A new place for pictures

www.nd.edu/~afleck

The new place for all things me. Except my blog. That will stay here. To be helpful, I've linked back to my blog from my new home page. You're welcome.

So I'm back in Americaland for the foreseeable future. Scary. Time to do a run down of my past four months:

(By the way, I always like to get the bad out first)

Cons:
Worst travel day(s) ever.

A big pile of rocks that we drove 2 hours to. Whoops, I mean Stonehenge.

O'Boyle. Not his class (which was fun), just him.

Being really, really bad at keeping my blog current.

Being sick/having health issues (read: losing a contact in Dublin) every trip away from London.

Foreign Languages. C'mon, just speak English already. Selfish Europeans.

Sports Cafe, the most average place in London. For that matter, the line at Walkabout on Monday's sucked too.

Felling like I was 17 all over again (not being able to vote), wasting my new 21-year oldship (18 to drink in the U.K.)

Dollars and Pounds, not one and the same. Not even freaking close.

Having to come home.


Pros:
Sunrise the first day in the flats.

Having the best roomate ever.

Pubs!

Italy...I can still taste the gelatto.

The Vatican. I'm holier than thou.

Bradshaw's Theology Class/Mark's Philo Class

Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare!

Parental Visit...happy Easter to me!

Wong Kei...best 4 pounds ever. All 7 times.

Hollywood? Bollywood? Mollywood.

Game night. Woot family/Taboo!

Maid day...mmm, so fresh and so clean clean.

Rereading books and realizing they take place in your backyard (i.e. Hitchhiker's Guide...well, before the Earth is destroyed, that is).

Spain!!!! Bocadillos, Sun, the beach, and a whole lot of partying. So much for a relaxing break...

Doner Kebabs.

Dublin my pleasure...and my Guinness intake.

Getting through Paris while only getting hit by a Parisian once.

Having more stamps in my passport than I know what to do!

Safe (and smooth) travels home.

An amazing opportunity, an amazing semester; thank you to those I met, befriended, and shared this with. I love you all.

This is it...

This is my last post from the fine city of London.

It is currently 3:00 am Wednesday morning. We leave at 6:00 am. Guess I forgot to sleep.

The last days in England have been amazing...our Shakespeare performance went great, the Callaghans party was fun afterwords, and I even went to the Star Wars premiere in Leicester Square (didn't get to see the movie though...)

More to come when I get home :(

Non!

An important word to understand in Paris. Also important is the proper, indignant pronounciation of the word. An upturned nose helps.

Aside from the Parisians, Paris was breathtaking. In all seriousness (and surprisingly), we didn't have any real problems with French people. Aside from a lady hitting me. But that'll come up later.

The first night in Paris we had pizza for dinner (of course....) and walked from Montmarte (where our hostel was) to the Arc de Triumphe and the Eiffel Tower. A lesson to those travelling to Paris: just because you can see the Eiffel Tower does not mean that it is close. After an hour and a half walk, we experienced the Tower at night, in all its sparkling glory (they have flash bulbs all over the thing).

We woke up bright and early on Saturday to meet up with one of Phil's friends, and went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is an amazing impressionism museum. Some great stuff, including Whistler's Mother, Van Gogh's Self Portrait, and Monet's Waterlilies (some of which I had already seen at the Tate Modern Museum here in London). It was here that I was assaulted though. Flash photography isn't allowed in the Museum, but some guy wanted me to take a picture of him and Van Gogh together (I'm not sure how much Van Gogh wanted it, but I digress). So I aimed the camera, snapped the picture, and pop! went the flash bulb. Immediately, a French lady (who didn't even work there!) slapped my arm and yelled, in a hilarious French accent, "No Flash!!" Before I could even explain myself, the guy grabbed his camera and ran, and the lady was gone, babbling some crap about it "being annoying." Man, the French have a high opinion of themselves.

Next stop was the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is just as impressive as the English pronounciation of the same place. The place is big and impressive, but alas, no gypsies or people with poor backs. Lots of gargoyles though.

That night we explored more of Montmarte, and ate outside at a great cafe. And, sure enough, French Onion Soup in France is just 'Onion Soup.' Makes sense.

Sunday we went to mass at Sacre Coure, which is a large, domed, white church at the top of Montmarte. Great views of the city, and a very hard-to-follow mass (seeing that it was in French). We then Metro'ed to the Eiffel Tower (we had learned our lesson) and went to the top. Brilliant thing to do when you're afraid of heights.

But they had a cage (thank the Lord), and the view was phenominal from the tallest structure in Europe. After taking the lift back down, we wandered around and grabbed dinner in a cute cafe with a great view of the Tower.

That night we went to a great bar where the drunk-off-his-ass owner gave us a free round of drinks. Sweet stuff.

