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.