London Rerun/Rich

Interspersed between bouts of Zeke eating 19 Twix bars and Evan walking 8-10 feet in front of people despite not knowing where he’s going and taking wrong turns/trains, we stumbled into London. London was everything Iceland was not; busy, crowded, capable of getting dark at night, built more than four stories high, etc. It was really interesting to go from the isolation and solitude of 7 days of hiking in Iceland to the constant buzz of London, to go from sleeping in a car to going out until 3 AM.

London was also a homecoming of sorts for Zeke and myself. We spent the Fall of 2012 living there, spending 80% of our time in Primark, 10% in class, and the other 10% at basketball. After many a “Walkabout Wednesday” (some more eventful than others for captain Zeke), a couple of triple digit victories over some poor med school students, and one truly inspirational speech from our favorite Italian teammate (“WE MUST STRIKE LIKE TIGERS WITH NAIVES BETWEEN THE TEETHS! DO IT FOR KING’S AND OUR SELF-ESTEEM!”) we got pretty tight with the guys and girls on the basketball team.  The goodbyes were tough because we didn’t know if we would be back, and so our lives became a bit compartmentalized; our friends from London didn’t know our friends from the U.S. and vice versa, so they became sort of separate spheres of memories. I had my North Carolina life and I had my London life, but there was a bit of a disconnect between them because of the lack of players who had been there with me for both (essentially just Zeke).

After getting a visit last summer from London friends and then returning the favor this summer with Evan and Tirrill, those lines are more blurred. It’s still surreal, though in a fairly awesome way, to see my friends from home and my friends from abroad meet each other.

Our time in London was made so fun by some incredible hosts. Special thanks to Salma for housing us (even when we didn’t respond to anything until 2 AM), to Frankie for housing us (even when you had to sleep out of your dorm to make room for all of us), to Renata for making a ton of fun plans for us (even when we were always late), and to Phil for tagging along on our walking tours (especially when you educated us on every item in the British museum).  Y’all are all wonderful and I know you went out of your respective ways to come see us during our four days in London.

So our actual time there: two quick sightseeing tours where we hit the most famous spots in London (Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, etc.), a trip to see Olympic Park for the first time, and two t-shirt purchases from Primark. We nabbed a meal at our old local pub and walked by our old apartment complex, subsequently leading to PTSD flashbacks of angry FB posts from ex-roommates. We even had a night out on the town complete with some really energetic dancing, a certain Rich Frost joining the prestigious Renata All-Stars squad, and Tirrill interacting with various 35 year olds.

But the most memorable moment in London took part during a picnic in a local park. Our friend Phil, who can almost dunk a basketball, challenged Tirrill to a “catching small chocolate objects in your mouth from really far distances” competition. Our readers in the United States will surely be aware of Tirrill’s fearsome track record in such competitions and are probably wondering “was this Brit cruising for a bruising? Asking for a waxing? Begging for a beating?”

The answer is absolutely yes. Phil was promptly put into place by Tirrill’s fearsome jaw, alternatingly handsome and gobble-y. After Phil threw one of his world-renowned (literally, now) temper tantrums and blamed the loss on Zeke’s throws, Tirrill won a second round.  Onlookers were taking pictures, strangers asking to join in, and our new friend Vicky even started drooling at one point. I would say we won by about 1776 catches; it was a great moment for America.

Other highlights: a lot of rousing brunches at Frankie’s spot, the Rockingham Arms, a night tour of the city from Salma, bumping into Zeke’s sister Hallie, who followed in his footsteps studying in London, once again successfully not running into any NEDs, and sporting a lot of Henmans after a week in the wilderness of Iceland. Can’t say enough about my love for the people who made my semester, and these last four days, in London awesome. Here’s to hoping to be back again soon!