So I’ve said before that I have multiple characters that I play. The three 80’s I have fulfill the three main roles: Tashi is a tank, Trevick is DPS, and Wickette is a healer. I enjoy playing all of them, but I enjoy Tashi the most which is why I’ve chosen her as a main character. I try to get to new stuff with her first, keep her gear above the others, and keep most of time on her.

However, this isn’t working. Currently, there’s this phenomenon that’s occurring called the Healer Shortage of 2009. This is very much like the healer shortage of ‘06. Both of these occurred right after an expansion when most players leveled their heal capable classes (Druids, Shamans, Paladins, Priests) in a DPS or leveling role. However, this time I think is worse.

Wrath of the Lich King made some specs better than they were previously. Elemental shamans, boomkin druids (affectionately called Lazer Chickens), and retribution paladins are all in much better shape than they were in Burning Crusade or in Classic WoW. All three specs of these three heal capable classes now have DPS capable specs which are really quite fun to play. I myself play my Paladin as retribution, its crazy fun.

Death Knights have also entered the game who have pulled players away from all roles into DPS and tanking roles. Since some previous players who may have been healers have switched to a DK, that’s less players who can heal for instances and runs.

Anyone who plays upper end content will be familiar with the healer shortage. The reason I bring it up today is that it affected me today in a way that I had not previously considered. I have three characters all who do different roles as listed above. Since I have the capability of playing a healer, when it comes to raid end content, stuff I can’t currently do with my guild, they will almost always ask for my healer first.

The problem is that I can’t get to play my main character, a tank, because it is much easier for a raid or group to form up and find a tank than it is for them to find a healer. This is compounded further by the fact that my guild is extremely tank heavy and healer short, and that most of my non-guild friends who are able to get me into reliable raids are tanks themselves.

I’m hoping that with the advent of dual-specs that this may even out. Then maybe the boomchickens, the elemental shamans, and the ret paladins will be at least willing to heal. (Curiously, I don’t see this problem with Shadow priests, they’re incredibly rare). Maybe when more people are able to switch over to healing, even briefly, I’ll be able to bring my tank to more stuff.

Last night around 9:30 a friend of mine whispered me on WoW with the following: "Hey, are you saved to a Naxx 10? We need a tank. We've got two wings cleared as of last night and are just waiting on more members." I think "Yeah, sure. I still need the shoulder piece for my tier set and I always enjoy a good Naxx run. Besides, if they just need a tank we should be kicking ass very soon." So I tell my friend yes and I get an invite from the raid group leader. They spam their ventrillo (online chatting program) info and I hop in.

Well, it turns out that not only are we waiting to find the other tank and two healers (the hardest role to find), but that the raid leader is frequently going AFK to handle... something. We finally get a full group together at 11:00, which is a nasty wait to begin with. I read news while we were waiting so I didn't mind that wait. We start clearing Trash which went perfectly fine, give or take a death from a overzealous DPS. We get to the first boss encounter we have of that night, Four Horseman, and our raid leader says over vent "Someone explain this. I'll be back in five minutes."

...Way to go, guy who should be leading this.

So I explain it cause I'm a bit of a tactical control freak and want to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. The explanation took about five minutes and the raid leader didn't come back for another five. He then, arbitrarily, decides that the other tank isn't well geared enough (Why didn't he check this earlier?) and boots him from the raid to invite another tank, a friend of his. Don't forget that the booted offtank is now saved to this Naxx and can't do Naxx for the rest of the week now... Way to go raid leader. Very nice of you.

We get the new tank, waiting for a half hour for him to get his ass over here cause he just has to get an unnecessary enchant on his weapon to make it glow or something. We finally pull and the new tank screws up the strategy I laid down (and explained again) and wipes the raid. 5 minutes for folks to repair and restock on reagents, then 5 minutes running back through Naxx to get to the boss. Its not midnight.

That's when our other tank, a healer, and 2 DPS decide to go afk for about half an hour. Just when one person gets back another person has to go AFK. We end up sitting there doing NOTHING for an hour. Its now been three and a half hours from my invite and we've accomplished nothing but clearing trash and dying fighting one boss encounter. Eventually I just DC'd myself without saying anything and played another toon with competent players.

Overall, horrible run. But as I ranted to my friends after I bailed, the main person to blame is the raid leader. Anyone organizing a Naxx run should have managed just about everything there better. Raid leaders who don't explain fights are a problem. Raid leaders who boot people for a friend are a problem. Raid leaders that allow hour long AFKs are a problem. Everyone in the raid is relying upon the raid leader to organize the run to get things done. If you fail at that, you shouldn't be running a raid.

Date:	2009-01-22 13:16
Subject:	PuG healing
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful

One of the most important and entertaining parts of WoW to me are dungeons. Working as a team of five (maybe less if you’re feeling ball-sy) to go in, fight some hard hitting mobs and kill the boss is what I spend most of my time on in WoW. Now, ideally, running into these dungeons is usually done with a set of guildies or some friends online that you can count on. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes you have to Pug it.

Pugging (short for Pick up Group) is often talked down upon. Usually its a last resort. Its a hail mary of hoping that you pull together five random players who will do their job and not get everyone killed. Its pretty rare to get a pug together that’s more than adequate. Most of what you hear about pugs goes along the lines of “That pug made my brain hurt, it was so bad.”

Browsing Looking for Group, the primary way to get a pug going, you can notice that there’s pretty much always a lack of healers. Its been called the healer shortage of ‘09, much like the tank shortage of ‘08. I wonder if its due to how healers react to pugs.

Now I’m fortunate enough to have three 80 characters with three different roles. Tashi, my warrior and main, tanks like a badass. Trevick, my retribution paladin does DPS (Damage per second). Wickette, my discipline priest heals. So I’ve got three characters with three different roles in a party; roles that I enjoy for different reasons. There’s satisfaction in holding every mob on you, or in dishing out really big numbers of damage, or of keeping everyone alive. I play all of them a roughly equal amount, with Tashi taking the lead as she goes on raids.

But what crossed my mind earlier is how I react to pugs on each of these three toons. With Tashi I have no problem tanking for a pug since I control most of the tactical situations. I’m at the helm, so if it goes to hell I at least know why. Trevick will go, but I’m always cautious about the group, checking up on them a bit for gear, guild, and talent specs. But with Wickette I rarely ever pug something. She pretty much exclusively parties with people I know.

Healers tend to have a sticky situation in a group. Similar to the tank, without you, the entire party is going to die. But its more extreme than a tank. The tank is responsible for several mobs and can usually keep their attention. With all the AoE abilities that tanks have these days (<3 shockwave), its actually pretty simple to keep threat on mobs provided the DPS aren’t idiots. But the DPS are occaisonally idiots, and that’s more stress on the healer, not the tank.

In Pugs, where you don’t know folks, and you’re not communicating as much as a normal group, its very very easy for someone to do something idiotic. So when these things happen, the healer has to keep everyone alive, keep everybody living so you can keep going. This is made much much much harder with a pug, and so healers may not be as eager to heal a pug as they are a group they know.

So for the DPS and tanks out there in looking for group, be mindful of the stressful situation a pug offers a healer. Be smart, don’t be overzealous on damage, let the tank pull who he wants, and please please try not to get yourself smacked in the face too hard. It makes healers cry, and thus not want to do pugs.

Date:	2008-10-11 21:22
Subject:	A somewhat silent return
Security:	Public
Mood:	bored

So I've been thinking for a while that I'd start blogging again. I've been thinking this for two reasons. One, I think a lot, often about pretty random stuff on my spare time . Two, I have far too much spare time on my hands. So what better place to mull my gigantic collection of thoughts over than on the interwebs?

I have too much time on my hands because I don't have anything to do with my time. I think that would be obvious, so let me clarify. I graduated from college this last May into a economy that isn't entirely eager to hire right now. Furthermore, my college years were spent in semi-esoteric field of Philosophy and History. I say semi-esoteric because there are jobs out that that could pertain to what I studied, but they aren't the typical jobs you hear about. So after I spend about 4 or 5 hours doing job searches each day and find nobody that responds to me, that still leaves me with about eleven to 12 waking hours to do... nothing of consequence.

So I'm trying to find gainful employment. Mainly to give something for me to do. Also, so I can move out of my parents house. I lived on my own this summer and loved it. Being under my parents roof, as much as I love them and as nice as they are about it, still isn't what I want to be doing with my life right now. I'd like to be progressing towards something of importance.

Which leaves me with spare time. Time to think. To dwell on philosophy, religion, WoW, TV, star wars, and whatever else can possibly pop into my head. And hopefully I'll be able to relate my thoughts here. Now I just gotta remember to post...

Woke up the next morning for our trip from Florence to Rome, our last long coach ride of the trip. There’s been a lot of lasts these final two weeks of our semester. And with each one, we’re all bound to respond with sighs of contentment, reflection, and joy. Its eerie, really.

But nonetheless, our trip from Florence to Rome was interrupted as our coach rides usually are by an artistic pilgrimage, this time to the city of Sienna. During the Florentine Renaissance Sienna was the main competitor to Florence, creating a long-standing rivalry between the two city states of the time. So, when we rolled into Sienna it didn’t come as that big of a surprise that there were several important artistic achievements in the town.

The main thing that we were to see there was the Cathedral in the middle of the town. It was interesting to see that while it was built during the Florentine renaissance you could definitely tell that they were trying to depart from Florentine styles. The result was a pseudo-Gothic cathedral with Byzantine influence and many rigid surfaces containing sculptures all around the facade. It was a unique cathedral that’s for sure.

Within the Cathedral was a collection of many different ground mosaics. Large portions of the floor are detailed into elaborate depiction's of different Siennese historical events, biblical stories, or heraldic claims. Among these was one which showed the main cities of the Italian peninsula paired with their patron animal above it (Sienna being the wolf).

As I said earlier the rivalry between Sienna and Florence was fierce. Once I understood that I was able to pick up on the vast amount of lion statues (symbol of Florence) included in the cathedral but in compromising positions. Forced to bear the pillars of a platform. Attacking the Lamb of Christ. A Siennese warrior wearing a Lion pelt. The list goes on. I found it rather amusing, really.

After the interior of the church was well explored, we moved on to another scene, this time a collection of the many different sculptures which were present around the cathedral. The most interesting part of this particular museum is that it had a staircase which led to an unfinished cathedral facade. When we climbed all the steps we arrived above the majority of the city, with a great cloud-covered view of the rolling hills that make up Sienna.

We had lunch in town, hiding from the rain that decided to open up in sheets. So as a few of us hid in a pizza parlor we began talking about Europe semester in general, starting the reflections of the trip that would become so popular in these last two weeks. After lunch we ran back through the rain across town to get on our bus and work our way onward to Rome.

We arrived in Rome a full hour before we thought we would arrive, so we had sometime to explore our hotel, rest, and then get ready for dinner that night. As the end of the semester was encroaching, that also meant assignments were going to be due shortly. So, most of us hid away and worked on our Cultural snapshots, Artist essay, or Artist journals. Dinner that night was pretty sweet as I sat next to the Pointers and talked to them about their past trips to Rome and what they’ve done here.

One thing that they did recommend was that we had to see Rome at night. So, a small group of us set out to go to one of the most famous monuments in Rome, the Colosseum later that night. After trying to figure out the Roman metro system (worst we’ve seen this entire trip), we gave up and took the bus instead. We eventually got to our destination, and the Colosseum was great. It made me want to sneak in and fight someone. But instead, I got a picture with Maddisson.

The next day was Sunday, and it was one of the rare days on this semester where I decided to go to church. I know, I’m not the best church attender. But nonetheless, I attached myself to a group of 15 some-odd students that were going to the Vatican. That’s right, church service at the Vatican! Wachow!

Except when we got there we found out that there was a special ceremony going on and that the traditional weekly service was canceled because of it. The ceremony was the inauguration of 27 new Cardinals into their positions, and the entire service was shown on giant TV screens outside in the courtyard of St. Peter’s. At the end of the service the Pope, who had been leading the service, actually came outside to the steps of the Vatican and addressed the many different people there in many different languages. OH YEAH, I saw the Pope!

After the Pope went back into St. Peter’s, we all quickly evacuated that area as it had already started to rain on all of us. The group split up and went its different ways. I went back to the hotel with a few other students to work on our assignments. Besides a trip to the grocery store to get a weeks supply of turkey sandwich materiel, I worked the entire day, getting all of my assignments for the semester completed. It was worth it as I had free time the rest of the week.

The following day we had our first of three church-morning pilgrimages in Rome. The first day included Gesú, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and Sant’ Ignazio di Loyala. They were each different examples of church architecture in Rome, but mainly grouped around different stages of the Baroque. The Ignazio di Layola was interesting as it had the symbol of the Jesuit order or Ignatius himself included in many of its frescos.

We also got to see the Parthenon that day, our first real ancient-world architecture of the trip. It really was amazing to think that people 2000 years ago could build such a perfect building. The interior is literally a perfect dome, capable of fitting a perfect sphere inside. I was really saddened by the absence of the original statues of the Pantheon, but I’ll survive.

That afternoon we had our last day of three classes together which included our final class for IS 125, Contemporary European Challenges. I always appreciate the last class as I get to hear the Professor’s thoughts on the class in general as well as their little plug for why we have studied it and why we should continue to study. I know, I’m a geek. The final class session for IS 125 included voluntary sharing of different cultural snapshots we had written down on the trip with the entire class. I shared some of my history-geek observations of the many different historical stories I’ve picked up on this trip.

As we usually have on our days of three classes, we had a group dinner that night to relieve stress of finding food for ourselves. The meal was a classic italian meal of pasta, rocket salad, and veal which I have disturbingly come to love. The walk back was free for all of us so Jason, Mike, and I went by the Trevi Fountain to get a glimpse of it at nighttime.

Our second Rome church pilgrimage followed the next morning, this time to see the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Santa Maria della Vittoria, The Conversion of St. Paul by Caravaggio, and Santa Maria del Popolo. The church with the two pieces by Caravaggio was very interesting for me as he is one of my favorite artists we’ve seen on this trip. His dramatic use of Chiaroscuro (intense shadows) is very captivating to me, I love it.

The afternoon passed through another series of classes, closing further toward the end of our semester. After class it was nap and shower time as I prepared for the evening that night. You see, something that I haven’t mentioned on this trip is that I took up the position of Counter back in London. Basically, whenever we are about to leave as a group, I am charged with the task of counting all of the guys and making sure that they are there (Holly counts the girls). So, when the faculty on the trip gathered all the leaders together for announcements they invited me to the traditional leadership dinner for Europe Semester.

So, after cleaning myself up and shaving for the first time in about a month, I gathered down with the rest of the student leadership for our dinner with the faculty which was all paid for by them. Holly and I were the counters, Caroline and Brandon the housing coordinators, Haley and Mikey the social chairs, Charlie the luggage coordinator, Nick and Janelle the chaplains, and Amanda the president. The Pointers and Brothers took us out to a very nice restaurant and told us to order anything we wanted, no matter the cost.

After a great deal of hesitancy (we had been on a budget the entire trip, its hard to break that mental situation), we all ordered our food. And what food it was! I had smoked cheese with balsamic vinegar and rocket salad, lamb pasta in tomato sauce, rare tenderloin wrapped in bacon, and creme caramel for dessert. It was amazing, and we had a great time talking about the most random stuff. From esperanto to Europe Semester craziness to high school stories, we had a great time talking to each other for the few hours we were there. At the end we had a group picture on the Spanish Steps before going back to the hotel.

I was grateful that I had a food coma that night as I definitely needed the rest for our early start the next day. We would be going together as a group to St. Peter’s basilica (what you probably think of as the Vatican) and the Vatican museums. We had our briefing in the courtyard of St. Peter’s and got a wide view of the entire basilica.

The interior of St. Peter’s (named for the fact that it resides on top of the tomb of St. Peter, the first Pope) is monstrous and beautiful. Every surface is ornate marble, gilded bronze, or pure gold. Magnificent tombs of Popes cover the walls and light reflects off of every intricate surface. I even found a small vent from below that some choir music was drifting out of. I simply sat above the grate, listening to the very ethereal music of the choir, and just soaked everything in.

After our walk through the interior of St. Peter’s we walked over to the Vatican museums. We saw many many many pieces throughout the entire place rivaling the sheer size of the Louvre. The Raphael rooms were especially exciting for me as I saw my favorite work of all time, School of Athens-

After wandering through the labyrinth of rooms with many priceless works of art, we literally stumbled into the Sistine chapel, one of Michalangelo’s greatest works. I spent a good twenty minutes in there staring at the masterfully done scenes on the ceiling depicting different stories of the Bible, arranged according to neoplatonic organization (something Michalangelo was very into). I even managed to ninja a picture of the center piece, the creation of Adam.

After our trip through the Vatican was completed, we were set free to ourselves to find our way over to the Colosseum and the Roman forum, our ancient artistic pilgrimage for Rome. I was not expecting to be as impressed as I was by going to these spots, but they were really exciting. Then again, any historical monument usually gets me excited. Jason, Bo, Eric, and I started at the Colosseum. We were drawn by an indescribable urge to take one of the manliest pictures of the entire trip.

After our walk around the Colosseum, talking about how freaking’ sweet it was, we wandered across the courtyard over to the Roman Forum. Its basically the seat of power for ancient Rome as numerous palaces, temples, and important monuments were built to help centralize the politics of Rome. While most of it is now in ruins it was really exciting to see the remnants of temples to the gods as well as the places where senators would meet to decide the fate of Rome.

That night we all crammed into our hotel rooms to prepare for the upcoming test the next day for IS 125. It would be our first final, and as finals usually do, it was beginning to freak everyone out. So we looked over our notes for most of the night, taking small breaks here and there to hang out and once again talk about Europe Semester memories. Mainly we talk about how we’re going to tell people back home about the colossal experience that we’ve had. Its something that we’ve been trying to figure out over the last few weeks.

Morning came and with it a sleepy start as we had nothing scheduled until our final that afternoon. When we finally did get up and running, Jason and I decided we needed to see one more ancient thing in the city. So, using a tour book that Jason had bought, we found the Aurelian walls on the map and set out to find them using Rome’s crazy transit system.

Rome’s kinda weird in the fact that most of its city walls are still preserved. Most cities, during stages of modernization and reworking city plans, usually knock down their walls as they aren’t any military use anymore and the land can be used for something else. With Rome, this wasn’t the case. The Aurelian walls remain standing along most of its perimeter, and they’re really freaking’ sweet to look at.

