11.31 am: Right where I should be.
Now that finals are done and summer has officially begun, it's time to ask my favorite question again: what time is it where you are? It seems like it has been a lot less than a year when we sat around arguing whether we should call this blog "The Peda-files" or "Home Keys on the Left Hand" or something to do with Pangea (possibly my personal favorite.) Either way, the year is over and here we are again. I know that some people, including myself, have the distinct privilege of being in school for an extra year but no matter how you look at it, this is the last year where things will be how we have known them to be.
After this year, people start heading off in their own directions, getting jobs, getting married, or just getting old. All three for some.
After this year we will look back and say: "Remember when we were in college?" "Remember when we used to have pizza parties just because we could?" "Remember the foam party?" "Remember doing nothing all the time and thinking we were stressed?"
After this year afternoon naps become a thing of the past. (Unless you work for Google or Zappos, that is.)
So this year let Facebook talk to itself, let the rest of the Internet suck someone else's soul, and give your TV a break. Instead, let's make this year the year we look back on when we are old.
And with this post, let the blogging begin.
aaron
Showing posts with label aaron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aaron. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Well, When I lived in London..
11.38am. Somewhere between London and Manchester, UK.
Knowing that you all feast upon my every word, I must first apologize for my lack of posting. I hope that you can understand that I have been very busy living experiences as opposed to writing about them all the time. I'm sure we will all have plenty of time to recount our favorite "Well, when I lived in [London | Barcelona | Florence | Flint]..." stories. That's not ever going to get old. (I wish there was some sort of sarcastic font I could use.) Anyway, when I lived in London, it was amazing.
Right now I am traveling from London to Manchester by way of a Virgin Rail train. Usually, I have lecture everday for three hours (from 2-5) and class in the mornings for and hour (11-12). As you might guess, this leaves very little time for tomfoolery during the day, and indeed excludes the option of a long weekend thanks to Friday class until 5. We did recieve a warning on the day of our orientation that this was not, by any means, a holiday. Great! But I decided that since I haven't yet missed a class, I deserved at least one, especially to tour Old Trafford: The Theatre of Dreams.
I really have learned a lot in my class (Judgement and Decision Making for Managers) but have learned as much or more in the pubs. The pubs are a huge part of their culture and I wish it was the same back home. Here are some things that i have been taught by my friends from around the world.
Americans love marshmallows.
We love PB&J.
We dress poorly.
We don't know how to dance properly.
We are loud.
Many Europeans pay more attention to our politics than theirs.
George Bush is a Methodist (They really pay attention.)
We are narrow minded.
Obama is everyone's favorite.
Everyone in France knows about Paris, Texas.
Most people love Texas.
Texans often say, "Hey y'all why don't you come to my ranch and eat beef jerky."
Also, "Later Alligator."
Those are just a few of the many things the Europeans have told me about the US and Texas. It's fun to hear what they think about us, although its not usually very good, but perhaps very true. The pubs generally lend themselves to great conversations, I don't know what it is about them but that's how it seems to work. For example, I was at the pub the other night with Dixie Houser, Abbey Konz (who were both traveling through), and some of my friends from the LSE. Two of the people there were Alexander from Spain, literally one of the coolest people that I know, and his equally cool girlfriend Anna, from Canada. They met in Paris while they were studying two years ago and now both live in Spain, no big deal. We were talking about her thesis on religion and propaganda in politics when the conversation turned to each of our religious beliefs. Both of them, being terribly smart, were asking very deep questions and were genuinely interested because they had never really heard it before. The level of questions was that of Predestination vs Freewill and the Perseverance of the Saints. They kept saying things like "You don't have to talk about it, if we are offending you by asking please let us know." Very cool. They just kept asking and asking and we got to tell them all about Christianity and the whole Gospel story over a beer (don't tell Grandma.) The funniest part was when they asked if we believed in abstinence and we said yes, Alex put his hands up and said "Wait wait wait, you.. (pointing at me) you believe in this?" I had to laugh while saying "I do indeed." It was a really fun conversation and they seemed genuinely interested. Amazing how God works.
Although class takes a lot of my time, I've managed to still have fun. I've seen all the touristy things, I've played soccer in Hyde Park, I've gone shopping, I've gone to Hillsong Church London, and I've hung out a lot with my friends. Sunday, while taking a stroll through Hyde Park I happened upon Speaker's Corner, an area of the park where people stand up on small ladders, or hang from lampposts (pictured) to rant and rave. (They stand off the ground so they can talk about the Queen. If they speak poorly of the Queen while on British soil, they can be arrested.) It's a really cool place.
I walked up on the first speaker (the one pictured) screaming in a Middle Eastern language, turns out he was screaming about politics in the Middle East. I walked about to the back to take some cool pics when one of the men pointed at me and shouted something in his language. At that point, all of them turned and looked at me. So there I was, most obviously an American, with my camera, and around 100 Middle Eastern men looking at me. Having no idea what was just said I did the only sensible thing: slowly raised my hand and gave a sheepish wave. Something else was said and everyone laughed. I left shortly after that.
