Nancy and Gordon Together?

I really love when I see Europeans (especially Canadians) knowing so much about American politics and yet Americans are lucky if they know who the current Vice President is (It's Joe Biden for those of you who don't know). This evening I was coming back from a party at LSE and there in front of me, advertized on the tube was an add featuring Nancy Pelosi and Gordon Brown and how their policies are going to lead to increaes in energy prices (and yes I know Brown is no longer the PM so the ad is outdated). I'm really starting to believe in my theory that every country has the same issues, just like the crappy maid service, the notion that, with all do respect,  Nancy Pelosi is a crazy liberal (and I could think of another word) is universal.

The LSE party was... interesting, kind of like an awkward middle school dance, only with more current music and not that crappy '90s music we used to listen to. I had a good time with the people I was with though!

Ever since my brother asked me to mention him in my blog I have found reasons to without trying. The British like bacon sandwiches, no lettuce or tomato. So I guess Cory is onto something.

Not a big post since I didn't have class and didn't do much though. GW England "orientation" or whatever you wanna call it tomorrow, which means I will be squeezing GW's nickel so hard the buffalo shits...

Oh and I almost forgot! Yesterday I was named the Carbondale News Person of the Week since I am here in London this semester. I would like to take this time and thank everyone who made this possible including friends and family, must have been some bad competition because I honestly don't deserve it. Maybe if I keep this up I will be Time Man of the Year by 40 and have a Nobel Peace Prize by 60!

I Miss Phyllis...

I have Thursdays off and my Friday classes do not start until next week so the weekend has come a bit early this week! I really don't have any work to do either because my War Studies class has not uploaded its syllabus to blackboard and I couldn't get my Film Studies books from the library so I spent my morning contributing to the death of the British book stores. Thank you Amazon.

When I came to the UK, I envisioned the cleaning ladies being these cute old British ladies who would chat with you everyone time they see you. Maybe see them in the kitchen and have a spot of tea and some crumpets (maybe I am basing this on Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast a bit too much), but alas no. Instead of being Hispanic like in the US, the cleaning ladies here are Black French chicks who do not speak one word of English. This morning she knocked on my door and started speaking to me in French. It isn't gonna do her any good really because the only French words I know basically are "bonjour", "merci" "omlette du fromage" and the words to Bad Romance and Lady Marmalade. I apologize to any French people if I spelled those words incorrectly. Chances are also I probably murder the pronunciation as well. So getting back to Marie, thats what I am going to call her from now on. She comes in and is saying in French what I assume is "I am going to vacuum". I tell her "no" because my floor is perfectly clean, and I'm trying to be polite and lessen her workload. Apparently no isn't universal because she ends up barging in and starts vacuuming. She is kinda like Consuela from Family Guy, only opposite. It's a great clip so I highly recommend. So then she starts removing everything from my sink and washing that too because apparently once again no means yes. Then she just muttered some words in French, rearranged my furniture (I didn't ask her to be my interior designer, I like where my coffee table is) and left. It made all the time when the cleaning lady at GW walked in while I was coming out of the shower in only boxer briefs look less awkward.

It may sound like I'm complaining but I actually find it funny. It just goes to show you how everyone has these preconseved notions about different cultures and like this instance, the cleaning lady situation is no different in the UK then the US, just flip the nationality and the language. The one thing that unites us is the fact that no one seems to want to clean themselves. I will befriend a cute old British lady before I leave, so help me god!

Here's to hoping she just doesn't steal my money like Consuela:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOSehGMwB4&NR=1

Since its an early weekend, going out tonight should be fun!

Cory Boyko Is a Sexy Beast

This title has nothing to do with the blog post at all, but my baby brother wanted to be mentioned in my blog for no apparent reason, so now he's getting mocked for it. I guess his curly hair is a turn on for some people, but whatever...