After our short foray out to our last Roman sight, Jason and I came back to the hotel to prepare for our test that afternoon. Three hours studying later with a stomach full of turkey sandwich goodness we did battle with the IS 125 final. It really wasn’t that bad, I think I was well prepared for what we had to know. However, as I usually do after finals, I took one of the deepest naps ever.

That night, our last night in Rome, we had a group dinner at a pasta and pizza joint. When all the announcements were said and done, a group of us set out to celebrate our last night in Rome. Our plan was to go to the Spanish steps to hang out for a while and share some drinks we’d pick up somewhere. A group of five or six guys, including myself, decided to walk over to the Spanish steps to explore one last bit of Rome.

The steps were really fun as we all just hung out and talked. One of the girls convinced most of the rest of the girls to try out a champagne she got which was much stronger than anything they were used to. The result was a lot of tipsy girls in a few short amount of time. So, we hung out and talked and generally enjoyed ourselves for the next two hours on the steps.

Eventually plans formed to go to a club that night as most of the girls were already dressed for it and really wanting to dance. I wasn’t really up for a club that night or spending enough money so that I would enjoy the club, so I took an opportunity to go back to the hotel and get to sleep.

Rome’s been a pretty interesting city. I really enjoyed going to the Vatican, its been one of my spiritual highlights of the trip. And visiting the Colosseum and Roman forum were just ridiculously cool. And being our second to last city its given me plenty of impetus to start thinking of my Europe Semester experience as a whole. But I’ll be saving my final analysis for when I get back to the states after my Athens post.

I also won’t be posting my Athens post until I will be in the states. It’ll just be too much of a hassle trying to pack, have fun and go out, and post a blog all on the last night. So instead, I will hopefully have my last city post up this friday and my reflections on Europe Semester posted up on Sunday.

Stay with me folks, just two more posts left.

==Internet blows in Rome, and I was only able to upload some of the pictures. I'll try to fix this in a few days==
Florence! City of Flowers! We’ve been here a week and have been immersed in art study our entire time here. Even with reading Flemming, our art textbook, I didn’t realize just how much art is centralized in Florence. So without further ado, I present to you my experience in Florence-

We woke up pretty early while we were still in Venice to get our bags coordinated for launch. Yes, launch. Our baggage was sent by boat to our departure point and we were to follow it in another boat. The boat ride over gave us a really nice last glimpse of Venice before we set out for another long coach ride south to Florence.

We finally got into town around 5:00 and got organized into our hotel. And let me just say that our hotel location is possibly the best on the entire trip. We’re right next to the main square that holds Brunelleschi’s Duomo. Its this gigantic dome, a marvel of renaissance engineering, that stands above every other building in the town. After we all got established into our rooms we had dinner that night at a really nice Italian restaurant. Food here is so good.

That evening, much to my delight, I found out that there was really cheap wireless in our hotel (8 euro for 18 hours) so I jumped on that. I split it with my roommate that wanted to use it for Skype to call home. After screwing around online for a while I went out to find a bar with Jason and to explore the city a bit.

The next morning was a free day. Some people went to a town on the coast nearby and spent the day there. Others explored the city. With the exception of a one hour walk to find a market, I stayed in doing homework, prepping for my artist presentation, preparing for my debate, writing and updating blogs, reading blogs, watching Heroes, and downloading episodes of the Office for everyone else. I actually got a lot done that day.

Monday morning came around and with it our first group activity in Florence. We had two churches that day to see: Santa Maria della Fiore and Santa Croce. The first stop was actually to view the exterior facade, dome, and doors. Its the giant dome I mentioned earlier. Perhaps most interesting though were the elaborate gold-bronze doors on the exterior by Ghibberti.

The second church we saw, Santa Croce, was perhaps my favorite church I’ve seen on this trip. Only one that would rival it would be Chartres Cathedral. But this one, Italian Renaissance in style, impressed me by the great sense of openness and brightness that the interior had. Among the artwork inside were statues to Machiavelli which had an interesting scale tipped to one side by the weight of a crown. I thought it amusing.

That afternoon we had classes as most churches and museums we’re seing in Italy close at noon. That day I had my debate which I think turned out fine. Our prompt was ‘Muslims from North Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East can successfully and peacefully practice their faith within the context of European societies today.’ My side was the pro side, and we argued that there is nothing internally (from their faith) preventing them from doing so, and that there was great external support (from various states) to fostering a successful Muslim community in Europe. I mainly handled the rebuttal and Q&A period, and I definitely enjoyed it.

That evening I set out with some of the guys to get some cheap pizza and succeded in finding some tasty slices for reasonable amounts. Afterward I went back to the hotel to find something to do or someone to go out with. I found a group of people that were playing cards, so I joined in a game of Egyptian Rat Race and Colors. I really need to teach people how to play Colors back home, its a fun game.

In the morning we had two museums to go to, the Academia and the Duomo Museum. The Academia was a large collection of sculptures, mostly Michalengelo’s. I didn’t know much going into the place so I was pretty amazed when I turned the corner and saw Michalangelo’s David standing colossally in front of me.

I can confidently say that I have never seen or probably won’t see another sculpture as detailed and amazing as this. The eyes, hands, muscles, chest, everything is done with amazing precision and perfect attention to detail. You can even see the strained veins on his right hand as he holds the stone he’s about to throw at Goliath. I was just blown away by this.

The next musuem, the Duomo Museum, was another collection of sculpture and paintings which was interesting. Here we saw a lot of Donatello’s pieces that he made for the Santa Maria della Fiore’s upper facade. Among them was the very interesting El Zucorre, or Lost Prophet, or as we have affectionately come to know him: Pumpkin Head. Its very interesting how Donatello cut very sharp features into him so that its easy to discern his features from 50 feet below.

That afternoon was another series of class, this time including our last debate on Terrorism in the 90’s opposed to the 70’s and 80’s. Jason and I had to leave early as we had to check if and where our artists’ pieces were in the Uffizi Gallery we would be visiting the next morning. My guy, Guercino, continues to be absent, but Jason found his so it wasn’t a complete waste. For dinner that night we went to the same pizza place then got a few bottles and chilled on the river, mainly talking about how we’re excited to go home.

Next morning we had yet another sculpture gallery before us followed by the main trip to the Uffizi. Within the first gallery we saw the two other David’s we studied on the trip. One by Donatello which was under live restoration which was kinda neat to watch. Second was by Verrochio which was very different. Sadly, no pictures in that place and I couldn’t sneak any, so I can’t show off about that.

The Uffizi was at 10:00 and we had a whopping five presentations to attend to: Boticelli, Lippi, Ghirlandio, Memling, and Parmiagno. I really liked Boticelli’s Allegory of Spring, especially when I found out the story behind it. It was really impressive how much could be put into one single painting.

Class that day took a different turn as Pointer canceled his presentation on the Cold War and instead started up a discussion on the Theology of Beauty. I found it interesting, and I got to present my own personal view on Beauty, something that I’ve thought about before. It was really fun when Pointer turned us to Biblical sources of beauty which I had written a paper about a year ago. So I was really enjoying that particular class session.

Brandon had put together a dinner reservation that night at a restaurant he knew of. Fifteen of us set out to spend a good deal of money on an amazing meal. We had antipasta which was to die for and then three pasta dishes after that. And throughout the entire meal we worked our way through four jugs of wine. The management liked us apparently and gave us some ‘gifts’ of some desert wine and some melon liquer. It was a really entertaining night that we finished off with some Gelatto.

Next morning was a pseudo free day as we had things to see but could do so on our own time. I, along with my two roommates, chose to sleep in until ten before heading out to see the four churches of the day. I hooked up with Holly, Jessica Price, and Eric and we meandered our way through town. The first church we went to was pretty small as the only thing we had to see there was one of Massacio’s frescoes which you can barely see in this picture on the left side.

We walked back across the river to the next few churches, but not before gnabbing this picture halfway along the bridge.

The second church we saw was San Mario Novella which sadly had its facade being worked on so we couldn’t see it. However, the inside was very nice and I even found a stained glass window dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas which got my philosopher inside happy. I think I’m starting to like Italian churches more and more as I notice the huge differences between northern and southern styles.

Two churches down, two to go. We found San Lorenzo, the Medicci family church which was very elaborate. It was also very obvious that the Medicci’s were its patrons as there were endless amounts of Medicci family crests and names all over. The ceiling especially was beautiful along the Nave.

Fourth church was San Marco, home to a cloister of aesthetic monks. I may have that word wrong. Anyway, they believed in the abandonment of all material wealth beyond very simple needs such as clothing, food, and shelter. Even those should be as simple and plain as possible. Within their rooms their only ‘decoration’ was a fresco by Fra Angelico. There was also a small gallery attached to the cloister where I took a picture of this painting which intrigued me for some reason.

That afternoon we had to ourselves, so I spent the time wandering the city, seeing if I could find any gifts that I would want to get for people. Wasn’t all that successfuly, but I did enjoy wandering the city and getting lost. I still think its the best way to explore a city.

That evening a large group of us went down to the covered bridge to have some wine. It was Thanksgiving day and we needed to celebrate somehow on that day as all our families were feasting back home. Don’t worry, we’re feasting tonight, one day late, but we felt compelled to do something that night. So we passed around some bottles, talked, and chatted. Morgan looked like a pirate at one point and I got a picture which I’m trying to doctor up cause I really like it.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=996839&albumID=2162066&imageID=21897749
Which brings us to today, our thanksgiving celebration day. I started out by meeting Scott and Jason to climb the Duomo as it was our last remaining goal for Florence. 431 steep spiraling steps later we finally got an amazing view of the entire city.

More Westmont people started coming up and I think we spent a full hour up there enjoying the view and the company. Looking over at the Campinilli (Giotto’s Tower, another part of the church) you can see the streets below. The street that leads off the left of the lowest window of the tower is where our hotel is. Like I said, great location.

We climbed our way back down and walked through the church a bit. Ironically, as majestic and awesome as the dome is, the church itself wasn’t all that unique. When we got out on to the streets I took a picture from the street our hotel is on of the tower and dome, just so you guys can have a frame of reference.

On a whim we decided to go back to San Lorenzo to tour Cosimo Medici’s personal chapel. This has got to be the largest personal chapel ever dedicated to someone outside of the clergy. The marble work inside along with the several Michalangelo statues were incredibly ornate.

Our Thanksgiving Celebration and Preparation started when we got back to the hotel around noon. About half of our group went to a local church to play a game of touch football, something I wasn’t particularly enthused about. So instead I volunteered to help carry supplies from here to the church.

Our entire Thanksgiving celebration was hinged around the idea that everyone would pitch in somehow. Either with the shopping, cooking, decorating, or cleanup. Or in the case of the most enthusiastic thanksgiving supporters, a bit of everything. I choose to make my family’s roll recipe and recruited Jason in to help me make them.

We originally make this recipe for about 25-30 huge rolls back home, so we tripled the recipe for this Thanksgiving, uping the dosage tremendously. Jason and I did the first steps of mixing everything together, getting our hands coated in nasty dough-goo.

Then, to our great enjoyment, Jason and I, with the help of a very eager Bo, got to ‘knock down’ the rolls which meant very rapidly punching them into the table.

It was so much fun that the next time we had three or four more helpers that switched out with us. In the end, we made 130 rolls and only 10 were left after the meal.

The meal in all was incredibly tasty with everyone bringing their family’s best to culminate in an awesome celebration of Thanksgiving. We had Turkey, Stuffing, Yams, Rolls, Cranberry and Rasberry Bread, Bacon-wrapped Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, Fruit Salad, Wassle, Hot Chocolate, Apple Crisp dessert, Pumpkin Pie, and Pecan Pie with Ice Cream. All in all, my stomach was happily in that great blissful discomfort of Thanksgiving.

After three plates of food and dessert, we had a slideshow of the trip so far courtesy of Alex Aguas as well as a presentation of the MVP award for the turkey bowl today to Amanda Wiggno. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and as much as I love my family and friends on Thanksgiving, this has got to be one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had. And I’m eager to bring back recipes to everyone back home.

After a short night out to say goodbye to Florence, I succumbed to the Thanksgiving coma and crashed with my pants still on. After Thanksgiving that signaled the two week mark for when I would see my full family again. I eagerly look forward to returning to the states to see my family and friends again.

==This blog is posted in quick succcession to the previous one of 11/09. Also, I updated the blog from 10/29 to have pictures. So you get a bit more European Travel info than you were expecting.==

Lets see, where did I last leave off? Ah yes, I was seeing sites in Paris. That didn’t end up going through as I realized I had a bunch of online stuff I needed to do (signing up for classes, arranging housing, checking bank accounts, grabbing research, etc). So instead I chilled in the Hotel and did all my internet needs which I had been putting off.

That night was our last night in Paris and the night we were celebrating Ian Dwyer’s 21st birthday. So about a third of us trekked out to find somewhere in the Latin quarter where we could all fit and hopefully drink cheaply. We found a mexican-styled bar which was fun. I ended up buying Ian three drinks that night so my wallet was definitely lighter by the time I was walking out of there. And Ian was a happy boy with his girly drinks.

Holly and Jason wanted to make one last tour of the city at night, so we set out to see the sights and possibly find a bottle of French wine. We ended up seeing Notre Dame, the Louvre, and chilled on the river for a while. While our attempts to find wine were unsuccessful, it was still a nice stroll through Paris to finish off our trip.

We had a late start the next day, eventually climbing on to the coach at 9:00 am. We would be traveling straight into Switzerland where we would be having our four-day equivalent. Most of the ride there was spent reading Band of Brothers which I enjoyed immensely. I read 2/3 of the book on that ride, finishing it and handing it off to the next eager male on the trip. I expect it to be well passed around by the time I get it back.

At around 6:00 that night we really got into the higher ground of the Alps. And to everyone’s mounting joy, we got our glimpse of snow at a rest stop. What followed was a rest stop where few people actually used the bathroom and most threw snowballs at each other.

We rolled into Interlaken when it was dark and most of us were tired from the long travel day (I think we have it in our heads that Travel Days are to spent tired at all times). We had our group dinner at a fusion restaurant there, listened to our city report and went back to the Hotel. As this was our four-day plans quickly formed to watch a movie that night, this time Saving Private Ryan. I forgot how great that movie was, especially after spending the day reading Band of Brothers.

I slept in the next day as I didn’t have any plans while in Switzerland and wanted to enjoy a nice 12 hour sleep. But when I woke up and walked out to the balcony I was in shock. Remember that I said we arrived in darkness? Yeah, that means we didn’t see what was surrounding us on all sides-

Most people had plans to go into the mountains that day to either the two villages there or way up to the top of Europe, Jüngfaroch. I however, not wanting to dish out 30-180 Euro for the trips decided on a much more cheaper activity: Cruising town. Since most everyone else was gone from the hotel, I set out by myself, walking generally toward the West lake. I got lost, found a trail leading up a mountain and took it. At the base of the trail I got a glimpse of the larger mountains behind our immediate surroundings.

Feeling a little cold and a lot hungry I walked back toward town. Interlakken is really cute and is full of little tourist shops for gifts. I ended up getting two of my gifts there on the first day, including Mikayla’s gift bear who I named Jüngfrar (Young-Frow). He now chills on the side of my backpack while I tour Europe.

Once I had hit up the grocery store I went back to the Hotel. We had an essay due in two days that I thought about doing but decided to procrastinate instead. So I just chilled in the hotel room, getting ahead on the reading assignments and enjoying some Hot Chocolate.

When it came to dinner time we ventured back into the town center looking for something that cost less than 20 swiss marks and was actually open. The only option available, sadly, was McDonald’s. My stomach felt horrible afterward. That night we all went out to a hostile bar that had Happy Hour. It was a really fun large-group bar scene and I ended up talking ethics with the only other philosophy major on the trip, Ian.

When we walked back that night, some of us innebriated, it started raining cold death upon us. So it was a very wet and cold return to the hotel followed by warm showers and crashing for the night.

Next morning I woke up late again and worked on my paper for a brief time. It was Nick’s birthday so I wished him a good day and then set out with Ross to see more of the town. We ended up walking toward the east side of town and doing some shopping on the way. Oh, and we found a Kebab place that was reasonably priced. And Kebabs are awesome, so we chilled at the field in the middle of town and enjoyed the view.

After the meal we walked farther Eastward. On the way we saw the funniest Swiss army knife: the stapler!

Further one we saw the more residential side of Interlaken including some sweet churches and more restaurants which were way too pricy. Eventually we ended up at the East lake which was just awe inspiring. The clouds cleared up just as we arrived and came back just as we were leaving, so our view was amazing.

We got back to the hotel and I took a nap as I was le tired. When I woke up I got invited to Nick’s birthday party that night, so I accepted. Now, as I already pointed out, food in Interlakken is quite pricy and hard to find after a certain time of evening (5:30 pm). So our only option for a large group setting available to us was Hooters. It was actually really good as four of us guys shared a 50 peice plate of wings. They were finger-licking good as shown by Nick here.

That night a bunch of us ended up hanging out in the rooms, playing games of sorts. It was nice to just chill and hang out with mostly guys (Madison and Morgan were there for a while). Afterward I managed to get my hands on some iPods and quickly set out to boost my music collection even more.

Woke up the next day to the clearest day in Switzerland that we had. And as a very fortunate farewell we had a completely unrestricted view of the mountains.

Our trip to Venicce was pretty long and I spent most of my time writing my paper that was due the next day. It didn’t take too long as I had been thinking about it for about a week now. And I think I did a reasonable enough job for a B, or even an A if I get lucky. At one of the stops I found the biggest Toblerone ever conceived by man-

We arrived in the marshes of Venice and got on a boat to take us to the actual island. We had a great group dinner of a really large italian meal and then went back to the Hotel. A group of guys all went out and found a wine store so we passed around some bottles and chilled on the grand canal.

Morning came and with it our activities of the day. We were going to one of the many churches of our trip, this time to St. Marco. This place was important because of its very signature east-meets-west style. Because Venice was such a strong trade point in its height, it brought in a lot of artistic influence from both east and west. The result is a very different large-scale church in the heart of town.

I didn’t spend too much time there as I needed to go check out the art exhibit and find out if my guy was there. If he was, I had to start prepping a presentation. If not, then I had a few hours on my hand to tour Venice. I toured Venice and got lost amid the very confusing alleys, walkways, and canals.

That afternoon we had class and everyone turned in their papers. As usual on a day where a test occurs or a large assignment is due, most of us checked out during class. But the professors apparently had expected this and had very light lectures that day. The evening came and with it came a quest for cheap food. We walked around the many confusing alleys and eventually found our grail: two euro pizza. It was pretty good pizza too, and I would come to eat nothing but that for our entire stay in Venice.

