Sorry for the huge gap in postings; midterms are next week
so writing hasn’t exactly been a priority for the past week.
So I’ll just catch you up on what has been going on.
Wednesday after class I met Hannah and Alyssa at Camden
market and we spent a good amount of time just walking through the market
shopping. Before they showed up, while I was just waiting near the Tube station
I had two guys within a ten minute period tell me that I was “beautiful” or “hot”
– but in that creepy, leering way; so I wasn’t too thrilled about it.
Thankfully though it didn’t take Hannah and Alyssa long to show up and we were
able to set off on our mission. The main intention for going out shopping was
to find Hannah a club dress as we were planning on going to a place called the Piccadilly
Institute this weekend. It was also a good way of getting out of the dorm on a
nice night. Eventually Hannah was goaded into finding a dress that she liked by
the determined Alyssa who was playing the role of a big sister; excited to
straighten Hannah’s hair, get her into a pretty dress, and apply make-up
despite Hannah’s reservations. The two of them were adorable and definitely did
seem like sisters at that moment. For the most part, I just watched it ensue and
let Alyssa take over the show – in the end though she did a very good job (I’ll
get to that in a moment).
After Camden, we stopped by Primark to finish up our shopping. Since I did have a dress, I figured I’d club it up a bit by adding a belt, fishnets and a bold statement necklace, so that’s where I was able to find those items and Alyssa and Hannah were also able to put the finishing touches on both of their outfits. I honestly think that at least half the fun in going someplace dressed up is actually in all the preliminary stuff; shopping and the actual getting ready.
Thursday was another morning of class, but then Hannah and I
met up because she wanted to have a tour of Soho and Abbey Road like what Abi
and I had to do for our British Youth Culture class on Tuesday. And, I am going
to be brief about this because we pretty much did the exact same route as I did
with class. For me, I got to see everything for a second time, point out the
details to Hannah, and then take as many pictures as I wanted – many of those
which I had not had time for while with the class. We did get to explore the
streets of Soho and Carnaby Street much more thoroughly though, so I was able
to get a wider feel for the area. I love the Bohemian attitude of Soho and
Carnaby, the whole place is filled with a kind of artsy, and fashionably grungy
air. This is made all the better by the fact that Carnaby Street is intentionally
set up parallel and in stark contrast to the ritzy Regent Street. Personally, I
appreciate those times when lower classes or those suffering some sort of
social persecution very decidedly, and sarcastically but intelligently and
tactfully give a big middle finger to those above them raining down judgment. This
was the exact purpose of establishing Carnaby Street parallel to Regent.
Friday was rather interesting,
especially the evening. In the morning, because it was a nice day, Hannah
texted I and we decided that it would be a good day to go to the top of Tower
Bridge. While we were downstairs making plans when Abi and Alyssa also showed
up even though we hadn’t planned to meet up with them and they hadn’t planned
to meet with us because they were on their way to get theater tickets. We all
decided it’d be more fun to stick together so first we accompanied Abi and
Alyssa to Liester Square where they bought the tickets for the play they wanted
to see, and then we went over to Tower Bridge after some lunch. When we got to
the bridge though, after some talking we kind of decided that it would be
better to conserve our energy for the club instead of spend it all climbing a
shit-ton of stairs; so we decided to come back later.
After some time just hanging out at NIDO, we all started
getting ready for the club. When I was finished I met up with the other three
in Abi’s room where Alyssa was straightening Hannah’s hair and putting makeup
on her. At the end of all Alyssa’s work Hannah stood in a gorgeous, fitted
black dress with straight, shoulder-length hair and a light makeup that only
highlighted her natural beauty. It was hard to tell whether or not she approved
of the makeover, but the rest of us thought she looked gorgeous, and I think
Alyssa was pretty proud of her work.
We then took the Tube to the Piccadilly Institute and went
inside to find our table. The place was blaring loud even early. No one was
dancing yet so we started with drinks and food. Even though I had two B52
shots, a margarita and a shot of Fireball I think the drinks were spread out
over too much time and I never even came anywhere close to feeling a buzz; I
think this was true for the others too as none of us were obviously drunk. The
club itself was quite an interesting set up; divided into six rooms with each
room having a different theme – the “Chamber” (kind of a mad scientist set up),
the “Clinic” (the weirdest one because it had giant pictures of eyes behind the
bar and dummy people fastened horizontally on the ceiling – I think they were
trying to go for a psych ward effect), “Decadia” (which was unfortunately closed
for a private function while we were there but which is decorated with various
retro items), the “Fruitbox” (which is all plants, flowers, and tropical), “Shrink”
(which had leather chairs and was wood paneled), and then there was the main area
where we were (don’t think that one had a name). Dancing with the girls was a
lot of fun and we had a good time. The only thing that was annoying was the
insistence of many of the guys there trying to dance with us or single us out.
For that reason, I would say that clubs are definitely not my thing, which is
kind of a shame because I had such a good time hanging out with friends. But
when guys act like absolute dogs, it
honestly ruins a lot of it and I would not feel any deep loss if my first club experience was also my last. Eventually we got tired of fighting of the guys and
decided to leave.
Immediately upon leaving some guy on the street asked us what
club we were headed to, as though he wanted to come with, and then another few
guys wolf-whistled at us in the Tube station – by then I was definitely done
and that’s part of the reason (the other part being homework) I spent all of
today being completely antisocial. Something interesting though, just before I
went down the stairs to the Tube station last night, someone came up behind me
and tossed a scarf around my shoulders. By the time I had turned around, whoever
it was had melted into the crowd, and even though I thought I picked out who it
was, I could identify absolutely no reason at all for it, nor did the person
give any indication of having done it, so I couldn’t be sure. It was a warm
scarf too but I had no need for it and it wasn’t mine so I folded it across the
handrail of the stairs and left it there, figuring someone would grab it
(halfway down the stairs there was a homeless guy, so I figured that if no one
claimed it that he would find it as soon as he went up the stairs).
And like I said, today was just spent doing homework and
killing time online. Now you're all caught up.
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