Stonechester Murphys

It's been a fairly uneventful week due to the end of classes, paper writing, and upcoming finals.
As always, last Tuesday, Allison and I went to quiz night. We were back on our British team (with expanded and updated members, including girls and an Irish guy) and we oddly came in about 6th place. The team that always wins cheats (I'm sure of it), so I think we've really got to figure out how to do that. I think Allison and I don't really care about the winnings or winning, we just like hanging out with British people.

I've come to realize this past week that if I were to do study abroad all over again, I would definitely do it differently. I love being in London, and I don't regret that, but I think I would unenroll at BU for a semester or year and then enroll at a real school over here. Something just feels kind of wrong about doing BU in London. I live in a dorm full of American kids, take classes with American kids, go out with American kids, etc etc My professors are English, but that's the extent of it. It's really difficult to break into the British scene if you have no ins. It's been pointed out to me that there are so many of us that if you really wanted to, you could avoid British people the entire time you were here if you wanted to. While there are certainly times when I may feel that way, I feel like I'm being gipped of the real London experience. I'm trying to get out there by myself or meet people at Imperial, but it's extremely difficult. There's also that stiff upper lip thing to get past and the fact that talking and hanging out with a British person multiple times doesn't necessarily make you friends. How you get past that barrier, I'm not sure. I also have this sneaking feeling everyday that I'm running out of time. I'm looking for more and more ways to immerse myself and often coming up short. There just aren't those opportunities for us as American kids studying at our satellite American school. We did get part membership to the Imperial Union, but that's already expired. I've got to say, BU does a pretty terrible job at getting us involved in real activities here. They sponsor club nights and stuff and then a ton of us end up going and it just becomes another club night with American people all around. Lesson learned I guess. BU + BU campus + BU students does not equal British experience.

Valentine's Day was this past Thursday. It seemed that the Brits make the same deal out of it as we do. Hallmark holidays spreading across the world. Of course there was the requisite people who are pissed at the world over being single and resolved to be bitter all day and usually wear black, then there's the people who are single but insist on loving everyone all day anyway, then there are the people in real relationships that do cute things and blah blah blah. Then there was Kate Seif. I maintained strict apathy throughout the day on the matter and I think it was much better for it. I did got out for ice cream with Allison. It was delicious.

As I've said, classes are ending. I have just finished both of my papers and now I'm on to study for the two finals and start planning spring break. Overall, the classes were Ok. I realized that I actually have had just as many hours of each class as I would in a normally scheduled semester but I just don't feel like I've learned as much at all. I did learn a lot of basic important stuff which I'm happy about. I guess when you don't know much about the British insitutions and roles of the EU and all that stuff, you've got to build up quite a lot so not a lot gets covered. I guess they were good classes, though. It was kind of hard for me to feel like they weren't really anything more than a distraction from tourism and other things I would do on a vacation. I feel like my internship will be really neat at first then turn into office life tedium. It's going to be rough sitting in an office every day when there's so much out and about I still haven't done and want to do.

I discovered something random the other day that is now going to annoy me every day. I realized that the sidewalks in Kensington are slightly tilted. You wouldn't really think anything of it until you have to walk on them long distances everyday, and sometimes in heels. It's very slight, but just enough to be annoying and noticeable. My one leg is perpetually lower than the other and it just feels awkward. Now that I've noticed it, I'm doomed to tilted hell whenever I walk.

I'm reading a book by Bill Bryson right now. He's an American author who lived in England for 20 years and writes hilarious travel books. The one I'm reading now is all about this tour he took all over England. It highlights all the hilarious and silly things about England you just wouldn't get if you didn't live here. I highly recommend it (Notes from a Small Island) if you want to get a good, well written and funny flavour of what it's like being here. Especially about the people. He does it much better than I ever could.

I took another day trip to Stonehenge yesterday. I'm not going to lie, I'd like to say it was something really awe inspiring and important, but it really was just rocks. It was great to see it and now be able to say that I've seen it, but that's kind of the extent of it. The audio guides for English had run out, so all the information I had was given to me by the BU tour guide for the day. I did learn a bit so that's always important. It is really neat to see something that's so crazy old and speculate about why they built it. Some of those rocks are apparently 40+ tons.
I've got to quote Bill Bryson here because he just puts it really well:
"Impressive as Stonehenge is, there comes a moment somewhere about eleven minutes after your arrival when you realize your fascination has peaked, and you spend another forty minutes walking around the perimter rope looking at it only out of a combination of politeness, reluctance to be the first from your bus to leave, and a desire to get the 2.80 worth of exposure from the experience."

After Stonehenge, we went to Winchester, which used to be the capital of England way back when. (Way back when what? Well, I guess way back when it was the capital...) It was an adorable little town (once you got off the main drag, which I guess is often the case) with a pretty river running through it and of course hundreds of years of history. We went to the Cathedral (making it my 4th cathedral on this trip so far and probably upwards of 15 in my life in general) which is apparently the 2nd longest in Europe. It didn't feel that long, but I figured they probably knew better than I did on such matters. Jane Austen was burried there and her house was right near by. Although I am not her biggest fan, I do find her works lighthearted and it's nice that they have a happy ending. Because of this, we made the trek to her house to flash some pictures. Then we headed to the Great Hall where there was an 800 year old replica of King Arthur's table (As in Knights of the Round Table). You know your country is crazy old when something 800 years old is already a replica. The whole town in general had a very old feeling to it, which I really liked. It's definitely something new for us Americans to walk amongst things in everyday life that are 500 years old. It was nice, like Canterbury, to see the "real England," albeit a touristy one.