Night came and with it a trip to the local wine store followed by more alley wanderings. This time we got our hands on some really sweet and tasty Strawberry wine. We would come to recommend it to everyone on the trip. That night I also got an amazing shot of the far Island which I forget the name of. I think it may be Marolo or something like that.

The following morning we had an excusion out to see two churches and and art gallery. The first church we saw was Italian gothic, which was noticably different from the French gothic cathedrals we had been seeing. In this church we saw the amazing peice, Assumption of the Virgin, by Titian.

The gallery we visited was largely Venetian Renaissance style (hence why my guy wasn’t there as he’s Florentine Renaissance). We had three presentations on Veronesse, Giorgone, and Tintoretto. Some of the peices were impressive, but I didn’t spend too much time there as I had already visited the day before. I moved on to the next church we had to see, which had a different enough style to actually capture my attention. It wasn’t the traditional cross-knave set up, it was much more of a central-plan dome church, very indicative of Venetian renaissance.

Afterwards we had class and anncounements that afternoon. Dr. Brothers said there was a Vivaldi concerto in town, and said we would be fully reimbursed to see it, but it was completely optional. Everyone ended up wanting to go, so after everyone handled their own dinners, we all marched across the Grand Canal bridge to see an amazing concerto by Vivaldi (Four Seasons) and another peice by Mozart which I didn’t catch the name of. Afterward it was yet another trip to the canals for a great view and good cheap wine with the guys.

The original plan for that Friday was to travel out to Padua, but something went awry with the plans. I think the place was shut down for preservation work done right now or something. So instead the trip leaders gave us a free day in Venice with the requirement that all of us do something reimbursable as there were many museums, galleries, and churches to see around town.

The morning came and with it my reluctant meeting with my IS 125 group to plan for our upcoming debate. So we spent two hours in the morning coordinating our information and setting up assignments to do before the next time we meet. After that I was on my own in Venice and wanted to do as much as possible. In the end I did sixty euro worth of reimbursements, or about $90 worth.

I started out with a trip to a local Da Vinci exhibit. The place reconstructed several of his mechanical drawings from his codex and put them to actual form. So we saw things like complex lever systems, compartmentalized hulls, ball bearing constructs, intricate war machine ideas, and even an automated moving suit of armor. All of these were conceived by Da Vinci way before they were created by others. Perhaps the coolest was the boat with a rotating gun deck to promote faster firing rate and a wide range of fire.

After the Da Vinci exhibit I walked northward in town, wandering around on my way roughly to San Marco square. It took me about an hour to find my way there but on the way I found cheap pizza as well as stumbling upon the Rio Alta bridge, an icon of Venice.

I arrived at San Marco and proceeded on to the Doge’s Palace. It was a museum of the Duke of Venice’s residence which included an armory, gallery, bejewled bedrooms, torture center, and just amazing architecture. The old entrance (now inaccessible) was a beautiful flight of stairs flanked by two Venitian statues.

I took a short break from sightseeing to go into a nearby church then do some shopping. I got my last series of gifts here, and my suitcase is now about 30-40 pounds heavier than it was when it arrived. Yay!

I took a nap back at the hotel and then set out to find the Peggy Gugenheim art gallery. Its a really impressive collection of modern art. About 90% of the peices there were peices that I could understand, appreciate, and enjoy. That’s unheard of for me at modern art musuems. But I found some peices that I really liked, including one that focused on the concept of parallax on a speeding bicycle (when farther images seem to move slower than closer images while you’re going really fast).

That evening, Mike, Jason, Scott, Andrew, and I hung out and watched Two Towers and Batman Begins. We also toured the city later while drinking our last bottle of Venetian wine. After the extremely long and active day, I just crashed.

I’m currently in Florence but haven’t done anything yet worth writing about. So I’ll cut my blog here with our last night in Venice. I’ll try to post this Friday about Florence before we move on to Rome, and then finally Athens. Just seventeen days until I’m home, folks. Looking forward to seeing all of you guys.

==This entry was written a while ago but due to frustrating internet situations I have been unable to post it==

Okay, so we start this entry with my trip from Bruges to Bayeux. Yes, we sadly left the wondrous beer country of Belgium for the equally beautiful land of northern France. Northern France which includes amazing beaches, historical significance, and a collection of important cathedrals along the way. All of these things would become features of our trip throughout Bayeux (situated on the northern coast of France) and downward toward Paris.

Our trip from Bruges to Bayeux (Jason wearing the Euro-armor) was interrupted by a trip to the Flanders museum. The museum was centered around the battle of Flanders, which became a symbol of Belgian and English triumph during the first and second world wars.

Belgian because it was where Belgian troops could mount a resistance before retreating. England because it was the site of the first serious conflict between English and German troops on the European continent. Both of these events and the nation’s take on it has affected national memory of the world war since then.

That night we got to our hotel for the next few days which was situated along the Norman beaches. Not the norman beaches that were invaded, but definitely part of the defensive line constructed by the Nazis. There was even a preserved German bunker overlooking the sea that we would come to hang out in. The hotel itself was rather nice complete with a sauna and steam room, something that we would come to use greatly in our attempts to relax. Here's a view of the sunset there.

Halloween came the following day and with it the promise of that night’s Halloween party, coordinated by our social chairs Mikey Brown and Haley Smith. They told us that all of us would be required to come in costume to be admitted which required all of us to scrounge up a costume sometime that day. This would become the task of the day for most of us.

However, before the social events of the night we had an excursion to Bayeux to view the cathedral there as well as the Bayeux tapestry. The tapestry itself was one of the more impressive pieces of art that I‘ve seen on this trip this far, framed in thirty-two scenes depicting the battle of Hastings. It was interesting to see history depicted so vividly on a giant piece of parchment like this. To give you some scope, it was assembled at a length to wrap completely around the interior of a cathedral.

After the impressive display of the Bayeux tapestry we had a self-guided trip to the Bayeux Cathedral, a combination of Gothic and Romanesque styles. It was interesting to see the clash between the grandeur nature of Gothic and the simple-straightforwardness of the Romanesque captured within a northern French (Norman) cathedral. The Cathedral that day was bathed in more light than we normally saw for Cathedrals, which greatly enhanced the experience due to its Gothic focus.

Afterwards I spent an hour at a local cafe with a group of guys on the trip, followed by a picnic lunch of cheese, bread, and apples. That really has become a staple cheap lunch for me, something which I am probably benefitting from. It was nice to sit on the river that ran through Bayeux and to just enjoy a picnic lunch. Very serene.

We got back that afternoon and everyone set to assembling their costumes or exploring the small town that we were in. I did a little of both, throwing together a last minute costume and also exploring the beaches there to get some nice pictures of the far coast at sunset.

The night commenced and the partying began. I simply threw on a toga and went as a Greek. Simple, but it worked. A group of five girls went as the entire Brothers family and two other guys went as Dr. Pointer and his wife Barb. They were voted the best costumes there.

Mikey and Haley had set up several games for us to play while we were there. Among them included a bobbing for apples relay race in which the guys won. Then a marshmellow’n’coke cramming contest where you had to put a marshmallow in your mouth or take a sip of coke every time ‘Roxanne’ and ‘put on the red light’ was said in the song Roxxane. Girls won that game.


And then finally we had a mummy wrapping contest to Monster Mash. We all split up into four groups and got to wrap one of the four leaders up as a mummy. We got Barb and sufficiently cloaked her in toilet paper and other ornaments.

That night, to complete the spooky feeling of the evening, a large group of us went out on the cliffs nearby to where an old German bunker was still intact. It was sufficiently spooky walking through the pitch black halls, and was really fun to try and scare the girls that were with us.

The following day we had set aside for an event that I hadn’t really been expecting: touring a museum about the Normandy Beaches and then touring the beaches themselves. The Caen Peace museum was a nice description of the events leading to war, the beginning stages of the war, and then it ended with a very detailed video of the actions on D-Day and the following battle for Normandy. As I wasn’t really playing this up in my head when we actually got there I was blown away. Enter historical geek mode.

I was really excited to have yet another day dedicated to history, and eagerly got on the bus for our guided tour of the Normandy beaches. We started at sword beach (the middle one where one of the British companies attacked) and moved westward toward Omaha (the US beach with the most casualties), never really getting to Utah (The US beach with the least casualties of the assault). I got some amazing pictures of the beaches there.

It was almost weird seeing the beaches with so much historical value populated by houses now. A sharp contrast to what actually happened. But there was still plenty of monuments left over as well as ones built. For instance, we saw six bunkers on our small stretch of the beach that we walked, most of which were fractured and twisted by naval barrages, but still able to act as a reminder of what happened here.

As a focus point of what the large cost of the invasion we visited the US owned Cemetery there. It was dedicated to all of those who died in the invasion and subsequent Battle for Normandy (aka that cemetery at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan). We read a speech given by President Clinton about the sacrifice there then had time to individually tour the place ourselves and think.

After the whole day tour of the beaches we had a group dinner in Bayeux before trekking back to our hotel for the last night there. Jason, Mike, Eric, and I grabbed a bottle of wine and went through the quiet town, walking along the beach so Eric could pick up seashells. Afterward we all went into the sauna and steam room to get our last dose before we’d have to bid the hotel farewell. That place was sooo relaxing.

The following day was another travel day, this time from Bayeux on into Paris. However, for our arts course we had a stop in Caen to see St. Etienne (an abbey) there as well as in Chartres (pronounced shart) to see the cathedral there. Now, I’ve seen about fifteen cathedrals on this trip so far I think. The Cathedral at Chartres blows them all out of the water. Its gigantic, incredibly detailed, has beautiful stained glass windows, and an amazing audio guide tour.

On our trip into Paris I grabbed a stretch of floor on the coach to relax. I didn’t want to see anything coming in to Paris so as not to spoil anything, and I also wanted to take a nap. Both were accomplished rather smoothly. We checked into our hotel, got briefed on the rules, and went down to the cafeteria for dinner. This place is almost exactly like the DC, it was actually quite welcoming.

That night we of course wanted to go out into the city to explore. I attached myself to two of the more adventurous guys and set out to see the main sites. Bo and I got to the Eiffel tower ahead of everyone else and were so excited we were giggling with glee. You wouldn’t think that a chunk of iron that big would be that pretty, but it really was a sight to behold.

After meeting up with Charlie, Madison, and Hannah, Bo and I set out to see all the important sites of Paris that night. We ended up walking a total of about 12 miles that night, but the city was so amazing we didn’t really care. From the Eiffel Tower we traveled over to the Arch de Triumph, which was MASSIVE.

I was really jazzed to see the inscriptions along the arch, all talking about one of the many wars France has been in. And the quotations from Napoleon and Charles du Galle were really inspiring, I loved it. After the Arch we walked down Champs Elysee, the main shopping street on our way toward the Paris Obelisk, which I had never heard about before, but was still jazzed to see.

From the Obelisk you can see the Arch, the Eiffel Tower, and the Parliamentary building which I didn’t know the name of. Its literally in the heart of Paris. We hooked up with the River Seine and walked eastward along it toward the Louvre, which was also impressive with its giant glass pyramid. We were starting to get tired and so set out for our last stop: Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is really beautiful at night, and has the accompanying night life surrounding it to make it even more enjoyable. All around the cathedral were people hanging around, drinking wine, playing and listening to music. It really put me in the Parisian mood. After a last glimpse at Notre Dame at night, we walked southward to our hotel to crash for the evening.

Walking up way to early to grab breakfast downstairs, we all slowly filed in to class. After two hours of talking about Northern Renaissance art and Zionism we had a largely free day ahead of us. Our only requirement was to take a Rick Steves audio guide tour of the Notre Dame and surrounding area. If you don’t know who Rick Steves is, he’s a tour guide who markets toward the masses rather well.

I did the tour largely on my own, but I couldn’t help but critique the guide we had. I honestly think I could have done better than he had if I had about two weeks to research the places he mentioned. What he presented was more of a ‘Hey look, that’s pretty’ approach rather than any actual information about why the subject is important, when it was built, or how it affects Paris’ traditional history. It started me thinking more about the tour guide industry.

That night, Mike, Jason, Scott, and I all went out in search in some Vietnamese food in the southern part of Paris. We ended up walking around for about an hour and finally settled on an Asian food joint. I say Asian because there was no specific nationality to match this food. But it was tasty nonetheless and we followed it up with a walk back to our hotel while exploring Paris’ streets.

The following day was a free day, but as we had a test coming up most of the group spent it studying. I, wanting to get out of the hotel, grabbed my materials and set out to find somewhere to study in the city. I first went to the Notre Dame area and shopped around for gifts, successfully bagging four of the eight that I needed. Then I made my way over to the Eiffel tower to study there. Really, best study spot I’ve ever had. Epic, even.

Monday was set aside for artistic endeavors, this time centering around the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou. The Louvre itself was truly amazing in its sheer size. I think I could spend a week there and still have stuff to see. But still, I managed to see the more important pieces like the Venus de Milo:

I also got to see the Mona Lisa, which to be honest is probably the most overrated piece of artwork I’ve seen on this trip. Its tiny, not that amazing, incredibly simple, and just choked with tourists taking pictures.

I also got to find four pieces by my artist, Guercino, and composed several artist reports on him. I’m starting to begrudgingly like my artist more as I find more of his paintings and spend time with them. Yes, he’s a big copycat, but he’s one of those artists that you can actually see a clear progression between his works. It makes it interesting.

I found some lunch on my own, some simple sandwich action, then wandered on over to the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum of Paris. I try to appreciate modern art, I really do, but I just can’t get into it. A few pieces and movements are impressive, but mainly I think they’re all useless. A collection of melted McDonald’s toys formed into a psuedo-human figure isn’t all that great. Sorry.

That night I spent studying. Yay.

Another day dedicated to art followed, this time revolving around the Museum D’Orsay. This museum was dedicated to impressionists and post impressionists, leading all the way up to the stopping point of what we would call modern art. The museum itself was pretty cool as it was built within an old train station.

I found a few pieces that I liked, and got to see Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series which was amazing. I was truly impressed by his precision of light in those pieces. I also found several nightscape pieces which I’m coming to enjoy as a subject.

That evening we had our final performance of the trip, this time a modern dance show. There were two pieces, each written by a different composer and performed by a different group. The first was the story of Jason’s (Jason and the Golden Fleece) wife who killed her children when her husband cheated on her. It was really fascinating to see how the dances represented the people’s emotive reactions, and I enjoyed it greatly. The second part, however, was a bit too abstract for me, and the music sounded like the same music from the old Sega Genesis game Dune: Battle for Arakkis. Yeah.

Our next day was possibly the most busy academic day we will have this entire trip with the possible exception of Finals. A grand total of six hours of class awaited us with five classes and announcements crammed in. To be honest, in the end it wasn’t that bad and I enjoyed it as much as I would any other series of classes. But then again, I’m used to three hour night classes so perhaps it wasn’t so taxing on me.

Morning came around and so did our planned trip to St. Denis, a unique early gothic cathedral built in France. I say unique because it has the distinct reputation of being built within four years (Cathedrals commonly take 50+ years to construct). This was made possible by the large amounts of royal support of the church as it housed many Royal king’s tombs. Because it was built in such a concise amount of time, the building is purely Gothic rather than a blend of several styles in one building as we had seen before.

After a short foray to northern Paris we all collectively headed back to the hotel to buckled down and study for our test that night at 8:00 pm. We all crammed as much as we could of the six chapters we had to study and went in to the test hoping for the best. The class afterward had been canceled, thankfully, and all of us ended up going out for Hannah-Ruth Brothers’ birthday at Planet Hollywood to get dessert. It was a really welcome break after the stress of the test.

Which brings us to today. I had originally planned to make a trip out to Versailles today, but I instead chose to update this blog which had been far behind as well as see several places in Paris that I hadn’t seen yet. I’ll be setting out for those shortly, and you’ll hear about those next time I update.

I’ve really enjoyed Paris, its surprised me by its beauty which I had thought would be largely hype. I look forward to our four day break in Switzerland and then its Italy and Greece after that. I hope all of you back home are doing well, and I look forward to seeing you all in less than a month.

Week long entry coming at ya! Covering my entire experience in the Netherlands as well as Belgium, its been a very interesting and entertaining week. Sadly, though, a low picture week. But check it out, fools!

Sunday started out promising to be rather simple and uneventful. We had a test the following day that I knew I would have to study for as did everyone else on the trip. So the mass majority of us spent time in the hotel hitting the books.

I, overconfident in my history abilities, chose to take study lightly and explore Leiden a bit more. My two initial forays that day out into the city to find food on my own ended up being two hour walks throughout the entire town. Leiden is a cute quiet little town, and I loved the canals there. Here, for instance, one of the fountains within the canals.

The next day came as did the test that everyone was dreading. I thought it went really well, personally, but it probably helped that I enjoyed writing my test essays. After class we had a scheduled trip into Amsterdam that day. There we visited two art museums, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum as well.

The thing that made these two galleries different was that they were our first concentrated galleries which we had visited. That is to say, the Rijksmuseum was dedicated to Dutch 2nd golden age works, or northern renaissance art. So we saw a long series of portraitures, still lifes, landscape pieces, and middle class subjects.

The Van Gogh museum, not surprisingly, was all about Van Gogh and his development as an artist throughout his life. I’m not that big a fan of Van Gogh, personally. I understand his style and I understand the ideology behind it, but it still offers no personal appeal to me. Personally, I find myself continually favoring the high drama of Baroque. Nonetheless, I thought it impressive that this museum could even gather an entire floor of Van Gogh’s pieces.

We had some free time in Amsterdam until our guest lecture later that night. So I hung out with Madison, Hannah, Charlie, and eventually Bo. We explored Amsterdam’s streets and canals, eventually finding our way to a really sweet cafe. We ordered some food, some drinks, some pie, and hung out there for about two and a half hours. Yay for the Café experience! Afterwards we walked through the main squares and saw some impressive architecture

Our lecture that night was concerned with Amsterdam’s modern difficulties that they face. Its actually a pretty interesting situation they’ve got going here. Amsterdam has been promoting a proud tradition of what most of the world perceives as liberalized tolerance. This comes in the form of legalized prostitution, drugs, abortion, and euthanasia. Our lecturer, however, described it more as a need to regulate the inevitable.

Anyway, with this tradition of tolerance and acceptance has come the unfortunate clash with a newer wave of immigration from Moroccan and Turkish Muslim citizens. This has worried the citizens here as they do not always mesh so well with the traditional western and hyper-tolerant Dutch ideals. This can probably best be summarized in the events surrounding the death of Theo Van Gogh, which you should all look up.

