My Right Honourable Friend... the Ass-licker?

The following stuff happened a few days ago, and prior to a weekend away, so I may be a bit dodgy on some of the details and will inevitably forget mostly everything I wanted to say.

On Thursday, as planned, I got up early and headed to Westminster Abbey. It was a cold, windy, rainy day (our first in quite awhile), which was kind of a pain to deal with, but the Abbey was definitely worth it. I went the last time I was here (1998), and I have to say, it was nothing like I had remembered. Like most cathedrals, it was completely breath-taking, but there was just a certain aura about the place that just made it seem far more unique. I unforunately was unable to take pictures (not allowed), but it was probably better that way. In places like that, one usually gets caught up in getting all the right shots and everything and doesn't really see what's around them with their own eyes. There were so many nooks and crannies and passageways all around the place, it was like a never-ending discovery of old and important stuff. Britian's oldest door is also located there. How anyone could possibly know that that is the oldest door, I have no idea, but there it was (wasn't that impressive if you were wondering). The Abbey has so much history (it's been around since the 1000s, although the oldest parts now date back to the 1200s due to reconstruction and fires and general disrepair) and it's really neat to walk through and see something from 1300 next to something from 1970. The things people had created for their final resting place are beyond amazing. Some of the most ornate and expensive things you could ever think of were created just to show off where a person was burried. I have no idea what makes a person special enough to be burried there, some Kings were, some weren't, some Queens, not others. I suppose it's just happenstance and how much money you had. I had also forgotten just how big the place was. There were multiple rooms, buildings, and gardens all fairly stunning in their own way.
I did see Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary's tomb, I find it very interesting that the two are burried together. There was an interesting plaque there about religions (specifically catholicism and protestantism) coming together. I'm not sure when this dates back to, but I highly doubt it was Elizabeth's choice. I can't imagine either would be very happy about their final resting place. Moreover, on most tombs, there is a sculpture of how the person looked with lots of symbolism, etc to describe them. The sisters had one large tomb, but only one sculpture, and I was unable to tell which one it was. Seems like Elizabeth kind of got shafted. I also found it interesting that Mary Queen of Scots was burried in the Abbey. I know she died in England but because her death was a result of being killed for treason, I find it odd that Elizabeth would have her burried there, especially in such an elaborate way. The mysteries of histories.
One place I found especially moving was the area more dedicated to modern history. I lit a candle there and had a little moment interrupted by an idiot teenager (Briton) lighting a piece of paper on fire with her little brother. Moving beyond that, it was very interesting to see throughout the entire Abbey the close connection with America. There was a stained glass window for various American Ambassadors to the Court of St. James, a special plaque for Roosevelt, and if my memory serves me correctly, I think there was also something there for Washington and Lincoln. One doesn't find dedications to French leaders there. It was kind of a nice feeling to see things like that and to know that I'm in a place (the Abbey at the moment and England in general) that appreciates and likes America (well, in practice, still haven't figured out in principle). In that same room was the dedication to the unknown soldier and all the memorials for soldiers in the World Wars (earlier there had been a dedication to soldiers that had fought for the Crown on various occassions) and right in the middle of the floor, next to the plaque was a nice, large dedication to the man himself, Sir Winston Churchill. Next to it was a fake flower bouquet with a little note on it dated 1965 from his daughter, which was quite touching.
Overall, the Abbey was definitely worth the trip and I'm glad I went. It will never cease to amaze me the amount of history this country has. We will never have buildings as old as theirs in the US and our history and sense of tradition will never compare to the UK's.

Following the Abbey, I went to Tesco's (a grocery store chain that also has a lot of little 711/Wawa type stores) and came to the conclusion that British crisps are in general just better than American chips. Sorry America, maybe next time. And also water is much cheaper here, which is great, and as it should be.

