Taxing the Ole Memory

I can assure you that things, very interesting and perhaps even important things, have happened in my life in the last two weeks. Nonetheless, I have, to this point, failed to blog said things. I shall attempt to rectify that now. Where were we? Or more accurately, when were we? Ah yes, two Mondays ago.

Nothing happened Monday. Tuesday, however, we had a night at the theatre for Chicago. I find the irony of University of Chiacago students going to London to see an English production of "Chicago" overpowering. Still, I hadn't seen it and was therefore excited. Beforehand, we were supposed to head to a Indian restaraunt for dinner. This led to a bit of fun and even some controversy.

I'll save the long version for another day and just give the short version. Essentially, the train was too full for all of us to get on the tube, so Roderick, Laura, Josh, and I were one train behind. We knew which stop to get off at but not directions from there. They didn't wait for us at the tube stop, so we were left in Piccadilly Circus with no real idea of how to get where we needed to. This led to some misadventures regarding directions. Eventually, we got there. The controversy relates to Laura mocking me for misreading a sign and perpetrating the outrageous slander that I didn't know the name of the restaurant (Imli) when I very much did. Ah well, such are the perils of leadership.

Anyhow, we got there. The food was merely ok. The appetizer was passable. The entree was a bit too spicy for my tastes. The mango ice cream was incredibly delicious.

Then, we headed off for Chicago. The theatre wasn't actually a very nice theatre but since the staging for Chicago is sparse it worked out well enough. As for my thoughts on Chicago, I think of it this way. It's pointless to say whether on not I think it is a good show. Obviously, the musical going public has decided that it's a classic musical. As to whether it's a good production of it, I can't say because I haven't seen it before. As to whether I enjoyed it, I did but not as much as I would something campier like Mamma Mia. I like my musicals big, campy, and colorful. Chicago is muted, jazzy, and low key (relatively). Hence, I didn't love it but merely liked it.

Wednesday we went to Lynley Sambourne and Leighton houses after class. Edward Linley Sambourne was a cartoonist for the British humour magazine Punch! which earned him a reasonable living but didn't make him fabulously wealthy. Linley Sambourne house is one of the only surviving examples of a middle-class Victorian home with original furniture and art. It was quite interesting. The Victorian design sense is quite ecletic and busy. They enjoy putting lots of art items together in order to show the variety and quality of their tastes.

Leighton house was a bit less interesting. Fredick Leighton was fabulously wealthy, so his house was huge and opulent but it isn't in original condition in the same way that Linley Sambourne's house is. Original furnishings and art have been removed. It's still interesting to see the beauty of his Arab room, for example, but it just isn't as authentic and for that reason not as interesting as a more well-preserved house would be.

Friday we took a trip through the legal area of London. First up was a trip to the Old Bailey Criminal Courts. The unique think about these courts is that they allow visitors to sit in and observe trials. Actually, I'm not entirely sure it's unique. It's just cool, either way. We were split into two groups because the first courtroom's visitor area got full. I was in the second group. We witnessed about an hour of what we think was an axe-murder trial. It was at the very least, an axe-attack trial. Here's the rough outline of what we got. There are rival Sri Lankan regions. Some people from one Sri Lankan region did in a car owned by a guy from the other region. Other guy and posse game back with the intent of responding in kind. Things apparently got out of hand and, allegedly, and axe attack occured. It was fascinating stuff.

After that, we walked through some of the areas described in Charles Dickens' Bleak House. Bleak House has a plot that heavily features the Court of Chancery and characters involved with it, so we went to see the areas were those characters were depicted as living and working at. I found it all quite boring, to be honest. It was nice to be able to more fully envision what Dickens was writing about, but things look so much different than they would have then so the impact is lessened.

Our tour left us off in Covent Garden, which is a great eating/shopping district. We got lunch Emily's expense account at Just Falafs, which is, not surprisingly, a falafel restaurant. Then, a bunch of different groups split off to go their seperate ways. I went with Laura, Jodie, and Roderick to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year. I had never seen either of the other two HSM films, but I got the distinct impression that I would like them on the basis of their campy Disney ridiculousness. I wasn't wrong. I don't know that I can call HSM3 objectively good, but I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed seeing Chicago. Highlights include Troy doing choreographed dance moves during the state championship game in the opening number, Sharpay and Ryan's brilliant "I Want It All" number, Troy's spinning room and basketball rain on "scream," and Chad and Troy's bro-love ode to child hood in a junkyard.

Saturday was pretty quiet. We (and by we I mean myself, Katie, Katie's friend Steve, Dan, Lisbeth, Michelle, Laura, and Ali, hereafter known as "The Doctor Who Gang") ended up watching some Dr. Who and then playing Apples to Apples because Steve had never played. I won't get into explaining Apples to Apples, but suffice it to say that it's a fun party game and we had fun playing and drinking a bit. Ali in particular got smashed, which was hilarious because she had only one glass of merlot.

Sunday was not fun for me. I woke up at about 6 am and had to use the bathroom. At that point, I started throwing up in the sink. It was then I knew that I was in for an interesting day. I went back to sleep after cleaning up after myself and when I woke up I still felt horrible. I had a headache, backache, no energy, and couldn't keep food down. And I had to write a paper for Monday. I'm not, in fact, sure that those facts aren't related. I'm pretty sure my illness was just a combination of not eating right, getting poor sleep on these horrendous beds of ours, and being generally nervewracked over the paper and other personal matters. At any rate, I was laid up all Sunday and the Bills lost to boot. Not a good day.

