First Weekend Update - I Got Sick!

So naturally, as only I could pull off, I got horribly sick this weekend with a stomach bug and had to give up my Sunday sight-seeing to lie in bed and recover. But I survived (shocking, I know) and managed to get a lot of fun into the weekend BEFORE I became ill. Thursday night we went to our "Start of the Semester Party" that BU so graciously threw for us at a very posh club called The Langely. BU likes to gip us on a lot of things and steal our money, but I am quickly learning that when in London, BU hooks things up. Our dorm is beautiful, our buildings are in a ritzy, hoity-toity high-end area of London, BU rented out a club for the start of the semester, and it rents out a club for the end of the semester party too! On Friday we tried to mingle with some other college-aged people so we went to Imperial College's club that is down the street from the BU buildings. That was fun, especially because they played Backstreet Boys, Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha - three people who are always guaranteed to get the party started. This is a picture of my three roommates and myself at the Langely.

On Saturday morning, Melissa and I decided to go on an adventure. Well, it started out as less of an adventure and more of a trip to the Museum of Natural History, but it turned into a full-fledged adventure in a city that we are NOT familiar with. We headed out with the intention of going to the museum, but while we were eating lunch in a cafe we saw a double-decker bus, and decided that we had to ride on it. We had been talking about riding a double-decker all week long and had not had the chance to do so. So we decided to get on a bus, which felt like it was going to tip over, and go to High Street Kensington, which is the prime shopping street in the area. (Side note: someone today asked me for directions to High Street Kensington as I was walking down the street. I apparently am looking like a Londoner, but am not playing the part, as I had to apologeticallly explain that I had no clue where High Street Kensington is.) We originally wanted to get rain boots, but finding them was harder than expected, so we had to look in a few stores. After looking in some of the stores, we ran into our friends, who told us they were just at Portabello Market. We decided to then skip shopping for boots, skip the museum all together, and head to Portabello Market, which is in the Notting Hill area of the city.

We had no idea how to get to Notting Hill, and the only directions our friends gave us was to walk down Kensington Church Street and then ask people for directions or "follow the masses of people." When we got to the end of the street, there were no "masses" and we decided that we weren't going to ask for directions, we were just going to wander until we got there. We eventually arrived, but not before passing some adorable pink and blue houses!

 So we wandered around Portabello Market for quite some time, checking out all the antiques and clothes and food. I bought a doughnut and a wallet and Melissa bought a scarf. We also saw these really cool vintage Singer sewing machines in the windows of one store, which my mom and Deborah really would have loved.

 

After about two hours of wandering around in the rain we decided to get on another bus and come home. The trouble was, we didn't know what bus took us home. But we eventually made it and we saw another beautiful part of London.

Today, I decided, while working in the library, that I am going to try to only read books about London or Britain or books written by Brittish people while I am over here across the pond. I've started to compile a list, but I am open to suggestions! So far, I've got the following:

• Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
• Bookends by Jane Green
• Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
• Atonement by Ian McEwan 
• And others that I forgot to remember.....

Anyway, time for bed! Cheers!