36 hours

so 36 hours and one final stand between me and leaving London... that escalated quickly.  I apologize for the lack of updates, but basically since my birthday it's been a whirlwind.  And for now it's back to studying for a bit before Romeo and Juliet in the Globe.  

Well it's about time...

Finally the head honchos at good old MacDonald's have realized the amazingness that is Dr. Pepper, especially from the fountain.  Good old McD's announced that DP will soon be available in every restaurant across the US of A.  While this may take some time, soon enough I will be able to get a massive fountain taste of all 23 flavors in South Bend and Chi-Town.

I realize I've fallen off a bit as far as the updates go, but it's been a crazy busy week with papers, bday stuff, and traveling (Madrid was pretty awesome and the bday was too, the friends were good to me)  However, I promise I've written things down in the moleskine to update at some point.

Scary scary thought that I have less than two weeks

Phantom of the Opera

Monday night's adventure was to go see the Phantom of the Opera.  Beforehand, the group of the 8 of us grabbed a sandwich from Pret a Manger (London version of McD's, they are everywhere including within a block of each other on Trafalgar) and headed for a nice little picnic dinner in the middle of Trafalgar Square.  A nice difference from life back home, just eating dinner in the center of London.  

Phantom itself was pretty cool.  The music was really good, and while it was a bit confusing at times, the play was really good.  Minus technical difficulties at quite possibly the worst moment right before the climax, it was a success.  No Les Mis, but still pretty good.

And now a week of a little bit of work and football before the weekend in Madrid

Good day for Chicago so far

First before I answer the questions below, I was a bit shocked that my own mother could not remember where I had lived the past three years.  However, I lived in 120 as a freshman, 330/334 as a sophomore, 201 as a junior, and now the 2nd floor again.  So I missed the 4th floor in my rounds.

It has been a nice relaxing weekend so far.  A buddy from Fisher who's studying, in Innsbruck was in to visit, so we went to Evensong at St. Paul's on Friday which was really nice. St. Paul's is basically a mini St. Peter's, which shows just how massive St. Peter's is.  After that we headed out to my favorite Thai place Busaba Eathai to change up from his usual German/Austrian cuisine.  I went with the Chicken butternut squash over the Pandan Chicken this time, a solid choice.  We then met up with Will and did a bit of mini pub crawl of the really old (as in rebuilt in 1667) pubs in our area.  

Today involved just beautiful weather, term paper writing (actual school work for once), and then we headed out to the Sports Cafe to watch the 2nd half of the Bulls game (which was a great decision to go watch it live with how awesome of a game it was) and then the Pistons/Cavs game for Dan and Jim (from Cleveland and Detroit.)  I then made it back in time to catch the end of the Cubs/Cards game on MLB.tv in order to watch Aramis' walk off shot.  Hopefully the Hawks will win another great game (Dad's probably going, such a bum) to close out the day for Chi-town, but the puck doesn't drop until 2 am here so I doubt I'll be up watching that finale.  

RA

So the goal to live on all four non-basement floors in Fisher has come to an end. I found out the RA floor situation and I got 2nd floor, which is awesome for a variety of reasons.  My room will be the room everyone climbs out of for Roofsit. This also means I get a room facing beautiful South Quad.  

Adding to the list of unique cool things done in London

So, this Wednesday evening consisted of a quick burger wrap dinner with some corn before a trip out to see the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (1st one.)  However, this was no usual movie watch.  We were off to the Royal Albert Hall, a famously beautiful concert hall by Hyde Park.  The catch was that the score of the movie was removed, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was there being conducted by Howard Shore to play all the music live.  There were two choirs and an amazing woman singing the parts of Enya to go along.  It was an amazing experience.  It's weird how much you notice the silence in a film when the music is being played right in front of you.  Also, it definitely emphasized how music can take over a powerful scene when done correctly.  

We're already making plans to be back next Apr 23rd/24th for the Two Towers performance

"Wait, have we gone 5 blocks without seeing a Church?"

