Last Post for 2008

Study abroad was an overwhelming experience.  It has fulfilled my expectations in some ways, exceeded them in others, and let me down in only a few.  I hope that I am a better person because I did this.  I also hope that you all have enjoyed reading along.  This last post is an essay I wrote for a class I took in London.  The question posed was, “what, if anything, makes British culture distinctive?”  I thought it would be a good way to share my last thoughts on my time in Britain abroad. 

 

Over the course of the semester I have lived in London, experienced it on a daily basis, and taken shelter from it every Monday night to hear a series of select speakers lecture on their views of Britain.  Their presentations have analyzed multiple aspects of Britain, including specifically, what makes British culture distinctive.  Two of the most compelling speakers, Clive Bloom and Sir Christopher Frayling, delivered enlightened lectures on the topic.  When combined, they contain perhaps the best argument for what makes British culture tick.  As solid as their argument is however, they are both insiders to this culture, so I will contribute a foreigner’s view on this topic as well. 

            Clive Bloom wasted no time one Monday evening in jumping right into what makes British culture the beast that it is.  He, like many other Britons I have spoken with, was hesitant to narrow in on specifics of British culture because he said that modern Britons are still trying to decide who they are, and what British culture is supposed to be.  He pointed out that the “empire hangover” causes most British subjects to hesitate when expressing their culture.  At one point, Britain’s empire stood for white Anglo-Saxon superiority over lands as far and diverse as can be named.  Today the empire is gone and Britons, the majority of whom are the great-great grandchildren of the empire-builders, and the great-grandchildren of the World War veterans, do not know exactly how their national identity should be composed. 

            Bloom pointed out that in the UK today, there are 2.5 million Muslims and 4 million immigrants overall from all over the world.  This creates a dilemma, because unlike in the USA where being “American” can mean just about anything, defining who is “British” is a major question for all citizens.  He used this example to point out that most “organic” British people believe that if newcomers accept the pillars of British society (which predate the Victorian-era empire) including, democracy, the Queen, and Parliament rule of law, then you are British.  This by default then, means that a culture based on democracy and representational government is a British idea that has been developing on this island since the Magna Karta. 

            The last idea that Bloom brought up was the question of Britain’s place in the world.  With the rise of the European Union and the unification of continental Europe through the Euro currency, Britain has been under increasing pressure to figure out where it stands in the new world order.  Once a unilateral global superpower, Britain after WWII has been forced to dispose of her empire and relinquished her status to the USA.  Bloom said that a host of things are confound Britain when it comes to where she will stand in the 21^st century. 

First is the idea that Britain has a “special relationship” with the USA, after fighting two World Wars together as allies, and their previous history in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  These two nations share the same lineage, language, fashion, traditions, governmental ideals, and some would say religion.  The argument was that “English speaking countries do things together, better” which he reluctantly admitted includes Canada, Australia, and “the kiwis”.  However, like most relationships, the US/UK one has not been without its difficulties (e.g. the Suez Crisis, Vietnam, and recently the divisive Iraq War).  The UK is torn between full status in the EU and its extremely powerful offspring across the Atlantic. 

Second he said, which impacts British culture nearly every day, is the increasing sub-national sentiment which is growing throughout the UK.  He stated that more people fly English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish flags throughout the UK than the British Union Jack.  Through soccer, local government, and religious divides, people identify with their sub-national heritage more than British nationalism, which is bogged down in international politics, and carries heavy baggage from the World Wars and imperial era.  This made sense he said, simply because no one can strictly indentify what British nationalism, British culture, is. 

The other speaker, Sir Christopher Frayling, touched on the subject of British culture lightly, but in a way that I thought was revealing.  He started with an example of an exhibition he worked on for a New York City gallery.  He said that the theme of the exhibit was to display a modern “go-ahead” Britain that has been developing ever since the mid-20^th century.  He pointed to some of the world’s premier modern architecture in Britain as an illustration of this.  The exhibition’s poster however, wound up containing many “cliché” images of Britain including a double-decker bus, Beefeaters, and the Tower of London.  These were images that he thought at first were contrary to the exhibit’s purpose.  After a while though, he began to realize that while they are clichés, they are so for a reason.  To everyone living in the digital era, these images are “soaked with meanings and memories” that identify with Britain no matter what decade it is.  While for some, the modern steel and glass tower they walk past on their way to work in the square-mile may scream “Britain!” to them personally.  To others, it may be the timeless red telephone booth right in front of that building.  The lesson here is obviously that British culture is definable in many ways.  These differences do not adhere to a specific generation or voting party; they just exist based on what your environment predicates.

Lastly, my two pence.  Before coming to the UK (this being my first time), I was confident that the USA had invented multi-culturalism.  I was sure that an American had popularized the idea eating at restaurants of other ethnicities, appreciating worldly entertainment, and the general mass marketing of other cultures as one’s own.  Being American has two levels, subscribing to the American standard of democracy, enfranchisement, foreign policy, separation of church and state, etc.  But it also means subscribing to your own heritage, be it Italian, Irish, German, or South Korean.  You take pride in your American nation that built your bus line, your sewers, your schools, by singing the national anthem and chanting U-S-A directly afterwards.  However, you also pay homage to ancestors’ culture as well be adhering to their religion and traditions. 

Now that I have been here for a while, I realize that American’s didn’t invent that, and they didn’t even market it better.  This is what makes British culture distinctive:  English (British after 1707) people have been exchanging culture for longer than American has even existed.  Britain is an island, so sailing and the exchange of imports for exports was always inherent.  Up until WWI, Britain was in fact the world’s premier naval power which sent ambassadors all over the globe to India, Asia, North America, Africa, and beyond to discover cultures that they could integrate into their own.  British explorers brought back chocolate from South America, sugar from the Caribbean, and most recently, that delicious Thai dish I just had down the road in Islington.  British culture, in my opinion, is distinctive because it is a sound structure that allows for growth, tolerance, exchange of ideas, and massive opportunities for all who adhere to it.  The structure contains societal thoughts and norms, things like democracy, free trade, English as a common denominator, and representative government.  These are things British people bring and offer to the international pot luck dinner of ideas. 

The second part of British culture is the exchange of this framework with others in the world.  In return, British culture is made up of non-indigenous pieces as well, examples are many and vary.  Spanish flamenco dancing at the Royal Theater is traded for Shakespare’s As You Like It being performed in Seville. The multitude of Indian Restaurants on Brick Lane is exchanged for British Gastronomic Pubs showing soccer matches in Istanbul, Boston, and Seoul.  And so it goes.   Some Britons feel the need to protect “British culture” from being revolutionized from the outside.  They claim to protect with passion things they believe to be definitively “British” such as the Queen, Parliamentary rule, and driving on the *wrong* side.  What they may fail to see is that without foreign exchanges, which have always been inherent to those of the British Isles, a British culture would simply not exist.   

Our trip to Morocco, Belfast, and Edinburgh…

This will be an extremely long post.  I wrote the following on scrap paper as we were going along, usually in trains or planes.  We spent about 10 days traveling to three cities in Morocco, then continued on to Belfast in Ireland and Edinburgh in Scotland before returning to London for a night to fly home finally to the USA for Christmas.  These days were my last spent abroad, after spending 8 months collectively outside of the US.  I hope you have enjoyed reading all of these, just so you know if you have read all that Ive written up until now, you have read approximately 64,000 words.  Good for you!  And good for me.  Haha.  Here we go. 

I woke up on Saturday, December 13th, and then snoozed my way through 20 more minutes fore actually getting out of bed.  Just as in Florence, my exodus from Nido was very hectic and sloppy.  I ate some breakfast before doing a final scan of the room and packing up m last things.  Hurrying down to the lobby, I got a chance to see some of the last night’s destruction of Nido done by NYU students leaving, presumably in repayment for the lack of internet, hot water, and broken elevators…the list goes on.  I checked out (finally!!!) without too much hassle and met Carter before heading out for the airport.  On the way, I stopped at the Post Office to mail my books home.  I am now also the proud owner of “fragile” tape they made me buy to pack the box.  We could not find the bus we booked originally to take us to Gatwick, so we simply took the Gatwick Express from Victoria Station.  We arrive very early and spent some time walking around the arport mall.  A hot British girl got us to play a lottery game that wound up being a scam and we spent some time in W.H. Smith to buy books to read during out travels.  The plane ride was long and we landed at the lonely Marrakech airport.  Here was a first time experience, a man was waiting for me ad Carter just outside the international zone with a sign that said “Therriault” on it!  Two others joined us with him before we went outside to his taxivan.  The weather was much better than in London, no rain and slightly warmer.  The other two were a couple from South Africa who also came from London, so we got to talking.  The taxi driver drove very crazily through the ville nouvelle (Morocco was for a long time, a french protectorate and so French is a close second to arabic as a national language.  We got closer to the old city, where our hotel would be.  We passed along palm trees and to our right, the 500+ year old medina (old city) walls that were at least three tories high and painted like everything else in the city, a pinkish orangish color.  Then, a quick right turn brought us into the medina where things turned significantly darker, busier, and more cramped.  The taxi stopped in possibly the most random and we were told to get out because we would have to walk from there which also turned out not to be a joke either.  It was so dark and sketchy!!  We got out with rust scooters zooming past us, and went down some stairs to walk down a very small street (for lack of a better word) running parallel to the one we came in on.  Bies, scooters, and tons of Moroccans, all of whom looked at the four of us English speakers as we went past.  A quick right turn brought us into a short dead end alley, where for a moment I thought my life would end and then be posted on Youtube.  At the end of the alley, in what I would describe as a fireplace/cave, was a group of men huddled around in the darkness.  I didnt pack enough underwear for this many scary moments.  Our taxi driver knocked on a door I hadnt noticed, and a woman poked her head out and then opened it all the way to say welcome to Riad Ghallia.  We went in through the door built for people much shorter than me, into our Riad.  A riad is a converted housing complex that is like a Moroccan B+B.  4-5 rooms surround a very small but decorated courtyard that, regardless of the weather, is open-aired.  The four of us were given tea and made at home.  We were given hand-drawn maps of how to get to restaurants, ATMs, and the central square in Marrakech.  This map wound up being helpful, but also a great way to signal to everyone that we were tourists.  Carter and I decided we wanted to get dinner at the square, so we bravely left the safety of our Riad for the “streets” of Marrakech.  I have to put streets in quotes because I refuse to call the areas we walked through roads.  Let me paint you a picture!  Most are “paved” in random stones without sidewalks, curbs, or drainage.  Some are covered by corrugated iron sheets or palms.  All are lined with 1-2 story stone buildings containing housing, stalls, of merchandise, or worse yet, dark holes full of space or people crowded around a table listening to arabic music and smoking.  Every once in a while, a street would intersect or branch off and there were very few street lights.  As we left around 8:30PM, there were still tons o people buying, selling, walking, and loitering on these twisty dark streets.  We made our way 75% of the way to the square before becoming lost in a small open area among the chaotic streets.  We stopped to look at the map but it is very hard to stop in Marrakech as an obvious foreigner, because within seconds of looking lost of vulnerable, we would have at least one or twenty Moroccans giving us fae directions, asking us where we were from, etc.  Having 8 year old boys tell us “big square, dis way” got old after the 300th time.  We learned always to go opposite of where they told us though, so in a way they were actually helpful.  I decided that “big square, dis way” must be Arabic for “welcome, blond friends from the West”.  Direct translation.  

In the spice square where we stopped to figure out where we went wrong, we bumped into two Americans, one of whom was a Morocco tour guide.  We quickly engaged in a conversation with them, to discourage a man hounding at us for change and to actually get to the main square.  The square is the biggest attraction in Marrakech and is especially fun to visit by night.  By day, it is full of live shows, snake charmers, monkey tamers, and surrounded on all sides by restaurants and food stalls.  By night, story tellers around lamps replace the previous entertainment, and we walked into the square to the smell of hundreds of food carts lined up, all cooking away.  The Americans we walked with were very friendly and treated me and Carter to freshly squeezed grapefruit juice because we had no money yet.  Then the tour guide, who was very experienced, told us how he frequently travels 500km outside of Marrakech into the Sahara to spend nights with Arabian caravans.  Crazy!  He said he could arrange a tour for us if we wanted on and if we hadn’t already booked hotels and flights, it may have been cool to do.  Haha.  He also forced Carter to try snails, cooked in their shells in a broth.  Luckily for me, the Riad had a communal bathroom separate from our bedroom!  After, we went to an ATM cautiously, and lost our American friends by accident.  We walked up and down the food carts, I bought pumpkin seeds, and we declined may “Best meals in Marrakech, my friend” hosts’ offers before exiting the other side.  Many locals come here to eat good, cheap meals on plastic, but not being immune to Moroccan stains of germs, we opted for something inside a building, Restaurant Le Marrakeschi was recommended by our Riad , so we went and we seated on the third floor, overlooking the square in a very dark room.  Candles were the only light.  After ordering, another American who was living in London was seated next to us, again provided lots of conversation for the meal.  We ordered the restaurant’s last serving of couscous with vegetables and lamb shish kebaps.  It was all really good.  We left to try some dessert on the square and settled on a cart selling tea and pudding.  OK?  The tea was extremely spicy but so good, cinnamon and cloves.  The pudding, well basically it looked weird and tasted boring.  In the vat, it looked like a big pile of lumpy dirt; served, it looked like a coconut DD munchkin.  It was neither.  We decided to go home and proceeded to take the route drawn on the map.  We got lost at least four times and it was possibly the scariest hour of my life.  There were very few people out and those that were were either afraid of us, or making us afraid.  All the shops had closed and as we walked under the iron roofs we had to let our eyes adjust to near-darkness.  We made it back ok and sat in the courtyard, which was covered by a tarp presumably to keep heat in and rain out.  We talked with the South Africans and a New Zealand couple who also lived in London, staying at our Riad.  It was cool, all three former-Empire mates, talking about living in the mother land’s capital.  Sleep that night was rough, the room was freezing from the courtyard air and I kept having weird dreams.  Around 5AM, the first call to prayer woke me up for the last time.  

