"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.