Giving Thanksgiving

Pop culture has told us all that preparing ones first Thanksgiving dinner is a defining moment in our lives. Maybe it wasn’t definitive but it was awesome. Last night some friends and I went shopping in preparation of our 27 person Thanksgiving feast, the total cost ended up being around 150₤ which would be something like 290 US dollars, and I was probably carrying over 60 pounds of food on my back as we left the grocery store. We could only find a 17 pound turkey but it worked wonderfully.

Today we started cooking. I didn’t so much cook as prepare. I washed and prepared the lettuce for the salad, peeled yams, washed pots, peeled and sliced apples for the apple crisps, and then watched and rotated the turkey (which, lets be honest, is probably the most important job…okay maybe not but let me pretend). You might be asking…”Rotate the turkey?” and yes, fortunately I knew from cooking many a pizza that the ovens here do not cook evenly and because of the fan in the back often blacken that back while the front is left a perfect golden brown. So, we would check and rotate. Eventually all the food was prepared and we took it all over to the room we had reserved in Newman hall. The room was unseen to us but was actually perfect, the table was big enough to fit everyone around and had kitchens nearby to warm and freeze what we needed to.

I was (as was everyone else, American or British) amazed at how well everything turned out. It was literally perfect. The food was all delicious and there wasn’t a single disaster or even a change of plans. The yams were to die for, the mashed potatoes were delicious, the green beans with bacon were BACON!, the stuffing was fantastic, the cranberry sauce…not as good as my family’s but still great, the turkey moist and delectable, the breads were wheaty, the punch satisfactory, and the apple crisps BRILLIANT! I probably forgot something but it was good too.

It was fun to be able to do this for all the British students since a lot of them had never had a Thanksgiving meal or celebration before…which of course makes sense…but still is weird. A couple British girls brought down American flags and hung them in the room (which was weird, but what are you going to do…my favorite part was when they taped a couple American dollar bills to one of them…and I thought, “that’s an interesting way to look at it”). Some of them came down dressed normally but then when they saw the magnitude of the food decided to go back and get dressed up a little more which was really fun. I said a little prayer for us and then we dug into the food. There was totally enough food for everyone which was a blessing and as we sat there with our belly’s food we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for. It was just a great time, and interesting to not be on the receiving end of a cultural experience. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and all of us who put it on were completely satisfied and probably enjoyed it even more than anyone else.

Spain Video

I wasn’t exactly a fan of this video, so I hesitated to put it up…but I’ve been encouraged to. So partake, enjoy.

Standing on Cambridge

So last Friday I was supposed to have a badminton match. They forfeited. I looked forward to it all week. Sad.

But Saturday the Biolans went to Cambridge. We were supposed to meet at the bus at eight AM but for some reason or another I got a little less sleep than I intended on Friday night and then was woken up at six by a fire alarm and had to go stand outside in the cold for twenty minutes. When I got back inside I debated on whether or not I should go back to bed, since I got less sleep than I thought I would I decided to jump back in for another couple minutes. I woke up to some nondescript noise and thought to myself, “it seems like I’ve been sleeping for longer than I should.” So I sit up and look at the clock and low and behold it’s 8:08. I don’t like to be late. So I jumped up and put on the pants closest to me, slipped on slip-ons, grabbed a sweater…decided it didn’t match and grabbed another, brushed my teeth while I gathered my jackect, camera, iPod, and ran. I think I probably got to the bus at 8:10 so I wasn’t super late but I hated being the last one.

The coach took us up to Ely cathedral which was possibly more externally beautiful than Canterbury (not the interior though). We had a really great tour guide who kind of hobbled and waddled in a jolly old fashion. He showed us the places around the cathedral where the apprentices had been left to finish the work but ended up “mucking around,” which included a mermaid hidden in a doorway and faces carved on the backsides of facades. We also had a chance to test the seven second echo in the lady’s chapel. It was weird to yell in the chapel. We left the cathedral to make our tour times in Cambridge and about this time I realized that my rush had left me without socks…and that it had been a very poor choice. I was freezing the whole day.

