I AM BATMAN

Hey everyone, check out this link to a video I got to be part of for my internship in London. Its for a fairly large company called the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). I am Batman in the video. Its pretty funny stuff, really well done too, since our production included one professional actor and a cameraman, along with hours spent in the editing studio. Superman is a guy who sits next to me at work named Jules, and everyone else is part of the AAT. Here's the link:

http://www.aat.org.uk/superhero/

Enjoy.

Oui Oui en Frances

Sorry dad and grampaw, i know i haven't been writing very much. i'm busy and lazy. i have 21 total blog posts though, and thats more than most of my friends by an awful lot, so you should feel lucky.

we were in france this weekend for our Normandy 1944 class trip. we drove down to the coast in our crappy 15 passenger diesel bus, drove it onto a ferry, and crossed the channel overnight. we went at an odd angle on a big slow ferry way over to the Port of Ouistreham ("weesterham"), so it took us about 6 hours to cross the channel even though most people think of dover-calais, where its only 21 miles across and takes about an hour. so we got into france at about 630am friday. we had about 3.5 hours of sleep on the boat, and it is quite possible the most annoying and unpleasant thing in the world when the automatic alarm comes on about 530am, playing a loud, terribly timed orchestra piece over the radio piping into every cabin. it was still dark outside. we got into ouistreham and at breakfast at a local cafe. it was a small pretty town, which we saw a lot of this weekend. no big cities. the closest thing was the town of Bayeux where we stayed, and its only about 20.000 people, but if feels really small. there's still only like one big supermarket. its nice.

a french breakfast consists of bread (baguettes), a croissant, which is super soft flaky and awesome, jam or butter if you fancy it, a hot drink (we all got the best hot chocolate ever), and orange juice. nothing drastically different, but the bread there is darn-tootin good, i'll tell ya. then after breakfast we went to some places in aroudn the area. our longest drive the whole weekend was about half an hour, its all pretty close together, the war sites and such. we saw all of the normandy beaches, pointe du hoc, which had a lot of bomb craters and is along a really cool scenic coast lined with cliffs. we saw about 6 different museums this weekend. we saw pegasus bridge, where the fist casualty of dday occured.

the area of normandy france is famous for several things. not a lot of wine, actually. they have lots of orchards, and so make excellent apples of course, but also an apple brandy that is good as an apertif, sweet apple cidre, and lots of apple butter and spreads and such. they also have lots of good cheese. the countryside there is really pretty. most of what we drove on were narrow highways, without shoulders, where the super green grass in the ditch came right up next to the road. there were lots of fields, just like iowa, but no corn and beans. many were still empty this time of year, or atleast still looked like dirt. many others were endless seas of pretty yellow flowerd plants about the size of soybeans, that our teacher told us is used to make cooking oil. they have lots of cows, of many different sizes and colors. some were all white and absolutely huge, they don't have that kind anywhere else in the world. we walked on the beaches and saw remnants of Mulberry B, one of two artifical harbours created shortly after d.day to land supplies in france. for several months this artificial harbour was the busiest in the whole world. it was made by towing 5 story blocks of hollow concrete across the channel and sinking them just offshore of arromanches, france. they are really a site to see, and pictures from the war make it easy to imagine what it must have been like when it was fully operational during the early 1940s.

we went out for a nice french meal one night, and i ate duck which i've never had before. it was good. also had four glasses of french wine with my meal. i mean, they brought like 5 jugs of it out, so we had to finish it. no worries, though, the glasses were tiny. it was an excellent meal, though i could have eaten much more. i feel sometimes underprivileged as a young male who can eat whole animals at a time. i dont feel like i'm being fairly treated when i get a meal at a restaurant and can eat twice that much. its not my fault i'm a tank. i need to nourish myself.

this weekend we're off to climb preikestolen (google image that, everyone, its worth it) and see the countryside of norway. these last few days here over the pond will go pretty quickly, with lost of hw during the week and my only remaining wkend being spent in norway climing a big rock. if anyone wants any specific souvenir, tell me now, your time is running out. gramps, i will get your bottle of sherry before i leave from the tax free shop at the airport. we leave on may 8-a friday. i get into chicago airport at about 9pm that night, iowa time. then i'm riding with my friend to burlington, spending the night there, and i'll be back in perry sometime during the day on saturday, May 9. this semester has gone quite fast.

