Washington D.C.
On June 4th I flew out to Baltimore where my Aunt Carol Beth and Uncle Rick were gracious enough to pick me up. They were hosting a going away party that evening, so we ate some lunch, did some grocery shopping, and prepared a few things around the house. Then I took a nap because I had to get up at 5 to leave for the airport. The evening festivities were fun; I met all of their friends who came over, and then spent a decent amount of time playing ping-pong in the basement with two grade school age girls who had come with their parents. The next day I opted to watch the Nadal-Federer final instead of go to church, and I was fortunate enough to turn on the TV just as McEnroe was saying, “That was perhaps the best 30 minutes of a first set that I’ve ever seen.”
At any rate, it was still a great match, though it seems to be growing more and more difficult to assert Federer as the greatest of all time given his 8-17 record lifetime against Nadal, including a 2-7 record in majors and a 2-6 record in major finals. I guess we have to see where Nadal ends up in the major count, but it doesn’t seem to be necessary for him to best Federer’s 16 to join the conversation. Certainly he isn’t quite in that top tier yet with Fed, Sampras, and Lendl, but he’s getting there.
Anyway…later that afternoon my aunt and uncle were very helpful and drove me into DC to move into my apartment at George Washington University. My building is named The West End, and I am living in a quad. One of my three roommates is Paul Ream, who can be found in this post about my trip to Madrid and this more recent post about his visit later to Vienna. My other two roommates are from the University of Pennsylvania, and despite the fact that they’re both from Massachusetts they didn’t know each other before moving in here. Both of them (Ben and Ryan) are really nice guys and have been fun to hang out with so far.
Our apartment, however, has a rather odd set-up. Through the door is an entrance hallway. From this hallway to the left is the ‘bedroom’ that Paul and I share. There is not, however, any door to this room – it is completely open and there is no privacy (which isn’t really needed…but is nice to have). From our room, there is a door that leads to a living area and kitchen. Back in the entrance hall, on the right there is a door that leads to Ben and Ryan’s room, so they have more privacy, except that on the other side of their room is our bathroom. So both bedrooms are entranceways to other rooms, which to me seems to be a reasonably poor set-up.
Still, the building is in a great part of the city. Uncle Rick and Aunt Carol helped me check in and move my stuff up, and then they took me to the store and bought me a few necessary grocery items. Afterwards they dropped me at my apartment once more and turned around and headed home to prepare for their trip to Seattle.
Shortly after they left a good friend of mine from abroad, Katie Mixon, came over to say hello. A little more about Katie can be found in my account of the trip we both took to Hallstatt and Graz last year. She’s going to be a senior (International Relations major) here at GWU and lives close by, so she came over to say welcome and show me around for a while. We walked for a while and she pointed a few things out, but eventually I was just very confused, turned around, and hungry, so we ended up eating at a place named the Thunder Burger. She used to work there, and the theme was pretty interesting, but most importantly the burgers were amazing.
After we had eaten and talked for a while, Katie Lovett, a Davidson friend (and my roommate Patrick’s girlfriend) showed up to also say hello. (More on Katie Lovett and her visit to Vienna can be found in this post.) The three of us chatted for a while (the Katies know each other through me and Patrick and their time spent in DC) and then walked back towards my apartment. Katie Mixon went to see some other friends and Katie Lovett went back with me to help me put a few more things away and to see where I was living. This could get remarkably confusing if I see them both a lot more this summer. And I plan on doing that. Uh oh.
The next morning I got up and went to work. I think my next post is going to be mostly about what I do at work, so I’m going to finish this one just by saying that I live about 3 minutes from the Foggy Bottom metro station and I ride the metro one stop to get to the Rosslyn stop, and from there it is maybe 2 minutes to my office. So on a good day I can make the commute in 10 minutes, which is awesome because it has been super hot here so far and the less time I spend getting sweaty in the heat the better.
This week was reasonably low-key. I work from 930 to 6 every day, so most days by the time I get home I am really hungry and tired. Monday night I went to Katie Lovett’s apartment in the Georgetown area, cooked dinner with her and her roommate Whitley Raney (a Davidson student), and watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Tuesday I went to TGIFridays with my roommate Ben to watch the Dallas Mavericks-Miami Heat NBA finals game. Wednesday I hung out with Katie Mixon (yeah, this is already annoying) again. We ate at a restaurant named Chop’t, which is a salad place with Chipotle-style ordering (you pick your kind of lettuce, what you want in it, dressing, etc.). Thursday I just ate at home and watched a basketball game with some guys next door. I’ll save this first weekend and work stuff for another post, hopefully that one will include more pictures too?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Ok - I'm a little bit worried.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to spend the entire semester playing tennis and basketball. For about a month my roommate Patrick (who I’m reasonably sure is mentioned in every single one of my blog posts so far) was preparing for or undertaking interviews for summer internships. He was eventually offered a summer position with Wells Fargo Investment Banking and is currently working with them in Charlotte. Oddly, one of my good friends from Kansas City, Thomas Henry, was also offered the same job in Los Angeles.
Right as Pat was done job searching, my job search kicked into full gear. I applied to a few different places, and had more success with some than others. The Davidson network in DC is quite broad, and I spend plenty of time on the phone with people trying to work out connections. There was one particular lobbying firm where I was told I made it to the top two candidates, but they chose to go with the other guy because he had a connection to one of the partners. That’s how it is here – it’s all about who you know.
In the end, I ended up accepting an intern position with the Eleison Group. They also oversee a non-profit organization, The American Values Network. A further explanation of what all we do and what my specific job is will come in another post or two, but basically this is all to say that for a while Patrick and I were busy at different points during the semester. Obviously we still saw each other often, but things were a little hectic and we didn’t get to hang out a whole lot.