On Sunday, we had breakfast at 9Am and spent a long time talking to the other guests and the co-owner, Thiery, to avoid going outside into what was a rainy day.  We decided to spend some time going through Marrakech’s famous souqs, which are basically the city’s shopping stalls.  They are all in one place in the city, along covered steeets, and organized into categories like leather, bags, belts, lanterns, food, spices, etc.  We wandered around and Carter decided he wanted a belt made of camel leather.  Bargaining is part of the deal and the fun in Morocco, so we talked a 16 year old boy working a belt stall down from 250 (27USD) to 90 (11USD).  While Carter was wheeling, I was dealing with the owner of the next stall down who was not ashamed to tell me abut his trip to Los Angeles in 1988.  He stopped in Chicago to change planes, in case you were wondering.  This is what makes Morocco bizarre though, the entire time we were talking, the man had the left earbud of his MP3 player in and photo Carter and I took with him and his camel-selling neighbor was requested to be emailed to their Yahoo email address.  The old world meets the new.  We continued on and made our way out of the souqs to the square again to experience it by day.  We were tackled by two men who were snake charmers as soon as we even glanced their way.  They immediately threw a snake around Carter and started for me before I began to lose it.  They forced Carter to kiss the snake’s head and they pushed us into a photo.  Nice memory!  Haha.  The rain started to get harder so we wet to get on a Red bus tour of the new city.  We did this to see some o the gardens Marrakech is famous for and the ville nouvelle, but also to the train station to book tickets for our train to Fes the following day.  The bus tour wound up being pretty lame, because of the rain and also because besides hotels and banks there is very little to look at in the new city.  The train station was very modern, but we quickly discovered that the people in it were not.  Of eight windows only one accepted credit cards.  We waited 20 minutes in a line by mistake at one that did not.  By the time we got to the head of the line at the one that did take Visa, the staff let for a 5 minute break. I went to the only ATM in the station to get enough cash, but of course it was broken despite it being shiny ad new.  When I got back, the Moroccans decided to come back to work and we went to the window donning a Visa logo.  The man did not know how to operate the card processor however, so I proceeded to check myself out on the keypad.  Complete morons.  We finally left to get back on the tour bus holding two first class tickets to Fes for the following day, we even got seats together. Back on the bus, with significantly less patience for the “Moroccan culture”, we got off at the southern most stop to visit another of the city’s major attractions, Palais El-Bahrais.  This was an incredible palace at one point, rivaling the one in Granada Spain before being dismantled and destroyed.  Today, its a large walled in courtyard complex full of sunken orange orchards and former reflecting pools  There were even ruined sub-terranean dungeons that were dark but not as scary as the streets of the previous night.  After that we entered the mellah, or the special Jewish quarter of the city that the sultan set p to house and protect Marrakech’s jews.  Between the two worlds was and still is the Royal Palace used by Morocco’s current king, Mohammed VI when he frequents Marrakech.  The jewish quarter looks much different than the rest of the city, its streets were about half as wide and much more residential if you could call it that.  The signs are in Arabic and Hebrew rather than French.  We got lost in there before emerging onto a street bordering the old Jewish cemetery which is an experience in itself.  Full of white, crumbling stones that look kind of like the stones that stop the wheels of your car n a parking space. But, about 4 million of them all in a jumble on the ground.  We left to make our way back up to the the square to eat at a different restaurant recommended by the author f our lonely planet guide book.  En route, we stopped at a “super market” to buy lunch for the train ride and a fresh market to look at fully skinned animals hanging in the butcher’s stall.  Dinner at Chez Chegrouni was half the price and doubly better than the previous night’s dinner with the same view over the square.  After dinner we made our way back home and only got lost once doing it.  Back at the Riad, we traded fun stories from our days with the others before going to our room.  Carter downloaded a program onto his iPhone that allowed him to used his Skype account to call home for free via wifi!   He was nice in letting me make a surprise phone call to my friend Yomna’s cell phone and after the initial shock we had a great, long conversation.  So, the wireless internet, in combination with the abundance of hot water, made Morocco seem highly advanced compared to our living situation in London at Nido.  Ironic?

On Monday morning, we ate another carb-heavy breakfast in the nippy courtyard with our english “mates” before pacing up for the train station.  I bargained in French with the nearest mini-cab for our fare to the station and by bargained, I mean I named a ridiculously low price and he accepted it….weird.  For about $4 dollars we took a 15 minute cab ride to “Le Gare” for our train to Fes.  First class wound up being a great choice as was the snacks for the trip which is 8 hours long if everything goes well.  The landscape was not what I was expecting, we travelled through mountains, pastures, palm forests, cities, wastelands, and eventually the Atlantic coast.  At Rabat, the capital, we headed inland towards Fes as the sun set.  I am writing this in our cabin now, but earlier was reading a book called “Kite Runner” which is a narrative of a boy who fled with his father from Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded.  A real uplifting novel.  

We arrived safe and almost on time to the train station in Fes.  The “platform” was just gravel and we almost made it to the street before being offered packets of tissues from a small boy.  The small front circle in front of the station was a disaster of taxis and screaming people.  One man asked us to get into his sketchy unmarked car, which he assured us would be cheaper and faster than any of the mini cabs.  We finally found a “petit taxi” which charged us about $3.80 to get to our hotel, hard to believe but it was still a 50% markup.  Tourist rates!  Our hotel was very nice looking, Hotel Batha.  It was a large building built around a courtyard with fountains and a swimming pool.  However, it was still far too cold to do much outdoors.  There was also an outdoor restaurant we passed on, preferring instead to eat in the medina, old city.  After our feast on the train, we were very hungary.  We asked the hotel help about an official guide to take us around the city, since it is the largest medina in Morocco and very confusing to navigate.  The benefits of an official guide is that he can give you history and answer questions for you about Fes, and Morocco.  The drawbacks to an “official guide” is that he takes you to places around the city to see things made such as ceramics, woodcarving, metal work, tanneries, wool shops, etc.  These places are all coincidentally places his friends own and operate, meaning he will get a commission for everything you buy.  More about this sucky situation later.  The night we arrived, the front desk clerk ordered an official guide for us the next day.  He told us he would come to the hotel that night to meet us- how generous and hospitable of him!  Nope, as with everything in Morocco, their hands were in the American’s pockets.  Abdul, the guide, took 40 minutes to arrive which allowed us to spend plenty of time ordering snacks and drinks at the hotel bar.  After he arrived, he spent 2 minutes telling us how the next day would work and then walked us to the restaurant we mentioned we wanted to try for the night.  Again, that would have been a kind thing to do normally, but in this case it was to be seen bringing two tourists into the restaurant so the owner would give him a commission off our meal.  In the guide book, Al-Fassa Restaurant sounded great!  IT SUCKED.  Dinner was prix-fixe meaning prices went from $30-70 for meals that were filling but far from delicious.  Not included was a 10% tax, tip, and a $6 charge for a 12-act show including 3 belly dancers, 1 magician, and lot of other things.  The total bill came to over $100…and they had the nerve to add on tip on to of the bill FOR us.  Not only was the food far from stellar, but the restaurant was full of Asian, Italian, and Spanish tourists.  Furthermore, the show was the biggest sham I have ever witnessed.  Twelve acts of chunky belly dancers, men banging on things, a magician who would have been better received at a 3rd grade show and tell, and far too any audience participation moments.  I think our privileged seats in the back and our frowning faces socially cued the acts to steer clear of the US chairs at the UN conference.  I told our waiter, partially in French, that Carter and I would be deciding the tip for ourselves in cash.  $2.70 is what we decided on, rather than the $12 they had originally put us up for.  We went back to the room to get ready for bed.  CNN-international was available on TV luckily!  We heard all about the Bush shoe-throwing incident and the Mastoff scandal.  I went to bed thinking that no where in the world is safe anymore. 

I didnt sleep well that night, the food from the previous night was not very agreeable with me, so I skipped what Carter described as a very continental breakfast, but he was kind in bringing me back some.  We went down at 9:30AM to meet Abdul for what became a very exhausting morning.  Let me start with the two positive things about having Abdul “guide” us around al morning.  One, we didnt get lost the entire time.  Two, he did give us quite a few historical facts about Fes and Morocco, as did the people he took us to.  Now, let me detail exactly how the morning went.  A 50 year old man took two American students into a city full of people who see and hear Americans and immediately think they have access to extremely large checking accounts.  Abdul showed us all of the important sights in the medina throughout the morning, including the oldest university in the world (students still study there), a large mosque that can hold 20,000 people, the famous “fountains” of Fes (where locals still get their water from) and more.  In between however, Abdul meeted and greeted pretty much 75% of Fes who he personally knew in Arabic.  Abdul did personal shopping and banking.  And possibly most frustrating of all, Abdul took us to all of the stores in the medina his friends owned and operated.  These included a tannery, wood shop, herb shop, linen shop, trinket shops, metal working shop, and carpet shops.  At each place, he would introduce us to the owner and then leave us for an indefinite period of time.  The owner would provide a short monologue about how they make whatever they specialize in, and these first 10 minutes or so of interaction were very interesting since everything we saw was hand made and the people were good at whatever they did.  However, the following 25 minutes of being pressured into buying something and having to constantly say no while trying to be appreciative of the tour they had just given us was tiring, annoying, and not desired.  We had to sit through parades of carpets, herbs, scarves, lanterns, plates, you name it, we rejected it.  Rejections only hardened the salesmen however, who would go on to offer us something cheaper, smaller, in a different color, or simply the same product with a cheaper price and a “but, my friend” in front of it.  The only time we actually bought something was from a man selling jewelry and a man selling nuts.  Abdul was a guide, but he was certainly not on our side.  He did introduce us to his favorite restaurant owner, who agreed to give us a cooking lesson in Moroccan cuisine the following morning.  Along this tour, we met many interesting people.  Nearly every shop owner asked us where we were from and what we do.  Some asked about the Bush shoe incident even, ad one carpet salesmen quickly dropped his sales pitch when we engaged him in a debate about the Middle East.  After all, Morocco is primarily muslim, but has always failed to convince the world that it is part of the strategic “Middle East”.  Very interesting conversation, and I wish we had tried that tactic for avoiding sales all along.  I would have been much more excited to have it had it not started to rain throughout the morning and we weren’t on the tail end of many hours of hassle.  Also, I will say about the tour, we did see all of the ins and outs of Fes’ old city.  This city was even more disastrous than Marrakech.  Nearly all buildings were held up by scaffolding, public fountains provide water but not potable.  All streets are lines with shops selling everything you can imagine and often 10 stores in a row will all be selling the same things meaning even a 1 second pause in front of one to look at something exotic gets you a “my friend, you like?  very good quality, welcome, come see my shop”.  After the tour, Abdul went away after telling us how to get back to the hotel and then taking us to a shop selling soup+tea.  These two things made me happy because I was both cold and looking forward to taking a breather at the safety of our hotel.  The soup “shop” was literally in a hole in the wall, a 12′x12′ cube missing a side facing the street, made out of weird concrete stuff.  We sat and were served traditional Bas’ra soup and mint green tea in cups that I am pretty sure have never been washed.  A man pulled up a chair to our table and started the standard “I spy a light person” conversation: Who are you and how/why are you here.  We played along, but wound up having a longer conversation about how the poor western economy was effecting his leather bag shop’s business recently.  I found it hard to sympathize, being from the west and having been treated the way I had by so many like him today, but it was interesting non the less.  We took a photo with him and the soup shop owner at the end.  The soup was hot, but tasted kind of like how a barn smells?  

After this, we walked back to take a nap before dinner.  Dinner we ate at a small place nearby, called Cafe Medina.  This restaurant was recommended by Lonely Planet and was actually a good choice.  It was a dark, small restaurant with cheap, good food and a nice waiter.  Afterwards, we walked around the medina again to see it at night- just as annoying and even more sketchy- and then sat down at a small cafe for what Carter and I started calling “floaters”; green tea with mint leaves floating in it.  We were only hassled 3-4 times on the way home, but bought a few things for the Irish friends of Carter’s who would be hosting us in Belfast.  Falling asleep that night was hard because we both had napped, so we wound up talking for a while before just fading out.  In Morocco, I had very bizarre dreams and woke up make times throughout the night.  We both did actually and the next day we agreed it was from all the stimuli and sensory overload from our daily travels and encounters.  

Wednesday: We woke up early to eat breakfast, Carter was right, I discovered it to be tres continental.  Basically carbs and boiled eggs.  However this was unimportant because we were heading off afterwards for our cooking lesson in the restaurant!  A man from the restaurant, Restaurant Asmae, came to our hotel to pick us up at 930AM.  We walked through the now-familiar medina to reach the small alley it was located on.  The owner, our transporter, and several women had gathered around the door.  The lock had jammed on the very old door, and the age old question came over the subsequent 30 minutes: How many Moroccans does it take to open a door?  Kicking, hammering, twisting, turning, pounding, pulling.  As an American in Morocco, Carter even trued using a credit card to fix the problem, but the door still wouldnt open.  Eventually, a man came and used tools to open it and we entered to begin our cooking lesson in the upstairs kitchen.  Four Moroccan women and the two male owners introduced us to their kitchen and began having us peel carrots, turnip, onions, etc.  We conversed very badly in French and English with the women about what spices to use, how to and how to not use a pressure cooker and how to use a paring knife.  Overall, we learned how to make couscous, salade, and tanjines which are meat based dishes.  It was a lot of fun, took lots of photos, and had a brief lunch with the chefs in the end talking about Morocco and what we were all about from London/America.  We were assisted to a taxi after which brought us back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and then to the vile nouvelle train station.  We were a little early so we walked around the French-imperial planned and built ville nouvelle.  It was tall buildings, glassed window fronts, and wide although not clean streets.  Of course, there was Mohammed V Ave- Morocco’s previous king has a street in every city.  This new city was intelligently planned by French protectorate commanders, who wanted to build new while preserving the nearby old.  Still though, the Moroccans demanded independence in 1944 at a time when France was most vulnerable during WWII.  A monument in Arabic and French near our hotel enshrined Morocco’s independence ad those who fought in WWII on behalf of Morocco.

