David in London

Day 80-86: Superpost!

2007-12-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a week it’s been folks. Lets see, when I left off last I was telling you about Thursday and Friday of last week, right?

Right then. Since the previous week I had made 30 pounds from the sale of my tickets, I was able to go with Aimin on a trip to see Salisbury cathedral. We took the train up north for about a two hour ride to get to this quaint country town. First we went to go visit a few of Aimin’s family friends at a near by college (which basically meant that we said hello for a half an hour before asking to use their toilets). With that done, we went to visit the cathedral proper. It was quite nice, but personally I think Notre Dame was just a bit nicer. I definitely suggest giving it a visit. We got a tour guide of our own to walk us through the place as we learned the history of it and the meaning of some of their artifacts. The most interesting thing they had there was the original Magna Carta. I wish I had been able to get a picture of it. Something that old and important is quite cool to me.

After that, Aimin went to go visit another friend of hers so I went on my way to the weekend marketplace. The market was quite the sight. Lots of booths selling cheep fruit, meat, and various other wares. One was even selling underwear! I decided to take out my notebook and do my writing assignment for awhile as I waited for Aimin to meet me there. After about 20 minutes of writing, I was feeling a bit puckish so I went back to a restaurant I saw earlier and picked up a traditional Cornish Pasty for 1 pound 13 pence. Now I warn you, in most likelihood you will not be able to get that price for a good pasty. How did I do it? I came in when they were about to close up, and they didn’t have proper change for a 5 pound note so they asked me if I had anything smaller. That was all the small change I had so they said that was good enough. Woo cheep pasty! And good too!

Back in the market place I experienced the goodness of a fresh made donut before meeting up with Aimin once again. I also happened upon a meat cart that was selling Black Pudding. As it is a traditional food I felt inclined to a ring to try it out for myself. Now I’ll have you know that this is particularly brave of me seeing as how I knew what the stuff was made of before hand. Black Pudding is nothing more than coagulated pigs blood among a few other choice ingredients. It seriously did not sound appetizing, but I felt that I should give it a try anyway. Aimin had gotten a great deal on bread and grapes so we snacked on them on the train ride home.

Sunday I went to church before buggering off to the marketplace. I heard of a great one to go to that you can get most anything for incredibly cheap that only meets on Sunday from a professor of mine. It’s filled with cheap and fresh wares galore. Or it would have been if I didn’t accident;y hear it as “borough market” rather than the actual “brick lane market.” Borough market is the upscale version of this place, and the prices rise accordingly. Plus it’s not open on Sunday. I was quite hungry so I went to visit the Angel all-you-can-eat vegan Indian buffet again for the first time in months. Even without meat they still make their food incredibly tasty! And it’s cheep too. Angel also has a market on Sundays (though it’s not nearly as good as brick lane) and so I was able to pick up some chicken and a few hot peppers to make a good meal for another day.

With that done, I went home to finish up a paper of mine.

Monday I went to class and handed in my paper. I really hope it was good enough. Since I missed the class that I assume she explained exactly what she wanted from our papers, my partner filled me in but even though I did it the way she described I felt it was a bit inadequate.

Next was UK Today where I was once again updated on the weekly trials and tribulations of the UK by my awesome professor Julian. I tend to keep up with the major news so I’ve done well in this class.

Afterwards we usually have a movie to watch for class but it was canceled, so I went home. Armed with my chicken, spicy peppers, tomato paste and vinegar, I perfectly emulated my mother’s recipe for Haitian chicken! Man was it tasty. I’m glad I ate the meal before the events of my David In London comic (as you will see below).

Tuesday was creative writing, a class that I enjoy greatly. We do writing in class and I usually get good ideas for stories from these. I then went home and cooked some black sausage for dinner. I must say that while I enjoyed the taste, the texture of it was quite unnerving. It is a very unique experience. Afterwards I finished half of a paper that was due the next day and went to sleep early so I could continue it in the morning with more clarity.

Wednesday morning saw the completion of my paper early, so I ventured to Russel Square to get a free lunch courtesy of the curryman. He gives away vegan curry at a school every weekday, though donations are welcomed. I always give him a bit for his troubles as he has saved me quite a few pounds since I discovered him. Went to Shakespeare class before heading off to the Senate Library back in Russel Square to get books I needed for my next paper. The problem with the library is that it is literally a labyrinth with stairs that go to odd levels and no way to go strait from point A to point B. It makes getting books from there a hassle.

Thursday was an easy day of interning at my work. I really wish they would have given me a bad to control of my own, but our boss is way to busy/lazy to get that off the ground. However, through helping the main guys I have definitely learned all that I would ever need to about doing so. Plus I don’t have to worry about any of the pressure! It was a relatively easy day since most bands are on holiday now, so I went downstairs and talked to the Camden Crawl team on the first floor. It used to be the guy from downstairs would come up to us, but now the roles have reversed! They’re quite the cool team so I always enjoy their company when I can afford it. I went back home that night and shunned myself in an empty common room to concentrate for the rest of the night. I went over 4 whole books with a fine toothed comb for information for my upcoming paper.

Friday it was back to the office for another easy day of helping out and then off once again to study. I got all of my research complete and got an outline done, so writing the paper on Sunday will be a piece of cake! I got all of this done at about 11:00 so I went downstairs to see what the Skids were up to. I found a bunch of them hanging out in their kitchens so I got invited in to join the fun. Talked for most of the night, spreading my senior wisdom for their listening pleasures. We played a few games and then called it a night.

I would have posted more (and in fact, I had made this comic on Monday intending to post) but with all of the papers I had to write I just did not have the time. Weekend update coming Monday, ok?

Day 79: Prelude to the Calm

2007-11-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

All in all, today was fun but not all that interesting. Though it started off on the wrong foot, it soon became quite the good day for me.

What happened is, since I use my phone for my alarm after my regular alarm clock got fried, my phone has not been quite as consistent at waking me up as I would like. I have it set so that I wake up, hit snooze, rest for 10 more minutes and then really get up, but for the past couple of days it has been quieter than usual for the second alarm. This time, I didn't even hear it at all. So I rested and thought for more time than I should have. I was late for work by a half an hour as a result.

However, this is where my day gets better. Even though I was late, my coworkers and boss had spent that time idly chatting, so I missed nothing. After that revelation, we went downstairs to a bubbly breakfast of croissants and champagne for even more idle chit-chat. Next, I pretended to be a band called One Night Only for the morning and sent out letters to fans. However, I had gotten that done faster than expected and so ended up doing random things for the rest of the day. Even better, we all had really nothing to do so we sat around the office chilling for the last hour and a half. Awesomesauce!

Oh, but it gets better. I even got to go to a gig again tonight to see the band I was pretending to be! They were quite good, by the way. I enjoyed them, but I left early to get some dinner and to go talk over travel plans for tomorrow with Aimin. After which, I once again went downstairs to chat with the Skids and had many a good conversation!

Good times were had by all, but still nothing particularly descriptive or interesting. Thus, I present a "David in London" Comic to appease you!

By the way, this is a joke. Most of this actually never actually happened (except for the bagging error, that annoyed me and inspired me to do this comic!)

Day 78: Where's Mah Turkey?!?!

2007-11-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!!!!

Those of you lucky enough to be in the states, you know what I'm talking about. Dinner with the Family, good food, all sorts of tasty treats, and a one way ticket to napville courtesy of our old friend tryptophan. Regardless, I have tried to make my Thanksgiving a happy one.

So I go in to work (because it's not a holiday here) and basically don't really do much during the day, which is fine. I got a bigger than usual lunch around 1:30 that consisted of two chicken legs and two chicken thighs, some potatoes, and a baguette for about 3 pounds from Sainsbury's. It was a bit much and gave me the usual stuffed feeling, but it wasn't quite as satisfying. Or as tasty. It was slightly comforting, so that was a plus.

Afterwards, I went to the Fairway to Midland show and did my usual thing. Serj Tankian (The lead singer from system of a down gone solo) was the headliner. I had no friend to go with me because they were all at the Thanksgiving dinner, so I scalped that ticked for some cash. Then two people didn't show up to help so I scalped their tickets for cash as well. I HAVE MONIES!!!! Of course the show was loud and awesome, but I had to do work before hand sine the two other people didn't show up. The one guy who did come was a cool dude. Nice guy. His friend didn't show up either so he scalped his ticket as well.

Using my newfound wealth, I bought myself a thanksgiving treat: a Pita! It was quite tasty, and not all that expensive. But it soothed the soul and that's what counted.

So I got back home and met up with a few of the Skids (Skidmore Kids as I call them) and they were having a Thansgiving party in one of their kitchens, so I joined them! Fun times. We chillaxed and chatted and had deserts like none other. Anyway, no pics because there were threats of having cameras confiscated at the event.

Day 77: But I Am Le Tired...

2007-11-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

I am a bit tired lately. Sleep has become something that escapes me and then taunts me. Some nights I get about 6 hours and wake up tired. Fair enough. Other nights, I get about 10 hours of sleep... and wake up tired. What's that all about?!?!

Anyway, spent the past few nights hanging out with the Skidmore kids watching movies and playing games, so fun times. Other than that, I had no class on Tuesday, which was nice, but I also had to write up a project. I had the day of because for class we were supposed to go off and have an adventure somewhere we've never been, but it was rainy and the project took awhile. Got it done, but I didn't get to go adventuring.

Today we went for a tour of the Globe Theatre for Shakespeare class. Quite nice, but otherwise a bit dull. I was almost late for it thanks to bad directions from a local Bobby, but after a good run I made it JUST in time. Yay!

As I'm sure you all know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This is not a holiday here, and there is no celebration. I am saddened. And Hungry. And I have to go to work. Not fair. But, I still wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! You all enjoy that turkey (And send me some here, ehh?).

Day 72-73: Why do I even bother numbering these anymore?

2007-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

...Because I'm a bit obsessive compulsive? We could go with that. Anyway, here's the score.

Friday I went to my internship as usual. Apparently my admin login for the site is not working properly or something, because even though I needed to do a bunch of stuff on the website it was giving me error messages two hours into the work day. Sadness. Though I am proficient with computers I am nowhere near that level of proficiency. I can't even use photoshop! (though I'm sure if I had the program I would learn to use it... Probably should get on that) Anyway, spent the day helping out with packing of fliers and was told that I could go to a concert next Thursday, which is nice. Yes, next Thursday is Thanksgiving. No, the Brits don't celebrate it and I won't be having any turkey. Sadness.

So I came home looking for fun and found it in hanging out on the second floor with the Skidmore kids. Good times were had by all. We went out to Leicester Square for a bit and hopped around, but I had to bail because I was supposed to be meeting a partner the next day to work on our project.

Now Saturday was quite interesting. I was supposed to meet my partner around 12:00 to work on a project, but she texted me before I woke up saying she wouldn't make it. Wish she had told me yesterday, I would have been able to sleep in. Well, I mostly wasted the day by hanging out on the internet and somehow messing up my chicken marsala recipe, but I was resolved to go out and do some karaoke tonight. I tried to get people to go, but for some reason most of my friends were in Spain. I wandered the halls finding people, but alas no one I found (which was only a tiny, paltry amount of people) were willing to go. Thus, I went by myself. I had contemplated hanging out with people I met there, but for some reason the bar was meant for groups, not singletons.

I was very disappointed in the lack of quality of this karaoke bar. the songs were played over cruddy speakers, the music and the mic volume were at max, thus there was no subtlety to the song and it came off sounding harsh, and what was worse was they used these cheezy remakes of the songs done through a single synth machine from the 1980's. rounding out the craptasticness of the place were the cheezy screensaver backgrounds of elk, trees, and fish that played while you sang. MAYBE if the place used original-sounding tracks they could have been forgiven, but it was by far the worst karaoke place I have ever been to. Why couldn't I have liked karaoke back when Aunty Tina used to do it all the time o_O. Ahh well, tastes change. Anyway, it is time for bed...

But first: New David In London Comic!!!!

