Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich

He did it!! It was awesome. I was a bit of a slacker and only stayed up til 3:30am London time. After he won Ohio, I figured it was over. But he won by SUCH a landslide!! I’m so happy!!

This weekend in London was an event called “Battle of Ideas.” Basically, it was a bunch of discussion forums and debates about politics, art, culture, the family, ethics, etc, etc. The participants were journalists and academics mainly. I went to three: (1) Radicalism then and now: the legacy of 1968, (2) What does it mean to be American?, and (3) Free speech on campus: should we ditch no platform? The first two were quite interesting, and even got a bit intense when the two Americans on the 5-person panel in the second forum got into a big argument. There were some tense moments. But I was VERY engaged with the third, which was an actual one-versus-one debate. It was about “no platform” in the NUS (the national students’ union), which says that no racist or fascist organization can participate in an NUS debate, be invited to speak, or run for election. Student 1 first argued that we should ditch this, and at first, I was on his side. I thought, free speech is important! By debating with them, we are not legitimizing them, but proving them wrong. But then Student 2 spoke and I was beginning to sway. And then the audience started asking questions and they were ALL against Student 2, against no platform. They were mainly talking about the BNP (British National Party), which is pretty racist and is anti-immigration. So I felt bad for the poor guy and put my hand up, and was actually called upon to speak! So I basically said, “I’m Canadian (everyone who had spoken was British), so I don’t know much about the BNP. But in Canada we have restrictions on hate speech and I think that that is important. So my question is to [Student 1]: If it is true that racial violence increases after the BNP speak in that area (as was argued), do you think that the ideal of free speech trumps the safety of the local population?”

Things that have begun to annoy me about London:

I think this is the court of justice in Inverness. Or a church.

The river in Inverness – SO beautiful, which was great because this was the day I went to a Scottish wedding.

You can really tell it’s sunny in this photo. This is me and Christe with a Scottish tourguide.

A typical street scene in Inverness.

Me by the river.

The wedding took place at the Inverness football pitch. The ceremony took place up in the stands, but then they took pictures on the pitch.
This look like a VERY expensive bottle of scotch, since it’s under lock and key.

This is me, Christe, and her friend Kay, who was SO nice!

And that’s the end of my Inverness adventure! Christe and I flew to London the following morning at an obscenely early time, and had a fabulous time in London!

 Here’s another view of the Loch. I think this is the part of the Loch where most of the sightings take place.
And a castle located on the shore of the Loch – imagine living here back when it was a working castle??
And this is when we stopped at a village along the Loch. Quite beautiful. The weather was a tad drab, but it was almost fitting considering we were at Loch Ness.

Here are some more photos from that first week. This church is supposedly one of the ugliest in London. On the top of the spire (just out of the shot), there is a statue of King George as Saint George (a humble guy, eh?).

This is Bush House of the BBC – I just thought it was kinda funny…

And here’s that quintessential British shot! Still have to ride a double-decker bus…

Candy Cakes, on Monmouth Street in Covent Garden has THE best cupcakes! They’re awesome!

The architecture in London is SO amazing! Apologies for completely forgetting what this is, but it is pretty, isn’t it? 🙂

Look everyone – Big Ben!!
In the infamous British museum, this is the photo that my father took of me by one of the statues of Ramses II.

And I know some people will make fun of me for this, but I am seriously SO excited!!! Dawn French (of The Vicar of Dibley) and Jennifer Saunders (of Absolutely Fabulous) are two of my favourite comediennes and this is there LAST EVER tour (doing sketch comedy). I can’t wait!! I have tickets to see them in November! Plus, the theatre that they’re playing at is SO close to where I’m living. Thus, when I get lost, this giant sign helps me to find my way back (actually, this only happened once. I have now figured out how to get back to my apartment from several different directions!).

And now that I’ve figured out how to get the photos where I want them, I will post more regularly!

In the beginning, I’ll admit, I was a tad self-doubting about the whole “making friends” thing. Questions raced through my mind like “What if no one likes me?” and “What if I spend the entire year holed up in my room, with no friend with whom to go for a pint??”