Lions, Punk Rock, and Ice Blocks

Hey Everyone,

This was my first weekend since I got here that I didn't leave this country and we decided to enjoy good old London. On Tuesday night Lauren and I attended a Brand New concert at the Hammerstein Apollo (along with about a million British kids). Hammerstein (the town) was kinnda crazy, and in order to get to the Apollo we had to hop a few fences (in the pouring rain) and then run across maybe 6 or 7 lanes of traffic in a circular intersection patten. There no lights either, there are just little islands after ever two lanes or so .. so u just run and pray to God you live. The inside was the most beautiful theatre I've ever seen. We had nosebleed seats in the upper balcony, but we could still see great. It was weird being at a real punk rock show and everyone was sitting down in these red velvety seats in their punked out clothes... I was so confused... I mean even at the Backstreet Boys everyone was on their feet in America... whatever. Anyway, of course Jesse (the lead singer) opened the show with the song "Jude Law and the Semester Abroad" He sang it real soft and let the British kids sing it for them. Man was it funny to here the entire place singing "Tell all the English Boys you meet, about the American Boy back in the state, the American Boy you used to date..." in their British Accents. When the band announced that they were going back to the states tomorrow, me and Lauren cheered... and then realized we were the only ones from America and contemplated hiding under our seats for a while. All in all the concert was pretty awesome.

Valentine's day here was kind of depressing. A lot of the girls in the refectory were all dressed up and getting their dinner "to go" so they could bring it up to their room and have a dinner date via web cam with their boyfriends back home. John (the only boy from Monmouth) got all the girls Carnations which was nice of him. Danny sent me an awesome card he made and a really pretty bouquet of Carnations. Kyle sent me an E-card that was all in Spanish and said "Hope you're having fun in Spain!" He's such a jerk =)

Thursday night we went to this Ice Bar. It was expensive to get in, but I don't go out clubbing too much so I could hack it. At the door they give you these crazy Eskimo (the correct term now is Inuit.. I learned that in Anthro last semester) jackets with heavy gloves attached. Every thing was made of ice; the walls, the glasses, the chairs, the tables. It was so nuts. By the time our 45 min session was over I couldn't feel my body especially my feet in my cute little flats.

After that we went to a club called Strawberry Moon. As we walked up to in the bouncers said it was a five pound cover charge. Mourin walks right up to them and goes "Look at us... we are all Pretty girls! We don't pay to get in anywhere" I was shocked, but she turned around and said "Lets go girls we're off to O'Neil" and we all started to follow... and sure enough the two bouncers ran after us and said we could go in for free! Was even more shocked. I really liked it a lot. It was a fun classy place. Another bouncer in front of the stage came up and asked if we wanted to dance on stage. So of course somehow all ten of us American girls were up dancing on this stage in front of the DJ. The DJ said, "Here you go girls, I know you are from Jersey, but this is the best I can do ..." and then he played "Sweet Home Alabama". After that we left for O'Neil.

O'Neil wasn't as nice and as way too crowded for me. There was a live band and they were pretty cool. There was Jenga on the table we were sitting at so we played that for a while and then the "non clubbers" headed home because it was late and we just couldn't take much more.

Today we went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was so cool. There was this huge monument (kinnda like the Washington monument only not that big) in the middle and it was surrounded by four HUGE lions all on a pretty high stone platform, with fountains on either side. So of course I we threw in a pence and made a wish. There were tons of people, of all ages, climbing on this monument and taking pictures and stuff. So we climbed the first level of the platform (which was NOT easy) and got a gorgeous view of the city. Then he hopped down and tried to climb up the front of the lions. We had to help some of the other people off the platform and kinnda laughed. But then we realized climbing it was harder then we ever though it would be. We all go stuck on the ledge and almost died, but with a group effort we all managed to get up. Our friends saw us climbing up from a distance and joined us. We had people take a picture and then realized we were all stuck. So we had to have people help us down in tears. It was so funny seeing 6 college girls stuck on a platform. What losers!

Then we went in to the National Gallery. It was pretty big too. A lot of the earlier art was all religious stuff. Mostly of The Virgin and Christ, but some was of the Greek Gods. My favorite in that era was this painting of Venus and Cupid (her son) and he was holding a piece of honeycomb and had bees all over him and it symbolized her teaching him that brief pleasure may not always be worth the consequences. When we got to the more modern paintings, we came across "sunflowers" by Van Gogh. Now we JUST came from Amsterdam and saw the same exact painting (with a slightly different background) in the Van Gogh Museum, so of course Mourin's like.."well that has to be a fake!" pointing to the picture. So one of the watchers in the room came over to us and Mourin asked him "is this real, because we just saw the same one in Amsterdam!" The nice man explained to Mourin and us that artists usually do more then one form of the same painting and that "in places like this" they are all real. HAHA. I'm glad we are finally learning something about the real world, because we really are stupid.

Tomorrow we are going to see the Changing of the Guards and then Portobello Markets (I hope they don't sell mushrooms ... yuk). On Sunday, everyone's going to this day club called Church. Its a little to risque for my taste so I don't' know if I am attending, but we will see.


Hope everything's good in Jersey or California or wherever you are.

Love you ,

Jenna