London - 18 Feb 06

18 Feb 06, Saturday

I didn’t manage to write the rest of the weekdays. I don’t really know why.

For class on Wednesday we visited a local Hindu temple. I was in an accepting and welcoming mood until our guide gave us a universalism lecture on how there is only one God, and all the religions of the world reach the same God but in different ways. This is very easy to say. It is also very easy to believe because it makes any religion convenient. This belief eradicates all arguments about the rights or wrongs of any religious practice. If you believe this you don’t have to face tough questions like, “Well, what happens to non-Christians and people of other religions when they die?” This question is certainly a tough one to face for any Christian, but I like it still because it leads to discussion. I would rather the question be there, even though I am not prepared to give an answer.

The guide mentioned holy days of prayer. “The Christian day of prayer is Sunday, but not any more. Now they go shopping.” I should have stood up and walked out of the room. I am fine with him if he believes this, but where and why does he think that fits into a welcome speech to a Hindu temple in which he can present that as fact. I could have screamed so loud. When you promote your opinions of other religions as fact you, more often than not, abandon the principles of your religion, and certainly risk offending those in your presence.

The Eye was on Wednesday. It was a good time, not boring or too long. I wish it lasted longer than a half hour. The views of London, specifically Westminster and the City, are too much to take in for how long you are in the pods on the top half of the wheel.

And yesterday, Cambridge, a very beautiful place, but for visiting for a few hours there isn’t a ton to do. I visited King’s College Chapel, and a museum where a few weeks earlier a patron had fallen down the stairs and taken a couple of vases from the Ming Dynasty with him to the floor. Oops. I couldn’t imagine going to Cambridge. So prestigious. So much in the name. Bob gave the tour and didn’t fail to impress with his limitless knowledge of the UK.

Kate is in Longmont this weekend. I am jealous. It is comforting to know that she is in my house and for me, the very place of ease and comfort.

I’ll actually have to do some studying tomorrow before I go to the 3:15 evensong at St. Paul’s. I might even venture over to Leicester Square and get a look at the crowd for the BAFTAs.

Finally, I ran today. It was sunny this morning and the run felt great. There are some significant hills around here that are great for running and I was able to push myself today, even after taking so much time off. Anyway, I wasn’t as bad a runner today as I thought I was going to be. Running will now be a twice a week activity. I missed it, but now it is back, not as much as I want, but a decent amount.

There is a lot to respond to here. First, the visit to the Hindu temple. I guess one of the reasons the guides universalism comment bothered me so much was because I felt like he was just saying that to be polite. I know he and I believe different things. I don’t need to be patronized by him because he might be afraid of insulting my beliefs. Give it to me straight, what do Hindus believe?

I am glad I didn’t get up and walk out of the room when he made fun of Christians. He had this little smirk after he said that, but it was a serious smirk like, you know what I am talking about? Well, I don’t know what you are talking about. I do know that most of us here aren’t Hindu, in fact most of us are Christians, and we have come to learn about your faith and you can’t talk to us about your faith without insulting another faith. It was hard to swallow. I got all bothered for a while.

The London Eye is the biggest ferris wheel in the world. Technically, it is a observation wheel because you are enclosed in some pods. The London Eye stands on the south side of the Thames at a diagonal across the river from Parliament. When you are at the top you are 443 feet above the Thames. It is pretty insane. It opened in 1999, and at first was a temporary attraction, but it has become permanent. It is officially a more popular tourist attraction than the Eiffel Tower.

Cambridge was quick. I took a lot of pictures. I saw a church where George Washington’s uncle is buried. I saw a church tower that stood before the Norman invasion of England in 1066. I saw where King Henry VIII studied. I saw Isaac Newton’s old dorm room. Did you know that ole’ Newton was curious about his eye one day after his years at Cambridge so he stuck a needle in between his eye and eye socket? He poked around in there and wrote about it afterwards.

The BAFTA ceremony is the UK’s Oscar ceremony. I could have gone down there and spotted a lot of celebrities but it was a rainy weekend in London. The red carpet had half an inch of standing water on it.

Hah, I can’t believe I thought I was going to run twice a week after that run. I didn’t run again over there.

*Pictures taken by me of the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge and of the Houses of Parliament from the London Eye.

London - 13 Feb 06

13 Feb 06, Monday

I am not going to write much tonight, but I had to say a little something about talking with Kate tonight. At the end of the talk we were both in a funny mood and laughing a lot. We were trying to get ready to pray but we just kept on laughing. It made us both really miss one another at a greater level for a few moments. Kate went from laughing to crying a little bit. I got teary eyed and silent. It was very hard at that moment to not break down, but we did very well. I love her so much that it is impossible to block her laughter from touching my soul.

