Countin' down ...

The past few days have gone by in a blur, as we all have been preparing for Spring Break. On Sunday Coleen and I went to service at St. Paul's and I worked on a Philo paper all day. I took a break to watch the Man U match with TJ at the Pride and had an early night. In class on Monday we talked about taxes. Professor Heffernan said that most British are ok with paying higher income taxes than Americans because their paychecks are deducted automatically, and most Europeans expect a high amount of "Free" services from their government. He also described a lot of the hidden taxes that British pay, like the included VAT tax on all merchandise sales and the tv subscription fee. Imagine if all Americans had to pay 60 dollars a year to have a tv set in their homes? Ludicrous if you ask me.

Anyway, my day at work on Tuesday was very hectic. A professor from Notre Dame who is in charge of the abroad programs was in town and wanted to see the Parliamentary interns at work. Andrew and I walked into Westminster with her from the flats, talking about some of NDs plans for future abroad programs. Her job is very exciting, as she is travelling the world this week to scope out a few new potential sites for ND abroad programs. When we arrived in Portucllis we waited while she went through security, which we both found entertaining. I brought her up to my boss's office and introduced her to my office managers and my boss who was hustling out to make it to Committee. Simon took her on another excellent tour of Parliament and I tagged along. I remembered a lot more the second time around, so I will be able to give a knowledgeable tour when I get back from break. After the tour I hung out with the ND person in the atrium of Portcullis and had coffee. She picked my brain about how the London program is going and I offered my thoughts and suggestions. It was cool getting a very inside perspective on the abroad programs and how they function. She enjoyed getting some one-on-one time with an intern, which she said does not happen very often. We met Andrew and Meg for lunch and talked politics, and she treated us on behalf of ND.

After lunch I returned to the office to find papers on the floor with drafts of the election leaflet my managers had been working on for my boss. Every MP gets one free pamphlet distributed to every member in the constituency, so in Wales my boss's brochure will compete with about six other parties -- so it has to be good. I summarized some PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) emails about various topics that will come up in the election -- Immigration, Defense, Education, etc. Each email had a lot of stats, some quotes from ministers, and bad things that the opponents did. I summarized six emails in one page and handed it to my managers for their use in election materials. I also proofread some of the pamphlet drafts and added my marketing expertise to them. No idea if they will accept my visual changes, but that would be pretty cool. It would be awesome if I could go out to Wales and canvass for them, but that might be a pipe dream. After congregating some more emails I left around five and met Andrew. We tried to go to one of the bars in Parliament called the Sports and Social, but we couldn't find it so we went to a martini bar in Covent Garden for half priced happy hour. It was my first martini, so I took a picture to Andrew's dismay. There were a lot of trendy lookin people in there, but we fit right in with our work clothes on. I decided I like martinis too.

Today was a blur packing and getting ready for break. I have all of my stuff packed and ready and all of our itineraries printed out. Tomorrow I go into work for an early day, and then off to Victoria station, Stansted, and Pisa! I will be away from the blog for over a week, but I will have stories to tell when I get back. Hopefully I will be able to remember all of it. I will have a journal with me and I will write stuff down. Until then, pray that the Euro drops (but not too much) and that we don't get lost!

I wonder if they had ale-trails in Roman London ...

So before I forget I am going to journal about the Friday pub crawl and the Museum of London. On Friday we went into our last theatre class of the semester and talked about Dunsinane. As our last activity, Professor Duff made us act out scenes portrayed on postcards he handed out to us. We had to act out something before the postcard picture, then freeze frame for whatever the postcard was, and act out something after. Of course, Professor hands my group of four a postcard from the National Gallery of Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode, the painting series I had looked at yesterday! It was quite convenient I had looked at those pictures, as I knew what happened before and after the postcard. We took some liberties with the scene and made it look like it was a violin-lesson gone awry (notice the instrument on the fallen chair). I was the girl, and TJ was the upset husband.

After class TJ and I did the Westminster to Piccadilly pub crawl, five historical bars down by Parliament and Piccadilly circus. The first pub was on Whitehall near class, called the Old Shades, famous because it is old or something. After that we walked past the Palace and down to an old pub frequented by a lot of MPs, the Marquis of Granby (named after some benevolent noble who gave lots of money to his soldiers). So many MPs went to this place that the division bell still rings in the speaker's bar upstairs. The division bell is an annoying high pitched chime that goes off for about 30 seconds in the Parliament buildings to signal a vote. It was friday so not too many politicians were in there, and there were no votes scheduled. Apparently T.S. Elliot used to hang out here too, so TJ and I have drank with the likes of Henry VIII, Dickens, and Elliot. Makes the Backer look pretty crappy. I guess Rudy drank at Corby's, so that's cool I guess.

