Guns, Stairs and God

I now have jello for legs.

Today Mom and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where you can walk up the to various galleries in the dome. It was beautiful as all cathedral's are. I put up pictures of the view from the second of three galleries, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the church. I got to see the tombs of a slew of British heroes-- Nelson, Wellington--yes the guy who gave us beef Wellington-- and Cornwallis. Lots of military men. Also there were a large number of memorials to men lost in particular battles erected at the expense of the British people. It was very different for me to find a memorial list of all British military lost during WWII within a church. I chalk it up to the fact that Britain doesn't have the same separation of church and state that the US does, so the government can erect memorials in a religious setting. The other unexpected part of St. Paul's, for me, was a memorial to the US soldiers based in Britain during WWII. Again a weird mix an of war, state and religion as it was unveiled by H.M. Queen Elizabeth in 1958 with Richard Nixon as our representative-- I know don't we wish that wasn't literally carved in stone.

Then we went to the Tower of London, which is actually quite the complex. Lots of history, just my thing. We took a tour with the jailers (spelled gaolers) who live inside the complex, guard the jewels and give tours, I'm sure they do more but that was the general gist I got. There were lots of weapons and a beautiful chapel. It was quite the interesting time capsule.

As to my legs, I feel like I've walked an innumerable number of stairs today. Up from the ground floor of the cathedral to the galleries, then back down, up and down the various levels of the 20 total towers within the Tower of London, and tack on little spurts in and out of tube stops, and well I'm getting some great/terrible leg workouts. Well I'm off to bed, I have an early start tomorrow for our day trip out to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath.

Lies, all lies

So I almost didn't go to London yesterday/today. My mom and I firmly believed that our flight left around 11pm, also I believed I was staying here until the 8th of January. All Lies! Our plane left at 9:55pm much to our confusion- thank God we made it, even if we only had ten minutes to sit at the gate. Also apparently we are staying 8 nights, not until the 8th. Mommy and I need to work on our communication skills apparently. But no matter we just finished planning out the rest of our week and with the exception of cutting out a trip to the edge of town to go to some of the bigger markets everything seems to fit in the 8 days.

So what have I see so far? The outsides of buildings and the insides of my travel books. We took the tube into town and walked the mall up to Parliament and then made our way over to Trafalgar Square. It was too dark to get goo pictures by the time we got to Trafalgar, but the rest of the highlights are up on Facebook. Also I am pleased to find plenty of coffee shops to maintain my caffeine addiction. Talk to you guys again tomorrow.

T Minus 9 Hours

So I leave later today! bah! It's kinda crazy to think about how far away I'll be, but I guess that's travel. I have so many things to see in London. Of course there will be museums galore, which according to Liz may have some disturbing moments, also the occasional landmark and tourist photo. There's just so much, and while I'm going for a good chunk of time I'm worried I may miss stuff. I console myself with knowing that you can't see it all even if you try, and well it leaves a good excuse to go back! Miss you all already and I'll write back later tomorrow after my first half day of adventures!

Well I guess...

So it looks like Mommy and I have intertron while we're in London, so my blog has a new reason for existing! I'm gonna try and get pictures up fairly often, but at least I can write about my daily adventures here! Mmk, talk to you all in reality and more to come circa Dec 28th.

Bicycle Race

My bike was stolen from underneath my building. I was irritated and then really angry. My bike was locked up well and inside my building in the open garage. So some jerk took the time to cut through my lock while just hanging out in the garage. And I still haven’t told the padres. “Oh hey Dad, you know that nice bike of yours that we had refurbished and you let me take to school?... Gone.” I’m not really interested in telling them, but I’ll have to get around to it.

News of the day!: QUEEN is coming out with a new album. Yes it’s been known for a while that with the help of Paul Rogers, lead singer from Bad Company, they’d be releasing an album, but today I got to read an article on the subject in British magazine MOJO. It’s only going to include two of the original members of the band, Brian May and Roger Taylor (the bassist is “retired”).

