Thoughts on Experiences.

"Oh, it will be such a great experience!"
"Oh, you'll have so much fun!"
"Oh, you'll have such a great time, and get to travel so much!"

I heard all of this, and more, as I prepared to head off to London to study abroad. Funny, no one really mentioned me learning anything, and most people did start off whatever they said with "Oh!". Though I will be the first to admit that my semester had less than I would have liked to offer me academically, I learned more life lessons in these past six months than I expected. By a long shot.

I didn't really experience the whole "no-one-can-possibly-understand-what-I'm-going-through" phase, or, the "intense-homesickness" phase that we were all warned about it that mandatory study abroad meeting last fall. I did have intense mexican food cravings by the end of the semester though, and honestly, at times, I missed that more than my family (I'm not heartless, but skype works much better connecting me to my family members across the ocean than it does with connecting me with Chuy's). Luckily, I lived in a predominantly Bengali neighbourhood, and only a couple of blocks away from curry mile, so I was able to be placated with some fantastic curry. Curry that I will never be able to replicate, and I am sure in a couple of months my curry cravings will rival the mexican food ones. My semester had a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle shifts mirroring my experience with mexican food and curry. And, as with everything in life, I even managed to learn some lessons.

Lesson one: Public transportation, when functional, is one of the most phenomenal things ever. Living in a climate where it is tolerable to be outside for more than 30 seconds is pretty great too.

Lesson two: London does not have good Mexican food. Full Stop.

Lesson three: London has incredible curry restaurants. If anyone can find me a reasonably priced curry restaurant in the states that can come close, they will have my everlasting gratitude.

Lesson four: Street signs that exist and are consistently placed in the same general area are helpful, and often necessary for navigation (I'm looking at a whole lot of European countries here).

Lesson five: Trainers are for tourists, and London is not easy on the feet.


I could go into the deep, meaningful, breakthrough moments I had while abroad, but every time I try to talk about those with someone, much less write them down, I sound ridiculous. Honestly, I learned a lot more about how little I know than anything else, and came away with more questions than answers. I think that's a good thing though. As soon as I decide that I have all, or even most of the answers, my world has obviously gotten too small. I do know that I need some more time "out there" to learn a little more about myself. Though I am still set on that PhD in psychology, I want to take a year off to live somewhere else. I want another year where the routine is often overwhelming, where I am far enough out of my comfort zone that I am not getting back in anytime soon, so I might as well just go with it.

I'm not qualified to get anywhere close to "settling down"yet. I don't know enough about how I function, and what works best for me. I don't know nearly enough about my likes and dislikes, or what is really important to me. This all seems absolutely ludicrous, as out of anyone, I should know myself best. Then again, that's not saying much.

Thanks for sticking it out with me internet. I will let you know when the next adventure comes along.

Foyles at Haz-Beans.

Hello there. I feel super special, because my friend Elizabeth from back home asked me to write a guest post for a blog she and her dad write, called Haz-Beans. Go check it out!

-El

Capoeira

For the past couple of months, I have been going to a Friday night Capoeira class taught by my friend Dafne. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, and a whole lot of fun. Cartwheels, handstands and spinning kicks are in abundance, and music is a big part of it too. On Sunday, I went to a roda with Dafne, and got to see a bunch of people play. It was in a park, and we had gathered quite the audience.

-El

The Queen of Hoxton

On Saturday, we went out to celebrate Charlie's birthday. We went to a great rooftop bar in Shoreditch, called the Queen of Hoxton, and I would highly recommend it on the rare nice days here.

-El

I'm Not Complaining, Honest. (This Time)

This seemed like a cliche enough picture  for a post about self-discovery. 

I never thought I would be complaining about not having enough stuff to do. Well, that's not completely true. I really do enjoy being so busy that I don't have time to sleep, and the only way everything gets done is by strictly adhering to an ever-changing schedule in my brain. I like to sleep sometimes, obviously, but only in-between the busy bits. Free time is also a plus, but even that should feel productive in some way (baking, running, hanging out with friends, plotting to take over the world...).

It's when there is little to do and only really, really long term deadlines (a couple of months or more) that things begin to slide. When I have too much time, and no hard and fast deadlines to adhere to, nothing gets done. Nothing. For my three classes here, I had three hours of lectures a week, some suggested reading, one paper, and one final. No job, and my only extra-curricular with set practices is a Friday night Capoiera class that I keep missing because I am out of town.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am absolutely not complaining about this really awesome experience I am in the middle of. London is fantastic, and having the free time to explore London, as well as being able to travel to Europe is incredible. This is more some soul-searching self realisation about how I function as a semi-competent human being. Now that most world governments recognise me as an adult, I should start figuring this stuff out, right?

I have already learned never to schedule early morning flights so early that the public transportation you need to get to the other bus or train you are taking to take you to the airport isn't running. Night buses are not super reliable and waking up at 3 AM is not fun.

I have learned that public transportation (where functional) is awesome.  I do not miss driving, but will miss walking almost everywhere, and sitting and reading a book on the tube to my destination.

