4/18/09 Reflections

The three and a half months I spent abroad seem like a blur, so many new places and new experiences. People may tell you what Europe is like, but you can never attain any real understanding without actually going there, and I only scratched the surface of the cultural complexities of Europe in my time spent abroad.

My favorite places (most to least favorite)
1 Prague
2 Scotland
3 Sweden
4 Munich
5 London
6 Barcelona
7 Dublin
8 Bath
9 Amsterdam
10 Geneva

Even though I managed to visit so many different places, I feel like there were still lots of opportunities I let slip away, particularly not being able to visit Paris. If there are any lessons I could impart on a future traveler abroad, is is these:
1. Make the most of every minute and opportunity you get in your limited time, time management is key
2. Don't be afraid to try new things, get outside your comfort zone
3. Get out and socialize with local people, and make friends with people from other countries
4. Plan trips out way in advance, it is much cheaper and less hassle

The experiences and memories I acquired in London and the rest of Europe will no doubt stay with me for the rest of my life. My semester abroad has left me with a new appreciation for travel and adventure that I never had before. So what now?

I have been wanting to visit Japan for a long time, the country fascinates me. Also, David Dvorsky talked about the possibility of an internship in Prague next summer, which is something I will definitely follow up on. I felt a special affinity to the city of Prague, almost like I belonged there, which is interesting since I do have a significant Czech heritage.

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I am glad to once again see my family and friends back home, but I know that it won't be long until I once again yearn for the excitement of London and the rest of Europe. It is kind of weird being back home, everything is just the same as I left it, but it all feels different. Everything has stayed the same, but I have changed.

4/17/09 flying back to Philly

Waking up after only 3 hours of sleep was rough, but I got the rest of my stuff together and got on the coach bus taking us to the airport. Goodbye to the Landward and the time spent there, just memories now.

In a moment of mental lapse upon arriving at the airport, I thought my bags were on Mike's cart since his bags looked just like mine, but my bags were actually sitting unattended next to where we got off the bus. A security officer came over to our group and asked if the bags were mine and gave me a lecture about how I could have gotten the whole airport shutdown and whatnot. My bad, it was extremely careless of me...I guess you forget stuff like that when you are sleep deprived.

The time on the plane ride back to the US seemed to fly by (har har). I watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire, both great movies btw. Andrew's family was waiting there to pick us up, and I fell asleep for almost the whole car ride back to Danville.

4/16/09 GS speaker, O'Neils one last time, new British friends

In the morning we went over to the Duke of York to hear from Kevin Barkow, an SU graduate who is currently working for Goldman Sachs. Kevin wasn't a stand-out student by any means, graduating with about a 3.2 GPA, but he was very determined and used professional networking to his advantage. The GS interviewer knew one of Kevin's past clients, giving him a huge advantage. He now works 60-70 hours per week and Kevin tried to impress home the point of determination and a strong work ethic as key to success in the business world.

For our last night in London, we went as a group to the club/bar O'Neil's. For some reason all the girls have an obsession with the place, but it is mediocre at best. It was fairly crowded, and we had fun dancing the night away. I think I left around 2-3am to head back to the flats.

From London - March, April

When I got back I met a British girl named Claire who apparently had been living across from us for the past two weeks and we never knew. We walked downstairs and I also was introduced to the receptionist Jason, who was also our age. We went back upstairs to my flat and had some great discussions about the cultural differences between Britain and the US, especially regarding word pronunciations and girls. Claire was staying in London for fashion design and loved our "American accents". They were both really cool and we stayed up past the sunrise conversing, I think I passed out sometime around 6am. It sucks that I had only just met my new British friends and I was leaving on a flight in just a few hours. Missed opportunities.

From London - March, April

4/15/09 OB Test, Theater Paper, Bowling Party

OB Test and then turned in the Chandra Paper... it felt good to be done with all of my classwork. After working out at the YMCA I made my way to the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes for our SWSB London Program farewell bowling thing. Unfortunately I got lost on the way there since I went by myself, and I spent an hour wandering around the streets of London asking at least a dozen different people how to get there, most had no idea and I even got directed to the wrong bowling alley. Eventually I found my way there and joined the fun. It was a good time overall even if I wasn't that great at bowling. It was surprising how skilled Davis was at bowling, even after a couple of drinks.

4/14/09 MOB Case and Seminar Final

The days tick by and yet there is still so much I haven't done in London.

4/13/09 last week workload

Doing the work needed for this final week. I can't believe I head home friday, it is a bittersweet feeling really, I miss my friends and family at home, yet I don't want to leave the excitement of being abroad in Europe.

