Lakes District from Saturday until Monday.
No updates.
Quick recap of Friday:
-Brandon's Bday
-Bar Bzr
-Walk Home
-Late Night
(more later, with pics of course....)
Monday it is....
ps- GOOD LUCK NORSE- TAKE ON THE IIAC! I'LL BE TEXTING FROM ACROSS THE SEA..... RUN LIKE THE NORSE YOU ARE, PARTY LIKE THE NORSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE....
posted by Kevin @ 8:21 AM
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I'm finding it very hard to concentrate lately-- i have roughly 300 pages of reading to do in the next week or so, and with travel plans, other class commitments, certain online distractions (not so bad), and other things that need to be taken care of, I really can't imagine what will happen when I go back to Luther and have real homework and real readings due.
Classes here are easy (for the most part), but slowly picking up speed. Having not been graded for a single assignment, the few that we are graded on are quickly arriving (Islam essay, field notebook, other writings and readings), and it will only get worse as family members of flatmates arrive, trips to London and the SW of England, and Crosscountry socials start filling up my calander....
In house-related and class-related news, we've been doing really well.... plenty of bonding over flat drama, long talks and discussions while holed-up in the flat library, and various outbursts that have or haven't happened yet----it's enough to keep you on your toes....
Classwise, the gang has been pretty perturbed with Mark and Carol and their lack of brevity.... 3 or 4 hr lectures, long phone conversations, and blatantly literarily-driven talks that bore the non-English majors to the point of actually falling asleep at the table....
As I write this, the rest of my flat mates are scurrying to write a very confused essay somehow combining the ideas of Wordsworth (hence the post- title today), The Industrial Revolution, The Enclosure Movement, The Enlightenment, and our experiences with our Green Spaces..... it's not fun to pull that much crap out and throw it on a page----today was hectic as all hell, and i'm glad that we've managed to get dinner ready while still having class and a paper due.
With that, I'll leave you with a popular poem by Wordsworth that is about the only thing that didn't put me to sleep today....
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
________
posted by Kevin @ 5:03 PM
2 comments
While the dissapointment of not being interviewed for the BBC may have seemed like the worst part of my day, luckily Mark and Carol were ready to fill that roll and make Tuesday as crappy as possible.
Something about sitting around a massive oak table for 4 hours listening to lame stories about Wordsworth and Coledrige, the Industrial Revolution, the lack of Greenspaces in Nottingham, and basically any randomly boring fact you could possibly insert into either of those topics....well, something about it just sucks.
Dinner started at 6, fine. Dessert was served at 630, even better. Lecture began at 645ish, not out of the norm. That's where the fun ends.... rather than having a guest lecture as is normally the case, Mark and Carol took over last night, and- partly because they didn't have to worry about the lecturer's commute home afterwards, they talked for roughly 3.5 hours. Nonstop. The content of the lecture wasn't all that bad, and neither was the way in which she presented it (ok, maybe a little), but the fact that we sat their for ever in obvious bordom, checking our watches in a blatent fashion....made it hell.
So, needless to say, after the lecture, we sprinted to Thirsty Boozers and had a chat with the merchandise-happy Pakistani owner who regailed us with stories of Luther past and promised us as many tshirts and sunglasses as we could fit in a suitcase for our journey home....
What really tops the night is the email i recieved this morning, which really encapsulates the relationship our group has with the directors--- a very strange coupling of respect, interest, confusion, and sometimes straight frustration..... there are things known as sarcasm and tact, neither of which members of our group are altogether good at....
From Mark, about my lack of cleaning the toilets:
Kevin, Since I know that you read your e-mails--unlike Brandon!!--I want to mention that the hall bathroom needs doing. I think it's your job this week, right? I think that a special guest like Kate's mother deserves to have an unbeshitted toilet, but so do Carol and I, and so do ALL OF YOU. It would be great if people who used the toilet wiped it up better than they do, but toilets need regular washing in any case. And make sure to change the hand towel every couple of days, given all the colds running through the flat. Thanks. You don't mind a reminder, do you? Mark
Needless to say, I sprinted to the toilets and scrubbed away.... and now i smell like crap.