After the Marquis, we went off to the Feathers, a pub right by Scotland Yard. This one actually had a dress code, which I thought was funny. TJ and I laughed about how our parents over react to our pub adventures. We took this crawl at a lot more leisurely pace so as not to get drunk and so I wouldn't fall asleep at 8pm again. Drinking and eating at pubs has a lot less negative connotation here than in the states. If someone stops at the pub after work for a pint in England, which is a cultural tradition, no one will care, as usually it is just a pint. If someone stops at a bar before going home in the states, they are alcoholics. We witnessed the pubs filling up a lot more as the time approached five o'clock. After the Feathers we trekked across St. James Park up towards Piccadilly and the Clarence, an old pub near to where Chopin used to live and compose. We learned that a piccadilly is a derivation of a type of collared shirt that they used to sell near Piccadilly Circus, which is why there are dozens of extravagant dress-clothing shops around this area. I drooled over some of the dress shirts and ties in the shop windows, as I am getting sick of my three shirts and four ties already. We got fish n chips and a pint at the Clarence and walked to the nearby King's Head. It was extremely busy at this point so TJ and I had to elbow our way inside to get our t-shirts, and we took our pints outside to finish the crawl. I got coffee after we got off the tube to keep me awake, and was relatively sober by 8 o clock. Later in the night I watched the USA open up a can of whoopass on Finland in hockey, then I went to the Slaughtered Lamb, a sortof weird pub/club near our flats with a lot of middle aged locals. Sortof a counter-cultural feel to the place, as their symbol is a pentogram. No complaints besides the weird 70's American music though.

This morning I woke up early (read:11) and went for a nice run, applied for an internship, and did laundry. At about three, Coleen, Colin, and I went to the Museum of London near St. Paul's, since we all wanted to do something touristy with our Saturday. This Museum was by far the most informative I have been to. I follows the history of the city of London from pre-historic times through the Romans and middle ages, all the way through Empire and the modern ages. I thought the pre-historic exhibits were very cool, as it displayed the numerous human relatives who occupied the region, and how the climate changed (wait, the climate changed before SUVs?) on the island to make it swing from being livable/unlivable to humans for hundreds of thousands of years. They had ancient bones and weapons found in the Thames basin. The Roman exhibits were also cool, as they showed the boundaries of the old Roman settlement (the white lines in the picture) compared to the modern city. Out flats are about 1o minutes from the ancient Roman outer walls and the old city.

The exhibit on the middle ages was also very informative. For some reason this period always interests me, as it is sortof a lost period in history between the Romans and Renaissance. Everyone always forgets what they learned about the Dark Ages besides the crusades and the plague, so it was nice to be updated on the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans, and the Vikings, all of whom fought for control of England. The museum was organized much better than the British Museum, and they had stuff for kids and families, sortof reminding me of the Science Center back home. They arranged the info so you could synthesize it much easier on a timeline than in the British Museum, which is arranged by category in a garage sale, "look at all this crap we plundered from other countries" sort of way. Sometimes less is more in Museums, but both serve their purpose.

In the beginning of the Great Fire exhibit, they had the tunic that Charles I was supposedly executed in, which was way cool. I loved the way they blandly described his beheading on the plaque and how there was no blood on the tunic since it would have squirted the other way. I got in trouble for taking a flash picture of a case nearby, so I had to sneak a pic without the flash on. I would definitely recommend this place to get a good grasp on the history of London itself through the ages. Some more details on the monarchical history, especially in the middle ages, would have been cool too. This is definitely worth an afternoon visit, and it won't take too long since the 1800's exhibits onward are closed for renovation. They even have an excavation of the old Roman outer walls there. The museum stands on the northwest corner of the ancient city. Two good historical afternoons, only one of them involving alcohol. Now we are going out to dinner tonight, and then I am not exactly sure. But I am positive I will let my few but faithful readers know about it soon enough.

Parliamentary Privilege

My day at Westminster provided some new opportunities and some interesting conversation. I started off the day by getting my long coveted security pass. Now I can take people on tours and go wherever I want unescorted! Realistically, though, this means I am an official worker and not just a visitor who is helping out. I made a funny face on my last printed security pass through security to celebrate. I spent the day finishing the constituent letters about cider taxes, post office financial services (unheard of in the US) and a grocery ombudsman to promote fair suppliers. Peter was gone today moving to a new house, so I was left the entire day to talk with Simon about the theatre and politics and career goals. It was different with only one office manager in the house and my boss gone most of the day. We definitely had a more personal conversation at lunch about our own career aspirations and how Simon came to work in Parliament, etc. I told him I had no idea what I wanted to do this summer or with my life. It seems like he wanted to work in policy all of his life, which made his career path much more clear. I felt much more at home at work today than I had before, as we joked about the theatre and he gave me advice about shows to see. My boss, who normally only talks to me professionally, said hello to me very cordially this morning. I was surprised he called me Charlie instead of Charles.

