Hi-ho readers,
I realized today that I only have six weeks left here and I don’t think I was ready for that realization. ANYWAY!
Let’s get the requisite Culture Chat out of the way. This week (and by “week” I mean “Wednesday and Thursday night”) I watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s new show that was just released on Netflix. I devoured it and caught myself laughing aloud several times (which I never do while watching TV alone). Besides some race issues which Tina Fey Brand White Feminism can bring on (questionable Native American subplot) the show is great and perfect for binge-watching over a weekend.
Back to your scheduled programming. My life is pretty much work nowadays, so I relish when I get to go outside. This can even consist of going outside to eat lunch, which I have to get myself to do every day or I go crazy. There’s an outdoor seating area near my office with a bunch of food trucks so I like to sit there and people watch. After, if I have time, I’ll walk up and down Brick Lane and poke into some small stores. The weather has been really nice this week; sometimes I don’t even need my coat. Spring is coming, friends!
As you may know, I love trivia, and am pretty good at it after a lifetime of Jeopardy watching. The Imperial College Student Union hosts a pub quiz every Tuesday so I went with some friends. While we did pretty badly, I got some pretty obscure questions right (i.e. a fletcher makes arrows! The Tasman Sea is an actual body of water!) but my skills did not propel us to victory. I want to go again but need to get there earlier — tables fill up pretty quickly.
This week was pretty dull just because I was so tired out but on Saturday I took a day trip to Bath with a BU tour. We saw the Roman Baths (and accompanying museum) and afterwards we were let loose to get lunch and walk around. I had a Cornish pasty on the street (which is basically a handheld chicken pot pie and AMAZING) and Jillian and I had tea in a little cafe. We got back on the bus to go to Avebury, which is a Neolithic henge monument — kind of like Stonehenge except shorter and you can touch the stones, as evidenced below. My friend Annie and I went into The Henge Shop which was full of a lot of crystals, books on UFOs, Celtic stuff, books by Oprah, and Putumayo CDs. It was great. I felt like I was entering my goddess years.
Then we came back and Jillian and my friends Zoe and Becca and I went to a piano bar called Piano Kensington. There was a guy playing who has a similar vocal timbre to Elton John so he played a lot of Elton John songs and other singalongs. There were a lot of gross drunk guys in there for such a classy place but I had a glass of wine any enjoyed myself (AND got home before the Tube stopped running for the night).
Things I Read and Liked This Week:
Buzzfeed’s “Can You Guess Why Piper Is Making This Face?” (as an Orange Is the New Black fan, I am disappointed in my score of 5/10)
The Toast’s “Syllabus for the Course on ‘Camp Heterosexuality’ I Have Not Yet Been Asked to Teach” (more brilliance from Mallory Ortberg, as usual)
Google Feud — like Family Feud but a million times better.
And that’s the week that was!
Emily
P.S. word of the week: cuppa (I don’t know how this hasn’t made it in yet, because it’s one of my favorite things people say here).