So the current situation is a Dutch identity of tolerance being threatened by having a massive wave of immigrants who do not share this hyper-tolerant ideal, and even threatening the continuation of that ideal. Hence the immigrants are coming in and not assimilating with Dutch culture, eventually posing the threat of completely changing Dutch identity by overrunning the native Dutch through sheer numbers.

The real problem, however, is that the Dutch identity is largely rooted within this concept of a hyper-tolerant society. Now that this concept is being threatened, the very Dutch identity is now being threatened. So the Dutch, according to the lecturer we had and the literature we’ve read, have a need to find a new identity somewhere and figure out how to deal with this new immigrant population. Its a very daunting and complicated process ahead of them.

So that's our lecture for the night. We got out and a group of the guys decided to run to the train station to grab the next train rather than wait another fifteen to thirty minutes. So it ended up being about five or six guys on the train ride home where we had some genuine guy time. It was very welcome, especially to get the guys with girlfriends on this trip away from their respective girls for a while.

The next day we had our usual dosage of classes, a break for lunch, and then yet another trip out to Amsterdam for a different set of events. This time we went as a group to the Red Light District to walk through, observe what we saw, and then we met up at a Christian house within the district to talk about what we had seen. We had split up into male and female groups to make it easier to talk about what we had seen on our walk. Personally, I initially thought it was blowing something small out of proportion, but I would have missed out on some interesting insight afterward.

Following the Red Light District tour we had a trip to the Resistance Museum documenting the Netherland’s efforts against Nazi occupation. The museum itself, however, was pretty lackluster, and our guide was even less so. It felt as if we were being rushed through the place by someone who didn’t know much beyond what the signs on the wall could have told us. But nonetheless, it told a story that was interesting to take in on a historical level. Knowing how all the different countries remember their resistance movements in WWII tells a lot about a nation’s sense of identity and responsibility in the war.

We came back into Leiden that night and I spent dinner with Holly and Carolyn. It was really relaxed, and I got to know them a bit more. They’re very entertaining girls, especially when they’re together. After dinner at the Pankakkenhaus, I managed to take a really long bath and nap that was extremely relaxing. And I caught some of ‘The Office’ on TV which was hilarious.

The next day we had free to ourselves, so I joined Holly and Carolyn’s adventures into Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank House. Personally, I wasn’t all that impressed with the place. Yes, it was a personal account of hiding during the holocaust, but the museum just wasn’t that well put together. And the fact that the entire place was filled with one long line that made it feel like a Disneyland ride didn’t help.

After that we did some shopping, I picked up a lot of gifts that I unwisely had to carry around for the rest of the day. Following this we went to Harlem where we saw another house of hiding during WWII. This time it was the Corrie Ten Boom house, the same house from the book ‘The Hiding Place.’ This place was way better as we had an individual tour guide taking us around and telling us a lot about the entire place.

That night I got a Kebab and went to a little pub with Wireless to relax for a while. I got a lot done, including watching the fourth episode of Heroes (awesome!), checking over my dwindling bank account, and managing facebook and my journal. It was nice to have a day to just relax.

Morning came and with it the promise of yet another travel day (Joe donning the armor today). We had a few hour stop in Ghent, a town known for its famous altarpiece. Also, because we were now in Belgium, known for its amazing Waffles. And yes, they are indeed the best waffles that will ever touch your or anyone you know’s lips. And the town of Ghent was yet another small medieval-old town with canals and awesome churches and castles.

Our arrival in Bruges, the town we would be staying in for our time in Belgium, followed the same format of cobblestone streets and canals with just hints of modernity scattered about. We quickly set out to wander about town, something which I have found is the best way to start a city off.

Among our wandering we found perhaps the greatest source of beer our entire trip: Cambrinus! Its this restaurant with 400 different kinds of beer! And they’re all amazing! We stopped in for two rounds before our dinner that night and instantly knew we would be coming back many a time. This here is just the menu for beer:

Our first actual day was spent in class and visiting the local art museums. This time we were back to our more generally focused gallery as well as a specified one. The first of which, the Groeningemusuem, was one of the more general and had some interesting pieces. The second one, Memlingmuseum was dedicated to one artist who served at the Hospital of St. John in Bruges. That night we had a group dinner and then our second trip to Cambrinus for more beer tasting!

Saturday came and with it came an event that I had started to plan for a few days now- Jason’s 21st birthday. We had dinner at Cambrinus (It is actually a restaurant with great food), sampling several beers along the way. I found my most impressive beer on the trip so far in Westvleteren Abt, a beer with an aftertaste of dried fruit and figs. Sooo good.

After the smaller group of us were done with dinner we headed over to a Bar I had prearranged with the rest of the Europe Semester group. I was impressed that about thirty-five of us all turned up at the bar, and what followed was a very fun night for everyone. Jason didn’t spend a dime, he got a lot of drinks, and even a rose. He was a happy man.

Sunday came and so did sleeping in. That afternoon, however, our social chairs had planned a fun-time event for us: Elementary School games! We all walked single file over to a park and proceeded to play a variation of steal the bacon where you had to do funny stuff beforehand (kiss a Ryan on the cheek, for instance), a game of duck-duck-goose, and two games of capture-the-flag. It was really fun to get together and act goofy for a long time.

That night we spent in the hotel, Drew and I ordering a pizza and watching Star Wars: A New Hope in his room. You have no idea how happy I was to watch Star Wars, and I’m even more excited about the other movies being on the following two sundays as well. Later that evening we had another session of guy time, where we ended up discussing concepts of Hope. Something that I don’t often do, but I genuinely enjoyed the practice of just getting a bunch of guys together to hang out and talk.

Which brings me to today. We had a day dedicated to traveling to Brussels, the capitol of Belgium as well as the headquarters for the EU. Our first event was a lecture by one of the people who works in the European Commission (The executive-ish branch of the EU) in which he described how the EU was assembled as well as some of the difficulties it is facing today. I was very intrigued by the lecture as I find the EU to be completely fascinating.

Sadly, Brussels was being rained on pretty heavily (as I’m told it often is), so our three hours of free time couldn’t be spent walking around comfortably. Instead, a small group of us opted to spend our time at a café with a fireplace, eating and having some hot chocolate. We talked about tatoos, cardinals, racing, and many other things in between. After two and a half hours of chatting, we shuffled off to our next appointment.

This time we had a lecture describing elements of the EU to us, but given to us by a worker for the European Parliament (kind like the House of Representatives, but much more prominent). He gave us a slightly more political account of the different parties operating within the EU now as well as concerns about candidate members for the EU, specifically Turkey. I would love to talk more about the EU, but I fear that I would spend twice as long as this entry discussing it. But we did get to see the Planary, the central meeting place of the European Parliament-

Our bus ride back after this was spent mainly talking about candidates for this upcoming election which transitioned to Mike and I explaining why we’re liberal. It was entertaining, but we changed topics to food once we started to get on people’s nerves. Such is political discussion, sadly. Our dinner that night was spent at a fast food burger joint that turned out to be pretty tasty once we added ketchup. And we watched an episode of Bones before I set to writing this blog for tonight.

So there’s my last week. And yes, I know that a good portion of it involves beer, but that’s only because Belgium is pretty much our beer Mecca for this trip. Its our last beer country we have, and the presence of Cambrinus has been an excellent culmination of this. And really, the beer at Cambrinus was just so amazing.

France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and then back to the states. Next entry you can look forward to me talking about Normandy, French culture, the Palace of Versailles, and more crazy European travel adventures. Hope you’re all well, and I look forward to seeing you all again.

Okay, long entry as I didn’t have time over the weekend to post due to tests and travel. So here goes.

After we had said our goodbyes to Gabriel we all meandered back to our Hotel where we had to confront the sober reality ahead of us for that week- Our upcoming IS 125 test. That’s the course that deals with Contemporary European issues such as immigration, energy use, nuclear power, terrorism, etc. The test was scheduled for wednesday morning which only left us two nights and a bit of the next day to prepare for it. So as soon as we got back to the hotel most of us hit the books.

Morning came around and we got ready for a pretty busy day ahead of us. That morning, thankfully, we had a limited class schedule as Dr. Pointer decided to cancel/postpone one of his classes. After class we had a short two hours to ourselves to cram in some studying and get lunch at the same time. Yay cheap and quick Kebab stands!

The afternoon was dedicated to German historical memory of the Holocaust. ‘Historical Memory’ is a term we’ve been used in our nationalism course to describe the combination of emotional reaction to past events as well as historical knowledge of events. Its an idea that’s slowly developing and becoming more defined over the semester, but I don’t really wanna write several pages about it at the moment.

The first part of our dedicated afternoon was spent going to the recently constructed Holocaust memorial near Potsdammer Platz in Berlin. Its dedicated to the “6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany atrocities during the second World War.” That phrase right there tells a lot about the focus and intent of the the memorial, I’ll let you think that one over. But the memorial was very interestingly presented.

The stones you see here are completely without detail, but vary slightly in shape and vastly in size. The stones you can see in the picture show the outskirts slabs of concrete that are actually pretty small in comparison. As you walk in between the gravestone-like bricks on your way to the heart of the memorial, the ground slopes downward until you’re completely surrounded by monolith-like slabs of dark gray.

Its a haunting experience, for sure, and anyone can draw a great deal of reaction from the scene. I was struck by the sheer amount of slabs (somewhere near 2,700 I think) that represented the many faceless deaths of the Jews killed during the Holocaust. However, I was bothered by the lack of information or explanation provided.

It seemed to be aiming only for emotional reaction with no thoughtful comment beyond the shock of the site. Also, the fact that it was only dedicated to the Jews when there were about 4-5 million other victims of the Holocaust bothered me as well. But the important thing to note is that the German generations of today are trying to make some step, no matter how small or large, to account for their history’s past.

Which is an interesting element within modern day Germany. I forget if I’ve said this before, but this is the first generation of Germans that are growing up without a strong indirect association with the events of the Holocaust. There has been a great deal of postwar guilt among the Germans for the last 50 years over the actions of Nazi Germany. However, as today’s generation is now entering the public sector, that guilt is slowly fading away. Which I think is a good thing in the long run. While a nation should account for its past, it needn’t be burdened by past generations’ mistakes.

After the memorial we had allocated about an hour and a half to the Jewish history and Holocaust museum in Berlin. The first musuem shared the same kind of emotional focus as the memorial had, but the second and first floors offered information which balanced out the experience. There was a really interesting room called the ‘memory void’ in which a giant column within the building was left empty apart from the hundreds of rusted steel-cut faces on the floor that clanked eerily when you walked over them.

That night I spent hanging out with Maddison at the internet cafe then grabbed a drink afterward and walked around the block for a while. It was a nice simple night after several nights out and about. After the walk, I went back into the hotel to prep for the test the next morning which I had spent almost no time on.

The test came and went. It was my kind of test format, so I’m feeling comfortable with my expected outcome. Gotta love essays. After the test in the morning we had an hour of class during which I’m sure nobody paid attention to. Such is the tragedy of post-test classes.

We had a scant 30 minute break to grab lunch before we had to set out on our afternoon excursion. Kebabs for the win! Our excursion that afternoon was out to two different locations: Sanssouci Palace and Schloss Cecilienhof. The Palace was the residence of Frederick the Great who brought cultured civilization into Germany. So, of course, his palace was ridiculously well decorated (although pictures were prohibited).

Frederick the Great was responsible for defeating the French along the Rhineland, and the ensuing prosperity his nation had attained allowed him to bring in a cultural revolution of architecture, music, and art. Within his palace, he created a rococo style mansion with a park that he happened to call his backyard. The entire place is littered with Greek Sculptures of antiquity, showing mythological scenes of epic and dramatic quality. I enjoyed trying to figure out the scene or figure in statues before our guide told us what they were. Here, for instance, the muses:

The second stop we had that day was to Schloss Cecilienhof, a manorhouse built during the 1800’s. The important event that happened here, however, was the second meeting of the Anti-Hitler Coalition following the defeat of Nazi Germany and Hitler’s suicide. The coalition, composed of the US, UK, and Russian leaders, met to decide the fate of Germany, and of Berlin in particular. It was crazy exciting walking through rooms where Stalin, FDR, and Churchill all met at one point.

That night was spent at another internet cafe, this time posting the blog previous to this one. Since I could actually use my computer at this cafe I was able to do so. Afterwards I borrowed Dr. Brother’s projector and watched Oceans 13 with Jason and the Brother’s kids. It was a nice relaxed PG experience, and I actually got to sleep at a reasonable time that night. Good stuff.

And I would definitely come to need that rest for the day following. After our classes for the day we had a full day and night ahead of us that would require running across Berlin twice to get from place to place.

Our first destination was the Pergammon museum, a collection of items from antiquity. Remember earlier in my journal when I said the British National History Musuem was arrogant for stealing the Acropolis? Yeah, that’s nothing compared to the Pergammon museum. They stole entire buildings for this place. And I mean that in the plural. For instance, they took the Altar of Zeus and brought it up to Berlin. Oh, and the Altar of Zeus is enormous-

The Altar was really impressive, and not only from the sheer size of it. The frieze’s that decorated the upper rims depicted traditional greek myths, and some that weren’t so traditional. I recall one that was of a dog biting Dionysus in the rear. I moved on quickly to see the next gigantic stolen building, the Ishtar Gate-

This time, the theft in question comes from Babylon. The gate was the imperial symbol built by one of the Babylonian kings to intimidate all those that entered the city. And it is pretty intimidating, with the giant arch and dragons painted all along it. Add to this the obvious wealth that was required to build it. Most of the surface is composed of Lapus Lazuli, a very expensive material to use during Babylon’s reign.

After the Pergammon we set out for our next goal of the day, the Gemäldegallerie. Basically, its a state-sponsored art gallery that has multiple guest exhibits. Sadly, I only had time to visit the artist presentations of the day and find a work by my own artist, Guercino. However, the random stuff I did see was interesting, particularly Giovanni Antonio Canal’s “La Vigilia de St. Marta.”

We had a group dinner between the gallery visit and our event for the evening. This time, our group dinner was at an Italian restauraunt that didn’t serve us Italian. I know. Weird. Instead we had some meat-chunks with Potato Salad. I wasn’t that excited and so hit a donut shop afterward to fill me up.

The event for the evening was another symphony, again at the Berlin Philharmonic. This time we attended a Czech nationalist piece celebrating all that was glorious about old Czechoslovakia. Personally, I have a hard time just listening to music, so I wasn’t all that enthralled until the end when things were a bit faster paced and dramatic. But even still, it was fun.

Friday was one of our oh-so-rare free days assigned to us. I think it was to make up for the amount of time we had to study in Berlin. Regardless, I put the day to good use by seeing some of the sites around town, hitting the Deutches Historiches Museum again, and attempting to do some shopping.

Jason and I set out after a late breakfast to see the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. This time, armed with Cameras. The Brandenurg Gate was again impressive, and I found a historical plaque giving a brief run down of its importance to Berlin’s identity. It was interesting to see how it had been used in eight different historical situations as a unifying symbol, even under incredibly different regimes or governments.

The Reichstag was closed for refurbishments so we couldn’t go up to see the large glass dome atop it. The Reichstag, by the way, is the German parliamentary building that was severely damaged in WWII by a Soviet bomb. Hence, the reconstruction of the main rotunda in glass form. The thing was absolutely massive as I had to walk back about 500 yards to let my Camera get a full picture of it. Apparently Germany built giant buildings as well as stole them. I kid.

After the visit to the Reichstag, I headed off to the Deutches Historiches Museum and Jason went off to the Pergammon Museum (he had opted to nap the previous day). I quickly engaged my mind to history-geek mode and set out to finish the musuem off. Once again I was impressed by how the museum made a case for Germany as an internationally influenced country. Very strongly, Germany’s history is linked to much larger European and global currents, and the museum did an excellent job of showing just how true this was.

After the museum I made my way to an H&M to find some clothes. I failed. You see, I really don’t like shopping and I left the shop after feeling too uncomfortable trying to find something that I liked. So, instead, I walked around Berlin for a few hours before finding my hotel. It was a good way to spend my last day in Berlin, I think. I really should make a point of wandering around cities more often.

That night I set out to find some actually spicy food as until now it had been largely non-existent in Europe. Which is really sad for a Socal guy like me. I need spices to make me happy. In the end I found something that I was able to spice up, a sandwich with extra Jalapenos. Yay!

The Rugby game between France and Argentina was that night so I set out with a small group to the Irish pub we had found earlier in the week. The game was for 3rd place World Cup, but it was still entertaining. France totally sucked, and the score ended up being 10 for France and 37 for Argentina. Ouch.

The following day we had allocated for travel between Berlin and Leiden, Netherlands. It was one of our longer trips we have during the semester, so it meant a lot of time on the bus. However, the one thing that made it better was the opportunity to don the Europe Semester Armor:

See, this suit was originally bought by Mikey Brown in Cambridge and has been worn by many of the guys on the trip. It can’t be washed. You can only wear this, no sweaters or sweatshirts. And you wear it with pride!

After we got into Leiden (a city close enough to Amsterdam to allow train travel there everyday), we got settled into our hotel and then got to work on finding a bar that would show the Rugby world cup. We got there two hours early and got some pretty decent seats. It was England versus South America, and I didn’t think it was all that interesting of a match. But it was still quite the experience to be in a European bar watching the Rugby World Cup.

I got back to the hotel I was able to call my family while they were all in one place. It was very welcome to talk to everyone even if only for a few minutes. And I got some really cute pictures mailed to me of Mikayla.

The next day we had a free day that I spent studying, mainly. However, I did end up taking two breaks to wander the city that lasted about four hours. But it was really relaxing to just have a day to myself. And toward dusk I got this amazing picture of one of Leiden’s canals:

I’ll just take this moment to say that the Netherlands are a eerily pretty place. Pretty in the presence of canal cities, cobblestone roads, large countryside fields, and the ongoing presence of windmills (They’re basically a national icon). However, for all the beauty I am still immensely weirded out by how absurdly flat this country is. I seriously don’t think I’ve seen a single hill, let alone a mountain across the entire place. But thats what you get when you claim your land from the sea I guess.

So once again I’m making the decision to stop my entry before today’s actual events. But as I’m at five pages and want to do each day justice, I think I’ll cut it here for now. I’ll hopefully be able to update this upcoming sunday about the rest of my netherlands trip and the beginning of Belgium. Belgium, where Mike Searway tells me has the best pancakes in the world. Glee!

Oh, and it was also brought to my attention today that we only have about 45 days left. I'm very saddened by this, but am incredibly eager to go to new places and learn even more. I think this trip is seriously making me want to spend my life traveling.

