19/1/09

My column is running today, you can read it here.

I checked The London Paper website and I saw my face on the front page, so I figured that was a good sign. I got official confirmation today from the guy that it was actually running (and not just online or something like that) so I was pretty excited to go pick one up.

I emailed the study abroad contact here and told her about it and she was pretty excited. She wants to put it in the newsletter for CEA and wants me to write other things for them now. Pretty cool stuff.

I emailed Cathy last night and asked what Dr. Schmidt was up to, where he was, and if I could visit him while I'm over here. She told me he'd love that. He's in Zurich right now and will be in Spain later. She said I could stay with him in Spain at his house, so I might do that. Either way it'd be good to see him again, and maybe he could show me around a little.

I went to Borders on Oxford Street and bought an Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Athens guide (they didn't have the full version, but this is just about as good, and smaller so it's ideal) and I bought a London calendar for £2 (I figured out how to make the pounds sign! It's alt 0163 on the right number pad.) I'll use the calendar for keeping my trips all set up and planning ahead, and for £2 it makes a nice decoration. My room feels like I'm on a submarine, so anything to spruce it up is nice.

I then walked down to Pizza Hit for lunch buffet. I figured since I was getting published, I could have a big lunch. The Pizza Hut's here are a lot trendier than they are back home. It was packed. I got the 'pizza only' buffet for £5.99, not awful for nine slices of marghreta (what they call cheese and tastes the same) pizza and a breadstick. But I was disappointed. The key to the lunch buffet experience is the desert pizza. It just brings everything together. But here, they don't have any. I probably won't go back again.

There is a lot of buzz around here about Obama. They're selling his shirts on the street, his books are all prominently displayed, and he's on the front page of the papers. There seems to be universal adulation of the guy. There are a ton of different parties going on tomorrow at different places for the inauguration, I think I'm going to one of the free ones by Trafalgar Square.
Around four I went outside and grabbed The London Paper (a guy passes it out right outside my door) and searched though the paper for my column. It's on that prime page 24 (the first one they turn to here) and on the right column. I still haven't reread it (I hate seeing what editors did to it), but I'm pretty excited. I showed Phil next door and he was pretty excited, he shook my hand and said how cool it was. I'm pretty happy.

I went to Sainsbury's, a huge supermarket, and really stocked up on things. I got bagels, veggie burgers, peanut butter and chocolate chips, clementines, yogurt, a ton of good stuff for around £13. On the way there, an old man was reading my article next to me. Pretty funny I thought. The circulation of the paper is 495,398, bigger than the Free Press I think, so a lot of people read it. I grabbed a bunch of copies.

I came back and made a peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwich and ate with the rest of the floor and we just hung out for a while.

I was in no mood to sleep so around 11:30 I decided to walk to Abbey Road, which is rather close to me. Apparently just about all the Beatles lived in my neighborhood. However, at 11:30 in Marylebone, there isn't exactly a ton of people on the street. And taking the Jack the Ripper tour yesterday wasn't helping anything.

But about a 30 minutes later I got to the studios. The gate outside is covered in graffiti. I initially walked to the wrong crosswalk, but then came to the right one. It's not big. Only a couple steps long, but cars come zipping through there. In the daylight, I imagine it's almost impossible to do the photo. But it was a pretty surreal moment.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Texas Embassy to watch the inauguration around 4 I think, so that should be most of my day.