Tuesday 17 June 2014

The Dynamic Duo: Eli and Anisa Take on London

Hello from England!

It is us, one of your favorite dynamic duos on the WPI crew team, Elisabeth aka Eli aka Elizzabizzle and Anisa aka A-Swayze (that's my rapper name). Now, we know we cannot compete with Ari's kick off blog, but who is competing except on the water.

To start off this blog post, we would like to share a picture from the fall of our friendship picture to coach. Coach, here is photo evidence of our blossoming friendship (which began in October)....to explain why we are sharing this, a little birdie may have told us that coach didn't know we are the best of friends and the same person. He thought Eli is too focused and stern for Anisa's bubbly and outgoing personality! HE THOUGHT WRONG. 




For interest of what the pictures mean: the picture on the left is from working Head of the Charles putting up fences, we came up with a method of kicking the fences rather than lifting heavy things. We don't like to lift heavy things unless we are lifting with Paul. The picture on the right is an hour later and I (Anisa) was proposing to Eli because I was imitating someone. We had a good laugh. 

9 months later, here we are, in the great land of England and having a blast. As you know, we eat, sleep, row and when coach gives us a day off, praise the lord because it is a vacation. We started our day with a tour of Parliament (thanks to Rachael and her parents and aunt for navigating us there and arranging an awesome tour for us). I (Anisa) went on a tour with Jonathon, a lovely young fella (please say in a British accent, makes it sound official). In my tour group, it was Kayla, Becca, Julie, Corre and Ari. Jonathon told us it was okay to take pictures and being the tourists we are, we took so many pictures with the statues. I was also mesmerized by all the gold. I love gold and shiny! Making sure that we were representing the great U. S. of A. in a proper manner, I asked Jonathon whether he was used to Americans taking selfies with the old place, but he says it happens all the time. Later in the tour, we overheard him whisper to a coworker saying how this was his first tour. Even though we were his first tour, it was a lot of fun. He was also fascinated by the one and only beautiful 'Merica. 


I (Eli) had a different tour guide at Parliament who is a member of the House of Commons. When we first started the tour, our guide told us we could not take pictures inside Parliament and then I noticed  that Kayla, in a different tour group, was taking lots of pictures. Then, over the loud speaker, we heard, "Just a reminder, no photography allowed." Almost immediately, a security guard came aggressively tottering over, who is 5 feet, yelling and getting up on Kayla, who is 6 feet tall. Kayla and I (Anisa), totally oblivious, did not hear this announcement and Jonathon had told us that pictures were allowed. AcaAwkward!


One of the most interesting things I learned was that common American phrases are derived from Parliament. One example is the expression "it's in the bag." There was a huge green bag in the House of Commons where members of Parliament used to put items that they wanted to discuss, so they would say, "It's in the bag!" Another expression is "toe the line" which references two red lines that members cannot walk past. Although my tour guide was sometimes difficult to understand (he kept saying MP, which I FINALLY figured out at the end meant member of Parliament and not military police), I learned a lot and enjoyed the tour!

After the tour, we were very hungry and being the rowers we are, we were about to eat someone's head off. We went to a classic English pub and ordered fish and chips. Yummmmmm!! We lived the happy fatty lifestyle (shoutout to Sam Oc aka Mom). Then, the rest of the afternoon was comprised of walking, walking, some shopping and more walking. First, we started in Trafalgar Square where we posed with some gigantic lions being the classy tourists that we are (picture below!) 


As a wise person once said on a blog, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are classic pictures of our day in London.







We walked to Buckingham Palace and tooled around that area. Of course, Ari tried to take a selfie with the guards, but they did not react at all! Then, we went to check out Primark, a giant store where H&M meets Forever 21 in an overdose of shopping and tourists (it was a little too hectic for us). After shopping and grabbing some snacks, including waffles and cupcakes, our fearless navigator Liz guided us to King's Cross Station where the notorious Platform 9 3/4 is located! We were slightly disappointed to see that it was a tourist trap with a photographer and a Harry Potter store! Having the worst bladder, I (Anisa) had to go to the bathroom badly, and strolling along with Becca, we found the closest bathroom. As we approached, we saw a gate saying that we had to pay 30 pence. In the great land of America, I would never have to pay to use a restroom. Not cool England, not cool. 

Finally, Liz guided us back to Paddington station where we met up with the rest of the team and returned to our home, Henley-on-Thames. Most of the team trekked back from town to the house we're staying at, but me (Eli), Ari, Liz and Brooke went to Cafe Rouge for what we thought would be a light dinner. Instead, we each got a 2-course meal! The food was amazing (or were we just really hungry?)! Our feet were sore and tired so we asked our waitress to call us a taxi. She went to the kitchen, came back and said, "there's a driver here already!" It turned out the driver was also the chef so we told him how amazing his food was and at this point, we were slightly delirious from exhaustion. That taxi drive was so worth it! Our day was wonderful but exhausting and the team was glad to go to bed!  


We hope this story and pictures have convinced Coach of our true, loyal, genuine, amazing, wonderful, fantastic, majestic friendship. 

With love <3,
Anisa and Eli

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