The day went by fairly fast, and Simon let me go early when I finished the letters. I learned a lot today about the British Post Office and how they have individual post office franchises that use the government sponsored Royal Mail system, which is different than the government monopolized Postal Service. They are considering offering more financial services like savings accounts and debit cards at the post office -- which is hard for me to wrap my head around. Simon said he didn't know much about it either and was surprised at my vague grasp of the system. I used my first Parliamentary Privilege when I left by myself -- usually I have to have someone with a security pass let me out of the building. I bought a government subsidized hot chocolate at the Despatch Box, a little cafe in the building that serves drinks for meetings. Best Hot Chocolate on the Continent apparently, for only 1.15! Thanks, Government!

After work I wasted a few minutes in the National Portrait Gallery, which is the big building on Trafalgar Square right next to school. I looked at some Hogarth and Rembrandt in about 20 minutes before I got bored. You can only look at so many paintings by yourself until you realize you have more important things to do. But Hogarth's Wedding A La Mode series was really cool. He was a British painter from the 1600's (I think) who basically was the first to make popular, sitcom-esque, satirical paintings that everyone could understand. His five painting series ridiculed the upper class, characterizing them as spoiled inbreds who had no regard for the people around them. These five paintings are like a brutal version of Desperate Housewives in portrait form. Cool stuff. I wish I new more about paintings so I could spend more than ten seconds on a picture without moving on because I got bored. I got antsy so I left and went to the basement of the LC to waste time.

After the Gallery I went back to the LC for a talk by Stryker McGuire, a journalist who used to work for Newsweek as the London Bureau Chief. It was an alumni-student lecture series, so a lot of local ND alums from London showed up, as well as about ten students. The presentation was about whether reporting is dead or not. Stryker said it wasn't, and the group had a good talk about the state of the news media. I asked the last question in Q and A, asking him to predict what the media landscape will look like in twenty years. He said there will still be a place for books, magazines, and journals, but most of us "will move to the screens," meaning that the news media will become more and more centralized on products the Kindle and the Ipad. This could be a good thing, in my opinion, as people can get multiple news sources, legitimate ones, in one package and read them at once, which will help the industry survive. A lot of the talk revolved around how the industry can deliver good journalism while remaining profitable, a difficult task indeed.

After the presentation came the reception, complete with drinks provided by ND, an impossibility back home. We schmoozed with some local alumni. Most people thought I was an alum because I still had my suit and pass on. That made me feel awesome. I told people I worked in Parliament, which got varying reactions from the American ND alums living in London. Most people want to talk about the expenses scandal and how horrible MPs are for taking advantage of taxpayers' money. One banker said that if a business person were to claim expenses like an MP, he would be thrown in jail, adding that it was a "double standard" since MPs have government privilege. I was extremely tempted to remind him about the EXORBITANT bonuses bankers collect while their balance sheets crumble along with the middle class's retirement, but I held my tongue. Double Standard my ass. I also talked with Mr. McGuire a bit about his coverage of the Blair government and what he thought about Gordon Brown. He said he thought Gordon wasn't really suited for some aspects of the PM job, since he is way too personally sensitive. I tended to agree and said so, but I tried to talk carefully about my thoughts since I work for Labour and he is a journalist. He knew who my boss was since he was a minister in the Blair government, and he asked me about the composition of my office and compared it to a Congressional office of the same size. I again watched my tongue slightly when I talked about my boss. You never know when someone is watching you, isn't that right, person that snooped my blog? I do think Brown would do just as good if not a better job than Cameron if Labour wins re-election in May.

I am very glad I went to the talk tonight, as I realized how privileged I am 1. to go to an awesome school such as ND with a brilliant alumni network and 2. that I have an extremely special internship experience. It was great talking with alumni intellectually, an experience I think ND does not cultivate well enough back home. I had a good rant/talk with Kayla, a friend of Coleen's, about how ND needs to promote more student/alumni/professor gatherings like this instead of forcing us to shut ourselves in the library all week. Our profs, especially the academic director Professor Kucich, were almost grabbing us and bringing us around to the alums and introducing us, then conveniently disappearing to let us do our networking. That needs to happen more at Notre Dame in Indiana. I have learned so much more in a month here in London than I would have studying the same stuff in Indiana, just because of days like today. But enough ranting, now it's time to wind down and head off to O'Neill's. Peace Out.

Bullygate

Monday politics class was interesting. We talked about Bullygate -- the weekend revelation that some people were harassed at No 10., potentially by Gordon Brown himself, over the past few years. It has caused a firestorm in the press here, and it sparked a discussion at work today. I went in at the usual time and began answering a mountain of invitations to various receptions and events for policy interest groups and committees, etc. I also answered a few constituent letters regarding some interesting topics including the tax rates on beer and cider. Cider here is extremely cheap, which makes it our drink of choice. You can get a 3 liter bottle of strong, dry cider for 3 pounds (equivalent to about 6 points), whereas a 4-pack of beer costs about 5 pounds. Today I found out why. Apparently the excise tax on cider is a lot less than on beer because the country wanted to support apple growers in the rest of the country, so you pay more to the Chancellor when you buy a pint than you do a bottle of Strongbow (which is the best cider ever. It tastes like crappy Andre champagne). So anyway I just thought that was interesting. I also will be getting my security pass on Thursday, so I will be able to go into the Parliament pubs and take my friends and visitors on tours through the Commons (making up stuff along the way).

We talked about Bullygate and how Labour is actually closing the gap in the polls, down only 6 points now. It is the Tories election to lose, and this hubub about Gordon Brown having a bad temper with his employees, Simon thinks, could actually help the PM since it humanizes him (albeit as a frustrated leader who relieves stress by grabbing people's lapels and yelling at them). All of the media hype has been relatively over done, and the Tories could look like they are belaboring a weak point if they keep attacking him for bullying while they should be focusing on issues. Seems like there is a lot of distraction from the issues in politics these days. PMQs tomorrow should be interesting, as well as the televised Obama/GOP healthcare showdown on Thursday and Gordon's interview with the Iraq inquiry. It should be a good week of political theatre for the BBC. I'm especially looking forward to watching Obama try to trick the public into buying a public option after it has already failed once. Should be fun.

Speaking of really good speakers, we had another mandatory program gathering at the LC today about post-imperial Europe and how London compares to other European cities (useful since it is right before Spring Break). Our speaker is apparently a hot commodity right now, and he gave us great advice on understanding the cultural and religious tensions in European countries. It was almost a review of our Politics of Islam in Europe class when he mentioned how France is struggling to incorporate its 10% Muslim population. There's not a lot of stuff France is good at (I'll give em the wine, food, and being snobby, that's it). After the talk TJ and I asked him where the best place to get a City of London flag was. TJ and I are both collecting flags of everywhere we go to add to our collections. He seemed fascinated with our interest in flags and racked his brain trying to think of a flag store. He told us to go back to Greenwich Market. After talking for a bit about France, we got dinner at Burger King (not as good here, and more expensive) and went out to a suburb for our final play for theatre class.

The play was called Dunsinane, and it was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company as a sequel to Macbeth. It was basically about Macduff and Malcolm after they take over Scotland and attempt to rule the kingdom as Englishmen. It pokes fun at Scottish and English culture and highlights the differences and rivalries between the two. It was written by a Scot, but most of the English in the crowd seemed to enjoy it quite thoroughly. It also had nice parallels to recent invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan and how the West has struggled to comprehend how to set up a working government in the two countries. The writing, staging, score, and acting was marvelous. My only complaint was the size of the seats. I was squirming in my seat towards the end of the first act because there was no leg room. Other than that, it was a stellar experience to end the class on. I might even tag along to some of the plays the next section is seeing after break since this class has been so fun. Next up for the fine arts class is Church Music, which for some reason I think will be a lot less fun.

Pub Crawlin', Dublin Ballin'

The past four days have been an adventure. First, the Thursday pub crawl. Since none of us had class in the afternoon, TJ, Coleen, Peter, David, and I decided to complete the Historic Blackfriars Ale Trail, a nice little trek near the Thames around five historical pubs. We found this website with a lot of themed pub crawls, and this one was nearest to our flats. We began at Dogget's, a multi-level pub on the Thames next to the bridge near our flats. The view of the barges loafing down the river on a rather dreary, rainy day made me feel like I was on an ocean (that and I got an ale with a clipper ship on its label). This pub was the youngest of the five we went to, and it didn't have much of a history besides being used to watch the annual crew race between Oxford and Cambridge.

