This week was incredibly busy and I didn't write at all! I told myself I was going to blog every day and stick to it. In this beginning, I was loving writing about my days. I still do... but it's hard to when I get home late and finish reading for class around 2 am. I can’t even remember where I stopped blogging and what exactly was next… Oops.
I know that at the beginning of this week, many of us were hungry at around 10:30 and decided we wanted the one and only, Wafflemeister. Okay… Wafflemeister has become my life. (Not really, that’s quite an exaggeration, I’ve only been about 3 times now. Wait, that’s still too many times.) So we all walked down the street to get some delicious waffles and after we all ordered and were about to dig in at our table outside, there was a woman who walked past and was looking into the shop trying to decide if she wanted to get a waffle. Me, being the loud, outspoken, and probably obnoxious American that I am, I blurted out to her, “Do it. I promise you it will be the best decision of your entire life.” She looked at me and smiled and said really?! And I nodded my head vigorously while devouring my waffle. She said that she would get the waffle under one condition. I asked her what that was and she said only if I can eat it with all of you! We were delighted to have her and she ordered and joined us outside. She began talking to us about how her phone was stolen and she was really upset about it. We made small talk and then eventually I asked her how long she’d been in London, because she did not have a British accent. She told us that she was from Greece but had been working in London for years and that her company was just taking off and doing really well. She told us that she was a lawyer, but after getting multiple offers from firms, she felt that she could do better. She said that she thought her job offers from men were not given for her career potential, but because they wanted to take advantage of her. (She expressed this in a much more vulgar way but that’s the gist of what she said…) This lady’s name was Theo and she was so wonderful. She told us that you have to work hard to succeed, and you have to have connections in this world. Theo said that more than anything, connections matter most. She said that she had the best grades possible all throughout college and law school but without connections, you are nothing. Theo asked us why we were in London and for how long after she realized that we weren’t locals. I asked her how old she thought I was… her first guess was 25. Okay… 25!? What?! No… noooo. I look nothing even close to 25. My mother was 25 when she got married. I am NOT anywhere near old enough looking for anyone to think I could be married. So she continued to lower her guess, and when she got to 20 she thought I was lying. I told her 18 and she looked like she’d just been told the world was flat. I laughed and she said that being in London at 18 is an incredible experience to have. Theo said that when she was 18, her father gave her 15 euro a week and that she could barely afford the waffle she was eating. She said that now, after years of hard work, she could buy us all waffles and go buy a Valentino bag if she cared to. She said that none of the material things matter, success is for yourself and no one else will give you chances and opportunities. She said that you have to seek opportunities and create chances for yourself and that if you don’t try to reach your dreams, someone else will hire you to help them reach theirs. I loved talking to her. I think everyone else at the table was sketched out by her, wondering why this random Londoner was talking to us and giving us her life story. But I loved it. I loved every second of it and I really didn’t want to leave - I could tell Theo was a lonely woman. 30, single, no children, no family in London, she’s alone, and she just wanted to enjoy some company for a little while. I thought she was very inspiring, incredibly kind, and just a good person. We said bye to Theo and walked back to the house. I was so inspired and wanted to blog about our conversation so badly but at that time it was so late and I was way too exhausted to even try. And so here I am, a week later, writing about our time together.
On Saturday, 5/10/14, we went to Windsor Castle. Wow. Windsor Castle is gigantic. I don’t have much to say about it because it was absolutely breathtaking. It was the typical castle with ornate bedrooms, dining rooms, and every last detail was carved in some intricate pattern or covered in gold.