Day 71: Corn is No Place for a Mighty Warrior!

2007-11-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

So then... It's been a long week, has it not? Noticed the lack of postage this week? As have I. That is mostly because there is really not much to talk about on my end for the everyday affairs of my life. This isn't really my journal... or is it?

"Dear journal...

Umm... never really used one of these things before. This week Class wasn't too bad, but I wish I could skip out one day. Still haven't actually taken a day off. Anyway, the people are nice, though I can hardly say I would be hanging out with too many of them when I get back home, sadly. more like a loose coalition are we. There have been a few good ones who I think I will stay in touch with, though. At any rate, my roommate has been off gallivanting across all of London with his mother, which has left me plenty of free time in the room to do as I pleased, yet I really have nothing to do that doesn't cost all that much money. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I got a group of people to watch Reservoir Dogs, but mostly we watched my friend Anjali squirm as people got shot/knifed/kicked etc. She is apparently very squeamish. She even slid off of the couch during one scene. Quite funny! Other than that, I have met a few people who live in the UK, however they all reside on the internet, thus I don't really know them in a sense. Would be nice to meet a few peeps here in the city proper, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen any time soon. Not unless I somehow find a haven for my kind to go hanging about and meeting people. Funny, I can go to Greenville SC for a day and make friends at a mall but can't seem to do that here. Ahh well. Tis life."

And well, yeah. Journal entry complete I guess. So long suckers, err, readers!

PS. Special Thanks to Rachel for the title of this blog!

Day 65-67: Weekend Update (Can't believe I haven't used that title yet...)

2007-11-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Well my friends, I have been lax in updating once again. I am put to shame by my lack of effort. To be fair, I have been trying to focus on doing homework for the weekend (Translation: Something I meant to do Saturday got postponed due to my lack of will to do it).

Anyway, Friday was an interesting day at work. Although two of our long-standing higher-ups have decided to leave us (Which is sad, because I liked them) we now have a full office of total noobs. Four new girls joined the roster this week. I got moved to the basement to become an autonomous unit for a change and got a good deal of work done while listening to CDs that I scrounged from the uberpile.

Saturday was an exercise in frustration as I tried to write the bloody paper but lost focus after about 10 minutes in and barely got anything done. I ended up just going upstairs and hanging out with Aimin for the night.

Thus we come to Sunday. It took some willpower, but I FINALLY got some clarity and finished the paper. I think I have contracted ADD here sometimes. It has become quite hard to focus, and distractions I give myself aren't nearly half as rewarding as they were at home. Then again, at home I can go and play a good song on Guitar Hero and come back feeling like I've accomplished something, whereas here I only have the ability to wander around the internet. I kind of want to take up the guitar now. I wish I had one to fill up my free time here. Talking with all those musicians Thursday really stoked my fire for it. Perhaps one of my friends at home will lone me a guitar for Christmas break, perhaps even teach me?

Anyway folks, sorry for the lack of updates. I will catch you on the up and up and and a few special things every once in awhile.

Thus: I present you all with... A new David In London Comic!!!!!!!

Day 64: WHAT? It's David, the VIP!!!!

2007-11-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well then folks... I suppose I owe you all a bit of explaining. I haven't really felt like updating because quite frankly, nothing seemed worth talking about. That said, have I got news for your guys. I should be updating a bit more regularly, as I have currently been snapped out of my funk. Tonight, my friends, I was a VIP.

Yes, I was rubbing elbows with some of the big names of the music industry. Today, I was backstage with the Sex Pistols.

Wait, what? How did David pull this off? Well, I got lucky. The boss was like "WE NEEDZ PEOPLE WE CAN TRUST TO DO THIS" so she gave us each a day to go to the Sex Pistols show for each day of the week. I got today. In doing so, she unwittingly got myself and my friend Steph hooked up with VIP bracelets to go back stage and into the VIP room, where we rubbed elbows with the likes of The Cribs and the Sex Pistols. Awesome. Absolutely AWESOME!!!! I was chatting it up with so many people, just talking to them like they were mates at a pub! I even met these two cool dudes Jarred and Michel who gave us a ride to a good bus station to get home! So many cool peeps! I got to play the new Guitar Hero III as well... BEFORE IT WAS OUT!!!! (I think, don't quote me on this). What was even more fun is I got to play it with a drunk guitarist from another band! Anyway, pictures are spooged here, so enjoy!

Myself in a candid picture with the bassist of the Sex Pistols!!!

Our first attempt at a group pic

A somewhat better one, but not by much

I don't even know

Bad pick of the stage (moving = not fun)

Better pick of Ol' Johnny Rotten

Another action photo T__T

Me and a few new friends!

PS: I have a beard because it's no shave November.

European Side Quest pictures!

2007-10-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Alright folks! At long last I have added my photos!!!

First, here is Brandon and I in front of the swanky and tasty "Relais de l'Entrecote"

A few pieces of art on the Champs...

...As we made our way to the Louvre

And imidiately found that we had not money to get into the museum proper, so I took a few pictures of the atrium (Though for some reason my nice outside shots went missing).

St. Michel's Square

Charlemagne in front of Notre Dame

Bet you can't guess where these were taken...

And of course, what trip to Paris is complete without 20 bajillion pics of that tower?

This is the Trocadero and I'm still not quite sure why it's famous, but it is.

The Arc de Triamph and the tomb of the unknown solder

Notre Dame at night

The founders of the city of Geneva, which somehow included John Calvin

Thomas on top of a cannon

Fire!!!

The famous clock that I decided not to take a picture in front of, so boo yah!

An artistic shot of an ordinary fountain

The nice people who humored us at le Chat Noir with whom we spent a few hours in good conversation with.

Our Rugged mountain top adventure

The chess game to end all chess games...

shopping at H&M (and I kind of would like this coat... hint hint)

Anyway, apparently that's all the photos I have. Thought there were more, but oh well.

Day 49-53: Holiday Greetings!

2007-10-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's not a "holiday" today, English people call their vacations "holidays" for some reason. Anyway, Paris was AMAZING! When we got in for our first night, my friend Brandon and I got it started with a bang by wandering around town trying to find a particular restaurant. It is a specialty place that only does one meal: Red wine, a salad, bread, and Steak with fries, but MAN does it do it well! Best. Meal. EVER. After that, we got a crepe with nutella from a stand on the main street as we went off to find a really cool Sangria bar to meet a few new people. The bar was in this really old building and looked like it hadn't been re-done since 1945, but the atmosphere of the place was amazing! The people were really nice even though I only speak the bare minimum of French to get by.

Thursday, we spent the entire day exploring Paris proper. First, we started off with a baguette and an orange for breakfast (which is quite normal there) and went for a walk down the Champs Elisee. We had meant to go to the Arc de Triumph, but ended up at the Louvre instead. Unfortunately, the Louvre is REALLY expensive, and being but poor students we walked Notre Dame. That place is absolutely breathtaking. We sat there for a bit just soaking in the atmosphere of the cathedral before exploring all the exhibits it had to offer. Once done, we went to the Eiffel Tower next. It is quite impressive, plus we got a few good pictures. We finally ended up getting to the Arc and getting a few more pictures before deciding we needed a quick rest. We went to a cafe off of Champs Elisse (which we once again found ourselves on) and had a nice chat with a French lady who happened to speak English. We wandered some more before finding out that Notre Dame was going to have some sort of a show around 9:00 pm. Upon returning, we found that it was going to be a historical explanation rather than the choir singing as we had originally thought, so we were a bit disappointed at first but the movie was still quite interesting. We were going to go back to the Sangria bar, but we had to wake up at 5:00 for our flight to Geneva today so we thought it would be best to go back to our really shady hostel and get to sleep.

Being in Geneva was much more relaxing. Our first day was spent in the good company of my Auntie Bridgette, my Uncle Pierre, and my cousins Matteo, Thomas, and Noah. The first thing I noticed upon arrival was that the currency in Switzerland isn't the Euro, it's the Swiss Franc. This was good. This was very good. The Swiss Franc is currently worth a bit less than the US Dollar! FINALLY! Somewhere I can actually get my money's worth! Not that I had to spend much of it. Auntie Beeb and Co. fed us three square meals a day and roomed us for two days. (Special thanks to you all once again! I hope you've enjoyed the wine!). So, for the first day we toured Geneva properly and were shown most of the sites. Unfortunately, it was a gloomy and overcast day so we couldn't see the beautiful mountains in the distance. We took a few pictures and did a bit of shopping before returning home for dinner. Dinner was simple, but quite tasty. I picked up a few tricks and ideas for meals of my own. Afterwards, we hung out for a bit while the kiddos went to bed and Brandon made a few preparations for the next day when his family would be coming into London, but after that was all done we went of to a local watering hole known as Au Chat Noir, The Black Cat bar. It was a hip scene with a good young crowd, plus live music. The only downside was that the beer was expensive. Looking around, we saw a table of student-aged looking people (mostly girls) and decided that we should go talk to them. We pondered this for a moment, but finally I jest said "Lets go" and took the lead by introducing ourselves in French. May I just say that this was in fact the best decision ever? We spent a good two hours just talking with a bunch of really cool Genevites before going home and sleeping.

We slept quite a lot longer than we had originally thought. Apparently in Geneva they have metal shutters that do a most excellent job of keeping out the sun. Unfortunately, that also throws of my internal clock. We had a good breakfast of eggs and toast, and then we were driven into France to take a tramline up a good hight of a mountain! We stayed there for about an hour and a half, but I really wish we had taken more time. The climb was nice, plus the sun FINALLY came out. It was actually warm up there. While we relaxed and looked at the alps, we met two girls who were almost our exact doplegangers. One was an actor who talked to Brandon (also a theater major) and the other was a writer with a similar personality and disposition to me who I had started talking to, offering to take a photo of her and her friend for them. Weird, no? anyway, after the mountain, Brandon and I went off to explore Geneva on our own. We at first went to a museum, being told that they were free, but instead found that they were not. across the street however was a nice park that had huge chess sets for playing painted onto the ground. There were plenty of old men and young challenges alike. At first, I was paired with an older fellow who was way out of my league. He came up to me in French and gestured for me to play him, which I did even without asking him if he spoke English! The first game, after about a half an hour of positioning and jockeying, he took my king in one move without first capturing any pieces. The second game, I tried playing more aggressively and he got me again. he was quite good. I shook his hand and thanked him for the game in French. After him, I played a Russian girl who was a bit more in my league, so I had a good game and ended up winning with a cunning plan... So then, we went shopping and I got a few new clothes from H&M for really cheep. I really like that store now, I really like their style. Once done, got home again, ate dinner, then went out to a few pubs. The pubs weren't nearly as fun as the previous night. Didn't really see any groups that looked to inviting this time. Oh well. We still had a good time of it.

So thus, on Sunday we flew home. In the airport, I got two bottles of cheep booze for 20 bucks (it was a steal, each of them were worth 15 a piece!) at the duty free store. Plane ride home to Gatwick was a bit nicer than the others, since we were on British Airways and they actually feed you and have comfy chairs. Took the train from Gatewick to Victoria station in London, got on the Piccadilly line and got off at South Kensington station without a hitch. I went to Snappy Snaps (The place where I take my photos off my SD card and put them on a disk so I can show you all what I've been doing >_<), got my photos, and as I went out I slipped on the steps and fell on my bum. Nothing major. The only problem is, in doing so I bumped the bag holding my booze on the cement and broke one of my bottles T_T. That doused my new clothes and the chocolate (which should be fine since they were wrapped with tin foil already on the inside of the cardboard wrapping). After cleaning off my clothes and possibly ruining one of my new shirts, I went to Mr. Wu's Chinese buffet. Quite possibly the best Chinese you can get for under 5 pounds. Once done, I did a bit of catching up reading and called it a night.

Day 47-48: THIS. IS. MIDTERMS!!!!

2007-10-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

I totally rocked my midterms socks off. I'm pretty sure I nailed both of them on Monday. I went home and made some Chili in celebration.

