St. Patrick's Day

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London, the city that never sleeps? Most certainly not.  Saturday my friends and I went to London for St Patrick’s Day.  We are university students (aka cheap and use to pulling all nighters), so we did not book a room for the night & instead bought bus tickets for 8am Sunday morning.  The day went well.  We went to Camden Town.  Some people call it alternative or indie, but it’s a maze tattoo parlors, souvenir shops, party stores, and street food vendors (who remind me of RAGBRAI vendors “Pork-chops! Pork-chops!”).  From there I met Alice, a high school friend, in the Natural History Museum.  It was really great to catch up, she’s doing well.  As it started getting later we found a great pub in which to have a smooth, draft Guinness.  We stayed to enjoy the music and atmosphere, at midnight they closed.  Midnight always seemed late, but this time we still had 8 hours to burn.  We wandered in search of a club that was open past 3.  We wandered in search of a pub still open, or a McDonalds, or anything open.  We walked from one McDonalds to another hoping they would be open and vacant.  Everything was closed.   Even McDonalds had bouncers to kick out the loiterers.  We looked for four hours.  London, and England in general is not big on rubbish bins, water fountains, or benches.  At home we could have played in Walmart for hours or sat in McDonalds without anyone caring.  Here? We were cold, tired, and ready to leave.  The train station was open.  It was not much, really just a fancy tunnel for the cold air to breeze through.  But we had no other choice, we sat on cold metal benches for 2 hours waiting for the heated and indoor bus station to open.  When it did we sat for another 2 hours somewhere between consciousness and dreaming where delusional, arbitrary images danced in the real world.  The ride home was quick, I sleep in any moving vehicle anyway.  All in all I’m glad I went.  Sometimes mishaps make the best stories, who cares if everything is as expected? (appendix photos)

Campus

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The study abroad students, and the English students, here are concerned with events in their own countries and also America, in politics and culture.  There are American cultural exports in magazines, movies, songs, technology.  On many occasions people will ask if I like some American tv show or movie & I haven’t seen it.  They’re saying how could you not watch it! There isn’t enough time.  

Many of the exchange students I meet already know a little about America and will often follow up with the question of where in America I’m from.  Sadly I only know the major cities in other countries, though luckily thats where people say their from.  The other day I met some students from Singapore who attend university at the Malaysia campus ( one of the University of Nottingham’s other campuses, the other is in China).  I assumed Singapore was near China, like Hong Kong and Taiwan.  Guess what, its near Malaysia.  They laughed as I confirmed the clueless-about-everywhere-else American stereotype.  I think they had a list of misconceptions going; glad I could help with your scavenger hunt!  They’re really cool now though.

Liverpool

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The Travel Society (Travel Soc)  went to Liverpool on Saturday.  But I didn’t get a ticket in time.  So with a friend, who also didn’t get one, I got up at 5:00 a.m. to catch the 6:40 train.  Such things happen when you miss deadlines.  However, we now had ten and a half hours to see the city as opposed to the five and a half Travel Soc had.  

Liverpool, home of the Beatles.  Just rolls off the tongue.  And that’s where we started, how could we not?  Taking pictures outside the Cavern Club, browsing a memorabilia store, where the avid-fan-owner would probably be just as happy keeping all the merchandise rather than selling it (“Do we want top selling authors? No, we want bottom selling authors”- Portlandia).  Liverpool has huge outdoor mall.  They have the usual: Apple Store, Hollister, Krispy Kreme(!), but also rare treasures like the Lego Store!  I still play with Legos and broke them out during Christmas break.  On display are all the coolest sets (and all expensive), for some undetermined reason all the sets were at waist level.  It’s really inconvenient having to stoop down to gawk.  The rest of the day was spent really wandering the city.   The great thing about all the cities I have visited so far is that you can walk everywhere but also find great places to eat and things to see. (auxiliary photos)

Liverpool Video

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Yesterday I went to Liverpool (home of the Beatles) with my friend.  We walk out of the pub where we ate lunch & run into a small group of girls carrying a canvas with I <3 JB painted on it.  Judging from the fact that they are about 13 years old, they are probably not crazy about James Bond, but more likely Justin Bieber.  I naively think that this is an isolated group.  As we near the mall we soon find out this protest is social media planned with the financial backing of their parents.  A hundred tweens swarm the mall with Bieber shrines proudly held above their heads.  Someone was actually holding up a pillow with his face on it.  They coalesce inside and begin singing “Baby” (presumably the calling card of Bieber, his Bat-signal if you will).  This is a group of “Belieber” are celebrating one year since he performed there.  This is the craziest thing I’ve seen here.  

York

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Working from a list of general experiences is my preferred way to travel.  Things like eating in a pub, visting a cathedral for example.  This allows for flexibility, which is key when traveling, as I found out last weekend.  This theory relies on the assumption that the same experience can be found in many different places.  One of the troubles with this is the fact that you need a general knowledge of the area to be able to substitute places on the fly.  Occasionally something is must see and is only in one place (eating at a certain pub, or seeing your favorite band in concert).  Having flexibility allows me to be happier at the end of a trip, knowing I saw and did all the activities I wanted, even if they weren’t at the places I thought they’d be.  

York is how I naively expected all European cities to be, narrow roads, busy streets, small shops, and many historical buildings.  It is a great place to walk around (most of the city center is for pedestrians) and relax for a day.  We climbed (literally climbed) to the top of the Minster.  When it was built people must have been smaller, the stairs were very narrow and steep.  From the top we got our bearings on where we should go next.  The ruins of St Mary’s Abbey Church are part of a park on the riverfront.  The ruins are nice but also sad.  The church was ruined during the dissolution of the monasteries (begun by Henry VIII).  It was a great trip.  (extra photos)