Final Week

This will have to be a quick post because I have a lot to do this week...

First of all, to what I saw on TV randomly last night. Miss Crystal, you remember, the drag queen TR, Ajay, Kendra, and I met our second night in London? Miss Crystal was on TV on a TV show. We met someone famous...haha... I laughed the entire time.

Back to Dublin...the third day there I toured around and finally met up with Chris and Peri. Their flight had been delayed 9 hours...crazy! We met up and went to the Jameson Distillery. It was a lot of fun. They took four volunteers who were given a free whiskey tasting. Peri and I got chosen.

We tried 3 Irish whiskeys including Jamesons, Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels. We were then asked which we thought was the best. I said Jamesons or Johnny Walker. The guy next to me didn't care that they had just given us a free tasting and said he liked the Johnny Walker waaaay better. The tour guide was dumbfounded. We had to do the whole tasting in front of the entire group. It was a bit intimidating.
Pretty intense stuff.


I had been waiting to meet up with Chris and Peri for a while and they asked me to save the alcohol tours until they were there. That is the only reason we next went to the Guinness Brewery. The Brewery reminded me of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory only I didn't see any Oompa Loompas. A quick fun fact is that Guinness bought a 9000 year lease on the brewery for 45 pounds a year. He owns prime Dublin land for nothing. Just to get in I paid about a fourth of the yearly lease. Pretty good businessman. Here is the barley. I don't think people are supposed to climb into the display, but Peri made it easier once she jumped in. This picture is not flattering, but oh well...Here is the purified water used for Guinness. I stuck my hand in it. I would be rolled away by Oompa Loompa's by this point. I had already interfered with two of the ingredients...

A couple more steps and whala! we were up at the gravity bar enjoying the best Guinness I've ever tasted with a beautiful view of Dublin to boot.
I had to head to bed early that night due to an early ferry ride. When I went into my dorm room there was a ginoromous half naked man sleeping in my bed. Luckily I ate lots of carrots as a kid and could see the giant before cuddling into bed with him. I discovered Mr. Giant had left his bed, the only empty one left probably because it was a top bunk. If he slept there he could have crushed the poor soul underneath. I finally got to sleep and was woken up at 4 AM by the monster and friends who had to get up for something. I was very unhappy because I then had to get up at 5:15 AM. I made it to the ferry in time and was amazed by it. The ferry was a converted cruise ship. It was beautiful. I enjoyed it so much I had a snack and then curled up in the leather seat and fell asleep. I woke up right as we pulled into Holyhead. I might have missed out on all the great things the ship had to offer. They had cabins you could rent for the 3 hour journey, a movie theater with The Simpson's Movie playing, and much more. I'm glad I took the ferry.
I got into Holyhead and talked my way onto a train that was 3 hours before my ticketed train. I even got to sit in first class. I paid 33 pounds for the ticket, but sat in a 150 pound seat. Not bad at all. The Welsh scenery was excellent.

The trip was great, but I was pretty tired. Work last week wasn't too bad. Session had ended and my Member of Parliament was on Holiday. That is what they call vacation here. There was still work to do in the office, but it was much quieter. I went to see In Celebration with Orlando Bloom. I played my cards right again and worked the half price ticket stand. The play was excellent, but all of the females in the audience got up to leave 10 minutes before the end. I was starting to get upset because the play is a drama and the end was very important. I really enjoyed the play. Orlando is a great stage actor as well as a good Legolas and well all of the other roles he has played. As I walked out of the theatre, there was a line next to the alleyway with 5 huge security guards. Girls were lined on either side. I thought I would see what was over there. Evidently every night between 10-10:15 PM in London while the play in on, Orlando Bloom exits the theatre and signs a lot of autographs. I was within two feet of him and was the only one not screaming. He asked if I liked the play. I said yeah and to keep up the good work. What a brilliant thing to say? Oh well, I think the girls around me were very upset that he said anything to me and didn't whisk them away into his limo. He seemed like a nice enough guy that was genuinely weired out by so many people going crazy about him. I just wanted to know what it was like to kiss Kiera Knightly. That should have been my answer, not "Keep up the good work."
Later that week I got perfect tickets to Les Miserables...once again through the half price ticket place. I got there right when the second wave of perfect tickets opened up. The ticket guy recognized me and we got to chatting. I asked him what the most popular musicals are. He said #1 is Billy Elliot, #2 The Sound of Music, and then he got really mad and said that #3 is Dirty Dancing. He then went on a 5 minute rant about how horrible Dirty Dancing is and how the dancers don't even look good. He then handed me my ticket and promised the people look great in Les Miserables, though they are dressed in rags. The guy was big into beautiful people. Les Miserables was great as always. I sat in the first 10 rows in the middle really enjoyed it.