I have mixed emotions on this. Queen in its original incarnation is a moderate obsession of mine, so how to sort out this new form? Well all four member of the band used to be involved in song writing and the two remaining actually wrote some of my favorites. Also Queen, by nature, is a love of mine because of the way they re-invented themselves each album. So there’s great potential for fantastic new music but also for a change that obliterates the energetic verve of their past style of music. I have hope, but I’m going to remain respectfully doubtful until I can listen to the tracks myself.
-Sam

Crazy or Coma

My midterms are over! This should really be accompanied by big fire works and and a slow motion video of me crossing a finish line.... well ok a check point at least.

Yesterday simultaneously sucked and was really fun. I had two tests and an in class essay--the icky part. But then at night my co-president and I went out to a camp site an taught girl scout songs to some little kids who had never camped before. This also means that because there was a camp fire I also got a s'more! What can I say, I was excited about the small things. Followed by Carolyn and I making potato pancakes and french fries from scratch and staying in to re-watch Iron Man-- the last time I tried I fell asleep-- so all in all it was a good and cruddy day.

But waking up this morning after a lovely 11 hours of sleep, and we all know how much I love to sleep, I remember telling myself that after my tests were over I could either sleep the weekend away or just go crazy because I didn't have any work to do. So maybe after Carolyn, Paula and I go see Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist (any body else notice they took the first names of the leads in The Thin Man from 1934) I can go out and fulfill that crazy part. I'll let you know if anything worth reporting happens!

Just Keep Swimming

So midterms are officially the bane of my existence, hence why at 1:29 Wednesday night/ Thursday morning, I am not awake because of a glorious adventure to bomb night, but at Grainger writing about Roman marriage law. I know I lead the crazy, unbelievable life that everyone should and does envy!

Random question for the day. I'm reading this play for my Scandinavian Lit class, Britta I blame you, and there's this gendered association with painting being a feminine art while writing is somehow more logical and masculine. On one level I get it, I see how through history writing has received an association with the a rational thought process and in turn has been masculinized in opposition to the perception of women as being led by their emotions and not logic, but when did painting become the pansy art? I guess I missed it, but weren't all the greats men? Yeah there were women artist, and good ones, but when the traditional cannon of art history is discussed, say in a survey course, it's a group of male painters. It doesn't bug me terribly as my favorite painters are men, but when did this feminizing of painting and the visual arts happen?

I think I need less caffeine and a life. Love and miss you both.

Mi Casa es Our casa

So I think we have a house! We'll probably sign for it on Thursday or Friday, but the guy offered to hold it for us after we saw it. It's a very, cute 5 bedroom house on High St. Not terribly far in, in Urbana and has parking. I know it doesn't seem real does it?

My only grievances can be remedied with some paint and cleaning supplies, so there's not much to complain about. It has a nice homey feel and is just right for us. Very Goldilocks, not the biggest or newest, but the bes tone for us. So we'll decorate the place and make it ours. It should be fun!

An explanation

I'm starting this as means to inform my friends abroad about the goings on in my life. Not that I'm terribly interesting, but I like telling someone and I hope they want to hear.

So what am I doing these days? Avoiding homework as usual and now avoiding prepping for tests that I will inevitable kick myself during because I could have better prepared. But there's not much new about that.

What is new? Well I've given in and now liberally listen to country radio. Also, I find that these days as I've been sleeping more than usual and drifting from my formerly fairly productive way of working, not only am I having more bizarre dreams, but I'm growing away from my old self. I'll always have a penchant for sarcasm and a love of coffee, but things are getting simultaneously more simple and more complex. The world keeps getting more complicated, but what I want from it keeps getting simpler. Cliche but in this hectic week it seems all I'm craving are the simple pleasures in life (coffee and cheeseburgers being two fo my favorites) and some knowledge of where I'm headed.

Ok no more cheese. I'll check in later.