So Rome and London differ just a bit as far as Catholicism goes.  Rome is covered with massive Churches on just about every other block.  These are no small, little community Churches, but buildings as large as the Basilica at Notre Dame or Holy Name Cathedral.  A group of us went on a little Saints tour of Churches with our Campus Ministry guy in Europe and saw beautiful Church after beautiful Church.  I also saw the hand of St. Francis Xavier and the grave of St. Ignatius of Loyola along with where St. Ignatius founded the Jesuits.  And then comes St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Church in the world.  It is almost impossible to describe the sheer size of the Church.  We started the morning with a tour of the Vatican Museums. We saw the graves of dozens of Popes, including John Paul II and St. Peter and the famous Pieta of Michelangelo.  The Vatican Museum tour itself was pretty impressive, with the miles of hallways of art culminating in the Sistine Chapel.  It is as beautiful and impressive as everyone says.  The ceiling, all frescos, is so large, but the painting of the Last Judgment I found even more amazing.  After the tour, there were a nice select few of us that Andrew knew that went out for some free pizza.  As I'm walking and talking with Maeve and Meg, I run into Flannery, who I haven't seen in over a year.  We talk about life abroad, how I coached the Pangborn football team last year, how everyone in the Fisher/Pangborn group was doing, etc.  So as I was catching up with the Toledo people, we managed to get separated from the rest of the group down one of the small Roman streets/alleys.  Good job us.  Luckily I had Andrew's phone number, and after a bit of wandering, we eventually found the group sitting outside in the sun ready for some pizza.  

We got to do all of this on Holy Saturday before our Easter Vigil mass at the North American College Seminary in Rome.  It was just a few of us ND kids that were in Rome (over 120 ND students from the study abroad programs were there this weekend) at the mass with an ND grad who was just ordained last year.  It was a nice, small Vigil mass, and we didn't have to wait in line for 5 hours like at St. Peter's.. Plus it was in English.  I was asked to read, and while I held out hope I would get Dad's infamous "Chariots and Charioteers" reading from Exodus, I instead got the 7th and last reading from Ezekiel.  Not completely identical to my father I guess.  The seminarians and priests were kind enough to make some pizza for us and have us over for a bit in their lounge before we headed back to hit the hay.

Easter Sunday was another early wake-up call to be down at St. Peter's at 8 am for the 1030 am mass.  We had tickets so we knew we were getting seats, but this way, once they opened the gates and put us through the metal detectors, we were able to get a few rows in the front left for ND kids.  However, as we were just getting there, I was hit nicely on the left shoulder blade by some bird droppings.  Nothing I could about it at this point, so I sat through Easter Mass with the Pope in a shirt and tie with a nice little spot on my back.  And, our hostel was locked out for cleaning from 11-3, so I didn't have a chance to go back and change all day.  Hopefully not too many people noticed.  We enjoyed the nice service, mainly in Italian and Latin with Pope Benedict XVI.  The weather was a bit chillier than Saturday (70's and sunny) but we avoided any serious rain.  Mass with the Pope is just an experience itself, especially with the thousands and thousands of other people there.  After the blessing, it was off for some lunch with Will before the classical Roman stuff.  We looked pretty awesome walking the streets of Rome, especially the Ruins area, in a shirt and tie.  Sunday was filled with the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain.  All amazing in their own ways, mainly due to the grandeur of the architecture in all of them.  The Colosseum was just a really interesting place to be inside, to understand how large it was.  The Roman Forum consisted of tons and tons of discovered ruins where the Senate used to be, including a former palace for the Emperor.  Those should all be at the end of the pictures... And I took a lot of pictures.  

Finished off the evening with dinner at the ND Architecture building (Archi majors have to study 1 year in Rome, their 3rd year out of 5) and then a stop for more Gelato. This famous gelato place offered the Gigantuan, the largest cone and amount of Gelato I've ever seen.  Three ND'ers made the attempt, yet only one passed with flying colors.  The other two could not handle that much sugar.  But the gelato is so so good there, along with the pizza.  Though, I do admit, the pizza was a bit too thin, made me just crave even more some good old Chicago pizza.

The trip was a blast though, definitely a great experience I'll never forget.  Pictures will hopefully be up soon, though there are quite a lot.  I liked the Basilica I have to admit.  

