Thanksgiving is over now. I hope you enjoyed yourself yesterday? Mom FaceTimed me while trying to watch the parade: she couldn’t get NBC to connect, so she had to watch YouTube livestreams, which are not as good. Apparently there are boring floats nobody cares about that they skip over on TV. My cold’s gotten better since yesterday, but I’m still going to rest today.
I went to a friend’s birthday party on Monday to a place called Wetherspoons. It’s apparently an English staple. I had a very hard time pinning down the vibe, since it had dark hardwood and decor like a nice restaurant, but had rowdy people drinking like at a bar (given that pubs are generally restaurants and bars slapped together, this might be normal?). The food was alright. A word of advice from Mom is never to drink schnapps: apparently it’s bad alcohol, but I couldn’t tell when I had a drink with it (peach rosé: not as Snapple-like as I’d hoped), because all alcohol tastes bad to me. I don’t care much for drinking, since I like keeping my head on straight, but I guess it was interesting. Overall, fine restaurant. Is this anthropologically interesting at all?
Also, London was pretty nice. I went to a cookie/chocolate store called Fortnum and Mason’s and got Christmas presents there. They had cookie tins with music boxes inside. But two chocolate bars mysteriously disappeared from the bag (this happened again today to a cucumber. Perhaps I am cursed). Then I went to Harrod’s and did the same thing again to their chocolate place. I passed by some tourist places I wanted to see, like the statue of the leader of my favorite arctic expedition (Franklin) (someone hid a pound coin in the relief sculpture on the monument, and I left it. I wonder how long it had been there?). On the way I met a very nice Irish grandpa and helped him with directions — he was very sweet. The people were especially nice that day. I’d send pictures of touristing, but the photos app is mad at me.
I suppose that’s all the big stuff to tell. I am tired and ready to go home. I’m feeling very self-centered now, but I hope the anthropology is interesting enough. The English are, strange. Don’t move here. Move to Ireland. I love you.
With love,
Alice