The next thing I saw was a man in a wheelchair doing the ol' fire and brimstone speech. He had engaged two or three Muslims and was telling them how they were sinners. I stopped to listen for a bit and more and more people gathered until there were about 20, mostly men, mostly Muslim. At one point a Muslim man name Arif said "Well even you're Bible says that Jesus was a sinner," to which I had to speak up and say, "Excuse me?" From that point on it was me and him for about 2 hours, with up to thirty Muslims looking on. It was so much fun! He was very polite and we talked sensibly for a very, very long time about Jesus and what they believe. I will tell you what, they know the Bible in a way the few Christians do. He was quoting, referencing, and giving me history of the language of the verses. I was amazed. It's a shame we don't do the same, but that's a whole other post. Somewhere in the conversation he half jokingly said, "I hope you aren't an American, because I'm an Iraqi." I said, "I am, and I'm from Texas!" He laughed and patted me on the shoulder, someone in the crowd formed their hands into dual handguns* and made shooting noises. God bless Texas. Needless to say, he didn't convert and neither did I, but hopefully I left him with some things to think about, as he did for me.
I later got into another discussion, this time about 10 clearly Muslim men surrounding just me as it was getting dark. All in all a pretty good day and something I'll never forget.
For those readers who are still with me, I hope you have enjoyed my recounting of a few of my adventures. Soon I will be posting pictures of my trip to Manchester and the tour of the stadium. I'll also keep you updated about Monty Python's Spamalot, which I am going to see on Thursday. I can't wait to get back to school, I hope you all plan on coming back early so we can party like its Freshman year. I'm so grateful for such a solid group of people surrounding me, I have indeed missed that.
To all you lurkers: come out of the woodworks, I miss hearing from you.
Until the next time I see you,
aaron
*get it?
Knowing that you all feast upon my every word, I must first apologize for my lack of posting. I hope that you can understand that I have been very busy living experiences as opposed to writing about them all the time. I'm sure we will all have plenty of time to recount our favorite "Well, when I lived in [London | Barcelona | Florence | Flint]..." stories. That's not ever going to get old. (I wish there was some sort of sarcastic font I could use.) Anyway, when I lived in London, it was amazing.
Right now I am traveling from London to Manchester by way of a Virgin Rail train. Usually, I have lecture everday for three hours (from 2-5) and class in the mornings for and hour (11-12). As you might guess, this leaves very little time for tomfoolery during the day, and indeed excludes the option of a long weekend thanks to Friday class until 5. We did recieve a warning on the day of our orientation that this was not, by any means, a holiday. Great! But I decided that since I haven't yet missed a class, I deserved at least one, especially to tour Old Trafford: The Theatre of Dreams.
I really have learned a lot in my class (Judgement and Decision Making for Managers) but have learned as much or more in the pubs. The pubs are a huge part of their culture and I wish it was the same back home. Here are some things that i have been taught by my friends from around the world.
Americans love marshmallows.
We love PB&J.
We dress poorly.
We don't know how to dance properly.
We are loud.
Many Europeans pay more attention to our politics than theirs.
George Bush is a Methodist (They really pay attention.)
We are narrow minded.
Obama is everyone's favorite.
Everyone in France knows about Paris, Texas.
Most people love Texas.
Texans often say, "Hey y'all why don't you come to my ranch and eat beef jerky."
Also, "Later Alligator."
Those are just a few of the many things the Europeans have told me about the US and Texas. It's fun to hear what they think about us, although its not usually very good, but perhaps very true. The pubs generally lend themselves to great conversations, I don't know what it is about them but that's how it seems to work. For example, I was at the pub the other night with Dixie Houser, Abbey Konz (who were both traveling through), and some of my friends from the LSE. Two of the people there were Alexander from Spain, literally one of the coolest people that I know, and his equally cool girlfriend Anna, from Canada. They met in Paris while they were studying two years ago and now both live in Spain, no big deal. We were talking about her thesis on religion and propaganda in politics when the conversation turned to each of our religious beliefs. Both of them, being terribly smart, were asking very deep questions and were genuinely interested because they had never really heard it before. The level of questions was that of Predestination vs Freewill and the Perseverance of the Saints. They kept saying things like "You don't have to talk about it, if we are offending you by asking please let us know." Very cool. They just kept asking and asking and we got to tell them all about Christianity and the whole Gospel story over a beer (don't tell Grandma.) The funniest part was when they asked if we believed in abstinence and we said yes, Alex put his hands up and said "Wait wait wait, you.. (pointing at me) you believe in this?" I had to laugh while saying "I do indeed." It was a really fun conversation and they seemed genuinely interested. Amazing how God works.
Although class takes a lot of my time, I've managed to still have fun. I've seen all the touristy things, I've played soccer in Hyde Park, I've gone shopping, I've gone to Hillsong Church London, and I've hung out a lot with my friends. Sunday, while taking a stroll through Hyde Park I happened upon Speaker's Corner, an area of the park where people stand up on small ladders, or hang from lampposts (pictured) to rant and rave. (They stand off the ground so they can talk about the Queen. If they speak poorly of the Queen while on British soil, they can be arrested.) It's a really cool place.