We boarded the train listed on the call boards, track 4 for Tangier.  I squashed 2 dirhams under another train and we settled into our unoccupied cabin admiring them.  Of course, all could not end well when youre in Morocco.  About 5 minutes into sitting alone in our cabin waiting for it to leave, a man with no badge or uniform, in fact he was wearing a sweater and jeans, came by our cabin collecting garbage.  He asked where we were going and we said Tangier.  He seemed concerned and told us that the train on track 5 was going to Tangier, not this one.  We had already settled in and everything, Carter had even changed into his pajama pants.  We had to pack everything up and run down the train car and outside to the other train.  Incredible.  So not only were the screens wrong, but the cabin in the new train was hot, already had 4 people in it (including a 5 year old who would not sit still) and smokers down the hall.  Throw us a bone already Morocco!  5 hours later of this, we arrived in Tangier and stepped outside into what we were sure was a mistake.  Tangier is a full size city, only a small old medina identifies this modern port city as Moroccan.  Sure the cabs were 1980s Mercedes, but otherwise this city was modern.  It had decorative fountains in roundabouts rather than plaster fountains for communal drinking, active nightlife, and wide streets with sidewalks.  This reminded me of Athens or the more decrepit parts of Barcelona.  Even our hotel was a treat, modern, bright, hospitable staff, and 5 floors of very clean and good sized rooms.  They even managed to fit 3 beds in our room comfortably and the bathroom was larger than mine at home.  We wet out around 8PM to hit a cybercafe (to attempt printing our plane tickets for the next day, but found it to be impossible to do in Morocco).  After, we walked to te medina but quickly discovered it was nothing remarkable in comparison to the others we had seen. We were accosted  by what we called a “super-hussler” who offered us access to basically everything that could be purchased in the medina, including drugs, before we could get rid of him.  Apparently it offended him that we didnt want to walk with a perfect stranger or buy things we didnt want, he wound up telling us off in broken English which is always the funniest part.  The plane is taking off in Paris while I am writing this!!  Au revoir Paris!  Anyways, we located another wise Lonely Planet choice for diner, this one called Agadir (like the city in Morocco).  We tried a new type of wine but feasted on cheap versions of all our Moroccan favorites for our last meal.  Back to the hotel and quickly to bed- we had a 630AM taxi to the airport. 

Thursday: The clerk at the hotel was even nice enough to open breakfast 10 minutes early for us to eat before our taxi.  The taxi was on time, although about twice as expensive as Lonely Planet said it would be.  These two things cancelled each other out and both Carter and I agreed we were ready to be back in the EU.  Our flight from Tangier to Paris as good, the Tangier airport was an absolute joke and I would advise all terrorists to use it as an access point to the EU.  Staff was far more interested in the size and weight of our luggage than all of the explosives I had inside of it.  We forgot that Paris is one hour ahead of GMT so we barely made our connecting flight to Belfast on Aer Lingus.  This is the budget Irish airline which s more themed than I would like.  All the staff have Irish accents and names like Karen, Conor, OBrien, etc.  We finished the flight and landed at Belfast, entering the UK for the last time.  Our student occupations had expired but we were still on our valid visas, so we had to get special permission to switch over.  We then proceeded to the exit, where we were  taken into customs and interrogated by security.  URGH!  I couldn’t decide if it was because we were flying from Morocco, or it were flying from Paris.  Haha.  After that nonsense, two Americans went out to the exit where we met up with Carter’s friend Mark.  In high school, Carter participated in an exchange program to Ireland, he came to visit with an Irish family and then 2 Irish students came to stay with him in America.  Matt and Debbie were the two Irish students, we would meet Debbie later on, but Mark is Matt’s cousin who we spend a lot of time with.  Mark was a very fast driver, so we got to Matt’s house very quickly.  We were given a very warm welcome there by Matt’s parents, Leo and Imelda, and the rest of the clan.  Matt’s little sister Eve, his 7 year old brother Kevin, and his older brother Ryan who is still in Uni.  They showed us the room we would be sleeping in and then told us that for dinner we would be having chili.  These were the nicest people I’ve ever met!  Matt was away at work and Mark had to be getting back to work himself at TESCO, so we had a nice long conversation with everybody else before sitting down to a delicious dinner with the family.  Matt came home just in time so we also got to meet/catch up with him.  He is on a very serious basketball team at his school and the big news all weekend was of a slam dunk he made in his last game.  We were given an invitation to see his next game on Saturday!  After dinner, Mark came back to pick us up and we went into downtown Belfast to visit a “continental market” which was being put on for Christmas.  Downtown Belfast was incredible and a welcome change from Morocco.  There was a very interesting mix between old and new going on, but for sure this was on my list of favorite European cities by the time I left.  It was completely decorated for Christmas and the market was a massive arrangement of stalls all around City Hall.  We enjoyed looking in on all of the typical European traditional foods from the continent and some exotic ones too.  We found Matt’s brother Ryan with his girlfriend at the central beer garten, so we sat down with them to chill.  Ryan was one of the funniest people I have ever met, he had a very Belfast-Irish accent and after drinking a liter of beer, he was all wound up to fill any silences in the conversation.  We went home at closing time to stop at Mark’s house and pick up an inflatable mattress for me to use.  His family was charming although Carter knew them previously, I felt comfortable as well.  Never once over the corse of the time in Ireland did I feel uncomfortable with Carter’s friends, everyone included me and by the end, I had met so many great people.  We went to bed after agreeing to not wake up even remotely early on Friday.  

Friday: Carter came to knock on my door on Friday to wake me up.  Imelda had lowered the blinds in the room so I had no idea what time it was…1 PM I was told!  We basically spent the afternoon lounging around, starting with a small breakfast and then an intense XBOX session with the younger brother Kevin.  I eventually talked Kevin into going downstairs to watch a movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It was actually a good movie but I didnt get to see the ending because Matt got home from practice and we decided to go back into town for some Christmas shopping.  For Carter and I, obviously it would be modest Christmas shopping after our cash hemorrhage  in Morocco and the tight Easyjet baggage restriction.  Matt’s girlfriend Harriet, who we had met the night before, came over before we left and we got to know her very well over the course of the weekend.  She was very complementary to Matt and was adored by Matt’s family.  She even helped to hem Kevin’s Ju-jitszu uniform for his tournament the following day.  She drove all four of us into town to go around Belfast.  We saw all of the modern parts of Belfast, things that have been developed and built after the end of what the Irish call “the troubles” (the IRA Catholic v. British protestants fighting).  Also, since EU membership, Belfast has become a large and bustling city from foreign investment.  The streets were all busy and decorated for Christmas and all of the new shopping districts were lit and cosy.  It felt like a small Boston or a large Newburyport.  Harriet couldn’t find any suitable presents, so we headed over to the continental market for dinner.  I had an Ostrich burger and garlic mushrooms!  After a while, it started to get colder so we went home for a bit before Mark joined up with us.  We all agreed we wanted a low key night out, so Mark took us all to his favorite modern pub.  Mark, an Irish man, bought me my first Guiness in Ireland!!  It is true what they say, a Guiness does taste better in Ireland (or at least better than the one I had in the Rocket, a horrible skeezy student bar in Kings Cross).  We all got very comfortable with each other as the drinks warmed us up from the cold outside.  They looked at photos on our cameras from Morocco as we talked about our trip.  Nearly everyone we met got an earful about Morocco and of course everyone we met was interested in what two Americans were doing in Belfast so close to the holidays.  After, we got some mediocre take-out Chinese and went back to Matt’s house.  It was such a nice relaxing day and I dont regret not going into the cityd during the day because it was cold and rainy all day long.

Saturday:  The weekend was much more active, we woke up earlier (1130AM) to go downstairs.  Some Saturday AM cartoons, all very British and Irish.  Matt’s mom prepared a typical Saturday morning “fry” for us all, so Ryan, Matt, Carter, Eve, Kevin, and me all joined her for a very Irish and very delicious breakfast.  Bangers, ham, bacon, soda bread, white pudding, potato bread, fried eggs, and more were prepared, not all that heart-healthy but it was a one time deal.  So delicious!  Over breakfast, I had Imelda explain to me in her own words what living in Ireland was like during the “troubles”.  It was very interesting.  Catholics v. Protestants just doesn’t strike me as something worth its weight in this day and age, but everyone there takes it very seriously.  Imelda says she can remember house raids, the British army patrol, and more surprising things.  She said their current next door neighbor was an IRA target many years ago, and had to move after the IRA came to his old neighborhood, mistook another man for him, and shot the other man in the head in the street.  Matt talked about the residual effects in Northern Ireland today.  There are Catholic areas and Protestant areas that are dangerous for people of the opposite side to be walking around in and even today people are beaten up or shot for being a certain religion. Northern Ireland is a bizarre place, in addition to this unsettled dispute, there is a large amount of robbery among the population.  Mark and Matt’s houses have both been robbed before.  Also, as Northern Ireland is part of the UK, Britain sets most of the rules and standards for the local laws but recently all the dominions (Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland, England) have been given more autonomy.  For instance, the Bank of Northern Ireland and the Bank of Scotland issue different notes than England, so I was surprised one night to see an “Irish Pound” for the first time.  Apparently, if you take an Irish Pound to Scotland as we are doing tomorrow, there is a chance they wont take it in some shops and restaurants.  Again, the UK is a bizarre and confounding place.  I think Connecticut should mint its own bills from now on.  

Imelda made me smile so many times over our time in her home, she would say things that were so Irish I had no choice but to laugh.  Lots of references to “Jesus Christ” and the “man in the moon” .  We thanked her for a great breakfast and went upstairs for another XBOX tournament with Kevin.  In the afternoon, Matt took us into town to see a few sights, like the “Titanic Quarter” which is an area of Belfast under redevelopment.  The Titanic was built in Belfast and the two docks that were built TO build the massive ship are still standing.  All around these two yellow dock is an area being turned into a work-live-play development.  We parked and walked into the construction zone to get close to the water.  I have photos, the size of the dock cranes give you a god idea of just how large the Titanic must have been.  In the abandoned lot, Matt let Carter try driving and then once he got a feel for the manual he took it out onto the road.  Driving on the wrong side!  He only messed up once in the beginning, by trying to exit the parking lot on the correct side of the barriers.  I dont know how to drive manual, so I thought it would be too many new things at once.  We went home after that to let Matt get to his basketball game warmup while we showered and relaxed.  I spent some time with Leo+Kevin watching British TV…we were able to have a lengthy conversation about “The X-Factor” (American Idol) and “Im a Celebrity…now get me out of here!” (Survivor) because of the time I had spent with the British family earlier in the semester.  The guys, Carter, Ryan, Leo, and I carpooled to the game at Matt’s University at 630PM.  It was Ulster U vs. a team from Dublin and it was actually a close game…as opposed to pretty much every other basketball game I’ve been to in the past five years (EMILY!).  They lost unfortunately, but Matt had a good game as a reliever .  You dont have to go to Ulster University to be on the team, so some of the players wound up being quite old and there were two guest American players (who did most of the scoring haha!).  After the game, a team house party was held at one of the American players’ house.  Before, we went to a pizza sop to get dinner, very Irish of course.  We arrived at the party and were the awkward American-Irish clique in the corner eating pizza!  But it got more comfortable after a while, and being American isnt all that exotic relatively.  The whole team attended and part of the girls basketball team as well, which made for quite a packed house.  It was a long night with many many stories I would love to tell.  After, we went back to Matt’s house to have a snack before heading to bed.  

Sunday:  We had an early call so that we could go visit the other exchange student who was part of Carter’s program, Debbie.  Debbie now goes to the University of Central Lancashire in England and just had gotten home for Christmas.  It took about 30 minutes to get to her house in Bangor.  She and Carter used to date, so it was a big occasion meeting her as his friend.  Her family greeted us warmly, enlarging my belief that the Irish are the most hospitable people I’ve ever met.  While her parents went off to make lunch, Carter and Matt caught up with Debbie while I was introduced.  Lunch was great and we al got to talk about lots of inter-cultural stuff, it was so interesting to meet and get to know these students so well.  We went back to Matt’s house briefly for some homemade vegetable soup and Casper (best movie ever) before saying goodbye to everyone and heading to the airport.  Matt’s car started to give him some trouble so Harriet came to the rescue and brought us instead!  We met her parents while her father looked at Matt’s car and tried to fix it.  These two and their families work very well together.  The goodbye with Matt and Harriet was sad.  We had checked into our Easyjet flight to Edinburgh online so after a painless security check and a delicious Starbucks hot chocolate that Carter bought and shared with me, we boarded.  My last Easyjet flight ever!  I intended to hug the pilot and attendants on the way out, it was like saying goodbye to my very close family forever.  The bus to Edinburgh was very easy and it was only a brief walk to our hotel, the Osbourne Hotel which wound up being in a convenient location.  For dinner, we went for Scottish pub food, but finding a Scottish pub open late on Sunday night was hard.  Most had stopped serving food, but luckily we found one that looked legit and not too expensive. We sampled the local fare by ordering “haggis” which is basically mince meat, turnip, and mashed potato separate but on the same plate.  It left a lot to be desired unfortunately, but the rest of the food wound up being more inspiring.  Home early, Edinburgh by night was beautiful and we looked forward to a great day on Monday.  

