Happy Thanksgiving From the land that we're all celebrating getting away from!

It’s Thanksgiving and I feel compelled to write something profound, meaningful, stirring, or at least mildly compelling. However, if you happen to be looking for anything that fits any of these criteria, I’m afraid you have stumbled across the wrong blog. I set out to make my mom’s cranberry salad as my contribution to our Thanksgiving feast here in 56 Prince’s Gate, an endeavor that was fraught with opposition. My mom’s main concern ingredient wise was over my ability to find cranberries, however, that proved to be no problem whatsoever. Pecans, however, were nowhere to be found. I decided to substitute them with almonds, since they were the only unroasted, unsalted nuts in the store. The main problem however is that this house has no chopper and I had to do it all by hand. It didn’t strike me how difficult this was going to be, but after three hours of chopping, mincing, and dicing with a dull knife and wobbly cutting board, I came to realize I had grossly underestimated this task. It was a good use of my time though, I had a number of good conversations in our closet of a kitchen and impressed a number of people with my culinary determination. This morning I was greeted with the sweet news that my one class for the day had been canceled and I could sleep in a little, an opportunity which I took wholeheartedly, as I have been getting over a little bout of something I was dealing with yesterday morning, I’m well now though. Sitting at my computer working on Middle East homework, for some reason I started to wonder what we will be drinking with our meal tonight. I rue the thought of another thanksgiving with no sweet tea. Then I remembered that one of the good southern girls in the house had her mom send over some tea bags and I used a few of them to make a good pitcher of sweet tea, which I am thoroughly enjoying even as I type this. That said there are many, many things that I am thankful for today. I will go for the unoriginal listing of them and see how far I get.

I am thankful for:
Sweet Tea
The chance to go places that make my parents jealous
True friends that not only keep in contact with me from one coast to the other, but internationally as well
A computer that works when all the others in the house are deathly ill with viruses
A mom that prays for me, and my family, unceasingly.
The belief that MY COUNTRY has in Freedom.
Good music over good headphones.
Being in school
The ability to make nachos, tacos, and other Tex-Mex staples in a country that thinks Mexican and Spanish are the same thing.
Trust in the knowledge that I don’t have to do it on my own.
So many other things that I don’t have space, or time to express.

I have to go get ready for diner. I love all of you, and I’m looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks at Christmas.
Cheers!

U2 To You Too

Guys, I gotta tell you, I had an awesome weekend. I got a lot of sleep, a lot of work done, a lot of fun in and it’s not quite over. Friday I headed out to Mac Expo and got to play with all the new High Technology toys, a trip that constantly reminded me of something Dad says a lot, only, in this case very much taken out of context, “All it takes is money.” Haha, right after I get my mom her car, I think I’m just gonna buy Apple, Canon, Sony, and Bose. You can all borrow my toys whenever you want, just please ask first, and not until I actually have them. I spent most of yesterday sitting in different museums in front of different paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner, writing my art term paper. I did a lot of the same today. I’m not done quite yet, but after another afternoon of writing, and one more of formatting and revising, I’ll be good to go. Now I’m waiting for the sun to go down so I can go take a few more pictures. I’ve been experimenting with light sources at dusk, and am anxious to develop my film when I get home for Christmas. Later tonight, I will be heading out to Piccadilly Circus to wait in line for the U2 album release. U2 is actually advertising it on their website (the London party type thing, not just the release), so who knows, maybe they’ll just drop in and tell me hello. Andy, I won’t tell the Edge about that reoccurring dream you have about being him, on stage with nothing on but your Gibson Les Paul. It’s starting to get cold enough here for me to be uncomfortable outside with just a jacket on. I think I’ve got a group of students talked into going with me… furthermore, since they have new iPods, they’re going to give me the u2 one if any of them win it. Who knows, I can dream right? I often do, don’t wake me.

What do Canon Digital SLRs and iPods have in common?