*Edit* In March for their spring break my family came and spent 4 or 5 days with me in NC. It was a little bit warmer than home, and it as nice to see them because I didn't have that much time at home over winter break due to my delay in London. The day they left, Katie Mixon, a friend of Patrick and I's from abroad who lives in NC, came to visit over her spring break. It was really nice to see her and we went and saw a few people she had met when they came to visit Vienna and then just hung out for a while. Good thing I left these all out the first time, right? Sorry!! Anyway, it was great to see all of them, and I hope next year a few more people from abroad get to come again. I'm looking at you Dürergasse 18/6 roommates, Morgan, Julia, Allison (given), Michelle, Annie, Ashley, Roger...was I friends with any other guys outside of my apartment? *End Edit*
Anyway, as the course of the semester went on we both secured summer internships, as did most of our friends (Paul Britton was the last one, but in the end he still got one so he was happy…I think). This made April pretty fun as most people were content to relax a little bit between securing an internship and finals. We beat Elon in club tennis and lost good matches to Wake Forest and UNCC, both of whom we could have been with full lineups. Actually, I lost both my doubles and my singles matches in tiebreakers and we lost to UNCC 7-5 – after we choked against UNCC at Sectionals. Still, I made the decision to play our lone senior at #1 doubles and sit our top team, so I’ve no doubt that next year we’ll beat them. But I still wasn’t particularly happy, and it kind of reminded me why I don’t miss playing competitively.
For Easter we get an extra two days of classes off, so for the second year in a row a few of us went to the beach. This year, Jonathan Fisher’s aunt (he will be known as Fish from here on out in any and all of my blog posts he shows up in – he lived across the hall from me freshman year) was nice enough to let us stay at her place for free. This means we only had to pay for gas and food, which made it a far cheaper trip than last year. On this trip was Fish, Patrick, Paul, and myself, as well as two girls – Minisha Lohani and Nicole Haug. The water wasn’t particularly warm (meaning it was pretty cold) but once we got in it was ok. After driving down on Friday we spent most of Saturday learning to skim-board, swimming, and building sandcastles.
I got absolutely fried. My shoulders were the color of cranberry juice. It certainly minimized my farmers tan, but not in the exact way I wished. The next day I could barely be outside for 15 minutes before it just hurt too much and I had to go back inside. We did play our traditional round of mini-golf, which Paul unfairly won (a – he plays golf, and b – no one has ever had that many lucky hole-in-ones in a single game of mini-golf in history). Two other girls had joined us, Molly Crenshaw and Jenna Ptaschinski. We had a great time though – plenty of long laughs and hilarious quotes, and Tuesday and the drive back came all too soon.
The rest of the year went by as the end of any semester does. I had a weird combination of finals, papers, and projects due over the last couple weeks, but I successfully turned them all in on time, got good grades, and was done by my birthday on May 10th. For those who don’t know – I turned 21.
Two days later I flew home to drive up to my cousin Sarah’s wedding in Minneapolis. Though it was rainy most of the time, their wedding was great, they’re really cute, and it was wonderful to be around all of the Peterson family for a couple of days.
I spent the next 2 weeks or so working at the country club, spending time at the lake, and hanging out with friends. Eventually, I got everything packed up and ready to go (and by eventually, I mean all day on June 3rd I spent getting ready). On the 4th of June I flew to Baltimore where I was picked up by my aunt and uncle, and I stayed with them that night. The next day I moved into my apartment on the campus of George Washington University – but that starts a whole new chapter - which I will save for another post. Here a few pictures – I’ll hopefully be caught up to real life by the end of the weekend!
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| Artsy beach picture? |
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| One of our castles. |
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| Pat, Jenna, Molly, Fish, and Paul |
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| One of the least exciting mini-golf courses I have ever seen. |
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| Looking down the pier. |
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| Our castle at sunset. |
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| Molly and Fish on the beach. |
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Davidson in the Spring of 2011
As I have never before written about my time at Davidson, this will hopefully be brief and I will be able to push through the semester in a post or two and move on to covering my time in DC. Since I am already in DC, it is going to all be in past tense. Here goes:
Last semester (starting in January of 2011) my courses were: History of Modern Philosophy, Political Science Statistics, American Public Opinion, and Campaign Strategy. I am now an officially declared Political Science major and Philosophy minor. Here are a few highlights (by which I do not necessarily mean they were all good events…I just mean they were important events) of last semester:
In January I passed out in our health center when they were trying to draw blood. As a result I decided to tell my professors as well as a number of other people I was close to (or who I thought should know) that this was something that may happen, but that I didn’t anticipate it happening again and that I was working to control it, but that I figured they all should have a heads up just in case. This started a cycle of me worrying about it all the time, everywhere I went, and the more places I went the more people I told, and the more people I told, the more I worried. Eventually (like…late March) I just had to drop the whole thing and decide I just didn’t care. And that seems to have worked out ok so far. (I do apologize to Patrick again though – he’s now had to help me recover 3 times. Whoops.)
On a lighter note, it was great to see everyone at Davidson again, and Patrick and I lived in a pretty decent room. I decided to play 5on5 intramural basketball, and one of my friends who I saw quite frequently abroad, Paul Britton, was on my team. In our third or fourth game, I took an elbow to the ribs (ok…my own elbow was shoved into my ribs) and I tore the cartilage between my ribs. I tried to play tennis the next day, which made it a bit worse, so I talked to the trainer and she told me to sit for 4 weeks. I sat for 3 (though I did sub in briefly in one 5on5 game to score 5 points…and we won that game by 4). I was back for the playoffs, and we finished out our undefeated season and won the B-league championship (a couple of the games were very, very close, including a 42-41 thriller). Pretty darn fun.
