St. Patrick's Day

Just a late note on St. Patrick’s Day. Because St. Patrick’s Day is now celebrated everywhere, becoming more of an occasion for those with Irish blood now living outside Ireland. Before coming to London, I assumed that the English would probably avoid this holiday, and most things Irish in general, simply because of the fraught history between the two countries.

This is an absolutely untrue and pretty unfair assessment. Turns out there are a lot of people in England with Celtic ancestry, who want to do justice to the small holiday.

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a little closer to its homeland, a pub chain in London (we can ignore for now the fact that there are actually a few of these bars in the States as well) called O’Neills (fittingly) was pulling out all the stops to go Irish. Bartenders were wearing full out green, white and orange. Pints of Guinness were buy one, get one free. And they were even giving out these cool top-hats to anyone who asked for them. (Side note: these can cause a surprising amount of controversy. Who wants what hat? Where did my hat go? Stop stealing hats!)

Needless to say, St. Patrick’s Day is just as big here as it is in the States. Unfortunately, I don’t think they dye the Thames River green like they do in Chicago, but the feeling is still here.

Besides that, who wouldn’t want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? An excuse to have some fun in the middle of otherwise boring March? Yes, please.

Of Sun and Disasters

For the past few days, it has been obvious around London-town that Spring is on the way. In a city that spends the majority of the year overcast, people definitely celebrate when the sun is shining. Everyone you meet seems more cheerful and even tourists bouncing around the Tube seem more excited by historic London.

Which is why, when the sun came out (finally) for a Saturday afternoon, I decided not to waste the opportunity and visit Hyde Park. It's a short journey from my house and the views of the park are absolutely amazing. People were going out on the lake on paddle-boats, roller blading, walking with their dogs, biking and just out enjoying the sunshine. I even saw two people on horses.

It's absolutely beautiful, and some flowers were already in bloom. It's been a balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit in London lately, which I think many Londoners may consider still fairly cold but I consider spring. (One London lesson I've realized, though, is that the English seem to have a huge appreciation for the green space in their country and cities. I suspect this is because the English people haven't always had open space to enjoy, whereas Americans have had thousands of acres of land to do where they can do whatever the want.)

I would love to see this in the summer, although it may also be completely swamped with people through June, July and August.

Still. Beautiful.


So that was my outing for the weekend. Schoolwork has been taking over my life as of late, but I will try to share as much as I can when I can.

In other news, there was obviously a huge earthquake in Japan on Friday. And there's nothing like this headline at the end of the day to put your life in perspective:

This has shocked me. At first because of the best friend I have studying in Japan and the family of another best friend who lives in Japan. Luckily, they were both fine. Then, I was shocked because of the extent of the damage Japan has seen over the last few days. So best of luck to everyone still in Japan! Stay safe and best wishes!

Old Fashioned Marketing

On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of a rare sunny day and check out some of London's biggest markets.

First Stop: Borough Market
Borough Market is a food market in South London by London Bridge Tube station. This market features some food stands that are set up for the weekend, and some that have their own regular shop.

It was also filled with all kinds of good and interesting food. All of the bread booths were amazing, with different types of baguettes and loafs. They also had probably five different cheese stands. All of the cakes and fudge and brownies looked amazing too. While I didn't buy this huge brownie because it was 2 pounds, I heard it was absolutely godly. So I may have to revisit this Market just for the brownies.

They also sold ostrich and reindeer burgers. My jaw dropped at how bright red the meat was, but the line for these burgers stretched around the corner. I was in shock. Among other unexpected items, there was a 75 pound bottle of olive oil, a fair amount of duck meat and some funky drinks. There was also a barber shop tucked away in the Market, where appointments weren't necessary.

The place was packed with people having lunch, stocking up on fresh food for the week and us touristy folk exploring. It was also by this beautiful cathedral.

We obviously picked the right day to explore the markets. Look! The sky is blue!



Seeing all of these cheeses made me so excited. There's amazing food in London after all!







And different foods!









And spring is coming!

At least in London it feels like it is...








At this point, my camera died. So while we did venture out on to London Bridge and I caught my first glimpse of the iconic Tower Bridge since my arrival, I could not capture photos of it. No worries though, because I will definitely be visiting this market and seeing Tower Bridge again.

Also to visit again is the next market: Portobello Road Market

This one was amazing because it featured tons of antique booths. These sold everything from old teapots, maps, books, cameras and jewelry. A lot of it was a great deal and would make great trinkets for my London flat. Other booths featured more expensive but priceless antiques.

This market went for blocks down the street in Notting Hill, which is an amazing area in and of itself. After some of the antique booths, there were clothing racks set up on the streets with some great deals.

There was also at least two blocks worth of food stands. Like Market Borough, some of these sold nice lunch meals, while others sold fresh fruit and veggies for the week. Some others sold common grocery type items, like cookies (that's biscuits, here), chocolates and cheese.

And that comprised most of our weekend. But it also feels weird blogging without pictures of any of this exciting stuff. Expect those to follow at another point. But ahead this week: work as usual, homework to catch up on and a midterm essay to write. I'll be busy, but I'll update when I can.

Cheers! (I fit my first cheers into 'regular' conversation this week. It was a little strange. Why is there no American equivalent? Work on this States, please.)