London: Surveying and skating in Jolly Old! Summer 2014: Day 48 6/26/14 (FRENCH TOAST, catching the train, proofreading, dinner with the teams, skating (inside too)!)

I woke up early at around 930 or so when I had my alarm set for 9:45 AM. I then had the last two piece of French toast from when I had made the toast the other day. These pieces were absolutely delicious. I then had a few more small items to pack, but nothing too major (as I had done most of it before sleeping the night before). I washed everything (dishes) that I had used and then waited as everyone else was packing. It was a really chill morning. I did knock on doors of my bros to wake them up and get any other folders, clipboards or project supplies that I needed to take to Matt (to give to Katy later). After I took the box over and handed in my dorms keys I came back and everyone was basically packed although Nick was still working on a few small items. The mini-bus showed up at around 10:50 AM to take us down to Foregate for our 11:24 train. We arrived at the station early and had no issues waiting for the train. I even got to see one of the robotics and computer science guy in the lab with the 3D printer on campus (as he was getting off the train to go to work). Apparently even Emma tried to meet me at the station (Nick said he saw her), but I didn’t go downstairs to see her, so we didn’t see each other that day. The train ride was pretty uneventful (as we traveled to Birmingham first and then to London Euston station). In London Euston we got off the train and hooved it to the Thistle hotel. The reception staff still seemed to be as disgruntled and peeved at us as the first time we checked in the place. Shoop and I had a room on the fifth floor. After dropping stuff in the rooms we basically chilled for a while and I even grabbed a nap. At around 6:50 PM or so we walked over to the apartments where the London project teams were staying and met up with the rest of the group to head to the Marquis Cornwallis hotel/pub/restaurant. It was a really chill time there as well. We had a menu we could pick different dishes off of and I ordered a burger and a caramel salted tart for dessert. The food took quite some time to arrive as several other large groups were in the room too. It was okay food, although the burger was disproportionally sized to the £11 it cost. The tart was really good and it came with ice cream. After about 9 PM I really wanted to head skating (as I had brought my skates) so I busted out from place over to Russell Square station to grab the tube down to Vauxhall’s Roller Disco (“The Renaissance Rooms”) skating rink. I swear that inside of the station I just missed the escalators to the tube when I was scanning around the train station, so I walked around outside to get to the other Russell Square corner station where I had to jump the train to King’s Cross stop and then grab the Victoria line down to Vauxhall. Once I got on the Victoria line everything was fine and it took around 20 minutes or so to get down to Vauxhall. The rink was only about 5 minutes’ walk from the station and I walked up and got frisked and searched by the doorwoman. I then paid the £7.50 admission and the £3 to check both of my bags. The Roller Disco is a really nice facility. Basically you enter and there is seating and the skate rental room with a bar on the right. The first of two skating floors is in the room with the skate rentals and then behind the DJ booth is the second rink tucked away in another room. There are also steps leading to the other rink from the first floor and you can easily make the jump from one floor to the other at speed (who did that? Certainly not me). Both rooms had different atmospheres to them as the one had a more advanced vibe with a reverse direction while the other floor (in the first room) seemed to be for beginners. Overall the floors were rather nice and were both wooden. They were decently small however and I always felt like I had to turn right as I was getting up to speed. I did meet several friendly folks there who loved skating including this chick who I was learning some jam footwork from. As the session went from 8 PM to 12 AM, I only got around two hours of skating in from 10 ish until 12. Towards the end of the night at around 11:40 PM they had a speed skate with just the advanced skaters only and we did a backward line skate where all the peeps held one arm and we skating backwards. It was an absolute blast and I loved every second of it. The best part about having the bars in rinks is that they have to give out free water. At this rink they did it in a pitcher form where there was a continuously filled water pitcher (and I would drink about half of it coming off the floor). After the session one of the skate guard ladies said she really liked my style of skating and was really enthusiastic to chat. I then busted off to the train station to grab the tube back and went to bed.