ahead of the game... for now
09/July/2005 11:47 PM

Well, since Stefy is coming in tomorrow, and since this is looking like a busy week of classes, I actually got ahead of the studying game today. I did our reading for Monday, which was a short book (about 60 pages minus some pictures) about the movie we're screening, Performance. It sounds like a pretty whacked-out film, but the reading actually got me excited to see it. It's from the 60s, features Mick Jagger, and has obscene amounts of sex, drugs, and violence in it. Sounds like a winner to me!

I also buckled down and wrote my paper for ENG 332, which is due on Tuesday. That means that, for the time being, I'm actually ahead of the game. Still, I managed to kill most of my day working on it. I think it's a REALLY good paper though. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out in fact. It's definitely a big weight off my shoulders for the time being.

I did take a break in the middle of writing to venture up to Tottenham Court Road again this evening. It's becoming my new go-to part of town while Russell Square is quarantined. I grabbed a bite of dinner at BK, went to the Virgin Megastore to post my most recent photo series, talk briefly to Stef online, and send off some emails.

After my internet fix for the day, I went over to Borders so I could look for a gift to give Stefy when I see her tomorrow. I was wracking my brain over what I could buy, but I finally had the perfect idea. I picked out a copy of A Prayer for Owen Meany. It's still my favorite book, and since I figured Stef would have plenty of free time on the trip, I thought it was the perfect choice. I just hope she doesn't think it sucked.
The rest of my night was spent in seclusion finishing my paper. It probably seems like I'm being really anti-social, but these first three weeks just have me swamped, and I want to do a good job on everything.
Well, that's it for now. By the time I add this post to the site Stefy will already be in the country! I really can't wait to see her. I know it's only been 8 days, but this is honestly the longest we've been apart since we started dating. You're allowed to roll your eyes, but I don't care. What can I say... I love my girl!

aftermath photos
09/July/2005 05:42 PM

I've posted another short picture series. This one is decidedly less exciting than the last one, but I thought that people might want to see what things look like around our neighborhood.

Picture Series #2: London Can Take It!

In other news, Stefy is on her way! I just got done talking to her, and she's already at Detroit Metro. She'll be arriving in London at about 6:30 local time tomorrow, and I'll go over to see her around noon. While I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet, I'm hoping to pick up a little welcome gift to take over to her tomorrow. I can't wait!

Anyway, I'm posting this from the Virgin Megastore right now, and paying through the nose to be online. Actually, it's not that much more to use their broadband than it was at that internet cafe, so at least I don't have to deal with a pee cee. Still, I'm hoping that good ol' Russell Square will open up in the next couple of days so I can get back to a regular update cycle. Posts could be rather sporadic in the meantime.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

the day after yesterday
08/July/2005 09:44 PM

What a difference a day makes.

I walked outside this morning and saw our formerly quiet little corner swamped with news people. Harry Smith from CBS's Early Show was even here. The police had blocked off the road leading down from our street to the site of the bus explosion last night, but today they had erected some makeshift scaffolding and hung tarp to visibly block the scene. As I walked through the neighborhood, I noticed more people on foot than usual, fewer cars, and just an overall eerie feeling about Bloomsbury. But, that's to be expected I suppose.

Tavistock square (where the bus exploded) wasn't the only part of town blocked off. Police had completely sealed my old hangout Russell Square, and were blocking a pretty big section of our little part of the city. I walked around and got as close to things as I could to take some pictures, but the cops clearly weren't in a mood to be messed with, so I got out of the way pretty quick.

I came back to the dorm for a bit after my morning walk. No one had heard any official word about the fate of our trip yet, but several kids told me that they had heard from various sources that we were staying. So that was good news.

It was a pretty boring day on the whole. I decided to walk over to Regent's Park for the first time this afternoon though, so that gave me something to do. The walk was a bit longer than it looked like it would be on the map, but it was worth it. The park dwarfs Russell Square, and is breathtakingly beautiful. After such a horrific day yesterday, a nice pastoral setting was a welcome change of scenery. I walked through the park for about an hour, and barely put a dent in covering the whole thing. When Stefy gets here -- and she is still coming by the way -- I really hope that we get a chance to go back there. I think she'd like it. There's even an open air theater in the park that's showing Shakespeare plays during the summer, so I think it would be right up her alley.

