Island in the Sun

So in the past few days, I have been reacquainted with these lovely faces from risd:





Kat and Stephanie just came to London after traveling from Milan (where Stephanie is spending her semester abroad) to Munich for Oktoberfest to Berlin to Amsterdam to London via a BUS. Needless to say, it was good to see that they made it here alive. As Stephanie is only visiting for a few days, her and Kat went to the Tate Modern. Saera strolled around and the Thames and hung out outside because it was very crowded and it was beautiful today. My iPod was on Shuffle and it magically started playing Island in the Sun by Weezer, which was totally where we were today on the Island in the sun.

Flat mates

We were all hanging out and taking pictures of each other, so I decided to do semi-mug shots of my flat mates. We are each holding sheets saying our names, where we are from, and our favorite animal. Sorry but you are going to have to click on the pictures to actually read the text.







There are two other people that live in my flat, but one is on holiday, and the other does not really hang out with us at all. He is chinese and between the tension with the taiwanese and his very bad english, he doesn't find our group particularly great to hang out with. They have all started courses so I am the last one to begin a long ways away from now.

100% Design

A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail with my badge ID number for 100% design. I then remembered the 100% design, a huge design trade show, was going on this weekend and I whisked out today to go and look through the show. It was pretty fun, and really inspirational to see all of the stuff that is developing. By far my favorite part was a section they called 100% Materials. They had small samples of tons of different materials, some which I was familiar with, but tons that I had never heard of before. Here are some wonderful pictures:

From 100% Design

Also, tonight, I FINALLY met the majority of my flat-mates. There are 7 of us total, 2 Taiwanese girls, one Thai girl, one Welsh boy, one English boy, one Chinese boy (who I have not met), and me. Most of tonight involves us talking about how the Taiwanese girls may not be on speaking terms with the Chinese, and a good old English spar between me and and English chap. Several of them are starting school tomorrow, and so I have been put in charge of throwing them a "hooray for the weekend" party on Friday. The theme, as requested by the Englishman, will be High School Musical/ American Football.

Also, I learned a very important thing today. It's not that an English person "can't be asked" it's that they "can't be arsed!"

Strange Encounters

Today, I got an e-mail from my friend Emily from risd. Emily lived in London when she was a wee one for a few years and demanded that I eat fish and chips at some point at some place right near her old flat. I was in a fish and chips kind of mood, so I headed over. Turns out, it ain't open on Saturday! Damn Brittish! Oh well, Fish and Chips extravaganza for another day.

Instead I went to what is fast becoming my favorite store, the Japan Centre. I've been really good about not blowing my money on meals. I've been cooking and packing a lunch most days, but today, I hurried out the door without doing so. Amongst selling tons of random things imported from a 99 cent store in Japan, this store also has pretty cheap, but still good sushi.

The store is right off of Piccadilly Circus, so I got some grub, and then headed out to find somewhere to eat it. I ended up sitting next to an English family with two kids under 12. They were both fascinated by my sushi. The younger boy began whispering in his sister's ear about my food, and how funny it looked. Then he ran over to his Grandma, and began to tell her about it. Basically, the kids had never seen sushi before. Or what there Grandma stated most eloquently, they have never seen anyone like you eat it (aka, only asians eat sushi?). It was just such a strange experience, but then I realized it's the weekend. The hicks of England come out to London on the weekend. Thinking about it later, they definitely had a more country accent, so it's not as strange as it was in the moment.

Late tonight, I watched tv for the first time in a while. Not anything I cared about, but I sat downstairs and entertained a few Brits with my American ways. I was laughing uncontrollably a few times at them too, so I think it was a fair trade.

Also, several people have asked me if I am part CUBAN? I'm confused.

Visiting Mecca

Yesterday, I got a 3 month Travelcard/oyster card, allowing me to use any form of public transport in zones 1 & 2. Today, I ventured away from the tube stations and took the bus about 5 times. It was so much fun. I, of course didn't bring my camera, so I'll have to do it again. The UK double decker bus is such a smart design. I just hung around on the upper level and it was seriously an amazing view of the city. Also, those bus drivers can really maneuver those huge buses like it were a smart car. Other than the occasional tree branch, we only hopped one curb the whole day.

