Last Few Days

So, I haven't updated in a few days. And, comparatively, a lot has happened! Wow, looking back I have missed a lot. So, Wednesday we had this "treasure hunt" (I guess they don't use the term scavenger hunt here) throughout London with these random groups we were assigned. I was in a group where 3 of the 4 other people were excited to do the treasure hunt (whereas I wasn't all that excited), which turned out to really be a blessing in disguise. I actually was like, "Oh, this will be so lame I don't want to do this," but ended up going along because I really had nothing to do. In fact, the night before I ended up sending the wheels in motion via Facebook. So, Wednesday I went into London to meet with my adviser and tried to move my Friday class to another day so that I would have a four-day weekend (I don't have class on Monday) - didn't happen. So, three day weekend. Nothing to complain about.
So, it turned out my whole group was meeting with our advisers at the same time. Afterward, we walked through a great portion of London (we were walking from 1-8:30) doing the treasure hunt. Some of the places we went really ruled, such as the Royal Portrait Gallery, which was a a part of Trafalgar's Square, where I almost had a breakdown because I couldn't handle how beautiful I thought the square was. The sun was setting and a light rain was falling and all the streetlights were turning on, and the way the light was glistening off the water was almost too much to handle. I have found that London at sundown (which generally occurs around like, 3 o'clock or something fucking stupid like that) is really the most beautiful time to look at London. Also went over to the BFI (British Film Institute) where, by the looks of things, I will be spending a lot of time because they are showing a lot of really great movies there (such as Breakfast at Tiffany's) that I would love to see in a theatre. Royal Portrait Gallery had some great portraits, most of the awesome ones I took pictures of which will someday make their way to Facebook. But, I got Ian McKellan, that Thomas Moore from the Barnes and Noble copy of Utopia, James Joyce, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens (who looked very different from what I expected), that Blur painting, and a few more. Anyways, that night I went over with the hunt-mates to some college in the area where one of the girls boyfriend went to school, and we went out drinking around there. I had a great time, but am required to take the Tubes back because my school is so far away. The tubes shut down at midnight, so I had to leave at like, 10:30 to make sure I got back. That seems like it will be a problem this semester, especially if I want to go to concerts or something. Looks like I will have to be using the London Black Cab system a lot.
Thursday we had this fucking boat cruise down the Thames which was basically the thing I was probably most excited about on this trip. I also thought we had an open bar on it (turned out I was wrong). But so I woke up at 1 and caught the like 3:30 tube out to the harbor to catch the train. The international students got two boats and I was one a different one from several of my Harrow friends so I got to hang out with some other people I had met along the way. Being on the boat, of course, ruled. Despite the fact that the bar wasn't open I was still drinking and, admittedly, after a while the waves were kind-of leaving my stomach a bit queasy, but nothing really came of that. I ended up hanging out with one of the girls from my treasure hunt most of the time and some girls from the Nordic Isles, which was interesting. My only faux-pas of the night occured when, the two girls who didn't know each other both realized they both spoke Swedish and told me this, and I didn't really know what to say. My only real encounter with Swedish is from like Ingmar Bergman movies, so in a desperate attempt to keep conversation going, I mentioned that to Americans Swedish sounded weird. Why I thought that was the best thing to say, I don't know. But they seemed to brush it off and it didn't ruin my rap or anything so the night went on. I also wore my tie with the little anchors on it in celebration but was worried people were going to make fun of me for looking like an idiot, but actually received two compliments on my dress so that went well. After I got off the boat I went out to get some drinks, and then ended up going back to the tube pretty quickly. On the way there I ran into the most horrifying woman, some British beggar woman, who was screaming in some square for someone to help her who made my blood run cold so I just quickly walked past her. After I got past her and into the station I found I had like 15 minutes before the train left and knew nobody would help her, so I went out and gave her like 2 pounds 50. Hearing her speak again was just as scary, and I tried to call out "good luck" to her but my voice caught in my throat and nothing came out. It was awful.
So I took the tube back home and went to bed.
Yesterday, nothing happened. Towards the end of the day I started to feel a little sick, kind-of like I did when I had mono, so I stayed in that night to see if it came to anything. #hypochondriac
Today I woke up and did some reading, took a nap, took a shower, and did a bunch of other useless shit. I also watched some Simpsons (I have done that every day, including watching repeat episodes with commentary - pretty interesting). Then I walked into town to grab some dinner and got a beef-and-ale pie and some sort of British ale which I didn't like all that much. On the way back I was invited out with some people to go into town to grab some drinks which I did. I ended up having a pretty good time. We ended up going to the pub I went the first night and it was karaoke night I guess? After a little bit some British guy walked up to me and mentioned I had an American accent and started talking to me about it. Feeling awkward in this conversation, I introduced the rest of the people I was with and let them take over in the conversation. He was clearly there to talk to them, so I just sat back and chilled for a little. But he was actually a nice guy and did talk to me a fair share. After a while, he was like, "I'm buying a round of drinks! Who wants one!?" and nobody took him up on the offer, but somehow I ended up being the only person he was buying a drink for. That was the first time anyone has ever bought me a drink. So I didn't know the etiquette or anything of if I was supposed to wait in line with him or anything, so I ended up just staying where I was. Anyways, it was kind-of awkward, and then I realized someone was buying me a drink and the only thing I have ever learned was if someone buys you a drink, make sure they don't put anything in it. So I kept my eye on it. He didn't put anything in it. Later, before I left I wanted to take a shot for the road and asked my group if they wanted a shot. They were all like yeah!, including the British guys friend. After I got to the bar, I realized it kind-of seemed like I was offering to buy them all shots, so I got in this really awkward situation where I had to go back for money and seemed to have offended the friend. But oh well, I will probably never see those guys again.
Anyways, I came back here and am probably just going to watch some Simpsons and go to bed. It was a pretty good day. Apparently tomorrow there is a big student union meeting at the bar on campus which ought to be fun. We'll see how that goes. Bye!
(Also, got Scott 4 by Scott Walker, Olé by John Coltrane, and Ogdens Nut Gone Flake by Small Faces. All very good. Except for that ridiculous Seventh Seal song by Scott Walker).