Tuesday: MOB Case Study, Seminar final
Wednesday: Theater Paper, OB final

4/12/09 easter, last day in barcelona

Today was a solo day since Nate and Hannah were doing their own thing. Checked out of the hostel and headed over to MacDonald's for some breakfast/lunch. I decided to start out my adventure by heading to the famous unfinished Sagrada Familia (the holy family church). The church was absolutely gargantuan in size and ornate in stature. The line to get into the church was, appropriately, also monstrously long since it was Easter Sunday after all. The architecture adorning the inside and outside of the church derived its inspiration from patterns found in nature. The ceiling held up by massive pillars that branched out at the top to support the ceiling like a forest canopy overhead.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

Next stop was the Gothic Quarter and Catedral, and the various old gothic buildings in the area. After a while I decided to wander through the side streets in the general direction of the city park. After some walking I eventually stumbled onto the impressive L'arc de Triomf. From there I walked into the city park which featured a random statue of a wooly mammoth and an impressive water fountain display with dragon head statues.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

By this point it was raining pretty hard and my flight time was fast approaching, so I walked back to Catalunya plaza and to a Chinese restaurant I wanted to go to the day before. It was closed for Easter (duh), but I would not be denied my delicious Asian sustinence. I realized I could risk walking all the way to Wok to Walk and back to the plaza and cutting time close for the bus to the airport, or I could get on the bus hungry and always wonder how good the Wok to Walk would have been.

Even though my back was sore from carrying around my backpack all day and it was raining like crazy, I decided that with no risk there can be no reward, and I forged on to Wok to Walk. It was a risky endeavor, but I made it there and back in record time through the endless throngs of people crowding the street. It was totally worth it.

4/11/09 the deep blue sea

Up at 9:30 for crappy hostel breakfast, then back asleep till noon. Met the girls at MacDo for lunch and then put on some sunscreen before heading off to the beach. The weather was decent at first, but it started getting overcast and looking like rain by the time we walked down to the beach. On the way to the beach passing by the harbor were tons of street vendors selling a variety of tourist trap items.

From Barcelona Trip

It has been years since I've been to a beach, and walking barefoot with sand between my toes felt really good, even though there was a cool ocean breeze abound. The ocean view was absolutely spectacular. Attempting to frolic in the water was not very fun, since the water was still freezing cold.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

After getting sandy on the beach we headed over to the Barcelona Aquarium to see some sea creatures. The aquarium was packed with people, mostly grade school age kids. The best part by far was walking through the underwater tunnel as sharks and fish swam above.

From Barcelona Trip

After a nap and shower at the hostel we once again set out for the sea shore, this time trying to catch ourselves a nice seafood dinner. The number of restaurants near the shore was staggering, and we were constantly being interrupted by workers trying to advertise and hustle us into their establishment. We eventually settled on a place and decided to order a 4 person meal of paella. I got to see sea creatures swimming around in the aquarium earlier and now I was going to eat them, how exciting!

Now I am really not much of a seafood fan, and was somewhat intimidated by the giant bowl filled with a plethora of mussels, shrimp, crayfish (scary looking), oysters, and even calamari mixed in between vegetables and rice doused in sauce. However, my fears were quickly abated after sinking my teeth into the first bite. I had never quite experienced these sensations before, as the complex combination of salty seafood set loose a cascade of flavors that danced along my taste buds. Of course I was completely stuffed by the time we were done.

It was time to follow up the salty dinner with a sweet desert, and we found a gelato place not far away where for only 2,70E we got a large gelato cup with two different flavors. I got strawberries and cream and it was glorious. Being a fat kid can be a lot of fun.

It was dark out so we headed to some random bars off of La Rambla for a few drinks. We ended up in some kind of touristy bar that had us sitting around a wooden barrel with two candles on it. At some point I got the brilliant idea to put out the candle by turning my empty pint glass upside down over it, thereby suffocating the oxygen supply to the candle. Despite my impeccable scientific proposition, I had left one variable unaccounted for, ie the couple drops of beer left in my glass.

Upon inverting the pint glass, the candle intstantly erupted into a huge sizzling fireball that reached halfway to the ceiling. I feared that I would have to help one of my friends stop, drop, and roll, but luckily no one was hurt. Well my feelings were hurt since the ENTIRE bar looked at our table to see what the hell had happened. Oops. I looked down at the now burnt out candle. Hey I was still right after all!

