London london london bridge

So last Thursday night I put away my dubious French accent, said good-bye to croissants and espresso, and headed west to London for the weekend. My fantastic friend Clare met me at the airport & took me to stay with her and our other friend Sergei for the weekend. And let's just say, Clare and Sergei know how to treat a houseguest right. I got a pull-out couch with matching guest linens (fancy!), homemade crepes with the world's most delicious jam (yum!) and I got to spend time with my wonderful friends (best of all!).

They also live in the coolest neighbourhood, right behind London Bridge. Their apartment is built on the cobblestones of the original Globe theatre, they have a fantastic local market, and they're literally right beside the Thames river. Plus they have a friendly neighbourhood fox. And what can beat that? Here's a view of Tower Bridge, right near their apartment:

On Friday, I had an informal job interview. I'm not going to say too much more because I don't want to jinx it, except that the job would be fantastic and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that good things will happen! On Friday I also went out with Clare, Sergei, his girlfriend Kat and their friend Simon for delicious dim sum in Soho, then met up briefly with our other friend Cam, who's studying in London. Here's me, Clare & Cam:

On Saturday I make the long, hard three block trek to Borough market (which I now officially declare the best market everrrrr) and spent way too many pounds on delicious organic goodies. I also hung out at the Tate modern and visited my favourite friends, including the fantastic Rothko, who has a whole room dedicated to his honour. The current big exhibit in the main entry hall has something to do with experiencing and watching art at the same time - they've installed 4 humongous slides (one from each floor) that museum visitors can slide down. Although it looked like a ton of fun, I wasn't brave enough to stand in the big long queue.

On Saturday night, Clare and I hopped on a bus & took ourselves to Oxford to help my roomate Béatrice celebrate her birthday.

Since Béa went to Oxford last year, she decided that a visit to her old stomping grounds would be the perfect birthday weekend activity. We had a great time hanging out with her old school buddies and, although I didn't actually see Oxford in the light day, it seems like a pretty great town. Here's Bea getting 26 birthday bumps.





On Sunday I met up with a couple of other IISD interns, Isabelle & Miranda (they're doing the same six month internship as me right now, only they're working for different sustainable development-related organizations in London). I don't have any pictures of us, but suffice it to say that we ate very tasty and spicy Indian food and had a great time catching up.

I also got to do lots of walking around and exploring. Over the course of my travels, I saw some really great city art, including this extremely British garden and phone box:

This fine speciman:

And my personal favourite, Oscar:


On Sunday evening, when it came time to go back home, I said good-bye to my friends & made my way to the train station to catch my train to the airport. To make a long and frustrating story short, the trains were delayed and even broken down, and despite really valiant efforts on my part (I sprinted all the from the end of the airport to my gate holding my shoes in one hand and my carry-on liquids in the other), I arrived just in time to see my plane pulling away from the gate. Oy vey.

However, my luck changed when a very friendly airport employee came to bring me back through security to see about getting on another plane. We chatted all the way back to the front desk, and she was delighted to learn that I'm from Vancouver since she has family there. (Actually, I think she was also appalled to think that I'd voluntarily left Vancouver to live in Geneva, but no matter : )

When I got to the front and learned that there wouldn't be any flights until the next day, she offered to put me up in her spare bed & bring me back to the airport for the start of her 5am shift so that I could catch the first possible flight. So nice! It was, as she put in, "just like in a book". She drove me to her 14th century country cottage, fed me tea and crumpets and warned me not to be alarmed if I heard foxes mating outside in the middle of the night. Wherever you are Jessica, thank you!

And now I've made it home safe and sound, and am quietly going crazy deciding where to live after Feb 23 (my last day of work - so soon!). I'm interviewing for a few interesting jobs in a few different cities, so we'll see what comes up in the next couple of weeks. Cross your fingers for me!