Monday, October 31, 2011

Booze Cruise 2011: Survival of the fittest

The past week has been awesome/insane.

Monday finished off with my first frisbee practice in the UK! Allie and I went to Battersea Park to play with the Iceni women's team - casually the premier club team in the UK and Europe. They hold open practices on Monday nights so we checked it out. It was so much fun! It was a skills session/scrimmage session so we spent the first half doing tactical drills and the second half scrimmaging. The girls on the actual team are so good at ultimate it is ridiculous. They were also super nice and there were a lot of girls there from a bunch of different teams. We are definitely going to attend again even though a single practice literally made me sore for 5 days. Perhaps I am a tad out of shape? Not worried.

Tuesday, this professional theatre critic came in to my theatre class to talk to us. As a writer myself, she was really inspiring to listen to and gave us a lot of insight regarding writing critical reviews about the theatre (which I do a lot of over here). I spoke with her one-on-one for a bit after and she told me to "just keep doing it" in regards to writing. I really enjoyed her talk.

We ventured to the Globe for class on Thursday for the first time! My initial reaction was that I still cannot believe I have an academic class on the stage of the Globe Theatre, so cool. Unfortunately, our new professor was sick so we got a tour of the Globe/Exhibition from this other really cool guy who works there. We toured the stage and backstage areas and learned more about the history. Shakespeare was killing it back in the day. We got out of class early and stopped by The Mulberry Bush for a pint with some people from class. This started off the night on a good note. That night, we hung out in the flats for a while and played some hot seat before venturing to a blues bar to hear some jams. Per usual, we finished the night at O'Neill's with literally 100 ND kids because all of the Dublin, Rome and Toledo study abroad kids came to London for the weekend. It was a good time.

Friday, I worked NBC 9-5 which was a questionable decision considering I was out until about 3am the night before. I struggled through work but luckily we have a weekly "Friday Feast" at NBC so I went out and bought/organized/ate a bunch of snacks all afternoon. I was dead tired upon return to the flats but mobilized enough to hang with Bridget (the 748 was together again!) and Tara and go out. We went to Piccadilly Institute, aka my second home. Something about the creepy eyes on the walls and naked mannequins on the ceiling really gets me. Best part of the night, besides the 50 plus ND kids there, was this little Indian man who felt the need to dance on the platform in the middle of our group. He was probably 40 or 50 years old and dancing alone to the beat. Funniest visual ever. Zack also managed to procure a nice floral hat at the Institute which was a memorable souvenir.

Saturday was the booze cruise! The booze cruise is an annual tradition for the people in the London program. We spent the day organizing life and preparing (some people were literally preparing for prom, it was crazy). Sarah, Tom and I indulged in some Grey's Anatomy then I met up with Tara and Allie at The Mulberry Bush for some pub food. I got fish and chips and a pint of Strongbow and it was delicious! Back at the flats, I decided to try my hand at bartending (that is kind of a joke but not really) and I somehow prepared some cocktails for myself and others that turned out really good.

Sidenote: I am really improving my skill set by living in London. For example, not only do I cook things now, I eat almost everything as well. I am now a huge fan of tomatoes, avocados, asparagus, onions, peppers, yogurt, nuts and many other foods I had never touched before. Bartending and DJing have also been recently added to this list.

Per usual, I served as DJ for my quad as we all got ready - it was a dresses and heels kind of night. Everyone looked so pretty and it was fun to get dressed up with everyone for once. We all gathered in various rooms and took some pictures and mobilized to the River Thames!

Quad 1
The booze cruise was awesome. The inside had a DJ and seating while the top level was open so you could sit outside and check out the scenery. The weather was also pretty ideal for late October. The entire night kind of blurred together but I have distinct memories of the following: Taking precious pictures with both quads, Collin's mohawk - epic, dancing to the song "Low" and getting low and being sore to this day, struggling up and down the stairs in my wedges, getting told I look like Mischa Barton for about the 20th time of my life, going under the London Bridge on the boat and realizing it was the first time I had seen that bridge since studying abroad this Fall, and raging post-cruise on the beach at some Halloween dubstep rave... good times.

Quad 2
Anyways, it was super fun and most everyone survived. Definitely one of the best nights in London yet. On Sunday, I spent most of the day skyping people and then got people together to go to Chipotle for dinner. There is one in London about 25 minutes from the flats and it was so totally worth it. I had never been so happy for a Chipotle burrito...even though it cost a ridiculous amount. Being in Chipotle made me feel like I was back in America.

Speaking of America, after over two months living in Europe, I have realized there are a select few things I miss about the United States. They are as follows:

The U.S. dollar, Irish football season, tailgating, the grotto at ND, my family, my puppies, Taco Bell, the rest of Club 26, ND frisbee and House Ponader, Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks (they are non-existent here), having constant Internet on my iPhone (helpless, I know), working out regularly, my personal hair straightener, and a few other things I am surely forgetting.

This week will be full of more NBC, frisbee, theatre and Globe followed by the weekend in Barcelona with a ton of people! Adios!

No comments:

Post a Comment