After Dogget's we crossed back to our side of the river and found the next stop - the Black Friar pub. This pub was by far my favorite in London so far. It is on the site of an old monastery from the 1200's (hence the name). It is also the place where Henry VIII attempted to persuade the delegation from Rome that it was okay for him to divorce his wife. This pub was built in 1875, and its awkward triangular shape reflects the former presence of other buildings and alleyways around it. This and the Cheshire Cheese definitely had the most history of the pubs I have been to.

On the way to stop #3, we got a little lost in the Financial district behind St. Pauls. We finally found Ye Olde Watling, a pub full of business men coming in for a late afternoon pint. We finished a pint quickly here, as Peter had to make it back for the opera. Picking up the pace proved to be an awful idea, as I will explain later. A few blocks away was Williamson's Tavern, where the bartender told me about his favorite bars on the pub crawl. Some people at the bar talked to us for a bit. I've found that when you travel in smaller groups, the locals are usually very friendly and interested in what the American kids are doing in there. We picked up the pace even more and finished our fourth bitter in about 2 hours. On the walk back to the Old Belle, our final stop, we were all feeling pretty drunk. Coleen, the only female, was a champ and survived the whole thing. I poured about half of her pint into mine at the final stop (for some reason we all picked the highest ABV content beer in the place. Bad idea) when she wasn't looking, but she still performed admirably. When they stamped our sheets, the bartender gave us all t-shirts for finishing the crawl. I think all of the pubs are allied together or use the same distributorships, because every pub had the same beers on the pumps and the same menus. After I choked down my 1.5 pints, we headed back to the flats considerably intoxicated.

Coleen took a nap while I cooked a dinner of pizza and potatoes. I ate a lot of food and then took a loong nap, waking up at 11pm with a massive hangover. I think it was more my body being very angry for eating so much food after drinking a lot, and then waking up at a really awkward time, than the actual beer I drank. Either way, I took a long shower and tried to fall asleep to no avail. After a rough time I finally fell asleep at about four am.

Lessons learned:

Start pub crawl later in the day
Don't cram five pints into two and a half hours
Hydrate throughout
Eat food along the way instead of gorging after
Don't pass out at 7pm

The pub crawl was actually very interesting, and they are good ways to get you out into areas you normally wouldn't see. We never would have found these pubs on our own. For next time, however, (and there will be a next time), I will be more prepared and perhaps order food instead of beer at one of the stops. I would like to take my family on a Landis family Ale Trail, but I think we would have to alternate whoever get's the pint at each stop.

Now, onto the Ireland trip. I woke up on Friday extremely tired but not at all hungover, thank God. I bought Kristin a birthday muffin and struggled through Theatre, where we took the easiest quiz on theatre history I could have ever imagined. TJ and I left right from the London Center and walked to Victoria Station for our bus to Stansted Airport. It took us forever to find the bus depot, but we made it to the airport in time to check in. Ryan Air is a joke of an airline, and the flight was one gigantic punchline. TJ and I were making fun of this crappy airline and their exorbitant hidden fees the whole flight. The flight attendants were hawking cigarettes, scratcher tickets, and food the entire flight. Their were ads on the overhead bins and the seats don't lean back. Want a glass of OJ? It'll cost ya! When they land on time they play the Kentucky Derby bugle song and brag about how 90% of their flights are on time. Our flight home was delayed, btw. I really want to punch RyanAir in the face.

When we finally landed and made it via bus to UCD, where Kristin lives, we met up with Emily from Rome and Griffin from Toledo for a little reunion of our South Bend group of friends. It was a little piece of Knott Hall in Ireland, and it made me feel a lot less homesick about being away from school. I kindof felt sad that this won't happen nearly as often next year, as we will all be scattered off campus (including me, thank you brojo). We went out to dinner at a bar in the city center called Clarendon. I had a Guinness (duh) and Shepherd's pie and some excellent cheesecake. Dublin is EXPENSIVE. Beer is five euro pretty much across the board, compared to 3 pounds in London. Food is insanely pricey too. This place was pretty good though. After dinner we went back to Kristin's dorm and had a surprise b-day for her, and all of the ND people from Dublin were there.

Her older sister arranged VIP passes for us for at a club all the way from America. So we went back into town for a private room at Club M, supposedly one of the hottest clubs in Dublin. The experience was pretty fun, but expensive. Emily had a 12 Euro long island. TJ, Griff, and I weren't really into the dancing thing, so we hung out in our private room while the girls danced with the creepy Europeans. It was fun sitting behind a velvet rope and kicking people out when they tried to come into our little area. I was expecting more trashy European techno, but they played American dance pop, just like every other bar in Dublin. We were all pretty tired from traveling, so we left early (in club terms) at 2 am and went back to the dorms, only to stay up longer talking.