Roma

Well well, it's already Easter weekend, and time to ship off to Roma and the Vatican.  It'll be a busy weekend, trying to fit everything in a few days.  Between all the historical things to see in Rome and all the Easter activities.  A Happy Easter to everyone and God bless.  I'll do my best to get a good word in for ya with the Pope.

Fair Play to Ye Lads

More pictures are now up on Picasa from Molly's camera.  She has some better shots of the group of us, and of Dan and I climbing up the mountain.  

Peace and Slainte 

Cead Mile Failte

Well, the pictures from this weekend in Ireland are up.  Basically, almost all are from Croagh Patrick and the climb, which was the most beautiful place I've ever been to.  Dan and I did the climb barefoot, classic old school pilgrimage style while Laura and Molly used their brains and went for the shoes.  It was worth it though, for all the comments and the experience.  I'll say more about the trip later, but for now it's paper time.  

Peace, Love, and the luck of the Irish

Dinner with Fr. John

Fr. John came over to the flats this evening for an amazing dinner up in Kamen Penthouse Flat.  Fr. John (chaplain for UCL - University College London and ND's London Program) went on retreat with us at the end of February and says weekly mass at our London Centre.  He's a pretty amazing Scottish guy.  His stories of travels and trips all over the world are quite interesting, especially with his keen sense of humor.  Just overall, a pretty amazing guy.  Well that and he rode his motorcycle over from his parish.  That was a pretty cool thing to see, the priest riding away on the bike with the leather jacket as us loser ND kids get caught in the dust

And captions are up for Dublin.. However, Spring break captions may not happen for quite a while. Things around here are certainly busier than they were the first half of the semester.  It's off to County Mayo and Galway this weekend after I make it through work and my trip to Westminster Abbey tomorrow.  

Pictures

Pictures from the British Museum and the trip to Dublin are up.  Only four more days til the West Coast of Ireland.

The Boat Race

Sunday was the only college sporting event the English care about, the Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford.  This is a 16-18 minute rowing race around a bend in the Thames in Western London.  As we were told this was a huge event, we hopped on the Tube and headed down around 2.  The race started at 3:40.  As soon as we got out of the station, we knew exactly which way to head to get to the river because there were just massive crowds.  As soon as we got to the river and walked up on a bridge to see where in the course we should stand, I immediately realized the atmosphere was exactly like the South Side Irish parade.  There were bars lining the riverfront, packed with people on all floors looking onto the river, people lining the walls over the river, with a couple lanes of people trying to walk each way.  It looked exactly like 105th-109th and Western, people crammed between the gates and the store/bar fronts.  And no one really seemed to care about the race too much, it was more a day long event.  Everyone paid attention as the boats went by their part of the race, but then at the end when Oxford passed the line first, there was barely a loud cheer.  Maybe at the finish line there was a bigger celebration, but needless to say, the English don't treat college athletics like we do in the States.  

Eire go Brach

This weekend's adventure was to Dublin with William.  We left our flats at 4:40 am on Friday to catch a bus to another bus to the airport for our 8 am flight to Dublin.  We got into Dublin around 9 am, enough time for a full Friday.  Dublin is a rather small city compared to London, with not too many tourist attractions.  So, we walked through Trinity College, visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, saw the Guinness storehouse and Jameson distillery, walked through their awesomely green (as you'd expect) parks, went to the markets at Temple Bar, and saw the Dublin castle in our two days.  I really enjoyed the trip, probably because of the people.  The Irish were easily the friendliest people I've come across over here, and they love music.  All the pubs pretty much have free live music on the weekend, something London could definitely use.  It also was a bit of a shock to see Irish flags everywhere and have them be on government buildings not people's houses and rooms.. I guess that's what I get for living on the South Side.  

And now I just have to survive this week and a philo paper before its time to head to good old County Mayo.  I cannot wait to see the countryside and ride from the east coast to the west coast.  I've already warned those traveling with me that I'll be like a 6 year old on Christmas morning... 

May the roads rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rain fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand..