Monday, I woke up feeling fine, but I hadn't ate anything all Sunday (or rather I had but it didn't stay down), so I was weak. I took the day to simply work on my paper and get healthy and skipped class. My paper, I'm happy to say, seemed to come out very well and I finished it before midnight, which is some kind of miracle for me I think. I even finished in time to watch Dr. Who, which was an extra bonus.

Tuesday was rather non-descript, mostly. Just more Dr. Who and such. There is one thing that happened but that's probably best saved for another time.

Wednesday was likewise quiet except for our screening of "The Buddha of Suburbia." Our London: City of Nations course aka "Feelings," includes weekly movie screenings. This week's selection was "The Buddha of Suburbia," a miniseries adaptation of the Hanif Kureshi novel of the same name. It's essentially the tale of the coming of age of a boy who is the son of a white mother and a Pakistani father. Given that it is the late 70s, sex, drugs, and rock & roll feature prominently. Especially sex. There was a lot of sex. Basically, Royce, our professor, expected us to all watch this bizzare 4 hour miniseries about a young mixed-race man's voyages of (often sexual) exploration and then be prepared to discuss it in class. There was not much chance of that happening. People will abide by a two hour film for class. Not many will abide by a four hour one.

Emily sweetened the pot some by putting pizza on her expense account and serving that before the screening. Not surprisingly, many people came for the pizza and then simply left or left after the first of four parts. Only four of us, Katie, Laura, Constance, and I (along with Emily to the extent that she counts) finished the film. It was alright as a whole, but it was quite frankly bizzare and nothing really makes sense until the end. There's no real plot to bring the movie together. Nonetheless, I got a major kick out of being able to mention in class an orgy scene in 4th part and have it be both a) pertinent to the discussion and b) completely shocking to people who didn't watch it.

Thursday night featured more Dr. Who and, of course, our thursday standbys of Nevermind the Buzzcocks and Beautiful People. Nevermind the Buzzcocks was great on account of the appearance of Australian feminist Gemane Greer. You would not expect an aging feminist to be the one to completely deconstruct and embarrass host Simon Amstell, who has more or less made a career of doing the same to his guests, but she did and it was hilarious. Beautiful People also had it's best episode yet, so good times were had by all.

That's basically where things stand at this point. Friday was our Yorkshire trip, which deserves a special blog of it's own. Saturday was yesterday and nothing really happened. I slept in. There was a fire alarm. I watched Everton beat Fulham. It rained, so I didn't go to Battersea Park for Guy Fawkes fireworks. We watched Dr. Who. We saw the fireworks from the comfort of the Res Hall lounge. That is all.

So, I'm pretty caught up on general happenings now (thank goodness). Hopefully, I can get some more blogs up that aren't simply recountings of events. Also, maybe I'll finally get around to blogging the fourth day of that Wales trip, which I at this point barely remember. Stay tuned.

2 Starbars for 70p = Win

In my experience, when you tell people that you're going to a foreign country, one of the first things they will talk about is the food that that country is known for. England is know for not really having that good of food, but there are definitely major differences in the kinds of food they eat here and the way food is sold here as opposed to in America. This blog will be the depository for all my thoughts on food so far. Time for some bullet points!

