Hu's (on first) in China?
http://www.freewebs.com/lfriedma/funny.html

My birthday is right around the corner; yippidy doo dah. I decided I don't want diamonds, pearls, or overpriced sunglasses. I want books. Lots of them. And I would leave it at that, but I'm a very picky reader, so not just any books will do. I don't particularly care for modern fiction; the old stuff usually catches my fancy (fiction, satire, essays, and the like). I'm trying to catch up on my "books I should have read in high school but somehow missed out on" list, so if you have or find any of those, send 'em on over! Lately, I've been working on Wilde, Pain, and Thoreau. Next up is Orwell (though I haven't bought anything yet, so let me know if you have anything lying around).

So if you were planning on getting me anything, rather than wasting your money on something I either might already have or can't use, consider a gift certificate/card from Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com, or Half.com (if they sell those). It'll keep me out of trouble! ;-)

Here are the origins of several symbols we use in everyday life.

Question Mark

Origin: When early scholars wrote in Latin, they would place the word questio - meaning "question" - at the end of a sentence to indicate a query. To conserve valuable space, writing it was soon shortened to qo, which caused another problem - readers might mistake it for the ending of a word. So they squashed the letters into a symbol: a lowercased q on top of an o. Over time the o shrank to a dot and the q to a squiggle, giving us our current question mark.

Exclamation Point

Origin: Like the question mark, the exclamation point was invented by stacking letters. The mark comes from the Latin word io, meaning "exclamation of joy." Written vertically, with the i above the o, it forms the exclamation point we use today.

Equal Sign

Origin: Invented by English mathematician Robert Recorde in 1557, with this rationale: "I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gmowe [i.e., twin] lines of one length, thus : , bicause noe 2 thynges, can be more equalle." His equal signs were about five times as long as the current ones, and it took more than a century for his sign to be accepted over its rival: a strange curly symbol invented by Descartes.

Ampersand

Origin: This symbol is stylized et, Latin for "and." Although it was invented by the Roman scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro in the first century B.C., it didn’t get its strange name until centuries later. In the early 1800s, schoolchildren learned this symbol as the 27th letter of the alphabet: X, Y, Z, &. But the symbol had no name. So, they ended their ABCs with "and, per se, and" meaning "&, which means ‘and.’" This phrase was slurred into one garbled word that eventually caught on with everyone: ampersand.

Octothorp

Origin: The odd name for this ancient sign for numbering derives from thorpe, the Old Norse word for a village or farm that is often seen in British placenames. The symbol was originally used in mapmaking, representing a village surrounded by eight fields, so it was named the octothorp.

Dollar Sign

Origin: When the U.S. government begin issuing its own money in 1794, it used the common world currency - the peso - also called the Spanish dollar. The first American silver dollars were identical to Spanish pesos in weight and value, so they took the same written abbreviations: Ps. That evolved into a P with an s written right on top of it, and when people began to omit the circular part of the p, the sign simply became an S with a vertical line through it.

I made a spectacular painting, which you can see here: http://artpad.art.com/?jifaij1gevs0

You can do the same!


Oh, and check out this site to find the answers to some of life's biggest mysteries. That way, I won't have to correct you.

Have a look at this list, find one or more you're guilty of, and then make it a point to change your ways. I found a couple boo-boos I've been making. (Though its authors seem to be English, it takes into account American differences ("mistakes"). We did get our language from them.)


Here's another site with very interesting photographs. It's certainly worth a look.

Go here and make your own Picasso painting.

To learn some handy Latin phrases, go here. You never know when you might need one.

It's time to come home.

Bath & Stonehenge

This is Bath from the bridge that crosses the river.

The King's royal bath. No one bathed in it--well, maybe he did.

The Royal Crescent estates. Every couple pillars, there is a door (entrance to the house). All of them are, by law, white--except one. One of the doors is bright yellow: an act of defiance by... umm... someone important at the time. It's been kept that way since. Rumor has it Johnny Depp has bought a house in this complex.

And now... Stonehenge. Unfortunately, I'm unable to confirm or deny the rumor that it was constructed by aliens because, as I sat in the grass to listen to my audio guide, I put my arm in a thistle weed, and started itching and swelling like nothing I've ever experienced. Fearful that I might be having an extreme allergic reaction causing my throat to close up and whatever other dreadful things happen to people with allergies (--you've heard the horror stories of bees, shellfish, and peanuts--), I quickly made my way to the exit, turned in my audio guide, and hunted down the tour guide at the van. He assured me, though, that I would be fine and the itching and swelling would soon subside. Whew!

