Saturday, March 27, 2010
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.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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
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.
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.
Updates Updates Updates
Sooo, just to update some things. I went to my first soccer game over here. Fulham Football Club v. a Ukranian team. It was great fun and I really enjoyed it. It rained on and off but we sat in the second row so we could see the players really well through the sheets of rain. For soccer stadiums, prices and seating, it is somewhat the opposite of football, the higher up you are the more expensive the tickets are. Thus, we had cheap tickets but it was so worth it.
Caitlin came to visit me in London. It was absolutely fabulous. We got to walk around and catch up, I didn't realize how much I missed hanging out with her in person. I'm not trying to be glib, the communication via internet, skype, it has its limits. (This is why I fear for my generation - we don't know how to talk to people one-on-one, face to face, we just text and email!) Anywho, we went to a musical performance by Megan Mullally. Do you remember Karen from Will & Grace, the scandalous redhead? That be the one. She was great! She sang a variety of bluesy, jazz songs. I enjoyed it as did Cait. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant off of Abbey Road. That's right ladies, I was pulling out all my Casanova tricks that night. Dinner was fantastic and pricey, imagine that!
In return, I visited Caitlin in Valencia the following weekend. I was one of the first people on the airplane for Easyjet and I grabbed a front row spot. Easyjet, RyanAir, and for the majority of the discount airlines over here, you can just choose your spot on the airplane when you get on, it can be hectic if it's a busy flight. If not, it's one of the best ways to fly. Sitting in the front row, the guy next to me turned to me and said "welcome to Easyjet First Class, man."
"Yea, first class, but there's going to be no champagne coming around on this one," I said in my head. Valencia, is one of the prettiest cities I've seen to date. Imagine being on an airplane for a little under 2 hours to be airdropped into a completely different culture, environment, architectural landscape. And the weather...oh the weather. It was so nice one day Cait and I laid out on the beach for a good 2 hours, pure repose. The Mediterranean was too cold to swim in, but just being on a beach and near a body of water was great. I was coming into the city during the prep time of Fallas, a huge week long festival that draws in visitors from all over Spain. Imagine Valencia, the third largest city in Spain at around 1 million, tripling in size for one week. Firecrackers were going off constantly I felt like the dictatorship was being overthrown all over again. The climax of the festival, which was happening a week later, is when they light these huge paper mache floats on fire and watch them burn in the street. Cait has pictures per request.
The cuisine was nothing less than stellar. The food was fresh, the wine was exceptional. Aside from Valencia's very own "powder keg" happening in the streets until the late hours of the night it was a great experience. Dinner was usually served at around 10 or 11 at night and Pilar, Caitlin's Spanish mother for the semester, invited us over for lunch one day. She didn't speak a word of English and I took 5 years of Spanish in mid/high school that was absolutely erased from my mind in the past few years. Cait had to play translator for much of the lunch. I conjured up some random Spanish vocab I knew and got a few laughs out of Pilar and Cait but I was pretty much lost in translation for most of the lunch. I do understand the food language though, damn, can that woman cook! We had a seafood paella (rice dish) that was absolutely delicious. And then ham, freshly cut tomatoes and olive oil on bread. Delicious. Delicioso. The last day we sat at an irish pub (it was joint decision) and had a few pints before I had to sadly head back off to London.
I also started my internship for the program here in London. I really enjoy it. Fast-paced and hands on. Couldn't have asked for a better situation. I always wanted a glimpse into the Investment Banking world and I'm getting it with this internship. I just finished up a LBO valuation model, which a lot of analysts do in their first few years at a firm. bla bla bla, I could bore you to sleep talking about it.
On my arts and cultural list of London, last weekend I went to the British Museum, it has one of the largest Egyptian collections in the world. Hieroglyphics, a ton of false doors for tombs, MUMMIES, really cool stuff. I only did a half day of it but you could honestly be there for a whole day. Artifacts from all over the world in almost all the major eras of humanity. Also went to a chris ofili exhibit at the Tate Britain for a class field trip.
