I'm getting bad at this

I swear I'll try harder.

The last week was a ton of fun! Lots of Notre Dame students from back home came over since it was their spring break. I hung out a lot with a few of Phil's friends that were in town.

Last Friday, I had my first Playing Shakespeare class in the Globe Theatre. What a great opportunity! My class is 8 students, and our professor is a professional actor. We're going to be eventually putting on some scenes for the whole London program (not on the actual Globe stage, alas), but I'm really looking forward to the opportunity.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much blah days. Monday, class started up again for the week, as it usually does every Monday. Monday night we went to WalkAbout, and it was great to see all the ND kids in town visiting whom I haven't seen for a while from back home. Tuesday was usual fare; SportsCafe...except that it was actually fun! Very strange. Class on Tuesday wasn't too bad either...O'Boyle's entertaining.

Wednesday we went out to Los Locos, which is a smaller, fun club. We got in for free since we came before 11, and the ND kids pretty much brought the party, which is always fun. I also had a test Wednesday for my Finance class, which wasn't too bad...we'll see...

Thursday we went out to Callaghans (as usual) and had a blast. For Bradshaw's class that day, we went on a 'church crawl,' which professor Bradshaw likened to a pub crawl, only 'without the alcohol.' We saw St Martin's in the Field in Trafalgar Square (which I've been in about 6 million times already for concerts, food, and the like, so that wasn't exciting). We then went to All Saints on Margaret St (near Regent's Park) which was really neat...very classical, almost Catholic style. On the way home, I also saw my new favorite pub based soley on the name: The Cock.

Friday I had my second Playing Shakespeare course, in which we worked on scenes from MacBeth on the Globe Stage! While tour groups were coming through! It was awesome...and boosted my ego a little :)

That afternoon, Phil's parents (who had been in town) took me out to the Texas Embassy (which is a decent attempt at Tex-Mex food) and then to St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's is the second highest Church dome in Europe; the first is St Peter's in Rome (check!) and the third is the Duomo in Florence (double check!). I feel like my life is complete.

Saturday I slept in, and took a sort of lazy day. For dinner though, Phil's parents took me out (again...they totally rocked) to a Chinese restaurant in China Town (of all places...) that was awesome. And inexpensive! I'm totally going back there. That night, a few of us watched 'From Hell,' a farily recent (2003 or so) Johnny Depp movie based on a graphic novel about Jack the Ripper. Great movie, although very gruesome. However, it did lead us to...

A Jack the Ripper walking tour Sunday night!! What a blast! We walked through East London and the Whitechapel area where the murders took place, and it was very informative. Unfortunately, the German blitz of WWII destroyed most of the original area, but it was still great to hear a bunch of the theories concerning the case.

And that leads me to...today. Whew! I had Philo of Law again today, and we actually talked about something I'm passionate about: Libertarianism (im or email me if you want an in depth rehashing of what happened...its more of a discussion based topic than a lecture one). Nonetheless, we basically covered Mill's 'On Liberty,' and discussed if morality should govern Government practices and if the state should be able to govern what goes on behind closed doors (hint: it SHOULDN'T). As apparently the only libertarian in the class, I had to talk a lot...hard to say what the reaction was though.

Tonight I wasn't feeling too great, so I stayed in and worked on some stuff (including, but not limited to, this blog). Tomorrow brings O'Boyle's class again...we're discussing pornography in Victorian London. Should be a riot. Cheers!

P.S. I'm sure you've seen, but I've put up a few pictures from my trip! If you really want some in-depth pics (read: lots more), see my friend and travel mate Liz's page at http://www.aradine.com/PhotoJournal/show_folder.php?usr=iW83KAIIql4=&fol=bvz7t8Th5dM=&alb=&img=&mode=

And yes, I know that link is ridiculously long, but the pictures are wonderful, and organized by folder. Enjoy!

View of Salzburg from the Fortress 

View from our train in Austria...yep, those are the Alps 

St Teresa in Ecstasty by Bernini, in Rome 

Our travel group (sans Rachelle), at the Villach, Austria train station 

Venice's Grand Canal, taken from the Rialto Bridge 

Me at the top of the Duomo in Florence 

St Peter's Square, from the top of St Peter's Dome 

Feels good to be home

Well it's been almost a whole week back in London after my trip, and this land across the pond has never felt this much like home. Just hearing English spoken as the primary language is great.

It was a pretty chill week, very relaxing and healing. Monday I was still sick (stupid Florence and its Uffizi museum...) so I stayed in bed and didn't accomplish much. Well, I did manage to get a bit of grocery shopping done, so that was nice. Monday night we did chicken and pasta for dinner, very tasty.

Tuesday I went to O'Boyle's class, and was going to stay afterwards in the classroom building to work on a paper. However, in true O'Boyle fashion, he took us on a walking tour and then to a couple pubs. After yelling at us for three hours about how ND student's aren't radical enough (apparently he thinks we should be the next Berkely or something), I headed back to the flats and hung out with people. At least the pubs were cool...in east London, which was a new experience.

Wednesday I went to the building early to work on my paper, and then had finance class...man, that class does not get any less boring week to week. After class I headed back to the flats and had hamburgers for dinner (so good...), and then watched 'Love Actually.' Pretty cute movie...its cool too because a lot of it takes place in London. I then finally wrote my paper and went to bed.

Today I had Bradshaw's class, which was strangely unexciting, and now sit in the computer lab in the classroom building waiting for rehearsal. I'm playing piano tonight for a reconciliation service, but I haven't even seen the music yet. Should be interesting...at least we have 45 minutes to warm up.

So that is my uneventful, but relaxing, week so far. On the plus side, I got an A on my philo paper and an A on my pop test for O'Boyle's class. So those were uplifters! But for now, I say goodday.