(Mark at Hadrian's Wall, enjoying 'King Arthur's Throne'.....the picture is too fitting)
Cheers.
posted by Kevin @ 2:34 PM
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Despite the fact that more than 70% of my waking life is spent on this computer in the bowels of the flat basement, i somehow missed out on being inteviewed on the BBC.
Allow me to explain. Last post, i had mentioned an email from BBC EastMidlands freelance sports correspondant Robin Powell that i had recieved on my YouTube.com email at 4:30 am on monday morning. Unfortunately, i did not recieve a notice or read it until 11:30 last night....
Today, I called Mr. Powell, and to my dismay, he told me that they "were hoping to come out and do an interview, after all, I had seen the violence, and it would be a great piece..." Uhhhh. yeah, yeah it would.....(my reaction as he tells me this), only to have him continue "well, if you would have called me yesterday at this time, we could have sent some people out....but, unfortunately....."
suck.
although, consider the alternatives: 1) i insult the bristol fans on national tv and get killed, 2) the BBC was actually upset about copywrite infringment and i get sued, 3) that's really all i could come up with... this is kind of dissapointing.....
To see the video that caught their attention, go to my YouTube link, or scroll down....
otherwise, here's an interesting article about the violence that appears on the BBC Nottingham website, you can see the boarded up building as it looked yesterday, after they cleaned up the broken glass.....
BBC Story
just for comparison, here's the same building seconds after the violence ended....
posted by Kevin @ 10:20 AM
1 comments
Aside from being a world-class blogger, apparently I am also a world-class videographer... After loading this video (below) on Youtube.com today, i noticed a message from user 'stevebeech', about my recent videos posted after the brawl at the Forest game on Saturday:
Please could you contact Robin Powell at BBC East Midlands Today on 07836 557696 re your pics on Youtube.
So, needless to say, i'll be giving them a call tomorrow.... I feel very "Mark Cohen" from Rent....
Otherwise, here are pictures as promised from today's field trip:
This road was torn apart by the power of land slips, when the shale- soaked in water for years- has no traction against other layers of shale....
This hunk of chiseled......this rock is made of gritstone, and someone years ago decided it would make an awesome Giant Turtle....
The great White Peak.... you can see as our class descends upon it in insect-like fury...
Inside the cavern, where fossils as old as 350 million years and stalagtites as old as 100,000 years have been found....
Another breathtaking English view, just an hour from the flat....
Finally, a video from inside the cave, as our tourguide attempts to say Stalagtite and Stalagmite..... crazy brits....
posted by Kevin @ 11:08 PM
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Today began early, as Brandon and I awoke at 7.15 to shower and make lunches before our first and only Physical Landscapes of Britain field trip.... lasting from 9am until 6pm, we were 'looking forward' to a great 'learning experience'.
The premise is this: our class is 10 credits (3 Luther Credit equiv.), and 25% of our grade is based on a Field Notebook that we were to compile during the trip. There are three main 'sites' that we visited, and each site is dedicated a page in the notebook. There are to be sketches, detailed notes, outside research, and our own personal pictures. Essentially, you mess this up, and you had better ace the final....
The sites today were the Dark Peak (Hathersage Moor), The White Peak (Treak Cliff Cavern), and the Mam Tor & Winnatis Pass, all located within the Peaks District of Derbyshire, UK, about 1.5 hrs from the Uni.
The group that assembled was mostly first year geology students, who were taking the class as the first in a long line of geo classes for their very specific major. Taking the class as a sluff-off non-lab science for Luther maybe wasn't the best idea.... About 50 of us crammed into the coach bus provided, and made our way to Derby.... The group was very random- people who looked very interested, very bored, very confused, and very dumb. I'll put Brandon and myself in either the third or fourth group....
The most confusing part of the whole trip was the basic concept behind it: drop the students off, let them 'take notes' and 'snap photos' , but don't tell them anything about what they're looking at.... We were CLUELESS. At one point, the lead professor looked at Brandon and asked him some random question about how peat bogs form (duh, because gritstone and sandstone are so pourous, they become waterlogged as a result of the water-stopping properties of the shale that lies beneath...duh), he instead backed away and slowly zipped his fleece over his mouth.... even in retrospect, it was the best move he could have made....
