The End?

This entire blog was more or less a spur-of-the-moment idea.  I really had no intention of doing one, and the day before I left it started as a way to procrastinate packing.  And no way did I think I'd stay with it, figured after the first month or so it'd lose it's novelty.  So on that account alone I'm slightly impressed with myself.

Now that I'm back though, it's decision time with what I want to do with the blog going forward.  Like I said, I'm suprised I made it this far, and definitely did not envision continuing on with it once I got back.  So here's where you come in...I'd really like to know what people think of this: whether you liked it or think it absolutely sucks, I'd like to know.  All I'm asking is a quick Facebook message or a text if you're lucky enough to have my number (KIDDING...).  Maybe if I hear back from enough people I'll keep going with this, otherwise I'll just leave it chilling in internet purgatory.

Lastly, whether you've read this from the beginning or just glanced over a page, thanks for being along for the ride.  This was easily the greatest 3.5 months of my life, and I'm glad I got to share my stories.  If you're like me and lucky enough to get the chance to study abroad, don't hesitate and miss out on your chance. 

Did I make a lot of amazing memories in Europe? Yes. Did I do a lot of really stupid shit along the way? Also yes.  But do I regret any of it?  Not a single thing, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Much Love,
Matt

PARIS

Just dawned on me that I never did a post for Paris.  Figured after every other trip got a post, I should at least show Paris some love.  This was our last trip in Europe, and even though we were only there for 36 hours we planned to do it big.

*Before we left I kept hearing the Charles de Gaulle, the airport we were flying into, is always voted as one of the worst in the world.  And now I know why.  The entire place is one giant clusterfuck, and we had to about half an hour to get from our gate to the train station.  Couldn't imagine trying to navigate that place with bags.  One of my biggest regrets of the trip was not booking a Eurostar train into Paris...

*We get on a train from the airport, and a couple stops later this guy gets on carrying a microphone and an amp.  When the train starts moving he starts singing "La Bamba" in French.  At the next stop he goes around and starts trying to collect money for his "performance."  He got mad at my friends and I when we didn't give him anything, but maybe try singing a little better bro.


*Had abosolutely no clue how big Paris actually is.  Maps make it seem like the Eiffel Tower and Louvre are right next to each other.  Found out the hard way its more like a 30 minute walk.  Just a fair warning to anyone visiting there soon.

*Gotta love when words don't translate into a certain language.  So walking through the Metro in Paris I saw these signs:

REALLY creative title.

*I ate unbelievable amounts in Paris, baguettes and croissants all day.  But all the walking helped me from putting on like 10 lbs.  Especially the hike up to Sacre Couer, which was my favorite thing we did.  The weather was shitty but it still is the best view of the city.



Well I wish I had more stories, the rest of the trip is one giant blur though.  Even though it was really expensive and the people were kinda rude, Paris was definitely one of my favorite trips.  Wish we could've had at least one more day there, or been able to go out to Versailles.  Just something else that still remains on the bucket list...

Well That Didn't Last Long

This is pretty sad.

First street I cross coming out of Logan yesterday, I look the wrong way and almost walk straight into a car.  Think it's time to go back to London... 

By the Numbers

My dad has had a subscription to Sports Illustrated longer than I've been alive.  It's really the only magazine I read with any regularity.  Probably my favorite section in SI is "By the Numbers," where they give a random number and then explain it with a statistic.  For example, "21=time, in seconds, it took for Real Madrid to score against Barcelona in last night's match."  So without further ado, here is my semester in London, by the numbers...

105 = the number of days I spent in Europe.  I left September 3rd from Logan and head back on December 16th.


7 = countries that I've been in over those 105 days.  Starting with the US, then UK, Czech Republic, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, and France 



11,401.82 = approximate number of miles I've traveled on this trip



$38 million = amount of money I lost at work one day.  No joke.  Thankfully I figured out it was all a mistake...


More than I could possibly count = both the number of memories I've made and the amount of money I've spent. Fuck the pound and the euro....


Well, 3 hours til I leave for Heathrow.  Thanks for everything London.  Boston bound finally, cue the music...

Unintended Consequences...

Well, reality's definitely starting to set in.  5 days left in London, and then I'm hoping on a plane back to Boston.  At this point, my mindset is that I'm ready to go home, but don't really want to leave.  Right before I left, one of my friends who went abroad last fall gave me some advice that has really stuck with me.  He asked if I was bummed out to be leaving Stonehill and home, and I said naturally yeah.  He told me that he was the same way, but leaving Europe to come home was so much harder than it was to leave home in the first place.  I didn't really believe this until a few days ago, when it started to hit me I barely had any time left.

This has been the most insane 3 1/2 months, and I'm barely beginning to process all of it.  I've done so much crazy shit and made some amazing memories, but this trip definitely has had it's unintended consequences...