After my LONG walk through the park, I finally came back to the dorm for another rest. I was completely exhausted by the time I got here though, since I hadn't eaten anything in hours. Before going upstairs for a nap I gave Miss Spiro a call using my new calling card. We didn't talk for long, but it was good to hear her voice. I'm so glad that I'm staying and that she's still coming to London. Honestly, what a bummer it would've been to have the whole trip cancelled because of everything that's happened. I just really hope that things get back to normal as soon as possible, so Stef can enjoy Bloomsbury the way I was able to before yesterday. This is just such a wonderful little community, and it's terrible to see it like this. I digress.

After talking with my girl I came upstairs and napped for about an hour. I finally got up again at around 6, and went down to the basement and warmed up my frozen dinner. It wasn't particularly good, but it was enough for dinner I suppose. I ventured up to Tottenham Court road after I ate, and made my way back to the same internet cafe I went to last night. I paid for an hour online, and spent the whole time answering emails again. There were even more than yesterday. It's so nice to know that so many people care about me though. Honestly, it meant a lot to hear from everyone who sent me a note. I mean, I know that I'm fine and everything is going to be okay, but it just feels good to know that there are people out there who are worried about me. So, to those who wrote, I extend my heartfelt thanks.

Once I was done responding to emails, I came back to the dorm for the night. As soon as I got back I decided to make phone calls to my mom and dan, my dad, and Stefy before going to bed. It was nice to talk with everyone tonight, even if I managed to kill my brand new calling card in one sitting. It was worth it.

Stefy's getting in on Sunday morning, and I absolutely cannot wait. After everything that I've been through over the last two days now, I think a hug from my girl is going to be about the best thing in the world (as if it wasn't already).

Well, I suppose that's it for now. Tomorrow will probably be a lot like today. Just trying to keep myself busy. Maybe starting to do my readings for class this week. Hopefully finding an open internet connection so I can actually post this. We'll see.

Goodnight from London.

LONDON CAN TAKE IT
07/July/2005 12:08 PM

I am sitting in the lobby of Campbell Hall right now. It's unlikely that this post will get online today, but I feel like I need to write something.

There were 8 of us sitting in the lobby waiting for our professor to arrive at 9:45 this morning. We were complaining about having to go to class today, hoping that Justus would show up and tell us that our meeting was cancelled. Strangely prophetic I suppose.

About five minutes before we were supposed to leave for class, we heard an unbelievable boom from outside. We joked that it sounded like a bomb, but shrugged it off because there is a busy construction site right across the street. Something was clearly wrong though when we saw people out in the street, including the construction workers, stop dead in their tracks and look down the road. Curious, we ventured outdoors, and followed the shocked bystanders. A few of us walked to the corner and looked down the block. At the end of the street we saw something spattered across the side of a building. As a mob of people started rushing towards us, we overheard people saying "you don't want to go down there," and "there's blood all over the wall." I heard someone on a cell phone saying "there's at least 8 people dead." Our jaws dropped.

Professor Nieland walked up a few minutes later. He told us that he was on the tube on the way to come meet us when his train stopped. An announcer came over the PA and said that there had been a major incident at King's Cross station. They managed to get one car of his train into the next station, and have everyone file out through that first car. On his way over to our dorm, he heard the same explosion we heard.

We came inside and decided to go wake up everyone who was still asleep. I went up to my room and woke up Eric. We came downstairs and gathered in the lobby and watched the TV. From what we know at this point, there was an explosion on a double decker bus near Russell Square -- this seems to be the explosion we heard. Apparently there was at least two other bombs that went off in the middle of London though. At this point the news is saying that there is a major rescue underway, with emergency personnel rushing into the Russell Square tube station. They're also saying that at least 20 people are dead now, and about 80 others are injured. Tony Blair just made a brief announcement from the G8 summit a few minutes ago. For now, we're just going to stay in the dorm until all MSU students in London can be accounted for.

