the weekend update: issue #1

**WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG POST.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.**

My last blog was Friday afternoon, so I'll start with what happened after that: registering for classes! I'm taking fifteen of what will probably (hopefully?) be the easiest credits ever...if not, oh well!  My internship counts as a class, and then I am taking macroeconomics, Philosophy of Law, Images of Britain Through The Arts (a required course for every student here!), and Accountancy in the UK, which is a five-session program run by PriceWaterhouseCooper Britain.  So excited!  After registering I went exploring a bit between our classroom centre and our flats, got groceries with the roommates, and we made grilled cheese and couscous (very gourmet) for dinner.  Friday night was Ember night...Ember is a bar that is actually really close to where we live, although we got so lost trying to find it that you would never have known!  Best mojitos I've ever had, and we accidentally crashed a private party in the basement that was being thrown by Jay-Sean's sister...random.

Saturday was another day of acclimation and preparation for the semester.  It was pouring rain all day, and freezing cold (by London standards, NOT Minnesota or South Bend!), so we spent as much of the day as possible trying to stay dry and warm.  Highlights:
-The British Museum!! It's imposingly enormous and utterly beautiful...it takes up an entire city block and has exhibits on every major ancient region and society, from Egypt to Greece and Rome to China and Japan and everything in between.  We only spent about an hour and a half there, and covered maybe a tenth of the museum, seeing lots of amazing things...the mummies (of humans and animals, weird) were super cool but creeped me out a bit.
-Lunch in Chinatown: London's Chinatown district is on our way to school and has a huge variety of very CHEAP restaurants (our favorite).  I had chicken and fried rice that was amazing, and we learned that restaurants in Europe don't bring your check until you ask for it...after about an hour of waiting for it!
-Covent Garden: We got really lost coming home from Chinatown and stumbled upon the Covent Garden Market on the way.  It was a huge partially-indoor market of art, fruit and vegetables, clothing and accessories, etc. with live music and street performers.  So lively and exciting! We watched a street performer whose schtick was that she could juggle butcher knives while hanging upside down from a trapeze...I almost died of fright/awe.
-WE FOUND DRURY LANE. I know where the Muffin Man lives.  He's done well for himself.
-The first Minerva 3/4 dinner party! The lovely gentlemen who live across the hall from us in Minerva 3 offered to pay for the groceries it would take to make a "family" dinner, if the ladies of Minerva 4 would cook it.  We made amazing sweet-chili chicken and vegetable stir-fry, and had some wine and cheese before dinner.  Highlight was the amazing sticky-toffee pudding cakes we had for dessert...and Katie eating an entire one all by herself.  Definitely a tradition we will be continuing!
-Lexington Bar: our first real London bar experience.  Much more mixing with the locals and tasting of more unique ales and lagers.  The bar itself was like clubbing in your grandma's living room...weird but very pretty/cool.

Today: EPIC TOURISTING!
We got up to find that the temperature had gone WAY up and the sun was shining beautifully...the perfect day to do the cliché tourist stuff.
-We went to Trafalgar Square and explored the environs that will be our between-class playplace...SO pretty, especially with the sunshine streaming down.
-Then we walked down the National Mall from Trafalgar to Buckingham Palace!!  So pretty and an excellent route to run, which will be happening this semester for sure.  The Mall is where a lot of high-powered people live, including Prince Charles and Camilla.  Buckingham was sooo gorgeous in the sun with all the gold trimming on the gates and fountain.  We took pictures and generally made touristy fools out of ourselves, especially jumping in for random photos with the bicycle emergency response crews :) 
-After Buckingham, off to BIG BEN and Parliament!  Right on the Thames...perfect day to do it.  The walk there is through a beautiful, historic, government and military district, and we passed so many places I'd read about in my nerdy historical-fiction books...Whitehall Palace is stunning.  Big Ben is...well, big.  And gold.  And incredibly exhilarating.  I took about 139847287564 pictures...Parliament is also beautiful...the building is just so imposing and impressive, fronting right on the river; I just stood there thinking WOW for about five minutes before I even started looking around.
-The obligatory phone-booth photoshoot totally happened today.  Don't judge me.
-Mass at the oldest continuously-existing Catholic church in London...very old, very pretty, very comforting.  Our program chaplain is the cutest old man, every time I see him I just get the urge to hug him.
-Got epically lost with Isaac in the LEGAL district...it was totally deserted and creepy but I am going to go back when it's light out (and populated!) to see it in action, it looked really expansive and interesting.
-Pub dinner at Knights Templar...great traditional British food and the coolest bathrooms ever, no joke.
-Vikings-Cowboys game at The City Pride, which I think is rapidly becoming our local pub.  I was the only Vikes fan in a large group of Cowboys-lovers, and we taught the Brits in attendance all about the intricacies of each team, including the epic saga of Brett Favre.  They all thought he was "a tosser" for being so flip-floppy.  I laughed.

That's all for now folks, you may officially breathe a sigh of relief.  If you made it through this epic blogathon, you deserve a pat on the back :)  I'm absolutely exhausted and have to get some sleep before I start my internship (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) tomorrow...I promise I'll update sooner and more concisely next time!  Goodnight! :)