I walked up on the first speaker (the one pictured) screaming in a Middle Eastern language, turns out he was screaming about politics in the Middle East. I walked about to the back to take some cool pics when one of the men pointed at me and shouted something in his language. At that point, all of them turned and looked at me. So there I was, most obviously an American, with my camera, and around 100 Middle Eastern men looking at me. Having no idea what was just said I did the only sensible thing: slowly raised my hand and gave a sheepish wave. Something else was said and everyone laughed. I left shortly after that.The next thing I saw was a man in a wheelchair doing the ol' fire and brimstone speech. He had engaged two or three Muslims and was telling them how they were sinners. I stopped to listen for a bit and more and more people gathered until there were about 20, mostly men, mostly Muslim. At one point a Muslim man name Arif said "Well even you're Bible says that Jesus was a sinner," to which I had to speak up and say, "Excuse me?" From that point on it was me and him for about 2 hours, with up to thirty Muslims looking on. It was so much fun! He was very polite and we talked sensibly for a very, very long time about Jesus and what they believe. I will tell you what, they know the Bible in a way the few Christians do. He was quoting, referencing, and giving me history of the language of the verses. I was amazed. It's a shame we don't do the same, but that's a whole other post. Somewhere in the conversation he half jokingly said, "I hope you aren't an American, because I'm an Iraqi." I said, "I am, and I'm from Texas!" He laughed and patted me on the shoulder, someone in the crowd formed their hands into dual handguns* and made shooting noises. God bless Texas. Needless to say, he didn't convert and neither did I, but hopefully I left him with some things to think about, as he did for me.
I later got into another discussion, this time about 10 clearly Muslim men surrounding just me as it was getting dark. All in all a pretty good day and something I'll never forget.
For those readers who are still with me, I hope you have enjoyed my recounting of a few of my adventures. Soon I will be posting pictures of my trip to Manchester and the tour of the stadium. I'll also keep you updated about Monty Python's Spamalot, which I am going to see on Thursday. I can't wait to get back to school, I hope you all plan on coming back early so we can party like its Freshman year. I'm so grateful for such a solid group of people surrounding me, I have indeed missed that.
To all you lurkers: come out of the woodworks, I miss hearing from you.
Until the next time I see you,
aaron
*get it?
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Slow Down
9.37am. Train station, Paris, France.
Paris is wonderful. I have very much enjoyed this city, perhaps second only to London which is fortunate as that is where I will spend the next three weeks. I speak a little French (enough to tell the girl at the ticket counter that she was very pretty, although I might have said "you is very pretty." Either way, while giggling, she said something back in French that I didn't even get close to understanding. I think it was "Will you marry me?" but alas, I had to catch a train.) I ate two or three chocolate tarts a day, but they are like really small pies so its ok, its like having six 100 calorie packs and saying "Oh but they are only a hundred calories." Same situation. I got to see Andrew and Alex this time! We had a great dinner (I again had the steak with an omelette on top), crepes, drinks, and great conversation. I know everyone has said that we have the best friends so I wont say it, but we do have the best friends. Big party when we get back!
Italy was no France, but still pretty cool. Florence was by far my favorite, perhaps because we had anna to show us around and take us to all the cool places. We went out with Anna, her roommate Coco and her friend Khaki (I know) to a very nice Florentine restaurant, in Florence. Being a red-blooded, Friends of W, God Bless America American, I looked for the steaks. I was delighted and surprised to find a blueberry steak. Despite its vague name, its merely a quality steak covered in a very thick, deeply blue blueberry sauce. Tal: I'm cooking this for house dinner when we return. Just as good no doubt. After dinner we headed to the Ponte Vecchio for some quality live music including thickly accented versions of DMB and Sting. The scene that unfolded on the bridge was one of things where you just knew you were witnessing greatness.
Around 200 or so people were just hanging out, listening to music, and being very romantic on the bridge. Along comes an upbeat song and up stand the dancers. The first was terribly, even disgustingly, Euro. Big ol aviators (at night mind you), slicked back grease-hair, fancy embroidered shirt that almost looked like a thrift store pearl snap, and of course tight blue jeans. Now the blue jeans weren't just jeans, on the right leg, in large white English was written "SLOW DOWN." Thats Euroclassy if I've ever seen it. Character two: slightly larger, perhaps moderately larger, wonderfully American woman in an uncomfortably see through-ish bright green shirt. You know where this is going. So Eurostar is pulling out all the stops, swaying those skinny hips and pretending that slicking his hair back is indeed another dance move. Its not. Please keep in mind there are maybe 5 people dancing, an old couple, the aforementioned, and then a snaggletoothesque randar: doing her own thing and totally content to be dancing. So Green Shirt is making her way towards Slow Down in an awkward, half dancing, half walking, wholly unrythmic way. She gets over there and they begin to dance together with the crowd feeling every move, some with ooo's and aahhh's, and some moves can only evoke laughter. Thencomes what we've all been waiting for: the kiss. Think of a wonderfully romantic moonlight kiss on the bridge in Italy between two young lovers: this was NOT that. At all. They are dancing and Green Shirt leans in close and goes right for the lips. She doesn't quite have the smooth landing we all dream of, unfortunately. She manages to hit Slow Down's lips at which point he turns his head and ramps up the dance moves, aka slicks his hair. The crowd loves it! Gasps and applause ring out, either for Green Shirt's brazenness on Slow Down's cool pants. Either way it was awesome, and time for me to dance. Nothing as exciting as their saga, but Khaki asked if anyone would dance up there with her, and I didn't see any reason to not live the dream. Khaki and I jumped in with GS and SD and totally spiced things up, to the crowds approval. Youre only young once right? Pictures to come, I promise. Anna, if feel I have erred either by comission or omission at any point, please let me know.
