The Litterbox

I've been featured!

2011-07-15T17:34:00.001-07:00

One of my photos has been featured on Life out of a Suitcase -- a travel blog for young women. Click above to see the post!

Another chance to follow me!

2011-01-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Click here to read and follow my new blog, "Sketch Cafe"! :DDD

The Jurymen

2010-10-24T15:34:00.001-07:00

Now available online! Follow link to read it in the first issue of the electronic eJournal, Apollon. It's the featured article, and the first published.

CLICK HERE to read it!

My first review: The Jurymen

2010-08-26T19:02:00.001-07:00

The first full review of my first play, The Jurymen.

'“The Jurymen” is complex and intricate. This play has many of the traditional components of a Greek play, like the Chorus, for example.While many may consider the standard Chorus song to be long and excessive, the songs in “The Jurymen” are necessary, and serve as an opportunity for more popular culture to be incorporated as well as an extension of the storyline. Moreover, I commend the writer for his or her ability to smoothly and comically transition into these songs.

Throughout the play one is reminded of these intentions, particularly that of education. The writer manages to both eloquently and deliberately incorporate elements of Classical mythology, philosophy, politics and history all while discussing the trial of Socrates. For example, on page thirteen the character Aristophanes suggests that a Greek chorus is needed to which Aristodemus replies, “…A chorus would help give the needed melody, which would work hand in hand with verse composition.” This serves as a contribution to the development of the chorus as a character as well as an introduction to audience members who may not be familiar with the significant role the chorus plays in a Greek comedy.

Furthermore, “The Jurymen” is able to remain loyal but also original, in regards to the classic style of comedy, largely because Greek comedies are topical. That is, the jokes are often specifically intended for ancient Athenians. Without knowledge of the social issues surrounding ancient Athens, many jokes are overlooked. “The Jurymen” discusses relevant twenty-first century social issues such as the Al Gore recount and the Texas Board of Education. This is perhaps the most insightful and surprising aspect of “The Jurymen”. A mark of thoughtful writing is found not by the mere inclusion of comedic definitions and characters named after philosophers, rather this mark is found in the writer’s ability to grasp the work of an era.

After being awed by the writer’s ability to successfully understand the larger workings of Greek comedy, the writer then pays an impressive amount of attention to detail. The writer anticipates all potential problems in terms of staging such as stage directions, audience inclusion as well as many reoccurring jokes. For example, the Chorus is from Idaho, which the characters eventually understand to be Ephesus. The mention of Ephesus is made through the play on multiple occasions. The writer even allows for extra time to be given to the audience as they cast their “vote” and decide Socrates’ fate.

It is this combination of large understanding and attention to specific details that deems this play publishable. Moreover, the writer shows a mastery of style in his or her efforts to create a successful portrait of Athens as an “ongoing dialogue”. This dialogue may mirror the philosophy that is so prevalent throughout the course of the play.

When examining the dialogue between the characters, it is obvious that the writer is familiar with classical philosophy and the commonly held beliefs associated with philosophers such as Socrates and Plato. For example, on page 20 the writer allows Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to be introduced. In fact, the writer goes so far as to define the “Allegory” for audience members who may not know. Again, the primary goal of education is achieved.

Despite the amount of praise I may give the writer as a Classicist, “The Jurymen” successfully mocks many of the stereotypical aspects that are often associated with philosophers. This is incredibly evident in the first scene with the persistent mentioning of drinking (mentioned in some 10 pages!), which brings to mind Monty Python’s “Philosopher’s Drinking Song.” Also, the way Socrates’ character talks in circles and has moments of absent-mindedness adds an additional element of depth to Socrates as a character. This separates him from the man in history books.

There are many struggles that one may encounter when developing fictionalized yet historical characters. The viewer has many expectations when concerning philosophers such as Socrates. What distinguishes a historical and comic character from a biased character? To avoid such problems the writer must include significant historical details such as hemlock, which is often associated with Socrates, as well as Apollo’s “accidental” mention of Roman rule.

“The Jurymen” is a well researched comedy that has an overwhelming amount of detail. The “Commentary” on page sixty-one provides an enormous sum of information about Aristophanes, Socrates, and many of the other educational elements of “The Jurymen”. If it is not apparent by the writer’s grasp of Greek comedy that the writer is well-versed in the culture and politics of ancient Athens, it becomes abundantly clear by examining the “Commentary” as well as the works cited by the writer.

I am left with little doubt that “The Jurymen” should be accepted and published. I am convinced that “The Jurymen” is successful in its attempts to first and foremost educate. Also, I feel confident that this play could be performed, and not to mention be well received, at most colleges and universities. It is with this simple fact that allows “The Jurymen” to be an undeniable triumph.'

I'm being published!

2010-08-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

As I have recently announced, a play that I wrote earlier this year is going to be published. For those of you who haven't been in direct contact with me to hear the whole story as it's developed, here's the basic plotline of how all of this came to be:

1. The story begins in my sophomore year, when I took Dr. Schwartz's Classical Philosophy course. I always suspected I loved Plato, but I didn't really know it until then. As Dr. Schwartz was skillfully explaining the cave allegory, he off handedly said: "It would be neat if we could perform this in the Dell (our college's outdoor Greek theater)". Being bright eyed and bushy tailed, I wrote this down immediately, and started playing with the idea of staging such an event in the future.

2. Senior year roles around and I need a senior project. I start out by looking into the archaeology of Greek theater spaces, but soon lose interest and voice to Dr. Cohen my now 2-year-old idea to turn Plato's philosophy into something that could be shown in the Dell. She bravely agrees to let me attempt a creative project for my senior project.

3. As the year progresses, my project begins to take form and becomes a full-formed play based on the trial and execution of Socrates modelled after the Old Comedy of Aristophanes that expresses the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, discussing mostly philosophy of drama and justice. I write a 50 page play complete with a 20 page commentary citing everything imaginable, from verses of Plato to explanations of Athenian democracy.

At this point, all I really hope for is that my professors will be satisfied that I made a creative project academically relavent and let me graduate with my BA in Classics.

4. Everything after that snowballed, in an incredible way. Dr. Cohen and Dr. Stevens (my Classics professors) were in fact so pleased with my project that they not only granted me an A but also submitted for consideration for the college's Best Senior Paper award.

5. In the meantime, I also have the delight of seeing part of the play performed for the future cast of Dr. Cohen's Hecuba. My wonderful actors were several of my wonderful and incredibly supportive friends: Dr. Cohen, Sam Henderson, Megan Barrett, Alex Barrett, Rhiannon Knol, Eric Struble, Lindsay Wood, and Lorenzo Alvarez. Thanks again, guys. :)

6. My project won the Best Senior Paper award for my college, and one of the options I was offered as a result of this was to submit it to Apollon, a new academic journal that would consider my project for publication. I agreed to try for it.

7. In mid June, I got the following email from the Apollon office:

"Based on our initial reading of your play, The Jurymen, we believe that your paper has the potential to be considered for publication. We are interested in publishing material that are distinct both in content and style. However, your paper does not fulfill our submission requirements, as we seek to publish research papers that are within 2000-6000 words. Having said that, I would stress here that we are willing to make an exception and ignore the word limit for your paper as it seems unique and polished."

I do a few edits and sent the play off again, with the expectation of hearing back in August.

8. Tuesday I sent an email asking about the progress of my play. I got the following in response:

"The editors were highly impressed by many things in your work and have come to the conclusion that “The Jurymen” is a highly creative and an exceptionally well written play that strives to educate and entertain both Classicists as well as the average reader. Although we had initial reservations about your work due to its length being much longer than our usual submissions, we are glad we have had the chance to receive your work..."

9. After a few "minor changes", I'll send it back, and they'll publish it! :) It's a small and new academic journal, so it's not incredibly visible, but it's still a big step for me. This whole experience has already been far more rewarding than I was expecting; all I wanted to do was pass senior sem! xD

Thank you so much to everyone who encouraged and supported me while this was coming together. I couldn't have pulled it all off on my own.

I received a review from Apollon, as well, which I will post here in a few moments.

A Paradise in Prague

2010-07-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

Street musicians on Charles Bridge

I've been avoiding writing an entry on my time in Prague because, while I went there to study creative writing, I have a hard time finding the words to describe the experience. In fact, a part of me feels that explaining it at all would only cheapen the experience, but I guess that's a risk I'm going to have to take.

The words I've come up with, so far, to describe my two weeks in the Czech Republic are: underwhelming, overwhelming, welcoming, alienating, inspiring, unifying, terrifying, exhausting, sweltering, fascinating, exhilarating, titillating, and last of all, heartbreaking. And that's all I might say about my many reactions to Prague. Onto the facts of what I did.

On the right: my photography instructor, Jan Pohribny. On the left: Jindrich Streit

First of all, I learned *so much* in my playwriting and photography workshops. I met so many amazing people and got very close to some in the short two weeks I spent there. The feeling of being surrounded by artists who all share that need to create was incredible, and being taught by such brilliant artists was even better. On top of that, Prague is bursting with creative energy and inspiration: a celebrated freedom after the Velvet Revolution and downfall of communism in CZ. During a photography field trip, I had the honor of meeting Jindrich Streit, a celebrated Czech photographer who resisted the communist regime and ban on art and who was arrested and spent time in jail for having a contemporary art gallery in his home (which I was lucky enough to visit). Through my photography class I was able to visit the studios of many renowned Czech photographers, and met many wonderful people that way. It was these visits and that field trip that helped me really find myself in the Czech Republic, and begin to love the experience of being there.

Three playwrights and a poet: Avi, Laura (my roommate, luckily for me), myself, and Aleks

As for my playwriting workshop, I was blown away by the amount of talent present with me three days out of the week. Actually, the amount of talent in the whole program was shocking. We had student readings in a small theater on Friday evenings and the first reading--featuring the illustrious playwrights along with fiction and poetry writers--was incredible. I met so many inspiring writers, in and out of my own workshop. Our class formed a nice group and we went out on adventures, such as seeing Henry IV in Czech at the foot of Prague Castle. Talk about an experience.

The stage for the Czech Circus

Speaking of theater, Czech theater is... wow. It was one of the many things I fell in love with there. Laura and I had the extreme pleasure of going to one of the showings of the Czech Circus our first week in Prague and it was an experience that I know I can't find the words to describe. The basic idea is that it follows the life of two clowns, but just saying that doesn't do the whole thing justice. The first half you're amused and entranced, delighted by the scenes before you. By the second act, you're shown images of beauty and love and hurt so fresh that you forget everything else entirely. Perhaps the effect was stronger since we weren't expecting it; we were just looking for a lighthearted time, but by the end found our hearts breaking. In a way, that experience alone pretty much sums up Prague for me.

But we (Laura, Erinn, Aleks, and I) also got to see a Black Light Show. That was a rose of a different color. It was entertaining and fun, but nothing like the intensity of the circus.

The Astronomical Clock

I saw many sights around Prague, including the Astronomical Clock, Jubilee Synagogue, Dancing House, and Cathedral + Castle. They were all nice, but the tourist area of Prague unnerved me in a way. It was beautiful, yes, but almost too much so. At night it felt genuine, but in the day, it felt like a street in Disney World. It seemed difficult to believe that anyone actually *lived* there; it seemed to be filled with tourists and visitors.

Me with two of my favorites--Erinn and Aleks--at the World Cup Spain vs Germany game in downtown Prague

One of the other fun experiences I got to partake in was World Cup gushing with the Europeans. It was amazing to be in Europe during the World Cup, seeing as Europe actually cares. Like, really, REALLY cares, as they should. Prague was projecting each game in the Old Town square for whoever wanted to come watch, and hundreds showed up. We couldn't pass up this opportunity, and enjoyed a very rambunctious and very exciting front-row view of football enthusiasm. The first half of the game we were mostly on the German side, trying to blend in. By the second half, we'd all switched over the the Spanish side, which turned out to be the right place to be. Viva Espana!

Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, CZ

I got one day of adventurous exploration on my own. There was one place I needed to go outside of Prague: Kutna Hora, home of the Sedlec Ossuary, aka, the Bone Church. Sadly for me, there was a tour arranged to go here while I was on my photography trip so all the people I'd want to travel with had already been. But it was fun/terrifying to figure out the Czech train system and get there all by my lonesome. I walked around a bit too much of Kutna Hora (getting lost was involved) and got to walk through the beautiful pastel Cathedral.

And then the Ossuary. For those unfamiliar with the place, it's basically a church that's decorated completely in, you guessed it, human bones. Most of the bones are from victims of war and plague in the area, and are hundreds of years old. For some reason a nearby monastery had a large storage of these bones just lying around, and then one day one monk took a look at them and thought "I could make me a pyramid out of that," and so he did. And this is reason #27465 why one should never trust a monk.

Kutna Hora Cathedral

And that's pretty much the gist of it. Sure, there's much more that could be said, but I'm not a good enough writer to do it all justice, so this'll have to do. It was a life-changing experience, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral at night. Goodnight, folks.

Attention Recent Grads!

2010-06-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

We've been in school our whole life. What do we do now that we're not longer in that environment? How will we make friends? How do people actually meet other people when they don't have classes to break the ice? Here's a must read article by the wise and wonderful Rebecca if you, like me, are a recent grad nervous about making friends outside the world of academia.

Click to read the article A Relatively Painless Guide to Making New Friends, and make sure to follow her other insightful articles at Musings on Life After College.

Chicago Uncharted: Intro and Lianna Carrera

2010-06-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

As I will be living in Chicago for the next year and wish to keep up with my sense of travel, adventure, excitement, discovery, and blogging (the essentials of life), I have decided to kick-start a project which I will call--until I change my mind and rename it--"Chicago Uncharted". The basic principle is simple and not original: I will document the lesser-known restaurants, shops, people, experiences, etc that I find in and around Chicago that I think are especially worth one's interest, in hopes of spreading the word.

Lianna Carrera, photo by DuckDuckCollectiveBlog

This first installment of Chicago Uncharted features one fantastic female. Her name is Lianna Carrera and I had the honor of attending college with her for one year at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. During her last two years at the college, she treated her fellow students to the budding beginnings of her comedy career, and after graduating in 2007 she travelled to Chicago to follow her comedic dream. Her quick wit and unique view on life (courtesy of being a lesbian raised by a deaf mother and Southern Baptist Minister father) make her a unique and refreshing voice in the world of comedy. She has massive potential and To provide an example, here's a video of one of my favorite bits from her, performed at the R-MWC student center in 2008.

Check out the rest of her stuff on her YouTube account; it's all hilarious and pure gold. In fact, you should probably just Subscribe to her now. While you're at it, Bookmark her Site, Like her on Facebook, and Follow her on Twitter. You won't regret it, and it doesn't take a Macon Woman to know that Lianna Carrera is going places. In fact, she already has! Her tours have taken her to Europe and Africa and back, and Chicago's lucky to have her between her jaunts abroad to rock the world.

Keep an eye on her now, you'll be able to brag about how you-knew-about-her-before-she-was-famous, and everyone will think you're cool. And isn't that what life's all about folks? Help Lianna help you: follow her early and follow her often.

Except, you know, not literally. That's illegal.

Graduation

2010-05-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

I am now a Randolph-Macon Woman's College Alum. It's a bit weird to say, and I'm not sure if I'm totally used to the idea, but one thing is for sure: I had a wonderful weekend. Tony drove down from Chicago and my Mom, Dad, brother, and sister all gathered from Houston, Princeton, and Durham to join me at Macon for my final weekend.

