Amsterdam and Edinburgh

This trip has become a whirlwind and it is absolutely impossible to get everything across so I'll try to hit the highlights.  2 weekends ago we went to Amsterdam for the weekend, managing to get moved in and finally head out right around midnight.  After being in a bar for less than 20 minutes I spotted Ryan Stevens outside with his dad without any knowledge of him being in Amsterdam.  Needless to say, they both joined us for a wild weekend exploring Amsterdam with us until sunrise both nights.

During the day we managed to get in a 3 hour bike tour of the city, wander the streets, visit both a flea market and a flower market and see the World Press photo tour (which was breathtaking).  There were some of the most poignant pictures I have ever seen in my life alongside the most amazingly artistic ones.

Fast forward a week and we went to Edinburgh for my birthday weekend.  Once again arriving later in the evening we quickly moved into our hostel (significantly nicer than the one in Amsterdam) with a full bar/restaurant on the main floor.  Kaz Komolafe joined us for night one to give us an insider tour of Edinburgh nightlife.

Night two was my birthday and oh what a night it proved to be.  After spending the day touring Edinburgh castle and the Scotch whiskey museum we had one of the best meals I have ever eaten and proceeded to celebrate well into the night at a random hotel bar with a fantastic guitarist who played American music.  We met 3 Atlantans there (one of which is Brooke DeVore's grandpa) and turned the bar into a fraternity band party with everybody dancing.

The following morning we managed to wake up early and climb Arthur's Seat which provided us a gorgeous view of the city and coastline.  Afterwards, Kaz was kind enough to have all 6 of us over for a home-cooked lunch (more like 2 lunches) which was some of the best food I've had so far.

I'm in London working for the week and trying to recover from these last two weeks, but I'm looking to next weekend.  Dublin here we come.  Slaínte!

Long Weekend in London

The Serpentine in Hyde Park

 With the bank holiday today, we were fortunate enough to have a long weekend.  Although we originally planned on Amsterdam, the volcano in Iceland delayed our planning process until it was too late so we're doing that next weekend.  That said, this was a great weekend.
 On Saturday we went to the Portabello Markets for the afternoon which was great.  It was about a half mile of cart-lined streets with all sorts of art, clothes, food, and trinkets, which made for quite an afternoon.

Wandering through London

Sunday we spent "following" a self-guided walking tour around the Hyde Park area.  After getting lost immediately it quickly degraded into wandering in the general direction stopping at every pub we could find for a pint (including the beautiful Serpentine Cafe).  We ended up at the Grenadier where we ran into a family travelling from Kansas City who we talked to for about an hour.  All in all a successful day.

Our Final Stop

Monday has been a very lazy day as it is unfortunately quite dreary for us.  We wandered around for lunch but I've since been uploading pictures, reading emails, and finished The Fountainhead (not sure if I liked it or Atlas Shrugged more).  Tonight will be an early night as we head into another work week, but I'm keeping my eye on Friday...off to Amsterdam!

This weekend

My Room

Nido Spitalfieds

Room 10-18

9 Frying Pan Alley

London, England

If you want to send mail.  For reference it is very close to Liverpool Street Station and maybe a 5 minute walk from my job, very convenient.

Natural History Museum

E1 7HSHad a great touristy weekend seeing the historical side to London.  I spent Saturday at the Natural History museum and got my nerd on.  They had some incredible stuff in there including some of the biggest diamonds in the world, all sorts of dinosaur fossils, meteorites, and even space diamonds created in a supernova (shouts out to Prof. Eddie Murphy) billions of years ago.

After about 3 hours of that I went home and watched the most recent Harry Potter in anticipation of the craze that will surely hit the city soon.  Later that night we went down to Oxford Circus to try out a new part of town and had a lot of fun there.

Sunday was another quiet day with a late lunch and a power tour of the Tower of London.  We looked at almost everything in 1.5 hours and it was awesome. I remember having been before but it was really nice to comprehend everything more fully.  I wish we had time to visit Tower Bridge but I'll just make that another trip.

The White Tower, Tower of London

The reason we had to leave so early was meet up with Tory and Caitlyn for dinner in Soho.  It was really nice to see some UVA friends abroad and it sounds like I'll be spending some more time with them.  Turns out they both plan on travelling Italy the same time as John and I so we may just travel together to Katie and Molly in Rome and see the rest of the country.

