"You say CUT BACK, we say FIGHT BACK!"  "No ifs, not buts, no education cuts!!" "Education for the masses, not just for the ruling classes!" "Fuck fees, education should be free!!"

 

Wednesday, November 10 was the student march and protest against the proposed cuts to education. The Tory/Lib Dem coalition government has proposed cutting education funding by 40%, significantly raising tuition fees for UK students. This is after deputy prime minister Nick Clegg ran on a platform to eliminate university tuition fees all together.

 

 

An estimated 52,000 people showed up in London to protest! This was by far the biggest demonstration I have ever been part of, and I have to ask, would the same kind or resistance ever happen in the U.S.? Do we still believe in the power of our right to assemble? I'm not sure. The feeling of marching through the usually traffic-packed streets with a crowd so big even the double decker red buses and giant delivery trucks stop and wait (and sometimes even honk and cheer in solidarity) was obviously empowering. The chants, marching bands and banners created such an atmosphere of energy and conviction ; it felt like we were part of something real and powerful, and that we could actually mobilize to create a voice to be reckoned with. But then, let's get back to reality: demonstrations rarely have even the slightest bit of influence unless they're accompanied by money or weapons.

This protest did make international headlines, but the violence that occurred at the Conservative HQs was the main focus of all the articles I read. Surely a demonstration of 52,000 people is news worthy on its own; much more news worthy than the 200 or so students who decided to smash some windows. I'm disappointed that such a small fraction of the demonstrators were given so much media attention, as they clearly don't represent that general sentiment of the crowd. I was at 30 Millbank, the Conservative Party's headquarters, when students started gathering outside. At first there was some torch burning and angry chants directed at the Tory Scum, but then the angry chants turned into angry punching of the windows and I decided that violence was not the message I wanted to send and so I left. But part of me wonders if the protests would have gotten much less media coverage if they had been completely peaceful. Maybe some injuries, some thrown eggs, some windows smashed, some arrests are what it takes to get attention. That's a depressing thought.


All of the political experiences I've had in England so far have made me much more hopeful. I think I left the U.S. with a general disenchantment with government. I viewed it as a block to progress rather than a means through which to accomplish progress. This could just be because Northfield isn't the most politically inspiring place. But it could also be due to the fact that, in the midst of economic collapse, it's the tea party that emerges rather than the socialist party. The fact that the only people in the U.S. who are motivated enough to insight revolution seem to be middle aged conservatives who have lost their jobs and livelihoods. Everyone else is just too comfortable to bother. Where are the huge student movements? What happened to the inspired masses who campaigned for Obama a year ago? The November election results were embarrassing to read from London. The number of times I've had to shake my head and agree with my English friends that Americans 'just don't know what they're voting for' is ridiculous. After all, if they did, how could we possibly be voting for less government regulation after the mortgage crisis? How could Sarah Palin possibly have a career in politics? Et cetera, et cetera. But on Wednesday, students from all the major universities in the England were at the protest, some even came from Scotland. That's what democracy looks like.

LONDON!!! There is an epic story involved in my transition from Munich to London, but for the sake of catching up with my real life, I'll have to leave some of the best bits out. Because I've been in London now for 4 weeks (what?!) and I haven't even gotten there in blog life. So after my first Ryan Air flight from what they call the Munich West Airport (it actually took 2 trains and a taxi to get there...definitely NOT in Munich) to Stansted in London (also not really in London...it's a 10 pound/more than an hour journey by train) I found myself in the giant Liverpool Street metro station!! It was so exciting!! I've never been to London before this, and it definitely has a different feel to all of the big cities I've been to in Europe. It's grungier, perhaps, with brick buildings and a kind of cozy feeling. Less overwhelming and glamorous, but wonderful nonetheless.

I had my first meal soon there after. Liverpool Street is a 5 minute walk from the famous Brick Lane neighborhood. Brick Lane used to be the main Indian neighborhood, but has recently gotten fairly pricey and been taken over by wealthy English hipsters. The amazing Indian food remains, though, and the street is lined with the cities best curry stops (interspersed with indie record stores and vintage clothing shops of course). I was with two English guys who had grown up in London, so they picked out an establishment and ordered up a bunch of dishes they knew. London has this reputation for great Indian food, and oh my does it live up to it. Some of the dishes I recognized, and some were completely new to me, but all of the flavors and spices were so much more interesting and delicious than my experiences at Chapti's and Kathmandu. What I've come to realize now though, after 4 weeks in this enormous city, is that one can get ANYTHING here. Literally. Any kind of food one could want is just a (expensive) metro stop away. And that is kind of an overwhelming thought. I don't relax here, ever, because I know there is so much out there in the huge city waiting to be seen! And with so many options for things to do, how am I supposed to choose? I'm not used to so much excitement, Davis and Northfield have their own set of problems, and goodness knows that 'too much to do' is not one of them.

My first 3 days in London were spent at a hostel near London Bridge, on the southern side of the Thames. It was a very nice area, but unfortunately all of the abuse I had subjected my body to at Oktoberfest had finally worn me down and I was sick the whole time. So I actually spent my first weekend in one of the biggest cities in the world in my bed with some books and podcasts. Quite frustrating, but at least I recovered in time to move in to my flat and begin the wonders that are UK freshers week!!

The changing of the guard. They really do still do this twice a day, and people really do watch. Weirdest job ever?

