of myself: