Marta is Smarta

As I spend more time in London I am beginning to learn more about myself. As you already know if you've been keeping up with my blog, I learned I am a terrible cook. This Sunday I learned another thing about myself: I cannot read public transportation maps! A group of my friends and I decided to visit one of London's finer social establishment this Sunday and the trip required we take the Tube to get there. Well if any of you have seen a Tube map, there is alot going on. Red lines crossed with yellow lines intertwined with black lines! Needless to say my group got lost and what makes matters worse is that the Tube charges you for how far you go (don't get me started on how I find this unfair). After around an hour of riding the Tube, we finally reached our destination but alas you needed to prebook tickets for this club. So here we are 10 Notre Dame kids who have ridden public transportation for over an hour told we cannot get in. While my readers might think this put a damper on our day, I say to you yea of little faith. 10 Notre Dame kids don't let a rude bouncer put them in a bad mood. We simply walked across the street to one of London's other finer social establishment and gave them the pleasure of our patronage. After a time at the Windsor Castle Pub, we made our way back to the flats and now have hilarious stories of our adventures on the Tube and people's lovely reactions to us lost on the Tube.

Now for my Atlanta readers this experience gave me a new found appreciation for Marta. Now, I know Marta gets a bad rap (and I know you hate it Ashley), but seriously Marta is great! You pay one flat rate and can ride that baby all day. And the routes are extremely easy to read. Get on, get off and boom you're in Atlanta. Not exactly how London works. Here it is more like get on, get lost and boom you're out around $15.

An Ode to My Mother

Dearest mother,
I just wanted to say,
that I miss you every day,
this is the first time I have lived on my own,
and at times it makes me want to moan,
I've realized I am a bad cook,
because most of what I make looks like gook,
I miss all your scruptious food,
because it puts me in a good mood,
I am hoping my cooking gets better,
otherwise I may become a debtor,
because of going out to eat,

As my devout readers can imagine my diet has significantly changed since coming to London. Gone are the days when I could simply walk across the quad and eat to my hearts content. Now I actually have to plan time in my day to make the food, which takes a lot longer than I thought. In addition, the flats have neither a dishwasher or garbage disposal which makes cleaning up a huge pain. So far I've realized I can make plain pasta (I'm currently 0 for 1 in making alfredo sauce), scrambled eggs (this is my specialty), roast beef sandwiches, and of course the always healthy frozen pizza.

A New Career

Although I have only been in London for a short time, I believe my time here has already turned me onto a new profession....leg model. as peter can attest you walk A TON!!! my roommate andrew and i google mapped the walk from the flats to the notre dame classroom building. it is exactly 2.0 miles!! that means every day i will walk at least 4 miles and i can assure you there has not been a day here that i haven't walked 6 at least. in addition, i live on the fourth floor (although the brits call it the third...i think they do this trick people into not thinking they are walking as much). now grant and joe may be thinking "hey we lived on the fourth floor of stanford and siegfried last year how rough can it be?" well such thinking is very flawed because the stairs here are significantly steeper!! maybe i'm out of shape but after walking back from class and up four very steep flights of stairs, I am winded!

Also, my roommate Andrew and I roamed around London today, something I think others greatly undervalue, and as we were roaming we came across a cool stone column. The column is literally simply called The Monument and was built between 1671-1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London of 1666. It is the tallest free standing stone column in the world and after climbing the 311 steps (202 feet) you can take pictures from the top. You also get a certificate proving you climbed up and back when you leave. Well when Andrew and I stumbled across this we figured hey why not pay the 2 pound and climb to the top. It sounded like a harmless idea. FALSE! As some of you may know, I am not a fan of heights. I don't know why, but I simply do not like heights. So as Andrew and I are climbing up the top, it starts to get to me and then Andrew turns looks at me and says, "So you don't like heights, either?" Yep that is right two kids who both suffer from acrophobia paid 2 pounds to climb to the top of the world's tallest stone column!! Needless to say my stay on the top was brief but the 360 view of London was breathtaking.

What all this means is that I expect the most tone, sexiest legs on the planet when I return home this summer. I'm hoping I'll be able to make a little profit from this by venturing out into the tough world of leg model...who knows maybe some day I'll have a blog about that. Until later.

Week 1

So i've been in london for a little over a week now and so far have loved it! originally i had no intention to write a blog but after a week in which i probably sent out 2 dozen emails to various friends and family, I decided in order to save myself time I would write a blog so here we go...

i am living with 5 other guys. our flat has three rooms along with a kitchen and common area. i would describe the flats as modern beat to hell. its essentially straight out of a ikea catalogue and you can definitely tell that a bunch of college kids live here. but all and all i am thrilled with the flat situation. my roommates are all great and they are definitely nicer than any notre dame dorm. i've had one full week of classes and here's what i'm taking:

Images of Britain through art: this class is a requirement for all students here. it only meets 6 times for an hour each. since i've only had the class once i'm not sure what to expect. it could be good but hey even if its not i only have it 5 more times!

Britain in Portrait: initially i was hesitant about this class. all i knew was that it was about portrait art and more importantly it did not meet on friday like most of the art courses! but after one class i changed my tune. the professor talked for under half the class and then took us to the national galley!! it was pretty amazing looking at these paintings with an actual art historian explaining them!

Global History: this class meets very early 9:15 on tuesdays and thursdays and originally i was going to drop it for that reason but after having two classes i definitely will not be dropping it. apparently the professor is renowned amongst history majors at nd (my friend Pete who is a history major actually recommended the class to me).

Philosophy of law: this is one class i actually think i will enjoy. the first class the teacher talked about natural law vs. positivism and seeing as i have been taught by arguably the most famous Thomistic philosopher the last year (Prof. MacIntyre) i had a very good grasp on what the teacher was talking about. i think my theology classes will definitely come in handy because as most if not all of you know i tend to take philosophical theos at nd.

Ethnic Conflict Resolution in Ireland and Northern Ireland: when i signed up for this class i had high hopes. i figured it would be a good chance to make use of both my theology major (understanding the tension between the Protestants and Catholics) and my political science major. After two classes i'm not as thrilled. the professor seems like a good guy but the lectures can get fairly dry.

Government in Britain: I thought this would be the weaker of the two polisci courses i'm taking here but boy was i wrong. the teacher is hilarious!! and a republican (in the democratic republic sense not party) so for part of the class he just ripped on how a monarch is stupid which was pretty funny seeing as he is british!

since i am in the land of Shakespeare I am going to take his advice when he said "brevity is the soul of wit" and end my first blog post here but be ready for future installments.