The One Where I Fly Back to the US Sitting Next to Santa Claus

While checking my bags at Heathrow, the lady at the check-in counter tells me that my carry-on bags are 11 kg each and they need to be 6 kg each! Mind you, all the American students I was with had already left for security and the gate, so I was the last one there. Freaking out, I had no idea what to do to avoid having to pay extra. I had to check my small tan suitcase in as a 3rd piece of luggage and pay 90 pounds ($135!) I had to charge it to my parent's credit card. (Sorry Mom!)

On the way to the gate, I stopped at a WHSmith to use up my last 5 pounds. The queue was so long it wrapped around like 3 times! I was hoping I could still make it to the gate in time and there were two annoying 12-year-old Muslim girls in front of me. There were "crisps" in roast chicken flavor that they were looking at. They were joking about them not being "Halal" I wanted to smack them.

I get on the plane in time and everything... but then as I approach my seat, I encounter the cherry to my nightmare of an ice cream sundae. I had a middle aisle seat next to a man who took up 1 1/2 seats!!! He was so obese! It didn't help that he had a red T-shirt on and a grey beard and grey hair. I could have sworn he had an uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus. The man wouldn't stop hacking and coughing in the dead of silence the whole time! It didn't help that at one point I needed to go to the bathroom and he had to let me out of the seat. SO AWKWARD!

The One Where I Say Goodbye

So tomorrow is my last real day in London :(

It's gonna be weird going home in the middle of a blizzard where there's snow everywhere! We left when it was humid and 90 degrees... I bet the weather will put me more in the holiday spirit as being in cloudy 50 degree weather everyday doesn't help!

This week I saw the Rainman on the West End! Josh Hartnett was amazing (as Tom Cruises' character) and I cannot believe I was in the same room as him! Today our whole study abroad group saw Monty Python's Spamalot. Although the costumes were pretty the sense of humor was just not for me.

We went to a Christmas party earlier this month and I made such a huge deal about leaving my umbrella (the ONE umbrella that I managed to get for free that DOES NOT ever break) at the Kew Gardens tube stop. I then made such a big effort to retrieve it. Well, I'm pretty sure that night at Dust I dropped it somewhere. Oh the irony.

Okay, but seriously I will miss London. I'll miss the citylife and being able to walk to buy groceries or shop at Covent Garden or Oxford Street. I'll miss the liveliness of my flatmates and how entertaining they are. But I can't wait to see everyone at home and my house is gonna feel so big and cosy! I also can't wait to see snow!

Cheers!
Farida

The Confessions of an American in Dublin

Okay, so I went to Dublin like two weeks ago and now I'm writing about it. But hey, I have had 3 papers, a presentation and now 2 exams coming up!

In a nutshell, we first had to travel 2 hours to a countryside town called Kilkenny. It was a small, cute town. We stayed with an Irish family, the Downey's (thank you so much Thomas and Muiread!) who were really generous. Brittany worked with Thomas, so that's how we had the hook up.

Their house looked and felt very much like a typical American home on the inside, so I felt like I would have in the US, which was a great feeling considering we've been living in an apartment all semester. All of Ireland in fact, felt more like the US than England ever could. It was all the little things like the air being crisp and cold like Connecticut is this time of year, and all the leaves were bare on the trees like they are right now at home.

We went on a pub crawl around downtown Kilkenny at night which was alot of fun. Every bar reminded me of bars back in Hartford. Why Hartford? I think it was something about that small town/city feel at night and then in the middle of it, all the girls dressed up in sequined outfits with loud techno music/flashing lights in the bars that reminds me of the Hartford nightlife.

The funniest part of the night was where this Irish girl with braces kept trying to steal Thomas (Irish guy whose family we stayed with) from Brittany. She lost, Brittany won, you know how it goes down.

The next day,(Sunday) I attended my first ever Catholic church service (I was raised Muslim you see) I am a very open-minded person, so I am willing to try anything I normally wouldn't be able to do. Although I felt lost at times with the verses they were chanting (it felt like everyone was singing a song to which I didn't know the lyrics) and there was certain church protocol I wasn't aware of, I think it was a cool experience. Mrs. Downey seemed really proud that I made the effort to learn about their religion, so that was encouraging. At the service, the priest actually gave us four American girls a shout-out which was really nice as well. I have never felt so welcomes in a religious institution before.

In Dublin, we went to the Guinness Storehouse, The Gravity Bar is so amazing! You can see a 360 view of all of Dublin! I also visited Temple Bar (they have alot of shops and restaurants) as well as the famous, Grafton Street. The next day, we went to Houth, which is by the shore. It felt like a really beachy town and there were many cliffs. It was really picturesque, in fact, it reminded me of home again. This time, Block Island.

Although I stayed in London, last weekend was pretty eventful. Katie had to be rushed to the hospital because of a kidney infection and had to spend like 2 nights there. She's doing fine now.