Anyways, there is a real crisis in the UK at the moment...the demise of bookshops! Every single class I have gone to the professor has gone on about how he or she longs for the days when bookstores were once popular and everyone spend hours in them reading. We have that problem in America too, it's called Walmart. Sad to say though the desire for outrageously low prices is innate in all people regardless of national origin. That is why I have no desire to spend a ton of pounds at the bookstore on my books. I am gladly going to Amazon and the library to check them out!

I've also decided that I am going to start the newest fad in the Europe, silly bands. They don't exist here. (And now that I think about it, Cory, was the one who gave them to me so he did get mentioned in this blog anyway). So if someone wants to send me a care package with some silly bands I would love you forever.

My latest failure in British cuisine was cooking what Sainsbury's  calls "Southern Chicken". It even has the American flag on it and everything. Combined with Uncle Ben's 2 minute microwave rices and you know what its quite good. Only problem is this is the first time that I have ever seen raw chicken available in a supermarket with the breading on it! I heated it up in a pan thinking it was precooked only to realize when I cut into it the chicken was pink. I swear someone is trying to kill me... But taste wise it was very good. Had a peppery taste to it kind of like popcorn chicken but in the form of chicken tenders, which is good because most popcorn chicken is all breading and no chicken.

My life seemed like it came full circle today when my cashier was talking to me thinking I was English, even after hearing me speak. She was making fun of the Spaniards behind me who just cut the line randomly to pay for a scale. I felt so touched. It seemed like just last week Snape was saying I speak with an American "twang" and now no one goes "are you American!?" like I belong in a museum or something. I've also found my self starting to say "sorry" in British accent. Basically its the same way the Canadians do, just wonderful...

This has been a pretty random post, but hey everything can't be a narrative. If you live in the UK please contact your MP, save the bookshops!

Rush Limbaugh Saved My Life Tonight

Crazy is an understatement when describing my day today. It started off fairly normal, went to class for 10am but it was canceled so no problem. I killed some time going to the National Gallery and checked out Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. Then I had my first ever McDonald's experience in the UK. Serving sizes are much smaller lets just say that, and its pricier. No wonder Europeans are so skinnier and most Americans are fat asses. Europeans don't eat as much, plus they can't afford it.

This is where the craziness starts. I am minding my own business, sitting outside the Strand building when a girl comes up to me and says, "Not to be a total creeper, but you go to GW don't you." Whoever you are (I forget you're name. I don't think you are a creeper, but that was just really really ironic.  Crazy moment number 2 was in my first class: War in International Order. I know I keep using Harry Potter analogies, but there was one guy who was such a Hermione Granger. I never saw someone raise their hand so quickly and at such a precise 90 degree angle. I mean the professor is French, do they have brownie points in their culture? Plus it also helps to be right in your answers...no offense...

Oh and the guy sitting in front of me happens to go to GW and live at my residence. Once again small world. As for the French professor, he was dressed in a very stylish black, modern fit shirt with a fitted white dress shirt...and Bart Simpson dress socks.

My pottery class doesn't start until next week so I was able to go home early. Went out this evening for a social event at one of the local pubs in Soho. Thought I'd turn in early, but that didn't happen. Once I found a tube station near Soho I had to transfer to the Northern Line and get off at Hampstead since the Metropolitan line had major delays. Well, problem number one was the fact that the Northern Line branches off right before Hampstead and I was on the wrong train, so I had to get off and wait for another. Then once I got off at Hampsetad, while walking back in the pitch dark neighborhood because I turned down the wrong street .The British really need to start making streets that intersect and such, none of these curvy roads and such. So I got lost walking for about 20 minutes, running down various streets, thinking this may be it. And then I heard a familiar voice... At first I thought it couldn't be, but then I heard them complaining about Obama and Nancy Pelosi. It was Rush Limbaugh of all people! I followed Rush's voice down to the corner and found a security guard sitting in his car (prob outside Katy Perry's house). Turns out I was only a block away... From this point on I will NEVER get lost again.

Oh and a loyal reader asked if I would be trying the British staple, spotted dick, which is this, the answer is no, we'll leave it at that.

