File #10: PoundTown

Hi-ho readers,

London week two was eventful. I only have afternoon classes right now so I told myself that I’d wake up in the morning and do stuff before walking to school, but I only managed to haul out of bed on Monday. I took myself to breakfast at Muriel’s Kitchen next to the train station and had a mean eggs Benedict, bought stamps (tell me if you want a postcard) and then went to school, where I had the first session of my London women’s history elective. My professor seems to be quite fond of field trips, so on Monday we went to the Museum of London and on Tuesday we went to the National Portrait Gallery. Tomorrow we’re doing a guided walk around Westminster. I’m happy to be getting to do some touristy stuff with the class. It’s also embarrassing that I haven’t really been to other museums considering I live across the street from the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, and the V & A. Pictured below are some things I saw at the museums.

On Wednesday, with my contemporary British film and television class, we went to see Made in Dagenham on the West End (we watched part of the movie on which the musical is based). The plot revolves around the Ford machinists’ strike of 1968, at the plants in Dagenham and Liverpool. The women working sewing car seats were downgraded to an unskilled pay grade (and their male counterparts at the plants were not), and their outrage led to the eventual implementation of the Equal Pay Act of 1970. It was a really fun musical — I laughed the hardest at a number called “This Is America” (a representative from Ford US comes to town) — in which he sings atop a tank wearing a cowboy hat while blond women scantily clad in camouflage hold assault rifles. Go team. Everyone was very talented and I was sad to find out (while I was Googling a plot summary for this!) to learn that it’ll be closing in April. Now the mug that I bought (that says “BUSY WOMAN” after the opening number) is COLLECTOR’S EDITION. Also, this is a culture to which I have not been privy, but drinks at theaters are expensive. A mistake I won’t be making again. Oy.

What also happened Wednesday night is that my throat started hurting so much that I couldn’t swallow. Luckily I just had one class on Thursday and nothing on Friday so I was mainly able to sleep it off and doctor it with lemony tea. Still feeling it now though. A lot of people in my building have had the same thing. Yikes.Yesterday was my roommate’s birthday and her friend came in from Twickenham so we went to the Portobello Road Market. I think I’d like to go back by myself just to weave in and out of all of the little booths. I tend to spend a long time in street markets and it’s a better thing to do by yourself. So many antiques and street foods! The funniest thing that happened while we were out happened when we went to Poundland (the UK Dollar Tree) and my roommate didn’t know what it was called so she called it “Pound Town.” I laughed way harder and longer than was necessary.

After, we went to an Italian restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner and then I had a funny misunderstanding in Tesco (British Mishap #1). Apparently the “how are you?” we’re used to in the States translates to “are you okay?” here. I said hi to the cashier but my voice is really hoarse and quiet because I’ve been coughing a lot. So he said “are you okay?” as is customary, which I didn’t know, so I was like “yeah! sorry! I’ve just had a cold” and he did a fantastic slow blink at me (shouts out to Kate). It was really remarkable. I felt like a jackass.Anyway, then we did what hip youths do and tried to find a club to go to in Shoreditch (trendy east London). In our fruitless attempts I discovered that I had to go to the bathroom, more than I ever have in my sorry young life. It was a little after 12:30, and this is when the Tube closes for the night. The nearest public bathroom was, of course, in the Tube, so I booked it to the station (wobbily) and encountered gates being shut and people rushing. I ran up to the woman working:

Woman: “ARE YOU GOING NORTHBOUND OR SOUTHBOUND?”
Me:  “NEITHER IS THERE A BATHROOM IN HERE”
Woman: “Sorry love, no.”
Me: “Okay, thanks anyway!” (staring at her with dead eyes while rapidly doing the pee dance)

She apparently took pity on me because, like in a damn movie, she looked side to side a couple of times, silently beckoned, then opened a SECRET DOOR IN THE WALL to the staff bathroom. She then gave me the “wrap it up!” gesture and I think I may never be that happy to pee ever again. When I walked out I was full of so much gratitude that I rested my hand on her shoulder for a moment, looked kindly into her eyes and said “thank you.” I wonder how many drunk idiots she has to deal with on the last nightly Tube.

We finally went to this place called Floripa (no, not a typo) with a TEN POUND COVER where they played pretty much American music and it was nothing horribly exciting. But we ended up staying until very late and I got to take my first night bus home…which was tamer than expected. So now it’s today and my feet hurt.

This week calmed down a little so I had time to do…

Things I Read and Liked This Week!
two great interviews with Björk, who just released a new album:
The New York Times’ T Magazine’s “The Peculiar Genius of Björk
Pitchfork’s “The Invisible Woman: a Conversation with Björk
The New York Times’ “Instagram’s Graveyard Shift
The Atlantic’s “‘V’ Is for Very” (about abbreviating “very” to “v”)
A choose your own adventure game on Twitter from Terence Eden (unknown to me but this is very cool)
The New Yorker’s wildly funny “Let’s Get Drinks
a poem I liked this week, “Francesca” by Ezra Pound (the opening line is so so good)

That’s all from me this week!
Emily

P.S. PHRASE of the week: “thinking man’s crumpet.”