"Halfway around the world lies the one thing that you want" ("Syndicate" by The Fray)

Today and yesterday have been pretty spectacular. So I thought I’d let you know what happened.

Yesterday morning, I got up at 7:55 and had a pretty good breakfast. The Highbury Centre has a bad rep for bad food, but the eggs are always great. And the bread and apples are good too. I don’t know how badly one could mess up bread and apples, but I bet it’s been done. Colloquy wasn’t so bad either. Afterwards, I talked to Prof. Wardwell and asked him how I was doing, because intellectualism isn’t my deal, and I often question what the heck I’m doing here in the first place. He told me that I was doing fine and that he wasn’t worried. He said that the reason he and Prof. Stewart picked me for the program was because they thought I could handle it, and so far he hasn’t seen any proof that they were wrong. He even complimented my writing style! He said that one nice thing about how I write is that it’s straight-forward and leads to a purpose, and that I don’t use a lot of “flowery language”, and that as a reader, it’s very appreciable. So take that, smart people!

I was in such a good mood after colloquy that I went to the Blue Room and watched 5 Road Runner cartoons from 2nd tape I ever owned. Nostalgic fun is yummy. After the cartoons, I read Dante’s “Divine Comedy: Inferno” for a while. Then I had lunch, which was consisted of two rolls and an apple that I swiped from the dining hall, a bag of potato crisps, some water, and a Jolly Rancher. Gotta love college poverty. After lunch, we (being Adam, Eri, Tabitha, Zeke, and me) went out to finish our MAG (Museum And Gallery assignment). On the tube, I sat next to a woman who had the cutest Scottish terrier ever. At least I think that’s what it was. But anyways, her name was Maggie and she was a year old and she freaking loved me. She kept licking my fingers because of the salt from my potato crisps. Then she sat down right on my foot and let me pet her. Eri and Tabitha kept trying to steal her from me, but she always came back to me. Tab took a picture of us, but it came out blurry. I’ll post it anyways.

When we left the station, we were right under Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We had seen them before, but not from this angle. It was awesome. I’ll throw a few pictures of that in as well. We also saw the London Eye (again), as well as a handful of people camping in tents for a protest.

Our first stop was the Westminster Abbey. So far, that was by far my favorite assignment. We couldn’t take pictures inside, so you lose there, but I’ll post some pictures of the outside. It cost £9 to get in, but it was worth it. They gave us free audio guides narrated by Jeremy Irons. So I got a guided tour of a church by Scar. Cool beans. The architecture was breathtaking. The statues, windows and the ceiling designs were absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and apparently it has the oldest door of England. That’s…cool? There was a section called Poet’s Corner where a lot of literary giants were buried and remembered. There were a lot of people buried in the abbey. The floor and walls were covered in markers. Here are some of the people buried at Westminster Abbey whose graves we saw:

King Edward I (the English king from “Braveheart”)
Issac Newton
Charles Darwin
William Wilberforce
Charles Dickens (There were flowers and a note on his grave celebrating his recent 193rd birthday. The flowers were left by over 100 of his direct descendents!)
George Frederick Handel
Rudyard Kipling
Alfred Tennyson

There were also people that weren’t buried in the abbey, but had special memorials commemorating them, such as

Jane Austen
Lord Byron
Winston Churchill
Edward Elgar
William Shakespeare
Charles Wesley
John Wesley
Oscar Wilde

So that was pretty awesome. I will never forget going there. After we left, we swung by a Tesco to get some baked goods. I got a chocolate chip croissant and a Cherry Coke. Alliteration ho! After that, we took the Underground to the National Gallery. That was alright, but anticlimactic after the Abbey. Ok, this alliteration has to stop. That’s totally too much technique for my taste. Alright, I’m done, I promise. But the National Gallery was cool. It was a nice change in pace to be looking at paintings in an art gallery after 3 solid weeks of looking at sculptures in a museum. That got stale after a while. Speaking of stale, some rooms at the National Gallery smelled terrible. I mean, ew.

After the National Gallery, Zeke went off to buy tickets to a concert, and Tabitha, Eri, Adam and I took the Underground home. The tube was packed with people going home from work. And apparently, someone’s job wasn’t good enough for them, because Tabitha got pick-pocketed and lost her wallet. That was ridiculously lame. (And if the guy who ripped her off is reading this, then you’re a jerk! And stop reading my blog! That’s creepy.) Tab, Eri, and I went right to the professors’ flats and told them what happened. They gave her advice and walked her through the whole “I-just-lost-my-wallet-and-everything-in-it” process. The good news is, she got in touch with her mom and got all the cards canceled, so she’s in relatively good shape. I mean, it sucks that it happened, but she’s pretty much all set now. She’ll just borrow money from Eri and I until her new cards come in. So that worked out alright.