This weekend, I was at Harrod's picking up some last-day gifts when I was outside the store, and this little kid comes up to me and asked, "Can I have 30 pence?" His mom, also impoverished looking is looking at me like a puppy dog as well.
The whole scenario pissed me off because it looked like the mother was "whoring" out her son just to ask others for money. What could give others the audacity to ask complete strangers for "hand-outs" on the street in the first place? I have seen my share of homeless people: in Times Square a guy in a Native American outfit had a huge sign saying "I need to go back to Arizona" and I've seen a homeless guy openly making a park bench his residence in Beverly Hills -- of all places.

I don't mean to treat this into an essay for Sociology class, but I mean, can't these people (how they got into poverty I'll never know) use all their energy they spend begging others for change to scrape by and put it towards getting a job (even the lowest job imaginable) and make themselves more productive members of society? I know if I lost everything and had no money, I'd be doing everything I can to find a way to make my own $$$. I wouldn't ask around. Isn't there something society can do to rectify this problem? Why aren't there enough shelters/organiztions to insure no one is left on the streets? It makes me so sad there are people who have to live like this.

On a more happier note, I am gonna be leaving London a week from today! I'm excited to be coming home, but I will definitely miss the city life, certain people I have met here and miss London. Hopefully I'll be back someday. Looking back on this experience, I have learned alot about how truly independent I am and the lengths I will go to get what I want in life.

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where Thanksgiving slips past by me.

Last night I went to a dinner held for the people who worked on the "Make A Difference Day" campaign for CSV. It was more fun that imagined it would be!

The whole time all the British people (around my age) were so fascinated by me! They were all asking me questions like:
"Is high school really like Saved by the Bell and One Tree Hill?"
"Were you one of the popular kids in high school?"
"What's the difference between a fraternity and sorority?"

At one point they had me listing all 50 states of the US on top of my head. I got through about 40.
I was also teaching them how to play beer pong and flip cup and I promised to buy some red plastic cups (you can't find them ANYWHERE in the UK!) for one of the guys!

All the girls and the guys were really warm and friendly, and of course their accents sounded amazing! I had never met alot of them before, and next Wednesday will be my last day at CSV anyway but it was a fun night nonetheless.

Speaking of British comments about my American-self, on the same day, I got a comment that I have "American teeth"... haha I love you Victoria! What she meant was that my teeth are straight!

This past weekend I went to Westfield London, the new huge mall built recently and it has an UGG Australia store. I don't think I've even been to an Ugg boots store in the US but the weirdest thing happened.

There was a bouncer-security guard sort-of guy and a velvet rope. He wouldn't let me just walk in. I had to wait in a line outside of the store (red carpet-style) until a group of shoppers in the store left, and then he'd let me in. They had to do this so the store wouldn't get overcrowded, weird.

Today, I felt homesick and decided I wanted to window-shop at Hollister. There's one in the UK at a mall called Brent Cross which is in the outskirts of London. It took me about an hour to get there by bus one way, but it was worth it, as the store was so similar to the one in the US that I walked out of the store thinking that I was at Buckland Hills. It was pretty much the same Hollster just with British accents and pound signs (making the clothes ALOT more expensive!)

As I was on the double-decker bus coming back from Brent Cross, I was eating my cold pasta salad "take-away" that I bought from Boots for dinner, and then I realized, "Wow, I guess this is my Thanksgiving dinner!" Rather than thinking it was pathetic I was sitting by myself on an empty double-decker bus while driving through the cold night around northern London, I actually found it extremely comical and very London-esque of myself!

Cheers!
Farida

The One With the English Countryside

So I went to Glastonbury, England not this past weekend, but the one before...yeah I know I'm slacking in the updating department.

One observation I made is that all cell phones (excuse me- mobiles) phones in England are the slide kind, where as Americans are flip-phone crazy. But the phones we were given to communicate to each other are lame black/white screen brick-shaped ones that don't slide or flip or anything. *sigh*

Hmmmm.... let's see, on Friday (of two weeks ago...haha) I managed to miss my first bus to the countryside only because I was ON TIME and waiting but didn't see it leave, so I had to buy a whole new one-way ticket for twice the price of my original round-trip fare. I wasn't really happy about that.

On the coach bus, there were seat belts. It was so weird. I first stayed at an "aunts" (I use that term loosely as she is somehow through extended family a 50-year-old cousin) house in the village of Broughton Gifford.

The next day we drove to Glastonbury... (no, not my lame hometown). Call me a dork, I don't care. But I really wanted to see the famous town my own hometown was named after since I'm in England anyway and I'll probably never get the chance/time again.

Well, Glastonbury, England is a huge hippy town. Their "high street" aka main street is laid out like this:

random spooky magic/mystical shop
charity shop
random spooky magic/mystical shop
charity shop
random spooky magic/mystical shop

... you get the picture.

There were your standard town staples like post office, bank etc sprinkled in between.

We met a cute old man in a souvenir shop who was so taken back by the fact I was from "Glastonbury in the USA" that he gave me some old coins to take back to the US and when I was leaving he kissed my hand like I was royalty. It was kinda weird.

There was a carnival going on so there were many people dressed up in costumes, including a town crier in full Benjamin Franklin attire. He showed me some church and met a couple who had traveled to Glastonbury, CT back in 1993 for our town's 300th anniversary. They claimed they gave our town a wooden chair from here and they knew what Katz Hardware was. As I left, the town crier yelled to everyone on the street, "Hey! this girl is from Glastonbury in America!"