Big Entry, we’ve done a lot in the past week. And I’m off my usual sunday-posting cycle, so the next few posts might be at random times. Sorry, that’s just how it works right now.

While Auschwitz was impressive and powerful, the rest of our trip through Poland and parts of Berlin has taken a very different turn. Something which most of us are grateful for as we don’t want ot be depressed for the entirety of the trip.

That night was a time to recover from the serious impact of the day’s event. After a few hours contemplation several of the group made plans to go out to another hookah/shisha bar that night with Gabriel again. Not surprisingly, the group was small as most of the students were drained from the day. So the night was cozy and we got to hear Gabriel’s tale of would-be-romance with a certain Viennitian thanks to the Kineseology department of Westmont. Long story, ask me about it some other time.

The next morning we had an uplifting experience to get our minds off the heavy events of the day before. We were booked with a tour guide agency called Crazy Tour Guides. Basically, they take you around the communist built town (and by built I mean completely planned out and created by socialist work projects. Really impressive) and show you a more humorous side of the communist influenced events of the 19th century as experienced by the Poles. This of course, started out with an 11:30 a.m. shot of palace vodka.

This was presented a ‘traditional’ part of the workers day within Nowa Hutta, the communist built city. In reality, it was an excuse to take a shot of vodka with the entire group. After the shot and small snack lunch we climbed aboard our communist-manufactured tour bus to head out to the steel mills and worker’s apartments.

At the apartment we got to take fun rides around town in a Trabant, a communism built car similar to a volkswagon but way cheaper. They look, drive, smell, and sound like the crappiest car you’ve ever been in. But they were hilarious.

After the not-so-informative but highly fun trip we got back in the car and had a relatively relaxed day. We had a lecture that afternoon in which we attended a lecture by Scott Simpson about the blending of Polish national identity with the Roman Catholic church, a potentially volatile combination which has yet to fully unfold.

Following the lecture we ate at an fantastic italian restaurant recommended to us by Gabriel called Soprano’s. I dropped a good deal of money there but it was well worth it. The ravioli, wine, salad, wine, dessert, and wine were amazing. Did I mention the wine? Delicious.

Once we were all done with our dinner we met up with Gabriel at a bar called Boom-Bar-Rush. It was pretty empty, nice for us as we had about 25 people there that night. This night was possibly one of the most fun nights we’ve had at a bar. The night included good beer, an apple-pie like cocktail which I need to replicate often, and culminating in doing flaming shots with the entire group. And thanks to Polish liqour, I only spent about 20 bucks! Yay!

The next day was largely spent traveling from Krakow to Poland, which was a very large shift in city-styles. Warsaw is probably the nastiest but most interesting city you will find in Eastern Europe. Since the city was so heavily damaged during the war (I’ll get into that later), the Soviets rebuilt the city in their idealized image. Namely, utilitarian worker and military supportive structures and layout. So the streets are incredibly wide to allow for mass traffic and also, if need be, to let four soviet tanks stroll down the streets. Its insane.

Gabriel arranged yet another amazing dinner/lunch for us that day, which was followed by a city walking tour. This tour, however, really sucked and had no informative value. Our tour guide told us nothing that we could have found on a map which was really frustrating. However, we did get to see a great night-time view of the Palace of Culture and Science-

The walking tour ended at Warsaw’s proudest shopping center, where we were free to wander around for about an hour. I, not the avid shopper, just found some ice cream and hung around with light minded individuals. But the break was very welcome.

That night we met up with one of Holly’s international friends, Piotr. We hung out at his apartment with his other Polish student friends. Our talk ranged from Catholicism, Family Guy, the environment, and how awesome Zubrowka is. We were out a bit later than we had planned, but we were ready for the day the next morning.

And what a day it was! Gabriel gave us the most amazing tour of any city, museum, gallery, or monument we’ve had on this trip yet. He took us around the city of Warsaw with two packets in hand: One, a series of pictures taken in 1945 of Warsaw, and the other a collection of quotes describing what the pictures showed. Warsaw, if you didn’t know, was the most destroyed city of the war, losing somewhere between 80-90% of its structures during the fighting.

The pictures were taken after the German army had pulled out from the city. However, they had not pulled out before fighting a two month decimating guerilla war against the Warsaw uprising. The uprising was intended to attack the Germans as they were fleeing (Russian troops were sitting across the river) and only last three days. The germans, for some reason, decided to stay and fight. The result was a savage destruction of the city’s interior.

Gabriel took us around to different spots in the city such as town squares, streets, intersections, etc. When we arrived we looked at the 1945 pictures and then our surroundings. They were the same positions but often drastically altered. Of the eight or nine stops we did, I’d say we could only recognize maybe five buildings which were still standing.

During all of this we had very insightful commentary by Gabriel that ranged from commenting on human endurance, highlighting the continuation of family businesses after the war, the tragedy of the Warsaw ghetto, and the potential problem of mixing religion with the Warsaw Uprising. It really came through during this tour how impressive of a historian Gabriel was. Like I said, this was the best tour we’ve had on the trip so far.

That night, Bo, Jason, and I walked around Warsaw looking for a pub that never ended up finding us. However, we got to see a lot of the city which was rewarding in itself. Keep in mind, when I say a lot, I mean about four or five blocks of soviet-constructed concrete slab buildings. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining night.

The next day was promised to us to be a relatively relaxed one followed by a potentially tedious night. That morning we had several more monuments and sites to visit around Warsaw, this time centering around the Warsaw Uprising, national memory of the war, and the growing emphasis on Poland as the ‘Christ of nations.’

See, Poland has this theme for itself that through its suffering it will benefit the world. The suffering portion of this equation is clear- Poland was the location of the most murdered people of the holocaust. Warsaw itself was occupied by Nazis during the war with horrible consequences. Following WWII, they had soviet oppression over their heads. Indeed, Poland has had a rather horrible century.

The ‘Christ of nations’ motif, however, has risen out of a justification for these events. This justification, however, has spread further into the political arena as a tool for politicians rather than a religious symbol. In the state sponsored Warsaw Uprising museum we saw that day, there were numerous references to how young Catholic boys were fighting for their country, blessed by priests to continue the fighting. Another visual example was a giant rosary commemorating the death of a national priest icon that had the seal of Poland imprinted on it.

This really bothered me as it combines the holy nature of religion with the mundane or even profane qualities of national politics. Its a dangerous combination that could really start to erode the divine nature of Catholicism in Poland. It has already started to use Catholicism as a tool subservient to political and national goals. What worries me is what it could eventually be used to justify. We shall have to see in the years to come.

After the few remaining tours we had a relatively free afternoon left to us in Warsaw. Most of the group decided to spend it in Poland’s new shopping center. I hung out with Holly’s friends again and then went back to handle my laundry before we would be leaving that night. My laundry debacle, by the way, resulted in the loss of three shirts and a tie for me. Sadness.

That night we attended yet another fabolous Gabriel-planned meal. This time, Lebanese food. OOOOOHHHH!!!! SOO GOOOOD!!! We had three different courses of amazing food, and it took us two hours to eat it. I love feasts with people you know, and this was one such great occasion.

That night we were scheduled to go on an overnight train from Warsaw to Berlin. Most of the students were crammed into very small compartments housing six people. However, as one of the three tallest and largest guys on the trip, I got bumped into the nicer luxury rooms with only three beds. Even then, it was still cramped.

The next morning we settled into our Berlin hotel and then were off again for more Adventures with Gabriel! This time he took us around Berlin for our city tour. Gabriel lives in Berlin and has a personal edge to it. For instance, he showed us an amazing Chocolate shop with about 100 different types of chocolate. The city tour was also directed at understanding the days of a partitioned Berlin between Soviets and the Allies. We visited less-touristy sites where we could observe the Berlin Wall’s remains. They aren’t much as the Berlin people really wanted it to be tore down. The only thing that remains is a line along the ground.

After the tour was all finished we had a group dinner near our hotel and then we were off to our next artistic pilgrimage. This time, we went to the Berlin Philharmonic where we saw two peices performed: Shostakovich’s Violen Concerto No 1 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. I really enjoyed the second peice. It was based upon walking through an art exhibit and crafting music around its impressions. Very interesting.

Afterwards we went out get our first sample of authentic German beer and generally just explore the city. After wandering for a while we finally found a place that sold Heffenweizer (W’s are V’s still). It was a relaxing night after three busy days of walking around cities.

The following day was free and I took the opportunity to be a complete and absolute nerd. That’s right, the history monster in my chest took control and I spent seven hours walking through the Deustches Historiches museum which tracked the development of western Europe from 200 AD to modern day. I only got to 1914, but then again I was reading every single thing there. That night I spent with a group I don’t usually hang out with at dinner. It was refreshing to talk with some ‘new’ people on the trip.

Next morning we had our first set of classes we had had in about two weeks. Needless to say, not many of us were enthused to be there. However, Gabriel came in and gave a lecture for us about Christian resistance to the Nazis. That afternoon we had more adventures with Gabriel, this time to a church built during the Nazi rise to power. Its architecture showed a heavy blending of Christian symbolism and Nazi propoganda. Take the motiffs on this arch in the center of the church for instance:

After the trip to the church plans quickly unfolded for one last hurrah with Gabriel that night. The finalized plans were to go to Gabriel’s favorite italian restauraunt in town for a meal that might just have been made by God. Our meal was huge and all of it was absolutely amazing, especially the wine. It was with very happy but heavy hearts that we finally said goodbye to Gabriel for the last time. I’ll miss that guy.

In the interest of my own time tonight, I think I’ll end this update there. Its a good spot to end, on the departure of Gabriel. The last week has been incredibly fun and immensely interesting and inspring for me as a historian. So far, Krakow and Warsaw have been the best parts of the trip for me. I’ve learned so much and have had a great time doing it.

Prague down, but a little bit of Czech was remaining on the trip since I last talked to you. The powers that be on the trip decided to split up our journey from Prague to Poland into two days, so we had one night in Ulomec, Czech Republic before we crossed borders yet again. The town had a history that tied into Czech’s history with foreign nations as well as the impact that Communism had on their town during the last century.

We also met our main tour director for the next few days- Gabriel. Gabriel is a really funny guy, with a lot of knowledge of the regions around here. His ‘get-around-town’ guides are filled with little British quips that are very much appreciated by the group. One of the first things we realized about Gabriel was that his philosophy was ‘cheap residence=great food.’ The first meal we had with him was at this amazing polish restaurant. I had traditional sour kraut soup, a Kebab with chicken and goose liver, amazing potatoes, and an awesome apple streudel. This would be the first of many amazing meals that Gabriel is finding for us.

That night the entire group was spread out among three hotels, with a small contingent of the guys residing at the Hotel Alley, the most expensive hotel in town. The place was amazing- We had a sauna, workout room, massage showers, umbrellas on loan, and 120 movies to rent that night for only two bucks. What quickly worked out was a chill-out guys night in the hotel. We ended up watching Gone in Sixty Seconds after wandering the town trying to drain the last of our Czech money. All in all, good night.

The next morning we continued our journey into Poland, listening more to Gabriel’s commentary on certain towns we passed as well as certain flavorful remarks about the girls and men in Poland. We were staying in our first hostel of the trip for incredibly cheap. As a result, Gabriel was able to book us for amazing meals the entire week and even convince the professors to up our free-meal money while we’re here. Thank you, Gabe. The first meal we had was a five course Italian meal for lunch. The food was amazing and it just came coming.

Following the meal we set out for our city tour of Krakow, Poland. We mainly went up to the Castle in the town, Wawel Castle. (By the way, W’s are V’s here) The presentation by the guides we had was interesting. Veiled under their info was a strong pride that this castle was Polish-built and foreign edited. Poland has had a long history of being dominated or influenced by its neighbors of Austria, Germany, and Russia. But this castle was one thing that the Poles have really rallied behind as their achievement.

Added on top of this, they described how Krakow had been the traditional seat of the Polish monarchy for years. As a result, the largest university was founded here and Krakow has been a source of intellectual and cultural sophistication in this part of the world. So Krakow has been this diamond in the rough that most of the world hasn’t been aware of it seems. That in particular struck me as odd. To see a cultural center go unnoticed. Weird.

After exploring the city we were on our own for dinner, but none of us were hungry after the giant meal that we had that day for lunch. So instead we went out for tasty treats before we started a pretty eventful night. That night was another rugby game between the All-Blacks (New Zealand) and France. The game was amazingly close with the French winning by only two points. I’m growing to love Rugby more and more, its an amazing sport to watch.

Since the French won, some of the french visitors in the bar were feeling confident. They came over and chatted one of our girls up. Jason and I stayed around to make sure everything would be all right, and we eventually ended up going to a Hookah bar with them. It was a slightly awkward but entertaining night nonetheless.

The following morning was Sunday, and we had a free morning to attend any church in town that we chose. I maintained my dutiful attendance to Bedside Baptist for the morning and got up around 11:00. First morning I’ve slept in since August, it was well received. That afternoon I grabbed a cheap Kebab for lunch and went and studied up on the Castle Walls. Amazing view, and I even had a old Polish couple playing music next to me.

Afternoon came around and we were scheduled for a trip to the Jewish quarter of town. I think now is a good time to highlight the reason we’re going to Poland- The Holocaust. Poland had the highest number of citizens murdered in the Holocaust genocide and is still very much affected by the horrific events it was witness to. The Jewish quarter of town was just one part of the greater Poland-Holocaust story, but is still impressive in its magnitude.

The Jewish quarter here was emptied during Nazi occupation, and all the Jews were relocated into a smaller part of town that was isolated to become a Ghetto. Jews were placed here to be tracked, controlled, deprived of freedom, and maybe sent off to transit camps to eventually be sent to a extermination camp. This is all assuming that the prisoner can even survive this entire ordeal while under horrible living conditions.

This particular Ghetto was also the host to the events of Schindler’s List. Schindler operated his factory here, indirectly saving people from being shipped off to extermination camps. Schindler has been recognized as one of the ‘Righteous among Nations’, an honor given by the Holocaust museum in Israel. Spielberg also filmed the entire movie here, but faced opposition from the town who did not want to let memories of the holocaust resurface. A mark of how important the Holocaust is even in modern day Poland.

Afte the tour we were privileged yet again to an amazing meal. This time we dined at a traditional Jewish restaurant with ample helpings and live music. I had the Duck Patée and a beef dish with lots of different sauces. And the music there was amazing. The three man team was a Cello, Accordion, and Clarinet. The music varied from lively to somber to frantic over and over again. I was very pleased with the meal and entertainment.

We got the opportunity to hang out with Gabriel that night which was amazing. I took the group of ten of us down to the Hookah bar we had visited the night before. I mainly stuck to talking to Bo and Gabriel all night, it was really fun. And Gabriel introduced us to an amazing Polish Vodka, Zubrovka (Joo-brah-v-kah). It wasn’t a heavy drinking night, mind you. But the vodka was amazing and the company even better.

Which brings me to today, the day that I wanted to devote a good deal of time in my journal. I mentioned last time that we spent time touring Terezin, a transit camp outside of Prague. Today we went out to Auschwitz (Remember, W=V). From the moment we stepped off the coach a somber scene was placed before us.

Our tour guide, Janush (Yan-oosh) was a local history professor who normally gave german tours. However, Gabriel translated for us as Janush commonly had stories from german survivors who came back to the camp (Janush on the right, Gabriel on left).

Stories that the english speaking guides did not have. Janush immediately started into his detailed presentation and tour of the concentration camp that was Auschwitz II or Birkenau. We visited one of the barracks where 1200 prisoners were kept in buildings designed to cram 600.

It was shocking to hear the living conditions that these people were put through. For the first three years of operation, Birkenau had no plumbing or sanitation system for its prisoners. Stables converted to sanitation rooms would collect waste and have to be cleaned out by hand of the prisoners themselves.

Prisoner’s uniforms were washed about every three months, and even then only by steam. Combined with the cramped living conditions, this became a breeding ground for lice. Lice in turn brought typhus into the camp, accounting for most of the concentration camp’s deaths. The uniforms were also the only thing the prisoners had and often worn through, providing next to no warmth in winter, and no shelter from rain or snow.

Auschwitz II was the concentration camp of the larger Auschwitz facility. The concentration camp’s function is merely to hold prisoners in tight quarters, ‘managing’ them in a controlled area. What we saw after Birkenau proper, however, was even more shocking. Auschwitz II’s death camps were the extermination camps attached to the main grounds of Birkenau. It was here that the mass killing of prisoners took place among the many kinds of ‘asocial’ elements that Nazi Germany condemned.

Auschwitz II’s death camps were split into two parts, with one leading directly from the train depository, the other linked off from the concentration portion of Birkenau. Both were host to two crematoriums, mass killing centers of horrifying efficiency. Crematorium’s 2 and 3 were located near the train offloading ramp and it was here that recent arrivals deemed weak or unable to contribute to labor were immediately sent to die. This means that those that stepped off the train who were elderly, too young, with children, handicapped or injured, pregnant, or simply frail were ushered to their immediate death upon arriving at the camp.

The crematoriums were all destroyed by this time, but their foundations can still be seen. Janush described in detail how the buildings were structured for optimal killing. In one day it was possible for two crematoriums to kill 40,000 individuals through the use of Zyklon B gas poisoning, and to burn the bodies to remove evidence and the need for burial land. The total dead in the camp was 1.1 million individual lives, 200,000 registered in concentration, 900,000 sent immediately from train to death.

You really need to think a long time to grasp those numbers. Most of us on the trip were numb to such a number, there was no possible way that we could understand the magnitude of that many deaths. But these were people with lives, families, careers, histories that were eliminated. 1.1 million individual persons in just one camp. This is not just a tragic event, a sideshow of World War II. Its important that we realize just how utterly inhumane the deaths of 1.1 million people is.

This realization really came home to me when we saw the rememberance room on the grounds. It was in here that a collection of photograhps confiscated from prisoners on entry were assembled. The seven stories shown here were depictions of people’s lives as normal as you or I. Pictures of family members, of brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. Pictures of people laughing, dancing, walking through parks, reading books. Pictures of people killed as part of the worst genocide mankind has seen.

It was a testament to how powerful the place is when we all walked back across the grounds in complete silence. We were all just trying to process what happened here. People asking how this could happen, how we should respond, what we should take from it. Our lunch that day, held at a nearby Christian prayer chapel, was rather solemn as we slowly started to talk about what we had seen. Its horrific what mankind can do to itself.

