My New Haircut, The Red Army, & Livin' Large

Wow! It’s been exactly two weeks since I’ve updated my blog for you all, so I apologize for the delay, but I’ve been absolutely jam-packed with events, schoolwork, interning, travelling, and experiencing Europe to the fullest, so here’s going to be another long and drawn-out play-by-play of my adventures from my side of the pond.

Let’s pick up where we left off last. On Thursday, Nov. 6th, I was back in my culture class to cover the election and catch up on the time that we had off from break and such. It was a beautiful day in London, so we got to spend a little time outside instead of being cooped up all day. That was nice. After grabbing a quick lunch, I went down to Soho to get a haircut. I found this small little barber shop that was recommended to me by a friend that has £5 haircuts. A little Greek man runs the shop, there are two chairs, and he and his partner in crime just shove customers in and out in rapid succession to get the job done, snip snip. Regardless, I’ll take a 6 pound haircut any day.

That evening, one of my flatmates, James, was having his brother come into town for a number of days, so when he got into town we made dinner and decided to have people over to our flat to hang out for the evening. On Friday morning, we got up early and took the tube to the outskirts of London where we went to the Fullers Beer Factory for a factory tour. It was only 8 of the guys from our trip (including James’ brother John) to show up at the factory at 11am for our tour. Our tour guide, Tim, a British War Vet, was the long time building manager of the Fullers Factory and now that he has retired, he is a full-time tour guide for the factory. He was great. I’d never actually seen anything like this factory before, much less actually knew the entire process of making beer, so it was actually quite an educational experience, because many of the old machinery is still there, just placed beside all of the hi-tech stuff, so it was cool to see both the old and the new and how it all came together. It’s interesting too, because there is only one Fullers Beer factory in the entire world, and everything made by Fullers, must come through their London location. They make something outrageous like a few million pints of beer per day, and all of it is essentially made, for a month from now, because of the fermentation process. That’s just unreal. Anyhow, after the tour, we hung out with Tim a bit, asked more questions, tried the different types of Fullers products, and then started our trek back home after visiting the gift shop. We picked up a quick stop at a Chinese restaurant for lunch and headed back home to the flats. In the evening, we decided to take John out in London to see the nightlife, so we went to a club for a little while and then called it an early night. I’m not much of a great London clubber, but at least he got to see what it was all about.

Saturday, we went down to the local pub around lunch time to watch the Manchester United versus Arsenal football match. It was a great game, and in our small little pub, it was standing room only because of all the locals. We only get 4 and a half channels in the penthouse, so we obviously have to go elsewhere to catch any good matches, but it’s a very cool experience to be in a room full of working class Brits that are all yelling and screaming at the tele over something like a throw-in. Classic. After the game, John, James, Mike and I all grabbed McDonalds for lunch, and went grocery shopping for the upcoming week. After that I headed down to the South Bank of the Thames to see the tail end of the Lord Mayor’s festival, which is essentially a large firework show, and a parade because it’s already time for the celebration of Christmas in London, so the lights come on pretty early. I missed the actual fireworks, but went with a few of the girls from my program to dinner and caught up for a few before heading back to the Penthouse to meet up with the guys. Later that evening, we hosted people over to the Penthouse from the building to hang out for the night. Some of the other students that aren’t from our Elon program also share our living facilities with us. They are from Balls State University in Indiana, and we haven’t had many opportunities to hang out with them, so it was nice to see some newer faces and get to know new people. That was essentially the end to our Saturday though, since we decided it was too pricey to actually go out on the town for the night.

Sunday morning was a day I used to get back into the swing of preparing for the upcoming week. In addition to the typical laundry and cleaning chores, I got a bit of work done and had a relaxing low key day. Not too much excitement, but that all came on Monday.

