The Italian Stallion and a Stache

Since I'm not planning on going anywhere this weekend I figured I would throw in a little aside here about the tutorial dinner we had tonight. So basically all the tutors, who are what us yanks call residence advisors, invite people from their blocks to come to a fancy dinner which is served after regular dinner in the dining hall. Since it was a Halloween themed we either had to wear a costume (which I tend not to do, kind of like the Amish tend not go to Best Buy) or dress nicely. Naturally, I opted for looking nice instead of like a buffoon. (No offence to those sad saps with no shame that actually dressed up -that's right, I'm calling you out Katie and Jordan) I've included a picture of my choice of attire. Yes Dad, before you have to ask, I tied the tie myself, windsor knot like you told me. Not terribly bad I'd say, even though I had to look up directions on the internet...

Anyway, the dinner itself was pretty good, better than our normal fare, and our potatoes at dinner consecutive meals streak continued! Dimaggio's record is definitely going down. The best part of dinner for me was eavesdropping on our warden Antonino and hearing his Italian accent. He is from Sicily and everytime I listen to him I have to struggle to keep a straight face, he is like a caricature of everything Italian. I love it! Jordan and I especially like the way he says the name of our hall. At the welcome meeting he said "Hallo, myyy name...is...Antonino....I amm dee wor-den....of Sharewood Hole" Jordan and I have both gotten pretty good at our Antonino voices. I'm praying he never reads this. And if you do Antonino, just know that I love your accent! (Imitation is the highest form of flattery, just ask George W. Bush.) At dinner tonight he once again brought up the dangers of "zee so called...sof drug....conna-bis." This is something he warned us of the day we arrived and I could listen to him talk about it all day just because I love how he says "conna-bis". That was pretty much the highlight of the tutorial dinner. While you all probably don't care, I'm laughing just thinking about Antonino right now.

I also included in this post some pictures I took the other day of "The Downs" because it looked pretty cool with all the leaves changing colors. More importantly you should look carefully at the picture of what I wore tonight to the tutorial dinner because you'll see if you look closely that in addition to the shirt, slacks and tie, I also wore a mustache that I've been working on for about a week now. The stache is a tribute to my Dad circa 1980-2002ish, and also Rollie Fingers, Thurman Munson, Kurt Rambis, Cap'n Crunch, Mario and Luigi, old school Alex Trebec, Mike Ditka, Ned Flanders, Dr. Phil, Geraldo, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and Gangs of New York, Robert Goulet, and Borat. I could keep going but let's just say this stache has a big upper lip to fill. I think I kind of like it...so far. So, if ya don't know, now ya know....

Wimbledon! (and the National Gallery)

Construction work for the new court 3

The trophies

The photographer on Centre Court

Centre Court

Courts between No. 1 and Centre court

Henman Hill, Rusedski Ridge, Murray Mountain...

On top of Henman's Hill

Court No. 1, not sure why I look stoned...I'm not

The grounds (Cue Wimbledon theme music)

Sunday in London was all about Wimbledon! This was definitely my favorite part of the weekend. It was similar to a pilgrimage to holy ground for me. Going to Wimbledon was like going to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We took the tube out to Wimbledon and then walked to the grounds from out train stop. We started out in the museum for about an hour until our tour started at which point our tour guide took us around the grounds. We saw Court 1, some of the outlying courts, Henman Hill, the press building and then the holy of holies, Centre Court! It was all really interesting and I almost felt like taking my shoes off because I was on hallowed ground. It was surprising that Court 1 and Centre Court were not as big as they seem on tv. I'm pretty sure there isn't a bad seat in either stadium because they both feel quite intimate. The tour was cool, about an hour and a half and then Jordan and I went back and finished up in the museum. I have to say that I was very impressed by the museum I went in not expecting too much, but it was really informative and had some interactive exhibits too. After the museum I picked up some Wimby memorabilia in the store. All in all the best 15 pounds I've spent yet!

