Weekend Update

So after building the world's tallest tower of used tissue in my trash can last week, I am finally feeling better! I'm still coughing a bit, and my sinuses are a bit confused, but overall my potential for contagion has subsided. Unfortunately, I managed to get a couple of my friends sick in the process. I've been saying "sorry" every time Jessica coughs. Luckily they've been pretty nice about it. 

Saturday morning, after my first tube ride (in London "tube" means "subway") some friends and I ventured into Notting Hill (a ritzy sort of usually quiet neighborhood made famous by the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts movie of years past). Saturday morning the main road that runs through Notting Hill, Portobello Road, hosts a sort of antique market where every American within a 10 mile radius congregates in mass, thus disrupting the quiet and the (usually non-existing) traffic in the area. That doesn't seem to phase some residents, though, who insist on driving down the street, in the middle of the market, at what must be no faster than 5 mph, with incredibly unphased looks on their faces. 

Did I mention that it was sunny on Saturday? It was still only about 50 degrees, but the clouds opened to reveal that there really is a sky over London! It was fantastic. A terrific day only improved by the fact that we came across The Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road, a small little place filled with overpriced cupcakes. (It reminded me of the Magnolia Bakery, Zo, but cuter!) I got a couple red velvets. (My favorite.) They did not disappoint. (But Sprinkle's frosting is still better, Mom!)

On Saturday evening I ventured out to meet up with Litza who was in London for the day visiting with some of her friends from her high school in Taiwan. We sat in a subterranean lounge in a Starbucks on west Oxford Street. It was great to see her, and also great to say goodbye (in the middle of a crowded subway car) since I wasn't able to say goodbye to her before leaving Claremont. Unfortunately Litza got Shaker songs stuck in my head. With the addition of her facebook post, I have been singing "hop up and jump up and whirl round whirl round" in my head all day. This, of course, makes me miss all my Heaven girls. 

Tonight our entire floor went out to eat at an Indian restaurant. There were 21 of us. It was hysterical leaving the building together because it looked like Astor College (which is the name of my dorm) was being evacuated or something. The food was delicious (I had Tandoori chicken with garlic nan) and it was really nice to talk to some new people who I hadn't met before and "bond," as Monika put it, with some of the other people on my floor. Magically, we figured out the bill without incident. 

At the end of dinner I had this overwhelming "I miss Tyrus!" feeling. I think I will make him take me to Sprinkles upon my return in June. Make it happen, Ty. 

I have my first seminar tomorrow, and I have high hopes. My lectures thus far haven't been all that inspiring. I hoping that my fellow students will have more interesting things to say than some of my lecturers have. Tomorrow's seminar is for my Shakespeare course. The topic: Gender Play and Female Power in Twelfth Night and The Merry Wives of Windsor. I'm excited, needless to say. I hope it doesn't disappoint.