the church

When they say "the church" in London, they don't mean a church but "the church." Throughout the semester the program's student assistants offer various socials for us foreign students to attend to and get a true taste of London student life. Well, this past Sunday they offered an opportunity to attend "the church" with them.
I was originally going to head back to the markets (which are so much fun!) but ran into a group of people who said they have continuously heard that you can't leave London without going to "the church." So, with the mindset of 'when in London...' I went!
It was somewhat on the outskirts of the city, but when we finally got there, there was a long line of crazily and oddly dressed people about my age standing outside of a tall, nameless brick building. Come to find out "the church" is only open on Sundays from 12-5 and as far as how it got the name, etc you can read about it here, very interesting actually: http://thechurch.co.uk/
Once we got through the long line we paid about $15 (of course another cover charge) to get in and as soon as we walked in we were all absolutely mesmerized! The place was 3 floors high, packed top to bottom with students, and had a huge stage in the front. On this stage was a short, stubby, bald man in a metallic onesie singing cover songs of the Doobie Brothers and Tom Petty. Along with taking all of this in there was also a full length bar on every of the three floors and I'm pretty sure we were the only people there in regular clothing. Apparently there are weekly costume contests for no reason - I saw people dressed as where's waldo, in togas, pajamas, bathing suits, as jail birds, an alligator suit, batman, ...basically anything and everything. As far as the bar goes you have to get a ticket and once you get up to the bar you have a few options of beers and whichever you pick you exchange your ticket for a bag of that kind of beer. So you pay $10 for a ticket, pick Fosters for example, and then they give you a grocery bag of 3 or 4 of them tocarry around - the entire experience was absolutely crazy and hilarious.
To further describe it, I think the reason I enjoyed it so much was that it was more like a concert and hang out place rather than the usual techno, hard on the ear clubs we had been exposed to. Everyone was able to hear each other and converse along with sipping a beer while listening to a concert by a guy dressed in an onesie. They also did tons of camera shots throughout the venue making fun of people left and right - I don't think I stopped laughing. It was also Aussie Day this past
Sunday, so people were throwing around inflatable kangaroos and wearing the Aussie flag...craziness once again.
Anyways, it was an experience in a half and the craziest thing I've ever been exposed to on a Sunday! I can officially say that in London, I definitely don't think I can handle going to church every Sunday! hahaha I can only handle that kind of weekly church attendance back home!