some artists at work by Brick Lane
I’m trying to be better about keeping a consistent blog, so I’ll tell you a little about last weekend and what I’ve been up to more recently! The last big event was last Thursday, which was Katie’s birthday 😀 We all went out to get Mexican food at this restaurant called Las Iguanas, which was right by the river and had a nice view of the London Eye from outside. Not only was everyone excited to be celebrating Katie’s birthday, but a lot of us were excited to be getting Mexican food because for some reason, ever since we got here, that’s all anyone’s wanted and it’s seemingly hard to come by in New Cross at least. A couple weeks ago, my friend Jordan discovered a Chipotle in London and Grayson and Mo went along to get burritos, but I think I had class and missed out on it. Anyway, Las Iguanas was really good! I got a chimichanga and shared a raspberry tequila drink with Maggie, which was also delicious (but expensive hence the sharing). We then went to a bar in Shoreditch that Sofija had been to, but the upstairs where there’s usually a DJ or live music, was closed off that night so we hopped around to other places in search of somewhere to hang out and dance a bit. We eventually found a bar called Traffik, which was fun and had good music so we stayed there for a while. Unfortunately, Katie’s phone and ipod went missing so that put a damper on things, but overall it was a good night.
Katie and a cat
a light tower (?) on Brick Lane
Over the weekend, I went out to Brick Lane (which is also in Shoreditch) with Grayson and Katie. Brick Lane is basically a street full of shops and art galleries but on the weekends there are different markets with food, crafts, art, and vintage things. The best day to go is apparently Sunday because the biggest market happens then, but we went on Saturday and there was still a lot going on. There are also a lot of Bangladeshi curry houses along Brick Lane. We stopped by an artist’s shop where there were about four or five cats just wandering around and Katie freaked out because she loves cats- haha. We also popped into a bunch of vintage clothing stores which were all having good sales, but a lot of the clothes were way too expensive to begin with! There was one cool vintage store that was in like a basement/warehouse area and was almost like an indoor vintage market with a bunch of stands with different clothing and accessories. We stopped and got lunch in The Old Truman Brewery, which is the former site of a brewery that was converted into an open food market full of stands from different cuisines. After eating, we just wandered around for a bit and saw a lot of the street art that Brick Lane is famous for. It was cool to experience the street art there because although New York has a lot of street art as well, the art was framed in a way that seemed more ‘high art’ than ‘street art’ but it was still outside. We passed a couple of large canvases that were just hanging up on the side of a building and there were random sculptures on top of buildings and in unexpected places, which was cool.
my rose plant 🙂
And then today, I finally went to the infamous Poundland (which is just like a dollar store that I’ve heard a lot about…) in the Lewisham Shopping Centre. It was only a short bus ride away and the shopping centre was kind of like a mini mall with a bunch of other shops like Primark (my new favorite store), H&M, and even a Sainsbury’s (our local grocery store). Poundland was awesome though, and I got some good stuff for a very good price. I also picked up a potted pink rose plant from a stand at an outdoor market right outside of the shopping centre because I’ve been missing having a plant in my room even though I’m a notoriously bad plant mother. But hopefully this plant will not die on me and I’ll get to enjoy its presence for a while!
Marguerite Goes to London 