2012 A-mock-alypse

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/yoemans20091110.html

Here's a statement from NASA itself about the looming, supposedly "apocalyptic" 2012 date which is fast approaching.

Past

What is it that we are supposed to do when we think about the past? It happens most often to me with different music--there are different songs and bands which remind me strongly of various times in my past. When these randomly come on or I hear them or I for some reason choose to listen to them, I often become very sad as I reminisce about great (or not great) times past. Either way, I am left to wonder, what are we to do in situations like this? What is sadness? How must we combat it? Is it best to acknowledge and accept sadness for what it is? Remembrances of something different? Something gone?

Reading competition

Alas, it has been awhile since I have written on here.

Today's topic - Reading. Soon after I returned from my trip to London, I entered a competition with my mom to see who can read more books over the summer. It's not a bet - there's no prize for the winner or runner-up - it is simply an excuse to read more books, something I always enjoy and feel I don't do enough of. As of now, I have completed 4 and 3/4 books (but it counts as 5 in our competition). This stems from 4 fully completed this summer, and one book that I recently finished but had started prior to the end of the school year. So, in technical terms, that's how many I'm at. Let me attempt to give a brief review/synopsis/why you might read/what I think, for each book. I'll go in order that I completed them, for lack of a better organizational method. Also, I'll post the links to the Amazon page for each book after my "reviews," should you feel so inclined to learn more.

Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales.

This is a book about the psychology and biology of the survival instinct. Gonzales is inspired as young boy by his father who was a pilot in WWII. On a raid, one of his plane's wing's was sawed off by ground-fire and he plummeted from thousands of feet into the air, still strapped to his seat, and lived to tell the tale. Oh, he was captured by German forces after the crash and spent time in a prison camp with his countless injuries from the fall (as you might imagine he would have). The author continues with other seemingly miraculous tales, and seems to zero in on many of the situations where the least "prepared" or "experience" person is the only one to survive an extreme situation, based on fundamental differences in thought patterns. Quite the striking read, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it made me think a lot about what I might do or how I might act if put into a survival situation. Why you might read it - if you have an interest in psychology and human behavior, if you enjoy the outdoors or high-risk activities, or if you enjoy stories of resounding human determination, when people come out on top through the most impossible of situations.

Three Cups of Tea - by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

The incredible story of a true hero. After a failed attempt to summit K2, Mortenson, an avid mountainclimber, finds himself stranded and alone in harsh conditions lower in the Himalayas. His is found and taken in by members of a small, remote village in Northern Pakistan, and is stunned by their hospitality. In response, he asks the elders what they need most and is told they need a school. His promise to them to build them a school kicks off the adventure of the century, and eventually the construction of many other schools around the country. It gives an inside look of a misunderstood country and culture(s), and is a heartwarming read. Without a doubt the most inspirational book I have ever read, and I know it won't easily fall from that throne. I already have plans to see Mortenson himself speak at Concordia University this fall. Why you might read Three Cups of Tea - if you love learning about new cultures and peoples, if you desire inspiration, or if you want to hear the story of how one man is fighting the war on terror and promoting peace in the only way that it could ever truly succeed - through proper education of children.

The Burn Journals - by Brent Runyon

Not a lighthearted book, "The Burn Journals" are literally the Journals of Brent. He began to construct this journal at the suggestion of a psychologist or counselor, months after his recovery, in order to capture his thoughts and emotions and really get a chance to look inside himself. Brent, in 8th grade at the time, suffered severe burns on over 80% of his body after he set himself on fire with the intent of killing himself, but changed his mind partway through and managed to save himself. It is his story, honest and brutal, of the struggles of a young boy before and during his recovery. Why you might read it - to gain a greater understanding of a young boy's mind, to try to gain perspective on a once-suicidal individual, or to understand the recovery process from severe burns. Again, not a lighthearted read.

The Rule of the Bone - by Russell Banks

A novel, "The Rule of the Bone" is the story of young Chappie, a misguided school dropout trying to find his way. After setting off on his own and getting a tattoo, he takes on the sole name of Bone, detaching himself from his past life. He later meets up with an illegal immigrant rastafarian from Jamaica, I-Man, who teaches him much about life and the Will of Jah. Bone has many adventures, as his life is constantly taking unexpected turns, but he learns to flow with the changes and find himself anew. Eventually, Bone accompanies I-Man on his return to Jamaica and spends time there learning new trades. He even comes into contact with his biological father who ran out on Bone and his mother when Bone was only a few years old, never to be heard from again. The overall story doesn't have too much of a plot or a message, but rather depicts the development and shaping of a young boy's personality. Still a fascinating story, this was my second read-through of the novel. Why you might read it - to learn a little more about rastafarianism, to read a cool story about a boy on some crazy adventures, or to see how a young boy matures.

The Highest Tide - by Jim Lynch

Another novel about a young boy. "The Highest Tide" is about 13 year-old marine life wiz Miles O'Malley, who makes some unreal discoveries while scouring the flats on Olypmia at low-tide and quickly becomes the sensation of the decade in this small town. His finds bring scientists from around the globe to take stock of what is actually happening with the aquatic life in the area, and Miles thinks that the world is trying to tell us something. The author's visual descriptions are stunning, some of the best I've ever read, and it is his first book. It's a quick read and a cool story about a young boy who knows more about his field of interest than most college graduates do about their major. Why you might read it - if you want to read about a young boy who doesn't care how nerdy people think he is, he knows what he loves and won't stop at anything to do it, if you want to get a feel for a small Washington town, or if you simply love great writing.