Monday morning (this was Nov. 10th); I went to work early and worked with both the AMMO team and The Reel team at Xtreme. I’ve done a lot of different tasks over the course of my semester, for instance, I updated a database for the AMMO people, by calling over 200 some companies, and confirming or changing their contact details just so that we’d have verbal confirmation that our information was correct in our system. Additionally, when I worked at The Reel, I’d do my typical crediting of ads in our program, but I’d also do some things such as work in Adobe InDesign, to help format our newest brochure/DVD product in it’s latest stages, do write-ups for currently featured ads that would be posted on our website, all while hanging out with my awesome co-workers. It’s nice to be in a low-key, very productive, but friendly and exciting work-atmosphere. If anything, it’s the most encouraging and best atmosphere I enjoy working in too.

However, the fun didn’t just stop at work on Monday, because Monday night, I was invited by the Reel guys to go to the London International Festival Awards in the heart of London. So, I suited up, took the tube and met the guys (Jamie, Chris, and Nick) at Leicester Square near the West End of London, where we all went to the Hippodrome which is where the event was held. We walked up to the entrance, talked to the bouncers and were smoothly through the door as Press participants. Immediately after checking in our coats in the cloak room, we were met by ushers all serving complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Everything from jumbo shrimp, fish and chips, a delicacy that we titled “jenga chips” (because they were stacked atop each other), and squid were all just bites to eat along the way. Of course, Chris and I were the champions of eating…a lot. So we stuffed our faces on snacks and drinks before the show even started.

After that, we found our way to our table, which was in the balcony, in our own little section that overlooked the entire stage and ceremony. We were frequently visited by more servers, carrying rice, bite-sized chicken/beef burgers, and bringing us bottles of wine. The four of us dined like kings while we watched the best in advertisements, photography, and shorts receive awards throughout the evening. Now there’s something I must say about the London International Awards ceremony, because according to my co-workers, this entire event, really doesn’t mean a lot to individuals working in the media business much in the UK, but internationally, this thing is supposed to be like a huge deal. Therefore, lots of individuals from around the globe were there and very excited to be there, so it was at least good for the atmosphere for sure. Now the awards primarily focused on Media Agencies, and production companies, not so much like directors or famous people, so contrary to popular belief, I didn’t see any like “huge stars” or anything throughout the event, just got a lot of free food, and felt really important. Haha. Anyways, after the actual awards ceremony stopped, the Hippodrome staff cleared out the entire bottom floor of tables, people and chairs, and opened up a dance floor. The songs ranged from oldies and rock n’ roll (mainly ABBA and Thriller) to a few contemporary hits too. Regardless, the dance floor filled up with all the guests who decided to dance the night away.

I hung with my co-workers a bit longer before most of them needed to leave. Everyone in the place was at least two times my age, so I did feel quite young to be at such an event, but even so I got a few pictures of myself on the Awards stage, and even snagged a picture with one of the awards themselves, which was pretty cool. I had a seat at the bar to talk with a few Media Agency people about their jobs, and what exactly they were involved with in the corporate world, and a woman sat down beside me and we struck up a conversation. I asked her what agency she was with, but it turns out she was the actual owner of the Hippodrome. Crazy huh? So I talked with her about how her club/venue works for a few, and then met her husband, Peter, the other owner of the place. I think I made a pretty good impression, and it makes for a good story either way. Nevertheless, it was just another outrageous Monday night in London.

Tuesday the 11th was another day of classes and catching up. In the afternoon, I stayed at school to use the free internet access to book my newest flights back to the states. Our semester is supposed to end around December 2nd or 4th, and students are supposed to fly home the 8th, however, I decided to extend my stay in Europe to do a bit more travelling and adventuring, so my official date back to hit US soil is now set for December 18th. I will be flying out of Dublin and getting home in the afternoon, just in time for the holidays.