I played tennis most afternoons and transitioned into being the president/captain/ceo/coo/czar of our club tennis team. Over the first weekend of spring break (which was at the end of February) we took 4 guys and 4 girls to Auburn, AL to play in the club tennis Sectionals event. It was actually a lot of fun; we rented one big van to all take together, stayed in a hotel, and actually played pretty well. We placed 2nd in our pool, losing to College of Charleston – though they ended up getting 5th and it was a lot closer than I think they would have liked it to be – and beating Valdosta St and Kennesaw St. The next day we choked against UNC Charlotte (both a coaching and player error) and ended up placing 13th after beating Ole Miss and UNC Wilmington. We likely should have been in the top 10, but for our first trip we did pretty well, and our goal next year is to qualify for nationals (which requires a top 5 finish). Unfortunately, for all of this, I was unable to play due to my ribs, though I tried to sneak in a time or two. Jay Lanners Jr., who graduate this spring, was very very helpful in making this happen, and I also received a large amount of help and support from my sophomore captains, Mark Angel and Lucy McMurry. Unfortunately they're both going abroad in the fall, and we will miss them dearly.
The rest of spring break I spent with Jonathan Fisher. Of all my close friends he was the only one who didn’t go abroad, and it was great to spend a lot of time with him. Basically, we woke up late, played video games, worked on an art project, played video games, watched tv, went to sleep, and then woke up again. It was pretty darn relaxing.
This is probably a sufficient start, I’ll try and find a couple photos to put up of the tennis stuff if I can!
Last semester (starting in January of 2011) my courses were: History of Modern Philosophy, Political Science Statistics, American Public Opinion, and Campaign Strategy. I am now an officially declared Political Science major and Philosophy minor. Here are a few highlights (by which I do not necessarily mean they were all good events…I just mean they were important events) of last semester:
In January I passed out in our health center when they were trying to draw blood. As a result I decided to tell my professors as well as a number of other people I was close to (or who I thought should know) that this was something that may happen, but that I didn’t anticipate it happening again and that I was working to control it, but that I figured they all should have a heads up just in case. This started a cycle of me worrying about it all the time, everywhere I went, and the more places I went the more people I told, and the more people I told, the more I worried. Eventually (like…late March) I just had to drop the whole thing and decide I just didn’t care. And that seems to have worked out ok so far. (I do apologize to Patrick again though – he’s now had to help me recover 3 times. Whoops.)
On a lighter note, it was great to see everyone at Davidson again, and Patrick and I lived in a pretty decent room. I decided to play 5on5 intramural basketball, and one of my friends who I saw quite frequently abroad, Paul Britton, was on my team. In our third or fourth game, I took an elbow to the ribs (ok…my own elbow was shoved into my ribs) and I tore the cartilage between my ribs. I tried to play tennis the next day, which made it a bit worse, so I talked to the trainer and she told me to sit for 4 weeks. I sat for 3 (though I did sub in briefly in one 5on5 game to score 5 points…and we won that game by 4). I was back for the playoffs, and we finished out our undefeated season and won the B-league championship (a couple of the games were very, very close, including a 42-41 thriller). Pretty darn fun.
I played tennis most afternoons and transitioned into being the president/captain/ceo/coo/czar of our club tennis team. Over the first weekend of spring break (which was at the end of February) we took 4 guys and 4 girls to Auburn, AL to play in the club tennis Sectionals event. It was actually a lot of fun; we rented one big van to all take together, stayed in a hotel, and actually played pretty well. We placed 2nd in our pool, losing to College of Charleston – though they ended up getting 5th and it was a lot closer than I think they would have liked it to be – and beating Valdosta St and Kennesaw St. The next day we choked against UNC Charlotte (both a coaching and player error) and ended up placing 13th after beating Ole Miss and UNC Wilmington. We likely should have been in the top 10, but for our first trip we did pretty well, and our goal next year is to qualify for nationals (which requires a top 5 finish). Unfortunately, for all of this, I was unable to play due to my ribs, though I tried to sneak in a time or two. Jay Lanners Jr., who graduate this spring, was very very helpful in making this happen, and I also received a large amount of help and support from my sophomore captains, Mark Angel and Lucy McMurry. Unfortunately they're both going abroad in the fall, and we will miss them dearly.
The rest of spring break I spent with Jonathan Fisher. Of all my close friends he was the only one who didn’t go abroad, and it was great to spend a lot of time with him. Basically, we woke up late, played video games, worked on an art project, played video games, watched tv, went to sleep, and then woke up again. It was pretty darn relaxing.
This is probably a sufficient start, I’ll try and find a couple photos to put up of the tennis stuff if I can!
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| Mom and Dad dancing over winter break, |
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| This is Jonathan. Dunking. |
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| I'd include everyone's names, but that'd take lots more time. |
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| Patrick and I in our new room. |
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| From left, Mark Angel, myself, Lucy McMurry, and Jay Lanners Jr. |
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| Jay Lanners Jr. Initiated the revival of Davidson College Club Tennis. |
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| Anne Meredith Baldy - our girls #1 player as a freshman. |
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| Our team at Auburn. Two of our matches we got to play on clay, which was lots of fun. Or would have been if I had been able to play. |
Final Days in Vienna
I will see you again. But not yet…not yet.
After Paul Ream left, I became all too aware of how close finals had crept, and that I still had a variety of papers to write as well as a significant amount of studying to do. Thus, over the next week (Wednesday, December 8 through the 15th) I was largely concerned with schoolwork. A couple notes though:
1) I attended the final concert of student performers, and they did not disappoint. I took some video and will try and figure out how to post that on this blog at some point, but they’re an amazing group of performers I was privileged to be able to hear. The grammar on that sentence seems completely wrong, but I’m now in the car on my way home from Madison so I’m not going to attempt to correct it.
