Day Two: Bangers and Mash vs. Winston's Bitches

Cheerio! It's 5pm in London, which means it's basically nighttime and has been getting darker for the past two hours. When they say London is gray in the winter, they are not lying. But I'm really starting to like it here. It's weird - it sort of doesn't feel like you're in London sometimes, we haven't seen some of the major landmarks yet and we basically stay in our little Nido/King's Cross/ULU bubble, but at the same time it's all completely new and everyone has an accent and you almost die every time you cross the street - traffic switching directions is a bitch.

Anyways, Day One's adventures took us to a bar called Miller's where they DIDN'T have food but DID have the promise of karaoke later. They also told us about a place called The Flying Scotsmen where, to be polite, ladies remove their undergarments for money. We were not interested. So we found this place close by called the Big Chill, it's a bar/club that also happened to have food, so we ate there. (Side note - so far, British food is about what they tell you to expect. It's all pub fare, everything's fried, and either it has no flavor or way too much. Hopefully more time here will allow me to find some decent places to eat). We then went back to Miller's where we had been LIED to - karaoke is usually on Wednesdays, but had been postponed due to an important football game. Not soccer. Football. We enjoyed another beer and left, as I was actually falling asleep at the bar from pure exhaustion.

Day Two saw us heading to NYU's campus for the first time. We slept through the walking tour (which was really just a way to show people how to get there - silly people who can't read maps!) and made our way there just fine, walking past some cool London architecture, some cool looking restaurants and pubs, and a few parks. London feels like a bunch of different American cities all at once - some parts are like DC, others like Boston, etc. The funny part is that London has been around WAY longer, so I always feel guilty making that kind of comparison. DC and Boston are like London, and not the other way around.

Lunch and orientation were pretty typical and uneventful. I keep meeting and remeeting people, I met someone today who I hadn't seen since Welcome Week freshman year. Everyone's fun so far, it's so much like freshman year again -- Hi! What's your name? Here's my major! Oh you're from LA - let me list every person I've ever met from LA and see if you know any of them! You don't? WEIRD! -- and I think it will be interesting to see who I stick around with throughout the semester. Definitely not Morgan, that kid is effing weird.

After that, we walked around the campus area a bit and then headed to the Pub Quiz! Yes, at NYU London, the school sponsors your bad decisions. Over several pitchers of cider and beer, we answered questions about British history, pop culture, and the like. My team, the Bangers and Mash, ended up winning (God knows how that happened), beating our closest rivals, Winston's Bitches. For winning, we got a gift bag from which I took a shot glass, an umbrella with a map of the Tube on it, a pen decorated like the British Flag, and socks with a map of the Tube on them as well (Tube socks, get it, hahaha I'm so damn funny). Mildly buzzed and high off our win, we decided to do our first London pub crawl! We tried The Rocket (aka the British version of Still), but it was too crowded, and since we are legal to drink anywhere, waiting to get in somewhere just seems dumb. So, we went to a place called Skinner's Arms. This was no regular bar, more like a nice library where old men come to drink scotch and discuss fiscal responsibility. But, pints were cheap, so we enjoyed one before heading on to... McGlynn's! McGlynn's is like drinking in your grandmother's living room. It was decorated like a home, smelled of some vague, nebulous meaty soup, and was rather harshly lit. Again though, pints were cheap, so we had another. We ended up at Miller's again, where we enjoyed a final pint and some music videos (UPDATE: Britain has Ke$ha. Life is good).

Today started on campus again, we got some truly awful sandwiches for lunch (one legitimately tasted like black licorice) and the spent ungodly amounts of money on books. 150 pounds is a LOT of money for books, thanks a lot NYU. Then we ventured off down a new road to grocery shop at this place called Sainsbury's. Grocery stores in London are a magical place, where the eggs are unrefrigerated, mayonnaise is considered salad dressing, and all the children are adorable gingers with adorable accents that are oh so easily coerced into letting you kidnap them if you offer them a chocolate wafer. (UPDATE: I did not kidnap any children, please do not call Interpol. Though the temptation was there. If "ifs" were gifts, then everyday would be Christmas filled with wonderful British gingerchildren).

That's most of Day 3 up to now - I feel a nap coming on before more pub crawls and pints of delicious beer and cider. Expect pics tomorrow night, we're hitting up Big Ben, the London Eye, and all other very touristy things tomorrow as it's our first wide open day. Hope you're enjoying the blog - facebook me, skype me, comment if you want! Miss you all!