Finally opening day is here. I was so excited to see that most everyone else on the trip is nearly as fanatical about baseball as I am. Luckily with Mlb.tv I won't miss a BoSox or Brewer game while I'm here. But, I have to first rewind here and tell you all about the past week. It has definitely been eventful so I'll backtrack a bit and start with last week. On Tuesday night I went to see the musical Jersey Boys. It was the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I knew the band before I went in, but had no idea that all those songs that I knew were theres. I have been singing "Oh What A Night" and "Walk Like a Man" for over a week now, and I still can't get them out of my head.
The next night was one of the coolest experiences that I have had here. A few guys and I headed to Wembly Stadium to see the English National Team play Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier. Our seats were in the upper upper deck where the players would look like ants, but to get a chance to see a game like that, a game that important, we were just excited to get in the sold out stadium. As we walked in to pick up our tickets there was a problem however and we didn't have our seats. Instead, because of the screw up they gave us new seats and we ended up in the 18th row, right by the English bench. The game was great. England won 2-1 on a goal by John Terry with 4 minutes left in the game. It was crazy hearing 90,000 people sing God Save the Queen in unison. For me the most exciting part was that David Beckham warmed up and played right in front of me. I took about 15 pictures at the game and 12 of them were of him. I felt like a 16 year old girl, but who cares.
That next night I was off to another musical (Don't really get too many musicals in Appleton, so I figure I gotta do it while I can). This time I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Um, I had seen Joseph before, but I don't remember it being like that. I was definitely entertained, but still it was weird. There was an Elvis, and a country song, and talking snakes, and it was just weird.
Friday morning meant that I was off to Edinburgh. I loved that place. The city, the people, the architecture, and the natural beauty of the rolling hills and ocean were amazing. Kelly and I got into the city at noonish and headed right out to Arthur's Seat. It is huge hill/mountain that over looks the entire city. After the climb up there we relaxed in the beautiful weather, and took in the views. We made the trek back down and I of course fell down and hurt my ankle. When we got down to the bottom of the hill we toured the Scottish Parliament building. The people inside were so nice and they let us go into the actual debating and voting chamber. After a quick nap and dinner I made our plans for the evening. I saw in a tour book about the famous Mackenzie Poltergeist. Apparently there is this ghost that is the most studied and famous in the world that is in Edinburgh. Of course, that meant that we had to go check it out. So, we show up for the tour and they take us into this cemetery and then things got a bit scary. They ushered us into this row of tombs and then locked the door behind us. They then brought us into this one crypts and proceeded to tell us stories about how this ghost has literally injured people by burning them and giving them bruises and after getting is scared to death they had a guy jump out and scream. Kelly and I jumped so high...I thought I was going to die. On that note we headed to the pub to unwind where strangely enough we were the oldest people in the entire bar. It felt really weird drinking with 14 and 15 year olds.
The next day we headed up to the coast and toured the Royal Yacht. It was basically just a huge ship that was Queen Elizabeth's. We saw her bedroom, her car, and the honeymoon sweet where Prince Charles and Princess Diana had their honeymoon. I would say more but, like with all things concerning royalty, it is just easier to show you the pictures. After that, the weather turned bad for a while, so after dinner we went to a movie. We saw Slumdog Millionaire and then headed to the bar again for a couple drinks and to watch the Final Four. When we got up to our room we found that our room was given away. We went down to the lobby to find that they gave our room away. Since there was no where else to stay we crashed in the lounge room for the night. The next morning we complained some more and got a full refund on our trip. It actually worked out well and saved us a bunch of money.
On Sunday we headed up to Edinburgh Castle and toured all the museums in there. We also toured a couple other museums. Again we saw some more amazing sights that only pictures can describe. At around 4 it was time to get back on the train to head to London. Overall the weekend was a blast. The city was amazing, and I had a great time with Kelly. I love traveling, but a lot of times in huge groups there are just so many things people want to do and it becomes stressful trying to make everyone happy. It was great to not have to deal with that aspect and just go with the flow.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Rugby, Basketball, and a little bit of Sightseeing
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know I've slacked recently in the updates, but its been tough to get to a computer. I realized that I do not need one right away, I can get by without for now, but my blogging is going to be brief until I can get home. Anyway, going back since I last updated, Sophie and Carolyn came and visited, we had a lot of fun together, I got to be a tour guide to my adopted home, which was fun. It was also good practice for this past weekend when Emily came to visit. I've done a ton of walking the past few weeks but its been great to see some of my friends from back home.
School has been getting a bit more difficult. Not necessarily harder, but we've definitely had a lot more work to do recently. Papers in two of my classes, a test, and a lot of short reflection and play reviews have kept me pretty busy. Nothing too hard though. One of the papers I got to write about was the issues in Northern Ireland. I chose to write specifically on the schooling problems there. In Northern Ireland there really is no public education system as we think of it. There are protestant and Catholic schools. This leads to built up hatred and fighting between the two school groups. My 74 years of experience of going to Catholic school, and 4 years of experience in hating Fox Valley Lutheran made the topic very interesting to me. I ended up going over the word limit by about a thousand, so I'm going to get down graded, but I really don't care.
As far as traveling goes, I'm off to Scotland this weekend. But last weekend I was in Ireland. Ireland is my new favorite place ever. This history class gave me so much background on Ireland that I was really excited before the plane even landed. Once there, and we checked into our hostel we toured the city a bit and then went to bed pretty early after failing to find a sports bar that would show the basketball games. The next day I got up early, made a few calls, and eventually found the only bar in Dublin that was airing the games. We started touring the city. Walked into a couple of the churches, went to a park, but then the real Dublin tour started. A trip to the Guinness Factory. After the tour taught us how Guinness was made we got to take our ticket stub up to the top of the Gravity Bar for a free pint of Guinness. I am not a big Guinness fan, but this stuff was just delicious. The bar was 7 stories in the air and made of complete glass, so we got to overlook all of Dublin as we enjoyed our free pint. After we came back down we headed over to the Jameson Distillery. After we learned how Irish Whiskey is made, we again redeemed our ticket stub for an opportunity to try some Jameson. Once again, the stuff was pretty darn good. Callie and Emily even got to take part in a whiskey tasting. They were given a shot of Jameson, Scotch, and Jack Daniels and had to decide which was the best. They both voted for the Jameson. After the last tour I headed to the sports bar to watch the basketball games. We spent the rest of the night there. The bar even served Miller. It felt like I was back in the states for a while.
Saturday was more touring but we were told that there was a big rugby match that day. Little did we know how big it actually was. Turns out the Irish National Team was playing Wales in the 6 Nations tournament. If Ireland won the game, not only would that win the tournament, but they would also complete the Grand Slam, something that has been done in 60 years. My knowledge of how rugby was minute, and still is, but I have NEVER, EVER seen anything so intense. By the end of the game I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Ireland...I even started singing their national song. Ireland was winning the whole game, with 4 minutes left Wales kicked a drop-kick to take the lead 16-14. Ireland, then marched down the field and scored to take the lead 17-14. As the clock expired the ref called a penalty on Ireland as time expired. The free kick that Wales was given literally fell about 2 feet short of going through the goal posts as time expired and Ireland won the Grand Slam. Talking to a man who was in near tears, he explained to me that this was the greatest sports moment of his life, and this meant more to Ireland than anything. It was great to be a part of it.
That day we also took a day trip out to the cost of Ireland. The rolling green grass and cliffs that fall into the ocean were beautiful. We wandered and toured some more on Sunday, and later in the afternoon I met up with my friend Lisa who is studying in Dublin. It was great to see her and we got the chance to talk about home back in Madison, and the good ole' days at Xavier.
I'll do a better job of keeping in touch, and promise to have many more stories and pictures to tell when I get home. I can't believe I'm home now in less than a month. Granted I am broke and can't afford to stay any longer but still, it would be great to see more of Europe....I guess its my excuse to come back again someday.
School has been getting a bit more difficult. Not necessarily harder, but we've definitely had a lot more work to do recently. Papers in two of my classes, a test, and a lot of short reflection and play reviews have kept me pretty busy. Nothing too hard though. One of the papers I got to write about was the issues in Northern Ireland. I chose to write specifically on the schooling problems there. In Northern Ireland there really is no public education system as we think of it. There are protestant and Catholic schools. This leads to built up hatred and fighting between the two school groups. My 74 years of experience of going to Catholic school, and 4 years of experience in hating Fox Valley Lutheran made the topic very interesting to me. I ended up going over the word limit by about a thousand, so I'm going to get down graded, but I really don't care.
As far as traveling goes, I'm off to Scotland this weekend. But last weekend I was in Ireland. Ireland is my new favorite place ever. This history class gave me so much background on Ireland that I was really excited before the plane even landed. Once there, and we checked into our hostel we toured the city a bit and then went to bed pretty early after failing to find a sports bar that would show the basketball games. The next day I got up early, made a few calls, and eventually found the only bar in Dublin that was airing the games. We started touring the city. Walked into a couple of the churches, went to a park, but then the real Dublin tour started. A trip to the Guinness Factory. After the tour taught us how Guinness was made we got to take our ticket stub up to the top of the Gravity Bar for a free pint of Guinness. I am not a big Guinness fan, but this stuff was just delicious. The bar was 7 stories in the air and made of complete glass, so we got to overlook all of Dublin as we enjoyed our free pint. After we came back down we headed over to the Jameson Distillery. After we learned how Irish Whiskey is made, we again redeemed our ticket stub for an opportunity to try some Jameson. Once again, the stuff was pretty darn good. Callie and Emily even got to take part in a whiskey tasting. They were given a shot of Jameson, Scotch, and Jack Daniels and had to decide which was the best. They both voted for the Jameson. After the last tour I headed to the sports bar to watch the basketball games. We spent the rest of the night there. The bar even served Miller. It felt like I was back in the states for a while.
Saturday was more touring but we were told that there was a big rugby match that day. Little did we know how big it actually was. Turns out the Irish National Team was playing Wales in the 6 Nations tournament. If Ireland won the game, not only would that win the tournament, but they would also complete the Grand Slam, something that has been done in 60 years. My knowledge of how rugby was minute, and still is, but I have NEVER, EVER seen anything so intense. By the end of the game I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Ireland...I even started singing their national song. Ireland was winning the whole game, with 4 minutes left Wales kicked a drop-kick to take the lead 16-14. Ireland, then marched down the field and scored to take the lead 17-14. As the clock expired the ref called a penalty on Ireland as time expired. The free kick that Wales was given literally fell about 2 feet short of going through the goal posts as time expired and Ireland won the Grand Slam. Talking to a man who was in near tears, he explained to me that this was the greatest sports moment of his life, and this meant more to Ireland than anything. It was great to be a part of it.
That day we also took a day trip out to the cost of Ireland. The rolling green grass and cliffs that fall into the ocean were beautiful. We wandered and toured some more on Sunday, and later in the afternoon I met up with my friend Lisa who is studying in Dublin. It was great to see her and we got the chance to talk about home back in Madison, and the good ole' days at Xavier.
I'll do a better job of keeping in touch, and promise to have many more stories and pictures to tell when I get home. I can't believe I'm home now in less than a month. Granted I am broke and can't afford to stay any longer but still, it would be great to see more of Europe....I guess its my excuse to come back again someday.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Morocco
My lack of computer has given me an excuse to put off writing about a place that is still indescrible for me. Just so different in every way. I started my trip to Morocco on the bathroom floor of a ferry. Apparently our Captain decided that driving through a hurricane was a great idea, and it took all of 12 seconds for me to realize that it was going to be a long trip. Within the first 5 minutes half of the people on board were puking, and I was soon to follow. The trip from Tarifa, in the southern tip of Spain was suppose to take 45 minutes to get us to Tanjier, Morocco. And although it took only a bit over an hour, it felt like 4. Once to Tanjier we looked around briefly and got on a night train that was taking us to the center of Morocco, to Marrakech.
When we awoke the next day, we were in a different world. After going through hell to try and find a hostel we relaxed and began to explore. As we walked into the market a monkey....yes monkey jumped right up on my shoulder. I smiled happily as I got a picture taken. After that experience I looked to the ground to see a couple cobras only a few feet away from me. Anyone who knows me. knows that snakes are about the most terrifying thing in the world to me, but I put aside my discomfort and watched as Kyle attempted to charm one himself. The pictures we got from this were amazing.
Quickly, the food was so delicious. The mint tea was amazing, as were the mushroom omlettes that I got everyday. Nothing beat the freshley squeeze orange juice that I drank about 46 times a day while I was there. It is simply the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
We continued to explore the city for the rest of the day on Thursday, but we looked for something exciting to do on Friday, the muslim holy day, when most of the city would be shut down. Our hostel suggested going into the mountains. This was the best decision of our trip to Morocco, and probably the most amazing day of my trip. The sights I saw were so beautiful. I was in awe for my entire climb into the mountains, and the tiny berbur tribe that invited us into their homes, the camel ride, and the free meal made the entire day memorable. I wish I could say more, but we all know that I've never been too good with words, so I leave my pictures to do the explaining.
The next day, Saturday was shopping day. I was told that the Market was the largest in the world, filled with alley ways and tiny shops there is something to buy for everyone. With the exchange rate at 10:1, I was ready to make some deals. We spent the entire morning shopping, and it was a ton of fun, I got a few good little keepsakes but spent more time taking in the sights and trying to watch these people rip other people off. Afternoon I went up to the roof of the hostel and relaxed. It was amazing. I fell asleep in a lawnchair and was in heaven. Just me, my iPod, the sun, and 75 degree beautiful Moroccan weather.
Unfortunately that was the end of my trip to Morocco as that night we packed up and got ready for our 730 am flight back to London on Sunday morning. I had never taken a spring break trip before, and its going to be pretty tough to compete with this one....but I'm certainly going to try. I'm thinking Thailand next year, but we'll see how that works out.
