Term in Review: Everything Else + Closing notes

Well, I'm back.

It's strange to think about.  Coming home at the time (yesterday in London) felt more like "leaving London" rather than "coming home," if that makes sense.  It felt much less like "returning to Columbus" than "leaving for Columbus."  And, you know, it hit me when I was leaving: I'll really miss London.  No matter how much I griped about the things that were weird about it to almost anyone who'd listen, London did become, dare I say it...home.  London actually became home for me.  Not that I ever considered my dorm to be "home" in the sense that I consider the home where I grew up (and am sitting right now, actually) to be my real "home," but in the sense that the city was, indeed, a part of me and that I was, in fact, a part of it.

Did I get to do everything I wanted to?  Hah, no.  I really wanted to go to Wales, to more countries in Europe (i.e. Belgium, Italy [DAMN YOU, VOLCANO!!!!!!], Germany, Spain), but I consider my time there this time around to be as complete as it gets.  For the hell of it, let's look at the list of "stuff I wanted to get done when I was here" and see how I did:

1. Adopt a fully functioning British accent.
2. Be able to find my way around London.
3. Go to a bunch of shows because every awesome band has some sort of stop in London (like...three straight nights of Pavement for me in May)
4. Immerse myself in the culture.
5. Pick a soccer team.
6. Have the time of my life.
7. And, uh, I guess I should probably pass my classes...right?

The results:
1.  Nope.  I think my British accent might be worse now.
2.  Done.  It's actually not that hard.
3.  Sort of.  I added a night of Pavement (so four straight nights) and went to Passion Pit at the HMV Forum.  Not the best record here but I wouldn't consider it too shabby.
4.  Sort of.  London's a bit too multicultural nowadays to have a 100% "British" culture, but what was there, I got into.  So I might mark this off.
5.  Oh, the pains of being an Arsenal fan.
6.  To say the least.
7.  I think I passed my classes.  I won't know until July-August and I won't worry about it until then.

Also, I apparently made a "London, you better do this for me" list:

1. Be awesome.
2. Don't sic your soccer hooligans on me for not having chosen a football club yet.  I will also be entertaining offers regarding the football club I should be supporting.
3. Give me awesome concerts.
4. Give me awesome beer.
5. Give me a good crop of London friends, both those studying abroad too and locals.


How it did:
1.  Yep.
2.  Yep.  As I said earlier, I chose Arsenal.
3.  For real.
4.  Yes.  The closer you get to Dublin, the better the Guinness gets...I am not lying.  So getting pretty close made the beer more awesome.
5.  Definitely.  I'll miss all of them and I better see a few of them in the summer.


So there.  London did pretty well with both "barometers" - though I'm unsure as to whether or not they can be considered as rigorous or even robust.  But that's not really the issue.  My dad raised the question as to whether or not the trip was worth it to me.  A thousand times over.  OK, so the bed they gave me in the dorm was a piece of shit.  OK, London was a bit weird at times, but if you put me right back in time to last fall when I was considering it with full knowledge of what it'd be like, I'd make the same decision.  I wouldn't do it again starting right now, obviously, but it was really worth it as it is.

I really can't be displeased.  And it's not even that I, like, enjoyed school (who enjoys school anyways?).  It was everything else.  As I told my dad when I pitched the idea of coming abroad to him, I told him that the steep cost wasn't strictly implying that I was paying that money solely to be at Unversity College London.  The money was also to be granted access to London and to be able to be part of it.  Granted, the niche I carved out for myself was mostly with other American ex-pat students also looking towards the time we all headed back to the States, but it was comfortable.

And that's probably what I'll miss the most.  Finally, at the end, I was grounded into London in some way and I was finally able to start enjoying it the way London was likely supposed to be enjoyed to begin with.  I made a great group of friends, and it was sad to see everyone heading back to their own towns and cities in the United States.  But, you know, just because we all left London doesn't necessitate an end to those friendships.  So, there's no real downside to all this, when you think about it.


