As promised, some pictures from my visit to London-Town...
shakespeare's globe theater in london.
alex and i enfrente de Tower Bridge
Big Ben was my fav.
Another must-see.
this one was for you, pops. <3
As usual, there were just as many activities this week as in weeks prior in Sheffield, UK; the only difference is that now I'm living below the poverty line because I'm realizing that somehow I'll have to stretch my dwindling bank account across the next 3 months. I should have gotten a work visa. Pooty.
This week I didn't really do many exciting things because everything costs money-- money that I am unwilling to part with. Kind of sucks when you have a huge traveling bug like I do, but I'm sure there's a life lesson somewhere in there to tell your kids about. So, I have developed a new tactic where I prolong booking train tickets or hostels in hopes that I will find someone to sponsor my trip. For instance, Friday night we went to Space, which is just one of the many dance clubs offered at the Student Union. While waiting for my friends to leave outside, I decided to strike up conversation with 5 huge guys (3 black, 2 white) who happened to be wearing tournament guides on a lanyard. I knew they weren't from Sheffield, so I smiled at them and said to which they later made fun of me, "Where are you guys from?" They replied, "London." It's kind of shallow, but I love basketball and I knew they had to be basketball players from their height, so we made friends fast. The rest of my buddies slowly made their way out of Space and started talking to my new-found London basketball players. I don't know what lead me to do it, but I gave one of them, Deng, my number so that he could tell me how to get to the tournament to see their game on Saturday. Naturally, I showed up since I have been unable to see any basketball games yet this year and it is freaking killing me. The best part is that they know Tyler Hansbrough, so naturally we fell in love. Anyway, they all play for a uni in London, so it was pretty cool seeing them play, but I felt bad because they didn't have any fans come to see them play. That's one thing the U.S. does better than the U.K- team support. I was going to go to the game by myself since Alex couldn't make it, but at the last minute I called Monique to see if she would come because I knew she'd be the quickest to get ready plus she would actually enjoy the game, so she hopped on the bandwagon and came with. Unfortunately, it was a sad day for my bros 'cause they lost, but it was still fun to watch a good basketball game with the occasional Austin Powers, "Yeah, Baby, yeah," streaming through the announcers' speakers after a good play.
After the game, my boys came up and gave me a hug and thanked me for actually coming to their game, and made Monique and I promise to hang out with them later. Deng was taking forever to get ready and he kept walking in and out of the locker room with random KFC boxes, so we finally gave up and left the English Institution of Sports complex to hunt for food. We stumbled across a promising Mexican place that was pretty pricey, but we followed our noses since we've been in search of good Mexican since the day we arrived. We also purchased bottomless drink glasses so that we could get free refills for 2 pound 85, which is basically 4 USD, but we were thirsty. We tried to not let the exchange rate calculations bum us out while we were eating. The food was actually pretty good, and naturally I had vegetarian enchiladas, but I can also say that I've never felt hungry after consuming Mexican food. Usually I feel like I'm going to barf from fullness, but here I was still unnaturally hungry. It's probably all the walking. Monique and I both ate for 24.50, a little over 33 USD. When you realize how little money we spend on food here, you would be okay with us spending money to eat real Mexican. Trust me on that. Food in the UK is friggin expensive. We also both spent 3 pounds for an all-day tram pass to get to and from the Sports Complex and 3 pounds to enter the tournament, bringing our daily total to about 18.25 GBP a peice-- a little over 25 USD. From there, we trammed our way back to good ol' Uni of Sheffield. My faithful buddy, Deng, called me and the 5 of us girls (Genna, Chelsea, Monique, Alex, and I) planned to meet up with my bros at their hotel. I was negligent to spend money to go to clubs, so I worked my magic, and was successful. Yes. They met us in City Centre and walked us back to their hotels where 5 white girls hung out with about 7 or 8 black guys. It was fantastic and perfectly innocent. People here feel like they constantly need to drink to have fun, but we all were perfectly sober all night. We were rapping and dancing and chilling. And we performed magic card tricks with one another and had a pillow fight, which was awesome. The guys we hung out with were named, Timmy, B, Jou-Jou, Deng, and I can't remember the other 3 guys' names, but one of them had the nickname, Lil' Wayne because he looked exactly like him. It was hilarious and fun. Jou-Jou and one of the other guys kept harmonizing for us. Jou-Jou is great and he was proud that he found a fellow Christian in me, so we sang some hymns together. He's also a ridiculous jumper by the way. I've never seen a man jump so high in my life. He cleared some guys head during the basketball game. No joke. Monique and I were amazed and both turned to look at each other with our jaws dropped. The boys had a curfew at 11 p.m., but I'm pretty sure that we didn't leave their hotel until about 1:30. They were gentlemen and walked us back a good part of the way, which is more than I can say for some of my local guy friends. Sweet southern hospitality in the UK. We promised to visit them in London, and Deng texted me later to make sure that I had fun. The girls minus Genna (ahem!) capped off the night with Kebabs and burgers for the uphill walk home. Bringing my personal total to 22.25 GBP, and an 8 pound charge to my credit card for some food from the grocery store. Lol.
That puts me to today where I am currently blogging and sitting on my second bed in Genna's room. Reflecting on hanging out with the basketball guys was truly one of the highlights of my trip so far... it was a lot of fun and a chance to do something different. The only other thing that's really knew, and that I'm really hopeful of, is that my brother, JOSEPH, may come visit me. I'm really hoping that my parents will see how this could potentially benefit him, and thus donate to the campaign of getting Joe to the UK. I mean if you think about it, when will he ever not have to pay for housing again? It's the chance of a lifetime, but I'm just saying... It's not like I've spent any time online looking at all the things we could do if/when he gets here and planning trips, at all. Also, attention to my pregnant sister. Send me pictures, miss vanity. I want to see you in all of your glory!!!
It has been a good weekend, and I plan on hitting up the gym and spending the rest of the day researching for my Shakespeare essay. I'm also going to make a shout-out to my dear friend, Lindsay, because she was not able to take part in the basketball festivities. We know you're having fun, but we miss you.
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