Monday:  I woke up on Monday morning at 730AM and was slightly confused to see that it was completely dark outside!  I went back to bed to wake up at 9AM to find that it was still completely dark out!  Shocked!  We went down for a surprisingly good breakfast (our hotel cost $22 per person) and then put luggage into storage for the day.  Edinburgh by day was a great, it felt very different than any other place I had visited in Europe before.  It was exactly the way I had pictured it as well, which made me eager to explore thankfully because by this time, I was running out of steam.  All made out of stone, aged perfectly, and laid out in a unique way, Edinburgh was a delight to explore on our last day traveling and it was definitely a one-day city.  First, we walked down to see the new Scottish parliament which is a 21st century building.  After Tony Blair authorized Scotland, Whales, and Northern Ireland to have their own parliaments, Scotland decided it needed a new building for its new governing body.  The building is a very modern, and thusly a controversial, building constructed with wood, stone, glass, and steel.  It is supposed to be symbolically paying tribute to the history of Scotland in some way, but lots of Scots feel the the audaciousness of it makes a mockery of their only bastion of local power.  We went in to see the inside, the chambers were empty due to the holidays.  After, Carter mentioned there was a large hill on the southeast side of the city that would give us some good views of everything.  I agree to climb with him, fairly unaware that the large hill would turn quickly into a steep mountain-climbing adventure.  251 meters later, we were kings of the world!  We took lots of photos and then hurried back down to restart our day and escape the intense lower-stratosphere winds.  It felt like our time in Edinburgh was racing by, in fact it was already 1245PM so we walked back into town.  

The main thing to do in Edinburgh is walk “The Royal Mile”.  Edinburgh is built on and around a small, rocky hill.  The Royal Mile is the road that runs from bottom of that hill, where the British Royal Palace is, all the way to the Edinburgh Castle which was where the Scottish Royalty sat before Union in 1707.  The street today is covered in tourist shops selling cashmere (a Scottish invention), wool, and souvenirs.  The buildings these shops are in though are all unique and remarkable architecture-wise.  Running down the hill on either side of the road, perpendicularly, are what are called “closes”.  Closes are basically very steep and narrow alleys going down the hill into former wastelands, but now are parts of the new city.  These closes are all unique and from the medieval period.  Along the Royal Mile, we stopped to try a tourist sight called Mary Kings Close.  Mary Kings close is an underground close, that was partially demolished in 1753 to build Edinburgh’s town hall.  Before this, the close had existed for centuries and housed people during the plague, was where people worked, lived, and kept their livestock.  Today, all but the 1st and second floors have been turned into caverns and dungeons by the town hall building above, its really hard to describe.  Even some of the front doors along the close are still intact and inside the buildings you can see rooms, windows, and still some remnants of centuries old plaster and wall paper.  One room reminded me of my mom and dad’s room before last summers redecorating!  This took about an hour, so after we went to a Lonely Planet recommendation pub-esque restaurant for lunch.  It was called Monster Mash and we ordered great bangers and mashed…our last ones!  

To round off the day, we walked the last segment up to Edinburgh Castle to poke around before going to the recommended “Scottish Whiskey Experience” to learn about whiskey and scotch.  We learned how the two are made and the vast differences between all the types.  We also got to sample very small amounts of traditional Scottish whiskeys from the different regions of Scotland.  There were big differences between them surprisingly; as the bartender in the tasting room said, they are as different as the regions they come from.  We got into a chat with him as we were tasting, he helped us taste whiskey “correctly” with the swirling, sniffing, etc.  And, we got to learn about him as well, we found out that he is a Scot studying at the University of Edinburgh.  We wished him luck and left.  It had gotten dark out, the Scottish days dont last very long and Monday was the shortest day of 2008.  I cant believe that the year is almost over.  We went back to the hotel to grab our luggage, walked to the train station, and boarded our London Kings Cross train at 7PM.  The train was very nice, we both requested window seats and we even got a table!  In just five short hours we were back in London.  It was strange, being back in London for the last time.  We walked up to Nido to hijack their internet in the lobby for a few minutes before going to our Hostel (called Clink, it was in an old courthouse, haha), to go to bed.  We woke up early on Tuesday morning, had a great traditional english breakfast at a place near Kings Cross, visited TESCO to buy a few things, and then went over to Bedford Square for the last time!  We frantically repacked out bags before our dot2dot van came to get us at 1030AM.  Heathrow…and then HOME.  Just in time for Christmas!

Last Days of London

***Continued

On Monday, I spent nearly all day working to prepare for my last and only final in Politics of the Near and Middle East.  I was feeling pretty confident, so I did a general overview.  At night, I went downstairs to plan out the rest of the time here in London with some friends, to make sure we are going to get to do all that we want to, tourist wise.  I went to bed very late and woke up very early to finish studying, and then went to the written exam.  3 essays out of 10…and it went down smooth.  I am really hoping for an A!  None of my classes will count towards my GPA next semester, since they will all be pass/fail at GWU, so it is critical that all of my other semesters are good looking.  This is not to say that I know what classes I am taking next semester yet, I have not been told by GWU which ones I requested I have been admitted to. URGH.

Tuesday after my final, I turned in my Shakespeare essay and made nice with the Professor, before coming home to work on my last essay of the semester for Modern British Politics!  I struggled to make it through, but I am pleased with the final product!  

Wednesday was a very special day, I did lots of things.  It was my last day at SHINE, and I had caved to the kids, to stay all day with them instead of just the morning.  We did some guided reading, then went swimming, came back for lunch, and played bulldog like we usually do.   In the afternoon, they had a rehearsal for their annual Christmas pageant!  I could not stop laughing as I stood in the back of the Hall and watched the thing unfold.  It was similar to American Idol, or X-factor, where all of the different characters in the Christmas Story performed for judges from “around the world” (the kid who was supposed to be Italy kept screaming magnifico!!).  I am not sure why thats the format, but it was funny and enjoyable as an audience member.  Since their school is pretty diverse too, I guess that takes the traditionalness out of the original story that might be found tricky with some of the Hindu and muslim children.  Everyone loves Xfactor!   In the afternoon before the end of the day, we all had circle time where they went around the circle and each said one nice thing about me.  It was pretty embarrassing, similar to the feeling of everyone belting out “Happy Birthday” to you.  They said I was funny, I understood how to talk to kids, I informed them about America, listened to their mindteasers and jokes, had a nice haircut, told them about the election….it really helped my self esteem.  We took some photos together and then they presented me with a good bye card!  I will never forget some of them.  

After Thornhill, I went over to visit one of the largest tourist destinations in London, that I had been avoiding all semester:  Camden Market.  This is a poorer area of London, north from where we live in Kings Cross.  I would describe it as London’s Grand Bazaar…it was an entire area of little stalls winding around in an undefined area.  Some were selling food from around the world, others were selling vintage clothes and gifts, others we selling trinkets, souvenirs.  It was CRAZY and just when I thought I was done, there was more.  Part of it was an empty lot, turned into a large maze of carts and booths, part of it was an old horse stable that had been turned into seemingly miles of stalls full of junk.  I took lots of photos, but didnt buy anything.  Instead, I walked home to Nido to meet up with friends, to head back out to Hyde Park’s annual Winter Wonderland!  It was dark already, so we took the tube down and emerged into the coldness outside of Hyde Park, similar to New York’s Central Park.  We entered and started to explore.  Part fun fair, part German Christmas market, part tourist rap, we walked around looking at all kinds of things someone could sell to make money.  Hats, wood carvings, bath salts, ornaments, souvenirs, jewelry, you name it, there was a stall for it.  On the food side, everything was German, sausages, sauerkraut, gluewein (hot wine), pretzels, with other fair food.  Candy floss=cotton candy!  It got cold towards the end, so we headed back, I had to wrap up my last paper and get to bed for a long day on Thursday.  

I am not having quite such a long day today (Thursday) as I would have liked, however.  I woke up and took the tube down to Waterloo, to make an early visit to the London Eye!  This is the large ferris wheel, built over the river Thames.  It costs 15pounds to ride, which means about $22.50 right now.  However, it was definitely worth it, for 35 minutes we went over 20 stores in the air to have a long look over the city of London.  It was only partly cloudy and little fog, so we were able to see all the important stuff!   I have lots of photos of course.  Afterwards, I was to meet up with some friends at Borough Market to spend the afternoon poking around one of the coolest places in London.  However, I needed some money to do that with, so I went to a bank to withdraw money, and the ATM ate my card.  Now, I am sitting at NYU waiting for US banks to open, in order to call and have them send me one overnight.  What a disaster…but lets move ahead and talk about whats still to come.

Today, I have my last class of 2008 from 3-6PM.  I cant believe that its actually happening, and I also cant believe that a teacher scheduled a class today, literally two days before everyones supposed to leave, but it is in fact about to occur.  Tonight, I will be having dinner out with some friends, before heading back to Nido to PACK ALL OF MY THINGS!  I also can not believe that is happening…it was just August and I was just arriving.  Hopefully, it will not be too sad, I KNOW I will not be sad to leave Nido housing.  Did I tell you all we were without hot water for two days last week??  It was such a big deal, Nido is giving all of us $45 Amazon.com gift cards to say sorry.  I am thinking a $1000-2500 credit is more in order for how much the entire semester of Nido living SUCKED.  And Dad, it is not just me, every single one of us, 283 NYU students, will not say one nice thing about that building or its staff and services.  

TOMORROW is my last full day in London, and I will try to make the most of it, but I am also tired and possibly without money or a bank card.  I will wake up early tomorrow to go down and see Westminster and Westminster Abbey from the inside, before rushing over to Borough Market for some last minute purchases for myself and people back home.  From 2-4PM we will be having an NYU send-off party at our academic center, supposedly involving food and a “teacher of the year” award to my Middle East Politics teacher.  Afterwards, we hope to get up to Abbey Road to take the Beatles Album photo before heading over to Notting Hill where we will visit the famous Portobello Market and have dinner.  Notting Hill, yes like the movie.  We can go see the bookstore if wed like to sacrifice our dignity!  

On Saturday, Carter and I will be flying out to Morocco!  We will be visiting Marrakech, Fes, and Tangier before flying to Belfast (via Paris CDG) to stay with some of his friends for a few nights.  Real Northern Irish families in Northern Ireland….scary!  And then, we fly to Edinburgh for one night, to visit Scotland, before returning to London by high speed train, spending a night in a London hostel, and flying home to America on the 23rd!!!  I will be without internet from tonight onwards.  Happy Holidays everybody from the UK (and Morocco!) and I will see most of you soon hopefully.

The final countdown

Some of you will recognize the Arrested Development reference!  Anyways, its also true, things are very quickly winding down here in London.  I feel like it is almost beyond my control…like whether I am active or not, the hours will tick away until when I have to leave.  In less than 4 days I will be on a plane bound for Morocco to start my last big trip of the year!  SO, until then I have been, and will be doing, as many things around here as possible.  This of course includes final assessments at school, intermittently between sightseeing in London.  

I would like to talk about some of the remarkable things that have happened in the past week or so.  Last Monday, we had our last Guest Lecturer for our required class.  At the beginning, we were insulted by the NYU staff when they offered us a survey on how to improve the course for next semester…as if they would consider our opinions.  However, I was in a great mood besides that because they had saved the best for last…the guest speaker was a member of Parliament!  Ironically, he should have probably spoken first, because his lecture was all about the ways American and British politics work similarly and differently.  It probably would have enlightened non-politics majors if they had heard it at the beginning, but now in the last session, most people were bored out of their minds and dreaming of their impending return home to large SUVs, measuring pre-made cake mixes in imperial increments, and  paying in US dollars.  I am also thinking about these things, clearly.  Overall, we have not had a better speaker however.  His speech was well thought out, not rambling, and very well spoken.  He also said some things I didnt know as well.  

On Tuesday, I had my final classes in Politics of the Middle East and Shakespeare.  Tragic, but I have to say the last hour after the break in Shakespeare was pretty excruciating.  I was glad to be done with those two, and moved quickly over to the NYU academic center to have a pre-arranged phone interview with Senator Johnson from South Dakota.  I had applied to work for him next semester, and we had a nice talk, but I was warned by the staff at GWU that he will probably pick  South Dakotian…Dakoteon….Dakotite….Dakodegon?  A person from South Dakota.  After the phone interview (how posh to be calling the US and not worry about the charges) I rushed back home to meet up with a group of students who had signed up to go Ice Skating at the National Natural History Museum through NYU.  We took the tube own to London’s “Museum Mile” where the V&A also lives.  It was an outdoor rink, just outside the giant and awesome Natural History Museum, same place where they had fashion week in September.  There was music, lights and a small market that we completely forgot about.  I have to say skating is always fun, no matter how old you get!  

Wednesday I went to SHINE and then headed home to work on final assessment essays…urgh.  Thursday was more interesting, apart from it being the LAST DAY OF CLASSES and my last class in History of South Africa.  This was because our History of South Africa Professor had missed a class due to illness, so he booked a table for us at a nearby Turkish restaurant, and after class we all headed over to enjoy a final lunch together, discussing South Africa and our time in London.  All the beverages were paid for by Professor Judd!  Afterwards, we went to our Modern Britain class (many of us take both), but unfortunately it was not our last, we have one more this week.  