1. Liking Rugby

I came to London with the intention of getting to as many soccer (for blog purposes I refuse to use football) games as possible.  And I did just that, managed to get to 3 different games at 3 of London's biggest stadiums.  But what I definitely didn't forsee was going to more rugby matches than soccer.  I guess I never got into the sport because I couldn't figure out the rules for the life of me.  But having a roommate who plays rugby and was interning at a pro team definitely changed that.  We managed get free tickets to 5 games, and each one was sick.  I have the utmost respect for rugby players now, the shit they do is unreal. 

     2.  Toblerone

There are three undeniable truths by which our world operates: America runs on Dunkin, Sundays are for football, and Toblerone is the best candy bar ever.  Somehow the first 20+ years of my life were spent unaware of the greatness that is Toblerone.  On our trip to Switzerland, they were giving out free samples in the airport.  From that moment my life was forever changed.


      3.  Prague & Skydiving

When I got over here, it was always my plan to travel to Florence, Ireland, and Paris.  Those 3 places are where a lot of my friends are studying, and so those were the three trips that I booked right away.  The other two trips, Prague and Switzerland, really came out of the blue.  Really if it hadn't been for my roommates I don't think I would've gone on either of those trips, I never had any interest to go to either of those places.  Looking back those two trips were some of the best days of this whole trip. 

      4.  Walking Way Too Fast

Living in the Sem freshmen year was a struggle, I tend to take my time getting from my room to class.  Even though I'm tall and have long legs, I never really walk quickly.  What's worse is that the majority of my friends in the Sem were pratically professional power-walkers.  But living in London, and walking everywhere, has definitely changed that.  The normal walking speed here is a lot faster than back home, everyone looks like they're running late for something.  So if you see a tall, lanky kid who's power-walking in and out of Stanger next semester, it's more than likely this guy...

So Florence'd

Don't get me wrong, Prague, Dublin, and Switzerland were all awesome, but it was for good reason that Florence was the first trip I booked this semester.  The city is more or less Stonehill's study abroad hub: pretty sure when I looked over the list of everyone abroad this semester every other person was in Florence.  When I was making my final decision on where to go abroad, it actually came down to London and Florence.  And after two weekends in a row sitting around London, I was definitely ready to get out of the city.  So I threw my life into a space bag and was off to Stansted Airport.

*Yet another trip that almost ended for one of us before it started.  Halfway through the busride to the airport, my buddy Drew says, "Guys I forgot my camera...and my passport."  We're all in disbelief, and he starts talking about how he's just gonna get off the bus and head home.  But luckily our other roommate Billy was back in the room and sticking around for Thanksgiving.  I told him he should give him a call, and see if there's any way he could run his passport to the airport.  We waited with Drew until about 7:30 for an 8:30 flight, and then me and my two other friends had to go through security.  About 5 minutes before boarding starts we see Drew come sprinting  down the hall, hands raised triumphantly in the air "Rocky" style. 

*Even better is Billy's story of how he made it to the airport when we got back.  The closest 3 underground stations to us were all closed because it was rush hour, so Billy ran about 25 minutes to another one.  Then a bus, train, and some more running later, he made it just in time.  Billy definitely gets MVP of this trip, regardless of the fact that he didn't even go. 

*First impression of Italy: everyone starts clapping and whistling the second the plane touches down in Pisa.  This can only make me think: are you applauding because the planes dont usually land here?

*So Drew and I get into Florence around 1:45 in the morning, but still had to walk to my friend Alex's apartment.  She gave us directions that were completely dependent on us finding this one sign which just so happened to not be lit up that night.  Luckily at 2 in the morning pretty much everyone out in Florence is an American student.  Thank God for North Face, Uggs, and college snapbacks.

*The next day we decided to climb the Duomo, which all my friends in Florence have described as the North Star of the city.  It's by far the tallest building, and if you can find it you can get yourself anywhere.  This became really useful two nights later when I got lost in the city by myself...but that's besides the point.  So climbing the Duomo showed me two things 1) I'm really out of shape, 463 steps should not be that hard, and 2) people in Italy don't build things for people that are over 6 ft. tall.  Cannot tell you the number of times I hit my head.

Worth all 463 steps.

*Later that night we went over to Katie and Jade's, two girls from Stonehill, apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.  Never would I ever have thought that one of the best Thanksgiving meals I've ever had would come in Florence, but I give the girls all the credit in the world.  Then it was off to the Irish pub we passed on the way there because after 3 months of "football," we wanted to actually watch real football. 

*Signed the Stonehill shirt at the Lion's Fountain...I think.  If someone wants to get me a picture of it to confirm it'd be greatly appreciated. 

