London

Yesterday I went to London to visit my friend Amy, who is currently studying for her masters with Christie's Education. She does really cool art things and goes to galleries and is, generally speaking, quite fabulous. This weekend is also Homecoming at Rhodes, and I've been feeling a bit homesick. So Amy and I had our own mini Rhodes Homecoming together!

I took the Oxford Tube into the city Saturday, and arrived around midday in Notting Hill. We went for a walk through Kensington Gardens before stopping for lunch at Chipotle. Yes, Chipotle. Those of you  who know me know that I love Chipotle, and have missed it severely since crossing the pond. Especially the Friday night tradition of Chipotle and Muddy's cupcakes (I'm looking at you, Lauren).

So after our delicious lunch, we went to Oxford St to find the Urban Outfitters (I needed to exchange something, go ahead and make your hipster jokes). We got a bit lost, totally my fault, but finally made it. And some pretty great pictures resulted:

Give peace a 'stache 

Amy's glitter thug mustache.

We then walked around, just exploring London. We found the BBC building, admired the fancy houses beyond our means, and talked about living abroad and going to graduate school. There was a protest going on, so we watched that unfold for a bit. Some of the protestors crowded this older couple in their Mercedes convertible and were yelling at them until the police intervened. I've seen enough of the Occupy movement that I was a bit nervous when the police showed up, but they just told the protestors to move on and on they went. Easily resolved, no tear gas necessary (take notes, folks). While we were walking around Amy showed me some of the really cool tagging in London, and I saw my first ever Banksy! We stopped for coffee and a respite, and saw a Jack Daniels taxi cab pass. Ironic on Rhodes' homecoming weekend.

Banksy

Later we went to a pub and met up with some of Amy's friends to watch the Arsenal match. I still haven't found my team yet, but Arsenal comes highly recommended. Amy also lives really close to Emirates Stadium (Arsenal's home stadium), which is just really cool.

Next was a bar/club in Camden, called the Monarch (I believe? that could be wrong...). They were only playing songs from soundtracks, and it made for some awesome dance tunes. I'm still suffering from Fresher's Flu so unfortunately I had to leave earlier than I usually would have when presented with that kind of dance-like-crazy opportunity. Damn you, sickness!

We went back to Amy's flat, where we both immediately crashed. This morning we had coffee, then I took the tube back to the coach station in Notting Hill. Got back to Oxford in the early afternoon and I've been exhausted and generally worthless for the better part of the day. But it was so worth it! It was really lovely to just see Amy again and spend time with my big. Even though I haven't been a baby Alpha in a long time, I still really look up to Amy in a lot of ways, so it's nice to know that we're both going through really similar experiences and have her nearby. And I'm looking forward to showing her around Oxford when she comes to visit!

I've got a couple blog posts to catch up on this coming week (including Matriculation and my new forays into radio!), so those will be coming soon. As always, if there's anything you guys want to hear about, just leave a comment.