30 Jan

Day started out uneventful as usual, though it was nice that I was accompanied to King’s by Margaret who had seminar at 11. As we were walking to campus, we talked about what to do for Kate’s birthday (mentioned later). Margaret was wondering if Sainsbury’s had birthday cakes and when I answered in the affirmative, she said, “They do celebrate birthdays here, don’t they?” I laughed and said definitely yes. It was pretty funny. While she went off to class I went in search of some money since I spent my last tenner on dinner (I think I already mentioned this).

Southall today! Gregg was kind enough to agree to come along and keep me company. I met him at King’s around 11 but we couldn’t leave for about 45 minutes since poor guy, he lost his student Oyster card! And this was when he still had three works left on it! Getting a card isn’t a terrible hassle; it just involves getting a form from one place, the money for it from another, and then finally mailing it off. The trip to Southall went okay, it was mostly a long ride on the Tube; King’s is in Zone 1 and Ealing Broadway, the last Tube stop, is in Zone 3. London is made of 6 zones and the 6^th contains Heathrow and Gatwick airports. At the Ealing Broadway station, we saw signs for the trains that didn’t involve ticketing out of the Tube first. So, in London, you must insert your ticket/have your Oyster card read upon entering the Tube system and then upon leaving (i.e. don’t lose your ticket during your journey, you need it to get out). Anyway, we never “ticketed out” from the Ealing Broadway Tube stop so as far as they knew, we never left the Tube. Because of that, we also didn’t have to pay the extra money for going into Zone 3 (our travelcards only cover Zones 1 and 2). We also didn’t find a ticket station near the platform for the train tickets to Southall, so we never bought one. On the train, we heard an announcement saying the ticket checker would be coming by soon. Gregg and I were like, “oh crap.” The guy read our Oyster cards and informed us we were only good for Zones 1 and 2, which of course we knew. The good Americans we are, we feigned a bit of ignorance and he showed us mercy by letting us buy our tickets right then instead of fining us for not having a proper pass (those fines are at least £20 per violation). The fare ended up being £2.50 round trip which isn’t bad at all. They didn’t even check on the way back; funny how that works.

Just like the NY Times article said, I could smell spices almost the moment I got off the train at Southall. We followed the crowd heading into town and I noticed a car dealership on the right whose sign was both in English and an Indian language. The first place we came upon was a pub called Glassy Junction which was the first pub in the UK to accept rupees as currency. This is the real Little India. We took a left after the bridge and headed deeper into town. I loved being surrounded by Indians, many of them in traditional garb. Bollywood music poured out of buildings and the scent of spices filled the air. We passed shops with windows filled with colorful saris and other traditional clothing. There’s a clothing store there (Aarti Sarees) that sells a pure silk sari decked with Swarovski crystals for….about £700! Mom, can I get that for my wedding? Haha. Many signs were written in Indian script (I couldn’t tell if it was Hindi or Punjabi), some store signs only in such script.

After walking for a bit down the main street, Gregg and I stopped to eat lunch at a place called Mirch Masala. I thought it sounded familiar from the NY Times article, and when I checked it later it turned out I was right. We had to wait a little while for the wait staff to notice us which was pretty sad since there were about 10 people total in the good sized restaurant. The food came surprisingly fast though, and Gregg and I were quite pleased with the turnout. We ordered our dishes medium (mild, medium, and hot) which was a good choice since they were spicy enough to be enjoyable yet not too spicy to be difficult to swallow. I had mutter paneer while Gregg had chicken korma (he basically picked at random from the menu). I think I was just so happy to be eating Indian food again that anything would have tasted wonderful, but this food really was good. Maybe not Royal India good, but it definitely held its own. Naan was also much cheaper here than what I saw on Brick Lane; 90p for a plate sized piece (maybe 6 in. diameter?) as opposed to £1.75. Ah, what a good meal; definitely the best I’ve had since coming here.

After lunch we stopped at a place called Jalebi Junction for some dessert that was another place I remembered from the Times article. The jalebi was selling for 50p a piece, which was a little steep but they were big and very sweet. We ate them on the long Tube ride back into town. Instead of going all the way back to Temple, which is near King’s, we got off at Victoria instead and caught a train back to Denmark Hill. The clouds cleared just as we were leaving town after hovering around us all day. All in all, it was a trip well worth the time and money.

Today is Kate Longstreet’s 21^st birthday so we celebrated it college fashion. Lainey and some other girls bought her a cake from Sainsbury’s which they presented to her after dinner while we were still at the dining hall. The cafeteria staff were rather amused and we definitely got their attention. It turns out that one of the staff members also had his birthday today so Kate, the sweet girl she is, gave him the first piece of cake she cut. All the JYAs there sang her happy birthday and several of the other King’s students joined in on the singing and clapping. Kate blushed a bit but seemed quite pleased with the whole display. Happy birthday!

The party continued to the fuBar at 7:30 where most people bought drinks as a pre-party before heading to the Waterfront Bar at the Strand campus (yes, the campus has its own bar and nightclub). Apparently, the Brits have a tradition where the birthday person is “ginned” or must drink eight shots of gin (which is equivalent to four American shots). Kate protested at first but eventually she and Elicia drank some. Kate ended up downing a lot of gin in a very small amount of time to cheers and chants from the crowd. It was pretty amazing. After the mini party at the fuBar, nearly everyone went out to Waterfront while Liane, Micah, and I stayed back. I’ve already spent a lot of money in two days and I’m not much of the “going out” type anyway. I just did some work and planning the rest of the night. Laundry day is tomorrow so I need to make sure I take my sheets and such down in time. Hooray. Cheers!