Break, Brake, Broken

It snowed today, and I'm cold. I was in class so I didn't get a chance to take any pictures. I have more work to do in the next three days than is possible to do in a week. Please forgive the absence in most things, and brevity in the few, if any, correspondences I am able to get out.

The Warrior Poet

I had a little free time before diner tonight and decided to stop off at the internet café across the street from our hotel and give everyone a little update from the Emerald Isle. I absolutely love it here. There’s something about it that feels like home. Maybe it has to do with the fact that for the last few months I’ve absorbed the way people look at Ireland within Europe and have begun to equate it to the European version of Texas. Being here has sunk that in even further. I walked into a convenience store in a smaller town on the coast yesterday and the guy working there actually initiated a nice little conversation with me. People here are loud, they are loyal, and they are fiercely faithful. There’s also something about a society built around the mythos of great their great warrior poets as the pinnacle of their aspirations that sustains a great amount of resonance with me. Now, I have also enjoyed the fact that with my red hair, beard, my new favourite hat, wool coat, and the occasional cigar or pipe in my mouth that I fit in extremely well. We’ve spent a lot of time in and around the city of Dublin and have only travelled outside a little. We went out to Howth, which is on the coast, and Malahyde Castle yesterday, and went up in the Wicklow mountains to Glendelough a few days before that. This place is just incredibly beautiful, and I know that there’s no way that you can see that from my pictures. But they’ll be up sometime tomorrow night for you to see what you can. I’ve just been spitting out words as fast as I can for the moment before I have to take off right now. I’ll try to organize some thoughts and make a more comprehensive post later. But for now, I’m gonna go take care of other business. Cheers.

Before or After: David AS Goliath

So, I’m told there’s this debate among artists, historians, art historians, and other merely interested parties as to whether Michelangelo’s sculpture of David is supposed to be a depiction of him before or after his slaying of Goliath. That is something that I went into the Academia intending to formulate an opinion on for myself. The first thing that struck me about the statue was it’s scale. I had it in my mind for some reason that the statue was life size, and was supposed to be an incredible example of the human form. Imagine my wonder when I walk into the room and see a depiction of David, as Goliath. The detail on the statue is absolutely amazing, there’s no way I can explain the monument for you here. After all, entire volumes have been written by much more gifted writers than myself, for now, I’ll refer you to them. I did form my own opinion on the debate though. I believe that it is before he threw the stone. There are two main reasons for this. First of all are his eyes; they are focused very intently on some object off in the distance, rather than being elated at his victory. Secondly is simply his body’s position. His weight is in his right leg, and his left leg is raised, cocked at the knee looking as if he were preparing to move quickly and powerfully. What it actually reminded me of was a pitcher just leaving his set position on the mound. Hopefully, I’ll have a picture up soon and you can find out for yourself. For now I can't seem to find one that will link correctly for my post. You'll have to find one for yourself... shouldn't be hard. What do you think, before or after?

David and Gol... I mean, The Duomo

A special thank you to the four people who read this blog. It’s really good to know someone’s out there.

Thanks to the fact that my place of residence for this weekend in Florence is the Villa of the Pepperdine Italy Program, I have unlimited internet access. Normally I wouldn’t take the time away from a weekend in Italy to post, but since I will be headed to Ireland next week I thought that I would go ahead and take advantage of this free time while the girls get ready for diner. It has been a good weekend. There was a day long train strike in the country when we arrived yesterday morning, so we had to take a bus from Pisa out to Florence. Once we arrived at the villa the first order of business was lunch. I was encouraged by one of the students here to get a cappuccino along with my panino for lunch, and was reminded just how incredible the coffee is here. I like coffee, but this is the only country where I’ve had a cappuccino that I truly enjoyed, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to anywhere else now. I’ll just have to stick to my lattes everywhere else. After that, we went to the Academia, which is filled with Renaissance Art and still functions as a small national art school for Italy today. The crowning masterpiece on display at the museum, of course is Michelangelo’s David. The statue is a truly monumental piece of work and deserves a post to itself, so I’ll neglect it for the moment. Next we continued down the street to The Duomo. “Duomo” is nothing more than Italian for dome, but The Cathedral of Florence is typically just referred to as The Duomo. Believe it or not, that’s because it’s prominent feature is an absolutely enormous dome. This is like no cathedral I’ve ever seen. Standing in front of it, the cathedral feels like the largest one I’ve seen yet, but I think that is because the surrounding buildings do not allow you to take in the whole thing. You can only see it relatively close up, which makes the building tower over you, and emphasizes the extremely intricate detail of the structure. When I get my pictures up (hopefully tomorrow night) you can see for yourself. After that we climbed the 414 steps to the top of the bell tower and were rewarded with an incredible view of the city. Those were the top sights of the city, so we followed it up with a shotgun tour of the other major churches. I remember being impressed with the fact that our friend who was taking us around said something about that being one of the “other churches here in Florence.” Here we were looking at a cathedral that is, at the very least, twice as old as the nation I so proudly call home and we’re passing it off as one of the other churches here in Florence. What an incredible year it’s been. I spent most of today wandering around on my own. I went to the leather market, and a number of little shops, though I really didn’t buy much of anything. Just a little gift for my sister’s Valentines day present. I did eat some gelato and drink some coffee though, couldn’t help it… it’s ITALY.

Schedule (say it: SHED djew al)

As is the life of a Pepperdine University International student, I have a very hectic schedule over the next couple weeks. I just thought I would take a moment to explain my soon to come extended absence from the blogosphere. In a matter of a few hours I will be hopping in a Taxi with three of the girls here at 56 Prince's Gate to alight for our weekend getaway to Florence. I’ll be back Sunday night, and spend the majority of the Lover’s Holiday at Parliament with my history class. Then early Tuesday morning, we’ll be headed to the Emerald Isle for our Educational Fieldtrip. I’ll be there till late the next Sunday, will come back to London for three grueling days of Midterm Evaluations, and finally, leave on Thursday for the land of perpetual sunshine, and the current home of the most beautiful woman I’ve met in all my travels around the globe. I will stay there for a week soaking up the sun, and enjoying the beach while trying to clear my head of the London dreariness (I’ll have to explain the concept of the London tent later.) In trying to determine whether or not to continue posting here, could I please encourage you to leave a comment or two for me to actually determine if anyone’s still reading?? I would really appreciate it. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to post again before I get back from Spring Break in So Cal, but you never know… I might just jump right up there and surprise you!

Checker

The Museum of Childhood, located in the far reaches of Zone 2 on the London Underground, is something that I could have gone my entire life without ever knowing existed and I would have probably been better off for it. It’s not that anything bad happened, not at all, it’s just that rather than learning about the developmental and behavioral stages of childhood, the majority of us just reverted to childhood ourselves. Out of all the Lego towers, sandboxes, towers made out of stools, and all the other randomness that ensued I must say that my high, or low, point for the trip had to be a quite intense game of Checker I had with Dap. No, that’s not a typo, we only had one piece, therefore we played checker… I won.

Crepe it one more time

Just a quick follow up to the last post...
It appears that the creperie I mentioned last week is attempting history today. Well, yesterday and today I should say. They are attempting to set the world record for the most crepes made in a 48 hour period. Now as far as I can tell, there isn’t a record for that as of yet, so I expect their attempt to be fruitful. The more important fact is, that that translated into a free crepe for me at 3am yesterday. Beautiful.