Lionel Richie's Sad Comeback

Lionel Richie has made a comeback! I'm sure you all were anxiously awaiting for his triumphant return after his hit "Hello". I still wonder to this day who hurt you Lionel...who hurt you? Well these days he's hurting me because every time I watch the X Factor with everyone on the floor I am forced to watch this annoying commercial multiple times during the course of a commercial break: Don't say I didn't warn you! Love how Walkers is clearly Lay's potato chips just under a different name.

Today was a very quiet day, typical London day of rain and cloudy skies so it was a perfect day to have a lazy Sunday. It seems like all I discuss is the food in London. I should probably make it a daily segment. So on today's menu I had Yorkshire pudding. All I can say is that puff pastry, stuffing, and gravy are all good seperately. And you know what? They actually taste pretty good together as well.So in all honesty I really don't understand what people from the US mean when they say British cuisine is horrible. Venture outside your bubble/comfort zone.

Also, Amsterdam Nov 11-13th, get excited...

Apparently Robinson's is Double Concentrated

Once again, I had another stupid American moment today, but we'll get to that later. First I would like to talk about the good part of the day. After recovering from my night at Koko, I finally decided to do something touristy and ventured out into the neighborhood I live in. The girls and I walked to Hampstead Heath, a giant green space in the middle of Hampstead. Along the way we walked through various alley ways lined with small stores and pubs. My favorite strore that we went into was a vintage book shop that had used books. Being the history geek that I am I looked though the various books written during WWII analyzing what the British should do next to defeat Hitler. (Despite the insight they offered to what people thought at the time, I didn't think they were worth 3 quid)

The Heath was basically a giant green that isn't really manaquered like American parks are such as Central Park. I found it quite quaint and throughout the various fields there were dogs running with their owners and artists sitting in the meadows looking for inspiration, probably writing some crappy novel. Oh and there was also a circus! I don't know why I find that so exciting but I did. The best view of the day was clearly from the top of the hill on Hampstead Heath, from there you were able to see all of central London. I think that is up there with Machu Picchu as one of the best views I have seen.

So for the majority of the day I hadn't done anything stupid that would point out that I was American. Nobody corrected my accent and for once I knew to look right left right instead of left right left. And then Emma noticed I was drinking Robinson's Squash (fruit cocktail) straight from the bottle. I looked down at the label. It was double concentrated and I was supposed to add water. A 1 liter bottle has 20 servings and I had already downed 2/3 of the bottle in one sitting. Oh well...all the sugar didn't make me feel good later though.

Although apparently I do have a good English accent, which is so great to the point that I ended up spending the night around Camden speaking to everyone in an English accent without anyone noticing I was a foreigner. Emma even made me record her voice mail on her cell phone using my accent. Maybe if International Affairs doesn't pan out I have a backup plan!

Quote of the night from Laura after a bottle of Smirnoff Ice broke in the tube station: "Banana!" (said in her "American" accent)

Sniffing Vodka and Koko

Alcohol is to consumed through the mouth, no offense to anyone. Through anywhere else I just see it as a waste of money and enjoyment. Apparently you can sniff it. I'm still a bit in disbelief over it but apparently all you have to do is place a cap full of vodka up to your nose, snort it and next thing you know you can't feel your mouth or face and you are falling into the fridge because you lose body control. Either that or you are just over exaggerating for attention. Either way, I prefer to drink my liquids.

That being said...last night we went out to a real club in Camden called Koko. This place was amazing. Basically it was an old movie theater with all the old balconies and such (think the Muppet Show, now only with people dancing and drinking, not two old men making sarcastic remarks) that was converted into a club. It made Town in DC look like APEX, which is saying a lot because I would rather walk into a dark alley with a known serial killer and a rapist lurking before I walk in there). The moment I walked in they were playing "Room on Fire" by The Strokes followed by Bloc Party and I knew that finally there was a club that played the type of alternative rock/pop music that most American clubs don't play.Later on a live band came out on the stage and performed for a bit. The feeling is so different from any American club.

