My Uncle is a Boss

Right now I'm in the midst of the second session of summer school. I decided to switch it up and take an International Relations class instead of econ. The name of the class is "Building Democracies from Conflict". That name sounded sexy, so I chose it. Turns out, this is the least sexy class ever. There are four professors teaching it. I will profile them:

(1) Male, about 80 yrs old, British, sits at a desk and mutters. My personal favorite.

(2) Male, middle-age, Scottish, long neck and strange teeth visible up close, decent, regular teacher. 

(3) Male, chubby, weird-ass accent (Bulgarian), voice goes falsetto when he makes certain points.

(4) Male, Serbian, also mutters in Russian-sounding accent. Can easily be imagined working for the Russian mob, cutting people's ears off for fucking up a job.

Anyway, this class is more interesting for how weird the teachers are than for what they're actually saying. 

K, I really did this post so I could write about my trip to the country. School is lame.

Last weekend I went to Sussex to see my uncle (mom's youngest bro), aunt, and cousins. Turns out they live on something that could best be described as an estate. My uncle, a paint-ball tycoon, lives in a house with lakes in the backyard and a rolls royce in the garage. He claims his company is the third-soon to be first-largest maker of paintballs in the world.

On Friday night we had his driver, who he calls "old miserable", take us to the Horse and Groom to get drunk. He forced me to match him on beer. I had 5 pints (I'm pretty proud of my growing tolerance). The locals all know each other and gave me the once over. Pubs are really central to English culture, no joke.

The rest of the weekend was split between spending time with my cousins (in the woods or playing really violent videogames) or within 500 feet of the pub with my uncle and aunt. Oh yeah, we also rolled up to the Sunday fair in the rolls with the top down. The place was beautiful. If you really want to experience England you've got to get out of London and see the villages. 

The most English day ever

Sunday was lovely. The sun was shinning and the countryside beckoned. Me, Sven, Josh, and our Colombian TA Oliver took the chance to get out of gritty London for the day and see Cambridge. Train stops on the way to Cambridge give you an idea of how silly the names are here: Seven Sisters, Sawbridgeworth, Bishops Shortford. Also saw a bus to Nunshead.

Where you aware...?
Cambridge is over eight-hundred years old and filled with some of the best colleges in the world. The grass is impeccably mowed into checker patterns and only college fellows are permitted to trod on it. People wear gowns on a regular basis.

Anyway, we got off the train and toured around a bit. I checked out my dad's old college and went into the college chapel. After I was finished praying to God we decided to call our professor (who lives in Cambridge). He met us for lunch and we coerced him into punting along the canal that runs behind the colleges. This is punting:

Professor Aniket (punting) and our TA Oliver

King's College from "the backs"

After punting we did a walking tour and ended up at a pub along the canal talking econ again. Finally at 1030 we took the train back to way-less-romantic London. I'm definitely returning to Cambridge one day, hopefully either as a fellow or lawn-mower so I can walk on the grass.

Blah blee blah blah

I'm really unmotivated, but it's time to do a post. Sorry, but this is happening in bullet points because it's easier.

- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday have been carbon copies of each other. Always rainy, always lunch at Wasabi, always weighing whether the prof is more of a genius or a douche. 

- Slept through the first half of lecture on Monday and missed the prof. berating the class for poor midterms. I think that was the best possible day to sleep in.

- Got a good enough grade that I should take the final seriously. Pretty stoked about that.

- I've been meaning to get a haircut for a while, so I stopped in at the barbers located in my local UNDERGROUND STATION. The Russian barber asked how short I wanted it and before I could respond started buzzing the side of my head. I started to wish I'd looked on Yelp or something first to scope this place out, but it was all good, he knew what he was doing.

- Today was the last lecture of session 1. Hell yes! Tomorrow is dead day and Friday is the final. If I don't blow it I could end up with an A in the class. I need to find the London version of Shot in the Dark to study.

