Last Post from the Castle

So alot has gone on since the last time we posted.

After going clubbing like mad on Monday night, we decided cause it was Tom McCarthy's birthday, we should do it all over again. So like 35 kids from the castle got dressed up, fucked up, and we all went to the club in Eastbourne. Ridiculous night. Tom almost died (not me. the birthday one). But yea, that's fun when you're in college right?

Most people made it to the bus for our field trip in the morning, which was to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Stonehenge was actually pretty neat. I'm sure it would have been WAY cooler if i wasn't starting to sober up while looking at the rocks. Again, we got a ridiculous tour guide. I'm pretty sure that its a prerequisite for working as a tour guide in this country.

Then we went to Salisbury, which is a REALLY nice looking place. Very old and Very european. tiny little stream running through the town with swans, lots of (nerd moment) old gentrified mixed use units.

Saturday saw us head to a Fulham Cottagers vs. Glasgow Celtic friendly football match, which was alot of fun. Unfortunately we didnt' get to sit with the raucous Celtic side and instead got sat with Fulham fans, which despite playing at home, were really quiet. Game ended Nil Nil, which wasn't too great, but Fulham has a guy who plays for Team Canada so that was neat.

After the game me and Jim had to get from Punty Bridge to Paddington station to meet Nathalie. That was a fucking chore. Some of the tube system was down ,so we had to take a bus. NEVER TAKE A BUS IN LONDON. they pack them so full that you physically can't put more people in them, then you can't get out either. and the bus drivers won't wait. if you get stuck inside the bus, they'll just go on to the next stop. and they're hot. and don't come very often. its terrible. Anyways, we eventually got to Paddington and went and stayed at Annie and Simon's place (who i love more then words can explain). We went and had a drink at the West India Quay then went to a little dive bar near Annie's and had some drinks.

The next morning (sunday) we decided to see the last of our london sites and head to liverpool. Off to the British Museum we went, which was neat, but nathalie couldn't get in cause her bag was too big. So she went and hung out in a park (which was good, she wasn't feeling too hot anyways). We saw some dead egyptian guys and the rosetta stone and a whole lot of pillaged greek stuff. I guess when you have an empire that spans a quarter of the world, you're allowed to steal a quarter of everyone's stuff. ahh well, makes for a massive museum.

Then we went and ran down the Thames a ways too take some pictures of Tower Bridge (the only site that I didn't see last time i was in london).

Then it was to liverpool. which was fun. we stayed at a decent hostel which was a nice plus. We went out sunday night for food, and the entire city of liverpool was no where to be seen. then we found them. Every last liverpuddlian was drunk and in a bar at 9.30 on a sunday. we went into the weirdest kar-e-o-kay bar. then to a bar that was once owned by the former beatles manager. then to a patio bar which was really neat. english people try SOO hard to pick up. everyone is dressed nicely all the time, even the ugly people. but oddly enough you very rarely see mixed gender groups of people out. its always all girls together, or all guys together. rather intimidating if you ask me.

anyways, then we saw some of liverpools docks (really nice) and the rest of liverpool (which is a hole, its all torn up cause they're renovating the entire city at once). they have a really nice main commerical walk which is fun.

then back to london and we picked up cortney. there was alot of waiting in Victoria station cause first cort's bus in was delayed. then jim wandered off. then nathalie wandered off. then we missed the bus we needed. so instead we found one of hte multiple pubs in the train station (there are honestly like 6) and had a beer. then to the castle again!

we had just enough time to get dropped off at the castle bar and grab two pints. then more drinking ensued.

tonight is going to be nuts. its our last night here. some people are leaving at 3AM to catch planes, me and jim are leaving at 7AM to get to london so we can get to paris. this is going to be weird cause

a) everyone is leaving / emotional
b) final banquet = everyone is going to be looking fine
c) final banquet/final night = 2x as drunk as anything else
d) people will be trying to get rid of all the remaining booze.

so needless to say this is going to be something for the record books.

you might not here from us for a while, cause we leave for paris and then lyon, then nice, then i'm back in canada. so as of july 29th you should be back connected with tom.

peace out ya'll see yea in a bit.

bye castle, its been a slice.

"I can't believe Paramount paid to fly us all the way out here..."

"I know, I don't know why they just didn't use body doubles."

So me, Jim and the other castle kids are all well and good. Just so everyone knows there were some bomb attacks on the underground this morning and on an above ground bus. There were some fatalities, but none of them were Castle kids.

