amber jack is not a friendly fellow

It's been a bit since I last updated...not a whole lot has been going on, but there have been a few exceptions. The first noteworthy thing I can remember after the London trip was beer pong night in the UK! It was pretty hilarious. When we first starting setting up on the ghetto but functioning table we built (as seen above), everyone started organizing onto one side of the table or the other, going "I'm on this team!" This tested my faith of whether this was going to be possible, thinking perhaps there is some kind of cultural barrier here that can not be broken. But alas, when I was given the opportunity to explain the rules I made it clear that you have one team-mate, not 15. We started off simple, the only rule being a bounce is 2 cups. Once everyone seemed to wrap themselves around the basic concept of this, we introduced a few more rules, such as live table, behind the backs, strags, re-racking, etc. We haven't quite made it to NBA jams yet, but things went relatively well. They would be murdered for how far over the table they shoot as well as the popular under-hand throw among some other inconsistencies, but I'll just accept those as a British twist on the game. I actually played surprisingly bad on this night, but my time would come. We also only had one ball, which was pretty annoying. After a lot of pong was played and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, we went off to Club Life. Here would be the begining of the end of that night. I was having a great time drunkly dancing, but by the time we left I was... extremely drunk. I don't really remember exactly how I managed to get on a bus and get back to my bed, but it did someone happen. I've been enlightened to certain details, including that I fell on the bus and also passed out on it. All in all, a good night, as is evident from this picture of me the next morning.

After that there was nothing really exciting going on, I just sat around and did nothing, smoked lot, watched a lot of this awesome British comedy called the Peep Show, which I recommend all readers check out (it's all on youtube!). I've been attending around 50% of my classes and doing most of the readings, so that's a pretty large upgrade from last semester. I'm really screwed for this coming week though. I have my first essay, which is 1000 words. I really have no idea how long any of my papers are, since I'm used to the guidelines being set by pages and not word count. It doesn't sound that long. Then I have this mock European Union thing to do where I have to represent Ireland for something. The EU is the most confusing governmental system I have ever studied and it makes no sense to me. So I basically don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to do, sorry Ireland.

The beginning of this week was sooooooo boring. I did absolutely nothing and it was cold and rainy, which made it pretty depressing. Hearing about fun weekends back at Clark, skyping with certain people, and the upcoming Dan Deacon show gave me another homesick period, which also somewhat brought to forefront my year long existential crisis I may be having. Just as things weren't looking too optimistic, I was able to have a great last few days. Thursday was one of the funnest days I have had since I've been here. To begin the night we played this game that every girl in the flat apparently despises. It's called, "Throwing cards into a hat." Pretty self-explanatory. It was made up by one of my flatmates, and you basically sip your drink every time you throw a card that misses the hat. Later, we got some beer pong going again and this time I was actually on my game. During one epic moment, my team mate made the last cup with his behind the back shot. I got extremely drunk and had a blast drinking and smoking with a bunch of people. My smoky room also set off the fire alarm, but luckily it went off after a few minutes of waving a hat at it.



The next night was also tons of fun. I spent the night drinking and playing card games at the flat next to mine with the Park Village crew (my set of flats..it's like Bullock Hall for England). We played a game they call Kings Cup, which is basically the exact same thing as Kings, except for this one difference. There is a cup in the middle of the cards. Every time someone pulls a King, they need to add a good amount of their drink into the cup. When the last king gets pulled, that person needs to down the contents of that cup. I actually think this is a pretty awesome rule, although it is strange how not disgusted people can be drinking a glass mixed with beer, cider, wine, vodka, etc. This night did not end as well for me. You may remember that 3 liter of 7.5% alcoholic cider known as Amber Jack I posted a pic of a while ago. Well I drank just about the entire bottle, as well as a couple pints at the campus bar during the night. We were just hanging around talking and I took a few hits of a spliff. This caused the sensation we all know as "the spins." Everything is a fog at this point, but I'm pretty sure within a few moments of hitting the spliff I was on the bathroom floor throwing up. At some point I made it back downstairs and into bed. I woke up at 4 with my worst english hangover and have had a pounding headache and violent stomach basically all day. I discovered that I left a hot pocket and left over pasta in the microwave overnight. I decided to take it easy tonight and ended up picking up some dank headies and smoking, which is occurring at present. So that's what I've been up to. I really needed these last few days to be good and thankfully they were. I sincerely miss everyone so much back home!