- One of the goals of my professor was to "undermine our confidence" regarding our prior beliefs about development. He was really successful at that. One thing I've learned from this class is that the problems societies face are extremely complicated. The channels that effect development are often non-linear and inter-related (similar to targeting a tumor with different treatment methods). I think an acknowledgement of these complexities would really do America a lot of good. Almost everyone seems to be vocally advocating certain policies without real understanding (I'm also guilty). Restraint is totally underrated.

- Stopped at the George and Vulture for a pint of London's Best and some garlic bread after school. 

- Looking forward to paintball with my cousins on Saturday and Cambridge on Sunday. Time to study.

Also, if you're in AZ, please send some sun my way. The pic below is out of my bedroom window. The sky is this (white) color all of the time.

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Today I slept in thanks to my wonderful curtains that block all light. Looked out the window to see really rainy English style weather. Then like ten minutes later is was sunny. And then torrential rain like ten minutes after that. Decided I would risk it and for some reason not bring a rain jacket.

So that's what I did. I walked to find a place for breakfast and made it somewhere just before another downpour. Breakfast = pizza + pasta + salad + OJ + cappuccino. Read like 15% of my assigned reading about informational asymmetry in microfinance. Decided to give up and go to the Imperial War Museum.

Took the Underground to "Elephant and Castle" station (what the hell does that mean?) and started walking in the wrong direction to the museum. Suddenly it starts raining hard so I take shelter at a bus stop. Packed under this tiny bus stop for like 15 minutes with at least a dozen people from random countries (Mexico? Somewhere in Africa? I have no idea where anyone in London is from). The sun comes out and I walk to the museum.

The museum is totally awesome of course. Tons of real tanks and glass cases with real artifacts. I went through all the big wars and read the little explanations that were written with a totally pro-British bias. If you've got time look up the Falklands war. 1000 lives were lost in the 1980s so Britain could retain a totally useless tiny island off the coast of Argentina.

Bludgeoning devices used in WWI. The one on the left is called a punch dagger. Pretty nasty stuff.

Huge gun from a ship.

At about six the museum closed and I went home via Sainsbury's supermarket. I was hungry while shopping, so I bought probably the maximum I could carry home. Then I checked out at a self-checkout that clearly said "CARD ONLY" and tried to use cash. I held up a line of like 10 people. I was expecting someone to say something mean and British but no one did (people are a lot nicer here than I remember). Came home and had a feast. Now I'm writing this instead of finishing the paper on microfinance.

It's taken me two weeks in England to finally start this thing. Here is everything I've done:

- First I had no money

- Class much harder than expected, leading to realization that going to UofA has made me think I'm smarter than I actually am.

- Jet-lagged, but very stimulated by diverse and interesting classmates, excellent prof, and endless opportunities to get drunk (including the professor paying for our beer).

- Living in youth hostel with rotating array of friendly Australians. *Important observation* Australians will buy you drinks if you don't buy any for yourself. They would rather go broke than see you spend the night sober.

- First Friday: split a Smirnoff bottle and mango/apple juice with Miles from California. Went to the school-arranged nightclub thing. Realized that going to a nightclub thing sponsored by an economics school is a recipe for hot, stinky guys and bad music.

- Moved into my student apartment in Shoreditch. Feels very luxurious after a week of dingy hostel living. The neighborhood is populated by hipsters with poofy hair on top and nice clothes. 

- Visited grandma with my pop. Ate a bunch of food and got to see the idyllic country side.

- Week 2: school not as thrilling anymore. Reading 40 pages of academic econ journal articles a night is making me not want to go to grad school

- Drinking cappuccinos constantly is a delicious way of paying attention in class.

- Started to compile a list of all of the places that have the word "cock" in them. There are a lot. Everyday the automated voice on the tube lines announces "Picadilly line to Cockfosters". There is also a road called "cock street".

- Went to an insane club called Fabric. Met and English guy named Vulcan who calls Americans yanks. Saw Flux Pavilion. Still don't get dubstep, but it was a good time.

- Went to the science museum. Loved that it was free and that the medical exhibit had not been updated at all since 1980.

- About to do my first load of laundry and then hang out with my new friend Adolfo from Colombia.

That's my two weeks compressed. The next post will be a bit more descriptive. 

J