My friends back home, here?  Yeah, I'm excited to see them again.  It's felt odd being away for so long, because in some ways, even if you talk, you can't hang out, really.  But that all changes because I'm back now, and I'll see the lot of them now.  It'll be a great feeling to see all the close friends I have here once again.  Maybe we'll go to Thurman's and enjoy real burgers (sorry, London, that's one thing you are vastly inferior to the United States in), hang out, and all that jazz.


Will I miss London (or, rather, am I missing London)?  God, yes.  I miss it right now.  But while I was sitting in the airport in London waiting to see what gate I was at (and seeing a close friend off whose plane left a bit before mine), I realized that yeah, my time was winding down.  It was time to come home, and now I'm home.


NP: The Kinks - Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One

As I was sitting there in the airport, I put on this record and the song "Strangers" hit me like a ton of bricks, cut me like a thousand knives, riddled me with a million bullets.  It perfectly summarized leaving London, leaving the world I'd somehow (against all odds, likely) carved out for myself there behind...

"Where are you going I don't mind
I've killed my world and I've killed my time
So where do I go what do I see
I see many people coming after me
So where are you going to I don't mind
If I live too long I'm afraid I'll die
So I will follow you wherever you go
If your offered hand is still open to me
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one
So you've been where I've just come
From the land that brings losers on
So we will share this road we walk
And mind our mouths and beware our talk
'Till peace we find tell you what I'll do
All the things I own I will share with you
If I feel tomorrow like I feel today
We'll take what we want and give the rest away
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one
Holy man and holy priest
This love of life makes me weak at my knees
And when we get there make your play
'Cos soon I feel you're gonna carry us away
In a promised lie you made us believe
For many men there is so much grief
And my mind is proud but it aches with rage
And if I live too long I'm afraid I'll die
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one"

2010.05.10-13 Pavement, London, O2 Academy Brixton

I didn't keep track of the setlists because there is already good aggregator for such a thing here: PAVEMENT 2010.  But here are my notes, night by night.

You can also find photos on my Facebook...I only really have night four, as that was the only night I remembered my camera.

Notes from night 1:

-Stephen is really, really aloof compared to the rest of the band.
-Bob is the lifeblood of the show, he runs around and screams stuff into the microphone, talks the most to the audience and generally is the most active, and I fucking love it.
-They played most everything I wanted to hear, there were two songs I actually didn't recognize which I figure were on either the Watery Domestic EP or the Westing comp, both of which I'm less familiar with than their studio albums proper.
-Thanks, drunk guy, for ruining the most tender moment in the show ("We Dance" to close out the main set) and the most cathartic moment of the show ("Here" to end the show, period).
-I'm already pretty damn tired, how'm I supposed to sustain this for four nights?

Night 2:

-Mostly repeats except for a couple tracks. Still had two tracks I didn't recognize, one of them from the previous night. "The Hexx" finally appeared, though, which was fantastic.
-The band seemed to get to a slower start but when they got loose it was awesome.
-Giant inflated balloons for the second encore. Awesome.
-They ended with "Stop Breathin'" which was a peculiar choice. "Fin" was especially with Stephen's solo-ing, but Pavement has always been a rather messy band to me.
-No drunk people ruining my favorite songs, though "Here" did not show up tonight.
-Tonight was much more manageable than last night in terms of tiredness.

Night 3:

-Major issues with Stephen's guitar to start. "Frontwards" and the next song were kinda busts because his guitar parts are sort of necessary.
-Something was off tonight..."In the Mouth a Desert" imploded near the end. When they got their shit together in the middle-late of the show, it was awesome, but the show also ended sort of strangely with Stephen just jamming on the guitar sitting right in front of his amp.
-The crowd was a little more subdued tonight, Night 2's was still be best in terms of crowd.
-Giant balloons came out during encore 1. Apparently they're left over from the Flaming Lips' appearance there.
-I finally figured out the two songs I didn't know were, both off of the Westing comp: "Shoot the Singer" and "Debris Slide."
-"Box Elder" kicked all fucking sorts of ass.
edit: -apparently they played a song i didn't know: Lions (Linden), which i guess i forgot they played, probably because i didn't know what it was.

