"I love Americans, but let me tell you what's wrong with America"

Enlighten me, please.

I thought spending the weekend in an English speaking country would be similar to a slice of home (well, in many ways it was). Ironically I've never been more acutely aware of the fact that I was an American in a foreign country. The title of this post is a direct quote from a conversation I had with a British guy while waiting in a line to get into a club. He then proceeded to tell me what was wrong with America. Apparently we're a consumer driven society (pot calling the kettle black, pumpkin) and our government is manipulating us and we don't even know it (If we're speaking frankly he looked like he could be in the British version of Reefer Madness. Hey if he's gonna stereotype Americans I get to stereotype dreadlocked-paranoid-conspiracy theory believing strangers). He then started ranting about how he couldn't believe George W. Bush was elected president and how could Americans allow this to happen (for such a trendy city, he was way behind on the trends. Bush rants went out of style years ago...duh!). About two minutes into his rant my friend Jen says "you know he isn't president anymore, right? You know he hasn't been for two years, right?" Then he proceeded to lecture us about our political system, which he seemed to have no real grasp of (at this point I struck up a conversation with someone else less critical of my homeland). He ended his rant, quite earnestly, with "I want to visit America so badly though! Where should I go?" So, yeah, that was interesting. We also met a girl at our hostel and when she found out we were American she said, direct quote, "Wow, you're real life Americans?" Like maybe Americans were unicorns and she thought we didn't exist. Then she wondered aloud why Americans would come to England because British people hate Americans...Well, I guess I missed that memo. All the Brits I knew before my trip to London are delightful, and I'm pretty sure they like me. My new friend from the club seems to be the exception.

These experience in no way detracted from my experience in London, in fact I think they almost enhanced it. The rest of the weekend was amazing! London is a great city. So big and full of excitement and life. It's a little reminiscent of New York, but not quite.  

Kelly, Laura and I (my traveling posse) flew into Heathrow on Thursday night. Heathrow is such a nice airport. So clean! So efficient! Take note, Fiumicino. We made it through passport control, and 15 questions about my life and visit to London, and we were off to the hostel. We took the tube. Also so clean! And efficient! And no homeless person peeing in the corner! Take note, New York. We made it to our hostel around 11:30. We were sharing 15 bed room with a bunch of strangers. It was not as sketchy as I thought, but the room was tiny. I crawled up to the top of the triple bunk bed I was assigned to sleep in and tried to sleep. I wasn't very successful. It's hard to sleep in a room with that many people. The next morning we headed for the London Eye, which was visible from our hostel. It wasn't too far away and because we knew nothing about London we didn't realize how close we really were to all the sights. I took about 45 pictures of Big Ben in from various angles and close ups.

Big Ben!

So majestic!

London Eye

We also took a ride on the London Eye. It's a giant ferris wheel with great views of London. It's also very tall and every time it shook a little I had a mild panic attack. I also had to sit towards the top of the wheel and I couldn't look down without getting queasy. Heights are not my thing.

view of parliament and Big Ben from the Eye

Laura, me and Kelly on the London Eye

After our adventure on the London Eye, we were ravenous. So we picked a Random restaurant and ordered fish and chips. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a picture. It was not what I expected. I thought it would be fried fish sticks, but alas it was an entire fried fish sans head or tail. It was really good though! And I usually don't like fish, so I was pleased.

My friend Jen who also goes to Villanova and is in my sorority is studying in London this semester so she met up with us at the restaurant and hung out with us for most of the weekend. It was so great to have someone who kind of knew their way around. It made a huge difference in quality of experience. We didn't know what we were looking for in Brussels so we just wandered around, but in London we had someone who knew exactly where to go.


After we finished our fish and chips we headed to Buckingham Palace to say hi to the Queen. The Palace is gorgeous. I would love to see the inside of it. I don't know if that's even possible, but it would be awesome.

Hey Liz!

I waved, he was clearly waving back with his eyes

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around London. We went to Piccadilly Circus, which is kind of like the Times Square of London, except much smaller. We visited a souvenir shop that had all things Britain, England, London and everything in between. I bought myself a Prince William shot glass (they didn't have Harry, I looked). I was also tempted to buy a William and Kate commemorative item, just because of the sheer absurdity of it, but I couldn't decide between a plate, coffee mug, teaspoon or ash tray. But I did find the most amazing hat ever! (don't worry mom, I'm fiscally responsible and didn't buy it).

I'll save the Queen!

Jen and I with the Cool Brittania Bear

We went to the main shopping street, the name is slipping my mind, with some of the most amazing shopping I've ever seen in my life. London is such a trendy city. In every store we went into I saw so many great things. We also stopped at Starbucks. I had a latte. It was amazing. Life was grand. I could go back to Italy happy.

American coffee beverages!

After all the walking and shopping we had been doing all day, our feet were killing us. No, I think I was dying because of the pain in my feet. I felt like I had walked the entire length of the British Isles. We went to Chipotle for dinner. Most satisfying Chipotle experience of my life. Except for that one time I dressed up like a burrito and got a free burrito. So, almost the most satisfying Chipotle experience of my life. We limped back to the hostel, threw on some going out clothes and headed to Jen's apartment so we could experience the London nightlife I had seen in all of my friend's Facebook albums who studied abroad last semester. In line for the club is where I met my friend from earlier in the post. When we got to the door, I was carded and when the bouncer saw my California license he made several Arnold Shwarzenegger jokes. I didn't have the heart to tell him he also wasn't in office anymore. Once in the club we danced and danced, then danced some more. It was a blast. Afterward I serenaded the streets of London with my rendition of "What's My Name" by Rihanna and Drake. People seemed to be enjoying it...or laughing at me and screaming obscenities. Either, or. We took a cab back to the London Eye and figured we would walk from there. DAD STOP READING HERE...It was really late at night and we got kind of lost trying to find the hostel, but we knew were in the proper vicinity. It started raining and our feet were throbbing and we were just wandering around in a strange  foreign city. You know, everything your parents tell you not to do. After what seemed like 2 hours (but was actually about 30 minutes) DAD YOU CAN START READING AGAIN...We safely found the hostel. I had no problem sleeping that night.

We woke up the next morning to make it to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. It is quite the ordeal and we didn't get there early enough to get a good spot in front of the Palace to see the actual changing of the guard. We did get to see them march in on foot and on horse.

So much pomp and circumstance

WHERE ARE THE TALL FURRY HATS?!?!?!

After the guards and horses passed we left to go to Harrod's. Which was amazing. It's like a department store on steroids. We were in there for what felt like hours and we didn't even get close to seeing the whole thing. I'll have to go back again someday, when I'm not a broke college student studying abroad. After Harrod's we went back to the hostel for a much needed power nap. Except I couldn't sleep, which would come back to bite me in the ass on Monday morning. And so we headed out again to Jen's apartment and then out to a club with a ridiculous cover charge and the world's most overpriced drinks. But they were playing great music, so we danced and danced and kept dancing. We managed to find the bus that stopped right by our hostel. Again, I had no problems sleeping.

The next morning we were off to Heathrow for our flight home. Customs at Fiumicino was literally a giant clusterfudge of people trying to get through. Goodbye efficiency, it was nice while it lasted. We had to sprint to make our train back to Perugia, but we made it. It felt good to be back in my apartment in my own bed that was not 12 feet off of the ground.

Because it's not London without the red phonebooth

Ciao!