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