On Tuesday, my literature class went to see a play at the National Theater. The play was called A Small Family Business. It portrayed exactly that… a small family business that goes far south, very quickly. Certain members of the family are corrupt; they sell the company’s products to other foreign companies who then place their own logos on it and sell the goods under their name. At the end of the play, the father of the family is being blackmailed by a man and the daughter in the play accidentally kills him when fighting him. The play ends with the daughter in the bathroom, crying. Okay. What. What kind of ending is that… It was so terrible! We’re seeing another one on Tuesday and hopefully that one’s better… The best part of my Tuesday was seeing Big Ben and the London Eye for the first time near the theater. I never realized how big London was until I got here. It’s huge! It occurred to me on Tuesday that I really need to get out of South Kensington and see more of the other parts of London. So…
On Wednesday, I did exactly just that an explored London on my own. I really wanted to go to Oxford Street to go shopping and wanted to go to this specific store called Primark. Primark is supposed to be incredibly cheap but have incredibly cute things. With everything in London being so expensive, my initial reaction to hearing about it was yeah… Count me in. I’m all about bargains. So I set off for Oxford Street on my own and ventured onto the tube. The London tube is incredibly easy to navigate. But, I didn’t want to switch lines on the tube because I didn’t have enough faith in myself to not get lost. So I decided it would be smart to get off the tube at a stop that was a about four stops away from Oxford Circus. So I got off the tube at Covent Garden and I just started walking. I saw the markets in Covent Garden and walked… and walked… and walked… All of a sudden I found signs that directed me towards Trafalgar Square. I thought OH! I haven’t seen the square yet, I should go. So I walked to Trafalgar Square (approx. 1.5 miles) THEN I saw Big Ben. I ADORE BIG BEN. Big Ben is by far my favorite building in all of London. But maybe that’s not really fair to say considering that I haven’t seen a lot of London yet- but, regardless, I love Big Ben. So I started walking. I got closer and closer, kind of just following the big clock tower in the sky. I turned a corner and then all of a sudden Big Ben was gone. I was really confused. BUT, then I looked straight up, and there he was! Right above me! I stared for a little bit and then decided I’d go to Oxford Street… the real destination. So I popped my head into a little cafe and asked the lady behind the counter how to get there. She said that I was really far, and that I’d have to take a bus. I was confused as to how I was really far from Oxford Street, after all, I’d only been walking towards it since I got off the tube at Covent Garden. No. Wrong. I had actually only been walking away from it since I got off the tube at Covent Garden. Oops.
Alright, no biggie. I’ll take the bus. So I took the bus to Oxford Circus that dropped me off right onto Oxford Street. Perfect! Yay I’m there! But I expected Oxford Street to be this quaint little shopping street. No… Wrong again Nina. It was quite large.. so many stores and I was a bit lost… again. So I popped my head into a little cafe and asked where Primark was. (You know, I’ve gotten really good at doing this.) I was told to walk down the street and it would be on the left. So I walked down the street, and I kept walking, and walking and walking. But it was not on the left. So I did the same thing again and popped my head into a cafe, and asked. I was told to walk down the street, about 10-15 minutes and it’d be on the right across from the tube station. So I walked, again. But it was not there, again. After about an hour, and a mile later, I found it. I walked in, but at this point I was exhausted. I had walked a lot and I walked into this store and it was like a whole other world. The store was 4 stories, each story containing massive amounts of clothing. I started off on the ground floor and over a couple hours, made my way to the top. I bought a couple things, a dress, a top, a skirt, and a wallet all for 34 pounds. For how expensive everything is in London - this was cheap. Like dirt cheap. I happily handed over my credit card, when most of the time I cringe before swiping. After I was done shopping, I hoped back onto the tube, and rode it all the way home, literally collapsing on my bed when I walked into my room.
On Friday, we went to the London Eye. Okay. The London Eye is huge. I have a huge fear of heights. I was not looking forward to this trip and I was really scared. So we all went, and were standing in line to get on the Eye. I was starting to calm down, I kept telling myself it’d be fine, it’d be fun. So it was our turn to get in the wheel and I was doing just aright. But, when we stepped in, my stomach totally took a turn. I freaked out the minute we walked in and I started saying that I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to do it, and I was going to get off. So I start backing up and I turn around towards the doors… as they are closing. Cue panic attack. I completely lost it, my mind started moving a thousand miles a minute and I felt completely out of control. Allen, wow Allen is the best. So Allen sat down with my on the bench in the capsule and he calmed me down, telling me I’d be just fine and that we’d talk about something to get my mind off of it. I was on the verge of tears and still panicking but as it started moving, I began to calm down a little bit. Eventually, after a couple minutes, I was alright. Don’t know what I would have done without Allen but it was an experience that I’m glad I had. I didn’t come to London to not go on the Eye.
Anyways, that’s an extremely long post describing my week and now I’m off to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. This adventure is way too cool and I’m way too blessed.
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