Today was a different beast. I had nothing to do but write a few stories, so I got those typed up and then went out with a few friends. We decided to head to th Trocadaro, that really hip mall I was talking about with the arcade games and bowling. At first, it was quite fun. Then, we were told we would have to wait an hour to bowl, so we ended up not bowling. Then, a few of my friends ordered food, which took forever to get to us. The icing on the cake was that after we got the food, we moved over really quick to a different table a few seats away, but my friend forgot to take her coat and purse along with her food and so two minutes later when we went back for it, it was gone. We searched for a bit to see if we could catch the guy, but he was gone without a trace. Not a fun ending to the night.

However: good news! tomorrow I fly out on my vacation! WOOOOOOO!!!! Prepare to hear about my awesome adventures either when I get back or even perhaps while I am out and about. Who knows?

Day 43-46: So much to do, not enough time

2007-10-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

As you may have heard, it's Midterm week here at school, and thus I have been awfully busy. Thursday and Friday at work were uneventful, although I had to turn down some primo tickets for a gig on Sunday so I could study for my midterms >_<

Saturday was mostly spent studying as well, though around dinnertime a few friends and I went to a packed pub in Leicester square to watch The World Cup of Rugby final match between England (woooooo!!!) and South Africa. Unfortunately, we lost horribly, but we still met a few fun people! I have however noticed this correlation: When watching a game at the pub, my enjoyment of said game is generally based on if England is winning (since the English love to cheer. A winning England game is quite possibly the loudest cheering and chanting you will ever hear in your life. It's amazing!).

Thus, we come to Sunday. I had promised Aimin I would go with her and a few others to this Anime expo, and I was not disappointed. There were lots of video games to be played and swag to be scored. They even had a live "Robot Wars" fight set up. I even got a few good pictures! Of course, I came back around dinnertime and whipped something up before getting back to work on my Midterm studies. Suddenly, I got a phone call! It's my Dad's birthday, by the way, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! I got to talk to basically all of my family, since they were at the house to celebrate.

Day 42: More Corn!!!

2007-10-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

As you may have already guessed, most of my titles have absolutely nothing to do with what actually went on that day. Insidious, no?

Anyway, today I had my Shakespeare class. I unfortunately forgot that I had to read "As you like it" for it, but I managed to pull through. Professor Chapman was witty and entertaining as always. Afterwards, I watched the rest of "The Exorcist" for class, read a few newspapers for another class, and then buggered off to Thai Smile for dinner. Man was that green curry gooooooooooooooood! I can only hope I would be able to make something half as tasty! So then, I came home and did my laundry. Afterwards, I noticed my Russian neighbors in the kitchen and joined them for a midnight snack! Thus, I am now tired and lacking anything more to say for the night. Bon nuit!

Day 40-41: Midterms are coming...

2007-10-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

Monday wasn't a very interesting day. I went to class as usual, and went to get lunch from the Curry man. Basically the curry man is a Hare Krishna who goes to a nearby campus and gives away free vegetarian curry (Though he accepts donations. I usually give him about 20 pence) in order to promote vegetarianism and a healthier lifestyle. Lord only knows why they do it, but they do. The line for this guy lasts forever if you don't get their early though. Anyway, after that I went to my second class and once again almost nearly fell asleep. I try not to, I really do. It's just so hard not to! After class, we had a movie to watch for another class. That wasn't too bad since it was a really short one. I then went to Sainsbury's to pick up the ingredients I would need for Coq au Vin, but they didn't have the spice packet I needed so I got ingredients for spaghetti instead. Afterwards, I tried to get a poker game together, but everyone was busy working on a project for their midterms. Thus, I was quite bored.

Tuesday was a bit more interesting. I had a class assignment to fulfill. The assignment was to go to the National Gallery and write a story about a picture we saw. I made a day of it by taking the tour and then writing the story. While I waited for the tour to start, I was treated to an amusing street performer's show. He was actually decent, thought nowhere near professional level. Quite funny though. The tour lasted for an hour, and by that time I found the picture I would do my story on. Once finished, I headed back home.

Now here is where I get quite upset at my kitchen mates. None of them seem to clean up their dishes. This annoys me as I have to clean a dish just to use it. I've given up on washing it afterwards since no one else seems to do that. That was annoying enough, but today someone did something incredibly stupid. An old batch of chili slipped out of the fridge either when the door opened or they pulled something out from underneath it, and the top of the Tupperware came off and some of it spilled on the floor. This person apparently just re-closed the Tupperware, sat it down on the counter, got what they needed, and buggered off not bothering to clean the mess of spilled chili on the floor! WHAT IS SO HARD TO EFFIN UNDERSTAND: IF YOU MAKE A MESS, YOU CLEAN IT UP! This is a principle that every man of every nation should understand! Even though it was my chili they spilled, I refuse to clean it up on principle. It had been their for quite some time without ever causing a problem, so it wasn't anywhere near my fault that the thing spilled. I swear, the people on my floor must be spoiled rotten brats back at home.

Anyway, rant done. I will have pictures of Traflager Square up tomorrow after I get batteries for my camera.

Day 39-40: Weekend Warrior

2007-10-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday I was forced to wake up early in the morning in order to board a bus to take our class trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. We drove north to that quaint little tourist attraction with one purpose: To make a pilgrimage to William Shakespeare's birthplace. This was, of course, a trip for my Shakespeare class. We were greeted to the city by a lovely bum that muttered to himself as all crazy people are prone to do. We then went to the actual home that Shakespeare was born in. Man did they know how to build houses in those days. They last forever! It was slightly remodeled to resemble how it once looked, but other than that it was all original walls and floors. Quite interesting.

Next, we headed off to find the excessive homes that Shakespeare once owned in his lifetime. He had two homes built in the town. One was torn down because it's owner was sick of Shakepeareites coming in pilgrimage to the house to try and gleam a bit of his genius, but the one he built for his daughter was still up and was converted into a museum. The house had a dual nature to it. It turns out Shakespeare's daughter married a rather famous physician of the day. Thus, the museum is devoted to both her and her husband. There were lots of old fashioned medical tools, along with a very nice garden that featured a very odd tree (as seen in picture).

We then broke for lunch. On the way to see the houses, Brandon noticed a pub that had the claim of being the oldest in Stratford. It was called the Garrek House, named so after one of its famous patrons. The name of the fellow was David Garrek. Forgot why he was famous though. Anyway, we supped on Scottish soup and wonderful chips and bread and then booked it off to our bus to head to the final leg of our journey.

For some reason, Shakespeare's mother's childhood home was converted into a museum as well. In actuality, it had nothing to do with Shakespeare whatsoever. It was a museum designed to take a look back in time to see what life was like for the common folks. It was basically just a farmhouse with some animals and some tools, but it was still a lot of fun. The best part of it was the falconry exhibition they held. They brought a professional falconer out to talk to us about it for awhile and showcase the bird. We even got to have the bird swoop in for a kill on our hand and land! It was so sweet seeing that magnificent bird swoop in low, coming strait for me, and land majestically on my arm. Thank goodness for the leather glove or my arm would have been ripped apart!

So at about dinnertime we get home and I log onto the compy to see if Jeff is around. We had previously arranged to play Civilization IV over the internet that day. About 10 minutes of waiting and finally Jeff gets on. It takes us an hour, but we finally get the game running. Conquering of foreign countries ensues. We play for about 5 hours and finally call it a night (for me at least). Now, I could have gone to see the apparently amazing English Rugby team kick the crap out of France in the world cup Semi-finals, but I didn't. Why? Because hanging with Jeff was more important. So then I went to sleep.

Sunday could have gone a bit better. I was supposed to write a paper, but I was having absolutely no motivation to do so. I also had a problem of being in the zone for writing something completely different and thus was very distracted. I got Japanese food at about 5:30 with a few friends and then tried to get back into it. 7 hours later and I'm still stumped. I churned out a few pages of BS and called it a night, hoping the prof wouldn't call my bluff.

Day 38: Sleepwalking

2007-10-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

I was downright dead today. I was so tired I almost overslept for work. I made it in on time though. It was a calmer pace today. No major gigs, the big boss was out on sick leave, and the head project manager Craig came back from a wild night of partying with his friend Noel Fielding (Look him up). I mostly did more band-posing on myspace and packed up a few things for use on tours. Upon going home, I basically crashed.

Now, I was supposed to go to a legal rave tonight, and believe me I wanted to go, but since I had a day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon the next day my judgment got the best of me. Well, see you on Saturday!

Night 37: Can't Sleep

2007-10-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

Gah, what drama tonight. One of my neighbors got very, very drunk and was playing music very loudly. So loud most of the floor could hear. She is usually a very nice person, but she is a very odd drunk. Also, since she isn't American or British, she didn't know what an R.A. was and why she should have to listen to him, and thus she got flustered and a bit angry when he came into the room to ask her to be quiet. Her reaction was... interesting, for lack of better words. Confusing as well. Now normally, she is very nice and polite but she must have had a HUGE amount of alcohol because she sounded completely out of her mind. She almost got in trouble, but was given a warning because the RA didn't know what to do he was so flabbergasted. She turned the music on again about 10 minutes after he left, but quieter (though it could still be heard). A few of us tried to get her to turn it off nicely, but she just incoherently babbled something for a bit before turning off the music and going to sleep. Thus, now I FINALLY get to go to sleep at 3 in the EFFIN morning with intent to wake up at 8:00 to get to work. I really wish I could call in, but they would just think I'm calling in with a hangover and a bad excuse since I was working the crowd over at the gig tonight.

Day 37: Don't Stop Believin'

2007-10-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

Internship day! Wooo! So today, I sent letters to people as if I was the band "One Night Only" on MySpace for about half the day. Not to interesting, but not all that bad. I got to see a lot of interesting profiles. The other half was spend measuring out "badges" (band pins), stickers, and posters to be delivered to tour managers. However, something interesting occurred. We found that we had a bunch of extra tickets for the Rushes show tonight, and I was able to acquire one for myself and a friend. What was also strange was that both pairs of street teamers just so happened to not be able to show up for the gig >__< Benni and I were stuck doing it ourselves. Oh well.

So I get off of work and meet my friend at Camden Station. We take the bus north to Kentish Town. The bus is going slower than most walkers due to rush hour traffic, so we get off at the next stop and start walking. We beat the bus to our destination. Sad, no? We then stand outsidde for about an hour and a half chatting with people and uberpimping The Rushes by giving out badges and signing people up for their email mailing list. We then got into the show. It was great! The lead singer of The Rushes has a very powerful voice and was lyrically entertaining. The instrumentals were simple but thoughtful and well polished. I definitely give them an A. Next up was the main act, Turin Brakes. They've apparently been around for quite some time. They're a very folksy/alt/indie band and were quite good as well. We were in the front of the groundling area for most of the show, but since I had checked my bag (because it was filled with Heavy, Heavy swag) I didn't have my camera on me until I got it out before Turin Brakes came on for an encore. I was waaaaaaay in the back by that time, unable to get back up front. The shots I did get weren't as great as I would have liked them to be, but it at least proves I was there. After the show, we got a snack (aka dinner for my hungry stomach) and then caught the midnight train going anywhere. Except this time anywhere was home and to bed.

Day 35-36: Hustle and Bustle

2007-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about updating this recently, mostly because there is nothing very interesting going on in my life at the moment. I go to school. I come home. I cook. I hang out. Usually end of story. I've been considering just going to a "When things are interesting" format that would update at least once a week, if not more. Just running it by you guys in case you are sick of hearing about my everyday escapades. And remember: your comments make this worth doing. I would love to hear more from you guys every once in awhile!

Well then, now that that announcement is over, let's get into it. Tuesday was creative writing, which is by far my most favorite class here. We worked on location this time, and if I do say so myself I was at the top of my game for this one. Lots of good stuff flushed out in that session. Afterwards, I came home and made baked mostacholi for dinner. I must say I have become quite the cook. In a few years I might even surpass you Mom ;)

After that, I just wandered around on the internets playing games with a few friends from back at school (but not Jeff, since he's never on xfire :p).

