Monday 3/11
C: My usual morning meeting at school was canceled, so we walked to Sainsbury’s to try and get a £2 whole chicken that Hebe told us about. Sadly, they were sold out, so we left with my favorite Cranberry Wensleydale cheese and Zoe’s favorite Twinings Chai. We swung by B&M to find a new toothbrush holder and discovered a very confusing body wash called “You’re Having a Giraffe” (see photo album for proof). It sounds like a weird gender/species reveal. Apparently being pregnant with a giraffe smells like apricot and jungle papaya in case you were wondering.
Also, speaking of animals, the elephant in the room this week is Kate Middleton. Where is she? What’s happening? Is she really that bad at Photoshop? Funnily enough, none of our London friends are talking about it, but many of our American friends have texted us to ask if British people care about it. It’s a fascinating social phenomenon, and I have to admit that I am deep in the TikTok conspiracy rabbit holes.
Tuesday 3/12
Z: Needing to use the rest of our delicious Panzer’s cream cheese, Catja and I headed off to Golders Green to our favorite bagel shop (as of right now). We again decided to walk and make a day of it even though it was raining. After picking up our bagels, we caught the bus to Finchley Road where we had tickets to see a movie. Before heading into the theater, we found a spot on a weird patch of artificial grass in the mall and enjoyed our bagels. We then stopped at Sainsbury’s for our very first Pick-and-Mix, which is where you fill a cup full of random candy as a movie theater snack.
The movie theater was almost entirely empty, with only a woman behind us and an elderly man who kept making weird grunting noises and chuckling throughout the film, joining us to watch Copa 71. The movie was all about the unofficial first women’s world cup in Mexico, tracing the action through interviews with the players and footage and media clips from the event. It was a fascinating film that both Catja and I thoroughly enjoyed, and we highly recommend it if you are in the UK!
When we returned home, Catja informed me that she was going to apply for a job as a copywriter at Pret, the coffee shop chain. She sent over a copy of her cover letter for me to edit and it might be the greatest cover letter I have ever read. I was actively laughing at the passion Catja was relaying for a corporate coffee company. My personal favorite line was: “From grabbing a quick, healthy meal between dance shows as a teenager to sitting with a warm latte as a postgraduate researcher, I always knew I could rely on Pret to provide me with the fuel needed to accomplish my goals.” Chef’s kiss, I had no notes!
Wednesday 3/13
C: I had a lecture in the morning that I genuinely don’t think I absorbed at all because I was feeling quite anxious about my upcoming MRes seminar, the first assessed portion of my research. I am very happy nerding out about physical culture, the similarities and differences of dance and sport, and how football could be considered a choreographic improvisation score, but the imposter syndrome is majorly kicking in. I worked on my presentation during lecture, but I saved the powerpoint to review when I am less stressed.
Z: I spent the morning applying to a job and scouring the internet for things I could do in all of my free time. Finally the afternoon arrived and Catja returned home, so I had some company. Later on, Ethan stopped by to pick up his Napoleon painting. We had a cup of tea and chatted about our weeks and Napoleon of course. Ethan prepared us for what we could expect on our final day of watching Six Nations that coming Saturday. He somehow got Catja to agree to possibly try an Irish Car Bomb, which is a half pint of Guinness with a shot of whiskey and Bailey’s dropped in. The fun is apparently you have to drink it before it curdles (sounds delightful if you ask me). To make it fair, he also said he’d mess with Zoe’s social awkwardness and ask random men at the pub to give her their numbers to see if she’d run away (see "I'm Feeling 'Ethan-Thinks-He-Could-Be-A-Good-Dictator' Confident” post for context).
After thanking us for his latest wall art, Ethan returned to Harlesden with his new masterpiece. The painting is now hanging in his bathroom, so it is safe to say that it was a hit.
C: Special shoutout to the coolest little sister ever, MIKKA, for absolutely destroying Chantilly in her first game as a Marshall varsity freshman softball player!! I am so so so proud of you, Meeks. Marshall won 19-2, breaking a 20 game losing streak thanks to new coaching staff. Luckily, since daylight savings is on different days in the US and UK, I only had to stay up until midnight thanks to the four hour time difference!
Thursday 3/14
Z: I finally had a plan for the day and left the house all by myself! For the first time in weeks, I headed to school to sit in the library for a few hours. After realizing the day before that in order to apply for some jobs in the US government you have to complete a series of tests, I thought it would be a good idea to get them all done in a place where I would actually be productive. The tests were a series of strange logic and judgement questions that were going well until a man sat next to me and began dancing and hitting his pen on the table while studying, which was rather distracting. I am all for good study vibes, but maybe not in the law library.
With one test to go, I decided to save it for later and eat lunch in the quad while it was sunny. I then headed to a lecture I signed up for on deliberative democracies in the global south. After arriving at what I was told was the right lecture hall, I panic texted Catja, seeing as there was no one there and another location listed on a different website. Catja very logically told me to just go to the other room and see if it was there (duh). It was in fact just in the other building, so I did find it eventually. I really enjoyed the lecture, learning quite a bit, and finally got out of the house, which is always a win!
