Vacation... Soon

I finally got a phone card that actually calls the US, and called home for the first time in like three weeks. Got to talk to my parents and sister, and my grandmother, giving them all a bit of an update on what I've been up to, and talked with my dad about the protests in London and the Middle East and my plans for my mid semester break next week.
I've decided that I'll be visiting Scotland, and I'm looking at Edinburgh. So thus begins the process of looking up Youth Hostels, train times and places to visit. Edinburgh is where a lot of the major geologists who started the entire field came from, James Hutton and Charles Lyell most notably. Planning on staying up there for two nights, seeing the ocean, parks and whatever else I come across while there. I'm looking forwards to it, finally getting around to travelling on my own.

One thing that I've often noticed about travelling, is the anticipation of going somewhere, but actually going somewhere seems to come up incredibly fast, and that you don't realize that you're on your way until you're sitting, looking at the countryside flying by that you realize that you're going.

Now, to find a printer that works...

Natural History Museum, Tower of London and Canterbury

Those are the three main places that I visited over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which was a really fun bunch of locations to hit, all in a couple of days. Katie Bell, from Lexia, the program that I'm studying through, came by to visit while inspecting the program. She just left, on her way to Paris and then Rome. All three locations were amazing, lots of fun to go to.

Natural History Museum: Took me a little while to get to this place, because of some work on the Tube, but I ended up getting there on time for a couple of really cool images.

The museum is set in a really cool building, several stories. As the title suggests, there quite a bit to do with the natural sciences there- Most importantly, Dinosaurs and rocks, which is what I focused on while I was there. It was a mistake, however, to visit on a weekend, because all the parents brought their young kids to see the skeletons, and there were lines, which was a bit of a problem. However, the Mineral and Meteorite rooms were easy to get through, which were really cool to see.

Tower of London: Will and I met up with Katie on Sunday to see this, one of the old fortresses in the city, where a couple of monarchs ruled from, and was a military center. It's essentially a castle. Rooms have been restored, armor is on display and the crown jewels are stored there, which was very glittery, and with very heavy security.

Canterbury: Canterbury was out latest excursion out of the city. We got on a train and rode down to the town to see the Cathedral and learn a little of the history of the place. I'm not religous to any stretch, but the building is one of the most impressive buildings that I've been in yet. It's huge, although it looks much bigger from the interior, with high vaulted ceilings and incredible decorations and details. My pictures don't do the thing justice.

Picked up a book called The Constant Gardener, by John le Carre for the train ride, which is proving to be an outstanding novel so far. Highly recommended.

I've uploaded my most recent images here and here.

Walking

Haven't been up to much in the past couple of days, a couple classes, going to Oxford and Windsor Castle, both of which were pretty interesting. Thursday and Friday I currently have off, which is really nice, able to sleep in a bit and to do whatever.
I walked down to visit the Tate Modern today. We visited during our orientation, where we got tickets through the program to see their exibition on Henri Rousseau, which was pretty interesting, but that's all that we saw. Went to go see the rest of it today. Lots of other pieces of art there, some very cool and very weird stuff.
I realized that there's a reason why I like art: It confuses the hell out of me, and for most of them, make me think about what the artist is trying to say, most of the time. Plus, it's nice to just see some things that look really cool. However, there's only a couple of the paintings in there that I'd seriously consider going back to see. But there are a lot of other interesting things to see there.
Went back home, cooked some dinner, chicken, which actually came out pretty good, and down here to check the mail. Katie, one of the Lexia people, is coming on Saturday, and we're going to Canterbury on Monday.

And We All Ride On

Well, in a couple of hours, I'll be off. My flight for JFK doesn't leave until tomorrow, but I'm leaving early to sleep in Burlington, before hitting the bank and getting that flight. Friday morning, I'll be on a plane out of Newark headed to London. As I said to my friend Rachel last night, I cannot believe that it's come up so fast. When I applied, tomorrow was forever away. But now, it's so close that I just sit in shock at how quickly it's come, and how quickly it'll go. Hopefully, not too fast. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm packed and ready to go. Just got my digital camera last night, learned how to fiddle with it, and still trying to figure the thing out. It doesn't have any internal memory, so I need to figure out how to get more pictures out of the memory card (It's currently only able to take 16, not nearly enough.) So, this isn't going to be updated in about a week, more than likely, depending on when I get computer access again. So, hopefully everything will go smoothly. See you on the other side, in London!

