It has finally arrived…

Some of you might remember when Clint Eastwood was chillin at my house and filming his new movie there.  Well, its finally coming out and the trailer has been released.  And guess who’s house made it into the trailer as well…

The movie is called Flags of Our Fathers.  To see the trailer click here.
Near the end of the trailer there is a woman sitting in a chair crying in my living room.

News on Ancient Philosophy

Today was my first day of classes at Roehampton. This morning I had my Ancient Philosophy class which fantastically brought back a lot of memories from my Intro to Philosophy class. I’ve taken Ethic, Philosophy of Religion and Medieval Philosophy at Biola and its been over two years since I have done much study into ancient philosophy but I could still remember names and concepts and sometimes attach the two correctly. The tutor (professor) wasn’t who I thought it was going to be, the name I had seen was Raj somebody but the tutor’s name is Nina Powers…awesome. The module (class) is divided into two sections the first being the lecture and then followed by a seminar where we break up into smaller groups and do presentations and other more in-depth stuff.

The other class I had today was the Biola affiliated class which is taught by a man named Nigel who has only been to America twice and has a doctorate in Art History. The class seems to be focused on appreciation of the art and history that surrounds us in England, we will be taking numerous field trips to various historical sights or to museums, galleries and the theatre. The second half of the course will explore why the rest of the world doesn’t look favorably on the West and more so on the US.

I’m still trying to get into a poetry class which will be held on Mondays…so there should be another 6 unit class coming up.

Last night we had a flat dinner which was great. It’s kind of fun to be an oddity.

Kingston

Today Ted and I went over to Putney to see if he could get a sim card for his cell phone to make it work in England.  Fortunately there are a million cell phone stores in London and getting the sim card was easy.  They also told us that for it to work Ted would have to get his cell phone “unlocked,” when we inquired as to where we would get this done the answer was, “You could try the dry cleaners next door.”  Which seemed ridiculous but sure enough there was a little man over there with a laptop that did some crazy spy stuff with Ted’s phone.  Unfortunately, Ted apparently owns a beast of a phone and after two different men trying to hack it they couldn’t unlock and told us to bring it back tomorrow.

From Putney we went over to Kingston…and got lost.  But we really just walked in circles until we found where we wanted to go.  I will definitely go back to Kingston it seemed like it had a lot of interesting things to see.  It was a place that almost felt like America to me.  It had the big open outdoor shopping center feel like Pasadena or Orange Country.  Obviously not to the same scale but had similar themes and so it was fun to feel like I was sort of home.

I have my first classes on wednesday, I know people are wondering about that.  Since I am taking two six unit classes they are four hours once a week so I don’t have a lot of “days” of class.  I am still in the process of nailing down another class…scary, but completely normal.

Interlaken VIDEO!!!

I’ve got my boots tied tight…

Yesterday was the Freshers Fayre, which is basically the club fair. It was better than Biola’s in term of variety but there still were surprisingly few clubs that interested me. However, I did find the badminton stall and put my name on the list so hopefully I’ll be getting an email soon and be able to play at least once a week. After the fair Ted (a guy from Biola) and I went to ASDA together and I restocked on food and a scented oil plugin…my room has never been more awesome. But since I am a little sensitive to scents i can only turn it on low for a few minutes at a time, I guess that will make it last longer.

I am looking forward to having classes start, it will be interesting to see how this semester unfolds.

Freshers Week

This last week is indeed called “Freshers Week.” Freshers is freshman in British vernacular, to me it sounds a little a little derogatory so i feel awkward asking people if they’re a fresher expecting them to be offended and say, “No, I am a freshman.” Speaking of British oddities, this week was also registration and I could not believe the inefficiency with which they conducted the process. It seemed like they were trying to accomplish too many tasks with no specification as to where or what tasks could be handled where. I would stand in one line to get up to the front to be either be told to go to a different line or have someone who didn’t really know if “that’s possible” help me for way longer than it would have taken if there was a specific desk to go to for English majors. It wasn’t a horrible experience but it did give me a little more appreciation to be American. Since registration there have been a lot of events for the freshers…a few i participate in and a few that I don’t. Mostly I try to attend those that offer free meals…I don’t think I realized how expensive it is here. I mean I knew it was and I knew that I would have to pay for food since we don’t have a meal plan…but I didn’t know a Pizza Hut pizza would cost $20.

This Friday is the Freshers Fair where one can sign up for clubs and activities…I think this is where I’ll find more information on playing badminton. I think that since I have a fairly light course load it would be fun to be active in a lot of extracurricular activities, so we’ll have to see what they gave to offer.

And by the way don’t be afraid to send me an email…it’s scary, I know, but you can do it. kevincram@gmail.com

And this song is in my head constantly (don’t worry dad, I’m still making you mixes).

Settlin’ Down in Foggy London Town

I arrived back in London two days ago and have been busy sleeping and unpacking. Of course unpacking wasn’t a very difficult task since really all I have here are clothes not the furniture, fridges, guitars, posters, books and memorabilia that normally grace my dorm rooms. There are only international students at Roehampton right now, with the exceptions of our Floor Reps (RA’s). It is so strange to be an international student because I don’t feel at all like an international student. I still feel comfortable and “normal.” They’re the ones with the weird accents, not me. Even when my floor rep is speaking to me in English I still have to ask her to repeat things from time to time because I just can’t catch everything.

Last night we had an international student trip to the Walmart of England, ASDA. I got some food, because not starving is number one priority, I had some other school related items on my list but they were either sold out or I just didn’t have the funds for the luxuries. After our shopping field trip we had a student dinner. Jake (who was an RA with me last year) and I were walking towards the reception and we noticed that everyone was in formal dress so we ran back and changed. It was funny to be at a student mixer when college is something you’ve already done for four years, but it was fun to meet the real international students and the food was good.