Friday was also a boring day, I spent most of the day working on papers again, but in the evening I took a city bus over to East London (which really is not nice, especially at night), to visit the Burberry Factory Outlet.  This is an interesting story…in London, there is a term for working class people who pretend to be upper class by buying expensive things they can not afford (Like Burberry).  They call these people “chavs”  which apparently I am now, because I bought a few things at Burberry that I definitely could not afford.  Not just for me, gifts as well.  $45 for a scarf?   It was a good pound day versus the dollar, leave me alone.  When I got home, I was told we were celebrating a birthday that evening, and had to leave early simply because I was so tired after my long day!

Saturday and Sunday I reserved for sightseeing in London.  Saturday, I spent walking around the city visiting all of the major shopping areas just in time for Christmas decorations and sales.  I visited the two main department stores in England: Harrods and Selfridges, both of which were overwhelming in terms of size, variety, and price.  I also walked down shopping mecca streets like Kings Road, Brompton Road, Sloane Street, Oxford Street, and Regents Street.  On Regents Street (which was closed for pedestrian Christmas shopping days), I visited Britain’s largest toy store, Hanleys.  This was also overwhelming, 6 floors, 40,000 toys (self proclaimed), and a ridiculous amount of people.  There was even a bouncer to limit the number of people going in!  The rest of London was covered in lights, garland, and some traditional decorations.  I was not impressed however, I would give New York a higher rating for their decoration scheme.  The biggest tree in London is always located in Trafalgar Square…and has historically been a gift from Norway.  Well, I think Scroogway must be feeling the credit crunch too, that tree was the most pitiful thing I have ever seen.  Overall, it was a nice day, but thoroughly exhausting.  

Sunday was another sightseeing day in London.  Very productively, I woke up early to go on the train from Waterloo out to Hampton Court Palace!  This was originally Henry VIII’s palace, built almost 500 years ago.  It was a great time, walking around and seeing the outside of this very authentic castle.  There were stone courtyards, a fancy clock, dark passageways, etc etc.  One tour focused on Henry’s castle, which was built as one of many for the great King.  The, another tour took you on the “Queen’s Palace”, which included socializing rooms, bedchambers, and more.  Lastly, another tour took you through other Kings’ versions of the palace, especially the Georgians who redecorated and expanded the palace.  Everything was decorated and there was an audio guide tour that I used when I thought necessary.  The particular weekend I went, they were opening the “Tudour kitchens” which showed how Henry’s massive entourage was fed as they travelled the country.  Massive stone fireplaces, a full butchers shop, and a large wine cellar were the best part.  Outside, are traditional gardens, but since it is December a little imagination was necessary to make them seem as grand as they should have been.  Lots of good pictures, and the sun even came out for some reason.  Hampton Court Palace is also famous for its authentic MAZE which is smaller than I thought it would be, but even more fun than I was told.  It is like in the Shining, made of tall groomed pine bushes, and railings so you cant cheat!  The key is to always go right when given the choice.  I went back to London as the sun was setting, and I had hoped to also make it to visit the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Parliament Houses, but everything had closed by the time I got back.  The seasonal German Christmas market was open however on the South Bank, so I took a walk through there before tubing it back home for the night.  I finished my Shakespeare essay!!

***BREAK, rest your eyes!

A Weekend in the Country: HOST

Last week was a very uneventful one until the weekend.  On Monday we didnt even have a required lecture event, but on Wednesday I did have to attend a movie showing for my South African History Class.  You may have seen the film, it was about the Apartheid period in South Africa in the mid-20th Century.  Cry Freedom starring Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline.  It was actually quite good, we watched it in our NIDO “movie theater” which is simply a desolate room filled with bean bag chairs and a projector. 

Back in the USA, all of you were enjoying a three day week for Thanksgiving!  On thursday here in London, classes occurred as usual, however for me personally my afternoon class was cancelled meaning that I was home here by 2PM.  I spent the afternoon working on a paper for my South African Class.  It was really really weird being away from home on Thanksgiving, and away from family too.  I was thinking about what usually goes on back home all day long, while I was getting through just another day over here.  Many different friends groups over here got together to do a bootleg version of Thanksgiving, all of the kitchens on the floors were full of baking smells for the entire day.  I was invited to join one of the dinners being made be some of the people I usually hang out with here, and it was a nice time.  I brought spaghetti carbonara to the table though, since I had already prepared it and didnt want it to go to waste.  They even had several pies to go along with the large scale dinner already prepared!  Afterwards, we were all too full to go out for the night, so I went back to my room to work on my essay some more, skype with family back at home, and also with my friend in Prague who was feeling equally isolated from the US. 

Friday, I woke up early to go to the supermarket and pick up a turkey for myself!  I was headed off for the weekend to visit with a family in northern Britain.  Earlier in the semester, I had signed up to participate in the UK’s HOST program which is a nonprofit organization that pairs volunteer British families with foreign students studying in the UK to spend the weekend, a week, or Christmas together.  Its supposed to be a culture exchange kind of deal.  I was assigned to a family of five in the northern part of England, in a town called Owston Ferry.  The Oatways included Steve and Janet, the parents, and Charlotte (19), Abigail (14), and Josh (5).  I took a high speed train up to Doncaster where Steve met me at the train station around 1PM.  He drove me to their house in the center of their very small village, while we talked about the area and history of the place I would be staying.  As it turns out, its always been a large farming area, that used to be covered by the ocean and swaps, but was ordered to be drained by a King hundreds of years ago. 

We arrived at their house, and started what would be a very relaxing weekend for all of us.  We spent a few hours getting to know each other before the kids had to be picked up from their schools (Charlotte is at University in Whales).  We picked Josh up at Primary school, and came home ot play with Legos for a while before heading out to his swimming lesson at 5PM.  He is an extremely energetic kid, never leaving much silence in the room at all.  When we got home, Steve decided it was going to be a take out night, so Abigail and me joined him in going to a local “Chippey” to get meals take away.  A Chippey is apparently any type of small food shop that serves fried stuff, we picked up four orders of Fish and Chips and brought them back to eat in front of the TV as a family.  It was my first time eating Fish and Chips…not too bad, lots of salt. 

After dinner, I showered and came down to settle in for what was a long marathon of TV watching…we started with “Im a Celebrity, Get my out of here!” which is a British show set in the Australian jungle, like Survior but with British Celebs.  The only two with names I reconized were an Asian guy from StarTrek and the liberal politician who ran against the current Mayor of London and lost.  After that came “Good Luck Chuck” which I highly recommend! 

I slept in on Saturday, and then came down stairs for a small breakfast and a formal introduction to the Nintendo Wii.  Josh is thoroughly obsessed with the Wii, and so we started off by playing a racing game for a few hours to get me used to the controls and movements.  Its very intuitive, but sometimes frustrating playing with a five year old who always has to win.  Around 2PM we ventured out to the supermarket to gather the rest of the things we would need for our Thanksgiving dinner.  Of course, I was making them have Thanksgiving Dinner with me since I had missed it on Thursday, and they were excited to try it too.  We actualy found lots of things that would be perfect for the dinner, but unfortunately Steve’s bank cards had been shut off by his bank becaus of an online purchase he made earlier, so we had to abandon our things at checkout and go home.  Dinner was still good however, he substitued a few items like Yorkshire Puddings for stuffing, and broccoli instead of corn.  It was nice to eat with the family at the table. That night we watched some more British TV, Saturday nights is when the XFactor is on, which is the show that spawned its American counterpart: American Idol.  It was Britney Spears/American pop songs night, which meant I could actually be a critic too. 

On Sunday, I was woken to a “traditional English breakfast” made for me downstairs, which was three different kinds of meats and scambled egg with salmon in them.  It was quite animal based!  After breakfast, Steve and Abigail took me on a tour of their small village, which has buildings over 500 years old in it.  There is only a post office in town, which also acts as a small food store?   The church in town was quite interesting, and I took lots of photos of the “quaint British town” that everyone pictures when they think of rural England.  If it werent for the cars and satellite dishes, you could easily be in another century there. 

I was taken back to the train station in the afternoon, and took the train back to Kings Cross right near to me.  I spent the rest of the night finishing my South Africa essay and talking to people online. 

It has finally arrived…DECEMBER!  Only 30 more days till 2008 is history!  I am in London for only 12 more of those days, and getting concerned that I still have lots of things around the city that I would still like to do.  I will probably blog once or twice more before the end of the semester with all that I do around town.  There are several exciting Christmas markets going on now, one in Hyde Park, one in Covent Garden, and one right on the banks of the Thames.  Its beginning to look a lot like…winter.  Only 42 degrees today and it will be hovering around freezing at night all week which means snow and sleet are not out of the question.  I wil take lots of photos of my last days in London, and over winter break look for the highlights to be posted on Picasa and Facebook!  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Weekend in Denmark (Excursion to the land o’ Volvos and H&M)

And were off again!  Around 3AM on Friday morning, I woke up to take a city bus over to Baker Street, where I boarded a pre-booked National Express Coach bus to London Stansted Airport.  This was the FIRST time I had gone to Stanstead, and I was surprised at how easy it was.  This was however, the LAST time I would have to wake up in the middle of the night to catch a flight.  It has been a VERY tiring semester, staying awake in the ultra-AM is not easy sometimes.  The flight was just fine, I am basically an easyJet pro by now, so I arrived smoothly in Copenhagen at 10AM, took the metro into the city, and began touring throughout the day while waiting for my friend Katie to be done with school for the week.

It was a full day!  Danish is quite a hard language to navigate, they have the o with the line through it…haha so I didnt even bother with it when I was walking around.  First, I saw one of the large parks in Copenhagen, where Rosenburg Slot is located (slot is a castle).  It was pretty nice, like a large random mansion in the middle of a public park.  Then on over to a former military fortress which was also very interesting.  Now it is a hybrid public park-military offices area.  It had the most Danish windmill I had ever seen.  I guess I had a pretty strong opinion of Denmark before going, because I found myself seeing lots of things and thinking, haha yes that is very Danish.  After that, I went to go see Denmark’s most over-hyped tourist sight, a statue in their harbour of the “little mermaid”.  I was certain it wouldnt be a giant Ariel from the Disney version, but i was thinking it might be a little more impressive.  Just a bronze, life-sized statue of a mermaid about ten feet out into the water.  LAME, took a photo with it though of COURSE…and I waited in line to do it too.  From there, it was a long walk back into the downtown area, along the way I walked along the water, and saw the brand new State Opera House which is completely modern, and apparently controversial for being a blight on the waterfront of Copenhagen.  I thought it was a tad modern for the other stuff around it.  Copenhagen is built on two sides of a river-thing that also makes a few islands and a harbor.  One one side, is the old city and main downtown, on the other side is the main industrial part of town and where the airport and Christiania is located (I will come back to that last place).  Also along the walk, I discovered the Danish Roya Palace, since Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, and the town’s largest church, the Marble Church, which was a great place to go inside to get warm.  Copenhagen was FREEZING COLD, literally, all weekend, and during my first afternoon-night there, a good amount of snow fell over everything.  I was NOT anticipating this!  I knew it would be cold, but snow??  I went on after the thaw-out to see the main square in Copenhagen, around which is located the “Magasin du Nord” which is like a giant Macys Department Store, the old State Opera House, and other hotels and impressive buildings.  All of the streets were being decked out in Christmas decorations and they were constructiong a large ice skating ring around the square itself.  Just next to this, is the postcard-famous Nyhavn, which is a long and narrow port, around which are very small and unique houses painted in bright colors.  They were drapped with garland and lit up, because at this point it was becoming evening, and with the snow, it was pretty special.  It reminded me a lot of a town we visited in France in High School, Le Havre.  I worked my way up toward Copenhagen’s “latin quarter” which is where the university is located.  In one of the larger squares, there was an international food market being put on, where everything from Crepes, to cheese, to balsamic, to sausages, to paella was being sold.  I was walking though it all, smelling what I could through my frozen nose, and came across the “Australian exotic burger” stand…for about $7 I was able to purchase my very own Kangaroo burger!  Haha yes, it was weird eating a marsupial.  After that, for some warmth and a chance to sit, I went into a guide book recommended cafe , ordered carrot soup, and worked out what the rest of the day and weekend would be like.  After paying, I went to the National Museum to meet up with Katie.  After we caught up a bit, I went off to explore the “Denmark through the decades” exhibit which was really interesting, and then we left to go back to her house before dinner. 

She is living this semester with a Danish host family, and when we arrived I got to meet them all.  There were the parents, and three children from 10-16 who all were quite nice, and curious about another American in their midst.  We hurried off to dinner back in town, and met up with some of her program friends at an international restaurant.  It was a nice dinner, and it was good to hang out with some non-NYU students.  Afterwards, we had already planned out night out at a large American-filled club in the center of town.  We were able to take a night bus home after this, but it took forever since Katie’s home was located about 50 minutes outside of the city.  During the day time, this is no big deal since the entire country of Denmark (which is made up of about 400 different islands) is perfectly connected by above ground light-rail trains.  The ticket system is a little confusing though, especially after a long night out at the club! 

