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Published: April 9th 2008
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I've really been neglecting to keep this updated. I've been slipping as far as my journal keeping goes as well, but here's an attempt at getting back on track and briefly recounting what I've been up to as of late.
Jackie and Rachel's friends, Luca and Alex, visited from Trieste (Italy) last week, so we spent a lot of time with them. The first night that they were here, we took them out to White Hart for a little bit, and then a few other pubs over the course of their stay. Casy and I met up with Jordan, Alex, and Luca at an Italian restaurant to watch the Roma v Manchester United (I think?) football match. There were two other Italians watching in the same room and the conversation consisted of various exclamations of dismay in Italian, followed by very solemn looking Italians sitting in silence as it became clear that Roma was not going to rally back and win the match. One morning, we (Jackie, Jordan, and I) took Alex to the market by Dahlston Junction to get some fruit and vegetables. I really love that market; you can get whole bowls full of produce for a pound,
At White Hart
Jordan, me, Jackie and it's a very interesting atmosphere. It kind of reminds me of Baltimore a little bit, not that I've ever been to a market there, but the people I guess. Alex was dumbfounded by the thick accents that many of the vendors had (cockney, etc.) and said that it almost sounded like they were speaking another language. So, Jackie bought the apples that he wanted for him. Alex and Luca taught us a few phrases in Italian, but most of them contain expletives. Still pretty amusing. We also went down to the Thames in the rain to watch the crew teams from Oxford and Cambridge race. Oxford ended up winning. I've added the very shaky and poor quality video that I tried to take with my digital camera.
Casy and I had a wonderful day in the park last Friday; we walked to Regent's park in short sleeved shirts, got ice cream cones in the park, and then laid on a blanket in the grass and watched people play football or play with their dogs. I saw a German Shepard that made me miss Duchess, and then a tiny Chihuahua who took off full speed (which was not very
On the way to market
Jackie and Alex sitting in the front seats on the second level of the bus-the only place to sit, really. fast) after a bird. He was not very happy when he was easily scooped up by his owner. The day really felt like springtime with the warm sun, flowers, and trees unfurling their leaves. We're planning to do a picnic/bbq sometime before we all have to leave.
Jackie and I went to an Obama supporters meet up at Parliament Square on Sunday that my friend Steven organized. I'm constantly surprised by the level of involvement that people like Steven and the English people in general have with the presidential race. In their opinions, even if they cannot vote in the election, the outcome will influence the global community. It seems that most people here support Obama. We took some photos for use in the campaign in front of the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben and then went to the upstairs of a pub next to Westminster tube for some socializing and political discussion. Overall, it was a really interesting day, and I was intrigued to hear other peoples' viewpoints.
Classes have been fairly uneventful, I am finding it difficult to find academic motivation the past few days though. Last week, my Arts in London class went to the Royal Academy to see the From Russia exhibit of master Russian and French paintings and then saw a reggae musical entitled, The Harder They Come, at the Barbican Theatre (I'll try to add some of the journal entries/reviews that I've done for all of these class trips at some point in the near future). Tomorrow, the class is scheduled to go to the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall. I'm looking forward to that, I think that the guest composer is Lalo, who apparently did the Mission Impossible theme. Today, Casy and I went to The Guardian, which is a newspaper near Farringdon, with our Writing Non-Fiction class. Well, not exactly with them, as we didn't know that we were supposed to meet there and had to rush to the tube after most of the class did not show up to the classroom at 3. We saw an exhibit of cartoons by Chris Rittle (maybe Riddle?) and also had a question and answer session with a feature writer from The Guardian. She was probably less than 30 and has already been working there for seven years and was quite eloquent and poised. I really enjoyed talking with her and it made me start looking forward to the summer a little bit more with my internship and the freelance writing that I'm planning to do.
This weekend is Steven and his flatmate, Thom's, combined birthday party. The theme is "The Smiths," so I've been listening to one of their albums and have to come up with a suitable Smiths related costume. It should be a good time, the girls are all going to go too. Other than that, I have a lot of homework to catch up on!
I can't believe that the semester is just about winding down in terms of calendar time that we have left here. Rachel, Casy, and I are planning a trip to Portugal when the semester ends, so I've pushed my flight home back by a week. I can't help but think ahead to my last days in London with some sadness. Thank goodness that they aren't here just yet, even if they are looming on the horizon. I've really come to love this city.
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Aaronnn
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hey how old were your cool Italian visitors? When you mentioned em too me i kept thinking of them as older, they look our age though; which, admittedly makes sense. I find it amusing that when people learn about languages informally it always starts with expletitives or what i'd call the most interesting words in a language. :-)