But as for now, thats as far as our story goes. Until the next time,
aaron
Paris is wonderful. I have very much enjoyed this city, perhaps second only to London which is fortunate as that is where I will spend the next three weeks. I speak a little French (enough to tell the girl at the ticket counter that she was very pretty, although I might have said "you is very pretty." Either way, while giggling, she said something back in French that I didn't even get close to understanding. I think it was "Will you marry me?" but alas, I had to catch a train.) I ate two or three chocolate tarts a day, but they are like really small pies so its ok, its like having six 100 calorie packs and saying "Oh but they are only a hundred calories." Same situation. I got to see Andrew and Alex this time! We had a great dinner (I again had the steak with an omelette on top), crepes, drinks, and great conversation. I know everyone has said that we have the best friends so I wont say it, but we do have the best friends. Big party when we get back!
Italy was no France, but still pretty cool. Florence was by far my favorite, perhaps because we had anna to show us around and take us to all the cool places. We went out with Anna, her roommate Coco and her friend Khaki (I know) to a very nice Florentine restaurant, in Florence. Being a red-blooded, Friends of W, God Bless America American, I looked for the steaks. I was delighted and surprised to find a blueberry steak. Despite its vague name, its merely a quality steak covered in a very thick, deeply blue blueberry sauce. Tal: I'm cooking this for house dinner when we return. Just as good no doubt. After dinner we headed to the Ponte Vecchio for some quality live music including thickly accented versions of DMB and Sting. The scene that unfolded on the bridge was one of things where you just knew you were witnessing greatness.
Around 200 or so people were just hanging out, listening to music, and being very romantic on the bridge. Along comes an upbeat song and up stand the dancers. The first was terribly, even disgustingly, Euro. Big ol aviators (at night mind you), slicked back grease-hair, fancy embroidered shirt that almost looked like a thrift store pearl snap, and of course tight blue jeans. Now the blue jeans weren't just jeans, on the right leg, in large white English was written "SLOW DOWN." Thats Euroclassy if I've ever seen it. Character two: slightly larger, perhaps moderately larger, wonderfully American woman in an uncomfortably see through-ish bright green shirt. You know where this is going. So Eurostar is pulling out all the stops, swaying those skinny hips and pretending that slicking his hair back is indeed another dance move. Its not. Please keep in mind there are maybe 5 people dancing, an old couple, the aforementioned, and then a snaggletoothesque randar: doing her own thing and totally content to be dancing. So Green Shirt is making her way towards Slow Down in an awkward, half dancing, half walking, wholly unrythmic way. She gets over there and they begin to dance together with the crowd feeling every move, some with ooo's and aahhh's, and some moves can only evoke laughter. Thencomes what we've all been waiting for: the kiss. Think of a wonderfully romantic moonlight kiss on the bridge in Italy between two young lovers: this was NOT that. At all. They are dancing and Green Shirt leans in close and goes right for the lips. She doesn't quite have the smooth landing we all dream of, unfortunately. She manages to hit Slow Down's lips at which point he turns his head and ramps up the dance moves, aka slicks his hair. The crowd loves it! Gasps and applause ring out, either for Green Shirt's brazenness on Slow Down's cool pants. Either way it was awesome, and time for me to dance. Nothing as exciting as their saga, but Khaki asked if anyone would dance up there with her, and I didn't see any reason to not live the dream. Khaki and I jumped in with GS and SD and totally spiced things up, to the crowds approval. Youre only young once right? Pictures to come, I promise. Anna, if feel I have erred either by comission or omission at any point, please let me know.
But as for now, thats as far as our story goes. Until the next time,
aaron
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
3.58pm, Florence, Italy.
Right now I am sitting at a little bar slash restaurant in Florence, Italy. The pizza here is very good! But first, how I got here.
We left andrew with a hug as we walked to the train station to catch our Eurail sleeper to Venice. We left in plenty of time so as to not be late for a crucial part of our trip: the train. Our train was to leave at 8.38 as confirmed by the website. We made reservations that morning and the woman said ok and booked us up. So we got there at about 7.45 and the station was totally deserted. Good sign, no? So we went and asked where the 8.38 train was and were told that no such train exists, and in fact, our train left two hours ago along with our non-refundable 75EUR/each reservations. Swell.
After a momentary freakout and some tears from angela, I turned on what French I knew and my negotiating abilities and went to work. After about 2 hours and some help from a wonderful French man, we had tickets for the next day and 50eur each returned because we got the normal cars, like we wanted originally. Wonderful! And we got another night with andrew.
The next day, we did catch our train and met a really cool guy from buenes aires getting a PhD at the university of Missouri. Dario. He had a really nice camera and lens so we got to talking and ended up touring Venice all day with him the next day. Pretty cool! He left for Florence, but we are meeting him for dinner tonight.
Last night was our first time to stay with someone we didn't know at all, via couchsurfing.com. Her name is slyvia and she lives in Venice. We met her around 7 after we left dario. She was really nice, and her from Paris, sylvie, was incredibly cool. (she had a fashion mullet! Love it)
We went to an interpretive dance show that was THE weirdest thing I have ever seen, and I'm not just saying that. Picture this: white stage, white fog, white table: stage middle, woman in white night gown with tall fur boots on. She runs into the table, backs up, goes again. Repeat for 1.5 hours, add a pant suit, a chandelier on wheels, and train noises in the backgroud and you got it. Soo weird. So after that they took us to a bar and sylvie taught me to roll cigarettes, to save money. All in all, pretty fun.
In Florence now, hope to meet up with anna sometime! Its good to read all of your posts. Thomas, I dunno about laundry. Court, we'll be back soon! Miss you all.
