So it's been a few days. Sorry about that. Much has happened.
Most notable: English people are really really terribly bad at basketball. We've seen several pickup games in different cities, and invariably the ball never makes it through the hoop. They look like players, but they're not. It's really funny to watch them. I wish I could have made a YouTube video.
We've been meeting with tons of different people and having screenings. We had a screening at the London Metropolitan University a few days ago, which went really well. There were about 35 people there, awesome. A few professors were there, one of whom was not excited about IC. We were warned about her before, and she lived up to the hype. She wanted to know why we weren't addressing the roots of the problem with our projects. I told here I believed we were, providing education and jobs and trying to end the war. She said she thought the effects of colonialism were the source of the problem. I wanted to say, "Well it wasn't my country who colonized Uganda." I didn't get to say that. Lots of people said they were sorry about her after the screening.
We went to Wicked last night. Without exaggeration, it was the most amazing experience of my entire life, my entire life. You have to see it, but it's going to be just not quite as good if you don't see it on the West End. I'm a snob. The Wicked Witch was crazy awesome. She made everyone else look like they were in high school one act play. After it ended, I felt like a junkie coming down off of a high. I needed another fix.
Margie, my boss, and Brody, our legal council, came to visit this week. We had a great time. I met with the third largest legal firm in the world, not all of them, only seven. They really liked me.
A couple of days ago we were talking around Covent Garden walking by some church, and there was a drunk homeless dude playing Wonderwall on his guitar. It was so bad, but so so funny. Jessica and I looked at each other and just started to laugh because it was just so cliche.
Today we walked around the Waterloo area and found a great Turkish restaurant. It was so great. I think I'm really starting to love this city. I might be back for the second half of the summer, assuming everything works out. It would be great. There's so much work to do.
We leave on Monday for Dublin and will be traveling for the rest of our time here. I'll try my hardest to update sooner next time. Miss you, BRICE.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
It's very cold and rainy here
So it's been about a week now, and I think it's rained pretty much everyday, except for the day it snowed. It really is just about the stormiest place in the world I'd imagine. Today the forecast was for sun, but it's going to start raining within the hour. I don't think I'll be needing my shorts and Chacos that I packed, oh well.
We've really been busy this week. On Tuesday we met with an organization called Think London. They are a government-supported group that helps foreign companies open UK offices. In addition to working with Invisible Children, they're managing the foreign companies that are opening offices for the London Summer Olympics in 2012. They office on the 35th floor of the Citibank Tower, the tallest building in the UK. The entire Canary Wharf is brand new sky scrapers made of glass with some of the largest international corporations and investment banks officing there. The woman we met with, named Pru, was very helpful and receptive. It took her a little while to understand we aren't going to need to be set up with advertising agencies and PR firms. Fortune 500 companies aren't typically grassroots.
We've met with about a dozen different people about IC during the week as well, all of whom have seen the film at some point and want to help with the transition. We might have even found a roadie or two for the fall's tour.
The Underground has been very adventurous. It stops running around midnight, and one night we were out later than we anticipated and barely made the last train from the station. But we had to change lines at Westminster and had to literally run from platform to platform. I turned the corner to catch the door and turned to help Jessica across the gap, and then the door tried to close on my face. I had to push it open to get her on board. The train was packed with drunk people, all of whom were laughing, especially a group of about eight high school girls. Jessica cleaned the mark off my face from the door, and I gave the girls a copy of the film. They had to take it because they had been so clearly laughing at me.
It also strange to spend so much time at the location of a terrorist attack. On July 7th, 2005 terrorists detonated bombs on the trains, killing several hundred people. It's so strange that Ground Zero is almost a holy site for us in the US, but I've seen no sign of a memorial at all in the Tube. One afternoon we were riding around rush hour, and I was sitting across from a Middle Eastern man reading the Koran. He looked very fatigued and agitated. After reading a few passages he placed the book into his coat pocket and then pulled out some sort of electronic device. I got pretty nervous, but it turns out it was just a hand-held dvd player. I've always considered myself open minded and tolerant, but I think for the first time ever, I really felt the fear associated with the threat of terrorism and the illogical assumptions many people make about Muslims, very strange.
