Goodbye UK, Hello Again US

Some updated events that happened:

My boss John took me out to dinner on my last day of the internship. The restaurant was called "The Orange" and it was really nice:

http://www.theorange.co.uk/

He lives in Westminster which is a really nice place to live.

Petro, one of my buddies won over 300 pounds (roughly 400 dollars) at a casino last weekend. This was one of the few times I've seen the house actually lose. As they say, "the house always wins." Game of choice was roulette.

I went to Portobello Road market. It was really cool - great antique collection and a little bit more tailored for high brow society. Really cool stuff though, a mammoth tusk for sale and Jurassic era petrified wood, great conversation pieces for the lovely flat. Just cool stuff if you have the money for it. I also finished up some of my last few souvenir shopping for my family. People who are not my immediate family and reading this: I only had room for presents to my family, I am just around the 50 lb limit for my bag and just one more souvenir in the bag might cause it to burst wide open. I'm sorry - I know I should have gotten more people stuff - but you guys are just going to have to come to London to experience it for yourself.

My adventure in the UK is now over with. I leave for the airport in about 5 hours. I'm glad the volcano situation has cleared up and I'm ready to see my family again. I have to hit the ground running when I'm back cause I only get a brief time home before I head up to the Twin Cities to live up there during the summer.

London:

You are one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to (and lived in). You've offered me great sightseeing, a great internship, great moments, great food, the liveliest communities, arts, culture, music, markets, everything but the kitchen sink. I'm so excited that you are hosting the Olympics and I'll get to see it through the television and see what I was once a part of for 4 months I was here. Thank you and I hope to see you sooner than later.

U.S. - I will see you soon.

Volcano's effects larger than expected.

Volcano Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EY-ya-fyat-lah-YO-kut) has been erupting since March 20th, has canceled my Amsterdam trip and now threatens to cancel my flight back home. We'll see what happens. I might have to look into a Titanic-esque cruise back to New York or something. Hopefully it will stop erupting soon. Iceland, you ash-hole! Okay, that wasn't that funny, I tried. I'll keep you posted on what's going on over here. It's weird not seeing any airplanes in the sky. London is beautiful right now. 63 and sunny! If I am stranded in Europe, there is no other city I would rather be in.

Until later.

Volcano + Amsterdam on hold?

I had a trip with my roommates planned and Caitlin was going to meet up with us. But, an Icelandic volcano decided to erupt and now we have a possible ash cloud over most of the UK? It will be a great story to tell the kids.

Volcanic ash: all non-emergency flights grounded until 1pm Friday

I'll be writing about Caitlin's visit to London soon. I'll also update you guys if I end up going to Amsterdam or not.

Cross your fingers.

Caitlin's Visit

Last week, I got to go to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. It was really fascinating to see a recreation of the original theater. The Shakespearean actor who gave us the tour made the experience the most memorable. Got a brief history of the origins of the words such a "queue" or a "roll." Pretty Interesting.

Caitlin came last weekend for her second trip to London. I had to work on Thursday for the day but she got see St. Paul's and go to the British Museum. After that we went to Wicked on that night. I really enjoyed it, it played off of Wizard of Oz really well and I thought the singing was phenomenal. What a venue! We got pretty good seats but I don't know how anyone could have seen the play in some of the back rows.

Friday, we went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural History Museum. We also went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. At night we made dinner and headed back to the hostel at King's Cross.

We went to Camden Locks/Market on Saturday. Caitlin loved it and we ended up getting some Banksy prints (a local street artist). After that we went to Harrods (Cait was looking for some pumps) and she found some on sale. We walked around Hyde Park for a while. We were going to take a row boat on the Serpentine but it was a little too windy to go out on the Serpentine river. Later that night we went to the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on the Thames River.

Another great weekend in London. This will be one of my last entries. Things are wrapping up here soon. Internship is almost done and I have some schoolwork to finish up.

Checking the calendar...

I was checking the calendar just now and realized that I only have four more weeks left in London! Wow, time has flown by. I've been very thankful for the experiences I've had over here so far. EVERYTHING has been wonderful. Traveling around Europe has gone on without a hitch (knock on wood), the schooling and internship has been great, and living in London has been a huge step in the right direction when it comes to maturing and growing as a person.

Health Care Reform

I'm missing out on the heated debate going on in the states right now. I couldn't help throwing my, well Greg Mankiw's, two cents in. For the most part I agree with him.

Food for thought: here

Edinburgh, Scotland

Before my trip to Valencia, I took a 2 day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. One of my friends here was generous enough to give me one of his best friend's number from back home, who just happens to go to University of Edinburgh. It was a last minute decision to go, I hastily booked a night bus ticket from central London to Edinburgh on Thursday night and went Friday night. I had talked to his friend and he said he had a couch open and I was more than welcome to crash there for the weekend.

The bus ride was sort of rough getting up there. It was sleeting for most of the time and I could barely sleep because we stopped every 1.5 hours for breaks at the highway service stations. Not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time, I drudged off the bus, finally in Edinburgh, at around 6:30 in the morning. With a burst of energy from some dark coffee I saw Arthur's Seat in my sights. Arthur's chair is at the summit of that land form you see below. The area its in is called Holyrood Park. The geography was formed from an extinct volcano system that runs under it.



At the time it was snow covered from the weather during the night, but I didn't care. It seemed like the best thing to do at the time. It was cold! After the storm had passed through the weather dropped below freezing and by the time I got up to the top I thought differently about my intentions about this ascent. But I got up there. There was no one up there so I had to resort to the old self-timer function on my camera to capture the moment. I vandalized Arthur's Seat and edged my name into it also. (Sorry mom and dad - you raised me better than that) Summit is close to 900 ft. elevation




If you can see that...




Then, I took a walk along the Royal Mile that runs through the center of the city. Its point lead up to the gates of Edinburgh Castle. Atop, I got to see an aerial view of the surrounds different than on top of Arthur's seat. I also took a walk to the top of Calton Hill. So I walked a lot and then finally met up with the friend of a friend. His house was 100 ft. away from Adam Smith's house back in the day. (If there are any Econ people in the house, you can't help to appreciate that).



Stuffed Dolly

The following day, I went to the Scottish Portrait Gallery and Royal Museum of Scotland. I got to see Dolly (stuffed), the first cloned and arguably the most famous sheep. Also one of the first steam engines produced was there. The next day I went into St. Giles Cathedral. The people I met were great during the trip were great and welcomed me into their homes considerably. All in all, it was a great start to my spring break. I got one more picture in of Edinburgh before I ended the trip back on the bus back to London.