Today I had Shakespeare and my internship workshop. In Shakespeare, I had to give a talk on the supernatural elements in the play Julius Caeser. I made two points and then my professor jacked the discussion. This is exactly what I wanted to happen, so woo hoo! I then had to go to my workshop, which is BS. All we do is sit there and talk about our jobs for 2 freekin hours! There's only 6 of us! for most of the time, our prof gave a lecture on branding that was mostly him telling us 1 by 1 the top 100 brands in the UK. It was total time waste. I was supposed to come back and cook something with my neighbor, but I had forgotten about this stupidity when I made the plans because it meets bi-weekly. I came back and just re-heated my leftover mostacholi for dinner because when I knocked on her door at 8:00 she was nowhere to be found. I'll have to apologize tomorrow. Afterwards, I had went upstairs and returned the rechargeable batteries I borrowed from Aimin and we had a little chat before I went back and did some homework.

Day 31-34 Super Special: The Awesome Heart of the Warrior Dragon!!!!!

2007-10-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I so forgot to do my blog over the weekend >__< I was really tired out for most of the days. So, Friday. I went to my internship, did the usual fair, and learned a few new British phrases. Did you know they call little button-pins (like the ones on my bag) badges? I did not until this day. Really the only thing that happened honest! I do really love my job. We talk a lot while we work and listen to good music. Plus I get free swag. Those aforementioned buttons? All free swag. We get loads of the stuff. I was even given a bunch of CDs for my listening pleasure! Anyway, here are my awesome sauce co-workers.

First off, we have Craig and Benni. Craig is the guy on the left and Benny is the girl on the right.

Next, we have myself.

After which we take a detour to see Stephanie (who, despite how bad the picture turned out is actually nice looking).

And then, last but not least, we have Vincent

All of them are older than me. They're all really cool though.

So later that night, I accompanied some friends to a techno clubhouse. The music was good, but I had no one to dance with T__T. I still had fun though.

On Saturday I woke up at about 1 and had a nice British breakfast, complete with thick, juicy slices of ham, eggs, and toast. After that, I got some homework done before I went out and explored Leicester Square. I went and found the most awesome mall ever: The Trocadero (as pictured). It had awesome shops, plus half of it was a huge arcade/bowling ally/bar/pool hall of awesomenocity. The design of the place was also really sweet inside, but it was very hard to get an all-encompassing shot of the area. After a bit more exploring, I went back and cooked up a very delicious Coq au Vin. Oh man was it ever good. I'm shaping up to be quite the good cook ^__^ It took a good hour and a half to prepare and cook, but man was it worth it. I even made enough for my room mate to have some too, but he left. Other than that, I just hung around the dorm with a few friends.

Sunday, I went to church, and then I did absolutely nothing. Nothing but boring.

Monday (Today) I had class again. In Censored we talked about horror films and covered a few options for our midterm paper. In UK Today we recapped a very interesting week in politics, and I almost fell asleep after that because, bless his soul, our professor gives us our notes for the class so we don't have to write any. Bad news is, I need to write in order to pay attention/not get sleepy. I really love this professor, but it's hard to sit there for 2 and a half hours and just listen. After that, we were told to watch a movie called "The Life and Times of Col. Blimp" which had apparently been banned for some reason in the UK. We watched the first hour and a half, and were all incredibly bored of it so we called it quits. We were given a synopsis of it anyway, so whatever. I came back and it was my roommate's turn to do the cooking. I am the better cook but it is nice to be able to take the night off. Of course, Monday night is Poker night, an I need money for laundry. I took first in the first game and third in the second game (even though I had a huge lead early on, I got caught in a few major upsets). Finally, I came to the room and apologized for the delay on my blogging!

Day 30: 1 Month Down...

2007-10-04T15:54:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's already been a month. Time will probably slow down a bit from here on out. I am looking forward to coming back, but things are getting quite nice here now. Don't know if I would stay out here though (unless the money was good and I had a good reason).

Anyway, onto my day. Thursday means part one of my two day a week internship at Traffic. I'm getting the hang of most of it now, but today was mostly necessary manual labor rather than my usual act of sitting at the computer. The Royal Mail service decided it would go on strike today, so we had to get a lot of things ready to send out via UPS and thus we were in a rush to pack them up and ship them out. However, while in the basement I found a whole bunch of cool free swag that they said I could take. I used said swag to decorate my bag. What do you think? My hope is that by the end of this I'll have a good collection of buttons all over the bag. I even got off of work early too!

Well, I came home to a mostly empty fridge, heated up some chili with rice, and decided that it was high time my roommate and I refilled our fridge (I like it when it's full ^__^). We took the subway to the Tesco superstore 2 stops away and got a huge load of supplies to last us a few weeks. We're eating quite good, if I do say so myself. Lots of good veg, meat, and pasta. As we left, my roommate found out he had a package. The Package was Halo 3.

Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to play tonight. Thanks to the 360 not liking the voltage of the UK (with an adapter, we're not stupid), we couldn't get it to turn on. Richard said he would go to the Virgin megastore and get a UK power adapter for the 360 so it would work. Ahh well. He ended up watching a movie with Lauren and I went back to the room to write and then sleep. Good Night!

Day 28-29: Not Particularly Interesting

2007-10-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was an out right waste. A fun waste, but a waste none the less. I had no class for once, so I was able to sleep in and sit around for most of the day. I literally did nothing. I didn't even cook, I was so lazy. I just got a microwave meal (Which was a mistake, it was quite tasteless).

Today was slightly more interesting. I went to Shakespeare class and talked about "Julius Caesar" (Which incidentally I didn't read) and then was asked to give a quick presentation next week on the supernatural aspects of the play. Looks like I'll have to read it anyway. Oh well.

I then went to Snappy Shots to get my photos off of my SD card. They now appear where they should have gone in previous posts.

Afterwards, I did some shopping and got all the ingredients I would need to make chili. Thanks to my mother's SUPER SECRET recipe, it turned out awesome. Much better than my previous attempt back in Holland.

So afterwards, Richard, Lauren, a few of the floor 9 peeps, and I were watching "The Chronicles of Narnia" for whatever reason, and the fire alarm goes off. it almost reminds me of Voorhees: 2 fire alarms in 1 month. Feels like home! After the movie, I came to chat with you good folks for a bit before I headed off to bed.

Day 27: Back to the Past

2007-10-01T16:57:00.001-07:00

Mondays are always rough. Class starts at 10:00, so I have to get up around 8:00 in order to be fully prepared. That, and I basically have 3 classes on this day: Censored, UK Today, and watching a movie for Censored.

So today we discussed the movie "Battleship Potemkin" and it's effects on modern movies. That, and why it was banned until 1950 in the UK. It was a very powerful movie about the uprising of the working class sailors against their high class commanders and the retaliation of the czar for it. They banned the movie in the UK because of the revolutionary themes and because of the graphic violence.

Then came UK Today. We had a field trip rather than our usual class. We met at the BBC Station. There, we were given a tour of the place. It was rather nice. At the end of the tour, they asked for a few brave souls to do a few skits, and so I volunteered. I was to give a 30 second news report. I think it went well. I got complements from my professor for my delivery and was asked if I had ever had any experience like this (Which I had not). This was the second time this week I was told I had a good voice for radio, actually. Katie commented on this once before as well. Maybe I should become an announcer?

So, after this trip I went back to the centre to watch our movie for the night: The Exorcist. We were supposed to watch it together as a class, but the copy we had to view was messed up. We couldn't get it to work. A few of us were hungry, so we decided to get some Thai food from the place down the street (which I have heard is very good). However, this new plan was foiled once again: the restaurant was closed between 2:30. and 5:30. WHY!!! I was really craving some good curry. Rachel and I decided to try and find a movie rental place to get "The Exorcist", and as it turns out there was one by our tube station exit. We found this out thanks to the wonderful invention known as the internet. Or we would have, but even the internet failed us and led us to a closed down and boarded up shop. Failure. I then went to a Japanese restaurant across the street and got Yakisoba for dinner.

Once home, the plot was formulated to have another poker night, so I got the crew rounded up. I was really tired though and not really at the top of my game. I took 4th today and thus missed out on the money. First time since I got here I haven't made a pound. Oh well. Afterwards I buggered off to watch Batman Begins with Marina and help her with her English homework (Marina is my Russian neighbor from Day 5, for those of you who don't remember). She's really good at the written aspect of English, but she needs work with pronunciation and vocabulary when speaking. I help her out every once in a while when she asks. After that, I came back to the room, messed around for a bit, updated the blog, and called it a night.

Day 25-26: Iepers not Lepers

2007-09-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a class trip to Iepers, Belgum under the pretext of learning about the rich history of WWI. I went because I thought it would be a practical use of a weekend rather than lounge about in my room all day. We had to wake up at the crack of dawn, which I was not happy about, but most of us caught a nap on the bus ride to the port of Dover.

Ahh... Dover. It was very cloudy and was raining a bit as we boarded our ferry. On the subject of ferries, this one was the type that was set up like a cruise ship that could take you and your car across the English Channel. It had a restaurant, a snooty lounge, a bar, a few slot machines, and a rather surprisingly nice arcade. I spent half the time in the good company of a few friends and Professor Julian and the other half challenging said friends to games in the arcade.

We arrived in Calais, France and the proceeded to drive our bus to Iepers. We actually made better time than expected, so we went to our Hostel early and got set up for later. After an hour of town exploration (where I had some fresh Belgian fries, got Belgian chocolates from a store called Leonidas, and had tea), we headed towards the Flander's museum.

Back story time again. Iepers was the last defended area in Belgium in 1914 and British soldiers held off the Germans from 1914 until the end of the war. The battlefield was the site of the highest casualty ratings in the entire war. Because of this, there are various monuments to those who lost their lives during the war and a museum that retold the tales of trench warfare and showed how life was back then.

It was at this museum that I found someone competent enough in English to explain to me how the international calling code works. Because of this, I was able to call Lionel (my grandmother's cousin) and arrange for us to meet later in the day.

After the museum, we wandered once again for awhile before it was time for dinner. I was expecting a traditional meal from the restaurant we ate at, but we were instead served a half a fried chicken each with a side of fries. I was a bit disappointed, but the chicken was done well so I had no complaints.

It was at this time that we made our way to the Menin Gate memorial for the traditional nightly revile service. It is a very somber occasion, but also very regal and with a sense of dignity to it. The gate itself has the names of 55,000 British Solders who died in the field. That wasn't actually enough, so they had to build a second monument for the Brits that held 36,000 more names. that still wasn't enough. They finally built the third and final site that has 12,000 names and counting. That's 103,000 dead Brits, not counting the other armies that held Iepers along side of it, and even then not counting the huge number of Germans that died their as well. That's a lot of people. It was a very somber occasion.

Afterwards though, we were lead to a local pub that has the distinction of being the most original pub in Belgium. Given their decorum, I would think that they can make that claim for the entire world as well. I can only describe the style of the pub as a house with a huge collection of crucifi (the plural of crucifix, which I have just now created), along side disco-style decorations. The owners were nice though, and our IES leaders bought the first round for us all.

Thus, it became time for me to get picked up. I buggered off in the middle of our enjoyment of the pub to meet Lionel and Alex who had driven all the way to Iepers from Brussels to meet with me.

Lionel and Alex are my grandmother's cousins. I learned of their existance two days ago. It's nice to have family all over the world ^__^ Of course I was hoping there would be a few other young'uns along side of me, but it ended up just being Lionel, Alex, Alex's Girlfriend, Lionel's Daughter, her husband, their daughter Natasha, and I. We went to Lionel's daughter's house and chatted for a bit as we looked at old family photos. Alex thought I looked very much like Phillip Fils-Amie, and there was much debate about this. As the night grew later, Natasha had to be put to bed, and so Lionel, Alex, Alex's girlfriend, and myself set out for a night on the town.