In the evening of the 11th though was where I got my first big shot at seeing something else monumental, a real live action football match. Our flat and a number of our friends from school here got tickets to the Arsenal versus Wigan match at Emirates Stadium in East London and we all went to the game to watch the thrilling 3-0 shutout that Arsenal played. It was epic. The crowd was crazy and intense, filled with chants, shouting, and cheers, and even when the game ended and thousands of people flooded the streets of suburban London everyone was still making noise. We had to catch a tube down to central London, and we went into a McDonalds for a late night snack, and even in our suits and Arsenal colors, we still encountered fans chanting “Red Army” (Arsenal’s team name) and asking about the final result. It was definitely an experience I’m glad I got to have.

Wednesday of course was another day back in the office. I was working with the Reel again and did a little bit of different work because I was assigned to find new adverts, shorts, and virals for The Reel product. So I skimmed and viewed some 30-50 ads and picked out what I thought to be the most innovative ones and found the credits for them, so that we could further investigate them later. This was awesome because I’ve now worked on more or less the entire assembly-line process of making “The Reel” product, from start to finish, which is incredible as an intern. Following work, Wednesday night was low key for me because John left our flat and I had to get ready for my trip to Athens that I was going to be taking the next day. I hung out with a few of the flat mates and other guys from the building and called it a night so that I was rested up for my excursion. Thursday morning I spent packing and getting ready for the airport before my flight to Athens, Greece where I planned to spend the weekend at with my friend Kat.

I’m going to stop my blog real quick at this point in time at this rather cliff-hanger moment, only because I’m going to do a full blog entry all about Greece, and my amazing experience there. That should be up soon and ready for reading, hopefully by the time you can digest this. Sorry for the delay once again in my blogging, but as my semester is slowly winding down, I’ve been jam-packing my time with adventuring, and I wouldn’t imagine it any other way. Keep in touch, stay classy, and keep the updates coming. Cheers!

Old Friends, My Museum, and More Stars!

Greetings again from across the pond! I hope everyone voted, is in good health, and good spirits as well, because it’s a pretty grey day in London, but it’s still an awesome place to be!

Here’s the quick update on the most recent events of my life over the past few days, just to keep everyone on their toes. On Thursday, Oct. 30th, our flat hosted one of my great friends from back in middle school, Jason Lericos. He’s currently studying in Sussex which is about 45 minutes south of London by train, and he was coming up for the weekend to visit with his program, and decided to pop in a night early for another chance to catch up and hang out. It was great seeing an old friend again, and sharing some more funny stories, having him meet my flat mates, and showing him around London a bit more.

Friday was of course Halloween, which isn’t hugely celebrated in the UK, but there are always people interested in dressing up though, so during the day I caught up on my normal everyday things like laundry and such, but I also took Jason to Westminster Abbey (we went inside, which is really gorgeous, and has a lot of famous people buried there – Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell…etc) but we also had some time to walk along the Thames and we saw tons of living statues and street performers that were all dancing around, acting about, juggling things, all for the little kids that happened to be dressed up for Halloween, so that was fun as well.

Friday night I called it early actually, because I was originally supposed to go to with one of my co-workers to a huge Halloween bash that had live bands playing, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’ve also never been a hardcore Halloween celebrator, so I didn’t feel like I missed out on a ton or anything though, besides, I needed sleep.

Saturday morning brought on the first of November, and it was chilly here for sure. By the way, I must thank my grandmother for the wonderful scarf that she gave me before I came over here, because, although I’m not normally a typical scarf kinda guy, I’ve sure adopted the metropolitan look recently and man is it warm! I frequently get lots of compliments on its quality and attractive nature, so that’s always a plus, so once again, Gram Star…thanks a lot! Needless to say, Saturday had pretty dull weather, it rained most of the day and was rather gross, so I didn’t get really any cultural excursions in or anything, but I did go get a pair of jeans, since I ripped a hole in my other ones that I wore almost daily, so I guess that was rather exciting.

Sunday brought better weather, we hung out for part of the morning with some Elon friends who came from Paris to visit us for the weekend, and then I decided that in addition to errands, I’d get some culture out of my Sunday afternoon, so I went to the Tate Modern (naturally, because it’s my name), which is the Modern Art Gallery in London, and spent some time on my own checking out the newest contemporary art. I must say, I don’t really get any of it, and frankly, some of it confuses me, but I’m sure it all took a great deal of time to do, so I guess I can respect that for sure…needless to say, I feel as though I may be able to be a contemporary artist if all of my other career endeavours fall through and I buy some finger paint.

