CHARLEY

The title of this post is not a reference to the famed "Charlie the Unicorn" videos. Although, those are great.

If you haven't seen them, you should watch it now. So worth it. 

That little candy mountain tune will be stuck in your head for a few days, you probably shouldn't fight it. And instead learn all the lyrics and have your friends consider you to have gone off the deep end. #notpersonalexperience

Anyway, the title is an homage to my friend Charley from Pomona, who visited and told me I had to put him in my blog. So here he is:

w/e. Just uke-ing it up like a pro.

So anyway, Charley came to visit me, and slept on my floor on a pile of clothes. That pile of clothes is now my wardrobe, and has still not really moved from the floor. So, I'll blame Charley for that. He also somehow convinced me to let him have the bed one night, but it was one way to get him to be quiet so that I could just go to sleep.

His first evening with me we went to this tasty vegetarian Indian place in Soho (I don't remember the name... awkward, since I've been there three times now). Pictured above is chili paneer, veggie curry, yellow basmanti, and some naan. Tasty, and a recipe for stomach pain when you mix it with a pint of taddy lager right after. But worth it.

That weekend was also sprinkled with Pomona alumni events, since the Ox was in town (Ox = prez. Oxtoby, president of PomoCo, in case that wasn't glaringly obvious).

So, this was one in a weekend long series of super overexposed pictures that Charley was excited about taking with my camera, which I will spare you the rest of. But the point is, this is Charley with his dapper tie for the Saturday alumni event - lunch at a Pomona alumni's house who is currently one of the richest men in Indonesia. Let's just say, after the oysters, three different types of lox, delicious fish, truffles, crepes, etc. there was a £2000 bottle of cognac. #wut #mostexpensivedrinkI'lleverhave
The brand was Louis XIII - I'll let you explore the website on your own. You should probably watch the 10 minute introduction video. http://www.louis-xiii.com/

Anyway, we also went down to the Thames and did some more exploring of London.

Big Ben again, along with other parts of the parliament. So coooooool. I'm actually going to be taking a History of Parliament class (which I'm nervous about, since I know nothing about English history or their parliament, so... yeah), and I might get to go in and watch some debates etc. Wahoo! And what a beautiful Union Jack flying high and mighty above the city.

This is just a picture of Charley lookin' fly in front of Westminster. Just look at that smirk.

And there's the grand abbey itself. I haven't had the chance to take pictures inside yet, but I did go to an organ concert there with PomoCo pals Joseph and Miriam, which was great. All of the music concerts inside the abbey are free, and it's such a great space for it. You haven't experienced the true awe of reverberation unless it's been in a huge old church like this one.

Benches overlooking the river. #idyllic

A different view of the London Eye. This was as we were walking through something called the Mayor's festival, which took place by the Thames and made it even more crowded than normal. I think I'm learning that I don't like crowds very much. In fact, I do not like crowds at all. But there were a lot of food stands, and I got a delicious free range organic burger with a delicious creamy blue cheese which made it worth it.

I took this picture in the tube on the way back home from the Thames adventure. I haven't mentioned it yet, but London is full of CCTV cameras. Everywhere. (CCTV = closed circuit TV). I swear, they probably even put them in bathrooms. I've already gotten to the point like other Londoners where you just ignore them and they don't really bother you anymore, but it still feels a bit "big brother" as you can imagine. Ironically, we went to a pub once that had about five CCTV cameras inside, which was apparently one of George Orwell's favorite pubs. He probably had a lot of favorite pubs, following his reputation, but still. The cameras were a bit eerie after that...

Finally, to the most important part. That being, I've already been to my great hipstamatic coffee place enough to get a free cup. Win. I do love the place, though, it's called Tapped and Packed and it is some of the best  coffee I've ever had. Check out their website (http://tappedandpacked.co.uk/), but more importantly their blog (http://tappedandpacked.wordpress.com/). And their cups are each hand stamped:

I DON'T CARE IF YOU CALL ME HIPSTER, SINCE YOU PROBABLY ALREADY DO. So hah.

Classes are finally starting next week. I know it sounds weird to be excited for class, but I've also learned I'm a person who likes structure and a sense of purpose. And it's also funny that PomoCo started classes five weeks ago. w/e