Be Hungry

Soap Box Surf or Hungry for Life

2010-07-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

I watched a movie/documentary the other night called "Surfwise" with my brother. It was about a wild man, Dr. Doc Paskowitz, who all of a sudden packed up and left his job as a successful doctor to tramp around with his wife and family in a RV from surf spot to surf spot. He had some pretty radical philosophies on life and family and health. He eventually had 8 boys and 1 girl, all of them living in a tiny RV. He raised his children without school, they were very poor and struggling meal to meal, but they all surfed everyday and generally ate very healthy by most any nutritionist standards. I very much appreciate his sense of self and knowing what he wanted to get out of life- being around his family all day, everyday, and surfing. In fact I hold knowledge of self as one of the most important characteristics one can have. I do, however, disagree with many things about how he lived his life, but that's okay- its his life and I am a very different person. One thing stood out to me more than anything from this very provocative and thought conjuring flick and that is a quote he made in his book- "Surfing and Health" it went more or less like this- Primitive man had to fight everyday not to be hungry. Modern man has to fight everyday to be hungry.

We do have to fight to be hungry. Hungry about life, our direction, finding fulfillment, health, love, and genuine appreciation for anything. In today's America we have too much food, too many clothes, transportation is easy, communication is easy, hell compared to the rest of the world- money is easy. Why then, is life not easy? I think I could argue that today's modern man is less happy, less content, and less fulfilled than men (people) of the past (short of war and depression).

I sometimes think of my generation as the Green generation. Not green in the context of environmentally sustainable and progressive, but green in the sense that "the grass is always greener on the other side." Why are we always looking at others or to the future wishing that our situation was better than it is. "If I had more money then I could buy a better car and house, and that would make me happy." "If I was happier with my job, then life would be much better for me." "I am having difficulties with my spouse, maybe there is someone else out there who could make me happy." "Once I retire, then I'll have time to be happy." Notice one thing about all of these statements- they all depend on an external influence.

I don't live perfectly and I certainly don't mean to express that I live better than anyone else, remember I am part of the very generation I speak of. I do realize that any possibility of finding lasting (not momentary or fleeting) happiness relies on looking inward not outward. Perhaps changing how we think about life, how we appreciate people in our lives, and being grateful for the things we do have.
Maybe we cannot appreciate these things until they have been taken away from us, but we can try, and that is my intent everyday- to appreciate the art of living. To fight to be hungry.

Time to get off my soap box. I hope you find something to be hungry for today!

Happy Days, Float Away or A Note on Stability Shock

2010-06-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Notes on Blog neglect:

I feel as though I have neglected you Blog. I don’t particularly enjoy feeling neglectful, especially to a public journal that exists in the magical, made-up world we now depend on entirely too much called the Internet. So there. I don’t feel bad. I created you as an outlet for expression not to become another bullet on my laundry list of things I need to do. So I’m cutting you off. I’m not discontinuing you, like a band breaking up. It’s more like we are taking a hiatus, and whenever we feel like it we can play a spontaneous show at some local venue. It’s not you, it’s me.

Notes on Culture Re-shock:

More like stability shock. Out of the three times that I have lived abroad, this time was the most difficult for me to readjust to home life. I don’t specifically know why. I was excited to see family and friends, still am, and I look forward to continuing to figure out the next step in my life, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t feel out of place in some of the most familiar of situations. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that in a matter of 4 days I went from spontaneously jumping on the next flight out of Madrid to avoid volcanic ash to substitute teaching in an American middle school. In one week I went from seeing shoeless children wrestle and kick around garbage in a Berber village to daily observing American children abuse the privileges that have been handed to them on a silver platter. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I am making money, paying rent, going out, seeing friends and family weekly, and finding a quiet little schedule to nestle into every week. I’m not saying I like or dislike it; it’s just very different. I am not reading or journaling as much, two qualities of my travel that I was very proud of. I am exercising more, a lot more, in preparation for some upcoming runs and half marathons. I don’t have an answer, and I don’t expect to find one. I can admit though, that there is something wildly fantastic about having lived for 24 years on this earth and experiencing a completely new and foreign emotion.

Notes on a Happy weekend:

I had an incredible weekend. Beyond incredible. Sasquatch at the Gorge. This 3-day music festival is a time when I get to see and hang out with people that I rarely do any other time of year. I can witness a few of them in their element, and in some respects completely be in my own element. I made new friends, reconnected with old friends, continued to bond with my brother, saw a lot of great music, and had some INCREDIBLE luck. I didn’t spend beyond my means, but had the experience of doing so. It almost took me a whole day to decompress and come back down to earth. I almost floated away on account of my happiness :)

Notes on notes:

Sometimes I keep notes. For order, for reminder, for habit. I have been using my ipod touch a lot to jot down thoughts, poems, book and movie suggestions, contact information, even grocery shopping lists. There is something very nice about looking at a bulleted and organized list and progressively crossing off item after item until everything that past Hal wanted future Hal to accomplish has been finished. Then again, it’s also nice to completely disregard an organized note in the spirit of spontaneity, and just enjoy being. Present Hal enjoys that the most. I hope that you, dear reader, are finding ways to just enjoy being.

Journey to a Berber Village

2010-04-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

I suppose a delirious plane ride is as good a time as any to write this.

We arrived in Marrakech to our friend Steve’s open arms. It was great to see him. Marrakech, in all of its quirky glory, is a wonderful city. Much more diverse than I had anticipated, “The Kech” has seen a boom in tourism in recent years and is subsequently much more liberal than most Arab cities. Jeema al Fna, a main attraction, is a giant open square full of snake charmers and orange farmers, monkey trainers and wok flamers, dancers, musicians, and tea technicians. The drums and commotion of life in this square sound off long into the night. Just off Jeema al Fna is the endless Medina, or back alley markets. These twist and turn in all directions for what feels like miles. We got lost several times. You can find anything from Djalalbas (traditional robe worn by men) to leather goods and teapots, jewelry, spices, metal and woodwork. If they don’t have what you want, they know someone who does. The shop workers will stop at nothing to coax you into their store. “Hello my friend! English? Deutch? Frances? Espanol? I give you good price.” While traveling with my bearded counterparts, a popular heckle was “Ali Baba! Come here!” You can google “Ali Baba” for the story behind that.

On every corner of this eccentric city you can find restaurants and café’s selling Couscous (the dish so nice they named it twice), Tajine’s (traditional dish), and sweet mint tea. Traveling on a budget has created some very amazing and unique experiences for us. We ended up staying at a popular Peace Corps hotel that Steve knew of. We payed 30 Durham’s (3 Euros or $4) and got to sleep on the rooftop terrace of the hotel with mats and heavy blankets. I was awe struck by the view of Marrakech from this rooftop. I even enjoyed the 4 AM wake up to every Mosque in the city blasting their first call-to-prayer of the day. The call-to-prayer would start quietly from a very distant Mosque and slowly crawl its way closer to your doorstep and then inside your ear.
There are a few annoyances in this peculiar city, the main one being the hash dealers. Every 5 steps the three of us would be propositioned by some punk to purchase the national nugget. We did find ways to release some of the frustration by devising creative tactics to avoid/distract these ganja goons. The flying V, the scatter, the swim move, and the spin move. Our responses usually went something like “No, Ethiopian, click pop tweedle” or “did you make the last call-to-prayer?” or we would just make a loud fart sound at them. Mature, I know.

Finally we decided it was time to head out to Steve’s Berber village. Berber are the native people of Morocco and are generally regarded as hillbilly hicks by the rest of the population. Luckily Steve speaks Tashlheet, a Berber language, and we were welcomed at many places with a strong sense of Berber pride. We enter the bus station, somehow manage to dodge the dank delinquents, and buy our ticket on the cheapest “Suk” bus. A Suk is a weekly market that each town/village has and it is where Moroccans do most of their food shopping and trading. The Suk bus is the people’s bus, because it is the cheapest and it stops at all of the Suk’s along the way. On our way to the High Atlas Mountains, where Steve’s village is, we have to cross the Tishka pass- a series of impressive switchbacks. Before we even start the ascent the ticket taker is handing out loads of plastic bags to the passengers. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, we entered Barf-o-rama 9000. Steve and I had an impressively fluidic family sitting in front of us, passing their infant between them while they took turns expelling their lunch. After 4 or 5 hours of beautiful mountain passes and High Atlas countryside we reach Aguim. Aguim is a small town. If you googled it, I imagine the only results that would turn up would be a bus website listing it as a stop on the way to Ourtzazet. Its small. The type of town that a tourist might pay an expensive guide to go see an “authentic” Berber village. This is where we catch our “taxi.” A regular sedan taxi, we end up fitting 8 adult men in this rig- 4 in the back and 4 in the front sandwiching the driver. An hour later, after more mountains, villages, and mosques we arrive in Tidili. The people in the yet smaller village of Tidili have seen maybe a handful of foreigners in their lifetime. There are no hash hooligans here. There is a small Suk there and even a modest post office (Steve’s closest). Not there yet.

We pile into a Landrover for another 45-minute drive further into the depths of these ancient snow-capped mountains. Along the way the paved road turns into dirt and gravel. Village after village of farmers and children all stopping what they are doing for a moment to watch the automobile drive by. A stream here and there crossing the road, providing a source to wash clothes while supplying water the tiered fields below. As Steve exchanges stories wit the driver, I cannot help but think about how long these people have survived out here. You look at their faces and you know they are an OLD people. Despite Morocco being a country ravished and conquered by countless dynasties, these people have endured by escaping to these mountains, where others dare not go. Their perseverance shows in the authenticity of their culture. Some of these people now have electricity and television, but still make their own bread everyday, have dirt floors, poop into a hole in the ground, and transport goods by donkey. The driver finally stops at an insignificant turn in the road, no different than any other for the past 20 miles, and we get out with our backpacks. From there Steve finds a narrow dirt path among the red rocks and green nameless brush and starts walking. We hike 3 or 4 kilometers off of the road up into his tiny village, La Moda, which literally means “the place.” We are not in Kansas anymore. The landscape is stunning. The blue-sky contrasts with the desert mountains to create a depth that is unmatched. The green tiers of wheat add color to the tan village that would otherwise disappear into the shaded valley. Children are playing with long sticks in the aqueducts that run down the street. Old men sit on stones after digging out the irrigation lines to flood the next field. Women sing the Koran while tending to the wheat fields. The people were very kind and accepting of us foreigners and I was astonished by their hospitality.

There was a certain point in which I felt guilty being there. Guilty because, unlike Steve, I had not lived in this country for 14 months. Contrite that I had not learned the ancient language that most people don’t even know exists. I had not invested enough of my heart to deserve seeing such beautiful rawness and inaccessible life. Regardless, I feel fortunate to have experienced such a special place and rare culture. I am thankful for many things in my life, but right now I am especially grateful that Steve could share with us his life in a remote Berber village in the High Atlas Mountains of North Africa.

Moving on...

2010-04-03T00:23:00.000-07:00

Curt and I leave today for Palermo. Tomorrow we fly up to Pisa and will spend a few days in Florence before we arrive in Marrakech, Morocco. We cannot wait! We will be visiting our good friend Steve who is doing the Peace Corps there.

Refelctions on Sicily:
I love it. It is a very unique place. Humble, unlike the majority of Italy, because people simply don't have money here. With that being said, they live incredibly rich lives here. Indulge in the weather, food, and life in general. It is a confused culture, having been conquered and reconquered by so many different cultures. Greek, Roman, Norman, Arabic, Phoenician. The Sicilian dialect reflects this confusion and ends up sounding like an old man blubbering a mix of Italian and Greek with a few random "G's" thrown in. I mean they barely get the words out of their mouth.
The people are more than friendly. They are not concerned with showing you how posh their clothes are or how much money they have, but more about how you prepare a meal or enjoy your olive oil or wine. Oh the olive oil! I have two addiction that I fear will haunt me after I leave Sicily: Olive oil and blood oranges. I do not know how I will live the rest of my life without them everyday.

I have made many friends here and said too many heart felt goodbyes. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and I am so looking forward to our final 3 weeks of travel, but I must say- I MISS HOME! I have been thinking more and more about it lately and I have so much to look forward to when I get back.

Time to pack! I think when I return, I could teach a class at the local travel agency on how to have really fulfilling travels on an ultra-tight budget. 3 weeks!!

Us with Alfio, a worker on our 2nd farm in Sicily.

Me and Alfio clearing muck and nastiness from an aquaduct.

Even here, in Sicily...

2010-03-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Journal Entry
March 15th - Catania, Sicily

I am watching three young boys, about 10 or 11 years old, playing soccer in a pedestrian way that’s runs off the corner of some random piazza near the center of Catania. The youngest, more Indian looking and obviously the runt of the group, is stuck at goalie with the other two just unloading their hardest kicks at him. His goalie gloves are about three sizes too big for him. Big kid almost hit a lady walking by in the head with the ball! Close call. Nearby a group of older men, all with moustaches and goatees, hold bags of bread and talk about whatever relaxing subject that may come into their thoughts. They will soon have to return to their waiting wives who are slaving away in the kitchen for the evening’s meal. Until then they are content to observe the neighborhood and its people. The boys keep testing their luck, kicking the ball purposefully toward the traveler and his backpack. He seems to be writing something down. They chase a neighborhood girl with their football; she just popped out to tease them. The Arab owner of the Internet café just noticed his baby boy was brought there by his mother. He greets the infant with a large smile and gently lifts it up into the air to give him an honest look- “Has he really grown that much today?” Friendly parking police walk by and offer a pleasant smile. “Hey, kick the ball toward the foreigner again!” The gentile men continue to practice their art of people watching. A young, bearded man, with baggy dark pants, facial piercings, and a general “punk” look about him bothers a passer-by for a cigarette. Internet cafe owner stops his child from entering the street and then tosses him up into the air…the same way I imagine any father would. Stop the game- an old couple walks by- “game on!” and the tallest boy boots the ball once again. A woman on the balcony shakes out her jeans that have been drying in the still-cold spring sun. That same sun can now only be seen on a few rooftops in these evening hours. The clouds are still bright but few. The boys will keep playing all evening, but they know mom will call them in for dinner soon. Almost hit another woman walking by. A young man briskly walks down the street with his gaze down on the ground, talking on his cell phone. An old man slowly strolls down the same street behind him, taking his time. He reflects on the changes this part of town has seen over the years as he peacefully plays with the keys in his hand. The difference between generations still exists here in Sicily. The wife of the Internet café owner takes the children for an evening walk, and the father's heart aches while he dotes on them as they turn past the fountain and out of sight. Love of family still exists here in Sicily. The older kid takes the huge goalie gloves from the young Indian boy and decides to finally give it a try. In his first kick, the young runt scores on his taller counterpart. The bliss of childhood still exists, even here, in Sicily.

(My current farm, an Orange and Mandarin orchard, just north of Catania)

I feel like I'm Falling....

2010-03-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

I must admit, for a few days there I was considering falling off of the grid and staying out of contact for a few more weeks. The freedom of not having internet, a cell phone, keys in my pocket, or even carrying my wallet around has been so gratifying I cannot begin to express it. I had a very special 3 weeks at FeudoTudia, the last Wwoofing farm that I was on. Sudhir and Gila were great hosts whose warmth grew everyday. I can honestly say that each day brought something new and interesting (and at times just plain weird). I will miss tying vines in the perfectly still hills of central Sicily, I will miss the communal meals with wwoofers and hosts all sharing experiences, I will miss the group sing song that inevitably follows when we wash dishes, I will miss the lazy afternoons and their freedom, I will miss Houdini and La Tigrota (dogs- one young loving and peppy, the latter being old, crusty, and withered). I may miss the wwoofers the most. My time at Tudia was uniquely divided into two parts- the Vermont Girls/Cesco half, and the 6 boys all-star crew. Some of those great wwoofers may follow closely behind us to our next farm, and I cannot wait to continue to make more memories and concentrated awesomeness with them.
But at last, as the title of this blog originally intended, things must change. We move on, our surroundings change, and, if we are doing things right, we change. I am changing and the process is great. Of course my essential self will always be who/what it is, but there are some subtle internal changes happening in me that I hoped would happen when I set out on this trip. No, mom and dad, I have not figured out what I want to do with my life…sorry. I have, however, accepted the fact that I don’t need to figure it all out at age 24 and that- guess what- I may NEVER figure it out! The key for me is enjoying how I pass the time trying to figure out this big mess of life. Many of these changes may not be tangible or quantifiable, but I feel they could be leading me closer to being myself, knowing what that is, and being happy with it.
Other thoughts: I am really enjoying sharing this experience with Curt. Especially right now. This last week, home sickness has officially set in. I know this feeling and I know it all too well. My daily thoughts turn from wherever I am and its beauty and awesomeness to my friends and family and wondering what they are doing or wishing they were there with me. “Hmm, mom and dad are just getting up for work right now. Probably a boring ol’ Tuesday, they might very well be scratching the ice off of their windshield at this very moment.” Or “Oh man, Kale is at that show right now!! Man I wish I could be there shaking my thing with him on the floor.” Or “darn, today is ______ birthday!” or “I wonder if grandma and grandpa are bickering over which TV channel to watch or the temperature of the heater.” Anyways, in a time when I am fully appreciating the gravity of my homesickness, it is nice to be able to knock on Curt’s door and ask for a hug. He is like a little pinch of home that I take with me everywhere. He reminds me of the wonderful life and people that I have left behind to explore the world and myself a little. Each day I get to see more and more of exactly how special he is and how true, warm, and open his character is. I feel fortunate to be here, doing what I am, with such a great person. Thanks buddy.
All mushy and warm feelings aside, my beard is finally getting pretty gnarly. By gnarly, I mean it looks like Abe Lincoln’s neck beard at age 13. Can’t win ‘em all!
I love and miss everyone and I will try to post a picture blog soon of my new farm!!
Xoxo,
Hal

Upcoming Agenda:
New Wwoofing farm in Paterno, Sicily. March 15- April 4th
2 day layover in Pisa. Probably visit Florence as well. April 4-6th.
Visit our best friend Steve doing the Peace Corpse in Morocco. April 6-18ish.
2 Day layover in Madrid. Visit a few friends. April 18-20ish.
Return to Wwoofing farm in Ireland. Spend a week working and visiting Irish friends. April 20-27th.
Fly home. Hug family. Happily ever after. April 27th.
Summer Begins…

This will tide you over...

2010-03-03T00:46:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I do not have time to write an elaborate blog about my recent adventures Wwoofing here in Sicily, but I did want to poast a few pics with brief explanations. I must say, I have felt more alive in these past few weeks than I have in a very long time. I only wish I had all of my family and friends here to share it with me. I guess Curt will have to do for now :) I love you all and MISS YOU!

My last weekend in Ireland Curt and I went with a friend, Tricia, up to Northern Ireland. This is me next to the Giants Causeway. I took so many pictures of these weird little rock formations. You can't see them as much here, but I thought I'd give you a quick shot of what ol' Halskies is looking like now-a-days :)

Our last day on the farm in Ireland, Curt and I played on the trampoline with Rosa. She cried when we left, and we were very sad to leave. We will return to our friends in Ireland for about 1 week in the end of April before we return to the states.

This is the farm and the rolling hills of Tudia, my current farm in Sicily. It is so green, quiet, and expansive here. Everyday I look out and cannot believe how my life has brought me here to this moment. I am so grateful for it.

These are all of the Wwoofers breaking from work for lunch. It was a big happy family of 4 girls and 1 guy from Vermont, 1 Belgium guy, 1 French guy, and Curt and Myself representing Seattle. Now the 5 Vermont folks have taken off and it is just the four of us guys, I must say they are incredibly fun to be around.

A dinner with the hosts (pictured at the end). Salute! Cin cin.

The view I wake up to every morning, and the vineyards that I am currently pruning, pulling, and tieing to the trellace system.
Curt on a hill hike. We just about take one everyday:)

Thats about all I have time for right now. In 1.5 weeks Curt and I will move to another farm near the coast of Sicily and then we must plan out a way to pissibly visit my friend Steve in Morocco. I miss everyone and trust that even though I am having a very valuable and rewarding experience abroad, I often think about those in my life that I love so very much.

Ciao!!

ps-check out the website of my current farm, www.tudia.it

I want more Moher!

2010-01-31T12:31:00.000-08:00

**Please view the previous blog for some recent pics of farm life & the chalet**

Whew, what a day! Started off waking up to the annoying ping of the alarm and the relentless sun shining through the shades. A clear night resulted in a light frost blanketing everything as far as the eye could see. I knew it was going to be a great day.

Just the night before we contacted a friend living outside of Galway and asked if she would like to go on a hike sometime soon. The text response was quick and direct "How about tomorrow? Half 9? Need a pick up?" Yes, yes, and yes.

The question was "North or South?" After a quick look at the forcast, it was decided that we stood a much better chance of sun if we headed South. Beautiful, close, and hiking trails abound were the famous "Cliffs of Moher" (pronounced Mo-Her, strong "H") and The Burren.