Spring break

just so you all know, ive been on spring break in italy this week. so i may not have internet or phone access till i return on sunday to london. yesterday our group went to easter mass in the

Izquierda a derecha?? Obrigado!

Went to Portugal this past weekend with my friend Scott. It is my favorite place so far. Its a beautiful city of about 240.000 people in Northern Portugal on the Atlantic coast, with the magestic River Douro cutting right through the heart of it to empty into the sea. On the north bank of the river is the most fantastic part of the city, with steep hills and cliffs next to the river, with narrow cobblestone streets and tiny sh0ps and apartments packed into every square inch of the hillside. There's a huge two level steel arch bridge that offers an incredible view from the top level, about 150-200 feet above the river (it runs from the top of the hill on one side to the top of the hill on the other). On the South Bank are more houses, a handful of stores by the riverside, and dozens of Port wine cellars.

Port wine is now my favourite thing in the world. Its wonderfully sweet because the fermentation is interrupted after only 2-3 days by pouring a special odorless, colourless, and tasteless, 75% ABV brandy into the wine (which is why the finished Port wine is about 20%). I bought two bottles, a Tawny and a Ruby, back to London with me. I shall try to make them last. We'll see. We sat on the beach Saturday and finished a whole bottle of the stuff. A big part of tourism in Porto is touring the wine cellars and tasting the wine, we took about 4 tours and tasted wine in about 7 different places, including some stores. Stayed with a kind gentle soul named Fernando, he's a retired statistician for the government. He was very hospitable, and made us soup, paid for some other special apple wine for us to taste, and had us try Portuguese Chorizo sausages that are set in front of you on the table-on fire. it was awesome.

The title phrase comes from the fact that we knew only a handful of Portuguese words, mostly jsut thank you (obrigado). Contrary to popular belief, Portuguese is not very like Spanish at all. Just a small percent of words are the same. Luckily for us, left and right are two of those words (izquierda and derecha). When we needed directions somewhere we got them by listening for those words.

When we arrived at the Porto airport some taxi driver came toward us and with a twinkle in his eye and hope in his whole face, asked us "Taxi??" .....I replied "no" calmly and shook my head, and he immediately threw up his hands in exhasperation and sighed quite audibly. he turned around on a dime and walked away looking dejected. I fear that our refusal was his last strike and he may have been fired for not getting any customers.

Greyhound Racing

I've been more busy the last few weeks than I was the first month or so. From here on out, I pretty much have plans nonstop most weekends, and hardly any free days left. I may take a sick day or two from my job, I can definately get away with it.

Tonight we went to see greyhound racing way down in South London. Its the working class area of town, sort of like the south side of Chicago where all the lazy sox fans live. It was pretty fun, I had a couple beers and ate way too many fries, I don't feel so hot. Its only because I had to skip dinner cause I didn't have time to eat it between my job and leaving for the track. At the track, all of us were yelling and screaming and getting really into it, and so were some other people, but you could tell the majority of other people there resented us loud young folk. Someone even heard another patron remark "Those stupid Americans are going to be annoying me all night". I'm sure we did, too. Most of us bet on the races, it only cost two pounds to pick the winner. On the first race, I put my money on dog number one, Kerr's Comet. He came through for me, I won eight or nine pounds and put two of it towards my next bet on the next race; there were races every fifteen minutes. After that, things didn't go so swimmingly for me. I lost every bet after that, including a nail-biting heart breaker where my pick lead up until the last 40 yards, coming out of the last turn. I was wimpering like a child as he got passed right before the finish line. That dog was something like 22:1 odds, it would have paid out nicely.

1000mph

That's the speed that the Bloodhound SSC is going to try to break in 2011, setting the world landspeed record. The bloobhound team is a client of my internship.

That's also the speed I feel like I've been going lately. Just got back from a long weekend, but an awesome one too. Went to Dublin, Ireland and Edinburgh, Scotland. In Dublin, took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse and stole some barley from the place (there was a huge mound, they had plenty) as a free souvenir. Also took a train 3 hours out into the Irish countryside (don't ask me where we went) to climb Croagh Patrick, a pretty famous mountain. It drizzled and the temperature was about 50 degrees. Doesn't sound bad, until you add in the 40-50 mile an hour winds that we had to deal with up there. We battled the elements for sure; there was a fleeting moment when I felt very cold and wet resting at the summit, and wondered if it would be worth enduring endless teasing for having been rescued on a mountain to call the chopper for a warm ride back to the bottom. We made it though, don't know how I didn't get hypothermia.