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Survival-Who-Lives-Dies/dp/0393052761 Deep Survival

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Tea-Mission-Promote/dp/0143038257 Three Cups of Tea

http://www.amazon.com/Burn-Journals-Brent-Runyon/dp/1400096421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248586748&sr=8-1 The Burn Journals

http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Bone-Novel-Russell-Banks/dp/0060927240 The Rule of the Bone

http://www.amazon.com/Highest-Tide-Novel-Jim-Lynch/dp/1582346054 The Highest Tide

So there we have it, those are the 5 books I have completed this summer so far. I am about halfway through "Makes Me Wanna Holler - A Young Black Man in America" by Nathan McCall, at the recommendation of my brother. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and look forward to telling you more about it on here after its conclusion.

Thorn - I didn't get all of my videos from my London trip uploaded tonight like I had planned

Rose - I wrote on here again!

Bud - I'm going to hike Saddle Mountain tomorrow

AT Out

Amstrussel

Well, I'm heading off to Amsterdam tomorrow. We'll be there for 3 nights I believe, and then we're taking the train in to Brussels for a day. After that we'll take the Eurostar train back to London, which means I'll get to go through the Chunnel! The chunnel is a tunnel that goes under the water. Should be pretty interesting. I'm really excited for this little excursion, because I seriously know absolutely nothing about Amsterdam or Brussels. It will all be a totally new experience. I can't wait to see a few more cultures and cultural differences before I head back to the States. I won't have internet access/a computer out there, so don't expect any updates or pictures or anything for awhile. However, be ready for lots of then when I do get back. Hope you have a good weekend!

Thorn - Moving/cleaning rubber horse mats, although it was a very good experience. More on this later.

Rose - Wonderful dinner at a pub on the Thames and then seeing Star Trek again. Great movie.

Bud - Amsterdam!

AT out

The 3/4 Pant; Capri

I found a pair of capri's today! Mission accomplished, finally. It didn't even require having to ask some random guy on the street. However, it appears that the official name, the part that I didn't know, was that they are actually called a 3/4 pant. Not capri's. Right? Who knew? Well either way, I found them at SportWorld, just another run-of-the-mill sports outlet (with more clothes and less sports equipment). This place had like a huge clearing out, 30-70% off sale on everything. Apparently this place has been perpetually having closing-out sales like this for the past 6 years. How they do it, I have no idea. How they do it in this recession? I REALLY have no idea.

After that, I had to find my way, by myself, back to the train station to get home. Kyle had to depart to work, but he pointed me in the right direction. I found the station without any trouble, purchased my one way ticket for 3 pounds 40 pence, and proceeded to head for the turnstile. Well, that's where I was wrong, the lady who sold me the ticket yelled at me from behind the counter that I was headed toward the wrong platform, thankfully. So, I never actually got going in the wrong direction which is a huge plus. After that, all I had to do was wait for the train and then walk the 15-ish minutes from the station back to the house. Quite a nice walk actually, it was a very sunny/warm day, and it was enjoyable to be walking instead of driving through the small town where I'm staying. Very relaxing. The price of my train ticket comes out to be somewhere around $5, which is quite expensive for traveling only 3 stops away from my current location. Well, it's not actually that expensive, it's just a much higher price to ride the train than I'm used to for riding the MAX light rail system in Portland. I have yet to figure out why there is such a discrepancy, although I have conjectured a few possible reasons. The first is that the overall comprehensiveness of the rail system here is much more involved, and thus cost more because there are more servies available. The second reason is that, because this system is so much broader, it is more expensive to maintain (and to build originally). Also, I'm not exactly sure of the difference between the train system here and the "light-rail" system we have back home, but I'll find out. All of this has led me to want to figure out what it would take to improve our public transportation system in Portland, because it is so effective here and SO many people ride it. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do (relatively speaking). Also, to encourage more people to use public transportation, there is a "congestion tax" in place within a certain radius of the metropolitan core of London. It sounds like its somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds per day ($8-$15 ish), or you can get a pass for a longer period of time. This is to discourage people from driving their cars into the center of the city and clogging up the roads (congestion). Another economics lesson in action folks. It appears to be pretty effective, as I don't distinctly remember any large traffic jams any of the time that I was in London, and we were very near the city center during the evening rush hour. I think that Portland could benefit from this sort of thing too, as there is ALWAYS tons of traffic at the rush hours. It might be difficult to initially incorporate, but once in place it would raise revenue and really keep the amount of cars out of the city. Also, it would further help curb emissions!

So, when I get home I'll be doing research to learn more about our current public transportation system. If you know of some good resources to get some of this information, I'd love to hear from you. Or, if you feel the same way that I do, join the ride! The efficiency and ease-of-use of the system here is truly inspiring. I'd love for Portland to be known for the same thing. It would allow me to take so much more pride in this great city, of which I'm falling more in love with all the time.

Thorns and roses!