Aaron
Right now I am sitting at a little bar slash restaurant in Florence, Italy. The pizza here is very good! But first, how I got here.
We left andrew with a hug as we walked to the train station to catch our Eurail sleeper to Venice. We left in plenty of time so as to not be late for a crucial part of our trip: the train. Our train was to leave at 8.38 as confirmed by the website. We made reservations that morning and the woman said ok and booked us up. So we got there at about 7.45 and the station was totally deserted. Good sign, no? So we went and asked where the 8.38 train was and were told that no such train exists, and in fact, our train left two hours ago along with our non-refundable 75EUR/each reservations. Swell.
After a momentary freakout and some tears from angela, I turned on what French I knew and my negotiating abilities and went to work. After about 2 hours and some help from a wonderful French man, we had tickets for the next day and 50eur each returned because we got the normal cars, like we wanted originally. Wonderful! And we got another night with andrew.
The next day, we did catch our train and met a really cool guy from buenes aires getting a PhD at the university of Missouri. Dario. He had a really nice camera and lens so we got to talking and ended up touring Venice all day with him the next day. Pretty cool! He left for Florence, but we are meeting him for dinner tonight.
Last night was our first time to stay with someone we didn't know at all, via couchsurfing.com. Her name is slyvia and she lives in Venice. We met her around 7 after we left dario. She was really nice, and her from Paris, sylvie, was incredibly cool. (she had a fashion mullet! Love it)
We went to an interpretive dance show that was THE weirdest thing I have ever seen, and I'm not just saying that. Picture this: white stage, white fog, white table: stage middle, woman in white night gown with tall fur boots on. She runs into the table, backs up, goes again. Repeat for 1.5 hours, add a pant suit, a chandelier on wheels, and train noises in the backgroud and you got it. Soo weird. So after that they took us to a bar and sylvie taught me to roll cigarettes, to save money. All in all, pretty fun.
In Florence now, hope to meet up with anna sometime! Its good to read all of your posts. Thomas, I dunno about laundry. Court, we'll be back soon! Miss you all.
Aaron
Sunday, June 22, 2008
From London to Paris
12.55am Paris, Francis
Bloggers and Blogettes: It's been wonderful thus far! We arrived in London early (645am) on the 20th after having not slept at all on the plane AND staying up all night the night before so that we could sleep on the plane. Great idea. So we started off finding the bookstore to get the travel book that I think I may have left on the plane, still not sure where it went. They have Border's in London, who knew. After that we headed over to Cafe Nero to get a jump start to last the rest of the day. From there we began touring as tourists do. We went to the British Museum, saw the Rosetta Stone, St. Paul's the London Bridge and such. We actually took a nap on the grass at St. Paul's because we were so exhausted. Carrying around packs will really take it out of you. Oh yeah, and not sleeping for 36 hours. We met up with the guy we were staying with (Richard) at the London bridge. Richard is about 65-70 years old and the jolliest old man you ever did see. We both loved him. He bought us dinner (and wine) and then we headed back to his house. And when I say house I mean water tower from 1890 that was renovated circa 1979 to be offices and an apartment at the very top. SO cool. It has marks on the bricks where it was shot up in WWII. If thats not legit I don't know what is. We slept in the very top of the tower where there were no windows at all, we went to bed at 9.30pm and got up at 10.30am. Mmm jetlag. Out for traditional fish and chips and then back to London for Big Ben, Westminster, and Buckingham Palace.
We got to Paris around 11.30 that night and managed to find our way from the international train station to the Eiffel Tower, the gleaming beacon of tourist hope. Along the way we saw a real life drug deal! A man climbed up and grabbed pills out of the ceiling and sold them to another man waiting nearby, we were in a bad part of town for a bit. Luckily we had our giant backpacks, American accents, and we were staring at the ticket machine for 10 minutes deciphering between pounds and euros. We ran the place for all they knew! Andrew came to get us at around 2am from the tower and we had the best time ever. We got dinked through paris! And what that means, for those of you who don't know, is that we sit on the back of their bikes as they ride through the city. I fell once, Angela got dumped twice. Quite the experience, especially after they have had a bit o wine. Livin the dream.
Today we did all things tourist: Notre Dame, Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, whatever-their-giant-cemetary-is-called, and so forth. Out for dinner, drinks, and crepes with Andrew, and here we are. It has been so good to see Andrew and makes me really excited to get back home and share the laughter all together. I hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to hear from you all. I'll post pictures later. (*Edit: posted one! Nothing like hanging out with your roommate at the Eiffel Tower. Miss you TalTal.) All the best!
Aaron
Bloggers and Blogettes: It's been wonderful thus far! We arrived in London early (645am) on the 20th after having not slept at all on the plane AND staying up all night the night before so that we could sleep on the plane. Great idea. So we started off finding the bookstore to get the travel book that I think I may have left on the plane, still not sure where it went. They have Border's in London, who knew. After that we headed over to Cafe Nero to get a jump start to last the rest of the day. From there we began touring as tourists do. We went to the British Museum, saw the Rosetta Stone, St. Paul's the London Bridge and such. We actually took a nap on the grass at St. Paul's because we were so exhausted. Carrying around packs will really take it out of you. Oh yeah, and not sleeping for 36 hours. We met up with the guy we were staying with (Richard) at the London bridge. Richard is about 65-70 years old and the jolliest old man you ever did see. We both loved him. He bought us dinner (and wine) and then we headed back to his house. And when I say house I mean water tower from 1890 that was renovated circa 1979 to be offices and an apartment at the very top. SO cool. It has marks on the bricks where it was shot up in WWII. If thats not legit I don't know what is. We slept in the very top of the tower where there were no windows at all, we went to bed at 9.30pm and got up at 10.30am. Mmm jetlag. Out for traditional fish and chips and then back to London for Big Ben, Westminster, and Buckingham Palace.
