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Livin' in London
Seeing & Doing in This Great City
In front of Big
Ben with friends (top) and later, out on the town.
More Travels Through
Europe:
•
Amy
Arrives in London
•
Amsterdam
– The Full Report
•
The
Best Time Ever!
•
The
Whirlwind Weekend
•
Romanced
By Rome
•
In
Ireland For St. Patrick's Day
By
Amy Jones, Cal State-Fullerton Senior
One reason London is such a great city
is that there is so much to do here. There is cultural diversity, plays,
museums, pubs, clubs, live music, superior shopping and great sightseeing.
Here's what I did during my three-month stay in London as part of the
college student study abroad program.
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED)
This is a production that is put on by the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
It is a three-man show that goes through all of Shakespeare's plays
in 90 minutes. As the title says, they run through Shakespeare's plays
in an hour and half. It is the most hilarious play I've have ever seen!
I was rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard!
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THE BIBLE (ABRIDGED)
This is also put on by the Reduced Shakespeare Company as well and
goes through the entire Bible in 90 minutes. They go from Genesis to
Revelations by using songs and dances and all sorts of goofy stuff.
The only offensive jokes in the entire thing were about Bush, but you
get that here all the time. I am going to see the third play put on
by these guys called The Complete History of the United States and I
am sure that there will be tons more Bush jokes in that.
NIGHTLIFE:
CLUB RICHMOND, CLUB FABRIC, MINISTRY OF SOUND
There is a club right by my flat, Club Richmond, that has free
admission before 11, so on Thursday nights most of the people from the
program head over there and we all hang out together.
It is not the most exciting place in the world but we usually end
up having a good time because we are with all of the people from our
group and can goof off and dance all stupid. And it's really cheap (especially
given that we are in London)
On this night, Nigel, one of the AIFS staff was with us as well so
everyone went there to be with him. You see, Nigel is our buddy. He
is like everyone's best friend and our walking guide book. This guy
knows everything about Europe. He draws out maps for wherever we need
to go. He is like the super know it all guy. So everything was fantastic
and we all had a great time.
Fabric is the cream of the crop and supposed to be THE "big
club." You know, the one to go to and all that jazz. And it normally
costs 12 pounds ($24 USD) to get in.
Well, I went with my girls and the place was absolutely huge! There
were three enormous dance rooms and then tons of areas to chill. The
music was all drum and bass and hip hop.
For most of the night we just chilled on this really comfortable couch
that was like a bed. It was a huge couch that sat 10 people all spread
out. It was fun to rock out with the girls and we even met some really
cool guys. The club was open ALL night and we ended up staying there
until 6 a.m. By that time the tube had reopened in the morning!
The Ministry of Sound is one of London's top nightspots. Wednesday
is college night which is perfect because the cover charge price drops
from 15 to 4 pounds. (Personally I would never pay 30 USD to get into
a club).
This really is a pretty cool club. There are two rooms and an upstairs
bar/VIP area. On this particular night they were having a DJ Spinning
Contest. This was tight because eight up-and-coming DJS were spinning
all night. Also, the main dance floor was jumping and the whole place
was packed. The VIP area was opened up and we got to chill in there
for awhile which was nice. Overall it was a good time of dancing!
(Editor's Note: For more on London nightlife, see our Pubs
& Clubs Guide)
MORE NIGHTLIFE: THE JOHN MAYER BAND
My art professor, Amy, and I went one night to the Carling Apollo
Hammersmith to see John Mayer. Oh my gosh – it was an amazing
show. He is so good live! He has a great stage presence and spent the
perfect amount of time talking to the audience. We got to stand pretty
close, too. It was cool because it was the closing performance of him
European tour.
CAMDEN TOWN MARKET
Camden Town is this cool place in north London that has a kick-ass
market on the weekends. There are all of these little stalls
that sell everything from boots to picture frames. It is my favorite
part of London so far because there are such cool people there and there
is awesome nightlife, as well. I went shopping there and found some
really good deals on some cool stuff.
PICCADILLY CIRCUS AND LEICESTER SQUARE
So my friend Sonnet came into town and we went to the main hangout
area of Piccadilly to see if we could get some theater tickets.
They were pretty much all sold out so we went looking for something
else to do.
Okay, so there are these guys you see everywhere holding up signs that
say "Comedy Tonight." We started to talk to this one that was pretty
funny so we decided to head there and have a good laugh. If I can
give you one piece of advice it would be not to listen to guys on the
corner with signs. It was totally not funny in the least bit. It
was so bad. One of the comics was so drunk he could not even stand let
alone try to do his act. But I guess that it is a learning experience.
After that we walked through China Town and Soho and then went
back to the flat to watch a movie.
PORTOBELLO MARKET AND CAMDEN MARKET
We went shopping at the two greatest markets in London. It was fiercely
windy and rainy, but that made it a challenge. And there's no fun unless
there is a challenge. So it was fun times shopping and all that good
stuff.
TATE MODERN & SAATCHI GALLERIES
The Tate Modern is an amazing gallery with a bunch of really
awesome moden art. I saw a bunch of Rothkos and Warhols. If you ever
come to London, you absolutely have to check this place out. Another
bonus is that it is free to get into!
Becausewe are in the modern phase of our art history class we went
to the Saatchi Gallery. It was strange, let me tell you! There
was a shark and a sheep that were preserved. An unmade bed that was
stained and little statues of kids stuck together with genitals on their
faces. Also, there was a room that was filled to the brim with oil.
It was the least favorite gallery that I have been to...yet it was also
the most interesting.
VIDAL SASSOON ADVANCED ACADEMY
So Chelsea, Meagan, and I decided that we wanted to get haircuts. There
are a lot of beauty schools in London that offer cheap haircuts to students
so we booked appointments at the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy.
When you get there they put you in a room, match you with a stylist
and tell the stylist how to cut your hair. It turned out that mine was
cut too short, but it's growing on me. It's just really, really short.
Also, it took 3 hours for the hair cut.
SALISBURY AND STONEHENGE
Salisbury is a cute little city 10 minutes away from Stonehenge. When
we went one February, it had snowed the previous evening, which made
for an interesting scene.
The main thing Salisbury is known for is the Salisbury Cathedral
which is home to an original copy of the Magna Carta. We took al look
around and then went to Stonehenge.
Our whole group is from California and if you get us around snow, that
means one thing: Snowball fight! At any rate,Stonehenge is fascinating.
It is also on the side of an open road. It is like you are driving through
pastures seeing grazing sheep and then all of a sudden there is Stonehenge!
Bam!
Amy Jones is a Cal State-Fullerton student on an exchange program
in London. She arrived in January and is filing regular reports for
PubClub.com.
 Amy
In Amsterdam!
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