Old London Blogs

“to be tired of london is to be tired of life” ~oscar wilde

Posted February 23rd, 2009 by Michael

I would just like to start by saying I love London. It really is a glorious city. It seems like every time I go out somewhere, I discover something new; I see something I’ve never noticed or seen before. I can still go to different places in the city and be completely overwhelmed by something new. For example, I went looking for the theatre where Chicago is playing to inquire about tickets, and upon finding it, I found this mecca of small, quaint and nifty boutiques. And it was only a few blocks from a tube station I’ve frequented quite a bit. I was in awe. Then yesterday, I finally made it out to Hyde Park. I’ve wanted to, but never found my way over. I think Hyde park is the largest park in the city, and I discovered today that it is gorgeous.

I awoke Saturday morning to find that it was a gloriously beautiful day—easily the nicest day since I arrived. A group of us took my frisbee and headed to Green Park. We spent two hours in the glorious sunlight tossing the disc. It was wonderful. The high temperature today is 55 degrees, and it feels warmer. It’s so nice to be able to enjoy the weather. The changing of the guard started at 11:30, so we then even had some music to enjoy while we played. Then, when everyone else was frisbeed out, I went for another run. I decided to run out to Hyde Park and then run around it. It really is massive; and it’s quite beautiful.

Today, I’m just trying to relax now. I need to do some homework, but I’m killing time online instead, although, in my defense, I still have quite a few pictures to upload on Facebook. Also, AJ has tracked down a VHS tape of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal, by far one of the most terrifying children’s movies ever made.

Friday I spent the day in Oxford. It was amazing. It was disappointing though that a lot of the colleges were closed to visitors. I mean, I understand that they’re a place of higher learning and they don’t want annoying tourists disrupting things, but I’m not an annoying tourist. Andy and I debated trying to get in by telling them we were looking into applying for grad school out there. We never tried the fallacy, but we laughed at the thought. Oxford is a beautiful city. We walked this stream that ran around the backside of Christ Church College, and then found this amazing tree to climb. There will be photos of that, eventually. I’m still trying to upload stuff from the boat trip to Greenwich, so it’s only a matter of time.

The thing about Oxford that made me inexplicably happy was caused by my serious geekitude. For anyone who doesn’t know, Oxford is notorious for putting out some of the most prolific and fantastic writers the world has ever known. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Adolus Huxley are just a few of the writers who either attended or taught at one or more of the colleges in Oxford. It makes me want to write just knowing I occupied the same space they did. We also found the pub that Tolkien and Lewis often met at to discuss literature, life and whatever. It said that it was this pub that inspired the Prancing Pony (in the Lord of the Rings series). It was an English major’s holy grail.

Fun Fact: Lewis Carroll, the man who penned Alice in Wonderland, was in fact a mathematician who worked at Christ Church College in the field of mathematics, not English. I just thought I should share that—it makes me feel better about my double major.

Anywho, Oxford really was incredible. My only qualm was I couldn’t find a rugby shirt that I really liked. I had tickets to see Twelfth Night last night. It was pretty good, although they changed the ending a bit, and that was mildly upsetting. Overall, though, it was really good. One thing that I’ve noticed is that when casts to curtain calls here they don’t do them alone. Not once has the cast come out and bowed in any sort of order. They always bow as a full cast two or three times.

Today is going to be another relaxing day full of naps and more homework, if I ever get around to it…

just keep running…

Posted February 19th, 2009 by Michael

Something stupendous has happened! I finally decided to stop being a lazy sack of worthless lard and go running. It was glorious! My last note was written Saturday night (even though it wasn’t posted until Wednesday) and on Sunday, as promised, I slept, I went to church and I did homework. However, at around three in the afternoon, I discovered I was done with my homework for the week. After recovering from the shock, it was about an hour until I had to go to mass, so I put on some shorts, my iPod, and took off. I ran for about 40 minutes around the streets of London and ended up at the Westminster Cathedral.