On Saturday we woke up late and went into town. Kristin gave us a brief Dublin history tour, and we stopped in and bought some Guinness souvenirs before the beer tour. Dublin is soooo much smaller than London. You can get from suburbs where UCD is to downtown in about 2o minutes. Got a lot more of an StL small town feel than you do in sprawling London. We made it to the Guiness brewery and stopped and took picutres at the first sign we could see. We took a lot of group shots together to make our friend's from home jealous.

The Guiness tour was expensive (11 euro), but worth it. We learned out the company's extenisve history and how a stout is made. I kept telling people that the A-B tour is better because it is free, but no one believed me. At the top of the storehouse where the tour is, there is a bar overlooking all of Dublin where you turn in your ticket for a free pint. The Guinness in Dublin is delicious. It tastes like ice cream, according to Kristin. No one knows how to pour Guinness back home, and it is much fresher in Europe. I'm going to be spoiled when I get back. I don't think I will be able to go back to the light sweet American pilsners either since I have been drinking so much bitter ale and Strongbow cider. We walked out with a lot of souvenir glasses. I am sending one to Jimmy since he is Irish.

After the tour we hopped on a train to Howth, a little seaside village near Dublin, for a cliff walk. We got there right as the sun was setting, so we didn't make it as far along as I would have liked. Seeing the sun set over the sea on a grassy knoll was still one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. It made it even prettier because of the people I was with. A little old dog also followed us on our little walk up the side streets of Howth. We named him Bennett after my roommate back at school. The cottages along the street have the most beautiful views overlooking the calm sea. We watched the sun set and sat on a little grassy ledge and talked for a while. I would love to retire to a little place like this and open up a little coffee shop and just talk to people who come in.

We ate dinner at the Bloody Stream, a nice pub with a big fireplace right by the train station. There were a lot of locals in there. The Irish accent is so cool. This pub was pretty much as close to what I had imagined Ireland would be. Warm fire, old wooden tables, accents, Irish ales. It was perfect. They were playing American pop over the speakers though, which I always find funny. After dinner TJ wanted to walk away with a Beamish glass he had drank his beer out of. Instead of stealing it, he was bold enough to ask the barkeep if he could buy the glass off of him. He said he was an American studying abroad and trying to collect pub glasses and if he could purchase this one from the pub. The bartender looked at him and was like "that one?" sure. He even took the dirty class and gave TJ a new clean one. For free. Ask and you shall receive. From then on we just asked the bar instead of walking out with them.

After dinner we went to another pub, discussed the Monty Hall problem among other intellectual topics and made it an early night. We shut ourselves in Kristin's room and watched youtube videos and gossiped, etc. Typical ND college night, except transferred to Dublin. It was such a surreal experience, all of us being together in another country and touring like we were family. It was cool being in the land of my Mom's ancestors. I felt somehow connected to the folks in Ireland because I know I have a little Irish blood in me somewhere. Usually I get mad at people who brag about their heritage back home -- "I'm Italian so I know how to cook pasta. I'm German/Irish/Russian so I know how to drink." No you don't. Get over yourself. You are American first and foremost. I did feel a little proud of being a McGoron though. And I am Irish so I can knock back the Guinness with the best of them, thank you very much.

Sunday morning we woke up earlier and went into town for an Irish breakfast. Nobody was bold or wealthy enough to order the traditional full breakfast, complete with blood sausage and God knows what else, but they did serve baked beans and really good sausage links with the food. We walked around some more shops, and TJ and I perused some rugby jerseys and looked for the four provinces flag to take home as a souvenir. I was extremely tempted to buy a Rugby jersey from Ireland or Wales and a ukulele for 20 euro but I couldn't justify it since I am going on Spring Break soon. I wish I had a little more money to get souvenirs, but I guess part of this whole experience is being a poor student and doing stuff on the cheap -- just poor enough to want to bring your family back when you are older, which I will for sure.

We stopped in the bar called the International Bar for lunch. 3.50 euro sandwiches? Sign me up. This was a much smaller pub, but just as Irishy looking as the other one. Right after we sat down, four old men sat in the table next to us and began tuning their banjo and guitars. This is gonna be awesome. Indeed, they began playing Irish folk music sitting about two feet away from me. Their accents made the songs that much more fokey. They even had the traditional Irish thumpy drum. I forget what it was called. We listened contently until I discovered that one of the guys had a Harp glass, a beer glass TJ, Griffin, and I had been looking for for a while. It was like the holy grail of this trip, so we both went up to the bar and ordered another pint just for the glass (thank you Mom for the bank deposit -- it got us another drink and made us stay longer for the hilarity about to ensue).