After a brief attempt to enter the cliffs through the back side of the trails via a local farmers fence, we decided lets find parking closer. We refused to pay the 8 Euro to park in the car park and found an abandoned stone house about 1 Km from the entrance. As we walked into the Cliffs of Moher park, we somehow missed the gate and entered at no charge. Relax, I don't feel guilty. They have turned this beautiful creation of mother earth into a tourist circus, exploiting foreigners and locals alike by nickel and dime-ing them at every chance. This gorgeous place, and I mean magnificently gorgeous, is for all human kind to enjoy and my hard earned euros are not going to go to the Irish Gov in Dublin (who provided no funding for the park- it was all outside grants and donations, a lot of them American!) just so I can enter a natural wonder. Enough of that, we got in for free and it was worth every penny!

We then hopped a small fence that was hardly trying to restrict people, displaying in tiny print "No Trespassing" and "Do not enter." As we do this the rangers watch countless people do the same in search of even more magnificent views down the coast.

Needless to say, it payed off. The sun was shining its brightest among the friendly puff-clouds as the wind swept up the walls of the cliff, letting you know just how powerful of a place it truly was. I was impressed with Connemara, I might have been even more impressed with the Cliffs.

We continued to lazily walk along the path and take hundreds of pictures. Found a nice spot to eat our fruit and PB&J's for lunch. Oh yeah, I tried to push Curt off the cliff...

We were moving so slowly and staring out into the ocean, back to the cliffs, and around at the sun and bay to our backs that hours passed without us really even noticing. Not once did I get tired of staring at the same cliffs. I could have set up camp and stayed there all day.

As the sun started to descend lower and the trail had no new developments ahead, we decided to call it a day and head back. A very successful day. On our way back home, we took some back country roads that rival any I have every seen anywhere. We popped out on a slightly bigger road and stumbled upon a Dolmen (ancient stone structures believed to be used as tombs or for worship, circa 3000 b.c.).

As we were entering town, almost at our doorstep, we ran into a large rainbow. This wasn't your garden-variety (sky-variety?) "oh wow, lets move on" rainbow, this was a strong spectrum, full rainbow. We could see one end, the entire arch, and the other end. It was the first full rainbow I think I have ever seen. It was a magical ending to a very special day.

I share this with you,

thanks for visiting!

p.s. Curt and I have an idea for our next video! Stay tuned :)

Our first week Wwoofing: Farm, Chalet, and Market

2010-01-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

This will be more of a "picture blog" than anything else. Just wanted to share with you where I am living and what my daily life looks like :)

The Farm: some polytunnels
Inside a polytunnel:

A view from our Chalet:

The Chalet!!

Our Kitchen/Livingroom/Shower:

A nice view of the country from our dining table:

The other half of the inside of the Chalet- shelves of clothes and books, desk with laptop, and one bed under the loft:

The other bed in the loft:

The market that we help with in Oranmore on Thursdays (Athenry on Fridays):

A cheers at the end of a hard day on the deck outside our Chalet. A fitting end to a great day:

We have such a great situation here. The work is great, the people are great, the food is delicious (and organic), the area is beautiful, and so far the sun has been shining every day. I am thankful for every moment that I spend on this earth. Thank you.

2010-01-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

We have arrived on the farm!
After a week and a half of waiting, we are finally here and happy. For those of you who I have neglected to update, Curt and I are now working on an organic farm in Athenry, Ireland. It is a small town about 20 Km outside of Galway. We could not find work, and decided that perhaps Wwoofing would be a more suitable option for us. We are really excited to have purpose, after a few weeks of basically being lazy bums and trying not to spend money.

We did have time to create a video postcard for all of our loved ones back home. It is ridiculous. Please be accepting of the horrible stereotypes that are presented in it and know that we portray them only to make fun of ourselves and not the cultures that they mock. We realize that none of these stereotypes are accurate. With that being said, enjoy Curt and I making asses out of ourselves. We mainly made this video to occupy ourselves for a week (well...less) and to show you around Galway and surrounding areas. All of the tracks were created using Garage Band, and we are sort of proud of the finished product. It was a lot of fun to make and to have an excuse to be goofy.

We plan to make a few more videos of our advntures, so stay tuned for video postcard #2...farm theme?

Hope you all are well! I think this week we might attend a yoga and meditation classes in town with the couple that owns the farm. Maybe an Irish step dancing class too! Wish us luck :)

Love love love.

Sayonara Connemara

2010-01-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

After a week of job searching, Curt and I decided that we deserved a little time away from the city. We booked a day tour to the countryside known as Connemara. It has been one of the coldest winters that Ireland has seen in recent times. Each year Ireland gets a few days of frost in the winter, this year it has been frozen for over a month! As a result Curt and I got to see a breathtaking side of Ireland that few, including locals, get to see.

If you so desire you can check out two movies that were shot in this Mountain/lake/fjord district of west Ireland: 1- The Field circa 1990 and 2-A Quiet Man circa 1952. Both movies show this Irish landscape, and both towns (Leenane and Cong) still try to profit off of their past minutes of fame. The Quiet Man Cafe, The Field Pub, The Quiet Man Public Restrooms :)

We stayed in a Hostel out in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the never ending fjord (Irelands only fjord) and resting quietly between two mountains. It was great to be away from people. It was just me, Curt, and Jordan the guy running the hostel in the winter. There was no running water due to pipes freezing, but that only meant no showers. We enjoyed taking the mountain path 6 Km into town to buy our groceries for the next day, hitching a ride back, and spending the two days reading, watching movies, observing the stillness of the nature outside, and making meals in such a serene and undisturbed setting. Today I am refreshed and rejuvinated, ready to attack the job hnt once again...

About that job hunt...it seems Ireland's economy has been hit just about as hard as any in Europe. January and February are the months of the least amount of tourism nation-wide (or is it republic-wide?). What this means is that it is so cold and miserable that people just don't go out and consume as much, which means that there is much less demand for workers. To add on to all of these odds stacked against us, our work visas are only valid for 4 months. Our competition, Canadians, Kiwis, and Aussies, all have 12 month work visas. Nobody wants to hire people only to have them leave right before the busy season hits. These are things we did not necessarily anticipate.

There are other alternatives and I will only briefly talk about them as we are going to give the job hunt one more week and then re-evaluate our situation. We are looking into WWOOFing - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Basically you volunteer for a certain amount of hours/week on an organic farm and they give you a place to stay and all of your meals as well as teach you a lot about their way of life. Many of these farms are also yoga retreat centers, bed and breakfasts, meditation clinics, etc. I think it sounds exactly like the type of experience that we came over here for, the only catch is that there is no pay. Right now though, room and board is about 90% of what we spend our money on anyways (I'll let you guess the other 10%...it starts with a G and ends with uinness...). The other option is Help Exchange. This is a similar program but includes more hostel and accomodation type businesses. Some even have a little pay!

Welp, that is all I feel like typing at the moment. Enjoy the pictures, comment, and if you'd like me to give you a call soon email me an update and your telephone number. I use skype and it only costs me a few cents a minute.

haliverson@hotmail.com

love

New Year's Eve and Howth

2010-01-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

New Year's: We left for Temple Bar (meh) with a handful of people from Lyon, France. Instead of paying for an overpriced pint in one of the "pub's" in Temple Bar, we decided to bring our own and lap it up with the rest of the drunkies in the street. It was a great choice. The hour before the clock struck midnight was filled with snow! Light, fluffy, fun snow. We we slip slidding away.

We made it to Christ Church Cathedral for the countdown and to hear the amazing bells from the cathedral. This was a gathering spot for all sorts of people- the Time's Square of Dublin, if you will...only much less people.

We then picked up a group of Italians and a few Americans and headed to a few pubs, payed for the overpriced Guinness, and danced our butts off to crappy American tunes like Ghostbusters, Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark, Footloose, and Men Without Hats. It was a blast.

I can proudly say that I woke up at 9 am, not hungover, and ready to charge the day. Curt and I took the DART train to a nearby coastal town of Howth and enjoyed some spectacular views.

We leave for Galway in 30 minutes. Love to all! Bon ani, buon anno, feliz ano nuevo, happy new year!

Hal

Return of the Halbury

2009-12-31T03:32:00.000-08:00

At long last, the Traveling Halbury returns. I am, however, going to keep "Spare Some Change" as the blog title.

I openly admit that many times having a blog and writing about your weekly adventures/thoughts feels a little...pretentious? But this is a way for a few members of my family and a couple friends to keep connected with me, and more likely keep them entertained for a few minutes on their lunch break. So for the next 4 months I will continue to give this little muse of a blog some attention. Thats my justification, take it or leave it :)

Right now I am in the basement of my hostel in Dublin with my buddy Curt. It has only been 2 days and so far luck has followed us. Our flight attendant was Irish, and a sweet lil ol lady. She gave us extra attention (and food) and warm conversation the entire flight over. When we arrived at customs, the officer noticed that we both had musical instruments and he had me pull out my Charango and play a few tunes for him. What luck that he was in such a great mood, because he stamped our passports with our brand spanking new work visas and waived the 150 Euro registration fee!!! An excellent start indeed.

We have already enjoyed a few Guinness's (Guinni?) and enjoyed our fair share of cold rain. Yesterday we went through our brief orientation, learning mostly about the paperwork that follows working abroad, and left feeling surprisingly optimistic about finding an apartment and a job in Galway. We visited an art museum and a history museum and then got lost for an hour in a half around dusk in the pouring rain. Hal and Curt, the wet rat brigade, returned to the hostel and settled in for the night with a few beers, a couple instruments (I realized that I cannot event attempt to play with Curt, he's too good!) and a lot of good conversation and interesting people. Oh yeah, and lots of cribbage. Curt won the first 4 games and I have won the last 5 in a row.

Today's plan is to buy a sim card for our cell phone, get Curt a towel, and see a few sights before trying to figure out how to spend the new year. We have asked around and it seems there is no big event in Dublin for new years. The common response is "Oh, I reckon any pub 'round will be a craic." We know that we don't want to go to Temple Bar, maybe we can create a giant mixed group with the French, Spanish, and other Americans here at the hostel for an eventful evening.

Wish us luck on the job front!

Luvin from Dublin :)

Halbury

"Holiday Stress" or "Wearing your Sleeve on your Heart"

2009-12-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

Had a bit of a mental freak out today. How, ladies and gentlemen, how am I going to get everything done? I could give you a list of everything in my life causing this stress, but I'm done thinking about it. There is never enough time in the world.

Last year around the holidays, in an attempt to alleviate some of this year's holiday stress, my family decided we would make all of our gifts next year. Brilliant right? We could avoid the unnecessary stress of shopping at the mall or borders or wherever. "We would save a lot of money" I add and "it could be fun!" I imagine my mom said. You can imagine how fun it was thinking of what we would make the next year. Well then is now and future Hal is not appreciating past Hal's decisions.

How ironic that making our own gifts for each other would be MORE stressful, cost a bit MORE money than anticipated, and NOT be very fun at all.

A lot more is on the line with these gifts. You have to think carefully about the person and what they might like and match that up with your skill and creative boundaries. We all are putting our hearts into these gifts and perhaps that is why it is proving to be so much more stressful. It is hard being this caring right? Maybe it is easier to go out and buy a book, cd, movie, ornament, article of clothing, or whatever but it is done with less of your heart.

I wish I put more of my heart into everything I do. It is a hard thing to do because it leaves you more vulnerable, but I think it is the truest way to exist.

Here is your homework assignment: try to put more of your heart into something small in your life. Contemplate what might make your husbands evening more relaxing, call a far away friend and ask them all about their life, wake up early and make breakfast for your wife, plan a spontaneous evening to spend with someone you love. It could be making coffee or an interaction with a cashier or petting your dog/cat or making a mixed CD for a friend. These are only suggestions, of course. Let me know if you notice a CHANGE and I'll do the same.

Back to putting my heart into x-mas gifts. I wish you all success!

Spontaneous Planning

2009-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Bought my plane ticket this last week! Found a non-refundable flight from Seatac to Dublin airport and back for $746. Thats the best I can do.

IDA:

Depart Seatac- 8:30am on Dec 28th

Arrive Dublin- 9:00am on Dec 29th (Happy B-day mom!)

VUELTA:

Depart Dublin- 11:00am on Apr 27th

Arrive Seatac- 8:59pm on Apr 27th

Next step= Find a job!!!

Also, really getting into "Another Roadside Attraction" by Tom Robbins. Just read about Plucky Purcell's first adventure with the Catholic monks working as assassins for the Vatican.

Oolong, Flu, Thanks for Ireland, Eckhart Tolle

2009-11-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

I don't necessarily feel like creating a post at the moment, however I have a lot of CHANGE happening in my life and I feel it warrants an update.

Change happening:

I have been reading a book called "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. I was exposed to the first chapter of this book on Audiobook via my brother's iPod. The iPod died, and I was intrigued enough to patron the nearest Borders and spend a whopping $14 on the soft cover. It has proven to be very Awakening. I have been inspired so much by this book lately, I fear my writing skills cannot accurately express its impact. Eckhart writes a lot about shedding the egos, emotions, and identities that you usually identify with and awakening to the true Being that you are. I was really relieved when he addressed the fact that the true "You" is not the constant and incessant flow of thoughts going through your head, but rather the person that you are when you are completely in tune with the present moment and aware of the presence of this controlling and practiced ego. I guess what I am getting at is this: I am trying to appreciate the now, now.
If you don't understand what I mean, then maybe you should check out the book for yourself!

In my present moment I am sitting in the Antique Sandwich Company with my brother, about to pick a second pot of tea....hmm go with a black tea, definitely. Oolong again, or switch it up with an Irish Breakfast tea (foreshadow)? I am actually really enjoying it. I love my brother. I can listen to his thoughts on life until the end of time. I am lucky to have him in my life.

Shall we transition to the future for a moment?
Big Change! I am going to Ireland with a great friend, Curt. I know it is random, but it is a pretty special opportunity and I and seizing it! It is with a program called BUNAC under a student work visa. The visa has a limit of 4 months, with no possible extension. What is 4 months? From December 30th to April 30th. We will most likely live in Galway and search for jobs through Curt and his sister's contacts there. I have done some soul searching lately and I feel like this is a great opportunity to explore and understand myself, share an amazing experience with an equally amazing person, and once again throw myself into a somewhat random situation in which I must shape-shift and adapt. I thrive in that adapting. Luckily I have wonderful parents who are okay with me, as a 23 year old, not being sure what he wants to do with his life. I look at friends with stable jobs, marriage, buying houses, Kids soon? and I realize how many different paths there are in life. That is not my path and I do not know if it ever will be. I am still very dependent on my parents, emotionally and financially, and if I return in April with no money, still no car, and still no job- they will still love and support me. I am so thankful that they support me and allow me to have a crazy adventure like this. I love them very much.

In other news, I got hired as a substitute teacher for the Peninsula School District. Finally! No thanks to Tacoma Public Schools. I should be able to sub next week! I think I'll try to free up a few more mid-week days in my Harbor Greens schedule to sub :)

I had a great Halloween, as the Swine Flu, and subsequently think I might have the dang virus. I have not been able to stop coughing for the past week. It is not a productive cough, but a persistent lil bugger and all the theraflu, alka seltzer, and dayquil in the world isn't taking it down. My abs are sore from contracting every time I cough. Even with the negativity of this cold, I feel an overwhelming sense of contentment right now. I am happy.

Thanks for reading, I welcome your words- let me know your out there and more posts will follow!

ps- I don't know why I rhymed this blog post title with Patrick Swayze's sub-par movie as a drag queen, "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar"...it just felt right at the time.

Turn and face the strange

2009-10-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

Ch-Ch-Changes!

Alas, loyal bloggies, I return with a post about recent changes in my life, good and bad.

Travels over. Daily excitement is slow, like molasses in January. I find myself at a pretty basic point in my life: broke, no car, and no serious job commitment in the future. I suppose I always knew this time would come, but now it is time to work and pay off all the fun times that were had this last year.

Change: I now work at Harbor Greens, a natural and local foods market. I am a cashier/miscellaneous man. I dabble in produce, stocking, cleaning, and pretty much anything they want me to do. Although the job is already monotonous, the employees and customers alike are all very nice.

With my days off (2 or 3) I will be substitute teaching for both Tacoma Public Schools and Peninsula School District. It pays better but is also less consistent. It looks like I might move into a place in Tacoma with my brother and friend in the end of October. I'm excited for that. I like Tacoma and for a real report on the life and culture of the town check out my brothers blog.

I recently got a membership to the Y, and often find myself there seeking solace from the monotony. Once again I feel the travel bug creeping up on me, but realize this time it is probably more of an excuse to escape from an unknown future than anything else. The question remains: What do I want to do with my life? The more I think about it, the more I question teaching. Is it okay to settle for something just because its easy or you need the money?

I have been fighting off an overwhelming loneliness lately. This is a surreal emotion for me. I have not felt truly alone, either due to distraction or a relationship, in....well I cannot remember the last time. I don't see this as a bad thing. It will be a great chance to grow as an individual, but that does not make it easier...

I have crossed a few things in my life very recently that have encouraged living in the present moment. One being a book called "Meditation for Beginners" by Jack Kornfield and the other an audio book called "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. They both express the importance of not dwelling on the past, not worrying about the future, not fretting the hard times, and not clinging to the good times, but accepting each moment for what it is. Good or bad. This is something I hope to work towards and I feel it fits right in with the theme of this web log.

Tonight, like all nights, I will lie awake in bed. I will think about people in my life, past and present, I will think about places and possibilities, I will secretly make wishes, I will thank the vast expanses for everything wonderful in my life, I will wonder what tomorrow brings (hopefully excitement) and wonder what I can bring tomorrow (hopefully excitement). The one truth that I have learned is that there WILL be changes.

In the immortal words of David Bowie:

Time may change me,

but I can't trace time...

Blog-tirement?

2009-09-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't really had time or the drive to do any blog posts this summer. I am sorry for my neglect once again, but perhaps it is time to give the blog the boot? I still haven't decided and perhaps I will post when inspiration strikes, but for now I need to focus on comprehending and adapting to the changes going on in my life and worry about posting on them later. I still track my favorite blogs out there though! So keep posting, until then

Much love from your Halbury!

Northwest String Summit- Pluck Yeah!

2009-07-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to get down and dirty at a down home pick-a-thon, the 8th Annual Northwest String Summit. This bluegrass festival, hosted by Yonder Mountain String Band, is held at a place called Hornings Hideout just outside of Portland, Oregon.

Dirt stomping, camping, hammock swinging, hootin and a hollerin, string plucking, harmony singing, late night walks, early morning wake-ups, dressing up in goofy clothes, celebrating life, and, of course, picking dirt boogers naturally ensued.

...Aside from all that fun, I almost died. Story- Okay so maybe not "died" but seriously injured. I was walking along one of the dirty paths in a campground over yonder with my friend Nate. Suddenly a breeze, which we normally welcome on such a warm day, rushes through the campground and we hear a "CRAAAACK." I look up to find a substantially big tree falling down on us from a considerable height. I saw that it was leading us slightly and decided to backpedal to escape its wrath, while Nate did not get a glimpse of the tree and just decided to run forward as fast as possible. I witnessed the branches of the tree brush the back of Nate's flailing legs before crashing into the ground. Ugh, that was close. Naturally after such an intense incident, we gave each other hugs and decided to take pictures with the falling death machine.

What if we would have left 2 minutes later for the walk? 5 minutes earlier? 3 seconds earlier? Sometimes I understand how everything could happen for a reason, and sometimes i am not so sure, but one thing is for certain- that experience immediately made me appreciate my life, my health, my surroundings, and the family and friends that I love.

It was a good change, and continued to be a great weekend afterwards.

It was a great way to start off the festival season, and in some respects the Summer. I just looked at the weather forecast and cannot wait for the next 10 days of 80+ degree heat, camping?, working, playing, and basking.

Enjoy today because tomorrow will be different.

In the Words of Elton John...

2009-07-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

Alas, the Traveling Halbury expires. I have returned from my travels, settled in, and begun the the next stage in my life. Though I am positive my travels will continue in the future, for now I need to focus on other things in life and I thought a change up in the blog was necessary.

Spare some change? Why?

One thing that I have discovered about myself is that I resist change. I don't like returning to my hometown to find 5 new restaurant chains, 7 new housing developments, a Borders, a Costco, and a friggin Jamba Juice- even if it means convenience. I don't particularly enjoy meeting up with an old friend only to find out that our lives have taken us in opposite directions. I definitely don't enjoy clouds coming in to cover up the sun that I was enjoying.

But there are new towns to see, new friends to make, and sun waiting to evaporate any obstruction. It is ironic to consistently resist change when I find myself in such a transitory part of my life. Returning from travels, finding a home, finding a job, low on money, and with no real plan or direction.

This blog is a creation to help me accept the many changes that I am sure to encounter in the coming moments of my life. Some change is bad, some change is good, but change is always constant. I hope to embrace the good and the bad, let it change me, and adapt to the new circumstances that it may create for my life.