Graduation weekend at Macon begins with the Baccalaureate Ceremony in the Chapel Saturday morning. The speaker this year was Dr. Schwartz, my philosophy adviser, one of my very favorite professors, and overall one of my favorite people. So, of course, we had to go, and I'm thrilled that we did because his wonderful speech made me cry.

Reena and I carrying the Daisy Chain

Later the day on Saturday is Daisy Chain. The sophomores (our sister class, as we are both Evens, aka graduating in an even year: '10/'12) wake up extra early and weave us a chain of daisies. The seniors gather on the steps of Martin and wait while the sophomores walk down the hill singing to weave through the seniors. Once the seniors and sophomores are reunited, we sing a few songs, then the seniors weave away with the chain to the Sundial, where Garden Party begins and we all get refreshments after standing out in the sun wearing robes and button stoles for an hour. It's also a good opportunity for families to meet the professors whom their daughters/sons have known and talked about for the past four years.

Dr. Schwartz, Dr. Cohen, and I at Garden Party

And that concludes the frivolities on Saturday. Sunday is all serious business, when we lose the button stoles and silly hats for honor cords and... well, silly hats.

Our hall: Reena, myself, Megan, Sam, Alex, Kelly on the steps of Webb

Our day began at 8:15 sharp, and thankfully, it began in the Dell. One of the most desired events for a Maconite is to have graduation in the Dell, and that's a huge thing I wanted from the year. After all the shit our class has had to go through, it seemed the least the world could do to make our exit from Randy Mac much more pleasant than our entrance. It looked shady for awhile, and I nearly bruised my knuckles with all the knocking on wood I did all year to ward of jinxes, but thankfully the storm clouds cleared up Saturday night and it was sunny and beautiful all Sunday morning. I can not express how thankful I am for this.

Me with my sister and squire

The reason we had to be up and ready at 8:15 would of course be for graduation rehearsal, where we practiced walking and the squires practiced hooding their grads. A squire is someone whom the graduate chooses to walk with them and drape over their fancy hood in the middle of the ceremony. I was my sister's squire at her graduation from R-MWC in 1999, and 11 years later my sister was my squire at my own R-MWC graduation. I love it when things come full circle; it's the playwright in me.

The ceremony itself was wonderful and featured the 97 year old ex-President Quillian as the commencement speaker (and an all-too-fitting performance of Minnie the Moocher by Touch of Harmony). It was a beautiful day and ceremony, and I'm so happy that so many of the people whom I love could be there. Speaking of the people whom I love, here are just a few of them.

Me, Mom, and Dad

Me with my brother and sister, Jenny and Jody

Caleb, Rhiannon, Kelly, Sam, me, and Struble

Dr. Cohen and Dr. Stevens, my Classics professors and the two best mentors I could ever hope for. Also two of my favorite people, on and off campus.

There are many other people who helped make my graduation special simply with their presence and support, but I'm afraid if I don't stop the pictures now, I will be here all night uploading them.

As for honors, this semester I managed (with a GPA over a 3.9) to qualify for Cum Laude, and graduated with that honor after years of working to recover from a rough first semester, and without my entire junior year to help (since I went abroad, all my credits that year counted as Pass/Fail and didn't affect my GPA). I wore an honor cord from Eta Sigma Phi, the Classics Honor Society.

Also, Dr. Cohen submitted my senior paper for consideration for an award from the College's Writing Board. Out of the other papers submitting, four out of four judges voted my paper first place, earning me the title of Best Senior Paper. After working on my project (a play on the trial and death of Socrates) all year, it was a huge relief and honor to receive such an amazing award.

Oh, yeah, we rocked college.

Appearances online

2010-04-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Click on the link below to read an article from Randolph (mw) College Magazine about Tina Johnson--director of the CDC--, Penny Rozen--a fellow senior--, and myself discussing Katharine Brooks' book You Majored in WHAT?! We also share our chaotic experiences in college that led us to where we are now.

"Connecting the Dots": Experiential Learning Center uses new journey mapping technique to guide students on career path

And click below this blurb for a short listing of my senior project and current aspects for the summer, listed on the departmental news website.

Classics Students Accepted to Prestigious Programs

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Alfred Werker.

2010-03-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

My first movie review! This one is going to be published some time this week in the Sundial and is on Sherlock Holmes (2009).

Downey as Holmes and Law as Watson

Source: Wikipedia

First of all: Robert Downey, Jr. is to Sherlock Holmes as David Tennant is to Doctor Who. In other words, this isn’t your grandma’s Basil Rathbone, deerstalker cap wearing, armchair in front of the fireplace Sherlock Holmes, and thank goodness for that. Don’t listen to what the critics tell you; Sherlock Holmes needed a makeover. Downey’s Holmes provides a refreshing new look at this really rather shady character, showing the audience his rougher side featuring fist fights and drug abuse. But don’t worry, his wit is still as sharp as ever.

But let’s not forget Jude Law’s depiction of the more grounded, less suicidally rash Dr. Watson. Downey’s Holmes and Law’s Watson are an absolute delight to watch, and are the driving force behind the film. Sure, the special effects are great, but if there were a movie that was nothing more than these two men locked in a room together bantering, I’d watch it. The greatest strength of Sherlock Holmes is found in the gem conversations of this star-crossed bromance, and the actors who make it happen.

So come for the brilliant acting of Downey and Law, but stay for the style. Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is the height of Victorian fashion and innovation dragged through the mud with an eye for the rising fad that is often titled “steampunk”. Wild Wild West attempted the look in 1999 and failed, as have many films since then. But Sherlock Holmes is the closest to embodying this grungy fashion without becoming obsessed with the gimmick of it. In the same way, the action and special effects are present and interesting without being overpowering. The movie manages to be a detective movie with a bit of action, rather than an action movie that attempts a bit of mystery.

The plot of the movie is one of the hottest topics among critics. The story does at first seem to be ridiculous, involving a mess of supernatural suspicions. However, an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes might agree that many times the story line is supposed to be ridiculous. It seems both in reading the books and in watching the movie unfold, the more ridiculous the plot line and the more that people buy into it, the more Holmes feels intrigued and prodded into discovering the truth behind the suspicious events. Your average crime won’t hold the attention of this impulsive detective, and you’re expected to know, like him, that the magic is just a red herring: the real adventure lies in uncovering the man behind the curtain.

Sherlock Holmes can be an enjoyable, thrilling experience, but should be approached with the right expectations and attitude. Don’t expect Basil Rathbone. Don’t expect Nigel Bruce. Don’t expect BBC Masterpiece Theatre. Everything after that, dear Watson, is elementary. So if you have a chance to catch it at the dollar theatre, do so! If not, look forward to its DVD release on March 30th.

Reading "Wow"

2010-02-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

I was asked by a campus reporter to submit a story from Reading, something that shows the behind-the-scenes joys of the program and something that made me go "wow"! It took me a day to narrow it down, and while I cut out getting mugged in France, finding an apartment for myself in Athens via a one-in-a-million-chance-rendezvous in a Tube station, and dancing Thriller in silence with the rest of my house in Trafalgar Square, I thought this was a nice moment to relay. Not as epic, perhaps, but it was more relevant to the Reading program itself.

It was a dark and blustery night. I'd been listening to the Beatles my whole life, so just being in Liverpool was a dream come true. But I was beside myself that night because my friends and I were all talking about going down to the Cavern Club, the venue where the Beatles got their start. It was still a thriving club, and we'd heard the night before had had mediocre music, but we decided to go give it a try, if only for the novelty of being there. We fought the wind (we must've looked like those men in the old movies who hold onto lamp posts, it was that strong) all the way to the pedestrian center of Liverpool and finally arrived in the Cavern Club. I think the next moment is a memory that will live in my head forever. As I led the group down the spirally stair case that descended into the cave-like club, I slowly came to the realization that the air was filling with the sound of the climax of Hey Jude, being sung by a live band. When I finally reached the bottom, it was like I walked into one of my childhood dreams: the room opened up from the tunnel of the stair well and exploded in sound as an entire mob of people sang the final words of "Hey Jude" in front of a stage littered in color. To me, that moment was the very meaning of the word "perfection". It was like bringing my parents to the Westminster Tube stop right under Big Ben and telling them to look up right as she starts ringing. Or finding the perfect pair of Wellies while standing in a shoe store in Bath, my current shoes completely soaked through and leaving puddles on the floor. Or cooking Thanksgiving dinner with my housemates, my new found family in my home-away-from-home. Or eating meat pies in a shop called Sweeney & Todd. Or seeing Les Mis in Covent Garden. Or going to Midsummer Night's Dream in the Globe Theatre. Or watching Harry Potter in Leicester Square. Or taking the train into Paddington Station. Actually, it was perfect like spending a year of my life in Reading, England with some of the best people I could ever care to meet. It really doesn't get any better than that.

2009 Recap

2010-02-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here's something of interest. On Facebook, there's an application that lets you see all your statuses from 2009. It's a little late in the year now for reminiscing, but oh well. It makes for an interesting summary.

And these are all phrases because what proceeds it is "Katt Janson..."

January
	is stuck in France. Oh noes!

	has, in the past 24 hours, seen the Eiffel Tower in the snow, ridden 6 trains, sailed across international borders on a ferry, and been mugged. Long day.

	caught some crazy French bug and is sad that Tony just left =(

	http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061673765?ie=UTF 8&tag=icahachfabl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creati ve=9325&creativeASIN=0061673765

	misses Tony

	thinks she'll like the 11th Doctor

	wants her fever to break

	is attempting to teach herself modern Greek

	's sister just had her baby!!! =DDDD

	needs to start getting shit done. ...tomorrow.

	is stressing over her summer schedule!

	really wants a Quiznos sandwich. And a bundt cake!!

	loves sharing in Reena's film noir homework!

	is surprised to find herself a little homesick, and hopes it'll pass soon

	is breaking out the champagne and toasting to a better America

	hates waiting around to hear back on stuff. Am I going to Crete? How much is Athens? Silchester? Answer me!! =(

	is jamming to her new headphones, eating Pace salsa, and anticipating her mac & cheese dinner. Life is good.

	misses you.

	just watched Out of the Past and is depressed about life

	is learning the Thriller dance for Z day.

	thinks she can't return a completely frozen dove to the pet store and get the full refund she feels she's entitled to.

	cannot be contained in a Facebook status

February
	is wishing Tony a happy birthday!!

	is on a trans-Atlantic dinner date.

	so much snow!!!

	thinks failed zombie fall over Brooke = ouch.

	is tired of living in the subjunctive

	@#$&!

	feels a little better after a cup of tea and Sally Lunn bun

	is GOING TO CRETE!!!

	is doing the Thriller dance in London on Friday the 13th whether the cops like it or not. What's the worst that can happen?

	is in London, totally not getting arrested

	made a badass zombie. Take that, London bobbies.

	is the luckiest girl in the world

	needs a holiday

	has a new dream job: Mediterranean Marine Archaeology

	spent a depressingly rare gorgeous day stuck in the library. Stupid sem paper...

	watched a beautiful day go by from a library window. Stupid sem paper.

	can't take much more of this.

	is falling for Neil Patrick Harris

March
	is back from Liverpool, and is exhausted. But the Cavern was so worth it...

	will be uploading Liverpool pictures for days at this rate.

	is legendary

	is apartment hunting

	?

	sings the woes of my dear Angelo.

	is in London with the parents until Tuesday

	has a flat in Athens!! ANGELO LIVES!!

	already misses 153, and she hasn't even technically left yet. Well shit.

	soooo happy to be back home in Reading

	thinks the world's a mess and I just need to rule it.

	is devastated by the thought of walking out of 153 for good today.

	could really use a hug.

	is saying her goodbyes.

	is on to her next stop for world domination: Crete. It's going to be Legend--wait for it--

	falls asleep to the sound of Mediterranean waves as they crash against the shores of Crete.

	fancies a dip in the Mediterranean, with a side of hitch-boating.

April
	wishes she had a MacDoodle day in Crete. Alas, back to soil flotation and pottery washing... Happy MacDoodle Day anyway!

	has had enough of exciting travels and just wants to go home.

	feels better now that she found a bar with free WiFi. Cocktails, ice cream, an ocean view, and internet. Life is better.

	has no other option but to register for fall courses in a bar.

	is absolutely and thoroughly disgusted by the constant intolerance at her home campus. How dare you destroy Macon with your filth.

	is in your taverna, stealing your internets.

	is not joining SG groups. Stop inviting her.

	is in love with Greece.

	is sad that she worked 10 hours today and is now missing the Doctor Who Easter special. David Tennant is happening somewhere, and I am not witnessing it.

	thinks some people should just die in a fire.

	sure hated walking up Death Mountain every morning, but she's never been fitter.

	is on a boat.

	signed the lease for her very first apartment... in ATHENS!

	knows where her towel is.

	still knows where her towel is, and is a little terrified by the Greek Easter. O.o

	has lost her towel. How do you say "My clothesline broke, may I retrieve my pants and towel from your balcony, please" in Greek?

	new email name: indianajans

	is webcamin' it to Garden Party!! =D

	thinks you should follow me. http://thelitterbox-katt.blogspot.com/

	couldn't take the homesickness anymore and is booking a flight home for 2 weeks in June, 13th-26th. See you soon, Houston.

	Make that the 14th-27th. In case you cared enough about the details.

	couldn't take the homesickness anymore and is booking a flight home for 2 weeks in June, 14th-27th. See you soon, Houston.

	is a Feta fan.

	Swine flu? Seriously? This is just the Bird Flu in different packaging. Calm the f*** down.

	is going to miss everyone being only 2 hours off of her timezone...

	wonders if the Greeks know how to celebrate anything without the use of explosives. Her experience so far says no.

May
	ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΟΣ!

	feels alone in her timezone.

	It's been so long since I last heard thunder. Now Athens feels a little closer to home.

	had a good day today. =) Athens is slowly starting to grow on me.

	is bringin' it on down to Omletteville.

	@&$%Artistic Frustration!&*$£

	needs a senior hat. Spartan helmet, Bruce the Philosopher brim hat, Greek guard phareon, or scuba helmet? Decisions, decisions.

	is off on a hike through the mountains of Athens!

	Congrats RMWC c/o 2009!!

	is dizzy with Greek drama.

	Summer papers = not cool. Researching in foreign countries with a limited library and no online sources = very not cool. Moving out of a 'home' for the third time in the past 2 months = the least cool of them all. But Macon group coming to Athens = cool!

	is packing and cleaning. I'll miss you, flat of Angelo in Athens. We had such epic times together.

June
	is celebrating 3 of the happiest years of her life with Tony! =)

	can't stop crying over a stray kitten.

	is mourning the loss of her stray kitten. Goodnight, Thalia.

	You know what? I've ignored the creative side of myself long enough. It's time to follow my dreams and be a writer, even if it means living in a cardboard box.

	is performing in R-MWC's Centennial Greek Play TONIGHT in Greece!

	Well that was... interesting. But hey, we had a great show and we all gave 110%! Great job everyone!

	is down to her last day in Athens... then it's hello Houston!!! After 10 months out of the country I'm ready to go HOME.

	is homeward bound!!!

	is HOME!!!!

	has a fever and a 3500 word paper to write. Welcome home, indeed.

	is happy she went to a doctor, because apparently she was about 2 days away from kidney failure. Awesome.

	is on the mend.

	This paper is going down.

	Suck it, Karfi. Suck it long, suck it hard.

	is making it better with Dr. Horrible and obscene amounts of ice cream.

	You were a crazy bastard, but man you could dance. [Michael Jackson]

	has a new American cell number. Please do not call the old number, as the lady who inherited it is getting a little tired of answering calls for Katt.