Two weeks ago, I went to the Royal Academy of Arts and went to The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. I'll fill you in on my experience because I think it's interesting. Along with some of his most famous paintings such as 'Still Life with a Plate of Onions' and 'The Potato Eaters,' the galleries had sketches and letters that came along with the paintings. Theo, van gogh's younger brother was a dutch art dealer that sold most of Van gogh's painting. To say the least, vincent and theo had a very strong bond between each other (platonic I hope), they had a strong correspondence for most of their lives. The exhibit ends at a final gallery with some of Van gogh's more vague paintings near the end of his career, when the dementia/schizophrenia was at its apex. In the middle of the gallery they have a final letter that he wrote to his brother Theo that he had on him when he shot himself in the chest with a revolver in 1890. With blood on it, it professes about their strong relationship they had and all this crazy stuff! Wow, so, Vincent dies 2 days later from the self inflicted gun shot wound and Theo dies in a year's time and they are buried next to each other.
Serious brotherly love right there.
Van Gogh only started painting in 1880. He was only a painter for 10 years. Impressive to say the least. He could read in over 5 different language and played around with many different painting styles, finally finding his niche in post-impressionism. Van gogh was influenced greatly in his art by japanese woodblock prints, which might attribute to some of his bright, vivid colored painting in his later career. It's all interesting.
I'm doing fine in London. I'm doing things day-to-day on an ad hoc basis which is good for now. Caitlin comes in mid April for round two of London. I booked really cheap ($25 total!) tickets to the London Philharmonic Orchestra when she is back in town and hopefully a soccer game or a musical to fill up our time slots for the other nights. A final trip to The Netherlands a week after that and then I am back in the United States. With a little under a month to go at this program I can honestly say time has flown.
Shout out to the family - have a fantastic trip in Washington, D.C., wish I was coming along. I will try and update this thing less intermittently in the following weeks. Take a picture of the Board of Governors Federal Bank Building for me!
Caitlin came to visit me in London. It was absolutely fabulous. We got to walk around and catch up, I didn't realize how much I missed hanging out with her in person. I'm not trying to be glib, the communication via internet, skype, it has its limits. (This is why I fear for my generation - we don't know how to talk to people one-on-one, face to face, we just text and email!) Anywho, we went to a musical performance by Megan Mullally. Do you remember Karen from Will & Grace, the scandalous redhead? That be the one. She was great! She sang a variety of bluesy, jazz songs. I enjoyed it as did Cait. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant off of Abbey Road. That's right ladies, I was pulling out all my Casanova tricks that night. Dinner was fantastic and pricey, imagine that!
In return, I visited Caitlin in Valencia the following weekend. I was one of the first people on the airplane for Easyjet and I grabbed a front row spot. Easyjet, RyanAir, and for the majority of the discount airlines over here, you can just choose your spot on the airplane when you get on, it can be hectic if it's a busy flight. If not, it's one of the best ways to fly. Sitting in the front row, the guy next to me turned to me and said "welcome to Easyjet First Class, man."
"Yea, first class, but there's going to be no champagne coming around on this one," I said in my head. Valencia, is one of the prettiest cities I've seen to date. Imagine being on an airplane for a little under 2 hours to be airdropped into a completely different culture, environment, architectural landscape. And the weather...oh the weather. It was so nice one day Cait and I laid out on the beach for a good 2 hours, pure repose. The Mediterranean was too cold to swim in, but just being on a beach and near a body of water was great. I was coming into the city during the prep time of Fallas, a huge week long festival that draws in visitors from all over Spain. Imagine Valencia, the third largest city in Spain at around 1 million, tripling in size for one week. Firecrackers were going off constantly I felt like the dictatorship was being overthrown all over again. The climax of the festival, which was happening a week later, is when they light these huge paper mache floats on fire and watch them burn in the street. Cait has pictures per request.
