Alright this post is going to be a quickie. I'm literally in the midst of 20 open web pages surrounding the LIBOR scandal and the Japanese economy, attempting to pretend I've retained some of my newly acquired Econ knowledge to write about for my final paper. But I figure when I let too much time go by my blog posts get impossibly long. So here are a few things that as I saw them made me giggle, chuckle or smile because they seemed like things that would only happen in London. I realize as I read over them that they could actually happen in many other big cities...but...well, that makes for a less ownable blog post.
Furry dressed up people @ 9 am!!!
I wish I had a picture of the dude in a matching outfit sitting directly across from this girl on the tube, but he was next to me, so I couldn't take a photo very easily. Either way, this wasn't like a fancy dress party. It was 9 am people. Rush hour tube time. Not sure what else to say about this....
Beat-boxing/Dub-step Street performers
Ok, this isn't that unusual in NY, but that's about the only other place I've seen this kind of street performer. It's kind of hard to hear because apparently my iPhone video cam picks up sound pretty well.....but this guy was making his rounds on Oxford St. shopping district giving performances.
Not really surprised. London has a ton of themed bars. Went to Greg's birthday party last Saturday at Bounce. It was pretty cool!
I liked the background decor using ping pong paddles and tables.
I'm not really sure how this party turned Pirate-themed...but it seems to have.
Studying at Pubs WITH your laptop WHILE eating foie gras.
Ok, I know I've documented pub-studying before. But I felt like eating with my laptop next to me and eating things like foie gras (sorry if you're morally against it....we wanted to try it! Actually Dan wanted to try it so I blame him!) was somewhat unusual even for me! It prompted me to say "only in London would this be acceptable...to go to a pub, with your computer to do work and drink."
Behind Dan's head was a wall-sized photograph of the Venice Canal right in our neighborhood which was pretty cool.
Celebrity-spottings while at work
Ok, I know I posted this on Facebook...but then I realized that it would get me in trouble with someone, somehow. So I pulled it down. Anyway, for those of you that haven't seen already, Jeremy Piven came into the gym I work at yesterday. I was mildly starstruck. Unfortunately he didn't seem even slightly interested in engaging in any sort of conversation about the fact that we have Chicago in common, or that I love Ari Gold. Or that Sharon - my flatmate - wants to marry him.
School sucks.
Seriously. Well, I guess I should say final exams suck if we're being specific.
This is my kitchen table. Where I've spent the past 2 weeks camped out studying stupid financial accounting formulas.
This is a calculator. I haven't used a scientific one in years.
This is one of my many ridiculous studying tactics. Rewriting the same thing in 20 different places and ways and taping them all over my flat so that I'm forced to pretend that I will study them while doing things like blowdrying my hair. (Only we all know, when I'm blow drying my hair, I was not reading about budgets.)
Last Thursday was (what I consider to be) my hardest: Finance. I spent HOURS more than even I can believe I spent prepping for that awful exam. And I'm not going to lie, I was pretty sure when we were led down 5 flights of stairs into a concrete "warehouse" style room in what seemed to be the depths of hell to take our final (that wasn't an exaggeration either... that really was where we took our exam), I wondered at several different points if I was going to be killed down there along with 200 of my classmates. Thankfully, 2 hours later I emerged. I was given several crazy-eyed looks from people who seemed really incredulous that I could possibly finish my financial accounting exam in less than the 3 hours allotted. My teacher - crazy Bijan - even asked me (twice) if I wanted to double check my answers. I assured him that I already had, and that 2 hours was plenty of time to take this daggone exam, and I think I was one of the first 5 people to leave. Yesterday I took my human resources exam and apparently there's an unspoken "exam" rule that the second you step foot in the exam room you're not allowed to leave. Even if you're 10 minutes early and have to go to the bathroom. I may have gotten into an argument with the exam moderator. I didn't find the British accent so charming yesterday...
Anyway... despite the fact that I've effectively taken over the kitchen table for the past month (thanks flatmates for not killing me) I've managed to squeeze a bit of fun in. Read on. (You know you want to!)