I had time before mass, so I went around and explored the church. Wow! There are little side chapels around the cathedral that are all dedicated to different saints and they’re all immaculately decorated and adorned with murals and such. It was awe-inspiring to see such beautiful mosaics. There’s some construction going on (that I got the impression was just “ongoing”) and so it was quite a contrast to see—not meaning to be trite, it was a diamond in the rough, if you will.

However, I think that a 40-minute run may have been overdoing it a bit (seeing as the last time I really did any real physical exercise was before the winter set in back home), because I was hella-sore the next few days. I stretched twice on Monday and again on Tuesday to try and alleviate the pain. However, without any luck, I decided that the only cure would be more running. So Tuesday I went out and ran laps around Green Park. It was neat to have Buckingham Palace as the backdrop to your run. I was going to go running again today (Thursday, 19 February), but instead spend most of the afternoon uploading pictures to Facebook

OH! Which brings me to my next tid-bit of thrilling news… My computer works again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, it at least works at the same capacity it did before it crashed (which still makes me nervous). The discs finally came, so I spend quite a bit of time trying to fight with my laptop and get it working again. I had to do quite a bit of reinstalling of vital drivers, but it is working. Right now, I am typing this on MY laptop, in MY room, listening to MY music. It’s delightful. I didn’t realise how much I missed my music until I couldn’t listen to it for a month. I had my shuffle (iPod), but it had the same music on it that I listened to on the flight over here. It was getting old.

I reloaded my shuffle today so I could run to some new tuneage, but then got wrapped up in uploading all of the photos on Facebook that had been collecting on my camera. 260 photos in total; and I have to use the slow uploader on Facebook because the internet connection isn’t good in Vandon House. I had my Sci-Fi Lit class until noon, and I’ve been here uploading photos ever since, other than the break I took to eat dinner.

I’ve realised that I need to plan my meals and shopping trips more effectively. I need to have a plan and not buy food based on silly urges. I find myself with pasta and cereal to eat, and I don’t want to go to the store again because I just went the other day.

In other news, I nixed another couple of items off of my “London Bucket List” that I made for myself. I went to Platform 9¾ (from Harry Potter fame), the Temple Church (from legendary burial place of the Knights Templar, recently of The Da Vinci Code fame) and also went out to Fleet Street (from Sweeney Todd fame). We took some pictures at where they film 9¾ for the movies (which would actually be Platform 4½) and then went out to where the platform is located. Adorably enough, they have half of a trolley cart “disappearing” into the wall right there. I thought it was cute. Then, back on Tuesday, a group of us went to complete on of the silly Contemporary Britain assignments that actually told us to check out the Temple Church. To get there, we had to cross Fleet Street serendipitously enough. We walked from one end to the other, and I was disappointed to see that it had developed more into a business area, so there were no barber shops. We did however stop for lunch in a pub on Fleet Street. I can now proudly say I ate a meat pie on Fleet Street (don’t judge me, it’s the little things like that that make me happy). The Temple Church was amazing! It makes me want to read the book again, which I may do. It’s down in the lounge on one of the book shelves. \

The evenings this week have been consumed by working with my laptop, so not much else exciting has taken place. However, we’re going to spend tomorrow (Friday, 20 February) in Oxford. That being said, I need to get off to bed. I hope this reaches you before I get a chance to write another one.

impulse + whimsy = fantastical

Posted February 17th, 2009 by Michael

That equation I’ve provided above is solid. I’m a math major; I can guarantee it. That is to say, it worked for me this weekend, so it seems solid enough.

Originally, I was going to be spending this weekend in Barcelona. However, after some unforeseen oversight, the British Airways website wouldn’t accept my credit card and I was going to be stuck in Vandon House this weekend, the first real weekend we’ve had to travel. Alas, it’s one a.m. on Friday, and a couple of us had thrown the idea around about going to Stonehenge. We start to google some information, then in a quasi-epiphany, decide we’re better off not planning anything and just going. At two a.m., we part ways, only to meet and depart from Vandon at seven to catch the earliest bus we can to Bath.