Then I brought myself back to very much the present and headed out shortly after returning home to South London, specifically Brixton to hit up the Brixton Academy (corporate sponsership by Carling) to see the Dropkick Murphys. That's right, i'm 2000+ miles away from home and I still went to see the Dropkicks. I think that makes me an awesome fan. As soon as I got on the Southbound Victoria line I knew this concert would be slightly different. Boston draws a rowdy crowd of course, but I've got to say, these people were much rougher, and much drunker. There were of course far more boys than girls, as is the case at any punk concert, which leads to bigger mosh pits, more alcohol consumption, and rowdiness in general. Also, the Academy is about 3 times bigger than Avalon (where I normally see the Murphys) so far more people were there.
You know that postcard that everyone sends to people from London that has the picture of those quitessentially punk people with crazy hair and piercings all over the place and arms full of tattoos. Ok, well, imagine a room full of those people. The London Punks are a very real and in full force phenomena. Others try to imitate (New York), but indeed, as long as the Sex Pistols did it first, London will always have that going for it. I have never seen more liberty spikes, mohawks, peircings, etc in one room.
On the other hand, it was nice to know, like the goth club, that some things just don't change. People take their shirt off to mosh who would really be doing the world a favour to keep their shirt on. People still are pushy and the tallest person in the room will always manage to find me and stand in front of me.
It was a good show, and the opening band was right excellent. From America, but I had never heard of them. Good enough for me to go home and buy their stuff. Really enjoyable. I do however think that if you don't see the Dropkicks in Boston, it's just not the same. There were people all over the place wearing "Shipping Up To Boston" shirts with pictures of the Prudential Tower and the Hancock Tower on the back (the Pru was taller, which made me laugh at their obvious ignorance of the Dropkick's home town) and the crowd went wild when they played that song. I just feel like they were really missing out from not really knowing what the MBTA is, or Lansdowne street, never having seen the Bruins play, not knowing what exactly Tessie is or why the Sox are such a big deal, etc etc It gave me a sense of eliteness I'm so good at having, but being amongst the unknowing crowd just made it a little less fun.
Also, despite the place being owned by Carling, the beer was still crazy expensive. Despite this, people had this awesome habit of tossing their 1/2 drunken cups into the crowd in front of or behind them. Great!! I love it when it rains beer. Oh wait. Also, despite the smoking ban, people there were not deterred to have a cig whenever they felt like it. In the end, I left smelling like English people's sweat, spilled beer, and cigarettes. I'll give it to Boston that that would not happen, it would just be Bostonians sweat instead.
I'm really glad I went though. I feel like more of a local when I do things here that I would be doing if I were home. I feel more like I'm in the in crowd. Plus, coat check was about a billion times more efficient here than Avalon, so I can't complain. Too bad about going into Zone 2 though. The Tube is draining my finances. I don't think I even use it that much, but it seems every time I turn around i am adding more money to it.

That's one of my biggest peeves of being here. I feel like I'm being nickeled and dimed together. Transportation is crazy expensive no matter how you slice it. And if you think you've been really thrifty and economical when planning a trip, like I did with Barcelona, it turns out that you end up spending literally about a hundred + more just on getting back and forth from airports. I only eat two meals a day but I feel like I'm going grocery shopping all the time, and I always buy what's on sale, but it never seems to help. If I'm not putting money on my Tube card, I'm at the ATM. No matter what phone plan I have, it's always expensive to use it (luckily, I don't really need to much). I wear things multiple times and only do laundry when I run out of underwear, but even that takes a bit of money. It's soo expensive. I'm trying really hard to be economical without being a loser (i.e. never going out or something) and I'm finding it's really difficult. Nearly impossible. Money just seems to flow through my hands like water and it's the most frustrating upsetting thing about this trip. Then there's the fact that every time I use my debit or credit card I get charged 3-5% extra by Visa or whoever else feels like taking a chunk of my money. Whenever you exchange money to Euros, you always get screwed there and lose some money, even if you do it at a bank. I really feel like I can't win. I was expecting to spend money here, but I didn't think it would be on things like the freaking tube or groceries. Every time I spend money, I convert it, and just get upset. I avoid looking at my bank account, but whenever I do, it's really sad. So many little subtractions. Ughhhh!!!! As a cheap person by nature, this is driving me nuts!!

On a separate note, I've decided that the public toilets in general are much nicer than anything in America. Wherever I've gone, in London or otherwise, the toilets have never grossed me out. Kudos to them for this. As a girl, I appreciate this to no end. The bathrooms always have great things in them, like crazy condom machines and these things called "fuzzy brushes" that are apparently edible toothbrushes. I haven't tried one, and won't, but they are intriguing. The only downside to the bathrooms is that none of them ever have paper towels. They are all hand dryers. This is fine, but a lot of them are weak and take forever to actually dry your hands. I hate leaving the bathroom with wet hands, so I always have to end up standing there waiting for a long time, holding everyone else up and making it seem like I was in the bathroom for a long time. Oh well. I'll take that over gross bathrooms. Oh, I guess one other thing. The flushes always seem to be too weak. They never quite get the job done. They should work on this. We need some industrial powered flushers over here.

I'm off to get some dinner and start some spring break planning. While I know this will mean more obnoxious nickel and diming, I am still very excited!

-Kate