And Then Italy Won the World Cup

Who: Italy, France, Karen, Karen's friend Evan, me, loads of overexcited Italians, dejected drunk French men
What: World Cup 2006, Italy v. France
Where: Bar Italia, Leicester; the street, Leicester, Picadilly
When: sometime in July 2006
Memorable moments:
+Zidane's headbutt
+emotional Italians throwing waterbottles and food at a tiny plasma t.v. screen after Zidane's
headbutt
+emotional Italians cursing at the French at a tiny plasma t.v. screen
+emotional Italians giving the one finger salute at a tiny plasma t.v. screen after the infamous
headbutt
+the pilgrimage to Leicester after Italy won
+proud Italians lying down in the middle of the road
+proud Italians climbing on top of traffic lights +drunk French man at Tesco hours after the game ended: "I have a girlfriend...Theeze Eetalians. All zey doo eez eet espaghettee..."

Bar Italia


Score 1 for Italia. Karen soaked in beer.


Can you spot the t.v. screen?


Victory


Loves.


To Leicester


Oh, what a night.

RISE

Karen and I went to Finsbury Park for the Rise Festival, featuring a free concert and carnival ride fun, to promote racial unity and diversity. Cool acts like The Wailers, the Buzzcocks, and Common performed. A comedy tent was alive and out of control and so were the DJs who kept on playing various reggaeton sounding remixes. It was super fun!! So many people! So much food! Karen and I split a chocolate syrup and banana crepe while lazing about on the grass like the thousands of others. Families were in attendance, punks, hippies, hip hop heads, and everything in-between.


Check out that crowd!


Common takes the stage!!

Karen is obviously excited to see Common. And, I must say, the girl definitely put her back into it once 'Go!' came on.

Common jumped the stage to join us little people watching him in the pit!!! Seriously, dudes, he was a couple yards away from us. Squeeeeaaaaaalllll!!! He was so handsome and agile!

By 8 o' clock...


Police on horsies!

Company Picnic!

Last Thursday, we celebrated the site's happy belated sixth birthday with activities and a picnic at Hyde Park. We were divided into two teams of the 'Pinks/Reds' and the 'Whites.' I was on the Whites (the cool team). We competed in a summer olympics of sorts with competitions like tug-of-war, obstacle course relay, rounders (similar to baseball), a three-legged race, and dodgeball! Breaks in-between games provided ample time to nosh on sandwiches, practice our hula hoop skills, and drink lots of booze! Strangely, someone forgot to bring the water... But fruit juice and Pimms were enough to quench our dry throats. Yay!

After the midday to afternoon activities, worn out and in need of a good calm-us-down, we headed over to the English watering hole known as the 'pub.' Again, more booze and celebratory shots followed (the Whites won!) as well as loud, drunken banter. I explained what sororities and fraternities were to a fellow co-worker who did not look rather impressed with them and found them quite fascinating, though in a shocked and disgusted way. I tried to be as unbiased as possible, and I think I was, but she obviously had her mind made up. The Greek life was not for her.

Whilst trying to hold conversation, shouts of various co-workers' last names were being announced for all the pub to hear. A who-has -the-best-middle-name-contest was also being held. And a serious-sounding conversation on which t.v. show has the most 'clever writing' was debated ('The West Wing' and 'The Sopranos' were the winners). One co-worker repeatedly kept apologizing for what I was witnessing/experiencing and said I did not have to drink the one of three shots that were being offered to me by one loud fellow Whites teammate ("Go on! Drink it!!!). Apparently, my co-workers have never done this with an intern and the same fellow Whites teammate told me I was "privileged." As in, take advantage of the free beers and free shots we are offering. Another co-worker then flopped his arms on my shoulder and said, "I hate everyone here! Everyone!" Of course, he didn't mean that. He told me so today!

By night time, most of us were clearly gone and so we walked down Regent St. to this club called Strawberry Moons. They played 80s music and even had a Robbie Williams impersonator. The Robbie impersonator was boring and my co-workers were definitely not afraid to tell him so. One blew ear-deafening loudly her whistle and screamed "RUBBISH!!!!!!" ::whistle!!:: "You're rubbish!!!" over Robbie impersonator's karaoke rendition of 'Millenium.' Staccato rhythms, moshing, anti bump and grind moves, multiple hand claps, and air guitar were the dance moves of the night.

The day was was fab. And an overall interesting (in a good way!) venture into British drinking and atypical club culture. Hahaha.

