Hey sexy. We went out over the past two weeks. Last weekend was Ethan’s Sandhurst Send-Off Party. This weekend was Lucy’s 25th Birthday Bash. The past week was simultaneously Catja's last week of classes and Zoe’s first week of classes. Our social batteries have been charged and drained and recharged. And Zoe and I had another one of our rare yet passionate disagreements: did I buy a plate or a bowl?? Read on to find out!
Monday 4/15
Z: My Monday began with the intention of being a good reset and admin day, but slowly became just a generally kind of bad day. I did a load of laundry, cleaned my room, applied to a job, all was well. Then my dresser decided it no longer wanted to sit upright and fell on top of me as I was sitting on the floor. Luckily, I caught it and was able to push it back upright, but the lit candle sitting on top of it made it much worse. Nothing was caught on fire, but wax spilled across my carpet and onto my sheets (yay). Having just cleaned my entire room, this was even more frustrating. I put everything back together and spent the next two hours learning how to remove wax from a carpet. I guess I learned a new skill, but I am not happy about it.
To throw salt in the wound, I decided to go out for a run for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was a warm and sunny day, so I headed to the park. Not five minutes into this run, the wind began to pick up to the point where I think I was running in place and it started to hail. Gotta love a London spring!
C: Zoe may have had a fiery day at home, but I had a very chill day at school. Rehearsed, studied, edited a film poster, almost took a nap, and went home.
Tuesday 4/16
C: Neither of us had class today, so we walked up to Neasden to buy some pots from the garden center. We bought some herbs over the weekend to spruce up our living room. My love for forget-me-nots came back full force when we were down on the coast, so I picked up a tray of little plants too. Painting pots was the perfect crafternoon activity. Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots” was stuck in my head all week as a result. Shout out to Viggo for listening to it nonstop in 2020… even though I don’t think you read the blog.
Surprisingly, when we were walking to check out, we stumbled upon a massive room of FISH! Going to Petco/PetSmart as a kid and looking at fish was a top tier activity, so we spent a good few minutes admiring tetras and turtles. I took many videos of cool fish. I don’t know what to do with them.
Z: When we walked into the fish section I immediately turned to Catja and said, “Look big fish!” because obviously that was very exciting. Not five minutes later as we were wandering about, a little boy came running and turned to his dad and said pretty much verbatim “look Dad, big fish!” We looked at each other and laughed because although we already know that we are children, that was definitely a confirmation.
Wednesday 4/17
C: I woke up, hopped on the train, listened to my Lessons in Chemistry audiobook, and walked to class – my typical Wednesday morning routine. However, when it was 5 minutes before my lecture was supposed to begin and only six people were in the room, I was quite confused. Turns out, I was not alone. Some people, like myself, thought we had class as usual. Others thought we were in a different building but didn’t know how to get there. Very few knew that we did not have that class anymore. I checked Moodle, my email, my syllabus, and my notes from before Easter break and had no recollection of anyone saying that was our last class. I was a bit annoyed that I spent 90 minutes on the train for no reason. But it was a gorgeous, sunny day, so I texted Zoe that I’d meet her in Regent’s Park for lunch. I stupidly scared her when I arrived 45 minutes later and she was just standing outside the Tube exit. Sorry Zoe!!
Z: After thinking I was about to be robbed or stabbed by someone running toward me, my heart recovered and we walked to the park. Catja was clearly a bit upset by her long commute and spent the entirety of lunch being very melodramatic. It got to the point where I was laughing because she was in distress over a silly comment Ethan made on our Instagram. I then had to leave the park because a squirrel climbed up next to me on the bench looking for food. People should not feed the animals in Regent’s Park.
C: Ok for context, my melodrama was in great part fueled by hormones and PMS. It isn’t an excuse; it’s an explanation. Fight me. Actually, please don’t. Sorry again Zoe <3
Thursday 4/18
C: I went to school to see my dance friends’ brilliant choreography MFA showcase! I also picked up reading All About Love by bell hooks after a few months and am still stuck on the first chapter because I start overthinking every relationship I have with family and friends from my entire life. It’s a great book though! I can’t wait to make it to chapter 2 one day.
