Of Pub Culture

So I realized that being in England, I completely forgot to write about the most important part of all: the pub! Maybe it was because most of my pub experiences were concentrated in the first month I was here. Or maybe because I find myself deviating towards bars more because of sheer drink variety (I do not like beer, ironically).

Suffice to say, pub culture in England is what Starbucks is to the states: they're everywhere. There's two pubs on campus alone, the newly opened The Dirty Duck and The Varsity. They are similar to the majority of pubs in the UK in that they serve the same kind of drinks, namely beer (Strongbow, Guinness), cider (Bulmers), wine, and the simple mixed drinks (by simple, I mean usually a juice and an alcohol, don't expect any fancy blenders here). During the winter season, they do have mulled wine and rum as well (which makes Allison happy considering she's addicted to it). Of course, the best thing about the pubs near our college campus are the college nights where certain drinks are a pound or a mixture for upwards of 2 pounds.

The best thing about pubs in general are the cheap food, most pubs will have a meal deal of two traditional English fares for 5 pounds, which is wonderful for the budget traveler or the poor college student. The flip side of that is you have to like English food which I will admit, I am partial to (and that's being kind).


And if you come on Sundays, you get roast beef with Yorkshire pudding!

Reasons to go to a pub rather than a bar:

1) The homely atmosphere. It's the kind of place where you can take your parents (if you're comfortable drinking in front of them) and still feel comfortable since the setting is usually in a small, wood-paneled environment filled with other older people and the bartenders are usually really friendly and prone to making conversation. You do not go to pubs to pick up guys (or girls).
2) Better conversation. You can hear what the person next to you is saying since there isn't any loud music blowing out your eardrums.
3) Cheap food. See my explanation above.
4) The names are better. With such classic names like "Tortoise and the Hare," "The Mad Hatter," "The Wild Boar," and other fun, classically English names, why would you not want to go? At the very least, it's funny.


I have no idea what that name means. It's just cool.

Of Valentine's Day and Dublin

Every Valentine's Day that I've had since high school (where it was just another bitter day that forever reminded me of how single and alone I was) have been far better than the last. My freshman year in college, my friend Christine and I ordered pizza, watched a movie, and then went up to our neighbor's place for karaoke. Last year, me and my a cappella buddies went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen where we proceeded to sing on the way to the restaurant, at the restaurant, and coming back from the restaurant. That added with a red velvet cake and a chocolate souffle ensured that I was lying in a food coma for the rest of the night.

This year topped it all, though. True, there was no special boy but the weekend did end up being fun (for the rest of us) and unforgettable. Going to Dublin for a weekend might not have been your typical V-day excursion, but when you add a free pint from the Guinness factory...

Apparently, "Guinness is good for you" and it's full of "poetry," according to the factory advertisements.

Hamburgers at Eddie Rockets (the Irish version of Johnny Rockets, non-affiliated)...

A night of dancing at the Purty Kitchen, located in the Temple Bar district, which is the source of Dublin's nightlife. The club had 4 floors, live music, and 2 bars...


Followed by a beautiful sunny day exploring the medieval area of Dublin, which included the old city and Saint Patrick's cathedral,

The old city of Dublin, circa 1240 AD, sadly, it was closed off


Jonathan Swift is buried here since he was the Dean of the Church

Then you had all you need to have a great Valentine's Day weekend.

My Valentines? The guys and girls of the Warwick Erasmus society, which composed of all exchange students to the University of Warwick, both from the states and Europe. And they managed to make it a memorable end to an eventful Reading Week. Now, back to real life and trying to work.

Things I learned from Dublin:

• The Irish accents in Dublin are not very pronounced, being a mix of Irish and British.
  
• Beware of drunk Irish people, they will tend to elbow you without apologizing, throw the contents of their drink on you, or spit in your general direction (seriously)
• Apparently, Asians in Ireland are a rarity. Case in point, while trying to get into the club, the bouncer took a long glance at my ID and Jenny's , who is Chinese, ID before remarking, "beautiful." Then, the next day, a strange old Irish man stopped beside on the street, asked me if I was Chinese, then proceeded to pat my head and wished me a good trip in Ireland.
• Stay away from the edges of the city, it's kind of slummy. But otherwise, the rest of Dublin is quite small, quaint, and full of antique shops (you can easily walk from one end of the city to the other within one afternoon).
• Alcohol in Dublin is, ironically, very expensive. I paid 7 euros for a cocktail while a pint of beer cost 4 euros. The key? Order one drink and nurse it the whole night.

Of Jetlag and Beer

To inaugurate the very first post of my abroad blog, I would like to dedicate a blog to the funness of jetlag. The lesson of this post is, if possible, fall asleep on the plane, it'll save you tons of exhaustion.

I left LAX on January 1st at 9:30 Pacific Standard Time to go up to San Francisco where from there, I would commence my true journey to England. Well, I land in SF at 11AM and the flight to London's Heathrow Airport (the airport in "Love Actually") is 10 hours long, on which I slept about 2 hours while the other 8 hours was devoted to watching "Bottle Shock" (which made me want to drink, where the hell was the bar and why am I not 21 yet?) and "City of Embers" (kind of lame).

10 hours later, arrived at London Heathrow where the local time is 7AM and I just technically spent the whole day in an airplane crammed in a small chair filled with crying babies (why he hell do people take kids on trips?). I then proceeded to cart two suitcases, a backpack filled with books (yes I am a geek), and my laptop bag through the airport (damn long terminals), to the London Express (a 15 minute train ride into the heart of London in which I lose my beautiful, white, down-filled puffer jacket), and roll it through Picadelly Station. A mocha latte at the station (everything is less sweet here, and that is why Europeans are so skinny), a conversation with a very nice American girl that I met on the train, it is almost 11AM. I hail a taxi and 10 pounds later, get to the hotel where I realize, fuck, I can't check in until 2PM. It's 10, I'm tired as hell and sore from head to toe (I have bruises on my legs to prove it) and all I want to do is sleep.

Luckily, I am able to leave my luggage at the storeroom in the hotel while I get to wander around London for 4 hours. Now, if you were to allow me to do this while I was awake and lucid, I would have probably appreciated it all the more. As it was, it was an American zombie walking around London, a shame since I spent 2 hours in the British Library where I saw original manuscripts of Shakespearean plays, Bibles, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre," and Beatles lyrics and all I could think about was a bed (and why I didn't remember to take my camera out of my backpack before I left the hotel). It would have been a geekfest had I not been exhausted and kind of brainnumb. Yet, it was wonderful all the same.

Suffice to say, I did not sleep until 12AM that night (only to be woken up at 7AM the next morning for a meeting at 8:30) and that was only after a guided boat ride on the Thames (to which I kind of dozed off), a pizza dinner (not hungry), and...(wait for it) an authentic English pub! At that moment, the entire group of tired, slightly cranky, UC abroad students decided to drown our exhaustion in booze (and in which I finally remember my camera).

And has it been worth all of this tiredness and trouble so far? Hell yeah, especially if you have beer and cider to help you through it.


This is what happens when you're tired and buzzed.