Look 'em straight in the eye and say...

Yesterday was a good day. I went into London early to look around before the Pogues concert at 7. (I bought my ticket the day after they went on sale.) The plan was to ride in early, visit the Science Museum, and play some Magic before catching the tube to Brixton for the show.

That's pretty much what happened. I was excited to see the Difference Engine that the museum built for Babbage's 200th birthday. Since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to stop at the Albert & Victoria Museum on the way to the tournament venue. They have a really cool Donatello sculpture of Judith killing Holofernes; I have now seen at least one piece of artwork by everyone with a ninja turtle named after them.

I got to the County Hotel just fine, and signed up for a side draft which never happened. It was fun just hanging out with Liz and Simon, though. I wish I had known that the Legacy Grand Prix Trial was only going to draw 30 people, and most of them would play bad decks. I would definitely have tried my hand. When it became obvious that I would not have time to draft and still make the concert, I decided to walk down the block to the British Museum, which was awesome.
From there I caught the tube to the O2 Academy in Brixton. The concert was phenomenal. The Marseilles Figs were good. The King Blues (who I had never heard of and did not realize were playing) were outstanding. The Pogues blew my mind. It was like the whole crowd was starving for Shane MacGowan. I stood right in front of the stage, and when they played Body of an American, I thought I was going to get crushed by the sheer weight of thousands of people pressing forward. It was phenomenal. They pretty much followed the set list I found the other day, with the last six songs forming the two encores. It was an incredible show, and I have never seen or heard anything like it before.

Pogue Mahone.

Unofficial Pogues Set List for Brixton:

Streams of Whiskey
If I Should Fall From Grace with God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Boys from the County Hell
Pair of Brown Eyes
Tuesday Morning
Kitty
Sunnyside of the Street
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
Old Main Drag
Greenland Whale Fisheries
Metropolis
Lullaby of London
Body of an American
Thousands Are Sailing
Bottle of Smoke
Dirty Old Town
Sickbed of Cuchulainn
Sally MacLennane
Rainy Night in Soho
The Irish Rover
Fairytale of New York
Fiesta

Six days and counting...

Some advice for students going abroad, or considering it.

1. Learn to backpack. It is super-cheap to hop on a RyanAir flight to almost anywhere in Europe, but only if your luggage consists of one carry-on bag. Learn what you need to bring for a weekend trip, and what you can leave behind. (Hint: you will want a water bottle and a rain poncho much more than your laptop.)

2. Learn about football. Not American football, but that sport that we call soccer, and everyone else calls football. The one where players actually use their feet. If you are sporty, learn to play a little. If not, at least learn a bit about some of the teams and players in the English Premier League. You will have a much easier time making friends.

3. Get in shape for hiking. You should put a lot of miles on your sneakers exploring foreign cities. Might as well start practicing now.

4. Do your homework. Don't end up at a bad school, or one where you can't take classes that transfer back to your home institution.

5. Do your homework. It's fun being someplace where you can drink at 18, but don't forget why you came here. It is important to strike a balance between having fun and getting stuff done.

6. Never use your credit card to pay for a phone call, even if you have to spend the night in a bus stop in Madrid. Carry a phone card so it isn't an issue.

7. If you go in the fall, you can watch OU football on P2P4U.

8. Get skype. International phone calls are expensive, but skype is a free program that lets you talk to people all over the world for free. It even has video chat, if the internet in your dorm is reasonably fast. You still need to figure out the time difference, though.

"Excuse me, sir. We don't allow people to take pictures."

:(

Loondon, day two

We headed to St. Paul's Cathedral first thing after checking out of the hostel. One more insider tip: if you ever find yourself in London, a day travelcard for the tubes is well worth the money, especially if you buy it after the peak hours end. After St. Paul's, we wanted to take a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater*, but it wasn't open when we got there. To kill some time, we walked to the Tower of London via Southwark Cathedral.
The Globe tour was really interesting, although I suspect that our guide had a few of her facts mixed up. After that, we took the tube to Baker Street, just next to where Katie's airport shuttle picked her up. We saw the Sherlock Holmes Museum, but we didn't really have time to look around.Katie got on her bus, and I went to the museums of Natural History and Science. They were both incredible. The Natural History Museum reminded me of the Field Museum in Chicago, except in a castle. The Science museum had a big exhibit about outer space, and another one about the development of technology over the last century.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I will miss Katie, but only until I get back to Norman in January.


*Technically, it is a really good replica located about 100 yards from the site of the original, which burned down after a special-effects mishap.

London, day one

Saturday was another early morning: Katie and I caught an early train w/ Emilio and Hannah. Four-person discount for the win! For 6.25£ apiece, we got a train ticket into the city, and unlimited use of the tubes all day long.

We stayed in King's Cross just long enough to find platform 9 3/4 before catching the tube to Green Park. From there we went to: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Palace, and the London Eye. After dropping our things off at the hostel, we went up to check out Hyde Park and Covent Gardens, which were both nice. Then we went to an evensong service at Westminster Abbey, where a woman politely told me that I was not allowed to take a picture of Sir Isaac Newton's tomb. We walked up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, which had (among many, many other things) Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne. We saw the other two paintings in that cycle (the Andrians and the Worship of Venus) in el Prado. We ate dinner at Waxy O'Conner's, still the most Irish pub I have ever seen. Insider tip: the hamburgers are a much better deal than the sausage and mash. After looking at some Christmas lights and a pack of about a hundred more or less drunken Santas, we decided to call it a day. On the way back to the hostel, we decided to stop and look at the Fire Monument, and snap a quick photo of Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast from the middle of London Bridge.

Katie's Visit: St. Albans, Hatfield, and Oxford

Katie flew in on Wednesday night, arriving in Hatfield at about 1am thanks to weather delays at Barajas. We went to St. Albans on Thursday, to look at the Cathedral and the Roman wall in Verulamium Park. It started to rain, so we passed some time in Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which claims to be the oldest pub in England.

The next day we got up early to catch a train to Oxford, only to realize that we could save 20£ apiece by waiting until 9:30. We killed an hour and a half walking around old Hatfield, which was kind of cool. There isn't nearly as much to do as Oxford, though. We saw the magnificent Christ Church Cathedral and the surrounding park. We visited Blackwell's, which is far and away the largest book store I have ever seen. Apparently the basement alone has about 3mi. worth of shelves. We saw some cool old Egyptian and Chinese artifacts in the Ashmolean Museum, and a pub called the Eagle and Child, where Tolkien used to hang out. But the highlight of the day was definitely the Steampunk exhibit at the History of Science Museum.