I used to fantasize about having days in which I would have nothing to do– no work schedule, no volunteer commitments, no appointments or lunch dates. Now that I’m actually living this way I find that, as always, the grass is always greener. My life has no structure and therefore, instead of getting loads done, I spend my time staring at people on the tube (in the tube?! What is the correct preposition here?!) or deconstructing the last human interaction I had and if I left a good enough impression on the person to guarantee a phone call for another lunch date.
Despite my crippling inability to be productive (where does the time go!?), I have finally managed to see a fair bit of London and have thus compiled a few of my FAVORITE moments in London (so far). These are in no particular order:
1) Tea with my new internet friend at the Capital Hotel. OK, this sounds much creepier than it really is…we just happened to meet on the ULHS and meet up for the first time for an utterly lush tea in Knightsbridge. We failed at being proper and fitting in, though…it’s what we get for being American
2) Eating my first proper English breakfast (sorry, folks, I got the veggie version) at the Portobello Market and finally discovering exactly what the contents of Black Pudding are. (Curious?! Click here for a beautiful description and, if you’re not too into words, a stunning visual. It’s really not spam, I promise– I just can’t bear to actually type it out.)
3) Hitting the town with a fellow William and Mary alum Ms N and ending up at the most pretentious club I’ve ever visited in my life. Not only did the boys we were with grease the bouncer’s palm with like 50 pounds (I hate that I don’t have a pound sign on my computer and hate it even more that I’m too lazy to copy and paste it from somewhere else) but we had to pay a ridiculous cover change AND when I went to buy a round of Gin and Tonics for four people I paid 44 pounds! Ho hum, it was great fun to see how the other half live
4) Crossing Abbey Road on the way to a housewarming gathering. Giddy on this experience and a few glasses of wine, I checked my email to discover that I had a message from Jonathan Rhys-Myers. Well, kind of. You see, I have a friend with a similar name who had emailed me and for half a second as I glanced at the phone I honestly thought I’d received an email from THE Jonathan Rhys Myers. Hey, he could have seen me walking around Maida Vale or something…
5) Discovering the UK music scene. I feel completely culturally ignorant most of the time when people start going on about Cheryl and Ashley, Russell Howard and The In Betweeners. Luckily, I am making up for this by arming myself against pained grimaces and concerned stares with considerable music knowledge. In addition to forcing myself to sit through a few episodes of X Factor to become culturally relevant (I hate shows like that, generally speaking and as a rule) I have also discovered that local music here is pretty awesome.