*Discovery of the trip: Long Island Iced Teas (yeah I'm a little late....I hear you).  I want to meet the genius who invented it and shake his hand.  I'm sure my liver doesn't feel the same way.  Pretty sure the title of this post was the product of a handful of these. 

*I kept hearing people around the city complaining about Albanians, but I didn't really get what the issue was.  So eventually I asked one of my friends, and he asks me if I've ever been to Central Park.  When I say yes, he goes, "Okay now imagine all the pigeons in Central Park.  That's how many Albanians are in Florence."  Best analogy ever.

*So after getting lost Saturday night I almost got pickpocketed/molested/a combo of the two.  I'm not entirely sure because I thought the guy was just reaching for my wallet, but when I told the story to a friend she told me there's a gay club right on that street. Can't help but laugh looking back on it.


Yeah we made these grand plans to go to Rome and see the Leaning Tower, and we ended up just hanging in Florence for 4 days.  I'll tell my Mom it was the train strike.  But it was great actually having some time to spend in a city other than London.  Our trips usually are 36 hours of straight chaos, so actually having time to walk around was awesome.  Good food and good friends, I don't think I could really ever ask for more.  So thanks Italy, you might've ruined all forms of pasta and pizza for me for the rest of my life, but I had an unreal time.

The Home Stretch

Quick look at the calendar today brought me to the painful realization that there's only 5 weeks left in London. GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE. Really not ready to go back to normal, boring life.  Over here when someone asks me what I did last weekend, typical response is something like "Oh, went to [insert foreign country here] and did [insert life-changing experience here].  No big."  As soon as I get back home that response will quickly change to, "Oh, I went to [insert random Courts party here], and then went to the Hill for chicken fingers."  Perspective.

But don't get me wrong, I want to come home.  At this point my sanity, not to mention my bank account, pretty much need me to.  So when I was bored the other day at work I compiled a list of stuff that I miss.  I'm not talking about the bigs things, like family and friends: yeah, of course those are the things I miss the most but there too obvious.  This is more about the small things that you barely even notice when you have them.  So, in no particular order....


1. ESPN/NESN/Any other sports channel

Stop by our flat on any given Sunday, and you'll see one pretty weird sight.  All of us in the common room, on our computers with earphones in.  We're all watching football usually, except for Billy when NASCAR is on...there's really nothing better than Sunday's back home.  Role out of bed at noon, run to the cafe and get breakfast, come back and shower, and then chill for the rest of the day watching football.  Doesn't exactly work that way here.  Throw on top the fact that our internet sucks most of the time, and all sporting events pretty much become unwatchable.  I'm at the point where I would trade my left arm for ESPN.  And a working TV, our's hasn't worked for over a month now...


2. Commons Food

Yes, you did read that right.  I miss cafe food, a lot.  "But there's no variety, they serve Pastabilities like 4 times a week," you say? Go abroad and then talk to me.  You end up eating the same 5-6 meals all the time.  My roommates and I must eat buttered pasta minimum 4 times a week, but at least at this point we are really fucking good at making it.  One of the first weeks here I got a FB message from a friend back home that they had Buffalo Chicken Penne for lunch, easily my favorite meal at Stonehill.  Which brings up a completely different question: is there a better meal at Stonehill than Buff Chicken Penne? 

Not only is it the food, but the fact that it's made for you, which I constantly take for granted.  It easily takes longer to make a real meal than it is waiting in line at the Commons.  On top of that, when your housing company only gives you one of everything for each person in the flat, you pretty much have to do dishes after every meal...


3. Every System of Measurement We Use in the US

First time I go to order deli meat and the guy behind the counter asks how many grams I want.  Dude I want turkey not weed...gotta love the metric system.  Go the gym and everything is in kilograms.  Might've been helpful to know 4.5 kilos=10 pounds before I tried lifting the first time.  My favorite is the temperature, when I can look outside and see a sign that says 10 degrees.  In my head 10 means bundle the fuck up, then you get outside and it's like 50.  Can't wait to not have to convert things in my head.


4. The Quiet

I guess this comes with the territory of never having lived in the city.  But it's loud more or less all the time.  Especially since I'm a really light sleeper, there's nothing worse than getting woken up by an ambulence/jackass in a Porsche/random group of drunk Europeans.  One of the first things I noticed when we got to Switzerland, even Dublin, was how quiet it was. 


Well, one more weekend in London after this one, then Florence, Paris,  last weekend in London, and finally home.  5 weeks left, you better believe I'm gonna make sure they all count.