2) As this weekend was our last weekend, our program contacted a local bar, the Travelshack and asked if they could support a full group of people. While we were there, they let us put up a screen to show our semester DVD, which had been compiled by my friend Allison and another guy from our program, Tom. Largely a compilation of pictures set to music with the occasional video, it was very well done. We would all receive a copy of the video after our last final on Thursday.
3) If you look back two posts, you may read a brief synopsis of the friendship that developed between my friend from Davidson, Paul Britton, and Allison Meyer, a friend of mine from abroad. Since that point, they had remained in contact through a variety of social mediums – so much so that Paul undertook a leap and flew back to Vienna (via a discount airline through Bratislava and then a bus) to surprise her. She was, indeed quite surprised when he showed up outside the Travelshack, and they spent the majority of the rest of the weekend together, though Pat and I did get to see Paul some as well.
After my two finals and papers on Tuesday, things relaxed a lot. Wednesday night most of the guys in my apartment went out to Schnitzelwirt for one last hurrah. Beforehand I met Felix, a friend of mine in Vienna who had worked with my Uncle David in New York over the summer, at a Christmas market for a cup or two of punch and to say farewell. He actually helped me pick out a couple gifts to bring back to friends.
I still had my German final on Thursday, but that wasn’t difficult, and by Thursday afternoon I had packed and was ready to get up early Friday morning and head to the airport. For dinner I actually ended up going to Schnitzelwirt with a different group of friends, and I was lucky enough to meet Annie Wolfstone’s parents. That night many people from my program convened at the Travelshack again to spend our last night together and say our goodbyes. It was fun, and relatively emotional, but I finally said goodbye and made my way home. Once there I made sure I had everything completely together, and then realized I had to wake up in about an hour, so I decided to just stay up and talk to Patrick, Tad, and Evan for the rest of the night. (David, by the way, had departed shortly after our German final was finished, so he missed out.) About 4:30 I lugged everything down the stairs with Patrick’s help, and said a sad (and later unnecessary) goodbye to him. I lugged everything up to the U3 stop Neubagasse, which I then took to Landstraße. Evidently the S7 wasn’t running on the schedule I thought it was, so I ended up just taking the City Airport Train. Once there I checked in and went through security after checking my two bags. I ran into a group of about six other kids from my program, most of whom were on my flight from Vienna to London (where I was to connect to DC and then to KC). We ate a small breakfast and then went to our gate.
After Paul Ream left, I became all too aware of how close finals had crept, and that I still had a variety of papers to write as well as a significant amount of studying to do. Thus, over the next week (Wednesday, December 8 through the 15th) I was largely concerned with schoolwork. A couple notes though:
1) I attended the final concert of student performers, and they did not disappoint. I took some video and will try and figure out how to post that on this blog at some point, but they’re an amazing group of performers I was privileged to be able to hear. The grammar on that sentence seems completely wrong, but I’m now in the car on my way home from Madison so I’m not going to attempt to correct it.
2) As this weekend was our last weekend, our program contacted a local bar, the Travelshack and asked if they could support a full group of people. While we were there, they let us put up a screen to show our semester DVD, which had been compiled by my friend Allison and another guy from our program, Tom. Largely a compilation of pictures set to music with the occasional video, it was very well done. We would all receive a copy of the video after our last final on Thursday.
3) If you look back two posts, you may read a brief synopsis of the friendship that developed between my friend from Davidson, Paul Britton, and Allison Meyer, a friend of mine from abroad. Since that point, they had remained in contact through a variety of social mediums – so much so that Paul undertook a leap and flew back to Vienna (via a discount airline through Bratislava and then a bus) to surprise her. She was, indeed quite surprised when he showed up outside the Travelshack, and they spent the majority of the rest of the weekend together, though Pat and I did get to see Paul some as well.
After my two finals and papers on Tuesday, things relaxed a lot. Wednesday night most of the guys in my apartment went out to Schnitzelwirt for one last hurrah. Beforehand I met Felix, a friend of mine in Vienna who had worked with my Uncle David in New York over the summer, at a Christmas market for a cup or two of punch and to say farewell. He actually helped me pick out a couple gifts to bring back to friends.
I still had my German final on Thursday, but that wasn’t difficult, and by Thursday afternoon I had packed and was ready to get up early Friday morning and head to the airport. For dinner I actually ended up going to Schnitzelwirt with a different group of friends, and I was lucky enough to meet Annie Wolfstone’s parents. That night many people from my program convened at the Travelshack again to spend our last night together and say our goodbyes. It was fun, and relatively emotional, but I finally said goodbye and made my way home. Once there I made sure I had everything completely together, and then realized I had to wake up in about an hour, so I decided to just stay up and talk to Patrick, Tad, and Evan for the rest of the night. (David, by the way, had departed shortly after our German final was finished, so he missed out.) About 4:30 I lugged everything down the stairs with Patrick’s help, and said a sad (and later unnecessary) goodbye to him. I lugged everything up to the U3 stop Neubagasse, which I then took to Landstraße. Evidently the S7 wasn’t running on the schedule I thought it was, so I ended up just taking the City Airport Train. Once there I checked in and went through security after checking my two bags. I ran into a group of about six other kids from my program, most of whom were on my flight from Vienna to London (where I was to connect to DC and then to KC). We ate a small breakfast and then went to our gate.
The rest, as some say, is history. Some day I may write a post about all that happened in the next few hours and my 5 day delay in London. But at the moment, I’ve chosen to do all I can to look past it and remember what a fantastic time I had abroad.
Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was very, very glad to be there. And due to my delay I didn't miss Vienna right away. Not until a couple months later. But I'll save all that for a different post.
Paul Ream Visits Wien!
