Cabin Fever

It’s one of those days again. One of those days where I have nothing better to talk about than what I ate. I’ve been studying (sort of) all day, and it has been a little bit drab. I went running though, this morning. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it keeps me from getting too restless the rest of the day.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this little invention before, but I created a new type of sandwich awhile ago, and I’d like to share it with you, in detail, right now. It involves peanut butter, jelly (not very exciting yet, is it? But wait for it…), Nutella and digestive cookies. Yep, I went there. And I have pictures to prove it. I guess I really don’t have to explain how the sandwich is made. I put the peanut butter and Nutella on the same piece of bread, and the jelly and the digestive cookies on the other side. It's pretty simple. And pretty delicious.

I studied for awhile today. It was not fun. I get stir-crazy. I just can’t sit still for long periods of time. I can’t watch movies, for the same reason. Unless they’re really good movies. Anyway, for the thermodynamics test coming up, I technically only need to score 40 of the 100 points to pass, so I’m not that worried. I am a little worried, because it will be a difficult test, but I’m pretty sure I won’t fail. My classes transfer to USC as pass-fail. I only need 70 points to get an A on the test, so we’ll see what happens. I still have two days to study though. I’m going to go crazy if I sit in here for another two days. I think I might go on an adventure tomorrow. I still haven’t really been to Hyde Park, or inside Westminster Abbey. I would like to do those two things before I return to the good old USA.

Dave is all done with his exams and papers and everything. He taunts me often.

Comedy Club

Matthew left yesterday morning after staying with me for a week. It was very nice to see him, and just the right amount of time to visit. We had fun and didn’t have enough time to get sick of each other and revert back to our natural relationship as fighting brothers. His plane flight left England at one, and arrived in Seattle at six. It must have been a loooong day.

I made some tea with the hot water I used to boil my pasta yesterday. It would have been good, I think, but I salted the water before putting it in the tea cup, so that wasn’t so nice.

I went to a comedy show last night with Dave and a couple of his friends. It was very good, we saw five or six comedians. The headliner for the night cancelled, and they were able to fill his spot with a pretty famous comedian. This guy eventually ended up putting the microphone into a glass of water and breaking some of the stage props. It was very funny, but I’m not sure how happy the comedy club people were about that. It was a very good night though, all the comedians were really funny.

Ice Bar Superman

Today was exciting. We began by revisiting the Beatles store, following my instructions all the way to the wrong tube stop before re-boarding and alighting at the correct stop. Matthew wanted to buy a money clip from the store, and we didn’t really have anything better to do today than go back there, having already seen everything in London. That’s right; everything.

Except for the Ice Bar of Haddon Street! But we did that after the Beatles store. I had heard rumor of a bar made completely of ice, and the rumors proved true. We showed up around two in the afternoon (we get started pretty early over here) and paid just over ten pounds for a drink and forty minutes inside a small bar completely made of ice, bedecked in special parka-capes made especially for the occasion. It was pretty cool; literally! Ha! That was Matthew’s joke. We took lots of pictures inside, and drank our drinks out of the sculpted ice glasses. The room is kept at a constant -5 degrees Celsius (around 25 degrees Fahrenheit), but with the parka things we were warm enough.

There must be something about Matthew which draws the attention of street performers looking for volunteers, because after leaving the Ice Bar, and walking past Big Ben, across Westminster Bridge, and continuing along the South Bank, both us were picked out of a crowd to volunteer in this man’s act. We and two other men sat on crates facing in different directions, and by laying back on each other’s laps, the crates were removed and we supported each other with just our legs from the knee down. Then, the performer pulled a lady out from where she lay underneath us and had us hold her up above us! Wow! And then she was removed. I think we were supposed to do a little bit more stuff, but one of the volunteers was an older guy, and I don’t know for sure, but I think he fell down when we were asked to raise one foot off the ground. We all tumbled down together at the end. It was fun, there were probably about one hundred and fifty or two hundred people watching. Matthew must look like he belongs in the circus or something, because he sure is popular with those street performers.

This evening we headed back to Brick Lane for one last curry dinner. We picked a place which didn’t quite measure up to the previous two we had visited, but the food was good.

Oxford

I know inquiring minds want to know what Matthew and I have been up to, so wait no longer, here’s the latest news.