Pictures for your visual pleasure. No tipsy ones though...fortunately for everyone!

BREAK!

The day summed with inanimate objects.









EVERYONE!

Show Your Pride

Your gay pride that is!

Mallory, Karen, and I met up with Auntie Bonet for the Gay Pride Parade on Oxford St. It was a blast to say the least. Ian McKellan was there, but we did not spot him. BOO! Oh, well... We had loads of fun checking out the floats, bobbing our heads to incredibly poppy music that could be heard for miles, supporting our queer friends. Later on we grabbed some noodles at Wagamama. Mmmmmm, delish!




A choir! They sang 'Bootylicious' a capella!

The Filipino crew in traditional costume. There was even a guy riding a tricycle complete with blaring boom box!

The senior citizens. They were absolutely charming!

The overwhelming turnout.

Technical Difficulties

Hey everyone,

So my adaptor is mysteriously not working and my computer is all out of charge. This means I will not be having as unlimited access to the computer and Internet as I used to. I'm using the PC Lab provided by FIE, but only come here to do my laundry (which is every 2 weeks) so I won't be as prompt with photo/journal/email updates. Poop. Oh, well. The last email I sent all you all was probably enough anyway!

I'll try and upload pictures from the lab as soon as I can (stupid me forgot to bring my USB plug). I've got loads from the Gay Pride Parade, the RISE concert featuring Common, and the Italia versus France match at Bar Italia - all of which were exciting and crazy I can't even begin to describe! Hopefully, I can get these up sometime this week.

Until then, I guess you'll have to gaze adoringly at Adrien. Go ahead, just scroll down...

L'Espagne

Date: 24 June - 27 June
Location: Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Sta. Maria, Rota, SPAIN
Description: Couldn't have been better
Highlights: Hanging out with Vane, meeting Vane's family, Adrien Brody

First day in Spain drinking my first cup of cafe con leche.


We drank tinto and had tapas while watching flamenco dancers in Jerez.


Rota! Spent the entire Sunday afternoon bumming on the beach.


Vane and me


Our makeshift home on the beach complete with striped umbrella!


I want to say this is the Atlantic, but to be quite honest I'm not sure!


Oh, blue...


I could definitely get used to this.


This little one crawled across the sand to the showers and reminded us of a little sandcrab. He was smiling the whole way through and had the longest lashes I had ever seen.


Courtyard adjacent to the church, Rota


The colors are so bright and bold on the buildings here in Rota. I love the color combos. The style reminds me very much of home.


Tio Pepe bodega - the sherry process, Jerez


Overlooking the city of Jerez


The famous bull


Cutting ham in Vane's kitchen. Yes, that is a raw (but cured!) ham leg!! YUM.


Italian restaurant in Puerto. Trying to play it cool on the outside, but was a bit shaky on the inside cos Adrien Brody was sitting two tables away from us (to the right)!


Vane was nervous beyond belief, "Oh, my gosh, GEN, he was in The Jacket!"


But we sucked it up and managed to ask him for a picture. He kindly obliged and then fled off into the night, back to the set to film the upcoming 'Manolete.' Notice my clenched fists and Vane's overly pursed lips. Clearly, we're going to explode from excitement.


What a way to cap off my last night in Spain! Oh, Adrien...

Greenwich

Karen, Mallory, and I left for Greenwich mid-morning on Monday. Definitely one of the highlights of my stay. Lunchtime went to a pubby restaurant type deal and got a burger, chips, and beer/soda meal for a sweet deal at three pounds 99! And, man, was it delicious. I haven't had meat in such a long time. My body's been craving the meat. Really, I just want to nosh on eggs and bacon.

But back to Greenwich.

Took the Tube to Tower Hill and got a lovely view of the Tower of London. Dudes, it was right across the street!


Then took the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) to Cutty Sark.


Being silly.






Navigation dude.



National Maritime Museum - One of the best museums I've ever been to. Had artifacts from Titanic and other sunken ships as well as exhibits on the the history and progress of seafaring, astronomy, and navigation. The brains it took for people to come up with this stuff is insane!


Lots of space


Queen's House - its architecture inspired the design for the White House.




I couldn't resist! The colorrrssssss.


The Royal Obervatory is at the top of the hill! I wish we could've looked through the jumbo telescopes. Insane to think we were in the same rooms Newton and Flamstead were in when they were charting the stars and exploring the galaxies. I love this place!


The Millenium Dome is to your right.


Standing on both sides of the Prime Meridian!