Our trip to Paris is booked as of today. We will be traveling on the Eurostar and spending one night in Paris. I hope the hotel isn’t a dive, but that isn’t a big deal. She will be so shocked. I can’t wait to spring that one on her. I think she could pass out. I am going to wait until she gets here to tell her. London and Paris with Kate. It is incredible that I am not lying when I write that.

I remember that night we got to laughing so much. There was so much fun in that laughter, and then there was so much sadness. We hadn’t forgotten that we were apart, but it served as a hard reminder that a month still separated us, and so did an ocean. I remember thinking about Laramie then, a town I had lived in for four and a half years, and it seemed so far away, so foreign. Kate seemed so far away, so far away that it seemed as though I could never see her again. What was once so familiar was now alien to me. I hadn’t even been gone long, just over a month to be exact. Seeing her again was like a miracle for me. All of a sudden I had this love back in my physical presence that I had separated myself from for a couple months in order to protect myself from getting too homesick. I will write more about seeing her again when that entry comes up.

London - 12 Feb 06

12 Feb, Sunday

I wrote the following before and during the organ recital at St. Paul’s tonight:

Quiet. Echoes of footsteps. The red glow of the choir stall lamps. Black and white marble floors. Ornate. Holy. Peaceful. The glow of the gold leaf. The inability to tell when the dome above me stops rising toward the heavens it was built to reach. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel: the men that are depicted in mosaics around the bottom of the dome. They are angled toward the floor. There are so many statues and busts of children and babies in this place. I would like to see a list of the people who have worshipped here. You look or walk in a direction of a corner of the church and you never quite reach it because it is too vast, or you are simply stopped in your tracks by an elaborate anything that has evaded your gaze until now. To think that the previous cathedral that stood here before the Great Fire of London was bigger is baffling.

Later on...I did attend the service after the organ recital. It was a little different because it was informal. There was no choir to lead the hymns. I have to go to an evensong service next week for a choir. That will be more worshipful. I also found Holy Trinity at Brompton, but they didn’t have any evening services, which I was surprised by. I will have to make it there by 11:15 on a Sunday to worship there. I will definitely make it soon I think. Maybe a service there in the morning and an evensong at St. Paul’s later that day.

This next week is a busy one with the Globe visit, the London Eye, and a trip to Cambridge. Just like this last week I will find myself in awe again of all that I am getting to do here. I am being spoiled. I love it.

I need to clarify that the Holy Trinity church I found was not the one I was looking for. I was looking for Holy Trinity Brompton in Knightsbridge, London. I found Holy Trinity Church in Chelsea. When I got there and it was all locked up I was a bit confused. I didn’t know what to expect, but to find out they didn’t have an evening service was surprising. Eventually I found HTB and went to a service there. I thought the service was going to be geared more toward the young adult, but it was more family based. I made note of the evening service, but never got around to going to it. I regret that.

By the way, HTB has an amazing website. Click on the link I included and take a look. They podcast messages too. HTB is the home church of the Alpha course that you may, or may not be familiar with. Alpha is sort of big.

London - 11 Feb 06

11 Feb 06

I finally got to see the changing of the guard today. It was memorable. I enjoyed seeing the guards and especially the pictures I was able to get. I got a great shot of myself next to the lone guard at St. James’ Palace. Every time I bring out the camera and get some pictures I get so excited about showing them off when I get back home. I will be able to put on quite the show with my pictures. I have one video of Trafalgar Square and then I took one today when the guard and the band marched by.

Kate arrives in 4 weeks and one day. We just got off the phone and it is a weird feeling to be this close to her arrival, but it is certainly not close enough to regularly anticipate her arrival. I will do my best to not think about how awesome it will be to have Kate here.

The roommates and I are going to another host’s home to have dinner tonight, should be interesting. I hope the food is good and maybe it will be cheap, or free? That would be excellent.

The changing of the guard was a great time. I was surprised to hear the band play all sorts of tunes from movies and musicals. They played the tune from Titanic. I wanted to leave right then. There was a huge crowd at Buckingham Palace that day. One boy near me got his head stuck in between the bars of the fence surrounding the palace. A mounted policewoman cleared the way for the fire department to get the boy unstuck. I think the boy wiggled out of the fence before anyone helped him. While the band plays the new guards stand at attention, or try to. One of them passed out and a couple of stiffly moving guards rushed to his aid.

The dinner I had on this night was one of the best I had while I was away from home. It was just a spaghetti dinner, but with some vegetables and garlic bread. I don’t even think I had to pay for any of it. The girls that cooked it up were all very nice and welcoming about having people over to the house they were staying at. The hosts were out of town.

My poor picture of Salisbury Cathedral in the last post does not do it justice. Actually, no picture does it justice. Go see it. United Airlines had a special sale today for nonstop flights to London from Denver for $175 each way. Hearing about that depressed me for a good part of the morning.