Anyways, the oyster card came in a holster sponsored by IKEA! On the back, it has a list of all the London IKEAs and the nearest station for each location:



So today, I went to my Mecca: IKEA! It was pretty exciting because there were actually lots of differences from an american IKEA. For instance:


It's basically a savings card. But they also sell bath products and business clothing! I didn't think IKEA could be more fun. I mostly went to get small stuff, like cheapo lamps because my room is fairly dark and some kitchen stuff. Obviously, I ended up with more than I went for (as is the way with IKEA) and had a fun time getting it back to the dorm.

Also, about going to France. I found out yesterday that the other risd girl whose passport was being held by the UK visa office is FINALLY getting her passport back and is flying over early next week. Therefore, I'm going to stay in town to help her settle in and celebrate her arrival. Maybe another time France. I'm really excited that Saera, that's her name, is finally coming over, so I'm not so bummed about sticking around.

It didn't rain today, except on me

So, do to a bit of a mix up, I have even more free time on my hands. I thought classes were to begin on September 29th with a week of orientation fanfare beforehand. Turn out, Orientation week starts on the 29th and classes don't begin till October 6th!

So I've been planning a trip for a while, in my head of course. It involves Mont St-Michel, Bayeux Tapestry, and Ferry rides. Seeing as it will only be getting colder, I'm seeing this as my opportunity to take the trip before it becomes too cold to think of a Ferry ride as entertaining. But more on that when I've really committed to anything (ie bought tickets).

Other stuff I did today included applying for membership to the International Student House which looks cool. Also, my dorm had a Hall Meeting, which was a bit of a bust. Everyone in my dorm is a first year and so they have the attitude of a first year. We were given a presentation during which pretty much everyone was talking, many were rolling cigarettes, and it was just generally angsty. As soon as the meeting broke and the "social hour" was set to begin, nearly everyone walked outside for a cigarette break. I hung around with the few left in the room and gave up after I found their accents really hard to understand. Real country kids have this accent that I just haven't heard before and so I really have no idea what they are saying. Also, the few times I have understood a conversation, I'm totally at a loss at what to say. I was briefly involved in a conversation with three kids from various parts of countryside, UK who had NEVER been to London! They live at max 5 hours away! I just don't know what I could ever talk about with these kids. I know things might change, but it was just way discouraging I guess.

Also, just before going to the International Student House, I sat at a bench to eat my Lunch. It was pretty brisk outside, but all the sudden, it felt really cold, and there was some guy SCREAMING at a car load of gardeners. Turns out they had splashed me with what must have been a bucket load of water. My whole back side was wet including my hair and the street behind me! Well, good thing Mr. Passerby was there to properly chew out the scum who did it, because he gave them a good thrashing.

Case of the Mondays?

I clearly haven't figured out my alarm clock on my phone as it failed to go off today and instead of waking up at 9:45, I woke up at 1:30 pm. I currently feel like I feel after spending a few days in New York, totally beat. Today consisted of wondering around looking at shops. I took the tube to Baker Street, walked down to Selfridges and eventually found my way to an H&M. Kat called and we decided to meet up. This of course took a while as we found out there were 4 H&Ms between Selfridges and Oxford Circus. Eventually, we went to Topshop.

So, I really didn't want to like Topshop, but I kind of love it. We were like kids in a candy shop, running around tugging at sweaters trying to figure out how they were made. Our knitting teacher once told us that exploring in a shop can sort of seem like looking at pieces in a Museum once you are able to comprehend the design effort behind each piece. However, the best part about looking around in store is that you can touch everything. If you really like it, you can try it on and buy it too. One of our favorites was this one:



Not something I would ever wear, but it was just so cool so see a technique we had learned actually in use. Anyways, we were in Topshop for a good while. When we got out, it was dark!

Kat and I have been talking about how great the knits are in this city. Even just looking around in the tube, you are bound to find somebody wearing something technically interesting. It's really fascinating to try and figure out how something's made, but sometimes you have to think about what others think you are doing. I found myself totally obsessed with this little boy's sweater, but I thought it would be way too creepy for me to stare at him the whole tube ride so I switched cars.

Also, continuing with the them of weird London products, I bring you this package of Toilet Paper:



Yeah, I bought it a few days ago because the options were Puppies or Pink Puppies. Strange