In Edinburgh only for a day, we went to bed early so we could get up early and get about 10 hours of tramping around the city in before our train took us back to London. Climbed a short bit to the top of Calton Hill, one of Britian's oldest parks and an excellent view of Edinburgh from all angles. Also saw the Edinburgh Castle, which is quite large and neat. I ate haggis, which will never happen again after learning what it's made of. Our second connecting train back to London apparently got lost somewhere, so we all sat confused in a Peterburgh (halfway there) train station until a coach bus came and got us, and got us into London around 0230. I got to bed at about 0315 last night, rather, this morning. Oh, the joys of the British rail system.

Weather

It hasn't rained quite as much as we all expected. I'd say it probably only has rained significantly one or two days a week whilst we've been here. It did rain today though; three of us went to Hyde Park to play ultimate frisbee and got caught in it. I decided to run back because I thought a little light rain was refreshing, but then it rained harder and hailed tiny pieces, and I got soaked. I can't wait for it to get warmer here, I'm tired of wearing my jacket. I need to visit Spain or Southern Italy soon and get me some warm sunshine and sandy beaches.

Four of our friends came up here this weekend to visit that are on the Central study abroad program in Spain, so we spent some time this weekend showing them around and whatnot.

A few of us are going to Ireland and Scotland this weekend. Since St. Patrick's Day is on Tuesday, I'm sure there will be celebrations for us to check out this weekend, so that is good timing. We are planning on celebratin St. Patty's day, climbing a mountain, and taking a tour of the Guinness factory. Then on Saturday we fly into Edinburgh, Scotland, and stay there for the next 24 hours. We don't have any plans in Edinburgh, we're just planning on wandering the city and seeing all the free touristy things to see.

I'm going to The Netherlands in two weekends, flying into Amsterdam and then we are taking a train right away to some other coastal town where we are staying with one of our friends' uncles' half-brother, or something of the sort. Either way, its a free place to crash.

Busy Bee

I'm on my lunch hour at my internship now, don't know if I've mentioned my job yet. Its at Mission-21, a small public relations company in central London.  Its pretty boring but okay, my coworkers are all cool.  This week should prove tiring indeed, as yesterday consisted of getting up for work at 0730, going at that all day until about 1730, rushing home to make a quick dinner before class at 1830, which ended at 2100 hours.  Then I had several things to take care of before going to bed, knowing that I wouldnt get much sleep as I had to get up at 0440 hours this morning to be at an event for my job.  So its noon here and I've been awake 8 hours.  The event was a tv broadcast of a youth science competition that takes place today; it was for a morning show and had to be filmed before hand so before sunrise it was. When I leave work again today at 1715 or so, I will again have just enough time to cook myself a dinner before a large group of us take off for our first British football (soccer) match, which won't get us back to Vandon House til about 2300 hours. I'm real tuckered out already but its pretty good fun.

Port Wine

We just got back from Switzerland this weekend. Last night all seven of us slept in the Geneva Airport. It was terrible. I got about 2 hours of "sleep" (more like just laying there with my eyes closed) from 2-4am, because it didn't get very quiet until about two and it started getting loud again at 4. We just hunkered down for the night in a little corner next to some expensive watch shop in the concourse on a cold, hard tile floor. We had five people attempting to share a blanket made for one. I am so tired and sore.

We got into Geneva, Switzerland Thursday night and then took a 2 hour train ride to Interlaken, the town we were staying in for the weekend. We stayed in our hostel that night because it was late and spend all day Friday in the Swiss Alps. They are amazing. I thought the mountain in Wales was cool, but it was a little baby hill next to the Alps. Everyone went skiing except for Kathryn and I, we thought it was too expensive and decided to just ride the cable car to the top and look around. We actually ended up higher on the mountain than the skiiers, so we've got that to brag about. The view from the peak we climbed to was incredible, there were mountains in every direction, some across a valley that was more than a mile wide and deep. Our peak was a little over 7000 feet. The next day we went to the other side of Interlaken (which means 'between lakes') to a lake and sat there for a while and ate our lunch. It was a very picturesque lake, surrounded immediately at its shores by vast snow-capped mountains. The water there is a wondrous shade of cool blue and pretty clear.

