Ah, another several days have passed since I last wrote...but for good reason, I may assure you. Friday night was my big night out with Kaley...she was celebrating her birthday with her friends by going out to the Light bar and then a club. Again, I had to make my way over to East London. The night had started particularly well. We had a boat party for the exchange students so I went there first, meeting up with Julia. I came a little late and couldn't find the boat. So I was on the phone with Julia for 10 minutes--England phone, don't worry Dad. It was so funny because I could see the boat, I just couldn't figure out a way to get down there. So Julia has to leave find me and lead me to the boat. It was really quite pathetic. When we finally made it to the boat Julia and I took a shot of tequila--apparently there is a certain ritual to it so I followed her lead. Bite the lime, take the shot, breath out, lick the salt placed on your palm, and bite the lime. Quite extravagant for a shot, yeah. Anyway...the party was really cheesy--it reminded me of those parties I had when I was a safety patrol on the boat. Everyone was taking pictures for their facebooks' and acting like, well...Americans--in terms of their drinking habits. So, Jules and I left after the shot to head over to Kaley's. When we got there I saw some familiar faces from the other night and a few new ones. I even met a rival goalkeeper that went to Stanton when I played at Mandarin. Too weird right? Nope. Her name was Lindsey, I believe and she was over here from Pepperdine to study abroad at one of their campuses. It was so funny--such a small world. We ended up staying together most of the night talking about soccer and London. She tore her ACL so she never had the chance to show for college recruits. She told me she wanted to play again...and so I shared my experiences. After everyone arrived, we headed over to a few pubs down the road and later that night a club. It was quite the experience for me, as I had never been to one before, but I enjoyed myself. At one point in the night a strange looking woman starting dancing in front of our group. She was very tall, blonde hair that covered her eyes, very unnatural looking boobs, and a very angular jaw-line. It took me a while to realize it wasn't a strange looking woman...but a man! Oh how exciting. She even complimented a friend in our group saying she was very pretty, lol. At around 2 we left the club. While we were waiting for the others to show, a man walks up to me and Kaley. He looks at me and he says, "Your hair looks like my fish". Ah, wonderful, I thought...this night has gotten better. We leave the strange fish man and his buddies to walk home, in the rain. On the way however, we decided to get some world famous BEIGALS. Yes, Beigals. On Brick Lane that is what they are called and boy are they good. It is popular over here to get something called salt beef on your beigals. It really is just corned beef, but it was quite wonderful. Waiting in line for 20 minutes at 3 in the morning made it more worth it, I believe. We finally made it home around 3:30 and crashed.
I woke up at around 9 and Kaley and I headed for the tube--me to go home and her to go to work. I made it home in about 15 minutes or so and the first thing I did was take a shower. Then I decided to find the Sister and give her the rest of my rent and my new English phone number. When I did find her, she asked me to do her a favor. A new girl from Turkey had just arrived and needed help calling home. So I thought why not...I asked her for her phone and I realized she didn't understand a word I was saying! She spoke no English. So, yeah...this was the start to my weekend.
I got her phone working, Eda is her name, and she gave me a big hug..."oh Meegen sankyou". We went walking around for a while and I got her some food, which is much harder to do than you think. She didn't really know what kind of food was here, so I had to show her and make weird signs to her. She even had a little translator device, similar to Erin's, but it only translates one word. And many words have multiple meanings. Ugh....so frustrating, but also so fun. We went and got a burger later that night down the road...and oh my goodness, it was the best burger I have ever had. It had blue cheese and onion, ketchup and tomato...truly amazing. Then when we got back...I had to explain to her that I wanted to sleep and that she needed to get me in the morning. So, after about an hour, she finally understood. YAY!
Sunday was a bit more fun...we were used to each other so we would point out things we recognized...like Eda pointed out "Pub" or "Burger" or even "Cigarettes" which is Sigara in Turkish. She is a hard smoker--Marlboro Reds...I am sure at 5.75 pounds it will make a dent in her wallet. So yeah, yesterday we walked up to Hamstead Heath...I have been wanting to for ages now so I decided to do it. It was way worth the 1.5 mile hike uphill. The view was beautiful. You see London through the lens of a park. Quite stunning.
Walking around I saw numerous families both young and old. And there were dogs everywhere. It was different from the states though...most dogs were not on leashes; they were roaming around freely. A call from their owner would pull them back, as if they had an invisible leash--I couldn't believe how obedient they all were. One dog thought it recognized me, I suppose, because from one end of the field it came running over to me and jumped on me! I thought it was great...but the owner apologized and took her away like nothing happened. There was a pond where I saw 2 retrievers playing. The owner would throw the ball and then they would fight for it...I was looking through my camera lens when I noticed a Swan swimming right next to the dogs...it was surreal.
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