The next day we went to Bath and it was gorgeous with as all the buildings were made of quarry.

The family I was staying with were a couple in their 20's and they had a 4-year-old girl and a 6-month-old. I just don't know how they could do that. The wife is only 3 years older than me and got married at 19. I couldn't see myself having a family of my own in the next 5 years. The kids also needed so much attention 24/7 it took us about 15 minutes to leave the parking lot in Bath. Yeah, not my cup of tea... yet.

On that trip, I found an interesting tidbit about my heritage (of which is a mystery to me). Apparently, before when Pakistan was still a part of India and before Islam was a religion my ancestors were a part of the Rajpoot dynasty who were in the top-tier on the caste system. The Rajpoot family were in the royal family... you see Rajpoot means "son of king" as Raj means "king". Apparently, this resemblance shows in our family's facial features as that family had huge dark eyes and high-cheek bones which we all have.

Well... I was pretty excited to learn I have royalty in my blood!

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Get a Piggy-Back Ride From a Mailman

It's funny how here they start marketing Christmas RIGHT after Halloween. Well I guess it makes sense since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, I mean why celebrate a holiday marking thanks for leaving England on the Mayflower and partying with Indians?

Here's a dialogue I had in my head once:
Does every country have an Independence Day?
US has one on 4th of July, Pakistan has one on August 14th (my birthday...coincidence?) but what about the UK? No... who would they have been granted from?

Well, actually was right in my thinking. There is a national holiday to celebrate the UK, it happened last week on November 5th and its called Guy Fawkes' Day. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Parliament and failed or something. Now they have fireworks just like 4th of July!

I spent Saturday back at Harrods really discovering all 5 floors. It was amazing! The Way-In Trend section on the 4th floor was my favorite (anyone who knows me will agree) as it was decorated like a nightclub, played house music in the background and carried 7 for all Mankind Jeans, True Religions, Rock & Republic, e.vil and Juicy Couture.

I just landed another internship-type of thing with an entertainment public relations company called Peter Noble PR! I was trying to find my way there. The address was 1 Mercer Mews. Google pointed me to what I thought was Mercer Road. But when I got to that spot, the numbers were starting at #131.

I was confused as #1 is a small number. So I walk all the way to the opposite end of the street. The #1 there was a house. I ring the doorbell. Nothing. I walk across the street to the Virgin Active gym and ask them where the PR place was. Nothing. Mind you, it has been raining the whole time and now is a torrential rainfall, COMPLETELY drenching me.

I walk back to #131 of the street. As I am doing this, I'm asking everyone where Mercer Mews is and no one knows. There then is a mailman who knew exactly where Peter Noble PR was and told me a "Mew" is a little side road of a main street. Hey, to me a "Mew" is the sound a kitten makes, okay?

He leads me to a narrow cobblestone road I would have never noticed. But it is completely flooded. I'm like, "Um..." as I look down at my swede black boots. He gets in-front of me and says "Get on!" and gives me a piggy-back ride across the "river".

Awwww... how cute, no?

I saw the new James Bond 007 movie, Quantum of Solace on Sunday (It came out here 2 weeks before the US.) Not that great, but it was cool to see a movie in theatres here. The cost was about the same as an American one with the student discount and the new exchange rate. (it's now nearly $1.50 to a pound!) In true Farida-fashion, I fell asleep during some of the middle.

I just "applied" for graduation today. I don't wanna grow up! I don't wanna go to the real world and work. I don't wanna leave my friends. Keep me in college forever!

This weekend I am going to the REAL Glastonbury, bitches. Not my hometown, but Glastonbury England in Somerset County (maybe that's where Somerset Square gets its name?)
A few weeks from now I'm going to Dublin! My goal (don't laugh) is to buy a claddagh ring.

Cheers!
Farida

The Confessions of an American in Madrid

Before I talk about Madrid I must admit that I wish I were back in the US right now for the election... but the Brits are really involved in who wins our election and I have yet to meet anyone in Europe who likes McCain. One girl on our trip said a guy asked her, "Who are you voting for? Black or White?"

All the girls in the flat are planning to stay up until 5 am our time to watch the Election coverage and bake cookies. I wouldn't mind betting to see who wins which predicted states.

Class today was not bad. We went on a walking tour of famous London department stores, Fortnum & Mason, Liberty, Selfridges, and Harrods. Yeah, that was honestly our class. I LOVE Harrods after going in there for the first time today. It's like an amusement park.

Okay, so about Spain:

Well there was plenty of drama at Stansted Airport as we were loitering around thinking we had plenty of time before we had to get to the gate. We thought we had to be there at 8:00 am, but it turned out we learned the gate closes at 8:00! So we were not only scrambling to make it to the gate on time, but the security people stopped us because our carry-on luggage (we didn't check anything in to avoid spending 30 pounds on the course of the trip) had too many liquids (we had shampoo, conditioner, hair styling products etc) and that we'd have to check our luggage or have our stuff "destroyed"

We go to the check-in place to have our stuff checked (and pay the obscene amount of money) and they said the flight was closed for doing that. Luckily, we were able to have the airport keep our stuff until we came back for 5 pounds.

