ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: June 2010

Wednesday

30

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

How much can you do in London in a week?

Written by , Posted in Adventures

Walk to and around campus (twice)
Walk along South Bank
“Exposed” exhibition at the Tate Modern
Walk around Regents Park
Walk around Hyde Park (twice)
World cup
End of year party for school
Drinks in beer garden at Victoria Park
Tea at Fortnum and Mason (so, so worth it)
Geffrye Museum
Thames River Cruise
Greenwich Park and GMT Museum
Design Museum (excellent special exhibit on Urban Africa)
40th Anniversary Dinner for my Parents
Imperial War Museum
Changing of the Guard
National Portrait Gallery

It’s time for a nap

Wednesday

30

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

Berlin is Poor, but Sexy

Written by , Posted in Adventures

My sister and I went to Berlin for four nights about a week ago. I was there in 1998 when my high school choir was touring central Europe, and I remember very little. We stayed in the east, I believe. I ate at a Pizza Hut (I was vegetarian at the time) and was so surprised but happy to see that the staff there spoke English. I also remember going to a museum near Checkpoint Charlie.

Stephanie and I stayed in Kreuzberg just a block south of Checkpoint Charlie. We got in on our flight around 7pm, and took the train in from the airport. Within minutes I had accidentally activated the assistance alarm in our accessible room. Whoops. Our first German meal was actually Vietnamese (so good), after which we walked up Freidrichstrasse to Unter der Linden and over to the Brandenburg Gate, where the Christopher Street Festival was going on. We returned to see teeny tiny gummy bears on our pillows.
Sunday I woke up with a cold, which frankly was inevitable. I’d been going full force, studying and stressing, for a couple of months. Once the stress of that was gone, I almost immediately got on a plane to take a vacation. But it turned out to be a pretty mild cold, so we forged ahead. We went to the Topographie des Terrors, which was eerie. After stopping for a currywurst, we walked over to the DDR Museum, which focuses on what daily life was like in East Berlin in the 60s-80s. Really fascinating place. We passed through the forum where Marx and Engels are displayed in statue form, then strolled up Karl-Marx-Allee until we reached the East Side Gallery.
At this point we were pretty exhausted so we took a break and regrouped for a visit to the Holocaust Memorial. It was powerful and eerily quiet. After that we needed something a bit lighter, so we found some Italian food and then made our way over to the Reichstag, which is where the government meets. You can go up in the dome, and we got there for the last entry at 9:30pm, giving us some gorgeous twilight views of Berlin. We walked from there to the main train station with the hopes of getting tickets to Dresden for the next day, but decided instead to take a trip just outside Berlin to Potsdam.
Potsdam is a gorgeous little town. There are interesting winding streets with somewhat more colorful buildings that we found in Berlin during our first two days. We found a great place with yummy German food and lovely waitstaff who politely translated every menu item for us. We visited the huge park there and got caught in a rain storm before taking refuge in the Neues Palais. Talk about massive. We headed back in the evening, got Chinese food for dinner and visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum I had gone to twelve years ago. A ton of information to take in about attempts to escape from East Berlin and to change the government.
Tuesday we hoped to see the Bauhaus Archive but it was closed, so we wandered over to the Zoo area. That part was very commercial and kind of creeped me out, although we found a gem in the Museum for Photograph / Helmut Newton museum. His work is amazing. We walked through Tiergarten, stopped for a sundae (mmmmmm) and then walked over to see the Tacheles, this amazing art installation.
Wednesday was our last day (late flight back to London) and we went up a bit north to take a Berlin Underground tour. I really recommend this – the tour we took had us going into two underground bunkers – both built to protect people from bombings during WWII, with one renovated to handle cold war tensions. It was really amazing, and we were lucky to have a great guide who was an archaeologist by trade. He was full of really interesting knowledge. For example, did you know Frankfurt is the center of European flight control because it dates back to it serving as the hub of the Berlin airlifts in the 60s? We finished the day watching the England match at one of the many ‘beaches’ set up throughout the city for World Cup viewing.
Berlin was really cheap, and not crowded at all. In fact, the places we were seemed very empty. But the neighborhoods near the Tacheles and the Underground tour seemed really interesting and places I’d want to explore more. I could definitely see myself going back.

Tuesday

15

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

Saturday

12

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

Well that was lucky

Written by , Posted in Adventures

England 1-1 USA = Win for me

That was some of the most stressful television I’ve watched in I don’t know how long. Living in London, and having a friend who grew up in England and would get us over to the bar in Brooklyn early on a Sunday to watch the Blues play, has led me to love Premiere league football. I love the Blues (Birmingham City, NOT Chelsea), and I’ve enjoyed following the England team this year. The friendly against Egypt was a highlight.

But I’m also an American. And I’d love it if football could get more of a following in the states. If the US does well this year, maybe that would help.

So yeah, this was tough. That first goal by Gerrard knocked the wind out of me. The US team was not strong, and when they had chances it seemed there were two or three blue shirts in a sea of white. 

Then Green … oh man. That hurts. A lot. And yet I was so excited to see the tie up on the screen, because as much as I didn’t want England to lose, I didn’t want them to win, either.

A draw. I know England is upset, but I’m thrilled. Now I can go back to cheering for both teams aggressively.

