One of the Craziest Weeks Ever

Well, this week shaped up to be quite crazy. Carrying over from last week's Gay Pride and Canada Day celebrations, much more was added to the list of ridiculous events.

Starting out with Monday. I like to call Monday my day of irony. It started out with me going to work out in Ealing, as usual. However, on my way to the bus, my shoe broke. Fortunately the strap that broke was not extraordinarily crucial, because the shoe was still functional, however uncomfortable. So after my 2 hour commute to work, I arrive to a few menial tasks to take care of. Mostly copy/pasting. In about an hours time I am done with my project. I had spoken with Dr. Sahota on the phone earlier, and he had mentioned something else that he would like me to work on. He told me that he would email me more detailed instructions. So I sat. Waiting. After about 45 minutes I finally sent an email. No response. More waiting. I guess on the positive side I got some emailing done, and fortunately I had my laptop with me, so I was able to work a bit on the papers that are coming up for my classes. Finally after another 30 minutes I tried to call Onkar on his cell phone. Straight to voicemail. So I sat more. Finally at 1:00 (having finished this project at 11:00ish) I sent a slightly less than polite email asking for something to do. A few minutes later I received a response that basically said that I could just go home. So I had commuted for 4 hours to copy/paste for an hour. In an attempt to cheer me up, Mommy gave me a green light on going to TopShop for a new pair of shoes and a new dress. I finished up my shopping and caught the Tube home. Instead of getting off at King's Cross and taking the bus like normal, I decided to take the Tube to Highbury Islington and walk home, because I remembered a shoe repair shop on the walk home. Well on the Tube, they made an announcement saying the train would be stopping at King's Cross because there was a fire at Highbury Islington. However, right as I was about to get off, I heard another announcement saying that they had the go ahead to go to Islington after all. So I stayed on the train. When we got to Highbury Islington, the train stopped, but the doors didn't open. The station was closed. So I was forced to ride up to the next station. When I got to Finsbury Park (the next station) I got directions for a bus back to Highbury Islington. As soon as I get to top of the stairs, I hear an announcement saying that Highbury Islington is now open. So I turned around and got back on the Tube going the other direction. When I get out of the station it is downpouring. It is raining to hard that you can't see across the street. So I brave the rain to the shoe store and get my sandal fixed. I got home and noticed that my light blue and white skirt was covered in black. The ink from my TopShop bag was all over. Then later that evening Raquel, Ellen, RJ, and I were going to buy our tickets to Bath. Everyone gets all booked except for me. Tour is full. That was the kind of day I had. Grrr.

But, Tuesday, on the other hand, was fabulous. I started my new job at Dods on Tuesday, working in the editorial department of House Magazine, a weekly publication about UK politics. I uploaded the paper version of the magazine onto the internet, which might sound lame, but is actually moderately interesting, because I basically was able to get a jist for all the articles and the set up of the magazine. I also was given my first story to have published! It was only 200 words and didn't have a byline, but still. I wrote about the problems in Turkey regarding their upcoming elections. Apparently the Turkish military is threatening to overthrow the Turkish government (well really only the majority party in the legislature) because they are worried that the government is becoming too Islamist. Pretty interesting. Then I left work a little bit early to go to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was really crowded and it was pouring the entire time, but I had a blast. I met up with my roommate Anna, Abby, and Christine at Leicester Square. Christine was able to get some great video with my camera. I wasn't video taping because I was a little bit busy. I took off my heels and I had Abby on my shoulders for about 45 minutes straight (then again later) as she took pictures of all of the stars. So there I was, no shoes in the middle of a London street with a 20 year old on my shoulders (fortunately Abby is so skinny that she turns sideways and disappears), and someone stepped on my foot! I am sitting there hitting the person (a not-small man) screaming that he is on my foot, yet he doesn't move. When I finally tried to walk, my foot was frozen. I couldn't move my toes and it hurt terribly. I thought that the man had broken my toes. In actuality I was just having the worst foot cramp in the history of man. But even despite these seemingly horrible things, I had fun. After returning home soaking wet and in pain, I had some dinner and had a meeting with one of the executives of The Washington Center who had come in to London to see how things were going for everyone.