4/10/09 mountains, castles, pubs, and prostitutes

We headed up to Montjuic by cable car and the castle up at the top was quite impressive. On one side was the massive city of Barcelona spreading out as far as the eye could see, and on the other side was the beautiful pristine blue ocean trailing off into the horizon.

From Barcelona Trip

Next, we walked down through the mountain park towards the Olympic Stadium and saw some interesting buildings along the way. For dinner we went to Spain's equivalent of Applebee's (Happy) and I ordered a lamb curry meal and a water. Of course they brought out carbonated water that tasted like crap in a glass bottle that I had to pay for. Dicks.

From Barcelona Trip

After a nap and shower it was time to head out to TravelBar for their infamous 1 Euro meal, which for the day was a moderately tasty pasta + chili. While waiting for the pub crawl to start an entire rugby team, obviously hammered and very loud, came into the bar, but after causing a commotion they were told to leave before the pub crawl even started.

The pub crawl was very cool and they had this game where you had to find your "partner" who had the same piece of paper catchphrase as you, and mine was "Not Tonight Princess". I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world including some guy from London who reminded me of my friend Leslie, some guys from France, a guy from Toronto, some girls from Cali + Jersey, and a couple of cute Welsh Girls.

Nate and Hannah left before going to the final club because Nate was feeling sick, so Jackie and I soldiered on. I danced with some random girls for a while but it wasn't working out so we left and tried to navigate our way back through Barcelona's sketchy nighttime streets to Jackie's hostel. We finally got there past 3:30am and I made the long walk back to my hostel alone.

I had the brilliant idea that my return trip would go much smoother if I avoided all the guys trying to sell beer in the middle of the La Rambla street by walking on the far sides of the street. Genius. Little did I remember is that the edges was where all the prostitutes hung out. Less than 5 minutes into my walk back a short dark skinned lady of the night had her arms on me and was complimenting me on everything from how I was dressed to my manly physique.

Now as much as I love ego-stroking it was starting to get a little ridiculous when she would not leave me alone after I made it very clear I wanted nothing to do with her. She must have seen my dismissiveness as me trying to negotiate her cost of services to a lower price... so she proclaimed that since she liked me I could get a blowjob for "only 10 Euro". Damn, the girl really knew how to drive home a sale (I guess in her line of work you have to get good at it). However, my resolute principles were not swayed by her hard bargain.

Instead I proposed a counter offer, of "if I give you the 3 Euro in change in my pocket will you leave me alone?" Big mistake. That was the equivalent of throwing bread crumbs in front of a pack of seagulls... once they know you have food they are never going to leave. Of course she continued pressing for more and telling me about how bad it was for people who had to work the streets. That sucks, but I won't be swayed by your jedi mind tricks.

Eventually I made it back to my hostel where a group of other people my age were going inside... Freedom! Of course she protested and said that I should go with her, but I was steadfast. I firmly pushed her off of my arm, looked her in the eye and said "good luck", then walked inside without looking back. On the bright side, at least I had 10 more Euro to buy me breakfast at McDonald's in the morning.

4/9/09 Easter Break in Barcelona

On the Gatwick Express train Nate found a return ticket in the tray table for the Stansted Express that I could use and not have to pay the ~13 pounds, maybe my luck is getting better? After landing in Barcelona we realized it was really sunny and hot out, but the nice weather was just a tease as it quickly turned overcast.

Our hostel was located just off the famous main street, La Rambla, which was quite the sight to behold. La Rambla was covered with swarms of people, there were open market pet stores on the street and people dressed up like painted statues and famous characters like Edward Scissorhands.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

We got to the hostel and learned to our dismay that the hostel wouldn't take credit cards and wanted the payment to be in cash. So much for our plan of covering that part of my expenses with Nate's credit card. We walked to the bank on the other side of the main street, La Rambla, and hoped beyond hope that my atm card would come back from the dead and magically work. It has an option for savings account and colored Euro bills come out, muchos gracias! I guess my luck is getting better. Ironically, I end up covering Nate's hostel fee.

We meet Hannah and her friend Jackie at the Catalunya plaza and walk with them to their hostel, which is in a somewhat sketchy looking side street off of La Rambla. We wandered around looking for food and I stumbled upon what may be one of the greatest finds ever, Wok to Walk. It was full of terribly unhealthy and terribly delicious Chinese food, and I ordered a container of noodles and beef slathered in sweet and sour sauce.

At night we went out to see some nightlife, and hit up MyBar and TempleBar for a few drinks. There was some unintelligible creeper guy who got hilariously thrown out of the one bar. Walking back to the hostel at night was kind of sketchy, as there were guys standing on the sidewalk selling beer cans out of 6 packs, not to mention that there were prostitutes on street corners whistling as you walked by. Little did I know this was only the beginning of my experience with how sketchy Barcelona could be at night.