Night 4:
-One of the two nights I saw the opener (first night was the Clean, who I saw). Broken Social Scene was way awesome. Must listen to them more.
-Pavement came out firing. "Grounded" was ace. They were really tight tonight and they sounded great and energetic whereas the day before was languid and flagging. Part of it may have been the crowd, from the start the crowd was loud and really into it.
-Apparently Stephen's weird behavior at the end of the show yesterday (occurring on "Conduit for Sale!" was due to a nosebleed incurred by "Stop Breathin'"
-Stephen was a lot happier tonight and definitely less aloof, more chatty. There was ridiculous banter between Stephen and Bob about Cialis, Viagra, and really bad hangovers.
-The set was a bit shorter this time around, approximately 2 songs, as the show ended slightly before 11. Previous shows ended right at the 11pm mark or slightly after.
-No "Frontwards," "Box Elder," "Starlings in the Slipstream," but night 4 was their best night performance wise BY FAR so it was more than worth it.
-So glad I went to all four days.
-"Range Life" was a fitting closer..."I want a range life/if I could settle down/if I could settle down/then I would settle down"

Term in Review: Academics

Since I've only got a little more than one and a half weeks over here, I figured I'd start closing things up.  There's only going to be a couple more of these.  This one, and maybe 1-2 more.  For this one, I figure I'd "review" or speak of my time here in the academic sense.  While I still have two finals and a paper to do before I go, classes have been done for a long while, so I can write about the academic atmosphere here to some extent.  I know I've elucidated (or, rather, complained) on the subject before, but perhaps it's better to summarize.

The obvious difference is that I only have one set of classes here whereas at Ohio State I'd have two sets of classes (Winter Term as opposed to Winter and Spring Quarters).  But the way the UK school system is set up, my lectures essentially fit into Winter Quarter at Ohio State, while Spring Quarter is just exams and papers.  It's been a rather interesting approach.  The plus side is that I got to go visit Europe for awhile, seeing Geneva, Paris, and Edinburgh.  Not a whole lot of places (some people saw a WHOLE LOT of places, unlike me), but I'm not displeased with the amount I did, especially with impending exams.  The downside to the large break is that I really have no sense of work ethic anymore.  The Easter break sorta took that out of the picture, which given the work I still have to do, is not a good sign.

In terms of difficulty level?  UCL has been a lot more difficult than Ohio State.  Perhaps this could be attributed to my "Band Three" economics courses (equivalent to 600+ at Ohio State), but I think even given the equivalencies it still comes out to be more difficult.  This could probably be attributed to the "education culture" here.  We only had lectures once a week for each class, and only sometimes would we have extra tutorial classes to go over problem sets or readings, depending on the class.  This leaves most of it up to the student.  There's simply not enough class time to develop the understanding of material required for the exam.  Whereas at Ohio State a week devoted to a topic takes four hours of lecture, at UCL you get two.  The other two to figure out what the heck you heard basically come from you.  It has been problematic in light of Spring Term (the technical term for the exam period, but it's really all attached to the previous Winter Term and so the use of "Spring Term" is slightly dubious in and of itself), but it's something I still just have to push through and get this junk done.

The one area I find UCL extremely lacking in is "service."  This goes from teachers helping students, teacher aides helping students, to even providing amenities in dorms and otherwise.  Teachers are not very helpful here.  Perhaps it's part of the whole culture here, but they're not very responsive and oftentimes not the friendliest folks around.  One of my Professors, when dismissing his last lecture, told us to "not email [him] any questions about the material or the exam, because [he] won't reply to them."  When I went to another Professor's office hours, he essentially refused to answer my questions about the problem set due in a couple of days, mostly being dismissive and telling me to just "try my best and wait for the tutorial."  While in that instance it's true, I'll learn it at some point, I want to know it when I do the problem set so I can do it easily on the exam!  It's not that ridiculous of a concept.

The other lacking arena of UCL "service" is the provisions for students.  For one, there's no wireless internet in the dorms.  While I suppose for some wireless internet is a luxury (may be the case in Britain), at Ohio State there was most definitely wireless at campus dormitories.  Not so here.  While my dorm is sort of "satellite" with regards to the rest of campus, they should really provide that.  When I'm on the internet, unless I'm in the middle of campus, I'm in my flat on my computer, which is connected to the internet via ethernet.  It's a pretty old technology, so I don't see why they can't just update it.  Also, while wireless security is understandable (Ohio State's has that), ethernet port security is entirely unnecessary and useless.  If someone is over or visiting and needs to access the internet via their own computer, it's impossible.  The ethernet connection won't operate.  One of the worst policies I've seen here.

And, one last gripe about UCL is their library system.  So maybe I'm biased because I've worked at the Ohio State Libraries since I got to Ohio State freshman year, but I have not seen a university library as dysfunctional as UCL's.  Their classification code is essentially a poor "homebrew" which makes little to no sense, and it's really not great to work with.  Different branches of university libraries even use different classification codes.  At least the Library of Congress code is a workable system.  In addition, their collection seems to be rather small in comparison to Ohio State's.  Some other things include limited desk hours available, such as very limited opening hours for their "issue" (circulation) desk and "enquiry" (reference) desk, which is a problem...at least Ohio State's are open past 5 o'clock.

Part of the problem is that there's no student staff helping.  It's literally just a bunch of librarians working.  And part of this issue may be explained by the size of student body served: UCL's undergraduate population is about 20,000, half of Ohio State's.  In addition, some of the library size issue is mitigated by the existence of a public London library system, which is not really plausible at Ohio State, but multiple libraries resulting in library-hopping is no fun (especially when it is necessary to decode multiple classification code systems as I do not think there is a universally applied code in London).

All this disparaging does not imply that studying at UCL and in London was the worst time of my life.  It's certainly been challenging, but more of what I'm trying to say is that UCL is fundamentally different from Ohio State, and perhaps I don't jive with it as well.  The other thing is that I've certainly been learning a whole lot here, both academically and non-academically and so the study abroad experience has proven itself to be invaluable.  But perhaps for me (at least for now) the lessons with the bigger benefits have been non-academic in nature.  That's a story for another time, I suppose.

The end is nigh,
-e.

NP: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

This is one of my favorite records.  I'm listening to the "Closet Mix" present on the Peel Slowly & See boxset, which I prefer to the Valentin Mix.  I did elaborate on the whole mix shenanigans on my sister blog a couple days ago, and the pertinent entry can be found herein.

Ah, updates

Once again, rather late.  I took a two-day trip to Edinburgh (20th-22nd) which was loads of fun.  First up was Edinburgh Castle, which was old and cool.  It sort of dominates the view of Edinburgh (as it probably should) and you get a view of the whole city from it.  Here's my favorite shot from the Castle (actually, the outside of it), with a fountain on the grounds outside of it, at the bottom of the hill:

And then we walked around the Royal Mile for a bit, then located Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the first bits of Harry Potter, which is super cool.  I think, though, enough people have been like "let's go visit where Harry Potter was written" that the cafe realized it and made it kind of touristy (or, the cafe "sold out" if you prefer that set of vocabulary).  Afterwards, a humorous bit regarding wigs occurred, which is observable via Facebook.

The first night we took a haunted ghost tour of Edinburgh's vaults.  The thing is with the vaults, they're built inside one of Edinburgh's bridges (I believe it's the south bridge?), and without ventilation, lighting, and, you know, basic living conditions, it was a pretty terrible place to be.  With regards to the tour and the guide itself, it was pretty impressive with the way everything built up to near the end, with stories accompanying each vault that, along with most people being particularly suggestible in the vaults due to the conditions, amplified the fear bits in people.  It climaxed with a story in a particular room where 96 women and children were killed by their husbands because of the great fire in Edinburgh which cooked the vault's inhabitants (and thus the husbands essentially mercy-killed their families).  Apparently (I did not actually see the perpetrator) then around this point, an extra tour guide jumped out into the entrance and scared the whole group.  Funnily enough, and maybe as a result from not actually seeing what was going on, I only jumped a bit was only really rattled because everyone else freaked out.  The tour itself took the stories and made them "ghost"-y to scare people, but I would hazard to guess that most of the stories were true, which is kind of scary, when you think about it.

