Jason's Daily Notes

I'm still very busy with schoolwork. I tried to accomplish some reading/research yesterday (Sunday) at the library, and I did get some done, but it's frustrating that after 3 hours I could only get partway through 1 book.

Swag and Nike went to Leeds. They hitchhiked Friday night and returned Sunday afternoon.

There were 3 couchsurfers over, who were technically Swag's guests, but they became mine when Swag left for Leeds.
The CSers were from New Jersey / Virginia. They're all studying in Rome. Sara, who's only 18, is going to be a bigtime conductor and will soon transfer to an elite music school called Winchester, I think. Zach is from NJ, studying history, and seems like a really great guy. Unfortunately he became very ill during the visit and needed to rest, so I didn't hang out with him as much as I'd have liked to. Finally, there was Abe, who was their friend and wasn't originally supposed to stay with us but joined anyway. He's studying art history and is very knowledgeable about many aspects of culture that even I don't know.

Friday was 11/11/11. And to commemorate 11:11:11 11/11/11, we took a shot. Swag took the pic just as he was leaving for work. Sara and Zach then went out to see some museums, since it was cloudy and chilly. I stayed in, did very little work, and went to LSE for marketing class. I was going to meet them for dinner but it didn't really work.

We then went for a night walk Friday night. The pubs were closed at 11, but there was one pub (The Boatman) that was still open, with a much older crowd but live lounge music! It was almost surreal, but nice.

Saturday I made some English breakfast, then tried to "work" during the day (but ended up watching Community and a Channel 4 special on luck). The CSers were off to ambitiously see all of London from the Tate to the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace. I joined them in the evening, around 10:30, and we traveled from Piccadilly to Shoreditch, where we ended up at the Roadtrip Bar, which I remember as being relatively quiet compared to the others in the area. And as we stood around, Zach having a hot tea to sooth his throat, I could not believe who I spied out of the corner of my eye: It was Jamie - he was there with Chris and his housemate Alex and a couple other people, all out for the weekend as usual. What a coincidence, of all the places in London to end up at! It was hilarious and simply awesome to run into a friend like that, especially in such a big city.

The way back home from Old Street was brutal. 1st night bus took us to Liverpool Street, where we walked for a bit and couldn't get on the first bus because it was so full, then finally caught a bus to Elephant and Castle, where we got the N1 to Surrey Quays. We had to walk all the way across the shopping centre lot, stopping to pee. It was late and we were exhausted.

At least it's not that cold. Like 13-15 during the day, 8-10 at night, which isn't much colder than nighttime in LA.

Sunday, Abe and Zach left early (7am) to catch their bus to the airport. I can't imagine how horrible Zach must have felt. Sara and I got up and moving around noon, and we headed to Brick Lane, where I showed her an amazing array of food, which she enjoyed. She told me about her musically-inclined family and being 1 of 12 half/step siblings. We then walked to Liverpool Street, where she headed off to the British Museum and I went to King's Cross to meet Swag and give him my keys because he didn't have his (Maria borrowed them while he was gone). Swag had brought his bike with him from Leeds. I left for the library at LSE, where I was slightly productive, and then I joined Swag and Sara for dinner at Brick Lane. Aladin restaurant - it has really good reviews and ratings, and it's full of people, but the service was rude and abrupt. I would not go there again.

On the way to Brick Lane, I (1) just missed the 15 bus which would have saved me time, then I (2) just missed the train - literally the doors closed in my face! The next train I got on but was (3) terminating at Tower Hill. So I had to figure out that I had to change platforms and rush onto the train