[The Update] Essays and Burgers #10/11
1.12.13
I know, I know. I missed last week's Weekly Update. I've got no one to blame other than my horrible time management skills and the need to procrastinate everything. So this post will hopefully make up for the absence of last week's.
Last week was pretty uneventful in itself as I was burdened with my first essay of the term. Well, my first essay to be handed in London and needless to say, it was a bit overwhelming. In the end, I think it turned out pretty good, definitely not perfect, but it's not horrible if I can say so myself.
But I did still manage to sneak some time out of the flat, including a study trip to this rustic, cozy and slightly bohemian/industrial cafe. Do you guys sometimes think about what your perfect house would look like? The past couple years I've been mesmerized by the spacial industrial loft/studio that has the memory of better times, but then you add the cozy colors and bohemian decors to contrast with the rustic element. This little cafe was the perfect inspiration piece.
Annie and I also made way to this little Vietnam restaurant just outside of Chinatown. Their spicy veggie noodle soup was so yummy and it was authentic! Let's clear some things up, as much as I like tangerine chicken, that's not actually a common dish in Chinese food. Actually, even if it's the most basic fried rice, chances are it's already been adapted to fit the western taste. I don't have anything against it, and in fact, I quite like it. But when you're on the other side of the world and have a taste of authentic Asian food, that's definitely a heart-jerking moment. Too dramatic? Maybe.
Jouer, the brand infamous for not having a counter to swatch out it's glorious products. Well, for those of you that are London based, you don't have to go online to place an order, all the while crossing your fingers that it'll look good on you. The newly opened Blow Ltd. in Covent Garden has a complete Jouer stand in shop. It's actually a quick blowdry salon where you can get makeovers, manis, and well, quick blow-dries. But they also sell products of brands that are tried and loved by the people in shop. I made a quick detour one day after class and the people there were more than lovely. They also gave me a sample of the Jouer Tinted Moisturizer. No more than four days later, I was back in shop handing over my debit card to get the full sized product.
Ahh - how could I not include this in post when I know that some of you that are reading this post are also huge Whovians? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Day of the Doctor. The previous evening I had already suffered a mini meltdown when David Tennant and Matt Smith went on the Graham Norton show. The flatmates were quite taken aback by how emotionally effected I was by a talk show, but they found it amusing. The next day, I locked myself in my room several minutes before the show was to start, instructing that no one would be allowed to interrupt unless they wanted to *cough* suffer bodily harm *cough* I'm not going into detail about the episode because lord knows I'll be rambling for ages and ages. But I will say, I'm pretty sure the whole flat would hear screeches of my breakdown in the last several minutes of the episode. Anyone that wants to talk about the episode and all the feels, you know where to find me.
(The little piece of history from Taiwan that I found when taking a different route home one day)
This week, one of the flatmates and I were both in due of essays. So the week itself was pretty uneventful, mostly me bringing home takeout and locking myself in my room to comb through readings. There was also the issue of convincing myself that I didn't need to change the topic of the essay for the 6th time, nor was it necessary for me to scrap my framework for the 8th and that I should just get on with writing. I won't go into details, but my room basically looked an explosion had happened inside a paper factory. (The above picture was 15 minutes after me cleaning up)
(The view alongside the Canal was absolutely breathtaking! It was a good Saturday afternoon walk)
When I finally finished my paper on Thursday, I had a little dance party in my room before exploding into my friend's room and catching her in a huge hug out of sheer joy. That evening, the flatmate cooked up amazing pasta, we shared good Swiss chocolate that the other flatmate brought back when he went home last weekend, and finished the evening off with hilarious rounds of ping-pong. Everyone was exhausted that night so I'm not sure if the game was really that funny, but it was a good evening.
Friday was spent with me changing into my pajamas the minute I came back from my morning class, rolling around in bed all afternoon while having all my OTP feels. Oh, and I also moaned about being bored, needing to clean my room but not wanting to leave the bed. I also remembered that I needed to buy new bed sheets and a new winter coat, so while I did a bit of shopping when I'm supposed to be on my capitalized-bolded SERIOUS spending ban, everything I bought was on sale, if not half-priced. And they were essentials(ish). You gotta love it when the UK takes part in Black Friday when they don't even do Thanksgiving.
(The lighting was crappy and I only had my phone. Oops)
The highlight of the week definitely had to be yesterday evening. After a week of torture, we all decided that we should go out and celebrate. Quite late into the evening, the majority of the flat had bundled up and we made way towards this little burger place in Camden Town. We popped into a bar and had a beer as we had to queue for seats even when it was already almost 9. I was never a beer person back in Taiwan, but after being here for two months, I think I'm growing to like the taste of beer. Anyway, let's not talk about my potential love for booze and go back to the ridiculously good burgers. We had ordered a small feast since everyone was starving and it was so good. The moment we each sunk our teeth into the long awaited dinner, there was a round of unified satisfaction going around. After a mental struggle, I finally decided to go for the Mexican burger and holy moly, the meat was juicy, the spicing was glorious and the bread! Oh, the bread! I don't think I can go back to a normal burger afterwards. Other than the food, the flatmates and I bonded even more over endless teasing and playful death threats (no, there's nothing wrong using playful to describe death threats...slightly morbid, maybe). We spent a long time stargazing on the walk back home around midnight. The amount of stars we could see was ridiculous, and because we weren't just satisfied over oohing and ahhing over how beautiful the stars were. We had to get all timey-whimey and philosophical over how we were actually looking back in time and that some of the stars that we see might have already ceased to exist.
As for today, I'm finally typing up the long-delayed weekly update while perched in a cafe down the street. Fighting the urge to roll around in bed all day and result in another day of unproductiveness, I bagged my readings and headed out to have a cup of gingerbread latte whilst studying the psychology of stalking. Later tonight, the flat is winding down with a yummy homemade dinner and an episode of Downton Abbey and Doctor Who. The flatmate and I made an exchange, he'd watch Doctor Who from the start of the new series if I watched Downton from the top. We're on week 2 of this deal, and already, we've managed to loop in another one of the flatmates to join in on our little fanbase.
How has your week been? For those of you that are going through, or soon to go though essay sessions, hang in there! Only a couple weeks left till break! (things that I tell myself when I just want to roll around and do nothing)
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