Another Weekend in London

I got back late Sunday night from another eventful weekend in London.  I left Exeter early Friday morning so that I could have the whole day to explore one of my favorite cities in the world.  Once we dropped our bags off at the hotel, my friends and I wondered into Chinatown unknowingly, and guess what, we ended up stumbling upon some BOBA!  And if you don't know this about me, now you will: I LOVE BOBA (aka bubble tea to most).  But anyway, when I saw the boba place, I did a little happy dance and ran into the store and ordered myself a blended taro tea boba.  I was so happy.  It had been well over a month since my last boba and this one, although not as good as the boba back home, really hit the spot.

Later on Friday, I met up with one of my really good friends from Kenyon who is also studying 2 hours outside of London for the whole year.  We met in Covent Gardens and walked around the market which was really fun.  We also did a little shopping.  I got a cool new pair of flats that have little faces on them that everyone else thought was weird, but I really like them and even though they have little bells on them that jingle when I walk making me sound like a cat, I think they are very fashionable and definitely something you would not be able to find in the United States.  Also, a merchant at Covent Gardens was selling my favorite licorice so between boba and licorice, I was very happy.  But this licorice is more than just any ordinary kind of licorice.  First of all, I am planning my future career off of it.  I plan to bring it back to America with me and sell it all over the world, not just in Europe, so that everyone can eat this stuff.  I am telling you, it's very addicting.  Cherry licorice filled with white creme, yummm.  So anyway, here is a picture of me at Covent Gardens eating the licorice while posing like a British soldier (hence the hat):

 Later that night the Kenyon-Exeter group went to see MacBeth performed at the PIT Theatre.  It was the worst play and performance I had ever seen.  It was only a little over an hour, but it felt like it was never ending.  Also, for all the times that I have read and studied MacBeth, this play made no sense.  I had no idea which character was who, and maybe that's because every character was in Japanese dress walking around with samurai swords, but whatever the director was trying to get at, it did not work.  Also, I had a heavy breather sitting directly in back of me which did not help my state of mind.  I kept turning around to give him the evil eye to indicate to him that he should shut up, but each time he kept getting a little closer to my right ear, and every time, he kept breathing a little heavier.  Most annoying thing ever.
Later that night I met back up again with my friend Maggie from Kenyon.  We walked around the city for a little, and sat down at a pub for a while and just talked.  It had been six months since I had seen her so it was so fun to just sit down for a while and catch up.
Saturday morning was very fun.  A few of my friends and I got up and went to Portobello Road Market.  They have everything there!  Food, clothes, jewelry, antiques.  And it was fun because you can haggle prices with them there.  I haggled the price down for a fur hat (which I love) and I also picked up a few goodies for my family (non of which I can name since they will be wrapped and put under the tree for the holidays).  One of my friends and I also treated ourself to a huge crepe.  I thought of my brother the entire time I was eating my crepe because my first crepe ever eaten was with him.
Then later, we left Portobello Road and hit the Hunterian Museum.  I loved it!  It was a Museum filled with jarred fetus's, human faces, brains, dead animals, etc.  It was very fun to look around and explore such a place with so much human history.
Later that night, the Kenyon-Exeter group met up for the Brazilian dance, Bale De Rua at the Peacock Theatre.  The dance was amazing!  I loved it and it made me actually want to take up dance.  The tickets were expensive, but well worth the price and we got center seats!  After the show my friends and I were exhausted and went to bed to rest up for our final day in London.
Sunday was not good at all.  We woke up, checked out of our hotel and tried to get to Hoxton Market.  It took over an hour and two miles out of our way, but we finally made it.  And once we got there it was nothing special.  Portobello Road Market blew it out of the water, so we left to go get high tea.  Another disappointment.  We couldn't find a high tea place anywhere in London!  So we gave up and went to a different place instead.  Then when we were leaving to get back to Paddington Station to catch our train to Exeter, another incident took place.  Even though we left ourselves over an hour to get there, one of my friends' Oyster Cards stopped working and it set us back a while to get to our train, which of course, to top off our bad day, we ended up missing.  And this is a lesson for anyone traveling to and from London.  Do not miss your train.  It is VERY expensive to buy another, and of course, you do NOT get a refund on the other ticket.  So after a great weekend in London, it ended badly.  Paying over $100 for a train that I should not have missed created some anxiety and anger, and on top of it, we didn't have seats on the train that we took (we only had reserved seats on the train that we missed), so we stood the two hours back to Exeter.  Not a fun day at all.
But anyway, I am headed to Paris in two days!  I am so excited to see the Eiffel Tower and eat some French food.  Also yesterday, I joined the chocolate society here at Exeter and bought a ticket for the chocolate society's Germany Trip to visit different chocolate factories and Christmas Markets!  That isn't until December 10th, but I am so excited to go to Germany and Belgium next month!
Check my blog again next week because I'm sure that I'll have more stories to post about when I get back from Paris.  Until then, bon voyage!