Porterhouse Deliciousness

March 29, 2010 Cont.

Once we got back from Windsor we went back to Jit's place and booked our tickets to Brussels. Our plan was to take the EuroStar train but found out the prices were around 140 pounds. Way too much for poor man's traveling, so we decided to take the bus over for 40 pounds instead. When Hilary booked the tickets she thought she sent them to the Liverpool Street Station, but as it turns out, she sent them to Liverpool the city instead. We had a slight freak out moment but resolved it pretty easily the next day by going to the station and explaining our situation. First potential crisis averted!

Hilary has a friend, Emmanuelle, who stayed with her family in the states for 6 months back in 2001 that was now living in London. We met up with her at 5:30 (we were of course late for and actually ended up there at 6). She took us to Covent Gardens -- which in fact is not a Garden but a pretty sweet market center. We grabbed dinner at a place called Punch & Judy Pub then went over to an amazing Irish Bar called the Porterhouse to get some beers. I'm not going to lie, the beers here in England are not very good (neither is there food but that's an entirely different topic), so Hilary and I were really excited to have some tasty brew. I've never had a fruit beer before and Emmanuelle suggested the Fruli Strawberry on draught (draft) so I got it. Oh my god, it was absolutely to die for delicious. I'm pretty sure I drank a pint in about 20 minutes and had to consciously pace myself even for that. If I wasn't paying attention I could get mighty drunk in the place seriously fast. Luckily I have no money so that wasn't an option. Although Emmanuelle was super sweet and paid for everything for all of us that night. I think she is close to 30 and actually has a legit job and paycheck so she took pity on us. I've actually been really surprised how many people we've met so far that have picked up our tabs. Completely unexpected and completely appreciated!

Emmanuelle is originally from France and in London teaching french and german at a school a little outside of the city. She's probably one of the sweetest people I've met in a long time and was really fun to talk to. I got a little confused when we were first talking about her living situation cause she said she was living with her partner in a flat outside of the city. Being from America, when I hear the word 'partner' I think of same-sex relationships. Turns out in Europe it pretty much just means someone you are seriously with but not married to. Marriage isn't as big of a deal over here so partner is a lot more common of a word for someone who is more than just a boyfriend or girlfriend.

We left the bar around 10pm so Emmanuelle could catch her train home and we headed back to Jit's. We felt like we should treat him to a beer since we had been pretty lame the couple nights before and hadn't gone out with him yet. Unfortunately, we chose a Monday night to finally want to go out and everything was closed by the time we got there. So we resorted to having some beer and wine at his place. It worked out for the better though probably since it was a little quieter and we could have better conversation. He showed us an email he got from a girl in India who he didn't know but wanted to meet him for the purpose of marrying. This brought up a whole conversation on arranged marriages in India. Essentially Jit said if you can and want to marry for love in India that's fine, but if not by a certain age the parents will usually set up an arranged marriage. He said arranged marriages usually work out and that they are a good thing. Girls usually get married between 24-26 in India and guys between 28-30. The ages are actually older than I thought they would be. It was really interesting getting his perspective on the issue since it is something I can never imagine being okay with, but I guess that's where cultural differences come into play.