After Wimbledon we took the train back to Trafalgar square and spent some time at the National Gallery. Similar to the British Museum the gallery is another example of Britain's pack rat mentality when it comes to history and art. They had a Da Vinci, Raphael's, Michelangelo's, Monet's, Van Gogh's and tons of other artists work that I have never heard of. Basically, just an obscene number of portraits, landscapes and impressionist pieces. I would not consider myself a big art person, but I was dazzled. I liked most everything except for the impressionist stuff, you might say I was less than impressed with the impressionists! I can't complain at all though, the National Gallery was fun and free. Rick Steves' recommends it and so I pretty much have to as well.

Overall of the three cities I've traveled to so far, I would say London is my favorite, with York second, and Manchester a pretty distant third. London just has so much to see that I know I'll need to come back. It's like a really good movie that you can watch over and over and each time little nuances come out and it gets better and better.

I'll leave you with a note about the pictures, I did not take them because my camera's battery died on top of St. Paul's. And I am of course, all about giving credit where credit is due, so thank you Jordan for your contribution to my blog. Secondly, in retrospect my battery dying was probably a good thing because Jordan takes much better pictures than me! So, if ya don't know, now ya know...

Photos from London

Parliament

Trafalgar Square

Rosetta Stone

The Thames and London to the east

London Eye

Big Ben with Westminster in the background

British Museum

Londontown and Cheeky Inkey

London was everything I expected it to be and more: sprawling, busy, touristy, morally questionable, dangerous for pedestrians, crowded, multicultural, and expensive, mainly expensive. But worth it.

We arrived at St. Pancras train station on Friday, which my friends Jordan and Katie prefer to refer to as "St. Pancreas". Anyway, we got there about 11:30, went to our hostel and checked in and then got down to business.

We started at the British Museum which is basically awesome. It has stuff from all over the world. Britain basically took the five finger discount from all of their colonies when the sun never set on their empire. Thus they have accumulated and astonishingly large number of artifacts. Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Roman, Medieval, you name it they have it. It's like the Wal-Mart of museums they have whatever you're looking for. The Rosetta Stone was quite impressive. But really the most impressive part of the museum was the sheer amount of artifacts present, we could have been there for days. Instead we saw as much as we could in about 2 and half hours.

After the museum we went to Trafalgar square and then down by Big Ben and the houses of parliament and I went across the Thames and did the London Eye. The eye, aka the big wheel was cool, but expensive. It was like eating at an expensive restaurant, it was good but when you walk out the door you wonder if it was worth 20 pounds for a steak....probably not but it was worth doing once.

After I did the eye I met up with the J-man and we went to get some food and then headed over to the theatre for our evening entertainment. We saw "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Now is it moderately to heavily effeminate for two males to go and watch Holly Golightly ruin other men's lives on stage? Well, I'll leave that up to the reader. What I will say is that the only other men I saw there were with their significant other's, and there were lots of girls there on a "girls night out". I guess there could have been some dudes playing for the other team there but I didn't see them, and that was probably fortunate because they might have gotten the wrong idea about Jordan and I. I'll bet that's what they ask each other at gay bars, "Have you seen Breakfast at Tiffany's live?" Anyway, I thought it was actually a pretty good production. However I will say this of Holly Golightly. She is an out of control, man-eating floozy. She should be punished. Harshly.

Saturday morning we went to the Tower of London and met the beefeaters! I assumed these rotund bearded men were simply over-dressed pompous buffoons trying to lose some poundage via the Atkins diet! I was wrong in this assumption. They are actually officially titled the Yeoman Warders and have been guarding the Tower for centuries. Now, they just shepherd overeager precocious tourists around all day. The Tower tour was fun and informative. The real excitement was the Crown Jewels. Not to be confused with the family jewels, these jewels possess no reproductive capabilities. On the other hand, they are not subject to shrinkage. They are basically as many diamonds and precious gems as can be crammed into a hunk of gold in the shape of a crown or scepter. They seemed to have an aura. Pretty pompous pieces of jewelry if you ask me, but I guess they've earned their keep. I mean if Bill Gates couldn't buy them even if he wanted to that's got to count for something. England could probably buy Poland with these jewels if they wanted to, of course they don't really have to do that because about half of Poland works here already!

