After Chris left, Michelle and I packed all our belongings back into our over-sized suitcases and hauled them several blocks to Jess' flat. Life is so difficult without cell phones. It's nice to be without my phone and cut off from everyone except the people I'm with, but it's extremely difficult to contact people here. When we got to Jess' flat, no one answered the buzzer and we couldn't call anyone. Michelle sat with the suitcases and I went down to the sandwich place to get us some lunch. (I wish we had sandwich shops in America.) By the time I got back to Jess', Noelle had let Michelle into the building and helped her carry our luggage up five flights of stairs. Sweet deal.
Jess brought Michelle, Noelle and I to meet up with some of her friends who were riding the Eye. We walked along the water for at least 20 minutes observing life on our way to high tea. We saw all different kinds of street performers, book sellers under a bridge, skateboarders and bikers doing tricks against graffiti cement, Shakespeare's Globe and a bunch of famous bridges.
High tea was at a pub we reached after walking across London. You ordered in groups of two and were given a pot of tea, tuna sandwiches, pickle and cheese sandwiches, scones and cakes to share. Our table was covered with food. The sandwiches were my favorite of the food items. Pickle and cheese sandwiches are surprisingly delicious. That was also my first tuna sandwich ever. It was amazing. The cakes, not so good. My mom's carrot cake has tainted me and I will not eat or enjoy any others. An awkward, Eastern European waitress kept coming to our table, asking us if we were finished and refusing to take away more than one item at a time. We had a table full of plates and glasses but she would only take one tea cup at a time. She yelled at us for not finishing all the food. I thought she was going to hit us.
After tea we headed to the Tate Modern. My favorite floor was five. This floor had Cubist, futurist, minimalist, pop art and conceptual art exhibits. I was really excited to find out there were Lichtensteins on that floor. Turns out there was only one piece of his work. It was still amazing to see in person. The Andy Warhol pieces were also pretty great. An artist I had never heard of became the creator of some of my favorite pieces in the Tate Modern. Cheri Samba, an artist born in the Congo but living in Paris had amazing pieces full of political and cultural commentary that sucked me in immediately through bright colors and chaotic figures. (This was not my favorite but one of the few I could find that was at that exhibit.)
The Tate Modern also had a fair amount of ridiculous videos and simple images a Kindergartener could have created. It is hard to take seriously pieces of art encompassed by a single red line down a canvas. One room had a bizarre video of people in their underwear lying on a canvas in paint with raw chicken and dead fish being thrown at them as they rolled around all over each other. It was intriguing and bizarre.
After this two hour mind warp, we crossed the Millennium Bridge and got on the tube back to Jess'. Tonight is Noelle's last night so we decided to go to a club called On Anon. We weren't really sure what to expect. It was a very interesting experience. Not only do people harass you in the streets of London trying to lure you to whatever club they're working for, but once you get inside your club of choice you are further harassed by girls trying to con you into buying overpriced shots of Sambuca. Noelle, Michelle and I went to use the bathroom and there was a lady sitting in a chair next to the sink waiting to take your money after you innocently take a stick of gum she laid out on the sink. There was gum, makeup, toothbrushes, hair brushes, lighters, mints, even shaving cream and razors. It was ridiculous.
The club was full of sweaty people who, for some reason, decided deodorant would not be necessary this evening. There were many young girls and many old men. This seems to be a trend in London clubs. I wonder where all the young guys go? One guy decided to break our dance circle and tear me away as he tried to dance with my resisting body. He was very goofy. In a heavy British accent, he told me his name was Adam. He tried talking to me but my responses were sparse. When his friend walked over, Adam shouted, "I found the shiest American girl!" He continued trying to get me to dance. When I refused, he screamed in my ear "YOU ARE SO CUTE! I just want to put you in my pocket and bring you around and take you out and say 'look Maria! There's Big Ben!' I could just eat you up!" I rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink at which point he shouted, "Aww look at the little sip she took! The glass is half the size of her!" Noelle and the girls were very amused. She tried to convince Adam that the shocker is an American dance move. He didn't buy it. After talking about bringing me around London in his pocket some more, I decided it was time to tell Adam to bugger off. Michelle, Jess and Noelle pulled me away and danced around me. Adam got the point. Another random guy decided to corner Noelle for the remainder of our time at On Anon. About an hour later, overwhelmed by the weird guys and raging body odor, we escaped back to Jess'.
Jess and her roommates had three or four extra guests aside from Noelle, Michelle and I. Sleeping space was prime real estate. Jess gave us some rafters to sleep on. Noelle blew them up and we tried to get comfortable in silence since everyone was asleep. This, however, was impossible. The rafters were really beach floats and made a high pitched screeching noise the second we made contact with them. This screeching went on for about three minutes as we tried to get comfortable without A) waking anyone up and B) peeing our pants. After a long fit of laughter, I stealthily rolled off the side of my flotation devices, defeated by the noises. Tonight, I sleep on the floor.
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