I think the best description of this came from Sian, who said she “felt like a mother dropping of her kid at the first day of school.”
The girls, who had work for the day, gave me the tube route and took me to Oxford Circus. That place was shopping stores aplenty, let me tell you. People have this tendency to tell me I have moments where I look lost, I can tell you I probably had that look on my face all day…or maybe when I found myself in a five-story Urban Outfitters. (That shit tripped me out) There were mini-tourist shops, clothing stores, fast food places, more clothes places, a theatre for the Queen play, ‘We Will Rock You’, cafes, and did I mention the clothes places?
I literally found myself walking around for like two and a half to three hours. I did manage to find some food, but like when I ate at McDonalds the day before, I felt guilty for buying it.
They had popcorn chicken, how could I say ‘No’?!? The cashier had a bit of difficulty understanding me, when I asked her what this specific meal offered. I gave up halfway and just went with something normal.
The food was tasty and I kept laughing as more and more people kept stopping at to eat there. When I finished up, I bought myself a muffin with the intention of finding a place to observe everything.
I eventually found a bench, which was luckily in one of the quieter sections of the area. I got to eat my muffin, take photos, and look around, it was definitely a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the main street.
I got stopped by a couple of people-for- causes on my trek. The first was a young hare-krishna lady…who honestly didn’t look like a hare-krishna at all. First she asked me if I was French (New Nationality to add!) When I told her I'm from the U.S., she asked what state where I was from and said Arizona. She proceeded to ask me if it was cold there. I laughed…and not in a mean way. The other was a nice girl asking me to send money to a fund that helped abused children. Being that I wasn’t from here, there wasn’t much I could do, but I thanked her for the information.
(Not Arizona)
I walked so damn much it was crazy. The only other thing that made me stop what I was doing was this older English man standing on a street corner. He was blind and holding a case close to his chest. He was blind, but placed his stick near a backpack next to his feet. He was surrounded by pigeons. And I couldn’t tell if he was feeding them or not. He kept wiping his eyes almost furiously. The image struck me so much I literally just stopped there and stared. (which I know isn’t nice, but I couldn’t help it) It was humbling to watch, and I couldn’t tell if he wanted to change or not and I didn’t want to offend him. So I just gave him my time.
I decided to continue on my way and reach the underground. I successfully found the right tube to Bethenal Green and was on my way. (Mom would be proud)
Getting back I had to wait for Aissa, so I sat at the park near the station for about an hour. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think I was completely overwhelmed and exhausted by Oxford Circus. It didn’t take long, but it started getting much colder outside. I finally met up with Aissa after a small mix-up and we were both pretty eager to get back to the flat. It was a looooooong day. We took the bus home and found ourselves taking a super cat nap as soon we opened the door. I passed out on the couch, and while it was light outside when I closed my eyes, it was super dark when I opened them.
Once we got up Aissa and I got ready to meet Sian and her friend Neil in Soho. The trip getting there was fine but I found myself in super observation mode again. Soho was a crazy combination of the new and the old. I also found out it’s where most of the American movie industry works out of. (I must visit this area again!)
The bar Sian and Neil were at was super hip and super tiny, their ‘tables’ were too tiny to hold more than like 2 drinks. It was pretty funny to look at.
Funny observation peeps, English people don’t call bathrooms ‘Restrooms’ over here. They’re much more straightforward. So when you find you got to tinkle, look out for the ‘Toilets.’ Also interesting to note, tipping is not common here in fact it’s usually already included in the bill. So if you come down here, DON’T TIP haha!!
We got super hungry and realized the tastiest sounding place was, of course, a Nando’s nearby. Supposedly by my third time eating there I’ll be an honorary Englishman! Food was awesome, and afterwards Sian and Aissa got hit up by some friends from their work and they wanted us to join them for a drink at a place called ‘Freedom’. Their friends were super nice and even bought me a drink. Neil and I drank a bit and joked around about the people at the club. (Kinda trying to hard?) Soon after he and the friends had to peace. So the girls and I decided to finish the night off at Joiners. We drank some more and caught up on life. (I can’t recall the last time I drank so much haha.) It was nice and all, the DJ was even playing awesome music again. I got hit in the leg by some British dude who was into me, when the girls told him I wasn’t gay, he gave me angry/creepy looks the rest of the night…I’m sorry haha? I also found a new celebrity look alike 'Post Ziggy' David Bowie, the dude was pretty spot on.
(Seriously, looked just like this.)
We finished the night around 3, and took a taxi home. Another busy/fun day come and gone folks, to bed!!
Tell next time,
Toby
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