45% Fusion: Wastedhouse Here We Come

This past week and a half has been one of the absolute busiest I've experienced since in London by far. The largest reasoning behind this BS excuse why I haven't blogged lately is because two of the courses I am taking have decided to END. If any of you recall this craziness of a semester and its academic setup, you will recall that I am taking three academic classes, two of which last a whopping 7 weeks. That means a semester's worth of material, six hours of class per week, and whatever the professor decides I need to read/write/watch/talk about.

My Media in Britain class has been probably the biggest joke. For some reason I know more about the themes, class struggles, and characters in TV shows and movies than anyone in the class. Although this is a Comm class in the end, I am deeply disturbed by the inability of Comm majors to actually answer questions the professor asks pertaining to these topics. They even have trouble with the news questions! I mean I know that a Comm major is generally not seen as requiring the same analytical skills as others, but I became increasingly disappointed with how true that stereotype became. I mean, no offense to AU Comm majors fa sho, since I was the only AU person in my class. I just finished a final paper on the characters in The Office UK and The Inbetweeners, which to my knowledge did not increase my own knowledge at all. Other than that I loved the class! A career in analyzing movies and/or TV shows would be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

My British Politics class has been not only a nightmare of sarcasm and cynicism from my elitist British professor, but he also decided to have the last week of class combine a 15 minute presentation and a final. This dude, for a job, sits and reads government documents. If anyone will hate the way I generalize and tend to avoid specifics in papers and presentations, it'll most definitely be him. He also seems to have a style all his own everyday. One thing he loves to do is NOT match all of his clothing. His socks are always especially flashy and out of this world. We're talking Alice and Wonderland crazy colored stuff right here people. Or maybe crazy Wicked Witch of the East socks? I really just cannot decide. Maybe if I thought everything was corrupt except the BBC I would do that as well.

Just finished studying for all that nonsense, which I can only hope will lead to good grades and prosperity. The other activities I have recently participated in over the last week or so included a specific highlight of seeing the Social Network. Overall a wonderful movie that makes it seem like if you make enough money you can do whatever you want and ostracize those closest to you so you can make more money. Yeah...I guess that actually does make sense.

I also got to play in a beginners tournament with the Imperial College Ultimate Team. I showed up bright and early on a Sunday morning, 9 am to be exact, after being a real champ the night before. No I don't have pictures, but yes my eyes were completely bloodshot. The rules were as follows:
1) If you were an experienced player you had to wear a hat on the field
2) There could only be two experienced players on the field at a time
3) Beat really obnoxious British kids who think they're the shit at ultimate

Imperial had two teams at the tournament in order to get everyone the most playing time, and my team was the BOMB. I kind of came late so I was quickly picked up by this cool dude Ming who was basically the first person I met associated with the team. And yes, he's like every other asian handler. Really really good. If anyone would like to know what I looked like in a hat(since I am not a regular hat wearer by far) here it is.

Yep ladies and gents. That is the unforgettable Shay Longtain. I wore my flatmate's AU hat backwards just like that azzhole would have done.

So my team, as I said before, was quite good. Had a couple tall kids who could run and could NOT huck to because that would be silly. We beat Kings College, some college that wore blue, LSE, and some group of kids and really experienced handlers who ran me to shit. It was really fun playing LSE because there was a certain asian handler who thought he was awesome but could have used some serious work. After watching him throw the dumbest fakes I have ever seen, I decided to match up on him and shut his British butt down. It was actually a lot of fun to have some sort of challenge to match up against, but I think I might have overestimated the challenge. It was fun to beat him up line by 10 yards though!