Buckingham Palace. The queen wasn't in though, apparently she doesn't actually spend that much time in London.

St. James's Park, so beautifully English

Munich part two:

In between the joyous drunken celebrations, I visited Dachau. It was the first concentration camp of the Nazi Reich, established on March 22, 1933 and thus served as a model for all subsequent camps. In the 12 years that Dachau was in operation, over 200,000 people were imprisoned and more than 43,000 died.

The gate through which all prisoners entered Dachau. It reads "work sets you free."

On a warm, sunny morning in between visits to the beer tents at Oktoberfest, I got on a train to the site just outside of Munich. As amazing an experience I had at Oktoberfest, my visit to Munich was just as memorable and incredible.

I got to the camp pretty early in the morning and so there were not a lot of people there yet. Dachau is huge, and so the grounds felt vast and completely barren of life. It was probably the eeriest place I've ever been and even looking back at the pictures as I'm posting them now is chilling. I didn't want to pay for a guided tour, so I just walked around on my own with the complimentary map. There is an extensive museum exhibit in what was the maintenance building, and it looked like a pretty nice display. But I skipped that as well because being trapped inside reading was a little sickening to me at the time. I felt like I should walk around and really feel the place.

 

The picture above is of the camp fencing. There are several parts to it. First is the strip of grass that I was standing on to take this picture. Prisoners were shot at for stepping on to it, so sometimes prisoners used it as a way of ending their life. Next is the rock ditch, a electrified barbed-wire fence, and finally the camp wall.

These are the ovens which were used to burn piles of bodies

The shooting range. Prisoners were lined up against the wall. In the foreground is a small ditch, for the blood.

I'm really glad I was able to visit Dachau, and it did make me think about how much freedom I have and how little I usually appreciate that freedom. At the same time, I guess I was assuming that it would be some life-changing, depressing experience. And it was horrifying, but rather than feeling overwhelmed with death, I was more aware of the power of time to heal things. Plants had regrown on top of the ashes (that's not a cliche, the ground was literally black with the ashes from the ovens), and a few miles away, thousands of people had come by choice to Munich this time to partake in the wonderful celebrations of Oktoberfest. While it's obviously very important to think about and remember the Holocaust, I didn't feel guilty going out to that evening for good fun with good friends, because you only live once and so you might as well live as well as you can.

Monica has guilted me into blogging again. I guess I had so much fun at Oktoberfest, combined with pretty terrible internet, so I didn't update while I was in Munchen, and then I got to London and everything got so busy and exciting! So Munchen part one...

I arrived at my hostel at about 3pm to find the floor sticky with beer, two underwear-clad men passed out on their bunks and a third man in the bathroom, vomiting violently. (I'm writing this from London, where I've already started to speak strangely...I just typed  "...in the toilet, chundering violently..." and before realizing what I was doing.) I think this anecdote sums up my three days at Oktoberfest pretty well. The first night, the three drunken guys in my room had napped it off and were ready for round two, so we walked down to the festival with another woman who was in our room.

Oktoberfest is basically a huge fair grounds with lots of beer tents interspersed with rides, but what really makes it an incredible experience is the atmosphere. People of all ages, mostly in amazing lederhausen and dirndles get together to eat delicious Bavarian food, drink lots of beer, and sing and dance and be merry. It's just a giant, drunken, happy celebration

"He doesn't even KNOW what calories ARE! He has that wonderful metabolism and me, I LOOK at food and I get FAT! But here he is trying to give advice on dieting and eating and he doesn't even know what he's TALKING about!"

Yea…compared with Vienna, there were almost no American tourists in Slovenia or Croatia. I didn't realize how much I was enjoying their absence until I got to overhear this lovely conversation while I was trying to enjoy my Sachertorte this afternoon. I was sitting in this really fancy, really delicious bakery, Demel while I was overhearing this woman.. And 'overhear' is the wrong word, the 60 or so woman was, extremely rudely, yelling this conversation to her table. It was so incredibly inappropriate that it was funny, but also disgusting. As a fellow American tourist I have to work so much harder to make a good name for myself among people I meet thanks to women like this one.

 

Vienna is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. I only get to spend 2 days here, but I can tell that I would have a great time for at least another week. There's just so much to see! And all of it is beautiful. I don't usually think much about Austria in my every day life, and so I had forgotten that this has been a very wealthy country for a very long time. And not just wealthy, also very concerned with aesthetics. Rich, image-conscious people have been building huge mansions here for thousands of years! And shopping in expensive shops. And going to the opera and theater. Oh, and eating decadent desserts. Seriously it's probably a good thing I'm only spending 2 days here, because I could eat indefinitely, and have been. I think there's a line in Eat, Pray, Love about having a relationship with your food, and I'm SO understanding that right now. I have been enjoying some of the other decadences though. I went to the opera yesterday!! I'd never been to an opera before, and it was about as comical as I thought it would be, but also kind of beautiful. Everyone was super dressed up, except for me who showed up in ripped jeans…, and was there to listen to these elegant opera singers perform La Boheme reeeeeally passionately. So beautiful, but also funny to think that a few thousand wealthy, sophisticated people are gathered in a theater to listen to a couple singers wail.

Anyway, I guess I should soak up as much sophistication as I can, because I'm headed to Oktoberfest tomorrow, and I'm just guessing it won't be quite as elegant.