Well, since I had to leave my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, shaving cream, contact solution, saline solution and whatever else. I didn't wanna spend a fortune on stuff, just bought one bottle of 2-in-1 conditioner for everything including face wash and body wash. I also didn't have my perfume so I smelled like 2-in-1 conditioner the whole time, and being cheap, I'd spritz on a perfume of my choice when I walked into a "perfumeria"

Spain to me was a test to see how many people would think I was Latina. Well as soon as I get on the plane, the guy asked me "So...are you going home?" Enough said.

Being in Spain was a real refresher course in high school Spanish. All the vocabulary, grammar, and culture stuff came back to me. I was surprised that I could actually understand most of what I read and carry on conversations with Spanish people, I guess AP Spanish really meant something after all!

I was getting ready in the bathroom at the hostel and while I was brushing my teeth and every time a person came in, they'd walk out. I was so confused I mean there were like 3 sinks.

Then the cleaning lady goes, "Este bano es para chicos" So apparently I was using the guys bathroom the whole time!

At this cafe called Cafe Comercial and the guy serving us spoke broken english and I couldn't understand what he was saying. He apparently was saying stuff like "You are beautiful" and being clueless and wanting to look like I understood him I just nodded and smiled and said "yeah!" That's what Jen told me what I was doing. Oops!

We had this French guy who was staying in our 6-person hostel room. He was so weird. In the middle of the night he started to reach over to the bed of the girl next to him while he was sleeping completely freaking her out.

I have learned I don't like hostels and I don't like strangers living with me.

We also observed a fight on the street. On top of that, I had to sign up for classes for the Spring semester at UConn right in the middle of my Madrid vacation on the ONE sunny day there, as the rest of the days were rainy and cold. The reason I was freaking out was that I thought I couldn't get into a class that I needed to graduate, but everything ended up working out.

Also, a guy from our UConn in London program was gonna be with us on the trip but never showed up to the hostel so we were really worried that something really bad happened to him. We couldn't get in contact with him as he had lost his cell phone before Madrid. It turns out he was in Valencia the whole time.

At a restaurant, I noticed how bad the language-barrier thing sucks. I had pointed to what was beer-battered calamari. The waiter comes back with pork chops and french fries. This is a problem as I do not eat anything pig. I think he thought I pointed to the one underneath the calamari on the menu, pork chops.

In a nutshell, we checked out the Prado Museum and saw the painting "The Last Supper" which I thought was cool. We also saw El Plaza Mayor, and El Parque Retiro. We met a couple girls from the US studying in Ireland along the way.

I liked the chance to go to Spain as I don't know if I'd ever be back.

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Get A Taste of British Countryside

Well... this weekend I got invited to a pub near Brighton far away from the city in a remote village. The place was your typical old-style pub, really quaint and cute, with a living space upstairs with bedrooms and stuff. The place was freezing though as they never turn the heat on! The village looked straight out of a movie!

It was cool being the only American around all British people for a night and really getting to hear about all the pop culture they talk about. Of course though, I couldn't understand alot of what they were saying as they were all talking collectively really fast in their accents and one of the guys had a thick Scottish accent. It was funny because of that, I was tuning them out and just sitting there. I then got bored and started dozing off and falling asleep...

Well what do you expect when one stays up until 5 am the night before to write a huge essay and wakes up at 7:30 am to hand it in? This on top of averaging 5 hours of sleep every night that week?

...It also doesn't help that I was wearing a hot pink satin strapless dress with black tights and heels at this pub while dozing off. Hey! In my defense, no one told me where we were going, I thought it was some fancy dinner, haha.

What I have noticed about Autumn (Fall to us Americans) in Great Britain.

- The leaves go from green to yellow then brown. Not spectacular compared to back home in New England where right now the leaves have gone from green to yellow and are now orange/red :(
- There aren't really any Halloween decorations anywhere. No Jack O'Lanterns, scarecrows, candy corn (I LOVE candy corn!) or anything much Halloween related as they have JUST started to embrace the "American" holiday. They don't even serve pumpkin spiced lattes at Starbucks or Hot Apple Cider there! (I also LOVE Hot Apple Cider from Starbucks every Fall. haha)

Well, I'm pulling an all-nighter and staying up until 5 am to catch my flight to Madrid, Spain for our mid-semester break this week! I'm so excited! I still need to pack as we have less than three hours to leave!

Cheers!
Farida

The Confessions of an American in Paris

I should be working on a paper due on Thursday, but I'm not...

This weekend was exactly what I needed to get away and relax. It took a while for it sink in that I was actually in Paris, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.
To me, I already felt like I had been to Paris before as I have been to Montreal where all the signs and everything are in French. But it had the old buildings look of London. I was surprised how dirty the streets were.

On Saturday, our Eurostar train was delayed for an hour while we were on it, and then we had to wait forever at the train station, Gard du Nord to get metro tickets, but I didn't care because I was Paris!

