Edible Encounters

The English are not known for their culinary expertise. Before coming here, many told me to beware the fried, tasteless, and potato-heavy cuisine. I've found, though, that like any big city, London offers a plethora of delicious food from every background at any time of day in a variety of price ranges. Thus far, I've tried out...

- Fish 'n' chips (finally!) at a pub called King's Arms. There are about 50 pubs called King's Arms in London, but still... just that name says it's gotta be a good place for fish 'n' chips, right? The British serve this signature dish with a lemon wedge, malt vinegar, tarter sauce, and mashed peas.

- Duck and hoisin sauce wrap at the student union... really delicious. It's much easier to find chicken, steak, duck, pork, or lamb here than it is to find turkey. This presents a sliiight problem for me, since my main protein sources at home consist of turkey hot dogs, turkey deli meat, and turkey breast. It's a nice change though, I suppose, and I'll be ready to jump back into my usual diet when I get back to school.

- HP sauce for fries (whoops... chips) and other salty, savory items. This British condiment tastes like a sweet BBQ sauce, or maybe like BBQ sauce mixed with extra vinegar and hoisin sauce. It's at pretty much any restaurant where ketchup would be served, but it's way better than ketchup... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce.



- Spaghetti Bolognese is delicious. Apparently, upon looking at recipes, it has bacon in it... whoops. So, I won't be eating it again, but it is quite tasty. It's like typical spaghetti with meat sauce, except more creamy and flavorful and garlicky and rich... http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spaghettibolognese_67868.

- Sushi places are everywhere in all kinds of prices ranges. I went to one for lunch today and it was delish.

- Chinatown is big and has a bunch of restaurants, all seemingly with the word 'dragon' or 'golden', or both, somehow incorported into the name. Since the restuarants are so dense, the prices and menu offerings at everyone are almost identical. It's like a textbook example of perfect competition (that LSE education is doing something, eh?). Also, they all hang cooked pigs of various sizes in their windows.

- Pot pie is not healthy per say, but it is real yummy and it is quintessentially British. I like chicken and veggie pot pie, but I've seen varieties with kidney invovled that I refuse to try... my adventurousness ends with the duck. I've only had Pot Pie once, and will probably keep it that way given that butter, flour, and cream seem to be the main ingredients.



I still need to try Indian food, which is supposed to be very good here because of the substantial Indian population. I've also heard that ice cream is richer and creamier than it is in the States, so that's on the list of things to try too. But, until next time... bon appetit! (Or should I just say, 'good appetite!' since I'm in England and not France?)

Music Monday

One of the coolest things about being in a new place is the chance to experience the little differences in its pop culture. The tabloids here are pretty prolific, and seem to be even more sensational than US tabloids. In TV, movies, and plays, the sense of humor is more likely to be sarcastic and/or slapstick than US entertainment is. For the most part, top 40 musical artists are the same ones that are popular in the US... Usher, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Rihanna, and Timbaland are all big news over here. But Brits also love a type of sugary, boy band-sounding pop that we Americans have moved on from. Here is a particularly sticky example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=886AQqcM8Tk

And this one is actually kind of good, helped only by the brassy band...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQjh9H-ymK4

Enjoy!

Double Decker Buses

This weekend, nine friends from my program and I participated in the ultimate tourist activity in London: a double decker bus tour. The Big Bus Tour cost 26 pounds, but it was well worth the expense. The tour took us all over the city to all the major tourist sites, from Big Ben and the Parliament building to the Tower of London, providing interesting commentary all the way. Patrons can get off the bus at any of 31 stops to explore further, and simply get back on the bus whenever they're ready. The tour also includes a boat tour on the River Thames, with excellent views of the Eye of London, Big Ben, the Tate Modern, the American Embassy, and other such big deal buildings and sites. Here are some pictures of our adventure...

St. Paul's Cathedral, which I went on a run to from my dorm the following day... how exciting to run to such an incredible place as if it were no big deal? I plan to go back so that I can see the inside



Interesting Swedish office building... I love the design



The Tower Bridge and our super cool tour guide



The Tower Bridge, with my friend and I in the forefront



The Tower of London... I was especially excited to see this after watching "The Tudors" and I plan to go back here too to see the Crown Jewels and the place where Anne Boleyn and others were executed



Friends and I outside the Tower of London... smiles near a not-so-smiley place



On the boat tour



The American Embassy



The Eye of London, a ferris wheel with large cabins that give its riders a great view of the city



The Parliament building and Big Ben... "Ben" is actually the bell inside the tower, not the tower itself



M6 Offices, the British Secret Service office that deals with foreign affairs issues



The Westminster Abbey



Buckingham Palace







The Buckingham Palace stable... the carriages that transport the Queen and her crown, as well as the one that transported Princess Diana on her wedding day, are kept here... I plan to go back to go inside soon



Her Majesty's Theatre, where shows are held with the Queen in mind... if a King should come to power, they will change the name to "His Majesty's Theatre"



Look for more pictures of these places soon!

Olay Olay Olay

There is nothing like being in Europe during the FIFA World Cup. The excitement over the event surpasses American excitement regarding the Super Bowl, the World Series, NBA March Madness, and the Olympics... combined. Spanish fans seem to be the most nuts, and I've been lucky enough to be out at the pubs during a couple of their recent wins. The following is a picture of a packed pub during Spain's win over Germany in the semi-finals last Thursday. I recorded a video too, because being in the middle of the chanting is worth remembering forever, but it won't load onto this website.



And some new friends...

Sarah's New English Dictionary

Many American students spend hours in language classes, from Spanish to French to Japanese and beyond, to prepare to study abroad in a foreign country. They diligently practice their ability to read, write, and speak in these other languages, memorizing vocabulary and learning conjugation structures. Once abroad, they improve their skills even further, often becoming close to fluent by the end of their trips.