Monday we did the Louvre. For four hours. And I feel like I still haven't seen most of it. We saw all the big stuff (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, etc), most of the medium stuff (Napolean's Coronation, Hammurabi's Code), and a whole bunch of well-known but largely ignored stuff at the museum (its hard to get press when that damn smiling woman attracts so many visitors). Honestly, its probably the best museum I've ever been to. Definitely worth the 9 euro, and definitely not the Uffizi (thank God).

After we got Louvred, we took a nap. In the park outside the Louvre. In the dirt. We felt homeless, but it was good times (and a good nap!).

All in all, I would definitely love to go back to Paris, maybe with money next time. That way I could buy even more crepes. Man those things were good.

Pictures up soon, and yes I know I missed the week before Paris. So here's what happened: not much. I had my job interview, which went well, but still no word. I did go to the British Library though, and saw their impressive exhibit. They have the original Magna Carta, the second Bible ever printed, the first King James' Bible, Shakespeare's first Quarto, Handel's Messiah score, and even the original Alice in Wonderland. Very cool to see.

And then there was the week following Paris. Again, not too much. I finally got to St. James's Park (the one by Buckingham Palace, and literally 2 minutes from our classroom building), but it rained on me and Molly. So much for our picnic plans.

I should be hearing about my job on Monday, so there's a chance I may be in London for two more months. If I don't get it though, I'm out of here in just over a week (May 18th). Ahh!! Its been fun, and fortunately there's not too much left in London I feel I need to do. I know my bank account appreciates that.

Another Week...

...Another poor attempt at blogging. Although below this post, new pics are up!!

The last week has been amazing.

Last weekend (i.e. over a week ago), I spent the whole time hanging out in London and taking it easy, since a lot of people were out of town.

Monday, I went to Los Locos with Molly, Mike, and Margaret. It was fun. Chill at first, but it crowded and the dancing was rockin'.

Tuesday I studied up for a test I had Wednesday, so it was kind of a 'blah' day.

Wednesday, after my final, we took our professor out for a couple drinks, which was fun. I didn't get a chance to talk to him too much, but he's off to Australia to teach Econ for about 6 months, and then hopefully back here to teach Notre Dame kids again in the Spring. Great guy, but an unfortunately boring class. Oh well.

Thursday we had a substitute prof for my theology class. He was a little dry, but very knowledgeable about world religions, and we learned how diversity has impacted the Anglican Church. Neat stuff.

That night, I finally got a chance to hang out with Bill and Belatti again, as it had been too long since I had seen them. We had a great dinner and hung out afterwards....over all a good time, even if I didn't exactly make it out that night...

Friday, we began work with our new directors for our Shakespeare scenes. Mine is really interesting. He's young (about 28) and a method-style director, which means he concentrates on applying a set of actions and efforts to each scene, rather than direct in an ad hoc manner. Different to me, but nonetheless pretty cool. And we still got to play fun acting games :)

That evening, Phil and jetted off to Dublin!! After probably the best flight ever (I LOVE BMI! We got free sandwiches and soda!!), we arrived into a rainy, hazy Dublin. It really is London Lite.

We met up with our friends Mike and Chris, who took us out to Temple Bar, a famous pub area in the city. We got turned away from the first bar Porter House (VERY weird bouncer), but hung out at the one across the street until the Porter House switched bouncers. The second one was much more normal, and we had no problem getting in. They had a guy playing guitar faster than anyone I've ever seen before, singing pop songs and the like. Good times.

Saturday, it was rainy again, so Phil and I did mostly indoor stuff. We checked out the Spike first. It really is just a massive spike. 120 meters tall, 3 meters wide at the base, 15 centimeters wide at the top. Best and worst monument at the same time.

We then walked to the Guinness Storehouse, but first stopped at Christ Church. Its an Anglican Cathedral, and its gorgeous. It also houses the tomb of Strongbow (He was a Nordic leader who helped found the Cathedral. However, its also the name of a cider here in London).

We got the Guiness Storehouse, and it was indeed brilliant. I learned a lot about how the black stuff is made, and got to enjoy a pint on the top level of the brewery, known as the 'Gravity Bar.'

That night we went out to a couple Irish Pubs. We chatted with the locals and heard some great live Irish music. Much less reserved than London!

Sunday was a gorgeous day, so Phil and I enjoyed St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street (a neat shopping area), and Merrion Square (a great park where the Oscar Wilde statue is located). We then flew back (with another courtesy sandwich) and returned to the craziness that is London.

Today was another Philo class, although we did presentations and group stuff, so it went by quickly. At the end of this week, it looks as though I will be having an interview with Morningstar UK about a London internship over the summer. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Cheers!