Thorn - Lapsing for a second and heading towards the wrong platform... I thought I had the whole transportation system totally figured out!

Rose - Finding capri's!

Bud - Going to see a play tomorrow and hopefully getting to take a look at an international school in London which the University of Oregon offers a study abroad program at. ;).

AT out

Paradisio

So I got to see some really cool stuff today. We first visited Lewes Castle in Lewes. It was one of the first castle's in England, going all the way back to 1066. This castle, compared to Windsor Castle which I visited yesterday, is a ruin. Windsor Castle is much more "palace-y" if you know what I mean? The Queen still lives there on occasion, and it is all decorated and elaborate. As you might see in one of the pictures, even the lights have crowns on them! Both castles were very interesting, but very different. I thoroughly enjoyed Lewes Castle because I was able to get much more of a feel of what it was like to have lived in a place like that back then. This castle actually got used for what it was built for (defense), whereas Windsor Castle is and has been much more of a fancy residence. I got to see what it was like to look out of an archer's window, and really get an idea of what the view was like from way up on top of the towers. Its VERY impressive, absolutely beautiful. Words and pictures can't do it justice.

After that we wandered around the town of Lewes for a little bit and then began to make our way towards Brighton. About 40 minutes and however many miles later, we actually began to be driving in the correct direction towards Brighton. Gotta love ambigous street signs :P. Brighton was awesome though. It's on the southern coast of England, and has a very pretty beach. It felt much like any of the beaches around Los Angeles, of which I always love. Helpful was the fact that it was sunny and warm (always a plus), which apparently is actually pretty rare for Brighton, and England, in general. Like 80% of the time its not that nice at all. The result of this was that there were tons of people out enjoying the sun, laying out on the beach. This beach had no sand, however, but rocks. All smooth, but rocks. It was tough to walk on without shoes of some kind, so in that sense its quite different from the California beaches. Regardless I had a very nice time there, and enjoyed all of the little beachy shops. We found a little clothing store called Plain Lazy that mostly had novelty tees with different sayings about being lazy or staying in bed. They're all meant to be humorous, but some were kind of stupid and some could have been found insulting by some people. I found a green one which reads "Reduce your carbon footprint-stay in bed," ha, ha, ha, so I had to buy it. Kyle's mom got him one of the same, so we can match!

I'm still constantly on the hunt for capri's, and yet no store seems to have them. Even the employees at various clothing stores have no idea what I'm talking about, and it's not because they have a different name or anything. This is very odd because I see people (guys) with them everywhere, yet no stores have them. I'm about to just stop some random guy on the street and inquire as to where he found them. We're visiting (hopefully) a mall tomorrow where I saw a big billboard that had men's Nike capri's, and if I can't find them there, I'll bail. WAIT! I did find a pair in a store today. I asked the guy how much they were. 235 pounds. That's almost $400. So I told the salesmen they were a out of my price range, so he took me to the other side of the store and showed me a nice pair of linen shorts. At this point I exclaimed that I thought most of the stuff in the store was going to be out of my price range, to which he replied, "oh well these one's are only 99." Yeah, right. I've never paid more than $30 for a pair of shorts or pants, and don't plan to for a while. Totally unnecessary. Unfortunately, I'll likely have to pay more than that for capri's here (as everything is more expensive anyways, and if it's Nike... well, you know). However, according to this rule, I won't technically be violating it, because capri's are... not shorts, not pants! Lucky me.

Yesterday I began watching the Showtime series, "The Tudors," on DVD. It's about the life, times, reign, and marriages of Henry VIII (the guy who had 6 wives...remember?). I'm hooked, I think I'm already halfway through the season. You should really check it out. It's full of drama, and although it's all historically accurate (and a great way to get a history lesson), I'm not so sure the people from history acted the way they are portrayed in the show. But hey, they might have, and even if not, it makes good television. Give it a look, the entire season is only 10 episodes I think, and even if you don't like history it's an entertaining mini series.

Thorn - Getting lost/sitting in the car for awhile

Rose - Time on a sunny beach!

Bud - Finding capri's :P

AT out

Day 7

Congrats, London

Aghast! I missed a day of blogging. I guess I'm not really sure that it was ever a goal to write in here every day for my trip, but even if it was or wasn't it would have been cool if I'd managed to do it the whole way. However, there's a good reason. Kyle and I rode the train in to London yesterday, which was an adventure all its own. Due to the Royal Ascot Races (see earlier posts), ALL of the parking spaces at the THREE closest train stations were taken. Yes, we drove to all of them, and we also drove around the neighborhood streets nearby them to try and find a space as well, with no avail. We ended up parking about a 15 minute walk away from the 3rd station, but this was seriously about an hour and a half after the train which we originally wanted to board had left. Go us, right? Anyways, we finally made it onto the train and rode it about 40 minutes into Waterloo station, the big one, in London. It was HUGE. You've probably been in airports before where there are lots of people coming and going various places, but I doubt you've experienced this size of hub where so many people are going so many places so damn fast. Truly a breathtaking experience, and if you're not on on the top of your game the whole time, you WILL get a) lost b) robbed c) on the wrong train or, d) some combination of the above options. Fortunately Kyle had a pretty good idea what he was doing, at least better than I had, seeing as he had at least been through there some times before. From there we walked down towards the London Eye, which is also HUGE, which we are going to ride tomorrow. Then it was across the bridge right in front of Parliament/Big Ben, which was awesome because you're literally right there. I hadn't expected to be that close. Again, physical proximity to major people and buildings is much more easily attained here. Then we found our way to nearby Westminster Abbey to see the outside (this is all part of "Kyle's Quick and Dirty Tour: London."), and found our way down into the underground.

