London 24

Our group woke up really early this morning and headed off to The Palace of Westminster or, as it is more commonly known, the Houses of Parliament. When we got to Parliament, we took a tour around the buildings and got to go into House of Lords. Unfortunately, the House of Commons was closed for some meetings. After visiting the actual Houses of Parliament, we went to the newly designed Portcullis building. It's a really cool hyper-modern building designed by the same architect who drafted the Millennium Dome and the Millennium Bridge. There we met Angus Robertson, the leader of the Scottish National Party in Parliament, the third largest minority party in British Parliament after Labor and the Liberal Democrats (who are now allied with the Conservatives).
Our talk with Angus was really, really interesting. He's a very funny guy who was gave direct and honest answers to all of our questions but we could tell he was really good at taking questions because he gave really detailed and comprehensive answers. Robertson's goal as the leader of the SNP is to not have a job anymore... in London that is. The SNP is aiming for Scotland to be given full independence from Britain and it's made really remarkable strides to this goal in Angus' time with the party.
Most importantly, though, he was very candid with us about how parliament works in Britain and shared really funny stories of other MP's (Members of Parliament) in the House of Commons whom he works with. He also pretty objectively compared the US and UK government systems and pointed out pros and cons of each (the UK has a house of parliament that is completely unelected but, rather, appointed by the monarch - the House of Lords... while in the US, we can't name the last president who wasn't a millionaire because of how out of control campaign finance is. Robertson has a limit of 11,000 pounds (roughly 17,000 dollars) to spend on his campaign... so he goes knocking on doors grass-roots style and does really well in the polls).
On our way out, he took us through the semi but not really secret passage that connects Portcullis House to Parliament and then we went back to Regent's for a quick lunch and then a discussion of Salome. Then, we met Simonetta Calderini again and discussed the documentary "Generation Jihad" about Britain's homegrown terrorists and the amazingly connected internet age that they operate in. Our discussion ended up debating parental censorship of childrens' internet usage and the conflict between personal freedom and government responsibility.
As soon as the discussion ended, I went back to the Westminster tube stop and met my parents and little brothers at Westminster Abbey. I took them back to Baker Street and we went to the Sherlock Holmes house and museum. It was really fascinating for me as someone who just only slightly knows the series. My little brothers, however, have been reading the books and were really enjoying the museum, save for the jet lag they were feeling from their flight from the US. My dad, however, seemed to enjoy the museum the most. He grew up reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books and knew each one in the series by memory!
I then took my family back to Regent's to show them where I've been living this past month and gave them the gifts I got them (mom's birthday present, dad's father's day gift and stuff for my little brothers and sister).

I then showed off my little brothers while the rest of our group was competing in their world cup tourney (Griffindor won) and then took them to the refectory for some lunch. I ended up walking them back to Baker Street just before 7pm as they were meeting Vova back at his house and were visibly tired from their flights. I went back to Regent's sports bar and watched the Spain-Portugal game with Paul and a bunch of students from Spain who, like myself, were very excited when Spain won.

Viva Espana!

Check back soon!

-Simon