Monday

Lots to catch up on! Monday was a big day...

I went to the SWAP office and discussed living arrangements, jobs, etc. Edinburgh is for sure in our plans now, and we couldn't be more excited! We're going to head up there tomorrow, and stay in Darlington for a few days with Jenna's friend Hilary while we try and find an apartment downtown. Darlington just a train ride away from Edinburgh. I honestly, couldn't be more excited to leave London. It's a lovely city, but it reminds me a lot of Toronto in the sense that it's not really England. Just the way that Toronto isn't a real example of what Canada is. There are surprisingly few English people in London, and I'd really like to be some place... smaller. London is so big. I'm ready to leave now.

After SWAP stuff, I met up with Jenna and our new friend Bill from Singapore and we walked to the Tate Modern Museum for a look around. It was amazing being in the presence of works by Picasso and Monet. I'm definitely more inclined towards modern art as opposed to more traditional works like the displays in La Louvre. I find modern art more diverse and more interesting and I can take more away from it. It affects in more emotionally, I suppose. We spent over two hours walking through the Tate, it was incredible. And free! (We like free things.)

Jenna wasn't feeling well, but I rounded up the troops and we started drinking pretty much immediately after we got back from the Tate. We gathered quite a few people, maybe twelve or so and played drinking games and just partied in the hostel. I met my New Zealand friend Matt, and we had some fun times (also some scandalous times, but I wont get into any details. *wink* )

Our favourite new friend is named Sean, an Irishman, probably in his sixties and a regular at our hostel pub. He was plastered drunk when he stumbled in last night. His gimmick is a toy, plush monkey which he sends flying at people via sling shot. Jenna's pictures are HILarious. Sean had us in stitches, not only because he swore like a sailor banshee, but because in between shooting the monkey at us when we least expected it he would serenade all the pretty girls with old Irish love songs. I believe Jenna has some video evidence of Sean's outrageousness. Which she will post shortly.

Love you all and miss you! We'll be writing next from Scotland!

We are tired. Next on the EAJE...
Emily's scandalous evening...
Jenna's typical dance class...in Greenwich
Sean and the Flying Monkey
The mysterious noises from bed #1
The currytastic delicious amazing stupidly good and satisfying dinner...
and then the chocolate.
Goodnight.
xo

Sunday

We managed to sleep in again this morning... last night we went to a pub in Piccadilly's and had far too many tequila shots bought for us. Therefore, today we still feel like we've been run over by several hundred Buffaloes.

We actually took the flight up the Eye today, as opposed to standing and staring at it like we have up until now. I was so proud of Jenna conquering her fear of heights! After we got off she stated very clearly, "Yeah, that wasn't scary at all." Almost as if she was disappointed that it wasn't... sorry you can't be on Oprah like you wanted, sweetie.

Afterwards, we had lunch, then went our separate ways. I saw Buckingham Palace, and a mini-changing of the guards. Then took a lovely walk through St. James park and saw St. James Palace, Horse Guards and Admiralty Arch before walking into Trafalgar Square to watch the sun set. It was the first day I toured around alone, so it was a bit intimidating getting lost for a bit but it was an awesome day.

We're making tonight a low-key night in order to recover from the last few days. Tomorrow I'm going to see about an apartment and a job... funds are going faster than I expected and we're already getting sick of living out of our suitcases and would like to settle somewhere soon-ish. I'll keep you posted ;)

By the way~ The time that our blog says we post is not the actual time for us at all. It is actually about 8pm, but this entry may state otherwise :).

So yes, I must agree with Emily...my body feels like it has been trampled by a herd of buffalos. Last night was a good night. We did meet some really nice guys and it was very refreshing that they weren't creepy perves trying to hit on us all night. My initial thoughts of the evenning were as follows..
" hmmm, I don't know if I have enough energy to go to a club tonight. That means I will have to shower and look presentable...well, maybe I will just wash my hair, but I definately don't want to shave my legs. It's damp and cold anyway and the extra protection from the London air might nice. Shaving is highly overrated anyways. Okay fine, maybe I will shave, but I will definately not moisturize because that will take way too long and I'm feeling dreary already... that feels better/love hot showers. Alright, made a decision~I will go out tonight, but I will not partake in the drinking games. I am way too cheap a drunk to pre-drink and plus, I need a little alone time before exposing my enthusiastic and bar hopping diva side. oh my god...I'm getting old. ... .... Holy frig, it freezing outside~are we there yet and were the heck is Em? ... ...Thank god, finally we found this place. It's dark/trippy in here and the bass is pumped so loudly that I can feel my stomach dancing too...alright, enough of that~time to sit and chill out, and people watch."

