A Day in the Life...

Yesterday's post was uber-lame. So today, come loyal readers, and witness the all out intensity that is TRAVELING SOLO.

8:45- Think about getting up

9:00- Get up, plan to leave by 9:45

10:10- Leave Hotel Splendid, head to downtown Avignon. Plan on catching 12:35 bus to Pont du Gard.

10:15- Eat breakfast consisting of pain au chocolat bought at local patisserie

10:20- Seduced by the pumping Euro-electronica beating out on the street from Zara and H&M, spend a while looking over all the stuff you cannot afford.

10:50- Aimlessly wander Avignon back streets for an hour or so, stopping in at cathedrals and river overviews.

11:50- Realize the bus to Pont du Gard leaves at 12:05

12:10- Resign self to spending the day in Avignon, purchase baguette from previously mentioned patisserie

12:20- Evading the "No Eating in room" directive, eat lunch in hotel room consisting of just purchased baguette, Nutella, Vanilla Coke, and gummy bears. Listen to either Rick Steves' whiny podcast on travel in Afghanistan, an old Edith Piaf record, or Led Zeppelin.

1:10- Head back downtown to visit the Palais des Papes (that's "Papal Palace")

1:20- After purchasing ticket, spend hour and a half wandering the immense and foreboding palace. Struggle to listen to audio guide, write stuff in notebook, and read palace map at the same time. Also, take too many photos of useless things.

3:05- Leave palace. Awkwardly take Rick's walking tour of the backstreets of Avignon. Sit in on a Bach rehearsal in a cool out of the way church. Try to blend in with the locals as you fumble with a ripped up guidebook, wear a baseball cap that doesn't involve the Yankees, take more useless photos, and carry a much too large European carry-all.

4:00- Sit down in café, order coffee, read assigned novel about working class British life in the 1950's.

5:00- Think about eating dinner, realize it's too early. Leave café.

5:15- Walk into wine shop populated by a large group of Japanese tourists. Chuckle as they attept to communicate via English to clearly amused French clerk. Pick out a cheap bottle of wine. Realize you don't have a corkscrew. Failing to know the French word for "corkscrew", say "Je voudrais un" and awkwardly point to one. Amused French clerk, hopefully giving you credit for trying, gets you the desired corkscrew from the back room.

5:40- Purchase dinner consisting of a kebab, possibly God's gift to the poor European traveling college student. Once again telling THE MAN off, eat it in your hotel room. More Vanilla Coke.

6:15- Do your first ever battle with a laundromat. Wash nasty ass clothes.

7:00- Bring semi-dry clothes back to hotel room, head off to train station

7:10- See how much it is to take a daytrip to Arles (€ 10). Go to bus station and see if there's a bus on Sunday to Pont du Gard (there is). Try and figure out what to do.

7:40- Go to internet café, write prosaic blog entry

Post Blog- Return to hotel room, watch The Empire Strikes Back on iPod, try new corkscrew, more Vanilla Coke and gummy bears

That was pretty much my Saturday here in Avignon. Like an idiot, I missed the bus to Pont du Gard. It was probably for the better though, as it was nasty and rainy all day. A good day to spend indoors. I toured the huge Papal Palace, which looks more like some sort of military stronghold (well, it is) than a palace for God's presence on Earth. It was cool though. I purchased my first what you would call souvenir today. It's a corkscrew. I know, sort of lame, but it's one of those ones that waiters always carry around. I think it's pretty cool. It's something sort of French. My attempts to curb spending have been going well, I think. Nutella comprises a major food group in my Euro diet, as well as Haribo gummy bears, which may be some sort of heavenly food. They still have Vanilla Coke here. It's a beautiful thing. People are well aware of my affinity for France and the French. Everything continues to be reinforced. I'd highly recommend going to France. Many of my Luther counterparts feel very uncomfortable in France, but I don't think I'd rather be anywhere else.

I'm having fun on my own. Of course I'm looking forward a lot to seeing friends on Monday, but it's nice to have a break. I've been doing a lot of reading and such. I bought a Lonely Planet guide to Istanbul, so I'm figuring out what I want to see in 3 weeks or whatever. Avignon is a really cool city too. Lots of stuff to see and do, so I don't really get bored. But like I said, it will be nice to see Emily and crew again on Monday.