Wednesday was obviously going to be a crazy day, no matter what. The Fourth of July. At work I did a bit more uploading magazines to the website, then I got to go to an interview. One of the special feature pieces that we have every week is an MP interviewing someone else about something. I was able to attend the interview between a Lib Dem MP and the Chairman of Shell Oil. The interview was very interesting, and I was able to learn a lot about how oil companies operate, the search for alternative energy and maximum energy efficiency, and the various projects Shell has going on. But by far my favorite parts of the interview were A) when the MPs cell phone rang about 20 times in 5 minutes with the loudest ring known to man, and B) when we were riding the elevator down to leave and you could smell the overwhelming amounts of liquor on the MPs breath. During the interview the MP seemed a little out of it, and I noticed the open liquor bottle on his desk, and the paper cup that the MP was drinking from (which matched other cups on his desk on top of another bottle of liquor). However, I did not put two and two together until it was blatantly obvious. Very amusing. Being drunk is not at all socially taboo here. In fact, people drink on the Tube pretty much daily. And not homeless people. So after work on Wednesday I met up with Raquel and RJ, where we also met up with Carter and Tomas and went to a bar in East London. This bar was very interesting. Everything was falling apart, the chairs were old and looked like they had been grabbed off the curb, showing padding and all, and there was a hodge-podge of things on all the walls. And it was supposed to be like that. I would best describe this place as a homeless bar, but cool. Very interesting. After the bar, we headed to another bar a few blocks away to a party hosted by American Apparel. Although the place was mediocre, I appreciated the free beer and wine. This bar also had some FABULOUS nachos. So fabulous we needed to order another. Since I have basically only been hanging out with the same people, all day, every day since I got here. I decided that I needed a day off. Therefore I invited my dear Sonya to celebrate with me. We were originally intending to go to a barbeque place in Soho, but my phone died (which happened the last time I tried to meet up with Sonya, if you remember). So I had to settle with sticking with the rest of the group and having Sonya come too. Fortunately I was able to slip away with Sonya for some much needed non-TWO time. Fabulous girl she is. Before I knew it, the rest of the group was heading out, so I left with them and crashed.

Fortunately I didn't drink very much on Wednesday night, mostly because I wanted to get an early start and get into work early. It's a good thing I left early, because the Victoria line (the line I take to get to Dods) was closed. So I had to settle for the slower Circle Line, and a longer walk. When I finally got to work, only 15 minutes early when I had left an hour early, I got to transcribe the previous day's interview, and relive the glory of the drunk MP. Although that task was slightly burdensome, my next project was worth it. Another story. Still no byline, but this one was 300 words (I am moving up in the world!). This time I wrote for our "Backtracks" column that looks at something that happened in UK politics during this week in history. I wrote about Tony Blair becoming leader of the Labour Party. Very exciting. Unfortunately soon after that I had to go to class. Not that I don't enjoy my weekly time with Roland (he is great to listen to, and very interesting) but I am starting to feel bad because I am having to leave so early every day! Oh well. After class I did grocery shopping and lugged 8 bags of groceries on my hour commute back home. No curry night. I am kicking the habit :-)