After the tower, we walked through the financial district to St. Paul's cathedral. The financial district was dead as it was Saturday but St. Paul's was hopping with tourists. It was similar to the York Minster in its grandeur, but in its own way. The dome was amazing and it was really cool because we were able to climb to the top and get some great views of London. The inside of the cathedral was colorful and immaculate, the crypt was well...cryptic. I would highly recommend going to St. Paul's. We didn't spend as much time there as we could have because we were on our way to Harrod's.

Harrod's is like the Super Bowl of department stores. It is spectacularly large, plush, posh, over the top etc. The doormen were dressed better than any of the shoppers! They have pretty much anything you could want there, and if they don't have it they'll order it. I'm pretty sure you could buy William "the refrigerator" Perry there if you wanted...He'd probably cost a pretty penny though because stuff there is ridiculously spendy. We just browsed for awhile and then vamoosed before being tempted to remortgage the house to but a candy bar or something.

Saturday evening we mad a great life decision and met our friend Danyelle and went to a comedy show. At first I was afraid I might have overspent in spending 12 pounds to get in, but within five minutes with my sides aching I knew I'd reckoned well. The comic was Inkey Jones (that's his real name if mine's Turd Ferguson) who was really funny. Disparagingly funny jokes about the Irish, Americans, French, Germans, Poles, and Bulgarians were just the tip of the comedic iceberg. If laughs were currency Inkey was trading in all currencies at all times all night. He was like a stockmarket....and he never crashed. The guy was a riot. Couldn't have been happier with the show.

I'm going to stop here because this is the second time I've typed this after my internet crashed the first time and I lost my draft. Plus I know this has already gotten long, so I'll get a post up about Sunday with some pictures soon. If ya don't know, now ya know...

Mind the Minster Mister

The Minster is king. To quote the man who means more to me than Gandhi: Rick Steves, travel kingpin extraodinaire, international man of mystery, guidebook guru, and inventor of going through the backdoor..."The pride of York, this largest Gothic church north of the Alps brilliantly shows that the Middle Ages were far from dark." I couldn't agree more with this mouthpiece for the Minster.

The most memorable part of my weekend in York was definitely the visit to the York Minster on Friday afternoon. Climbing the 275 steps to the top of the tower was well worth the price of admission and dealing with the smelly guy in front of me panting up the narrowly winding steps. The view from the top was exquisite. I'd climb those steps again in a second. The Minster's nave is huge and ornate, along with everything else. It took over 250 years to build the church, which is a perfect example that everything worth doing is worth doing well. My pictures aren't going to do any justice to this magnificent cathedral. There are better pictures on the internet, you should all have a look.

Other things worth mentioning, the York Castle Museum was really interesting. It took us from the Victorian Era through the 1960's with period rooms and both Victorian and 1960's streets. Also, there is an area in town called "The Shambles" which is a little old street that used to be the butcher's street but now just has crooked buildings and crooked street musicians doing their thing. And finally we went to the National Rail Museum which is supposedly the biggest rail museum in the word...I just know I saw more trains that day than in all my years of watching Thomas the Tank Engine.