Stay Paid. Matt.

weekend in the big city

The journey to London was a long one, taking about 2 hours from our first train until we arrived at our hostel. As you can see from the picture, this is made decent considering how nice the trains are here. Many of the seats have tables between them! Overall the trains are faster, quieter, and far cleaner than anything I have experienced in America. It was a very enjoyable ride watching the countryside fly by.

The hostel we stayed in was very nice, nothing like the one I stayed in last year in Montreal. This place resembled a hotel, was incredibly clean, and has dorms of 4 beds as opposed to a room of about 40 beds as I experienced in Montreal. Jesse, Zach and I had our own room, which was really sweet. Each room was equipped with a locker and sink as well. The only thing bad about it was that it wasn't located in the central part of London, but it was only a 10 min or so trainride away so this wasn't a problem. For $20 a night it was great.

Our first course of action was heading to an area of London known as Piccadilly Circus, which as you can see from the picture below, is basically the London equivalent of Times Square. This area was really cool, with thousands of people moping around at the shops, restaurants, theaters, and pubs located all around. We spent most of the evening trying out different pubs, also grabbing an awesome chinese buffet in chintown.

The next day I was forced to wake up at 10 to begin our long, epic second day in London. We started by heading to Camden Market, a massive collection of shops and food. We were there for a few hours and easily could have spent more time had we not had other plans.

After the market we headed to the Thames River waterfront, where there were many touristy landmarks to see. It was a cold but beautifully sunny day, which made this a highly enjoyable walk. We got to see Parliament, Big Ben, a huge ass ferris wheel I don't know the name of, St. Paul's Cathedral, and more. Here are some pics of those landmarks:

Along this walk there was a wide variety of street performers, from break dancing, to human statues, to the worst rendition I've ever heard of Hey Jude. I have some video of the break dancing.

This walk culminated at the Tate Modern Art museum, which was not only awesome, but free. A spliff and a pint had me in perfect form to explore an art museum for a few hours. I have a few pics from in there:

As you can see, we did a shit ton of sightseeing and touristy stuff, which is to be expected since it was my first time in London. It seems like a great city and I can't wait to explore it further.

I have had to type this message on a shitty wireless keyboard, since my normal laptop keyboard was feeling very thirsty so I spilled beer all over it. I bought the keyboard in the craziest store in Brighton, called Argos. Basically, you walk into this store that has no products on display, just booths with a catalogue. The catalogue has thousands upon thousands of random products, each with an assigned number. You write down what you want to buy on a slip of paper, bring it to the register, and pay for it. Then you get receipt with a number on it, and you sit in another part of the store and wait for your number to be called, at which point you pick up your product at desk. This my friends, is the future.

Overall I feel like I'm getting more comfortable here, although I still really really miss everyone back in the states and have some moments of extreme homesickness. I have a shit ton of reading to do tonight...it will be a challenge to make my 9am class, which I've only made once so far. We shall see how that turns out. Newest language phenomenon to tell you all about: As a way of saying "What's up" or "How's it going?,"many brits say "you alright?" This confused the shit out of me the first few times I was asked. I would be thinking. "yeah I'm fine, does it look like something is wrong? do I look sad or hurt or something?" I'm slowly getting use to that. I'm going to cook myself some tacos, so peace out. Next trip? Amsterdam.