Let me emphasize this point, which is what the title of this post is based upon. This was, at the beginning, the single most confusing manmade construction I have ever been a part of. We got off the first underground train, and proceeded to take a multitude of rights and lefts and hallways and stairs and escalators and more rights and lefts and railings and ticket counters and turnstiles before, miraculously, popping up near Trafalgar Square. Don't ask me how we did it, I absolutely could not repeat it again. I wish I had a video of the whole thing. It made me realize how absolutely enormous the underground transportation system is here in London. Thats what the congrats is for. First, for making what seems like the worlds most complicated system of getting around, but second, and mainly, for doing it extremely effectively and efficiently. By the end of the day (and hundreds more stairs, rights, lefts...etc.), I feel I had a pretty good grasp on how to navigate this system, and would not be completely intimidated if asked to do it on my own. I'd love to see a map that lays out all of the underground, including the different levels. I was unaware of this before, as I'm simply used to the underground entrance to the MAX lightrail system in Portland at the Zoo, that the underground is not only underground, but its underground and has multiple floors. There are times when you can hear (read: feel) a train thundering over your head, and you are already way underground. Other times, you may be on a walkway ABOVE a train screaming past about a yard below your feet. Its crazy stuff. Quite the experience, a significant part of London in itself.

Anyways, we spent a lot of the day on there, going to and from different places. After Trafalgar Square, we grabbed a pint at a local pub, saw Covent Garden, Picadilly Circus, Camden, were near London Bridge but didn't actually see it, and ate at a less then average sushi place back near Waterloo before heading towards home. We walked plenty of miles over the course of the day. We finally arrived home around 9 or something, and we were both exhausted. Originally we had plans to go see the midnight premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but we were too tired. I put on a movie at about 10 and was asleep within 10 minutes. Hence, we were going to go see it today (still a week earlier than you...muahahaha), but didn't get back from our trip out to Stonehenge until too late. Tomorrow should bring better fortunes for movie viewing.

Thus, today's adventures! We drove out to Stonehenge (yeah, its within an hour from here. My bad for always believing it was way up North in Scotland somewhere, in a really hard-to-get-to place. Lucky for me I guess...) today, which was an awesome experience. I remember what of my most awe-inspiring moments coming when I was came upon the Colosseum in Rome. This huge man-made stone structure which has stood for millenia. Stonehenge brought about those same feelings, especially... "What have we, as a modern civilization, built which is going to be here 2000 years from now?" These gigantic stones have been there forever, and it's incredible to think about how they would even construct such a piece with todays technology. It's mind-boggling to conjure thoughts about how they might have done it so many years ago. Lots of pictures should be found of the site on Facebook soon. Afterwards, we visited the town of Avebury, which is surrounded by the worlds largest diameter ring of upright-standing stones. This was also an awesome experience, as being in a best-in-the-world place always is. These stones were also here, and there are a lot more of them than at Stonehenge, although since they are not stacked upon each other and a higher percentage of them are missing, slightly less impressive. However, a must-see when you come to visit. The village (not city, not town...village) has such a homely and welcoming feel, except for the closed tourist parking lot. Oops. Had another batch of delicious fish and chips at the local pub, the Red Lion, and tried, for my first time, Mushy peas. Its quite a common dish/way to serve peas over here. My choices were that or regular cooked peas, and seeing as how I don't enjoy peas anyways, along with feeling adventurous, I asked for the mushy peas, much to the chagrin of my fellow travelers. However, I was met with surprise at this dish. I actually enjoyed it, although I felt like I had just stolen food meant for a baby, which normally comes out of a jar. I see why they like it :P.

Anyways, tomorrow we're heading back in to London for a trip round the London Eye and hopefully, tours of both Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. Look for pictures!

Thorn - Stonehenge IS actually windy like they always say, which results in coldness. Who knew?

Rose - Experiencing Stonehenge in its magnificence and grandeur. Maybe we can construct the Stonehenge of the 2nd millenium, no?

Bud - Seeing London from the Eye! I've heard such great things about it, and although heights sometimes make me a little uneasy, I'm sure the view and the experience will make up for it. Also, I hear the tour of Westminster will take me to some catacombs and other cool things.

AT out

2 Royalty Sightings in as Many Days

So I would be posting more pictures on here, but seeing as I'm pretty much posting all of them on Facebook as new albums, I don't really think there's a need. When I get ones that are worth dicussing or pointing out they'll make it on to here, and I have a further "differences" topic planned at some point which will involve pictures. Also, for the videos, I've been having a lot of trouble getting them to upload all the way without failing, so that's why you're not seeing so many of those. I'm currently working on just uploading them all to a YouTube channel and everyone can go browse through them there, but the same difficulties apply.

