aventuras de alyssa

The second month of the year has now come and gone! Time flies when you are stuck in busy season 😊 To start off February, George and I had date night at Restaurant Elis, which is located in the Bethnal Green town hall building. We had delicious food and then went over to Satan’s Whiskers, which was voted second best bar in the UK and best in London. They have creative cocktails, a quirky vibe, and great people. Highly recommend a visit if you are in the area!

Last year, my friends convinced me to sign up for Orange Theory Fitness, which I was exceedingly skeptical about given my hatred of cardio-based exercise. I ended up joining the gym because I really enjoy how it’s a structured class but there is encouragement to go at your own pace. Fast forward to this year, and I’m proud that I have been going regularly! The transformation challenge started in February, so I signed up for that & have a goal of hitting 200 classes this year.

Other highlights from this month include birthday drinks for a friend at Exmouth Arms, dinner with my “bus crew” at Attica for Greek food (we pass by it all the time on the bus), Galentine’s night at my friends’ flat, celebrating the Super Bowl (though all we ended up doing was re-watching past Super Bowl halftime shows since the game isn’t on until very late in London – still fun and of course buffalo chicken dip was involved), and SEEING NOAH KAHAN! This is my third time seeing him and each time is more magical than the last. I had an amazing time, so much so that I lost my voice that night!

Given that it’s our busy season at work & my futile efforts to save a bit of money, going out to eat during the week really dropped off during February. George and I made some delicious recipes from Half Baked Harvest’s Everyday cookbook and I say that we made them “together” loosely. George is a much better cook than I am, so I am usually delegated the task of stirring the pasta 😊

In the back half of the month, we went to Passyunk to celebrate National Marquette day, which involved lots of fried food and stouts. Afterwards, we found this insane bar called Vaulty Towers – in the cave of wonders photo below, you can SIT up there! They also had treehouses throughout the bar. It was really quirky and cool. I went to Gunner’s Pub to support Arsenal (and they let Newcastle score for the first time in a decade at Emirates…. We won, but still!) and then George and I ended the month with another date day. We went for dinner at Jacuzzi, which is part of the Big Mamma restaurant group. Great food and even greater vibes – it was so beautifully decorated! We then went to Cirque du Soleil for their showing of Alegria at Royal Albert Hall. We had perfect seats to see all of the acrobats doing crazy tricks. I’ve always wanted to see Cirque du Soleil, so this was an awesome bucket list item for me! Bottom right photo below is from Urban Social, our favorite brunch place after Orange Theory!

Finally, another goal of mine this year was to find somewhere to volunteer and I’m thrilled that I have! There is a community center not too far from me that puts on Friday night events that was looking for volunteers. I found the opportunity online, applied, and had an interview of sorts with the volunteer coordinator. We got on great & I volunteered for the first time in February. It was SO FUN! The events are every other Friday and I can’t wait to continue going and building relationships with the people at the community center.

With the end of February, the sun is starting to set later. The lighter the days, the happier I am that we are moving away from the darkness of winter! Can’t wait for spring and summer, which are upon us!