Tag Archives: London

Flight Ban Lifted! Hooray!!!

Apologies. I meant to publish a new post about 2 weeks ago, but my Italy vacation has gotten in the way between me and the Internet access. Anywho… I am now back in the good ol’ US of A. Having experienced 5 different cities in 5 days, I magically made it back to Boston, MA safely and have been frolicking down Comm Ave. while everyone else focused on their final exam studies.

My last few weeks in London were rather hectic – a final exam, an internship tutorial paper, packing, setting up a storage space and most of all, worrying about the volcanic ash.

About a couple weeks ago I began following @guardiannews and @heathrowairport on Twitter just so I can keep up with the latest on this Ay-a-voo-loo-u-e-ah volcanic eruption madness. (Yes, I looked up how to say Eyjafjallajökull and it’s not pretty). Just a week before the end of the program, the news of the Icelandic volcano beginning to erupt, sending mushroom clouds and debris up into the atmosphere and subsequently preventing ALL flights from flying in and out of the UK exploded Twitter feeds, news websites, front page headlines and Facebook status updates.

Thousands and thousands of people were left stranded at airports while BU students sat in their South Kensington dorms panicking whether they will make their flight back home to the US this weekend. I personally sat in my room worrying whether 1. if I will indeed make it to Sicily this Sunday, 2. if I don’t, what happens? 3. if I do, can I come back to London next Friday to make my international flight back home?

After a full week of this stressful thoughts and wonders, I am now SO HAPPY to report, the blanket flight ban in the UK airspace has officially been lifted! Thank goodness! Though I have enjoyed following the Guardian live blog updates every minute and reading Heathrow’s tweets about its status, I have finally (kinda sorta not really) moved on and left my new favorite city, London.

After surviving the finals, I spent a week in Italy, traveling to Sicily, Rome and Florence. I will definitely write more in detail about my wonderful vacation this week, but for now, some “London” things I miss the most:

Hyde Park: Surprise, surprise… Right as I was leaving the cloudy/rainy city, it decided it was finally time to let some sunshine in. A picnic in Hyde Park with some good friends. Ahhhh.

[Camden, Greenwich, Portobello, etc.] Markets: Great food, cheap goods, fun people-watching spots… Need I say more? I miss walking around the markets and looking at the weirdest souvenirs or drinking the best coffee ever.

Pubs: Just an awesome place to waste a couple hours, hang out with friends, eat fish & chips, drink Guinness Extra Cold, sometimes eat fantastic Thai food and sometimes stay till close playing Clue.


The Tube and the night buses: T that stops running at 12:30 a.m. with no sufficient night transportation plans and that moves at maybe 2 miles per hour? What is that? London’s Underground and buses are definitely superior to the T in Boston.

Yes, yes. Even though I’ve been back for maybe two days, I miss London already. Don’t get me wrong; it is wonderful being back in the city where I have so many great friends. I think now I’ll just have to split my love between Boston and London.

Also, I will continue to update my blog even if I’m not in London anymore. I just have so much more to write about the UK and my time abroad!!!

PS. Surprisingly, the Globe featured a fantastic series of pictures of the Icelandic crazy volcano (if you haven’t checked it out already): http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/icelands_disruptive_volcano.html

Say What? – Things the British People Say…

Even though we speak the same language, English – just in case you were wondering? – some things the British people say just boggle my mind. While their accents, especially on cute boys, sweep me off my feet right then and there, some things they say, I have to look at them, do a double-take, tilt my head and say, WHAT? In fact, when I first started working at my internship, etv media group, I managed to understand only about 90% of conversations taking place among my coworkers.

After four months in London though, I did finally pick up some slang. While I don’t exactly drop these in my everyday sentences, when I hear them, I will understand them and respond appropriately… Instead of saying, say whaaaaaaaa?

First off, absolutely everything is BRILLIANT. The color of that dress is brilliant. The weather is brilliant. My weekend was brilliant. Everything I do for my boss gets a response, brilliant. I’m almost at a point where I forget what I used to say to express, “That is brilliant!” Great? Good? Awesome? Hmm… Almost doesn’t sound as good as Brilliant, does it?

Also on a side note, it can also be fantastic, or you’re a superstar!!!

Have you seen my new BROLLY? Your new what? I got it from the Ideal Home Show. It’s brilliant! What Bianca was talking about here was her new umbrella, and you know what, it was mega-adorable. The black tall umbrella had bows and sparkles everywhere. Not sure about its practicality especially in Boston, but I seriously want one as well.

You alright? I don’t know why, but you don’t say “How are you” or “How’s it going” as part of your greetings. You say… You alright?

Nicked means stolen. At one of our RA meetings, we seriously had a long discussion about who might have nicked a box of cous cous and a bottle of ketchup. Yes, totally serious.

So pissed is equivalent to so drunk. Probably one of my favorite sayings. At the first company party I attended, my lovely boss said to me, “I’m so sorry babe, I’m so pissed but hope you had a great time!” Hilarious.