Evidently, I somehow left Vienna without any record of a post of Paul Ream coming to visit. So here is a very (very) brief synopsis:
My friend Paul Ream (we met at Davidson and you can read about my visit to Madrid to stay with him in this post) arrived on November 30 late at night. We (Tad and myself - Patrick stayed behind, I don't remember why at this point) took him to get a käsekrainer and our trip was quite eventful. By the time we got back it was near 3 so we pretty much went straight to bed. The next day Paul toured Vienna with a couple friends David had visiting as well, so he had some company while we were in class/working because finals and papers were due shortly after he left. Paul's birthday is December 2, so on the night of the 1st we threw him a birthday party and had people over to hang out. We went out to a karaoke bar afterwards. Patrick left even though he didn't have his keys, so we found him a little later when we went back curled up on our doorstep. It was reasonably amusing.
The next day Paul left and flew to London where he visited Paul Britton (who has come up in a number of posts, and will again in the next one).
This is likely the shortest blog post I will ever, ever post. And I am very proud of it.
My friend Paul Ream (we met at Davidson and you can read about my visit to Madrid to stay with him in this post) arrived on November 30 late at night. We (Tad and myself - Patrick stayed behind, I don't remember why at this point) took him to get a käsekrainer and our trip was quite eventful. By the time we got back it was near 3 so we pretty much went straight to bed. The next day Paul toured Vienna with a couple friends David had visiting as well, so he had some company while we were in class/working because finals and papers were due shortly after he left. Paul's birthday is December 2, so on the night of the 1st we threw him a birthday party and had people over to hang out. We went out to a karaoke bar afterwards. Patrick left even though he didn't have his keys, so we found him a little later when we went back curled up on our doorstep. It was reasonably amusing.
The next day Paul left and flew to London where he visited Paul Britton (who has come up in a number of posts, and will again in the next one).
This is likely the shortest blog post I will ever, ever post. And I am very proud of it.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thanksgiving Weekend Trip!
Due to the fact that I am currently just sitting in a hotel killing what is hopefully my last night here in London, I thought I should probably just distract myself as much as possible and write a blog post, since I am still three weeks behind. This post we’re going to rewind back to thanksgiving weekend, when I (ironically) took a trip that included London. Here goes:
Thursday, November 25, 2010.
Today was actually Thanksgiving at home, but since Austria does not celebrate this holiday we of course had class. (Curious thing about my program though, we don’t celebrate, by which I mean have classes off, any American holidays “because we’re in Austria” yet we also don’t celebrate any Austrian holidays because “we’re Americans;” how much sense does that make?) Still, my friend Allison and I ducked out a little bit early in order to make our flight. In early October, this was our plan for the weekend: bus to Bratislava, slovakia, from where we had booked cheap flights (it’s about an hour away, and by cheap I mean 5 Euro one way and 12 the other – a total of about 22 dollars to fly to Brussels and back to Bratislava). Our flight would get us in to Brussels in the evening where we would spend the night. The next day we would get up and train to London, spending the day and night there, and where Paul Britton (who came to visit in October) would join us. We would then wake up Saturday and train to Paris where we would spend the day and night. Sunday we would wake up and train to Brussels, spending the day and night there, and then Monday we would fly back to Bratislava and Paul would train back to London.
Turned out, it was going to be really expensive to buy those trains, and hectic getting a hostel in paris, and mostly we just decided it wasn’t at all worth the trouble. So we revised our plan, and booked a bus from Brussels early Friday morning to London that would return Sunday night. This way, we still got to see London, Paul let us stay with him, and it was just much less complicated. So that’s what we did. Thursday night we wandered around Brussels looking for a place to have our Thanksgiving dinner. We were just about to give up because we hadn’t found anything when we accidentally stumbled onto the main street. We ended up deciding on a place named the Cheesecake Café because it was really decorated and when we went inside to find a menu to look browse through, it was so warm. So we stayed. We ate on the third floor so we could have the best view of the rest of the restaurant so we could people watch. I had some sort of chicken tenders and fries while she had an omlette. I’m not saying it was the most extravagant Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had, but it was amazing at the time.
The next morning we got up really early to catch our bus to London. This was an experience that I am convinced I only need to do once in my life, and I have now done it twice. Our bus left Brussels at 8 and was supposed to get in about 1 to London, but we were an hour and a half late. Unfortunately, the movies that were played on the bus were dubbed over in French. Thus, I could hear the first two English words of every sentence before the French came in, and it was one French person who narrated every voice, which was actually kind of funny. Then a very scary thing happened. We were preparing to cross the channel, so they made everyone get off the bus, go through French customs, get back on the bus, drive 40 feet, get off, go through English customs (where I didn’t have an address so they yelled at me and Allison didn’t have a visa so they yelled at her), and then get back on the bus. Then, our bus drove into a giant metal box. Literally. That was what I saw happen. Eventually it got lots darker and lights came on in the box. Then the box started moving. After a while it stopped and the other end was opened and we drove out. We had pretty much driven onto a train that took us under the English Channel, but no one told us anything.
Overall, it was not a super experience, but we made it safely to Victoria Coach Station where Paul Britton, a friend from Davidson who had previously visited us in Vienna was prepared to meet us. He took us to his apartment (he is on the NYU program in London, which he wasn’t to terribly thrilled with) and we dropped our stuff off. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening walking around the more famous parts of London. We saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and Big Ben, and we hung out by the river for a while as well where we got a good view of the London Eye. It was, however, reasonably cold for most of our trip, so after a while we just headed back to Paul’s place to get ready to go out with his roommates.
