So a couple nights ago I went to a nearby pub called Queen Boadicea (which takes its name from this tribal queen who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire in around 60 AD) and saw some live music. There were three performers: Sean Redmond, who was the headlining act; Anneka Williams, who was my personal favorite; and a guy named Vincent who is in a band called Vincent and the Bombe Neutron, though the rest of the band wasn't there. It was a very good time. We got a table right in front of where they were playing. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but here's a sampling of the music.

First, "Popstar Politican" by Sean Redmond, who was kind of like a British Conor Oberst, though a bit less emo.

Popstar Politician - Sean Redmond

Next was Anneka Williams, who reportedly just finished recording her album with PJ Harvey's producer. I can't find a way to embed a song by her in this post, but you can listen to her at her myspace page, which is worth doing. She is very soulful and intense.

I also can't find a way to embed any Vincent and the Bombe Neutron songs, but their myspace page is worth a visit as well. Kind of funky.

On the Inauguration and Religion

I watched the Inauguration here in London with the other students in my program, a group of mostly non-Americans happy about Obama’s election and ready to join in the celebration. The experience was not particularly different from what it would have been like to watch with a group of friends in the US, with one notable exception: the surprise and distaste for the religious overtones throughout the ceremony.

“Distaste” is perhaps too strong a word - it was almost more like amusement. At first there was a smattering of boos for Rick Warren, from Americans and non-Americans alike, which wasn’t particularly surprising given the controversy surrounding his selection. But then came this sentence in Obama’s speech:

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers.

And, to my surprise, several students burst out laughing. It seemed the sort of sentiment this crowd would endorse, and of course it is. The laughter, I later learned, was provoked by how absurd they felt the statement was in the context of the rest of the Inauguration. For the day had begun with a Christian prayer from an Evangelical preacher, and only a few minutes earlier Obama himself had invoked “the words of Scripture.” And of course later the event was closed out with more prayer. And in the middle comes this ecumenical statement from Obama about our “patchwork heritage” in which the final words “and non-believers” are spoken in a tone mixing defensiveness with condescension. To the non-Americans in the audience, the prayers were unseemly and even shocking, and Obama’s words rang hollow.

It’s no secret on this blog that I don’t take the friendliest view of religious belief and that I’m a strong advocate of separation of church and state. But even I was taken aback by this reaction. Watching at home, I would have barely noted the Biblical quotations in Obama’s speech, and I would have marked the recognition of “non-believers” as progress - which, in the American context, it is.

It made me realize how ingrained religion - and Christianity in particular - is in American public life. It also made me realize a previously unnoticed cost of that intermingling: we look like fools.

I should note that I don’t wholeheartedly endorse their reaction. I think Obama’s invocation of scripture, for example, is at least partly a way for him to nod in the direction of the black civil rights heroes who came before him by emulating their rhetoric, which often carried religious overtones. But watching the invocation and benediction among a group of people who found it so utterly bizarre for them to be taking place at a political event made me realize that it is utterly bizarre. And it does undermine Obama’s statements of inclusiveness when they take place in the midst of such open displays of Christian piety.

There’s a sense in which this isn’t that big of a deal, and I recognize that. But it becomes at least a little bit bigger of a deal when it’s noted that it taints the message we try to send to the world - and based on the reaction of the people I’m hanging out with, it does so to a degree more significant than I would have thought.

Cross-posted at Urbanagora.

Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, et al

Today Maeghan of Canada and I met up with Diane of Switzerland and Maria of Germany for some sightseeing. We had planned more than we actually got around to, but we still got to see a few decent places, then went to a pub and had a few drinks and dinner before heading back home to see a movie (The Wrestler, which was pretty good, but not great). Some pictures from the day:

The Tower of London, a big castle-looking thing on the Thames.

Tower Bridge, right next to the Tower of London - a big, impressive looking bridge across the Thames.

More Tower of London. You can see a bit of the downtown London skyline in the background.

Tower Bridge

A sign indicating Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge

This is a view of Tower Bridge from London Bridge. London Bridge, incidentally, is totally lame - it's just a totally normal bridge. Thus no pictures of it. But you get a good view of Tower Bridge from it, as you can see. The big ship in the front is a floating British naval museum.

A non-zoomed in view of Tower Bridge from London Bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral, which is super-impressive - makes DC's National Cathedral look pathetic. Unfortunately, the inside was closed, which I'm told is really cool-looking. Some other time perhaps.

Another view of St. Paul's Cathedral from a different side - it didn't all fit in the camera, so you're not getting the full scope of it.

A statute in front of St. Paul's Cathedral

Diane and Maria in front of the statue in front of St. Paul's Cathedral

This is later in the evening. We walked down to Trafalgar Square and came upon this giant protest for Gaza, which was pretty cool. Police were everywhere.

More Gaza protesting

We were going to try to squeeze in Westminster stuff, but it was pretty late by the time we got to Trafalgar and we were getting pretty cold, so that will have to wait for another day.

Apartment Party

Last night a couple people who got an apartment together near Angel station threw a party. It was a small place, so things got a bit cozy, but we had fun intermingling. One of the Australian guys attempted to do an American accent, and he thought he was really good, but all he really did was speak with the same Australian accent, only slower and dumber-sounding. I learned that one of the Swiss girls spent a year in the United States when she was 18 - living, for some reason, in Houston. All of the Americans made sure to clarify that she did not get a representative sample of our country. She told us she was the best English student in her class, despite not being a native speaker, and that nobody else knew what an adverb was. We were not as surprised as we should have been. Some Brazilians brought over some special ingredients to make caipirinhas, a traditional Brazilian cocktail, which they made way too strong. A good time was had by all.