We drove around, checked out a few of the local sites, and then they decided to take me to the centere. However, something was going on that they weren't expecting: Nuit Blanc (White Night). It's basically a night where there is music, food, and beer tents lined up on the streets and the entire area is lit up. Really, it's more like a huge party. It would have been sweet to be there with a few friends, but I still had a good time with my family. We explored a bit and got some pitas from a Greek Restaurant before they took me back to Iepers. I got in around 4:00 am.

Unfortunatly, wake up was 9:00. I was a bit tired. We were given toast and preserves, as well as corn flakes and milk for breakfast. For some reason though, Belgian milk tastes way different. It almost tasted to me that it had a slight hint of smoke or cilantro. Perhaps it's the herbs the cows eat? Who knows.

After Breakfast, we went on a tour of the memorial sites. They were grand and impressive, but My camera was being funny when I went to most of them. I only really got good pictures at the German grave site.

After that, we went to a city nicknamed "Pop." It was called this because durring the war it was the place you could have a good time on leave. It was also where the best brothels were. It was there that an army chaplain founded a place the boys in green could go where they could relax in quiet contemplation and in good company, rather than the rowdy drunks that could usually be found in town. It was a club that any man of any rank could go to for quiet reflection and good clean living and fun. It also became a monument after the war and was preserved to look exactly like it did in 1918. The gardens were quite nice. I wish we had more time to stay and explore, but we had to get moving so we would make the earlier ferry.

This ferry was not quite as nice as the previous one, but we made do. We played the riddle game and had a good deal of fun talking. Once back on the bus, we watched a British comedy called "Blackadder" until we ran out of episodes to watch. It was quite funny, but the show's ending was a bit sad.

So FINALLY we got back home. I had to do a bit of reading for class teh next day, but in the end it was a weekend well spent.

Day 24-25: Iepers Pictures!

2007-09-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

A funny picture on the Ferry ride there

Inside the gate at tribute time. Imagine the sound of Bagpipes and Bugles playing cadences.

The crowd gathers at the Menin Gate

The names of German ROTC students who died were written on this wall

The port of Dover

The memorial plaque on the Menin gate

Blurry White Night

Pop's Central Square

The Talbot House Chapel

The Talbot House Garden

All the sleepy people on the bus ride to the ferry

Flander's Field WWI museum

A gasmask from WWI

The ceiling of the Menin Gate

The mob of people in the Menin gate

A canal by the Menin Gate

White Night in Brussels

The Chaplain's room at the Talbot House

A poem written about the battlefield

The scope of the German memorial

Day 23-24: Every Day is Exactly the Same

2007-09-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

So yeah, Thursdays and Fridays are my internship days at Traffic Marketing. They're really starting to trust me for bigger and better things, which is really cool. I'm really getting to like those guys. I have meant to take a picture with them, but we're usually too busy for all of us to be available for it.

So Thursday, after work I went home and chilled for a bit before getting bored and wandering the halls. I met a few people on the 10th floor and sort of invited myself into Elizabeth and Alyson's kitchen when they were chatting with a few other international students. It was fun, I basically just knocked on the door real quick to wave and they invited me in. The international students were a riot though. We had good conversation for quite some time. They wanted to go to a pub, so I obliged and accompanied them. We went to a nicer one than usual, it was very posh as the Brits would say. After a bit, we all headed home.

Today at work, I was really itching for something other than a sandwich for once. I've had a sandwich for lunch the past two weeks strait and most of the time it's been tuna salad. So on the suggestion of one of my co-workers I went to this Thai buffet place down the street and got a take away plate. Blech. The noodles I got were tasty enough, but what I didn't realize was the place was all vegetarian. So the chicken curry I got? yeah, that was tofu chicken curry. With no taste. None. None whatsoever. It was so bland I had to go out and get SOMETHING. So I went to KFC to fill the missing chicken quota of my meal. I got the popcorn chicken. Once again, major disappointment. Not nearly as tasty as it should have been. Disappointed, I went back to my desk.

After work, I had to go to SOAS to take my placement test. I'm so only going to get into basic. I could barely read the test, let alone answer anything. I'm so rusty >__<. As it turns out though, there was a little street fair for Lebanon (or some other middle eastern country) right at the school, so I got some sort of Lebanese desert on my way out. It was WAAAAY too sweet. It was a really thin fried crisp that was basically dipped in honey, filled with honey, and then deep fried in HONEY. Way too sweet. I gave up eating that, and was dieing to find something that would make up for the multiple disappointments I had had over the day. That something was a "Hot Dog" cart. Their idea of a hot dog is very different than ours. It's closer to a brat, really. A brat that is a foot long (but as thick as a regular dog) with grilled onions. Finally! Something tasty to mine palate! Num num num num num...

I got back home and was bored, so I went a-wondering again, this time downstairs instead of up. It was there I found a bunch of my friends together in a kitchen playing games, so I joined in. Good times were had by all. Unfortunatly, most of us had to get to sleep early because we were all going to Iepers tomorrow.

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I was incredibly tired and went to bed earlier than expected.

Day 22: 3 Day's Grace (period)

2007-09-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm rather tired. Serious lack of sleep thanks to additions to my schedule for the week. I had to get up earlier than usual once again to go register for my Japanese class at SOAS (School for Oriental and African Studies). After meeting with the professor, I found out that there is about a 20% chance of me actually getting in. You see, there are only 35 slots available, and as an outside sutdent only taking one course at the school I'm at the bottom rung of the totem pole. There is a good chance I won't get in even after waisting two hours there and having to go take a placement test (which I will intentionally do poorer on than I am capable of because I sure as heck don't want to be put in Japanese II [I want an easy class that will refresh my memory]).

Next came lunch, which was a 4.45 pound Pizza Hut buffet lunch that I totally took advantage of because I wouldn't be home until about 8:00pm. I would have liked o dine with some of the Skidmore kids (and they were nice enough to invite me) but I had to read Richard II during this time to be prepared for Shakespeare class at 1:30. After that class, I had to watch the movie I was supposed to watch on Monday for Censored that I missed because my teacher decided to hold an extra class for that day (see Monday's post). Luckily it was only 74 minutes so I got done just in time for my last class of the day. Unluckily, my last class is my bi-weekly internship seminar where we talk about absolutely nothing important for two hours to see how we are all doing.

I did have a good conversation with Sonja during the train ride. Sonja is a girl in my internship class, but I've also hung out with her on occasion with the group. She struck up a conversation with me out of nowhere, which was unexpected. I don't think she was flirting though, she's usually a very outgoing type of girl and so she was just making conversation for the sake of talking. We talked about travels and where we would like to visit, and I now have a few new places I want to go check out thanks to that.

So I got home, ate some leftovers, went to my room and put a few albums onto my mp3 player to transport them to my friend Rachel Jacks. She wanted to hear a few albums I had and so I gave them to her and pirated a few albums off of her computer as well.

Other than that, nothing else eventful. My room mate went to sleep quite early, which is odd. I think I'll go to bed as well. I could use a bit more sleep anyway. Goodnight!

Day 21: Lost in Translation

2007-09-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

Today was not as hard a day as yesterday was. I just had to be up at 11:00, which is a little earlier than normal, so that I could make a meeting for people going to Iepers, Belgium. We will be leaving this Saturday and returning on Sunday. It is mostly historical, but there will be lots of fun to be had in a different country. Plus it's one more place I can say I've visited.

Class was part 2 of Creative writing for the week. Today was character. Character isn't exactly my strongest point at first. I have to work with the character for awhile before he becomes interesting. Coming up with someone on the spot is difficult. My first try was generic, the second was a little better, but by the third and fourth I was really flushing him out. I might actually have to use him for a story in the class. I was doing really well yesterday with dialog though.

After class I was hungry, but I waited to see if Uncle Greg would call me to meet for dinner. He had called during class, but I could not pick up. After about 2 hours, I ventured to get supplies for pasta.

The first store had the bread I was looking for, but did not have any cheap pasta sauce that I could improve upon with the addition of meats and spices (just like Mom taught me. It is a most excellent recipe!). So, I ventured to another store down the block. Ten minutes later, I find that they have the sauce I need for 54 pence, but they are out. I ask if they have any in the back, but they do not. Another 10 minute walk after that, I get to another store and FINALLY find the sauce I need. 10 minutes once again, and I am back home. 40 MINUTES JUST TO GET SOME SAUCE AT A REASONABLE PRICE!!! If I hadn't gotten the sauce I needed, each bottle would have cost me 1.65 pounds for the same size, and I needed 3 bottles. Ridiculous. I most definitely need to conserve funds, therefore my miser mission was a necessity.

Once back, I cooked up my meal and read Shakespeare for tomorrows class. After I finished cleaning up, I got a call from Uncle Greg. He told me to meet him and a few others at a Pub called the 10 bells and gave me directions from the station. The only problem was he gave me directions from the exit he took, which was the opposite end as the one I took. I wandered around for about 45 minutes looking for the joint before I got angry at being lost and went to the station. It was there that I saw the second entrance. I decided "Why not, might as well give it a try." 5 minutes later and I found the pub! Right where Uncle Greg said it would be!

Unfortunately, he was not there. I can only assume that his group had moved on to get food or something and since I had not shown up at the right time I was forgotten about. I waited around for a bit to see if they would come in, but they did not. I went back home.

Now I don't blame Uncle Greg for missing me at the pub. He has no cell phone and there for no way for him to get in touch with me, and they thought I was a no-show. It would have been nice to see him before he headed home though. Oh well. It was fun hanging out with him on Sunday.

And now, I subject you all to another edition of "David in London" Comics!

Day 20: Looks like someone's got a bad case of the Mondays!

2007-09-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ugh, 3 classes today. Had to wake up at 8:00 to get to school on time. I left school at 7:30. MADNESS!!!!! Unfortunately next week my creative writing teacher will be out, so she had us do a session today in order to make up for missing it. I went to that after getting though my first two classes: Censored: what the British couldn't see and UK Today. 'Twas not fun. A real marathon session of school. Lucky for me it will only ever happen once.

Got back, did some shopping, and made a nice juicy 1/2 pound burger with lettuce and tomato for dinner. Mmmmmmm... Only about 2.25 pounds for all the ingredients. Not bad, huh?

Afterwards: Poker night. Played two games for a pound buy in a piece. I won the first and took second in the second. w00t! Laundry monies! That makes me happy. We had a blast though; the real fun of poker night is just chilling with all the guys, talking, and laughing at what's happened in the game.

Sorry about the no pictures, I meant to grab my camera for the game and take a few pics of us in action, but I got caught up in playing. If all else fails, tomorrow you will at least see my now (in)famous "David in London" Comic!

Day 18-19: Everybody's working for the weekend

2007-09-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to start doing dual updates for Saturday/Sunday since nothing much really happened this Saturday. If Saturday ever becomes interesting again, it will be given a day unto itself.

So yeah, Saturday.

I slept until 2:00, lounged about until 6:00 doing absolutely nothing important, started my laundry, and then lounged about for a bit longer just wasting the day away. I WAS BORED. At first, it was nice to just relax, but then it was really tedious. A lot of people were out and about on trips, so there was not as many people left in the dorm. Sadness. I basically bumed around in the room until my roommate's girl pal came in and we watched funny movies on you tube. Then I went to sleep.

Sunday was way more exciting though. First, I went to church (yay church!). It was a little Methodist place down the road. I happened to meet Elizabeth and Allyson there by complete chance as well (they are fellow IESers). E and A are both from Spartanburg, South Carolina which is really close to Greenville where my Uncle John lives. So yeah, we got through the service and then decided to hit up the Indian vegetarian buffet for lunch together, as after-church lunch is a personal custom of mine. We went to a station called Angel for this place, and as it turns out there was also a street market going on. Not only did I get my weekly quota for veggies eaten in one day, but I also picked up some cheap lettuce from the market.