I’m excited to get the school year started.

Walken Interlaken

Interlaken is exactly as I expected it to be, meaning that it’s so different from anything we’ve experienced thus far. We’re staying in our first hostel here; Balmer’s, named after Erich Balmer who was here and I saw and said, “I think that’s Erich Balmer.” We’re staying in a room with three other people. The first night there were only two others, a girl and a guy both late twenties, who were really nice and gave us some suggestions on what to do. For the last couple of nights we have had all guys, who smell terrible, and fart in the bunk above you loud enough to wake you up. Balmer’s is actually a pretty fun place though, there are obviously a lot of youth here and they have movie nights and a club and ping-pong and foosball (dominating).

There aren’t really any historical sights or monuments to see so every activity involves nature somehow, unfortunately everything (train rides, cable cars, ice climbing, rafting, food, EVERYTHING) is super expensive. Yesterday we went on a hike, which was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. It was over six hours and we climbed and descended probably around 5,500 feet. We took the train up to the trail head but decided we would just hike all the way back down. We walked along the top of a ridge with the lakes of Interlaken on one side and the Alps on the other. We climbed up to the top of a rock formation to have our lunch and had a 360 view of the area. We finished the loop at the top of the mountain and started the trek back down the mountain. The hike was strange because it took you through peoples backyards and fields. We would unhook the gates to the pens and walk in with their cows and horses, and I would be thinking, “this can’t be right how can it just be okay to walk in these people pastures and be a foot from their cows?” Then a while later you would find a trail marker and signs and still be on the right path. And then you walk for a while in the wrong direction and you realize…I think we’re on the wrong trail. It takes a few extra hours to get to the bottom of the mountain and you come out of the forest farther from your hostel than you should be and you’re rescued by a man in a car. Sort of. We totally took a wrong turn somewhere, and it took a long time to get down and we came out farther than we should have been from Interlaken. We passed a restaurant and in the garage there was a guy doing some carpentry work and I asked him how long it would take to walk to Interlaken, he said it would be around 20 minutes…which I was excited to here it was short, but we had been hiking for around six and half hours now and were pretty tired. We left the man and continued down the road for a few minutes then a car pulls up next to me and its him, he said he just happens to be driving that way anyway and asks if we would like a ride…yes, was the response. Did he really have things to do in Interlaken that he remembered just a couple minutes after I talked to him? I don’t know but people in Switzerland are generally nice and quite helpful (unlike the Italians we met). He took us back to Balmer’s and the night ended on a note of kindness.

V-necking in Venice

I am now on my way to Interlaken Switzerland which will be so different than anything we have done up to now. And Venice was a great transition to it. We visited St. Mark’s Basilica but that was basically the only sight we went to see. Our last day in Venice we got an all day bus pass, but by bus I mean boat or “aquaboos” as I prefer, so we could travel to the other islands around Venice. We went to Lido for most of the day which is the resort island. We walked on the beaches which were covered in shells which were usually whole. Then we sat down and fell asleep on the shore with the sun and the water and the wind and the sand. There was an art exhibit on the island so there were random pieces of modern art along the sidewalk. We stopped at a little café and got some fun drinks/desserts. I got a yogurt/gelato/fresh strawberry/chocolate chip dessert which was wonderfully refreshing after a day at the beach. As we were enjoying our treats there was some sort of political group marching through the streets, I couldn’t exactly tell what they stood for or what they protested but I could tell that it probably involved the legalization of marijuana…or if it was in the US it would.

That night we went to a restaurant that probably had the best atmosphere of anywhere we had gone. There vines on all the trellises, roses, fantastic lighting, and gardens. The food was good, not the best we’ve had but we’ve had some amazing food so it was still great. After dinner we went back to the mainland of Venice and hung around the main square in front of St. Mark’s where each café has live music playing, it didn’t compare to the duet the day before but was still really enjoyable.

Now we’re on our train heading for Switzerland and the Alps. We don’t have any sights to see and probably most of our time will be spent hiking, or zorbing, ice climbing maybe, parasailing, or if we wanted to spend $400 dollars we could go skydiving over the Alps…or maybe we’ll just be hiking…for free.

 

Venice = A-maze-ing

Last night when we got in we were hungry and were looking for a place to eat. As we left the hotel to search an Italian family of about ten walked out the same time and mentioned that they were looking for food too. So we joined forces and chatted as we walked the streets. The father of the family talked to us about American culture and movies and the history of Venice, but mostly involving the pollution. We found a pizza place and got our pizzas, surprisingly the onion pizza was really good. Obviously not something I would order on my own…but the onions were unexpectedly mild and added nicely to the overall flavor of the pizza.

The next day we just walked around Venice getting lost and finding ourselves again. The city was so much cleaner than any of the other places we’ve visited, I can’t even believe how much more beautiful this makes the city look and feel. Even if you don’t notice the litter in other places you are always picking up on it subconsciously and it pulls down the heart of the place. The streets were clean, and all the houses had flower boxes fill with colorful flowers and the plaster of the walls breaks away revealing the ancient bricks behind them. Oh yeah, and then you realize that you’re standing on a bridge over water that runs green through each street.

In one square in front of a church there was a classical guitar and violin duet playing piece after piece. I could have just sat there reclining on the steps of the church and listened to the music forever. It was so peaceful, even though the square was busy I could just get lost in the music. There were tons of hand blown glass shops and shops selling an amazing variety of masks for Carnival. After we got our gelato, we headed back towards the hotel but decided to get groceries before heading back to the hotel to get some sleep.