This past Saturday Matt and I went to the biggest pub in Britain at the London Beer Festival. All of the beers are real ales and brewed in Britain. You rent a pint glass at the front and then order 1/3 pints at different stations and taste different beers. It was pretty insane. The people were SERIOUS about their beer, they were also very DRUNK. It was fun to watch and talk to them though. There is also a new kind of nerd I never knew existed. The beer nerd. These people are like Star Wars, Magic, Dungeons and Dragons type people except about beer. It was creepy, but the place was full of personality and even quite a few Dickensian type over the top characters.

56 pubs a month!! What a crime! Heaven Forbid!
This is one fourth of the festival. Here is an American lady Matt and I met and talked with. She really wanted a picture and told us she would e-mail it to us. Here it is. I forgot to mention, at the front of the festival there is a serious petition drive demanding full pints. Evidently they have found that the average pint is only filled 95% full. An abomination! "Take it to the top" is the slogan. This group is organized and seriously lobbies Parliament. They claim, "The Government allows drinkers to be cheated out of 1.3 million pounds everyday" How could anyone let this happen!

Last night I went to see Wicked. It was good, but being a person who was raised watching The Wizard of Oz religiously I was too upset about the inaccuracies in the storyline. Yeah, okay, whatever, maybe the Wicked Witch of the West wasn't so bad, but at least fit it into the Wizard of Oz story better. It might have also been more of a chick musical. Who knows. The special effects were great and it was well worth the 15 pound ticket I bought. The girl behind me also sang all the words. I didn't care for that. The sweaty guy with all of the Wicked shirt and gear that walked in and sat down two rows in front of me also scared me.
Today was my last day of work with my Member of Parliament in the office. He was so great today. He went to lunch with me and then called and gave me a very in depth tour of the gallery of the House of Commons. He took his time and answered all of my questions. After watching the proceedings for 10 weeks I had quite a few detail oriented questions. At the end of the day he thanked me for all of my work and said it was great having me and gave me some really nice House of Commons cuff links. This is very unusual and very generous of him. I could not have asked for a better summer job. I will definitely keep in touch with everyone at the office. I still have two more days of work, but I will spend most of my time tying up the loose ends and handing my work over to my great friend and coworker Ian.

I leave Saturday morning...very early. I have to leave my flat at 4:28 AM...good times. I feel very, very sad to leave. This place has been so much better than I thought it could be. All of the people, interactions, events, shows, side trips, and experiences will never be forgotten. I feel changed for the better, way better.

Of course, I also am looking forward to get back to Texas. I am moving into a new apartment right across from the Law School on Monday and look forward to catching up with friends and family, and the new baby in the family, Carson. I am also pumped beyond belief about getting some real Texas food. I can eat a three course meal at Chili's for the price of the cheapest McDonald's meal here. Anyway, I will update this soon. Thanks so much for reading. Your encouragement has helped me keep up with this throughout everything going on here. Can't wait to see you all soon!

Live It Up,
Brent

Duba Duba Dublin

It's a boy! My cousin Kristi gave birth to Carson yesterday evening. I'm very excited to get to see him! Way to go Kristi and Matt!

So I took the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. I accidentally bought a club class ticket for an extra £10. It actually turned out to be a good thing. There were free sandwiches, drinks, and a ferry comfortable seat. I ended up eating about £20 worth and enjoyed it immensely.

I arrived in Dublin and took a short bus trip to the city center where I went searching for my hostel. The first night I stayed at the nicest hostel I've ever stayed at. It was so clean and nice. I have a theory that it is that nice due to the no alcohol or smoking policy in the hostel. It is located right next to the famous Temple Bar. After dropping off my bags I set out to look around. The city really isn't all that big. Trinity College is beautiful. I walked around for a bit and tried to work up a gameplan for that evening. I was traveling basically alone at this point which was very weird, somewhat challenging, but at the same time exciting. I decided to go on a literary pub crawl and on it met two girls from UT and two girls from Florida. I swear there weren't any guys under the age of 60. The pub crawl was fun, but they gave very little time in the pubs to drink a beer. It is so weird to go into a pub and Guinness is the cheapest beer on tap. Of course the Guinness is excellent here.

After the pub crawl I went with the Florida people to Temple Bar. It was packed with people of all ages and sizes. It was exactly what you might think of when you think of an Irish pub. Great fun.

I went into my hostel room that night pretty late and I could see bodies in the other beds, but I had only met two girls that were in the room the day before. I went to sleep, but got up early to checkout and move to the next hostel. As I was leaving the others started to wake up and they were all females with not much as far as pajamas go. It was a scene from Eurotrip. One of the ones I met the day before said, "Aww, Brent, are you having to checkout today?" I said I was sorry to and headed out. I was a good boy, but I was cracking up for the next 20 minutes or so.