When we awoke the next day, we were in a different world. After going through hell to try and find a hostel we relaxed and began to explore. As we walked into the market a monkey....yes monkey jumped right up on my shoulder. I smiled happily as I got a picture taken. After that experience I looked to the ground to see a couple cobras only a few feet away from me. Anyone who knows me. knows that snakes are about the most terrifying thing in the world to me, but I put aside my discomfort and watched as Kyle attempted to charm one himself. The pictures we got from this were amazing.
Quickly, the food was so delicious. The mint tea was amazing, as were the mushroom omlettes that I got everyday. Nothing beat the freshley squeeze orange juice that I drank about 46 times a day while I was there. It is simply the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
We continued to explore the city for the rest of the day on Thursday, but we looked for something exciting to do on Friday, the muslim holy day, when most of the city would be shut down. Our hostel suggested going into the mountains. This was the best decision of our trip to Morocco, and probably the most amazing day of my trip. The sights I saw were so beautiful. I was in awe for my entire climb into the mountains, and the tiny berbur tribe that invited us into their homes, the camel ride, and the free meal made the entire day memorable. I wish I could say more, but we all know that I've never been too good with words, so I leave my pictures to do the explaining.
The next day, Saturday was shopping day. I was told that the Market was the largest in the world, filled with alley ways and tiny shops there is something to buy for everyone. With the exchange rate at 10:1, I was ready to make some deals. We spent the entire morning shopping, and it was a ton of fun, I got a few good little keepsakes but spent more time taking in the sights and trying to watch these people rip other people off. Afternoon I went up to the roof of the hostel and relaxed. It was amazing. I fell asleep in a lawnchair and was in heaven. Just me, my iPod, the sun, and 75 degree beautiful Moroccan weather.
Unfortunately that was the end of my trip to Morocco as that night we packed up and got ready for our 730 am flight back to London on Sunday morning. I had never taken a spring break trip before, and its going to be pretty tough to compete with this one....but I'm certainly going to try. I'm thinking Thailand next year, but we'll see how that works out.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Do You Hear the People Sing...
It has been a very busy few days for me here. And even know I don't have much time for an update, but I figure quick I'd try and wrap up the last week or so. I promise to you (and myself) that I will get to my Morocco trip soon. Anyway, classes have been really picking up, we've had a lot more assignments, papers, and projects the past few days than ever before, which sucks in itself, and it really doesn't help that I don't own a computer right now either. Other than that though, I have definitely been enjoying my time back in London. Last Thursday i went and saw Les Miserables. I really can't think of a more famous play and although it wasn't my favorite I've seen, I'm definitely so happy that I went. The production was great and the story was amazing. Last week I also went and saw a play entitled How It Ended. It was performed in a theater about the size of the living room back home. And that is no exaggeration. My class was at least half the audience and the play was performed about a foot in front of my face. And although it was short, it was just such a cool experience. This past Friday we went to the park and got challenged to a soccer game by a bunch of British boys. Admitting defeat before we began we agreed to get our ass kicked by them. Funny thing though, as we started to play, we started to win..by a lot. In fact we dominated them. Sure we got tired and the score ended up being kinda close but we won handily. Another funny thing, I am an old old out of shape man. Not only did I have to play goalie at the end of the game, I spent the rest of the weekend in bed because my entire body ached from the physical exercise.
Luckily I finally was able to move again as Sophie and Carolyn got here. I was SO excited to see them. The past few days have been great. I really enjoy playing tour guide to my new home and showing them around the city. Tonight I took them to see Avenue Q. For me it was just as good the 2nd time around, and they enjoyed it so that worked out great. Right now I'm just procrastinating from homework, and getting ready for the big St. Patty's Day celebration tomorrow.
Luckily I finally was able to move again as Sophie and Carolyn got here. I was SO excited to see them. The past few days have been great. I really enjoy playing tour guide to my new home and showing them around the city. Tonight I took them to see Avenue Q. For me it was just as good the 2nd time around, and they enjoyed it so that worked out great. Right now I'm just procrastinating from homework, and getting ready for the big St. Patty's Day celebration tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Spring Break in Spain
I'm sitting here doing my laundry right now and I'm lucky enough to have a computer to use so I figure that now is as good of time as any to start my spring break story.
It seems like forever ago now, but On that first friday we got up and went to the airport to get on our flight to Barcelona, Spain. As we were driving there we still weren't convinced that this airplane was going to be there. We were flying RyanAir which is a discount travel service. We booked our flight and it came to $19. That's right $19 to fly to Spain. We get to the airport and sure enough, RyanAir does actually exist and we were scheduled to leave at 3. As we waited in the lobby for our plane I decide to head over to the airport casino with the 2GBP that I had left in my pocket. Since I couldn't use them at all I put them in a machine and just like that was up 13GBP. I cashed out with £10.
As we waited for our flight gate to be released we were joking about how people supposedly don't like Americans over here. An older Irish woman who was sitting next to us chimed in to simply say, "you think it's tough being an American, try growing up here Irish." Since we are all taking a history class on the topic we knew she was referring to the troubles between Ireland and Great Britain. It is a topic that I can't even begin to explain but any history channel buff knows a bit about The fight for Irish independence, the IRA terrorist organization and fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Everyone assumed that peace had been finally brokered 10 years ago between the two sides...that was until last Saturday night. While I was in Morocco still, two men stormed a English military base in Northern Ireland and murdered 2 British soldiers. A group of the IRA claimed responsibility. In class today our professor took the whole 3 hour period explaining the significance, and you could see and hear in his voice that he was worried about what may happen. The IRA bombed London for 24 years, and he lived through it so he was worried about what this may start. After that lecture we get home to see on the news that a bomb plot was broken up as someone from Ireland was trying to smuggle a bomb into Northern Ireland. I promise everyone that I'm safe, but it's been a strange couple days over here in that regard. Anyway back to spring break...
The flight to Barcelona went very smoothly. We landed and after searching for our hostel for a while we got all situated and I set out to find the other half of the group that was in Barcelona. I met up with them and we wondered the city for a while taking in a couple sites. The girls asked me to switch hostels and move in with them because there hostel was a bit sketchy. Since I was going to be traveling with them after Barcelona that made sense, and after all the searching moved hostels again. Just to throw some names out there for you guys. I spent my days in Spain traveling with Suzanne, Kelly, and Molly. We definitely had a lot of fun together. At the end of the night we walked down to the beach and I instantly fell in love. I decided that I'm a beach person. The waves and the sand were just awesome. As you'll soon see I spent a lot of time there. The next day we did some more touristy things. Went to the markets and then went to view the Sagrada Familia. A church that was designed by the architect Gaudi. I'm not even going to begin to try and describe this thing to you. My pictures will have to explain for me because this thing was just over the top amazing. After this I went back down to the beach in the afternoon, I convinced Suzanne to come keep my company and it was awesome. It was cloudy but I couldn't care less.
The next day was by far the best day in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park and it was just beautiful. The architecture and gardens and music and mosaics were all just so amazing. I would love to show you pictures but in probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life...I left it at home. We then took a ride up to the top of Barcelona, a place that overlooked the entire city and visited the castle in Barcelona and then went to view the Olympic Stadium for when the Olympics were there in I believe 1992 or 1988. At night again I went back to the beach, this time I convinced Kelly to come along and we relaxed and listened to the waves. The next morning we got up and headed for Madrid.
Madrid was very different than Barcelona. We spent our two days there taking in all the sites. We spent a lot less time in Madrid but two very exciting things happened while there. On the first night the three girls were all exhausted so I grabbed my camera and started wandering the city at night. I got to take some pretty cool pictures when I stumbled upon the castle where the King and Queen of Spain live. This is when things got kinda cool. As I'm walking two police officers with what look like AK-47's jump out and scream at me to stop. I freeze as they explain to me (in spanish which I'm not very good at) that I can't go back here. I then notice a small crowd gathering around the corner I get over there and wait. Eventually I hear someone in the crowd speaking English, I run over and ask what is going on. They explain that the King of Spain just got done with dinner with the President of Russia and they will be coming out soon. I waited with the crowd and snapped some pictures as they exited the castle. I took video of the motorcades as they left and snapped some very blurry pictures of the King and the President. Talk about right place right time. The second thing that made Madrid awesome was getting to meet up with my friend Miguel. Miguel is from Madrid and studied abroad at Madison last year. As luck would have it he lived right next door to me. We became friends over the year but when he left back for Spain I was pretty sure I'd never get the chance to see him again. But, sure enough, a year later we are sitting in a bar in Madrid, talking about all the fun times we had back in the States over a mug of some horrible tasting Spanish beer. I felt bad for everyone who had to listen to us talk on and on, but we agreed to make a thing of this and at least every couple years will get back together for a bit and chat.
Overall the food in Spain was just amazing. They serve tapas there, which are basically bite sized foods. You order like 7 or 8 of them and you get to try so many different foods. I managed to have cod, potatoes, lamb, chicken, ham, tuna, and steak all in one meal. And it only cost me about $12. They also have Sangria in Spain. I drank it with dinner all week there, and had it back in the states when Miguel and the guys made it for us to try. I still have no idea what is in it, but it is just delicious. I know for sure there is Red Wine, and about 35 pounds of sugar, but have no idea on the other ingredients.
Spain was a blast. The beaches, the food, the people, the sites, Gaudi, all of it was just so cool. There is so much more to tell but the pictures will have to do that (if i ever get a computer).
That next morning we woke up and I headed to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco. I'll have to save that for my next post though because my laundry is done and I'm exhausted. I'll just say though that I'm going to have to do a lot more traveling if I ever want to see something as naturally beautiful as Morocco.
It seems like forever ago now, but On that first friday we got up and went to the airport to get on our flight to Barcelona, Spain. As we were driving there we still weren't convinced that this airplane was going to be there. We were flying RyanAir which is a discount travel service. We booked our flight and it came to $19. That's right $19 to fly to Spain. We get to the airport and sure enough, RyanAir does actually exist and we were scheduled to leave at 3. As we waited in the lobby for our plane I decide to head over to the airport casino with the 2GBP that I had left in my pocket. Since I couldn't use them at all I put them in a machine and just like that was up 13GBP. I cashed out with £10.
As we waited for our flight gate to be released we were joking about how people supposedly don't like Americans over here. An older Irish woman who was sitting next to us chimed in to simply say, "you think it's tough being an American, try growing up here Irish." Since we are all taking a history class on the topic we knew she was referring to the troubles between Ireland and Great Britain. It is a topic that I can't even begin to explain but any history channel buff knows a bit about The fight for Irish independence, the IRA terrorist organization and fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Everyone assumed that peace had been finally brokered 10 years ago between the two sides...that was until last Saturday night. While I was in Morocco still, two men stormed a English military base in Northern Ireland and murdered 2 British soldiers. A group of the IRA claimed responsibility. In class today our professor took the whole 3 hour period explaining the significance, and you could see and hear in his voice that he was worried about what may happen. The IRA bombed London for 24 years, and he lived through it so he was worried about what this may start. After that lecture we get home to see on the news that a bomb plot was broken up as someone from Ireland was trying to smuggle a bomb into Northern Ireland. I promise everyone that I'm safe, but it's been a strange couple days over here in that regard. Anyway back to spring break...
The flight to Barcelona went very smoothly. We landed and after searching for our hostel for a while we got all situated and I set out to find the other half of the group that was in Barcelona. I met up with them and we wondered the city for a while taking in a couple sites. The girls asked me to switch hostels and move in with them because there hostel was a bit sketchy. Since I was going to be traveling with them after Barcelona that made sense, and after all the searching moved hostels again. Just to throw some names out there for you guys. I spent my days in Spain traveling with Suzanne, Kelly, and Molly. We definitely had a lot of fun together. At the end of the night we walked down to the beach and I instantly fell in love. I decided that I'm a beach person. The waves and the sand were just awesome. As you'll soon see I spent a lot of time there. The next day we did some more touristy things. Went to the markets and then went to view the Sagrada Familia. A church that was designed by the architect Gaudi. I'm not even going to begin to try and describe this thing to you. My pictures will have to explain for me because this thing was just over the top amazing. After this I went back down to the beach in the afternoon, I convinced Suzanne to come keep my company and it was awesome. It was cloudy but I couldn't care less.
The next day was by far the best day in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park and it was just beautiful. The architecture and gardens and music and mosaics were all just so amazing. I would love to show you pictures but in probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life...I left it at home. We then took a ride up to the top of Barcelona, a place that overlooked the entire city and visited the castle in Barcelona and then went to view the Olympic Stadium for when the Olympics were there in I believe 1992 or 1988. At night again I went back to the beach, this time I convinced Kelly to come along and we relaxed and listened to the waves. The next morning we got up and headed for Madrid.
Madrid was very different than Barcelona. We spent our two days there taking in all the sites. We spent a lot less time in Madrid but two very exciting things happened while there. On the first night the three girls were all exhausted so I grabbed my camera and started wandering the city at night. I got to take some pretty cool pictures when I stumbled upon the castle where the King and Queen of Spain live. This is when things got kinda cool. As I'm walking two police officers with what look like AK-47's jump out and scream at me to stop. I freeze as they explain to me (in spanish which I'm not very good at) that I can't go back here. I then notice a small crowd gathering around the corner I get over there and wait. Eventually I hear someone in the crowd speaking English, I run over and ask what is going on. They explain that the King of Spain just got done with dinner with the President of Russia and they will be coming out soon. I waited with the crowd and snapped some pictures as they exited the castle. I took video of the motorcades as they left and snapped some very blurry pictures of the King and the President. Talk about right place right time. The second thing that made Madrid awesome was getting to meet up with my friend Miguel. Miguel is from Madrid and studied abroad at Madison last year. As luck would have it he lived right next door to me. We became friends over the year but when he left back for Spain I was pretty sure I'd never get the chance to see him again. But, sure enough, a year later we are sitting in a bar in Madrid, talking about all the fun times we had back in the States over a mug of some horrible tasting Spanish beer. I felt bad for everyone who had to listen to us talk on and on, but we agreed to make a thing of this and at least every couple years will get back together for a bit and chat.
