Liverpool
November 12, 2009 9:10 pm by engelsman
I’m leaving for Liverpool in about six hours. I know, I should be asleep Mom, and I’m sorry. I am slowly packing and preparing to be on my way.
It is a trip with Ithaca so there will be about 30-40 of us going in a big coach. I’m excited to hang with all of the people I’ve met this fall and find some new stories with them over the weekend.
The one thing I am not as excited about is the main reason most people are going to Liverpool: The Beatles.
You read it here first: I am not sold on the Beatles. I’m just not. Sue me. I know, I know, they were the first super group and such and such and so on and they’re amazing and everyone looks up to them and yadda yadda; I’ve heard it all before. But even though I have, I remain unconvinced.
Do I have to like the Beatles to like rock music? I truly don’t think so. To be honest, a few of their songs aren’t half bad. But I feel like the songs I like by them are the ones that are the least, well, Beatles-like.
I also believe that there is a large percentage of people out there afraid to admit they don’t like the Beatles. Liking them is kind of like knowing how to use a stop light; someone shows you at a young age, you follow along and keep the idea moving so nobody gets hurt. I have even talked to people who have admitted to me in private that they don’t really get them, but they say they do because all their friends do or their parents do or whatever.
So are the Beatles really that huge or are we just a society that doesn’t feel like bothering with questioning what we’re taught?
I’ll let you know when I get back from Liverpool. That is, of course, if my Beatles loving friends don’t beat me too hard first.
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Ice Skating
November 11, 2009 3:00 pm by engelsman
London seems to have a love for ice skating in famous places. This winter there are ice rinks scheduled for Somerset House and Hyde Park, and one has already opened at the Natural History Museum (outside it, of course).
Now I have no problem with ice skating, just that I’ve never been too incredibly skilled at it. I learned roller blading first, but skipped the part where you learn how to stop. I feel like you need to know this kind of information as I delve into this discussion.
A big paper here, the London Evening Standard, has declared the ice rink at the Museum to be better than skating in Central Park.
First off, no.
Second off, if comparing rinks, shouldn’t one compare the rink to the Rockefeller Center? I think it’s fair to say that as Americans we would more readily associate winter ice skating with the flags, NBC and that gold statue near the massive tree before thinking of Central Park.
The other aspect of ice skating in London that aludes me is that it doesn’t snow pretty much at all before Christmas. So instead of skating with flakes in the sky, it’s more like skating with rain pelting you from above. So that’s a third no.
This analysis is strictly from a poorly informed passerby, I remind you, so I could be completely wrong, but I seem to find this ice skating in London thing even less enjoyable the more I think about it.
To give the skating a fair shake, I plan on visiting the rink that is currently being built in Hyde Park. It’s close to where I live, features a carnival and promises to be a thrilling time. So once that gets up and running I’ll render my final verdict.
For now, consider ice skating in London way less cool than skating in NYC.
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Monday Morning Football
November 9, 2009 9:39 am by engelsman
Every Sunday night/Monday morning, Five broadcasts the Sunday Night Football game from the NFL back in the States. This week my Eagles were playing so I figured I’d stay up and check it out.
Basically, it’s a guy with a slight British accent and some former American NFL player no one’s ever heard of. They sit at a desk and recap the games of the day. It’s all very relaxed, with the host in a tee shirt and hoodie and the analyst in a button down shirt straight out of a Levi’s commercial.
Then it came to game time. Toss it to NBC? Of course not. The game was split between the London discussion, which included viewer emails and questions, and the NBC commentary. At some points, you could go a few minutes without the London fellas, but then, as John Madden would say, BOOM!, it was right back to the London crew because they had no commercials.
That’s right. No commercials. So everytime you all had a commercial in the States, I got to watch two guys vaguely discuss the game as they waited for the feed to come back.
Needless to say, I only lasted the first half. By that time it was nearing 3:30 AM, and I didn’t want to throw off my sleeping patterns much more than I already had thanks to the Phillies’ playoff run.
I miss football, I really do. But I won’t be watching much more of it here, I can tell you that.
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Supermarkets
November 8, 2009 10:23 am by engelsman
London has its fair share of supermarket wars. There’s Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Somerfield’s, ASDA, Morrison’s, and a few others that I don’t even remember. The only thing that really separates them is their own personal brands.
Ready Meals are insanely popular here in the city. The thought process being “If you live in a city, you must have an important job, and that job must take a lot of time every day. So once that job is over, there’s no way in hell that you’re going to want to cook, so you might as well just buy our pre-made meals and get it over with.”
While I completely agree with the thought process, I do tend to at least make heat my food up in the oven.
The Ready Made market here is amazing. There are all kinds of starters, mains, desserts and sides. Tons of different genres of food, types of sauces, heating styles. It’s really more than I can handle at times. In fact, I’m about to head to the supermarket (Sainsbury’s is my market of choice) and spend far too much time in the Ready Made aisle deciding what I am going to be eating for all of my meals this week.
The tricky part comes when buying in bulk. As I learned from the Bad Idea Bears in Avenue Q, buying in bulk is always a key concept because it saves you both money and the hassle of shopping again.