Right now, I'm out in a small town called Orpington, about 25 minutes outside of London by train. We've been staying with our friend Rachel, who is a friend of a friend of a friend who works in the San Diego office. She and her family are very nice, and we just finished a traditional English breakfast of baked beans, eggs, tomatoes, bacon, toast, marmalade and tea. It was actually quite good. I've been drinking lots of tea.
Tonight we're going to move into our flat. It's in Shepherds Bush, near Nodding Hill Gate western London. We got a really great deal on it, only $300 per week, which is so cheap for London. Most rent is several thousand a week. This week, we have many meetings with real estate agents, banks, contacts and lawyers. We are also screening the film to the Laytham and Watkins Legal Group. It's the third largest law firm in the world, and we're screening it to the entire group of 250, pretty intimidating but very cool.
We're in London for about two more weeks, then we head off to the country. We'll be planning our route soon.
We've really been busy this week. On Tuesday we met with an organization called Think London. They are a government-supported group that helps foreign companies open UK offices. In addition to working with Invisible Children, they're managing the foreign companies that are opening offices for the London Summer Olympics in 2012. They office on the 35th floor of the Citibank Tower, the tallest building in the UK. The entire Canary Wharf is brand new sky scrapers made of glass with some of the largest international corporations and investment banks officing there. The woman we met with, named Pru, was very helpful and receptive. It took her a little while to understand we aren't going to need to be set up with advertising agencies and PR firms. Fortune 500 companies aren't typically grassroots.
We've met with about a dozen different people about IC during the week as well, all of whom have seen the film at some point and want to help with the transition. We might have even found a roadie or two for the fall's tour.
The Underground has been very adventurous. It stops running around midnight, and one night we were out later than we anticipated and barely made the last train from the station. But we had to change lines at Westminster and had to literally run from platform to platform. I turned the corner to catch the door and turned to help Jessica across the gap, and then the door tried to close on my face. I had to push it open to get her on board. The train was packed with drunk people, all of whom were laughing, especially a group of about eight high school girls. Jessica cleaned the mark off my face from the door, and I gave the girls a copy of the film. They had to take it because they had been so clearly laughing at me.
It also strange to spend so much time at the location of a terrorist attack. On July 7th, 2005 terrorists detonated bombs on the trains, killing several hundred people. It's so strange that Ground Zero is almost a holy site for us in the US, but I've seen no sign of a memorial at all in the Tube. One afternoon we were riding around rush hour, and I was sitting across from a Middle Eastern man reading the Koran. He looked very fatigued and agitated. After reading a few passages he placed the book into his coat pocket and then pulled out some sort of electronic device. I got pretty nervous, but it turns out it was just a hand-held dvd player. I've always considered myself open minded and tolerant, but I think for the first time ever, I really felt the fear associated with the threat of terrorism and the illogical assumptions many people make about Muslims, very strange.
Right now, I'm out in a small town called Orpington, about 25 minutes outside of London by train. We've been staying with our friend Rachel, who is a friend of a friend of a friend who works in the San Diego office. She and her family are very nice, and we just finished a traditional English breakfast of baked beans, eggs, tomatoes, bacon, toast, marmalade and tea. It was actually quite good. I've been drinking lots of tea.
Tonight we're going to move into our flat. It's in Shepherds Bush, near Nodding Hill Gate western London. We got a really great deal on it, only $300 per week, which is so cheap for London. Most rent is several thousand a week. This week, we have many meetings with real estate agents, banks, contacts and lawyers. We are also screening the film to the Laytham and Watkins Legal Group. It's the third largest law firm in the world, and we're screening it to the entire group of 250, pretty intimidating but very cool.
We're in London for about two more weeks, then we head off to the country. We'll be planning our route soon.
Monday, March 24, 2008
I'm in British...
We made it! But not easily. We arrived to the airport only to find out flights to Canada are still considered domestic, and consequently, we were in the wrong terminal. Turns out Jessica's dad had already parked the car by this point, so we had to wait a while for him to get back and reload the car.
We have a ton of stuff with us. Here's the list:
1 Suitcase for clothes each
1 Laptop each
1 Backpack each
300 Rough Cut dvds
150 Emmy bracelets
150 Sunday bracelets
The dvds and bracelets are divided between two suitcases weighing 70 lbs a piece. They should be really fun on the Tube.