Other events from this weekend: I saw my first opera. It was an opera rendition of Shakespeare's MacBeth. Honestly, it was like biting into what you think is milk chocolate and finding out it's dark. It was okay, but I wouldn't watch it again. All I could make out were a few intelligible words intermittently dispersed among screaming and bellowing. It would have been better to just listen to opera singers sing and not try to act as well. They sang everything. Even narrative lines they had no business singing such as "he's rubbing his hands" and "MacBeth is a schmuck". Okay, I made the last one up. It just seemed a bit over the top to me. However, my expectations were exceeded on Saturday evening when we went and watched a movie called "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus". This was Heath Ledger's last movie...in fact they had to do some rewrites and get Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to complete Ledger's role after his unfortunate demise. It was a good movie, very much a fantasy that explored a lot of good vs. evil questions and I would definitely recommend it. Plus I'm sure all the ladies out there will want to watch it solely for Ledger's last dance on the big screen.

Miscellaneous thoughts on York: It's a great city to walk, you can be anywhere in 20-25 minutes max. As long as you know where the Minster is you, can orient yourself, just "mind the Minster" and you'll know where to go. The walking tours are free, take advantage. Our guide was an old fellow with eyebrows like an unruly hedgerow and droopy eyelids, and he showed us around York in two hours for nothing more than a thank you. Worthington Creamflow proved to be a steadfast companion and excellent pint. We saw a pub called the "Cock and Bottle" we didn't go in, but in retrospect I wish we had even if only to see if the name referred to how they fill their bottles...

In conclusion, York was great! I would definitely go back. It was a fun weekend but now it's back to the grind and then on to Londontown next weekend. So if ya don't know, now ya know...

Mancunian Migration

Outside of library

Near the "Roman Fort", probably more interesting than the actual "fort".

random portrait from art museum

inside library, this photo does no justice...

one too many pints for one mancunian.

awesome church we saw.

inside of the church, it was massive!

Manchster! Actually let me rephrase that. Manchester. It doesn't really deserve the exclamation point. It's a nice city, and it was a fun weekend but it was not the top of the muffin. I mean the bottom of the muffin is good, it's just not as good as the muffin top, and Manchester was a muffin bottom, if that makes sense.

Well, I'm not going to give a full itinerary of the weekend, because that's boring. I don't want to bore anyone with the mundane details of Jordan and I doing things like "riding the tram into the city" or "walking around town". So I'll just keep it to some highlights...

Friday, we went to the 14th century church that is shown above, it was a pretty impressive structure. The detail and ornate carving just amazed me. After that, we went to the art museum downtown and browsed the galleries for a couple hours. It was interesting at some points dull at others. I will say this though, I wish I could paint, and I wonder if I would have the patience to paint a wall size portrait? Those must have taken years! The other two noteworthy things from Friday were eating my first deep fried Mars bar, which was in a word: heavenly. What I tasted was probably better than Michael Phelps eight gold medals. Yep, deep fried heart attack tastes better than gold! I will definitely be getting my paws on some more of those before my time here is finished. Secondly, I realized I like British TV. It's just as funny if not more, and is more realistic. The people on TV actually look like real people, and they seem smarter than our American TV personalities, but maybe that's just the accent.

Other things that went down, the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester Museum, Harry Potter movie on the Imax. Both museums were very big, very good, and very free. Although my feet got pretty tired doing all that standing it was really cool to learn about Manchester's history and feel like I bumped up the ol' IQ a couple points. Of course those points gained probably were canceled out by the pints consumed, but it's a give and take.

I'll finish with some final miscellaneous thoughts: a lot of guys with shaved heads in Manchester, I felt like there was a Vin Diesel look alike contest in town. Trying to find Chinatown simply by following asian people is a hit and miss proposition. The "Roman Fort" was more like the ones I used to build when I was six. The full English Breakfast is one of God's gifts to men.

That's all I got, it's late I'm tired. Thanks for reading, if ya don't know, now ya know....

Eat, Drink, and be Merry

Left to right: Dave, Jordan, Chris

casks for days...

more casks for days....

even more casks for days....

Jordan in his element...

