I only have eight minutes until my internet session is up so here it goes:

At about 10:30 I decided that I had to get out of the flat because it was too depressing. I also decided that my bag was far too heavy so I took a Taxi. Which I figured was a sort of touristy thing to do anyways (killing two birds with one stone!) 

So I got to the hostel and I stored my stuff and then went to Hyde Park for the day. I had been to Hyde Park for speakers corner but I decided to go to the other side, which is quite far away. I had some ice cream and re-read one of the books that I brought with me (and I am half way through with it already. Maybe I should learn to read slower?). 
Aftter that I went to Borough market, which is really close to my hostel. It is full of all kinds of gourmet food stalls and fruit and vegetable sellers and what not. I got an absolutely amazing burger and ate it in the courtyard of Soutwark Cathedral, which is right next to the market.

The rest of the day I didn't do too much, mostly just writting and sleeping. I had dinner with another person who is staying on my floor which I honestly have to say I didn't enjoy all that much. 

Tomorrow is my last Sunday here so I will be spending most of it at Speaker's Corner because I am a geek and have nothing better to do with my life.


Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn

So. Independence Day in the country we won independence from. Naomi and Shona kindly gave me the day off (although it may have been to be to avoid hearing me go 'narny narny nar nar').

So I woke up and one of the first things I did was put my 1776 DVD into my computer (which, incidentally I am rewatching right now). And I got ready for my day while singing along to “Sit Down John”. I managed to put together a red, white, and blue outfit but seeing as they are also the UK’s colors, I’m not sure how truly American it was.

I went down to Grovsner Square, which is where the American Embassy is. There wasn’t really anything going on, especially since the people in the Embassy get 4^th of July off. I didn’t take too many pictures because they are somewhat touchy about that. But I managed to see this:

But the American Embassy wasn’t really what I wanted to see. What I wanted to see was this:

Oh yes. I get my John Adams 4^th of July dose even in England. Plus, it’s an actual real residential house that people, like, live in. So I’ve decided that when I get rich/ promoted to American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, I will live there. 

I also went to Paddington Station, just because it was on one of the tube lines I could catch from where I was. There was a statue there for Paddington Bear there. Observe:

 
Then I came home and took a nice, long nap, which was wonderful. I also went to dinner with the UIUC professor but I had to leave early because I had a headache. After some medicine and water, my roommate Liz and I went down to McDonalds and had hamburgers and fries, the ultimate American dinner.
 

So yeah, that was my day, relatively uneventful. Tomorrow I go to Brighton and then Sunday is speakers corner! We’ll see how that goes.

Happy 4^th of July!

Katie/ Kathryn

             Today, I got to go see pretty much the coolest thing ever in politics—Prime Minister’s Questions. For those of you who are not as hopelessly geeky as me (which is probably all of you) Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) happens from 12:00-12:30 every Wednesday. During that time, the Prime Minister has to ask any and all questions posed to him on whatever subject the questioner feels like. MPs are randomly drawn to ask questions and the Shadow Prime Minster/ Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Liberal Democrats get to ask several questions every session.

 PMQs are like, the event of the week within the House of Commons. The chamber is packed and those who don’t get there early enough have to stand at the back of the chamber or sit on the steps (Interesting side note: there are 659 MPs and only enough seats for 427). The combination of that many people in a room mixed with British frankness and a great heap of tradition leads to PMQs being quite interesting. People will yell at each other, shout “he-ah, he-ah” when something they like happens or groan when something happens that they don’t. The Prime Minister and often people asking questions aim to insult the opposition in amusing and often backhanded ways. It is absolutely fantastic. (To show how much of a geek I am, watching PMQs on the internet is my weekend treat when I’m at school).