The other hostel is not near as nice as Barnacles, but it worked. As soon as I moved my stuff in I headed out to see the parks, the Old Post Office where the Rebellion took place, the James Joyce statue, and then to St. Stephen's Green.
This spire marks the center of Dublin and cost 5 million euros. They aren't happy with it.
Here is the Old Post Office. Watch Michael Collins to learn more...This was at a pretty cool arcade they had. I didn't play it, but I guess somehow you wrestle this bull?



I have to tell you the Europeans are much better with their parks. They are beautiful here.

I met up with the Florida people later that day and we went to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. Before St. Patrick's we saw a crazy street performer that really made himself look like Gollum. It was pretty freaky.
It was very medieval and had little kids with mullets playing soccer on the lawn outside of it. A sign at the front of the church said, "St. Patrick's Cathedral is sponsored by Bailey's." Only in Ireland is a church sponsored by a liquor company. I think Tito's Vodka in Austin should look into this...

We then had a nice dinner which was way overpriced, I'm still not used to that and called it a night. I slept in a little this morning, due to a tough night sleep due to an Italian snorer in the bunk next to me. It was loud!


I just got back from Dublin Castle and saw some really cool sand sculptures in the middle of the square. Pretty amazing stuff.

I was supposed to meet up with Chris and Peri last night, but their flight was delayed 8 hours! So we are meeting up tonight to see the Guinness factory and do a pub crawl. Should be fun!

I have two weeks left in Europe. It is crunch time!

Glory Glory Man United

I promised to be better with this thing so here is another post...

After work yesterday I met up one last time with the Tejas Alumnus that has been so kind as to take me to dinner and drinks from time to time. I attempted to take him for drinks at the Texas Embassy, but he keeps a very exciting social calendar and I asked too late. I met up with him and a friend at Green's Restaurant. We had champagne and quail eggs, just a normal night out, you know? The conversation was of course excellent. From there I met up with Matt, Chris, and Peri and we ventured to the Sports Cafe. On Tuesday nights the Sports Cafe is mostly American students and they have 1 pound beers which is 1/3 the price of any beer I have found in Britain. We had a good time, but a really drunk guy kept trying to dance with Peri. I created a wall with my body...unfort. due to the price of food here my body isn't quite the wall that I envision it to be in my head. The guy broke through the defenses and went in for the kiss with Peri, but suddenly switched to kiss Chris. Chris was completely confused...not in the way that the kiss made him question everything (but perhaps, I haven't found a convenient time to ask him about that), and Chris walked away very angry. Understandably so.

Today I took a train from London to Manchester. Unfort. there was a signaling problem and the train was delayed an hour. I finally got into Manchester and had an easy time finding my hostel. It is pretty standard. I walked around Manchester a bit and then headed for the main event...Manchester United vs. Inter Milan.
The stadium is beautiful. I walked through the shop and discovered the cheapest jersey is 57 pounds- $120! I then walked out empty handed, but my pride was still intact. My seat was exactly on the 50 yard line. I was pretty high up, but could see all of the action. I was there really early and just took in the sight. I've wanted to go to a game there since I was a little kid.

(My camera isn't nice enough to figure out lighting. It did get the lighting right on the important stuff...)

I was woken up from my day dream by a giant that sat on me and next to me. There was literally no room. I can't believe how big this man was. I tried to stand up during one of the goals and I simply couldn't the man was on top of me.

(They scored a goal here, but I was a second early)

The game was great other than that. At one point the crowd started going crazy and I saw this guy break by the guard and rush the field. He started throwing off clothes as he went and the whole stadium was beside itself. He had quite a bit of trouble getting his shorts off.

(Hilarious! Ronaldo carried his shorts off the field. Great stuff)

He had to stop to focus on the task and as he ripped them off and took two steps a policeman clothes lined him in the very middle of the circle where kick offs take place. The police had to find a way to shelter his nakedeness from that point to the tunnel. Three of them had to stand very close to the man. The little kid behind me with great sadness in his voice asked his father, "What will they do with him Dad? Will he be alright?" The Dad answered "I hope so son." A father son moment never to be forgotten. Sorry about the picture. You really can't see anything. I really hope none of you are zooming in, but knowing a couple of my friends it is probably happening...stop it!

(United Roll...you might recognize the song? haha)
The Red Devils lost 2-3, but there were some great goals and they outplayed the other team. Rooney and Ronaldo are amazing. I could not believe how they play the game.

As I was leaving the stadium a little British boy in front of me had a horn bought at the stadium. I watched as he slowly moved the horn under the tail of a police horse in front of us and ever so curiously move his mouth to blow right in the back side of the horse...i mean right in there... luckily his mother suddenly slapped the horn out of his hand and told him it would be a bad idea. Hilarious, but very strange.

The tram system in Manchester is sub par so I had to walk 5 miles after the game home. I have now walked all over Manchester.
Their town hall here is beautiful.