I ask you, loyal blog readers, to think about change in your life (be it good or bad)- Can you spare some change?

-in the words of Elton John "Change is gonna do ya good!"

Dear Halbury

2009-06-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Halbury,

This is your blog. Where have you been? I don't want to sound clingy, but you have not created a post for weeks and weeks. What happened to the good ol' days when you would write about your weekend travels, a random thought, maybe post a few pictures, and if I was lucky, change up the playlist.

Was it something I did? Are we still a unit? After your travels are over.....what will become of me? Please write back, even if it is just a short "hello"

Sincerely waiting,

Web "Bloggy McBlog blog" Log

Dear Blog,

I apologize for my negligence. The truth is, that I have been so encompassed by the spirit behind the idea of this traveling web blog, that I have not had time to post. In fact, I have been to such remote and random locations that I am not sure I have had consistent internet access for over a month. I'm sorry, but I do not regret my actions.

From London, to Romania, to Rome and southern Italy, to Sicily and Sardinia, and finally Barcelona I have been stretching my physical and figurative traveling muscles. I have browsed markets. I have swam in seas. I've ridden buses, planes, trains, taxis, ferries, and everything in between. I have eaten like a king. I've scrubbed out like a beggar. I've been hitch hiking, beach walking, butchering foreign languages, sleeping on benches, praying for my life and thanking my lucky stars for being on this beautiful earth. I have met some incredible people and seen the realities of life.

Regarding us, blog, and where we go from here: I return to my home town with no money, no car, no job, no computer, breaking electronics, and a bit of debt...and somehow I have never felt wealthier in my life. This blog will change, along with the changes my life is sure to encounter in the coming months.

Please do not lose faith in me, and stay tuned for CHANGES.

Yours Truly,

Halbury

Romania to Rome

2009-06-02T01:59:00.000-07:00

Romania was an incredibly exciting leg of the trip. many stories to tell and photos to show, however i have 2 minutes left on my internet time. Kale and I are in Rome and trying to figure out what to do for the remainder of our time in italy. Everything has been great, and perhaps i will have time at some point to write an in'depth post.

much love

hal

Me Voy

2009-05-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Chao Barcelona, 'ello London!

Today I take off on a budget airplane, Easyjet, and return to London. I will spend a nice quite evening in my hostel, probably not be able to sleep, and wake up to meet Kale at Heathrow.

With the sweet smoldering of my first actual sunburn, I know that summer has begun. Usually summer represents new smells, bright colors, listening to music and camping. It means that I can finally bust out that Otter Pop box that has been waiting for me in the freezer. It means that often times I will wake up in the morning smelling like the smokey bonfire from the night

before. It means friends and family. It means I have time to catch up on some leisure reading. Summer offers the chance to relax, and actually do everything that helped get you through that

long, cold winter. But this year, Summer means something else. Right now, it means traveling. It means trying to find sun tan lotion in a completely new city that doesn't speak your language. It means eating at least one Doner Kebap a day. It means waking up to the wonderful sound of your hostel-mates alarm clock. It means seeing sights, checking things off the good 'ol "Life To-do List," and taking a wealth of pictures of the entire thing. This summer

it means learning how to say "Excuse me, does this have red cabbage in it?" in Romanian, or "Is this toothpaste approved by the Teeth and Gum Association?" in Italy, or even brushing up my Spanish and asking "Excuse me, kind vagrant, would you mind not resting your head on my

shoulder while we are on the metro?" in Barcelona, Spain.

Yes this summer, El Verano de 2009, will forever mean something completely different to me. I am excited by the opportunity to travel with my best friend and brother, and intrigued about what ridiculous stories we may have to tell about it.

Here are some photos of Barca thus far. Wish me luck and let the sibling sightseeing begin!

Barcelona, Lists, and Ben

2009-05-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Although I do have a slight feeling that I have not taken complete advantage of my time here in Barcelona, I also can appreciate how nice it has been to just relax.

There are a couple of things to consider here:

I am a bit of a cheapskate
I am even more of a cheapskate when I do not have very much money or I am trying to save money
I do not have very much money, and I am trying to save money.
I will return to Barcelona with my brother Kale
Kale does not like traveling with me to places that I have already been and doing things that I have already seen.

For these reasons I have kept my time in Barcelona to some very fun and interesting activities including:

the beach (when the weather was nice!)
Exploring local markets
going to parks and having pic-nics
taking self-run walking tours out of the lonely planet book
Exploring the Botanical Gardens and main town squares/plazas
Watching Barca futbol games at local restaurants
and of course....going out on the town.

I have saved many exciting activities for my visit with Kale (and coincidentally my buddy Eric will be in BCN the same time!). These include:

a. La Sagrada Familia- a public church/cathedral started by Gaudi and continuing to be built (since 1923). Crazy style, cool look.

b. La Pedrera- another Gaudi building with skull/bone looking exterior and an incredible roof

c. La Casa Batillo- yet another Gaudi building with classic dreamy Gaudi style. Very trippy.

d. Pablo Picasso Museum- no pieces of note, most of his earlier stuff

e. maybe nearby town of Sitches

This weekend I am going to go out to some museum on saturday night because it is "El noche de los Museos" and free entrance into all city museums along with partying, music, and drinks- what a cool idea barcelona! Then I hope to go to Tibidabo, with a gorgeous view of Barcelona atop a carnival and amusement park. I also hope to check out the magical Parque Guell- Gaudi's park of wonder with typical Gaudi Craziness.

I have never seen another city in the world that is defined by one person. One person! He really has put his mark all over this city, and it just so happens to be really cool stuff. The Catalan people love him too. In his last years he was living near La Sagrada familia instead of his house so that he could work through the night. He started to look like a vagrant because he worked so many hours. Long hair, big beard, shredded clothes, etc. Well one day he was crossing a street and was hit by a tram. He had been laying there and people were reluctant to help him because he look like such a bum. If they would have known that he was their beloved Gaudi, then maybe he would have been helped immediately instead of dying that day. A tragic end to a life full of art.

Perhaps you have noticed a lot of lists in this blog post. I like lists for the following reasons:

I - they are usually preceded by a colon

II -they are a simple and effective way to display sets of information

III- they can be listed in numbers, bullets, letters, or roman numerals

IV -they provide a lot of girth, to an otherwise unsubstantial blog post

V -they allow the author to rant about absolutely nothing

VI -each bullet/number can be completely irrelevant to the previous bullet/number

VII -lucky number 7

VIII -is it just me or is the Roman numeral 8 very long for such a small number? Why does it have to be V then three III? Wouldn't it make more sense (and be more efficient) to write it as IIX?

IX -because after an irrelevant bullet/number it can be brought back to the original reason for the listing process, such as- I like lists because they can be divided into sublists like:

A.) I like sublists because the symbol always changes to show a deviation in the list

B.) also if you have a further deviation, you can make a sub, sub-list like:

i. When I make my sub, sub-lists I like the representation of the bullet to relate back to the original list, like in this instance the "i" is a diminutive form of the original "I" the following sub, sub-list bullets would look like-

ii. this

iii. and this.

iv. Of course in rare cases, the sub-lists' sub-list needs a sub-list.

a. That would look like this.

b. Did you see how I did that? The sub, sub, sublist is a diminutive form of the original sub-list.

X- and finally, I like lists because they can be brought back from a ridiculous sub-list tangent to the original list. The list we all know and love.

thats enough.

actually....I think I hate lists now.

Welp, 6 days until I meet up with Kale in London. Let the travels begin!!...or continue :)

ps- are you listening to Ben Harper and the Relentless7's "White Lies for Dark Times" right now? I have continued to be impressed by everything this man puts out. It came out of the 5th of May. I got to listen to this entire album today, and plan to buy it in the future. Its a good listen, I have two of the songs in my playlist to the right, but give the entire album a try!

Momma's Boy

2009-05-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Mom, please listen to the song playing in the player to your right. This post is dedicated to you.

There are certain characteristics that all good mom’s share. Unconditional love, emotional (and often times financial) support, a feeling of “no matter what happens in life, at least my mom loves me.” Even kids on a playground know this - “Oh yeah? Well my mom told me I’m special!” Perhaps the most commendable component that these mothers share is expecting nothing in return. Now, I could argue that a good son or daughter would recognize all of the things that make their mom great and give her constant praise for doing them….but we know that mothers don’t expect that.

My mom, easily the best mother ever, literally does the most incredible things for me on a regular basis, does it without a second thought, and expects nothing more than frequent hugs and “I love you’s” in return.

Well I am not home to give you a hug right now, but I can tell you mom that I love you so very much and I appreciate everything that you have done for me, and continue to do for me. When I return home and walk out of the arrivals gate on the 22^nd of June at 11 am, I will give you that long awaited hug and I hope you know the love that lies behind it.

Just last week she helped me in my quest to pretend to be a grown-up, by revising my resume and cover letter. She even did this after I snapped at her via email over not being harsh enough in her revisions. That’s a good mom. My mom is a great mom, the best, but I feel it is unfair to classify her greatness under this specific term “mom”….she is simply a great person. She is wonderful to everyone, not only her sons, and that is what makes her so special. She shares a very special type of positivity and happiness that is unwavering. This is something that I saw in my grandfather and something that I aim to become. She makes me feel special when I am around her. My mother and father (who is also deserving of enormous praise…but that will have to wait for his birthday, or fathers day) provided my brother and I with the best childhood and have produced two individuals who are very happy with their lives. That is the definition of a successful parent.

I have been showered (and not suffocated) with motherly love since birth, and for that reason I am proud to proclaim that I am a momma’s boy. I am the biggest momma’s boy that I know, and I am proud of it. I love you mom, thank you for being you. I wish I were with you and grandma today so that I could tell you these things in person, but this electronic proclamation will have to do.

Happy mothers day! I love you more than you love me.

-Your baby boy.

Summer Travel Plans

2009-05-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

I was hesitating writing a blog post today, but I know that a few of you out there will appreciate it.

Here is a list of my Summer Travel Plans, as they have already began and I am writing to you all tired and sunburnt from Barcelona, Spain.

Currently I am in Barcelona visiting/mooching off of a good friend Lilli and her wonderful English Roommates, Sofie and Lauren. I will be here from May 2nd through May 20th. I know it is a long tim to stay in someone's apartment, but I am doing my best to pay for drinks/meals and wash every dish I can....so there.

On May 20th, I fly out of BCN to London to meet my brother on the following day at Heathrow Airport. Let the games begin. We will spend about 4 and 1/2 days in London and surrounding areas (possibly Bath and Stonehenge) before we move on to....

Bucharest, Romania. On May 25th mid-day we fly to this Eastern European city. We will be visiting my brother's good buddy Brett who is doing the PeaceCorps there. (I literally just had a Deja Vu when i was typing that....ahh). He speaks the lingo and already has a kick-ass itinerary set up for us. We will hit up the beaches on the black sea coast and then come inland a bit and hike the beautiful mountains and probably camp a bit. We are in Romania until June 2nd, when we leave very early in the morning for.....

Rome. I have heard both good and bad things about Roma. I am sure it is dirty, and probably sketchy like everyone says....but there is so much history there. There is way too much to do there, but I think we will spend 2 maybe 3 days in Rome sightseeing. From Rome we head north to:

Florence? Siena? Other Tuscan towns? I am not totally sure yet, but we will have a few days to bum around up the Italian coast and check out cities like these until we arrive in....

The Cinque Terre. It is 5 towns in Northern (not too north tho) Italy. They are not accessible by car or bus (however there is a train and a ferry from town to town). Kale and I will spend our days hiking from town to town, stopping and whatever beach we may pass, and we shall spend the nights feasting on seafood, pasta (one of these towns invented pesto!!), and great wine (or so I hear).

From the Cinque Terre we take a ferry from a little further south, Livorno, Italy to....

Sardinia!!! If you dont know where sardinia is, it is a large Italian island in the mediterranean sea. It is known for its unreal beaches. Kale and I will camp on Sardinia for about 6 days before we catch a plane to Barcelona on the 17th of June.

We fly back to Seattle on the 22nd of June and will probably arrive in Seattle sometime early in the morning on the 23rd.

whew. Sounds exhausting doesn't it? Sounds amazing doesn't it? On one hand I really cannot wait for my brother to be here and for the traveling to begin and also to return home for the summer and see family, friends, and some great music. On the other-hand I do not want to be distracted from the present by future events. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and today is beautiful. I try to live in the moment, for the moment, because I know that it will never again be the same as it is now. I hope all of your todays are beautiful too and I hope you are enjoying your present moment.

Check for updates of BCN!!!

Halbury

BCN

2009-05-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

In about 5 hours I will be on a plane from London to Barcelona to visit (and mooch off of) my good friend Lilli.

I am so excited! I watched a documentary last night on Gaudi, and it seems like the entire city revolves around his architecture. It is some really eccentric stuff, i cant wait to see it in real life. The beach!! THe weather in BCN is supposed to be incredible as well, so I will spend a considerable amount of time on the beach...also a trip to Granda? We will see, Les we will have to work that out with Alba.

With this excitement of upcoming travels, comes a lot of sadness. ONce again I leave people behind that have been incredibly nice to me. Teachers, staff, community memebers, my students, and most of all the other student teachers that I bonded with. They are a great group of people and it will be different not having them to vent all of my teaching frustrations/blunders on.

Halbury followers. I am sorry that I have not posted recently, it has been a rough couple of weeks preparing to leave, check for photos and travel updates soon. Maybe once i get to BCN i will be able to give you all a specific itinerary for my summer travels.

miss you all.

Hal

Spring Break and Salzburg

2009-04-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

*Please take the time to read the previous posts after this post.

My apologies for the very delayed post,

I am sure that you all have been dying to hear about my spring break travels :)

I’d like to start my explanation of the trip by talking about the weather. From the day that we

left little ol Feltwell, UK to the day that we returned to Stansted Airport, Colin and I barely saw a cloud. The weather was absolutely amazing and by far the best that we have ran into thus far. The days averaged about 70 degrees F and got as high as 77 degrees at times.

We hopped from Salzburg, Austria to Munich and Dachau, Germany then to Nurnberg, Rotenberg, and Mainz/Oppenheim to finish the trip visiting my mother’s great

Germany family.

Usually when I write these travel updates it is in th

e middle of a busy week and feels a bit

forced. To your misfortune, this usually produces a pretty lack luster blog post. In an attempt to avoid boring you all to death, I am going to try and keep some constants for each leg of the trip. These will be the following: Transportation, Favorite Beve

rage, Favorite Food (may have

multiple entries), hostel/hotel accommodations, Favorite sight(s), and most often used expression/word in English or German. I will try to keep each post short and sweet and

include a bunch of pictures. Enjoy.

PS- I am posting each stop on the trip to encourage multiple postings of comments. Make sure you read all the way down to the last post of the Spring Break trip!

Salzburg:

Transportation: Flew into Salzburg airport via RyanAir and caught 2 buses to our hostel.

Favorite Beverage: Stiegl- It’s an Austrian lager that set itself apart from the usual lager style beers that each country usually sports (Heineken, Budweiser, Corona, whatever) due to its distinctive nutty aftertaste. Good stuff manard.

Favorite Food: I am sorry to say that we did not

get to explore any traditional Austrian food. In a close second place is the meal that we had at a Mediterranean restaurant with mine being a cheese tortellini dish with mushroom sauce a

uncooked spinach thrown right in. However I am proud to say that the winner is a Kebap from a street vendor. These Doner Kebaps (like a Gyro, but spicy and….different) are sold in every city that I have been to thus far in Europe and have proved to be a staple of my traveling diet.

Accomodations:

The Jufa hostel. A gigantic hostel that included real eggs in its included breakfast (unheard of in the hostel world). Great services and okay location with an incredible view of the fortress.

Favorite Sights:

1.) The Sound of Music bus tour. On this tour I got the opportunity to witness the locations of one of my mothers favorite movies ever. The locations were the Mirabelle gardens where part of the famous “Do Ray Me” song is shot, the gazebo where the famous “16 going on 17” sequence was shot, both of the houses that were the Von Trap family mannor, some of the Austrian lakes and

countryside that are included throughout the movie, and the cathedral where Maria and the Captain get married. These were a few of my favorite things.

2.) The Festung Hoersalzburg (The Fortress over Salzburg). Let me tell you that this giant fortress/castle cannot be escaped anywhere you go in Salzburg. It is the gorgeous and enormous protector of the city and hold an incredible sight. Long hike up, fun funicular ride down, audio guide through the major parts, and a medieval museum. The most amazing view of my entire week were from the very top tower of the fortress. Salzburg is an incredibly beautiful city from above and below.

Most often used word:

Wolfgang. 1-because Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was from Salzburg (we skipped his birthplace/museum….don’t be mad!). 2- because our sound of music tour guide’s name was Wolfgang, and 3- because one of the beautiful lakes that we visited was named Wolfgang (after Mozart as well).

Munich and Dachau

2009-04-21T14:33:00.001-07:00

Transportation: Took a train from Salzburg to Munich using the Bayern Ticket, a ticket costing 27 Euros and good for up to 5 people for unlimited travel in the Bayern (Bavarian) region of Germany for 1 day.

Favorite Beverage: This is a hard one. The most drinks of the week were consumed here. Probably the traditional Bavarian Lager that we

enjoyed in the Augustiner Biergarten. They just kept flowing and pack a surprising punch (enough to put us to bed at 6 pm).

Favorite food: Currywerst and pommes frites. Though not a traditional dish, it was delicious. It is a very large brat that is doused in a curry-ketchup type condiment. Served with great French fries and accompanies a Hofbrauhouse beer very well!

Accomodations: The wombat youth hostel in Munich. Great location. Out of the sketchy parts of town, about 100 yards from the central train station and a couple blocks to the nearest bier garten. More of a party atmosphere than other hostels, but very clean and the best service that we received all week. Breakfast not included.

Favorite sights:

1.) Augustiner Biergarten. Turned us from “lets go have a beer at a near by beer garten while we wait to check into our hostel” to “Dude, what happened?

Did we crash at 6 pm last night? How did we get back to the hostel?”

2.) Dachau. Not light-hearted as the rest of the entire trip, but possibly the most

important and touching experience of the week. We took a small group private tour to the

Concentration camp just outside Munich. I

mentioned how incredible the weather was for us earlier. It was hot this day, very sunny. I

n my eyes, the sun usually brings out the beauty in everything. More vibrant colors, clarity, and a positive tone to everything. Well all I could think about while I was at Dachau is that even in the

beautiful sun, the entire place was grey, colorle

ss, and depressing. The tour guide was very smart

and had a cool approach to the entire controversial situation. He was open to address contrasting views and enjoyed bringing those different thoughts into the group conversation.

He told the story form the prisoners point of view and was very well educated on the war, the camp and the lives of the prisoners. Biggest impact: Seeing the industrialization of mass murder. From the labeling of the gas chamber as a “decontamination shower” meant to kill 150 people at a time, to the industrial coal burning ovens to cremate many, many bodies at once. The official number of individual

killed here is 35,000 (not including MANY factors and numbers probably doubling that number) this camp was not known as a “extermination camp” like Auschwitz but rather a “work camp.” A really powerful experience that got my cheap ass to buy the 15 euro museum book with all of the displays and pictures of the museum in it.

3.) Hofbrauhouse. Famous biergarten, bier hall, and restaurant from Germany’s history. Hitler made speeches here before he rose to power. Cool place, but we had to move on rather quickly to make it before dark to the

4.) English Gardens. 2 times as big as central park, it goes on forever. A bunch of young people barbequing and sunbathing, and the occasional naked old dude sunbathing. At the end of the park was the

5.) Chinese Biergarten. Underneath a giant Pagota, this was our favorite atmosphere in a biergarten that we found. Good food, great beer, and friendly drunk people.

Most often used Words:

“ein Mahs Bier hier, Bitte”- one more liter of bier, please.

Nurnberg

2009-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

Transportation: We arrived in Nurnberg by train from Munich. There was a fatality on the train tracks and almost all trains were cancelled on this route. We caught the last one out (after boarding 2 cancelled trains) and it

happened to be a high speed train and got us there much faster than the other two would have (oh yeah, we caught it with 1 minute to spare before departure).

Favorite Beverage: Following a tip from my cooperating teacher we went to a Mexican

restaurant called Enchiladas and got Margaritas at half price during happy hour. (Steve- of course I ordered a banana Margarita in honor of you!)

Favorite Food: Although the Nurnberger Sausage was good, and the Bratwerst from the Easter Market was the best Werst that I had all week, the winner is the Beer battered Mushrooms drizzled in a spicy Garlic Cream sauce. SO GOOD!

Accommodations: We stayed in a hostel that was IN the stable of an old castle. We were actually inside the friggin castle. The view was exceptional, great outlook over the down town of Nurnberg.

Favorite Sights:

1.) Easter Market in the downtown market. Cool vendors, great food, nice atmosphere.

2.) German National Museum. Great history of Germany and awesome Knight and Midievil

displays.

3.) Irish Bar on water- again by suggestion of my cooperating teacher.