A couple of weeks ago Ian, the MP who lives next door (and who I am now forever indebted to) was late to a committee meeting to get me a pass to watch PMQs today. And he got me a ticket to the special gallery, which meant I didn’t have to sit behind the glass like all the other people. It was absolutely amazingly cool to get to watch it live and the pay off of all my geekness. My favorite part was when David Cameron (Leader of the Opposition/ Shadow Prime Minister) asked a long question asking Gordon Brown to confirm something. And Gordon Brown got up said “yes” and sat back down. That got quite a lot of noise from the MPs.

 If you are really bored one day, you too can become a geek and watch PMQs on the internet. Then, explore the depths of geekyness and watch some of Tony Blair’s old PMQs which are much better than Gordon Browns (but Blair had a lot more practice what with being PM for 10 years and what not). Website here:  

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page306.asp

Also, you can see my MP (Shona McIsaac) who asked the question about the NHS today.

So yes, Friday is 4^th of July, which Naomi kindly gave me off so I am probably going down to Grovsner Square and see the house that John Adams stayed at while he was in London. Saturday, I am going to Brighton, and Sunday I am speaking at Speakers Corner (ahhhhhhhh!). Sounds like a fun filled weekend to me.

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn

Ah the weekend. A time when I get to do whatever the heck I want, with the added benefit of being in London. Sadly, doing whatever the heck I want usually means nothing and then feeling guilty that I’m not doing anything because I’m in London and really, I should be doing something. So I tend to compromise and go somewhere that I’ve already been to and sit and write or take pictures or whatever. Which in and of itself is fun. I have decided that I am not going to go to museum or whatever just because it’s something I “should do” in London. If I’m not going to enjoy it, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to me to actually do it. That being said, I actually did do some stuff this weekend, which I shall hitherto inform you of.

            On Saturday, I went to the Science museum. Sadly for me, most of it seemed to be aimed at people younger than me but it was still pretty cool. They had a section of the evolution of the computer with some of the huge machines that took up an entire room that were made to solve second derivatives or integrals, can’t remember which one. They also had tons of slide rules from hundreds of years back including absolutely huge ones (see below)

There was also this thing that was trying to teach the calculator generation how to use a slide rule. I got the multiplication part semi ok but I got really lost when they tried to explain division. They also had an abacus that you could move around and everything but I didn’t quite get how you would do stuff on it. All of that made me love my graphing calculator very much, although I still have flashbacks of 2 AM calculus homework sessions when I think about it. At least I didn’t have to use a slide rule or abacus or log charts to do my homework.

The flight section was ok. The planes weren’t kept up as well as I would have hoped but it was still pretty neat. Sadly though it was mostly models and engines, not too many complete planes.
 

After the Science Museum, I was planning n going to the British Museum but the tube stop I wanted to get off on was closed so when I figured out which other one I could go to, I got out and realized that it was near the theater where Stomp was playing. So I walked over there to see if there were any tickets available for later. It turns out, that there was a show in 15 minutes so I got a heavily discounted ticket or that one. The show was amazing. The choreographer is absolutely brilliant. For those of you who may not know, stomp is a group of eight people who dance and make music with their bodies and everyday objects including booms, trashcan lids, actual trashcans, newspapers, matches in match books, plastic bags, basketballs, sinks, and a bunch of other things. My favorite was one where they used different lengths and diameters of tubes to make chords and stuff.

On Sunday, a few of my flatmates and I went to afternoon tea at the Dorchester. We all got dressed up (me in my new dress) for it. It was a lot of fun. The Dorchester is a really rally fancy hotel complete with doormen in top hats that will spin the door for you when you walk in and waiters in tuxedoes. The tea was really nice and the food was really really good too plus it was tea in a fancy hotel in London. Enough said.

(From Left to Right: Kaitlyn, Kathrine, Me!, Sherry, three of my six flatmates)

One of the lovely things about the Dorchester is it is near Speakers Corner so I went there with my flatmates after tea. I think some people were slightly wierded out by me in my fancy dress and heels walking around speakers corner but whatever man. I had fun. I am planning of speaking there next week if I can actually think about anything to talk about, so if you can think of something, let me know.

(Socialists! Always amusing if nothing else)

Today was relatively uneventful; I went to work, went to the grocery store and then came back to my flat.