The Greatest (and Most Expensive) 55 Seconds of My Life

     So after a solid month and a half of waiting and anticipation, this past weekend finally rolled around.  It was funny how it all really started, with one of my roommates just throwing out the idea of skydiving over the Swiss alps.  A couple weeks and about a 100 Youtube videos later, we were all booked.  It never really hit me though that I was about to jump out of a plane, even through the trip to Interlaken.  Everything changed really quick when the plane door got thrown open: I was the first one to jump out of our group and was sitting on the floor.  The wind starts pouring in and I hear the 30 second warning from my instructor.  Shuffle over to get my feet on the tiny step, and then next thing I know we're backflipping out of the plane. 
     The next 50 ish seconds are more or less a blur, I've watched my video atleast a dozen times since I got back and the whole thing still feels so surreal.  Looking down on all of the mountains and the entire city of Interlaken, I kinda forgot there was a camera in my face the whole time.  Next thing I know the chute came out and we were gliding back down.  It was honestly a once in a lifetime experience, completely worth every dollar/pound/Swiss franc I paid.

Hans and I just hanging out. Hah pun.

     So naturally skydiving was the crown jewel of the trip, but the rest of Switzerland was still amazing.  Except for Bern. Bern sucked.  Here's a couple of highlights from the trip:

*Yet another trip that almost ended before it started.  We went to the wrong bus station, and made the bus to the airport with a minute to spare.  Also realized how completely out of shape I am from the sprint we had to do to make it...

*Not even 5 minutes off the plane in Zurich and I make a complete dick of myself.  Thought all of the signs in the airport were in German, so I turn to my friends and ask if Swiss is even a language.  Apparently I was a little loud, as a couple heads turned and one lady informed me that it was in fact a language and all the signs were Swiss. FML. Note to self for future trips: actually look into the place you're going so you don't end up as that asshole American tourist.

*I guess I should explain why Bern sucked.  So we get off our plane knowing we had about a 2 1/2 hour train ride of to Interlaken.  We head over to the station and ask for a ticket, and the lady tells us we made it just in time for the last train.  What she failed to mention was how much time we'd have to change trains once we got to Bern.  We get off the first train and see on the big board we only had 3 minutes to get on the train to Interlaken, and had no clue where the track was.  I have never ran that fast in my life, hadn't even sat down before the train started moving.  We really lucked out, otherwise that would've been a long six hours in the Bern train station.

*We get into Interlaken around 12:30 am, and the entire city is dead.  No cars, no music, no random drunk people yelling.  Just silence.  Wasn't until we got to the hostel that we found out there's a 10pm noise curfew in Switzerland.  One of the few exceptions to said rule is the bar/club at our hostel, which is underground.  Been to some weird clubs so far this trip, this might've taken the cake.  10 dudes dancing by themselves, people doing the Cotton Eye Joe dance to Party Rock Anthem, guys my dad's age macking on girls probably half their age: I've definitely seen it all now.

*The guys who run the skydiving company are some of the most chill people I've ever met.  On the other hand, they're also some of the biggest nutters I've  met too.  One of the guys who my friends jumped with, Tim, told us during the summer he'd jump 13 times a day.  The guy I jumped with, Hans, said that today was a slow day because he'd only jump three times.  Imagine that conversation: "Yeah had a really bad day at the office, only got to jump out of a plane 3 times..."  Definitely part of the job requirement that you have to be certifiably crazy.

*Don't think it dawned on us until after we jumped how lucky we had been to actually do it.  The guys told us that they had to cancel all the jumps before and after us because of the weather.  We ended up going in the perfect window.  Considering the entire purpose of the trip was to skydive, we got extremely lucky, but our gamble was well worth it.

*So after jumping on Saturday, we needed some kind of adrenaline fix for Sunday before we left.  Renting out mini-cars that can get up to 60 mph and bombing through the mountains seemed like a good idea.  Until my car decided to die, of course.  But once we solved that shit, we managed to get pretty far up.  After two months of skyscrapers in London, Switzerland was abosolutely amazing.  If you ever have the opprotunity try and get to Interlaken, promise it will be well worth your money.

So I managed to survive Switzerland.  The same cannot be said for my bank account though.  But like I said, it was worth every penny, and made all those shitty days at Rite Aid the past 3 summers well worth it.  Now I have a couple weekends in London to catch my breath and get ready for the home stretch. 

DUBLIN

Yeah so I've been slacking on the blog the past couple weeks.  Apparently sometimes you have work when you study abroad.  Never before has a 6 page paper been such a struggle. #Studyabroadproblems

This past weekend me and a bunch of friends went to Dublin.  Halloween weekend it seeemed about right.  Prague set the bar high, and Dublin definitely lived up to it.

*So for our flight we had to be up at 2:45 in the morning.  Naturally the only logical thing to do is stay up all night then.  We tried to make excuses like "oh it's Game 7 of the World Series, we gotta watch it," but do you really think we watched a single pitch?