Overall the food in Spain was just amazing. They serve tapas there, which are basically bite sized foods. You order like 7 or 8 of them and you get to try so many different foods. I managed to have cod, potatoes, lamb, chicken, ham, tuna, and steak all in one meal. And it only cost me about $12. They also have Sangria in Spain. I drank it with dinner all week there, and had it back in the states when Miguel and the guys made it for us to try. I still have no idea what is in it, but it is just delicious. I know for sure there is Red Wine, and about 35 pounds of sugar, but have no idea on the other ingredients.
Spain was a blast. The beaches, the food, the people, the sites, Gaudi, all of it was just so cool. There is so much more to tell but the pictures will have to do that (if i ever get a computer).
That next morning we woke up and I headed to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco. I'll have to save that for my next post though because my laundry is done and I'm exhausted. I'll just say though that I'm going to have to do a lot more traveling if I ever want to see something as naturally beautiful as Morocco.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I'm Home...but Computerless
Hey everyone, I'm back from spring break now, and I had the time of my life. I was able to see and do things that I never thought I would ever get to do. I would love to tell you all about them right now, but as you may have heard, my computer decided to go and die on me. So rather than steal a friends computer for a couple of hours to write everything down on here right now, I'm just going to wait for a bit and write about all of it when I buy my new computer. It will probably be a few days still but not a whole lot I can do about it right now. All is going well over here and I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things in terms of classes. Talk to you all soon.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Just Checking In
Hey everyone, I'm on spring break right now in Morocco. It has been just amazing. I don't have time to talk about it all right now, but coming to Africa has without a doubt been the most amazing experience of my life.
I promised Mom and Dad that I would check in as soon as I got here but I can't get a phone to work, and even if I did I'd imagine that it would cost about $50 to connect a call. I'll be here until Sunday and will talk to all of you soon. So don't worry, I promise I'm alive and safe.
I promised Mom and Dad that I would check in as soon as I got here but I can't get a phone to work, and even if I did I'd imagine that it would cost about $50 to connect a call. I'll be here until Sunday and will talk to all of you soon. So don't worry, I promise I'm alive and safe.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Spring Break Countdown: Morocco!
Just wanted to take one last chance to rub it in to everyone back home that I'll be in Africa in a few days. I know I'm a jerk but I can't help it. I promise to take lots of pictures of the Atlas Mountains out in the desert and be sure to take some great shots when I visit the coast and the Atlantic Ocean. The city I'm staying in is called Marrakech. It is just a beautiful city that boasts the worlds largest outdoor evening market. The center square in the city is very Europeanized (from my understanding) but after sundown the true cultural differences between Europe and Africa come out. Dancers and snake charmers line the streets as music plays. There are some beautiful mosques that I plan to visit as well. It will definitely be a remarkable trip, and I still cannot believe that I'm actually getting to do this.
On a side note with Ash Wednesday today and the start of lent I decided to give up fast food for lent. After i stuffed myself last night for fat tuesday I definitely need to take a break from the McDonalds and Burger King anyway. The mass today was just excruciating. The ash ceremony lasted forever because there was only one person distributing ashes to a church that was packed from front to back. I definitely miss American church where they move quickly, talk with rythem, and the priests actually announciate their words.
ONE MORE DAY!!!!
On a side note with Ash Wednesday today and the start of lent I decided to give up fast food for lent. After i stuffed myself last night for fat tuesday I definitely need to take a break from the McDonalds and Burger King anyway. The mass today was just excruciating. The ash ceremony lasted forever because there was only one person distributing ashes to a church that was packed from front to back. I definitely miss American church where they move quickly, talk with rythem, and the priests actually announciate their words.
ONE MORE DAY!!!!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Spring Break Countdown: Spain
So I leave for Spain in 2 days now, and yes I'm definitely excited. Spain is going to be a great time. We are starting in Barcelona for a couple of days of relaxing on the beach, sitting in the sun and going out to some world famous dance clubs. On Monday I make the trek over to Madrid where I will tour Madrid for a day, and then head down to Toledo. In Toledo I will see the former head of the Holy Roman Empire. As well as a street where a church, mosque, and synagogue all live and survive peacefully side by side. It will be a great day. From there, Wednesday is my lost day to travel as I leave Madrid and head to the South as I get ready for Morocco.
Countdown: 2 Days!!!
Countdown: 2 Days!!!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Staying Busy in London
Alright, so the spring break countdown is officially on, and I can't believe that I already leave in only 4 days now. It's just unbelievable to think that in one week I will be sitting on a beach in Barcelona, followed by trips to Madrid and Toledo, and then of course off to freakin Africa!
I did have an exciting weekend here in London though. It was definitely busy. Friday I took a tour of Parliament. I got to walk through the house of commons and the house of lords, and stand where the Prime Minister gives speeches to the country and where the Queen sits when she opens up the government each year. Sadly I'm afraid I'm starting to become immune to all of this stuff and I'm not even thinking twice about these type of things.
Saturday we took a day trip to Brighton. It is a city on the English Channel, and it is simply beautiful. I got to go to the beach and see the ocean for the first time. I had to go in, so i walked in a few feet and it was freezing cold. I also tasted it, which was a really stupid thing to do, but oh well. I was really excited and am definitely going to go back when its warmer out.
Sunday I went to my first ever football match. It was a great time, and we are already planning on going back to some more. As I said earlier, I always liked soccer, but since I've gotten here I've really gotten into the game. We saw Fulham play West Brom and as we walked in my friend Jordan and I placed a bet on the game. To bet on soccer you have to be the final score so he bet Fulham to win 2-0, I bet Fulham to win 2-1. We both were pretty sure Fulham would win, but we were just guessing the score. To cut to the finish the score is 2-0 at the very end of the game. Jordan is going nuts and just before the final whistle a guy from Fulham tackles a West Brom player from behind and the West Brom guy is awarded a penalty kick. If he makes it, I win 70 pounds (about a hundred dollars) and if he misses Jordan wins 120 lbs (190 dollars). Penalty kicks are from only 8 yards away, and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE ever misses a penalty kick, so at this point I am so excited. And just as you might guess, the guy lines up for the kick, and kicks it right into the goalies chest. It bounces away from the goal and the game was over. I nearly cried. It worked out ok though, Jordan collected his money and is going to be me all day breakfast with it. (All Day Breakfast is this thing that we fell in love with at a pub called The Slug. It is a full English breakfast with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bread, baked beans, and a fried mushroom and tomato. It is also served with a pint of beer. All for only 4 pounds. A pint of beer usually costs about 3 pounds so basically you get a a full meal for a pound).
Today Megan, Kelly, and I got up and went to the National Gallery. It is just a gigantic art house. We got to see several really famous and cool paintings. My favorites were definitely the ones from more modern times. The outdoor scenes, especially the ones by Monet were really amazing. After we left we sat outside in Trafalgar Square and sketched it. It was actually a lot of fun. It made me remember how horrible of an artist I am but it definitely made for some good jokes. If you get a chance google Trafalgar Square. It is one of my favorite spots in London, and then you can just imagine how I butchered it with my sketching of it.
I'll be continuing the Spring Break Countdown over the next couple days. My goal is to make all of you hate me with jealousy as I describe to you all my trip. ;)
I did have an exciting weekend here in London though. It was definitely busy. Friday I took a tour of Parliament. I got to walk through the house of commons and the house of lords, and stand where the Prime Minister gives speeches to the country and where the Queen sits when she opens up the government each year. Sadly I'm afraid I'm starting to become immune to all of this stuff and I'm not even thinking twice about these type of things.
Saturday we took a day trip to Brighton. It is a city on the English Channel, and it is simply beautiful. I got to go to the beach and see the ocean for the first time. I had to go in, so i walked in a few feet and it was freezing cold. I also tasted it, which was a really stupid thing to do, but oh well. I was really excited and am definitely going to go back when its warmer out.
Sunday I went to my first ever football match. It was a great time, and we are already planning on going back to some more. As I said earlier, I always liked soccer, but since I've gotten here I've really gotten into the game. We saw Fulham play West Brom and as we walked in my friend Jordan and I placed a bet on the game. To bet on soccer you have to be the final score so he bet Fulham to win 2-0, I bet Fulham to win 2-1. We both were pretty sure Fulham would win, but we were just guessing the score. To cut to the finish the score is 2-0 at the very end of the game. Jordan is going nuts and just before the final whistle a guy from Fulham tackles a West Brom player from behind and the West Brom guy is awarded a penalty kick. If he makes it, I win 70 pounds (about a hundred dollars) and if he misses Jordan wins 120 lbs (190 dollars). Penalty kicks are from only 8 yards away, and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE ever misses a penalty kick, so at this point I am so excited. And just as you might guess, the guy lines up for the kick, and kicks it right into the goalies chest. It bounces away from the goal and the game was over. I nearly cried. It worked out ok though, Jordan collected his money and is going to be me all day breakfast with it. (All Day Breakfast is this thing that we fell in love with at a pub called The Slug. It is a full English breakfast with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bread, baked beans, and a fried mushroom and tomato. It is also served with a pint of beer. All for only 4 pounds. A pint of beer usually costs about 3 pounds so basically you get a a full meal for a pound).
Today Megan, Kelly, and I got up and went to the National Gallery. It is just a gigantic art house. We got to see several really famous and cool paintings. My favorites were definitely the ones from more modern times. The outdoor scenes, especially the ones by Monet were really amazing. After we left we sat outside in Trafalgar Square and sketched it. It was actually a lot of fun. It made me remember how horrible of an artist I am but it definitely made for some good jokes. If you get a chance google Trafalgar Square. It is one of my favorite spots in London, and then you can just imagine how I butchered it with my sketching of it.
I'll be continuing the Spring Break Countdown over the next couple days. My goal is to make all of you hate me with jealousy as I describe to you all my trip. ;)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Razzle Dazzle
I was lucky enough to go to both a play and a musical in the past two days. I'm starting to realize how great it is that I can get on the tube and head down to the West End (the theatre district) and head down and see a play or a musical whenever I want for a cheap discounted price. On Tuesday night I went to a play with my theatre class called Three Days of Rain. James McAvoy was in it. I had no idea who he was, but all the girls were going crazy about him. A few even waited around after the play to meet him. I thought he stunk. And although I didn't really like the play that much it was interesting. It was set in New York City, about 3 young adults trying to divide up their inheritance from there parents. It had a flashback to the parents of the kids when they were their age, living in the same apartment, it was definitely unique. Although I felt a bit disappointed overall, it was was worth going to see.
Last night I went and saw Chicago. Most people have heard of it, or at least seen the movie adaptation. I had of course heard of Chicago but had no idea what it was about. When I walked in and saw the first couple minutes I knew I was going to love it, haha. First I'll say that I went to this play with 5 other girls on the program. I was the only guy there so I felt pretty good about myself to start with. Then the musical started and it didn't take too long for me to realize that basically the entire musical is 6 women dancing and singing on stage in lingerie. The show is actually about women who murder their husbands or other men and how the news sensationalizes them and makes them stars. Their lawyer is also a big part of the show where he works to get them off the hook for their crime. Lingerie aside it was an amazing production and I really enjoyed it.
I have a busy weekend ahead now though. Tomorrow morning I'm going on a tour of parliment. Saturday I am taking a day trip sponsored by the program to Brighton. It is on the sea so I'm really excited to get to see the sea for the first time and tour the city there. Sunday I am going to my first Football game. Fulham vs. West Brom. Fulham is going to crush West Brom but it will still be fun. Fulham has an american on the team Clint Dempsey, so I'll be able to cheer for him. I live in Chelsea so I've become a diehard Chelsea fan (most of the presents I bring back for you guys are going to be Chelsea stuff). I've always watched soccer and got into before I left for Europe but I'm really learning a lot about the league and other teams now. Soccer is now number 2 on my favorite sports list. The Crew, and The Sox will always be my favorites, but next to baseball, soccer is right there.
Last night I went and saw Chicago. Most people have heard of it, or at least seen the movie adaptation. I had of course heard of Chicago but had no idea what it was about. When I walked in and saw the first couple minutes I knew I was going to love it, haha. First I'll say that I went to this play with 5 other girls on the program. I was the only guy there so I felt pretty good about myself to start with. Then the musical started and it didn't take too long for me to realize that basically the entire musical is 6 women dancing and singing on stage in lingerie. The show is actually about women who murder their husbands or other men and how the news sensationalizes them and makes them stars. Their lawyer is also a big part of the show where he works to get them off the hook for their crime. Lingerie aside it was an amazing production and I really enjoyed it.
I have a busy weekend ahead now though. Tomorrow morning I'm going on a tour of parliment. Saturday I am taking a day trip sponsored by the program to Brighton. It is on the sea so I'm really excited to get to see the sea for the first time and tour the city there. Sunday I am going to my first Football game. Fulham vs. West Brom. Fulham is going to crush West Brom but it will still be fun. Fulham has an american on the team Clint Dempsey, so I'll be able to cheer for him. I live in Chelsea so I've become a diehard Chelsea fan (most of the presents I bring back for you guys are going to be Chelsea stuff). I've always watched soccer and got into before I left for Europe but I'm really learning a lot about the league and other teams now. Soccer is now number 2 on my favorite sports list. The Crew, and The Sox will always be my favorites, but next to baseball, soccer is right there.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
You Can't Make This Up...