Yesterday, we went to the Natural History Museum of South Kensington and walked around. We have differing architectural tastes. Matthew prefers the busy Romanesque architecture of the Natural History Museum, whereas I am much more inclined to appreciate modern architecture. And since, as they say, the bloggers write the history books, I get to plead my case. Modern architecture is more honest. The material defines the building style, whereas, in classical architecture, the style is replicated in whatever building material they choose. Classical architecture takes less critical thought. Furthermore, many of the old-looking buildings in London were actually built in the late 1800’s, so even though they have stone exteriors, they have iron or steel frames. Very dishonest. But I couldn’t convince Matthew that modern architecture was worthwhile, he had very strong convictions that classical architecture is just “cooler.”

Anyways, we saw some cool things at the museum. We walked through the mammals section, and through some reptiles, just browsing, and walked past a gigantic slice of a redwood tree all the way from California, and ended up in the rock and mineral gallery, where we saw some meteorites and a cursed gemstone. There are some amazing rocks! Some of them which form as perfect cubes, or bubble outward, or shoot upward like towers. They were amazing, and here are some pictures.

Afterward, we went to St. Paul’s for the Evensong mass, which happens every evening at five. It wasn’t as cool as the first time I went, because we didn’t get to go sit in the pews near the altar, and they only had half the choir there, but it was still nice to sit underneath the dome and look around the church during the mass.

We set off to find a pub one of Matthew’s friends had recommended after St. Paul’s, and eventually walked over halfway back to Mile End along the Thames looking for it. But we found it! It’s called the Prospect of Whitby, and we were able to get some quality pub food, Matthew’s alleged favorite cultural food group. It was founded a ridiculously long time ago, in 1520, under the reign of King George VIII. There is a picture of a sign in the pub which shows how long its been around. We walked the final two miles back to Mile End after leaving the pub, and bought tickets online to visit Oxford, which we did today.

Oxford is a small college town. It has an active, young atmosphere, and all the old buildings really struck Matthew’s fancy, as he described it. University of Oxford seemed to spread all over the town, and we accidentally avoided paying another four pound admission fee to explore part of it. We found another way in, and didn’t realize we were supposed to pay until we left. What can we say, I guess we just reaped the spoils of outsmarting the prestigious University of Oxford. There were some gorgeous gardens on the campus, which we walked through for awhile. We wandered the town for the rest of the day, stopping in a pub with a bunch of drunk Oxford rugby players at one point, and eating dinner at a pub named The Three Grapes. We boarded the train to come back to London at about seven thirty and got in an hour later. We walked up Brick Lane this evening and were accosted by no less than ten men trying to sell us curry as we walked along. The first man very emotionally pained that we weren’t going to eat in his restaurant. But we finally made it up and down the Lane, and walked back to Queen Mary.

Jack the Ripper

What a day! I started it out with a math test at 10 am. It was the last math test I will ever take! I do have tons of regular old engineering tests to take, but the actual tests devoted to math are now over. I think I did pretty well, but I didn’t know how to do one problem, which was frustrating.

Matthew and I left after my test to go exploring. First, we went to Regents Park, hoping to visit the London Zoo and a Beatles store. We found the Beatles store after a short search, and Matthew bought some presents. We continued into the park, which is gorgeous. I can hardly imagine a better living situation than to be on the edge of this gigantic park, in the middle of this great city. Unless of course, you lived in one of the unused underground tubes. Now that would be awesome.

We found the London Zoo, but decided not to pay the 20 pound admission fee. Instead, we looked at the zoo animals through chinks in the fence. We saw a giraffe, and a ferret, and some flamingos, and then we found a waterfowl section in the park, so we saw as many ducks and geese as we could want. I think it is mating season, because they were restless. We walked around in the beautiful park a while more, then headed off to Harrods, my dad’s favorite place in London. And it didn’t disappoint Matthew. The quarter-million pound wristwatches really tickled the accountant in him, I think.

