Funky Buddha

So tonight we decided to check out the nightlife in London and what the hype is all about. My friend that was here in London last semester, Kristin Hardester, said that the dance clubs and pubs are fun to hang out at during the night because they aren’t trashy or scary like the nightclubs in the US. Supposedly they are classier here in London. We decided to check it out and see for ourselves! The night started with the Fab 4 all huddled in front of a mirror getting ready. We had to have the perfect outfit on because we were hoping to run into Liam from One Direction. He hangs out at a club called Funky Buddha in London whenever he is in town. We found out from twitter that he was there yesterday so we were headed there tonight hoping he would be there again! It was also Lizzie’s 19^th birthday today so that was why we decided to celebrate tonight! After we got all dressed up we were going to go to dinner then hit the club! As we were walking down the street to the restaurant these guys had their heads out their windows and they were yelling at us. We all rolled our eyes and added that to our list of memories for the night. We finally found this fun Mexican restaurant down the street that had these cute virgin colada drinks and stuff. We all got fun drinks and took tons of pictures. We were almost done with our food when the owner of the restaurant comes over and starts talking to us. We tell him that it is Lizzie’s birthday and we are out celebrating. He congratulated us and said he would be right back. We all got excited thinking he would come out with free dessert and sing a song. Nope. We were way wrong. He comes out with free drinks! He tells us that tonight we are going to party and get wasted and we are starting right here in the restaurant! We all were so shocked and didn’t know what to do! We just smiled and said thank you but we all were laughing so hard that we could barely even reply enough to thank him. Honestly it was so awkward. In the US they give you free dessert, in Europe they give you free alcohol! We just stirred the drinks around a bit and secretly poured some into our other glasses on the table to hide the fact that we weren’t drinking any of it. I think he knew we weren’t drinking the drinks though and it was awkward. He was kind of mad he wasted the drinks on us. He should have known when we all ordered virgin coladas in the first place! We decided it was another memory to check onto our list for the night!

Virgin colada and mojito. 

 These are our alcoholic drinks that we just stirred around a little! 

No drinking! (Don't worry mom) 

Next it was time to go try and find the Funky Buddha! We went to the subway and as I was going down the escalator I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it was 2 British men. They started talking to us and they “happened” to be on the same subway as us. At first we were a little hesitant but they actually turned out to be really nice and funny! They had thick accents though so it was hard to understand what they were saying most the time! As we were leaving the subway they told us to remember to cover our drinks and always use protection. We were shocked and thanked them and walked away laughing again. I could already tell that tonight was going to be a big eye opener for me! Another thing added to our list!

One of the funny British guys we met on the subway

Next we got off the subway and found ourselves in the middle of town surrounded by all these classy people all dressed up. We walked around for a bit until we found the Funky Buddha. We waited in line and showed our ID’s and entered the club. It felt like a movie or something. I had never seen or done anything like this before. I knew I would be safe with all of my friends though. We proceeded into the club and it was so much fun! It was a lot smaller then I thought it would be but we just danced the night away under all the neon lights with the music blasting and all the sweaty people surrounding us! Actually most of them were sweaty, drunk people but that just added to the fun! We met some fun friends but mostly we just had fun being silly together dancing in the corner. We had some British guys that kept trying to dance with us and talk to us. They were obviously drunk out of their minds but it was so funny to dance silly with them. Another memory added to the list! Not going to lie, everyone was looking at the group of blonde girls, dancing like they were at an EFY dance, that were not drinking any alcohol. We obviously stood out to them! It was really funny! 

The famous Funky Buddha

Caught in action dancing!

We only lasted about 45 minutes at the dance club because we had to make it back by midnight for curfew. The party was just beginning as we were leaving. We got back on the Tube and headed home. It was such a fun and adventurous night! I had my eyes opened a few times but I went into it expecting that it would be that way. I definitely saw a new way of life tonight though. I found out once again that Sami would not do very well in that lifestyle. It was fun being an outsider and not drinking and having a group to go with, but if I did that for real all the time I don’t think I would be happy. I am so glad that I have silly young single adult ward activities that I can go to where we play water balloon capture the flag, or paint twister, or iron chef competitions. I think I fit into that world a little bit better. It is much more of a “Sami” world. Unfortunately we didn’t even get to see Liam at Funky Buddha. We seriously were looking for him the whole night. We all got home and got ready for bed and all the sudden all of our phones buzz. Kristin Fitts had sent us all a picture message she had just gotten off of Twitter. Liam was at Funky Buddha! We missed him by about 20 minutes because we had to be back for curfew!!! Noooo!!!!! We were all so bummed. Literally we almost got back up and got ready and went back! But we didn’t… we decided to be good girls and follow the rules. Maybe we will track down One Direction eventually while we are here in London. Just not tonight.