Pretentious Rabbit

 
A copy of "Peter Rabbit, Hieroglyph Edition" from the gift shop at the British Museum.

To quote my cousin's friend "Not much in the museum is actually British, is it?"

To quote Nick Hornby "Is there anyplace that is more bloody boring than the British Museum?" 

Weekend

Some pics from the last few days:



Chinatown in London. This was a great evening where we did some barhopping in SoHo and Leicester Square. Randomly enough, I bumped into a bunch of people who were from Detroit.

Neato sushi place with conveyer belt. Price is dictated by color of the plate.

Absolut Ice Bar - Walls, furniture, and glasses all made of ice and room was -5C. More interesting than good.

They still call them "Carphones" here and use the hectare. It's like living in a time warp.

I've been riding the tube for about 2hrs a day and initially I found it a very interesting slice of life, but now I just am mad when I forget something to read and curse tourists. Mind the gap.

Some are spicy, some are not.

Went for full on English Afternoon Tea at the Landmark Hotel. Very elaborate and proper. They have something called clotted cream which tastes like butter but is clearly very bad for you. Also has a terrible name.

Yep.

Us and Them

I've been out getting stuff for starting a normal office job and began to pay attention to what people are wearing around London. Since I last checked, more people are wearing things that would typically be seen in America, including sweat pants, tennis shoes, stuff with logos on it, and baseball hats. As far back as I can remember, people in England dressed like adults for the most part, slacks, shoes, topcoat, etc on the level of business casual at least. However there is definitely a creeping cultural change here in the UK toward all-things American.

The movie place where we went a few nights ago was surrounded by a bowling alley (didn't exist here more than a few years ago) an "On the Border" type of chain Mexican place, and a Burger King. People no longer have milkmen that bring you what you want in the morning. The mail only comes once a day now. Everyone seems to have a NY Yankees hat or jacket and apparently no one has any idea what sport the team plays. Television now has British versions of everything from "Beauty and the Geek" to "Pimp My Ride", the latter of which is apparently hilariously hosted by a white guy who says "bling" all the time, but I haven't found the listings.

You see this sort of thing going on all around Europe as well. This phenomenon of more Americanization also comes with an increasing amount of diversity in the public sphere - the train could be full of women with hijabs, African guys with African-guy hats, Polish construction workers, Sikh businessmen, and the occasional white English guy. It leads to people here calling for more restrictions on immigration, but it also makes for an amazing city. This evening I had dinner with an Indian-American cousin and her German husband. You see this globalization in major cities in America also and it makes you wonder exactly what it will mean to be from a country or race in the next 50 years. Until we figure that out, they're trying to look American and I'm trying to look English. Well, sort of.

Americana

The part of being abroad that really sucks is when people start to ask you what is going on with the government. "People must realize what a tyrant Bush is, right? People must see that he's only inciting more violence against the US, right? Who exactly is voting for him?" These questions are difficult to answer as a representative and citizen of the United States of America.

My uncle and I were discussing the administration after my cousin and I saw Syriana (It sucked. No plot. Could have been much much better. Stupid liberals always fucking up the right story.....) and he started in with the Katrina business. I agreed with what he said, probably even before he said anything. The worst part was when he compared the American public to that of the USSR or China.

He said "In communist countries, it was obvious that if you spoke out or questioned the actions of the government, you would be hurt or killed. No one had any allusions about that. However in America, questioning the government seems to be grounds for being called un-American and thusly the people seem to be cowed into complacency. No one seems to care about national issues or vote in your country at all. It is actually a much worse situation than a populace under a dictator when the people censor themselves."

Fuck, man. What am I supposed to say to that?

Holland

Definitely an interesting place. If you spend most of your time away from the Red Light district and actually try to hang out with the Dutch, you'll find that a) They are happy to get you where your going but b) Don't wish to converse with you if you're not Dutch and c) the food sucks. Aside from that, the place is a liberal wet dream - bicycles have the same rights as cars, there is free repair everywhere, social programs abound, everyone seems pretty happy and well adjusted and people don't sweat details too much. They're pretty chilled out folks in general and seem to worry about the important things.

Although sometimes I wonder if they're not so "left they become right", as in the limited number of ATM's in town, which I suspect is designed to curb spending. Anyhow, there is good ethnic food and it was great to see my friends who have been living there for over a year now.

Something no one ever seems to mention is that the city itself is very beautiful, especially the canals and also especially at night. Well worth a visit.

(Image is from an Absinthe bar. The flames are burning sugar cubes. No you do not see green fairies, that's only if its made wrong. You feel tipsy and slightly alert - same effect as Irish Coffee.)

Lundon

I've arrived here in London at my relatives house, my first visit since 2000, for which I blame graduate school. They're still great and hilarious and I'm glad to have them in my family. Tomorrow is the only real city day I get this week, as I'm leaving for Holland on Thursday to visit with friends from graduate school. I'm going to hit up some museums, which thanks to socialism are all free, and wander around some in the foul weather they have a patent on here.

In case you can't see a timestamp, it's the middle of the night and I'm jetlagged. In an effort to stay awake after arriving in the mid-morning, I had my cousin drag me to town to run errands, one of which was a stop at the Argos store. By way of explanation, Argos is a retailer more famous for their catalog than anything else, and as a result their storefront is a lobby with lots of these catalogs bolted to the walls, some cashiers and a pickup window. That's it. They cut out all the displays entirely. So you pick out what you like, pay for it, then wait in this area (comprised of a bunch of chairs in the middle of the store) where you watch a rectangle with your order number on a TV navigate the cryptic queue algorithm to figure out when your space heater will be ready. If this isn't a dystopian future already, I'm not sure what is. Again, that much better when you can barely keep your head upright.

Ideally, something more interesting to see tomorrow. I'm going to go back to bed and stare at the ceiling for another four hours.

Addendum

There is also a huge group of black people going to Tel-Aviv in front of me. Yahweh saw fit to cancel half of their reservations without notice.

My flight is delayed and I'm drinking with old british ladies at the bar. There is also a guy with a handlebar mustache, a woman shitfaced on white wine with her kids, and some Nordic junkies. The world is a strange place.

O'Hare notes

I am about to leave for Europe. In line with me at the checkin desk is a large group of loud eurotrash Italians. Two of them look like Yanni. Also there is a group going to Jamaica and they all have smiles on their faces.

The Air-India desk is staffed with white people. Everyone in line has about 5 times their own weight in luggage. Why can my people not pack? Also, traditional Indian clothes are not designed for Chicago winters.

I hope there is a bar in the gate area.

The great wheel

In Detroit, I met some old friends who recently had twins. Seeing old friends is something I never tire of, and I got to spend dinner with them and their parents whom I've known now for over 15 years as well as (literally) bounce their babies on my knee. After this I went to visit our close family friends who experienced a death in the family a few days ago of my Lila Ba (grandmother) to whom I'm not related but has been like family to me for over 20 years. She was suffering greatly in her final days from lung problems, so her passing was somewhat of a relief. She also was very particular and had made all arrangments for her services as well as her belongings well before her passing. She is survived by a husband of 55 years who doesn't really know what to do with himself, but is surrounded by family and very strong as well as maintaining some small amount of humor amidst the sadness. I'm glad she went peacefully and was emotionally prepared. We should all be so lucky. So in one evening there is birth and death and the wheel turns.