So there we go. As evident by my display of inner thoughts, the night was a success, despite the fact that I woke up with dry skin on my legs and a little tired. Most of the time spent at the club was sitting and watching. People are a little more wild here than they are in Toronto clubs and the bouncers let people have wayyyy more to drink than they do back at home. Luckily I did not wake up with much of a hangover at all. (thank-you limit that tells me "ONLY 3 DRINKS+FOOD). I miss Jimmy.
Today was awsome! We slept in and then headed over to Piccadilly's and wandered around. I bought some postcards and we took some funny photos of the two of us dressed up in English soldier hats. Dinner tonight consisted of a chicken and sweet corn soup from China Town and a few glasses of water. Tasty and warm.
Warm like my tea, which will soon be going cold...gotta run
Mental note to self~must work out, sleep, relax and take my vitamins tomorrow.
Until then..

I somehow convinced myself, before this trip, that I was fairly fit and in shape. However, now that I have my aching body screaming at me I believe otherwise. All this walking and lugging suitcases up and down stairs has taken a severe toll on us already, and we are very very sore!

Yesterday, we met some nice Aussie boys which was a huge relief for both of us, because so far we hadn't met anyone super friendly. A lot of the people staying at our Hostel are couples who are nice, but keep to themselves. Thank God for Rochan, Ryan, Tom and Kep. We agreed to exchange drinking games later that night, and Jenna and I headed off for the day.

We wanted to see more of the sites, so we took the tube up to Buckingham Palace and walked around. We saw Westminster Abby, Westminster Church and the Parliament buildings again, taking some wicked photos which will be posted soon. It was such a nice day too, the sun was out and it was fairly warm. We spent most of the day walking around, so when we got home we decided to get a head start on drinking, and forego dinner.

The Aussies introduced us to Hockey Quarters (and as a Canadian I obviously have a natural affinity for hockey... I did rather well at this game), and we played for a few hours before we went out. We went to Ministry of Sound which is one of the hottest clubs in London. Awesome music, and several different levels and many rooms to get lost in! I had such an amazing night dancing and getting to know the Aussies, but definitely paid for it the next day. Unfortunately our new friends had to catch a flight to Lisbon this morning, and we missed them because we slept until 2pm! Our bodies we very angry with us...

So we had a late start on our day today and decided to make it more low-key. We headed up to Piccadilly's Circus and wandered through all the little shops and explored. We made it up to Chinatown and had a nice dinner before we came back to our hostel. We're planning on going back tonight and enjoying a pint, and hopefully we'll meet some more awesome people!

So, yesterday is a complete blur...the post flight/border syndrom. In attempt to encourage our energy to show itself to us, Em and I decided to do celebratory shots. So, we walked out of our cute little hostile, down Lambeth walk and right towards a pub conveniently located about five minutes up the street. ... ... we walk up to a dark green pub, through the cigarette cloud of Joyce, an elderly woman with a smile consisting of two, somewhat random and rotten bottom teeth. We stepped inside and found we were 2 of only five people. No one was talking. Instead, it was scattered fans of pub television (sports) and one young women who I think would say, if silence could speak..."My kids are finally at their dad's house and all I want to do is absolutely nothing...with my wine." She sat near the door like it was a quick escape if she were to let herself accept the truly dodgy nature of the bar. "What am I doing? This place is too dirty for a cute young thing like myself...I should go have a bath and a cup of tea."
"Two shots of Tequila please!", Em and I said somewhat similtaneously.
"You don't have that...okay, what do you have, or what do you recommend"
...
"You don't know...hmmm, okay, well maybe we will try this"
1-2-3 Southern comfort down the "hatchet" as we should now call it.
"See you later Joyce"

I'm tired now...will write more later. It should be mentioned, however, that we saw Joyce again today and waved excited "HI!"... She had absolutely no clue who we were. Perhaps she was blinded by the smoke cloud around her head from her routine cigarette, or maybe it is time to come to terms with the fact that perhaps Emily and I, foreign cute accents and all, are not as memorable as we may strive to be...even when we may have been the only four new footprints that bar has dusted, or not dusted in a long time.

I wonder if it is possible to balance a cigarette between two bottom teeth.

We Have Arrived!

Yes, we're safe and in London, finally after a long almost fourteen hours of traveling. From Toronto we had a connecting flight at JFK and from there took Air India (weird, I know) and after delays and weird creepy men watching us sleep we arrived! We did get held up at customs for a bit though, Jenna didn't have some documents she needed with her and we thought we might not be allowed into the country, but it all worked out.

Once we took the tube from the airport and found our hostel, we ate and walked around just to explore the area where we would be living for the next week. Turns out we are a ten minutes walk away from the London Eye and the Parliament buildings (including Big Ben) so we wondered around for a few hours and took lots of pictures. No crazy stories yet, we have only been here for a few hours, but we'll definitely keep you posted.