Year in Review: Travel


I’ve developed a taste for travel. This year, I traveled even more about the States, visiting Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Hit some major landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and Zion National Park. Visited some not so common places that you’ll never hear about, such as that little convenience store, run by three Mormon women in dresses, where I was able to call home for the first time in a week. I slept over in an airport after a seven hour drive down and through New York City to get out there in the first place, and that first campsite at the Valley of Fire, surrounded by ten meter tall dune cross beds.
I took off from school for half a week and flew out to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend a Star Wars convention, dressed up as a Storm Trooper. I stayed out in a hotel right across from the Convention and every morning was surrounded by thousands of fans of the series. I met some of my favorite authors, Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, Karen Traviss, Jan Duursema, and Joe Corroney, as well as the other workers on the Clone Wars Site that I work on. I met some crazy people there, some interesting ones and some people that I still talk to, even after several months. I went with my family to New York City, to Carnegie Hall, not once, but twice, to watch my brother perform with first the Vermont Youth Orchestra and then a national wind ensemble that he was accepted into. I found, each time that I was there, that I really enjoyed walking around the streets with such a large number of people. I also found that I especially liked Central Park, and walking in general.
Those were the major trips. My geology class took a day and we drove out to Central New York, looking at the rocks and examining a progression of strata as the mountain ranges shed material off. I went to Maine to visit my friend Sam at school, taking a much needed break from Vermont. 400 miles and a hundred dollars on the credit card later, I still maintain that it was a good idea. Then of course, there were the spontaneous trips up to Burlington with Eric or to meet with Rachel over the weekends. Then there were the times when I hiked around my house, ten miles at a time.

Ugh

Finals are coming up, and Thanksgiving vacation took all my work ethic out of me for the past couple of days. I've got two huge reports that I'm working on, one on the Civil War and the other on the Congo. Not having fun writing those. And on top of that, I've been having problems concentrating on them and classwork, and I've been really forgetful about things. At least the power's on so I can work on this stuff.
Talked to Lexia today, and it's kinda scaring me at how fast the London trip is coming up. I really can't wait to go, it'll be really something to do. Trying to work out a budget for it, as well as getting a ton of small details out of the way. Gah. Over the break, I went through my music list and came up with a list of travel-related songs to listen to. Here it is:

Traveling Songs
A Thousand Miles-Vanessa Carlton
Across the Universe-John Butler Trio
Alberta Bound-The Wood's Tea Co.
Another Travelin' Song-Bright Eyes
Beautiful Day-U2
Boat Montage-Clint Mansell
Born To Run-Bruce Springsteen
Bridges-Dispatch
Canadian Railroad Trilogy-Gordon Lightfoot
Cars, Trucks, Buses-Phish
Catch Me If You Can- Eric Clapton
Come Away With Me-Norah Jones
Crazy Train-Ozzy Osbourne
Day Tripper-The Beatles
Deliverance Road-Grace Potter
Down By The Corner-Creedance Clearwater Revival
Drive-Dispatch
Drive In, Drive Out-Dave Matthew's Band
Driving Blind-Grace Potter
Drops of Jupiter-Train
Extreme Ways-Moby
For The First Time-Sara Wheeler
Free-Phish
Go Your Own Way-Fleetwood Mac
Going For a Ride-David Newman
Headlights-Dispatch
Hello, Goodbye-The Beatles
Here We Go-Dispatch
High Speed-Coldplay
Hitchin' A Ride-Green Day
Homeward Bound-Simon & Garfunkel
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For-U2
In A Foreign Land-The Kinks
In the Waiting Line-Zero 7
It's My Turn to Fly-The Urge
Last Ride In-Green Day
Long Ride Home-Patty Griffin
Long Road-Rane
Lost In Space-Aimee Mann
Magic Carpet Ride-Steppenwolf
Nowhere Road-Fastball
Nowhere To Run-Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
On The Road Again-Canned Heat
On the Road Again-Willie Nelson
One Headlight-The Wallflowers
One Prairie Outpost-Carbon Leaf
Open Road Song-Eve 6
Out Of Town-Zero 7
Overdrive-Foo Fighters
Pedal to the Metal-Kazzer & Various Artists
Ramblin' Man-The Allman Brothers Band
Run-Around-Blues Traveler
Salt Water Sound-Zero 7
Save Me-Dave Matthews
Slave To The Traffic Light [Live]-Phish
Sweet Home Alabama-Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Engine Driver-The Decemberists
The Horizon Has Been Defeated-Jack Johnson
The Long And Winding Road-The Beatles
The Long Way Home-Norah Jones
The Road Is A Lover-Alison Krauss & Union Station
The Wanderer-Rane
The Wild Rover-The Wood's Tea Co.
Ticket To Ride-The Beatles
Traffic-Carbon Leaf
Traffic In The Sky-Jack Johnson
Truck Drivin' Man-Lynyrd Skynyrd
Walk On-U2
Walking After You-Foo Fighters
Wanderin' Around-Carbon Leaf
Water Stop-Dispatch
Where Are You Going-Dave Matthew's Band
Winding Road-Bonnie Sumerville


On top of that - anyone a fan of RENT? My brother gave me a copy of the Broadway soundtrack, and man, what an awesome musical. I really wish that I had seen it on stage. Haven't seen the movie, but it's on my to see list sometime.

Okay, back to the reports...

Maine

As I mentioned the other night, I was in Maine for the weekend, visiting my friend Sam, who I work with at camp. I had a really good time - Sam's a really good friend of mine, and it was good to see him for the first time in a while. I got to check out his campus, probably a little larger than Norwich, and with a larger town around it with some good things to have. Like a book store and movie theater.
I also got to see how they ran their games club, from which I'll probably take some pointers to our own club here at Norwich. There's some big size differences, but I got some things that I can begin to impliment. I guess we'll see how that goes in the coming week. Plus, Sam picked up the newest Age of Empires game, which is amazing. I just got the demo on my computer and I'm thinking that I'll have to find my own copy, because it works on my computer. Woohoo!
The drive over wasn't bad at all. It was a bit long, four hours each way, but it was a fairly easy ride. I basically stayed on the same route, and the only complicated part was driving through a couple of cities/large towns, navigating through some of the side streets. Mapquest was handy for that part, but downright useless for everything else. Their directions were annoying. I just used the printout map that came with it to get to Farmington.
Picked up a couple of comics while I was at it - got the first and third issues of the new Spiderman run: Evolve or Die. Still need to pick up #2. It's a long, 12 issue crossover with three Spiderman comics out there. Interested to see how it turns out. I also picked up the latest issue of B.P.R.D., following the Frog Wars storyline, that's turning out interestingly. And I picked up the second issue of Rogue Squadron, which is becoming a slightly disapointing story arc...
Now, sleep, hopefully to finish the World Before so I can get moving on 1776 and St. Alban's Fire.

New York

Just got back from New York, which proved to be a very enjoyable trip. We flew down on Saturday, which was much better than driving. An eight hour trip was now 45 or so minutes, which was outstanding. The flight was good, and we had no problems getting to our hotel room. I think that we were in the same room that we were in last time we went down, for the same occasion. After checking in, we wandered around for a couple hours, taking in some of the sights. We later met up with Dan, who had spent the week down there already. I went back with him to his hotel, catching up, and we took a cab to get dinner with everyone at a great Italian resturaunt. From there, we went to the performance, which was outstanding. Three bands played, with some pieces that I recognized, some that were new, and all were outstanding. This morning, my bother and sister went with me to Central Park, where we walked around for a little while before heading back to a fair/market that was going on 7th Ave. I bought a small Chinese plate set that's pretty cool looking. Tried to find a bootlegged copy of Revenge of the Sith or Hitchhiker's Guide, but no luck. Got back on the plane and headed home. Good trip.