	Five countries in five weeks? Bring it on. brb, America.

	is smiling. It's a rainy day in London... <3
July
	I can now clearly see that field archaeology is not for me.

	is happy that she's down to her last two days of digging in the mud and sleeping in a freezing cold leaky tent!

	Damn you, horrible exchange rate! On the plus side, I have a senior hat!

	is in Paris. In case you were wondering, $630=€450=£390. FML.

	is in London.

	is in Dublin, then Edinburgh.

	Et tu, exchange rate? >.

	finds Scotland hauntingly beautiful.

	is off Nessie huntin'!

	MIGHT have seen Nessie... wait for her Scotland album to find out! =D

	will always be in love with London.

	will soon be stateside, this time for good. conflicted sigh

	is back by popular demand. ... yea, not really, but I am back in the US of A.

	is rediscovering the wonder of cheap phone calls. Hooray for the return of convenient communication!

August
	is working on her Hippo books.

	is finding that scrapbooking is messy business!

	is craving gyros, Goody's, Greek salads, and REAL FETA CHEESE. =(

	is a little bit under the weather.

	is off to Michigan!

	desperately misses England.

	is unreachable for the next week, as she is in Michigan and does not have the cell service to communicate.

	is back for 2 days to pack and then off to Macon for senior year!!!

	actually finished and ordered the Hippo books for her nephews! These summer projects are actually getting DONE! How exciting!!

	My life is travel sized.

	lost her debit card, drivers' license, cash, and diary for the past year, but made it to L-burg safely.

	Dear Thief: keep the money, the debit card, the ID. All I want is my diary back. The address is right inside, just send it back to me.

September
	Ah, Mr. 8am Leafblower. We meet again.

	is sooo excited about her Hippo Books!! They look so good!!

	believes no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day. Demand universal health care!

	is seriously considering joining the Peace Corps...

	is Pushing Daisies: because I totally have time to get addicted to another television show.

	A man walks into a tailor shop in ancient Athens and drops a pile of tattered robes on the counter. The salesman looks up at the customer and says "Euripides?" and the customer replies, "Yea, Eumenides?"

	's brain is melting.

	thinks karma owes her one hell of a good day, after all the awful ones she's been having. It's clearly not today. Maybe tomorrow...?

	thinks that this is absolutely ridiculous. I can't handle much more of this semester if it's really going to be like this. I'm done.

	has decided to try and think positive about the next few weeks! I can do this!

	really hopes the sophomore class rediscovers their excitement for school tradition and SIGNS UP for Pumpkin Parade!!

	might just pull off getting these Hippo books published... stay tuned!

	is sooooo excited about Pumpkin Parade!!! =D

	has an awesome sophomore and is off to the Greek Festival. What a great end to a rough week!

	has Greek feta once again!!! =DDDDD Suck it, Wisconsin.

	I am Sparticus. And so can you! But only if you come to the Classics movie night, tonight 7pm Leggett 537.

	, Michaela Gabrielle Margida, and Samantha Henderson are hosting an information session on the University of Reading TONIGHT, 7-8pm in the Ribble Lounge. All are welcome! Come with questions! English Toffee might be involved...

	Information Session Success! Thanks to all who came! =)

	hopes she has enough presents for her fantabulous sophomore!

	feels like a kid waiting for Santa to come and... decorate her door.

	LOVES HER SOPHOMORE LONG TIME!!

	=D!

	"is super fantabulous" XD I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my sophomore!!!

	would like to pass on walking down to Martin in the raaaaain. For the third time today, no less.

	Brian Regan tonight! Go team. go!

	is an avid Ovid reader.

	doesn't know whether she should sport a sundress or a sweater. Pick a season already, Virginia!

	Poll: What should Katt do with her life? Go.

October
	hates campus PCs with the passion of a thousand fires.

	is super excited about her show tonight! For Adventure! Travel! and Excitement! with Sweet Charity, tune into Intermission: on the WWRM tonight at 8:30e/7:30. You won't regret it!

	would just like to know where the stink bugs are coming from. My evidence so far has raised suspicious of a stink bug cloning machine hidden somewhere in the depths of my room.

	thinks that if Texas seriously wants to seceed, it should just do it. The rest of the States won't miss it, and that'd be one less red state to worry about.

	stumbled upon all her high school pictures on her external hard drive, and is torn between feelings of nostalgia and relief that she's no longer in high school.

	Screw you, ModCloth, and your ridiculously adorable, way too expensive merchandise.

	left her Plato at home! Crisis!!

	is getting Cabin Fever. Fall break can't come soon enough.

	misses the sound of a train pulling into Paddington.

	loves starting off her morning with a little John Stuart Mill.

	Yea, Fall Break!!! ...now what?

	is in Maryland.

	is back and counting the days until the next break...

	is nostalgic for an era she never knew.

	Who on earth is Sonu Cena and why does Facebook want me to be his friend so badly?

	How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

	is smart, fun, responsible, dedicated, creative, and a damn good friend. Ladies, be positive! Tell the world how awesome you are. <3

	Stop the world, I want to get on!

	thinks that instead of a new shiney track, this school should've invested in computers that can scan and send two pictures in under an hour.

	is Carmen Sandiego.

November
	Best part of the evening: photoshoot with Pyramid Head.

	wants everyone to tune in to The WWRM tonight at 8:30 to hear the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast! Courtesy of Intermission: and Sweet Charity! :D

	is about to go Live with the Original War of the Worlds! Tune in on the WWRM!

	"All radio is dead, which means that these tape recordings I'm making are for the sake of future history - If any."

	Ob-la-di, Ob-la-dah...

	Happy Guy Fawkes day! Now give me a pint and something to light on fire.

	Congrats to the whole Rocky Horror Cast! Party hardy tomorrow: you've deserved it.

	loves her some Macon Women!! Thanks to the Houston Alumnae Chapter and the fellow Macon Woman on campus for brightening my day with presents. :D

	&%#@ it.

	Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously.

	thinks it's high time Hippo visited DC...

	A father to his 5 year old daughter, after trying to explain how the dinosaurs went extinct: "You're right, it IS kinda like how grandpa died."

	fears the day when last year's experiences become irrelevent.

	Where might one find the Productivity Switch? I think mine's stuck on 'off'.

	Textbooks are taking over my tiny territory.

	Hello, fever.

	Where medication fails, Back to the Future prevails.

	The worst thing about being sick is the lonliness. And the chills. The fever sucks, too. But mostly the lonliness.

	Happy Birthday Alex and Megan!

	is feeling better! Just in time to be Nancy Perrault for tonight's frivolities!

	writing a murder mystery party is totally stressful, but so worth it!! :D

	sees Tony tomorrow!!! :D

	is off to North Carolina!

	needs a refill on her Chill Pill prescription.

December
	Epiphany of the day: Socrates was like the Michael Moore of Athens.

	thinks you're just jealous because her "fucking queer" friends are sexier, smarter, cooler, wittier, funnier, and utterly better than you and your homophobic, idiotic alcoholic, tragically barbaric clique will ever be.

	Dear Doctor, please stop distracting me with your Time Lordian wiles. I have papers to do. Signed, Me.

	keeps having dreams about traveling. Yesterday London, Chicago today, how I wish I was anywhere but here.

	always brings a banana to a party. Bananas are good.

	just got a phone call from her 3 year old nephew saying "Hi Aunt Katt, I miss you" :D

	Cupcakes + Hedgehogs = success. And it's not even the 15th yet! :D Katt <3>

	So much for Forever 21.

	is done with Latin forever and heading home!

	Hair poll: Keep it short or grow it out?

	My next door neighbors are doing Native American tribal dances to a very enthusiastic drum beat. Never a dull moment.

	If that's not Nathan Lane, I'll eat my shoes.

	is still not feeling the Christmas spirit. Bah, humbug.

	Beer, tomato soup, and South Park. Christmas Eve has never been classier.

	omgdoctorwhowtf.

January
	is a little sad to see 2009 go. After all, it was the year of Paris, London, Liverpool, Crete, Athens, Scotland, and Ireland. You've got a lot to live up to, 2010; let's see what you've got.

R-MWC in retrospect

2010-02-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

Jenny and I on the day I moved in.

Jenny Baird, as she was then called, graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in May 1999. She, the world-wise older sister, regaled me, the excitable middle schooler, with tales of her college. At age 11, I was amazed that this small college had a creative writing major, a study abroad program in England, and—this was the icing on the cake—horses! I’m now neither a Creative Writing major nor a horseback rider (though I did make it to England), yet at Macon, in the one year that I did attend Macon, I found something even greater.

Reena and I as first-years, Day II of the strike.

As a senior in high school, I was plagued with a crippling mental affliction: I hated women. I saw women as the older versions of the stuck up, bitchy, rude, and mean girls at my high school, and therefore not worth my time. I also hated being a woman, and hated the role in life that, according some traditionalists with whom I surrounded myself, I was supposed to play. Luckily I had an older sister, and she helped keep that ray of hope that women might one day be redeemable in my eyes. Along with her tales of horses, writing, and England, Jenny inspired me to follow in her mature, intelligent, and caring footsteps and was in my eyes what I later learned had a name here: a Randolph-Macon Woman. I told myself that if Jenny could go to a woman’s college and enjoy it, there must be something that female companionship had to offer; I should give women a chance, and R-MWC was the right place to do it.

Jenny was, consequentially, the first person I called after I’d made my final decision. The conversation went something like this:

“Jenny, I know where I’m going for college.”

“Katherine, that’s wonderful!” There was a pause. “So, if you go, you’ll be graduating in 2010?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You’ll be an even, then.”

“I guess I will, yea.”

“You know I was an odd, right?”

A pause. “I think that might be a problem, Jenny.”

I hadn’t even arrived and already I felt like I had an identity at Macon. But being here was an experience that I never expected. Within the first week, I had more female friends than I’d ever had in my life. There was something about being surrounded by women and hearing about women and thinking about women that helped me see how amazing and strong women really are. It helped me love being a woman, to stand up for and respect myself more than I ever had before. I discovered that the value of single sex education was more than classroom-deep, and that this place was more than just a college. Thanks to R-MWC, I have learned to proudfully define myself not only as a Classicist, a writer, a traveller… but also as a woman. And I will forever strive to achieve that highest accolade of respectability, maturity, womanliness, and class: the title of a Randolph-Macon Woman.

Submitted to the Sundial campus paper in response to a prompt asking seniors for articles answering the question "What does R-MWC mean to you?"

Radio Show update!

2009-09-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

Tune in to the WWRM ('Worm') to listen to our theatrical radio show Sundays from 8:30-9:30 (or 10, as it may often be) Eastern!

Click here to LISTEN to the show!

Click here to READ the show's blog!

If the link doesn't work, go to the blog at the above link, find "Links" on the right site menu, and click on "Listen to WWRM".

Goodnight, folks!

p.s. Just so you know, I'm 'Sweet Charity'!

I found a moment to breathe

2009-09-12T07:57:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Senior Year!

Hi everyone!

Well, I haven't written much in awhile, and now that I'm stateside for an indefinite amount of time, I'm afraid my blog won't be nearly as interesting as it has been for the past year. Alas, I have no foreign adventures to write on now, just my adventures from my senior year at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, VA. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life after college, and I'm guessing many of my entries might be written tackling that issue and my indecision. If you have any suggestions on what you think I should do, please by all means shoot me an email at indianajans@gmail.com. I need all the help I can get.

Conquering the Blue Ridge Parkway, one mountain at a time

But I'm trying to make the most of the year and carry on my traveling mentality to get out and explore more of the local attractions around me. For example, the Blue Ridge Mountains have been practically in my backyard for two years and I'd yet to venture into them. Well, a group of us Readingites decided that needed to change, and last week we went hiking on Otter's Peaks. We ended up walking the whole of Sharp Point Mountain in just a couple of hours, including several breaks, and it was gorgeous. The term 'Blue Ridge' is simply perfect for these mountains; as we were driving in we saw the peak in the distance, and it looked almost like a painted blue line across the sky. I found a place to climb out to get the view above, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen; not even in Greece did I see a mountain vista so beautiful. Everything was shades of blue and green, it was the most calming, seclusive place I've seen. It's what I would image the mountains of Peru to look like, but I haven't seen them, so I'll have to get back to you on that.

Us at the summit!

We made a pact to try and make a hiking journey as much as we possibly can this year. The next two weekends are all booked for us, but hopefully after then we'll get back out on the trails. I'm not sure if we'll get a more gorgeous day than our first one out, but we can try. I think hiking will be a great source of stress relief this year. With all the work already piling up for us seniors, the feeling of going somewhere to be outside where we don't think about those papers and books for a day will be incredible.

Speaking of work, I'm up to my head in it. I've certainly found myself missing those lazy days in England, where I went to class 3 times a week and spent the rest of the time going out on the town, traveling into London, or staying in to watch movies. It seems like I can barely hold onto my time now, and I'm constantly in a state of productivity, constantly on the move. For right now I'm keeping up with classes, but only just.

But I'm doing things this year that I've always wanted to try: I tried out for and joined the school choir, I started a job as a barista in the campus coffee stand, I'm enrolled in a creative writing (screenwriting) class, and I will soon be co-DJing a radio show on the WWRM--the campus radio station. More information on that last point as I get it; the show is available online and can be heard all over the world, so you'll all have to tune in! A theatre friend--Melissa Gilbert--and I are running it, and we plan on broadcasting musicals and recording old radio plays. We hope to cast and record our own version of the original War of the World radio broadcast for Halloween, so look forward to it!

In short, this year may not be filled with train rides across Europe or conversations in broken English with Greek locals in cafes, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let it be boring. I'm hoping to make the most of my last year in college, and after that, who knows? Maybe it's a good thing that I have no set plans for myself. I'm open to anywhere the world takes me for now, and I'm planning on enjoying the ride.

A Cretan Random Happenstance

2009-08-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Dr. Irwin asked me to write up on my experience in Crete for the Tales of Reading website (HERE). I thought I'd include it here, too. =)

Let me start by saying that I love England. Any country that successfully combines tea and men wearing tights while quoting Shakespeare and calls it culture is alright by me. So when I go on to say that I traded my remaining time in England to go adventuring in Greece, know that it wasn’t because I couldn’t stand the place any more. True, it could’ve had a bit more sun, but even so, I was devastated to leave England behind. There are so many things to experience in England, and I returned over the summer because, frankly, I wasn’t done with it yet. I’m still not, and I don’t know if I ever will be.
One thing that I understood only superficially before I left for Reading was the fact that I would be studying at a completely different University for a year. There were many differences between Reading in England and my little college on the hill in Virginia, but one of the things the two had in common was the availability of study abroad programs. I ended up taking an archaeological class with a fellow student from Macon, Sam Henderson, and our professor mentioned that she would be taking several students to Crete in the spring to help her with her dig there. Our ears perked up at the mention of it, and then the question came to us: can one study abroad, while studying abroad? We were full Reading University students during our year abroad, and so when we asked the question to those who would know, the answer was a resounding “Yes you can!” I gave up my hopes to study in a more exotic country to participate in the Reading program, and here I was facing the possibility of having my cake and eating it too. So when we got our acceptance emails in March, neither of us could really believe it. We were going to Greece!
It was strange to go from adjusting to life in one foreign country to adjusting to another completely different place. Neither of us spoke Greek, but after a few days there we learned ‘good morning’, ‘please’, and ‘thank you’, which seemed to be the vital things to know in the small town on the coast of Crete where we spent the next three weeks. We were travelling with two other Reading students, and the four of us became a close group. I’ll never forget spending the days on a hill overlooking the coast while washing bits of ancient pottery and spending my nights huddled around a table in a family-run taverna, eating home cooked Greek food and being fed free raki—the local liquor of Crete. It was simply beautiful, in many senses of the term, and the whole village seemed to know about the four young archaeological women in their midst. As if that wasn’t enough, we got to explore much of the rest of the island on our days off.
At the same time that Sam and I were in Crete, another group from Reading was doing a dig in Jordan, and I'm pretty sure that's an opportunity that's usually available. Reading is great all around, but especially has some amazing opportunities for the budding archaeologist, not only Silchester and not only in Crete, but so many more; all one has to do is ask and look into it. I honestly believe that going to Reading is probably the best thing an archaeology student at the home campus can do for her or his future career. I cannot believe the amount of opportunities I've had in the past year, and I feel so grateful that I took the leap, both in going in Reading and in taking all the chances I was offered there. Why stop when you get to Reading? Sure, just going to Reading is great; but it's a lot more fun to thrive there! As Miss Frizzle of the Magic School Bus used to say, “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!” Who knows? Maybe you’ll get as far as Greece.

