Of Stones and Hidden Meaning

This past weekend involved a trip to Bath, the highlight of which is traditionally Stonehenge. Personally, playing Jenga with an Argentinian boys rugby team at a table full of girls and being mistaken for a gay guy was my highlight, but hey, what are you gonna do?

But let's sit down here for a second (if you aren't already) and discuss this monument of the countryside that we have named a wonder of the world. A large circle of five ton rocks piled atop each other with barrows around it that look incredible from the aerial views we saw on postcards in the gift shop is what we came to see. You marvel at its architectural wonder and check out the arrangement of the stones, the construction, wonder how they transported them from the distant quarries some 20 miles away and what purpose they served. It's a Mecca or Jerusalem of sorts for the natives who supposedly migrated to it from miles around to meet here or something like that. It wasn't Druidian, though, I can tell you that much.

And then you realize (or at least 4 or 5 of us did) that you're taking pictures of a bunch of rocks stacked randomly in a field. When you're done marvelling and oohing and aahing at it, what's there? A bunch of hardened boulders that were put together by an ancient society because they had nothing better to do. Maybe it was an ancient McDonald's or a former Starbucks. Those stone seats would have been ideal for seating customers. And just think what it would be like to sit down and have a nice hot mocha when you've been journeying on your donkey for hundreds of miles.

What it comes down to is this. It's cool, but they're rocks. If someone had dropped them from a prehistoric plane and placed them there, that'd be pretty cool. But the sheep that were next to it were far more interesting. Although we didn't get to chase the sheepies. That would have been fun. So instead, I settled for 2 postcards and a t-shirt and hopped back onto the bus. That and taking 40 pictures or so.

And that was Stonehenge: Ancient Starbucks Mecca of the Ancient World. Or a Coldstone Creamery. That'd be a preferable alternative.

Stonehenge: The Ultimate Prehistoric Food Experience

Things I've Learned in London So Far

This is simply a list because I am at my internship and I want to go back to the flat as soon as possible, so it's going to be kinda short...although, knowing me, it will end up being a bajillion miles long.

Things I've Learned in London So Far:
- Being "knocked up" means being visited, as in "I'm going to knock up my relatives later"
- Riding the tube is nice...when the Circle Line works
- I don't like sports as much as I thought I do
- My internship expects me to like sports a lot more than I do
- More people smoke in London than the U.S. (this is not fact, just going by what I see, people)
- I'm pretty darn good at adjusting to new places
- I'm a bigger sucker for romance than I had previous thought. Darn it.
- London is big.
- London loves KFC.
- London hates pedestrians.
- You bag your own groceries in supermarkets.
- Everything is more expensive.
- Carry your wallet in your front pocket all the time.
- I love to discuss theology with ANYONE.
- Loving someone doesn't mean that you're obsessed with them.
- I like living in a country where they speak English.
- I like the smell of baklavah.
- I like the smell of Axe.
- They have more ads geared towards men product, like MAN kleenex and MAN shampoo
- I love my internship.
- I just met the Vice President of ESPN International. WOW.
- Give a man a grocery list and he will buy food. Give a man groceries and he will eat way too much food in one sitting.
- Ithaca needs to move to Europe.
- The subways are cleaner in Europe, but the air is full of crap.
- I'm getting good at blending into the crowd as a Brit, not a friggin American.
- Politics aren't my calling.
- Luke Elmers and I are amazing at life.
- Wonder Woman's single power is seduction. The invisible jet can be pooped on by birds and thus be made visible.
- My mom sent me a card. Therefore, my mom loves me.
- Booking cheap flights around Europe is harder than you think.
- I love clementines.
- I love the internet.
- I love lamp.
- I miss driving.
- I love to read.
- I want to change the world.
- Going to see a play called "Helter Skelter" MUST be followed by a viewing of Finding Nemo.

That's it for now, I think. Yeah, that's it. I'm going to Bath and Stonehenge over the weekend and will be updating you all with something worthwhile and interesting upon our glorious return. Until then, smile! You look better when you do.

Except if you need to put your dentures in. Like you. Put them in. Now. I'm serious. Okay. Thank you.

Communication Breakdown

I have lied to you all. Sort of. And for this, I apologize.

The internet company called us and let us know that we will not be receiving internet in the flat until this coming Friday, which is a little frustrating but I guess it happens. That's the only real downside to this London experience: the internet. It's a little different using the keyboards (see previous entry about that...I don't remember which one) and the internet cafes are either overpriced or overcrowded or their browsers just plain don't work. Haha, yesterday I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince my e-mail account that it was okay to open up for more than 30 seconds so that files could be placed onto a flash drive and placed on my computer back at the flat. But, like I said before, this sort of thing just happens. You can't really plan for anything like this. It's like having a child when you and your wife/husband already have 5 kids, the youngest of which is 16. That actually was the case with a baby dedication at the church Luke and I went to today, so no, it's not as random as you may think.

