The Power of Thought (and Action)

You'll probably be entirely lost by this post unless you are familiar with the Series 3 finale of Dr. Who. Here's a refresher, if necessary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdeF8eg8bIU (sorry 56k people). Basically, Martha heals the Doctor and eventually defeats the Master by traveling around the world and rallying humanity with the power of thought. She gets an assist from the Archangel network, which harnesses the telepathic power of thought, but the implication is clear and uplifting. Millions of people thinking one thought at one time can change the world.

Tomorrow we, as Americans, can change the world. Tomorrow, to use a great Obama line, we confront the fierce urgency of now. We are the ones we've been waiting for and tomorrow we can bring the change that we've waited for. Tomorrow, we decide whether we are content to stick with the same old policies and politics or whether we want to take a chance and dare to be great. We decide whether we want to make a choice that is bold, decisive, aggressive.

Make no mistake about it. Tomorrow, the fate of the world lies in the hands of American voters. This is a pivotal moment in history and the selection that voters make will change history forever.

That's why tomorrow all of us who are committed to change, committed to changing the status quo, committed to changing the White House culture of the last 8 years, committed to taking our destiny into our own hands, and most of all committed to Obama need to come together. Yes, he is not the messiah. Yes, he is just a man. Yet, he is also more. He is a movement. He is a movement that we all own a part of. He is a movement of hope and empowerment. He is the movement that tells us "yes we can" and shows us how. He is us. And tomorrow he needs.

He needs us, the millions and millions of Obama supporters of all colors, creeds, origins and faiths to come together and think one thing at one time: OBAMA. He needs the black man, the atheist, the plumber, the Muslim, the Jew, the college student, the immigrant, the grandfather, the college student, and anyone else who is interested in the belief that the power of thought and dedicated action can change the world. He needs us to all get out and vote and encourage all our fellow supporters to vote.

Remember: only we can change the world. Tomorrow, for one day, let's all think one thought for the day: OBAMA. Then go out and vote and be the change we wish to see in the world.

Song of The Day -- Everyone's At It by Lily Allen

I've had it in my mind to do "regular features" to give my blog some structure before and it never quite worked out that way. That's more or less because I'm too lazy/forgetful to do anything with regularity. Anyhow, we'll give this a spin and see if it sticks.

Basically, I've always got a song in my head, so instead of keeping it there I'll just throw it up on the blog with a short write-up and if possibly a link.

Today's song: Everyone's At It by Lily Allen

Everyone's At It is either the first single of off Lily's forthcoming sophomore It's Not Me, It's You or the first track on the album. I had been under the impression and Lily had herself posted on her blog that it would be the first single. However, the NME is reporting that it's the first track off the album and that the first single will be "The Fear" aka "I Don't Know," which is another track that she has already posted to Myspace. Given my generally low opinion of the NME, I'm going to assume it's the lead single until I hear more definitively otherwise.

On to the song itself. It builds from silence into drums and sirens before Lily comes in spitting her typically acerbic couplets. The subject this time? Britain's drugs problem. Of course, Lily, noted boozer, is hardly the one to be calling for temperance and sensibility, which she is quick to point out. "I'm not trying to say I'm smelling of roses/but when will tire of sticking s*** up our noses?" It's essentially a call for sensibility and *gasp* accountability. "Why can't we all/all just be honest/admit to ourselves/that everyone's on it?" she fairly pleads. The lyrics are pure Lily: straightforward, no punches pulled, bluntly poetic. It's like a PSA, only highly melodic, and with sirens.

My opinion is that it's easily in the class of Lily's best songs like LDN and Everything's Just Wonderful. If this is what the future of Lily's music holds, the future is bright indeed.

Listen to it on Lily's myspace: myspace.com/lilymusic

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).