Updates of All Kinds

There have been a bunch of updates on this here blog the past couple days. I have been working really hard trying to catch up with photos and the Scotland trip and stuff. Here's the list of posts with new photos:

Good News/Bad News
Me in the Cathedral
We All Follow Chelsea, On to Victory
Scotland: Ends (Saturday)

For those who missed it, below this post are the three posts about my trip to Scotland, I think that they are definitely worth a read. The trip was really awesome and I am so glad that I was able to go and that Vanessa came with.

If you're wondering why I didn't post about my day yesterday, I would kindly like to point out to you the length and breadth of the Scotland posts. I was pretty much blogged out by the end there. Also, Vanessa's camera ran out of battery at the end of Friday so the pictures now up on Saturday were from my disposables. Actually, all the pictures put up except the ones for Good News/Bad News were from disposables. You can tell by the poor quality of the pictures. At least I have pictures. I guess I am a glass-half full type of person.

On to my day yesterday. I woke up and got ready and was out the door at around 8:45. I thought it was curious that no one else was walking there and some people (like my roommates) were still showering but I didn't really ask anyone. Well, it turns out that class started at 9:30. Oops. I was a half hour early. Haha, you would think that by now I would have that down but apparently not. In Sociology in the City, we discussed the myth of Jack the Ripper and how it relates to the story in the East End. The murders were really gruesome and happened in 1888. No one knows who did it and there are still a ton of books written about it. I don't know, I wasn't that interested in the whole thing so I don't have that much else to say about it.

In Senior Sem we talked about some general program stuff. Phil gave me a copy of Wicked to read so that should be fun. We spent a lot of the class time talking about perception and how people react to a piece of art (whether that be music or art or whatever). We have our first theater visit on Wednesday night when we see The History Boys. That should be fun. We were given some worksheets to use to evaluate the play correctly and stuff. Then Phil said, "Art communicates" and played two pieces of music. We wrote down our reactions to the music and what we thought it was communicating. The class discussed our thoughts and that was that.

After class, I got back to the flat and saw I had a package. MY NEW CAMERA!!!! It was like Christmas, my birthday, Thanksgiving, Easter, Channukah, Rammadan, Kwanza, all rolled into one. I was SO happy. I ran around and found Vanessa and showed her. She wasn't as impressed but was still happy for me (she said she secretly hated the disposables, I openly hated them). So that was exciting. Then I worked on my blog entries for a loooong time. I ate dinner (shell noodles, sauce, garlic bread) and continued my work. I stopped and called some people on Skype which was sweet. Then I went to bed.

Today I was really tired when I woke up and slept in a little longer so I didn't shower before class for the first time since I got here which was fine. In Islam vs. the West. We discussed the fall of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century to the 19th century and why that happened. Then we shifted gears and discussed in small groups Bush's Legacy in the Middle East. We talked about homeland security, afganistan, iraq, and this idea of "change" with all the candidates now. It was interesting to talk. Our prof is insanely smart and I really like him. He doesn't use ANY notes and still delivers a well thought out and informative lecture and discussion. Awesome.

I didn't have any bread and didn't want to buy some since I leave tomorrow (!) so I stopped at Tesco (a small grocery store thing) and bought a cajun chicken wrap. Delicious. Then it was off to the National Gallery again for Art History. My prof talked about William Hogarth, an artist in the 18th century and widely regarded as the first real British artist. Most paintings that were bought in Britain before that were by Italians or French. Hogarth went to Parliament and complained of people copying his work so they passed the first Copyright Law. He painted 4 different series of paintings. One was about a harlot, another about a rake, etc. They were all kind of depressing and warned of being bad and that sort of thing. The gallery that our prof really wanted us to go to, Sir John Soane Gallery, doesn't allow groups so she told us to go in on our own time in the next week or two and see it. I didn't go today but I will go when I get back from Italy

Speaking of Italy, tomorrow I leave. We have the play The History Boys tomorrow night and when that is over, Vanessa and I are going to grab our already packed stuff from our flats and head off to the train and then to the airport. We are planning on trying to get a little sleep there before our plane takes off at 6:30 am for Venice. Very exciting. I will get all the necessary info (hostels, dates that I will be places, plane stuff, etc) up tomorrow before I leave. I am really excited and a little nervous (as always). I cannot wait to see all the amazing stuff in those three cities.

Tonight was spent updating all of those blog posts which means scanning in pictures and uploading them. I also read a litle bit from the next book in the Atilla series, Atilla: The Gathering of the Storm. Pretty good so far. I am about two thirds done. I guess that's all for now. Have fun everyone!

Toodles!

New Camera!!!

I got my new camera today!!! Yahooo!!! I will probably take this post down later today when I do my full day recap but if anyone checks it out early today, you know the good news!!! I am so happy right now. Wow.

Lots of updates coming today, Scotland, previous photo updates, etc. Check you later!

Good News/Bad News

Ok. So I have some good news and I have some bad news. I will do the bad news first, just to get it out of the way. Here it comes... my camera broke. Yup. I was hiking (I will get to that) and I wanted to take a picture of myself so I put it on a fence post and it took the picture but fell off because of the wind and landed right on the lens part so now it won't turn on or whatever. To be more specific, it will turn on but the lens part won't extend at all, it just makes a grinding noise and then on the screen it shows E18. Then the camera shuts off. I was insanely depressed but I guess I have moved on now. I sort of wanted to get a new camera anyway, I suppose... Now I have my excuse. On the other had, I'll just say it, it sucks, a lot. That camera has basically been an extension of me since I got it two years and one month ago (exactly, as a matter of fact). It's like what I would imagine not having an arm would feel like. I feel very naked without it. Ugh. So there's the bad news.