beds and brighton

A bed is something that really means a lot to me. After all, it is where I spend the majority of my life. It's a friend that's always there, comfort when tired, a space for dreaming...You see, the bed is really an extension of my personality. The same traits I look for in a good bed can easily be used to describe myself: warm, fluffy, soft, gentle, cosy, etc. My bed here at Sussex? If my bed could be exemplified as a person it would be Hitler. Instead of springs I think the mattress just has aluminium cans in it. It really blows, its been so hard for me to get a good nights sleep on the thing. Once I roll out of the thing in the morning...afternoon...ok evening, my entire neck and back aches for the remainder of the day. So yeah, just wanted to get that out of the way, I figured the condition of my bed was something everyone was musing about back home.

This week hasn't been too exciting. I've been doing some of my work, attending some of my classes, so that has been a positive break from the past. Most of my days have been spent sitting around reading the news, reading for class, or watching random things online. Then at night I've been smoking and hanging out at the east slope bar on campus. I did have a rather interesting adventure a couple days ago when I went into Brighton on my lonesome to do some shopping. Every time I had been in Brighton it had been night and I was heavily intoxicated, so it really doesn't make sense to me yet. I just got off at a random bus stop and went into the first grocery store I found, since my main objective was food. I bought what felt like about 50 pounds of food which I then had to lug around in my backpack for the rest of my journey. My other main objectives were an alarm clock and a pillow. I found this really cheap piece of crap analog alarm clock in a convenience store and a pillow in the 99 pence store, which is like their dollar store, except for me it's like the $1.61 store. Overall this trek through Brighton must have involved me walking a good few miles all over the city. Eventually I was quite exhausted and recognized one of the bars that was part of the pub crawl last week, so I went in to reward myself with a good meal and drink. While waiting for my barbecue chicken, complete with melted cheese and bacon, I was trying to put a battery in my little alarm clock. I proceeded to drop it, and it broke apart into many pieces that scattered throughout the bar. That was pretty embarrassing, I must have looked like a crazy homeless person sitting by myself with a full backpack, a pillow, and the cheapest alarm clock you have ever seen. People eating stoped to return the pieces to me and I was actually able to re-assemble it and get it in working order. Exhausted, I finally find the right bus stop and took a bus back to Sussex.

Random notes. I bought an 8th of weed the other day that was very low quality. For those interested, I've included a picture of this. It's a sad sight indeed.

Luckily, the lack of smoking has led to my tolerance lowering, so it still does the job, just a shitty job.

Also, why so many coins England? Pound, two pounds, one pence, five pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence...i just have this ever growing pile on my desk of useless coins.

This is interesting. In England, you have to pay a special license just to own a tv (I didn't bring one). Well I found this letter under my door the other day. Apparently it's not something I should worry about...

Lastly, I would like to leave you readers out there with a message and a song (this was once a music blog). The song is one I have been listening to quite a lot latley and I'm hoping to see them in Brighton. It's some low-fi garage punk for everyone's enjoyment! But remember kids:

Japandriods - Young Hearts Spark Fire

dubslope

Finally got all my classes straightened out. My schedule is pretty sweet. Wednesday sucks because I have a 9am, but every other day starts at either 11 or 12 and I have no class on Friday. The courses I'm taking are Society, State, and Humanity (Phil), Making of Modern Europe(Govt), Politics of Governance: European Union (Govt), and Comparative Societies (Soc). I must be one of the few students at Sussex with a diverse schedule like this, as it seems students here have to strictly take courses in there major or minor. My sociology seminar teacher seems like he has the potential to be one of the coolest teachers I've ever had. We spent most of the first seminar discussing how we would like to run it, he talked about how he hated school and would never give out essays and exams if it were up to him (making I funny joke about Karl Marx writing the communist manifesto in an hour and a half in silence with no food or drink), and mentioned that he was going to a slayer concert soon.