Regardless, lets sum up some of today. Kyle had to go in to his first day of work (at his old high school), although he doesn't actually start work until next week. Sort of a preliminary, prep day for the summer. Anyways, his mom and sister had it in their good grace's to take me out to see Hampton Court Palace, the place where Henry VIII lived. If you recall, Henry VIII had 6 wives, and they got: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, and then had a lasting marriage with the 6th (all in that order), Queen Kateryn. This was the first time I'd really gotten to see the inside of a palace--they are like mazes. A big part of this is because a majority of it is closed off to the public due to construction and security issues, but the maps were terrible and we had a hard time finding out where we wanted to go. Regardless, it was still cool to just wander around and imagine what it might have been like to actually live like that. There are fireplaces EVERYWHERE. It's how they used to heat the entire place and its amazing how many of them there are. I didn't see any statistics but I'm sure it was well over 100. There was one hallway that couldn't have been more than 90 feet long and I think there were 5 fireplaces along it. One of the coolest parts of being there was a sort of re-enactment, play-type thing in which they had people dressed up in traditional garb relative to the 1500's. We got to see "King Henry VIII," a big portly fellow, and take a few pictures with him. I caught the end of a speech on video tape which was kind of cool. Also, there was another guy, Sir Thomas Seymore (I have no idea if he's actually a significant figure... I don't think so though, nobody had any idea who "he" was when he started his spiel in the courtyard). Today was King Henry and Kateryn's supposed wedding day, which is just an excuse for the people who run the castle to draw in a few more tourists and give them something to do. Thus, Sir Tom was a lowlier man than the king (uh, obviously?), yet he was madly in love with Kateryn. We heard his tale of what happened and he blended comedy, history, a tour, and adventure into a 30 minute piece of live entertainment for the large group of us who had been milling about the courtyard when he showed up. Pretty cool stuff, I caught a lot of it on video and I bet you'll find it interesting, whenever I end up getting it uploaded.

We ate at a cafe which was situation near the entrance to the palace, and I ate my first true British meat pie. It's pretty much just a stew baked inside of a crusty sort of bread. Quite delicious. They're also known as Shepherd's Pie (you've probably heard it called this before), and some other nickname that I cannot recall right now. OH! Fun fact for the day - we learned, while talking to one of the hosts stationed in the old kitchen at the palace, that matches, the ones that light fires, weren't invented until 1847. Fun little piece of trivia. Also, Kyle says that the lighter was in fact invented before matches. I completely disagreed at first, but after giving it some thought I find it totally believeable. The reasons I haven't verified this is because I haven't typed it into Wikipedia (if you count that as verifying.... I do), and because it really doesn't matter to me whether or not they did. I just hadn't expected to learn something like that.

On the way back from the palace we stopped at a local grocery story, Waitrose. We ran into one of Chelsea's friends and her mom, and I was mistaken to be Kyle by the girl's mom because she had only met Kyle a few times before, and we're both relatively tall, white college boys with darker colored hair. Honest mistake, although it was still funny and I think one of the first times I've been mistaken for someone else in such a way? Anyways, back to the grocery store. Food is expensive here! Most of the listed prices had numbers larger than what we see back home, and they're listed in pounds! That means that after you calculate in the exchange rate, things were WAY higher priced. However, I did get the feeling that this was a little more up-scale market, but not but much. It was organized in a similar way to the grocery stores here. The shopping carts are smaller (not as deep or wide), and they can power-slide much more handily that the ones back home here, making it much easier to get around corners. When you walk in the front door there's a big rack of these ray-gun looking things. Phasers from Star Trek, I swear. What they actually are are personal price checkers which you can borrow (or rent for a small fee? We didn't need one.... I don't really see why you would if you just look at the prices listed, they're all there. Whatever). There's even a special plastic holder on each cart specifically for that. Weird huh? I didn't actually see anyone using one, but somewhere around half the rack of them were missing so I'm sure people had them out. The cashier's also sit down the entire time they check your bags, and the counter felt like it was lower. They never bag your groceries for you anywhere here, that's your deal. There ARE lots of those re-use bags for sale there, and they all seemed to be very sturdy. As you get your receipt, you get a single little plastic token. There's a row of bins by the exit, each representing a different charity, and you get to drop little plastic piece. I'm not sure if they donate a certain amount of money based on the number of pieces in each box, or if they just donate a large sum to the charity with the most tokens. I'll have to return soon to find out, and to purchase a couple of those canvas bags. I'm tellin you, they're that good.

Well that's what I had going on for today. There aren't currently any plans tomorrow but I think we're riding the train in to London tomorrow to sort of bum around and see a few of the different big attractions. Any recommendations off the beaten path which you have heard of/been to that I should be trying to see? Let me know!

Ever-working on uploading those videos... stay posted.

Thorn - I figured out that the front part of the sole of my TOMS are starting to separate and pull apart. Not actually at the seam, but in a different (and what seems like worse), place. Just means I gotta get more :P

Rose - Seeing Hampton Court Palace and getting a comment on my TOMS from Sir Thomas Seymore. He was quite impressed, and his shoes looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Bud - LONDON! FISH n' CHIPS!