Some pictures:

This is on our way to the party. There are these signs on the back of double-decker buses that mystify us because they're ads for cervical screenings but they've got a picture of this weird guy on them.

Maeghan (Canada), Danielle (Georgetown)

Virginie (Switzerland), Guido (Italy)

Maria (Italy), Guido (Italy)

Me, Maria (Italy)

Sara (Georgetown), Danielle (Georgetown), Ari (Australia - the one doing the horrible American accent)

Lisa (Georgetown), Isabel (Spain), Guido (Italy)

Lisa (Georgetown), Lourdes (Spain)

Maria (Germany), Maeghan (Canada)

Fish and Chips

Embarrassingly, I have been here a full week without eating any fish and chips. I remedied that this evening by grabbing dinner at a little take-away place across the street aptly named "Fish and Chips." I recorded the meal for posterity:

The fish is cod, and the chips are dosed heavily with salt and vinegar. When compared to the fish and chips I've seen others get at fancier restaurants, it doesn't look like much, but for only 4 pounds, it was really pretty good. Much more filling than what you'd get for the same amount at an American fast food place (though I doubt it's any healthier), and delicious in a cheap-and-greasy sort of way. I will say that I think ketchup is a better condiment than salt and vinegar - the chips tasted a bit bland to my American tongue.

Friday Night, Saturday Afternoon

So last night CTLS held a little cocktail dinner thing to conclude our first week. I sat with an Italian girl named Maria, a Swiss girl named Diane, an Australian guy named Ari, and two professors: one from Israel and one from Singapore (though he isn't Singaporean, he's French Canadian). Because of the way the seating was set up, I ended up talking a lot to the two professors, which felt a little unfortunate, but they were pretty interesting. We talked a little bit about Israel, and I could tell the Israeli professor was pretty liberal - I noted that I'd read that Barack Obama might want to initiate low-level diplomatic talks with Hamas, and he seemed to be in favor of that. We also talked a lot about America, and about their travels, etc.

After that, a big group of students decided to go out somewhere, and somebody led us to a club, which I think was called Sway. It was kind of dance club-y, though sort of lame. I think many of us would have preferred a pub, but this was okay, I guess. I took a few pictures there:

On the left, an Italian guy named Giancarlo; on the right, the Italian girl I had dinner with, Maria.

Left to right: me, Spanish girl named Isabel (I think), Swiss girl named Diane.

The girl on the left is a Singaporean whose name I don't know, the girl on the right is an Australian named Hannah.

So then we went home, and today I went with some people living in the student housing to a little restaurant down the street from us called The Well, which was delicious. Another Georgetown girl and I got tarts with goat cheese and carmelized onions and stuff, which was wonderful. Others got fish and chips, which looked good, and one guy got this sausage and mashed potatoes thing that looked amazing - if we go back there, that's what I'm getting (giving up the vegetarianism during my stay here, I think).

And that's been the weekend so far. I want to do some touristy stuff, but it's quite cold here, so I think that stuff might get put off until it gets a little milder. We'll see.

Top 5 Musicians from London

...in honor of my first 24 hours in my new home, from best to worst (note that this is London-exclusive, not all of the UK):

1. David Bowie
2. The Rolling Stones
3. The Sex Pistols
   
4. The Clash
5. Queen
   

Honorable mentions: Elvis Costello, the Kinks, Bloc Party, the Who

Cross-posted at Urbanagora.

Initial Observations

Without having seen much of anything yet, I note that:

• The underground is pretty easy to navigate, but walking around is harder because the street system isn't intuitively decipherable and there aren't always street signs.
• Crossing the street is a deadly exercise and should be avoided at all costs.
  
• People are helpful. When you vacantly stare at coins in your hand, they will tell you how much they're worth, without lying or stealing from you.
• I feel stupid saying "Cheers" and don't always know when it's appropriate, but it seems like it always is. The British should learn to craft a set of distinct pleasantries with precise meanings.
• I need to become more comfortable with degrees Celsius and 24-hour clocks.
  

Where Am I?

Here now, an annotated map of everywhere in London that's important (click to enlarge):


Me: my small but cozy studio apartment, featured in the previous post, located in the borough of Islington, which I'm told is a good area. About halfway between the Angel and Barbican underground stations.

School: my classes will be held in a building called Swan House, which is pretty near the London School of Economics and King's College London. Haven't been there yet.

Parliament: Westminster Palace, where the two houses of Parliament meet; and 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister lives. Also Westminster Abbey, a big Gothic church.

Queen: Buckingham Palace, the London residence of the royal family.

Theatre District: where all the main theatres are, in the West End, which has other stuff too.

There may or may not be other interesting things here that I have failed to note.

LONDON!

Okeydoke. I have arrived in London for my semester with the Center for Transnational Legal Studies. I'm starting this personal blog back up, because I figure a lot of people reading Urbanagora don't care much about much of what I'll be posting here. When I write about something travel-related that a broader audience might care about, I'll cross-post it over there, but this will be exclusively for more personal, every-day stuff that only family and close friends would care about.

With that, some pictures of my place...

A broad view of the place from when you walk in the door. There's a bathroom behind where I'm standing to take this picture.

The kitchen area. The cabinet on the right is a little fridge.

A closer view of the desk and bed area. The black monitor next to my computer is a TV.

My view looking straight out the window.

Another view out the window.

My desk, looking from my bed.

Me, looking at my mirror, which helpfully has a map of the London underground on it.