Londoners also know how to party... and party HARD. I would never think off showing up at a club before 11pm and then staying out until 3:30am. I ended leaving before everyone because me and a another girl were so tired. But naturally the London tube system closes at midnight. DC is open until 3am on the weekends, there's a problem here. I hate buses with a passion. I am so clueless as to where to go, so we ended up hoping on a random bus in our general direction. After a failed bus ride and a 30 minute walk in the cold we were finally home at almost 4:30am. I was sobered up by then and suffering from the drunk munchies so I was talking into buying a hot dog for 3 pounds. I only pay that kind of money for Minoush in American money, not in British currency. Such bad life decisions, guess Pimms and cider does that to you.

Finally, what does this engraving on my desk look like? I hope I'm not the only one thinking this...

Professor Snape Hates My American Twang

Severus Snape does exist. I swear my Greek Pottery professor must have been the inspiration when JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. I had the pleasure of meeting him while meeting with my study abroad advisor here at King's. I could not find my class on the registration page because apparently they had the wrong course ID listed. Naturally, they couldn't help me so they sent me to the department to speak with the secretary. I will say the secretary was very nice. She realized that I was American and proceeded to give me a tour of the Classics department and she came to a realization that the course ID number was indeed incorrect on the Study Abroad website. And then, from the corner of the office comes a voice, almost as if it was Alan Rickman himself, "It's been the same bloody number since 1829, it can't be wrong." The secretary then proceeded to introduce me and say that I was a study abroad student from America. He looked at my hand very oddly as I extended it and said, "I know, I can tell by the twang."

I mean I know that everyone at GW notices my Northeast Pennsylvania accent (which is NOT nearly as bad as the older generation from that area), but TWANG, really? I thought next he would be saying "10 points deducted from Gryffindor." I''m quite fond of my Film Studies professor so perhaps I will refer to him as McGonagall. The day before that tough I was informed that "Waterloo" is not pronounced "Water-loo", it is pronounced "WA-TA-LOOO". The receptionist  at the campus concierge desk stopped me mid sentence to point out the inaccuracy of my pronunciation. I mean, come on, that's one of those "you say tomato I say tomato."

Today, my newest experience into British cuisine was basically pasta with red and green hot peppers. Everyone knows how I like it hot 'n spicy, so naturally I found that quite delicious.

I'll end this post with the following question: How many drunk Brits are willing to snort vodka?

The answer is 4. I'm scarred for life, so maybe I'll tell that story another day...

The Burger

Day 3 in Hampstead and no Katy Perry sighting, although I did walk by the store where George Michael ran his car into, leading to his most recent arrest. I thought the hamburger was universal, but apparently it wasn't.

Even though I don't have jet lag, I don't think my stomach has caught up yet. Today walking back from a few meetings with my advisor in the study abroad department I was so hungry and decided to stop at the nearest place that had food at a decent price. My luck it was an Indian place. I'm not too firmiliar with Indian food with the exception of naan, but I had to eat something substantive and was creaving meat so I figured why not order a hamburger. I mean how weird could it be?

It started out fine, a typical hamburger with a slice of cheese, but then the Indian man who made it started putting condiments on it because I don't think his English was that good nor could he understand my accent. He started by putting lettuce, onions, and cucumbers. I mean cucumbers is close to pickles so no biggie. I had to draw the line when he started putting carrots and cabbage on it. He also didn't get that I wanted ketchup on my burger and he insisted on putting on what they called "burger sauce". It kind of tasted like Big Mac sauce but was very vinegary. Then of course my chips ended up being topped not just with salt but also malt vinegar, which I actually liked. British ketchup (or as this bottle was called, "tomato sauce") is mainly vinegar with a bit of tomato paste, way sweeter then American ketchup.

To top off all the weirdness, for some reason everyone in the restaurant was obsessed with watching Sally Jessie Raphael which was playing on the TV, I hope they realize that talk show hasn't been on in like 10 years...