Commandeering one of those guidebooks from the lounge, we arrive in Bath with no schedule and only our whimsical desires to fill the day’s itinerary. It was wonderful. Our first stop in Bath was a delightful Thai restaurant with fantastically ornate tables and chair, all carved from wood. It was really neat. We went on a walking tour of the city, which took us around to all of the important sights that Bath has to offer. I was just really upset because my camera apparently didn’t charge during the four hours of sleep I had earlier that day. So needless to say, my pictures of the city are fewer in number than I’d like them to be, but I still have some delightful photos. Bath is a beautiful city, but one geared toward tourism. We decided not to get into the Roman bath because they wanted £10.50 or some outrageous amount. That was disappointing because I wanted to see them.

We crashed in a hostel for the evening, then spent the morning picking up sights we had missed the previous day before getting on a tour bus headed for Stonehenge. We had gotten the vibe from some of the locals we’d talked to that Stonehenge wasn’t that exciting because you can’t get anywhere near them. I can’t argue because that is unfortunate, I can understand why you’re not allowed to get right up next to the stones. They’re just asking for vandalism if that was the case. However, when we got there, I was pleasantly surprised by how close you could get and some of the wonderful photos I took (after finally charging my camera at the hostel). There’s an audio tour that goes along while you walk around, and it was interesting. I enjoy the theory that Merlin transported the stones from Ireland; either that or the aliens that dropped them there after making some crop circles and that movie for M. Night Shyamalan. We spent time discussing what could conceivably happen if we made a break for it and jumped the lines, running for the rocks. The best hypothesis I could come up with is the same thing I imagine happening if you climb a wall around the White House and run at the building. People will come out of the ground wearing camouflage and tackle you; snipers will headshot you like they’re playing a game of Halo; you’ll be arrested and jailed until exported to Mexico. All of those seemed fairly possible. I also really enjoyed the thought of playing Frisbee in and around the stones like we do around the trees at summer camp. But I don’t see that going over very well either. I also bought a few trinkets and things from their souvenir shop—which wasn’t as expensive as I was expecting, to be honest.

We spent a few more hours in Bath, mostly going to different shops eating things, before catching another bus back to London. We found some different fudges, an organic smoothie shop and other small food stores to snack at. The smoothie was by far my favorite. It was basically four fruits ran through a juicer into a glass. It was so delicious. On the bus ride back, we wrote ourselves a little song about Stonehenge to the tune of the Flinstone’s theme song. It’s a work of art—brilliant to say the least

As for Sunday, I don’t have a lot planned. Sleep. Church. Homework. That’ll probably be the extent of it. Although, by the time this gets posted, Sunday will have come and gone. So assume I slept, went to church, and laboured of homework.

And still no luck with this software disc to back up my computer. My parents put it in the mail a week ago Wednesday, so I was expecting it to be here when I got back from Bath. But it wasn’t. I’m starting to fill up my memory card with photos, and I haven’t been able to change the music on my iPod—something I traditionally do once a week. So I’m praying it will come Monday and I can get my computer working again.

So remember, IMPULSE + WHIMSY = FANTASTICAL

record-setting weather and shows, lots of shows…

Posted February 11th, 2009 by Michael

First, I want to apologize for taking so long to post another blog. My computer is still out of commission, so I’ve been busy with other stuff without a sufficient way of getting to one—however, my wonderful parents have put some software in the mail that should save my computer from the depths of oblivion; it just hasn’t gotten here yet.

