Field Course

The exams were taken, results returned, and classes passed. All that was left for my English education was two weeks of sea, lab, and fun in Falmouth,England (Cornwall).

So here I am with one day left in the course and its been a really fun and intense time. All second year oceanography students are required to attend so it was a great way to end my time in England with all the people I've had class with the last semester. We've spent our time on boats, in labs, on computers analyzing figures and creating charts, creating scans of the seafloor, and in the pub toasting to our mutual exhaustion. I also had the honour of representing America on it's birthday in the presence of Redcoat royalists by playing cider pong in the quad to forced chants of USA (definite highlight). Ive been too busy to get sentimental about the ending of my time abroad, but I think I'm going to miss this island. I realized Ive lived in the UK as long as Ive lived in North Carolina (2.5 years) making it tied for the second longest Ive lived in a place behind Virginia (6 years), but thats something to think about some other time back in the states. Here's some pics...

DRUIDS

Upon returning to Southampton came the task of convincing people to join me for what sounded like the best idea ever, celebrating the summer solstice at stonehenge with what would end up to be 36000 people including several druids in robes. We took the train to Sailisbury and from there a bus to the stones. We arrived at sunset and got our first glimpse of the back lit stones as we reached the top of the hill. The sight was pretty remarkable and we knew that it would definately be a memorable night. By the looks of the crowd one might think that they had held tryouts for solstice participants because Englands finest had shown up. There were Druids in Robes, burnt out hippies with bongos, people from all corners of the globe, English uni students, and of course raving "pikeys." There was a surprisingly large police presence for what seemed like a peaceful crowd. Going back to my earlier cctv posts, UK policeman really scare me. Even worse I feel like no one else is that bothered by them. When we entered there were policeman at the checkpoint with video cameras filming and taking pactures of everyone who entered. Throughout the night into the morning there were also small remote control planes that flew overhead with cameras on the bottom monitoring one of the least rambunctious crowds.
The epiceter of all the activity in the park was obviously inside the circle of stones, but we decided to first chill out on some of the burial mounds that surround the site. Thats right, burial mounds. There we met some really funny and cool people from all over. Eventually we mustered the courage to enter the circle which we were told was like a mosh pit at a concert, and it lived up to its reputation. Inside were people yelling, banging on drums, playing trombones, crowd surfing off of smaller rocks, and druids feeling rocks with their eyes closed. Definitely one of the best scenes these eyes have ever witnessed. Earlier in the day me and Gordon had decided that stonehenge would be a hilarious spot for a rock video, you know with someone playing a heavily distorted solo on top of one of the rocks. Fortunate for us, we got to do the next best thing: air guitar on one of the smaller rocks. Unfortunately the fluid mass of people on all sides of the rock as well as on top of the rock eventually had their way and I was unintentionally knocked off the rock. Thanks to a stranger though I was eased down and landed uneventfully.
After making our way out of the rocks I met up with Kate a friend of Jamie's that stayed with us in Wilmington and who let us stay with her when we visited Cardiff. We met her friends and had a good time with them meeting the ridiculous characters that were abound. By this time the sky was getting lighter and the big moment of the sunrise was approaching. People were cheering, dancing and shooting off Chinese fireworks. Suddenly there it was, a small orange glow on the horizon, this was bound to be epic. However, in true English fashion, the sky was overcast and the sky simply went from dark to light pretty anticlimactically. The crowd began to disperse and we said our goodbyes to Kate and the stones and headed back towards the bus. Everyone was in good spirits and had a little druid in them. We made it back home without letting the sleepiness overtake us and enjoyed an epic amount of sleep. A summer solstice success.

*I unfortunately brought my camera on low batteries and only got a few shots off before it began repeatedly dying. There will be better pics on the way once Mindy uploads her pics.