4.) View from Hostel and adjacent castle.

5.) BarFusser- another cool Bier Hall with a fun atmosphere.

6.) Globe- the oldest known spherical interpretation of the earth.

Most commonly used Words:

“holy crap, is this where we are staying?”- I know its not in German, but Colin and I kept saying this. We couldn’t believe the location of our hostel.

Rotenberg ob der Tauber

2009-04-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Transportation: 2 trains from Nurnberg to Rotenberg and a sunny walk into town.

Favorite beverage: Spatlese white wine that accompanied the dinner that I had in the restaurant below

our bed and breakfast. Crisp, sweet white wine. Great with Goulash, sausage and sourkraut.

Favorite food:

Surprisingly not the Goulash, sausage and kraut meal. Colin and I stopped for lunch at a sunny restaurant and café and I ordered the daily special which was schnitzel, salad, and fries. The Schnitzel was delicious.

Accommodations: Colin and I decided to splurge a little and get a bed and breakfast in

Rotenberg. It was actually the Mayor’s mansion when Rotenberg

was at its height in the 13^th century or so. Very cool place and sweet little old German lady’s provided great service.

Favorite Sights:

1.) Walking around the wall of the walled-in city. The head clearance was low, about 6 feet 6 inches, and had me ducking from time to time. Colin, a 6 foot 7 inch man, was fit to be tied. Check out the great picture of him hunched over while walking in the wall.

2.) The crime and punishment museum. That’s right, an entire

museum devoted to

instruments of torture. Note: the executioner’s axes. The one on the bottom is Turkish.

3.) The Castle Gardens. At the sight of the original castle, now lie beautiful g

ardens just starting to hit their spring stride. The payoff at t

he end of the gardens is a view of the

Tauber river and a beautiful German countryside and

accompanying valley. Gorgeous.

4.) The Night Watc

hman Tour. This 8 pm tour consisted of a 45 year old dude in a black cloak, an axe, and a lantern escorting dozens of Americans around the main square and stopping every 5 minutes to point out some small nuance on a building that related to Rotenberg’s rich history. I don’t know why I’m trying to make fun of him- I totally enjoyed it. He was corny, made bad jokes, and I ate it up. Learned a lot about the history of Rotenberg and was happy to drop 5 Euros in his hat in the end.

Most commonly used words:

“They really did that?” Completely in reference to the torture museum. Thumb screws, shame masks, drunk tanks, violin clamps, execution axes and mallets, and chastity belts. The answer was “Yes, they really did do that!”

Pawellek Family

2009-04-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

Transportation: a 3 hour train from Rotenberg. Long ride, bad seats on the switch in Frankfurt, but great

payoff when we arrived in Mainz.

Favorite Beverage: The Rose’ wine that was locally made in

Oppenheim, the home town of the Pawellek family that hosted me for the day. I don’t remember the name, but it was nice to have a couple glasses and attempt to communicate with some of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

Favorite food: Toss-up. While the Chinese buffet that Kurt took us to was

very nice and filling, I think the elaborate ice cream that we enjoyed within the first 15 minutes of arriving in Mainz was the best. My ice cream was banana with chocolate and orange syrup drizzled

over it (secretly I wished that I ordered the caramelized walnut ice cream that Kurt and Colin ordered).

Accommodations: A near by bed and Breakfast in Oppenheim. I thought that I would be sleeping on the Pawellek’s floor, but they had reserved a very nice B&B for us, and told us just before bedtime.

Favorite Sights:

1.) Kurt as I got off the train. He walked right by us and we shared a look of “are you who I think you are?….I will wait

until you acknowledge me first. “

2.) The town of Mainz and the Rhine river.

3.) The old castle ruins atop the hill in Oppenheim overlooking the city, river, and great church.

A few comments:

For those of you who don’t know what I was doing on my last day in Germany, I was visiting a

German family that my mother befriended in the states about a year (or less) before she went to study abroad in Germany- the Pawellek’s. They are a sweet family: Kurt (Father), Maria (mother), Juta (daughter), Clause (son-in-law), and Kurt’s great American friend Kit. They were kind

enough to pick Colin and I up at the train station, show us around, buy us ice cream,

buy us dinner, provide a B&

B for us, and give us a ride to the airport about 1 hour and 30 minutes away the next morning. That is a lot for a humble German family to do for some punk kid that they don’t even know. Though language barriers provided quick communication, it did not stop us from getting the main point of our conversations across. I understood enough to know that they are good people and the type of people that can and should be appreciated for their warmth, honesty, and kindness. It was great to spend a day with a very authentic German family to finish our trip. Danke Kurt and Maria!

Spring Break Posts Soon To come

2009-04-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well Spring break was a complete success! We had great weather, great food, great beer, exceptional hostels and B&B's, and meet some wonderful people. It is a busy week for me, I have a new batch of students, I have lesson plans, I will lock in Kale and I's travel plans (By tomorrow, cross fingers), send some packages out, finish my student teaching paperwork and requirements, work out, sleep, eat....you know breathe.

I promise that by friday I will have you all updated on my spring break travels.

My best to the west,

Your dork from the north. (well, northeast...I guess....its relative isn't it?)

The Very Little Things

2009-04-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

The Very Little Things

Lately I have been inspired by the very little things that make life beautiful. It is hard to explain, but now and again I will notice- no observe something happening and realize the rhythm with which the world works. I haven’t many examples, just a consistent observance of the pendulum of life. The hills and valleys. The rain and sun. The frustration and elation.

It is a funny thing to observe the momentum of life sway to one side, find its peak, and begin to reverse. You know when you have weathered the storm and you know when times cannot get any better. Each pole as important as it’s opposite.

The little things: a good day, a bad day. Inspired by a book or movie, distraught about the news. A surprise visit, a dreaded goodbye. A free meal, an overpriced coffee.

The very little things: noticing extended eye contact that says “how are you really doing?”, becoming acquainted with a person enough to give them a hug for the first time, the sun breaking free from the clouds, waking up to the daylight sneaking through the curtains, hearing a song and thinking of a specific time in your life, tripping over an uneven road, hearing from a friend that you thought was lost, losing a friend you thought was near, losing sleep, sleeping in.

I watched a movie lately that was very inspiring, a little too “motivational speaker-esk,” but touching none-the-less. It is called “The Secret” and talks about the laws of attraction. Your thoughts and feelings attract what the universe brings into your life. Negative thoughts, negative things. Positive thoughts, positive things. Thoughts become things. As I watched this movie I realized that I have been living at least a little of what this movie is expressing. I have generally had a very positive outlook on life and just expected things to work out…and you know what? They do! I catch a lot of crap from certain family members (not going to mention their names- Mark and Kale) about how “everything comes easy, you never have to work for anything…good things just happen to you” and some bewilderment as to why this is the way it is. The honest truth is ignorance and dumb luck. But dammit I have the same decision to make every morning as each other individual on this earth, “Is it going to be a good day, or a bad day?” and following the path of my amazing mother and grandfather I choose the former…well I try to anyways, and the intention is the most important part.

Do you want to know the secret? How each day can be easier? How each moment can be a satisfying and fulfilling experience?....me too! But until we find that out, I think it helps to appreciate the very little things that life springs upon us- good and bad- and gain something from each interaction.

Thoughts become things.

Hal

Stumblin' Round Dublin

2009-03-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Expectations before going into Ireland:
-Drinking. Lots of drinking.
-Red heads
-Everyone drinks Guinness beer
-An old book of “Kells” whatever that means.
-Harsh accents that, even though they are speaking mostly English, is completely foreign.
-Fiddle music
-Leprechauns or rainbows or pots of gold….or all!
-Fishermen and Sheppard’s all wearing traditional Irish Sweaters while performing their jobs.

Realizations after going to Ireland:
-Drinking. Lots of drinking.
-The red heads that I was expecting to see were mostly golden brown…or grey.
-Everyone drinks Guinness beer
-The book of Kells is over a century old and not only contains the 4 gospels of Jesus, but displays incredible art, precision, and discipline to produce an inspiring finished product.
-Harsh accents that are charming and when drunk: unintelligible.
-Not only fiddle music, but drums, guitar, and a lot of BANJO!
-Leprechauns do not exist. Rainbow are infrequent in Ireland due to missing a key ingredient in their weather most of the time….SUN. The Irish economy is bustling, and more expensive than England…so there’s your gold baby!
-No fisherman or Sheppard’s in the big city of Dublin, but the traditional Irish Sweaters are amazingly warm and cool looking!

Here is your update on most recent endeavor of the Traveling Halbury:

I spent 2 full days and 2 nights in Dublin, Ireland this weekend with my fellow travel buddy Colin and his cooperating teacher Harold.

We land in Dublin and I, being the savvy traveler that I am, talked the two blokes into taking the bus for E 2,20 instead of a cab for god knows how much (upwards of 30 Euros) into the center of Dublin. We found a friendly Irishman on the bus to tell us when to get off, and after 4 blocks of city walking we arrived at our hotel, The North Star.

After we checked in, put our bags down, and grabbed a quick bite to eat (pizza from a random pizzeria) we headed out on the town. Here is a picture of the famous Ha’penney bridge and Dublin behind it at night time (Ha’penny named after the toll it once cost to cross it). We arrived at Madigan’s Bar and drank our first pint of Guinness for E 4,60! All the while we were listening to the Irish version of your garden variety open-mic singer belting the tunes of the famous Billy Ray Cyrus. Imagine pulling up into a bar in downtown Dublin, all sorts of stoked on dipping your toes into the Irish culture and accompanying your first Guinness from its native land to the words “Don’t tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don’t think it’d understand” in an Irish accent, with the entire bar singing along. Other highlights from the same singer included “Sweet Caroline” and my favorite (your listening to it right now) “The Galway Girl.”

We moved from there along the quay (river Liffy) down toward the famous nightlife district “Temple Bar.” I must say, I was thoroughly unimpressed with Temple Bar. I found an absence of traditional Irish bars sporting pub music and an abundance of shitty modern clubs with youngsters dressed in themed costumes listening to dance/techno music….not the Dublin experience I was looking for. We did find a good pub to sit and people watch and ended up calling it a night at 2 am.

Saturday was a long day, and thoroughly impressive in accomplishments. After a buffet breakfast in our hotel, we headed out to our first stop: Christchurch Cathedral. An impressive and beautiful church, but merely a stop on our way to the better known cathedral….Ay da catedral o’ Saint Patrick! Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It was a striking church (seen to the side, set behind a blossoming cherry tree) and toward the end of our time there we fell across a Norwegian Choir practicing for an upcoming event. Gorgeous church and fitting music.

Feeling spiritual and inspired by the two Cathedrals we did what any good Irishman would do….went to a near-by pub. Fallon’s, a quaint little pub kitty corner from the church. From here on out, we decided to make the afternoon and evening about drinkin’! We headed to the Guinness storehouse. I must say, a VERY impressive tour and well worth the E 10,00 to get in! You climb up 5 stories, each level containing some form of history, beer making process, or beer industry information. There are tastings and beer stops along the way, that reach to the pinnacle: The Gravity Bar. This bar is one of the highest points in Dublin and has such incredible views of the Irish hills and the cityscape.

What would you do after a couple pints of Guinness? “Why head to the Jameson Distillery ya mick!!”
We caught a cheap taxi to the Jameson distillery, and it was well worth it…my feet were dead by this point. The distillery was a bit less impressive and we were not chosen for the special “whiskey taster” session at the end of the tour, but we still did get our own taste of Jameson at the end. It was great to be celebrating the booze of Ireland in Dublin only weeks after St. Patty’s day.

On the way home we stopped by a restaurant and I got to try what I was hoping to taste the entire weekend- Irish Stew. Let me tell you it was a great experience. The weather was cold and getting colder and we step inside this pub, order burgers and my stew and sit down to a Guinness and conversation. What do you know, the TV gets turned on and is immediately surrounded by all the men and women in the bar. It was the Ireland vs. Bulgaria football game. The final ended up being 1-1 (which probably prevented the night turning into a complete drunken mess).

Believe it or not Saturday night, the night when we were all planning to get shmammered, we crashed out very early in the hotel. It was upsetting at first. And then I realized how incredibly tired I was. It was a long day and sipping the Black Bush (Whiskey by Bushmills) on the hotel bed watching Irish TV was alright with me.

I started my Sunday with a trip to the hotel sauna (half to escape the two sickies in my room and half to breath in some warmth to clear my lungs).

We went to Trinity college (the famous university in Dublin) and the owner of an ancient library and the famous “book of Kells.” I was really impressed with the tour of the university. We had an exceptionally funny tour guide (a senior history major) and it ended with a viewing of the book itself. What an incredible book! It looks so incredibly labor intensive that I cannot imagine how long it took the group of monks to finish it.

We caught a “House of Ireland” store right outside the college and took a peek at some of their woolen mills. Damn. They got me. Colin and I had aspirations to buy traditional Irish Aran Sweaters while we were in Dublin, and we happened to find a great place to purchase them. I bought a light brown loom-woven sweater with some very intricate designs. It is very well made, and I am confident will last me a lifetime. Colin bought a much, much better quality hand-made sweater that looks absolutely bad arse. It was a good bit of money for us to spend, but will be well worth it in the memories that it gives us each time we put it on.

After some fish and chips, we arrived at the highlight of my weekend: The Brazen Head. The Brazen Head is best known as the oldest pub in Ireland. In a city of over 1,000 pubs….that’s just the city….that is an impressive distinction! While we were there, we stumbled into a side room and discovered the Sunday afternoon “Live Music.” When I say live music, I mean 1 fiddle player, 2 guitar player, 1 banjo players, and 2 Irish drum players (played with a wooden stick and looks like deer skin stretched over a wooden frame). Not to mention the random folks drinking in the bar that were called up to sing a particular song (men and women alike) or strum a little tune on the guitar. We killed about 3 pints of Guinness just watching them and enjoying the atmosphere. I was so elated to be having the experience that I did, and I am positive it wasn’t the Guinness speaking, but I had a natural high just living in that moment. It was great. And therefore the “High”light of the weekend.

We hopped a bus back to the airport (thanks again to the keen Hal, we got off the bus just after we were supposed to, narrowly escaping the catastrophe of missing our flight and being stuck in Dublin with no place to go).

It was an exhausting and jam-packed weekend that I am sure I missed some of the more intricate details of it, but you will just have to wait to hear those stories until we can meet over a Guinness or Jameson ourselves and tell the tales.

That’s the news for now. Sorry if the end of this post trails off, my attention is being divided in many directions and I am suddenly looking at my “to-do” list and realizing that I should be investing my time into other endeavors than my blog. Love you all none-the-less!
-O’Hal

“and then I said ‘feck it, I’m in Ireland’”
-T-shirt in a souvenir shop

Field Trip

2009-03-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sigh....not a sigh of sadness or depression or mere disapproval, but a retrospective sigh of relief. I just got back from Dublin and probably the best travel expereince I have had yet! (well shoot, thats hard to say for sure, but it is battling for the top spot). I am too tired and sleep deprived to write a deserving post right now, but I wanted to let you readers know that I am alive and well and you can expect an in-depth post sometime soon (hopefully with-in the next day).

For now, you will have to be satisfied with a few pictures from the field trip that I went on Friday. We went to Church Farms, a nearby "rare breeds" farm that displayed many critically endangered species native to the UK. One of them was a Suffolk Punch Horse, one of the most massive creatures that I have seen live. Others were rare breeds of goats, pigs, sheep, and hens.

The highlight of the field trip was getting to hold a relatively new born lamb (what are they called? Kids?).

Check back soon for an update on my weekend travels to the amazing town of Dublin!!

Hal

A day in the life...

2009-03-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up to a gentle knock on the door. I stumbled out of my very springy and uncomfortable twin bed to a fellow student teacher who had locked her flash drive in the middle school and needed to borrow my keys.
“Now is as good a time as any to wake up, I s’pose.”
The usual morning routine of coffee, breakfast, shower, dress, get ready to walk 2 seconds away to the middle school was well broken up by a “what am I grateful for?” internal monologue. The highlights ranged from simple things such as the perfect sip of coffee (the pinnacle between when it is too hot to drink and when it is too luke warm to resemble the “best part of waking up”) to more complex and vastly important things like being born into an incredibly wonderful family and being surrounded by people I love and love me in return…..you know normal morning thoughts.
Decided today to shave around the fullest part of my facial hair. Still nothing resembling more than your garden variety 16 year old.
School seemed to fly by today. I started off with planning period, which I love, and got well prepared for the day’s lessons. The PE/outdoor ed. class tested their mile times and I introduced “Ultimate Frisbee” and how to throw the backhand. I have a wealth of memories involving my brother and I in the church parking lot across the street throwing the frisbee for hours, until it inevitably got lost in the blackberry bushes (don’t worry we would find it a year later, faded and unusable).
My health class started their PowerPoints on Illicit drugs, each group in charge of teaching the class the in’s and out’s of one major drug. They were stubborn as mule’s to get moving today, but progress was made.
I was pleasantly surprised at lunch with penne pasta and home-made red sauce from my cooperating teacher and tira misu (how do you spell that? Terra Missou?) from another teacher.
Immediately after school, I was “asked” to help some friends move furniture, etc from their house to another location. The end result was spending a wonderful evening, with great people, eating great food, and enjoying fascinating conversation about life, people, and traveling. A great bottle of wine (Spetlesse mom!!), California salad, chilli, bean pods and mushrooms, sausage and sauerkraut, and buffalo meat balls (yes jokes about buffalo balls were too easy to resist). It was a hodgepodge assortment for dinner, but “deliceaux!”
My evening has now turned into procrastinating on tomorrow’s lesson plans (again first period planning….gotta love life right now!), suckin down some Corona’s, and watching “The Sound of Music” in preparation for my travels to Austria and Germany in 2 weeks. I am thinking of you momma, and enjoying every minute of the movie!

I am 23, going on 24. What is a boy to do?
The future: a question mark
A quiet evening in the park,
Life it has been so kind.

This weekend is Dublin,
Guinness and Jameson,
Maybe the book of Kels.

I am 23, going on 24. Where is a boy to go?
Corsica, Sardinia,
Malta, Mallorca,
Possibly a Grecian Isle?

Each day I’m grateful
For this life so peaceful.
People wont you join me soon?

This was a day in the life of the Traveling Halbury..and those were a few of my favorite things.

The storm has passed, and Hal is gassed...

2009-03-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry reader(s).
The reason that I have been non-existent for the past week or so (in more ways than this public web log) is because I was being observed by my supervising instructor on Monday and Tuesday. It was an insanely exhausting weekend and an even more exhausting two days. It went very well though, here is a synopsis:

Weekend: Colin and I must have spent a total of 20 hours at school over the weekend. Add a couple over the past few days.....what can I say, I am a procrastinator. In almost all facets of my life, I am a procrastinator. Once I stop getting away with it, I will stop :)

Monday: Chris (my supervisor) observed my 6th grade health class. The kids were great. They were responsive and relaxed and having fun. I ended up talking a bit more than I wanted to, but it was a strong, comprehensive lesson. It was an introduction to alcohol and I was crackin the students up with some activities.

Right as the class begun, I had just handed Chris my lesson plan and turned around to address the class when I find a stranger in my classroom. The 5 foot little creature says "Hi, my name is (we will say) Travel Krisalkhdflsdfajsdlk and I am a new student in your health class!" Oh shoot. What do I do? No notification whatsoever?!? Come on! It actually turned out to be a blessing because I had the opportunity to show of my "thinking on the fly" teaching skills. I introduced him to the class, had him share a little about himself and then turned it on the other students. "Have any of you ever moved to a new school in the middle of the year?"
"what was it like?"
"why was it so hard for you?"
"What would have helped you? Do you have any ideas of how we can be helpful and welcoming to Travel?"

and the class did so well helping him catch up with our current unit and helping him from class to class, etc. I was proud.

She also got to see the wonderful chaos of my lunchtime intramurals (its March madness at Lakenheath Middle School too!).

To top it all off, she watched a "Reading Counts" party that I helped with in the Library that rewards students who have earned a certain amount of points for reading various books. I gave the "St Patty's day quiz" and graded it and awarded the winners.

Tuesday: Chris observed my 7th grade Outdoor Ed/PE class and the last day of our Basketball Unit. The students were goofing off a little more than usual and I had to lay the hammer down on em, but I was running with em, doing push ups and sit ups, and playing with them (like I do everyday) and I think she was impressed.

She then watched my 8th grade health class where I made them do a research project on Alcohol, create a poster, and present their specific topic. The 8th graders are already checked out, so it was a little tougher than usual to rope them is as well...but they did well for me and I appreciated it.

Overall she got to see a 6th grade health class, 7th grade Outdoor Ed, and 8th grade Health! Pretty thorough observation, I'd say!

Its over now, and I have a life again. Thank goodness. I did check my blog one of the days and saw that 4 people had visited the blog...nice. I suppose that I deserved that one. I hope that I have not lost you all for good! I am still here and I should be submitting a flurry of posts in the next couple of weeks.

