August: Getting Over the Hump

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Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all doing very very well. I have been pretty busy as of late (notice the lack of entries). Not busy as in travelling and seeing the world, but busy in the sense that I have had a lot of class, a lot of assignments, and not to mention work. July was quiet months after I went to Dublin with Ben save for the homework. We had a two group presentations as well as a few individual assignments all around the same time which took up a lot of time during the week. With classes on a two of the weekends, it left little time to actually go out and see things. But I am okay with that.

The last weekend in July was my first chance to do something in a long time. My friends Sarah and Tanya and I all went to Brighton on Saturday the 29th. It was great because the weather was nice. It was a relaxing day trip spent mostly on the Brighton Pier, overlooking the English Channel. It was really busy, a lot busier than when Amanda and I came here in March. Of course it is actually warm and people can contemplate braving the chilled waters. Sarah and Tanya got a chance to meet my friend Tim who owns a deli in Brighton. We grabbed a beer with him and his partner Berry. It was really nice chatting away on the beach while drinking a Red Stripe.

August is finally here, and that means a couple of things. First, that means no class until September. Second, that gives me the weekends free to travel. This will primarily be within the UK because it is really expensive to travel to the Continent during August because everyone wants to do it. So the weekends will be spent exploring the small towns and attractions in England. Thirdly, my parents will not be coming to visit at the end of August as originally planned. What will be happening instead is I will be coming home. THAT’S RIGHT, I WILL BE HOME FROM THE 23RD-30TH OF AUGUST! If anyone is around during this time, please call me and hopefully we can meet up! It’ll be great to see the family, Amanda, and friends.

This past weekend was the first weekend in August. Sarah, Tanya, myself, and Matt were going to try and go to Epping Forest on Saturday. There was a big problem with this because it decided to be all English and rain. So Saturday was a bust. Instead, Matt and I went to see the Dark Knight. Now this is the second time I have seen this movie, and again I was blown away. You pick up a lot more the second time which was neat, but I cannot get over how well the film was put together, and of course how incredible Heath Ledger was at portraying the role of the Joker. It was really dark, and really serious, which is what the old Batman movies really seemed to lack. It seemed much more realistic, which to me makes this even scarier. I am anxious to talk to Dawson about this to see what he thought.

Sunday, they four of us were going to try and see something, but Matt slept in and Tanya took a personal day, so Sarah and I decided to go to Salisbury. It is a small city near Stonehenge. We went there with two goals. One, to see the Cathedral. Two, to go to ‘The haunch of Venison,’ a pub which boasts having a mummified hand which was severed due to a card game. For those that are making travel plans, I suggest that you follow this line of planning. Pick two or three things you have to see or do. This is beneficial because it is easy to meet your objective so you do not feel like you were not able to see what you wanted, and also because it allows for flexibility and the chance of finding a hidden treasure. The Cathedral was amazing. It was built in the mid-1200’s. It houses one of the only surviving copies of the Magna Carta signed by King John (Prince John from Robin Hood). It is really hard to believe that people were able to build such huge buildings with only their strength and ingenuity. No cranes, no hydraulics, no modern day equipment. I marvel at their determination and dedication to the project. With seeing the Cathedral, mission one was accomplished. Next we were in search of the hand at the pub. We found the pub, but the upstairs was closed which is where we believe the hand to have been. So mission two was partly accomplished. We had some time before we had to catch the train, so we following the little stream that ran through town and found a really neat dog park and some really scenic streams. This was the unexpected treasure we found. That and the fact there was a dog that jumped into a tree, grabbed a branch with his teeth, and swung for 5 minutes trying to kill the thing. Mom, he didn’t want to let it go, a bit like Cooper with a new toy. After that, we headed home satisfied with the fact we didn’t waste the weekend.

I am now going into my 6th month here in London. It has been a bigger personal challenge than I originally had thought, but I still have no regrets. I am seeing things I wouldn’t have a chance to see otherwise. I am uploading pictures from Salisbury and Brighton as well as a few from the 4th of July Thames Cruise we took (with Ben and the MBAT interns). Until next time!

Cheers,

Aaron

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