Freaky Friday, May 26th

Today we took a boat cruise down, and back up, the River Thames - at about 2 American miles per hour (roughly 33 dollars Canadian). The River Thames, we learned, is one of the cleanest rivers in the world, with roughly 80 differnt species of fish and an average of 65 unknown bodies and several dismembered limbs being discovered by an elite team of underwater divers assembled by the River Police, who explore the murky green depths three times a year.

Among many other sights, we chilled with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, passed beneath London and Tower bridge, putt-putted by the "Mayor's Testicle" where the mayor's office is located, and caught a glimpse of the recently constructed English architectural accomplishment, which Londoners refer to as the "Fishnet Condom."

Dan, Julian, Matt, Mike and I walked around the city a bit more, talked to a variety of characters including a police officer who told us to check out a specific pub for a good lunch. The pub was very traditional - great people, a plethora of pints to choose from, and the most disgusting cheeseburger I've had in my entire life. I don't even want get into the grease dripping description of the burger for fear of not wanting to eat for another day and a half.

Later that night Dan and some people we met on the program came with me to meet Emma, my friend from grammar school who is studying in London also. We drank openly on the tube (regardless of the dirty looks we got doing the same thing the night before - when I found out that, although legal, exploiting the advantages of not having open container laws in London is heavily frowned upon) and went up North to Camden.

We wound up going to the craziest punk/indie rock club we will most likely ever go to. Carved out of an old theatre, the venue has a huge concert stage and opera hall, with red and gold trim walls and chandeliers. The bands were great, the people were insane (if you can imagine being in a My Chemical Romance video for 4 hours then you're spot on in picturing the scene), there were dj's all the way on the top 2 floors, separated from the main hall. Everyone seemed pretty messed up, and several people were not keen on a few "American homeboys," as one guy explained to me, desecrating the scene. Despite them, I got along with everyone else I spoke to - one huge guy walked up to me, gave me the cigarette he was smoking with a hug and a big smile. My friend Emma tried to take it from me, but the man persisted and refused to leave until I took it. So I said thank you then disposed of it when he turned around.