I got to do a fair amount of reading on the flight, something that I haven't had much time to do recently. I finished Karen Traviss's Crossing the Line, the second book in her series. (Which was just upped to six books total) Outstanding novel. I think that Traviss is my favorite author. I can't wait for her next one to come out, The World Beyond, which is out later this year. Also just started Cagebird, the third in Karin Lowachee's trilogy, which is proving to be a good read as well. If you haven't read either of these two authors, I'd highly recommend them.

Just saw my Spring 2005 semester transcript- Nothing below a C. That's a huge relief for me, and a full two letter grades higher for two classes than I predicted. wOOt!

The Night Of...

Wow, time really flies. I'm always amazed at how it does that. It's the eve of Celebration 3. Man, I have been waiting for an entire year for this, ever since it was first announced, and I promised myself that I'll be headed out to it. It's too big of a thing to miss, and I absolutely cannot wait to get there. My flights are perfect. I'm flying out of Burlington at 0710 tomorrow morning, getting to Philadelphia at 0830, arriving in Indianapolis at around 1203, according to my eTicket. The way out, I have an afternoon flight and will be getting home at around 2200 hrs. My dad was saying that the next couple days are just going to fly by, and that's slightly unfortunent.
I started signing up for shifts to work on, and I'll post those later tonight for anyone who's going. I'm going to try and change a couple around, because I accidently signed my self up for a couple of six hour stretches, which might get a little too annoying and a REALLY long time while in armor.
The armor is all packed, primary pack in the car, carryon packed up with various things to be signed, as well as the CDs, book and other things that I'm bringing onto the Airplane to keep myself occupied. I also stuck the digital camera that I borrowed in, as well as a notebook with various addresses and things of that nature. I've packed all of my Jan Duursema comics, for she's coming in and told me to bring things in to get signed. Pens are numerous. Money as well, for the hotel and the things that might catch my eye. I'm thinking a t-shirt or two, maybe a figure or something or a photo with someone.
Drove into Montpelier with Hilary earlier to pick up money. We were talking about how annoyed everyone is on campus at being stuck there for Junior Ring Ball, (The school is restricting Corps Freshmen and Sophtomores to campus for the Junior Ring celebration this weekend.) so I offered her a ride in to get off campus. I picked up a a CD by Carbon Leaf, Indian Summer, which is outstanding. They have some tracks streaming on their website here. I'd highly recommend it. Great band. Hopefully I'll have enough money after this to go see them when the play up here this week. I think that I should. Ben & Jerry's had their free cone day and about a hundred people were in line to get free ice cream. Crazy, and I get to laugh at my brother, who works at the main B&J plant over in Waterbury. I heard that it was swamped.
What else... I stuck a new site tracker on this. I had a counter before, and reached somewhere around 4000 or so, but that's all that it does. This new one tells where the computer is (Just the server, such as a school or AOL) and the country. Apparently, people from Canada, France, Spain, Germany, the UK and Iceland all visit. That's a cool thing to learn. Don't worry, I'm not going to use that info for anything, it's just a curiosity.

Current Music: Life Less Ordinary, Carbon Leaf

2nd Trip of the Week

Just got back from another geology trip this week. This time, we went to southern Vermont, near Rutland, where we took a look at some folds and faults. It was much better than a regular lab, being outside in the sun, that was lots of fun. The only problem- I woke up at 0915 after my alarm didn't go off, and I had to get to school by 0930. After making lunch and taking out the trash. That was an interesting ride to school, but I wasn't the last person to get there. Listened to some music on a CD that I burned the previous night, slept a little, looked at rocks in the sunlight with no snow to be found. Yep, good day.
I've been listening to Carbon Leaf and Low Millions compulsively. Two great bands. I think that I'm going to try and see Carbon Leaf the 27th. It's be a shame to miss a band that I like when they're so close. Vermont's not exactly the high point in concert tours, although we do get some people every now and then. I've found that between their main site and amazon.com, I've gotten about 3 hours of their music, including a couple of full CDs.