To Dublin tomorrow! Keep checking in!

(Train ride from Manchester to Holyhead. I saw at least 5 castles. Here is one of them)

If You Love Arsenal Stand Up!

So last Thursday was fairly chill at the flat. Matt and Sergio and I watched some TV in my room for a bit and stumbled upon some very interesting things on regular TV. At 10 PM we were looking for something to watch and Matt unfort. controlled the remote and left the TV on two naked guys in a hot tub.

Sergio started yelling all sorts of Spanish at Matt, but Matt just kept watching. We soon learned in a very graphic way that it was a documentary on gays in England. Matt finally changed the station after borderline pornography was on my TV. Matt was laughing really hard and Sergio was basically strangling him and still yelling Spanish curse words. It was great fun to watch them fight. I am amazed that stuff was okay to have on regular TV here. We have problems with cable shows in the US and they are okay with pretty much anything on regular TV.

Friday was Sergio's last night. Sergio, Chris, and his girlfriend Peri and I chilled at the flat and discussed Mexican/American relations until really really late. There was yelling, laughing, the whole bit. It was very educational, but by the end we were wondering how we got into the discussion and why we talked about it so late on a Friday night.

On Saturday I went to lunch with Sergio before seeing him off. I was really sad to see him go. We went to lunch almost everyday at work and hung out a lot. Hopefully I'll get to make a trip to Mexico City sometime soon.

After seeing Sergio off, I went to Canary Wharf to see The Simpson's Movie with my co-worker Ian. It was a fun event. Reuters is located there and they have a jumbotron with the latest news on it. I unfort. saw this while we were there: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/07/28/britain.wwii.bomb.reut/index.html
A bomb was found at Canary Wharf?!?! How comforting...

We then went to the Westminster station because unfortunately there are very few handicap accessible tube stations in London. Westminster station is right under the building I work in. We went from there to Oxford Street and Ian, his sister, and a friend shopped Oxford Street. I got to just go upstairs to my room when I was done shopping with them. It was a fun day.

On Sunday Chris and I went to the Arsenal vs. Inter Milan game. It was incredible. A mostly incorrect stereotype about English football (soccer) is that there is a ton of drunken revelry. They actually don't allow beer at your seats. You have to drink next to the concession stands. This was surprising to us. We had 12th row tickets. It was great. The noise was deafening at times and the chants were hilarious. At random moments someone would stand up raise their hands to the sky and chant, "If you love Arsenal stand up! If you love Arsenal stand up!" Everyone in the entire stadium stands up, raises their hands and do the same thing. It is hilarious. Another interesting thing is that the water the field for the entirety of halftime. I don't get it. Chris and I participated in the most amazing wave I've ever seen. The thickness of the wave was something we should strive for in the US. One of the players on the Inter Milan team was thoroughly hated, Materazzi. Every single time he touched the ball for any reason, whether in pre-game or just to toss the ball for someone else to throw in, the entire stadium stood up and booed him. It was really funny.

In the US betting on sports is illegal in most places, but especially anywhere near the stadium. Here it is right between the bathroom and the concession stand. Crazy!

In the end Arsenal won 2-1 with a late goal by the young soon to be star Van Persie. I can't wait for my next English game... I will talk about that in a few paragraphs... I told my coworkers about the game and they were jealous. One of them has been on the waiting list for 2 years for season tickets and has been told he might get them in 7 more years. Crazy!

Last night I got dinner with Wes, a friend from UT. It was good to hear his stories from doing Teach for America in New York City. I gave him a bit of a tour this morning before he left for Interlaken.

After work today I got tickets for The Drowsy Chaperone. It won 5 Tony's on Broadway and it is unfortunately in its last week here in London. The musical was excellent. Very over the top and hilarious. I had a great time.

Now on to the upcoming trip. I'm taking off from work early on Wednesday and taking a train to Manchester...you might have guessed by now, but if not and you are a fan of the movie Eurotrip this might help: "My baby takes the morning train, she works from 9 to 5..."

I'm going to see a Manchester United game at home! I cannot wait. I only wish I brought my jersey!

I will stay in Manchester Wednesday night. The next morning I will get up early and take a train to Holyhead where I will catch a ferry to Dublin. I made a mistake when booking the ferry and accidentally paying 10 extra pounds for a club seat because I thought we had to have a seat on the ship...I am once again, a dumb tourist. I accidentally purchased a ticket in the exclusive club lounge where there is free snacks, tea, and wine. I plan on getting my ten pounds worth of pampering on the 1.5 hour voyage. I'm spending the next 3 nights in Dublin and then back to London by ferry and train. Chris and his girlfriend will be there Friday to Sunday. It should be a great weekend!

Let me know if you have any suggestions of things to see in Dublin or in the area! I hope you are all well!