Two Weeks

It's Sunday, June 1st. In two weeks, I fly back to my homeland of New Jersey. I didn't think either of those two previous sentences seemed real in my mind for most of the year. It seemed like one distant memory: "Yeah I'll be heading home in June, God knows when that will come around!" Well here it is and time is running out. Better get chopping on my last minute stuff. Except for that damned thing called finals! Turns out I needed to hunker down and study more than I thought I would. The heat is sort of on when it is the only grade you get for the year that counts.

Since it is June 1st that also means the alcohol ban is in effect on public transportation in London. So we spent yesterday on the Circle Line celebrating an historic end of an era: but drinking ourselves senseless on the last car of a Circle Line train. It got really packed: it was estimated before the day that 10,000 people were going to do this. Our car was packed; it was rowdy; it was loud; it was fun. I'll put up a picture to show the pandemonium. At one stop, I saw a lady transit worker approach and everyone else did too and I think everyone took pause for a moment. I couldn't hear what she was saying and so I asked Ben from the Isle of Wight Society (yes this was an official society event) if she was threatening us and telling us to stop. He said she actually was asking us what we were drinking, told one person that she wanted to see his drink finished more quickly, and cheered us on! At another stop, there were two bobbies on the platform and the car hushed itself as they approached the open door and shouted "Listen up! This is bordering on public disorder! This has to stop!" We all hushed and averted our eyes and looked down at the floor. Then what seemed like an eternity, the doors closed and the train started to pull away. The bobbies had turned around and were walking away and as we saw we were safe from their reach we all screamed and shouted and banged on the walls and ceilings. I can just imagine the bobbies' look of disgust or anger or fist waving at our train as we left the station.

One's bladder can only hold so much alcohol so we had to make a stop back at the Temple tube stop after making it around once. Also the fresh cool air was a relief: the car got pretty hot.
Once on again, there were not as many Circle Line trains running. Competing claims of "normal weekend service delays", passenger disruptions due to us, and TFL actively trying to shut down our party were circulating about. Eventually we got on another Circle Line train going the other direction and we ended up getting off at Kings Cross/St Pancras because everything I think was going to pot as the authorities were trying to maintain control.

I was part of history! And if this level of excitement keeps up and I manage to do some more good things before I go, this will be a two weeks definitely to remember.