AT out

Differences

So as day 2 here in London is coming to a close, I've been noticing a lot of the differences between here and the States. There are obviously many words which mean different things or are called differently here, some of them you may already know and others not. I'll make a list at some point, a sort of reference dictionary between the two (apparently they actually have books that do this for you... its not actually another language folks). Here are a couple of other differences I have come upon, and I guess they would be classified mainly as cultural?

• Today I got to SEE the Queen of England (There's pictures of this on Facebook). We walked to Windsor Park, which is basically the Queen's personal park. It's huge. I'm pretty sure its bigger than Central Park in New York. Ridiculous, I know. The Royal Ascot races began today, which is a 5-day event and is the biggest thing of the year for the town of Ascot, and people come from all over to see it. The queen always goes to watch the races, and has to get from Windsor Castle to the race track. To do this, she and the rest of her family that is in town ride in their Rolls Royce's to the middle of Windsor Park, and this is known as the Royal Procession. At a determined location in the park (I'm pretty sure its the same every year/day...she does it all 5 days of the race), they park the cars, and all of the royal family gets out of the cars and hops into the royal horse-drawn carriages, known as the Changeover. Its not really a big deal at all, but at the same times, its a really big deal. There were a few hundred people lined up along the street to watch this event, at which the royalty is really only present for about a minute. Long enough for all the cars with people in them (about 4 or 5), to pull up, let the people out, have the people get into the carriage, and once they're all settled, they take off on the carriages for the final stretch to the races. Either way, I found it very interesting that there was really almost no security. There were police and guards around, but nowhere near what you might expect at any sort of large gathering of people back home. Also, the only thing that kept people off the road (i.e. away from the royal family and out of their way) was a rope fence set up about a food off each side of the road. Hence, I, and the other people there to watch, were literally within 15 feet of the queen at most. I couldn't believe it. My 2nd day in England and I'm face to face with the QUEEN. ME! How on earth did that happen? Doesn't make sense to me either. We didn't have to go through any security checkpoints, have any tickets, or do anything. We could have simply been strolling through the park and happened upon this event. So, there are a few differenecs in this event. First, the fact that the royal family does this sort of event and people actually show up to watch, just to see the queen. I think its a very positive thing, and it reflects a genuine likeness by the public of the royal family. Second, there was hardly any security. I can't picture any event where people of this stature are without much heavier and more obvious security in the U.S, or where you can get so close so easily. Overall this was a really cool experience, and definitely only something you could ever expect to do while in London, and even then, you wouldn't hear about this on a tour. I'm fortunate enough to be staying with locals who know the ins and outs of how to see the cool stuff. This whole event brings me to my next difference:
• The size of this park was incredible. There are actually huge parks and open spaces all over the place. What I've learned so far while here is that this is very common, out here (technically outside of London) but also in the city and other parts of Britain as well. The reason is that people all live in small quarters, and really close to each other. But instead of having your own personal backyard with which to enjoy the outdoors for on occasion, there are these large parks that people go to to enjoy nature. It seems like a much more efficient use of space to me. How many days per year do you actually go outside and enjoy being in your backyard (assuming you have one, of any size)? I try to as much as I can at home, but lets be realistic... its not all that often. Thus, why have the extra space of nature in your backyard that doesn't get used? It's much more efficient for people to not have their own space and rather have more people live in that area. Then, when people want to enjoy being outdoors, they just have to go down the street (you're really never too far from some sort of outdoorsy space over here). Nobody really seems to complain about not having their own backyard either. Plus, then there's nothing to mow :P.

Well I'm sort of drawing a blank for right now on what the other big ones were. I'll try to write them down for the future and put them in, because apparently I'm getting Alzheimer's. Also, soon I'm going to post a bunch of photo's of physical things which are different, in order to best give you an idea of what to expect if you ever came to visit, or to help understand what in the world (literally) your friend or roommate (in my case) is referring to or why he or she is amazed by certain things in the states.

On a humorous note today, my lack of knowledge of royal goings on gave Kyle and his mom quite a laugh. We were discussing who was at the royal procession and changeover today, and some names were listed off to me. I was told that Fergie was there and her new husband was with her. She was supposedly the brother of some other royal guy who I'd been told about yesterday as we walked past the place that they were married. Anyways, we get a few minutes into this conversation about Fergie, and at the end of it, I'm still really confused. I didn't know that Fergie was married, nor that she was in any way related to anyone royal. I knew that she'd written some song about London bridges, and them fallin' down, but I didn't believe that that qualified her as royalty, nor that someone of royal stature should necessarily be writing a song on such a topic. Go me. Of course, Fergie is actually Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, a different Fergie than the one from Black Eyed Peas. Who knew? However, in all fairness, the only reason we had gotten thus far into the conversation with me being so confused is because Kyle's mom didn't know who Fergie (Black Eyed Peas Fergie) was, so she had no idea that I could be thinking about a different one. Yay cultural/generational differences!

Well that's what I've got for today. Visiting Hampton Court tomorrow. We'll learn a lot about Henry VIII, he's the one who had six wives, of which two were beheaded. Yeah, that guy. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my head about me tomorrow!

Bad joke, sorry.

Thorn - Don't really have one for today! The only thing would be not being able to see the queen better? Not really something to complain about considering I was even able to be there/see her at all.

Rose - Getting to walk to Windsor Park and enjoy small-town England from a close perspective

Bud - Hampton Court! I can't wait to get a better idea (refreshment? We studied him in AP Euro but I don't remember specifics) of what he did and who he was.