So we got them all checked and had to pay the overweight fee of $75 per bag, but it's cheaper than mailing that much merch. We said goodbye to Jessica's family and headed to the gate. We had rehearsed a plan to get bumped up to first class, but the gate agent wasn't having it. I went up to him to tell him my fiance and I were flying to London to meet my parents. They've been working overseas on business and never met Jessica. She even had a fake engagement ring. The gate agent said he could bump me up if I had a credit card. Lame.
So we flew to Toronto Canada. Customs there was the biggest joke in the world. We had a middle-aged lady serve as our group guide for a group of 10. We walked down a hallway to the station. Then we just walked right on through, no questions, just a stamp and goodbye. They were so friendly.
The flight from Toronto to London was pretty empty, and we got to spread out. We could see the ice burgs from our window. GLOBAL WARMING is REAL!!! So I decided it would be fun for us to get ethnic meals, well mine was ethnic, and Jessica's was gluten free. Both were terrible. We ate pretzels and little else. My dinner was a curry sandwich with an expiration date of March 29, 2009, and Jessica's gluten free biscuit was a month out of date already. So we were very hungry and tired when we landed.
We had to wait for a while before Jessica's cousin, Alvin, came and picked us up. There was the amazingly loud American college student ripping on George Bush and our industrial greed sitting a few seats over in the airport. We couldn't help but laugh at him as he kept talking and kept talking. Alvin picked us up in his Acura Integra, a very small car, but somehow we managed to fit all of the bags and backpacks. We drove though the heart of the city at night and saw the Natural History Museum, Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye, London Bridge and lots of old buildings, very cool. We drove past Harods too.
Today we slept until 2:30, and we just returned from our first trip to the grocery store. All of the prices are the same, but just in pounds, very deceiving. We're about to head out to the mobile phone store to get phones and have meetings tomorrow already.
I hope everyone is doing well, and please stay in touch. I hope to hear from you soon.
We have a ton of stuff with us. Here's the list:
1 Suitcase for clothes each
1 Laptop each
1 Backpack each
300 Rough Cut dvds
150 Emmy bracelets
150 Sunday bracelets
The dvds and bracelets are divided between two suitcases weighing 70 lbs a piece. They should be really fun on the Tube.
So we got them all checked and had to pay the overweight fee of $75 per bag, but it's cheaper than mailing that much merch. We said goodbye to Jessica's family and headed to the gate. We had rehearsed a plan to get bumped up to first class, but the gate agent wasn't having it. I went up to him to tell him my fiance and I were flying to London to meet my parents. They've been working overseas on business and never met Jessica. She even had a fake engagement ring. The gate agent said he could bump me up if I had a credit card. Lame.
So we flew to Toronto Canada. Customs there was the biggest joke in the world. We had a middle-aged lady serve as our group guide for a group of 10. We walked down a hallway to the station. Then we just walked right on through, no questions, just a stamp and goodbye. They were so friendly.
The flight from Toronto to London was pretty empty, and we got to spread out. We could see the ice burgs from our window. GLOBAL WARMING is REAL!!! So I decided it would be fun for us to get ethnic meals, well mine was ethnic, and Jessica's was gluten free. Both were terrible. We ate pretzels and little else. My dinner was a curry sandwich with an expiration date of March 29, 2009, and Jessica's gluten free biscuit was a month out of date already. So we were very hungry and tired when we landed.
We had to wait for a while before Jessica's cousin, Alvin, came and picked us up. There was the amazingly loud American college student ripping on George Bush and our industrial greed sitting a few seats over in the airport. We couldn't help but laugh at him as he kept talking and kept talking. Alvin picked us up in his Acura Integra, a very small car, but somehow we managed to fit all of the bags and backpacks. We drove though the heart of the city at night and saw the Natural History Museum, Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye, London Bridge and lots of old buildings, very cool. We drove past Harods too.
Today we slept until 2:30, and we just returned from our first trip to the grocery store. All of the prices are the same, but just in pounds, very deceiving. We're about to head out to the mobile phone store to get phones and have meetings tomorrow already.
I hope everyone is doing well, and please stay in touch. I hope to hear from you soon.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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