i'm so edgy

FIRST AND FOREMOST:

my parents are coming on tuesday!!!!!!!!! 

(tomorrow i'm using it as an excuse to go to a yoga class...to prepare for their visit...but really i just want to try yoga and feel like i need some justification for being "that" girl who lives in india for 8 months and doesn't try yoga until she is in london...what the heck?!)

secondly....

this photo album is mostly for my brother....but the rest of you can enjoy as well...its a collection of some of the graffiti and street art images i've taken from manhattan (lower east side, soho, west village) and london (mostly south embankment).  there are a few repeats from my first post on here....and a few random images thrown in there as well. 

NEXT TO COME:

a second installment of london photographs, including pictures from my parents visit!!!!

tartan, kilts, bagpipes, and hairy cows.

cottage in the countryside

calling the cows.....

such a country girl

an old castle in st. andrews

view of edinburgh from the castle on the hill

alright. so truth be told i only saw a few of those things in passing...not even a bagpipe up close but i heard the music from afar...and i didn't even get a glimpse of a hairy cow but i saw plenty of regular cows (including aberdeen cows...which make the best meat :) ) and plenty of sheep. I LOVE SCOTLAND!!!!

francesco and i went for just three short days to stay with his aunt and uncle in balmullo, a small village near st. andrews, where golf was invented and all the rules to golf are still made every year. and when i say small village i mean SMALL village, as in only one store with a post office attached...and one hair dresser...and thats it. but it was really nice. they travel a lot so they are full of stories about places all over the world. and we were lucky with the weather, two days of pure sunshine (even if it was completely cold) and the last day we spend roaming around edinburgh in the rain....oh well. the first day we saw the sights of st. andrews. and the second day we went on a long wandering stroll through the countryside. we did a big loop up a hill, around some fields, past some cows, saw the view above the village of the sea and the surrounding villages, and then through some woods on our way back to town. the countryside is full of the stereotypical cottages with slate roofing, ivy growing up the walls, fences that are falling down, and overgrown gardens full of flowers and herbs.  its perfect. i really fell in love with the scottish countryside. and the people are such a nice change from english people....they are friendly and warm and welcoming....whereas the english are a bit standoffish and rude.  

on monday we took the train to edinburgh where we explored the edinburgh castle and some of the town. it was raining, as i said, and really freezing cold, so our biggest mission was finding a local coffee shop that is open late and warm.  it turned out to be a harder mission than we thought. for a while we could only find starbucks...we finally found a local one, ordered our drinks, and then realized they were closing in 15 mins. bad luck. but they recommended a place right down the block, a laid back self-serve salad/vegetarian restaurant that turned out to be incredible. we got a cheese platter and sat for 3 hours listening to an old man play amazing piano. 

we have plenty of stories from the bus ride there and back as well....10 hours overnight each way. on the way up we were seated right next to two extremely drunk english girls who were determined to stay up all night and make everyone else do the same. eventually we found seats at the back of the bus....only to be woken up by the driver stopping the bus and running down the road, only to come back with two pieces of luggage....apparently we lost them somewhere along the way. whoops. on the way home we had a nazi for a bus driver who insisted on lecturing us over the intercom about bus etiquette. ahh life is hard isn't it?!

you can see these pictures and more here....ENJOY!

LONDon and off

so. life in london. 

we live in camberwell....in the southeast of london. our flat is quite nice...we have it mostly to ourselves although we do have two flatmates, a gay spanish chemistry teacher and a polish construction worker. we never see them. they stay locked in their rooms...or at work...something which neither of us can relate to at the moment. our neighborhood is nice....full of africans and caribbeans and just a short bus ride away from the city center. we are trying to figure out the complicated culture of black hair salons.....there is about three on every block in our neighborhood. most of them don't open until the afternoon and dont' get busy until later in the evening when their couches (yes couches) are jam packed with people watching other people get there hair done. we've even seen a few with in-house djs. i think francesco will go soon to have his hair cut...and maybe i'll get mine braided......what do you think?

we've just been relaxing and enjoying london. discovering old places and new places, roaming aimlessly around the city, each day a new neighborhood.....or one we've been to already and know we like. if we run into a street market, we'll stop. if we find a cute coffeeshop or tea house, we try it out. we have a few places that have become part of our regular week or day....but usual any day we're up for anything.....although lately the weather has turned a bit cold and francesco has dedicated himself to studying for the GRE...so its been more time in our flat and not quite so much time on adventures. 

we did take a mini-trip a few days ago (although we didnt' intend for it to be really). we wanted to celebrate diwali, a big indian festival. we had heard that maybe there would be something going on in the suburb of southall which is about 130% indian or pakistani so we decided to see what we could find. we took a bus - 50 mins - and then a train - 20 mins - to the suburb, stepped out of the station and were immediately disappointed. we were hoping for a little piece of india...but instead we found english-india...which means...depressing india. none of the loud music and bright colors and people pushing and shoving. BUT we did find a gurdwara (my favorite temples in india and the largest one outside of india)....and a massive hail/snow storm. we took shelter in a restaurant, gave it a rating based on its chai (about a 7.5) and enjoyed a 3 hour long bollywood movie.

the end. here is a link to more pictures....random scenes of london. but not really any of the familiar tourist monuments...i'm saving them for when my parents come!