Thursday 11/16: The Mahoosive Memorial
Life update: Catja is 99% sure she is going to focus her MRes and dissertation on a cultural and performance studies comparison between dance and football (soccer) in British culture and she is majorly nerding out on it. Her Roehampton classmates were quick to supply her with resources, including a link to “Discofoot,” a 2016 football dance by Ballet de Lorraine, and the website of a 2022 football exhibition at the Design Museum. Turns out the exhibition catalogue book was still on sale, so we ventured to the museum in Kensington and learned a lot about architecture, graphic and structural design, sustainability, and aesthetics. It was fascinating and a perfect, free, rainy day adventure.
Book in hand, we stopped by Tesco to grab snacks and a meal deal because Catja can never remember to pack lunch (or if she does, she forgets her charger). Then we sat under a gazebo in Kensington Gardens to munch and scare away pigeons for an hour. When our hands got cold from the wind, we wandered around the gorgeous park. We stopped briefly in front of Kensington Palace, which is closed until December 13, and thought that Payton would be extremely underwhelmed by the understated-yet-huge brick palace.
Catja also remembered a massive monument to Prince Albert in front of the Royal Albert Hall, so we walked through the yellow tree-lined paths to find him. He wasn’t hard to find. The monument is an enormous, colossal, tremendous, substantial, gigantesque, mahoosive (thank you thesaurus for teaching us this word) golden dedication to the beloved Prince, commissioned by Queen Victoria the year after he died.
Although it was a questionable use of public funds and it’s a bit icky that they were first cousins, this quote from Victoria’s diary on the plaque was touching: “Oh! To feel I was, and am, loved by such an Angel as Albert was too great [a] delight to describe! He is perfection; perfection in every way — in beauty — in everything!” Who doesn’t want a love like that?
We parted ways after wishing Zoe’s mom a happy birthday on Facetime. Catja went home to read her new football book and start using the 600 book tabs she recently acquired, and Zoe went to school to do statistics (it is barely statistics, I really just learned vocab and looked at spreadsheets).
Friday 11/17: The Date with Asbestos
In the morning, took the train to Hampstead Heath to meet up with Neil, Catja’s Fulbright friend who goes to school in Norwich, a very different vibe from London. We said hi to every dog that passed, talked about if we could genetically engineer puffles from Club Penguin, swapped gossip from our respective schools, and basked in the rare sun on top of a hill with a view of the skyline.
After parting ways with Neil, Catja and I continued on our mission to try all the local bagel bakeries in London. We headed over to Roni’s Bagel Bakery for lunch in Hampstead. As not to spoil our bagel ratings, we will leave our experience to a later post. We got our bagels and walked down the street to find a bench and admire the beautiful houses while eating.
Having spent the week talking about food that she could make for Hanukkah in a couple of weeks, Zoe had her heart set on finding some good challah to take home for lunch this coming week. Luckily, Karma Bread Bakery, a local bakery known for its challah, was just across the street from Hampstead Heath Station! We popped in before heading home and bought a large loaf of challah that was absolutely delicious. We made some challah grilled cheese today and it definitely passed the test of high quality bread!
We headed home to make pizzas and enjoy a relaxed evening before Catja headed off on a date. We ended up sitting on the couch chatting for about three hours about anxiety, which is definitely not the best topic to hype someone up before meeting a stranger across the city for a date, but it was honestly rather cathartic.
After sending Catja off on her date, Zoe enjoyed a nice quiet night in with a movie and our new favorite British cookies, Hobnobs (actually we’re currently eating off-brand Lidl “oaties” but same difference). After a thrilling ride on the Lizzie line to Ealing and back, Catja came home with many facts about asbestos, commercial electricity, and random buildings in London.
Saturday 11/18: The Really Nice Tree
Having attempted to make plans with Anna and Jake for almost a month now, we were finally able to see each other for a fun Saturday out on the Thames. We met up at Battersea Power Station Pier to hop on an Uber Boat and ride to Greenwich in East London. Along the way, we saw Big Ben, all the bridges, the Gherkin, and the Walkie-Talkie building, all from a new river perspective.
Once we arrived in Greenwich, we wandered through the market and found a fun little shop with gorgeous puzzles. We then walked through Greenwich Park, which had stunning trees that were covered in leaves changing colors for the fall. We arrived at the Greenwich Observatory and contemplated going inside until Jake shared that the one main attraction of the museum was standing on the Prime Meridian Line, but new technology showed that the line wasn’t actually there. So instead, we walked 20 feet from the museum to stand on the real Prime Meridian Line, which was just in a grassy patch by the sidewalk (see picture above).
We walked around the park and chatted for a while, stopping by a large ship in a bottle outside the Naval Maritime Museum to plan out our next hangout so we don’t have to wait another month to see each other. While walking back down to the market, we passed an incredibly nice round tree, which seems to be a trend whenever we see Anna and Jake. Once we arrived at the market, we all split ways to find a quick snack before heading back home. Zoe enjoyed her favorite food, a tasty empanada, and Catja tried a British classic, a scotch egg, which was surprisingly yummy.
We arrived home after a loooooong journey and stopped by Sainsbury’s on the way home to pick up food for dinner. While at the store we saw the adorable little Christmas trees that were perfect to fulfill our Chrismukkah hopes and dreams. We then walked home, tree in hand, and had a nice night in with Hebe. We watched Pitch Perfect, knitted and crocheted, and ate Oaties, an ideal evening if I do say so myself! Fritz, Catja’s EIC successor at The College Voice, called mid-movie to catch up on all the usual Conn drama and gossip, so shout out to our friends back in New London! We love and miss y’all.
Stay tuned for a very American Thanksgiving with our closest friends later this week. Spurs are a bit in shambles at the moment, but hopefully our Thanksgiving won’t be! Please send warm vibes to our oven (it really needs it…).
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