Bonjourno!
Admittedly I have a little catching up to do on reporting my adventures to the world (better known as the 20 people who will read this) so I am going to go backwards a few weeks to the beginning of my 5 week spring break now that I have a bit of time on the train from Florence to Naples.
When you dont really have any school work on a weekly basis, you don't get quite as excited or antsy for breaks as you do when the work keeps piling up but, nonetheless, I couldn't wait for Easter holiday to start so I could head to my mate Grant's house on Canvey Island in the south of England. It was absolutely wonderful to be free of dorm style living and go to a place with couches, real beds, real food, 40 inch flatscreen TVs and, crucially, ESPN America! Despite being in England and experiencing new forms of culture and sport I ccould not help but be overjoyed that I could finally catch some of the NCAA tournament on something better than a shitty stream to my laptop. For me, it was also very interesting to be able to make a rough comparison of family structure, house size, neighborhood layout etc.. between what I am used to in the U.S. and someone in England. Studying abroad does a great deal to expand your horizons but for the most part you are either at university or travelling so you don't get a chance to see what day to day home life is like. For example, having Grant take me to the all-boys grammar school he attended and show me through the halls filled with kids in full suits really opened up my eyes to a way of doing things vastly different from the highschool experience that I had and that shaped who I am. Such differences in the underlying structure of society really explain some of the differences between UK and US cultures and people which are much, much different than most people assume just because we speak the same language. To be honest, the language is different in many more ways that most would think. There have been plenty of times where I have not understood a word of what someone was telling me in plain English!
Side Note: The 40 year old man across from me on the train wistles and grabs his glasses every time a girl walks by so that he can get a better view of her when she passes. He also just winked at me when a rather attracitve young woman walked by...awkward. Got to love that Italian 'charm.'
Grant introduced me to all his friends the evening we arrived and the next couple of days were filled with a grand tour of Canvey Island. All of the locals insisted that it really wasn't that cool, which I suppose is natural to think of where you come from. From my pespective, I thought it was pretty remarkable to be on a seaside island and experience all of the things that they have grown accustomed to doing every day. I suppose that is the joy of traveling. It helps you fight the complacency we all develop towards the places where we live, even if those places are spectacular in themselves. Aside from all of the places I am getting to see, people I'm meeting and things that I'm doing, one of the biggest benefits of studying abroad lies in its ability to alter my perspetive on the world and everythign that I have known for the last 20 years. I don't know how long the new found worldview will last once I get back into a routine but I am certain that I will never see all of the things I used to take for granted quite the same. I digress.
After showing me a good night out as well as the seaside towns of Leigh-on-sea and Southend, it felt like my five days at the Johnson residence flew by and I was off to London to spend some time with the Wisconsin crew before heading off to Italy/Greece for 20 days. London never fails to be exciting and, for whatever reason, the city really makes you feel at home and a part of it regardless of where you are from or who you are. It might be the internationalism of the city in general - there have been many times that I remember being on the tube and being surrounded by ten or twenty people, none of which were speaking English to each other. Another reason for the general comfort may be the increasing number of people I know in the city and can hang around. There are Wisconsin kids at multiple London Uni's and now my friends from Warwick who live there or near by and now some of Grant's friends who live and work there. In a really incredible small world experience I actually ran into a kid from Lithuania who I play on the basketball team with on the tube in rush hour. Its hard to fathom the chances of me being on the same line, at the same time and getting in the exact car as he was..crazy!
Upon my arrival the lot of us went to the car park across the street from the apartment and played a spontaneous game of pick-up soccer using dumpsters as goals in between rows of cars. It is safe to say that we are really a disgrace to the game and all of its glory but we had an amazing time - ended up playing for 2 hours and even got a English kid who was walkign by to join us. Anyways, my days in London inolved me doing some more exploring of things I hadn't had time to see in past visits. I also finally gave in and bought myself a fashionable coat. I could no longer stand feeling like an outcast in every city I was in due to my lack of a proper attire. Plus it was half-off thanks to an 'end of season' sale! I had to admit it but I am doing a bit of conforming to European fashion - I now have a button up coat, some adidas sneakers, a array of scarves, a few skinny ties and aviators to top it all off. I'm not sure how I feel about it...
On Saturday, the whole crew banded together for what would be one of the most epic day drinking episodes I have ever partaken in. The event - Monopoly Pub Crawl. To give a little background, the idea revolves around the original Monopoly board game which uses streets of London instead of the American version. The goal is to go to and get a drink at a pub on every of the 26 streets. It may sound simple but given the geography and that pubs are only open from 11 to 11, it actually must be a well planned and thought out undertaking since time only allows for about 10 minutes per pub (you have to visit two per hour including transportation time between them). We left at 10:30am dressed in silly looking hats determined to finish all 26. 12 hours and the equivalent of just over 20 beers later we were the last people to be served at pub number twenty-six before it closed! We were on schedule earlier in the crawl but as the drunkness set in and some McDonalds runs had to be factored in I think it is needless to say that we got a bit off track as the day progressed. One of the more fun days I have had in a while. I insist that we all need to organize a Madison version for welcome week this year now that we are all 21!
Like with my time on Canvey Island, the days in London went by much too fast and before I knew it, Tuesday morning rolled around and I hopped on my $12 Ryan Air flight to Genoa, Italy to hang out for a few days before the whole gang showed up on Friday. Reports on my adventures with an English teacher in Morrocco, a South African graduate looking for summer work on a Yacht, hiking in the Cinque Terre National Park and Florence in the next few days. I'll try to keep this as current as possible and check Fbook for pics if your interested :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and Easter and, like always, stay in touch!
Cheers,
Patrick
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