Adventures in London

So today is my catch up day. AKA I uploaded pictures on facebook, went grocery shopping, and now am going to talk about my great trip to LONDON on here! Oh and also, for those of you who can't but want to see my pictures just ask me and I'll send a link!

So first of all, I was really hesitant about going to London. For some reason, it just never really sparked my interest as somewhere I would like to visit.  I thought it would be more interesting to go somewhere where they spoke another language and the culture was completely different, I guess.  But as I heard more about London from other people I realized I was the minority as this city is a lot of people's favorite city they've been to.  Since one of my friends from home is studying there for the semester, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to see it- she could show me around and I could see what she liked to do in the city, as opposed to only doing tourist activities which I have minimum patience for on most days, depending on what it is.

I only spent about 30 hours in London; in retrospect it was a realllllly short trip but I did everything I wanted to do! On Friday night when I got to the city, my friend Laura (the one studying in London) and my other friend Franny (who is actually studying in Madrid but flew to London on Thursday because she didn't have class Friday) met me at the station and we got on the TUBE! Which was great but I am still partial to the Madrid Metro.  Then we went to a pub that Laura heard was good but had never been to, Sherlock Holmes, and had our traditional Fish and Chips dinner, which didn't disappoint.  I opted out of a Guinness though, sorry London.  We went back to the hostel (at King's Cross station, what up Harry Potter?) and got ready to go out! I was so exhausted though, and was almost falling asleep while walking.  Not to mention that I am an idiot and jumped off of a really short curb a week and a half ago because I evidently can't do anything like a normal person and landed on my foot weird and have a bone bruise or something.  Soooooo that was good.  But London was so pretty at night! We walked across the Thames, saw really pretty shots of the city, and went through Trafalgar Square.  Then we finally got to where we were going, and there was a 10 pound cover.  Note to self, London is expensive.  Then I proceeded to take multiple mini naps in the booth until the bouncer woke me up because he thought I was passed out, but I was just napping.  Most expensive nap ever.

LONDON AT NIGHT!!

Saturday was our day to fit everything in! We woke up and went to Buckingham Palace, and accidentally saw the changing of the guard!!! Which was really cool but it was packed.  Another note: London cares.  A policeman on a horse came down to where we were standing to warn us that about 20 feet away there was a pickpocketing incident, so to mind our things. How nice is that? There were also signs everywhere telling us about pickpockets.  I haven't gotten any warnings or read any signs in Madrid, which seems like it has more of an issue than London does.

After that we met up with Laura and walked past St. James Park back towards Trafalgar Square. Which is still beautiful during the day.  Obviously.  We were deciding where to eat, and per her advice, decided to go for an international (kind of) meal. Apparently even British people don't want to eat British food.  So we went to Chinatown which is always good.  Plus we never went over winter break in Chicago so this was like a traveling Chinatown adventure.  Awesome. Then we went to walk down the Thames to see Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and other sights in between. Everything was completely beautiful.  We didn't go into anything, which was fine by me! I like to see things but am not necessarily down for paying 18 pounds to do something insanely touristy... multiple times. Then we walked back along the Thames and back to Laura's flat, which was great! We hung out there for a while and then went to this great little market by her house and then out to dinner- sushi! My first sushi ordering experience.  I'm really expanding my tastebuds over here. I eat tomatoes too.  whatttt

After that we went to get gelato and went to the Picadilly Circus stop and walked around Soho in London for a while.  It was definitely really cool! But we had an early flight the next day, aka we left at 1 am, so we didn't do anything too crazy.  When I finally got back to Madrid I was exhausted....I mean I didn't sleep but I was TIRED! Nothing has changed!! Instead we went to Retiro Park, which is the big park here, and rented boats which you can row on the little lake in the park.  It was great!!!! So many adventures!!!

PS- I'm making progress in my piso. I talked to the Italian today, in Spanish, and the Spanish girl finally came home! Everyone is great. I'm also loving my Danish friend from my Complutense class, I see her all the time.  Next stop: making Spanish friends. We'll see how that goes.  Maybe I should email my intercambio?

