Jason's Daily Notes

I've shyed away from blogging recently. I just didn't feel like doing it. I guess the novelty has worn off. It seems that the novelty has worn off of many things in my life. In the past month I've spent more time dwelling on the frustrations and inconveniences of living in London than on the benefits and excitement here. But maybe if I reflect on the past month in London, it'll seem better. Maybe.

Quick summary: Jubilee, persistent cold and rain, one exam, naked people, Euro 2012, Stonehenge, France?, Wimbledon, "so call me maybe"!

The month started off with the Queen's Jubilee weekend, celebrating Her Majesty being queen for 60 years. London was festooned with the Union Jack. Swag went to Berlin for the long weekend, using up his Schengen visa the best he could. I listed many recommendations for him to visit (and eat) in Berlin. I hosted Ria, a friend of Swag, who was visiting London for the weekend from Oxford. She has traveled thoroughly, from Japan to Slovakia to Nepal and Africa. She dumpster dives when she can, and she made some simple but delicious mushroom soup for us. My friend Phil was also visiting from Austria, along with his girlfriend Assma. They were very nice, but (as always when a guy friend becomes committed to a girl) he wasn't nearly as crazy or excited as he was before. They arrived at Gatwick in the evening, and their train took them to London Bridge just as the tube stopped running. On the night bus home a girl vomited on the floor.

1 June. Friday. When I'm bored in London, I go exploring, and today was one of those days. I headed west, ending up in Acton Town, which is a pleasant area of London that could easily play any suburban British area (and which I think it did on some TV shows or movies, maybe?)... Either way, there's nothing particularly glamourous about it on the surface.

2 June. Saturday. It was the start of the Jubilee weekend and it was pleasant, not raining for once. While Phil and Assma explored Oxford Street, I bought guitar strings (for my new guitar) on Denmark Street and walked around Soho, discovering a cool festival at Carnaby Street, where I took them afterwards. We had some meat pies at a pleasant pub (the Windmill), then checked out Hamley's (mega toy store) before returning to Carnaby Street to enjoy the free strawberries and cream and juice spritzers they were giving out.

3 June. Sunday. Jubilee flotilla. It was the day of the big flotilla down the Thames, showcasing hundred of boats all to honor Her Majesty. I met Phil and Assma at Brick Lane, where I had an okonomiyaki, then we headed to Temple to try to get a good viewing spot. Unfortunately it was all closed off, so we joined the masses (hundreds, then thousands of people) marching down Fleet Street towards Blackfriars, which was even more impossible. So we hopped on the tube and went to Bermondsey, where we managed to squeeze in a space behind only 4 rows people. However, the weather would, in typical British summer, make it memorable: Just as the first boats were to appear, it began pouring rain. So up went the umbrellas and away went our view. The chilly rain did not relent throughout the whole pageant. We returned home after about 30 minutes, to dry off and watch the rest on my laptop.

4 June. Monday. More rain. I had to print out my exam timetable for my exam (below) so instead of going all the way to campus, I decided to check out the hair salon/internet cafe nearby. They charged £0.60 just to print out one page. Ripoff.

6 June. Wednesday. Exam day. I had my one and only exam at LSE, for the Analysis of Strategy. The exam wasn't too bad; I only prepared for it really the night before. But all the formalities and procedures surrounding the exam just make it so much more stressful, much like going through security at the airport. I had an assigned seat for the exam, and I had to bring a printout of my exam schedule. I also had to leave an ID on my desk during the exam [I had to use my driver license because Swag had my LSE ID with him, and he was just returning from Germany that day.], and I had to leave my cell phone under my desk. And to use the toilet, I had to raise my hand and be escorted there. And no one is allowed to leave the room. And of course, you're not allowed to write your name on the exam, only an anonymous "candidate number"! Such a stupid and useless system! Students don't benefit from this at all; I don't see any reason for such needless regulation. Anyway, after the exam, I had lunch at Busaba Eathai with some coursemates that I hadn't seen in months. They were all so stressed with their other upcoming exams (including one the next day), that no one was really social or happy to see me. At least I learned that my student ID gives me 20% off at that restaurant.

9 June. Saturday. WNBR. Today, the World Naked Bike Ride came to London. Swag and I went to Hyde Park (after a disappointing Ranking "art gallery exhibit" in Marylebone) to check it out (basically, to see lots of naked people). As often happens with any big group of nudists, most of the nakedness comes as old, out-of-shape men. And this WNBR was no exception, but it was fun to see nonetheless, if only for the body paint. Swag and I joined the crowds of people watching the naked people as they swarmed on their bikes leaving Hyde Park Corner. About an hour later, Maria joined us. She was still recovering from her bike accident and so only really had use of her right arm.

10 June. Sunday. Lewisham. Again, bored so I explored. This time, I took the 199 bus to Lewisham and walked around there. It was cloudy but at least not raining. I took the DLR back to Canary Wharf and walked around there before going home. Kristina made some goulash (she had been talking about making goulash for some time now).

