HOME!!!

After two weeks of traveling throughout Italy and Ireland and a lot of self examination, I am finally back in the states. I have been back for a few weeks now and am finally settling back into normal life. It feels real good to be back state-side. I could write so much about my travels and my feelings of my trip but I don't really feel like at this point I can accurately translate my feelings. It seems like it's going to take a long time for all the realizations to take effect. That's fine with me however. I am just glad to be home. I loved my time in Europe. I will never forget the plethora of lessons learned and the amazing people I had the opportunity to share my time there with. There will never be another group of people like them for me. This has been the best experience of my life. Well I believe for now that ends my study abroad journal. It was a blast. Signing off.

PS: No real culture shock... just the realization that although I am a transformed man, most people did not change at all.

Winding down.

So, yesterday I had a rather large scare. I came to the office and my member of parliament asked me what I sent my mom for Mothers Day. My jaw hit the floor. I told her I had no clue that it was Mother's Day. So, she starts joking around with me about how I am a bad son and how she can't believe that someone from the United States would forget a holiday that originates in their country. My reaction was to immediately write my mom an apologetic email about how extremely sorry I was and how I loved her, etc... I felt so bad. So, I go home last night, and start cursing out my roommates for not reminding me of it. Suddenly, my friend Julie starts laughing hysterically. She then proceeds to tell me that it was only Mother's Day in the UK and that it is in May in the States. And about 10 minutes later, I receive an email from my mom thanking me for the kind words but telling me I was "off the hook for now." This is one cultural experience I will certainly never forget.

Another interesting phenomenon that has taken place in the last week, is daylight savings time. In the UK, they get daylight savings time a week before the US. So right now, I am six hours ahead of everyone at home. This has been quite interesting when trying to arrange travel plans with my parents who are coming into visit this Thursday evening. It should be weird to see them in London.

I just got back to the office from sitting in on a private meeting regarding the police force amalgamation scheme set to take force in April 2007. I am writing my dissertation on this issue and it was very valuable to see what the police chiefs and constables are saying. The dissertation is on whether the Labour governments call for a strategic forces approach is the best for Britain in the 21st century. Sounds complicated... and it is. Anyways, this meeting demonstrated that no matter how complicated things look on paper, they will be even more complicated with implementation. There were a myriad of aspects I had never even though about before I sat in this meeting.

In other exciting news, I got to meet David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party today. Now, you have to understand, I have been wanting to meet him so bad. It was my goal to shake his hand since I got here. It is rumored that he may be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain if the Conservatives win the next election. So, my MP Nadine, needed a photo of him for her annual report. She told me I could come along to take the picture and then sneak in for one. So, we showed up, I went into the room and my jaw was practically on the floor. He told me to have a seat on the couch and started talking US politics with me. He asked who I thought the next US President would be, if Hillary Clinton had a chance, etc.. And then I got a photo of him and I sitting on a couch. It was great. He was extremely nice and had been to Boston on some business. Overall, today was probably one of the craziest/ most exciting days of my life. You don't get much better than this... marriage..kids... those definitely.. but other than that.. NOPE! I also got a Vote Conservative sign and had my MP sign it. This experience has been life changing. The stories alone will keep me busy with relatives for months.

As I've said earlier, I can't believe I ever thought about NOT coming to London.

Time is ticking away.

Well, I have about 2 weeks left in London before I depart for Italy and Ireland. The time has gone by extremely fast. Like anything else, all good things must come to an end. However, I am still enjoying myself and living it up until the last minute. Although, the enjoyment level has dropped now that every second of my time is occupied by either a) work at Parliament or b) writing my dissertation. I had an awful experience the other night. I lost 2,000 words of my disseration (i.e. 4 hours of work) because the Parliamentary system saves things in a weird place when opening files from an email account. Last night, I stayed at work until 10 re-writing the material I lost. This experience sent me into a rage. However, my researcher tried to calm me down by explaining that it was a relatively small problem in relation to the number of serious problems faced by those throughout the world (i.e. AIDS, Genocide, etc...) Although I shrugged it off at the time, it definitely made me think about what he said.

The dissertation I am required to write here is very similar in structure to the AWD report I had to write at Northeastern. The difference is we have about 3 weeks to compose the report here while, at home, we had an entire semester. My dissertation question is as follows: Is the Labour Governments call for a strategic forces approach to amalgamating the current structure of police forces in England and Wales the best approach for creating an effective 21st century police force? This question is extremely complicated because it mixes traditional organizational theory and a current political issue. The British system of education requires a structural framework based off of theory. The theory is then applied to modern day issues. The literature review portion of the paper requires that you read up on all the research and then show the gap in the research of which you are trying to fill by answering your question. It is a bit difficult and very time consuming.