• People will tell you that in England they call french fries "chips," but that's not strictly true. They don't (except at American fast food chains) have french fries widely available here. Their chips are what we would call "homestyle" french fries or even "potato wedges." They are thick chunks of potato and they aren't as heavily fried or seasoned as french fries are.
• While they'll also eat chips with ketchup, the English are just as likely to eat their chips with malt vinegar. Other popular choices would be mayonnaise or possibly even mushy peas or gravy. I haven't actually seen the latter two. I'm just taking wikipedia's word for it on that one.
• I have seen mushy peas with meat pies, which is very common. Sadly, I haven't had any mushy peas (yet).
• I have had a steak and kidney pie. Not a good one, but one nonetheless. I cooked up a storebought one that was sold in a tin in the section with the corned beef. It was, as I imagined it would be, too salty, but otherwise delicious.
• In general, the English mode of cooking tends towards heavy meals with plenty of starches, meat, and gravy. I approve.
• When you buy a sandwich with pickle on it, you're not getting a dill pickle. Instead, you're getting a sweet pickle relish.
• The cheese here is unbelievable. It's almost mind-blowing how good the cheese that even Tesco serves on their ready-made sandwiches is compared to any cheese that you would get back home.
• A word about grocery shopping. In the neighborhood, we have Tesco and Waitrose. Some people also swear by Sainsberry's, which is somewhat out of the way. Waitrose is rather a posh grocery store. Tesco is...not, but it is open good hours and has a pretty decent selection. To my mind, grocery prices are not ridiculous here, especially if you are looking for bargains. My dinners, while modest, are still filling and usually cost only 2-3 pounds at most.
• For lunch, I spend 2-3 pounds, also. Two pounds for a ready made Tesco sandwich and perhaps another pound to satisfy my sweet tooth or buy a drink if I'm so inclined.
• I often am inclined to satisfy my sweet tooth because the chocolate is very good here. Most (myself included) think it is far better than the chocolate back home. Cadbury's makes an amazing chocolate bar, the Starbar. It has a sort of peanut butterish substance and caramel on the inside with milk chocolate outside. They are delicious. They are 2 for 70p at Tesco. Can't beat that.
• I managed to snag some English rock for Craig. Well, technically it was Pembroke rock from Wales, but it's the same principle. English rock is the generic name for a type of hard candy that is something akin to candy canes only bigger and better. Generally, it's either call just "rock" or a local prefix is attached, which is to say that "Pembroke" and "Blackpool" and various other rocks are the same except for they put the name of the area into the rock with dye, which looks quite cool. At any rate, it was Craig's request and it shall be fulfilled.
• Actually, I have to go back to Covent Garden because I saw some BIG sticks of rock candy, much bigger than the Pembroke Rock that I already got him.
• As you may be aware, our potato chips would be called "crisps" over here. In general, the crisps here are inferior to ours back home. Also, they are sold differently. Instead of selling big bags, they sell big bags that contain a quantity of smaller bags, so you might buy a 8 bag pack of chips. The bags inside are individual servings like you would get out of a vending machine.
• They have some interesting flavors of crisps over here. One of their standard flavors is cheese & onion, which is tremendous. They also are quite fond of salt & vinegar. Sour cream & onion and BBQ, staples back home, are conspicously absent. What we would call "regular" are called "ready salted" here. I've also had steak & onion (not good), sweet chili (delicious), prawn cocktail (I like them, but some hate them because well, they taste of fish).
• The main brand of crisps is Walker's, which is the UK version of Lay's. It's the same logo and everything. It's just Walker's rather than Lay's on the bag.
• Soda is less popular here than back home and there are less varieties to choose from. You can still find Pepsi, but Coke rules here. It's much like the South, where Coke can be taken to mean soda (or pop, depending upon your chosen vernacular) in all it's various forms.
• Their ginger ale is quite a bit different from ours. Thus, you can find "ginger ale" and "American ginger ale". Tesco also sells "Jamaican ginger ale" which contains honest to goodness Jamaican ginger.
• They have many of the same cereals here that we do, but in general they have less sugared cereals. Also, many of the cereals have different UK names. Frosted Flakes are called simply Frosties here.
• They love their Indian food here and understandably so. Given the history of the British Empire, Indian culture has had a large impact on England generally and London more acutely and specifically.
• I do not, however, like Indian food. I cannot handle all the spice. That said, I am fond of a good Tesco Chicken Curry, which costs only one pound and is a nice quick dinner. It was the two Indian restaurants that I've been to so far that have put me off it, generally.
• I don't know if American grocery stores have a ready-made sandwich selection like Tesco does, but if they don't they need to. It's brilliant. You need a quick lunch, so you just pop into Tesco grab your favorite sandwich off the shelf and away you go.
• A word about fast food. I met Mark aka Sixteen Degrees, who is someone I know from the Ring of Honor Wrestling message board. He lives a couple hours from London but was in town, so we ended meeting at a pub. He put it best about English fast food. To paraphrase: England takes the two best things about fast food, the price and the speed, and eliminates them so that you just end up paying too much for poor quality food.
• I don't know this from my own experience, but it appears to be true. Fast food here is not cheap. In general, restauarants are much more expensive relative to grocery prices than they are in the States.
• Pizza Huts are oddly nice here. They actually look classy. Also, all the Pizza Huts here are being renamed Pasta Hut. I don't know if that's happening back home or not.
• McDonald's are nowhere near as prevalent here as back home. Instead, Pret a Manger is the dominant fast food vendor. Pret stocks ready-made sandwiches that are a grade up in quality from those that Tesco and other supermarkets sell. They're also a grade up in price, about 70p more for a sandwich. That's counter-acted by the fact they generally seem to be fresher, healthier, and made with better ingredients.
• Starbucks are pretty common here. Also common: Costa and Caffe Nero, which are probably even more prevalent than Starbucks. The popular coffee joint among the group actually is none of the above. It's Hummus Bros, which is place near where we take classes. They serve 50p cups of coffee (we're talking 6 oz. cups) at certain times a day.
• We do not have blackcurrant prodcuts back home. This is sad because blackcurrant jam is delicious. Don't ask me what exactly a blackcurrant is. It just makes good jam.

That's all I have for now.

Spacing

I can't get the spacing right for the life of me on that last post. Sorry.

19 Princelet Street and Last Weekend

As mentioned before, Thursday’s “Feelings” class was dominated by a discussion on a film I didn’t watch as well as an article that I didn’t read because I was working on my paper. That class was followed by an hour break before we reconvened at the IES Centre to travel to the Immigration Museum that we were scheduled to tour. A group of us headed over to a pub that serves fancy nachos during the break. I wasn’t much interested in the nachos because I had already had lunch. I was, after what had transpired that day, interested in a beer and enjoyed a relaxing break before the nightmare that was to come.

It all started with us taking the Northern Line from Holborn to Liverpool Street. Liverpool Street station is HUGE and magnificent. It was really impressive. Then we walked to 19 Princelet Street, which is just off Brick Lane and right on the boundary between downtown and the East End. 19 Princelet Street is an “immigration museum” supposedly, but in all actuality it’s something more akin to an art exhibition space devoted to the topic of immigration.


Our tour began with the guide asking us to look towards the central city and describe what we saw, which was odd enough. Then it was followed by her asking us why the doors were the shape they were. This actually happened. I still have no idea what in tarnation it has to do with immigration, but many things about this place defy logic. Then, we went inside. 19 Princelet Street began as a house but eventually evolved into a Jewish temple, which is apparent when one enters. The space of the room is filled with art projects done by 4^th grade students such as letters as the students imagine they might have been written by immigrant children, fake newspapers, and a video sketch of the kids’ interpretation of the Irish potato famine and subsequent immigration to England. Don’t get me wrong. It was cute. For about five minutes. But there is only so much interest that college students are going to have in children’s art projects and the museum staff seriously overestimated that amount.


Ah yes, the museum staff. They were overbearing in an almost creepy way and were careful at all points to make it known to you exactly what every project was and how the kids made it and so forth. Personally, I just wanted to be left alone to peruse the exhibits at my own leisure, but that clearly wasn’t happening. After looking at the first room, the head guide gave us a long, rambling speech that told us…nothing in particular. It was basically a list of what groups immigrated to England and when. I was exhausted, so I fell asleep briefly.


