The little things

Well, this will probably be my last post. I'm heading home in 2 days. Most of everything is packed and ready to go. Such a sad sight to see.

I really REALLY enjoyed my time here. I love it. I would love to be able to stay here longer but my bank account feels otherwise. London is already an expensive city and add conversion rates on top of that. BUT, it was all worth it. I've had a really great time and met some awesome people.

I really hope that I get to come back someday.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm homesick and ready to go back yet. Simply put, no. No I'm not.

Not so simply put, here is a list of things that I do and will miss.

I miss my family and friends. Not so much though that a chat or skype can't remedy those feelings.

I miss my cell phone. Going from a smart phone with unlimited 4G to a flip phone.. kills me a little.

I miss Target. No reason need to be provided here I don't think.

I miss.. Taco Bell. Sad. But true.

I miss the sun.. bright shining warm sun.

I miss the convenience of driving somewhere in my own nice pretty car.

I miss the convenience of Wal-Mart. Yes, they are awful and I hate them. But they are so so convenient.

I miss my dog.

And really.. that's it! That's all.

The thought of moving back to Pensacola is kind of suffocating if I'm being honest. Just thinking about it.. So here is the London things I will miss once I'm back.

First and foremost- the food. food food food. Not even being able to read the menu and only understanding a few ingredients. But that's when you know it's going to be awesome. Just so good.

I'll miss the tap water. Weird thing to miss right? The tap water is just good. You can just walk over to the faucet and fill up your cup. Sure you can do that in Pensacola, but its awful. Our tap water is so gross. I've replaced soda almost completely here and have been drinking water. I've maybe had a soft drink 4 times since I've been here.

I'll miss Salad Cream. Do we have that at home? I don't know. But I like it. Wikipedia describes it as  a creamy yellow condiment based on an emulsion of about 25-50 percent of oil in water, emulsified by egg yolk and acidified by spirit vinegar. It may include other ingredients such as sugar, mustard, salt, thickener, spices, flavouring and colouring. It is good on sandwiches and.. salad (imagine that right?)

I'll miss the word 'cue' in place for the word line. It can be used as a noun or a verb. If you are in line you are cuing. If there is a line there is a cue. Easier to say than 'waiting in line.' I think I'll keep this word when I get back.

I'll miss walking everywhere and the easiness of public transportation. 

I'll miss the people. Everyone is so nice and helpful. Also, I love their sense of humor and how they get sarcasm and how they don't take certain things so seriously.

I'll miss hearing the accent.. because I love it.

I'll miss the fashion. Most girls here dress cool and funky. Not slutty and gross.

I'll miss not being considered pale.

I'll miss.. everything mostly. The whole thing.

I'll miss London.

Attending an Olympic event!

Man! So yesterday Robyn and I attended Olympic Beach Volleyball. It was quite awesome. They had this whole park roped off and you had to have a ticket to get in. Once in there are people everywhere. Lots of them dressed in crazy gear to support their team. We got there a bit early before our event so that we could walk around and check everything out. There were lots of merch and food tents.

London was on their game with the security and event planning. It was all extremely organized.
Once you get in you sort of work your way around until you turn the corner and see the stadium down the path. It was an exciting sight to see.

The first match we saw was Women's Canada vs Russia. It was an interesting game with each team winning one set and having to go into the third to determine the winner. We were going for Canada seeing as Robyn is from there. 
Next was Men's USA vs Spain. Now this match was exciting. So many people were cheering for Spain. Not because they were Spanish but because they were Brits and don't like Americans. It got to the point where USA was getting ahead of Spain and the whole audience was booing. I thought that was kind of rude. The game was super close but ended with USA VICTORY. Watching the men's matches were my favorite. They play with so much power that I would be afraid to be anywhere near that ball. The men's USA team had some CRAZY saves. Made for a very interesting match.
The fastest serve we saw came from the next match: Italy vs Australia. One of the Italians served just under 90mph! That's crazy! That match however was won largely by Australia.
Next up was Women's USA vs Holland. There were quite a few loud cheering Holland fans. But probably just as many crazy Americans. The match also went into the third set. USA dominated in the last set taking the victory!
By this time, with 3 out of the 4 matches going into the 3rd set, it was 12:30am. I almost lost my voice and it was cold and late, but it was worth it. It was a lot of fun! The atmosphere was so charged. I really wish I had a USA flag or shirt or something to show my support.
Here are some more pics (and the full album on facebook)

 

This is where our seats were. Right at the bar :)

 

The View behind the stadium

 USA!

 The London Eye in the background

Let the Games begin!

Well, the Olympics have officially started here in London. Olympic rings on everything, and lots and lots and lots of people. People everywhere.
Friday for the opening ceremony, we went to this park area that was one of the biggest viewing areas for Denmark. Steven is from Sweden so he wanted to go. There were a ton of people.

All not speaking English, and unfortunately, neither was the broadcast. We ended up missing a lot of the show because there were so many people. But it was fun. Where we were we could just see, through some trees, the London Bridge. At one point during the show, the Olympic rings on the bridge lit up and they had fireworks as well.