After our brief respite at lunch we entered into Auschwiz I, the political prison camp. Admittedly, the conditions at this camp were better, but still abysmall by any humane standard. Rats crowded the buildings, rations were meager, and the prisoners were subject to horrible labor requirements every day. If there was any amount of resistance, mass punishments followed that inevitably led to the death of those that rebelled.

Some of the buildings were converted to house museum exhibitions showing the evidence of massacre at Auschwitz. Collections of thousands of shoes, discarded crutches, stolen luggage, and piles upon piles of hair shorn from dead prisoners. All of these depicted an increasing personal representation of those that died in the camp.

It was also in Auschwitz that the method of gasing prisoners was developed during several experiments to discover efficient killing. Several different theories were tried, but eventually Nazi scientists perfected the implementation of gasing using Zyklon B, a gaseous form derived from Cyanide originally used to kill insects. Crematorium 1 was located on site where the first efficient killing line was developed using Zyklon B and giant furnaces.

The ride back to Krakow was silent, but not out of reverance for what we’d seen. We were all just so emotionally and mentally exhausted from the day. The entire bus slept. That evening there was to be a reconcilliation meeting for anyone that wanted to attend.

I chose instead to walk the city and gather my thoughts about what I had saw. I can’t help but link the events here to the Problem of Evil, but that’s the philosopher taking control of me. Instead I tried to focus on how we should respond. This monumental act of evil is something which came from human hands. A great deal of human effort was coordinated to bring about the deaths of some 9 to 10 million people during the holocaust.

There’s the capacity for evil in all of us. History is sprinkled with horrible events such as this, and the shocking part is that we allow them to happen again and again. It is for that reason that we must remain informed and aware of what is happening in our world. And also what has happened. Its a moral responsibilty for us to be involved in the world around us if only to prevent such horrible events such as this. Its important for us to learn about events such as the Holocaust to see what evils we are capable of unleashing, and to do our best to prevent such a thing from occuring.

So that’s been the immense experience of Auschwitz that I’ve been under for the last day. Its a challenging subject to approach, and in no way do I think that we’ve completely addressed the entirety of it. But its important that we have put forth the effort to do so. As depressing a trip to Auschwitz has been, it has been one of the highlights of our experience thus far.

This’ll be a short update as I am gaurenteed internet access while I’m in the Prague hotel and want to take advantage of it. Prague’s been pretty busy for us. But not in the busy that Europe semester usually is. We had our first test today and people have spent the last three nights and/or days huddled in our hotel trying to study. So what we’ve seen of Prague isn’t that much, but its still been interesting. This also means I don’t have any pictures. Also because I'm running late to get to tonight's events. I'll put them up later.

Prague’s the only city in WWII that was not bombed, and has many of its older town preserved from war destruction. It also has the interesting history of being tied in with Communism as one of the Iron Curtain states under communist Russia. Add to this Prague’s history of being intensely involved in the Holocaust and its history becomes a intricately depressing tale.

We got into Prague in the afternoon on Monday after a morning coach ride from Austria. The Coach was pretty uneventful- Most people beginning their studying for the art test. I think I spent most of the time watching Anchorman on my phone. Oh, I’ve figured out a way to transfer stuff from one iPod to another through my computer, so the beginning of a nice illegal transfering process can begin.

We got into town and had time to explore our hotel until our group dinner that night. Our hotel is pretty sweet, we take up about 80% of the rooms here. And the top floor is a six-person imperial suite complete with a large TV, couches, a table, comfy chairs, a spa, and a kitchenette. Every room has a computer (which is pretty crappy) and an internet connection (which I stole for my not-crappy computer). So the hotel itself has been pretty chill.

The group dinner at the beer garden we had was pretty good. An assortment of sausages, duck, and dumplings. I sat with Davis and Issaih, Dr. Brother’s kid. They were hilarious as they exchanged rhymes about the most random things. That night me and Jason went back to the same beer garden to actually get beer, which was nice. Prague has some good beers.

The following day we had a pretty simple schedule. We had class in the morning which was as eventful as it usually was. We concentrated on talking about the book we’re reading- War and Genocide. Its a detailed explanation of Hitler and Nazi Germany’s actions in the Holocaust. I was actually surprised at how little I knew about the Holocaust. I usually spend most of my time studying the war at large, perceiving the Holocaust as an tragic side event. I never seriously connected the Holocaust to the War in a way that this book does. It offers a very new and real way to perceive Hitler’s goals of Race and Space within Nazi Germany.

That afternoon we were suppose to have a walking tour of Prague, but our tour guide didn’t show up. Instead, Dr. Brothers and Pointer did their best to guide us around and show us some sites. Which we indeed see.

The city really is interesting in that it preserves a lot of its old town elements. The castle here is one of the largest in central Europe, encompassing about the area of three or four city blocks. Inside it was a governmental center as well as a Cathedral of Gothic and Romanesque design.

That night was spent studying by most of the group. The test was really starting to freak us out as we had no idea what format it would be in or what we should specifically study. However, a bunch of the guys went out for a study break that night to drink Wine and Beers on the Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge in Europe. In the words of Nick Calvin “I felt like a Bohemian.”

The following day was probably the most depressing and expostionally valuable days of our trip. We spent the day traveling out to Tirizene, a transit camp that was used in World War II while Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Germans. The entire town had been transformed into a ghetto for Jewish citizens to occupy until they either died within the town or were shipped off to a concentration camp. To give you some figures, 1/4 of the people that resided in the town died from horrible living conditions while 1/2 were shipped off to Death camps or Execution sites to die.

The entire experience was shocking. Personally I’ve never studied or been exposed to the Holocaust in this same severity. To actually see the rooms where 300 people were crammed into living together was shocking to say the least:

The fortress of Tirizene was where the German officers resided as well as a large portion of the Jewish prisoners there. Every part of the facility was horrifying. There were solitary confinement rooms, crammed living quarters, horrible cleaning facilities, and even a duck pond that was used to hide Jewish bodies.

Needless to say I was affected deeply by the vents that we experienced at Tirizene. To see something so horrific committed by human beings was a real wake up call to the evils of this world. I’ll have to think over this more as our trip continues, eventually visiting Auschwitz itself in Poland.

This morning we had our first test of Europe Semester. It wasn’t that bad, I think that what I studied for was exactly what was on the test. Afterward we had an afternoon visiting the Museum of Communism. It was interesting to see how a Soviet Block nation perceived Communism. It was depicting events of protests against the normalizing policies of Communist Russia, making the case that the Czechs were always in opposition to the hard line communist values and policies.

And that brings us to tonight. Its Lauren’s birthday so we’re going to go out clubbing. It should be fun as we haven’t gone out as a group since London. I hope you’re all doing well.

Hands down, Vienna has been the most imperially cultured city we’ve seen yet. And the Austrians are damn proud of their culture. Just walking around the city looking at buildings gives you a sense of a grand imperial city. And the statues, monuments, and fountains just add to the imperial grandeur. Add even further Vienna’s history as a center for musical learning and production and you’re just about overdosing on high society alone.

When last I left you I had mentioned the nice twelve hour bus ride we had ahead of us from Sarajevo to Vienna. It sounds much more horrible than it actually was. Most of us spent the time reading, listening to music, watching stuff on iPods, or just talking. It was only toward the very end that people were anxious to evacuate into more comfortable settings. We got in to Vienna at around 10:00 that night and most everybody crashed immediately. Jason and I got a beer.

The first day in Vienna we did our generally standard routine- Day of classes discussing where we’ve been, discussing national identity of where we will be, and going over the arts and culture that we’re going to find while in the city. And what artistic culture! Vienna is where Mozart and Beethoven both practiced their trade, developing and presenting most their music within the city.

I had no idea that Vienna was such a European center for music. In fact, I didn’t really know there was a central hub of music in Europe. I was quickly proven wrong as we were introduced to a great pride in baroque music developed by Mozart and Beethoven. (I know I’m missing another artist there, I’ll try and figure that out).

We had our city tour that day led by Dr. Brothers and Dr. Pointer as opposed to our usual city guide led tour. It was very different as we got information that more directly linked to what we had been learning in our classes. And it was amusing when Brothers and Pointer almost got lost three or four times. Add to that the ongoing attempt by four history majors (Holly, Ryan, Jessica, and myself) to convince an undecided (Caroline) to go for history and it was fun times all around.

I said before that there was a great pride in musical accomplishments in Vienna and this was definitely evident by the grand Vienna State Opera House we saw on the city tour. The place was elegantly designed on the exterior, and was located directly next to the imperial palace. Crowds were outside in the middle of the day trying to buy tickets; Austrians love Opera.

Something particularly cool that I noticed on the tour was how obviously imperialized the city was. It became obvious that the city was rebuilt, replanned, and restructured at the height of the imperial era. Austria, as being the meeting point between west and east but drawing on western imperial values, had chosen a very elegant turn of the century western design for all of its buildings. The result was a very intricately detailed series of city blocks that retain a vivid cultural identity. Since I’ve studied imperialism so much I was really excited to see a city which had lived during its height.

One of the focuses of the week we spent in Vienna was leading up to the student debate we would have on Friday concerning Nuclear Power’s place in Europe. On Wednesday we had the great priveledge to visit the U.N. headquarters in Vienna (four in the world, Vienna is second largest, New York is biggest). We had a short tour of the facilities, learning a bit more about the structure of the U.N., European attitudes toward it (they like it!), and about the larger organizations within the U.N.

Following this we had a guest lecture within the U.N. building about the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was intersting. We got to see the role Nuclear power could play and how the U.N. is making great effort to make it safe worldwide. Also how they aren’t just weapons inspectors.

That afternoon we were all tasked with finding our way to the Kunsthistorches art museum to observe some more student presentations and try to find some of our own peices to report on. I found one of my favorite paintings: Carvaggio’s David and Goliath-

I’m really jealous that I didn’t get to do Carvaggio. I love chiascuro paintings. The incredible drama in them is amazing.

That night we were treated to some American food and high culture in bad seating- T.G.I. Friday’s and Viennese Opera. I think that after a week in Bosnia eating very different meals everyone was really craving some food that was more ‘normal’ to us. A group of eighteen of us went in to T.G.I.F.’s and had some comforting food and cocktails (apparently it was happy hour).

The Opera we saw was Rossini’s Barber of Seville, a comedy. Its the one with ‘Figarro!’ in it. The voices on those opera singers were incredible as was the orchestra which accompanied them. However, we had the worst seats in the house, with almost no view of the stage unless you stood on your chair in the booth and leaned over the people in front of you. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have understood the words, but the electronic translators did enough to make it enjoyable.

The next day we had class with a guest lecturor- Herbert Czernak, a local Austrian who came in to talk about local Austrian problems. He mainly addressed Muslim immigration, energy use, and worries of neo-nazism. Herbert’s take on Muslim immigration was interesting. Austria as well as Germany are making very strict regulations in immigration requirements that not-so-subtly target Muslim immigrants, also insisting that they partake in learning the German language. The result is a growing tension between Muslim immigrants (mostly turkish) and native Austrians and a lack of integration between the two.

Immigration of Muslims has been an issue facing Europe for several years now actually. Traditionally European countries have been sources of emmigration not immigration. Now as more people of non-European tradition and ethnicity are coming in to their borders the European countries are trying to figure out what to do.

Handling immigration is one of the rare things I think America has done better (with the exception of Bush’s crazy ideas). Several countries are making hard requirements for incoming immigrants to gain citizenship and this has alienated them from the native culture. Overall though I think that the Muslim immigration ‘problem’ will sort itself out naturally over time, but for now the European authorities are panicking about the lack of integration of its migrants.

Afterward we went to Hellgenstadt House, one of the residents of Beethoven. All in all, the short pilgrimage was pretty lackluster as the museum was only three rooms and the trip out there was about an hour. But it was relaxing to just ride the Vienna tram around and talk to people. Dr. Brothers did, however, read out one of Beethoven’s egotistical testimonies which was amusing:

That friday we had one of the rare ‘treat’s of Europe Semester- Four straight hours of class. On the schedule it says three, but it always stretches out to four. One thing that made it easier was that the beginning of the morning was our first student debate. As I said earlier, it was concerning whether Europe should utilize Nuclear Energy or phase it out. Both sides had some good points but each of them wer definitely in favor of renewable sources as opposed to Nuclear and Fossil Fuel sources.

That afternoon we had a short walking tour of the city to see a specific type of architecture that I can’t spell for the life of me. It translates into ‘Young School’ or ‘New School’. It was a response to romanticism, with increased emphasis on high detail. The buildings we saw were definitely indicative of this with the gold leaf ivy branching across the front.

It was nice to get out and walk around, and afterwards I led a group of girls to a Subway for sandwiches and had lunch.

Afternoon rolled around and we set out to go to Belvadere Palace, a residence of one of the Austrian royal families. It was kind of weird as the palace was tucked away inside a normal city block. I must’ve walked by the place three or four times that week without even knowing it was there. But the building itself and the grounds were amazing, and yet another indicator of imperial grandeur and decadence.

Within the building was an exhibit on Schiel and Klimt, two Viennese artists who worked between WWI and WWII. The result was a dehumanizing attitude toward art with rough blochy depictions of sad and gloomy subjects. One that really caught my eye was Kneeling Narcissus by Schiel.

Which brings me to perhaps the best part of Vienna so far. Hot Dogs. No seriously, they have the best hot dogs I’ve ever tried here. And its not just the meat that’s good, even though it is amazing. They make hot dogs here by cutting out a tube shape inside a fresh baguette with a hot poker (makes a hole for the dog and sauce while also warming the bread). Then they put Ketchup and a Spicy mustard in the hole then squeeze the sausage inside. Myself, Bo, Ross, Caroline, Holly, and Stephanie all set out to try and find one specific stand that did it this way. The Hot Dog pilgrimage was well worth the effort. So much so I’ve gone back three times for meals.

After the oh-so-delicious hot dogs we got some gellato for the girls then hit some bars. The original plan was to get to one of the bars where other Westmont students were watching the Rugby world cup game. However, we ran in to Madison’s parents outside the Austrailian pub (they’re visiting for a few days) and talked to them a while about their Europe Semester trips way back when. I bought an Ottakringer beer for myself and bought Caroline a Strongbow as she had been looking for one since London. We finally got to Flannigan’s where the Rugby game was being watched, but there was no seating and I didn’t want to stand around, so I walked back to the hotel with one of the groups.

Saturday was one of the days where I can’t help but love the Europe Semester program. We had a day long excursion out to Melk and the Danube River. Melk is the location of one of the largest Abbeys in Europe as it was once a castle. The place had a very interesting presentation of its history as a Benedictine abbey, presenting its various treasures in a unique way. Each room was lighted in a color that would match with the mood of the period presented. So, during the beginning foundatiosn of the abbey, the color of the room was green for spring as the abbey was just blossoming into existence. The entire exhibit was very well done, and I got to see even more Relics, another thing I've studied and loved.

After the Abbey we had a picnic lunch in the Melk gardens and then head out for our boat cruise down the Danube! Yeah that’s right, we went on a river cruise down one of the most beautiful valleys I’ve seen. Continental Europe’s forest are so incredibly green; I’m always amazed at how much countryside remains untouched by urbanization. We had great views of various castles and manors along the river, and generally just sat back and relaxed.

We stopped at a little town called Dürnst or something close to that. We were given two and a half hours to wander around and do what we wanted. Jason and I walked the main street and looked around, eventually grabbing some ice cream. When we saw the castle on the hill, however, we started hiking up toward it. Now, the views from the river were amazing, but atop the hill with a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape was just jaw dropping. Bo, Charlie, Eric, Jason, and I spent about an hour just chilling up there and enjoying the experience.

Coached back to town where we had a group dinner and then started figuring out plans for our saturday night. A large portion of the girls wanted to watch Mary Kate and Ashley’s Winning London on my computer, and I quickly set out something to do other than that. I caught wind of a plant to watch the Scotland-Italy rugby game and jumped on the opportunity. It ended up being Morgan and Me as everyone’s plans for pubs got mixed up. But she explained most of what was happening to me (she lives in New Zealand and is crazy proud of the All-Blacks rugby team there) and I enjoyed having a beer at 1516 and just watching the game.

Afterwards I had a hankering for another Hot Dog and walked around the city. We met up with more of the original rugby group and walked over to the Hot Dog stand. Afterward we walked the city just enjoying Vienna at night. I got back just as the girls were finishing the movie (I saw the ending scene of Mary Kate and Ashley riding off into the sunset with their new boy toys). I got Cosmo back and just crashed in my room.

This morning we all went to Augustinerkirche (Saint Augustine’s church) and listened to a Roman Catholic mass. Well, listened to the music at least. The sermon was in German and I had no clue what was going on. But the music was out of this world. They had a full choir on the second floor balchony playing back and forth with the church organ. Majesty and power abounded in that service.

After church I led yet another group down to get Hot Dogs and Gelatto as they had no idea where it was but had listened to people raving about it for two days. I tried out the spicy sausage and was so happy. The Gelatto was also awesome- awesome enough for one of the girls to go back and get another order.

I think there’s plans to go back to TGIF’s tonight or get another Hot Dog for dinner. Most of us are probably gonna spend the night studying for our first test coming up this thursday. But nonetheless I’ll probably end up hitting 1516 before we leave Vienna again.

Thanks for reading folks, I appreciate your interest. I hope you’re all doing well, enjoying your lives at Westmont or out living your life. You’re all welcome to drop me a line and tell me how you’re all doing. Stay well.

Date:	2007-09-23 14:24
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired
Music:	Yeh Yeh, They Might Be Giants

Crazy week. Crazier than any of us expected, really. Since last monday we’ve been traveling across Bosnia-Herzegovinia with a day spent in Croatia. For those of you who aren’t that geographically savy, both of these countries are in the Balkans, a.k.a. across the Adriatic Sea to the east of Italy. And really, I was not expecting any of what we’ve seen here.

We set out from London a bit later than we had expected due to Zoradi missing his wake-up call and several people having to stop on the way to Glasglow airport. What followed was a hectic run through baggage and ticket check-in on our way to a three-hour trip down to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Most of us slept or read on the plane over like Haley here, my plane-seat buddy:

We flew into Dubrovnik’s airport straight over the medditerranean, a truly beautiful site. Sadly, since we were landing I couldn’t have my camera or iPhone on to take a picture. However, the airport itself had a great view of the absolutely clear sky and sea-side mountain range separating Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovinia:

We met our guides for the week Mustafar and Samir who work for the ecotourist agency Green Visions. Its this private social business started by an American, Tim Clancy, who came here during the Bosnian independence movement and was moved by the need to cultivate a stable economy here. I know that doesn’t make sense so I figure I should launch into background information now.