AT Out

Hello there! I'm writing from 3 o'clock in the afternoon here in London--I finally made it! Two longs flights, lots of little cups of coke, orange juice, and those little airline ice cubes, and I arrived in London at about 6:30 am local time. If you're playing the home game, that puts me at being awake for 27 hours since I rose to first leave for the airport back in Portland. I didn't sleep much on either flight, maybe a total of an hour between the two. I was WAY too excited. Also, I only slept about an hour and a half before I woke up to drive to the airport from Portland, so I'm severely behind on sleep, but it doesn't matter. The goal, to combat jet-lag, is to stay up until at least 7 or 8 tonight and then just fall asleep and get as much sleep as my body needs, waking up whenever I wake up tomorrow. Currently we don't have plans for then. So, if anything in this post doesn't make sense, there's a reason haha.

The first picture here is from the airport this morning with my mom, who was wonderful enough to get up so early to take me out there. Thanks mom! You're the best :). The next picture is from a little excursion we took today out to Windsor Castle and the surrounding area, and thats Chelsea (Kyle's sister), Kyle, and myself. This was the Crooked House. Its a little hard to tell from the photo, but the entire building is actually built at a slant--we don't know why. Weird stuff. There was something going on today at the castle and noone was allowed in, but we'll be back sometime again before I leave to check it out. Tomorrow begins the Royal Ascot Races, which is a 5 day horse racing event in the nearby town of Ascot. The Queen comes to this, so we're assuming the reason we weren't allowed in is because she is currently staying there. The races are a huge deal over here, and people from all over England will be coming in to visit.
After that we simply walked around more of Windsor and Eton, getting a feel for the small town, and we found a little pub off the beaten path where there weren't tons of tourists around. I had my first batch of REAL fish and chips, and they were delicious.

My flights to get here went without error, and I would definitely fly with Continental Airlines again. I still haven't slept since being here, and am running on way too few hours of sleep and way too many hours awake. I have officially made it this far in the evening (its almost 9 here) and I'm going to bed real soon to get a full nights rest and just wake up whenever tomorrow. I'm very much looking forward to sleeping, and I feel I'll be able to post a more interesting tale of the days events. There should be pictures from today up on Facebook soon!

Thorn - Being awake for sooooooooo long and not being able to fall asleep on the plane.

Rose - GETTING TO LONDON!!

Bud - Getting to see the Queen up close tomorrow during her transfer from a Bentley to a horse drawn carriage.

AT out

Commence

A reflection: Lessons learned

So I just recently got home (that is, back to Portland) after finishing all my finals for Spring Term 2009 at the University of Oregon. It's an extremely weird feeling, being officially done with 2 full years of college. (Side note: I just realized that I can no longer say "last year" to refer to my freshman year, as technically, sophomore year is now "last year." Bummer. I feel old). It really does feel like yesterday that we were graduating high school, and on this Saturday I'm trekking to Corvalis to watch my brother graduate from college. Every time I reach the end of a school year, calendar year, sport season, or essentially the end of any other long-term event, I always start thinking about what has happened over that time, things that have changed, and things that haven't changed, among many others. When reminiscing, I think one of the most important things to do is to realize the lessons that one has learned. Thus, for the first segment tonight...

Lessons Learned, September 2008 - June 2009.

• Community college classes are a lot of fun. There's a huge diversity of people and opinion's which make for great discussions. However there are also plenty of people who are not used to being in a classroom, which can cause difficulties. The instructors are all allowed to teach how they want to teach. This spurred my interest and kept me way more focused in class, as I was able to see the teacher and in what ways they were passionate about the subject. Out of all of my instructors this year, I feel I learned the most from my ones at Lane Community College.
• Large university classes are more difficult for me. I learn much better and am more engaged in a class if I feel like I personally know the teacher on some level. It is much more difficult to achieve this when your teacher has 399 other students in the same class. Although still possible to get to know these teachers well, they still see way more students and simply cannot be as invested in one student as a different teacher who has only 30 students in their class (for example, at Lane CC or the University of Redlands).
• Visiting instructor's office hours is extremely helpful. This is one I wish I had actually learned earlier on. I was told from the beginning to go talk to my teachers, but sort of brushed this advice away. On the first day in most of my classes, I approached my instructor and asked them "What can I do to get the most out of this class? Where else can I find information pertaining to what we discuss, so I can give it a more real-world application?" The instructor's whose office hours I visited the most were one's who had excellent answers to this question.
• The garbage and recycling do not take themselves out, no matter the circumstances. You would think that we would be very proactive at taking the trash out, due to the fact that the dumpster is literally 25 feet from our front door. This is not the case. It doesn't seem to matter where you live or with who, but the garbage and the trash are always an issue in the house while in college. Maybe this applies to living anywhere, forever? I guess we'll see.
• At a big school, it's harder to meet people. Contrary to what many might think, I personally found it much harder to meet new people at a large school (U of O - 21,500 students) compared to a small school (U of R - 2,000 students). I feel this is the result of the general attitude on such a big campus, and that attitude is more one of "mine your own business, there's 20,000 other people you could be talking to," whereas at a small school, the attitude was much more of a community idea. I finally found a way around this obstacle by, of all things, joining a fraternity.
• Joining a fraternity (or other social group) was an excellent experience, unlike anything I could have imagined. See previous post for description of the fraternity.
• Studying a little bit for each class, every day, will save HOURS and HOURS of late night studying/cramming right before the final. This is a lesson I seem to learn every single term, which always leads into me starting off the term really well with good study habits. The first four weeks of this spring term, I spent at least 15 minutes on each class, every single day, simply looking over the notes that we had covered so far. One of the best ways to learn something is to just think about it a lot of times, so seeing lecture slides every day kept me fresh and on top of everything. It was very beneficial, but then I stopped doing it and ended up almost pulling two all-nighters during finals week to cram. Hopefully I'll actually retain this lesson for more than 5 weeks next time.