And about the pictures I took over there, it is funny, but I am sure I am not the only one that does this, but I foolishly expect people to be as fascinated with my pictures as I am. This is never the case. You see a picture of a church. I see my Sunday home. You see a picture of a street in London. I see a route I walked as much as I could because I loved every last bit about what I was doing with my life as I took those steps.

London - 10 Feb 06

10 February 2006, Friday

It has indeed been too long since I wrote in here last. This week wasn’t too busy. I gave up my search for a coat, but didn’t leave the TK Maxx (the UK version of TJ Maxx) without a Quiksilver zip up sweatshirt. It has been nice to have another layer.

New pen. The one I was using all this time was not working properly. However, I don’t like the way this looks nearly as much as the previous pen.

I saw Stonehenge and Salisbury today. The former was more interesting to see than I thought it was going to be. The highlight of the day was Salisbury Cathedral. The spire is the tallest in England and the second tallest in all of Europe. It was most impressive. Again I found myself in awe of what humans can build. The spire stretches higher than everything else in the surrounding town. It is indeed the closest thing to Heaven for miles. The builder achieved his goal.

Being at Stonehenge made me think of how there are so many sights I have seen on this trip that blow me away. You can live your entire life in America and see famous landmarks in pictures, film, TV, and the internet. Their intense and detailed replication begins to mean less and less to the person receiving the replications. Eventually, the building, or landmark, is no more real to you than that UFO you have seen in a thousand pictures. It exists only in your mind until you come to a place like England. You stroll out of the tube station and Big Ben is looking you in the face. You drive over a hill and that 5,000 year old arrangement of rocks is right in front of you. There is such a massive movement to bring reality to people so they don’t have to go look for it themselves. You might forget what real is, until the fresh breeze of something as beautiful as the Salisbury plain on a cold winter afternoon stretches out to you in its hues of green and blue. The dose of reality strikes hard. This has certainly been an enlightening experience, coming over here I mean.

I don’t come by many enlightening experiences, especially for wanting to be a writer, but you can’t try to come by enlightening thoughts. If you go searching for them they will run away from you, but if you live your life and busy yourself with what you love and value, then those thoughts start snaking their way toward you. I would suggest just grabbing one at a time. If you tighten your grip on everything all at once your greed will get the best of you and you won’t come out anymore wiser or smarter than you were before this all went down.

Tomorrow I think I might finally get around to seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Apparently it takes place at 11:30, but that sounds a bit early. I hope we catch it in time. I will end with some random, brief observations.

The British have bad teeth.

There aren’t as many fat people in Britain as there are in America.

I hear about violent acts more than I thought I would. The reporting of it is still smaller than the US, but factor in the size and it seems the same, although there are far fewer guns in the UK.

TVR, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lotus, Ferrari, Porsche, Opel; these are all brands of cars that I see so much, everyday, that the experience has become like seeing a BMW in Longmont. It is that much of an occurrence.

Just reading that for tonight was enough for me, I hope it made some sort of sense to you. Maybe some thoughts on it tomorrow.

London - 6 Feb 06

6 February 2006, Monday

I did return to Oxford Street to buy a jersey. I ended up getting an England one. It is sweet. I will definitely sport it once it gets warm out.

I started a letter to Kate yesterday. It was nice to sit for a while and think of things to tell her that I had not already told her on the phone. I also finished looking at my calendar for the week she is here. I started laying things out for a one night, two day trip to Paris. I just can’t imagine breaking that surprise on her. That will be unbelievable for her. If the one night stay doesn’t work out than we will do a one day rush through the highlights of Paris. I figure in two days we could see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and maybe a couple other things. There was a while there that I was thinking about going to Prague for spring break, but I don’t really want to go with a crowd, and besides, I would rather dedicate that money to the time with Kate, and toward the trip to Paris. I do believe I will return to Europe again, and I have to remind myself of this when I feel like I am not going anywhere. That thought is ridiculous because I live in London, and I am going to Paris, Scotland, and the Middle-Freaking-East to see Guy. I am going to see a lot. After being in Europe for a while it will be particularly nice to see a whole new region of the world. A crazy opportunity. Too tired to go on.

The England jerseys are my favorite shirts I own. I went back before I left and bought one more for myself and one for my dad. I should have bought more. I can’t find an England jersey for less than $70 anywhere. I didn’t pay half that much for a couple of them over there.