It's been a little quiet around here lately, because people have papers and midterms and things (that's right. Midterms in July.). This weekend we were set to go to London, with our field trip being on Sunday (and then going to the Globe to check out the Tempest) but alas they have cancelled them all. It really sucks, as I was looking to heading back to the Big City.

Our plans to hike into town earlier in the week for curry were thwarted by some fabulous english weather. Although we're planning on going tomorrow to make up for it. And apparently there is a toga party in the works. Here it might work, cause they're are more girls then guys (by about 2 to 1). Lord knows it wouldn't work in the sausage party of friends that I have in Kingston. (no offence, but we all know that provan would be sheetless before the punch was even served).

so for some mild entertainment here are pictures from London.






"Pretty shitty circus huh?"
That's right. I made Jim (and Jay who took the picture) go all the way to Picadilly Circus just so I could take that picture.



That's me posing with former Chief of Staff Vicount Montgomery. Did you know that's how tall he was in real life? They had to make custom sized tanks to move him around!

"there is nothing to do here but drink"

That's what Jim says anyways.

So Jim forgot to mention the power outage that we got on Friday. While he was off galavanting in London, we had a crazy ass thunderstorm. Probably the most intense storm I've seen since I was like 8. But it only lasted about an hour. But it did manage to knock the power out for the whole area right while I was eating dinner. So the fire alarm goes out and we have to leave the castle. Which is fine. Except there is no power in our Rez either. Until the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. It was kinda neat cause we ended up playing cards in the hallways by flashlight and stuff. but it also kinda sucked because we couldn't get good food and the toilets were shut down. And everyone was terribly miserable on the trip to Brighton.

Yes I was too drunk to wake up for my field trip. It sucks i know. Tonight we played risk though which was fun. Jim is a terribly angry man. No one really one, although I was the second one to go out (on a semi suicide plot) and we called the game cause it was taking forever.

I get to do a presentation tomorrow on the Basques and the Catalans. Exciting I know. and Jim has NO course work. He does nothing but say "i'm bored. everyone works too hard."

This weekend its London for the whole weekend. Which is kind of crazy, cause it's Canada Day. Wooo Canada.

Really this post had nothing interesting in it. I'm just bored and I didn't want to lose viewers by airing a clip show. But I hear Labbatt is expanding their London plant while they are closing their Etobicoke one. Sorry DB.

I got skillz....bo staff skillz, bringing the parTskillz

So last night the law students finished. They had their last exam, they had their banquet, and they got wicked ass drunk. The undergrads, seeing this and behaving like parrots, decided that we would get wicked drunk as well. And who do you talk to when you want to get wicked drunk?

Me and Jim.

So we end up with about 15 people in our room, boozing like the sun wasn't going to come up. We taught people to play Golf. But people we're vengful enough, so we started playing a game that was a hybrid of Kings and Boxhead. You know what's a terrible idea, playing a game that is a combination of Kings and Boxhead. Half of the people in our room we're way fucked up. Then we went outside, some for smokes, and while there i helped one of the CRAZY security guards wiht his new digital camera. The English swear ALOT.

Chris, Sam and Alison - Being Drunk


Sina getting her ass kicked as the BoxHead (although it is a nice box).


Tomorrow Jim goes to London. I go to Brighton on Saturday and London on Sunday. Should be good times. Fun tourist pictures to come!

Beachy Head? It's like.....the bloor street viaduct.

So today we went on a orientation of the local area. The local area is nice. We took a bus trip to a couple places, stopping first in Alfriston. It is a tiny town. Tiny. so small that the bus (or "coach" as you will) couldn't fit through some of the streets. Anyways, there is a nice old church. with a clergy house. everything was made of flint. EVERYTHING. well not everything. the alfa romeros all over the place are defintly made of steel. but all the old buildings are clearly made of flint. which is pretty neat. and probably a fire hazard of some sort.

We stopped in this tiny pub (that apparently had a car driven through it by accident) and had a quick pint before we left. At "The Smuggler's" Jim had a 'White Gold' (which was not good). I had a 'Harvey's Best Bitter' which was pretty darn tasty.

