club oxygen & two hemispheres at once

Hello loves! Today was my last free day of the year as classes are starting tomorrow. I start bright and early with a 9 a.m. photography class, but I'm kind of looking forward to it so I don't think it will be so bad having to wake up early. Mondays are going to be my busy days, with three three-hour classes: 9-12, 2-5, & 7-10. It is going to be interesting having class only once a week and for three hours each time. But anywho, a recap of the past day...

Last night a few of us wanted to go out one last time and our friend Dan had mentioned going to this place called Club Oxygen in SoHo. The night before that, Julie and him had met a man from California at a pub and he bought them drinks all night, and I guess this guy, Dave, wanted to hang out again. So we meet up with Dan and he introduces us to Dave. Now Dave is a 30 year old venture capitalist from California, who is here on business because he just sold a company for 30 million dollars or something. Sounds like a crock of you-know-what but the night before he paid for everyone's dinner and drinks and ran up about a 700 pound bill. He kept on with the generosity and paid for everyone's drinks at Club Oxygen all night (and there were about 8 of us) and didn't even flinch. I've talked to businessmen before that have mentioned being able to spend ridiculous amounts of money and write it off for business purposes, but never have I experienced it first hand! Long story short, I paid nothing all night, and I can't really complain. Even if this Dave guy was full of crap, I still got out of the club with as much money I came in with, and for an American college student, that's a pretty big deal.

In other events that evening, Alli and I met some British blokes who paid me many compliments on my "cute" American accent. We took to the dance floor with these boys and that is when my view of these fellows changed. Contrary to popular belief, all British men are NOT all that gentlemanly and cannot keep to the beat to save their life. When the boy I was dancing with started thrusting in my direction, I turned the other way and headed for the door, and that's the end of that.

Today was especially exciting for me as I finally accomplished one of my many goals in life- standing in two places at once! We took a bus tour from the West to the East End of London and ended up in Greenwich for the day, home of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). There were all sorts of markets going on that we adventured through but opted to hit up the historical sights while we had the opportunity. We saw the Queen's House, which was home to King Charles I's Queen Henrietta Maria until 1669. Throughout the years the house was used as the home to the ranger for Greenwich Park (which is stunning, by the way) and was completely restored in the 1980s. It's now kind of a museum of paintings of former Kings, Queens, battles, soldiers and the like. Following the Queen's House we headed up the hill to the Royal Observatory, which was founded by the order of King Charles II to study astronomy and fix longitude (read about it here: http://www.greenwich-guide.org.uk/observ.htm). There, I straddled the Prime Meridian, with one foot in each hemisphere... finally accomplishing my goal!! We then visited the Painted Hall, a breathtaking former Naval dining hall with paintings decorating every wall and ceiling in the giant room. The paintings took a whole 19 years to complete. Pictures to come very soon, of course.

Following our sight seeing, we headed to this place called Pizza Express, which sounds like it'd be relatively cheap and quick, but actually ended up quite the opposite. On the upside, the food was delicious, but I have to say after three days straight of consuming pizza products, I don't think my stomach can take much more for awhile.

My random sidenote of the day: I am addicted to Chupa Chups lollipops!! I used to eat them when I was little and totally forgot about them until I got here. They taste like fruity yogurt and deliciousness!!

It's approaching 12:15 here and if I don't get to bed soon, I fear I will not be able to wake up in time for my first class... I have to take out the trash before I head to bed because they have daily trash collection here but you're only allowed to put it on your stoop between 11:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m, otherwise you get ticketed for littering and have to pay about $4000 in fines... eek.

Keep the good wishes coming; I love hearing from you all!

Cheers!