As we were enjoying our pints, a huge group of 20-30 somethings rolls in the pub, and crowds in the doorway. There was about 12 of them, all drunk, on a bachelor party pub-crawl for one of the guys. They sat in the tables next to us and began singing along with the folk band. They sang so loud and drunkenly the band leader challenged one of them to sing for himself. We were trapped in between an awesome Irish folk sing off. The two groups traded songs while us four (Griff had left for the airport) sat in the middle and laughed about how perfect this scene was. One of the bachelor party introduced himself to us and told us what they were doing. We told them we were from America, and the conversation began. We talked for probably 40 minutes with these people and Ireland and the US. They were very interested in where we were from. One of the guys had just been to Cleveland and South Carolina and said the people in both places were very unhappy (I defended the Palmetto state admirably, however).

Every once in a while they would break out into a "USA! USA! USA!" chant and we would join in. They also did a "Yes we can!" chant (gentle eye roll from Charlie) and an "Afghanistan!" chant (collective "oh, hey now" from all four of us). They were very good spirited though, and their chants were not malicious, just gentle ribbing. They admitted that they are all alcoholics, so I guess it was a draw. They invited us off to another pub to come with them, but Emily had to catch her flight back to Rome. As we stood up to leave, I put on my jacket and scarf and one of the guys pointed at me and shouted "Louie!" All of the other guys all looked at me and smiled and shouted Louie, too. Apparently I look like one of their friends, but only with my coat on. They begged us to stay for one more song, and the band played while one of the bachelor party guys sang what I guess was Louie's song. At then end they all chanted "Louie Louie Louie!" and looked at me. Thoroughly confused, I thrust my fist in the air and started a USA chant as we left the bar, Harp glasses in hand. It was a perfect moment to end the trip on. We laughed the entire way back. It was sad leaving Dublin so soon, but a wonderful weekend with some of my closest friends. I would love to get out to the Irish countryside someday and go back to Howth and finish our cliff walk. Someday. The flight back to London was uneventful, and TJ and I got off the bus early and wandered through the financial district back to the flats. It made me very excited to go on Spring Break with some of my newest friends (and my girlfriend). I will have so many memories and experiences to share when I get home. If only my friends from StL could make it out here, too.

Time flies when you're complaining about stuff

It's almost two in the morning here, but I'm not tired, so I figured I'd journal about the past few days before I lose it into the depths of my memory. Monday images class was pretty useless. Sometimes Professor Janes talks to us like children. The class was about being Muslim in Britain. Yes we know what Muslims are, Professor. Anyway politics class was entertaining as usual. Professor Heffernan gave the class pretty much the same lecture he gave the interns about partisanship and why the parties are strong here, so class was pretty easy. I would love to take this guy out for drinks, because his stories are fabulous. I think the interns are planning on doing that at the end of the semester. In our intern class we talked about constituency correspondance and all the crazy letters our MPs get. Our letters are tame compared to some of the conspiracy theorists the other interns get.

Monday night I studied for Macro a bit and then went to the Exmouth Arms for our student-negotiated drink specials. The bartenders there are awesome. Tuesday I didn't have work because of recess, so I stayed in all day and worked on a few papers and caught up on homework. Every time I heard the office talk about recess last week, I kept imagining my boss and the rest of Parliament shouting "Receeesssssss!!!" at the top of their lungs and running around the House of Commons with their arms flailing and everyone giggling loudly like they were in grade school. Sadly that's not how recess works here. I finally left the flats at about 6:30 to trek off to Hammersmith, a western suburb, for our show for theater class. TJ, David, and I misjudged the time it took to get all the way to the end of the tube line, and we had to sprint from the tube stop to the Lyric Hammersmith theatre to make it on time.

The play, The Three Sisters, was an adaptation of the old Checkov masterpiece, and by golly was it awful. Seriously it was the worst production I have ever seen. Senior Follies at SLUH was more professional than this. It was supposed to be a modern adaptation of the play, but it failed in pretty much every respect. The plot line was disjointed, the stage manager walked through the set a few times (I guess it was supposed to be trendy) and the sound board was visible on stage right. They played really weird mashup music at changeover intervals. If Girl Talk were alive in the 20's, these are the mashups he would have made. Half the class left at intermission, including our professor who had already seen the rest of it. About ten of us stayed including me. I figured I only had one chance to make it out to Hammersmith so I might as well stick around. I got some coffee to get me through the second half, which was better than the first, but still lacking coherence and way too avant-garde for me. You win some you lose some I guess. At least the little square it was in was kindof cool and trendy looking. The tube ride home went by real fast, because we were all ripping on the play the whole way back. That part was fun.