Of Monsters and Castles

2009-07-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Scotland was by far my favorite place we traveled over the summer. It felt like I had stepped right into of one of my childhood King Arthur and Unicorns fantasies; the air hung with a misty, heavy atmosphere and abandoned castles littered the hilly landscape. To say the least, it was hauntingly beautiful.

The front view of the GlobeTrotter Inn, Edinburgh

We flew straight from Dublin to Edinburgh and checked into our hostel room early on Wednesday the 22nd. We were staying at the GlobeTrotter Inn, which wasn't in the heart of Edinburgh but ran a shuttle bus every hour in and out of the center of the city. The hostel itself was about 10 minutes out of town in a building that looked almost like an old castle; we even had a beach view! We really lucked out with this hostel and, unlike our musical-bunk room in Dublin-we managed to get the full 6 bed room completely to ourselves for 2 out of the 3 nights we slept there. The rooms were very clean and roomy, and the beds had privacy curtains, which is a real luxury in multi-room hostels. The showers were pretty amazing, too; really, it was a great and cheap place to stay in Edinburgh. I highly recommend it.

The Royal Mile

Anyway, after dropping things off and taking a short nap we took the shuttle into town. We spend most of the first day just walking around Edinburgh, taking in all the incredible buildings and the picturesque streets. We walked down the Royal Mile, visited a shop where kilts and tartans were made in the basement, and got our first look of the Edinburgh castle. Edinburgh is basically a photographer's dream, and I'll probably be including many pictures at the end of this entry. The castle was especially impressive and fun to photograph.

This guy was stationed outside the castle. I don't think they pay him enough.

It started to rain rather hard, so we headed back to the hostel to read and sleep, and set out the next day to go inside the castle. It took us at least 2 hours to explore the castle, it was more like a small fortified neighborhood than one castle. It had a plethora of buildings, including a very nice cafe where we a lunch of pies and roast Scottish lamb. We walked around the inner roads of the castle and visited some of the buildings, one of which held the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Scone, the stone that served as Scotland's throne for crowning royalty since the days of William Wallace. The Stone used to be held under the English throne in Westminster, but, as one of the guards in the room divulged to me in great and enthusiastic detail, the Stone was repatriated (I made the mistake of asking if it'd been 'stolen') by a group of college students on Christmas Day in 1950. The group of 3 men and one woman took the Stone while the English guards were busy celebrating the holiday and took it with them back to Scotland as a sort of prank, and were surprised by the explosion of reactions from the English government--who called them morally compromised thieves--and the Scottish government--who called them patriotic heroes. Eventually, they had to come clean. Luckily, no serious charges were pressed, and according to the guard they all enjoy free pints whenever they visit a Scottish pub.

Bagpiper in Edinburgh Castle

Under the Edinburgh Castle

After walking through the castle and being treated to an entertaining and slightly terrifying demonstration on Scottish weaponry back in the day, Tony and I walked around under the castle to get some pictures. I took quite a few...

Storming the castle

Nappin' while I'm shootin'

Good ol' Sepia

So anyway. After storming the castle for a bit, we went to wander some more around the highly walkable streets of Edinburgh (in the rain, for the most part) and ended up finding an office for bus tours. After our good experience in Dublin, we decided it would probably be money well spent, so we went in search of the perfect tour. We decided to go for our dreams and picked a Highland tour that would take us to Loch Ness, and even allow for time for us to take a short boat tour to go Nessie hunting. I really wanted a tour that would take us by Duone Castle, the filming sight of most of Monty Python's Holy Grail, but there wasn't a tour that seemed to cover them all.

Misty Mountains on the morning of our bus tour

And the best thing about our tour was that we didn't even have to wake up super early to make the meeting point; the tour bus picked us up from the hostel on its way into Edinburgh! We were the first on the bus, too, so we got the best seats. We had a really nice tour guide, and minus the unscheduled stop so a family in the back could unload their very car sick children, I enjoyed it even more than the tour in Ireland. The Highlands were completely gorgeous. According to our guide, it's been speculated that Scotland was once a part of Canada, became detached during the movement of the plates, and collided into the rest of England, creating the Highland. That would actually explain the hills and wildlife found in Scotland that's typical of North America but nothing like England. "Which means, of course, that Scotland is the most well-traveled country in the world," he said.

Lookin' for Nessie on the Loch!

We stopped for lunch at Port Augustus on the Loch, grabbed a few sandwiches for lunch, and boarded the bus for the boat tour! The whole Loch Ness experience was probably one of the best things from our trip to Scotland. I just loved how seriously everyone in the area took it, and I have to say that after being in the area and seeing the Loch, I'm a believer. Especially after coming face to face with Nessie herself...

It's Nessie!! With a baby in tow! ;D

So yea, the boat was fully equipped with all kinds of sonar gear, which apparently picks up some mysterious readings every now and then... Also, during initial surveillance of the Loch, scientists tagged a few areas that the sonar picked up as large and unidentified. When they came back, they found some crashed planes, sunk ships, and the like, but a few of the points of interested had disappeared...

Glen Coe

After becoming fully convinced Nessie exists, we set back out to complete our travel through the Highlands. We stopped by the mountain Ben Nevis and Glen Coe, where the Macdonald massacre took place. Back when England was taking over and buying off the Scottish clans, some clans signed up right away while others held out. The Macdonalds were one of the more stubborn clans and the Campbells, who were among those who signed with England right away, were sent to help the Macdonalds come around to the English side. The Campbells were told to take up residence with the Macdonalds and await further instruction and, as was custom, the Macdonalds let the Campbells into their homes without a second thought. Order came through one morning to kill every man and boy over the age of 16 in the village before dawn, and the Campbells carried it out. But they didn't stop there. They went further to throw all the women and children out of their homes, which they then burned to the ground, to brave the elements on their own in the middle of the Scottish winter. Needless to say, nearly the entire clan perished, and 200 years later there are still pubs in the area that proudly hang the sign "No dogs, No Bums, No Campbells". But the real tragedy of this story is that on the very morning the massacre took place, the clan leader was signing allegience with England; the message to stop didn't make it in time.

Doune Castle

Feeling nice and solemn after our stop in Glen Coe, we stumbled upon a happy random happenstance: we passed a sign for Doune Castle. Turns out we got to drive right past it, and I got to snap a good picture; so at the end of the day, I got to have my cake and eat it too.

Arthur's Seat and the clan tents in The Gathering

The next day we were leaving Edinburgh to go back to London, but our flight didn't leave until 7 at night, so we spent a lot of time trying to think of what to do for the day before that. Tony ended up finding a flyer for something called The Gathering, which ended up taking place the weekend we were leaving. So Saturday we made our way down to Arthur's Seat--a range of cliffs in Edinburgh--and got in line to enter the biggest clan gathering for the past 200 years, and the first venue in Edinburgh to host Highland Games in history. The Gathering had tents to reunite with the family clan, places to get Haggis--which we tried here; it was so so--Highland dancing, Highland games, and some good ol' bagpiping bands, including the Red Hot Chili Pipers, one of Tony's new found favourties.

They're in there, I promise...

We were very lucky this summer. Very, very lucky. Every time we think that we've hit the end of our good luck, something else amazing happens. For instance, within 5 minutes of entering the event, not 10 feet away from us in the probably square mile area of the event, who would walk past us but Prince Charles and Camilla. Yep, it was a magical time.

Climbing Arthur's Seat

After bumming around and watching some Highland games, we decided that we wanted to go climb Arthur's Seat. So we took off from the event and made the hike up the cliff to see all of Edinburgh, and The Gathering, spread out before us. It was simply gorgeous.

On our way down Arthur's Seat, we witnessed a Caber Toss match. In a Caber Toss, the goal is to take a giant pole of wood, run with it, and then throw it in a way that the end that was once in the air lands on the ground and the pole raises to be perpendicular to the ground. I even managed to get a recording of a successful toss.

Wow, I don't know about you, but I think that's a substantial enough entry. Basically, Scotland was amazing and I hope I can go back one day.

So many rainbows, so little time

2009-07-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

One of the numerous rainbows we saw in Dublin; this one is from the view of the Guinness Gravity Bar

We're back in London for now, for less than 24 hours actually, and we have been for a few days. I've put off updating this for a bit because it's been so nice to just relax at the flat without feeling the need to do things like figure out travel plans or write about them. Much as I loved this past year, I'm on exhausted traveler. It'll be nice to be some place boring for a bit, or at least stay in the same country for longer than 3 months. Anyway, I've also put off updating because there's just so much to say and it's a little overwhelming. Over the past week we've been to Ireland and Scotland, and they were incredible. In order to help myself start this entry, I decided I would only focus on Ireland for this update; I'll write about Scotland when I'm back home.

So Ireland. Wow. Well, after going on tours and learning all about Ireland's unfortunate history, I find it somewhat fitting that Tony and I spent most of our time in the country in the rain and worried about money. We flew in late Saturday evening and arrived at Isaac's Hostel. When we arrived they were having a social BBQ in the garden where we could get a hamburger and beer for just €5, which is reasonable enough. I enjoy hostels; I often feel out of place walking into a hotel. In a hostel I don't feel the need to act like anything other than what I am: a broke college student. But it can be a little uncomfortable when sharing a room with strangers. Tony and I stayed in mixed gender 6 bed rooms in both Edinburgh and Dublin. In Edinburgh we completely lucked out and had the place to ourselves for 2 out of our 3 nights there, but in Dublin it was a slightly different story. The sleeping patterns of the people in our room were so random that there was constantly at least one person asleep in the room at all hours of the day. First off, there was a guy there who was.. rather interesting. Tony and I think he was a vampire, but we have no proof other than the fact that he was completely nocturnal, came in at 9 am, slept until 8pm, got dressed in a suit and went out until the next morning. The two of us got into the habit of going to sleep early so that we could get up early to take tours, and I also felt a little ill while we were there so I took to napping in the afternoon, around the time the vamp--other guy was leaving. Once we'd go to sleep, the group of French girls would come in, get ready to go clubbing, and get back loudly at 3 in the morning and then sleep until 11am or so, while we would get up and leave by around 6 or 7am. It was a complicated schedule... sorry you had to hear all of it, but I found it somewhat fascinating.

Walking the streets of Dublin

Anyway, after a night of sleep, Tony and I went on a free tour that was being advertised in the hostel. It was a great tour and it let us see pretty much all of Dublin, plus our tour guide was filled with fascinating stories about Dublin's past. My favorite, and probably the saddest, story that I think captures the unlucky nature of Irish history involves Dublin castle, which was built and inhabited by the English. The Irish weren't very happy about the English occupation, that unhappiness dictates most of their recent history, and they were prone to rebellions that were often catastrophically unsuccessful. This one particular rebellion involved 19 men and women (because Ireland is so above sexism) who believed that they alone could storm Dublin castle and reclaim the city from the English. They made it pretty far and were nearly at the point of raising the Irish flag in the castle until they started having second doubts; they hadn't been met with much, if any, resistance, but why? They started to think that the English must have seen this coming, that they were laying in wait, two steps ahead of them, just ready to catch them in the act. Paranoid and panicked, they retreated to the City Hall just next to the castle, where one of the members raised the Irish flag from the roof of the building and was shot by an English castle guard. But, the real tragedy is that the English were hardly onto their plot at all. Where were they? At the races. Had the group simply carried on, they could've taken control of the castle and possibly reclaimed the city for Ireland, bringing an end to years of rebellion, oppression, and bloodshed.

So kids, the moral of the story is: believe in yourself and your ability to rebel against the English. Just don't mess with their tea like the colonists did, it makes them cranky.

Frothy mustaches after our first taste of Guinness brewed right in Dublin

Anyway, the tour was money well spent, especially since we didn't spend any, and it set us off on the productive track to see the rest of Dublin. We also got to hit up the Historical Museum and see the bog men, which were incredibly impressive. We decided to be especially ambitious and walk completely across town to the Guinness Storehouse. For €11, the student price, we walked through the exhibition and got a free taste of freshly brewed Guinness, along with a free pint in the highly impressive Gravity Bar. The exhibition was all well in good, but the Guinness was excellent and the bar was way beyond our expectations; we didn't know that it offered a full panorama of the city of Dublin. We even had the incredible luck of seeing a rainbow from up there, which is the first picture in the blog. We would see a good 5 or so more in just the 3 days we spent there; I can see now why leprechauns and rainbows are so stereotypically Irish.

A walkabout of the Gravity Bar

That was enough for one day (trust me) and the next day we woke up tired, worried about our dying bank accounts, and, at least on my part, a little more than under the weather. We mostly took it easy, making simple adventures out to see the streets of Dublin and coming back in for naps and rest. I won't explain my symptoms here because I still have to cross the border of the US and I want to be allowed to come back, so I'll just say for now that flu meds seemed to help. Still, the day wasn't a complete bust and we got to see some great street performers, not to mention of course the tickets we bought to see Riverdance. The show was incredible, definitely the best dance performance I've seen. Unfortunately, it only furthered our anger about the Moulin Rouge... Our two tickets for Riverdance combined was less than half the cost of one Moulin Rouge ticket, and yet the talent of Riverdance was astronomically greater.

Galway Bay

Our last day in Ireland was spent on a tour of the west where we visited Galway Bay, the Shannon River, and the Cliffs of Moher. They were all staggeringly beautiful and I would write much more about them because they deserve the attention, but I need to get to sleep so I'm well rested for the plane tomorrow. Besides, the tale is better told with pictures.

Galway

Empty houses on green hills

Cliffs of Moher

Back to the States, indefinitely. So long, Europe...

Paris is better in the summer

2009-07-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

Well, we are in London again after returning from one of our many adventures, this time in France. We were in Paris from Monday 13 July to Yesterday, 16 July. Overall, it was a good trip, and I can easily say that I enjoy Paris much better in the summer than in the winter, and when we secure a way home before we leave the country. At least we learn from our mistakes.

Our visit started off well: with fireworks and picnics!

Anyway, we arrived in Paris in the late afternoon and once we found and checked into our hotel, we did a little exploring around the area. Our hotel was on a man-made narrow canal and it was a very nice location. When we were looking around for food, there were several locals enjoying lovely picnics along the water and, not to pass up a chance for a picnic, we joined the crowd with a few quiches and some wine that we got at a nearby cafe. As we finished our dinner and started heading back to the hotel for the night, the neighborhood began their fireworks celebration for Bastille Day the next day...

Military Official in the Bastille Day parade

Parachuters, too!