Tonight, we went on a Jack the Ripper tour. The murders were surprisingly close to Mile End. They were in Whitechapel, between Queen Mary and the main city. It seems there were five official murders, with one other which could have been the same man. They were gruesome things. He did not stop at murder, but he really butchered the bodies. We saw some pictures of his murder victims, and they were pretty awful. It was a very interesting tour, though, and I think we’re both happy we went on it. Afterwards, we went on a mini pub crawl, looking for a couple of famous London pubs. The first we found, called The Anchor, was on the south bank. It was all right, but we were both a little more impressed by Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, on Fleet Street. We sat and had a drink, and, after looking for the famous barber of Fleet Street, came back to Queen Mary.

I’ve asked Matthew to do a guest blog, but I don’t think he’s interested. So, as penalty, I suppose I have to spin the story to my advantage. So here’s what actually happened today. Matthew was almost struck in the face with a speeding double-decker bus, but I scooped him out of harm’s way just in time, and rattled off some interesting facts about the bus as it hurtled past. What a tour guide.

Italians

Dave, Antoine and I were cooking together in the kitchen today and two salespeople walked in. To our kitchen! They said the housing people let them in, but that must be a lie. They pitched the wonders of paintballing to us for about five minutes while we all stood dumbfounded. I just stirred my pasta. Finally we told them no enough times that they left. I can’t believe they just came into our living area and tried to sell us something! It’s mind-boggling!

I have a test on Wednesday which I studied for today, but Matthew went to Westminster and walked around and it sounds like he had a good day. Tonight we went out to eat and drink with Dave, the Italian girls we met before, and another Italian friend of theirs. It was fun, the Italians are all very outgoing. It’s fun to hear them speak in Italian because all the Latin-based languages are very similar, and I know a little Spanish and a little Italian so sometimes I can understand what they say. We had a couple drinks at Witherspoons and bought a pizza at a nice pizza place nearby. Tomorrow I think I will study again, but Wednesday afternoon I will be free!

Portobel-No Market

Since I’ve returned to Queen Mary, it has become more difficult to write blogs, because it’s feels like I have returned home after being on vacation. But I’m not home, I’m still overseas and having fun, so I have to keep writing blogs. Oh how I wish my life would stop being so fun!

Anyways, I feel compelled to write because a topic of familial importance, namely the visit of my elder brother, has come to hand. He arrived last night around eleven, and was not too tired to walk down to Brick Lane from my flat and get some midnight treats from the all-night bagel shop. My mom called me as we were falling asleep because I forgot to call her and confirm that Matthew made it to my apartment. Whoops. Sorry, Mom.

We went with Antoine and our friend Giulia, along with her four friends visiting from Rome, to the famous Portobello Market today. We were less than impressed though. I don’t know if we found the heart of the market, but we only saw a few shops set up on the street in the Portobello area. There were many people around, but I think the main attraction was the assortment of established shops. It was not a very strong street market atmosphere. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant in the area, and Antoine, Matthew and I parted ways with the Italian girls because we wanted to visit Brick Lane today and they wanted to see Hyde Park.

Brick Lane was very cool, as usual. On Sundays it comes alive with street performers and shops set up on the street and in empty warehouses along the thin lane. Specially reserved for the Sunday markets, they are empty for the rest of the week. Today though, the two warehouses were full of delicious food, clothes and jewelry salesmen, and the place was packed with a young, trendy British crowd. It’s very fun to hang out in an area not frequented by tourists, but by a genuine London clientele.

Tonight I took Matthew (well technically he took me because he paid) to New Tayyabs, the restaurant to which I took my little brother and my parents. The food was just as good this time around, especially because I halfway knew what I was doing. It’s so busy! I made a reservation four days in advance, so we had to wait only five minutes for a table, but there was a long line of people without reservations waiting patiently for a table in this cheap, extremely popular restaurant. I’m sure I talked about it when my parents came, but it was introduced to me as the only restaurant on the list of Top 10 Restaurants in London where a meal will cost 15 pounds instead of 150 pounds. The food was great, and I’m very glad I had a chance to go back there again.

It’s very nice to have Matthew visit. We have no shortage of things to talk about, and I think he is enjoying London so far. I have a test on Wednesday, so tomorrow I will study, and Tuesday, if need be, I will study, but after that we will have a full four days or so to do whatever we like. This is good though, because this way he can do the things I’ve already done in London for the next two days, and we can do things together for the rest of the time.

No pictures today, I’m afraid. Matthew took some, but he’s sleeping on my floor right now. He’s so peaceful when he’s asleep.