Some of you may remember that Allison, my companion for this trip, worked at a summer camp with a good friend of Patrick and myself from Davidson, Peter Delpin, who also happens to be Paul’s roommate at Davidson. In an odd circumstance, one of Paul’s roommates in London is a good friend of Peter’s from home, Jason! So there we were, Peter’s friend, Davidson roommate, grade-school friend, and summer co-worker all in the same apartment, while he was abroad in China. Anyway, Jason took us to hang out with some of his friends from Wake Forest that night, which eventually ended with Jason (who I had met once when he visited Davidson) and I searching for and finally acquiring a kebap really late at night.
The next day we did more touring, led by Paul. We saw St. Paul’s cathedral and walked from there to the Millennium Bridge (this bridge is the one that is torn apart in the opening scene of the sixth Harry Potter movie!). From there we walked down the river and saw a variety of more modern but famous buildings, the Tower Bridge, and the London Castle. As a continuation of our Harry Potter sight seeing (which Allison and I were very excited about), we then stopped at King’s Cross Station and visited the place where they filmed Platform 9 ¾! This was pretty neat as well. We ended the day by going to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, which was basically like one giant Christmas market from Vienna that was really high-tech. (I can’t remember if I’ve described the Vienna Christmas markets? I’ll look and include it soon if I haven’t.) There were rides, bratwurst stands, hot cocoa stands, and much, much more. Again, it was cold, so we only stayed a couple hours, but it was really fun.
Sunday we had a pretty slow start to the day, but we ended up getting food and catching our 2pm bus back to Brussels. Upon arrival there about 9, Allison and I didn’t really have anything to do, but we did need to eat some food, so we found a kebap place to stop for a bit. Our flight out of the Brussels Chaleroi airport was at 7ish, so we decided to just walk through the city and give ourselves a tour. It was reasonably cold, but we made sure to wear almost all of our clothing. On our walk we got to see the main square (decorated with a life-size nativity scene with real sheep, a tree, and a bunch of lights), the main, and giant, judicial building, a cathedral, and a couple other important sights. About 1 we made it to the other side of the city where we needed to pick up our bus. We sat in the waiting room for about 3 hours and then took a bus to the airport. We then flew to Bratislava again Monday morning, and took a bus to Vienna. I got back in time to make it to class and then immediately fall asleep.
All in all, we had a blast. Allison and Paul became really good friends, and she even decided to fly out to Denver in January to make the drive to Davidson with us (Paul picks me up, and then she’ll see Peter too once we get there!). It was my last weekend traveling, and I was very ready to be done with all of that. Hopefully I’ll write on the plane tomorrow (if it goes!!!!) and have another post up soon! Thanks for reading, sorry for being so way far behind!
Thursday, November 25, 2010.
Today was actually Thanksgiving at home, but since Austria does not celebrate this holiday we of course had class. (Curious thing about my program though, we don’t celebrate, by which I mean have classes off, any American holidays “because we’re in Austria” yet we also don’t celebrate any Austrian holidays because “we’re Americans;” how much sense does that make?) Still, my friend Allison and I ducked out a little bit early in order to make our flight. In early October, this was our plan for the weekend: bus to Bratislava, slovakia, from where we had booked cheap flights (it’s about an hour away, and by cheap I mean 5 Euro one way and 12 the other – a total of about 22 dollars to fly to Brussels and back to Bratislava). Our flight would get us in to Brussels in the evening where we would spend the night. The next day we would get up and train to London, spending the day and night there, and where Paul Britton (who came to visit in October) would join us. We would then wake up Saturday and train to Paris where we would spend the day and night. Sunday we would wake up and train to Brussels, spending the day and night there, and then Monday we would fly back to Bratislava and Paul would train back to London.
Turned out, it was going to be really expensive to buy those trains, and hectic getting a hostel in paris, and mostly we just decided it wasn’t at all worth the trouble. So we revised our plan, and booked a bus from Brussels early Friday morning to London that would return Sunday night. This way, we still got to see London, Paul let us stay with him, and it was just much less complicated. So that’s what we did. Thursday night we wandered around Brussels looking for a place to have our Thanksgiving dinner. We were just about to give up because we hadn’t found anything when we accidentally stumbled onto the main street. We ended up deciding on a place named the Cheesecake Café because it was really decorated and when we went inside to find a menu to look browse through, it was so warm. So we stayed. We ate on the third floor so we could have the best view of the rest of the restaurant so we could people watch. I had some sort of chicken tenders and fries while she had an omlette. I’m not saying it was the most extravagant Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had, but it was amazing at the time.
The next morning we got up really early to catch our bus to London. This was an experience that I am convinced I only need to do once in my life, and I have now done it twice. Our bus left Brussels at 8 and was supposed to get in about 1 to London, but we were an hour and a half late. Unfortunately, the movies that were played on the bus were dubbed over in French. Thus, I could hear the first two English words of every sentence before the French came in, and it was one French person who narrated every voice, which was actually kind of funny. Then a very scary thing happened. We were preparing to cross the channel, so they made everyone get off the bus, go through French customs, get back on the bus, drive 40 feet, get off, go through English customs (where I didn’t have an address so they yelled at me and Allison didn’t have a visa so they yelled at her), and then get back on the bus. Then, our bus drove into a giant metal box. Literally. That was what I saw happen. Eventually it got lots darker and lights came on in the box. Then the box started moving. After a while it stopped and the other end was opened and we drove out. We had pretty much driven onto a train that took us under the English Channel, but no one told us anything.
Overall, it was not a super experience, but we made it safely to Victoria Coach Station where Paul Britton, a friend from Davidson who had previously visited us in Vienna was prepared to meet us. He took us to his apartment (he is on the NYU program in London, which he wasn’t to terribly thrilled with) and we dropped our stuff off. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening walking around the more famous parts of London. We saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and Big Ben, and we hung out by the river for a while as well where we got a good view of the London Eye. It was, however, reasonably cold for most of our trip, so after a while we just headed back to Paul’s place to get ready to go out with his roommates.
