Umm yea, Freja and the gang treated me well last night and I’m hungover asf
But the morning was beautiful and i can’t sleep past 10:30am now so i went for a quick 20 min run, picked up some pastries for Freja and Tom, her bf, and watched Tottenham vs. Arsenal (GET IN SONNY!!!) like a true Brit.
Went to Central before dinner with Caleb and his gf FreYa. Originally was supposed to have a drink with Kristin Mathis, an old friend from Iowa who now works for the Minnesota Vikings football team because they’re in town to play the Saints, but she got called in to work so i decided to explore some museums. Went to the British museum first but they were closed and then went to the Institute of Contemporary Art, but they were still constructing their new exhibit…(cool bathrooms tho). Decided to just walk around St James’ Park and golly it was sooo relaxing in the middle of the city i had to sit down and read my book (I’m on Taste by Stanley Tucci rn).
Made my way to​​​​​​​ Carousel for dinner. They have an extremely cool concept that features resident rotating chefs from around the world every few weeks. Didn’t go for that tho bc it’s hella expensive and there’s a MF WINE BAR. Caleb and Freya got me a bottle of Malbec and Caleb made me a custom leather keychain - bof extremely thoughtful gifts and i can’t wait to see the leather on the keychain get darker. We went for a funky orange wine that tasted sweet and citrusy on the front end then hits you with a salty umami aftertaste. Food was fantastic and the consensus favorite was the fried pork dumpling w/ a sort of pesto oil garnished w/ cilantro and mint🤌
I insisted (or rather had to argue my way into) paying for our meal and that brought up a conversation about the differences between Asian and Western celebratory culture. In Western culture, the birthday person usually gets bought things like food, drinks, etc. But in Asian culture it’s the opposite. My theory is it’s bc we want to share our joy and happiness with other ppl; to enjoy time with our loved ones. Someone can fact-check me on this idk. What i do know is food is the absolute, number one delivery vehicle for communion and great conversations, which is exactly what happened tonight :)
