So much to do!

If I had a hundred years in London I wouldn't have time to do everything! West End shows, East End Fringe shows, pubs and clubs and dancing. Books and writing and museums! It's all sinking in as I start to plot out the next weeks and months of my time in London. I had my first classes today and I am thrilled! I've about a dozen new friends, requirements to see seven shows, and three short creative pieces worked on as an exercise in my Writing London class. I am absolutely fantastically excited to do everything! I've got a journal now to put all my creative writing and random thoughts in and our first assignment in Theater class, besides seeing The Woman in Black is to buy "Time Out" the nightlife magazine for London. Fantastic! I'm flipping through it and I'm astonished at the sheer number of things there are to do here. I'm interested in checking out this little fringe theater in Hackney, right around the corner from where I live called Arcola. We are supposed to see "Victory: Choices in Reaction" there later in the term, but there are other things playing between now and then and once I see my required shows, it's so close I might as well check it out. Rachel was right; East End (Shoreditch, Hackney, Old Street) is the artsy side of town. There are at least three organic, whole food type groceries on Old Street that I discovered while I was wandering on Sunday (Mable slept in - we were supposed to go to this market she knew of but she never called so I wandered instead). One of them I really like has a little black and white cat that wanders around. Rediculously expensive I might buy a juice there just so I can visit with the cat, but I'll stick to Sainsbury's and Tesco for milk, eggs, bread etc.

I cannot wait to buy my tickets! A group of us are sharing our google calandars and this guy Dan from my class is putting everything together so we can get group and student discounts for some of the shows we're supposed to see in class. Also he's interested in seeing football games!!! His favorite team is Chelsea and I would LOVE to see a Chelsea game. Mind you I don't have a preference for football teams, mostly because I don't really know any, but since my NAME is Chelsea, I feel it would be fitting to go to a match. And it would be amusing to hear people cheering my name and singing songs to "Chelsea."

Yesterday Kartik stopped by London on his way to India and I gave him a quick walking/tube tour of the things he most wanted to see in London. We went to the Tower, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and walked by Westminster Abbey. We ate in this little Pub off Victoria St. and I FINALLY had fish and chips. Which for all the hype is rather unimpressive and didn't seem very English to me other than it was served with peas. Perhaps because my family is partly English, it was very much like a family dinner with grandma and grandpa Slone used to be. Fried fish, french fries and peas. No tarter sauce though - that would have made it a bit more enjoyable. What was enjoyable was the lagger! Very hoppy, though I don't remeber the name. And oh the irony of life: I watched Obama's inaguration from a pub on Victoria St in London, eating fish and chips (and peas of all things), drinking lagger and listening to the Brits talk American politics. One slightly tispy woman actually cheered, in a very Brittish way. I can't remember exaclty what she said, just that I found it extremely amusing.

I'm going to wind down a bit early tonight becasue I've got Art and Society at 9AM tomorrow and I want to be fresh. After that I'm going to try the Pilates class at the gym, get in some cardio and a quick lift and then head over to some where pretty - perhaps a library, to do some reading, writing, and preping for my classes. I have to grid out a to do list for all of them so I keep track of everything I need to do. With class only meeting once a week it would be too easy to get behind on my work.