London

Now finishing my backlog of posts from the start of my trip. 

Staying with Aoibhéann, my Irish friend from Avignon, and her bf, Sam, also Irish, in London. My brain is freaked out-- it knows it's in a foreign land, and keeps trying to translate what people say from French to English, but it's already in English. The start of every sentence I overheard on the bus was immensely confusing. I bought an Oyster card, the London transport ticket card, so I feel very in-the-know. I was on the bus, and it stopped by this girls' school, and all these black teen girls (Carribean origin?) got on in their uniforms-- white, polyester shirts, pants or skirts, purple and navy striped ties. They were just like bands of teens back home-- loud, playing music on their cells, singing and chanting at the chorus, gasping and yelling when the bus passed cute teen boys on the street. It must be the last day of school, because they had all written all over each other's school uniform shirts. "Jenny, you slag! <3 you!"

Aoibhéann (pronounced "Aiving," Irish for "beautiful patina") and Sam are both actors and really cool and hilarious. Those Irish! Sam treated us like ladies-- made us hummus toasts, and let us catch-up while he made DELICIOUS chickpea curry. I like it when they do exaggerated Donnegal accents to tease each other. 

Per request, picture of bruise after the jump. NSFYS: Not safe for your stomach. The color is actually not that bad, it's just really big. (TWSS)
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