The second day involved a trip to St. Andrew's, famous for it's Old Course and the Chariots of Fire scene where they run on the beach.  There's also a very run-down cathedral there, but all in all St. Andrew's is a very small town/city and so it didn't take a long time.

And then we went back to Edinburgh and took a night bus back, which was pretty terrible, to be honest.  Not a lot of room, plus a bumpy bus makes for not happy sleepers and people.

Otherwise, there really hasn't been a lot going on (especially since Italy did in fact fall apart, as evidenced by the Edinburgh trip), but now that third term starts today, I need to get cranking and start studying for two finals and write another paper.  Here is how it works out:

ECON3019 exam (2010.05.11) - 100% of my grade
ECON3019 exam (2010.05.17) - 100% of my grade
HIST2312B paper (2010.05.17) - 60% of my grade

So as it turns out, this sucks because my grades hinge entirely on one test for two of the classes, and one paper can swing my grade from really good to really bad (and vice versa, hopefully)...though given my first paper (which I collect back today) and its quality (probably not very good, the more I think about it), any effort on the second paper will be more of a "bad to good" scenario than the other way around.  Or so I hope.

But yeah, three weeks and two days until I return!  It's weird to think about that.  No matter how much it sucks to be not around all my friends back home, I've established a nice friend network here and London has become rather bearable despite all its quirks...and I'll actually miss it when I get back, which part of me never really expected given how hard it was to adjust to here and everything (and part of me never expected to fully adjust).  I'll be back soon (and it'll be great to be back, trust me).

-e.

NP: Wilco - A.M.

An old standby of mine.  Some tracks are kinda weird, but it's Wilco and I love it all the same.

An open letter to Iceland

Dear Iceland,

I send great vibes your way due to the recent volcanic activity in your country.  However, I do not appreciate it endangering my trip to Italy which (in)conveniently starts tomorrow.

Best wishes,
-e.

A long while's update!

So it appears that I last updated two weeks ago.

The first of the two was quite boring.  Just stayed around London and hung out and got everything for the trip ready.

The trip itself:
-36 hours in Geneva
-6 days in France

Geneva is actually a very boring city.  It's likely because I was there on Easter weekend and so no one was around, but it seems more or less that Geneva lived up to its nickname: "City of Joylessness."  Must be the residue of the Calvinism that held there for a long time.  Even, say, the trees were always trimmed to look depressing:

And outside of a clock whose face was constructed of flowers, and the all-famous Lake Geneva and the fountain there, there really isn't a whole lot to the city...it was rather empty and slightly glum.  So 36 hours was actually quite enough to get a good feel of Geneva.  So it was time to leave for Paris!

Of course, I did go to France already.  But the return trip allowed me to see some extra things.  For one, I was able to just enjoy Paris for Paris rather than going into "take a picture of this so I can remember it" mode, which is never the right way to enjoy a city (but sadly I fall into that mode rather often).  Revisiting the Louvre allowed me to catch more that I didn't see the first time, but the key find this time around was a trip to Monet's house and garden.  He had both a typical French, walled-in garden and then a more spacious Japanese garden.  They were both stunning in beauty.  Here's one favorite photo from that:

It's from the Japanese garden, and I have always liked those "bleeding heart" flowers.  I remember my old piano teacher used to have them growing in front of her house.  Here's the other that I particularly like:

Th

This one was from the walled-in garden.  I had to actually lay down on the ground to get this shot, but it was worth looking especially goofy lying on the ground to take this photo (I mean, imagine seeing someone just randomly lying on the ground at a very touristy location) because I'm really a big fan of this photo.  It might actually be my favorite from Paris.

