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.