Love from London

Hello all,

So I seem to have succumbed to intense Jet lag on the 4th day of me being here. This may be due to the fact that the 1st day Matt and Laura (my grateful hosts, courtesy of Elizabeth Guillen) took me around to 4 different pubs/bars. According to Matt I was a fairly decent drinker for an American and a woman, but i think he was just being nice considering I was in bed the entire next day due to a hangover.

This was the last bar. As you can see, I ended strong. All in all it was a very fulfilling day and though you may think I'm trying to justify my drinking in actuality Britain has a massive drinking culture. To drink is to be British! Pubs are filled to the brim with people when work is done and dinner time rolls around. Interestingly people are allowed to drink on the streets so as you walk by people will be leaning against walls talking while cradling a large beer! It's crazy, those poor Brits must be shocked when they come to the states and they can't even have a beer on their front porch. The 2nd picture to the left is what Matt informed me "you guys getting a bit LA". I obviously do not recall why i thought throwing gang signs was a good idea but it happened. Not my proudest moment.

Following this very exciting venture into the "pub-scene" well the day after since as I mentioned above I was down and out the whole next day Laura and I toured a bit of main London. The shopping is ridiculous and just so you guys know London is not hurting right now. It was the middle of the afternoon and there were just massive amounts of people shopping. It was however a light day according to Laura. We continued to walk places such as Piccadilly Circus, Carnaby Street, Oxford Street, and Soho. I was majorly overwhelmed and only bought one shirt! I know, I even surprised myself. The Fashion here is very adult, very Fall (dark colors) and veryyyyyyy expensive. But also Amazing! I did my best to stick to budget and then we met up with Matt for Dinner at Jaime Oliver's which is supposed to incite jealousy in all of you (I didn't know who he was, which seemed to shock Laura but maybe you guys do?). Through the taxi cab window on our way home I saw Buckingham Palace and all the places we find on postcards back home. Then we had tea and chocolate and attempted to sleep.

I however could not until about 4am, which made it hard to get out of bed today but just seeing all the pretty things outside our doorstep made it much easier. The picture to the right is my favorite house on the way up Kings Road, which is right around the corner from where I'm staying =]. Everything is very quaint, and made of brick and they all have flower beds or Gardens. Everything looks nice and old because they don't tear down here! They just refurbish I guess lol. So you'll see old looking houses with shop fronts, and basements formerly used for the "staff" (i.e. maids and butlers) are converted into apartments. It's all very cool and whimsical and i wish I could share it with everyone.

I think that's all because I'm starting to fall asleep and get hungry.

Love from London,
Sammy