Cambridge was beautiful, all the leaves were turning and the colleges were fantastic. Our tour guide took us all over the city. Showed us C.S. Lewis’ room in Cambridge and the lab where DNA was discovered…and the pub where it was announced. We also saw an apple tree planted outside Isaac Newton’s room at Trinity College which people ardently claim is descended from the one…THE one. It was a really good trip. I love having a tour guide, you just get so much more out of your experience.

Oh yeah, and I purchased plane tickets to Ireland. So, I’ll be there December 13-16. Before I come home on the 20th…which just happens to be one month from today. Can you believe it? I can’t.

Back from Barcelona

Yesterday Jake and I decided to partake of the many sights and historical vestiges bestowed upon Barcelona…and by this I mean we shopped. We shopped until we were hungry and then ate, it was a late lunch. We went back to the hostel showered (did not put on the new digs) sent a few emails and then headed off to Tibidabo, which is a hillside area of Barcelona with a carnival ground down below and a cathedral on the top of the mountain. We decided that the tram wasn’t going to get us up the mountain in time for sunset so we put our faith in our feet and our manhood (I have to talk up the manliness now because its gets way less manly later). We made it up the mountain just in time for sunset (but again we were semi-foiled by cloud cover). We walked into a hillside café and ordered a couple of drinks (like Sprite and Coke, doi) and watched the lights of the city come alive. Yeah it would have been a pretty romantic scene but when you both have beards it kind of kills the mood (Scott, you know what I’m talkin’bout).

We hiked back down the mountain (we are not waiters…especially not for trams) and took the buses/local trains/metros back to the city. Found a tapas bar and devoured another small country of bread and meat. We thought it would be fitting to have tapas again on our last night in Spain, plus I knew it would make my dad happy.

Back at the hostel we showered up and got ready for an early bed time since we had to catch the seven AM bus to Reus Airport. Apparently six AM is predawn in Barcelona so we walked to the metro station in the dark and found people still in the bars…not necessarily to our surprise. Took the metro to the coaches, coach to the plane, plane to London, and now I’m sitting on another coach waiting to get to the metro to finally take a bus back to Roehampton. That is traveling…or maybe it’s transporting. Anyway, I’m back in London safe and ready to start the second half of my time here. Can you guys believe it’s down to only six weeks?

Escalading in Espagne

SO…I’ve got a lot to say.
Back on Sunday night Jake and I left for Stanstead airport which required a bus ride, to the tube, to a coach (charter bus…but I wish), to the airport. It seems like a lot of travel and it took us a couple of hours but in actuality that really wasn’t bad at all. Once in the airport we started searching for a place to sleep, unfortunately, a million other people had the same idea. So all the benches and flat surfaces had already been taken. We found a little place near the windows with where the heater (which wasn’t working) acted like a bench so we grabbed that. It was only about eight inches wide and was composed of five metal bars with about an inch spaced between them…so comfortable to balance sleep on? No. Jake stayed up most of the night while I might have grabbed an hour or so. We got up (which was comprised of standing up because we were already awake) at five AM and began security check-ins. Everything went smoothly…except for some reason they decided to search Jake’s backpack and had some problem with his deodorant. I got to walk across the tarmac and up stairs to a plane for the first time, it was kind of special. The flight was fast and fine except for when they tried to charge me 3 bucks for an orange juice. We arrived in Spain around noon and hopped on another coach to Barcelona which only took us about an hour. We arrived in Barcelona and walked to our hostel where Ted happened to be standing outside. So we checked in and took a nap and then headed out.

That first night we just walked around the city and checked stuff out. We found a nice little outdoor cafe in the Barri Gotic and had our first Spanish meal. It was good but not amazing, we were happy to eat though. We headed back to the hostel and finally got a good nights sleep.

Day two in Barcelona started with us heading out to see La Sagrada Familia, which is really the centerpiece of Barcelona. Its a cathedral that has been under construction for decades and is still unfinished. It was the life work of Antoni Gaudí who really is Barcelona’s favorite son. It was such a different cathedral than any that I have seen. The architecture is so different and the whole feel is strange, almost like Dr. Seuss but completely mature. I posted a picture I took…but it won’t really do it justice. It’s hard to really get the right perspective in a camera lens because it’s so massive. Anyway, it was amazing and super interesting because although the style is not more modern it is definitely a cathedral and holds onto many of those traditions and it just makes you feel like you’re a part of history seeing a cathedral built. Next we headed up to Güell Parc which was again created by Antoni Gaudí. The park is up on a hill and has a great view of the city all the way out to the Mediterranean Sea. The park is covered in tiles and mosaics. Lots of color and art. It was a really fun place to walk around, take pictures, eat lunch and absorb. The final Antoni Gaudí work that we went to see was La Pedrera, which was a block of apartments and offices he designed. The architecture was amazing. We went up to the roof and just sat there over looking the city for a long time. There was also a museum of some of his works and an apartment to be toured.