Our tour guide for the Monet thing was pretty awesome because we also got to go through the countryside and see rural France.  It's really lovely (and seems like a lot of rich folk move out there for retirement or the like), and we got to stand on what once was a key hill that separates the valley of the Seine and the western Normandy areas.  A rather breathtaking view:

Some other Parisian notes:
1. I enjoyed the buskers a whole bunch this time around.  Random tuba players, accordion players, jazz combos, and all.
2. The Metro is fine and all, but not when the part that goes overground is right outside the hotel room.  Yikes.
3. Boxed wine is a worthy adversary.  Next time, I will eat dinner before meeting you again.  I will win.
4. Parisians aren't the most friendly, but I found them on the whole slightly more friendly than Londoners.
5. While it's bearable to deal with the language barrier in France, as many of the French at least know some English, it's still a pain.  It does, however, yield its moments, as when asking the hotel receptionist a question, his response was "I do not...understand.  My English is...dead."

For the next couple of days, I'll be around.  And then Friday, I leave for Italy!  Part of me is really excited, but part of me knows my time in Europe is beginning to wind down (5.5 weeks from today, I will be coming home!) and I do miss Ohio dearly.

Cheers,
-e.

NP: Brian Eno - Another Green World

This album didn't click with me until recently, and so now I've been exploring Eno and ambient music in general, at least.

Update?!?

At the behest of my friend Rob, here's the update:

With regards to trip planning, it's obvious that at least part of my trip did not turn out.  But I will be spending a day and a half in Geneva (the greater portion of a day will likely be in the Alps), which will be nice.  And then I'll be back in Paris for six days.  Which will be awesome.  Sure, I may not revisit the Eiffel again, but it'll be nice to visit the rest of the stuff I never got to see.

In other news, though, I've been keeping up pretty well with the NCAA tournament, seeing most of the MSU-Tenn game and the end of the Duke-Baylor game.  MSU-Tenn was definitely one of the most gripping games.  Maybe it was because I chose to personally invest myself into the "Izzotron" with Ohio State's unceremonious dismissal by Tennessee, but most likely it was a preference for the Big Ten over the SEC (and, let's face facts.  The SEC sucks.  Also, they were a pretty weak basketball conference this year).

But this has led me to a bracket-picking discovery.  It's unbelievably hard to pick against the Izzotron.  You just can't.  Unless there's some beyond-overwhelming disadvantage, the Izzo makes up for that.  He's some mastermind and genius, and his teams that he puts out, no matter what deficiencies, are always playing crazy good defense and are pretty disciplined (i.e. free throw shooting, etc.).  The discipline played a big part, I think.  Tennessee shot pretty poorly from the line, which cost them especially down the stretch (it's what also cost Kentucky vs. WVU...notice an SEC trend here?).

So here's the picks for here on out:

MSU vs. Butler: MSU
WVU vs. Duke: WVU

MSU vs. WVU: WVU

The only outcome I'm pretty adamant about though, is WVU advancing to the final.  I'm not sure Duke can keep up with WVU.  MSU-Butler seems like a tossup.  If MSU has enough rest they can do it.  But, one might have to imagine Butler advancing given a hometown game.  This occurred last year given Michigan State's run and advancing to the title game in Detroit (though they got blown out by UNC in the title game).

Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that's been going on.  I did meet up with one of the kids of the  family I know here in London (mentioned VERY early on),  and got coffee and chatted.  He was pretty much mortified with the way doctoring is set up in the US, with the whole medical malpractice deal and the fact that there's no real protective body for doctors, and the fact that becoming a full-on doctor takes much longer.  That sort of stuff.

I did go out for a drink with a friend, and met some of his college friends, which was nice, but I just couldn't miss the rest of the Duke-Baylor game so I came back for that.  Sounds lame, but it really isn't, haha.

That's all for now, I'll update again in a few days or something.  Most of my week will be getting all that trip stuff prepared and studying for exams.  Not very exciting, unfortunately.

Cheers,
-e.

NP: The Velvet Underground - VU

This is steadily becoming my favorite Velvet Underground record, for reals.  Within the last 24 hours, I've probably listened to it all at least 5 times.  Yeah, about that...