I don't know what to think about all this right now. Part of me is quite honestly terrified and wants to go home NOW. Another part of me is unbelievably pissed off, and wants to stay and finish out the trip. As time passes, I'm settling into a state of numbness. I called my mom and Dan, and dispatched them to make phone calls letting people know I was safe.

I'm going to wrap this up now. Hopefully I'll figure out what's going on soon.

Wow. That's all I can say. WOW.

hump day
06/July/2005 11:30 PM

Today was our last day of ENG 332 for the week. We're officially a third of the way through the semester! Woo hoo!

After class I went to Russell square and talked to Stefy online for a little while, answered some emails, and grabbed a bite of lunch. I finally packed up and headed back to Campbell by 3 p.m. or so to start working on my paper that's due tomorrow for ENG 431A.

The assignment only calls for a two page hand written critique of the movie we chose to watch this week, using one of the assigned readings as a tool for forming our thesis. It sounds easy enough, but I struggled getting started. Since I didn't have any notebook paper with me, and since I hate writing papers by hand anyway, I decided to type mine. That might've been part of the reason it took so long for me to finish (with revisions and whatnot), but at least it will look like a real PAPER when I hand it in.

Anyway, it took me forever to finally finish that thing. It was about 7:30 by the time I was finally happy with it. Once I was done, I ran up to the park so I could email the word file to myself, and then hurried over to a local internet cafe before it closed so I could print it out. I made it there with plenty of time to spare, and was able to get a finished copy in my hand for just £1. What a load off.

On my way back to the dorm I doubled back to Russell Square for a bit so I could talk to Stefy again. We started making some plans for things we want to do on the trip, and where we'll try to meet on Sunday when she gets in. Today was her last day at work for the week, so she's gonna spend the next couple of days getting packed and making sure she has everything squared away before her flight on Saturday afternoon. I'm so excited that my girl will be here soon. Don't get me wrong, this city is great, but I think we're going to have so much fun together. I'm sure the number of pictures I post will increase tenfold once she's here.

Anyway, that's it for now. Thursday is my first day of that 431A class, so we'll see how that goes. This will probably be my last post until Saturday, since I'm leaving to go visit Ken and Margaret this afternoon. Somehow I doubt that they'll have high speed internet at their bungalow. Still, it should be a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I just hope I don't get lost on the train system.

Have a great weekend!

tuesday
05/July/2005 11:05 PM

Day two of class. I got a little nervous before things started at 10 this morning when I overheard Justus talking with one of the students about how everyone was supposed to be signed up for both the English 332 and 331 classes, because I only signed up for 332 (and the other class, 431A). I went up front and asked what the deal was, and he explained that the original concept for the trip was that students would have to take both 331 (film criticism) and 332 (film history), but would have the option of taking a third class, English 431A, which is basically an advanced criticism class. When I enrolled earlier in the summer, there were no restrictions on MSU's site about what you could, could not, and MUST sign up for, so I chose 332 and 431A, because it meant that I'd earn one extra credit, and that I wouldn't be effectively re-taking the lower level criticism class. Anyway, to make a long, confusing, and probably pointless story short, Justus told me that he would check with Professor Roof (who is arriving in two weeks) about letting me keep things the way they are. Basically this means that, after these first three weeks, all I'll have to worry about will be the 431A class that meets on Thursdays. He told me that I'd be welcome to sit in on the other classes' discussions and screenings, but would be under no obligation to do so. I'm sorry if this is confusing, but it is important because it sort of sets the tone for the next five weeks. That's all I have to say about that.

ANYWAY, our four (yes, four) screenings at the BFI this morning were all from a WWII-era British documentary filmmaker, Humphrey Jennings. I really liked everything we watched today, and thought that these were all really entertaining films. A lot of kids in class were hung up on the fact that this guy was a state-sponsored filmmaker during the war though, which they argued made his work propaganda. I just found the films to be uplifting in a way, yet also somehow somber and skeptical about what would happen after the war ended. If that makes any sense. It certainly wasn't the sort of brow-beating wartime propaganda we got (and get) in the states, that's for sure. Fox News, cough.

My afternoon and evening were pretty haphazard... kinda like this post.