Upon returning, I gave Uncle Greg a call. My uncle happened to be in town for an American Airlines conference and my mother told him to give me a call so we could go around town for a bit and catch up. He was napping at the tie I called him, but he woke up and was ready to go. I told him to meet me at a landmark pub by the train station and to give me a call when he got there. He said it wold take a bout an hour. One hour and 15 minutes later I realized he didn't have a cell phone to call me with, so I made haste to the pub. He wasn't there. I figured his train hadn't come in yet so I picked up a magazine from a shop and read while I kept an eye out for him in a clearly visible area of the station. No sight of him. I stood there reading for about 15 minutes before I decided to check back at the pub in case he had gotten lost and just now found his way there. He was standing outside with a beer in hand and headphones on. Apparently he had just passed right by me in the station and had not taken notice of me waiting for him. Oh well. We hung out there for a bit before heading off to my dorm.

We dined at a very posh Chinese restaurant about 5 minutes away from my dorm. It was tasty, but not quite the Chinese I'm used to I like it to be more authentic). Afterwards, we found a pub that was actually showing American Football *gasp!* and gabbed while we had a pint and watched the game.

It was really nice seeing Uncle Greg today actually. It was a lot of fun to have him here and to catch up with him. Having family come and visit is always nice. In about a month I'll be coming to Switzerland to get another family fix while I'm adventuring over here.

On that note, I wish to say to you all that I do indeed miss you but am enjoying my time here. It would also be nice to hear more comments people to show me your alive!

Day 17: Rock the House

2007-09-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updating last night, I'll get to it later in the post.

It was my second day at my internship and I've been having a great time so far. The people are really cool, the in office parts of the job are easy (for me at least, since I still am learning), and we listen to a lot of cool music. Apparently before I got there Mika's manager came to us asking what we could do in terms of advertising for the release of his new DVD "Life in Cartoon Motion". Today we were flushing out what we could actually do (because we have to make it cool, but cheap and easy to produce/distribute). I was actually helpful in this session! I suggested we make spinning tops with the info on the top and a cartoon of him dancing on the side that would move as the top spun. Neat huh? If we pick up the account he'll be the first big name I've heard of at the company. Not to say we don't have any other big names, they're just all big in the UK and I've never heard of them.

Afterwards, a few of my bosses had to go to gigs and make sure the distribution teams were ready and so we got to go home early. I would have liked to go to one, but they did not have extra tickets. In a month or so I'll be the head of a project so I'll get to go take care of that sort of thing.

I went home with a taste for Brit Rock in my ears that was itching for more. I decided I wanted to go to a gig tonight. I went around and found a few people who would like to go and then went off to make my dinner. After coming back, only one other person actually came though >__< Oh well. Thus, Rachel and I were off to the show!

We were going to see three bands: Yell Robot Yell, City Lights, and the Jukebox Vandals. They were all playing in the basement of a pub called "The Fly" by our school. We missed Yell Robot Yell (which wasn't a bad thing, I didn't really like how they sounded on myspace anyway) and got there half way into City Lights' set. They were good and a lot of fun to watch. Once they got off though, the cheering started for the Vandals. Apparently they have quite the following in the area. When they came on stage, the crowd went wild. Guys started chanting, girls started screaming, it was great. The lead singer was very charismatic on stage and they had a whole lot of fun singing. The whole crowd (myself included) got pumped and started jumping up and down to the beat. It was a whole lot of fun. Loud though.

After the show, my ears were ringing a bit as we got on the tube to go back home but I was still able to have a fun conversation with Rachel on the way back. I went back to my room and watched a movie for a bit since I wasn't really that tired and then went to sleep.

I should say I tried to get to sleep. I woke up after an hour with a nasty headache. I knew I should have taken some meds before going to sleep just in case. So I took some meds and went to the kitchen to get something cold to put on my head for a bit. That helped a bit, so I went back to bed and waited for the meds to kick in as I tried to fall asleep.

Sorry about the lack of pics. I didn't think it prudent to bring my camera to the show out of fear of damage to it or it getting stolen (since I had nowhere to store it).

Day 16: Kusoga!

2007-09-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Work was alright, the rest of the night was not so good :p

So I like my job. It's sweet. I get to learn about the British music scene, meet new people, and go to concerts for free. Sweet! though, that's not quite what I got to do today. Had to do a bit of grunt work (as did everyone else) and so though it was fun with the co-workers and all, it was tedious. I'll get some pics of the guys at work sooner or later.

The rest of the night was filled with promise but ended in disappointment.

Dinner was great, I cooked a mean spaghetti. 'Twas delicious. Afterwards, we were supposed to go to this pub to see people play live and to dance with a few friends, but that did not happen. Rather, I just hung out with a few people while most everyone else hooked up with someone. :p Annoying to say the least.

So this is what it feels like to be emo? I think I have to start wearing girl pants and mascara now (don't worry, it aint happening).

Meh, not to worried about it. Things will work out sooner or later. They always do. So for now, here's a few pics we took earlier.

Day 15: Tedious Today

2007-09-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

So yeah, my mischievous grin from yesterday was a bit misleading...

I actually had nothing planned for today other than to get some laundry done. Hah!
Sadly, I didn't even have any conversations memorable enough for a David in London comic. No pictures for you guys today. Sorry.

So anyway, today was Shakespeare day. Read "Romeo and Juliet" before going off to class and then talked about it for 3 hours. Booooooooring. Now, I love the professor who teaches this class, but really. "Romeo and Juliet?" We've all read the play like 9 times already! We've analyzed it to death! Seriously! I wish we had started off with something else.

Afterwards, I went shopping for the week. Got a few fruits and veggies so I don't catch scurvy, plus foodstuffs for various dinners this week. Pork Chops tomorrow (mmmmmmmmmm...) and foods based on spaghetti sauce for the rest of the week. Yumm!!! I'm really getting the hang of this whole cooking thing.

I came back, ate something real quick, and then started my laundry. Bleach: Memories of Nobody finished downloading, so I watched it. It was a good anime movie, better than the DBZ or Naruto movies any day of the week, but it still had a few of the same cliches that you come to expect from anime movies. Still was entertaining though. Give it a watch if you like the anime. After that, watched a bit of British TV and called it a night. Tomorrow is my first day at my amazing new internship, so wish me luck!

Day 13 - 14: "Up every morning just to keep my job"

2007-09-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

So yeah, sorry for not updating Monday. I'm not dead, just being really boring.

No seriously, nothing, and I mean nothing worth any mention was done these past two days. On Monday, I went to my two classes, came home, ate the last of my Chicken Pesto, went to my room, did some reading, got bored, gathered a bunch of people, and played poker with said group. How you ask? We're so poor, we played with matchsticks. Classy. I won the first game but was taken out early in the second.

I really should have taken a picture of the game. Met a few more people in the building though, which was nice.

Today was no exception. Woke up, went to my one class (which was a creative writing class, so it was a lot of fun), came home, made dinner, and did nothing but read until my roommate came back.

Now my roommate is in my first class, but he has another class after that so he has to stay behind and come back later. After class though, he went to dinner with a gal in his class and then came back with her, so we all ended up watching a movie. They cuddled (awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...) and Sam and I just watched the movie. I'm happy for the guy though.

Oh! Almost forgot to mention Sam. He's our unofficial 3rd roomie. He's one of Richard's friends from back home who came to visit because he had nothing else better to do apparently. He's a cool guy. He has to sleep on the floor of our tiny room though, but it's better than paying.

Anyway, just an update on my entirely uninteresting life from the past two days. Perhaps things will get more interesting tomorrow! *mischievous grin*

Day 12: The Winds of Change

2007-09-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

Actually, the only real wind was the blustery breeze that was coming through the window. Fall's here mates. And it's quite cool.

But that's beside the point.

Today was on the whole rather uninteresting until a certain point, so I will go ahead and skip a few details to get to the good stuff. Yesterday my wanderings led me to various locals downtown, including part of the Thames River festival. I had a little taste of it, but I wanted more. The whole shabang. So, I gathered a group to go to see the Grand Finale for the fest later in the evening.

It was quite the spectacle. I think I'll let the pictures do the ta lking about the parade.

We followed the parade around for a bit as more people joined up, and we danced awhile as the salsa dancers passed. Good times all around. However, the fest wasn't done just yet. There were fireworks to behold.

We knew the fireworks would be coming from a barge on the river, so we figured the best spot to see the fireworks would be on one of the bridges across the Thames. We picked a winner: the fireworks barge was tethered right in front of the bridge! It was an amazing show too. It makes The Eye's to the Sky's fireworks seem half-hearted in comparison. Take the usual grand finale and imagine it as the entire show, with an even bigger grand finale at the end. THAT'S how good it was (Usually I don't think too highly of firework shows, if that is any help of how awesome this one was).

We wandered around for a bit to avoid the huge mob of people heading towards the tube in hopes of finding a cafe or restaurant to sit down in for a bit, but alas everything in the area was closed. So, we headed home. Later, we watched some Family Guy and called it a night. Enjoy the pictures!

Day 11: Wanderlust

2007-09-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

So last night's attempt at being social turned out to be no fun at all as you all have heard. Today I decided to be anti-social and perhaps watch a movie with a friend or two. Only problem is that I didn't feel like watching any of the movies I had. Solution: Go to the IES centre Library!

The IES centere is where we go to school here (the pic on the right). It has a few classrooms, a library, a garden, administrative offices, and a mini-kitchen. I was hoping I would be able to get in even though I knew no one would be there, but alas, I was wrong. They close it for the weekends, so no movie from the library for me.

I really didn't feel like going back to the dorm after failing to acquire a movie, but I started to head back anyway. As I was about to go into the station, I suddenly decided "Ehh, why the heck not" and just walked past it. Thus, my foot tour of London begins.

I began by walking down Holborn street in the direction of Downtown. It was a very zen experience: I had my music on, a skip in my step, and an adventurous attitude with no one to hold me back. Thus as I walked down this never before traveled road I was quite happy. Nothing but good tunes, a good bit of excersize, a bottle of water, and my camera. I continued in an east-ish direction until I found Chancery courthouse, which I didn't take a picture of because I was at a bad angle (English majors, I hope you get the joke ^__^). After that, continuing on the same street I saw this building:

I had no idea what it was, but I thought it looked nice to warrant a picture. Continuing down the road I came across a little church with a garden area, and so I stopped to take a picture . The Church was called St. Andrews. I tried to get a picture of as much as I could (including the steeple of another church behind me) but time delay + leaning camera on bench can only yield so much:

Remembering my comments from yesterday regarding buses, I snapped a quick pic of one sitting at its stop. Basically it's an updated version of the famous Red Double Deckers we've all seen in movies:

Things were starting to look familar after I turned a certain way, and I found myself at the front steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. After snapping a few quick pics of the place, I sat down on the steps in the front along side of many others. They just sit there for apparently no reason. None. Just sitting. No reason at all. I thought I would give it a try and find some amazing gateway to talk to dead popes or something, but no. Just sat down and nothing happened. Why all those people do the same is beyond me. There is also a statue of Queen Anne in the front, but it's not nearly interesting enough to warrant the massive crowd of sitters on the steps.

Now that I knew the area a bit better I set course for a destination for the first time in a few hours: Tower Station. Easy enough of a destination, a bit of touristy flair that's easy to find. I saw another rather nice garden and got another picture of myself before heading off. Nice huh?

So to get to the station, all I had to do now was walk down the northside of the Thames river and arrive. That's it. But that would be way to easy and boring, now wouldn't it? I decided to go across the Thames to the south side of the river via the new London Bridge. Once across, I found steps to a street below the main road. Now as most Chicagoans know, the lower streets are usually just work access streets: Dirty, hobo and rat infested, and overall unpleasant. Not so with London Lower streets. They have a charm to them, plus more than just worker access. They have bars, restaurants, marinas, galleries, and stores. Nice ones too. In fact, the lower area by the Thames was having a festival celebrating the Thames river as I walked down it! I snapped a picture of a galleria as I went down the area towards the sound of music. Two things were in that area that are worth noting. First, there was a local band called the Destroyers. They were very bohemian in both look and sound, playing without any electric instruments and having an old man as a singer. Quite fun to watch and listen to. They were very lively.