So very short World War history- After World War I as an effort of the fourteen points and League of Nations, Austria Hungary ceeded its lands to the ethnic people that lived there. One of the results was the creation of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Serbs, and Croats. This kingdom eventually gave way to Yugoslavia, a socialist movement that unionized the region into six districts: Bosnia-Herzegovinia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Monetenegro, and Macedonia.

Nazi Germany arrives! As Hitler’s holocaust plans are enforced, he divides the people group who had previously been living together into different groups in order to shatter any unionized resistance. However, under Tito’s communist resistance, unification occured and after the war it was possible to recollect the state again.

Things are pretty good until Tito dies. At this time the Serbian minister Milosevic starts to spread nationalist pride linked strongly to pan-Serbianism. Basically, Serbia starts to take a role that emphasis the power of ethnic Serbs within Yugoslavia. Croatia and Slovenia, fearing the establishment of a Serbian overstate and a misrepresentation of Croats and Slovs, declare independence. The war in Sloevenia lasts several days, Croatia lasts for almost a year. Both succeed in declaring independence and gaining international recognition as free states.

Bosnia-Herzegovinia, also fearing Serbian ethnic dominance, hold a vote and decide to declare independence as well. However, Bosnia being the multiethnic state also holds ethnic Serbs who do not wish to separate from Serbia and so they form an army to lay seige to most of Bosnia. The Yugoslavia Serb-dominated army also invades and Bosnia is laid under seige for three years. Sarajevo, the capital, is put under seige for the world record of 1014 days. Eventually the crisis is solved by NATO bombins and support of a Croatian army that pushes the Serbs out. This was all between 1992-1995.

So that’s my ‘short’ history of Bosnia. I was amazed at how oblivious I was to what had happened here only a decade and a half ago. Among the violence here was also a very aggresive policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide included millions of refugees and displaced people. The crisis has left the country very very reliant upon foreign aid and is slowly losing its old multiethnic focus. Green Visions, Tim’s social business, is working to combat this by helping put money back into the community by promoting tourism here.

So that’s the framework that I’ll be using for you to understand these five days within Bosnia-Hercegovinia and Croatia. As I was saying earlier, we got off the plane and met our two guides: Mustufar and Samir. They welcomed us to the Balkans and took us into Dubrovnik, which I will boldly claim is the most beautiful city in Europe.

The older town is a traditional mediterranean walled sea port, but that doesn’t even serve to explain how pretty the place is. The water is a clear blue that reflects the sky perfectly. Every building is built of polished stone with the red roofs that you see in the Aegean. The town is all snugly placed together to be purely pedestrian (something that is making more sense the longer I stay in Europe), and composed of many crowded little streets crisscrossing all over.

We had an hour of free time after the city tour (interesting in itself as Dubrovnik was the largest rival to Venice in terms of medditeranean trade). I chose to spend the hour by myself wandering around town. I got another shot glass, took fifty-four pictures in total, and got my first of many samples of Gelato. By the time I made my way down toward the coastal fortress and sea wall dusk was about starting and I got an amazing view of the Adriatic Sea-

After exploring the city tour we traveled on into Bosnia to the town of Trebinje for the night. We got our first exposure to Bosnia food which would become a growing experience in itself. Jason and I managed to get out to a really sweet underground bar where we got a pint each for approximately a dollar each. I love Bosnia.

The next day we were traveling deeper into Bosnia and visiting several sites along the way. The first of which was an Orthodox Monastery, one of the four key religions present in Bosnia-Herzegovinia. The monks there welcomed us in and told us much about the history of the Monastary and its role in Orthodox history. On the left here is our guide Mustufar and on the right one of the monks.

Further up the road was an example of pre-westernized Bosnian burial grounds. This particular part of land has gravestones for differing age groups but also depictions of the typical lifestyle that the people would live. For instance, this stone here shows a warrior with weapon and shield giving what is assumed to be a salute.

I spoke of Bosnian food earlier. For lunch that day we got exposed to the infamous Bosnian food which will become an unfortunate theme on this trip: freshly smoked and prepared fish. They serve the fish whole to you, giving you the joy of peeling back the scales, separating the head, and peeling off the meat from the bones. Honestly I enjoyed the first meal of this, and thought it was actually really fun to be trying a new type of food. That would eventually change.

The place we were eating at was situated along a river in Bosnia. (By the way, all water in Bosnia is completely pure and drinkable so you can just dip in and drink. Awesome!). At the mouth of the river was a Dervish Mosque that we got to visit. I had never visited a mosque before so it was interesting to see a different version of a house of worship. This particular mosque came off as more of a house than church which I enjoyed. The mouth of the river though was absolutely beautiful.

We finished the day off with a vist to Mustar, a city that was a bastion of multiethnic intermingling before the war. However, now it has become separated according to ethnicity. Our city tour visited a mosque there as well as a Turkish household. We also got to see ‘the old bridge’ an icon of the city itself.

After Mustar we made our way to our lodgings for the night- A mountainside resort. It was weird being somewhere that wasn’t close to civilization but also very soothing. It rained that night which was impressive during the night as thunder and lightning soothed me to sleep. The meal there was also an amazing medly of meats.

Wednesday! The entire day was devoted to one activity: Rafting. We all split up into boat crews with a Bosnian guide and rafted down the Neretva. My group consisted of Stephanie, Joe, Becca Grant, myself, Amanda, and Jessica as shown here.

The ride down the river lasted from 11:00 in the morning to 5:00 that night and I have was in constant amazement from the beauty along that narrow river. I even jumped into the icy depths at one point from one of the boulders alongside the river, something that I will always remember.

We ended up being the last boat in, and we ate a small meal there of fish. Fish that would eventually incapacitate most of us. However, we didn’t know this at that point and we spent an hour talking about our journey and how I looked like a viking with my hair down rowing down the river. After this we thanked our river guides and drove into Sarajevo where we would be spending the rest of our stay while in Bosnia.

There has to be something bad on every trip and I guess it had to hit us in Bosnia. For most of the night I was waking up frequently to share my fish experience with the toilet. In the morning I got a knock on the door and Dr. Brothers informed me that twenty-nine people were sick with food poisoning and that the entire day would be postponed until people were feeling better. I and most everyone else on the trip could do nothing but lie in bed and drift in and out of sleep. It was a pretty down day and we continue to joke about the Balkan Plague, Milosevic’s Revenge, or badly cooked fish. Needless to say, a downpoint in our trip.

The next day about 15 people were feeling operable again so we set out for that day’s activities. We took a bus out to a small Bosnian town where we toured a Franciscan monastery (Roman Catholic being another of the four larger religions here) and were priveledged to a homecooked meal. Here is a picture of the ‘youngest’ tome that the monastery was in posession of:

One part of the meal was homemade Plum Schnapps, which I drank with utmost trepidation. You know how alchoholic drinks have that nice booze-bite hidden behind the flavor? This stuff decided to do without and resorted to pure bit. It was crazy strong for a guy who had eaten almost nothing for 24 hours.

That afternoon I spent wandering the town with Jason and Holly doing some window shopping. I picked up a bootleg Transformers disc for four bucks, something that I will make good use of while here. That evening we all got together and watched Mean Girls on my computer as most people were still recovering and did not want to venture out into the night.

The next day we finally had a reasonably recovered group so we set out on our city tour of Sarajevo. We heard all about its great moments in history. One which I was really excited for was the location where Princip shot Arch-Duke Ferdinand. I was all a tither with historical glee. After this we went out to see the Tunnel musem, a site where Bosnian soldiers smuggled supplies to Sarajevo under seige during the war.

And I finally get to today! I realize that my blogs are getting longer and longer and I thank people for bearing through them with me. I’ll try to either update more often or cut down on detail.

Today we had an all day excursion to the highland country where traditional Bosnian towns still exist. The people there continue to live a live of sheepherding and very simple domestic lives. The views there were inspring as you could view the entire valley from our vantage point. The girls and guys got together for gender-specific group pictures. The guy’s was better as we got the guides to join us. (Samir and Mustufar on the far right, Tim on the far left)

We ate lunch there and were treated to a display of a traditional wedding ceremony. It included dance and song and the little girls of the village joined in all giggly. It was very cute. After a full day hiking around we started our way back to the hotel.

That night after dinner myself and a bunch of others got to go out on the town with our guides and Tim, something which I am very glad to have participated in. We hung out at a Hookah bar first and talked mainly about Tim’s experience traveling and American Foreign Policy from a Bosnian and world traveler’s perspective. After that we went to the Sarajevo brewery where we each got an entire liter of beer. I wish I had brought my camera for that.

Tomorrow we set out on a arduous twelve hour drive up to Vienna where we get back into the world of the European Union. Yay standard currency! I expect internet access will be much more available there so I’ll try to do a short update soon. I hope all of you are doing fine and enjoying your fall and I thank you for reading.

Wow. London continues to be awesome, expensive, and incredibly cultured. Within the ten days I’ve been here I have managed to see six plays in all, go to three galleries, two museums, and two cathedrals. Add on top of that the nightly sit and have a pint and its been a busy last week and a half.

Last time I left you I think I said I was going to see Les Miserables. Amazing! I had seen the movie version when I was in middle school at some point but this performance made that look like a kid’s movie. The performers were impressively talented, especially Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. I can’t begin to describe how amazing the play was.

The next day (tuesday) we had a normal class schedule and then off to the British Museum of National History. Oddly enough, though, the National History museum had very little on Britain itself. In fact most of the place was devoted to a collection of historical objects from Greece, Japan, China, the Islamic World, and then a section on European history. Nonetheless it was fun getting to wander and once again see objects that I’ve studied before. And coincidently, philosophical history reared its head in the busts of these four figures-

Heads of the schools for Cynicism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism set beside Socrates. The largest exhibit there that I saw was the Parthenon exhibit. And in the tradition of Imperial arrogance, Britain had actually managed to get gigantic chunks of the Parthenon up here to their Museum. And I mean large peices of it-

The rest of the musem was interesting, I didn’t have the pocket money to buy a ticket to the Terrecota Army exhibit, but I heard it was awesome. That night a group of about ten guys took Dr. Brothers out for a drink which was fun.

The following day the professors had dedicated to a full day excursion out to Coventry and Stratford-Avon. At Coventry we got to see the three Cathedrals there, all part of the Coventry Cathedral grounds. The oldest Cathedral was actually demolished during the bombings for the Battle of Britain.

The destruction there was followed by a very wide flung effort to push for reconciliation between all sources of conflict in the world. Not an easy task, but the Cross of Nails effort which came from this has actually done a great deal in providing for refugees and trying to bring about a peaceful resolution in times of absolute conflict.

The newer modern cathedral was an interesting take on the traditional cathedral. It still retains that majestic presence of the old cathedral but it has a new and fresh construction. They apparently did this to symbolize the rebirth of Christ and his church. The new cathedral is directly next to the destroyed older cathedral, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.

It was overwhelming the amount of international christianity represented in the modern cathedral. Besides the building itself, not one thing within the walls was made or bought by Coventry Cathedral. When the older Cathedral was destroyed, churches around the world donated gifts and new works of art to adorn the new building. One of the most impressive was the God’s Eye stained glass which was donated by over twenty different churches in Brazil I think:

After lunch we all headed up toward Stratford-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace and where he lived a large portion of his life. To be honest, besides his house there really wasn’t much to see in the town, so most of ended up just chilling in the park. We picknicked for dinner, even splurging on a bottle of wine to pass around. Funniest moment of the day was when Charlie decided to try and interact with the Goose that came to eat his cereal.


That night we were priveledged to see a performance of Twelfth Night by the Royal Shakespeare Company. I had never before seen the play and thought that it was pretty funny. The actor who played Feste was great and played the roll of the fool very well. Surprising, Malvolio was played by none other than John Lithgow, who’s the blurry white figure here:

That night we all were exhausted so most of us slept on the coach until we got back to London at 1:00 AM. We all crashed due to the prospect of three and a half straight hours of class the following day. Needless to say, none of us were all that enthused when the third class came around.

That afternoon we were all scheduled to go to the Tate Britain. Due to being exhausted from the full day previous and a mentally strenuous morning, I ended up spending only an hour there. There was some interesting peices, but only three or four stood out as particularly impressive. There were some amazing seascapes though.

After a nap and some more pizza for dinner, Scott Joe and I all got together to go see Spamalot. Basically, its Monty Python’s Holy Grail turned into a full musical. I was smiling and laughing the entire time, especially during the song “You won’t do well in Showbusiness if you don’t have any Jews.”

That night Andrew, Jason, and I went to Shakespeare’s head and enjoyed a pint with some Australians who were in town for a Less Than Jake concert. We spent a good thirty minutes trying to imitate each other’s accents, and all in all the night was well spent.

Despite the full morning of class on Thursday, the professors decided to extend the duration of the other classes on Friday. Each class we had went over in time and it was a great deal of information to be crammed into our heads. That afternoon we went out to Westminister Abbey to tour the insides and attend an Evensong service.

On the way back I got this sweet picture of Big Ben: WHO’S THE BIG ONE NOW?!

Because it was friday and everyone wanted to relax after three days of craziness, a large group of us again went out to Shakespeare’s Head. I ended up spending more than I intended and drinking more than was wise, but had a great night nonetheless. I’m pretty sure I went on complimenting one of the girl’s hair for about ten minutes. And I’m told I tried something that was on fire at one point.

The following morning I spent recovering, eventually summoning the energy to walk down toward the Thames River, where I ate lunch on the riverbank. The view was amazing and very contributed to a very relaxing mid-day.

After walking across the river I went and saw Merchant of Venice in the Globe. First of all, the Globe was awesome. All those years of seeing it in Civ games culminated in a big smile on my face.

The play itself was so amazing. On Josh and Seth’s advice I was a groundling instead of actually using my tickets, and it was a great choice. I was no farther than three feet away from the actors at points and was able to see every expression on their face clearly. Was definitely a different theatre going experience than I’m used to. The play itself was incredibly funny, with great wit and hilarious gestures.

After the performance I ended up going with a large group of Westmonsters to the Tate Modern, a gallery for Modern Art. I honestly have never been one for Modern Art. Not because I dislike it, but only because I’ve never really been exposed to enough of it. After spending three hours in there, I can say that its pretty hit or miss with me. Some of it was really great and other peices just weren’t.

That night was pretty relaxed, we just went to the Verve and had a drink or two. I even flirted my way into getting one of the Bartenders to give me two free shots. And by Flirt I asked her to sit down as she had been walking for thirty minutes. Yay courtesy.

Today I woke up for church at St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the larger cathedrals in Britain. It was certainly impressive, with elaborate decoration all over the place. And the service was interesting with its obvious tradition behind the service. The choir was fantastic, with the sheer size of the place making their voices sound ethereal.

I’m spending the rest of the day in the Internet Cafe and doing laundry before we head out to the Balkans. I have no clue when I’ll have access to the Internet again, so it might be as much as ten days before I update again. Hopefully not as that would be a collosal post.

I just realized I'm fourty bucks over my limit for London. Yikes. I hope you’re all doing well, and I appreciate hearing from any of you through comments, e-mail, or facebook wall posts. Thanks for reading.

I posted just yesterday if you missed it. If you did, check it out before reading this.

Alright, catching up as fast as I can with what we’ve been doing in London. We left Cambridge last Thursday morning for London with the usual stop along the way. This time it was this gigantic landscape-architecture preserve type action called Stowe’s Garden. If you don’t know anything about the place I don’t blame you, so here’s a little preview of what its all about-

Stowe’s Garden is this artistic preserve essentially utilizing landscapes as its medium. It used to belong to a line of Earls who owned the land and was only recently bought by the English National Trust (National Parks equivalent in the U.K.). But the thing that makes this place so unique is that the way that the landscapes are laid out including the temples, trees, monuments, banks, and rivers are all arranged to represent certain elements of the classical period of Greece and Rome.

The picture above, for instance, is supposed to represent one end of the River Styx. During the dusk and dawn of the day this entire end of the river is shrouded in heavy darkness representing Hades. The river itself travels down the estate eventually ending in what is supposed to represent the Elysium Fields shown here (Click the picture to see it in its fullest):

We mainly just walked up and down the River Styx, but also saw three temples along the way. One of which was the ‘English Worthies’ in which nine individuals of English descent are shown, all supposed to represent the great people of English history. In it are such figures as Richard Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth (mounted in the center), John Locke, William Shakespeare, and Isaac Newton. I found it amusing that John Locke was described as being one ‘to shed light on the very way we perceive the world.’ I dunno, I’m a philosophy geek.

We got into the London School of Economics where we’ll be staying for most of the trip. Its just north-east of Soho District. So basically its in the center of all the activity we need. I’m sharing the room with Bo Mangels, and the place is tiny. But then again, neither of us are in it much except for sleeping.

First day here however was Nikki’s birthday, so of course we had to go out and find a club. I think there were three girls and about eight guys (odd for Westmont ratio). I insisted on not letting Nikki buy any of her drinks that night and introduced her to a Vodka and Cranberry as well as a Long Island Iced Tea. After dropping too much money we all spent about an hour dancing with the locals before heading back to our residence.

We headed out for the Imperial War Museum after class on Friday. Its apparently recognized as one of the greatest war museums in the world, and of the one I’ve seen I’d have to agree. The place is five stories high and gigantic. The front lobby is filled with various World War vehicles with full descriptions of each’s role in combat. Here’s a Sherman for ya:

I spent most of my time in the WWI, WWII, and the post 1941 war involvement sections. It was really interesting to read about both World Wars without the emphasis on American glory and achievements. Their entire take on the war was completely different, instead focusing on the tragic and horrifying necessary duty of war. So often I get to read about the World Wars from the American contribution perspective.

The post 1941 was both amusing and deeply saddening to me. On the one hand I was amused to see all these periods that I’ve studied represented in a musem. Particularly the India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysian sections. The amusing part came when I realized I knew so much more than was represented there from all the courses I’ve taken. However, because I knew more it was that much more depressing to revisit the tragic events that took place.

That night a group of about fifteen of us went out to a pretty relaxed pub able to fit all of us named the Shakespeare’s Head. This time we maintained the Westmont ratio, having ten girls and five guys. We did well that night, and only two of the girls ended up tipsy. However, I spent a bit too much on drinks for the second night in a row, so I made a note that I had to live cheap for a while. All and all, though, the group did pretty well as you can tell-

The next day we visited the National Gallery in London. However, since I spent five and a half hours at the Imperial War Museum the day before I wasn’t really into the whole gallery scene. So after finding my two peices for my artist and listening to the six presentations we had that day, I started walking back to the residence to plan what to do that night.