Here's how getting my first crepe went down:

We were in some sort of area with food vendors everywhere in the St. Germain de Pres neighborhood and I really wanted a Parisian crepe. My friends were in some boulangerie (bakery) getting baguettes and stuff and there was a vendor making crepes from scratch where they put the batter on a surface and roll it onto a circle. but the line was about 20 people deep. I didn't care. They looked good.
The line barely moved as I was still on the end, and we only had a 1/2 hour to meet our group for a tour to go up the Eiffel Tour.

I didn't wanna make us late, so I rushed to a food vendor across the street that had no line. There were a couple of guys working it. The main guy was about my age, so I told him what I wanted.

Crepe guy: You have beautiful eyes.
Me: Thanks, can I get a nutella crepe?
Crepe guy: Ok, how old are you?
Me: 22. *thinking um can I have my crepe now?*
Crepe guy: I'm 22 also!
Me: oh Happy Birthday! *thinking okay, still waiting for my crepe*
Also me thinking: *ok this guy is full of crap*

They didn't even have fresh crepes! They were old ones just sitting there already made and he haphazardly puts on nutella. Not the Parisian crepe experience I imagined.

Seriously, can a girl get food in Paris without being seriously hit on or picked up?

The next day, I go to the same neighborhood for a gyro. There were pigeons EVERYWHERE. I am they were flying in every which direction and flying so close to my head. Me + pigeon phobia = no good. To me, nothing is worse than when pigeons flap their wings and fly.
It's hilarious, actually. In fact, the Italian guys in front of me thought the same thing laughing and being all, "We'll protect you."

When I finally get to order, the Middle Eastern guy was so sketchy. He was all, "Do you want to get a beer? What are you going at 6 pm tonight?" grrrrr. I felt like saying, "At 6 pm tonight I will be at the train station heading back to London while eating my gyro you're supposed to be making for me."

It's not even safe walking down the street without being obviously ogled at by creepers and getting cat calls. On my way out of the metro station, a guy was with his friend and tried to grab my arm as I walked by. Guys are so aggressive in Europe!

I guess that's my only issue with Paris. Other than that I love Paris and I WILL be back to spend more time than 28 hours could ever have afforded me.

Over the weekend I saw/did:
-Notre Dame Cathedral
-Went up the Eiffel Tower and saw a huge spectacular aerial view of Paris (the Eiffel Tour had lights sparkling all over at one point)
-ate a late dinner at La Marmite in the Montmartre district (and tried escargot for the first time... it's actually really good!)
-saw the Jardin du Luxembourg (I won't lie I only went there because it was featured in that Olsen twins Paris movie lol)
-Saw the Sorbonne while pretending I was smart enough to attend such a prestigious European institution
-Frantically searched for the Mona Lisa in the Louvre (I didn't have much time to spend in there you see) while getting lost on the way to the Louvre
-Saw the Arc de Triomphe and that circular roundabout where all the streets converge
-Window shopped on the Champs-Elysee

All in all a good, but short weekend!

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where We Teach British Blokes How to Play Beer Pong

SO MUCH has happened in the last week I don't even know where to begin!

Last night, our flatmate Katie had a British friend John who brought over a bunch of his other British (and Portuguese) guy friends for a huge dinner at our flat. This was exactly what I needed after not being around too many British people (not to mention British guys) yet. They were so much fun, I mean a total blast! They didn't know the old American drinking game tradition of beer pong, so we set up a make-shift table and manged to get a ping-pong ball and party cups (it's hard to find these things in England surprisingly) Let's just say whenever the ball would fall on the floor, there were many jokes about "Where are my balls?" coming from the Brits.

Last Saturday, half our flat had gone to places in Europe for the weekend so the rest of us girls went to Portabello Market, one of the most famous markets in London. They had everything from fruit, to cheap clothes, to antiques... it was pretty amazing how cheap everything was in a country where I cringe looking at price tags as I mentally multiply by two, and thinking "Back home, those used to be dollar signs!"

Tuesday was notable as we got to go to a taping of the UK version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" I've already been to "The Tyra Banks Show" so I already knew the protocol for being a part of a studio audience. The set looked identical to the US game show but was surprisingly very small! We had VIP status so we got to chill with the host and contestants after.

The host of the UK one is Chris Tarrant... apparently some huge deal here and he's always in the papers (a.k.a tabloids) for flirting with other girls, I totally got to talk to him and flirt with him as well, but he's waaaayy too old for my tastes! I liked being in the studios though, as the girl who got us the VIP passes works for them and was telling me all about the TV industry and stuff which I think is a possible career path for me so that got me excited.

Thursday we got to go to Kensington (a fancy culturally-rich part of London) for our Geographies of London class. We saw the Victoria & Albert Museum (very interesting and I'm not a big museum person) Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park all to study Victorian London.

After the gym that same day, I managed to catch the Olympics Parade as all the people from the Great Britain team in were featured. I figured this would top watching the Olympics at home last summer on TV (which I failed to do because I was so busy.) I mean what better than to see all the athletes of Great Britain parading around in the future site of the next Olympics in 2012?

...Oh and early tomorrow morning we are taking the Eurostar train to Paris for the weekend! I'm so excited!!!!!!! I've been dying to go to Paris my whole life and see the Eiffel Tower!