Today I struggled through Philo without my mocha (decided to forgo due to Ash Wednesday) and then took the Macro test, which turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. We then had a program mass at the London Center and got ashes. Coleen cooked salmon for dinner and I stayed in to work on some theater reviews. Tomorrow we are planning on doing an Ale Trail around our flats. There is a website with different pub crawls in London that take you to historical spots. It should be a fun time. We will start in the afternoon so we can make it home in time to pack for Ireland (yeah, TJ and I are going to Dublin on Friday for Kristin's birthday) and eat dinner. Hopefully I can blog about our cultural drinking learning experience tomorrow night. I might try to make it to the changing of the horse guards tomorrow if I get up in time. Oh and it was a gorgeous day today, the first good weather we have had. Trafalgar square was packed, and I took a picture of the Canadian embassy with all its flags waving. They are soo pumped about having the Olympics.

Missin' Bob Costas

Last night after Rugby a group of us decided to go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of the oldest continuously operating pubs in London off of Fleet Street. It is famous for its English pub food and its overal gloomy charm. Charles Dickens was a regular, and he references the pub in A Tale of Two Cities. The pub is sort of in a side alley, and the stairs reflect the oldness of the place. All of us had to duck to get to the bar area downstairs. There are three sublevels to the place with little nooks and tables crammed everywhere. The lack of lighting made pictures difficult, but it was what I thought of when I had imagined an English pub before I came here. They serve Samuel Smith's, which is a cheap local brew that only comes from the pumps. You can get two brewery bitters and have leftover from a 5 pound note. We stood in one of the levels and talked for a while until a table opened. One of the girls with us picked up a British guy and is going on a date with him on Tuesday. He had greasy hair.

On Sunday morning Coleen and I went to mass at Sts Peter and Paul in Islington. The priest asked the congregation to take a pez-dispenser like candy thing, eat the sweets for Fat Tuesday, and put money in the container throughout Lent and return it full on Easter for charity. I thought that was a cool charity idea. After mass I walked down to Piccadilly with Jonathan to look at some soccer jerseys that were on sale. Most of the selection focused on Chelsea and Man U so I didn't get anything, but Jon picked up a Liverpool jersey for 20 pounds. I bought an England soccer cap with the St. George's cross for 3 pounds. Now my head can be warm again. We also stopped into the Ferrari store past Regent street. It was like a Harley Davidson store on crack. They had every sort of merchandise in there, from shirts to jackets to teddy bears, shoes and even bicycles. The markup was insane. 35 pounds for a t-shirt and 750 pounds for a leather jacket with the Ferrari lion on it. The marketing major in me got really excited about that company's impressive brand management. Perfect marketing management to make people pay 40 pounds for a wallet that cost two pounds to make, just because there is a lion stamp on it. Ferrari gets money, and the customer gets a status symbol. We also went to Hanley's, which is the huge toy store in London, similar to FAO Schwarz in New York. It was a wonderland of toys, and I bought Coleen a teddy bear for Valentine's Day (yeah, we're dating now).

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework, and then took Coleen out to dinner at The Green, a trendy looking pub/kitchen near our flats. The dinner was very traditional English. Too English. I had beef and they gave us a weird vegetable plate with some sort of pastry and gravy. But it was still pretty good. They didn't have my reservation and just sat us in with the rest of the pub, which was weird at first. After dinner we went to an American diner called Tinseltown for desert and got milkshakes. Valentine's Day in England is much more tame. After dinner we were watching Apacalypto (awful movie) on BBC and venting about how there was no Olympic coverage when our rector Ric walked in and pressed a magical button on the remote to pull up a whole menu of on demand BBC sports coverage. I was overjoyed that I can watch the entire Olympic hockey tournament now (except for the US opening game on Tuesday, cause I will be at a play). The BBC coverage is atrocious though, perhaps because they have no good athletes in the games. I never thought I would say this, but I miss Bob Costas. Sitting in front of that fake NBC fireplace with the musical genius of John Williams playing the background and interviewing silver medalists for their 15 minutes of fame. That's my Olympics. I'm glad the rest of my flat turns into ultra-nationalists during Olympic week just like me. Right now the four of us guys are watching figure skating and loving it. We rejoiced in our women's hockey domination of the commie Chinese 12-1 today. God Bless America.