Big Time Dinner

Well, the time finally came for me to move past the Foreman and attempt by far our most courageous dinner to date.  Daniel James and myself headed out on a bit of an adventure to two grocery stores (one that was a bit easier to find than the other).  After receiving the recipe via e-mail from Dan's mom, we bought a solid share of pasta, chicken, peppers, walnuts, and basil pesto.  Since we had chicken breasts instead of an entire chicken as the recipe called for, I fried the chickens with olive oil on the stove.  As soon as those were cooked the male-only stove team moved onto frying the walnuts and then sauteing the peppers.  Once that was all done, we fried them all a bit together and mixed in pesto noodles.   To go with, I made some garlic cheese tomato ciabatta bread, easily my best bread creation.  We had ourselves quite the feast, and people said they actually enjoyed it.  

Les Miserables

One of the benefits of living in London versus South Bend (and there are many believe me) is some of the best theatre in the world five minutes away from school.  This Monday night a group of 7 of us got to the Les Miserables ticket booth a little over an hour early to get in line for student tickets (West End shows put all their unsold tickets up for sale at half price an hour before the show for students)  We were able to get a group of 5 and a group of 2 tickets together in the stalls.  The seats were amazing, third row, but the music and show were even better.  You know it's good when the three hours fly by like nothing.  Better than Wicked or Joseph or any other musical I believe I've seen back home.

Happy Mother's Day

A Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mothers everywhere.. Today happens to be Mother's Day over here in England, so I guess you get two this year Mom.  Have Dad buy you a box a Pixies for me.. 

Friday Adventures

Not having class on Fridays is something I could definitely get used to.  This weekend friends from the Rome and Toledo programs were visiting, so I went with them to the British Museum in the morning, followed by introducing them to the best Fish & Chips at Fryer's Delight, and then a trip to the treasures of the British Library.  The British Museum is pretty amazing, a large collection of things raided from Egypt, the Far East, and Greece by the Brits.  The treasures of the British Library were amazing though.  Highlights included a section on the Beatles with envelopes, pieces of paper, and napkins with the lyrics to Ticket to Ride, Michele, Yesterday, Help!, and Hard Day's Night written all over them by John and Paul.  That was pretty cool to see, with all the scratchouts and changes.  Then an original copy of the Magna Carta, the Oldest New Testament in the world, Illuminated Bibles, DaVinci Notebooks, Beethoven's notebook, Handel's original Messiah, Lewis Carroll's journal, Mozart's Marriage contract, and Captain Cook's journal.. A pretty decent collection for just two rooms.

Then we went out to Camden Town Market to walk around one pretty interesting marketplace.  A nice productive day in Londontown.. 

I also had the joy of providing American like cheeseburgers to the visitors because they cannot get them in Italy or Spain.  We had quite the feast of burgers and Garlic cheese potatoes for 10 people, the Foreman was working away

Exmouth Arms

So apparently we were in the same pub as Emma Watson (actress who plays Hermione Granger) this evening, missing her by just an hour.. It's good to know I frequent the same places as people who go to Hogwarts

paris

all of the Paris pictures are up on Picasa now (picasaweb.google.com/PKirkland5), well that is all the pictures I could take before my camera died, so there will be none of the Louvre up there.  I have to get those from Will.

Also, apparently the English and the rest of the world for that matter do not treat St. Patrick's Day like the Americans do.  People at work were shocked to hear we dye the river Green.. Well and now the White House Fountains too ('There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama' is easily the catchiest song ever)  

Cead Mile Failte

Pictures

the pictures from prague, berlin, and brussels are up on Picasa, without captions yet.. that may take a good while.  Paris should be up soon, however the internet is not cooperating with me now, so that will have to wait until tomorrow

Back in London

Well I survived and made it through 10 days of hostels, trains, planes, and four countries.  Pretty amazing, and probably a trip I'll never be able to match in my life.

