One Month

One month. One. Month. Lauren and I will be on a plane back to America in one month. I don't even know what to say. Our time here has flown by so fast... I just don't know where its gone!

So what will I be doing for this last month you ask? Well, aside from scrambling to finish the paper I have due tomorrow, 3 finals, and starting (yes, starting) my online summer class, I'm thinking it will go something like this...

Lauren and I will sleep in, spend as much time with our friends as possible, grab a few bottles of wine our cameras and wonder the streets of London drunkenly crying about leaving enjoying every last minute that we have here. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Except, that is, the whole leaving in one month part of it...

Elections and Politics, Part 2

The elections have come and gone, and what dose the UK have to show for it? Well, nothing really. After the election results were in and tallied, we found out it was ended in a hung Parliament. What is a hung Parliament? Good question. A hung Parliament is when no single party hold the majority of seats. Read a more in depth definition here. The conservatives won the most seats in the general election, however, there is now a battle to see which leader can form a new government. Technically speaking, Gordon Brown will remain as PM for now, but Conservative leader David Cameron now has the right to seek to govern. In other words, I have no idea what is really going on and I don't think they really do either. At this point, looks like we will just have to wait and see. To read more about this, click here!  

Buses

I have officially decided that buses make me sick. This seems strange to me because there is nothing else I can think of that does this. Planes, trains, boats, cars, even thrill rides are completely fine. (Does it go fast, up, down, sideways, upside down and spin? Awesome, lets go.) But for some reason, as soon as I get on a bus, I feel ill. I found this out the hard way on a 12 hour bus tour of the Scottish Highlands with my mother about a month ago, but I figured it was just the length of the trip or the dodgy roads. Yet now even when I'm on the 205 for that hour to and from class, it's simply torture. Ugh, I'd rather take the tube at rush hour any day. I suppose I've only about a week left that I need to take the bus, so I shouldn't complain. Besides, its a good excuse to never take Megabus ever again...   Looks like my car is coming with me to Milwaukee! ;)

Elections and Politics

It's election year here in the UK, but things seem strangely calm and quite here about it compared to the US... There are the political commercials, public awareness ads to register to vote, and (for the first time ever in the UK) televised debates. But there are no yard signs, no banners, no buttons or stickers. It's kinda nice actually, if you lived under a rock you might not even notice that the elections were going on.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I know very little about politics, economics, or foreign policies for the US (though I would venture to say that I know a great deal more than Sarah Palin....); however when it comes to UK politics, I know next to nothing. Assuming the majority of my readers are American, I will venture to say that most of you don't know much about the upcoming elections here either. So here is a very brief overview of what is happening.
Like the US, the UK has a party system. There are 3 main parties; Labor, Conservative, and the Liberal Democrats. Each party has one leader, respectively; Gordon Brown (the current Prime Minister), David Cameron, and Nick Clegg. There are other parties involved, however they do not currently seem to have enough support or seats in the House of Commons to warrant much talk of them here in such a short overview. There are 650 MP (Members of Parliament) seats in the House of Commons, all of which are up for election on May 6th.
This is about where my knowledge of this issue ends (I told you it would be brief), though as election day draws closer I hope to learn about more about each party and what they represent.I will update you with the results on the 6th!

ISH Football Match

Saturday was the annual International Students House football match between the two houses, MTH and GPS. MTH dominated the pitch, and we came away with a 2-1 victory. Lauren, myself, and a few dedicated others took our place on the sidelines to cheer our team on.

We were obviously very supportive, as you can see here.Cheering for our team was quickly replaced by drinking, lighting the grass on fire, and laughing to the boys on the next pitch over changing in the middle of the park. 

Still, our boys played a great game keeping the ISH title with MTH for the 5th year in a row.  As distracted as we may have been, we did our best to cheer them on. Congrats guys!

On your mark, get set, PANIC!

Lauren and I have officially booked out flight back to the states on June 9th; we're leaving for real now! It still seems like we just arrived in London, time has gone by so fast! But now, now that we've been here since September we actually have things that we are leaving. Our new friends, ISH, the sights, the city, I can't believe that once we leave I don't know when I'll see them again. Ugh. Mental break down fast approaching? Probably. But, that doesn't mean that we can't or won't make the most of the rest of the time we have left. (In between school of course, since that is technically why we are here I guess...) Still there are plenty of fun things coming up to keep our minds off of school!

Wednesday I will be attending a performance of Psy, check out the preview here. Looks like it's going to be amazing! May 7th ISH is hosting a Hollywood styled charity event called the May Ball in Aid of Mind. With DJs, dancing, and drinks, it is sure to be a great night for a great cause. May 10th Lauren and I are off to Camden to see Foals!!! Check out some of their music here. Then, as if that weren't enough, London Met decided to put on another night of free pizza and a trip on the London Eye for the international students on the 13th! Lots to do and see still, London is never boring!

Eyjafjallajokull?

Having problems pronouncing the name of the volcano? Check this out...