In the Midst of Midterms

So much has happened since my last post, which was about two weeks ago. That is way too long, but my excuse is that I had two exams last week, not to mention two more this coming week. So I shouldn't even be blogging right now, but then I'd be extremely behind. Let the recap begin...

Two weeks ago on Saturday, we headed over to Ministry of Sound (finally!) to see Wolfgang Gartner. It was pretty sick and the people there were super nice. Everyone was offering to take pictures of us and it was just a really friendly crowd--a much better experience than Skrillex and nothing got stolen, thank goodness.

you can kind of see him through the fog...

We didn't exactly have many photogenic pictures that night so no photos of us will be posted haha.

On March 2nd, we went to the Barbican Centre to see the London Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler's Symphony No. 9. It was really amazing and I'm glad we went! Kind of brought out the inner band geek in me :(

inside the concert hall

The next day, we ventured over to Wholefoods for the thirsty thursdays wine tasting event. We sampled five different wines and five different snacks and we bought some stuff afterwards. The wines were okay but the best drink was the last one with raspberry vodka, elderflower, and other stuff.

the raspberry drink

After studying all weekend and finishing the essay for the mandatory class, Lynn, Charine and I decided to finally check out that sushi place in the Brunswick Centre. It was decent.. I just liked watching the sushi train because I've never seen one before!

yum

This past Tuesday, we went to a gallery near King's Cross for design class. It was by an artist named Douglas Gordon and his work was pretty interesting. There was one room that was pitch black except for three large screens with a film projected onto it. It was titled "k.364" for Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major where it follows two musicians on the train to the concert and then playing in concert. It was pretty moving and I could probably sit in that room for hours just watching the screens and listening to the music. The other room was completely white with various photos, postcards, posters, etc. posted on the walls in a certain order. It was basically like reading the story of Gordon's life in pictures and mementos and you kind of interpret it in your own way without ever really knowing what he meant to convey. Anyways, I thought it was really interesting. And on the way back Charine and I saw this interesting little park with a lot of mosaics and glass art. Plus it had a tire swing.

Charine playing on the tire swing

Besides that, it's been a crazy weekend. I'll have to recap our birthday weekend in a separate post or else this one will go on for an eternity. More to come!

Cheers!

Free Day

Since I'm on a roll, might as well post up some photos of Thursday, when Derek, Yan and I decided to venture out to Trafalgar Square to check out the National Gallery and try some Japanese yakitori in Soho.

Trafalgar Square & National Gallery:

Trafalgar Square

National Gallery

climbing off the lion

entrance

inside the museum - not sure if i was allowed to take a picture, oh well

Now for the food pictures, my specialty ;)

Bincho:

kim chi pork ribs

delicious

my yakitori-don

samurai sampler

menu

soymilk donuts with vanilla ice cream

And later that night, Charine and I were convinced to go out and we went with Jeff and Sean to a bar called Roadhouse, which at first I wasn't very enthused about the music, but it turned out to be pretty good in the end. Let's just say that the night resulted in quite a few priceless photos, some of which will never see the sun again as I was told to hide them forever, but it's all good. Now you can only imagine just how great those photos were :p

this fishbowl drink that we had... not bad

let me just tell everyone right now that sourz is the best drink ever

charine is challenged by jeff and dan to walk in a straight line...

I'm pretty sure my abs were sore the next day from laughing so much that night. Big thanks to Charine for the entertainment and Jeff and Sean for convincing us to actually go out.

As for me, my throat's been killing me every morning ever since we got back from Amsterdam. Everyone's been getting sick these days and I think the germs are just being passed around by all the students here in London. Think about it.. we don't even have dishwashers and I doubt a sponge and a little dishwashing soap is going to disinfect the germs when everyone washes their plates and utensils off after a meal. And seeing as how we have 9 girls living in our suite, I wouldn't be surprised if our germs just got passed around the suite. Oh well, what can you do. I just hope this sore, scratchy throat will go away soon because I'm sick of swallowing phlegm every 5 seconds and clearing my throat lest I suffocate and die.