Turns out the 14th of July is Bastille Day. What a crazy random happenstance! We actually didn't realize this until a few days before we left, and it was an exciting surprise. There are three things that we were looking forward to: the parade, the Louvre being free, and the fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, we only got to experience the parade. We decided to make our way to the Eiffel Tower and hopefully climb to the top, and on our way we stumbled upon the parade. There was a bit of a hold up somewhere, so there were tanks and army trucks sitting in front of us for a good 15 minutes, and the soldiers seemed to be getting on well enough with the locals around them; it was all smiles, as any parade should be.

Hippo does Paris!

Once they got moving again, Tony and I continued our trek to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, it had closed early that day to start preparing for the show. We would've been disappointed, but really it seems like it would all be more hassle and annoyance than it's worth. The way I see it is that my favorite part of the Parisian skyline is the Eiffel Tower, so if I'm going to see Paris from up high, I would want to be able to see the Tower, not be standing on it. That and the price tag was a bit too big and the gypsies in the area a bit too pushy, so we got our Hippo Picture and left happily. If I were to be totally honest, much of the sightseeing we do nowadays is inspired by wanting more pictures of Hippo in front of exciting places. If you've so far not been introduced to Hippo, you can see his Italy album and his Greek album on Facebook. If he has the time, I might just make him a blog page later...

Arc de Triomphe

So after the Eiffel Tower, we set off for the Louvre because it's free on Bastille Day. However, it's also closed on Tuesday. Guess what day it was? That's right. So we once again found ourselves sitting outside the closed Louvre. So we went to the Arc de Triomphe because it was there. Now's a good time to say that eating in Paris is ridiculously expensive. We were hard pressed to find much of anything less than €10 that wasn't a pastry or slice of quiche, and with the exchange rate being what it is, that makes the cost of eating nearly painful.

Showing our love at Oscar Wilde's grave

After all that, we still had some time that we could spend elsewhere so we headed off to the Pere Lachaise cemetery to pay a visit to someone very special in our lives: Oscar Wilde. It's tradition to leave a kiss of appreciation at the grave, and Tony, Hippo, and I all obliged. We then went on to Jim Morrison's grave, mostly because we were in the area. We then headed out because our feet hurt from all the walking!

A kiss at the red windmill of the Moulin Rouge

Speaking of painful, we then had to head back to our hotel to get ready for the Moulin Rouge show we'd booked before arriving. The sad thing is that we booked it before knowing it was Bastille Day, and it was because of that show we missed the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. The show itself was about 45% Razzle, 50% Dazzle, and 5% talent. It was rather overpriced, but we got a slight discount by booking on Expedia, plus they give you a free bottle of champagne. I think that this is partly to justify the high prices, but mostly so that by drinking half a bottle of the rather potent drink you'll not notice how bad the show is. We, however, were not fooled by this tactic, and were still able to recount, if maybe a little inebriated, the many failings of the show during our metro ride home. To begin with, it was filled with horrible lip synching: lip synching so bad that it might actually give me nightmares. I do wish they had more solo dances, however; not because I thought that they needed to showcase more talent, but because none of the dancers seemed to be able to dance in synch with any other human being to save their lives. Let's just say I'm happy I had the champagne, if only as a way of easing the pain. It was the first show I've attended in a long time that had me constantly looking at my watch in boredom. I guess it doesn't really help that the last live show I saw before this was Les Mis in London last Friday, and it was the theatrical experience of a lifetime. Thus ends our Bastille Day. By the time we got out of the show, we could hear the finale at the Eiffel Tower and headed home.

Admiring ceilings in Versailles

The next day we went to Versailles, the palace of the kings of France. It was rather... impressive. First off was the interior of the palace including many lavish rooms with incredible ceilings, and then there was the gardens and of course the jaw-dropping Hall of Mirrors.

It was pretty much an entire palace of eye candy and we would definitely return, especially when they turn the fountains on, because they weren't turned on when we were there, which was very disappointing.

Not going to lie, this kinda made me want to reread The DaVinci Code.

After almost a full day at Versailles, we still had time to go to the Louvre, and this time it was finally open! We decided that we would go back for the full day on Thursday, so we got the essentials down in this trip including the Mona Lisa and the other paintings we wanted to see so that we could spend the entire next day in the sculpture rooms.

Venus de Milo

And that's exactly what we did. They Louvre's collection is entirely impressive, and Tony was walking around like a little kid in a candy store. I manned the camera; he pointed, I shot. It was a good system.

After a nearly full day there, we still had some time before our late flight so we ran to the Rodin Museum, once again mostly so we could get some good Hippo pictures but also to see some of the masterpieces in person. When we got there we found that the area was blocked off. We asked a guard why and he explained as best he could that there was a group called Manifestation that was planning a riot in the area because they were protesting the high price of health care. I don't really know why they were protesting, as France has Universal Health Care, but oh well. We were confused as to why they chose the Rodin Museum as their apparent location of focus, but when we were going around the blockades we discovered that we were also right next to the French equivalent of the Ministry of Health and Safety. Still, only the museum was blocked off, and the protest group for some reason had a bagpipe player. I guess it isn't a proper protest without a bagpipe.

Once done at the museum, we pretty much just headed to the airport and were off. We had a very obnoxious man to deal with at UK customs who seemed to think it was highly suspicious that I was a student here for a year and would then want to come back right after. He gave us the very unwelcomed third degree. We're leaving for Ireland tomorrow afternoon, and after that it's straight to Scotland, so we'll be off for about the next week or more. Honestly, I'm ready to go home again, but that's not much more than a week away, so I think I can make it through these next few days. I feel exhausted now, but I'm sure after a few months in Lynchburg, VA, I'll be dying to get back into the swing of adventure and travel. Until then...

P.S. I hate audio guides. Let me tell you why. Audio guides are a way of supplying your average Joe with useless information of mild interest once he reaches a very important point of interest. That's the start of why I dislike them: they take a very long amount of time and flourish to say very little. The real source of my hatred, however, is that by having something speaking in a person's ear about a particular statue, painting, room decoration, etc creates in them the feeling that they must stand directly in front of the object in order to understand everything that is being said to them. This means that at every point that a non-audio-guide-patron wishes a closer view or unobstructed picture of a well known object, he or she is constantly blocked by the wall that is 6'2" of stupid tourist who's been standing directly in front of the object for the past minute and a half and cannot possibly move out of the way until the full detailed description of said object has stopped playing in his head.

And that is why audio guides are evil.

Silchester Self-Assessment

2009-07-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

In less than an hour I'll be leaving for Paris for the next 3 days. But before I go, I had to write a self-assessment paper for Silchester. Since it did the job of describing my time in Silchester and what I took from it, I figured I'd post it here to fill everyone in on my time in the mud.

My time at Silchester provided me with a learning experience that could not be recreated in a classroom. I’m a hands-on person and I learn by doing, so my time spent in Silchester was the best look at archaeology I’ve so far been able to have. Of all the things I learned there, the most important is that I unfortunately feel that field archaeology is not something I wish to pursue further as a career. However, I still have an interest in archaeological finds, and I would like to continue to work with them.
I worked under Sarah Lucas in the Southwest corner of Insula IX. My first task was cleaning a flat surface, where I learned the proper way to use my trowel. I mostly enjoyed digging, but at the beginning it made me nervous because I kept fearing that I was digging too much and destroying a feature that I just didn’t see. I also had a bit of bad luck in my first week when it came to digging in interesting areas. I moved on to clean an edge along the Victorian Trench; the edge was difficult to clean and the ground was very dry and thus hard to break through. I also didn’t have a single find for the full 2 ½ days I spent cleaning it. After I was done with the edge, though, Sarah and Tom let me move on to a feature next to where I was digging: a very clearly defined post hole. I was excited about digging it for most of the week, and it was already planned so I could start digging right away. However, after only half an hour of digging, I hit natural and my posthole was over. I found two miniscule pot sherds and nothing else. Disappointed, I then went on to do the section and plans.
After my anticlimactic posthole, I wanted a break from digging. Sarah and Tom gave me a task to do that concerned the row of stake holes that align with House 1 in Grids 12-11. They wanted me to find and identify the remains of the holes and try to work out the relationship between them so that we might make a conclusion regarding whether or not they were made at the same time. I poured over old plans and context cards and really enjoyed searching for all the clues that I could find about the holes. However, I was met with frustration when I found that there was some earlier confusion about the stratigraphical relationship between the holes and the fills that they cut into. I wasn’t very good at matrices or stratigraphy, so it was hard for me to understand what was going on at first, but I got much better at it the more I dealt with the problem and with the help of Sarah and the Archaeological Database, we managed to solve the problem. After understanding the stratigraphy, I was then able to look at the site and label the stake holes correctly, something I had struggled in doing before. Though the paper-chasing got difficult and confusing at times, because of the work I did on that I had a greater understanding of matrices, stratigraphy, and could more easily understand a plan and visualize what it represents on site.
Once the paper chase was over, I did some more cleaning, which was a welcome change to sitting in the planning hut going over confusing context cards. Tony and I found a large pot in Grid 1 and we spent several days eyeing it while trying to find the cut of the pit that it belonged to. Sadly, we never managed to find the cut, and we were sure that we wouldn’t be able to do anything about the pot, but Sarah was nice enough to let me give the invisible fill a context number and dig it out in the last hour before we left. It wasn’t the whole rim, but it was a sizeable amount of it, and I was very happy to finally have a significant find.

My pot and I

Also on site, I worked at the Environmental cabin doing floating, sieving, and sorting, and the finds cabin doing washing and learning more about the types of finds happening on site. I’d already done extensive work with Environmental sorting and Finds washing in Crete with Saro Wallace, so there was nothing new there. During my time at Silchester, I was lucky enough to sit in on a talk with Mike Fulford, the director of Silchester, to learn about the dating of pottery found on site. It was fascinating to watch him look at a sherd and give information on what pot it came from, where it came from, and when it was possibly made. I have no idea how he did it, but it’s something I’d like to learn.
I think if I did continue on with archaeology, it would be more focused on Finds. I am glad that I had this time at Silchester, because without it I would never know for sure that working in the field wasn’t for me. Like Thomas Edison said after 8000 failed trials of the light bulb, “Well, at least we know 8000 things that don't work.” Field archaeology just doesn’t work for me; I’m sure I’ll eventually find what does.

End Essay.

Also, we had a pirate night where we everyone dressed like pirates and charged the local pub. It was fab.

We be lady pirates. Aarrrrrrr!

Now off to Paris! Let's hope we make it through France without being mugged this time.

Vlog: The Dirt on the Dig

2009-07-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

One correction to the video: We were half sectioning to see the stratigraphy along the vertical edge, not for future technology. I tried uploading this to my blog, but it was taking far too long, so I sent it to YouTube. It should play the same way, however.

I'd rather be in London

2009-07-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I’m pretty far behind in this. What I’ll probably do is retrospectively add entries on my last two weeks in Athens and my two-week stay in Houston once I get home again, so look for that in August; I’ll let you know when to look for those entries. Basically, between now and my last entry, I finished my time in Athens with the R-MWC group and flew home to Houston with Tony for a short stay. This stay was sadly plagued with illness for me, as it seems like it often is, and I barely recovered in time for our next international flight back to London Heathrow. Tony and I are back in Europe for a lot of things, but the first thing is to participate in an archaeological dig called Silchester. The site is about 20 minutes outside of Reading, England; it’s a Roman site with Iron Age foundations, which are most of what remain of the site now. So we’re actually digging on a site, and people have made some interesting finds already like iron and the usual bone, sherd, terracotta, etc.

The most exciting find I’ve made, however, is that field archaeology is not my cup of tea. It’s been getting better lately, though; for the past week we’ve been cleaning the site, which is along the same lines as throwing rocks in Michigan except without having a nice cool lake to stand in. It’s tedious, rather dull and mindless, you have to kneel/crouch the entire time, and it’s actually gotten quite warm here. It’s kind of cute to see the Brits freaking out about weather that barely reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit (we’re now in the very first ‘heat wave’ that England has ever declared), but that does get a little uncomfortable when we’re outside in the sun doing manual labour. The whole thing isn’t helped by camping on the site, and while the day time weather is hot and humid to the point where it takes a good amount of strength to will oneself to do anything besides lie in the shade, at night the temperatures get so cold that it’s difficult to sleep through it. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, our day off, and that should hopefully cool down the daytime weather, and we bought an extra blanket today to help with the temperature after dark.

For our day off, we’re in London now and feel so much better after a proper shower and are looking forward to not sleeping in a tent for the night before heading back on Saturday. We have tickets for As You Like It in the Globe tomorrow, but it was only £5 for Groundling tickets and we decided that if it’s raining we’ll go to the British Museum instead. It should be a good day, but next week is going to be a long week. I’m starting to excavate a post hole, and there’s usually some fun stuff in there, so I’m looking forward to that; I just hope it’s cooler weather. I’m trying to get through with the best attitude that I can, and again it’s not that I hate it, just that I like other things a lot more. Here’s hoping it gets a little cooler during the day, warmer at night, and a little more interesting on the field.

I guess my life calling was to match Indiana Jones in movie sales, not archaeological renown. And I think I'm ok with that.

"This is so going in my blog."

2009-05-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes, of ships, of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

Hi everyone! So it's been awhile, but that's mostly because of how busy I've been here and not necessarily because of lack of internet connection. I actually get a pretty good unprotected network here in my room, but I barely get enough time on it each day to check my email. I don't have much time now, either, but I figured it was time to drop you all a line and at least attempt to fill you in on what I've been up to.

A typical building in the Agora

First, the stuff around Athens. We've so far walked around our area and visited the Acropolis and Agora. I've already marveled at the perfect beauty of the Parthenon and the slightly more unique style of the Erechtheion, so that was review for me. The Agora, however, was new, and it was an interesting venture. Dr. Cohen brought up the issue of preserving ancient Athens while also allowing modern Athens to flourish. Much of the Agora is covered by shops, homes, and railway tracks; do we tear those up to find more of the ancient buildings underneath? It's a tricky subject and while there might be some amazing find underneath the new buildings, and while I feel like I'm betraying my archaeological roots in saying this, I think it's best to let what's already there be, especially in this case. I believe we know at least about the other buildings that once filled the Agora, and while uncovering the buildings would help contribute to our understanding of ancient Athens, it shouldn't be done at the cost of the Athens that flourishes today. It can be hard for the Classics student to realize that ancient Athens isn't the only Athens that matters. It also reminded me of when Tony and I went to Rome, as this city was also struggling, and still is, to find a balance between its past and its future.
A similar problem to this is the question of rebuilding: do you attempt to reconstruct the ancient buildings, or do you leave the ruins as you find them, open to interpretation for years to come? There's a stoa (a large covered pavillion that likely held shops and served as a common meeting place) in the Agora that has been completely reassembled and on the one hand serves as a great representation of what stoas back in the day where like, but on the other hand a poor understanding of the ruins can lead to people to misinterpret the ruins for years to come. A good example of that is Knossos, but that's a discussion for another day.

Modern theater in an ancient setting

Anyway, after all our sightseeing in the sun, we had the special opportunity of seeing an opera live in an ancient theatre at the base of the Acropolis. Well, the theatre was Roman, but we'll overlook that. The group went to see the opera Aida, set in ancient Egypt, in the Odeon of Herodus Atticus one night last week. I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but there you go. I also have a video, but I'm afraid of posting it on here. Ask and I can send it I suppose, unless you're a member of an official law enforcement, in which case I don't know anything about a video. So yes, the opera was beautiful and amazing and it was incredible to be sitting in an ancient theatre actually watching a show, but the opera was 4 hours long and started at 9pm, so we, the exhausted Americans, had to cut out at the intermission.