I want you to close your eyes. Okay, don’t, because then you couldn’t read this. Just imagine with your eyes open: you’re in a room, an extremely large room; in fact it’s actually a convention center. There’s a strange vibe surrounding you, but it takes you a moment to figure out what it is. You just keep thinking any minute you’re going to be trampled by a stampede of overweight, middle aged men wearing Star Trek t-shirts. It finally hits you what the vibe is, you are in the middle of what is quite possibly the largest gathering of geeks, nerds, and otherwise techno-dweebs this world has ever seen. Now, in your minds eye, look at the faces. Do you see me? I’m the guy in the jeans, diagonal-blue-striped white button down shirt, and black sports coat with the satchel bag slug over his back. Yep, that’s me, back in the corner playing with the new U2 Special Edition iPod. That little out of body experience you just went on took you to MacExpo 2004 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. And no, you were not imagining things; it really was me back in the corner. I got up around the crack of noon today and headed off on a 50 minute cross-town train [ride] in the London Underground. After an hour in line and a modest 10 pound fee, I was in. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t as much a meeting of the dorks that you might think, Apple has been incredibly successful at carving out its niche in pop culture and that was evident today. I had a chance to play with the new operating system that’s due to be released in the “first half of 2005,” Final Cut Pro HD set up on a G5 with dual 23” screens, the new iMac G5, gorgeous, Bose’s sounddock for iPod… amazing, Canon’s new Digital SLRs… wow, up to 16.7 Mega pixels… that’s unbelievable, the new “The Incredibles” game, and finally, got to sit in the Colorworx Ferrari sitting out front. It was a good afternoon. I finished it up by swinging by Lillywhites and getting my second installment of Christmas shopping done, they were having a huge sale today and I found a number of things for 1 pound. I’m almost finished, and glad for it. Anyway, the first European Apple store opens tomorrow morning at 10am, I think I’m going to forgo that in lue of an essay over Joseph M. W. Turner. But, U2’s new album does come out Monday, and I’ll be in line at Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly Circus Sunday at midnight to be one of the first ones to own a copy. I’ll have listened to it a number of times before you can buy it in the states! Haha. Cheers mates.

Amphibious Articles

The overwhelming majority of my life the past couple weeks has been dedicated to the rapid completion of a number of essays. In fact, that will be the common theme for the remainder of this semester. For some reason, I felt like I should at least put this part of my life on the web for you to criticize at your leisure. As such, I have added a new blog HERE. I don’t expect anyone to read this, but some of you might be very board one day. Cheers!

Spears Chooses Pepperdine?

I’m simply taking a short break from Political Islam in Egypt post 1967 to bring you this breaking news. Rumor sites have claimed that Britney Spears has enrolled at Pepperdine University for next year. We have been hearing this rumor among students for the past week or so, and a number of rumor sites have today posted articles claiming that the 23 year old pop star will be attending our Malibu hideaway in the coming years in an attempt to achieve some sort of career post stardom. I’m skeptical, the Olsen twins had also claimed Pepperdine at one point, but after the health issues were taken care of, they decided to switch coasts. We’ll see, I just felt it necessary to keep you, the reader, as up to date as possible… back to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Misericordia et Veritas

Ladies and Gentlemen:
I have just returned from a weekend in the Italian Alps for our Pepperdine International Students Spiritual Retreat. We stayed in a ski resort in Bergamo at the “Hotel Vittoria.” A quick note about this hotel; there are not actually walls for the shower, only a drain on the floor and a large squeegee to mop up after your shower. Though this is strange, it was not a problem as the water got quite hot, and combined with the in-bathroom radiator, a sauna effect was easily obtained. Of course, it is not quite ski season here, so we were able to take over every room in our hotel. When we stepped of our bus, we were met with sunshine, cool weather, and some residue of the last snowfall still sticking to the streets. Snow capped mountains and pine forests made for an incredible surrounding for our weekend.

We arrived Friday noonish, after a night without sleep, since we left London at three that morning. Even though I was exhausted, I could not sleep because of all the squealing resulting from friends seeing each other for the first time this year. After catching up with a few of the people I hadn’t seen, I went for a walk. As I got down to the end of the road I saw one of the most incredible natural sites I’ve ever seen. I was standing on the top of a cliff that overlooked a grassy valley with a single solitary pine tree surrounded by a few mountains composed of entire forests of pine, watching as the sun was just beginning to drop below the towering mountains. Out of nowhere, a cloud of fog began to form in the valley, and as I continued to watch, the wall of fog began to overtake the forests a few yards every few moments. It was absolutely amazing and left the whole area in a quality of light I had never seen before. Later that evening, right before diner I went to a clearing at the base of three ski runs which still retained a good deal of snow fall. Though the sun had disappeared behind the mountains hours ago, the resulting twilight was just now relenting to night. Again I remained there for a while, watching the glowing twilight receded into the west and give way to a sky with more stars than I have seen in a while. Another new quality of light struck me as the snow reflecting the twilight forced my eyes to squint, even though I was mostly surrounded by dark forests of pine trees. God’s majesty seemed to be a theme for me this weekend, and kept revealing itself through these encounters. After diner Friday night we got the retreat started with an hour of worship and a sermon by the visiting religion prof in Heidelberg.