After that, we were led downstairs for another room where we saw a video of children performing a Yiddish folk tale. Personally, I was in a humorless mood and didn’t find it funny, but the rest of the group found the video to be full of unintentional comedy. To be honest, I have to admit that kids simulating an anti-Semitic mob, while it in principal may sound poignant, actually turns out to be ridiculous to the point of near hilarity. Let’s just say that the staff weren’t amused that we were amused. That led to two more rooms full of art before we finally got out of there. At one point, transitioning between rooms, Blake and I were stopped by the guide and she told us that children from Serbia were the first ones to review the museum rather than any journalists. Then she asked us if we knew where Serbia is. Seconds later, she asked us if we knew what Al-Jazeera was. Blake and I were just gobsmacked that she thought we wouldn’t know about Serbia and Al-Jazeera but then we shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything about that “museum” was insulting to our intelligence. The rest of Thursday passed uneventfully. I took a nap as soon as I got home and then got up for our Thursday ritual of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Beautiful People on BBC2. Hopefully, I’ll get around to writing about TV shows one of these days and can explain those shows.


Friday, I just took as a me day. I was feeling quite ill at this point, which was encouraged by not getting any sleep Wednesday night. I too the opportunity of a free day to sleep in and then run to Tesco for groceries and to the chemist (British for pharmacy) for a multivitamin to make sure my defenses were strong. Saturday was similarly lazy. I managed to get my laundry done, which was much needed and then late in the day decided to take a walk down King’s Road just for something to do. Dan joined me. Inadvertently, we ended up basically walking the route of the Piccadilly line. We went through Hyde Park Corner, alongside Buckingham Palace, along GreenPark and then down to Piccadilly Circus. Upon reaching Piccadilly Circus, Dan and I made it our mission to find an eating establishment. We found Ultimate Burger. Ultimate Burger, while it sounds like a fast food joint, is a sit-down restaurant that serves really fancy hamburgers. I had a minted lamb burger, which was delicious. It was a bit expensive, but it was some place that I had meant to try and was worth a Saturday splurge.


Sunday was also pretty quiet. I pretty much whiled away the day until 6PM and the Bills game rolled around. Sky Sports 3, in preparation for this Sunday’s Chargers-Saints game at Wembley, was showing Bills-Chargers. At least, they were trying to. The power outages at the game stopped that plan and frustrated the hell out of me. I dialed up Field Pass, but my internet was on the fritz, so that was a no go. I tried to go to the lounge with my computer, but Dan was already occupying the only working internet jack. Eventually, I just resigned myself to sitting in the lounge with Dan and he intermittently gave me updates on the games. Still, all things considered I was happy because the Bills won to go to 5-1. I’ll have what’s happened in the last few days in the next post.

Birthdays, Football, and Debates: Last Week Pt. 1

Last week was a pretty quiet week because we had the specter of our 10-15 page final papers for Professor Murrin's class hanging over our heads, but I did manage to get and do some fun things and those things shall be related here.

On Saturday the 11th, I was eating a steak and kidney pie from Tesco for dinner when Caelyn and Francesca asked if I wanted to go to a club with the gang. I said I did want to go, so I shoved my pie down my throat about as quick as I could and got changed. When I went into the kitchen that they were hanging out in, it became clear that they had already got a pretty good start to their night. I know that from the empty cans of Foster's and the fact that Josh's friend Daniel and Andy, who are both Asian, were displaying the familiar "Asian glow" and were strawberry red. For this reason, it was pretty jubilant atmosphere as we headed towards South Kensington station to get on the tube.

We got off at Holborn, which is the same stop that we get off at to go to class. Only this time we headed in the opposite direction of class and towards the area occupied by the London School of Economics (LSE). We eventually arrived at our destination, the After Skool Klub. It's basically a college hangout where all the LSE kids come to blow off steam and dance to indie rock on the weekends. We had to pay a 3 pound cover to get in, which as things go didn't seem too heinous.

The weird thing about the whole situation was that I just came out to get out of my room, get out of Chelsea, and have fun dancing. However, there were definitely some subplots playing out as the night progressed. One of them, I had foreseen becoming an issue before we arrived at the club. Standing next to Josh on the tube as he talked to his friend Daniel, it became clear to me that Josh was, not to put too fine a point on it, wasted. At the club, he started dancing erratically, which is not to say poorly but to say that several times he risked running into walls. Without the knowledge of about half of us, Gabe, Daniel, and Josh headed back to the dorm. This caused a bit of confusion because it took the rest of us a good 30 minutes to figure out where the hell they were. In the meantime, Hilary had been flirting with a guy from the LSE, who eventually scheduled a lunch date with her. In addition to that, some of the other people in the gang started to couple up and engage in awkward, U of C style, flirting. I just danced. Nonetheless, it was fun. Also, it was informative because I got to witness things firsthand that I would otherwise have never heard. We had some trouble getting home, but thankfully Francesca can read a night bus map unlike the rest of us.

Sunday, I just tried to work on my paper (mostly unsuccessfully) and listened to the Vikings game on Field Pass. That's not as random as it seems because my roommate Dan is from Minnesota and a thus a Vikings fan.

Monday the only thing that happened was Dan and I forgetting what time class was. Class is at 10 Tuesday through Thursday. However, on Monday it's at 1:30. This is not a fact that we remembered before we prepared to leave for a class that we thought was at 10. Dan left a little ahead of me and made it all the way to Holborn before he realized what the situation was. I realized it just as I had to cross the street to get to South Kensington station and I saw Michelle walking away from the station.