It's still all setting in, trying to understand how much we did in 10 days

Highlights (I'll try to say more later)

Prague Castle

St. Charles Bridge

Old Town Square in Prague

Crossing the Berlin Wall

Seeing the Berlin Wall

Crossing Checkpoint Charlie

Going underneath the Brandenburg Gate

Will saying "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" at the Gate

Top of the Reichstag (German Parliament) 

Meeting Will's Belgian relatives

Manneken Pis

Grand Place in Brussels

Atomium 

Sacre Couer (Basilica in Paris, view of it from the terrace of our Hostel)

Cafes in Paris

Arc de Triumphe (at the ceremony for their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)

Actually remembering some French

Eiffel Tower at night (3 straight nights)

Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, as it sparkled for the hour

Walking the whole city of Paris in one day

Tulieries Gardens

Le Louvre

Seeing Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Wedding Feast at Cana, and the Code of Hammurabi in person

The rest of the works at the Louvre

Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral

The Windows at Notre Dame Cathedral

The Seine River

Champs-Elysees

Czech Goulash and Dumplings

German Bratwurst 

German Scalloped Potatoes 

Belgian Waffles (strawberries, bananas, chocolate, powdered sugar all in one)

Belgian Chocolate

French baguettes 

French pastries

French Crepes...

And the Whites Go Marching

First football match this evening, Fulham FC v Hull City.  Fulham (the home team of Will's MP's constituency and the "Whites") had a pretty cool stadium, mix between original brick from 100 yrs ago and newer stands.  We sat 5th row just to the right of the goal on the Fulham side. It was amazing to see the speed of real football first hand, though it was pretty chilly.  Fulham easily should've scored at the end of the first half or beginning of the second.  The American Clint Dempsey (people in first row had a Texas flag for him) had probably the best shot.  Hull at least played decently in the second half, and scored a lucky goal on a cross in injury time.  Though it would've been nice to see Fulham win, still a pretty sweet experience.  

Platform 9 3/4

So our train to Walsingham for the retreat this weekend left from King's Cross Station.  For those of you don't recall, that would be the station that the Hogwarts Express leaves from.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited to go visit Platform 9 3/4, possibly more excited than I have been for anything else.  The picture should be up soon, because I managed to forget my camera, so I'll be stealing all the pictures from this weekend to put up on Picasa.  No worries though, I should be back at King's Cross soon enough to take another good set of pictures with my hands on the cart going  through to the other side.

The retreat though was amazing.  It was absolutely silent up in Walsingham.  The countryside was beautiful, rolling green hills with the funniest sounding sheep all over.  We visited an Anglican shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham and then the Catholic shrine as well (Our Lady of Walsingham apparently appeared to a woman in the 10th or 11th century and asked her to build a copy of the house of the Holy Family from Nazareth in Walsingham so people could visit.  Then a pilgrimage began, especially given how hard it was to visit the Holy Land during the Crusades. Though that original replica was destroyed, the new replica of the replica still draws a lot of visitors each year.)  Probably the most beautiful was a beach on the Eastern coast of England we went to.  We were able to walk about 2 or so miles on sand where the water is during high tide.  The tide comes in at 5 mph, so visiting during low tide was amazing.  It also helped it was a perfect, sunny day, and we were playing catch on the beach.  That, a few intense games of mafia Friday night and on the train, along with the return on 90/10 juice from Kairos made for quite the weekend. 

and pictures are now up on the picasa site

Legitimate Honesty

Part of the conversation at pizza dinner last night after mass (Father so kindly paid for the group of six of us, woohoo free dinner.)  Walsingham = site of ND/University College London retreat this weekend that about 12 of us are going on - 'Father, I'm pretty excited to go up to Walsingham and see the country and how beautiful it is'... 'Oh, now don't have any hopes there, there's absolutely nothing up there.  I mean, absolutely nothing. Zero life'  

only Father John would tell someone to not be excited about the retreat, the good old Scottish man that he is

Spring Break

It's pretty hard to believe that I only have one weekend left before Spring Break.. that half of the semester is almost gone.  But at least I now have the week planned out and booked with Will.  Flying to Prague for Friday, Saturday night; Train to Berlin Sunday, Berlin Sunday, Monday, most of Tuesday.  Train to Brussels for Tuesday night and Wednesday, and then a nice little train ride to Paris for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and fly back to Londontown on Sunday..

