Champagne showers and blow up zebras

First thing to keep in mind when you're attending a concert in London: The O2 can mean either the one in Greenwich or the one at Shepherd's Bush.

I was watching the LMFAO concert at the O2 that evening.

I had just finished grabbing drink with a few coursemates and so I hopped on the tube, thinking that it would only take me around 30 minutes to get from Holborn to North Greenwich. I arrived around 30 minutes before my friends and I had agreed to meet before the show, and was looking for the restaurant that my friends had told me they were grabbing dinner in. However, it was nowhere in sight. I started to get a little worried and decided that I needed to check the location - perhaps it was just in the area. My phone had run out of batteries, and my laptop was close to running out of battery power. I managed to check the location of the restaurant and was absolutely mortified with learning about its location. I realized my grand mistake: I was at the wrong O2.

Now with actually 45 minutes before the start of the show, I raced back to the underground. Of course, there was a delay on the tube, and finally, I made it to O2 Shepherd's Bush. When I got there, I realized that I didn't have the tickets to get in because my friends had bought them. Not only that, but I had gotten there about 1 hour after the show started, so my friends were already all inside. With my phone being dead, and my laptop being nearly out of juice... I had to come up with a plan, pronto.

The ticket hall was full of people walking in and out, and I spotted an electrical socket in the wall - so I immediately whipped out my charger and plugged my laptop in, perched between the bar and the door. I searched up an old list of committee members and found the phone numbers of a few friends who were in the venue at the moment. Then I asked the souvenir seller if I could borrow her phone to make a call. I ended up calling one of the committee members... who was at home.... and asked her to send a text message to my friends inside the venue to come out for five minutes.

Luckily for me, it was a success, and about ten minutes later, I was in, catching Far East Movement's last song.

Now, when LMFAO came on, we had bought standing tickets. Throughout the entire night, I felt like Mufasa in that scene with the wildebeests in the Lion King, not sure if I was going to make it through the night alive without being trampled alive by neon pants, ray-ban wearing teenagers. Five champagne showers, 15 LMFAO songs, and one blow-up zebra later, I felt accomplished and enlightened.

LMFAO was sexy... and they knew it.

Oui, Paris!

My flatmates and a friend who was visiting from Canada took me to Paris for my birthday in November. I was stoked. I had been meaning to go to Paris ever since I started learning French in elementary school. We took an early Eurostar train to Paris, which lasted around 3 hours, and made it into Gare du Nord at around 9:30 AM.

We basically had a crash tour of all of the tourist attractions in Paris - Louvre, l'Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame. We didn't get a chance to go into the Louvre or Musee D'Orsay. I was hoping to see some of Van Gogh's work.

When we got to l'Arc de Triomphe, my friend and I completely disregarded the fact that there was an underground passageway to get to l'Arc. We didn't realize that one actually existed! Instead, we crossed through the roundabout... all 9 lanes of it.

l'Arc de Triomphe

We went looking for the Eiffel Tower, but as the city layout of Paris is circular and is full of many roundabouts, we kept spotting the tower, but ended up going around in circles, not getting any closer. On our way there, we spotted a building that looked similar to the Parthenon in Athens. Although sporting similar architecture, this building had not received the same respect, and was covered in litter, graffiti, and skateboarders.

Finally, we reached the tower.

This tower was lovely at all hours of the day.

At some point, we decided to go conjure up some macarons from La Duree. However, there was a specific fountain that Jon wanted to take a photo of. Unfortunately, he ran off and we could not find him. We lost Jon for over an hour! Finally, and miraculously, we found Jon just as we stepped out of La Duree.

We then later ventured to the Sacre Coeur, after finding very interesting street art along the way... and of course, wine and cigarettes, the ultimate Parisian lifestyle.

The view from steps of the Sacre Coeur was breathtaking, and we were able to take in all of Paris in one glance.

Finally we made our way down to the Notre Dame again, where we were told that we couldn't bring a rolling luggage in. Jon and I took turns entering the cathedral, and when Jon came out again, I had fallen asleep on our luggage.

Jon and I decided that we just had to see the Eiffel Tower again before we left to return to London. However, in our excitement as the tower lit up and began to sparkle, we realized that we had less than half an hour to catch our train back. We took a cab, and I explained to the driver that we were in a bit of a hurry in my broken French. When we got there however, we could not find the platform and unfortunately missed the train. Luckily enough, the staff at the station let us take the following train, free of charge. However there was a huge delay as there was a dead animal on the train tracks. Finally, we made it back to London, ready to go to class the next day.

Rude Tube

My flatmates and I eventually discovered that we were all a little hard of hearing/did not communicate well.

We were on our way back from seeing a potential flat. It was quite busy on the tube as it was right during the 6pm post-work rush, so we all squeezed into the train as best as we could. At first we all stood, but this seat became free which was right near the door. However, a girl was about to sit down, and she looked really tired and was carrying a whole bunch of suitcases, so I let her sit down and walked back over to Narmeen, one of my flatmates.