I was planning on going to Amsterdam this weekend as we have a long weekend, but it looks like the ash may have us holed up this weekend.  Bit of a downer.

Also, I started my job Monday.  They have me doing data entry, which was to be expected, but include me in most of the conversation about the deals they are working on.  It's impressive to say the least, but I hope I'll make it to that level by their age.

Finally Settled In

These last few days have been madness getting all situated for the summer but I've finally got it all figured out.  Also got a confirmation on my internship placement so I will be working for Chrystal Capital for the summer, which is very exciting for me.  It'll be a great experience in a field I'm interested in.

Now for the fun stuff.  In the past few days we've visiting the Tate Britain, did a scavenger hunt around London (Harrods, Kensington Park, Hyde Park Corner etc.) and took a walking tour of London.  This weekend we're going to stay in the City be tourists (The Eye, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey etc.) which will be a lot of fun to see again.  Pubs also have been quite a bit of fun.  So far we've managed to go out every night and will probably do so until Sunday (first day of work in the morning).  Fought a great pub down a random alley called the Arbitrager where we had a "few pints" one afternoon and befriended a great "pub"tender.  He told us to come back tonight when other people would be there so that's really all of our plans for the night, we'll see where the wind takes us.  I'll post some pictures after this weekend.

A More Detailed Explanation of What I'll be Doing

For those of you that don't know already, I'll be in London from now until July 2nd and travelling around Europe on the weekends and July 2-9.  I will be interning at Chrystal Capital pending a successful interview and taking class 1 day a week to learn about the economic and socio-political development of London.  I'm living in a flat with my childhood best friend, John Mitchell, listed as "apartment" on this map along with some other places of interest around me.  I actually have a fantastic view of the Gherkin from my bed too, which is quite nice at sunset.  If any of you have visited the area and have suggestions, do let me know.

This afternoon was quite an ordeal trying to get everything that I need for the months to come, in fact I'm still waiting on my towel to get delivered so I can shower.  I do have most of the essentials at this point though.  I just woke up from a 2 hour nap (about an hour longer than intended) completely disoriented and looking for the thermostat (which is currently m.i.a.).

Tomorrow is the official orientation for EUSA and the start of quite an experience.  We have met 4 people already and I look forward to meeting the rest of the group (which is enormous, with kids from over 20 colleges) as the program progresses.

Moved In

Well I've finally moved into my flat with John Mitchell and I'm mostly organized at this point.  It is only 7:45 and I am about to fall asleep writing this.  On a positive note though, the flat is great and The King's Speech was also great, one of the best movies I have seen in a while.

The official orientation begins tomorrow so I will be quite busy.  Looking forward to my first few days with everyone though.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Today we visited the Cu Chi tunnel network about an hour north of Saigon.  First we learned a little bit about the history about the tunnels (which some of were already made before the "American" War) and what life was like living in them.  Next we got a chance to shoot at a firing range using the weapons from the war (M16, AK47, M60 etc.), I chose an AK47.  That was one of the coolest things I have done on this trip so far and especially funny to watch our smallest girls aiming down the sights.  Next we got to try out the tunnels.  About 20 of us tried and 8 of us actually made it the whole 300 feet without taking one of the escape routes, I cannot imagine having to move in there with gun chatter and bombs exploding above you.  Finally, we just got back from a boat cruise dinner and the final official class event.  Most of us are going out together tonight for one last hoorah but we are all ready to be back in the States.  It's been an outstanding trip and I would fully recommend visiting Asia to anyone who is interested.

Me Kong Delta

Today we visited the Me Kong delta.  The heart of Vietnam's rice industry (#2 in the world behind Thailand), the Me Kong delta provides sustenance for almost 30% of Vietnam.  We took a ferry to see the fishing boats and visit two islands.  On the first island we had tea and listened to some Vietnamese music and attempted to play their instruments.  On the second island we had more tea, but got to pick up the honeycombs we drank in our tea.  We passed the tray that the honeycombs were on around with all of the bees on it and you could press your finger into the bees slowly to get fresh honey.  They also had a python that a few people put on their shoulders.  We also got to see the process of making coconut candy and try fresh coconut.  Finally, we took a sampan  ride through a canal back out to our ferry.  Tomorrow we are visiting the Cu Chi tunnels outside Saigon, should be an amazing day.

