Pictures

Because trying to put pictures into this blog, with sentances explaining them, is too difficult at the moment, I'm just going to give you links to view the albums of pictures I'm taking that I put on Facebook. Here they are:



Spelunking Hyde Park : http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082170&l=70314&id=40106188



Lloyds of London: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081998&l=0fd92&id=40106188



Ireland: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081758&l=7b895&id=40106188



London + Ireland: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081748&l=84c70&id=40106188



The Adventure Has Started: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080834&l=edd1d&id=40106188

If I can find a good way to put pictures on here in the future, I will, but at the moment I'm just givin' the links.

Thomas

Another Long Post

Right now it's Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 in London, and this is my 4th week of studying abroad. Yesterday was my first day of actually studying this semester, and it went well, aside from being obscenely tired from my community service work earlier in the day(involves trimming trees and brush, swinging a big ax/sickle tool at brush, and various other things). I was studying for a marketing quiz I had today, which I didn't do too bad on(17 out of 20), so overall it went pretty well. At the moment, I'm procrastinating on doing a paragraph summary for a marketing assignment, as well as a journal entry for the community service project. We'll see how they go.

I'll talk about the food here for a bit. Right now, the exchange rate is about 1.82 dollars for every British pound. When I first arrive here, it was about 1.79, or something. Anyways, not as bad as it once was, but it still puts pressure on us American students to spend wisely. Our host family is supposed to feed each of us breakfast, but the meals for the rest of the day we're responsible for. Deciding on either to buy food from the local grocery store and thus saving money, or indulging and eating out at a restaurant are some of the things we have to think about.

Here where I live, Muswell Hill, there are plenty of a different places to eat at, almost catering to every type of food you normally eat. So far I've found some places other good value, others not. The first place my roommate and I ate at, called Giraffe, offered food styles from all over the world. Both of us got different pasta dishes, and needless to say, were a little disappointed. I got nowhere near full, dish wasn't that great, and I paid 8 pounds for it, or around $15. But then last night my roommate showed me this place called the Slug and Lettuce; I wasn't in the mood to spend money for the time being, but decided to give it a go. As we got in he mentioned that everything on the menu was half off; that's why he has been there every Monday so far. Observing the menu, I could see why. Delicious sounding sandwiches, paninis, and pasta dishes all over, and at half off, excellent deals. I then observed the dessert menu(I'm a sucker for dessert; Mom would know), and saw a 2-for-1 deal, where you buy anything on the regular menu, and you can get any two dessert's for the price of 1. Sounds good to me! My sandwich, which was only 3.50 in pounds, was delicious(BBQ sauce and chicken pieces, all on this long, toasted/grilled bun; mmmmm); my two selected desserts involved raspberry-covered biscotti with ice cream, and special cheesecake with ice cream. Aside from the biscotti bit, everything was absolutely delicious, and both of those only totaled 4.75 pounds!

We also found this little Italian place called La Porchetta that serves big portioned, cheap pasta dishes. Delicious as well, so we'll be back for sure. Knowing the exchange, I thought it'd be all doom and gloom over here, but so far I've been shown otherwise. To keep costs down my roommate and I have been buying groceries mainly from this place called Sainsburys; mainly bread, sandwich meat, cheese peanut butter, cereal, milk, and for myself, juice and cookies! Mmmmm. For small snacks I've been snacking on Skittles, Starburst, and dark Dove Chocolate pieces my Mum brought over when we met in Dublin. Big Thank You to her, as those have provided much refreshment while lounging in my room.

One last bit. Instead of having booze burn a whole through my wallet, as many, if not most, of my fellow London group members are doing, I've set a goal of eating at this place called Gaucho. Basically it's a fine dining restaurant, mainly serving premium Argentine beef dishes. I'm a big meat guy, and this place sounds absolutely delicious. Meals run about 25 pounds, which is near $50, but in my mind, sounds totally worth it. Here's a link to check out Gaucho's website:
I better get back to work. I'll try to post pictures on here soon, and make this blog overall look a little more spiffy.
Later
Thomas

A New Understanding

So, it's been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that; there's so much happening around here, so many things to do, that's it's been hard to simply sit down and write an update. But I feel one is due, so here it goes. 

Well, it's been about 14 days since my last entry. Sicne then I've had two weeks of classes, spent 3 days in Ireland, and many other things. Being that I'm participating in the London Business Semester, I'm taking Finance, Marketing, Business Law, and European Union. They are pretty interested so far, with the exception of Finance; we all want to shoot ourselves halfway through the class, mainly because it's so boring listening to the professor speak. Anyways, the amount of work we have for the classes isn't too bad; just reading mainly. If I get anything lower than a B this semester I'll be pissed. 