I read other Luther people's blogs, and it seems like they make these grand statements about how travel is affecting them and such. I don't really think I have much to say about that. I don't think it has struck me yet. It is always a struggle to stave off being jaded. I mean, Roman ruins and medieval churches all start to run together as time goes on. The trick is to continually remind myself of the significance of each thing to the surrounding area, how it has affected people and society. It's hard, I'll tell you that. But it's ultimately rewarding, to take everything on it's own terms.

Final humorous situation of the past few days. Yesterday, as I was muddling about the Avignon tourist office, one of the French tourist officials (obviously impressed with my ninja master French skills) asked me, as a REAL ENGLISH SPEAKER, what I would call a "raspberry mash" on top of a cake. She thought it was porridge. I suggested jam, but I really have no idea. Thoughts? Whatever. Merci et au revoir!

Avignon

Ive finally made it to Avignon, but I cant find the apostrophe on this computer. Bear with me. We had a last minute switch at Mont St Michel, in the sense that since the Friday morning train to Paris was completely full, we had to return Thursday night, thus paying for a night both at our sweet country hostel at Mont St Michel and a room in maybe the most ghetto hotel in Paris. Financially, the first week of the trip has been a disaster. Live and learn, and then spend a lot less money. Mont St Michel was really cool I thought. I cannot post photos, but know that it was mind blowing. The past few days, my French skills have been improving exponentially I feel. Its good to speak it and not look like an idiot American all the time. This morning I took the sweetest train ever from Paris to Avignon. It was a double decker TGV, which is the French high speed train. Some 200 kilometers an hour it goes. Im now on the solo part of my trip. Avignon, the medieval home of the popes, is quite beautiful. Provence in general is quite beautiful. So right.

It makes me feel like Ive finally achieved a great sense of study abroad-ness when its no big deal to train back to Paris for the night. Either that or Im becoming jaded. Who knows. A relatively relaxing 2 days awaits in Avignon, then off to meet Kevin, Hilary, and Brandon in Nice. It will be nice to see them all again. I cant type on this computer. Au revoir!

Paris

Bonjour a Paris! If any reader hasn't ever been to Paris, I would highly suggest you drop what you're doing, log onto www.orbitz.com, and book a flight to Paris tomorrow. I'll be here until noon on Wednesday if you want to hang out. Seriously, this city is great. I remember how much I loved it in high school. Having the freedom to do anything is so much more liberating, and it makes it so much better. The hotel I'm in is very good for what it is and thank God for the BBC World. We were discussing the other day, how even in the midst of such a beautiful tongue as French, it's strangely comforting to hear a boring looking man speak with a stodgy British accent. Arrived via Eurostar on Saturday, where we were welcomed by probably the most disgusting weather ever. On our way to Notre Dame, I actually got mistaken for a French person when an Englishwoman asked me in haggard French to take a picture of a group of people. It felt great. Finally got in the cathedral, which was way cool because they were doing vespers as we were touring the cathedral. Gave it an awesome ambiance. Found Ryan, and we celebrated the start of break by eating in a restaurant that featured the most amazing duck and french fries I've ever had. Moving on, yesterday (Sunday) was museum day. After a morning trip to see the Eiffel Tower up close, the three of us hit up the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay in succession. We all have this Paris museum pass that pretty much lets us do anything we want. Both were amazing, I took advantage of a few audio tours I downloaded onto my iPod. The Musee d'Orsay is a must for any Paris visit, it's wonderful. Finished off the night by eating in a sandwich joint on the Champs Elysees, grabbing some coffee, and going up the Arc de Triomphe at night. This morning, we got up early and hit the Musee Picasso, then Sainte Chappelle before meeting Ryan again. Ryan is now off to Amsterdam, which leaves Emily and I with a day and a half left here. I know much of this post was wrote replay of what has occurred. Sorry, I will try to be more objective and analytical from now on. Just know that the trip is off to a great start. Everyone go to France as soon as you can, Paris especially. Look for another post sometime later this week (hopefully). Au revoir!

You Must Go With Me to Alderaan....

Mythical planets, Europe, whatever. They're all the same.



Ready to go travel Europe for a month? I think yes.



The hour is officially nigh. I'll be in Paris by the end of today. Excitement is running high in the flat, among all parties. We had our last group meal for a month tonight, said our goodbyes to Mark and Carol, then got busy packing. I feel good about my packing job, it's pretty minimalist. Some tough decisions were made as to what to leave, but I think I'll be okay in the end. I'll have plenty of room to bring back cool stuff. I still need to complete some tasks before taxi-ing down to the train station, so I'll just leave you all with a visual journey of where I'll be headed the next few weeks. Or at least some of the highlights. Look for a post in the next coming days from Paris. Godspeed, live long and prosper, MTFBWY, later.