So, check back Wednesday night to hear of more of my sorted tales!

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn 

So all of the political interns went to Edinburgh on Friday under the guise of visiting the Scottish Parliament (I think it was just so we could go to Scotland, but whatever). It was a lot of fun but I must say that Edinburgh weirded me out a little bit for reasons I shall divulge throughout this post.

We took the train from Kings Cross Station (and yes, Harry Potter fans, I saw platform 9 ¾). It’s a four and a bit hour trip from London to Edinburgh and a lot of the trip was through the English countryside so you would look out your window and see vast expanses of perfectly square farm plots dotted with the occasional flock of sheep or cows (that’s a herd though, isn’t it) and horses. Then every once in a while you would see a little town with brick houses and the steeple of a church poking above the roofs. The clouds were really low too and were puffy but with really flat bottoms (I’m sure Dad can tell me why that is). It made me feel like we were in a clear plexiglass box that was protecting us from the encroaching clouds.

We made it to Edinburgh and took taxis from the station to Pollock Halls, which are some of the dormitories for the University of Edinburgh. Pollock Halls is where I reached my first weird out because it felt to me so much like the mountains near home. The smell was the same, the cool air felt the same, plus this was pretty much in our backyard

Not exactly the same thing as Camp Oakes but it certainly adds to the feeling. They’re the remains of an extinct volcano called Salisbury Craigs. So I’m walking a long thinking how much it feels like home until I walk past a small castle (not even kidding) and realize “Oh wait, I’m ten thousand miles away from home. Oh yeah.”

So we walked to the Scottish Parliament via Hollyrood Park, which is where the Craigs are. I had a nice chat with a few people, including James, the internship coordinator and the only Brit on the trip (poor guy).

The Scottish Parliament only re-formed in 1999 (it was dissolved in 1709) and the building itself is only a few years old. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of it but let us just say that it has sparked considerable controversy regarding its aesthetics or lack thereof (google image it, if you’re really interested). The one thing I did like was that all of the MSPs offices had “thinking niches” which were basically cool shaped widow seat type things. But a lot of them looked out at Salisbury Craigs or to the courtyard and it would be a cool place to sit and write a speech or whatever, I think.

At the parliament we met one of the MSPs—Member for Scottish Parliament—whose name was Paddy. He was remarkably eccentric with long hair and a big bushy beard. Very different from Westminster. He is also the head of the internship program, which intrigued me slightly but I’m not sure I could deal with a Scottish winter. Anyway, he told us a lot about the Scottish parliament and the politics going on and all sorts of other interesting stuff.

After that, I wandered around with some of my classmates until my ankle started acting up so I went back to the dorms, which Will told me were a 15 minute walk away but most decidedly was not. And it was up hill (which most of Edinburgh seems to be).

On Saturday, we went to the Castle, which is at the top of the Royal Mile. It’s really awesome because it’s on top of this large hill so it provides for some spectacular views (see exhibits below).

Will, one of the chaperone type people told us a lot of the history of the Scottish Royal family and all that sort of stuff. He also took us to a graveyard where the Presbyterian rebels signed something important that I can’t remember the name of. But nonetheless, there were some really old graves there. It’s also home to a dog that stayed at his master’s grave for like, 7 years, until the dog died too.

We went to the Scottish Museum and looked around for a while. The best part was the roof, where you could see the castle we had just come from.

The rest of the day I spent just wandering around, taking way too many pictures and sitting in the park. Which is also a lot of what I did on Sunday as well. Except on Sunday I walked through Hollyrood Park and took lots of pictures there too.