Day 1 in Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh City has been great so far.  Pretty much everyone on the trip is enjoying it more than Jakarta already and it has been interesting to visit a communist country.  It is a lot less different than I had thought originally.  Yesterday we went to the War Crime museum that turned out to be a little disturbing with a lot of pictures showing deformed children from chemical spray.  We also visited a coffee company that has a very ambitious goal for their company: to create a coffee sanctuary for coffee beans around the world.  We visited the Intel factory but unfortunately were unable to see any of the process for sanitation reasons.  Finally this morning we met with the CEO of a job website called VietnamWorks who is a double Hoo.  This afternoon we are going to a private holding firm and the botanical garden.  No pictures from all of that, but I'll be sure to post some from the botanical garden.

Last bits of Jakarta

The other day we spent quite a long day in the bus (7 hours of driving to be precise), though we did get to visit 2 cool places.  We drove through a safari-like zoo with all sorts of animals, with a small theme towards the Asian version like this Bengal tiger.  We also got to visit a tea plantation and see the whole process from picking to packaging.

In our last day we had the most immersive experience by visiting the slums of the Sunda Kelapa port.  We saw workers loading the boogey schooners (origin of the boogeyman) with cement by carrying the bags from dock to boat over thin planks.  Later we took canoe-like ferries across the sound inlet to the slums which was unreal.  They live in such poverty, with usually only one room, water in the alleys and trash in the courtyards.  Despite the living conditions, they always greeted us with a smile and laughter, it was uplifting.  For our last night in Jakarta we went to a superclub called X2 in their biggest mall and a delightfully stainful night followed.  We had a great time and it was a great way to go out with lots of great stories in the morning.  We left yesterday and are currently in Vietnam (where facebook is blocked) and I will update you with what we do today later.

More Jakarta

 It's been a while but I'll try to quickly summarize the last two days.  Yesterday was a busy day, we were out from 8 am to 11 pm.  We started visiting a "wet market" at Bogor which was an interesting experience. It was connected to a BTPN bank branch which we learned about the day before.  They put a lot of focus on micro financing similar to the Grameen Bank so we got to visit one of their clients in the market.

Later we visited a big chicken and beef packager and the Jakarta International School (which was unreal).  Afterward we went to one of the teachers house which he shares with 4 other guys, essentially a frat house, for a dinner and a pool party.

Today we talked to the director of marketing for Sony-Ericsson's mobile division in Indonesia and India and visited @america.  @america is a place for Indonesians to learn more about America in order to improve their opinion and understanding of America.

We're having a blast so far and it's getting more fun as we get closer.  I'm looking forward to the days to come.

Introduction to Indonesia

We spent the morning with several foreign service workers from the US embassy who helped give us a background of the many facets of Indonesia.  After that we met with two banking leaders in Jakarta who helped explain the banking system in Indonesia and different banking strategies they employ.

After that began the real fun for the day (seen below).  In preparation for the days to come a few of us decided to stock up on some drinks so we walked to the nearest grocery store about 1/4 mile away and brought some cases back to the hotel.  As if we didn't look out of place without the cases.  Had to put them through the x-ray machine to get back into our hotel.

For dinner we went to an Indonesian/Chinese blend restaurant and enjoyed a meal with two families of UVA students/grads which was nice.  It's 10:30 and I'm sadly exhausted.  Busy day tomorrow but should be very interesting.

Day 2 in Jakarta

Well my first full in Jakarta has just begun.  Had a wonderful noodle soup for breakfast with my roommate who got in last night around 12:30.  I was convinced his knock was room service which I was certain I hadn't ordered.  Turns out it was my roommate, who knew?

Today is when everyone else is supposed to get here and we ran into 4 people from our group checking in today on our way back from breakfast.  Until our dinner reception we don't really have any plans for the day.  Probably just hang out around the pool and do nothing productive all day.  Life is rough.

While I'm doing this blog individually, the whole class has a blog that we are doing as part of our grade.  It should be a more in depth analysis of what we do than this if you are interested.  We will each be making at least 3 posts in each city.  Here is the link:
http://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/mcintireabroad/