The next most awesome game came from playing in the finals of the tournament. We were playing a UCL team, which meant I really really needed to win. Michelle is going to UCL so it would be extremely embarrassing to lose to them at all. Long story shorter, it was a game of comebacks. We go up 4-0 right off the bat with some nice quick scores. They then proceed to go up 7-4. Omg I was so mad. One point I was guarding this kid, their main handler, and I called a pick. The play continued since no one else knew what to do, and one throw later my guy dropped the disc. He proceeded to argue that it was not a turn because I called the pick, which then distracted him from catching the disc. He was wrong and I proceeded to teach him a lesson in the rule book(it felt so awesome to tell a Brit he was wrong!). So we brought it back to 7-7. That meant universe point. There were like 4 turns per team in the point, and in the end we lost. AAAaaaaaargh!!!!! Luckily Michelle is nice so she didn't rub it in TOO much.

The real exciting stuff I am doing is traveling! This week coming up is my fall break! That means I'm going to Edinburgh to visit Waterhouse after class tomorrow, and then I am going to visit my family in Frankfurt on Monday night for the rest of the break. I am super super psyched for both of these activities and cannot wait to get everything underway after my final tomorrow morning. I'll try to update and let everyone know how plan Wastedhouse is coming on Sunday. I secured an agreement from that dude to do a scotch whisky distillery tour on Saturday, so I am real excited to do something with this dude that involves drinking hard liquors. Needless to say this will be no Tenley experience. On that note, peace out homes. I gotta get some sleep, pack, get on a train, and start edinburgh chillin'.

Oh, and about the 45% fusion figure. I went to The Globe Theatre the other day, and my classes are kind of signaling a halfway point in the program. I also think Iran would be really jealous at my ability to fuse with the culture, so 45% is a perfect number(and yes that means it was arbitrarily and randomly decided upon).

Joe Joe Joe Joe Joe Waterhouse!

Lipman Times

As some people may know, for this summer I blogged for a internet news website called The Lipman Times. It focuses on current issues dealing with the Obama Administration. Unfortunately, as some of you also know, I was the only one actually writing for everyday as well. This proved a challenge in terms of my motivation to blog on my news beats, but I managed to get through the summer. My work even paid off to the point where I got to go to a White House Press Conference.

Yet things have changed. The website now has a multitude of writers covering various topics, making its information worth taking a look at. Now I've started blogging for them again as their UK correspondent. I'll also be covering the US Midterm elections frequently, so you won't have to hear about my political musing on my blog anymore!

Not only will I be blogging for the website, but I'll also be getting a press pass! That means I'll be able to go to a variety of political events such as speeches outside of 10 Downing Street and other interesting things as well.

Here are links to my first couple posts.

Murdoch Takeover Of British Media Mirrors US Problem

Democrats Banking On O’Donnell Ruining Her Chances

Enjoy!

Prior Planning + Preparation Prevent Piss Poor Performance

Yet again a simply wonderful week and weekend in loverly London. The rain got to us for the first part of the week, but other than that it was a beautiful weekend with some guests some people may know??? So the week started off as usual. No class Monday, 9 am Tuesday, and Sports Cafe Tuesday night. I'm not sure if I posted about Sports Cafe before, but it is quite the good time for us Americans. Thats because they have beer pong and cheap drinks. We're talking 6 quid for a pitcher of beer. Wooooo! Thats what I like to drink!

To explain, the quote from my title I got from my British Politics professor. I thought it was funny and very British elite of him.

Wednesday was another full day of classes, where I decided that the lack of having my internship yet warranted writing a bitchy e-mail to the internship office. The response was in essence, AWESOME! They said, well we have to do this for everyone, so don't be so pushy about yours. But then they said, you are working with the Labour Party, which is what I wanted in the first place. So good, but uncertainty was still a big deal because I really didn't know what office/person I'd be working for in November/December.

Then lovely lovely Thursday arrived. I had class earlier in the day, but then Kyle Contrata arrived!!!!!! Went to pick him and his Belgium bros up from the station. He really was only with one bro, but whatever everyone still came from Brussels. We proceeded to drink a lot of alcohol.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever done that before, but it just happened to be one of the those good/bad decisions. Anyway, we went out to a club where we proceeded to meet random dudes, pay too much for drinks, and introduce the visitors to our house to London. Cheryl also came by with Roos, but decided not to come out with us. Why you ask? Ask Cheryl.