When we got home, I messed around on the computer a bit. I went on iTunes and pre-ordered the new U2 album, “No Line on the Horizon,” which was cool because in doing so I instantly got their recently released singled “Get On Your Boots.” Boy am I pumped for that album. And when the CD comes out, I get two free bonus songs, one for buying the CD on iTunes, and another for pre-ordering it! Later that evening, I had the terrible realization that in pre-ordering the album, I had ruined one of my plans, which was to buy the actually CD in Ireland, because U2 is an Irish band. But then I thought about the 2 bonus songs I would be getting, plus the song I already have, and I’m ok with it. I’ll get some other sweet Irish souvenir instead.

Dinner was really good. It was pasta with cheese and Highbury Centre-style ham, aka leftover bacon. Which I’m fine with. I had half of it and put the rest in the fridge. That’ll make for a good lunch this week. After dinner, we all hung out in the Blue Room and slugged through that day’s reading, which was Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Lindsey Houghton read the last part to Tab and I out loud, and that helped all three of us. Then I went on the computer, talked to a few people, watched a couple Looney Tunes cartoons from the Great Depression, and went to sleep.

Here are the pictures I took yesterday:

Maggie. Awwwww....

Her name was ironic because we were on the way to our MAG.

Blurry pic of Maggie and I.

Big Ben.

Houses of Parliament.

I bet they were cold.

"I've got a submarine / you've got gasoline / I don't wanna talk about wars between nations" ("Get On Your Boots" by U2).

Westminster Abbey.

Big Ben and the London Eye.

I like the people's shadows in this one. And it's a contrail!

Today started the same way as yesterday. Wake up, go to breakfast, steal some food for later, go to colloquy…and colloquy itself was really good for me. I was all inspired by Dr. Wardwell’s talk yesterday, so I talked more and made some good points. After colloquy, Vicky told me that I had a package from Emily! And I did! It was a very nice, very much appreciated Valentine’s Day package! It was a complete surprise. Here’s what was in it:
Nestle Crunch hearts (I did some serious damage to these today)
Skittles in a plastic heart
A gigantic Reese’s heart
Raspberry lemonade mix
Goldfish (!)
Cheez-Its (!)
The Fray’s latest album (I’m listening to it now. And I might see The Fray play in Ireland!)
Thomas the Tank Engine toddler’s toothpaste (It was a gag gift. But I’ll use it. And sorry about the alliteration. I have a problem)
3 letters and a Valentine’s Day card

So yeah. I pretty much have the greatest girlfriend on the planet. Just thought you should know this. I love you, Em!

After I opened my box, I took a much-needed nap and actually fell asleep. Then Adam, Tabitha, Eri, Zeke and I went for a walk. Thanks to Emily, I had some goldfish, Crunch hearts, and raspberry lemonade to go with my usual apple and 2 rolls. Hooray for eating healthier! On our walk, we terrorized pigeons, and found a totally amazing playground that we’re going to go nuts on someday. I’ll take pictures when we do.

We all went back to the Blue Room and spent the entire afternoon reading “Divine Comedy.” Due to starting it on Monday, I was farther than everyone else, and actually finished it before dinner. I really liked it. It was all about Dante being led by Virgil through the various layers of hell. The punishments for the sinners got worse and worse as they progressed, but it was really good nonetheless. It had people like Caiaphas, Judas, Brutus, Cassius, Plato, and Potiphar’s wife in it. It reminded me a lot of a story I wrote this past summer in which I’m on a train and progress from the last car to the engine and meet a ton of people from my life on the way. If you’re reading this right now, there’s a big chance you’re in it. I plan on editing it and giving it to people someday, because I really like how it turned out.

After I finished Dante, I took a shower, then went in my room and watched a Tweety Bird cartoon. Then I went down to dinner where we had chili and rice! I was really skeptical of how the FMC would handle chili, but it was really good. Before I had any, though, I went to the fridge in the library and grabbed some English cheddar and a slice of turkey that I had in there. I ripped them up and mixed them in with the chili and rice, and it tasted even better! It was nice to eat an actual meal. I saved half of the chili and put it in the fridge. So I have my next two lunches planned out: pasta tomorrow, chili on Friday. Go me. Oh, and dessert was strawberry shortcake with real strawberries.

After dinner, I lounged around and listened to some Green Day. Then I wrote this. Right now, Adam is taking a nap, Tabitha is on her service project, and the others are probably reading Dante. When Tab gets back, we’re going to watch “The Jungle Book” to clear our minds and relax before we get our next paper topic tomorrow. Speaking of service projects, I start mine a week from today. It’s actually the same as Tabitha’s, and we’ll also be with Evan, Mary Beth, and Vicky (the last two were my airplane buddies on the way to London, and probably will be on the way home because we all have the same flight to Newark). But each Wednesday night from next week to just before our break in March, we’ll be helping setting up/serving/cleaning up meals for All Soul’s Chapel. That’ll be cool, as long as it doesn’t mess me up with reading. But it shouldn’t. Ok, I’m gonna go do stuff now. I love you guys!

PS: You know what London needs? More smokers. It’s getting way too easy to breathe when we go outside nowadays.

PPS: That was a total lie.

PPPS. I hope Butterbur sends this promptly. A worthy man, but his memory is like a lumber-room: things wanted always get buried. If he forgets, I shall roast him. Fare Well!

Boo.