4/8/09 Class, Nightmare losing my wallet

Everything seemed to be going well, I was getting packed and ready for Easter Break in Barcelona, and I decided to go get a few groceries for my last days in London. I got my groceries at Sainsbury's, checked out, headed back to the flat, and then my world turned upside down...

Back in my flat I realized that I didn't have my wallet on me. I went back to the store and asked if they had picked it up, but it was nowhere to be found. While fumbling at the checkout trying to hold all my bags and pay for my food at the same time, I must have somehow dropped my wallet on the ground and someone picked it up.

At this point it hit me like a ton of bricks... I was in a foreign country with no way of getting to my money and had all of 5 pounds on me in cash. Even though I still had my Bank of America ATM Card in my room, it didn't work at any ATM I had tried in London. I had a flight booked to leave tomorrow. I felt so utterly horrified and helpless.

Of course I called my mom and let her know what was happening and she offered to wire me money to a bank in Barcelona. I then spent forever trying to get through to BAC to see if they could fix my card somehow. And after realizing that you can't call a 1-800 number from outside the US and getting transferred through like 3 different departments, I finally got to a person who said he was unable to help me since the ATMS don't let you select a savings account option. Effed.

4/7/09 Class, Savoy Theatre for Carousel

The musical Carousel was a little tacky at certain parts (the ending) and the musical numbers were over the top (its junetime?), but overall it was moderately entertaining.

4/6/09 Back to London

4/5/09 Stirling Castle and William Wallace Monument

Today I headed out to see the sights at the Stirling Castle, which was an important power stronghold in Scotland during medieval times.

From Scotland Trip

From Scotland Trip

Next I headed out to the William Wallace monument and climbed up the hill and then all the way up the narrow staircase on the inside to the very top. Standing on the top of the tower was breathtaking as the wind was whipping from all sides and the view was spectacular.

From Scotland Trip

From Scotland Trip

4/4/09 Tour of Edinburgh, off to Stirling

In the morning after finishing packing JJ and I headed out to a New Europe walking tour of the city, starting at the King Charles Cathedral. Ironically, our tour guide was actually from Melbourne, Australia and was quite funny. We learned important things such as the origin of the word shit-faced and saw where JK Rowling got inspiration for and worked on Harry Potter.

From Scotland Trip

From Scotland Trip

Sadly, we had to leave the tour early to head off to Stirling with the rest of the London Program. Once in Stirling we went to the location of the Glenturret Distillery for the Famous Grouse Experience. They really pulled out all the stops for us, as we were greeted with a real Scottish bagpiper as soon as we stepped off the bus.

From Scotland Trip

I sampled several different whiskeys as we got an in depth look into how and where different kinds of whiskeys are made. After the tour we were treated to an elaborate Scottish dinner, and I tried haggis, which was really quite good. The bus ride back was interesting to say the least, as our bus driver had quite the unique taste in music.

From Scotland Trip

At night a few of us went out to a random bar in Stirling and just chilled out for the most part, It seemed like the city had a decent nightlife despite what we had been previously told.

4/3/09 St Andrews, pub crawl

What visit to Scotland would be complete without a visit to the famous St Andrews? Now I am not really a fan of golf, but it was still really neat to see a place with such a storied history. We heard about the business aspects of St Andrews from some of their representatives and then toured around the practice range and the facilities. I walked on part of the old course, and stood on the famous footbridge near the last hole.

From Scotland Trip

In the free time we had at St Andrews, JJ, Nate and I went on a little expedition to explore the rocky shoreline.

From Scotland Trip

We got on the bus back to Edinburgh since we didn't want to play golf. At night JJ, Nate and I embarked on the Insomniac Pub Crawl. Nate felt sick to his stomach shortly after starting and had to walk back to the hotel. At the next stop we met some cool German guys and I talked to them about my recent trip to Munich. The night wore on and our last stop was the club Hive. Apparently some other SU kids were there and quickly came over to join us. JJ was dancing with some girl and so I had to play wingman and stop the SU kids from cockblocking him by holding them back and saying "it's alright!".

After a bit I lost track of JJ and wandered around the club looking for him to see if he wanted to leave. I didn't find him, but as I was walking around by the bar some random girl touched my arm and said I smelled nice. So I walked with her arm in arm and asked if she had seen my lost sexy Swedish friend. She hadn't and we started dancing. After some dancing she was obviously impressed with a)my sexy dance moves and b)my impeccable style, so she asked "are you gay?" I smiled as I looked into her eyes and said "No", and then I kissed her. After some making out and whatnot, I noticed that the German guys were making their way towards me. Random girl wandered off but I didn't really care.