T-Minus 60 Hours....

60 hours. 60 hours until a month of baguette munching, cheap wine drinking, sprinting through train stations, living out of a suitcase, cliché pseudo-hippie young person traveling through Europe. My general response? Yikes. I do have a plan, I have places to stay, I have transportation, etc, etc, etc. But it still feels like I'm driving the proverbial bus, through the proverbial wall of television sets, and off the proverbial cliff. Like Indiana Jones falling out of the plane in the Temple of Doom in the river raft. That's an apt description of my spring break thus far. Except costing a lot more money. I don't really want to talk about it. Any of you would be globe-trotters should know that Europe is flipping expensive. Well, the places I'm going (i.e. France and Italy) are. And the cost of getting to Turkey sort of makes me want to crawl up in the fetal position and cry. I did however get a great deal on a plane ticket from Istanbul to London Heathrow on British Airways. I'm using that as my big piece of consolation. No matter how expensive other stuff gets, I can always think about my cheap ticket on a quality airline awaiting me at the end of the line.

Am I prepared? Yes and no. As stated earlier, I have transportation and lodging accounted for, though a little more heavy on the wallet thanks to my ill-advised wait to book things. In that regard, I'm set. But overall, I haven't had a lot of time to prepare myself in a mental sense. I feel that when you're setting off for a month traveling, you should be in a certain mindset or something. I don't have that. The past week or so has been so jam packed with my dad and Kate's recent arrival that I haven't been left with much time to contemplate the journey ahead of me. It will be a learning experience then, I suppose.


As you may have guessed, my dad left Monday morning. We had a good time. The canal boat adventure turned out to be okay. We sailed up to Burton upon Trent, which apparently is the brewing capital of England. So the next day we sailed back down, collected our trusty Ford Focus, and toured the Coors Visitor Center and Museum of Brewing. Coors bought out the old brewery, it was a little disheartening to see COORS plastered all over the historic city. Sunday saw a whirlwind trip down to London which culminated in another stay in the always reliable Holiday Inn Express. And then Monday he left again. It was a good time overall. Good to see dad.

My friend Kate from home showed up yesterday with a friend of her who is volunteering near Birmingham for the year. Although I've been having things stack up on me (see spring break planning, homework, etc, etc, etc), we've been having fun. Did some swing dancing which was really good. I am so out of practice though. All sense of rhythm has left me. But they're heading out again tomorrow. Kate's departure will mark the last visitor that I will have this year. There's only about two months left in Europe. That's a sobering thought.


Today saw my faith re-established in the international postal system. My mom and grandma had purchased for me a new iPod to replace mine, which is in its death throes. It was sent on February 17th, in the hope it would arrive by my birthday. Well, it didn't. And subsequently failed to arrive afterwards, leading both my mom and I to suspect that some corrupt postal employee had nicked it. Just when all hope was lost however, Parcel Force Worldwide came knocking with a letter notifying me of my duty to pay the duty on my luxury item being imported into the UK. After Emily and I rode a bus to the ends of the earth (i.e. the east side of Nottingham) and battled with a particularly finicky credit card machine, I've finally collected my birthday present. It's great. I'm racing to try and pack as much crap on it for the next month.

So yes, that is what is going on. Sorry for my lack of recent postage, it's been busy. I'll try to get one more pre-departure post up, then post as much as I can from the road. Final itinerary you ask? Check it.

March 24-28- Paris
March 28- 30- Pontorson-Mt. St. Michel
March 30- April 2- Avignon
April 2- 6- Nice
April 6- 9- Florence
April 9- 12- Rome
April 12-15- Sorrento
April 15- Ferry to Athens
April 16-18- Athens
April 18- 22- Istanbul
April 22- Return to London, Nottingham

That's the deal. I'd welcome any suggestions for said itinerary, encouragement, rants on how stupid I am, etc, etc, etc. Until we meet again, keep it real.