On Saturday, we slept in and then took a quick bus over to the local grocery store, to stock up on ingredients for Sunday dinner.  We planned to cook “breakfast for dinner” for the host family who had so kindly allowed me to sleep over with them.  We had some success at the store, and on the way back to the bus stop I convinced Katie to come into a bakery with me to check out what they had (whatever it was had a delicious smell that was being pumped out into the street).  I bought a flanky pastry, filled with an almond glaze, and topped with chocolate glaze….I wish I knew what it was called because I could eat it for every meal for the rest of my life.  I couldnt finish it all though, and saved it for breakfast the next day.  After unpacking, we headed into town to finish doing the sights I had overlooked the day before.  The largest of which was the island of Christiania.  This is hard to describe, so jsut try to picture some of this.  Christiania is an area of Copenhagen, it was once a military barracks, but was abandoned in the 1950s.  In the 1960s, a group of squatters broke into the site, and took up residence, declaring the island to be a seperate entity from Denmark.  They believed in anarchy and freedom from laws and government which they saw as failing their former state, Denmark.  They turned the barracks into a commune, where wages were minimal, a strict moral code was enforced purely by the people….etc.  Today, it remains legally in Denmark, but its own independent area within the city.  The barracks have all been modified so to speak, and new houses have all been built hap-hazardly (one is made compltely of windows stacked like cubes on top of each other?).  In the 1980s and 90s, Christiania became known for is largest street (Pusher Street, where tourists are NOT allowed to take photos), which is where many drug dealers and street vendors operate from.  Denmark police are allowed to take action within Christiania, and have cracked down on hard drugs, but more benign ones are all over still.  There is no heat in any of the buildings, there is a communal kitchen and shower house, little electricity or other utilities.  Over a thousand people live there however, and Katie told me that there is a committee who decides if you can join the commune or not.  Because of the increasing value of the land these squatters are living on, Christiania may not be around for much longer, but it was certainly an experience.  My favorite part was a sign next to the exit back onto the streets of Copenhagen: “Now entering the EU.”

After this, we took the metro over to Nyhavn too see the harbor by day.  A row of vendors had been set up along one side of the portside, selling Christmas items and foods.  I tried a Fransk hotdog, which is essentially a baguette with a hole drilled down the center of it, they fill it with hot dog toppings, and then ram the hotdog into the tube.  It was pretty delicious, Germanic people know their cased meats very well.  We bumped into one of Katie’s friends who was out with her own host family.  The daughter in the family ran off to buy a small package of what looked like bent french fries, and while we were all talking she came back up and insisted we all try this “traditional Danish food”.  I took one, ate it, and as I was debating how much like bacon it tasted/felt, the father told me it was deep fried pig skin…I refused another kindly.  From there, we took shelter from the cold in Magasin du Nord, while looking around at vastly expensive clothing and Chrtistmas items.  From there, in the spirit of looking at things we couldnt afford, we exited onto Copenhagens pedestrian only, ATM-void, large shopping street, Stogert.  Many many european clothing shops lined the street, and as it was getting dark, the Christmas decorations came on and the street musicians played, it was a very nice hour or so walking around.  I bought souvenirs, and then we headed towards Town Hall Square which is described in LonelyPlanet as “Times Square as Copenhagen, but dont expect too much”.  The book was right, the square was very large and surrounded by some old, some new buildings, covered in neon blinking signage.  However, I did not feel as if I were in the center of the universe.  The themometer on the side of the Carlsburg beer building told us it was time to go indoors for a while, so we headed into a pub.  Katie insisted I order Copenhagen’s famous “Christmas ale” made by Carlsburg and Tuborg.  Julebeer was not that impressive, it was pretty bitter, but it was GREAT to be indoors.  We decided that since it was getting dark, we would go over to “Tivoli” which was right nearby. 

During the summer, Tivoli is a very large themepark right in the center of Copenhagen.  Famous since the 1800s, it is similar to Lake Compounce with one roller coaster, kids rides, swings, a lake, themed areas and many many vendors.  For Christmas, the turn it into a large “winter wonderland” with all of the cafes and vendors selling moulded wine, crepes, hot cocoa, and many other Chrtistmas foods.  The whole park is covered in garland and lights, it is truely a Christmas world.  It was SO SO SO cold out, we made our way into as many of the little huts selling ornaments and food as possible, just to get warm but also to look at some of the Danish Christmas stuff.  At 8PM, there was a light show around the lake that we went to see…surprisingly it was not Christmas themed?  It was all techno music, lazers, smoke, and stobe lights, but still cool I guess.  We wandered through the rest of the park, taking in the extensive decorations…and then we saw it.  COLDSTONE.  In the middle of a Danish theme park, there was a formidable American ice cream standard shop.  I just had to have some, I ordered a love it sized “Cookie Doughn’t you want some…as if it werent cold enough out.  The one advantage, no line!  Katie opted for some Spanish chueros with soft serve instead.  Everyone who saw us with our food was so jealous, asking us where we got it!  After that, our bodies had no more feeling left in them, so we opted to take the train back home for some dinner and sleep.  We cooked dinner at the house, vegetarian tacos and pasta with pesto…odd but tasty. 

Sunday was an early call for me, because I had decided to go to Sweden for the day!  Rather glamorously, Sweden for lunch!  It was a little complicated, taking 3 different types of Denmark public transportation to get to the ferry in a small town called Helsingor.  The ferry only took 20 minutes, and claims to be the “Worlds most frequently running ferry”…mostly because it is entirely funded by Swedes who are crossing over to Denmark to buy cheap alcohol because taxes on alcohol in Sweden are very high.  After arriving in Helsingor’s sister town in Sweden, Helsingborg, I decided that coming on a Sunday was maybe a bad idea because pretty much EVERYTHING was closed.  There were a few cafes open, having sunday brunch, but other than that, not much else.  I visited the main attraction in town, a former castle that is at the top of the main shopping avanue in town, build in red brick Danish style.  Now would be a good time to mention that at one point, Denmark owned Sweden, Norway, Greenland, and part of Germany in a very large and powerful empire.  They lost it all however, except for Greenland (did you know Denmark owns Greenland??? I didnt) by 1850 and turned towards isolationism after that, remaining neutral in both World Wars.  This isolationism explains why Denmark has kept its own currency, and is extremely socialist and pretty much a welfare state.  I wound up eating lunch at one of the only cafes open in town, mostly because I had taken out Swedish currency and had nothing ot spend it on.  I chose the one cafe in town that was hosting a 15 person birthday party, for a 9 year old girl.  They sang Happy Birthday in Swedish however, so that made it worth all the racket.  I had intended on visiting H&M which Katie told me is originally Swedish, but unfortunately they were closed for sunday…there was no obvious way to get to an IKEA either.  However, there WERE a lot of Saabs and Volvos….not as many as West Hartford however. 

I took the ferry back to Denmark, and spent about an hour or so wandering the small town of Helsingor.  The most famous thing in the place was a very large castle, which is the castle Shakespeare used to create the world in his play, “Hamlet”.  The castle was closed by the time I got back, but it was cool to walk around because it had actually been a very important part of Danish medival history, it had a moat and everything!  The town itself was cool too, but it was getting dark and cold again, so I got back on the train to head home.  We cooked a pretty sorry excuse for “breakfast for dinner” that night.  Omlettes are MUCH harder than I had ever thought they would be, but the breakfast potatoes and fruit salad came out good.  The kids all thanked us, so I thought the effort we put in was more important overall.  It was nice sitting down for a family dinner too, with everyone talking about their days and how their weekends had been.  We had an extensive discussion about Thanksgiving too, which it sounded like they would be celebrating for the first time with Katie this week.  I spent the rest of the night writing thank yous for people who had written me recommendations for internships next semester, and then went to bed. 

The flight home was really easy, and I spent the rest of the day resting and responding to emails till just now!  This week is looking like another busy one, with SHINE, classes, and homework.  Friday afternoon, I am scheduled to take a train up to the Eastmidlands area of England, for my HOST weekend with a British Family.  Their names are Steve and Janet Oatway, and they have three children.  We will be cooking, hopefully, a Thanksgivng feast all together.  I am very excited, and I think that the thing I am most thankful for is to remaining in the UK, and not having to fly on easyJet for a while.  Hahaha hope you all are well, almost December!

Prague- The City of a Hundred Spires

I think that is Prague’s nickname…anyways.  What can I say about this trip, all or nothing I guess.  In the wee hours of Friday morning, a very weary traveller walked to St. Pancras International to buy tickets for yet another journey to Luton Airport.  Seriously, I have made this trek too many times.  I recognize security officials, I have been processed by the same Boarder Control person multiple times, and I have even started running out of books that interest me in WHSmith in-terminal book store.  Hahaha, yet, this flight to Prague in about 2 hours was pretty painless.  The weather in Prague, getting off the plane, was significantly colder than what I had left in London so I was glad I had brought my new Bratislava scarf and winter coat.  I took the bus to the metro into town and wound up at my friend Amanda’s stop, which is just outside of Prague’s “Old City” and center of town.  We went to her dorm and started catching up after over a month of not seeing each other.  We had to put some thoguht into how to spend the rest of the day too.  It got dark so early in Prague, so days were shortened sightseeing wise too.  We walked through Old Town Prague, where we saw the central square (which contains numerous restaurants, a famous fountain, and an even more famous “Astronomical Clock” which I will tell you more about later).  We also saw many other newly restored Renaissance and older buildings.  In spite of how grey and spartan most of the Czech Republic is, many of the buildings downtown are painted pastel happy colors, and contain elaborate mouldings and design patterns that cheer people up.  We went the new giant shopping mall in town, where we went into many westen shops to look at stuff.  This is one of the many examples the communism is officially dead and EU/Western Capitalism is on the upswing in the former communist state.  I took photos and beamed with pride.  We bumped into one of Amanda’s friend’s friend in the mall (he was visiting one of her friends in Prague), and as it turned out it was aslo his birthday!  Later on, she and I were invited to a birthday dinner with his family who were also in town, at the restaurant in their hotel which solve the perpetual problem that is “dinner, where?”  We went to a cafe called “Bohemian Bagel” for lunch, where I had some delicious carrot soup and a sunflower seed bagel that really hit the spot after not eating all day.  We stopped at a grocery store on the way home to stock up for breakfasts over the weekend…the Czech Republic has 24 hour supermarkets, but the UK doesnt which was baffeling to me.  We took a cab from her dorm to Mark, the birthday boy’s hotel, which cost about 200 czech whatevers.  We arrived at the hotel, which was extremely posh, and took the elevator to the top floor to a reserved table for 7 people.  Dinner was NUTS, I got the “Roast goose” which is a special dish that was only being served because it was a holiday week in the Czech Repubic (the week before the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, or the day Czechloslovakia broke up into Slovakia and the Czech Republic).  Mark’s parents are from LA, and must do something very lucrative, because we all were continuously topped up on Dom Perignon champagne, and all ordered very lavish dinners.  Also, the view over Prague center, with the castle and cathedral up on the hill, was like someone at the table said, “just like a movie or studio set” because it was that incredible.  After dinner, and MANY thank to Mark’s parents, we split up in two cabs to go back to the NYU dorm. 

Here is a good story for you all:  We took two cabs back to the dorm, both were four door nothing-special cars marked TAXI.  My taxi took the same route as the other one, and the ride back took about 10 minutes, same as on the way to the hotel earlier that day.  We pulled up in front of the dorm, and the driver told us 1100 czech whatevers.  Since the ride on the way there was 200, we were immediately offended and protested, since in USD that is about $60.  60 bucks for a 10 minute cab ride is obviously highway robbery, so we tried telling him that the other cab, which he literally FOLLOWED only cost 200.  He didnt know english very well, so he kept insisting on 1100, we put 200 in his hand and started to walk away.  He started saying he was going to call the police, so we stopped, and started talking with him again, explaining that 1100 was ridiculous and we were only paying 200.  He started calling someone on his phone, and we debated about what to do, and the official plan became to claim we only HAD 200 on us collectively, and that he would have to settle for that.  After arguing for about 5 minutes more, it was clear the police werent coming, and we started to walk away again…when he said to us in very broken english that he was Russian, and he was going to call a “bodyguard”.  We walked back again, and started arguing again, no one really knew Russian, and very little Czech.  We said again, that 200 was all that we had, and he either had to take it, or we would walk away.  He got back on his phonee, and at this point one of the girls ran inside to get an RA in the dorm who spoke Czech…it was so cold, and the entire street was desserted outside of the dorm.  We started to walk away again in frustration, when he started shouting, and a black Mercedes with tinted windows and high-intensity lights pulled up about two blocks away from us.  Hahahaha now what would you do in this situation?  We literally didnt have 1100 on us, but we also had more than 200, so we offered him all the Czech money we had, and he insisted it wasnt enough.  The Mercedes blinked its lights, and thats when Mark offered him part of his bithday money he had just gotten from his parents at dinner.  It was American money, and the Russian taxi driver opened his wallet and showed us he had about 20 different typed of currency to give us change in.  We paid him, and went inside just as the RA was coming down the stairs.  Needless to say, we al had a lot to talk about for the next hour or so, as we regrouped in the kitchen.  
I was pretty ready to call it a night after that experience, but apparently that is not how the Czechs do it, because everyone else was ready to go out again for the night.  The plan was to go to ”The largest night club in central Europe” and so we caught a tram to the other side of town to check it out.  5 floors of dancing, bars, and different types of music wound up being REALLY crazy, but also made it easy to forget about our near-death experience.  We left around 4AM and took the tram home to fall into bed.