We got to Paris around 11.30 that night and managed to find our way from the international train station to the Eiffel Tower, the gleaming beacon of tourist hope. Along the way we saw a real life drug deal! A man climbed up and grabbed pills out of the ceiling and sold them to another man waiting nearby, we were in a bad part of town for a bit. Luckily we had our giant backpacks, American accents, and we were staring at the ticket machine for 10 minutes deciphering between pounds and euros. We ran the place for all they knew! Andrew came to get us at around 2am from the tower and we had the best time ever. We got dinked through paris! And what that means, for those of you who don't know, is that we sit on the back of their bikes as they ride through the city. I fell once, Angela got dumped twice. Quite the experience, especially after they have had a bit o wine. Livin the dream.
Today we did all things tourist: Notre Dame, Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, whatever-their-giant-cemetary-is-called, and so forth. Out for dinner, drinks, and crepes with Andrew, and here we are. It has been so good to see Andrew and makes me really excited to get back home and share the laughter all together. I hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to hear from you all. I'll post pictures later. (*Edit: posted one! Nothing like hanging out with your roommate at the Eiffel Tower. Miss you TalTal.) All the best!
Aaron
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Time Has Come
2.22 AM - Coppell
Well gang, this is it. My time has finally come! I leave tomorrow at 11.50 for London. The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful, but quite a bit of fun. I took a miniature road trip last week to get out of the house. I went to Georgetown first to see a friend that lives there, and that was quite a bit of fun. From there I traveled on to College Station to see Master Wayne and Courtney. It was awesome to be back there, I just walked around The Tallahassee all by myself and got really excited to be back there with you guys, all in good time.
I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Beckham while I was in town, although when I arrived he was asleep and when he woke up I was asleep. Gotta love naps. Then I had my proudest moment ever: Eric Beckham wooing the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2012. It was amazing! He got to give the speech at the New Student Conference, and he totally dominated. He got like 8 phone numbers. He was articulate, funny, serious, inspiring, awe-inspiring, and good looking. Wish you guys could have seen it. Court and Master Wayne will vouch for me.
As for Master Wayne and I, we did the usual: watched the Office. it was a time of unparalleled bonding. We also went to see The Happening, which was good not great. Since everyone else was gone, there were 6 empty beds in the Prestige and so naturally we both fell asleep on the couch. I moved to Max's bed at 9 the next morning. Thanks Max.
Then I went to see Matty at camp! It was pretty cool, he totally dominates that place. Everyone loves him there and he is the man, but what would you expect. It was a good time. Laundry, eating, and thats about it. Perfect.
Well I should be off. I have to pack and get ready to catch a flight. I will keep you guys updated as much as I can. Miss you all.
Well gang, this is it. My time has finally come! I leave tomorrow at 11.50 for London. The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful, but quite a bit of fun. I took a miniature road trip last week to get out of the house. I went to Georgetown first to see a friend that lives there, and that was quite a bit of fun. From there I traveled on to College Station to see Master Wayne and Courtney. It was awesome to be back there, I just walked around The Tallahassee all by myself and got really excited to be back there with you guys, all in good time.
I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Beckham while I was in town, although when I arrived he was asleep and when he woke up I was asleep. Gotta love naps. Then I had my proudest moment ever: Eric Beckham wooing the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2012. It was amazing! He got to give the speech at the New Student Conference, and he totally dominated. He got like 8 phone numbers. He was articulate, funny, serious, inspiring, awe-inspiring, and good looking. Wish you guys could have seen it. Court and Master Wayne will vouch for me.
As for Master Wayne and I, we did the usual: watched the Office. it was a time of unparalleled bonding. We also went to see The Happening, which was good not great. Since everyone else was gone, there were 6 empty beds in the Prestige and so naturally we both fell asleep on the couch. I moved to Max's bed at 9 the next morning. Thanks Max.
Then I went to see Matty at camp! It was pretty cool, he totally dominates that place. Everyone loves him there and he is the man, but what would you expect. It was a good time. Laundry, eating, and thats about it. Perfect.
Well I should be off. I have to pack and get ready to catch a flight. I will keep you guys updated as much as I can. Miss you all.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Same 'Ol Me..
..just missing you! At least I have my new camera to keep me occupied.
I know, I need something to do. Hope everyone is well!
I know, I need something to do. Hope everyone is well!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
My Life.. Ohhhh My Life
11:53 pm. Ol' Coppell TX.
I hope this finds everyone happy and in good health. At the moment I am laying on my couch, listening to the new Death Cab CD, and surfing the WWW. Doesn't get much more exciting. But before I send your little hearts into overdrive with my day-to-day, I'd like to tell you where I've been.