Last Friday, the Central Programme had a day trip to Greenwich scheduled for us (they pronounce it Grĕn-ĭch, for the record). We took a boat down the Thames—which was amazing—then docked and we walked up to where Greenwich Meridian Time was established. It was my first time stepping foot into the Eastern Hemisphere! We took some goofy pictures right across the line, which they have marked in the pavement with laser lights; then I couldn’t help but re-enact that scene from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, which Andy got on video, so I’m pretty excited about that. It was a wonderful time to be had there, despite the weather. Ever since that record-setting snowfall, the weather has been pretty dreary, even by London standards. Yesterday, we got a record-setting amount of rain as well, so it’s been an all-around super time.

Speaking of last night! On Monday night, I got an opportunity to see Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge; and better still, I got to see it for free! One of my friends here, Jessica, has an internship at a magazine and she had to write a review-type thing about the play, so they gave her two free tickets. It was fairly serendipitous because we had walked by the theatre the day previous and I expressed interest in going to see it. It was fantastic. It was an Arthur Miller play, so by default it was going to be great, but the actors and set were remarkable. It really was amazing to see. I’ve never found myself that connected to a stage production while watching it. The actors’ portrayals were intense and completely moving.

Jessica and I also went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last week, after my last blog entry. The RSC reserves super cheap student tickets for shows that they sell on the day of; our tickets were only £2.50! Can you believe that!? I could say it was wonderful, but honestly, it was the Royal Shakespeare Company, so I think that’s a given. That was my first chance to see a professional production of a Shakespearean play, and it was so neat. And, because it was Midsummer, it was laugh-out-loud funny. The Pyramus play at the end, particularly the wall scene, was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. The only time I can remember laughing harder was when I saw Tropic Thunder.

I’m also officially a student now, it feels like… I’ve had all of my classes now and have a pile of homework to do. My Science Fiction Literature class, as well as my Perspectives on Curriculum class are promising to be really great. The reading list for Sci-Fi is absolutely delightful, AND, to make it even better, we’re reading Brave New World. For anyone who doesn’t know me, that is—without a doubt—my favourite piece of literature on the planet. I’ve read the book more times than I can count. The only class that makes me nervous is Differential Equations (DiffEq). I’m still working on the homework that I was working on a week ago and I’m still just nervous about doing it and doing it properly. In my math classes back home, I have a support system of friends who I can turn to if the homework gets a little dodgy, and now that’s not there, so I’m panicking a bit. I knew when I signed up for DiffEq that it was going to be tough, so it’s time for me to just suck it up and get to work.

That boot disc from my folks should be arriving here any day now, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a lot of pictures uploaded, either here or on my facebook. Without a computer to unload them on, I find my camera filling up. If my dad hadn’t bought me that large memory card with the camera, I would have to be deleting the photos as I went, so thanks Dad!

the vacation’s over…

Posted February 5th, 2009 by Michael

Today was an exciting day, as I had my first real class at London Metropolitan University–Differential Equations. (insert “ooohs” and “aaahs” here)

I was supposed to have my first class on Monday, but we had a snow day. Yeah, you read that right, a snow day. London was hit with a lot of snow on Sunday night and Monday morning and it basically paralysed the city. It was outrageous to see people not knowing how to react to the snow. People were using umbrellas; others were using mops and brooms to shovel snow and clean their automobiles of snow; there was even a video on msn.uk about how to properly walk in the snow so one wouldn’t hurt themselves. I’ve been fairly flabberghasted. It’s not a big deal to me, I guess. I mentioned going out in my previous post, so please read that as well for a great tale of wintery shenanegans!

Upon waking up Monday morning with little sleep (darn Super Bowl) and discovering all of my Monday classes at both Birbeck College and LMU cancelled, I decided to upload all of the wonderful pictures from outside Buckingham Palace (again, read my previous post). Well, to my utmost horror, my computer has crashed for good. It refuses to run Windows. I was crushed. God bless my parents; they are sending me the boot disc in the mail so it can work again.

