Four friends and I decided to use our free weekend to come back to London. We got here Thursday afternoon, and checked into our hostel. That was super exciting because we were sleeping in pods (picture from https://awol.junkee.com/st-christophers-inn-capsule-hotel/58403), which is something that I've wanted to do for ages. They were actually quite spacious, the lights changed colors, and they were stacked on top of each other so I go to be on top! It was even better than I had thought it would be. We couldn't stay for
long though, because we had a show at the Globe at 7:30. We watched Henry IV part 1, which is actually the only Shakespeare play I had ever seen in performance, without reading it first. It was really good, so now I want to read it! Hopefully I'm not disappointed, since it is possible it was just fabulous because the actors were fabulous. It was the funniest Shakespeare play I have seen yet! We had bought the standing tickets (since they were only 5 pounds!), which meant that for the entire duration of the 2.5 hour long performance, other than the 15 minute intermission, we were standing. This shouldn't have been a problem (you know, I'm young, my bones are strong), but I was totally dying half an hour in. It was very weird. The mystery was solved the next morning though, when I woke up with a terrible cold. I spent most of the morning in my pod, attempting to nap, while my friends explored the city. It wasn't the best of environments, as there was a man that was just walking around the pod room wearing nothing but his underwear - for over 3 hours! What was he doing? Why wasn't he wearing clothes? Who knows! I wasn't about to provoke him. All I wanted was to take a nap. But that wasn't meant to be - just as I fell asleep, some random lady opened the curtain of my pod (they don't have doors) and started to clamber in! Excuse her, this is my pod! Turns out she was confused - she was supposed to be in pod 19, and I was in pod 9. Not gonna lie, I really didn't like her at the time. I never was able to fall asleep, because she and her group had to very loudly discuss their pod situation.
We had to check out of the hostel at noon and move to another one, so I deliriously stumbled after my friends as we took the subway and walked to the next location. Unfortunately, we could not check in until 4 (at least we could drop off our bags there), so I went to a nearby coffee shop to sit down and do some work, while my other friends went off to have adventures. It could have been worse - there were no underwear-clad men or loud pod-stealing women there.
I was sick the entire weekend, and could do little more than make it to the coffee shop, so
that is where I spent most of my time, other than the hostel. I had to get out of the hostel though, because there were weird noises, and it kept sounding like someone was trying to get into our room, so I was spooked.
So yeah, it kind of sucked that I was sick for the entire weekend. I had so many cool things planned, like going to the Victoria and Albert Museum, seeing a fashion photography exhibition at Somerset House, and riding in an open-air double-decker bus. But there was nothing I could do about it, so c'est la vie. Being depressed about missing out would just ruin the weekend. And, some good things did come out of my disease.
Firstly, I had the best chai latte of my entire life. I don't know what that coffee shop did to the chai, but it was absolutely scrumptious! If I hadn't been forced to sit around all day, I likely never would have gone into this coffee shop in the first place. Besides, I was spending a lot
of time in this coffee shop, so at least I was getting some London experience.
Secondly, I got a lot of work done. Next week is our last week here, and thus most of our assignments are due that week.
Thirdly, and most significantly, now I really feel like I have lived in England. Although I have been here a month, it just felt like an extended vacation (even the classes didn't feel too much like school, since they were subjects I was interested in). But, now that I have been sick here, I feel like I can say I have lived here. You have to experience the bad with the good, to get the authentic experience of a place, I think.