We woke up on Saturday around 10AM…6 short hours later…and ate breakfast and talked about what was on the agenda for the day.  We decided to do a walking tour in my Lonely Planet guide book, that would take us through famous Prague old town, along the river that runs through Prague, and across the river where other famous landmarks are.  We decided to leave the largest tourist trap for Sunday, Prague castle and cathedral.  It was a long walk, but we spent our time quickly by talking and snapping photos of some of the more attractive parts of Prague.  Charles Bridge is also very famous, and a ridiculous number of peddlers line the roads around it, and even over it, trying to sell post cards, paintings, etc.  Marrionettes are a big thing in Prague, that I didnt even realize…so sorry I didnt take orders for those before leaving.  We walked across the bridge, and wound up travelling around the other side of Prague, seeing things like the “most photographed water wheel in Prague” and more imporantly, the “Lenin Wall”.  The Lenin Wall is a wall in a residential neighborhood that is heavily graffitied.  During communism, authorities painted over the graffiti regularly to prevent self expression against the state, but every week or so someone would paint peace signs and lyrics from John Lenin’s “Imagine” all over  the wall.  After communism fell, the wall has become a mecca for Lenin fans, and just plain people with Sharpie Markers.  We walked up to the wall to take photos like all the other good tourists, when all of a sudden a car came speeding around the corner blarring its horn very loudly.  It slammed on its breaks just in front of the wall, and the tourist/sheep all turned their heads to see what the problem was.  Just then, a bride and groom jumped out of the can, and an entire wedding procession pulled up in a van behind them.  The minister walked in front of the wall with a boom box, pumping “Imagine” by Lenin and the bride and groom assembled to be married in front of the wall, and all of the tourist, and presumidly a few family members.  We watched the entire wedding, in Czech, but that was how I went to my first wedding ever.  Hahaha.  

We grabbed lunch at a nice cafe afterwards, where I ordered traditional Czech food and a Pilsner beer…very Czech to do this, so I gave in.  After THAT, it started to get dark, so we took the tram to the other side of the river, and began walking along the river bank down to Prague’s “second castle”.  Situated up on top of a tall hill, this is where S+S Peter and Paul Cathedral is located, as well as the old city fort.  The walk was long and cold, but the views out over Prague at night were very cool.  We took the metro home in time for a quick but nice dinner at a local international restaurant by Amandas apartment.   Now, I was ready for a nice, quite, and early evening in after all of this….but NOPE, out we went again!  This time, to a different bar with live music and an upstairs dance floor.  This place was hot, dark, smoky, and full of real Czech people.  We got home late, and again fell into bed for less time than I would have liked.  I woke up around 10AM again to have breakfast, and while Amanda slept later I went online to read email and figure out how busy I would be the following week. 

After I was able to get Amanda out of bed, I convinced her to go do more sightseeing.  She was sick with a cold when I arrived, so she was in less condition than I to go bounding around the city she had already seen.    We took another walking tour of the guide book, and used the metro to get over to Prague Castle and Cathedral.  This is the big mother of all tourist sights for  Prague visitors, so I was glad we didnt miss it.  We didnt go into anything, but we walked up and down the narrow streets in the walled in royal palace…former Hapsburg territory, when Prage was under Austrian control.  We had a great sandwich lunch as a small cafe, and continued out tour outside of the castle.  We saw some of the other aristocratic palaces built on the hill.  Around Prague, there were lot of locations used in the famous movie Amideus, the story about Mozart.  We saw many of them, but I didnt recognize many since its been a while since Ive seen the film.  We also went to the top of “Petrin Hill” which is where, in 1890 the “Prague Exhibition” was held.  They built a funicular to access the site, and the feature attraction was an Eiffel Tower-like steel tower, which is still there today.  As it was already closed, we didnt go up it, but we did take the funicular down to the river bank again.  We also visited the “Prague Miniature Museum” which is almost too bizarre for me to describe.  After paying about $1.50, we entered a small two room museum there were several microscopes set up on tables.  In each one, were things like grains of rice with words written on them, figures small enough to fit inside the thread hole of a pin, or post-stamp sized copies of famous paintings.  Hahaha bewildered, we continued our tour. 

Back to Old Town, we visited TESCO grocery store to buy ingredients for our dinner that evening, which we planned to make ourselves back at the dorm.  In Old Town Square, I blew a few extra czech currency units on a venti Starbucks hot chocolate which was wonderful, just as it started to rain and get cold out.  Also back in Old Town Square, we were lucky enough to be standing below the famed “Astronomical Clock” at the top of the 6PM hour.  With great anticipation, and about 2,000 of our closest tourist friends, we waited for the mini-show start around the clock as the hour hand hit the 6.  Bang, it chimed 6PM, and then pretty much NOTHING happened, like some puppets came out of their holes, giggled around a bit, and then it was all over.  I had never felt more robbed in my life…it was like making one of those volcanos in elementary school with baking soda.  At least the Astronomical Clock didnt spew chunky junk all over my kitchen table.  Speaking of kitchen tables, Amanada and I went back to her dorm and put on our chefs hats to cook up some of the best gnocchi and pasta sauce we had EVER eaten, before settlign in for an evening of Arrested Development and OC episodes and finally bed time.  I had to leave for the airport around 4:30AM and made it back to London and my dorm by around 10AM.  WHEW what a weekend….for more about read the next blog….

What I do when Im NOT traveling

It occurred to me recently that most of my blogs are always about me travelling outside of the UK into Europe of the Middle East.  If this is getting tedious for some of you frequent readers, then this blog is for YOU.  I hope though, that no one really is getting tired of my excursion blogs, because right after this I am going to write one about Prague, and then I Copenhagen/Sweden is this weekend so expect that up on Monday night. 

Anyways, I want to take us back to before Fall Break, that whirlwind experience, to the week before.  This was the last week of October, and includes many interesting London moments that I had.  ON Monday night, as a part of our Lecture Series, a man came to talk with us about the British Museum and its place in the world’s conception of Britain.  He emphasized what comes to mind when non-British people think about Britain, and how that is changing as Britain modernizes and becomes a center of culture again.  Not too interesting, but worth mentioning since he was a Lord in British Parliament!  On Tuesday night, something just as remarkable occurred here in London: it snowed.  People went CRAZY in Nido, you would have thought Obama had already won the election.  Wednesday I didnt have to go to SHINE, because British kids get the last week of October off…I have no idea why, but I got to sleep in which was sweet.  I spent the day getting ahead on homework, and that night was Halloween Eve!  A bunch of friends and I decided to dress up and go out on the town…first to an American Aparrel (clothing store) Halloween Party which was actually pretty lame.  We then made our way over to Shoreditch which is the “club” part of east London.  Everything is cheap, and there wasnt even a cover charge at the one we decided to go in!  What a night!!  On Thursday, I woke up to prepare for Fall Break, which included a haircut at the local barber shop (where a very Italian man gave me a haircut), and also giving blood with the National Blood Service.  That experience was similar to the one in Italy, so nothing big there.  The next day we left for fall break!! 

The week we got back, I spent Sunday and Monday pretty sleeping, and doing a bit of homework to prepare for our require lecture on Monday night.  This week, the speaker was a Conservative Journalist who had worked under David Cameron, who is the likely Conservative candidate for the Prime Ministerelections in Britain in 2010.  He is also likely to win, so listening to this speaker talk about London’s history of Conservative government and policy was interesting because it is becoming increasingly relevant in Britain again, after over 10 years of Labour government.  On Wednesday night, many people from the Required class (around 75  or so) had signed up to go on a Field Trip through NYU.  In the theme of Contemporary British Politic and Society, we all travelled by bus (very slowly, due to Kings Cross rush-hour nightmare traffic) up to Hampstead which is a norther bourough of London.  We started with a *free* dinner at an American diner-themed restaurant, including delicious Reeses milkshakes and burgers.  You know you go to NYU when the majority of burgers ordered do not contain cow or any other animals.  Afterwards, we walked around the block to see a play about American Elections.   I have to say, it was not what I was expecting, and I was not impressed.  We got to stay after though and talk the director/producers though, which was interesting.  Friday, I left arly in the morning for PRAGUE!  (see next blog entry!)

This past week, after returning from Prague around 10AM on Monday morning, I fell into bed (with my earplugs) and slept for an additional 5 hours to catch up on the sleep lost over the course of the weekend.  This was probably not the most productive choice, but I think it was necessary.  Monday night, we had yet another Lecturer, this time the speaker was a polar opposite from the last week’s speaker.  He warmed the crowd up with some anecdotes from the popular adult cartoon, Family Guy.  Everyone was laughing, having a good time, and then he revealed he was a Socialist politician. GASSP said the crowd paying around $40,000 each to be in the room to listen to him.  The rest of the hour long talk was spent, by most in the room, either in denile that they were there, or on the edge of their seats waiting to rip him a new one.  The Q&A session at the end was particulaly fun for me, watching many outspoken medical students trying to change a 50 year old socialist’s mind about his political views.  Pretty futile, but luckily it didnt last long and I went home to some delicious Spaghetti carbonera.  Wednesday morning, it took a LOT of stigma to get out of bed for SHINE with the little kids.  I had caught a cold in Prague and was feeling very sick.  We spent the morning, before or typical swim lesson, at a bullying workshop. It was really interesting to see how bullying is a problem for British kids too, and the workshop included an hour-long skit by a British theater troop that included a lot of modern British language and customs I was not aware of.  Wednesday night was another culture-full night, as NYU offered tickets to a large group of students to go see the extremely British musical Billy Elliot.  It was put on at the spectacular Victoria Palace theater, and the seats were actually good.  Thats all I can say positively about the musical…and maybe that the lighting was pretty awesome.  Other than that, it wound up being a show about a town in Northern England during the 1980’s, when Prime Minister Margaret ”Maggie” Thatcher brought about economic reforms that basically closed all of the steel, coal, and manufacturing businesses in the country.  So, a bunch of miners were on strike over these reforms, and one of the miners had a son who decided he wanted to learn ballet (balley, as they say in the coarse British accent).  BALLET?!?!  In a poor mining town, revolting over the British government?  I think the contrast is the spectacle…most dance scenes had around 40 miners shouting and singing in deep baritone voices, surrounded by 40 little girls and Billy Elliot in ballet clothes, dancing.  Hahaha too bizarre for me.  I was again, expecting something different.  Today, Thursday, I didn’t have my usual morning class, so I spent the morning working on a PPT presentation for my afternoon class on the Boer War in South Africa that I delivered later that day…successfully I think.  I am pretty surprised at how much of my curriculum this semester is about the Boer War in South Africa…I guess its a big part of British history, but I feel really silly spending so much time and effort on Britain’s “vietnam”.  Before class however, I had my first phone interview for the internships I have applied to in Washington for next semester.  This one was with the National Republican Congressional Committee, I think it went decently.  I will have more of these coming up.  These past two weeks have been infinitely more stressful due to the application process to these internships, I think Ive applied to about 9 so far.  Also, sigining up for classes at GWU next semester has been more difficult than I anticipated, since I also have to have them cleared with NYU for credit.  URGH winter break better be coming soon, I am running out of energy!! 

In a few hours, I will be flying off to Copenhagen for the weekend, where I will be meeting up with my friend from home, Katie.  She is studying in Copenhagen, and is living with a Danish family (no, they arent all doughnuts, ha ha ha).  We will be able to see things toether like the National Gallery, Christiana (which is a rogue state and full of hippies who protest Denmark and have created their own “independent anarchy based state”), Sweden, a Christmas market, and possibly the Castle where multiple versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet have been based.  Very exciting!  I return on Monday, and intend to leave London immediately for a day trip out to Hampton Court Palace…more next time!

Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest Post.

Well it is sure going to be a long post, so strap in! I am sitting here in my room in London, all rested from an awesome nights sleep last night, and feeling very distant from the trip I just got back from.  Berlin feels like years ago, and so I hope I can remember what we did for the rest of the trip! 

I believe I left off after our day in Dresden, so i will start with our extremely long train ride to Vienna on Tuesday, coincidently election day!  The train right took about 6 hours, we transfered in Prague once which made me laugh because I thought about how I will be going back to Prague in about a week to visit Amanda.  But, we only stayed there for an hour in the station before boarding the second train which was four hours long ot Vienna.  It was a very nice train, with comfortable seats.  I thought it would be the ideal interval in the trip to do some of the reading I had brought along with me, but as soon as I had settled in, I realized that would be harder than I thought.  The train car was almost empty, however in the middle about 5 rows ahead of me, like high schoolers all huddled around kneeling backwards and standing in their seats, was a group ofadults talking extremely loudly.  I listened to their conversation for about 10 minutes, simply because I couldnt help it.  For 10 minutes, and in fact for the entire train trip, they talked about how much they hate America, Americans, Americans abroad, and George Bush, the US Army, NATO, the West, “Brtish Puppets of America” and on it went.  Like I said, after about 10 minutes, I stood up and walked over to them, one was a woman from Morocco, one was a man from Belarus, and two were a couple from Croatia, all talking to each other in their only common denominator: broken english.  I said to them, standing in my jeans and American Eagle polo, that it is a very long ride to Vienna, and that I would ask them to please hold their voices down because I was trying to read.  However, as Dane Cook would say, I said it in a tone and manor that was more “Screw all of you, you are more ignorant than any American I have ever heard speak.”  They quickly realized who I was, and even the black Moroccan woman blushed which brought so much pleasure to me, I cant even tell you.  As an American abroad, I often feel targetted for who I am and where I am from.  However, no country’s boarder patrol has ever turned me away because of the nationality on my passport, and not a single european waitor, hotel clerk, grocery store, fruit market, airline, begger, souvenir shop, museum, bus, or barber has EVER turned down my American dollars converted into whatever silly currency the country I am uses.  I paid to sit in that train in peace, without a 4 hour long Mock-UN Debate going on in front of me. 