The cuisine was nothing less than stellar. The food was fresh, the wine was exceptional. Aside from Valencia's very own "powder keg" happening in the streets until the late hours of the night it was a great experience. Dinner was usually served at around 10 or 11 at night and Pilar, Caitlin's Spanish mother for the semester, invited us over for lunch one day. She didn't speak a word of English and I took 5 years of Spanish in mid/high school that was absolutely erased from my mind in the past few years. Cait had to play translator for much of the lunch. I conjured up some random Spanish vocab I knew and got a few laughs out of Pilar and Cait but I was pretty much lost in translation for most of the lunch. I do understand the food language though, damn, can that woman cook! We had a seafood paella (rice dish) that was absolutely delicious. And then ham, freshly cut tomatoes and olive oil on bread. Delicious. Delicioso. The last day we sat at an irish pub (it was joint decision) and had a few pints before I had to sadly head back off to London.
I also started my internship for the program here in London. I really enjoy it. Fast-paced and hands on. Couldn't have asked for a better situation. I always wanted a glimpse into the Investment Banking world and I'm getting it with this internship. I just finished up a LBO valuation model, which a lot of analysts do in their first few years at a firm. bla bla bla, I could bore you to sleep talking about it.
On my arts and cultural list of London, last weekend I went to the British Museum, it has one of the largest Egyptian collections in the world. Hieroglyphics, a ton of false doors for tombs, MUMMIES, really cool stuff. I only did a half day of it but you could honestly be there for a whole day. Artifacts from all over the world in almost all the major eras of humanity. Also went to a chris ofili exhibit at the Tate Britain for a class field trip.
Two weeks ago, I went to the Royal Academy of Arts and went to The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. I'll fill you in on my experience because I think it's interesting. Along with some of his most famous paintings such as 'Still Life with a Plate of Onions' and 'The Potato Eaters,' the galleries had sketches and letters that came along with the paintings. Theo, van gogh's younger brother was a dutch art dealer that sold most of Van gogh's painting. To say the least, vincent and theo had a very strong bond between each other (platonic I hope), they had a strong correspondence for most of their lives. The exhibit ends at a final gallery with some of Van gogh's more vague paintings near the end of his career, when the dementia/schizophrenia was at its apex. In the middle of the gallery they have a final letter that he wrote to his brother Theo that he had on him when he shot himself in the chest with a revolver in 1890. With blood on it, it professes about their strong relationship they had and all this crazy stuff! Wow, so, Vincent dies 2 days later from the self inflicted gun shot wound and Theo dies in a year's time and they are buried next to each other.
Serious brotherly love right there.
Van Gogh only started painting in 1880. He was only a painter for 10 years. Impressive to say the least. He could read in over 5 different language and played around with many different painting styles, finally finding his niche in post-impressionism. Van gogh was influenced greatly in his art by japanese woodblock prints, which might attribute to some of his bright, vivid colored painting in his later career. It's all interesting.
I'm doing fine in London. I'm doing things day-to-day on an ad hoc basis which is good for now. Caitlin comes in mid April for round two of London. I booked really cheap ($25 total!) tickets to the London Philharmonic Orchestra when she is back in town and hopefully a soccer game or a musical to fill up our time slots for the other nights. A final trip to The Netherlands a week after that and then I am back in the United States. With a little under a month to go at this program I can honestly say time has flown.
Shout out to the family - have a fantastic trip in Washington, D.C., wish I was coming along. I will try and update this thing less intermittently in the following weeks. Take a picture of the Board of Governors Federal Bank Building for me!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople in the earlier years)
I've taken a long time to share my thoughts and experiences of Istanbul. The trip was fascinating. It will probably be the closest the Middle East I will ever get. This was a supplementary 'field trip' that went along with our 'Islam and the West' class that I had this semester. I have to admit I was a little nervous flying on Turkish Airlines when compared to airlines in Europe and the U.S. But we got there (and back) safely. During the flight I was required read for the course, a book called Istanbul: Memories of the City by Orhan Pamuk. It was interesting to say the least and a great prelude to the trip. Please be warned before continuing on with the read. If you got some free time, read this post. It's lengthy, but worth it. If you don't have all the time in the world to pry, read a shorter post. This one is lengthy and shorter ones are soon to follow.