Tuesday was highlighted by Jodie's birthday. Jodie, being the lovely, wonderful person she is, decided that her birthday was the occasion to inaugurate a tradition of study breaks by baking cookies and supplying other store-bought treats. For her own birthday. Needless to say, her birthday celebration was well attended. It was a welcome distraction from our papers. They were due on either Wednesday or Thursday (which means Thursday, naturally). I (finally) finished my outline on Tuesday, but I faced the prospect of writing my whole 10-15 page paper the next night, which is what I did.

Wednesday was swallowed by my paper, but that's not to say that I didn't procrastinate an unhealthy amount too. My writing flow was interrupted by madly refreshing the live text updates for the England-Belarus World Cup qualifier. England had beat Kazakhstan, which is inexplicably a part of the European qualifying region, 5-1 on Saturday at Wembley and were looking for a perfect 4 and 0 start to qualifying Wednesday in Minsk. This is a big deal (and I'll explain this more later in a separate post on sport) because England failed to even qualify for last summer's European Championships, which was widely (and rightly) considered a national embarrassment. In the end, England managed to put away Belarus 3-1 thanks in large part to Wayne Rooney being in spectacular form. My paper, however, did not fare as well as England although I did knock out a page or two during the game. The kicker is that we had a movie that we were supposed to watch for "Feelings" that was shown at the same time as the game and that I skipped to work on my paper. I call Royce Mahawatte's "London: City of Nations" class "Feelings" because it wastes a ridiculous amount of time on Royce giving us an abstract concept and then telling us to write down how we feel about it. Sometimes, we then share our feelings in small groups. I kid you not. Of course, I paid dearly for skipping this movie, as half of the next day's class proved to be us discussing our feelings on the movie.

Also, I broke my writing to watch the final presidential debate, and I'm glad I did. It was fascinating and it was good to see them really go after each other and finally debate. I had two different reactions to it. The first was that I thought that, despite the odd weird moment or two, McCain won the debate. Of course, down nearly 8 points nationally, McCain had to win the debate or he could have basically quit right then and there. McCain was really sharp with his attacks and made his points very well. Obama often appeared unable or unwilling to hit back and I was disappointed with that. The other reaction I had was that I found Obama's performance reassuring. He easily parried away the questions about ACORN and Bill Ayers and seemed firm and resolute about his policy proposals. I was also glad that he stated a commitment to cutting spending. Fiscally, I'm more of a conservative than a liberal. I support balanced budgets, a (somewhat) smaller government, and free trade. John McCain could score major points with me if he could clearly explain how he expects to cut taxes and still balance the budget. Sadly, he is consistently unable to do so and usually lapses into a tangent about pork barrel spending, which is utterly besides the point. I want to hear concrete things. Cuts to cabinet departments, entitlement reform, cuts to defense spending. Something meaningful. Obama at can vaguely ramble on about cutting programs that don't work even though he never says which ones. All of this is to say that I felt like McCain won the debate but he didn't draw enough distinctions to really make a difference in a race that may be too far gone for him to salvage. I'll probably through up a politics post later if I can get around to it where I'll write more about this.

Throughout the debate, I was sucking on a Red Bull, which was to come in handy in the following hours as I got to the business of finishing my paper. That feat was accomplished at 9:30 on Thursday. Keep in mind that it's a 30 minute commute to class and that's if you are MOVING. I wasn't fully satisfied with my paper, but a didn't have the time I might have liked to have for the purpose of refining it. Instead, I saved it to my flash drive and hurried out the door at 9:35. I'll pick up with the rest of Thursday in the next post. The horror of 19 Princelet Street deserves a fresh post. And an arson (only half kidding).

Wales Day Three--Even The Church Has A Gift Shop

To start my Saturday, I got up early enough to head to the oceanfront for a relaxing moment of zen. It would have been significantly more zen if there hadn't been a blustery wind and spitting rain blowing in, but it was still pretty peaceful.

Then, we left the hostel in Broadhaven for the short jaunt over to Pembroke Castle. Pembroke Castle is the most castle-ish castle we visited, which is to say that it most greatly conforms to the preconceived notions I had of what castles are. We took the tour, which was delivered by a delightfully eccentric gentleman in a hat and sporting a magnificent beard. Combined with Professor Murrin, who is quite eccentric himself at times, they were a pretty spectacular team of Welsh historians. Most of the info went in one ear and out the other, but the visual feast was far more memorable. In the gift shop afterwards, I snagged some Pembroke rock for Craig and then a stocking cap for myself. I wanted a keepsake from Wales and I thought, "What's more practical for a U of C student than a good hat."

That dark one is patently a horrible picture, but hey we were in a cave. More importantly, it captures our tour guide's amazing enthusiasm.

Another bus ride took us out of Pembroke and towards St. David's Church, which has the distinction of being, well, really old and yet still very much an operational house of worship. That makes it a weird combination of tourist attraction, cathedral, and museum. And yes, it has a gift shop. Does your church have a gift shop? Was it recently visited by Prince Charles? Thought not.


After just a short stop at St. David's, it was a *surprise* bus ride that took us to Baskerville Hall, which is a hotel that was the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes' novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. We were split up into only two rooms. All the boys were in one room and all the girls in another. That sounded like nightmare potential, but somehow it actually worked out well enough. They had a fancy dinner prepared for us in the "music room." I wasn't much impressed but they were trying to be fancy at least. There was a vegetable soup followed by a chicken entree and then capped by a slice of chocolate cake that was so nauseatingly rich that I couldn't bear to even take one bite. The soup was fine but the chicken was far too dry, which not even the gravy could reclaim. The conversation was far worse than the food for me, though. I came to realize that I'm about the worst dinner party guest ever. Inevitably, it seems these kind of conversations seem to turn to movies or books and I'm more or less clueless as regards both. It may seem strange for an English major to be clueless about books but as far as modern books go it's true.