Candy Cakes

if you can imagine what a cupcake from the "Willy Wonka" would look like, that would be an appropriate description for the Candy Cake cupcakes we had last night.  the chocolate frosting almost looks fake, but it was easily the best cupcake I've ever had.. puts Hostess to shame.  You know it's good when you're legitimately pretty upset when there's none left

"Have fun on your holiday!"

as soon as we walked down the street from the train station this Saturday in Winchester, we were immediately greeted by a nice British woman who could tell we had just picked up a map and were finding our bearings.  She asked us where we wanted to go, and directed us quite nicely.  Not even ten minutes off the train and you knew this was a bit different than London.  We spent the day walking around Winchester, beginning with seeing King Arthur's Round Table.  That was impressively huge, weighing over a ton hung nicely up on the wall.  Winchester Cathedral is the longest Cathedral in Europe, and was a beast to walk through.  We spent easily over 2 hours in there, seeing Jane Austen's grave, a bible written by hand in the 13th century, and a variety of other amazingly old things.  We spent the rest of the day roaming the town, enjoying quite hearty milkshakes, and some street music.  A nice, cheap, interesting day trip out of Londontown.

Also, FYI, don't attempt to go to the Science or Natural History Museums of London the Friday of Mid-term break for London kids... it's an absolute zoo.  That was Friday afternoon, along with my first taste of Indian food here.  The Chicken Shashlik and Garlic Naan were quite the tasty pre-theatre meal before going to Avenue Q.  That was absolutely hysterical the first thirty minutes, but then not as funny the rest of the way, though probably worth our half-price tickets (woohoo for being a student)  

Busaba Eathai

Easily the best Asian food I've ever had this Saturday night, a cool Thai restaurant off the West End.  So authentic that we all got to experience chopsticks for the first time.  A bit surprising that we all made it through without any serious issues..  And then after our dinner experience it was off to a Blues Bar, Ain't Nothin But the Blues, to see a blues group.. That was cool, much smaller than the House of Blues, but pretty awesome.. minus it being a bit packed.  

oh, and the gelato I had in Budapest, some crazy Italian flavor, happened to be at a Cafe on the Thames.  Needless to say, jackpot when I saw that. 

Sunday was a fun day of exploring with no working tube stations, and a trip through Covent Garden's Arts & Craft market.  There I upon a wonderful little crepes place.. not exactly Waffle Sunday from back at school, but pretty close.  

The trip ended after mass with a little stop into Harrod's.. That place was massive, and you literally could buy anything you ever wanted there, though for a ridiculous price. Sadly, I did not pick up any souvenirs there, so that I can afford to eat the next 3 months

Continuation of the Friday Adventures

After a one-week hiatus, we returned to our Friday adventures after class to random old things around London.  The most recent trip was to the Tower of London, a centuries old fort and series of towers more famously known for its history of holding infamous prisoners such as Sir Walter Raliegh and Anne Boleyn and hanging them.  The Towers were pretty impressive, centuries old but still standing strong overlooking on the Thames.  We got to see the prisoner rooms, old torture devices, the Crown Jewels of the Monarchy, and go on an impressive tour of the grounds. It was a pretty sweet thing to see, even with the obnoxious lady from South Carolina so kindly inserting her opinion at every possible point (now I see why people don't like us.)  Though the funniest part of the journey was probably seeing the pub across the street titled Hung, Drawn, and Quartered.  All in all, a pretty cool trip for a Friday afternoon.  

Reason 384 why British pubs are cooler than American bars

Went to the Crown Tavern this weekend with a group of us who did not travel, and we played a full game of Scrabble (I ended up victorious thanks to a few triple word scores) followed by an amazing feat of 2-0 sweep in Guess Who?  Easily one of the greatest games of Guess Who ever played, the team of Laura and Patrick easily defeated Daniel and Tom by guessing correctly twice with multiple people left

