Jack-o-London surprise!

It was strange to experience Halloween over here. Not because it was so different but because it was so similar. I mean it was nearly identical to how it would be at home…the difference was that I was not at home. As much as candy and costumes are part of Halloween there is so much more to it that is indescribable and personal and cant really be replicated outside of your home. Little things that you never knew you associated with Halloween that make it Halloween for you and no one else. That aside…I had a good time. Me and some mates baked and decorated some sweet holiday cookies, carved out some wicked pumpkins and revelled in the bliss of a 90’s American pop playlist.

Badminton: I won two of my three matches, which was good but you can never stop thinking about the one loss. I guess badminton works like tennis in that you rank your doubles teams one through three and then each set of partners plays each of the others sets. When I refer to myself in the singular I really mean my partner and I. Apparently the rules of badminton have just changed (fortunately I didn’t know them to begin with) to incorporate a rally scoring system (point per play as opposed to scoring points only on your serve) much like volleyball and games go to 21. So I lost to the first ranked team 24-22 (win by 2), 21-18, 21-18. I KNOW, we should have won. Then beat the second and third ranked teams but each time taking three games to do it. A lot of that was just simply making mistakes, I missed a lot of serves which didn’t used to matter as much because you just lost your serve but now it also gives the other team a point. So for my first badminton match ever I think it went pretty well. We have a home match in a couple weeks so maybe I’ll try and score some video of it…and knock someone unconscious with the shuttle. Surprise!

This is the day…

It’s been a while I know, but sometimes with the combination of nothing and things to do there isn’t time to blog. However, I have come out of retirement to remind you guys that today is my first badminton match. I don’t know who we’re playing…I think the college is a medical school in Hammersmith, Charings Cross maybe. Anyway, all I know is that I show up at the bus stop at 5:15 and bring my game. It’s weird to be getting ready to compete again. I haven’t played in any official match since the Biola volleyball season ended last…March, April? This week at practice I felt pretty good like the rust is beginning to wear off and I finally got my racquet back today with new titanium strings. It’s really remarkable how much difference the racquet and the strings make, of course I’ve been playing with mediocre racquets since I got here so I hope I can handle Excalibur. That’s a joke, sort of.

Wicked Good

This morning I woke up and headed out with the group to Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) Square to procure some tickets for tonights showing of Wicked. We managed to find some for 18 pounds which is a fairly reasonable price for London theater, although there had been rumors of fifteen pound tickets but I think those might have been for an afternoon showing.

From Leicester Square we moved on to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard. Which to be honest…was less thrilling than I had imagined. We also followed Rick Steve’s directions to stand away from the gate and up near the statue, which gives you a better view of the bands and soldiers marching but basically removes you from being able to see and hear what happens behind the gate (the actual changing). So for a tall person I would stand by the gate but I guess for those who arent blessed with abnormal height the fountain would be better. The bands were the best part with the uniforms following in a close second. It was kind of funny because one of the bands played a rendition of the theme from Phantom of the Opera…which was unexpected, at least to me.

Next stop was Notting Hill. Which was fun to go to again and I had a fantastic spicy bavarian sausage. I was kind of bummed thought because I am looking for an album by a group called Jo Mango which is basically just a Scottish folk singer…anyway the album was only released in the UK and so I stopped through this really sweet music store and was sure they would have it. But they didn’t. What a world.

We returned to Roehampton and I took a couple of four minute naps before we headed out to see Wicked. The theater was the Apollo Victoria theater in East London. The play was really really well done and I enjoyed it emmensely. Idina Menzel has an amazing voice, wow. The music was really good too, mostly i mean the drummer was spot on. And I loved how creative the stage production was. The lighting and the props and scenery were so varied and well done that it was beautiful on its own. The staged appeared to be magnetized (or at least there were magnets under the stage) so the props would be brought out on the stage with out any assistance and it allowed for some really seamless transitions. Not to mention a bed coming out on stage all by itself is just fun to watch.

Also good news! The match was moved to next friday so I can both go on the field trip and play in the match! Of course that means I have to get up tomorrow at 7 AM but I guess it will be worth it…

I’m just glad

This has been a fantastic week. Not only were there a lot of people visiting from Biola over the Torrey break but I also got a couple packages from family and friends. I got to see familiar faces and hear friendly voices (whether it be in person or on a DVD). Much of my time here is spent alone but not usually in a lonely manner, the separation from family and friends has really just helped me to realize how much and particular things that I appreciate about the person and the role they play in my life. There’s obviously a lot more to these thoughts but how can I convey them on a lame blog (as awesome as it is…come on).

I am also feeling a strange tension between the freedom of the future and the pressure of it. I was talking to Ted last night (he, Jake and I are planning to go to Spain in November) and we were just talking about how there is really nothing stopping us from pursuing what we feel is important. Whether it be travel or work or people or anything. I just have so many opportunities in front of me that the quantity of them and the perceived importance of choosing one seems to turn them from opportunities to obligations. I don’t have to go to grad school, I want to. I don’t have to start a life long career in two months. I could get an apartment with a friend and work at Starbucks. I could come home work for a few months and go travel again. I could go teach English in Japan for a year. There is nothing forcing me to do any of these things and nothing stopping me from doing anything of these things either. Even though England is as close to America as you can get in a foreign country the slight differences put such a vitality and freshness to the things that I was taught as concepts and history. There are so many things I want to have be apart of my life and who I am and will become that its hard to see where the next step should land but at least I know I have 360 degrees to choose from.

And to my family and friends: Thanks so much for the packages and notes. They mean so much to me. I could probably tear up a little thinking about them and you. I look forward so much to seeing you all and being able to see hear and touch you.

