This weekend has just been cool. Literally............. (wincing at the pun).
Friday was a fantastic day of discovery through people, places, and finally, parkas.
After a leisurely morning, and while the other flatmates were either at work or with their families, Maneeza and I headed over to Oxford street for some shopping. After dipping into a couple of the stores without much success, we finally found the store we had heard so much about from the locals; Primark.
This place is unlike anywhere we have in the United States. Imagine a huge downtown store in any big U.S. city, with multiple floors, men's and women's (and children's) departments, anything you could want to clothe yourself. Shoes, accessories, purses, outerwear. You name it.
And it's all in-style. And it's all absolutely dirt cheap. How cheap you ask?
I got two pairs of ballet flats for 4 POUNDS PER PAIR. That's only $16.00 (USD) total. Comparable shoes in the states would probably cost me at least $20.00 per pair. Easily. A pair of jeans there = 6-8 Pounds. That's 12-16 USD. I now understand why everyone in London, almost without exception (seriously), is always dressed fashionably; they have no excuse when they have Primark to fund their wardrobes!
And no I'm not kidding. And no they weren't having a blowout sale. It's all this cheap every day of the year. For this American student dealing with the daily grind of British sticker shock and a horrific exchange rate of approximately $2 = 1 Pound, I vowed to return to this place that I could actually find real bargains on great stuff. How wonderful! I might start a letter writing campaign to Primark pleading them to come to the U.S. Yep. Sounds like a plan.
After the exuberant hour and a half or so at Primark, we went back home, hung around for a bit, made some dinner for ourselves, and got ready to go out to Absolut Icebar London, where we had reservations for 11 pm.
After meeting up with some other friends, we arrived at Icebar, donned the "designer" parkas they provide, and went into the deep freeze for 40 funfilled minutes in a room entirely made of crystal-clear ice imported from Finland. The entry fee comes with one drink in your own personal glass made out of, you guessed it, ice. That was pretty fun and a once in a lifetime experience.
It's always on the rocks at Icebar!
We met some fun Londoners inside the Icebar and hung out with them for the rest of the night down in BelowZero's Reindeer Lounge, the uber-classy place underneath Icebar. I found out later that the space that holds BelowZero is the old wine vault for England's monarchy! Pretty sweet! Anyway, it was great to meet new people and we all had a blast until the wee hours. Great night!
Me, Azeema and Lacey at Icebar
Yesterday and today have been fairly relaxing, as yesterday we went out to dinner at Zizzi to send off our friends leaving in a few days after session one concludes. How fast the time has gone! We'll miss them to pieces!
Today is a day of organizing, cleaning, shopping, and getting my thoughts in order to start my internship tomorrow morning at 10 am. I'm mostly excited, with a little nervous mixed in there, but I'm sure it will be a great experience. I can't wait to start putting all my schooling, so far, into real-world practice, and see how everything works first hand at MSN News.
Ohhhhh boy! Well, it's off to be productive! Hope all is well with all of you back home!
God Save the Queen! Or at least the geniuses who created Primark and thought to import Finnish Ice to the old royal wine cellar..... BRILLIANT.
Cheers :)
2 comments:
London seems like the hippest place ever.
I must go. And soon!
I can't believe you went and partied until the wee hours...I hope you're having lots of fun!
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