I’ve bought a few different items in bulk this fall, some with good results and others with bad. Uusally when it has gone bad, it has been because I did not estimate the amount of time I had to eat that food properly. When it has gone well, I’ve been able to save and enjoy some savory food. Because of this issue, however, I am always sure to arm myself with a calendar on my cell phone whenever going food shopping.
Ithaca has its Wegman’s. And… that’s pretty much where everyone goes. If only there was the variety from the city and a nice alternative Ready Made meal market.
That would make me salivate far more than any food from the Pub.
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Care for a Top Up?
November 5, 2009 5:50 am by engelsman
Pay-as-you-go has been supplemented by the term “topping up” here in the UK. And people here top-up everything. You can top-up your cell phone, your train pass, your internet, your stocks in James Bond products… kidding about the last one. But still, isn’t topping up implying both a lack of responsibility and promoting a throw away culture?
My girlfriend’s mom is in London for about 5 days. We immediately bought her a cheap cell phone and a cheap train pass. Both will never be used again after Sunday, but came so cheap that it was the clear choice for use. We had to pay a three pound deposit on the rail card, which encourages you to turn the card back in when you’re done, but no such program exists on a popular level for cell phones, especially the cheap ones.
Ads on the tele claim that if I send in my old cell phone I could get 50 pounds, but then the advert shows images of iPhones, Blackberries and other hi-tech products. My low-tech phone that I bought for a fiver (5 pounds) is a complete and utter waste once I’m done using it. And bey enabling me to use it without specific usage requirements, I can stop at any time. Therefore, it promotes the idea that I can just get rid of it whenever.
Don’t get me wrong, topping up is a clever idea, especially because you can top-up in practically every store in the UK. But we must be careful not to allow the craze to spread. What happens when you can top-up your spouse? “We’ve been married for three years, John, but I’ve decided not to renew our marriage once this current lot is all used up.”
Crazy, I know, but is it the wave of the future?
(Probably not.)
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November 3, 2009 6:15 am by engelsman
In the interest of disclosure, I tweet. A lot. Go ahead, click HERE and check me on it.
Believe it or not, I’ve actual been using twitter a lot less here than I normally do in the States because I don’t have the ability to sent tweets from my really cheap cell phone.
The attitude towards twitter in the UK is very similar to the US. There are people who get it, people who don’t get it and don’t want to get it, and then the people who don’t get it but if shown the ropes could potentially get it. I’ve found that most people are in the latter two.
The UK does have some famous folks online: Stephen Fry, 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister’s office) had one before the White House did, and some other performers and such. But it seems like their tweets are much more in the public eye than an Ashton Kutcher tweet might be in the States. I can’t quite figure out why.
Over the weekend, Stephen Fry’s twitter feed made it into a New York Times article (and subsequent tweet) because one person had called him boring and he threw what amounts to a minor hissyfit. In his defense, Fry has a history of being depressed and possibly bipolar. He basically said he, the most followed British man on twitter basically, was going to quit the tweeting game altogether.
There was an uproar, with people hurling insults at the poor guy who mentioned Fry’s sometimes boringness. Eventually Fry and the guy made up and everything went back to normal, but this is a story that made it into the New York Times. What does that say about our internet culture?
Twitter does have real world news applications, but I’m concerned that gossip hounds at news outlets are muddying the waters between what matters and what plain doesn’t. And because of this, I can see why some people would never want anything to do with such a media platform.
In the end, I don’t think twitter is going anywhere, which means the media needs to adjust to that and come up with better standards for what constitutes a story in the digital age.
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Halloween
November 1, 2009 9:53 am by engelsman
Halloween in the UK is not quite the same as it is in the States. Lots less trick or treating, lots less costuming, but still generally the same amount of intoxicated people.
As a tribute to our homeland, a bunch of us did dress up last night when we hit the town for Saturday night. I, for one, shaved down to mutton chops to help achieve my Sherlock Holmes look for the evening. Others had their own creative take on how to dress up without a) having the full use of a wardrobe; b) having much money to spend on a costume; and c) having to consider riding trains and buses in the eventual costume. I’d certainly give an A+ to everyone for their efforts last night.
The debate about Halloween even took a spot in a popular soap this week, Coronation Street. A father, convinced Halloween is more gimmicky than a TV show on Bravo, decides his son isn’t getting the chance to trick or treat because “someone always gets hurt on Halloween”. To spite him, his girlfriend/wife (I haven’t watched the show enough to know) dresses herself and his son in sheets and hides in the house to scare him. Dad comes home, swings open the door, and smacks his son in the face. Son bleeds, needs stitches, and pops feels triumphant that his prediction about the night has come true.
So what is it about Halloween that British aren’t as fond of? Is it the fact that it’s American? Is it just that it’s never really caught on? Or is it, in the end, that British people are just far too easily spooked for some fun costumes one night a year?
I’m not sure, but judging by the looks I got with my mutton chops last night, I’d say it’s probably the last one.
