"I know it won't all go the way it should but I know the heart of life is good."
-John Mayer
Yesterday Vijay put his iTunes on my computer because I needed music, and now I have 4000 songs. "Heart of Life" by John Mayer was the first one to come on, I like that song. It describes this past week; mostly everyone's flights were canceled but we were all together at least and we all got to spend some extra time in London.
I'm personally having a good time. Yesterday all I did was go to Wetherspoon's and ate delicious lasagna and profiteroles. After dinner Erin and I helped Kate pack and then went to flat 4 with Anna to say bye to Sammie. Sammie's flight was scheduled to leave at 8am this morning so she was taking a cab at 3am. We got to her flat around 1:30 and all the lights were out in the hallways so me, Sammie, Anna, Erin, Kate, Vijay and Hannah played hide n go seek in the stairway. We walked Sammie out to her cab at 3 and then Erin, Kate and I sat on Kate's bed for an hour talking.
This morning Erin and I walked Kate to her cab at 8 and she went to the airport. I've talked to Sammie today and her flight was delayed at least 3 hours. I'm not sure about Kate, she should be on her plane right now. Today Erin and I are going to meet Vijay, Vivek and Hannah in central and go to the Imperial War Museum and then go ice skating. I'm supposed to figure out where we're going ice skating...there's the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park, Tower of London and the London Eye.
The most unfortunate part of this situation is my suitcases. They're all packed to the limit full of stuff and I kind of need clothes for the next three days. I also need my camera cord to upload pictures so I can find one to send in for my "Snowed in" article. Here is one picture that Sammie took of me on Westminster Bridge that I'm going to send to The X website.
Yesterday at Wetherspoon's the bartender started randomly talking to me when I was ordering dessert. She must have been really bored because she had me like awkwardly away from the rest of the group for 20 minutes. She started asking me about accents and where all of us are from and then she started explaining English accents and how everyone is very protective and proud of their accent because it says where you're from. She also asked about Christmas in America and said that England doesn't make as much of a big deal out of it as we seem to (decorating houses and such) because England is supposed to be "multicultural" and they don't want to offend anyone or be "racist." She said this is especially true in the East End because there are so many Muslims. She told me that during the World Cup this summer some people complained about the English flag being flown everywhere. (I'm not sure if I believe that, but who knows.) She said everyone here has to be really careful of what they do and say so that they're not "racist." She seemed angry about it since it was England in the first place they should be allowed to fly the English flag and Christmas should be respected.
I find this all very interesting, maybe that's why I listened to her for so long, because all of that stuff she told me relates to my Villanova class. Basically what I learned in class is because of the UN Convention of 1951 Relating to the Status of Refugees, Britain has an international obligation to accept refugees. Beginning in the 1960's with the hippy peace loving age and everything, "multiculturalism" was the mindset of the government and the people, meaning that you could come to England as an immigrant or refugee and basically continue your life as if you were in your native country. After July 7, 2005 when the there were tube bombings, Britain changed its policy to "integration," meaning when you're here you should be integrated into British society (i.e. accept British values, learn English, etc). According to that bartender, integration hasn't hit yet, at least wherever she's been. I mean, I don't really see how it's hit the East End...but he was one of those professors that you couldn't argue with. He thought he knew so much that whatever you said was wrong, so there was no point in arguing with him. We were having a discussion about the makeup of the population of England and such and I tried to explain to him how Mile End is and he wasn't accepting it for some reason. It's not like I've lived here for three months or anything...of course he knows more.
Anyway the point is it was such a strange coincidence to have just written a paper about that and then randomly talk to a bartender about basically the same topic.
Now I need to write my article, wake up Erin and find clothes for today.
M
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