Both nights I was there, I spent some time at a Portuguese bar because the beer was cheap. The first night, I spent about an hour and a half having a couple beers and watching football (soccer) with a man named Jose. He told me all about Portugal, and was very nice. The wine made in Portugal, especially Port Wine from Porto, is the best he said. He kindly had the bartender (who did not speak any English; I had to have Jose order my drinks) to pour just the smallest amount of Port Wine into a glass for me to try. It was every bit as good as he said. Like he told me, it really is a taste I'll never forget.

I am doing well, eating good enough, and getting some sleep. Things are going swimmingly here; We have already been here more than 6 weeks. It is going too fast. Take care All.

Blimey pidgeons

More pidgeon encounters of late. Blake, Amy and I went running through the beautiful and large Hyde Park, which includes a lake, which includes lots of birds. Ran through a bunch of them, and when they took off one drilled blake in the side as if it were blind. Flockers. Then, when we were resting on a bridge, blake got air-bombed by one that left a little white smudge on the top of his head.

Went to Wales this past weekend, which was amazing. I put all of my pictures on Facebook, so you can see them there. Uploading them on this site takes forever, even for just one. I climbed a mountain and walked along the coast of the Irish Sea, which was quite stunning. We went to Lover's Island on Valentine's Day, which was cool. I petted a wild pony, and one even ate a Mento out of my hand and then thanked my by nuzzling my chest. I almost fell to my death (not really mom) while relieving myself over a cliff into the sea. I learned part of a Welsh drinking song, and slept on a hard floor for three straight nights. I am still recovering from that, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm doing well here and have had no homesickness, though I love you all back in the states. The time here is going very quickly, as I've already been here about a month. Though I do miss The Office, my friends on campus, my family, and the Togetherness House.

Long Weekend

Friday we took a day trip to Greenwich. Took a riverboat down the Thames there, which took about an hour. River trips are great, you get a lot of good views of the city and its major attractions (the stuff of postcards) and as a bonus, I love the water, so that was great. Whilst there, we climbed the hill to the Greenwich Observatory, which is where GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is measured. Its on the prime meridian, so i took a picture standing with one foot in each hemisphere. Saw the first shop in the world (Longitude=.001 or something like that). We were so tired from that day that we took 2 hour naps when we got back and still went to bed early. Saturday Nick and I went to Stonehenge and Bath with our friend Pete, the bus driver who took us to York. It pays to make friends with "the UK's best coach driver/entertainer", as he let us on board for a 100% discount and tells us many interesting things, as he himself knows much of the countryside. That was a long, really rewarding day. Stonehenge is great and all, but you get there, take pictures for 15 minutes, stare for another 5, and then kind of wonder what to do. You have to see it, but only once. It was still worth it. Bath though, was what made the trip for me. Its beautiful architecture is unique as it is probably the only UK city to use that kind of limestone, which has a honey yellow tint to it and is gorgeous in the sunlight. Today a group of us went to Hillsong church again, which is more like a Christian rock concert with a message in the middle. Its loads of fun. Its actually tiring, singing that hard...and then today we ate lunch at a pub and had yorkshire pudding for the first time, which is basically like a wad of pancake batter stuck in the oven instead of fried up...pretty good but nothing special.

Sneak peak! : Going to Wales next weekend, and in two weeks going to Switzerland!!!

My first day at my internship

Today was my first day at my internship, which I'm at 9:30-5:30 Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I was a few minutes late because of the weather slowing the trains, but most of my co-workers were an hour or so late, so I was excused. The weather I speak of is about 8 inches of snow yesterday, which is slush and ice today. London hasn't had snow in this quantity for 18 years. Its amazing, this is normal to us Iowans but here, time stops. The underground was closed in many places, all buses were stopped, most workplaces closed and of course, we did not have classes. They just don't know what to do when this happens. It would be similar to Orlando, FL getting a foot of snow overnight. We saw people scooping their stoops with egg cartons and pieces of cardboard boxes.

I <3 YORK

York was awesome. Its a city about 5 hours due North of London, population about 200,000. It doesn't seem nearly that big though, more like a larger Pella/Perry. Its because the area of the city with everything in it, and I mean everything, is inside the old city walls which is the area of about one square mile. I didn't get a lot of great pictures on account of me forgetting my memory card for my camera (it only holds like 20 pictures without one) but I saw some awesome things. We saw the castle, the castle museum, the yorkshire dales (from Wuthering Heights!) which look boring in photographs but are really cool in person...you feel really distant from everything and it is really quiet, despite the highway noise..
We also walked along the canal in Skipton (nearby market town) and I fed the ducks and the swans! I even let one swan eat out of my hand, which I wasn't sure was a good idea, but he didn't bite hard. Just a little pinch. We stayed at Bed & Breakfasts, and had real english breakfast in the morning, which included black pudding (disgusting, oatmeal mixed with pig blood and fat) and fried bread, which is not toast and i thought was good.

