Life across the pond seems to get a little better every day I'm here fortunately. This weekend ultimately proved that, probably being the most eclectic weekend so far. So, Thursday night we went back to the Portabello Acoustic Sessions that I mentioned last week that we fell in love with. We seem to secure a front row spot every time we go so the host of the show is starting to know us as the "regular Americans". Supposedly we have a table reserved for us next week...I guess there is huge tradition in becoming a "regular" at a pub in London, and we may have actually succeeded in that, which in my mind thought it would never happen. Its nice to find a niche though, even if its thousands of miles from home.
Again it proved to be a wonderful little escape from the bustle of the city and had four separate artists all different in their own ways, but each very soulful in the distinct sound of their music. Maybe the best part about that type of music is that it's raw, and you seem to get lost in it. With the stress of looking for a job in hard economic times in a city that's far from home, this music helps me to forget that and remember the reasons I came here in the first place.
Friday actually turned out to be one of most adventurous/fun nights since I've been here. Brendan and I decided to contact Stuart, Chris' English friend he introduced us to that we hung out with most of the time Chris was still in London. Stuart proved to be a lot of fun when we hung out with him before and he obviously knows the city better than us, so we thought it would be nice to meet up with him again. We started off at the TGI Fridays in Piccadily Circus (aka the Times Square of London) and met up with not only Stuart, but Chris' dad and sister, Claire. Stuart loves playing the pick a page, pick a number game, in which you pick two numbers (first is the page, second is the order of the drink on the page) and where ever they land on the drink menu, thats what you get. Its actually kind of funny what you end up with, I landed on some monstrous vanilla milkshake looking thing. haha After a while there, Chris' dad decided to head home so the four of us ventured elsewhere. Claire decided that we should go somewhere I hadn't been to yet, so we headed towards the Covent Garden/Soho area of West London. Well Stuart had the brilliant plan of taking rickshaws there, which are those bikes with a buggy attached to the back seating two people. I thought the idea was fun to begin with, but Stuart decided to take it up a notch when he offered the two rickshaw drivers ten pounds to the person who got there first. So, the race began through London with Claire and I in one and Stuart and Brendan in another. I guess I'll make the public apology now to anyone we almost toppled on the way there, because there were many of you. I think when we finally arrived in Covent Garden, my stomach hurt so bad from laughing so hard as we twisted and turned through the packed streets of London. All in all though, the rickshaws were actually a good way to see the city and quite memorable. And if your wondering, my rickshaw obviously won. :)
From there we went to a two story pub that looked over a street in Covent Garden that I guess is normally packed with enertainers in the summer. After that we found ourselves wondering the streets of Soho, which is to say the least, a very expressive part of town crowded with people on a friday night. We ended up finding a really trendy Indian bar that had authentic looking Indian decor with couches and drapery lining the whole lounge area. The night ended there late with the four of us talking, but I have to say this was one of the BEST nights I've had here and possibly one of the most memorable.
Saturday became more of a chill day after the craziness of Friday. In London, I have found it doesn't really matter what night of the week you go out, unlike in the States where most partying or what not is a thing of the weekend. Here, pubs is just a way of life, and people go to them every night of the week. Sunday, was an eventful day though. London got one of its worst snowfalls in nearly a decade and everyone was excited about it. My Aussie housemates were like kids in a candy store and couldn't wait to play in it, which ultimately resulted in a house snowball fight on our street. The snow here is a little different than back home, its more wet which can either be a good or bad thing in a snowball fight. Good in the sense that it makes for amazingly compact snowballs, bad in that if you get nailed with one in the side of the head (which I did more than once) it doesnt just automatically break apart. haha. As you all know though, it was Superbowl Sunday which started at 11:30 our time. Stuart had reserved a table at a pub called Bond's in Oxford Circus, so Ellen, Jamie, Brendan, Blake, and I tredged through the snow to get there...sliding along the way. When we got there, we found that we had a little VIP section to ourselves with our own flat screen for the game. Stuart brought his friend Matt who are both Englishman American football fans (Stuart actually plays in an American football league here). I had to root for the Steelers for my dad..so sorry all you Cardinals fans out there. I actually didn't see the half time show because the whole pub decided to go outside during it to have a massive snowball fight in the street. Most of the people in London haven't seen this much so snow in years so they get really excited about it. So after the exchange of snowballs with Londoners, we resumed watching the game til about 3:00 am and returned home..which took awhile since the buses were down due to the snow. But, honestly I didn't mind it much because I got to see the city with that first layer of snow on it, which we all know is the best snow.
The next day most of London was shut down due to the large amounts of snow and there were tons of people in the streets making snowmen and playing. Some of my housemates even made Shelia the Snow woman outside of our house, complete with a blonde wig, bikini top, and an Australian flag around her waist. We even noticed some people stopping to take a picture of it which was funny. Overall though, although we were snowed in for a couple days, it proved to be more eventful than most snowdays at home. When you see people so excited about things like snow, you tend to forget about how fun it really can be when you're so used to it. It kind of reminds you about how you felt about it when you were a kid and couldn't wait to go outside in it...although most of us came back in after five minutes after it probably took us 20 minutes to get out there because it was too cold. Once again though, these are the things I love most about being over here, just all the little reminders about good life really is.
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