Final exams are also on the horizon. In two weeks, we have the tests for both of our classes. The exams are worth a whopping 75% of our course grades! I am a bit worried about how they will be structured. Also, they are three hours long. This is only an hour long than Northeastern exams. However, it is hard to imagine writing for an additional hour. My hand often gets tired and covered in ink. Furthermore, there is a lot more material to cover with only a few days available to study for the tests.

In other news, I had to pleasure of sitting in the House of Commons Chamber and watching Prime Ministers Question time yesterday. It was incredible. Tony Blair is an extremely gifted politician. It truly makes George W. Bush look like a sixth grader. I now have a better understanding for why Europeans and those throughout the world view as a utterly incompetent (not that I didn't know why this was so prior to my trip because I share their view). I think that Presidents in the United States should be forced to address Congress far more often and take unscripted questions. The ability of politicians to address Congress and public forums should be essential piece of the job description. To me, if you have not taken a public speaking class somewhere along the line, your resume is certainly not strong enough. The President of the United States is arguably the most important world leader and should have enough skill to at least pretend like he knows what is going on. Additionally, Gordon Brown announced the budget for Britain yesterday and I was able to stay in the chamber and see his tenth budget speech as Chancellor. This was arguably the most important day in Parliament since we have been here. It is really mind-boggling to think that I can say I saw the Labour Government's 10th annual budget delivery. Also, it is extremely likely that Gordon Brown will be the next Labour Prime Minister when Tony Blair decides to leave office within the next 2 years.

All of our travel plans are booked for my post-program travels. The cities I am going to see (as of now) are as follows...

Milan, Italy
Venice, Italy
Florence, Italy,
Rome, Italy
Dublin, Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Cork, Ireland

I am exstatic at this point. As long I can buckle down and work hard over the next few weeks, I surely will be rewarded. My parents will visit next Friday for 6 days. This will be the first time my mom and brother have never been to Europe. I have thought long and hard about how lucky I am to have seen so much in my life. I now am an expert on one of the biggest and most exciting cities in Europe and will always be able to navigate my 'second home.' Signing off.

Oxford and the Goblet of Fire

So, as the weeks have passed I have become bogged down with the routine of school, work, sleep, and more work. I guess no matter where you are, there is some routine that you eventually get trapped in. Everyday I return to the office, I feel like I just left. There is nothing like working in Parliament. However, at the end of the day, it is still work! However, in the past few weeks I have had a few more politician citing. I have seen:

-David Cameron (Conservative Party Leader- Rival to Tony Blair)
-George Galloway (MP- Recently involved in controversy surrounding his choice to be on Celebrity Big Brother)
-Geoff Hoon- Speaker of the House
-George Osbourne- Shadow Treasury Secretary

It is definitely exciting to see these high profile people everyday at work. One thing it has made me realize is that they are just people. It is odd to see these people on TV in the chamber and then sit next to them at lunch.

Today, the program director, Alex Boughton brought us all to the world famous Oxford University for a policy study visit. We received a lecture from a few Oxford professors and toured around the town/campus. The university is antiquated in every sense. The architecture is extremely beautiful (I use this word too much but it's so true). In addition, the libraries have books that have accumulated dust for hundreds of years. We had the pleasure of hearing a lecture from a famous professor of elections. He told us a great story about how met Sir Winston Churchill at 25 years of age. Churchill, once figuring out how old he was, boasted.."You better hurry up boy. You are falling behind.. Napoleon was only 26 when he approached the banks of the Rhine!" I found this be hilarious. Thinking about conversing with such a powerful and interesting man like Churchill is not something most people get to brag about. He seemed like a rather humble man. The other lecture was on Tony Blair vs. Gordon Brown in the struggle for premiership and what fundamental differences would be exemplified by a Brown premiership.

The structure of classes at Oxford is very cool. The students have regular lecture twice a week. However, the part that strikes me, is that they have a tutorial every week with the professor, which consists of 2 students with a professor in their office. He asks them questions on the application of the material and expands on it. I know this sounds like office hours in the American system but it seems really intense/useful for getting the brain thinking about the material. I often find in the American system that teachers spit out the material in lecture, students write it down, and then close their notebooks and don't think about what they have just heard until the final. Ultimately, studying for finals is extremely painful because you have to re-learn all of the material instead of taking the time to learn each peace separately. It doesn't make sense to me but I fall victim to this as well. Oxford was a very cool experience and I'm happy I got to see one of the most famous institutions of education in the world. This program really does provide us with some great opportunities.

Tomorrow I am off to the constituency with my Member of Parliament to do some canvassing for a local district council candidate, Angela Barker. We are also going to go to a surgery in Houghton Conquest. Surgeries are where MP's meet with their constituents to hear their concerns. It sounds like a very beneficial and effective feature of the British Political system but I will save me judgments for after I see it in person. I am ready to escape London for a bit and see middle England. Farmers, fresh air, and politics...always a favorite combination of mine. I will update soon after I return from the constituency. Signing off.