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Stand in Line for Five Hours Straight

Today I faced a dilemma. Do I attend class and meet my Geographies of London class at Trafalgar Square, or do I try to make it in line for the book signing at Piccadilly to meet my idol, Cheryl Cole and her band she's in?

I chose the latter option, much to my professors dismay.
I have never skipped a class in high school and not really anything in my past three years of college, mind you.

I figured meeting my idol, whom I traversed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic was a good enough excuse to finally rebel.

Here's how it all went down:

After waking up at 8:30 this morning to walk the 1/2 hour all the way to the center of London to go to the gym, walk the 1/2 hour all the way back, eat lunch, shower, meticulously blow dry and then straighten my hair, I finally leave the flat at 1:30 to get to Waterstone's book store in Piccadilly.

I reach there at 2:00 pm and see a ridiculous line wrapped around like two streets. I finally reach the end and ask the girl if it was the end. (I find out later she is ticket #299) The security guard comes up to me and says:

"Before I give you a ticket, you need to buy the book."
He directs me to the back entrance of the bookstore and in about 10 minutes, I come back with the book.

By then, a party of three take my would-have-been spot. It would have been ticket #300. The security guard tells me:
"There is a chance you won't get to meet the girls, but you are welcome to stay here anyway. 300 is the magic number. Sometimes they will accept more people."

I. was. crestfallen.
If only I had gotten out of bed this morning and rushed to Piccadilly Circus instead of doing my Thursday morning routine.

I wait patiently 5 hours anyway. In that time, 200 more people show up behind me, making the total line count to 500. The whole five hours I was worrying about not being able to see Cheryl and girls.

At around 7pm, the time our part of the line reached the bookstore entrance, they had just let in everyone up to ticket #300.

Then a lady comes out: "We're very sorry. It's 7:00 pm and the girls have to leave. Everyone has to go home."

Not only did I sacrifice the class tour and my relationship with my professor (who happens to be our chaperone/advisor for the whole time we're here) but I didn't even get to physically see Girls Aloud. :(

I know every could has its silver-lining, so I will say that:
1. I got to be around people who were as crazy for Cheryl and her band. A respite from having to explain who they are to other Americans.
2. Piccadilly Circus looks amazing at night.


Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Nearly Get Run Over

One thing I have learned in London: People don't get the right of way, cars do.
Yep, that's the big difference between the US and the UK.
Friday, I was walking to class near Bloomsbury Square, when a pigeon comes into my trajectory. Yes, a pigeon.

Pigeons freak me out, no really they do. Spiders, bring them on! I'm not afraid. But pigeons? No I'd rather get hit by a double-decker bus than touch one.
As I was avoiding this pigeon, a motorcycle comes within like 2 inches of me. Whatever, no big.
Getting nearly run over/honked at by annoyed drivers as I jaywalk or prematurely cross in the crosswalk is routine in my life now.

Another thing I have learned in London:
We are all stars of a little soap-opera called the CCTV. No but seriously, Closed-circuit television records people in every public place anywhere. This is put in place instead of having the police follow your every move.
I have first hand-experience in the US on what it is like to have the police stalk you. This summer, I got a ticket for speeding, then three days later, a ticket for "failure to stop at a stop sign" These are the only two tickets I have gotten in my twenty-two years of existence.
I'm BFF's with the police.

However, the most important thing I have learned in London is how to interact with fellow British American people.
Yeah, that's right, in London I am learning more about how to interact with natives of the US. No typo.


Living such small quarters with the same people small group of people was a refresher course in life lessons such as:

- Miscommunication, although inevitable causes unnecessary drama.
- It's important to focus on the good qualities of others.
- No one (In particular, myself) is perfect, however, we all mean well (especially true of myself I have come to realize this week) and are all good people.
- We cannot focus on past events, but look at the fact that today is NOW.
- Communication is the key. If we do not articulate how we feel to the other party, problems will not be fixed ("sorted out" *Insert British accent* as the Brits would say)
- You should NEVER think to compromise who you are in-order to have other people approve of you.
- Once words leave your mouth, you no longer have ownership of them.
- There's a reason three is an odd number.

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Attend My First Movie Premiere

Yeah, I finally can cross one more thing off my London "Must-Do List." I went to Leicester Square after my PR job to see the red carpet for the How To Lose Friends & Alienate People premiere. Unfortunately, Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox did not attend even though they star in it.

The funniest part of the night was when people take home the cardboard movie posters that line the gates between the spectators/paparazzi and the actual red carpet. I managed to snag one.

They look tiny in the pictures on the red carpet but I had to decide to walk the 30 minutes across London home instead of take the Tube. Picture me carrying a HUGE movie poster in front of me that is twice my size on the streets of London.

I looked like a movie billboard walking around London. Paramount Pictures should have PAID me for giving them the free advertising/publicity. Or at least hire me right off the spot so I (the Marketing major) can have a full-time job come graduation!

I couldn't help but keep chucking to myself about how ridiculous I looked as I got stares from people walking past me.

I felt like the kid who wears the red-green-blue glowstick souvenir necklace proudly around his/her while walking back to the parking lot after the 4th of July fireworks. I finally attend a movie premiere and this movie poster is my souvenir I'm taking back with me goddammnit!