*My trip to Dublin actually was almost over before it began.  In a move of complete stupidity I forgot to put money on my Oyster Card.  Completely lucked out that my roommate Drew had two of them, otherwise this post would be about shit I did in London all weekend.

*First two places we went to in Dublin were the Jameson and Guinness factories...sure my mom would love to hear that even the tourist stuff I'm doing is drinking related. 

*After being up for about 34 hours straight, first thing I did when we got to our hostel was pass out.  This was the first time I stayed in a hostel, let's just chalk it up as an "interesting" experience.  So I fell asleep and woke up to a bunch of  girls with really broken English.  After deeming them not to be psycho axe murderers, I went down to meet the girls I'd be sharing the room with.  All of them, so fucking weird.  One from Slovenia, one from Slovakia, two from Spain.  I quickly see this turning into a bad EuroTrip esque scene. To be continued...

*So our plan for the night was to wear our baller Halloween costumes and do a pub crawl through Dublin.  We started out according to plan at Probably the Smallest Pub in the World. No seriously, that was the name of the place.  Definitely lived up to the billing, I could hit my head on the ceiling.  But the second place we went to wouldn't let us in because they thought my and my two roommates were a bachelor party, and we weren't dressed appropriately.  It's the Saturday before Halloween in Dublin, C'MON MAN.

*After having our pub crawl route fall apart, we just started walking into any bar we saw.  As a result two things happened: 1) we ended up crashing a 40th birthday party.  Gotta love cougars. And 2) I met a very distant cousin.  Down the line all McCormick's and McCormack's are related, thanks Ellis Island for dividing us.  So that makes us something like 8th cousins probably.

*Our costume was the Harlem Globtrotters, pretty solid.  When we wore them out Friday night in London everyone got it, can't say the same for Dublin.  People kept coming up to us asking if we were the most random shit. Professional soccer players from Liverpool, guys from a commercial that only people in Dublin know?

Just killing it.

*Part two of the hostel room story.  So I get back to the room late and crash, only to be woken up an hour later.  Some girl is shaking me asking if I'm Matt.  I say yes and she tells me that I'm in the wrong bed.  She asks if I can move over to the empty bed a couple feet away.  Ok honey, so you wake me up at 4 in the morning to ask if you can have the bed I've been sleeping in as opposed to a completely clean one? Good logic...then the weird girls come barging in at 5 in the morning and cause all havoc.  Turning lights on and yelling with their annoying broken English.  I'd say I'm staying away from hostels in the future, but I'm staying in one this weekend too.

In all seriousness though Dublin was a great time.  It's more or less Boston with smaller buildings, definitely the best way I've heard to describe it.  After this next weekend though, nothing's going to compare.  Switzerland here we come!

PRAHA

So this past weekend was my first foray out into Europe.  A couple of my roommates and I booked a pretty last minute trip to Prague, or Praha in Czech.  Despite being there for 3 days, this is still probably the only word of Czech I know, so we had to pull the "dumb American tourist" card quite a bit.  Regardless, the plane ticket to Prague was probably one of the greatest buys of my life. 

*Point of note for all future trips: when you have to be up at 3 for your flight, staying up til 1:30 playing Landmines might not  be the best idea.  Quick shout out to Olivia, who ran out to the store at 2 in the morning and made us sandwiches for the trip, which would have been infinitely more painful on an empty stomach.

*Boarding on a discount airline is vicious.  Essentially you're forced to wait around until your gate is posted on the board, and then it's a mad sprint to beat everyone on your flight.  And being first actually matters here, because you get the one row in the plane with extra leg room.  We found out the hard way by coming in second, and my knees were in my chest the entire flight.

*Prague is an interesting city in that it doesn't have a quintessential tourist attraction like a lot of the other cities in Europe, and lacks the one big postcard monument (think Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa status).  Oh you say I'm wrong, well here's a picture of the biggest tourist spot in Prague:

This random thing on the wall is the Astronomical Clock.  And every hour hoards of people stand around to see the clock move. Cool story bro.


*When one of my roommates told his boss that we were going to Prague, his boss said that he probably will be seeing a lot of the inside of a pub.  And yeah he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one.  But when we actually decided to climb up to Prague Castle, it was well worth it.  Just took three stops at different pubs on the way up....

*On Saturday, the girls we were staying with took us to The Pub. Yeah, creative name I know.  Basically the premise of this place is that they have the tap in the middle of the table, so when you want to fill up your glass you just pick your number on the little touch screen and use the tap.  Plus the touch screen is how your order food, and can pick songs to be added to the playlist.  But what sold me on the place was the giant scoreboard on one of the walls.  It ranked everyone who was in one their different locations by which table had drank the most.  Personal accomplishment of the day...we beat Berlin. Best part: go to pay at the end, and it ends up being less than $12.  For the first time in a month and a half I wasn't getting killed by the conversion rate.  This place needs to be in America and it needed to be there yesterday. So if this whole accounting thing doesn't work out for me, I already found my way to make millions.  Strongly considering dropping out of school and starting my own franchise (KIDDING MOM). 