So I'm back safe and sound from my trip to Switzerland. As you would expect, I absolutely loved it. Going into the mountains and seeing the sights is something that I won't soon forget. The trip didn't go that smoothly though. For starters our plane was delayed for a couple hours in the airport. To make things worse they never even told us it was delayed, the entire airport went on as if our flight never existed, so we just sat there waiting for any news either way as to what was going on. We called the hotel in Zurich and asked them how late that we would be able to check in. They told us that as long as we were there by 2am they would let us check in. We finally board the plane and fly in, just as we are about the land the pilot pulls back up and says the blizzard is too bad and we can't land. Since this was only my 2nd ever flight, I was not doing so good. I tried to act cool, but I was definitely sweating a bit. After we circled the city for a while, we found a new runway and landed. By this point it was really late, and we were in a race to get to our hotel. After a 50 franc cab ride we made it with about 15 minutes to spare. We were all so tired, it didn't take too long to fall asleep.
The next day we woke up and looked at our map, and found that the FIFA headquarters was in Zurich. Since we were all huge soccer fans we decided that that was going to be our first destination. What we failed to realize was that FIFA was located on the top of a mountain. When we started our climb it didn't look TOO bad but in reality it was huge and tiring. I nearly thought that I was going to die. When we finally made it to the top we realized that the FIFA headquarters sucked. It was just an office building with a statue. There were definitely no famous soccer players there greeting us, no autograph sessions, and we didn't even get to hold the world cup trophy. I was not very happy. But since we were already at the top of a mountain we figured that we should take advantage of this by finding a place to look out and try and see over the city. We finally found a place after another hour of searching, but it was well worth it. I was able to take some amazing pictures (they will be up within a day or so). We finally made the trek back down hill and we were so exhausted that we barely made it through dinner awake. It was definitely an early night as we went back to the hotel room and chilled for a little while before we all went to bed.
Saturday was a completely different day though. Megan and I decided to head into the Alps so we got on a train and went to the center of Switzerland to a town called Lucern. It was beautiful. The pictures I was able to take were amazing. It is definitely something that you will have to see for yourself because words really couldn't describe it fairly. When we came back from the city we went out to dinner and that was the start of an amazing night.
After dinner we decided to go out for a couple of drinks. As we were wandering looking for a place to go I looked down this ally way to see a sign that said Aelphi's Bar. I figured why not so I walk down the ally and open the door a crack to here accordions and yodelling. I close the door quickly and grab Jordan. We walk in together and as soon as we walk in to this tiny little pub an old lady greets us by speaking German at us. Niether of us have any idea what she said so we just stare blankly at her. Finally she asks the question that I knew the answer to: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch? We responded with "No, Only English." To that she exicitedly said, "Well then, come on in, take a seat." Megan, Jordan, and I sat down ordered a beer and listened to this band of 50 year olds play their swiss folk music for us. The played for a while and then began to pack up as they had a drink. The bartender (who spoke amazing English told us to go talk to them. They were going to America for the first time this summer and would love to talk to some Americans. We walked over and tried to break the ice. Only one of them spoke English so we talked to her for a while. We asked about them and they said that they were all relatives from Glarus, Switzerland. And that they were in fact coming to America for the first time. They showed us the flyer for their tour and we nearly died when we looked at where they were going to be. Fittingly enough they were coming to New Glarus, Wisconsin. It gets even better. They also have stops in Madison, and Milwaukee. Half of their American tour was in Wisconsin. We got all excited, and the guy in the band got all excited becuase he was really excited to tour the Miller Factory and Harely Davidson in Milwaukee. The only words in English he spoke was Miller and Harley.
We made plans to meet them this summer and come and listen to them perform. They gave us postcards and stickers. They also promised to bring chocolate for us in exchange for some Miller beer. We got a picture taken with them and as they left we asked the bartender if there were any places that she would recommend for us to go. After a couple minutes she asked if we just wanted to go out with her for the night. We of course said yes, and jumped all over the chance to hang out with an actual Swiss person. She finished closing up her bar and we headed out for the night. We followed her around the city for a while and finally we stopped at a place called the Piranha Bar. Its right around this time that our new Swiss friend (who ended up actually being 34 years old) informed us that we were now in the Red Light District. She told us that all the girls were probably prostitutes and not to talk to anyone else becuase they may try to sell us drugs. For everyone's sake I won't go into any more details, but needless to say it didn't take too long for us to realize that we may want to get out of this area. On our way home we joked about how only on a trip like this can your night start out listening to a Swiss Folk Band and end in the Red Light District of a city.
Sunday we walked around the city for a while, toured some churches and packed up for the trip home, which was much smoother than the trip there. It was very exciting that there was traffic on the runways at Heathrow because our plane had to circle London for a few minutes before it could land. It was great to see the city from above where I had been living for 6 weeks now. We were actually able to find our street using landmarks from above, a great experience.
Overall I loved Switzerland, and you all must check out the pictures because my words don't do the beauty of the place justice. I'm off to a play right now though. Three Days of Rain, I hope this one is good. Twelfth Night was amazing so I'm banking on this one being better. we'll see though. Take Care and miss you all.
P.S. Grandma and Grandpa: I got your package thank you very much. I Didn't win on the lottery tickets, but I guess that's OK, not really sure what I'd do with them if I won anyway. Haha.
The next day we woke up and looked at our map, and found that the FIFA headquarters was in Zurich. Since we were all huge soccer fans we decided that that was going to be our first destination. What we failed to realize was that FIFA was located on the top of a mountain. When we started our climb it didn't look TOO bad but in reality it was huge and tiring. I nearly thought that I was going to die. When we finally made it to the top we realized that the FIFA headquarters sucked. It was just an office building with a statue. There were definitely no famous soccer players there greeting us, no autograph sessions, and we didn't even get to hold the world cup trophy. I was not very happy. But since we were already at the top of a mountain we figured that we should take advantage of this by finding a place to look out and try and see over the city. We finally found a place after another hour of searching, but it was well worth it. I was able to take some amazing pictures (they will be up within a day or so). We finally made the trek back down hill and we were so exhausted that we barely made it through dinner awake. It was definitely an early night as we went back to the hotel room and chilled for a little while before we all went to bed.
Saturday was a completely different day though. Megan and I decided to head into the Alps so we got on a train and went to the center of Switzerland to a town called Lucern. It was beautiful. The pictures I was able to take were amazing. It is definitely something that you will have to see for yourself because words really couldn't describe it fairly. When we came back from the city we went out to dinner and that was the start of an amazing night.
After dinner we decided to go out for a couple of drinks. As we were wandering looking for a place to go I looked down this ally way to see a sign that said Aelphi's Bar. I figured why not so I walk down the ally and open the door a crack to here accordions and yodelling. I close the door quickly and grab Jordan. We walk in together and as soon as we walk in to this tiny little pub an old lady greets us by speaking German at us. Niether of us have any idea what she said so we just stare blankly at her. Finally she asks the question that I knew the answer to: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch? We responded with "No, Only English." To that she exicitedly said, "Well then, come on in, take a seat." Megan, Jordan, and I sat down ordered a beer and listened to this band of 50 year olds play their swiss folk music for us. The played for a while and then began to pack up as they had a drink. The bartender (who spoke amazing English told us to go talk to them. They were going to America for the first time this summer and would love to talk to some Americans. We walked over and tried to break the ice. Only one of them spoke English so we talked to her for a while. We asked about them and they said that they were all relatives from Glarus, Switzerland. And that they were in fact coming to America for the first time. They showed us the flyer for their tour and we nearly died when we looked at where they were going to be. Fittingly enough they were coming to New Glarus, Wisconsin. It gets even better. They also have stops in Madison, and Milwaukee. Half of their American tour was in Wisconsin. We got all excited, and the guy in the band got all excited becuase he was really excited to tour the Miller Factory and Harely Davidson in Milwaukee. The only words in English he spoke was Miller and Harley.
We made plans to meet them this summer and come and listen to them perform. They gave us postcards and stickers. They also promised to bring chocolate for us in exchange for some Miller beer. We got a picture taken with them and as they left we asked the bartender if there were any places that she would recommend for us to go. After a couple minutes she asked if we just wanted to go out with her for the night. We of course said yes, and jumped all over the chance to hang out with an actual Swiss person. She finished closing up her bar and we headed out for the night. We followed her around the city for a while and finally we stopped at a place called the Piranha Bar. Its right around this time that our new Swiss friend (who ended up actually being 34 years old) informed us that we were now in the Red Light District. She told us that all the girls were probably prostitutes and not to talk to anyone else becuase they may try to sell us drugs. For everyone's sake I won't go into any more details, but needless to say it didn't take too long for us to realize that we may want to get out of this area. On our way home we joked about how only on a trip like this can your night start out listening to a Swiss Folk Band and end in the Red Light District of a city.
Sunday we walked around the city for a while, toured some churches and packed up for the trip home, which was much smoother than the trip there. It was very exciting that there was traffic on the runways at Heathrow because our plane had to circle London for a few minutes before it could land. It was great to see the city from above where I had been living for 6 weeks now. We were actually able to find our street using landmarks from above, a great experience.
Overall I loved Switzerland, and you all must check out the pictures because my words don't do the beauty of the place justice. I'm off to a play right now though. Three Days of Rain, I hope this one is good. Twelfth Night was amazing so I'm banking on this one being better. we'll see though. Take Care and miss you all.
P.S. Grandma and Grandpa: I got your package thank you very much. I Didn't win on the lottery tickets, but I guess that's OK, not really sure what I'd do with them if I won anyway. Haha.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Everyone's A Little Bit Racist...
On Monday night I decided that although I had been to a few plays here in London, I needed to go see a musical. A found a couple people in the flat who were were going to see Avenue Q. I tagged along with them and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I LOVED it. 2 hours of sitting there, laughing my ass of to the point of near tears. The musical is actually a bunch of puppets, mixed in with a couple other actual people, singing about the hardships of life. It was definitely a satire on the American dream and the American way of life. Some of the songs that these puppets sang included "The Internet is for Porn", "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist", "If You Were Gay", and "I Wish I Could Go Back to College". Definitely not your standard musical, but nonetheless it was brilliant.
Tuesday I went on a tour of Bavaria, it was basically a pub crawl with a tour guide. I went to a couple pubs off the beaten path and it was a lot of fun. I really liked that I went on this pub crawl with a group of people that I hadn't gotten a chance to get to know that well yet. As you'd expect, they were great. After the pub crawl I met back up with the rest of the crew to celebrate Molly and Emily's birthdays. We had a great time celebrating with them. Almost too good of a time, I had to sit through a 3 hour discussion on the role of the Monarchy with a pounding headache and constantly feeling like I was gonna puke.
I'm heading out right now to go see Twelfth Night. I'm really excited to see it. I suck at Shakespeare so I'll prolly be really confused, but I'm hoping that I can figure it out, and really enjoy the play. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm leaving for Switzerland tomorrow so if I don't get a chance to post again, have a good weekend.
Tuesday I went on a tour of Bavaria, it was basically a pub crawl with a tour guide. I went to a couple pubs off the beaten path and it was a lot of fun. I really liked that I went on this pub crawl with a group of people that I hadn't gotten a chance to get to know that well yet. As you'd expect, they were great. After the pub crawl I met back up with the rest of the crew to celebrate Molly and Emily's birthdays. We had a great time celebrating with them. Almost too good of a time, I had to sit through a 3 hour discussion on the role of the Monarchy with a pounding headache and constantly feeling like I was gonna puke.
I'm heading out right now to go see Twelfth Night. I'm really excited to see it. I suck at Shakespeare so I'll prolly be really confused, but I'm hoping that I can figure it out, and really enjoy the play. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm leaving for Switzerland tomorrow so if I don't get a chance to post again, have a good weekend.
Monday, February 9, 2009
I Gotta Lower My Standards....
So I came to a stunning realization today. London is way awesomer than Madison. I say this because we spent all day Sunday and the beginning of today talking about how much this weekend sucked. So I thought back on my weekend which consisted of going out at night (bars, pubs clubs), and spent the days trying to recover from the night. For any weekend back in Madison that would be a great weekend of going out and then spending Sunday doing all your homework.
We finally had a weekend like that in London. Nothing amazing happened, everyone did there work and went out like to be expected. Yet this time there were no crazy stories, no one got lost or abducted. No random naked bodies on the floors, and everyone was disappointed. We needed the drama, the idiot getting hypnotized, the naked bodies on the floor, and the rumors of random hookups running around.
Too be fair I'm ok with this, turns out studying abroad is pretty standard stuff and we are getting blessed to be able to have so many amazing stories, and its unfair to expect them to continue to come. So this has left me no choice to to tame down my expectations for my weekends in London. They may be pretty standard weekends but they will still be awesome.
We finally had a weekend like that in London. Nothing amazing happened, everyone did there work and went out like to be expected. Yet this time there were no crazy stories, no one got lost or abducted. No random naked bodies on the floors, and everyone was disappointed. We needed the drama, the idiot getting hypnotized, the naked bodies on the floor, and the rumors of random hookups running around.
Too be fair I'm ok with this, turns out studying abroad is pretty standard stuff and we are getting blessed to be able to have so many amazing stories, and its unfair to expect them to continue to come. So this has left me no choice to to tame down my expectations for my weekends in London. They may be pretty standard weekends but they will still be awesome.
Friday, February 6, 2009
School Sucks!
Sorry for the lack of updates this week everyone. Truth is, I really don't have a darn thing to write about. Even though it's easy, we still do get school work. I had a test and a paper due yesterday, a play to go to on Wednesday and spent Tuesday inside trying to stay out of the slush. Here are a couple random updates from the week though.
