And So It Begins...

Obligatory 1st day of school picture.

Kristin fervently studying the entertainment scandals of our day.

(Did you know Lindsey Lohan really is gay? I had no idea.)

Aaaahhhhh, the joys of postgraduate study.

I apologize that I haven't been able to update the blog in so long. I have been very busy settling in to school here at King's. Kristin is working away at The Gap and we recently had some guests, Simon and Karen, come up from Bristol to stay for the weekend. For those of you who have been expressing their envy of us having the opportunity of moving to London, let me remind you, as I was recently and brutally reminded, this is all for the benefit of me completing a Masters in modern history in the short period of a year. Last week was an introduction week for my program. We essentially took tours of the 3 main libraries that we use, met with the faculty and staff of the history department, and had a reception for all of the incoming and current students which was catered with plenty of wine and probably all of the tweed suits still in existence. That was all fun and games until I received the syllabi for my upcoming courses on Saturday morning. For the sake of efficiency I will spare you the peripheral readings and just briefly show you the required reading for this week.

Class: Advanced Studies for Historians

-Friedrich Neitzsche, 'On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life'

-Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession

-Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice

-John Tosh, Why History Matters

-David Cannadine, ed., What is History Now?

Class: A Second Confessional Age? Religion and Society in Modern Europe

-Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion

-Owen Chadwick, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century

-David Martin, A General Theory of Secularization

-Steve Bruce, Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults

-Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life

-Max Weber, Economy and Society

Class: Revolutions and Constitutions in Europe, c. 1790-1870

-Palgrave Macmillan, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848

-Eugene Anderson, Political Institutions and Social Change in Continental Europe in the Nineteenth Century

-Lewis Namier, Basic Factors in c. 19 Europe

-Clive Church, Europe in 1830

-T.C.W. Blanning, The Nineteenth Century 1789-1914

Yes, those are all books (between 200-400 pages).

No, it is not possible to read them all.

Sound like a lot? Well I apparently wasn't pleased with the workload and masochistically signed up for a 'French for Graduate Students' class to supplement the boredom that can only come from reading the biographies of nineteenth century historians (books about people that write books). I have found that some of these writings are the best sort of sleep-aid known to man. Ambien, Lunesta, Valume, and even heroine certainly cannot compare to reading some of these books on a cold day with a hot cup of tea in hand. You will fall asleep so quickly that you might actually wonder if someone could have slipped some ruphies in your tea. No wonder people spend their entire lives studying history, if you fall asleep between every page it takes that long to finish reading.

In all seriousness I do enjoy reading a lot of this subject matter and discussing it with the people that literally wrote the book.

On a side note, when we were kids my mom always used to take pictures of us on the first day of school. So in keeping with the tradition Kristin took a picture of me for my mom. So, here you go mom, you can put this with the rest of them.

Thames Festival

Guy on stilts.

On the way home.

The parade.

In the field before lunch.

At the parade.

View of London from Waterloo Bridge on the way home.

Today we went to the Thames Festival. This is an end of summer festival put on by the mayor of London Mr. Boris Johnson. It was a lot of fun, full of food booths and cultural exhibits. Tonight there was a finale with a Carnival style parade. Here are some pics of what it was like.

Other Pics From Our Walk

Entry to our flat

A Bridge

Dali exhibit in London

Everyone else was doing this picture so we thought it was necessary

mmm...no comment

Big Green Couch

So we went for a walk the other day and encountered a very big green couch. I was telling Kristin that surely there is some way we could fit it into out flat. I have not been able to stop thinking about this couch...so big....so green. 

The couch that we have in our flat is something akin to the seating arrangements at the child social services office in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico (Just trust me, I've been there and it isn't even as nice as it sounds). So as we go through our day touring the city, trying to get acquainted with our new home, the only thing I can think of is the lack of lumbar support that little pink "couch" of ours has. I mean really, at what point in the design and furnishing of this building did the University of London decide that there were going to be an inordinate amount of pygmies attending postgraduate programs? You know how you feel after a long day on your feet? As you're finally on your way home all you can think about is turning on that episode of Desperate Housewives you tivo'd last week, and then, falling effortlessly onto that big (possibly even green) soft couch with soft cushions and endless amounts of lumbar support. When I head home all I can think about is the number of surgeries it will take to correct the damage done after a year of sitting on this couch. I think about sitting on this ridiculous piece of furniture, watching a four year old episode of  East Enders (a poor quality mix between Days of our Lives & Melrose Place). 

There are a lot of pubs in England, and now I know why. If this is any gauge of what the British call a couch then it is no wonder everyone gets fall-over drunk before returning home from work. It's the only way to be even somewhat comfortable while sitting through an episode of bad English tv. Come to think of it, maybe that's why the tv is so bad over here, when you're really drunk you'll watch anything. Last night alone I needed five pints of good British ale to coax me into going home to face my small pink nemesis. When I got here I turned on an episode of East Enders and fell comfortably asleep...dreaming of that big green couch.

My Birthday in London

Lunch before the museum.

The REAL Rosetta Stone

Gate keepers of Nineveh

Outside Frankie's

At the pub after dinner

So last year I spent my birthday relaxing on the beach in Mexico, drinking about a million Pacificos, and a nice dinner at La Fonda (Langosta, Patron, the works). I really didn't think it could get much better than that. I was wrong. Those of you who know me well know that I do enjoy relaxing, and God knows I enjoy drinking good beer. But as I get older I feel that I need something a bit more cerebral. Well I think I've found the perfect combination. We live about 4 blocks from the British Museum, and the British Museum is surrounded by some really good pubs. So I challenge you to find a better combination than a leisurely stroll through the gates of the ancient assyrian capital of Nineveh followed up with a quick viewing of the Rosetta Stone (no, not the videos that will help you learn to speak Urdu in under a month) all after a couple pints of Fuller's London Pride and fish and chips with some mushy peas. This has become my ultimate vice. This is how I spent my birthday yesterday. After that Kristin and I went to Frankie's (Marco Pierre White's interpretation of Italian cuisine) near Oxford Circle for dinner. The service was terrible... the food was fantastic. After dinner we went to our new local, The Friend in Hand, for a couple pints. This was a highlight, we got to watch Andy Murray lose to Roger Federer in the U.S. Open final with plenty of British moans and groans as he lost in straight sets. So here are some pics for you to enjoy. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cruising the London Scene

Russell Square - Our local park

A nice summer trip on the River Thames

London Eye with ominous sky

Look Kids... Big Ben, Parliament!

So we went to London today to check out the sights and see what our new home has to offer. It was a beautiful summer day as you can see with high's around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and the occasional torrential downpour. We did the 'Big Bus Tour' so we could try and pack in a little of everything at once and decide what we want to do later in detail. Well, here are some of the highlights.

From Our Surrogate-Mother Land

We just wanted to say hello from our new place in London. This is our second day here and we have just been checking out the neighborhood and trying to get organized. So far we love the area and the flat was surprisingly bigger than we thought. The area is filled with a ton of little restaurants (mostly Italian) and a park about every 200 meters (You like that... we're already metric). The tube stop (Russell Square) is only about 100 meters away so we have the city at our fingertips. Over the weekend we are going to try and do as many tourist things as possible so we know where to take all of our visitors when they (you) arrive. We have updated our blog to show our new address and telephone number so if you need to get a hold of us or send packages containing British currency or valuable electronics that we can sell on the streets along with our ex-pat brothers and sisters, you have the means to do so. Please see the video of our flat below. You can credit the meaningless banter to a sleepless plane trip and aimless wandering around an unknown city. Hope to hear from all of you soon.