Oh it starts and ends....you're like a sunset.

Wasn't going to update this for a while (like post 11 day trip around Europe, a while)but once again I find myself lying in bed, unconvinced of a good reason to surrender to sleep. No T.V, too late to play guitar, music in the background, I figure might as well update my blog. Plus, I don't want to see the bald guy in my dreams again. Just kidding.

BTW is anyone still reading this besides Lori and Tom? I find that I'm letting this get a bit personal and I'm wondering if anyone actually reads this.Knowing that I'm writing to empty cyberspace and two close friends would make me feel a little better I think. Shoot me an e-mail if you're following this blog
andrewstrums@hotmail.com

just kidding, don't e-mail me.

I'm feeling really fucking excellent right now. I know last week I had a bit of a setback, with homesickness and unexplained physical sickness (possibly brought on by anxiety which may or may not have been brought on by alcoholism and turkey sandwiches) but I think I discovered a few possible career choices for my "life" once May hits.

Ok
A. Write a great book. Ok, ok, I know I always say this, but, I think I came up with a really good idea to write about...I'd have to start writing though, which is complicated because it would interfere with my facebook postings and away message checking.
B. Be in a Rock Band. I saw Phoenix tonight and the dream holds true, I wish I was doing that instead of pretending to be a young intellectual.
C. Open up an English style pub in Keyport with Nick. Yeah that's right. Me and Nick always talked about opening a bar, if I opened a pub like the ones here in London, I think it'd be a hit. We'd open for English Breakfast, tea lunch, live music every night (supplied by me), Currey Dinner, Sunday Roast, and of course all the English beer you can drink on tap! Oh yeah, and NO TIPPING! Big signs in the windows that say no tipping! ...now all I need is 900,000 dollars to get started.
D. Take out a 50,000 dollar loan for Grad School and continue to read books and get my degree in book reading, thus perpetuating my beatnik lifestyle and future (comparable to a sunrise) that will never come....i'm leaning toward this one.
E. Ok There are ALOT of street musicians in London. I was thinking like what if I got them all together in some BIG venue, charged people to see them all at once, for like, a good cause or something. (What cause worth fighting for is good?)I think that'd be awesome. The musicians would get exposure, somebody would benefit. I'd need to be backed by John Mayer and Kanye West or something though.
F. Live with my parents and deliver pizza.
G. Commit insurance fraud.
H. Sell my ballin car and live off the money for six months and then hang myself.
J. No ok J is serious. Maybe work for National Geographic? What if I got paid to like blog about places I've visited...that'd be a nice life, traveling and writing about it.
K. Eat 6 grease trucks sandwiches in 45 minutes, and have my last dying words be "Call it the Fandy (Fat Andy)".

Ok, that was comic relief. What have I actually been up to?
Sunday I went to a cooking class. I learned how to make Yorkshire Pudding and Scones. The lady was really weird and I felt immature the whole time. I felt like I was back in High School cooking class and all I wanted to do was be an asshole and make offhand comments and make the kids I was with laugh. I love scones though. Scones with marmalade and clotted cream...fire.
Afterwords this kid I don't know to well named Julian asked me to watch football (soccer) with him at a pub. It was like 1pm and I was pretty excited because I wanted to sit at a pub with a dude and get blasted in the middle of the afternoon...haven't done that since a few days before I left. He bailed though, but it was ok because me and my real friends went to Piccadilly. Jose and I got some Heineken's, and I got a german-style sausage with onions, and we sat in Green Park outside Buckingham Palace and spent the afternoon laying in the leaves in a circle. I had one of those, "God, I'm in London" moments. It had been a while and it felt good.
That night we saw "The Imaginerium of Dr. Parnassas" in a British movie theater. The movie was fuckin' awesome, but the British "PICTURE HOUSE" was way MORE awesome. The seats recline all the way back, the theater was clean, and every preview was for beer. Like literally every preview. Oh, and you can drink in the theater.

Monday I went to class which was LAME, but our London History class was really interesting. We walked around like some places I haven't seen yet, down alleyways and stuff. We saw St. George's hospital which is like 600 years old, and we went to a few graveyards where people were buried during the plague.

Later that night I went to see "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Young Vic. It was literally the worst play I've ever seen, and I know I always talk in extremes, but saba dah it was FUCKING bad. I loved it. I was entertained the entire time by how bad it was. I think, I could have made up better dances. I really do. I might see it again because it was so comically bad.

Tuesday we had taco lunch, and then Kate and Chris and I walked around New Cross. That night we went to the New Cross Inn again, watched some bad bands, had a good time. I wound up getting drunk even though, I really tried not to. Toffee Vodka was just too good,and I'm a sucker for good friends and conversation.

Today I woke up LATE and felt great. Kate and I went to see Phoenix at the O2 Academy Brixton. Brixton, turns out, is like the East Orange of London. I really wanted to eat at a nice place, but we could only find weird pubs with weirder menus. Finally, when I was about to give up, we spotted a really nice little place in an alleyway. It was a cool little place,, with like happy people and candles and such but the picture on the wall was of a bunch of different colored cartoon people holding each other's dicks...it was also the logo. That aside, I ordered an Ostrich Burger (yeap) and Kate had a Fish pie with an egg on it. I than proceeded to convince her of the joy's of beginning a relationship with Guinness.
After that we went to the show, got two Guinness's (yes), and watched Phoenix. The theater was so cool. It was like, if a theater at home put on a costume. Phoenix was amazing and it felt great to see real music again. I was really into it. The band that opened up was interesting as well, they have that song that goes, "I'm doing handstands for you" over and over again.
I love music and musicians. All I want to do is be a badass musician with a cool light show. This show was such a good experience, I miss seeing concerts so much.

It was a great night, now I can't sleep, thinking about buffalo wings.

I love England. I love London. This city is quite alive. This weekend I'm going to Dublin though, perhaps, the climax of this blog.

My time is running short. Can't believe I've been here for six weeks. I can actually see going home now as something that is not so far away. It's ok. I still have to go to liverpool, manchester, brighton, wales, and Subway.

Goodnight Friends. I love you!!!

Cheers-
ANDREW M. GINSBERG