FOMO
If you’ve never used the expression “FOMO” then you’re probably wondering what it means. Well, it means Fear Of Missing Out, and I’m having a whole lot of it right now.
As you may, or may not know, Faster Horses is this weekend in the heart of Brooklyn, Michigan (wherever that is) and the queen of all queens performed there last night, Carrie Underwood.
I’ve been having a hard time coping with the fact that I was going to be missing Faster Horses, especially since I was on the street team promoting the festival at the beginning of year, but could no longer work for it since I would not be here for the majority of the summer to promote it.
I’ve been staying off of social media as much as possible, so my FOMO does not worsen. So, to keep myself busy I’ve been preoccupying myself with London/England activities.
Yesterday (Friday) Hayley and I slept in because it was finally our weekend, WOOO! So when we finally decided to wake up, we got some lunch and then got ready to go to the Tower of London.
The Tower of London houses the Crown Jewels as well as an extensive armory collection of the past princes and kings, and even some torture methods. What we were most interested in seeing (well, Hayley probably liked the torture chambers the most because she’s into murders and ish) was the Crown Jewels so we made our way to the entrance where a queue had been formed. It took about 5 minutes to get inside and we watched historical footage while waiting (such as Queen Elizabeth’s coronation from the 50s). Once we had gotten to the jewels, we were in awe. There are like a thousand diamonds on everything and I have no idea how anyone casually wears those crowns without taking a million selfies and blowing up everyone’s newsfeed (probably because that’s just a millennial thing, and the Monarchy has more class than that). We were able to see Lizzie’s coronation crown, which was royal purple and had a ruby in the center and many pearls. We also saw the Sceptre with the Cross with a 530 Karat Cullinan Diamond in it…. and it was insane. Seeing something like that makes your want a 530 karat on your finger ;) (haha just kidding, that would probably hurt).
So after gawking at the crown jewels, we went through the other exhibits of the extensive collection of armor and carved faces of past kings (that was kinda weird) and decided it was time for some food.
We ate at Gourmet Burger Kitchen and in that moment, we FINALLY experienced a good burger that didn’t have fat rolled into it (and also didn’t come from McDonald’s or Five Guys). Both Hayley and I accompanied our burgers with milkshakes and then waddled back home because we were the definition of stuffed.
Upon arriving at the Baker Street Tube station (where we get off to get back to our dorm), we stopped at Tesco to purchase some wine to drink in the courtyard that night like all the cool kids do (there have been many noise complaints as more MSU groups have arrived at Regent’s due to their excessive drinking in the courtyard, so now the British probably hate us more than they did before).
So, for the rest of the night Hayley and I joined Sarah, Sydney, Charlie and Mike (our fellow study abroaders) for a night of drinking and talking about conspiracy theories. If you know me, you know that I love a good conspiracy theory, and many of my fellow classmates here do as well, so we had great conversation. For the risk of sounding like a total lunatic, I’ll spare you all the details.
So night came and went and I abruptly awoke this morning thinking that I had missed my train to Brighton, but it was 6:20 a.m., so I had definitely not missed the train. I had to get up to get ready for the day anyway, so I started getting ready because our train was leaving for Brighton around 8.
After an hour and a half train ride and some great conversation, we hopped off the platform and made our way to the beach (after we stopped for a light breakfast of course).
We had to head down a hill and the English Channel greeted us at the bottom.
I may want to go home, but I was happy I got to see this before I did.
The rest of the day was perfect. Being a typical Michigander, being by water can make you feel some type of way no matter the circumstances (AKA missing out on a huge festival with all of my friends, as Katrina put it). Claire, Hayley and I walked the pier and around the beach town before happening upon some shops and a place to eat an early dinner.
We ate at a cute, little bistro style type place called “Food for Friends”. Claire and I ordered a Blonde Lager, and I accompanied that with asparagus and gnocchi- and my tummy was happy.
We did a little more walking around, and a woman tried to con Hayley into buying an engagement ring (Cubic Zirconia- 98 pounds, not cute) which she kindly declined; then we were on our way back to the train station.
Another hour and a half train ride back, and we were back to London! And that was my last weekend trip of this trip! And my next major form of transportation will be my flight back home! In 5 ½ days!
Tomorrow we are going to the aquarium and checking everything off of our “to do” list that we haven’t done yet.
But, for the rest of the night I’ll be eating Papa John’s pizza with Hayley and watching a scary movie and pretending like I don’t even care that Faster Horses is going on somewhere in Michigan with all of my friends there. Completely in the back of my mind.
Oh how I’m ready to be h o m e.
