Aren't there supposed to be more pigeons?

Friday, after we got out of bed, we went to this awesome free lunch on their campus. This Hare Krishna gives out rice and and vegetarian mushy deliciousness for free every weekday to students. Some karma stuff. Mmm. Then Anne and I went and hit up the major touristy spots in London. We took the Tube (which is so tubular!) to Leicester Square, walked to Trafalgar Square, then did Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the Thames, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, and the mall. It was gorgeous. Especially St. James Park. We didn't go inside any of the famous places because they're expensive, and we missed the changing of the guard, but whatever. I saw that when I came with my parents in 2005.

Anne and I decided that London is a very liveable city (minus how expensive it is). Spread out enough to have space, definitely urban, but not overwhelming and jaded. We also enjoyed some delicious pancakes, which are like street crepes but more pancake-y. It was great.

Then we came back and napped, showered, and got ready to go out. Anne and Cyrus and I walked to the cutest traditional English restaurant in Soho. I had delish mushroom chicken, and everything was so cute and so English. After pregaming for a while, we finally made it over to East London. 

The thing about London is though, bars close at 11, and clubs close at 3. It's weird. We finally found a club we wanted to go to, but once inside, it was not nearly as fun as we thought. There was some confusion, but eventually we all made it out, and wandered around East London for awhile. Nothing else was really open, so we went home around 1. But we played pong for hours, until 5:30am. It's weird because it's dorms here, and everyone lives close to each other, so it just feels like NYU...but in London. And everything is in English. So it's a weird mix between Europe and America.

Saturday I couldn't sleep in, of course. I woke up at 9:30am, meaning 4 hours of sleep. Miserable. Cyrus and Sarah and I went out for a good, greasy traditional English breakfast, but I could barely drink the coffee. Then Cyrus and Anne and I went to the London Eye, because Saturday was going to be the sunniest day. After a lot of waiting (like almost 2 hours), we finally got up there. It was so gorgeous. The idea itself is kind of scary, but in the end it's awesome. It's also kind of scary, because there's no attendant, so anything could happen up there? And you kind of chase after the cars as they go up in the air to get in them. It's weird.

Then Anne and I went to Topshop, which was so overwhelming but awesome. I bought a lot. By the end, we were so tired and miserable. We tried to go home, but one of the tube stations was closed due to overcrowding, so we had to walk to another one. And then 6 of the lines were on strike -- it's like the strikes were following us! It was so crowded and miserable, but we finally made it home. Then we went out to an Indian buffet, which was not so spicy or authentic, but very good and cheap and so filling.

We hadn't planned on dressing up/going out for Halloween at all, but we decided we couldn't just not. So Anne and I pulled together a cat costume that actually turned out to be SUPER cute, and we all started pregaming. We walked to a club, but their tickets were sold out for the night. We did take great advantage of the open container law though :) So we went to another bar, The Big Chill. It had like two levels and a terrace, and was really fun. Lots of NYU in London people, and so it was just like a big crazy reunion. I was more delirious from barely sleeping the last two days than drunk or anything, but it was fun. Met some Irish guys.

It was definitely tamer than my last couple Halloweens, but that's okay. The other weird thing about Halloween in London was that people don't dress slutty--they dress scary. And not everyone was dressed up on the street like it was in New York. New York becomes an alternate universe, it's great. But I was glad I got to celebrate Halloween, because it would have been weird not to.

Stephanie stole a cake from a bouncer, haha.

Sunday I woke up at 9:30am again (ugh, wish I could sleep in). Cyrus and I finally got a move on around 1 to go to Portobello Road in Notting Hill. It was rainy and gross out all day, and the markets weren't really happening because it was Sunday. But we still had a good time walking around and looking at the stores were open, and then we got really awesome Thai food.

Sunday we considered going out to a pub, but we were so tired. Anne and I baked toffee brownies and pumpkin pie for everyone though. Again, feels very home-y and NYU in New York-y.

 Then we left early Monday am (All Saint's Day is a national holiday in France, so we had today off). I slept the whole train ride back, and now I'm procrastinating all my studying. Only 2 days of school for me this week though.