confusion

I was sitting in the Pheasant last night with some of the Girls from Hayworth Hall and this guy came up to our table.

“Hello,” he said, “you all look like nice college type men and women.”

“Yea, we go to City,” we all replied nodding our heads.

“Excuse me I am a little pissed, (NB: British for drunk \beggs) but I have a question for you.”

“Ok, I said.”

“If you can answer this question you’ll be up there with some of the most intelligent people. So the question is what do I do? I have the most unique job in the world, there is no job as unique as mine, they make documentaries about it.”

“Ummm…”

“I one asked a lawyer in New York this question and he is the only one to answer it correctly. I work in central London, and have the most unique job in the world.”

“You own a pub, this pub?” I asked.

“No, you can own a pub anywhere, what I do is unique to London.”

He then proceeded to repeat the story about the lawyer and his job being unique. And somewhere along the line I realized I have heard a similar discourse before.

“Your a taxi driver in central London.” I said.

“That’s right! I knew you where an intelligent bloke.”

A few more quick words on Jazz and he shuffled off around the bar. Then P███████ turned to me and asked me how I knew the answer…

“He sounded like a New York Taxi driver I once had the pleasure of riding with.”

In the concrete jungle that is London the weather patterns of the outside world do not apply; rain storms are confined to areas of only a few blocks, the winds whips down the street one second and up the street the next, the sun is only to been seen for a few moments in the evening as it drops below the clouds that hang perpetually over greater London, painting the sky with reds, oranges, and pinks as it drops to the horizon. Some days you can see the tops of the buildings, others they are covered by fog. It may be warm when you step out your door, and cold at the end of the block. In all of London there is only one constant weather pattern: car exhaust—ever present, blackening the buildings. London does not participate in the weather patterns of the rest of the world, it has ‘Urban Weather.’

I went out to lunch with two other Americans and our tutor, Geoff Dowling, this Sunday. I met the Americans, Kanika and Brian downstairs at 9am and we hopped a tube over to Charing Cross station to catch the 10:10 to Tunbridge Wells where Geoff lives. We got to the station and found out that there was no rail service from Charing Cross all day. So we had to get back on the tube and go to Cannon Street Station. We got there just in time, we got our tickets and jumped on the train not a minute before it pulled out of the station.

On the way out we all talked about not wanting to go, Geoff is kinda spacy in class and we where all dreading an afternoon of talking to him. But we figured he was our tutor and it was only one afternoon to give up.

We got to Tunbridge Wells right on time and Geoff was waiting there for us. There was a light rain so we walked the few blocks to the “downtown” part of Tunbridge Wells. Apparently the town was founded because of a natural spring, found int 1606, that was said to have healing powers. By the 1700’s it was a common weekend spot for London Gentry, and seams to have had a scandalus reputation. Geoff, Brian, Kanika and I where looking for something to do to kill an hour till the pubs opened and we stumbled onto an exibit/tour of Georgian Tunbridge Wells. It was quite entertaining and took just over an hour.

After the tour/exibit we all piled into a taxi, because the steam train was not running, and rode out into the hills to a place called “High Rocks.” There are a bunch of exposed rocks at the top of a big hill and just next to them is an 1800’s Tavern. Classic fairy tail Britan, moss covered roof, vines growing up both stories, green fields and forest as far as the eye can see, and a light fog and drizzle for effect. We sat in the tavern for a couple of hours, enjoyed an excelent Italian meal and talked about travel.

Then we went off to Geoff’s house to have a traditional English Tea with his wife and watched the Six Nations Rugby match between Ireland and Wales. We talked some more, this time about the differenced between the British and American education system. Then we had to catch the train back to London. On the train Kanika, Brian and myself agreed that we all had fun and the day was worth it. All in all it was a good day, and it helped to get my mind off all that had been bothering me for the past few weeks.

I’m doing the “high maintenance Yuppie” thing right now, sitting in Starbucks, with my laptop, attempting to work on my stories. I figure that this week being the first of classes I have the chance to work on other stuff. The only problem is I have class at 9am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The only day I do not have a 9am class is Tuesday, and that is the day they clean my dorm room so I still have to be up and out by 10 (Well I don’t have to be out, but I prefer not to be in when they clean, they do a better job if no one is there, which I can understand, I would be uncomfortable cleaning and vacuuming if someone was there too.)

Anyway I have been having a lot of fun this week, and even last week during exams. I had a melt down last Wednesday afternoon and my mind shut down… no more studying on my own. I did go to study group on Thursday for six hours and Friday for another five, but no opening that damn Networks book on my own, it hurts my head. So what did I do in the evenings of exam week… I finally found some cool people who do things, P███████ and C███████; a couple of girls who live in the dorms and stay up late every night doing something. In the past week with them I have sat up till six am talking two or three times, gone out drinking and clubbing twice and watched movies once. I am having a lot of fun, and I get to add two people to my list of multinational friends, C███████ was born in Switzerland to Italian parents (and speaks something like five languages! Some times I feel like I am the only person in the world who does not speak more than one language!) and P███████ is Brazilian/Italian. So now my list of international friends looks like this:

• P███████: Brazilian/Italian
• C███████: Italian/Swiss
• R█████: French/German
• P███: Korean/Greek
• A███: Brazilian/Portuguese/Cyprian
• T███: French
• M█████: Italian
• C████: Greek

There are a lot more international people I have met but only hungout with a few times, for instance last night P███████ and C███████ invited me to go clubbing with them and some friends. The group included the two girls, three girl friends of theirs and a guy friend and myself. So we had Brazilian/Italian, Swiss/Italian, American, Canadian, two Greeks and the British Guy. We went to a club called Hombres over between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court. The place was decorated like something out of the 70’s; Strings of ferry lights every 5 inches running floor to ceiling, and the walls where made of mirrors. Anyway, it was a great night; we got there at about 11 and stayed till just before 3. The djing left something to be desired, I think his name way Amtrak, and there was a little too much Hip-Hop for my taste but he played some good seventies and eighties music as well as a little house. I got dragged to the dance floor repeatedly and everyone wanted me to show them how to do the liquid thing with their hands. It was a great night, but hitting bed between four and six am and getting up at eight is starting to ware on me… I need coffee—hence I am in Starbucks (which I had refused to go into on the general principle of not supporting “creping Americanism” till the girls asked me a few days ago and I remembered that Starbucks makes good coffee… Ok I know but everyone here drinks instant so Starbucks is good by comparison!)

I have also been hanging out with one of the guys from my classes last semester, Craig. We and one other guy, Ben, from class went out for some drinks after exams. And Craig and I went to play pool the other night. It’s cool that I have now actually hung out with a British person. Craig even visited my website and signed up for the forum! (Though if someone does not post a topic soon that may have been a futile gesture.)

Anyway this is a very long post and I have not even started to cover winter break! Will at some point do that, but this was more immediate. Ciao.

Well, as of today I am 24 years old. Wish me happy birthday. I know there has not been a post here for a while, but seeing as there are only three people I know about who read this, and one I spent most of the past two of the pas three weeks with, one is on vacation here in Britan, and the other was home for a month for Christmas, I don’t think it really matters. But, as soon as exams end, and before classes really get going, I will attempt to distill a week in Denmark and a week in Amsterdam into a few journal entries. So you can look forward to reading about fights over the Euro, my missadventures in “Sin City” and the Armagedon that is New Years in Amsterdam… Hope you all had a great end of year bash… Oh! Wait. I know what all of me readers did on New Years! :)