Then it was time to meet my class in the tube to go on a fieldtrip of the Westminster area and Whitehall area. The tour guide was an adjunct faculty member and I thought did a pretty decent job. He showed us the obvious places like Parliament (technically called the Palace of Westminster) but also the Treasury area and civil service buildings and even MPs' most popular bar. Parliament has a buzzer that goes off throughout the building whenever they need to have a vote, and you need to show up within 8 minutes in order to vote, and MPs were so dedicated to this pub, they had the buzzer line extended to the pub. Apparently every so often, you can catch a bunch of MPs busting out and running down the street to the House of Commons in time to vote.
We also learned about Parliament etiquette. In Britain, it's fairly popular to harass and harangue the opposing parties (most notably seen in Prime Minister's Question Hour). There's lots of backhanded insults going on and tonnes of humour. We learned that apparently if you say something and the Speaker of the House (very unlike Nancy, it's a much more important and legitimate role) doesn't strike it from the record, it can technically become Parliamentary language. This has happened with "Bollocks" (which if you don't know means testes) and in Australia, the term "Ass licker" has even been adopted (sparlingly I assume) in Parliamentary language. Amazing. I can never imagine someone like say, Dick Cheney using such swear words in a public setting.... Oh wait.

The weather could have been better, but it was a pretty good tour all around. We terminated at Parliament and were given the opportunity to go visit the House of Commons or the House of Lords. It was a crappy day and there wasn't anything that special going on in government that day, so we were able to get in fairly easily. After dealing with a very crabby and unpleasant usher (although, as I have come to find, most people in lowly positions of authority are that way here... more on this later), we went into the House of Commons. It was a lot smaller than I had expected, and much nicer looking than it is on TV. Winston apparently had it rebuilt to be as small as it is after it was bombed during WW2 to give it a more dramatic setting when it was full of MPs. The debate that was going on was on some sort of taxx reform and there were hardly any people there and it was a lot like watching CSpan, only with an accent. It was still really neat to go in a see it and I'm glad I did. I did not go to see the House of Lords because there was a long line and I had other stuff to do.

Following my governmental adventures, I discovered the wonderful world of Primark. I had to go there to get flipflops (which I didn't have and was not about to stay in a hostel without). Primark is apparently an Irish department store and it was amazing. Everything there is crazy cheap and if I ever need anything, that is certainly where I will head. I got flip flops (fairly decent looking, too) for 1 pound. It's nice to know that in this city where money seems to flow through my hands like water despite how much I try there is a place like that.

So, I've noticed here that people that have vague authority (like an usher, or airport check in people and things of that nature) are, for a lack of a better term, total jerks. I'm not sure if it's because I'm American, or why that is, but it's wildly unacceptable. The police here are really nice and helpful, but certain people all just seem to have a very noticeable stick up their ass. I don't know, I guess in a foreign country you're bound to run into some resistance from someone somewhere.

Product Appeal
I would like to make an appeal to PepsiCo to get their crap together and get into the European Market. CocaCola owns this continent and I'm getting tired of it. Diet Pepsi is better, and if Europeans can't realize that on their own, they need some good old fashioned market incentives to discover it. I don't particularly care, but it just seems odd to me that Coke can be sooo big over here, but then the only stuff Pepsi can sell well is Dr Pepper (regular, not diet) and Pepsi Max.

I realized that I have yet to have fish and chips here. I kind of need to get on that because obviously it's kind of a big deal here and I do enjoy fish and chips. Mostly I'm talking about this stuff now because I'm fairly hungry. I let my food stores run low before I went away for the weekend and now I'm in dire need of grocery shopping. Most places in the city are open 24 hours (for food) and other places are open quite late-- except Sundays. Things are generally only open for about 6 hours and are done by 5 or 6. It's kind of annoying, but at the same time really great that places keep their other hours such as they are.

I guess that's about it for pre-Barcelona. I'm ridiculously tired right now, so I think I'm going to write about that particular adventure manana, as they say. It'll be a good one though, so stay tuned.

-Kate

p.s. spell check wasn't working, so ignore all spelling errors and chalk it up to my current sleepiness and not any lack of general brilliance on my part :-)