York Weekend

Today we leave for York for the weekend. We won't have internet access, so I won't really be reachable until Sunday afternoon at three o'clock. At that time, I may reconnect with the world if I so choose. We are going to see a pantomime tonight, and on a Ghost walk tomorrow and bus tour of the area. It will be nice to see some of "real" England on the ride there and back-about 4 and a half hours. We leave in 35 minutes and I have not packed, so I've got to split now. Cheers.

Pixie Dust in Camden Town

Had our first classes today. They were extremely boring and I fell asleep several times. For our contemporary British culture class, I get to talk for ten minutes and introduce the class discussion on the topic of the British Constituation. Yay. Also had my first real traditional English breakfast, including a big flat mushroom and baked beans and tea. It was delectable.

This afternoon we went to the National History Museum, which is ginormous. We saw probably a little more than half of it in 2 hours. The building is 4 floors and about 3 blocks long, amazing architecture. Its just huge. Thats what she said.

Tonight we went to Camden Town. Some people call it lively and young, we all call it freaky and goth and slit-your-wrist town. They have some cool stores/pubs though, and a really cool canal system with locks. We were there because we were looking for Tommy Flynn's, which some mates tell us is a karaoke pub. Of course, I felt compelled to show the world my voice. We didn't find it, which is too bad because this white boy can rap (assuming they had Eminem or DMX). Instead, we walked around for a bit and in the short span of about 10 minutes got offers to purchase drugs 5 times. Truth be told, it was only 4 because the fifth guy was a repeat pitch. It was pretty hilarious. One of them didn't even say words, he just mumbled sounds at us and gave us a look and held his fingers to his lips to mimic a smoking action. Of course, we looked at this experience from a business sense, and I applied my communication knowledge to the situation. The first offer was definitely the most convincing-though he came on a little strong at first. He had the largest menu, which apparently included weed, cocaine, and various pills. He named atleast 6 substances, which was like choosing one thing out of a candy store for us. Mind boggling decisions. So we passed. Another guy didn't try at all on the other hand, simply asking "ganja?" and then giving up after we ignored this paltry attempt.

In the end, we bought nothing from these curious street vendors. After all, herbs are vegetables, and I am set on veggies for three days after my wheatgrass shot on Saturday. Additionally, let the record show that I'm not into that. But atleast now I know where I can go to find cheap aspirine.

buying some london grass

Went to a market today after a walking tour of London, with the same guide we had a few days ago, Shaughan (Shawn). He's a great guy, such a hoot. At the market Cody Thie and I got shots of Wheatgrass. No, not alcohol. It was from an Organic Juice Bar. So yes, we ate/drank grass, in honour of being from Iowa where there are lots of cows. They had the little patch of grass on the bar, and the bartender picked a clump, threw it in the juicer, and after it spit out dried blades of grass that looked really disgusting, we drank what was left! It was not good at all, but apparently we are set on vegetable nutrition for the next 3 days, according to a sign there. Also saw the Clink Prison Museum, which sits on the site the prison used to. This is where the expression "the clink" comes from- it was the most dreadful prison in central London in it's time.

Well, this weekend marks the last before classwork begins. I'm having a funderful time so far; I'm sure having classes won't dampen it too much. Last night we went to the International Student House (ISH) and to the pub there, which was a fun time because most of the other patrons are students our age from around the world. A friend and I played three games of pool against two guys we met, one from Zimbabwe and the other born in Africa, but grew up in Denmark. We only won the third game, but should have won them all due to us choking when we were up by a lot and them having odd versions of the rules (but "definately not cheating, my friend!")

its Friiiiday

Couple of days ago we went to Madame Tussaud's. Its a museum with lots of figures of celebrities made of wax. They are all very realistic-looking. I had to do about 5 double-takes on Samuel L. Jackson, because for a while I was sure he was real and just waiting til I wasn't looking to pounce. Branjolina were there, and I made out with Angelina while Brad watched. Yeah, I've got guts.

We went on a team scavenger hunt today around the city of London, which included checklist items like taking a picture with a policeman and retrieving a brochure from the National History Museum. My team won! and we had about 12 other teams to compete with. We got every item on the checklist completed, and made it back with about 20 minutes to spare.