Seriously, let's make this shit happen people.

And despite not knowing more than a word or two of Czech, we made it back to the airport in one piece.  Prague set the bar REAL high, I hope the rest of Europe (more specifically Ireland, Switzerland, Florence, and Paris) is ready to bring it.

Hey Mama

Indulge me on this one guys....

Over the first 20 years of my life, no one has done more for me than my mom.  I feel incredibly blessed to not only have a mom, but a best friend who and will always be there for me.  Which considering the circumstances is pretty amazing...

See my Mom was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) a couple years before I was even born.  I guess I was just too young to notice that my mom walked a little bit differently than most people, and that pretty much the second after she tucked me in when I was little she hit the sack herself.  Even when she told me when I was about 11, all it really meant to me was that we got to skip lines in Disney World and park in handicap spots. 

Despite all of this, my mom is by far the hardest working person I know.  Yeah she has her rough days, but rarely does she ever use it as an excuse.  If I had half of the work ethic and determination she has I would be pulling a 4.0 with ease.  And whenever I think I'm having a rough go of it, thinking of my Mom having to drive with her left foot because she can't move her right one is incredibly grounding.

And so on her birthday, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my mom.  I know a stupid blog post can hardly do her justice, but at least I'm gonna give it a try.  Maybe I'll actually send her the link to my blog now so she can read this.

Didn't have a title for this blog, and then this song came on shuffle.  Kinda funny how those things work out...

One Wild First Month

Want to live life like your going 1000 mph every hour of every day?  Well, you can go do a ridiculous amount of speed...or take the slightly more legal route and study abroad in Europe.  I literally cannot wrap my head around the fact that a little over a month ago at this time I was in my house back in RI, frantically packing for my flight.  When I look around at my friends here, it's so strange thinking 30 days ago I never knew they existed. 

And even though I probably look like a zombie most of the time (sleeps tends to not happen), I'm having the time of my life and wouldn't change a thing.  Here's just a ESPN highlights version of the first month...

*The first day here I lugged all my stuff up four flights of stairs in search of Flat E...only to reach the top and the door said "D."  Thinking I was in the wrong building, I proceeded to carry everything back downstairs.  As I get back to bottom I hear one of the girls living in D yell to me that they found Flat E.  We have to go through the girls suite and up another flight of stairs to get to our room.  Later that night all the guys I'm living with decided to nickname our flat the Penthouse.  Even though our apartment kinda sucks, we hype it up to everyone.  Our shitty TV that has all of 6 channels (on a good day...) is our "home entertainment system."  The fan becomes a "climate control system."  If you're in London come get the Penthouse tour firsthand. Life changing.

*Never would've thought that after a month here I would've been to more rugby matches than soccer.  Considering I had no idea about most of the rules, have to give credit rugby is an insane sport.  Oh, and that jersey I had a picture of in one of the first posts...guess who's a proud owner of one of those?  Gotta love having a friend who works for the team and the subsequent employee discount.

*One of the first things we noticed at dinner Day 1 was that we only had 5 of everything: plates, knives, cups, and the like.  That was until we went to this one pub that throws everyone out the door at midnight.  Really, do you expect a bunch of poor American kids to stick around and return the glasses?  So needless to say we've "acquired" quite a few glasses...and a hard hat.  Still don't know how I ended up with that one.

*Apparently I give the "drug addict" vibe to people in London, can't tell you the number of guys who have walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy.  Funny thing is more guys have offered me coke more than anything else.  Read an article a while back that a line is cheaper than a beer in London, it was on Barstool so it must be true.    

*No matter how many times it happens, I still can't help but laugh every time I hear a little kid with a British accent. 

*In one of my poorer decisions, decided to go on a pub crawl with internship the next morning.  By about 12 I was starting to nod off, and I really didn't want to pass out at my desk second week on the job.  Simple solution: go take a nap in the bathroom.

*The amount of people that smoke in this city is sickening.  Even worse, no one really seems to pay attention where they blow their smoke.  If I had 5 pence for every time someone decided to blow smoke right in my face...

*Not having ESPN or any American sports is killing me.  Our suite must be such a sad site on Sunday, each one of us huddled up with our laptops trying to stream football with our shitty internet connection.  On a side, First Row Sports is a godsend.  Pretty much can watch any sports game imaginable.