Come on England!

As a happy aside, I’ve used up all my stress hormones completely, so I’m no longer nervous about my last exam on Monday.

Friday

11

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Written by , Posted in Adventures

The international kind, of course.

I love football. In fact, here’s my sports rankings:

Football
Ice Hockey
College Football
American Football

College Basketball

Baseball

Basketball

The top four on that list are really all right next to each other. If my alma mater is playing, I’ll care about college basketball. Baseball and professional basketball? It’s hard for me to care less. Totally different sports and yet equally boring. To me. I realize that is not a common statement, especially since so many think football is boring because it is so low-scoring.

Anyway, the World Cup is like a little bit of heaven for me. And being only one time zone behind the matches, and in a country that a) is in the World Cup and b) loves football, I can fully enjoy it. Plus, I’m unemployed! As a student, especially after my last exam on Monday, I can devote a lot of time to watching the matches.

Today I watched the opening ceremonies with some friends (including two South Africans!), then watched RSA v Mexico in the school library with headphones while studying. Tomorrow I’ll watch the US v England match at Kate and Richard’s place, where I promise to behave. We were discussing watching it in a pub, but the costs really outweighed the benefits. At Kate and Richard’s, we are guaranteed a seat, access to the toilet with no waiting, and the food we want to eat. Can’t lose.

Now I’ve got the Uruguay v France match on. I’m rooting for Uruguay.

Who are my picks? I’d love the US to win it all. I’m also rooting for England and the Netherlands. I am actively cheering for whomever is playing against France at any time because that should be Ireland. F-ing Henry.

Wednesday

9

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

US v England – With the diplomats involved, it gets witty

Written by , Posted in Random

From the BBC.com:
 

Ambassadors bet on USA-England World Cup match

Page last updated at 21:45 GMT, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 22:45 UK

 The US ambassador in London will buy his counterpart a steak if England wins

Diplomats in London and Washington have raised the stakes over Saturday's US-England World Cup clash by wagering a meal over the game's outcome.

The bet was brokered in cables between aides to US Ambassador Louis Susman and UK Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald.

"We will understand if you decline, given the outcome of the last such encounter," a US aide wrote, referring to the US defeat of England in 1950.

A UK aide said Sir Nigel took his steak like that win – "somewhat rare".

'Generous nation'

"Even for such an exceptionally optimistic nation as the United States, I am struck by the confidence with which your ambassador proposes this wager," Martin Longden, press secretary to Sir Nigel, wrote to Philip Breeden of the US embassy in London in an exchange first reported by Politico.com.

"It is testament, I assume, to the generosity of your great nation, since the British ambassador does not anticipate paying out."

Mr Breeden replied: "It is true that our soccer (a fine English word we have kindly preserved for you) history is not as long and illustrious as yours.

"However, as your generals noted during World War II, we have a unique capability for quickly identifying and advancing talent."

British embassy staff, their families and some US acquaintances will be watching the game on a big-screen television at the embassy in Washington.

Roughly one quarter of the embassy staff are American nationals, "so it should make for a lively crowd", an embassy official told the BBC.

"We're not doing anything more grand," the official said. "We'll leave that to the final."

Tuesday

1

June 2010

0

COMMENTS

Tuesday Two-a-Days

Written by , Posted in Random

Even though I run half-marathons (and am basically always training for the next one – Birmingham in July! Seattle in November!) – I am not in excellent shape. Being a grad student lends itself nicely to a lot of sitting – sitting in bars, sitting in cafes, sitting in study groups – and with all that sitting, at least in my case, comes a lot of eating. And so to combat that effects of mindlessly munching while trying to nail down the nuances of Kant’s Formula of Humanity, I have started attending once-weekly boot camp. 

That’s right. On Tuesday mornings I do my regular training run (between three and five miles depending on the week), and then at six thirty in the evening I head over to nearby park and get my ass handed to me by a member of the British Army. It’s really hard and really fun. The guys who run it break us into groups by fitness level (I’m a red, if I were in better shape I’d be a yellow, and if I were Paula Radcliff I’d be a green) and push us. There is a lot of running, a lot of squatting, loads of push-ups (my goal is be doing them without my knees on the ground by July), and tons of sit ups. My first week we ended class carrying each other, literally, while running. This week it was raining the entire time, so each time I laid down to do sit ups, my back got muddy. When I had to put my knees down for the dozens of push-ups, they got soaked. It was AWESOME.

The instructors are really nice, and joke around with us, but they push us and punish us as warranted. Last week, someone didn’t close up their water tightly, so it drenched the instructor’s bag. 10 extra sit ups for us. This week someone (twice) was standing around instead of jogging in place (we have to ALWAYS be jogging in place if we aren’t running or doing exercises), and we had to do push-ups. But if someone is struggling, everyone cheers them on, and the instructors adjust if a person is being pushed too far outside of what they can do at the moment. Last week I was a bit light headed after one exercise, so he had me stop for a bit and get right. It’s the perfect balance, for me, of motivation and understanding.

I’d love to go twice a week, but the Thursday class is too close to my long training runs to risk being super sore. However, after the Birmingham half I might take the running down a notch and bump up the boot camp because it is fantastic.