The Bridge looked really pretty too:

Then yesterday, we went to BT London Live in Hyde Park. In 3 of London's biggest parks they have turned them into these huge festivals. There are food booths, live music and everything.

I saw this kid on tv the day before. Conor Maynard. He's like the British Beiber

Some little areas where kids can play sports, and several huge screens playing different Olympic games. There were lotssss of people there. Luckily it was a warm sunny beautiful day too. I actually got a slight sunburn! Crazy for here anyway. It was all pretty cool.

The people here are (mostly) really excited about the games, and are very proud to sport their "Team GB" gear. Just walking down the street you can see so many people sporting their team. People with face paint, and flag capes.
It's a pretty exciting time to be in London. You can feel the excitement in the air. Everyone is very chipper.
I'm so excited that I got tickets to see an event. On Tuesday, me and my roommate are going to see Men's Beach Volleyball at Horse Guard Park. I can't wait. I think that it will be a lot of fun to see.
And on Wednesday my sister and brother-in-law will be here! Can't wait to see them :)

I'm not ready to be coming home on Friday :(((

More touristy things

Last weekend me and Angie went to "Tate Modern Art Museum." It's a free museum but it also has some temporary exhibits that are done by artists. You have to pay to see those though. So we stuck to the free parts.

Some of the art was pretty cool. But for the most part I don't 'get' modern art. It's like most of it is only there and framed because someone famous did it. I looked at some of the stuff and thought "I'm pretty sure I did something very similar in middle school art class." Some examples:

yes. That is a sliced, plain canvas. framed..

There were so many of them like that and I just know that many of them have numerous essays delving into the 'meaning' of the painting...

I did like some of them though.

After the museum we walked to The Tower Bridge. Along the way we saw some really cool stuff.

Like this church:

And the Globe Theatre:

It was a really pretty walk along the river and seeing the bridge getting closer and closer. They have just recently put these huge Olympic rings on the bridge. They looked pretty cool.

Pretty massive. Once we got to the bridge we decided to walk across. Which was also really neat. There is so much detail on the towers. It was really cool to see up close. And because they are getting ready for the Olympics, everything was freshly repainted and cleaned. 

Some views of walking across the bridge. 

Fast forward to today. 

Today, Angie and I went to Madame Tussauds and then Dagney met us and we went to The London Eye. 

Madame Tussauds was really neat. They had so many wax people! It took us about an hour and a half to walk through and take pictures as we saw fit. Some of the sculptures realllly creeped me out because they looked so real! Often times there would be one in the middle of the room and I wouldn't even realize that it wasn't a real person for the longest time. Some were not so great, but man, some were just spot on, and it was just creepy.. I think these were the most well done:

Once we made our way through there we headed off to The London Eye. It was really pretty and a great way to see London. It's huge! (443 feet tall) It was pretty awesome. You get in these giant capsules and the wheel rotates quite slowly so that you have time to take lots and lots of pictures. I think that it is pretty neat to have done the Eye later in our stay because we have seen a lot of the other tourist attractions up close. So it was cool to look out and know what everything was and to remember being there are seeing it. 

Unfortunately, my camera died right after taking this picture. Luckily, Dagney has a much nicer camera and didn't feel like taking pictures so she let me use hers.

Looking back at all these pictures it shows you what the weather has been like... man! Everyone is saying how this is strange. That July is their 'most dry month' and how this weather is so strange for July.. Its been so dark and cloudy and rainy out. It hardly ever pours like you would think of rain in Florida. But its just like, misting, mostly. Obviously it does rain harder occasionally, but the mist is pretty consistent. Today it made me realize that a pair of my shoes has holes in the heels.. wet cold socks all day aren't fun. (Excuse to buy new shoes? I think yes!) It wouldn't be so bad if the rain wasn't always accompanied by cold strong wind.. 

Ah well. I'm still having a blast!

Drop that beat

Man oh man.. I went the the Wireless Music Festival yesterday. It's this big 3 day electronic/house music festival in Hyde Park. It was pretty wild. Me and my roommate Robyn ended up going with several people that are also staying in Nido with us. There were quite a few artists there but we ended up seeing Modestep, Feed Me, Knife Party, Afro Jack, and DeadMau5

(most) of our group

Another reason why I love the people here: Everyone was so nice, and pumped to be there. So many people, when they heard me and Robyn talking would stop and ask us where we were from and we would have a 5-10 minute conversation before being on our way again. Throughout different stages and acts we would meet more people that would dance (mosh mostly) with us the whole time. Some people going stage to stage with us. 

