Manchester POP!

Tomorrow marks exactly three weeks until I return home. Yes, the ex-patriot will soon will be back meandering the avenues and streets of her home country. Can’t wait to engage in some Christmasing :) Although London has already decked itself out with tons of Christmas decorations on all the big commercial streets, it still doesn’t beat elaborate house light displays – classy or otherwise.

Last weekend Elizabeth travelled on up to Manchester, England for the weekend. Manchester is very different from London – central Manchester is so small… and quiet. And clean, very clean. Our hotel was pretty amazing. As you probably all know, our current dwelling in London isn’t exactly the Ritz, so our junior executive suite (upgraded!) was quite the gift. We got to watch TV! I haven’t watched TV in over two months! They’re obsessed with X-Factor here (the British American Idol) so I got to enjoy some Simon Cowell insults. And then I watched terrible British pop music videos, yeah! Robbie Williams is big here again. Our hotel was serving afternoon tea, so we ate lots of tea sandwiches, scones, and pastries – I like afternoon tea. We then basically stayed in our hotel room the entire night because it was so nice. We ordered room service and everything because we decided to live it up.

The next day we went to Manchester’s Christmas fair, where everybody was eating huge German sausages because apparently meat is what Christmas is all about. I didn’t like the smell. We tried mull wine (read: hot Sangria) and ate pastries. An American fellow selling Dutch cookies gave us free chocolate-covered marshmallows. Americans know how to band together in foreign lands. We then went to this crazy museum-type place called Urbis, which specializes in observing urban development and its effect on society – a sociologist’s dream. The exhibit on China was pretty interesting stuff – a lot of black-market wheeling and dealing goes on in those parts, all in an effort to climb the corporate ladder.

We got in late on Sunday night, so both Elizabeth and I took Monday off – nice! We had the best Indian food EVER (I can’t wait to experience more of India’s tales) and then wandered around London all afternoon. I’m going to miss a lot of things about London, but especially theatre. Elizabeth and I decided that we wanted to go see a play, so we went to a theatre and bough same-day best-available student tickets for Summer in Smoke, a Tenn Williams play that featured one of the lads from the OC. He was actually quite a good actor, which blew us away. It was pretty fantastic. Last week we saw Bent, a Holocaust play with Alan Cumming that was INTENSE. We sat in the second row, and wow. One of the best play I’ve seen here.

Having Monday off was also really great for another reason – what was called Black Monday on the tube occurred the morning I didn’t go on the tube. 4 lines were down, including the line I take to work, Central, so it was a madhouse. It’s already a madhouse down in the tube stations during morning rush hour, so I can just imagine how it was like in the underground Monday morning. Crazy. Also, the bus drivers here went on strike yesterday morning, so the buses were few and far between. In a city that relies on public transport, this is a huge deal. I feel very lucky and grateful that I got to avoid all that mess.

Now I’m back at work, filing proofs away. Exciting stuff. I’ll be doing just that while everybody back home is having Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. :( <--That’s what I think about the whole situation. Some of us Americans are going to have Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, but believe you me, it won’t be as good as mama’s home cooking. No pumpkin pie! No candied sweet potato casserole! No four day weekend! How am I going to function?

It’s pay day today so I just blew some money on a knit hat and some tights. London fashion is pretty amazing. If I wasn’t so worried about going over the airport’s weight requirements for luggage, I would be coming back home with some fine hipster clothes. But alas.

This weekend I’m finally going to be heading to Stonehenge, and then to Bath to visit the Jane Austen museum and ancient Roman baths -- I am obviously very excited. Anything related to Jane Austen pretty much rocks my world. I still have so much to see in London! I want to tour Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, etc, and I haven’t had time to do it all yet! I believe my last day of work is December 8th, so that gives me a weekend plus two days to do everything in London. How quickly all this has gone by. Yet, when I think about the first day I arrived, it seems like ages ago. So odd.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everybody! Eat some cranberry sauce for me! :)