Bullet Points London Thoughts

• I think everyone in the program is going to end up with recurring back problems. The mattresses are incredibly uncomfortable. You can feel every spring.
• I have taken some pictures. I just haven't got around to uploading them to my computer just yet.
• Quiz Call is AMAZING. Quiz Call is a show that runs late night on Channel Five. Basically, callers call in and try to guess answers based on a category. The category last night was "Films R". Callers had to guess films beginning with R. We watched for about 3 hours and NO ONE won until someone finally won when they gave the clue that one of the answers was a "Rocky" film and they correctly guessed Rocky V. The suspense is just tremendous as are the hosts talking like auctioneers and drunken callers spouting nonsensical answers.
• We have like 10 channels in the lounge, including Sky Sports One, Two, and Three. There will be plenty of chances to watch soccer and rugby, no doubt about that.
• You will drive yourself crazy converting pounds to dollars. For example, today I had a chicken sandwich for lunch at a pub. It was 4.25. That's like $8.50, which is pretty absurd. However, that's just what things cost here. In a lot of cases, things cost the same as they do back home only in a more expensive currency. You just have to get a sense of what things cost here and go with that.
• Tesco is actually pretty reasonable in terms of grocery prices. Some people swear by Sainsbury but I have been there just yet.
• Tesco Limeade may seem like a good deal at 46p for a 2 liter, but it really isn't. It's sugar free and it's pretty disgusting.
• Soda over here contains actual sugar not high fructose corn syrup. Some people swear they can taste the difference. I really can't.
• Today we played "World Cup" today at St. James' Park with a guy we met there. For some reason me and my partner Blake dominated. I felt all athletic and manly. I guess when you are playing with people who aren't really used to playing competitive sports it makes things a bit easier.
  

Culture Overload

I can't do my reading for class while I'm listening to the (frustrating so far) Bills game, but I can do a blog update and actually be somewhat useful. So I shall.

We started Friday by heading over to the IES Center and doing orientation there which was followed by lunch (yay, free lunch). Following that, there was a bus waiting for us to do a sightseeing tour. We hit all the major landmarks including St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (although, we didn't stop there) and ended up at the British Museum. At the British Museum, we split up into two groups for "highlights" tours. Unfortunately, our tour guide didn't really move at a fast pace. The British Museum has a huge collection and all sorts of impressive things but she really dwelt on each item she showed us. You really don't need to tell University of Chicago students about the Choice of Paris or about what the Rosetta Stone is. Nonetheless, we had to listen to her tell us in excruciating detail. We ended up seeing the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, "Ginger" the natural mummy, the Portland Vase, and artifacts from the Sutton Hoo burial. It was all interesting, but it something that we'll have to come back to and investigate at our own leisure.

Friday night, Dan and I chose to stay up until 4 AM local time to watch the debate, which meant we got up late on Saturday. However, we got up plenty early to me with the gang in the lobby and go to Timon of Athens at the Globe Theatre. The Globe is definitely a great environment to see a play in and they really use the space well by having actors come through the crowd, which, by the way, is mostly standing. Unfortunately, standing for 3 hours isn't really agreeable to one's back and it certainly wasn't agreeable to mine. I was in serious pain by the end of the play. Still, I can't say anything bad about the play. It was highly entertaining.

Very near to the Globe (like, next door) is the Tate Modern art museum. After the play, we headed for lunch at the Tate Modern's cafe, which is rather ritzy. Thankfully, Emily, our course assistant has an expense account for use on group outings and she put the whole thing on her expense card. After this, we went into the Tate itself. This presented a problem. I was tired at this point (still suffering a bit from jet lag, probably) and my back was still bothering me. So, while I enjoyed the Tate somewhat, I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I might have. I'm really not a big fan of modern art, but I want to gain a greater appreciation for it, so I'll probably go back to the Tate sometime when I have a chance. The nice thing about both the Tate and the British Museum are that they are free except for special exhibitions.

Heading home, I managed to catch up with Katie, Emily, and Dmitri as we were crossing the Millennium Bridge aka "The Wibbly-Wobbly Bridge". This proved to be very fortuitous, as we couldn't go back the way we came because the tube line was closed. Emily had a map and led us to Leicester Square where we caught the Piccadilly line back home. I would have really been up a creek without a paddle had I not run into them.

All of this goes to prove the point that when it comes down to it, it's hard to imagine a more culturally rich city. You can see Shakespeare at the Globe for only 5 pounds. You can go to the Tate and British Museum for free. There are all kinds of statues all over the city. It's just unbelievable the cultural riches this city contains.