"This is the land of Argos" --Elektra

But, the most exciting thing by far: we got out of Athens. I must say that 6 weeks here is more than enough time to spend in the city, and I was thrilled for the chance to move on. Our first stop was in Mycenae, the capital, if you will, of the Mycenean era. Sadly, the mighty have fallen, and all that remains is the all-too-familiar ruins. The first excavator, at least I believe he was the first, of Mycenae was a rather unfortunate character by the name of Schliemann. I've mentioned him before, as his house is now the Numismatic museum, and I'll mention him again now if only to explain that he's everything wrong with Classical Archaeology. He basically set out treasure hunting and decided that he wanted to find Troy, a city whose existance is supported mostly from the epic works of Homer. Upon uncovering a golden mask he'd found there, he proclaimed it to be the "face of Agamemnon", a king in the tale of Troy. Well, science has been done to the site since his time and he was a little off by a few time periods, which shows the danger that Classical Archaeology faces; while the literary sources we have are great, relying on them too heavily can lead to bias in interpreting archaeological finds. If you set out determined to find Paris's castle or Odysseus's palace, you're likely to ignore what you've really uncovered.

Nafplio: the most gorgeous city in the world

After a walk around Mycenae, we set off for the most beautiful city in the world: Nafplio. The whole city seems to have taken the castles of Scotland, the scenery of Crete, and the peace and charm of Carmel, California, thrown them all in a melting pot, and viola! Perfection. The first sight I saw as we turned into the city was the Venetian prison/citadel in the middle of the port, perfectly preserved in all its regal beauty. It literally took my breath away for a moment, and I felt a mix between feeling like I'd discovered the lost castle of Camelot, a few countries removed, and feeling like I was in a Monty Python movie. I really wish I could describe how lovely the city was, but I don't think there's enough time in the world for me to cover it all.

A typical street in Nafplio

The shops in the old city were lovely, and we spent a whole day at the beach, which was incredible. I found myself without a bikini, but had been planning on buying a new one for awhile anyway, so I found a reasonably priced one and joined my friends at the beach. The water was perfect and I must say that I don't think I've seen a more amazing sight: the entire city is surrounded by the remains of the Venetian fortifications, and they cover the steep cliffs that encompass the beach. I can't explain how amazing it was to be swimming in the Mediterranean and look up to see Venetian fortresses and stunning cliff faces surrounding me. I really don't think a picture can capture it. The boutiques in the area were a little pricy, but not unreasonably so, and I treated myself to a shirt that I fell in love with at first sight. Two of my friends found a really nice shoe store there, and they got Greek-style shoes that look classy and avoid looking too touristy. It was a wonderful city.

There's one last excursion I have to discuss, but that one will include at least one video, which I don't feel like staying up to upload, so I think I'll write more about that one later. Until then, γεια σας!

Our apartment--Betsy, Alex, Megan, and I--enjoying the view

Moving... Again

2009-05-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

The sun sets on my time alone in Athens...

Well the RMWC group will be here soon, on Sunday in fact, so it's time to start packing up the stuff thrown haphazardly across my apartment and brave moving across Athens again. This will be something attempted over the next two days, as I have a very large and very broken suitcase which I will not be using, and a small duffel bag which can support a few handfuls of clothing per trip. Yep, this should be fun. Anyway, I already know where my next apartment will be, I've walked past it many times in fact, so it's just a matter of getting the keys on Sunday and then going to meet the group at the airport for fun.

There's some stuff I wanted to get done today (laundry, cleaning, lines, etc) but I'm way too exhausted; it's been a busy day. I woke up with Tony at 7 this morning (and again at 7:40... oops) to go on a walking tour of modern Athens with the UChicago group. It mostly consisted of the Academy, Library, and University, with a short jaunt to Schliemann's house, now the Numismatic Museum, for fun.

Athenian Owl coin at the Numismatic Museum

The Numismatic Museum was pretty interesting, and it's a shame that we only got about 10 or so minutes to walk around it. It brought up memories of my Classical Archaeology class with Dr. Stevens, where we were each entrusted with a Roman coin to study and date. They had examples of counterstruck coins--coins that were struck once but were struck again years later for the sake of not wasting the metal--which are a huge help in figuring out the dating of coins, and examples of coin hoards, which are also pretty interesting and helpful.

The recent Athenian graduates in the University building. They're on stage, in the blue; click picture to see them clearer.

After the museum we were supposed to go to the University for a guided tour, but it turns out today was Graduation. Oops! But instead of turning us away at the door, they ushers invited us in and before we knew it we were soon witnessing, by complete accident, a University of Athens graduation ceremony. They had caps and gowns, though their caps were a different (much cooler) design than ours. They were all dressed in blue. The ceremony itself seemed to go a lot like an American one: a few people read, people get announced to get their diploma, and at the end everyone throws their hats in the air. Tony found a copy of one of the diplomas lying around, so now we have a Greek diploma. It was fun to watch, and eerie to think that that's going to be me in a year. Except, you know, not in Greece. And the ceremony will probably be in English. Hopefully.

Somewhere in the stacks, I'm sure you'll find Belle.

Next stop was the Library and Academy, which were both very pretty on the inside but not really all that fascinating. The Library, however, reminded me of the Beauty in the Beast library just a bit, and I took a lot of pictures for a friend back at home who would probably want to move in there.

Anyway, most of the rest of the day was spent with Tony in classes and such, and that evening we got to catch up with Dr. Schwartz, who flew in early for the program beginning on Sunday! It was a lot of fun to see him after a year away and it's gotten me all excited about the group coming in two days! We took him to a taverna we've heard great things about to keep him from falling asleep too early, and it of course turned into a 2 hour affair (as all trips to tavernas normally do), so we achieved that goal. The taverna we went to was actually AMAZING. It was a really cute place with a wonderful owner and the food was incredible. We all got the lamb for an entree, and it was literally falling off the bone; I think it was some of the best meat I've ever tasted. Everything else was good too, and for dessert he brought out some homemade chocolate. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds. Sadly, no pictures for dinner, but expect tons of pictures soon once the group gets here!

Informational Portion
As for the group goes, let me fill you in on what that actually is. The program is called Practical Wisdom and it's a 3 week long course in Athens with two professors and a handful of students from my home campus in Lynchburg, VA. The course with cover topics in Ancient Greek philosophy and drama, and the highlight is a Greek play which we'll perform at the end of the trip in an Ancient Greek theater. The play is called Alcestis, and it is the Centennial Play, counting from the very first Greek plays put on at Randolph-Macon Woman's College that started in 1909. It's about a wife who, Alcestis, who dies to save her husband, Admetus, from death. Admetus and Apollo had tricked the gods into sparing his life, but in return he had to find someone willing to die in his place, and that turned out to be his wife. I'm playing Admetus. I'm a little daunted about the acting demands this play will have on me, but I'm sure with time in rehearsal I'll be able to do my best to pull it off.

And the super fun part about all of this is that we'll be posting our adventures not only on a blog on the college website, but in Podcasts, too! More news on the Podcasts to come; until then, CLICK HERE for the blog website so you can follow along with mine and the others' adventures during our program.

In other news, I've told Dr. Irwin my story of how I managed to get from London to Crete, and he's proposed that I write a Tales from Reading entry about my opportunity. I'll be doing that soon (hopefully within the next day or so, before Sunday evening) and once it's posted it'll end up here, at the Tales from Reading website. Read the other stories, as well; they're well worth the read!

I don't know how readily I'll have internet connection once I move out of my humble abode here, so I may be saying goodbye for just a few days, or for as long as the next 3 weeks; I guess we'll find out soon!

Old Friends, New Friends, and Adventure Hiking

2009-05-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Halfway up Mount Parnitha, the tallest mountain in Attica!

Hi everyone!
So it's been awhile. I guess we've been up to things, but not much of interest until the past few days, mostly just the same old stuff. Greece is great but, honestly, the actual city of Athens can get pretty smelly, ugly, mean, and boring after the first week or so there, especially on your own. But anyway, I'm settling in here a bit more. I faced the same problems I had in England as I did here, I'd just forgotten: the first month or so is all exciting and new and you're adjusting to the new country, but around the second month you're over it and all you want to do is go home. Luckily, the third month is when you start to settle in and actually enjoy yourself, and I've finally stepped over my pit of homesickness and have arrived at that point. That and I've been out and about and actually interacting with more people my age, and that's helped immensely; before I was getting so horribly lonely, especially when Tony left on his trips. Anyway, one of the people I met up with here in Athens is Tina Li. That name probably rings a bell with my parents, but for everyone else, she was basically my best friend in middle school. We were seriously inseparable and could fill a book with inside jokes, you get the picture. Anyway, thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we discovered that we would both be in Athens at the same time, and finally arranged to meet last Wednesday.

Tina and Katt do Athens!

We've known each other for 7 years, and if someone walked up to us in Rice Village two years ago when we last met and told us the next time we'd see each other would be in Athens, I don't think we'd believe them. But here we are! Trust me, it's in Greece. See the obvious Greek trees and hobos? Definitely Greece. Anyway, she invited Tony and I to come to a going away dinner with her and her friends the next evening, so we definitely went. It was a bit of an adventure (it was all the way over in Glyfada, on Athens's coast) but it was a great dinner and all of Tina's friends were really sweet and fun. We had Indian food; it was good, but I'm partial to England's Indian food personally. Especially that chicken korma my parents and I had Covent Garden... mmmmmmm.... Oh, but yea anyway. It was there that we discovered curry can cure intestinal cancer. True story.

A hiking group ready to set out! We had a name and everything!

Our next most exciting day was today, when we participated in a mountain hike just outside of the city with people from the Athens Center, a little center that teaches Greek courses and where Tony's been taking his classes with UChicago for the past several weeks. We climbed Mount Parnitha: the highest mountain on the Attic peninsula (1,413 meters, a good place for beginners to start). It was a pretty intense climb in some places, and our trail guides seemed to enjoy picking out the most precarious trails for us to brave. But it was sooo much fun and I met a lot of people, including two girls from Tony's group, a few from another college group, the fun trail guides (one was a real troublemaker; you had to keep your eye on him), and some Brits! Oh, how I miss the Brits. One lived in London for most of his life but moved to Australia and has been there for the past 30 years. I mentioned that not only had I lived in London, but my sister lived in Australia, so between the two of us we know where he's coming from.

Finally at the top! With a great view of Athens in the background. May they bow down to our mightiness! Or... give us free souvlaki? Score.

But the best part of the hike was what was waiting for us at the top. Apparently the local village (I use the term 'local' very loosely) decided to have a party at the top of the mountain, so they brought a bus load of people, music, dancing, and free souvlaki. It was pretty exciting, and I even dabbled in some Greek Line Dancing. Rather poorly, to tell the truth, but at least I tried, and the locals were nice about letting me give it a go. Here's a video of the grand event; I'm wearing a green shirt with jean capris, and I'm second from the end of the line. The guy at the end is our trail guide (the troublemaker!) and the girl next to me is Kristen, a student from UChicago.

And here's how it's really done, by some skilled line dancers:

I think that's all to report; I'll hopefully have more to say soon! It was great to catch up with Tina, meet some new people, and go on a hike. I think the past few days have been the best I've had in Athens, and today was definitely a winner.

Our successful group at the top! (BTW, you can click on any of these pictures to see a larger copy)

Athens at Night

2009-05-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Akropolis

2009-04-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Next stop: the Parthenon

Hi again! I'm taking a lazy day at the moment while Tony is busy with classes to tell you that we've actually been quite active lately. We've walked the 6+ mile journey everyday since that first post about it (except today, because it's a lazy day) and minus the blisters on our feet and our sore legs, we've enjoyed it. We're going to keep it up because we've now designated this summer as the summer we get fit and stay that way, so we're feeling pretty good about it.

Anyway, in addition to walking to Tony's neighborhood on Sunday, we also walked all the way up to the Akropolis to explore what was going on there. Tony showed me around a bit and I was excited to see all the buildings I'd learned about in Dr. Stevens's class; I had to make a map of ancient Athens, in fact, and I still remember some of it. Enough to correct Tony every now and then at least, and that's all I really need it for anyway. ;D Anyway, the Akropolis was highly impressive, what with its massive height above the city and the reconstructed ancient buildings on top.

View of the city in the background.

Of course the most impressive building would be the Parthenon, and before I tell you the most awesome thing about my experience with the Parthenon, I have to explain something. For awesome reasons, some of my friends and I have been inspired to find world famous old objects/buildings and, just to outdue all the tourists who have simply 'seen' these things, to lick them. We licked the oldest Iron Bridge in the world in England and I got a message from Vance that she licked the Colisseum. Not to be behind in the score, I licked the Parthenon. It was legendary.

Sadly, all of the Parthenon was roped off and the closest thing I could reach without being shipped off to a Greek prison was the original column base, but I still count this as a win.

So yea, that was awesome. You might think I'm crazy and be wondering "why would she do that?" to which I respond: How many people do you know who've licked the Parthenon? I'm just trying to blaze new ground here.

Anyway, the Parthenon is also amazing in its own respects, most of which consist of its massive size and the genius and beautiful design of it. I was excited because you could still see some of the friezes in tact. or at least reconstructed:

After admiring the Parthenon, we walked around a bit more and checked out the Erechtheion, the ending point of the Panathenaic festival and the home of the original sea water from Poseidon and olive tree from Athena. Here's a short mythology lesson I learned at Macon (more than once I believe): Athens was trying to decide which god to make their patron god/dess, and the two options were Poseidon and Athena. Both gave gifts to Athens to try and persuade it: Poseidon gave sea water and Athena gave an olive tree. The sea water was useless to Athens; no one could drink it and everything died in it. The olive tree, however, provided the whole city with food, so they picked Athena, celebrated her, and named their city after her. In the Parthenon they erected a giant bronze statue of her where they draped the paplos cloth on the last day of her Panatheniac festival.

Descendant of the first olive tree.

The Erechtheion, the "Porch of the Maidens". While we were there, someone called them the Vestal Virgins. Tony and I barely contained ourselves and burst out laughing. fyi, Vestal Virgins = Roman. Just for future knowledge. If you're going to pretend you know what you're talking about at an archaeological site, at least get the right period. It's right up there with visiting an art museum and saying an obvious depiction of Prometheus having his liver eaten by an eagle is "defintely something from the Old Testament". Seriously, people. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't act like you do.

Anyway, after that we wandered around a bit more and happened upon some other American tourists. There's one consistantly good thing about future American tourists abroad: they are the most reliable people to have take your picture. There's a significantly smaller chance that they'll run away with your camera. So, Tony and I took advantage of the opportunity.

We got a nice shot of some other couple in there, too, but oh well. I'll photoshop them out later.

And that's pretty much all there is to report!

Athens: Walking Tour

2009-04-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

Next stop on the kiss tour! At the Olympic Stadium, Akropolis in the background on the far right.

So Tony and I finally got off our butts and braved the 6+ mile walk from my flat to his dorm. The walk was actually GREAT and we're planning on doing it at least one way every day. It's mostly flat and has shade on either side so it should be perfectly comfortable even in the heat of the day (which right now isn't hot at all). We also got to see a plethora of things along our way, including the Archaeological Museum, the old University, the "Academy" (which King Otto randomly decided to erect because the 'real' Plato's Academy was too far out of the center of town), the Library, and the Olympic Stadium by Tony's place. We could have gone to the Akropolis today, but we would've been cutting it close to closing hours so we decided to head out earlier tomorrow to have more time. The whole walk took less than an hour and a half, and that's including the stops we made at the Academy and Starbucks--I was really craving a Mocha Frap.