Dad's Here

Hi folks. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. My dad arrived in Nottingham on Tuesday, and it's been sort of hectic since then. He's staying on a canal boat in Barton-under-Needwood, which is about a 45 minute drive from the flat here in Nottingham. So that sort of complicates things a little, as intense coordination is needed for each day. He got in Tuesday, and he and Anne spent the night at the Luther flat. Dad also joined me and the crew for a trip to The Lion, where he got his first taste of REAL ALE. I went to class Wednesday morning, afterwards, we went and rented a Ford Focus downtown, and made our way down to the canal boat. After a tutorial on how to operate the locks as well as the boat, I got shuttled back up to Nottingham for my orchestra rehearsal. While I was at class this morning, they drove up to Chatsworth, a large country home north of Nottingham (see post sometime in the fall for my own impressions on Chatsworth). After that, they showed up here and we took a look around the university. Following that, I exercised the right that every Luther College student has done thus far, and convinced dad to take me to a restaurant I could otherwise not afford. The choice tonight was 4550 Miles From Delhi, a swanky Indian restaurant downtown. Great food. Indian food is very popular in England thanks to all the immigration. Such is the spoils of empire, I suppose. Anyways, I've become quite fond of it. Quickly, after a morning spent turning in my César Chávez essay, hopefully grabbing coffee, and braving the BRITISH NOVEL, dad will come get me and we're hitting up a brewery museum in Burton-upon-Trent. After that, we'll head to the canal boat, maybe take the boat up a few miles, eat dinner, and sleep on the boat. In the morning, take it back down to the car, and off to Nottingham for yet another orchestra rehearsal, as well as celebrating St. Patrick's/Dad's Birthday with more than a couple rounds of Guinness. At night on Saturday, I take Handel's Israel in Egypt to school. Sunday, down to London for the day. And Monday, dad is off again. Even with all the hassles, it's good to see him. And good to have my feet quenched by the unbearable comfortabity that reside in my Minnetonka moccasins.

In other news, in a little over a week, I am off to Europe for the month long, extremely expensive, culturally explosive EUROTRIP OF THE CENTURY. Eurail pass has been booked. That leaves only my Eurostar ticket, flights to and from Istanbul, hotels in Siena and Paris, TGV reservations, ferry ticket to Greece, and God knows what else left to take care of. A word from the wise. If you're going to spend a month on the road in Europe, be prepared for the painful noise of money being ripped out of your wallet (or Minnesota Twins credit card). Even frugally, this place is damn expensive. Whatever. The proverbial all-you-can-eat lamb and yoghurt buffet that is Istanbul is waiting at the end of the rainbow. It will be worth it, even if I am stuck working in a bank for the next 5 years. If anyone is actually keeping track, there's a slight change to my itinerary. Wherever I posted my itinerary, replace "Tours/Loire Valley" with "Avignon." I'm once again seizing my destiny and traveling solo for 3 nights in southern France. That's what's up. Catch you all later.

Yes.

I've finally succeeded in connecting to MLB.com Gameday Audio, thus giving me the capability to listen to Twins spring training games live. Right now, we're leading 6-2 in the 7th over Toronto. I have to leave for a band concert in like, 2 seconds, so we'll pick this up when I get back in however many hours.

(Intermission)

Well, it's now Monday morning. Intermission lasted a bit longer than I had anticipated. For those of you who are interested, the concert went successfully. I felt good with the way I played. We had a long day of rehearsals leading up to the concert, then I played in both the Symphonic Winds and the Wind Orchestra, so I was a bit blasted by the end, but stuck through it. They had to bring in a local gig player to pinch hit on bass trombone. His name was Dave, it was sort of fun to talk to him about trombones, mouthpiece sizes, delryn rims, all the geeked out stuff that normally peppers my conversation at Luther. Emily and Mary came to hear the concert, so that was cool. Anyways, I read a bit of E.M. Forster's Howard's End, the latest installment in the ever exciting BRITISH NOVEL course to wrap up my day.

The weekend as a whole went well. Anna's grandparents were here, they all left this morning for a weeklong trip to Glastonbury and Bath. Kevin was also in Dublin for the weekend with his mom and stepdad. Friday night, a few of us tried out a new pub, The Frog and Onion. It wasn't what we expected, as it was an extremely smoky place with one of those perpetually loud blues bands that always seems to inhabit extremely smoky drinking establishments. But we had fun, I think. In honor of the impending holiday, I had a Guinness. Sunday I worked somewhat half-heartedly on my American History biographical essay. I'm doing César Chavez. I'm finding him quite interesting. Saturday night, the lady and I went out for dinner and a movie, as we never actually have gone on a real "date." It was fun. We hit up a casual French restaurant, then saw The Good Shepherd. It wasn't exactly what we expected, mainly in the fact it was 3 HOURS LONG. Quite unneccesary, but whatever. We had a good time.