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India
October 29, 2009 6:33 am by engelsman
I’ve mentioned before how many celebrities there are in London compared to Ithaca. But did I also mention how many more heads of state there are in London compared to Ithaca?
Sure, Matt Damon shooting a new Clint Eastwood flick across town is pretty cool, but having the President of India stay in the hotel next to the Ithaca College London Center is even cooler.
Technically, the police have never confirmed nor denied that the figure they’ve protected all week is really her. We know, though, thanks to smart deduction work and general stalking of the hubbub outside our front door.
On our return from break, there seemed to be a lot more of a police presence around the London Center. And by lots more I mean we went from no cops around to an amount in the teens. Suffice it to say, we knew something was up.
An Indian flag was hung above the hotel next to its logo. That was clue #2. which sent off Google searches far and wide to find out what famous Indian was visiting London this week.
The clincher came quickly, when the motorcade arrived. About 15 police on motorbikes, followed by a really nice Bentley with an Indian flag on top, followed by four or five silver tinted window vans, followed by another police car.
Oh yea, and a helicopter.
Stepping out of the car was a woman in traditional Indian dress. Game over. It was the president of India.
To make things even cooler, Prince Charles and Camilla stopped by for a quick hello on Tuesday. So that’s three more famous people than we would have seen in Ithaca.
Now if that damn helicopter would stop making so much noise during class, that’d be great.
Next week on Celebrity Watch: Jim Carrey lights the Christmas lights on the main shopping street of London, which also happens to be a block from my flat. I wonder how much of a police escort he’s going to get.
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The Dark Ages
October 26, 2009 5:44 am by engelsman
My laptop died.
Not like, battery ran out and I don’t have a charger died. No, it’s more like you press the power button and it doesn’t turn on died. Not that it’s a big deal or anything. Not that I desperately need it to accomplish things like this blog. Nope, it’s just dead.
When telling my boss from my internship she said “Welcome to the Dark Ages”. She laughed. I didn’t think it was funny.
I’ve been in the dark before, you see. Last year, my cell phone broke (I may have put it through the wash… and dryer). I was phone less for a week. Awful, awful days.
Then, the week before I left for London, my phone started dying again (This time not my fault). So in the final days of preparation for a major embarking, I couldn’t say goodbye to anyone.
Suffice it to say, I’m all too used to this Dark Ages thing. I generally end up sleeping more, eating more and watching more TV. Being on a budget makes me think I’ll watch the eating, and only having five channels limits the watching of TV. So I intend to sleep much more. Maybe even read assignments for school or prepare for class.
Wait… the reading I have for class is online? Only can be found on blackboard? Crap.
Welcome to the Dark Ages.
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Success
October 22, 2009 7:11 am by engelsman
I did it.
No, not get kicked out of England. And no, mom, I didn’t figure out your baking secrets.
I went to every London Underground and DLR station in 3 days. That’s 153 stations. In about 25 hours.
Am I nuts? A little bit. I’m the kind of person who sets a goal for themselves and then tries to obtain that goal, even if I later decide it was a stupid goal. This, fortunately, was not a stupid goal. I had an amazing time the last few days jumping from station to station, meeting new people, helping carry suitcases and strollers up stairs and down stairs. It was all a blast.
The first day, Sunday, I hit 45 stations. I was completely unsure of how to go about the process and the day slowly developed as I learned more about the system and figured out simpler ways to achieve what I was going for.
The second day, Tuesday, I hit 73 stations. The Docklands Light Rail (an overground system in the East End of London) run much more frequently than most, and I was able at times to get to 2 or 3 stations in 8 minutes because the stations were so close together. I also made probably the smartest move of the whole expedition when I worked my way back in towards the city during rush hour times so that the trains were less full of people heading out. I repeated the same trick yesterday and it once again worked like a charm and kept me on a nice flow.
Yesterday, Wednesday, was my final day. I went to 35 stations and for the first time I had someone accompany me for a few of the stops. It was fun to show off all the tricks I learned, as cheesy as that may sound. It was also nice to have some company when waiting for trains on the Hammersmith & City Line, which was by far the slowest in frequency, with a train about once every 10 minutes. Alone it would have been brutal.
Some other station notes:
My favorite in terms of design is Baker Street Station. Given a Sherlock Holmes theme since the fictional character lived down the block, the station has silouettes of Holmes on many of its tiles and also has illustrations depicting key scenes from the novels all around the station.
The hardest station to get to was Kensington (Olympia). Only one train runs to it and it is at the end of the line, which means a train runs to it once every 20 minutes or so.
Big ups to the London Overground, which was not part of this exercise in travel but did help me get from Southwest London to Northwest London with relative haste. I did not end up including the Overground in my conquest because its trains run about once every 20-25 minutes. Getting off at each stop, taking a photo, and then waiting for the next train would have been painfully slow. And since I made the rules of my trek and set the goal, the Overground was quickly edited out of it.
I’m putting together a video slide show of all the stops so once that is together I’ll be sure to post it here.
The moral? Set goals for yourself and achieve them… even if you modify the goals just a little.