One Month Down

 One Month Down

To view other blog entries, click the back arrow next to "Spencer FYA London", at the top of the screen.

September 23- This morning was an exciting one, because for my Comparative Government and Politics class we were taking a field trip to the Churchill War Rooms. The Churchill War Rooms is an underground complex with cramped spaces where Winston Churchill and his administration conducted war efforts during WW2. I learned much about Churchill's life and how he was a very controversial politician back in his time. For class we had questions to answer about UK Government and about Churchill, and after I had sufficient knowledge I left around 12 to go home for lunch.

Math in the afternoon was nothing extraordinary, obviously. After class I did a large grocery run to Lidl where I had to carry about 25 pounds of groceries back a half mile in my arms because I only brought one tote bag and a backpack. Once the groceries were unloaded I played basketball again at the Y with the guys. I hung out at the frat for the rest of the night.

September 24- I never go to the store with a grocery list, so I often forget something I need, but when I remember I'm already back home and do not want to go back out. That happened today, so in the morning I went back to the store to get hamburger buns before practicing my speech for class later today. The speech I was giving was an analysis on Billy Joels Vienna and why I chose it. After rehearsing it to the wall in my bedroom multiple times, I took it to class and performed good enough. That speech was not the only thing on my mind that day because later that night me and some of the guys were going to a Chelsea soccer game. The original plan was to take the bus there, but the bus system is exponentially more confusing than the Tube, so after standing around at multiple different bus stops scratching our heads we finally decided to just take the Tube instead. It was still rush hour traffic by the time we got on the train (~6:30), so we stood very closely with one another until we had to transfer to another train to get closer to the stadium. At the transfer platform we see our train approaching and it is packed wall to wall with Chelsea blue. Somehow we got on and it was nut to butt, luckily that leg of the journey was not more than ten minutes. Walking to the stadium is strange, because in America it would be surrounded by parking lots or college buildings, but here a 40,000 seat stadium can just be in somebody's backyard. Inside the stadium we had excellent lower bowl seats, where we got to watch Chelsea cruise to an easy 5-0 win against Barrow. Hudson and I left a little earlier than the rest because we are not too keen on waiting in traffic and having a repeat of the journey there. After walking to the nearest bus stop we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was empty and enjoyed a 50 minute ride directly back to the study center with ample leg room.

September 25- Class was exciting again today because of another field trip. In 19th Century European History we went to the Apsley House that was home of the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Inside is a bunch of paintings and a giant statue of a naked Napoleon with a spiral staircase encompassing it. There is something about all these art galleries in London, that makes them all so stuffy and hot that you're dying for fresh air after it is over. After we toured the Apsley House our professor led us to a cafe in Hyde Park and bought everyone a cannoli. I got a pistachio cannoli and it was phenomenal. We were set free after that and Nathan, Hayden, and I walked around Hyde Park for a bit before catching the train back to the study center. I'm not sure what I did the rest of the day because I forgot to write it down, but I'm positive it was nothing to write home about.

September 26- Today was another very exciting day, but first I had to get some schoolwork done. Around 8 a.m. I did some macroeconomics work and finished my first draft for my story speech next week. At 10:30 a.m. we finally arrived at a consensus for what the plans were for fall break. Aidan, Tommy, Hudson, Nathan, Hayden, Cole, Brandon, and I were going on a rail trip and visiting three cites. Fly to Munich, train from Munich to Vienna, train from Vienna to Prague, and finally fly back to London. This was the final draft of our vacation plans, so we were all relieved to figure it out.

Failed Fall Break Plans:

1. Spending a week on Crete- This one didn't work out, because we got very far along the line of nearly booking it, but we never checked and realized the airport we would be flying into was two hours away from the hotel and we had no way of getting there.

2. Southern European rail tour- This was my idea of going on a rail trip touring cities in Spain, France, and Italy along the Mediterranean. This did not work out because the rail pass we were looking at was quite expensive and there was too many cities on the itinerary to get any meaningful experiences from them

3. Cheap All-Inclusive Resort in Tunisia- This idea never held any water and was really just a funny thing somebody pitched and we sort of looked into it. The airfare was really cheap and the all-inclusive was right on the Mediterranean, but there is just not much to see in that part of Tunisia. After scrapping the plan we went back to Europe where the official one was worked out.