As part of my birthday money, I bought Led Zeppelin I this weekend. It has seriously made me consider dropping trombone, picking up electric guitar, learning to wail like a banshee, and switch my career from mild mannered history professor (just speculation, don't read into it) to towering god of rock. I'm trying to expand my musical horizons and appreciation, and now owning two Zepp albums, I am not disappointed. Check out this great article by the Onion for some related laughs.

Unreleased Jimmy Page Guitar Riff To Be Retrieved From Secret Vault To Save Rock And Roll

So that's what's up right now. Me and César Chavez are spending the day together, in hopes of finishing the essay by tomorrow at 4:30, when my dad arrives from Edinburgh. Hopefully I'll be productive enough to be able to go to baseball tonight. But, I'm confident thus far. That's what's up, later folks.

Year of the Dragon

I haven't been very good at posting this week. Sorry. I've found myself to be quite busy. I have a band concert on Sunday, so I've had rehearsal, including another 2.5 hour marathon tonight. The weather lately has been beautiful, though it's clouded up a bit now. But baseball was quite fun yesterday. It sort of felt like "Little America" out on the sports fields. We, being the 5 of us who showed up, were playing baseball and running scenarios on one part of the fields. Right next to us there was a group of probably around 20 people playing American football, full pads and everything. They were really into calling out the plays in intensely masculine barks. Reminded me of my elementary school recess football career. Anyways, we were attempting to practice the outfield drop step technique. I feel as if I'm getting closer towards discovering my natural throwing motion. My arm is feeling stronger, and I am able to do more before becoming fatigued. While we're on the subject, I've been keeping up faithfully with spring training down in Ft. Myers. I have mixed feelings thus far. Yes, the Twins' record is terrible, but a lot of that has to do with incredibly outmatched minor league relievers who have no chance of making the big league team. I'm extremely encouraged by recent starts by Ramon Ortiz, Carlos Silva, Sidney Ponson, and Matt Garza. But seriously, we need to score more runs too.

So yeah, band this Sunday. Here's the program for the Wind Ensemble.

1. Year of the Dragon- Philip Sparke
2. Arcadia- James Crockford (student composition)
3. Sleep- Eric Whitacre
4. Music from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring- Howard Shore, arr. Victor Lopez

The Lord of the Rings arrangement is terrible. The student composition is pretty much crap. But the other two, the Sparke and the Whitacre are pretty cool. I like Eric Whitacre's stuff in general though. We did manage to get a second trombonist (same guy who played second in orchestra fall semester). But, he's pretty much incompetant, and thinks it funny that he can't play the parts. See earlier posts for my rants about the lazy ass UNott response to music, I don't want to repeat it again.

Tuesday night, following another rousing 2.5 hours of band, I came home and watched a documentary entitled "Jesus Camp" with Brandon, Emily, Kevin, and Ryan (sort of). It may have been the scariest thing I have ever seen on film. The focus was on extreme fundamentalist Christianity and the indoctrination of kids. It's pretty much a Christian cult. 10 year old kids, completely devoid of the ability to think for themselves, no desire to even test their beliefs, praying around a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, because as a holy man, God has ordained him to lead the United States to righteousness. The central person was a Pentecostal children's minister who runs a summer camp in North Dakota. She compared the indoctrination of evangelical kids to Islamic terrorist camps, putting grenades in kids' hands. I can't even describe all that seemed horribly wrong about the tactics and fearmongering used. I'd highly recommend checking it out.

So right, that's what's been happening lately. Along with the band stuff this weekend, I really need to get on my American History essay. I think I'm going to do it on Cesar Chavez. My dad has officially landed in the British Isles, and after a complicated journey over, is hopefully on his way to Ireland as I type.

Momentously, I have decided upon a spring break itinerary. Check it out, e-mail any comments or whatever. I'm only in one place for two nights, everywhere else is three or more, which I think is a good idea. Anyways, that's what's up right now. Later.