Last weekend was our trip to Ireland, a country I had once been to before, and had really wanted to return to again. Pretty much the first thing we did when we arrived in Dublin was visit the Guiness storehouse. After touring the place, we all went up to the Gravity Bar, where we all were granted a free pint of Guiness. I hate Guiness, but because my two brothers have been harking on me to have a full beer while over here(I have never before), I finished my glass, and took pictures to prove. Hopefully it shuts them up. So our first night was spent a decent, if small, hotel right in the heart of Dublin, with the next two nights spent in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. My parents were in Ireland at that same time, so leading up to the trip they decided to meet me at my hotel to drop off a few things I couldn't bring with me on the flight over, namely my suit jacket. That first evening, after walking downstairs to the lobby to pick up some brochures, my parents walked in(I had no idea when they'd arrive that night), and we were all suprised. The goodies they brought were awesome(Skittles! Starburst! Dove Dark Chocolate!!!). It was really nice seeing them, especially when it happens in a foreign country. They were staying in Northern Ireland, so after talking for a bit they left, and I joined my friends in a night, to be followed by more nights, of shananigans on the town. 

Not to make this longer than it should be, we left Dublin, stopped at the Irish National Stud(they breed top range horses), some random castle, and then arrived in Galway. After everybody got situated, we hit up the town. The next day we visited the Buuren, and then the Cliffs of Moher. Now, they us a 2 hour limit to explore the area around the Cliffs. What myself, and 3 other guys didn't realize is, is how cool/awesome/amazing the view would get as we explored further along the path, a path nobody else in our group traversed. The sights we saw were spectacular, yet we could only go halfway, being that we had to return by 4pm. We returned, knowing we had yet to finish our trek. I don't know about them, but I'll return someday. 

After another crazy night in Galway(our group loves to party), we drove down to Cork, stopping at Blarney Castle along the way, where we kissed some stone. Gimmicky to me, but the surrounding grounds were quite nice. Flew back to London that night, and because we got back so late, the Tube had stopped, so a bunch of us had to use the buses. The next day(Monday), we all started our community service programs. I, along with a couple other UST students, worked outside with an organization called BTCV that promotes conservation around London. We cleared brush, trimmed/cut trees, and other random cutting. Should be fun for a while, until it starts getting cold at least....

This weekend was our weekend off, so my roommate and I decided to run in Hyde Park(like Central Park in NY, only way bigger). The sun was out, there were people all over the place; it was just awesome. We decided it would be nice to come back the next day to do some reading, which we did. We read for an hour, after which my roommate went home, while I stayed and explored the park. Boy was I rewarded. Absolutely beautiful place it was. It's just so HUGE! So many different types of scenery(grass fields, wheat fields, thick trees, thin trees, etc.), and so many couples. I have to say, that park is the perfect place to bring a date. Can't believe how many couples I saw. Took many different pictures of the place, of which I'll post soon. 

This post doesn't contain nearly at all everything that I've seen and experienced so far here in London. It's been 3 weeks, but it seems like I've been here months. It's moving fast(everything moves fast; well, except my roommate), so in order to better record my experience, to give it more detail, I'll try to post every day, or every other day. I have another day of community service tomorrow, and then class following that, so it's a full day, but I'll try to post another update anyways. 

Cheers

Thomas

Higher

I was unsuccessful in my bid to find a proper Rugby store. The 2nd store I went to had a bigger selection, but they didn't have England jerseys??!?!?!?!! They had on the wall 2 full racks of Ireland jerseys, a full rack of Scotland jerseys, some France, some Italy, and some Wales, but no England. Not one. Utter discrace for a rugby store, especially in one of the top rugby nations of the world. Ugh. Thats two stores now I've tried, with no luck. This weekend we're going to Ireland, and last time I was there, there were several shops with huge selection of rugby merchandise, so hopefully I can find one. 

I bought a chocolate milk shake bottle thing tonight. I was delicious. And so were the strawberry filled crouisants. 

Vikings

Last night was pretty nice; just stayed at home in our room, watching videos and playing Half Life 2. Watched the England vs Andorra game before dinner at O'Neills; cool for a while, but I then realized how poorly England was playing, so I left at halftime.

Today I went by myself to Picadilly Cirsus to check out some rugby shop my homestay mom's son told me about; their selection sucks I found out, so now, after finishing my fruit smoothie at Starbucks, I'm going to go check out another store I found out about online somewhere near here, wish me luck

One more thing. Yesterday a group of guys and I checked out this Sports Cafe in downtown London. Didn't get in unfortunately, because there was a 5 pound cover apparently, but the guy we talked to outside said they're showing the Vikings/Packers game live Monday night, and if the Vikings happen to win, the guy outside told us he'd buy us all a drink. Niiiiice

Wireless

Wireless internet here sucks; currently typing this on my laptop with one hand, using the other to hold up my laptop 4 ft off the ground right next to the window, the only place in our room that I currently get internet. 