The frustration continued throughout the rest of our first day in Vienna, as once we arrived it took much effort to find our way to the Hostel.  Once we checked into the hostel, which was called Wombat’s City Hostel, we decided to head into Vienna and find out about seeing a concert at night, since Vienna is the city of Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, and a whole bunch of other classical artists.  Since they speak German in Austria, it was difficult to find our way into town, and even harder to find tickets to a concert that were affordable.  Anne decided to see a 29 euro show which seemed a little touristy to me so I held off. We went back to the Hostel where I took a nap to avoid feeling angry at all the stupid stuff that had been happening during the day.  I woke up after about two hours and decided to take a different path for the rest of the night, since it was election night!  Staying up to watch the results seemed to be an event that my life has been directed towards for years now, like a destiny, co-anchored by Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Coopper on CNN.  I also decided that to have the most fun, I would be better off making some friends at the Hostel!  Wombats was a very social hostel, which usually I dont like, but this time it was good because I immediately met some very friendly Austrailians, Canadians, and Americans, who were interested in the election and were already all hanging out.  We watched some TV in between flipping back to CNN, and ate dinner together in the lounge.  The hostel also had a lounge/bar downstairs which was stuffed with people staying at the hostel and so we moved downstairs once the music started and the night go going!  Around 12AM or so most people started going out for the night or going to bed, so the Americans all went back upstairs to begin settling in for what seemed like it was going to be a very long night.  We were 6 hours ahead of the east coast, so at 12AM our time Alaskans were just about 10 hours behind us!  However, mercifully, the election was wrapped up in about 6 hours, and once we had heard the two big speeches at the end of the night, it was off to bed…for 2 hours. 

Yes, after just another short nap, I was ready to go again after the hostel breakfast with the large group.  The whole breakfast room was abuzz with the results, and all of the Aussies and Canadians were asking us questions about how our crazy election system works, etc.  We thought that the Hostel would be the last mention of Obama’s victory for the day, as we headed out to conquer Viennas many sights and museums.  However, all throughout the day all we heard were people babbling away in their non-english languages, with their conversations punctuatued by “Obama”s and “McCain”s.  Every single publication being read had Obama’s photo on it, and the man I bought my Wienner Schnitzel from even asked me about the election!  Like I said to the Aussies at breakfast (or brekkie, as they called it, what???), the world changed overnight, now we just have to see for better or for worse.  Most Austrians however seem to believe for the better tho! 

I took the metro into town and popped up right in the center of Vienna at St. Stevens Cathedral which is the most famous church in town.  Of course, it was covered in schafolding, so Vienna must be participating in that EU mandate program that requires at least 75% of every historical place in Europe to be schafolded on any given day, hahaha.  Whatever, at this point one of the kids from the Hostel also appeared from the subway entrance, so we joined up and went on a walking tour of Vienna city center.  We saw many famous music houses, including the National Opera.  Vienna used to be a walled in city, so now the “ring road” encircles the city where the walls used to be, and makes for a very picturesque boulevard travelled by cars and above ground trams alike.  The trams were everywhere in fact, and I nearly was hit by them many times because I would nominate Vienna for one of the least pedestrian-friendly cities ever.  We also saw the many Habsburg Palaces around town and also the many famous museums built by Franz Josef before the end of the Habsburg Dynesty in WWI.  We didnt stop in any of them, since the day was already flying by.  We saw City Hall and Parliament, both very impressive buildings.  They were setting up  Christmas Market outside of city hall which included a very large tree, and the windows of City Hall becoming a larger-than-life advent calendar, how cool is that!  I have photos.  We then took in a large lunch at an Indian Buffet restaurant recommended by our hostel, and then quickly took the metro back outside of town to visit the Habsburg’s summer palace, of Palace Schobrunn.  It was in fact like a mini-Versailles and well worth the 10 euro to visit.  The Palace gardens were very autumn inspired, and the grounds extended all the way up a hill to catch a view over Vienna which was larger than I thought it would be, and included a few skyscrapers. 

We went back to the Hostel at this point, where I met up again with the Aussies and Canadaians for dinner and wine.  We then decided it would be a great idea to see an Opera in town at the Opera House for just 4 euros standing room only.  Hahaha so we went, and it was lots of fun, and afterwards we came back to hang out at the hostel and talk.  I am so flad I met them all, hopefully we will stay in touch online.

The following day was a hectic one, since Anne decided (and wisely so, since she brought a rolling suitcase and a backpack) to go directly to Budapest which was where our next hotel was.  I on the other hand had just a duffle bag, so I went alone on a train to Bratislava in Slovakia!   It was a really nice day, I visited a castle up on a hill, saw the main church in town, walked down many clean and well maintained streets, saw the music houses, and learned about how communism impacted Czechloslovakia before the velvet revolution.  I am excited to compare my experience in Slovakia with the one I will have in the Czech Republic in a weeks time, since for about 2 decades the Czech Republic has been much more adherent to capitalism and Western governments than Slovakia has.  They still use a non-euro currency so everything was so cheap (bought a scarf for $4).  I would have liked to spend more time here, but my bag was so heavy I left around 4PM on a 3 hour train ride to Budapest.  Upon arriving in Budapest, the train station is a little ways outside of town, so I had to take a long metro ride into the city and then find the Marriott.  I was looking forward to staying there so much!  Anne had already checked in and had mastered the TV situation, so I simply took a shower, got soem take-away Thai food from downstairs, and lounged around the extremely comfortable room all night watching HBO and looking out across the Danube River view our room had, towards Buda! 

The next day, I woke up early to do a full day walking tour of Pest, or the part of the city on the eastern side of the Danube.  Pest is a much more modern city, both in near and distant historical terms.  Buda and Pest used to be two cities which grew together physically long before they were municiapally united in the 1800s under Habsburg rule of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire.  Pest was really nice, but you could definitely tell it is still up and coming.  They are also not on the euro, and use the Hungarian Forint which means everything is very cheap.  I ate extremely well all day long for about $10 a meal, and museum admissions, subway rides, and even a very large Gloria Jeans Coffee were very cheap (why Gloria Jeans has locations in Istanbul, Budapest, and Westfarms Mall is yet to be discovered). 

I started my day by walking through or past some of Pest’s main sights, like the St. Stevens Cahedral (coicidenty the same as Vienna, not sure?) which was build only recently in the 1800s and was really magnficant inside.  It also contrasted with the large cahedral in Buda which was from a much earlier time, like the middle ages or something.  I saw Parliament, which was also an impressive building from the outside, modeled on the Westminster Parliament here in London!  Before lunch, I visited the Hunagry history museum which took me on a very interesting adventure from around 1000 all the way through to 1990.  The modern history was the most interesting of course, and it is always neat to see how a people tell their own history.  This museum seemed to indicate that Hungary wanted WWI to start, and used the killing of the apparent heir to the Austrian throne to commence the World War.  They wanted the war however, because they were pretty confident the Austrio-Hungarian empire would lose, and that in the aftermath of the war, Hungary could gain independence from Austria because they didnt want to be associated any longer.  Interesting, because that is NOT how the Austrians saw it on Tuesday when I was there!  The museum at the Schobrunn Palace made it very clear that they went to war because they were defending their territory in Serbia and trying to flex their power in greater Europe.  Hahaha. 

Well, whatever the case was, Hungary will never be completely free from its neighbor and onetime co-ruling body.  Austrian influence is clear in Hungarian city planning, food, and customs (german mostly).  I visited the large central market in Pest for lunch, and was disappointed that it was mostly fresh fruit, meats, and vegetables rather than prepared foods like Mercato Centrale in Florence, so I visited a cafe for lunch and ordered stuffed cabbage!!  It was delicious, I havent had that in years.  After, I made the lng way up Ambassay Ter which is the main street in Pest and was refered to as the “5th Avenue” of Budapest.   Alright, I have been to 5th Avenue many times, and trust me, the guide book lied.  The buildings, like many in Hungary, were all blacked from smoke of cars and bombs during the world wars.  Some buildings were still boarded up in fact all the way before Soviet Communism took over and ignored them.  Some were very nice though, and you could tell that in 10-20 years, it really will be a great place, with small trees being planted as I was walking down the boulevard.  I tried to get tickets to a performance at the State Opera House, since they would be so cheap, but there were no performances that evening and I was almost glad because at this point, I was getting tired of culture and feeling obligated to experience it.  I walked to the end of what I started calling “Third Avenue” since I remember how crappy my freshmen year dorm was on Third Avenue in NYC, and came ot the city’s central park.  In the park was a bunch of Museums, for about $3, I went to Hungary’s greatest Fine Arts museum and took a poke around.  After, inside the park, was a castle that was built in many different styles of architecture and bizarre to look at.  The trees here in Budapest were changing as well, so lots of colors to look at, but I was comfortable here in just a teeshirt unlike in Germany.  After grabbing a coffee at Gloria Jeans and again chatting with the help about Obama, I took Europe’s oldest underground train line back to the Marriott.  Anne didnt want to go out for dinner, so I went alone to a cool pub restaurant where I ordered more traditional Hungarian food like guylos soup (goulash soup) and paprika chicken which is like Hunagry’s national dish.  I walked across the bridges between Buga and Pest after dinner for some nighttime shots of the cities!  Back at the Marriott, the Number 23 with Jim Carrey was playing on HBO. 

LAST DAY!!  Once again, I got up early to visit the Buda side of the city.  I walked outdoors, and it was so much cooler out than the day before I had to go bck up to get a sweatshirt!  But only after laying down a bunch of foreign currencies on the track of the tram that ran along the river to have them be squashed by the train.  As I was picking them all up, Slovik money, Forints, and Euros, a homeless man yelled at me in Hungarian, but I thought he was pretty clear.  I squashed about $2 and I couldnt spare any change for him……awkward!  Buda was a much different city than Pest, it is still a walled in city on a very tall hill that was built hundreds of years ago.  It has small houses along cobblestone streets.  There is a large cathedral and a giant palace where the old Hungarian King used to live.  Today it houses the Budapest History Museum which I visited quickly.  That was all I had time for however, since it was of to the airport at around 2:30PM to catch our plane back to London. 

I am very glad everything worked out, and that I have finally seen these five places.  I am also glad I did them all together, as intense at it was.  These five place’s are much better when seen together because they have related with each other for thousands of years.  German food is so much like Austrian food, which Budapest is influenced by Austria in many ways, it is distinctly Hungarian and influenced by the Ottomans long before the Germans ever arrived.  Berlin and Dresden, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest are places I would recommend to everyone for seperate reasons, but I have always wanted to see them, and now I have! 

Next week, Prague.

Dresden Post November 3, 2008

Hello from Dresden Germany! I am on a better computer tonight so this should be more coherent and interesting.

First, the play by play. We woke up early today, and that will not be unique to just today as we are learning. Took the subway to the bus station and then took a very nice, but very late bus (30 min) to Dresden which took 3 hours. We arrived and immediately found it warmer out, which hey, well take right?! The hostel is right near the train station so after a short walk, we arrived at a much nicer hostel than our Berlin one, again well take it. Walked back to the train station to buy our tickets for tomorrows train ride to Vienna, and then took the above ground tram into old Dresden, or alt stadt. We first took a look at this large palace which is one of the only things to make it through WWII in town, and even it didnt fair so well. It is called the Zwinger and it holds many museums. I could not believe how ornate it was, Baroque style straight up. It is a HUGE place, surrounding a courtyard full of green grass. The most remarkable part was that most of the stone has been blackened from bombs going off during the war, which makes the restored portions all the more obvious.

We then walked through one side of the Ywinger to enter Museum Platz which is where the Straatstoper (sp?) is, or the city’s opera house, where I caught the Dresden’s Philharmonics performance later in the day for just 10€. The opera house is the only other structure that made it through the war in a salvageable condition. That symbol is on this keyboard, so might as well use it! After that, we explored the rest of the Alt Stadt which is full of reconstructions of the buildings which once stood there. Most of them incorporate original stones into the modern structures, so the buildings all look spotted. We saw the main church in town, which stood as a pile of rubble all through the GDR Cold War years, and in fact most of the city did as well untill unification in 1990. Funding has been a serious problem, as well as deciding what to rebuild from before the war and what to modernize.

Like I said, I saw an extremely cool orchestra performance at night, while Anne went back to our room. Before that however I took the time to go around the city and capture some of the coolest contrasting images I have ever seen in one place. On one side of the Elbe River is the Alt Stadt which contains much of the old buildings and recreations, but on the north side is Neu Stadt and that is where the Soviets poured lots of money into modernizing the city to make it inhabitable again. 35,000 people were killed during the Allied bombing, and nearly all of the city center, which was once described as the “Florence of the Elbe” was destroyed. Now, in Neu Stadt, there is a large avenue I walked up that is lined with what I could only describe as a long strip mall on both sides. Just beyond this, on the streets that run parallel to the avenue, much more fashionable streets the try to recreate a small town feeling to shopping and restaurant districts. It was hear that I ate in a fairly isolated restaurant that I felt might be good eats. I was right! I has venison, with what I could not tell you since everything was in German and the waitress responded better to pointing than questions. It was good though, and I am glad I went!

Dresden is like no other place I have ever seen, which seems so boring to say after seeing some of the other “truly unique” places during the semester. One could say that about Istanbul, Croatia, London, etc, and I think I actually did. However, Dresden is in fact now on that list too. A city that has been through a modern day sacking, that only the likes of which Rome and Athens can compete with. It didnt fall into the pages of history however, because today it is a small collage of busy streets lined with buildings designed in every style. The opera and Zwinger, built in the 1800s and in Baroque style Enlightenment era. There are renaissance buildings of pastel colors with white trim, built in the 1990s. There is a Soviet designed culture center made mostly of concrete, on the same square as “Alt Markt” which is pretty much a copy of the mall in Providence plunked down in this formerly medieval, walled in city. Walking around Dresden, you simply can not tell how it came to be, but it also doesnt matter because it is so active and appealing to watch. I however, can not imagine living in such a crazy place.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Vienna and another Hostel! Happy Election Day!! We will be following along with all of you in spirit.