Being philosophical in front of the Academy. I got to hang with Plato and Sokrates. It was awesome.

Cutting through the National Gardens to get to Tony's dorm.

Training for the Olympics at the old Stadium. I'll beat Statue Man at discus throwing for sure this year!

Changing of the Guards, Athens style. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A delightful juggler at the National Gardens.

Coming Home!

2009-04-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

Attention everyone in Houston: Tony and I were talking last night and we started reminiscing about people and places in Houston we haven't seen in forever, and how much longer it was going to be until we were going to be home, and how miserable and homesick I was going to be while camping in the English elements by the time Silchester rolled around in late June and we made an important decision: we're coming home. I've been out of my home country since August and I've had enough of it; I want a big bag of kettle korn, a super large serving of Lai Lai's General Tso's Chicken, a burger and seasoned fries at Red Robin, and a Whataburger. BAD. Yep, when S&G's Homeward Bound goes from making me nostalgic to making me cry uncontrollably, it's time to go home. That's the sign.

Anyway, we remembered that we had 2 weeks in June between programs that we didn't know what to do with and going home to see our families and our hometown sounded a LOT better than hitchhiking and homelessness in Europe. So we sat up at 4 in the morning in Athens to start researching plane tickets from Athens to Houston, just for kicks, and found out to our surprise that we could both fly home and back to London in mid June for a combined price less than what I spent on my first single round trip ticket bought last summer. So a few plane searches and less than $1500 later (I had to search for the '$' sign on my keyboard because it'd been so long since I've used it that I forgot where it was), we had round trip tickets booked home. Here's our itenerary:

Sun 14-Jun-09

Athens (ATH)
Depart 6:55 am

Paris (CDG)
Arrive 9:20 am
Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL D

1,306 mi
(2,102 km)
Duration: 3hr 25mn

DL Delta
Flight: 9333
Operated by: AIR FRANCE

3Economy/Coach Class ( 00, 00 ), Breakfast, Airbus A320

Please check in with Air France. If checking in at a kiosk, use your name rather than confirmation number.

Paris (CDG)
Depart 10:30 am
Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL E

Houston (IAH)
Arrive 1:55 pm
Terminal D INTERNATIONAL

5,028 mi
(8,092 km)
Duration: 10hr 25mn

DL Delta
Flight: 8314
Operated by: AIR FRANCE

3Economy/Coach Class ( 00, 00 ), Lunch, 77W

Total distance: 6,334 mi (10,194 km)

Total duration: 13hr 50mn (15hr 0mn with connections)

Sat 27-Jun-09

Houston (IAH)
Depart 8:05 am
Terminal A

New York (JFK)
Arrive 12:44 pm
Terminal 3

1,415 mi
(2,277 km)
Duration: 3hr 39mn

DL Delta
Flight: 6822
Operated by: COMAIR INC

3Economy/Coach Class ( 19A, 19B ), CR9

Please check in with Comair. If checking in at a kiosk, use your name rather than confirmation number.

New York (JFK)
Depart 6:00 pm
Terminal 3

London (LHR)
Arrive 7:05 am +1 day
Terminal 4

3,458 mi
(5,565 km)
Duration: 8hr 5mn

DL Delta
Flight: 3

3Economy/Coach Class ( 41A, 41B ), Dinner, Boeing 767

Total distance: 4,873 mi (7,842 km)

Total duration: 11hr 44mn (17hr 0mn with connections)

Relaxing in Athens

2009-04-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

My humble Athenian abode

Hello from Athens!

So far nothing too exciting has happened. I've signed the lease for my very first apartment and have been enjoying it at great length. This week was Tony's (second -humph-) Spring Break, so we've spent a majority of the time lounging about in the flat doing absolutely nothing, and it's been great. Traveling is all well and good, but I've been sight seeing and adjusting to new cultures since August and it's starting to get me down, so I really, really needed a breather. It's probably done me a lot more good than going out to brave the hills of Athens every day would've done at this point. Tomorrow, we're going to take our first big trip out and try to walk from my flat to Tony's dorm. It's about 6 km, so it should be a bit of a journey, but we have the promise of a farmer's market at the end of the line to keep us motivated, and it should be interesting. So far the most exciting thing to happen to me here was the breaking of my clothesline and the resulting loss of my towel and pajama pants. That was a sad day, and I seem to have bad luck when it comes to leaving things on clotheslines to dry in Greece; while in Crete I left 3 shirts out to dry and came home to discover they'd all flown away. I spent 15 minutes looking for them on the beach and had to retrieve 2 from the roof and gutter of the taverna in front of my room... the third one magically showed up at my door about 2 days later. There's a story there, I'm sure of it...

My Piece of Crete

2009-03-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

A little tour around my place in Crete.

Parents Visit London!

2009-03-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit me in England!

The first day of their visit we took the Tube to Westminster and upon exiting I told them to "look up" for their first view of Big Ben. About half a minute later, it started to ring. We then explored Westminster Abbey fully, and they liked it so much they came back twice for services: one for evensong that same evening to hear the boys' choir, and later that week to hear an organ recital by the head organist.

Mom and I in front of Big Ben

We also walked to Buckingham Palace, just to say we've been, and visited the first Hard Rock Cafe. In the following days we saw Covent Garden, had AMAZING Indian food, walked through Harrod's, visited Hamley's, bought Paddington Bears for the little ones back home, and took a day trip to Oxford to see Christ Church, AKA Hogwarts.

Mom, Tony, and I walking through Portobello Market

I had papers to work on and packing to do, so they visited me for a short time in Reading and went about on their own in London while I stayed behind to get my stuff done. The last day Tony flew in and we all walked down Portobello Market on a gorgeous day. It was definitely a successful visit!

The Epic of Angelo Continues

2009-03-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

So in case you couldn't tell from my Ode to Angelo, I've had this flat deal in Athens I've been trying to pull off with a guy who randomly and unexpectantly disappeared for a few days just before the deal was sealed. Every time the phone rang at the house since last Monday, the whole house would echo in cries of "ANGELOO!" and we'd all decided that he must have died on his way to calling me (you should seriously check the poem out; it's legendary). I was considering writing the sequel to my epic in poem form, but I am just too blown away by how EPIC this chapter is that I want to tell it straight, because I seriously want you to know how EPIC this is. Before I go any further, I'm going to swear to you that every word of this is true, and my parents were there as witnesses so you can ask if you don't trust me. Ok, so anyway...

The phone rang today at 153. Reena laughed with the people in the kitchen, remarking on how funny it would be if it were the allusive Angelo. She goes to answer the phone and hears a male voice ask for me. She of course rushes into the kitchen and tells the probably shocked masses that it really WAS Angelo, I'm sure choruses of "ANGELOO!" rang out, and then she kindly gave him my cell number.

Meanwhile in London, my parents and I had gotten a late start for what we were planning would be Oxford. I was trying to get us to Paddington and wasn't paying enough attention to realize that the train we boarded, which I assumed was a Circle Line train, was being used for the District Line. Once I heard that we were headed for Ealing Broadway and NOT Edware Road, I realized that we were on the wrong line and that we had to get off at the next stop to change to the Circle, which just so happened to be Gloucester Road. So we get off at Gloucester Road and while I'm leading my parents to the Circle Line Platform to Paddington, I hear my phone go off. I see that it's a Withheld number and I think about not answering it, but I decided to give it a try.

I hear "Hi Katt, it's Angelo" and I have to stop myself from bursting out laughing or responding with "You're alive?!" Anyway, I'm pretty shocked to be hearing from him (and happy to hear he has an American accent and I can understand him easily) when he says he's been traveling for the past few days and was in fact still traveling now in London. The conversation then goes something like this:

ME: Funny story, but I'M in London right now. But we're heading to Oxford now; can I meet you tomorrow?

ANGELO: I'll actually be gone by then, you see I'm heading for the airport right now. Where in London are you?

ME: (as we're walking downstairs to the Circle Line Platform) Well to be exact I'm at the Gloucester Road Tube stop, but I doubt that helps you any.

ANGELO: Gloucester Road? I'm on the Piccadilly Line heading towards Heathrow right now. It'll be stopping at Gloucester Road in 10 minutes. Can you meet me at the platform?

I swear this happened. So I pull my parents away from the approaching train that we would've gotten on if I hadn't heard my phone, dragged them to the Piccadilly platform of Gloucester Road, where we wouldn't have been if I hadn't been a dope about catching the right train half an hour earlier, and waited to meet the infamous Angelo. Yep, I met Angelo. He lives; I shook his hand.

After we got everything squared away and he got back on his next train, I treated my parents to a reading of my Ode to Angelo, which I had copied on a whim into my journal last night, and had brought with me today for no particular reason.

Angelo, I'm relieved to see
That you have not forsaken me.
I swear this is a true story.

An Ode to Angelo: the landlord who never called back

2009-03-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

In a world of lies and dangers
It can be hard to find a friend:
Con-men are out to scam you,
And your trust can not defend.
So there I was on Craigslist
Feeling lost and so confused
When I saw your lovely advert:
Flat for rent, great rate, unused.

Imagine my elation
When at first you sent reply
That I could stay for short-term
Without a price sky-high:
Six hundred euro total?
Central Athens? Lucky me!
It even has a washer,
Comfy beds, a bath, A/C!

Our days back then were shining
With possibilities;
He replied to every email
Fully, quickly, and with ease.
And as we grew together
It was easy to feel sure
That my dear Angelo would be
A landlord, yet so much more.
A man, a friend, a renter
Who pulls up when you feel down
And always replies quickly
To emails about the town.

‘Everything looks great,’ he said,
After weeks of connecting.
‘Just one call to finalize
And you’ll be a proud rentee.’
But, alas!, dear Angelo,
I fear twas not to be,
For though you promised you would call
No such call did I receive.

‘I do not understand!’ I cried
‘Perhaps he’s lost his phone?
Maybe he’s been ailed by fate
And left me here alone.
Angelo, sweet Angelo!
My tears for you fall free
For it is clear some awful wreck
Has taken you from me.’

‘I just have a meeting,’
Were the last words that he said,
But that meeting ended Monday
And now I fear that you dead.

Tis the only explanation
If one really thinks it through;
Angelo, I shudder
To think of what killed you.
I dare not to imagine
The horror of that scene:
As Angelo lies dying
From broken heart and ruptur’d spleen.
He reaches towards the doctor
And struggles to tell him that
He must survive this awful crash
So he can go call Katt.

Oh Angelo, why have you forsaken me??

The Cavern Club

2009-03-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

The first thing we heard upon entering The Cavern Club. And at that moment I knew I'd found something awesome.

Soon after settling all of our stuff, they started playing Johnny B. Goode, and the swing couples showed off their moves.

More Beatles love in the Cavern Club.

Just to prove how AWESOME our DJs were, here they are doing the Dan Akyrod dance from Blues Brothers.

Sem Trip #2

2009-03-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

Sam & I in the Cavern Club

Our second Sem Trip was to Liverpool! The Ivys provided a full list of things we could do during our free hours, but in all honesty I couldn't wait to get to all the Beatles related places I could manage! Being raised in a household that instilled the importance of Paul, John, George, and Ringo, this opportunity was a dream come true.

Before we reached Liverpool, we stopped at Blisthill, town that's preserved its Victorian heritage the same way that Jamestown preserved its colonial roots. The whole town is authentically Victorian, and it had a full staff dressed to impress in Victorian garb, along with many shoppes and activites to explore. We saw a candel maker, a carpentor, a dress maker, a banker, a pharmacist, and many more; we were even treated to a performance of Romeo and Juliette in the streets. The best experience by far, though, was the vintage photo shoppe. I would tell you why, but I think I'll let this picture speak for itself.

After Blisthill, we made a short detour to Iron Bridge, home of the first iron bridge in the world, and of course therefore the oldest. It was actually a very pretty bridge, and we totally licked it. It was legendary.

The first day in Liverpool was spent at Liverpool Cathedral: the largest in England and I believe the 4th or 5th largest in the world! Needless to say, it was pretty huge. You could also climb to the top of the tower and get a full view of Liverpool. We did this, and it was terrifying. I think I was most worried about dropping my camera during the climb up through the too-open-for-comfort bell tower.

After that we moved into our hostel, which was decorated with Beatles decorations. All the floors were named after Beatles songs, and I stayed on the "Strawberry Fields" floor. Yep, it was pretty exciting. We started the day out by going to the Art Gallery in Liverpool, by I and the group I was hanging out with didn't quite feel like doing the whole art gallery scene, so we went to the history museum instead. The museum was actually pretty good, and we found things that Sam and I as Classists and archaeologists found to be pretty amusing. After the museum and a sack lunch, we drove to the Albert docks to have a walking tour with the Ivys which was followed by anything we wanted to spend the afternoon doing. Of course, I took this opportunity to rush off with Sam and start checking things off my "Beatles things to see" list, starting with the Beatles Story exhibit.

It was pretty awesome, and including such awesome things as a mini indoor replication of the Cavern Club--the location of discovery for the Beatles--and an indoor Yellow Submarine.

Yep, the exhibit was pretty much awesome, and all of Liverpool seemed to cash in on the Beatles heritage; they had a Yellow Duckmarine (a car that could drive into the port) and a Magical Mystery Tour Bus. It would've been cheesy if I wasn't so excited about it all.

That evening we also had off to do what we pleased and I was feeling down because of a cold, but luckily I made my friends promise to force me to go out and experience the Liverpool night life that I needed to complete my Beatles saga: the Cavern Club. We ate at a small pub and battled the hurricane-like winds along the shore as we made our journey into downtown Liverpool for our night out. We finally arrived at the club, paid our £1 to get in, and descended the cascade of stairs into the bowls of the dungeon-like room to hear the ending chorus of Hey Jude, and I was home. We were only going to stay for a few minutes, maybe half an hour, but the DJs and the music that night were SO GOOD that we literally danced the night away, staying despite feeling over heated (none of us were dressed for clubbing) and knowing that we had to be up early the next day to leave. I have videos of the night that accompany this tale; don't miss them.

The Cavern's stage. Can you find the Beatles's mark?

The next morning we were up bright and early to go somewhere that I've honestly forgotten the name of. It was something like Sunshine Hill... I don't know. Basically, they made soap. That was the village's whole purpose. It was an entire village where all the members were employees. It was very feudal and pretty interesting, but I honestly would've rather stayed in Liverpool an extra day. Still, it was a chill end to the weekend made of awesome.

Thriller in Trafalgar Square

2009-02-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

My house learned of a Flash Mob event taking place in Tower Bridge Tube station on Friday the 13th that involved learning the Thriller dance and doing it, sans music, with a large group of people in the middle of an Underground station. Sounds cool, but the bobbies heard of the happening and, after other large flashmobs had gone awry in stations, they patrolled the area to make sure no zombies showed up. Bummer, but my house had practed Thriller for the past month and would not give up so easily. We therefore crashed another flash mob going on at the same time in Trafalgar Square-a silent disco-to do our dance. So here it is. It fails a little bit, but know that we're trying to keep in time with each other while our individual mp3 players were, well, not in time with each other.

A visit and a blizzard

2009-01-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Aunt Debbie and I at the Hourglass!

