As I begin to feel more and more like a Londoner, all the little differences of American and England have increasingly become apparent. I've had the opportunity to observe some of these, mainly at our local pub, The Old Swan. For instance, apparently, in London, if you are an American proudly singing your national anthem after USA scores a goal to tie the game, you will get beer thrown on you and get death stares from the jerk who did it. Alas, I have had more pleasant experiences in my conversations, aside for the one when a drunken teenager got in an argument with me because I voted for Obama instead of, get this, RON PAUL, and then later tried to convince me that the American Government put bombs in the world trade center in order to make sure that the planes would destroy the buildings on 9/11. Keep in mind he said all of this while wearing a Yankees hat, and you can understand why he is not one of my British friends. A more intriguing conversation, however, was with a teen who is about to finish his A-levels, the English equivalent of graduating High School. In England, you choose your future career at around age 15, and are pretty much glued to this profession since changing career paths is very difficult. He and I discussed with pros and cons of both systems, with America offering more breadth of an education and choosing a career later in life, and decided that neither is better, but just different. One of my more enjoyable conversations, especially since earlier in the night the owners husband of the pub made fun of my tattoos and told me that I am only in England to "take a piss" at the locals, meaning I am only there to strut my American stuff and make fun of the Brits. Despite my trying to convince him otherwise, I did see his point when my group burst into song with the American Anthem....
Onto what I have been doing this week. Monday has turned into my tourist day. Melissa and I went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard ceremony and to check out my future home, of course. We also ventured to Parliament and Big Ben, as well as Westminster Abbey. Melissa paid to do the tour of the abbey, but in my quest to be frugal, I decided I would wait to see the inside and go on a Sunday for church, which I planned on doing today, but felt a little too hungover to pray. And with that nice segway... onto the clubs. Full of creepers, but so fun at the same time. Last night we went to the club Ministry of Sound. Drinks are ridiculously expensive at clubs, so we pre-gamed (or "pre-funked" as they say in Washington state, apparently)at the flat with the Old Swan bartenders, who came with us to the club. After an awkward encounter with our Graduate Resident, Philip (no worries, drinking is allowed in the flat, although I'm sure this very posh man did not appreciate his extremely drunk residents destroying his tea time...) we left for the club, an had a great time dancing and meeting up with some other Arcadia students and interns. It was definitely a fun night out for sure.
And now, the best part of my trip so far.. THE ROYAL ASCOT!! A horse race similar to the Kentucky Derby, but with far better hats, far better bets (I bet on the color of the queens hat instead of a horse... lost but oh well) and far better guests. Point in case: Queen Elizabeth was at one point 20 feet in front of me! I found an amazing fascinator to wear, and must say that life without a hat now is just not the same. We had some fun encounters with some boys from the country side helping us bet and some cockney language lessons from some old men (stairs in cockney are called apples and pears). I had so much fun, and even though I got a bit sunburned (sorry, poppy!) it was an amazing day to say the least. I hope that I get to go back one day! Check out my pictures on Facebook!
On a sadder note, I was given the news this week that one of my favorite teachers from LFCDS, Mr. Genger (Daddy G) died in his sleep. My thoughts and prayers have been with the Genger family all week. I wish I could be there on Tuesday to say a final goodbye.
I'm off to Paris this week Tuesday through Thursday to spend some time with Lauren Bank! Excited for my first trip, Au Revoir!
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