P.S. The pictures below are (as you scroll down) first from my Spain adventure, and then from this past weekend in Dublin. Enjoy!

Columbus Statue, Las Rambas 

Temple of the Holy Family in Barcelona 

Our lovely Sand Castle 

The Spanish Countryside 

Mark, Dan, Me, and Sean at the Plaza del Sol in Madrid 

Valencia Beach 

Madrid from the Palace 

The Shrine 

mmm....How fun real Irish pubs are... 

Oscar Wilde...the Queen on the Green 

Me and Phil enjoying a pint of the black stuff 

Me at St. James's Gate 

Christ Church 

The Dublin Spire...'The Spike' 

Only 5 Weeks To Go!

Scary thought...I'm going to have leave London soon! Ahh!

The Real - Barcelona match was amazing...Real Madrid won 4-2, with great goals all around.

This week has gone by quickly, but it was nice being back in England again. Monday we had a great Philosophy class...mostly because the second half of class was just a discussion. Monday night I just stayed in and chilled...my body still hated me from the night life of Barcelona.

Tuesday O'Boyle was in an especially chipper mood for some reason, so that was nice. That night I stayed in to work on a paper that was due on Thursday.

Wednesday we had our last Econ class (our final exam is next week...way early, but less classes!). That night we went out the Notting Hill Arts Club, which is an indie rock club in Notting Hill...but you could have probably figured that part out yourself... It was a fun place though. Live music Wednesday nights, but the band sucked this week. Oh well. The DJ was good, played some rockin' tunes.

Thursday we had a really great Theo class...Professor Bradshaw was also in a really good mood, and let us out early. Seems to be the theme of the week. I was going to go out last night, but I overslept in my nap. I had a really bad dream during it too. Bleh.

Today we got out early for my Shakespeare class (I told you it was a theme), and I've just been chilling around the flat. Going out tonight though, but a lot of people are out of town. I was going to go to a pub that's mainly outdoors, but the weather here sucks today (as usual), so I'll probably end up somewhere else. Good night all!

Back where they speak English

Spain was simply brilliant.

While we weren't able to see any Bullfighting in Barcelona (it's been banned in the city for some time apparently), we were able to have a few amazing days in the town. Sean, Mark, and I rolled into town a couple hours ahead of Dan because of a train mix-up, so we went to Camp Neu, which is F.C. Barcelona's football stadium. It holds 100,000 people, and is very impressive (much bigger than Bernabeu, Real Madrid's stadium). Once Dan got in, we hung out in the hostel (which was one of the nicer ones I've stayed at) before grabbing some quality Spanish cooking at a local restaurant.

After some card games, Dan, Mark, and I hit the town. We went to a bar for shots of rum (as convinced by some random Cuban guy) and met two girls from San Diego State University who are studying in Preston, a town outside of Manchester. We ended up going to an Irish Bar with them and just talking to them and hanging out. Neat girls, and nice to be able to converse in English with random people!

The next day we went to Ghoti's Temple of the Holy Family which is an unfinished, impressionistic cathedral. It is massive. They started building it in the late 1800's, but stopped after Ghoti's death in the 1920's. In the 60's they resumed work, and continue to work on in to this day. We were able to climb one of the eight 100 meter tall towers, and a central tower is planned that will be twice the height. Very impressive, although at this point it's essentially become one big construction zone.

After scrambled eggs and cheese for dinner, we hung out with some people in our hostel. Vito was from Glasgow, Scotland, Adam was from Brighton, England, Paul was from Oxford, England, and Mike....was from somewhere stateside. We played cards and then went on a pub crawl, with six of us going out. We each picked a cool bar we saw and bought rounds. Mike picked a hard rock club, I picked a bar built around trees, Vito picked some random techno place, Dan picked an Irish Pub, Mark picked the London Bar, and Sean ended our trip by buying us Guiness in another Irish Bar. All in all, a great night, albeit a late one...we got home around 5am.

The next day, after a very late rise (read: 3pm), Sean and I chilled in the Hostel watching Spanish TV while Dan and Mark went to check out Olympic Park. We decided to go to a nice place for dinner, and ended up at 'Quixote's,' which was really nice, but overpriced. I spent 25 euro for water, wine, roast duck (which was actually very good) and cactus sherbert (....interesting). But it was our last night, so a little splurging isn't so bad.

To cap off our crazy Barcelona trip, we met up with Mike and Vito again, along with four girls from the University of North Carolina (two of which are from Charlotte...yay!). After some more cards, we went back to the tree bar and then to Club New York, which was a blast. Instead of the usual mix of hip hop and dance music, the club played a sort-of jazz/Spanish fusion all night long. It was a ton of fun, and we stayed nearly until the club closed at 5am.