Of course the German guy interrogated me as to why I wasn't drinking a beer at that exact moment. I told him I had already drank a lot, which probably perpetuated the stereotype that Americans suck at drinking compared to Europeans, especially Germans. The German guy said in his thick accent, "I am going to be your teacher and teach you to drink beer. B...E...E...R...BEER!" He put his arm around me and we walked back towards the bar. However, he made a quick turn onto the three shallow steps that led down to the dance-floor. I wasn't expecting this and the steps were slippery and covered in spilled drinks so I slipped and fell right on my ass and side. Basically everyone on the dance-floor looked over at me as I was on my ass, but I thought it was funny and laughed at myself as I stood up, only slightly hurt. I figured that was probably my queue to leave and said goodbye to the German guys and walked back to the Apex hotel. I still have a small mark/scar on my side from those steps, what a night.

4/2/09 Lockharen Woolen Mills, Scottish Enterprises

Today we went to visit Lockharen Woolen Mills, which was a 1.5 hour drive from where we were. On the way I really wished we would stop and get a better look at the beautiful Scottish countryside I could see through the windows. The mill tour was kind of stupid, the only thing I learned was that if there was one thread missing in a fabric that they had to then fix the entire thing by hand. Overall it seemed like poor time management as we spent 1.5 hrs driving each way for a 45 min tour which was not very interesting or relevant. We certainly could have done a lot more with those 4 hours.

Next we went to Scottish enterprises, which was a government entity that did business consulting. We did a case study about how to fix the problems of a family manufacturing business, which was interesting. I found this visit gave some useful insights into business consulting.

At night JJ, Nate and I had pizza at an Italian restaurant across from our hotel.

4/1/09 Off to Edinburgh

Off to Scotland with the rest of the London program people for the next 5 days. The flight was short, and I stupidly brought a full bottle of mouthwash with me and the cap broke during the flight inside my luggage. Luckily most of my clothes were in vacuum seal plastic bags, although my pants did get a stain on the side, which I didn't notice for a few days. We stayed at the Apex Hotel which was really quite nice.

3/31/09 so much to do

Class until 5 and then the Pitman Painters play at 7:30. I enjoyed the play and it gave me a bit of a new perspective on art I didn't have before. I didn't get back to the flat until 10:30 and then had to work on my Chandra presentation on View from the Bridge for tomorrow. Didn't get to bed until 2am.

I just realized we only have 6 days left in London, and we somehow have to get all of our assignments done.

3/30/09 tour of Munich

I got up early enough for breakfast, and then headed out to Marienplatz (central square) to go on a New Europe walking tour of the city. Ironically, my tour guide was actually from Scotland, and he was quite outgoing and hilarious.

From Munich Trip

We learned lots of history about the city, and apparently the name Munich comes from Munchen, the word for monks, since monks founded the city. After the tour we went to a bar where the tour guide knew the owners, which ironically was the Sunset Travel Bar, where my pub crawl had started on Saturday night. I conversed with some other college age kids who were also on the tour, and ate some tasty German stew.

From Munich Trip

After the tour I went back to the Olympic Park and BMW showroom to get a better look at them during the daytime. I also went to the English Gardens, but the outdoor beer gardens were not open since it was raining out.

From Munich Trip

From Munich Trip

From Munich Trip

I then got on the train back to the airport and headed back to London.

3/29/09 rainy recovery Sunday

I woke up at 12, and must have slept right through my alarm at 9, completely missing breakfast. I was really dehydrated and felt awful, so I had some water and then stumbled to the shower. I then proceeded to throw up while taking a shower. So I got out, brushed my teeth to get rid of the awful taste, and then proceeded to throw up again right after brushing my teeth, so I had to brush them a 2nd time.

Since it was Sunday basically nothing was open and so I went over to the train station and grabbed some food. I had some god awful carrot smoothie and a Subway tuna sub that I could barely eat any of. I took a nap for 2 hours and then woke up and watched Braveheart downstairs. It was still raining out and starting to get dark, but I figured that I should try and do something, so I took the underground to the Olympic Park and also saw the BMW showroom.

From Munich Trip

From Munich Trip

3/28/09 Part 2: Hofbrauhaus, Pub Crawl

After Dachau we went back into the city of Munich to grab some food and drink. We went to some random bar (psychorr?) and had a pint, but it was lame there so we left in a hurry. Next we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus where the waiters walk around in traditional German laderhosen (think yodeler) and serve you beer and giant pretzels. I got a liter of dark German beer a sausage w/ sauerkraut, and a big soft pretzel.