My trip to Paris with Kate was my only trip to mainland Europe while I was overseas. Many students I knew took two trips to the continent and some even more, but my trip to Israel was the monetary equivalent of three round trips into Europe from London. For a while I felt like I was missing out on these opportunities to go places when I was the only one in London and everyone else I knew was in Spain, Italy, Germany, or watching a live sex show in Amsterdam while eating space cakes. Okay, so I wasn't jealous of the fourth destination, but it was a real destination for most Americans I met over there. After I went to Paris and Scotland, and as my trip to Israel approached I felt that I had spent my money well, and I realized that the biggest adventure was always going to be living in London, and it was.

"We [have] become accidental crusaders for Christ."

Okay, I thought I was done tonight, but a quick visit over to Aaron's blog led to reading all of his blogs for the day.

I followed his link to Boundless Webzine and read "Gays vs. The Garden Guy." You can read it here.

I am too tired to react right now, but even if I felt like writing I wouldn't be able to say something as good as this right now:

"Both Kaufman and the Farbers have made a tragic mistake. In an attempt to stand up for what they believe in and defend their right to do so, they have decided that love is in fact not the most important thing, but being right is." - Mr. Boeke at his blog. I like it.

That's not Saddam falling

I am not writing tonight, but I thought some of you might get a kick out of this.

A Guardian cartoon...

London - 4 Feb 06

4 February 2006, Saturday

I didn’t think A Midsummer Night’s Dream was nearly as funny as most people in the theatre did. It was at the Novello, but I was in the front row, which was awfully nice. It was the first time I had ever been in the front row of anything.

Guy was the first one to wish me a happy birthday yesterday. That was very special. I also had a long conversation with Kate from Oxford Street. I was looking all over for a coat, but no luck yet. I did buy a new bag at a store called Topshop. It was ₤25, but I splurged anyway. I am going to continue that search for a coat tomorrow at Camden Town. I should also return to Oxford Street for very cheap official football jerseys. I love those shirts. I regret not buying one today. Maybe I will return tomorrow before the organ recital at St. Paul’s.

When I am away from Kate for this long a time I literally go into hibernation in a sense. I am not going to lie, I like kissing Kate and I think about it on occasion when I am not around her, but I really can't over here. I can't for a number of reasons. She is so far away, both in distance and time. I will go crazy if I think about how long it is until I get to kiss her. And, thinking about kissing her is only going to make me miss her more. Also, if I let myself go it could be trouble, the mind is pretty powerful and creative. So far I am doing very well, and Kate is too. It can be very hard from time to time when I see couples walking hand in hand, or snuggling. I find that I envy them and hate them for doing that in front of me because my girl is thousands of miles away.

The Pianist is on TV right now. It is such an amazing film. I saw an advertisement for the Super Bowl just a moment ago, but I will not see it tomorrow. I am not interested in the winner and it will be on very late.

The Clapham North is the name of the pub that I went to with co-workers last night. It was a fun time and I didn’t have to buy one drink, though I did buy some chips.

Sitting in the front row during AMND at the Novello was great, but also frightening. One of the actors was foaming at the mouth, spitting this way and that. I had to swiftly move my legs to one side to dodge the thespian’s phlegm.

Topshop is an extremely trendy store in the UK. I felt way out of place in there. Every shirt was small and every pair of jeans was acid washed and full of holes. I bought the bag, hurried out of the store, emptied my pockets into my new man purse, and dumped the extravagant shopping bag in the nearest trash bin.

London - 2 Feb 06

2 February 2006 - Thursday

I am 23 years old tomorrow. The plan is to go out with the co-workers from MOM’s. It should be a fun time, with maybe some free drinks. My prediction, tomorrow won’t feel much like a birthday. How could it without a little pile of presents, cards, family, and cake? Bummer.

The Producers was a great show. Hopefully Kate and I will be able to go to it when she comes over here.

It is really cold here right now. I am not enjoying the weather at all…especially without a coat. I searched for one tonight, but of course the coats were short in the waist or short in the sleeves. Marvelous. I found a bag I would like to buy. It would be more comfortable than something on my back all day long.

I had an hour long conversation with Kate tonight. I miss her so much. Oh, and I am making last minute decisions now, but I should have my reservation for a trip to Israel by this time next week. I’ll be there during Holy Week. I fly back to London on Easter. I’ll be in London just over twelve hours before heading back to the US on April 17th.

My birthday over there didn’t feel much like a birthday because it was completely different than any celebration I had ever had, but it was one of the best. Being with new friends was awesome. I didn’t spend a penny on pints and probably had six. I did have some good chips and garlic mayo. Mm, garlic mayo, big fried chunks of potatoes, and a golden pint.

Kate and I wouldn’t see The Producers, but we got a good bit of everything else in while she was there. There is no use writing about it now because I wrote about it plenty after she left.

The London winter surprised me. Temperatures were very deceiving before I went over there. I wasn’t factoring in the dampening cold that London has. When I read 40 degrees on the weather report I naturally thought of the 40 degrees I knew, that 40 degrees is dry, not too windy, and definitely bearable with a sweatshirt. I didn’t bring a coat over there. That was a bad idea. Layers didn’t help that much until I bought some more clothes.