I have never been one for learning new languages. It's not that I'm averse to new and different cultures, it's just that I, for lack of a better term, suck at learning language. In Hebrew school, I dreaded Hebrew letter flashcard time. Later, in high school, I took Spanish, but only because my adviser told me I had to, and because my class got to mentor in a bilingual program at an elementary school during senior year. It makes sense, then, that I chose an abroad program that didn't require me to stray from my native and beloved English.

Yet I feel I have been deceived. The British may speak English, but Americans and British experience communication failure nonetheless. These failures occur most often in grocery stores and when attempting to locate restrooms, trash cans, and other basic necessities. To alleviate such problems for future travelers, I have compiled a list of words and phrases that those native to these parts seem to be confused about...

1. American word/phrase = British word/phrase
2. To add minutes/money to (phone/other technological device) = To top up
3. Bathroom = toilets ('loo' is a slang expression... never written on an actual bathroom door)
4. Subway = tube or underground
5. Goodbye/thanks = Cheers
6. Darling = love (As in, 'Cheers, love')
7. Friend/bro = mate
8. Eggplant = aubergine
9. Fries = chips and chips = crisps
10. Pudding = dessert of any variety
11. Watch out/beware = mind (As in, 'Mind the step')
12. Mens' barber = Gents Hairdresser

Trust me, there's more. I'll be adding to this list as the days go on.

Prepare to drink Pimm's, friends

I have discovered the best summer beverage of all time. Pimm's and lemonade is the greatest thing that ever happened to thirsty, overheated college students. I will find Pimm's in the States, and I will make you try it with lemonade, sliced strawberries, lemons, limes, and cucumbers, and a liiiiitle bit of crushed mint. It's sweet and refreshing. You will never want to drink iced tea, a cold Coke, strawberry lemonade, or any other so-called summer drink again. When it comes to this, the Brits have got it right...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/may/21/how-to-drink-pimms

Fun and Frustration

I've been in London for five days now, enough time to develop some early opinions about the city, Londoners, and the London School of Economics. So far, I really enjoy...

- The accents are amazing, and I'm working on learning to differentiate between accents from various parts of Britian... Southern Brits sound different than Northern, and they get offended if you mix them up.
- The grocery stores, which have a plethora of high quality and healthy prepared foods for very little money, as well as pre-washed vegetables and all kinds of fun foods like rhubarb or fig yogurt, custards, and exoctic drinks.



- Hard cider, beer, Pimm's cocktails, and gin and tonics are consistently delicious at every pub... no plastic bottle hard alcohol handles or Keystone Light for this country.
- The sense of accomplishment that comes from successfully crossing a street in a country in which cars go the wrong way.
- The tube (the London version of the subway) is cheap, fast, and efficient.
- There are people from all over the world... in any given class or on any given street corner, I can see and hear people from India, all over Europe, Brazil, Canada, and the list goes on. One of my professors is Indian and the other is Dutch. Being abroad and taking an Economics class in London offers much more than a slice of Britian... it offers an amazing view of the whole world.
- Interesting shops, restaurants, and pubs at every turn.
- LSE subsidized dining services, which makes a well-made sandwich or salad from an LSE restaurant less expensive than one I could make from grocery shopping (around £2.50).
- LSE facilities are also pretty incredible. My class is in the New Academic Building, which looks like this inside...


- All major muesums are subsidized by the government so that admission is free. Patrons can literally walk right into the building and begin looking around. Yesterday I walked two blocks from my dorm into the British Muesum. I saw the Rosetta stone and various sculptures and artifacts from Egypt and Greece. I'll go back this weekend to see the rest.
- H&M, Topshop, and a million other funky stores are within blocks of my dorm.
- People dress well in the city... men wear fine suits and women wear dresses and heels. There are lots of really beautiful people here too... far fewer fat people than in America.

There's a lot of good about this country, but there are a few things that make me miss home and appreciate America, the Northwest, and Whitman more than ever...

- Waitstaff and bartenders are incredibly rude. Because they don't work for tips, they have little to no incentive to be nice to customers, field unusual questions, or split checks among groups of young people who don't understand the currency in the first place. I asked for sugar-free vanilla flavoring in my milk steamer this morning. The barista laughed at me. I'm sorry, bitchy French lady... this is a quite normal question in some parts of the world. (On that note, the French I've met seem to live up to the lovely stereotypes about them... they consistenly think they're better than everyone else. Maybe they're just pissed off that they somehow ended up in London.)
- Pubs generally close at 11 PM.
- Jetlag
- A three week summer course at LSE means four hours of class everyday plus a couple of hours of reading. I'm in London for the first, and maybe only, time in my life. Though LSE is a big deal, and the course is interesting and I'm working hard at it, I'd rather be off at one of those free muesums.
- Toilets and showers are weird here. Finding a trash can (called a rubbish or litter container) or a drinking fountain in any building or on the streets is like looking for a unicorn at the bottom of the ocean.
- The drinking water is not tasty. This calls for lots of Crystal Light.
- Surprising amounts of administrative failure at LSE. Registration consisted of waiting in line for two and a half hours in order to perform the five second task of showing them my passport and getting an ID card. I expected a bit more of the famous LSE, especially since it is supposed to understand how to manage things efficiently, being the premiere social science institute IN THE WORLD.
- I haven't eaten fish 'n' chips yet. This must change this weekend.

All in all, being here is incredible. Though there're some strange aspects of the country to adjust to, the downsides to being here are more amusing than annoying, and my main worry is that I won't have time to see and do everything that I want to. And with that, I'm off to class, and then to see and to do... Cheers until next time!