Fri 11 May 2007
London Travels – Day 4
Posted by smalrus under day-to-day, London - May 2007
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Woke up around 815 and grabbed a cappuccino from the cafe across from the museum. For class, we had a lecture/discussion for about three hours on the previous day’s visitation to UBS. It was actually rather interesting because with only 10 of us, the discussion of topics feeds more like an engaged debate and analysis of what we’ve seen and read. It actually doesn’t feel like we’ve been sitting in class for that long and thus, makes the academic part of this trip all the more interesting.
After class, we went out for a brief lunch before taking off to the Bank of England Museum. There, we got to tour around the museum and then were shown a movie about what the purpose of the Bank of England is and how it adjusts the interest rates to control inflation. Since the Bank of England is analogous to the Federal Reserve Board in the US, I think getting inside the museum, seeing the history of banking, and even hearing a more in-depth explanation of the banking system seemed to give me a better understanding of the American central banking system. The docent followed up with a nice informal discussion with us on central banking, what conditions have been like here in England, Eurozone potential, and more. It was actually a real neat experience.
The museum tour wasn’t overly long, so when we were done and everyone else had headed back to wherever, I decided I was going to walk over to the London Stock Exchange before it closed, hoping to get a a glimpse at the NYSE’s transatlantic rival. To my dismay it was actually rather dull, lifeless, modern, and boring, requiring little more than a cursory look before I jumped on a double-decker bus home. Charles and I went to seek a WiFi connection at this small cafe around the block and then out to dinner at Spaghetti House. When we got home, I fell asleep nearly right away.
Lecture went from 9-noon and we talked all about London and why it is so important, as well as the concepts behind private banking. After lecture, Charles, Mike, and I went for Thai at the Ivy Pub on Southhampton Row. We went back to the hotel to meet up with the others at 2pm in order to see 
against sailing accidents – the precursor to the insurance industry as we know it today. When we got back to the hotel, Charles and I took our laptops out and decided to go looking for a place with free WiFi. Unfortunately, finding a free hotspot near us seemed to be quite the chore, so short of spending £5/hr on the T-Mobile Hotspot, we just about gave up, going back to the hotel and meeting up with Tim and Mike. Not having eaten yet, we went to grab some burgers at Ultimate Burger, where the burgers were ultimate and the onion rings were excellent.
There, we met a couple of Americans from Florida and from California. So when that pub closed at 12am, we headed to our third bar also near the hotel, Night & Day. There, we met our American friends and also made an Israeli friend, so we were all having a good time until that bar closed at 2am. We then took a taxi to Piccadilly Circus to go to Tiger Tiger, but it was a private engagement, so we strolled to our fourth and final bar – rather intoxicated at that point – Cheers. Caught the end of the Sens-Sabres game and then took a taxi and headed home around 3. By 3:30am, we finally hit the pillows.