Z: Hannah messaged us last week letting us know that her girlfriend, Sarina, would be visiting London and would love to meet us, so we made plans to meet up and take her on our classic walk around Central. We had so much fun chatting and showing Sarina around that we decided to grab dinner before parting ways. We went for pizza and shared stories about work and school. Sarina was absolutely lovely (Hannah, we so enjoyed getting to meet her and we can’t wait to see you soon!).
Midway through dinner, we got a text from Ethan asking if we wanted to watch Pitch Perfect, and obviously there was only one right answer: YES. We headed back home, changed into PJs, and walked to the boys. We were expecting Ethan and Luke, but got a fun surprise when we walked through the door and Callum was sitting on the couch. We recapped the last couple of weeks over a cup of tea before watching the movie. Although Pitch Perfect 2 is not as good as the original, we still had some good laughs. We then ended our evening discussing which sea creature is the most sophisticated. We didn’t agree on one, but we did learn that dressing up as any sea creature is not acceptable Sandhurst attire.
C: Ethan, I promise I will not dress up as a fancy lobster or embarrass you in any way when we visit you. I also promise to actually keep my promise about riding a Lime bike.
Friday 4/19
C: I had a long day of dancing, culminating in a sleepy Mediated Choreography class in which I applied for a job while laying on the floor and my friend Steffi walked in, slightly damp pointe shoes in hand, and declared, “I’m fireproofing my shoes for a gag.” I love dancers. Eventually, we (mostly Steffi) designed a poster for our final class film screening next week, and I scurried home to get ready for Swiftogeddon with the girls.
After a quick shower and outfit prep, I found myself on the floor again being “tattooed” by Zoe, who kindly agreed to draw a snake around my arm. To be honest, getting a big fake tattoo was the biggest reason I decided to dress as Reputation Taylor. Zoe raided my closet for anything pink to dress as Lover Taylor, and the others took on Midnights, 1989, and Fearless.
Pre-gaming was my highlight of the night. The boys came over from Harlesden, and we spent the next few hours making themed cocktails, doing our makeup, playing games, and singing blind karaoke. We will spare ourselves from embarrassment and not share the videos we have from that.
Z: The girls then headed out on the town for our Taylor Swift themed club night. We had lots of fun singing and dancing to some Taylor Swift classics, but we learned quickly that her new album is a bit of a downer in the club, particularly when nobody knows the words yet. After a couple hours, we called it quits and went back home in a state of Taylor Swift overload.
Saturday 4/20
C: After a decent bit of sleep, we all made our way to Hampstead Heath for a lovely “good luck at Sandhurst” picnic. We grabbed some snacks and coffee, meandered through the Heath, and plopped down on a warm patch of grass just as a large cloud moved in front of the sun. Nonetheless, we snacked and chatted and learned a lot about each other. Luke is an absolute fiend for Scotch eggs. Georgia is a badass who tried to rugby tackle the boys. And Ethan is REALLY. BLOODY. BRILLIANT. And we will miss him terribly.
Z: As the cloud cover made the park colder, we made moves back to Harlesden to warm up. We all sat tired in the living room for a while, before deciding to play Stop the Bus. This time we did not rig the game against Ethan, so predictably, he won every round.
C: We sauntered over to West Hampstead for dinner at Zia Lucia. We ate lots of pizza and talked about everything and nothing for a while. The restaurant was quite warm and was making us sleepy, so a few of us went to stand outside in the brisk night air for a few minutes. When we returned inside to the muggy, toasty air, we all decided it was time to venture out to our next destination. There was a karaoke pub just down the road, and after our stellar performances last night, we thought we’d give it another go. Unfortunately, the pub was packed, and we were just in the way of all the employees. Zoe and I headed back outside because I was feeling very claustrophobic and panicky, a result of little sleep and not so little alcohol and not enough food. Eventually, our group all found their way outside, realizing that karaoke was not in our cards tonight.
