Pub crawls, The Bop, and artsy stuff

Hello my loves, this weekend was another great, eventful one for the books. I feel like I've lived here for a really long time, it's crazy to think that it's only been less than two weeks, because I've somewhat gotten into a routine. Still kind of feel like I'm on vacation and that I'll be headed back to Bama to start classes or something soon. Also, I extremely miss the snacks at Alpha Gam because they don't have gushers or Doritos or a hot chocolate machine here and I'm really sad about it.

So the first week of classes was an extremely easy success. I'm in class only four times a week on three days, so it's grand. Since Thursday was the beginning of our weekend, we decided to get a group together from Roehampton and go to the West End (Liam and Sophia have been spotted here, not a big deal) for a pub crawl, yay. So we finished our classes and I took a nap, as always, and then we got ready and headed out. I wore my ADIDAS' (obviously) and jeans (what else), and while on the train I saw a girl in bright red disco pants and stilettos, so I could see that I was not in proper going out attire, but whatever. We arrived at the first bar and checked in and got our wristbands and then set out to take down the city of London (kinda). The bar crawl was a great deal because it was £12 and we got free entry and a drink at each bar. Unfortunately, the drink vouchers we got were for shots so I ended up giving mine away at each place we went because shots are gross and taste like alcohol, so, bye. The places were really fun and even though most of them were small, we still did that white girl thing where we stood in a circle and moved our arms up and down, so it was a good time. The second to last club was my favorite because it was all black and they played rap music so I was in my element.

 Selfies obvi.

Post up, flawless.

So Alex and I ended up taking an Uber home which was one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. The app was fantastic and made us feel so safe and a sweet man named Mohammad picked us up and was just the kindest soul. (Also his voice sounded like Zayn's so I wasn't complaining). Got home super quickly and warmly and (somewhat expensively) I felt like a British YouTuber, life was great at 2 a.m. on Friday morning.

No class on Friday, so we just slept in and then went to McDonald's (yay) for lunch and just to run some errands in Putney (Poundland is the business, once again hit the jackpot). Then it was time to get ready for The Bop. It was American high school themed, so I took advantage of the opportunity to wear whatever I wanted (no one could tell me I was wrong because I'm one of the only ones there who actually went to American high school *hair flip*) and wore a frocket, leggings, and Nikes. Yes. So we had to buy our tickets and then come back and finish getting ready.

We ended up going back around 11:30 and it was poppin'. They had set-up a bar, dance floor, and DJ in the same building as the Union (also the Starbucks and on-campus café, weird) but it was on the downstairs level so there was more space. It was my dream party: no excessive dance floor make outs, everyone was excited to see me even though they didn't know me (lots of hugs), no one was too drunk, they played great music (hip hop), and everyone had British accents. Apparently, everyone in England interprets American high school as us wearing football jerseys and cheerleading uniforms all the time, so everyone looked at me like I was weird for wearing a tshirt. Okay.

Best part of the night was by far when, towards the end, the DJ shouts, "It wouldn't be a real American high school party without this song!" *cue the Grease medley* Like, what do they think that we do in high school? Wear football jerseys with war paint and sing "Summer Lovin'"? Because that's the impression I got. Maybe I went to the wrong high school. Oh well, it was a grand time and I love British parties.

 Their version of fraternity letters on the wall.

I don't know about y'all, but that's obviously what I wore to high school every day.

Yes I do.

Saturday was pretty laid back, we slept in once again (I <3 sleep) and then had to go into Central London to visit some museums for one of our classes. Museums are so cool. We're learning about the time period when the Romans ruled London and so we had to go see some exhibits about that, which was awesome. Paintings are also actually insane because, just how? They're so detailed and huge and great, how were they actually made by humans? Blows my mind. Also artifacts are the coolest things ever and I just love learning about this city.

 Unreal.

 #AncientCivilizationSwag

 Broken plates and shiiii.

 This was my favorite painting. It's called, "Concrete Pavement with Dead Leaves." Genius.

 Old Bibles rock.

 #Vogue

 "Selfie With An Unknown Building" A memoir I'm writing about my time in London.

 Guildhall Art Gallery

 The Queen rides in style.

 London is pretty.

 This is for my mommy.

 A piece of the Roman wall that used to surround the city of London when the Romans ruled here.

 We got yelled at by CIA-esque guys in all black for trying to walk too close to this. Something important was happening, so I took a picture in case it ever becomes famous and I can prove I was there.

Carriage swag.

After our day spent exploring museums and other interesting business, we got back to Hammersmith and ended up going to our first Nando's, yippee. (Shout out to Nando's for putting directions in the menu about how to work the restaurant so I knew where to order and pay. Y'all rock). Unfortunately Niall couldn't make this trip because he's recovering from surgery, but he'll be there next time. It was freaking delicious and I've decided that I will become a regular there and it was incredible and yes. I support Nando's and demand that they put one on the strip immediately. (Also whoever told me that it was like Chick fil a was an actual liar). Funniest part was when I gave the woman my debit card and she tried to put it in the chip-and-pin thing and then got a confused look on her face and said, "I swipe this, right?" (How do you not know????)

After we ate dinner it was around seven, so we were gonna run in the mall so that Alexa could go into Primark, because she had never been (tragic, I know), but everything was closed. You know how New York is the city that never sleeps? That is not true of London. London definitely gets her eight hours each night because the entire mall was dead by the time we got there at seven. What even? Don't they know that night shopping is a thing? Ugh. Well, I at least know that I chose the right city because sleep is important to me as well (duh). So then we just came home and I FaceTimed the fam and went to sleep.

Hi Niall bae.

Then today I went to Hillsong again, and it was just so great! Allison came with me this time and it was so nice to have her there. The people there are just so incredibly nice and welcoming and the messages are convicting, but in a good way that pushes me to be better. Going to church there just really makes me love God more. It also makes me realise how much I take for granted as a Christian living in the south, and how incredible is the size of the church here. Last week in all the Hillsong services there were over 300 people who gave their lives to Christ, and in a city where it is so not the cool thing to do to be a Christian, that is just so amazing. The Lord is so not held back by any boundaries that people try to set on Him, He does work all over the globe regardless of what the world or celebrities or the government have to say. It's so awesome to see how the Lord is still alive and moving in this city in such a different way than in the States and it's just cool that through traveling I've gotten to see so many sides of Him and how He shows up in different cities. I love Jesus.

This week I've realised how much free time I'm going to have this semester, so it's going to be different to try to find things to do. I'm definitely missing the way that I could just go to Alpha Gam whenever I wanted and always have someone's bed to sleep in or someone to cuddle with or food to eat or people to hang out with. It's weird having nothing to do and not a huge house I can go to with comfy couches to sit on. (Also I am a professional procrastinator and so what am I supposed to do now that I have nothing to not do?) So it's kind of been hard on weeknights when there's nothing really going on and I'm just eating pasta and watching Netflix alone in my room (actually not as horrible as it sounds).

Well I love you all and I love Jesus and y'all are all so beautiful and incredible and perfect and I miss you all and just want to hug y'all so hard. Jesus is so great and y'all are so great and London is so great (and also I'm great, but we all know that, right?) and life is so great. I hope y'all have a great MLK Jr. day off of school, do cool things for me because we're British over here so we don't celebrate civil rights and I have classes. I'll talk to y'all soon.

xx

Also, I'm trying to win a free ride to the airport at the end of my program so I don't have to carry all my bags on public transportation and be a sweaty mess all over the city of London. Basically, all I need is the most Instagram likes on all my pictures with #CISLondon, so if you would like to help me out with that you can do so here.