From Munich Trip

After that we went back to the hostel and I got changed before heading out to the starting point for the Insomniac Pub Crawl. I got sort of lost so it took me a while to find it, but it was all good because when I got there they extended the free drinks for another 1/2 hour till 10pm since the stew wasn't ready yet.

There were about 20 people there and I started up some conversation. I talked to two Swiss guys from Zurich and then talked with this group of American military guys who were stationed in northern Germany. The military guys (Gavin is the only name I remember) thought I was awesome and hilarious, so they kept buying me drinks all night. I met tons of random people that I will never remember. I think the pub crawl went to five different venues, but I only remember two of them. One was a big Irish themed pub place. I vaguely remember having tequila shots at the last bar, and that never ends well for me. After that the military guys wanted to go to the Red Light District, but luckily for me there wasn't enough room in their cab (what ever happened to never leave a man behind?).

I followed some random people to the tram stop, but I thought that I took it the wrong direction and so I got off and started walking. I must have looked really lost as a cab driver pulled up and asked if I needed a ride. In retrospect it was probably really stupid to get in, but the cab looked legit (as far as I could tell) and I had no idea where I was. Apparently, I wasn't that far from Hauptbanhoff, as the cab fare was only 4,70 Euros. I stumbled back into my room and passed out. The Pub Crawl only cost 10 Euro and despite not spending anything else, I certainly got a lot of drink. Germany rules.

3/28/09 Part 1: Dachau

In the morning I went downstairs to get breakfast, and randomly Andrew, Ian, Greg, and Eric were there at my hostel. We headed out by train and then bus to Dachau, the famous concentration camp which all other German concentration camps were modeled after. There was a very large museum that went in depth into all aspects of the historical events of the time period and the workings of the camp, and the medical experiments section in particular really got to me.

From Munich Trip

From Munich Trip

From Munich Trip

There were several of the original buildings still standing, including the living quarters, which were severely cramped. Dachau also holds the only undamaged gas chamber left in the world. It was a very somber but nonetheless important and moving experience. A plaque inside Dachau reads:

“May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945, because they resisted Nazism, help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and respect for their fellow man.”

3/27/09 flight to Munich

Luckily I started feeling a bit better this morning. My group did our British History presentation on the Camden area of London.

Ironically the group of students I got on the easyBus to the airport with also were on my same flight to Munich. Once I got to Munich, I took the train from the airport to the Hauptbanhoff (central station) and my hostel 4 You Munchen was only a short walk away.

3/26/09 Pramerica and down with the sickness

Today we went to the offices of Pramerica (Prudential). I was still feeling really sick. We were forced to wear business formal even though all our presenters were in business casual, so I was sweating just sitting there. We had to sit through 2 hours of non-stop presentations and I didn't have any water so I was almost passing out by the end.

This was par for the course this week though, as we have been doing so much crap and haven't had time to do anything else. I have been trying to figure out my class scheduling for next year and also apply for summer internships but I am so overwhelmed at the moment.

When it comes to company tours what ever happened to quality over quantity?

3/25/09 the tempest play

Class during the day and then we went almost an hour by tube to the Richmond theatre to see the production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. The production had an african tribal flavor to it, and was set in the time period of British colonialism. The special effects and acting were very good, and overall the play was enjoyable. However, we didn't get back to the flats until almost midnight.

3/24/09 sick and dancing with luthansa play

Still really sick today and feeling like crap. I had to sit through an awfully boring play about some sisters living in the 1930s and overreacting about everything and living pointless lives. I wanted to leave in the worst way but couldn't.

3/23/09 zurich, llyods of london, bbc... long day

Started out the day with presentations by execs from Zurich, the insurance company. They were ok, if moderately boring. It was interesting how they had an emerging risk radar and tried to work with their clients to reduce their risk.

Llyods of London was a huge sprawling multifloor complex where various insurance companies had sectors and did business. It looked similar to a stock trading floor, but for insurance. Seeing such a huge marketplace was quite the experience.

Later in the day we headed to the BBC for a standard tour. It was moderately interesting and walking behind the scenes of their live shows and seeing how the sets are dropped from the ceiling was neat.

Of course the tours took up the entire day for the most part. Not much time to do anything else.

3/22/09 lazy sunday

Felt kind of sick so I took it easy today and caught up with my photos and updating my journal.