I went to Russell Square right after class to see if I could catch Stefy online before she left for work. Luckily she was still home, so we fired up iChat and talked online for about a half hour. The audio and video quality was surprisingly good, considering that I was on a shoddy wireless network in the middle of a park... in England. Still, the idea that I got to SEE my girl today with my computer is just so cool to me. Technology amazes me sometimes. Anyway, as you can imagine, Miss Spiro and I had a lot to catch up on, and it was wonderful to talk to her for the first time in several days. She eventually had to leave for work though, so I signed off and headed back to the dorm to re-charge my poor, depleted iBook battery.

Once I got back to Campbell I was in a funk about what I wanted to do for the rest of the day. I kept going back and forth in my mind, but finally decided to walk over to the British museum and walk around. I'm so glad that I went. That place is simply breathtaking. I've been to big, beautiful museums before, but this is now at or near the top of my list of favorites. You can see some pictures here, and a short video clip here. Some of the pieces they've collected are just amazing. I mean, I saw the freakin' Rosetta Stone today. Oh, and did I mention that this place is free? They ask for donations, but even for the $5 they suggest, it's still worth it. I'll definitely be back there before the trip is over.

After my historical afternoon at the museum, I did some more running back and forth from my dorm to Russell Square in between rain showers. I finally called our friends Ken and Margaret and made plans for the weekend. Basically, Ken is too sick to travel into the city, but they told me where I could catch a train out to their hometown, Bognor Regis. It sounds like an easy enough trip, and they were excited to hear from me. I'll probably leave after class on Thursday afternoon, and then have them pick me up in the early evening. Margaret invited me to stay for the weekend, but I'll probably try to head back here on Saturday since Stefy gets into town on Sunday morning. I'm glad to finally have some plans in place to get out of the city for the weekend though. Now all I have to worry about is not getting lost on the train.

Well, the rest of my night was kind of a bore. It kept raining off and on, which killed my plans to go out for another long walk. There was enough of a dry spell in there for me to run to the park and update the site for a little while before coming back to Campbell for the night. I finished up tomorrow's reading for class, and started planning my short paper that's due for my OTHER class on Thursday. But that was basically it.
I think the rain is gone for the week, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, I hope everyone back home had an easy day back on the job after a long weekend. Night, night.

multimedia dispatches
05/July/2005 08:07 PM

Okay, here's a couple new things:

London Calling [first picture series]
British Museum [a short clip from inside the british museum]

I'll have a longer update about my day today soon (tomorrow morning for me, the middle of the night for you).

hangin' with mr. nieland
04/July/2005 10:41 PM

Well, this evening was interesting. I took my first trip on the tube. The MSU program leader made it sound like it's the scariest place in the world, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to navigate, and generally how clean and un-crowded the trains were. I made it up to the BFI's National Film Theater with no problems whatsoever.

I was walking through the mid-afternoon mist when I bumped into Professor Nieland (who has kindly asked us to call him by his first name... Justus) along the way. He was heading to the NFT as well to see one set of films that he assigned for our 410A class (which is on Thursday). I was going there to see the "This is Soul" program, which was a compilation of clips from British TV shows featuring famous soul performers from the 50s-70s.

Anyway, we chatted along the way to the theater, and then went up to the kiosk to buy our tickets. Justus got up there (man, I'll just never get used to using that name... so unusual) and quickly realized that he was two hours early for his screening, so he decided to tag along to my show instead. There was some time to kill, so JUSTUS offered to buy me a beer at the little pub by the river. I was a little taken aback by the notion of a professor offering to buy me beer, but then again I'm not exactly a big drinker, so that was probably part of it. I settled for a Coke, and we sat by the Thames drinking our drinks and talking about all sorts of stuff. The trip. The class. Our film program. It was actually pretty cool. It's just kinda funny. I mean, I've kinda bonded with a couple of my classmates, but I feel like this was the best REAL conversation I've had so far. The thing I liked about it though was that it almost felt like I was talking with a colleague as opposed to a professor. Maybe this happens to college kids all the time. I dunno. I digress.