1. I got my first haircut, it was only 6 pounds and it actually looks pretty good so I'm not going to complain at all. 2. The play I went to on Wednesday was called Enjoy!. I did not enjoy it at all. It was just weird. It was about this guy who dresses like a girl who comes back to his parents how as a sociologist and watches them, but they don't know its him, and then their daughter moves to Saudi Arabia, and then the dad dies, but then comes back to life, and then in the end the son who is dressed as a girl gives a speech. We were the only people under the age of 60 in the audience and all the old people were dieing of laughter so maybe the humor was above us, but outside of a scene or two, I really didn't like it. 3. We found out that "blizzard" that shut down London for a day and a half was the biggest snow storm in 19 years in London. By Wisconsin standards it was just your everyday run of the mill storm, but it was a BIG deal here. 4. I'm going to Oxford tomorrow for a day trip. I'll take pictures for everyone, see the college and the city, should be a good time.
5. As far as the pictures go, I am not quite sure what to say as far as how to get to them to check them out. the only link i have is www.flickr.com/loganinlondon otherwise go to www.flickr.com and do a people search of Logan Thein
6. I'm starting to get letters and mail from people, and that is AWESOME! I really do appreciate it, keep 'em coming.
Hope everything is going well back home, even though its been a boring week I'm still loving it over here. And I promise to update you all as soon as anything remotely exciting happens. Take Care
1. I got my first haircut, it was only 6 pounds and it actually looks pretty good so I'm not going to complain at all. 2. The play I went to on Wednesday was called Enjoy!. I did not enjoy it at all. It was just weird. It was about this guy who dresses like a girl who comes back to his parents how as a sociologist and watches them, but they don't know its him, and then their daughter moves to Saudi Arabia, and then the dad dies, but then comes back to life, and then in the end the son who is dressed as a girl gives a speech. We were the only people under the age of 60 in the audience and all the old people were dieing of laughter so maybe the humor was above us, but outside of a scene or two, I really didn't like it. 3. We found out that "blizzard" that shut down London for a day and a half was the biggest snow storm in 19 years in London. By Wisconsin standards it was just your everyday run of the mill storm, but it was a BIG deal here. 4. I'm going to Oxford tomorrow for a day trip. I'll take pictures for everyone, see the college and the city, should be a good time.
5. As far as the pictures go, I am not quite sure what to say as far as how to get to them to check them out. the only link i have is www.flickr.com/loganinlondon otherwise go to www.flickr.com and do a people search of Logan Thein
6. I'm starting to get letters and mail from people, and that is AWESOME! I really do appreciate it, keep 'em coming.
Hope everything is going well back home, even though its been a boring week I'm still loving it over here. And I promise to update you all as soon as anything remotely exciting happens. Take Care
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Blizzard in London....That's Brussels!
I just got back from an amazing weekend in Brussels, Belgium. My first real traveling experience while I am abroad. And, as you would expect, it was awesome. I have to say though, it was awesome in a way I didn't expect. The city of Brussels is actually kind of a dump. Outside of the Grand Place (center square in Brussels) there really isn't that much to the city, or at least that much to the city. It was dirty, with a lot of graffiti and walls and back alleys. This prompted one of the people I was traveling with to turn Brussels into an adjective to describe something that sucks or is dirty or smells. For example, Little Chute, the UofMinnesota, and Luke are all very Brussels. This leads to one of the reasons why this trip was so great. The people that I have been lucky enough to meet and become friends with are so great. You could have put the group of people I was with in a cave in Peru and we would have had a blast together. Its exciting because everyone on this trip is so different, has such a different story that there is NO possible way I would have been able to meet anyone like this back home. I'm getting to see and do so much here, but without a doubt the most rewarding part of this trip is getting to meet people. Not just from the program but the random people from all over the world. I've met people from 5 continents now, I just need to find an Australian and a Penguin and I'll have the last two.
Anyway, on to the trip. This was my first time ever not speaking the native language in the place I was visiting. I rode down with Megan and Kelly as we planned to meet up with everyone else when we got there. We got off the train and everything is written in French and Dutch...I am instantly overwhelmed and slightly scared to death. We make our way onto the subway and it is the most pathetic excuse for a train I have ever seen. We packed our way on to this thing, practically stacked on top of each other and as the train starts to move it rocks back and forth instead of moving forward. I was so tired and cranky that I hated Belgium before I even stepped outside. After a few seconds to calm down we went and checked into our Hostel...
I was expecting a room about the size of a shoe box with 3 bunk beds stacked up with a locker. Instead I got a kick ass room that was honestly nicer than 90% of hotels that I've stayed in before. We got situated and headed out to explore. We quickly found out that there ain't a whole lot to see. (Check out my updated pictures for what there actually was to see in Belgium...also note that anything that looks cool prolly wasn't taken in Brussels, and was actually taken in Brugges.) We walked around, bought some chocolate (awesome), Belgian French Fries w/ mayo (awesomer), and the world famous Belgian Waffles w/ strawberries, bananas, chocolate, and whip cream (most awesomest thing ever). We explored a little bit more and that's when things kinda started to go wrong:
1. I literally walked right through the sole of my shoe, it just plain fell apart, so im walking down these dirty streets with one shoe, and what amounts to a slipper.
2. Belgium is made for tiny people, the stairs are about 6 inches wide, and the sidewalks are 8 inches wide, needless to say I didn't fit that well and spent half of the first day tripping over my self.
3. Because it is made for tiny people when I went to the shoe store to buy some shoes, they honestly laughed at me when I asked for my size shoe (its a size 50 in Europe). The biggest shoe that they had was a size 45, so I had to walk around like I was all weekend
4. I'm a moron and never transfered money into checking from savings before I left. I get there go to the ATM and find out I have a grand total of 20 dollars for my whole trip.
5. I didn't charge my camera battery so I got about a day and a halfs worth of pictures and then my camera was gone.
Even with all that going wrong it was still fun. In brussels we saw the peeing baby, the Grand Place, The Atomium, The Palace of Justice, and did a tour of a brewery. We were all Brusseled out so the next day we went to Brugges, which is probably the most amazing place I have ever been. It is definitely not a place i can describe in words so you really will have to check out the pictures for that.
The nightlife was fun on the first night. We all went to a bar called Delerium. It had boasted over 2000 different types of beers. I didn't manage to try them all but I most certainly tried ;) The night was capped all of us bursting out into a singing Varsity! The next night everyone was exhausted and decided to be boring except for Kelly and I. We went out to this Karaokee/Dance Bar/Club. It was actually a pretty relaxed place and we had a good time. Kyle met up with us a bit later and we hung out for a little while before heading back to the hostel. Sunday night was of course the Super Bowl. It didn't start til about 1AM Monday in Belgium, but we all stayed up found it on TV and watched start to finish on that TV. It was a great chance to just relax hang out and be Americans!!!!
I got a grand total of about 12 hours of sleep all weekend so when I finally got out from the chunnel (the train that runs under the English Channel) to see England completely covered in snow, I was NOT pleased. Apparently while we were in Beligum, London turned into Wisconsin and there was a snowstorm. Everything was covered in snow....that just doesn't happen. Everything was shut down, classes were cancelled, it was nuts. There is so much more to tell, but I just can't think right now. Just to sum it up: I just simply love it here. The places are unbelievable, and the people are even better, the only thing that comes close is fishing at sunset on North Twin. Take care everyone.
Anyway, on to the trip. This was my first time ever not speaking the native language in the place I was visiting. I rode down with Megan and Kelly as we planned to meet up with everyone else when we got there. We got off the train and everything is written in French and Dutch...I am instantly overwhelmed and slightly scared to death. We make our way onto the subway and it is the most pathetic excuse for a train I have ever seen. We packed our way on to this thing, practically stacked on top of each other and as the train starts to move it rocks back and forth instead of moving forward. I was so tired and cranky that I hated Belgium before I even stepped outside. After a few seconds to calm down we went and checked into our Hostel...
I was expecting a room about the size of a shoe box with 3 bunk beds stacked up with a locker. Instead I got a kick ass room that was honestly nicer than 90% of hotels that I've stayed in before. We got situated and headed out to explore. We quickly found out that there ain't a whole lot to see. (Check out my updated pictures for what there actually was to see in Belgium...also note that anything that looks cool prolly wasn't taken in Brussels, and was actually taken in Brugges.) We walked around, bought some chocolate (awesome), Belgian French Fries w/ mayo (awesomer), and the world famous Belgian Waffles w/ strawberries, bananas, chocolate, and whip cream (most awesomest thing ever). We explored a little bit more and that's when things kinda started to go wrong:
1. I literally walked right through the sole of my shoe, it just plain fell apart, so im walking down these dirty streets with one shoe, and what amounts to a slipper.
2. Belgium is made for tiny people, the stairs are about 6 inches wide, and the sidewalks are 8 inches wide, needless to say I didn't fit that well and spent half of the first day tripping over my self.
3. Because it is made for tiny people when I went to the shoe store to buy some shoes, they honestly laughed at me when I asked for my size shoe (its a size 50 in Europe). The biggest shoe that they had was a size 45, so I had to walk around like I was all weekend
4. I'm a moron and never transfered money into checking from savings before I left. I get there go to the ATM and find out I have a grand total of 20 dollars for my whole trip.
5. I didn't charge my camera battery so I got about a day and a halfs worth of pictures and then my camera was gone.
Even with all that going wrong it was still fun. In brussels we saw the peeing baby, the Grand Place, The Atomium, The Palace of Justice, and did a tour of a brewery. We were all Brusseled out so the next day we went to Brugges, which is probably the most amazing place I have ever been. It is definitely not a place i can describe in words so you really will have to check out the pictures for that.
The nightlife was fun on the first night. We all went to a bar called Delerium. It had boasted over 2000 different types of beers. I didn't manage to try them all but I most certainly tried ;) The night was capped all of us bursting out into a singing Varsity! The next night everyone was exhausted and decided to be boring except for Kelly and I. We went out to this Karaokee/Dance Bar/Club. It was actually a pretty relaxed place and we had a good time. Kyle met up with us a bit later and we hung out for a little while before heading back to the hostel. Sunday night was of course the Super Bowl. It didn't start til about 1AM Monday in Belgium, but we all stayed up found it on TV and watched start to finish on that TV. It was a great chance to just relax hang out and be Americans!!!!
I got a grand total of about 12 hours of sleep all weekend so when I finally got out from the chunnel (the train that runs under the English Channel) to see England completely covered in snow, I was NOT pleased. Apparently while we were in Beligum, London turned into Wisconsin and there was a snowstorm. Everything was covered in snow....that just doesn't happen. Everything was shut down, classes were cancelled, it was nuts. There is so much more to tell, but I just can't think right now. Just to sum it up: I just simply love it here. The places are unbelievable, and the people are even better, the only thing that comes close is fishing at sunset on North Twin. Take care everyone.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Quick Update....
Sorry everyone for the lack of updates. Truth be told, now that we are into the swing of things here at school the crazy trips and stories are starting to be replaced by books and lectures. We still manage to go out to a lot of great places here in London, but we are all starting to really slow down a bit. These past couple days have been a perfect example of that. I stayed in on Monday and Tuesday night and on Wednesday went to the pub for a couple drinks with some friends. We made friends with a couple of people from England so we talked to them for a bit, but after that went home.
We got up early today and went to the Globe. For my non-theatre friends out there the Globe was where Shakespeare wrote and had his actors perform all the plays he wrote in the 1600's. The actual globe burnt down about 400 years ago, and only 12 years ago did an American come to London and rebuild it. The rebuilt Globe is nearly an exact replica of the old. Thatched roof, 100% wood three teared their seating. The whole thing is held together by wooden pegs and lime plaster. Even though the place was only 12 years old it honestly felt like it could easily have been built in the 1600's. And of course, I forgot my camera, and doubt that I'll get to get back inside there before I come home. I wanted to cry when I realized it, just because it was SO cool. I am by no means a theatre person, but it was impossible to ignore that this place is "kind of a big deal."
I'm off to Brussels tonight your time. Should be an exciting trip. We are touring a couple museums....I'm most excited for the national beer museum and a possible train ride to the city of Bruges, which my theatre teacher promised was one of the coolest cities in the world. I'm coming back Monday afternoon and going to be hitting the books right away, I have a test and a paper due on Thursday. Look for an update Monday night for my trip.
Other than that try and stay warm. Take Care.
We got up early today and went to the Globe. For my non-theatre friends out there the Globe was where Shakespeare wrote and had his actors perform all the plays he wrote in the 1600's. The actual globe burnt down about 400 years ago, and only 12 years ago did an American come to London and rebuild it. The rebuilt Globe is nearly an exact replica of the old. Thatched roof, 100% wood three teared their seating. The whole thing is held together by wooden pegs and lime plaster. Even though the place was only 12 years old it honestly felt like it could easily have been built in the 1600's. And of course, I forgot my camera, and doubt that I'll get to get back inside there before I come home. I wanted to cry when I realized it, just because it was SO cool. I am by no means a theatre person, but it was impossible to ignore that this place is "kind of a big deal."
I'm off to Brussels tonight your time. Should be an exciting trip. We are touring a couple museums....I'm most excited for the national beer museum and a possible train ride to the city of Bruges, which my theatre teacher promised was one of the coolest cities in the world. I'm coming back Monday afternoon and going to be hitting the books right away, I have a test and a paper due on Thursday. Look for an update Monday night for my trip.
Other than that try and stay warm. Take Care.
Monday, January 26, 2009
My Weekend Schedule
Just a quick update for everyone back home who may be wondering about my weekend travel plans while I'm here. I finally have all my travel booked except for one weekend, for there I'm debating a couple places still but here goes (in parenthesis I'm putting the cost of travel round trip):
Jan 30-Feb 2:Brussel, Belgium ($75)
Febuary 6-Feb 8: London with one day trip out to Oxford ($1)
February 13-15: Zurich, Switzerland ($130)
February 21-24: London, with a one day trip to Brighton ($1)
SPRING BREAK:
Feb 27th-March 2: Madrid, Spain ($34)
March 2nd-March 3rd: Lisbon, Portugal (?)