London is AWESOME when it's warm and sunny.
This past Monday was a "Bank Holiday" here. It's basically like Columbus Day. Or President's Day. Banks are closed. Schools are closed. Everyone freaks out and parties all weekend long. As a student, I wasn't really affected much by this. I still had exams. But the energy around the city was palpable. Nonstop plans were being made. And despite my efforts to maintain the study mentality.... I caved. A couple of times. I figure I should tell you about it.
Beer Halls
Sam and John tell me to meet them in Shoreditch at this Bavarian Beer Hall. Now, if I haven't talked about this previously... I sort of hate Shoreditch. I know it's where the cool kids hang. All the hip, new, trendy places are here. I get that. But Shoreditch may as well be China from where I live. There's no easy way to get there when the tubes are running. So trying to get home via bus when the tubes end is like walking from the United States to China. It takes FOR-E-VER. Yet somehow I always end up meeting friends who go out in Shoreditch.
But I haven't seen Sam in ages and I'm not going to pretend a Bavarian Beer Hall doesn't sound sort of intriguing. So I go. And ya know what? I feel like I'm walking into a Guys Only club. Seriously. I somehow thought a beer hall was equivalent to a beer garden. Silly mistake on my part. A beer HALL is in the basement of a building with lots of long picnic tables and a 199-1 guy-to-girl ratio which is bordering on a male frat house. Everyone's drinking out of massive beer steins.
Sam is demonstrating that even white wine can be drank out of a huuuuge beer stein.
The girls are wearing authentic Bavarian garb.
This girl - by the way - was the hostess. She also had posters of herself all over the bar, in addition to being the face on the drink menu.
The bar is playing stereotypical old school American music. It's pretty much exactly like what Oktoberfest was like in Munich years ago. Debauchery followed. Here are some photos to prove it.
First off, I don't even know what this guy's name was. I believe he was from Oz, and he is visiting his E&Y friends here which is why he was at our table.
This is what happens when you give me 2 steins of beer....
Clearly something was really funny....
It was Jeff's birthday. So ....they are pretty serious about their candles here.
Delivered by authentic beer wenches
They also are pretty serious about their birthday beer "pints"
I think you get the picture here. Things got a little crazy.
BBQs
Sunday, I was invited to a BBQ and was pretty pumped. It was another one of Deepti's.... and Deepti LOVES theme parties. Fancy dress isn't even an accurate description because that's just costumes. No, Deepti has fancy dress + food AND alcohol themed parties. They are intense. This one was an American BBQ.
I was told to bring corn-on-the-cob which I admittedly didn't even know they had here. (Deepti rolled her eyes at me like 42 times and told me it wasn't Somalia and that they had corn in London). And despite the fact that the sun started hiding right about the time the BBQ started, I have to say I LOVED that I was surrounded by Brits (and Aussies and Germans) wearing American patriotic outfits.
I couldn't NOT put on the hat. I mean... it's got my name on it AND the color scheme!!? I don't know why Deepti was so against smiling. Don't let her fool you. She had fun.
Flip cup happened too. And I'm saddened to say that as good as I am at talking trash, I should've figured out whether we had Solo cups before I started running my mouth. Playing with anything else totally throws off your game. The weight in the cups is different. Basically we lost. A lot. To British dudes who'd never played before. It was sort of sad.
I'm convinced for real that the reason we played like crap was because of these awwwwwful cups. Where are the Red Solo cups when you need them??
Boats
I live in Maida Vale. Most times of the year it's beautiful and idyllic albeit a little difficult to get to from anywhere East of Regent's Park. But it certainly is NOT "the" place to be. Except for this weekend. The Regent's Canal runs right through the middle of it, and this weekend there was a Canal Festival. Sharon is talking it up to me on my way to Yoga and I'm thinking "Crap I have so much studying to do this is a bad idea".....and then I walk through it on the way to my class and people are eating ice cream and walking along the canal and I know I'm doomed. (Apparently I have more of a weakness for ice cream than I realized until recently...)