Anyway, we chatted for a good half hour or so before the movie, but made it into the theater right on time. The program of clips was fantastic, and I'm so glad that I decided to go. It featured clips from old time UK TV shows with musical acts like Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, and a bunch of others. Now, I can honestly say that I love most of these soul singers and still listen to a lot of their music, but I guess I'd never seen any live performances from them. I have to say though, of the whole slate of performers featured in this presentation, Otis was by far the BEST one in the crowd. That man was simply amazing.

After the show Justus and I found our way back to the tube station and started heading back for the night. We chatted some more along the way before parting at one of the first stations we came to. It was actually really fun to have someone to talk about the show with, and I think I'll earn some brownie points for seeing it with the prof when I turn in my paper on Thursday.

So, it was a really fun evening, and hopefully I'll get some more time to pick Prof. Nieland's brain about grad school, careers, and whatnot before he leaves in two weeks.

Okay, it's late now, and I'ms goin' to B-E-D

happy 4th!
04/July/2005 03:31 PM

Well, for the first time ever I'm not in America for the 4th of July. In fact, I'm in the country we fought to free ourselves from. Maybe I should give some British people the finger.

There, I just did. Oh man, were they pissed. GO AMERICA!

Honestly though, I keep forgetting that it's the 4th. It doesn't even feel like it. And I had SCHOOL today. How weird is that? Well, our first day of classes at the BFI were pretty painless. Actually, it was a lot of fun. The screening facility isn't quite as posh as they described, but it is still very nice. Especially considering that I'm used to watching movies in painful desk chairs at Bessy Hall.

The first movie we watched today was "Borderline", which is one of the first self-described Avant Garde films ever made. It came out during the tail end of the silent era, so it's pretty old to begin with. The film is so old and so rarely seen in fact, that the BFI's original print is no longer watchable. Instead we screened a beat up old VHS dub that Professor Nieland had in his own collection. So it already had a strike against it going in, and the fact that it's narrative is practically impossible to decipher didn't help either. That said, I managed to stay awake throughout the entire 60 min film, so I was pretty proud of myself. I also felt like I had a decent grasp on things even though it was hard to tell what was going on. Our second film of the day was a short clip that was originally made for the purpose of showing Brits how to properly address envelopes. I know that sounds silly, but it was actually a really cute little sketch, and I think it's safe to say that most of us enjoyed those six minutes a lot more than the first movie.

My afternoon was pretty low key so far. I walked up and down a busy shopping district for a little while and popped into a few stores, but didn't buy anything. Afterwards I came back to the dorm and changed into some tennis shoes and switched shirts, but then headed back out again. It was starting to sprinkle, so I grabbed a light lunch in the Russell Square cafe again. It's good grub. I finally got online again after I ate, but it was still looking like it could rain any minute, so I was ready to hop up and get indoors if I needed to. Of course, leave it to the British weather to throw me another (welcome) curve ball. After two days of nothing but cloudy skies, the sun finally came out while I was sitting here, and all I can see now is clear skies.

Anyway, I'm going to get up and head over to the Underground station soon for my first ride on the Tube. I'm heading to the National Film Theater to watch a documentary for my other film class on Thursday. The movie is all about black soul music, and it starts at six. It sounds like a pretty cool show, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm going to enjoy the sun for a bit now and do some more reading for tomorrow's class. Have a good morning/afternoon!

a long afternoon
03/July/2005 09:34 PM

So I was on my way back to the room this afternoon, but I decided to just keep on walking. I went to this whole other section of town that I hadn't checked out yet and walked around for a couple more hours. I found out where a few more important local landmarks are, so it was a worthwhile little jaunt.

On my loop back towards the dorm I finally stumbled across the restaurant I've been looking for over the past 36 hours. When I saw those golden arches, my stomach took over all brain functions. Yes, I ate at a McDonald's in London. And no, it wasn't cheap. About £3.29 for a Big Mac value meal, but I was just craving some good fast food, so it hit the spot. I must say though, as McDonald's goes, it was a pretty good one.

So anyway, after eating I tried finding my way back to the dorm again. The more I walked though, the more I kept seeing interesting little storefronts and restaurants lining every new street I came to, and the more I kept following them. That sort of blind navigation is fun when you have someone with you in the middle of the day, but I was alone and the sun was setting, so I quickly decided that I wanted to head back for sure. Of course, by then I was totally lost. I thought I knew where I was heading, so I kept on walking, but that made the situation even worse. Eventually I gave up and dug a map out of my backpack, and was back en route in no time.