The Dub

Buds from the Dub reunited in Dublin Ireland. I arrived in Dublin at an unholy hour but fortunately Trevor and Jeanne were there waiting for me making it a tired trio. We checked into our hostel which was the Kinlay House, a classy building next to a cathedral and near the major Dub sites. We walked around for awhile the first day but were too tired to do much so we went back to the room to take a nap. During his time our roommates in our 6 person bunk room came in, two suspicious looking French guys. Me and Trevor were not happy. After our nap we decided it was time to get a better feel of the twon, or better yet, a taste of the town. Me and Trevor went to what would become our home for the week, a kebab shop called Momo's. We ended up eating dinner there everynight except for one, when we mistakenly thought that a place named AbraKEBABra might be better. Everytime we ate there the crowd usually consisted of the kebab maker, me and Trevor, four Turkish men in the back wearing suits, and two spinning chunks of meat. The men with suits brought back memories of Turkey for me and I began regretting not bringing my suit to Dublin. Enough about kebabs.
The first night we went down to the pub next to our hostel and got our first pint of Guinness and watched the USA play Italy in futbal. It wasn't pretty. We went back to our hostel and were hanging out in the common area when the French guys were spotted. Not them again. We were preparing for some glares when they walked over with large grins on their face and asked what we were doing that night, so beginning our broken English friendship. We ended up loving these guys, going out with them every night, and even befriending them on facebook.
Dublin felt like a small city to me, with most of its sites located near each other in the centre of the city. We walked good portions of it each day seeing the major sites such as their ridiculously large spire, the Guinness factory, famine statues, Phoenix park, Trinity college, James Joyce, the International Street performers Championship (where we held up a performer named "Alakazaam" in our red ponchos), and more kebab shops.
While we were in town we had the chance to celebrate Bloomsday, a celebration for their favorite author, James Joyce. Unfortunately this meant literally tens of people were out celebrating, but that didn't stop us from going to his statue and also the James Joyce centre.
The highlight of the week for all of us was probably our afternoon spent in Phoenix Park. The park itself is twice the size of central park, has 500 free range deer, the presidents home, the US ambassadors residence, and a zoo. We rented bikes when we got there and had a really good afternoon biking all over it and lounging in the grass underneath a giant cross that was erected in the centre of it. It was great being on a bike again, although my breathlessness at the top of hills brought anxiety as I realized in a few weeks I would be biking 420 miles across Iowa.
My final night in Dublin was also really nice as it started at first started at Momo's before moving on to reggae night at a pub called the Turk's Head. We went with our French friends and enjoyed some music that seemed really out of place in Dublin, bu everyone was really into it. On top of that, when we entered two girls with Budweiser shirts approached us and asked if we would like a free pint of Bud on them. We all reluctantly agreed.
Dublin was a really enjoyable town, and was an interesting oppurtunity to learn more about Irish history. I really had never heard much about "The Troubles," Sein Fein and Northern Ireland before and I was really fascinated with how this seemingly normal European country had such a history of religious conflict that still permeates today. As the street performer "Mr Toots" said, "Im going to need you guys to work together on this one, but the Irish aren't known for that are they?"
I once again flew back to England at a painful hour in the morning which left me with several hours on my hand before my bus back to Southampton. I took advantage of this by walking from the station to Buckinham palace and taking a big nap in a park next to it. A nice little journey I would say.

Lazy Updates

The past few weeks have been busy in their own special ways whether it be from those pesky things called exams or the traveling that has occurred with my regained freedom. Exams carry a large weight over here with one of my exams covering 80% of one course's marks. They were pretty stressful but I feel pretty confident about them and I should find out my results soon. The week after exams was pretty fun as everyone else slowly finished theirs until it got to the point of having an entire dorm with no more coursework or responsibilities. Hilarity ensued. Chamberlain halls had a final party with the bar closing down and turned our cafeteria into a dance club. The only problem was no one was that into it and the smoke alarm went off a few times due to the excessive smoke machine use.
Around this time I made plans to get out of Southampton and go see the world. Or actually 75 miles away to London for the weekend to see my buds Jeph and Suzie who were preparing to end their study abroad and fly back to America. They even let me sleep on their classy hotel rooms couch. We saw some sights, hit up some pubs, went to Camden town and Spitalfield market and had a good time. My second night in London was spent at the airport trying (unsuccessfully) to sleep before flying out to Dublin to meat up with Trevor and Jeanne. That comes later though, heres some London pictures.

I love parliament

Things got heated this week for Gordon Brown during the weekly question time with parliament. My favorite thing about parliament is watching the reactions of the speakers posse behind them. I also enjoy hotshot pretty boy David Cameron trying to position himself as the "change" candidate.

A timeless story

Keith recently notified me of an apparent ripoff of the film classic "Lazerarm." Turns out hott producer Diplo has been scouting Ivan Christo's youtube account because his new musical venture is title "Major Lazer" and is about a commando who loses an arm to zombies and has it replaced by a lazer cannon. Sounds strangely familiar to me. Heres a clip of a major lazer song.
http://stereogum.com/archives/video/new-major-lazer-video-hold-the-line_071732.html

And heres a lazerarm clip, which ones bettah?



Ivan said hes currently in talks with his lawyer about this apparent plagiarism being passed off as "original" work. If these turn out to be false accusations I guess it just means that this story of a commando overcoming physical setbacks with the aid of lazer limbs is a timeless story that everyone can relate to.

Penquins