I spent last week in glorious Colorado at Frontier Ranch, a Younglife camp. I went up there with our Bible study and the other Bible studies as well, the '11, '09, '08 and some old guys. All in all there were about 45 of us that went. After many hours on the bus, we finally got there and had about an hour to kill before we had to go to dinner. So naturally, we went for a climb. (All you Garner State Park folks understand the need for a good climb.) This climb was not like anything I had done. It was eXtreme! Bobby Stipp, Frank, and I went out behind the cabins and just started going straight up. It was rather silly but still quite a rush. After a laborious 30-45 minutes we made it as high as we thought would be wise. Well, a little higher. Of course we hadn't thought about getting down until we were done getting up. We decided it would be best to go down the back side because the front side was far too steep for any such tomfoolery. Being the back side, it was indeed covered with snow. And by covered I mean about to my knee. So we were hiking, down, down, down. At one point I stepped on a patch of snow that had already iced over on the top, and I started sliding. It was very much fun, although a bit frightening. I slid for about 40-50 yards before realizing that I was sliding directly towards a creek, so I dug in my heels and brought my cold, wet snowslide to and an end. But what a ride it was! And this was only day, no, hour one.
We did a lot of hard work, but you can't complain when you are working in such a beautiful place with a lot of your good buddies. We all had our jobs, some washed windows, some made beds, some dug trenches. My noble job was to aerate. Aerating, for those of you who don't know, means poking a thousand holes in the ground so the grass can get.. air? Either way, the machine is a monster. It's basically about 70 pounds of weights in the front and a rolling wheel of spikes in the back. You just pull up the handle and hold on for dear life, while the spikes dig into the earth a propel you forward a remarkably quick pace if you aren't ready for it. At one point, I was aerating near a wall when I felt the machine start to roll. I tried to roll it back the other way, but what with gravity and torque and everything, I didn't stand much of a chance: I was falling as well. In all my brilliance, and in a very short amount of time, I came up with this idea: scream like a girl and jump off the wall. So I did. I screamed and jumped off the wall, the aerator had the same idea. I landed and turned around to see a 100+ pound machine with rolling spikes of death starting to fall. So I moved. The aerator fell and made a loud noise and flipped upside down, flooded with gas, and turned off. I turned it over and aerated the part where we had both landed. That lawn had to be done too.
It was a fun time and a very pretty camp. It snowed about 7 inches total while we were there. Four-five on one day and about 2-3 two days after. It's good to be home again, for a bit. I got to see Alex, Paige, and Kelly B. a few nights ago! How I missed them, and you all. I'm glad we are bringing forth the lurkers, although I know a few are still out there. Katelyn, Sol, Kelly C, Master Wayne! Where are you guys? I hope you are all still living.
Until the next time I hear from you: peace, love, and safe travels.
aaron
PS: the first to identify where the title of this post came from will get ten (10) Dubya-Dubya-Dollars, good at all WWW internet stores. (If you believe me, I'll give you 1000 of them)
I hope this finds everyone happy and in good health. At the moment I am laying on my couch, listening to the new Death Cab CD, and surfing the WWW. Doesn't get much more exciting. But before I send your little hearts into overdrive with my day-to-day, I'd like to tell you where I've been.
I spent last week in glorious Colorado at Frontier Ranch, a Younglife camp. I went up there with our Bible study and the other Bible studies as well, the '11, '09, '08 and some old guys. All in all there were about 45 of us that went. After many hours on the bus, we finally got there and had about an hour to kill before we had to go to dinner. So naturally, we went for a climb. (All you Garner State Park folks understand the need for a good climb.) This climb was not like anything I had done. It was eXtreme! Bobby Stipp, Frank, and I went out behind the cabins and just started going straight up. It was rather silly but still quite a rush. After a laborious 30-45 minutes we made it as high as we thought would be wise. Well, a little higher. Of course we hadn't thought about getting down until we were done getting up. We decided it would be best to go down the back side because the front side was far too steep for any such tomfoolery. Being the back side, it was indeed covered with snow. And by covered I mean about to my knee. So we were hiking, down, down, down. At one point I stepped on a patch of snow that had already iced over on the top, and I started sliding. It was very much fun, although a bit frightening. I slid for about 40-50 yards before realizing that I was sliding directly towards a creek, so I dug in my heels and brought my cold, wet snowslide to and an end. But what a ride it was! And this was only day, no, hour one.
We did a lot of hard work, but you can't complain when you are working in such a beautiful place with a lot of your good buddies. We all had our jobs, some washed windows, some made beds, some dug trenches. My noble job was to aerate. Aerating, for those of you who don't know, means poking a thousand holes in the ground so the grass can get.. air? Either way, the machine is a monster. It's basically about 70 pounds of weights in the front and a rolling wheel of spikes in the back. You just pull up the handle and hold on for dear life, while the spikes dig into the earth a propel you forward a remarkably quick pace if you aren't ready for it. At one point, I was aerating near a wall when I felt the machine start to roll. I tried to roll it back the other way, but what with gravity and torque and everything, I didn't stand much of a chance: I was falling as well. In all my brilliance, and in a very short amount of time, I came up with this idea: scream like a girl and jump off the wall. So I did. I screamed and jumped off the wall, the aerator had the same idea. I landed and turned around to see a 100+ pound machine with rolling spikes of death starting to fall. So I moved. The aerator fell and made a loud noise and flipped upside down, flooded with gas, and turned off. I turned it over and aerated the part where we had both landed. That lawn had to be done too.