Z: After finally realizing that we all wanted to head back to the boys’ place, we made out way back to Harlesden. We again all sat tired before Luke suggested we play a game. Clearly having learned nothing from Luke’s last game recommendation, “The Island of Noel,” we all agreed. My brain was completely fried, so Catja whispered the rules to me as we went. As we progressed in the game, everyone got more annoyed at Luke, until we all decided it was time to go home.
Sunday 4/21
Hungover from socializing. Moving on.
Monday 4/22
Z: Having done pretty much nothing the whole morning, I decided that I had to at least leave the house and be mildly productive. I knocked on Catja’s door, very confused if she was home, and heard nothing, so I headed out alone to walk to Finchley Road. I got to Willesden Green when Catja texted to ask if I had knocked. I waited for her there and we walked together. We had to pick up some random things for Lucy’s birthday gift so we headed to Flying Tiger and Sainsbury's. We got everything we needed in one trip making our lives very easy! We tubed back home and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening painting pigs in space.
C: I had a veryyy slow morning attempting to work on my finals in bed while listening to music. I was so sleepy that I didn’t realize Zoe was still home or hear her knock on the door. Feeling equally as unproductive, I joined her in a walk to Finchley Road to try and wake up. It worked, and I grinded out some research when we got back. I hopped on the train later for my Monday night straitjacket rehearsal and returned to join the gals in watching “Colin from Accounts” without any plot context.
Tuesday 4/23
Z: Desperately needing to finish my final after procrastinating for like a month, Catja and I headed off to the British Library for the morning. We scoped out a spot in the Maps room and got to work for the next three hours. I spent zero of those three hours working on my final (what is wrong with me), but I did apply to a job, sort out some dissertation work, and clean out the downloads folder of my laptop (again what is wrong with me).
We then walked to UCL and found a bench to eat lunch inside. Not feeling motivated to go back to the library, we decided a coffee shop was a better move for the afternoon. We moved to Pret where I finally wrote some of my exam and we chatted about Catja’s final project.
In an exciting turn of events, I am back in school once a week this term, so I headed back to UCL for my evening class. My final class of my course is a social-emotional development course that is very focused on the psychology of child development, which I thought would not be my thing, but I am actually really enjoying it. I went home and diagnosed Catja with an ambivalent attachment style, so obviously I am learning a lot.
Wednesday 4/24
C: Remembering that my Wednesday morning lecture was over, I started my day by logging into the Roehampton online library database and read three papers about attachment theory. I’m on a mental health journey, and since therapy is not in the budget or schedule this year, I’m using my Intro to Psychology knowledge from freshman year at Conn to learn about my brain! Zoe’s diagnosis (don’t worry, she is not a medical professional and I’m just using this application of her class materials as food for thought) helped me learn about Bowlby and Ainsworth’s (a woman!) initial research. I do love a psychological deep dive.
Later, I went to school and rehearsed for my friend Lucy’s choreography final. She’s researching female hysteria and choreographing a solo on me that explores the emotional and physical dimensions of this previously common diagnosis. It is also a feminist critique on male-dominated health care. As the performer, our rehearsal process is both a medical history lesson and a practice in bringing the past to life. We used psychological interviews with female patients and images from old French medical textbooks as movement inspiration, and it was a poignant process to recreate the images of suffering from the anonymous women documented, and potentially exploited, in these sources.
After, I walked to the station and passed the wisteria archway blooming in front of Grove House. It was a beautiful surprise that lightened the mood of a day heavy with learning about mental illness. Wisteria and Hysteria sounds like the title of a memoir.
Thursday 4/25
Z: I woke up bright and early and took the tube to the U.S. Embassy to meet with my mom’s coworker and learn more about working at the embassy. The building is absolutely gorgeous, and it was really fun to walk around and see the inside of the embassy. After, I made my way to Liverpool Street to meet up with Catja.