Earlier this month, Uncle Jim and Aunt Debbie came into to London! I got the chance to stay with them from a wonderful night and enjoy their beautiful flat and bed with flannel sheets (I think I'm going to dream about that bed). We had Indian food for dinner! It was, of course, delicious. The next day Aunt Debbie took me to Partridge's super market to show me their American foods section. I was ecstatic to find Kraft Mac&Cheese, Mrs. Butterworth's Maple Syrup, and PACE SALSA. Yea, the Pace was gone in my day 2. I did let my other homesick housemates have a crack at it, but I honestly ate most of it. After that we looked at a cute handbag store Deb liked and then she took me to Harrods: the department store so big that it might as well be its own city. We then joined Uncle Jim for lunch and I (sadly) had to head back to Reading for a class. It was absolutely fabulous to see them, even for the short amount of time that we had, and it was soooo good to see someone from home. I've been really homesick lately.

Uncle Jim and I about to climb in for my first London taxi ride!

Having Indian food. Yum!

Shortly after Jim and Debbie left, England went through a moment of temporary insanity. The cause of this insanity? Little white fluffy objects began to fall from the sky, and then stick to the ground in increasing quantities. Yep, I'm talking snow, and the English just couldn't handle it; I think the whole country owns maybe one snow plow. Anyway, the hoohah was more than a little amusing, and the site was quite lovely.

Sadly, I don't know how much longer the R-MWC sign will be there. We begged Dr. Ivy to make sure they didn't change it while we were still there, and they never did.

141 Whiteknights Rd in the snow.

Christmas

2009-01-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

Hello family and friends!

Right now, I feel behind in everything. I'm behind in pictures, I'm behind in updates, I'm behind in Christmas cards (I had enough for everyone, and had even written a few, but they never got mailed...), I'm behind in laundry, I'm behind in sleep. I don't know how, but Decembers always turn out to be the busiest month of the year for me, even thought it's supposed to be a holiday, and this year was no exception. I'm sure you all feel that way, too, on most years. Holidays require so much work!

Anyway, that paragraph was my way of apologizing for being so behind in the things mentioned above, including these updates and picture sharing. Anyway, I hope everyone's holidays went well. As most of you probably know, I didn't go home for the holidays because Tony was coming up to see me in England instead. My last day of classes was on 12 Dec, as was his, and he was here on the 13th. Or at least he was supposed to be, but his original flight was canceled and instead of flying in after 10pm Saturday night he flew in before 7am Sunday morning. It meant spending way too long in O'Hare airport for him, and a lot of fun catching the bus at 5am for me, but it all worked out in the end.

ENGLAND
Our time in England lasted from the 13th to the 27th and was fun, but not quite as adventurous as I'd hoped. I wanted to take Tony to London, Bath, Oxford, Cardiff, and maybe even Lacock; we only made it into London and Bath (not including Reading, of course). This really couldn't have been helped though, because even though we had a lot of time in England I was not only working most days for 6+ hours, but I was also horribly sick with some kind of English plague. I still don't know what it was, aside from highly unpleasant. So a good chunk of the few days off that I had and wanted to dedicate to exploring England were spent sitting around the house, exhausted from work and my illness. Tony took care of me, though, and he never seemed disappointed to just stay in town, so that's good. We explored Reading quite a bit, which was fun, and we spent my birthday in London seeing Avenue Q and doing the touristy stuff (Big Ben, Westminster, Buckingham Palace). Our day in Bath was highly productive and consisted of the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum, and Sally Lunn's for a delicious bun and a pot of tea.

Tony in Trafalgar Square

As far as Christmas itself goes, we were still in Reading and I was still sick and working. I worked Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, but did of course get Christmas off. We went to see the new 007 movie on the 23rd, and it was there that we saw an advertisement for a Mama Mia! showing/sing along on Christmas Eve for just £2 a person. For whatever reason, the Brits go crazy about Mama Mia! They just can't get enough of it; it's the highest grossing film in Britain of all time. So, for the sake of science, Tony and I decided that we HAD to take advantage of this cultural study possibility and we both got tickets. I personally was highly suspicious of the whole thing. I mean, think about, a theatre full of English people singing? In public? Along with a movie? This was the Vue, not a pub; I just hoped enough people would show up drunk enough to get the ball moving for the rest of the shy Brits in the audience. I'm not sure if that's what happened, but when Tony and I walked into the theatre and it was already rolling, there was singing. The funny thing was that about 60% of the voices were male. I'm attaching a recording I took of Dancing Queen, which was by far their favorite. The whole thing was really a lot more fun than I thought it would be and by far the best way to watch that movie. It was probably the best possible way we could've spent our Christmas Eve.

153's living room, all decked out for Christmas!

The rest of the girls in my house had mostly cleared out of the house by Christmas, with Robin being the last to leave on Christmas Eve, so we had the whole house to ourselves for Christmas day. After getting home from Mama Mia! (we ended up walking home because the Xmas eve bus schedule was so slow) we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol (a must for every Christmas) and went to sleep so Santa could come. The next morning (though I believe it was closer to afternoon) we rolled out of bed and went out in the living room to check on the present progress. It was a little sad to not have any surprises pop up during the night, but oh well. But we DID have several things under the tree. When I was talking to Mom about Christmas presents, she said that she didn't like the idea of us not having anything to unwrap on Christmas morning, so in order to not disappoint her we made sure there were wrapped objects under the tree. To see what they were you'll have to look through the pictures. =D But I did receive an actual package from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim! Unfortunately the customs requirement on the outside of the box took away all the surprise of it, but I still didn't know what kind of sweater it was! =D So thank you both for that; I'm wearing it now in fact!

After present opening we headed into the kitchen to make breakfast: pancakes and bacon. It was delicious. We could've made eggs too, but I made so many pancakes that we were too full. We spent the rest of the day sitting around watching movies until the Doctor Who Christmas Special came on, which, thanks to the wonders of webcam technology, Dad was able to join us in watching. It was a lot of fun to share the joy of watching British television actually on a BBC channel in England; every time The Vicar of Dibley or Keeping Up Appearances comes on here, I get that feeling of authenticity and excitement. Once the special and the corresponding Dr Who Confidential programs were over, I went into the kitchen to start roasting the duck we'd gotten at Sainsbury's. It was a sort of crispy Peking duck and it was absolutely delicious. It came with some kind of little potato wraps and duck sauce and was supposed to feed 4 people but Tony and I devoured it just between the two of us.

The next day was Boxing Day, which wasn't too interesting on its own but was spent working and packing for our trip to Spain and France. Hold on, because this email is just getting started. I SHOULD have spent Boxing Day sending out the above in an email, along with pictures, and sending out holiday cards but, well, I didn't. And so here we go.

SPAIN
We left the house early on the 27th for Gatwick airport, a short train ride from Reading, to catch our flight into Madrid. Tony and I packed all of our stuff into one backpack and I was just carrying my purse; we only had a week away, afterall. As we sat in the airport cafe across from our gate with coffee (for him) and a chocolate muffin (for me), we both commented on how stress free we felt about the whole thing. It was probably the least stressful experience I've ever had in an airport, even though we were running late, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was such a short distance, or because we only had one bag, or the short amount of time we'd be away, or maybe we're actually seasoned travelers. In any case, the time on the plane, literally, flew by and before we knew it we were in Madrid, taking the metro and trying to find our hotel. I stumbled through my first lines of Spanish in about 5 years to no avail (I was asking a lady where the Hospital was while we were standing right in front of it and she still didn't understand what I was asking her), but we found our hotel regardless. We dropped our stuff and went out to town to find the Hard Rock and get a pin, since that's been a bit of a thing to do since Rome, and ended up eating there after I realized how long it'd been since I actually had a burger. The burger was disappointing, but I got my first taste of normal mustard since August.

Madrid Christmas lights

Madrid was, well, frustrating. The frustration started when we first left the Hard Rock. There was some kind of pavilion set up with a big Jesus on it and a guy standing there saying "Hola, hola. Uno, dos, tres.." over and over again for at least half an hour. We had no idea what was going on, and it was annoying. Next to this pavilion were a few buses with "Madrid A Christmas City" written on them in Spanish where HUNDREDS, if not a THOUSAND people were standing in line in the cold waiting to get on. To buses. For no apparently reason, and they weren't even tourists. I don't know why, and that frustrates me. Madrid was filled with that while we were there: massive amounts of people who were fascinated by seemingly stupid things. We decided to forget it and walk around to see some of the Christmas lights, and eventually got bored with it and went back to the room. We picked up brochures on flamenco dancing in the hotel and I called the Corral de la Moreria, apparently the most renounced flamenco tablao in the world, to reserve us spots to see the show for the next night.

Flamenco Dancing

The majority of our second day in Madrid was spent either waiting to enter or walking through art museums: the Reina Sofia and Prado. We were only in the Reina Sofia for a few minutes before we closed, and had to leave before seeing the Guernica. We stood in line outside the Prado for an hour waiting to get in, but once we did get in we spent another 3 hours walking around, looking at Ancient Roman copies of Greek statues and famous paintings that we'd studied in art classes. By the time we got out it was dark, and we walked around in the general direction of the tablao for dinner. We passed through the Plaza Major, obviously the major plaza, to be met once again with way too many people taking delight in about 50 vendors which were only selling the same cheap crap in every single one. And yet everyone there was going nuts for it all. It was all rather vexing, so we kept walking. We passed the palace, about as exciting as Buckingham Palace, unfortunately, and a cathedral and finally ended up at the flamenco tablao. Everything was rather overpriced, but the food was good and the show was great. Our next day in Madrid wasn't very interesting; we got up early to run into the Reina Sofia and see the Guernica before we leave, and then got on a train to Barcelona.

Pyrenees Mountains for my train window

I love trains in Europe; I think they're my favorite part about traveling there. Anyway, after a 3 hour (far too short) train ride, we were in Barcelona. Our hotel was in a suburb outside the city and was, to say the least, difficult and exhausting to find and get to. But after walking through the rain and cold and crossing highways for an hour, we relaxed in our room, I made a bubble bath, and we ordered room service for the first time ever, and it was wonderful. Then we turned on the tv and saw London once again: protests against Israel in front of the embassy. And that was the first we'd heard of the strikes on Gaza.

La Sagrada Familia: Only one of the many architectural wonders of Barcelona

The next day was sadly our only full day in Barcelona. As much as we were annoyed by Madrid, we LOVED Barcelona. Everything was beautiful, mostly thanks to their architect Gaudi and the SUN (oh the sun!!! I miss it so!!), the people were friendlier, and it accepted tourists respectfully and without all the nice little traps that places like Paris and Rome have for gullible travelers. We did so much there that I'm not even going to get into here; they're hardly the same without a visual, so you'll have to turn to the photos I send out for details of Barcelona.

FRANCE
I'm exhausted, how about you? Thanks for making it this far. Really, I applaud you for it. Anyway, we're almost done. The last leg of our travels was in France, and we spent a whole day traveling from Barcelona to Marseille by train to get there. The train ride was one of the best parts, though the waits between rides weren't great. Anyway, we arrived in Marseille and easily found our hotel (it was only 200 metres from the train station); it was the 31st of December. We were exhausted from waking up early and were going to be up super early the next morning to catch another early train, but we stayed up to try and catch New Year's somewhere on tv. We found a channel that was covering the party in Berlin, and at midnight the street outside our window become a live with honking horns and "bonne annee!"s; that was pretty much our New Years Eve celebration.

The Eiffel Tower on a foggy day

The next day, though, we hopped on a train and three hours later were in Paris. It was slightly freezing and very foggy, but it was still nice to experience the city. It was also a public holiday, though, so most things were closed. We entertained ourselves exploring the major parts of the city (including a baguette and red wine picnic under the Eiffel Tower) until about 16:00 and then went back to the train station to try and get warm again and decide how to kill the next 4 hours before our train came. Since nothing was open and we'd seen all the outside stuff we could manage in such cold, we decided to stay in the station for a bit and book our train tickets for the next day from Paris to London. When we tried to do this, it turns out that all the tickets were either sold out or WAY too expensive. Since that was our only preplanned (though I use that word loosely) way back to England, we were a little screwed. Luckily we didn't panic, and Tony found an internet cafe and, after almost an hour of searching every possible route from Paris to London including trains, planes, and automobiles, he finally thought of a solution to our predicament and we booked ferry tickets from Calais, France to Dover, England. We went back to the train station and an angel in the guise of a ticket lady found a combination of trains that got us to our ferry on time: it meant leaving Marseille at 5:30 and taking 3 different trains to finally arrive at Calais at 15:30 or so. It was our only option, so we took it. We're lucky, too; I'm not going to say whose oversight caused this, but let's just say if we ended up without a place to stay for the night, I would've gotten the park bench and Tony would've gotten on the floor.

So the 2nd of January was our last day in France, and it was one hell of an adventure. We started our morning at 4:30 (3:30 London time) after 3-4 hours of sleep (our train didn't get into Marseille from Paris until midnight), got dressed, and headed dreary eyed down the 200 metre stretch to the train station, got mugged, and got on our train.

I'll go over that again. Up, dressed, walked, mugged, train. Aren't you glad you made it this far now? This is where the whole email gets interesting! Anyway, onto the story of the mugging. I'll say right now that no one was hurt and nothing got taken and Tony kicked a lot of ass; really, that's all you need to know, but since I went into boring detail on everything else I should probably explain this. So we're walking to the train station, no we're right in front of the train station, and these two guys start coming towards us. One stops and asks a question to us in French, and I try and reply that we don't speak French (I didn't want to just ignore them) and keep walking and I make it a little further but the guy won't leave us alone. Tony's a little behind me because he's lugging the backpack and the guy starts walking towards him, saying something over and over again in French, and Tony tries to walk away. He succeeds in putting himself between the guy and me, but the guy grabs his arm and keeps saying that same thing over and over while pulling his arm closer in. From my point of view it just looked like he was trying to shake hands or something and I was just worrying that this guy was going to make us late for our train when suddenly I see a flailing of arms and for a few scary seconds I have no idea what's going on or who's winning. I was about to run in when the guy flew backwards, Tony turned around, and motioned that I should keep walking to the train station as he followed behind. Turns out the guy was holding Tony's arm to try and get at his two pockets; he'd gotten his hand into one of them (there was nothing important in there; we know better than to keep valuables in exterior pockets) and Tony grabbed him by the bag he was wearing, shook him violently, threw him about a foot, and turned to walk away. They shouted back and forth to each other for a few seconds, probably trying to figure out if they were going to go after us or something, but they didn't bother us again; I guess they got the message from the first contact. Anyway, after a quick "you ok?" we walked away from the muggers without pause and made it to our train; we had shit to do and couldn't waste time reacting to a few stupid locals.

The City of Love in the snow

And that was before the grand adventure of traveling began. Our first train from Marseille to Paris lasted 3 hours, and we had a 3 hour layover before our next train so we decided to look around Paris again. It was snowing when we got in and the sun actually came out so we decided to go to see some of the inside of the Louvre that was closed earlier and make our way to see the Eiffel Tower in the sun and snow. That accomplished, we had to rush back to the station and just barely made our next train to Hazebrouck, which then lead to Calais. In Calais I had a hotdog with WAY too much English mustard on it (it was painful) and we got on our ferry to go back to England! The ferry took about an hour and a half and was a pretty smooth ride; we had tea and chips the whole way there. When we finally pulled up and saw the white cliffs of Dover, I was so happy to be back in England I almost cried (in London I almost hugged an Underground sign). But we were still quite a ways from home, and had to get 2 more trains and a bus before we finally stumbled into 153 at 23:00, nearly 20 hours after we'd started our day.

And that, my friends, was my winter break. If you actually made it through the whole thing, you either have an ungodly amount of patience, or that was much more interesting than I thought It would be. FYI, this email took me 3 days to write; I hope it doesn't take that long to read.