I had my bearings once I stumbled upon Russell Square again, so I took another stop there to get online one last time for the night. It was still relatively light out, so I sat down for about a half hour checking some sites and responding to emails before FINALLY heading back to Campbell Hall for real. It was 9:30 by the time I got here. I somehow managed to kill 8 hours walking through London. That's how amazing this place is.

A group of my classmates passed me on their way out to the bar at another one of the MSU dorms as I walked up to the hall, and they invited me to join them. It actually felt nice to be included, and I would've gone, but I was absolutely whipped from my long day of walking. So, after standing there and chatting for a few minutes, I came up and cashed in for the night. Yes, it's only about a quarter to ten now, but my body clock is still way outta whack. Anyway, that's it for today.

Tomorrow we start class at the BFI, so that should be fun. I'll probably be going to a film screening in the afternoon or evening for my class that starts on Thursday. Basically we have to write a short hand written two-page thesis paper on it that ties in with our reading for the week. It sounds easy enough, but I hate having assignments like this before we ever meet. Ah well.

day one
03/July/2005 05:27 PM

Last night was the first full night's rest I've had in quite a while. Ten wonderful hours.

My shower this morning was just about as terrible as the last one. I'm trying to figure out a system though so I don't get so frustrated every time I want to clean up.

Our first official orientation was at 9:30 this morning, so I gave myself a pretty big head start in an effort to make sure I didn't get lost. I went into a little store and bought myself a chocolate chip muffin and some OJ with "juicy bits" in it. I guess that's just their way of putting a happy spin on the annoyance of "pulp".

On my way to International Hall I stopped by Russell Square with my laptop. Success! I finally found an open network, appropriately named "Apple Network". Leave it to the Mac community to come to the rescue. I uploaded the last two blog entries (already archived), replied to some emails, and sent Stefy a couple text messages.

Once I was done online I decided that it was time to make my way over to the orientation, and I thought 15 minutes was enough lead time. I quickly realized that the route I thought we took yesterday on our guided tour was wrong. Luckily enough though, I stumbled into my roommate along the way, who was also quite lost.

We wandered aimlessly through the surrounding neighborhoods for at least 10-15 minutes before finally finding our way. We only missed the first few minutes of the meeting though, so it really wasn't a big deal.
After the main orientation was over Prof. Nieland gathered the film kids up for our own little chat. After handing out the syllabi I noticed that the 332 class I signed up for only goes for the first three weeks. That means that after the first half of my trip I'll only have a two hour class on Thursdays. Brilliant!

After the meeting, we went around with Nieland and found our way up to the British Film Institute so we'd know how to get to our first class tomorrow. I think I'll remember the route next time, but I'm not making any promises.

My roomie and I walked around with some other kids for a little while after going to the BFI. We ended up buying some groceries at a local store, and then went back to the dorm for a little while to put stuff in the kitchen.

By then it was mid-afternoon and Eric wanted to go off on his own, so I gathered up my stuff and went back to Russell Square. I guess it's just my new hang out. I had some lunch at the cafe in the park, and pretty much spent the afternoon here people watching and talking to Stefy via iChat. It wasn't totally unproductive time though, since I was able to do some more of my readings for this week, and type this entry.

The really funny thing though is that I was asked to be in a skit for a group of people who were here in Russell Square shooting a comedy pilot for Channel 4. A girl from their crew came over while I was reading and asked me if I would help, and I said I would. Basically this really funky looking English dude Paul was supposed to come up from behind me in the scene and slap me on the back of the head (it's this bizarre fad among teens here called 'happy slapping'). The thing is, he's supposed to screw it up in the scene, and then they'll cut to a reaction shot of me looking really pissed off. It took all of five minutes to do, but it was pretty cool to be asked. The thing that sucks is that I'll probably have no idea if this show ever gets picked up, or if my scene ever ends up on TV. Oh well, it was still fun.

Well, my battery is running low, so I'm going to upload now, and then head back to the room for a while. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.