Anyhow, now is the boring part of my blog because on Monday morning I woke up sick. I didn’t end up going to work for the first time this semester, and I slept quite a lot, ate soup, and took lots of meds for my cold that I got. I’m lucky to have survived this long though to be honest, because most of the people in the office I work in, have been sick sometime over the last month, so I guess I caught the tail end of that. Oh well.

Needless to say, Monday night I went out with the Theater class to a production of WarHorse, which was originally a children’s novel (a rather dark one at that though) that was turned into a stage production. It’s a story about a horse (obviously) and the book is told through the perspective of this horse, named Joey, who eventually is sold to the War (WWI) and traded many times between the British, then captured by the Germans, then eventually finds the British again, and in the end, is reunited with his original owner, a young boy named Albert. It’s cute, not gonna lie. However, the play itself…took forever. It was something like 3ish hours long, and also had an almost like 30 minute interval, plus, they had technical difficulties as well in the middle of a scene, which was unfortunate and that set the play back a while too. It was very cool how they portrayed the story though, because they used giant, puppet horses, manned by 3 men each, of which two puppeteers were actually inside the horse…hard to actually picture, I know, but it was a unique way of portraying horse-like movements and such, so that was something I was impressed with.

Tuesday of course brought on class, and that wasn’t too shabby, and I also met a few of my flatmates at the local pub near school, to talk history with their history professor. That was very awesome, because I’m not taking a history course while I’m over here, so any opportunity to talk history is always something I look forward to. After that, I headed home to cook a quick pasta dinner and got ready again, because we had a second play to see this week last night in the West End.

Last night’s show was an adaptation of Chekov’s Ivanov which is the story about a depressed man named Ivanov (played by Kenneth Branagh – he’s the guy that played Lockhart in Harry Potter) who deals with a lot of gossiping neighbours, bad funds, and a dying wife, and is just kinda stuck in a giant conundrum. It’s actually a really really compelling show, I enjoyed it a lot, and it had a stellar cast too! It also featured Kevin McNally, who played Mr. Gibbs in Pirates of the Carribean (my friends got a picture with him, which is kinda cool too), and I really enjoyed the show all around. So it was an enjoyable evening.

Additionally, it was of course, election night, so most of my flatmates and other peers stayed up to the wee hours of the morning to watch all of the BBC’s election coverage of the Presidential Race. So despite the fact that the US election went until about 5AM in the morning UK-Time, most all of my friends survived the entire thing, just to see the final results. I must say, that I went to bed around 2:30 London Time, as I assumed (because all of my friends here are like political analysts) that Virginia would go Democrat for the first time in forever, and I was awake for Obama to win Ohio, which was also pretty monumental, so I went to bed after that.

Nevertheless, it’s a grey Wednesday in London town and I’m back at work at Xtreme Info. Feeling alright and still on the road to speedy recovery and looking forward to the weekend. I’m finishing up school work, still trying to do cultural things around London and the greater area, since I still need to complete those sort of things before the end of my adventures here, and I’m looking forward to my few trips that I have planned already for the month of November. Here’s the rundown of expeditions that will take me across the continent.

From Nov 14-16: I’ll be meeting my friend from Elon (Kat) in Athens, Greece
From Nov 28-30: I’ll be in Amsterdam, Netherlands for the weekend, reuniting with friends from Barcelona, and meeting new ones too I hope

I am also looking to plan a trip to Switzerland before I head back across the pond, and also extend my visit in Europe beyond the semester’s end as well.

I hope that you’ll email me updates and let me know what’s new in the US, aside from the presidency, because I’m kinda burnt out on all of that, but either way, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you soon enough…of course, after I tour more of the world  Cheers!! Bye!