I did buy that bag I wrote of toward the beginning of this post. I wore it everyday from then on and still have it. It is a man purse, and I love it.

London - 31 Jan 06

31 January 2006, Tuesday

I finally made it into the British Museum yesterday with another tour, courtesy of Bob. He knows so much. Anyway, the museum would be a good place to go with Kate. They have an awesome library, Egyptian artifacts, and the Rosetta Stone. The museum is another magnificent building that is surreal to walk through because with every step you take you wonder at a human’s ability to build such monuments to science, history, education, and especially religion.

Yesterday ended with two great conversations with Kate and then my parents. They were especially enjoyable because they were only 5 pence a minute. That is a lot better than 20 pence a minute, the rate I was getting with Orange, a huge cellular company over here.

A tour of Parliament was the first thing on for today. There was high security of course, but very much worth it. We got to see the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords is almost all gold it seems. Everything gold is either solid gold, or gold leaf; no fake crap in the House of Lords.

I spend a little time during the week trying to solve sudoku puzzles out of the Metro, the free Tube paper, but I am not good at them at all.

Tomorrow I go to The Producers. I hear it is a funny show. Friday is my birthday. I really don’t know what I will be doing exactly, but I will figure something out for sure.

This isn’t really a problem for long term residents of London, but three months isn’t enough time to explore the depths of all the museums and galleries in London. They are endless, and impossibly huge. I went to the British Museum three times and I saw half of the exhibits…maybe. Every museum I visited in the UK, and especially in Paris, was too big for a day’s visit.

The rate with Orange was horrendous. After the conversion I was spending 35 cents a minute to talk with Kate and the parents until this entry, the first day I had my new cell with much better service.

Honestly, some of this writing sounds like it is straight out of a 13-year-old’s journal. I am so tempted to edit the older entries, or to just scratch sentences and paragraphs all together. As you can see, I didn’t worry about getting deep thoughts down. I never forgot that those would inevitably come at the end of this journey, and much longer after my return home.

I put the bit in about sudoku just as a reminder to myself that the British are obsessed with sudoku. There are sudoku puzzles in every paper, and often a paper offers multiple puzzles. I took them up, and by the end of the semester I wasn’t that bad.

The Producers show I saw wasn’t with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, but the actors in their stead, for the West End production, were great. Not much on stage can beat Springtime for Hitler.

Polonium 210

Andrew Sullivan had a link to this blog about the poisoning of Litvinenko on his website. The whole sequence of events surrounding the poisoning of Litvinenko and Polonium 210 is a bit scary. Brad DeLong explores the possibilities.

One of the more disturbing segments:

"The point is, someone with access to fresh Polonium 210 (read: less than a year old, hot from the reactor) decided to use it to bump off an enemy."

London - 29 Jan 06

29 January 2006, Sunday

The London Dungeon was a waste of ₤5. Wow! It was a museum that tried to scare me, it failed, and it also failed to teach me that much as well. For dinner a group of us went to La Porchetta on Muswell Hill. I don’t know if I like that place very much.

I had a 50 minute conversation with Kate last night…Awesome! She sounded great. Afterward I watched some of Mars Attacks! Then I went to bed. It was one of those movies that a previous student had left in my room.

The Chinese New Year celebration in London was today. There was sort of a lame parade followed by a walk through a very crowded China Town. I left the pack and went to the Imperial War Museum. It was amazing. I by far spent the majority of my time in the Holocaust exhibit. I read nearly everything on the walls and like always it was so hard to fathom the cruelty of humans, and it is impossible to imagine the suffering of the Jews. I always get so pissed off at 20th century Germans when I think of the Holocaust, or when I am presented with information about it.

The organ recital at St. Paul’s tonight left me speechless. I definitely enjoyed it more than the Abbey. They seat you right under the dome and the organ blasts away. The ceiling of the dome is something to spend hours looking at. Incredible!

There are some good looking women in London, but regardless of someone else’s good looks, the highlight, and a great end to everyday, is looking at my picture of Kate when I get back to Muswell Hill. I brought my favorite picture of her. It was taken at the Grand Lux in Chicago on Michigan Avenue. She is the definition of beauty. Shock is still an overwhelming feeling in my soul when I am reminded that she is my girlfriend, and that she loves me.

Okay. The design and layout of most of London is quite ridiculous. It shows no plan, purpose, or usefulness. The only square blocks in all of London, and there aren’t that many, are called squares, and they are designated park space. Funny. You can’t even give directions in blocks as a specific distance because there are no two blocks in London that are the same width.