That night we went out to dinner to a Tapas bar and tried a bunch of different kinds of Tapas, they were all delicious. It got a little expensive but it was a nice bar and when you’re paying per three bites…sometimes you loose track. We had some really good conversation and a lot of fun just hanging out eating in a foreign country…more foreign than England. It was totally worth it though and did I say they were delicious, because they were. Then we walked down to the water front and stood in front of the Mediterranean Sea in the darkness.

Today we got up and went back to the Barri Gotic to go see the Picasso museum. Not to mention we saw a nevernude in cutoffs. It was definitely one of my favorite museums, given my predisposition to modern art and then just being able to see the progression of a man and his art was awesome. The museum had a lot of his early works which gave such background to his later works and informed so much of his work. You always hear that Picasso was a genius and I agreed…but after seeing this museum I have no doubt and I don’t see how anyone could disagree. Sure, someone might not like it but the man is brilliant and so masterfully skilled. Have you seen the work he was doing when he was fifteen? Wow.

Ted left for London after the museum so Jake and I headed up to the national gallery of art which is up on a hill and watched the lights of the city come alive, we would have watched the sunset but there were too many clouds. Again we had a great conversation just sitting on the steps and talking about life the way young men do.

Now I’m back in the hostel writing like crazy to catch up and now I have. Goodnight. Oh yeah, and they love escalators here. They’re everywhere, it’s like a kids dream land.

He’s quite a Fawkes that Guy

That’s right. It is indeed Guy Fawkes Day today. And the fireworks have been going on for about week, I can actually see a pretty good show through my window right now and all the explosions are echoing off the walls. Besides having more color in the sky this last week we have also had a lot more…cold. I usually wake up to 36 degree mornings with frost on my windows and on the grass outside. Hands, noses and ears are starting to freeze.

Yesterday the Biola students went on a tour of a few museums. We saw the Rodin exhibit (think The Thinker) at the Royal Academy of Arts and then the Velazquez exhibit in the National Gallery. I really enjoyed the work of Rodin. Even though he is really only famous for his sculpture I think my favorite work of his was one of his watercolors called Chaos…unfortunately, it’s not famous…so you can’t find it anywhere or buy anything with it in it (that’s an unfounded speculation but I looked around the exhibits store and couldn’t find anything). Velazquez was good too but I preferred Rodin, my favorite piece from Velazquez was titled Mars. And our trip also meant we were right in the middle of this.
We’re now having badminton practices on Friday nights too and this last Friday I had a pretty fun experience. We were practicing on the two center courts and off to the side a boy probably in the third grade was playing basketball by himself. I assumed he was the son of the rec center manager. So after we finished practice I went over and started playing with him. We played around for a little while and then he kind of stopped and asked me what country I was from. I know I should be used to this by now but I was again blown away that I was a foreigner to him. I told him I was from Bushland (no, I told him America) and he said he thought I was Australian. So we kept playing and had a good time, after I packed up the rest of my stuff and was leaving the rec center he was standing with some of the staff in the lobby. As I passed by he thanked me for playing with him and I said, “No problem dude!” When I got outside I realized how much of an American I was.

Tonight I leave for the airport but I don’t leave for Spain till morning. Ted left this morning while Jake and I are going to spend the night in the airport to be on time for our early morning flight. I am really looking forward to this trip. I had a lot of people tell me I had to make it over to Spain but I didn’t think I was going to be able to and then this trip just kind of formalized…and now I’m going…but I’m not going to drink the water. Our flight leaves at six in the morning tomorrow so compute that into your time and remember me. I love you all. Especially those of you participating in physical therapy, circuit training, or banjo classes.