Some of you may remember that Allison, my companion for this trip, worked at a summer camp with a good friend of Patrick and myself from Davidson, Peter Delpin, who also happens to be Paul’s roommate at Davidson. In an odd circumstance, one of Paul’s roommates in London is a good friend of Peter’s from home, Jason! So there we were, Peter’s friend, Davidson roommate, grade-school friend, and summer co-worker all in the same apartment, while he was abroad in China. Anyway, Jason took us to hang out with some of his friends from Wake Forest that night, which eventually ended with Jason (who I had met once when he visited Davidson) and I searching for and finally acquiring a kebap really late at night.
The next day we did more touring, led by Paul. We saw St. Paul’s cathedral and walked from there to the Millennium Bridge (this bridge is the one that is torn apart in the opening scene of the sixth Harry Potter movie!). From there we walked down the river and saw a variety of more modern but famous buildings, the Tower Bridge, and the London Castle. As a continuation of our Harry Potter sight seeing (which Allison and I were very excited about), we then stopped at King’s Cross Station and visited the place where they filmed Platform 9 ¾! This was pretty neat as well. We ended the day by going to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, which was basically like one giant Christmas market from Vienna that was really high-tech. (I can’t remember if I’ve described the Vienna Christmas markets? I’ll look and include it soon if I haven’t.) There were rides, bratwurst stands, hot cocoa stands, and much, much more. Again, it was cold, so we only stayed a couple hours, but it was really fun.
Sunday we had a pretty slow start to the day, but we ended up getting food and catching our 2pm bus back to Brussels. Upon arrival there about 9, Allison and I didn’t really have anything to do, but we did need to eat some food, so we found a kebap place to stop for a bit. Our flight out of the Brussels Chaleroi airport was at 7ish, so we decided to just walk through the city and give ourselves a tour. It was reasonably cold, but we made sure to wear almost all of our clothing. On our walk we got to see the main square (decorated with a life-size nativity scene with real sheep, a tree, and a bunch of lights), the main, and giant, judicial building, a cathedral, and a couple other important sights. About 1 we made it to the other side of the city where we needed to pick up our bus. We sat in the waiting room for about 3 hours and then took a bus to the airport. We then flew to Bratislava again Monday morning, and took a bus to Vienna. I got back in time to make it to class and then immediately fall asleep.
All in all, we had a blast. Allison and Paul became really good friends, and she even decided to fly out to Denver in January to make the drive to Davidson with us (Paul picks me up, and then she’ll see Peter too once we get there!). It was my last weekend traveling, and I was very ready to be done with all of that. Hopefully I’ll write on the plane tomorrow (if it goes!!!!) and have another post up soon! Thanks for reading, sorry for being so way far behind!
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| Inside the Restaurant for Thanksgiving! |
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| The London Eye |
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| Big Ben |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| Me in front of the Millennium Bridge |
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| The Globe Theatre |
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| Allison and I in front on the Tower Bridge |
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| The London Castle (really, really old) |
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| Headed to Hogwarts! |
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| One giant festival |
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| This was our sleeping area - two mattresses in the kitchen. |
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| The main square in Brussels. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from any place in Brussels to another one. |
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| Their city hall. |
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| The Nativity Scene |
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| The massive judicial complex in Brussels! |
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Laney Schenk and Katie Lovett spend a weekend in Vienna!
Again, I am sorry I’m so far behind on these. I’ll do my best to recreate the weekend of November 19-21 (rewind!):
I guess I should start with Wednesday, November 17. Our roommate E had two friends who were in town, so they spent the night on our futon, and Tad’s sister Taryn also came into town. Tad was so kind as to let her sleep in his bed while he slept either on a couch or on a set of cushions he acquired from somewhere. At any rate, before any Davidson people had even showed up we already had three visitors. On Thursday, the 18th Patrick’s girlfriend Katie Lovett (who is studying in Edinburgh) joined us. It was great to see yet another Davidson face that I hadn’t seen in a long time (though I do often interrupt their online conversations, so I supposed I talk to her then). Thursday evening was pretty relaxing and uneventful, so far as I remember, but it was also 3 weeks ago. Also, earlier in the week I attended a concert of IES students on my program. They are absolutely unbelievable, and it was so cool to see them perform.
Friday (the 19th) Laney Schenk arrived in Vienna. Laney was one of the first people I met and became friends with at Davidson. She is studying in Florence for the semester. She arrived reasonably late in the evening, so I met her at the airport. We went home and dropped her stuff off and decided just to go ahead and meet up with some friends and go out. Our friend who lives upstairs, Carli Smith, also had guest in town, so the four Davidson people in our apartment (Pat, Katie, Laney, and myself) plus David, Evan, Tad, and his sister joined Carli and her friends and attempted to show all of our guests the Vienna nightlife.
The next day was mostly spent touring around Vienna. Pat and Katie had a reasonably set itinerary (Laney and I did not) but we met up with the every once in a while. Laney and I went to café Sperl and had brunch, and then proceeded to walk around and tour the city for a while. We made a stop around dinner time at Schonnbrun for dinner at the Christmas market, and after spending a little bit of time there we reboarded the Ubahn and headed out to the football stadium where we saw a Rapid game. I’m not fully sure how much Laney wanted to go to a game or how much she enjoyed it, but Rapid won 5-0, so it was really fun for me!
After the game we went home and rested for a bit. Eventually Laney, David, Tad, Taryn, and myself all left to meet up with our friend Abbey who was celebrating her birthday with her parents. Pat and Katie were going to make more food and then join up with us, but I think a long day had worn them out, so they never made it out of the apartment. We pretty much hung out with a bunch of people until we finally headed home. It has been super, super nice to have the Ubahn running 24 hours on the weekend. We never have to worry about how far away from our apartment we’re going because we can always get back no matter what. Anyway, we had another good night out with a bunch of recent and not so recent friends.
