‘Cause I’ll Be Dancin’ – Part 2

To read part 1, click here.

So where was I? Oh yes, Sahar’s sister Layla was visiting and we were hitting up a few hot spots around London.

Before I get to Saturday night, I want to show you the Elephant Parade taking over London.

To help spread the word about the endangered Asian elephants, the Elephant Family had artists and celebrities decorate 250 elephants which they’ve placed all over London from May till July. All of the elephants are being auctioned off, and the money raised will go to help save the Asian elephants and other conservation charities.

Of course most of us will just be appreciating these elephants while walking down the streets of London since we (a) don’t have the money to buy one and (b) have no where to put a decorated elephant. Instead, it’s turned into a fun game trying to find all the elephants around the city.They are just so cute placed around the city, popping up when you least expect it. And I promise I won’t be posting photos of/with all 250, but there will definitely a few more between now and when I leave next month.

Okay. On to part 2 of ‘Cause I’ll Be Dancin’…

On Saturday night, we decided to take Layla to one of my favorite spots in London, Gordon’s Wine Bar. Last time we came here (with Erin), we sat in the cellar. Now that the weather has gotten nicer, they opened up their out door seating so we grabbed a table outside. We enjoyed yummy cheeses and delicious wines for a couple hours before the patio closed at 10:30.

From there, we took tube south to Elephant & Castle where there is a little club called Ministry of Sound. Before we could go there though, we needed to make a little pit stop at Wetherspoons for some drinks. Wetherspoons has one of the cheapest food menus I’ve ever seen, and their tequila shots were only £2 each!

A little something about me…I’m not a big fan of house music. I find it ridiculously annoying and repetitive. Of course, that’s pretty much all they play at Ministry of Sound. So before we entered this place, all 5 of us wanted to be a little buzzed, hence the quantity of shots we consumed at Wetherspoons.

Anyway, now we were ready!

Now let me tell you about Ministry of Sound. This club has 4 rooms, plus a VIP room, with different DJ’s spinning in each one. It was voted one of the top 10 clubs in the world by DJ Magazine in 2009. The company that owns the club even has their own indy record label. It’s a huge club that’s packed with people from all over the world (we met one guy from Germany and two from France), all of whom pay about £15 each to get in.

Wonderland night at Ministry of Sound

I must admit, we all had a great time. Of course the tequila helped… a lot! At one point we even found ourselves dancing up on the speakers! This is definitely not the type of place I’d go on a regular basis, but if a we have visitor’s in the future who want to go, I think I’d be up for it.

Layla & I at Ministry of Sound

The bus ride home was arguably the most entertaining part of the evening.

Night buses in London can be quite fascinating between certain hours of the night. We happened to start our journey at around 4am. As we made our way home, groups of people boarded, and the double decker was packed before we knew it. We met a group of eastern Europeans in their twenties who were trying to guess what nationality we were almost the entire ride. Soon, everyone around us was trying to guess, including the drunk 40 year old black guy sitting next to us. Yes, the night bus can be fun, as long as you’re not alone and ready for whatever may come your way.

By the time we got home that night morning it was around 5:15am, the sun was rising, birds were chirping, and we had just walked over half a mile from the tube station to my place.

All in all, I’d say the weekend was a success!

In other news…

4 Weeks until I move to Italy.

10 Weeks until I head back to the US.

Plans for after summer are set. All about it in the next post.

Ciao,

Sheila

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‘Cause I’ll Be Dancin’

I feel like so much has happened these past couple weeks and yet I have failed to blog about any of it. Going to catch you up now. Here we go…

The biggest news item on the list: The Nashville Flooding. I can’t begin to tell you heartbreaking it was being so far away while this city that I love was submerged underwater. Even worse was the fact that none of the national news stations were covering the story, so I was getting my information via Twitter. I’d like to thank the amazing folks at Nashvillest for their updates throughout the whole ordeal. By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the flooding and devastation in Nashville. Incase you haven’t though, check out this article from The Huffington Post and also a post from the guys at Section 303 that basically started the “We Are Nashville” campaign. Eventually, Nashville caught the attention of the national media, and Anderson Cooper did what he does best – he made America stand up and take notice.

If you’d like to help the folks in Nashville (which I personally think you should), here are a few places that will gladly accept your money…

1) Middle TN Red Cross

2) Second Harvest Food Bank

3) Cool People Care – For $20 you can get a “We Are Nashville” shirt and 100% of the profits will go to The Community Foundation Flood Relief. They also have bumper stickers, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I miss this city now more than ever. I can’t wait to be back.

Here in London, things are well! I’ve moved up into the next level in my Italian classes (from complete beginner to recent beginner!) which means a new teacher and new students. I’m even more determined to learn this language and hopefully someday I can say I’m trilingual. Other than that, I’ll be heading to Italy in 6 weeks so I need to start cleaning and getting rid of any junk I’ve acquired in the past 6 months.

I broke my earphones. One earbud got stuck in a closing door and now it’s totally busted. I don’t want to use my super nice Bose in-ears, but the only other set of earphones I have are free airplane ones and they SUCK! This may not sound like a huge deal, but since I listen to my iPod just about every day for at least an hour, it’s becoming an issue. Gonna go to the Apple store tomorrow to see if they can switch them out for me. Crossing the fingers.

On friday night I went out with my cousin, Ladan, and her cousins, Sahar and Layla. We started out at the ABSOLUT Ice Bar, which was a very interesting experience! As the name states, everything in the room is made of ice: tables, the bar, glasses, chairs, etc. They allow guests in only for about 40 minutes, and honestly, I’m not sure I could have stayed in there much longer than that. They provided us with coats/parkas and gloves, all of which must be worn inside the room. Tickets are £15, and that includes one drink in a very cool glass made of ice which you must keep if you want to purchase another drink (for £6).

Sahar & I at the Ice Bar

From there we went to one of our favorite places, The Roadhouse! Located in Covet Garden, the Roadhouse is very American, but that doesn’t stop locals from going there. Not wanting to waist any time, we decided to order two fishbowls. Why is the fishbowl the way to go? Well, it’s cheaper than ordering individual drinks and you don’t have to go to the bar every 15 minutes to order a drink. Total Win! Plus, one of them (The Porn Star) came with a bottle of Prosecco.

And then of course we danced! The bands that play at the Roadhouse cover the best songs and the DJ does a great job of keeping the crowed happy between sets. By the end of the night, my feet were killing me! So much so that I definitely took my shoes off on the way to the tube station. Probably not the best idea, but at the time it felt like the only option.

Layla, Ladan, and me at Roadhouse

Yes, we definitely had a great night out. Now, what’s the best way to follow up a great night out? With another great night out, of course!! However, I’m going to make this into a 2 part post cuz it’s getting long and I’m tired.

But before I leave…

Book & Music Update

The book I recently finished reading… “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger

The song I’m listening to on the tube… “Naive” by The Kooks

Ciao,

Sheila