23/2

20/2 Wednesday

I woke up on Wednesday had had to deal with some absolute nonsense. I have been forced to shave my beard for an interview. So I spent the first half an hour awake shaving, However, afterwards, I did have a Skype interview with PwC, and it went well I think, so that was very very nice. A little secret, I had my suit jacket, tie and button up on with jeans and Converse on. Perks of a Skype interview. After that, I went for a little walk and worked on some internship things for Tuesday.

I was very tired though today. I ended up taking it quite easy at night, even skipping ULU because I wanted to get some work done. I know disappointing, but I did make up for it Thursday. I was just tired from Oxford, shaving, and the interview. I took a short walk around 10 just to clear my head and must have been sleeping by midnight.

Also, sorry about the confusion, I wanted to talk more about this but I didn't want to combine it with my trip to Oxford.

21/2

Today turned out to be quite a surprise. I had classes all morning, which they were fun. We talked about the media and freedom of the press, which is different over here than home. I have begun to really enjoy Contemporary Britain because I have been exposed to a breadth of information, which gaining a more comprehensive understanding of everything was one of my goals about coming.

For lunch, I made a wonderful toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Just delicious. Following a brief nap, Religion class beckoned. We learned about the Jews this class. It was quite interesting because the only real history of the Jews in England derives directly from the Christians. Mainly, it had to do with William the Conqueror, something I have been interested in since studying in France. We also got off on a tangent and learned a little bit about languages:

Germanic Language (Basically, old German)

Developed three languages:

1. English
1. A combination of French and German
2. Yiddish
1. A combination of German and Hebrew
3. Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish Talk)
1. Basically old German, with variations

 So that was quite the lesson. After though, I forgot that I said I was going to go with Joey and Matt to a football match. We ended up going across the city to Fulham, where Stamford Bridge (stadium) is. There, we got a chance to watch Chelsea Football Club play Sparta Prague, both of whom are in the top division in their respective leagues (England and Czechoslovakia). Chelsea was actually champions of Europe last year, so that was impressive.

It was an amazing atmosphere and an exciting game. It ended in a 1-1 draw, but Chelsea tied it in the 92 minute. Here are a few more photos of the game.

The start of the game, where Frank Lampard is exchanging the banners

That yellow orange area are the Sparta fans. 

So yea, I got extremely lucky with going to this and it was an absolutely great experience. Being that Chelsea made it to the next round, we may go back to see the Round of 16 leg. That will be decided on Friday though, so as to not worry about it this week.

23/2 Friday

I had to get up a little early today to get to Kings Cross. I had to put money on my Oyster Card. It was garbage though because it was so packed. The longer I spend in London, the more I dislike tourists and people who are loud. It is nice to be on a bus packed with Londoners because there is silence. But anyways, I got on the tube and headed west. I did that because I was to meet a man for coffee. I ended up meeting him on Portobello Road. Unbeknownst to me, that is the road of the famous Portobello Market. So we spent about an hour or so in a cafe talking, just about London, our lives, politics, and anything else. 

Once we left the cafe, we browsed the stalls of the market for about 45 minutes. Then he gave me a walking tour of that area of north Kensington, culminating at Holland Park, where there was a great zen garden, called Kyoto Gardens, made in cooperation with the city of Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for about 1,000 years. I then went to a house which also was a museum. It was the house/studio of the royal artist during the Queen Victoria time. It was pretty nice and really interesting seeing all the styles of art this man created. He could paint in the classical sense, but he also had a lot of impressionistic work too. 

I then caught a bus from Kensington High Street home via Oxford Street. Oxford Street and Circus are terrible to go through by bus. In case anyone was curious. Once I got home, I worked on some more things for my internship and then basically hosted a party in my small room. Basically everyone started gathering around 8:30 or so, just sitting and talking, and I think at our max we had 9 or 10 people. My room is not big enough for that many people, but we acted like pros at Tetris, so it worked fine. We just sat and talked until about midnight, and I got to bed about one. It was nice because I have the room to myself this weekend because my roommate is taking a trip to Paris.

23/2

I went to bed so I could wake up at 9:15 at meet some people to head back to Portobello Market. I wanted to go back to actually look at things and stuff. So we took the 7 bus all the way there, which was about 45 minutes. But it was fine because we got top seats and got a great show there.

It was again a great market, but surprisingly, about a mile long. There were so many stalls and shops and awesome things to buy. At one point, we saw a man with a dog on his shoulder like a parrot. It was quite comical. There was a lot of stuff that I think Pa and Poppy would like. Just knickknacks and antiques and unique things. And hats. There were some real nice hats.

Now, as I finish this up, I am heading down to the Lounge to meet up with some people, then maybe we will go out and explore the city. Or not. Who knows? Anyways, please feel free to send me an email or something fun like that. Or if you have any suggestions for me to do, I take requests. Ok bye!