Travel Booking

I was quite spoiled in my first weekend trip out of London with lodging and travel basically taken care of, along with a personal tour guide.  Attempting to book flights, travel to the airport, hostels, train trips, etc while on a student budget makes you appreciate some of that vacation booking back in the day

how good the food in budapest was

i realized that i missed the food this weekend from strudel to pasta to miracle dessert to the amazing fried dough creation yesterday more than i missed a working, hot shower.. to those who know of the length of my showers, that's certainly saying something

test one of umbrella

the umbrella took its first serious test today, as a minor hurricane has decided to ship through all day.  while it did get blown over a few times, the umbrella held its own and made it through the trip back from class and to the far grocery store

angry cabbies, strudel, food on fire, and 200 degree saunas

Life traveling is made much easier by having your own free tour guide for the weekend.  While I did have some issues paying cab drivers, the travel process went relatively smoothly minus an hour and a half delay because of snow on Friday in London.  

We basically walked most of the city on Saturday, from St. Stephen's Basilica (amazingly covered in gold) to Parliament to Castle Hill on the Danube.  The views were amazing, along with the strudel (my cherry sauce came on fire) and the Miracle dessert (amazingly chocolate cake with a better Vanilla cream and whip cream on the side.)  At a really nice Italian restaurant, we ordered a pasta dish where the noodles were put in a wheel of parmesan cheese that was lit on fire to melt the cheese to the noodles.  Quite tasty.  The baths on Sunday were quite the unique experience (once we found our little cabin of course.)  Sitting in 38 degree celsius water for a while certainly turns your muscles to jelly, though it feels like an ice bath compared to the 80-100 degree celsius sauna.  To top off the trip, before leaving for the airport, we walked through a classic Eastern European market and had what might have been the best food of the trip, a fried dough dessert coated in cinnamon, made freshly in front of us and handed over still piping hot.  

All in all, it was a wonderful little vacation, certainly easier and more comfortable than the rest of the trips will be... Also apparently while Jose and I are both "intelligent," I'm clearly much more of a "dude" and we are quite different people.  I'll take that as a compliment I think

pictures should be up (well those that i succeeded in taking because apparently I epically fail at taking pictures that come out well)

snow day dinner

ground beef + british cheddar cheese + Garlic salt + Oregano + George Foreman + Fresh bakery buns + toasting buns on stove + green beans = deliciousness 

also, i did real work today at BBDO, analyzing and critiquing '09 budget plans.  From what it looks like with them being down to one Finance manager in my office from 3, I'll be doing a lot more intense work.  The best chances to learn are always when it's short staffed (like KIPP) 

Our Version of a Pub Crawl

The plans for Friday night were dinner at a local pub, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub frequented back in the day by Charles Dickens, rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire of London.  The pub was a labyrinth, with rooms upon rooms, staircases going further down below.  However, the place was so packed that there was no way we would be able to find a table and get food.  So, it was on down the street to try to find another pub.  A couple blocks down was another pub from the 1700's.  We were able to find a table upstairs, though we were in the middle of a music pub quiz.  Though we thought the waitress told us she was going to bring us menus, it turned out she was just bringing us the paper for the quiz.  So after enjoying the cokes there, it was on to find another place with food.  We went from pub to pub down different streets, only to be told that their kitchens were all closed.  Down a few random alleys eventually got us to the Thames, and across the bridge to finally find a pub/restaurant on the river.  Their kitchen was open for another 5 minutes, so i ordered a nice steak and ale pie.  Though we didn't finish dinner til after 10, the tour of the local pubs was certainly well worth it

Snow Day

I don't think I've been this excited since opening the #3 ND jersey on Christmas when I was like 6. Would've had class from 9-330, but a few inches of snow shuts down the city of London.. Pictures of some of the snow and the weekend should be up on Picasa 

Making Pops Proud II

Since last friday afternoon's museum adventure to the Cabinet War Rooms went so well, we continued the theme with a trip to the Imperial War Museum.. Once again, we were amazed the amount of vast artifacts and exhibits - including a prototype of the 'little boy' a-bomb dropped on Hiroshima

I was not able to do the top 3 floors as it took me a solid 2 1/2 hours to do the ground and basement floor. As they've said, I am my father's child