Having a slash… to pee. Could you ever have guessed? Me neither.

Snogging. We all know this from Harry Potter. Ron hates it when Ginny goes around snogging her boyfriend.

Bloody hell!!! Yes, people really say this! I was surprised too. It’s not just the cute lil’ red head Ron who says it all the time. Bloody can in fact be added to just about anything as an effective adjective.

Bugger! Kinda like… Sh*t! Or F**k! Makes me giggle a little when I hear this. It’s just funny.

Chips vs. Crisps Oh man, oh man… Simply, Chips = Fries and Crisps = Potato Chips. So so so confusing at first, but according to Jack, this makes more sense. Fries look more like wood chips. Potato chips are crispy. So duhhhh!”

“Ladies! Follow the fag!!!” WHAT? Fag is another word for a cigarette. Clearly, we use this word totally differently in the US. In England, however, fag simply refers to a cig you’re holding in your hand. The quote comes from a lady whom we encountered on our way back from Avenue Q, the funniest musical I have seen so far. 8 p.m. Wednesday evening in Soho obviously means extremely crowded streets. In order to make sure her friends were behind her, she simply shouted, “Ladies, just follow the fag!”

Taking a mickey out of Garrett is my favorite hobby. Just kidding!!! To take a mickey means to make fun of or poke fun.

Now that I’ve added these to my vocabulary, I think I’m ready to go back to the US and show off my new knowledge? Well, if this volcanic ash ever clears…

FREE cover Wednesdays @ Notting Hill Arts Club

I just explained one of the main reasons why we all love going to Notting Hill on Wednesdays… Free cover. Usually, if you are trying to hit up this dance club/bar on weekend nights, you would have to pay anywhere from £5 to 10. On Wednesdays, however, it is free!

We first discovered this small, semi-grungy, semi-hipster, semi-basement-like venue all thanks to Michael Oliver. The infamous M.O. is our student affairs director, and he recommended we ALL go check out Notting Hill as soon as we can. And we did. And we fell in LOVE.

See? Pure joy and love.

The drinks are fairly affordable although I wouldn’t say mad cheap. But alas, strawberry cider (£4) is irresistable. The bartenders are  nice. At times though the bar gets way too crowded and you have to wait quite a bit for your drinks. I believe, however, one of them now knows Garrett? Hmm…

And there’s the music… Oh man, where shall I begin?

Lady Gaga (Standard… duh. Roma romama Gaga ooh lala), MGMT (Bros…), Johnny Cash (Yussss), Hot Chip (Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it…), Miley Cyrus (Really? But even then, love), Elvis (I’m serious), British bands I don’t know (Still good), Katy Perry (Once again, standard?), Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, etc. etc. etc. I can go on for years.

As you can see, it isn’t just the house music, or just the pop music, or just the techno. It’s got a great variety!

Honestly, I’m usually not the type to pay a once-a-week visit to hard-core mega-overwhelming dance clubs. Fist pumping all night long wtih some crazy, almost eurotrash peeps to some techno music isn’t exactly my scene. Chilling at a pub with a few drinks is cool, but sometimes, a girls gotta dance!

Notting Hill fits in right in the center of that club spectrum – great dance music, but not too insane, not too big, oh, yes you can fist pump and a section with couches and tables where you can relax for a bit.

All in all, Notting Hill Arts Club, we give you thumbs-up!

-Yoojin

A Tribute to… None Other than Hing Loon :)

Located at 25 Lisle Street, Hing Loon has quickly become our favorite Chinese restaurant in London. It all started with us lazying around in our flat one random day, thinking “Where can we get some sweet-and-sour chicken?” Trust me, after going a month or so without my regualr dose of some orange chicken, the craving for Chinese food only gets worse.

So, Christina, Gabby, Jack and I adventured out to China Town (in Leicester Square) one night, with high hopes of finding some affordable AWESOME Chinese food. Well, honestly, we would have settled for any sort of sweet-and-sour, but alas, lucky us, we stumbled upon Hing Loon.

We passed by a few restaurants on our way to Hing Loon (we had no idea what we were about to discover, obviously).  Too expensive. Too fancy. Too crowded. Oh, and we also passed a very interesting club called the Ku Bar. No, not interested in half naked men, thanks. Chinese food > Ku Bar.

We then approached the window of Hing Loon. Not too crowded. We see an empty table. Price? £3.75 for fried rice? £4.00 sweet-and-sour chicken? Oh man, we found the perfect place! For all four of us, after ordering two bottles of wine, four appetizers and four dishes, the total came out to £65. Amazing.

Ever since then, we went back twice (I would say once a week…) and further discovered Hing Loon’s aromatic crispy duck with hoisin sauce (thanks to Garrett) and wonderful shredded beef. Absolute favorite!!!

Alright, done talking about food, seeing that I still have about 5 hours left at internship and dinner time won’t be till around 7:30 p.m. today. Yikes.

http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/9310.html Check out the TimeOut review. It’s wonderful.

-Yoojin