My Notes To Remind
Chelsea is a bit posh for me, I've decided. Expensive, designer, fashionable. I'm too simple for all of that, I think. Note to self: Find a home base pub (preferably outside Chelsea).
Today I slept in and ventured down to Spitalfields Market in the afternoon. Spitalfields is in the northeast part of London, only a recently fashionable place to shop. Twenty years ago it was kind of slummy, or so I understand, and even today it's a bit dodgy round the outskirts, but I guess it's the new Soho. All the artistic types started taking over warehouses and such in the 90s.
I bought a tank top (limited myself to 10 pounds), and experienced the whole... crowded market stalls, trying things on in public, shouting to the vendors (or mouthing words clearly, in my case, as I'm not much of a shouter) and passing money over people's heads, etc. It was quite exciting, and if I decide later on that I'd like to spend more money on clothes, Spitalfields will be on my list of places to check out. The most unique stall I saw was one that was selling coconut drinks. Like coconuts with straws in them; I saw a bunch of people walking around with them. I don't know what was in it (coconut milk?), but it was funny to me to see all these shoppers with coconuts.
I forgot to mention it, but yesterday our tour guide on the bus said that Chelsea and Kensington are great places for cheap vintage clothing. I have yet to find such places, but it's good to know they exist. I also want to check out Portobello Road Market and Borough Market, but they're both on Saturdays, so maybe I'll make a day of it some weekend.
On my way back, I stopped at Waterstone's and picked up The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot), which I have to have read by Tuesday for my Bloomsbury Era lit class. And I stopped at Waitrose for some dish soap, laundry detergent, etc.
Took a short nap, then watched a movie and made dinner with about 7 people, haha. Again, super crowded kitchen. But we ventured into the realm of raw chicken (!), and even sauteed some onions and peppers for the marinara sauce over spaghetti. Two bottles of wine (cheap wine, haha), and it was a great little meal. I was proud of us.
Classes technically start tomorrow, but I don't have class on Mondays, which is nice. I still have to track down 3 books for one of my classes, but I think I'm just going to wait and ask the tutor on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to getting into a routine; all of the running around and random activities is draining. Actually I'm not sure why I'm so tired, I slept until noon, took a decent nap, and it's only 10 o' clock here. I dunno.
I might be starting to feel a little homesick. It kind of hit me last night when I was trying to get to sleep at 2am despite the throbbing bass beat from next door. I was like, home is quiet. And my bed isn't a boxspring. And I have a fluffy pillow. At least here I have Tray.
BUT, according to the culture shock curve, it's too early for me to be out of my "honeymoon" phase, haha. (I keep analyzing where I am on the curve because I'm a dork like that.) And once I'm out of the honeymoon phase, I will start to feel annoyed with the culture itself, not just my neighbors. I would be annoyed with loud neighbors anywhere, not just in London. So maybe I'm still okay.
I'm also slightly worried about the whole raw chicken thing. There is some controversy over whether or not this one girl used the raw chicken knife to cut the lemon as well, and I ate part of the lemon. (Damn my love of lemons.) I just webmd'ed salmonella poisoning. God, I'm such a hypochondriac. I can't even do anything about it until I start having symptoms, so I just need to relax.
Remember when I thought I had appendicitis? Oh yeah, that was less than a week ago. Sigh.
Anyway, just my thoughts for the evening. Note to self: cook your own food from now on.
Off to read some (though I think the Two Towers is on TV, so maybe I'll head to the lounge.)
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