Last weekend Wash U sent us back to London for a football match (soccer game). A couple of the girls and I went early so that we could go to Camden Market beforehand, basically a punk flea market (lots of stalls with funky clothes, jewelry, shoes, scarves and posters). We had a quick lunch with gaufre for dessert. Gaufre is a French dessert consisting of waffles with all sorts of sweet things smeared on them - honey, jam, fruit, Nutella, whatever you want. I had mine with Nutella and experienced another moment of knee-buckling, heart-melting food bliss. Needless to say, I was happy to discover that this food had made it beyond France. The match was Portsmouth vs. Fulham (we rooted for Fulham, the home team, and they won by two goals) and it was fun at first but then FREEZING cold. The highlight was the fans, who never stopped cheering, especially a particularly boisterous group behind us.
Sussex, believe it or not, had a snow day on Monday. After being told about how mild the weather is here, we brought the crazy St. Louis weather with us. Six inches in Brighton was enough to shut down the city almost completely, including schools, and eight inches in London was the most snow England had seen in 18 years. This country is not at all equipped to handle snow - the news reports talked about how this one day was going to cost Britain millions of pounds because of all the people who couldn't come to work. Meanwhile back at Sussex, students were perfectly happy to replace classes with snowball fights and sledding (one definite plus of having a hilly campus). People got pretty creative with impromptu sleds, including signs stolen from the grocery store in Bramber House, ironing boards and a kayak (I'm not kidding). Campus reminded me a little of a ski resort in places, especially when I saw the whole thing from the top of a sledding hill, the buildings softly lit with warm yellow lights as the sun went down. Ami made pancakes (what they call crepes) for dinner, and I discovered that to celebrate Mardi Gras the Brits have Pancake Day, aka eat crepes all day. My brother asked, "So England is your personal paradise?" My response: "On Pancake Day it is."
On Wednesday night I went to an international food party, which meant that I had to prepare some food that represented America. Aoife had told me that one of the international students from last year had left some Kraft macaroni and cheese (aka "neon food") in the flat, so I made that. This resulted in an entertaining conversation among my flatmates about the differences between American and British food, especially brand names. Apparently we stole Starburst from the Brits. Sorry, guys.
Tomorrow I'm going on a day trip to Battle & Hastings (site of the Battle of Hastings, the most important battle in English history), and Sunday there is a walking tour of Devil's Dyke sponsored by the Walking Society. I've decided that the reason I don't mind all of the extra walking here is because the scenery is so beautifully distracting. ;-)
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