So we spent several hours down by the canal. Drinking. Eating ice cream (well - I did anyway), and listening to New Orleans-style music being played by a band from a little island in the middle of the canal.
It was so charming you couldn't help look around at this gorgeous neighborhood, when the sun was out and shining and wondering why everyone didn't live here. All the pubs along the canals were spilling out with people and I got a little taste of how summer is going to be. And I got REALLY excited.
These boats are SUPER expensive and SUPER tiny inside. They are really long and narrow and some of them are like 50 years old from all over Europe.
Unwilling to go home and sit inside and study, Sharon, and I wander around our neighborhood a bit just enjoying the flowers and the awesome weather (and our amazing neighborhood).
Then we head to the Paddington Rec (a little park down the street from our flat) to sit outside and soak up the remaining sun.
It really is an awesome park. And while I'm not sure that with that Leffe beer, the glorious sun, and my A.D.D. from the day's activities that I actually got much studying done, I do think I soaked up at least a little bit of UV rays to color my pasty, white skin. Today, I got a taste of why London is awesome in the summer. It was beautiful. Everyone was happy. And the parks here really are landscaped so beautifully it's impossible to ignore.
Sharon and Dean relaxing on the blanket next to me.
Now let's just hope I am a little more productive this weekend as I prep for my next set of exams and papers....
Little known fact about me: I'm pretty good at making cheesecakes. It sort of started because...well... I love cheesecake! And I have a huge family. And every holiday we always have to make something to contribute, and undoubtedly at least one holiday a year for one of the sides of our family we get dessert. So... I started making cheesecakes! They aren't really that hard honestly, just takes a little bit of confidence that you know what you're doing.
So my flatmate Paul's birthday was this past Wednesday. Funny enough, he apparently "forgot" this, made other plans with someone who didn't realize it was his birthday so he wasn't around that day and decided we'd postpone the celebration until May. Whatever. If you could do that, I'd postpone mine every year so I don't have to celebrate it the day after Valentine's Day. Either way, I felt we needed to do something to celebrate so I told him I'd make him a cake. Sharon (my other flatmate) quickly chimed in that I should make cheesecake. Funny. It wasn't her birthday! ;-) That's ok. I said I'd make a cheesecake. I do have to say however, this was the most expensive and time-consuming cheesecake I've ever made.
Here's how things went:
I read a few recipes. Decide which ones to merge together, and land on a Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake. Easy peasy.
Then I go to the grocery store to buy ingredients. I quickly learn however that in Britain, they don't carry a good half of the ingredients I need. Nothing major. Just a few things, such as: unsweetened cocoa powder, chocolate chips (apparently some places have these but they are pretty uncommon!?), oreo cookies, graham crackers, pretty much any kind of cookie that I can use to make a crust.
So, I buy something called Digestives instead of graham crackers. (Don't be fooled. They are cookies, despite the fact that they sound somewhat healthy). This is about as good as I'm going to get for a crust, so I go for it.
Here's the rest of my random ingredients. Yes, that's old school instant coffee. The only thing I could find. Oh, and that little satchel of powdered chocolate for chocolate milk?? Yea, that's as close as I could come to cocoa powder. The rest of the chocolate came about from me chopping up a combo of those milk and dark chocolate bars you see there. Sure, ok. Just call me Martha. ;-)
So here's the bubbly mix of chopped up chocolate before baking it. It's safe to say that this endeavor seriously took about 2 hours. Between trying to constantly convert things from cups or ounces to mL or grams, and then trying to find appropriate measuring cups around our house I finally just gave up and started eyeballing things and praying I didn't over-chocolate poison anyone. Ha!
After all that though, here is the finished cake. I iced the cheesecake the next morning to give it time to chill and stupidly forgot to take another totally "finished" picture. Oh well.