Tomorrow is a tour of the British Museum with Bob. I also have a few errands to run and some homework…surprising, I know.

One last thing, this is no exaggeration, Central Presbyterian Church could fit under the dome of St. Paul’s and not touch any surface of St. Paul’s except the floor. Central’s bell tower wouldn’t even come close to entering into the arc of the dome.

I was shocked at how crappy the London Dungeon was. This attraction makes it into every London guidebook. I don’t know why. There was a huge line for it. Luckily, since I went in a group we skipped it. I have a quick story about this place though. The employees at the dungeon are in character the whole time. They sometimes sort of break character to talk to someone directly in the audience. When we were led to a room in the dungeon, which was set up as a court room, some people from the audience were “forced” to take the stand. The guy playing judge would ask, “What country are you from?” “Why are you in the UK?” He would then read to them the court’s charge against them. He would then follow the charge up with a verdict. Well, there was a German up there first, and then a Brit, and then a third took the stand.

“And where are you from?” The judge asked.
“The US.”
“GUILTY as charged.” It was great.

The organ at St. Paul’s has over 7,000 pipes. I was a regular on Sunday evenings. Later on in the semester they started seating guests in the choir stalls for the recitals. The organ is right above the choir stalls so you got an earful. If you ever are in London on a Sunday evening, do it.

The Imperial War Museum and nearly all museums and galleries in London have no admission price. Patrons are encouraged to donate, but everything is free. There used to be a charge for most of them. London dropped the entry fees and attendance doubled. If that is what it takes to get the masses to art, exhibits, and museums, I am all for this policy being brought to the US.

The Chinese New Year parade had a bunch of white girls in it. It was weird.

Bob led a lot of tours throughout the semester. You didn’t have to go on them. You didn’t have to go on any of the daytrips either, but I went on all of them. The man is a genius. I am convinced he knows absolutely everything about London and most there is to know about the surrounding countryside. Stud.

Both of the pictures are of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

A day after...

I arrived in London, a City lawyer was stabbed and died just yards from his home in northwest London. This murder dominated the headlines for my first days in the UK. His killers, aged 19 and 18, were sentenced to life at the Old Bailey today.

In tomorrow's Guardian there is an impact statement from the victim's fiancee. It is devastatingly sad, but I read it anyway, and am amazed at the ability of those that have suffered the unimaginable to move on through such an experience. You can read at your own discretion, but I wouldn't have put this up here if I didn't think it was worth reading. Go here.

London - 28 Jan 06

28 January 06

This has been my longest gap (3 days) between entries. I apologize to myself, when in the future; I will read this and ponder the things that slipped my mind in those three days that will never be recorded in here. They may never be remembered.

All righty…Wednesday night was the AIFS welcome party at the Old Explorer off of the Oxford Circus station. It was entertaining and the price of beer wasn’t that bad, but what was even better, free food. My group didn’t win a British trivia game, we finished second. I took off relatively early to call Kate and to get some sleep before my first full workday at MOM’s Books.

MOM’s Books is an intriguing place. First, there are no men in this publishing house, okay so maybe there are a few, but none in the room I work in. Second, MOM’s publishes books on Churchill to books for children to hot and horny sex cheques. Third, everyone I work with is young. I did some spreadsheet work, technical stuff, filing, and research for a book they are putting together. I regret to say the research wasn’t for a new volume of sex cheques.

After the workday (work traditionally ends at 5:30 in the UK), we all went out for a pint because we fancied it, yes we did. We went to a pub called The Oak in Clapham, South London. The Oak was smoke filled by the end of the night…disgusting. I drank a Stella and a broadside, my first warm beer, but room temperature isn’t warm.

Today has been a long day. I didn’t sleep for too long before I had to wake for a trip to Stratford. The Shakespearian history was much more interesting to me than an analysis of his literature. There were many low doorways in Stratford that I should have crawled through. We saw all that we could in a few hours: Shakespeare’s house, Holy Trinity Church – where he was baptized and buried, and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. I took another load of pictures. I did snap a shot of the church knocker because it is from the 15th or 16th Century. Back then when someone was caught in the act they could book it to the church and grab the knocker. If they managed to do this before the authorities caught them they were granted 40 days housing and dining with the church. The church staff would, during those 40 days, try to bargain with the law enforcement for a deal.

Didn’t do much tonight. I am excited to sleep in tomorrow. It’s 1 am here and 6 pm back home.

MOM’s Books proved to be an avenue into British culture and life that I cherished. I made some good friends and I was sad to leave them. The workers there were the nicest people that treated me as a regular employee. Another bonus, as hard as I would try, I couldn’t get one of them to allow me to buy my own drink or a drink for them. I spent a number of nights in pubs with them and I cherish them still. I celebrated my 23rd birthday with employees of MOM’s Books at Clapham North. They bought me pint after pint. They even sang happy birthday to me.