I feel like I have gotten used to the time change now, after about 5 days. But I am still very tired all of the time because we do so much walking. I have also decided that I am probably no drinking enough fluids. My roommate, Nick, agrees with me. My stomach has been tossing and turning a bit the last couple of days, and I think its because I only have water/milk/juice in small amounts with meals.

I bought "calm" bubble bath and a french vanilla candle today at Sainsbury's, our local food mart. I realize the statement this makes about me. But. After walking miles and miles most days, I feel like I deserve a hot scented bath every once in a while. Plus, it was cheap, the big bottle of bubble bath was only 65 pents, or about US $0.80...

I have started to wish I would have brought with me the following items: sunglasses, my watch, and more clothes, especially white T shirts. I guess I took all that "Don't pack too much....Leave half of what you've packed behind...Pack lightly!" stuff to heart too much. Oh well, I will wear things many times before I was them, and I'll also have more room in my bags to smuggle stuff home in. Although they told us right when we got here that we are NOT allowed to purchase illegal drugs off street vendors, so there goes that idea.

Tonight we are going out to the International Student House, or ISH. I'm told they have a bar, workout area, and general commons lounge, among other things for students to do.

So nick and I were just laying here playing on our laptops, and we decided we should try to play a song (Just Dance by Lady Gaga) on our computers at exactly the same time. After about half an hour of fruitless attempts that left us hundredths of seconds off in either direction, we finally nailed it after some careful planning that involved pausing the track just before the music actually started and counting in to the start with more rhythm than either of us thought we had. When we finally got it to work, it was such sweet victory. Its much harder than you'd think.

Another day exploring

Had my interview with my supervisor for my internship today. She was very young, maybe 25-28, and very nice. One of the events our PR company is workin on is an attempt to break the land speed record, which you can probably find many news articles about. The attempt is supposed to take place this October, so I won't be here for it : ( . I'm looking forward to working with them though, it should be a very good and fun experience, and it will look great on my resume. Although the looks of the building make it appear to be a front for trafficking heroine, inside it is quite the normal office, and all my coworkers seem very personable.

Went running this morning through St. James Park, which is very pretty and borders Buckingham Palace. Thought part of it looked like a campground at first, but it was just a couple of homeless people perched on top of a hill in their sleeping bags. Had to watch out for the pidgeons; they're not very bright birds. They assume you won't step on them, so when i assumed that they would get out of the way, things got interesting. They all got away safe, but we had a close encounter, that's for sure.

Day 2

We went on a 2 hour walking tour of the city today, where our guide showed us plenty of historical stuff and told us many stories. Many of his tales related in some way to a fire at some point in London's history. Apparently there have been many large fires. This building was the only one on this block to survive the fire of 1648, that statue was built of the man who put out the fire of 1648, this builing was home to the disgruntled parks worker who started the fire of 1723...you know.

Then we went exploring on our own. Ate a club sandwich at a pub next to Niketown, then caught the bus back to our residence. Except we don't know how to use the bus, so we ended up half a mile away across the river, and walked back from there. Went out again later, and came back after walking around our area for a while.

Arrival in London

Got in at about 11 this morning. Not that tired but still the time change feels weird. Went on a good walk tonight and saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames River. It was really cool. Its so different from being in a large US city. The architecture is much more interesting here. Many more 10-12 story stone buildings as opposed to taller steel skyscrapers. The artwork put into the stone is amazing, it seems like every building we pass tops the last. Its very nice here, relatively. About 40 degrees, even at night, with a solid breeze but feels great compared to ten below.

Our bathroom has a bathtub instead of a shower. Was excited at first but the shower is a hose attached to the bathtub spouts. Said hose is only 4 feet long, and the tub has no walls. So, to shower, one must crouch and hold the hose above their head while being careful not to spill over the edges of the tub.

Night Before Flying Out

I fly out from Chicago to Heathrow (London) tomorrow at 7:55 pm. Right meow I'm at my friend Cody's house in Cedar Rapids, IA, and tomorrow his parents are driving us to the airport. I haven't remembered that I've forgotten anything yet, though I did have to turn around 10 minutes after leaving Perry to retrieve my whisker trimmer. I'm slightly pumped up (understatement). When I arrive, at 9 am Sunday morning (4 am is what it will feel like to my body) we spend that day moving in and the coming week in orientation, which includes lots of walking around the city and seeing/eating places fo' free.

More to come. Stay tuned.