While we weren't all around to be able to celebrate with Paul, I've been told it's pretty good. :) I guess this means I can retain my title of master cheesecake maker despite random ingredients!
What else have I been doing you ask? Ohhh, a lot of studying. And more studying. And finance. And paper-writing. And more studying. Yes, I may have had a couple of breakdowns in the past week. In the midst of these exams I also have to find a new place to live with my flatmates, and plan a trip to Italy that's coming up immediately after exams end with Kyle. Not that I'm complaining about that.... but it's just a lot at once.
My friend Whitney and her British boyfriend Mark (who I've been told are my loyal blog-readers) were also in town last week for Mark's best mate's wedding. Somehow I got lucky enough for them to seriously SKIP the rehearsal dinner and come into the city to meet up with me! It was a gorgeous day outside, and we sat on a patio at a pub in Angel (one of my favorite areas of town), drinking beer and catching up. It was pretty fun to see friends from home! Haven't had a lot of those! Whitney and Mark are also hilarious so it was a good time. (Sorry Whit, I had to post one of the funny pics I took! ;) I do have to say these days turn dangerous around here.
Please note that HUGE glass in my hand. I just ordered a cider!!! And that's the size of that sucker!
Dan came and met up with us, and then Whitney and Mark had to head back to the countryside, so what did we do instead of going home like one should do after drinking for hours on a patio? Oh, we went and met up with Matt and Jenny Lewandowski - another set of Angel-loving friends. Sigh... summer could be dangerous!
Ok, well I've successfully procrastinated my day-long plan to study NPV, ARR, Break-even and cash budgets long enough. Time to study!
I’ve been slow to post
this blog. I know. I’ve been working 2 jobs. Studying for 3 exams, working on a group
project and prepping for 2 papers. What do you want from me?? I know though…
I’m well overdue…
So
I think I feel officially safe saying this. Spring. Has. Arrived. FINALLY!!! After
MONTHS of Chicago-like winter conditions... It has been pretty glorious the
past 2 weeks. Prior to that it was bordering on depressing given that I was
hearing stories from the States about the balmy weather and I was wearing my
down puffer jacket still. But last Sunday was the start of a week plus weather
shift and I’ve been loving every second of it.
Honestly, look at some of these photos I’ve taken over the past 2 weeks.
They are incredible!!!
A run in Hyde Park last week. It was full-on spring there.
Also in Hyde Park
Running path in Hyde Park
Regent Canal through Little Venice
My walk through Regent's Park to Uni yesterday along the Boat Pond
I really love these flowering trees in Regent's Park. This is right down by my university.
Last week also sort of kicked off a bunch of “firsts” for me: First time in Hampstead
Heath (see below for info on what a Heath is), first time going to Ronnie
Scott’s (a famous jazz club), first time going to a football game (the
Arsenal), and then a lot of time spent outdoors!
It
started last Sunday when weather forecasters were talking about the amazing
spring weather for days ahead of
time. Early enough that the city was literally buzzing with excitement. And it did not disappoint!! For two glorious hours the weather was so
amazing that you wondered why everyone in the entire world didn't live in
London. It was in the 60s and sunny and everyone was outside and smiling.
Babies could be heard giggling from their carriages. (Ok I just said that for
effect). Anyway it was lovely.... And then the clouds rolled in...hahaha
HAMPSTEAD
HEATH
(Definition
of Heath – according to Wikipedia
– it's an area
of open uncultivated land, esp. in Britain, with characteristic vegetation of
heather, gorse, and coarse grasses.)
So
actually our glorious Sunday started off in Hampstead Heath. I think they
call it a heath just to throw you off
and confuse you when talking. Try using it in a sentence…. It’s a bit strange. (i.e. We're going on a picnic to the heath today.) It’s basically a big park, only a bit less landscaped than some of the other
Royal Parks, which I quite like! And it’s in the neighborhood of Hampstead
(shocker based on the name, I know), which is a super cute town with some
beautiful homes, shops, pubs, etc. Mad props to my flatmate Sharon for
suggesting we go spend a few hours up there. We started browsing some of the
shops..