Well that's all that I can think of as of now. As I remember more of them (or rather, am confronted by similar situations and have to call upon the lesson) I will try to post them on here. There are plenty. My hope is that this entire summer can act as a sort of reflection period for me, and really give me a chance to look at my life, what I've done, what I haven't done, and what I want to do. I have a lot of thinking about what happens next. I'll be turning 21 in the fall, beginning my 3rd year of college, entering into a lot of upper-division courses, and possibly running for a position on the executive board of the fraternity later in the year. Lots on my plate. SO--Again thats part of the point of this blog. In lieu of that, I'd like to conclude this post with something from a hiking trip I took a few years ago. It may be familiar to you as well, either because you have done the same, or something similar, as there are many variations. I hope to continue this tradition throughout all of the rest of my posts on here.

Thus begins, "Thorns and Roses." Thorns and roses is something we did every night before bed during our hiking trip, and I have seen it repeated in other forms at other campouts through the years (other events too...but it seems to come out most often while doing outdoorsy-things). Its used to give a brief sum-up of the day, and you usually go around the group and each person says their thorn, their rose, and typically a bud as well. Thorn - Your "thorn" for the day, something that didn't go well, that upset you, or didn't turn out how you wanted. Rose - Your "rose" for the day, something that went well, you were happy about, something you accomplished. Bud - Your "bud" for tomorrow, what you are looking forward to for the next day, whatever it may be. So here goes!

Thorn - Finding out that I only got a 64/100 on my Accounting final which I took on Wednesday.

Rose - Getting all of my unpacking done from school, there was a ton of stuff.

Bud - Getting to go to my brother's graduation tomorrow, getting to pack/get extra excited for leaving for London!

AT out.

the beginning

So as some of you may know, I'm leaving for London in a week.  My phone will technically work while I'm over there, but it's extremely expensive, so I won't be using it.  I still wanted a way to keep in touch with people from here and share some of my experiences while over there (besides Facebook).  Also, I've been thinking for awhile that something like a blog could actually be a fun and relaxing activity, so what a better time than now to give it a try?  There will be lots of great things to talk about in the coming weeks, as if there aren't already a lot of things to talk about now.  

Recent updates:

--Thursday, June 4th, I officially became a member of a fraternity.  The Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, Kappa Chapter, to be exact.  Who saw this one coming?  I sure didn't.  It's non-housed, and co-ed, and is a professional fraternity, vs a social fraternity, of which the majority of greek life are on college campuses.  That makes us sound snooty, yet it is nothing but a technical distinction in their official title's.  I was elected early in the pledge process to be the President of our pledge class, which was both a great honor and experience.  The entire process was quite the experience, and completely different than any expectations I orignally had for it.  I'd love to tell you more about it sometime.

--Thursday, June 4th (earlier in the day), I was crowned the TTh 2:00-2:50 UOregon Tennis 1 Men's Class Tournament Champion, and received the gold medal award of TWO unopened cans of new tennis balls.  I learned a lot about tennis in this class and hope to play a lot over the summer--its a sport I see myself really getting in to.  Not to mention its a lot of fun, a challenge, a great workout, and the best conditions are out in the sun.  If you play or want to play, let's play this summer!

--A couple of weeks ago, I filled out and submitted the first part of the application to become a TOMS Shoes Vagabond for Fall 2009.  This may not mean much to you right now, but it will shortly.  TOMS Shoes is a young company founded upon a revolutionary prinicple known as one-to-one.  This one-to-one business concept is being used by TOMS in such that for every pair of shoes they sell, they give a pair to a child in need.  Most of the 150,000 shoes they have given so far have gone to South America, Ethiopia, and recently, Haiti, with estimates of 300,000 new pairs given away in 2009 alone.  Being a "Vagabond" is essentially a type of internship, where you are on a small team and plan out an eight-week road trip to a region of the country and visit high schools and colleges in the area, spreading the word.  Sounds like a ton of fun to me, and could definitely be a worthwhile break from school.  I first heard about TOMS from a friend who interned at their headquarters last fall and had an amazing time.  This company sounds like a real winner and I would love the challenge and opportunity to work with them.  The second part of the application involves making a 5-minute video of oneself, answering a few questions they have, and showing them a little bit more of who you are.  I'm excited to start working on it at the end of this week before I leave for London.

Here's a picture of some TOMS Shoes:  

Well I've probably taken enough of your time for now.  So far, day 1, this blog has been fun.

AT out.