Southall (Little India) and Camden Market

Friday (1/29)
Explored Camden Market (&Camden Lock Market) today. Cool but not as cool (or big and fun/crazy) as Portobello Road Market. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that I was freezing, sleep-deprived, lots of stalls were closed, and it rained, hailed, then snowed. And the market wasn’t as great as I’d hoped. But still fun. My favorite was an Indian shop with bracelets and elephants and rugs (aka presents!).

After – Ali and I ended up at Primark. Why can’t I last a week without going there! Curse their amazingly cheap prices and awesome junk. I did need to buy those mittens (haha I got a 2pack) because on the day trip I lost my new pair (2nd pair I’ve lost in 2 weeks!). And I can’t venture outside very long without mittens or my fingers will fall off like icicles. It’s only the mittens keeping them attached to my hands, I swear. At least I don’t sleep with mittens on anymore... haha (ohh frozen old byu apartment… I don’t miss you).

After dinner a group of us went to Frog’s frozen yogurt (the only fro-yo place I’ve seen here… all other ice cream here is gelato. And that is perfectly fine with me). Tart, not very good. Ice cream needs sugar. Obviously I had to buy 2 candy bars (Tesco to the rescue!) to balance out my sugar deficiency. We then wandered over to Piccadilly Circus and meandered through West End/theatre district for over an hour but (as it was Friday night) we couldn’t find any shows left at student prices.
PS. I’ve decided that since (according to my mom) people are checking out my blog, I should probably post on my blog. New goal: catch up!

Saturday (1/30)
Today – very fun and cultural. Made me want to watch Slumdog Millionaire (amazing movie!) and maybe Bride & Prejudice. We had a class field trip (for my UK Culture&Community class) to Southall, a huge Indian community northwest of London (a short train ride away).
Southall was different from anywhere I’d seen yet. I LOVED it. First we learned all about Indian culture and religion, especially the Sikh and Hindu religions. Then to Southall!

We visited a huge Sikh gurdwara (temple) named “Gurdwara sri Guru Singh Sabha.” Sweeeet. This was the most culturally eye-opening thing I’ve done in a long time. Their worship is so interesting and I loved being able to take part in it. We entered the Sikh temple and removed our shoes, washed our hands, and covered our heads with a scarf. A very knowledgeable Sikh man (committed to Sikhism – a Khalsa) guided us through the temple and explained his religion and customs (sometimes in quite extensive detail). I learned...
1. hair is sacred (religious Sikhs never cut it, and men and women always keep it covered)
2. committed Sikhs carry around 5 symbolic K’s (knife, uncut hair, bangle, comb, & undergarment)
3. all about their religious history and their gurus
4. Sikhs pay 10% tithing so that their temples can offer free daily meals in a communal kitchen. This is called Langar. The food was pretty good (we were invited to join them for lunch).

We went into a large prayer hall where they were chanting scriptures, and we all went up to a decorated altar to bow/pay respect to their holy scripture and sacred items. All of us whities stuck out a bit, but they made us feel welcome. They offered us a thank you/sacrament food on the way out (the guide said it was like bribery to come again) in the form of a sweet brown mush blob. Great new experience. I enjoy feeling culturally out of place. :)

Afterwards we were given a few hours to explore Southall and see a couple more temples. We found a Hindu temple, which was awesome. Similar customs to Sikhism (remove shoes, wash hands) but different… less reverent (no scripture-reading… a cell phone kept ringing actually). It was kind of small (mostly just a big room to worship in) with a row of golden shrines at the front. There were flashing Christmas-y lights (obviously not for Christmas) and colorful Indian paintings and life-size statues of decorated Hindu gods. Posters of gods lined the room, and everyone sat criss-cross on the ground (separated by gender). As we left a man gave us holy water (to drink and throw on our heads) as well as fruit and a sweet rice-ish orange mush ball – delicious. Not sure what it was exactly. :)
We wandered Southall afterwards… awesome. Lots of people wearing saris and turbans and the street stalls were filled with Indian food, Bollywood ads, spice markets, strange vegetables?, sari sales, and jewelry everywhere. All very flashy and bright and fun and colorful! Loved it. The street vendors got me (I love Indian food) and Ali and I shared chili-corn and a falafel wrap. Um and 2 Indian-ish chocolate bars (wouldn’t be a snack with chocolate!). We searched for a henna tattoo shops but it was harder to find than I thought..

Eventually we found the second Sikh temple, which was similar to the first one but smaller. Same routine (to look more respectable) and we sat in the prayer room awhile, people-watching. Which is a favourite hobby of mine (so is using British spelling). There were lots of families there. Two Sikh men sang/chanted very loudly. Who knows what they were saying, but I’d guess scripture. Ali and I wandered around again afterwards and found a tiny beauty parlor where we got henna! (£5!) YAY. Then we met up with the whole program at a nice Pakistani-Indian restaurant – Gifto’s. It was legitimate and delicious. Except one dish was probably the spiciest I’ve ever had and I admit that I cried a few tears while chugging my mango soda haha. G R E A T   D A Y !

before

after

PS. And to make it better… afterwards Ali and I found a cheap gelato shop in a random bowling alley on Queensway! I got Bueno-bar flavored gelato and felt pure joy.

Sunday (1/31)
Second sunday at my new ward. It was pretty cool. I’m assigned to Whitechapel ward, which is small (like 50-60 people) and most of them are Nigerian. Hmm i may be repeating this. oh well. Anyway I love not being surrounded by white people! It’s refreshing. No offense to southern California and Utah… but you are really white. Anyway everyone was welcoming as always and very friendly to us BYU students. And the little kids are adorable! After church they passed out lots of treats. I enjoy that. :)