TFC: these are a few of my favorite things…

three [Thurs, 10-Dec]

My day began with an early morning alarm but for a very good reason: a tour of the BBC Television Centre in White City!  I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to my time at NBC in Rockfeller Center, and it was great to be in that kind of environment again.  The tour was extremely similar to NBC’s, including a portion at the end where the tour group creates an entertainment and a news piece of TV.  I was the only ‘outsider’ in a tour group of female university students from some outside-of-London location, so figured I would sit back and let them play.  The outgoing ones immediately volunteered for tech positions in the control room and to be players on the game show…but no one volunteered for the news (those fools!).  After moments of silence, I wet for it with the disclaimer “I have an American accent!”  I took my position in front of the teleprompter and went for it.  I must admit, I’m so glad I got to do it, flex my broadcaster muscles, see what I would look like on a BBC broadcast, and get the pen they give away to any volunteers so I didn’t have to buy one in the store   Everyone gave me rave reviews too which was nice, considering I feared many of them would be thinking “who the hell is this American thinking she can be a British broadcaster?!”  After the tour I took a quick stroll through the rest of the BBC complex.

I headed home for breakfast/brunch/my second to last can of soup before Avey, Lauren, Sarah, Mike, and I headed north to Hampstead, joined by  Andrew from Marist.  We stopped at the famous Creperie de Hampstead (Avey and I held out for our later plans…) and strolled on the High Street (where I fetched a very certain something for a very certain someone’s Christmas stocking hehe) and through the Heath — it was an absolutely beautiful afternoon, perfect for gettin in touch with London countryside.  We headed back into town and towards home, but Avey and I got off at Hyde Park Corner for Winter Wonderland!  It was just dusk and we decided to drop the £7.50 on tickets for the Ferris Wheel…and it was SO worth it.  We got yet another glowing view of London from above in a very luxury private cabin complete with radio feed, adjustable lights, and comfy benches.  We went around fr four times too!  Between the London Eye and this, London sure does know how to do their Ferris Wheels.  We were met by Annie and her friend Sarah; the four of us strolled around and took in the smells of delicious German festival food.  Avey has some German in her and went abroad there for a while, so it was great to have her confirm the authenticity of the German-ness.  We indulged in several treats, including chips, candied hazelnuts, mulled wine, chicken sausage, and candy by the gram.  Going with four people was definitely the best way to indulge in an array of the goodies available.

After being outside all day, the cold was finally getting to us so we called it a Wonderland and parted ways.  Then Annie brought my attention to something: [thanks to all of the final work she has to do] it was our last London adventure together and we wouldn’t be seeing each other until January! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

The past two days caught up with us, so we decided to chill out and watch some London/New York/holiday appropriate movies: A Child’s Christmas in Wales and You’ve Got Mail.  I was definitely beat and passed out before the end of the latter, as did Avey.  Nothing like a spontaneous snuggle sleepover!

Americans Abroad

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  It was very strange to be living a holiday from another time zone — madre texted me that the bird was in the oven when we would usually start eating in the GMT time zone.  Not going to lie, it was definitely a bittersweet day for me in London…but at least there was definitely some sweet.

I started the day at St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Thanksgiving Service for the American Community in London.  It was very strange heading out into a city that was not on the same festive wavelength as me, but as I headed east across the city the American accents became the majority in an even stranger way.  Inside St. Paul’s, I had a new cultural revelation: Americans–no, WASPs–are definitely an identifiable race.  Thanks to flying solo, I snagged a seat within the first section of seats and enjoyed belting out my favorite Thanksgiving tunes (my neighbor even complimented me at the end of the service) and hearing the President’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation, something I never really heard in full, read by the US Ambassador.

