day 6

It’s getting harder and harder to get up every morning. We’re so bust during the day that by the time I get back to the dorm I’m completely pooped. After a breakfast of toast and cereal I was on my way to class. I was actually able to meet up with my friends to go to class this morning because we had made the plan to meet yesterday. We got on the tube got to Oxford Street without any problems.

Class today was on Astrology and how things like horoscopes use devices that contain information about everyone, like “You’re putting a lot of energy into work now” or “You may be thinking about a special someone” to draw people in and cause you to think it pertains to you. If you care about things like horoscopes, try reading all of them next time, not just your own. You may see that all of them hold very general advice and very vague jargon like “house” and “solar chart” to make them sound convincing. I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow horoscopes, but maybe people should think about them a little more and not put blind trust into them.

The class today was taught by a different lecturer, which apparently isn’t that strange here. They just trade off days with other people, but they all know what they’re doing and what we’re talking about, it’s just a little strange to me. I don’t know which lecturer I like better, but they both have similar teaching styles. And I’m really glad I got the book from the library because all of the lecturers lean on it very heavily.

After our short class I met up with my psychology friends again and we had a short lunch at a soup and sandwich place. After that we shopped. I am holding out on buying anything until I get to the mystical Primark, that land of cheep and fabulous clothes.



My psyc friends had to go off and do something again, but fortunately my API friends got out of class right after that. They wanted to go to Soho, the alternative district of London, so we got on the tube and went there. Soho is a lot like Asheville: it has some really cool spots, and it has some really scary spots. Allie, one of my API friends, is in a photography class here, and her project is Londoners and their tattoos, so she wanted to go into this tattoo shop and look around. Red signs went off in my head saying that that was not something I wanted to do, and the tiny, tiny staircase leading up to the place did not instill confidence at all. But we left very quickly because the place was too small to be of much interest.

We walked around Soho for about an hour, looking at strange and interesting and scary shops. The World Cup was on in many of the pubs. I haven’t mentioned the World Cup yet. Pretty much, it’s crazy over here. Americans like the Super Bowl for the commercials, food, and game time. Europeans are like that times 100, and take out the part out commercials, they hate those. All they want is the game. The Brits all hang out in pubs all over the city because cable is very expensive to get here and they can drink lots of beer with fellow Cup lovers. There are English flags all over the place, in windows, on cars, and in banners outside of just about every store. The English flag is not the British flag, the red, white, and blue flag we are used to. The English flag is white with a red X on it, like the red part of the Union Jack, the British flag. So that’s where that comes from. Everyone here loves football (soccer) to near the point of madness.

As we were walking through Soho, a game with England in is was on, so the pubs were more packed than usual. What was very fun was when we walked by an intersection that had two pubs, and England scored a goal. One pub erupted into cheers, and three seconds later, the other did. It looked like they were on a slight delay, but it was crazy having the eruptions happen at different times.

While we were in Soho we went to Carnaby Street, a major center for mod fashion in the 60s and 70s. Now it’s pretty mainstream, but it was still cool to stumble upon.

After we were done with Soho we decided we were going to find Primark. We got to Oxford street and asked a security guard where it was. And it’s a good thing h told us to take the bus, because it would have been a 20 minute walk to get there. We arrived by bus and I discovered how wonderful Primark is. It was almost 5:00, so there were about a hundred people in there. It’s about as large as a normal Wal-Mart, but two stories tall. The Upper floor has one half dedicated to guys clothes, and I dove in. When I emerged from the press of humanity about the racks, I had a 2 pound polo, a 2 pound shirt, a 4 pound cardigan, a 5 pound button up, and 9 pound trousers (pants). And they’re all really nice clothes! It was so cool!! It would probably cost $60 for that kind of score in the states, but at Primark it’s all super cheep. It was amazing!

The only thing is, the lines for the dressing rooms are really, really long, so it was too bad that I learned the trousers were too small, but that means I have a great excuse to go back. I checked out after standing in the queue (line) for a really long time, found my friends, and left.

By now we were thoroughly exhausted, and we got on the tube back to the dorm. I made spaghetti for dinner and went to bed.

Haha!! I got a picture up!! I'll see if I can go back and add to my others.

British word of the day: top off = to fill up. You have to go to Top Off machines to fill your Oyster card or library card accounts.