Fun and Tiring Weekend

I was getting bored with color so I decided to post a few black and white photos as you can see. Some of these places you may have seen already, but I hope not. This weekend my good friend Brett came and visited Paul and I in London. Brett is studying abroad this semester in Rome and I am trying to plan a trip to see him the weekend after Easter Weekend. This weekend we went to see the Tower of London, went to the Tate Modern Art Museum, and basically conducted a crash-course walk around tour of London for Brett. I would say we probably walked a total of 10 miles in 3 days. Last night we went to see the movie Be Kind Rewind starring Jack Black and Mos Def. If anyone was thinking of seeing it I would strongly recommend you not to on the account that it might have been the worst movie I ever saw.

The Tower of London was very fascinating. It was the home of many royal kings and queens for 10 centuries. We saw the home of Sir Isaac Newton and Ann Boleyn and saw the place where 75 beheading took place in front of thousands. People were also hung, drawn, and quartered which was is a little too emetic to describe, but you can look it up if you are feeling brave or interested. Inside the main castle we saw the armory of the the soldiers throughout London's history and were also able to see the coronation crowns, scepters, swords, rings, and orbs of past kings and queens. Let's just say I have never seen so much gold, diamonds, silver, and rubies in one place.

At Tate Modern we saw the exhibit of three modernism artists. Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia were some strange dudes, but very interesting. From having female aliases (Man Ray) to putting a toilet seat on a wall and calling it art (Duchamp) to being completely entranced by machines ( Picabia) all three men were way ahead of their time and possibly still ahead of ours in terms of expressing ideas in unconventional medias.

Good news though I have everything booked for my trip to Paris, which will be the weekend of March 14. I am also trying to plan a trip to Zurich, Switzerland where one of my foreign exchange buddies is from.



Westminster Abbey


Big Bend with the London Eye in the background


Paul, Brett and I in front of Tower Bridge


Tower Bridge over the river Thames


Tower of London: Home to 10 centuries of royal intrigue, imprisonment, execution, torture, and murder.

Chicago Cubs

One of the best things someone can do to gain the respect and trust of a North Chicagoite, is to attend a baseball game with them at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. When most people think of the Chicago Cubs they think of tradition, ivy covered walls, Fergie Jenkins & Harry Caray. A more accurate representation would be khaki shorts, frat boys & rich business men on their iphones.

Reasons why some people like Wrigley Field
1. Experiencing tradition at a high cost
2. Located on the North Side
3. Its Trendy
4. Comfortable Surroundings

1. Experiencing tradition at a high cost

The main reason why people flock to Wrigley Field each year is the fact that it is one of the few ballparks that is trapped in time. People come to experience baseball tradition (although the definition of tradition when it comes to baseball is sketchy, remember the sport did not integrate until 1947). However this tradition comes at a high cost, which people don’t mind. On prime dates a ticket in the bleachers costs $45. But this does not deter rich people from enjoying the “simpler things” in life. Wrigley is an old stadium where people still pee in troughs, but people love paying top dollar to do this. They also like being around “real baseball fans”, even though most of the people in the bleachers are drunk rich frat kids that aren’t from Chicago and have no idea who Ernie Banks is.

2. Located on the North Side

Wrigley Field is located on the North Side of Chicago. The North side is basically the gentrified, trendy part of Chicago. Also many people listen to Jim Croce (whom most think is black) and the perception of most non-Chicago people (the majority of Cubs fans) of the Windy city is through the song “Bad. bad, Leroy Brown”

Well the south side of chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named leroy brown

This is one of the main reasons why people do not venture to watch the Chicago White Sox. They are located on the South Side which is viewed as the “baddest part of town” where of course black people named “Leroy” live.

3. Its Trendy

Liking the Cubs right now is trendy. They haven’t won a World Series since 1908, they are located on the North Side and celebrities like them. Bill Murray, John Cusak, and Hillary Clinton (although she flip flops between them and the Yankees) are all Cubs fans. One should keep up to date on things that are trendy in order to befriend more people from north Chicago. ie) eating expensive Indian food, shopping Organic, or going on a wild rose detox. So for the upcoming season, try to know at least one player on the Chicago Cubs and defend Mark Prior at all costs.(This advice goes to almost every "Cubs" fan I know)

4. Comfortable Surroundings

Wrigley Field is known as the Friendly Confines and people feel comfortable there because other than Ronnie Woo Woo, most Cubs fans are white (and we are not talking about the white people that go to White Sox games). Next to a Dave Matthews Band reunion concert, one can not find a bigger collection of khaki shorts and golf shirts than the Wrigley Bleachers. Also once a friend of mine was sitting in the bleachers next to a girl with an LSU sweater. She was talking about Baton Rouge and said “I love it but I can’t stand all the n%#%%ers” TRUE STORY. What is most disturbing is the fact that she said this in such a nonchalant manner. Simply put, this individual from the south finally found a place in the North where she felt her views were acceptable. I sense that if she were sitting in the Left Field Pavallion at Dodger Stadium, she would not be so open about her true feelings.



So if you find it difficult to befriend one of the many phony Chicago Cub fans, it doesn’t help to know a little something about the Cubs and to suggest a trip to Wrigley Field. Or if you want to find true baseball fans venture down to St. Louis, Mo where almost, if not all, fans in Busch Stadium are truly genuine and championships are won.