Responses on the street:

1. Many smiles from members of the opposite sex.
2. A drunken guy tried to come up to me with arms wide open an hug me and my poster to which I scurried off into the street to get away fom him.
3. A girl said, "What is she doing that for?" (British accent included.)
4. I walked by a pub where a guy said "That poster looks good on you."

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I Further Discover What London Has to Offer

Summer officially ended this weekend (I guess all those British girls I see while walking around wearing white pants after Labor Day --no Labour Day need to officially stop! I'm guessing they don't have Labor Day over here, though so British fashion victims have an excuse to wear white pants still.)

 All the colleges in the UK have finally started classes, (they call this week Fresher's Week) after all the US people have been in classes for a month. We're only in our second week of classes.  For our Geographies of London class on Tuesday, we got to have a field trip (yes, an actual 3rd grade-style field trip!) to the famed British Museum only minutes down the street. I'm not a museum-type, but it was still cool as it's massively huge. 

On Wednesday for our community service, we had to help paint Southwark Cathedral in the Southbank by the London Bridge.  It was some huge memorial to Shakespeare or something I don't quite remember. One girl swore she saw Tim Gunn from Project Runway walk by which wouldn't be surprising since London Fashion Week was going on. Alot of tourists and people kept walking by us and taking our pictures! I don't know if we should have been flattered by the attention or feel like freaks on display.

On Friday afternoon, we went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (or at least its remake. The real one burned down centuries ago) to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a lot smaller than I imagined, actually.  I have never read the play and didn't think to Sparknotes it beforehand, so for the most part I was completely lost. It was a comedy though, so it was funny in a lot of parts and ended on a good note. The costumes were really colorful and decadent.

Saturday was our day-trip to Brighton.  Brighton = England + California.  Really, it does. I felt like I was in Laguna Beach, CA than the UK.  It was amazing! The weather was warm and sunny and the beach with its pier and everything was just like the Santa Monica Pier or Coney Island the sand was all huge pebbles though, so that was a bit strange.  

Skate culture is huge over here as it would be in the US like Orange County. There is this amazing skate park we passed by that our friend Nick skates at. It was featured in one of the Tony Hawk skateboarding video games. It looked so pretty with all of the colorful graffiti on the walls, unlike any graffiti I've ever seen before. There are a lot of skateboard shops in Covent Gardens as well. 

Last week, I finally managed to get a gym membership finally. It was probably the cheapest one I could find as it was a Y, but it happened to be historical as it's the first YMCA ever created in the whole world at Tottenham Court Road in Central London. It's alot more decadent than ANY gym I have ever gone to. I lucked out big time.

I'm learning a lot here.  A couple of the things I have learned so far: not only do people text to each other but British companies are OBSESSED with texting as well. "Text ___ to 23729 to get this! "Text ____ to 68003 to get that!" They use texting to request songs on the radio to hailing a cab.

Most importantly, I learned there is no huge street where shops are lined on called High Street. "high street" is a word the British use as we would, "the main street" it's just a term meaning the biggest/main road in town.  All this time I was so excited to find bargains on High Street! I guess I"ll have to settle for Oxford Street or Regent Street instead. 

I'm contemplating hitting the red carpet tomorrow night at Leichester Square for the "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" movie premiere.  Megan Fox and Kirsten Dunst are starring in it so maybe they"ll be there!  Katy Petty is also in town tomorrow night doing a show. I wanna go to that, we"ll see. 

Cheers!

Farida

The One Where I Get Approached by a Psychic

I have discovered even more places walking around the streets of London. During these discoveries I learned that the Circle Line on London's Underground tube network does indeed go in a circular track. Besides that, after our first class, I walked all the way to Regent's Park. It was nice to be among trees again like I would in the suburbs. I even jogged there the next day as I still don't have a gym membership yet.

In one afternoon, I managed to go from shops at Covent Gardens to Leichester Square (entertainment center where the movie premieres, cinemas and clubs are) to Chinatown.

As I was walking, a couple guys around my age pass by me, check me out and say, "That's an American! Damn!" It's kind of weird because I do everything in my power to dress stylishly like a Londoner. Also:
a) I didn't have a map in my hand
b) I didn't look lost,
c) they had never heard me talk.
What is it about me that tips people off to think I'm an American?

Another afternoon I went from Piccadilly Circus (London's answer to Times Square) to the Savile Row (famous for high-end men's suits) to the only Abercrombie & Fitch international flagship store in London (that was massively huge by the way and WAY overpriced) where I got a picture with an Abercrombie model. I went by the Mayfair district and while I was there this happened:

I wanted to go to a cafe to chill. The Starbucks nearby seemed too tiny so I walked into one called Cafe Nero. As I walk in, an old man with long black hair tied into a turban comes up to me and says:
"You have a great forehead! You are a very lucky girl! What is your name?"
Me: "Farida"
Him: " From your forehead I can tell that you are a very ambitious, cautious and hard-working girl."
He said some other stuff but I can't remember other than that they were dead-on with my personality. He then says,
"You will have three good newses be told to you the next month."
He goes on to tell me that he is a Yogi from Kashmir and shows me an aged black and white of himself when he was 12. He says that he is a psychic.
"Your forehead shows that you have two stresses in your life at the moment: your career and your relationships. Is this true?"
"I guess so." I wasn't totally getting along with my flatmates the night before so I thought he could have been right.
"You have two bad habits that if changed can help fix these. I want to hear from you after these have been done. I would need your e-mail."
I wasn't sure about the whole e-mailing business.
He then says, "I will tell you your bad habits after I go to the washroom."