Of course we immediately find the most amazing-looking bakery...
The lovely Sharon walking through one of the narrow hidden streets by the antique market
Then
we start walking through these gorgeous neighborhoods
and see this man sunbathing in his front yard. Not gonna lie, I almost went and joined him.
We kept walking and made our way to a pub with the most amazing outdoor patio. Apparently we weren't the only people with this opinion because it took me (no exaggeration) 40 minutes to get 3 ciders, but it was pretty amazing.
And once I tell Sharon and Dave there is no way in hell I'm waiting in that line again, we start our trek through the Heath. I’m not going to lie, I loved this park.
It’s got running trails and biking paths, and just looked like the kind of
place that would give awesome respite from the city.
The
rest of the day was spent on a different patio where I’m not joking – we friend
merged – 5 different groups of people. Even I was pretty proud of myself for
that!
RONNIE
SCOTTS
Ronnie
Scott’s is one of the most well-known Jazz clubs in London. For those of you
that know me (don’t say a word Jaymie or Mary), you know I have a thing for
jazz. So I make friends with Mini – an Italian woman who works at the fitness
club where I’m currently employed basically folding towels and smiling at rich
people – and she tells me that every Monday they have an Italian jazz band that
plays upstairs in their “less expensive” jazz room. I’m in. It. Was. Awesome.
Please see posted videos for more footage. I may become a regular.
FOOTBALL (Not Futbol!)
(These
3 things were all in the matter of 3 days, mind you. I was a busy bee! This is
why I wasn’t blogging!)
So
Dave took me to an Arsenal football game.
Many of my friends here are Arsenal
fans because they live up in Angel and it’s the closest club. Anyway so I go to
meet Dave and am blown away by how serious and controlled everything is. They
won't even let you in the bar without showing your ticket for the match. And they
won't let the opposing team in period! You get to the game and they serve beer
in the stadium but not in the stands so people don't throw bottles! They don't
allow the fans to mix in the stands, and the opposing teams section is guarded
by security guards every 5 feet! It's really crazy!
You
also can bet on just about anything related to the game.
I decided to bet that
the hot French striker who’s name I admittedly no longer remember would be the
first to score. Unfortunately for me, no one scored. Lol. But I'm okay with
that. Apparently they still both get a point for that in the league. I learned
all kinds fancy facts from Dave. Like that Emirates stadium (which was
recently rebuilt) has real grass that's got some fancy heating/suctioning-of-water
system built under it so even when it snows, the grass quickly drains off all
water and dries?
Consider me a wealth of football knowledge. ;) I kept desperately trying to capture all the chants they were doing during the game and did a pretty poor job of it...
We also
finished our night off with a drink off at the pub The Famous Cock. I mean… I’m
sorry grandma (and all of Mommy's friends)….but that’s just about as funny as the sign for “humps”. Who names a pub that?!?!?
LONDON
MARATHON
Obviously with everything surrounding the Boston Marathon, this past weekend was pretty intense for everyone. I can only imagine how horrifying that was to be there not only for the actual marathon, but the events following that week in Boston. As a runner, my heart went out to all of the people who trained so hard for that race. So I decided despite some concern, that I was going to go support the London runners for the marathon. I
went to the race with Dan, Sharon and Paul. It's worth pointing out that it's much more fun for the spectators here because you can walk
around carrying beer or cider (whichever you fancy) in a plastic cup along the
route. The route itself is also pretty awesome. Part of the race runs across the
Tower Bridge ...
A bunch of people were all camped out with food and drinks enjoying the sun
... and you can actually walk over another bridge right on top of the runners as they ran along the Thames...
..then they run right in front of the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey
and ultimately into St. James park finishing right in front of Buckingham Palace. We entertained ourselves a bit for the portions of the race we couldn't see....
Ok
that’s it for now. Must sleep. Lots of fun studying coming up this next week.
Big ‘ole finance exam next Thursday! Eek!