In summary, we hiked around the White Peak, enjoyed the glory that was the Cavern (hilarious pronunciation of 'Stalagtites and Stalagmites'), and took in some incredible views of the "LOTR-esque" hills that were reminiscient of any New Zealand landscape shot.... unfortunately, my camera itself became waterlogged during our spelunking adventure, and i was unable to shoot pictures from Cavern Exit until about 5 minutes ago...
Enjoy the pics,
tomorrow promises to be boring and crappy, as the Flat is assigned a newspaper article, all of our back-logged journals (the blog is too innappropriate now to copy and paste like last time....), as well as reading and other responses.... should be a good time....
posted by Kevin @ 9:10 PM
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Today's trip to Chattsworth was wet, cold, and what I acutely described in the carride home as 'aloof'. Simply put, the property is amazing, expansive, elaborate, rich beyond measure, and because of its history and riches- downright pretentious and unlivable.
-A view of Chattsworth from across the widened river.....
The grounds are amazing- designed by landscape designer Capability Brown (sidenote: i'm naming my first born child Capability).... every tree is planted with an intent, the river was moved and widened to show the reflection of the house, every path meticulously planned, and even lakes and ponds planted with reason. We were given 2 hrs to wander around the grounds before lunch in the small town adjacent to the property, and we made good use of our time...
The duke was jealous that the Czar of Russia had an aquaduct, so he had one built....
Staring Contest- you win, you always do....
Lunch was, as is custom with the Muggli clan, somewhat fancier than necessary. Cold chicken with plums and dates, cous cous with mint, cucumber mousse, followed by tea and an apple casserole dessert.... good, but rich....
Fancy a Hunt? About 30 horses and 20 hounds were out for a hunt when we walked back to the house....
Our tour of the house was quick, and filled with priceless art and artifacts.... ancient egyptian sculptures, Turkish gondolas, giant lifelike statues, and enough gold plating, candles and molded plaster to make a person with any kind of moderate taste want to puke.
The giftshop itself was full of greek statues, scattered around as if there was no better place to put them...
LOST Season 2 Finale, anyone?
The gardens afterwards provided no solice from the driving rain, and i was soaked and cold in seconds. Awesome temporary sculptures from Keith Haring, Joan Muiro, Salvador Dali and other contemporary sculptors made up for the rain, but tea and cheesecake with Mary and Emily was a good break..
Robert Indiana's LOVE
Giant Metallic Miles Davis (backside here) 
Keith Haring, with some British foliage in the background, changing colors for once....
My favorite, Salvador Dali....amazing sculpture, with balances.....
All in all, it really reminded me of Alnwick Castle- full of unnecessary but elaborate and fancy decoration, completely unlivable and unpractical. It's easy to understand why a place like it exists- to protect the style of life that existed in the past- but the sheer decadence and expense is almost laughable... i think that the presence of a giftshop where the old servant's chambers says it all....
Little kids hate rain.....
___________---
Otherwise, tomorow i have a field trip with Brandon to the Peaks District for our Physical Landscapes class- it should be interesting to say the least- we don't know anyone in the class, and so far the class has been pretty random and over our heads.... hopefully it provides a little more substance and context for what we need to be learning over the next few weeks, because right now it feels like the class is moving a little quickly and very erratically....
Tuesday our journals are due for Luther classes here, and aside from the fact that this blog is chock full of info, it's not really appropriate.. last time i recieved comments like 'remember your audience' after making the statement 'hey eda, you'll think this is cool'....wish me luck, it's bound to take all day....
posted by Kevin @ 8:54 PM
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This is what HAPPENED when 9 students from the middle of nowhere WERE picked to live in a flat in the middle of Nottingham, England. This is what HAPPENED when people stopped being polite, and start being REAL. This WAS Luther- Nottingham Campus, 2006-2007 ...And now I'm back.