At any rate, when was the last time that I updated this excuse for a public website. Hmm...Wednesday. Okay. Thursday was my interview with ESPN, which went very well. They were just bought out by Disney, so when I walked into the Walt Disney Company building, there were High School Musical 2 posters plastered everywhere and the soundtrack was playing in the elevator. I cannot WAIT to see Zac Efron every day at work! My supervisor, Nick Smith, is a pretty chill guy. Although there will be a lot of work to be done there ranging from organsing closets full of promotional materials to writing highlights for the website itself, it will be well worth it for several reasons. First of all, I have my own desk with my own computer and access to ESPN 360. Promotional t-shirts/mugs/stress balls and everything minus a free car are mine for the taking. And...*drumroll* they may or may not be paying me £60 a week for transportation compensation. Wow. This is going to be well worth it. Now comes the hard part: faking my hardcore enthusiasm for sports. Somehow the idea of memorising the stats of LaDainian Tomlinson this season doesn't measure up to the sheer wonder of wandering over the hand-placed bricks and well-traveled concrete sidewalks that compose the vast majority of this city that I am growing to love with each passing moment I spend here. It doesn't bother me too much though. The only thing that could make it better would be meeting in the Lion King themed meeting room instead of the soccer (football, Seth, FOOTBALL) themed one. That and a nice visit from a brown-eyed Pennsylvania girl.

It feels like I've been here before, like some part of me has blood that mixed with the muddy flow of the Thames. And then I remember the Lloyd side that came from my grandmother and everything makes sense.

Sidebar: more deodorant may be necessary when I go home. Walking for 4 hours will do that to you. As will sitting inside of a crammed Pentecostal temple building for 90 minutes under hot lights and pumping speakers.

Coming back to the family, this was how my Saturday was actually spent. (Quick note: Friday didn't have much; Luke taught to solve a Rubik's Cube and we had pizza and went to Harrod's.) Saturday, I went to meet some relatives on my dad's side since we hadn't seen each other in about 10 years. That can be pretty nice sometimes, you know? There were 4 people that I met up with. Here's who they were:

Alan: my grandmother's cousin
Olga: grandmother's sister
Jade: Olga's daughter
Tom: Alan's flatmate/best friend

We spent about a half hour trying to figure out how we were related and what first cousin, onec removed meant. I think I understand it, but at the risk of being chastised by Alan for the rest of my days, this information will not be printed. If you really do want to know, here: you can see for yourself officially. Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you're getting the best possible information. Thank you, Michael Scott. But I digress. After much hugging and traversing about various trains, we arrived in Greenwich and Tom, Jade and I walked underneath the Thames in this underground tunnel that runs from a park where Henry VIII let his dogs run to the opposite side of the river where the University of Greenwich stands. There we went into the Painted Chapel, saw a few buildings and admired various windows before heading over a Vietnamese restaurant where we took in an excellent buffet luncheon. I had seaweed for the first time on a plate (I may or may not have eaten it on the beach when I was younger) and some really hot soup with red peppers. Haha, red hot chili peppers. That's funny.

Following this, Alan and Olga retired to Alan's flat so that they could talk and catch up on the three years they had not seen one another while Tom, Jade and I walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory and Greenwich Prime Meridian-ish area. And in case you were wondering, yes, I did stand in both hemispheres at once. The special feeling I felt after doing that proceeded to last about 0.43 seconds before letting the 8-year old behind take his turn straddling the line. From there we walked to Blackheath, where Alan and Tom's flat was, where we shared afternoon tea and talked about various events/people/times/places until it was time to leave. That's the long and short of it. It was a lot more fun than expected, considering that the youngest person other than me was 52. Not to say that older people aren't fun, they just...aww crap, there's no getting out of this one. My bad.