11 June. Monday. Walked around Canada Water. There are a lot of new apartments in the area, and some are very big. I ended up near Vauxhall in the after-work hours, which was enjoyable. Walked around basically. At the time France was playing England but I didn't catch the game (they tied 1 - 1). I walked a bit, from Southwark Bridge to the Monument, in preparation for giving a tour to some visitors. All day people had been stopping right outside my window to take pictures of something on the ground; I checked it out and realized it was a dead rat (well what else did I expect).

12 June. Tuesday. The free tour. To continue my research on London (to become a local expert), I took the Free Tour of London. It left Hyde Park Corner at 11am and took us around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and Whitehall before finishing by Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It was the "royal" side of London, and it differed from the free tour I took 4 years ago, which went through the historic City of London.

13 June. Wednesday. I headed out into the city and explored Smithfields market and the Museum of London (again, continuing my education to become a London local expert). Then, time for the Euro Cup game: Netherlands vs. Germany. We watched the game at the Surrey Docks, a pub not too far from our house. A beer and burger each for me and Swag.

15 June. Friday. Tri-winning! I headed to Angel, because I had plans to meet Felix later, who would be staying near King's Cross. I arranged to meet Kristi and Claire (who was visiting London for a couple weeks) at a pub near the station, but the first game (France vs. Ukraine) was delayed for an hour due to rain. So that gave me time to wander around the area before finding seats at The Steam Passage tavern, which was nice and spacious (but which filled up quickly as the England-Sweden game came on). Claire's friend joined us, and so did one of Kristi's friends. France won, which was good, and then came the exciting game. England scored, then Sweden, then Sweden again, then England, then finally England to win 3 - 2! After the game, we headed out to Around Midnight, a nearby jazz-blues bar. After a little bit, Felix and his crew from Berlin arrived, well tipsy (apparently Andy and Daniel had finished a whole bottle of Jameson's during the flight over). But it was happy to be reunited, and Andy kept buying rounds of drinks. Christoph also came and met up with us. We stayed until around midnight (bazinga!) to celebrate Felix's birthday, then headed to a pop-music student night at the nearby O2 Academy. However, the Germans were simply too exhausted so I couldn't convince them to come. Kristi, Claire, Christoph, Christine (I think) and I danced there for some time. They had two dance floors: One for hip-hop/pop, one for rock/pop. Needless to say Christoph preferred the hip-hop room. We headed home around 2:30am, but as I was about to get on the bus I noticed that I didn't have my oyster card anywhere on me! Oh shit, how was I to get home?! I desperately (and not expecting anything) went back to the club and asked if they had found any oyster cards. After being bounced around for a few minutes, and writing down my contact information for future contact (which is useless most of the time), I was greeted by an epic surprise: A bouncer emerged from the dance hall holding my oyster card in his hand! I must be the luckiest guy in London.

16 June. Saturday. Soiree Olympique. Sarah arrived. She's from Seattle and is traveling around Europe, having just finished her master's degree. Soon, we were off - first to dinner; we had Nando's between London/Southwark bridges. Then to South Kensington, where Louise was having a goodbye party, but the theme was Olympics, so we had to dress up. This meant that I donned my big USA flag as a cape, Swag representing team GB, Sarah as an American volleyball player of sorts, and Kristina as a proud Germany fan [we put our costumes together at the last minute]. It was fun, but everyone there was French (but local from London). It was fun, though, and Louise's place is really nice.



17 June. Sunday. Football everywhere, but not a pub for us. Josie was still over, flying to Germany in the evening. We went to Brick Lane and walked around. Swag and I ended up eating beigels and so bypassed the usual market. That evening, it was the final game of group B play, so the Portugal-Netherlands game was on at the same time as Germany-Denmark. I had tentatively planned to meet Christoph and a bunch of other Germans to watch the game at Yager Bar (near St. Pauls), so I invited Swag, Kristina, and Sarah to come along, but when we got there, we found out that there was an entry charge, so no deal. At the same time, I had just gotten a message from Alice (French girl) that she was at our house, so I decided to rush home and meet her, while the other three would get tables at the Surrey Docks. Alice was there, waiting for me outside with her many bags, and I felt bad for making her wait. We joined the others at Surrey Docks, but they were showing the Portugal game (we tried changing the channel, but we couldn't even find it, and then the "family" sitting there got very angry at us - they said they came to watch the game, but we noticed that they weren't even paying attention to it!). Frustrated, Alice and I walked over to find another place with space that would show the game. We settled at the China Hall, where the owner agreed to put the game on for us. Whew!