I included a couple of links in this blog to a picture of the Old Explorer and a picture of Holy Trinity Church upon-Avon.

St. Paul's in the Blitz

"Daily Mail photographer, Herbert Mason, took this photograph from the roof of the Daily Mail offices in Fleet Street. An image of the front page of the Daily Mail for Tuesday 31 December 1940 is available from the Museum of London, captioned "War's Greatest Picture"."

- Wikipedia

London - 24 Jan 06

24 January 2006

Today was the day I saw Patrick Stewart. I was at MOM’s Books a little early so I went into a Sainsbury’s to get some gum. I was walking out of the store and glanced up at the man walking in. I did a double take. It was Patrick Stewart. He had a hat on and the collar popped on a leather jacket. I asked the people at MOM’s Books what was up with that and apparently there is a rehearsal stage nearby. Crazy.

Anyway, at work I helped with some research for a book on senior moments. I found some pretty funny jokes about growing old and whatnot. I am due back on Thursday at 9:30 am and I will be doing something different this time. It will take a couple of weeks to see if I am really going to enjoy this.

The Tube was very packed today on the way home from work because of the Arsenal game. It was insane.

Tomorrow is the welcome reception at a pub for all the AIFS students. That should be alright. In the morning I am taking a tour of the Abbey for a religious studies course. It will cost ₤10 though!

I just called Kate and left a message on her phone about seeing Stewart. I had to tell somebody other than writing it in this journal.

Oh! I got a haircut at Mr. Toppers tonight. ₤6 with a ₤1 tip. That is a good deal. That is less than $14 back home. The hair looks pretty good too.

I didn’t say anything to Patrick Stewart. He looked a little nervous when he looked at me, like he had been caught. After I thought about it some more I was really glad I didn’t say, “Hey, aren’t you Professor X?” I bet he enjoys not being seen.

When heading into town on the Piccadilly line I would get on Finsbury Park. The next closest stop is Arsenal. So, heading home that day was the tightest Tube ride I ever experienced. I was unintentionally touching many strangers.

The Abbey only cost ₤6, but that is still ten dollars and I took the tour twice. The Abbey is an amazing building with enough history to fill volumes. King Edward I, the mean English king in Braveheart, actually has one of the prime coffin sites around the coffin of Edward the Confessor. King Edward I’s coffin is plain and ugly compared to the rest of them because he didn’t want an ornate one before England conquered Scotland. His desire was to have his coffin moved to Scotland and decorated there. England never conquered Scotland. Mel Gibson fought off the English hordes and Robert the Bruce beat some English arse. So, poor old Edward had to rot away in the Abbey instead.

The hair was much too short after the cut, but I couldn’t complain. A haircut for roughly $12 in the city of London was a downright miracle. Mr. Toppers on Tottenham Court Road in Bloomsbury, check it out sometime.

London - 23 Jan 06

23 January 2006

I got the blog thing figured out today. It is going to work quite nicely. The blog is piccadillyline.blogspot.com. After my one class this morning I had a lot of time online to read emails, and time enough to write a blog.

Afterwards I wasted ₤2.40 on a sandwich at Subway that barely put a dent in my hunger. Not to worry, my roommate and I came back and cooked spaghetti. To feed both of us a mountain of spaghetti cost less than ₤2. You can’t complain about that. It was awkward cooking in someone else’s kitchen though. I had to stop by a Boots tonight to pick up shampoo and q-tips. I wanted to clean the ears.

I have to confess to being homesick tonight for absolutely anything familiar, but especially Kate, friends, or my parents. I am glad this is not a full length semester. Twelve weeks is pretty long. I really don’t know how Guy did it at UW. I am very thankful he did though. I feel like crying, but I cannot cry. I feel like laughing, but even if I could it wouldn’t be genuine. I have experienced the first of some homesickness that I suspect will not be the last. British TV sucks. I can’t remember if I put that down in here yet. Ha! I did write that at the end of yesterday’s entry. Oh well, a second time makes it more dramatic.

That day was the only time I went to Subway in the UK. I don’t go to it here because it is awful. I don’t know why I thought it might be any different across the pond.

It is tempting to edit out pointless reports about what I bought at Boots, but the mundane tasks can’t always be forgotten. I wanted to remember what a Boots was, and maybe writing it down was necessary for that to happen.

My homesickness didn’t get any worse. The first two weeks were probably the hardest over there. It took some time to get used to everything, because everything was different. But really, from the day I got to London I started falling in love with the UK, and when it was time to leave I never wanted to. I wanted to see my girlfriend, friends, and family. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take 7 million Londoners home with me.