March 23- train to London
March 24-28- Paris (via Eurostar)
March 28-30- Mont St. Michel, France
March 30-April 2- Tours, France
April 2-6- Nice, France (daytrips to Provence, Monaco)
April 6-9- Siena, Italy (daytrip to Florence)
April 9-12- Rome, Italy
April 12-15- Sorrento, Italy (daytrip to Pompeii)
April 15-18- Athens, Greece
April 18-21- Istanbul, Turkey
April 21- return to London, train back to Nottingham

High Class Party Redux

CHECK OUT THE "NOTTINGHAM" ALBUM ON THE PHOTO SITE FOR NEVER BEFORE SEEN PHOTOS FROM SATURDAY'S HIGH CLASS PARTY!

This weekend has definitely been full of ups and downs, but mostly ups. Friday, after another rousing discussion of 19th century British fiction, the lady and I hit up the Clumber Street Starbucks for the usual Friday activity. Although I think I'm abstaining from mocha for a while, it always gets way too intense at the bottom of the mug. Anyways, we had a good time. Previously, I had thought it a prudent idea to try out the fire escape in my room. This consists of a resistance pulley on the wall, a rope with a sling on one end, and a window. Safely strapped into the device, I lept (more like gingerly lowered) out of the window to safety 15 feet below. I emerged with a very strange assortment of rope burns and scrapes from the siding. Anyways, we discovered behind the flat, a graveyard of old organ parts, tables, and other assorted wood items. Which gave Kevin a great idea: why not have a bonfire? That night, we lit up the Weber grill, burned some stuff, and classily (not really) drank wine out of the bottle. In true English fashion, a steady drizzle forced us indoors, but it gave us great ideas for a homeless/chav party next year. It was a good time.


Many Luther people will identify the above photo as taken during the infamous HIGH CLASS PARTY OF 2006. In an attempt to either a) identify our own classiness; b) stave off boredom; c) try and shake our reputation as the lamest group Luther has sent to Nottingham or d) try and (shudder) bond further, the high class party was resurrected this weekend EAST MIDLANDS style. Thus, the Black and White Affair party was held on Saturday night in the flat living room.




As the photos suggest, it was classy, classy, classy. A whole crew of people created quite a plethora of hors d'oeuvres, main dishes, and whatever else. Brandon and Kevin completed the important task of securing enough beverages for all, after a harrowing walk from ASDA involving 14 bottles of liquid in flimsy plastic bags. I myself went on a frantic late afternoon trek through the same ASDA in search of lemons and prosciutto. All that aside, the party was great fun. Once again, it's amazing to see how the group has come together. Great food, classy music, a huge bottle of champagne, good company. Much speculation went into who would become the flat's "third couple," and Kevin found himself in the midst of a playful war between Hilary and Anna. Needless to say, as the night went on, cocktails came out, and we all had a good time.

After the horror of realizing that Mark had delivered the morning paper early Sunday morning, thus seeing firsthand the blaze of destruction left from the previous night, we quickly cleaned everything up. Here's where the lowpoint of the weekend comes in. Many readers may remember a mention a few weeks back of a particularly dramatic flat meeting involving rooming situations for two quarreling females. Anyways, the conclusion made by third party arbitration (Mark and Carol) decided that Ryan and I were to give up our single rooms and move into the big room, so that the two feuding females could have private chambers. Needless to say, as I now write my blog from the considerably less private corner room, I'm pissed. Not pissed about having to live with Ryan, I can deal with that fine. It's just the nature of the move. Personally, I feel as if the "nice guys" are definitely getting the shaft because of an overly dramatic and exaggerated feud. The other issue is the fact that I have receieved no gratitude of any kind from either party on allowing myself to be uprooted in this way, and that angers me. It was just like, "I'm taking your room on Sunday, we'll move at 9:30 AM." I find it to be incredibly disrespectful. And to cap it all off, I liked having my own room. A lot. Gah, this is just really lame.

Irritating move aside, today saw my debut onto the amateur British baseball scene. I was the starting center fielder for our game against Manchester. Think of the worst possible conditions to play ball in. Conditions that any conscious person in North America would cause them to think "No way are they actually going to play in that weather." Yes, we played in them. A biting wind, frigid cold, nearly horizontal rain, and a muddy field gave the perfect lesson on why Britain is not the ideal location for a baseball game. There were times I thought my fingers would fall off. Nonetheless, we all persevered, and ended up victorious by a final score of 9-5 in 5 innings. I grounded out in my first at bat, then walked in my second, and ended up scoring a run. One thing became abundantly clear. This is not Major Leage Baseball. You are much more likely to be walked than to hit the ball, such is the nature of the pitching. Errors are common. But even with the appalling weather and lame gameplay, I had fun. Followed the game up with that most British of celebrations; a pint and a plate of chips and sausages at a local pub.

