Life outside of Camden.

A new part of town has stolen my heart, unlike Camden, which only steals our wallets. Haha! (ed.: humor based on the notorious 29 bus crime rate, not on actual fact, knock on wood.) To my surprise, the East End is everything I wanted Camden to be. It's young and vibrant, with lots of legitimately cool bars and markets and vintage stores. Bailey, Jesse, and I started our East End adventure yesterday with a trip to Spitalfields Market, which was bigger than Camden Market, more diverse (including food, really funky clothes, records, and random other toys), and just generally more interesting. It's hard to quantify, but we were seduced completely, and intend to come back when we have money to spend (aka: never, but I'm sure we'll be back anyway.) We had some time to kill before meeting Soumitro for dinner on Brick Lane, so we went to an Indian sweet shop and had some sort of confection that was like fudge, but confusing and wonderful and only 60p; then we found the Upmarket, a market right off of Brick Lane. Said market was full of vintage clothes and Ethiopian food and crepes--of course, something we were all totally into. There were also vintage stores and bookshops all around the area, including one store that was Beacon's baby British cousin: the new Bloc Party on the stereo, awesome vintage dresses, art books, and even a copy of the Fader (represent!) The scene itself in the area was just fascinating -- everyone was young and dressed like Sienna Miller wished she did. I'm dying to go back.

And, of course, like usual, Brick Lane didn't fail to impress. After Soumitro's intense bargaining, we ended up with 50% off and free drinks. Dinner included tandoori chicken, chicken korma, lamb rogan, and chicken curry and loads of naan and paratha and rice -- for less than 5 quid a person. Also, Soumitro taught us the proper way to eat the rice (aka: with your hands), so it was a very Medieval Times-y experience. It's a miracle we could get ourselves home.
I came up with a veeeery important number 6 to the "things I miss about home" list, but I can't remember it right now. Frustrating! All I can remember is that it has something to do with New York, which probably has something to do with the fact that I went for a pint and a late lunch with Kristen (formerly of EC1612, the suite of the amazingest theme parties Columbia's ever seen.) Hanging out with Columbia kids always makes me feel better about life; as elitist as it may seem, sometimes it's great to drop a Core reference or reminisce about 1020 and have people know what I'm talking about. Also, talking to Kristen always makes me feel better about interpersonal relationships, as she's been through all the undergrad nonsense and now claims that a lot of the bullshit is cut out once you're in grad school (or, at least, in the UK). I'm going to Cambridge to visit her on Friday--exciting! As much as the city is a part of me, and whenever I'm away for any more than a few days I get antsy, it's still nice to take a break. Other day trips this week include Brighton--on the off-season, so it'll be a little bit Malta, a little bit Jersey shore--as a Valentine's Day field trip for me and Bailey, and possibly making it out to visit Jared out in sheep country (given that, since going to Oxford, I've found a slight obsession with sheep frolicking through the countryside!) And in other travel plans, I bought my ticket to Barcelona for the first weekend of spring break with Arielle today, so Eurotrip v. 2.0 is moving forward (also to include Montpellier and London). Knowing Arielle, it's going to be a total shitshow, New York-style, which I (rather obviously) miss terribly.

In other news! The 90s party was tons of fun, loads of cheap drinks; I dressed up as Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction and Bailey was Michael Jackson ca. early 90s. No one really dressed up, but there's nothing I hate more than people who go to a theme party without dressing up. Really, people. Get your act together. As a consequence of said party I've had B*witched's "C'est La Vie" stuck in my head for almost a week now. God damn it!

Oh, and Bailey and I went to the V&A today, as I'd never been. We enjoyed the "we colonized the shit out of you, India" section immensely, but not as much as the fashion room, which allowed Bailey and me to fantasize about being wealthy layabouts whose only obligations were to attend formal dress events.

And finally, we've instituted a new tradition at Ifor Evans dining hall: "liquid fun Fridays." Jesse has some cheap Sainsbury's vodka and imitation Bailey's; Ifor Evans thoughtfully provides orange juice and coffee. As we missed last Friday, we observed the tradition tonight instead, and I've not laughed so hard in ages. I love my floormates. Also according to tradition, today is Monday, and therefore an Ifor Evans club night. Hopefully we'll still all love each other in the morning...