*Animals here are absolutely fearless.  Squirrels will run right up to you in the park, and if you offer them food they'll sometimes climb up your arm.  And I'm positive before the end of this trip I'm gonna get hit by a pigeon, they dive bomb through crowds with absolutely no regard for their own safety.

And even though I cry every time I see my bank statements (which after I book my last few trips later tonight is going to look even worse...), I wouldn't change a thing about the last month.  One of my friends joked about how you just need to "swipe it and forget it."  You're really only gonna have one chance like this to tear shit up in Europe, you need to make the most of every moment.

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

Don't get me wrong I'm having an amazing time in London, just a couple small pet peeves I wanted to pass along...

1. There's no bill smaller than 5 pounds.
        This just seems like a no-brainer to me.  The first time I bought groceries I hand the cashier 20 pounds and got a handful of change back.  I have a mountain of change on the desk next to me right now, it's starting to feel like Monopoly money.  By my count there's 8 different types of coins: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 pence, and then 1 and 2 pounds.  Simple solution: make a pound and 2 pound bill so my pockets aren't making clinking noises every time at the bar.  And now I actually have to pay attention if I drop change.  Shit with the conversion rate, that coin could be worth like $3.60...

2. You can't toss a football in the park, but you can walk your dog without a leash.
         Again, I can't wrap my mind around this.  Last weekend we went to the park right by our street, and within 5 seconds of starting to toss a football a guard yelled at us to stop.  That the sign CLEARLY said there was no ball played allowed (conversely, he had no problems with us tossing a frisbee...so glad I brought one).  Meanwhile you can let your dog run freely through the park.  That's cool and all until two dogs get into a fight, which leads to their owners getting into a fight.  I've seen at least four such occasions, and it's always a big guy with a smaller dog versus a tiny guy with a big dog.  Yeah the dog you purchased because of your Napoleon complex might win it's fight, but you sir have no chance.

3. There is no rhyme or reason to how people walk on the city streets.
          Back home, I think it's pretty commonly accepted that you stay on the right side of the street, just like you drive on the right side of the road.  So initially I thought maybe people walked on the left side, it kinda made sense at the time.  Nope, not at all.  People just want down the middle of the sidewalk, or 5 people across so they block everyone else.  To make matters worse is that awkward moment when you're about to walk into someone.  I always instinctively go right, and everyone here goes left.  So we both ended up juking back and forth like it's Madden, looking ridiculous in the process.

4. People are always willing to give directions, whether or not they're right is a different story.
            One of the first days here, me and a couple friends got pretty lost.  We eventually caved and pulled the "stupid American" card and asked for help.  The people were incredibly friendly, and gave us perfectly detailed directions.  For a fleeting moment my hope in society was restored, until about 20 minutes later and we were even more lost than before.  People here seem very content to play Good Samaritan, when in reality then are just as lost as you.

But in reality I'm loving everything else about London, and I had to really think to come up with this list.  Wait I lied....I hate the conversion rate too.  Come on America, step your game up.

Why I Came to London

A couple nights back my roommates and I were planning out what countries we wanted to visit.  Looking at all the cities I could have studied in, I tried to think back to why I chose London.  Strange as it may sound, I made the decision about 4 years ago.  Towards the end of my sophomore year in high school I started watching a lot of soccer...err I mean football.  Can't tell you how many times I've been corrected on that these past 10 days.... 

Best 10 pounds I'll ever spend.

And so one day later that year, I just made up my mind that in college I was going to study in London and try to get to as many games as possible.  When I got to Stonehill and found out about the London internship program, all the pieces just fell together.  But at the beginning of last semester, I had some serious doubts about London though.  Basically I just didn't want to intern and go somewhere with my friends where I wouldn't have any real work and could dick around Europe.  Night's like tonight though, sitting 5 rows from the field, leave no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice.     

Survived Week 1

And finally my first week in London comes to an end.  Can't believe it's only been one week, seems like at least a month.  Time seems to really move slower over here.  Here's just a couple highlights...

*Friday night all of the guys in my suite went to a rugby match.  One of my roommates works for the team so we got in for free. I know absolutely nothing about rugby, so I felt incredibly out of place.  Then about halfway through the game I realized that any time it was silent you just have to yell out "HARLEQUINS" (the team's name).  Quickest way to make friends with everyone sitting around you.  

With jerseys like this, how can you not root for them?

*School-sponsored events in Europe kick the shit out of everything back home. Two words: free booze.

* Our cheap housing agency only gave us enough dishes and cups so that everyone in the apartment has one of each.  Thanks to five or six different London pubs, our collection of cups has at least doubled.  Really though what do you expect to happen when you kick everyone out 5 minutes after last call?

*First attempt at doing laundry in Europe, huge failure.  Didn't read the machines so I put my clothes and detergent in the dryer.  Cue the "stupid American" jokes...