The trip back was…um… interesting. We got on the train and there were some people sitting in a block of seats that were supposed to be ours. “It’s no reserves” they told us “that’s just what happens sometimes” they said in a manner that really said “you ignorant tourist fools”. (I suspect James wasn’t too thrilled about that). So we just took some other seats and then had no pity for them when they looked back at us when they thought we were being too loud. (which we weren’t). The first two hours or so went uneventfully with the exception of the food car not being in service which all of us that forgot to pack something to eat were not particularly happy about. Somewhere around York, we got delayed for a while due to “signaling difficulties” or whatever, which I think is really code for “we have no clue what’s going on”. But whatever, delays are just part of Sunday rail service in Britain, from what I understand. But then, at Peterborough, we had to get off the train because of “overhead wire damages”. James at this point is remarkably unhappy because there are 17 of us and only two adults and trying to keep us all together with the hundreds of other impatient people was kind of a chore. We weren’t able to get on the first train because there were just too many people on it already so we got on the next one that came which happened to be a local. Local trains, I found out, stop a lot more than national express ones. Then, that train, which was supposed to go to Kings Cross, had to stop too and we had to take a bus to a different train stop. The bus ride was actually kind of fun because by this point most of us are just laughing at the absurdity of it all and the driver seemed to be playing the greatest hits of sing a long songs including Brown Eyed Girl, Five Hundred Miles, and a bunch of other songs that everyone knows, which we all chose to sing. (I hope the people on the coach don’t hate us). So then we got on our third train of the day that finally took us back to Kings Cross. And then we had to take the tube across town to get back to Earl’s Court, and then walk home. All in all, I didn’t get home until almost midnight so you’ll understand why I didn’t update last night.

Stay tuned for Wednesday, when another one of my life goals will be fulfilled. (And I'll post some more pictures soon, even though they're already on photobucket)

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn

PS. Uploading pictures and posting and what not took me five hours so please comment or email me or something to let me know you read it or I will feel that it was all in vain

Today was pretty much one of the best days in like…well ever. (Other contenders include seeing 1776 on Broadway, going to the Billy Joel concert with dad, and being asked “Would you like something better?” by the spiffy cannon people).

There is an area in the West End known as the bookshop district. And most of you who read this will know me enough to realize how much such a sentence makes me feel. So I took the tube to Leister Square armed with my map and went in search of this mystical place. As appears to be my habit in life, I got lost. I am starting to appreciate the value of being lost, especially in a town like London with lots of tube stops so I can get back home easily even if I am not in the place I expected to be. I was just about to give up on my goal, which wouldn’t be the end of the world, when I looked across the street and saw it full of different bookshops. My first thought after “This is sweet!” when I walked into the first store was “Well, there goes a large portion of my spending money.”

I spent most of the morning wondering around from bookshop to bookshop looking at all of the spiffy books I wanted to get, trying to rationalize the large amounts of money I knew I was going to be spending. In the end, and only through much self-restraint, I only bought 5 books and two of them aren’t even for me. If I have any money and luggage space left over at the end of my trip, I will be going back there remedy those situations.

Anyways, I was walking back to my flat with my books when I heard jets overhead. I assumed it was jet planes coming from Heathrow of Gatwick when I saw a bunch of people looking up. So I got across the street and stopped on the corner when I realized it was the RAF flyover for the Queen’s official birthday (that’s right, you get two birthdays if you’re the Queen). I was standing on the corner, going “Oo look! Planes! Isn’t that spiffy?” when I went “Oh yeah! I have a camera! Awesome!” So I spent ten or so minutes standing on the corner with bags of books in hanging on my arm snapping pictures of planes and literally laughing with happiness. Also, my new camera is now broken in for Oshkosh.

My day was made even more when my absolutely fantastic dad (Happy Father’s Day, by the way) made it so I am going to be able to see Hamlet while I am here, something I have wanted to since I first found out about it in January.

Finish it off with watching Dr Who on an actual real TV while eating chocolate mousse and you’ve got yourself the making of an absolutely amazing day!

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn

So it’s been a while since I have had the energy/ time to update with anything but pictures but do not fret as I now am able to update . I wanted to add pictures too, but my internet connection is rather wonky so  I will try to do i  later.