A shout out to some folks that I never publicly thanked:

The current Grove Groovies for a wonderful bunch of 3 GREAT CD's
Leslie for her great care package full of things to remind me of home, music, good smelling things,etc.
Greg and (soon to be) Jenny Wittreich. I just got your "save the date" card and you know it is already saved. August 22 folks, the first of my close friends to get married. Scary stuff, but a great thing :)
Steve- stevo is doing well in his Moroccan village. Check out his blog, my

BLOG OF THE WEEK:

http://steve-o-smith.blogspot.com/

He is an incredible writer (I wish I could express myself half as eloquently) and has some great thoughts and reflections to share. Miss you already brother.

Kale- sorry if I have neglected you lately. I think you forgot that I was being observed this week and you seemed quite upset in some of your emails. I love you. I returned all of your emails. Lets skype soon!

Mom and Dad- Sorry I ditched you on this weeks skype date. I did notify you that I would though. I can get up early tomorrow...but I probably wont. Can we talk this weekend? I love you and thank you for being so great!

Lilli- I dont really know if you read this blog...but I am stoked to come and visit you in Barcelona! 2 weeks to do nothing in Barcelona, Spain! Its going to be warm, beautiful, and great.

Thats all folks! I will post again soon!

Minglin' in England
okay in the UK
Sure up in Europe
Kickin' in Britain
Ramblin in London

Halbury

Travel plans set!...well some of them

2009-03-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

So today I booked the following:

London to Barcelona and back!

I will be visiting my good friend Lilli in BCN while she is teaching ESL to all sorts of ages. Lilli and her roommates have been kind enough to offer me a couch for 2 weeks!!! Such a nice gesture. Hopefully I will be an excuse for them to get out and about and do some traveling. From the sound of it she has not been able to get out too much. I will return to London on May 19th and wait for my brothers flight the next day (and hope not to have another Costa Rica incident :)

I booked London to Salzburg, Austria on April 4th
and Frankfurt to London on April 11th.

Yes that means that Colin and I need to make our way from Salzburg, Austria to Frankfurt, Germany (about 400 miles?) in a weeks time. This is our spring break. You cna imagine stops in Munich, Dachau, all along the romantic road (Nurenburg, Wertzburg, and Rothenburg) and finish in Frankfurt. Maybe visit my moms german family (whats the progress on that ma?) maybe visit my parents good friend Marty (again...progress?) and maybe visit some breweries, museums, and castles.

One thing is for sure....the HILLS WILL BE ALIVE!!!

I must frolick along the Austrian countryside. I must.

Anyways, the internet has been down here and that is why I have not posted. Hopefully this one makes it!

Love from a small island!

Hal

Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking out, Looking in (shorter).

2009-03-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Looking back:

This weekend I stayed home…did not do much…and it was amazing. It is so nice to finally get things accomplished and not have to plan lessons the night before I leave or the night that I get back.

On Wednesday I went to Romeo and Juliet in Cambridge. It was great. Shakespearian language spoken in the English proper tongue. I had only read parts of the play and maybe seen the DiCaprio version of the film a while ago. I am glad that I finally got to see this play in its entirety in the author’s original words. My favorite character was Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend.
Before we saw the play, we ate at a famous pub in Cambridge call “The Eagle.” Apparently the double helix of DNA was developed in this pub (actually at the University, but all of the scientists talked about it after work each day here…we all know how much can get accomplished in a talk over beers). I ate Bangers and Mash for the first time. The sausage was great! I will try it again.

On Friday I went out for a beer with Colin and his cooperating teacher. Afterwards we went to the dog races in nearby Mildenhall (see “Rose of the week” below for elaboration).

Yesterday I went to Bury St Edmunds and went to the Saturday market. I bought the following:

2 mangos for 1 pound (about $1.40!)
A pair of glasses (no prescription…I know its weird, but I have always wanted glasses)
Some leather repair and protector for my beloved Clark’s ® shoes.
A stretchy tight shirt (like what Simon Cowell wears…but not half as tight, actually loose like a normal shirt) for 1 pound 50 pence.
And 4 types of cheeses. The flavors are cheddar and sage, cheddar and port wine, a cranberry type of cheese, and some sort of vegemite-type flavored cheese. I plan to eat them tonight with a little wine. They were 60 pence each! So cheap.

In Bury we also saw some really old ruins from about 1000 years ago, a beautiful park, and an enormous cathedral.

It was a great little week.

Looking Forward:

This week is Terra Nova testing. The DODDs version of standardized testing. Let me ask you this: How is it STANDARDIZED testing if the test is vastly different from last years test? Also next years Terra Nova is also going to be Vastly different then this years test. What are they comparing these numbers to if each year measures different things? What is the point? Also there is such a large exchange of student in military schooling that you never have the same populations of students. Ludicrous, it’s all ludicrous and is causing most of my classes to be shortened and therefore less successful this week.

Next week my supervising teacher is coming to our school to observe Colin and I for a couple of days. I have decided that I am not going to rush through this week’s material just so I can fall on the exact lesson that I want to teach in front of her. I will teach whatever lesson we fall on that week and I will do it well. Do you think that’s a good idea? Or should I set it up so that I have a super beefy lesson planned that is going to blow her away? I don’t know….comment.
Dublin in 3 weeks!

Looking out:

It has been gorgeous here! Sunny most all of last week, which put me in a great mood. The days are getting longer too. Spring forward in England is on March 29th. I think April will be absolutely green and amazing here.

I am going to start to periodically include my glasses into my life…I don’t know why I have always wanted to wear glasses, but I have. My vision is 20/20 so I don’t need them. These ones don’t have a prescription and are 100% for aesthetic reasons. Does that make me weird? Why do you wear your hair a certain way? Why do you wear the clothes that you do? Why did you choose that particular watch, bracelet, bag, earring, shoes, etc to wear for the day? I see no reason why I can’t wear eyeglasses for style reasons. What do you think?

Looking in:

I am happy to report that the overwhelming great feelings and positivity have not yet left. Life is still good and I still take time each day to appreciate my life. Do you think its possible to live your entire life this way? I do. I am reading a great book that was mailed to me in a care package (thanks les!) called Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. It is stimulation some very introspective thoughts about my outlook on life and the possibilities that the world has to offer. In only a couple of days of very casual reading, I am almost done with it. Check it out….or I may just mail it to you!

Rose of the week:

So we were at the dog races (I kept calling them horse races all night). We all put 10 pound into a pot and were betting out of that pot for the entire night. We were not doing so well…mostly betting on clever names. We won one race and scored 10 pounds. It came down to the last race and we had 7 pounds left in the pot. Colin’s cooperating teacher was going to put 6 pounds down on a “trio” (like a trifecta in the states where you bet on the order of the top 3 dogs). He boxed it. With the extra pound I bet a “reverse Forecast” (same as a boxed exacta in the states) on the two horses with the worst odds. By post time (start of race) it was 33 to 1 that these two horses would finish 1st and 2nd (dogs #2 and 6). Colin’s teacher picked the dogs by picking the exact opposite horses of what Colin suggested (2, 4, 6 instead of 1,3,5) as more of a joke than anything else. Sure as shit the dogs came around that final turn in the exact order of both bets: 2, 6, 4. We had won both bets. The trio cam out to be 216 pounds and the exacta was about 35 pounds. That’s 250 pounds total split between 3 people…about 85 pounds or $120 each! What a great end to the night. A great rose for the week.

Thorn of the week:

This took a bit to think of something “thorn worthy” but I am just going to say my to-do list. Lesson plans for this week and next week along with prep for my supervising instructor next week. Planning for spring break. Planning for summer travels with brother. Clean room. Ask for letters of rec. Start to apply for jobs. Catch up emails for neglected family and friends. Transcript from U of I (still…sorry mom). Live. Eat. Sleep. Read.

My next blog will give some much deserving shout outs to a select few individuals who have sent me great care packages lately (within the past 2 weeks and a few this upcoming week).
Much love to you all AND shame on you if you read this blog….have a thought or idea and then don’t comment….shame on you :)

Halbury Gear

2009-03-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I think that I am hitting another step in the evolution, or maturation, of a blog writer. This step is the “should I be writing all of this about myself? I don’t want to present myself as being a self centered, inconsiderate, egocentric ass”-step. Do not worry, I am fighting off the demons of those thoughts…but it is a bit hard. I DO only write about myself, my thoughts, and my experiences on this blog, but then again I feel like it is also a way for me to share these very personal things with you. A public diary, if you will.

Any who, I thought it would be good to write a blog about some of the gear that I wear while traveling. Now I do not claim to be an expert traveler. Actually, in comparison to the many world travelers out there, I am but a mere novice. I guess I just wanted to write a blog about the gear that I am wearing and why I appreciate it so much…specifically for traveling.

Lets start form the ground up, shall we?

Footwear:

There are 2…well maybe 3 very necessary types of footwear for a traveler (again, my opinion).
#1- a great walking shoe. While traveling, you walk a lot! Scaling the downtown plan of a large city can be exhausting work and if you choose the wrong shoe, perhaps for fashion or simple lack of planning, can ruin a great opportunity.
My walking shoe- the “Desert Trek”, the Originals division of Clark's shoes. First of all, they have a gum-type sole. When I say “gum” I mean the consistency of those old style erasers, the kind that are light beige in color and kind of fell apart when you tried to erase something with them…That. Imagine walking on that! It is a very forgiving shoe that contours to your foot and glides SO smoothly along the ground. They have a cool style with a trade-mark seam down the center. They can pass for semi-dressy if need be too! Perfect shoe number one!

#2- a great hiking shoe. We all know that great traveling must include getting close to nature. Nature can be the single reason that we visit a place, and if you are not prepared with correct footwear then you cannot experience all that natural beauty has to offer. In Chile I did not have hiking shoes. I had New Balance 544’s. I used these shoes on the Inca trail and when I hiked in Patagonia…they did fine, but I learned form my mistake. I now have a beefy “trail running shoe.” Now this shoe could not survive the apocalypse like some very intense hiking shoes that I have seen, but they serve very well for casual hiking AND running (be it trail or street). These shoes are the Solomon “XA Comp 3 GTX Trail Running Shoe” (Whew, Mouthful). They are great. Breathable yet strong. Stylish yet practical. Great tread and the classic draw sting shoe lace that all Solomon shoes offer.

#3- a relaxing shoe. This can be a night time shoe/slipper/sandal or as simple as a flip flop. Something comfortable. This is a must. You need to change out of your day shoes into something that feels different, lounge-able, relaxing. Currently, I do not have one of these. In the past I have utilized the famous Croc's or a standard flip flop. A moccasin or sheep skin lined slipper serves well too. Right now I just walk around barefoot, like god intended.

Socks:

Briefly- I wear very breathable socks because unfortunately I am a classic “foot sweater.” That’s right, my feet sweat. Moist feet=stinky feet. It is something that I have had to deal with my entire life. I wash them and scrub them til I am blue in the face, and yet they still smell nasty. For this reason I need a breathable sock. Spending a little extra to get a sock that will bring some air into you sole (and a little of your soul) is very worth it. I have some under armour “no show” breathable athletic socks.

Pants:

Here is a simple fact: most countries around the world do not wear shorts. People wear pants…everywhere folks. I’m sorry, I (like my good friend Ryan Leacy) love the short. I utilize it often back in the states, even when weather does not permit it. I need to wear pants over here. I wear the Mountain Hardware “Runout” pant. They are great because they are the most durable pant that I have owned. It is a very tough canvas type material, much like Carhart but more mobile and flexible. It comes with a sturdy synthetic braided chord belt (the type of material that backpack straps are made out of…how else would you explain that material?) already sewn into the pant. The back pockets and a utility pocket that sits just above the knee have zippers on them. These zippers are very important when traveling in a big city. Pick pockets don’t even try! It is also a great investment in piece of mind. You are going to know when someone is tugging hard on your back pocket zipper. Also, the bottoms of the legs have great draw strings for hiking the pant up your leg (in case of biking or attempting to convert into a short for warmer weather). Great pants. Almost bought some for my dad for x-mas.

I also wear the Kavu Chili Lite pant. Very light canvas pant with a similar built-in belt. The material is really the best appeal to these pants. Soft, comfortable, casual, and practical.

Top:

This can vary from trip to trip. I almost always pack the following: A breathable shirt and a comfortable “feels like home” shirt. My comfortable shirts of late have been Under Armour “Heat Gear” simple T-shirts. Stretchy, soft, comfortable and keep me cool in warm hostels, bars, restaurants, buses, etc. The “Feels like home” shirt has been my Michael Franti and Spearhead shirt that is bright yellow and says “Spearhead Rockers” on the front with a big # 10 on the back. I can’t explain it. It just feels like me. It is also developing that natural soft feeling that is reserved only for old t-shirts that have seen many days and made many trips to the washer/dryer.

The most important part of my travel gear: a simple Pendelton Flannel. I have worn the same flannel in every weekend trip that I have taken. It has a collar, so in a STrrreeeeeTCH it can be used as a shirt. It is 100% virgin wool, so it is very warm. I am a big fan of the ol “roll up the sleeves” look, but when its cold….roll em down man! Gives you the warmth of a sweatshirt but is much easier to pack, much more stylish (I guess that’s subjective), and much more comfortable.

Headwear:

Simple. You need a comfy floppy yarn hat made by someone very near to your heart. This hat does not offer warmth, but thought. Thoughts of home, friends (or family), and gives your travel style a little taste of home-life.

Very important and versatile: Buff. If you have not heard of a buff, it is utility headwear. The only limit to the uses of this thing is your imagination. Wrist band, neck scarf, a sleeping/night mask (slip over the eyes), a head band, bandanna, ear warmer, hat, pirate style hat, ninja mask (?), etc. Whatever you can think of. They were made popular by the crew of the popular reality TV show “Survivor.” Most males wore them as head bands, and females as tops.

That’s about all I can think of for now. Maybe I will write about some other pertinent travel gear at another time. For now, I need sleep.

You can check earlier post pics for evidence of all of this Halbury Travel Gear in use!

Amster.....DAM!

2009-03-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

There is something so foreign, so exotic about leaving for a weekend getaway with 3 different types of currency in your wallet.

More time went into packing a lunch for this weekend getaway than the planning of the actual trip. Monday or Tuesday night Colin and I were looking into a trip for the weekend…last minute…again. It was time to crap or get off the crapper. I had a quiet, internal moment to myself. I weighed the pros and cons and suddenly decided to just go ahead and book the thing. I went into Colin’s room and almost immediately could feel the momentum beginning. We went down to the little cave where we can sometimes pick up Internet and searched RyanAir.com for a flight that we had researched earlier. We found it, bought it, and in 5 minutes booked the hostel too! Here, an adventurous weekend began:

Because we booked the cheapest flight, we also booked the flight with the worst time. It left from London Stansted Airport (about 1 hour 30 min away) at 6:55 am. It’s okay, I’ll do the math for you. International flight= 1 hour 30 min early. Parking in midstay car park= add 30 minutes. Drive to airport= 1 hour 30 min. Wake up, brew coffee, finish packing, etc= 30 minutes. That’s right; we woke up at 3 am folks. It was rough. Needless to say we were chipper creatures boarding that airplane.

We flew into Eindhoven, Netherlands because it was much cheaper than flying into the Airport in Amsterdam. It’s about an hour and a half away from Amsterdam by bus. Even with the round trip bus ticket the transportation was significantly cheaper, besides I thought it added a little adventure to the weekend.

The first thing that I will tell you about this weekend, is that Colin and I approached it differently than any normal big city trip. We decided right off the bat that we would not measure the success of the trip in how many landmarks, buildings, museums, and monuments we could check off the list, but rather we would measure our success in how much we enjoyed ourselves.

The second thing I will tell you is that this was probably my most successful trip yet.

Highlights from Day 1:
Walking, walking, walking. We walked everywhere. There are more canals (50 more) in Amsterdam(AD) than in Venice, one of the many surprises that AD held for me.
A long line at the Anne Frank Museum=not how we want to spend our time.
A hot cappuccino and people watching in the Paradox Coffeeshop= exactly how we wanted to spend our time.
Walking some more, getting our bearings on another wonderful and interesting big city.
Riding the train to a nearby city, Haarlem (that’s right, New York was once called New Amsterdam and the Harlem in NY was named after this Haarlem) where our hostel was. In Haarlem there is an average of at least one bike PER PERSON! They were everywhere, inescapable.

Story Intervention: Old Man River
Colin and I get to the Hostel on Friday at about 3:30 pm (Friday was a half day at school, and our teachers told us that we would be fools not to take it off). We took a quick nap at 4 until about 6 pm (we had been awake since 3 am!). We wake up to, what we called, Old Man River (OMR). OMR was a 60-something homeless looking man who looked like he could barely walk. Holes in his shoes, patches of his hair missing (not in a balding kind of way), and a wonderful body odor. That night we go out and find a local coffee shop in Haarlem. We also find a Kebab place and have the most delicious Kebab (Mediterranean style pita with lamb/beef and amazing mystery sauces). We return, have some Heinekens downstairs and decide to turn in for the night. OMR was there, sleeping, where we had left him at 6. About 5 minutes after I close my eyes I hear a trickle. What’s that, you ask, why it’s crazy OMR peeing into a bottle off the side of his bed. No joke. This really happened. Not only did it happen once, it happened for a consistent 30 minutes. The dude wouldn’t stop. I received confirmation of the feat in the morning time when there were about 3 large bottles filled with a yellowish liquid next to his bed. The same thing happened the next night, no exaggeration.

Highlights from Day 2:

Van Gogh Museum. Maybe my favorite thing that we did all weekend. Did you know that Van Gogh did not start painting, or entertaining the idea of becoming an artist, until he was 26 years old? He was fired from an internship with some sort of a design or advertising company (Hey I’m only 23…if life takes me down the wrong path for the next three years, I can always become a Van Gogh….wait without the whole epilepsy and cutting off my ear thing though, right?). Favorite paintings include(you can google-image them for a reference): Potato Eaters (I was amazed at the intricate detail that he put into the figures. Also he made such a dark and meek painting seem very lively and colorful), The Sower (a man spreading seed in a wheat field with the setting sun. A great painting, he even accented the seeds being spread with a touch of yellow to show the sun reflecting off of them!), Starry Night over the Rhône (a night scene, before “Starry Night” with the town lights reflecting off of a nighttime inlet, and beautiful constellations shining overhead. This was my favorite of them all!), and the pinnacle Starry Night (a surprising amount of green in the painting, more texture than you could ever imagine too). I have never had a favorite painter, and call it the accompanying audio tour, the vibe of the museum, learning the story and inspiration behind the artist, or the breath taking paintings themselves, but I have one now. Let it be said, my favorite artist is Van Gogh! Now I just have to research him more.
Heineken experience in the old Heineken brewery. Not worth 15 Euro, but a fun experience that came with 2 beers.
Walking, walking, walking.
Night set and we flocked with all the other freaks to the famous RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Honestly, not that bad. Not too sketchy, police walking around, lots of drunk people, and lots of nearly naked women in windows. It was very creepy to walk by a window, with a giant red light hanging above and see a 6’3” tall black woman in lingerie lick her lips at you as you trip over the uneven curb in front of you. What a town.

Story Intervention:

So we had paid 3 Euro 90 cents each way on the train between Haarlem and AD. Not once did anyone check our ticket. Not once did we even see a person who looked like they might check our ticket. So on the way back, Saturday night we decided to save the 4 euros. We did not pay, and guess what, we got away with it. (My big joke was going to be saying “we didn’t do anything illegal in Amsterdam” haha, but we actually did, we skipped paying our fare on the train!). So in the morning on Sunday, we figured “what the heck we are 3 for 3, why pay our last fare on the train if no one checks?” Sure as Shitake right after we sit down and the train moves comes a ticket puncher. Colin tried to mutter an excuse like “well, I have this ticket, but its from yesterday…I thought it was round trip” at this point Colin is not seeing any mercy in the man’s eye and understanding that the ignorant tourist card had been played too many times, he abruptly changes his tune to “Can we buy a ticket on the train?” the man says “Yes, get off at the next stop, buy a ticket and get back on. This will save you 70 euro, the fine for traveling without a ticket.” As we get off on that stop he follows behind us singing “still have to pay the fffaaaarrrreeee” in a jesting manner. We paid and reboarded the train. Considering the possible outcomes that the story could have had, we were very lucky to have it turn out the way it did. I will always remember the “Oh shit” look on me and Colin’s faces when we saw him coming through that door, “um…we can buy our ticket on the train right?” haha.

Highlights from day 3:

Mostly just more exploring and walking around.
Another trip to Anne Frank’s house. Huge line, not how we wanted to spend our last day.
We took our time, enjoyed the sights, and relaxed the day away. Sunday was also our best weather day.