3/21/09 back from Bath

Left Joey's place in Bath around 9am and took the train back to London Paddington and arrived by 11:30am or so. Took it easy today and caught up on some work.

3/20/09 roman baths, thai food, poonans

We headed out to eat an English breakfast at the Boston Tea Party, which was tasty but the portions were too small and we had to wait forever for the food. Our next stop was the Roman Bath Ruins that the town of Bath is named after and famous for.

From Bath Trip

Walking around the ruins was like stepping back in time, and seeing how the Romans used the temple to worship and relax was very interesting. The natural springs underneath still feed water up into the pools, and the water is warm to the touch. After the tour we sampled some of the natural spring water in the pump room, and it tasted similar to blood, because of the high iron and other mineral content.

From Bath Trip

For dinner we went to the Thai restaurant “Shang-Ri-La”, and I had some chicken type thing in sweet and sour sauce, which was tasty. We went back to the apartment and got ready to go out to the club Po Na Na. We headed out, and I was disappointed that Joey's other (and cuter) friends there didn't want to go with us since they all had to leave by 9am for their trip to Oxford.

We danced for a while at the club and then attempted to do karaoke. I chose the song Just Dance by Lada Gaga, and found out that it is really damn hard to attempt to dance while simultaneously singing at the same time, especially while inebriated.



After some more dancing Joey and I needed a break and we randomly sat down next to some girl and some drunk guy started taking his shirt off and dancing in front of us, which was slightly disconcerting. However, the girl sitting next to us said she was from Liverpool and that he was one of her drunk marine friends, and we started a conversation. I found out that she was 25 and has been obsessed with the Spice girls since she was young. She also apparently met her boyfriend on hotornot.com, which surprised me. After a while the conversation got stale so I headed back to the dance floor since the club was closing in like ½ hr (3am?). We left the club and got some Mr. D's, a fast food stand, on the way back.

From Bath Trip

3/19/09 Oxford, then Bath

Oxford was ok, we walked around the town and saw some cathedrals and learned some history.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court, Oxford

Took train from Oxford to Bath, but apparently we weren't supposed to take the train that went to Reading, and we got bitched at by some train manager that I could barely understand. Eventually we got it sorted out and switched to a train to Bath.

From Bath Trip

Joey picked us up at the train station and walked us back to his apartment. We met a few of Joey's housemates, and then introduced Joey to the awesomeness that is the British TV show “Skins”. For dinner we went out to an Indian restaurant named Bengal something, and I had lamb curry type stuff, which was good.

Later at night we went to the Huntsman (a local pub), where it was student night with 1.50 pints of Fosters. I though that it was such a great idea, that I had a 2nd one. There were a lot of other people from Joey's study abroad program (which has 55 total) and we talked with them for a while.

3/18/09 girl talk concert

Headed out to the Girl Talk concert in Scala around 10 or so. The music wasn't really live as GT just hit a few buttons on his laptop and then stood on the table and danced around the rest of the time. It was basically just a huge dance party. The venue was really crowded and obscenely drunk dbags kept bumping into me constantly, which really pissed me off. I danced with some random girls for a while (from Chicago I think?) and overall I had a decent time.

From London - March, April

From London - March, April

3/17/09 st. patty's day, view from the bridge play

The view from the bridge play was mediocre but I had to pay attention since I will be presenting on it for my theater class. After the play we made our way to O'Neil's to celebrate St. Patty's day, but the line to get in was huge and JJ and Nate and I headed over to the Duke of York instead. At the Duke we got free Guinness St. Patty's day hats after a couple beers, and then headed back to the flat.

3/16/09 not much

Not a whole lot going on today, worked on my MOB assignment for tomorrow.

3/15/09 the Watchmen

Today we went to see the Watchmen at the Odeon movie theater. It was pretty expensive at 10.50 pounds. The movie gave a very interesting look into a 1980s alternate universe where the Cold War has left the world on the brink of nuclear war. The movie explored how morality really isn't divided into black and white, it is just shades of grey. I particularly enjoyed the irony of the character Dr. Rorschach, who wore a mask akin to the psychology test pictures whose interpretation is supposed to change with the perspective of the viewer, but yet he was the only character who was steadfast in his values and morals throughout.

3/14/09 walk around camden, fabric at night

In the early afternoon JJ, Nate, and I ventured into Camden Town to do our research for our British History and Culture presentation. JJ randomly decided to get his ears pierced, and we ate at a really terrible Thai restaurant, which we found out afterwards was actually all vegetarian food and that is why it tasted like crap. Walking around the streets of Camden markets on the weekend was an interesting experience, as there were lots of younger kids obviously into the alternative kind of lifestyle, with ridiculous hair and lots of body piercings and tattoos. What was really interesting was that the residential areas of Camden were almost completely devoid of people, even though they were only a block or two away from the main markets. We also walked through Hyde Park, which had like 10 million different football(soccer) fields and then headed back to the flat.

