Leicester Square, City of Westminster, United Kingdom

Yesterday was another great day here in London! Annabelle and Johanna and I got up at the crack of 11 and got ready for another day of wandering the streets and exploring. We shopped a bit at the touristy places (m&m store, Primark, Selfridge's, etc.) though I didn't buy more than a mini hairbrush since I forgot mine in Spain. Also, everything here is so expensive! The exchange rate from pound to dollar is around .63-- painful, to say the least. I remember when I thought the Euro was bad when I got to Europe two months ago, but this is unreal!

Instant classic

Anyways, our ultimate destination was the Hotel at Leicester Square where we made a 4:30 reservation for tea. Needless to say, we had quite a lovely experience sipping on Earl Grey and enjoying our three tiers of treats: first tier is always "savoury" little sandwiches, second tier is scones and a small dish of clotted cream and jam to spread, and the top tier is an assortment of desserts.

Tea time!

Our gracious London hostess

Boysenberry mini cake

After our lovely tea experience, we stopped at a supermarket to get salad materials to round out the rest of our meal. Annabelle lives in a flat with a communal kitchen, but there are limited supplies of plates, bowls, etc. We got resourceful and made our salad in a pasta pot so we could mix all the ingredients together, and it was delicious. And so much cheaper than getting a salad at a restaurant or purchasing pre-made food elsewhere. 

Chef Annabelle

YUM.

Of course, our final destination of the evening was Fabric, one of London's most popular nightclubs. It was fun, but I'm really not into the hardcore Eurotrance/dubstep style of music; I'd rather go somewhere where I can sing and dance to songs that I know instead of awkwardly swaying to blasting loud, repetitive beats. It was still a good time though, just not my ideal setting. And in all honesty, I can't complain. I got to get dressed up with Annabelle, Johanna, and two of Annabelle's good friends from Princeton who are also studying here, have drinks, and dance a bit. I couldn't ask for more. 

Alexa the cutie

Annabelle, Alexa, Johanna, me, Bo-Won

Today, Sunday, we've just spent hanging out here in Café Nero doing homework. Oddly enough, I actually have work to do this weekend, so I've been writing for a few hours now. This is my break time when I get to write in English and chuckle at the miserably white Facebook pictures of the pre-Halloween blizzard in New England. 

Woke up in London yesterday!

But wait, rewind.

Thursday I packed up my stuff and left Cordoba for Seville. Johanna met me at the train station, and we got a bus to the airport and caught our flight to London. Unfortunately, we landed late enough that the tube (!) was not running anymore, so we had to navigate a bus from Stanstead to University College London, which is right downtown London where Annabelle is studying. Somehow we missed the stop, though, so we ended up in the boondocks at 3 in the morning. Once we realized we missed our stop, we got off and waited for the return bus going the other direction. Luckily, there was a great falafel place at the bus stop, so in the middle of the night, we finally enjoyed our dinner. In the meantime, Annabelle was panicking away in her dorm because we thought we’d arrive by 1am or so. Once we caught the right bus back to her area and found her house, though, we realized we had no means (cell phone, doorbell, nothing) of contacting her inside. Naturally we started yelling her name in the street, and it worked! She opened the door and Johanna and I literally fell into her arms- such a happy reunion!

Yesterday, Friday, the three of us ran around the city and did all the major sight-seeing, including quintessential breakfast of scones and tea at a café…

Walking the streets

Green Park

Princess Diana walkway through Green Park (by Buckingham Palace)

The famous balcony at Buckingham!

The classic guard

Buckingham gate and balcony

Love

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Huge Ben!

Classic tourist picture

Squeeze!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Annabelle and Johanna enjoying coffee outside the Globe 

Coffee by the Thames River

…and all-you-can-eat dinner at a delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant. Hurray for non-Spanish food!! And vegetarian! Wow!

After dinner we went to a house party that was hosted by some friends of one of Annabelle’s flat mates, which was pretty fun, though nothing too exciting. We’re saving our big nights out at clubs for tonight and Monday (Halloween).

Today we’re going to have afternoon tea. Aside from that, we’ll see where the day leads us. This is quite a change from Morocco. 

Marueccos, en resumen

Morocco, in summary, is not something I can just process and move on from. The past few days really changed me, and I think it'll take a considerable amount of time, thought, and energy to clearly process everything that happened, both good and bad. And today, one of the bad elements of the trip was erased: bye bye bedbugs. Because how how much better Kim and I got overnight after getting shots in our butts, taking pills, and using a cream on our faces, Carlos eliminated the possibility of bedbugs. THANK GOODNESS. The were definitely bites- fire ants, beetles, or perhaps a combination of the three and mosquitos-- but nothing that is severely contagious. I'm relieved. The bug infestation, nonetheless, really put a damper on the trip, but now that we know we're all ok, I can focus more on the positive parts and worry less about my itches.

Rock of Gibraltar from the ferry

Touched Africa!

Dress shop in Tetuan

Tetuan at night

Tetuan market

Medina at Tetuan

Old palace in Tetuan

Palace in Tetuan

Palace courtyard

View of Tetuan from the rooftop of the palace

Tetuan Palace

Preshquitas

Courtyard, again- amazing tile work

University where we had our seminars in Tetuan

Two boys on the side of the road

On the way to Chefchaouen

Mural in the streets of Chefchaouen

Women in the Chefchaouen Medina

Blue streets!

Chefchaouen

Pigments to paint the houses

Hand of Fatima in a jewelry store

Ceramics, baskets in Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen open air market

Chefchaouen

Old woman in the street

One of these things is not like the other...

Women from the weaving Co-op wearing a scarf she made

Thunder storms in Africa

Henna

Henna

"Maurine" in arabic

Embroidery workshop at Tetuan School of Arts

Preshquitas and Moroccans in class

My embroidery friend and teacher, Hanan

Asilah, Morocco; city of art

Arabic mural in Asilah

Sunset in Asilah

Asilah

Muslim graveyard on the patio and coastal street

Atlantic Ocean

My group of girls at the final school, chatting about cultural expectations and exchanging stories about our lives

Explaining marriage

1 American to 5 Marroquis

More female students

From Mona, one of the girls who I spoke with about my education and learned about Moroccan c

 culture from.

Camels in Asilah

Ali-Baba the camel

Prequitas and our token man, Ali-Baba

Two handmade, handpainted mugs from Asilah: 8 Euros

What a trip. I wish I had the time to write a paragraph explaining every picture in depth, but I don't have the time. You'll just have to imagine how strange, different, amazing, spectacular, and eye-opening the trip was, and enjoy the photos. 

As for normal life here in Cordoba, today is already Wednesday, and after getting home at 3am last night, I'm tired. I did, of course, take a nice long run this morning. It felt so good to cruise for 7 miles, particularly after 5 days off. I'm going to go again tomorrow morning if my limited time allows, because...

I am only in Cordoba for slightly over 24 hours, and tomorrow I leave for 5 days in London with Annabelle and Johanna! I had class today, and Sevillanas tonight, so tomorrow I have to print out all my flight info and make sure I'm ready to skip town again. My train to Sevilla leaves at 4:30, and then I'll meet up with Johanna and go to the airport. I haven't really wrapped my head around leaving again; I just got back from a developing country and now I'm running off the the royal city. It'll be a bit of a strange transition, but I'm excited.