After that dinner we headed out for some dancing. Actually, we didn't really have to go out at all. The interesting thing about Baskerville Hall is that it also has a dance club attached to it and since it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing around to do, chavs from all around the area are bussed in to get drunk are dance there. Unfortunately, I was a feeling a bit down and couldn't properly enjoy the absurdity of drunken Welsh hicks dancing but what I did see was pretty funny indeed. Thankfully, our trusty Emily was around to talk some sense in to me and cheered me up a little bit before I took a long, hot shower and headed to bed. Here's a very poor picture of Baskerville Hall that I took from the bus to go out on.

Things That Have Happened Since Wales

I still have two days of Wales trip stuff to post, and I'll get around to those eventually, but they take a long time to post because it takes a while to upload photos. In the meantime, I thought I'd bang out a small post about what I've got up to since we got back from Wales.

Sunday night was party night in the dorm for sure. After the Bills were well and truly crushed, I went out in to the hall and saw not one but two kitchen parties. I went into one where Josh, Andy, and Francesca were playing their newly "invented" card game The Essence Of War, which is in actuality just a few (relatively major) rules tweaks to the basic game of War. Then we ended up playing cards and having a few drinks and a good time was had by all. The next morning class was interesting to say the least. At least two people (though not me, don't worry) showed up to class obviously hungover. Classy.

Monday we also had to buy our new monthly tube passes. We were hoping to get student passes, but our program doesn't run long enough for us to be eligible, so we just had to by regular monthly passes for 93 pounds (!). This caused quite a delay because when we did so we had to register our cards which caused many of us to be late for class.

Mostly, it has been a slow week. We had a paper prospectus due on Wednesday and our final paper for our first class is due this coming Wednesday, so there is a fair bit of freaking out going on. Monday afternoon a few of us did get out to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for a pint. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is a pub that was supposedly frequented by Dickens and Samuel Johnson way back when. They also have, by far, the cheapest beer, we've seen. I had my first pint, as 2.10 didn't seem as unreasonable as the 3.50 you'll pay elsewhere. And it was, to my uneducated tastebuds, pretty good beer anyhow.

Tuesday night, Emily ordered pizza for us on the expense account before we headed downtown to the Wyndham's Theatre to see Kenneth Branagh play the title role in Anton Chekhov's play, Ivanov. We were definitely in the nosebleed section, but we couldn't complain too much. At least we didn't have to stand for the whole performance like at the Globe. The play was decent. It starts REALLY slow. I fell asleep at the beginning, partly from boredom and partly from extreme tiredness. After intermission, however, things got very good indeed. Kenneth Branagh upped the intensity as Ivanov starts to quick into full nervous breakdown and it looked as if we were headed for a real cracker of an ending. Unfortunately, the climactic will they or won't they seen at Ivanov and Sasha's wedding draws on way too long and kind of kills the suspense. All in all, not a bad night at the theatre.

Wednesday after class, 6 of us went for fish and chips at Fryer's Delight, which is a rather small fish and chip shop in Holborn that is pretty well known as the place for authentic fish and chips. For 7 pounds, you get a fried fish and an ample portion of chips. Not bad, especially considering that most pubs will charge you a pound or two more for inferior food. It was a very filling lunch, indeed and quite tasty.

Basically, since then it's been pretty quiet. We did have a good time staying in Friday night. First we watched Nevermind the Buzzcocks, a pseudo game show which is basically just an excuse for host Simon Amstell to rip the show's (minor) celebrity guests to shreds. That was followed up by Beautiful People, a truly and utterly strange sitcom that seems to be about male models, I think. It was hilarious, at any rate. Then, we watched the Graham Norton Show before capping the night with a viewing of a so-bad-that-it-is-amazing Beowulf movie. Even though I feel somewhat lame staying in in such a vibrant city, I think it still counts as taking advantage of being in London when watching hilarious British TV shows.

That's the week that was. More or less. More Wales posts and pics to come.

Wales Day Two -- Mind Your Head

We woke up on Friday and had to say goodbye to Cardiff. Our first stop on the day was the Museum of Welsh Life located just a short 15 minute drive from central Cardiff. The museum is more of a park than a traditional museum. It's open air and basically consists of sprawling fields where old Welsh houses and buildings have been reconstructed. It also features a castle (sort of) and the much more impressive garden that accompanies the supposed castle. Much of the group didn't find this stop very interesting but I really liked it. It was nice to get out into the fresh air and I've been conditioned to like this sort of thing by visiting places like Cades Cove in Tennessee. Now for some pictures:

There are some places in this world that legitimately have more sheep than people. Wales is one of them. Hence, no Museum of Welsh Life can be complete without large amounts of sheep.
This is one of those old, reconstructed Welsh houses that I was talking about. They're pretty garden variety, but also just plain pretty.
Another, different old Welsh house.
What might you guess this building is? Did you guess cockfighting pit? If so, you are correct. It's more obvious what it is from the inside, but I had to preserve battery, so I didn't get that shot.
That is from left to right Roderick, Laura, and Katie looking at a meetinghouse. It was sort of a club hall, as in a Moose club or something of the sort. There's a theatre in the upstairs, pool tables and other things like that in the downstairs. It's an interesting building and if Santa can swing this, I'd like it for Christmas. It's probably to big to fit in his sleigh, though.

This is the obscenely beautiful, Italian-style castle garden.