I have nothing scheduled the next few days, taking a break after the pub scene the past two nights. Tomorrow night I'll be back in full force. Perhaps I'll do something touristy tomorrow and Friday.

Last Night Part Deux

Ok after reading that last post I did I realized it sucked, and did not describe the night an its weirdness. So it started out with everyone "pre-drinking", which is one of my new favorite British phrases because quite honestly it doesn't make sense, how does one "pre-drink" by drinking?

After pregaming we headed over to the Camden section of London to go bar hopping (nicer then Camden, New Jersey) of course. The first bar wasn't anything exciting, except the cider was good. I got the munchies and ended up going to the falaffel place across the street, which was reeeaaaaalll good. Of course under the influence of alcohol anything tastes good. Next thing you know the bell was ringing and we had to clear out because it was midnight. This is when the fun begins.

So I'm gonna assume that most Londoners work so they don't typically spend the night up late drinking, but naturally we do so we went on a walk looking for a bar. Epic fail number 1. Lets just say we did a lot of walking and after my mishaps earlier navigating around London I wasn't in the mood for walking. Then we met up with some Spanish people and decided to follow them to some club. We were so close to this really cool club  that had like giant transformer things outside the entrance and an outdoor hooka bar outside, but sadly that was closed.

And then after more aimless walking we were at our next club. I thought I saw it all at APEX on a Thursday night but this truly was the one place where lesbians, older aged couples, and metrosexual (you know the are they or aren't they) type could come together and enjoy themselves. Even weirder was the fact that the DJ was playing techo meets Bob Marley-esque reggae and of course Michael Jackson. In addition for some reason on the giant flat screen TV there was a an old movie playing featuring Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show. This chick for people going HUH? By this time its about 1AM, I'm tired, and we're basically watching our senior resident what it the equivalent of a House Proctor at GW, drink his ass off with us. Something Matt Rist would NEVER do (I'm sure I'll get a comment about this, so this will prove if people read this shit) Then everyone got all excited. There was a celebrity sighting. I was hoping it would be someone huge like I don't know Dame Edna, or Maggie Smith, or Katy Perry since she lives in our neighborhood. Nope. My first celebrity siting in London was Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones 20 year old ex-girlfriend (the one he apparently left his wife for), whose 15 minutes of fame was extended by an appearance on Big Brother in the UK.  Everyone seemed interested, me not so much. What a way to end the night...but of course we ended  up walking home and didn't get back until 3am, because the busses drove off without us. I won't go into detail about that....thats like epic fail number 4 or 5....

Today I got a sandwich that had cheese and jelly on it, surprisingly good. I'd like to apologize now formally to my grandma for making fun of her all these years for eating that. And also I forgot to end the original post  like I promised I would so Clark and Nick, where ever you may be, goodnight!

Moving On Up To The East Side...

...of the pond that is. And before I begin, if you get offended by the contents of this blog, then don't red it because I can care less what you honestly think. I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest blogging fan so I don't know how long I'll keep up with it.

Basically, I got shagged (literally) from the minute I came here. It all started with the disabled man who I had as my cab driver, who I believe went the wrong way and got lost only to charge me $80 pounds for a cab ride and give me the advice of having a lot of condoms on me at all times.

I then got shagged again when I had to take the 18 Bus to the Strand Campus to register for my student ID. The bus terminated earlier then usual and I was stuck 20 blocks away from the campus, not having a clue I was going. Naturally the people I asked were the only friggin people in the UK who don't speak English. Luckily after two hours of walking around aimlessly and asking numerous bobbies, I  got there...and to add insult to injury, registration only took 2 seconds.

But thinks started to look up because the I remembered I'm legal and all the people on my floor went bar hoping and for falaffel. Such a great bunch, they're all awesome. Few ciders later, and I forgot all about getting shagged completely by the Brits on my first day.

Oh and then we went the wrong way home...FML