Saturday was filled with retreat-centric events. The high point of this was a photo scavenger hunt in which we were sent into the town in groups and told to take a certain series of pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of my group’s photos and post them on Smugmug for you next weekend. Sad story; I actually got to Italy this time with a dead digital camera and didn’t take my SLR because I’m out of film, so I don’t have any pictures of my own. Saturday went well into the night with events, in this time frame some very clear definitions of the different International Programs immerged. I must say that I came away from this weekend with a clearly defined gratefulness for being in the “London Programme.” Our group has been able to encourage a sense of individualism, though also forged a strong group ties, where the other groups have become completely dependent on each other and seem to oftentimes retreat from the culture they are in for the year. (not always, but in general this seems to be the case) Our group has been able to identify a sense of God’s roll in our lives without relying on the traditional C of C setting. Added to that, I can easily say we have the best RAs, in our case, leaders who lead through earning respect.

Sunday we got up early to catch a bus to the airport and head back to our house in South Kensington, London, UK. As I write this, I am also pondering the possibilities of an Astronomy term paper and a more eminent history paper “accounting for the rise in Political Islam in Egypt following 1967.” The later is due Thursday and I just want to get the former done with before my other term papers start to stack up. This is going to be a long week, I would appreciate, as always, any prayers you would like to shout out on my behalf.

MISERICORDIA ET VERITAS

(Two points on whoever can tell me where this phrase comes from. Current point tally, John Deniston: 1; everyone else: none. John got his one point from prop. 4136, even though he got it wrong, he was the only one who took a guess.)

How Cool is This?

Since I have been here, every few days I come across a moment of extremely introspective bliss when I think to myself “How cool is this!” Often I get the feeling when I realize that in the course of three weeks I was in three different countries and none of them were America. Today that moment came as I abandoned a group setting to forge my own path to the museum for class. Flying down the tube with Snow Patrol softly tickling my earbuds through the greatness that is my first generation brick of an iPod, I was asked by an obviously confused American girl what stop she needed to get off at. She was shocked, and relieved, to hear an American accent when I opened my mouth, and thankful for my help, something that the Brits aren’t good at. Getting off the tube I stopped by Starbucks to get a triple, grande, gingerbread, blended, no whip, latté before heading out into the cold drizzle for the 15 min walk to the National Gallery. The good thing about Starbucks here is that even though I know that my discount from the states doesn’t work, I ask every time if they’ll just try for me, and then talk them into giving me their own discount instead. Tonight it resulted in a free drink (which, in turn, results in a better tip for them.) Strolling through Trafalgar Square to the museum I had to put my hood up as the rain started coming down better. As I watched the tourists taking pictures, I kept looking at my breath, as it got thicker with the added warmth from my coffee it hit me that I am living a dream. How cool is this! It is with this attitude that I went into the National Gallery for class to see paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. I know that at least a few of you have read “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. One of the paintings he references, which resides in the Louvre, is “Madonna on the Rocks.” I saw the sister painting to that today, “The Virgin on the Rocks.” It’s an incredible painting, showing Da Vinci’s mastery over anatomy and the contrast of light and dark. What really stood out though was Da Vinci’s use of the shape of a pyramid for the focus in his images. My teacher even referenced this in class as a staple of his work. The feeling is a welcome advent, but also always short lived, as I walked back into an overly hot room as one of my roommates had shut my window and the radiator had turned on. As I sit here writing this I am trying to use The Postal Service in my headphones to drown out his blasting the new Eminem CD, and trying to put myself back in the mind frame of earlier that came as such a welcome relief. You win some, you lose some.

(This picture is from the National Gallery homepage. The lighting they used to take it belittles the incredible use of light and dark Da Vinci employs but it is the best I could find.)

How much school can you take in a day?