Today was a good overall day. And in case you can't tell, I like my chronologically ordered entries. My mom has had to deal with this method of accounting for my days in high school, as well as college. Maybe a more freely written entry is in order next time...hmm. ANYwho, Luke and I went to church today at Kensington Temple, which was large, a little too loud and very free in the Spirit. It was a nice place and the pastor had a great sermon going (before we skipped out to go on a tour of the East End markets), but it seemed to lack a welcoming environment. Who knows, maybe I'm just used to my home church(es). But the search for a home church in London will continue, I suppose. As I said before, the tour of East End markets was afterward. Anyone who comes to the city of London MUST go here. Some of the best food and best t-shirts I have seen were to be found, not to mention an exorbant amount of women's blouses. One of the best booths that caught my eye was a free trade, AIDS-benefiting t-shirt booth with simple messages printed across the front (e.g. "Simplify simplify" and "Truth is freedom"). They were 20 pounds, but sadly, none were in my sizes. Be prepared with money when you go. I only brought 5 pounds and could barely afford lunch. They had delicious pad thai too, totally unfair.

And now, as usual, I am sitting in the London Centre, resting my legs for another journey to the tube station...and then to an internet cafe to do Skype since the LC closes at 5 today. Mary made us walk a little fast, so I'm a little more tired than usual. Keep me posted (oh what a pun) on what's going on back at home with anything, especially sports. And sadly, I may need to know what's going on with the presidential primary races. I really don't like politics, but it's nice to know who's winning.

Keep it fresh, keep it real and keep your eyes on the road when you're driving. It's better to be safe and not multi-tasking than spin out in the snow and hit a guardrail. Believe me, I know.

Dinosaurs and fetuses and burgers, oh my!

And here I am, once again, writing in the computer lab in the midst of the sophisticated chaos that is the Ithaca College London Centre because we have no internet within our flat. It's not a huge deal because it will be coming within the next few days (they promised by Monday), so now all there is to deal with is the cacaophony of clacking Dell keyboards. No offense to Dell, they just can't make as quiet sounding tappage as the MacBook Pro in my backpack that has no charger.

Things have broken since I have arrived here in London. My surge-protected power strip exploded in an outlet (hilarious) and the charger for my computer made funny noises and now will not charge my computer (not as hilarious). Life goes on, however, and how it DOES go on. Adventures are rather prevalent in London, both in the mind of long-term tourists and in the air surrounding every brick of every building built in glorious limestone that barely manages to shimmer in the morning light of another London day. This is why I am so glad to be here...that and the ability to experience...experiences like yesterday.

Luke and I both had the day completely off yesterday and decided to make a trip over to see one of the worthwhile museums in the city of London: the Natural History Museum. The slightly cold walk over was well worth it, especially when we turned the corner and saw multi-colored banner heralding our entrance into this fascinating edifice of wonder. It was enormous, ginormous to be exact. It looked like a cross between the Houses of Parliament and a cathedral with a modern glass-windowed extension being built onto the back. As soon as we got in, it was crazy awesome. Huge ceilings always make me happy, so this was no exception. But the first thing you see when you walk in the door is a giant dinosaur skeleton. And that's when I knew that it would be amazing.

So we wandered the dinosaur exhibit first, the child inside of us screaming and running around, wanting to walk back 65 million years or so to chill with an iguanadon or watch a velociraptor (which I want to be, by the way) hunt for prey in large packs. There were probably 6 simultaneous field trips going on, all of which had small British 3rd graders copying down dino facts sloppily into large notebooks while the boys were grossed out the girls, talking about a T-Rex tearing open a brontosaurus.

Yum. So after wandering through that for 45 minutes and marveling at the T-Rex's resemblance to a certain 1995 flick starring Richard Attenborough, we made our way across the hall to the Human Biology exhibit.

The Brits have an amazing sense of humor or naivity when it comes to the human body and explaining everything about it, I haven't decided yet. When entering the aforementioned exhibit, I was stuck by the fact that I was starting at a large diagram of chromosomes, DNA and where all of that comes from and how it gets there and so on and so forth. Wow. Diagrams are EVERYTHING. So we moved past the adults who were a little too absorbed and the snickering middle schoolers and headed on down the line...but were suddenly stopped by a room that we had not yet encountered, something defying normalcy, convention and sheer reason. It's like skydiving; you have to experience it for yourself...except there's not a ripcord here, there's an umbilical cord. Propped up against one wall in what was probably designed to be a mother's womb with seating for curious viewers and thrill seekers was an 8-foot tall fetus. It was like Frankenstein without the bolts through its neck: large, cumbersome, ready to come alive and just as scary, if not more so. It gives me chills thinking that I was once like this, a large blob of gook inside of someone, wrapped within their innards with a pounding heartbeat drowning out any hope of conversation with the placenta. My mom must have really loved me because if I saw that thing inside of me, two things would happen. First, I'd wonder how there was a peach colored alien inside of my tummy, since I'm a guy. Second, I'd be scared for my life and want it out as soon as possible. Pictures of this will be added later, don't you worry.

