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!
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