Seriously, though... it was an absolutely surreal experience. I still can't believe that I've seen in person this wonder that most people merely read about in books. How lucky am I? Truly.

Trevor reminded me that I "murdered [my] sporadic telegraphs from London", and I feel badly about it, so I'm going to try to do a quick update. Let's be honest... I'm not really doing much else with my evening but trying desperately to open a jar of gherkins. I'll give that a rest for a bit.

I had my heart set on going to Dublin, Ireland this weekend. First, I called up the touring agency I usually travel with and reached a young man who had no idea how to do anything related to booking trips (go figure). This was the same man I reached twice last week, thus causing me to miss the trip to Amsterdam. So, having given up on that plan, I looked up flights and hostels to go with Carly and Becky, who are just going by themselves. It would be about $100 round trip for the flight and there are no vacancies at their hostel, so I'd be staying at a different hostel for about $50. But here's the real issue:

This coming Tuesday, I have one 2500 word paper and one 1500 word paper due. And then, on Thursday, I have another 2500 page paper due. That's a LOT of writing to get done between now and then, and I'm not sure I could get it all done if I left for the weekend. Bummer. Don't they know I didn't come here to write huge papers? I came to see the world.

Ok... now it's picture time.

A couple weeks ago, Thursday (that's the name), a band near and dear to my heart, played at Metro, the club I intern for. It...was...fabulous--in a "oh wow, I feel like I'm reliving the romances of my sophomore year of college (music, independence, and cute tall boys in tight pants) all over again" sort of way.

Carly and Dan
These are the strange kids I associate with. They're allergic to photography.

So are they.

I have no explanation for these two (Brian (l) and George (r)).

This is part of a project (not-so-ironically entitled 'Mood Map') I did for my Neighborhood Narratives class. I plotted my mood every hour for one day on a scale from 1 to 5. Then, I took the grid plot and affixed it over a map of my neighborhood. At each one of the dots, I left one of these cards in a plastic sleeve with the map on one side and a description of my mood at the time (I feel...), a picture taken at that time, and the url to a corresponding blog describing the project. To sum it up... it was a lot of time and stress, but I'm pleased with the results.

These are pictures from The Cotswolds, a beautiful area in West London that I visited last weekend. It's made of a few tiny villages of stone buildings and amazing coutryside as far as the eye can see.

This is the motor museum I visited so I could take photos for the car buffs back home (not because I actually care about a bunch of old cars). hah

A house in Bibury, often described as the most beautiful village in England.


This castle is actually in Wales. We stopped for about 20 minutes to hang out. Can we say, 'shortest trip to Wales ever?'
I think this town is Bourton on the Water. It's the one that has the motor museum.

Pictures of Bath and Stonehenge to come soon. I'm going to finish up my book so I can start another tomorrow.

Denmark

I've been a busy bee the last few weeks. At times, I thought I might unravel: school tugging on one string--family and friends at the other. And it's not over yet. I have 2 huge papers and an enormous project to finish between now and next week, and I can feel the stress oozing through me. But, while I have just a few minutes before going in for my internship, I'll blog about my trip to Denmark.

I got to Copenhagen airport and followed the directions Mike gave me: take a train to the Norreport stop. There, I would be able to find something to eat, do some window shopping, and find a couple museums to kill time until he got out of class. To my surprise, it seems that everyone and their pet goldfish rides a bike. What's more shocking is that they don't lock them up like in Philly (with a huge, impenetrable U-lock); they just lock up the back wheel with a built-in lock and leave it. If bikes were left like that in Philly, they wouldn't last 10 minutes.

I wandered around for a bit, checking things out. It was a dreary day, which I hear is typical. This is part of a fountain in one of the open squares.

I stumbled upon the Glyptotek museum, and for 50DKK, I spent the next couple hours admiring fine sculptures and ancient Egyptian artifacts. Unfortunately, I was exhausted from waking up at 4:30am for my travels, so I just parked myself on a bench in the atrium until I could gather the energy to find some lunch.

