Bedford Place, Bloomsbury, London <3
Last night together: JMU at our banquet
A few days ago, to satisfy my inner sorority-girl crafter, I bought 30 different London postcards & invites to hand-write invitations for our banquet. Before heading out, we all gathered in Flat B where we watched the amazing slideshow Ali put together. The banquet was at Cafe Below, located beneath a crypt (!) at St. Mary-le-Bow Church in Cheapside. The room was gorgeous, all stone & low-lighting with 3 long tables. Charlotte bought party favors (“crackers”) & paper hats (that the English typically wear on Christmas dinners). We picked our menu a few days ago: I had the salmon salad, steak and chocolate dessert… and several glasses of wine.
We had a few speeches & gifts (especially to Bob, our beloved FMIR who is retiring after this term – what a way to go out!) and I handed out the superlatives:
Axie: most musically inclined, Andy: most likely to get a guy’s number, Chad: best photographer, Curtis: best hair, Jamie: best dancer, Joe: most likely to be fluent in German, Amy: most likely to heel-toe around the campfire (?), Elizabeth: most likely to fail a 4-wheeler driving test, Hannah W: most likely to ask for student discount & samples when 40, Meghan: most likely to spot a rare bird at Edinburgh Castle, Ali: best laugh, Alicia: most likely to have her own exercise video, Belinda: most likely to bring American style dancing to UK, Erika: most likely to know every Broadway musical song, Jen: best sleeper, Katy: most likely to marry the Prime Minister… whoever it is, Kelsey: most likely to move back to London, me: best Mama Bear, Ashley: best dressed, Hannah B.: most likely to go out with everything & come back with nothing, Julia: most likely to marry an Irish man, Lindsay: most likely to quote YouTube, Mindy: most likely to get hit on by small children aka her future students, Allie: most likely to get kicked out of a club for her attitude, Ellen: most likely to play Frogger in the streets of London and die, Katie: most likely to be a homewrecker… of the Jamie Oliver family, Kelly: most likely to blow her rent & food funds on a Louis Vuitton bag & Laura: most likely to take it all in.
Katy played her violin, Lindsay presented a Harry Potter book (all signed by us) to Bob & Betty Hoskins and Amy & Ashley presented Charlotte with a gift certificate to a nice vegetarian restaurant (& she finally admitted we are her favorite group!). Everyone took their paper plate awards like a yearbook & we all took turns signing each others. Lots of pictures & hugs later, we seriously dawdled before leaving (after forcing Bob to play piano!) on our last trips on the Tube back to MadHouse.