Friday morning class was basically awful. Also there was a serious situation I had to deal with Friday afternoon. The night before, Jess Rin had come in to London extremely late after her flight from Madrid. She called me to find out where I lived, and APPARENTLY I said 13 Manson Place. I actually live at 15 Manson Place, so problems ensued. Jess knocked on 13, and was standing outside 15 after she figured out where I actually lived. The bad part about this is that my RA(who lives somewhere else) discovered Jess just standing outside in a backpack. She asked Jess who she was visiting, and then I was screwed. We are not allowed to have overnight guests period!! Ahh! Long story short, I got a warning and if it happens again I will be kicked out of housing.

After figuring all this out, I got some ggggggreat news! I got my internship! I'll be working in the constituent office of a Member of Parliament. Her name is Emily Thornberry and her constituency is a part of Greater London, but I'm pretty psyched about it at this point. The commute will be about an hour, but that is to be expected from public transportation no matter where you're from. What's funny is it seems they combined my two prior experiences in the spring. That's right. Earth Day and Eric Massa minus the tickling. MP Thornberry is extremely involved in green issues in Britain, so hells ya internship team.

Friday night we, meaning Michelle, Jess, and Kyle, went to see Avenue Q because it was playing in London straight outa Broadway. Literally like the funniest thing I've ever seen. There were wonderful musical songs such as "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet Is For Porn" to enjoy. It wasn't just a puppet show, it was actually a very crude comedy.

Friday night was the same old thang. Clubbin'! Saturday I got to play frazbee for basically the first time in a month. The Imperial College team had their second practice this term, so Kyle and I decided to go out and play. It was a lot of fun, got to meet most of the guys, and also got to play with the alumni team after the first practice. The Imperial College team is called the Disc Doctors and the alumni team is called Frump. The bad decision was to play for four hours after a month without playing.

On Sunday I said goodbye to Kyle and Jess as they traveled back to their respective country, but still had a feeling of emptiness in my heart.

To conclude the awesome parts of the weekend, there are a couple of random facts I just now remembered. After watching the most recent Jersey Shore, Matt and I have proceeded to say Pauly D's "Oh Yeah" over and over wherever we go. It becomes quite annoying a lot of the time, but that is only for other people!! There was also a brief moment of nostalgia when we got wine for Saturday night. It happened to be from Cape Town South Africa. Yes, the current home of Mr. Andrew Feierman and Ms. Kate Sheeder. LOL funny pictures commenced.

Also, there was a certain X-Factor commercial that really caught my eye. Mainly because it was absolutely hilarious. Check it out peeps!

Catch y'all on the English side!

Are You Two A Couple? Well you should be.

My days in London have gotten seemingly more busy with school work and thus less fun in terms of going out and seeing the sights. But that just means I have more chances to get to blog about my roommates, random encounters with British people, and the now seemingly constant supply of rain.

Though, I would like to comment on the title of this post, since it does relate to something I experienced in my British people encounters I have basically everyday. It was last weekend after going out to a club in Soho with Michelle and her new UCL friends. Slightly a mistake because of our lack of alcohol drinking before the club, but it was still a good time. At the end of the night we walked back and were soooooo hungry. Luckily the subways here stay open til 5 am. Yeah, that's right. They stay open until 5 am and OPEN again at 8 am. So awesome right there. So we got a sandwich and decided to split it, but on the way in, these two British guys, obviously a little drunk, said to us, "You don't want the cookies. They're really awful." Both of the guys proceeded to buy two cookies each, and then we struck up a conversation with them over how they had so easily used the tactic of reverse psychology against us so they could get the last cookies.