C: My seminar went really well! I got some very helpful feedback and got to see my “FOOTBALL(ET)” vision come to life (name is a work in progress, please comment with any name ideas). The concept for today’s seminar was flipping the rules of football/soccer. What movement comes when you can’t use your feet to score? When participants have minimal time to strategize and prepare for the game, how do they creatively adapt to the situation? I am very grateful that my participants were game to have some fun and fully commit to the strange concept! I am excited to get more experimental games going and see how others respond to the prompt.
Later, I met up with TWO MORE CONN DANCERS: Jocelyn ‘24 and Bella ‘25. Jocey was just in town for the week for an English senior seminar, and Bella was studying at London Contemporary Dance School. We watched Bella’s show and went out for drinks after, catching up on all of the Conn news.
Oh, and Pret rejected my job application. Guess the enthusiasm for corporate coffee chains was too much for them.
Friday 3/15
C: I went to my favorite dance technique class at school again and learned how to twerk in different styles! However, my twerking high reached an emotional low as I sadly discovered that doing the splits is a lot more difficult than before. This may seem irrelevant, but it was a sad reminder that I need to stretch more or else my tight hamstrings will ruin my life. Other than that, I had another seminar where we wrote feedback on colorful sticky notes about everyone’s Mediated Choreography project proposals. My professor is very particular about the room set up, so we started class rearranging the chairs from straight lines to a circle and placed our sticky notes in piles around the room. The choreography of academia.
Z: Feeling optimistic about my adventures outside the house, I headed into central to finally go to the Natural History Museum. However, upon my arrival at the museum, I realized that I had the same idea as every school in London. The museum was swarmed with small children in high-vis vests and middle schoolers in little pods. I lasted about 20 minutes before having flashbacks to the summer where I had to herd 16 seven year olds through the D.C. Natural History museum and needing to leave.
Determined to stay out of the house, I remembered that Catja had told me about the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, so headed there. I walked about the small gallery, very confused by much of the art, for about 30 minutes before deciding that the best plan of action was to walk home. I don’t know why, but that is always my solution to keeping myself out of the house. So I meandered back home through Westminster and Kilburn, making it back just before it began to pour rain.
Saturday 3/16
C: We started the morning by making a scrumptious brunch of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage. And by we I mean Zoe because she wakes up much earlier than me, but I was there for encouragement and praise! And I think I made us tea.
It was a positively glorious day, high 50s and sunny, so we hopped on the train to Hampstead Heath and walked all over. We saw so many families, couples, friends, and dogs all milling about. It felt like the first whisper of spring, and I was thriving with the much needed vitamin D and the serotonin boost. Zoe and I keep joking that we hope we see Paul Mescal running away from a date in the Heath, but alas, that hasn’t happened yet. We do hope to see a celebrity someday. After 6 months, it still hasn’t happened.
We ended up walking carefully through the mud all the way to Kenwood House, a mansion featured in the movie Notting Hill and the home of Dido Belle, subject of the film Belle. There were many beautiful paintings inside, but we were entranced by a clock made by John Joseph Merlin on display. We stared at it and a wheelchair he designed for so long that the docent came over and started telling us about them.
Z: After exploring Hampstead Heath and enjoying the warm weather, we headed into Kentish town to meet Luke and Ethan for the final day of Six Nations. On our way, we discussed whether or not it would be acceptable to name a child after a type of potato. We decided that Russet (aka Rus) could be cool and maybe Yukon and Wilia, but the rest were a bit strange. The men walking in front of us were clearly very concerned by our conversation as they kept looking back at us. We arrived at the pub right as the boys did and asked them their thoughts. They both sadly said that naming a child Russet is awful. But then, Ethan said Zoe "sits like a polite little gerbil," so it is really a battle to say who has weirder opinions.
The first game of the afternoon was Wales vs. Italy. The game went just as expected, meaning Wales lost and won the wooden spoon (the award for the tournament’s losing team). We had a lovely chat with the boys, of course there was some mention of Napoleon, but we all agree that that particularly foul conversation probably shouldn’t be repeated :/ (Catja vehemently agrees).
We were then joined for the second game between Scotland and Ireland by some more friends. The Spurs game started at the same time, so Catja and I juggled between watching both games. Funnily enough, a man stopped by our table to see what game we were watching and we ended up chatting for a bit as he was an American who had successfully stayed in the UK. At this rate, we will basically stop anyone to give us advice.
While we watched the rest of the game, there was an adorable little girl sitting behind us who was pestering her father with questions, climbing on her chair like she had ants in her pants, and moving the chair around trying to sit next to Ethan and the other men in the pub who were very intensely watching the game. Catja and I laughed as this little girl was basically exactly like how I was as a child. She even had the same bangs and pigtails.
By the end of the game we were all rather tired, so we headed our separate ways to watch the final game at home. Catja avoided having the aforementioned Irish Car Bomb, which is probably for the best, and Zoe made it out without talking to any strange men, so clearly a great night. Catja and I whipped up some brownies, watched the last few minutes of the England vs. France games, and enjoyed a new show we’ve been watching called Girls on the Bus.
Sunday 3/17
Happy St Patty’s Day! We hope you are drinking lots of Guinesses and having a better weekend than Spurs are :( We got over yesterday’s loss by calling our families and making our first true Sunday Roast by ourselves! And it was delicious! I am now a big fan of roasting birds, and Zoe has truly mastered the idiosyncrasies of our very temperamental oven. Just look at those Yorkshire puddings!
Comments