So, that's the weekend. And it was good. For all of you curious church readers, yes, Emily and I are still dating, and no, I don't think she's a corrupting influence on me (yet). She does have a bit of a penchant for white wine and floofy cocktail drinks, but I think I can handle that (tongue in cheek). My mom said there were some concerns. So, right. Tomorrow features the finishing of Barchester Towers for the British Novel class, and possibly a run downtown for some coffee. As well as attempting to firm up spring break plans and start booking accomodations. Great adventure awaits. T-minus 8 days until the Father arrives, direct from Minnesota (with stops in Ireland and Scotland). I'm looking forward to showing him around Notts, as well as getting my extremely comfortable brown moccasins. That's all for now. Later.

Birthday, Break, Booyah

Yesterday was my 21st birthday. All in all, it was a good birthday. Obviously the traditional "rite of passage" aspects of the 21st birthday so common in America are somewhat muted in England, with the legal drinking age of 18. But it was a good day. I had class at 11, which focused on the international economy between the two world wars. Skipping baseball, I attended what I thought was a brass clinic given by the trombonist I went and saw in the evening, Dennis Rollins. In reality, it was more of a glorified rehearsal for one of the campus jazz groups. They said I could just sit in and play, but they had no trombone parts. So I ended up reading through trumpet and tenor sax parts, testing my ability to read in B flat treble clef. Bottom line, it was a waste of 2 hours.

Anyways, after dinner which featured an amazing mocha-chocolate birthday cake, complete with frosted trombone, Emily and I made our way to the Lakeside Arts Centre at university to catch Dennis Rollins and Badbone & Co (pictured above). The concert was amazing. He's a British trombonist of Jamaican descent, and it was a great show. A lot of funk and music I would classify as "urban inspired" jazz. He played a Michael Rath trombone, and he had this microphone and receiver connected to it, which fed into a wireless distortion machine. He had (I counted) 23 pedals for various distortion things. I'm not usually into electronic stuff like that, but it was really cool. So yeah, the concert was a great success.

Following that, we headed downtown and met the remaining 6 flatmates (Kate was returning from France) for a few drinks. Kevin and Hilary have already discussed this phenomenon in their respective blogs, but the group of us has really bonded over the course of the year. It's not hard to remember the extreme awkward silences and nervous looks that met most of our trips downtown earlier in the year. It's quite amazing how time can bring together such a diverse group of people. In a normal year at Luther, I would never see myself ever associating with a large majority of the folks here. And to be sure, I was definitely nervous about the social dynamics when I left in the fall. But time has proven those fears unfounded. It's been good. Check out Kevin and Hilary for more insightful analysis.



The topic on everyone's minds as of late has been the looming specter of SPRING BREAK. Mass freak out has begun officially. I have to admit, it's quite intimidating. I mean, a month seems like a long time to be on the road, and it is. But on the other hand, it is not nearly enough time to see Europe. Maybe enough time to see a lot of one country, but the goal among most of us is to see as much of Europe as we can, without the burn out that accompanied Christmas break. It's challenging, to be sure. Anyways, here's a revised idea of what I might be doing, in order of visitation.

1. Paris
2. Loire Valley/Orléans
3. Nice/French Riviera
4. City in Italy to be named later
5. Rome
6. Sorrento/Naples/Pompeii
7. Athens/Greek island?
8. Turkish beach?
9. Istanbul

I am quite set on finishing my trip in Istanbul and I think it's fair to say that it is looking to be the highlight of my trip thus far. I'm just having problems trying to figure out transportation to said city/country without flying out of Switzerland or something. Lame. But where there's a will there's a way, and I'm going to find my way to Turkey. We'll see who I can drag along with me. I know Kate and possibly Ryan are up for Istanbul. Still working on the lady. It's going to be an adventure, whatever happens, that's to be sure. The weekend features the first real baseball game against Manchester on Sunday. Tomorrow night sees the English reincarnation of the infamous Luther high class party, complete with lounge music, hors d'oeuvres, black and white attire, and cocktails. All to be held in the comfortable confines of the church hall directly underneath me. Plus the little issue of spring break planning. Life is full of small challenges.