After the Museum of Welsh Life we headed to a Tesco to grab lunch. This had to have been the biggest grocery store I've ever seen. It had an upper level for a cafe and the lower level was the size of a Sam's Club or Wal-Mart Supercenter and was ALL groceries. I also found at that prices in Wales are much cheaper than in London, which shouldn't come as a surprise but is frustrating nonetheless.

Then, we rode up to the northeast corner of Wales for our trip down a coal mine, which was just awkward from the get go. As we were getting "kitted-out" or what Americans might called dressed up with coal mining hats and rescue breathing kits in case of carbon monoxide issues, the guy putting on my helmet had to go to a third hat because the first was too small for my head. The third one was also too small and it basically strangled my forehead for the whole time. Then the next guy asks me where we're from. The following is the conversation as I recall it.

Miner: Where are you guys from?
Me: Chicago
Miner: Oh, so you know Frank.
Me: *puzzled look*
Miner: You know. Frank.
Me: Frank...
Miner: Didn't he sing that song about Chicago? Frank Sinatra?
Me: I guess...

I think he must have been referring to the song "Chicago, My Kind of Town" but I didn't have the heart to tell him that Frank's from Jersey. And dead. Next, we packed into the lift to take us down into the mine. I do mean packed. I think we all became closer friends on the way down. Once we got down there the tour itself was fine. It was all stuff that I had either heard before, didn't find interesting, or didn't really shock me. But it was fine. The part about the way they used horses in the mines was probably the most interesting. The bothersome part of the experience was that, well, I'm tall. The mines are not. I really don't mind ducking. It's one of the hazards of being tall. I get that. What annoyed me was that the guide looked at me EVERY SINGLE TIME we went to a place with a low clearance and said "Watch your head, young man." He didn't mean any harm by it and was almost apologetic about it at the end of it all, but at the time I really didn't appreciate be singled out time after time. Here's the view from the coal mining site.
After we got out of the mine, there was an aboveground museum that by that point I was too tired to care much about. After so many museums, you just get burned out on reading informational plaques.

Then, we got back on the bus and headed for Pembrokshire, specifically the town of Broadhaven. There was much to do at the hostel in Broadhaven. It's on the coast, which is nice, but it's nicer when it's not pouring down rain as it was when we arrived. The nearest town to it is a bit of a hike and is pretty sleepy. Supposedly, it had a nice pub, but I didn't bother to check it out. Dinner was a bust for me. We had heard about this great pasta buffet we were going to get. In reality, it didn't turn out that way. I got to dinner ten minutes ahead of time, which seemed to me to be ample, but actually everyone had got their long before me and my table of late comers was last to get to the "buffet". By the time I got there, all the lasagna had gone. All that was left was some vegetarian lasagna or spaghetti. I chose spaghetti and was given a HUGE portion, but I hardly ate any of it, as the sauce was very poor. In retrospect, I should have got it without sauce, but that's neither here nor there. Bottom line, don't expect very good food from Welsh hostels in the middle of nowhere. Actually, desert was fine but that was kind of tempered by having to bus our own tables.

After dinner, I stayed in while some went out to the pub. We flipped around the tube and eventually settled on a Welsh quiz show. And by Welsh quiz show I mean a quiz show conducted in Welsh. Not English. We had fun guessing at the answers when we couldn't read the questions. Jodie and Laura had a running competition going and were both doing poorly (naturally). Jodie then left the room briefly and missed a round of five questions which Laura by sheer dumb luck guessed correctly. Of course, I insisted that I saw no such thing as her getting all five right. This lead Laura to memorably explain that she had had a "warp-spasm" and proclaim "I am the Cuchulainn of Welsh game shows." This is only funny if you have read the The Tain, but trust me it was hilarious.

Then we played Catchphrase. Catchphrase, for the uninitiated is a game where one person gives clues an the other players have to guess the phrase by the given clues. Once the phrase is guessed, the clue giver passes it to another person. When the buzzer goes off, the player or team in possession of the machine loses. I, of course, immediately began a fairly constant stream of trash-talking and then started intentionally taking a long time with my clues to irritate the other players. To use wrestling terms, I was getting massive heel heat from the other players. When we were playing an individual round and when I finally bit the dust, (but only after destroying everyone to my right because of my stalling, both intentional and unintentional) a huge cheer of celebration went up. Good times. Being the enemy can be great fun.

Once Catchphrase got played out, there was NOTHING to do. Finally, I sat down with Emily, our TA who is affectionately known among us by her e-mail handle "eponder," Hipster Gabe (as opposed to Big Gabe), and Dan for a chat about academic things. Eventually, some Welsh youth services workers came in and we had a chat. We found out that people from Cardiff evidently find Dan's pronunciation of "gorgeous to be hilarious" and that Flares, the disco we went to the night before, is not a gay bar and just seems like it is. Eventually, we got into a rather in depth conversation with these ladies focusing on the criminal justice systems of the UK and US, especially as pertains to pedophiles. There's nothing quite like talking at length about pedophilia to drunken Welsh women at 2 AM. It was highly entertaining. At the end of our conversation, the leader of the group, Heather shook my hand and then leaned in. I was confused as to what she was leading in for. She ended up planting a kiss on my neck. I don't know if that's how they say goodbye in Cardiff (although I suspect it isn't) but it definitely caught me by surprise. And that was day two.

Katie's Photos

I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked to so far because of my only laziness and because I forgot to bring extra batteries to Wales. However, fear not! My friend and fellow Macleaner Katie took enough pictures for the both of us and they're on the web at http://picasaweb.google.com/JasaLondonPics/LondonAndWales#

Take a gander, there's some good shots in there and she got some things that I didn't get at all such as Tintern Abbey and Big Ben.