At 6:30 am, Sean, Mark, and I caught a train back to Reus (so no, we didn't sleep last night...unless you count sleeping on the train, plane, and bus). The flight back was ok, but there were tons of loud kids, and apparently disciplining your kids isn't cool anymore. We had no problems with customs or baggage, and got home in good time, safe and sound.

And now I'm getting ready to go watch the Real Madrid - Barcelona football match at a local pub. I'm out for now. Cheers!

P.S. Pictures soon....most of them are on Mark's and Dan's cameras...

Warm Weather! Sunshine! Spain!!

Wow, Spain is amazing.

However, my intial reaction the country wasn´t exactly a positive one. We arrived into a small city outside of Terragona called Reus, and immediately experienced the language barrier when we couldn´t even convince our waitress to give us menus at a local deli. In the end, though, we got some great sandwiches, learned the invaluable word ´bocadillos´ (a type of sandwich), and she got a great tip.

That Friday night wasn´t too great either however. We had an overnight, seven hour train ride to Madrid, and we had a very weird Asian lady in our cabin who woke us up nearly every hour. In the end, she even asked us if we knew where 'Any good hostels, cheap hotels, monastaries, asylums...' and we stopped listening at that point.

We got into Madrid at about 7am, and our Hostel wasn´t ready yet. To kill time, we went to the Prado Museum, which is a pretty good art museum. Its no London, but it was still good, and cheap (take that, stupid Uffizi Museum). Once our Hostel was ready, we threw ourselves into the culture and grabbed a siesta (which actually does exist here...most stores close between 1pm and 5pm). That night we hung out in the hostel, ate some good Spanish buffet, and met some crazy Aussies who were rooming with.

The next day we used the metro to get around the city, and saw the Real Madrid (a local football...that´s soccer for you North Americans...team. The team is arguably the best and most successful team of the 20th century). The stadium tour was great, and the tropy hall was impressive. That night however, the team wasn´t in town, so we went to another local team´s game...Atletico Madrid. While that team isn´t as good (10th in the league compared to Real being 2nd), they did manage to whomp on Mallorca, who is 19th in the table, 4-0. So at least we say some good goals. And some crazy Spanish fans. They actually chant the 'Ole, Ole ole ole' Zahm-type song here. Who knew...

The next day in Madrid was our last, so we went to the Royal Palace where King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia live (Madrid is, after all, the capital of Spain). On our tour, we got to see 22 impressive rooms...out of the 2800 (yes, that´s two thousand eight hundred) that are in the palace. Needless to say, its a big place. We then got a train to Valencia, where I sit now.

Valencia is amazing the same way Venice is amazing compared to Rome. There´s not all that much to see, but the atmosphere is hard to find anywhere else. Our first day here we got in pretty late, so we had some pizza for dinner and just chilled.

The next day (yesterday, actually), we spent the entire day at the beach, building sand castles, reading, laying out, and playing on a sweet rope jungle gym that they had. I miss the sand, and it was a pretty nice beach.

Last night we made pasta for dinner...so cheap! Even the beer is cheap...one litre for about a euro (about $1.33 USD). After dinner, we hung out with some Iowa State girls that were staying in our hostel as well, and after playing some drinking games with them, us guys went out to a local bar. It was a typical movie-esque, dirty Spanish bar. And it was awesome.

Today we walked around the city and saw some of the sites. We climbed up some towers, went to the market (more on that later), and wandered through the huge park that runs around the city. In the park, we tried to find the zoo, but instead stumbed upon the third annual Valencian Open tennis tournament. And it was a big deal.

After getting into the tourney, we realized that this was no small local fare. We saw Costa beat some Austrian guy, and Nadal (currently 4th in the world...ahead of Roddick and Agassi) beat Ferrero (a former world number 1 player). We were quite impressed with our find, and the tennis was amazing.

After the tournament, we got some taco stuff for dinner from the store (which ended up being really good), and just hung out in the Hostel. However, it was no ordinary hanging out...

As previously promised, I´ll bring up the market again. While there, we got a bottle of Absinthe for 25 euro (which is pretty good considering it's decent stuff). For those who don't know, Absinthe (or the Green Fairy) is 140 proof alcohol, and has wormwood extract in it, which some argue provides hallucinagetic effects. That´s also why it's banned in the US...I don't know though. I didn't see anything weird. It definitely tastes weird though. Think of black licorice candy...that's on fire. Man, that stuff burns.

But now I sit about to go to bed. We head out to Barcelona tomorrow, and hopefully we'll catch some bullfighting. Oh, and Bryan, I went to a huge Spanish comic book store for you today. I have a couple surprises...hope you like Ultimate X-Men number two in Spanish :)

Good night all, and Adios!