I have also learned that I travel well with certain types of people and not well with others, and yes, It does make a huge difference.

I have learned that routines of some sort are my friend. Or at least schedules. They don't even have to be consistent, really. Also, deadlines. Deadlines are awesome. (I really never thought I would say that.) Basically, having copious amounts of free time and a travel schedule that prevents me from picking up those little (or big) responsibilities that give my life structure isn't going to work for me long term.

Not to say I wouldn't want to say, hike through Turkey for a month, or spend a few weeks backpacking in New Zealand, but this whole class-three-days-a-week-no-job-travel-every-other-weekend-and-randomly-for-two-weeks isn't going to cut it. Can you spot the difference? Here it is- one has structure. Boy, do I sound boring.

Did I mention how excited I am about the tupperware I get to purchase for my apartment next year? Because... yeah.

-El

P.S.- I feel like I should point out again that I am really, really happy in London, and this has been an incredible, eye-opening, and life changing experience for me. Part of what has made it so great though, is how much I have learned about myself. Not really what I was expecting. I have learned all sorts of things about different cultures, how to travel without making a complete fool of myself, and that Londoners are sadly deprived of real cornbread and decent barbecue. But I think some of the most important things I have learned are things about how I function, and under what conditions I excel. These are lessons that will help me make decisions for the rest of my life. Would I have figured all this out back in the states? Probably. Did I already know some of it? Yeah. Did being here, in a mostly alien environment make me face it and figure it out a whole lot faster? Absolutely. 

An Invasion of Disney Princesses (sort of).

Disclaimer: We are really nothing like Disney princesses, except for the whole woodland creatures sitting on shoulders thing. 

We are really good at timing. Reeeaaallyyy good at timing. The week after Katie and I went to visit Rachel in Spain, they came to visit me in London! In our defence, the Murcia trip was already planned when we found out that Keston Cobblers Club was playing in London the next Sunday. So the next weekend it was!

Rachel got in on Thursday night, and Katie came in on Friday afternoon. Rachel got in and I made her a super-late (by normal people standards) dinner, and the next morning we headed out to explore the British Museum, and then we went on to Borough Market, where we met Katie. I told Rachel that she had to at least try some British food, but when I suggested some sort of a meat pie, and mentioned that I had had a really great chicken and mushroom one at the market a few weeks earlier, she assured me that it sounded gross. I insisted we get one anyway, and lo and behold, she loved it.

Pie and mash in hand, we went to the courtyard of the Southwark Cathedral to enjoy our food. We stopped by the reconstruction of the Globe Theater, and I introduced Rachel to delicious (lactose friendly!) goat's milk ice cream. After meeting up with Katie, we wandered over to see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

We took it easy on Friday night, and Saturday morning we headed to Buckingham Palace and then to Hyde park to wander around for a bit and have a picnic lunch. We ended up with a little bit more than we bargained for, as we discovered the animals inhabiting Hyde park were veeeerrrry friendly. All is fun and games until Rachel's one-eyed attack pigeon decides to roost in somebody's hair.

We made friends with some pigeons, lots of geese and swans, and even a squirrel. It was a very Disney day. After unentangling ourselves from the critters, we headed to the Science museum, where we promptly lost track of Rachel. Fortunately we had anticipated this, and had a prearranged meeting point. Katie and I explored the alchemy exhibit, while Rachel made her own way through the museum. The museum was cool, but I am pretty museumed out at this point in the semester. There are some incredible museums here, but there are also a whole lot of them. The gift shop was really cool though. They had Doctor Who tea sets, and some spiffy futuristic lunchboxes, as well as ice cube trays for making ice cups.

Nicholas Flamel!

Saturday night was a lot of fun too. We went to Roadhouse, the same bar Emily, Rani, and I went to. It was a fun evening, but the best night was yet to come.

Sunday morning we pulled ourselves out of bed, and walked to the Columbia Road flower market, as the weekend tube closures created a blackout zone between where I live and anything west of me (read: anything worth going to). The walk wasn't bad, but the closures did make our transportation much more complicated. The flower market was beautiful and bustling as always, and we were able to explore some new shops around the area.

After the first market that day, we headed to the second market of the day and the third of the weekend, Camden Markets. We stopped for lunch in the Loch Market, where I had a delicious but eye wateringly spicy jerk chicken wrap, and Katie had a kangaroo burger. We then wandered the market, and picked up some matching shirts for tailgating purposes next year. After the market, we hightailed it back to my flat to grab dinner before heading to the concert.

Keston Cobbler's club did not dissapoint, and neither did the other two acts we saw that night, Rue Royale, and another act that I can't quite remember the name of...but it started with an S. Check out some of their stuff on YouTube, it's great! The venue was also pretty cool, it was a downstairs room under this teensy bar near King's Cross Station.

Rachel had to skip out early the next morning, but Katie and I managed to visit our squirrel friend one last time before she headed back to Bradford.

Thanks for visiting guys!

-El

P.S. -- Thanks to Rachel and Katie for help with the photos!

Out of Context in Green

 

It may still be cold, but judging by how green everything is, I think we can officially say that spring is here.

-El