The daily kind of stuff…

Grocery shopping…

Richmond Park Before Dark

Today I went over to Richmond Park which is the big open area near my campus if you ever google earth that bad boy. I knew where it was but hadn’t been there yet so after lunch I set off in the direction of the park and after about twenty minutes of walking I ran into a wall…which I followed almost all the way back to where I started. Apparently all the gates are locked on the weekends. Even though that was super la-HAME I did get to see my first fox. I was trudging along between the line of trees and the wall and all of the sudden a little red face pops out of the bushes and stares at me. I thought to myself “release the HOUNDS!” but had none to loose. He ran, I continued walking.

After another bit of walking I reached the park and followed some populated paths, apparently there are a lot of rugby games happening on Saturday afternoons. The farther I got past the fields the more open the park became and after I crossed a little bridge over water I walked into a herd of deer. The King’s deer. I thought about trying to poach one RH style but decided it would be unwise. I walked around admiring the deer for a while and then just sat under a tree and read until sunset (which wasn’t really sunsetty through the fog).

Some other guys from Biola (Jake’s friends) arrived today and so we went down to Westminster and walked around Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the likes. It’s really strange to to walk around London and to recognize street names and buildings from history books…or Sherlock Holmes…

A dilemma…

I’ve just returned from badminton and have received the good news that  I have made the team.  YES!  Our first game is next Saturday.  YES!  I also have a Biola field trip to Canterbury next Saturday.  NO!  I really would like to do both.  I just paid 50 dollars to be on the badminton team so I would like to get my money’s worth…but if I don’t go on the field trip I lose a percentage of my grade.  So really each is a win lose.  I have some time to work out a compromise but I can’t really see any sort of feasible one.  I guess I still need to find out what time our match is at and where Imperial College is in relation to Canterbury, maybe I can make half of the field trip if it’s a late match.  Who knows, such good news balanced by such bad.

Touring the Tates

Yesterday we had our first Biola field trip. All the Biola students at Roehampton gathered at the bus stop at nine in the morning and hopped onto the bus which we took to Barnes station where we boarded a train and took that over to the Tate Britain Museum. On the walk from the station to the Tate Britain we passed by an MI6 building, which of course is the British equivalent to the CIA and the agency that James Bond worked for or works for depending on your opinion at to when and with whom the series died. At the Tate Britain we took a guided tour of the museum which was a great experience. After going through so many museums while traveling and only having memories, tour books and plaques to tell us about the poem we now had a trusty tour guide to bring us up to speed on historical contexts and symbolism. After our tour we took a boat down the river to the Tate Modern but had very little time to peruse because we had to grab lunch and get to the Globe Theater at two. Fortunately most of the museums in London (including the Tates) are free to enter so I can go back as much as I would like and spend as much time as I care to. The Globe Theater has three levels of seating which enclose a little courtyard and the stage. The tickets for seats are relatively expensive when compared to the prices for standing in the courtyard…so we stood for two and a half hours. We watched In Extremis which is a telling of the story of Abelard and Eloise. I enjoyed it but I don’t think I did as much as others did, I heard lots of praises for the acting which I thought was good but had its weak points. It was fun to experience and infinitely better that it was sunny because the theater is open air and if it rains we stand in the rain and the weather the day before had me worried.

After the play we were left to go about our business so we took the tube over to the Apple Market and went to a restaurant called Porter’s. It was a little more expensive than we were expecting but we all wanted to eat out and thought why not splurge a little to cap off a great day…so we did. And then we came back and watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development and I ate four doughnuts…now that is a good night cap.

The Duke of Beaufort

In the English county of Gloucestershire is credited with the formalization of badminton as we know it, and tonight I took part in the history. I signed up for the badminton club at the Freshers Fayre a few weeks ago and missed the meeting last week…but this week I made it. And I played. I haven’t played in over a year and definitely was a little rusty but I am pretty sure I played well enough to make it on the Roehampton Badminton team which the club feeds into. It should be a small team maybe just three or four guys and I might be near the bottom of the roster, but hey, top three or four isn’t bad. Even though I had to play a few junk games it was really good just to be out on a court again. It was also good to play against someone other than Thoennes, my enitire badminton career has basically been played against one man and so I learned to play against him really well.  I knew what shots he could get to and which he couldn’t, which shots he could make and which he couldn’t and now the learning process starts all over again with a much wider spectrum of players.  I guess I’ll find out more next week when the team is actually finalized since I am the new/international/fourth slot I could be on the bubble and it might have been premature to post about it but I think I have a good chance and even if I don’t make the team I am still going to be playing at least every Thursday so you’re sure to hear more. The main reason I would want to make the team…let’s be honest…is to get some kind of uniform. Jersey day is always the best day of the season.

ASDA

I made this today…only thing I have to post really…

Yesterday I went to the store with one of the girls on my flat. We took the 265 down to ASDA which takes much longer than it should because the bus has to wind itself through a bunch of little neighborhood streets to make a million empty stops and then comes back out right where you came in and then proceeds to ASDA. Once we were there we split up because trying to get what each person needs while walking together just makes things more difficult than it needs to be…which I get enough of here. I am enjoying shopping and making my own meals even though I am basically relegated to sandwiches twice a day. This shopping trip I branched out into the fruit and vegetable arena as well as dabbling in breakfast foods. There are a lot of funny little things one notices when walking around a British store like the fact that they have a lot of strangely named cheese. Their breads are named after tigers and hedgehogs and sodas are categorized under fizzy drinks. I walk and enjoy.

This Saturday we (as a Biola group) are going to the Globe Theater. I’m super excited about it. I told you that our professor has his doctorate in Art History and I am becoming more interested in it. Some of the things he just throws in are super interesting to me, of course that happens a lot with anything history. I should go to the library and get some history books…