More bad news I guess. Because of the broken camera situation, I can't post pictures today and I couldn't take pictures for half my day. So there will be no pictures until I can get another camera. Sorry!!!

Now for the good news! I had an idea in my head last night of something to do but I didn't post about it because the entry was kind of long and I wasn't sure if I would actually go through with it or not. Anyway, I went to Constable Country. That's an area about an hour train ride northeast of London where an artist named John Constable grew up and did most of his paintings. Constable Country itself is a very shallow valley made by the Stour River. That walley (before it was called Constable Country) was and actually still is referred to as Dedham Vale. It's mroe marshy and stuff than I had thought but it was still very beautiful. The most famous area of the Country is Flatford Mill. Constable made a painting of this mill with the bridge and the river and it sold for a ton of money. As a matter of fact, Constable's work is some of the most expensive paintings you can buy now. As I said, he is very famous (wasn't when he was alive though). He liked painting landscapes and sky and stuff like that and Constable Country is perfect for that.

I left my flat at around 8:30 this morning with a lunch and some books and other necessary things but no map of the area. The only information that I really had was some directions from the town of Manningtree (where the train stops) to Flatford Mill. I got on the train at Liverpool Street (picture 1). When I got off the train, it was really cloudy and I was worried because the forecast called for mostly sunny and I really wanted some sun while I was walking. So I walked and followed the directions. Turns out that in January the path is super muddy (picture 2). It made for an interesting hiking experience to say that least. I trudged on, avoiding mud as much as I could. Fields were the main land around me with the River Stour cutting through but they were still very pretty if you ask me (picture 3 and 4). I ended up taking the wrong turn somewhere and walked toward a town with a church spire sticking out it instead. On the way there, I ran into a group of people pheasant hunting. I had heard their gun shots as I was walking. They were nice and we talked for a little bit. I made my way to the church spire. It turns out that the town I came to was Dedham.

Dedham was where Constable went to school as a boy. He did some paintings of the town and stuff from far off. I guess I mean he didn't paint the town but he painted it within some of his landscapes. Constable's father owned a mill in Dedham and in Flatford (the famous one) and another mill somewhere else. John, being the oldest, was expected to take over the family business. He didn't want to; he had fallen in love in painting. So his dad let him. Back to my story, I walked through Dedham, I explored the inside of the church (picture 5) and church's cemetary (picture 6), walked along the main drag (not much to it but I still liked it), and even had a little conversation with a couple of older women who were on a walk in the town as well. Then I continued on my roundabout way to Flatford Mill.

As I was walking, I was thinking about the difference between being lost and not knowing where you where you are going. At this point in my journey, I was not lost, I just didn't know where I was going some of the time. I followed the well defined, and muddy, path but I wasn't sure how far it was to the Mill and all that jazz. I tried to take a detour to another little town where John's parents are buried but I wasn't sure where I was going so I turned around. I crossed over the River on a wood bridge (picture 7). By this time, the sun had come out I was at the top of a hill (picture 8) and it was really beautiful and I wanted to remember that moment so I decided to do something stupid. I put my camera on a small, woobly fencepost and take a timer shot. It took the picture (picture 9) but as soon as it did, a gust of wind came and knocked the camera down right on the lens part. I was devastated. I was depressed. I was really mad at myself. When I was putting the camera on the fencepost I knew it was risk but there wasn't anyone else around and the moment meant a lot to me. Oh well. Life happens. I walked back down the hill and continued on my way to the Mill by walking along the River. I was still very angry and sad but as I walked, those things melted away and I just had to smile because of the amazing scenary around me and the sunshine and the fresh air and the fact that I was hiking again.

I finally got to Flatford Mill and man did I wish I had my camera. I ate my PBJ sandwiches next to the mill, right on the river. It was fantastic. I decided to just keeping moving and not linger too long there. I was still mildly upset about the camera and none of the buildings were open, they are only open on Saturday and Sunday in Jan and Feb. Dumb. I walked my way back to the train station amid sunshine and blue skies. I proceeded to walk to the town of Manningtree inself. On the way there, I walked by a couple of city worker guys. As I walked past them, they looked me up and down and I heard one of them say, "Another one from London, eh" and the other worker grunted in agreement. That was awesome. One of the best compliments I have received. The town isn't much but I walked to the shore of the river. At Manningtree, the Stour opens up really wide before it goes into the ocean. It's a mix of salt and fresh water sort of. So I technically wasn't at the ocean but I walking along a big body of water. I loved it. I love walking by, looking at, and just being around water. It's very calming. I tried to walk back to the train station by another route but ended up not knowing where I was going again (not lost though). I eventually walked around enough to get my bearings (keeping the river on my right at all times was a good help) and got back to the train station at around 4. I estimate that I walked somewhere between 8 or 9 miles today. The train ride back was very pleasant, I had a book and my Zune and the there was a gorgeous sunset. I rode the Tube back and ate pizza for dinner and then read some more (I am devouring "Skinny Dip"). Now I'm here.

You know, even with my camera (probably my prized possession, at least 1A with my Zune) breaking today, this was still probably my favorite day here. That's saying something too. I mean with the Tower Bridge day or the first night I was here when I walked around with Vanessa or almost any other day that's a tough list to be the best of. I just plain forgot how much I love walking around outdoors with the sun on my face and a backpack on my back. I mean, it was just plain wonderful. The same thing happens on the first hike of each of our annual summer vacations. Anyway, i had a lot of fun with one bad spot mixed in. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? We'll just have to wait and see.

Au revoir!