That being said, I wanted to let everyone know the reason I’ve been noticably absent on facebook with wonderful pictures. I just reread my previous post and laughed about my postscript, because after I wrote that, my computer went kaput…

To regress back to my first anecdote, my first class today kind of snapped me back to reality. It reminded me I am here abroad to study and be a student. I am going to have to work hard to do well in the Differential Equations–really hard. Until now, because of the snow day, I’ve been coasting and enjoying not having class; last night I went to a cinema. I’ve already spent an hour today working on the homework and it is still getting the better of me. That being said, I also need to start planning my vacations. A lot of people spent the last couple of days booking flights for various weekend trips, as well as spring break. I’m too indecisive to plan a trip in advance, and I also feel like my computer crashing has thrown a wrench in all of my plans.

Back to my homework…

ghost stories, spooks, shivers and snow… the super bowl concluding a super weekend

Posted February 2nd, 2009 by Michael

With the Central Programme, we spent this weekend in York. It was our first opportunity to see what the rest of England really looks like. They told us on day one not to associate what we see in London with what is in the rest of the UK. Getting to see the rural countryside was amazing! It really is as magnificent and glorious as the movies and pictures I’ve seen depicting it. It was breathtaking.

York is the capital city of the north, according to the tour guide. The tour we had was full of wonderful and fascinating information that I couldn’t hope to relay even if I had been taking notes. The city has an incredible amount of history dating all the way back to the Roman inhabitance of Britain. The original city was completely walled, and we wandered around it and took some fun pictures.

Our first evening in York, we got an opportunity to go to Evensong, an evening service at York Minster. The York Minster Cathedral is the second largest ecclesiastic center in the Church of England. It cost to get in unless you were there for the service, so we didn’t get a lot of time to look around. Seriously, I’ve used this adjective already once, but it was breathtaking. The service itself was wonderful; they had an all-male church choir sing hymns and prayers. After the service and dinner at a pub, we closed the evening with a pantomime. Pantomime is a style of theatre that I was entirely unfamiliar with, but it was really highly enjoyable. Really! It was 100% comedy, 65% musical, 35% farce and all fun. I can’t describe it; it was a lot of fun to watch, though. The actors broke the fourth wall, pandered to the audience and were clearly having fun performing. The audience was expected to participate and there were quite a bit of improvisation along with the scripted gags.

The next day we traveled to Yorkshire Dells and spent the morning in an even more rural town. To my ultimate delight, I got an opportunity to eat in a real fish and chips shop. After wandering around and seeing the sights, people wanted to find food, so they gravitated toward a quaint little café. I wouldn’t be denied. I parted ways and went to the chip shop. For anyone who’s unaware, the Matches—my favorite band in the history of the world—has a song called “Yankee in a Chip Shop.” It became my anthem as I ordered, covered it in salt and consumed it on a park bench. It was one of the greasiest things I’ve ever consumed; it was glorious.

Returning to York, I went to a Viking museum in the afternoon that discussed the history of York when the Vikings inhabited the city. There was a goofy little “ride” (that reminded a bunch of us of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney) through the city and there were artefacts that were excavated (that’s not a misspelling; that’s the British spelling of artifact). We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner before a chilling ghost tour of York—the most haunted city in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was chilling first because there were some genuinely spooky stories, but it was also chilling because it has been getting colder and colder each night for the past week. My long johns did no good to prevent the chill from consuming me. We heard some delightfully haunting stories as well as the story of St. Katherine of York.

Sunday brought the one thing I DIDN’T want to see while I was in London—snow. On the bus back, some flurries flew and I just groaned. Upon getting back to Vandon House, we went out to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Trafalgar’s Square. There was a large stage set up and there were artists and dance troupes performing that were from Shanghai and Beijing. After studying China last semester, it was really cool to identify different aspects of the culture that I had studied.