Sunday was another slower day of touring, which meant heading to the Belvedere for the second week in a row on a Sunday. We went to the Upper part this time so she could sleep the Klimts, etc. I had a little bit of work to do as well, so we had a pretty relaxing day. Monday we had sachertorte (a kind of chocolate cake with a thin fruity layer in the middle) at the Hotel Sacher, and then I dropped Laney off at the airport. I believe Katie actually left on Sunday.
One interesting thing I became aware of while having visitors late in the semester is that I’ve really attempted to become Viennese. I get kind of embarrassed when I walk around and someone is talking very loud. I don’t like it when people stand on the wrong side of the escalator. And perhaps most interesting, when my guest is frustrated with some aspect of the culture, I stick up for Vienna and feel mildly offended. For example, Quinn (who had visited the weekend before) was upset when a few people in line butted ahead of him and took his spot. Admittedly, this frustrated me at first as well, until I figured out that the culture here mandates that you advocate yourself. Whether it is standing in line for icecream or hailing a cab, you have to be proactive. When a server looks up and says, “may I help you,” it pretty much just means, “Who is going to order first?” At any rate, it was interesting to realize that I felt a little defensive when Quinn was talking about how he didn’t like it and it seemed remarkably disorderly.
At any rate, it was great to see both Laney and Katie. Each visit only makes me more excited to be back at home and at Davidson. I’m sure both are going to be amazing and I can’t wait to see everyone at home!
I guess I should start with Wednesday, November 17. Our roommate E had two friends who were in town, so they spent the night on our futon, and Tad’s sister Taryn also came into town. Tad was so kind as to let her sleep in his bed while he slept either on a couch or on a set of cushions he acquired from somewhere. At any rate, before any Davidson people had even showed up we already had three visitors. On Thursday, the 18th Patrick’s girlfriend Katie Lovett (who is studying in Edinburgh) joined us. It was great to see yet another Davidson face that I hadn’t seen in a long time (though I do often interrupt their online conversations, so I supposed I talk to her then). Thursday evening was pretty relaxing and uneventful, so far as I remember, but it was also 3 weeks ago. Also, earlier in the week I attended a concert of IES students on my program. They are absolutely unbelievable, and it was so cool to see them perform.
Friday (the 19th) Laney Schenk arrived in Vienna. Laney was one of the first people I met and became friends with at Davidson. She is studying in Florence for the semester. She arrived reasonably late in the evening, so I met her at the airport. We went home and dropped her stuff off and decided just to go ahead and meet up with some friends and go out. Our friend who lives upstairs, Carli Smith, also had guest in town, so the four Davidson people in our apartment (Pat, Katie, Laney, and myself) plus David, Evan, Tad, and his sister joined Carli and her friends and attempted to show all of our guests the Vienna nightlife.
The next day was mostly spent touring around Vienna. Pat and Katie had a reasonably set itinerary (Laney and I did not) but we met up with the every once in a while. Laney and I went to café Sperl and had brunch, and then proceeded to walk around and tour the city for a while. We made a stop around dinner time at Schonnbrun for dinner at the Christmas market, and after spending a little bit of time there we reboarded the Ubahn and headed out to the football stadium where we saw a Rapid game. I’m not fully sure how much Laney wanted to go to a game or how much she enjoyed it, but Rapid won 5-0, so it was really fun for me!
After the game we went home and rested for a bit. Eventually Laney, David, Tad, Taryn, and myself all left to meet up with our friend Abbey who was celebrating her birthday with her parents. Pat and Katie were going to make more food and then join up with us, but I think a long day had worn them out, so they never made it out of the apartment. We pretty much hung out with a bunch of people until we finally headed home. It has been super, super nice to have the Ubahn running 24 hours on the weekend. We never have to worry about how far away from our apartment we’re going because we can always get back no matter what. Anyway, we had another good night out with a bunch of recent and not so recent friends.
Sunday was another slower day of touring, which meant heading to the Belvedere for the second week in a row on a Sunday. We went to the Upper part this time so she could sleep the Klimts, etc. I had a little bit of work to do as well, so we had a pretty relaxing day. Monday we had sachertorte (a kind of chocolate cake with a thin fruity layer in the middle) at the Hotel Sacher, and then I dropped Laney off at the airport. I believe Katie actually left on Sunday.
One interesting thing I became aware of while having visitors late in the semester is that I’ve really attempted to become Viennese. I get kind of embarrassed when I walk around and someone is talking very loud. I don’t like it when people stand on the wrong side of the escalator. And perhaps most interesting, when my guest is frustrated with some aspect of the culture, I stick up for Vienna and feel mildly offended. For example, Quinn (who had visited the weekend before) was upset when a few people in line butted ahead of him and took his spot. Admittedly, this frustrated me at first as well, until I figured out that the culture here mandates that you advocate yourself. Whether it is standing in line for icecream or hailing a cab, you have to be proactive. When a server looks up and says, “may I help you,” it pretty much just means, “Who is going to order first?” At any rate, it was interesting to realize that I felt a little defensive when Quinn was talking about how he didn’t like it and it seemed remarkably disorderly.
At any rate, it was great to see both Laney and Katie. Each visit only makes me more excited to be back at home and at Davidson. I’m sure both are going to be amazing and I can’t wait to see everyone at home!
Pictures:
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| Schonnbrun Palace lit up at night |
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| We went to a Rapid game. They won 5-0! |
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| Laney and I. We usually take good pictures together. |
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| The gardens at the Belvedere Palace |
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| Laney in front of the gardens. |
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