The Downfall of Ismet's Parting Shot

'ismet's parting shot' would be the name of my pub quiz team, referring to one of the workers at BBDO who is leaving for another job next week.  However, we were not able to send Ismet out a winner (unless we go again next Thursday) as we tumbled in the last category.  Easily one of the best things I've done so far, especially when even though the categories centered around British culture and history, i realized none of the categories were as tough as my dad's category from St. Bernadette Trivia Night

Yahtzee!

first word i said out loud as i finally found (probably because it was my first trip to a grocery store bigger than a dorm room) my beloved George Foreman Grill.  And it was half price.  Dinner tonight went from random beef casserole to good old fashioned cheeseburgers.  Life's going to be a lot easier cooking nowadays

nothing like a good old fashioned crazy retired boxer being your hero

Kudos to smart friends

kudos to those who found out sunset was at 4:36, and jd and Dan finding out how to move our "flight time" on the London Eye (world's largest ferris wheel, you go around in a huge capsule of windows) from 5:30 to 4:30.  that was certainly worth the 13 pounds... well that and the mime kicking dan out of nowhere

all sorts of pictures up (though nowhere near molly's 190 she took over the past two days)

picasaweb.google.com/Pkirkland5

Making Papa K Proud

Today's after lunch adventure thanks to the classic rainy, windy cold weather, was a trip to the Winston Churchill Museum including all the original Cabinet War Rooms from World War II.  I did my best to read each and every plaque, spending over three hours in the small museum.  I only learn from the best

Things You Don't Do on a Wednesday in South Bend

- Walk past Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey

- Walk through St. James Park 

- See Buckingham Palace

- Visit the London Eye and the wonderfully dirty Thames River

- Have a Studio roommate Chicken parmesan dinner turn into a 15 person dinner affair upstairs

- Make garlic cheese bread that is so hot it burns the paint off the plastic plate

Needless to say, life's a bit different here. New pictures should be up on the Picasa site - picasaweb.google.com/PKirkland5

Peace and Frosties

"...the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness"

"i don't think you know how much we're relying on him"  words of my boss at my internship.. I think there may be more excitement over here, if possible, than at home.  The "Texas Embassy" (tex-mex restaurant across from the ND London centre that claims to be in the exact building of Texas's embassy to Britain when Texas was a republic)  was packed to capacity and had crowds forming outside to just catch a glimpse of their big screen showing of the inauguration.  

all clearly worth it just to hear the benediction at the end, the red man get ahead man

So we actually have classes here?

today was the first day of classes, nicely running from 9:15 to 3:30 with a lunch break. felt a bit like grade school this morning as I had to make sure to grab my lunch out of the fridge; however, i sadly had to make my ham sandwich myself.  

and the story behind that amazing photo up above is that it's from a 3rd or 4th grade field trip to the museum of science and industry.  mom was a chaperone, and i'm sure felt the need to tell robert and i to pose for a picture on the airplane exhibit (me of course wearing the latest nd sweatshirt i'm sure grandma got me); robert of course did not find it necessary to look at the camera 

Doing my best to LIVE

today happened to be the first day i remembered to take my camera with me, which turned out to be an amazing call as we walked around by the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey after our pub lunch.  since i realize i'll probably be taking more pictures than i can post here, attached below should be a link to a google page with my uploaded pictures (if i actually remember to attach the link this time, my apologies) picasaweb.google.com/PKirkland5

Check #1 off the To-Do List

Witness demonstration and near-rioting.  The Socialists and many others were rather upset with the Israeli occupation in Gaza.  Hundreds were in Trafalgar Square, decided to then walk past the ND London Centre and smash a few Starbucks front windows.  London had their fair share of riot police out with shields and all.

This Time Tomorrow

I shall be in the great city of London (God willing we actually get to leave Chicago at some point today in this downpour of snow.)  Given the fact that I will not have my phone nor will I most likely be able to answer as many e-mails as I would like, I figured this would be the best way to keep an update on what's going on overseas and to provide links to all the pictures I plan on taking.  Feel free to still e-mail me if you'd like, and I will of course do my best to stay in touch.  

I must admit last night did feel a bit like Christmas Eve when I was seven, so hopefully the trip is just as amazing as those Christmas mornings.

Peace