Jose Plata in da UK

Melissa and I had the recent fortune of hosting one of my closest friends from Seattle – Joe Silver. Joey and I have known each other well since high school, but fell in true love during our fraternity days at UW. He was on his way to India for work, but able to stop through London for four days to grace us with his presence. I scooped him up from Heathrow on Tuesday, and after a quick stop to absorb some energy from the city, we hopped on a quick train up north to spend our first day and a half in Cambridge.

Joe picked an interesting time to visit Cambridge. This past week is known as May Week – exams are finally over, everyone can exhale, and the colleges host these incredible events called May Balls. From the outside, May Balls seem to articulate the decadence of extreme privilege. These are private, black/white tie events that include 2872 course meals, the finest wines, major bands, mini-amusement parks, etc – all-night events that are exclusively hosted by each college whose principle goal is to out shine the next. Cost per person for the all night event? Magdalene ball, the most expensive, was $360 per person - again, per person. So as Joe and I wandered the amazing college grounds, the city was bustling with top hats, high heels, and…. us. We had a great time catching up on ways to solve the world’s problems, and untangled the various webs of human existence – in other words, we explored the amazing Cambridge pubs, went punting down the Cam, checked out all the colleges, and were able to give Joey a taste of our year over here.

On Thursday morning, Silver and I caught the train down to London to waste our last few days wandering around one of the world’s greatest cities. We checked into our crappy, cheap, but perfectly located hotel (5 blocks north of Hyde Park and slightly east of Notting Hill) and then began our exploration of the city. We spent Thursday at the British Museum, Oxford Street, Hyde Park, and finished the day off with Mel joining us for a delicious jug of Pimms and a marvelous Thai meal at the Churchill Arms – an amazing pub that Tommy (Lissa’s brother) introduced us to.

Friday was filled with the rest of London’s main sights, including an extended stop at the Tate Museum of Modern Art. The Tate had an amazing exhibit on the impact of urban living, using case-studies of 10 cities around the world. Check the link, it was a great overview of the significance and urgency of strategic urban design…an all-around fascinating exhibit:

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/globalcities/default.shtm

We also saw paintings from Monet, Picasso, Jackson Pollack, and many other modern artists. Leaving the Tate, we walked around the Thames and checked out Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Eye, and were able to spend good time catching up and filling each other in on life details that seem to skip phone conversations. Latter that evening, we went to the theater to watch Avenue Q, an uncouth, but completely appropriate, puppet rendition of post-college, early career life. After the show, we closed down a really cool pub in Soho – not saying much since pubs in London close super early (around midnight).

As Joey had to catch his flight to India on Saturday afternoon, we got a good start on the day, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the Portobello Market – a really famous antique/fruit/bread/clothes market in Notting Hill. Unfortunately, our market visit marked the end to Joey’s stay in the UK. All in all, it was really good to see him, host one of our closest friends, and be with a familiar face (and sense of humor). Really though, it was the beginning of a slew of visitors coming our way. The Roe family visits for nearly two weeks starting Thursday, and as they leave, our other close friends, the O’Connor couple, will arrive. Somewhere in between, I have to finish my dissertation… yikes. Stay tuned for the next summary with the Roe family (and my looming dissertation misfortunes).