From London - March, April

At night we made our way to the infamous London club, Fabric, around 10pm. But we had to wait outside for a while since it actually opened at 11pm. We had a couple of beers while we waited and two random Russian girls came up and asked us if we were going inside. We started a conversation and the two were apparently flight attendants on some Russian airline I had never heard of before.

After getting inside we all found out that the people who you have to pay to get in are total dicks. They wouldn't accept our international student ID cards for the student discount rate, so we had to pay full cover (16 pounds wtf). The club was very good, but not the best I have been to so far. It had three different dancing areas with a decent amount of dance floor space, and was moderately crowded. JJ and I randomly ran into the Russian girls again on the dance floor so we danced and hung out with them for a while and then headed back to the flat after waiting forever to get on a night bus and having a deep conversation.

From London - March, April

3/13/09 not much

Not much going on today. Watched some more Skins, aka the best tv show evar.

3/12/09 Stonehenge and Hampton Court

We traveled to Stonehenge, and learned some of its lengthy history, as it was apparently used as some kind of burial ground and/or calendar. Stonehenge was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We were able to go up right into the circle and touch the stones, which was pretty cool.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

Next we headed to Hampton Court, which was a psuedo-castle where royalty lived in medieval times. It had very elaborate architecture and a massive garden complete with fountains and lots of wildlife. There was also a hedge maze to walk around in, but it was very easy and we figured it out in like 5 minutes.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

3/11/09 class, hip hop dance at night

Went to another hip-hop dance class at the YMCA tonight, had a great time.

3/10/09 class, Duet for One play

Class in the morning and then off to see the play Duet for One. The play was boring, as it was basically just a continuing discussion between one woman and her psychiatrist. Not to mention at some points the over-acting was a little ridiculous. Afterwards I worked on my theater paper that is due tomorrow.

3/9/09 back to london

Took the train to Copenhagen in the morning and then flew from there back to London.

3/8/09 Quick trip to Copenhagen, visiting Nikolas

Today we took a daytrip to Copenhagen, Denmark but had no idea where to go or what to do there. We walked along the water but it was cold and windy and lots of stuff was closed because it was Sunday so we headed back after an hour or so.

From Sweden Trip

We headed by train to the town of Akarp where Nikolas and his family live. Their house was very nice and was undergoing some renovations. They served us some tasty lo-mein kind of noodles and I had Swedish kafe(coffee) which was pretty strong. We went out to Big Bowl in Malmo with Nikolas and I bowled a 141, but JJ barely beat me with a 144. There wasn't much to do in town since it was a Sunday so we headed back to Rikard's apartment and packed our stuff.

3/7/09 Lund, night out

This morning Rikard showed us around the college town Lund, that has over 40,000 students going to school there. We saw parts of the campus and went into the monstrous 14th century Cathedral, which had an ornate and intricate clock that had seasons, days, and more on it similar to the one in Prague. There was also a crypt downstairs where some ancient royalty were buried. We walked around the streets some more and I tried Swedish hard candy but didn't like it.

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

Rikard drove us back to Monica's after picking up his apartment keys from JJ's mom at Brit's place. For dinner we had grilled chicken and I tried some brie cheese on a flat cracker with marmalade on top, which was pretty good.

We headed back to Rikard's apartment and had a few drinks before heading out to Anna's apartment. We got there and talked for a while, and apparently one of her friends worked for Carlsberg as some kind of manager and gave me his business card in between him high-fiving everyone. Anna suggested going to Debaser, a club near the center of Malmo that catered towards a somewhat older crowd. Apparently some woman there was having her 30th birthday party, so it was a little awkward being there with mostly older people and we then headed over to a club called Rumble, which was nearby and catered to a younger crowd more our age.

The club was good overall, and had two separate main dancing areas, one with more electronic/techno music and the other one with more chill/reggae music. JJ, Nate and I danced for a while in the techno area. We met some cool Swedish girls, a redhead (Johanna) and blonde (Emily), who we talked with for a while. Johanna was 23 and studying in Malmo as a student and had taken a road trip in the United States a few years back. Her friend Emily was 21 and was studying in Lund, where we had been earlier that day. We didn't realize that the club closed around 3am, so we ended up waiting forever in the coat check line before we could leave.