20 June. Wednesday. Stonehenge here we come! Alice and I left for Stonehenge at 4pm from Victoria Coach Station. National Express ran a special, direct bus to Amesbury (to handle all the people headed to Stonehenge), so our bus left a few minutes early [which sucks for the one guy who missed the bus]. Somehow we managed to get a few minutes of sleep along the way. When we arrived, the bus driver offered everyone on the bus a £2 per person shuttle service to Stonehenge directly, but we chose to walk. As we got off, there was a guy who asked if we were also going to Stonehenge; his name was Anderson but he went by Sony, and he was from Brazil, working for a year in a hotel in southern Germany. We bought some drinks, actually just poured a bottle of rum into two bottles of coke, and I bought a burger and some chips and we walked the 2 miles to Stonehenge. We followed the signs and were greeted with a map and a bag for our rubbish. There was a little security checkpoint, but we had no glass with us so it was all ok. And there it was: Stonehenge, looking just as I had imagined. We took some pictures and then just sat inside the circle. The area filled up with people, and inside a drum circle (of course) emerged. The energy was even more intense as the sun set, and the spiritual leaders (if you will) began to say somethings that we were supposed to repeat (but with no microphone you could hardly hear anything). After that, we walked around and simply took in all the characters and people dressed in funny/cool costumes.

21 June. Thursday. The rain wouldn't stop pounding us all night, and I remember my teeth chattering as my clothes were completely soaked through and I was huddled with Sony underneath our useless umbrella. A guy who was obviously rolling on some MD or something joined us and talked for several minutes; he owned "the best chip shop in Southampton" on Hyde Road or something like that. He left; Sofi and Jessie reappeared and told us to join them inside the central circle, where the stones and herd of people was at least blocking the wind, making it feel much warmer. But we continued to wait for Alice to return from the toilet; it was maybe an hour before we gave up and finally moved into the circle. We stood there, crammed in, but reunited with Jessie and Sofi for less than an hour before the first hints of dawn began to appear. The rain had lightened up, and slowly the sky also lightened. Even though drums had been banging for most of the night, now the energy of the crowd rebounded, and people who had sought refuge in their cars returned. Somewhere beyond the clouds the sun rose, and this was proclaimed as we all cheered! The druid/pagan group did their chants, etc. It was amazing, but only a few minutes later my mood was overwhelmed by my physical condition: I was completely soaked, including my shoes; my body was cold; and I had gotten no sleep. Sony and I left the girls and decided to walk back to point "E", our agreed-upon meeting spot in case any of us get lost. But we got distracted, because to the side, there were big portable fireplaces with people huddled around them! We got there and I instantly began to warm my arms at least. And - alas! - standing right next to me at the fireplace was Alice herself! Looks like we all reuited without even trying.

23 June. Saturday. Spain vs. France. We watched the game at Dirty Dick's, right by Liverpool Street. There was only one TV upstairs, and Alice and Solen were there early enough to reserve the table right in front. Swag and I joined, then came some couchsurfers that Alice had messaged to meet up with, then came Mandy and Francisco and his Portuguese friends. We were soon a group of like 15 all sitting around the TV. Unfortunately Spain defeated France 2 - 0. We then headed over to Shoreditch (The Old Blue Last), where the bouncer wouldn't let Alice in with her soda/vodka bottle, but the French girls and I were tired anyway so we headed home shortly thereafter.

24 June. Sunday. England vs. Italy. Swag and I met Alice and Solen at Dirty Dick's then walked over to Brick Lane for some amazing food. Swag and I had arepas, while the girls got Chinese and Tibetan food.

26 June. Tuesday. Another lazy day, I needed to explore. I ended up at Butler's Wharf, near Tower Bridge, which was quick to experience. Then, I decided to take the overground and ended up in east Dulwich, which was nothing really.

27 June. Wednesday. Today was the semi-final game between Portugal and Spain. I found a semi-divey Ethiopian restaurant to go to near King's Cross/Islington, because the Estonians (Karoliina and Tiit) really wanted to go. We walked there from Angel station, and Maria joined us. Her arm sling was finally off. Spain won on penalty kicks.

28 June. Thursday. I went to LSE to actually get some work done on my dissertation; but that mostly entailed wasting time on the computers all afternoon (and sending out couchrequests for Paris). My old flatmate/subletter Matthias had just arrived in London for a conference (on matricies and their applications - or something else very mathematical). Anyway, I met him and two other Germans (Elmar, a colleague; and Thomas, who was just attending the conference) at a nearby pub - The Swan, near Russell Square. I got there early enough to save a table in the middle of the pub with a slightly obstructed view of both TVs. This was a big game, after all - Germany vs. Italy. But I was confident that Germany would win. But so much for that - Germany suffered an embarrassing loss and was eliminated from the tournament. Damn. Sad times dude.

29 June. Friday. I spent the morning sending out more last-minute couchrequests, and I decided that if I don't find a place to stay in Paris, I won't even bother going (anyway, I didn't have a return ticket, nor any plans, nor any knowledge of the language). I returned to LSE to get work done, and I actually did! I read through about a third of a book on crowdsourcing and started compiling sources and ideas for my dissertation. An email arrived with a dissertation "progress report" that we need to submit in 11 days. Oh shit time?

30 June. Saturday. Woke up, and didn't go to Paris! I came back to LSE to get even more work done on my dissertation reading, but I ended up writing this whole blog entry!