 On Saturday, I went to the National Gallery. I came to the realization very quickly that there was no way I was going to see all of it without going completely nuts and since entrance to all public museums are free, I could always come back later. I looked around for a few hours until my back and ankle started working so I went back to my flat. That evening, I went to a comedy gig in a church. It was slightly surreal, but completely awesome. There were three comedians and one who was the MC that performed. The first two were ok but not exactly my cup of tea but the last one, who was the one I came to see, was absolutely brilliant. His name is Tim Minchin and he’s a musical comedian who writes all sorts of funny songs. He’s a real character with bright red hair that he teases into a rock star type thing, and is known for wearing eyeliner, a tailcoat, leggings, and bare feet. The Edinburgh comedy festival is in August so a lot of comedians are trying out new stuff, including him. My favorite song he sang was one about his hands wanting to play in F major but his voice wanting to sing in F sharp. A lot of other people seemed to think it was funny but I was absolutely cracking up. Coming back, I got lost because I accidentally took the wrong bus to get to the tube stop but I managed to find a tube stop and get back to the house without dying or anything.

            On Sunday, Liz, my roommate, and her friend and I went to church at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I went there a while ago but it was really nice to sit and look at all the decorations at the dome and stuff. I thought it was interesting one of the prayers the vicar said, which was for the lonely.

            We also went to Speaker’s Corner, which is a corner of Hyde Park. It was absolutely bloody brilliant. There were a bunch of people standing on stools and stuff yelling about whatever they felt like. Common themes amongst the speakers seemed to include religion and politics. People would also come and listen to the speakers but some of them wouldn’t just listen but argue with the people they were listening to. One exchange went as follows:

            “That’s right sinner, walk back to hell!”

            “Yeah crazy, go back to the asylum!”

And so forth. I didn’t get to spend too much time as Liz and her friend wanted to go elsewhere but I am thinking about going back some other Sunday to spend some more time listening to the nutters.

             On Monday, I got to do a briefing for my MP for a committee she’s part of called Q group. Q group sounds to me like something from a Bond movie but it (sadly) isn’t. Instead, it is a group that works with the Prime Minister to try to predict what questions will get asked in Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesdays. So I got to research all of the non-Labour MPs and figure out of what their main issues were. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any of them right as everyone was asking about a bill that got (narrowly) passed today allowing terror suspects to be held for 42 days without charge. Oh well. Naomi, my MP’s assistant, said that she rarely got them right either.

I also went to the Globe on Monday and saw Midsummer Night’s Dream. We were kind of frustrated because the seats were way over to the side so the columns blocked us for a lot of the time but it was really neat and a good show (though rather long but hey, it’s Shakespeare).

 So yeah, that’s about it. On Saturday, it is the Queen’s official birthday and there’s a parade so I am considering getting up really early to go see that. We’ll see how I feel

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn

So today, I got to sit tow rows behind Tony Blair and listen to him speak for an hour and a quarter as he gave evidence for the committee on human rights regarding Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was pretty awesome because 1) Tony Blair and 2) Only parliamentary pass holders were allowed in. Even then, a lot of the people with passes didn’t get to because they didn’t come early enough (I however, was one of the first people to be there waiting. Sometimes my obsessiveness comes in handy).

            Since today was the first nice day since I have been here, we got sandwiches and the restaurant in Portcullis House (where my MPs office is) and went over to St. James’s Park. It was very nice but also kind of funny because there were tons of people in business suits just sitting in the grass eating lunch or talking or whatever. Not something that you see every day in California or Michigan.

            Next week, I get to go to a meeting at 10 Downing Street about the NHS as it is having its 60^th anniversary this summer. It is kind of funny given that I did a debate at JSA camp against nationalizing health care that I am now the person doing a lot of the work on it for my MP but it’s always good to show that you can be non partisan when you want to be.

            I wrote a piece on knife crime for my MP’s website today. You can see it if you go to shonamcisaac.com and look in the news section.

            So that’s about it. Any suggestions for things to do this weekend are greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Katie/ Kathryn