March 3rd-March 5th: Sevilla, Spain (?)
March 5th-March 8th: Marrakech, Morocco ($44)
SPRING BREAK OVER
March 13-March 15: London, with day trip to Bath
March 20-March 23: Dublin, Ireland ($10)
March 27-March 30: London, with day trip to Stonehenge ($1)
April 4th-April 5: OPEN DATE
April 10-April 13 (Easter): Vatican City/Rome ($120)
April 17-April 20: STUDY (Finals Week)
Then I Come Home
Jan 30-Feb 2:Brussel, Belgium ($75)
Febuary 6-Feb 8: London with one day trip out to Oxford ($1)
February 13-15: Zurich, Switzerland ($130)
February 21-24: London, with a one day trip to Brighton ($1)
SPRING BREAK:
Feb 27th-March 2: Madrid, Spain ($34)
March 2nd-March 3rd: Lisbon, Portugal (?)
March 3rd-March 5th: Sevilla, Spain (?)
March 5th-March 8th: Marrakech, Morocco ($44)
SPRING BREAK OVER
March 13-March 15: London, with day trip to Bath
March 20-March 23: Dublin, Ireland ($10)
March 27-March 30: London, with day trip to Stonehenge ($1)
April 4th-April 5: OPEN DATE
April 10-April 13 (Easter): Vatican City/Rome ($120)
April 17-April 20: STUDY (Finals Week)
Then I Come Home
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry
Sorry everyone. I know I've slacked on the blogging in the past couple days so forgive me, but I have good reason. I have done so much in the past couple days that I haven't really had a free second to send everyone and update or make some phone calls. Don't worry tough, I'm alive and well and have a couple of cool stories to share.
Wednesday night I went to Complicit. Overall I was a little disappointed in the play. The story was that of the American journalist who was the whistle blower on the the governments torturing of prisoners at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq. Richard Dreyfuss played the journalist and he did a phenomenal job. It was cool seeing the guy from Jaws act in person. The rest of the actors weren't that great though, in fact they kinda stunk and it was a little distracting trying to follow the plot when the actors were all over the place. In the end though I guess the play did its job. I think it was trying to get you to think. If we torture these terrorists and whatnot are we any better than they are? Or in does it make us worse? (deep i know, don't worry it gets much lighter from here)
Thursday was awesome. A few of us went to this bar called O'neills. It is 3 floors tall with the first being an Irish pub, the second being a standard American style bar, and the third being a huge open space with live bands dance floor. The music they played there was great. It was all 90's American style music. We danced to The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Outkast...pretty much any band that was cool when I was in 7th grade was being played, we formed a mini dance club right in the middle of the bar and even added some British people to our party. I actually shouldn't say we...Kelly added British people to our party by dancing with a 60 year old man, and 45 year old woman.
I also did something, that may or may not have been dumb that night. We had a booth where we were sitting and had all of our stuff. I few people went up to get drinks and as they left this British guy, must have been about 40 years old and bald came up to Kelly and asked her if she wanted to get hypnotized. She immediatly responded "NO", and when he turned and asked me, I immediatly responded with (you guessed it) "Hell Yeah". So this random guy grabs my arm and starts shaking it, moves his fingers in front of my eye and the next thing I know I'm out cold. I don't remember anything from when I'm out so I'm basing this next part on what I was told. I apparently sat there just bouncing up and down in my seat for a few minutes. The people who were getting drinks came back to this old man whispering in my ear and me out cold. Finally he wakes me up again and is done with whatever he was doing. Shakes my hand and walks away. I come back to consciousness to Jordan giving me the please stop and walk away sign. But I'm still very dizzy and a little out of it. The next half hour is very blurry as I was out of it. We're still afraid that he put some code word into my head that will make me go crazy or act like a duck if I ever hear it. Although everyone said that it was not a good idea, I disagree it was definitely one of those experiences that I'm happy I had.
Friday was the alumni dinner where all the Wisconsin graduates in the UK comes to London for a reception. All of us study abroad students were invited. We got all dressed up and got to mingle with all these old people. Best of all we got free food and drinks. I talked to a couple of alumni who just up and moved to London after school and started working. It was interesting to see how everything and everyone started their lives over and still loved it. A few of the Alumni took us out to a bar afterwards and paid for drinks there. I was talking to one of them who was well, kinda creepy. His name was Asif and he was born and raised in Palestine studied at UW and lives in London. He seemed like a nice guy but then he pulled me aside and said something to the effect of, "This is great, but I want to take just the guys out on me...show you what London is actually like. You know, not these pubs but I'm talking prostitutes, and drugs and clubs that go until 2PM the next day." I was like, holy wow, I'm so proud to be a Badger right now.
Yesterday was Windsor Castle. A.K.A. The house where the queen lives. The place was just amazing. It is the worlds largest inhabited castle and we got to see so much. Queen Mary's doll house, St. Charles church, and Eton College. I can't even begin to explain all of it so the pictures I took will have to do. Windsor Castle is right up there with Westminster Abby as the coolest things I've seen in my life.
Look for more pictures soon. Take Care everyone.
Wednesday night I went to Complicit. Overall I was a little disappointed in the play. The story was that of the American journalist who was the whistle blower on the the governments torturing of prisoners at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq. Richard Dreyfuss played the journalist and he did a phenomenal job. It was cool seeing the guy from Jaws act in person. The rest of the actors weren't that great though, in fact they kinda stunk and it was a little distracting trying to follow the plot when the actors were all over the place. In the end though I guess the play did its job. I think it was trying to get you to think. If we torture these terrorists and whatnot are we any better than they are? Or in does it make us worse? (deep i know, don't worry it gets much lighter from here)
Thursday was awesome. A few of us went to this bar called O'neills. It is 3 floors tall with the first being an Irish pub, the second being a standard American style bar, and the third being a huge open space with live bands dance floor. The music they played there was great. It was all 90's American style music. We danced to The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Outkast...pretty much any band that was cool when I was in 7th grade was being played, we formed a mini dance club right in the middle of the bar and even added some British people to our party. I actually shouldn't say we...Kelly added British people to our party by dancing with a 60 year old man, and 45 year old woman.
I also did something, that may or may not have been dumb that night. We had a booth where we were sitting and had all of our stuff. I few people went up to get drinks and as they left this British guy, must have been about 40 years old and bald came up to Kelly and asked her if she wanted to get hypnotized. She immediatly responded "NO", and when he turned and asked me, I immediatly responded with (you guessed it) "Hell Yeah". So this random guy grabs my arm and starts shaking it, moves his fingers in front of my eye and the next thing I know I'm out cold. I don't remember anything from when I'm out so I'm basing this next part on what I was told. I apparently sat there just bouncing up and down in my seat for a few minutes. The people who were getting drinks came back to this old man whispering in my ear and me out cold. Finally he wakes me up again and is done with whatever he was doing. Shakes my hand and walks away. I come back to consciousness to Jordan giving me the please stop and walk away sign. But I'm still very dizzy and a little out of it. The next half hour is very blurry as I was out of it. We're still afraid that he put some code word into my head that will make me go crazy or act like a duck if I ever hear it. Although everyone said that it was not a good idea, I disagree it was definitely one of those experiences that I'm happy I had.
Friday was the alumni dinner where all the Wisconsin graduates in the UK comes to London for a reception. All of us study abroad students were invited. We got all dressed up and got to mingle with all these old people. Best of all we got free food and drinks. I talked to a couple of alumni who just up and moved to London after school and started working. It was interesting to see how everything and everyone started their lives over and still loved it. A few of the Alumni took us out to a bar afterwards and paid for drinks there. I was talking to one of them who was well, kinda creepy. His name was Asif and he was born and raised in Palestine studied at UW and lives in London. He seemed like a nice guy but then he pulled me aside and said something to the effect of, "This is great, but I want to take just the guys out on me...show you what London is actually like. You know, not these pubs but I'm talking prostitutes, and drugs and clubs that go until 2PM the next day." I was like, holy wow, I'm so proud to be a Badger right now.
Yesterday was Windsor Castle. A.K.A. The house where the queen lives. The place was just amazing. It is the worlds largest inhabited castle and we got to see so much. Queen Mary's doll house, St. Charles church, and Eton College. I can't even begin to explain all of it so the pictures I took will have to do. Windsor Castle is right up there with Westminster Abby as the coolest things I've seen in my life.
Look for more pictures soon. Take Care everyone.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Avoiding the English
So tonight is suppose to be the big match up between the USA and England at the Union pub. Luckily for me I already have tickets to go see the play Complicit. It is the premiere tonight so that is exciting. It is actually directed by Kevin Spacey. And the lead actor is Richard Dreyfuss. It seems weird to me that such big name American actors would come over here and stage act, but it will be exciting nonetheless. And best of all it gives me an excuse to not embarrass myself and America in a drinking contest.
Yesterday was really cool. I think that the Brits are more excited about Obama than any American. It was also fun because the only TV we have is about the size of my laptop so we all packed around the TV and watched his speech. I'm cautiously optimistic that everything will work out. We'll see, all else fails I'll just stay over here ;) Last night we went to a bar called Ain't Nothin' But... It had a little stage in the back corner and there was a live American Blues/Jass/Swing band that played. They were amazing. One of the best times I've had so far over here. The entire place was about the size of Grandma and Grandpa Fairchild's house, but they packed it shoulder to shoulder and the band played all night. You had just enough room to dance in place. I will definitely be back there.
Travel is already proving to be really stressful. The most nerve racking thing in the world is trying to book hostels and plane/train tickets. I finally got Belgium finished when it comes to hostels and train. I'm now working on Easter in Italy. I've already punched a wall one time trying to book so we'll see how that goes.
I'll be sure to let you all know how the play goes. I hope its half as good as the last play I saw here. This is the 2nd of 12 different plays that I'm going to see. Take Care.
Yesterday was really cool. I think that the Brits are more excited about Obama than any American. It was also fun because the only TV we have is about the size of my laptop so we all packed around the TV and watched his speech. I'm cautiously optimistic that everything will work out. We'll see, all else fails I'll just stay over here ;) Last night we went to a bar called Ain't Nothin' But... It had a little stage in the back corner and there was a live American Blues/Jass/Swing band that played. They were amazing. One of the best times I've had so far over here. The entire place was about the size of Grandma and Grandpa Fairchild's house, but they packed it shoulder to shoulder and the band played all night. You had just enough room to dance in place. I will definitely be back there.
Travel is already proving to be really stressful. The most nerve racking thing in the world is trying to book hostels and plane/train tickets. I finally got Belgium finished when it comes to hostels and train. I'm now working on Easter in Italy. I've already punched a wall one time trying to book so we'll see how that goes.
I'll be sure to let you all know how the play goes. I hope its half as good as the last play I saw here. This is the 2nd of 12 different plays that I'm going to see. Take Care.
Monday, January 19, 2009
America Rules
Last night i paid 5 pounds to watch the NFL game at the only American Sports Bar that we can find. I was really questioning the decision to spend money to watch the Eagles play the Cardinals but afterward it was well worth it. It felt awesome to be packed into a bar with 500 other screaming Americans (most of whom were Eagles fans) yelling at a TV again. I was lucky enough to get pushed up against a wall where i stood next to a guy who looked just like Bob Marley. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and had never been to America. Yet he knew more about football than I do and he was talking smack all game. I was cheering for the Cardinals so we went back and forth over a couple beers during the course of the game. I had a blast and cannot wait for the Super Bowl now. GO CARDINALS!!!
Anyway 2 random updates quick:
1. PICTURES!!! They are not labeled yet so they don't really have much meaning but they are up and ready for you all to view at www.flickr.com/loganinlondon Check back in a couple days to see more and hopefully have captions so you know who/what you are looking at.
2. Send me letters. If you love me and want to send me a letter I finally have a mailing address for you:
Metrogate House
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Attn: Logan L Thein
3-7 Queens Gate Terrace
London
SW7 5PE
Anyway 2 random updates quick:
1. PICTURES!!! They are not labeled yet so they don't really have much meaning but they are up and ready for you all to view at www.flickr.com/loganinlondon Check back in a couple days to see more and hopefully have captions so you know who/what you are looking at.
2. Send me letters. If you love me and want to send me a letter I finally have a mailing address for you:
Metrogate House
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Attn: Logan L Thein
3-7 Queens Gate Terrace
London
SW7 5PE
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Weekend Update
I had a blast this weekend. Nothing crazy happened, it was just a very relaxed weekend. On Friday we got up early and went to the British History Museum. I saw countless mummies, ancient Greek sculptures, buried treasure, and even the actual Rosetta stone. After that, we came home and took naps. I few of us then went out to the Union pub and hung out there all night. It was a ton of fun. The pub stayed open late so we had another long night.
Everyone was so exhausted that most of us slept til about 1 on Saturday. The Chelsea game started at 3, so by the time we got woken up and to the pub to watch it, it was already halftime. When got there we also realized that the game wasn't licensed to show on TV so we were watching a guy watch the game and tell us what was going on. It was like radio on TV. Chelsea was losing 1-0 with 2 minutes left in the game. They then scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to win after 88 minutes of playing like garbage. The place went nuts. Everyone was screaming, singing jumping, so much fun.