Last night was dubstep night at one of the campus bars. Dubstep seems bigger here than back in America. It was a lot of fun, but I got far to drunk. I barely remember stumbling home, but I'm pretty sure I left a trail of what I drank that night if anyone was trying to follow. I also have a painful bump on my head that I have no clue how I sustained. It's strange that on the weekdays everyone goes out clubbing and bar hoping but on the weekends everyone stays on campus to party. No idea what's in store for tonight. Also, I can't figure out how to turn the italics off of this post, so sorry for that.

Last night I went to a club called Coalition. It was fun, but I wasn't too into the music. Apparently it was "cheese night" so they were playing cheesy songs, mostly crap from the 80s. With drinks and dancing you can't really complain though. Here are a couple pics of the club scene:

Cheers mate!

First morning waking up in England. Of course I’m extremely hungover. We shall get to that.

Getting here was hell. My flight was delayed. The fat lady in front of me put her seat as far back as possible for the entire duration of the trip. The bus from the station was delayed and I had to take a transfer bus that wasn’t originally part of the route. Then another bus. Then a grueling walk trudging through the snow in the FREEZING weather through the entire huge campus, since my dorm is located in the far back and the usual shuttle service was not running due to the snow. I honestly felt close to tears due to how cold and exhausted I was, especially my gloveless, mitten less, bare hands. Then I had to figure out how to get my key and find my specific room and such. I did run into some luck. I ran into another clarkie attending Sussex at the airport in London, so we were able to work together to figure out how the hell to get to Brighton. Then at the bus station the two of us meet a very friendly man from Finland that was going back to Sussex for his second semester and without him guiding us on the bus transfers and directions through campus I think I would have died out in the snow somewhere. Exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, and such, I set up my bed and took a lengthy nap.

This is my room:

I woke up a few hours later when I heard “Sunrise” by Yeasayer blasting across the hall from me (the dorm is set up with 4 singles on 3 floors). I came out and a few people were hanging out in the small hallway area outside my room. They were extremely friendly, introduced themselves, and invited me to drink with them. One of them showed me how to get to the campus grocery store so I could buy beer and I randomly picked this beer called “Kronenbourg,” which came in a 4 pack of tallboys. We played some texas holdem’ with a few people until things quickly escaladed. All of a sudden this small hallway had about 10-12 people in it and the real drinking began. Looking for a new card game to play, I showed everyone how to play fuck the dealer, and we played a round of that. Then a ton more people came and this small hallway was as packed as it possibly could be, and we played a new drinking game, which is when I realized that these people are very, very heavy drinkers. This is how this game worked. There is a community glass and someone pours a bunch of whatever they are drinking into it, no matter what kind of alcohol they are drinking. There is one person that controls the deck of cards, and you have to guess if its red or black suited. If you guess correctly, you pass the glass to the next person, they put some of their drink into the glass, and then they guess. When someone guesses wrong, they have to chug the cup. I had to chug an entire beer glass full of a mix of beer, whiskey, rum, and wine. Within a half hour of playing this game I was already wasted, as was everyone else. I stayed up late partying with everyone and then passed out around 5am.

*as another note, I tried to pick a few songs while we were all hanging out and they turned out to be failures, as both songs were changed about 30 seconds into the song. I went with what I thought were solid classics in Crystal Castles’ “Vanished” and Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead.” I shall keep trying.