All in all, we didn’t cross that many things off the “sights to see” list in AD, but we certainly took in the culture and vibe of the city. We were happy to not have an agenda, not have a plan or direction for the weekend, but to be content sitting on a canal bench, watching the people, birds, boats, tourists, bicycles, cars, trams, and clouds all pass us by. I was thankful to be there, at that moment in time. So pleased with my surroundings that I took a mental picture. If there is one thing that I know, it is that a mental picture can capture the beauty, feeling, smell, sound, and awe of a moment unlike any picture from a camera.

I would like to close this blog post with a suggestion. AD’s slogan was I AMsterdam (like I am….sterdam, maybe with hopes that AD can be whatever you want it to be…a “personalize-able” city if you will). I suggest they change the slogan to “Amster…..DAM!”…and have a tourist tripping over a curb after passing by a 6’3” tall black woman in lingerie licking her lips.

Are you out there blog readers?

2009-02-25T12:15:00.001-08:00

So I don't really know how other blog writer's measure their success. Maybe it's by the number of hits per day they get or maybe it is by the number of comments left on their post. If that is the case, then I am not doing so well. I got 9, count em 9 visits yesterday. My last blog had 1 comment. What happened to the glory days of 5 comments and 18 visitors per day? Haha. Are my posts boring? Has this blog become the cyber space version of watching your neighbors slide show of their recent vacation to Nebraska? I know that the real reason I am doing this blog is for me. I enjoy reflecting on my travels and expressing random thoughts and stories...I just wanted my readers to know that I have not been feeling your love lately.

On another note: I had a great day today. I had a very real moment with a student. The type of student who is VERY quiet and is often dismissed as unintelligent. I pulled him/her out of the class and had a heart to heart with them in the hallway. I feel like it was the first time that any teacher had shown him/her a certain level of respect and concern. They area good person, and very intelligent, but they just need information presented to them in a very specific way and they need to express it in a very particular way. I was able to communicate this with him/her and make some great strides today! I was proud. And I feel like I responded to the situation not like a teacher, not like I was taught in college, but like a human being. When it comes down to it, that's all I really know how to do.

BIG NEWS! This weekend I will be traveling to "a place where the women flock like the salmon of Capistrano, where the beer flows like wine." (if you don't get a Dumb and Dumber reference, then you don't get me). A little slice of heaven I like to call Amsterdam. Colin and I booked our flights earlier this week. We will be staying in a nearby town called Haarlem (Hair- lem). it is supposed to be all the cool and fun aspects of Amsterdam without all the sketchy and dangerous aspects. Besides it is a quick train ride into the heart of Amsterdam. I am really excited. Van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank's house, Clogs, Cheese, maybe a cafe or two, Heineken brewery! Come on folks! Its going to be great.

By the way (that's right, I didn't use BTW!... Shoot I just did) my phone number is now on the side bar above my phone number. Just in case you wanted to give me ringy dingy!

A couple of shout outs:

Wicks family- you have done it again! 3 care packages so far! Thank you so much for the two books (one on french wine, one on Italian, a spider man activity book, and a DVD. More on this later. Anyways you have been so great to me via the post system and have completely warranted a fun return package...so keep an ear to the ground, and listen for the hooves of the postman's horse! Love you.

Steve- He is leaving this weekend for Morocco, for over 2 years, enlisting in the Peace Corps. I am going to miss you, but maybe in a year's time I will near a North African vacation and I'll come and visit you buddy. Safe travels and I know you will really impact some people's lives in an incredible way. Your heart is too big not to. Love you Buddy.

Mom- here is a public reminder to practice the two things that I told you I would be checking up on. Both are important. Exercising and re-learning the guitar. Do it. Dont put it off til later. Life is now. I love you.

Dad- I'd like to talk to you on skype sometime soon. I look at one of the pictures of us in the frame that mom sent me and it makes me miss you. Lets set a skype date soon! I love you.

Thats the news from my Island in the Atlantic. Where all the men are handsome, the women are strong, and all the children are above average (also if you dont get Lake Woebegone references, then you dont get me :)

Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright.

2009-02-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

I have felt a little bogged down lately with feeling like a ton of things need to be done. Plan lessons, make reservations for upcoming weekend travels, make plans (flights, hostels, etc) for my summer Mediterranean travel-a-thon with my brother, deal with the U of I not correctly sending my transcripts to WSU, dealing with the utility company billing me for January instead of the new residents, and more. “Let’s get this straight Hal: your biggest problem in the world is figuring out where you are going to travel next weekend? Shut up, and enjoy yourself!”

Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Out, Looking In:

Looking Back:
This weekend we went to London. Now when I say “we” I mean 9 student teachers. Holy schnikies it was a ridiculous amount of people to try and travel with. We split up each day and kinda did our own things, but I do not know if I will do it again with a group that big. With that being said, it was such an incredible weekend!

We went to London because we had once again procrastinated on planning a weekend trip, so our “fall back” was London. It is such a cool city! There is too much to do. We booked the hostel the night before (again) and I find out where it is located as I am driving the van full of 9 people (7 seat belts) to an outlying tube station. The hostel was located in south east London. There is not much in southeast London. Transit included. We had minimal trouble finding a bus to get to the neighborhood, and after I got instructions from a very drunk british girl- we were on our way. I was the first one to walk into the hostel/bar/restaurant (I took a little bit of a leadership role this weekend, it was kinda fun to be the one who had to figure out which bus, which tube line, directions, opening times, etc for the group!). I walk in and I am the only white person in the bar. I hear some great roots Reggae being played as the entire group of Black individuals eye me and my backpack. I actually notice a couple older fellows give each other the not-so-subtle “Hey check this guy out” elbow bump as I walk by them. I was not uncomfortable with the situation, frankly I was excited that there was a bar below the hostel and that it played great music, but right as I asked the woman behind the bar to check into our rooms, I thought about the group of 8 other students. They are a bunch of white (1 korean, 1 native American) folks from rural Oklahoma. As I am processing the entire situation I look toward the door and all 8 of them are walking into the already crowded bar with looks of “oh sh!+” painted all over their faces. I really wish I had a picture of all of them at that very moment. This is the point when I decided that this weekend was going to be great.

We end up getting our room after some trouble with the calculations of 9 people trying to pay separately. It was a great place! I will take my brother there when he comes to London, you will LOVE it Kale! Good rooms/facilties, great music that goes until about 3 am on weekends, very friendly people, and amazing and authentic Jamaican food. We straight up stumbled into an incredible situation that defined the tone/theme of the weekend. We end up drinking into the wee hours of the night while dancing, eating, mingling, and laughing. It was great.

Yesterday we went to the Tower of London, which is probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in London (I had to do it right?). It was cool. I enjoyed seeing the crown jewels and the largest diamond in the world! It was about the size of my fist. We also saw the royal guards that have to look straight ahead and not say anything. We didn’t mess with him…but I wanted to. I wanted to fart on him, or maybe do a somer sault in front of him. After that we walked around east London for a bit and eventually made our way west to Buckingham palace. I wasn’t that impressed. I think it would be cool to see the changing of the guards, but other than that it just a big building ya know? There were some cool statues and fountains nearby though.

We ate dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. It was one of the girls’ birthday her father bought us all dinner. I had a glass of house red wine (Merlot, too fruity, not strong, or dry), a spinach frittata appetizer (a quiche like consistency), and Cannellona pasta main dish. Cannellona was a long large noodle filled with spinach and cheese of some sort dressed by a tasty red sauce. The restaurant had a great drink, appetizer, entrée deal and the food was exceptional.

That night we went back to the hostel bar to celebrate the birthday and had another equally as fun night dancing, playing games, talking, drinking, eating (cake this time), and more! They really were warm and welcoming people in the hostel/bar. Can’t wait to go back there.

Today we slept in and strolled to a near-by restaurant and I bought my first traditional English breakfast. I was unimpressed with the fried tomato and mushrooms (and I love both those foods!) but the bacon was some of the best I have had! We then spent about 2 hours in Camden walking around the markets in that area. Some of the best people watching I have ever done! Lots of weirdos, freaks, musicians, travelers, people from all over. It was great. I didn’t buy anything, but maybe next time I will.

Looking forward:
I still do not know what I am doing this weekend. However I did buy my plane ticket to Dublin, Ireland for March 27-29th. I will be going with Colin and his cooperating teacher. Should be a great weekend of history, lush green fields, and beverages. High on my places to go for a weekend list are: Amsterdam, Edinburg, Paris, Stonehenge, Prague.

Looking out:
The weather is getting better everyday. I think we are finally through the cold part of the winter. From here on out the days will get longer and warmer. That should help me get through some of these foggy, dreary days in the English countryside.
I buzzed my hair tonight!

Looking In:
I was on a “life has been really good lately” kick for a couple of weeks…well basically since I first got here in England. I thought this very intense feeling would go away after a bit, but it hasn’t. I have been appreciating how great life is everyday, and thanking my lucky stars that I get to live it. I hope this feeling sticks around for my entire time here. Its a good life.

Rose of the Weekend: Finding a Jamaican/Trinidad and Tabegan Hostel that just happened to be throwing a party the night that we got there full of free drinks and a free Jamaican food appetizer buffet! (Also dancing ALL weekend to reggae!).

Thorn of the weekend: Travel home from central london. There was a section of our tube line that was closed for "Engineering purposes" and the detour that we had to find for ourselves was as follows: Bus from Camden to a Tube stop. Tube to closed point on line. "Over ground" train to another closed stop on tube line. Buse from said closed tube stop to first open tube stop on the other side of the line. Tube back to where the car was parked. jeez, that was a thorn and a half! :)

That’s about all I have to report for now.

Side note: If you have a question or something you would like me to explain further then post a comment, dork!

Its my Birthday and I'll Blog if I want to!

2009-02-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

If you have not been updated on my weekend in Lille, France then please read the post below this first :)

Well world, it’s been 23 good ones. Here is a halbury B-day in review:

I woke up at the ripe time of 6 am, so that I could talk to my mom on Skype. This gave me about 5 hours of sleep, being that we didn’t get in from France until about 1 am that same day. In my drowsy, 6 AM, 5 hours of sleep, morning state I stumble to the bathroom. Wake up shower time right? Wrong, the temperature of the shower was colder than the artic and not showing signs of improvement. So what do I do? After a 3 day weekend of not showering, walking around a foreign country, sleeping in a hostel, riding a train? I turn around and make my way back to my room, no shower, cursing the day only to realize that it was my very own birthday. Reality check: I am not going to start off the next year of my life with “one of those days,” I refuse to!

It seemed that my students disagreed. Even though I told them it was my birthday (and in some cases, jokingly forced them to sing me happy b-day), I could not rein the class in. I had planned out a hands-on activity where they actually measure out a proper serving size of various foods (or what they thought a serving size was) and I was handsomely rewarded with periods of uninterruptible talking, spilling (custodians must hate me!), off task comments, and generally ungrateful students. It would have been a hard day no matter what, let alone running on such little sleep after an exhausting weekend (again see blog post below for more info).

Dun, da da, daaaaa! Here come family and friends to the rescue. I immediately made my way to the post office after school and found 1 envelope, 1 small package, and 3 large package slips inside my PO Box. The contents were as follows:

1 envelope- a valentines letter from my mother (see 2 posts down), I knew should would be my valentine this year!

1 small package- a VERY thoughtful package from my friends at “The Grove” in Pullman, Washington. The package included 3 CD’s of artists/bands that I had not heard of, however upon loading them to my iTunes I have previewed each one of them and let me say this: thank goodness I have friends with such great taste in music! The CD’s were 1. Current Swell- Trust Us Now, 2. Hotel Lights- Firecracker People, 3. Goldfish-Perceptions of Pacha. I have not heard of any of them, however this new music came at such a crucial time. I am so tire of my own music that I needed something completely new to listen to. It was perfect guys! Thank you!

Large Package #1- a valentines package from Madre including various Valentines day candy (I cannot eat half of it!), a puzzle, MDA camp info, “Into Thin Air” by John Krakauer (a book I have actually started in the past, but not finished), a couple of double DVD movie cases, the TIME magazine commemorative edition of President Obama’s path to the whitehouse (amazing articles and very candid pictures!) and a great framed picture of swiss family Iverson on their great summer get away to Hawaii, tan, smiling faces and all.

Large Package #2- a valentine/b-day package from the wonderful wicks family in Puyallup. Contents include: 3 DVD’s, 1 model (96 Dodge Viper GTS coupe, yellow with black racing stripes), a hand-made deluxe valentines day card (signed by all Wicks family members), and a hand-made deluxe b-day card (all signed again). Package # 2 from you guys, thank you so much! It’s so great to get love from home!

Large Package #3- a red, black and white striped cougar polo shirt for teaching. I can now officially wear professional collared cougar gear for everyday of the week. Am I becoming a living version of my mothers Christmas cougar tree? Thank you mom.

Other very notable B-day presents:

A very charitable contribution to the “Save a Hal Fund” by my very tolerant and loving parents to help me in my travels over here. I love you so much, and I know I did not ask for much, but the experiences that I have had in my life and the opportunities that you have allowed for me are simply the best present you could ever give me. I love you so much mom and dad. I miss you and think about you everyday. Thank you for being such great parents.

My brother Kale wrote me an email that made me cry. He too has given me a lifetime of presents with his presence. He has been my leader, he has been my partner in crime, and has probably had one of the largest impacts in the development of the person I am today. I love you Kale, and I do not know what life hold for us, but I am ready to attack it, explore it, and enjoy everything it has to offer right beside you brother.
Kale also gifted me two albums, Tegan and Sara “The Con” and Umphrey’s McGee’s new album “Mantis (Bonus Track Version). He also gifted me an iTunes gift certificate.

Leslie Mac made me lug a wrapped present over here in my carry on. It was hard, but I promised her that I would not open it until it was my b-day, and I kept that promise. The reward was something quite unexpected. It was “No Such Place As Far Away” by Richard Bach. This short book, almost written in the form of a children’s book, explains very subtly how not even distance can separate you from the ones you love, especially on your birthday. Thank you Leslie. I already told you how much the book meant to me, but I just wanted to let you know that I feel your love, and I appreciate the note in the book. It was very thoughtful. The feeling that the book portrays is really applicable to the rest of my friends and family. Even though I am far away from you all on my birthday, you really have given me an incredible gift of love. As cheesy as that sounds, I feel very loved on my birthday and I want to thank you all for being such a great part of my life.

Enough of the mushy stuff. I returned back to my luxurious dorm, and the other student teachers helped me celebrate my 23rd year with a Taco feed and home-made cheese cake, my favorite! Candles and all! It was very nice of them to be so warm and thoughtful. They are a great crew.

Thats the skinny on my B-day. It was great. I feel loved. I live a great life and constantly find myself surrounded by extraordinary individuals. Thank you all!

Halskies

I see London, I see France, I see…Halbury’s underpants?

2009-02-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

Its time for me to report on my amazing weekend in Lille, France.
First I will explain “why Lille?” Colin, my fellow coug student teacher traveled to London this weekend to see his brother and his sister in law. I did not have anything planned for the 3-day weekend and did not want to spend it alone on a USAF base. I jumped on the bandwagon of some of the other student teachers from Oklahoma State University, who were going by train to France.
Let me tell you a little bit about Lille. Lille (pronounced leel) is a large CITY in the northern “Nord” region of France. I imagine that even in high tourist season it is not a touristy city, let alone in the middle of February! I know this because when we arrived to the train station in Lille and asked a person selling tickets behind a desk if she spoke English she could barely muster the words “ay leet-ul beet”…she could not. The entire 3-day weekend, we found about 4 English speaking people. Luckily the group of student teachers had some “French learning sessions” the week before, hosted by yours truly. I was surprised to learn how helpful my Spanish background would be when trying to learn French. I guess I was the only one of the bunch that put extra, extra emphasis on the language aspect of this weekend. I did this because I know that language is a conduit to the real culture and country of wherever it is that you are traveling. You will never experience the true culture of anywhere in the world if you do not speak the native language! That is the simple halbury truth folks. Long-story short, I learned a lot of French this weekend and I think it is a beautiful language.

Day 1:

We manage our way from the train station to the hostel and find English speaker # 1! The hostel was fine and breakfast was included, we were satisfied. We walked. And walked. And walked. This weekend was full of so much walking that I think I am now sporting the calves of Lance Armstrong. Everywhere we went, nobody spoke English, which in a way made the entire experience so much more fun, new, and exciting.
The traveling crew: Will, Jill, Nicole, Joanna, and Me. We all had very relaxed, go with the flow personalities, which made the experience great!

As we struggle to find a restaurant (one that looks friendly to English speakers) we explore the French streets with vigor and wide eyes. We buy a mystery item off a guy and his large open coal cart. It turned out to be Chess Nuts. Chess nuts? People actually roast those….on an open fire? I thought that was all a bunch of BS! They were great! So tasty, we ate the entire bag within a couple of minutes. I liked the burnt ones the best. We finally find a place, “Aux Moules” a great Mussel restaurant. Jill, one of the pickier eaters of the group (but not too picky) saw a child 2 tables away from us get what looked like a patty of raw ground beef with an egg cracked over it. It reminded me of some sort of cheesy 80’s movie or show where someone orders something random at a French restaurant and then something nasty or weird comes out…like snails, eels, brain, or stomach. Jill’s exact words were “I don’t care what I get, just as long as it’s not that!” So we all order. I get the big bowl (BIG!) of mussels in a creamy garlic sauce. It came with fries and bread. I also ordered the largest carafe of house red wine (at a great price too) based on a recommendation from travel book author Rick Steves. I was not disappointed; it was great, cheap, and everything that I look for in a red wine. Jill orders the Steak Tartare. Now I should tell you, none of us at the table knew what steak tartare was. It had the word steak in it and we figured that it was prepared a certain way. When it finally came, we understood that we were right. Sure as sh!+ it was the raw ground beef patty with a raw egg cracked on top. We were all laughing too hard to have the wit to take a picture of it, but the waitress was called over and she understood the situation right away. She took it away and had it cooked. I think even Jill will tell you that the story alone was worth the entire experience. It was the best meal that I have had yet in Europe, I could eat that huge mound of mussels every day of my life and be an even happier fellow.

Day 2
Breakfast at the hostel:
3 cups of coffee
2 baguettes (and 1 for the road)
Hazelnut spread (like Nutella, but not)
Strawberry yogurt

The tone of the morning was relaxed, goofy and elating. We started off walking around again, but this time happy as clams (or mussels :) ). We finally find out where this “Sunday market” is and speed up our step. We find the “marche” and it end up being the highlight of my weekend. Through my travels I have found that markets are the epicenter of culture. There was food, produce, antiques, clothes, fabric, electronics, knick-knack’s, cheese!, art, and people all over the place. It was so great just to walk around and people watch. I wasn’t really even looking for anything to buy in the market, I was more looking to understand what the northern French culture is like, and I think we did. There were drunks on corners yelling at passers by, there were people sifting through rotten tomatoes, there were families selling old black and white postcards, there were tons of people selling all sorts of patterns of fabric, there were farmers selling their produce (I like to think from their farm that is just miles away), there were bakers, butcher, fromagiers (cheese makers), and cooks selling their once a week specialties. It was amazing. The people, the culture, the moment was beautiful. We even had a soundtrack from a man and his two sons playing the accordion and tambourines! The perfect traveling experience, the type of thing that you hope you see when you go to a new place, but don’t usually find.
We then found out that the wine and gastronomy festival that we were so looking forward to was not happening that weekend. Frown. So we decided to walk around until something found us. Guess what!? It did. We stumbled across a huge park and a free zoo! It was wonderful. We saw pandas, kookaburras (with a dead rat in his mouth), zebras, peacock walking around the zoo, murecats, owls, monkeys, pelicans (pink), alpacas, tropical birds, lemurs, absolutely beautiful ducks, and more! The French phrase for “that’s cool” was “C’est chouette,” pronounced say schwet, which actually means “that’s a female owl.” We were saying this A LOT inside the zoo. We stopped by a bakery and I fulfilled a dream of mine: to buy a large baguette from an authentic French bakery. I also bought a croissant. They were both oh-so-delicious (deliceaux in French). We got wine and beer that night at a local restaurant, only to fall asleep, sober and very tired at 10:30 pm.

Day 3
We started the day going to the largest book store in Europe, “Foret du Nord” and I bought a book called “Cuento Sorprendientes” in Spanish. They are all short stories that are meant to inspire the inner child. We ate lunch at a Thai restaurant (Thai? In France?) and I took the helm on ordering for everyone…it was actually kinda fun. We then crossed another “to-do” off the list and went to the “Palais du Beaux Arts de Lille.” It is the second largest art museum in France (behind you know what). It was great. We saw Goya, Greco, Monet, Van Gogh, and more. It was a nice museum, and free, but no the best that I have been to. We spent the evening waiting for our night train and walking some more.

It was an exhausting weekend and my lesson on Tuesday was proof of that. I did a lesson on serving sizes and had the student actually measure out what they thought the serving size of various foods were and then showed them what they actually were. It was meant to get them talking, using their hands, keeping their attention, and showing them appropriate portions. What actually happened was chaos. They were all hyped up at the thought of getting to play with/eat food before lunch and I could not rein them in for the life of me. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and now you have the facts of life. The facts of life….or so I’ve heard. Today’s lesson went really well though and made up for any shortcomings that I had yesterday.