I thought I had a celebrity sighting during the service, and it was confirmed on the steps when leaving: Chris Matthews, host of Hardball on MSNBC!  I wasn’t the only one who noticed (there was a group of Georgetown University students) but I was the only one who interned in the same office as his public relations agent this summer

Chris Matthews

Afterward I headed home to a bustling kitchen where my Vassar flatmates hastily decided to whip up a feast.  I tracked down the full Charlie Brown’s Thanskgiving Special on YouTube but failed to find a live stream of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Finally, it was 6:30pm, and I headed over to the Texas Embassy Cantina where I met Annie Black, her visiting parents, her cousin who is here in graduate school, and Jenna Sterling.  It was so sweet of the Blacks to include us in their holiday celebration and it was great to spend time with some sort of family…especially one actually from Texas at the so themed restaurant!  They served a Thanksgiving dinner, but they also put chips and salsa on the table and our first round of drinks were margaritas.  It was a delicious meal out, and I did have turkey, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes, but it just wasn’t quite Thanksgiving…most perfectly embodied in the small sliver of pie that equaled about 1/3 of my usual first-round dessert serving.

I headed home again to stuffed Vassar students and a turkey in the oven for a Marist flatmate and his visiting sister.  And that, my dear readers, is when I became that adult who goes out to dinner for Thanksgiving with one family and joins another group for their post-dinner festivity. So strange…but it was very comforting.  We had a great night listening to holiday music, playing games, and just enjoying each others company.  Isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

Chris Matthews

Texas Embassy Cantina

Margarita Cheers!

hitchhiker

Texas Lady

“the daughters”

mom & real daughter

mom, niece, daughter

Vassar gals

The Best–I mean–Black Family

“the daughters”

£3 Champs Champagne

ambiance

Mike’s Pumpkin Pie

Sarah’s Butter Tarts

Vassar!

ambiance

water with tomato garnish…?

real man

ghosts

staying hydrated ;)

Grant’s turkey

working it

Pie-covered Pat

Beatles, Bowie, & Bond

Another afternoon to fill…

I decided on treating myself to the Beatles to Bowie exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.  I again traveled via bus and stumbled upon a Ghost Forest in Trafalger Square!  The exhibit was one I was looking forward to for quite a while, despite the £9 entry fee…with a student concession, and it definitely lived up to my expectations.  The best part had to be reading all of the curator cards and recognizing not only the faces and song titles, but also the London locations where the photos were taken.  It was a great reminder that I am currently living in the city where so many of the musicians and pop icons I idolize got their inspiration, their start, and their iconic image.

After making a quick pit/tea stop at home, I enlisted Mike into heading to the Bond Noel Christmas celebration….and good thing we actually mobilized, since it ended up being one of the most surprisingly ‘worth it’ trips in London yet.  The star of the West End’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anna Friel, was this year’s “Bond Girl” (so clever), and we inadvertently snagged a spot near the Tiffany & Co. store where she made her entrance.  The street was transformed to a winter wonderland thanks to fake snow, fir trees, and reindeer!  Besides the ridiculously aesthetically appealing high-end retail we strolled through after the switch-on, almost every store was giving away free booze and treats.  Now that’s the festive frugalista spirit!

Ghost Forest in Trafalger Square

Ghost Forest in Trafalger Square

Ghost Forest in Trafalger Square

festive Tiffany’s

stage

Anna Friel paparazzi shot

Anna Friel at the podium

reindeer!

posing!

Primrose & Carnaby

I decided to accomplish a flanerie adventure I’ve been meaning to embark on for a while now: Primrose Hill and Village.  I decided to head up by bus–my newly preferred method of transit as I realize that my days in London are numbered and I want to soak up as much of it as I can, something that is less successfully accomplished while ‘gophering’ on the tube.  My first task was soaking in the panoramic views from atop the Hill; second, strolling through the quaint village at my leisure, including stops into Primrose Hill Books, an adorable children’s bookshop (Tales on Moon Lane), the famous Primrose Bakery, and tea time at The Engineer.  All in all, extremely successful, as the photos below will hopefully prove.

On my way south through London I made a quick pit-stop at Carnaby Street for its Christmas Light Switch-On.  Famous for embodying the heart of “Swinging London,” the theme reflected the 40th anniversary of the decade in which the street became immortalized.

Halloween!

There’s nothing I love more than festivity, so obviously getting to celebrate my first holiday in London was quite magical.

Halloween definitely isn’t as big of a deal here as it is in the States, but at least it’s a deal at all– I’ve heard from Brits that the American-style way of celebrating it headed across the pond rather recently.

