Big Update

Sorry for taking so long to update the blog...

Lest week I was campaigning four of the five days in a by-election in Ealing. Ealing takes about 30-40 minutes from Oxford Street by tube to get to. Campaigning in a British by-election was an excellent experience, but very, very tiring. I went door to door passing out surveys, canvassing, delivering leaflets, and as a supporter during "walkabouts." I do not have an English accent as you all know so some of the reactions were quite funny to me asking them for their vote. I had to assure some people that the candidate was indeed British and not American. Each house in Ealing received almost 20 leaflets over the 3 week elections from each of three major parties. They were absolutely flooded with campaign literature. This brought about some not so nice reactions from time to time, but the reactions were completely understandable. I got to meet the Liberal Democrat party leader, Menzies Campbell. He was also an Olympic sprinter and known as the "fastest white man on the planet." Pretty amazing stuff. I also got on a first name basis with the candidate. This was somewhat unusual due to over 300 people volunteering daily. My MP was very helpful throughout the whole process and taught me a lot about how British campaigning works.

I was very glad to have the election over with last Thursday. The Liberal Democrats went from 3rd place in Tony Blair's district to 2nd place in front of the Conservatives. In the campaign I worked on Liberal Democrats came in 2nd place to Labour increasing the percentage another 5%. I considered it a great success.

A friend from Tejas, Stephen, came to London from Edinburgh where he is studying for six weeks. We had lunch at Westminster and then caught the Tony winning musical Avenue Q. It is basically an adult Sesame Street with puppets. Really funny stuff. We then went to a place here called the Icebar. You have to make reservations in advance and it is basically an entire bar made of ice. The walls, bar, glasses, everything is ice. They give you big Narniaesque coats with gloves to wear when you walk in. You get a free cocktail at the bar served in, you guessed it, ice, and then you get to look around at the amazing ice sculptures. There was a telephone booth, a metro map, and tons of other stuff. Well worth the 12 pounds to get in.

The next day I took a break and rested up from the crazy past couple of weeks. Then on Sunday, I went to the Imperial War Musuem and the Tate Modern. The Imperial War Museum was excellent. I'm not too big into modern art, but there was some good stuff there too. Very interesting stuff as well.Last Monday I had dinner again with the British Tejas Alumnus. He has been more than generous. We went to another Gentleman's Club on St. James Street. The club had two rooms, one for sitting and talking, and the other had one large dining room table for everyone to sit at for dinner. The conversation was incredible, the company distinguished, and the food amazing. I was the youngest person in the place by about 15-20 years. I did my best to blend in and add to the conversation of such successful men.

Anna came on Tuesday. It was great to see her again. It had been a month and a half. We walked around and then we ate dinner and went to see Mary Poppins. It was pretty good except for one or two songs that were sort of weird. There were some great special effects and Bert tap dances on the ceiling. I have to say I've never seen that before.

We had a great week. We went to the London Eye and Anna kept worrying about the toddlers climbing on the door. It was pretty crazy. We went to Phantom of the Opera and got to see the craziness of the last Harry Potter book coming out. It was incredible how many people there were. There were so many people dressed up in extravagant costumes and everything. We stood in line for an hour and a half to get the book. I'm not completely done with the book due to work and everything, but I will very soon. It is greatness.

Saturday we went to Hampton Court Palace. The gardens were incredible and there were some very humorous actors/tour guides that said many somewhat inappropriate things about Henry VIII's womanizing. Here we are after completing the maze. They had weird speakers hidden in the maze that would say strange things. The creepiest one was when a woman's voice out of nowhere says, "We're all alone now." I didn't know there were some many terms for his escapades with women. They have the largest grape vine in the world there.

After the Palace we went to Notting Hill and ate at a hamburger place there. It was raining so we didn't walk around too much.

On Sunday we went to Madame Tussuad's. Here are some pictures from it...
This is me telling The Rock what's cooking.
Me with my all time favorite Actor! Sister Act II forever!!
Anna racing Lance.
Alfred Hitchcock gave me a back massage.
Prince William and Anna.
Talking about the ladies with Henry VIII.
Shakespeare loves noogies on his head.

After Madame Tussuad's we went to Hampstead Heath. CS Lewis and many other writers were inspired by the park. It was massive and we had an excellent view of London. We sat on a bench there and read Harry Potter. It was a great day.

Anna went back to the States on Tuesday. I was really sad to see her go, but 3.5 weeks until I'm back.

Yesterday I got to attend Prime Minster's Questions. It was so great. Gordon Brown vs. David Cameron with tons of people yelling in the background. It was an experience I will never forget. After work there was a thank you reception for Parliamentary Researchers. There was tons of champagne and beer. A waitress came around every minute trying to top off glasses. We had to defend our glasses. After the reception I went to a birthday dinner for my friend Matt.

Sergio, my friend from Mexico goes home on Saturday. I will be sad to see him go. He has been a really great friend here.

Sunday I have extremely hard to get tickets to the sold out double headed between Paris-St. Germaine vs. Valencia and then Arsenal vs. Inter Milan. I cannot wait! I've always wanted to attend a Premiere football game in Europe.

I have a great trip planned next week also... I will write more about it in my next post...