Southampton Rocks.

Today, I took an hour and a half train ride to Southampton to visit my good friend Wes. I was anticipating this trip greatly for I had only been to Bath, which is another touristy town. This was going to be my first trip to a non-touristy destination. I arrived at the station and was shocked. When I stepped out of the station to meet him, there was a Toys R' US, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a McDonald's in sight. It seemed rather strange to me to see these in Rural England. Now granted, Southampton is a decent sized city but I had no clue what to expect. I jokingly then made the remark to my friend that " I was going to take pictures but this place looks too much like the USA." We had a good laugh over it. He had stayed with me in the states twice before and had warned me that it wasn't all that different.

Southampton is an old town with a substantial amount of classic British Architecture from the 15th and 16th centuries. A castle sits in the center of town but most of it has been removed in order to allow traffic to move effectively throughout the city. The castles walls stretch for miles and are still in existence. However, there are large holes where streets pass through them. Southampton is also a city famous for sailing. It is on the southern coast of England and the around the world sailing race starts and finishes in Ocean Village. There are a plethora of parks and open public spaces for people to enjoy themselves.

Let me explain some of the cultural differences of Southampton. There is a large gay community in Southampton. Not that there is not a large gay community in Boston, it's just the way people accept it is a bit different. It was not uncommon to see two men kissing or holding hands. I think it is a good thing when people can not be afraid to do what is a natural thing. I know it's arguable whether it is natural but I've always taken the position that no one wakes up one day and says " I'm going to choose a life of persecution and discrimination." I don't think some of the homosexuals in Great Britain realize how good they have it. If these people lived in the South of the United States it would be quite the different story.

The people were also very laid back and slower paced. I guess anything would seem to be a slower pace than London but it seemed a bit slower than normal. Everyone I met was extremely friendly and greeted you with a smile (well almost everyone). I think this had an effect on me because I am so used to the London syndrome of putting your head down and keeping to yourself. Not that this is much different from Boston.

I got a chance to hang out with Wes's 8 roommates and hung out. I got a chance to talk a lot with his roommates about their professions and university experiences. The college experience in Great Britain seems to be a lot different than that of the US. One of them was a meter maid. It was insightful to hear him talk about his profession. In Britain, meter maids have to take self-defense classes before they begin the job! This really surprised me. I mean he is just doing his job.

Wes and his roommates cooked me up a traditional English All Day Breakfast, which consisted of Beans, Stewed Tomatoes, Hashbrowns, Toast, Sausage, and Tea. Let me say, it was fabulous. The idea of creating a meal that you can enjoy at any point of the day is great. I think I could eat that meal all day everyday. The English experience in Southampton was fantastic and I was glad I got to meet up with my friend in a new country. It felt very weird to see him on his home turf. Establishing a group of friends in another country is not a luxury that many people in the world and I don't think I could be any luckier. It is exciting to know that if I came back to Britain I could visit people in Southampton, Manchester, Brighton, Bedford, Sheffield, and more.

Signing off.

Scotland Part 2

The rest of the week in Scotland was fantastic. I really got a feel for the country and people. One day we climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, a dormant volcano and had breath taking views of all of Edinburgh. It was amazing to sit a top this hill and look out over the Atlantic ocean. I live at the beach in NH during the summers and always look out on the horizon line and wonder who/what is on the other side. While a top the volcano, I looked out at the horizon and felt connected to the rest of the world. As I travel more and more, I feel more connected to the human race in general. In addition to the volcano, we hiked a huge ridge of crags and got some fantastic pictures of all of us. The pictures will surely be something I cherish for the rest of my life. This experience is changing me in numerous ways and the photos are will be a good reminder of this time of my life.

Scotland is the Whisky Capital of the World and we took a tour of the Whisky Heritage Museum. The Edinburgh Castle sits high a top a cliff in the middle of the city. The Castle is extremely old and we got a chance to tour it. It is a very interesting structure and was used by the Scottish to house crown jewels during invasions. The Scottish Crown Jewels now are guarded in a room in the castle, which we had the pleasure of viewing. Standing in the castle and looking out over the city made me feel like royalty. The castle made me realize how young of a country America is. These castles are hundreds and thousands of years old and America has only been around since the 18th century. Hearing things like "this was built in A.D. 289" is surreal. I think that the philosophy and values behind government and society clearly reflect this youth. The United States gained a position of power relatively quick and aligned itself perfectly to become a global hegemon. However, I think this position often goes to our head.