After finalizing the fall break plan some of us bought our plane tickets to Munich. I get the luxury of flying down a day sooner to enjoy the city because of my favorable schedule with no Thursday classes. Trip planning made me hungry so I made some lunch and hung around in my flat for a while. Around four I went to the Y for a workout and was there for a long time. I got back to my flat around 6 to eat dinner and get cleaned up for tonight. This was something I've always wanted to do... Kareoke! We had a large group of 12 people go out and they crammed us all into a small room in the back of a Japanese restaurant in SoHo. After throughly embarrassing ourselves at Kareoke, we left around 11, and went to The Roxy. On Thursdays they sell pitchers for 11 pounds which makes it a popular spot. Once we left The Roxy we found Cole and Nathan outside and Cole and I went to get McDonalds before all going back to the frat. After eating there I went back to my flat and after I got off the phone I went to bed around 3.

September 27- Tower of London excursion for the whole study center this morning. Around 11 we all walked to the train station to get over to Tower Hill Station. Brandon, Nate, and I walked around the Tower gawking at he various suits of armor and for some reason a couple of bedazzled guns. We met up with the rest of the guys after to go the where they store the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. After, leaving that building we went to the Cafe that was also on the grounds and chilled for a half hour before we decided to leave. Everyone wanted to get food, but there was none around that we were hungry for, so some of us went back to the study center while others waited around to get chicken wings. I hung out in my flat for a while and did a little schoolwork, and before I knew it is was the evening. I went down to the frat to hang out for a while and book our train tickets, but went back to my flat around 8:30 because we all had an early day tomorrow. Before I left Brandon and Nate gave me their leftover wings from the chicken shop they went to earlier in the day. As I'm up in my flat, Cole and Aidan come in and ask if they could watch me try and eat the wings. For some reason I thought nothing of it so when I ate one I noticed that it was spicy, and concluded that that's why they wanted to watch and see if I can handle it. After realizing it wasn't so bad Aidan and Cole tried it too. Instantly Cole said it was so hot, but Aidan reaffirmed my statement of it not being too bad. I finished the rest of the leftover wings and then it hit me. My mouth was on fire, and the only thing that subdued the pain was the half gallon of milk I bought earlier in the day and ice cubes. I finished that entire half gallon before the pain went away. When I went to take my contacts out, as I pull my right one out my eye begins to burn and I realized I messed up again. Luckily it only lasted a few seconds before I thoroughly washed them again before taking out my other one and going back to bed.

September 28- I got up early today to do laundry before we left. When I do laundry I like to go out and get a coffee and walk around while I wait for it to finish. After laundry and coffee I went to the frat around 7:45 for the plan to leave at 8. College students and earlyish wake ups don't go hand in hand, so after we finally woke the lone person who was not ready, we left at 8:05-8:10 to go to the train station. We took the train to Staines, but that was not the final destination, Thorpe Park was. Thorpe Park is the amusement park the services the London area and we were all craving some rollercoasters. The first ride of the day was some volcano themed ride and the queue took about 25 minutes. After walking around more and seeing all this park had to offer I realized that I was pretty lucky to have Six Flags back in Illinois. Thorpe Park was just like Great America if Great America only had 7 coasters and was a quarter of the size. Regardless of the lack of attractions we rode some terrific rides like the Swarm, which is just like X-Flight back home. There was a strange ride called the Ghost Train where we sat in a subway car while the actors tried to scare us. It wasn't that scary, but if I was 8 I definitely would be scared straight. I had been craving fried chicken for a while here and I had no idea how I was going to scratch that itch. We saw a KFC inside the park and despite me never willingly wanting to eat it back home it looked so good so we went in. I had some really good fried chicken for a reasonable price too. After lunch we went to go ride the SAW ride, but most of the guys were tired and wanted to leave. Cole, Hayden and I stuck it out and it was worth it. After waiting in line for an hour we finally got on the ride and it was the most fun and intense coaster there. Afterwards we rode the Swarm again and looked around trying to find a line that wasn't 40 minutes and the Pendulum ride fit that bill. The pendulum was the last ride of the day for us and it too was a good one. After taking the train back to the study center I just relaxed for the rest of the day.

September 29- I got a package from Amazon that was an Xbox controller today. The reason why I got an Xbox controller was because Xbox allows for cloud gaming on your Mac to play some xbox games off the internet. I tested it out with Forza, and Madden and it works quite well. I did not do much else today other than some homework because of the very busy week I had.