I found a cute cafe down the street, where it looked like it might be easy to communicate (it had English food descriptions in the windows). Mike said that just about everyone speaks English, but I wasn't taking any chances. Language barriers and me aren't the best of friends and I figured I'd take all the help I could get. One delicious veggie burger and two cups of coffee later, I was out 140DKK ($25)--but that's including the 30 Kroner ($5.30) tip I didn't know I didn't have to leave. Ah well... an hour and a half well-spent.

The National Gallery

The got a blizzard while I was there, making it unbearably cold and miserable to go anywhere. Still, we went to a concert in a small hippie village in the middle of Copenhagen, and despite the weather, we had an awesome time.


---------------------------------
I'm not going to kid myself. I've had this much written for a couple of weeks now, and I don't think I'll finish it. I have so much new stuff going on. You can see the rest of the pictures when i get home. Sorry! To sum it up, though, I got my flight out virtually on time and went to Rome. Though the touristy areas were nice, I didn't care for the city much at all. It's dirty, with grafitti and litter everywhere, and most of the people I met were sly/rude/creepy. And to top it off, I couldn't really communicate because most people pretend to not know English unless it's in a tourist area, and then you're going to get ripped off anyway.

I did enjoy myself, though. Katie was an excellent tour guide and it was lovely seeing her.

Hey all,

I'm safe, sound, and excited to be back in an English-speaking country. I have tons of great pictures and tales of my adventure. Unfortunately, I won't get to posting them until after the weekend because Katie has been visiting this week, wearing me out, and I haven't had the time or energy to do an update. Thom will be here Saturday and Christie and Bernie, on Sunday. Busy busy!

Alright - I'm off to bed (before midnight). Night!

Everyone else left for break today (Spain), but I don't leave until Tuesday, so I'm hangin' out here solo. I don't really have a whole lot going on and can't think of any sights I want to see, so I'm just kinda bee-boppin' around--getting in some "Becky time". I went shopping (bought some bathing essentials), strolled around the neighborhood, and did my first--yes, FIRST--round of laundry since I've been here. It cost me £5 to wash and £1.60 to dry, which is about $13.15, but it's done! Hurray! Then, I made some lunch, folded my laundry, and relaxed for a bit, checking out some websites of prospective future job opportunities I found. When I'd had enough, I went back out to campus the neighborhood and eventually ended up at a pub to have dinner and a pint. And on my way home, I decided to write a blog entry mentioning a few things.

-There's a church around the corner with a plaster (or some other material) Jesus on a wood cross... but Jesus only has one arm.

-Riding with a British driver is like riding with one of your friends who gives you reason to fear for your life, but swears they're a good driver, and never gets into an accident. I have yet to see a fender bender here, yet drivers swerve around each other and speed down crowded streets without thinking twice.

-Whereas in America, motorcyclists are expected to stay within the lines and obey the same traffic rules as cars, here, they squeeze and zig-zag around cars with ease.

-Cars park facing both directions on both sides of the road. So, it's acceptable to cut through oncoming traffic to back into a parking spot on the opposite side of the road.

-Iaian Archer is my new love. He's not a real, date-able boy; he's a musician I've taken a liking to. Go to http://www.iainarcher.co.uk/ and click on Listen, if you care to hear his stuff. He's formerly of Snow Patrol, one of my favorite bands, and is now doing his own thing.

-I've been having the craziest of dreams lately. Last night, it had something to do with being caught in every natural disaster imaginable and, somehow, not dying.

-We've all noticed that people with babies or pets get really weird when you fuss over / smile at their baby or pet, and we couldn't understand why. I mean, in the States, it's pretty common to look at someone's small child, think "aww, how cute", and shell out a huge grin. Well, Leah asked one of her co-workers and found that British people tend not to trust others, and tend to feel that people who smile at their child or pet are being creepy and might possibly want to steal it. Well!

That's all I can think of for now.

My upcoming travel plans are looking like this:

Feb 20-22: Denmark
Feb 22-26: Rome
March 3: Salisbury & Stonehenge
March 4: Leeds Castle & Rochester
March 23-25: Amsterdam

Other trips yet to be worked out include Germany, Ireland, & Whales. That is if I have any money left.