Day 2. I met up with Jesse and we were able to find a stream of the pats playoff game online, so we chilled out, drank a few beers and watched the game. By the 3rd quarter it was obvious they had no chance of winning anymore so we went to one of the 2 bars on campus with some guys from Jesse’s flat. The bar was incredibly crowded and I drank quite a few beers. Eventually Jesse left for bed but I stuck around with some of my flat mates I met on the first night. We got wasted, went to some crazily overcrowded party, I bought some hash of some random guy selling at the door of the party, and then I was just drunkenly stumbling around trying to find someone who wanted to smoke with me. Eventually I did find someone so we went to his friends room and I hung out with them, smoked a spliff (this seems to be the only way they really smoke here) and drank some straight rum. Then I ended up in some other random room smoking more, and then I passed out. At this point I had still barely slept at all and the jetlag finally hit me. The biggest problem I have had here is that I did not bring the right plug adapters, so I could only use my computer for about 2-3 hours until the battery died. With no access to electronics, I had no communication with anyone and I never had any idea what time was. Thus, I slept all day, waking up at 7:30. I took it easy this day, just going out to the campus bar again and having a few beers, met another American from Indiana that enjoys the herb so we smoked together and then I went to bed.

Day 4: I decided I should attend my first orientation event, the pub crawl. Basically the school bussed the international students into Brighton and then we went bar hoping to about 5 different bars. This was a ton of fun, all the bars I have been to so far are really cool. One strange cultural difference, no bar stools. Nobody sits at the bars and drinks, they either stand or sit down on benches and tables scattered throughout the bars. I got good and wasted once again, eventually trying to cut a huge line into a club and having the bouncers stop me, so I went home.

Pub Crawl:

Day 5: Back to Brighton with a bunch of my flat mates for my first clubbing experience. It was pretty awesome, the first club we went to was called Digital and we went because on Wednesdays they have 1 pound drinks, so it’s kind of like a Dollah draft for us. I guess they could call it a pound pint or something if they need a catchy phrase. The music at the club was interesting, there was some terrible stuff like Kayne West remixes and such, but also some surprisingly cool stuff like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The second club was more house and fast paced electronic stuff that was really fun to dance to after a lot of vodka and whiskey. Brighton has soooo many clubs and bars. Also the bus ride is hilarious, everyone is wasted, they don’t care if you bring drinks onto it, and everyone sings songs together and such. I’m gonna try to get some video of this.

So those are some recaps of some days. Some random things to talk about…classes here are interesting. Basically you have each class twice a week. One class is a lecture in a big lecture hall. The second class breaks the class down into small seminars for discussion, questions, debate, etc. It seems like a good idea, but I can’t really decide if it’s a better system yet.

Everyone here loves Obama. Some people even have posters of him in their rooms. I’ve had a ton of drunken political conversations with people here and it’s been very interesting. It’s amazing how much Obama’s address to Europe in Berlin and his intelligent rhetoric has changed the perception of Americans and American politics in the world (or at least here). It’s been encouraging since there hasn’t been a lot to be happy about with Obama’s lack of action so far, although I blame the democrats in the senate for that mostly. It was very important for me to establish my hatred of Bush so I can get some level of respect politically as an American.

So that’s that. I have no class on Friday so I’m likely heading into Brighton later for another club/bar hoping experience, so there shall be more stories to be told. I hope all is well in the states!

Biscuits and Tea

Goodbye America. Hello England. I'm going to try to revive this blog to document my travels while studying abroad at Sussex University in Brighton. Pics, stories, and all that crap. So if your interested, check back every once in a while for updates! So far, not so good. Aparently there is a crazy blizzard in England so my flight got canceled and it took 6 hours of fighting on the phone (my mom did this of course) to get a new flight without paying $2000...it's a long, frustrating story that I don't feel like explaining, but I think all is well now. Anyway, I shall miss everyone, make sure to stay in touch!

let's try this one more time

So I've decided to do this thing where I pretend people actually listen to my radio show, which can be streamed online every Wednesday from 12-1am at http://www.clarku.edu/students/rocu/listen. I'm going to offer up a free download of at least one song from each week's playlist. To get things started, we have the first song I played, the French Kick's Over the World. A friend introduced me to this band a few weeks ago and I've fallen in love with not only this song, but the entire album by the name of "Swimming." It's great stuff, check it out.

French Kicks - Over the World

Also, check out this new music video of another song I played, the newest Dodos single "Fables." It's pretty simple but cool none the less, and a great song.