The main underlying theme behind the book, along with being a memoir of his childhood growing up in the city, was this idea of Huzun: a word in turkish that roughly translates to melancholy. The story was about how the city was under this spell. I thought the author was romanticizing just a little too much, however, after walking the streets, I have to say I feel it also. To contextualize, Turkey is a Republic. It's probably one of the most Westernized countries east of the EU. They have been trying to get a membership to the EU for quite some time now, however to no prevail. Once known as the Imperial capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine, and later the Ottoman this city was thriving with large amounts of wealth. It's key positioning, being that connecting the West with Asia, was one of the main reasons that it grew to such a metropolis. Today, it's home to nearly 11 million constituents. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, a final push over the cliff at the end of World War I when they got their butts kicked by the good 'ole Allies, the City and Nation were left in shambles. Ataturk, a main military leader pushed for Kemalism.
It was a term coined by the Turks as a way to create a secular nation-state, democratize the nation and follow in the footsteps of the West and its flagship economies of the global community. Ataturk's reforms were harsh to some degree, bordering fascism at some moments. But he was successful (sort of) to push the country towards a democratic nation. The problem was, he was huge into military stuff so the military had huge influences in shaping the direction of the country. It still does today. Little known factoid: Turkey's government (or the elected party in charge at the time) has been overthrown 4 times from 1960 to 1997. And they want to be a member of the European Union? HA! But, they are clamping down on this. Just recently there were over 40 high ranking military officials arrested for plotting a coup against the government so people are getting keener on the matter.
SOOOOOO, you got a little crude history lesson on Turkey and now you know why they are all in this state of Melancholy or Huzun. Its this constant push and pull mentality. Along with that, most of the population is Islamic. Islam, being the devout religion it is, doesn't mix well with secular democracies, so Turks really lack a sense of identity if you will - explains the prolonged sadness. It's so true, people just look gloomy walking around. Walking without a purpose. It's a weird feeling. But as an outsider, I thought Istanbul was amazing. Now for the good, amazing stuff.
So we arrive at the Hali Hotel late at night and after dinner we crash for the night. Wake up and have breakfast on the top floor overlooking the Bosphorus Strait and the cityscape. Being the lark that I am, I was up sooner than most people and actually got to have a cup of tea with one of my professors. The sunset across the mosques was stellar and galvanizing. It's a lot different than waking up and walking down the steps of my house back home. Here's just a visual aid to prove my point:
Home: Tucker doing his business back in Wisconsin
A comparable view from the hotel lounge on the top floor:
click on image to expand...
But, in all respect, I miss my family and if they're reading, I would have liked it 100 times more if we would had done this has a family. Seeing and doing these things might be good for me, to be a little bit more cultured, but it means so much more to share the experiences with other people, especially the ones you care about. Sorry, I'll get back to the story.
So after breakfast, we are off to the Blue Mosque, the one in the picture above. A large dome with 6 minarets shooting up into the heavens like the older silo-shaped space shuttles from the . Technically called the Sultan Ahmed Mosque the inside of the dome is lined with hand painted blue, flower-patterned tiles. Pretty impressive. It was weird walking the streets and listening to Morning Prayer. Loud speakers throughout the city on the minarets broadcast it. Next stop was actually right down the road, we saw an Egyptian Obelisk that was given to the city for some reason. It is the sister obelisk to the one in Paris, France, the Obelisk of Luxor (Mom & Dad - you guys should remember that). So that was pretty interesting. After that, we crossed the street to the Red Mosque.
The Red Mosque or the Hagia Sophia is an interesting story. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and to have changed the history of architecture. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral in 1520. Converted into a mosque later in its history, there are paintings of angels that were painted over. Muslims, while they do believe in the same God, don't believe in pictures of God or angels, no depictions of holy figures. However, the mosque isn't an operating mosque anymore. So they are uncovering some of the original artwork draw on the walls during the roman empire.
All in all, it was a great trip. there are a million other things to talk about but I just distilled it down to these couple of things. Anyways. I'll type soon.