And to all you readers... get your fingers in motion! I tell you all about my adventures, but rarely hear from you. Don't be that creepy dude lurking my page for three months without saying hello. I'm not keeping this blog for my health (I could run a mile in less time). What do you think? Did you learn something? Am I an idiot for not knowing ___? What picture did you like best? What do you wish I'd talked about? How is your week going? What have you been doing for fun lately? What's the weather like? I don't care what it is; I just like to know you're still there.

Paris, cont.

On the second day, we visited the Palace and Gardens of Versailles.
There's a ton of history and fun facts around the estate, but I don't remember most of them, so I'll just refer you to the website, which is quite interesting:
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/110_Construction.php
You can navigate through the pages by clicking the numbers all the way at the bottom.

When we first arrived, we just couldn't get over how huge it was. We had two hours to explore the grounds and we surely weren't going to spend that time standing in the cold--and the three of us are history/sight-seeing enthusiasts--so we paid to go inside and explore. It was, without a doubt, 13,50€ extremely well-spent.

Most hallways were filled with statues and/or lavish paintings. How do you find that many sculpters?? Ask Louis XIV, I guess.

Marie Antoinette had the most ridiculously huge and beautiful gardens.



Every room was filled with beautiful paintings--on the walls AND ceiling. A person could spend 15 minutes in a room and not take it all in.

This is the hall of mirrors. You can read more about it on the website mentioned above (page 2, I think).

Someone's bed chamber. Louis XIV, I think. Must be they picked up his dirty laundry and took out the tv and video games so people wouldn't steal them.

I could have spent all day in this room looking at the paintings. It blows my mind thinking about the number of artists and years it took to do them all!

After escaping the merchants outside, harassing tourists to buy anything from scarves to handbags to keychains of the Eiffel Tower, we boarded the bus and departed to see more sights.

This is in front of Mansart's dome at Les Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is located. It is now a hotel. We didn't go in, but I hear he's in there under the dome.

And finally, the moment I had been waiting for...

Notre Dame!!

The gargoyles are rain spouts, and they're all over the huge cathedral.



I couldn't believe I was actually inside the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful, but not in the same sense as St Paul's, which is well-lit and full of color and majesty. ND was dim and mysterious, yet inviting just the same.

And then, since I lost the others I came with, and we still had plenty of free time before having to be back on the bus, I went exploring. I found St Michael's Place, and was hoping to find St Michael's Church because that's where my Uncle Donald served as choirmaster and organist. It wasn't on the local map I found (but neither were any other churches), and I don't speak French, so I just wandered around for a while. I did not find the church, but I did find St Michael's Fountain:

As I was wandering, I got a craving for dessert (I had a delicious crepe before going into Notre Dame), so I popped into a grocery store and picked up a package of cookies. They said 1,38, but they rang up as 3,something. She told me my total, but since I was looking at the screen for the scale and not the cash register, I thought she was asking me a question, so I got really confused (because I don't speak French and didn't know how to respond), and it turned into a big deal. Well, I thought about just leaving the cookies and walking out, but then i saw the actual screen (with the price on it), paid, and left feeling like a dumb tourist.

Here's the Sacre Couer ("sacred heart"). We hiked up that huge hill and went inside, and it was quite lovely, as is the area of shops next to it. There, Becky and I made an enemy by pretending we were going to sit down and eat, but really, we just needed to use the toilet. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do.

Today was kinda boring. I woke up earlier than usual (about 9:30am) and I was going to do laundry down the street, but I didn't want to wake my roommates packing up my stuff, so I hung out until it was time to go to class. Class was 2-5, as it is tomorrow, and afterward, I did a bit of shopping before coming home to cook dinner. I had my heart set on doing laundry then, but soon, Laura came home soaked from the newly-fallen rain, and I decided it was just a bad idea.

In other news... today is Jason's Birthday. Happy b-day, Jason! You made my blog!

Jake also makes my blog since I just found out he reads it. Hello, Jake!

Tomorrow HAS to involve: class, laundry, and initial research for my upcoming presentation.

Ok... it's after midnight. I must be getting to bed. I'm sorry there wasn't more interesting info in this blog, but I'm really tired and I think I'm getting sick, so my creative energy is gone. OH! But I did take a tour of Parliament yesterday. More info on that coming up soon!

museum pics

Natural History Museum

Natural Science Museum