One was a graduate student at UCL, while the other basically had the weirdest job I had ever heard of in my entire life. He was a physics major(shout out to Andrew) and became someone who scouted out potential good financial investments??? So not understandable at this point in the morning. But the one dude at UCL was actually really funny, a big dude, and in the fencing club. How does that work? Don't ask because he basically was just able to do it so easy. He also happened to be from Philadelphia, so he obviously had a British accent(what!). His friend with the weird job had a daughter, and while Michelle and I were talking with him commented on our couplyness. He goes, "So are you two together?" To which Michelle and I say yes. He then goes, "Well OK because I was about to say you should be. I'm Mr. Matchmaker tonight!" We left then because we were hungry for london subway.

The week was genuinely not that awesome because of how much work I had to do for class and planning trips. I'm blaming that for lack of cool blogging things. And you're not here so accept it at face value! I had a project in class on Wednesday, 8 page paper due on Friday. I also went to take care of Michelle because she came down with a cold as the weather has gotten quite dreary. But now for the funny upside parts!

My roommates are an especially interesting group in terms of personalities. I mean, what else makes people interesting? Paul really is just like a little kid. He continues to have a few catchphrases with his Miami accent that everyone jokes about. He keeps saying things like, "I miss Miami," as well as "Honduras," and "Nandos." Just imagine myself and Matt trying to imitate a Miami/Cuban accent by saying those words. Its pretty fun. Matt is my other bro in the house, and that is exactly how you should always describe him. If I ever want to get a pint/5 pints Matt's always down, which is a wonderful dynamic to replace Kyle from this summer. We also have the perfect woman, Monica. She's a great wingman, as Matt has experienced, and many days I come home to find she has cooked me food.

I should summarize everyone else, but really people, there can be only so many shout outs in one blog post. Chill. After I finished and printed my paper on Friday morning, I got probably the worst/most stressful wake up call at 7:30 or so. It was from miss Genna, who had got up early to catch a plane to Munich. She was flustered as all get-out and thought she was in the wrong terminal. She called and wanted Ruth to check for her airline, but Ruth had pulled an all nighter and she wasn't available. Therefore, I had to go on my computer and look up her flight information in order to make sure she actually got to her terminal and stuff on time. Ya know, I did, she got to her flight on time. She owes me something right?

Friday was absolutely tiresome and uneventful up to that point, yet I was very excited to watch my TV shows once michelle got her butt over here. That meant Modern Family, The Office, 30 Rock, then Jersey Shore TV marathon!! Yay for being sick in London!

Saturday was basically the same, except we did go to the Natural History Museum. It was really cool, but we were both tired and all the animals were not real. They were just fossils! We then came home and watched Get Him to the Greek in order to rest up for our trip Sunday!

We left at about 7:45 am for our day trip to Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, and Dover. It was really really really early in the morning so not cool, but definitely fun. We arrived at Leeds Castle and got to tour the grounds as well as the famous castles many rooms. I swear I have never seen grass so pretty than at Leeds Castle. The air was so refreshing and wonderful, I really wished I lived in the English countryside. We then made our way to Canterbury Cathedral, which is the oldest in all of England. This thing was insanely large I couldn't believe it. If you think the National Cathedral in DC is big, just imagine one twice as big and about 1500 years older. We also got to see the former tomb of THE Thomas Becket, who was such a holy dude. His tomb was actually destroyed by Henry VIII because that king just wanted to be more hated. We also saw the tomb of the Black Prince. He won a lot of battles against those bloody French. We then went to the White Cliffs of Dover. It was really pretty and apparently you can see the French coast on a clear day, but unfortunately it was raining and the fog covered most stuff up. We then headed back to London, which is surprisingly only about 1.5 hours away from Dover. The last hurrah in our trip was the passing of the Prime Meridian, which is where all time stops. Nooo thats not true, but it is the center of all time zones! Good 'ole Brits and their maritime traditions.

Now I'd like to rest, relax, and start writing a paper about my encounters with British people. Easy? Oh my gosh so easy. I mean the class is called British Life and Cultures. Come on! It is still a whopping 3 hours. Anyway, next update should be when I find out about my internship and what I'll be doing the last 2 months of this program. Jeez already a month!

Oy Oy!