I'm Alive

Yea so this trip is ridiculous... The English riverside is sooo pretty. Boats, Bridges, and Trains. I filled up my camera in one day, it's only 72 pictures, but luckily I packed my computer to reload it. Ugh I'm going to be so sore by the time I get to London, much less Dover, and Paris... Yesterday I made it to Goring, which is 27 miles down river from Oxford, last night at about 8ish and ate dinner. Then I got directions to the campsite, couldn't find it and ended up setting up a camp near some trees behind a tennis court. Well I slept there until about 2 when I noticed it drizzling. So I whip out the trash bags and coat my sleeping bag in them. I go back to bed and then wake up at 3 because my face is getting wet (I have a mummy sleeping bag). Realizing that it was really picking up fast and a down pour was emanate I loaded everything back on the bike and headed back into Goring. I found a covered arcade and set everything down. It started pouring and I was glad to be dry. I set out all my stuff next to a wall and wrote a message on the ground with some chalk I brought for some reason. Saying that I'm sorry for sleeping there but there was a big storm late last night. Sleeping on concrete sucks... anyways today has been great weather and I'm making good time.

I'm in Henley now and still have about 4 hours of daylight! Well my pictures are done so I need to save battery.

Cheers!

Oxfrod --> Paris

So I'm starting a bike trip to Paris tomorrow and lucky me the last half of the week is just rain... Oh well it should be ridiculous none the less.

My route is going to be down the Thames Path from Oxford to London, then from London to Sevenoaks, in Sevenoaks I get on the North Downs Way and take it past Canterbury towards Dover. Once I'm in Dover is the moment of truth whether I get on a ferry to Calais and then ride from Calais to Paris. I plan on taking a train or bus back to Oxford with my bike and should get back in late April.

Pictures will be taken letters will be written.

On another note photobucket is trying to upload my pictures but is miserably slow... So you'll probably have to wait for pictures to get up when I'm back home... Sorry this blog has been kind of a fail, because I'm not one for a routine and thus it got updated only like 10 times... Anyways I'll be in touch. Weeee!

Gowahhhh

So Saturday I went to a skate competition and sucked... It was really embarrassing I kept slipping off the board and getting stuck on things. But it was still a good day, just not as good as I'd hoped.

Right now I'm packing up everything in my flat to go into storage at the OSAP office. I'm leaving either tomorrow or maybe tuesday to go to Paris... by mountain bike. I'm trying to leave tomorrow and I'm overwhelmed by being really really nervous and excited about it.

Also last night was really sad because I realized all the friends I've made here I'm most likely never going to see again and got the same sad overtone of when I was leaving Erskine to come over here.

On an awesome note I've almost finished editing and uploading all my pictures!
Here's a slide show of my first trip to London!

(PS the pictures are backwards so if you want to start from the bus station to the National Gallery click "reverse order)

I am a slacker

So I've been really really procrastinating doing anything except reading books and webcomics, skateboarding tons, and going out to clubs... But this weekend is going to be amazing!

Friday I'll be skating and taking lots of artsy pictures in London. I bought a cheap tripod here so I could do what I've been wanting to do so it's real exciting. And I've been to London 4 times now, but without a skateboard, so double exciting.

Then Saturday is truly going to be epic. A big skate competition on two half-pipes with a spine in the middle that's actually sponsored by Nike! Wow... it's gonna be insane! I'm not planning on even getting to the podium, but seeing as how my board is about a foot longer than everyone else's and I've been learning new tricks like mad (4 in the last two days) I'm hoping to walk away with some prize. Also its going to be a big graffiti event too and I've cut a big poster sized stencil for it. I'll take my camera and put pictures up eventually. On top of all that there's gonna be free barbaque! Mhhm! I know it's no mustard-based-carolina-orgasm, but it's free and still should be pretty good.

We'll I'm out to run some errands and finish editing all my England pictures to but them up some how...

Wow today was beautiful!

dang another slack update that ill have to expand on...
hiking around rural oxford today and it was amazing
im making plans in my head for the future over here after the term

i have to go down the street and win some money playing poker... im surprisingly good

Another sad escuse for an update...

Sorry but things here seem to escalate in their intensity every week. I have lots of pictures to put up, but I've had 2 papers due a week since last time i wrote. Man, the days just melt away... but I have a personal journal that will accurately recount everything from that first week here...

I still need to write about London, Pete the Juggler, England's Skate subculure, Steve the Bookworm, Shakesphere's birthplace, getting in fights, God, Science, Human Consciousness, Avoiding the Proverbial Wolves at Night, Multiple Crash courses in living with out institution, Pubs, Clubs, Growing, and just looking as an outsider and learning about Britain and thus, through comparison the US.

Paper due Tuesday Morning, Lecture on Wednesday, and Paper on Thursday morning.

I'll try to write during my lunch breaks starting tomorrow with London and pictures from that.

Wow... what a week

So it's been snowing and raining since Superbowl Sunday. This last Monday I had a very busy day and generally enjoy feeling the rain, but I forget its cold in jolly Ol' England... so spending most of the day walking around in the rain and being wet, surprise surprise, I get sick. I spend all Tuesday in bed wishing I'd eaten more vegetables the week before, but alls well that ends well. Or however that goes. Anyways 2 papers beasted this week when I discovered that to sit down and write I need to be in a really busy place like a starbucks-busy coffee shop on the street I live. Got an Oxford A! But yes this weekend is more playing hard for the hard working, even though I still have plenty to tell about that has remained untold... Sorry for the anticipation I hope that the product will live up to the wait.