London - 22 Jan 06

22 January 2006

Notes I scribbled down in a McDonalds off of Trafalgar Square…New diet: take a two week trip to London and don’t spend any more money on food here than you would back home in the States. This would guarantee a weight loss of 10 lbs. As an American in the UK I am happy every once in a while to see a familiar menu, even if it is at McDonalds, but they are everywhere here and I find that to be sad. Starbucks and McDonalds seem to be the largest contemporary American contribution to the UK. I would definitely be willing to sacrifice this little slice of Americana if the British didn’t like it, and I have a hunch that a sizable group of them do not enjoy the plentitude of golden arches in their city.

Also, British people never talk amongst themselves. You can ask me to just live with that and tell me that is the way it is, but that doesn’t change it from being a silly way to go about one’s day. They are so obsessed with privacy. Privacy, privacy, and privacy!

Today I took a stroll through the National Gallery. The place is huge. I did quickly see all the highlight paintings. I also walked down to Parliament to take some pictures. The organ recital at the Abbey was awesome. It was at 5:45 and there is a service immediately afterwards. I will go to it some Sunday in the future.

Americans are absolutely spoiled with television and I had no idea really. British TV sucks. I like the news, but other than that the only thing that is going to get me watching is a familiar movie from the U.S. of A.

I lost some weight once I got to the UK. I don’t know where I lost it from because I wasn’t a portly 6’9”, but I lost it. Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and KFC don’t seem to be the largest contemporary American contribution to London, they are. The same day I wrote this in my journal I stopped into a Waterstone’s and scanned the bestseller rack. A book titled, Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Everyday Annoyances, caught my eye. One of the first annoyances I read about was the plethora of McDonalds in the UK.

I made a gross stereotype in this entry. British people do talk amongst themselves. It is Londoners that don’t talk to strangers. If you even say hi, nod your head, or give a hint of a smile Londoners think you are a nutter. They are somewhat justified in their phobia because there are many mad people in London, but it makes for one cold ride on the bus or Tube.

From now on when I write about the “Abbey”, I mean Westminster Abbey.

I ended up loving British TV. There are some good shows on. I enjoyed Top Gear, any televised football rivalry, and a lot of Channel 4 documentaries. When you buy a TV in the UK you pay a licensing fee to the BBC. Thus, there are no commercials on the BBC. That was nice. There are two incredibly popular British soaps. Someone told me you either grow up watching Coronation Street or EastEnders in Britain. I didn’t catch any Coronation Street, but I did watch EastEnders a few times. I never watched it enough to know what the hell was going on. It is a soap, so I never got into it. I didn’t mean to imply that I enjoy American television by pointing out that we are spoiled by it. I meant to say that American television does have one thing going for it, variety, something of which I didn’t have while I was over there because I had four channels on this small, ghetto TV in my room. It was all good though, I didn’t go to the UK to watch TV.

London - 21 Jan 06 # 2

21 January 06

Later on the same day… After I wrote earlier I got up and walked a bit further toward Kensington Palace and came to Long Pond. I called Mom and Dad from the pond. We had a good conversation. I walked by Harrods and went in for a little bit. The place is ridiculous. Many shops, products, people, much money, and slow walkers…I didn’t last long. There are countless Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls’, and other expensive cars in Kensington.

I headed back to Leicester Square for more falafel and a slice of pizza. I was tired of walking so I took the Piccadilly home from Leicester. I stopped off at Tesco and picked up milk, Pringles, an ice cream bar, and a sandwich for tomorrow’s lunch. I hope to go to Westminster Abbey at 5 tomorrow for the organ recital. Prior to that I might run if it is not too cold, but it’s supposed to be. On another note, a whale that swam up the Thames died today after an attempted rescue. Bummer.

A conversation with Kate was a great end to the day. It’s sad to report that Angus (a dog) has cancer and he will only live a couple more months. I am sad for Kate’s family because they love their dogs. Angus is a part of the family in a way, and certainly part of their daily entertainment.
I have been trying to write while watching A Knight’s Tale. It has proved to be distracting and has made my writing for this entry quite craptacular. I give my apologies to myself and other people who might read this in the future. This is my ninth night bedding down in Muswell Hill. It feels like more than that. I will spend many more here before finding myself back home in Longmont.

It was too cold the day after this entry to run. I only ran once while I was in London. I did so much walking and climbed so many flights of stairs that I stayed in good shape while I was there.

When I spoke with my parents from Hyde Park I remember pacing around, bringing in my surroundings, and not quite believing that I was there, in front of Kensington Palace, chatting with the ‘rents in Colorado. Our capability to connect is astonishing.

Everyone I spoke to in the US around this day knew about that whale that swam up the Thames. Kate asked me why I didn’t go down to see it. I didn’t want to join the pity party, plus I could watch on CNN.