There Is No Warm Beer Here

Okay, realistically it might be closer to one blog a week, rather than two or three. The weeks are getting busier here, but I am still having a blast. I am busy on Thursdays all day with my internship even though I don't have any classes beyond Wednesday. I am not going out to a different country every weekend. I have some trips planned, but it is expensive enough just to live here so I don't have mounds of money around to fly to a different country every weekend. To do that is not hard and it is very cheap, but things add up.

I do have a 3-4 day trip to Scotland the first weekend of March. I am also going to make it to Paris...probably twice. I am also communicating with Guy about my trip to Israel. Although flying to Israel from here is a lot cheaper than doing it from the United States, it's not cheap. The trip will still run me close to $700 if I don't want to have a two-stopper to Tel Aviv with long lay-overs.

Kate is due here the 12th and as I do more things in and around London I am making an informal list of things we could do while I am here. I can't believe we will have the opportunity to have a vacation in London! I am sure we won't get to all of them, but we will get to most I bet.

Tonight I am going to see The Producers. I don't know anything about The Producers, except that the movie version looked like it could be funny. I can't remember all that I have done since the last blog. I got thorough tours of Westminster Abbey and Parliament. On Sunday I went to the free organ recital at St. Paul's Cathedral and felt really old when I discovered that the organist was younger than I, and already a sub-organist at St. Paul's. I just thought...jeez, I need to get on with my life and do something with it. St. Paul's could eat Central Presbyterian for a midday snack and have plenty of room for more. Central's sanctuary could definitely fit under the dome without touching any surface of St. Paul's except for the floor.

I also went to Stratford last Friday and saw everything Shakespeare. You know how it is. Hey! Friday is my birthday and I will no doubt eventually wind up in a pub, either with some American students, but preferably with my British co-workers from my internship. They are a lot more fun to talk to and hang out with, plus they buy me pints. Ah...pints.

Contrary to the trash everyone told me before I left about the British drinking "warm beer", they in fact do not. You have to ask if you want a "warm" beer, and they might have a few kinds that they serve at room temperature, which is not warm. I had a Broadside at room temperature and it wasn't that bad. Most of the beer the British drink is no warmer than a beer you would order at a bar in the U.S. I am glad I brought that little lie out from the dark.

Oh, and I found that theatre, Aaron, that Earthy theatre or something. Apparently the playwright that is sononymous with the Earthy theatre was pretty popular. And, get this, to this day his plays are still performed in London. Crazy.