The other thing of importance was that right across from them was the HMS Belfast. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to take a picture with the old girl.

After that, I re-crossed the Thames via Tower Bridge (Where the crown jewels are kept) and headed towards Tower Station. Right as I'm about to get in, I get a call from Auntie Bebe from Switzerland. She finally got the number, so she gave me a call to see how I was doing and to see when I could come visit. Some time in October I will be making the trip, so you guys will get some nice pics of Paris and Switzerland!

So I took the tube back and was mighty proud of myself for navigating and walking my way across town. I got back home, heated up some dinner, talked with Aimin (who gave me cookies ^__^), and then went and chatted with a few friends before watching a movie.

Now before the movie started, I decided to go to the local Tesco and get a quick snack. At the checkout counter, I noticed that the British National Lottery had a scratch game called Pass the Pigs, witch amused me because we used to play that game back in high school for fun. I figured I would buy a ticket as an amusing little souvenir, but it was a 15 pound winner! w00t! Karmic Justice at it's finest. Today totally made up for my bad times last night in every sense (I like to think about it as God giving me a refund). So I went back to the dorm and watched Van Wilder 2 with a few friends, which was totally better than I thought it would be. I think that the only thing that could have made this day better than it already was would have been finding a wise old Irishman sitting outside a pub and playing chess with him to the sound of Irish music. The Old man would regale me with tales of forgotten lore as we relaxed with the music in our ears and delved into the game (Don't ask me why, but that's my idea of a good time). Afterwards, I sat down and began to write this blog.

But wait! There's more!!!!!!!

Some idiot set off the fire alarm.

At 1:30 in the morning.

Good times. The entire building was stirred by the annoying sirens and flashing lights of our alarm system. Luckily I was still awake, otherwise I would have been really annoyed. We had to stand out in the cold for a bit before the all clear was given. I felt sorry for the girls who wore skimpy shorts and shirts to bed, and envied the ones who wore sweatshirts and pajama pants to bed. My T shirt wasn't quite cutting it. So, once cleared I headed back up the stairs again to my room, sat down and finished this blog, and went to sleep.

Day 10: Pubs and Clubs

2007-09-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

So today started out as a very promising day. Branden and I had made plans to go to Camden Market the day before, so we ended up inviting a few others to come along. That would be Mary, Angelie, and Stacy.

Camden Market is a very bohemian/goth/hip place to go. It has all sorts of different shops for clothes and the prices are reasonably cheep. Not to mention the people! You see all sorts of people there dressed in all sorts of fashions. If my camera hadn't died I would have taken more pictures of it. It's my fault it died though: I had accidentally left it on after taking my first picture. I will be going again sooner or later, my internship is right down the street from the market!

So, I came back and dined upon my leftovers from yesterday. Tomorrow, I will dine on those leftovers again, and perhaps even the next day. I made way too much food. I have learned my lesson. I even gave a bit away to my neighbors Stacy and Katie and I still have way too much! So at this rate, spending the money to make this meal will even out sooner or later to be cheaper than going to get one meal.

I was feeling adventurous, so I went about the dorm looking for something to do. A few people wanted to go clubbing, and I got conscripted into going clubbing with them.I only agreed because of two things: 1. I had nothing else to do and 2. I felt like not going with would be antisocial. These few people somehow grew into about 20 people as plans got made. Big groups are annoying to me. They are hard to guide and harder to control. EVERYONE has to agree on something, and most likely that choice isn't a good one.

So first, we went to a Pub because leader girl (a tall blond whose name escapes me at the moment) was offered coupons for free shots for all of us. That was a scam, by the way. The coupon was a free shot if you bought a drink. The shot was your choice of two things: weak vodka and cranberry or weak tequila sunrise. I had water.

Now there is a great difference between a Pub and a Club here. These two should not be put in the same class. Pubs, quite simply, are merely places to go hand out at night, enjoy the company of your group, and to meet new people and get to talking with them. For instance at this pub I started talking with a few people from Mozambique for a bit, and when they left I went and talked to a few locals as well. Talking is the key to having fun in a pub, not drinking. After leader girl was done with her drinks, she rallied the group to go to the club next door.

Clubs are an entirely different beast. You basically get suckered into paying to get in. Leader girl talked the bouncer into getting the ladies in for free and the guys in for 7 pounds and promised us guys that the girls wold at least get us a drink, however no one actually followed through with that offer. If there is one thing I hate, it is paying to go somewhere I really don't want to go. However, I tried to make the best of it, and the best way I could figure to do that was to dance.

I tried to dance with new people, I really did. I just do not get how "gyrate against a lady's thigh and see if she reciprocates" is considered dancing. First off, I think that it is rather disgusting really. This sort of dancing has no respectability to it. No honor. But I did want to dance, however in a different sense. I could not find a partner to dance with me because I did not know how to get one without gyrating into them. So I gave up that endeavor and went back to my group.

At this point, a few of the girls were really gone. The guys (Zack, Devon, Mike, Branden, and Myself) took it upon ourselves to protect our ladyfriends from people they did not wish to dance with by being in the area for them to turn to us if a guy did not interest them. There were some guys that were really creepy. They were way to old for this crowd but thought they would fit in. We kept them away by not so subtly building a man-wall when they came by. One of our ladyfriends started dancing with one of the locals, and Zack noticed that the local was getting a bit to freindly with her if you know what I mean. When he saw this, he was angered at the man and pulled our friend away from him (much to her dismay). The rest of us formed the man-wall and kept him off. It was at this time we decided to go. I have a lot of respect for Zack now. I thought he was just another party boy, but he turned out to be a very honorable man.

Yeah, as you can tell I had a very miserable time at the club. It was a night of frustration and annoyance, not fun and mirth as people may describe. The only time I actually danced with someone was when I was the safer or lesser of two evils, not because anyone actually wanted to dance with me specifically. I spent 7 pounds to be basically ignored unless needed that night, something I will never do again. I hereby vow that I shall not step foot in that type of club again. I think the clubs in Camden are more rock/goth oriented though, and I have a feeling I will find more people there that I would fit in with better than the clubs in the popular zones.

Anyway, the best part of the night was finally when we got out of that club. I went to Burger King with two other girls as their escort/protection and tried to go to the bathroom. they actually have security guards stationed at the stairs so non-customers couldn't get up there. I had to buy a small fry just to go to the bathroom. >_<

So a few people (the ones who had had more alcohol in them) decided they weren't quite done and wanted to get kebabs or something and take a cab home. the rest of us just wanted to get home and not spend any more money. We took the nightbus. The night bus, surprisingly, is very clean and safe. It was a double decker bus, so we sat on the top level all the ride home. I wish I had taken a picture of the bus though, but they are so common I can get one any day. Soon you will see the glorious red double decker bus in action!

So yeah, to cap it all off: I really hate clubs. I should hope I will not have to visit one again any time soon here.

Day 9: The Free Day

2007-09-13T15:12:00.000-07:00

I had a day today to do absolutely nothing. No school, no internship. Nothing. Needless to say, I was bored. So, I did what all bored people do: Cook dinner for friends. Tonight, we dined on Chicken Pesto, Salad, and a Baguette. What I didn't realize was that My mother's recipies were meant for a family of 5 with 4 guys who eat a lot, not myself and 3 others who, though they enjoyed it, ate less than expected. I have leftovers.

On the subject of cooking, it's a real pain in the butt to do it here in our kitchen. It's not well stocked, to say the least. We don't exactly have the capacity for cooking big meals.

Also on the subject, Chicken is EFFIN expensive here. I spent 10p on a kilogram of chicken (which is two pounds here). That's 20 dollars!!!!!! Never again will I use chicken here. EVER.

So tomorrow I will go out and about and be interesting, but for tonight, not much more than watching British TV and playing video games. There will be pictures tomorrow, but for your viewing dismay it's "David in London" Comic time!!!!!!

Day 8: The long haul

2007-09-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today is a bit of a long haul for me, as I have class from 1:30-7:30. I have to eat dinner at the center, which means something simple. Tomorrow I will cook up something nice.

So, All i had today was my Shakespeare class and my internship workshop. Shakespeare class is taught by Professor Chapman. you know the stereotypical olde English Professor who is very knowledgeable, kind, and witty? That's Prof. Chapman to the T. He must have been the archetype for every stereotypical English Shakespearian professor in any movie ever made. We spent the first day going over Shakespear's personal history along with the history of his acting company.

Afterwards, I cooked up my soup, got some naan bread from the local tesco (which sucked, by the way. If you want real naan, go to an Indian store or restaurant.), hung out in the computer lab, and then went to my internship workshop. It was once again the basics, absolutely unnecessary gibberish that need not be said and is universally understood. A waste of time. So once I got done, I headed back home via the tube.

I had been invited the previous day by my neighbor Marina to go to the pub and watch the England vs. Russia Football (soccer) game. I was impartial, but Marina and her friends were the minority in the pub. The pub was packed to the brim with England fans cheering loudly at every goal. I did not cheer so as not to offend my Russian friends, but I wish I had. there is something to be said about the cathadic feeling of being embraced in the cheers of a pub. Oh well. I met a few Brits and a few Italians as well and so was blessed with great conversation the entire night. After having a few pints in celebration of a great football match, I went home.

Now, once again I did not have my camera. However, to make it up to you I present the first ever "David in London" comics, which are over exaggerated instances that may have happened during my day. Enjoy! (Artist wanted ^__^)

Day 7: The first day of normality

2007-09-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

It really seems like this is the first of many days where I just wholeheartedly accept that I'm in this country for three months. I didn't convert my pounds to dollars. I didn't think about being new here. I just lived. I woke up and got ready for school. I went to my class, did a bit of writing. I went to look for a job. I went home. Nothing eventful.

I once again ran across Marina while I prepared my humble dinner of canned soup and toast. We ate as we conversed. She's still learning English, so she asked if I would just talk to her in English every time we see each other so she gets better. After dinner, I helped her out with getting the internet in her room.

Branden showed up a bit later and wanted to see if I would go to the pub with him. This is the first time we've gone out without gathering a big group. I was getting annoyed with the giant group. A few of the "giant groupies" were really very stereotypically American. not exactly the kind of image Branden and I would like to adhere to. We grabbed Rachel on our way out and headed out to find a good old traditional pub in Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus is to London what Times Square is to New York. It is brightly lit with adverts, has famous sights, and has very hip clubs to go to. Completely not what we were looking for. Thus, we walked past it towards Trafalgar square. Upon reaching it, we caught the exuberant crowds from the end of the Ethiopian new year celebration. Judging from the litter in the square, I can only assume that it was one happening party. Further still we went, until the Sherlock Holmes pub caught our eye. It was exactly what we were looking for: a good London pub that was a local establishment. We took a table, ordered our drinks, and chatted about adjusting to life here for a good hour until the pub closed.

Pubs close early here in London for some reason. They close at 11:00. I hear that establishments need to get some sort of special permit to be open late, and most of those places are a bit pricey. At any rate, we picked up a snack from the local Tesco Express (it's like a 7-11, but with better groceries) and headed back to the station.

Now I know all of you are going to be upset with me, but I had left my camera at home >__< I had not realized just how many photo ops would be there. I figured "It's only going to the pub" so I didn't bother. Next time we go out though I will bring my camera. I swear!

Day 6: Tonight, we dine in MOSCOW!!!!!

2007-09-11T00:43:00.001-07:00

So today I had my internship interviews. It took me about 45 minutes to get to both of them from the dorm. My first one, the Institute of Ideas (or IoI) was a debate group that encourages people to come to no holds barred debates rather than the usual politically correct types. Apparently their founder had once worked for a Marxist magazine. The second one was in Camden, and the second I stepped out of the station to find that Camden is basically the "happening" part of town where you can find more underground scenes and artsy clothes. The place that was there was Traffic marketing. They do grassroots marketing for almost all of the major British record labels. The office was laid back and the owner was from Chicago. The job itself was much more than what IoI was offering, so I decided to go with Traffic! Pictures of the area and of my swanky new workplace will come soon.

