Well, this past month has been full of adventures. On our recent trip to Yorkshire, we discovered how wonderful it is to get out of the city once and a while. It is such a fast pace here, it was good for us to get away from that and we hope to plan little trips like that more often. But, on the other hand, our time here is short and London is a wonderful place to have new experiences. So, here's a sampling of all the places we've been lately....
This first picture above is of China Town (which is really only about a block here, but it is a great place for dumplings and red bean pastries. The Chinese New Year was not that long ago, so there's more lanterns and decorations than normal.
We also learned about another holiday called Purim. One of Andy's fellow students is from Israel and she is Jewish. We celebrated Chanuka with her in December and recently we celebrated Purim with her and a whole bunch of people from her job. They rented out a room in a club and had dancing a food late into the night. She told us that the holiday involves an elaborate story with all different characters and that traditionally people dress up as the characters. But, now they mostly just get dressed up, kind of like Halloween. We didn't really pack any costumes when we moved here, so we decided to dress up as tourists. It was a great time!
This is a picture of our friends Kat and Michael who did an act in a Cabaret that we went to. Cabarets seem to be quite popular here. They ususally include some music acts, comedy acts, and some dancing. Kat and Michael did this great comedy act where they pretend to do a knife throwing routine with imaginary knives. OK, it doesn't sound funny on paper, but it was really entertaining. The whole night was fun and lots of people dressed up in fancy costumes. They had a hip-hop contest and Andy did a little rap and tied with another woman for a prize of Bavarian sausages. We left the Cabaret with Michael and then went to a club where our friend Imagen was celebrating her 30th birthday. It was a fun night, but a long one. It took over an hour to get to the second place and then almost 2 hours to get home (only buses run past midnight, and cabs are too expensive). We had a similar adventure with Michael recently when we went swing dancing with him. Costumes and long bus rides were the theme that night as well.
Here's us on the bus. Friday and Saturday nights on public transportation is interesting because it is legal to drink in public here. So, whether on a bus or a train, there are usually people just sitting and talking and laughing with a beer in hand. It took a little getting used to it, but it's normal to us now, and from time to time we participate.
In our effort to get a break from the city, we've found a new place called Hampstead Heath. It's this great park that is huge and it's got a really nice neighborhood around it that feels a bit like Stillwater.
The Brighton Pier is what I imagine Coney Island to be like. It's a city that is about a one hour train ride east of the city just on the coast. We went out there and had a nice day walking on the boardwalk, eating lots of fried food, and trying out the games and rides on the pier. It was fun, although it was really windy and cold by the beach. We might go back in the summertime.
So, there you have it. From our pictures, you might think we're running around a lot, but this has all happened over the course of a month. To be honest, we haven't done much at all lately because both of us have been sick. First me just after our Yorkshire trip and now Andy has been in bed all week. We learned an important language lesson, did you know that "conjunctivitis" is really pink eye? How do we know, you ask...we just do. Andy's got is now, and I'm trying desperately to avoid getting it. But, it has been good for us to slow down a little and have time together.
Hope all is well for each of you back home. We'll be back for a visit soon at the end of May and we're counting down the days. I will leave you with one more photo. This is one of a small little alleyway near where I work. Someone has put some poetry on the wall there, here's just one little part of it. Life IS all around you.