Another Day

These days are blending together. I probably won't be making novels like my first post. Yesterday we toured London by bus for 3 hours, and after that finished we split in groups of 3 and had to find locations in London indicated on a sheet they gave us. I've pretty much mastered the Underground Tube system. Probably one of the only things they do better than us; their public transportation system here is amazing. A bus route basically goes to almost every part of the city, and taking the tube makes transport to any part of the city fast. Then again, I've never been New York and used their tube system, but whatever. After traveling around London I got a book from our student union, did some internet surfing, and went back to my homestay house. On the way back I picked up some groceries, at a place called Sainsbury, right on my walk home. Pretty nice place. Most of our London group was so tired, that most of us didn't go out. When I went to sleep last night, pretty much right when I closed my eyes in bed, I was out. Nice.

Today we took a day trip to Brighton, a city many Londeners take a weekend holiday to during the summer. Visited a pavillion building that was built by a guy named George. Couldn't take pictures inside, so that sucked. Pictures of that later. After that we basically split up in groups and explored the city. Went to the pier and had my first 'fish and chips' from England. Quite tasty they were. I got a picture. 

After getting back from that, got some groceries on the way home again(buy 1 get 1 free Jaffa Cakes???? Yeah!!!!!) After thinking we would spend the night just in our room, my roommate and I went back to O'Neills again. This time I wasn't carded when I asked for a Red Bull, but was  carded when I tried entering the place. Whatever. Place closed at 12am, so we tried finding another place to hang out afterwords. Didn't go so well.......

Tomorrow the Globe Theater to see "A Midnight Summer's Dream," and then a night out in central London, probably the Soho district, for some nice club/pub hoppin'. 

This Thing Doesn't Format Quite Right.....

Well well, my first full day in London. I'll talk about today later, but right now my flight over and meeting my family.

The flight over here was pretty nice. First got some snack food; pretzels and some Canada Dry drink. Then got served dinner, and then towards the end of the flight a more breakfast kind of meal, both of which were pretty good. I had my laptop with, and I have Half Life 2, a sort of futuristic first person shooter game, and I accomplished my goal of playing the game while flying. It was nice. Also watched some videos too, but the laptop is a battery hog, so it didn't last very long. I had my mp3 player with also, so that provided plenty of entertainment, 48 gigs of music and all. Every seat too on the plane had screens you could navigate, and with headphones watch a huge selections of movies, listen to radio stations or artist CD's, or just follow the flight itself on the screen. Pretty neat.
The cool thing about my flight was that I sat next to the kid who wasn't part of our group going over; he asked me what I was doing in London, and immediately I knew he was British, because of his thick accent. His name ended up being Tom too, and he loved the car show Top Gear, and loved rugby just as much as I did(even plays on his school's team). Apparently every summer his family goes to a vacation spot up near St. Cloud for three weeks. Gave tips on London. Pretty cool.
Didn't see much of Heathrow; immediately got our bags and went to our charter buses, which took us to our student union in downtown London. At this point we all wanted a nap(sleeping on the plane didn't go very well). In the building they served us food, gave us a bunch of forms, and after waiting a bit, they taxied us off to our home stays. My roommate and I are living with a single mom(apparently) and her 15 year old son, who apparently is a pretty good swimmer for his age(competed in the national swimming championships earlier in the year for his age). Pretty nice people; have a black labrador named Lottie, and our room has a toilet in it; convenient I'd say(remember our B&B in S-Words Mom?) We get cereal provided for breakfast, and have to make due with our own food the rest of the meals. Roommate got some groceries today, so we made sandwiches for dinner.
There is this pub nearby, about a 5 minute walk from our place, called O'Neils, situated in an old church. Most of everybody who lives around Muswell Hill, as my roommate and I do, know of this pub, so throughout the day we made plans for all of us to meet there that night for drinks. To try to make this short, it was a pretty fun night out hanging with everybody, with the exception of BEING CARDED FOR ORDERING A RED BULL!! Straight up nothing else, and I was carded. Everybody else ordered their alcoholic drinks, and none of them were carded. Ahhhhh....and another thing. That night I tried to go to sleep at around 2am, and usually, no matter when I drink a Red Bull, I usually have no problem going to sleep pretty quick once I get in bed. But this time, there must have been some extra caffeine in that can, because I probably didn't get to sleep until about 5am, and had to wake up at 8am. Not fun....
More tomorrow.

*edit* - This was done yesterday, but because we didn't have the internet working at our house at the time, it's been posted tonight.