That was the highlight of the excursion, I'd have to say. Wandering through the rest of the castle-sized structure, we played memory games involving men in yellow sweaters attacking us with knives, saw volcanic eruptions that spread over Japanese cities and passed by extremely overpriced cookies in the cafe area. After declaring ourselves too tired to see the rest of the museum, we padded back across a couple of intersections and tried to forget the knowledge we had just gained with an XL Bacon Cheeseburger from Burger King. Food really is the great equalizer. It's also a wonderful way to make yourself forget that you just saw a sign teaching you how to tell boys and girls apart.


Outside of that, however, it's been a great first week here. The flat is looking great and we're having a great time together thus far.

This week has been fairly busy, but will only get busier as the weekend approaches. I have an interview with the ESPN people I'm working this tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. and there needs to be some sort of plan for the weekend after I get back on Saturday night, as I will be going to visit my grandmother's relatives this coming Saturday over in Blackheath. The name of every city and town and borough in London makes me want to fake an accent or become a chimney sweep. *sigh* Why am I so American?

At any rate, I'd better be wrapping this up. Hopefully the next time I put something up, there will be pictures with it and it will be done from our own flat!...not from the London Centre.

Quickness

Hey hey...so since Norah reminded me that I haven't updated in a while, I figured that I'd give you all the lowdown on what's going on here in the Olde country.

First off, the internet here is ridiculous because I have to pay everytime to use it, since the London Centre computers are usually taken. I'm hoping the wireless there comes up soon because then it'll be a lot easier until we get wireless set up in our new flat. Yes, we found a flat! It's located in a nice district called Bayswater in a building called 25 Porchester Place. We're on the 16th floor and it's a great place. We're almost done moving in and then we start classes on Monday! Ahh!

A couple of other things before I get off of the computer in this very short entry.
I need to grocery shop.
I need to start running again. The "get buff" challenge is beginning soon and Team London WILL be winning. (Ask me and I'll explain.)
I'm tired and still a little lagged.
One of the greatest things in the world is to mute the BBC News and make up your own stories with a group of friends. Hilarious.
Fish and chips rocks.
I saw Big Ben today. And Parliament. And the Tower Bridge. And the old site of the Globe Theatre. Yeah for 'speare.
Pictures will be forthcoming once regular internet is available.

Okay, my fingers hurt from typing and my body hurts from traversing the city. As promised, I will keep you all updated about life and will hopefully talk with you guys later!

Keep on reading!

Arrival!

Wow. So finally after all the months of preparation and forms and all of that lovely stuff, I'm finally here with 86 other Ithaca College students in wonderful London. It doesn't feel too foreign surprisingly enough, mostly because they speak English here. It just feels like a cleaner version of New York City.

The keyboards are obnoxious, though, because some of the keystrokes are different simply because they don't use the same symbols that we do in the states. The @ is above the ' instead of the ", which is above the 2. Weird. Oh well, I can deal. The main thing is that we're all here and safe and looking for flats.

The flight in was fantastic, minus the lack of sleep. Between Monday morning and Wednesday night, I was able to get about 90 minutes of sleep; everyone was completely off the wall or grumpy, which was actually rather amusing when it comes down to it. But anywho, the flight was great. Airplane food is fantastic and so is Virgin Airways when it comes to in-flight entertainment. They have all these shows and CDs and movies you can watch while you're there, so I watched The Bourne Ultimatum and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. YEAH. Very quality cinema right there. And the hotel here is AMAZING. It's pretty much a 4-star hotel with a great breakfast spread and a king size bed that my buddy Luke and I split. We established a "man barrier" consisting of 2 pillows set in a line that we would not cross when we shared the bed. I love my friends. :o)

So now everyone is in the midst of looking for flats. I'll keep you posted as to whether or not I have gotten one and such, but we're hoping for something that isn't too expensive and has a close proximity to both the London Centre (where we take classes, in the picture below) and our internships, which will be starting either next week or the following week. For now it's orientation and flat hunting for all. Common places include Bayswater, Westminster, Kensington and Central London. Try saying them. You'll feel British just saying them. Or maybe that's just me.

But for now, I'm going to hop off of the blog and do some writing before the orientation session begins again. It's almost 6 p.m. now in London, which makes it about 1 p.m. in New York and on the East Coast, so it's actually dinner time! Keep reading to find out more in the wondrous saga of Seth and the Hunt for a Place to Live, as well as other fascinating details. Thanks for praying if you have been and please keep on it. And if you're not, I don't not like you, you're just excluded from the previous sentence.


Bye for now!