I decided to go frugalista while also London appropriate by being Amy Winehouse, a costume some teasing, black eyeliner, and bold clothing choices easily took care of.  I added my festive touches around Flat 17, went costume hunting with Lauren and Sarah during the afternoon, got to enjoy candy corn thanks to a flatmate’s parental package (Brits clearly don’t know what they’re missing…), and headed to University College of London to celebrate with Annie and her flatmates as I have for the past two years–roomies who JYA together stay together!  It also happened to be 1000 days until the 2012 Olympics, and Annie’s neighbors just happened to have a perfect view of the BT Tower where fireworks were lit to mark the countdown.

I’ll let the pictures take care of the rest…

Sarah & Lauren

Mike’s Door Card

The Marist boys: Kenny, Pat, Ricky, & Grant

Avey

The Marist girls: Alana, Allie, Trisha, & Brittany

Sarah returned the festive favor!

Common Area Door Sign

Parental Package

Good Old American Candy :)

Sarah: Goddess in the Making

Amy Winehouse

Goddesses

What’s the opposite of a goddess?

UCL Crew

Roomies!

BT Tower

BT Tower

Getting into Character

Tube

i love her.

Zoo Bar

Waiting & Playing

smooooch

Festive Bartender at The Rocket

Borough Market

What’s a Londoner to do the afternoon of Halloween Eve?  Head to Borough Market, of course, and get on her fall festivity!

Borough is a huge market famously known for specialty everything when it comes to food, located under London Bridge.  Avey, Lauren, and I headed over to capitalize on free samples, enjoy the fall ambiance, and gain some inspiration for our evening dining/drinking.  Although the samples were free, everything else was very not; we decided to enjoy a pint of cider and invested in cinnamon sticks for a homemade batch of mulled wine.

Church, Chores, Books, Lox, & Festivity: a Satisying Sunday

I woke up for what has become my usual Sunday routine: 11:30am mass at Our Lady of Victories on High Street Kensington, followed by grocery shopping at Tesco Metro.  After heading home, storing and labeling my food, and cleaning the weekend-worn kitchen, I decided to head to Charing Cross Road and get my first feel of the used book scene in London.  I’ve been having the itch for a while and was looking for a quintessentially British book to pop out at me that would perfectly fill the void of free time I’ve been having lately.  Vassar has groomed me to be a 100+ page per night reader during the semesters, but my courses here are much more get-out-and-see rather than stay-in-and-read; not that I’m complaining — I would much rather want to read something of my choosing than being forced to swallow dense theory.

My first stop was Any Amount of Books.  A few books popped out of the £1/4 for £5 bins, but then the moment I was hoping for happened: Ada Leverson’s Love’s Shadow.  Let me list the  factors at play that made me realise I needed to buy the £3 book:

1) a bubblegum paperback with an aesthetic freakishly akin to moi

2) set in Knightsbridge, the next tube stop from South Kensington

3) Ada Leverson (1862 – 1933) is described in the Note About the Author as “well-known in London society for her witty, outrageous remarks. Her friends included Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, Mrs Patrick Campbell and most notably, Oscar Wilde, who christened her his ‘Sphinx’…In her later years her friends included Harold Acon, William Walton and the Sitwells.”

4) amazing condition…might as well be brand new

Even though my used book moment happened, I headed into the other used bookstore next door: Henry Pordes Books Ltd.  It seemed like a step above Any Amount of Books selection and price wise, and I enjoyed browsing the shelves and books on some of my favorite topics, such as tea, fairy tales, and urban planning.  I soon realised that this last topic was as much pleasure as research for Tuesday’s City as Material course…score!

Finally, I headed in to Koenig Books, the most high-end of the three and specializing in art and culture books.  The topics were great for browsing but very pricey.  Soon enough my hunger took over and I decided to head back to Manson Place.

And here I am!  Blogging and noshing on lox & cream cheese, complimented by Sauvignon Blanc (went for a 1/2 price bottle instead of the usual 3 for £10, and I can definitely taste the difference) — my culinary Sunday splurge for the week.  It’s just the Marist girls and I in the kitchen right now, but soon enough the boys will be back from Oktoberfest in Munich, including the 21st birthday boy, Kenny.  Cupcakes — or should I say fairy cakes, according to Sainsbury’s — are being decorated and balloons are being taped to the walls as I type.  I must say, this is quite a satisfying Sunday…