Two nights ago, Hailey and I decided to meet up with a girl Ailee (like Hailey, but without the H. I know, confusing) at the Trivia Night that UCL's student union put on in the bar on campus. We went into it thinking that it would just be a bunch of people sitting around, answering questions about pop culture while drinking beer. We were wrong. We got there a little late and immediately ran into Ailee, who was with two girls we had never met before, Rachel and Catherine. The four of us grabbed a beer and headed over to the tables, where teams of people were crowded around answer sheets. Since we were late, we were assigned to an existing team of two boys who were sitting toward the front. They were Alex and Jack, two local boys who are a year below us at UCL. After introductions, we quickly learned that this trivia was about Europe- politics, history, art, literature, sports, food, everything. Needless to say, the two British boys were very unlucky to have just teamed up with four American girls. We knew NOTHING except for the four questions that had something to do with America. I did, however, nail a question about the London Underground, which made me feel a little better.
When the questions were over, all the teams exchanged answer sheets and checked the answers, then turned them in to see which team answered the most correctly. As it turns out, Alex and Jack were incredibly smart and our team ended up winning £96! For those of you that don't know, that's $153.94. So all seven of us split the winnings (I'm sure the boys were super happy about that), and Rachel, Hailey, Catherine, Ailee and I went to a restaurant called Zizzi Ristorante and dinner was on Jack and Alex! Afterwards, we attempted to go to a club, but every place we came across was closed. Who knew London wasn't open on Wednesday nights?
The next day, I went to 3 hours of Anthropology meetings. At the introduction meeting, the girl to my right was named Anna, and she was from Finland! She was super cool and very interesting, so I hope we get to hang out more while we're here! Then, on my left, was Anna from Switzerland. Extremely confusing, but at least I only had one name to remember.
Hailey and I then explored London a little bit. We chose a new tube stop to go to for dinner. Hailey had never seen Covent Garden, and I knew it had a ton of restaurants, so we ambled through the small, winding streets until we found a fun restaurant that had a reasonably priced menu. We ended up picking Benito's Hat, a Mexican restaurant. I know going to a foreign country is all about trying new things, but I've always been very curious about Mexican food in other countries, so we decided to give it a go. Turns out, it was happy hour and they were serving two margaritas for the price of one. We liked it already. The restaurant was tiny with bright colors everywhere. Once again, it looked like a lot of locals on dates (why is this country so obsessed with dating??). Hailey and I grabbed two stools and sat at the bar by the window, which provided for excellent people watching. One guy passed and made completely ridiculous faces at us all the way across the street, which was highly entertaining. Overall, good food, great drinks, and an excellent atmosphere!
After dinner, Catherine, Ailee, and Rachel came over to get ready for UCL's first big party at Opal Bar. It's right on the River Thames and the place was so cool! There was a giant disco ball over the dance floor, with interesting glass structures hanging down everywhere. It was for the international students, so I met people from all over the world! The only downside to this party was that the drinks were ridiculously expensive.
Me, Hailey, Ailee, and Catherine outside of Opal
We made it home after running into a boy who was too drunk to remember his last name (we got him in a cab and sent him home, no worries) and after enviously staring at people eating french fries on the late bus. Overall, two great nights in London.
x
lizzie
x
lizzie
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