MARCH 28 - APRIL 5, 2011
With my trip to Italy on the very near horizon (literally, as I'm leaving tonight!), I figure I should probably clear up my camera, organize my final thoughts, and catch up the blog so as to have a fresh slate when I return! After sloshing through all that text this weekend in the last post, I've got a good amount of neat pictures to post, so I'll stick with pretty thin highlights again. This past week had it's fun moments, but it's most certainly all just been a build-up to my trip; even money-wise. So I'll try to think of what I've been up to lately.. hmmmm..
- Math quiz Monday. Wasn't too bad. Not much else to say! It was my final week of actual classes at King's, which is just crazy to me. Nothing to do until May now! Well, other than travel!!
- New Anthony Bourdain episode in the Ozarks (boondocks of Missouri, basically) was pretty good. Tony eating squirrel..? Sure, I guess I'm in!
- Figured out the room situation for next semester at Case: Suite 115, House 1 of The Village. Jot that down in your fancy phone-machines - it's gonna be party central wooooooo
- Watched a couple good, classic flicks this week. And where else to go for some solid classics than to Hitchcock. I checked out 'Vertigo' first, as it appeared higher on the list I've been consulting (AFI's Top 100: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movies_(10th_Anniversary_Edition)). Pretty solid movie, but really anything with James Stewart is quality in my book. A little quirkier story-wise than I remember Hitchcock being, but still a good film.
- Before I hopped back onto the Hitchcock train, I found another film on the list that interested me: 'The Bridge On the River Kwai', starring Alec Guinness (or Obi-Wan, as I shall henceforth refer to him, albeit while he is turning in his grave). Wasn't sure how I felt about this one; I certainly liked it, and thought the acting was one of it's best qualities. Obi-Wan was really good, and I'd never seen him outside of Star Wars, which I found out he didn't really enjoy making (well, rather that he didn't like the fan-base's obsession with his character, worrying that he's be typecast afterward). Anyway, the story was good for a while, then it just turned into Obi-Wan going a little crazy towards the (kind of abrupt) end. Still a good flick though, and I'm glad I checked it out.
- Back to Hitchcock for another one I'd been meaning to watch for some time: 'Rear Window'. Oh hey, James Stewart again! I'm intrigued already.. I may have actually liked this one more than 'Vertigo', even though it's lower on the list. Both gave me "Woah, what's going on?!" moments, but this one added a suspense factor that still holds up very well over 50 years later in the era of bad horror/thriller movies. I also liked how the story basically ended up exactly how the main character predicts at the beginning; it's the ride there that made it an interesting, engrossing film, leaving you with questions the whole time. Plus, it's Jimmy Stewart. I mean COME ONNNNN! He was in 'It's A Wonderful Life!', one of my favorite films of all time! You gotta love him..
- Well now that you feel all I did was sit around in my room all week and watch movies, I'll tell you that I also watched Pens games! .. which, granted, did still involve me sitting around. But there was method to my madness in the form of saving money for Italy (and afterwards, if I have any left! No seriously, I better. Or I'm gonna start selling myself on the street.. nah, just kidding; I'll probably just be that semi-homeless looking guy playing popular classic rock songs on his guitar near the touristy areas. Solid.). Anyway, Pens were up and down this week. Dropped a couple to Philly and Tampa, though they were playing decently enough. Just couldn't generate the necessary offense. That didn't seem to be a problem Saturday night though, when the beat on the Panthers, 4-2. Great play from Johnson in net (sooo sweet having an awesome back-up behind Fleury, who's been absolute class over the last month or two), and a big goal by Michalek, with an empty-netter by a mohawk-sporting Craig Adams. Love it. Couple of big games coming up with only three games left in the regular season. Eastern Conference is so jammed up in the top, it's still up in the air as to who will be playing who come playoffs in the next couple weeks. Right now, looks like Tampa, with the Pens taking home ice. Fine with me as long as everyone stays healthy, defense/Fleury keep up the amazing work, and the power play starts doing something. Crosby's been skating more and more, actually being OK'd for non-contact practice and traveling with the team, which is a HUGE step in the right direction towards him coming back this season. Every Pens fan is crossing his fingers that we'll see 87 in the playoffs, but Crosby himself admits that he'll play it by ear. If he comes back, it's Stanley Cup or bust. Eastern Conference better watch out.
- On Tuesday, went out to dinner for some Chinese in Chinatown with some pals. It was a lot of fun, and delicious! We were all catching up before heading out on our separate trips over the break. So jealous of some of them, but I'm definitely just as excited for Italy!
- Finally finalized my classes for the next two semesters: 15 credits each. Not sure how difficult each will be; it will certainly necessitate some serious work from me, but shouldn't be ridiculously difficult. We'll see. Crazy that I'm onto my final year. But that's what I talked about in the last post so no reason to get into all that future jazz again.. Main point: I'm excited for next year. Am I excited for everything after that? Sure, but we'll see how it goes. And how that million-dollar idea is developing..