The evening at the celebration would have been even better if the snow had died on out trek back to London. Alas, it did not. During the performance we watched, the snow picked up; then later, after dinner, it snowed even more. I found it really funny how upset I—as well as the Iowans here—were to see the snow, in contrast to the girls from Texas and California, who were (and still are) completely elated to see snow, as it’s the first time in their lives. After dinner, I walked out to Buckingham Palace with the snow-virgins and we had some fun taking photos and making snow angels outside the Palace. I still hate snow, but how many people can say they have made a snow angle outside of Buckingham Palace.

The weekend has ended with the Super Bowl. BBCSports is broadcasting it, so I’m pleased I get to see the game, although I must say that without the added spectacle of the commercials, it loses a bit of its charm. The only other problem is that it didn’t start until 11:30 London-time, so it’s still not over and it is 2:15 a.m. And my LMU classes start tomorrow.

Some other random observations, all of which deal with drinks… I was pleasantly surprised to see an amaretto sour on the drink menu at the Italian restaurant in York. I ordered it and it was nothing like what an amaretto sour is in the States. The menu said it was the “real Italian way” and it was delicious. It was amaretto with lemon juice, the British Lemonade (which tastes like lemonade, but is carbonated), and a pinch of brown sugar at the bottom of the glass. Also, to my shock and horror, Dr. Pepper is different here! Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda, and the formula or whatever is different and fruitier. I was soo disappointed to discover this; I thought I was going to cry.<

And P.S. My camera and computer are fighting. Every time I try to plug the camera into my laptop, it crashes. I’m hoping to get this fixed soon…

To the tea…

Posted January 29th, 2009 by Michael

It’s only been three days since my previous post, but an incredible amount of stuff has happened. The best way for me to figure it out is by starting with what happened tonight and pulling a “Quinten Tarentino” on the rest of the story.

This evening I went to the Lyric Theatre to see Spring Awakening. There’s a theatre class that Central offers, and I’m not in it because I needed to take other classes. But they’re going to all of these amazing shows over the course of the semester, and it makes me jealous and sad, because I want to see them as well. Long story short, they had tickets for Spring Awakening this evening, so I went to the box office about two hours before the show to see if there were any queues (a queue is a line, for anyone speaking American) for last minute tickets, and the woman said, “There’s one ticket left for the stage.” YEAH! That was my first thougth too… “STAGE?!?!?” So I bought the ticket and I saw the show from a seat on stage. It was incredible. It was incredible and a half! That’s such a good show. I also bought two tickets for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night because I must see at least one Shakespearean play while I’m here. I’m going to try my darndest to get a ticket to a show at the Globe when it opens again. I’m probably going through more money than I should on show tickets.

And speaking of spending too much money, I’ve been shopping a bit these last few days. My LMU classes don’t start for another week, so I’ve been relaxing and trying to take in lots–including the shopping. I went to the National Portriat Gallery today, too. So I bought a sweet pair of pants AND checked out some sweet art. I figure it’s a fair trade off. We also took a day and went out to the Camden Market. Camden is the locale for the more “alternative” crowd. I use that word simply because I don’t like overarching stereotypes, but the place is a center for goth and punk scenes in London. It’s a wonderful place. I love it there. I BOUGHT MORE TEA! I’ve purchased high-quality, loose leaf tea at a vendor in both the Camden and Borough markets; I also bought an infusor so I can enjoy the tea. It’s definately something I’m going to stock up on when I come home so I can continue to enjoy it.

Tuesday was Andy McGuire’s birthday–Andy being a fine gentleman that I’ve befriended here–and we went to a gourmet pizza place for lunch. The five of us who went all ordered a pizza, then divided our pizzas in fifths and spreaded the wealth. They were all remarkably incredible. One had ham, asparagus and egg; another was a hawaiian; another was with chorizo, peppers and onions; another had thai chicken, garlic and some other crazy flavors; and the final one was bacon, pepperoni, ham, chorizo and chicken. All five were remarkably delicious.

We’re spending the weekend in York, so I’ll post again when I return.