Friday was medium exciting I suppose. I started it out in the traditional way, 9am class. We learned about post-war Britain and how they were basically screwed hardcore in everything. It was really interesting. I didn't know about a great deal of the issues Britain had after WWII. Silly American ethnocentrism. After class I did a bit of research for my upcoming paper on British appeasement before WWII, and then met up with Raquel and Ellen. Marty (our Friday morning professor)took all of our class to the Cabinent War Rooms and Churchill Museum, located in the underground bunkers formerly used by Churchill and his Cabinet (duh) during WWII. It was super interesting to see how everything was set up. They basically had a fully functional house almost underground. There were meeting rooms, a mess hall, bedrooms, and communications rooms, in addition to all a fancy dining room for Churchill and his wife. Pretty neat. The Churchill Museum was also really cool. It just opened in 2005. Very interactive. Its hard to describe all of the ways that this museum was fabulous. One really cool thing was this "Golden Egg" exhibit. Apparently, Churchill used to refer to any information gained by cracking German codes his golden eggs. In this exhibit you would put a Golden Egg into a particular spot and it would ask you a question and illuminate only the correct words in a letter directly next to the display. It was really cool. There were tons of videos and Churchill artifacts, in addition to all of his speeches recorded and available for listening. Overall, very cool. After the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum we went over to the Tate Modern Art Museum. There was a really interesting exhibit about urban development and how development can affect discrimination and poverty in cities. But one conclusion I was able to make was this: I don't really understand a lot of modern "art." Why should someone pay thousands of dollars for a canvas that has been sliced down the middle? That's it. Just a blank canvas with a cut down the center. That is art? Or a canvas painted completely red with a black stripe down the middle. If that is art, then all of the college painters in the world should be making a lot more. My house is a piece of art then. I shouldn't be so critical. Otherwise there was a lot of really cool paintings and photos everywhere. Its funny, because some of the things when I first saw them I was like, "That's lame," but after a minute (or reading the little plaque describing what the piece was about) I thought, "Wow, that is so cool." After the museum we returned home to a bit of pizza and a bottle of wine before heading out for a night on the town. We headed to Reflex, a sweet 80s club. Amazing time. Even though I wasn't born until 1986, I still appreciate the glory of all that is 80s. This bar not only played the fabulous 80s music, but was clad in Dirty Dancing posters and David Hasselhoff. Oh yes. That good.

Waking up this morning was a bit rough. That bottle of wine came back with a vengeance. But, I did not let it, or my exhaustion, defeat me. I headed out bright and early to Portobello Road Market. Although I spent all of my money, I had a great time. As they say in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, "anything and everything a chap can unload is sold at the corner of Portobello Road." There were tons of knickknacks, antiques, clothes, jewelry, and much more. I had a fabulous time shopping around and came home with plenty. The only disappointing thing was that most of the people were not particularly receptive to bartering. But, I still came out victorious, adding an antique stamp, a new dress, a pocket watch(for Daddy), a necklace, earrings and bracelet (for Mommy), and a pocketwatch-style necklace. I also was able to try out some delicious Ghanaian food for lunch from a street vendor. It was fabulous. And cheap. I had a beef and pepper stew and a creamy chicken and peanut sauce stew, all over seasoned rice. A delicious treat, and my wallet appreciated that it only cost 4 pounds (because I had spent all of my money!). After Portobello Road, I met up with Ellen and Raquel and we watched the prologue of the Tour de France. Today was the time trials, and every racer went individually down the 7 km course from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park then ending at Buckingham Palace. I think that I probably walked about 15 miles today between all of my adventures at Portobello and trying to navigate the Tour de France. Obviously you couldn't cross over where the time trials were going on, so I was forced to walk all the way from one side of the park, around the outside of the course, to the other side, hoping to find a cool t-shirt (from a place that took credit cards--like I said, I literally spent all of my money at Portobello). Long story short, I didn't buy any shirts. Oh well. Perhaps when I am in France they will have something. And that pretty much brings me here to you. Tonight will be an early, unexciting night, because bright and early tomorrow Raquel, RJ, Ellen and I are heading to Bath and Stonehenge (I forgot to mention that I was eventually able to by my ticket for the tour, that it wasn't REALLY sold out).

Exciting things coming up this week:
Tomorrow: Bath and Stonehenge
Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Scotland :-D

But for now, I bid you adieu. Until next time I will remain, Jessica, Pond Jumper Extraodinaire...