It was a fun time and a very pretty camp. It snowed about 7 inches total while we were there. Four-five on one day and about 2-3 two days after. It's good to be home again, for a bit. I got to see Alex, Paige, and Kelly B. a few nights ago! How I missed them, and you all. I'm glad we are bringing forth the lurkers, although I know a few are still out there. Katelyn, Sol, Kelly C, Master Wayne! Where are you guys? I hope you are all still living.Until the next time I hear from you: peace, love, and safe travels.
aaron
PS: the first to identify where the title of this post came from will get ten (10) Dubya-Dubya-Dollars, good at all WWW internet stores. (If you believe me, I'll give you 1000 of them)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Where I Will Be
7.41 Cop Hell Texas. HA!
The cops are bad here though.
June 19-20: London
June 21-23: Paris (with Andrew!)
June 24-25: Venice
June 26-27: Florence
June 28-30: Rome
July 1-2: Barcelona
July 3-27: London
July 27-August 4: Dunno, somewhere with Thomas and Anna.
Let me know if I will be somewhere at the same time as you, I would love for you to see me. Wait.. what? Hope everything is going swimmingly, I'm off to beautiful Colorado for work week.
aaron
PS. Cody and Max should be in Africa right now, pray that they don't 'seek out' a stranger merely because he looks friendly, and end up trouble.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
To Those About to Blog: I Salute You.
11:46 pm and bored. Home Coppell.
I want to first congratulate Katherine for being the first girl to take the bold step to post. To the other girls, I encourage you to seek out Katherine and ask her about her experience posting, I'm sure she will say that it was nothing but pleasant.
I hope everyone is enjoying this so far, I think its a whole heap of fun. I just wanted to post to remind everyone that this is not some sort of writing competition (as much fun as those are) but rather a way to keep up with each other! So cast off your fears, oh timid souls, take up the home keys and blog away. Even if you don't think what you have to say is interesting, remember, we have no idea what you've been doing, and we miss you. So let us know!
Oh, also, I hope everyone likes the new design. I added a sweet picture (given to me originally by Alex) to the top and subtle one to the very bottom. Few other small changes. Enjoy your lonely, friendless days.. Woops.. too much.
Missing you,
aaron
PS: I'm watching Live Free or Die Hard, and it rules.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Why I Love Sundays. But It's a Secret
1.45am ish. Under my bed.
There are several reasons that I love Sunday, one of them being the obligatory Sunday nap. I don't remember the last time I had a Sunday without a nap. Since I Sunday is a day of rest (save for during finals) I feel great about napping, it is actually my God ordained duty. (Not theologically sound, but a good joke.) That, however, is no secret. We all knew that.
The secret is PostSecret. PostSecret is a blog that I read every Sunday. The idea is simple, anyone around the world is invited to make a homemade postcard and write a secret on it that they have not told anyone and send it in. Some of them are very funny, some are heartbreaking, and some are scandalous and NSFW. (NSFW = Not Suitable for Work. Blogspeak.) I look forward to the Sunday secrets every week and often times read them again and again throughout the week. One of these days, I will send in a secret. I just don't have anything as good as the ones online! Go check it out, it will give you a nice break from studying.. and we need all of those that we can get. Enjoy.
PostSecret
Some are funny.
Some are just sad.
aaron
There are several reasons that I love Sunday, one of them being the obligatory Sunday nap. I don't remember the last time I had a Sunday without a nap. Since I Sunday is a day of rest (save for during finals) I feel great about napping, it is actually my God ordained duty. (Not theologically sound, but a good joke.) That, however, is no secret. We all knew that.
The secret is PostSecret. PostSecret is a blog that I read every Sunday. The idea is simple, anyone around the world is invited to make a homemade postcard and write a secret on it that they have not told anyone and send it in. Some of them are very funny, some are heartbreaking, and some are scandalous and NSFW. (NSFW = Not Suitable for Work. Blogspeak.) I look forward to the Sunday secrets every week and often times read them again and again throughout the week. One of these days, I will send in a secret. I just don't have anything as good as the ones online! Go check it out, it will give you a nice break from studying.. and we need all of those that we can get. Enjoy.
PostSecret
Some are funny.
Some are just sad.
aaron
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The "How to Post" Post
11.54 pm - Alex's.
I hope everyone is doing well with their studies, I have decided that it would be more important for me to write a thorough how-to than study for my 4 finals. That being said, here goes.
The first step is to log in with your individual username and password. (If you don't have one of these, let me know.)
After you log in, you will see this:
Simply click: New Post.
- Now you are on the new post page. There are several fantastic things you can do from here. The first is to name your post something terribly clever, something you think will make all of us laugh or is extremely profound.
- We have come to most important part, the writing of your post. This is what is generally called blogging. Congratulations, you are a blogger. Tell us all that is happening.
- Next, there are several buttons at the top, but probably the only one that we are interested in is the picture button. Click here to add a picture for your computer, its that easy. The Internet! Once you are done writing and adding pictures, it is time to tag your post.
- The reason we tag posts is that, let's say I want to only view Cody's posts, all I have to do is click on Cody's name. Brought to you by tagging. You are welcome to tag it with items other than just your name, but please at least tag your name. Other examples might be: Paris, Train, Make-out, Hostel, etc.
- Finally, click publish and it is available for the world to see.
If you would like to comment on a post, all you have to do is click where it says how many comments there are, and leave one of your own.
To view only posts with a certain tag, click on that tag. Eg: "ALEX" in the example above.
Hope all is well. Goodnight.
And good luck.
aaron
my first post
12.02pm and cold, college station.
aaron. home keys, left hand.
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