The main underlying theme behind the book, along with being a memoir of his childhood growing up in the city, was this idea of Huzun: a word in turkish that roughly translates to melancholy. The story was about how the city was under this spell. I thought the author was romanticizing just a little too much, however, after walking the streets, I have to say I feel it also. To contextualize, Turkey is a Republic. It's probably one of the most Westernized countries east of the EU. They have been trying to get a membership to the EU for quite some time now, however to no prevail. Once known as the Imperial capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine, and later the Ottoman this city was thriving with large amounts of wealth. It's key positioning, being that connecting the West with Asia, was one of the main reasons that it grew to such a metropolis. Today, it's home to nearly 11 million constituents. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, a final push over the cliff at the end of World War I when they got their butts kicked by the good 'ole Allies, the City and Nation were left in shambles. Ataturk, a main military leader pushed for Kemalism.
It was a term coined by the Turks as a way to create a secular nation-state, democratize the nation and follow in the footsteps of the West and its flagship economies of the global community. Ataturk's reforms were harsh to some degree, bordering fascism at some moments. But he was successful (sort of) to push the country towards a democratic nation. The problem was, he was huge into military stuff so the military had huge influences in shaping the direction of the country. It still does today. Little known factoid: Turkey's government (or the elected party in charge at the time) has been overthrown 4 times from 1960 to 1997. And they want to be a member of the European Union? HA! But, they are clamping down on this. Just recently there were over 40 high ranking military officials arrested for plotting a coup against the government so people are getting keener on the matter.
SOOOOOO, you got a little crude history lesson on Turkey and now you know why they are all in this state of Melancholy or Huzun. Its this constant push and pull mentality. Along with that, most of the population is Islamic. Islam, being the devout religion it is, doesn't mix well with secular democracies, so Turks really lack a sense of identity if you will - explains the prolonged sadness. It's so true, people just look gloomy walking around. Walking without a purpose. It's a weird feeling. But as an outsider, I thought Istanbul was amazing. Now for the good, amazing stuff.
So we arrive at the Hali Hotel late at night and after dinner we crash for the night. Wake up and have breakfast on the top floor overlooking the Bosphorus Strait and the cityscape. Being the lark that I am, I was up sooner than most people and actually got to have a cup of tea with one of my professors. The sunset across the mosques was stellar and galvanizing. It's a lot different than waking up and walking down the steps of my house back home. Here's just a visual aid to prove my point:
Home: Tucker doing his business back in Wisconsin
A comparable view from the hotel lounge on the top floor:
click on image to expand...
But, in all respect, I miss my family and if they're reading, I would have liked it 100 times more if we would had done this has a family. Seeing and doing these things might be good for me, to be a little bit more cultured, but it means so much more to share the experiences with other people, especially the ones you care about. Sorry, I'll get back to the story.
So after breakfast, we are off to the Blue Mosque, the one in the picture above. A large dome with 6 minarets shooting up into the heavens like the older silo-shaped space shuttles from the . Technically called the Sultan Ahmed Mosque the inside of the dome is lined with hand painted blue, flower-patterned tiles. Pretty impressive. It was weird walking the streets and listening to Morning Prayer. Loud speakers throughout the city on the minarets broadcast it. Next stop was actually right down the road, we saw an Egyptian Obelisk that was given to the city for some reason. It is the sister obelisk to the one in Paris, France, the Obelisk of Luxor (Mom & Dad - you guys should remember that). So that was pretty interesting. After that, we crossed the street to the Red Mosque.
The Red Mosque or the Hagia Sophia is an interesting story. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and to have changed the history of architecture. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral in 1520. Converted into a mosque later in its history, there are paintings of angels that were painted over. Muslims, while they do believe in the same God, don't believe in pictures of God or angels, no depictions of holy figures. However, the mosque isn't an operating mosque anymore. So they are uncovering some of the original artwork draw on the walls during the roman empire.
All in all, it was a great trip. there are a million other things to talk about but I just distilled it down to these couple of things. Anyways. I'll type soon.
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