17 February 2011

London - Day 4

Today I slept in a little. Adventuring through London is fun, but also exhausting at times. Beside meeting Patrick and Gayoung, another purpose of this trip is to get a feeling for the city, to find out if I could enjoy spending a year or two here. Since I'd like to come back to study, I want to make sure I can cope with the basic essential parameters ob being. And this is what I got so far:

Food: Good and plenty, but expensive. Lunch deals are okay. Happy Hour is from 5-8. Cook at home as much as possible. Breakfast well and make doshiraks for lunch. There's coffee shops everywhere. 
Weather: Warm in the sun, but the sun barely shines. 
Streets: Mostly rough. Sidewalks are skateble, but filled with people at all times. Every alley has a name. There's lots of green in between. Good.
People: Don't laugh much, but most are friendly. Call you 'love' for no reason. Wear shorts in February and shades as soon as it stops raining. 

I basically spent all day in the SOAS area. I had an appointment at 3:30 and got there early to get familiar with the streets. I had lunch in a little cafe, next to a korean supermarket that seemed to be closed down. I had coffee and a piece of pie, really good stuff. When I'm a SOAS student I think I'll eat there a lot. I still have to work out a plan to save money, like a budget. But first, let's get accepted.

At six I met P, he came to Russel Square right after work, and together we met some of his friends. One of them, a SOAS student named Nia, took us to the leisurey basement of the main building. We had a few drinks and talked very fast English. I didn't understand all of it, but I still had a really good time with them. One of the hardest parts of learning a new language though, and I see myself as relearning the language with real English people, is understanding and adapting the humor, I think.

At seven the cantine closed its doors, so we went out to a really good Italian joint. We had a bottle of red wine, some pasta, some pizza and some lobster. Thanks to a friend called Charlie we got 50% off the price. For desert we had a sugar bomb and a caramel toffee thingy which was just too much of the sweetness for me.

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