It's about time: tea time, hipsters, and ROUND 2

January 30

Well since we managed to fall extremely far behind, we decided to summarize the days leading up to our trip to Paris & Barcelona:

1. The Mom Visit: Our lovely mothers decided to come visit us in London, so pretty much they were using us as an excuse to go on a vacation to a wonderful city. We took them to a lot of sites including Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, etc. Some of our highlights included:

a. High Tea: We pretended to be fancy, classy people and went to Fortnum and Mason for high tea. Brittany obviously loved the idea since she may have a slight addiction to wonderful beverages. Overall, the elegant establishment did not fare well in our book considering they were understaffed and almost forgot to serve us our tea. At one point Brittany may have accidentally spit caviar onto the table.

b. Harrods: The most ridiculous store in the world. LITERALLY. SO MANY ROOMS. Shoes made out of chocolate, a $1000 pillow that really was not special at all, ART, FOOD, CLOTHES. Literally you name it, they have it (at an unnecessarily high price most likely)

c. Pub: We took our Moms to Friend at Hand twice. The first time we grabbed a couple of pints and soon Kathy and Tina were dancing on tables. SO maybe that did not actually happen, but we still shared some laughter and bonded with our mothers…and Edgar. The next time we went was strictly to introduce them to Fish& Chips since it’s an absolute staple meal.

d. Wicked: An AWESOME performance with a very talented cast. Glenn envied the singing abilities and suddenly was inspired to continue his music career (see Karaoke Round 2). Brittany and Dave luckily found cheap tickets the day of the show after being laughed at my some dumb ticket woman who thought it was ridiculous to even attempt searching for day of tickets.

2. Guest Speakers: I don’t even really want to get into it. Just know we have learned (at least attempted) to learn about British health care. Though some speakers interest us very much, others seem to go over our heads. And even at other times the speaker decides to sit in a chair and read off a paper for 2 hours.

3. LAST THURSDAY AT O’NEILS: For some reason the O’ Neils in Piccadilly has become OUR PLACE. We love it! The bands always impress us, and we know literally every song which helps. Wayne Brady man returned on stage for our final Thursday. Though I can’t recall any specifically important details from this night, I do know it was AWESOME. As always. We will sincerely miss O’Neils and the bouncer who shares his snacks with me.

4. HIPSTER NIGHT: So one night a bunch of people decided to stay in; however, a few of us discovered The Bowery aka the most hipster bar on earth. Not only was there a man wearing a red handkerchief around his neck, but the DJ (small Asian hipster girl) was spinning vinyl—mostly 50sish music mixed with some techno beats. Our favorites were some Elvis songs and Bird is the Word. At the same time all the crazy music and dancing was occurring, The Twilight Zone was playing on multiple TVs throughout the bar. Actually a little bit terrifying. Some flannel wearing hipster approached Brittany and tried to get her to do SPEED in the bathroom, and then did the exact same thing to Megan. Luckily DARE changed our lives and we refused. Honestly, I had no idea what he was saying in the first place. BUT THEY DID NOT SERVE PBR which was confusing. And they call themselves hipsters.

5. Churchill Bunker: Very cool museum. However, Brittany somehow lost the group and got stuck in the bunker. That’s pretty much it. Also we had to complete some BS group assignment regarding this museum trip, and I have no idea if it actually has a purpose.

6. Hampton Court—Sherlock Holmes 2: WE WERE SO WELL RESTED AND EXCITED TO GO TO HAMPTON COURT. Oh, and Sherlock Holmes 2 was being filmed so we stalked the sets for about 2 hours trying to find Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. OH and just so you know the movie setting may be Paris for the next movie BUT actually a lot of it is filmed in England. DECEPTION.

7. The Quad (brought to you by Edgar Petras): The quad can only be described in one way: Every freshman’s dream. Situated in an area that looks like a very typical intercity university, The Quad looks like a strikingly average university building from the outside. (Delawarean’s: imagine Perkins). Music can be heard, but nothing special. We walked inside, checked our coats with the nice guy at the counter, then made our way into the club. If you could called it that. It was more like a lounge, something that could be found in any dorm, only one thing was different. There was a bar. With two bartenders. And cheap drink specials. The only thing missing were the people, but don’t worry the few people that were there imbibed in cheap tequila and beer, and much fun was had. Edgar and Greg really enjoyed the music, but were upset that they never played Edgar’s request: Sleighbells. On the way home, Megan benefited from multiple piggy-back rides from all three men she was with (Greg, Glenn, and Edgar). She then made the tragic mistake of offering her piggy-backing services to Edgar. Hilarity ensued as the weight of Edgar (legend has it he can bench a whopping 250 pounds) crushed Megan, and she fell to the ground. Do not worry, no Megans were harmed in the making of this blog post.

8. Karaoke Round 2: WE HAD TO DO IT. We marched to Roadhouse with a purpose, a purpose to win and take home the glorious karaoke win (aka a 100 pound bar tab). Greg, captain of the HMS Blue Hens, opened as he always does so well. His Mr. Brightside cover (complete with INTENSE dance moves—microphone whirls and twirls and excessive jumping around) seemed like a WIN. Next, Edgar embodied the essence of Britney Spears in his Toxic cover—it was dangerous, but I was loving it. Dave then made his debut performance singing Somebody Told Me. Drunk Dave is probably the happiest person alive, and his happiness was contagious. He had the whole bar making peace signs. AND NEXT, Joey Stone approached the stage with even more confidence than before. This time he was inspired by his Axl Rose Halloween costume singing Sweet Child of Mine. He poured his heart and soul in this performance, determined to take home more than champagne, which meant he fell to his knees TWICE. NEXT, Megan braved the stage singing Teenage Dirtbag. Her beauty and excitement made her performance THE BEST. Though they switched her microphone out 3 times, she still managed to finish the song (maybe because she is the complete embodiment of a TEENAGE DIRTBAG). We both almost missed Lauren’s performance of Somebody Told Me, but once again she performed wonderfully. AND THEN IT WAS TIME. We were ready to win. It may not be Olympic time in London, but I would say we felt as though we were fighting for the gold. But then of course we experienced a case of déjà vu when Glenn once again was awarded second place. RIGGED. IT’S SO RIGGED. We may as well never show up again.