Wales Day One -- Put Your Hands Up For Cardiff

Dan and I woke up literally 15 minutes before our scheduled 8:30 departure and Ceri made a special point in his e-mail to emphasize punctuality, so we didn't dare take showers or anything. We just stuffed clothes into our bags and ran out the door so as not to be late. And we made it. Then the professors were late so we had to wait for them. That did not make me happy at all.

We rode to Cardiff, which is about 3 1/2 hours or so from London by bus. It's the capital of Wales (not that Wales has much autonomy at all) and it's 2nd biggest city after Swansea. It's home to 500,000 people and is cultural center of Wales. Feel free to fact check that, by the way. I'm just taking our program director Ceri's word for it. He should know. He's Welsh.

We stayed at a hostel right next to Millennium Stadium, which is the main landmark in Cardiff. A football (and by football I mean "soccer") and more especially rugby stadium, Millennium Stadium is home to the Cardiff Blues rugby team as well as the Wales National Rugby team which is the champion of this year's Six Nations Rugby competition which pits the Rugby Union teams of England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland, and Italy against each other.

We dropped our belongings at the hostel and then took the short walk to Cardiff Castle where Ceri bought our admission tickets. Then, we were released to enjoy Cardiff. A group of us decided that lunch was in order and we found and Indian buffet, which was disarmingly empty. However, the food was very good. Unfortunately, spicy food does not agree with me and the food was too hot for me to enjoy. Other than that, it was quite tasty, especially the chicken wings. This buffet was slightly odd in that instead of getting a clean plate each time we were told to reuse the same plate.

Then we headed for the National Museum Cardiff, which I enjoyed greatly. A couple days before, a group of us went to the National Gallery in London, which is an absolute treasure trove of art complete with paintings from all the great European masters. The only problem with it is how HUGE it is. It's hard to take it all in. This museum is of an accessible size but still boasts works by Manet, Monet, Picasso, and Renoir (who incidentally is my personal favorite).

It is also next door to what I think was City Hall and together those buildings and the surrounding grounds are absolutely beautiful. Here's the evidence, the last one is from a garden around the corner:

After the Museum we headed back for Cardiff Castle to take our tour. At the castle, we learned about the Goat Major, which is the soldier who trains the goat mascot of the Welsh Regiment. Yes, the Welsh Army has a goat for a mascot. The natural choices for a mascot for Wales would seem to me to be a red dragon or sheep. However, seeing as how the former is mythical and the latter is, um, a sheep, they go with a goat. Then, we saw a short video ostensibly introducing us to Cardiff Castle. I say ostensibly because it made no sense whatsoever and was extremely trippy. Basically, it featured a girl reading a book which causes random people on the streets of Cardiff to turn into figures from history. What this has to do with the Castle, no one could figure out. Then we toured the Castle. Unfortunately, I have no interior castle pictures because they aren't allowed. Basically, an obscenely rich family owned it as a summer home, which they used for 6 weeks a year. All the rooms are incredibly ornately decorated and each adheres to a theme. One room features great poets, another fables and fairy tales, another signs of the zodiac. It's about as beautiful as could possibly be. Then we went and explored the more military aspects of the castle on our own. Castle shots upcoming:After Cardiff Castle, we had the notion to go through the covered market, which is like a mall except not completely enclosed but just roofed in. Unfortunately, all the shops had already closed. We did, however, stop by Spillers Records, which bills itself as the world's oldest record store, established 1894. Apparently, this is actually true and it began as a phonograph shop. Then, they kicked us out because it was closing time and headed back to the hostel before dinner.

Dinner was at Giovanni's, an Italian restaurant. It was 17.95 for a three course meal and it was already paid for, which makes it all the more delicious. I had prosciutto with melon to start, followed by breaded veal and then tiramisu for dessert. The best thing about the meal was that wine was bought for both tables (of 12) and so there was plentiful wine, both red and white. It probably goes with saying that you don't have to twist college students' arms to drink free alcohol and by the end of the meal, we had all had at least two glasses of wine and some had 4 or more. That led to some, um, interesting, conversations to say the least. Of which, many were definitely R rated and not what would generally be considered appropriate dinner table topics by sober people.

After dinner, it was time to explore the nightlife of Cardiff on a Thursday. First, we hit a bar playing house music, but apparently some people within the group felt that the other patrons were a bit sketchy, so that was scuttled and we headed to Flares, an 70s and 80s themed club for drinking and dancing. We thought it might be a gay club based on the large amount of middle aged women paired off, but some folks from Cardiff later dispelled that notion. After Flares, we headed next door to cap off the night and then went back to the hostel. All said, it was legitimately one of the best days in my life and I plan on making it a point to get back to Cardiff, if not during this term than at some point in the next 5 or so years.

Non-London Note -- Music

This is one of the best songs I've heard in a long while. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjQOMaN9np0.

The video isn't the official one, but was done by a fourth grade class. It's just about the cutest thing ever and better than the official one.

A Few Things

• We're going to Wales until Sunday. Weather is expected to be pretty rough and we'll be on buses quite a bit, but it should be fun nonetheless. I'll actually start taking pictures which I haven't been good about so far.
• Meant to mention this before but I'll just do it know. We live in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which is basically one of the swankiest neighborhoods in all of London. And one of the most expensive. We have some famous neighbors as a result of this. Hugh Grant lives in the neighborhood (although I don't know where), Mick Jagger might (not 100% sure on that) and probably some other famous people do too.
• How do you know if you're in an expensive area? The Lamborghini dealership across from the tube station is a good indication.
• We ate today at this pub which is built where the real life Sweeney Todd's shop was. Not suprisingly, the signature dish is a meat pie. I opted not to spend 10 pounds on lunch however and had a sandwich instead. Easily the best food I've had since we arrive.