The Robin Hood Beer Festival was excellent! It was held at the castle in Nottingham and featured over 600 different ales; let's just say there were ample choices. I sampled about 1% of them. I know that was just the tip of the ale iceberg, but it was a great tip! I went with three other Sherwoodians, my PIC Jordan, Dave from the North Wing, and our friend Chris from Germany. We got there payed our entry and recieved our beer tokens and souvenir half pint glasses. Like any good beer enthusiasts we didn't waste any time getting down to business. I can't really remember the names of the ales I tried except for one which was called Rambo. I only remember this one because it brings to mind images of a Sylvester Stallone killing spree involving a machine gun, exploding arrows, bulging biceps, an open mouthed stare and one extremely small tank top.

I really enjoyed just being in a tent with so many beer lovers. These aren't your run of the mill get drunk on some cheap, piss flavor lager college students. This crowd loved their beer and it showed. It showed in their eyes, smiles, and hearts...but mostly in their guts! This was definitely an older, more mature crowd who really did appreciate beer for more than it's alcohol content. I felt honored to seek the holy grail of ale with them.

On a finishing side note, I noticed that I saw more beards and facial hair at the beer festival than I have in my previous three weeks here. Until last Thursday I thought that if you had a beard in Nottingham you were either Middle Eastern or a cab driver...or both. So apparently, the beard is not dead in England, although it's probably on life support.

That's pretty much all I have to say about the beer fest, it was awesome. Plain and simple. Good beer, good people, good beards. I wish I had more time to write but I have tons of work to do and more blogs to write so, if ya don't know, now ya know....

Mopey Topiary

Since I went to Sherwood Forest today, here are the goods on Robin’s hood…My PIC (partner in crime) Jordan Jacobo, and I took the bus to city centre today about a quarter after 12 and then had to hustle to get on our bus to Edwinstowe. We made it with a couple minutes to spare and after about an hour’s ride we found ourselves on Robin’s doorstep.

Now to be honest, going to Sherwood Forest was kind of disappointing, similar to turning on Sportscenter when they’re showing WNBA highlights. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I went; I mean it’s something you have to do. You can’t not go. When you’re this close to a semi-well known/mythical/legendary/possibly real/definitely Disney character’s stomping grounds you are obligated to go if only to say that you’ve gone. It’s just that the forest itself wasn’t overly awe inspiring or magnificent. But it was cool to think that Robin Hood was probably in that area at some point in time.

The best part of the forest was seeing its crown jewel, the “Major Oak”. The “Major Oak” is actually similar to what was the Old Oak at Linfield except larger and in retrospect, better supported. Even though it’s over 1000 years old that thing is still making acorns. So the “Major Oak” was fun to see and it’s fun to think that Robin probably had brewskies there with his merry men “on the reg” back in the day. Other than that though, “Sherwood Forest” was more like a park, and while apparently at one point it was huge, it’s now quite small. I guess Robin Hood and his merry men while humanitarians, were not great conservationists…no, actually I think the English just cut it down for more farmland…

Anyway what I thought was quite interesting and humorous was that there are birds that live in the forest and they are known as “Great Tits”. I’m not sure who came up with that name but they should consider updating it in light of modern language connotations. On a semi-related tangent, the popular dessert here in Britain known as “Spotted Dick” which is a steamed pudding with fruit served with custard, could possibly be getting a name change to “Spotted Richard” in order to hopefully regain respectability and reclaim the lofty status it once held in the dog eat dog dessert world before the shifts in modern vernacular led to its fall from glory. So you learn something new each day; like for instance that the “Major Oak” has “Great Tits”. I hope everyone feels more intelligent and informed now.

I know this is a long post so I’m going to give a real quick summary of the pictures I took. I’ve included the “Major Oak”, various pictures of Robin Hood statues etc, the aforementioned “Great Tits, and there’s also one picture of me with a big Shrek figurine that Jordan and I randomly came across in Edwinstowe. Thanks for reading; the Robin Hood Beer Festival and a trip to Manchester are on the docket for next weekend. So if ya don’t know, now ya know…