Keeping Busy

Hi!  I've been trying to find activities for myself to do that let me keep my sanity simply because otherwise sitting in my room all day researching is getting me down.

I got more paralympic tickets, this time for the medal matches of several judo weight divisions.  Should be pretty fun!  I'm going with a guy in my dorm who does a lot of judo and Brazilian jui jitsu, so he'll be filling us in on all the stuff that we don't know about the rules and things.

The Olympics and Paralympics are still a long ways off, though.  In the meantime, look who got another letter delivered to our house!

On Saturday, I went to a bar in Camden Town called the Blues Kitchen for a free show.  A band called the Spyders was playing.  The vocalist / rhythm guitarist had a little curl in his hair, Superman style.  Or Elvis style, we couldn't decide until he started singing and then we realized he was definitely channeling Elvis.  They had a few original songs but for the most part they did covers.  We accidentally ended up in the very front row -- I could have untied their shoelaces if I had wanted to.  It was fun because I got to watch their techniques, pedals, etc.  They did a lot of Johnny Cash, Elvis, 60s surfer dude hits, and other stuff and it was a lot of fun!  I meant to leave the bar at 11 or 12 so I could get some sleep, but I ended up staying out pretty late.

The next morning, Lakshmi and I got ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn (which is even earlier up here than in Nebraska) and hopped on a bus bound for Victoria.  All the tube lines near my house were down for the day because they're trying to make sure they are tip top for the Olympics, but that means that it's a pain in the butt to get anywhere on the weekends.  We were volunteering for the Sunwalk, a breast cancer charity walk.  Free t-shirts, free hats, and a good way to spend the morning.  I was stationed at a traffic light right in front of Parliament, so I fielded more questions from tourists than from the walkers!  Most of the people in the walk were only wearing bras, decorated with feathers and beads and things, including the men!  At some point an armed forces truck was waiting at the light and some of the male walkers gave them a bit of a show.  "Hey fellas!"

During the walk, I also saw the horse guards go tramping past!

Lakshmi, me, and the other guy on traffic light detail demonstrating our "STOP!" pose.

After the walk ended, we went to Trafalgar Square to see what kind of festivities were going on for Canada Day.  I went in search of maple syrup and all I managed to find was poutine.  Still better than nothing, I guess?  We observed a minute or two of a hockey game as well!

On the bus ride back we went down Oxford Street, which is very decked out at the moment.  Regents Street is equally decked out with all the flags from different countries.

Sunday night was the big game, Euro Finals, Spain v Italy.  Naturally, I was rooting for Spain.  The game started out fun, but then the more goals Spain but in the sadder I began to feel for poor Italy.  You can see the dismay on some people's faces (I was one of the few supporting Spain in our group).

Tomorrow I'm going to a hot dog eating competition to celebrate the 4th of July.  Dunno if I'll take part in it yet or not.  The record in 19 dogs in 30 minutes, which I think I could probably go for but I'd feel mighty sick, and I don't particularly want to spend tomorrow tossing up mushy buns.

I'm also going to help Sanjiv build a computer tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited.  We put together a few parts the other day, but the majority of the components are coming in the mail tomorrow!  Yayyy party!  Anyway, talk to you later!  : )