New York Geology and Spies


Got back late last night from New York, where we spent the entire day looking at rocks covering the Precambrian Age to the Devonian. We started by leaving at 4:30 am, and hit our first stop at about 6:00 am over near White Hall. From there, we went to a place called Lester's Garden, which featured Stromatolites, near the base of the Cambrian. From there, we went to a site with black shales, then up the column to more Cambrian, Ordivician, Silurian and Devonian, seeing various fossiliferous limestones, shales, and sand stones. We found a lot of fossils in some sites. One of them was essentially an entire reef, entirely made up of fossils. I collected some great samples of coral and crinoids. We ended our trip over near the Adirondacks and Catskills. There's something great about New York, at least the area that I've been in. We used to have a lake house in the Adirondacks, which we sold several years ago. The terrain is very different from Vermont in some ways. There's no large mountains like Vermont has, in some areas, with smaller hills and lower areas. The way that houses and fields are arranged, it's got a very cool feel to it. Maybe I'll return someday.

Spring is officially here. The snow is finally melting off of our lawn, and the Corps of Cadets have changed into their Summer Bees, which are short sleeve White top uniforms with blue trousers, a change from the long sleeve blue tops and trousers. The snow's gone down there as well, as well as everywhere else that I've gone. There's still some snow in banks in the shadows, but now that the temperature is getting higher and the days are getting longer. It's great to be able to go outside in a tee shirt, even though it's about fifty degrees. Still
better than sub zero temps. It also means that the road is full of mud and ruts, which makes me hate the road more than ever, just because it's a pain to drive on, all the time. Hopefully, it's on the way out soon.

I've been recently watching a show called Alias, created by JJ Abrams, who also did LOST, another show that I've been watching. This guy has talant, and he's really going to be going places. The show's pretty good, although I think that I like Lost a little more, although this one certainly makes up for it in action and a highly structured storyline. Abrams is going to be directing Mission Impossible 3, and given some of the material that I've seen him direct, I think that he'll be good for it. I've also been thinking: He should direct the third Bourne movie. That would be awesome.

For a little while now, I've been noticing how out of shape that I'm getting. The Grand Canyon trip was pretty brutal at times, going down and up, but I've also gained a little weight, and while that's not a bad thing, I'm not terribly happy about it. So I need to get out more. The Norwich Climbing Club is not really meeting anymore since on of the leaders has been kicked out, and I haven't been climbing in a while. I went for a run this morning, no more than a mile, probably a little more and I got out of breath pretty badly on the way back. I'm going to try and do that more now. I think that it's a little much to hope that I'll run in the mornings, but I'm going to see if I can do that. Maybe talk with a friend or two of mine, and find out when they're working out in the gym.

Just got really good news, my friend Eric's coming over for a bit. Haven't seen him in forever.

Trip Pictures!

One of the girls that was on the trip, Stacy, put a number of pictures on CD, which I've been able to get up online thanks to the wonderful Photobucket.com. Here's a handful of them:


Fire Canyon


More of Fire Canyon- Red Rocks are the Windgate Formation


Snow Canyon - Petrified Dunes


Us. Gred, Meegan, O'Neill, Kris and Me, Stacy Missing


Mesa, near St. George


Road to the Grand Canyon, Cinder Cone in the background


Grand Canyon. Professor Dunn in Corner


Greg trapped


Dangerous Trail


Trek Down- Me and Prof. Dunn in Center, Greg and Jason in Foreground


The Colorado River


Crossbedding at Zion National Park


Entire Group: (Top) Jason, Prof. Westerman, Kris, Prof Dunn. (Bottom) Me, Meegan, Stacy and Greg at Zion (Eh picture of me...)


Hoover Dam

That's the first bit, more to come later!