Parliament So far

I have been back from Edinburgh for about a week now, so I will give you a general run down of my activities.

Last weekend I came back and took a tour of stamford bridge in London. It is a really cool stadium and the neighborhood around it is awesome as well. Chelsea is so far my favorite place in London. The home dressing room was probably the coolest part and I wish they did tours back in the states like they do at stadiums here. I got to see where Lampard, Terry, and Malouda changed, got ready, and even took showers. A neat part of the tour was walking out onto the field from the tunnel, it definitely had an weird creepy feeling to it. Brought back some memories.

I went to soho later that night. A very independent and strange scene. Lots of gay clubs and bars, lots of indy bars. Not really my place but you have to go at least once in London. My preferred nightlife area is Camden Town, just northwest of where I am staying, though I have not been to Leceister Square at night yet.

I also visited St. Pauls and a Roman temple in the middle of London last weekend. A lot of Roman remains still exist beneath the city, just no chances at archaeologically finding them since the ground is still occupied.

On monday I went with a couple folks to Bath and Stonehenge. Bath was amazing. I just took a class on Roman archaeology so it was breathtaking to see the actual workings of a Roman bath. Also had a decent Roman archaeological collection from the surrounding area. Bath the city is super cool too. Very Georgian in architecture and more my size compared to London. It is in the base of a river valley with the Avon flowing through. It was close enough to the Welsh border to see Wales.

We later went to Stonehenge. It was not as impressive as I would have imagined. It was interesting to see another archaelogical site, but it was not as massive as Bath. Very much enjoyed how everything lines up with the sun, as well as the many ancient graves you can see for miles around.

I headed into work on Tuesday. Westminster is a truly awesome building. The palace structure is even more impressive on the inside then the outside. I got my security pass and met the daughter of my MP who is her main PA. We went to her office and she showed me around.

Their is a lot more interaction with local constituents in Parliament then I thought there would be. I assumed people voted based on party, not the actual MP, but it seems that a large factor for each voter is how well the MP represents the local constituency. It is a strange dyanmic between national and local, because at Parliament, MPs typically go along with their party, with very little indepedent voting. They are a lot less autonomous then our representation in the states, regardless of how the media tries to portray partisanship back home. Here they have a lot of communication with locals, yet at the national level, through a variety of mechanisms they are forced to vote along party lines.

Having a security pass is really cool. Just showing a badge and entering Westminster is awesome. There are multiple pubs within the palace, as well as lots of little historical sites. Food is ridicoulosuly cheep in there as well. Its fun just seeing randomn people on tv in person. It is strangel eery walking around the grounds in places that you would never have access to if I was not in this program. It is strangely surreal.

Today I went to Notting hill to go to portobello market. I bought a citizen watch and a couple of gifts for people back home. Unfortunately my camera has broken, so no new pictures. I also have a gotten a fishing pole, though the way they do it here is far different. I made sure to see the places where they filmed Notting Hill while there. Pretty cool to actually see it.

Next week I get to go to PMQs, watch it on CSPAN. I have had insider access to here and the scottish parliament so far and it is pretty amazing. Priceless experiences.

Musings about culture here so far

An amazing amount of pitbulls, by far the most popular animal

all of their newspapers are tabloids, the amount of objectivity is ridicoulous

David Cameron is massively tall.  I saw him and he is a good 6'3 or 4.

People here dress a lot more nice and I finally have seen some attractive women, it took awhile.

It is a very diverse area, but completely different blend. I like the islamic population here and I want to visit those areas in the future.