Garnet's Life Adventures

day with Christina

Well it's been an exciting & exhausting day for me here in London :)
I met my friend Christina (from Lebanon) at Kings Cross station - which is quite a chore, considering she was in the train station section and I was in the underground section - she didn't know the difference, so that took about 30 minutes to straighten out - I was very confused b/c she said she was in the tube station waiting for me and I'd searched all entrances and exits and couldn't find her anywhere. Luckily thanks to our mobiles & a Burger King sign we were able to find each other.
From there we walked down Euston Rd. to Great Portland Street to check out the International Student House (ISH). They have a gym, internet cafe, bar, cinema (with a free movie for students on Sunday nights), travel club, and dorms.
After that we continued our adventure on Marylebone Rd (Euston's name changes) to Baker Street where we grabbed some waters and cut through Portman Sq. onto Portman St. and down onto Oxford St. a place I will not return to on a Saturday afternoon (WAY too busy) we headed towards Marble Arch and finally onto Edgeware Rd. (our destination for lunch).
Christina and I walked up & down the road twice before she decided on a place where we could stop for a bite to eat, being Lebanese, she wanted to find a nice but not expensive. Don't ask me what we eat b/c I can barley pronounce them, let alone try to spell them out - it was all wonderful!! I also learned about "hubbly-bubbly" (in Arabic it sounds like, Shaka, or something like that) looked to me like the whole place was taking bong hits, but apparently it's just fruit flavored tobacco - I didn't ask much more but these things were all over in the restaurants on the road.
A friend of hers met us there. She's in England studying at Oxford Uni. They met working for the Red Cross in Iran 3 years ago. The friend's name I've now forgotten, but she was very nice & offered us a tour of Oxford anytime. Christina & I agreed we'd take her up on it one weekend.
Around 6:30pm Christina wanted to learn how to take a bus, so I showed her my little map and then we went to a bus station to explain it in more detail. I think it was overwhelming to her b/c she said, "well it's not far walk, no?" and I reassured her we could walk it before it got too dark. So we headed home on Marylebone Rd. When we got to Tottenham Court Rd, I asked if I could jump on the Northern line and head home instead of going all the way back to Kings Cross. She had no problem, so we gave a quick check of the map to make sure she knew how to get back to her place & I hopped on the first train home.
Okay, I'm off to make some dinner now and get a good night's sleep b/c tomorrow is our 2 hour walking tour of London with the school.
Hope all is well in the states, the weather here is perfect! Jeans & short sleeves during the day with a sweater at night :)

posted by Sara @ 4:11 pm