7 Mar

I guess I haven’t mentioned this yet, but today the Association of University Teachers (AUT) of the UK went on strike. We received notice of it last Thursday through multiple e-mails. I was excited to see the picket line and even though classes were cancelled, I headed in to town to see all the action. Turns out, the strike was extremely pathetic. Instead of a bunch of teachers forming a picket line and marching in front of the Strand building, there were a few of them handing out flyers to students entering the building and signs that simply said “picket line” on them posted on the windows. There was no real picket line! What kind of a strike is that! They’re striking for higher pay and hardly anyone is actually striking! It was pretty sad.

Because the “strike” was a bust, I decided to walk around a bit instead. I wandered into the National Gallery and admired some Da Vincis there. Despite the terrible weather (a lovely combination of cold, windy, and rainy), it was rather fun. I got back to the dorm and did some reading and messed around a bit until dinner. Gregg got back from Greenwich shortly before. Today was his birthday and though he didn’t have much of a dinner to celebrate it with, Lainey and Kate bought him a cake from Sainsbury’s and we sang for him around 8.

After that, Lainey and Kate insisted that he get ginned (chug 8 shots, I think, of pure gin) just like Kate did for her birthday, so we took him to the bar. Fortunately, some people there knew the ginning song and after they finished singing, he just started downing the gin. It was pretty amazing, and of course, I caught it all on video. Hoo-rah.

We hung out at the bar for a while before heading back to our rooms for some more schoolwork. I finally went to bed around midnight.

Happy 21^st birthday Gregg!! Cheers!