I Can See the London Eye from My Kitchen

The visual proof on that is yet to come, but you’ll just have to take my word for it for now. I arrived at the IES center and checked in, hobnobbed, tried to nap, etc. Also, I group of us went on a short excursion with Greg the IES guy to South Kensington tube station to buy Oyster cards for the week. It was all going smoothly with one guy ringing up the same thing for each of us when a new cashier opened and a gentleman began to berate us for not going to him. Or berate me, as I was at the front of the line. The problem was that he didn’t know exactly what to ring up, so IES Greg had to swoop into my rescue and promptly inform him. I managed to sneak in a chat with Greg on the way back. He’s a nice chap. Originally from the North of England, grew up in Wales, went to uni in London. He says that he likes the country but after a while it gets “claustrophobic”.

Around 1:00, my roommate Dan arrived and shortly after a group of us (Dan, Andy, Tom, Greg, and myself) headed to a nearby pub for drinks/food. I abstained from drinking but did order a chip butty, or what we would call a “French fry sandwich” in America. It was relatively filling and at 3.75 pounds one of the cheaper items on the menu. After a good long chat session at the pub, we headed to the Waitrose grocery store that’s just around the corner and down the street. They bought food while I just opted to check out what situation was. As in America, store brand is the way to go. Waitrose brand cereals and vegetables looked very reasonable indeed. Meat, as could be expected was rather pricey. Then we headed back to hall.

We went through the standard “dorm rules” meeting with the Resident Director, Mieke. Afterwards, a return to the pub was made, but I sat it out in favor of sleep. So far, the rest of the night has passed uneventfully except for a fire alarm. The odd things about fire alarms in this building are that they are rather common, that steam can set the alarms off, and that the Chelsea Fire Brigade is legitimately no more than a 30 second walk from the hall. So they drive over 2-3 trucks with sirens on about 500 feet to investigate a false alarm. Brilliant. That’s it so far.

London Travel Pt. 2: Mind the Gap

The flight itself was pretty much what I expected. I was a bit cramped in there because the guy in front of me was reclining and, well, even if he wasn’t it would have been a tight fit. I had to have my knees constantly at an angle so that they weren’t jammed into his seat. Instead, they were jammed awkwardly into the aisle. The in-flight entertainment system was pretty good. There was a robust choice of movies and music. I ended up watching Toy Story before settling in to listening to some of the music, jumping here and there as my whims dictated. While listening to the music, I caught maybe 30 minutes or so of sleep but it was really very uncomfortable for sleeping and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep much. Finally, we were approaching London. Probably the moment it all started to seem real to me was when we could finally see the ground and you realize that, yes, that’s actually England you are looking at. When all was said and done, we were on the ground around 9:00, a full two hours late. On the plus side, customs was a breeze.

Having landed, I called Ali who I had hoped to meet up with upon touchdown. I figure that she would probably have left Heathrow already given that I was so delayed. I was correct. No matter, I knew my plan. I immediately went for a Heathrow Express ticket. The machine didn’t really want to play nice. Eventually, thanks to a helpful employee, we got the ticket. He was of the opinion that the ten pound notes were “too new” for the machines. Then, I boarded the train, making sure to get off at Heathrow Central (Terminals 1, 2, 3) to get on the Express. I did that successfully and then settled in to a nice Heathrow Express ride to Paddington.

Paddington is a very intimidating place. There are just throngs of people shopping, eating, waiting to by train tickets, boarding trains etc. I was momentarily a bit overwhelmed, but soon enough I saw the sign pointing the way to taxis and headed in that direction. The cab stand is very organized. They really do a great job of marshalling people to taxis and really move them out. I told the driver Manresa Road and he knew it. It was just a 9 pound cab ride from Paddington to the IES Hall. Overall, I think I chose the right travel option. All told, it only cost me 26.50 pounds from Heathrow to the residence hall. That’s including a pound tip to the driver. I could have saved an extra 10 pounds if I had taken the Heathrow Connect but it's only half as fast..

Gary the IES guy told us that, all things considered, the tube is easily the cheapest way to go, but hauling luggage around the tube sounds like a pain and this was very easy indeed.

A word about “Mind the Gap.” On the trains, there is a gap between the train and the platform. In America, we would say “watch your step”. Here the term is very definitively “mind the gap”. I find this very charming.

London Travel Pt. 1: Ryan vs. Northwest Airlines

Even though it’s Thursday night it really feels like one whole long blur of a day since I left Erie. I’ll have to break things up a bit. Here goes.

