[The Update] Boat Parties and Food #3
6.10.13
The past week was full of firsts: first boat party, first bar outing, first outing with roommates, first school registration here in London, first huge dinner gathering, and the first time I've stayed up past midnight since arriving in London.
The school held a boat party for all the study abroad students on Tuesday. It was pretty cool for the first two hours. I met a lot of new people (and if I'm honest, I don't remember half the people that I've met) (but there was this one guy called Thor. Seriously. How cool is that?) and then sadly, it got really boring. The food ran out and the party was starting to die down, but we didn't dock for another two hours. And then a small group of us had to find the way back on the really complicated tube system. But on the other hand, the scenery was amazing! And did you know that there is a green laser across beamed across the skies of London to show the Prime Meridian? I mean, really, how do they make the laser curve like that?
A lot of time this week was spent wandering the streets between school and the dorms. I was taking a different route each day, depending on Google Map to take me back on the right track. On the various routes, I stumbled upon this very green and leafy building. I think it's a restaurant, but I'm not sure. I'm just wondering how horrible it would be if the person that lived on top of this place was allergic to pollen. But then again, if you were, you probably wouldn't live here anyway. One day after we had all our things finished at school, my friends and I headed to Covent Garden because she remembered a really cool ice cream place that was once there. We were strolling down the aisles again and again before finally googling to realize that the ice cream place that she was talking about had been closed down.
On Saturday, my friends and I headed over to Camden Lock Market. The tea lovers that we all are, we went mainly to buy tea from Yumchaa. In total, the three of us bought five bags of tea. I'd say that we had quite some self-restraint as we stopped ourselves from buying the whole stand. Can we talk about how cute the names are? I've already tried out Chili Chili Bang Bang, a very Christmas, spice tea whose name has spiked up a conversation and good laugh among my flatmates. Notting Hill is a delicious, slightly fruity tea that's very early autumn. The food stalls there looked really yummy, but making the mistake of already eaten and knowing that there was going to be a feast back at the flat, I only bought a huge chunk of brownie. (It ended up being a part of my Sunday breakfast along with a cup of Notting Hill) But no worries, me and my flatmates are already planning a future trip to the market soon as they all really want to try the food stands there. I also love all the handmade jewelry there, they aren't at all expensive and I saw this gorgeous bracelet made by a lady from Brazil. I was prepared to borrow money from my friend as the idiot I was, I forgot to bring cash with me. But sadly, the bracelets were all too big for my wrist. There was also a really interesting "Before I Die I Want To" board in the corner of the market, some goals were quite interesting (really, one person's life goal was to kiss Adam Sandler...), I didn't put down anything but there are a couple of things that I'd like to complete before I die. I think it's quite nice to have a bucket list nagging at you at the back of your head.
Have I mentioned that I live with amazing people? My friend A, who lives next door and knew back from home has been cooking for me and my flatmates for several days this week. (Yes, Annie, everything was amazingly good) So on Thursday, my Belgium flatmate announced that he would be making us Belgium Meatballs with a special fruity sauce with authentic fries (or chips, as the british people call it) for Saturday dinner. As the awesome flatmate that I was, I offered to help him with the cooking. Now, a few heads up, I'm pretty useless when it comes to cooking. I can bake, but I've never really cooked before. So he gave me the task of chopping onions, and after a bit of crying, I accidentally cut my finger. It wasn't a huge cut, no worries, but my flatmate was horrified and offered to take the task off my hands. He was already juggling the cooking part of the task so I just bandaged it up and continued to cut. (The cut was pretty long but it was quite shallow) He came around to helping me cut the onions when the meatballs were almost done, and I never knew how slow I was at cutting onions until he managed to finish two in the time I was chopping up half an onion.
The dinner was amazing and we managed to convince my Korean roommate to cook Korean for dinner tonight and my Swiss flatmate is going to do dinner next weekend. As for the Chinese/Taiwanese dishes? My friend, Annie, takes care of that. I'm just in charge of baking cookies and deserts.
I ordered a couple three Yankee Candles that were all on sale earlier this week but didn't remember to buy a lighter till Friday. So imagine how excited I was to light up my Lilac Blossoms good night candle and read a couple chapters of North and South.
How was your week?
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