Now, it's time to commence the essay for our dreadful required course before the suite heads out to Ministry of Sound for Wolfgang Gartner tonight. Hopefully it'll be fun, but hey, no high expectations, especially after what happened at Skrillex right?

Amsterdam and the In-Between Bits

I'm getting a little lazy here with the blogging... it's almost been like two weeks and still no post. Allow me to fill in the in-betweens and whatnot from last post til now.

Last Thursday, Charine, Lynn and I decided to finally go and check out the Borough Market. It was pretty good, but we probably went a little too late so there weren't as many stands and it wasn't as bustling as I thought it'd be. But, the food was still yummy and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's in London :)

entrance to the market

coffee from monmouth coffee

map of the market

That night, we all packed our bags and headed down to King's College for a weekend trip to Amsterdam. Everyone is astonished by the fact that we took a 10 hour bus ride there instead of a 2 hour plane ride, but it really wasn't that bad. Here's a recap of what we did in Amsterdam in photos:

Friday - arrive in Amsterdam, pancakes, Anne Frank museum, club

world-renowned coffee shops of Amsterdam

salmon, tomato and cheese pancake

chocolate, banana and nuts pancake - heaven

the anne frank house was hauntingly interesting

the free club event that we decided to go to..

let's just say that long island ice teas are a good investment

oh, and here is what our hostel room looked like - prison cell much?

Saturday - Heineken Experience, I AMsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, indonesian food, red light district

Heineken Experience

samples

I AMsterdam

Van Gogh museum

indonesian food.. very spiced/curried but the chicken was really good

red light district, eerie and disturbing yet arguably the most beautiful part of amsterdam. oh the irony.

test tubes

photo yan doesn't remember of us eating ribs

the Hansbrinker Hotel, where we called home for those two nights

And Sunday was our journey back to London. Good thing we snagged the best seats on the bus -- the ones on the lower floor of the bus -- so we didn't have to listen to that one British girl who pre-gamed for both bus rides and would not shut up the first time. We arrived safe and sound back at Byron Court in the evening and that ends our lovely trip to Amsterdam :)

Afternoon Tea and a Day Trip

Hello everyone.

SO the two most exciting things I did this week was going to afternoon tea at the Lanesborough Hotel and going on a day trip to Stonehenge & a cute little town called Bath.

On Thursday, we headed through the drizzling rain to Hyde Park, where the Lanesborough is located. Apparently it was Michael Jackson's favorite hotel. I don't blame him, because it was really nice inside. After checking in our coats and wet umbrellas, we were led into the dining room where several other tables of people were already enjoying their afternoon tea and snacks to go along with it. It was kind of awkward, because the waiters pulled out our chairs for us and put our napkins on our laps for us and everything. I was definitely not used to that kind of treatment. Here are some pictures:

The group

"pre-dessert" of some cream, chocolate, and raspberry layered on top of each other

The Lanesborough Afternoon Tea blend - it tasted pretty good

our tier of sandwiches and pastries!

group photo

our tea :)

super sweet macaroon half with cream, apricot, chocolate

After tea, Charine, Derek and I decided to go and explore the nearby area a bit. We went towards Picadilly Circus and met an interesting guy on the way there. He is apparently a "renaissance man" and is an artist. And he gave us his name so we could add him on facebook... definitely not adding him. He was kind of creepy and even invited us over for dinner lol. Anyway, we explored a little bit between Picadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, and we stopped by a place called Zebrano because a lady was giving out cards for 50% off drinks. Too bad it was kind of awkward because everyone was 25+ years old and all had their own parties at their own tables. At least the drinks were good? After that we headed home and Charine made us watch a movie called "Perfume" which was interesting but really weird at the same time, and the ending was kind of lame.

Hyde Park @ night

jumping pictures, all day every day

trying on hats at Fortnum & Mason

The next day, we had a full day trip to Stonehenge & Bath. We had to get up at 7am for this and it was a three hour bus ride. Pictures:

Stonehenge... not as big as everyone makes it seem

the crescent in Bath

Park in Bath

the Roman Baths - so pretty, I wish we could've bathed in them :p

And that ends my post for today. The week flew by so quickly, it's already Sunday... sigh. Let the homework begin.