Scotland beat England in the Six Nations Rugby tournament. We watched the game at a local pub called the Globe with a huge group of locals. It was very interesting to see their reactions compared to some of our reaction to games of national importance (i.e. the red sox riots). They just got really happy and all linked arms and sang the national anthem. Their was joy in the air for the next few days but certainly no violence. However, Scotland seems to have a high level of nationalism. Great Britain on the other hand does not. People see themselves as being a resident of the UK, not solely Britain. But although Scotland is part of the UK, they have a lot of pride in their country and tradition. As one of them told me, "William Wallace didn't fight for nothing!"

The museums regarding Art and War were extremely interesting. I have not been exposed to much Scottish culture. However, these museums informed me of the Scottish involvement in numerous wars, gave me a background on the different tribes (example: Cameronians) that have fought on behalf of the country/ UK throughout history. Furthermore, I have not been exposed to many Scottish Painters. The art work was rather impressive. This made me realize that many galleries feature a number of famous painters but often omit skilled works because they are not big name artists.

Overall, my trip to Scotland was spectacular. I feel that my time up in the mountains was a perfect escape from the fast paced and work intensive environment of London. I wish I was still up in the mountains contemplating where my life has been, where I am going, and what will become of me. Human beings need time alone with nature. In the words of the Rolling Stones, I am a Ramblin' Man! I need too keep traveling. I envy men like Ernest Shackelton, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey who spent their lives traveling and exploring the human condition. All I can do is try my best to understand what my life is about and keep an open mind and heart. We live in a beautiful world. Singing off.

Arrival in Scotland

Well we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland yesterday. The program set up a policy study visit for us at the Scottish Parliament. The train ride was extremely beautiful because we traveled directly north from London and got to see a lot of the English countryside. I have yet to see any towns in the North and we passed right through Newcastle (Northern-most town in England). Scotland is a much different place than London. I have only been here a day and I have already talked to some locals that are extremely nice. In London, most people are too busy getting to work or somewhere specific to talk to you. Anyway, when we arrived a bunch of us set off on a journey to see the sights. The first area we were interested in seeing was the world famous Edinburgh Castle.

When we finally found it, I could hardly breathe. The castle sits a top an enormous hill in the center of the city. It was built around 3,000 years ago. The castle was used to defend the Scottish from invading countries. On top of the hill where the castle lies, you get a 360 degree view of the city. The Atlantic ocean is in the distance and it excites because I live on the east coast in NH and I always look out and wonder what's beyond the horizon line... Well I certainly got my answer. In addition, to viewing the castle, we went out to a local pub and watched a football game (Barcelona vs. Chelsea).

Here I was able to talk to a local named Graham. I really had a great discussion with him about Scottish identity and culture. Since I have been working in the British Parliament and have talked mainly to the British about Scotland, I was shocked to hear a lot of things he had to say. The British generally see themselves as the caretakers of the Scottish because so much of their tax dollars go towards funding the welfare state there. I had also heard that since Scotland is part of the UK, they don't have much of an identity towards Scotland. This just shows you not to believe everything you hear because it couldn't have been more of a false statement. Graham told me that the Scottish take great pride in their identity (bagpipers, William Wallace, Rugby, etc...) and have a huge amount of respect for their country. I also had a chance to talk to him about how they as Europeans view the United States. He said the general opinion is that Americans are ignorant and don't care a lot about the rest of the world. Once again, I was happy to try to change his mind by being kind and engaging in conversation. He was quite surprised by the end of our talk that I knew so much about Europe and the rest of the world. He said that he was surprised that someone of 21 could have a conversation of such a political nature (but little did he know, that's my specialty!). This is one reason I am on this trip... to get more of a feel for how the rest of the world works.

Today we had a series of lectures from the Head of the Scottish Law Society, a Scottish Member of Parliament, and a right-wing Media Man. That gave me a good feel for how the Scottish Political System works. The Scottish Parliament was created out of the Scottish Act of 1998 passed in the Westminster Parliament (where I work). This is generally referred to as devolution. In this act, Great Britain created the Scottish Parliament and devolved specific powers to them in order to allow for more independence in decision making matters. However, Great Britain kept all of the important powers (taxation, defense, etc...) and left the Scottish Parliament to argue over remedial matters such as the tail docking of working dogs (what they were arguing about when we viewed the chamber). It was useful to be able to juxtapose Westminster with Holyrood. This really helped me to understand Scotland's relationship to the UK political system.

The right wing man who runs the largest paper in Scotland, The Scotsman, was hilarious. He believes the European Union is enslaving many countries and forcing them to adopt many economic measures that are largely incompatible with their economic capacity. For example, Scotland has the same tax rates as Britain; a country constantly out performing the economies of Scotland and Wales. He also believes that Scotland's economy has some serious problems and that they need to be addressed ASAP before the lifestyle of every Scot is increasingly affected.

There is much more to see in the next 4 days. I could not be more excited.
-Signing off!