I got up Wednesday morning and still had plenty of work to do. My suitcase was packed but I still had to find some of the things for and pack by bookbag. Also, I wanted to print the PDF readings that I’ll need for the course. Most of the packing went swimmingly after a small problem with finding my camera cable. Printing the PDFs, however proved more of a challenge. Loading PDFs on 56k is painfully slow, so it quickly became evident that printing ALL the PDFs would be nigh impossible. Then, my printer ran out of black ink and I had no replacement cartridge, which made me shift printing downstairs to my Dad’s computer. In the end, it was time to go and I had to get the bag fully packed and shut so I just stopped printing where I was. I’ll just have to print the rest out in London.

Then, we left for the airport, making a detour on the way to say goodbye to my Grandma. The Erie Airport, as per usual, was a breeze to get through. I had no trouble at all with security and ticketing. I said goodbye to the parents and shortly after was in the air en route to Detroit.

The flight was the most pleasant Erie-Detroit connection I’ve ever had. It left on time, arrived early, and I wasn’t crammed into too awkward of a position. I hit ground in Detroit and headed towards my gate, noting on the way the location of the currency exchange. On the way to my gate I noted a flight boarding to Amsterdam with a huge line of people waiting to board and it was nearly an hour prior to scheduled departure. I knew I would need to be at my gate at least 60 minutes before departure. Still having plenty of clearance, I went to the currency exchange for some pounds. The guy at the exchange was either ornery or unable to hear me because he fairly yelled at me when I forgot to specify whether I wanted to change $100 or to buy 100 pounds. We got that sorted, though, and I got my money. By the way, it turns out British banknotes are wider than US notes.

Now comes the fun part. I got to the gate with plenty of time and we boarded with nothing out of the ordinary. We were scheduled to depart at 6:10 PM. At 6:15, we are told there is a slight maintenance issue, nothing major, and that we’ll get going as soon as it’s sorted. At about 6:45, we get the message that, in fact, the problem will take a bit longer to fix. We’re now aiming for 8:00 as a departure time and we may have to switch planes. At this point we had already been waiting for upwards of an hour and were quite frustrated. Five minutes later or so, we get the message that yes, we will switch planes. We all had to deplane and then go from A66 to A28 where our new plane would be. We were still aiming for an 8:00 departure.

On the way to the new gate, I discover that my headphones have suddenly stop wanting to work properly. Thankfully, there’s a headphone store right by the new gate and I plunked down for new headphones before waiting to board. While waiting to board, I realized that my old boarding pass seemed to have disappeared, so I had to go to the counter to get a new boarding pass. Finally, we boarded and at around 8:05 we took off...

Packing

for London is in progress. I'm working on trying to get everything into either one smallish suitcase or my backpack. Otherwise, I'll have to lug a large suitcase to and fro and I've heard that London Black Cabs are small. It's all very exciting, I know.

Actually, as I'm packing it's starting to actually feel real so I'm getting excited/nervous, but not too much of either.

Week 3 Quick Picks in Review

See below for original predictions

Kansas City @ Atlanta -- Nailed it.

Oakland @ Buffalo -- In the end, Oakland's dysfunctional ways did catch up to them. They managed the game terribly at the end and were not able to put any pressure on Trent Edwards. However, I was surprised that it was Buffalo that was in the deep hole. Fortunately, they came out of it.

Tampa Bay @ Chicago -- I was right about it being a toss-up and Chicago SHOULD have won. I'm going to consider myself half right.

Carolina @ Minnesota -- I didn't see Minnesota's defense so completely dominating Carolina in the second half. Kudos, Vikings D.

Miami @ New England -- I can be forgiven for this one because nobody really expected Miami to pull it off. How was I supposed to know that Miami would throw in the Wildcat formation and Ronnie Brown would account for five TDs?

Cincinnati @ NY Giants -- Called it right but Palmer and the Bengals offense played surprisingly well. It was nice to see Cincinnati in the game until the very end.

Houston @ Tennessee -- Nailed it.

Arizona @ Washington -- I should have used my own rule here. Toss-ups go to the home team. I knew this would be close and indeed it was. Jason Campbell is looking right now.

New Orleans @ Denver -- Nailed it.

Detroit @ San Francisco -- Nailed it.

St. Louis @ Seattle -- Nailed it, but Seattle had an easier go of it than I expected.

Cleveland @ Baltimore -- Joe Flacco wasn't particularly competent, but he didn't have to be. Baltimore just ran it down their throats, and Derek Anderson was much worse than Flacco.