The past few days have seen the advent of a whole lot of nothing. Ryan Harvey, my roommate from last year, who is currently studying with the Pepperdine Heidelberg program, came to visit London this weekend. We did the obligatory run around seeing Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, etc. Other than that though, we didn’t do a whole lot. Late Sunday night/early Monday morning ended with me watching “Gidget Goes Hawaiian,” a 1961 romantic comedy, with four of the girls in the house. Since relations with Carolyn have been a little tense as of late, watching a movie about a manipulative little redhead was an interesting experience for me, but old movies are always fun. Today turned into an excruciatingly long day. Typically my schedule for Mondays and Wednesdays look like this: 8.45-10.45, Shakespeare; 11.00-12.30, Art and Architecture; 1.15-3.15, Astronomy; and 3.30-5.30, Humanities. As if that day isn’t long enough already, we had a pop quiz in Humanities and then the Astronomy lab from Hades. Normally, if we’re having astronomy lab for the week, we will cancel class on Monday and have the lab at 9pm on Tuesday. Today, however, we had class as usual and then were to meet at 6.00pm for lab. I had still not eaten any more than an apple for the day at this point, and when at 7.30 we had still not arrived at this place we were going, I was extremely hungry. We finally got to the observatory around 7.45 and since it was cloudy we got to learn all about the different types of telescopes they had there, plus a 30 min video with horrid animations about the simplest elements of the class, which have been mulled over way too much already. We finally got out of there a little after 9.30 and headed back to the house, which took another hour and a half. 8.30a, to 11.00pm is just too much learning for one day. One high spot from the trip though, walking back to the train Dap and myself stumbled upon the only restaurant still open in the town, which just happened to be a Chinese take away place. I got chicken curry and sweet and sour king prawn balls for under 8 pounds and it was extremely decent. I’m learning to appreciate things that can be qualified as decent and satisfactory, especially when it comes to food over here. That was one topic of the conversation I had tonight with a few of my best girl friends in London. One of the girls is having a hard time and the original attempt was just to cheer her up, but the conversation (over homemade milkshakes for them, and pop corn for me) quickly turned into funny stories and interesting reminiscence. I got to tell stories about getting Papa John’s pickup stuck in a ditch and having the county precinct chain gang van stop and pick it up, various dates that I was proud to have orchestrated, and an instance where a lasting friendship developed from a single summertime conversation, thank you Mindy. It was one of the best conversations I have had in a long time. I attribute it to my falling back on two questions, which have started many a good conversation, and I’ll pose them for you now:
1) What is something that you have never told anyone else?
2) What can you tell me that will change my life?
Cheers ya’ll!
(I liken that phrase to listening to Randy Travis and Jerry Jeff Walker on an iPod, there’s something wrong with it, but it’s a perfect microcosm of my life.)

Edwards: “This fight has just begun.”

Lead Edwards quote; an excerpt from the democratic concession speech.

It has been a long day. Once I had committed to stay up till I saw John Kerry’s concession speech, things slowed down. Thankfully, last week we got CNN in the house. Unfortunately, it’s all we have. So many strait hours of CNN’s version of “non-partisan” commentary is about to kill me. I just finished classes for the day and heard that Kerry was about to give his concession speech, so I came down once more, thankful that I’m getting close to bed. Of course, it was pushed back another hour and I got stuck watching CNN commentary again. And what do you do first after a winner is declared in a US election? Why, ask the French what they think of course! [as I roll my eyes] I know this is going to shock you, but 75 percent of the French supported Kerry, the other 25 percent wanted to know why we couldn’t just elect Chirac. I called it about 14 hours ago. Kerry called it three hours ago. CNN still refuses to call it. Bush wins, and I’m proud to have voted in this monumental election. Praise God. I’ll leave you with this… “It’s been a long night, and a long morning, and even though it won’t change the outcome, we will continue to fight for every vote.” -John Edwards

Patriotics.

November 1, 2004, All Saints Day. Or, for those of you who do not hail from the echelons of Catholicism, Election’s Eve will suffice. I am excited about the election tomorrow. More than anything I am looking forward to having a chance to rest from defending Bush against everyone here, and I believe after he wins tomorrow I will get at least a little reprieve. I feel confident that Bush will pull it out, though the most recent polls have Kerry back within two pints of Bush, well within the margin of error. Moreover, the polls claim that their inability to contact cell phone users has skewed the results for the red right because the liberal cell phone toting youth could not be polled and have registered in record numbers to vote in this election. I believe that there are just as many, if not more, conservative businessmen that operate in a cellular world. I also have faith in my fellow first time voters, that at least some of us have enough sense to think for ourselves and not listen to what the Times or CNN is shoving down our throats. I am concerned though. Bin Laden’s speech this weekend has many people spooked into reconsidering. I’m surprised to see people responding to it in that fashion, but nonetheless they are. Also, there are lawyers upon lawyers waiting for the slightest hint of trouble tomorrow to file suit over the election process. A simple scantron is good enough to rate us for a test to determine our mental capacity on college entrance exams, or middle school math tests for that matter. The letter A on the test corresponds with the letter A on the answer sheet, is it THAT difficult? Is it ironic that this country has issues because it lets people vote that can’t handle that concept? I hope that writing to you tomorrow we can celebrate victory, and I’m confident in that regard. God Bless America.