We then left for the Birling Gap. It's this premo example of chalk cliffs. I was SUPER excited. Apparently everyone in southern england was ALSO excited about chalk and the place was SOOO busy that we couldn't park. They even tried to let us off at the side of the road, but someone came up and made us move! Tom = angry. No Birling Gap. So they took us to "Beachy Head" which sounds like some sort of island themed gentleman's film but actually turned out to be a point into the channel beside eastbourne. So i took some pictures of some chalk. As soon as i find an easy way to post picutres to this damn thing (jim is tricky and can do it) i'll show you some chalk.

enough about chalk.

we then went to eastbourne. which is like miami. for english people. with less cubans. and less coolness. its like walmart miami. and only a fraction as hot. but still nice enough that none of the men wore shirts. even while in stores and restaurants. weirded me out a little. wow. random.

until we got to eastbourne we had the CRAZIEST tour guide ever. she was at least 450 years old, but spritely as anything. she was a "blue ribbon certified". i don't know what that means. apparently its like being a journeyman for tour guides. regardless she kept saying "i learned this in a course. but i can't remember now. i thinkt hat used to be a rope factory." she was odd. and was obessed with insurance companies and sucide. she seemed genuinely concerned that we were going to cliff jump into the english channel at Beachy Head if we were depressed. very strange. if i really wanted to end it all i don't think i'd spend an ass load of money just so i could do it in the channel. but the moral of the story is she was old and wouldn't shut up. and had the most HILAROIUSLY pretenious stereotypical accent. like "chip chip cherrio" "spot o tea" and all that crap.

so i got some shoes. so did jim. this isn't' as trivial as you think. cause you can't go to clubs here with running shoes. so jim got some like 8 quid shoes. i got slightly more expensive ones. they're terribly uncomfortable. but now i can "club it up".

thats' about it for today. tomorrow classes start. i'm actually excited for school. although its going to be a little weird on account of the "doing school". but i'm greatful that i don't take things too seriously.

aight. peace out all.

Plane = No better then boat across the Atlantic

So me and Jim are in England now. It's really warm. Apparently we're going to get a bit of a heat wave. Which is nice cause I enjoy the warm.

We left the ground at Pearson at a little before 19h00. Then a small child decided that she didn't want to fly to England and began to scream. Screaming like you never thought imaginable. I had a sister who had colic and then two more younger siblings. Even if I took some sort of high speed launching device and sent all three of them careening into one another to create some sort of super screaming monstrosity it would not rival the esophagal fortitude of this little hell spawn.

And it's not like it was a little baby. The kid was clearly capable of using reason, determining wrong and right, and tying her own shoes. Her parents seemed tempted to put her in the overhead bin, but realizing that this would just make the screaming more of a loud echo, the father decided to use PILLOWS OVER HER HEAD. at least this is what Jim says. He was beside her. I was a couple rows back on the other side of the plane sitting with a super hot brunette from McGill who was en route to Nairobi to work for an NGO. Poor Laura (her name) couldn't sleep and she had a connecting 10hr flight to Kenya. Ahh well.

So no sleep and we get to Heathrow for about 6h30 (local, its a 7ish hour flight). But rather then take us to the Castle, they decide that we need to wait several hours (well really an hour and a half) for another plane to come in so we can all share a bus. And then everyone else arrives and they decide that we need to sit around for another 3/4 of an hour still. Heathrow's departure terminal is not meant for long waits. Mostly due to its dullness. That and the constant and incessant reminder that "For safety Reasons we remind parents NOT to let their children ride on the baggage carts". Apparently the English think tourists are mildly retarded which is fine by me.

The roads here are interesting to say the least. There are a million and a half round abouts. Apparently the concept of the 2-way & 4-way stop at an interchange is something us crazy colonists dreamt up.

In the single piece of bad news that's gone on (other then banshee spawn on the plane that ruined my pickup attempt) apparently T-Mobile has dropped Erik Zabel from their Tour de France roster. I know no one really cares but Zabel has been my hero since i was about 16. He's won more Maillot Vert's (sprinter's titles) at the Tour then anyone ever. and i wanted to see him race. Alas, the year when i finally get to see the Tour, they drop him. I guess you can't win them all. Hopefully T-Mobile will change their minds.

So we have orientation stuff today, showing off the grounds and the gardens and the residence. Tomorrow is local orientation. i get to see a castle AND chalk cliffs. i hang out with too many geologists.

So i'm going to stop now cause this is ridiculously long.

Episode One - The Phantom Menace

So last night was Part One of Three for the "Tom and Jim are going" Party. It was at Del Boca Vista followed by a sortie at Stages. It was good. Thank you to everyone who came out. I think wings is on tap for tonight.

Dear Dustin: I am sorry for throwing phonebooks at the floor of your room while you were on the phone with your mother. Next time i'll use the intercom.