So yes, as the title mentions, I did indeed sup upon Russian food this night. After i came back from grocery shopping, my neighbors were cooking in the kitchen. We got to talking once again and they invited me to dine with them. Now, I was thinking that perhaps I would whip something up as well as a supplement, but they would not hear of it. "We will cook everything," they said. When it came time for the meal, they had made it a five course affair! First, Russian black bread with fish, a kind of salami, and a weird sort of pork meat. Second, sautéed of cauliflower and mushroom risotto-type thing. Third, Russian creamy salad. Fourth, Russian beets. And finally after all of that, a big bowl of Russian soup. Ai Yah! There was so much food I could hardly believe it. We ate until our stomachs were close to bursting.

Russian food, I have noticed, is more oil based than fat based. Everything that I have mentioned had a sort of oily glaze to it. It was all delicious, but it was different. It was noticeable enough to note.

After dinner, they cleaned up a bit and started pouring drinks for all of us. They had champagne for themselves but insisted I drink rum. I'm not one to refuse a free drink, so I poured a bit into a cup for myself and joined in a toast. 2 hours later, my cup was still not empty and the bottle of rum was almost half gone. I had not noticed it, but they had continued to pour rum into my cup before it ran out! Lesson learned: if you drink with Russians, there is no such thing as moderation. That and they are tricky ^__^ But yeah, I had had quite a bit more than I had intended. After they decided to call it a night, I bid them fair well and curled into my bed with the room slightly spinning X( But I must thank my very gracious hostesses: The redhead (whose name escapes me), Marina, and Anya. They made a wonderful dinner and made for great company (even though they ware still learning English).

Day 5: Day of Rest

2007-09-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

I've needed a good night sleep really badly over the past week, so I turned off my phone so the alarm would not go off. I had been feeling sick last night and 12 hours of sleep was a good remedy after all. Can't really say I did much other than get food and do a bit of grocery shopping.

However, England is incredibly expensive. I've been trying to find a part time job, but it is quite difficult. It seems like the only ones they have in the evenings are in the pubs. Pubs aren't open late here, so it's not like that's the problem, and pubs are also a lot nicer than our bars. The problem is that I have absolutely no skill in drink making. I could make them, but I would require instructions and training and therefore would probably have to go to bartending school or something. I also think that you need a special visa to actually work here too, something I do not have. It's really hard to get a part time job that will fit my time constraints and allow me to study. Hopefully I will find one. If not, well then I guess I just have to get another loan then. Or start a charity scheme.

Day 4: Weekend Ho!

2007-09-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

So today is Saturday, but we had a mandatory field trip to Greenwich to see the birthplace of "Time" aka the prime meridian. To get there, we took a boat ride from a dock near the Tower of London, so I was able to catch a picture of a few Beefeaters (aka Yeoman Guards) on the way. The boat ride was a lot of fun. We had a very witty old Englishman telling us about historical points on the Thames river.

Toured the Greenwich observatory and the British Naval Academy that has been converted into another museum. Unfortunatly, my camera had a glitch that made it think it was full, so I was only able to take 2 pictures >_<. When my friends post a few of their pictures I will steal them and post them myself. Afterwards, we were released to go wreck havoc at the local market area, where we found good food and bread, cool products for sale, and a masseuse!
I got separated from my original group but was able to find Brandon, Stacy, Richard, and Katie (Richard and Katie are in this picture which was taken on the boat ride there, though the girl with glasses' name escapes me at the moment). We went to a French outdoor market and got fresh made crepes with Nutella drizzled on the inside (yum!) and tried a few pieces of meats they were giving out as samples.

So afterwards, a bunch of us went to go see the Shakespeare play "Love's Labors Lost" at, get this, The Globe Theater downtown! How cool is that! Seeing a Shakespeare play on the stage he intended for it to be seen, sweet huh? I'd never read it before so I didn't really know what to expect. It was hilarious, but very bawdy. Plenty of jokes and word play. And man were the actors good! The French Princess could be proper at one moment then go totally wild in the next with great zeal and relish, and the guys were all hilarious.

After the show, we saw St. Pauls lit up in the night sky and decided to head over on a little side quest. Rather than go strait back, we went to the cathedral, took a few sidestreets, and ended up at Blackfriars station. Once again, the London tube system is awesome. No hassle, no fuss. Of course, I tried to get a candid shot of Rachel, Stacy, and Katie, but Katie has some picture-taking sixth sense and managed to strike a pose. Oh well. Once we got back, Brandon, Rachel, Katie, and I had a late dinner/snack and tea before going off to bed. Yep, I actually managed to make the post the last thing I do in the day rather than just update it while the day goes on. Anyway, If there is a particular place you guys would like me to visit for you, leave a comment or something and I will head there sooner or later and check it out! Other than that, just check out the site a bit later. Right now, it's more like a report, but once I run out of new things to do you will probably start seeing more journal-type posts and my thoughts on life here in England (if you care about that sort of thing). Good night!

Day 3: Adjusting

2007-09-07T11:47:00.002-07:00

If I can get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight, I think I will the the happiest man alive ^__^

Anyway, on to today's update

So today we were given the chance to do a few more touristy things, but first we needed to register for our classes. After registering, Amy, Nick and I went and got lunch at a pub. I had some Bangers and Mash while the two of them had HUGE baguette breakfast sandwiches.

While on the subject of food, let me tell you: British food is not as bland as people claim it is. They seem to have an affinity for slightly sour tastes though (but not in a bad way). Also, if you ask for water in London, they get you a bottle of watter that costs about 1.40p (that's $2.80 here in the US). If you want the free water, you have to ask for tap water, something that seems to be taboo. Their tap water isn't bad though, so I don't know why they would make you have the bottled water. Probably a very European thing to do though.

After lunch, I lead the way to the book store once again, but this time with plenty of confidence. We got their and back to the center easily with plenty of time to spare for our Bus tour.

The tour itself was interesting, but i couldn't get a lot of good pictures >__<

This is the famous Tower of London. It was originally a fort designed to withstand months, even years of siege, but it was converted into a prison for people to stay "At the King's pleasure" for political crimes.

A bad picture of Westminster Abby

The Tower Bridges and the HMS Belfast

The Prime Minister's House

This house has no real historical importance, but you can see a few holes in the foundation. That's damage from the WWII bombings of London.

The Sphere on the left is the Mayor of London's office. The Phallus-looking building is nicknamed "The Gherkin" in polite circles, though there are other obvious names it's called.

This pub is older than the United States (as are many other buildings). "Modern" to them seems to be anything made after the 18th century.

Complete with the Texas flag at the front of it, this restaurant is placed in Embassy row. I was at first very confused to find that Texas of all places had it's own embassy, but upon closer examination it we saw this sign.

After the tour, I headed back and made diner for the first time I've been in London. I went out to buy all the stuff I would need, however there was one thing I needed that apparently the British don't have: Italian sausage. HOW DOS AN ENTIRE COUNTRY NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT ITALIAN SAUSAGE IS?!?!?!?! I had to substitute the sausage for a British banger with plum tomatoes and other close spices. The dish turned out alright, just not as good as if I had the real thing T__T

After dinner I lounged about in my dorm for a bit updating this site so you all could know I was still alive. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to a local pub to socialize with actual British people! One of the girls we met was very anti-American and acted like a bit of a jerk, but her friends were very cool and we had a good time for a bit. We ended up going to another pub afterwards, where we met even more of the locals by striking up conversations and enjoying a pint. Overall, it has been a nice night to not only meet a few locals but to get to know a few more of the other Americans here as well. My only regret for the night was not bringing my camera (I didn't want to lose it).

Day 2: Sleepless in London

2007-09-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Blarg, 4 hours of sleep is not helping the jet lag feeling >__<

That, and somehow Blogspot managed to delete most of this post when I went in and edited a spelling mistake >__<

Anyway, this morning I awoke to the sound of my phone's alarm and booked it to orientation.

Why am I using my phone for an alarm clock, you ask? Good question. I had brought my good clock from home and plugged it in on the first day, but my room mate's clock had a giant voltage adapter that started melting his converter and sent a surge though our room. It took out both our clocks in one fell swoop.

So I booked it off to Orientation, which was the usual introduction I was expecting. The teachers did their best to make it interesting and go by fast, and the were actually very humorous while they gave their speeches.

After orientation, Lauren (who I need to take a picture with still) and I went off to find the school bookstore.

You know how our cities are nice grid patterns with reference numbers and direction markers on our signs? London's streets are pure Chaos. They just crawl out and extend from the center of the city like a spider's web. The streets were originally just areas between buildings they hadn't put together, so there was never really a plan to begin with. You would think a city with 7.5 million people would have better roads!!!!

Lauren and I found the store and took the Tube (subway) back to the IES Hall. We met up with a few friends and went grocery shopping down the street.

After lounging about in the lounge for a few hours with Brandon, Rachel, and a few others, we all decided it was finally time to head out and enjoy the town. We all got snazzed up a bit and (after an hour of waiting for people to get ready) went to look for the World's End pub. Problem is: that pub doesn't exist. So, we just headed back to the pub by our dorm and got a beer before it closed down. A few of the others decided to go to Piccadilly Circus (Not like "Barnum and Baily" though, it's an area name), but I was feeling tired from my lack of sleep so I turned in for the night. I unfortunately hit my second wind as I got into the room and couldn't get to sleep until about 2:00 though >__<

Day 1: Just getting started

2007-09-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Woke up on the plane due to having breakfast shoved in my face, which was a really bad croissant and fruit. Blech. Needless to say, I was a bit tired as we stepped off the tarmac and got into our taxi. Our cabbie was really nice and reliable: apparently cabbies in London have to memorize over 26,000 street names in order to be a real cabbie. I really regret not asking to take a picture with him, but at the time I didn’t want to look all touristy. Made it to the house, got moved in, and then went strait downstairs into our orientations. We all got introduced (I’ve met a lot of people, but I hardly remember their names >_<), then headed off to South Kensington station to pick up our “oyster passes” (train passcards) so we could go out and about on the busses and the tube.

Once done with that, we had a social hour where we were give FREE pizza and encouraged to talk to one another, something I enjoyed greatly. Got to know a few more people, then decided to go upstairs for a bit. I ended up falling asleep on my bed for about two hours, but my roommate came back in and woke me up. Once up, I could not bring myself to go back to sleep, so I stayed up and read Harry Potter some more until it was 4 in the morning >__<

Here's the view from my new room:

Day 0: On my way

2007-09-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Aimin came by the house to wait out a few hours before going to London, and her mom was gracious enough to drop me and her off at Ohare. After my goodbyes, we headed off to Ohare 3 hours early (so as not to be late thanks to heightened security like the handbook suggested). It took us a half an hour to get through all the checkpoints, so we waited around in the lounge for a bit watching a movie on her laptop. Unfortunately, or flight was delayed, so we spent the remainder of our time playing euchre with two fellows sitting near us.

Finally boarded the plane at 10:10, sat down in my not so swanky coach class seat, pulled out my book, and began to read my book while we waited another half an hour to take off. Finally got in the air at 10:45 and on the way to London! Though our seats were not so great, our airplane food was a delicious Indian cuisine (best airline food I’ve ever had, though not the best Indian food). I got through about half of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” before I decided that maybe staying up 48 hours would be a bad idea, so I went to sleep at an undetermined time.

Day: -1

2007-09-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

I had a dream tonight that after I came home from London the Primaries had ended and the candidates were Hugo Weaving (of "V for Vendetta" fame) for the Dems and Mitt Rommy for the Republicans. I think if this happens for real I'll just stay in London (nothing against Mitt, but if the American people really think that someone who plays a revolutionary in a movie will actually be a good president, then it's not even worth voting anymore).