I have written a lot tonight. I hope I did not lose your attention. It was my birthday yesterday and I received some very thoughtful and loving gifts, on which I will write a post tomorrow. However I can not continue to devote time to this blog post, when I still have to plan tomorrow’s lesson. Sorry. I hope you are well and look for a post tomorrow.

Au revoir!

My Valentine

2009-02-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

Okay. I hate valentines day. I'm sorry, but I do. I do not hate spending the day with someone I care about, I do not hate taking them out to dinner, or telling them how special they are to me, and I don't really hate the hard little candy hearts either. What I hate about the holiday is the fact that I feel like a piece of poo if I don't buy "that special someone" candy, or flowers, or jewelry, etc. Do you know how much flowers run a guy nowadays?...thats beside the point. I hate the phrase "that special someone." I don't really like watching couples on Valentines day either, especially if I am not in a relationship.

With that being said, there has always been a soft spot in my heart on a day full of hearts. That soft spot belongs to my mom. No matter what, she has always been my #1 valentine. Whether I have been in a relationship, just left one, not even thinking about one, or wishing I was in one....she has been my valentine. Not only has she been the most consistent valentine, but she has been a very caring and loving valentine. The type of Valentine that you know does not need to tell you she loves you on the most superficial holiday ever, but does it because she really does...and she wants you to know that everyday. Now I know this cheesiness is all a part of this crappy holiday, but it is true. my mom is great. And I love her.

So mom, here's the big question...WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE....again? I love you and even though I did not receive your V-day package in time, I cannot await to open it on Tuesday when I return. I will be away in France (thank goodness not in Paris) so I do not know if I will have internet. Regardless I love you and miss you, and I don't need a special day to be able to tell you that.

On a different note, the 8th grade girls have become very aggressive at LMS. Do you remember me talking about some girls switching into my health class because of the new, young student teacher? Well with each time that I ignore their remarks in the hall, they become more aggressive. Like sharks. Little, girly, 8th grade, sharks. Today my path was blocked in the hall by a pack of them. I panicked. They had me cornered. They said "WOOOO" loudly. I made my way out of the circle and ran away feeling like a violated....alter boy. As I walked away they whistled the classic "wheeee, whoooo" like construction workers to a female passer-by. It was sick. And wrong.
The middle school had a valentines day dance this evening as well. The same group of sharks cornered me on the dance floor and pummeled me with questions like "How old are you?" or "Do you have a boyfriend...I mean girlfriend?" or "Are you going to teach here?" "Whats your favorite song?"
I didn't know what to do, but cut the chit chat short and give them a stern look and walk away. Cue the whistling again. Since when do middle school girls express this type of aggression? I dont like it. How the hell am I goign to teach sex ed. to them? haha.

Tomorrow I leave for Lille france and all the wine, cheese, bagettes, and snails that I can eat. Wish me luck, and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY you bunch of saps! :)

Meet a "Wade" today!

2009-02-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Oky doke artichoke!

So I had an interesting experience last night. We went out to dinner at this "nice" restaurant over on RAF Mildenhall. I will explain why I put nice in quotations later. Some of the wonderful staff memebers from the school offered to buy us steaks...because it was 2 for 1 steak night. That sounded better than top ramen, so I was in. On the ride there, I sat next to a friend of a teacher at the middle school. His name was Wade. Now let me tell you a little bit about Wade (because I know his life story). He got great grades in high school, until he met the pot and the women, except for in English...when right before his last exam, he stole the answers and got his first "A" in English! Ofc ourse in his PE class his senior year his teacher told him "Man I could have put you through college had I seen you run earlier." He grew up in Philadelphia, "Man those eagles almost did it, didn't they. If it weren't for those cardinals. Well at least the Phillies won the World series, thats all that matter right?" You see Wade used to go to every Phillies game as a child. if he wasn't there, he was listening to it. He only was allowed to play 2 sports, baseball and gymnastics. The rest of the time he was working a full time job, because his family was so poor.
He was born in London, but has a thick Philly accent. This one time when he was waiting tables in Daytona beach, a man at one of his tables must have been from CIA linguistics because Wade said one sentence and he could pinpoint the neighborhood that Wade was from. Wild stuff! Now he mostly does odd jobs. He frames things. Doesn't charge too much, just what is fair for good work. He also writes caligraphy. He is big on poetry and religion, and often the two mix. He has had many people tell him "man why aren't you published?" He says "You don't open a bottle of fine wine before it is aged just right" or something to that effect. He has been compared to Helen Steiner Rice on more than one occasion.

That is how this man really talks! He jumps from one subject to the next, you can't get a word in edge-wise, before he on another subject, or reciting a poem, or ridiculous cliche. Anyways, that was just the ride there. Man, he was a talker!
So we get there and one of my fellow student teachers has to take her hat off...after all it is a "nice restaurant" right? So we sit down...and there isn't enough place settings for everyone. No big deal. The waitress comes and asks "What do you want?" (In a British accent) Well I'm sorry lady, but in the 2 minutes that we have been here, the 1 menu for the 5 of us has not made its way around the table...sorry. I ask for a drinks menu or a wine list...because it is a nice restaurant right? "We dont have one of those" Okay...Ill take the house Cab Sav (Blank look by waitress)...Cabernet Sauvengnon please. "Oh, ok."

We order the steaks because it is 2 for 1 steak night. "What type of sides do ya want?" Well I would like to know what the sides are first please. "Baked potato, garlic mashed potatoes, 2 types of gravy, french fries, pasta with white or red sauce, vegetables." (got enough potatoes in your sides?) I'd like the pasta with white sauce and the garlic mashed potatoes, do you think they would be fine without gravy and just a little salt? I say. "There is salt right there on your table" I know miss, I was asking you...as a person...a human being, with thoughts and feelings, if you thought they would be okay without gravy and just a little salt!?! "No, it is too garlic-y for me" JEEZ lady! Are you getting paid to work here! Finally our food arrives...dispersed throughout 10 minutes, and waddayaknow, the extra place setting still has not arrived.

I am not one of those people. I never complain about service. I never send food back. I ask for a mildly pleasant waiter, clean food, and time with my fellow diner's. Thats not too much right? I think it is ridiculous that a fellow student teacher had to take her had off to eat in this friggin place. what a joke. by the way, the steak was undercooked and had more fat then meat on it...take that!

I remember one particularly bad dining experience at an airport with my parents and brother. I must have been 10 years old. Somehow the bitch of a waitress started raising her voice, which gave my mom full rights to flip her bitch switch and raise hers back. Regardless to say, I have never been so scared to eat food in my life. It was the first and only time that I have seen my parents (who normally tip very well) tip poorly. We left 1 cent on the table for the lady. Way to go mom! Great memory! haha.

ANyways, Wade was a good guy, even though he talked waaaayyy too much. I could tell he had a good heart, and was enjoying talking to all of us young student teachers. I talked to him on the ride back, until he had nothing left to say. I listened to his poetry. I looked him in the eye. And now I can say that I appreciate him. I appreciate him as a person. He is a kind, warm, outgoing individual that has been through a lot of bad stuff in his life, and now has an incredibly positive outlook on life. If I become a person like Wade, when all is said and done, life wouldn't be so bad. Thanks for the talk Wade!

Thats about all I have to update for now. Check out the new "Obama Song" by Michael Franti and Spearhead on my playlist. Free for download at :
http://server1.streamsend.com/streamsend/signup.php?cd=8201&ld=5

Hope you are well, and meeting all of the "Wade's" of the world out there. Keep on traveling folks!

Looking back, Looking forward, Looking out, Looking in

2009-02-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

(Above- a picture of my under a "John Barleycorn" pub sign. I took this for you dad. Google "Traffic-John Barleycorn" to be in the loop!)

Update-

Looking back: It was a good week. I taught my first lesson, we had 2 hour delays for most of the week, saw some snow, received a package, and had a relaxing weekend.
Yesterday Colin and I went to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. Now you say, Imperial War Museum? Didn't you go to one of those in London H-bury? Yes I did. this IWM was more of a tribute to planes and the aerial aspect of war. There were about 5 huge hangers (it used to be a british Air Force base) each with its own theme and time period. The greatest, most comprehensive exhibit, and this is not me being an arrogant american, was the American Aviation exhibit. There were planes, jets, airships, fighter jets, fuel jets, cargo planes, everything you could imagine. From about each period of war, from WWI to WWII to Korean war to Vietnam to Desert Storm and more! I felt a real connection to this place. One because I think about how all of this innovation was due to the fact that at each time that each plane was created, the world was in a state (or preparing for) war. War! Where people fight, people die, people live on with scarred lives, and people like me get to live a life free, happy, without major hardship. there was a lot of history in these planes, and I felt it. I also had a connection to these planes because both of my grandparents on the Wicks side were aircraft mechanics around WWII. I imagine which planes they worked on, which planes they saw. The time period that the nation was in. Furthermore, I think about my grandpa Iverson who devoted countless years of his life to Boeing, and during those years the amount of aircraft that he oversaw, even if they may have been for commercial use (I dont think they all were...I'll have to ask him). And now my father, who devotes his working hours to the same company, be it unhappily or not, and how all of these planes of the past, present, and future have all had hundreds of thousands of families surviving on their creation, maintenance, flight, and defense. Wow, there was a lot going through my head to say the least. It was a great museum and I would go again.

Today was spent, sleeping in, doing laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning my room, getting emails sent, etc. Pretty typical sunday.

Looking Forward: This week, I am all alone again. My teacher will be out, recovering from his surgery (he is fine, and on mild pain pills, walking around, etc). So I have about half the week planned out, the other half should be easy to finish today or tomorrow. On saturday we take off for London to catch a train to Lille, France. Lille is a rather large city in the north of France. We chose this place, because we procrastinated on the flights to other places and the high speed train was fairly priced. Also it WASN'T Paris!!! I cannot think of anything worse than spending Valentines day weekend in Paris. I am not a fan of the holiday, and certainly would not want to be in one of the most romantic cities in the world, on the most fabricated romantic holiday of the year (especially if I weren't with someone I was in love with). Right?! Looking even more forward, I am thinking more and more favorably about Egypt for spring break. It is a great solution. My brother is coming in May, and we will be hitting up a lot of Europe. I do not want to do any overlapping with Kale, so why not spend my largest time of vacation before he gets here outside of europe? In Egypt! I will give more details when I know them....I am just really excited for the possibility of it all....

Looking out: It is overcast right now. Yesterday was a beautiful blue sky day. Cold, but the gorgeous kind of winter day that you appreciate. Looking out on my particular self....I am trying to decide if I would like to cut my hair. I haven't had it this short since freshman year in High school, and frankly I dont know what to do with short hair...do I comb it? Do people still use combs? or is that reserved for 60+ year olds in a barber shop? I think I want to use a comb. Tuck it into my front left shirt pocket, whip it out and lick it and then run it through my hair a couple of times. No? Then should I cut it?...that doesn't feel right either. I do not know if I can get through the ugly stages of growing out my hair while I have to teach....I can't wear a cap everyday.
Enough of that.

Looking in : I have hit the contemplative stages that come to an individual who is traveling once again. I like this part. I am really caught up in my own head a lot. I have been thinking a lot about my life, my future, MY SURROUNDINGS!, my family and friends. I am really enjoying myself here and I feel like I am in a good place emotionally. I cannot wait for what my future holds, I am such a lucky person and have lived such a blessed life so far. I try not to take it for granted every day.

Mucho paz y amor!

First Lesson

2009-02-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

I took over my class yesterday. However the lesson that I taught yesterday was created by my cooperating teacher. It was an okay lesson, the kids were mostly finishing up vocabulary words and lesson review questions, but at the end of it….I had this feeling like I was being blamed for a really nasty fart that wasn’t mine. The lesson was not my own. I know my own brand.

So today, when we started a new unit on nutrition, I was hoping that I could feel a little better about presenting a well planned out lesson of my own. Wow! It was such an encouraging day! I had a fun PowerPoint, got all of the students to talk and share about their own lives and eating habits and influences. They really responded, and even though I had a substitute (who took attendance and then sat back and watched), I felt….for the first time in my life….like a real teacher. I enjoyed it. I got high on it. It was the first time that I was teaching a lesson that I created, teaching it to the audience it was meant for, teaching it without supervision or critique, and establishing an environment and a tempo to the class that I have envisioned. It was an extremely rewarding experience and I can’t wait to do it all next week.

At the end of class I had students submit anonymous questions to the “question box.” This is a box that I created so that students can ask questions that they might not necessarily be comfortable asking in front of their classmates, or even asking me directly. I told them that this week the question should revolve around our unit: Nutrition. To no surprise, over half of the questions had to do with eating disorders. I was already planning to cover eating disorders for a couple of days, but now that I know there is even more curiosity about them, I can tailor my lesson to these students. I liked the idea, but loved the responses.

I also had my students submit anonymous critique of my lesson today. They had to tell me something that I did well, and something that I could work on or do better. Half of them said something along the lines of “You did really well, I enjoyed today’s lesson. Nothing for you to work on.” A lot of them said “you made the PowerPoint fun and interesting. You could make it more interactive though.” One said, “You talked to us like we were on the same level, great! Keep it up, I really enjoyed today!” I especially liked that one, because I think that SOME teachers tend to talk down to these students….like they are 5 year olds, and I can see how much they resent that. Overall I got some great suggestions for future lessons.

I know that I should enjoy today’s success and take it with a grain of salt. If there is one thing that I consistently hear about teaching it is that some days are great and some days are horrible. I am sure the glory of today will be trumped by some frustration next week…but I am happy with my performance.

I dined on some local fare tonight. At a quaint little fish and chips joint, in the near-by town of Brandon, I found an item on the menu called “Big Cod.” Sounds safe. I was hungry, so I could probably eat a BIG cod, rather than the regular cod, right? Wrong. This thing came out and no joke, it was about as big as my head. Not to mention it was accompanied by a large stack of chips. It was great. Not the best I have ever had, but very good for a street corner fish n’ chips joint. After dinner Colin and I went to the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” on the Lakenheath base. It was so good! A very hard ending to watch, but a very real movie about a Nazi soldier’s son who becomes friends with a Jewish boy at a near-by camp. I recommend it to you all! It definitely reaffirmed my desire to go to some concentration camps while I am over here. I was thinking about what it would be like to visit a camp like Auschwitz. It is not like most traveling, or visiting a new place. It would not be out of pleasure. In a strange way it is out of sorrow, remembrance, disgust, and most of all respect. I am putting it on the top of my list, I think it would be such an incredibly real experience that I would be a fool to pass it up.

That leaves me here. With you. Thinking about how screwed up the Holocaust really was. And further making me appreciate my life and all of my loved ones so much more.

I will be traveling around to some local country towns this weekend. See a castle, maybe catch a Saturday market. I will post pictures and an update soon.

Hal

Package, pyramid, blog

2009-02-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

I got a package today! From Chris, Jen, Maddie, and Alex! Thank you guys so much! the items were as follows:

A Jimmy Buffett Flip Flop repair shop poster
A bottle opener
A really cool ring swinging game (try to land it on a hook) that I played over at their house
A card game (I am playing tonight with some other student teachers!)
A hand-painted picture from Maddie (I hear they go for thousands on the market!)
and a card from Maddie.

Most of all it made me feel special and loved. thank you so much, I cannot tell you how nice it was to open that depressing little post office box and see a glorious yellow slip in there. The anticipation almost killed me. you guys were really sweet to have sent that, and I greatly appreciate it.

See guys? the type of international acclaim and promotion you could get for sending me a package! Did that sound needy? I dont really care. If you do want to get me a package before my B-day, you should think about sending it very soon though...

My teacher is out for a week and a half, getting minor surgery. What does that mean? It means I am completely taking over the class in my 2nd week of student teaching! I am really excited. We have been getting 2 hour delays all week (they freak when it snows 1 inch here...just like washington!). Tomorrow I start Nutrition and I have made some really fun and interactive lessons. The kids are used to my teachers...interesting teaching style (out of the book) which includes lots of copying vocabulary form the book, writing journal responses, and answering lesson review questions. I think I will win them over in one day! haha. The biggest challenge of this expereicne will be gelling his teaching style with my own.

Mom....dont freak out....I might go to Egypt for spring break! I went to a travel office on another base today, and they have some affordable (kinda) trips that fall right into my spring break. Can you imagine? Seeing pictures of your very own Halbury with a giant Pyramid behind him? Or a huge sphynx? Or atop a sand Camel? It looks like a pretty sweet deal, but I am going to research it a lot more. I still have time.

Also, it looks like Stonehenge is winning the "Where should I travel next" poll. I will put it on top of my list...maybe over this 3 day weekend we hae coming up, eh?

Hope you all enjoy this post over a nice strong cup of tea and crumpets :)

Tangled up in Blog

2009-02-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

This whole weekend I had the song “Tangled up in Blue” by Dylan stuck in my head. It took me until now to figure out why. I saw a street sign that read “Montegue Street” and one of the lines in that song has that name in it. It was actually a great soundtrack to have in my head for the weekend. Here is your update:

We stayed in on Friday night. Finally some other student teachers got here. There are about 7 of them. They all seem pretty nice and hopefully will turn into great travel buddies.

Saturday morning, going against what feels natural on a last Saturday, Colin and I got up early and were out on the road by 8:30. The 1 hour 45 minute drive to the nearby town of Epping seemed like a half hour. Before we knew it, we were at the last eastward stop of the tube. Mom: lets just say that “Hal luck” was in full effect this weekend. We got a tip from my teacher to buy an Oyster Card the first chance we got. It costs 3 pounds but then after you top up (load it with money) you get discounts on all modes of transit and you can just swipe it over a sensor….very easy. The train had just pulled in as we had, and we were on our way into the heart of London. The tube line that we were on, central, happened to take us within about 2 blocks of our hostel.

After a few wrong turns we found the place, SMART Russell Square budget hotel. Sounds posh right?

We checked in and stored our bags in lockers and headed out. The British Museum was only a couple of blocks away from the hostel. Colin and I didn’t know much of what we wanted to see in London, but we knew that we wanted to check out the British Museum. Let me say this: HOLY CRAP! This place was so cool! There are so many exhibit and interesting displays that I think it would take weeks to scratch the surface. My favorite exhibits were ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. I did check out the Moai statue, but really folks…I have been to Easter Island, I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of those Moai, on their original island…some of them still in the bank of the volcano, only partially carved out. It was weird to be on the other side of the world and see the same statue though. Here are some pics:

This video is of some stunning stone heads of Roman Rulers. Notice the chiseled features of the perfect specimen of mankind (4th head in, haha).

After about 4 hours, we had reached the museum fatigue point. The point where you start to stop appreciating how amazing each piece is. So we promised ourselves that we would return before the end of this trip and called it a day. We went to a local pub and got a bite to eat. I have heard people say that British food is disgusting. I decided to challenge this notion and order a local dish: Chicken Stroganoff. Chicken? I have heard of Beef Stroganoff, but chicken? It was served as a type of stew, no noodles, in a flakey bread bowl with some thick cut “chips.” It was absolutely delicious! It was a great choice and reinforcement enough for me to try the local cuisine again. After diner we hopped around to about 3 or 4 other pubs, finally settling into one about half a block away from the hostel. We thought that would be a good place to close the evening on account of its close proximity. Wrong. There was a really funny and outgoing bartender at this pub (the name of the bar escaped me). She was Canadian and making fun of us arrogant Americans (granted Colin did try to order a Budweiser at a london pub!). None-the-less she invited us to go out with her and her buddies after she got off and a quiet night turned into an all-nighter. It was great fun and a great welcome to this wonderful city. Thanks for your hospitality Hayley!

We woke early the next day (technically same day) to check out of the hostel by 9.30. We then made our way over to Big Ben, heard it ring, walked around the house of parliament and decided to walk about a half mile away to the Imperial War museum. Colin is a history teacher and I could not have picked a better travel buddy. I do not know that I would have gone to two museums if I were on my own during a weekend in London, but his influence turned out to be a great surprise. I am hooked. I loved both of these museums and cannot wait to return to see more (Kale? Interested?). There was a really special Holocaust exhibit at the IWM.

What else?...Snow! It has been snowing quite a bit here. It wasn’t snowing in London when we were there, but then evening after we left they got a bunch. Enough so that many flights were cancelled or delayed and an estimated 1.7 billion dollars were lost in British companies. (does that mean the value of the pound will go down even more?). It was the most significant snowfall in 18 years!

We had a teacher in-service day today. The middle school is being observed in mid April for accreditation (or whatever the middle school equivalent of accreditation would be), and today all the teachers got together (after late arrival was announced) to make sure that all the t’s were dotted and i’s were crossed :) Tonight me and the other student teachers are going to meet up to eat leftovers from today’s provided lunch. Then I will start writing some lesson plans for the end of the week and next week (my cooperating teacher is getting surgery and will be gone for a whole week!).