A quick backtrack to Friday night though. While we were at the pub Jordan and I were talking to a couple of English guys who insist that they are the Imperial College beer pong champions. I was cool with, but Jordan wasn't and decided to open his mouth. He apparently challenged them to a beer pong tournament for Wednesday night at the Union. Not only did he do that, but he made a best of 3 games. Beer Pong, a British game called matchbox (which none of us have heard of) and if its tied after that a game of football. Not actual football, but soccer. So i somehow got looped into this and now I am defending America's honor on Wednesday to show the English that America is still better than them. To make it worse I have to go to a play Wednesday night for class. I'm not too sure how its going to look when I have to say, "Sorry, guys can't come out drinking tonight, I'm going to see Complicit instead." Just in case though we went out and bought ping pong balls, and cups to practice before Wednesday.
Today we went to Little Venice and to Camden. Lexi would have gone crazy here. It is the world's largest outdoor market. It had anything and everything imaginable. I went to the belt buckle store and got a couple of fancy name brand belt buckles for 10 pounds. I then went to Aldo and got a pair of shoes that were $110 dollars American, for 15 pounds. They are very fancy. We got a tour by boat (just like in Venice which was very cool, if felt like you were sitting below the water.
I also booked my first official trip today. On the weekend of Jan 30th, I'm taking the chunnel (the train that goes under the English Channel into France) and going to Belgium for the weekend. I'll be sure to bring back some waffles and chocolate for everyone.
One last quick update, I'll be posting another update in a few hours with my mailing address and how to access all the pictures I've taken. I had to upgrade an account and pay $20 for it, but it was the only way I could show you all my pictures so I figure it was worth it. Take care, and talk to you all soon.
Everyone was so exhausted that most of us slept til about 1 on Saturday. The Chelsea game started at 3, so by the time we got woken up and to the pub to watch it, it was already halftime. When got there we also realized that the game wasn't licensed to show on TV so we were watching a guy watch the game and tell us what was going on. It was like radio on TV. Chelsea was losing 1-0 with 2 minutes left in the game. They then scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to win after 88 minutes of playing like garbage. The place went nuts. Everyone was screaming, singing jumping, so much fun.
A quick backtrack to Friday night though. While we were at the pub Jordan and I were talking to a couple of English guys who insist that they are the Imperial College beer pong champions. I was cool with, but Jordan wasn't and decided to open his mouth. He apparently challenged them to a beer pong tournament for Wednesday night at the Union. Not only did he do that, but he made a best of 3 games. Beer Pong, a British game called matchbox (which none of us have heard of) and if its tied after that a game of football. Not actual football, but soccer. So i somehow got looped into this and now I am defending America's honor on Wednesday to show the English that America is still better than them. To make it worse I have to go to a play Wednesday night for class. I'm not too sure how its going to look when I have to say, "Sorry, guys can't come out drinking tonight, I'm going to see Complicit instead." Just in case though we went out and bought ping pong balls, and cups to practice before Wednesday.
Today we went to Little Venice and to Camden. Lexi would have gone crazy here. It is the world's largest outdoor market. It had anything and everything imaginable. I went to the belt buckle store and got a couple of fancy name brand belt buckles for 10 pounds. I then went to Aldo and got a pair of shoes that were $110 dollars American, for 15 pounds. They are very fancy. We got a tour by boat (just like in Venice which was very cool, if felt like you were sitting below the water.
I also booked my first official trip today. On the weekend of Jan 30th, I'm taking the chunnel (the train that goes under the English Channel into France) and going to Belgium for the weekend. I'll be sure to bring back some waffles and chocolate for everyone.
One last quick update, I'll be posting another update in a few hours with my mailing address and how to access all the pictures I've taken. I had to upgrade an account and pay $20 for it, but it was the only way I could show you all my pictures so I figure it was worth it. Take care, and talk to you all soon.
Friday, January 16, 2009
In Da Club
Even though I was exhausted yesterday I decided to go out with some of the people from the house. I'm really trying to live by the "when in Rome" type motto so when people decided to go out to this club I decided to go. So I got all dressed up, tried to look as European as possible (turns out I can't really do that), and headed out. We found this flyer for a discount at this place called The Candy Box so we went there. We got there and I was asked for ID for the first time all trip. I was then sent through a medal detector and got frisked, it felt like I was getting on a plane or something. I then had to pay a 5 pound cover charge and was ushered down a few flights of stairs to this underground basement.
I was overwhelmed already...and then the music started. Holy hell was it loud. I've honestly never heard anything remotely close to that load. Combined with the strobe lights, black lights, and disco balls it was definite sensory overload. But I grabbed a beer (which were only a pound, which was awesome) and headed out to the dance floor. I danced and danced and danced all night. Rode in a Taxi home for the first time which was different. We were screaming at each other the rest of the night because we were so deaf from the club we couldn't hear a thing. My ears are honestly still ringing 16 hours later. How anyone can do that every night is beyond me. I've lost all will to move after 3 hours in one of those things. But at the end of the day, another thing that I got to do that I never would have done had it not been for London.
Needless to say though, won't be doing that again...at least not for a while :)
I was overwhelmed already...and then the music started. Holy hell was it loud. I've honestly never heard anything remotely close to that load. Combined with the strobe lights, black lights, and disco balls it was definite sensory overload. But I grabbed a beer (which were only a pound, which was awesome) and headed out to the dance floor. I danced and danced and danced all night. Rode in a Taxi home for the first time which was different. We were screaming at each other the rest of the night because we were so deaf from the club we couldn't hear a thing. My ears are honestly still ringing 16 hours later. How anyone can do that every night is beyond me. I've lost all will to move after 3 hours in one of those things. But at the end of the day, another thing that I got to do that I never would have done had it not been for London.
Needless to say though, won't be doing that again...at least not for a while :)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Reason We Invaded Iraq...
Last night I went and saw the play 'The 39 Steps'. It was awesome. Its a satire on an old Hitchcock movie. The entire play was just 4 actors. Those 4 actors played 139 different roles in 100 minutes. They were so good. It was very funny, and they used a weird style of where they knew they were acting and would purposely screw up in order to make the play even more funny. It was in this ancient underground theater that would shake because the subway system runs right next to it.
Today though kinda stunk. Thursday is my busy day, I have class from 9:30-5 with only about an hour and a half break in between. But I suppose school is a part of this whole thing so I'll survive, prolly.
After all these years I finally figured out the real reason we went into Iraq. We wanted to steal all their recipes. Their food is delicious! Honest to God, I may have just eaten the best meal of my life. I went to this tiny Iraqi restaurant for dinner tonight. I ate this amazing chicken with bread, rice, and all these amazing dips. After such a long day though I'm exhausted. A lot of people are going out to this cool club tonight but I just don't know if I can make it. I am going to the British Historical Museum tomorrow though so that will be awesome.
Also....if you are reading let me know by leaving a comment every now and then. I like hearing from everyone, even if it is just to say Hi, that would be great. Talk to you all soon.
Today though kinda stunk. Thursday is my busy day, I have class from 9:30-5 with only about an hour and a half break in between. But I suppose school is a part of this whole thing so I'll survive, prolly.
After all these years I finally figured out the real reason we went into Iraq. We wanted to steal all their recipes. Their food is delicious! Honest to God, I may have just eaten the best meal of my life. I went to this tiny Iraqi restaurant for dinner tonight. I ate this amazing chicken with bread, rice, and all these amazing dips. After such a long day though I'm exhausted. A lot of people are going out to this cool club tonight but I just don't know if I can make it. I am going to the British Historical Museum tomorrow though so that will be awesome.
Also....if you are reading let me know by leaving a comment every now and then. I like hearing from everyone, even if it is just to say Hi, that would be great. Talk to you all soon.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Starting to Settle Down
Classes have now started and although they seem like they will be very easy, we are all starting to get a basic routine down. But let me backtrack to yesterday and the Natural History Museum. I went with a friend and walked around for over an hour and a half and saw so many amazing things. The worlds largest diamond, a dinosaur (which i had never seen before), and a blue whale (which is freaking gigantic). So many other things that I can't even begin to list. I don't even think i saw a 10th of what was there and I had to leave. I'll definitely be back.
Today was more relaxed. I couldn't sleep so I took an ambien really late and that meant i missed all morning sleeping. I went to class which was, well, class. After that I came back home and learned to play Euchre. I'm already addicted, its so much fun. We went out to the pubs and came back home to play more Euchre.
Tomorrow I have class and then I'm going to see the play The 39 Steps. I'll be sure to let you know how it is.
On one final note, I have my pictures uploaded online now, but I'm not sure how you can get to them. I'll keep working on it. P.S. don't worry about me at all. If i write something on here its because it was funny, interesting and harmless. I promise if I ever did anything stupid you wouldn't find out about it. Take care.
Today was more relaxed. I couldn't sleep so I took an ambien really late and that meant i missed all morning sleeping. I went to class which was, well, class. After that I came back home and learned to play Euchre. I'm already addicted, its so much fun. We went out to the pubs and came back home to play more Euchre.
Tomorrow I have class and then I'm going to see the play The 39 Steps. I'll be sure to let you know how it is.
On one final note, I have my pictures uploaded online now, but I'm not sure how you can get to them. I'll keep working on it. P.S. don't worry about me at all. If i write something on here its because it was funny, interesting and harmless. I promise if I ever did anything stupid you wouldn't find out about it. Take care.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Kissing Colombians and Crying like a Baby
Sorry I missed a day yesterday, so I'll try my best to catch you up on my past two days here. Needless to say they were incredibly busy and exciting.
Prior to coming over I had really started to get into Soccer. I figured that I should keep up socially on the sport of my new country so I watched all the games, learned all the players and teams and made my friend Mitch explain how everything all works. For whatever reason I chose Chelsea as my adopted team. Turns out that i live in Chelsea so it couldn't have been better. It just so happened that the first soccer match of my trip was Chelsea vs. Manchester United. For those of you all who are not into soccer, Chelsea and Man U are hands down, far and away the best teams in England, and arguably all the world. This rivalry makes Boston vs. New York, Duke vs. North Carolina, and Little Chute vs. Xavier seem like some useless t-ball game.
Before the game we all got together and got on the tube (London subway system) and headed down to the stadium. Everyone who didn't already have Chelsea gear went to the gift shop and bought a bunch of stuff. Then we headed down the street to the pub to watch the game. People really got into it. Definitely a good time. The game however sucked. Chelsea went and laid an egg. They just got demolished 3-0. At this point too everyone had been drinking for quite a while and it was not a pretty site. It took a lot for me not to cry. I was trying so hard to be European and fit in that we may have gotten a little too into the game.
After that disappointment we went and asked the bartender if there was a place in town that we could watch the NFL playoffs, and he responded with "right here". It was awesome. But of course, sitting at the pubs for over 8 hours, has its side effects, namely our ability to not be the stereotypical loud obnoxious American. Ha, we are all having a good time and about half way through the 3rd quarter the jukebox came on with Brian Adams "Summer of '69". Needless to say none of us missed a word. Also needless to say we got a couple of very funny looks from people.
We calmed down a bit after that and a group of young people sat down next to us. I went over and talked to, or at least tried to talk to them and found that they only spoke Spanish. They were from Colombia. I talked to them for about an hour and struggled for 95% of it. Turns out finishing taking Spanish would have been a great idea. We were able to get through some things and had a pretty cool conversation. On a side note I noticed that people are very open here. And they are not afraid to talk about perceptions and things of that nature. I have never once been afraid to say I was American and in fact the people I have talked about it are very interested in our culture and talking about the myths and stereotypes that are associated with America.
Anywho, back to the story. I get up to leave then and reach out to shake their hands which i do and one of the guys leans towards me as if he was going to kiss me. I flinch for a second and he laughs and explains that it is customary to do an air kiss type thing on their left cheek to someone as you say goodbye. I go down the line to the couple colombian guys and girls, shake there hands and do the kiss thing and walk away thinking....that was kinda cool.
We all get on the tube to head back after the Eagles won, we sit down on the tube and realized 2 main things. 1. English beer has A LOT more alcohol in it than American beer and 2. Pints are A LOT bigger than glasses. We get off the tube near our house and as we are walking down the street I have taken the Chelsea flag that I was using to cheer, and put it on as a cape. One of the guys we were with starts singing American Pie. At that point it was all gone. We sang at the top of our lungs all the way back to the flat and when we all woke up this morning we realized that, that was not a good idea, and although that type of stuff may be standard procedure in Madison, it prolly won't fly over here.
I'll finish getting caught up tomorrow. Today was more chill. I went to the Natural History Museum and my last oreintation, and started doing some school work. Things are starting to settle down but I'll talk about that tomorrow. Goodnight America!
Prior to coming over I had really started to get into Soccer. I figured that I should keep up socially on the sport of my new country so I watched all the games, learned all the players and teams and made my friend Mitch explain how everything all works. For whatever reason I chose Chelsea as my adopted team. Turns out that i live in Chelsea so it couldn't have been better. It just so happened that the first soccer match of my trip was Chelsea vs. Manchester United. For those of you all who are not into soccer, Chelsea and Man U are hands down, far and away the best teams in England, and arguably all the world. This rivalry makes Boston vs. New York, Duke vs. North Carolina, and Little Chute vs. Xavier seem like some useless t-ball game.
Before the game we all got together and got on the tube (London subway system) and headed down to the stadium. Everyone who didn't already have Chelsea gear went to the gift shop and bought a bunch of stuff. Then we headed down the street to the pub to watch the game. People really got into it. Definitely a good time. The game however sucked. Chelsea went and laid an egg. They just got demolished 3-0. At this point too everyone had been drinking for quite a while and it was not a pretty site. It took a lot for me not to cry. I was trying so hard to be European and fit in that we may have gotten a little too into the game.
After that disappointment we went and asked the bartender if there was a place in town that we could watch the NFL playoffs, and he responded with "right here". It was awesome. But of course, sitting at the pubs for over 8 hours, has its side effects, namely our ability to not be the stereotypical loud obnoxious American. Ha, we are all having a good time and about half way through the 3rd quarter the jukebox came on with Brian Adams "Summer of '69". Needless to say none of us missed a word. Also needless to say we got a couple of very funny looks from people.
