Autumn in London '06

PM Questions and Brendan's Visit

Hey All,

Well it’s been a very interesting and fast-paced end of the week! I’ll start with my second and much more exciting visit to Parliament. On Wednesday morning, Kevin sent me a text message saying that he had scored tickets to another session of Parliament. But this time, it was no ordinary session, but rather the Prime Minister’s Questions! This is the bit that you may have seen on TV where the opposition parties and anyone else gets to ask Tony Blair questions about his policies and his plans and he has to answer them. Can you imagine that happening in the states? Anyway, while it wasn’t a verbal fistfight by any means, it was very interesting to see the leader of the British government have to defend his decisions in front of a live audience!

And then, Brendan came. As I’ve foreshadowed a bit, my friend Brendan arrived Thursday morning to visit for a whole week. After getting a bit lost trying to find his gate at the airport, I found that his flight was a bit delayed anyway, so it wasn’t a problem at all. It was great to talk to him face to face on the tube ride back from Heathrow (no small journey let me assure you), and also great to see someone else familiar. I guess you never realise how much you miss the regulars in your life until they become people you only get to see once in a while.

But the real fun of Thursday was that it was Thanksgiving. Normally, this day means nothing to the Brits, who have no such holiday and do not (obviously) recognise the US version. But because of us three Americans living in my flat, my flatmates decided that we should cook and have a Thanksgiving dinner anyway. Good thing we have so many people who know how to cook! Kerri bought a 20 pound turkey (we couldn’t find a bigger one) and Germaine, Stacey, and Kerri did most of the cooking. In the end, we had all of the Thanksgiving staples, from turkey to stuffing to mashed potatoes to cranberry sauce, it was all there! And with Brendan and Kevin and a few of Kerri’s friends in on the action as well, we had quite a group around our modestly sized table. But the food was excellent, and the conversation was even better! It’s truly amazing how much more the average British kid knows about the world, about politics, about government, and about everything than the average American (who is, by the way, nearly useless). We had a great time, and for British cooking the food was exceptional! I’m so glad that I managed to get flatmates who are this cool J.

posted by Zachary Nicholson @ 2:39 PM