C: I broke a bowl last night, so I decided to venture out into the city to find a worthy replacement. I asked Zoe if she wanted to join in the hunt, so we wandered around Bank, Zoe’s favorite place, to find a shop. In the M&S homeware section, I found a lovely mint green bowl that was large and sturdy. Zoe disliked it and said that it’s not a nice cereal bowl because it’s so flat on the bottom. So flat, she said, that it is a “glorified plate” (Z: I stand by this claim and I don’t care what anyone else says it is basically a plate). I took a picture and kindly asked our friends to gently bully her. Since I broke the last bowl, I had final say in which bowl to buy. I also got Zoe a £2 deep blue mug as a consolation prize for letting me leave with my new favorite bowl.
Friday 4/26
C: Today was my last day of class this term which was surreal. The summer term is full of rehearsals, culminating shows, and dissertation writing, so I won’t be heading to campus as often. My friend Juan traveled all the way from Lewisham to come see our dance film screening, and we had fun seeing all the work my classmates and I did. My friends and I filmed “Home Sweet Home,” a piece that explores anxiety, paranoia, and panic with voyeuristic cinematography. I promise that my dances aren’t always about mental illness!! Hysteria, anxiety, and straitjackets just coincided this term. Here’s a link to our film if you are in the mood for some artsy film shots: https://vimeo.com/939023934?share=copy.
Z: In addition to all the other things going on this week, it was also Passover. So, after finally finishing my exam, I spent some time cooking up some traditional and not so traditional Passover food for dinner. This included matzoh ball soup, haroset, plain matzoh, and dessert matzoh called “matzoh crack.” Catja and Callum joined for dinner, which was surprisingly good despite the fact that the main ingredient in every dish was matzoh.
We then walked to the bus stop and rode to Kensal Rise to meet Luke and Hebe for some table tennis. We went into what felt like a middle school gym, set up the table, and watched as other people around us played intense, fast paced ping pong.
After having our fill of table tennis, we headed to a nearby pub. We chatted and caught up on the weeks adventures and finally learned what specifically Callum does for work. While talking an older man walked through the pub and out the door letting out one of the most disgusting farts I have ever smelled in my life. The whole pub was looking around in confusion at the lingering smell and laughing at the thought that it came out of a human.
Saturday 4/27
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!!!
C: I started the day reuniting with my Italian friend, Chiara! She and I met at King’s in 2021 and shared a Literature of Empire class. We used to grab coffee after class and chat for hours about life. She’s one of those people who you meet and realize is a kindred spirit. We have similar outlooks on life, love a laugh, and can make up for lost time instantly. It was a beautiful way to start the day.
Z: After Catja left for her coffee, I helped Hebe and Lauren set up all the food for Lucy’s birthday brunch. Callum, Luke, and bunch of Lucy’s friends from university arrived in the early afternoon for a celebratory indoor picnic. We chatted, ate lots of bread and sausage rolls, and enjoyed Hebe’s homemade cake (which was fantastic!). The party was Jubilee Line themed so everyone came in outfits based on Jubilee Line stations. There were three Canary Wharf finance bros, three Swiss Cottages, Bond Street, Canada Water, Green Park, and West Hampstead. After a few hours of snacking we decided to head out for a pub crawl along the line.
C: We started our pub crawl in Kilburn before heading to West Hampstead. We laughed and drank lots, played a tricky game of Jenga in which Luke’s enthusiastic full-body storytelling shook the table during my turn, sat under heat lamps in the relentless rain, and drank some more. After a few hours, we split into groups of people wanting to carry on with the merriment and a group of chilly, damp girls who were ready for pajamas and warmth. We said our goodbyes and went on with our nights. Hebe, Lauren, Zoe, and I bought comfort food from Sainsbury’s and danced in an empty Tube carriage on our way home. I learned that Hebe has rubbed off on me and I now crave Heinz tomato beans, much to Zoe’s deep dismay (Z: I told Catja that this means that she has lost her American sparkle). We cleaned up the living room, heated up our food, and watched Merlin until we fell asleep.
Sunday 4/28
We hope you enjoyed our two week dump of festivities. We hope the next two weeks are better than today’s North London Derby… if you are an Arsenal fan, we don’t want to talk to you.
Awww! Thank you both for showing Sarina around! I can’t WAIT to see you guys in a few weeks!!!