*Three trips by Buckingham Palace, still no sign of Pippa. The quest continues.

What I'd Give for a Walmart...

Might sound odd, but one of the real culture shocks for me was the way stores in London work.  In the US, we're taught to buy in bulk.  You need to run to BJ's or Sam's Club and buy 100-packs of everything, regardless if you'll even use it for a year.  Here they never look that far into the future, no one has the storage space to buy that much.  As a result, people only purchase for the next day, a week at the most. 

The first time I really noticed this was in a supermarket.  All of the packages have enough for one, or maybe two, meals.  But because people buy and eat food usually on the same day, the food here has far less preservatives then back home. Probably explains why I've yet to see seriously fat people over here.

Last night I got to go out for drinks with my company, Grant Thornton.  This lady came over and started talking to me and another intern, and we could tell right away she was American.  Wasn't until a half hour later that she mentioned that she was "Ed's wife:" Ed being the global CEO.  Only in London.  She told us that if we ever wanted a taste of home, there's a Costco right down the street from their house.  Might be taking her up on that offer soon. 

On a more serious note, if anyone's willing to ship me a laundry bag I would be eternally grateful.  No joke have spent 3 days searching London for one.

The First Few Days

My first few days in London have been a whirlwind. Here's the Sparknotes version of everything so far...

*In typical McCormack family fashion, Big Jim (my father) almost made us late by deciding to start cutting the grass 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave for Logan.  Also in typical fashion, we ended up being incredibly early because Big Jim drove like a maniac, I lost track of the number of times we almost died.

*A couple minutes before boarding my flight, I got paged to the check-in desk. All I could think was "here we go, I must've fucked something up."  Nope, just got bumped up to business class. Couldn't get two steps on the plane before being handed two drinks. Man I love European flights.

*No ESPN=this could be a really long 3 months...

*Any thoughts I had of conserving my bank account are out the window. The dollar needs to step its shit up and stop getting killed in conversion rates. 

*Sainsbury and Tesco's are Stop and Shop and Shaw's, and Boot's is CVS.

*I was worried at first about getting blindsided by traffic coming in the opposite direction. Apparently the British were worried too, and put "Look Right" and "Look Left" in all the crosswalks.  Just now I panic when it doesn't say which way to look...

*Nutella and peanut butter are single-handedly gonna keep me alive over here

If this was just the first day and a half, I can't wait for the rest of the semester

Never Have I Ever

Pretty sure anyone who's made it through a semester of college has at least heard of the game Kings.  Sorry, I'm too lazy to post all the rules if you don't know them, just Google it.  Basic premise though is that you make a circle with a deck of cards, and take turns each pulling one card.  Each card value has a rule attached to it. 

By far my favorite card has to be the Jack, which is "Never Have I Ever."  Everyone puts up three fingers and you go around the circle saying things you've never done.  If the statement applies to you, you put a finger down, and this keeps going until someone loses all three fingers.  Typically this gets out of hand because while some people try to remain unbiased, mostly it just becomes singling one person out.  This results in incredibly long winded statements such as, "Never have I ever done the worm in the middle of an Italian club," or "Never have I ever sleep walked through the entire dorm and end up thinking my dresser was a urinal."

When I don't feel like being an asshole and going after one person, my go-to statement is usually "Never have I ever been to Europe." Short and to the point, and usually gets half of the group out.  Realizing after today if someone says that the next time I'm playing, it'll be me putting the finger down.  Glad I have a 7 hour flight to come up with a new go-to...

Twas the Night Before London...

Yup, I caved. Been debating for about a month now whether or not I wanted to start a blog, and finally got around to it today.  Part of me thinks the only reason why I actually went through with it was to further procrastinate packing.  A couple weeks ago I made a big deal  to the kids in my orientation group (quick shout-out to Group 18) about needing to start packing for college early.  Really wish I heeded my own advice...

So now I find myself looking around my room, staring at the two suitcases and a carry-on that are holding my life for the next three months.  Tomorrow at approximately 6:40 pm when I get on that plane to London, it will be the culmination of months of sitting through meetings, returning emails, and filling out form after form.  And while at the time it was all incredibly tedious, I know it's all gonna be well worth it.  Call it corny, but ever since move-in day my freshmen year when I was lugging my shit through the rain into the Sem, it was my goal to eventually intern in London.  So in reality this was a process over two years in the making, and I couldn't be more grateful for all my friends and family that helped me stay the course.     



Suits. Just watch it.

On a quick sidenote, if you haven't watched Suits, do yourself a favor and check it out.  In my humble opinion the best show on television right now, and single-handedly made me re-evaluate my childhood dream of going to law school.  One of the major downsides of leaving for London tomorrow is that I'm gonna miss the season finale, but I guess that's what the internet is for.