Plans for this weekend: (just because i figured you'd want to know?)
~Fri~
Get caffeine 7am (15 minutes from now)
Go to tutorial 10am
Get more movies from library
Go to a 90s themed party (luckily most of my cloths look like costumes for this party...)

~Sat~
Rest, read, and work
Go to the Mardi Grais Bop

~Sunday~
Skate for multiple consecutive hours (if it rains ill weep)
Read more
Go to Church
Go to Bed early

So I was going to write about great stuff from the last 2 weekends...

but I've been running errands all day and had a long lecture to attend, so now im just going to go have some fun for a bit. I'll at least but good pictures from london up later tonight. Here's a taste:



Why, yes that is Westminster Abbey

Sorry I've been busy...

I am alive. I am running out of money.
I will up date this soon.
I will tell of 2 grand weekends.
One in London and seeing amazing things.
One being VIP at a large club, skateboarding, and snow in Oxford.

Ugg

I’m freaking out… I have my first paper due tomorrow and only had 3 days to work on it and one of those was a Sunday which means I pretty much couldn’t do much… Ahhh

Summary of the First Week

This is going to be shorter and less detailed than I would have like but I'm copping out and tired of re accounting things...

First Day
Move in to my place and go the an OSAP gathering to meet people. It continues at a pub, the Red Lion. I get a meal for 5 pounds. A guy from a couple of tables over says looking at me "Hey man, you look like a chick." I kindly explain that I'm from America, the south, and of Scandinavian decent, basically implying I do what I want. He responds by telling me to get my shit together and that I'm in England now. That I should loose my rosy checks and look like a man. His two friends cackle as he gives me directions to a gay pub. I tell him to piss off. But I am shaken since i haven't even been in the country for 24 hours and end up slipping out and walking briskly to my place to go to sleep. It's on this walk that I realize the studs on the cuff of my jacket could serve a more utilitarian purpose that I thought of when I put them on if it can down to it.

Since then have basically be me like the start of a freshman year at a university far from home. Orientation consisted of talks and videos on British culture and recent history, just trying to navigate the city, and going to pubs. Good news I did find a skatepark in reasonable distance to walk if i have time, or catch as bus to. The weather that first week had been precisely of what you hear about English weather, but yesterday and today have been nice.

I started my primary study on friday and have a paper due tuesday.
Everything is epic here. Tomorrow if I'm not lazy I'll show you what the average day here is like for me.

Cheers!

Getting In

So all as with most, this adventure begin with a preface.

Our story starts out in the Columbia airport. Mom and Dad drive me in the van and as we get there Mom is impressed at how I can carry a suitcase, a ceder foot-locker, my back pack and longboard at once. My original air-route is Columbia -> Philadelphia -> London, but I check in and there is trouble with the Philly flight. So I get routed Columbia -> Charlotte -> Frankfurt -> London, but the booking person specifically says that if the plane to Charlotte doesn't leave at X time then just drive there. Sure enough I get to the gate and it's leaving 30 minutes after X... So I humbly about-face and walk back to the gate and tell Mom that we get to drive to Charlotte.

So we drive to Charlotte and I board a plane to Frankfurt. BUT so I could make the flight I was some how moved up to first class. This was my first experience flying first class and I was about to do it trans-atlantic. Needless to say the first thing that happens, after I sit down in my haggard jean jacket next to a snobby European businessman, is a flight attendant asks whether I want OJ, some coffee, or champagne. The glass of champagne was great. About 30 minutes into the flight I'm eating a rack of lamb with a good glass of merlot and just realizing one of my armrests is a flip out computer that has music, movies, and TV shows on it. That flight was wonderful anytime I wanted something all I had to do was press a button and *ping* someone would come out to serve me whatever I had just asked for. Sadly all good things come to an end eventually and the flight lands in Germany and there's snow everywhere except the runway. Clever Germans...

I get off trying to navigate the German airport and figure out where to go to get on my next flight and I begin to pass through security and they flip out. I did look rather wild with that jean jacket on, my hair being longer than ever, and a long board attached to my back, but I was like... "I don't speak German what do I need to do to get on my plane?" Apparently the problem was multiple things that the Germans didn't like too much... First my skateboard had to be checked as a separate bag. They did this by just slapping the same type of thing that goes around the handles of your suitcase just flat on the bottom of the board and threw it on a conveyor. Needless to say I laughed at the ALOT. (Even more when it can up the chut in the london airport and flipped right side up and rolled right across the floor away from me) The second thing being far more legitimate. I have a nice cigarette case from an antique shop that I use as a wallet. It has a nice big KGB seal on it. Needless to say they didn't think this was very funny, but that turned out alright and I do still have the case. The third was a joke but Germans have awkward standards for humor. I have this white bear with British flags all over it. His name is Thom of coarse, and a security lady took him out my pack and said "This is not allowed" then announcing it was a joke, it reminded me of Linda's German parents and mirrored their humor. Germans! But I ended up getting out of Frankfurt alive and into London.

Coming this week

Sorry I've been busy and hate sitting at the computer for long periods of time but I will have this up by no later than friday!

But here is the all valuable contact information:

address:
Ted Aslund
11a Little Clarendon St.
Oxford, UK OX1 2HP

email: taslund@erskine.edu