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis -- Nailed it.

Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia -- Nailed it. Pittsburgh can't stand up to a good pass rush and it cost them dearly.

Dallas @ Green Bay -- I did not realize how good Dallas really is. They just dominated Green Bay. Clearly, they are the best team in the league at this point.

NY Jets @ San Diego -- Nailed it.

This is just a test

Watch out! Bruno's coming to get you! I just wanted to practice throwing an image into a post so feast on this glorious image of legendary wrestling champion Bruno Sammartino at his manly best. Looks like he's practicing the deadly trapezius claw

Week 3 NFL Quick Picks

Kansas City @ Atlanta -- Last week KC surrendered 300 rushing yards to the Raiders who have almost no passing game. Atlanta fits the same profile and they are at home. Michael Turner has a big day here.

Oakland @ Buffalo -- Oakland is dysfunctional to say the least. Buffalo won't give up 300 rushing yards and will make Jamarcus Russell win the game. He can't do it.

Tampa Bay @ Chicago -- This is basically a toss-up. When in doubt, the home team wins. Chicago takes it at Soldier Field.

Carolina @ Minnesota -- How bad is your offense when Gus Frerotte is the answer? Carolina is on a roll right now and is a very good road team. Also, Adrian Peterson is questionable for the Vikes.

Miami @ New England -- New England = perennial play-off team. Miami = 1-15 last year. Advantage: New England

Cincinnati @ NY Giants -- Remember when Carson Palmer used to be an elite QB? Those were the days. Now the Bengal offense is ailing and Justin Tuck and the Giants D is not the team to get healthy against.

Houston @ Tennessee -- Houston is not a particularly good road team and struggled against Pittsburgh's aggressive D. Tennessee should be able to keep them on their heels and pull out this win at home.

Arizona @ Washington -- This will be a close one, but Arizona seems to be feeling it right now and their defense will present Jason Campbell with a much stiffer challenge than New Orleans did.

New Orleans @ Denver -- Neither team can play pass D well, but Denver has home field advantage at Mile High and is very confident after their big win versus San Diego.

Detroit @ San Francisco -- San Francisco has looked competent. Detroit has not. I can't predict Detroit to win a road game until they show signs of life.

St. Louis @ Seattle -- Seattle is hurting at WR, but they will pound the rock with Julius Jones and impose their will on D. It won't be pretty, but they'll grab their first win here.

Cleveland @ Baltimore -- For reasons unknown, the NFL denied Erie's CBS affiliate's request to broadcast Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia and is making them show this game. Never mind that Cleveland has looked awful or that Erie is in PA, much like Pittsburgh and Philly. Cleveland will grind out a boring win thanks to Joe Flacco's inexperience.

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis -- I just have a feeling about this one. Jacksonville's O-line should improve and Indianapolis is not a run-stuffing team. Taylor and Jones drew will do enough to help Jacksonville outscore Indianapolis in a must-win situation.

Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia -- Philadelphia is battle-tested after Monday night in Dallas. Pittsburgh hasn't really been challenged yet. Eagles pull it out.

Dallas @ Green Bay -- Just because. And also because Rodgers will continue to prove that he's much better than Brett "God" Favre. And because Green Bay is at home.

NY Jets @ San Diego -- San Diego is PISSED at this point. They will have vengeance and NY will pay the price.

Scattered Thoughts: Music

• I heard "Little Bit" by Lykke Li on a Victoria's Secret commercial. I was happy enough to hear Lykke Li get some exposure, but I didn't see that one coming.
• I'm pleased that the greater the breadth of music I listen to, the more tunes in commercials I recognize. For example, there is the Ford ad that uses LES Artistes by Santogold and a beer commercial that uses Creator by Santogold. Fun stuff.
• Lykke Li's "Youth Novels" is great for going to sleep to. Not because it's boring but because it's just pleasingly mellow. It really helps me unwind.
• Lately, I've settled into a rotation of Kylie, Robbie Williams, Robyn, and Morrissey (mostly when I'm sad). Those are pretty much the lynchpins of my iPod.
• Lily Allen's new album drops in February. I can't wait. The demos we have so far (Who'd Have Known, Guess Who Batman, I Could Say, I Don't Know) are brilliant.
• The Sugababes and Girls Aloud both have new tunes coming out for the Christmas rush. Color me excited. "About You Now" and "Call the Shots" are about as good as pop songs get, so I'm looking forward to both.
• I have $15 in Best Buy reward certificates. I'm going to buy a CD most likely, but I'm not sure what. It's going to be a tough decision. Recommendations are welcome.
  

