Yesterday afternoon, we hopped on the tube and headed toward Liverpool Street. This is where we met our British Life and Cultures professor who was waiting for us outside the station. The trip was to expose our class to the East End of London, where there is a huge Indian and Bangladeshi population. From the tube station, we walked through narrow winding streets that might as well be considered alleyways with little shops and pubs tucked away so that only a knowing local would be aware of their locations. I felt kind of dumb as I was wearing a backpack and carrying my camera. Oh well, I am a tourist. Our professor was fairly knowledgeable about the area and gave us an informative walking tour from the station all the way to Brick Lane, which was essentially the epicenter of Banglatown. Up and down this one street was shops and restaurants completely dominated by people of Bangladeshi descent. Although, I couldn't help but think that if I was Bangladeshi, I would probably find it offensive to be living in a neighborhood called Banglatown...but our professor explained to me that they embraced the name and created lucrative businesses in the densely populated neighborhood. We finally got to the restaurant and since there was about 25 of us, they gave us the entire top floor to ourselves. Let me just say, at this curry house I had one of the best eastern meals I might have ever had. It was really really nice because FIE was paying for lunch and there was no set menu or anything. Included in our "paid for lunch by FIE" was any starter we wanted, any meal costing under 10 pounds, a plate of naan, and either a pint of beer, a glass of wine, or a lassi - which was a yogurt based drink from India. I opted for the Cobra beer. I ended up getting great food and was pretty full afterwards.
We all dispersed from there and went back to Kensington to rest up for a few hours. Around 8pm, the five of us made a great fried rice / stirfry thing for dinner. After we cleaned up, Brian, Emily, and I walked over to Imperial to meet up with a bunch of people to go out for Paige's birthday. I got my usual snakebite and I'm convinced it was a lot stronger last night because when we left, I had only had about two and I couldn't walk a straight line. We all made our way to Piccadilly to the Sports Cafe (which was ironically directly across the street from TigerTiger haha). It was nice to be in an American-themed place with big screen tvs and a loud crowded bar. Brian and I basically split a pitcher of LIIT and we all just had a really great time celebrating with Paige who is now "no longer a baby" haha. I left around 1:30 with Em and Alyssa to catch the N9 back home. The bus picked us up and we walked right to the back and I ended up sitting across from this guy in a suit. We talked and he said that he works for the new A&F in London so we had a common job right there. He was just coming home from the "runway party" and I had no idea what he was talking about so when I asked he said he was invited to the Burberry show that night in London and was just getting back from the runway party. He then told me that VB told him to "lose the tie" and so he did. He said she was really funny and basically spent the night hanging out with her and the hubby. I just sat there mouth hanging open. And that was my night. ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION PEOPLE! I'm getting closer.
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