vampire weekend on ice

Last night I started to write a post (before deeming myself far too exhausted and quitting) about how me and Sarah had gone grocery shopping and met up with the wisco boys and befriended a ridiculous club owner who gave us free shots of what tasted like cough syrup at this club called zoo. I was also going to write about how we boarded a night bus in chinatown, almost fell up (and down) the stairs of the double decker, and met a bunch of the people in our program who arrived yesterday. I also had my first fish and chips pub experience! But that stuff's boring. You can get the gist that I'm making friends and really enjoying myself without me slaving over every unnecessary detail so I'm going to get into the more important stuff, i.e. today.

Today was a great day.

It started off mediocrely. We had our first round of orientation today, which started at 8:45 am. Yes, this would be 2:45 a.m. Chicago time. ANYWAY. It was raining, and we went on a tour of Chelsea (our borough) that me and Sarah had already given ourselves countless times. The highlights of this part of the trip were spotting a local Vietnamese restaurant called Phat Phuk (think about it for a second) and having my first ever Ben's Cookies experience with Keetin (lifechanging, I tell ya). Overall, this part was boring. We went to the IES Center where we'll be taking classes which is in a cool area called Bloomsbury in a renovated 18th Century townhouse, which was all really cool until it phased into rule reviews and other droning that tended to be a bit boring. We got to go for lunch and then go on a tour of the area, which was also cool.

Here comes the good part, following a brief side note:

I love the band Vampire Weekend. They just released a new album Monday called Contra which is outstanding and they are awesome and fun and great (told you I love them). I'm on their email list because I'm a nerd like that and I got an e-mail yesterday saying they were playing a free show outside of the Somerset House in London. Normally these are the kinds of emails I cry about because nobody ever comes to play free promo shows in Madison. So naturally, I was excited. I spent all of last night and today talking it up to literally everyone I met. It didn't matter whether I knew them or not, I just really wanted to go to the show and wasn't going to go alone. Out of the people I made friends with last night, I was able to recruit 3 (Kevin, Keetin, and Max) to come with me to the show. Along with them were about 20 others from the program (including our Bloomsbury tour guide Sophia...I seriously was making a scene about this show). The major concern was timing. The show was set to start at 5:30, precisely the same time that our orientation was set to end. Luckily, the last part of orientation was just picking up syllabi and eating snacks. wellll fuck snacks, we were out of orientation by 5, hopped a bus, and were over by the Somerset House by 5:15. perrrrrrfect.

When we got there, it was so cool. The building surrounds a giant courtyard on 4 sides (one side is mainly open to walk through), where they set up an ice skating rink in the winter. The band was set up on this balcony (not playing yet) and we figured we would be standing behind the ice rink, which would have been fine. Then we got the great idea...why don't we just pay for skates (12 and a half pounds...roughly 20 bucks, which is expensive for skates but not for a concert) and watch the show from 100 yards closer. Bingo. The four of us bought skates, laced up, and were front row center for an amazing show by an amazing band in an unreal setting. To say that this is why I wanted to come to London is an outrageous understatement, and this was absolutely the perfect way to kick off my semester. Fun people (mostly) free entertainment, it was so great. mmm i'm still buzzing and it ended about 6 hours ago.

Anyway, after the show we explored Leicester Square which was a lot of fun, we saw the members of Blur who were having what appeared to be an album release party, which was at least decently cool (once again, still buzzing from the show. had this happened yesterday it might've been a lot more exciting). We walked through Piccadilly Circus and got on the tube home. The boys and I got dinner at a local Asian place (I'm still burping soy sauce) and then after I got back we went and got drinks at a local pub, I got a cider with black currant which legitimately tastes like juice. outstanding. Then max and I watched 30 rock because apparently we both suffer from insomnia.

To sum up, to say I'm obsessed with every single thing about London (save maybe for the food and the size of my room) is a complete understatement. I'm so excited for the upcoming semester, blaaaaah yay, well I guess that's all for now because my alarm is going off in 5 and a half hours. WOO ORIENTATION. blech.

great day though.