Can The Bills Make The Playoffs?

Right now, the Buffalo Bills are 2-0 for the first time since 2003. In 2003, Buffalo finished the season 6-10. As a Bills fan, I know not to get overly optimistic. Two wins are nice, but in the long run they don't mean much of anything. The question is: are these two wins just flukes to begin another mediocre year or can Buffalo actually break their playoff drought of 8 (I think) years?

The Case For:

Buffalo's two wins are over teams that both made the playoffs last season, Seattle and Jacksonville. On paper, these were two of the toughest teams on Buffalo's schedule, which is one of the easiest in the league. Now, Buffalo gets in consecutive weeks Oakland at home and St. Louis on the road. Oakland may fire Head Coach Lane Kiffin any day now and St. Louis is the worst team in the league after two weeks. Buffalo should coast to 4-0. From there, a record of 6-6 in the last 12 should get the job done.

How realistic is that? Consider that even lowly Oakland stomped Kansas City, who the Bills will play later this season. Also on tap are games against San Francisco (mediocre at best), Miami 2x (rebuilding and struggling), and NY Jets 2x (a team Buffalo swept last season). Throw in wins against KC, SF, Miami, and a split against NY and you're looking at four more wins. Then then Buffalo would need to win 1-2 games more of off this roster of teams

Denver
San Diego
New England (without Brady) 2x
Arizona
Cleveland

Denver has no D. San Diego can't win close games. New England is without Brady. Arizona is well, Arizona. They may be better but they have a history of well, sucking. Cleveland has looked awful through two games.

Now for the football reasons for. Trent Edwards is playing very, very well. He's not throwing INTs. He's playing careful, efficient football, and through two games he's been better than any Bills QB since Bledsoe's first year in town. If he keeps playing like this, he'll take the pressure off Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch and Fred "Action" Jackson and give the Bills a chance to win each and every Sunday.

On defense, Marcus Stroud and Kawika Mitchell have strengthened the Bills front seven, which previously had been easy to rush upon. Both Seattle and Jacksonville found it difficult to run on Buffalo, which made them one-dimensional and forced many 3rd and longs.

The Case Against:
Buffalo doesn't have a history of winning in recent years and it may take time to learn how to win, especially with such a young team. It's easy to say what games they "should" win on paper, but can they focus hard for 17 weeks and not suffer lapses against inferior teams? Can they continue to make plays in the clutch? This remains to be seen.

Also, it remains to be seen whether Trent Edwards can maintain his strong play at QB. He's only a second year player and growing pains are to be expected. If he starts throwing picks or loses his accuracy, it's over for the Bills, plain and simple.

Furthermore, both of the offenses Buffalo has faced so far have experienced severe injury problems. Seattle was without top WRs Deion Branch, Bobby Engram, and Ben Obomanu and lost Nate Burelson during the game. Jacksonville was without C Brad Meester, G Vince Manuwai, and G Maurice Williams. Sure, it's easy to stop offenses that are in such a shambles but can the Bills new look front hold up against full strength squads.

VERDICT: Yes, the Bills can make the postseason, but in doesn't guarantee that they will. The bottom line is that this is a cohesive, motivated, and (for now at least) healthy team that is looking at a very easy schedule. If they maintain the current level of play (and Dick Jauron's Bills squads have tended actually to be slow-starters that get hot late), Buffalo can absolutely expect to see action beyond Week 17. For Bills die-hards like myself, that would be an exciting development indeed.

Getting Back In The Saddle

So, there's been no posts all summer. Basically, I figured that no one was reading this and then I left it for dead. Now, I have new incentive to get back at it. I'll be studying abroad in London for ten weeks starting one week from today. Hopefully, I'll see plenty of cool stuff and take plenty of interesting pictures and that will make for some captivating updates. At any rate, I'll try to be regular with updates.

I've added a blogroll, as you may notice. I'll break down the membership

--Music blogs: Popjustice, Please Don't Stop The Music, Love Kylie, What Became of the Likely Broads, Let's Have Text

--Blogs from votefortheworst.com folks (if you don't know what vftw is and you're reading this, go there now): Idletard, Insaneinthesfv, Badass Knitting With Llamas, Villaintech, Adam's World

--Politics: FiveThirtyEight, which is absolutely indispensable for following the presidential race.

The good news is that I have plenty of thoughts, so hopefully I'll throw up some posts in the next few days. Or hours. Stay tuned.