I didn't know if it was some cult or what. As he was talking to me I clutched my purse tightly. It could have been one of those scenarios where a stranger is talking to you to distract you and then his little friend comes from behind and steals your stuff. Whatever. I was alone and with my map in hand clearly a tourist. I felt like I was in danger, so as soon as he left for the bathroom, I booked it. I just completely left.
On the street, he and his little partner were outside the cafe yelling, "Farida!" Farida!"
I guess I'll never know my bad habits. Maybe they could be running away from stuff.

Cheers!
Farida

The one where I finally reach London

So much has happened in the past four days I don't think this entry can justify all of it.

On the plane ride over, I was sitting next to Jon-Paul. Virgin Atlantic likes to be all fancy and high-tech so we were trying to figure out what all the buttons in front of you did. I told him to press one where a huge *ding* goes off and seconds later, a male flight attendant comes over with his British accent, "Can I help you guys?" All while the plane is dead silent at the time so everyone was staring at us. I was like, "...Oops?" It was pretty funny, he never let me live that down the rest of the ride.

The day we arrived on Sunday, we took a walking tour around our neighborhood, Clerkenwell. As our group of about 20 students, mainly females were walking down a sketchy street, we not only see a random group of like 8-10 year olds walking by themselves no parent around, they were also yelling "Tourists! Tourists!" I found out they were a gang. Apparently there are alot of gangs of kids around London. Weird.
While walking, we also passed by a guy who yelled to us, "Do you girls want to be in a video shoot?" He was meaning we would be extras in a music video for Kanye West or something. We definitely saw past that. It could have been porn for crying out loud! Our advisor, Anthony looked so pissed and annoyed it was hilarious and completely random.

We went to dinner that night at a very fancy restaurant where they were turning away people left and right. The drinks averaged about $16. I didn't want to order dessert so I was gonna order and give it to Brittany to take home. They didn't even have anything to put it in to take home. Apparently in England, it is considered gross to wrap up uneaten food when dining out so no one does it.
The most hilarious part of the night was when a homeless guy comes in to the restaurant and begs our table to give us some of our food. Anthony said he has never seen anything like that happen in London in his whole life. We went to a bar called Saloon near where we live that night and let me tell you, Absenthe is really overrated.

Monday was an orientation at FSU where we are taking classes. Tuesday was cool. We went on a double decker bus tour of the city and saw such landmarks such as Big Ben, the Parliament, Hyde Park, The London Eye, and the London Bridge. (FYI: It is not falling down.) We then took a boat cruise down the Thames River to Greenwich where we visited the Prime Meridian line. I know, totally dorky but after remembering learning about it in 3rd grade Social Studies class as the line that divides the Western hemisphere from the Eastern hemisphere and where Greenwich Mean Time is located I had to check it out.

Yesterday we went to CSV, the placement offices where they are assigning what we will be doing for our 10 hours a week volunteer work. Most people have to work in museums or tutor, but I think I got one of the coolest assignments of all! Me and Liz have the press-related assignments. Liz gets to be a TV reporter for CSV and interview all of the volunteers and report on what they are doing. I get to help her with production. I also get to be CSV's publicist and also act as a journalist interviewing people in order to write my press releases. I am working with London's leading left-wing national newspaper, The Guardian! It's a well-known paper all around the UK and I might be published in it!

That night, we attended the BBC Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall. It is a symphony concert held everyday during the summer. But sitting there, it only managed to hold my interest for all of...5 seconds. I guess I'm not much of a classical music fan.

London is everything I pictured it would be looks-wise. It can be intimidating at times as everyday is a fashion show with people all dressed up walking up and down the streets. I hardly saw anyone wearing sweats. The prices are intimidating as well. Everything is crazy expensive, like $10 for a bottle of shampoo! There are many streets as it is a very large city I have yet to fully navigate through. No one wears bright colors. They all wear muted colors like blacks, greys, and browns. Perhaps they are saving the bright colors for all the neon green and orange plastic grocery shopping bags? I hardly see any fat Londoners around. All the food in the grocery stores seem health-conscious with their labels unlike the US.

Speaking of grocery stores, in order to get your old British Pound bills from the 1960's used (as most stores I've found, don't accept them anymore) just flirt with the cute checkout guy at the grocery store with the amazing British accent!

Cheers!
Farida

The One Where I'm still living A Glastonbury Summer

I figured on my rare day off from both my hostess job and internship I decided I'd set up my British blog while my stomach growls in hunger for dinner. All afternoon I have been selecting my courses that I will be studying while in the UK and my housing preferences. I can't wait for London! I leave out of JFK in New York September 6th!

....and you only wish you could live vicariously through me this Fall 2008,
Well now you can! ;-)

My new apartment...er I mean, flat. just click here.


Cheers!
Farida