It was a lot of fun to dance and meet all the people. I had a blast. Although I will have to say, house music still just isn't for me. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to be there and experience live. But I would say, unlike other music festivals, it is a lot more about the people you are with or meet, rather than the music being played. There isn't really much draw for me to watch a dude stand at a table. I love nothing more than live music. But with actual musicians, people with musical talent, putting their heart and soul into every note they play. Like seeing Mumford & Sons live. I mean, how can you beat that? I understand dj'ing is difficult, I sure couldn't do it. But watching a dude push some buttons just isn't that interesting to me. The visuals were often cool. But still not my cup of tea.

Regardless, it was still a lot of fun. The energy was awesome.

Here's some pics of the people we saw:

 Modestep

 Afrojack

Knife Party

Feed Me

Deadmau5

Food & Drinks- Happy 4th of July!

If you order local beer here they are all served room temperature. Most times that I go to a pub I ask about local beers and they are just never cold, and they aren't supposed to be. That's just so strange to me. The beers are usually good but would taste so much better if they were ice cold.

Speaking of beer. I love how drinking is regarded here. In the states it's so frowned upon. Like at home if you see someone wasted, it's something to shake your head at, and you don't normally talk about how you went out drinking. Here, it's just something they do, and they aren't ashamed of it. They can talk about being hung over at work and it isn't frowned upon. It's strange to me still but I love when I get off work and start walking home, I pass 3 or 4 pubs. The streets outside the pubs are always lined with people in suits with briefcases, drinking a beer. I was talking about it with someone and we were saying that in the states, if you saw a guy in a suit at a bar, you would assume he either just got fired, got dumped, or something of that nature. Talking to some of the other people in my group they say that where they are drinking is treated similarly as it is here in London.
Anyway, I think that it's neat that you can go out and have a good time and not be ashamed of it.

I also noticed here that they don't really do turkey sandwiches. I always go into sandwich shops and just want a turkey sandwich! But I can't find any. They do lots of different chicken sandwiches. In the grocery stores I can't find any packs of pre-cut turkey either, just ham or chicken.
And I wish I could find some pre-cut bagels. haha. Not that it's hard to cut my own bagel.. but come on.

I didn't end up going to the American Independence celebration Sunday. I wasn't up to getting all dressed and going there alone. I can get going there if you have moved here and you are trying to meet fellow Americans, but I will be back in a month. I'm not particularly feeling homesick and wanting to meet other Americans. I did laundry instead, exciting right? We did go to a pub that night though to watch the Euro final. I was routing for Italy.. the score was 4-0 Spain.. ha, kind of embarrassing.

In other news, I think I need to find walking routes to and from places. I'm already feeling the busyness from the Olympics. As excited as I am to be here during the Olympics, the increasing numbers of tourists is slightly annoying. Yes, I may be a tourist too, but at this point, I know how things work and I know my way around. There has been so many times lately when I will be walking to the grocery store or to or from work and there will big group of people walking in front of me and they just stop.. in the middle of the sidewalk, because they are either lost, or don't know where to go. Just standing there blocking the whole way, looking around.
At the tube stations they have been passing around these flyers that highlight the times and areas they expect to be overly crowded once the Olympics start. They have advised to stay away from the tube from 7am-2pm and from 4pm-10pm... so basically all day.
I need to get some exploring in before everything gets crazy or it will be a real hassle to get around..

Anyway- Happy 4th of July everyone!
They (of course) don't celebrate it here. So I work all day :( Have a drink and do some fireworks for me.

My poor wallet

Me, Angie, and Dagney went to Camden Market today.

It was realllly cool. Imagine New Orleans French Market.. x100. Every side street down this street is equivalent to 1 french market. So much stuff, and so many people.

It was really cool. So many cute clothes and neat things. There is certainly a different fashion statement around London. Sometimes I feel like I went through a time machine with these people. But it's neat.

Another reallllly common thing you will see is tights. Shorts or dresses and tights. Lots of times just black but there are soo soo many funky crazy tights that they wear. and scarves. lots of scarves. Which, with this weather, I get it. So I bought one today :)

I spent my whole paycheck today. Whoops. Oh well, money I wasn't planning on receiving in the first place, so why not, right? But, I only bought myself one thing. The rest was presents, that I am super excited to give! :D 

If I were rich, I'd buy sooo much stuff there. So many cool, cute, and/or nerdy things that were calling my name. (maybe next pay day eh? hah) My biggest problem is thinking about fitting all of this in my suitcase.. maybe not the fitting it. But the weight.. hmm. I might have to send a box home before I leave here.

On this street we also got lunch at a vietnamese place, and I had some DELICIOUS pho! mmm

Food is going to be so disappointing to me when I get home. Buying chinese food from chinese people that hardly speak english, pho from actually vietnamese people, indian food from Indians.. you just can't beat that. 

I'm going to a Jazz bar tonight. I think this pub will be much more my scene than the clubs Robyn likes to go to. I'm excited.

Tomorrow I think that I'm going to go to London's "American Independence Day" celebration in a park. I don't know though. I didn't come to London to meet Americans. But it may be fun, I think I'll check it out. I'll let you know!

Some more photos from Camden Market:

Eating with chopsticks lasted all of 10 minutes.. I'm not very good with them