We calmed down a bit after that and a group of young people sat down next to us. I went over and talked to, or at least tried to talk to them and found that they only spoke Spanish. They were from Colombia. I talked to them for about an hour and struggled for 95% of it. Turns out finishing taking Spanish would have been a great idea. We were able to get through some things and had a pretty cool conversation. On a side note I noticed that people are very open here. And they are not afraid to talk about perceptions and things of that nature. I have never once been afraid to say I was American and in fact the people I have talked about it are very interested in our culture and talking about the myths and stereotypes that are associated with America.
Anywho, back to the story. I get up to leave then and reach out to shake their hands which i do and one of the guys leans towards me as if he was going to kiss me. I flinch for a second and he laughs and explains that it is customary to do an air kiss type thing on their left cheek to someone as you say goodbye. I go down the line to the couple colombian guys and girls, shake there hands and do the kiss thing and walk away thinking....that was kinda cool.
We all get on the tube to head back after the Eagles won, we sit down on the tube and realized 2 main things. 1. English beer has A LOT more alcohol in it than American beer and 2. Pints are A LOT bigger than glasses. We get off the tube near our house and as we are walking down the street I have taken the Chelsea flag that I was using to cheer, and put it on as a cape. One of the guys we were with starts singing American Pie. At that point it was all gone. We sang at the top of our lungs all the way back to the flat and when we all woke up this morning we realized that, that was not a good idea, and although that type of stuff may be standard procedure in Madison, it prolly won't fly over here.
I'll finish getting caught up tomorrow. Today was more chill. I went to the Natural History Museum and my last oreintation, and started doing some school work. Things are starting to settle down but I'll talk about that tomorrow. Goodnight America!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Too Soon for Nazi Jokes...
Funny little thing happened last night that I wanted to share with everyone before I forgot. My friend Megan and I (no Grandma, it's not like that) were sitting at a pub having a couple beers, which by the way are amazing over here. Anyway I sit down and she is talking to this guy named Adrian. I sit down and start talking to a friend of his. I find out his name is Hamar and he is from Kuwait. We are all chatting and I find out that Adrian is from Germany. Anyway, after a while Adrian starts joking around and making comments like "look at me I must be a Nazi...and of course my friend here is obviously a terrorist." Those stereotypical jokes continue for a bit and I swear to you he must have called himself a Nazi 12 times. We eventually start talking about football. Not fake football, but actual, real American football. Adrian starts ripping on the Packers and I start to get into a bit with this guy, I think we are still joking around so I say, "Lay off the Packers right now before I have to kick your Nazi ass all over this pub." I said it with a big smile and everyone else around us starts laughing. Adrian sits there with a straight face, doesn't laugh at all. No emotion. I am immediately like, oh crap, what did I do? Turns out making Nazi jokes are something that is ok to do if you are German but not for anyone else. To make things worse on the way out of the pub I was retelling what happened the story to a couple other guys and forgot his name, and accidentally called him Adolf. Yeah, that's right. I was definitely on a roll.
Oh whatever, live and learn.
Oh whatever, live and learn.
I Nearly Did Something Kinda Dumb Today...
Today was probably one of the most amazing days of my life. There is simply no way to put into words what I all saw today. We went on a tour of the Royal Borough today. The tour bus picked us up at 9AM and we went around town by bus and then we got dropped off and had the chance to see everything by foot. It was simply incredible. I got pictures of Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Parliament, The London Bridge (as in London Bridges falling down...), the London Towers, and countless more statues of important people that I can't remember. I paid 9 pounds for a tour of Westminster Abby. They didn't allow cameras inside to help preserve everything in there, which is a shame because there is just so much to show from inside. I got to see the spot where Princess Diana's casket laid during her funeral. I also got to see where every king and queen in the history of England was coronated. Surrounding the center of the Abby are a serious of memorials to basically the "Whose Who" of British history. Kings, Queens, Dukes, and Saints are all buried there and I got to go and see all their tombs. I even got to see memorials to famous scientists like Newton and Darwin. Just a crazy day. And that was all before 2PM.
When we came back home we ran into some trouble though. The planned protest that was scheduled for today got a little bigger than expected. In fact the crowd got to about 100,000 people, or so the estimated, I doubt it was that big. Anyway of course the street that the demonstrators picked was Hyde Park Gate....my street. And it was right in front of my house. I pushed through the crowd and got home, but as Grandpa Thein said, I always have to see whats on the other side. So, I grabbed my camera and headed back out. It was so incredible. Thousands of people screaming and chanting in support of Palestine and against Israel was just nuts. I got a little scared when they started chanting "death to george bush" "death to america". Overall it was just cool to see, and since I always take things like that with a grain of salt I wasn't really offended or anything like that. One thing that I thought was really cool was that at around sundown today many of the protesters stopped, and in the middle of the street, turned towards Mecca and started to pray, very surreal site to say the least.
Anyway, as we are walking down the street towards the Israeli embassy we see a puff of smoke and we stopped and people started running in the other direction. Turns out someone did something stupid and the riot squads released tear gas. We booked it the other direction and of course the riot police cut off the otherside as well and we were kinda trapped for a few seconds. Needless to say I made it out alive, and now we are chilling at the flat waiting for everything to calm down. Don't worry though it was never dangerous or anything like that. Overall it was just a very cool experience. I'll give more updates soon though.
When we came back home we ran into some trouble though. The planned protest that was scheduled for today got a little bigger than expected. In fact the crowd got to about 100,000 people, or so the estimated, I doubt it was that big. Anyway of course the street that the demonstrators picked was Hyde Park Gate....my street. And it was right in front of my house. I pushed through the crowd and got home, but as Grandpa Thein said, I always have to see whats on the other side. So, I grabbed my camera and headed back out. It was so incredible. Thousands of people screaming and chanting in support of Palestine and against Israel was just nuts. I got a little scared when they started chanting "death to george bush" "death to america". Overall it was just cool to see, and since I always take things like that with a grain of salt I wasn't really offended or anything like that. One thing that I thought was really cool was that at around sundown today many of the protesters stopped, and in the middle of the street, turned towards Mecca and started to pray, very surreal site to say the least.
Anyway, as we are walking down the street towards the Israeli embassy we see a puff of smoke and we stopped and people started running in the other direction. Turns out someone did something stupid and the riot squads released tear gas. We booked it the other direction and of course the riot police cut off the otherside as well and we were kinda trapped for a few seconds. Needless to say I made it out alive, and now we are chilling at the flat waiting for everything to calm down. Don't worry though it was never dangerous or anything like that. Overall it was just a very cool experience. I'll give more updates soon though.
Friday, January 9, 2009
My First Day
I am not going to count yesterday as my first day in London just because everyone was walking around like a bunch of zombies so we didn't really get to do a whole lot. Last night before a meeting we all went out to a pub called The Goat. It was a good time. We got a chance to talk and get to know everyone's names. We were all so out of it last night that everyone had forgotten by today anyway so we got to do that again.
Woke up at 9ish today and we had a walking tour of my borough and the neighboring Chelsea borough. The tour guide was great and really knowledgeable. I got the chance to learn some pretty cool things from the tour. A couple of the exciting points were that, as I told you all yesterday, My flat is surrounded by two embassies. But right next to one of the embassies was the house that Winston Churchill...yes, Winston Churchill was born and raised in. We got a chance to walk through the park. Kensington and Hyde Park are attached to each other so we got to see all these famous statues. We also learned that the side street a couple blocks down from us is called Millionaire's row. The guide explained though that that could be renamed to be Billionaire's row for the present day. The cheapest 2 bedroom apartment that you could buy on that street is close to 500,000 pounds. We also saw the house where Queen Victoria lived, as well as a bunch of Queens, Princes, Princesses and Kings that I can't remember anymore grew up.
One place we couldn't see was the house where Princess Diana lived. It was blocked off because it was next door to the Israeli embassy. And with everything that is going on right now....that wasn't exactly the safest place to be. There are demonstrators and protesters out there all the time and the entire street is blocked up for safety purposes. Needless to say, the sentiment over here is VERY anti-Israel.
We walked to this really cool Thai food place and ate there today. It was delicious but after we all ordered, we found out that there was a 10 pound minimum on all orders so I spent more money there than I had really hoped.
But in all, life is good. I'm still alive and in one piece so I can't complain. We are doing a tour of all the royal palaces and buildings tomorrow, so I'll do my best to get pictures up for you ASAP.
Woke up at 9ish today and we had a walking tour of my borough and the neighboring Chelsea borough. The tour guide was great and really knowledgeable. I got the chance to learn some pretty cool things from the tour. A couple of the exciting points were that, as I told you all yesterday, My flat is surrounded by two embassies. But right next to one of the embassies was the house that Winston Churchill...yes, Winston Churchill was born and raised in. We got a chance to walk through the park. Kensington and Hyde Park are attached to each other so we got to see all these famous statues. We also learned that the side street a couple blocks down from us is called Millionaire's row. The guide explained though that that could be renamed to be Billionaire's row for the present day. The cheapest 2 bedroom apartment that you could buy on that street is close to 500,000 pounds. We also saw the house where Queen Victoria lived, as well as a bunch of Queens, Princes, Princesses and Kings that I can't remember anymore grew up.
One place we couldn't see was the house where Princess Diana lived. It was blocked off because it was next door to the Israeli embassy. And with everything that is going on right now....that wasn't exactly the safest place to be. There are demonstrators and protesters out there all the time and the entire street is blocked up for safety purposes. Needless to say, the sentiment over here is VERY anti-Israel.
We walked to this really cool Thai food place and ate there today. It was delicious but after we all ordered, we found out that there was a 10 pound minimum on all orders so I spent more money there than I had really hoped.
But in all, life is good. I'm still alive and in one piece so I can't complain. We are doing a tour of all the royal palaces and buildings tomorrow, so I'll do my best to get pictures up for you ASAP.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Cheerio Colonists
After a miserable 10 hours of delays, flights, turbulence and being scared to death I FINALLY landed in London. It turned out that there were about 15 of us on my flight so we wondered London aimlessly together as we tried to find our flat. We got there and found that our neighbors were the Dutch embassy, and some embassy with palm trees in the front yard. I have room 1B. The guys are in rooms 1A, and 1B, while the girls are in the rest of the rooms through 2G. I really got the shaft when it comes to rooms. My room is very tiny. Smaller than my dorm freshman year. At least I have a bathroom and a kitchen right next door.
I've met a lot of very cool people already. It was great to know that everyone is in the exact same position as you are so making friends and meeting people easier than it is back home. I can see already though that this trip is going to be really expensive. I'm sure I'll make it work though.
Right now though I'm just so overwhelmed with everything that I don't know what to say. Its 9:40 PM here on thursday right now, and I haven't slept since 9 AM on Wednesday. I'm heading to bed and talk more about everything tomorrow.
I've met a lot of very cool people already. It was great to know that everyone is in the exact same position as you are so making friends and meeting people easier than it is back home. I can see already though that this trip is going to be really expensive. I'm sure I'll make it work though.
Right now though I'm just so overwhelmed with everything that I don't know what to say. Its 9:40 PM here on thursday right now, and I haven't slept since 9 AM on Wednesday. I'm heading to bed and talk more about everything tomorrow.
Monday, January 5, 2009
1st Post/Leaving Tomorrow
Officially being Tuesday now I guess I can say that I leave for London tomorrow. Whether or not I am actually ready to go may be a different story. As I decided at lunch today, doing something like this is nothing you can ever actually be ready for. At least in my opinion, you just have to go do it and work from there. As far as preparations go though, I'm pretty much set. Surprisingly, I'm really not that nervous about the trip as a whole. And outside of my completely rational fear that my plane will crash into the Atlantic, I'm sure everything is going to go fine.
If you are reading this your names are most likely Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Luke or Lexi. And that's really what this is for. I will do my best to upload pictures as I see or do something exciting, and post on here at least a couple of times a week to keep you updated on whats going on. If I start to slack on this don't be afraid to yell at me. As much as it is for you guys, I also want to do this for myself. Make sure I have something to look back on 20 years from now when I'm all old and boring. It's your job to make sure I don't forget!!
For any of my friends that are bored enough to stumble across this...I realize it will be tough, but try to have fun without me. I know it will be hard to enjoy your weekends when I'm not around, but I'm sure you'll manage. ;) One final thing too, while you are walking up icy hills in -12 degree weather to get to class, I'll most likely be at some awesome party, with some awesome people in some awesome European country. I don't mean to brag but...well, yeah, actually I do. (See you miss me less already).
I really have no clue how to blog or what to do with this site so I guess I'll just leave it at this for now. I'll of course stay in touch with everyone. Whether it be email, skype, facebook or AIM I'm gonna make sure none of you all forget about me.
If you are reading this your names are most likely Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Luke or Lexi. And that's really what this is for. I will do my best to upload pictures as I see or do something exciting, and post on here at least a couple of times a week to keep you updated on whats going on. If I start to slack on this don't be afraid to yell at me. As much as it is for you guys, I also want to do this for myself. Make sure I have something to look back on 20 years from now when I'm all old and boring. It's your job to make sure I don't forget!!
For any of my friends that are bored enough to stumble across this...I realize it will be tough, but try to have fun without me. I know it will be hard to enjoy your weekends when I'm not around, but I'm sure you'll manage. ;) One final thing too, while you are walking up icy hills in -12 degree weather to get to class, I'll most likely be at some awesome party, with some awesome people in some awesome European country. I don't mean to brag but...well, yeah, actually I do. (See you miss me less already).
I really have no clue how to blog or what to do with this site so I guess I'll just leave it at this for now. I'll of course stay in touch with everyone. Whether it be email, skype, facebook or AIM I'm gonna make sure none of you all forget about me.
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