Trafalgar Square

The other day I was planning on going on a bus tour through London, but I ended upbeing too fascinated with the area around the bus stop ( Trafalgar Square) to even get on the bus. It is a very cultural area with spanish dancers playing their castanets, insanely good soccer jugglers, rapper, street artists, the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and amazing monuments. I will try and post the video of these kids showing off their juggling skills.

The National Gallery was amazing. Famous works by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, any many others were on display. Unfortunately I didn't see any Donatello to complete the Ninja Turtle set, which was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. Seeing Van Gogh's painting Sunflowers reminded me of art class at Truman with Mrs. Brown, who always showed that picture to the class. It was also interesting to see how Monet increasingly became more of an impressionists in his later years, but also increasingly blind. Obviously I couldn't take pictures inside the museum, but here are some of the surrounding Trafalgar Square area.

27 Years! Holy Cow!

I just wanted to wish mom and dad a happy 27 year anniversary! I love you two so much and even though I am having the time of my life across the pond I miss you guys a ton. Luckily for me Skype was created so I get to talk and see your faces occasionally. I hope you guys have a wonderful night. 27 years! I can't believe it but I am thankful that I have you two as loving parents and I wouldn't have wanted my upbringing to have gone any other way. Know that all your kids love you!

Dublin

Yeah I know I went to Dublin 2 weeks ago, but I finally brought my pictures to school to upload them from there. Dublin was really amazing and actually a lot different than London. It reminded me a little bit of St. Louis without having a metropolis center. No skyscrapers, but then again I can not find one in London either. When we first got into Dublin it 2 am and the cab driver took us to the wrong part of town, so we did not get to the hostel until around 3. For some reason there was strike going on at the Dublin airport which delayed our flight a few hours, but we made it and were able to get enough rest for the next day.

The first actual day we were there we went to Kilmainham Gaol and the Guiness Brewery. The Kilmainham Gaol was very interesting because it held a lot of inmates that were part of the Irish Revolution in the early 20th century. We were able to see where key revolutionists were kept and murdered. Must executions were carried out by having public hangings off the front of the gaol. Pretty intense huh? Some were also shot though.

After the gaol we made our way cross town to the Guiness Brewery. It was interesting to see how they made their beer, but I wish we could have actually had gone into the brewery. What we saw was more of a museum, but afterwards we went to their skybar for a free pint of guiness and a chance to see the entire city.

The next day we went to Malahide Castle, which was about an hour north of Dublin. The Castle was the home of the Talbot family up until the 1950's when it was sold to Dublin tourism. The castle was built in the 12th century, and unfortunately for the Talbot family, they are best known for losing 14 family members in one day during the Battle of the Boyne. Malahide itself was a beautiful little seashore community, with a lot of people sailing.

One of my favorite places was Trinity College. Their library, unfortunately no pictures, holds the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript that has survived from the Middle Ages and has been described as the zenith of Western calligraphy and illumination. It contains the four gospels of the Bible in Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations.

At night we would go to Temple Bar, which is where most of the night life and entertainment was held. A lot more rowdy people in Dublin than in London and the bars were open a lot later.


Malahide Castle

Family Graveyard at Malahide


Trinity College


The Chapel In Kalminham Gaol


Random Man Who Was Running For Office While In Jail


The Main Hall of Kilmanham Gaol

Men Killed at Kilmanham Gaol During the Irish Revolution




A Woman in Kilmanham Gaol with the Painting she Drew in her Cell Below





View Of Dublin From Bar At Guiness Brewery

Yet Another View

Spring Water from the Wicklow Mountains

That Beer is so Thick it could be a Meal



Our Nice and Comfy Hostel Room

American Students, English Teachers, and Fat Tuesday

OK... now it might be that I am constantly looking for cheap places to go in London or maybe it is just a downright coincidence, but last night at a pub called The Sports Cafe I met 7 people just from St. Louis and I bet anyone from Stl can guess the first thing they asked me. " What high school did you go to"!! It was funny to see our idiosyncrasies follow us all abroad! I have also found that not as many everyday english people play or even care about football (soccer) here. Every time I spark up a conversation I automatically start to talk about their national sport, mainly because it is always on TV and because of the fact that I could watch another sport of theirs, cricket, for years and never be able to comprehend what the heck is going on! In the pubs they are always rowdy though and it doesn't normally matter which teams are playing.

OK out of four teachers only speaks english as their first language. So today when I had the class for the first time I was unexpectedly enthusiastic about being able to go through 3 hours of class without having to concentrate more on the spoken language than the material itself. Unfortunately, this certain professor has by no doubt the strongest british accent I have ever heard and is actually harder to understand than the Indian, Brazilian, or Ecuadorian professors. He seems like an interesting guy though and gave a 42 page report to read about the bank run at Northern Bank that he wrote. So hopefully the report is a recap of his lecture for my own sake!

Ok so here is something I have never heard of. To celebrate Fat Tuesday here Londoners make pancakes and carry/throw them around on the streets. Not too many people were throwing them around though unfortunately because I would of probably have gobbled them up! But don't worry Mom it is not because I am hungry, I just like pancakes. Anyway, there traditions to celebrate the beginning of Lent are a little different than the binge drinking that takes place in the states.