Last week with students, Thanksgiving’s turkey fiasco, and off to India

Oh my! Somehow we made it to the last week of classes and my last week with the students. It’s unbelievable! And…I’m not sure how I did it, but I think I got everything set and ready to go for finals week while I’m conferencing in India.

Here’s how the week went down:

Monday: OMG! Early morning to get to the cat café by 9AM. But, so worth it! 1.5 hours of cats, tea, and a brie/grape croissant. Heaven. I got to pet cats, brush them, and play with them. Amazing. Where has this place been for 5 months?! Two students joined me and we had a fab time. So excited to see Reese in a few weeks!! After this, I headed out to Victoria Park and did my long run along the canals through Olympic Park. It wasn’t as nice of a run as I’d like, and I wouldn’t recommend it as a running route, but it was nice for a change of scenery. After my run, it was home to shower and get fancy for a very nice tea at The Goring Hotel w/ one of our students and her family that was visiting. Very nice indeed. After tea, it was home for work. Very nice day.

Tuesday: Class. Had fun with invisible ink, a deck of cards, and visual cryptography. Then, it was off to The British Museum so I could say I had been in there. Saw the Rosetta stone and this cool exhibit where they sewed together all the pills one man and then another one for one woman in their entire life span. Really neat. The woman had breast cancer at one point and the man had tried to quit smoking a few times. Interesting stuff to see what we put in our bodies over time. I walked home and stopped at Pizza Express to try a local chain. Decent. Not the best ever. Wouldn’t go back. Also picked up some roasting pans at Whole Foods for the giant turkey. That night, I went to dinner w/ Ed and his guests at the chocolate restaurant. It was fun to return to that delicious place. And, Ed and I realized it was the last night we were both in the house until the night before we leave! Between his travel plans and my travel plans we don’t overlap at all the next 2.5 weeks! Crazy! The end of an era.

Wednesday: The day of the turkey. That’s really all there is to it. 6AM-6PM. A 12 hour ordeal. Massive props to all those people out there every year that do this. Oh my! Thawing 6AM-10AM. This was fairly easy. Just rotated the turkey every 30 minutes or so to keep it in cold water. Prepping 10AM-11:30AM. Gross…raw turkey all over my arms. The stupid wings wouldn’t stay tucked under and it made it not fit in the pan anyways. Shower #2 of the day occurred once I got him in the oven (with the help of Ed’s guests. That sucker was heavy!) Baking: 11:30AM-4:30PM. Easy breezy. Removing from oven? Not so easy. I had even doubled the pans! But, by myself and with all the juices…disaster.  Mopping up turkey grease river on floor: 4:30PM-5:00PM. Carving: 5PM-6PM. So, yeah, that was my day. I did go for a run in the morning. And buy a meat thermometer. And, around 3PM I met up w/ some students to go ice skating at Somerset House. That was tons of fun. I skated for about 30 minutes, but then left because I wanted to get back to the turkey. Wish I could have stayed the full hour, but I may have fallen if I stayed so it was likely best I left. J After the turkey fiasco, I was exhausted. So, I skipped Lates at the Science Museum and stayed home to do some work.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving. Started the day w/ my last stats class. Great presentations by the students on their final projects. They did a fab job! Hope they had fun exploring the city and doing a bit of stats in the process. After that, I headed home and packed up the turkey. Got to Nido around 2:15 to warm up the turkey in their tiny ovens. SO glad I cooked it at home. It would have never fit in there! Dinner got started around 3:30 (a bit late), but we had all kinds of great treasures the students made in their ridiculous tiny kitchens with no utensils or pot holders. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, a cheese plate, crab meat toasties, kale salad, brussel sprouts, bread, meatloaf muffins. So many good things. I know I’m forgetting stuff. It was all delicious! Wish I had made a pumpkin pie as that was the only thing I really missed. Great fun. Got home around 7PM and stayed up crazy late writing finals as they had to be done by Friday.

Friday: Last class! So sad. Plus, I realize why we take Friday after Thanksgiving off in the States. Totally useless. The students (and me) were still in a turkey food coma. But, we pressed on. Evals. Then a bleak discussion about the future of cryptology. Then, review time for the final until we had to leave for Westminster, the last cultural fund field trip. Headed out to Westminster and said bye to the students. I hope they enjoyed it in there! One of my favorite places in London! Then, I stopped at Wagamama for lunch on my way home. Got home, put the finishing touches on my final, and headed back to the office to print everything out and give them to Zosia for next week’s exams. Said bye to Zosia (sadness) and then headed home. Did some more India prep work and then headed out to meet Pete at a bar called Bump Caves to use a Time Out voucher I had purchased months ago. In typical Pete fashion, the bar was closed for a private event on Friday night and is only open Wed-Sat, so I knew we’d have to return the next night as that was my last Wed-Sat night in London. Oh well. New plan. We strolled down the river to the Christmas Market on the Thames. WAY BETTER than the one by the Eye. Legit. We got a nutella and banana crepe. Then, we headed to get some real dinner. I found this place on TimeOut best restaurants called the Rooftop Café. Looked amazing. Got there and it was fully booked. Of course. BUT, we found ourselves walking past The Breakfast Club which I’ve wanted to try, so we popped in there. I got the American Breakfast. It was the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in forever. REAL crispy, American-style bacon. It was unbelievable. The pancakes were good too and the potatoes. The sausage and eggs were just okay. But, that bacon! I think that was it for Friday.

Saturday: Finally got some decent sleep. Woke up around 8. Did some of my pre-India departure task list items, and made a plan for the day. I realized it was my last Saturday in London, so I wanted to check out some markets, but didn’t have time to go too far. Covent Garden is one of my favorites and Santa and his reindeer are there on Satruday afternoons now…so I thought about that. Then I thought about the crowds and that it’s open most other days of the week, so decided to skip it. I’ve seen reindeer recently and Santa wouldn’t be excited to talk to me….so it was off to a foodie market I’d read about on Maltby Street. Amazing food stands and a bakery called St. Johns that is famous for their custard filled donuts. So, I had an apple jam donut and looked at all the yummy food possibilities before deciding on returning to one of the first (and most delicious) food items I’ve had since being in London: the rosemary/goat’s cheese/walnut/honey grilled cheese from The Cheese Truck! So yummy! I couldn’t resist. I was tempted by crispy bacon on a waffle and some other sandwiches and some Thai food, but I stuck w/ the grilled cheese and it was perfect (just as I had remembered). This little strip of food stands is great for people who don’t want to fight Borough Market crowds, but want some good food options.

After that, back to work at the house. I met up w/ Pete around 1PM to do a 90 minute run. I almost gave up 10 minutes in because of the chaos of Southbank on a sunny Saturday in December, but after we got pass the Eye everything was fine. After the run, it was time for some housework and then it was off to Bump Caves to attempt to redeem that TimeOut voucher again. Success this time! Four crazy cocktails followed. Weird stuff. Carina would have liked it there. Pete and I had fun. And it wasn’t crowded at 6PM on a Saturday. After cocktails, it was a quick stop at Subway for dinner and then it was off to Heathrow to stay at a hotel so I wouldn’t have to get up too early for my 6AM flight.