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