And what plans they were! Davis had heard that Avenue Q was in town and we immediately went to buy tickets.

I doubt that many of you will know what Avenue Q is, so I’ll help you out there. The concept is what if Sesame Street actually represented what life in New York was really like when you graduate college? The end result is a musical (most of the songs in the same style as Kids songs) featuring puppets alongside monsters and live actors (who often actually switch puppets mid-scene with someone else) who all represent true life around your mid twenties. That is to say, most are unemployed with their childhood dreams unfulfilled but trying to live in the moment as their life unfolds.

Because its supposed to represent the truth of the twenties the show is full of adult humor. So there’s songs entitled “When you ruv someone, you want to kill them more” and “Everyone’s a bit racist” and “The Internet is for Porn.” The show was hilarious from beginning to end, and I recommed it to most everyone who will read this. Jedd, Joel, and Andrew in particular however would love this play.

The following day we had free so I chose to catch up on the homework I hadn’t been doing and to take an easy laid back trip down to see some of the more touristy sites of London. Buckinghamm Palace wasn’t that impressive to be honest, its just a really big gray building with awesome gates. However, the Queen Victoria Memorial out front was incredibly ornate and impressive.

After these two spots we took a walk through St. James Park on our way to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The park was really sweet as the entire lake in the middle was full of ducks, pigeons, and swans. When we emerged we were directly in front of Big Ben.

Big Ben, however, is not working while we are here as the powers have be have decided to make Big Ben go digital. That is to say that the machinery behind the hands is now going to be controlled through eletrical mechanics rather than the old clockwork stuff. The clock-tower itself was pretty sweet though, and it looks amazing. Too bad we couldn’t actually go up there.

House of Parliament made me sad the Capitol Building in D.C. isn’t this sweet. Seriously, Parliament looks so amazing. Not only is the place huge with a great view of the River Thames, but every inch of the place is elaborately decorated. And placed around the building are several statues attributed to England’s more prominent leaders.

That evening was spent just chilling around the hotel while we all caught up on homework. I’ll take this time to mention that my diet has changed since I last talked about it in Dublin. First, if you didn’t know, London is the most expensive city in Europe. Second, the vast majority of traditional english food is nasty. Third, apples, cheese, and bread, isn’t as simple as my new diet. Almost all of the guys on my floor have opted to buy out all of the nearby grocery store’s 85 pence pizzas. So I’ve been eating Pizza for most of my lunches and dinners over the last few days. Its cheap, so its saving me a bunch of money that I can spend on plays, gifts, and drinks.

Speaking of drinks, I think I’ve found the best ale in the trip so far. Its McMullen’s Cask Ale, and I don’t think I’ve tasted any other ale that can top it. Seriously, if any of you are ever in London, find a pub called Old Nan’s Head and order a pint of this. Its amazing.

Today was spent in double classes, eating pizza, and then heading out to the National Gallery yet again for more presentations. This time I was more receptive to art, however, and spent some a good hour wandering around finding stuff I could appreciate. I’m starting to like the Baroque period more and more and the Impressionists less and less. I guess I just like the more robust stylings of Baroque I guess.

Tonight we’re heading out to Les Miserables and then probably grabbing a pint afterward. I’ll hopefully post again this upcoming Sunday before we head out to the world with less internets. Thanks all for reading folks, hope you’re all doing well.

P.S- Seth, I’m feeling a distinct lack of Mikayla and would really appreciate some pictures if you could send them to me. Thanks.

We left Belfast way too early in the morning, grabbing a flight to London and then a coach on the way up to Cambridge. On the whole, all of us were extremely tired that morning, most of us sleeping in the airport and on the plane. Caroline for instance:

Once we landed in Heathrow we traveled on to Cambridge with a stop in Ely for lunch and a tour of Ely Cathedral. Ely Cathedral is one of the first Romanesque Cathedrals built in England, and was the first cathedral we saw. Needless to say, I was very impressed by the entire experience. The hall itself was about five stories high with very heavy stone and building. The entire length of Ely Cathedral is about 1000 feet long and every bit of it is immaculately decorated.

After we finished up touring Ely and grabbing lunch (Potato with Chili) we got back on the coach and travled into Cambridge. We watched Father of the Bride on the way there too. Good stuff.

Cambridge has been the first town we’ve been in. And by that I mean the first place we’ve been that isn’t a city. Its small town, completely dominated by Cambridge University. And really, its a double-edged sword really. Its an interesting quaint little town with a lot of history and very serene simple small town streets.

Walking around is like walking through an old village, with the winding streets and overabundance of small little shops. And its definitely a college town, what with the 70% of population using bicycles and about three or four cafe shops on every blook. Add on to that the many number of colleges that litter the town, and it really combines to be a pleasent quaint little town.

Because its simple and relaxed here that’s what I’ve been doing for most of the time while here. We arrived in the afternoon first day and had a city report (information on the city layout, places to eat, etc) and then were free to do whatever. Jason, Scott, and I wandered the streets a bit and found a Chinese place for dinner. Expensive but well worth it.

That night, instead of the usual pub activity, a small group of us found a spot on the river and passed around a few Carlsberg. Really relaxed atmosphere (we kept saying “I can’t believe we’re having a drink on the Cam in England”) and got to know Bo and Charlie better. After the incredibly long day of travel most of the group crashed around 10:30.

After classes on the next day Jason, Mike, and I went to the market to stock up on some cheap lunches that we could live off of. I’m really starting to dig Apples, Cheese, and Foccacia, it fills you up and only costs 2.4 pounds ($5.00). That afternoon we had a walking tour of Cambridge with some hosts from the college, in which Doctor Brothers made some highly amusing faces of astonishment and surprise at each announcement.

Highlight off the tour however was walking into King’s College Chapel. More of a Cathedral, really. Its the largest compilation of stained glass from post-reformation in the world as the vast majority of the walls are covered by great biblical tales told through glass. Another interesting part of the cathedral was the differing architectural styles of the building as it was built during three different King’s reigns. And here's proof I was actually there!

That night we got invited to go to The Eagle, the more popular inn of Cambridge, and so we went with the large group of girls that had decided to go there. I made the most excellent choice of getting the steak there since I had a cheap lunch. Outstanding. Seriously, best meal I’m going to have on this trip for a while. That night I actually got around to doing Laundry and watching some Sopranos with another group of guys: Ian, Alex, Ross, and Andrew.

The next day we were pretty much left to our own devices for most of the day. However, last minute of class one of the more adventurous and boisterous guys yelled out “Punting Olympics at 2:00, all are welcome.” I suppose you need to know what punting is. Basically the river Cam, the river on which the city was built upon, is very small and navigated mainly by these little boats called Punts which are pushed along on a long pull by a Punter. Its a very quiet relaxed day and you’re more than welcome to go punting without a hired guide; doing the punting on your own like some of the girls did here.


It was not a relaxed day for us. As Punting Olympics implies, we were out to compete. The guys were the brave souls that agreed to attend such an epic event. We split up into two teams: Team Green Iguanna and Team Ramrod. The two events included Punt racing and Punt jumping. At least it was supposed to be two events at the beginning. It really turned out to be three races with the second and third race involving boarding actions to steal the other boat’s oars and punting poles. Three of us ended up in the river, and all the rest were busy drenching the other sides with icy cold nasty Cam water.

It was pretty much the best activity of our entire stay in Cambridge. Two of the girls, Madison and Morgan, managed to get the majority of the 2nd race/battle on tape, I’ll try and see if I can post that here. Oh, and by the way, Team Ramrod (us) beat Team Green Iguanna 2-1. Take that Dr. Pointer!

So there’s Cambridge for ya. I'll be posting tomorrow most likely so that I can catch up chronologically. I've already had a lot happen in London in just four days. Thanks for reading, folks, hope you’re all well.

Date:	2007-09-05 17:02
Subject:	Bogs, Belfast, and British Bodygaurds
Security:	Public
Mood:	satisfied
Music:	Drunken Lullabies, Flogging Molly

--This blog is a few days behind as Cambridge’s internet totally sucks--

So I’ll have to apologize for the minimal amount of pictures on this post. Somewhere along the line I have misplaced the connection cords for my camera to my computer. Hopefully I’ll have found them by the next time we post them or have bought replacements or some other option when I get to London. Until then, I’ll try to get some pictures on Monad as I can still post from there.

But on to travels! Last I posted we were close to finishing up Dublin and our last day there was really great. We had our normal classes then set out to the Irish Natural History Museum where I get to see a whole lot of early Celtic and medieval elements posted around. They had this whole exhibit on these things called Bog Bodies. Basically, the early Irish took royalty (whether their own or enemies they don’t know) and submerged them within Bogs all across Ireland to mark their borders. The result today is incredibly well preserved Bodies that told archaeologists much about early Irish history. The peices look like this:


Apparently the bodies were so well preserved that archaeologists were even able to get DNA and fingerprints off the bodies and think they can identify descendents of these people. Crazy.

Also in the museum was a whole exhibit on pilgrimage in Ireland as well as early medieval relics, topics which I spent a whole semester studying for HIS 198. It was awesome to be reading the signs and think it was elementary stuff compared to what I had researched.

After the Natural History Museum I set out to the daily excursion we had that day to the Irish National Gallery, where they had a wide array of paintings globally as well as two exhibits on Irish works alone. Two of the students presented their artist and then I spent three hours wandering around just looking around. Found one work by the artist I’m presenting on later in the semester as well as a few incredibly interesting peices. Francis Danby’s The Opening of the Sixth Seal was probably my favorite there.

Thursday rolled around and we said goodbye to Dublin and started traveling North to Belfast. We stopped at a monastery on the way (the first picture I have of myself... sadly on my camera and inaccessible at the moment) and got to see more amazingly green landscape. Once we got to Belfast we had a few hours free so Jason, Mike, and I walked around the city and almost got lost. It was sweet, Belfast has an entirely different feel than Dublin to be sure. That day we had our first of six presentations concerning North Ireland’s last thirty years of ‘The Troubles’. Following this city tour we had a group dinner followed by a pint at The Crown with all the guys.

I’ll take this moment to describe what ‘The Troubles’ are exactly. Firstly, they’re insane. Ireland as a whole has had a very long history of colonial rule, opression, influence, and imperial interaction. However, in 1921 when Ireland was given independence from Britain, Northern Ireland, dominated politically by protestants unionists who had no desire to join the economically weak catholic dominated southern Ireland, chose instead to stay on as a member of Britain. In the 1960’s during North Ireland’s civil rights movements for equal treatment (Catholics had numerous laws restricting social equality placed on them to ensure Protestant control of the city) the conflict came to a head during a protest march from Derry to Belfast. The British army (placed to prevent an outright disaster) for unclear reasons, were drawn into firing upon the marchers as well as civilians. Riots ensued and this was the beginning of The Troubles, a period of civil violence, terrorism, and sectarian conflict that would consume Northern Ireland for thirty years.

The Catholics became known as Nationalists ‘protected’ majorly by the paramilitary IRA, an organization that sought to protect Catholics in place of the Protestant dominated British army and local police. They took the political stance of wanting to unite with Ireland instead of staying with Britain. The Protestants became Unionists and also assembled their own paramilitary forces. Both of these sides and several other members ritually commited acts of violence and terror on the other in orer to assert their politcal agenda. Its basically a nation wide gang war that has resulted in the (until very recently) suspension of local government, the building of a city long wall separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, and the destruction of most of their buildings.

So that’s The Troubles. Like I said, insane. Oh, and another part of these neighborhoods are the creation of building high murals decalring allegiances or satirizing events with historical art works such as Guernica. Some of them are actually quite impressive. Here’s just two that I got on my iPhone:



Following day was spent with Eric, Nikki, Morgan, Madison, Ross, Jason, Holly, Stephanie and myself heading out to Belfast Castle. We got a bus day pass to get over there and got to talk to a group of catholic school boys in their last year on the way over. It was really sweet. Jason tried to explain our football to them, one of them asked us if California was full of super models like the O.C. is, and we got to learn about their schooling system. The castle itself was more of a manor house, but nonetheless impressive. Jason and I bought a Guiness there and we just relaxed in the cellar bar they had.

The night was filled with a meeting where a Reconcilliation group called Mornington Community Project described their work in forwarding communal integration and peace in the community. His story of the troubles was one of deep regret and pain but filled with a determination to set it right. I find it interesting that every account we get of the troubles is phrased subtly different. It shows a wide range of reactions to what this society is doing to itself.

Friday was relaxed. Spent the day resting, watching the new Rugrats (did you know they made a new series?) in my room and generally just doing nothing. Friday night, however- pure awesome. After another presentation and talk on The Troubles, this time by a chaplain at Queens University, about twenty of our group set out to a club for the night. We went to ‘The Fly’ and had probably the best night here yet. We met this British body gaurd, Cid, who kept setting us up with drinks. I got toasty enough to dance for a while (I know, me dancing- crazy) and the night all around was incredible. We ended up getting back around 2:30 in the morning and crashed

After that crazy night we had a full day excursion all around Northern Ireland. We first made it to Derry (Or Londonderry if you’re unionist) where most of the worst violence of The Troubles occured. A very politically vocal nationalist gave us a short tour of Derry packed with information of the horrors that were commited in the streets during the three large riots in Derry. The largest of which had to be put down by 26 companies of the British Army. That’s roughly 4,500 troups, all accompanied by three tanks to each company. The presence of the army incited the riots further and by the end of the chaos near fifty civilians had been killed.

After the tour of Derry and some lunch (pizza and chips) we went west to our first true Castle. This is where I have the bulk of my pictures. I’ll be sure to post them as soon as I get the cord. But the place was amazing, built right on the northern bluffs. Truly was beautiful. After the Castle we went to a global geographical wonder, the Giant’s Causeway. Its a series of hexagonal basalt rocks that are tightly packed together along the northern coast. Each is about a foot wide and the repeat in rolling hills straight down into the Ocean. Only recently did they figure out that they were caused by some Volcanic cause.

We got back last night and went out for a quiet drink followed by watching Superbad on Cosmo in Mikey’s room. We were all pretty exhausted by the full day and the long night beforehand, so today we did nothing but visit the local church and try to find free wi-fi.

So there’s the latest installment of my blog. Oh, I also understand that Michael’s mom is reading this now. I figured you might want a picture of your son to know he’s still alive and kicking. This is the best one I had:


Thanks for reading, folks! =)

Ireland is the most beautiful country I have ever seen. No seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever found a more lush and vibrantly green place on earth. Even within the city the rare patches of grass are all emerald green and alive. Its incredible. I had to get that out there, its still impressing me. But on to more direct details of my trip.

We get in on Friday night (afternoon for you folks) all exhausted from a total of 10 hours on two planes with a two hour layover in Heathrow airport in London. Most everyone got settled into our temporary residence: Trinity College.



After we dropped our bags in our rooms a handful of us headed out to explore Dublin night life. (Sadly, I didn’t think to bring my camera with me that night, so no pictures) We hit up one popular pub for younger crowds, Porterhouse, sampled some nice Red House Ale and then some Carlsburg. Then we just walked down through Temple Bar, a tightly knit collection of pubs and restaurants open late night. I was amazed at how active the entire city was even as late as it was.

First day back I had to do a city report on Dublin with Mike. Was easy stuff, I got to ramble on about Colonial Ireland and Mike got to make jokes about Dublin Castle. Afterward we had a group excursion out to this place called Glenglough (“gh” is pronounced as “ck” in Gaelic by the way). Some random road trip pictures for you:





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Its this valley in between two lakes with surrounding mountains and rivers that all feed downward to one long stream. The entire place was gorgeous.

Directly below the lower lake was a monastery from circa 1100 A.D. with surrounding ruins. The site was dominated by gigantic celtic crosses on headstones as well as the bell tower in the middle of the large cemetary.



We walked up toward upper lake and found some trails that lead off to the side of the lake.



I, being the adventurous scout who can’t convert kilometers to miles accurately, convinced my group to take the blue trail (6 km with steep climbs). We had been walking up the trail for a good hour completely tired before we turned back on to the best view possible.



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Sunday morning came around and Mike and I were determined to complete our biggest and most important plan for the city of Dublin: The Guisness Storehouse.



I really wasn’t a fan of Guiness before this event, but you really can’t go to Dublin and not see the largest brewery in the world. And it was amazing! The museum was awesome, from the detailed brewing explanations to the history of Guiness lore, every bit of the place was impressive. They were sampling this new brand at the sample bar called Guiness Northstar that was sooo good. It had the flavor of Guiness with a slightly sweet overtaste, was amazing.

The trip was culminated with a visit to the Guiness Sky Bar which has a 360 degree view of Dublin city proper. But the best part of the Sky Bar hands down was the single free Guiness straight off the tap.



Jason, Mike, Andrew, and I hung out around the bar for a good hour and a half, and to very good fortune on our parts. Mike and I had been talking up the storehouse to any girl on the trip who would listen, telling them how amazing it was gonna be. Our efforts payed off as no less than sixteen of the twenty two girls on the trip found their way up to the Skybar. And, not surprisingly fifteen of the girls didn’t want to finish their Guiness. So who was going to possibly finish these pints but us four guys coincedentally planted in the sky bar?



At the end of the day, we were very pleased with the several pints of Guiness we got for cheaper than any pub we could get it from. And it was soooo good off of Tap.

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Today we had our first day of class. Simple introduction syllabus stuff then lunch. I’m eating way cheap and way more healthy than I’m used to. Bread, Fruit, Cheese, water. Cheap healthy lunch and I can eat it anywhere. Got to eat over at St. Steaphens Green today, which was probably the best park I’ve ever seen.



On top of the beautiful park already I got to witness a performance of Taming of the Shrew in the center of the park by some pretty mediocre actors. But nontheless, it was awesome. Follow with a short walk through the other half of St Stephens Green, it was a pretty sweet start of the day.





Later half was filled by a ‘walking tour’ of Dublin put together by the profs for us with some tour guides. However, we were unaware that a ‘walking tour’ meant that we would be standing in five different spots around town listening to the guy give us a history lecture about Ireland. Which was pretty sweet and all, but really didn’t expect to be in class-mode for a good eight hours today.

So most of the way through Dublin, only one day left and then I’m off to Belfast. Then London. I’ll try to post again this upcoming weekend, if I can find free wireless by then (paying right now. Blech.) I’m pretty sure I can find wireless when I get into London somewhere, so at the latest you’ll hear me by Thursday.

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Oh, and by the way... I have an iPhone! His name is Monad. He’s awesome and seeing a lot of use on this trip. Maps and Weather and Mail and Web Access and even more of the awesome!



And please leave your names on comments. Its helpful for me.