How come every time you come around my London, London Bridge wanna go down?

So this weekend has been a great one for exploring the city and learning new things. Friday afternoon we had our coach tour and saw the city from inside the bus and we started picking out things we wanted to do and see that way. Friday evening we all decided to go to Kavanaugh's to watch the first game of the Rugby World Cup. And a few of us had dinner in the pub. And what else did we have but fish and chips at the pub. Yup, I had my first fish and chips. And it was rather yummy. I also learned quite a bit about rugby. Its a fascinating game. The opening game of the cup was France vs Argentina, and since not too many Americans (including me) are not fond of France, I was rooting for Argentina. They ended up winning the game 17-12. So it was pretty close. The interesting thing about the game was that the British HATE both France (which is completely obvious) and Argentina. Hating Argentina is a little less obvious unless you pay attention to British life a bit more. The Argentinians invaded the Falkland Islands in the 80's to reclaim land they thought was originally and rightfully theirs. At that time the Argentinian economy was in deplorable condition and the political leaders decided to take this action to play of the people's long standing feelings about the islands and try to get a last ditch effort of support so they wouldn't lose their jobs. There were few casualties on either side, and there were little economic problems for the British, however, the Brits still have very strong feelings of hatred towards the Argentinians because of this. This posed an interesting question on who we were supposed to pull for while watching the rugby match. It also begged the question of why they were watching in the first place. But rugby is a serious sport here, and you watch no matter who is playing, especially if its the world cup. After the game was over there was a DJ at the bar and it was kinda weird and I didn't want to drink beer, so I went back to the flat and had some wine and relaxed and called it an evening. Dirty Dancing Havana Nights was on and I watched that, and then hung out with the rest of the flat once they came back from the pub.

Saturday my GrandBig, Nisa came to visit! She's here visiting her cousins and came into the city to visit for the day. She's on her way to India for 9 months to work and travel and get experience in a hospital before heading off to grad school. She came to play, and we went to Portobello Road market. Its a fantastic street market with clothes and antiques and knick-knacks and food. We spent hours walking around and walked the whole street. I got a few things that are rather cute, and cheap! We had lunch at a Thai restaurant and I had drunken rice, and Nisa had drunken noodles and Angelica had red curry. Angelica had never had Thai before, and she really liked it. My drunken rice with chicken was incredibly spicy, much more so than any Thai I've ever had in the states, and it made my nose run the whole time, but it was so delicious I ate the whole thing. I also ate it with chopsticks, cause I'm that talented. On the way back from Portobello Road (which is in Notting Hill) the underground was having severe delays for some reason, so at High Street Kensington we ditched it and took the bus. None of us had ever taken the bus, and so we had to figure it out...but it was not too hard, and we got on the bus. Our first double decker, and of course we sat up top! It was fun. Once back we went to Kav's again to see some more rugby (England vs USA and we got our butts kicked) and football (England vs Isreal). It was a good day for England cause they won both games handily. Then we went to dinner at a pizza and pasta place down the road...the same place I had my first legal alcohol.

Then it was out to Leicester Square again for another club, and time to say good-bye to Nisa who met up with her cousin to go home. The club we went to was called Oxygen and was a really good time. Me and Angelica danced for hours and decided to stay with Jason when the rest of our group decided to go home. We were just having too much fun, and Jason wasn't quite ready to go either. There were some sketchy guys, but there always are at clubs, so it wasn't too awful. There was one that just wouldn't leave Angelica alone though, and I begged her to let me deck him. She said no. And that if anyone was gonna hit him, it would be her. I was disappointed. Lots of guys kept trying to dance with me all night, and it was odd, cause I'm totally not used to it. Angelica says its cause I was having so much fun and could actually dance. Ha. It made me feel good, weather its true or not. We finally left around 20 after 1 and had to grab a bus that turned into a 45 minute to an hour charade, that was quite funny. We finally made it home and chilled for a bit and then headed for bed.

Today we're headed for Hyde Park and Speaker's Corner. And some grocery shopping and general getting ready for the school week. Ah! I actually have to do stuff! I just wanna have fun! lol.

Oh....my camera and computer aren't compatible and I'm working on getting some things sent here from home to make it work. But I do have a few pictures from other people's cameras. And there is facebook for all you college kids. For everyone else, head here

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahbutzer

cheers!