I will try to post another random blog before the end of the week

The week is done, an adventure begun!

2009-01-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

First of all, I would like to say that I am very disappointed at the response to my "where should I travel after I go to London?" Poll. Vote people! Its on the sidebar on the right.

Next, I had a damn good day. It went as follows:

Woke up after I hit the snooze 4 times (that’s 20 minutes folks!) and guess what, I don’t feel guilty about it. Went down to the corner dungeon, the place where I pick up (steal) internet from the local community center. About 50% of the time there is a young girls’ ballet class in session directly on the other side of the door. Usually lead by a French woman (though I suspect that her accent is false in an attempt to seem like a more credible ballet instructor). Anyways, Colin and I being the well organized, never procrastinating, on top of their game, new teachers decided it would be a good idea to make our hostel reservations for London the day before we left. Great decision guys. Most places were all booked up, those that weren’t were far out of my price range. My superior google-ing skills lead me to find a relatively normal hostel very near the British Museum, which is something we wanted to see on this trip to London specifically. As a bonus, it was only 11 GBP each!

Good start to the day. I shower, eat a banana, and I’m off to class. I submit a request for next week’s morning announcements to thank the staff at LMS for being so warm and welcoming (partly to gain some brownie points, but mostly because they truly have been wonderful!). What’s this? A free breakfast from the PTO? Oh you shouldn’t have, well I don’t mind if I do! A breakfast bacon and egg quiche here, a blueberry bagel there and I make my way up to the health class. Today we talk about peer pressure and then lead it into an interactive website about media influence on adolescence. Perfect timing to talk about super bowl commercials. I got to play around with the smart board too! So cool!

In my afternoon Health class I embarrassingly found out that two 8th grade girls had switched into the class, 4 days late, because of the young new student teacher. Ew.

Time for 7th grade outdoor education/PE. We spent most of the class playing chicken baseball, Giants, Wizards, and Elves, and Monarchy. I participated in all games and was swept back in time to my 7th grade PE class….except I am not as chubby this time. It was really fun to be out there playing with the kids.

After school I am lead to my…

Rose of the Day: I got to drive! That’s right, on the wrong side of the road! I drove my cooperating teachers van (dodge, automatic) 30 minutes away to the sweet town of Bury Saint Edmunds. It was my first test at tackling the challenging obstacles that the English roads throw at the everyday driver. Narrow roads (I mean Narrow!), roundabouts, constantly varying speeds, mini roundabouts (that’s multiple roundabouts strung together, forming an almost double helix of confusion), no curbs or clearance on the side of the road, lots of potholes, CRAZY English drivers, poorly marked exits and signs, and constantly varying speeds. I may have turned on the windshield wipers a couple of times in an attempt to use my turning signal, but I made it. Now for the real test. Car swap. We picked up the car that my cooperating teacher is letting Colin and I use at his house in Bury St. Edmunds, a mid 90’s Ford Escort (Manual!!! Yikes!). This time, on the 30 minute drive back to the base, I did not have my cooperating teacher giving me prompt and accurate directions on where to go, I had Colin, who has the sense of direction of a blind Tasmanian devil (assuming that Tasmanian devils really do get from point A to point B by spinning furiously) and has the conversation skills of a 12 year old girl on crack. No offense Colin. So while I am juggling shifting, using the appropriate signal, reminding myself to stay on the left, trying to figure out how to get back home, which round about ext to take, making sure I’m not going to run the car off the road, and keeping a casual conversation with Colin going, I manage to navigate the vessel back home safe and sound. It was a tremendous success. And really fun.

After we returned, I at a ham and cheese sandwich and finished watching National Treasure. Shut up, I know it’s a corny action movie, but I enjoyed it. Which leads me to my…

Thorn of the day: I am spending my Friday night typing a blog, sipping on a Miller Lite, and most likely going to bed early.

Its okay though. I am not complaining too much. We are going to wake up early, drive 1.5 hours to the town of Epping. Epping is the last stop on the tube, so we will catch the tube there and cruise into downtown London, hopefully before 11 am. We will have all day tomorrow (sat) and most of the day Sunday to bum around one of the most interesting cities in the world! I am really excited. Expect photos by Sunday night!

Musical Artist of the Week: (yes I am stealing this idea from my brother) M. Ward. and his album “Post-War”. I have listened to him in the past, but never as much as I am now. When I hear “Chinese Translation” it takes me back to this summer. My brother Kale was visiting Pullman. We would go out every night, either to a bar or a house party, converse, dance, sing, and meet people. I can specifically remember going down into the empty grain silo and hearing Simon Cornelius (yes that is his real name) play this song, “Chinese translation” with a voice that is uncannily similar to M. Ward’s. It was a great summer, but more importantly this album has made me write poems/songs in my journal. The last time that I wrote anything like it was when I was in Chile. It feels good. I hope to do it more. Anyways, M. Ward is coming out with a new album very soon, and I will be buying it shortly on iTunes.

Random Confession of the day: I cannot stand human mouth sounds. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. I am not talking about an inappropriate burp, or even a relieving sneeze. You know when someone is really getting into whatever it is that they are eating, and their lips are smacking, you hear the physiological start of their digestive process in their saliva breaking down the food solid. They then loudly swallow the doughnut, or sandwich, or whatever and make a moaning or grunting sound. Do you notice these things? I do. Let me give you another example. When a person, stuffed nose or not, sniffles intensely. I shouldn't say sniffles. It is more like a reaching to scrape the depths of their lungs for any mucus possible, creating a very heavy, muffled, wet sound coming from the cavernous region of the neck. THAT is what I cannot stand. Also I should not be able to hear how dry your mouth is with every time your speak. I do not need to hear you subtly try to cover up your burp, only to leave my breathing air tainted with your sausage lunch. I do not mean to be negative, and I hope that no one is scared to eat in front of me now, but I have always internalized these thoughts and mainly felt guilty for having them. I feel much better letting you all know what is happening inside my weird little head.

I hope you all are well. Be happy!

Halbury

Go Go Gadget Blog

2009-01-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

Not much to report, just some quick thoughts.

New beer of the day: The Morland “Hen’s Tooth” English Ale. 6.5% alc./vol. This bottle conditioned English ale was pretty nasty. It tasted like a 40 of Mickey’s Ice with the skunkiness of an expired corona mixed in. Not good. It is a local beer from Bury St. Edmunds, so I really want to like it. I blame the skunkiness on the clear bottle and the fact that it has probably been on the shelf of the shopette that I bought it from for months. Fear not Hen’s Tooth, I will try you again.
Random Viewing: The NBC original series “Revelations.” The DVD was left in a DVD player that some of the staff from my school lent me. It was the only DVD I had to play, so I gave it a shot….I am ashamed to say that I really like it. It is a series about the book of revelations coming true and the savior is a skeptical Astrophysicist turned believer when his deceased daughter begins to contact him through a brain dead hospital patient. It sounds horrible, I know, but it is done well…I think. Maybe I am just really starved for entertainment. The worst part about it is that I only have the first disc.
Rose of the day: I talked to the home economics teacher at my school, Margaret (a peach of a woman), and she is going to let me use the Home Ec. washer and dryer for my dirty clothes!
Thorn of the day: I have to wake up early tomorrow and attend a 3 hour driver’s education course followed by an exam to receive my English driver’s license :(
Random Question: How many licks, really, does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? Because we all know that 3 shit is just an impatient cop-out. That damn owl or turtle or whatever it was in that commercial ruined that question for us all. Also what constitutes the center of a tootsie pop? Is it when you first break through the hard candy surface and reach the delicious tootsie roll center? Or does the hard candy essence have to be completely eliminated before the center is considered “attained”? Or is it when the entire tootsie pop, roll included, are gone. Is the deteriorating paper stick really the center of the pop? These are the things I wonder folks.
Random Answer: You know the question, “how much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” I think the answer is:
He would cut a chord of cornucopia, if you gave him a quarter for every chord of cornucopia he cut….or at least that was Wilson’s answer from Tool Time.

Miscellaneous Thought:
Have you ever had a dream about someone…like someone really random and wondered if they too had a random dream about you at the same time? And then not said anything to that person because you fear they might think it was odd that you were dreaming about them? Well here is a homework assignment reader(s): the next time that happens, tell the person! The worst that can happen is they say “man, that is random” and the gain could be a discovery of an underlying fiber to the dreamworld that connects us all. Haha. I am expecting full reports people. I guess I brought that up because for some reason I feel odd dreaming at a different time from everyone that I know and love. I sleep, while you are all awake. And you, my friends, are sleeping while I am awake. Isn’t it odd that we won’t have the opportunity to meet up in dreamland?

Sorry, this was a completely random post.
Much love,

Halskies

New Kid on the Blog

2009-01-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

I have had an inspiring 24 hours.

Though brief, it was great to finally talk to my mom and dad on skype. I had to cut the conversation a little short to attend the retirement of 3 teachers at my school. I do not know any of the retiree’s well, but one of them stood out to me last night. I’ll call him Mr. B. As they showed a slideshow of his teaching experiences over his 46 years of teaching (46 years!!!!), I began to understand a fraction of his impact. He has been teaching for the Department of Defense overseas for 44 of those years. Many of his colleagues got up and talked about Mr. B and how he not only impacted his students, but also how he had influenced them personally. I know that it was a retirement party and everything is supposed to be feel good and all, but it genuinely seemed like he would be leaving a huge hole in the hearts of everyone at LMS.

As fate would have it, his son is in town for about a week and was looking to go out last night after the party. Colin and I just happened to be so willing to accompany the guyJ. So we go out and have some drinks and experience the stimulating club life that is an “on-base club”= lots of guys with shaved heads oogling over the two women in the place (who are probably married anyways). It was a good time none the less.

This morning I woke up in the billeting that Mr. B and his son were staying in across the street. Mr. B took his son home and was then going to return Colin and me to our dorm on RAF Feltwell. Little did I know I was about to be inspired. Mr. B took Colin and me to a breakfast buffet before taking us home. We got the chance to soak up this wonderful man’s personality for about 2 hours over breakfast and coffee. I do not think that Colin was as affected by this man as I was, but I was truly captivated. He is one of the good ol boys. The type of man, the type of generation that is now getting quite old and being overtaken by their more tech-savvy grandchildren. The type of man who is content to shoot the breeze all day with old (or new) friends over coffee. Perhaps I was so intrigued by him because of his laugh. He laughs like my grandpa Wicks used to. The type of laugh that gets increasingly high pitched and usually creeps in before he can even finish his sentence. This man speaks from his heart, and you can tell. He looks you in the eye, has great things to say, talks about the positive things in life, and makes you feel like he is always letting you in on a little secret. You can tell he has been through a lot in life by the wrinkles on his face. He gave me more advice on teaching, scratch that, more advice on life than I could have expected in a 2 hour conversation. I cannot think of a better opportunity for a new teacher, the day before he starts his student teaching, than to sit down and have a nice breakfast with a man of over 45 years in the system. I hope that I could grow to have half the impact and be half the person of this individual. Thank you Mr. B, enjoy your retirement.

After breakfast Colin’s cooperating teacher took us to a nearby town called Ely (pronounced eel-e). It is a great small city that is very representative of this part of England. Old brick buildings with moss growing all over them, a brown river running directly through the middle of town, quaint little restaurants and pubs, and an enormous cathedral. The Ely Cathedral is over 900 years old. I tried to take pictures, but the clouds of the day cut off any light coming through the stained glass. It was by far the largest Cathedral I have been in (at least larger than any of the one’s that I went to in South America). It was a great afternoon.

Anyway, tomorrow is my first day of student teaching! Aren’t you excited for me? I think I will be doing mostly observing this week, but I am really excited. I can’t wait to make the class my own and put some of my expensive education to work! Wish me luck and I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

99 problems and a blog ain't one!

2009-01-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

Internet!!!

Hello Halbury Readers! I see that 11 of you visited yesterday. That is a great confidence builder, even though I am sure 9 of them were my mom checking multiple times to see if there are any updates from her baby boy.

Good news! There is a community center in the same building that I am living in and it has a computer lab. Although I cannot pick up the wireless from my room, if I lean up against the doorway near the lab, I pick up a strong signal! Once more, it is not the “restrictive internet” that the school and military get. This means I can check my personal email, update my blog, and chat on Skype from my same building! I’m stoked.

A couple of nights ago I went out with one of the senior teachers to a local pub. It was great to relax, throw a couple down, and converse. There were some Brit’s at the pub, and we caught a couple of “hey listen to those goofy Americans talk” looks, but the bartender was a sweet lady.

For the past 3 nights I have woken up at 4 in the morning on the dot. Wide awake! It has been a struggle to fall back asleep. Yesterday the other student teacher and I got our Military ID cards, which is a huge relief. With these cards we do not have to carry around our passports and we do not require a “sponsor” to go on the bases with us. The process to get the ID card was hilarious. Before going in I thought to myself “This is the military right? This should be a concise and speedy process. I’ll be in and out.” We get to the ID place and the computers are down and we have outdated paperwork from 2004. Great. So while we are waiting for the system to get back up, which could be “an-e tim, ma, I on e-un no” said the Louisiana-native desk man (Roughly translated means “any time sir, I do not know at this time”). We go to the local High School to get the correct paperwork and are helped by a truly sweet secretary named Ruthie. As we are out the door at the high school we get a call from the ID place and he says the system is up and we are first in line. Finally a chance to see the precision of the military in action, right? No. We waited 20 minutes in the lobby. My name was called first, so I walk to the back room. 2 hours and 5,263 thumb twiddles later me and the other student teacher have our ID cards. It was the girls first day, and their manual for the process was outdated….it was frustrating to say the least.

None-the-less I also got an address!! My official address for people sending me awesome care packages is:

Hal Iverson
PSC 41 BOX 3035
APO AE 09464

I believe that zip code is in New York. Any letters or packages will go to the post office for all Military bases abroad, and then be sent from there. I think that because I am on a military base, the postage should be cheap, as if you were sending something in the states. Letters take 6-8 days, packages take 8-10 days. With that being said, you have no excuse! Send away. I will take anything and everything. My walls are bare, my pantry empty, my drawers sparse, and my library small. Send me pictures, notes, food, candy, movies (I will have a T.V. and DVD player soon!), and anything creative that you think may help me on my travels.

Enough mooching.

Here are some pictures of my room!

Not too bad huh! Please take note of the trendy Star Wars Comforter on the luxurious single bed. Check out the beautiful neon blanket draped over the uncomfortable couch. It is actually better than my freshman year in the dorms in good old Stephenson South at wazzu.

You will have to forgive me, I have not taken many pictures yet, so I do not have any of the country side or my school or any travels yet. Here is one of my school from a fire escape right outside my room. It is about a 2 min walk to school!

Traveling Halbury update: Next weekend my fellow student teacher and I will be taking a bus to the final stop of the tube, and riding it into the heart of London! I am really excited. It will be my first week of school, so there shouldn’t be too much planning to do for class. I am taking suggestions for something great to do on a weekend get-away in London.

On another note: Last night I went to a great Italian restaurant in Brandon, a nearby town. A couple of teachers are retiring and it was their last “guys night out getaway” with all the other older male teachers. It was truly a great experience. We drank beer from a local brewery across the street. I ate a salad and the Penne Arabiata with plenty of bread for dipping. Arabiata is a really spicy, peppery red sauce (if you know anything about my culinary cravings, you know that I love spicy food!). Delicioso! The best part about the evening was the experience of sitting quietly on the end of the table and observing these salty old teachers give each other a ton of shit and exchanging inside jokes. I really loved the contrast of these older teachers, who have traveled the world, taught for over 30 years, and had a ton of life’s experiences vs. Colin and I who are greener than the mossy British grass when it comes to teaching and generally life. It was a jolly good time, and I hope that my semester is filled with moments like last night.

British word/phrase of the day: Chesterfield- meaning sofa or couch. “I say good chap, fancy a seat on the Chesterfield?”

Is this post long enough yet? I think so. Please comment and give suggestions on things that you would like to hear about.

Much love from a small island far away,

Hal

I'm here, don't lose faith in my blog yet!

2009-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ello from England! Sorry readers (all 3 of you) I have not meant to neglect you, but it has been a busy 2 days. I am finally here on the base and it has been so great finally putting images to what I have been thinking about for so long. But first, about my trip over its too good not to write about:

It was a fairly uneventful flight. My plane out of SeaTac was delayed about 30 min, just long enough for me to see Obama sworn in, but not long enough for me to see his speech (I later read the captions of his entire speech in the London-Heathrow airport). This delay made my already short layover in Chicago,very short. I sprinted about 30 terminals away. Luckily I used some very intense speed walking techniques to get there, and I had 5 min to spare! whew. The long flight over the Atlantic was as expected: less than mediocre food, stiff seats, bad/old movies, and of course stale air. I awoke at 2:00 am to a present from a fellow passenger- one of the most pungent farts I have ever smelled! It woke me up for Christ's sake! Later we hit some turbulence (it is a trans-Atlantic flight right!) and a lady 2 rows ahead of me starts shouting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" over and over, about 10-15 times in all. Followed by something unintelligible in her native tongue and then "You promise me now! You promise me!" with conviction. It was great entertainment for me and my fellow passengers. Every time we hit turbulence, we took our headphones off so we could hear her out-loud prayers.

Anyways, I am here safe and sound. I waited in Heathrow for about 6 hours for my fellow student teacher, Colin. That was awful. There is nothing like following a 11.5 hour flight with a 6 hour stay in an airport. As a side note, there were no garbage's in Heathrow...not even in the bathrooms! What do people do with their crap here?

We took the 2.5 hour bus to a stop by the base. Colin's cooperating teacher picked us up and took us around the bases. There are three in all Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell. We got a beer, some pizza, and a great tour. We finally got to our lodging. It is way better that I was expecting. My room is like 2 dorm-rooms together. A single bed. 2 dressers. Computer desk. Microwave. Mini fridge. all that junk. Also there was a neon colored comforter and sheets in one of the drawers! We have good toilets and showers on our floor. Right below us is a gym-type 2 room workout facility. The weights are closed down, but all the cardio equip. is still usable. I ran 3.5 miles this morning!

Today (day 2) we slept in as long as we could (I woke up at 4 am, and forced myself to sleep for 4 more hours). Then made the long journey over to the middle school (about a 1 min walk). My base, Feltwell, is very remote. There is one shopette (convenience store) and that's about it. So I will need consistent access to the other bases for almost everything from laundry to groceries to movies to shopping of any sort to beer to Internet (maybe, i am trying to find out a way to get Internet at my place). (I just realized that I was using a lot of parentheses) (I will try to stop) (sorry).

So today at the middle school I met a lot of people. It will take me weeks to get all the names down. but my cooperating teacher, Mr. John Mitchell is very nice, and extremely accommodating and generous. He has offered Colin and I one of his cars that he doesn't use. If we can get the insurance situation figured out, it will be an huge resource! The facilities at the middle school are incredible. It is new, and cost about 5 million to build. All the teachers have smart-boards and great equipment. the gym is nice, but the acoustics are horrible- when I yell at my kids, they wouldn't be able to hear me. (Just joking, I'm not a yell-er). Other than that, I got my school ID badge today, will get my military base badge tomorrow, and this weekend Colin and I are attending a retirement party for 3 or 4 teachers from the school.

Please be patient readers. I have not abandoned you, my blogs just may be inconsistent for a bit until I can find some Internet. I hope you all are well. Miss you already!

Hal

Ah yes, I remember this felling well...

2009-01-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

Well I have one week exactly until I leave to do my student teaching on a US Air Force base in Lakenheath, England. I remember this rush of emotion well. Stomach in knots. Can’t sleep at night. My mind full of questions like: Where will I be staying? What will it look like? How will I get around? Who will I meet? How will I pack all of this into one bag? Am I ready for student teaching? What if I am told to take full control of the class on the first day? Will there be a grocery store near by? Will I have opportunities to mingle with the local Brits? That is the point of traveling right?

For me, before I leave for an extended adventure at a relatively unknown destination, I try to imagine and visually plan out as far as I can. I do this fully knowing that it will be nothing like how I imagine it (for better or worse). So far I have gotten to the airport in Heathrow (London). I imagine it being huge, one of the major airport hubs of Europe, with each “Terminal” being the equivalent of a Sea-Tac. I can’t imagine much further than that, mainly because I do not know more than that. I am still unsure how I will get to the base, RAF Feltwell, and I have no clue what my living quarters will look like. I have been told I will be above a “Youth Center” in a dorm-like apartment- but even that is not guaranteed.

I suppose I should include a statement of purpose for this blog huh? I have never done one of these before. I have a great mentor in my brother, due to the fact that his blog is exceptionally interesting and fun to explore. Also my empty nester mother has explored the blogging world with great success. My main purpose is to post photos of my travels, keep my family and friends posted on my weekly life, and maybe to express my thoughts (vent) on being a student teacher. I welcome comments and suggestions.

Check for updates often. 7 days! Can’t wait!

New Post Soon

2009-01-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned folks, my travels will begin shortly and blogs will soon follow.