And so begins the miscommunication.

Tinya: Why didn't you sit down?

Karen: Oh, someone had left a suitcase there. - unfortunately, this is what Tinya thinks I said to her.

Tinya: What? Someone just left a suitcase? Did they know?

 Karen: I think so.

Tinya: Well, where is it?

Karen: Oh, it's tucked to the side.

Curious, Tinya leaned towards the seat and squinted a bit. It was a bit hard to tell, but she could see that there was a tiny gap between the side of the seat and the train wall, wide enough for a thin suitcase to fit in.

Tinya: Wait... so someone left a suitcase and they tucked it into the side of the seat... isn't that kind of sketchy?

Karen: Yeah, I guess it is?

At this point Narmeen joined in the conversation.

 Narmeen: Hmm... well I think it's a bomb.

Tinya: What?! A BOMB?! What do we do?!

Karen: Or it could just be a drug deal....

Narmeen: Yeah, like they arrange for someone to drop off the suitcase on the train or something.

Tinya: Well, who left it? Did you get a good look at him?

Narmeen: He was in gold.

 Karen: Like a mime?

Narmeen: I don't know... I heard him speak to people on the train.

Karen: Maybe he was off duty?

So at this point, Tinya got increasingly agitated, and was inching near the door. She started talking to Narmeen’s mom, and was freaking her out, so they’re both freaking out.

Tinya: Guys... I think we should get off.

Narmeen: Whatever. I don't really care.

Karen: I just want to sit. I'm so tired, I don't give a fuck.

At this point, Narmeen and I just had a conversation about how we’re so lazy that we’re not afraid of dying right now, as long as it’s not a painful death we have to endure. Finally, we pulled into our stop and Tinya couldn't get off the train fast enough. The two of them follow behind me.

Tinya: Okay, so that was really weird... should we do something about that suitcase? Where was it again Karen?

Karen: What? I am so confused right now.

Tinya: Didn't you say there was a suitcase tucked into that seat? Where? …..

Karen: ... I think we just had a huge miscommunication. What did you think I said?

Tinya: Wasn't that why you didn't want to sit? Someone had left a suitcase tucked into that seat?

Karen: OHHHHHH. NO I said that I didn't want to sit because someone had a ton of suitcases!

Tinya and Narmeen: What?

Karen: Yeah, there was a girl standing there with a ton of suitcases, so I thought I'd let her sit.

Narmeen: I definitely heard what Tinya heard... that someone had tucked a suitcase into the seat.

Tinya: Wait, I'm confused. But didn't you hear our conversation? Why didn't you realized that we heard wrong?

Karen: Oh, I was really tired so I zoned out for a bit, and by the time I realized what was going on, I just assumed you guys saw something I didn't. So I went with it.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

I came to London about a year and a half ago. I hadn't planned on coming to London as I had registered to do a master's program at a university in my home town, Toronto. On a complete whim, I decided to accept my offer at the LSE and next thing you know, I had booked a one-way flight to London. When I first arrived in London, my flatmates and I hadn't managed to find a flat yet, so we were bouncing around hotels and hostels, still living in limbo when we attended the orientation session at the LSE.

  "You alright, love?" was one of the first things, and probably one of the most memorable, that I was asked as I was wandering around Victoria station, trying to figure out if Chalk Farm was an actual farm, and how I would transport myself there. I can remember using my first pay phone in London - the large 50p coins I was pulling out of my pocket barely lasted me more than 30 seconds of a call! Finally, I was able to reunite with my flatmates in Chalk Farm. My flatmate and I did a little exploring on the second night.

Our first destination was Oxford Circus - I had honestly thought that I would find a building full of dancing animals here.

Oxford Circus tube station

 
Instead, we were confronted with double decker buses and signs on the road telling us where to look when we crossed the street. Fascinating! I had never seen this in Toronto. In Toronto, crossing the road seemed to be a much simpler task. As we wandered the streets, the sights seemed to be strangely familiar. City roads, bright lights - seemed like it was just another stroll down Queen Street in Toronto.

 That night, we escaped to a pub down the street to access the free WiFi, nonchalantly selecting potential courses for our program while the pub folks were busy drinking and watching a football match. We eventually moved into our new flat and settled in, putting together our Ikea furniture. Our first dinner in the flat was a simple meal of food items that required very little effort cooking - and one could not forget the soy sauce, of course!

Our first dinner in the flat

 

Our second tourist attempt was exploring the Southbank area near the London Eye. I had never seen that many people in one place in my life! Being the tourists that we were, I made sure to keep all of my belongings close to me and was constantly checking to see that my purse hadn't been ransacked. We found many street performers, and this one particular little girl who was especially excited about the gigantic bubbles that the street performers were blowing.

All in all, London seemed to be a very beautiful and exciting place, and I could not wait to settle in and really live here.

The London Eye and the Thames River