- On Friday, had a Borough Market picnic with more pals as a final goodbye before break and travel. It was a lot of fun, with SO much good food. I definitely had to go with a parma ham and fresh mozzarella baguette with an apple, a HUGE brownie, and some wine. We just hung around the little area outside Southwark Cathedral; it was pretty popular that day, even though the weather wasn't particularly fantastic (kind of gray and windy). I took some more pictures of the area and the market before heading out:
In between the market and the Cathedral
Busy today!
Borough Market, awesome as always.
Ahhh food!
.. more food!
MEAT!
So much fruit!
Beer! So many different kinds! I'll have to come back here to add to my collection!
The leaning tower of (delicious!) brownies!
Headed back after that for a pretty tame Friday night after some plans fell through. Oh well!
- After nothing really happened Saturday (a lot of people already left for travel!), Sunday wasn't much different. Typed up a final copy of our Italy itinerary, finalized some details here and there, booked tickets for airport transportation, made lists of the main things to see in each city and good food to eat, etc. If anything, it just got me super excited to go! Ahhhhh. As I went out looking for a cheap dinner, I realized the sun was just going down in a pretty pinkish-blue sunset, so I headed down towards the river for some pictures:
Looking eastwards along the south shore and the National Theatre
Parliament/Big Ben lighting up for the evening.
Here's where I started to get artsy with my London Eye photos.. forgive me haha..
I like this one.
.. and this one might be my favorite. So pretty.
- At some point I also found time to watch 'Casablanca' since I had neglected it's top-5 position on that list at first. I'd always heard of it as like some big cheesy romance flick, but gave it a chance since it was so high on the list. Didn't regret it: thought it was pretty good, and not just because Humphrey Bogart's character's name was Rick. No, it was pretty solid, so.. yeah.. don't know what else to say about that!
- Yesterday, got a bunch of final things done: went and got a ton of Euros, printed out any papers/documents and such that I'll need, beat a couple people in Words With Friends on my iPhone (love you Brittney haha! Ray, that's what you get. Wooooooo), then kind of wandered around Trafalgar/The Strand/Fleet Street for a bit as the sun came out. There's a poetry contest this week at Kings, 200-quid grand prize! Topic is 'The Strand', which is the busy street that connects Trafalgar Square with Fleet Street to the east, running parallel to the river and past Kings itself. I set up shop up on one of the ledges of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, ate my lunch, watched the tourists, looked over at the Strand, and took pen to paper. Here's what I came up with on my first draft:
Go Tell The Thames
From Nelson’s fair pillar,
Piercing dusty London clouds,
Conducting the wind
As the Thames will the current:
The arcing Strand.
To St. Paul’s pallid domes
Rising in the East,
And marble columns
Glowing gold as the sun
Breaches the gray morning
And flows down the Strand.
Now go tell the Thames,
“Take note of your brother
Who shares your Northern shore,
Carrying time as you to waves;
Faster even than your ocean-borne swells;
Carving paths of stone and granite,
Still always adorned, the Strand.”
And those bustling feet
Parading your streets,
Move onwards to Fleet
And onwards to home.
Not fantastic, but I'll finish it up before I leave. After hanging there for a while, the sun came out and I just decided to walk around and snap some pictures:
The National Gallery, from my perch up on Nelson's Column
Countdown to the 2012 olympics in London. Crazy. I can't imagine how insane it would have been to be here next year during all THAT hype. And I thought the wedding was bad..
Walking down towards Big Ben.. The main entrance to Horseguards
Some neat statues of major British leaders during WWII
Neat. Randomly in the middle of the street though
Monty, you dog.
Statues and neat architecture. London knows what's up.
One of the guards outside Horseguards. Must suck to know your job has transformed from a ceremonial position to a tourist attraction.
Walked down the Strand, onto Fleet Street, then turned to cross Blackfriar's Bridge. View towards the west
Looking across the river. St. Paul's in the distance on the right
A big ship and some neat old buildings.
The Queen's Walk, near Gabriel's Wharf and the National Theatre.
One last view of The Eye in the bright sun before heading home.
- Well, it won't be so necessary to bask in the rare English sun for the next week: 70s and sunny for MY ENTIRE TRIP IN ITALY. So awesome. I'm so excited!
Hmm I don't think there's much else to say.. Today I just hung around packing and cleaning, finishing up a few odds and ends. Well, in that case - I'll be back on the 14th with tons of pictures, some souvenirs, fun memories, and maybe even a tan!
Good music of the moment:
MGMT - 'Electric Feel', off their album 'Oracular Spectacular'
Still deciding how I feel about these guys. They've got some good songs, but I feel they're getting too popular in the club-pop scene, leading to less effort on some of their songs. Oh well, I'll see what else they push out later
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See you in a week!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment