today was a blast! we woke up early (boo, especially since it's saturday) - 7:20am. had to leave around 8:30am.... we left and headed for paddington station. once we got there, we hung around, waiting for prof. he finally got there, got our tickets and told us that we had LOTS of time (turns out, the train ride was only 12 minutes and we had allotted 1.5 hours!!! (gracious udden! hehe) so.... katie and i walked around the station for a while and got hot beverages (mmm hot chocolate. delicious!) finally, around 10:15ish we all met up again in the middle of the station (there's a paddington bear statue!!! steve took my picture! hehe) we got on the train and took the short train ride to the station just past ealing broadway. once there... we still had a half hour before the tour started, so we all hung out outside the station in the sunshine (it was kind of chilly today, so sunshine was good!)
the tour started at 11:15am - our tour guide was like wicked famous (apparently she judged on iron chef?) and does basically everything (dancing, cooking, touring... lots!) this weekend is like a huge london appreciation kind of weekend - Thames festival, open house, london walks, etc. - so all the tours today were free. we had 35 people in our tour! (large number after being so used to just the 15 of us) we saw the first bar to sell alcohol for ruppees, a grocery store (they had weird exotic fruits and looooots of indian food - allong with pillsbury flour in HUGE bags and in hindi. interesting), a jewlery store, a fabric store, a desert store, an after desert store (tried foods from both of these.... nasty.) then we went shopping - i bought pita bread at the grocery store (yay!), pashminas (for me and for gifts - only ONE POUND! amazing!) and some jewelry (1 pound necklace and earrings - can't go wrong!)
after shopping around for a bit, we headed back to the station and got on the train. we ended up being a liiiiitle bit late for our lunch/dinner reservations, but we still got there! it was a place called soho india (right off of picadilly circus) - very posh, we were the only people there (granted, it was like... 3 and who eats then?!) i ordered the velvety chicken tiki.... it was pieces of chicken with this green goop on them (turned out to be decently spicey). it came with rice cakes and mango sauce for appetizer, spicey rice and black lentl soup with the meal and naan - the best flat bread i've ever eaten in my entire life! all in all, it was an experience.
after the restraunt, prof and mrs. prof took us to camden markets. from here, they let us go do whatever and went their own way. this market was SOO different from the portobello rd one (i like the notting hill market better, personally).... this had some pretty wild things (most of it was decently punky.... chains, black, corsets, etc.)... but it was interesting to see nonetheless.
katie, steve, amanda and i ended up kind of breaking away from the group..... went our own way for a while and then decided we were done. we took the picadilly home - - sooooo packed. i was pressed against the door. not fun. but we made it!
once back, i was exhaaaaaaausted, but we decided to head out anyway (got to sit down for about a half hour!)... got dressed and we headed to cadogan's for the ireland vs. georgia rugby game. (not sure who won.... wasn't really paying attention) dave, steve, leo, jess, katie and i got a table and all sat around drinking (mmmm sex on the beach and smirnoff ice). it was a fun time. some sketchy old men came over and started talking to us and eating our food (not cool) but they left and leo did too eventually...... yeah...... anyway...... jon and his girlfriend (visiting for the weekend) met up with us and sat at our table. we stayed there until 11 (got there around 8ish) when they closed.... from there, jess, katie, steve and i decided to see what was happening at babushkas.... i stayed for maybe all of 15 minutes (danced for a little, but just wasn't in to it at all).... steve and i left and came back to my room. we made some crazy music videos (basically, us attempting to sing - steve was soooo drunk, and i was a bit tipsie) it was much fun! steve went to bed, i talked to the family (they're leaving to go home tomorrow from the beach) and now.... i'm to bed
lying in tomorrow like CRAZY!!!!
