So, to start off, I would like to share with my devoted readers that I will be in Peru next semester doing archeological digs…which means another exciting blog to look forward to! But for now, please try to contain your ecstasy over the idea of another blog and concentrate on this one. I know it’s a difficult task-I have trouble concentrating too…


This past week I only actually met in a classroom once. On Monday our English class did walk around the city on a Dickens tour. Our guide pointed out a number of shops and houses saying how they could have been significant as the location was around where Dickens would have lived, worked, had a few pints, and gotten lost in the fog of the city and of his own rambling unpunctuated nonsensical sentences, swirling into the mud and horse manure in front of Number 18, Jarndyce street. About halfway through class or so we took a detour into an authentic old pub, “Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.” According to the sign out front (and confirmed by Wikipedia…) the pub was reconstructed after the fire of 1666 which destroyed much of London. Ye Old Cheshire Cheese also apparently was frequented by a number of authors including the aforementioned Dickens, as well as two of my personal favorites: Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At the pub we all ordered drinks. I enjoyed a nice pint of Samuel Smith’s lager, and excellent recommendation by my professor (please note: all readers worried about possible implications for UNC or other affiliated programs, the legal drinking age is 18 in England, thus I am completely within my rights to enjoy a nice pint or two…).
The next day’s adventure was a trip to London’s East End with our art class. The East End is traditionally populated mainly by immigrants and is known as the less well-off district of London. One of my favorite musicians, UK rapper Dizzee Rascal, occasionally mentions the the East End or his East End boys, but apart from that I was not familiar with this section of London. Luckily the museum did not open until about 11, so we had a nice tour of the East End led by our professor. Highlights from the trip included a chapel with statues of a unicorn and lion, a Timberland store, a market where I purchased a pretty sweet fedora, a Bangladeshi grocery store, and of course getting a free cup of coffee purchased by my professor. Then we entered the art museum itself. My favorite exhibit was one with poems and accompanying pictures, the “Children’s Art Exhibition” by Jake and Dinos Chapman. The poems started off sounding like innocent rhymes that small children would say, like the classic “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me,” but all with sinister twists in them. The portraits to go along with the poems looked like vintage cartoons of kids playing, but with tentacles, frightening eyeballs, and the likes. I think my sister would have enjoyed this grotesque exhibit as well. In December there will be a display by a Lebanese-British artist there, so I hope to go back to see this if I have not left yet.
The third trip was to the Docks Museum, which was fascinating. More specifically, there was an exhibit on slavery which mentioned Sierra Leone, and I was reminded of Banana Island where I saw an old slave fortress. There was also a machete but thankfully I didn’t get stopped by Port Authority like at JFK…
We left for Bath on Thursday morning and arrived after a thoroughly uneventful bus ride. After settling into our hostel, which happened to be the same one I stayed in after Sierra Leone, we went across the street to a Thai restaurant for lunch, also the first place I ate in Bath when I was there in July. The three of us then set out to see the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey. The Abbey was gorgeous, with high vaulted ceilings, gargantuan stained glass windows, and a brass eagle pulpit. The baths I had seen before in July. Good thing I bought that 3 year pass last time so I didn’t have to pay for another ticket. Then our trio got free cups of water from the baths, which were warm and sulfury. I seem to be ok though, so no need to worry about any ill effects of the bath water. The free fudge we mooched from a fudge shop was quite delectable though. Naturally, when the day’s activities were done, we wound up in a pub. Good thing Thursday was open mic night. It presented the perfect opportunity for me to make a fool out of myself doing stand-up comedy, which I have never done before. I don’t think it was very well liked, but one girl told me after the show that she thought it was funny, and proceeded to tell me how I looked like her favorite poet who was a heroin addict. Thanks I guess? But we did manage to meet some very nice Brits from Essex who we hung out with for the night, before we got lost in a rather rundown part of Bath and then wandered into a sketchy bathroom in which an unseen man was loudly and drunkenly yelling about beating up some poor bloke.
Bristol was sadly not as entertaining. We ended up watching a movie…but after the movie when we only had 5 hours left until our bus would arrive we wandered into a Black History Month party at the University of Bristol, where I had the privilege of beat boxing for Canadian rapper aka Subliminal. If you haven’t heard any of his music, you should check it out. He is pretty good. We also talked to Subliminal about some work he had been doing with disadvantaged children in Atlanta. The experience he talked about, working with these kids who were 14, 15, and couldn’t write, teaching them to rap, was incredible. I guess it is time for another week. Maybe I should write that paper that is due this week sometime. Thanks for reading…

Peace,
Moe