WATCH THIS really you don't have to but it's what I was thinking about when I went to Westminster Abbey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ma0ZDQ6Ig

TIME IS GOING BY TOO FAST!!!!!

The past few weeks have clearly been super busy, considering I haven't posted in a while, updated my travel journal thing I'm trying to keep up with, I went nearly 3 weeks without talking to my mom, still waiting to talk to my dad, and haven't done anything for classes.. not that I really need to, all of my homework is fake.  And fake means we are assigned 4 pages of reading and then read the same 4 pages aloud in class.. why would I do that? Obviously cuts into my hanging out time.

So I mentioned Carnaval, a huge festival internationally around the start of Lent.  I didn't end up doing anything, surprise! Madrid time is always late, so when I showed up for the beginning of carnaval it didn't start for 45 more minutes, and by that time we were hungry.....so that was that.  But Madrid is crazy basically all of the time, so it works well.

Side note. Not too much bothers me here. It's very different, sure, and there are certain cultural norms here that aren't the same as those in America, such as being late to everything, splitting the bill evenly no matter what people ordered, everyone smokes, and you need to be wary of pickpocketers basically everywhere.  However, I have noticed that I am wayyy to American to wait patiently in line while Spaniards take their time.  McDonald's is fast food right? Nope, not here. I got fries the other day and waited in line for 15 minutes.  I do everything quickly: talking, walking, eating (okay that one is bad) so I still need to learn to slow down and be patient!!

ALSO, Madrid is HUGE! I learned this when I unknowingly walked nearly 13 miles (yes, I procrastinated my real life with mapmyruns.com to see how far we walked) all over town.  Loved it, walking is one of my favorite things to do, but I was honestly just surprised.  Oh annnddddd I'm just going to mention my little mishap with my intercambio.. who I have yet to see again.  That day that I walked all around, I was gone from 12 noon to 830 pm.  On Tuesday she mentioned in an email we should meet up on Wednesday.  I replied, obviously, but by the time I left on Wednesday she hadn't emailed me.  She has my number though so I thought it was fine.  At 8 pm I got a text from her saying she was at La Latina.... uh oh. Okay, so I actually felt really really bad, but whyyyyyy would you just go somewhere without confirming it?  Hoping we're going to hang out again though, obviously, because I need to practice my Spanish. Today she emailed me and said Hola guapa so I don't think that's a bad sign?

COOKING CLASS! Yes, I learned to cook paella, patatas alveoli, and natillas or something like that.. it was a small donut thing. It may or may not have been worth it, but either way it was really interesting and then I got to eat, and now I have Spanish recipes, which is clearly going to be important for the huge withdrawal I am 100% sure I will go through when I leave on July 9th.

Sooooo anyway that is my update. I'm going to LONDRES (London) tomorrow afternoon to have a good ol' high school reunion with some of my favorite people.  Except I kind of don't want to leave Madrid. What are ya gonna do.  It will be AWESOME and it starts my crazy European adventure lifestyle.  I'm just going to talk about it for like 4 seconds because I'm crazy excited.

This weekend: London. Next weekend: Geneva, Switzerland.  Weekend after: Lisbon, Portugal.  Then my friend from London is visiting. Thennnn it is finalmente spring breakkk and I will be going to Valencia, Malta, and Bari, Italy!!!!!!! WHAT! This is a crazy amount of traveling and I have plans in the works for Germany and Greece, and would really like to go to Scandinavia...and in June I'm pretty positive I will do anything in my power to go to the motherlands: Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and I would love to see Austria. My Austrian roommate said I could visit and she would show me around. No big deal. Love my life. So judging by this, it looks like I will be saying hey to Mariano's this summer for a couple weeks.. can't wait. Just kidding. Spain is obviously worth it!

Okay, off to maybe pack for London.

Oh, and PS, it's crazy warm.. Pretty sure I've gotten some color by sitting in the park this weekend and today. OH!! Today my friend and I took a nap in the park. And when we woke up, this crazy man with no pants was peeing or something behind a tree just down the hill. And then he kept peering out from behind the tree and started dancing.. real awkward, real scary.  So naturally we booked it out of the park. Now aware of crazy naked men in Parque del Oeste. Noted.